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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume
+57, No. 351, January 1845, 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 57, No. 351, January 1845
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: August 4, 2009 [EBook #29605]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JAN. 1845 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Stephanie
+Eason 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.
+
+  No. CCCLI.    JANUARY, 1845.    Vol. LVII.
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+
+  Homer, Dante, and Michael Angelo,                     1
+
+  Settled at Last, Or, Red River Recollections,        18
+
+  Borodino. An Ode,                                    30
+
+  A Ramble in Montenegro,                              33
+
+  Æsthetics of Dress. A Case of Hats,                  51
+
+  The Three Guardsmen,                                 59
+
+  Marston; Or the Memoirs of a Statesman. Part XV.,    75
+
+  Janus: From the Fasti of Ovid,                       94
+
+  To a Blind Girl,                                     98
+
+  The Forced Sale,                                     99
+
+  Vanities in Verse. By B. Simmons,                   114
+
+  Coleridge and Opium-eating,                         117
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+
+  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET.
+  AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+  _To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed_.
+
+  SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
+
+
+  PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+  BLACKWOOD'S
+  EDINBURGH
+  MAGAZINE.
+
+  VOL. LVII.
+
+  JANUARY-JUNE, 1845.
+
+
+  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH,
+
+  AND
+
+  22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+  1845.
+
+
+
+
+     BLACKWOOD'S
+  EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+NO. CCCLI.  JANUARY, 1845.  Vol. LVII.
+
+
+
+HOMER, DANTE, AND MICHAEL ANGELO.
+
+
+There is something inexpressibly striking, it may almost be said
+awful, in the fame of HOMER. Three thousand years have elapsed since
+the bard of Chios began to pour forth his strains; and their
+reputation, so far from declining, is on the increase. Successive
+nations are employed in celebrating his works; generation after
+generation of men are fascinated by his imagination. Discrepancies of
+race, of character, of institutions, of religion, of age, of the
+world, are forgotten in the common worship of his genius. In this
+universal tribute of gratitude, modern Europe vies with remote
+antiquity, the light Frenchman with the volatile Greek, the
+impassioned Italian with the enthusiastic German, the sturdy
+Englishman with the unconquerable Roman, the aspiring Russian with the
+proud American. Seven cities, in ancient times, competed for the
+honour of having given him birth, but seventy nations have since been
+moulded by his productions. He gave a mythology to the ancients; he
+has given the fine arts to the modern world. Jupiter, Saturn, Mars,
+Juno, are still household words in every tongue; Vulcan is yet the god
+of fire, Neptune of the ocean, Venus of love. When Michael Angelo and
+Canova strove to embody their conceptions of heroism or beauty, they
+portrayed the heroes of the _Iliad_. Flaxman's genius was elevated to
+the highest point in embodying its events. Epic poets, in subsequent
+times, have done little more than imitate his machinery, copy his
+characters, adopt his similes, and, in a few instances, improve upon
+his descriptions. Painting and statuary, for two thousand years, have
+been employed in striving to portray, by the pencil or the chisel, his
+yet breathing conceptions. Language and thought itself have been
+moulded by the influence of his poetry. Images of wrath are still
+taken from Achilles, of pride from Agamemnon, of astuteness from
+Ulysses, of patriotism from Hector, of tenderness from Andromache, of
+age from Nestor. The galleys of Rome were, the line-of-battle ships of
+France and England still are, called after his heroes. The Agamemnon
+long bore the flag of Nelson; the Ajax perished by the flames within
+sight of the tomb of the Telamonian hero, on the shores of the
+Hellespont; the Achilles was blown up at the battle of Trafalgar.
+Alexander the Great ran round the tomb of Achilles before undertaking
+the conquest of Asia. It was the boast of Napoleon that his mother
+reclined on tapestry representing the heroes of the _Iliad_, when he
+was brought into the world. The greatest poets of ancient and modern
+times have spent their lives in the study of his genius or the
+imitation of his works. Withdraw from subsequent poetry the images,
+mythology, and characters of the _Iliad_, and what would remain?
+Petrarch spent his best years in restoring his verses. Tasso portrayed
+the siege of Jerusalem, and the shock of Europe and Asia, almost
+exactly as Homer had done the contest of the same forces, on the same
+shores, two thousand five hundred years before. Milton's old age, when
+blind and poor, was solaced by hearing the verses recited of the poet,
+to whose conceptions his own mighty spirit had been so much indebted;
+and Pope deemed himself fortunate in devoting his life to the
+translation of the _Iliad_.
+
+No writer in modern times has equalled the wide-spread fame of the
+Grecian bard; but it may be doubted whether, in the realms of thought,
+and in sway over the reflecting world, the influence of DANTE has not
+been almost as considerable. Little more than five hundred years,
+indeed, have elapsed--not a sixth of the thirty centuries which have
+tested the strength of the Grecian patriarch--since the immortal
+Florentine poured forth his divine conceptions; but yet there is
+scarcely a writer of eminence since that time, in works even bordering
+on imagination, in which traces of his genius are not to be found. The
+_Inferno_ has penetrated the world. If images of horror are sought
+after, it is to his works that all subsequent ages have turned; if
+those of love and divine felicity are desired, all turn to the
+_Paradise_ and the _Spirit of Beatrice_. When the historians of the
+French Revolution wished to convey an idea of the utmost agonies they
+were called on to portray, they contented themselves with saying it
+equalled all that the imagination of Dante had conceived of the
+terrible. Sir Joshua Reynolds has exerted his highest genius in
+depicting the frightful scene described by him, when Ugolino perished
+of hunger in the tower of Pisa. Alfieri, Metastasio, Corneille, Lope
+de Vega, and all the great masters of the tragic muse, have sought in
+his works the germs of their finest conceptions. The first of these
+tragedians marked two-thirds of the _Inferno_ and _Paradiso_ as worthy
+of being committed to memory. Modern novelists have found in his
+prolific mind the storehouse from which they have drawn their noblest
+imagery, the chord by which to strike the profoundest feelings of the
+human heart. Eighty editions of his poems have been published in
+Europe within the last half century; and the public admiration, so far
+from being satiated, is augmenting. Every scholar knows how largely
+Milton was indebted to his poems for many of his most powerful images.
+Byron inherited, though often at second hand, his mantle, in many of
+his most moving conceptions. Schiller has embodied them in a noble
+historic mirror; and the dreams of Goethe reveal the secret influence
+of the terrible imagination which portrayed the deep remorse and
+hopeless agonies of Malebolge.
+
+MICHAEL ANGELO has exercised an influence on modern art little, if at
+all, inferior to that produced on the realms of thought by Homer and
+Dante. The father of Italian painting, the author of the frescoes on
+the Sistine Chapel, he was, at the same time, the restorer of ancient
+sculpture, and the intrepid architect who placed the Pantheon in the
+air. Raphael confessed, that he owed to the contemplation of his works
+his most elevated conceptions of their divine art. Sculpture, under
+his original hand, started from the slumber of a thousand years, in
+all the freshness of youthful vigour; architecture, in subsequent
+times, has sought in vain to equal, and can never hope to surpass, his
+immortal monument in the matchless dome of St Peters. He found
+painting in its infancy--he left it arrived at absolute perfection. He
+first demonstrated of what that noble art is capable. In the Last
+Judgment he revealed its wonderful powers, exhibiting, as it were, at
+one view, the whole circles of Dante's _Inferno_--portraying with
+terrible fidelity the agonies of the wicked, when the last trumpet
+shall tear the veil from their faces, and exhibit in undisguised truth
+that most fearful of spectacles--_a naked human heart_. Casting aside,
+perhaps with undue contempt, the adventitious aids derived from
+finishing, colouring, and execution, he threw the whole force of his
+genius into the design, the expression of the features, the drawing of
+the figures. There never was such a delineator of bone and muscle as
+Michael Angelo. His frescoes stand out in bold relief from the walls
+of the Vatican, like the sculptures of Phidias from the pediment of
+the Parthenon. He was the founder of the school of painting both at
+Rome and Florence--that great school which, disdaining the
+representation of still life, and all the subordinate appliances of
+the art, devoted itself to the representation of the grand and the
+beautiful; to the expression of passion in all its vehemence--of
+emotion in all its intensity. His incomparable delineation of bones
+and muscles was but a means to an end; it was the human heart, the
+throes of human passion, that his master-hand laid bare. Raphael
+congratulated himself, and thanked God that he had given him life in
+the same age with that painter; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his last
+address to the Academy, "reflected, not without vanity, that his
+Discourses bore testimony to his admiration of that truly divine man,
+and desired that the last words he pronounced in that academy, and
+from that chair, might be the name of Michael Angelo."[1]
+
+The fame of these illustrious men has long been placed beyond the
+reach of cavil. Criticism cannot reach, envy cannot detract from,
+emulation cannot equal them. Great present celebrity, indeed, is no
+guarantee for future and enduring fame; in many cases, it is the
+reverse, but there is a wide difference between the judgment of the
+present and that of future ages. The favour of the great, the passions
+of the multitude, the efforts of reviewers, the interest of
+booksellers, a clique of authors, a coterie of ladies, accidental
+events, degrading propensities, often enter largely into the
+composition of present reputation. But opinion is freed from all these
+disturbing influences by the lapse of time. The grave is the greatest
+of all purifiers. Literary jealousy, interested partiality, vulgar
+applause, exclusive favour, alike disappear before the hand of death.
+We never can be sufficiently distrustful of present opinion, so
+largely is it directed by passion or interest. But we may rely with
+confidence on the judgment of successive generations on departed
+eminence; for it is detached from the chief cause of present
+aberration. So various are the prejudices, so contradictory the
+partialities and predilections of men, in different countries and ages
+of the world, that they never can concur through a course of centuries
+in one opinion, if it is not founded in truth and justice. The _vox
+populi_ is often little more than the _vox diaboli_; but the voice of
+ages is the voice of God.
+
+It is of more moment to consider in what the greatness of these
+illustrious men really consists--to what it has probably been
+owing--and in what particulars they bear an analogy to each other.
+
+They are all three distinguished by one peculiarity, which doubtless
+entered largely into their transcendent merit--they wrote in the
+infancy of civilization. Homer, as all the world knows, is the oldest
+profane author in existence. Dante flourished about the year 1300: he
+lived at a time when the English barons lived in rooms strewed with
+rushes, and few of them could sign their names. The long life of
+Michael Angelo, extending from 1474 to 1564, over ninety years, if not
+passed in the infancy of civilization, was at least passed in the
+childhood of the arts: before his time, painting was in its cradle.
+Cimabue had merely unfolded the first dawn of beauty at Florence; and
+the stiff figures of Pietro Perugino, which may be traced in the first
+works of his pupil Raphael, still attest the backward state of the
+arts at Rome. This peculiarity, applicable alike to all these three
+great men, is very remarkable, and beyond all question had a powerful
+influence, both in forming their peculiar character, and elevating
+them to the astonishing greatness which they speedily attained.
+
+It gave them--what Johnson has justly termed the first requisite to
+human greatness--self-confidence. They were the first--at least the
+first known to themselves and their contemporaries--who adventured on
+their several arts; and thus they proceeded _fearlessly_ in their
+great career. They had neither critics to fear, nor lords to flatter,
+nor former excellence to imitate. They portrayed with the pencil, or
+in verse, what they severally felt, undisturbed by fear, unswayed by
+example, unsolicitous about fame, unconscious of excellence. They did
+so for the first time. Thence the freshness and originality, the
+vigour and truth, the simplicity and raciness by which they are
+distinguished. Shakspeare owed much of his greatness to the same
+cause; and thence his similarity, in many respects, to these great
+masters of his own or the sister arts. When Pope asked Bentley what he
+thought of his translation of the _Iliad_, the scholar replied, "You
+have written a pretty book, Mr Pope; but you must not call it Homer."
+Bentley was right. With all its pomp of language and melody of
+versification, its richness of imagery and magnificence of diction,
+Pope's Homer is widely different from the original. He could not avoid
+it. The "awful simplicity of the Grecian bard, his artless grandeur
+and unaffected majesty," will be sought for in vain in the
+translation; but if they had appeared there, it would have been
+unreadable in that age. Michael Angelo, in his bold conceptions,
+energetic will, and rapid execution, bears a close resemblance to the
+father of poetry. In both, the same faults, as we esteem them, are
+conspicuous, arising from a too close imitation of nature, and a
+carelessness in rejecting images or objects which are of an ordinary
+or homely description. Dante was incomparably more learned than
+either: he followed Virgil in his descent to the infernal regions; and
+exhibits an intimate acquaintance with ancient history, as well as
+that of the modern Italian states, in the account of the characters he
+meets in that scene of torment. But in his own line he was entirely
+original. Homer and Virgil had, in episodes of their poems, introduced
+a picture of the infernal regions; but nothing on the plan of Dante's
+_Inferno_ had before been thought of in the world. With much of the
+machinery of the ancients, it bears the stamp of the spiritual faith
+of modern times. It lays bare the heart in a way unknown even to Homer
+and Euripides. It reveals the inmost man in a way which bespeaks the
+centuries of self-reflection in the cloister which had preceded it. It
+is the basis of all the spiritual poetry of modern, as the _Iliad_ is
+of all the external imagery of ancient, times.
+
+In this respect there is a most grievous impediment to genius in
+later, or, as we term them, more civilized times, from which, in
+earlier ages, it is wholly exempt. Criticism, public opinion, the
+dread of ridicule--then too often crush the strongest minds. The
+weight of former examples, the influence of early habits, the halo of
+long-established reputation, force original genius from the untrodden
+path of invention into the beaten one of imitation. Early talent feels
+itself overawed by the colossus which all the world adores; it falls
+down and worships, instead of conceiving. The dread of ridicule
+extinguishes originality in its birth. Immense is the incubus thus
+laid upon the efforts of genius. It is the chief cause of the
+degradation of taste, the artificial style, the want of original
+conception, by which the literature of old nations is invariably
+distinguished. The early poet or painter who portrays what he feels or
+has seen, with no anxiety but to do so powerfully and truly, is
+relieved of a load which crushes his subsequent compeers to the earth.
+Mediocrity is ever envious of genius--ordinary capacity of original
+thought. Such envy in early times is innocuous or does not exist, at
+least to the extent which is felt as so baneful in subsequent periods.
+But in a refined and enlightened age, its influence becomes
+incalculable. Whoever strikes out a new region of thought or
+composition, whoever opens a fresh vein of imagery or excellence, is
+persecuted by the critics. He disturbs settled ideas, endangers
+established reputations, brings forward rivals to dominant fame. That
+is sufficient to render him the enemy of all the existing rulers in
+the world of taste. Even Jeffrey seriously lamented, in one of his
+first reviews of Scott's poems, that he should have identified himself
+with the unpicturesque and expiring images of feudality, which no
+effort could render poetical. Racine's tragedies were received with
+such a storm of criticism as wellnigh cost the sensitive author his
+life; and Rousseau was so rudely handled by contemporary writers on
+his first appearance, that it confirmed him in his morbid hatred of
+civilization. The vigour of these great men, indeed, overcame the
+obstacles created by contemporary envy; but how seldom, especially in
+a refined age, can genius effect such a prodigy? how often is it
+crushed in the outset of its career, or turned aside into the humble
+and unobtrusive path of imitation, to shun the danger with which that
+of originality is beset!
+
+Milton's _Paradise Lost_ contains many more lines of poetic beauty
+than Homer's _Iliad_; and there is nothing in the latter poem of equal
+length, which will bear any comparison with the exquisite picture of
+the primeval innocence of our First Parents in his fourth book.
+Nevertheless, the _Iliad_ is a more interesting poem than the
+_Paradise Lost_; and has produced and will produce a much more
+extensive impression on mankind. The reason is, that it is much fuller
+of event, is more varied, is more filled with images familiar to all
+mankind, and is less lost in metaphysical or philosophical
+abstractions. Homer, though the father of poets, was essentially
+dramatic; he was an incomparable painter; and it is his dramatic
+scenes, the moving panorama of his pictures, which fascinates the
+world. He often speaks to the heart, and is admirable in the
+delineation of character; but he is so, not by conveying the inward
+feeling, but by painting with matchless fidelity its external
+symptoms, or putting into the mouths of his characters the precise
+words they would have used in similar circumstances in real life. Even
+his immortal parting of Hector and Andromache is no exception to this
+remark; he paints the scene at the Scæan gate exactly as it would have
+occurred in nature, and moves us as if we had seen the Trojan hero
+taking off his helmet to assuage the terrors of his infant son, and
+heard the lamentations of his mother at parting with her husband. But
+he does not lay bare the heart, with the terrible force of Dante, by a
+line or a word. There is nothing in Homer which conveys so piercing an
+idea of misery as the line in the _Inferno_, where the Florentine bard
+assigns the reason of the lamentations of the spirits in Malebolge--
+
+  "Questi non hanno speranza di morte."
+
+"These have not the _hope of death_." There speaks the spiritual poet;
+he does not paint to the eye, he does not even convey character by the
+words he makes then utter; he pierces by a single expression, at once
+to the heart.
+
+Milton strove to raise earth to heaven: Homer brought down heaven to
+earth. The latter attempt was a much easier one than the former; it
+was more consonant to human frailty; and, therefore, it has met with
+more success. The gods and goddesses in the _Iliad_ are men and women,
+endowed with human passions, affections, and desires, and
+distinguished only from sublunary beings by superior power and the
+gift of immortality. We are interested in them as we are in the genii
+or magicians of an eastern romance. There is a sort of aërial epic
+poem going on between earth and heaven. They take sides in the
+terrestrial combat, and engage in the actual strife with the heroes
+engaged in it. Mars and Venus were wounded by Diomede when combating
+in the Trojan ranks; their blood, or rather the
+
+  "Ichor which blest immortals shed,"
+
+flowed profusely; they fled howling to the palaces of heaven.
+Enlightened by a spiritual faith, fraught with sublime ideas of the
+divine nature and government, Milton was incomparably more just in his
+descriptions of the Supreme Being, and more elevated in his picture of
+the angels and arch-angels who carried on the strife in heaven; but he
+frequently falls into metaphysical abstractions or theological
+controversies, which detract from the interest of his poem.
+
+Despite Milton's own opinion, the concurring voice of all subsequent
+ages and countries has assigned to the _Paradise Regained_ a much
+lower place than to the _Paradise Lost_. The reason is, that it is
+less dramatic--it has less incident and action. Great part of the poem
+is but an abstract theological debate between our Saviour and Satan.
+The speeches he makes them utter are admirable, the reasoning is
+close, the arguments cogent, the sentiments elevated in the speakers,
+but dialectic too. In many of the speeches of the angel Raphael, and
+in the council of heaven, in the _Paradise Lost_ there is too much of
+that species of discussion for a poem which is to interest the
+generality of men. Dryden says, that Satan is Milton's real hero; and
+every reader of the _Paradise Lost_ must have felt, that in the Prince
+of Darkness, and Adam and Eve, the interest of the poem consists. The
+reason is, that the vices of the first, and the weakness of the two
+last, bring them nearer than any other characters in the poem to the
+standard of mortality; and we are so constituted, that we cannot take
+any great interest but in persons who share in our failings.
+
+Perhaps the greatest cause of the sustained interest of the _Iliad_ is
+the continued and vehement _action_ which is maintained. The attention
+is seldom allowed to flag. Either in the council of the gods, the
+assembly of the Grecian or Trojan chiefs, or the contest of the
+leaders on the field of battle, an incessant interest is maintained.
+Great events are always on the wing: the issue of the contest is
+perpetually hanging, often almost even, in the balance. It is the art
+with which this is done, and a state of anxious suspense, like the
+crisis of a great battle kept up, that the great art of the poet
+consists. It is done by making the whole dramatic--bringing the
+characters forward constantly to speak for themselves, making the
+events succeed each other with almost breathless rapidity, and
+balancing success alternately from one side to the other, without
+letting it ever incline decisively to either. Tasso has adopted the
+same plan in his _Jerusalem Delivered_, and the contests of the
+Christian knights and Saracen leaders with the lance and the sword,
+closely resemble those of the Grecian and Trojan chiefs on the plain
+of Troy. Ariosto has carried it still further. The exploits of his
+Paladins--their adventures on earth, in air, and water; their loves,
+their sufferings, their victories, their dangers--keep the reader in a
+continual state of suspense. It is this sustained and varied interest
+which makes so many readers prefer the _Orlando Furioso_ to the
+_Jerusalem Delivered_. But Ariosto has pushed it too far. In the
+search of variety, he has lost sight of unity. His heroes are not
+congregated round the banners of two rival potentates; there is no one
+object or interest in his poem. No narrow plain, like that watered by
+the Scamander, is the theatre of their exploits. Jupiter, from the
+summit of Gargarus, could not have beheld the contending armies. The
+most ardent imagination, indeed, is satiated with his adventures, but
+the closest attention can hardly follow their thread. Story after
+story is told, the exploits of knight after knight are recounted, till
+the mind is fatigued, the memory perplexed, and all general interest
+in the poem lost.
+
+Milton has admirably preserved the unity of his poem; the grand and
+all-important object of the fall of man could hardly admit of
+subordinate or rival interests. But the great defect in the _Paradise
+Lost_, arising from that very unity, is want of variety. It is strung
+throughout on too lofty a key; it does not come down sufficiently to
+the wants and cravings of mortality. The mind is awe-struck by the
+description of Satan careering through the immensity of space, of the
+battle of the angels, of the fall of Lucifer, of the suffering, and
+yet unsubdued spirit of his fellow rebels, of the adamantine gates,
+and pitchy darkness, and burning lake of hell. But after the first
+feeling of surprise and admiration is over, it is felt by all, that
+these lofty contemplations are not interesting to mortals like
+ourselves. They are too much above real life--too much out of the
+sphere of ordinary event and interest.
+
+The fourth book is the real scene of interest in the _Paradise Lost_;
+it is its ravishing scenes of primeval innocence and bliss which have
+given it immortality. We are never tired of recurring to the bower of
+Eve, to her devotion to Adam, to the exquisite scenes of Paradise, its
+woods, its waters, its flowers, its enchantments. We are so, because
+we feel that it paints the Elysium to which all aspire, which all have
+for a brief period felt, but which none in this world can durably
+enjoy.
+
+No one can doubt that Homer was endowed with the true poetic spirit,
+and yet there is very little of what we now call poetry in his
+writings. There is neither sentiment nor declamation--painting nor
+reflection. He is neither descriptive nor didactic. With great powers
+for portraying nature, as the exquisite choice of his epithets, and
+the occasional force of his similes prove, he never makes any
+laboured attempt to delineate her features. He had the eye of a great
+painter; but his pictorial talents are employed, almost unconsciously,
+in the fervour of narrating events, or the animation of giving
+utterance to thoughts. He painted by an epithet or a line. Even the
+celebrated description of the fires in the plain of Troy, likened to
+the moon in a serene night, is contained in seven lines. His
+rosy-fingered morn--cloud-compelling Jupiter--Neptune, stiller of the
+waves--Aurora rising from her crocus bed--Night drawing her veil over
+the heavens--the black keel careering through the lashing waves--the
+shout of the far-sounding sea--and the like, from which subsequent
+poets and dramatists have borrowed so largely, are all brief
+allusions, or epithets, which evidently did not form the main object
+of his strains. He was a close observer of nature--its lights, its
+shades, its storms and calms, its animals, their migrations, their
+cries and habits; but he never suspends his narrative to describe
+them. We shall look in vain in the _Iliad_, and even the _Odyssey_,
+for the lengthened pictures of scenery which are so frequent in Virgil
+and Tasso, and appear in such rich profusion in Milton. He describes
+storms only as objects of terror, not to paint them to the eye. Such
+things are to be found in the book of Job and in the Psalms, but with
+the same brevity and magical force of emphatic expression. There never
+was a greater painter of nature than Homer; there never was a man who
+aimed less at being so.
+
+The portraying of character and event was the great and evident object
+of the Grecian bard; and there his powers may almost be pronounced
+unrivalled. He never tells you, unless it is sometimes to be inferred
+on an epithet, what the man's character that he introduces is. He
+trusts to the character to delineate itself. He lets us get acquainted
+with his heroes, as we do with persons around us, by hearing them
+speak, and seeing them act. In preserving character, in this dramatic
+way of representing it, he is unrivalled. He does not tell you that
+Nestor had the garrulity of age, and loved to recur to the events of
+his youth; but he never makes him open his mouth without descanting on
+the adventures of his early years, and the degenerate race of mortals
+who have succeeded the paladins of former days. He does not tell us
+that Achilles was wrathful and impetuous; but every time he speaks,
+the anger of the son of Peleus comes boiling over his lips. He does
+not describe Agamemnon as overbearing and haughty; but the pride of
+the king of men is continually appearing in his words and actions, and
+it is the evident moral of the _Iliad_ to represent its pernicious
+effects on the affairs of the Helenic confederacy. Ulysses never
+utters a word in which the cautious and prudent counsellor, sagacious
+in design but prompt in execution, wary in the council but decided in
+the field, far-seeing but yet persevering, is not apparent. Diomede
+never falters; alike in the field and the council he is indomitable.
+When Hector was careering in his chariot round their fortifications,
+and the king of men counselled retreat, he declared he would remain,
+were it only with Sthenelus and his friends. So completely marked, so
+well defined are his characters, though they were all rapacious chiefs
+at first sight, little differing from each other, that it has been
+observed with truth, that one well acquainted with the _Iliad_ could
+tell, upon hearing one of the speeches read out without a name, who
+was the chief who uttered it.
+
+The two authors, since his time, who have most nearly approached him
+in this respect, are Shakespeare and Scott. Both seem to have received
+the pencil which paints the human heart from nature herself. Both had
+a keen and searching eye for character in all grades and walks of
+life; and what is a general accompaniment of such a disposition, a
+strong sense of the ridiculous. Both seized the salient points in
+mental disposition, and perceived at a glance, as it were, the ruling
+propensity. Both impressed this character so strongly on their minds,
+that they threw themselves, as it were, into the very souls of the
+persons whom they delineated, and made them speak and act like nature
+herself. It is this extraordinary faculty of identifying themselves
+with their characters, and bringing out of their mouth the very words
+which, in real life, would have come, which constitutes the chief and
+permanent attraction of these wonderful masters of the human heart.
+Cervantes had it in an equal degree; and thence it is that Homer,
+Shakspeare, Cervantes, and Scott, have made so great, and, to all
+appearance, durable impression on mankind. The human heart is, at
+bottom, every where the same. There is infinite diversity in the dress
+he wears, but the naked human figure of one country scarcely differs
+from another. The writers who have succeeded in reaching this deep
+substratum, this far-hidden but common source of human action, are
+understood and admired over all the world. It is the same on the banks
+of the Simoïs as on those of the Avon--on the Sierra Morena as the
+Scottish hills. They are understood alike in Europe as Asia--in
+antiquity as modern times; one unanimous burst of admiration salutes
+them from the North Cape to Cape Horn--from the age of Pisistratus to
+that of Napoleon.
+
+Strange as it may appear to superficial observers, Cervantes bears a
+close analogy, in many particulars, to Homer. Circumstances, and an
+inherent turn for humour, made him throw his genius into an exquisite
+ridicule of the manners of chivalry; but the author of _Don Quixote_
+had in him the spirit of a great epic poet. His lesser pieces prove
+it; unequivocal traces of it are to be found in the adventures of the
+Knight of La Mancha himself. The elevation of mind which, amidst all
+his aberrations, appears in that erratic character; the incomparable
+traits of nature with which the work abounds; the faculty of
+describing events in the most striking way; of painting scenes in a
+few words; of delineating characters with graphic fidelity, and
+keeping them up with perfect consistency, which are so conspicuous in
+_Don Quixote_, are so many of the most essential qualities of an epic
+poet. Nor was the ardour of imagination, the romantic disposition, the
+brilliancy of fancy, the lofty aspirations, the tender heart, which
+form the more elevated and not less essential part of such a
+character, wanting in the Spanish novelist.
+
+Sir Walter Scott more nearly resembles Homer than any poet who has
+sung since the siege of Troy. Not that he has produced any poem which
+will for a moment bear a comparison with the _Iliad_--fine as the
+_Lady of the Lake_ and _Marmion_ are, it would be the height of
+national partiality to make any such comparison. But, nevertheless,
+Sir Walter's mind is of the same dimensions as that of Homer. We see
+in him the same combination of natural sagacity with acquired
+information; of pictorial eye with dramatic effect; of observation of
+character with reflection and feeling; of graphic power with poetic
+fervour; of ardour of imagination with rectitude of principle; of
+warlike enthusiasm with pacific tenderness, which have rendered the
+Grecian bard immortal. It is in his novels, however, more than his
+poetry, that this resemblance appears; the author of _Waverley_ more
+nearly approaches the blind bard than the author of the _Lay_. His
+romances in verse contain some passages which are sublime, many which
+are beautiful, some pathetic. They are all interesting, and written in
+the same easy, careless style, interspersed with the most homely and
+grotesque expressions, which is so well known to all the readers of
+the _Iliad_. The battle in _Marmion_ is beyond all question, as
+Jeffrey long ago remarked, the most _Homeric_ strife which has been
+sung since the days of Homer. But these passages are few and far
+between; his poems are filled with numerous and long interludes,
+written with little art, and apparently no other object but to fill up
+the pages or eke out the story. It is in prose that the robust
+strength, the powerful arm, the profound knowledge of the heart,
+appear; and it is there, accordingly, that he approaches at times so
+closely to Homer. If we could conceive a poem, in which the storming
+of Front-de-Boeuf's castle in _Ivanhoe_--the death of Fergus in
+_Waverley_--the storm on the coast, and death scene in the fisher's
+hut, in the _Antiquary_--the devoted love in the _Bride of
+Lammermoor_--the fervour of the Covenanters in _Old Mortality_, and
+the combats of Richard and Saladin in the _Talisman_, were united
+together, and intermingled with the incomparable characters,
+descriptions, and incidents with which these novels abound, they would
+form an epic poem.
+
+Doubts have sometimes been expressed, as to whether the _Iliad_ and
+_Odyssey_ are all the production of one man. Never, perhaps, was doubt
+not merely so ill founded, but so decisively disproved by internal
+evidence. If ever in human composition the traces of one mind are
+conspicuous, they are in Homer. His beauties equally with his defects,
+his variety and uniformity, attest this. Never was an author who had
+so fertile an imagination for varying of incidents; never was one who
+expressed them in language in which the same words so constantly
+recur. This is the invariable characteristic of a great and powerful,
+but at the same time self-confident and careless mind. It is to be
+seen in the most remarkable manner in Bacon and Machiavel, and not a
+little of it may be traced both in the prose and poetical works of
+Scott. The reason is, that the strength of the mind is thrown into the
+thought as the main object; the language, as a subordinate matter, is
+little considered. Expressions capable of energetically expressing the
+prevailing ideas of the imagination are early formed; but, when this
+is done, the powerful, careless mind, readily adopts them on all
+future occasions where they are at all applicable. There is scarcely a
+great and original thinker in whose writings the same expressions do
+not very frequently recur, often in exactly the same words. How much
+this is the case with Homer--with how much discrimination and genius
+his epithets and expressions were first chosen, and how frequently he
+repeats them, almost in every page, need be told to none who are
+acquainted with his writings. That is the most decisive mark at once
+of genius and identity. Original thinkers fall into repetition of
+expression, because they are always speaking from one model--their own
+thoughts. Subordinate writers avoid this fault, because they are
+speaking from the thoughts of others, and share their variety. It
+requires as great an effort for the first to introduce difference of
+expression, as for the last to reach diversity of thought.
+
+The reader of Dante must not look for the heart-stirring and animated
+narrative--the constant interest--the breathless suspense, which
+hurries us along the rapid current of the _Iliad_. There are no
+councils of the gods; no messengers winging their way through the
+clouds; no combats of chiefs; no cities to storm; no fields to win. It
+is the infernal regions which the poet, under the guidance of his
+great leader, Virgil, visits; it is the scene of righteous retribution
+through which he is led; it is the apportionment of punishment and
+reward to crime or virtue, in this upper world, that he is doomed to
+witness. We enter the city of lamentation--we look down the depths of
+the bottomless pit--we stand at the edge of the burning lake. His
+survey is not a mere transient visit like that of Ulysses in Homer, or
+of Æneas in Virgil. He is taken slowly and deliberately through every
+successive circle of Malebolge; descending down which, like the
+visitor of the tiers of vaults, one beneath another, in a feudal
+castle, he finds every species of malefactors, from the chiefs and
+kings whose heroic lives were stained only by a few deeds of cruelty,
+to the depraved malefactors whose base course was unrelieved by one
+ray of virtue. In the very conception of such a poem, is to be found
+decisive evidence of the mighty change which the human mind had
+undergone since the expiring lays of poetry were last heard in the
+ancient world; of the vast revolution of thought and inward conviction
+which, during a thousand years, in the solitude of the monastery, and
+under the sway of a spiritual faith, had taken place in the human
+heart. A gay and poetic mythology no longer amazed the world by its
+fictions, or charmed it by its imagery. Religion no longer basked in
+the sunshine of imagination. The awful words of judgment to come had
+been spoken; and, like Felix, mankind had trembled. Ridiculous legends
+had ceased to be associated with the shades below--their place had
+been taken by images of horror. Conscience had resumed its place in
+the direction of thought. Superstition had lent its awful power to the
+sanctions of religion. Terror of future punishment had subdued the
+fiercest passions--internal agony tamed the proudest spirits. It was
+the picture of a future world--of a world of retribution--conceived
+under such impressions, that Dante proposed to give; it is that which
+he has given with such terrible fidelity.
+
+Melancholy was the prevailing characteristic of the great Italian's
+mind. It was so profound that it penetrated all his thoughts; so
+intense that it pervaded all his conceptions. Occasionally bright and
+beautiful ideas flitted across his imagination; visions of bliss,
+experienced for a moment, and then lost for ever, as if to render more
+profound the darkness by which they are surrounded. They are given
+with exquisite beauty; but they shine amidst the gloom like sunbeams
+struggling through the clouds. He inherited from the dark ages the
+austerity of the cloister; but he inherited with it the deep feelings
+and sublime conceptions which its seclusion had generated. His mind
+was a world within itself. He drew all his conceptions from that
+inexhaustible source; but he drew them forth so clear and lucid, that
+they emerged, embodied as it were, in living images. His characters
+are emblematic of the various passions and views for which different
+degrees of punishment were reserved in the world to come; but his
+conception of them was so distinct, his description so vivid, that
+they stand forth to our gaze in all the agony of their sufferings,
+like real flesh and blood. We see them--we feel them--we hear their
+cries--our very flesh creeps at the perception of their sufferings. We
+stand on the edge of the lake of boiling pitch--we feel the weight of
+the leaden mantles--we see the snow-like flakes of burning sand--we
+hear the cries of those who had lost the last earthly consolations,
+the hope of death:--
+
+    "Quivi sospiri, pianti ed alti guai
+  Risonavan per l' aer senza stelle,
+  Perch' io al cominciar ne lacrimai.
+    Diverse lingue, orribili favelle,
+  Parole di dolore, accenti d' ira,
+  Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle
+    Facevano un tumulto, il qual s' aggira
+  Sempre 'n quell' aria senza tempo tinta,
+  Come la rena quando 'l turbo spira.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+    Ed io: maestro, che è tanto greve
+  A lor che lamentar li fa si forte?
+  Rispose: dicerolti molto breve.
+    Questi non hanno speranza di morte."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. iii.
+
+
+    "Here sighs, with lamentations and loud moans,
+  Resounded through the air pierced by no star,
+  That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues,
+  Horrible languages, outcries of woe,
+  Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,
+  With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds,
+  Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls
+  Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd,
+  Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+    I then: Master! What doth aggrieve them thus,
+  That they lament so loud? He straight replied:
+  That will I tell thee briefly. These of death
+  No hope may entertain."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante, Inferno_, c. iii.
+
+
+Here is Dante portrayed to the life in the very outset. What a
+collection of awful images in a few lines! Loud lamentations, hideous
+cries, mingled with the sound of clasped hands, beneath a starless
+sky; and the terrible answer, as the cause of this suffering, "These
+have not the hope of death."
+
+The very first lines of the _Inferno_, when the gates of Hell were
+approached, and the inscription over them appeared, paints the dismal
+character of the poem, and yet mingled with the sense of divine love
+and justice with which the author was penetrated.
+
+    "Per me si va nella città dolente;
+  Per me si va nell' eterno dolore;
+  Per me si va tra la perduta gente:
+    Giustizia mosse 'l mio alto Fattore;
+  Fecemi la divina Potestate,
+  La somma Sapienza e 'l primo Amore.
+    Dinanzi a me non fur cose create,
+  Se non eterne; ed io eterno duro:
+  Lasciate ogni speranza voi che 'ntrate."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. iii.
+
+
+    "Through me you pass into the city of woe:
+  Through me you pass into eternal pain:
+  Through me among the people lost for aye.
+  Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
+  To rear me was the task of power divine,
+  Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
+  Before me things create were none, save things
+  Eternal, and eternal I endure.
+  All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante, Inferno_, c. iii.
+
+
+Dante had much more profound feelings than Homer, and therefore he has
+painted deep mysteries of the human heart with greater force and
+fidelity. The more advanced age of the world, the influence of
+spiritual faith, the awful anticipation of judgment to come, the
+inmost feelings which, during long centuries of seclusion, had been
+drawn forth in the cloister, the protracted sufferings of the dark
+ages, had laid bare the human heart. Its sufferings, its terrors, its
+hopes, its joys, had become as household words. The Italian poet
+shared, as all do, in the ideas and images of his age, and to these he
+added many which were entirely his own. He painted the inward man, and
+painted him from his own feelings, not the observation of others. That
+is the grand distinction between him and Homer; and that it is which
+has given him, in the delineation of mind, his great superiority. The
+Grecian bard was an incomparable observer; he had an inexhaustible
+imagination for fiction, as well as a graphic eye for the delineation
+of real life; but he had not a deep or feeling heart. He did not know
+it, like Dante and Shakspeare, from his own suffering. He painted the
+external symptoms of passion and emotion with the hand of a master;
+but he did not reach the inward spring of feeling. He lets us into his
+characters by their speeches, their gestures, their actions, and keeps
+up their consistency with admirable fidelity; but he does not, by a
+word, an expression, or an epithet, admit us into the inmost folds of
+the heart. None can do so but such as themselves feel warmly and
+profoundly, and paint passion, emotion, or suffering from their own
+experience, not the observation of others. Dante has acquired his
+colossal fame from the matchless force with which he has portrayed the
+wildest passions, the deepest feelings, the most intense sufferings of
+the heart. He is the refuge of all those who labour and are heavy
+laden--of all who feel profoundly or have suffered deeply. His verses
+are in the mouth of all who are torn by passion, gnawed by remorse, or
+tormented by apprehension; and how many are they in this scene of woe!
+
+A distinguished modern critic[2] has said, that he who would now
+become a great poet must first become a little child. There is no
+doubt he is right. The seen and unseen fetters of civilization; the
+multitude of old ideas afloat in the world; the innumerable worn-out
+channels into which new ones are ever apt to flow; the general clamour
+with which critics, nursed amidst such fetters, receive any attempts
+at breaking them; the prevalence, in a wealthy and highly civilized
+age, of worldly or selfish ideas; the common approximation of
+characters by perpetual intercourse, as of coins, by continual rubbing
+in passing from man to man, have taken away all freshness and
+originality from ideas. The learned, the polished, the highly
+educated, can hardly escape the fetters which former greatness throws
+over the soul. Milton could not avoid them: half the images in his
+poems are taken from Homer, Virgil, and Dante; and who dare hope for
+emancipation when Milton was enthralled? The mechanical arts increase
+in perfection as society advances. Science ever takes its renewed
+flights from the platform which former efforts have erected. Industry,
+guided by experience, in successive ages, brings to the highest point
+all the contrivances and inventions which minister to the comfort or
+elegances of life. But it is otherwise with genius. It sinks in the
+progress of society, as much as science and the arts rise. The country
+of Homer and Æschylus sank for a thousand years into the torpor of the
+Byzantine empire. Originality perishes amidst acquisition. Freshness
+of conception is its life: like the flame, it burns fierce and clear
+in the first gales of a pure atmosphere; but languishes and dies in
+that polluted by many breaths.
+
+It was the resurrection of the human mind, after the seclusion and
+solitary reflection of the middle ages, which gave this vein of
+original ideas to Dante, as their first wakening had given to Homer.
+Thought was not extinct; the human mind was not dormant during the
+dark ages; far from it--it never, in some respects, was more active.
+It was the first collision of their deep and lonely meditations with
+the works of the great ancient poets, which occasioned the prodigy.
+Universally it will be found to be the same. After the first flights
+of genius have been taken, it is by the collision of subsequent
+thought with it that the divine spark is again elicited. The meeting
+of two great minds is necessary to beget fresh ideas, as that of two
+clouds is to bring forth lightning, or the collision of flint and
+steel to produce fire. Johnson said he could not get new ideas till he
+had read. He was right; though it is not one in a thousand who strikes
+out original thoughts from studying the works of others. The great
+sage did not read to imbibe the opinions of others, but to engender
+new ones for himself; he did not study to imitate, but to create. It
+was the same with Dante; it is the same with every really great man.
+His was the first powerful and original mind which, fraught with the
+profound and gloomy ideas nourished in seclusion during the middle
+ages, came into contact with the brilliant imagery, touching pathos,
+and harmonious language of the ancients. Hence his astonishing
+greatness. He almost worshipped Virgil, he speaks of him as a species
+of god; he mentions Homer as the first of poets. But he did not copy
+either the one or the other; he scarcely imitated them. He strove to
+rival their brevity and beauty of expression; but he did so in giving
+vent to new ideas, in painting new images, in awakening new emotions.
+The _Inferno_ is as original as the _Iliad_; incomparably more so than
+the _Æneid_. The offspring of originality with originality is a new
+and noble creation; of originality with mediocrity, a spurious and
+degraded imitation.
+
+Dante paints the spirits of all the generations of men, each in their
+circle undergoing their allotted punishment; expiating by suffering
+the sins of an upper world. Virgil gave a glimpse, as it were, into
+that scene of retribution; Minos and Rhadamanthus passing judgment on
+the successive spirits brought before them; the flames of Tartarus,
+the rock of Sisyphus, the wheel of Ixion, the vulture gnawing
+Prometheus. But with Homer and Virgil, the descent into the infernal
+regions was a brief episode; with Dante it was the whole poem. Immense
+was the effort of imagination requisite to give variety to such a
+subject, to prevent the mind from experiencing weariness amidst the
+eternal recurrence of crime and punishment. But the genius of Dante
+was equal to the task. His fancy was prodigious; his invention
+boundless; his imagination inexhaustible. Fenced in, as he was,
+within narrow and gloomy limits by the nature of his subject, his
+creative spirit equals that of Homer himself. He has given birth to as
+many new ideas in the _Inferno_ and the _Paradiso_, as the Grecian
+bard in the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_.
+
+Though he had reflected so much and so deeply on the human heart, and
+was so perfect a master of all the anatomy of mental suffering,
+Dante's mind was essentially descriptive. He was a great painter as
+well as a profound thinker; he clothed deep feeling in the garb of the
+senses; he conceived a vast brood of new ideas, he arrayed them in a
+surprising manner in flesh and blood. He is ever clear and definite,
+at least in the _Inferno_. He exhibits in every canto of that
+wonderful poem a fresh image, but it is a clear one, of horror or
+anguish, which leaves nothing to the imagination to add or conceive.
+His ideal characters are real persons; they are present to our senses;
+we feel their flesh, see the quivering of their limbs, hear their
+lamentations, and feel a thrill of joy at their felicity. In the
+_Paradiso_ he is more vague and general, and thence its acknowledged
+inferiority to the _Inferno_. But the images of horror are much more
+powerful than those of happiness; and it is they which have entranced
+the world. "It is easier," says Madame de Staël, "to convey ideas of
+suffering than those of happiness; for the former are too well known
+to every heart, the latter only to a few."
+
+The melancholy tone which pervades Dante's writings was doubtless, in
+a great measure, owing to the misfortunes of his life; and to them we
+are also indebted for many of the most caustic and powerful of his
+verses--perhaps for the design of the _Inferno_ itself. He took
+vengeance on the generation which had persecuted and exiled him, by
+exhibiting its leaders suffering in the torments of hell. In his long
+seclusion, chiefly in the monastery of Santa Croce di Fonte Avellana,
+a wild and solitary retreat in the territory of Gubbio, and in a tower
+belonging to the Conte Falcucci, in the same district, his immortal
+work was written. The mortifications he underwent during this long and
+dismal exile are thus described by himself:--"Wandering over almost
+every part in which our language extends, I have gone about like a
+mendicant; showing against my will the wound with which fortune has
+smitten me, and which is often falsely imputed to the demerit of him
+by whom it is endured. I have been, indeed, a vessel without sail or
+steerage, carried about to divers ports, and roads, and shores, by the
+dry wind that springs out of sad poverty."
+
+In the third circle of hell, Dante sees those who are punished by the
+plague of burning sand falling perpetually on them. Their torments are
+thus described--
+
+    "Supin giaceva in terra alcuna gente;
+  Alcuna si sedea tutta raccolta;
+  Ed altra andava continuamente.
+    Quella che giva intorno era più molta;
+  E quella men che giaceva al tormento;
+  Ma più al duolo avea la lingua sciolta.
+    Sovra tutto 'l sabbion d'un cader lento
+  Piovean di fuoco dilatate falde,
+  Come di neve in alpe senza vento.
+    Quali Alessandro in quelle parti calde
+  D' India vide sovra lo suo stuolo
+  Fiamme cadere infino a terra salde."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. xiv.
+
+
+    "Of naked spirits many a flock I saw,
+  All weeping piteously, to different laws
+  Subjected: for on earth some lay supine,
+  Some crouching close were seated, others paced
+  Incessantly around; the latter tribe
+  More numerous, those fewer who beneath
+  The torment lay, but louder in their grief.
+    O'er all the sand fell slowly wafting down
+  Dilated flakes of fire, as flakes of snow
+  On Alpine summit, when the wind is hush'd.
+  As, in the torrid Indian clime, the son
+  Of Ammon saw, upon his warrior band
+  Descending, solid flames, that to the ground
+  Came down."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante_, c. xiv.
+
+
+The first appearance of Malebolge is described in these striking
+lines--
+
+    "Luogo è in Inferno, detto Malebolge,
+  Tutto di pietra e di color ferrigno,
+  Come la cerchia che d'intorno il volge.
+    Nel dritto mezzo del campo maligno
+  Vaneggia un pozzo assai largo e profondo,
+  Di cui suo luogo conterà l' ordigno.
+    Quel cinghio che rimane adunque è tondo
+  Tra 'l pozzo e 'l piè dell' alta ripa dura,
+  E ha distinto in dieci valli al fondo."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. xviii.
+
+
+    "There is a place within the depths of hell
+  Call'd Malebolge, all of rock dark-stain'd
+  With hue ferruginous, e'en as the steep
+  That round it circling winds. Right in the midst
+  Of that abominable region yawns
+  A spacious gulf profound, whereof the frame
+  Due time shall tell. The circle, that remains,
+  Throughout its round, between the gulf and base
+  Of the high craggy banks, successive forms
+  Ten bastions, in its hollow bottom raised."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante_, c. xviii.
+
+
+This is the outward appearance of Malebolge, the worst place of
+punishment in hell. It had many frightful abysses; what follows is the
+picture of the first:--
+
+    "Ristemmo per veder l'altra fessura
+  Di Malebolge e gli altri pianti vani:
+  E vidila mirabilmente oscura.
+    Quale nell' arzana de' Veneziani
+  Bolle l' inverno la tenace pece,
+  A rimpalmar li legni lor non sani--
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  Tal non per fuoco ma per divina arte,
+  Bollia laggiuso una pegola spessa,
+    Che 'nviscava la ripa d'ogni parte.
+  I' vedea lei, ma non vedeva in essa
+  Ma che le bolle che 'l bollor levava,
+    E gonfiar tutta e riseder compressa.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  E vidi dietro a noi un diavol nero
+  Correndo su per lo scoglio venire.
+    Ahi quant' egli era nell' aspetto fiero!
+  E quanto mi parea nell' atto acerbo,
+  Con l' ali aperte e sovre i piè leggiero!
+    L' omero suo ch' era acuto e superbo
+  Carcava un peccator con ambo l'anche,
+  Ed ei tenea de' piè ghermito il nerbo.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+    Laggiù il buttò e per lo scoglio duro
+  Si volse, e mai non fu mastino sciolto
+  Con tanta fretta a seguitar lo furo.
+    Quei s' attuffò e tornò su convolto;
+  Ma i demon che del ponte avean coverchio
+  Gridar: qui non ha luogo il Santo Volto.
+    Qui si nuota altramenti che nel Serchio:
+  Però se tu non vuoi de' nostri graffi,
+  Non far sovra la pegola soverchio.
+    Poi l' addentar con più di cento raffi,
+  Disser: coverto convien che qui balli,
+  Si che se puoi nascosamente accaffi."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. xxi.
+
+
+  "----To the summit reaching, stood
+  To view another gap, within the round
+  Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs.
+    Marvellous darkness shadow'd o'er the place.
+    In the Venetians' arsenal as boils
+  Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear
+  Their unsound vessels in the wintry clime.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  So, not by force of fire but art divine,
+  Boil'd here a glutinous thick mass, that round
+  Limed all the shore beneath. I that beheld,
+  But therein not distinguish'd, save the bubbles
+  Raised by the boiling, and one mighty swell
+  Heave, and by turns subsiding fall.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  Behind me I beheld a devil black,
+  That running up, advanced along the rock.
+  Ah! what fierce cruelty his look bespake.
+  In act how bitter did he seem, with wings
+  Buoyant outstretch'd, and feet of nimblest tread.
+  His shoulder, proudly eminent and sharp,
+  Was with a sinner charged; by either haunch
+  He held him, the foot's sinew griping fast.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  Him dashing down, o'er the rough rock he turn'd;
+  Nor ever after thief a mastiff loosed
+  Sped with like eager haste. That other sank,
+  And forthwith writhing to the surface rose.
+  But those dark demons, shrouded by the bridge,
+  Cried--Here the hallow'd visage saves not: here
+  Is other swimming than in Serchio's wave,
+  Wherefore, if thou desire we rend thee not,
+  Take heed thou mount not o'er the pitch. This said,
+  They grappled him with more than hundred hooks,
+  And shouted--Cover'd thou must sport thee here;
+  So, if thou canst, in secret mayst thou filch."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante_, c. xxi.
+
+
+Fraught as his imagination was with gloomy ideas, with images of
+horror, it is the fidelity of his descriptions, the minute reality of
+his pictures, which gives them their terrible power. He knew well what
+it is that penetrates the soul. His images of horror in the infernal
+regions were all founded on those familiar to every one in the upper
+world; it was from the caldron of boiling pitch in the arsenal of
+Venice that he took his idea of one of the pits of Malebolge. But what
+a picture does he there exhibit! The writhing sinner plunged headlong
+into the boiling waves, rising to the surface, and a hundred demons,
+mocking his sufferings, and with outstretched hooks tearing his flesh
+till he dived again beneath the liquid fire! It is the reality of the
+scene, the images familiar yet magnified in horror, which constitutes
+its power: we stand by; our flesh creeps as it would at witnessing an
+_auto-da-fè_ of Castile, or on beholding a victim perishing under the
+knout in Russia.
+
+Michael Angelo was, in one sense, the painter of the Old Testament, as
+his bold and aspiring genius arrived rather at delineating the events
+of warfare, passion, or suffering, chronicled in the records of the
+Jews, than the scenes of love, affection, and benevolence, depicted in
+the gospels. But his mind was not formed merely on the events
+recorded in antiquity: it is no world doubtful of the immortality of
+the soul which he depicts. He is rather the personification in
+painting of the soul of Dante. His imagination was evidently fraught
+with the conceptions of the _Inferno_. The expression of mind beams
+forth in all his works. Vehement passion, stern resolve, undaunted
+valour, sainted devotion, infant innocence, alternately occupied his
+pencil. It is hard to say in which he was greatest. In all his works
+we see marks of the genius of antiquity meeting the might of modern
+times: the imagery of mythology blended with the aspirations of
+Christianity. We see it in the dome of St Peter's, we see it in the
+statue of Moses. Grecian sculpture was the realization in form of the
+conceptions of Homer; Italian painting the representation on canvass
+of the revelations of the gospel, which Dante clothed in the garb of
+poetry. Future ages should ever strive to equal, but can never hope to
+excel them.
+
+Never did artist work with more persevering vigour than Michael
+Angelo. He himself said that he laboured harder for fame, than ever
+poor artist did for bread. Born of a noble family, the heir to
+considerable possessions, he took to the arts from his earliest years
+from enthusiastic passion and conscious power. During a long life of
+ninety years, he prosecuted them with the ardent zeal of youth. He was
+consumed by the thirst for fame, the desire of great achievements, the
+invariable mark of heroic minds; and which, as it is altogether beyond
+the reach of the great bulk of mankind, so is the feeling of all
+others which to them is most incomprehensible. Nor was that noble
+enthusiasm without its reward. It was his extraordinary good fortune
+to be called to form, at the same time, the Last Judgment on the wall
+of the Sistine Chapel, the glorious dome of St Peter's, and the group
+of Notre Dame de Pitié, which now adorns the chapel of the Crucifix,
+under the roof of that august edifice. The "Holy Family" in the
+Palazzo Pitti at Florence, and the "Three Fates" in the same
+collection, give an idea of his powers in oil-painting: thus he
+carried to the highest perfection, at the same time, the rival arts of
+architecture, sculpture, fresco and oil painting.[3] He may truly be
+called the founder of Italian painting, as Homer was of the ancient
+epic, and Dante of the great style in modern poetry. None but a
+colossal mind could have done such things. Raphael took lessons from
+him in painting, and professed through life the most unbounded respect
+for his great preceptor. None have attempted to approach him in
+architecture; the cupola of St Peter's stands alone in the world.
+
+But notwithstanding all this, Michael Angelo had some defects. He
+created the great style in painting, a style which has made modern
+Italy as immortal as the arms of the legions did the ancient. But the
+very grandeur of his conceptions, the vigour of his drawing, his
+incomparable command of bone and muscle, his lofty expression and
+impassioned mind, made him neglect, and perhaps despise, the lesser
+details of his art. Ardent in the pursuit of expression, he often
+overlooked execution. When he painted the Last Judgment or the Fall of
+the Titans in fresco, on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel,
+he was incomparable; but that gigantic style was unsuitable for lesser
+pictures or rooms of ordinary proportions. By the study of his
+masterpieces, subsequent painters have often been led astray; they
+have aimed at force of expression to the neglect of delicacy in
+execution. This defect is, in an especial manner, conspicuous in Sir
+Joshua Reynolds, who worshipped Michael Angelo with the most devoted
+fervour; and through him it has descended to Lawrence, and nearly the
+whole modern school of England. When we see Sir Joshua's noble glass
+window in Magdalen College, Oxford, we behold the work of a worthy
+pupil of Michael Angelo; we see the great style of painting in its
+proper place, and applied to its appropriate object. But when we
+compare his portraits, or imaginary pieces in oil, with those of
+Titian, Velasquez, or Vandyke, the inferiority is manifest. It is not
+in the design but the finishing; not in the conception but the
+execution. The colours are frequently raw and harsh; the details or
+distant parts of the piece ill-finished or neglected. The bold neglect
+of Michael Angelo is very apparent. Raphael, with less original genius
+than his immortal master, had more taste and much greater delicacy of
+pencil; his conceptions, less extensive and varied, are more perfect;
+his finishing is always exquisite. Unity of emotion was his great
+object in design; equal delicacy of finishing in execution. Thence he
+has attained by universal consent the highest place in painting.
+
+"Nothing," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "is denied to well-directed
+labour; nothing is to be attained without it." "Excellence in any
+department," says Johnson, "can now be attained only by the labour of
+a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price." These words
+should ever be present to the minds of all who aspire to rival the
+great of former days; who feel in their bosoms a spark of the spirit
+which led Homer, Dante, and Michael Angelo to immortality. In a
+luxurious age, comfort or station is deemed the chief good of life; in
+a commercial community, money becomes the universal object of
+ambition. Thence our acknowledged deficiency in the fine arts; thence
+our growing weakness in the higher branches of literature. Talent
+looks for its reward too soon. Genius seeks an immediate recompense;
+long protracted exertions are never attempted; great things are not
+done, because great efforts are not made.
+
+None will work now without the prospect of an immediate return. Very
+possibly it is so; but then let us not hope or wish for immortality.
+"Present time and future," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "are rivals; he
+who solicits the one must expect to be discountenanced by the other."
+It is not that we want genius; what we want is the great and heroic
+spirit which will devote itself; by strenuous efforts, to great
+things, without seeking any reward but their accomplishment.
+
+Nor let it be said that great subjects for the painter's pencil, the
+poet's muse, are not to be found--that they are exhausted by former
+efforts, and nothing remains to us but imitation. Nature is
+inexhaustible; the events of men are unceasing, their variety is
+endless. Philosophers were mourning the monotony of time, historians
+were deploring the sameness of events, in the years preceding the
+French Revolution--on the eve of the Reign of Terror, the flames of
+Moscow, the retreat from Russia. What was the strife around Troy to
+the battle of Leipsic?--the contests of Florence and Pisa to the
+revolutionary war? What ancient naval victory to that of Trafalgar?
+Rely upon it, subjects for genius are not wanting; genius itself,
+steadily and perseveringly directed, is the thing required. But genius
+and energy alone are not sufficient; COURAGE and disinterestedness are
+needed more than all. Courage to withstand the assaults of envy, to
+despise the ridicule of mediocrity--disinterestedness to trample under
+foot the seductions of ease, and disregard the attractions of
+opulence. An heroic mind is more wanted in the library or the studio,
+than in the field. It is wealth and cowardice which extinguish the
+light of genius, and dig the grave of literature as of nations.
+
+
+
+
+SETTLED AT LAST; OR, RED RIVER RECOLLECTIONS.
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND.
+
+
+I had left New Orleans with the full intention of proceeding without
+stop or delay to my home upon the Red River; but notwithstanding this
+determination, my wife and myself were unable to resist Richards'
+pressing invitation to pause for a day or two at his house. Upon our
+yielding to his solicitations, he proceeded to recruit other guests
+among our travelling companions, and soon got together a pleasant
+party. My father-in-law, Monsieur Menou, went on to my plantation, but
+Julie remained with us, as did also her aunt, Madame Duras, an
+agreeable old lady with a slight expression of perfidy in her light
+blue, French-looking eyes, possessed withal of infinite delicacy and
+_finesse_--a fervent admirer of the old court school of Louis the
+Fifteenth, in the _chronique scandaleuse_ of which she was as well
+versed as if she had been herself a contemporary of that
+pleasure-loving monarch. Besides these ladies, there was a young
+Frenchman named Vergennes, the third son of some Gascon viscount, and
+a distant cousin of the Menous, who had come to America till the
+scandal occasioned by certain republican scribblings of his in one of
+the newspapers of the day should have blown over, and till he could
+revisit his country without risk of obtaining a lodging gratis in the
+Conciergerie. He had brought with him a head crammed with schemes for
+the political regeneration of the whole world, and a trunkful of
+French fashions, neither of which, as I reckoned, were likely to take
+much with us. He made me laugh inwardly twenty times a-day by his
+Utopian theories and fancies. Truth to tell, in matters of politics or
+of sound common sense, these Frenchmen are for the most part mere
+children, and reach their dying day without ever becoming men. Take
+them by their weak points, their unlimited vanity or their love of
+what they call glory, and you may ride them like a horse to water.
+Vergennes, however, when one could get him off his hobby, was a
+pleasant gentlemanly fellow enough.
+
+It was impossible to spare Richards more than three days, and at six
+o'clock on the morning of the fourth, we went on board the steamer
+Alexandria. I had prevailed on my friend and his wife, and the whole
+party, to come and pass a week or two at my house, which was now quite
+ready for the reception of guests. The three days we had remained with
+Richards had been one continued fête, and considering the good living,
+and the heat of the weather--the thermometer ranging from 95° to
+100°--there were few things more agreeable or better to be done, than
+to take a steam up the Red River. The fresh breezes on the water might
+save some of us a touch of fever. On board we went therefore, all in
+high glee and good-humour with each other.
+
+We had passed the Atchafalaya, and had crossed over to the
+Francisville side, in order to avoid the powerful current occasioned
+by the influx of the Red River into the Mississippi. A strong wind had
+sprung up, and in the middle of the stream the waves were of a
+considerable height. The Mississippi was full to overflowing, and the
+mouth of the Red River, as far as the eye could reach, presented the
+appearance of an extensive lake, with thousands of tree trunks
+floating upon it. I had left the cabin, and was standing on deck with
+Richards and Vergennes, looking out upon the broad sheet of water that
+lay before us. We were just turning into the Red River when I observed
+a rowboat pulling across from the direction of Woodville, and which
+had already arrived within a hundred yards of us without attracting
+the attention of any one on board the steamer. It was cutting in and
+out amongst the enormous floating trees, with a boldness that, in that
+part of the river--near the middle of which we were--might almost be
+called insanity.
+
+"That man must be mad, or in love!" cried the captain.
+
+"It is Ralph Doughby!" exclaimed Richards. "Captain, it is Mister
+Doughby. Pray, stop the ship and let him come on board."
+
+Doughby it was. The mad fellow was standing bolt upright, and hardly
+taking the trouble to bend to one side or the other in conformity with
+the movements of the boat, which was dancing about on the waves and
+between the tree-trunks, while the six negro rowers were washed over
+and over by the spray.
+
+"Here's your famous Red River!" shouted the harebrained Doughby. "A
+fine country for wild-ducks and geese, and alligators too. Hurra,
+boys!"
+
+"For God's sake, Mr Doughby!" screamed and implored the ladies, as the
+Kentuckian dashed his boat slap up to the side of the steamer, without
+waiting till the speed of the vessel was slackened, and hastily caught
+a rope which was thrown to him. Just at that moment a wave as high as
+a man rose between the steamer and the boat and separated them, and
+Doughby still maintaining his hold on the rope, he was dragged out of
+his skiff and tossed like a feather against the steamer's side, where
+he hung half in and half out of the water.
+
+"Haul in, boys--haul me in, lads--or your d----d paddles will do it!"
+
+"Pull him in!" shouted we all, "pull him in for God's sake!"
+
+"Ay, pull in!" cried Doughby, and giving a spring upwards he caught
+hold of the railing of the deck, threw himself over it with a bound,
+and stood in all safety amongst the astonished and grinny-visaged
+Cyclops who were hastening to his assistance. We hurried down from the
+quarterdeck, breathless with astonishment at this desperate and
+unnecessary piece of daring.
+
+"Pshaw" cried Doughby; "steward, a glass of hot; and, captain, see
+that my portmanteau comes on board, and that my negers get away with
+whole skins; and a good morning to you, gentlemen--in five minutes we
+shall meet again."
+
+And so saying, he emptied the glass which the black steward held out
+to him, made a slight bow to the ladies on the quarterdeck, sprang
+into the gentlemen's cabin, and thence into the first state-room that
+stood open.
+
+"An _entrée en scène_ quite _à la_ Doughby," said Richards laughing.
+
+"Quite so," replied I.
+
+Ralph Doughby, Esquire of New Feliciana, La., was an old acquaintance
+of Richards and myself, and an excellent specimen of a warm-hearted,
+impetuous, breakneck Kentuckian, with a share of earthquake in his
+composition that might be deemed large, even in Kentucky. He had come
+to Louisiana some eight years previously, a voyage of a thousand miles
+or more down the Cumberland River, the Ohio, and Mississippi, in a
+flat boat with half a dozen negroes, some casks of flour, hams, and
+Indian corn, and a few horses, and had settled at Woodville on a
+couple of thousand acres of good land, bought at five dollars an acre,
+to be paid in five years. His industry and energy had caused him to
+thrive, and he was now as well established planter as any on the
+Mississippi; his six negroes had amounted to forty, his wilderness had
+become a respectable plantation, his cotton was sought after, and he
+had not only paid for his acres but had already a large sum in the
+Planters' Bank. His frank open character had made him friends on all
+hands, and there was not a more popular man in Louisiana than Major
+Ralph Doughby.
+
+During the stay I made at Richards' house previously to my marriage,
+Doughby had passed a day there in company with one Mr Lambton and his
+daughter, Yankees--the latter a beautiful girl, but cold and formal
+like most of her countrywomen. An aunt of hers, who possessed large
+plantations on the Mississippi, had made up a match between Miss
+Lambton and Doughby, and they were then proceeding to New York, where
+the marriage was in due time to be solemnized. Richards and myself had
+observed, however, that the wild headlong manners and character of the
+Kentuckian, joined though they were to great goodness of heart and
+many sterling qualities, did not appear very pleasing to the stiff,
+etiquette-loving fine lady, and it was without any great surprise
+that we heard, some time afterwards, of the marriage being broken off,
+in consequence, it was said, of some wild freak of Doughby's. We were
+asking one another for the particulars of this rupture, which neither
+of us had heard, when the Kentuckian made his reappearance in the
+cabin. He had changed his dress, and, taking him altogether, was by no
+means an ill-looking fellow. His light blue gingham frock and
+snow-white trousers fitted him well; an elegant straw hat, very fine
+linen, and a diamond shirt-pin that must have cost the best part of a
+thousand dollars, contributed to give a sort of genteel planter-like
+air. His first care upon emerging from his state-room was to empty a
+glass of toddy. He then approached Richards and myself.
+
+"And Miss Lambton?" said Richards enquiringly.
+
+"Haven't you heard?" said Doughby; "you must have heard! It's all
+up--she won't hear speak of me--persists in her resolution--won't see
+me; or give me a chance of making my peace. I'm the most unlucky
+fellow on the face of the earth," continued he, changing his tone on a
+sudden to a melancholy sort of whine--"I wish I lay three hundred feet
+deep in the bed of the Mississippi. I tell you, boys, it's clean up
+with me, I feel that. I'm a lost man, done for entirely--shall never
+recover it!"
+
+We burst out into a violent fit of laughter, as who would not have
+done at the sight of a young giant of seven-and-twenty, with cheeks as
+red as poppies, shoulders that seemed made like those of Atlas to
+support a world; pair of dark blue-grey eyes with a laughing devil
+dancing in them, and a little moist just now from the effects of the
+toddy, and the man dying of love! He measured five feet thirteen
+inches in his stockings, with legs that might have belonged to an
+elephant, and fists calculated to frighten a buffalo.
+
+"Be d----d to your laughing!" cried Doughby--"Steward, another
+glass--d'ye hear, you cursed neger, where are you hidden? Don't you
+hear when a gentleman speaks to you? D'ye want me to tattoo your black
+brainpan? You laugh," he continued to Richards and myself, relapsing
+into his whimpering tones; "but if you only knew--none of the women
+will have me--this is the seventh who has packed me off."
+
+"The seventh!" cried I laughing, "what, only the seventh, Doughby?
+Pshaw! that's nothing; during my bachelor's life I had at least two
+dozen refusals, and I am only a year older than yourself."
+
+"You be hanged with your two dozen! Steward, the toddy is only fit for
+old women--too much water in it; you don't know how to make toddy.
+Tell your captain to come here. I'll have you sent to the devil. No, I
+tell you my heart is so full, it feels as if it would burst. She won't
+hear of me. I will tell you all about it, boys--but who is that?"
+interrupted he, pointing to Vergennes, who was standing near us, and
+looking on in great wonderment. "Ah, Monshur Tonson! happy to see you,
+Monshur Tonson! Parleh vouh English? Prenez un seat, et un glass de
+Madeira. Nous parlerons hansamble le Franseh. Neger, a bottle of
+Madeira; and let it be good, or you'll get the bottle across your
+crooked shins. A bottle of Irish for me, d'ye hear, real Irish whisky,
+or if you haven't any, Scotch will do. No, boys, I tell you I am a
+gone man. Dismissed, sent away, packed off with a flea in my ear, as
+they say."
+
+And so saying, he threw himself on a sofa with a violence that made it
+crack again; the steward brought the Madeira and the whisky, and we
+drew round the table to condole with the love-stricken Kentuckian. A
+few minutes passed in the composition of the toddy, which was
+evidently destined to play the chief part in the way of a consoler;
+and when Doughby had got a large beer-glass of the comfortable mixture
+before him, he began his narrative.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE RACE.
+
+"I will tell you how it all happened, and how it was that Miss
+Lambton--in short you shall hear it all--it's the first time I have
+spoken about it, but now it shall out; you shall judge and decide
+between us, by Jove you shall! You recollect it was in the beginning
+of June that we left your house, Richards, to go up the
+Mississippi--it was a Friday, a day that I hate. All seamen and
+hunters do hate it; it's an unlucky day. All the bad luck I ever had,
+came to me on Fridays. I had a feeling that something would go wrong
+when we went on board the Helen M'Gregor. I thought Miss Lambton
+looked shy upon me, and the old gentleman stiffer than ever. I
+followed the Miss, however, wherever she went, so close, that once or
+twice I trod the fringe off her petticoats."
+
+"That was bad manners, Doughby."
+
+"Pshaw! What did it matter? I told her not to bother her head about
+it, that when we got to New York, or even to Cincinnati or Louisville,
+I would buy her a whole shopful of dresses. She made no answer to
+that; but when I had the misfortune to tear her third flounce, she
+said, that if I went on in that way she would not have a whole gown
+left when she got to Louisville. 'With a whole one or none at all,
+Miss,' said I, 'you'll always be a charming creature.' That now was as
+pretty a compliment as ever was paid in Kentucky, but she did not seen
+to hear it.
+
+"On the third day we were just passing St Helena, when old Lambton
+came up to me. 'Mister Doughby,' said he, quite confidential like,
+'pardon me, my dear good Mister Doughby, but don't you think that you
+sometimes take rather too much ardent spirits, and thereby injure your
+health as well as give a bad example to your fellow-citizens, which,
+on the part of a respectable man like yourself, is very much to be
+regretted?'
+
+"'Bad example!' says I--'to be regretted, Mister Lambton!--I take too
+much ardent spirits! I certainly am not of that opinion, Mister
+Lambton, and if you are I can only say you are very much mistaken. You
+shall see yourself,' said I, 'how much ballast an old Kentuckian can
+take in without sinking under it: devil a diving duck ever swallowed
+more water than a Kentucky man can rum.'
+
+"I thought to let the old squaretoes see that he had a man before him,
+not one of his spindleshanked tallow-chopped Yankees, who go sneaking
+about the meeting-house from morning till night, or moping in their
+rooms, and calculating and speculating how they can best take in
+honest warm-blooded South and Westlanders. 'You shall see,' said
+I--but he shook his head and walked away, and I looked after him, and
+shook my head too. Pah! I found out afterwards that he was president
+of a temperance society, the devil take them all! Temperance
+societies! What is rum for, if it isn't to be drank?"
+
+Doughby was rapidly warming with his subject.
+
+"He is a queer old fellow, that Mister Lambton, as stiff and as cold
+as an icicle on a water-butt. Of a morning he was scarcely out of bed
+when he knocked at the door of the ladies' cabin in his brocade
+dressing-gown, and Miss Lambton must come out and hear him read the
+whole morning service of the Episcopal Church, and make the responses,
+and so on, for a full hour. Then the whole day he walked about as
+grave and solemn as the chief-justice of the district court. Before
+dinner he said a grace which lasted a full quarter of an hour. The
+soup was often cold, and half the dinner eaten up from under our
+noses, while this was going on. Sometimes most of the other passengers
+had done their dinner, and were gone to the bar to take a glass, and
+he still praying. I was often ready to jump out of my skin with
+impatience."
+
+"The praying was all well enough, if it had not lasted so long," said
+I, laughing.
+
+"Pah! I hate people who are always wanting to be a shining light to
+their fellow-citizens. There's a deal of pride, a deal of arrogance
+and presumption in it. If a man wishes to pray, let him do so, and I
+do it myself; but people don't want to be reminded of those things. I
+tell you I have always found pride behind that sort of piety. The
+Yankees think we are heathens, and that they are the elect who are to
+enlighten us. Pshaw! I hate such humbug."
+
+"Not so badly reasoned," observed Richards.
+
+"However," continued Doughby, "I soon saw that, with one thing or
+another, I was getting out of the old gentleman's good books. He
+became more and more stiff and silent. That wouldn't have annoyed me
+much; but one morning the captain came to me and said, in a sort of
+apologising manner, that the ladies had desired him to beg me not to
+pay so many visits to their cabin, particularly of a morning, when
+some of them had not quite finished their toilet, but that I should
+always ask leave first and have myself announced, as it is set down in
+the regulations."
+
+"'What!' says I, 'have myself announced when I go to see my own wife,
+that is to be? What do the other ladies matter to me, whether they've
+got on silk gowns or cotton ones? I only go to see Miss Lambton.'
+
+"'Miss Lambton was present,' said the captain, 'when the ladies gave
+me the commission; and she and Mr Lambton most particularly requested
+me to have the regulations enforced.'
+
+"'Miss Lambton!' said I; 'that's a lie now, captain. She never could
+have done that.'
+
+"'Mister Doughby,' said he, 'it is no lie; and if another than
+yourself had said such a thing, I would have struck him down like a
+mad dog. And I must beg of you to retract your words, and ascertain to
+your own satisfaction that what I have said is a fact.'
+
+"So I ran off and asked Miss Lambton and Mr Lambton, and they answered
+me as dry as fagots, and said the captain had spoken the truth. I was
+a'most raving mad when I heard this, as savage as a panther; and, to
+console myself, I drank perhaps a trifle more than I should have done.
+But what else can one do on a voyage up the Mississippi? Much as I
+like him, old father Mississip, one gets awful sick of him after a
+time, steaming along for days and weeks together, nothing to be heard
+but clap-clap-clap, trap-trap-trap, or to be seen but the dull muddy
+waters and the never-ending forest. Day and night, wood and water,
+water and wood. It is wearisome work at the best.
+
+"It was exactly two o'clock in the afternoon on the seventh day of our
+voyage when we got beyond Wolf's Island, which, as you know, lies
+above New Madrid and below the mouth of the Ohio. The poor Helen
+M'Gregor burst her boiler since then, as you'll have heard, at that
+very place, and sent half a hundred passengers into the other world.
+Past Wolf's Island, we came up with the Ploughboy, the Huntress, the
+Louisville, and a couple more steamers, all going our way. It made
+quite a little fleet. I was sitting in the cabin with Miss Lambton and
+the old gentleman, who were cool and silent enough, when somebody
+called out, 'Here comes the George Washington.' A glorious steamer it
+is that George, more like a floating palace than a boat, as it goes
+skimming along as lightly and smoothly as a swan. It's a real pleasure
+to see it. I kept my place by Miss Lambton; but, to tell you the
+truth, I was sitting upon hot coals. What can be the reason that we
+men feel so deucedly cowed and quailed by the petticoats? Hang me if I
+know. Suddenly there was a cry upon deck, 'The Washington is passing
+us.' I could stand it no longer, but bolted up-stairs, and sure enough
+there it came in all its pride and power, trarara, trarara, rushing
+and dashing and spitting fire like Emperor Nap. at the head of his
+guards and dragoons and artillery. It was already in the midst of the
+other five steamers, passing them all. The whole of our passengers
+were on deck looking on, and I can tell you that our hearts beat quick
+as we saw the George walking up to us. The dinner-bell rang. Not a
+foot moved to go below. 'Captain,' cried I, 'we must not let the
+George pass us; you can't think of allowing such a thing?' says I;
+'must show them that we are Mississippi men.'
+
+"'Mister Doughby,' says he, 'it's the George Washington,' says
+he--'hundred and twenty horse power,' says he.
+
+"'Devil a hundred,' said I. 'You only say so because you are afraid to
+race him. And if he had two hundred horse power, what then? Shorten
+your stirrups and give your horse the spur,' say I.
+
+"I saw that the captain's blood was getting up; his eyes were fixed on
+the old George as if he would have eaten it, and he became red and
+blue and green, all manner of colours, like a dolphin; his teeth
+chattered, and he bit his lips till the blood ran over his chin. On
+came the Washington quicker than ever, the paddles clattering, the
+steam hissing, the crew hurraing like mad.
+
+"'Captain,' cried I, 'the Washington's passing you; it's all up with
+the honour of the Helen M'Gregor.'
+
+"The captain stood there as if his face had been rubbed over with
+chalk, and the drops of sweat ran down his forehead. The five steamers
+that we had passed were now hurraing with delight to see that we
+should be humbled in our turn. 'Captain,' said I, 'will you let
+yourself be beaten out of the field without firing a shot? The Helen
+M'Gregor is a new ship--Crack on, man!'
+
+"He could stand it no longer, but ran forward and screamed out to the
+stokers. 'More wood!' cried he, 'High pressure, high pressure!'
+
+"'Blaze away, boys!' cried I, 'Blaze away, and hurra for the Helen
+M'Gregor!'
+
+"And the fellows pitched whole cartloads of wood upon the fire, and
+stirred and poked away till they were wet through with perspiration,
+and our chimney began to whistle and sing, that it was a pleasure to
+hear it. We were just entering the Ohio, the Washington close upon our
+heels, when old Lambton and Emily came running upon deck in an
+almighty fright.
+
+"'Mr Doughby, for heaven's sake! Mr Doughby--captain, for God's sake!
+Will you destroy yourself, and the steamer, and your fellow-citizens?
+Will you race with the George Washington?'
+
+"'For God's sake, Mr Doughby!' cried the Miss.
+
+"'Mr Doughby!' squealed the old Yankee, who had quite forgotten his
+stiffness, 'I demand and insist that you use your influence to prevent
+the captain from racing.'
+
+"'Pshaw!' said I, 'it's nothing of the sort--ain't going to race--only
+want to see which ship goes quickest.'
+
+"'That must not be. I protest against it--the safety of our
+fellow-citizens--our own. If the boiler bursts'----
+
+"'Nonsense!' said I--'safety of our fellow-citizens! Our
+fellow-citizens _are_ in safety. We don't mean to race, Mister
+Lambton,' says I; 'we are only trying for a minute which ship can go
+the fastest.'
+
+"'Mr Doughby!' cried Emily, half beside herself--throwing her arms
+round me, and trying to drag me towards the engine--'Mr Doughby, if
+you have the smallest affection--regard I would say--for me, exert
+your influence, stop this horrid racing!'
+
+"And then she left me and ran to the captain, who was standing beside
+the engineer.
+
+"The Washington was close behind us--we, as I said before, were
+running slap into the mouth of the Ohio. There's no finer piece of
+water in the whole world for a race. The current of the Mississippi
+drives back that of the Ohio as far as Trinity, so that upon entering
+the river, the stream is in your favour. The two rivers are together
+four or five miles wide, and form a sort of circus, enclosed by the
+shores of Illinois, of Old Kentuck, and her daughter Missouri.[4] We
+were nearest to the Illinois side, which gave us a small advantage
+over our opponent, who was more on the Kentucky side, end kept coming
+on faster and faster, with the other five boats, who had also clapped
+more steam on, a short distance behind him. Our Helen M'Gregor still
+kept the lead; who the devil could have helped racing? No one, of a
+certainty, except such a mackerel-blooded Yankee as old Lambton. All
+was heat and steam, rattle and clatter; the engines thumping, the
+water splashing, the fire blazing and roaring out of the chimneys,
+which sent out clouds of smoke and showers of sparks. The enemy was
+close upon us, Father George's honest face almost in a line with our
+stern.
+
+"'Helen M'Gregor, hold your own!' cried I. 'Don't spare the wood,
+boys, lay it on thick, pile it up moun_tain_eous; ten dollars for you
+when you've beaten him!'
+
+"'Hurra!' cried the hundred passengers; 'hurra! The Washington loses,
+we are gaining ground.'
+
+"Only the captain could not say a word; he stood there with his blue
+lips pressed hard together, looking more like a statue than a man. We
+were going our twenty knots, and keep it up we must if we did not want
+to fall back amongst the mob of the Huntress, the Ploughboy, and the
+rest of them. Every joint and hinge in the boat seemed to be cracking,
+the engine roared and groaned, the steam howled and hissed.
+
+"'The Helen M'Gregor is a gallant lass!' cried I. 'A brave
+Scotchwoman! She has fire in her veins.'
+
+"And so she really had. She stretched out like a racehorse that feels
+the spur in his flank for the first time; not steaming or swimming,
+but flying like a bird, rushing like a wild-cat or an elk that's been
+shot at; the waters of the Ohio flashing from her side in a white
+creamy foam. The Kentucky shores on our right, with their forests and
+cotton-trees, were flying away from us; on our left, the banks of
+Illinois seemed to dance past us, the big trees looking like witches
+scampering off on their broomsticks. Behind us, the high land of
+Missouri was rapidly disappearing, Colonel Boon's plantation getting
+smaller every second, till at last it appeared no bigger than a
+dovecot. Every thing around us seemed in motion, swimming, flying,
+racing. Hurras by thousands; seven steamers groaning, creaking,
+hissing, and rattling; a noise and a heat that made our heads dizzy,
+blinded our eyes, and took away our hearing. It was a gallopade, a
+race between giants.
+
+"We were close to the wood below Trinity--the race as good as won, for
+Trinity was of course the winning post. Suddenly the captain cried
+out, 'He is passing us!' and, as he said the word, he looked as wild
+as a tortured redskin, and bit his lips more savage than ever, and
+caught hold of the quarterdeck railing as if he would have torn it
+down.
+
+"'Captain,' said I, 'it's impossible--he is not passing us.'
+
+"'Look yourself, Mr Doughby,' said he.
+
+"The man was right. The old George is an almighty fast ship, that is
+certain. I saw that in two minutes we should be beaten. We had not
+even so long to wait.
+
+"'By my soul he is passing us!' cried I.
+
+"'He is passing us,' repeated the captain in a low voice. He was
+deadly white. I couldn't say a word; and as for him, he was obliged to
+support himself against the railing, or he would have fallen down.
+There was no help for it, however; the Washington's figure-head was
+already in a line with our stern--in ten seconds, a third of the
+vessel's length was parallel with us--another ten seconds, two-thirds,
+and in less than a minute he dashed proudly before us with a deafening
+hurra from crew and passengers, which was echoed from the other five
+steamers, till we heard nothing on all sides but hurras and hurras. I
+would have given a thousand dollars down to have reached Trinity two
+minutes sooner. Just then a number of voices cried out, 'The boiler's
+bursting! The boiler's bursting!' And there was a cracking noise, and
+then a loud rush. Here comes the hot bath, thought I, and wished
+myself a pleasant journey out of the world. But it was nothing; the
+cry came from a couple of negers, echoed by Miss Lambton and Mister
+Lambton, and the rest of the old women folk from the ladies' cabin.
+They had gone in a body to the engineer, and had so begged, and
+prayed, and bothered him, that he had given in, and opened the valve,
+and we only half a mile from Trinity. I am certain that if the
+cowardly rascal had not done that, we should have made a drawn race
+of it, for the Washington got in not two minutes before us. I fell
+upon the engineer, and if it had not been for the captain, and one or
+two old acquaintances, I should have leathered him upon the spot--ay,
+if it were to have cost me a thousand dollars; he deserved it well,
+the dishonourable scamp! We were now in Trinity, we had done five
+miles in less than twelve minutes; but Miss Lambton was so angry, and
+the old gentleman so bitter cold and stiff--a pair of fire-tongs is
+nothing compared to him--Couldn't be helped, however. Honor before
+every thing."
+
+"But you really were too foolhardy," observed Richards.
+
+"Foolhardy!" repeated Doughby, "foolhardy, when the honour of a ship
+was at stake!"
+
+"Pshaw! The honour of a steam-boat!"
+
+"Pshaw, do you say, Richards? Well, if I didn't know you to be a
+thoroughbred Virginian, hang me if I should not almost take you for
+one of those wishywashy Creoles. Pshaw, say you, the honour of a
+steam-boat! A steamer, let me tell you, is also a ship, and a big one
+too, and an American one, a thorough American one. It's our ship; we
+invented it, they'd have been long enough in the old country before
+finding such a thing out--Pshaw, do you say? And if Percy had said
+pshaw upon Lake Erie, or Lawrence on Champlain, or Rogers, or Porter,
+you might say pshaw to every thing--to the honour of a steamer, a
+ship, a country. But I tell you that the man who says pshaw when his
+ship is beaten in a race, will also say it when it is taken in a
+fight. In short, that sort of pride is emulation, and that emulation
+is the real thing."
+
+"But the life of so many men?"
+
+"I tell you, that of the hundred and twenty passengers that we had on
+board the Helen, there were not three besides that leathern old
+Yankee, Mister Lambton, and the women, who would have cared one straw
+if the boiler had burst, provided we had got to Trinity two minutes
+the sooner."
+
+We could not help laughing at this Kentucky bull, but at the same time
+we were compelled to admit the truth of what Doughby meant to say. In
+spite of Uncle Sam's usual phlegm and _nonchalance_, there are
+occasions when he seems to change his nature; and in the anxiety to
+see his ship first at the goal, to forget what he does not otherwise
+easily lose sight of, namely, wife and child, land and goods; as to
+his own life, it does not weigh a feather in the balance. He becomes a
+perfect madman, setting every thing upon a single cast. And the yearly
+loss of five hundred to a thousand lives, sacrificed in these
+desperate races, does not appear to cure him in any degree of his
+mania.
+
+"Well," continued Doughby, resuming his narrative, "it was as much as
+I could do to get a word from Miss Emily during the rest of the
+voyage. The time went terribly slow, and my patience was clean
+expended when we got to Louisville. We stopped at the Lafayette Hotel,
+and I was in my room before dinner, when the waiter brought me a
+letter from Mister Lambton. The old gentleman had the honour to inform
+me, in accordance with his daughter's wishes, that there did not exist
+sufficient harmony between my character and that of Miss Emily to
+render a union between us desirable. And, under these circumstances,
+he took leave to request of me that I would consider the projected
+marriage as entirely broken off; and, with his and his daughter's best
+wishes for my happiness, he had the honour to be my very humble
+servant. There was a deal more of it, but that was the pith. When I
+had read it, I burst out of my room like mad, either to throttle old
+Lambton or to throw myself at his daughter's feet, I didn't rightly
+know which. But the Yankee had been too cunning for me. He had left
+the hotel with his daughter, and gone off by the Cincinnati steamer. I
+went on board the next that was going, and got to Cincinnati three
+hours after him, but missed him again. He had taken a chaise and
+started for his estate at Dayton, near Yellow Springs. And all I have
+done since is no use. She won't hear of me, and I'm the most unhappy
+fellow alive."
+
+And so saying, he threw his feet upon the table, crossed his arms,
+and remained in this position for a couple of minutes, staring
+earnestly at the ceiling. Suddenly he brought his legs down again,
+started up, and gazed through the cabin window.
+
+"Hallo!" cried he, "here are your Red River bottoms. Will have a look
+at them--will go on deck? You may take away, steward. Come, Monshur
+Tonson, come with me, come, my dear little Frenchman! Nous parlons
+hansamble le Fransch."
+
+And thereupon he struck up the favourite western ditty, "Let's go to
+Old Kentuck," seized young De Vergennes by the arm, and dragged him
+through the folding-doors and out upon deck.
+
+"He's not the man to break his heart about a woman," said I to
+Richards.
+
+"Hardly," replied my friend.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE STAG HUNT.
+
+We had sat for some time talking over Doughby's mishaps, when we were
+interrupted by a noise upon deck. Hurras and hellos were resounding
+off on every side and corner of the steamer. We hurried out to see
+what was the matter, and found the cause of the tumult to be a fallow
+deer, that had taken the water some two hundred yards from our
+steamer, and was swimming steadily across from the right to the left
+bank of the river. The yawl had already been lowered, and was pushing
+off from the side with five men in it, amongst whom Doughby of course
+took the lead.
+
+"There he is again," cited Richards. "Of a certainty the man is
+possessed by a devil."
+
+"Hurra, boys! Give way!" shouted Doughby, flourishing a rifle full six
+feet in length. The four oars clipped into the water, and the boat
+flew to the encounter of the deer, who was tranquilly pursuing his
+liquid path.
+
+We were about entering one of those picturesque _spreads_, or bays of
+the Red River, which perhaps no other stream can boast of in such
+abundance, and on so magnificent a scale. The lofty trees and huge
+masses of foliage of the dense forest that covered the left bank, bent
+forward over the water, the dark green of the cypresses, and the
+silver white of the gigantic cotton-trees, casting a bronze-tinted
+shadow upon the dusky red stream, which at that point is full fifteen
+hundred feet broad; the right bank offering a succession of the most
+luxuriant palmetto grounds, with here and there a bean or tulip tree,
+amongst the branches of which innumerable parroquets were chattering
+and bickering. A pleasant breeze swept across from the palmetto
+fields, scarcely sufficient, however, to ruffle the water, which
+flowed tranquilly along, undisturbed save by the paddle of our
+steamer, that caused the huge black logs and tree-trunks floating upon
+the surface, to knock against each other, and heave up their
+extremities like so many porpoises. The steamer had just entered the
+bay when a boat shot out from under the wood on the left bank, and
+greatly increased the romantic character of the scene.
+
+It was a long Indian canoe made out of the hollowed trunk of a cotton
+tree; a many-tined antler was stuck in the prow, and dried legs and
+haunches of venison lay in the fore part of the boat; towards the
+stern sat a young girl, partially enveloped in a striped blanket, but
+naked from the waist upwards, impelling the boat in the direction of
+the deer by long graceful sweeps of her oar; in front of her was a
+squaw of maturer age, performing a like labour. In the centre of the
+canoe were two children, queer guinea-pig-looking little devils, and
+near these lay a man in all the lazy apathy of a redskin on his return
+from on the hunting ground; but towards the stern stood a splendid
+Antinous-like young savage, leaning in an attitude of graceful
+negligence on his rifle, and evidently waiting an opportunity to get a
+blow or a shot at the stag. As soon as these children of the forest
+caught sight of the steamer and of Doughby's boat, they ceased
+rowing, only recommencing when encouraged by some loud hurras, and
+even then visibly taking care to keep as far as possible from the
+fire-ship. It was a picturesque and interesting sight to observe the
+two boats describing a sort of circle on the broad ruddy stream, while
+the steamer rounding to, formed in a manner the base of the operation,
+and cut off the stag's retreat. Presently a shot fired without effect
+from Doughby's boat, drove the beast over towards the canoe. The long
+slender bark darted across the animal's track with the swiftness of an
+arrow, and as it did so, the Indian who was standing up dealt the stag
+a blow that caused it to reel and spin round in the water, and change
+its course for the second time. When I again glanced at the canoe, the
+young Indian had disappeared.
+
+"Here he comes" shouted Doughby, pointing to the deer, which was now
+swimming towards his boat. "Give way, boys! the Indians must learn of
+a Kentucky man how to strike a stag. Give way, I say!"
+
+The noble beast had recovered from the severe blow it had received,
+and had now approached the steamer towards which it cast such a
+supplicating tearful look, that the hearts of the ladies were touched
+with compassion.
+
+"Mr Doughby," cried half a score feminine voices, "spare the poor
+beast! Pray, pray let it go!"
+
+"Spare a stag, ladies! Where did you ever hear of such a thing? Hurra,
+boys!" shouted he, as the boat came up with the deer, and clubbing his
+rifle, he delivered a blow with the but-end that split the stock in
+two, and threw the stunned animal upon the gunwale of the boat. Quick
+as thought, Doughty clutched the antlers with one hand, while with the
+other he reached for the knife which one of his companions held out to
+him. At that moment the deer threw itself on one side with a
+convulsive movement, the boat rocked, Doughby lost his balance, the
+stag, which was now recovering its strength, drew itself violently
+back, and in an instant the Kentuckian was floundering in the water,
+struggling with the deer, to whose horns he held on with the gripe of
+a tiger.
+
+"Hallo, Mister Doughby in the Red River!"
+
+The whole ship was now in an uproar, the ladies screaming, the men
+shouting directions and advice to those in the boat. We began to be
+somewhat anxious as to the result; for although these water hunts are
+by no means uncommon occurrences, they are often dangerous and
+sometimes fatal to the hunter. The deer had been severely stunned and
+hurt, but not killed, by the blow it had received, and it now strove
+fiercely against its powerful opponent, throwing him from side to side
+by violent tossess of its head. Doughby still held on like grim death,
+but his eyes began to roll and stare wildly, his strength was
+evidently diminishing, and he had each moment more difficulty in
+partially controlling the stag's movements, and preventing the furious
+beast from running its antlers into his body. It was in vain that the
+four men in the boat endeavoured to render assistance. Man and beast
+were rolling and twisting about in the river like two water snakes.
+The scene that had at first been interesting had now become painful to
+behold.
+
+"Fire, Parker! Fire, Rolby!" shouted several voices from the steamer
+to the men in the boat.
+
+"Knock the cussed redskin on the head!" was the unintelligible
+rejoinder of one of the latter.
+
+The stag had now got Doughby close to a tree-trunk, against which it
+was making violent efforts to crush him. His life was in imminent
+peril, and a universal cry of horror and alarm burst from the
+spectators. Just then the head of the deer fell on its breast, the
+eyes glazing and the legs flinging out convulsively in the agony of
+death; at the same time, however, Doughby began to sink, and a bright
+streak of blood that rose to the surface of the water, and spread in a
+circle round the combatants, gave reason to fear that the mad
+Kentuckian had received some deadly hurt. At last the men in the boat
+succeeded in getting hold of Doughby and the stag, the former being
+seized by the hair of the head, while his hands still clung to the
+deer's antlers with the desperate grasp of a drowning man. A shout of
+triumph echoed from one end of the steam-boat to the other, and we
+all felt a sensation of relief proportionate to the painful state of
+suspense in which we had been kept.
+
+Doughby sat for a short space doubled up in the bottom of the boat,
+gazing straight before him with a fixed unconscious sort of look. The
+grating of the boat against the side of the steamer seemed to rouse
+him from his apathy, and he slowly ascended the ladder.
+
+"For heaven's sake, Doughby," cried Richards, as the Kentuckian set
+his foot upon deck, "what demon is it that possesses you, and drives
+you to risk your neck at every turn?"
+
+"The devil take you," retorted Doughby, "and your Red River water to
+boot! Brr, brr! d----d bad water your Red River water, say I! No, no,
+talk to me of Mississippi water.[5] If I am to be drowned, it sha'n't
+be in the stinking Red River. I've a taste in my mouth as if I had
+swallowed saltpetre and sulphur, with a dash of prussic acid. But tell
+me," cried he to the passengers and sailors by whom he was surrounded,
+"who gave him his settler? The deer, I mean. Who finished him?"
+
+"Who?" repeated every body, "why, who but yourself, Mister Doughby?"
+
+"I!" replied Doughby, shaking his head, "I had something else to do
+besides knifing the stag. No, no, I had plenty to think of to keep
+away from the tree-trunk. Besides, I let the knife fall at the very
+moment the beast dragged me out of the boat. But see there, boys!"
+added he, pointing to the deer, which was at this moment hoisted upon
+deck.
+
+The animal had a deep knife wound in the belly, and the tendons of the
+hind legs were cut right across.
+
+"That's the Indian's handiwork," said Doughby.
+
+"What Indian?" cried we all.
+
+"The Indian whom Rolby was going to knock on the head."
+
+"I thought he wanted to chouse us out of the deer," said Rolby; "I saw
+his bacon-face appear for a minute from behind the tree-trunk, and at
+first I took it for a log, but I soon saw it was a redskin. It
+wouldn't have been a great harm if I had sent a bit of lead through
+him. What business has an Injun to meddle, when gentlemen"----
+
+"No great harm!" interrupted Doughby impatiently. "The Indian, I can
+tell you----d'ye hear? Ralph Doughby tells you----has more real blood
+in his little finger than ten such leather-chopped fellows as yourself
+in their whole bodies, making all allowance for your white hide and
+your citizenship, neither of which, by the way, are much better than
+they should be. Ten times more, I tell you, and, if you don't believe
+it, I'll let you know it. A fine fellow he is, that redskin. He saw
+that I was at a pinch, and he came to help me when none of my own
+friends were able. And now, see yonder, there he stands in his canoe
+again, just as if he had done nothing but the most natural thing in
+the world. Chouse us out of the deer, say ye; and who had a right to
+hinder him if he had? The beast was bred in his woods as well as ours;
+a fair field and no favour is our motto in old Kentuck. I tell you the
+Indian is a brave redskin, and the stag is his; but I'll buy it of
+him. Hallo, captain! a dozen bottles of rum into the boat! Howard,
+Richards, let me have half a dozen dollars, silver dollars, d'ye hear?
+I'll pay the Indian a visit on board his canoe, and thank him as he
+ought to be thanked."
+
+No sooner said than done. The captain, however unwilling to lose any
+more time, could not resist the impetuosity of the good-natured
+scatterbrain, who sprang, dripping wet as he was, into the boat, a
+bottle in each hand, and a friendly hurra upon his lips. The Indians
+at first seemed alarmed and doubtful as to his intentions; but the
+signs and words of peace and encouragement that were given, and
+shouted to them from all sides, and above all, the sight of the
+bottles, soon removed their fears. In another minute or two we saw
+Doughby in their canoe, shaking hands with them, and putting one of
+the bottles to his mouth. A little more, and I believe they would all,
+men, women, and children, have begun the war-dance in the canoe, so
+delighted were they with the magnificent present of the rum and
+dollars. As it was, they shook and mauled Doughby till he was fain to
+jump back into his boat, and escape as well as he could from their
+wild caresses and demonstrative gratitude.
+
+But we have been nearly twelve hours on the water, and the Alexandria
+is a noted fast steamer. Our course has lain for some time between
+banks covered with gigantic forests of live oak, cotton, bean, and
+cypress trees, with here and there a palmetto field, and on the north
+shore an occasional plantation, for the most part a mere log-hut, with
+a strip of tobacco, cotton, or Indian corn. We have seen numerous
+deer, who, on the appearance of our steamer, gallop back into the
+woods--swans, cranes, geese, and ducks, wild pigeons, turkeys, and
+alligators, are there by thousands. We now enter a broad part of the
+river, and are gliding along in front of a wide clearing, some half
+mile long, and surrounded by colossal evergreen oaks; a snug-looking
+house of greenish-white colour stands in the middle of the plantation,
+with orange gardens--that are to be--laid out and enclosed in front of
+it; one enormous live oak, that looks as if it had stood there since
+the flood, spreading its knotty limbs over the eastern side of the
+habitation. The windows on the balconies are open, the Venetian blinds
+drawn up, the sinking sun throws its mellow rays over the whole
+peaceful and pleasant scene. And see there! We are expected: a small
+variegated ball flies up to the top of the lightning conductor, and
+the banner of our Union flutters out, displaying its thirteen stripes
+and twenty-four stars, and the white American eagle, the thunder of
+Jupiter and the symbols of peace in his talons. At the same moment,
+Plato and Tully, two of my negroes, come rushing like demented
+creatures out of the house, one with a stick in his hand, the other
+bearing a pan of hot coals. They are closely pursued by Bangor, who
+seems disposed to dispute Tully's title to the embers. In the struggle
+the coals fly in every direction; of a surety, the dingy rascals will
+burn my house before my eyes. Now comes Philip, a fourth negro, and
+tries to snatch the stick from Plato's hand; but the latter is on his
+guard, and fetches his adversary a wipe over the pate, that snaps the
+stick--a tolerably thick one, by the way--in two. Both retreat a short
+distance, and lowering their heads like a couple of angry steers, run
+full tilt against each other, with force that would fracture any
+skulls except African ones. Once, twice, three times--at the third
+encounter, Plato the sage bites the dust before the hero of Macedon.
+Confound the fellows! My companions are laughing fit to split
+themselves, but I see nothing to laugh at. I shall have them in
+hospital for the next ten days. Tully, however, has picked up the pan
+and the embers, and is rushing towards a flag-staff near the shore,
+from which the Louisianian flag is waving. I see now what they are all
+at. They have brought down the Wasp and the Scorpion from on Menou's
+plantation, two four-pounders so named, which were taken last year on
+board a Porto Rico pirate, and which my father-in-law bought.
+Boum--boum--and at the sound the whole black population of the
+plantation comes flocking to the shore, capering and jumping like so
+many opera-dancers, only not quite so gracefully, and shouting
+out--"Massa come; hurra, massa come! Massa maum bring; hurra, massa!"
+and manifesting a joy that is probably rendered more lively by the
+hopes of an extra ration of rum and salt-fish. And now Monsieur Menou
+and his son hurry down to receive us; the steamer stops, the plank is
+thrown across, and amidst shaking of hands, and farewells, and good
+wishes, our party hurries on shore. Thank heaven! we are home, and
+settled at last.
+
+
+
+
+BORODINO.--AN ODE.
+
+  STROPHE.
+
+    Weep for the _living_! mourn no more
+    Thy children slain on Moskwa's shore,
+  Cut off from evil! want, and anguish,
+      And care, for ever brooding and in vain;
+  No more to be beguiled! no more to languish
+    Under the yoke of labour and of pain!
+    Their doom of future joy or woe
+    For good or evil done below,
+  The Judge of all the earth will order rightly!
+    Flee winding error through the flowery way,
+  To daily follow truth! to ponder nightly
+    On time, and death, and judgment, nearer day by day!
+  Bewail thy bane, deluded France,
+    Vain-glory, overweening pride,
+  And harrying earth with eagle glance,
+    Ambition, frantic homicide!
+  Lament, of all that armed throng
+    How few may reach their native land!
+  By war and tempest to be borne along,
+    To strew, like leaves, the Scythian strand?
+  Before Jehovah who can stand?
+    His path in evil hour the dragon cross'd!
+  He casteth forth his ice! at his command
+    The deep is frozen!--all is lost!
+  For who, great God, is able to abide thy frost?
+
+
+  EPODE.
+
+  Elate of heart, and wild of eye,
+  Crested horror hurtles by;
+  Myriads, hurrying north and east,
+  Gather round the funeral feast!
+  From lands remote, beyond the Rhine,
+  Running o'er with oil and wine,
+  Wide-waving over hill and plain,
+  Herbage green, and yellow grain;
+  From Touraine's smooth irriguous strand,
+  Garden of a fruitful land,
+  To thy dominion, haughty Rhone,
+  Leaping from thy craggy throne;
+  From Alp and Apennine to where
+  Gleam the Pyrenees in air;
+  From pastoral vales and piny woods,
+  Rocks and lakes and mountain-floods,
+  The warriors come, in armed might
+  Careering, careless of the right!
+  Their leader he who sternly bade
+  Freedom fall; and glory fade,
+  The scourge of nations ripe for ruin,
+  Planning oft their own undoing!
+  But who in yonder swarming host
+  Locust-like from coast to coast,
+  Reluctant move, an alien few,
+  Sullen, fierce, of sombre hue,
+  Who, forced unhallow'd arms to bear,
+  Mutter to the moaning air,
+  Whose curses on the welkin cast
+  Edge the keen and icy blast!
+  Iberia, sorrow bade thee nurse
+  Those who now the tyrant curse,
+  Whose wrongs for vengeance cry aloud!
+  Lo, the coming of a cloud!
+  To burst in wrath, and sweep away
+  Light as chaff the firm array!
+  To rack with pain, or lull to rest
+  Both oppressor and oppress'd.
+
+
+  ANTISTROPHE.
+
+    Is it the wind from tower to tower
+    Low-murmuring at midnight hour?
+  Athwart the darkness light is stealing,
+    Portentous, red with unrelenting ire,
+  Inhuman deeds, and secrets dark revealing!
+    Ye guilty, who may quench the kindled fire!
+    Fall, city of the Czars, to rise
+    Ennobled by self-sacrifice,
+  Than tower and temple higher and more holy!
+    The wilful king appointed o'er mankind
+  To plague the lofty heart, and prove the lowly,
+    Is fled!--Avenger, mount the chariot of the wind!
+      Be thine, to guide the rapid scythe,
+    To blind with snow the frozen sun,
+      Against th' invader doomed to writhe,
+  To rouse the Tartar, Russ, and Hun!
+  Bid terror to the battle ride!
+  Indignant honour, burning shame,
+  Revenge, and hate, and patriotic pride!
+  But not the quick unerring aim
+  Of volley'd thunder winged with flame,
+  Nor famine keener than the bird of prey,
+      Nor death--avail the hard of heart to tame!
+      Blow wind, and pierce the dire array,
+  Flung, drifted by thy breath, athwart the frozen way!
+
+
+  EPODE.
+
+    Before the blast as flakes of snow
+    Drive blindly, reeling to and fro,
+    Or down the river black and deep
+    Melt--so the mighty sink to sleep!
+    Like Asshur, never more to boast!
+    Or Pharaoh, sunk with all his host!
+    So perish who would trample down
+    The rights of freedom, for renown!
+    So fall, who born and nurtured free
+    Adore the proud on bended knee!
+    Roll, Beresina, 'neath the bridge
+    Of death! rise Belgium's fatal ridge!
+    Rise, lonely rock in a wide ocean,
+  To curb each haughty mad emotion!
+  To prove, while force and genius fail,
+  That truth is great, and will prevail!
+
+    The hour is coming--seize the hour!
+  Divide the spoil, the prey devour!
+  Howl o'er the dead and dying, cry
+  All ye that raven earth and sky!
+  With beak and talon rend the prey,
+  Track carnage on her gory way,
+  To chide o'er many a gleamy bone
+  The moon, or with the wind to moan!
+  Benumb'd with cold, by torture wrung,
+  To winter leave the famine-clung,
+  O thou for whom they toil and bleed,
+  Deserted in their utmost need!
+  Hear, hear them faithful unto death
+  Invoke thee with the fleeting breath,
+  And feel (for human still thou art)
+  Ruth touch that adamantine heart!
+  Survive the storm and battle-shock,
+  To linger on th' Atlantic rock!
+
+    From ghastly dream, from death-like trance
+  Awake to woe, devoted France!
+  To care and trouble, toil and pain,
+  Till glory be acknowledged vain,
+  And martial pomp a mere parade,
+  And war, the bravo's bloody trade!
+  A beacon o'er the tide of time
+  Be thou, to point the wreck of crime!
+  The spoiler spoil'd, from empire hurl'd,
+  The dread and pity of the world!
+
+    O then, by tribulation tried,
+  Abjuring envy, hate, and pride,
+  Warn'd of the dying hour foretold
+  Of earth and heaven together roll'd,
+  Revering each prophetic sign
+  Of judgment and of love divine,
+  Bow down, and hide thee in the dust,
+  And own the retribution just;
+  So may contrition, prayer, and praise,
+  Preserve thee in the latter days!
+
+  E. PEEL.
+
+
+
+
+A RAMBLE IN MONTENEGRO.
+
+
+Few nations of Europe have been less known than the Montenegrians, and
+the name even of their country is seldom found on maps.[6] Surrounded
+by great empires, they have always preserved the independence of their
+rugged mountains, and have even succeeded in wresting several rich
+plains from the sway of Turkey. With this power hostilities seldom
+cease; but such is the system with which her resources are managed,
+that while the Montenegrians are at peace with one pasha, they are
+enabled to concentrate their force against another--and all the while
+the Sublime Porte does not condescend to interfere. Not many years
+ago, they possessed the reputation of being a horde of robbers; and,
+in all probability, the pilgrim who ventured among them would have
+returned, if at all, as shirtless as themselves. But the breath of the
+spirit of the age, though faintly wafted to their mountains, has
+softened something of their character, without destroying in the least
+their independence or nationality. Bold, hardy, and free, ready and
+eager for the foray and the fray, a stranger is now as safe among them
+as in any part of her Majesty's kingdom.
+
+Whoever wishes to make the acquaintance of this primitive people, will
+do well to embark on board the Austrian Lloyd's Company's steamer from
+Trieste to Cattaro. They will be well accommodated, at reasonable
+charges, and have an opportunity of seeing the principal towns of
+Dalmatia, a country little frequented by travellers. Such was the case
+with ourselves, (an English lady and gentleman,) who quitted Trieste
+on the 5th of November 1843. The voyage commenced pleasantly, and we
+had the good-luck to have the ladies' cabin to ourselves. The captain
+was a very gentlemanlike person, the steward attentive, and the
+passengers full of politeness. Zara, the capital of Dalmatia, where we
+stopped a day and a night, is a walled town of moderate extent, said
+to contain 8000 inhabitants. It possesses some antiquities. Over the
+gates of this, and all other of the Dalmatian seaports, the Lions of
+Saint Mark yet remain. It is best known for the excellence of its
+_rosoglio_. The next town we arrived at was Sebenico, now much
+decayed, and Spalatro, the most interesting of all, where the badness
+of the weather, during the short time we stayed, prevented our landing
+to see the extensive Roman remains. After anchoring off Curzola for a
+night, we came to Ragusa, where we stopped two days. At Zara and
+Sebenico we had opportunities of seeing the Morlaccian race. These are
+the rural inhabitants of Dalmatia, speaking a Sclavonic dialect, while
+in the towns they pride themselves on their Venetian origin and
+language. Amongst these peasants were the noblest specimens of the
+human kind I have ever seen. Of stature almost gigantic, and of the
+amplest development of chest, their symmetry of limb and elasticity of
+step would have called forth notice in a Scottish Highlander. Nor
+could a somewhat manifest omission to cares of the toilet disguise
+complexion and features almost faultless, and in which an expression
+of frankness and good-nature left one nothing to fear from their armed
+numbers. I speak not of a few among a crowd, but of nearly all I saw.
+It was from amongst these that the French, during their occupation,
+chose their finest grenadiers; but at present, in consequence of the
+scantiness of the population, the humanity of the Austrian government
+has suspended all conscription. Still it is possible, that, in the
+hour of danger, Austria might profit more from the devoted loyalty of
+this armed and stalwart peasantry, than if her ranks were filled with
+its forced recruits. Their dress consists of a coarse brown jacket,
+and a waistcoat of red cloth, both ornamented on the edges, and made
+to sit close on the shoulders, without any collar, and which
+advantageously display their well put on head and neck. They wear a
+small red skull-cap, round at top; but, when married, they usually
+surround this with a white turban. Their pantaloons are of blue, and
+fit close from the knee to the ankle, and below they wear the
+_opunka_--a species of sandal, made of sheepskin, and bound with
+thongs, which, as may be seen from their elastic step and upright
+carriage, are well fitted to their country; round their waist is a red
+sash, and in front a leather belt, in which is placed a yataghan and a
+smaller knife, and exhibiting usually the handsome pommels of silver
+or brass-mounted pistols. Over all is a long brown cloak, open in
+front, and fastening over the chest, forming a dress which, with their
+free and martial bearing, gives them the appearance of ready-made
+soldiers. The women are, comparatively, inferior to the men; but their
+countenances are cheerful, and a white napkin gracefully put on the
+head, had a very classical appearance. For the rest, they wore a
+coarse shirt--over that a coarser, without arms, neither coming much
+below the knee--a party-coloured apron and stockings, with opunkas,
+like the men. Near Zara is a small colony of Albanians, who still
+retain their national manners and dress, though settled time out of
+mind.
+
+Ragusa--of old a republic, with its doge and senate--is a city whose
+glory has departed. This little state--consisting of the town, the
+promontory of Sabioncello, the island of Melida, with a few smaller
+ones--numbering about forty thousand inhabitants, had never been
+subject by Venice, and was governed on the most aristocratic
+principles. At the time of the late war, the inhabitants of the city
+owned about four hundred large vessels--and observing the profiting by
+neutrality, they traded every where, and acquired great wealth. But
+they were not destined to escape the storm which overthrew so many
+mightier states. In 1809 they became compulsory allies of the French.
+Their nominal independence lasted about two years longer. During the
+time the French occupied it, the city was attacked by the combined
+forces of the Russians and Montenegrians; the former by sea, while the
+latter conducted the operations on land. Luckily they failed to take
+it; but they burned and destroyed, without exception, every one of the
+numerous villas by which it was surrounded. Since the loss of her
+independence, the trade of Ragusa has ceased, and her wealth has
+departed; while many of her once haughty nobility have no other
+subsistence than a scanty pension, which the bounty of the government
+affords them. The town is interesting, and some of its buildings
+ancient and peculiar, though hardly to be called handsome--the scale
+being small. Of the country houses desolated by the Montenegrians, not
+one in twenty has been repaired; and they remain roofless and
+blackened, a lasting memorial of the ferocity of that people. The
+neighbourhood is beautiful, and appears more so after the stony
+desolation which the rest of Dalmatia exhibits. Though the houses
+still remain in ruins, the gardens continue to be cultivated. Olives,
+vines, figs, and carruba trees grow in them, and the tops of the hills
+are covered with stone pines and delightful evergreens, of heaths,
+junipers, cypress, and other plants, which at home we coax to grow in
+our greenhouses.
+
+Quitting Ragusa, after having been once driven back by the badness of
+the weather, we at length entered the Bocca of Cattaro, after a
+passage of about nine hours. Both in its general and immediate
+position, few spots can be imagined so cut off from the rest of the
+world as Cattaro. Standing close on the sea, with stupendous mountains
+overhanging it on each side, it is deprived even of the light of the
+sun for the greater part of the day; and, towards the end of
+November--this is no boon. By land the Dalmatian coast-road (the only
+one, I believe, in the country) passes through it, but it would prove
+indifferent, I should think, to any but the pedestrian; and there is
+also the mountain-path, of three hours' ascent, which leads into
+Montenegro, and issues up from the gates of the town in a zigzag form,
+till it appears lost in the clouds. Any one wishing to quit Cattaro,
+has indeed, like the country waiter in England, but "three desperate
+alternatives." He must wait for the next steamer, a whole month if in
+winter, and return the way he came. Or he may attempt to pass through
+Albania to Greece or the islands, which would in all likelihood prove
+the last attempt he would ever make. Or he may hire one of the country
+_trabacolos_ to take him where he likes. They are neither fast in
+their sailing nor luxurious in their accommodation--the price being
+any thing but cheap. In one thing the traveller has no difficulty,
+which is to discover the first hotel, as their number is strictly
+limited. Consequently in about half an hour, during which the steamer
+had taken her departure, we found ourselves the inmates of the
+principal _salon_ in the Locanda della Corona. It is ever a comfort,
+when expectation is not at its highest, to find things better; and
+happy the mind that seeks it!
+
+The house was not very dirty, the landlady was full of kindness, and
+not destitute of good looks. After her first paroxysms of welcome and
+surprise had passed, then succeeded admiration, then a general
+presentation to all friends and relations of the family that could be
+summoned on a short notice, with many fervent blessings and prayers
+for our welfare, and at length, which pleased us as much as any thing,
+a very eatable dinner. During that day, and part of the ensuing week,
+I improved my acquaintance with Cattaro--an acquaintance which, before
+final separation, became very intimate indeed. It contains several
+small squares or places, with some churches and other public
+buildings. There is a respectable _café_, which is frequented by the
+officers of the garrison, and on the whole it is rather a neat little
+town. The population may be about three thousand. It is fortified,
+having two gates to the land and one to the sea. Perched above, at a
+great height, is the castle, said to be of considerable strength. In
+the late war Cattaro was taken from the French by Sir William Hoste,
+Bart., and afterwards garrisoned by the _Vladika_ of Montenegro, since
+which time an Englishman has hardly been seen by the people within
+their gates. Consequently their ideas of robbing the stranger are
+faint and barbarous; here, as throughout Dalmatia, should you give a
+man money, and the sum be not even more than twice the value of the
+obligation, the poor ignoramus is delighted, and thanks and blesses
+you most fervently. The climate of Cattaro is not considered healthy.
+The inhabitants die of consumption in the winter, and fever in the
+summer, and they generally have a sickly appearance. There are smart
+silversmith shops, and many ornaments are wrought with much neatness.
+There are several also devoted to the sale of arms, as the Montenegrians
+here buy and repair the principal weapons they use. Pistols, guns, and
+yataghans are mounted in silver and mother-of-pearl, coral and other
+stones, with skill and taste. The population are as remote in
+appearance from that of any town in western Europe, as in the most
+primitive part of the East. The town's-people wear a black jacket of
+cloth or velvet, with silver basket buttons, a small cap, and wide
+drawers of the same cloth, with black stockings or high boots, and a
+red sash. The costumes of some of the villages along the shores of the
+Bocca are very pretty. The women from Dulcinea wear a body petticoat
+and jacket of scarlet, with silver buttons and buckles, and a white
+covering tastefully enfolding the head and shoulders. The peasantry to
+the south wear the Montenegrian dress; the poorer ones, in extreme
+scantiness. These profess, like that people, the tenets of the Greek
+church, and in appearance and dialect do not differ from them. A
+bolder look, however, and an air of independence, usually mark the
+Montenegrian. Between Cattaro and Montenegro there is no quarantine or
+restriction of intercourse. Without the latter the former would cease
+to exist--without the former life would be burdensome in Montenegro.
+Three times a-week a bazar is held outside each of the land gates, to
+which the Montenegrians descend, themselves loaded with arms and
+independence, and their women and mules with the richest products of
+their country. Of these, mutton hams of peculiar excellence, potatoes
+that cannot be imitated in these parts, salt fish from the lake of
+Scutari, (to be caught, I fear, no more,) a root which looks yellow,
+and dyes to match, with hides, poultry, and pigs, form the principal.
+One of the chief articles which they seek is salt, with which some of
+the above luxuries are compounded. This being a government monopoly,
+is sold at the office in the town, and an animated scene takes place
+on its opening, each striving to be served first, and, as a matter of
+course, all speaking at once.
+
+Having in a few days almost exhausted the varieties of Cattaro, and
+the weather assuming a more favourable aspect, it became time to
+execute our intended journey up the mountain. Times were stirring in
+Montenegro. The nation was at war with two pashas, and the Vladika had
+taken the field in person. Rumours were numerous; we could not have
+come at a better time, and our trip promised to be one of interest.
+His highness's postmaster, a gigantic warrior,[7] waited on us to
+furnish mules and guides. Cesarea Petrarca, gentleman, of Cattaro,
+hairdresser, auctioneer, and appraiser, ex-courier, formerly _chef de
+cuisine_ to the Vladika--an "_homme capable_," as he not unaptly
+styled himself, attended us to cook and interpret; and we started for
+Cettigna on the 17th of November, about nine o'clock. I may here say a
+few words concerning the state of politics then existing in
+Montenegro. For the last half century or more, under the auspices of
+the late revered bishop, so highly sainted in soul,[8] and so
+beautifully preserved in body, the Montenegrians, backed secretly by
+an influential power in the north, have been pursuing a system of
+territorial encroachment as well as internal improvement. Anciently
+their domain consisted of but a range of gloomy and barren rocks,
+which would alike oppose the footsteps and extinguish the hopes of the
+invader; since which various fertile _pianuras_ have been gained on
+the side of Herzigovina and Bosnia. In 1781 Kara Mahmoot, hereditary
+bey of Scutari, marched with a great army into Montenegro. Advancing
+towards Cettigna, he was attacked in a narrow defile by the Vladika.
+This was a great day for Montenegro. The Albanians were utterly
+routed, and Black Mahmoot, being taken prisoner, surrendered his glory
+and his head to his priestly conqueror, and it remains there among the
+trophies of the Episcopal dwelling. The present Vladika is not
+unworthy of his martial uncle. He is truly the flower of the house of
+Petrowitch. On his first arrival from St Petersburg to assume the
+government, his appearance was that of a Frank[9] gentleman, and his
+habits those of a priest; but he discovered before long that the dress
+of his native mountains better became his manly form, while the
+troubles in which his state was so constantly engaged, soon made him
+exchange the crosier for the sword, and become as ardent a warrior as
+his predecessor. Ever since the beginning of the summer, war had been
+waged with Osman Pasha of Mostar, concerning a disputed territory. On
+one occasion the opposed forces were in sight for a week. The
+Montenegrians consisted of seven thousand foot--the Turks (I write
+according to my information) of forty thousand horse. (!) Every day
+they fought, sometimes for two, sometimes four hours and upwards, as
+fancy dictated. About fifty persons had been more or less injured in
+this pastime, but their ardour was rather increasing than diminishing,
+when the pasha of Scutari, without notice or warning, seized on the
+islands of Vranina and Lessandro, at the head of the lake of Scutari.
+The Montenegrians had there a post of about twenty men, but they were
+overpowered, several killed, and the rest sent captive to Scutari.
+Not satisfied with this, he fortified Lessandro in such a manner that
+no Montenegrian could fish in the lake with any kind of pleasure or
+comfort. This was a vital blow. Visions of the market of Cattaro rose
+before the eyes of the nation. Peace with Osman Pasha was concluded at
+any sacrifice, and the Vladika instantly hastened to concentrate his
+energies toward the recovery of the lost islands.
+
+Our party consisted of ourselves and two mules, one being for the
+luggage--Cesarea Petrarca, in the full pride of office, and armed for
+our protection with a very small sword and a very small gun--a woman
+who had charge of the mules--and Spiro Martinowitch, an old and
+respectable Montenegrian, with Milo his son, to act as guides. We
+began the ascent about ten o'clock. Close outside the walls was
+pointed out a village, the residence of a race of valiant butchers,
+who have ever been at feud with the Montenegrians, by whom their
+numbers have been much reduced. A tale was related of three having
+defended themselves against four hundred of the enemy. After following
+the steep but otherwise good road for about two hours, we arrived at a
+stone with different species of eagles on two sides,[10] which marks
+the boundary of the respective territories. The road instantly
+degenerates into an indifferent mule-track. It took another hour to
+gain the principal ascent, then, pursuing our way along the high land,
+we reached a small hamlet, where we stopped a few minutes to comfort
+ourselves with what could be procured. The path from hence to Cettigna
+passes over a country which, at any season, must appear barren and
+inhospitable. The peaks of the highest mountains in Montenegro rise
+immediately above it. The ground was now covered with about an inch of
+snow, and the air extremely cold. A few stunted bushes of beech
+underwood, which serves for fuel, seemed to be the only vegetation.
+Every thing else, grey rocks, sharp and rugged, to the smallest
+fragment. We passed on our way the village of Negusi, the paternal
+seat of the family of Petrowitch. Here the present Vladika was born,
+in a mansion which was pointed out to us. It is a long-shaped hut,
+built of loose stones, without windows or upper story. A somewhat
+better dwelling is the property of the bishop's uncle, who governs the
+village and adjacent district. Passing on by the hamlets of Bayitzi
+and Donikrai, we arrived at the Episcopal residence about half-past
+five in the evening, and immediately took up our quarters in the first
+hotel. I will not say that the decorations of the chief apartment were
+in the highest style of magnificence; but the bed was clean, and to
+find any thing clean in these parts may be considered a victory
+gained. Our hostess was from Cattaro, the seat of every refinement to
+the ideas of a Montenegrian; and our host was a kind civil man,
+speaking both French and Italian, and had been formerly engaged in the
+great war. For the present he found it convenient to remain in
+Montenegro, having been lately concerned in an "unfortunate affair"
+near Budua, where certain tenements were harried and burned. Cattaro,
+therefore, and its delights, were denied him for the present; but it
+was hoped that the temporary bad odour would soon pass away. The
+village was nearly deserted; few remained that night in Cettigna but
+ancient men. The Vladika was on and away. He had departed that
+morning, his brother remaining to take charge of the place. To-morrow
+the assault of the fortress was to commence, or, some said, it had
+already begun. We felt we had arrived at a good moment, and were
+prepared to hasten in the morning to the scene of action, thirsting
+with excitement. It was thought not unlikely that a battle might take
+place. The evening was cold and wet, and we therefore took up our
+position over the kitchen fire. In these regions this is placed in the
+middle of the room, and the smoke gets out how it can, or not at all.
+A peculiar sensation in the eyes will present itself to the mind as
+the result of such an arrangement. The kitchen, however, besides being
+the warmest, was by far the gayest place. Here we watched our dinner
+cooked, and ate it afterwards; heard of wars and rumours of wars;
+listened to heroic ballads, chanted by a warrior, and accompanied by a
+species of one-stringed fiddle; and made the acquaintance of two very
+fashionable young men. One was the bishop's nephew, a handsome lad
+about seventeen, who was, on account of his youth, very shy and
+modest, and acted as _cavaliero servente_ to the kitchen-maid. The
+other was a remarkably good-looking and well-dressed young man, whom I
+had observed on entering the place, and set down to be somebody. He
+was, alas! but a tailor from Bosnia, who had come on a speculation to
+Cettigna. A barren profession his, where fashions remain the same
+summer and winter, and a suit lasts till it drops off. He was an
+accomplished musician, as well, on the one-stringed instrument;
+boasted of a white pocket-handkerchief, and his Italian, added to our
+Servian, made up about twelve words in common; so that the evening
+passed very sociably, and we retired to rest full of hope for the
+morrow. But when that morrow came, one melancholy prospect of rain and
+mist presented itself. The white clouds hung on the mountain-tops
+immediately above. Not a breath of wind was stirring, and the rain
+descended in torrents. There seemed not a chance of its clearing, nor
+did it during the whole day. It was not, therefore, considered prudent
+to proceed, where no bed was to be found, and where the chance of even
+shelter was any thing but certain. Add to which, my companion in arms
+was taken with a violent cold; so we felt obliged to restrain our
+military ardour for one day, and proceeded to seek such recreation as
+the metropolis afforded. Cettigna, the seat of the government of
+Montenegro, and residence of the Vladika, is yet a city of no great
+magnitude. It is situated prettily enough on a little plain, around
+which the rocky summits of the mountains rise in the form of an
+amphitheatre; not to any great height, however--the elevation of the
+plain itself being very great. The most ancient building, indeed the
+only one which seems not to have been erected within these few years,
+is the monastery. This was till very lately the residence of the
+Vladika and his predecessors, and it was here the King of Saxony
+lodged when he visited Montenegro in 1836.[11] It is situated on the
+side of the rocks which bound the plain, and consists of several
+buildings of different periods joined together. The oldest has two
+rows of arched passages, or cloisters, in front, one above the other.
+Behind the convent, a wall runs up the hill, and encloses a small
+circuit of rocky ground. The whole is in a very uncertain state of
+repair. On the summit of a small rock immediately above, is a round
+tower, built apparently for ornament at no very ancient date, but
+never finished or roofed. It does not owe its decorations to the hand
+of the architect. They are of a rarer kind. From the ends of poles
+fastened into the top of the wall, two or three dozen heads, in all
+stages of decay, overlook the residence of a Christian bishop. These
+are Turks or Albanians who have fallen in different encounters, or
+possibly in cold blood, as the Montenegrians never spare the life of a
+prisoner. It was with somewhat doubtful feelings that I contemplated
+these trophies. Around, the earth was strewed with skulls and other
+relics of humanity. It was said that no head had been put up for
+nearly two years. Certain it is, that the Lord Vladika did _not_ cause
+to be placed there the heads of eighteen Turkish commissioners, who,
+in the August previous, entered Montenegro to discuss a boundary
+question. But why should I tell tales? I was hospitably received, and
+treated, me and mine, with civility and kindness, not only by the
+Vladika, but by every individual I met, and returned with my head
+undisturbed by the trip. Some of the countenances still bore traces of
+good looks, though withered by the sun and storm of years. It was a
+severe test for beauty; but the head of one young man certainly stood
+the trial. Fine features, of a cast frequently seen towards the north
+of Albania, and a set of the best teeth, (this is very general,)
+showed that he might have once been more prosperous in love than he
+proved to be in war. I thought of a relic, and took up a skull, the
+best I could find, but it was full of red earth, and seemed damp and
+unpleasant; so I put it down again. I next discovered a beautiful
+tooth; this would have surpassed the former in elegance and
+convenience, but I fancied it not either, and came away, trusting to
+my mind for a remembrance of the spot. From hence I made a sketch of
+the present residence of the bishop, the second among the remarkable
+edifices of Cettigna and its environs. It was built within these five
+years, under the auspices of no less than my trusty attendant
+Petrarca. The style is not, strictly speaking, imposing. Perhaps this
+arose from suggestions of economy, or possibly from the mind of the
+architect being at that moment unprepared with any other. Simplicity
+in design and execution characterize it throughout. It consists of a
+long single building of one low story, containing two rows of about
+twenty windows on each side. There is a door in the middle, and at
+each end a small wing placed crosswise, and a very little higher than
+the rest, containing a window above and a door below. Both before and
+behind, a large court is enclosed by a low wall of loose stones, with
+little turrets at the corners, and two doorways in the principal. In
+the front court are some old brass and iron cannon, lying
+dismounted--trophies of Turkish war. Behind is an attempted kitchen
+garden. The remainder of Cettigna is small, hardly worth
+mentioning--six or seven houses with an upper floor, and about twice
+as many ordinary huts. This forms the metropolis of Montenegro. But
+small as it is, I doubt if there be a bigger village in the country,
+the population, though sufficiently numerous, dwelling in small
+scattered hamlets. The better houses act as hostelries when called on,
+which may be the case when Parliament is sitting; but apart from the
+bishop's officials and retainers, the place does not probably contain
+a hundred souls. It being now noon, and the rain unabated, we
+determined to see all the sights of the city. His highness's residence
+was first visited. It contains the Chamber of Deputies, a printing
+establishment, and various apartments for the accommodation of friends
+and relatives. Entering one of these we found the Vladika's brother,
+whom I have previously alluded to, and had the honour of a
+presentation. He is a very ordinary-looking personage; and, as the
+powers of language were wanting to express our feelings, we soon took
+leave. The bishop's rooms for public and private reception, consist of
+a billiard-room no bigger than is necessary for the due performance of
+the game, at which he is a great adept, a small anteroom and bedroom.
+His valet and chamberlain, a well-dressed Montenegrian, did the
+honours. In the billiard-room the walls are hung with arms, though
+some of these were now absent on service. I observed some fine Turkish
+swords, some of an ancient date, presents to different Vladikas; some
+Albanian daggers, straight, with a triangular blade, resembling the
+ancient Venetian _misericordes_; and a handsomely mounted and antique
+Servian sword, the blade with the wolf-mark, so well known in the
+Highlands and other parts of Europe. There were some handsome
+fire-arms; and, among others, a splendid pipe lately presented by
+Osman Pasha of Mostar. In the anteroom I remarked with pleasure a
+small three-legged stand, with a basin and towel; and I have heard
+that other contrivances for the purification of the Episcopal person
+are not wanting, though no such met my eye. In the bedroom, where the
+odour of tobacco still remained unmitigated, was a cabinet, which,
+when opened, displayed objects well worthy the attention of the next
+pasha who may visit Cettigna. Russian orders and snuff-boxes
+uncountable, set in the choicest brilliants; presents from the
+Emperors of Austria of no mean value; a remembrance or two of the King
+of Saxony, &c. &c. All these were opened by the _cameriere_ to our
+free inspection; but not for this, nor the trouble we afterwards gave
+him when exhibiting the sacerdotal robes, keeping him above half the
+day, would he accept the smallest remuneration. This completed the
+public rooms, (his highness is reported on occasions to give grand
+entertainments, but the whereabouts was not manifest,) and we
+proceeded to the ancient convent. This, formerly the Episcopal
+dwelling, is still the residence of the chief officials attached to
+the Vladika. The first among these is the vicar--(his other avocations
+having only permitted the Vladika to officiate on two occasions)--"no
+baron or squire or knight of the shire," &c. Truly on this occasion
+the holy father had not been unmindful of himself; and, considering
+the early hour and dreary state of the weather; was as jovial as the
+heart could desire. A peculiar leer and frequent ebullitions of
+laughter, from mysterious causes, showed the frame of mind he was in.
+After coffee, and a glass of aniseed brandy, we viewed his priestly
+robes, which were of cloth of gold and very handsome. We then
+proceeded to make the acquaintance of the other officials, going the
+round of the convent. We were most cordially received; indeed, we
+appeared to be a godsend to these poor people. There was a Dalmatian
+schoolmaster, a very intelligent young man, who superintended the
+branch of national education; his highness's secretary, an Italian;
+and a woman from Cattaro, the wife of another now absent at the camp,
+and the only example of female aristocracy in Montenegro. At the
+apartment of each of the inmates, coffee, invariably excellent, and
+glasses of brandy, were handed round. These the holy personage in our
+company always emptied to the uttermost, and then would romp and
+wrestle with the schoolmaster, and perform all kinds of frolics. He
+was a Hungarian by birth. When our German or his Italian respectively
+failed, then Latin assisted our communications; and, what with the wet
+weather and the coffee, we all became very sociable and chatty. After
+an hour or two so spent, we took our way to the chapel. It is very
+small; not capable, I should say, of accommodating above twenty or
+thirty persons. There, embalmed, are the remains of the late Vladika.
+The vicar removed the lid of the coffin, and he there appeared attired
+in full canonicals. His face, however, was hidden, and the covering
+was not removed. The limbs appeared to be much shrunk. The holy man
+took the hand of the deceased, and, kissing it with the most solemn
+devotion, burst into a wild laugh, and closed the lid. A small trifle
+_pro salute animæ_ was expected in a box adjoining it. We next went to
+the robe-room, passing along a series of mouldy and rat-eaten floors
+to a small room, such as might be found in a dilapidated stable-loft;
+there, from old dingy boxes, were drawn forth such garments as created
+astonishment--the richest damask and cloth of gold of all
+colours--their weight enormous--so massive that they would almost
+stand alone. I have never seen any thing so splendid; and the effect
+of such upon the fine form of the Vladika must be worth beholding. In
+another chest were deposited the crowns of different Vladikas. They
+are of a shape resembling the ancient Russian diadem, being not of the
+form of any kind of coronet, but a cap all covered or entire, globular
+at top, and diminishing towards where they fit the head. Perhaps there
+were half a dozen or more. They were richly ornamented with precious
+stones--the present Vladika's the most so. I understand they are
+presents from St Petersburg. By nine next morning the rain had
+somewhat cleared, and the weather was mild and promising. We started,
+therefore, hoping that night to reach the quarters of the Vladika,
+though no one could speak positively to the place. We made some
+enquiries as to the chance of finding shelter, as the nights were
+singularly cold; but it was of course apparent that time alone could
+decide. None of our friends from the monastery, who had been so
+warlike the day before, made their appearance; so we started without
+any addition to our party. The road was nearly all on the descent, and
+usually so stony and rough as to make riding the mule a matter of
+difficulty. We passed by Dobro Skorsello, one of the richest communes
+of Montenegro; there figs, vines, and olives are grown: a wild species
+of mulberry occurs, and large trees of it frequently appeared before a
+hut or hamlet. These are wide-spreading and ancient, but not tall.
+This district furnishes seven thousand fighting men. Here we met the
+wife of one of the principal senators among a troop of females with
+bundles of wood upon their head. We now had the first intelligence
+from the camp. Descending into a little plain we met about two hundred
+men returning to celebrate a village fête, as their services were not
+just then required. They passed in single file; wild, active-looking
+fellows they certainly were. In about half an hour after, we
+encountered forty or fifty others. These were peculiarly warm in their
+friendship, and slapped me so hard on the back that it required my
+utmost force to return the compliment with any thing like cordiality.
+They took it into their heads that I was a certain long-expected
+bombardier who was to direct their artillery against Lessandro, and
+they loaded me with compliments and good wishes. I almost, at the
+moment, regretted my want of knowledge in the art. About one o'clock
+we descended upon the Nariako river, then a rapid clear green stream,
+which conducts the torrents of the upper mountains to the lake of
+Scutari; and, in another hour, reached the village of that name, which
+is known also by the Italian one of Fiumara. We trusted here to
+procuring a boat which would convey us the remainder of the journey;
+but the natives of this free country are seldom in a hurry, and in
+fact it was necessary that we should be made popular idols for a
+certain space; nor had we the means of keeping each other in
+countenance. I was hurried off, accompanied by Petrarca, to the house
+of the captain of the district, a senator, I understood, and eminently
+brave; while my unfortunate companion, without any one to help, was
+taken possession of by a lady of rank, a Cattarese by birth, but who
+had nearly forgotten her native tongue, and in a short time was
+surrounded by all the females and olive branches of the place. The
+usual brandy, with coffee and pipes, was served to our party. The
+houses, or little dirty huts rather, have in front a small balcony
+covered at top, and raised about four or five feet from the ground;
+here Spiro, Petrarca, and myself were seated, with my host and several
+others. While the lady of the house brought in the pipes and
+refreshments, I made some very sensible observations, which Petrarca
+clothed in Servian, and the replies seemed in every way equal;
+notwithstanding, in about an hour the liveliness of the scene began
+somewhat to wear off, and I took the first opportunity of hastening to
+rescue the other sufferer. Here I discovered the object of public
+attention seated on a bench with her host and hostess, one on each
+knee as it were, and the room thronged with spectators; women and
+children were squatted or perched on every conceivable spot. The
+harmony of the party had, however, undergone for a moment a trifling
+disorder; for, while all the rest had been full of compliment and
+courtesy, one elderly lady had thought proper to express herself in a
+manner contradictory to the general feeling, and in the strongest
+terms, going even the length of shaking her fist at the occupant of
+the post of honour. She was, however, bundled out most unceremoniously,
+neck and crop, as the phrase is. After further delays, and declining a
+most uninviting dormitory, a boat was got ready; four warriors were in
+her, and we departed amid the cheers of the population and a
+promiscuous discharge of fire-arms. This was warmly responded to by
+our party; nor did I much regret when these demonstrations had ceased,
+as a Montenegrian considers it quite etiquette to discharge his
+heavy-loaded piece any where in the immediate vicinity of the head, so
+long as the muzzle just clears the honoured individual. In a few
+minutes we were gliding down the beautiful stream. The absence of all
+wild animals is peculiarly observable in the mountains. A woodcock or
+red-legged partridge are occasionally seen; but few quadrupeds are met
+with, and the larger and fiercer kinds are rarely known to occur. This
+deficiency, however, in the general zoology, is amply compensated by
+the birds which frequent the Fiumara river. As we proceeded, muffled
+up in the bottom of the boat, for it was very cold, the fitful
+exertions of our warlike crew disturbed quantities of aquatic birds.
+The river widened greatly, the mountain banks disappearing, till at
+length the shores became obscure in the distance, and thus it
+imperceptibly enters and forms the lake of Scutari. Cormorants and
+ducks passed over in flocks; noble herons got up screaming on every
+side. One of these was the milk-white aigrette; superior in size to
+the common heron. The kingfishers had a beautiful appearance. I never
+saw this bird elsewhere in such multitudes. I did not request any of
+my crew to try their skill, as I had had enough of firing for the time
+being, nor did I take a fancy to do so myself. The large bore and
+light metal of their arms, added to the weight of the charge, spoke of
+a recoil any thing but pleasing, and which I hear usually takes place.
+Next day, however, I asked the captain of the boat to show me a shot;
+he took aim at a diver which kept appearing a-head; he fired when
+nothing but the neck was visible above water, and the ball completely
+divided it, the head barely hanging by a bit of skin. The bird was
+distant about fifty yards, and the boat moving, while he stood on the
+bow. At some longer shots he was not so successful. We passed a
+village at a small distance, and lay on our oars to hear the news.
+Most of the people were absent; but one, a great man, was seated on
+the hut-top, with a few idlers round him. This was the chief president
+of the senate--the speaker of the house, in short; and undoubtedly, if
+stentorian lungs are of any use for that office in a Montenegrian
+parliament, he was most amply qualified. For twenty minutes this
+eminent man conversed with us--the distance at first being about a
+quarter of a mile, and probably it might be three miles or more before
+he was finally out of hearing. The Turkish fortress of Dzabiack now
+appeared perched on a steep isolated hill rising from the marsh. It
+seemed, as we passed it about two miles off, to be in a very
+dilapidated condition. The Montenegrians, however, had at present no
+designs upon it; and its garrison maintained a peaceful neutrality.
+They have on several occasions destroyed this fortress, which has been
+occupied again by the Turks. It gives then little annoyance, being
+distant, I should think, five miles from the head of the lake. All was
+now water, but the principal channels above were passable, the rest
+being overgrown with weeds. At several of these, long consultations
+occurred as to our best route. It began to rain a little, and the
+place of our destination seemed doubtful. At length we emerged on the
+broad beautiful lake, and our progress was easy. We soon came in sight
+of the beleaguered island and fortress of Lessandro. The cannonade,
+which we had heard during the earlier part of the day, had long
+ceased, and all seemed quiet. It was still twilight, but the place to
+which our people had determined on going, lay beyond the foot of a
+mountain which projected to a nearer approach with the island. This
+was the very mountain on the top of which the Vladika had placed his
+batteries. They considered it prudent, therefore, to wait till dark,
+before passing within point-blank range of the enemy's guns. We,
+therefore, hauled the boat up, and waited under lee of the point. As
+soon as the light had failed, we moved forward, passing stealthily
+along the shore to within about three hundred yards of the fort. The
+previous garrulity of our party was now hushed, and they exhibited the
+most laudable prudence. I observed, however, that they had all their
+guns cocked and ready, as if they intended to have returned any
+compliment from the fortress; but no such contingency was at hand. The
+Albanians were engaged in chanting martial choruses, possibly to
+maintain their own valour as well as dismay their opponents, and show
+what excellent health and spirits they possessed after the two days'
+siege. At any rate, they made too much noise to hear any thing but
+themselves. As we went along shore, we were several times challenged
+by those on the look-out, and long explanations passed in low yet
+distinct tones. At length the danger was passed, and we went a-head
+for about two miles along the lake; then, turning off up a deep
+sluggish stream, we came in sight of our quarters. A large fire blazed
+in the principal of three huts, and by its light numerous persons were
+seen around it. Landing with our baggage and equipage, we soon joined
+the circle; about a dozen warriors were here assembled. They were
+very civil to us, and glad to see our party. They gave us the best
+place at the fire, where, spreading our plaids, we were soon occupied
+with such dainties as the place or our own providence supplied. When
+it came to be bed-time, the fighting part of the community
+good-naturedly suffered themselves to be persuaded to go to the other
+end of the room, by which means we were enabled to lie down by the
+fire. There they rolled themselves up, and, in the shortest possible
+time, were in a state of oblivion. I may observe that the people in
+general, men or women, have seldom any beds. They lie down any where
+on the floor, ensconced in a capote or cloak, removing perhaps their
+opunkas, but scarcely ever any other garment. We should have been
+pretty comfortable but for the minute hosts that peopled the
+apartment. Late at night, too, the extreme cold compelled several
+parties to seek refuge by the fire who had no right or little
+thereto--as the house-cat and her two kittens; she would take no
+denial, however often repelled. Whenever one awoke, there she would be
+with her interesting offspring close nestled under one's chin. The
+family dog, too, suffered severely from cold; he was, as often as he
+entered, kicked out by his master in a way that did the heart good;
+and his murmurs of complaint and resentment would last for a full ten
+minutes. But the door would not fasten, and he always found his way in
+again, trampling over, in his way to the fire, the recumbent forms of
+the sleepers, in a manner far from conducive to good-humour. It was,
+therefore, not to be wondered at that our slumbers were not prolonged
+to a late hour. I set forth at break of day to find a clear-looking
+place in the river: for as I was to be presented to his highness, I
+could not afford to forego any advantages. The ice was on the side of
+the pools; but with the aid of a small box I carried under my arm, I
+soon had all the requisites of an elaborate dressing-room. Several of
+the Montenegrians were also on the alert, rubbing their faces with the
+muddy water on the edge of the lake; but whether to make them cleaner
+or dirtier did not appear. Breakfast was soon dispatched. Already the
+cannonade had commenced, and we hastened to the scene of action.
+Lessandro is a small low islet, perhaps a hundred yards long by forty
+or fifty wide; at one end was the principal, at the other, a minor
+fort. The first consisted of a thick round tower, flat at top, where
+their largest gun was mounted. This was surrounded by a low wall, with
+two small bastions at different angles; the other was a square
+building, with a bastion at one corner, containing, I believe, the
+stores. All over the island were the tents of the soldiers--that of
+the commander distinguished by a red flag. I think I counted about
+forty. The Montenegrians declared they had in the island five hundred
+men. Not one was visible however, the whole day. Under the lee of the
+chief fort was anchored a small gun-boat from Scutari. On one side of
+Lessandro rises, in immediate proximity, the mountainous island of
+Vranina. It was here that the Vladika at first wished to have taken up
+his position; but boats, it was said, were wanting to transport his
+men and munitions. Had he attempted this, a serious encounter would
+probably have taken place; but he had given up the idea, and it was as
+in consequence of this that we had met the men returning home the day
+before. The spot he fixed on was a mountain directly opposite Vranina,
+but at a greater distance from the object of attack. He had not with
+him altogether above fifty men. This time we had once more to pass
+within a quarter of a mile of the fort; and as we were a boat-load of
+armed men hastening to headquarters, I somewhat expected they might
+have condescended to notice us. Such, however, was not the case; and
+we landed and ascended the hill to where the battery was placed. We
+had not been there long before the Vladika, who was on a higher part
+of the ground, having heard of our arrival, came down to meet us. I
+felt for a moment rather modest, and began to wonder what business I
+had there. However, we advanced with all boldness, and soon
+distinguished the chieftain from his attendants by his giant stature.
+No bishop's cassock covered his towering form. Clothed in scarlet and
+gold, he descended the hill with the true Albanian strut. His manner
+was frank and cordial; and on his invitation we all three sat down on
+the grass to partake of a camp luncheon. The Vladika was then in the
+thirty-fifth year of his age. In truth, he was a goodly man--a very
+Saul among his people. His height I should think very nearly midway
+between six and seven feet. He was not fat, but the breadth and
+massiveness of his chest and limbs was extraordinary. His figure was
+very finely proportioned, and his movements free and active. His face
+was somewhat broad, with good features, and his voice peculiarly soft
+and pleasing. His hair and beard black, and, after the fashion of the
+Greek clergy, uncut. He wore a Turkish pelisse of scarlet, coming
+nearly to the knee, and trimmed with gold and sable, a large fur cap,
+and the usual blue drawers and opunkas of the Montenegrians. A pair of
+plain European pistols were in his belt--the only arms he wore. The
+place where we sat was in a most picturesque situation. The Turkish
+balls kept whizzing past, forming, as his highness remarked, beautiful
+music. Indeed, it seemed to me we were very nearly in the line a
+well-directed shot ought to have taken; but, of course, it was not my
+place to speak. Our fare consisted of cold meat carved in slices with
+the yataghan, and rum out of the mouth of the same bottle. He
+conversed in French fluently, and various courteous speeches showed it
+was not the first time he had encountered female society. He seemed
+excited when relating the misdeeds of his enemies, and his usually
+languid voice assumed a little asperity, as he described the way in
+which, while he made war in Bosnia, "ces diables des Turcs" had
+surprised his garrison at Lessandro. My knowledge of gunnery was not
+extensive, still I could not be ignorant of the chance he had, with
+three short twelve-pounders, of injuring any building whatever, when
+firing at it at a distance of eight hundred yards, in an almost
+perpendicular direction. The fort, besides, seemed very sturdy and
+solid, and I could not flatter him with hopes of success. He did not,
+however, appear to be without hope. Certainly, had he chosen to risk
+an assault with some trifling loss, the place might have been in his
+possession; but boats were not at hand in sufficient numbers, and
+besides, such a proceeding might not have been popular with amateur
+soldiers. He asked me if I had brought any letters to him; I frankly
+owned I had not. "Ah!" he said, "you came from curiosity, that you
+might talk in the gay circles of London, of having seen the Vladika of
+Montenegro." I did not say, that were I to do so, I should talk very
+unintelligibly to a great many of my hearers. After our collation was
+finished, we rose and proceeded to the battery, if it could be
+honoured with such a name. But had its power been as extensive as the
+view from it, it would have amply sufficed. The day was now most
+beautiful and spring-like, and various flowers, with sportive
+butterflies and other insects, enlivened the mountain side. The broad
+blue lake lay beneath, and in the extreme distance the position of
+Scutari itself could be distinguished. Three ranges of mountains were
+visible, rising one above the other, till the snowy chains of Bosnia
+bounded the horizon. The cannonade, as there was little to be
+apprehended, added to the beauty and interest. The wreathing of the
+white smoke on the Turkish tower, and the report borne along in the
+calm air, and echoed a dozen times by the distant mountains--the
+gradual approach and whizzing of the balls, and the shot from our
+guns, as it hit the buildings, or occasionally bounded along the
+water, were all interesting novelties. I made a sketch, to the best of
+my ability, of every object of interest in the vicinity of this lovely
+spot. As regards matters purely military, we had three guns in
+operation--short twelves, as I have already mentioned; a rampart was
+before them, formed of earth, bound with stakes, and about three feet
+thick. I was told this had only been struck four times. Few people
+were about. Nor could gunners of fame have been in plenty, for I soon
+discovered Petrarca pointing the cannon. The shot also was of
+different sizes--any that could be got, as Austria does not favour
+the importation of warlike materials into Montenegro; and to this
+disparity of metal may be ascribed the constant difficulty which the
+Montenegrian gunners experienced in hitting even the island. Still
+they kept the game alive, the Turks not giving one shot for three.
+They appeared to have four guns, but their biggest was on the platform
+of the chief tower, a screen of masonry protecting it from lying
+entirely open to our position on the hill. They fired also several
+shells, but they did no damage, exploding high in the air. At length
+the Vladika approached the best cannon, anxious to display his skill.
+He took a long aim, and then fired, exulting greatly when the ball
+struck the stone screenwork at top of the tower. This was just where
+he aimed, and it was the best shot by far that I had seen. A little
+dust seemed to fly, but no further damage. The reply of the Turks came
+promptly, but his highness did not honour their skill by even ducking
+below the rampart. It lodged in the side of the hill several feet
+below us. We remained, enjoying the interesting scene and beautiful
+day, till about one o'clock, when the Montenegrian batteries suspended
+operations from a temporary failure of ammunition. Being desirous of
+passing the night in less crowded quarters than the previous one, we
+now took our leave of the Vladika, and returned to the hamlet we had
+left in the morning; and having with some difficulty procured a pony,
+we set off to get as far on our road to Cattaro as we could, not
+returning by Cettigna, which would have been round about, but entering
+the Austrian territory above Budua and Castel Astua--Cattaro at
+present lying to the north-west of us. The boy who conducted this same
+pony, (a little mare, with a mule foal running beside her,) was the
+most unmitigated savage I have met with on my travels, though not more
+than ten years old. He was the ugliest little urchin I ever saw--his
+only clothing was a piece of an old sack and ragged opunkas. After
+galloping some distance to meet us, his mind misgave him as to his
+pistol, and he returned and made his father, who was working in the
+field, exchange with him. He then undertook to lead the pony, (the
+animals here do not go pleasantly unless led, and also by some one
+they are acquainted with,) which he did in the most desperate manner,
+walking at about seven miles an hour. No concern of his what became of
+the knees of the occupant, or with what stones or thorns they might be
+brought into collision. When he came to a precipice in the road, and
+there were many, down he jumped tugging the beast after him, and not
+looking behind once. All this time the foal kept jamming up against
+its mother. It was soon evident that the dismissal of this youth and
+his cattle was a _sine qua non_, as cautions were vain. But on a sum
+being offered which he considered less than his due, having come about
+a mile, he took his own part in a manner most edifying in one so
+young; and had the retainers of our party not been as well provided as
+he, I believe he would have pistolled the whole of us. At length,
+finding his efforts fruitless, he sprang on the pony, and putting her
+to her best pace, was soon out of sight. About the same time we fell
+in with two monks from the convent of Bercelli, who were on their way
+to pay their respects to the Vladika. This was fortunate, as we had
+intended to sleep there. These were the only inmates, and had the key
+of the place with them. After treating the party to brandy, one of
+them turned back with us. He was an old man, and he had to return a
+distance of twelve miles; but he never seemed to give this a thought.
+They were dressed in black gowns, and high black caps. Our road lay
+through a populous district, and many were the salutations Petrarca
+received, coupled with enquiries respecting us--long conversations
+taking place over miles of intervening hill and dale. This time, I
+believe, I filled the part of the English ambassador. The outward
+appearance of our quarters, when we arrived, was not prepossessing;
+but the state of dirt of the best room could hardly have been
+anticipated. Its equal--I speak advisedly--could not be found out of
+the country we were in. The floors mouldy and rat-eaten--old shelves
+hanging about, containing every kind of rubbish--crusts of bread, a
+bit of tallow candle in a bottle--old cups and glasses in different
+directions, with the remains of something in the bottom of every one.
+The only covering on the boards which formed the bed, was a sheepskin
+blanket, very old and dirty, looking like the mother of fleas. It
+would take a page to mention the manifold horrors that presented
+themselves. At length, after a late bad supper, I felt repose
+desirable, be it where it might. We had stipulated, however, for the
+sole possession of this melancholy dormitory, and having made up the
+best bed I could, turned in with loathing; but the cold made one less
+particular, as it was hard frost, and the windows had no shutter or
+fastening of any kind. I found, however, there was one exception to
+our sole right of tenure; no other than the old priest himself, whom I
+had shortly to get up and let in. Poor man! he had nowhere else to go;
+and having given up his luxurious couch, he proposed for himself to
+court slumber on the top of an old chest--it looked hard, certainly,
+and the poor old man seemed ill at ease. All night he rested none. He
+groaned much, and was afflicted with a cough and its usual results;
+and in each result he laboured long and strenuously, as though putting
+his whole soul in it, till a severe shock on the opposite wall showed
+the successful issue of his exertions. We did not lie in bed next
+morning very long after waking, and by six o'clock were on our road,
+expressing a firm determination to reach Cattaro or perish, sooner
+than pass another night in a Montenegrian homestead. There was no
+other mule to be procured to-day, so it was a case of riding and tying
+with the portmanteau. When the latter walked, it usually did so on the
+head of the poor woman who brought the mule. The remainder of our
+luggage consisted of two carpet-bags, and Spiro and Melo slung one of
+these upon each of their guns, and proceeded merrily. We entered the
+Austrian territory by the village of Braitsch. The people hereabouts
+are very poor and ill-off. Our way overlooked the sea; below us lay
+Budua. We halted, to give ourselves and the mule a drink, by the fort
+of Stanivitch. This was formerly a convent, and under the dominion of
+Montenegro; but Austria has lately become possessor of it, through, I
+believe, a pecuniary arrangement with the Vladika. His territory,
+however, at no time reached the sea in any part, though this is not
+distant above two or three miles; it was now a military post. A
+Moravian captain was in command, who most politely invited us to stay
+the night, fearing we should be unable to reach Cattaro; however, it
+was then only four o'clock, the day was bright, and the sight of the
+sea encouraged us. Besides, I noticed a _flea_ on the collar of his
+coat. We thanked him for his kindness, and persevered on our journey.
+Our road lay nearly all on the descent, and while it was good, and the
+daylight lasted, we hurried forward with all speed. At length it
+became very rocky and precipitous; and, as the light soon failed
+entirely, it became necessary to mount the portmanteau, as it was not
+possible for any biped to sustain it longer on their head, and to
+maintain their equilibrium as well. From very bad, things got to much
+worse. The track, as well as the whole country, was composed of
+angular grey rocks, among which, in the now total darkness, it became
+nearly impossible to discern the path. These stones had a light
+appearance, and it was desirable to avoid bringing one's shins in
+contact with them; but if a spot seemed dark, and might be imagined to
+be soft ground, it proved to be one of the villanous prickly bushes of
+the country. This shrub grows all over Albania and Dalmatia, and, I
+believe, in Italy; it is low and bushy, with abundance of flat round
+seed; the spines are set both ways, up and down the twig, and are the
+most malignant thorns I ever met with. Whatever part of your garments
+they catch hold of, from that they have never been known to part.
+Presently our road became inhabited by a stream of water, and every
+step that avoided the stones was ankle-deep in mud. How the mule could
+have got on, as I could not see, I cannot imagine, but the box which
+it carried was not seriously damaged. The two guides in their opunkas
+walked firmly, but the others were tumbling frequently. The female
+who had come with us now fairly "compounded," according to the
+sporting phrase, and gave vent to her sufferings in tears and
+reproaches. This had, however, a reviving effect upon others of our
+party, who were near compounding themselves--for I had rather been
+holding out the endurance of this poor woman, who had walked most of
+the day with a portmanteau on her head, as an example for imitation.
+The town of Cattaro at length became visible far below us, after
+almost the longest three hours I ever passed. At other times, I might
+have been tempted to derive amusement from the mishaps of my friends
+under similar circumstances; but at present, some of the party had
+been reduced to such desperation, that I began sometimes to doubt the
+favourable issue of our journey. By nine o'clock the land gates are
+closed, and this we had heard already strike. The sea gate is open for
+another hour. It was not till after this, that, having gained the
+coast road which leads to Cattaro from the south, we reached the town.
+There, a boat was requisite to take us over the sea gate; but all the
+town boats had long since retired, and it took us at least half an
+hour to awake somebody on board a trabacolo in the harbour. When at
+length we were conveyed to the gate, a small gratuity to the sentinels
+gained us admission, and a little before midnight we found ourselves
+once more in our favourite inn. We remained some days at Cattaro,
+arranging for our departure. During this time, we heard that the
+Vladika had at length found his task hopeless, and abandoned
+hostilities. He had been, however, a week arriving at such a
+conclusion, and the sound of the cannonade was heard during the whole
+of the time occupied by our return. It was a pity to see a worthy
+potentate of moderate means spending his pocket-money so fruitlessly.
+The philanthropist will be glad to learn that no lives were sacrificed
+during this protracted siege. The Montenegrians, more modest than some
+of our own neighbours on a late occasion of very similar glory, laid
+claim only to having wounded one man in the fort; but an Albanian
+bulletin might have denied even that.
+
+Before concluding, a few further particulars concerning Montenegro
+will not be out of place. In former days, as I have observed, they
+were but a den of mountain thieves, dangerous to each other, and
+unapproachable by strangers. At the present time, no country can boast
+superiority in either of these respects. Indeed, in so small a
+community, crime is rare, from the greater certainty of detection. I
+speak nothing, of course, of border pastimes with their neighbours;
+and these, possibly, form a safety-valve to the pent-up propensities
+of the inhabitants. This important change has been brought about
+within fifty years, but, most of all, during the twelve years that the
+present Vladika has reigned. But the Vladikas who have effected this
+change, actuated by the desire of improving the condition of their
+people, have been obliged to barter their independence, in a manner,
+for Russian gold, in order to give them the means of effecting it. I
+am not able to say when the subsidizing system first commenced, but at
+present the Vladika, as well as all the officials and senators,
+receive their stipends. That of the Vladika amounts, I believe, to
+about eight thousand pounds annually; but this may include a small tax
+of, I think, two shillings on each household, which is paid by the
+Montenegrians themselves. Of the senators, there are forty who are
+elected by the communes, and paid by Russia. There is also a force of
+eight hundred men paid, and residing in different districts, which
+forms an executive police; but there is nothing in the shape of a
+standing army. The Vladikas are appointed by the emperor in nepotal
+succession from the family of Petrovitch. The present Vladika received
+his education at St Petersburg, and several of his nephews are now
+there, from whom his successor will be chosen. I am not acquainted
+with the amount of temporal power possessed by the Vladika, but I
+should think it was subject to much restraint. I have heard that, on
+more than one occasion in the senate, he has been personally
+threatened during the stormy debates which have occurred. Though he is
+generally popular, it would seem that here, as elsewhere, there
+exists a strong party opposed to all reform, and pining for the good
+old days of general license. The demeanour of the Montenegrians to
+their Vladika, though respectful, is free and independent. On meeting
+him the hand is raised to the head, or, if near, they offer to kiss
+his hand. This salutation is paid to any ordinary priest, and
+occasionally, through all Dalmatia, to a stranger like myself. Russia,
+it will be seen, reigns as completely in Montenegro as though its
+passes were occupied by her soldiers. The supplies stopped, all would
+be anarchy and confusion. Nor do the Montenegrians object to this in
+any way. Their personal independence is in no way compromised, and
+their laws and usages remain unaltered. There is not a single Russian
+in Montenegro, and, only knowing them at distance, they regard them at
+present with hearty good-will. The Vladika, however, who reaps the
+greatest benefits, has, it would appear, to submit to a certain loss
+of freedom. During the past summer he visited Trieste and Vienna; and
+I was informed, on good authority, had desired to go to England, but
+had been unable to obtain the permission of an emperor who seems
+determined no one shall travel but himself. The Vladika had certainly
+expressed to me a hope that he should visit England some time. There
+can be no doubt that it is well worth while thus to secure the
+alliance of the Montenegrians, for they would prove a bitter thorn in
+any collision either with Turkey or Austria. The country is divided
+into twelve military jurisdictions, under so many captains, and every
+man is bound to serve, though by what power, except inclination, I am
+sure I do not know. I do not imagine that this has been particularly
+provided for, so willing are they to serve uncalled.
+
+The population of Montenegro is at the present time not short of one
+hundred and twenty thousand souls. Of these, more than half would be
+serviceable were their own territory invaded; for every boy of eight
+years old and upwards carries a gun, and there is no reason he should
+not point it as straight as an older person, presenting, at the same
+time, a smaller mark to the enemy. The women even occasionally assist,
+and at all times carry the ammunition and supplies. I used sometimes
+to think, when meeting one of these armed urchins, how ignominious it
+would be to be robbed by him; and yet, were he only cunning enough to
+keep out of arm's-length, I don't exactly know how it could be helped.
+The arms of the Montenegrians consist of a long gun, usually very
+elegantly mounted, the stock short, and curved like a horse's neck;
+round his waist is a belt with cartouch-boxes containing the spare
+ammunition, the cartridges for immediate use being in the pistol-belt
+in front. Here, in a leather case, is a mass of arms which occupy the
+same relative position to the wearer as the youthful kangaroo to its
+parent; here are a brace of pistols with a pointed pommel, and a
+yataghan, which is used in these countries to the entire exclusion of
+the sword, and which, from its position in the belt, does not get in
+the way when walking--the ramrod for the pistols also, which in the
+East is a separate arm, containing sometimes a dagger or a pair of
+tongs for adjusting the never-absent pipe, and a smaller knife is
+often slung on behind. In ordinary times, a yataghan or pistol may be
+dispensed with; but whatever may be the occupation of man or boy, the
+gun is never left behind, whether ploughing, or cutting wood, or
+carrying the heaviest burdens. It is almost extraordinary that they
+should thus encumber themselves, as, within their own boundary, none
+are so safe, and their mountains seldom afford them a living mark. I
+believe it arises very much from a fondness for the weapon. The
+greatest care is taken of it, and it undergoes a complete cleaning
+after every shot. The arms of the people in general present a striking
+contrast to their dress. On the former they spend most of their spare
+money, and they are kept in great order and cleanliness. The warriors,
+when they take the field, fight more for plunder than for honour and
+glory. The spoils of houses and farm-steads, or the arms or heads of
+their enemies, (a prisoner is never spared,) all form desirable
+prizes. It must be remembered their service is chiefly voluntary, and
+they receive no pay. It is not their tactics to expose themselves
+much in battle. The grey rocks, which suit well the colour of their
+dress, afford a shelter, from behind which they take well-directed
+aim. Every man acts to the best of his judgment--usually acute where
+self-preservation is the law; and their great activity and powers of
+endurance enable them, in their difficult country, to contend with
+many advantages against regular troops. In 1838, during a temporary
+collision with Austria, they gave as good as they received, to say the
+least; and perhaps it was owing to this that peace was so soon
+concluded. In such a country cavalry is out of the question, and
+horses are seldom used. The Vladika himself possesses a considerable
+stud. The dress of the people--at all seasons the same--consists of a
+white coat of coarse cloth, with generally a blue edging, open in
+front, and reaching nearly to the knee. This has no buttons, but is
+fastened round the waist by a red sash. They are usually shirtless,
+and their hardy bosoms brave the storm in all weathers. Around their
+shoulders is thrown a description of plaid, generally of a brown
+colour, about three feet wide and six feet long; and from keeping this
+in its proper position, a slight stoop becomes habitual. They have
+wide drawers of blue serge, or sometimes of the material of their
+coats, which is thicker; of this also are their leggings formed. Under
+the opunkas is worn a thick woollen sock; but in wet weather the men
+and women usually go barefooted. On their head is a small round cap of
+scarlet or black cloth. Their custom is to shave the whole of the face
+excepting the mustaches, as well as the sides and crown of the head;
+but from long neglect, it is often difficult to distinguish the
+favoured localities. Petrarca, in his avocation of barber, was in the
+greatest request. The costume of the women does not differ widely, but
+the coat is longer, and a petticoat replaces the blue drawers--round
+their waist is a belt of great weight, about three inches wide, and of
+the thickest leather, set with cornelians and other coarse stones,
+mounted in brass. The red cap is usual, and the hair is often prettily
+braided. I have seen some head-dresses composed of silver coins. None
+of the people seem to be in the habit of bathing or washing, and they
+do not remove their garments at night. The children have often nothing
+but a shirt. As a nation they are healthy and robust, though fevers
+occur at certain times in some districts. Among the men two casts of
+features are general; the one, known among us as the "Jack Sheppard
+face"--the lower parts rather prominent, and the nose short and
+somewhat turned up, the complexion and hair very dark. The other is
+very different, a bright colour and high handsome features; yet nearly
+every person one meets belongs to one of these two varieties. The
+latter is commonest among the tallest men. They have all very good
+teeth, and their expression is intelligent and good-humoured. As in
+feature, so in stature, considerable uniformity appears. Their height
+averages about five feet ten, with great development of muscle. The
+women are relatively inferior in looks--they are broad and short,
+seeming to possess great strength; but the labour they undergo, and
+the burdens they carry, appear inimical to beauty. They have often
+pleasant countenances and good brick-dust complexions. The Servian or
+Naski here spoken is considered among the purest dialects of
+Sclavonic--it has a very pleasing sound, being softer and more
+melodious than the Russian. My stay was unfortunately not long enough
+to obtain much knowledge of it, and this want will sufficiently
+account for any errors that may appear in my descriptions of what I
+did not personally witness; for it prevented that free intercourse
+with the people, by which a true insight to their manners can alone be
+acquired. Their laws seem very simple; he who kills is killed--shooting
+being the mode of execution. He who robs must make good; and, as few
+of the people are in abject poverty, this is usually done. Should they
+fail, a summary flogging is inflicted. At Cettigna is a small prison;
+I believe there is no other. When any one is there confined, he trusts
+entirely to his friends for subsistence. They are good-humoured,
+obliging, and extremely loquacious; but their continued spitting is
+very disagreeable. I witnessed no games or diversions among them
+except the one-stringed fiddle; but I understood that they have a few
+athletic sports, such as wrestling and putting the stone. They often
+go to sea. I encountered two among the crew of an Austrian packet.
+They all profess the Greek faith, and are in their way very religious.
+When passing a church they bow and cross themselves, and perform all
+sorts of pious movements, which sometimes border on the ludicrous.
+Before going to sleep they make long prayers. Previous to visiting the
+Vladika, an armed Montenegrian entered in the morning the house where
+we slept, and casting aside his gun and cloak, commenced reading mass
+to the assembled party. This was the priest of the parish. The older
+members of the community are not usually very enlightened; but through
+the schools established by the Vladika, where instruction is dispensed
+gratuitously, most of the rising generation can read and write their
+native language, and a sufficiency of neatly printed books are issued
+from the press he keeps employed at Cettigna. No social distinctions
+are yet known among them, and the most perfect equality prevails--even
+the sons address their father by his Christian name. The only
+exception is in the person of the Vladika--his lot on the whole is not
+an enviable one. The only educated mind among the many--the only
+polished gentleman among simple peasants; he is indeed an isolated
+being. Handsome and in the prime of life, yet there must be none to
+cheer his lot, or lighten his solitude, nor any to whom he would love
+to transmit his mountain throne. In this respect the laws of his order
+are stringent, and the breath of scandal has never yet sullied his
+fair name, though it is quite true that whilst in his native land the
+temptations are not very severe. I should not be surprised if a report
+I heard current should prove true, that he intended, at no very
+distant period, to relinquish the government of Montenegro, and spend
+the remainder of his days among a people more congenial to the habits
+of a man of education. Were he an absolute potentate, an extended
+field for benefiting his countrymen might be obtained; but with his
+more constitutional power, the attempts he has been able to make have
+been constantly thwarted by prejudice and ignorance. Had he the
+privileges or the ties of an ordinary man, then, as we all know, the
+barrener the rocks, the dearer seems the love of the native land; but,
+situated as he is, he can hardly be accused of want of patriotism if
+his stay in Montenegro should not extend beyond the time required in
+saving sufficient of his income to quit it.
+
+Our voyage from Cattaro to Corfu was accomplished in a small
+trabacolo--the San Marco of Spalatro--having on board three men and a
+boy. These boats, though not fast, are very safe, and the Dalmatians
+in general manage small craft well. The north wind is scarce at this
+time of the year, but a beautiful _tramontana_ blew during the time we
+were working out of the Bocca. This we lost entirely, and not a breath
+moved its calm waters. We had also to wait some hours at Port Rosa,
+situated at the entrance of the Bocca, for our papers. By the time we
+were out at sea, the wind had nearly died away, and the next day found
+us employed gathering wild pomegranates on the desolate shores near
+Antiversi, in Albania. Again a beautiful tramontana sprang up, and in
+a vessel of first-rate sailing powers, would almost have brought us
+in. All day we went gallantly along. The heads of Ducazzo--Dyrrichium
+of old--began to appear, and soon we passed it in a foam. All night we
+held on, and in the morning were beside the "_infames scopulos
+Acroceraunia_," and in sight of the island of Sassina, near the
+harbour of Avlona. On we went still, till at length there appeared the
+land of the Phoeacians, "like a shield upon the sea;" but there was
+a cloud over it which portended ill. It advanced towards us, and
+extended rapidly. It was soon evident to the most sanguine that the
+wind was changing, and there was shortly no mistake about the matter.
+I implored our skipper to keep on, though he tacked to the coast of
+Apulia; but he knew his trade too well--the trade of a trabacolo
+consisting in never losing sight of shore. So we were obliged to put
+in to Avlona harbour, deeply lamenting. Two days were spent here, not
+daring to land for fear of putting ourselves in quarantine. Above the
+town rises the fortress of Canina, but all wears a ruined appearance.
+The people of the neighbourhood, called Chimariots, have the worst
+reputation of all the Albanians. The coast of Albania between this and
+Corfu has a very barren and inhospitable appearance. The snowy peaks
+of the Pindus rise directly from the sea. A few bushes were visible on
+the mountains, but timber of any size is scarce. Villages and houses
+are seldom seen. A glad contrast was presented when, on the tenth day
+of our voyage, we approached the beautiful shores of Corfu; and it was
+no small comfort, after so long an imprisonment in this little tub,
+with holes to creep in about the size of a dog-kennel, and in the
+roughest possible weather, to find ourselves in one of the most
+comfortable hotels in Europe, and surrounded by old friends.
+
+Since my visit to Montenegro, the Vladika went to Vienna--I believe to
+gain the mediation of Austria concerning the disputed territory of
+Lessandro. After his return I understand he was visited by Lord
+Clarence Paget, commanding her Majesty's frigate L'Aigle, who had been
+sent to gain some information regarding his territory; so that,
+perhaps, a more accurate account may be obtained than what is to be
+found in these rough notes.
+
+
+
+
+ÆSTHETICS OF DRESS.
+
+A CASE OF HATS.
+
+
+Of all the follies that can be fairly placed to the charge of the
+human race--and, Heaven knows, they are thick as gnats in a summer
+sunbeam--none can be laid at more people's doors than the fickleness
+and vagaries of the judgment in adorning, to say nothing of covering,
+man's outer scaffolding--the body. And the worst of it is, that this
+folly-cap fits all men, from the Red Indian of America to the
+sallow-faced, eye-slitted Chinese; and through all the robed pomp of
+the solemn Turk to the chattering and capering monkeyism of the
+Parisian exquisite--there are fops every where. As Mr Catlin will tell
+you, one of his lanky Ojibbeway, or Ioway, or Cutaway, or
+Anyotherkindo'way Indians varies the feathers in his head-dress, and
+sticks new tinsel on his buffalo-mantle, whenever he can get them;
+spending as much time in be-painting his cheeks on a summer morning,
+as Beau Brummell, of departed memory, ever wasted in tying his cravat.
+And so it has ever been--so it will ever be; man is not only a
+two-legged unfledged animal, but he is also a vain imitative ape, fond
+of his own dear visage, blind to his deformities, and ever desirous of
+setting himself off to the best advantage. It is of no use quarrelling
+with ourselves for this physiological fact--for we presume it to be
+one of the best ascertained phenomena connected with the genus
+_homo_--it is better to take it as we find it; and if we cannot hope
+to cure man of the absurdity any time this side of the millennium, let
+us try if we cannot turn the failing to some account, and make it
+useful as well as ornamental.
+
+The chief quarrel to be picked with man for his dressing propensities,
+is on the ground that he not only hides and disfigures the fair
+proportions bestowed on him by his Maker, but that he ever and anon
+loads himself with such masses of useless incongruities, that the very
+end and object of his care are stultified. Instead of making himself
+smart, pretty, becoming, beautiful--or any other word that you can
+find in the dandy's dictionary--he frequently succeeds in making
+himself positively ugly--frightful, in the pure abstract sense of the
+term--or detestable, in the lingo of the Stultzean tribe--and
+relapses, as a Frenchman would say, from civism to brutism: _Ah! quel
+animal que l'homme!_
+
+But let it not be supposed that we speak of man only, as applied to
+that great branch of the species designated by the most experienced
+naturalists as _homo vir_; it is quite as true of the other moiety,
+the _homo femina_. If it be possible that a woman should ever be made
+frightful by any thing except age, then it is surely by dress; if a
+woman never does a foolish thing in any other way, yet at least she
+errs in her habiliments; if she be fickle at all, (and speak to the
+fact, ye disappointed bachelors and ye complaisant husbands!) in what
+is she more fickle than in dress? We might waste a life in finding a
+suitable simile for her volatility in this matter: rainbows with
+changing colours, water on a windy day, the wind itself in the month
+of March, the much-desiderated perpetual motion; all are feeble
+similes to describe a woman's fickleness in dress. Shall we liken it
+to her tongue's untiring play? or shall we not rather say that it is a
+psychological fact standing _per se_? the concomitant effect and
+consequence of her beauty? But, dear creatures! we are not going to
+quarrel with them for what gives us so much unconscious pleasure, (we
+do not mean milliners' bills, gentle reader;) we glory in living under
+a petticoat government, and in essentially petticoatian times. All we
+shall do is to give a word of advice; and in trying on their caps for
+them, we will show them the _rationale_ of their bows and their lace,
+if they will only have the patience to sit still for the experiment.
+
+Before embarking on such an important project, allow us to say that we
+are not going to quiz old Whang-Fong for his pig-tail and peacock
+feathers, nor his Cannibalean majesty for his obstinate refusal to
+wear a decent pair of inexpressibles; it is a stiff subject to meddle
+with the dressing propensities of people that live "in many a place
+that's underneath the world." For all we care, Abd el Kader and his
+Arabs may stifle themselves up in their greasy blankets swarming with
+ancestral vermin under a nearly tropical sun; and the good people of
+Igloolik may bedeck themselves with the spoils of fish, flesh, and
+fowl, to set the fashions of the Arctic circle. We are going to speak
+merely of our home acquaintances and our European friends; if these
+only would be reasonable in their dress, what a new thing it would be
+in the world--_quel progrés! quel évènement!_
+
+The fundamental rule of dress we take to be the following--utility in
+all cases, ornament when practicable. The first should ever precede,
+and serve as the basis to the second; and it is the inversion of their
+due positions that causes so many applications of the _utile_ and the
+_dulce_ to end in sheer absurdity. The _usefulness_ of any article or
+system of dress depends entirely upon climate, modified of course by
+the occupation or pursuits of the wearer; the _beauty_ of it or the
+suitableness of the ornament to the character of the vestment. We defy
+all the editors of the _Recueils des Modes, Petits Courriers des
+Dames, Belles Assemblées_, &c., with even the poet-laureates of Moses
+and Son, Hyam and Co., with the whole host of Israelitish schneiders,
+to find out a better æsthetic definition of the law of dress than
+this. Who would have the effrontery to maintain that an Englishman,
+the very type of the useful at Calcutta in his cotton jacket and
+nankeens, would in the same habiliments be a suitably dressed man at
+St Petersburg? and however much a well-set ring may ornament an
+aristocratic finger, (though aristocratic fingers, like aristocratic
+hands, as Byron observes, need no ornament to tell their origin,) who
+but an Otaheitan would admire the application of them to the gouty
+toes of some "fine old English gentleman?" Usefulness first, then, and
+ornament afterwards; think first of what you actually want for your
+health or comfort; cut your coat upon that pattern, clap on your lace
+afterwards; but enrich it only to improve its appearance, not to
+interfere with, to conceal, or to alter its original destination.
+
+To begin, however, methodically, let us take what are commonly
+understood by well-dressed English people of the present day, and let
+us criticise them from top to toe. And first, then, of a gentleman's
+head--_le chef_, as the French call it--and the _chapeau_, its present
+gear. What a covering! what a termination to the capital of that
+pillar of the creation, Man! what an ungraceful, mis-shapen, useless,
+and uncomfortable appendage to the seat of reason--the brain-box!
+Does it protect the head from either heat, cold, or wet? Does it set
+off any of natural beauty of the human cranium? Are its lines in
+harmony with, or in becoming contrast to, the expressive features of
+the face? Is it comfortable, portable, durable, or cheap? What
+qualities, either of use or ornament, has it in its favour that it
+should be the crowning point of a well-dressed man's toilet? The hat
+is, beyond all doubt, one of the strangest vestimental anomalies of
+the nineteenth century.
+
+The history of the hat is this:--The simplest covering for a man's
+head after his own unshorn locks--(do not remind us of the matted and
+_living_ locks of the Indians or Hottentots)--must have been something
+like the Greek skull-cap. This we hold to have been the root, or
+nucleus, of the hat; and yet even this cap had a fault in point of
+utility, for it failed to shadow the eyes: and on the earliest Greek
+monuments we find a cap with a wide brim appended, or a flattish
+straw-hat following close upon the Phrygian bonnet. A light flattish
+hat has its recommendation in a warm country, but it will not do for
+the winds and storms of a northern clime; and hence all the old Gauls,
+the northern nations, the Tartars, and the peasants of Europe, for
+many a long century wore a modified cap--sometimes swelling out into
+ornamental proportions, at others shrinking into the primitive
+simplicity of the Phrygian or Greek cap. Shall we confess it,
+fastidious reader?--we strongly suspect the cap worn by that idle
+fellow Paris, when he so impudently ogled the goddesses on Mount Ida,
+to have been very similar to the good old _bonnet de nuit_ of our
+grandfathers--(shall we whisper it, of ourselves?) Yes, that little
+cocked-up corner at the top looks like a budding tassel; he never had
+such bad taste as to tie it with a riband round his brows; and we do
+not read in Homer that Helen, though a capital workwoman, ever gave
+him one; but we are inclined to believe that the old punty-dunty,
+pudding-bag-shaped cap which is still worn by the French peasantry in
+their field occupations, and is still patronized by a large portion of
+Queen Victoria's loving subjects, is of the highest antiquity, and
+based, we have no doubt, on utility. We must be candid enough to say,
+that we give up the argument as to the intrinsic beauty of this
+species of cap--truly we think it the very type of all that is
+slovenly; but for use, there is not a more comfortable, portable,
+pliable, buyable, and washable a commodity, than your--nightcap are we
+to say? no--than your _bonnet Grec_.
+
+Hats, properly so called, whether of cloth or fur, were evidently the
+invention of some out-of-door people; but then they were not the
+brimless pyramidal canisters of the present fashion, but were either
+caps with dependent brims, or else broad and flexible Spanish
+_sombreros_. The very idea of a hat is that of utility--something to
+keep off the sun and the rain--any thing will do for warmth that will
+aid the hair in keeping in the natural caloric of a man's head; and
+hence we much doubt whether the Irish, that hot-headed nation, ever
+wore hats in early times. From the want of shade being early felt by
+civilized nations, more than shelter from rain, and from hat-shapes
+being found on early southern monuments, we are inclined to think that
+the hat was more extensively worn in Southern than in Northern Europe;
+more, as it is, in Southern England than in Northern Scotland. Hence,
+although we find many iron skull-caps, like hats, used by the military
+in the fifteenth century; and although we find traces of hats even in
+the plebeian costumes of the middle ages--yet we look upon the Spanish
+and Italian hat of the sixteenth century, as the more immediate origin
+of its degenerate successor, the actual _chapeau_. We need not trace
+the variations of its form through the seventeenth century, from the
+high-crowned things of Henry III. of France, and James I. of England,
+to the graceful beavers of Louis XIII., Philip III., and Charles I. of
+England; the change was all in favour of the beaver; and certainly the
+hat reached its culminating point of excellence during the reign of
+our martyr king. Who has studied the splendid portraits of Vandyke, or
+the heads of Rubens, and has not perceived the uncommon grace given to
+them by the well-proportioned and not excessive hat? Who does not
+remember the fine portrait of Rubens himself, with his black Spanish
+hat turned up in front, the very perfection of that style of
+head-dress? Put a modern hat by the side of this hat of Rubens, and
+say which bears off the palm; there can hardly be two opinions upon
+the subject. The great change of this hat took place, as is well
+known, in Louis XIV.'s court, where first of all feathers were laid
+all round upon the flat of the brim, and next the brim was edged with
+lace, and pinched or cocked up, for greater use in military service.
+It might have been useful for a military man, especially one who had
+to handle a bayoneted musket; but it was a fatal invasion of the
+principle of beauty to adopt a permanent cock. There is no doubt that
+the flat cocked hat, the small three-cornered pinched hat of the days
+of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., gave much smartness to the soldier, and
+much neatness to the civilian; the change, too, corresponded with
+other alterations of dress, from the loose and flowing, to the tight
+and succinct principle; but picturesque effect was entirely lost; all
+the sentimentality, all the romance of the hat, evaporated in the
+formal cock. But this small flat hat of the seventeenth and eighteenth
+centuries, was perfection and beauty itself, compared with the
+outrageous and elevated cocked hat which came into fashion sometime
+before 1750, and which is the immediate prototype of the present
+military cocked hat. Here the principle of utility was entirely
+abandoned; it was sacrificed to the display of an unnatural brim. The
+hat was no longer formed by the pinching up of a circular brim of
+moderate dimensions; but three enormous flaps were made to rear their
+unwieldy height in the air, and were strengthened, stiffened, and
+supported, against the envious winds, to the torment of the wearer,
+and to the disfigurement of his person. All through the first half of
+the tasteless reign of good old George III., did this horrible
+covering disguise the beau's head; and the effect of it may still be
+judged of by his grandchildren, when they contemplate, not without
+awe, the rubicund figure of some metropolitan church-beadle with his
+large-caped coat, silver-headed cane, and monstrous three-cornered
+hat. Our modern great ladies, strange to say, seem to have an especial
+affection for this hat, since they take particular care to have a
+couple of footmen behind their carriage glorying in this capital
+atrocity, while on the coach-box they encourage the older form of the
+flat cocked hat of Louis XV.
+
+All cocked hats, be it observed, are glorious rain-traps; the only
+improvement they are capable of is one not yet patented, namely, the
+appending of neat flexible spouts, say of Macintosh cloth, from each
+corner, so as to convey the water in pleasant meanderings over the
+back and coat-tails. In dry weather these spouts might be tied up, and
+would form graceful curves either before, behind, or on one side of
+the cocked flaps, while in a shower they would add dignity to utility,
+as they hung all adown the back of the wearer. One kind of utility,
+however, the old cocked hat certainly had; it served in some degree,
+maugre the looping up of the brim, to shelter the face from the sun;
+not indeed when worn full front, as it was in Dr Johnson's time, and
+as we remember the household troops used to wear it--but when, by a
+daring innovation of revolutionary times, it came to be turned round
+on its human pivot, and lay gently athwart the line of vision. Thus it
+is that our generals wear it in this nineteenth century; thus it was
+that the Great Duke got all through Spain with it; though Napoleon,
+who greatly reduced its dimensions, always kept to the orthodox
+full-front; and in all positions, except the latter, it certainly does
+shade some portion of the face from the sun. But while, for example,
+the projection of one peak shades the nose, the ears and cheeks are
+left to fish for themselves; or else, if the hat wheels round again to
+the front, the ears come under its benignant shade, but the tip of the
+proboscis suffers awfully. The cocked hat has always been a two-horned
+dilemna ever since the third peak moved up in the world from its
+original position of horizontal equality, and aspired to be a near
+neighbour of the cockade or towering plume.
+
+It was that wicked revolution of France, or rather that dissolute time
+preceding it, which produced the most mischief in the hat line. Look
+at any of the pictures of that day--look at the portraits of the
+Conventionalists--look at the old prints of country gentlemen hunting
+or riding races at Newmarket--remember the Sir Joshuas in many a noble
+gallery; and you will not fail to remark that the choice spirits of
+the day, the go-ahead lads of that time, had let down the flaps of
+their cocked hats into slouching, and we must say, most slovenly
+circular brims. There was a sort of free-and-easy look affected in
+that day about the head, totally at enmity with the prim rigidity of
+the cocked beaver; you might have taken off your _chapeau rond_, as it
+then came to be called, and you might have sat on it--it would have
+been never the worse; but not so with its stiff old father--no
+liberties were to be taken with him; once sit upon him, and you would
+have crushed him forever. This very difference of hats marked a
+difference of politics--at least in France. There the old _chapeau à
+trois cornes_ was the badge of the aristocracy: the _chapeau rond_ and
+the _bonnet rouge_ were sworn brothers in the cause of democracy. The
+times were getting unhinged; all fashions were relaxing; so were
+public morals; so were private morals; so were men's hats: hats and
+heads seemed to have a sympathy, and to have gone wrong together.
+
+And what has been the history of the hat since that day?--the
+civilian's hat we mean. Who remembers the overlapping crowns which
+came into fashion soon after the great peace, at a time when Frenchmen
+wore their brims extravagantly pinched up at the sides, and deeply
+pulled down fore and aft? Sometimes the hat rose up in pyramidal
+majesty; sometimes it was shut in like a telescope wanting to be
+pulled out. And then every kind of fancy man had a fancy hat: there
+was the Neck-or-nothing hat, the Bang-up, the Corinthian, the Jerry,
+and the Logic; or else distinguished leaders of _ton_ lent their names
+to it, and we had the Petershams, the Barringtons, &c. Through every
+degree of absurdity has the _chapeau rond_ passed, until it seems to
+have settled down into that quiescent state of mediocrity which marks
+the decline of empires and of hats. The brim is no longer only half an
+inch broad as it was once, nor four inches broad as we also remember
+it: it seems to vary between the limits of one inch and two--a breadth
+just sufficient to let the line of shade, when the head is erect, come
+upon the eye-lids, and just sufficient to clear the ears. But if the
+head be moved ever so little, or if the rain come down ever so
+slantingly, the services of the hat are at an end: it is well enough
+to intercept any thing coming down perpendicularly, but
+"slantendicularly," as friend Slick says--no. Its present height is
+just enough to prevent your wearing it in a carriage, and such, too,
+as to give a moderate wind a good purchase upon it: the substance is
+such that the least exposure to wet ruins it, whether of beaver or
+silk; a moderate blow will crack or break its form; and for the first
+week, if you have any thing like a sensitive head, or any bosses of
+unknown qualities protruding from your cranium, you are doomed to
+incessant headache from hat-pinchings. It has no properties of
+usefulness to recommend it, and none of ornament, saving this--if it
+can be called such--the being an invaluable appendage for a little man
+to make himself appear tall. What a wide interval from the simplicity
+of its Phrygian original!
+
+Having, therefore, criticized our present head-gear, and condemned our
+hats, without pulling them to pieces, let us enquire what a proper
+covering for the head should be: first of all in point of usefulness,
+and next in point of comely appearance. But let no man vainly imagine
+that we expect to suit the fancies of all the creatures privileged to
+wear hats, or even to cover their heads; we do not pretend to invent,
+or decide upon, any one given type or form of head-dress. So many are
+the wants of a man in covering his head, so widely differing from each
+other are the exigencies of different people, that uniformity in hats
+is to be given up as a bad job: to attempt it would foil the strength
+of a Hercules: the utmost we can hope to effect is to lay down
+certain limits for the variations of this apex of human pride.
+
+For us, then, who live in a climate rainy, windy, hot, and cold, all
+within any twenty-four hours of the year, just as the case may be, it
+is plain that we want for general use something that will be proof
+against the atmospherical accidents that may befall any man who goes
+abroad to take the air. And here let it be observed, that in reasoning
+about hats, all thoughts about that effeminate invention, the
+umbrella, are to be laid aside. This utensil is truly a disgrace to
+the manhood of the times; and its existence, by allowing people to
+dispense with warm cloaks and other anti-rain appliances, has caused
+more disease, in letting them catch cold, than any thing else we know
+of. Our stalwart ancestors did admirably well without umbrellas; they
+wore good cloaks or coats, and broad beavers to keep the rain out of
+their necks, faring not a jot the worse for it. Umbrellas are only fit
+for men-milliners, Cockney travellers, and women. The nature of a hat,
+we flatter ourselves, is something independent of cotton and
+whalebone; and instead of the umbrella claiming precedence over the
+hat, the hat, we take it, should be above the umbrella. An
+Englishman's hat, then, should be something that will keep the rain
+off his face and neck when the weather is bad, and shield his eyes
+from the glare of the sun on the few days when sunlight is
+oppressive--and these two requirements settle at once, on all
+principles of common sense, that a man, if he has only one kind of
+covering for the head, should have a hat with a broad brim. This is
+the very foundation of the definition of an useful hat, providing that
+a hat is really to be the thing worn for protecting a man's upper
+story. Usefulness will also decide against height in the crown. _Cui
+bono_ this same high crown of ours, that looks more like a
+watering-pot deprived of its spout and handle than a reasonable
+article of human apparel? Down with the crowns, say we! If you will
+wear a hat, down with your crown. You may put down your half-sovereign
+or sovereign, or whatever you please, for your new hat first of all,
+but down with your crown too. Here, gentle reader, you will exclaim
+against our taste, and will protest that we would sacrifice every
+thing to that horrid utilitarian principle, which opposes all ideas of
+beauty and poetry. We are free to confess that, in our opinion, there
+is not much poetry to be made about such a subject--unless some
+obsolete verses, "All round my hat," may be alleged to the contrary;
+but as for the beauty of the head-piece, we protest that we admit its
+existence, and think that it should be consulted by whomsoever would
+pay proper attention to his own outward appearance. The merely useful
+may possibly make the shape approximate to that of a Quaker's or a
+jarvey's, but the beautiful has to elevate and modify it into the
+mystical proportions fit for a man of taste. One other quality,
+however, which is intimately connected with the useful, has to be
+noticed. The substance should not be hard and unyielding. Witness, ye
+reminiscences--ye painful images of bygone headachs, even yet flitting
+through our brain like Titanic thunderbolts!--accursed be the memory
+of that fellow Tightfit in Old Bond Street, who used to screw his hats
+on our cranium when we were young, and ere London had awakened us! As
+you value your comfort, dear reader, never purchase a hard hat. A hard
+heart may be borne with, but a hard hat--never! And last of all, a hat
+should be light--yes, the lighter the better--light as a gossamer web,
+though 'tis a simile that will not bear stretching. You may have the
+misfortune to be a heavy-headed man, but do not add to it that of
+being heavy-hatted. Avoid the extremity of suffering; and observe the
+climax of ill from which we would shield your head--a narrow-brimmed,
+hard, heavy, high-crowned hat--
+
+  "tode gar brotois megiston êlthet' ek theôn kakon."
+
+
+The covering of the head, then, must have its usefulness made
+ornamental, if not beautiful; and the due ornamentation of it will
+depend principally upon its form, but also upon its colour and
+material. Now, form is the principal thing; every one that has half
+an eye for art will tell you this--'tis an admitted axiom. Either,
+then, the shape of the covering should conform to that of the head, or
+it should not, and we take our ground in support of the latter
+position. The natural form of the head is determined by the rotundity
+of the cranium, beautifully modified by the waving curls of the
+hair--we speak of the abstract well-formed head; and nothing that
+approaches to the same shape will ever do more than give a bad
+substitute for the outline of the head as nature framed it. Any
+covering conceals the hair; and if you remove from sight this
+intrinsically beautiful integument, it is a principle of bad taste to
+put in its place only a poor copy of the same contour. If you cover
+the head, cover it with something that forms lines not curving like
+the skull, nor yet so angular as to create too striking an opposition
+of ideas in the mind of the beholder. A close-fitting untasseled
+skull-cap does not improve the form of the head, for it is not half so
+graceful as the hair; but a square hat or pyramidal cap is truly
+detestable. This is the reason why the common nightcap is ugly; it
+fits the head too closely, and its upper end conveys the ludicrous
+idea of something made to be pulled at. On the other hand, the double
+nightcap, pulled out and allowed to hang down on one shoulder, Spanish
+fashion, is less ugly--though far removed from our own ideas of
+beauty--because it introduces a new system of curves, and acts as a
+kind of dependent drapery to compensate for the concealment of the
+hair. Here is also the reason why the common hat is so frightful; it
+gives us straight or nearly straight lines, going upwards like
+tangents from the oval of the face, and cut off above by another
+straight line (the section of the crown) at right angles: all such
+lines and angles are foreign to the face and head. The common nightcap
+is too familiar, the common hat too stiff. Observe the lines of the
+face and head; the projection of the nose, the rounded angularity of
+the chin; the vertical section of the head affording curves with
+decided yet harmonious irregularities; the horizontal section
+producing a nearly regular contour. Well, it is upon principles of
+this kind that the covering of the head should be beautified. Now, we
+profess ourselves unable to make any better reconciliation of the
+useful with the beautiful for this purpose, than in the small,
+flexible, light, and broad-brimmed hat, which is still to be found in
+some Spanish and Italian pictures; a hat not quite so large as that
+worn in the reign of Charles I., yet with all its freedom and
+capability of assuming a variety of graceful forms; not so stiff as
+the beaux of the Spanish court, and the rakes of our own merry
+monarch's palace made it; not so formal as we know James I. and Lord
+Bacon used to wear; but something between all these three types. The
+prevalence of straight lines in it should be avoided without its
+appearing slovenly, and its dimensions should be such as to consult
+convenience without relapsing into a homely vulgarity. Such a kind of
+hat admits of any further ornament which the fancy of the wearer may
+induce him to add; a feather, a band, a buckle, or even a plain button
+for occasionally looping up the brim on one side or other, (not two
+sides, for it would return to the old cocked hat,)--any of these
+extraneous additions would harmonize, and would be in due character
+with its shape. Such a hat would certainly be useful; and that it
+would be ornamental we have only to decide by consulting our eyes, and
+by looking at our ancestors' portraits of the seventeenth century.
+
+But there is another kind of covering for the head, which, for its
+peculiar purposes, seems to us more useful and more ornamental even
+than this hat; we allude to the common round travelling cap, the
+officers' undress cap in the British army. Are you going a journey?
+have you any rough work to do? have you got a headach and want
+something light? would you put on something that will not spoil by
+being pulled about, sat on, slept on, and stood on? something handy,
+useful, comfortable, and withal good-looking?--What do you do? you get
+a foraging cap. Every man looks well in a foraging cap; it harmonizes
+with every body's face: it makes the old look young, and the young
+look smart: it is, without pretence, plain in detail, and yet elegant
+in outline: it has no straight lines in it, and yet its curves are in
+contrast with those of the head; they run in opposite directions: and
+the shade of the cap, if it has one, emulates the decisiveness of the
+nose, and gives character to the profile of the head, just as the nose
+gives point and force to the face. Nothing so easily admits of
+suitable ornament: a plain band--a golden one--or even a coloured
+one--makes it suitable to the various ranks and occupations of men:
+while its material, admitting of infinite variety, according to the
+taste of the wearer, never injures the source of its beauty its form.
+The cap fails in only one thing; it is unfit for rainy weather; it
+will only do for dry days. Do not attempt to put a flap behind it, and
+tie it under your chin--you at once convert it into an ugly nightcap;
+its curves then imitate those of the head, and the ridiculous takes
+the place of the becoming. For three hundred days, however, out of the
+three hundred and sixty-five, such a cap may be worn with the greatest
+comfort and advantage: while, for simplicity and elegance, it has no
+rival. We exclude most vigorously all other kinds of caps; we admit
+nothing but the common round foraging cap, with a small shade over the
+eyes; we especially set our faces against the little quirked Highland
+cap, now revived, and becoming popular among the southrons. This cap
+has part of its curves--those behind the head approximating too
+closely to the curve of the skull: in fact, at the hinder part it is a
+skull-cap; whereas, the other part of the curves in front are too much
+in opposition to the outline of the face: they bend over and form an
+unpleasant contrast with the nose and chin: they are deficient in the
+shade or visor, and there is not one man in a thousand whose face they
+suit. All fancy-caps with whalebone, falling tops, angular
+projections, &c., are utterly abominate; we pin our faith to the
+quiet, unsophisticated, gentlemanlike cap worn by our officers: it
+beats almost any other head-dress in the world.
+
+The prevailing tendency of the age is to avoid distinctions of dress
+except in the value of the material, and then only between the two
+great divisions of society--the affluent and the poor. Hence all
+ornament seems to be a superfluity, except upon occasions of public
+display or military service; and men will not now listen to any one
+who advises them to put feathers and gold lace on their hats and caps:
+they would as soon think of returning to the embroidered coats of
+their grandfathers. The principle is a good one: in the palmy days of
+Rome, the differences of dress bore no proportion to the differences
+of station; distinction in dress was the failing of the middle ages, a
+consequence of some lurking seeds of northern barbarism, which are
+only now ceasing to be propagated. We seem, like the great men of the
+Eternal City eighteen hundred years ago, to be looking more at the
+inward worth and influence of a man, than at his outward state and
+dress; and it is a good sign of the times; it is a reasonable
+inclination of the mind; but it confines the exercise of taste in
+dress. Men of the present day are determined to be plain about the
+head as well as about the body; all ornament of head-dress they have
+left to soldiers and to the fairer half of the creation:--_sed hæc
+hactenus_--we reserve our remarks on the _coiffures_ of these two
+classes for another occasion.
+
+                                                       H. L. J.
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE GUARDSMEN.
+
+
+Guardsmen have at all periods been a racketing, rollicking set of
+fellows. Whether ancients or moderns, infidels or Christians,
+prætorians or janissaries, the _mousquetaires_ and Scottish archers of
+the French Louises, or the lifeguards of "bonnie Dundee's" own
+regiment, they have always claimed, and usually enjoyed, a greater
+degree of license than is accorded to the more unpretending soldiery
+of the line. The first in the field, and the last out of it, they have
+sometimes seemed to think that, by thrashing the king's enemies, they
+acquired a right to baton his subjects, that captured cities atoned
+for the wrongs of deluded damsels, and that each extra blow struck in
+the fight, entitled them to an extra bottle in the barrack-room. On
+duty, discipline--off duty, dissipation--seems to have been the motto
+of these gentlemen; and if it be the case, that they occasionally
+forgot the former part of their device, it, on the other hand, is no
+where upon record, that they were oblivious of its latter portion.
+Fighting hard and drinking hard, living hard and dying hard, the
+bravest men and most desperate debauchees of all countries, have worn
+the uniform of guardsmen.
+
+Our old friend, M. Alexandre Dumas, who, if we may believe one of his
+biographers, passes twelve hours a-day in driving a goosequill for the
+entertainment and particular edification of his countrymen, found
+himself, one fine morning, desperately at a loss for something to
+write about. He is, perhaps, not the first writer of fiction who has
+been in a like predicament; and even if he were, it would be neither
+wonderful nor unpardonable, seeing that his average rate of production
+is about three volumes per month. There is a limit to all things, even
+to the imagination of a French romance writer; and M. Dumas, without
+exception the most prolific of modern scribblers, was for once hard up
+for a subject.
+
+_L'hôpital n'est pas pour les chiens_, says the French proverb. It
+occurred to M. Dumas, that the league or two of books in the
+Bibliothèque Royale were not placed there for the mere purpose of
+astonishing provincials, or causing English tourists to stare and lift
+up their hands in admiration; but that one of the objects of their
+preservation might well be, that they should afford suggestions to any
+distinguished _littérateur_ who happened to be, like himself, in want
+of an idea. Emerging, therefore, from his comfortable abode in the
+Chaussée d'Antin, he turned his steps in the direction of the royal
+library, and was soon up to his ears in dusty tomes and jaundiced
+parchments. After much research, he discovered a folio manuscript,
+numbered, as he tells us in his preface, 4772 or 4773, and purporting
+to be a memoir, by a certain Count de la Fère, of events that occurred
+in France towards the latter part of the reign of Louis the
+Thirteenth. Upon perusal, he found this MS. so interesting, that he
+applied for, and obtained permission to publish it; and the memoir in
+question saw the light under the title of _Les Trois Mousquetaires_.
+
+The piquant and interesting matter contained in this book, caused it
+to be much read, and numerous persons were curious to see the original
+manuscript. To their infinite surprise, however, they could obtain no
+account whatever of such a document; and what was still more
+provoking, the librarians seemed to look upon them as insane when they
+asked for it. There was much running up and down the library stairs,
+much mounting upon step-ladders, and tumbling of paper and parchment,
+much grumbling of puzzled librarians and disappointed applicants,
+until at last, the most obstinate became convinced that the aforesaid
+MS. had no existence save in the imagination of M. Dumas, who had, as
+it is vulgarly styled, "taken a rise" out of the public.
+
+In the spring of the year 1625, a young Gascon gentleman named
+D'Artagnan, left his home to seek fortune at Paris. He was mounted on
+an ill-looking cob, some fourteen years of age--that is to say,
+within four years as old as its rider; the sword which his father
+buckled on him at parting, was more remarkable for its length than its
+elegance; his purse contained fifteen crowns, and his valise a couple
+of shirts. To compensate for this meagre equipment, he rode like a
+Tartar, and fenced like a St George; and was moreover possessed of
+three qualifications invaluable to a man who has his way to make in
+the world--a clear head, a light heart, and a courage that nothing
+could daunt. One thing more he had; a letter of recommendation from
+his father to Monsieur de Treville, captain of the mousquetaires, or
+body-guards, of his Majesty Louis the Thirteenth.
+
+Nearly the last words of the worthy old Gascon, who was compelled by
+his poverty to send his son forth into the world thus slenderly
+provided, were an injunction to honour the King and Cardinal
+Richelieu, then in the zenith of his power, and to fight as often as
+he could get an opportunity. With such counsels yet ringing in his
+ears, it is not surprising, that before reaching Paris young
+D'Artagnan gets into a very pretty quarrel against overpowering odds,
+is somewhat maltreated, and, while senseless from the blows he has
+received, has his letter stolen from him by an emissary of the
+Cardinal, among whose political enemies M. de Treville stands in the
+foremost rank. The young adventurer, however, consoles himself for his
+loss, shakes his feathers, and arrives at Paris without further
+accident. Before entering the capital he disposes of his horse, of
+whose uncouth appearance he is heartily ashamed; and after improving
+his toilet as well as his scanty wardrobe will allow, he proceeds to
+the hotel of Monsieur de Treville, where he falls in with the three
+mousquetaires who give a title to the book, in which, however,
+D'Artagnan plays the most conspicuous and important part. He finds the
+hotel Treville throned with applicants for an audience, petitioners,
+mousquetaires, and lackeys bearing letters from persons of the first
+importance. He sends in his name, and after some delay, is admitted.
+Here is M. Dumas' account of the interview.
+
+    "Monsieur de Treville was that day in a particularly bad humour;
+    nevertheless he returned D'Artagnan's profound bow with a polite
+    inclination of the head, and smiled at the strong Gascon accent in
+    which the young man uttered his compliments. The sound recalled to
+    his mind his own youth and his native country, two things of which
+    the recollection is apt to make most men smile. He then waved his
+    hand to D'Artagnan, as if requesting him to have a moment's
+    patience, and approaching the door leading to the anteroom, he
+    called out in an imperious and angry tone--
+
+    "'Athos! Porthos! Aramis!'
+
+    "Two mousquetaires, who had already attracted D'Artagnan's
+    attention, left the groups of which they formed a part, and
+    entered the audience chamber, of which the door was immediately
+    closed behind them.
+
+    "There was a remarkable contrast in the appearance of these two
+    guardsmen. One was a man of gigantic stature, loud-voiced, and of
+    stern and haughty countenance; the other, on the contrary, was of
+    gentle and _naïve_ physiognomy, with smooth rosy cheeks, a soft
+    expression in his black eye, a delicate mustache on his upper lip,
+    white hands, and a voice and smile remarkable for their mildness.
+    The bearing of these two gentlemen upon entering the presence of
+    their captain, showed a happy mixture of submission and dignity,
+    which excited the admiration of D'Artagnan, who was already
+    disposed to look upon the mousquetaires as demigods, and upon
+    their chief as an Olympic Jupiter, armed with all his thunders.
+
+    "Monsieur de Treville took two or three turns up and down the
+    apartment, silent, and with a contracted brow, passing each time
+    before Porthos and Aramis, who remained mute and immoveable as if
+    upon the parade ground. Suddenly he stopped, and measured them
+    from head to foot with an angry glance.
+
+    "'Do you know what the King told me, gentlemen, and that no longer
+    ago than yesternight? Do you know, I say, what his Majesty told
+    me?'
+
+    "'No,' replied the two guardsmen after a moment's silence. 'No,
+    sir, we do not know it.'
+
+    "'But I hope you will do us the honour to inform us,' said Aramis
+    in his most polite tone, and with his most graceful bow.
+
+    "'He told me that henceforward he would recruit his mousquetaires
+    from among the guards of Monsieur le Cardinal.'
+
+    "'Among the guards of Monsieur le Cardinal! And why so?' demanded
+    Porthos abruptly.
+
+    "'Because he finds that his own sour wine requires to be improved
+    by the admixture of some more generous liquor.'
+
+    "The two guardsmen coloured up to the eyes. D'Artagnan felt
+    uncertain whether he was standing on his head or his heels.
+
+    "'Yes,' continued Monsieur de Treville with increased vivacity,
+    'and his Majesty is right; for, by my honour, the mousquetaires
+    cut a sorry figure at the court! Monsieur le Cardinal was relating
+    yesterday at the King's card-table, in a tone of condolence that
+    displeased me no little, how those infernal mousquetaires, those
+    _sabreurs_ as he ironically called them, had forgotten themselves
+    over their bottle at a tavern in the Rue Ferou, and how a patrol
+    of his guards had found it necessary to arrest them. I thought he
+    was going to laugh in my face as he said the words, looking at me
+    all the time with his tiger-cat eyes. _Morbleu!_ you ought to know
+    something about it. You were amongst them; the cardinal named you.
+    Mousquetaires, indeed, who allow themselves to be arrested! But it
+    is my fault for not choosing my men better. What the devil
+    possessed you, Aramis, to ask me for a guardsman's uniform, when a
+    priest's surplice would have fitted you better? And you, Porthos,
+    what is the use of your wearing that magnificent embroidered
+    sword-belt, if the weapon it supports is of such small service to
+    you? And Athos, I do not see Athos. Where is he?'
+
+    "'Sir,' replied Aramis gravely, 'he is ill--very ill.'
+
+    "'Ill, say you? And of what disease?'
+
+    "'It is feared that it is the small-pox, sir,' replied Porthos,
+    who was desirous of putting in a word. 'It would be a great pity,
+    for it would assuredly spoil his appearance.'
+
+    "'The small-pox! A fine story indeed! The small-pox at his age!
+    Not so! But wounded, I suppose--killed perhaps. _Sangdieu!_
+    Messieurs les Mousquetaires, I insist upon your ceasing to
+    frequent taverns and places of bad repute. I will have no more
+    brawling and sword-playing in the public streets. I will not have
+    my regiment made a laughing-stock to the Cardinal's guards, who
+    are brave fellows, prudent and quiet--who do not get themselves
+    into trouble, and if they did, would not allow themselves to be
+    arrested. Not they! They would sooner die upon the spot than
+    recede an inch. It is only the King's mousquetaires who run away
+    or are taken prisoners.'
+
+    "Porthos and Aramis trembled with rage. They would willingly have
+    strangled their chief, if they had not felt that it was the great
+    affection he bore them that induced him to speak thus harshly.
+    They bit their lips till the blood came, and clutched the hilts of
+    their swords in silent fury. Several of the guardsmen in the
+    anteroom, who had heard Monsieur de Treville's summons to Athos,
+    Porthos, and Aramis, and suspected what was going on, had applied
+    their ears to the tapestry, and lost not a word of their captain's
+    reproaches, which they repeated to those around them, who in their
+    turn repeated them to their comrades on the staircase and in the
+    courtyard. In an instant, from the anteroom to the street, all was
+    commotion.
+
+    "'Ha! his Majesty's mousquetaires allow themselves to be arrested
+    by the Cardinal's guards!' continued Monsieur de Treville, who was
+    as furious as his soldiers. 'Aha! sirs, six of his Eminence's
+    guards arrest six of the King's! _Morbleu!_ I have made up my mind
+    what to do. I will go at once to the Louvre, resign my post as
+    captain of mousquetaires, and solicit a lieutenancy in the
+    Cardinal's guards; and if I am refused, _morbleu!_ I will turn
+    priest!'
+
+    "At these words the murmur outside the audience chamber became an
+    explosion. On all sides oaths and blasphemies were resounding.
+    D'Artagnan looked about for a place to hide himself. He felt a
+    strong inclination to get under the table.
+
+    "'Well, captain,' said Porthos, who was completely beside himself
+    with rage and vexation, 'the truth is that we were six against
+    six; but they attacked us treacherously; and before we could draw
+    a sword, two of us were dead men, and Athos desperately wounded
+    and equally useless. You know Athos, captain; well, twice he tried
+    to get up, and twice he fell down again. Nevertheless, we did not
+    yield ourselves prisoners; we were taken off by main force, and on
+    the way to the guard-house we managed to break away from them. As
+    to Athos, they thought him dead, and left him on the ground. That
+    is the real truth of the matter. And what then, captain! One
+    cannot win every battle. The great Pompey lost that of Pharsalia,
+    and Francis I., who, from what I have heard, was no fool in the
+    fighting way, got roughly handled at Pavia.'
+
+    "'And I have the honour to assure you, sir,' said Aramis, 'that I
+    killed one of the guards with his own sword, for mine was broken
+    at the first onset.'
+
+    "'I did not know that,' said Treville in a more gentle tone. 'I
+    see that the Cardinal exaggerated matters.'
+
+    "'But for heaven's sake, sir,' continued Aramis, encouraged by the
+    softened manner of his commander, 'for heaven's sake, do not
+    mention that Athos is wounded: he would be in despair if the King
+    heard of it; and as the wound is very serious, having passed
+    through the shoulder and entered the breast, it is to be
+    feared....'
+
+    "At this moment the tapestry that covered the door was raised, and
+    the head of a man of noble aspect and handsome features, but
+    fearfully pale, appeared below the fringe.
+
+    "'Athos!' exclaimed the two guardsmen.
+
+    "'Athos!' repeated Monsieur de Treville himself.
+
+    "You asked for me, sir,' said Athos to Monsieur de Treville, in a
+    calm but enfeebled voice--'my comrades told me that you asked for
+    me, and I hastened to obey your summons.'
+
+    "And so saying, the mousquetaire entered the room with a tolerably
+    firm step, in full uniform and belted as usual. Monsieur de
+    Treville, touched to the soul by this proof of courage, sprang to
+    meet him.
+
+    "'I was telling these gentlemen,' said he, 'that I forbid my
+    mousquetaires to expose their lives without necessity; that brave
+    men are very dear to the King, and his Majesty knows that his
+    mousquetaires are the bravest men upon the face of the earth. Your
+    hand, Athos!'
+
+    "And without waiting for the new comer to hold out his right hand,
+    Monsieur de Treville seized and pressed it energetically, not
+    observing that Athos, in spite of his command over himself,
+    writhed with pain, and grew each moment paler than before. The
+    room-door had remained half open, and a loud murmur of
+    satisfaction from without replied to the words addressed to Athos
+    by Monsieur de Treville. The heads of two or three mousquetaires,
+    who forgot themselves in the enthusiasm of the moment, appeared at
+    the opening of the tapestry. Doubtless Monsieur de Treville was
+    about to check sharply this infraction of the laws of etiquette,
+    when he suddenly felt the hand of Athos contract in his, and
+    looking at the guardsman, he saw that he was going to faint. At
+    the same moment Athos, who had summoned all his energies to
+    struggle against the sufferings he endured, was overcome by the
+    torture of his wound, and fell senseless to the ground.
+
+    "'A surgeon!' cried Monsieur de Treville. 'My surgeon--the
+    King's--the best! A surgeon! or, _sangdieu!_ my brave Athos will
+    die!'"
+
+
+The swoon of Athos had merely been occasioned by loss of blood. The
+surgeon declares there is no danger, and D'Artagnan, who has stood his
+ground with true Gascon tenacity, at length obtains an audience. The
+loss of his letter of recommendation now proves a great disadvantage
+to him. In those days of court intrigue and espionage, men were
+naturally suspicious of each other, and the mingled _naïveté_ and
+shrewdness of the young Béarnais, are causes for Monsieur de Treville
+at first suspecting him of being a spy of the Cardinal's. His
+suspicions, however, are wearing off, and he is disposed to be useful
+to D'Artagnan, although he cannot admit him into the mousquetaires--a
+noviciate of two years in some other regiment being the indispensable
+condition of admission into that favoured corps--when D'Artagnan,
+happening to look out of the window, starts, reddens with anger, and
+rushes to the door. He has recognised, in a passer-by, the person who
+had stolen his letter; and leaves Monsieur de Treville in doubt
+whether he has to do with a madman or with an emissary of the
+Cardinal's, who, fearing himself suspected, takes this pretext for
+effecting a retreat.
+
+In his hurry to leave the hotel and pursue his robber, D'Artagnan gets
+into all sorts of scrapes. On the landing-place he runs against Athos,
+who is returning home after having his wound dressed. Some hasty words
+pass, a challenge is the result, and rendezvous is taken for noon in a
+field near the Carmelite convent, then a favourite duelling ground. In
+the gateway of the courtyard, Porthos is talking with one of his
+comrades, and D'Artagnan, in trying to pass between them, gets
+entangled in the velvet cloak of the former, and discovers, what the
+guardsman had been most anxious to conceal, that the front only of his
+embroidered shoulder-belt was gold, and the back mere leather.
+Porthos, not having sufficient pistoles to purchase a whole belt, had
+gratified his vanity with half a one, and wore his cloak to conceal
+the deficiency. The young Gascon finds himself with a second duel on
+his hands, and sets himself down as a dead man. Meantime his robber
+has disappeared, and as D'Artagnan is proceeding in the direction of
+his lodging, he encounters Aramis, standing in the middle of the
+street with some other gentlemen. Furious with himself for the follies
+he has been committing, D'Artagnan has made a resolution to be all
+things to all men, at least for the hour or two that he still has to
+live; and observing that Aramis has dropped a handkerchief, and placed
+his foot upon it, he hastens to drag it from under his boot, and
+present it to him with a most gracious bow and smile. A coronet and
+cipher on the embroidered cambric attract notice, and draw down a
+shower of raillery upon the head of the mousquetaire, who, in order to
+shield the honour of a lady, is compelled to deny that the
+handkerchief is his. His companions walk away, and Aramis reproaches
+D'Artagnan with his officiousness. The Gascon blood gets up, good
+resolutions are forgotten, and a third rendezvous is the result.
+
+M. Dumas is never more at home than in the description of duels.
+Himself an excellent swordsman, he luxuriates and excels in the
+description of points and parries, cartes and tierces, and of the
+vigorous estocades which his heroes administer to each other. One of
+the good chapters of the book--and there are many such--is the one in
+which D'Artagnan encounters the three redoubtable champions whom he
+has so heedlessly provoked. We will endeavour, by abridgement, to lay
+it before our readers.
+
+     "D'Artagnan knew nobody at Paris, and betook himself, therefore,
+     to his first rendezvous without seconds, intending to content
+     himself with those whom his adversary should bring. Moreover, his
+     firm intention was to make all reasonable apologies to Athos,
+     fearing that there would result from this duel the usual
+     consequence of an encounter between a young and vigorous man and
+     a wounded and feeble one--if the former is conquered, his
+     antagonist's triumph is doubled; and if he conquers, he is
+     accused of taking an advantage, or of being brave at small risk.
+     Besides this, either we have been unsuccessful in the exposition
+     of our young adventurer's character, or the reader will have
+     already perceived that D'Artagnan was no ordinary man. Thus,
+     although he repeated to himself that his death was inevitable, he
+     by no means made up his mind to fall an easy sacrifice, as one
+     less cool and courageous than himself might perhaps have done. He
+     reflected on the different characters of the three men with whom
+     he had to fight, and began to think that his case was not so
+     desperate as it might have been. He hoped, by the candid and
+     loyal apology which he intended to offer, to make himself a
+     friend of Athos, whose austere mien and noble air pleased him
+     greatly. He flattered himself that he should be able to
+     intimidate Porthos by the affair of the shoulder-belt, which he
+     could, if not killed upon the spot, relate to every body, and
+     which would cover the giant with ridicule. Finally, he did not
+     feel much afraid of Aramis, and he resolved, if he lived long
+     enough, either to kill him, or at least to administer to him a
+     wound in the face, that would considerably impair the beauty of
+     which he was evidently so proud.
+
+     "When D'Artagnan arrived in sight of the waste land adjoining the
+     convent of barefooted Carmelites, noon was striking, and Athos
+     was already on the ground. The guardsman, who still suffered
+     cruelly from his wound, was seated on a post, and awaiting his
+     adversary with the calm countenance and dignified air that never
+     abandoned him. Upon D'Artagnan's appearance, he rose courteously,
+     and advanced a few steps to meet him. Our Gascon, on his side,
+     made his approach hat in hand, the plume trailing on the earth.
+
+     "'Sir,' said Athos, 'I have given notice to two gentlemen to act
+     as my seconds, but they are not come. I am surprised at it, for
+     they are usually punctual.'
+
+     "'For my part, sir,' returned D'Artagnan, 'I have no seconds. I
+     arrived in Paris yesterday, and know no one but Monsieur de
+     Treville, to whom I was recommended by my father, who has the
+     honour to be a friend of his.'
+
+     "Athos glanced at the beardless chin and youthful mien of his
+     adversary, and seemed to reflect for a moment.
+
+     "'_Ah ça_!' said he at last, speaking half to himself and half to
+     D'Artagnan; '_ah ça_! but if I kill you, it will be something
+     very like child-murder.'
+
+     "'Not exactly, sir,' replied D'Artagnan, with a bow that was not
+     without its dignity; 'not exactly, sir, since you do me the
+     honour to meet me with a wound by which you must be greatly
+     inconvenienced.'
+
+     "Inconvenienced certainly, and you hurt me terribly, I must
+     acknowledge, when you ran against me just now; but I will use my
+     left hand, according to my custom in such circumstances. Do not
+     suppose on that account that I am sparing you; I fight decently
+     with both hands, and a left-handed swordsman is an awkward
+     antagonist when one is not prepared for him. I am sorry I did not
+     tell you of it sooner, that you might have got your hand in
+     accordingly.'
+
+     "'Truly, sir,' said D'Artagnan, with another bow, 'I know not how
+     to express my gratitude for such courtesy.'
+
+     "'You are too obliging to say so,' returned Athos, with his
+     princely air; 'let us talk of something else, if not disagreeable
+     to you. Ah, _sangbleu_! you hurt me terribly! My shoulder burns.'
+
+     "'If you would permit me,' said D'Artagnan, timidly.
+
+     "'What then, sir?'
+
+     "'I have a balm that is wonderfully efficacious in the cure of
+     wounds. I hold the recipe from my mother, and have myself
+     experienced its good effects.'
+
+     "'Well?'
+
+     "'Well, I am sure that in less than three days it would heal your
+     wound; and at the end of that time, sir, it would still be a
+     great honour for me to meet you.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan said these words with a simplicity that did credit to
+     his natural courtesy of feeling, at the same time that it could
+     not give rise to the slightest doubt of his courage.
+
+     "'_Pardieu_, sir!' said Athos, 'your proposition pleases me, not
+     that I can accept it, but because it is that of a chivalrous
+     gentleman. It is thus that spoke and acted those heroes of
+     Charlemagne's days, on whom every cavalier should strive to model
+     himself. Unfortunately we do not live in the times of the great
+     emperor, but in those of Cardinal Richelieu; and however well we
+     might keep our secret, it would be known before three days had
+     elapsed that we intended to fight, and our duel would be
+     prevented. _Ah ça_! where can those idlers be?'
+
+     "'If you are in haste, sir,' resumed D'Artagnan with the same
+     simplicity with which he had a moment before proposed to put off
+     the duel for three days--'if you are pressed for time, and that
+     it pleases you to finish with me at once, let me beg of you to do
+     so.'
+
+     "'Another proposal that I like,' said Athos with an approving nod
+     of the head; 'it is that of a man lacking neither wit nor valour.
+     Sir, I like men of your stamp; and I see that if we do not kill
+     one another, I shall hereafter have much pleasure in your
+     society. But let us wait for these gentlemen, I beg of you. I
+     have plenty of time, and it will be more according to rule. Ha!
+     here comes one of them.'
+
+     "At that moment the gigantic form of Porthos appeared at the
+     extremity of the Rue Vaugirard.
+
+     "'What!' cried D'Artagnan, 'Monsieur Porthos is one of your
+     seconds?'
+
+     "'Yes; is it disagreeable to you?'
+
+     "'By no means.'
+
+     "'And here is the other.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan turned his head and recognised Aramis.
+
+     "'What!' he exclaimed in still greater astonishment, 'Monsieur
+     Aramis is the other?'
+
+     "'Certainly; do you not know that we are never seen asunder, and
+     are known in court, camp, and city, as Athos, Porthos, and
+     Aramis, or the three inseparables? But you are just arrived from
+     Gascony, which accounts for your being unacquainted with these
+     circumstances.'
+
+     "Meanwhile Porthos, who had abandoned his cloak and changed his
+     shoulder-belt, approached, nodded to Athos, but on beholding
+     D'Artagnan, remained struck with astonishment.
+
+     "'This is the gentleman I am to fight with,' said Athos
+     indicating D'Artagnan with his hand, at the same time bowing to
+     him.
+
+     "'It is with him that I am to fight,' said Porthos.
+
+     "'Not till one o'clock,' said D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'And I also,' said Aramis, who just then came up.
+
+     "'Our appointment was for two o'clock,' said D'Artagnan with
+     perfect composure.
+
+     "'What are you going to fight about, Athos?' asked Aramis.
+
+     "'Faith, I can hardly tell you. He hurt my shoulder. And you,
+     Porthos?'
+
+     "'I fight because I am so minded,' replied Porthos colouring.
+
+     "Athos, whom nothing escaped, saw a slight smile curling
+     D'Artagnan's lip.
+
+     "'We had a dispute about dress,' said the young Gascon.
+
+     "'And you, Aramis?' asked Athos.
+
+     "'A theological difference,' replied Aramis, making a sign to
+     D'Artagnan that he wished the cause of their duel to remain a
+     secret.
+
+     "'Indeed!' said Athos looking at D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'Yes, a point of St Augustin on which we are not agreed,' said
+     the latter.
+
+     "'Decidedly he is a man of wit and sense,' muttered Athos to
+     himself.
+
+     "'And now that you are all assembled, gentlemen,' said
+     D'Artagnan, 'allow me to apologise to you.'
+
+     "At the word apologise, a cloud passed across the features of
+     Athos, Porthos smiled contemptuously, Aramis made a negative
+     sign.
+
+     "'You do not understand me, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan raising
+     his head proudly. 'I only apologise in case I should not be able
+     to pay my debt to all of you; for Monsieur Athos has the right to
+     kill me the first, which greatly diminishes the value of my debt
+     to you, Monsieur Porthos, and renders that to Monsieur Aramis
+     nearly worthless. And now, gentlemen, I say again, accept my
+     apologies, but on that account only--and to work!'
+
+     "And so saying, he drew his sword with the most fearless and
+     gallant mien possible to be seen. His blood was up, and at that
+     moment he would have fought not only Athos, Porthos, and Aramis,
+     but the whole regiment of mousquetaires.
+
+     "'When you please, sir,' said Athos, putting himself on guard.
+
+     "'I was waiting your orders,' returned D'Artagnan.
+
+     "But the two rapiers had scarcely clashed together, when five of
+     the Cardinal's guards, commanded by Monsieur de Jussac, appeared
+     from behind a corner of the convent.
+
+     "'The Cardinal's guards!' exclaimed Porthos and Aramis. 'Sheath
+     your swords, gentlemen!'
+
+     "But it was too late. The combatants had been seen in an attitude
+     that left no doubt as to their pugnacious intentions.
+
+     "'Hola!' cried Jussac advancing towards them, followed by his
+     men. 'Hola, mousquetaires! fighting here? And the edicts. We have
+     forgotten them, eh?'
+
+     "'Your generosity is really remarkable, gentlemen of the
+     guards,' said Athos bitterly, for Jussac had been one of the
+     aggressors in the recent affray. 'I promise you that if we saw
+     you fighting we would not interrupt you. Leave us alone, then,
+     and you will have your amusement for nothing.'
+
+     "'Gentlemen,' said Jussac, 'I am grieved to tell you that the
+     thing is impossible. Duty before every thing. Be pleased to
+     sheath your swords, and follow us.'
+
+     "'Sir,' replied Aramis, parodying Jussac's manner, 'we should
+     have the greatest pleasure in accepting your polite invitation,
+     if it depended upon us so to do, but unfortunately the thing is
+     impossible; Monsieur de Treville has forbidden it. Move on,
+     therefore; it is the best thing you can do.'
+
+     "This bantering exasperated Jussac. 'We will charge you,' said
+     he, 'if you disobey.'
+
+     "'They are five,' said Athos in a low voice, 'and we are but
+     three; we shall be beaten again, and we must die here; for I
+     swear not to reappear before the captain if conquered.'
+
+     "Athos, Porthos, and Aramis drew closer to each other. Jussac was
+     arranging his men in line. This single moment of delay was
+     sufficient for D'Artagnan to make up his mind; it was one of
+     those moments that decide a man's whole life. The choice was to
+     be made between King and Cardinal, and, once made, it must be
+     persevered in. If he fought, he disobeyed the law, risked his
+     head, and made an enemy of a minister more powerful than the king
+     himself. All these considerations passed like lightning through
+     the mind of the young Gascon; but, be it said to his honour, he
+     did not hesitate an instant. Turning towards Athos and his
+     friends.
+
+     "'Gentlemen,' said he, 'allow me to amend the words last spoken.
+     You said you were only three, but to my thinking we are four.'
+
+     "'But you are not one of us,' said Porthos.
+
+     "'True,' replied D'Artagnan, 'I have not the coat; but I have the
+     spirit. In my heart I am a mousquetaire--I feel it, and that
+     leads me on.'
+
+     "'You may retire, young man,' cried Jussac, who doubtless guessed
+     D'Artagnan's intentions by his gestures and the expression of his
+     face. 'You may retire, we permit it. Be-gone, then, and quickly.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan did not stir.
+
+     "'Decidedly you are a fine fellow,' said Athos, pressing the
+     young man's hand.
+
+     "But the three mousquetaires thought of D'Artagnan's youth, and
+     distrusted his inexperience.
+
+     "'We should only be three, of whom one wounded, and a child,'
+     said Athos; 'but they will say all the same, that there were four
+     of us.'
+
+     "'Gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, 'only try me, and I swear by my
+     honour that if we are conquered I will not leave the ground
+     alive.'
+
+     "'What is your name, my brave fellow?' said Athos.
+
+     "'D'Artagnan, sir.'
+
+     "'Well, then, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan, forwards!'
+     cried Athos.
+
+     "'What do you decide to do?' cried Jussac.
+
+     "'We are going to have the honour of charging you,' said Aramis,
+     raising his hat with one hand and drawing his sword with the
+     other.
+
+     "And the nine combatants precipitated themselves on each other
+     with a fury that did not exclude a certain degree of method.
+     Athos took one Cahusac, a favourite of the Cardinal's; Porthos
+     had Bicarat; and Aramis found himself opposed to two adversaries.
+     As to D'Artagnan, he encountered Jussac himself.
+
+     "The heart of the young Gascon beat high, not with fear, there
+     was no shadow of it, but with emulation; he fought like an
+     enraged tiger, turning about his enemy, changing each moment his
+     ground and his guard. Jussac was one of the good blades of the
+     day, and had had much practice; but he had, nevertheless, all the
+     difficulty in the world to defend himself against a supple and
+     active antagonist, who was constantly deviating from the received
+     rules of fencing, attacking him on all sides at once, and
+     parrying, at the same time, like a man who had the greatest
+     regard for his epidermis. At last Jussac lost patience. Furious
+     at being thus kept at bay by one whom he looked upon as a child,
+     his _sang-froid_ abandoned him, and he began to commit blunders.
+     D'Artagnan, who, although lacking practice, was perfect in
+     theory, redoubled his agility. Jussac, with the design of
+     finishing him at once, delivered a terrible thrust, which
+     D'Artagnan parried adroitly, and, before his opponent could raise
+     himself, he glided like a serpent under his guard, and passed his
+     sword through his body. Jussac fell heavily to the earth.
+
+     "D'Artagnan now cast an uneasy and rapid glance over the field of
+     battle. Aramis had already killed one of his adversaries. The
+     other gave him plenty to do, but Aramis was able to take care of
+     himself. Bicarat and Porthos were wounded; Porthos in the arm,
+     and Bicarat in the thigh. But neither wound was serious, and the
+     sight of their blood made them fight all the better. There was no
+     need to interfere there. Athos, wounded again by Cahusac, was
+     growing each moment paler, but he did not give way an inch. He
+     had changed his sword to his left hand. D'Artagnan caught his eye
+     as he was looking to see who most required his aid. The look of
+     the wounded mousquetaire was most eloquent; he would have died
+     sooner than call for assistance, but his glance said how much he
+     stood in need of it. With a single bound, D'Artagnan was upon
+     Cahusac's flank.
+
+     "'Have a care, sir guardsman,' cried he, 'or I slay you on the
+     spot.'
+
+     "Cahusac turned to face his new opponent. It was high time, for
+     Athos, who had only been sustained by his extreme courage, sank
+     upon one knee.
+
+     "'_Sangdieu!_' cried he to D'Artagnan, 'do not kill him, young
+     man, I beg of you; I have an old quarrel to terminate with him
+     when my wound is healed. Disarm him only--So--Well done!'
+
+     "This last exclamation was caused by Cahusac's sword, which flew
+     from his hand to a distance of twenty paces. D'Artagnan and
+     Cahusac rushed to pick it up, but D'Artagnan reached it first,
+     and put his foot upon it. Cahusac ran to the guardsman whom
+     Aramis had killed, took his rapier, and was returning to
+     D'Artagnan; but on his road he met Athos, who had taken breath
+     during the moment's respite which the latter had procured him,
+     and now recommenced the fight, fearing that the Gascon would kill
+     his enemy. D'Artagnan saw that he should disoblige him by again
+     interfering. A few seconds later, Cahusac fell with a wound
+     through the throat. At the same moment Aramis placed his sword's
+     point on the breast of his prostrate adversary, and forced him to
+     sue for mercy.
+
+     "Porthos and Bicarat alone remained. Porthos, while fighting,
+     indulged in all sorts of fanfarronades, asking Bicarat what time
+     of day it was, and complimenting him on the company which his
+     brother had just attained in the regiment of Navarre. In spite of
+     his jests, however, he did not gain ground. Bicarat was a
+     stubborn and skilful opponent. It was time to bring matters to a
+     conclusion before some patrol should arrive, and take both
+     royalists and cardinalists into custody. Athos, Aramis, and
+     D'Artagnan, surrounded Bicarat, and summoned him to surrender.
+     Although alone against four, and with a wound through the thigh,
+     he would not give in, though Jussac, who had raised himself on
+     his elbow, called out to him to yield. Bicarat was a Gascon, like
+     D'Artagnan; he only laughed, and pretended not to hear, at the
+     same time pointing to the ground at his feet. 'Here will die
+     Bicarat,' said he, 'the last of those who are with him.'
+
+     "'But they are four against you,' cried Jussac; 'I order you to
+     desist.'
+
+     "'Ah, if you order me, it is another affair!' said Bicarat; 'you
+     are my superior, and I must obey.'
+
+     "And giving a spring backwards, he broke his sword across his
+     knee, in order not to yield it up, threw the pieces over the
+     convent wall, and, crossing his arms, whistled a Cardinalist air.
+
+     "Courage is always respected even in an enemy. The mousquetaires
+     saluted Bicarat with their swords, and returned them to their
+     scabbards. D'Artagnan did the same, and, assisted by Bicarat, he
+     carried under the convent porch Jussac, Cahusac, and that one of
+     Aramis's adversaries who was only wounded. The other, as already
+     observed, was dead. They then rang the bell, and left the ground;
+     the mousquetaires and D'Artagnan, intoxicated with joy, carrying
+     away four swords out of five, and taking the direction of
+     Monsieur de Treville's hotel. Every mousquetaire whom they met,
+     and informed of what had happened, turned back and accompanied
+     them; so that at last their march was like a triumphal
+     procession. D'Artagnan was beside himself with delight; he walked
+     between Athos and Porthos, holding an arm of each.
+
+     "'If I am not yet a mousquetaire,' said he to his new friends, as
+     they crossed the threshold of the Hotel Treville, 'I may at least
+     say that I am received apprentice.'"
+
+
+The result of this affair is to procure D'Artagnan the favour of
+Monsieur de Treville and the King--the latter of whom dislikes the
+Cardinal in secret nearly as much as he fears him. The young Gascon
+has an audience of Louis the Just, who recruits his finances by the
+present of a handful of pistoles; and a few days later he is appointed
+to a cadetship in the company of guards of the Chevalier des Essarts,
+a brother-in-law of Treville. According to the singular ideas of those
+days, there was nothing degrading to a gentleman in receiving money
+from the king's hand. D'Artagnan, therefore, pockets the pistoles with
+many thanks, and takes an early opportunity of dividing them with his
+friends with the mythological names, Messieurs Athos, Porthos, and
+Aramis, who, according to the custom of mousquetaires, have more gold
+upon their coats than in their purses. The courage and good qualities
+of the Gascon have won the hearts of the three guardsmen, and he is
+admitted to make a fourth in their brotherhood, of which the motto is,
+"_Un pour tous, et tous pour un_." All is in common amongst
+them--pleasures, perils, pistoles.
+
+The characters of the three mousquetaires are well sketched and
+sustained, and illustrate admirably the vices, virtues, and
+propensities of their time and station. Aramis, who was originally
+intended for the church, has relinquished the black coat of an abbé in
+order to fight a nobleman who had insulted him. He still, however,
+persists in considering himself as a guardsman only _pro tempore_; and
+whenever fortune or his mistress frowns upon him, he declares his
+intention of abandoning his sinful mode of life, and throwing himself
+into the arms of mother church. Vanity is the failing of Porthos, who
+shines more by his imposing appearance, brilliant attire, and bull-dog
+courage, than by any qualities of the head. To Athos, who is the most
+interesting of the three, a certain mystery is attached, which,
+however, is seen through early in the book. He is a man of high birth,
+princely manners, and chivalrous feeling, but whose stormy life has
+cast a strong tinge of melancholy over his character, and who now
+finds his sole consolation in the wine-cup. It must not be therefore
+supposed that Athos is a sot, a wallower in wine, or a haunter of
+tavern orgies. He drinks, it is true, enough to prostrate any three
+ordinary men; but he takes his liquor, as he does every thing else, so
+much like a gentleman, and, moreover, there is so much self-devotion
+and generosity in his character, such dignity of manner and rectitude
+of feeling--his temper so even and kindly--his courage so heroic--that
+he is unquestionably the most amiable and interesting of the _dramatis
+personæ_, preferable to D'Artagnan, to whom premature worldly wisdom
+gives a hardness bordering upon egotism. While Aramis is sighing
+sonnets to his mistress, and Porthos parading on the crown of the
+causeway in all the glory of gold lace and embroidery, Athos sits
+tranquilly at home, and says, like Gregory in the Deserter--
+
+  "J'aime mieux boire."
+
+His real name--for Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are merely assumed
+ones--is known only to the King and to Monsieur de Treville.
+
+It would be difficult within the limits of this paper to give an idea
+of the entire plot of the _Three Mousquetaires_, which is, in fact,
+less a tale with a regular intrigue and _dénouement_, than a narrative
+of adventures and incidents, extending over a period of nearly three
+years. D'Artagnan, whose enterprising character and Gascon acuteness
+qualify him admirably to take a part in the court intrigues of the
+time, soon finds himself almost at open war with the Cardinal, and
+engaged in serving the interests of Louis the Thirteenth's unhappy
+queen, Anne of Austria, who, by rejecting the suit of the scarlet
+duke--as the mousquetaires irreverently style the Cardinal Duke of
+Richelieu--has drawn upon herself the deadly hatred of that omnipotent
+personage. The Duke of Buckingham, who is madly in love with the
+queen, visits Paris in disguise, and obtains an interview with her. At
+parting, he implores her to give him some trifle, which he may
+preserve as a _souvenir_ of their attachment; and Anne of Austria
+gives him the first thing that comes to hand, which happens to be a
+jewel-case, containing twelve diamond clasps or _ferrets_ that she has
+lately received from the King. The Cardinal, omnipresent by his spies,
+learns this; manages adroitly to rouse the king's jealousy; and
+prevails on him to give a ball, at which the queen is desired to
+appear, wearing the ferrets in question. Anne of Austria is in
+despair. To obtain the restitution of the jewels within the eight days
+that have to elapse before the one fixed for the ball, appears
+impossible. Buckingham is in England; if she writes, her letter will
+be intercepted by the Cardinal; if she sends, her messenger will be
+stopped. Nothing could at that time be done in France without coming
+to the knowledge of Richelieu. In her extremity she is induced to
+confide in one of her attendants, with whom D'Artagnan is in love; and
+a few hours later, the intrepid Gascon and his three inseparable
+friends set out for England, provided with a leave of absence from
+Monsieur de Treville, and attended by their four lackeys. D'Artagnan
+alone knows the object of their journey; but the others, confiding
+implicitly in his judgment, and bound, moreover, by the rules of their
+association, ask no questions, and willingly brave the dangers that
+the Cardinal strews in their path. It is agreed that, in case of
+rencontres by the way, the dead or wounded are to be left to their
+fate, and the others are to push on without an instant's delay. Should
+D'Artagnan fall, the survivors are to take from his pocket the queen's
+letter to Buckingham, and continue their route.
+
+The adventurers are not allowed to proceed far without molestation.
+They stop to breakfast, and a stranger picks a quarrel with Porthos,
+who stays behind to fight him, and does not rejoin them. Near Beauvais
+they receive a volley from some pretended labourers; D'Artagnan's hat
+is knocked off by a ball; a lackey is left in the road, and Aramis is
+badly wounded, and obliged to remain at the next town. D'Artagnan,
+Athos, and their two attendants, reach Amiens at midnight, and stop to
+sleep at the sign of the Golden Lily. Here various suspicious
+incidents occur, and in the morning their horses are found to be
+dead-lame, and unable to proceed. One that might still have gone on
+has been bled by mistake.
+
+     "All these accidents succeeding each other began to alarm our
+     travellers; they might be the result of chance, but they were
+     more probably that of an organized plot. Athos and D'Artagnan
+     left their room, while Planchet (D'Artagnan's groom) went to
+     enquire whether there were any horses to be bought in the
+     neighbourhood. At the door were standing two vigorous animals,
+     saddled and bridled, and which would have suited the guardsmen
+     well. Planchet asked to whom they belonged, and was told that
+     their masters had passed the night at the inn, and were then
+     paying their score previous to departure. Athos went to do the
+     same, while D'Artagnan and Planchet remained at the street door.
+
+     "The host was in a small back room, which Athos was requested to
+     enter. He did so without suspicion, and took out some pistoles to
+     pay. The innkeeper, who was seated at a desk, of which one of the
+     drawers was half-open, took the money, turned it about, and
+     examined it on all sides, and suddenly exclaiming that it was
+     false, declared that he would have Athos and his companion
+     arrested as coiners.
+
+     "'Scoundrel!' cried Athos, advancing towards him; 'I will cut
+     your ears off for your insolence.'
+
+     "But the man stooped down, took a brace of pistols out of the
+     open drawer, and pointing them at Athos, called loudly for help.
+     On the instant four armed men entered by a side-door, and
+     attacked Athos.
+
+     "'I am taken!' cried the mousquetaire, with all the power of his
+     lungs. 'To horse, D'Artagnan! Spur! spur!'
+
+     "And he fired both his pistols. D'Artagnan and Planchet untied
+     the two horses that were waiting at the door, sprang upon their
+     backs, and set off full gallop.
+
+     "By dint of spurring and precaution, D'Artagnan and his follower
+     reach Calais without further accident; the horse of the former
+     falling dead within a hundred yards of the town. They hasten to
+     the port, and find themselves close to a gentleman and his
+     servant, dusty and travel-stained, who are enquiring for a vessel
+     to take them to England. The master of a sloop that is ready to
+     sail informs them, that an order had arrived that very morning to
+     prevent any ship from leaving the harbour without an express
+     permission from the Cardinal.
+
+     "'I have that permission,' said the gentleman, taking a paper
+     from his pocket.
+
+     "'Very good!' said the sailor. 'Get it countersigned by the
+     governor of the port, and give me the preference.'
+
+     "'Where shall I find the governor?'
+
+     "'At his country-house, a quarter of a league from the town. You
+     see it yonder. A slated roof at the foot of a little hill.'"
+
+
+The gentleman and his attendant take the direction of the governor's
+house. D'Artagnan follows them; picks a quarrel with the stranger, who
+is a certain Count de Wardes, an adherent of the Cardinal's, wounds
+him desperately, himself receiving a scratch, takes the pass, gets it
+countersigned, and proceeds to England. The Duke of Buckingham is
+hunting at Windsor with the king; but the indefatigable Gascon follows
+him thither, and delivers his letter. The duke hurries with him to
+London to give him the ferrets; but, to his unspeakable consternation,
+finds that two out of the twelve are missing. They had been cut from
+his dress by an emissary of the Cardinal's at a ball at Windsor
+Castle, at which he had worn the queen's present. The ferrets are of
+immense value, and difficult workmanship. Buckingham sends for his
+jeweller, who demands eight days and three thousand pistoles to
+replace the missing ornaments. The duke locks him up in a room, with
+his tools and a workman, and allows him six thousand pistoles, and
+thirty-six hours to complete then. The ferrets are ready within the
+prescribed period. Furnished with a password from the duke, who has
+trusty agents in France, D'Artagnan reaches Paris by a different road
+and without impediment, arriving in time to save the queen, who
+appears at the ball with her twelve ferrets, to the vast discomfiture
+of the Cardinal. Meanwhile D'Artagnan's mistress had been spirited
+away by Richelieu, and the young Gascon is in despair. He confides his
+misfortunes to Monsieur de Treville, who promises to do what he can to
+find the lady, and advises D'Artagnan to leave Paris till the
+Cardinal's wrath is a little blown over. D'Artagnan takes his advice;
+bethinks him of the three mousquetaires, and sets out to look for
+them. He finds Porthos and Aramis where he left them, nearly recovered
+from their wounds; and proceeding to Amiens, enters the hotel of the
+Golden Lily, and confronts the host--his whip in his right hand, his
+left on his sword-hilt, and evidently meaning mischief.
+
+The innkeeper, however, turns out to be more an object of pity than
+blame. Previously to the arrival of D'Artagnan and Athos on their way
+to England, he had received information from the authorities, that a
+party of coiners, disguised as guardsmen, would arrive at his inn, and
+that he was to take measures to arrest them. The six men who brought
+him these orders disguised themselves as servants and stable-boys, and
+remained to assist in the capture. In the skirmish, Athos shot two of
+them, wounded a third, cut the host across the face with the flat of
+his sword, and retreated fighting to the cellar stairs. Entering the
+cellar, he pulled the door to and barricaded it. His assailants left
+the house, carrying off their killed and wounded; and when the
+innkeeper, recovering a little from his alarm, went to inform the
+governor of what had occurred, the latter declared himself totally
+ignorant of the whole business, denied that he had given orders to
+arrest any coiners, and threatened to hang the unlucky host if he
+mixed up his name in the affair.
+
+     "'But, Athos!' cried D'Artagnan, losing all patience at the
+     innkeeper's prolixity,--'Athos, what is become of him?'
+
+     "'I was eager to repair my wrongs towards the gentleman,' replied
+     the innkeeper, 'and hurried to the cellar to set him at liberty.
+     But on my declaring what I came for, he swore it was only a snare
+     laid for him, and insisted upon making his conditions before he
+     came out. I told him very humbly--for I was aware of the scrape
+     into which I had got myself by my violence towards one of the
+     King's mousquetaires--that I was ready to submit to them.'
+
+     "'In the first place,' said he, 'I must have my servant delivered
+     to me, fully armed.'
+
+     "His order was obeyed, and Monsieur Grimaud was taken down to the
+     cellar, wounded as he was. His master received him, barricaded
+     the door again, and bid us go to the devil.
+
+     "'But where is he?' cried D'Artagnan. 'Where is Athos?'
+
+     "'In the cellar, sir.'
+
+     "'Scoundrel! you have kept him all this time in the cellar?'
+
+     "'Good heavens, sir! _I_ keep him in the cellar! You do not know
+     what he is doing there, or you would not suppose it. If you can
+     prevail upon him to come out, I shall be grateful to you to the
+     last day of my life; I will adore you as my guardian angel.'
+
+     "'I shall find him there, then?'
+
+     "'Certainly you will, sir--he won't come out. Every day we are
+     obliged to hand him down bread at the end of a hay-fork, and meat
+     too, when he asks for it. But, alas! it is not of bread and meat
+     that he makes the largest consumption. I tried once to enter the
+     cellar with two of my servants, and he put himself in a most
+     terrible passion. I heard him and his lackey cocking their
+     pistols and carbine; and when we asked what their intentions
+     were, your friend said that they had forty shots to fire, and
+     that they would fire every one before allowing us to enter the
+     cellar. I then went to complain to the governor, and he told me
+     that I had only got what I deserved, and that it would teach me
+     to maltreat honourable gentlemen who used my house.'
+
+     "'So that, since that time....' said D'Artagnan, who could not
+     help laughing at the pitiable countenance of the host.
+
+     "'Since that time, sir,' continued the latter, 'we lead the most
+     wretched life imaginable; for you must know that all our
+     provisions are in the cellar, our wine in bottle and our wine in
+     cask, beer, oil, and spices, hams and sausages; and as we cannot
+     get at them, we are unable to give food or drink to the
+     travellers who alight here, and our inn is losing all its custom.
+     If your friend stops one week longer in my cellar, I am a ruined
+     man.'
+
+     "'And quite right that you should be, scoundrel! It was easy to
+     see by our appearance, that we were men of quality and not
+     coiners.'
+
+     "'Yes, sir, you are right,' replied poor Boniface. 'But only
+     listen to him, he is getting into a passion.'
+
+     "'Doubtless somebody has disturbed him,' said D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'We are obliged to disturb him,' cried the host; 'two English
+     gentlemen have just arrived. The English, as you know, love good
+     wine, and these have asked for the best. My wife is gone to beg
+     Monsieur Athos to let her in, and he has no doubt refused as
+     usual. Holy Virgin! What a racket he is making.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan rose from his seat, and followed by the host and by
+     Planchet with his cocked carbine, took the direction of the
+     cellar, whence a tremendous noise was proceeding. The Englishmen
+     were exasperated; they had just come off a long journey, and were
+     dying of hunger and thirst.
+
+     "'It is perfect tyranny,' cried they in very good French, 'that
+     this madman will not allow these good people the use of their
+     wine. But we will break open the door, and if he is too furious,
+     we will kill him.'
+
+     "'Not so fast, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, drawing his pistols
+     from his belt. 'You will kill nobody, if you please.'
+
+     "'Let them come,' said Athos, in his usual calm voice, from the
+     other side of the door, 'let them come in, and we shall see.'
+
+     "Brave as they appeared to be, the two Englishmen hesitated and
+     looked at one another. One might almost have supposed that the
+     cellar was garrisoned by one of those hungry ogres of the fairy
+     tale, whose cavern no one could enter with impunity. There was a
+     moment's silence; but the Englishmen were ashamed to retreat, and
+     one of them, descending the five or six steps leading to the
+     cellar, gave the door a kick that made it rattle on its hinges.
+
+     "'Planchet,' said D'Artagnan, cocking his pistols, 'you take the
+     one at the bottom of the stairs; I will take the other. Since you
+     are for a fight, gentlemen, you shall have a bellyfull.'
+
+     "'Is that D'Artagnan's voice?' cried Athos.
+
+     "'It is,' replied the Gascon.
+
+     "'Very good,' said Athos, 'we will work them a little, these
+     door-breakers.'
+
+     "'A moment's patience, Athos,' said D'Artagnan. 'Gentlemen,' he
+     continued, turning to the Englishmen, 'you are between two fires.
+     My servant and myself have three shots to fire, you will receive
+     as many from the cellar, besides which we have got our swords,
+     with the use of which, I can assure you, my friend and myself are
+     tolerably well acquainted. Allow me to arrange matters. I give
+     you my word that you shall have some wine just now.'
+
+     "'If there is any left,' growled Athos in a tone of raillery.
+
+     "'What does he mean--if there is any left?' cried the host, who
+     felt a cold perspiration break out all over him.
+
+     "'Nonsense, there will be some left,' replied D'Artagnan; 'two
+     men cannot have drunk the whole cellar out.'
+
+     "The Englishmen sheathed their swords, and D'Artagnan related to
+     them the history of the imprisonment of Athos, upon hearing which
+     they greatly blamed the innkeeper.
+
+     "'Now, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, 'if you will be pleased to
+     return to your apartment, in ten minutes you shall have what you
+     require.'
+
+     "The Englishmen bowed and retired.
+
+     "'I am alone, my dear Athos,' said D'Artagnan.--'Open the door.'
+
+     "There was a great noise of fagots and beams falling down; the
+     besieged was demolishing his counter-scarps and bastions. The
+     next moment the door opened, and the pale face of the
+     mousquetaire appeared. D'Artagnan sprang forward and embraced
+     him, but when he tried to lead him out of the cellar, he
+     perceived that Athos staggered.
+
+     "'You are wounded?' cried he.
+
+     "'I! not the least,' was the reply. 'I am dead drunk, that is
+     all, and never did any man better deserve to be so. Fore God!
+     mine host, I have drunk for my share, at least one hundred and
+     fifty bottles.'
+
+     "'Heaven have mercy on me!' cried the host. 'If the servant has
+     drunk half as much as the master, I am a ruined man.'
+
+     "'Grimaud knows his place too well to drink the same wine as his
+     master; he has drunk from the cask. By-the-by, I think he must
+     have forgotten to put in the spigot--I hear a running.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan burst into a fit of laughter. The innkeeper was in a
+     high fever. Just then Grimaud showed himself behind his master,
+     his carbine on his shoulder, and his head shaking like that of
+     the drunken satyr in some of Rubens' pictures. His clothes were
+     smeared with an unctuous liquid, which the host immediately
+     recognized as his best olive oil.
+
+     "D'Artagnan and Athos now crossed the common room, and installed
+     themselves in the best apartment of the hotel; while the
+     innkeeper and his wife lighted lamps, and rushed into the cellar,
+     where a frightful spectacle awaited them. In rear of the
+     fortifications, in which Athos had made a breach for his exit,
+     and which were composed of fagots, planks, and empty casks,
+     arranged according to all the rules of strategy, were numerous
+     pools of oil and wine, in which the bones of the hams that had
+     been eaten were lying. In one corner was a pile of broken
+     bottles, and in another a huge cask of wine was just yielding up
+     the last drops of its blood. Out of fifty large sausages that had
+     been suspended to the beams of the roof, ten only were remaining.
+     The image of devastation and death, as the ancient poet said,
+     reigned there as upon a field of battle."
+
+
+With characteristic generosity and _insouciance_, Athos forgives the
+host, and compensates him for the damage done to his property. The two
+guardsmen then sit down to drink, and D'Artagnan tells his friend of
+the misfortune he has had in the loss of his mistress.
+
+     "'Your misfortune makes me laugh,' said Athos, shrugging his
+     shoulders. 'I wonder what you would say to a love story that I
+     could tell you.'
+
+     "'Something that happened to yourself?'
+
+     "'Or to one of my friends; no matter.'
+
+     "'Tell it me.'
+
+     "'I would rather drink.'
+
+     "'You can do both.'
+
+     "'True,' said Athos, filling his glass; 'the two things go well
+     together.'
+
+     "The mousquetaire paused, and seemed to be collecting his
+     thoughts; and as he did so, D'Artagnan observed that he grew each
+     moment paler. He had reached that stage of intoxication at which
+     ordinary drinkers fall under the table and sleep. Athos, however,
+     did not do that; he dreamed aloud without sleeping. There was
+     something frightful in this somnambulism of drunkenness.
+
+     "'One of my friends,' he began--'one of my friends, mind you, not
+     myself,' interrupted he with a gloomy smile; 'a count of my
+     province, that is to say of Berri, noble as a Dandolo or a
+     Montmorency, fell in love when twenty-five years of age, with a
+     young girl of seventeen, beautiful as painters have depicted
+     Venus. Joined to the _naïveté_ of her age, she possessed the soul
+     and feeling of a poet; she could not be said to please--she
+     intoxicated all who approached her. She lived in a little village
+     with her brother, who was a priest. None knew who they were, nor
+     whence they came; but she was so beautiful, and her brother so
+     pious, that none thought of asking. It was rumoured and believed
+     that they were of good family. My friend, who was lord of that
+     country, might have seduced the young girl or taken her by force,
+     as he chose; he was the master; who would have come to the
+     assistance of two friendless strangers? Unfortunately he was an
+     honest man, and he married her. The fool-the idiot!'
+
+     "'Why a fool, since he loved her?' asked D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'Patience,' said Athos. 'He conducted her to his castle, and
+     made her the first lady of the province; and, to do her justice,
+     she knew perfectly how to support her rank.'
+
+     "'Well?' said D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'Well! one day she was out hunting with her husband,' continued
+     Athos, speaking in a low tone and very fast, 'she was overcome by
+     the heat, and fell from her horse in a swoon; the count sprang to
+     her assistance, and as her clothes seemed to prevent her
+     breathing, he cut them open with his dagger, and her shoulder was
+     uncovered. Guess what she had upon her shoulder, D'Artagnan?'
+     said Athos with a strange wild laugh.
+
+     "'How can I tell?' said D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'A _fleur-de-lis_. She was branded!'
+
+     "And Athos emptied at a draught the cup that stood before him.
+
+     "'Horror!' exclaimed D'Artagnan. 'What do you tell me?'
+
+     "'The truth--the angel was a devil--the innocent young girl was a
+     convict.'
+
+     "'And what did the count do?'
+
+     "'The count was a powerful nobleman; he had right of pit and
+     halter upon his lands; he bared the shoulder of the countess,
+     tied her hands behind her back, and hung her to a tree.'
+
+     "'Heavens! Athos! a murder!' cried D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'Yes, a murder, nothing more,' said Athos, pale as death. 'But
+     there is no wine--we are drinking nothing.'
+
+     "And Athos seized the last bottle by the neck, put it to his
+     mouth, and emptied it as though it had been an ordinary glass."
+
+
+This strange story, that could hardly have proceeded from any but a
+French imagination, is nevertheless very effective, far more so in
+Monsieur Dumas' terse and pointed diction than in our imperfect
+translation. The dame with the fleur-de-lis on her shoulder is not
+dead, but on the contrary married again, and proves to be no other
+than an emissary of the Cardinal, a certain Lady de Winter, or Milady,
+as M. Dumas persists in calling her. She it was who cut the diamonds
+off Buckingham's dress, and informed the Cardinal of the same.
+Throughout the whole book she plays the part of a sort of
+Mephistopheles in petticoats, doing evil for evil's sake; and finally,
+when in prison in England, gains over a fanatical young officer named
+Felton, who is set to guard her, and working on him by the power of
+her charms and an artfully devised story, instigates him to the murder
+of Buckingham, who is at Portsmouth fitting out an armament for the
+relief of La Rochelle, then besieged by Richelieu. She escapes to
+France, but there falls into the hands of her deadly enemy,
+D'Artagnan, and of her first husband, Athos, otherwise Count de la
+Fère. Her punishment is one of the last and most striking scenes in
+the book, which concludes with the capture of La Rochelle, leaving
+D'Artagnan a lieutenant of mousquetaires, and, to all appearance, on
+the high-road to further preferment. Some account of his future
+fortune is promised us by Monsieur Dumas; and, however alarming a
+continuation to a book in eight volumes may sound, we cannot help
+wishing he may keep his promise. There is less occasion to be alarmed
+at the length of a six or eight volume book from his hands, than at
+that of a three volume one from those of many other writers; and
+moreover one must take into account the ingenuity of French
+publishers, who manage to have the type spread out over the largest
+possible amount of white paper. The system of putting little in a
+page, and diminishing that little by the interpolation of huge and
+apparently objectless blank spaces, has reached its height in Paris;
+and, although an imposition on the public, it perhaps renders a book
+lighter and pleasanter to read. Light reading and pleasant reading
+Monsieur Dumas' romance assuredly is; and we can wish our readers no
+better pastime, during the long evenings of this wintry season, than
+the perusal of the feats and fortunes of the _Trois Mousquetaires_.
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART XV.
+
+  "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+  Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+  Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+  Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+  And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+  Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+  Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+                                                    SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Valenciennes was now captured. The sagacity of my friend, the French
+engineer, had not been deceived. The explosion of the three great
+mines, an operation from its magnitude almost new to war, and in its
+effects irresistible, had thrown open the fortress. The garrison had
+done their work gallantly, and the result was a capitulation, hastened
+by the outcry of the famishing inhabitants. I hastened to the quarters
+of my regiment, was received with all cordiality, had the honour of an
+interview with the royal duke, who, at all times affable, was now in
+peculiar good-humour, and who led me into a long detail of such public
+opinions as might be gathered from my intercourse with the garrison.
+At the close of our interview he gave me a note, which was to be
+forwarded to the adjutant-general. I made my bow, and retired.
+
+All in the camp was festivity. A great achievement had been
+accomplished, and the barriers of France were broken down. But in the
+midst of national triumph, I felt a depression which rendered me
+wholly incapable of sharing it. The wounds of the spirit are not to be
+healed like those of the frame; and with the recollection of the noble
+creature whom I had lost, bitterness mingled in every sound, and
+sight, and exultation. My first request would have been for leave of
+absence, that I might follow her, if she were still in France, or in
+the world. But the bustle at headquarters told me that some movement
+was about to take place; and, under those circumstances, to ask for
+leave was impossible. Still I continued making every imaginable
+enquiry, dispatching letters, and seeing postmasters, to obtain
+intelligence of the route which Clotilde had taken. After tracing her
+for the first few leagues, all tidings were lost; and I had only to
+trust to that hope which was a part of my sanguine nature, and which
+was sustained by a kind of consciousness that a being so superior
+could not be flung away in the chances which visit the multitude.
+
+While I was thus pondering and perplexed, I was summoned to attend one
+of the principal officers of his royal highness's staff. "We are
+sending despatches of some importance to London," said he, "and it is
+the wish of the commander-in-chief that you should take them. I have
+the pleasure to tell you, that he feels an interest in you from the
+opportunities which you have had of distinguishing yourself in the
+campaign, and that he has appointed you an extra aide-de-camp. Your
+service begins soon," added my informant with a smile, "for you must
+set off to-night. The despatch mentioning the capitulation of the
+fortress was, of course, sent off at once; but as the commission, in
+those cases, is given by routine, it is desirable to have some one in
+London capable of explaining the 'explanation,' or perhaps taking the
+place of the 'honourable,' or 'right honourable' personage who has
+been made the official bearer of the despatch. His royal highness is
+satisfied, from his conversation with you, that you will be perfectly
+fit for this purpose; and here is the despatch, with which you are to
+make all expedition to the Horse-Guards."
+
+After giving my orders for the journey, I hastened to take leave of
+the man whom I most honoured and esteemed, my unfailing friend
+Guiscard. To my surprise, he received the intelligence of my
+appointment with scarcely a word of congratulation. Little as I myself
+was now excitable by any thing in the shape of human fortune, I was
+chagrined by his obstinate gravity. He observed it, and started from
+his seat. "Come," said he, "let us take a walk, and get out of the
+sight of mankind, if we can." He took my arm, and we strayed along the
+banks of the Scheldt, where, however, his purpose was unobtainable,
+for the whole breadth of the river was covered with the provision
+barges of the troops. The bargemen were enjoying the fine July evening
+in the national style--swilling the worst beer that ever punished the
+taste for that barbarian beverage, and filling the fresh breeze with
+the fumes of tobacco, worthy of the beer. Guiscard stopped to gaze at
+them.
+
+"I envy those fellows," said he. "Not merely for their escaping all
+care, and being able to extract enjoyment out of their execrable drink
+and pipes, but from their being exempt from all contact with
+portfolios."
+
+"But such enjoyment is only that of the swine."
+
+"Well, and is not that of the swine perfect?--and what would you have
+more than perfection?"
+
+A huge herd of those creatures, basking along the miry edge of the
+river, helped his illustration. "Mr Marston, you have not been for the
+last month on the staff of the commander-in-chief of the allied
+armies, or you would not look so incredulous. Sir, man's senses may be
+as suitable for his purposes, as those of the animals which we see
+wallowing there." I stared, waiting for the conclusion. He proceeded.
+"But man has drawbacks on his natural faculties, which they have not.
+Possibly nature intended that we should be as happy as they. But make
+nine-tenths of them hewers of wood and drawers of water--send some of
+them to dungeons--enforce a conscription among the rest, and send them
+to use their tusks upon each other, and the most complacent of them
+would rebel: or, as the last trial of temper, put the meekest of the
+race into a cabinet of princes and general-officers, themselves
+controlled by a cabinet five hundred miles off; and if they do not
+growl as I do now, I shall give up all my knowledge of quadruped
+nature."
+
+"Why, Guiscard, what is the matter with you to-night? Have we not
+gained our point? You are like the Thracians, who always mourned at
+the birth of a child."
+
+"And the Thracians were perfectly right, if the child were to be
+reared a diplomatist. You talk of success!" Our path had led to where
+a view of Valenciennes opened on us through the trees; and its
+shattered ramparts and curtains, the trees felled along its glacis,
+and its bastions stripped and broken by our cannon-balls, certainly
+presented a rueful spectacle. The Austrian flag was flying on the
+citadel.
+
+"There," said he, "is our prize. It is not worth the loading of a
+single gun; but it has cost us more millions to ruin than it took
+francs to build it--it has cost us the conquest of France; and will
+cost Europe the war, which we might have extinguished three months ago
+if we had but left it behind. I acknowledge that I speak in the
+bitterness of my heart; delay has ruined every thing. Our march to
+Paris, and our march to Georgium Sidus, will now be finished on the
+same day."
+
+I attempted to laugh off his predictions, but he was intractable. "The
+business," said he, "is all over. That flag is the signal of European
+jealousy--the apple of discord. Yon are going to England; and, if you
+have any regard for my opinion, tell your friends there to withdraw
+their troops as soon as they can. That flag, which pretends to
+partition France, will unite it as one man. Our sages here are
+actually about to play its game. Orders have come to divide the army.
+What folly! What inconceivable infatuation! In the very face of the
+most fantastic and furious population of mankind, whom the most
+trivial success inflames into enthusiasts; they are going to break up
+their force, and seek adventures by brigades and battalions."
+
+He stamped the ground with indignation; but, suddenly recovering his
+calmness, he turned to me with his grave smile. "I am ashamed,
+Marston, of thus betraying a temper which time ought to have cooled.
+But, after all, what is public life but a burlesque; a thing of
+ludicrous disappointment; a tragedy, with a farce always at hand to
+relieve the tedium and the tinsel; the fall of kingdoms made laughable
+by the copper lace of the stage wardrobe?"
+
+"Do you object to our duke?"
+
+"Not in the least. He is personally a gallant fellow; and if he wants
+experience, so must every man at one time or other. His only error,
+hitherto, has been his condescending to come at all with so small a
+force under his command. No English army should ever plant its foot
+upon the Continent with less than fifty thousand men on its
+muster-roll. The duke's being put at the head of your troops--only a
+division after all--seems to me the only wise thing that has been
+done. It was a declaration of the heartiness of your alliance; and I
+honour your country for the distinctness of the avowal. Your king
+gives his son, as your country gives her soldiers, and your people
+give their money. The whole was manly, magnanimous, or, as the highest
+panegyric, it was English all over."
+
+This language at once put an end to all my reserve. I shook his hand
+in the spirit of old friendship; and, on our parting, extracted a
+promise of keeping up our communication on all possible opportunities.
+We had already separated, when I heard my name called again, and
+Guiscard returned. "I had forgotten," said he, "to tell you what I was
+most anxious to say. If I had seen no other prospect for you, I should
+be the last man to make you discontented with your profession. My only
+request is, that when you once more tread on English ground, you will
+seriously consider whether you will continue in the army. If know you
+at all, I think that you would not be altogether satisfied with
+wearing your epaulettes at reviews and parades. And, if I am not
+entirely mistaken, you will have nothing else for the next dozen
+years. Your army are moving homewards already. You are now in the
+secret."
+
+"But is the campaign absolutely coming to an end? Are the hopes of
+attacking the French so suddenly given up? Is France always to baffle
+us?" was my vexed question.
+
+"As to the fate of France, you should consult a prophet, not a
+Prussian engineer--and one terribly tired of his trade besides," was
+the reply. We parted; but the conversation was not lost upon me.
+
+By midnight I was on my journey. My route lay through the Flemish
+provinces, which had now recovered all their luxuriance, if not
+derived additional animation from the activity which every where
+follows the movements of a successful army. Troops marching to join
+the general advance frequently and strikingly diversified the scene.
+Huge trains of the commissariat were continually on the road. The
+little civic authorities were doubly conscious of the dignity of
+functions which brought them into contact with soldiership, from the
+quartermaster up to the general. But the contrast of the tumult which
+I left behind with the quietness of the scenes around me--the haste,
+the anxiety, and the restlessness of a huge camp, with the calm of the
+fields, with the regularity which seemed to govern all the operations
+of farming life, and with the grave opulence of the old mansions,
+which seemed to be formed for the natural receptacles of the wealth of
+Flemish fields--at once refreshed me after the mental fever in which I
+had tossed so long, and perhaps impressed on me more deeply the
+parting advice of my friend the philosopher.
+
+But, from the moment when I touched British ground, the whole sleepy
+tranquillity which gathers over every man in the quietude of Flanders,
+where man seems to have followed the same plough from the deluge, had
+utterly vanished. I was in the midst of a nation in a ferment. The war
+was the universal topic; party was in full life. From the inn at Dover
+up to the waiting-room at the Horse-Guards, I heard nothing but
+politics. The conduct of our army--the absurdity of every thing that
+had been done, or left undone--the failures of the Allies--the
+fanaticism of the French--the hopes of popular liberty on one side,
+and the indignation of established power on the other--came rushing
+round me in a chaos of discordant conceptions, that for the time
+bewildered me. How simple was the gossip of the camp to this
+heterogeneous mass of struggling topics! How straightforward was even
+the wild haranguing of the Palais Royal to the thousand reports and
+protests, remonstrances and replications, of the whole ringing and
+raging, public mind of England! This was the age of pamphleteering.
+Every sage who could, or could not, write, flung his pamphlet in the
+teeth of the party whose existence he conceived to be ruinous to his
+country, or perhaps prejudicial to his own prospect of a sinecure. The
+journals printed their columns in gall; the satirists dipped their
+pens in concentrated acid; the popular haranguers dashed the oil of
+vitriol of contempt in each other's faces. The confusion, the
+collision, the uproar, was indescribable.
+
+But my whole experience of public life has told me, that however the
+popular opinion may be wrong, the public opinion is right; and I felt
+that the nation was already adverse to the conduct of the campaign.
+The utmost skill of the cabinet was required to prevent a dangerous
+reaction. The member of administration with whom my chief intercourse
+officially existed, was the same manly and kind-natured individual to
+whom I had formerly been indebted for so much civility; and, as if
+proud of his own work, his civility now took the form of friendship.
+Ill news came from abroad; and I expressed my impatience of remaining
+with the pen in my hand, when I should have worn my sword. To all my
+suggestions on the subject, the good-humoured answer was, that my
+services were still necessary at home. At length, on my making a
+decided request that I should be permitted to return to my regiment,
+he told me in confidence that the campaign was probably at an end;
+that the British commander-in-chief was about to return; and that, in
+fact, the strength of England would be turned to the naval war. At the
+close of one of those conversations, fixing his keen grey eye upon me,
+he said, "Pray, what think you of Parliament?" My answer was, "That
+mediocrity was more contemptible there than any where else; while
+success was more difficult."
+
+"You mean such success as Pitt's: you mean victory. But you must get
+these Greek and Roman notions out of your head. An English House does
+not want orators. One on a side is quite enough. They are like the
+gold plate on a sideboard; it is well to show that we have such
+things, for the honour of our establishment; but no one thinks of
+making use of them at table. Pitt is an exception; he is equal to
+every thing; an incomparable man of business. Burke, or some other man
+of metaphor, compared him to the falcon; which, however high it may
+soar, always follows the prey with its eye along the ground. But two
+Pitts, if nature could be prolific of such magnificent monsters, would
+absolutely perplex us. What could be more confusing than to have two
+suns shining at the same time?"
+
+"But is Fox nothing?" I asked.
+
+"A great deal," was the answer. "He is the finest talker, I suppose,
+in the world. The first of babblers."
+
+"Of babblers!" I involuntarily repeated.
+
+"Yes; for what is babbling but speaking in vain, pouring out endless
+speculations without a purpose or the hope of a purpose, indulging a
+remarkably powerful and productive mind with the waste of its own
+conceptions, pouring out a whole coinage of splendid thoughts with no
+more expectancy of practical result than if he poured the mint into
+the Thames? You may rely upon it that such is the opinion of the
+House, as it will be yours when you get there; and such will be that
+of posterity, if they shall ever take the trouble to think about any
+of us."
+
+This conversation was evidently more than accidental; and I gave to it
+some of my most perplexing hours. I had an original fondness for the
+life of arms. I was of the age to feel its variety, animation, and
+ardour. My experience had been fortunate; I had seen nothing but
+victory, and had been flattered by personal distinction. But then came
+the reverse of the medal. I remembered the opinion of the most
+sagacious and penetrating spirit which it had been my lot ever to
+know; and I felt that the Continent was to be our field of battle no
+longer. The languor of home service, to one who had seen war in its
+stateliest shape, and in its most powerful activity, rose before my
+mind with an inexpressible sense of weariness. On the other hand,
+supposing that I possessed the faculties for political life, was I
+possessed of the temper, the endurance of toil, the measureless
+patience, the inexhaustible equanimity, which every night of my public
+existence would henceforth demand? Why was this heart-wearying
+struggle to be preferred to the simple and straightforward pursuit of
+an honourable profession, in which the only weight was the carrying of
+my sword, and the only secret of distinction possessing an untarnished
+name?
+
+But I soon made up my mind. The question narrowed itself to this:
+which was the more active life? The point of honour was no longer the
+adherence to a profession whose purposes were necessarily changed.
+Every hour gave additional evidence that the gates of the Continent
+were closing upon the English soldier. Influence, impression,
+publicity, were the prizes of a political career. I saw all other
+names fade before the great senatorial names of England. I saw men of
+humble extraction filling the world with their fame. I saw a
+succession of individuals, who, if their profession had been arms, or
+if their birth-place had been the Continent, would have lived and died
+in the routine of obscure service, here rising to the height of
+national homage, lustres of their generation, and guiding by their
+opinions the courts of Europe. Whether I should ever take my place
+among those illustrious names, scarcely entered into my thoughts. But
+I was determined never to waste my life in conscious indolence.
+Scarcely knowing what faculties I might possess, I had fully resolved
+on trying their utmost strength; and grown almost indifferent to the
+ordinary pursuits of human indulgence, I looked with something of a
+melancholy yet proud hope, to the enjoyment which was to be found in
+giving myself up to the solitary and stern toil of living for a great
+cause, and leaving a name behind me that should not be forgotten.
+
+On that very day the intelligence arrived that the British troops had
+marched towards the north of Germany; that the royal duke had returned
+to England; and that the Allies had, by common consent, abandoned the
+invasion of France. My habits were always prompt. Before the hour was
+over in which the gazette appeared, I waited on my ministerial friend,
+and expressed my full acquiescence in his proposal.
+
+I pass by the process of getting into Parliament. It was then a
+simpler matter than it has since become. A treasury borough was then
+the gate through which all the leading names of the country had
+entered the legislature, and I merely followed the path of all but the
+lords of acres.
+
+Every man who will make himself master of an occupation must serve an
+apprenticeship. Parliament, too, has its seven years' indentures, and
+the few who have refused the training have seldom been the wiser for
+their precipitancy. I "bided my time," taking a slight occasional
+share in debates with whose topics I happened to be well acquainted;
+and expecting the chances, which, to every one who employs himself
+vigorously, are all but certainties. Still I felt that this mere
+hovering on the outskirts of debate must not last too long, and that
+nothing was more hazardous to final reputation than to be too slow in
+attempting to lay its first stone. Yet I felt some difficulty in every
+great question; and, after bracing my nerves for the onset, I always
+found my courage fail at the sight of the actual encounter. I felt as
+a young knight might have felt in some of the tilting-matches of
+old--master of his charger in the open field, and delighting in the
+pressure of his armour and the weight of his lance; but when he once
+rode within the barrier, saw the galleries filled, and the heralds
+lifting the trumpets to their lips, feeling his blood grow chill, and
+the light depart from his eyes.
+
+I mentioned my embarrassment to my Scottish friend, and almost
+expected a remonstrance. To my great surprise and infinite pleasure,
+he congratulated me. "You cannot give a better sign," said he. "My
+only fear of you was, that you would dash into debate at once, like a
+tumbler jumping from a precipice; and that, like him, all that you
+would have gained by it would be broken limbs for life. If the fellow
+had kept to his slack-rope and his stage, he would have been safe
+enough, and gained some applause besides."
+
+"But what is to be done in the House, without some hazard of the
+kind?"
+
+"Wrong--quite wrong. A great deal is to be done. Take myself for the
+example. You see where I am, and yet I never made a _speech_ in my
+life. From the beginning of my career, I never allowed any one to look
+for any thing of the kind from me; and the consequence was, that by
+some I was regarded as a much shrewder personage than I ever believed
+myself to be; and by others was thought to know a great deal more than
+I ever acquired."
+
+"But will this account for the rapid distinctions of your public
+life?"
+
+"Perfectly, so far as they have gone. I obtained ministerial
+confidence on the essential merits of being a safe man--one who made
+no ambitious attempts to lower the crests of those above me. I escaped
+the jealousy of those below me by adopting the style which mediocrity
+assumes by nature. I was thus like the senior subaltern in a marching
+regiment--I wore the same uniform with the colonel, and went through
+the same exercise with the ensign. The field-officers knew that I
+would not tread upon their heels, and every subaltern wished to see my
+promotion, as a step to his own."
+
+My official duties, the mere entrance into office, occupied me
+laboriously for a while, and I felt all the habitual difficulties of
+my noviciate. It had been fully my intention to follow the advice of
+my experienced friend, and leave the hour which was to call for my
+exertions in the House to the chances of the time. But that time came
+more rapidly than I had expected. The public mind was fevered, hour by
+hour; the news from the Continent was more and more startling; the
+successes of the Republican armies had assumed a shape which our
+desponding politicians regarded as invincibility, and which our
+factious ones pronounced to be the ruin of Europe. The cabinet offered
+only the prospect of a melancholy struggle. But six months before, it
+had stood, strong as a citadel erected by the national hands, and
+garrisoned by the spirit of the empire. It still stood, but it stood
+dismantled; there were evident breaches in its walls, and the
+fugitives of Opposition, rallying with the hope of success, advanced
+again to the storm, headed by their great leader, and sustained by the
+capricious and fluctuating multitude. The premier was harassed by the
+incessant toil of defence--a toil in which he had scarcely a sharer,
+and which exposed him to the most remorseless hostility. Yet, if the
+historian were to choose the moment for his true fame, this was the
+moment which ought to be chosen. He rose with the severity of the
+struggle; assault seemed to give him new vigour; the attempt to tear
+the robe of office from his shoulders only gave the nobler display of
+his intellectual proportions. When I saw him, night after night,
+standing almost alone, with nothing but disaster in front and timidity
+in the rear, combating a force such as had never before been arrayed
+under the banners of Opposition; the whole scene of magnificent
+conflict and still grander fortitude, reminded me of the Homeric war
+and its warriors.--The champion of the kingdom, standing forth in
+despite of evil omens thickening round him, of the deepening cloud,
+and the sinister thunders.
+
+I speak of those times, and of the great men of those times, in no
+invidious contrast with later days. I have so strong a faith in the
+infinite ability which freedom gives to a great empire, that I am
+convinced of our being able, in all its eras, to find the species of
+public talent essential to its services. I regard the national mind,
+as the philosopher does the natural soil, always capable of the
+essential produce, where we give it the due tillage. The great men of
+the past century have passed away along with it; they were summoned
+for a day of conflict, and were formed for the conflict; their
+muscular vigour, the power with which they wielded their weapons, the
+giant step and the giant hand, were all necessary, and were all shaped
+and sustained by that necessity. But this day had its close; the
+leaders of man--like the "mighty hunters" of an Age, when the land was
+still overshadowed with the forest, and the harvest was overrun with
+the lion and the panther, would naturally give place to a less daring
+and lofty generation, when the forest had given way to the field, and
+the lair of the wild beast had become the highway and the bower. But
+if the evil day should again return, the guardian power of intellect
+and virtue will again come forth in the human shape, and vindicate the
+providence that watches over the progress of mankind. I utterly deny
+the exhaustion of national genius; I even deny its exhaustibility. If
+the moral vegetation languishes, and the soil is parched for a while,
+the great source of refreshing and fertility still lies before us--the
+public mind, in its boundless expansion, and in its unfathomable
+depth; the intellectual ocean which no plummet has ever sounded, and
+which no shore has ever circumscribed, lies ready to restore the
+balance of nature.
+
+But the sense of power itself in the national mind forbids the
+exhibition of its strength in tranquil times. It is lofty and
+fastidious; it will not stoop to a contest in which nothing is to be
+contended for. It is not an actor; and it cannot adopt the figured
+passion of the actor, rend its robe, and flourish, and obtest heaven
+against the traitor and the oppressor, to the sound of an orchestra,
+or in the glitter of stage lamps. The true ability of the empire must
+scorn all mimic encounter; and what else can be the little struggles
+of party shut up in the legislature, whose sound scarcely transpires
+through the walls, whose triumphs are a tax, and whose oracles are an
+intrigue? But, when the true day of trial shall come--when an enemy
+shall be seen hovering on the coasts of the Constitution--when trumpet
+answers trumpet, and the "country is proclaimed in danger"--then, and
+not till then, shall we know the superb resources of our intellectual
+strength: whatever may have been the prowess of the past, we may see
+it not merely rivaled but thrown into eclipse by the future; the
+burnished armour, and massive swords and maces of our old intellectual
+chivalry, superseded by more manageable and more destructive
+implements of success; and the sterner conflict followed by the more
+consummate triumph. Yet, when we undervalue the living ability of a
+nation from its quietude at the moment, we but adopt the example of
+every past age in succession. The last ten years of the last century
+were preceded by a period of despair; Chatham's career was run, and
+the national regrets over his tomb were mingled with sorrows for the
+extinction of all parliamentary renown!--The day had gone down, and
+darkness was to cover the sky for ever. But while the prediction was
+scarcely uttered, the horizon as in a blaze, mighty meteors rushed
+across it in a thousand courses of eccentric speed and splendour; and
+a period of intellectual display began, which at once dazzled and
+delighted mankind. Anne's Augustan age of war, negotiation, and
+eloquence, was once pronounced to be, like the Augustan age of Rome,
+incapable of rivalship by posterity; but our own times have seen a
+bolder war, a broader peace, and a richer development of science,
+invention, and eloquence. For fifty years, England was pronounced to
+have worn herself out by the prolific brilliancy of the half century
+before; like a precocious infant, to have anticipated her powers, and
+ensured their premature decay; like the Boeotians, to have had her
+Pindaric period, and thenceforward to have paid for its raptures and
+renown by perpetual darkness; or like the Israelites in Egypt, to be
+condemned to drudgery for life, sunk into an intellectual
+slave-caste;--when in the midst of the scoffing, or the sorrow,
+suddenly arrived a new epoch, a new summons to the national genius, a
+time of lofty interpositions, "thunderings in the air, and lightning
+running along the ground," an era of the marvellous things of mind;
+the chains fell off the hands, and the generation went forth, with a
+new sense of superiority, into new scenes of knowledge, discovery, and
+empire.
+
+Whether it was my good or ill fortune to make my first effort in the
+midst of the men whose names have immortalized their day, I shall not
+venture to decide. But my resolve had been firmly taken--not to remain
+in Parliament unless I discovered in myself faculties fit for its
+service. I was determined not to play the mute if I had the means of
+uttering a voice. But now the whole force of administration was
+demanded; and I made up my mind to ascertain by trial, what no man can
+be sure of without that trial, whether I possessed any capacity for
+public life.
+
+The subject on which I first spoke was an address to the throne, in
+answer to the King's message on the war. On this night Pitt, but
+lately recovered from a fit of his hereditary gout, spoke briefly, and
+with evident feebleness of frame. Fox, whose energy seemed always to
+depend on his rival's power, and whose eloquence always rose or fell
+with the vigour or languor of the minister--Fox, never so great as
+when Pitt put forth all his strength, on this night idled away his
+hour, through the mere want of an antagonist; but Sheridan made ample
+compensation for his leader. The House had fallen into lassitude, and
+the benches were already thin when he arose. I had heard him as the
+humorist on some trivial occasions of debate. I had enjoyed the social
+pleasantry which placed him at the head of the wits; but I was still
+but imperfectly acquainted with the strong sarcasm, the deep disdain,
+and the grave sophistry, which this extraordinary man could exhibit
+with such redundant ease, and wield with such vigorous dexterity. I
+must give but an outline:--
+
+    "You have made war," said he, "and you have made the arms of your
+    country contemptible by failures, which you rendered inevitable by
+    your rashness. You, sir," and he fixed his flashing eye on the
+    premier, "have commenced that war by a series of declarations,
+    which made our diplomacy as contemptible as our campaigns. The
+    national sword had been wrested from our hands. But you were not
+    content with that humiliation, and you added to it the disgrace of
+    the national understanding. You laid down a succession of
+    principles, and then trampled them in the dust on the first
+    opportunity. You encumbered yourself for action with pledges which
+    you could never have intended to sustain, or which in the first
+    collision your pusillanimity threw away. Yet I deprecate your
+    perfidy even more than I despise your weakness. I can comprehend
+    the effrontery of a fair aggression; but I scorn the meanness of
+    intrigue. I may face the man-at-arms, but I shudder at the
+    assassin. I may determine to hunt down and destroy the lion, but I
+    disdain the trap and the pitfall. And what has been the pretext of
+    his majesty's ministers? Moderation. In this spirit of moderation
+    they invaded France; in this spirit of moderation they captured
+    her fortresses, and then handed them over to the Emperor; in this
+    spirit of moderation they denounced the men who had given France a
+    constitution; and in this spirit of moderation you now prepare to
+    rebuild her Bastile, to restore her scaffolds, to reforge her
+    chains, and summon all the kings of Europe, instead of taking a
+    salutary lesson from the tomb of the monarchy, to see its skeleton
+    exhumed, and placed, robed and crowned, upon the throne, with the
+    nation forced to offer homage, at once in mockery and terror, to
+    the grinning emblem; in which, with all your philtres, you can
+    never put life again."
+
+
+The orator then gave a general and singularly imposing view of the
+state of our European connexions; which he described as utterly frail,
+the result of interested motives, and sure to be broken up at the
+first temptation. But the "first lord of the treasury and chancellor
+of his majesty's exchequer," said he, "smiles at my alarm; he has his
+security at his side--he has the purse, which commands all the baser
+portion of our nature with such irresistible control! On one point I
+fully agree with the right honourable gentleman--that nothing but the
+purse could ever keep them faithful. Yet, is there nothing but gold
+that can bribe? is there no bribe in territory? will he not find, when
+he hurries to the purchase of allies with the millions of the treasury
+in his hand, that more powerful purchasers have been there before him?
+When he offers the loan, will he not find them offering the province?
+when he bids with the subsidy, will he not be outbid with the kingdom?
+Or, if the anticipated conquerors of Europe, raising their sense of
+dignity to the level of their power, should disdain the traffic of
+corruption; will not the roaring of the French cannon in the ears of
+kings make them feel, that, to persist in your ill-omened alliance,
+is to devote themselves to ruin? will they bargain, in sight of the
+axe? will they dare to traffic in the blood of their people, with the
+grave dug at their feet? will they be dazzled by your gold, while the
+French bayonet is startling their eyes? Within ten years, if England
+exists, she will be without an ally; or, if she continues to fight, it
+will be in loneliness, in terror, and in despair."
+
+In this strain he poured out his daring conceptions for more than two
+hours, during which he kept the whole audience in the deepest
+attention. He concluded in an uproar of plaudits from both sides of
+the House.
+
+My time now came. And the rising of a new member, always regarded with
+a generous spirit of courtesy, produced some additional interest, from
+the knowledge of my services on the Continent, and my immediate
+connexion with the ministry. The House, which had filled to
+overflowing in the course of Sheridan's incomparable speech, was now
+hushed to the most total silence, and every eye was turned on me. I
+shall say nothing of my perturbation, further than that I had stood
+before an enemy's line of ten thousand men, with their muskets
+levelled within half a hundred yards of me; and that I thought the
+benches of the House of Commons on that night looked much the more
+formidable of the two. My head swam, my throat burned, my eyes grew
+dim. I thought that the ground was shaking under my feet, and I could
+have almost rejoiced to have sunk into it, from the gaze and the
+silence, which equally appalled me. While I attempted to mutter a few
+sentences, of which I felt the sound die within my lips, my eye was
+caught by the quick turn of Pitt's head, who fixed his impatient
+glance upon me. Fox, with that kindliness of heart which always forgot
+party when a good-natured act was to be done, gave his sonorous cheer.
+From that instant I was another man; I breathed freely, and,
+recovering my voice and mind together, I plunged boldly into the
+boundless subject before me.
+
+After scattering a few of the showy sophisms which the orator of the
+opposition had constructed into his specious argument, I placed the
+war on the ground of necessity. "Nations cannot act like
+individuals--they cannot submit to self-sacrifice--they cannot give up
+their rights--they cannot affect an indolent disdain or an idle
+generosity. The reason of the distinction is, that in every instance
+the nation is a trustee--It has the rights of posterity in its
+keeping; it has nothing of its own to throw away; it is responsible to
+every generation to come. If war be essential to the integrity of the
+empire, war is as much a duty--a terrible duty, I allow--as the
+protection of our children's property from the grasp of rapine, or the
+defence of their lives against the midnight robber. But we are advised
+to peace. No man on earth would do more willing homage than myself to
+that beneficent genius of nations. But where am I to offer my homage?
+Am I to kneel on the high-road where the enemy's armies, fierce with
+the hope of plunder, are rushing along? Am I to build my altar in the
+midst of contending thousands, or on the ground covered with
+corpses--in the battle, or on the grave? Or am I to carry my offering
+to the capital, and there talk the language of national cordiality in
+the ear of the multitude dragging their king to the scaffold? Am I to
+appeal to the feelings of human brotherhood in streets smoking with
+civil massacre; to adjure the nation by the national honour, where
+revolt is an avowed principle; to press upon them the opinion of
+Europe, where they have proclaimed war with the world; to invoke them
+by the faith which they have renounced, the allegiance which they have
+disdained, the God whom they have blasphemed? Those things are
+impossible. If we are to have a treaty with this new order of thinking
+and action, it must be a compact of crime, a solemn agreement of
+treachery, a formal bond of plunder; it must be a treaty fitter for
+the cavern of conspiracy than for the chamber of council; its pledge
+must be like that of Catiline, the cup of human blood! No; the most
+powerful reprobation which ever shot from the indignant lip of the
+moralist, would not be too strong for the baseness which stooped to
+such a treaty, or the folly which entangled itself in its toils. No
+burning language of prophecy would be too solemn and too stinging for
+the premeditated wretchedness, and incurable calamity, of such a bond.
+No; if we must violate the simplicity of our national interests by
+such degrading, and such desperate involvements--if we should not
+shrink from this conspiracy against mankind, let it, at least, not be
+consummated in the face of day; let us at once abandon the hollow
+pretences of human honesty; let us pledge ourselves to a perpetual
+league of rapine and revolution; let it be transacted in some lower
+region of existence, where it shall not disgrace the light of the sun;
+and let its ceremonial be worthy of the spirit of evil which it
+embodies, whose power it proclaims, and to whose supremacy it commands
+all nations to bow down."
+
+In alluding to the menace that our allies would soon desert us, I
+asked, "Is this the magnanimity of party? Is England to be pronounced
+so poor, or so pusillanimous, that she must give up all hope unless
+she can be suffered to lurk in the rear of the battle? What says her
+prince of poets?--
+
+  'England shall never rue,
+  If England to herself shall be but true.'
+
+Is this 'little body with a mighty heart,' to depend for existence on
+the decaying strength or the decrepit courage of the Continent? Is she
+only to borrow the shattered armour which has hung up for ages in the
+halls of continental royalty, and encumber herself with its broken and
+rusty panoply for the ridicule of the world? The European governments
+have undergone the vicissitudes of fortune. Instead of scoffing at the
+facility of their overthrow, let us raise them on their feet again;
+or, if that be beyond human means, I shall not join the party-cry
+which insults their fall--I certainly shall not exult in that
+melancholy pageant of mixed mirth and scorn, in which, like the old
+Roman triumph, the soldier with his ruthless jest and song goes before
+the chariot, and the captive monarch follows behind; wearing the royal
+robe and the diadem only till he has gratified a barbarous curiosity
+or a cruel pride, and then exchanging them for the manacle and the
+dungeon. I deprecate the loss of these alliances; and yet I doubt
+whether the country will ever be conscious of her true strength until
+the war of the Continent is at an end. I more than doubt the wisdom of
+suffering others to take the lead, which belongs to us by the right of
+superior rank, superior prowess, and superior fame. I shall have but
+slight regret for the fall of those outworks which--massive, nay,
+majestic, as they are--waste the power of England by the division of
+her force, and make us decline the gallant enterprize of the
+field--ramparts and fosses which reduce us to defence, and which,
+while they offer a thousand points of entrance to an active assault,
+shut us in, and disqualify us from victory."
+
+I now repeat this language of the moment, merely from later and long
+experience of its truth. I fully believe, that if England had come
+forward to the front of the battle in the early years of the war, she
+would have crushed all resistance; or if she had found, by the chance
+of things, the Continent impenetrable to her arms, she would have
+surrounded it with a wall of fire, until its factions had left nothing
+of themselves but their ashes.
+
+I was now fully engaged in public life. The effort which I had made in
+Parliament had received the approval of Pitt, who, without stooping to
+notice things so trivial as style and manner on questions of national
+life and death, highly applauded the courage which had dared to face
+so distinguished a Parliamentary favourite as Sheridan, and had taken
+a view of affairs so accordant with his own. From this period, I was
+constantly occupied in debate; and, taking the premier for my model, I
+made rapid proficiency in the difficult art of addressing a British
+House of Commons. Of course, I have no idea of giving myself the
+praise on this subject, which no man can give to himself on any,
+without offence. But I felt that this was an _art_ which might escape,
+and which had often escaped, men of distinguished ability, and which
+might be possessed by men of powers altogether inferior. I must
+acknowledge, that a portion of my success was owing to the advice of
+that shrewdest, and at the same time most friendly, of human beings,
+the secretary. "You must be a man of business," said he, "or you will
+be nothing; for praise is nothing--popularity is nothing--even the
+applause of the House is nothing. These matters pass away, and the
+orators pass away with them. John Bull is a solid animal, and likes
+reality. This is the true secret of the successes of hundreds of men
+of mediocrity, and of the failures of almost every man of brilliant
+faculties. The latter fly too high, and thus make no way along the
+ground. They always alight on the same spot; while the weaker, but
+wiser, have put one foot before another, and have pushed on. Sheridan,
+at this moment, has no more weight in the House than he had within a
+twelvemonth after taking his seat. Fox, with the most powerful
+abilities, is looked on simply as a magnificent speechmaker. His only
+weight is in his following. If his party fell from him to-morrow, all
+his eloquence would find its only echo in bare walls, and its only
+panegyric in street-placards. Pitt is a man of business, complete,
+profound, indefatigable. If you have his talents, copy his prudence;
+if you have not, still copy his prudence--make it the interest of men
+to consult you, and you must be ultimately successful."
+
+I laughingly observed, that the "Nullum numen abest" had been honoured
+with an unexpected illustration.
+
+"Sir," said the minister, fixing his keen grey eye upon me, "if Eton
+had never taught any other maxim, it would have been well worth all
+the tail of its longs and shorts. It is the concentration of wisdom,
+personal, private, and public; the polar star of politics, as probably
+you would say; or, as in my matter-of-fact style should express it,
+the fingerpost of the road to fortune."
+
+But there never was a time when all the maxims of political wisdom
+were more required. A long succession of disasters had already broken
+down the outworks of the continental thrones. The renown of the great
+armies of Germany was lost; the discipline of the Prussian, and the
+steady intrepidity of the Austrian, had been swept before the wild
+disorder of the French. Men began to believe that the art of war had
+been hitherto unknown, and that the enemy had at length mastered the
+exclusive secret. Monarchy came to be regarded as only another name
+for weakness; and civilized order for national decrepitude. A kind of
+superstition stole over the minds of men; the signs of European
+overthrow were discovered in every change; calculations were calmly
+raised on the chances of existence to the most powerful dynasties; the
+age of crowns was in the move, the age of republics was in the
+ascendant; and while the feebler minds looked with quiescent awe on
+what they regarded as the inevitable tide of events, the more daring
+regarded the prospect as a summons to prepare for their part of the
+spoil. The struggles of Opposition grew more resolute as the hope of
+success came nearer, and the Government began to feel the effects of
+this perpetual assault, in the sudden neutrality of some of its most
+ostentatious champions, and in the general reserve of its supporters
+in the House. Even the superb perseverance of Pitt was beginning to be
+weary of a contest, in which victory lost its fruits on the one side,
+while defeat seemed only to give fresh vigour on the other. But a new
+triumph was to cheer the face of things.
+
+I was returning one morning from the House after a night spent in a
+fierce debate on the war, which Fox denounced with an asperity unusual
+to his generous temperament. The premier had made a powerful speech,
+vindicating the government from all share in the continental
+misfortunes; pronouncing loftily, that, in a war not made for
+conquest, it was sophistry to speak of our failure of possession as a
+crime; and declaring in a tone of singular boldness and energy--that
+if the Continent were untrod by a British soldier, there was a still
+broader field for the arms and the triumphs of England. But his
+eloquence had more effect in exposing the errors, than in reducing the
+numbers of his opponents, and the smallness of his majority would have
+made a feebler mind resign on the spot. The announcement of the
+numbers was received with an insulting cheer by the minority, and the
+cabinet was already by anticipation in their hands.
+
+I left the House wearied and dejected, and was returning to Downing
+Street, to throw myself on a couch, and get a few hours of rest before
+my morning toil; when I found a messenger at the door of my office,
+bearing a request from the secretary of state, that I should attend
+him as soon as possible. I found my friend before a table covered with
+despatches, his brow furrowed with weariness like my own.
+
+"You see me here, Marston, more tired than any ploughman or watchman,
+or any other son of labour from this to John O'Groat's House. I was
+sent for, from the House, six hours ago, and every hour since have I
+been poring over those puzzled papers. How long I can stand this wear
+and tear the physicians must tell, but it would require the
+constitution of Hercules or Samson, or both together, to go through
+the work that is beginning to fall on the members of the cabinet."
+
+I offered to give him such assistance as was in my power.
+
+"No, no, Marston; I am chained to the oar for this night at least, and
+must pull till I fall asleep. My purpose in keeping you from your
+pillow at this time of night, is not to relieve myself from trouble;
+but to ask whether you are disposed to relieve the government from
+serious difficulty, and in a way which I hope will be not disagreeable
+to yourself." I concluded that my mission was to be continental, and
+my heart danced at the suggestion. In England it was impossible to
+continue my search for the being in whom all my thoughts were fixed;
+but once beyond the sea I should have the world before me. I asked
+whether there was any intention of trying the chances of attack again
+on the French frontier.
+
+"None whatever. The greater probability is, that the French will make
+some experiment on the strength of ours."
+
+I looked all astonishment. He interpreted my look, and said--"To solve
+the enigma at once, It is our wish to send you to Ireland."
+
+I listened in silence while he went into a long detail of the hazard
+of the island, arising from the interests of a powerful republican
+party, who, inflamed by the successes of France, were preparing to
+receive troops and arms from the republic. He finished by saying, in a
+tone of compliment, which, from him, was as unusual as I believe it
+was sincere, that my exertions in debate had attracted high
+consideration in the highest quarter, and that I had been proposed by
+the monarch himself for the chief-secretaryship of Ireland. The
+premier had assented to the appointment at once; "and here," said he,
+"is the warrant, which I have prepared in anticipation of its
+acceptance. You are, from this moment, virtual viceroy of Ireland."
+
+This was elevation indeed! I had at once surmounted all the slow
+gradations of office. The broadest prospect of official ambition had
+suddenly opened before me; popularity, founded on the most solid
+grounds, was now waiting only my acceptance; the sense of power,
+always dear to the heart of man, glowed in every vein; and it is only
+justice to myself to say, that the strongest impulse of all was the
+desire to leave my name as a benefactor to a people, who seemed to me
+as much gifted by nature as they were unhappy by circumstances.
+
+"How long will it take you to prepare for the journey?" asked the
+minister.
+
+"Half an hour," was my reply.
+
+"Bravo! Marston. I see your campaigning has not been thrown away upon
+you. You have the soldier's promptitude. We were prepared to allow you
+a week. But the sooner you set off the better. The truth is," said he
+rising, "we are in great difficulties in that quarter. The most
+thoroughly English portion of the island is at this moment the most
+disturbed. There are drillings, purchases of arms, midnight
+musterings, and even something not far from prepared attacks upon the
+king's troops. The papers among which you found me, contain a regular
+and a very complete organization of an insurrectionary government. You
+will require all the energy of the soldier and all the prudence of the
+statesman."
+
+"Let me add to them," said I, "what is essential to the success of
+both in a country of generous hearts and quick conceptions, the
+sincerity of a patriot."
+
+"The experiment is worth trying," said he with a smile, "if it were
+only for the sake of its novelty. But Ireland has qualities which,
+like those of her soil, require only to be turned up to the light to
+reward all the labours of wealth or wisdom." Before that evening
+closed in, I was a hundred miles on my way to the Irish capital.
+
+A rapid journey, and a tranquil passage over the sixty miles that lie
+between Wales and Ireland, gave me what an old Roman would regard as
+an omen of the peacefulness of my mission. On the dawn of one of the
+finest mornings of the year, I came within sight of the Irish coast,
+and was struck, as all travellers have been, by the beauty of the bold
+and picturesque coast which rose from the waters before me. In front
+was a province of mountains, touched by all the variety of colours,
+which are painted in such richness by the summer sun, on groups of
+pinnacles and cones, forest hills, and the fine diversities of
+woodland and mountain scenery. On one side the eye glanced over a vast
+sheet of water, shut in by headlands, and as blue and bright as a lake
+under a serene sky. At the extremity of this noble estuary, a cloud,
+unchanging and unmoving, showed where a city sent up the smoke of its
+ten thousand fires; beyond this, all was purple confusion. My official
+rank threw open all the _élite_ of Irish society to me at my first
+step; and I found it, as it has been found by every one else,
+animated, graceful, and hospitable. The nature of its government
+tended to those qualifications. While the grave business of the state
+was done in London, the lighter business of show was sedulously
+sustained in the Irish capital. The lord-lieutenant was generally a
+nobleman, selected more for his rank and his wealth than for his
+statesmanship. A rich, showy, and good-humoured peer was the true man
+for the head of affairs in Ireland. It was of more importance that he
+should give balls and suppers, say lively things to the ladies, and be
+jocular with the gentleman, than that he should have the brains of
+Bolingbroke or the tongue of Chatham. But the position of the
+secretary was the absolute antipode of this tranquil and festive
+sinecure. He was in Ireland what the premier was in England, but with
+ten times more of the difficulty, and ten times less of the power. The
+whole conduct of public affairs lay on his shoulders; he was
+responsible for every thing, while he was free in nothing; perpetually
+assailed by opposition for measures which he was not at liberty to
+explain, and standing between the English cabinet and the Irish party
+as a scapegoat for the mistakes of the one, and a target for the shot
+of the other. But the chief trial of temper was in the House of
+Commons. Opposition in Ireland never had a list of more brilliant
+names. Government had the majority behind its bench, and that majority
+recruited from the ranks of Opposition; but the more distinguished
+were fixed to party by their own celebrity; and the recruits, however
+able, were so liable to be attacked for their change of side, that
+they were paralyzed; in some instances, they were so much galled by
+the merciless sharpshooting of their former associates, that they ran
+back, and left the minister to fight the field alone.
+
+I was fortunately free from the entanglements of that question, which
+has since formed so large a portion of the political disquietudes of
+Irish debate. The religion of the south was not yet among
+parliamentary topics. The religion of the north, active ardent, and
+indefatigable, was our most restless theme; and the political theories
+which seemed to grow out of its bold abstractions, kept the government
+in perpetual anxiety. The whole northern portion of the island was
+ripe for revolt. America had blown the hot-blast of the revolutionary
+furnace across the Atlantic, and a spark from France would have now
+ignited the whole hot surface of the soil.
+
+One of my first acts after arranging the preliminary business of
+office, was to make a flying tour through Ulster. I was astonished at
+its beauty. Even after being familiar with the loveliness of the
+English landscape, I was in a state of continued surprise at the
+variety, richness, and singularity of nature in the northern
+counties. Mountain, lake, magnificent bay, and broad river, followed
+each other in noble and unceasing succession. I was still more struck
+with the skill and good fortune, by which the people had contrived to
+combine the industry of manufactures with the life of the fields; a
+problem which England herself had failed to solve. But, most of all, I
+was attracted by the independent air, and handsome and vigorous
+appearance of the people; almost every man was proprietor, and had the
+look which proprietorship alone can give. I found books in almost
+every cottage, decency of dress every where, and among the higher
+orders frequent elegance and accomplishment. The women were cultivated
+and intelligent; the men, spirited and enquiring. But the politics of
+France had made their way through a large portion of the province, and
+the glories of a republic "loomed large" before the popular eye. As it
+was my purpose to see all that I could with my own eyes, I mingled
+largely in society, made no distinction between honourable men of
+different political creeds, enjoyed to-day the stag-hunt and claret of
+the noble Whig, and to-morrow the stag-hunt and claret of the noble
+Tory, listened to all, laughed with all, and learned something from
+all. The English aristocrat, especially if he holds high official
+place, once haunted the imaginations of the Irish of all conditions,
+like an incarnation of an Indian deity--all fierceness and frigidity;
+and it must be acknowledged that the general order of viceroys and
+secretaries had not tended much to remove the conception. They were
+chiefly men of advanced life, with their habits formed by intercourse
+with the most exclusive class in existence, the English peerage, or
+rendered rigid by the dry formalities of official life. But I was
+young, had seen a good deal of that rough work of the world which
+gives pliancy, if not polish, to all characters; and I was, besides,
+really delighted with the animation, pleasantry, and winning kindness
+which exhibited themselves every where round me. I was half a son of
+Ireland already, and I regarded the recognition as the pledge of my
+success.
+
+"Do you know," said one of the most influential and accomplished
+noblemen of the country to me, one day at his sumptuous table--"how
+many of the lords-lieutenant do you think have left a popular
+recollection behind them?"
+
+I professed my ignorance, but enumerated some names remarkable for
+intelligence and vigour of administration.
+
+"Oh," said my entertainer, "that was not the question! Great statesmen
+and showy governors, capital rulers of the country and bold managers
+of our factions, we have had in sufficient succession, but I speak of
+the faculty of being remembered; the talent of making a public
+impression; the power of escaping that national oblivion into which
+mere official services, let them be of what magnitude they may,
+inevitably drop when their performer has disappeared. Well, then, I
+shall tell you. _Two_, and no more."
+
+I begged to know the names of those "discoverers of the grand secret,
+the philosopher's stone of popularity," the alchemists who had power
+to fix the floating essence of the Irish mind!
+
+"Chesterfield and Townshend. Chesterfield, regarded as a fop in
+England, was a daring, steady, and subtle governor of the unruly
+spirits of Ireland, in one of the most hazardous periods. That the
+throne of the Brunswicks did not see an Irish revolt at the moment
+when it saw a Scottish invasion, was the service of Chesterfield. But
+he ruled not by his wisdom, but by his wit. He broke down faction by
+_bon-mots_; he extinguished conspiracy by passing compliments; he
+administered the sternest law with the most polished smile; and cut
+down rebellion by quotations from La Fontaine, and _calembourgs_ from
+Scarron. But with these fortunate pleasantries he combined public and
+solid services. He threw a large portion of the crown lands in the
+neighbourhood of the capital into a park for the recreation of the
+citizens, and thus gave one of the earliest and most munificent
+examples of regard for the health and enjoyment of the people; a more
+enduring monument of his statesmanship could not have been offered to
+the gratitude of the country."
+
+Of the Marquis Townshend I had heard as a gallant soldier, and a
+stirring viceroy, but I still had to learn the source of his
+popularity.
+
+"Townshend was one of those singular men who possess faculties of
+which they have no knowledge, until the moment when they become
+necessary. He began life as a soldier, and finished his soldiership in
+the most brilliant victory of his day--the battle of Quebec. On his
+appointment to the viceroyalty, he found his government a nothing; a
+government faction superseding the governor, and an opposition faction
+engrossing the people. He now, for the first time, became a
+politician. He resolved to crush both, and he succeeded. He treated
+the government faction in Ireland with contumely, and he treated the
+opposition with contempt. Both were indignant; he laughed at both, and
+treated them with still more scorn. Both were astonished--the
+government faction intrigued against him in England, the opposition
+threatened impeachment. He defied them still more haughtily. They now
+found that he was not to be shaken, and both submitted. The nation
+joined him, was pacified, grew in vigour, as it required tranquillity;
+and here you have the secret of all the privileges which Ireland has
+obtained. Townshend performed, only on a smaller scale, the same
+national service which Pitt performed on a larger one. He took the
+people out of the hands of aristocracy, broke up the league of
+opulence and power, and gave the island that popular freedom which the
+great minister of England gave to the empire. For this the name of
+Townshend lives among us still. His bold satires are recorded, his
+gallant bearing is remembered, his passing pleasantries have become a
+portion of the national wit, and his rough but effectual services are
+among the memorials of our independence as a people."
+
+The evening of this hospitable day concluded with a ball to the
+neighbouring families, and all was graceful and animated enjoyment. My
+host had travelled much in early life, and had brought home some fine
+pictures and valuable sculptures. He was an accomplished classical
+scholar--a quality which I found in some degree fashionable among the
+leading personages of the time, and which unquestionably added much to
+the high tone of conversation among the parliamentary circles. In his
+magnificent mansion an artist might have found studies, a scholar
+learning, a philosopher wisdom, and a man of the world all the charms
+of polished life. How soon, and how fearfully, were they all to be
+extinguished! How bitterly were all who honoured and esteemed that
+generous and highly-gifted nobleman, to feel what shadows we are, and
+what shadows we pursue!
+
+Our mornings were chiefly spent in hunting over the fine landscape
+which spread, in all the various beauty of vegetation, within view of
+the mansion. On one of those days the attention of the field was
+caught by the fierce riding of a singular-looking man, scarcely above
+the peasant in his general appearance, and yet mounted on one of the
+finest English horses that I had ever seen. He rode at every thing,
+managed his horse with practised skill, and soon became an object of
+general emulation. To "ride up" to the "wild horseman," was found to
+be a task not easily accomplished, and at length all was a trial of
+speed with this dashing exhibitor. A glance which, when on the point
+of one of his most desperate leaps, he threw back at me, seemed to be
+a kind of challenge, and I rushed on at speed. The Irish hunter
+matchless at "topping" stone walls, but his practice has not lain much
+among rivers; and the English horse is sometimes his master at the
+deep and rapid streams which, running between crumbling banks, are
+perhaps the severest trials to both horse and rider. The majority of
+the hunt pulled up at the edge of one of those formidable chasms, and
+I was by no means unwilling to follow their example; but the look of
+the strange rider had a sneer along with it, which put me on my
+mettle, and I dashed after him. The hounds had scrambled through, and
+we rode nearly abreast through a broken country, that mixture of bog
+and firm ground which occurs frequently in newly cleared land, and
+over which nothing but the most powerful sinews can make way. We had
+now left every one behind us, were struggling on through the dimness
+of a hazy day, sinking into twilight. Suddenly my mysterious rival
+turned his horse full upon me, and to my utter amazement discharged a
+pistol at my head. The discharge was so close that I escaped only by
+the swerving of my horse at the flash. I felt my face burn, and in the
+impulse of the pain made a blind blow at him with my whip. He had
+drawn out another pistol in an instant, which the blow luckily dashed
+out of his hand. No words passed between us, but I bounded on him to
+seize him. He slipped away from my grasp, and, striking in the spur,
+galloped madly forward, I in pursuit. The twilight had now deepened,
+and he plunged into a lane bounded on both sides by steep hedges, and
+which, from some former hunting in this quarter, I knew to be a
+_cul-de-sac_. This doubled my determination to make myself master of
+the assassin; and even in the hurry of the moment I formed some
+conception of my having seen his face before, and that the attempt to
+put me out of the way was connected, in some way or other, with public
+affairs. This question was soon decided. He reached the end of the
+lane, which was shut in with a wall of about the height of a man. His
+horse shied at the obstacle. The rider, with an oath and a desperate
+exertion, pushed him to it again. I was now within a few yards of him,
+and arrived just in time to see the animal make a convulsive spring,
+touch with his hind feet on the top of the wall, and roll over. My
+Irish horse cleared it in the native style, and I found my enemy
+crushed under his hunter, and evidently in the pangs of death. He had
+been flung on a heap of stones, and the weight of the falling horse
+had broken his spine. I poured some brandy down his throat, relieved
+him from the incumbrance of the hunter--attempted to give him
+hope--but he told me that it was useless; that he felt death coming
+on, and that I was the last man who should wish him to live, "as he
+had pledged himself to my extinction." For a while, his recollections
+were wild, and he talked of events in France and Spain, where he
+seemed to have done some deeds which affected him with peculiar horror
+in the prospect of dissolution. But, after a brief period of those
+terrible disclosures, his pains totally ceased, his mind grew clear;
+and he acknowledged that he was one of the leading agents of a
+National Conspiracy to republicanize Ireland. "You are too kind," said
+he to me, "to one who now sees the madness of the design, and is
+sensible of the guilt of taking away the lives of honourable men." A
+lapse of weakness here tied his tongue; and I brought him a draught of
+water from a spring which gurgled beside the wall. He thanked me, and
+proceeded to say, that my "character for vigilance and activity had
+alarmed the principal conspirators, and that he, thinking all crimes
+meritorious in a popular cause, had resolved to signalize the
+commencement of his services, by putting the English secretary to
+death on the first occasion." For this purpose, he had followed my
+steps for some time in the metropolis, but without finding a fit
+opportunity. The intelligence of my hunting days in the north gave him
+renewed expectations, and he had followed me in various disguises; had
+been present at dinners and balls, where I was the principal guest;
+had even frequently conversed with me on public and foreign topics; in
+fact, had haunted me with a case of pistols constantly in his bosom;
+yet had never been able to find the true opportunity of despatching me
+without _eclat_. He had, at last, determined to give up the object as
+altogether hopeless; and had already prepared to act on a bolder scale
+by heading open rebellion, when he heard of my intending to hunt on
+this day. It was to be his last experiment; "and how rejoiced I am,"
+said he, "that it has failed!" He now remained for a while in apparent
+meditation, and then suddenly raising himself on his hand, said, in a
+full and manly tone--"One thing I still can do in this world, if it
+may not be too late. Leave me here; I must die; go back in all haste
+to your friends, and tell them to prepare either to fly or defend
+their lives. This is the night appointed for the breaking out of the
+insurrection. Fifty thousand men are already armed in the mountains,
+and ready for the signal to march on the principal towns. The few
+troops in the country are to be made prisoners in their barracks. The
+government stores are to be divided among the people. Before twelve
+hours are over we shall have a force of a hundred thousand men on
+foot; and a republic will be proclaimed."
+
+The intelligence was startling, but not wholly unexpected. I demanded
+the names of the leaders; but on this head he refused to make any
+answer. I next enquired, whether the rebel directory had any hope of
+assistance from the Continent. "That I can fully answer," said he, now
+almost at his last gasp. "I myself was the negotiator. It is but a
+month since I was in Paris. The government agreed to send seven sail
+of the line, with ten thousand troops, and Hoche, the favourite
+general of the republic, to the north; or, in case of unexpected
+obstacles, to the south of Ireland. I have been looking out for their
+flag from hour to hour." The man sank back on the ground. I prepared
+to run for help, if there were any to be found in that desolate place.
+He grasped my hand; his was icy. "No," said he, "I must now be left
+alone; I am dying, and I am not sorry to die. I am free from your
+blood, and I shall not share in the horrors which I see at hand. Men
+in health, and men dying think differently of those things. Farewell!"
+He gave my hand a convulsive clasp, and expired.
+
+My situation was an anxious one. Night had fallen, and the hour was
+full of peril to those whom I had left behind; it was even possible
+that the insurrection might have already broken out. Sounds, which
+seemed to me, in the stillness of the hour, to be the signals of the
+peasantry--the echoes of horns, and trampling of bodies of
+horse--began to rise upon the gust, and yet I was unwilling to leave
+my unfortunate victim on the ground. A length a loud shout, and the
+firing of musketry on the skirts of the wood, awoke me to a sense of
+the real danger of my situation. I forced my way through the thickets,
+and saw a skirmish between a large mass of armed men, and a picket of
+troops in a village on the borders of the wood. There was now no time
+to be lost. I returned to the spot where the body lay, placed my hand
+on its forehead, to ascertain whether any remnant of life lingered
+there; found all cold; and, remounting my horse, wound my dreary and
+difficult way back to the mansion.
+
+To my surprise, I found the windows blazing with lights, carriages
+arriving, and all the signs of a night of gala. I had forgotten that
+this was my noble entertainer's birthday, and that the whole circle of
+the neighbouring nobles and gentlemen had been for the last month
+invited. There were to be private theatricals, followed by a ball and
+supper. The whole country continued to pour in. Full of my disastrous
+intelligence, my first enquiry was for the noble host; he was not to
+be seen. I was at length informed under the seal of secrecy by his
+secretary, that some information of popular movements within a few
+miles, having been conveyed to him late in the day, he had put himself
+at the head of a squadron of his yeomanry to ascertain the nature of
+the disturbance, and as it was then too late to countermand the
+invitations to the ball, had given strict orders that the cause of his
+absence should be concealed, and that the entertainments should go on
+as if he were present.
+
+Agreeing that this was the wisest thing which could be done, to avoid
+unnecessary alarm, which paralyses action beforehand, and renders all
+ridiculous after, I seldom felt it more difficult to play my part than
+on this occasion. As a minister, any thing in the shape of solicitude
+on my part, was sure to be magnified into actual disaster, and I was
+forced to keep an unembarrassed countenance. I immediately sent out
+servants in every direction to bring intelligence of the actual state
+of affairs, and above all, to ascertain what had detained their
+master. Though all this was done with the utmost secrecy, it was
+impossible to suppress the growing impression that something
+extraordinary must have occurred, to withdraw from his own hospitable
+roof, and so long detain, the lord of the mansion, distinguished as he
+was for the most polished courtesy. As the hour waned, the enquiries
+became more urgent, the dance languished, and the showy crowd forming
+into groups, and wandering through the saloons, or gathered to the
+windows, had evidently lost all the spirit of festivity. To my
+astonishment, strong opinions began to find utterance, and I
+discovered that his lordship, in his general and lofty disregard of
+the shades of popular sentiment, had among his guests some individuals
+whose rank and wealth had not preserved them from the taint of
+republicanism. As it was not my purpose to make a ball-room the scene
+of a political squabble, and as I felt it due to my official position
+to avoid any unnecessary entanglement in the obscure follies of
+provincial partizanship, I first tried to laugh down the topic. But a
+young orator, a handsome and fluent enthusiast, recently returned from
+a continental excursion, gave so stirring a picture of the glories of
+French independence, and the glittering advantages which must accrue
+to all countries following the example, that I was forced to stand on
+my defence. The gallant republican was not to be repelled; he poured
+out upon me, as he warmed with the theme, so vast a catalogue of
+public injuries, in language so menacing, yet so eloquent, that I was
+forced to ask whether I was standing in the midst of a Jacobin
+club--whether his object was actually to establish a democracy, to
+govern by the guillotine, to close up the churches, and inscribe the
+tombs with--death is an eternal sleep; to swear to the extinction of
+monarchy, and proclaim universal war. Our dispute had now attracted
+general notice. He answered with still more vehement and elaborate
+detail. I had evidently the majority on my side, but some few adhered
+to him, and those, too, men of consequence, and obvious determination.
+
+The ladies shrank affrighted, as the contest grew more angry; and the
+usual and unhappy result of political discussion in Ireland, an
+exchange of cards, was about to take place, when one of the servants
+brought me a small packet of papers which had been found on the body
+of the assassin. Glancing over them, I saw a list of the leaders of
+the insurrection, and the first name in the paper that of my
+antagonist. I crushed the document in my hand, and beckoned him to a
+window. There, alone, and out of hearing of the guests, who, however,
+followed us anxiously with their eyes, I charged him with his guilt.
+He denied it fiercely. I gave him five minutes to consider whether he
+would confess or abide the consequences. His countenance visibly
+exhibited the perturbations of his mind; he turned pale and red
+alternately, shuddered, then braced himself up with desperate
+resolution, and finally ended by denying and defying every thing. It
+was not in my nature to press upon this moment of agony; but telling
+him, that nothing but compassion prevented my ordering his arrest on
+the spot, I again warned him to make his peace in time with the
+government, by a solemn abjuration of his design.
+
+I have the whole scene before me still. This man was destined to a
+memorable and melancholy fate. I never remember a countenance more
+expressive of intellectual refinement; but there was a look of strange
+and feverish restlessness in his large grey eye, almost ominous of his
+future career. He was still young, though he had already gone through
+vicissitudes enough to darken the longest life. He had been, a few
+years before, called to the bar, the favourite profession of the Irish
+gentry, where he had exhibited talents of a remarkable order; but an
+impatience of the slow success of this profession drove him to the
+hazards of political change. He had married, and this increased his
+difficulties, until party came athwart him with its promises of
+boundless honour and rapid fortune. His sanguine nature embraced the
+temptation at once; but the parliamentary opposition was too
+deliberate and too frigid for his boiling blood; he plunged into the
+deeper and wilder region of conspiracy, took the lead, which is so
+soon assigned to the brilliant and the bold, and became the soul of
+the tremendous faction which was ready to proclaim the separation of
+the empire.
+
+He had but now returned from France, with a commission in the army of
+the Republic, and a plan agreed on with the Directory for the invasion
+of Ireland; but these were discoveries to be made hereafter. On this
+night I saw nothing but a gallant enthusiast, filled with classic
+recollections, inflamed with the ardour of early life, and deluded by
+the dreams of political perfection. My sense of the utter ruin which
+he was preparing for himself was so strong, that I pressed him from
+point to point, until he was forced to take refuge in flight, and,
+rushing from me, burst open a door which led to the demesne. While I
+paused, not unwilling to give him the opportunity to escape, I heard a
+wild burst of wailing, and a confusion of voices outside. In the next
+moment, I saw the fugitive return, with a tottering step, a bloodless
+countenance, and a look of horror. Without a word, he pointed to the
+door; I followed the direction, and saw what might well justify his
+feelings. The troop of yeomanry had been attacked on their return from
+patrolling the country; an ambuscade had been laid for them by a large
+force of the insurgents, in one of the narrow roads which bordered the
+demesne, and where, from its vicinity, they had imagined themselves
+secure. As they moved down this defile with their noble commandant at
+their head, a heavy fire of musketry assailed them from both sides;
+and as the assailants were unapproachable, they had no resource but to
+gallop on. But they had no sooner reached the wider part of the road,
+than they found themselves fired on again from behind a barricade of
+carts and waggons drawn across the road. The affair now seemed
+desperate; the muzzles of the muskets almost touched their breasts,
+and every shot told. Their pistols could only keep up a random fire,
+and their sabres were wholly useless. They were now falling helplessly
+and fast, when the earl ordered them to charge the insurgents in
+front, and force their way over the barricade at all risks. He bravely
+led the way, and they burst through under a volley from the rebels. A
+ball fatally struck him as he was in the act of cheering on his men,
+and he dropped dead from his horse without a groan. The troop, furious
+at their loss, had taken a desperate revenge, cleared the road, and
+had now brought the dead body of their lord to that mansion, where he
+had so long presided as the example of every high-toned quality, and
+which his fate was now to turn into a scene of terror and woe.
+
+The melancholy tidings could not now be suppressed, and the ball-room
+was filled with screams and faintings. The corpse was brought in,
+borne on the arms of the yeomanry, most of them wounded, and looking
+ghastly from loss of blood and the agitation of the encounter. The
+guests crowded round the sofa on which the body was laid, with all the
+varieties of sorrow and strong emotion conceivable, under the loss of
+a common and honoured friend. Tears fell down many a manly cheek; sobs
+were heard on every side, mingled with outcries of indignation against
+the rebellious spirit by which so deep a calamity had been produced.
+But all other considerations were quickly absorbed in the sense of
+general danger. A tremendous shout was heard round the mansion,
+followed by the discharge of musketry and the clashing of pikes. All
+rushed to the windows, and we saw the hills in a blaze with fires, and
+the demesne crowded with the armed thousands of the insurrection.
+
+
+
+
+JANUS;
+
+THE GOD OF NEW-YEAR'S DAY, FROM THE FASTI OF OVID.
+
+
+  Behold with omens blithe and bright, on festive New-Year's Day,
+  First in the year old Janus comes, and foremost in my lay!
+  Twin-headed god, source of the year that silent glides away,
+  Who only of the Olympian throng canst thine own back survey;
+  Bless thou our noble chiefs, whose arms have purchased gentle peace
+  To fruitful Earth, and lent the wave from pirate-chase release;
+  On senators and people smile, who call Quirinus god,
+  All temples bright, in shining white, fly open at thy nod!
+  A lucky sun doth shine; nor voice, nor thought of ill, be stirr'd
+  To tempt the time; the happy day demands the happy word.
+  No brawls assail the ear; cease now the harsh-vex'd forum's hum,
+  And calumny with eager tongue, for once thy spite be dumb!
+  Lo! where the pure and fragrant flame from every altar round
+  Upwreathes, while ears devout receive the saffron's crackling sound!
+  The wandering flame, far darting, strikes the golden-fretted roof,
+  And with the tremulous ray aloft, it weaves a shining woof.
+  In stately pomp, the people wend up the Tarpeian slope,
+  All brightly, on a bright day clad, the pure white robes of hope;
+  New axes shine, and in the sun new purple bravely sports,
+  And greeted-far the curule chair new weight of worth supports;[12]
+  New oxen come that lately cropp'd the sweet Faliscan grass,
+  And yield to Jove their willing necks on which no yoke did pass.
+  He, from his starry throne sublime, looks East and West; and lo!
+  He sees but Rome, and Rome's domain, in all he sways below.
+  Hail happy day, and still return to bless with happier face
+  The sons of Romulus, lords of Earth, not thankless for thy grace!
+  But who art thou, strange biform god, and what thy power? for Greece
+  With all her gods of thee and thine hath bade her Muses cease;
+  This say; and say why thou alone of all celestial kind,
+  Dost forwards still look steadfastly and also gaze behind?
+  Thus with myself I mused, and held my tablets to indite,
+  When sudden through the room there shone an unaccustom'd light,
+  And in the light the double shape of Janus hoar appear'd,
+  And 'fore my view with fix'd regard his double face he rear'd.
+  I stood aghast, each rigid hair erect rose on my head,
+  And through my frame with freezing touch the creeping terror sped.
+  He in his right hand held a staff, and in his left a key,
+  And with the mouth to-me-ward turn'd these words he spake to me--
+  "Fear not, pains-taking bard, whose pen doth chronicle the days,
+  Receive my word with faithful ear, and sound it in thy lays.
+  When earth was young, primeval speech first call'd me Chaos; I
+  Am no birth of to-day--a name of hoar antiquity.
+  This lucid air, and the other three, which elements ye class,
+  Fire, water, earth, were then one rude and undigested mass;
+  But soon within the mingled heap a secret strife did brew,
+  And to self-chosen homes anon the hostile atoms flew.
+  First rose the flame sublime, the air assumed the middle berth,
+  And to the central base were bound strong ocean, and firm earth.
+  Then I, till then a mass confused, a huge and shapeless round,
+  New features worthy of a god, and worthy members found;
+  Still of my primal shapeless bulk remain'd the little trace,
+  That I alone have no true back, but show both ways a face.
+  One cause thou hast; another hear, and with my figure know,
+  My virtue and my power above, my office here below.
+  Whate'er thou see'st, the earth, the sea, the air, the fiery cope,
+  At my command they shut their gates, at my command they ope.
+  I of the vasty universe do hold the secret key,
+  The hinge of every thing that turns is turn'd alone by me.
+  Peace, when I please to send her forth from her secure retreats,
+  Walks freely o'er the unfenced fields, and treads free-gated streets;
+  The mighty globe would quake convulsed by blood and murderous din,
+  Did not my brazen bolt confine the store of strife within.
+  The gates of Heaven are mine; I watch there with the gentle Hours,
+  That Jove supreme must wait my time in the Olympian bowers.
+  Thence my name Janus;[13] thence the priest who on my altar places
+  The salted cake, the sacred meal, with strange-mouth'd titles graces
+  My hoary deity; thence you hear Patulcius now, and now
+  Clusius, crown the votive gift, and seal the mystic vow.[14]
+  Thus rude antiquity at first its simple creed confess'd,
+  And with twin words the functions twain of one same god express'd.
+  My power you know--the god of gates--now for my figure, why?
+  The cause is plain, and may be read by half a poet's eye.
+  There is no door but looks two ways; into the busy street
+  This way, and that way back towards the quiet Lar's retreat;[15]
+  And as the porter whom you place to keep watch at your gate,
+  Sees who goes out and who comes in at early hour and late,
+  Thus I, the warden of the sky, from heaven's wide-tented blue,
+  Look forth, and scan both east and west with comprehensive view.
+  The triform image you have seen, and any where may see,
+  Of Hecate standing at the point where one road parts in three;
+  Thus I, lest turning of my neck my function might delay,
+  The motive world on either side without a move survey."
+  Thus spake the god with friendly mien and eye, that seem'd to say--
+  "If wish be yours to question more, command me; I obey."
+  Due thanks I gave; strong fear no more my eager tongue possess'd,
+  And with a look that sought the ground, the immortal I address'd.
+  "This would I know, why frosty days and storms begin the year,
+  Which flowery spring had usher'd in with more auspicious cheer;
+  Then all things flourish--all things then of youth and freshness tell,
+  The juicy vine begins to flow, the bud begins to swell;
+  With fresh green leaves the tree is clad, a virgin sheen appears,
+  The bursting seed above the ground the fresh green blade uprears.
+  With fresh full-throated warblings then the blithe birds stir the air,
+  And lamb and lambkin in the mead their frisking sports prepare.
+  Then suns are mild; its south retreat the stranger swallow leaves,
+  And skilful builds the well-known clay beneath the lofty eaves.
+  Then walks the ploughman forth; the clod yields to the sturdy steer;
+  Soothly the fittest time was this to omen in the year."
+  My words were many, but in words few and well-chosen, He,
+  Within the compass of two lines, thus made reply to me.
+  "What time the sun that sunk before mounts loftier to the view,
+  This fitliest closed the parting year, and usher'd in the new."
+  I ask'd again, "Why on this day the forum's strife should end
+  Only in part."--"The cause," said he, "I will explain; attend.
+  The young year's starting day I made but partial holiday,
+  Lest labourless begun, the year might run to the end in play;
+  Each cunning hand on Janus' feast makes prelude to his trade,
+  Of all the rest a timely test on New-Year's day is made."
+  Then I, this further--"Tell me why, when I bring frankincense
+  To Jove or any other god, with thee I still commence?"
+  "Because of things in heaven and earth I hold the sacred key,
+  The first approach to all the gods is made alone through me."
+  "But on thy kalends, why are men, so harsh on other days,
+  Keen to return the kindly look, and change the friendly phrase?"
+  To this the god, his strong right hand upon his good staff leaning,
+  "All ominous things when first observed speak out their fateful meaning.
+  To the first voice of things that cry, ye lend a trembling ear,
+  And the first flight of bodeful wings fills pious hearts with fear.
+  The ears are open of the gods, to catch on New-Year's day
+  What random words, or thoughtless prayer, a hasty fool may say."
+  Thus ceased the god; nor slow was I the broken thread to join,
+  But of the last words that he spake, thus trode the heels with mine.
+  "But what have dates to do with thee, and wrinkled figs, this tell,
+  And what the honey dew that drops pure from its snowy cell?"[16]
+  "Here, too, an omen lies," he said; "the cause is passing clear,
+  That from sweet things a savour sweet may relish the whole year."
+  Thus taught, the cause I understood of dates, and figs, and honey;
+  "But tell me now, wise god!" I said, "what means the piece of money?"
+  He smiled. "Alas! how much thy age deceives thy wit," he said;
+  "As if sweet honey by the touch of gold were sweeter made.
+  Even in good Saturn's day, 'twas hard to find a heart all pure,
+  From the infection of base gain, and gainful lust secure.
+  Small at the birth, it grew apace the thirst of yellow ore,
+  Till heap on heap ye pile so high, that ye can pile no more.
+  Not so the measure was of wealth in Rome's primeval time,
+  When all was poor that now is rich, and low that's now sublime;
+  When a small hut was all that held the son of Mars divine,
+  And gather'd reeds were all the couch on which he drain'd the wine;
+  When Jove within his narrow cell erect could scarcely stand,
+  An earthen Jove, and of base clay the bolt that arm'd his hand.
+  When with wild-flowers the fane was deck'd that now with jewels gleams,
+  And his own sheep the senator fed near the rural streams;
+  When gently woo'd by healthy sleep the rustic warrior lay
+  On straw, and praised above all down a truss of bristling hay;
+  When to give laws to Rome the peasant consul left the plough,
+  And gold was then as great a crime as 'tis a virtue now.
+  But when our fates were lifted high, and to the stars sublime,
+  Perch'd on her base of seven-hill'd state proud Rome had learn'd to
+    climb;
+  Wealth grew with power, and lust of wealth, a madness of the brain,
+  And still the more that they possess'd, the more they sought to gain.
+  Eager to make that they might spend, spending to make anew,
+  Change nursed by change of fell extremes to monstrous nature grew;
+  Thus he whose sickly body swells with water in the veins,
+  The more he drinks, the more within the thirsty fever reigns.
+  All things are prized by price; to wealth all honours now are sure;
+  Wealth buys the rich man friends; forlorn and friendless pines the poor.
+  If now you ask why copper coins are chiefly my delight,
+  The ancient brass of Rome should I, the ancient Janus, slight?
+  Brass was their wealth of old; though now the better omen's gold,
+  And the new metal from the field has fairly beat the old.
+  Myself, though simple and severe, approve a golden shrine--
+  This metal hath a majesty that suits a power divine.
+  We praise the ancients, and 'tis well; but use our modern ways--
+  All fashions in due time and place are worthy of our praise."
+  Thus ceased the god; but I, to set all rising doubts at rest,
+  The hoar key-bearer of the sky thus with meek words address'd:--
+  "Much I have learn'd; but tell me this--why of our copper coin
+  Does one side bear a ship, and one a double head like thine?"[17]
+  "That head is mine; you might have known the likeness of the face
+  But that hoar age and wear have dull'd the sharpness of the trace.
+  As for the ship, attend: the god that bears the scythe whilcome
+  Far-wandering in the Tuscan flood at length had ceased to roam.[18]
+  Well I remember when he came, and hold the memory dear--
+  Saturn, by Jove expell'd from heaven, and kindly welcom'd here.
+  Thence was the land Saturnia call'd; and Latium still we name
+  The part where ancient Saturn lurk'd in safety when he came.[19]
+  Our pious sires upon the brass the sacred ship impress'd,
+  Whose keel to blest Ausonian shores had borne the Olympian guest.
+  Then on that spot I made my home where Tiber's waters glide,
+  And eat the yielding banks away with sandy-rolling tide.
+  Here, where Rome stands, wild copse green grew; the busy forum now
+  Was then a peaceful glen, disturb'd by wandering oxen's low.
+  My fortress then was that same hill which pious Rome reveres
+  Even now, and thinks on Janus when Janiculum she hears.
+  Here I was king, when holy earth of heavenly guests could tell,
+  And in the haunts of men the gods were not ashamed to dwell;
+  Ere Justice, shrinking from the sight of human guilt and crime,
+  Last of immortals left the earth, and sought the starry clime;
+  When hearts were sway'd by love, and held by bonds of holy awe,
+  And light the labour was to shape for willing hearts the law.
+  Stern war I knew not, and the gates I held were gates of peace;
+  While in my hand the key declared--Let garner'd stores increase!"
+  Here closed the god his lips; but I, not bashful, open'd mine,
+  And with the mortal voice again unseal'd the voice divine.
+  "Since many gates are thine in Rome, say why dost thou appear
+  In perfect shape and size nowhere but at the forums here?"[20]
+  Whereto the god, with gentle hand stroking his long beard hoary,
+  Forthwith recounted in my ear OEbalian Tatius' story;
+  And how, by Sabine gauds ensnared, the fair and faithless maid
+  The path that to the Capitol leads to the Sabine lord betray'd.
+  "As there is now, so then there was, a slope by which you go
+  Steep from the citadel to the plain, and forum stretch'd below;
+  And now the twain had reach'd the gate where Juno's partial ward
+  The only bolts that closed their way propitiously unbarr'd,
+  When I, too wise with Saturn's seed in open fight to join,
+  Contrived a scheme that baffled hers, a plan entirely mine;
+  I oped (in opening lies my strength) a gate where waters slept,
+  And from the solid rock straightway a stream impetuous leapt;
+  To the hot spring such sulphurous steams my timely aid supplied
+  That eager Tatius quail'd and shrunk back from the rolling tide.
+  The Sabines fled; the gushing fount miraculous ceased to flow;
+  Nor pious Rome to own the power that sent such aid was slow;
+  A little altar on a shrine not large to Janus' name
+  Was raised; there sprinkled meal and cake smokes mingled with the flame."
+  "But this say further,--why thy gates in war are open, why
+  In peace are closed?" whereto the god thus gave the prompt reply;
+  "That till her sons fierce war have quench'd, and crush'd the crude
+    revolt,
+  Rome to receive the homeward host may keep unbarr'd the bolt;
+  In peace my locks are closed, that none may causeless leave his home,
+  Nor few the years I shall be closed while Cæsar reigns in Rome."
+  Thus spake the god; and lifting high his head of diverse view,
+  Scann'd east and west, and all that's spread beneath the ethereal blue;
+  And peace rein'd o'er wide earth; ev'n where i' the north, with surly
+    wave,
+  The rebel Rhine to Cæsar's arms their latest triumph gave;
+  Peace, hoary Janus, make thou sure for ever; and may they
+  Who purchased peace embrace the globe with everlasting sway.
+
+
+
+
+TO A BLIND GIRL.
+
+
+  I do not sigh as some may sigh,
+    To see thee in thy darkness led
+  Along the path where sunbeams lie,
+      And bloom is shed.
+
+  I do not weep as some may weep,
+    Upon thy rayless brow to look;
+  A boon more rare 'twas thine to keep,
+        When light forsook.
+
+  A glorious boon! Thou shalt not view
+    One treasure from the earth depart--
+  Its starry buds, its pearls of dew,
+        Lie in thy heart.
+
+  No need to heed the frosty air,
+    No need to heed the blasts that chafe,
+  The scatter'd sheaf, the vintage spare--
+        _Thy hoard is safe_.
+
+  Thou shalt not mark the silent change
+    That falls upon the heart like blight,
+  The smile that grows all cold and strange.--
+        Bless'd is thy night!
+
+  Thou shalt not watch the slow decay,
+    Nor see the ivy clasp the fane,
+  Nor trace upon the column gray
+        The mildew stain.
+
+  _Ours_ is the darkness--thine the light.
+    Within thy brow a glory plays;
+  Shrine, blossom, dewdrop, all are bright
+        With quenchless rays.
+
+  J. D.
+
+
+
+
+THE FORCED SALE.
+
+
+A large red brick house, with a multitude of gable-ends, and rows of
+small, dingy-looking windows, had hidden itself for many generations
+in a clump of fine old trees in a large green field--almost qualified
+to take rank as a park--at a distance of six or seven miles from St
+Paul's. In the days of the good Queen Anne, the city lay comfortably
+huddled up round the cathedral church, and looked upon her sister of
+Westminster as too far removed, and of too lofty a rank, to be visited
+except on rare occasions. London was then contained within reasonable
+limits, and it was easy to walk round her boundaries; you could even
+point out the precise spot at which the town ended and the country
+began. The inhabitants of the large brick house, known by the name of
+Surbridge Hall, at rare intervals, and then only to visit the shops,
+undertook the journey into the city; and, unless in the stillest of
+autumn evenings, when the enormous tongue of the metropolitan clock
+made itself audible on the Surbridge lawn, they might have forgotten
+that such a place as the capital was within fifty miles. That
+generation died off; and London had begun to put out feelers in all
+directions, and had outgrown the ancient limits. Streets began to move
+out a little way into the country for change of air; and, in making
+their usual shopping-visits to the great city, the inhabitants of
+Surbridge Hall had now to drive through a short row of houses, where
+the elders of the party remembered nothing but a hedge. That
+generation also died out; and the city, like an old dowager who has
+once been a beauty, and boasted of a waist, grew out of all shape.
+There were squares and crescents rising in every quarter and the white
+tops of chimneys, and the blue dinginess of roofs, became visible from
+the upper windows of Surbridge Hall. The proprietor, terrified perhaps
+by the approach of such neighbours, advertised the Hall for sale,
+speedily found a purchaser, and, somewhere about the beginning of this
+century, the old family name of the Walronds disappeared from the
+country, and Surbridge Hall became the property of William Wilkins,
+Esq. We may observe that, much about the same time, the name of the
+senior partner disappeared from the door of a dingy-looking house in
+Riches Court, and the firm of Wilkins & Roe was deprived of its larger
+half. The old lion-rampant, that had stood on its hind-legs for so
+many years on the top of one of the piers of the entrance gates, as if
+in act to spring upon the deer that lay ruminating on the top of the
+other, was now displaced; and, in a few days, his position was taken
+by a plaster-of-Paris cast of Hebe, benevolently holding forth an
+empty goblet towards the thirsty statue of Apollo which did duty on
+the other side. The floors in the old hall were new laid, the windows
+fitted with plate glass, the painting and decoration put into the
+hands of a Bond-street finisher, who covered the walls with acres of
+gilding, and hung chandeliers from the ceilings, and placed mirrors
+upon the walls, till the rooms looked like the show galleries of an
+upholsterer, and very different from the fine solid habitable
+apartments they used to be in the time of the late proprietor. And a
+change nearly as remarkable took place on Mr Wilkins himself as in his
+house. He attended county meetings, and became learned in rents and
+agriculture. He built new houses for his tenants, and only regretted
+he had never learned to ride, or he would have followed the hounds.
+But though he was no Nimrod, he dressed like one of his sons, and
+encased his thick legs in top-boots, and generally carried a whip. At
+last, by dint of good dinners, and voting on the right side at the
+elections, he became a magistrate; and if Mrs Wilkins had had the
+politeness to die, he would have married Lady Diana O'Huggomy, the
+daughter of an Irish earl; but Mrs Wilkins did not die, and Lady Diana
+ran away with a dancing-master. His son had been eighteen years at the
+bar, and never had had a brief; his daughters had been twenty years on
+the world, and never had had an offer; but he still expected to see
+Richard lord chancellor, and his three girls peeresses. A country
+gentleman, a county magistrate, perfectly healthy and tolerably rich,
+was there any thing wanting to Mr Wilkins's felicity? Yes. Alexander
+the Great was wretched when he had conquered the world, and was ten
+times happier when he was breaking-in Bucephalus; and Mr Wilkins, if
+the truth must be told, was very like Alexander the Great, at least in
+his discontent, and was never so gay as he used to be in the dingy
+mansion in Riches Court. The dinners he gave were formal, cold
+affairs, where he never felt at his ease: he could not help thinking
+that the neighbours quizzed and looked down on him; and, in short, he
+felt out of his element, and longed sometimes for the free-and-easy
+dinners he had relished so much in the city. His farm-houses were at
+last all built, his improvements all completed, and there was no
+further occupation for either himself or his money. He sometimes drove
+into Harley Street to see his son, but he found that gentleman also on
+the rack of idleness, and went home again, wondering how Roe was
+getting on in the old premises, though never venturing to go near
+him--for his family had insisted on a dead cut between the partners,
+and could not endure the thoughts of Mr Roe coming between the wind
+and their newly acquired nobility. Time wore on. Old Wilkins grew
+older. He used to sit at the window of his drawing-room and look
+towards London, fancying to himself the bustle and stir that were
+going on, the crowding in Fleet Street, the crush at the Bank; and
+occasionally imagination conjured up to him the image of an active
+citizen bustling down towards the Exchange, radiant with success, and
+filled with activity and hope; and he could scarcely recognise his own
+identity with that joyous citizen, the William Wilkins of that happier
+time. The flood of building, which had only reached to within three
+miles of Surbridge when the Walronds retired to the ark of some estate
+they retained in Yorkshire, had now increased to such a degree, as to
+have submerged many of the fields and orchards that lay at very short
+distance from the Hall. "Willars," with Italian fronts and little
+greenhouses at the side, took post all along the road, and, from the
+open windows, sounded in summer evenings the Battle of Prague, or God
+save the King, so that you walked amidst perpetual music, for no house
+was so ungenteel as to be without a piano. Surbridge Hall itself ran a
+great risk of becoming a suburban villa at no distant time; and Mr
+Wilkins was in some hopes that his family would allow him to consider
+himself an inhabitant of London once more, and no longer doom him to
+the cold nothingness of squireship and gentility. But whether they
+might have relented in this respect can never be known; for while he
+was meditating a renewal of his acquaintance with his late partner,
+and an occasional dive into Riches Court, he changed his bed at the
+Hall for the family vault (newly built) in Surbridge church, and his
+great-coat and riding-whip for a Roman toga and a long gilt baton,
+with which he pointed to heaven from the top of a splendid monument
+near the south wall. Richard now succeeded to the family honours; and
+as he had married a Miss Gillingham--a name which he preferred to his
+ancestral appellation--he did her the honour to take it to himself,
+and was duly enrolled in the list of justices as Wilkins Gillingham,
+Esq. His son was sent to Christchurch, and his three daughters to a
+fashionable boarding-school. His mother and sisters retired to
+Tunbridge Wells, and they all began to persuade themselves that
+Surbridge had been in the family from the time of the Conquest. By way
+of strengthening their claims to county consideration, it was wisely
+determined to oppose the building invasion as powerfully as they
+could. Several farms and fields were bought, plantations were
+skilfully placed, two or three feet were added to the height of the
+walls all round the property; and it was hoped that some impression
+was made on the advancing architectural enemy; for in the speculative
+year of 1819, a dozen or two of builders were removed to the Queen's
+Bench, and whole rows of houses were left looking up to heaven, in
+vain expectation of a roof. Wilkins Gillingham served the office of
+High Sheriff, caught a surfeit in entertaining the judges, and in a
+few weeks gave place to his heir. Augustus had passed two years at
+Oxford--had then married a beauty--the daughter of a country surgeon
+of the name of Howard; and as he inherited his father's tastes, along
+with his property, he changed his family name; and poor old Widow
+Wilkins, who still survived, enlivened the tea-tables of the Wells
+with anecdotes and descriptions of her grandson, Gillingham Howard.
+Death seemed entirely to have forgotten the relict of the original
+William. She stood like an ancient pillar, to point out where the
+building it once belonged to was placed; and was looked upon by her
+descendants pretty much as a native American looks upon a venerable
+squaw of some Indian nation--the connecting link between New York and
+the woods. The widow was the sole point of union left between
+Surbridge Hall and Riches Court. Whether her grandson did not relish
+the reminiscence, or from what cause no one can hazard more than a
+guess, certain it is that on the death of his wife, who left him with
+two daughters, four or five years old, he did not summon his venerable
+ancestor from the Wells, but installed one of her daughters--Aunt
+Susannah--in the temporary charge of his house. By some secret
+arrangement, into the causes of which we have no time to enquire, such
+a change took place in Aunt Susannah, that though she left Tunbridge,
+having secured her place in the inside of the coach in the name of
+Miss S. Wilkins, she was brought out from London in Mr Howard's
+carriage in the name of Miss S. Gillingham; and there was no person of
+the name of Wilkins in the whole of the establishment. Aunt Susannah
+was not a person to hesitate long as to a change of name. It had been
+the whole object of her life, till five-and-thirty years of
+disappointment had almost made her despair of succeeding in her
+object, by the help of special license or even vulgar banns; and she
+accordingly made no scruple in adopting the more euphonious
+Gillingham, and sinking all mention of the other. Mr Gillingham Howard
+followed the example of his predecessors. He was a _bona fide_ country
+gentleman, with the one drawback to his otherwise stupendous
+respectability, of being the greatest drawer of the long-bow since the
+days of Mendez Pinto. He added two feet more to the height of his
+boundary walls, and bought all the disposable land round his estate;
+but if he had transplanted a couple of miles of the Chinese wall to
+Surbridge, he could no more have kept off the intrusion of the
+barbarian villa-builders than the Celestials have been able to shut
+out the same pushing, bustling, active, energetic, unabashable
+individuals from the Flowery land. Architecture went on, and now the
+gigantic city had stuck her arms so majestically on either hip, that
+one of her elbows actually came into contact with the park of
+Surbridge Hall. There was a gentle elevation--in those flat regions
+honoured with the name of a hill--which lay at one side of the
+Surbridge lands. It was a beautifully wooded little property of thirty
+or forty acres, which it had always been the ambition of the Surbridge
+owners to buy; but it was so involved with lawsuits or doubtful
+titles, that it had hitherto been impossible to get possession of it
+for love or money. The upper part of it rose high above the glades of
+Surbridge park, and the clump of trees on the summit formed a very
+fine object in the view from the drawing-room windows. It was all laid
+down in the richest pasture, and would have formed the most valuable
+addition to the property, both in making it compact and keeping it
+secluded. The owner of it died at last in the Fleet, and it was
+advertised for sale, with a perfect title and immediate possession.
+The sale was by auction, and the day drew rapidly near. Mr Gillingham
+Howard went carefully over the ground, examined the condition of his
+credit--for his surplus cash was gone--had the property valued; and
+determined to give a thousand more than its worth, to prevent it
+falling into any one else's hands. When the day of sale arrived, he
+placed himself in front of the auctioneer, and determined, by the
+fierceness of his "bids," to frighten any competitor from the field.
+The room was crowded, and the sale began. All the eloquence of the
+celebrated Puff was displayed on this occasion; and when he paused
+after his glowing description, and asked any gentleman to be kind
+enough to name a sum to begin with--suggesting, at the same time, four
+thousand pounds. "Gentlemen, shall we say four thousand guineas?" Mr
+Gillingham Howard, in a voice that was calculated to show that he was
+in earnest, and did not stand upon trifles, nodded his head, and said
+"seven!" The auctioneer himself was overcome with the success of his
+oratory, and there was a dead silence among the spectators. "Thank
+you, sir--seven thousand guineas," he said, "Will any gentleman make
+an advance?" looking round, at the same time, as if he considered it
+useless to waste any breath in endeavouring to enhance the price. His
+hammer mechanically went up, and was on the point of falling, when a
+weak voice near the orator's pulpit whispered "eight."
+
+The voice proceeded from an old man wrapped up in a thick great-coat,
+though it was a warm day in June--a clear-eyed, small-featured,
+diminutive old man, who had sat the whole time, taking no apparent
+interest in the proceedings. All eyes were turned upon him in a
+moment, and he quietly repeated the awful monosyllable--"eight!" Mr
+Gillingham Howard looked at the old gentleman with detestation in
+every feature, for he felt that the person, whoever he was, was
+actually robbing him of a thousand pounds; and he would have had very
+few scruples in sending the culprit to Botany Bay for so tremendous an
+outrage. A sort of smile ran round the assemblage at seeing the sudden
+alteration produced on his countenance; and though he had determined
+not to give more than the original seven, he was ashamed to be cowed
+by an unknown individual at once; and after a few minutes' pause, and
+a glance of ineffable hatred at the little old man, who had relapsed
+into his state of contented unconcern, he looked at the auctioneer,
+and said, "Five hundred more!" Saying this, he put his hands into his
+pockets, and kept his eye fixed on his competitor. Without a moment's
+hesitation, the old gentleman nodded his head once more, and said, "Mr
+Puff, I'm in a hurry. Will this gentleman give ten thousand guineas? I
+will!"
+
+The auctioneer gave one look to Mr Gillingham Howard, and saw, from
+the blank expression of that gentleman's countenance, that competition
+was at an end. The hammer fell, and seemed like a great rock on Mr
+Gillingham Howard's heart.
+
+"Your name, if you please, sir," said Mr Puff.
+
+The little old gentleman rose up and said, "Give me a pen and ink.
+I'll write an order for the money. My name is Thomas Roe, No. 20,
+Riches Court."
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A week had passed, and Mr Gillingham Howard nursed his wrath, like Tam
+O'Shanter's wife, to keep it warm. The name of the successful
+purchaser had struck him with a feeling of horror; for as silence had
+brooded for fifty years over the history of his grandfather--and as
+the misty period preceding the purchase of Surbridge had given rise to
+a whole mythology of ancestry like to the anti-historic periods of
+Greece, and other imaginative nations--he looked upon the appearance
+of the veritable contemporary of that fabulous age in the same way as
+Romulus would have regarded any surviving friend and companion of the
+real _bona fide_ robber or pig-driver to whom he probably owed his
+birth. It is needless, therefore, to say, that over all other feelings
+fear and disgust predominated. He determined to withdraw himself into
+still more aristocratic seclusion than before, and on no account to
+recognise the existence of his new neighbour. A month or two passed
+on, and no steps seemed taken on the part of the purchaser to avail
+himself of his new acquisition. Day after day Mr Gillingham Howard
+looked up to the tuft of trees that crowned the beautiful field beyond
+his park, and on seeing no symptoms of cutting down, nor other
+preparations for house-building, began to indulge in the pleasing
+anticipation that the old gentleman had no intention of the kind; and
+by cherishing this idea for some time, he succeeded at last in
+believing, that if he did in reality turn his ground to any such a
+purpose, he would be guilty of a fresh injustice. Three months had
+elapsed, and the beautiful colours of Autumn just unfurled themselves
+in order to be struck at the first broadside of a November frost--the
+sun was shining so warmly, that the leaves had every reason to be
+ashamed of their yellow complexions; and a young lady--like a
+butterfly awakened by the brightness of the day--fluttered forward
+from the porch of Surbridge Hall, dressed in all the hues of the
+rainbow. A green bonnet, a pink pelisse, a red shawl, and lilac
+parasol, were scarcely in keeping with the sylvan scene on which she
+hurriedly entered. She was very tall and very thin, and had been
+taught to walk by a Parisian _promeneuse_ at a guinea a lesson; so
+that the tail of her gown described a half circle every time she
+stept, and her progress was apparently on the principle of the
+propeller screw. A small sketch-book was under her arm, and across her
+wrist she bore a supernumerary shawl. "If he should be there again,"
+she thought, "he will surely speak. He looked as if he wished to do it
+last time. But he's bashful, perhaps, to a person of my rank. Poor
+fellow--how handsome he looked as he turned away!" The thought seemed
+to be a pleasant one, for a sort of smile rose to her thin lips as she
+dwelt on it, and she increased her pace. She opened a little gate, and
+moved rapidly on towards an ornamental poultry-house near the boundary
+of the estate. The extra shawl was soon spread upon the stump of a
+tree, the sketch-book opened, and with her eye intently fixed on the
+fantastic chimney of the hen-house, she listened for every sound. She
+moved the pencil as if busily engaged in sketching; but, strange to
+say, the figure produced by her touch, took (involuntarily as it were)
+the appearance of a very handsome young man, for whose bright eyes and
+smiling countenance there was no warrant in the twisted bricks and
+oddly shaped cans of the original. As if her drawing had been the
+mystic configurations of a conjurer, the spirit came when she did call
+for it; and with a side glance of her eye, she perceived at no great
+distance from her a young man, who seemed to be gazing at her with
+great earnestness, and was only prevented from addressing her by the
+awe, that formed of course the body-guard of a daughter of Mr
+Gillingham Howard. There are many ways in which it is possible to show
+that the said body-guard may be broken through, without subjecting the
+culprit to the penalties of high-treason. A short cough, as if
+preparatory to a conversation--a hurried look, and then a scarcely
+perceptible smile--a sort of fidgety uneasiness, as if the stump of
+the tree was something rather different from an air-cushion--such were
+the methods pursued by Miss Arabel Howard on the present occasion with
+complete success. The stranger combated with his respect, and going
+near to where the sketcher--again utterly unconscious of his presence,
+was putting in a tuft of ivy--he took off his hat and bowed--
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Miss Arabel, in a state of most becoming surprise.
+
+"I hope I do not alarm you, madam," said the stranger; "though my
+sudden presence here requires an apology."
+
+"Oh!--I beg--I feel sure--any gentleman--my father will be most happy
+to"----
+
+"You are very kind. I perceive you appreciate the beauty of this
+situation as much as I do. You are sketching the gable and
+chimney"----
+
+"Yes--but pray don't look."
+
+But before she had time to close the page and clasp the book, he had
+caught a view of a well drawn hat, and very tastefully touched
+whiskers.
+
+The stranger smiled.
+
+"It is indeed a beautiful little work," he continued.
+
+"And the building so very picturesque. Grandpapa pulled down a row of
+cottages that the poor people lived in, and built this romantic little
+hermitage."
+
+"So I have heard."
+
+"Oh, have you? Grandpapa improved this place very much. Think how the
+view must have been spoilt by a row of nasty cottages, and a crowd of
+horrid poor people."
+
+"It was very near the church for the cottagers."
+
+"Oh! but papa is going to get the horrid old church removed to the
+other end of the parish, and have a beautiful building instead of the
+present tumble-down old ruin."
+
+"Taste seems hereditary in your family."
+
+"It is indeed: ages ago great improvements were made by papa's
+grandfather. He got quit of all the cottages except the row that stood
+here--for what can be more horrid than the sight of a set of dirty
+ignorant people in such beautiful scenery? They should all live in a
+common, or hide themselves in some dark streets in London. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+"A great many of them do; but, if I were a sketcher, I think I could
+make a very interesting subject out of a poor man's cottage, with his
+little children playing about the garden."
+
+"Not real poor children!" exclaimed Miss Arabel, "nor a real poor
+man--no. I have made sketches myself of papa and the Misses
+Warrible--Sir Stephen Warrible's daughters--dressing them in fancy
+rags, and filling the garden they played in with flowers from our
+conservatory, and giving the cottage French windows and a trellis-work
+veranda. He stands leaning on a spade, with silver buckles in his
+shoes, and the children are playing _La Grace_ with the hoops, covered
+with pink ribands. I called it 'The Poor Man's Joy;' and Lord Moon has
+begged me to give it to an engraver."
+
+"I hope you will comply with his lordship's request."
+
+"I would if I could escape the publicity of the thing. Papa would be
+so angry if he thought I was so nearly professional as to be the
+author of a published sketch."
+
+"I am afraid your father is too particular. No scruple of the kind
+fettered the genius of one of the princesses of France."
+
+"Ah, but she was one of the new people! There was no artist in the
+elder branch. Papa can't endure Louis Philippe, and says they are all
+very low."
+
+The gentleman was attacked with a slight cough, and after a pause
+renewed the conversation.
+
+"I think I have seen you engaged on this subject for some time."
+
+"It takes a long time to get in all these twists and corners," replied
+Miss Arabel with a smile of satisfaction, to find that the recontre
+was not more one of chance on his side than her own.
+
+"Do you devote yourself entirely to sketching?"
+
+"Oh no! I paint as well. We have a large gallery at home, and it is an
+excellent school. The family portraits are, many of them, very fine."
+
+"Does it go far back in the English school?"
+
+"Oh, you should see the great wigs of the Charleses and jack-boots of
+the cavaliers! We were all cavaliers, I suppose, for I don't see a
+single roundhead among them."
+
+"And the ladies?"
+
+"Oh, such hoops and farthingales! such pyramids of muslin on their
+heads, and pillars of red leather upon their heels!"
+
+"And is the painting good of that ancient date? How do you like it
+compared to the modern?"
+
+"We have very few modern portraits; and none of any ladies later than
+George II."
+
+"No?" enquired the young man anxiously. "No lady later than that? Ah,
+then I have been misinformed!" he added in a disappointed tone.
+
+"Had you heard of our collection, then?"
+
+"Yes--no--that is--I believe, in most old family houses, there is a
+regular series of portraits that may enable the student to trace the
+alterations of the English school from its very commencement."
+
+"Oh--a student--are you?--that is--have I the pleasure of speaking to
+a painter?" enquired Miss Arabel with great dignity.
+
+"Oh no, madam; only an admirer of the art."
+
+"And you are disappointed at the want of recent female portraits,"
+said Arabel more graciously, the faintest possible hope springing to
+her heart that he was disappointed at the absence of her own.
+
+"I should like to have heard the opinion of a competent judge on so
+interesting a subject. A comparison between Kneller for instance and
+Sir Joshua would be worthy of your taste."
+
+"Oh, Kneller by all means, and Lely better than both! I believe, now
+that you put me in mind of it, there is a pale colourless Sir Joshua
+in the nursery--the school-room I mean."
+
+"A lady?" enquired the stranger.
+
+"A person," replied Miss Arabel, who never allowed lady's rank to any
+one whose status she did not know--"with long hair falling about her
+face, and a little boy lying asleep in her lap. Whether she was a lady
+or not, I don't know, but I rather think not, for I never heard of her
+being connected with our family. Perhaps she was a nurse."
+
+"And are you sure it is a Sir Joshua?"
+
+"Oh, yes!--His name is written on the back; and Mr Ochre, my
+drawing-master, says it is all out of proportion, and of no merit at
+all. But why are you so anxious about the daub? Mr Ochre wishes to be
+allowed to retouch it."
+
+"If he lays a brush on it"--the stranger began in a furious tone, but
+checked himself--"if he lays a brush on it, he will spoil an old
+master."
+
+"A master!" said Miss Arabel with a contemptuous giggle. "I only wish
+you could see it."
+
+"I wish I could," replied the young gentleman; "but I am afraid I
+shall never be so happy."
+
+"Oh!"--The young lady did not say any thing more, but looked at the
+stranger, as if taking measure of his respectability to see if an
+_entrée_ to Surbridge Hall was really above his hopes. He was tall,
+well made, with an air such as she had not seen in any of the visitors
+at that aristocratic mansion.
+
+"I'm sure," she repeated, looking down and speaking with interesting
+hesitation, "my papa would be happy to show his gallery to any
+gentleman in the neighbourhood. Perhaps you know papa?"
+
+"I have not the honour, but since I know what a treasure he possesses,
+I should think it a great happiness to make his acquaintance."
+
+The lady said nothing, but thought it the most neatly turned
+compliment she ever heard in her life.
+
+"I am on a visit to a family near this," he continued, "and may
+perhaps have the opportunity of meeting Mr Howard.
+
+"Oh, where is it?" exclaimed Miss Arabel. "What is their name? We know
+every body in the neighbourhood--that is, of course, you know"----
+
+"Every body that's worth knowing," said the stranger with a smile.
+
+"Exactly. Is it the Rayleighs of Borley Castle, we know them very
+well; or the Manbys of Flixley Abbey, delightful people, we are quite
+intimate with them; or the Sundridges of Fairley Manor, there are no
+pleasanter people in the world--so good, so ladylike, and yet they say
+Mrs Sundridge's father was something very low, a Calcutta merchant, or
+India director, or something of that sort. Is it any of these?"
+
+"No! It is with a gentleman who has lately taken a small villa in the
+neighbourhood, and I am afraid he will think I have been absent from
+him too long. Do you sketch here every day?"
+
+"Till I have finished this tiresome building," replied Miss Arabel. "I
+must avail myself of the fine weather, and not miss a single morning."
+
+The gentleman smiled, and so did the lady. With another apology for
+having intruded, he bowed and withdrew.
+
+Miss Arabel continued where she was, till she lost his graceful figure
+among the windings of the shrubbery.
+
+"He is a charming man," she thought, "and might easily manage to get
+acquainted with papa if he chose. Who can he be?--he's very clever and
+very accomplished--and walks so nobly. I wonder if he is in the
+Guards."
+
+She opened her sketch-book once more, and was busy with her pencil,
+and her thoughts at the same time. She had not seen what necessity
+there was for taking his leave so hurriedly, and perhaps a faint idea
+came to her, that it was not impossible he might return. While she was
+new-pointing her pencil, and recalling all that the stranger had said,
+she heard a footstep coming through the plantation.
+
+"Hush! He is coming again. He can't stay away."
+
+"Servant, young mum--servant, and all that," said a voice close behind
+her;--"Scratch! scratch! there you go, painting bricks as if they was
+Christians, and all that."
+
+"Sir! Are you aware this is private property. Papa would be very angry
+if"----
+
+"He heard I was here. I dassay he would, and all that--but I don't
+intend to wait for him here. I'll beat up his quarters at the hall--I
+will--and all that."
+
+Miss Arabel had a profound contempt for old people and little people;
+and the person who at present addressed her was both little and old.
+He wore a short flaxen wig, and a spenser over a long-tailed blue
+coat; grey nether habiliments, with four or five inches of a white
+worsted stocking visible between his knee and his gaiter. It was a
+very well-shaped leg, and the owner thereof seemed to know it.
+
+"You will not find papa at home," said Miss Arabel. "He has gone out
+to a magistrate's meeting."
+
+"I didn't say I was going there to-day, did I?--and he don't go
+justicing every day in the week, I hope. I'll see him soon, depend
+on't, and make acquaintance with his young 'uns, and all that. How
+many is there of you?"
+
+"My sister and myself--if you enquire as to the number of Mr
+Gillingham Howard's family," replied Miss Arabel.
+
+"What! ha'n't ye picked up ne'er a man yet? ne'er a one on you? Is
+your sister any thing like yourself?"
+
+Miss Arabel cast a look of haughty indignation on her questioner; but
+disdained a reply.
+
+"Pr'aps you're looking out for a juke or a bernet, or some regular
+nobleman, and all that--for I hear you carries all your heads uncommon
+high--whereby it wouldn't be unagreeable to pull 'em down a bit, and
+all that. Come, come, don't pout nor be sulky. Be friendly, young
+'oman, now that we're going to be neighbours, and all that."
+
+"Friendly, indeed!" said Miss Arabel, with a toss of her head that
+would have snapped a martingale in fifty pieces. "Pray walk on, sir. I
+am a lady, and papa would be very indignant at your impertinence."
+
+"I dassay he would; but not a bit more than I have been at his'n this
+many a long day. Why, I've dandled him on my knee a hundred times."
+
+"Have you? Perhaps you were his nurse's husband, or the butler. If you
+come to the servants' hall"----
+
+"Indeed! What to do? To see fine ladies' maids give themselves airs,
+and disgust people with their insolence and affectation. Much obliged
+to you all the same; but when I wants to see sights like that, I'll
+come into the drawing-room."
+
+"I don't know what you mean, and beg you'll retire. Papa put an Irish
+beggar into prison for three weeks for insulting my aunt."
+
+"What! old Susie--old Two-to-the-Pound, and all that. He must have
+been very much of an Irishman to insult the old Roman."
+
+"What do you mean, sir? Do you know my aunt Susannah?"
+
+"Ay, to be sure. Ain't I one of her elders? Lord love ye, I've known
+old Susie since she was just up to my knee--and a reg'lar speciment
+she was. We always called her Two-to-the-Pound. Many's the laugh her
+father and I has had about her dumpiness, and all that."
+
+"Papa's grandfather? Did you know him, sir?" enquired Miss Arabel,
+examining her companion at the same time to see if he was not the
+Wandering-Jew or St Leon; for she considered her papa's grandfather as
+the principal personage of a very remote historical era; and would
+have been little more surprised to hear that the old gentleman before
+her had smoked cigars with Sir Walter Raleigh. "Did you know my
+great-grandfather, sir?"
+
+"Didn't I? There wasn't a bigger snob, though I says it, in all
+England; and just about two-and-forty years ago, him and me was as
+thick as two thieves, though only one of us was a thief. He was a old
+man then, and I was a young 'un, and all that. Your father was summut
+about eight years old, and my daughter was born the very month afore
+he bought this here estate. So you see it ain't no great time to talk
+about, seeing my daughter aint a old 'oman yet, though she has a girl
+twenty year old."
+
+"I don't understand what you say," repeated Miss Arabel.
+
+"Old Susie will understand me better, and so will little Gus."
+
+"Who is Gus?"
+
+"Gus is your father--Augustus he was christened; but we always called
+him Gus. Well, it's quite pleasant, I declare, to be among old
+friends; and I'm glad I've took a willa so close."
+
+The sound of the word "willa," even with the initial "w," attracted
+Miss Arabel's attention. Could it be possible that this was the old
+gentleman with whom the handsome stranger was on a visit?
+
+"If you live so near, you can, of course, have an opportunity of
+seeing papa."
+
+"Seeing him? yes, and telling him a bit of my mind. I'll see every
+thing in the house--from old Susie Two-to-the-Pound, down to the last
+born kitten. You keeps cats of course, and all that? Susie must be
+pleased to see me. Sich laughs, to be sure, we had about her and a
+young man of the Excise. He was about seven feet high, and she wa'n't
+above four and a half, so we always called him her young man of the
+extra size. Wasn't it funny? But he died of a decline; and I hear
+she's a broad as she's long. Well, we must all die!"
+
+"I must wish you good-day, sir. I'm going home," said Miss Arabel,
+rising to go away, and assuming as much dignity as she could.
+
+"Well, good-day, and good-luck to you," said the old man. "Why, how
+tall you are! and the wick not half covered. You wouldn't do credit to
+old Bill Wilkins's manufacture, though I says it as shouldn't. You
+ain't much better than one of the single dips. I'll call on your
+father one of these fine days; for now that I've come to the
+neighbourhood, I've little better to do than pay off old scores--and
+interest's been running on for two-and-forty years. Tell him he had
+better set a price on Surbridge, and prepare to move, for I want to
+buy the estate for a friend of mine."
+
+"I beg, sir--I insist--I don't know you, sir," said the agitated and
+angry Arabel.
+
+"He does though. He knows me precious well; and, what's more, you may
+tell him my name if you like."
+
+"I will tell him, sir, that he may send you to prison for your
+impertinence. He's a magistrate."
+
+"I know all about him. He's a boastful blockhead. Tell him I told you
+so. My name is Mr Thomas Roe, 20, Riches Court."
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The account given by Miss Arabel of her interview with the hateful
+purchaser of the coveted meadows, was so confused, that to persons
+less interested in the matter than Mr Gillingham Howard and Miss
+Susannah Wilkins, (or Gillingham by brevet,) it would have been
+altogether unintelligible. But before these two terror-struck
+individuals rose a vision of their detected boasts and overthrown
+pretensions, that filled them with dismay. What! Mr Gillingham Howard
+exposed in all quarters as the descendant of a tallow-chandler, and
+the censorious Miss Susan as having been known from her childhood by
+the name of Two-to-the-Pound? Could they silence the accuser by
+making him their friend?--or could they repel his revelations by dint
+of unhesitating, unqualified lying?--or finally, would it be necessary
+to quit the neighbourhood? Mr Gillingham Howard was a tall portly man,
+with his hair slightly grizzled, and an air of quiet assurance
+reposing on his somewhat coarse features, which his partial aunt
+considered the solemn dignity of virtue and high birth. To a less
+blinded observed his narrow brow and heavy chin showed strong
+indications of the animal preponderating over the intellectual in his
+organization, and his slow, solemn talk--always about himself--showed
+the importance he attached to the slightest incident that had occurred
+to so distinguished an individual. Not that Mr Gillingham Howard, as
+we remarked before, limited his narratives merely to what had actually
+occurred--they diffused themselves over every circumstance that had
+happened to any one else, and might by any possibility have happened
+to him. By this means he had an extraordinary fund of conversational
+anecdote; for whatever story he heard, or adventure he read, he
+immediately appropriated to himself; and thought nothing of killing
+his eight hundred ducks at one shot with Munchausen, or finding out
+false concords in a Greek play with the Bishop of London. His aunt was
+so used to hear his marvellous tales, that we must in charity suppose
+she believed some of them to be true; and in that persuasion she was
+called upon on all occasions to bear witness to the facts. She
+testified accordingly, with the most perfect readiness, to all his
+achievements in the rows at Oxford; his suggestions to the other
+magistrates, that were always approved; his courage in every danger;
+his mastery in every game, and his skill in every science. She was a
+little, vulgar-looking woman, with small cunning eyes, and a very
+round face, glistening and shining with its absurd obesity; and in
+shape and complexion bearing a close resemblance to a sun-flower stuck
+into a Dutch cheese. The awe with which she regarded her nephew arose
+partly from his size, but principally from the aristocratic loftiness
+of his birth--being the third in descent from the original founder of
+the family, while nothing stood between her and the tallow vat except
+the six years during which her father had enacted the country squire.
+What could be more appalling to these unhappy beings than the
+threatened visit, and long-delayed vengeance of the implacable Thomas
+Roe? In the mean time, Miss Arabel had only a confused notion of the
+meaning of all the threats and messages, the mere report of which
+wrought such anguish in the paternal breast. Her thoughts dwelt more
+constantly on the interview she had had with the mysterious stranger;
+and the speech he had made about the treasure he had heard of in
+Surbridge Hall, came every moment to her mind. It was so pretty a
+speech; and he looked so full of admiration when he said it! Was there
+no way of getting him introduced to papa? Not a word of the meeting
+could she mention to her sister; for Miss Arabel was one of those
+amiable beings not uncommon in ball-rooms, who will not risk the peace
+of mind of a friend by making her acquainted with a rich or
+fascinating partner on any account. And if this holds good with a
+friend, much more in the case of Miss Arabel did it hold good with a
+sister. So she sat in her own room and devised fifty expedients for
+legitimating her acquaintance with the interesting unknown.
+
+But while Surbridge Hall is frightened from its propriety, let us pass
+over for a moment to the hostile camp, and see what is going on there.
+A beautiful young girl is sitting at a table, on which a number of
+maps and plans are laid out; and, while her eyes are busily running
+over the various lines and measurements, her small white hand is
+resting we are sorry to say, without making the smallest effort for
+liberty, within that of the very same young gentleman whose appearance
+we have already commemorated. Beautiful blue eyes they are, and fitter
+for other employment than to pore over architectural or horticultural
+designs; and so she seems to think, for she occasionally lifts them to
+those of her companion, and a sweet smile brightens over all her face.
+That is Fanny Smith, the granddaughter of Thomas Roe--the child of a
+Yorkshire parson, who had been lucky enough to win the heart of Mary
+Roe--and wise enough not to despise her father, though he lived in
+Riches Court.
+
+"But grandpapa says it is of no use, Charles, to look at all these
+plans for houses. He'll never build on the new ground, for he says he
+is determined to establish us at Surbridge Hall."
+
+"The old gentleman is too sanguine," replied Charles. "He will never
+persuade the present proprietor to leave it."
+
+"Oh, he will, though! You don't know what a determined man grandpapa
+is. He'll weary them out--or shame them away."
+
+"Shame!" enquired the other--"How do you think shame can have any
+effect in people so lost to truth, and so encased in ignorance and
+conceit?"
+
+"But grandpapa will expose them--and, besides, he'll pay them
+handsomely to go. I don't the least despair of getting quit of them."
+
+"Why, if people would only take the trouble to enquire into the actual
+facts of any part of their behaviour, and not take their own account
+of it--the boastful falsehoods of the nephew, the malicious
+insinuations of the aunt, their disregard of truth in serious affairs
+as well as in trifles, their selfishness, narrow-mindedness, and want
+of charity--they would hesitate before they countenanced such
+characters, in spite of the dinners they occasionally give, and the
+position they hold. But society winks on vices which it is the duty of
+society to punish, since the law takes no cognizance of them, though
+more hurtful and disgraceful than theft or swindling. And, I am
+afraid, even if your grandfather unmasks the solemn pretender, he will
+still carry his head as high as if he had a right from any quality but
+his wealth to mix with honest men."
+
+"Oh, never fear!" said Fanny, laughing; "those boastful people are
+always easiest frightened, and a very short time will see us in
+Surbridge Hall."
+
+"Ah, Fanny, that would be too much happiness! I've heard of nothing
+but Surbridge since I was a child; and if my father could but see me
+in it, living there, my own property, or yours, Fanny, which is the
+same thing, he would almost die with joy; but no, no, it is
+impossible."
+
+"Impossible! deuce a bit of it!" exclaimed the old gentleman himself;
+bustling into the room. "I tell you that Surbridge is the house you
+will take Fanny home to. I've a great mind to say you sha'n't marry
+her at all unless she gives you Surbridge as part of her fortune."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, sir!"
+
+"No, don't say that, grandpapa, for you know those horrid people may
+be obstinate," said Fanny.
+
+"I should like to see them," said the old man knitting his brow. "No,
+no, they must go. The bully is soon bullied. See, he has sent me a
+flag of truce already; a note asking if I will allow him to call on me
+at three o'clock to renew his old acquaintance."
+
+"And will you let him?" enquired Fanny.
+
+"To be sure I will; and I'll return his visit too; but he'll be here
+in a few minutes now. I think you had better take a walk, Charles, and
+leave Fanny and me to entertain them. You can go and take some more
+lessons in sketching, eh? Don't keep your teacher waiting."
+
+Charles looked at his watch, and then at Fanny, and finally hurried
+away as he was ordered. The young lady also left the room.
+
+The old man sat down, and sank in thought. He had his eye on the
+conduct of his partner's grandson for forty years, though little did
+that ostentatious individual suspect that any person saw within his
+pharisaical exterior, and knew him for the mass of selfishness,
+falsehood, and meanness, he actually was. Moreover the old gentleman
+knew that his victim was not so rich as he appeared, and had struggled
+in vain to better his fortunes by speculations of various kinds, and
+even (the last refuge of the sinking respectables) by thrusting
+himself into trusteeships. He felt an assurance, therefore, that his
+threatened exposures--united to an offer of the full value of the
+estate--would secure him the possession of Surbridge Hall; if it had
+not been for the enjoyment he anticipated in uncloaking the hypocrite,
+he might perhaps have contented himself with the acquisition of the
+land.
+
+A knock was heard at the door, and Mr Gillingham Howard and his aunt
+walked into the room. Mr Gillingham Howard was very pale, and his eye
+evidently quailed as it met the glance of Mr Thomas Roe. The little
+fat Susannah was immensely red in the face, but whether from agitation
+of mind, or the exertion of climbing the hall steps, it is impossible
+to decide.
+
+"I've called, my dear old friend, to take you by the hand," said Mr
+Gillingham Howard. "I've long wished, I assure you, to renew our
+acquaintance."
+
+"That's a thumper!" replied the old man; "you have wished nothing of
+the kind. Oh, Gus, haven't you conquered the horrid habit of
+story-telling that used to make you the laughing-stock of all the
+young men in the shop. And you, my little Two-to-the-Pound, what a
+time it is since we've met, never since the exciseman died, I do
+believe. Well, you've not grown thin on't. Do you study the ninth
+commandment as much as you used to do?"
+
+"The ninth commandment, sir," said the lady tossing her head. "I don't
+know what you mean."
+
+"Yes, you do, Susan; the ninth commandment is the one about false
+witness, you know. And sich a gal as you used to be for slashing a
+character, or trying to make your kindest friends ridiculous, there
+wasn't in all the city. You were always so tremendously witty, you
+never had a good word for any body; for witty gals, as you used to be,
+thinks nothing funny that isn't what they calls severe. But you're a
+old woman now, and I hope you're improved."
+
+Miss Susannah had never been called an old woman before. If she had
+seen Mr Gillingham Howard looking with his usual brazen assurance, she
+would have broken out in a torrent of invective against her merciless
+tormentor--but the fight was entirely out of that illustrious
+character, and he stood in trembling silence before his opponent.
+
+"My dear sir," he said at last, "you are too severe on my aunt--but
+you were always a wag. I've heard my father say he never knew any one
+so full of humour."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"And I myself remember how good-natured you used to be when you
+visited my father in Harley Street."
+
+"Ay, indeed--let me see. Had your father risen to be at the top of the
+profession by that time, with a promise of the chancellorship in his
+pocket when his father died?"
+
+"My dear sir, I don't know what you mean--why--what"--
+
+Haven't you been in the habit of telling your friends so after
+dinner?" enquired Mr Roe; "now, remember."
+
+"Well! I may perhaps have said that he hoped to be chancellor."
+
+"No, no--you have uniformly stated as a fact that he had the written
+promise of the office--and you have constantly appealed to your aunt
+for the truth of your statement."
+
+"La! Mr Roe--how should I know about law and chancellorships? It isn't
+a lady's business."
+
+"It is a lady's business not to corroborate a falsehood."
+
+"Really, my good sir," said Mr Gillingham Howard, "you are too hard on
+a little after-dinner talk."
+
+"Not a bit, not a bit--that after-dinner talk, as you call it, for
+forty years, day after day retailing falsehoods, and asseverating them
+so constantly, that you at last almost succeed in deceiving yourself,
+does away all the distinctions in your mind between truth and
+falsehood--and when once the boundary is broke down, there is no
+farther pause. A man may go on, and boast about his cricket and
+shooting till he would not stick at a false oath."
+
+"Sir! I bear many things from an old friend of our family, but an
+imputation on my veracity is intolerable. Do I ever deviate from the
+truth, Aunt Susan?"
+
+"You! Oh, no! if there's any quality you excel in more than another,
+it is your truth. Low people may tell lies, and of course do; but you!
+Mr Gillingham Howard!--you are a perfect gentleman, from the crown of
+your head to the sole of your foot."
+
+"Omitting all the intermediate parts," replied Mr Roe. "You know very
+well what I mean, sir; and, moreover, you know that what I say is
+true--but I will spare you at present. I wish to purchase Surbridge
+Hall. I will give you the full price. Will you sell it or not?"
+
+"Why, sir, a place that has been long in one's family"----
+
+"I was nearly forty years old when it was bought--and hope to live few
+years yet," interposed Mr Roe.
+
+"And I don't see what pleasure you could take in acquiring a place to
+which you have no hereditary ties--my poor father--and my dear
+grandfather"----continued Mr Gillingham Howard.
+
+"Should have stuck to the melting tub, both of them--but it isn't for
+myself I want the property. I have _a_ grandchild, sir; a
+grandson--but that has nothing to do with it. Will you let me have
+your answer soon? I will call on you, to hear your decision,
+to-morrow."
+
+"Always happy to see an old friend."
+
+"Provided he come with a new face," interposed Mr Roe; "but you don't
+much like the sight of my rough old phiz. At any rate, there's no
+deceit in it, and now we understand each other."
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+It was on the day succeeding this visit of reconciliation, that Miss
+Arabel and the stumpy Susannah pursued their way to the shrubbery
+walk, in a rapid and mysterious manner, as if they hoped to escape
+observation.
+
+"Papa is so unreasonable, aunt," said the young lady. "Why should he
+wish to leave Surbridge, just when"----
+
+"You think you have caught a lover," interposed the aunt; "don't be
+too sure. You've been deceived in that way before now."
+
+"Oh, if you only saw him! He met me yesterday, and said he would see
+me again to-day; and paid such compliments, and looked so handsome."
+
+"But who is he? Is he a gentleman?"
+
+"Of course he is," replied Miss Arabel; "or do you think he would
+venture to speak to _me_?"
+
+"Did he tell you his name?"
+
+"No. All he has told me is--he is living with an old gentleman in one
+of the villas in the neighbourhood."
+
+"An old gentleman," mused Miss Susannah, "in a villa--it must be the
+same--it must be old Roe's Grandson. If it is, and he takes a fancy to
+this girl, it will be all well yet. What has he ever called you? Did
+he ever say you were an angel?"
+
+"No. He thought me one, though; and said he had heard of what a
+treasure Surbridge contained; and yesterday he repeated it, and said
+he would give the world to be able to call it his."
+
+"That's something. You must get him to say something of the kind
+before a witness."
+
+"But how? What witness can there be, when I can never bring him to the
+house?"
+
+"Why not? Ah, how I recollect, in the back parlour," said Miss
+Susannah, her memory unconsciously wandering back to the love
+incidents of her youth.
+
+"The back parlour?" enquired Miss Arabel.
+
+"The back--I didn't say back parlour. I said black parlour--the oaken
+dining-room in my father's house."
+
+"And what of it, aunt? What made you think of the black parlour now?"
+
+"Oh, it was a picture," stammered Miss Susan, inventing an excuse for
+her mistake; "a beautiful old portrait--a sort of--I don't recollect
+what it was."
+
+"Ah! that puts me in mind of what he speaks of often--the pictures in
+our house. I say, aunt," she continued, as if a thought had struck
+her.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Suppose I were to invite him to come into the Hall and see the
+portraits?"
+
+"Well, so you might. Your father would think he was as fond of drawing
+as you are; and if he be the person I think he is, your father will be
+delighted that you have made a friend of him."
+
+"Indeed? Oh, I'm so happy! I'll ask him to the house this very day;
+and perhaps if he says anything, aunt, about the treasure, you can be
+in the way to hear it."
+
+"That I will, and I'll bring your father, too. There's nothing like a
+father or brother in cases of the kind. If I had had a brother that
+would fight, I might have been married myself. Dear me, what an
+uncommon handsome young man in the avenue! I know him to be a lord by
+his walk."
+
+Miss Arabel stretched her neck, and nearly strained her eyeballs in
+the effort to follow the direction of Susannah's eyes.
+
+"That's he," she said; "go now, and leave me to get him into the
+house."
+
+"He can't be any relation of Thomas Roe: he's too handsome for that,"
+thought Miss Susannah; "but whoever he is, she'll be a lucky girl to
+catch him. My Sam was a foot or two taller, but very like him in every
+other respect--except the limp in the left leg."
+
+As she turned back before entering the house, she saw the young people
+in full conversation in the shrubbery walk.
+
+"Well, if he _is_ old Thomas Roe's grandson, and Arabel can hook him
+into a marriage, there will be no occasion to leave Surbridge Hall.
+Does the monster wish us to be tallow-chandlers again?"
+
+On hurrying to the drawing-room to communicate to her nephew the fact
+that Mr Roe's heir was desperately in love with Arabel, she found Mr
+Gillingham Howard endeavouring to carry on a conversation with the
+very individual she most dreaded to see. Mr Roe had walked up,
+accompanied by Fanny Smith, to return the visit of the day before.
+
+"This is so kind," said Miss Susannah, "and so friendly to bring your
+pretty grandchild. Our girls will be delighted to be her friends."
+
+"Fanny's a good girl," replied the old man; "and you mustn't spoil
+her. Gus was just going to tell me if he had made up his mind, when
+you came in. You've thought of my offer, Gus?"
+
+"Certainly; any thing you say shall always have my best consideration.
+As far as I am concerned, I could settle in Bucks, where I have a
+small estate, with satisfaction; but my girls are enthusiastically
+attached to this place. Arabel would break her heart if we took her
+away from Surbridge."
+
+"I warrant her heart against all breakage and other damages, save and
+except the ordinary wear and tear--as Puff says in letting a furnished
+house; and, if it only depends on the young lady, I think I'll answer
+for her being more anxious for the arrangement than I am. But here's
+company coming, and I must have your answer before I go."
+
+Mr Gillingham Howard heard the carriage stop at the door. He felt it
+was impossible to present so rough-mannered a man as Mr Roe to any of
+his friends without a certainty of exposure, and he was strongly
+tempted to agree to his demand at once, if he would immediately leave
+the house; but before he had time to arrange his thoughts, the door
+opened, and the Rayleighs of Borley Castle were announced.
+
+Mr Gillingham Howard, by a great effort, received them with his usual
+courtesy.
+
+"I have brought Mr Tinter with me," said Mrs Rayleigh, "and I hope you
+will let him see your family portraits. We have told him so much of
+them, that he is anxious to see them himself. He is writing a
+description of the private collections in the county."
+
+Mr Tinter bowed; and Mr Gillingham Howard, with an imploring look to
+Mr Roe, who sat resting his chin upon his walking-stick, professed
+himself highly honoured by Mrs Rayleigh's request.
+
+"I believe you have portraits of the Sidney family, sir," said Mr
+Tinter, "as I hear from Mrs Rayleigh--you are nearly related to them;
+I should like very much to compare them with the pictures at
+Penshurst."
+
+"Oh! Mr Howard says the Penshurst pictures are only copies of his,"
+said Mrs Rayleigh.
+
+"Did I, madam? Did I say all?"
+
+"If not all, you said most of them; and also, that you had some
+originals of those in your distant relation, the Duke of Norfolk's
+gallery."
+
+Mr Gillingham Howard felt that Mr Roe's appalling eye was fixed upon
+him, though he did not venture to look in the direction of where he
+sat.
+
+"Mr Tinter will tell you at once which are the copies. You can do
+that, Mr Tinter?"
+
+"I can guess at the age of the picture, and the name of the painter,
+if he is a master," replied Mr Tinter.
+
+"Oh! but Mr Howard has some pictures that Sir Thomas Lawrence said
+were the finest in Europe. Didn't he say so, Mr Howard?"
+
+"Why, ma'am--I think--at least, so I understood him. Didn't Sir Thomas
+Lawrence praise some of my pictures, aunt?"
+
+"I really don't remember," said Miss Susannah, looking more at Mr Roe
+than at her nephew.
+
+"Oh, I thought you told us last time we dined here, that Sir Thomas
+stayed with you weeks at a time, and copied five or six of them
+himself."
+
+"P'r'aps I knows more of them family portraits," said Mr Roe with a
+wilful exaggeration of accent and magnanimous contempt of
+grammar--"than e'er a one on ye."
+
+All eyes were immediately directed to the old man. Mrs Rayleigh, who
+was a fine lady, and had never seen so queer a specimen of a critic as
+Mr Roe, was a little alarmed at his uncouth pronunciation. And Mr
+Gillingham Howard made a feeble and unsuccessful effort to deaden the
+effect of his remarks.
+
+"My friend is a remarkably good judge of the fine arts, but quite a
+character. An amazing humourist, and very much given to quizzing.
+You'll hear what fun he'll make of us all."
+
+"Who is he?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh, in the same confidential whisper.
+
+"A person who has grown very rich in some sort of trade. He was a
+protegé of a relation of mine."
+
+"And you bear with his eccentricities in hopes of his succession?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I minds the getting of the whole lot on 'em. I can give you the
+birth, parentage, and edication, of every one on 'em."
+
+"Of the pictures, sir?" enquired Mr Tinter, taking out his note-book.
+"I shall be delighted with any information."
+
+"But where is the gallery, Mr Howard?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh.
+
+"Why, madam, many of the pictures--in fact, all the best of them are
+in London at the cleaner's; but in the passage to the Conservatory
+there are some remaining, but the place is dark. I hope you'll rather
+look at them some other time."
+
+"Now's the best," said Mr Roe, starting up. "Let's see the family
+picters, Gus."
+
+Mr Howard was forced by the entreaties of all the party, and led the
+way to the passage where his pictures were hung, followed by Mrs
+Rayleigh and her two daughters, and Mr Tinter, Mr Roe, and Fanny, and
+Aunt Susannah.
+
+"That seems a portrait of Queen Anne's time," said Mr Tinter, pointing
+to a much bewigged old gentleman in an antique frame. "Pray, what is
+its history?"
+
+"Isn't that your grandfather's uncle, the general who won the battle
+of Ramillies against Marlborough's orders?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh. "Do
+tell Mr Tinter all about it."
+
+"I reminds all about it," said Mr Roe, before the agonized Mr Howard
+could make any reply. "One of our agents failed, and we seized on his
+furniture, and old Bill Wilkins took this'n 'cause of the oak frame.
+He was a grocer in the Boro', and his name was--was--but I forgets his
+name."
+
+"Who took the furniture?" asked Mr Tinter, "and who was a grocer in
+the Boro'?"
+
+"The man as had that picter, and a sight more besides. There's one on
+'em; the young 'oman a holding an orange in her hand, and a parrot on
+her shoulder."
+
+"I thought that was the Saccharissa, Mr Howard, that had been in your
+family ever since the time of Waller."
+
+"I told you he was a wag," said Mr Howard, in the last desperate
+struggle to avoid detection.
+
+"But who is he? He is a very impudent old man to be so free."
+
+"He is rich; the succession, you know," replied the gentleman with a
+forced laugh; but before he could mumble any thing more, the party
+turned round one of the corners of the passage, and heard voices in
+earnest talk.
+
+"How can I refuse, when you tell me your happiness depends on it?"
+came distinctly to the ears of all, in the sharp clear tones of Miss
+Arabel.
+
+"You are too good," replied a voice, which Fanny Smith immediately
+recognized as that of Charles. "You will make my whole family proud
+and happy when they hear you have consented."
+
+"But won't you think I yield too soon; and without having asked papa's
+consent?"
+
+"Ah--yes--I don't know how he will bear the loss of such a treasure.
+But he will reconcile himself to the want of it when he knows how
+happy it makes another in the possession. Say, when may I call it
+mine?"
+
+"Oh, now--this moment--any time"--said Arabel, who had heard a noise
+in the passage, and concluded it was aunt Susannah enacting the part
+of a witness.
+
+"Again I thank you!"--exclaimed Charles. "I will take it in my arms
+this instant, and carry it down the shrubbery walk to Mr Roe's."
+
+"As you please--and wherever you like," said Arabel, throwing herself
+upon his shoulder. "I'm your's."
+
+"Why, what in the name of wonder is all this here?" cried Mr Roe,
+hurrying on, and pouncing on the pair. "Are you making love to this
+here gal in the very presence of Fanny Smith?"
+
+"I, sir?"--said Charles, astonished at his situation, and still
+supporting Miss Arabel, who pretended to be in a faint. "I asked this
+young lady to show me the picture of my father's mother; and, to my
+great delight, she said she would give it me; and, when I expressed my
+gratitude, she flung herself upon my shoulder, and said she would give
+me herself."
+
+"And was it not me you meant by the treasure you talked of?" said Miss
+Arabel, starting up.
+
+"No, madam. 'Twas my grandmother's portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds."
+
+"Now, that's all right," said Mr Roe. "This young gentleman is the one
+I talked of, Gus--that I wants to buy this house for. I don't think
+your daughter will care to give it up to poor Charles that she took
+such a fancy to"----
+
+"They seem attached, sir," replied Mr Howard. "And if they like to
+marry"----
+
+"Bah!--he's to be married next week to my little grandchild, Fanny
+Smith, and we'll include the pictures in the purchase-money, for one
+of them is a portrait that was left by mistake when Bill Wilkins
+bought the hall, and he would never give it back to the real owners.
+But, now that Charles Walrond is to be my grandson, I'll take good
+care he recovers his grandmother's likeness. Come--shall I go on and
+give these ladies the facts of some of your other stories, or will you
+close with my terms at once?"
+
+Mr Gillingham Howard did not take long to decide, and a very short
+time saw Surbridge Hall once more in the ancient line; and old Mr Roe,
+in relating the means he used to expel the vainglorious descendant of
+his partner, generally concluded with the moral, if not the words of
+Shakspeare--"Men's pleasant vices make whips to scourge them."
+
+
+
+
+VANITIES IN VERSE.
+
+BY B. SIMMONS.
+
+
+  LETTERS OF THE DEAD.
+
+  TO LIVIA.
+
+  I.
+
+  How few the moons since last, immersed
+    In thoughts of fev'rish, worldly care,
+  My casket's heap'd contents reversed,
+    I sought some scroll I wanted there;
+  How died at once abstraction's air--
+    How fix'd my frame, as by a spell,
+  When on THY lines, so slight, so fair,
+    My hurrying glance arrested fell!
+
+
+  II.
+
+  My soul that instant saw thee far
+    Sit in thy crown of bridal flowers,
+  And with Another watch the star
+    We watch'd in vanish'd vesper hours.
+  And as I paced the lonely room,
+    I wonder'd how that holy ray
+  Could with its light a world illume
+    So fill'd with falsehood and decay.
+
+
+  III.
+
+  Once more--above those slender lines
+    I bend me with suspended breath--
+  The hand that traced them now reclines
+    Clasp'd in th' unclosing hand of Death.
+  The worm hath made that brow its own
+    Where Love his wreath so lately set;
+  And in this heart survive alone
+    Forgiveness--pity--and regret.
+
+
+  IV.
+
+  'Twas 'mid the theatre's gay throng--
+    Life's loveliest colours round me spread--
+  That mid the pauses of a song,
+    I caught the careless "_She is dead!_"
+  The gaudy crowd--thy sudden grave--
+    I shrank in that contrasting shock,
+  Like midnight Listener by the wave,
+    When splits some bark upon the rock.
+
+
+  V.
+
+  This EARLY DEATH--within its pale
+    Sad air each angry feeling fades--
+  An evening haze, whose tender veil
+    The landscape's harsher features shades.
+  Ah, Scornful One--thy bier's white hue
+    Stole every earth-stain from thy cheek,
+  And left thee all to MEMORY'S view
+    That HOPE once dared in thee to seek.
+
+
+  1836.
+
+
+
+PARTING PRECEPTS.
+
+  I.
+
+  How graceful was that Grecian creed
+    Which taught that tongues, of old,
+  Dwelt in the mountain and the mead,
+    And where the torrent roll'd,
+  And that in times of sacred fear,
+    With sweet mysterious moans,
+  They spoke aloud, while some pale Seer
+    Interpreted their tones.[21]
+
+
+  II.
+
+  And, LADY, why should we not deem
+    That in each echoing hill,
+  And sounding wood, and dancing stream,
+    A language lingers still?
+  No lovelier scenes round DELPHI spread
+    Than round thee stretch divine;
+  Nor Grecian maid bent brighter head
+    By haunted stream than thine.
+
+
+  III.
+
+   Then fancy thus that to thine ear,
+    While dies the autumn day,
+  The VOICES of THE WOODLANDS bear
+    This tributary lay.
+  Soft winds that steal from where the moon
+    Brightens the mountain spring,
+  Shall blend with Mulla's[22] distant tune,
+    And these the words they sing:--
+
+
+  1.
+
+  "Thou'st shared our thousand harmonies;
+    _At morn_ thy sleep we stirr'd
+  With sounds from many a balmy breeze,
+    And many a jocund bird;
+  And far from Us, when pleasure's lure
+    Around thy steps shall be,
+  Ah, keep thy soul as freshly pure
+    As We came pure to thee!
+
+
+  2.
+
+  "_At noon_, beneath September's heat,
+    Was it not sweet to feel,
+  Through shadowy grasses at thy feet,
+    Our silver waters steal?
+  Sparklingly clear, as now the truth
+    Seems in thy glance to glow;
+  So may, through worldly crowds, thy youth
+    A stainless current flow.
+
+
+  3.
+
+  "_At eve_, our hills for thee detain'd
+    The sun's departure bright.
+  He sank--how long our woods were stain'd
+    For thee with rosy light!
+  The worth, the warmth, the peace serene,
+    Thou'st known our vales among,
+  Say, shall they be reflected seen
+    Upon thy heart as long?
+
+
+  4.
+
+  "Morn, noon, and eve--bird, beam, and breeze,
+    Here blent to bless thy day;
+  May portion of their memories
+    Be ever round thy way!
+  Sweet waters for the weary Bark,
+    Through parching seas that sails;
+  Friends may grow false and fortune dark,
+    But NATURE never fails."
+
+
+
+
+COLERIDGE AND OPIUM-EATING.[23]
+
+
+What is the deadest of things earthly? It is, says the world, ever
+forward and rash--"a door-nail!" But the world is wrong. There is a
+thing deader than a door-nail, viz., Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I.
+Dead, more dead, most dead, is Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I.; and this
+upon more arguments than one. The book has clearly not completed its
+elementary act of respiration; the _systole_ of Vol. I. is absolutely
+useless and lost without the _diastole_ of that Vol. II., which is
+never to exist. That is one argument, and perhaps this second argument
+is stronger. Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I., deals rashly, unjustly, and
+almost maliciously, with some of our own particular friends; and yet,
+until late in this summer, _Anno Domini_ 1844, we--that is, neither
+ourselves nor our friends--ever heard of its existence. Now a sloth,
+even without the benefit of Mr Waterton's evidence to his character,
+will travel faster than that. But malice, which travels fastest of all
+things, must be dead and cold at starting, when it can thus have
+lingered in the rear for six years; and therefore, though the world
+was so far right, that people _do_ say, "Dead as a door-nail," yet,
+henceforwards, the weakest of these people will see the propriety of
+saying--"Dead as Gillman's Coleridge."
+
+The reader of experience, on sliding over the surface of this opening
+paragraph, begins to think there's mischief singing in the upper air.
+No, reader--not at all. We never were cooler in our days. And this we
+protest, that, were it not for the excellence of the subject,
+_Coleridge and Opium-Eating_, Mr Gillman would have been dismissed by
+us unnoticed. Indeed, we not only forgive Mr Gillman, but we have a
+kindness for him; and on this account, that he was good, he was
+generous, he was most forbearing, through twenty years, to poor
+Coleridge, when thrown upon his hospitality. An excellent thing
+_that_, Mr Gillman, and one sufficient to blot out a world of libels
+on ourselves! But still, noticing the theme suggested by this unhappy
+Vol. I., we are forced at times to notice its author. Nor is this to
+be regretted. We remember a line of Horace never yet properly
+translated, viz:--
+
+  "Nec scuticâ dignum horribili sectêre flagello."
+
+The true translation of which, as we assure the unlearned reader,
+is--"Nor must you pursue with the horrid knout of Christopher that man
+who merits only a switching." Very true. We protest against all
+attempts to invoke the exterminating knout; for _that_ sends a man to
+the hospital for two months; but you see that the same judicious poet,
+who dissuades an appeal to the knout, indirectly recommends the
+switch, which, indeed, is rather pleasant than otherwise, amiably
+playful in some of its little caprices, and in its worst, suggesting
+only a pennyworth of diachylon.
+
+We begin by professing, with hearty sincerity, our fervent admiration
+of the extraordinary man who furnishes the theme for Mr Gillman's
+_coup-d'essai_ in biography. He was, in a literary sense, our
+brother--for he also was amongst the contributors to _Blackwood_--and
+will, we presume, take his station in that Blackwood gallery of
+portraits, which, in a century hence, will possess more interest for
+intellectual Europe than any merely martial series of portraits, or
+any gallery of statesmen assembled in congress, except as regards one
+or two leaders; for defunct major-generals, and secondary
+diplomatists, when their date is past, awake no more emotion than last
+year's advertisements, or obsolete directories; whereas those who, in
+a stormy age, have swept the harps of passion, of genial wit, or of
+the wrestling and gladiatorial reason, become more interesting to men
+when they can no longer be seen as bodily agents, than even in the
+middle chorus of that intellectual music over which, living, they
+presided.
+
+Of this great camp Coleridge was a leader, and fought amongst the
+_primipili_; yet, comparatively, he is still unknown. Heavy, indeed,
+are the arrears still due to philosophic curiosity on the real merits,
+and on the separate merits, of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge as a
+poet--Coleridge as a philosopher! How extensive are those questions,
+if those were all! and upon neither question have we yet any
+investigation--such as, by compass of views, by research, or even by
+earnestness of sympathy with the subject, can, or ought to satisfy, a
+philosophic demand. Blind is that man who can persuade himself that
+the interest in Coleridge, taken as a total object, is becoming an
+obsolete interest. We are of opinion that even Milton, now viewed from
+a distance of two centuries, is still inadequately judged or
+appreciated in his character of poet, of patriot and partisan, or,
+finally, in his character of accomplished scholar. But, if so, how
+much less can it be pretended that satisfaction has been rendered to
+the claims of Coleridge? for, upon Milton, libraries have been
+written. There has been time for the malice of men, for the jealousy
+of men, for the enthusiasm, the scepticism, the adoring admiration of
+men, to expand themselves! There has been room for a Bentley, for an
+Addison, for a Johnson, for a wicked Lauder, for an avenging Douglas,
+for an idolizing Chateaubriand; and yet, after all, little enough has
+been done towards any comprehensive estimate of the mighty being
+concerned. Piles of materials have been gathered to the ground; but,
+for the monument which should have risen from these materials, neither
+the first stone has been laid, nor has a qualified architect yet
+presented his credentials. On the other hand, upon Coleridge little,
+comparatively, has yet been written, whilst the separate characters on
+which the judgment is awaited, are more by one than those which Milton
+sustained. Coleridge, also, is a poet; Coleridge, also, was mixed up
+with the fervent politics of his age--an age how memorably reflecting
+the revolutionary agitations of Milton's age ________ridge, also, was
+an extensive and brilliant scholar. Whatever might be the separate
+proportions of the two men in each particular department of the three
+here noticed, think as the reader will upon that point, sure we are
+that either subject is ample enough to make a strain upon the amplest
+faculties. How alarming, therefore, for any _honest_ critic, who
+should undertake this later subject of Coleridge, to recollect that,
+after pursuing him through a zodiac of splendours corresponding to
+those of Milton in kind, however different in degree--after weighing
+him as a poet, as a philosophic politician, as a scholar, he will have
+to wheel after him into another orbit, into the unfathomable _nimbus_
+of transcendental metaphysics. Weigh him the critic must in the golden
+balance of philosophy the most abstruse--a balance which even itself
+requires weighing previously, or he will have done nothing that can be
+received for an estimate of the composite Coleridge. This astonishing
+man, be it again remembered, besides being an exquisite poet, a
+profound political speculator, a philosophic student of literature
+through all its chambers and recesses, was also a circumnavigator on
+the most pathless waters of scholasticism and metaphysics. He had
+sounded, without guiding charts, the secret deeps of Proclus and
+Plotinus; he had laid down buoys on the twilight, or moonlight, ocean
+of Jacob Boehmen;[24] he had cruised over the broad Atlantic of Kant
+and Schelling, of Fichte and Oken. Where is the man who shall be equal
+to these things?
+
+We at least make no such adventurous effort; or, if ever we should
+presume to do so, not at present. Here we design only to make a
+coasting voyage of survey round the headlands and most conspicuous
+sea-marks of our subject, as they are brought forward by Mr Gillman,
+or collaterally suggested by our own reflections; and especially we
+wish to say a word or two on Coleridge as an opium-eater.
+
+Naturally the first point to which we direct our attention, is the
+history and personal relations of Coleridge. Living with Mr Gillman
+for nineteen years as a domesticated friend, Coleridge ought to have
+been known intimately. And it is reasonable to expect, from so much
+intercourse, some additions to our slender knowledge of Coleridge's
+adventures, (if we may use so coarse a word,) and of the secret
+springs at work in those early struggles of Coleridge at Cambridge,
+London, Bristol, which have been rudely told to the world, and
+repeatedly told, as showy romances, but never rationally explained.
+
+The anecdotes, however, which Mr Gillman has added to the personal
+history of Coleridge, are as little advantageous to the effect of his
+own book as they are to the interest of the memorable character which
+he seeks to illustrate. Always they are told without grace, and
+generally are suspicious in their details. Mr Gillman we believe to be
+too upright a man for countenancing any untruth. He has been deceived.
+For example, will any man believe this? A certain "excellent
+equestrian" falling in with Coleridge on horseback, thus accosted
+him--"Pray, sir, did you meet a tailor along the road?" "_A tailor_!"
+answered Coleridge; "_I did meet a person answering such a
+description, who told me he had dropped his goose; that if I rode a
+little further I should find it; and I guess he must have meant you_."
+In Joe Miller this story would read, perhaps, sufferably. Joe has a
+privilege; and we do not look too narrowly into the mouth of a
+Joe-Millerism. But Mr Gillman, writing the life of a philosopher, and
+no jest-book, is under a different law of decorum. That retort,
+however, which silences the jester, it may seem, must be a good one.
+And we are desired to believe that, in this case, the baffled
+assailant rode off in a spirit of benign candour, saying aloud to
+himself, like the excellent philosopher the he evidently was, "Caught
+a Tartar!"
+
+But another story of a sporting baronet, who was besides a Member of
+Parliament, is much worse, and altogether degrading to Coleridge. This
+gentleman, by way of showing off before a party of ladies, is
+represented as insulting Coleridge by putting questions to him on the
+qualities of his horse, so as to draw the animal's miserable defects
+into public notice, and then closing his display by demanding what he
+would take for the horse "including the rider." The supposed reply of
+Coleridge might seem good to those who understand nothing of true
+dignity; for, as an _impromptu_, it was smart and even caustic. The
+baronet, it seems, was reputed to have been bought by the minister;
+and the reader will at once divine that the retort took advantage of
+that current belief, so as to throw back the sarcasm, by proclaiming
+that neither horse nor rider had a price placarded in the market at
+which any man could become their purchaser. But this was not the
+temper in which Coleridge either did reply, or could have replied.
+Coleridge showed, in the _spirit_ of his manner a profound sensibility
+to the nature of gentleman; and he felt too justly what it became a
+self-respecting person to say, ever to have aped the sort of flashy
+fencing which might seem fine to a theatrical blood.
+
+Another story is self-refuted: "a hired partisan" had come to one of
+Coleridge's political lectures with the express purpose of bringing
+the lecturer into trouble; and most preposterously he laid himself
+open to his own snare by refusing to pay for admission. Spies must be
+poor artists who proceed thus. Upon which Coleridge remarked--"That,
+before the gentleman kicked up a dust, surely he would down with the
+dust." So far the story will not do. But what follows is possible
+enough. The _same_ "hired" gentleman, by way of giving unity to the
+tale, is described as having hissed. Upon this a cry arose of "turn
+him out!" But Coleridge interfered to protect him; he insisted on the
+man's right to hiss if he thought fit; it was legal to hiss; it was
+natural to hiss; "for what is to be expected, gentlemen, when the cool
+waters of reason come in contact with red-hot aristocracy, but a
+hiss?" _Euge!_
+
+Amongst all the anecdotes, however, of this splendid man, often
+trivial, often incoherent, often unauthenticated, there is one which
+strikes us as both true and interesting; and we are grateful to Mr
+Gillman for preserving it. We find it introduced, and partially
+authenticated, by the following sentence from Coleridge
+himself:--"From eight to fourteen I was a playless day-dreamer, a
+_helluo librorum_; my appetite for which was indulged by a singular
+incident. A stranger, who was struck by my conversation, made me free
+of a circulating library in King's Street, Cheapside." The more
+circumstantial explanation of Mr Gillman is this: "The incident indeed
+was singular. Going down the Strand, in one of his day-dreams,
+fancying himself swimming across the Hellespont, thrusting his hands
+before him as in the act of swimming, his hand came in contact with a
+gentleman's pocket. The gentleman seized his hand, turning round, and
+looking at him with some anger--'What! so young, and yet so wicked?'
+at the same time accused him of an attempt to pick his pocket. The
+frightened boy sobbed out his denial of the intention, and explained
+to him how he thought himself Leander swimming across the Hellespont.
+The gentleman was so struck and delighted with the novelty of the
+thing, and with the simplicity and intelligence of the boy, that he
+subscribed, as before stated, to the library; in consequence of which
+Coleridge was further enabled to indulge his love of reading."
+
+We fear that this slovenly narrative is the very perfection of bad
+story-telling. But the story itself is striking, and, by the very
+oddness of the incidents, not likely to have been invented. The
+effect, from the position of the two parties--on the one side, a
+simple child from Devonshire, dreaming in the Strand that he was
+swimming over from Sestos to Abydos, and, on the other, the
+experienced man, dreaming only of this world, its knaves and its
+thieves, but still kind and generous--is beautiful and picturesque.
+_Oh! si sic omnia_!
+
+But the most interesting to us of the _personalities_ connected with
+Coleridge are his feuds and his personal dislikes. Incomprehensible to
+us is the war of extermination which Coleridge made upon the political
+economists. Did Sir James Steuart, in speaking of vine-dressers, (not
+_as_ vine-dressers, but generally as cultivators,) tell his readers,
+that, if such a man simply replaced his own consumption, having no
+surplus whatever or increment for the public capital, he could not be
+considered a useful citizen? Not the beast in the Revelation is held
+up by Coleridge as more hateful to the spirit of truth than the
+Jacobite baronet. And yet we know of an author--viz. one S.T.
+Coleridge--who repeated that same doctrine without finding any evil in
+it. Look at the first part of the _Wallenstein_, where Count Isolani
+having said, "Pooh! we are _all_ his subjects," _i. e._ soldiers,
+(though unproductive labourers,) not less than productive peasants,
+the emperor's envoy replies--"Yet with a difference, general;" and the
+difference implies Sir James's scale, his vine-dresser being the
+equatorial case between the two extremes of the envoy.--Malthus again,
+in his population-book, contends for a mathematic difference between
+animal and vegetable life, in respect to the law of increase, as
+though the first increased by geometrical ratios, the last by
+arithmetical! No proposition more worthy of laughter; since both, when
+permitted to expand, increase by geometrical ratios, and the latter by
+much higher ratios. Whereas, Malthus persuaded himself of his crotchet
+simply by refusing the requisite condition in the vegetable case, and
+granting it in the other. If you take a few grains of wheat, and are
+required to plant all successive generations of their produce in the
+same flower-pot for ever, of course you neutralise its expansion by
+your own act of arbitrary limitation.[25] But so you would do, if you
+tried the case of _animal_ increase by still exterminating all but
+one replacing couple of parents. This is not to try, but merely a
+pretence of trying, one order of powers against another. That was
+folly. But Coleridge combated this idea in a manner so obscure, that
+nobody understood it. And leaving these speculative conundrums, in
+coming to the great practical interests afloat in the Poor Laws,
+Coleridge did so little real work, that he left, as a _res integra_,
+to Dr Alison, the capital argument that legal and _adequate_ provision
+for the poor, whether impotent poor or poor accidentally out of work,
+does not extend pauperism--no, but is the one great resource for
+putting it down. Dr Alison's overwhelming and _experimental_
+manifestations of that truth have prostrated Malthus and his
+generation for ever. This comes of not attending to the Latin
+maxim--"_Hoc_ age"--mind the object before you. Dr Alison, a wise man,
+"_hoc_ egit:" Coleridge "_aliud_ egit." And we see the result. In a
+case which suited him, by interesting his peculiar feeling, Coleridge
+could command
+
+  "Attention full ten times as much as there needs."
+
+But search documents, value evidence, or thresh out bushels of
+statistical tables, Coleridge could not, any more than he could ride
+with Elliot's dragoons.
+
+Another instance of Coleridge's inaptitude for such studies as
+political economy is found in his fancy, by no means "rich and rare,"
+but meagre and trite, that taxes can never injure public prosperity by
+mere excess of quantity; if they injure, we are to conclude that it
+must be by their quality and mode of operation, or by their false
+appropriation, (as, for instance, if they are sent out of the country
+and spent abroad.) Because, says Coleridge, if the taxes are exhaled
+from the country as vapors, back they come in drenching showers.
+Twenty pounds ascend in a Scotch mist to the Chancellor of the
+Exchequer from Leeds; but does it evaporate? Not at all: By return of
+post down comes an order for twenty pounds' worth of Leeds cloth, on
+account of Government, seeing that the poor men of the ----th regiment
+want new gaiters. True; but of this return twenty pounds, not more
+than four will be profit, _i. e._, surplus accruing to the public
+capital; whereas, of the original twenty pounds, every shilling was
+surplus. The same unsound fancy has been many times brought forward;
+often in England, often in France. But it is curious, that its first
+appearance upon any stage was precisely two centuries ago, when as yet
+political economy slept with the pre-Adamites, viz. in the Long
+Parliament. In a quarto volume of the debates during 1644-5, printed
+as an independent work, will be found the same identical doctrine,
+supported very sonorously by the same little love of an illustration
+from the see-saw of mist and rain.
+
+Political economy was not Coleridge's forte. In politics he was
+happier. In mere personal politics, he (like every man when reviewed
+from a station distant by forty years) will often appear to have
+erred; nay, he will be detected and nailed in error. But this is the
+necessity of us all. Keen are the refutations of time. And absolute
+results to posterity are the fatal touchstone of opinions in the past.
+It is undeniable, besides, that Coleridge had strong personal
+antipathies, for instance, to Messrs Pitt and Dundas. Yet _why_, we
+never could understand. We once heard him tell a story upon
+Windermere, to the late Mr Curwen, then M.P. for Workington, which was
+meant, apparently, to account for this feeling. The story amounted to
+this: that, when a freshman at Cambridge, Mr Pitt had wantonly amused
+himself at a dinner party in Trinity, in smashing with filberts
+(discharged in showers like grape-shot) a most costly dessert set of
+cut glass, from which Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued a principle of
+destructiveness in his _cerebellum_. Now, if this dessert set belonged
+to some poor suffering Trinitarian, and not to himself, we are of
+opinion that he was faulty, and ought, upon his own great subsequent
+maxim, to have been coerced into "indemnity for the past, and security
+for the future." But, besides that this glassy _mythus_ belongs to an
+æra fifteen years earlier than Coleridge's, so as to justify a shadow
+of scepticism, we really cannot find, in such an _escapade_ under the
+boiling blood of youth, any sufficient justification of that withering
+malignity towards the name of Pitt, which runs through Coleridge's
+famous _Fire, Famine, and Slaughter_. As this little viperous
+_jeu-d'esprit_ (published anonymously) subsequently became the subject
+of a celebrated after-dinner discussion in London, at which Coleridge
+(_comme de raison_) was the chief speaker, the reader of this
+generation may wish to know the question at issue; and in order to
+judge of _that_, he must know the outline of this devil's squib. The
+writer brings upon the scene three pleasant young ladies, viz. Miss
+Fire, Miss Famine, and Miss Slaughter. "What are you up to? What's the
+row?"--we may suppose to be the introductory question of the poet. And
+the answer of the ladies makes us aware that they are fresh from
+larking in Ireland, and in France. A glorious spree they had; lots of
+fun; and laughter _à discretion_. At all times _gratus puellæ risus ab
+angulo_; so that we listen to their little gossip with interest. They
+had been setting men, it seems, by the ears; and the drollest little
+atrocities they do certainly report. Not but we have seen better in
+the Nenagh paper, so far as Ireland is concerned. But the pet little
+joke was in La Vendée. Miss Famine, who is the girl for our money,
+raises the question--whether any of them can tell the name of the
+leader and prompter to these high jinks of hell--if so, let her
+whisper it.
+
+  "Whisper it, sister, so and so,
+  In a dark hint--distinct and low."
+
+Upon which the playful Miss Slaughter replies:--
+
+  "Letters _four_ do form his name.
+      *       *       *       *
+  He came by stealth and unlock'd my den;
+  And I have drunk the blood since then
+  Of thrice three hundred thousand men."
+
+Good: But the sting of the hornet lies in the conclusion. If this
+quadril_i_teral man had done so much for _them_, (though really, we
+think, 6s. 8d. might have settled his claim,) what, says Fire, setting
+her arms a-kimbo, would they do for _him_? Slaughter replies, rather
+crustily, that, as far as a good kicking would go--or (says Famine) a
+little matter of tearing to pieces by the mob--they would be glad to
+take tickets at his benefit. "How, you bitches!" says Fire, "is that
+all?
+
+  "I alone am faithful; I
+  _Cling to him everlastingly_."
+
+The sentiment is diabolical. And the question argued at the London
+dinner-table was--Could the writer have been other than a devil? The
+dinner was at the late excellent Mr Sotheby's, known advantageously in
+those days as the translator of Wieland's _Oberon_. Several of the
+great guns amongst the literary body were present; in particular, Sir
+Walter Scott; and he, we believe, with his usual good-nature, took the
+apologetic side of the dispute. In fact, he was in the secret. Nobody
+else, barring the author, knew at first whose good name was at stake.
+The scene must have been high. The company kicked about the poor
+diabolic writer's head as if it had been a tennis-ball. Coleridge, the
+yet unknown criminal, absolutely perspired and fumed in pleading for
+the defendant; the company demurred; the orator grew urgent; wits
+began to _smoke_ the case, as active verbs; the advocate to _smoke_,
+as a neuter verb; the "fun grew fast and furious;" until at length
+_delinquent arose_, burning tears in his eyes, and confessed to an
+audience, (now bursting with stifled laughter, but whom he supposed to
+be bursting with fiery indignation,) "Lo! I am he that wrote it."
+
+For our own parts, we side with Coleridge. Malice is not always of the
+heart. There is a malice of the understanding and the fancy. Neither
+do we think the worse of a man for having invented the most horrible
+and old-woman-troubling curse that demons ever listened to. We are too
+apt to swear horribly ourselves; and often have we frightened the cat,
+to say nothing of the kettle, by our shocking [far too shocking!]
+oaths.
+
+There were other celebrated men whom Coleridge detested, or seemed to
+detest--Paley, Sir Sidney Smith, Lord Hutchinson, (the last Lord
+Donoughmore,) and Cuvier. To Paley it might seem as if his antipathy
+had been purely philosophic; but we believe that partly it was
+personal; and it tallies with this belief, that, in his earliest
+political tracts, Coleridge charged the archdeacon repeatedly with his
+own joke, as if it had been a serious saying, viz.--"that he could not
+afford to keep a conscience;" such luxuries, like a carriage, for
+instance, being obviously beyond the finances of poor men.
+
+With respect to the philosophic question between the parties, as to
+the grounds of moral election, we hope it is no treason to suggest
+that both were perhaps in error. Against Paley, it occurs at once that
+he himself would not have made consequences the _practical_ test in
+valuing the morality of an act, since these can very seldom be traced
+at all up to the final stages, and in the earliest stages are
+exceedingly different under different circumstances; so that the same
+act, tried by its consequences, would bear a fluctuating appreciation.
+This could not have been Paley's _revised_ meaning. Consequently, had
+he been pressed by opposition, it would have come out, that by _test_
+he meant only _speculative_ test: a very harmless doctrine certainly,
+but useless and impertinent to any purpose of his system. The reader
+may catch our meaning in the following illustration. It is a matter of
+general belief, that happiness, upon the whole, follows in a higher
+degree from constant integrity, than from the closest attention to
+self-interest. Now happiness is one of those consequences which Paley
+meant by final or remotest. But we could never use this idea as an
+exponent of integrity, or interchangeable criterion, because happiness
+cannot be ascertained or appreciated except upon long tracts of time,
+whereas the particular act of integrity depends continually upon the
+election of the moment. No man, therefore, could venture to lay down
+as a rule, Do what makes you happy; use this as your test of actions,
+satisfied that in that case always you will do the thing which is
+right. For he cannot discern independently what _will_ make him happy;
+and he must decide on the spot. The use of the _nexus_ between
+morality and happiness must therefore be inverted; it is not practical
+or prospective, but simply retrospective; and in that form it says no
+more than the good old rules hallowed in every cottage. But this
+furnishes no practical guide for moral election which a man had not,
+before he ever thought of this _nexus_. In the sense in which it is
+true, we need not go to the professor's chair for this maxim; in the
+sense in which it would serve Paley, it is absolutely false.
+
+On the other hand, as against Coleridge, it is certain that many acts
+could be mentioned which are judged to be good or bad only because
+their consequences are known to be so, whilst the great catholic acts
+of life are entirely (and, if we may so phrase it, haughtily)
+independent of consequences. For instance, fidelity to a trust is a
+law of immutable morality subject to no casuistry whatever. You have
+been left executor to a friend--you are to pay over his last legacy to
+X, though a dissolute scoundrel; and you are to give no shilling of it
+to the poor brother of X, though a good man, and a wise man,
+struggling with adversity. You are absolutely excluded from all
+contemplation of results. It was your deceased friend's right to make
+the will; it is yours simply to see it executed. Now, in opposition to
+this primary class of actions stands another, such as the habit of
+intoxication, which are known to be wrong only by observing the
+consequences. If drunkenness did not terminate, after some years, in
+producing bodily weakness, irritability in the temper, and so forth,
+it would _not_ be a vicious act. And accordingly, if a transcendent
+motive should arise in favour of drunkenness, as that it would enable
+you to face a degree of cold, or contagion, else menacing to life, a
+duty would arise, _pro hâc vice_, of getting drunk. We had an amiable
+friend who suffered under the infirmity of cowardice; an awful coward
+he was when sober; but, when very drunk, he had courage enough for the
+Seven Champions of Christendom. Therefore, in an emergency, where he
+knew himself suddenly loaded with the responsibility of defending a
+family, we approved highly of his getting drunk. But to violate a
+trust could never become right under any change of circumstances.
+Coleridge, however, altogether overlooked this distinction; which, on
+the other hand, stirring in Paley's mind, but never brought out to
+distinct consciousness, nor ever investigated, nor limited, has
+undermined his system. Perhaps it is not very important how a man
+_theorizes_ upon morality; happily for us all, God has left no man in
+such questions practically to the guidance of his understanding; but
+still, considering that academic bodies _are_ partly instituted for
+the support of speculative truth as well as truth practical, we must
+think it a blot upon the splendour of Oxford and Cambridge that both
+of them, in a Christian land, make Paley the foundation of their
+ethics; the alternative being Aristotle. And, in our mind, though far
+inferior as a moralist to the Stoics, Aristotle is often less a pagan
+than Paley.
+
+Coleridge's dislike to Sir Sidney Smith and the Egyptian Lord
+Hutchinson fell under the category of Martial's case.
+
+  "Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare,
+  Hoc solum novi--non amo te, Sabidi."
+
+Against Lord Hutchinson, we never heard him plead any thing of moment,
+except that he was finically Frenchified in his diction; of which he
+gave this instance--that having occasion to notice a brick wall,
+(which was literally _that_, not more and not less,) when
+reconnoitring the French defences, he called it a _revêtement_. And we
+ourselves remember his using the French word _gloriole_ rather
+ostentatiously; that is, when no particular emphasis attached to the
+case. But every man has his foibles; and few, perhaps, are less
+conspicuously annoying than this of Lord Hutchinson's. Sir Sidney's
+crimes were less distinctly revealed to our mind. As to Cuvier,
+Coleridge's hatred of _him_ was more to our taste; for (though quite
+unreasonable, we fear) it took the shape of patriotism. He insisted on
+it, that our British John Hunter was the genuine article, and that
+Cuvier was a humbug. Now, speaking privately to the public, we cannot
+go quite so far as _that_. But, when publicly we address that most
+respectable character, _en grand costume_, we always mean to back
+Coleridge. For we are a horrible John Bull ourselves. As Joseph Hume
+observes, it makes no difference to us--right or wrong, black or
+white--when our countrymen are concerned. And John Hunter,
+notwithstanding he had a bee in his bonnet,[26] was really a great
+man; though it will not follow that Cuvier must, therefore, have been
+a little one. We do not pretend to be acquainted with the tenth part
+of Cuvier's performances; but we suspect that Coleridge's range in
+that respect was not much greater than our own.
+
+Other cases of monomaniac antipathy we might revive from our
+recollections of Coleridge, had we a sufficient motive. But in
+compensation, and by way of redressing the balance, he had many
+strange likings--equally monomaniac--and, unaccountably, he chose to
+exhibit his whimsical partialities by dressing up, as it were, in his
+own clothes, such a set of scarecrows as eye has not beheld. Heavens!
+what an ark of unclean beasts would have been Coleridge's private
+_menagerie_ of departed philosophers, could they all have been trotted
+out in succession! But did the reader feel them to be the awful bores
+which, in fact, they were? No; because Coleridge had blown upon these
+withered anatomies, through the blowpipe of his own creative genius, a
+stream of gas that swelled the tissue of their antediluvian wrinkles,
+forced colour upon their cheeks, and splendour upon their sodden eyes.
+Such a process of ventriloquism never _has_ existed. He spoke by their
+organs. They were the tubes; and he forced through their wooden
+machinery his own Beethoven harmonies.
+
+First came Dr Andrew Bell. We knew him. Was he dull? Is a wooden spoon
+dull? Fishy were his eyes; torpedinous was his manner; and his main
+idea, out of two which he really had, related to the moon--from which
+you infer, perhaps, that he was lunatic. By no means. It was no craze,
+under the influence of the moon, which possessed him; it was an idea
+of mere hostility to the moon. The Madras people, like many others,
+had an idea that she influenced the weather. Subsequently the
+Herschels, senior and junior, systematized this idea; and then the
+wrath of Andrew, previously in a crescent state, actually dilated to a
+plenilunar orb. The Westmoreland people (for at the lakes it was we
+knew him) expounded his condition to us by saying that he was
+"maffled;" which word means "perplexed in the extreme." His wrath did
+not pass into lunacy; it produced simple distraction; an uneasy
+fumbling with the idea; like that of an old superannuated dog who
+longs to worry, but cannot for want of teeth. In this condition you
+will judge that he was rather tedious. And in this condition Coleridge
+took him up. Andrew's other idea, because he _had_ two, related to
+education. Perhaps six-sevenths of that also came from Madras. No
+matter, Coleridge took _that_ up; Southey also; but Southey with his
+usual temperate fervour. Coleridge, on the other hand, found celestial
+marvels both in the scheme and in the man. Then commenced the
+apotheosis of Andrew Bell; and because it happened that his opponent,
+Lancaster, between ourselves, really _had_ stolen his ideas from Bell,
+what between the sad wickedness of Lancaster and the celestial
+transfiguration of Bell, gradually Coleridge heated himself to such an
+extent, that people, when referring to that subject, asked each other:
+"Have you heard Coleridge lecture on _Bel and the Dragon_?"
+
+The next man glorified by Coleridge was John Woolman, the Quaker. Him,
+though we once possessed his works, it cannot be truly affirmed that
+we ever read. Try to read John, we often did; but read John we did
+not. This however, you say, might be our fault, and not John's. Very
+likely. And we have a notion that now, with our wiser thoughts, we
+_should_ read John, if he were here on this table. It is certain that
+he was a good man, and one of the earliest in America, if not in
+Christendom, who lifted up his hand to protest against the
+slave-trade. But still, we suspect, that had John been all that
+Coleridge represented, he would not have repelled us from reading his
+travels in the fearful way that he did. But, again, we beg pardon, and
+entreat the earth of Virginia to lie light upon the remains of John
+Woolman; for he was an Israelite, indeed, in whom there was no guile.
+
+The third person raised to divine honours by Coleridge was Bowyer, the
+master of Christ's Hospital, London--a man whose name rises into the
+nostrils of all who knew him with the gracious odour of a
+tallow-chandler's melting-house upon melting day, and whose memory is
+embalmed in the hearty detestation of all his pupils. Coleridge
+describes this man as a profound critic. Our idea of him is different.
+We are of opinion that Bowyer was the greatest villain of the
+eighteenth century. We may be wrong; but we cannot be _far_ wrong.
+Talk of knouting indeed! which we did at the beginning of this paper
+in the mere playfulness of our hearts--and which the great master of
+the knout, Christopher, who visited men's trespasses like the
+Eumenides, never resorted to but in love for some great idea which had
+been outraged; why, this man knouted his way through life, from bloody
+youth up to truculent old age. Grim idol! whose altars reeked with
+children's blood, and whose dreadful eyes never smiled except as the
+stern goddess of the Thugs smiles, when the sound of human
+lamentations inhabits her ears. So much had the monster fed upon this
+great idea of "flogging," and transmuted it into the very nutriment of
+his heart, that he seems to have conceived the gigantic project of
+flogging all mankind; nay worse, for Mr Gillman, on Coleridge's
+authority, tells us (p. 24) the following anecdote:--
+
+     "'_Sirrah, I'll flog you_,' were words so familiar to him, that
+     on one occasion some _female_ friend of one of the boys," (who
+     had come on an errand of intercession,) "still lingering at the
+     door, after having been abruptly told to go, Bowyer
+     exclaimed--'Bring that woman here, and I'll flog her.'"
+
+
+To this horrid incarnation of whips and scourges, Coleridge, in his
+_Biographia Literaria_, ascribes ideas upon criticism and taste, which
+every man will recognise as the intense peculiarities of Coleridge.
+Could these notions really have belonged to Bowyer, then how do we
+know but he wrote _The Ancient Mariner_? Yet, on consideration, no.
+For even Coleridge admitted that, spite of his fine theorizing upon
+composition, Mr Bowyer did not prosper in the practice. Of which he
+gave us this illustration; and as it is supposed to be the only
+specimen of the Bowyeriana which now survives in this sublunary world,
+we are glad to extend its glory. It is the most curious example extant
+of the melodious in sound:--
+
+  "'Twas thou that smooth'd'st the rough-rugg'd bed of pain."
+
+
+"Smooth'd'st!" Would the teeth of a crocodile not splinter under that
+word? It seems to us as if Mr Bowyer's verses ought to be boiled
+before they can be read. And when he says, '_Twas thou_, what is the
+wretch talking to? Can he be apostrophising the knout? We very much
+fear it. If so then, you see (reader!) that, even when incapacitated
+by illness from operating, he still adores the image of his holy
+scourge, and invokes it as alone able to smooth "his rough-rugg'd
+bed." Oh, thou infernal Bowyer! upon whom even Trollope (_History of
+Christ's Hospital_) charges "a discipline _tinctured_ with more than
+due severity;"--can there be any partners found for thee in a
+quadrille, except Draco, the bloody lawgiver, Bishop Bonner, and Mrs
+Brownrigg?
+
+The next pet was Sir Alexander Ball. Concerning Bowyer, Coleridge did
+not talk much, but chiefly wrote; concerning Bell, he did not write
+much, but chiefly talked. Concerning Ball, however, he both wrote and
+talked. It was in vain to muse upon any plan for having Ball
+blackballed, or for rebelling against Bell. Think of a man, who had
+fallen into one pit called Bell, secondly falling into another pit
+called Ball. This was too much. We were obliged to quote poetry
+against them:--
+
+  "Letters four do form his name;
+  He came by stealth and unlock'd my den;
+  And the nightmare I have felt since then
+  Of thrice three hundred thousand men."
+
+Not that we insinuate any disrespect to Sir Alexander Ball. He was
+about the foremost, we believe, in all good qualities, amongst
+Nelson's admirable captains at the Nile. He commanded a seventy-four
+most effectually in that battle; he governed Malta as well as Sancho
+governed Barataria; and he was a true practical philosopher--as,
+indeed, was Sancho. But still, by all that we could ever learn, Sir
+Alexander had no taste for the abstract upon any subject; and would
+have read, as mere delirious wanderings, those philosophic opinions
+which Coleridge fastened like wings upon his respectable, but
+astounded, shoulders.
+
+We really beg pardon for having laughed a little at these crazes of
+Coleridge. But laugh we did, of mere necessity, in those days, at Bell
+and Ball, whenever we did not groan. And, as the same precise
+alternative offered itself now, viz., that, in recalling the case, we
+must reverberate either the groaning or the laughter, we presumed the
+reader would vote for the last. Coleridge, we are well convinced, owed
+all these wandering and exaggerated estimates of men--these diseased
+impulses, that, like the _mirage_, showed lakes and fountains where
+in reality there were only arid deserts, to the derangements worked by
+opium. But now, for the sake of change, let us pass to another topic.
+Suppose we say a word or two on Coleridge's accomplishments as a
+scholar. We are not going to enter on so large a field as that of his
+scholarship in connexion with his philosophic labours, scholarship in
+the result; not this, but scholarship in the means and machinery,
+range of _verbal_ scholarship, is what we propose for a moment's
+review.
+
+For instance, what sort of a German scholar was Coleridge? We dare say
+that, because in his version of the _Wallenstein_ there are some
+inaccuracies, those who may have noticed them will hold him cheap in
+this particular pretension. But, to a certain degree, they will be
+wrong. Coleridge was not _very_ accurate in any thing but in the use
+of logic. All his philological attainments were imperfect. He did not
+talk German; or so obscurely--and, if he attempted to speak fast, so
+erroneously--that in his second sentence, when conversing with a
+German lady of rank, he contrived to assure her that in his humble
+opinion she was a ----. Hard it is to fill up the hiatus decorously;
+but, in fact, the word very coarsely expressed that she was no better
+than she should be. Which reminds us of a parallel misadventure to a
+German, whose colloquial English had been equally neglected. Having
+obtained an interview with an English lady, he opened his business
+(whatever it might be) thus--"High-born madam, since your husband have
+kicked de bucket"---- "Sir!" interrupted the lady, astonished and
+displeased. "Oh, pardon!--nine, ten tousand pardon! Now, I make new
+beginning--quite oder beginning. Madam, since your husband have cut
+his stick"---- It may be supposed that this did not mend matters; and,
+reading that in the lady's countenance, the German drew out an octavo
+dictionary, and said, perspiring with shame at having a second time
+missed fire,--"Madam, since your husband have gone to kingdom
+come"---- This he said beseechingly; but the lady was past
+propitiation by this time, and rapidly moved towards the door. Things
+had now reached a crisis; and, if something were not done quickly, the
+game was up. Now, therefore, taking a last hurried look at his
+dictionary, the German flew after the lady, crying out in a voice of
+despair--"Madam, since your husband, your most respected husband, have
+hopped de twig"---- This was his sheet-anchor; and, as this also _came
+home_, of course the poor man was totally wrecked. It turned out that
+the dictionary he had used (Arnold's, we think,)--a work of a hundred
+years back, and, from mere ignorance, giving slang translations from
+Tom Brown, L'Estrange, and other jocular writers--had put down the
+verb _sterben_ (_to die_) with the following worshipful series of
+equivalents--1. To kick the bucket; 2. To cut one's stick; 3. To go to
+kingdom come; 4. To hop the twig.
+
+But, though Coleridge did not pretend to any fluent command of
+conversational German, he read it with great ease. His knowledge of
+German literature was, indeed, too much limited by his rare
+opportunities for commanding any thing like a well-mounted library.
+And particularly it surprised us that Coleridge knew little or nothing
+of John Paul (Richter.) But his acquaintance with the German
+philosophic masters was extensive. And his valuation of many
+individual German words or phrases was delicate and sometimes
+profound.
+
+As a Grecian, Coleridge must be estimated with a reference to the
+state and standard of Greek literature at that time and in this
+country. Porson had not yet raised our ideal. The earliest laurels of
+Coleridge were gathered, however, in that field. Yet no man will, at
+this day, pretend that the Greek of his prize ode is sufferable.
+Neither did Coleridge ever become an accurate Grecian in later times,
+when better models of scholarship, and better aids to scholarship, had
+begun to multiply. But still we must assert this point of superiority
+for Coleridge, that, whilst he never was what may be called a
+well-mounted scholar in any department of verbal scholarship, he yet
+displayed sometimes a brilliancy of conjectural sagacity, and a
+felicity of philosophic investigation, even in this path, such as
+better scholars do not often attain, and of a kind which cannot be
+learned from books. But, as respects his accuracy, again we must
+recall to the reader the state of Greek literature in England during
+Coleridge's youth; and, in all equity, as a means of placing Coleridge
+in the balances, specifically we must recall the state of Greek
+metrical composition at that period.
+
+To measure the condition of Greek literature even in Cambridge, about
+the initial period of Coleridge, we need only look back to the several
+translations of Gray's _Elegy_ by three (if not four) of the reverend
+gentlemen at that time attached to Eton College. Mathias, no very
+great scholar himself in this particular field, made himself merry, in
+his _Pursuits of Literature_, with these Eton translations. In that he
+was right. But he was _not_ right in praising a contemporary
+translation by Cook, who (we believe) was the immediate predecessor of
+Porson in the Greek chair. As a specimen of this translation,[27] we
+cite one stanza; and we cannot be supposed to select unfairly, because
+it is the stanza which Mathias praises in extravagant terms. "Here,"
+says he, "Gray, Cook, and nature, do seem to contend for the mastery."
+The English quatrain must be familiar to every body:--
+
+  "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
+    And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
+  Await alike the inevitable hour;
+    The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
+
+
+And the following, we believe, though quoting from a thirty-three
+years' recollection of it, is the exact Greek version of Cook:--
+
+    Ha charis eugeneôn, charis ha basilêidos archas,
+    Dôra tuchês chruseês, Aphroditês kala ta dôra,
+    Panth' hama tauta tethnêke, kai eiden morsimon hamar;
+    Hêrôôn kle' olôle, kai ôcheto xunon es Adên.
+
+
+Now really these verses, by force of a little mosaic tesselation from
+genuine Greek sources, pass fluently over the tongue; but can they be
+considered other than a _cento_? Swarms of English schoolboys, at this
+day, would not feel very proud to adopt them. In fact, we remember (at
+a period say twelve years later than this) some iambic verses, which
+were really composed by a boy, viz. son of Dr Prettyman, (afterwards
+Tomline,) bishop of Winchester, and, in earlier times, private tutor
+to Mr Pitt; they were published by Middleton, first bishop of
+Calcutta, in the preface to his work on the Greek article; and for
+racy idiomatic Greek, self-originated, and not a mere mocking-bird's
+iteration of alien notes, are so much superior to all the attempts of
+these sexagenarian doctors, as distinctly to mark the growth of a new
+era and a new generation in this difficult accomplishment, within the
+first decennium of this century. It is singular that only one blemish
+is suggested by any of the contemporary critics in Dr Cook's verses,
+viz. in the word xunon, for which this critic proposes to substitute
+ôoinon, to prevent, as he observes, the last syllable of ôcheto from
+being lengthened by the x. Such considerations as these are necessary
+to the _trutinæ castigatio_, before we can value Coleridge's place on
+the scale of his own day; which day, _quoad hoc_, be it remembered,
+was 1790.
+
+As to French, Coleridge read it with too little freedom to find
+pleasure in French literature. Accordingly, we never recollect his
+referring for any purpose, either of argument or illustration, to a
+French classic. Latin, from his regular scholastic training, naturally
+he read with a scholar's fluency; and indeed, he read constantly in
+authors, such as Petrarch, Erasmus, Calvin, &c., whom he could not
+then have found in translations. But Coleridge had not cultivated an
+acquaintance with the delicacies of classic Latinity. And it is
+remarkable that Wordsworth, educated most negligently at Hawkshead
+school, subsequently by reading the lyric poetry of Horace, simply for
+his own delight as a student of composition, made himself a master of
+Latinity in its most difficult form; whilst Coleridge, trained
+regularly in a great Southern school, never carried his Latin to any
+classical polish.
+
+There is another accomplishment of Coleridge's, less broadly open to
+the judgment of this generation, and not at all of the next--viz. his
+splendid art of conversation, on which it will be interesting to say a
+word. Ten years ago, when the music of this rare performance had not
+yet ceased to vibrate in men's ears, what a sensation was gathering
+amongst the educated classes on this particular subject! What a tumult
+of anxiety prevailed to "hear Mr Coleridge"--or even to talk with a
+man who _had_ heard him! Had he lived till this day, not Paganini
+would have been so much sought after. That sensation is now decaying;
+because a new generation has emerged during the ten years since his
+death. But many still remain whose sympathy (whether of curiosity in
+those who did _not_ know him, or of admiration in those who _did_)
+still reflects as in a mirror the great stir upon this subject which
+then was moving in the world. To these, if they should enquire for the
+great distinguishing principle of Coleridge's conversation, we might
+say that it was the power of vast combination "in linked sweetness
+long drawn out." He gathered into focal concentration the largest body
+of objects, _apparently_ disconnected, that any man ever yet, by any
+magic, could assemble, or, _having_ assembled, could manage. His great
+fault was, that, by not opening sufficient spaces for reply or
+suggestion, or collateral notice, he not only narrowed his own field,
+but he grievously injured the final impression. For when men's minds
+are purely passive, when they are not allowed to re-act, then it is
+that they collapse most, and that their sense of what is said must
+ever be feeblest. Doubtless there must have been great conversational
+masters elsewhere, and at many periods; but in this lay Coleridge's
+characteristic advantage, that he was a great natural power, and also
+a great artist. He was a power in the art, and he carried a new art
+into the power.
+
+But now, finally--having left ourselves little room for more--one or
+two words on Coleridge as an opium-eater.
+
+We have not often read a sentence falling from a wise man with
+astonishment so profound, as that particular one in a letter of
+Coleridge's to Mr Gillman, which speaks of the effort to wean
+one's-self from opium as a trivial task. There are, we believe,
+several such passages. But we refer to that one in particular which
+assumes that a single "week" will suffice for the whole process of so
+mighty a revolution. Is indeed leviathan _so_ tamed? In that case the
+quarantine of the opium-eater might be finished within Coleridge's
+time, and with Coleridge's romantic ease. But mark the contradictions
+of this extraordinary man. Not long ago we were domesticated with a
+venerable rustic, strongheaded, but incurably obstinate in his
+prejudices, who treated the whole body of medical men as ignorant
+pretenders, knowing absolutely nothing of the system which they
+professed to superintend. This, you will remark, is no very singular
+case. No; nor, as we believe, is the antagonist case of ascribing to
+such men magical powers. Nor, what is worse still, the co-existence of
+both cases in the same mind, as in fact happened here. For this same
+obstinate friend of ours, who treated all medical pretensions as the
+mere jest of the universe, every third day was exacting from his own
+medical attendants some exquisite _tour-de-force_, as that they should
+know or should do something, which, if they _had_ known or done, all
+men would have suspected them reasonably of magic. He rated the whole
+medical body as infants; and yet what he exacted from them every third
+day as a matter of course, virtually presumed them to be the only
+giants within the whole range of science. Parallel and equal is the
+contradiction of Coleridge. He speaks of opium excess, his own excess,
+we mean--the excess of twenty-five years--as a thing to be laid aside
+easily and for ever within seven days; and yet, on the other hand, he
+describes it pathetically, sometimes with a frantic pathos, as the
+scourge, the curse, the one almighty blight which had desolated his
+life.
+
+This shocking contradiction we need not press. All readers will see
+_that_. But some will ask--was Mr Coleridge right in either view?
+Being so atrociously wrong in the first notion, (viz. that the opium
+of twenty-five years was a thing easily to be forsworn,) where a child
+could know that he was wrong, was he even altogether right, secondly,
+in believing that his own life, root and branch, had been withered by
+opium? For it will not follow, because, with a relation to happiness
+and tranquillity, a man may have found opium his curse, that
+therefore, as a creature of energies and great purposes, he must have
+been the wreck which he seems to suppose. Opium gives and takes away.
+It defeats the _steady_ habit of exertion, but it creates spasms of
+irregular exertion; it ruins the natural power of life, but it
+developes preternatural paroxysms of intermitting power.
+
+Let us ask of any man who holds that not Coleridge himself but the
+world, as interested in Coleridge's usefulness, has suffered by his
+addiction to opium; whether he is aware of the way in which opium
+affected Coleridge; and secondly, whether he is aware of the actual
+contributions to literature--how large they were--which Coleridge made
+_in spite_ of opium. All who were intimate with Coleridge must
+remember the fits of genial animation which were created continually
+in his manner and in his buoyancy of thought by a recent or by an
+_extra_ dose of the omnipotent drug. A lady, who knew nothing
+experimentally of opium, once told us, that she "could tell when Mr
+Coleridge had taken too much opium by his shining countenance." She
+was right; we know that mark of opium excesses well, and the cause of
+it; or at least we believe the cause to lie in the quickening of the
+insensible perspiration which accumulates and glistens on the face. Be
+that as it may, a criterion it was that could not deceive us as to the
+condition of Coleridge. And uniformly in that condition he made his
+most effective intellectual displays. It is true that he might not be
+happy under this fiery animation, and we fully believe that he was
+not. Nobody is happy under laudanum except for a very short term of
+years. But in what way did that operate upon his exertions as a
+writer? We are of opinion that it killed Coleridge as a poet. "The
+harp of Quantock" was silenced for ever by the torment of opium. But
+proportionably it roused and stung by misery his metaphysical
+instincts into more spasmodic life. Poetry can flourish only in the
+atmosphere of happiness. But subtle and perplexed investigations of
+difficult problems are amongst the commonest resources for beguiling
+the sense of misery. And for this we have the direct authority of
+Coleridge himself speculating on his own case. In the beautiful though
+unequal ode entitled _Dejection_, stanza six, occurs the following
+passage:
+
+    "For not to think of what I needs must feel,
+    But to be still and patient all I can;
+    _And haply by abstruse research to steal
+    From my own nature all the natural man_--
+    This was my sole resource, my only plan;
+  Till that, which suits a part, infects the whole,
+  And now is almost grown the habit of my soul."
+
+
+Considering the exquisite quality of some poems which Coleridge has
+composed, nobody can grieve (or _has_ grieved) more than ourselves, at
+seeing so beautiful a fountain choked up with weeds. But had Coleridge
+been a happier man, it is our fixed belief that we should have had far
+less of his philosophy, and perhaps, but not certainly, might have had
+more of his general literature. In the estimate of the public,
+doubtless, _that_ will seem a bad exchange. Every man to his taste.
+Meantime, what we wish to show is, that the loss was not absolute, but
+merely relative.
+
+It is urged, however, that, even on his philosophic speculations,
+opium operated unfavourably in one respect, by often causing him to
+leave them unfinished. This is true. Whenever Coleridge (being highly
+charged, or saturated, with opium) had written with distempered
+vigour upon any question, there occurred soon after a recoil of
+intense disgust, not from his own paper only, but even from the
+subject. All opium-eaters are tainted with the infirmity of leaving
+works unfinished, and suffering reactions of disgust. But Coleridge
+taxed himself with that infirmity in verse before he could at all have
+commenced opium-eating. Besides, it is too much assumed by Coleridge
+and by his biographer, that to leave off opium was of course to regain
+juvenile health. But all opium-eaters make the mistake of supposing
+every pain or irritation which they suffer to be the product of opium.
+Whereas a wise man will say, suppose you _do_ leave off opium, that
+will not deliver you from the load of years (say sixty-three) which
+you carry on your back. Charles Lamb, another man of true genius, and
+another head belonging to the Blackwood Gallery, made that mistake in
+his _Confessions of a Drunkard_. "I looked back," says he, "to the
+time when always, on waking in the morning, I had a song rising to my
+lips." At present, it seems, being a drunkard, he has no such song.
+Ay, dear Lamb, but note this, that the drunkard was fifty-six years
+old, the songster was twenty-three. Take twenty-three from fifty-six,
+and we have some reason to believe that thirty-three will remain;
+which period of thirty-three years is a pretty good reason for not
+singing in the morning, even if brandy has been out of the question.
+
+It is singular, as respects Coleridge, that Mr Gillman never says one
+word upon the event of the great Highgate experiment for leaving off
+laudanum, though Coleridge came to Mr Gillman's for no other purpose;
+and in a week, this vast creation of new earth, sea, and all that in
+them is, was to have been accomplished. We _rayther_ think, as Bayley
+junior observes, that the explosion must have hung fire. But _that_ is
+a trifle. We have another pleasing hypothesis on the subject. Mr
+Wordsworth, in his exquisite lines written on a fly-leaf of his own
+_Castle of Indolence_, having described Coleridge as "a noticeable man
+with large grey eyes," goes on to say, "He" (viz. Coleridge) "did that
+other man entice" to view his imagery. Now we are sadly afraid that
+"the noticeable man with large grey eyes" did entice "that other man,"
+viz. Gillman, to commence opium-eating. This is droll; and it makes us
+laugh horribly. Gillman should have reformed _him_; and lo! _he_
+corrupts Gillman. S. T. Coleridge visited Highgate by way of being
+converted from the heresy of opium; and the issue is--that, in two
+months' time, various grave men, amongst whom our friend Gillman
+marches first in great pomp, are found to have faces shining and
+glorious as that of Æsculapius; a fact of which we have already
+explained the secret meaning. And scandal says (but then what will not
+scandal say?) that a hogshead of opium goes up daily through Highgate
+tunnel. Surely one corroboration of our hypothesis may be found in the
+fact, that Vol. I. of Gillman's Coleridge is forever to stand
+unpropped by Vol. II. For we have already observed--that opium-eaters,
+though good fellows upon the whole, never finish any thing.
+
+What then? A man has a right never to finish any thing. Certainly he
+has; and by Magna Charta. But he has no right, by Magna Charta or by
+Parva Charta, to slander decent men, like ourselves and our friend the
+author of the _Opium Confessions_. Here it is that our complaint
+arises against Mr Gillman. If he has taken to opium-eating, can we
+help _that_? If _his_ face shines, must our faces be blackened? He has
+very improperly published some intemperate passages from Coleridge's
+letters, which ought to have been considered confidential, unless
+Coleridge had left them for publication, charging upon the author of
+the _Opium Confessions_ a reckless disregard of the temptations which,
+in that work, he was scattering abroad amongst men. Now this author is
+connected with ourselves, and we cannot neglect his defence, unless in
+the case that he undertakes it himself.
+
+We complain, also, that Coleridge raises (and is backed by Mr Gillman
+in raising) a distinction perfectly perplexing to us, between himself
+and the author of the _Opium Confessions_ upon the question--Why they
+severally began the practice of opium-eating? In himself, it seems,
+this motive was to relieve pain, whereas the Confessor was
+surreptitiously seeking for pleasure. Ay, indeed--where did he learn
+_that_? We have no copy of the _Confessions_ here, so we cannot quote
+chapter and verse; but we distinctly remember, that toothach is
+recorded in that book as the particular occasion which first
+introduced the author to the knowledge of opium. Whether afterwards,
+having been thus initiated by the demon of pain, the opium confessor
+did not apply powers thus discovered to purposes of mere pleasure, is
+a question for himself; and the same question applies with the same
+cogency to Coleridge. Coleridge began in rheumatic pains. What then?
+That is no proof that he did not end in voluptuousness. For our parts,
+we are slow to believe that ever any man did, or could, learn the
+somewhat awful truth, that in a certain ruby-coloured elixir, there
+lurked a divine power to chase away the genius of ennui, without
+subsequently abusing this power. To taste but once from the tree of
+knowledge, is fatal to the subsequent power of abstinence. True it is,
+that generations have used laudanum as an anodyne, (for instance,
+hospital patients,) who have not afterwards courted its powers as a
+voluptuous stimulant; but that, be sure, has arisen from no abstinence
+in _them_. There are, in fact, two classes of temperaments as to this
+terrific drug--those which are, and those which are not, preconformed
+to its power; those which genially expand to its temptations, and
+those which frostily exclude them. Not in the energies of the will,
+but in the qualities of the nervous organization, lies the dread
+arbitration of--Fall or stand: doomed thou art to yield; or,
+strengthened constitutionally, to resist. Most of those who have but a
+low sense of the spells lying couchant in opium, have practically none
+at all. For the initial fascination is for _them_ effectually defeated
+by the sickness which nature has associated with the first stages of
+opium-eating. But to that other class, whose nervous sensibilities
+vibrate to their profoundest depths under the first touch of the
+angelic poison, even as a lover's ear thrills on hearing unexpectedly
+the voice of her whom he loves, opium is the Amreeta cup of beatitude.
+You know the _Paradise Lost_? and you remember, from the eleventh
+book, in its earlier part, that laudanum already existed in Eden--nay,
+that it was used medicinally by an archangel; for, after Michael had
+"purged with euphrasy and rue" the eyes of Adam, lest he should be
+unequal to the mere _sight_ of the great visions about to unfold their
+draperies before him, next he fortifies his fleshly spirits against
+the _affliction_ of these visions, of which visions the first was
+death. And how?
+
+  "He from the well of life three drops instill'd."
+
+What was their operation?
+
+  "So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
+  _Even to the inmost seat of mental sight_,
+  That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes
+  Sank down, and all his spirits became entranced.
+  But him the gentle angel by the hand
+  Soon raised"----
+
+The second of these lines it is which betrays the presence of
+laudanum. It is in the faculty of mental vision, it is in the
+increased power of dealing with the shadowy and the dark, that the
+characteristic virtue of opium lies. Now, in the original higher
+sensibility is found some palliation for the _practice_ of
+opium-eating; in the greater temptation is a greater excuse. And in
+this faculty of self-revelation is found some palliation for
+_reporting_ the case to the world, which both Coleridge and his
+biographer have overlooked.
+
+On all this, however, we need say no more; for we have just received a
+note from the writer of the _Opium Confessions_, more learned than
+ourselves in such mysteries, which promises us a sequel or _finale_ to
+those Confessions. And this, which we have reason to think a record of
+profound experiences, we shall probably publish next month.
+
+
+
+_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+[1] Reynolds' Discourses, No. 16, _ad finem_.
+
+[2] Macaulay.
+
+[3] The finest design ever conceived by Michael Angelo was a cartoon
+representing warriors bathing, and some buckling on their armour at
+the sound of the trumpet, which summoned them to their standards in
+the war between Pisa and Florence. It perished, however, in the
+troubles of the latter city, but an engraved copy remains of part,
+which justifies the eulogiums bestowed upon it.
+
+[4] The state of Missouri as almost entirely peopled by emigration
+from Kentucky.
+
+[5] The Mississippi water, although slimy, becomes clear after it has
+stood few hours, and is then excellent to drink.
+
+[6] An excellent map of Montenegro has been made by an Austrian
+officer of engineers, who resided there for the purpose--but I have
+not now the advantage of referring to it. This country is divided into
+twelve military departments; the natives reckon its extent about three
+days' journey in the longest, by two in the widest part. Those, of
+course, are foot or mule journeys.
+
+[7] It was this man's father who, shortly before our arrival, having
+been entrusted to receive from Lloyd's Company a packet containing a
+large sum of money, converted the contents into two cannon-balls, and
+forwarded them to the Vladika.
+
+[8] The late Vladika received the honours of sanctity after his death.
+
+[9] Meaning dressed in the European or Frank costume.
+
+[10] The Vladika bears the Russian eagle rising from a crown.
+
+[11] He passed but one night in Montenegro, at Cettigna, and returned
+the following day to Cattaro.
+
+[12] On the kalends of January the consuls-elect were formally
+installed; and on this occasion a procession was made to the Capitol,
+and sacrifice performed to Jupiter. The principal part of the
+procession, of course, was the consuls in their curule chair, preceded
+by the lictors bearing the _fasces_, or bundles of rods and axes.
+
+[13] From _Janua_, a gate.
+
+[14] The etymology of these old epithets, from _pateo_ (to open) and
+_claudo_ (to shut,) is obvious enough.
+
+[15] The _lar familiaris_, or domestic god of the family, who had an
+altar in the inner part of the Roman house.
+
+[16] The allusion here, and in the following lines, is to the
+different _strenæ_ or New-Year's gifts, which used to be given by the
+Romans.
+
+[17] The old Roman _as_, with the double head on one side and a ship
+on the reverse, is well known among numismatists.
+
+[18] The Tuscan flood is a common appellation for the Tiber, as rising
+in Etruria, and forming the ancient boundary between that country and
+Latium, opposite Rome.
+
+[19] A silly etymology--from _lateo_, to lurk; mentioned also by
+Virgil.--_Æn_. viii. 323.
+
+[20] "The Romans gave the name of _Jani_ to arches like that of
+Temple-Bar in London, under which people passed from one street into
+another. They were always double; people entering by one and going out
+by the other, every one keeping to the right. The temple or gateway
+mentioned in this place, adjacent to the ox and the fish markets, was
+built by Duilius."--KEIGHTLY.
+
+[21] Although the allusion refers, in the verses, to Delphi, it was, I
+think, at Dodona, in the earliest period of oracular influence, that
+this belief prevailed.
+
+[22] "And Mullah mine, whose waves whilome I taught to
+weep."--SPENSER.
+
+[23] _The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge_. By JAMES GILLMAN. Vol. I,
+London; 1838.
+
+[24] "Jacob Boehmen." We ourselves had the honour of presenting to Mr
+Coleridge Law's English version of Jacob--a set of huge quartos. Some
+months afterwards we saw this work lying open, and one volume at least
+overflowing, in parts, with the commentaries and the _corollaries_ of
+Coleridge. Whither has this work, and so many others swathed about
+with Coleridge's MS. notes, vanished from the world?
+
+[25] Malthus would have rejoined by saying--that the flower-pot
+limitation was the actual limitation of nature in our present
+circumstances. In America it is otherwise, he would say; but England
+_is_ the very flower-pot you suppose: she is a flower-pot which cannot
+be multiplied, and cannot even be enlarged. Very well; so be it:
+(Which we say in order to waive irrelevant disputes.) But then the
+true inference will be--not that vegetable increase proceeds under a
+different law from that which governs animal increase, but that,
+through an accident of position, the experiment cannot be tried in
+England. Surely the levers of Archimedes, with submission to Sir
+Edward B. Lytton, were not the less levers because he wanted the
+_locum standi_. It is proper, by the way, that we should inform the
+reader of this generation where to look for Coleridge's skirmishings
+with Malthus. They are to be found chiefly in the late Mr William
+Hazlitt's work on that subject: a work which Coleridge so far claimed
+as to assert that it had been substantially made up from his own
+conversation.
+
+[26] _Vide_, in particular, for the most exquisite specimen of
+pig-headedness that the world can furnish, his perverse evidence on
+the once famous case at the Warwick assizes, of Captain Donelan for
+poisoning his brother-in-law, Sir Theodosius Boughton.
+
+[27] It was printed at the end of Aristotle's _Poetics_, which Dr Cook
+edited.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+  Passages in italics indicated by underscore _italics_.
+
+  The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
+  letters have been replaced with transliterations.
+
+  The original text includes missing printing represented by
+  _______________ in this text version.
+
+  Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
+  both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as
+  presented in the original text.
+
+  Misprints corrected:
+    "noice" corrected to "noise" (page 24)
+    "opportunites" corrected to "opportunities" (page 33)
+    "susspected" corrected to "suspected" (page 61)
+    "d'Artagnan" standardized to "D'Artagnan" (page 69)
+    "henceforch" corrected to "henceforth" (page 79)
+    "Chapter IV" corrected to "Chapter II" (page 102)
+    "drunkark" corrected to "drunkard" (page 131)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine --
+Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JAN. 1845 ***
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (Vol. LVII, No. CCCLI), by Various Authors.
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume
+57, No. 351, January 1845, 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 57, No. 351, January 1845
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: August 4, 2009 [EBook #29605]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JAN. 1845 ***
+
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+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Stephanie
+Eason and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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+
+
+
+<h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1>
+<h1>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h1>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><span class="smcap">No</span>. CCCLI. <span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>JANUARY,
+  1845.<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span> <span class="smcap">Vol</span>. LVII.</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr> <td><span class="smcap">Homer, Dante, and Michael Angelo</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr> <td><span class="smcap">Settled at Last, Or, Red River Recollections</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Borodino. An Ode</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Ramble in Montenegro</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">&AElig;sthetics of Dress. a Case of Hats</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Three Guardsmen</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Marston; Or the Memoirs of a Statesman. Part XV</span>.,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Janus: From the Fasti of Ovid</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">To a Blind Girl</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Forced Sale</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Vanities in Verse. by B. Simmons</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Coleridge and Opium-eating</span>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>EDINBURGH:</h3>
+<h3>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;</h3>
+<h3>AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.</h3>
+<h4><i>To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed</i>.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.</h4>
+<h4>PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.</h4>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="volume page" /></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2>BLACKWOOD'S</h2>
+<h2>EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.</h2>
+<h2><span class="smcap">No</span>. CCCLI. JANUARY, 1845. <span class="smcap">Vol</span>. LVII.</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>HOMER, DANTE, AND MICHAEL ANGELO.</h3>
+
+
+<p>There is something inexpressibly striking, it may almost be said
+awful, in the fame of <span class="smcap">Homer</span>. Three thousand years have elapsed since
+the bard of Chios began to pour forth his strains; and their
+reputation, so far from declining, is on the increase. Successive
+nations are employed in celebrating his works; generation after
+generation of men are fascinated by his imagination. Discrepancies of
+race, of character, of institutions, of religion, of age, of the
+world, are forgotten in the common worship of his genius. In this
+universal tribute of gratitude, modern Europe vies with remote
+antiquity, the light Frenchman with the volatile Greek, the
+impassioned Italian with the enthusiastic German, the sturdy
+Englishman with the unconquerable Roman, the aspiring Russian with the
+proud American. Seven cities, in ancient times, competed for the
+honour of having given him birth, but seventy nations have since been
+moulded by his productions. He gave a mythology to the ancients; he
+has given the fine arts to the modern world. Jupiter, Saturn, Mars,
+Juno, are still household words in every tongue; Vulcan is yet the god
+of fire, Neptune of the ocean, Venus of love. When Michael Angelo and
+Canova strove to embody their conceptions of heroism or beauty, they
+portrayed the heroes of the <i>Iliad</i>. Flaxman's genius was elevated to
+the highest point in embodying its events. Epic poets, in subsequent
+times, have done little more than imitate his machinery, copy his
+characters, adopt his similes, and, in a few instances, improve upon
+his descriptions. Painting and statuary, for two thousand years, have
+been employed in striving to portray, by the pencil or the chisel, his
+yet breathing conceptions. Language and thought itself have been
+moulded by the influence of his poetry. Images of wrath are still
+taken from Achilles, of pride from Agamemnon, of astuteness from
+Ulysses, of patriotism from Hector, of tenderness from Andromache, of
+age from Nestor. The galleys of Rome were, the line-of-battle ships of
+France and England still are, called after his heroes. The Agamemnon
+long bore the flag of Nelson; the Ajax perished by the flames within
+sight of the tomb of the Telamonian hero, on the shores of the
+Hellespont; the Achilles was blown up at the battle of Trafalgar.
+Alexander the Great ran round the tomb of Achilles before undertaking
+the conquest of Asia. It was the boast of Napoleon that his mother
+reclined on tapestry representing the heroes of the <i>Iliad</i>, when he
+was brought into the world. The greatest poets of ancient and modern
+times have spent their lives in the study of his genius or the
+imitation of his works. Withdraw from subsequent poetry the images,
+mythology, and characters of the <i>Iliad</i>, and what would remain?
+Petrarch spent his best years in restoring his verses. Tasso portrayed
+the siege<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> of Jerusalem, and the shock of Europe and Asia, almost
+exactly as Homer had done the contest of the same forces, on the same
+shores, two thousand five hundred years before. Milton's old age, when
+blind and poor, was solaced by hearing the verses recited of the poet,
+to whose conceptions his own mighty spirit had been so much indebted;
+and Pope deemed himself fortunate in devoting his life to the
+translation of the <i>Iliad</i>.</p>
+
+<p>No writer in modern times has equalled the wide-spread fame of the
+Grecian bard; but it may be doubted whether, in the realms of thought,
+and in sway over the reflecting world, the influence of <span class="smcap">Dante</span> has not
+been almost as considerable. Little more than five hundred years,
+indeed, have elapsed&mdash;not a sixth of the thirty centuries which have
+tested the strength of the Grecian patriarch&mdash;since the immortal
+Florentine poured forth his divine conceptions; but yet there is
+scarcely a writer of eminence since that time, in works even bordering
+on imagination, in which traces of his genius are not to be found. The
+<i>Inferno</i> has penetrated the world. If images of horror are sought
+after, it is to his works that all subsequent ages have turned; if
+those of love and divine felicity are desired, all turn to the
+<i>Paradise</i> and the <i>Spirit of Beatrice</i>. When the historians of the
+French Revolution wished to convey an idea of the utmost agonies they
+were called on to portray, they contented themselves with saying it
+equalled all that the imagination of Dante had conceived of the
+terrible. Sir Joshua Reynolds has exerted his highest genius in
+depicting the frightful scene described by him, when Ugolino perished
+of hunger in the tower of Pisa. Alfieri, Metastasio, Corneille, Lope
+de Vega, and all the great masters of the tragic muse, have sought in
+his works the germs of their finest conceptions. The first of these
+tragedians marked two-thirds of the <i>Inferno</i> and <i>Paradiso</i> as worthy
+of being committed to memory. Modern novelists have found in his
+prolific mind the storehouse from which they have drawn their noblest
+imagery, the chord by which to strike the profoundest feelings of the
+human heart. Eighty editions of his poems have been published in
+Europe within the last half century; and the public admiration, so far
+from being satiated, is augmenting. Every scholar knows how largely
+Milton was indebted to his poems for many of his most powerful images.
+Byron inherited, though often at second hand, his mantle, in many of
+his most moving conceptions. Schiller has embodied them in a noble
+historic mirror; and the dreams of Goethe reveal the secret influence
+of the terrible imagination which portrayed the deep remorse and
+hopeless agonies of Malebolge.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Michael Angelo</span> has exercised an influence on modern art little, if at
+all, inferior to that produced on the realms of thought by Homer and
+Dante. The father of Italian painting, the author of the frescoes on
+the Sistine Chapel, he was, at the same time, the restorer of ancient
+sculpture, and the intrepid architect who placed the Pantheon in the
+air. Raphael confessed, that he owed to the contemplation of his works
+his most elevated conceptions of their divine art. Sculpture, under
+his original hand, started from the slumber of a thousand years, in
+all the freshness of youthful vigour; architecture, in subsequent
+times, has sought in vain to equal, and can never hope to surpass, his
+immortal monument in the matchless dome of St Peters. He found
+painting in its infancy&mdash;he left it arrived at absolute perfection. He
+first demonstrated of what that noble art is capable. In the Last
+Judgment he revealed its wonderful powers, exhibiting, as it were, at
+one view, the whole circles of Dante's <i>Inferno</i>&mdash;portraying with
+terrible fidelity the agonies of the wicked, when the last trumpet
+shall tear the veil from their faces, and exhibit in undisguised truth
+that most fearful of spectacles&mdash;<i>a naked human heart</i>. Casting aside,
+perhaps with undue contempt, the adventitious aids derived from
+finishing, colouring, and execution, he threw the whole force of his
+genius into the design, the expression of the features, the drawing of
+the figures. There never was such a delineator of bone and muscle as
+Michael Angelo. His frescoes stand out in bold relief from the walls
+of the Vatican, like the sculptures of Phidias from the pediment of
+the Parthenon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> He was the founder of the school of painting both at
+Rome and Florence&mdash;that great school which, disdaining the
+representation of still life, and all the subordinate appliances of
+the art, devoted itself to the representation of the grand and the
+beautiful; to the expression of passion in all its vehemence&mdash;of
+emotion in all its intensity. His incomparable delineation of bones
+and muscles was but a means to an end; it was the human heart, the
+throes of human passion, that his master-hand laid bare. Raphael
+congratulated himself, and thanked God that he had given him life in
+the same age with that painter; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his last
+address to the Academy, "reflected, not without vanity, that his
+Discourses bore testimony to his admiration of that truly divine man,
+and desired that the last words he pronounced in that academy, and
+from that chair, might be the name of Michael Angelo."[<a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">1</a>]</p>
+
+<p>The fame of these illustrious men has long been placed beyond the
+reach of cavil. Criticism cannot reach, envy cannot detract from,
+emulation cannot equal them. Great present celebrity, indeed, is no
+guarantee for future and enduring fame; in many cases, it is the
+reverse, but there is a wide difference between the judgment of the
+present and that of future ages. The favour of the great, the passions
+of the multitude, the efforts of reviewers, the interest of
+booksellers, a clique of authors, a coterie of ladies, accidental
+events, degrading propensities, often enter largely into the
+composition of present reputation. But opinion is freed from all these
+disturbing influences by the lapse of time. The grave is the greatest
+of all purifiers. Literary jealousy, interested partiality, vulgar
+applause, exclusive favour, alike disappear before the hand of death.
+We never can be sufficiently distrustful of present opinion, so
+largely is it directed by passion or interest. But we may rely with
+confidence on the judgment of successive generations on departed
+eminence; for it is detached from the chief cause of present
+aberration. So various are the prejudices, so contradictory the
+partialities and predilections of men, in different countries and ages
+of the world, that they never can concur through a course of centuries
+in one opinion, if it is not founded in truth and justice. The <i>vox
+populi</i> is often little more than the <i>vox diaboli</i>; but the voice of
+ages is the voice of God.</p>
+
+<p>It is of more moment to consider in what the greatness of these
+illustrious men really consists&mdash;to what it has probably been
+owing&mdash;and in what particulars they bear an analogy to each other.</p>
+
+<p>They are all three distinguished by one peculiarity, which doubtless
+entered largely into their transcendent merit&mdash;they wrote in the
+infancy of civilization. Homer, as all the world knows, is the oldest
+profane author in existence. Dante flourished about the year 1300: he
+lived at a time when the English barons lived in rooms strewed with
+rushes, and few of them could sign their names. The long life of
+Michael Angelo, extending from 1474 to 1564, over ninety years, if not
+passed in the infancy of civilization, was at least passed in the
+childhood of the arts: before his time, painting was in its cradle.
+Cimabue had merely unfolded the first dawn of beauty at Florence; and
+the stiff figures of Pietro Perugino, which may be traced in the first
+works of his pupil Raphael, still attest the backward state of the
+arts at Rome. This peculiarity, applicable alike to all these three
+great men, is very remarkable, and beyond all question had a powerful
+influence, both in forming their peculiar character, and elevating
+them to the astonishing greatness which they speedily attained.</p>
+
+<p>It gave them&mdash;what Johnson has justly termed the first requisite to
+human greatness&mdash;self-confidence. They were the first&mdash;at least the
+first known to themselves and their contemporaries&mdash;who adventured on
+their several arts; and thus they proceeded <i>fearlessly</i> in their
+great career. They had neither critics to fear, nor lords to flatter,
+nor former excellence to imitate. They portrayed with the pencil, or
+in verse, what they severally felt, undisturbed by fear, unswayed by
+example, unsolicitous about fame,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> unconscious of excellence. They did
+so for the first time. Thence the freshness and originality, the
+vigour and truth, the simplicity and raciness by which they are
+distinguished. Shakspeare owed much of his greatness to the same
+cause; and thence his similarity, in many respects, to these great
+masters of his own or the sister arts. When Pope asked Bentley what he
+thought of his translation of the <i>Iliad</i>, the scholar replied, "You
+have written a pretty book, Mr Pope; but you must not call it Homer."
+Bentley was right. With all its pomp of language and melody of
+versification, its richness of imagery and magnificence of diction,
+Pope's Homer is widely different from the original. He could not avoid
+it. The "awful simplicity of the Grecian bard, his artless grandeur
+and unaffected majesty," will be sought for in vain in the
+translation; but if they had appeared there, it would have been
+unreadable in that age. Michael Angelo, in his bold conceptions,
+energetic will, and rapid execution, bears a close resemblance to the
+father of poetry. In both, the same faults, as we esteem them, are
+conspicuous, arising from a too close imitation of nature, and a
+carelessness in rejecting images or objects which are of an ordinary
+or homely description. Dante was incomparably more learned than
+either: he followed Virgil in his descent to the infernal regions; and
+exhibits an intimate acquaintance with ancient history, as well as
+that of the modern Italian states, in the account of the characters he
+meets in that scene of torment. But in his own line he was entirely
+original. Homer and Virgil had, in episodes of their poems, introduced
+a picture of the infernal regions; but nothing on the plan of Dante's
+<i>Inferno</i> had before been thought of in the world. With much of the
+machinery of the ancients, it bears the stamp of the spiritual faith
+of modern times. It lays bare the heart in a way unknown even to Homer
+and Euripides. It reveals the inmost man in a way which bespeaks the
+centuries of self-reflection in the cloister which had preceded it. It
+is the basis of all the spiritual poetry of modern, as the <i>Iliad</i> is
+of all the external imagery of ancient, times.</p>
+
+<p>In this respect there is a most grievous impediment to genius in
+later, or, as we term them, more civilized times, from which, in
+earlier ages, it is wholly exempt. Criticism, public opinion, the
+dread of ridicule&mdash;then too often crush the strongest minds. The
+weight of former examples, the influence of early habits, the halo of
+long-established reputation, force original genius from the untrodden
+path of invention into the beaten one of imitation. Early talent feels
+itself overawed by the colossus which all the world adores; it falls
+down and worships, instead of conceiving. The dread of ridicule
+extinguishes originality in its birth. Immense is the incubus thus
+laid upon the efforts of genius. It is the chief cause of the
+degradation of taste, the artificial style, the want of original
+conception, by which the literature of old nations is invariably
+distinguished. The early poet or painter who portrays what he feels or
+has seen, with no anxiety but to do so powerfully and truly, is
+relieved of a load which crushes his subsequent compeers to the earth.
+Mediocrity is ever envious of genius&mdash;ordinary capacity of original
+thought. Such envy in early times is innocuous or does not exist, at
+least to the extent which is felt as so baneful in subsequent periods.
+But in a refined and enlightened age, its influence becomes
+incalculable. Whoever strikes out a new region of thought or
+composition, whoever opens a fresh vein of imagery or excellence, is
+persecuted by the critics. He disturbs settled ideas, endangers
+established reputations, brings forward rivals to dominant fame. That
+is sufficient to render him the enemy of all the existing rulers in
+the world of taste. Even Jeffrey seriously lamented, in one of his
+first reviews of Scott's poems, that he should have identified himself
+with the unpicturesque and expiring images of feudality, which no
+effort could render poetical. Racine's tragedies were received with
+such a storm of criticism as wellnigh cost the sensitive author his
+life; and Rousseau was so rudely handled by contemporary writers on
+his first appearance, that it confirmed him in his morbid hatred of
+civilization. The vigour of these great men, indeed, overcame the
+obstacles created by contemporary envy; but how seldom, especially in
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> refined age, can genius effect such a prodigy? how often is it
+crushed in the outset of its career, or turned aside into the humble
+and unobtrusive path of imitation, to shun the danger with which that
+of originality is beset!</p>
+
+<p>Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i> contains many more lines of poetic beauty
+than Homer's <i>Iliad</i>; and there is nothing in the latter poem of equal
+length, which will bear any comparison with the exquisite picture of
+the primeval innocence of our First Parents in his fourth book.
+Nevertheless, the <i>Iliad</i> is a more interesting poem than the
+<i>Paradise Lost</i>; and has produced and will produce a much more
+extensive impression on mankind. The reason is, that it is much fuller
+of event, is more varied, is more filled with images familiar to all
+mankind, and is less lost in metaphysical or philosophical
+abstractions. Homer, though the father of poets, was essentially
+dramatic; he was an incomparable painter; and it is his dramatic
+scenes, the moving panorama of his pictures, which fascinates the
+world. He often speaks to the heart, and is admirable in the
+delineation of character; but he is so, not by conveying the inward
+feeling, but by painting with matchless fidelity its external
+symptoms, or putting into the mouths of his characters the precise
+words they would have used in similar circumstances in real life. Even
+his immortal parting of Hector and Andromache is no exception to this
+remark; he paints the scene at the Sc&aelig;an gate exactly as it would have
+occurred in nature, and moves us as if we had seen the Trojan hero
+taking off his helmet to assuage the terrors of his infant son, and
+heard the lamentations of his mother at parting with her husband. But
+he does not lay bare the heart, with the terrible force of Dante, by a
+line or a word. There is nothing in Homer which conveys so piercing an
+idea of misery as the line in the <i>Inferno</i>, where the Florentine bard
+assigns the reason of the lamentations of the spirits in Malebolge&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Questi non hanno speranza di morte."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"These have not the <i>hope of death</i>." There speaks the spiritual poet;
+he does not paint to the eye, he does not even convey character by the
+words he makes then utter; he pierces by a single expression, at once
+to the heart.</p>
+
+<p>Milton strove to raise earth to heaven: Homer brought down heaven to
+earth. The latter attempt was a much easier one than the former; it
+was more consonant to human frailty; and, therefore, it has met with
+more success. The gods and goddesses in the <i>Iliad</i> are men and women,
+endowed with human passions, affections, and desires, and
+distinguished only from sublunary beings by superior power and the
+gift of immortality. We are interested in them as we are in the genii
+or magicians of an eastern romance. There is a sort of a&euml;rial epic
+poem going on between earth and heaven. They take sides in the
+terrestrial combat, and engage in the actual strife with the heroes
+engaged in it. Mars and Venus were wounded by Diomede when combating
+in the Trojan ranks; their blood, or rather the</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Ichor which blest immortals shed,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>flowed profusely; they fled howling to the palaces of heaven.
+Enlightened by a spiritual faith, fraught with sublime ideas of the
+divine nature and government, Milton was incomparably more just in his
+descriptions of the Supreme Being, and more elevated in his picture of
+the angels and arch-angels who carried on the strife in heaven; but he
+frequently falls into metaphysical abstractions or theological
+controversies, which detract from the interest of his poem.</p>
+
+<p>Despite Milton's own opinion, the concurring voice of all subsequent
+ages and countries has assigned to the <i>Paradise Regained</i> a much
+lower place than to the <i>Paradise Lost</i>. The reason is, that it is
+less dramatic&mdash;it has less incident and action. Great part of the poem
+is but an abstract theological debate between our Saviour and Satan.
+The speeches he makes them utter are admirable, the reasoning is
+close, the arguments cogent, the sentiments elevated in the speakers,
+but dialectic too. In many of the speeches of the angel Raphael, and
+in the council of heaven, in the <i>Paradise Lost</i> there is too much of
+that species of discussion for a poem which is to interest the
+generality of men. Dryden says, that Satan is Milton's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> real hero; and
+every reader of the <i>Paradise Lost</i> must have felt, that in the Prince
+of Darkness, and Adam and Eve, the interest of the poem consists. The
+reason is, that the vices of the first, and the weakness of the two
+last, bring them nearer than any other characters in the poem to the
+standard of mortality; and we are so constituted, that we cannot take
+any great interest but in persons who share in our failings.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the greatest cause of the sustained interest of the <i>Iliad</i> is
+the continued and vehement <i>action</i> which is maintained. The attention
+is seldom allowed to flag. Either in the council of the gods, the
+assembly of the Grecian or Trojan chiefs, or the contest of the
+leaders on the field of battle, an incessant interest is maintained.
+Great events are always on the wing: the issue of the contest is
+perpetually hanging, often almost even, in the balance. It is the art
+with which this is done, and a state of anxious suspense, like the
+crisis of a great battle kept up, that the great art of the poet
+consists. It is done by making the whole dramatic&mdash;bringing the
+characters forward constantly to speak for themselves, making the
+events succeed each other with almost breathless rapidity, and
+balancing success alternately from one side to the other, without
+letting it ever incline decisively to either. Tasso has adopted the
+same plan in his <i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>, and the contests of the
+Christian knights and Saracen leaders with the lance and the sword,
+closely resemble those of the Grecian and Trojan chiefs on the plain
+of Troy. Ariosto has carried it still further. The exploits of his
+Paladins&mdash;their adventures on earth, in air, and water; their loves,
+their sufferings, their victories, their dangers&mdash;keep the reader in a
+continual state of suspense. It is this sustained and varied interest
+which makes so many readers prefer the <i>Orlando Furioso</i> to the
+<i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>. But Ariosto has pushed it too far. In the
+search of variety, he has lost sight of unity. His heroes are not
+congregated round the banners of two rival potentates; there is no one
+object or interest in his poem. No narrow plain, like that watered by
+the Scamander, is the theatre of their exploits. Jupiter, from the
+summit of Gargarus, could not have beheld the contending armies. The
+most ardent imagination, indeed, is satiated with his adventures, but
+the closest attention can hardly follow their thread. Story after
+story is told, the exploits of knight after knight are recounted, till
+the mind is fatigued, the memory perplexed, and all general interest
+in the poem lost.</p>
+
+<p>Milton has admirably preserved the unity of his poem; the grand and
+all-important object of the fall of man could hardly admit of
+subordinate or rival interests. But the great defect in the <i>Paradise
+Lost</i>, arising from that very unity, is want of variety. It is strung
+throughout on too lofty a key; it does not come down sufficiently to
+the wants and cravings of mortality. The mind is awe-struck by the
+description of Satan careering through the immensity of space, of the
+battle of the angels, of the fall of Lucifer, of the suffering, and
+yet unsubdued spirit of his fellow rebels, of the adamantine gates,
+and pitchy darkness, and burning lake of hell. But after the first
+feeling of surprise and admiration is over, it is felt by all, that
+these lofty contemplations are not interesting to mortals like
+ourselves. They are too much above real life&mdash;too much out of the
+sphere of ordinary event and interest.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth book is the real scene of interest in the <i>Paradise Lost</i>;
+it is its ravishing scenes of primeval innocence and bliss which have
+given it immortality. We are never tired of recurring to the bower of
+Eve, to her devotion to Adam, to the exquisite scenes of Paradise, its
+woods, its waters, its flowers, its enchantments. We are so, because
+we feel that it paints the Elysium to which all aspire, which all have
+for a brief period felt, but which none in this world can durably
+enjoy.</p>
+
+<p>No one can doubt that Homer was endowed with the true poetic spirit,
+and yet there is very little of what we now call poetry in his
+writings. There is neither sentiment nor declamation&mdash;painting nor
+reflection. He is neither descriptive nor didactic. With great powers
+for portraying nature, as the exquisite choice of his epithets, and
+the occasional force of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> similes prove, he never makes any
+laboured attempt to delineate her features. He had the eye of a great
+painter; but his pictorial talents are employed, almost unconsciously,
+in the fervour of narrating events, or the animation of giving
+utterance to thoughts. He painted by an epithet or a line. Even the
+celebrated description of the fires in the plain of Troy, likened to
+the moon in a serene night, is contained in seven lines. His
+rosy-fingered morn&mdash;cloud-compelling Jupiter&mdash;Neptune, stiller of the
+waves&mdash;Aurora rising from her crocus bed&mdash;Night drawing her veil over
+the heavens&mdash;the black keel careering through the lashing waves&mdash;the
+shout of the far-sounding sea&mdash;and the like, from which subsequent
+poets and dramatists have borrowed so largely, are all brief
+allusions, or epithets, which evidently did not form the main object
+of his strains. He was a close observer of nature&mdash;its lights, its
+shades, its storms and calms, its animals, their migrations, their
+cries and habits; but he never suspends his narrative to describe
+them. We shall look in vain in the <i>Iliad</i>, and even the <i>Odyssey</i>,
+for the lengthened pictures of scenery which are so frequent in Virgil
+and Tasso, and appear in such rich profusion in Milton. He describes
+storms only as objects of terror, not to paint them to the eye. Such
+things are to be found in the book of Job and in the Psalms, but with
+the same brevity and magical force of emphatic expression. There never
+was a greater painter of nature than Homer; there never was a man who
+aimed less at being so.</p>
+
+<p>The portraying of character and event was the great and evident object
+of the Grecian bard; and there his powers may almost be pronounced
+unrivalled. He never tells you, unless it is sometimes to be inferred
+on an epithet, what the man's character that he introduces is. He
+trusts to the character to delineate itself. He lets us get acquainted
+with his heroes, as we do with persons around us, by hearing them
+speak, and seeing them act. In preserving character, in this dramatic
+way of representing it, he is unrivalled. He does not tell you that
+Nestor had the garrulity of age, and loved to recur to the events of
+his youth; but he never makes him open his mouth without descanting on
+the adventures of his early years, and the degenerate race of mortals
+who have succeeded the paladins of former days. He does not tell us
+that Achilles was wrathful and impetuous; but every time he speaks,
+the anger of the son of Peleus comes boiling over his lips. He does
+not describe Agamemnon as overbearing and haughty; but the pride of
+the king of men is continually appearing in his words and actions, and
+it is the evident moral of the <i>Iliad</i> to represent its pernicious
+effects on the affairs of the Helenic confederacy. Ulysses never
+utters a word in which the cautious and prudent counsellor, sagacious
+in design but prompt in execution, wary in the council but decided in
+the field, far-seeing but yet persevering, is not apparent. Diomede
+never falters; alike in the field and the council he is indomitable.
+When Hector was careering in his chariot round their fortifications,
+and the king of men counselled retreat, he declared he would remain,
+were it only with Sthenelus and his friends. So completely marked, so
+well defined are his characters, though they were all rapacious chiefs
+at first sight, little differing from each other, that it has been
+observed with truth, that one well acquainted with the <i>Iliad</i> could
+tell, upon hearing one of the speeches read out without a name, who
+was the chief who uttered it.</p>
+
+<p>The two authors, since his time, who have most nearly approached him
+in this respect, are Shakespeare and Scott. Both seem to have received
+the pencil which paints the human heart from nature herself. Both had
+a keen and searching eye for character in all grades and walks of
+life; and what is a general accompaniment of such a disposition, a
+strong sense of the ridiculous. Both seized the salient points in
+mental disposition, and perceived at a glance, as it were, the ruling
+propensity. Both impressed this character so strongly on their minds,
+that they threw themselves, as it were, into the very souls of the
+persons whom they delineated, and made them speak and act like nature
+herself. It is this extraordinary faculty of identifying themselves
+with their characters, and bringing out of their mouth the very words
+which, in real life, would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> come, which constitutes the chief and
+permanent attraction of these wonderful masters of the human heart.
+Cervantes had it in an equal degree; and thence it is that Homer,
+Shakspeare, Cervantes, and Scott, have made so great, and, to all
+appearance, durable impression on mankind. The human heart is, at
+bottom, every where the same. There is infinite diversity in the dress
+he wears, but the naked human figure of one country scarcely differs
+from another. The writers who have succeeded in reaching this deep
+substratum, this far-hidden but common source of human action, are
+understood and admired over all the world. It is the same on the banks
+of the Simo&iuml;s as on those of the Avon&mdash;on the Sierra Morena as the
+Scottish hills. They are understood alike in Europe as Asia&mdash;in
+antiquity as modern times; one unanimous burst of admiration salutes
+them from the North Cape to Cape Horn&mdash;from the age of Pisistratus to
+that of Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>Strange as it may appear to superficial observers, Cervantes bears a
+close analogy, in many particulars, to Homer. Circumstances, and an
+inherent turn for humour, made him throw his genius into an exquisite
+ridicule of the manners of chivalry; but the author of <i>Don Quixote</i>
+had in him the spirit of a great epic poet. His lesser pieces prove
+it; unequivocal traces of it are to be found in the adventures of the
+Knight of La Mancha himself. The elevation of mind which, amidst all
+his aberrations, appears in that erratic character; the incomparable
+traits of nature with which the work abounds; the faculty of
+describing events in the most striking way; of painting scenes in a
+few words; of delineating characters with graphic fidelity, and
+keeping them up with perfect consistency, which are so conspicuous in
+<i>Don Quixote</i>, are so many of the most essential qualities of an epic
+poet. Nor was the ardour of imagination, the romantic disposition, the
+brilliancy of fancy, the lofty aspirations, the tender heart, which
+form the more elevated and not less essential part of such a
+character, wanting in the Spanish novelist.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Walter Scott more nearly resembles Homer than any poet who has
+sung since the siege of Troy. Not that he has produced any poem which
+will for a moment bear a comparison with the <i>Iliad</i>&mdash;fine as the
+<i>Lady of the Lake</i> and <i>Marmion</i> are, it would be the height of
+national partiality to make any such comparison. But, nevertheless,
+Sir Walter's mind is of the same dimensions as that of Homer. We see
+in him the same combination of natural sagacity with acquired
+information; of pictorial eye with dramatic effect; of observation of
+character with reflection and feeling; of graphic power with poetic
+fervour; of ardour of imagination with rectitude of principle; of
+warlike enthusiasm with pacific tenderness, which have rendered the
+Grecian bard immortal. It is in his novels, however, more than his
+poetry, that this resemblance appears; the author of <i>Waverley</i> more
+nearly approaches the blind bard than the author of the <i>Lay</i>. His
+romances in verse contain some passages which are sublime, many which
+are beautiful, some pathetic. They are all interesting, and written in
+the same easy, careless style, interspersed with the most homely and
+grotesque expressions, which is so well known to all the readers of
+the <i>Iliad</i>. The battle in <i>Marmion</i> is beyond all question, as
+Jeffrey long ago remarked, the most <i>Homeric</i> strife which has been
+sung since the days of Homer. But these passages are few and far
+between; his poems are filled with numerous and long interludes,
+written with little art, and apparently no other object but to fill up
+the pages or eke out the story. It is in prose that the robust
+strength, the powerful arm, the profound knowledge of the heart,
+appear; and it is there, accordingly, that he approaches at times so
+closely to Homer. If we could conceive a poem, in which the storming
+of Front-de-B&oelig;uf's castle in <i>Ivanhoe</i>&mdash;the death of Fergus in
+<i>Waverley</i>&mdash;the storm on the coast, and death scene in the fisher's
+hut, in the <i>Antiquary</i>&mdash;the devoted love in the <i>Bride of
+Lammermoor</i>&mdash;the fervour of the Covenanters in <i>Old Mortality</i>, and
+the combats of Richard and Saladin in the <i>Talisman</i>, were united
+together, and intermingled with the incomparable characters,
+descriptions, and incidents with which these novels abound, they would
+form an epic poem.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>Doubts have sometimes been expressed, as to whether the <i>Iliad</i> and
+<i>Odyssey</i> are all the production of one man. Never, perhaps, was doubt
+not merely so ill founded, but so decisively disproved by internal
+evidence. If ever in human composition the traces of one mind are
+conspicuous, they are in Homer. His beauties equally with his defects,
+his variety and uniformity, attest this. Never was an author who had
+so fertile an imagination for varying of incidents; never was one who
+expressed them in language in which the same words so constantly
+recur. This is the invariable characteristic of a great and powerful,
+but at the same time self-confident and careless mind. It is to be
+seen in the most remarkable manner in Bacon and Machiavel, and not a
+little of it may be traced both in the prose and poetical works of
+Scott. The reason is, that the strength of the mind is thrown into the
+thought as the main object; the language, as a subordinate matter, is
+little considered. Expressions capable of energetically expressing the
+prevailing ideas of the imagination are early formed; but, when this
+is done, the powerful, careless mind, readily adopts them on all
+future occasions where they are at all applicable. There is scarcely a
+great and original thinker in whose writings the same expressions do
+not very frequently recur, often in exactly the same words. How much
+this is the case with Homer&mdash;with how much discrimination and genius
+his epithets and expressions were first chosen, and how frequently he
+repeats them, almost in every page, need be told to none who are
+acquainted with his writings. That is the most decisive mark at once
+of genius and identity. Original thinkers fall into repetition of
+expression, because they are always speaking from one model&mdash;their own
+thoughts. Subordinate writers avoid this fault, because they are
+speaking from the thoughts of others, and share their variety. It
+requires as great an effort for the first to introduce difference of
+expression, as for the last to reach diversity of thought.</p>
+
+<p>The reader of Dante must not look for the heart-stirring and animated
+narrative&mdash;the constant interest&mdash;the breathless suspense, which
+hurries us along the rapid current of the <i>Iliad</i>. There are no
+councils of the gods; no messengers winging their way through the
+clouds; no combats of chiefs; no cities to storm; no fields to win. It
+is the infernal regions which the poet, under the guidance of his
+great leader, Virgil, visits; it is the scene of righteous retribution
+through which he is led; it is the apportionment of punishment and
+reward to crime or virtue, in this upper world, that he is doomed to
+witness. We enter the city of lamentation&mdash;we look down the depths of
+the bottomless pit&mdash;we stand at the edge of the burning lake. His
+survey is not a mere transient visit like that of Ulysses in Homer, or
+of &AElig;neas in Virgil. He is taken slowly and deliberately through every
+successive circle of Malebolge; descending down which, like the
+visitor of the tiers of vaults, one beneath another, in a feudal
+castle, he finds every species of malefactors, from the chiefs and
+kings whose heroic lives were stained only by a few deeds of cruelty,
+to the depraved malefactors whose base course was unrelieved by one
+ray of virtue. In the very conception of such a poem, is to be found
+decisive evidence of the mighty change which the human mind had
+undergone since the expiring lays of poetry were last heard in the
+ancient world; of the vast revolution of thought and inward conviction
+which, during a thousand years, in the solitude of the monastery, and
+under the sway of a spiritual faith, had taken place in the human
+heart. A gay and poetic mythology no longer amazed the world by its
+fictions, or charmed it by its imagery. Religion no longer basked in
+the sunshine of imagination. The awful words of judgment to come had
+been spoken; and, like Felix, mankind had trembled. Ridiculous legends
+had ceased to be associated with the shades below&mdash;their place had
+been taken by images of horror. Conscience had resumed its place in
+the direction of thought. Superstition had lent its awful power to the
+sanctions of religion. Terror of future punishment had subdued the
+fiercest passions&mdash;internal agony tamed the proudest spirits. It was
+the picture of a future world&mdash;of a world of retribution&mdash;conceived
+under such impressions, that Dante proposed to give; it is that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> which
+he has given with such terrible fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>Melancholy was the prevailing characteristic of the great Italian's
+mind. It was so profound that it penetrated all his thoughts; so
+intense that it pervaded all his conceptions. Occasionally bright and
+beautiful ideas flitted across his imagination; visions of bliss,
+experienced for a moment, and then lost for ever, as if to render more
+profound the darkness by which they are surrounded. They are given
+with exquisite beauty; but they shine amidst the gloom like sunbeams
+struggling through the clouds. He inherited from the dark ages the
+austerity of the cloister; but he inherited with it the deep feelings
+and sublime conceptions which its seclusion had generated. His mind
+was a world within itself. He drew all his conceptions from that
+inexhaustible source; but he drew them forth so clear and lucid, that
+they emerged, embodied as it were, in living images. His characters
+are emblematic of the various passions and views for which different
+degrees of punishment were reserved in the world to come; but his
+conception of them was so distinct, his description so vivid, that
+they stand forth to our gaze in all the agony of their sufferings,
+like real flesh and blood. We see them&mdash;we feel them&mdash;we hear their
+cries&mdash;our very flesh creeps at the perception of their sufferings. We
+stand on the edge of the lake of boiling pitch&mdash;we feel the weight of
+the leaden mantles&mdash;we see the snow-like flakes of burning sand&mdash;we
+hear the cries of those who had lost the last earthly consolations,
+the hope of death:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Quivi sospiri, pianti ed alti guai</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Risonavan per l' aer senza stelle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perch' io al cominciar ne lacrimai.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Diverse lingue, orribili favelle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Parole di dolore, accenti d' ira,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Facevano un tumulto, il qual s' aggira</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sempre 'n quell' aria senza tempo tinta,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come la rena quando 'l turbo spira.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ed io: maestro, che &egrave; tanto greve</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A lor che lamentar li fa si forte?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rispose: dicerolti molto breve.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Questi non hanno speranza di morte."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>Inferno</i>, c. iii.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here sighs, with lamentations and loud moans,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Resounded through the air pierced by no star,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Horrible languages, outcries of woe,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I then: Master! What doth aggrieve them thus,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That they lament so loud? He straight replied:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That will I tell thee briefly. These of death</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No hope may entertain."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">Cary's</span> <i>Dante, Inferno</i>, c. iii.</span><br />
+</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Here is Dante portrayed to the life in the very outset. What a
+collection of awful images in a few lines! Loud lamentations, hideous
+cries, mingled with the sound of clasped hands, beneath a starless
+sky; and the terrible answer, as the cause of this suffering, "These
+have not the hope of death."</p>
+
+<p>The very first lines of the <i>Inferno</i>, when the gates of Hell were
+approached, and the inscription over them appeared, paints the dismal
+character of the poem, and yet mingled with the sense of divine love
+and justice with which the author was penetrated.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Per me si va nella citt&agrave; dolente;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Per me si va nell' eterno dolore;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Per me si va tra la perduta gente:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Giustizia mosse 'l mio alto Fattore;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fecemi la divina Potestate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">La somma Sapienza e 'l primo Amore.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dinanzi a me non fur cose create,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Se non eterne; ed io eterno duro:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lasciate ogni speranza voi che 'ntrate."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>Inferno</i>, c. iii.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Through me you pass into the city of woe:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through me you pass into eternal pain:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through me among the people lost for aye.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Justice the founder of my fabric moved:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To rear me was the task of power divine,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before me things create were none, save things</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eternal, and eternal I endure.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All hope abandon, ye who enter here."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">Cary's</span> <i>Dante, Inferno</i>, c. iii.</span><br />
+</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Dante had much more profound feelings than Homer, and therefore he has
+painted deep mysteries of the human heart with greater force and
+fidelity. The more advanced age of the world, the influence of
+spiritual faith, the awful anticipation of judgment to come, the
+inmost feelings which, during long centuries of seclusion, had been
+drawn forth in the cloister, the protracted sufferings of the dark
+ages, had laid bare the human heart. Its sufferings, its terrors, its
+hopes, its joys, had become as household words. The Italian poet
+shared, as all do, in the ideas and images of his age, and to these he
+added many which were entirely his own. He painted the inward man, and
+painted him from his own feelings, not the observation of others. That
+is the grand distinction between him and Homer; and that it is which
+has given him, in the delineation of mind, his great superiority. The
+Grecian bard was an incomparable observer; he had an inexhaustible
+imagination for fiction, as well as a graphic eye for the delineation
+of real life; but he had not a deep or feeling heart. He did not know
+it, like Dante and Shakspeare, from his own suffering. He painted the
+external symptoms of passion and emotion with the hand of a master;
+but he did not reach the inward spring of feeling. He lets us into his
+characters by their speeches, their gestures, their actions, and keeps
+up their consistency with admirable fidelity; but he does not, by a
+word, an expression, or an epithet, admit us into the inmost folds of
+the heart. None can do so but such as themselves feel warmly and
+profoundly, and paint passion, emotion, or suffering from their own
+experience, not the observation of others. Dante has acquired his
+colossal fame from the matchless force with which he has portrayed the
+wildest passions, the deepest feelings, the most intense sufferings of
+the heart. He is the refuge of all those who labour and are heavy
+laden&mdash;of all who feel profoundly or have suffered deeply. His verses
+are in the mouth of all who are torn by passion, gnawed by remorse, or
+tormented by apprehension; and how many are they in this scene of woe!</p>
+
+<p>A distinguished modern critic[<a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">2</a>] has said, that he who would now
+become a great poet must first become a little child. There is no
+doubt he is right. The seen and unseen fetters of civilization; the
+multitude of old ideas afloat in the world; the innumerable worn-out
+channels into which new ones are ever apt to flow; the general clamour
+with which critics, nursed amidst such fetters, receive any attempts
+at breaking them; the preva<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>lence, in a wealthy and highly civilized
+age, of worldly or selfish ideas; the common approximation of
+characters by perpetual intercourse, as of coins, by continual rubbing
+in passing from man to man, have taken away all freshness and
+originality from ideas. The learned, the polished, the highly
+educated, can hardly escape the fetters which former greatness throws
+over the soul. Milton could not avoid them: half the images in his
+poems are taken from Homer, Virgil, and Dante; and who dare hope for
+emancipation when Milton was enthralled? The mechanical arts increase
+in perfection as society advances. Science ever takes its renewed
+flights from the platform which former efforts have erected. Industry,
+guided by experience, in successive ages, brings to the highest point
+all the contrivances and inventions which minister to the comfort or
+elegances of life. But it is otherwise with genius. It sinks in the
+progress of society, as much as science and the arts rise. The country
+of Homer and &AElig;schylus sank for a thousand years into the torpor of the
+Byzantine empire. Originality perishes amidst acquisition. Freshness
+of conception is its life: like the flame, it burns fierce and clear
+in the first gales of a pure atmosphere; but languishes and dies in
+that polluted by many breaths.</p>
+
+<p>It was the resurrection of the human mind, after the seclusion and
+solitary reflection of the middle ages, which gave this vein of
+original ideas to Dante, as their first wakening had given to Homer.
+Thought was not extinct; the human mind was not dormant during the
+dark ages; far from it&mdash;it never, in some respects, was more active.
+It was the first collision of their deep and lonely meditations with
+the works of the great ancient poets, which occasioned the prodigy.
+Universally it will be found to be the same. After the first flights
+of genius have been taken, it is by the collision of subsequent
+thought with it that the divine spark is again elicited. The meeting
+of two great minds is necessary to beget fresh ideas, as that of two
+clouds is to bring forth lightning, or the collision of flint and
+steel to produce fire. Johnson said he could not get new ideas till he
+had read. He was right; though it is not one in a thousand who strikes
+out original thoughts from studying the works of others. The great
+sage did not read to imbibe the opinions of others, but to engender
+new ones for himself; he did not study to imitate, but to create. It
+was the same with Dante; it is the same with every really great man.
+His was the first powerful and original mind which, fraught with the
+profound and gloomy ideas nourished in seclusion during the middle
+ages, came into contact with the brilliant imagery, touching pathos,
+and harmonious language of the ancients. Hence his astonishing
+greatness. He almost worshipped Virgil, he speaks of him as a species
+of god; he mentions Homer as the first of poets. But he did not copy
+either the one or the other; he scarcely imitated them. He strove to
+rival their brevity and beauty of expression; but he did so in giving
+vent to new ideas, in painting new images, in awakening new emotions.
+The <i>Inferno</i> is as original as the <i>Iliad</i>; incomparably more so than
+the <i>&AElig;neid</i>. The offspring of originality with originality is a new
+and noble creation; of originality with mediocrity, a spurious and
+degraded imitation.</p>
+
+<p>Dante paints the spirits of all the generations of men, each in their
+circle undergoing their allotted punishment; expiating by suffering
+the sins of an upper world. Virgil gave a glimpse, as it were, into
+that scene of retribution; Minos and Rhadamanthus passing judgment on
+the successive spirits brought before them; the flames of Tartarus,
+the rock of Sisyphus, the wheel of Ixion, the vulture gnawing
+Prometheus. But with Homer and Virgil, the descent into the infernal
+regions was a brief episode; with Dante it was the whole poem. Immense
+was the effort of imagination requisite to give variety to such a
+subject, to prevent the mind from experiencing weariness amidst the
+eternal recurrence of crime and punishment. But the genius of Dante
+was equal to the task. His fancy was prodigious; his invention
+boundless; his imagination inexhaustible. Fenced in, as he was,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+within narrow and gloomy limits by the nature of his subject, his
+creative spirit equals that of Homer himself. He has given birth to as
+many new ideas in the <i>Inferno</i> and the <i>Paradiso</i>, as the Grecian
+bard in the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Though he had reflected so much and so deeply on the human heart, and
+was so perfect a master of all the anatomy of mental suffering,
+Dante's mind was essentially descriptive. He was a great painter as
+well as a profound thinker; he clothed deep feeling in the garb of the
+senses; he conceived a vast brood of new ideas, he arrayed them in a
+surprising manner in flesh and blood. He is ever clear and definite,
+at least in the <i>Inferno</i>. He exhibits in every canto of that
+wonderful poem a fresh image, but it is a clear one, of horror or
+anguish, which leaves nothing to the imagination to add or conceive.
+His ideal characters are real persons; they are present to our senses;
+we feel their flesh, see the quivering of their limbs, hear their
+lamentations, and feel a thrill of joy at their felicity. In the
+<i>Paradiso</i> he is more vague and general, and thence its acknowledged
+inferiority to the <i>Inferno</i>. But the images of horror are much more
+powerful than those of happiness; and it is they which have entranced
+the world. "It is easier," says Madame de Sta&euml;l, "to convey ideas of
+suffering than those of happiness; for the former are too well known
+to every heart, the latter only to a few."</p>
+
+<p>The melancholy tone which pervades Dante's writings was doubtless, in
+a great measure, owing to the misfortunes of his life; and to them we
+are also indebted for many of the most caustic and powerful of his
+verses&mdash;perhaps for the design of the <i>Inferno</i> itself. He took
+vengeance on the generation which had persecuted and exiled him, by
+exhibiting its leaders suffering in the torments of hell. In his long
+seclusion, chiefly in the monastery of Santa Croce di Fonte Avellana,
+a wild and solitary retreat in the territory of Gubbio, and in a tower
+belonging to the Conte Falcucci, in the same district, his immortal
+work was written. The mortifications he underwent during this long and
+dismal exile are thus described by himself:&mdash;"Wandering over almost
+every part in which our language extends, I have gone about like a
+mendicant; showing against my will the wound with which fortune has
+smitten me, and which is often falsely imputed to the demerit of him
+by whom it is endured. I have been, indeed, a vessel without sail or
+steerage, carried about to divers ports, and roads, and shores, by the
+dry wind that springs out of sad poverty."</p>
+
+<p>In the third circle of hell, Dante sees those who are punished by the
+plague of burning sand falling perpetually on them. Their torments are
+thus described&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Supin giaceva in terra alcuna gente;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Alcuna si sedea tutta raccolta;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ed altra andava continuamente.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Quella che giva intorno era pi&ugrave; molta;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E quella men che giaceva al tormento;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ma pi&ugrave; al duolo avea la lingua sciolta.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sovra tutto 'l sabbion d'un cader lento</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Piovean di fuoco dilatate falde,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come di neve in alpe senza vento.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Quali Alessandro in quelle parti calde</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">D' India vide sovra lo suo stuolo</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fiamme cadere infino a terra salde."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>Inferno</i>, c. xiv.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Of naked spirits many a flock I saw,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All weeping piteously, to different laws</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Subjected: for on earth some lay supine,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Some crouching close were seated, others paced</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Incessantly around; the latter tribe</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More numerous, those fewer who beneath</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The torment lay, but louder in their grief.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O'er all the sand fell slowly wafting down</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dilated flakes of fire, as flakes of snow</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On Alpine summit, when the wind is hush'd.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As, in the torrid Indian clime, the son</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Ammon saw, upon his warrior band</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Descending, solid flames, that to the ground</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Came down."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">Cary's</span> <i>Dante</i>, c. xiv.</span><br />
+</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The first appearance of Malebolge is described in these striking
+lines&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Luogo &egrave; in Inferno, detto Malebolge,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tutto di pietra e di color ferrigno,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Come la cerchia che d'intorno il volge.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nel dritto mezzo del campo maligno</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vaneggia un pozzo assai largo e profondo,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Di cui suo luogo conter&agrave; l' ordigno.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Quel cinghio che rimane adunque &egrave; tondo</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tra 'l pozzo e 'l pi&egrave; dell' alta ripa dura,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E ha distinto in dieci valli al fondo."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>Inferno</i>, c. xviii.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"There is a place within the depths of hell</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Call'd Malebolge, all of rock dark-stain'd</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With hue ferruginous, e'en as the steep</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That round it circling winds. Right in the midst</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of that abominable region yawns</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A spacious gulf profound, whereof the frame</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Due time shall tell. The circle, that remains,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Throughout its round, between the gulf and base</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of the high craggy banks, successive forms</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ten bastions, in its hollow bottom raised."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">Cary's</span> <i>Dante</i>, c. xviii.</span><br />
+</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>This is the outward appearance of Malebolge, the worst place of
+punishment in hell. It had many frightful abysses; what follows is the
+picture of the first:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Ristemmo per veder l'altra fessura</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Di Malebolge e gli altri pianti vani:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E vidila mirabilmente oscura.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Quale nell' arzana de' Veneziani</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bolle l' inverno la tenace pece,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A rimpalmar li legni lor non sani&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tal non per fuoco ma per divina arte,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bollia laggiuso una pegola spessa,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Che 'nviscava la ripa d'ogni parte.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I' vedea lei, ma non vedeva in essa</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ma che le bolle che 'l bollor levava,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">E gonfiar tutta e riseder compressa.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E vidi dietro a noi un diavol nero</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Correndo su per lo scoglio venire.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ahi quant' egli era nell' aspetto fiero!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E quanto mi parea nell' atto acerbo,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Con l' ali aperte e sovre i pi&egrave; leggiero!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">L' omero suo ch' era acuto e superbo</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carcava un peccator con ambo l'anche,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ed ei tenea de' pi&egrave; ghermito il nerbo.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Laggi&ugrave; il butt&ograve; e per lo scoglio duro</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Si volse, e mai non fu mastino sciolto</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Con tanta fretta a seguitar lo furo.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Quei s' attuff&ograve; e torn&ograve; su convolto;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ma i demon che del ponte avean coverchio</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gridar: qui non ha luogo il Santo Volto.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Qui si nuota altramenti che nel Serchio:</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Per&ograve; se tu non vuoi de' nostri graffi,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Non far sovra la pegola soverchio.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Poi l' addentar con pi&ugrave; di cento raffi,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Disser: coverto convien che qui balli,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Si che se puoi nascosamente accaffi."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><i>Inferno</i>, c. xxi.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;To the summit reaching, stood</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To view another gap, within the round</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Marvellous darkness shadow'd o'er the place.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In the Venetians' arsenal as boils</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their unsound vessels in the wintry clime.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So, not by force of fire but art divine,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boil'd here a glutinous thick mass, that round</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Limed all the shore beneath. I that beheld,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But therein not distinguish'd, save the bubbles</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Raised by the boiling, and one mighty swell</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heave, and by turns subsiding fall.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behind me I beheld a devil black,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That running up, advanced along the rock.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ah! what fierce cruelty his look bespake.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In act how bitter did he seem, with wings</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Buoyant outstretch'd, and feet of nimblest tread.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His shoulder, proudly eminent and sharp,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was with a sinner charged; by either haunch</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He held him, the foot's sinew griping fast.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Him dashing down, o'er the rough rock he turn'd;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor ever after thief a mastiff loosed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sped with like eager haste. That other sank,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And forthwith writhing to the surface rose.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But those dark demons, shrouded by the bridge,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cried&mdash;Here the hallow'd visage saves not: here</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is other swimming than in Serchio's wave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wherefore, if thou desire we rend thee not,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Take heed thou mount not o'er the pitch. This said,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They grappled him with more than hundred hooks,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And shouted&mdash;Cover'd thou must sport thee here;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So, if thou canst, in secret mayst thou filch."</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14em;"><span class="smcap">Cary's</span> <i>Dante</i>, c. xxi.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Fraught as his imagination was with gloomy ideas, with images of
+horror, it is the fidelity of his descriptions, the minute reality of
+his pictures, which gives them their terrible power. He knew well what
+it is that penetrates the soul. His images of horror in the infernal
+regions were all founded on those familiar to every one in the upper
+world; it was from the caldron of boiling pitch in the arsenal of
+Venice that he took his idea of one of the pits of Malebolge. But what
+a picture does he there exhibit! The writhing sinner plunged headlong
+into the boiling waves, rising to the surface, and a hundred demons,
+mocking his sufferings, and with outstretched hooks tearing his flesh
+till he dived again beneath the liquid fire! It is the reality of the
+scene, the images familiar yet magnified in horror, which constitutes
+its power: we stand by; our flesh creeps as it would at witnessing an
+<i>auto-da-f&egrave;</i> of Castile, or on beholding a victim perishing under the
+knout in Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Michael Angelo was, in one sense, the painter of the Old Testament, as
+his bold and aspiring genius arrived rather at delineating the events
+of warfare, passion, or suffering, chronicled in the records of the
+Jews, than the scenes of love, affection, and benevolence, depicted in
+the gospels.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> But his mind was not formed merely on the events
+recorded in antiquity: it is no world doubtful of the immortality of
+the soul which he depicts. He is rather the personification in
+painting of the soul of Dante. His imagination was evidently fraught
+with the conceptions of the <i>Inferno</i>. The expression of mind beams
+forth in all his works. Vehement passion, stern resolve, undaunted
+valour, sainted devotion, infant innocence, alternately occupied his
+pencil. It is hard to say in which he was greatest. In all his works
+we see marks of the genius of antiquity meeting the might of modern
+times: the imagery of mythology blended with the aspirations of
+Christianity. We see it in the dome of St Peter's, we see it in the
+statue of Moses. Grecian sculpture was the realization in form of the
+conceptions of Homer; Italian painting the representation on canvass
+of the revelations of the gospel, which Dante clothed in the garb of
+poetry. Future ages should ever strive to equal, but can never hope to
+excel them.</p>
+
+<p>Never did artist work with more persevering vigour than Michael
+Angelo. He himself said that he laboured harder for fame, than ever
+poor artist did for bread. Born of a noble family, the heir to
+considerable possessions, he took to the arts from his earliest years
+from enthusiastic passion and conscious power. During a long life of
+ninety years, he prosecuted them with the ardent zeal of youth. He was
+consumed by the thirst for fame, the desire of great achievements, the
+invariable mark of heroic minds; and which, as it is altogether beyond
+the reach of the great bulk of mankind, so is the feeling of all
+others which to them is most incomprehensible. Nor was that noble
+enthusiasm without its reward. It was his extraordinary good fortune
+to be called to form, at the same time, the Last Judgment on the wall
+of the Sistine Chapel, the glorious dome of St Peter's, and the group
+of Notre Dame de Piti&eacute;, which now adorns the chapel of the Crucifix,
+under the roof of that august edifice. The "Holy Family" in the
+Palazzo Pitti at Florence, and the "Three Fates" in the same
+collection, give an idea of his powers in oil-painting: thus he
+carried to the highest perfection, at the same time, the rival arts of
+architecture, sculpture, fresco and oil painting.[<a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">3</a>] He may truly be
+called the founder of Italian painting, as Homer was of the ancient
+epic, and Dante of the great style in modern poetry. None but a
+colossal mind could have done such things. Raphael took lessons from
+him in painting, and professed through life the most unbounded respect
+for his great preceptor. None have attempted to approach him in
+architecture; the cupola of St Peter's stands alone in the world.</p>
+
+<p>But notwithstanding all this, Michael Angelo had some defects. He
+created the great style in painting, a style which has made modern
+Italy as immortal as the arms of the legions did the ancient. But the
+very grandeur of his conceptions, the vigour of his drawing, his
+incomparable command of bone and muscle, his lofty expression and
+impassioned mind, made him neglect, and perhaps despise, the lesser
+details of his art. Ardent in the pursuit of expression, he often
+overlooked execution. When he painted the Last Judgment or the Fall of
+the Titans in fresco, on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel,
+he was incomparable; but that gigantic style was unsuitable for lesser
+pictures or rooms of ordinary proportions. By the study of his
+masterpieces, subsequent painters have often been led astray; they
+have aimed at force of expression to the neglect of delicacy in
+execution. This defect is, in an especial manner, conspicuous in Sir
+Joshua Reynolds, who worshipped Michael Angelo with the most devoted
+fervour; and through him it has descended to Lawrence, and nearly the
+whole modern school of England. When we see Sir Joshua's noble glass
+window in Magdalen College, Ox<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>ford, we behold the work of a worthy
+pupil of Michael Angelo; we see the great style of painting in its
+proper place, and applied to its appropriate object. But when we
+compare his portraits, or imaginary pieces in oil, with those of
+Titian, Velasquez, or Vandyke, the inferiority is manifest. It is not
+in the design but the finishing; not in the conception but the
+execution. The colours are frequently raw and harsh; the details or
+distant parts of the piece ill-finished or neglected. The bold neglect
+of Michael Angelo is very apparent. Raphael, with less original genius
+than his immortal master, had more taste and much greater delicacy of
+pencil; his conceptions, less extensive and varied, are more perfect;
+his finishing is always exquisite. Unity of emotion was his great
+object in design; equal delicacy of finishing in execution. Thence he
+has attained by universal consent the highest place in painting.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "is denied to well-directed
+labour; nothing is to be attained without it." "Excellence in any
+department," says Johnson, "can now be attained only by the labour of
+a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price." These words
+should ever be present to the minds of all who aspire to rival the
+great of former days; who feel in their bosoms a spark of the spirit
+which led Homer, Dante, and Michael Angelo to immortality. In a
+luxurious age, comfort or station is deemed the chief good of life; in
+a commercial community, money becomes the universal object of
+ambition. Thence our acknowledged deficiency in the fine arts; thence
+our growing weakness in the higher branches of literature. Talent
+looks for its reward too soon. Genius seeks an immediate recompense;
+long protracted exertions are never attempted; great things are not
+done, because great efforts are not made.</p>
+
+<p>None will work now without the prospect of an immediate return. Very
+possibly it is so; but then let us not hope or wish for immortality.
+"Present time and future," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "are rivals; he
+who solicits the one must expect to be discountenanced by the other."
+It is not that we want genius; what we want is the great and heroic
+spirit which will devote itself; by strenuous efforts, to great
+things, without seeking any reward but their accomplishment.</p>
+
+<p>Nor let it be said that great subjects for the painter's pencil, the
+poet's muse, are not to be found&mdash;that they are exhausted by former
+efforts, and nothing remains to us but imitation. Nature is
+inexhaustible; the events of men are unceasing, their variety is
+endless. Philosophers were mourning the monotony of time, historians
+were deploring the sameness of events, in the years preceding the
+French Revolution&mdash;on the eve of the Reign of Terror, the flames of
+Moscow, the retreat from Russia. What was the strife around Troy to
+the battle of Leipsic?&mdash;the contests of Florence and Pisa to the
+revolutionary war? What ancient naval victory to that of Trafalgar?
+Rely upon it, subjects for genius are not wanting; genius itself,
+steadily and perseveringly directed, is the thing required. But genius
+and energy alone are not sufficient; <span class="smcap">COURAGE</span> and disinterestedness are
+needed more than all. Courage to withstand the assaults of envy, to
+despise the ridicule of mediocrity&mdash;disinterestedness to trample under
+foot the seductions of ease, and disregard the attractions of
+opulence. An heroic mind is more wanted in the library or the studio,
+than in the field. It is wealth and cowardice which extinguish the
+light of genius, and dig the grave of literature as of nations.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+<h3>SETTLED AT LAST; OR, RED RIVER RECOLLECTIONS.</h3>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Chap.</span> I.</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">Homeward Bound</span>.</h5>
+
+<p>I had left New Orleans with the full intention of proceeding without
+stop or delay to my home upon the Red River; but notwithstanding this
+determination, my wife and myself were unable to resist Richards'
+pressing invitation to pause for a day or two at his house. Upon our
+yielding to his solicitations, he proceeded to recruit other guests
+among our travelling companions, and soon got together a pleasant
+party. My father-in-law, Monsieur Menou, went on to my plantation, but
+Julie remained with us, as did also her aunt, Madame Duras, an
+agreeable old lady with a slight expression of perfidy in her light
+blue, French-looking eyes, possessed withal of infinite delicacy and
+<i>finesse</i>&mdash;a fervent admirer of the old court school of Louis the
+Fifteenth, in the <i>chronique scandaleuse</i> of which she was as well
+versed as if she had been herself a contemporary of that
+pleasure-loving monarch. Besides these ladies, there was a young
+Frenchman named Vergennes, the third son of some Gascon viscount, and
+a distant cousin of the Menous, who had come to America till the
+scandal occasioned by certain republican scribblings of his in one of
+the newspapers of the day should have blown over, and till he could
+revisit his country without risk of obtaining a lodging gratis in the
+Conciergerie. He had brought with him a head crammed with schemes for
+the political regeneration of the whole world, and a trunkful of
+French fashions, neither of which, as I reckoned, were likely to take
+much with us. He made me laugh inwardly twenty times a-day by his
+Utopian theories and fancies. Truth to tell, in matters of politics or
+of sound common sense, these Frenchmen are for the most part mere
+children, and reach their dying day without ever becoming men. Take
+them by their weak points, their unlimited vanity or their love of
+what they call glory, and you may ride them like a horse to water.
+Vergennes, however, when one could get him off his hobby, was a
+pleasant gentlemanly fellow enough.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to spare Richards more than three days, and at six
+o'clock on the morning of the fourth, we went on board the steamer
+Alexandria. I had prevailed on my friend and his wife, and the whole
+party, to come and pass a week or two at my house, which was now quite
+ready for the reception of guests. The three days we had remained with
+Richards had been one continued f&ecirc;te, and considering the good living,
+and the heat of the weather&mdash;the thermometer ranging from 95&deg; to
+100&deg;&mdash;there were few things more agreeable or better to be done, than
+to take a steam up the Red River. The fresh breezes on the water might
+save some of us a touch of fever. On board we went therefore, all in
+high glee and good-humour with each other.</p>
+
+<p>We had passed the Atchafalaya, and had crossed over to the
+Francisville side, in order to avoid the powerful current occasioned
+by the influx of the Red River into the Mississippi. A strong wind had
+sprung up, and in the middle of the stream the waves were of a
+considerable height. The Mississippi was full to overflowing, and the
+mouth of the Red River, as far as the eye could reach, presented the
+appearance of an extensive lake, with thousands of tree trunks
+floating upon it. I had left the cabin, and was standing on deck with
+Richards and Vergennes, looking out upon the broad sheet of water that
+lay before us. We were just turning into the Red River when I observed
+a rowboat pulling across from the direction of Woodville, and which
+had already arrived within a hundred yards of us without attracting
+the attention of any one on board the steamer. It was cutting in and
+out amongst the enormous floating trees, with a boldness that, in that
+part of the river<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>&mdash;near the middle of which we were&mdash;might almost be
+called insanity.</p>
+
+<p>"That man must be mad, or in love!" cried the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Ralph Doughby!" exclaimed Richards. "Captain, it is Mister
+Doughby. Pray, stop the ship and let him come on board."</p>
+
+<p>Doughby it was. The mad fellow was standing bolt upright, and hardly
+taking the trouble to bend to one side or the other in conformity with
+the movements of the boat, which was dancing about on the waves and
+between the tree-trunks, while the six negro rowers were washed over
+and over by the spray.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's your famous Red River!" shouted the harebrained Doughby. "A
+fine country for wild-ducks and geese, and alligators too. Hurra,
+boys!"</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, Mr Doughby!" screamed and implored the ladies, as the
+Kentuckian dashed his boat slap up to the side of the steamer, without
+waiting till the speed of the vessel was slackened, and hastily caught
+a rope which was thrown to him. Just at that moment a wave as high as
+a man rose between the steamer and the boat and separated them, and
+Doughby still maintaining his hold on the rope, he was dragged out of
+his skiff and tossed like a feather against the steamer's side, where
+he hung half in and half out of the water.</p>
+
+<p>"Haul in, boys&mdash;haul me in, lads&mdash;or your d&mdash;&mdash;d paddles will do it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pull him in!" shouted we all, "pull him in for God's sake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, pull in!" cried Doughby, and giving a spring upwards he caught
+hold of the railing of the deck, threw himself over it with a bound,
+and stood in all safety amongst the astonished and grinny-visaged
+Cyclops who were hastening to his assistance. We hurried down from the
+quarterdeck, breathless with astonishment at this desperate and
+unnecessary piece of daring.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw" cried Doughby; "steward, a glass of hot; and, captain, see
+that my portmanteau comes on board, and that my negers get away with
+whole skins; and a good morning to you, gentlemen&mdash;in five minutes we
+shall meet again."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying, he emptied the glass which the black steward held out
+to him, made a slight bow to the ladies on the quarterdeck, sprang
+into the gentlemen's cabin, and thence into the first state-room that
+stood open.</p>
+
+<p>"An <i>entr&eacute;e en sc&egrave;ne</i> quite <i>&agrave; la</i> Doughby," said Richards laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so," replied I.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph Doughby, Esquire of New Feliciana, La., was an old acquaintance
+of Richards and myself, and an excellent specimen of a warm-hearted,
+impetuous, breakneck Kentuckian, with a share of earthquake in his
+composition that might be deemed large, even in Kentucky. He had come
+to Louisiana some eight years previously, a voyage of a thousand miles
+or more down the Cumberland River, the Ohio, and Mississippi, in a
+flat boat with half a dozen negroes, some casks of flour, hams, and
+Indian corn, and a few horses, and had settled at Woodville on a
+couple of thousand acres of good land, bought at five dollars an acre,
+to be paid in five years. His industry and energy had caused him to
+thrive, and he was now as well established planter as any on the
+Mississippi; his six negroes had amounted to forty, his wilderness had
+become a respectable plantation, his cotton was sought after, and he
+had not only paid for his acres but had already a large sum in the
+Planters' Bank. His frank open character had made him friends on all
+hands, and there was not a more popular man in Louisiana than Major
+Ralph Doughby.</p>
+
+<p>During the stay I made at Richards' house previously to my marriage,
+Doughby had passed a day there in company with one Mr Lambton and his
+daughter, Yankees&mdash;the latter a beautiful girl, but cold and formal
+like most of her countrywomen. An aunt of hers, who possessed large
+plantations on the Mississippi, had made up a match between Miss
+Lambton and Doughby, and they were then proceeding to New York, where
+the marriage was in due time to be solemnized. Richards and myself had
+observed, however, that the wild headlong manners and character of the
+Kentuckian, joined though they were to great goodness of heart and
+many sterling qualities, did not appear very pleasing to the stiff,
+etiquette-loving fine lady, and it was without any great surprise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+that we heard, some time afterwards, of the marriage being broken off,
+in consequence, it was said, of some wild freak of Doughby's. We were
+asking one another for the particulars of this rupture, which neither
+of us had heard, when the Kentuckian made his reappearance in the
+cabin. He had changed his dress, and, taking him altogether, was by no
+means an ill-looking fellow. His light blue gingham frock and
+snow-white trousers fitted him well; an elegant straw hat, very fine
+linen, and a diamond shirt-pin that must have cost the best part of a
+thousand dollars, contributed to give a sort of genteel planter-like
+air. His first care upon emerging from his state-room was to empty a
+glass of toddy. He then approached Richards and myself.</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Lambton?" said Richards enquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't you heard?" said Doughby; "you must have heard! It's all
+up&mdash;she won't hear speak of me&mdash;persists in her resolution&mdash;won't see
+me; or give me a chance of making my peace. I'm the most unlucky
+fellow on the face of the earth," continued he, changing his tone on a
+sudden to a melancholy sort of whine&mdash;"I wish I lay three hundred feet
+deep in the bed of the Mississippi. I tell you, boys, it's clean up
+with me, I feel that. I'm a lost man, done for entirely&mdash;shall never
+recover it!"</p>
+
+<p>We burst out into a violent fit of laughter, as who would not have
+done at the sight of a young giant of seven-and-twenty, with cheeks as
+red as poppies, shoulders that seemed made like those of Atlas to
+support a world; pair of dark blue-grey eyes with a laughing devil
+dancing in them, and a little moist just now from the effects of the
+toddy, and the man dying of love! He measured five feet thirteen
+inches in his stockings, with legs that might have belonged to an
+elephant, and fists calculated to frighten a buffalo.</p>
+
+<p>"Be d&mdash;&mdash;d to your laughing!" cried Doughby&mdash;"Steward, another
+glass&mdash;d'ye hear, you cursed neger, where are you hidden? Don't you
+hear when a gentleman speaks to you? D'ye want me to tattoo your black
+brainpan? You laugh," he continued to Richards and myself, relapsing
+into his whimpering tones; "but if you only knew&mdash;none of the women
+will have me&mdash;this is the seventh who has packed me off."</p>
+
+<p>"The seventh!" cried I laughing, "what, only the seventh, Doughby?
+Pshaw! that's nothing; during my bachelor's life I had at least two
+dozen refusals, and I am only a year older than yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"You be hanged with your two dozen! Steward, the toddy is only fit for
+old women&mdash;too much water in it; you don't know how to make toddy.
+Tell your captain to come here. I'll have you sent to the devil. No, I
+tell you my heart is so full, it feels as if it would burst. She won't
+hear of me. I will tell you all about it, boys&mdash;but who is that?"
+interrupted he, pointing to Vergennes, who was standing near us, and
+looking on in great wonderment. "Ah, Monshur Tonson! happy to see you,
+Monshur Tonson! Parleh vouh English? Prenez un seat, et un glass de
+Madeira. Nous parlerons hansamble le Franseh. Neger, a bottle of
+Madeira; and let it be good, or you'll get the bottle across your
+crooked shins. A bottle of Irish for me, d'ye hear, real Irish whisky,
+or if you haven't any, Scotch will do. No, boys, I tell you I am a
+gone man. Dismissed, sent away, packed off with a flea in my ear, as
+they say."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying, he threw himself on a sofa with a violence that made it
+crack again; the steward brought the Madeira and the whisky, and we
+drew round the table to condole with the love-stricken Kentuckian. A
+few minutes passed in the composition of the toddy, which was
+evidently destined to play the chief part in the way of a consoler;
+and when Doughby had got a large beer-glass of the comfortable mixture
+before him, he began his narrative.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> II</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">The Race</span>.</h5>
+
+<p>"I will tell you how it all happened, and how it was that Miss
+Lambton&mdash;in short you shall hear it all&mdash;it's the first time I have
+spoken about it, but now it shall out; you shall judge and decide
+between us, by Jove you shall! You recollect it was in the beginning
+of June that we left your house, Richards, to go up the
+Mississippi&mdash;it was a Friday, a day that I hate. All seamen and
+hunters do hate it; it's an unlucky day. All the bad luck I ever had,
+came to me on Fridays. I had a feeling that something would go wrong
+when we went on board the Helen M'Gregor. I thought Miss Lambton
+looked shy upon me, and the old gentleman stiffer than ever. I
+followed the Miss, however, wherever she went, so close, that once or
+twice I trod the fringe off her petticoats."</p>
+
+<p>"That was bad manners, Doughby."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! What did it matter? I told her not to bother her head about
+it, that when we got to New York, or even to Cincinnati or Louisville,
+I would buy her a whole shopful of dresses. She made no answer to
+that; but when I had the misfortune to tear her third flounce, she
+said, that if I went on in that way she would not have a whole gown
+left when she got to Louisville. 'With a whole one or none at all,
+Miss,' said I, 'you'll always be a charming creature.' That now was as
+pretty a compliment as ever was paid in Kentucky, but she did not seen
+to hear it.</p>
+
+<p>"On the third day we were just passing St Helena, when old Lambton
+came up to me. 'Mister Doughby,' said he, quite confidential like,
+'pardon me, my dear good Mister Doughby, but don't you think that you
+sometimes take rather too much ardent spirits, and thereby injure your
+health as well as give a bad example to your fellow-citizens, which,
+on the part of a respectable man like yourself, is very much to be
+regretted?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Bad example!' says I&mdash;'to be regretted, Mister Lambton!&mdash;I take too
+much ardent spirits! I certainly am not of that opinion, Mister
+Lambton, and if you are I can only say you are very much mistaken. You
+shall see yourself,' said I, 'how much ballast an old Kentuckian can
+take in without sinking under it: devil a diving duck ever swallowed
+more water than a Kentucky man can rum.'</p>
+
+<p>"I thought to let the old squaretoes see that he had a man before him,
+not one of his spindleshanked tallow-chopped Yankees, who go sneaking
+about the meeting-house from morning till night, or moping in their
+rooms, and calculating and speculating how they can best take in
+honest warm-blooded South and Westlanders. 'You shall see,' said
+I&mdash;but he shook his head and walked away, and I looked after him, and
+shook my head too. Pah! I found out afterwards that he was president
+of a temperance society, the devil take them all! Temperance
+societies! What is rum for, if it isn't to be drank?"</p>
+
+<p>Doughby was rapidly warming with his subject.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a queer old fellow, that Mister Lambton, as stiff and as cold
+as an icicle on a water-butt. Of a morning he was scarcely out of bed
+when he knocked at the door of the ladies' cabin in his brocade
+dressing-gown, and Miss Lambton must come out and hear him read the
+whole morning service of the Episcopal Church, and make the responses,
+and so on, for a full hour. Then the whole day he walked about as
+grave and solemn as the chief-justice of the district court. Before
+dinner he said a grace which lasted a full quarter of an hour. The
+soup was often cold, and half the dinner eaten up from under our
+noses, while this was going on. Sometimes most of the other passengers
+had done their dinner, and were gone to the bar to take a glass, and
+he still praying. I was often ready to jump out of my skin with
+impatience."</p>
+
+<p>"The praying was all well enough, if it had not lasted so long," said
+I, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Pah! I hate people who are al<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>ways wanting to be a shining light to
+their fellow-citizens. There's a deal of pride, a deal of arrogance
+and presumption in it. If a man wishes to pray, let him do so, and I
+do it myself; but people don't want to be reminded of those things. I
+tell you I have always found pride behind that sort of piety. The
+Yankees think we are heathens, and that they are the elect who are to
+enlighten us. Pshaw! I hate such humbug."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so badly reasoned," observed Richards.</p>
+
+<p>"However," continued Doughby, "I soon saw that, with one thing or
+another, I was getting out of the old gentleman's good books. He
+became more and more stiff and silent. That wouldn't have annoyed me
+much; but one morning the captain came to me and said, in a sort of
+apologising manner, that the ladies had desired him to beg me not to
+pay so many visits to their cabin, particularly of a morning, when
+some of them had not quite finished their toilet, but that I should
+always ask leave first and have myself announced, as it is set down in
+the regulations."</p>
+
+<p>"'What!' says I, 'have myself announced when I go to see my own wife,
+that is to be? What do the other ladies matter to me, whether they've
+got on silk gowns or cotton ones? I only go to see Miss Lambton.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Miss Lambton was present,' said the captain, 'when the ladies gave
+me the commission; and she and Mr Lambton most particularly requested
+me to have the regulations enforced.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Miss Lambton!' said I; 'that's a lie now, captain. She never could
+have done that.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Mister Doughby,' said he, 'it is no lie; and if another than
+yourself had said such a thing, I would have struck him down like a
+mad dog. And I must beg of you to retract your words, and ascertain to
+your own satisfaction that what I have said is a fact.'</p>
+
+<p>"So I ran off and asked Miss Lambton and Mr Lambton, and they answered
+me as dry as fagots, and said the captain had spoken the truth. I was
+a'most raving mad when I heard this, as savage as a panther; and, to
+console myself, I drank perhaps a trifle more than I should have done.
+But what else can one do on a voyage up the Mississippi? Much as I
+like him, old father Mississip, one gets awful sick of him after a
+time, steaming along for days and weeks together, nothing to be heard
+but clap-clap-clap, trap-trap-trap, or to be seen but the dull muddy
+waters and the never-ending forest. Day and night, wood and water,
+water and wood. It is wearisome work at the best.</p>
+
+<p>"It was exactly two o'clock in the afternoon on the seventh day of our
+voyage when we got beyond Wolf's Island, which, as you know, lies
+above New Madrid and below the mouth of the Ohio. The poor Helen
+M'Gregor burst her boiler since then, as you'll have heard, at that
+very place, and sent half a hundred passengers into the other world.
+Past Wolf's Island, we came up with the Ploughboy, the Huntress, the
+Louisville, and a couple more steamers, all going our way. It made
+quite a little fleet. I was sitting in the cabin with Miss Lambton and
+the old gentleman, who were cool and silent enough, when somebody
+called out, 'Here comes the George Washington.' A glorious steamer it
+is that George, more like a floating palace than a boat, as it goes
+skimming along as lightly and smoothly as a swan. It's a real pleasure
+to see it. I kept my place by Miss Lambton; but, to tell you the
+truth, I was sitting upon hot coals. What can be the reason that we
+men feel so deucedly cowed and quailed by the petticoats? Hang me if I
+know. Suddenly there was a cry upon deck, 'The Washington is passing
+us.' I could stand it no longer, but bolted up-stairs, and sure enough
+there it came in all its pride and power, trarara, trarara, rushing
+and dashing and spitting fire like Emperor Nap. at the head of his
+guards and dragoons and artillery. It was already in the midst of the
+other five steamers, passing them all. The whole of our passengers
+were on deck looking on, and I can tell you that our hearts beat quick
+as we saw the George walking up to us. The dinner-bell rang. Not a
+foot moved to go below. 'Captain,' cried I, 'we must not let the
+George pass us;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> you can't think of allowing such a thing?' says I;
+'must show them that we are Mississippi men.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Mister Doughby,' says he, 'it's the George Washington,' says
+he&mdash;'hundred and twenty horse power,' says he.</p>
+
+<p>"'Devil a hundred,' said I. 'You only say so because you are afraid to
+race him. And if he had two hundred horse power, what then? Shorten
+your stirrups and give your horse the spur,' say I.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw that the captain's blood was getting up; his eyes were fixed on
+the old George as if he would have eaten it, and he became red and
+blue and green, all manner of colours, like a dolphin; his teeth
+chattered, and he bit his lips till the blood ran over his chin. On
+came the Washington quicker than ever, the paddles clattering, the
+steam hissing, the crew hurraing like mad.</p>
+
+<p>"'Captain,' cried I, 'the Washington's passing you; it's all up with
+the honour of the Helen M'Gregor.'</p>
+
+<p>"The captain stood there as if his face had been rubbed over with
+chalk, and the drops of sweat ran down his forehead. The five steamers
+that we had passed were now hurraing with delight to see that we
+should be humbled in our turn. 'Captain,' said I, 'will you let
+yourself be beaten out of the field without firing a shot? The Helen
+M'Gregor is a new ship&mdash;Crack on, man!'</p>
+
+<p>"He could stand it no longer, but ran forward and screamed out to the
+stokers. 'More wood!' cried he, 'High pressure, high pressure!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Blaze away, boys!' cried I, 'Blaze away, and hurra for the Helen
+M'Gregor!'</p>
+
+<p>"And the fellows pitched whole cartloads of wood upon the fire, and
+stirred and poked away till they were wet through with perspiration,
+and our chimney began to whistle and sing, that it was a pleasure to
+hear it. We were just entering the Ohio, the Washington close upon our
+heels, when old Lambton and Emily came running upon deck in an
+almighty fright.</p>
+
+<p>"'Mr Doughby, for heaven's sake! Mr Doughby&mdash;captain, for God's sake!
+Will you destroy yourself, and the steamer, and your fellow-citizens?
+Will you race with the George Washington?'</p>
+
+<p>"'For God's sake, Mr Doughby!' cried the Miss.</p>
+
+<p>"'Mr Doughby!' squealed the old Yankee, who had quite forgotten his
+stiffness, 'I demand and insist that you use your influence to prevent
+the captain from racing.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Pshaw!' said I, 'it's nothing of the sort&mdash;ain't going to race&mdash;only
+want to see which ship goes quickest.'</p>
+
+<p>"'That must not be. I protest against it&mdash;the safety of our
+fellow-citizens&mdash;our own. If the boiler bursts'&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Nonsense!' said I&mdash;'safety of our fellow-citizens! Our
+fellow-citizens <i>are</i> in safety. We don't mean to race, Mister
+Lambton,' says I; 'we are only trying for a minute which ship can go
+the fastest.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Mr Doughby!' cried Emily, half beside herself&mdash;throwing her arms
+round me, and trying to drag me towards the engine&mdash;'Mr Doughby, if
+you have the smallest affection&mdash;regard I would say&mdash;for me, exert
+your influence, stop this horrid racing!'</p>
+
+<p>"And then she left me and ran to the captain, who was standing beside
+the engineer.</p>
+
+<p>"The Washington was close behind us&mdash;we, as I said before, were
+running slap into the mouth of the Ohio. There's no finer piece of
+water in the whole world for a race. The current of the Mississippi
+drives back that of the Ohio as far as Trinity, so that upon entering
+the river, the stream is in your favour. The two rivers are together
+four or five miles wide, and form a sort of circus, enclosed by the
+shores of Illinois, of Old Kentuck, and her daughter Missouri.[<a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">4</a>] We
+were nearest to the Illinois side, which gave us a small advantage
+over our opponent, who was more on the Kentucky side, end kept coming
+on faster and faster, with the other five boats, who had also clapped
+more steam on, a short distance behind him. Our Helen M'Gregor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+still kept the lead; who the devil could have helped racing? No one,
+of a certainty, except such a mackerel-blooded Yankee as old Lambton.
+All was heat and steam, rattle and clatter; the engines thumping, the
+water splashing, the fire blazing and roaring out of the chimneys,
+which sent out clouds of smoke and showers of sparks. The enemy was
+close upon us, Father George's honest face almost in a line with our
+stern.</p>
+
+<p>"'Helen M'Gregor, hold your own!' cried I. 'Don't spare the wood,
+boys, lay it on thick, pile it up moun<i>tain</i>eous; ten dollars for you
+when you've beaten him!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Hurra!' cried the hundred passengers; 'hurra! The Washington loses,
+we are gaining ground.'</p>
+
+<p>"Only the captain could not say a word; he stood there with his blue
+lips pressed hard together, looking more like a statue than a man. We
+were going our twenty knots, and keep it up we must if we did not want
+to fall back amongst the mob of the Huntress, the Ploughboy, and the
+rest of them. Every joint and hinge in the boat seemed to be cracking,
+the engine roared and groaned, the steam howled and hissed.</p>
+
+<p>"'The Helen M'Gregor is a gallant lass!' cried I. 'A brave
+Scotchwoman! She has fire in her veins.'</p>
+
+<p>"And so she really had. She stretched out like a racehorse that feels
+the spur in his flank for the first time; not steaming or swimming,
+but flying like a bird, rushing like a wild-cat or an elk that's been
+shot at; the waters of the Ohio flashing from her side in a white
+creamy foam. The Kentucky shores on our right, with their forests and
+cotton-trees, were flying away from us; on our left, the banks of
+Illinois seemed to dance past us, the big trees looking like witches
+scampering off on their broomsticks. Behind us, the high land of
+Missouri was rapidly disappearing, Colonel Boon's plantation getting
+smaller every second, till at last it appeared no bigger than a
+dovecot. Every thing around us seemed in motion, swimming, flying,
+racing. Hurras by thousands; seven steamers groaning, creaking,
+hissing, and rattling; a noise and a heat that made our heads dizzy,
+blinded our eyes, and took away our hearing. It was a gallopade, a
+race between giants.</p>
+
+<p>"We were close to the wood below Trinity&mdash;the race as good as won, for
+Trinity was of course the winning post. Suddenly the captain cried
+out, 'He is passing us!' and, as he said the word, he looked as wild
+as a tortured redskin, and bit his lips more savage than ever, and
+caught hold of the quarterdeck railing as if he would have torn it
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"'Captain,' said I, 'it's impossible&mdash;he is not passing us.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Look yourself, Mr Doughby,' said he.</p>
+
+<p>"The man was right. The old George is an almighty fast ship, that is
+certain. I saw that in two minutes we should be beaten. We had not
+even so long to wait.</p>
+
+<p>"'By my soul he is passing us!' cried I.</p>
+
+<p>"'He is passing us,' repeated the captain in a low voice. He was
+deadly white. I couldn't say a word; and as for him, he was obliged to
+support himself against the railing, or he would have fallen down.
+There was no help for it, however; the Washington's figure-head was
+already in a line with our stern&mdash;in ten seconds, a third of the
+vessel's length was parallel with us&mdash;another ten seconds, two-thirds,
+and in less than a minute he dashed proudly before us with a deafening
+hurra from crew and passengers, which was echoed from the other five
+steamers, till we heard nothing on all sides but hurras and hurras. I
+would have given a thousand dollars down to have reached Trinity two
+minutes sooner. Just then a number of voices cried out, 'The boiler's
+bursting! The boiler's bursting!' And there was a cracking  <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'noice'">noise</ins>, and
+then a loud rush. Here comes the hot bath, thought I, and wished
+myself a pleasant journey out of the world. But it was nothing; the
+cry came from a couple of negers, echoed by Miss Lambton and Mister
+Lambton, and the rest of the old women folk from the ladies' cabin.
+They had gone in a body to the engineer, and had so begged, and
+prayed, and bothered him, that he had given in, and opened the valve,
+and we only half a mile from Trinity. I am certain that if the
+cowardly rascal had not done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> that, we should have made a drawn race
+of it, for the Washington got in not two minutes before us. I fell
+upon the engineer, and if it had not been for the captain, and one or
+two old acquaintances, I should have leathered him upon the spot&mdash;ay,
+if it were to have cost me a thousand dollars; he deserved it well,
+the dishonourable scamp! We were now in Trinity, we had done five
+miles in less than twelve minutes; but Miss Lambton was so angry, and
+the old gentleman so bitter cold and stiff&mdash;a pair of fire-tongs is
+nothing compared to him&mdash;Couldn't be helped, however. Honor before
+every thing."</p>
+
+<p>"But you really were too foolhardy," observed Richards.</p>
+
+<p>"Foolhardy!" repeated Doughby, "foolhardy, when the honour of a ship
+was at stake!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! The honour of a steam-boat!"</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw, do you say, Richards? Well, if I didn't know you to be a
+thoroughbred Virginian, hang me if I should not almost take you for
+one of those wishywashy Creoles. Pshaw, say you, the honour of a
+steam-boat! A steamer, let me tell you, is also a ship, and a big one
+too, and an American one, a thorough American one. It's our ship; we
+invented it, they'd have been long enough in the old country before
+finding such a thing out&mdash;Pshaw, do you say? And if Percy had said
+pshaw upon Lake Erie, or Lawrence on Champlain, or Rogers, or Porter,
+you might say pshaw to every thing&mdash;to the honour of a steamer, a
+ship, a country. But I tell you that the man who says pshaw when his
+ship is beaten in a race, will also say it when it is taken in a
+fight. In short, that sort of pride is emulation, and that emulation
+is the real thing."</p>
+
+<p>"But the life of so many men?"</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, that of the hundred and twenty passengers that we had on
+board the Helen, there were not three besides that leathern old
+Yankee, Mister Lambton, and the women, who would have cared one straw
+if the boiler had burst, provided we had got to Trinity two minutes
+the sooner."</p>
+
+<p>We could not help laughing at this Kentucky bull, but at the same time
+we were compelled to admit the truth of what Doughby meant to say. In
+spite of Uncle Sam's usual phlegm and <i>nonchalance</i>, there are
+occasions when he seems to change his nature; and in the anxiety to
+see his ship first at the goal, to forget what he does not otherwise
+easily lose sight of, namely, wife and child, land and goods; as to
+his own life, it does not weigh a feather in the balance. He becomes a
+perfect madman, setting every thing upon a single cast. And the yearly
+loss of five hundred to a thousand lives, sacrificed in these
+desperate races, does not appear to cure him in any degree of his
+mania.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," continued Doughby, resuming his narrative, "it was as much as
+I could do to get a word from Miss Emily during the rest of the
+voyage. The time went terribly slow, and my patience was clean
+expended when we got to Louisville. We stopped at the Lafayette Hotel,
+and I was in my room before dinner, when the waiter brought me a
+letter from Mister Lambton. The old gentleman had the honour to inform
+me, in accordance with his daughter's wishes, that there did not exist
+sufficient harmony between my character and that of Miss Emily to
+render a union between us desirable. And, under these circumstances,
+he took leave to request of me that I would consider the projected
+marriage as entirely broken off; and, with his and his daughter's best
+wishes for my happiness, he had the honour to be my very humble
+servant. There was a deal more of it, but that was the pith. When I
+had read it, I burst out of my room like mad, either to throttle old
+Lambton or to throw myself at his daughter's feet, I didn't rightly
+know which. But the Yankee had been too cunning for me. He had left
+the hotel with his daughter, and gone off by the Cincinnati steamer. I
+went on board the next that was going, and got to Cincinnati three
+hours after him, but missed him again. He had taken a chaise and
+started for his estate at Dayton, near Yellow Springs. And all I have
+done since is no use. She won't hear of me, and I'm the most unhappy
+fellow alive."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying, he threw his feet upon the table, crossed his arms,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> remained in this position for a couple of minutes, staring
+earnestly at the ceiling. Suddenly he brought his legs down again,
+started up, and gazed through the cabin window.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo!" cried he, "here are your Red River bottoms. Will have a look
+at them&mdash;will go on deck? You may take away, steward. Come, Monshur
+Tonson, come with me, come, my dear little Frenchman! Nous parlons
+hansamble le Fransch."</p>
+
+<p>And thereupon he struck up the favourite western ditty, "Let's go to
+Old Kentuck," seized young De Vergennes by the arm, and dragged him
+through the folding-doors and out upon deck.</p>
+
+<p>"He's not the man to break his heart about a woman," said I to
+Richards.</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly," replied my friend.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> III</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">The Stag Hunt</span>.</h5>
+
+<p>We had sat for some time talking over Doughby's mishaps, when we were
+interrupted by a noise upon deck. Hurras and hellos were resounding
+off on every side and corner of the steamer. We hurried out to see
+what was the matter, and found the cause of the tumult to be a fallow
+deer, that had taken the water some two hundred yards from our
+steamer, and was swimming steadily across from the right to the left
+bank of the river. The yawl had already been lowered, and was pushing
+off from the side with five men in it, amongst whom Doughby of course
+took the lead.</p>
+
+<p>"There he is again," cited Richards. "Of a certainty the man is
+possessed by a devil."</p>
+
+<p>"Hurra, boys! Give way!" shouted Doughby, flourishing a rifle full six
+feet in length. The four oars clipped into the water, and the boat
+flew to the encounter of the deer, who was tranquilly pursuing his
+liquid path.</p>
+
+<p>We were about entering one of those picturesque <i>spreads</i>, or bays of
+the Red River, which perhaps no other stream can boast of in such
+abundance, and on so magnificent a scale. The lofty trees and huge
+masses of foliage of the dense forest that covered the left bank, bent
+forward over the water, the dark green of the cypresses, and the
+silver white of the gigantic cotton-trees, casting a bronze-tinted
+shadow upon the dusky red stream, which at that point is full fifteen
+hundred feet broad; the right bank offering a succession of the most
+luxuriant palmetto grounds, with here and there a bean or tulip tree,
+amongst the branches of which innumerable parroquets were chattering
+and bickering. A pleasant breeze swept across from the palmetto
+fields, scarcely sufficient, however, to ruffle the water, which
+flowed tranquilly along, undisturbed save by the paddle of our
+steamer, that caused the huge black logs and tree-trunks floating upon
+the surface, to knock against each other, and heave up their
+extremities like so many porpoises. The steamer had just entered the
+bay when a boat shot out from under the wood on the left bank, and
+greatly increased the romantic character of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>It was a long Indian canoe made out of the hollowed trunk of a cotton
+tree; a many-tined antler was stuck in the prow, and dried legs and
+haunches of venison lay in the fore part of the boat; towards the
+stern sat a young girl, partially enveloped in a striped blanket, but
+naked from the waist upwards, impelling the boat in the direction of
+the deer by long graceful sweeps of her oar; in front of her was a
+squaw of maturer age, performing a like labour. In the centre of the
+canoe were two children, queer guinea-pig-looking little devils, and
+near these lay a man in all the lazy apathy of a redskin on his return
+from on the hunting ground; but towards the stern stood a splendid
+Antinous-like young savage, leaning in an attitude of graceful
+negligence on his rifle, and evidently waiting an opportunity to get a
+blow or a shot at the stag. As soon as these children of the forest
+caught sight of the steamer and of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> Doughby's boat, they ceased
+rowing, only recommencing when encouraged by some loud hurras, and
+even then visibly taking care to keep as far as possible from the
+fire-ship. It was a picturesque and interesting sight to observe the
+two boats describing a sort of circle on the broad ruddy stream, while
+the steamer rounding to, formed in a manner the base of the operation,
+and cut off the stag's retreat. Presently a shot fired without effect
+from Doughby's boat, drove the beast over towards the canoe. The long
+slender bark darted across the animal's track with the swiftness of an
+arrow, and as it did so, the Indian who was standing up dealt the stag
+a blow that caused it to reel and spin round in the water, and change
+its course for the second time. When I again glanced at the canoe, the
+young Indian had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Here he comes" shouted Doughby, pointing to the deer, which was now
+swimming towards his boat. "Give way, boys! the Indians must learn of
+a Kentucky man how to strike a stag. Give way, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>The noble beast had recovered from the severe blow it had received,
+and had now approached the steamer towards which it cast such a
+supplicating tearful look, that the hearts of the ladies were touched
+with compassion.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr Doughby," cried half a score feminine voices, "spare the poor
+beast! Pray, pray let it go!"</p>
+
+<p>"Spare a stag, ladies! Where did you ever hear of such a thing? Hurra,
+boys!" shouted he, as the boat came up with the deer, and clubbing his
+rifle, he delivered a blow with the but-end that split the stock in
+two, and threw the stunned animal upon the gunwale of the boat. Quick
+as thought, Doughty clutched the antlers with one hand, while with the
+other he reached for the knife which one of his companions held out to
+him. At that moment the deer threw itself on one side with a
+convulsive movement, the boat rocked, Doughby lost his balance, the
+stag, which was now recovering its strength, drew itself violently
+back, and in an instant the Kentuckian was floundering in the water,
+struggling with the deer, to whose horns he held on with the gripe of
+a tiger.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Mister Doughby in the Red River!"</p>
+
+<p>The whole ship was now in an uproar, the ladies screaming, the men
+shouting directions and advice to those in the boat. We began to be
+somewhat anxious as to the result; for although these water hunts are
+by no means uncommon occurrences, they are often dangerous and
+sometimes fatal to the hunter. The deer had been severely stunned and
+hurt, but not killed, by the blow it had received, and it now strove
+fiercely against its powerful opponent, throwing him from side to side
+by violent tossess of its head. Doughby still held on like grim death,
+but his eyes began to roll and stare wildly, his strength was
+evidently diminishing, and he had each moment more difficulty in
+partially controlling the stag's movements, and preventing the furious
+beast from running its antlers into his body. It was in vain that the
+four men in the boat endeavoured to render assistance. Man and beast
+were rolling and twisting about in the river like two water snakes.
+The scene that had at first been interesting had now become painful to
+behold.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire, Parker! Fire, Rolby!" shouted several voices from the steamer
+to the men in the boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Knock the cussed redskin on the head!" was the unintelligible
+rejoinder of one of the latter.</p>
+
+<p>The stag had now got Doughby close to a tree-trunk, against which it
+was making violent efforts to crush him. His life was in imminent
+peril, and a universal cry of horror and alarm burst from the
+spectators. Just then the head of the deer fell on its breast, the
+eyes glazing and the legs flinging out convulsively in the agony of
+death; at the same time, however, Doughby began to sink, and a bright
+streak of blood that rose to the surface of the water, and spread in a
+circle round the combatants, gave reason to fear that the mad
+Kentuckian had received some deadly hurt. At last the men in the boat
+succeeded in getting hold of Doughby and the stag, the former being
+seized by the hair of the head, while his hands still clung to the
+deer's antlers with the desperate grasp of a drowning man. A shout of
+triumph echoed from one end of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> steam-boat to the other, and we
+all felt a sensation of relief proportionate to the painful state of
+suspense in which we had been kept.</p>
+
+<p>Doughby sat for a short space doubled up in the bottom of the boat,
+gazing straight before him with a fixed unconscious sort of look. The
+grating of the boat against the side of the steamer seemed to rouse
+him from his apathy, and he slowly ascended the ladder.</p>
+
+<p>"For heaven's sake, Doughby," cried Richards, as the Kentuckian set
+his foot upon deck, "what demon is it that possesses you, and drives
+you to risk your neck at every turn?"</p>
+
+<p>"The devil take you," retorted Doughby, "and your Red River water to
+boot! Brr, brr! d&mdash;&mdash;d bad water your Red River water, say I! No, no,
+talk to me of Mississippi water.[<a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">5</a>] If I am to be drowned, it sha'n't
+be in the stinking Red River. I've a taste in my mouth as if I had
+swallowed saltpetre and sulphur, with a dash of prussic acid. But tell
+me," cried he to the passengers and sailors by whom he was surrounded,
+"who gave him his settler? The deer, I mean. Who finished him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who?" repeated every body, "why, who but yourself, Mister Doughby?"</p>
+
+<p>"I!" replied Doughby, shaking his head, "I had something else to do
+besides knifing the stag. No, no, I had plenty to think of to keep
+away from the tree-trunk. Besides, I let the knife fall at the very
+moment the beast dragged me out of the boat. But see there, boys!"
+added he, pointing to the deer, which was at this moment hoisted upon
+deck.</p>
+
+<p>The animal had a deep knife wound in the belly, and the tendons of the
+hind legs were cut right across.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the Indian's handiwork," said Doughby.</p>
+
+<p>"What Indian?" cried we all.</p>
+
+<p>"The Indian whom Rolby was going to knock on the head."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought he wanted to chouse us out of the deer," said Rolby; "I saw
+his bacon-face appear for a minute from behind the tree-trunk, and at
+first I took it for a log, but I soon saw it was a redskin. It
+wouldn't have been a great harm if I had sent a bit of lead through
+him. What business has an Injun to meddle, when gentlemen"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"No great harm!" interrupted Doughby impatiently. "The Indian, I can
+tell you&mdash;&mdash;d'ye hear? Ralph Doughby tells you&mdash;&mdash;has more real blood
+in his little finger than ten such leather-chopped fellows as yourself
+in their whole bodies, making all allowance for your white hide and
+your citizenship, neither of which, by the way, are much better than
+they should be. Ten times more, I tell you, and, if you don't believe
+it, I'll let you know it. A fine fellow he is, that redskin. He saw
+that I was at a pinch, and he came to help me when none of my own
+friends were able. And now, see yonder, there he stands in his canoe
+again, just as if he had done nothing but the most natural thing in
+the world. Chouse us out of the deer, say ye; and who had a right to
+hinder him if he had? The beast was bred in his woods as well as ours;
+a fair field and no favour is our motto in old Kentuck. I tell you the
+Indian is a brave redskin, and the stag is his; but I'll buy it of
+him. Hallo, captain! a dozen bottles of rum into the boat! Howard,
+Richards, let me have half a dozen dollars, silver dollars, d'ye hear?
+I'll pay the Indian a visit on board his canoe, and thank him as he
+ought to be thanked."</p>
+
+<p>No sooner said than done. The captain, however unwilling to lose any
+more time, could not resist the impetuosity of the good-natured
+scatterbrain, who sprang, dripping wet as he was, into the boat, a
+bottle in each hand, and a friendly hurra upon his lips. The Indians
+at first seemed alarmed and doubtful as to his intentions; but the
+signs and words of peace and encouragement that were given, and
+shouted to them from all sides, and above all, the sight of the
+bottles, soon removed their fears. In another minute or two we saw
+Dough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>by in their canoe, shaking hands with them, and putting one of
+the bottles to his mouth. A little more, and I believe they would all,
+men, women, and children, have begun the war-dance in the canoe, so
+delighted were they with the magnificent present of the rum and
+dollars. As it was, they shook and mauled Doughby till he was fain to
+jump back into his boat, and escape as well as he could from their
+wild caresses and demonstrative gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>But we have been nearly twelve hours on the water, and the Alexandria
+is a noted fast steamer. Our course has lain for some time between
+banks covered with gigantic forests of live oak, cotton, bean, and
+cypress trees, with here and there a palmetto field, and on the north
+shore an occasional plantation, for the most part a mere log-hut, with
+a strip of tobacco, cotton, or Indian corn. We have seen numerous
+deer, who, on the appearance of our steamer, gallop back into the
+woods&mdash;swans, cranes, geese, and ducks, wild pigeons, turkeys, and
+alligators, are there by thousands. We now enter a broad part of the
+river, and are gliding along in front of a wide clearing, some half
+mile long, and surrounded by colossal evergreen oaks; a snug-looking
+house of greenish-white colour stands in the middle of the plantation,
+with orange gardens&mdash;that are to be&mdash;laid out and enclosed in front of
+it; one enormous live oak, that looks as if it had stood there since
+the flood, spreading its knotty limbs over the eastern side of the
+habitation. The windows on the balconies are open, the Venetian blinds
+drawn up, the sinking sun throws its mellow rays over the whole
+peaceful and pleasant scene. And see there! We are expected: a small
+variegated ball flies up to the top of the lightning conductor, and
+the banner of our Union flutters out, displaying its thirteen stripes
+and twenty-four stars, and the white American eagle, the thunder of
+Jupiter and the symbols of peace in his talons. At the same moment,
+Plato and Tully, two of my negroes, come rushing like demented
+creatures out of the house, one with a stick in his hand, the other
+bearing a pan of hot coals. They are closely pursued by Bangor, who
+seems disposed to dispute Tully's title to the embers. In the struggle
+the coals fly in every direction; of a surety, the dingy rascals will
+burn my house before my eyes. Now comes Philip, a fourth negro, and
+tries to snatch the stick from Plato's hand; but the latter is on his
+guard, and fetches his adversary a wipe over the pate, that snaps the
+stick&mdash;a tolerably thick one, by the way&mdash;in two. Both retreat a short
+distance, and lowering their heads like a couple of angry steers, run
+full tilt against each other, with force that would fracture any
+skulls except African ones. Once, twice, three times&mdash;at the third
+encounter, Plato the sage bites the dust before the hero of Macedon.
+Confound the fellows! My companions are laughing fit to split
+themselves, but I see nothing to laugh at. I shall have them in
+hospital for the next ten days. Tully, however, has picked up the pan
+and the embers, and is rushing towards a flag-staff near the shore,
+from which the Louisianian flag is waving. I see now what they are all
+at. They have brought down the Wasp and the Scorpion from on Menou's
+plantation, two four-pounders so named, which were taken last year on
+board a Porto Rico pirate, and which my father-in-law bought.
+Boum&mdash;boum&mdash;and at the sound the whole black population of the
+plantation comes flocking to the shore, capering and jumping like so
+many opera-dancers, only not quite so gracefully, and shouting
+out&mdash;"Massa come; hurra, massa come! Massa maum bring; hurra, massa!"
+and manifesting a joy that is probably rendered more lively by the
+hopes of an extra ration of rum and salt-fish. And now Monsieur Menou
+and his son hurry down to receive us; the steamer stops, the plank is
+thrown across, and amidst shaking of hands, and farewells, and good
+wishes, our party hurries on shore. Thank heaven! we are home, and
+settled at last.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+<h3>BORODINO.&mdash;AN ODE.</h3>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Borodino">
+<tr><td>
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><span class="smcap">Strophe</span>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Weep for the <i>living</i>! mourn no more</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy children slain on Moskwa's shore,</span><br />
+Cut off from evil! want, and anguish,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And care, for ever brooding and in vain;</span><br />
+No more to be beguiled! no more to languish<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Under the yoke of labour and of pain!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their doom of future joy or woe</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For good or evil done below,</span><br />
+The Judge of all the earth will order rightly!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Flee winding error through the flowery way,</span><br />
+To daily follow truth! to ponder nightly<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On time, and death, and judgment, nearer day by day!</span><br />
+Bewail thy bane, deluded France,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vain-glory, overweening pride,</span><br />
+And harrying earth with eagle glance,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ambition, frantic homicide!</span><br />
+Lament, of all that armed throng<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How few may reach their native land!</span><br />
+By war and tempest to be borne along,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To strew, like leaves, the Scythian strand?</span><br />
+Before Jehovah who can stand?<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His path in evil hour the dragon cross'd!</span><br />
+He casteth forth his ice! at his command<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The deep is frozen!&mdash;all is lost!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: -1em;">For who, great God, is able to abide thy frost?<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><span class="smcap">Epode</span>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Elate of heart, and wild of eye,<br />
+Crested horror hurtles by;<br />
+Myriads, hurrying north and east,<br />
+Gather round the funeral feast!<br />
+From lands remote, beyond the Rhine,<br />
+Running o'er with oil and wine,<br />
+Wide-waving over hill and plain,<br />
+Herbage green, and yellow grain;<br />
+From Touraine's smooth irriguous strand,<br />
+Garden of a fruitful land,<br />
+To thy dominion, haughty Rhone,<br />
+Leaping from thy craggy throne;<br />
+From Alp and Apennine to where<br />
+Gleam the Pyrenees in air;<br />
+From pastoral vales and piny woods,<br />
+Rocks and lakes and mountain-floods,<br />
+The warriors come, in armed might<br />
+Careering, careless of the right!<br />
+Their leader he who sternly bade<br />
+Freedom fall; and glory fade,<br />
+The scourge of nations ripe for ruin,<br />
+Planning oft their own undoing!<br />
+But who in yonder swarming host<br />
+Locust-like from coast to coast,<br />
+Reluctant move, an alien few,<br />
+Sullen, fierce, of sombre hue,<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+Who, forced unhallow'd arms to bear,<br />
+Mutter to the moaning air,<br />
+Whose curses on the welkin cast<br />
+Edge the keen and icy blast!<br />
+Iberia, sorrow bade thee nurse<br />
+Those who now the tyrant curse,<br />
+Whose wrongs for vengeance cry aloud!<br />
+Lo, the coming of a cloud!<br />
+To burst in wrath, and sweep away<br />
+Light as chaff the firm array!<br />
+To rack with pain, or lull to rest<br />
+Both oppressor and oppress'd.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><span class="smcap">Antistrophe</span>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is it the wind from tower to tower</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Low-murmuring at midnight hour?</span><br />
+Athwart the darkness light is stealing,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Portentous, red with unrelenting ire,</span><br />
+Inhuman deeds, and secrets dark revealing!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ye guilty, who may quench the kindled fire!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fall, city of the Czars, to rise</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ennobled by self-sacrifice,</span><br />
+Than tower and temple higher and more holy!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wilful king appointed o'er mankind</span><br />
+To plague the lofty heart, and prove the lowly,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is fled!&mdash;Avenger, mount the chariot of the wind!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Be thine, to guide the rapid scythe,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To blind with snow the frozen sun,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Against th' invader doomed to writhe,</span><br />
+To rouse the Tartar, Russ, and Hun!<br />
+Bid terror to the battle ride!<br />
+Indignant honour, burning shame,<br />
+Revenge, and hate, and patriotic pride!<br />
+But not the quick unerring aim<br />
+Of volley'd thunder winged with flame,<br />
+Nor famine keener than the bird of prey,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor death&mdash;avail the hard of heart to tame!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Blow wind, and pierce the dire array,</span><br />
+Flung, drifted by thy breath, athwart the frozen way!<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;"><span class="smcap">Epode</span>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before the blast as flakes of snow</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drive blindly, reeling to and fro,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or down the river black and deep</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Melt&mdash;so the mighty sink to sleep!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like Asshur, never more to boast!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or Pharaoh, sunk with all his host!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So perish who would trample down</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The rights of freedom, for renown!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So fall, who born and nurtured free</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Adore the proud on bended knee!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Roll, Beresina, 'neath the bridge</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of death! rise Belgium's fatal ridge!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rise, lonely rock in a wide ocean,</span><br />
+To curb each haughty mad emotion!<br />
+To prove, while force and genius fail,<br />
+That truth is great, and will prevail!<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The hour is coming&mdash;seize the hour!</span><br />
+Divide the spoil, the prey devour!<br />
+Howl o'er the dead and dying, cry<br />
+All ye that raven earth and sky!<br />
+With beak and talon rend the prey,<br />
+Track carnage on her gory way,<br />
+To chide o'er many a gleamy bone<br />
+The moon, or with the wind to moan!<br />
+Benumb'd with cold, by torture wrung,<br />
+To winter leave the famine-clung,<br />
+O thou for whom they toil and bleed,<br />
+Deserted in their utmost need!<br />
+Hear, hear them faithful unto death<br />
+Invoke thee with the fleeting breath,<br />
+And feel (for human still thou art)<br />
+Ruth touch that adamantine heart!</span><br />
+Survive the storm and battle-shock,<br />
+To linger on th' Atlantic rock!<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From ghastly dream, from death-like trance</span><br />
+Awake to woe, devoted France!<br />
+To care and trouble, toil and pain,<br />
+Till glory be acknowledged vain,<br />
+And martial pomp a mere parade,<br />
+And war, the bravo's bloody trade!<br />
+A beacon o'er the tide of time<br />
+Be thou, to point the wreck of crime!<br />
+The spoiler spoil'd, from empire hurl'd,<br />
+The dread and pity of the world!<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O then, by tribulation tried,</span><br />
+Abjuring envy, hate, and pride,<br />
+Warn'd of the dying hour foretold<br />
+Of earth and heaven together roll'd,<br />
+Revering each prophetic sign<br />
+Of judgment and of love divine,<br />
+Bow down, and hide thee in the dust,<br />
+And own the retribution just;<br />
+So may contrition, prayer, and praise,<br />
+Preserve thee in the latter days!<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 15em;"><span class="smcap">E. Peel</span>.</span></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+<h3>A RAMBLE IN MONTENEGRO.</h3>
+
+<p>Few nations of Europe have been less known than the Montenegrians, and
+the name even of their country is seldom found on maps.[<a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">6</a>] Surrounded
+by great empires, they have always preserved the independence of their
+rugged mountains, and have even succeeded in wresting several rich
+plains from the sway of Turkey. With this power hostilities seldom
+cease; but such is the system with which her resources are managed,
+that while the Montenegrians are at peace with one pasha, they are
+enabled to concentrate their force against another&mdash;and all the while
+the Sublime Porte does not condescend to interfere. Not many years
+ago, they possessed the reputation of being a horde of robbers; and,
+in all probability, the pilgrim who ventured among them would have
+returned, if at all, as shirtless as themselves. But the breath of the
+spirit of the age, though faintly wafted to their mountains, has
+softened something of their character, without destroying in the least
+their independence or nationality. Bold, hardy, and free, ready and
+eager for the foray and the fray, a stranger is now as safe among them
+as in any part of her Majesty's kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Whoever wishes to make the acquaintance of this primitive people, will
+do well to embark on board the Austrian Lloyd's Company's steamer from
+Trieste to Cattaro. They will be well accommodated, at reasonable
+charges, and have an opportunity of seeing the principal towns of
+Dalmatia, a country little frequented by travellers. Such was the case
+with ourselves, (an English lady and gentleman,) who quitted Trieste
+on the 5th of November 1843. The voyage commenced pleasantly, and we
+had the good-luck to have the ladies' cabin to ourselves. The captain
+was a very gentlemanlike person, the steward attentive, and the
+passengers full of politeness. Zara, the capital of Dalmatia, where we
+stopped a day and a night, is a walled town of moderate extent, said
+to contain 8000 inhabitants. It possesses some antiquities. Over the
+gates of this, and all other of the Dalmatian seaports, the Lions of
+Saint Mark yet remain. It is best known for the excellence of its
+<i>rosoglio</i>. The next town we arrived at was Sebenico, now much
+decayed, and Spalatro, the most interesting of all, where the badness
+of the weather, during the short time we stayed, prevented our landing
+to see the extensive Roman remains. After anchoring off Curzola for a
+night, we came to Ragusa, where we stopped two days. At Zara and
+Sebenico we had <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'opportunites'">opportunities</ins> of seeing the Morlaccian race. These are
+the rural inhabitants of Dalmatia, speaking a Sclavonic dialect, while
+in the towns they pride themselves on their Venetian origin and
+language. Amongst these peasants were the noblest specimens of the
+human kind I have ever seen. Of stature almost gigantic, and of the
+amplest development of chest, their symmetry of limb and elasticity of
+step would have called forth notice in a Scottish Highlander. Nor
+could a somewhat manifest omission to cares of the toilet disguise
+complexion and features almost faultless, and in which an expression
+of frankness and good-nature left one nothing to fear from their armed
+numbers. I speak not of a few among a crowd, but of nearly all I saw.
+It was from amongst these that the French, during their occupation,
+chose their finest grenadiers; but at present, in consequence of the
+scantiness of the population, the humanity of the Austrian government
+has suspended all conscription. Still it is possible, that, in the
+hour of danger, Austria might profit more from the devoted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>loyalty of
+this armed and stalwart peasantry, than if her ranks were filled with
+its forced recruits. Their dress consists of a coarse brown jacket,
+and a waistcoat of red cloth, both ornamented on the edges, and made
+to sit close on the shoulders, without any collar, and which
+advantageously display their well put on head and neck. They wear a
+small red skull-cap, round at top; but, when married, they usually
+surround this with a white turban. Their pantaloons are of blue, and
+fit close from the knee to the ankle, and below they wear the
+<i>opunka</i>&mdash;a species of sandal, made of sheepskin, and bound with
+thongs, which, as may be seen from their elastic step and upright
+carriage, are well fitted to their country; round their waist is a red
+sash, and in front a leather belt, in which is placed a yataghan and a
+smaller knife, and exhibiting usually the handsome pommels of silver
+or brass-mounted pistols. Over all is a long brown cloak, open in
+front, and fastening over the chest, forming a dress which, with their
+free and martial bearing, gives them the appearance of ready-made
+soldiers. The women are, comparatively, inferior to the men; but their
+countenances are cheerful, and a white napkin gracefully put on the
+head, had a very classical appearance. For the rest, they wore a
+coarse shirt&mdash;over that a coarser, without arms, neither coming much
+below the knee&mdash;a party-coloured apron and stockings, with opunkas,
+like the men. Near Zara is a small colony of Albanians, who still
+retain their national manners and dress, though settled time out of
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>Ragusa&mdash;of old a republic, with its doge and senate&mdash;is a city whose
+glory has departed. This little state&mdash;consisting of the town, the
+promontory of Sabioncello, the island of Melida, with a few smaller
+ones&mdash;numbering about forty thousand inhabitants, had never been
+subject by Venice, and was governed on the most aristocratic
+principles. At the time of the late war, the inhabitants of the city
+owned about four hundred large vessels&mdash;and observing the profiting by
+neutrality, they traded every where, and acquired great wealth. But
+they were not destined to escape the storm which overthrew so many
+mightier states. In 1809 they became compulsory allies of the French.
+Their nominal independence lasted about two years longer. During the
+time the French occupied it, the city was attacked by the combined
+forces of the Russians and Montenegrians; the former by sea, while the
+latter conducted the operations on land. Luckily they failed to take
+it; but they burned and destroyed, without exception, every one of the
+numerous villas by which it was surrounded. Since the loss of her
+independence, the trade of Ragusa has ceased, and her wealth has
+departed; while many of her once haughty nobility have no other
+subsistence than a scanty pension, which the bounty of the government
+affords them. The town is interesting, and some of its buildings
+ancient and peculiar, though hardly to be called handsome&mdash;the scale
+being small. Of the country houses desolated by the Montenegrians, not
+one in twenty has been repaired; and they remain roofless and
+blackened, a lasting memorial of the ferocity of that people. The
+neighbourhood is beautiful, and appears more so after the stony
+desolation which the rest of Dalmatia exhibits. Though the houses
+still remain in ruins, the gardens continue to be cultivated. Olives,
+vines, figs, and carruba trees grow in them, and the tops of the hills
+are covered with stone pines and delightful evergreens, of heaths,
+junipers, cypress, and other plants, which at home we coax to grow in
+our greenhouses.</p>
+
+<p>Quitting Ragusa, after having been once driven back by the badness of
+the weather, we at length entered the Bocca of Cattaro, after a
+passage of about nine hours. Both in its general and immediate
+position, few spots can be imagined so cut off from the rest of the
+world as Cattaro. Standing close on the sea, with stupendous mountains
+overhanging it on each side, it is deprived even of the light of the
+sun for the greater part of the day; and, towards the end of
+November&mdash;this is no boon. By land the Dalmatian coast-road (the only
+one, I believe, in the country) passes through it, but it would prove
+indifferent, I should think, to any but the pedestrian; and there is
+also the mountain-path, of three hours' ascent,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> which leads into
+Montenegro, and issues up from the gates of the town in a zigzag form,
+till it appears lost in the clouds. Any one wishing to quit Cattaro,
+has indeed, like the country waiter in England, but "three desperate
+alternatives." He must wait for the next steamer, a whole month if in
+winter, and return the way he came. Or he may attempt to pass through
+Albania to Greece or the islands, which would in all likelihood prove
+the last attempt he would ever make. Or he may hire one of the country
+<i>trabacolos</i> to take him where he likes. They are neither fast in
+their sailing nor luxurious in their accommodation&mdash;the price being
+any thing but cheap. In one thing the traveller has no difficulty,
+which is to discover the first hotel, as their number is strictly
+limited. Consequently in about half an hour, during which the steamer
+had taken her departure, we found ourselves the inmates of the
+principal <i>salon</i> in the Locanda della Corona. It is ever a comfort,
+when expectation is not at its highest, to find things better; and
+happy the mind that seeks it!</p>
+
+<p>The house was not very dirty, the landlady was full of kindness, and
+not destitute of good looks. After her first paroxysms of welcome and
+surprise had passed, then succeeded admiration, then a general
+presentation to all friends and relations of the family that could be
+summoned on a short notice, with many fervent blessings and prayers
+for our welfare, and at length, which pleased us as much as any thing,
+a very eatable dinner. During that day, and part of the ensuing week,
+I improved my acquaintance with Cattaro&mdash;an acquaintance which, before
+final separation, became very intimate indeed. It contains several
+small squares or places, with some churches and other public
+buildings. There is a respectable <i>caf&eacute;</i>, which is frequented by the
+officers of the garrison, and on the whole it is rather a neat little
+town. The population may be about three thousand. It is fortified,
+having two gates to the land and one to the sea. Perched above, at a
+great height, is the castle, said to be of considerable strength. In
+the late war Cattaro was taken from the French by Sir William Hoste,
+Bart., and afterwards garrisoned by the <i>Vladika</i> of Montenegro, since
+which time an Englishman has hardly been seen by the people within
+their gates. Consequently their ideas of robbing the stranger are
+faint and barbarous; here, as throughout Dalmatia, should you give a
+man money, and the sum be not even more than twice the value of the
+obligation, the poor ignoramus is delighted, and thanks and blesses
+you most fervently. The climate of Cattaro is not considered healthy.
+The inhabitants die of consumption in the winter, and fever in the
+summer, and they generally have a sickly appearance. There are smart
+silversmith shops, and many ornaments are wrought with much neatness.
+There are several also devoted to the sale of arms, as the
+Montenegrians here buy and repair the principal weapons they use.
+Pistols, guns, and yataghans are mounted in silver and
+mother-of-pearl, coral and other stones, with skill and taste. The
+population are as remote in appearance from that of any town in
+western Europe, as in the most primitive part of the East. The
+town's-people wear a black jacket of cloth or velvet, with silver
+basket buttons, a small cap, and wide drawers of the same cloth, with
+black stockings or high boots, and a red sash. The costumes of some of
+the villages along the shores of the Bocca are very pretty. The women
+from Dulcinea wear a body petticoat and jacket of scarlet, with silver
+buttons and buckles, and a white covering tastefully enfolding the
+head and shoulders. The peasantry to the south wear the Montenegrian
+dress; the poorer ones, in extreme scantiness. These profess, like
+that people, the tenets of the Greek church, and in appearance and
+dialect do not differ from them. A bolder look, however, and an air of
+independence, usually mark the Montenegrian. Between Cattaro and
+Montenegro there is no quarantine or restriction of intercourse.
+Without the latter the former would cease to exist&mdash;without the former
+life would be burdensome in Montenegro. Three times a-week a bazar is
+held outside each of the land gates, to which the Montenegrians
+descend, themselves loaded with arms and independence, and their women
+and mules with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> richest products of their country. Of these,
+mutton hams of peculiar excellence, potatoes that cannot be imitated
+in these parts, salt fish from the lake of Scutari, (to be caught, I
+fear, no more,) a root which looks yellow, and dyes to match, with
+hides, poultry, and pigs, form the principal. One of the chief
+articles which they seek is salt, with which some of the above
+luxuries are compounded. This being a government monopoly, is sold at
+the office in the town, and an animated scene takes place on its
+opening, each striving to be served first, and, as a matter of course,
+all speaking at once.</p>
+
+<p>Having in a few days almost exhausted the varieties of Cattaro, and
+the weather assuming a more favourable aspect, it became time to
+execute our intended journey up the mountain. Times were stirring in
+Montenegro. The nation was at war with two pashas, and the Vladika had
+taken the field in person. Rumours were numerous; we could not have
+come at a better time, and our trip promised to be one of interest.
+His highness's postmaster, a gigantic warrior,[<a name="f7.1" id="f7.1" href="#f7">7</a>] waited on us to
+furnish mules and guides. Cesarea Petrarca, gentleman, of Cattaro,
+hairdresser, auctioneer, and appraiser, ex-courier, formerly <i>chef de
+cuisine</i> to the Vladika&mdash;an "<i>homme capable</i>," as he not unaptly
+styled himself, attended us to cook and interpret; and we started for
+Cettigna on the 17th of November, about nine o'clock. I may here say a
+few words concerning the state of politics then existing in
+Montenegro. For the last half century or more, under the auspices of
+the late revered bishop, so highly sainted in soul,[<a name="f8.1" id="f8.1" href="#f8">8</a>] and so
+beautifully preserved in body, the Montenegrians, backed secretly by
+an influential power in the north, have been pursuing a system of
+territorial encroachment as well as internal improvement. Anciently
+their domain consisted of but a range of gloomy and barren rocks,
+which would alike oppose the footsteps and extinguish the hopes of the
+invader; since which various fertile <i>pianuras</i> have been gained on
+the side of Herzigovina and Bosnia. In 1781 Kara Mahmoot, hereditary
+bey of Scutari, marched with a great army into Montenegro. Advancing
+towards Cettigna, he was attacked in a narrow defile by the Vladika.
+This was a great day for Montenegro. The Albanians were utterly
+routed, and Black Mahmoot, being taken prisoner, surrendered his glory
+and his head to his priestly conqueror, and it remains there among the
+trophies of the Episcopal dwelling. The present Vladika is not
+unworthy of his martial uncle. He is truly the flower of the house of
+Petrowitch. On his first arrival from St Petersburg to assume the
+government, his appearance was that of a Frank[<a name="f9.1" id="f9.1" href="#f9">9</a>] gentleman, and his
+habits those of a priest; but he discovered before long that the dress
+of his native mountains better became his manly form, while the
+troubles in which his state was so constantly engaged, soon made him
+exchange the crosier for the sword, and become as ardent a warrior as
+his predecessor. Ever since the beginning of the summer, war had been
+waged with Osman Pasha of Mostar, concerning a disputed territory. On
+one occasion the opposed forces were in sight for a week. The
+Montenegrians consisted of seven thousand foot&mdash;the Turks (I write
+according to my information) of forty thousand horse. (!) Every day
+they fought, sometimes for two, sometimes four hours and upwards, as
+fancy dictated. About fifty persons had been more or less injured in
+this pastime, but their ardour was rather increasing than diminishing,
+when the pasha of Scutari, without notice or warning, seized on the
+islands of Vranina and Lessandro, at the head of the lake of Scutari.
+The Montenegrians had there a post of about twenty men, but they were
+overpowered, several killed, and the rest sent captive to Scutari.
+Not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> satisfied with this, he fortified Lessandro in such a manner that
+no Montenegrian could fish in the lake with any kind of pleasure or
+comfort. This was a vital blow. Visions of the market of Cattaro rose
+before the eyes of the nation. Peace with Osman Pasha was concluded at
+any sacrifice, and the Vladika instantly hastened to concentrate his
+energies toward the recovery of the lost islands.</p>
+
+<p>Our party consisted of ourselves and two mules, one being for the
+luggage&mdash;Cesarea Petrarca, in the full pride of office, and armed for
+our protection with a very small sword and a very small gun&mdash;a woman
+who had charge of the mules&mdash;and Spiro Martinowitch, an old and
+respectable Montenegrian, with Milo his son, to act as guides. We
+began the ascent about ten o'clock. Close outside the walls was
+pointed out a village, the residence of a race of valiant butchers,
+who have ever been at feud with the Montenegrians, by whom their
+numbers have been much reduced. A tale was related of three having
+defended themselves against four hundred of the enemy. After following
+the steep but otherwise good road for about two hours, we arrived at a
+stone with different species of eagles on two sides,[<a name="f10.1" id="f10.1" href="#f10">10</a>] which marks
+the boundary of the respective territories. The road instantly
+degenerates into an indifferent mule-track. It took another hour to
+gain the principal ascent, then, pursuing our way along the high land,
+we reached a small hamlet, where we stopped a few minutes to comfort
+ourselves with what could be procured. The path from hence to Cettigna
+passes over a country which, at any season, must appear barren and
+inhospitable. The peaks of the highest mountains in Montenegro rise
+immediately above it. The ground was now covered with about an inch of
+snow, and the air extremely cold. A few stunted bushes of beech
+underwood, which serves for fuel, seemed to be the only vegetation.
+Every thing else, grey rocks, sharp and rugged, to the smallest
+fragment. We passed on our way the village of Negusi, the paternal
+seat of the family of Petrowitch. Here the present Vladika was born,
+in a mansion which was pointed out to us. It is a long-shaped hut,
+built of loose stones, without windows or upper story. A somewhat
+better dwelling is the property of the bishop's uncle, who governs the
+village and adjacent district. Passing on by the hamlets of Bayitzi
+and Donikrai, we arrived at the Episcopal residence about half-past
+five in the evening, and immediately took up our quarters in the first
+hotel. I will not say that the decorations of the chief apartment were
+in the highest style of magnificence; but the bed was clean, and to
+find any thing clean in these parts may be considered a victory
+gained. Our hostess was from Cattaro, the seat of every refinement to
+the ideas of a Montenegrian; and our host was a kind civil man,
+speaking both French and Italian, and had been formerly engaged in the
+great war. For the present he found it convenient to remain in
+Montenegro, having been lately concerned in an "unfortunate affair"
+near Budua, where certain tenements were harried and burned. Cattaro,
+therefore, and its delights, were denied him for the present; but it
+was hoped that the temporary bad odour would soon pass away. The
+village was nearly deserted; few remained that night in Cettigna but
+ancient men. The Vladika was on and away. He had departed that
+morning, his brother remaining to take charge of the place. To-morrow
+the assault of the fortress was to commence, or, some said, it had
+already begun. We felt we had arrived at a good moment, and were
+prepared to hasten in the morning to the scene of action, thirsting
+with excitement. It was thought not unlikely that a battle might take
+place. The evening was cold and wet, and we therefore took up our
+position over the kitchen fire. In these regions this is placed in the
+middle of the room, and the smoke gets out how it can, or not at all.
+A peculiar sensation in the eyes will present itself to the mind as
+the result of such an arrangement. The kitchen, however, besides being
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>the warmest, was by far the gayest place. Here we watched our dinner
+cooked, and ate it afterwards; heard of wars and rumours of wars;
+listened to heroic ballads, chanted by a warrior, and accompanied by a
+species of one-stringed fiddle; and made the acquaintance of two very
+fashionable young men. One was the bishop's nephew, a handsome lad
+about seventeen, who was, on account of his youth, very shy and
+modest, and acted as <i>cavaliero servente</i> to the kitchen-maid. The
+other was a remarkably good-looking and well-dressed young man, whom I
+had observed on entering the place, and set down to be somebody. He
+was, alas! but a tailor from Bosnia, who had come on a speculation to
+Cettigna. A barren profession his, where fashions remain the same
+summer and winter, and a suit lasts till it drops off. He was an
+accomplished musician, as well, on the one-stringed instrument;
+boasted of a white pocket-handkerchief, and his Italian, added to our
+Servian, made up about twelve words in common; so that the evening
+passed very sociably, and we retired to rest full of hope for the
+morrow. But when that morrow came, one melancholy prospect of rain and
+mist presented itself. The white clouds hung on the mountain-tops
+immediately above. Not a breath of wind was stirring, and the rain
+descended in torrents. There seemed not a chance of its clearing, nor
+did it during the whole day. It was not, therefore, considered prudent
+to proceed, where no bed was to be found, and where the chance of even
+shelter was any thing but certain. Add to which, my companion in arms
+was taken with a violent cold; so we felt obliged to restrain our
+military ardour for one day, and proceeded to seek such recreation as
+the metropolis afforded. Cettigna, the seat of the government of
+Montenegro, and residence of the Vladika, is yet a city of no great
+magnitude. It is situated prettily enough on a little plain, around
+which the rocky summits of the mountains rise in the form of an
+amphitheatre; not to any great height, however&mdash;the elevation of the
+plain itself being very great. The most ancient building, indeed the
+only one which seems not to have been erected within these few years,
+is the monastery. This was till very lately the residence of the
+Vladika and his predecessors, and it was here the King of Saxony
+lodged when he visited Montenegro in 1836.[<a name="f11.1" id="f11.1" href="#f11">11</a>] It is situated on the
+side of the rocks which bound the plain, and consists of several
+buildings of different periods joined together. The oldest has two
+rows of arched passages, or cloisters, in front, one above the other.
+Behind the convent, a wall runs up the hill, and encloses a small
+circuit of rocky ground. The whole is in a very uncertain state of
+repair. On the summit of a small rock immediately above, is a round
+tower, built apparently for ornament at no very ancient date, but
+never finished or roofed. It does not owe its decorations to the hand
+of the architect. They are of a rarer kind. From the ends of poles
+fastened into the top of the wall, two or three dozen heads, in all
+stages of decay, overlook the residence of a Christian bishop. These
+are Turks or Albanians who have fallen in different encounters, or
+possibly in cold blood, as the Montenegrians never spare the life of a
+prisoner. It was with somewhat doubtful feelings that I contemplated
+these trophies. Around, the earth was strewed with skulls and other
+relics of humanity. It was said that no head had been put up for
+nearly two years. Certain it is, that the Lord Vladika did <i>not</i> cause
+to be placed there the heads of eighteen Turkish commissioners, who,
+in the August previous, entered Montenegro to discuss a boundary
+question. But why should I tell tales? I was hospitably received, and
+treated, me and mine, with civility and kindness, not only by the
+Vladika, but by every individual I met, and returned with my head
+undisturbed by the trip. Some of the countenances still bore traces of
+good looks, though withered by the sun and storm of years. It was a
+severe test for beauty; but the head <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>of one young man certainly stood
+the trial. Fine features, of a cast frequently seen towards the north
+of Albania, and a set of the best teeth, (this is very general,)
+showed that he might have once been more prosperous in love than he
+proved to be in war. I thought of a relic, and took up a skull, the
+best I could find, but it was full of red earth, and seemed damp and
+unpleasant; so I put it down again. I next discovered a beautiful
+tooth; this would have surpassed the former in elegance and
+convenience, but I fancied it not either, and came away, trusting to
+my mind for a remembrance of the spot. From hence I made a sketch of
+the present residence of the bishop, the second among the remarkable
+edifices of Cettigna and its environs. It was built within these five
+years, under the auspices of no less than my trusty attendant
+Petrarca. The style is not, strictly speaking, imposing. Perhaps this
+arose from suggestions of economy, or possibly from the mind of the
+architect being at that moment unprepared with any other. Simplicity
+in design and execution characterize it throughout. It consists of a
+long single building of one low story, containing two rows of about
+twenty windows on each side. There is a door in the middle, and at
+each end a small wing placed crosswise, and a very little higher than
+the rest, containing a window above and a door below. Both before and
+behind, a large court is enclosed by a low wall of loose stones, with
+little turrets at the corners, and two doorways in the principal. In
+the front court are some old brass and iron cannon, lying
+dismounted&mdash;trophies of Turkish war. Behind is an attempted kitchen
+garden. The remainder of Cettigna is small, hardly worth
+mentioning&mdash;six or seven houses with an upper floor, and about twice
+as many ordinary huts. This forms the metropolis of Montenegro. But
+small as it is, I doubt if there be a bigger village in the country,
+the population, though sufficiently numerous, dwelling in small
+scattered hamlets. The better houses act as hostelries when called on,
+which may be the case when Parliament is sitting; but apart from the
+bishop's officials and retainers, the place does not probably contain
+a hundred souls. It being now noon, and the rain unabated, we
+determined to see all the sights of the city. His highness's residence
+was first visited. It contains the Chamber of Deputies, a printing
+establishment, and various apartments for the accommodation of friends
+and relatives. Entering one of these we found the Vladika's brother,
+whom I have previously alluded to, and had the honour of a
+presentation. He is a very ordinary-looking personage; and, as the
+powers of language were wanting to express our feelings, we soon took
+leave. The bishop's rooms for public and private reception, consist of
+a billiard-room no bigger than is necessary for the due performance of
+the game, at which he is a great adept, a small anteroom and bedroom.
+His valet and chamberlain, a well-dressed Montenegrian, did the
+honours. In the billiard-room the walls are hung with arms, though
+some of these were now absent on service. I observed some fine Turkish
+swords, some of an ancient date, presents to different Vladikas; some
+Albanian daggers, straight, with a triangular blade, resembling the
+ancient Venetian <i>misericordes</i>; and a handsomely mounted and antique
+Servian sword, the blade with the wolf-mark, so well known in the
+Highlands and other parts of Europe. There were some handsome
+fire-arms; and, among others, a splendid pipe lately presented by
+Osman Pasha of Mostar. In the anteroom I remarked with pleasure a
+small three-legged stand, with a basin and towel; and I have heard
+that other contrivances for the purification of the Episcopal person
+are not wanting, though no such met my eye. In the bedroom, where the
+odour of tobacco still remained unmitigated, was a cabinet, which,
+when opened, displayed objects well worthy the attention of the next
+pasha who may visit Cettigna. Russian orders and snuff-boxes
+uncountable, set in the choicest brilliants; presents from the
+Emperors of Austria of no mean value; a remembrance or two of the King
+of Saxony, &amp;c. &amp;c. All these were opened by the <i>cameriere</i> to our
+free inspection; but not for this, nor the trouble we afterwards gave
+him when exhibiting the sacer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>dotal robes, keeping him above half the
+day, would he accept the smallest remuneration. This completed the
+public rooms, (his highness is reported on occasions to give grand
+entertainments, but the whereabouts was not manifest,) and we
+proceeded to the ancient convent. This, formerly the Episcopal
+dwelling, is still the residence of the chief officials attached to
+the Vladika. The first among these is the vicar&mdash;(his other avocations
+having only permitted the Vladika to officiate on two occasions)&mdash;"no
+baron or squire or knight of the shire," &amp;c. Truly on this occasion
+the holy father had not been unmindful of himself; and, considering
+the early hour and dreary state of the weather; was as jovial as the
+heart could desire. A peculiar leer and frequent ebullitions of
+laughter, from mysterious causes, showed the frame of mind he was in.
+After coffee, and a glass of aniseed brandy, we viewed his priestly
+robes, which were of cloth of gold and very handsome. We then
+proceeded to make the acquaintance of the other officials, going the
+round of the convent. We were most cordially received; indeed, we
+appeared to be a godsend to these poor people. There was a Dalmatian
+schoolmaster, a very intelligent young man, who superintended the
+branch of national education; his highness's secretary, an Italian;
+and a woman from Cattaro, the wife of another now absent at the camp,
+and the only example of female aristocracy in Montenegro. At the
+apartment of each of the inmates, coffee, invariably excellent, and
+glasses of brandy, were handed round. These the holy personage in our
+company always emptied to the uttermost, and then would romp and
+wrestle with the schoolmaster, and perform all kinds of frolics. He
+was a Hungarian by birth. When our German or his Italian respectively
+failed, then Latin assisted our communications; and, what with the wet
+weather and the coffee, we all became very sociable and chatty. After
+an hour or two so spent, we took our way to the chapel. It is very
+small; not capable, I should say, of accommodating above twenty or
+thirty persons. There, embalmed, are the remains of the late Vladika.
+The vicar removed the lid of the coffin, and he there appeared attired
+in full canonicals. His face, however, was hidden, and the covering
+was not removed. The limbs appeared to be much shrunk. The holy man
+took the hand of the deceased, and, kissing it with the most solemn
+devotion, burst into a wild laugh, and closed the lid. A small trifle
+<i>pro salute anim&aelig;</i> was expected in a box adjoining it. We next went to
+the robe-room, passing along a series of mouldy and rat-eaten floors
+to a small room, such as might be found in a dilapidated stable-loft;
+there, from old dingy boxes, were drawn forth such garments as created
+astonishment&mdash;the richest damask and cloth of gold of all
+colours&mdash;their weight enormous&mdash;so massive that they would almost
+stand alone. I have never seen any thing so splendid; and the effect
+of such upon the fine form of the Vladika must be worth beholding. In
+another chest were deposited the crowns of different Vladikas. They
+are of a shape resembling the ancient Russian diadem, being not of the
+form of any kind of coronet, but a cap all covered or entire, globular
+at top, and diminishing towards where they fit the head. Perhaps there
+were half a dozen or more. They were richly ornamented with precious
+stones&mdash;the present Vladika's the most so. I understand they are
+presents from St Petersburg. By nine next morning the rain had
+somewhat cleared, and the weather was mild and promising. We started,
+therefore, hoping that night to reach the quarters of the Vladika,
+though no one could speak positively to the place. We made some
+enquiries as to the chance of finding shelter, as the nights were
+singularly cold; but it was of course apparent that time alone could
+decide. None of our friends from the monastery, who had been so
+warlike the day before, made their appearance; so we started without
+any addition to our party. The road was nearly all on the descent, and
+usually so stony and rough as to make riding the mule a matter of
+difficulty. We passed by Dobro Skorsello, one of the richest communes
+of Montenegro; there figs, vines, and olives are grown: a wild species
+of mulberry occurs, and large trees of it frequently appeared before a
+hut or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> hamlet. These are wide-spreading and ancient, but not tall.
+This district furnishes seven thousand fighting men. Here we met the
+wife of one of the principal senators among a troop of females with
+bundles of wood upon their head. We now had the first intelligence
+from the camp. Descending into a little plain we met about two hundred
+men returning to celebrate a village f&ecirc;te, as their services were not
+just then required. They passed in single file; wild, active-looking
+fellows they certainly were. In about half an hour after, we
+encountered forty or fifty others. These were peculiarly warm in their
+friendship, and slapped me so hard on the back that it required my
+utmost force to return the compliment with any thing like cordiality.
+They took it into their heads that I was a certain long-expected
+bombardier who was to direct their artillery against Lessandro, and
+they loaded me with compliments and good wishes. I almost, at the
+moment, regretted my want of knowledge in the art. About one o'clock
+we descended upon the Nariako river, then a rapid clear green stream,
+which conducts the torrents of the upper mountains to the lake of
+Scutari; and, in another hour, reached the village of that name, which
+is known also by the Italian one of Fiumara. We trusted here to
+procuring a boat which would convey us the remainder of the journey;
+but the natives of this free country are seldom in a hurry, and in
+fact it was necessary that we should be made popular idols for a
+certain space; nor had we the means of keeping each other in
+countenance. I was hurried off, accompanied by Petrarca, to the house
+of the captain of the district, a senator, I understood, and eminently
+brave; while my unfortunate companion, without any one to help, was
+taken possession of by a lady of rank, a Cattarese by birth, but who
+had nearly forgotten her native tongue, and in a short time was
+surrounded by all the females and olive branches of the place. The
+usual brandy, with coffee and pipes, was served to our party. The
+houses, or little dirty huts rather, have in front a small balcony
+covered at top, and raised about four or five feet from the ground;
+here Spiro, Petrarca, and myself were seated, with my host and several
+others. While the lady of the house brought in the pipes and
+refreshments, I made some very sensible observations, which Petrarca
+clothed in Servian, and the replies seemed in every way equal;
+notwithstanding, in about an hour the liveliness of the scene began
+somewhat to wear off, and I took the first opportunity of hastening to
+rescue the other sufferer. Here I discovered the object of public
+attention seated on a bench with her host and hostess, one on each
+knee as it were, and the room thronged with spectators; women and
+children were squatted or perched on every conceivable spot. The
+harmony of the party had, however, undergone for a moment a trifling
+disorder; for, while all the rest had been full of compliment and
+courtesy, one elderly lady had thought proper to express herself in a
+manner contradictory to the general feeling, and in the strongest
+terms, going even the length of shaking her fist at the occupant of
+the post of honour. She was, however, bundled out most
+unceremoniously, neck and crop, as the phrase is. After further
+delays, and declining a most uninviting dormitory, a boat was got
+ready; four warriors were in her, and we departed amid the cheers of
+the population and a promiscuous discharge of fire-arms. This was
+warmly responded to by our party; nor did I much regret when these
+demonstrations had ceased, as a Montenegrian considers it quite
+etiquette to discharge his heavy-loaded piece any where in the
+immediate vicinity of the head, so long as the muzzle just clears the
+honoured individual. In a few minutes we were gliding down the
+beautiful stream. The absence of all wild animals is peculiarly
+observable in the mountains. A woodcock or red-legged partridge are
+occasionally seen; but few quadrupeds are met with, and the larger and
+fiercer kinds are rarely known to occur. This deficiency, however, in
+the general zoology, is amply compensated by the birds which frequent
+the Fiumara river. As we proceeded, muffled up in the bottom of the
+boat, for it was very cold, the fitful exertions of our warlike crew
+disturbed quantities of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> aquatic birds. The river widened greatly, the
+mountain banks disappearing, till at length the shores became obscure
+in the distance, and thus it imperceptibly enters and forms the lake
+of Scutari. Cormorants and ducks passed over in flocks; noble herons
+got up screaming on every side. One of these was the milk-white
+aigrette; superior in size to the common heron. The kingfishers had a
+beautiful appearance. I never saw this bird elsewhere in such
+multitudes. I did not request any of my crew to try their skill, as I
+had had enough of firing for the time being, nor did I take a fancy to
+do so myself. The large bore and light metal of their arms, added to
+the weight of the charge, spoke of a recoil any thing but pleasing,
+and which I hear usually takes place. Next day, however, I asked the
+captain of the boat to show me a shot; he took aim at a diver which
+kept appearing a-head; he fired when nothing but the neck was visible
+above water, and the ball completely divided it, the head barely
+hanging by a bit of skin. The bird was distant about fifty yards, and
+the boat moving, while he stood on the bow. At some longer shots he
+was not so successful. We passed a village at a small distance, and
+lay on our oars to hear the news. Most of the people were absent; but
+one, a great man, was seated on the hut-top, with a few idlers round
+him. This was the chief president of the senate&mdash;the speaker of the
+house, in short; and undoubtedly, if stentorian lungs are of any use
+for that office in a Montenegrian parliament, he was most amply
+qualified. For twenty minutes this eminent man conversed with us&mdash;the
+distance at first being about a quarter of a mile, and probably it
+might be three miles or more before he was finally out of hearing. The
+Turkish fortress of Dzabiack now appeared perched on a steep isolated
+hill rising from the marsh. It seemed, as we passed it about two miles
+off, to be in a very dilapidated condition. The Montenegrians,
+however, had at present no designs upon it; and its garrison
+maintained a peaceful neutrality. They have on several occasions
+destroyed this fortress, which has been occupied again by the Turks.
+It gives then little annoyance, being distant, I should think, five
+miles from the head of the lake. All was now water, but the principal
+channels above were passable, the rest being overgrown with weeds. At
+several of these, long consultations occurred as to our best route. It
+began to rain a little, and the place of our destination seemed
+doubtful. At length we emerged on the broad beautiful lake, and our
+progress was easy. We soon came in sight of the beleaguered island and
+fortress of Lessandro. The cannonade, which we had heard during the
+earlier part of the day, had long ceased, and all seemed quiet. It was
+still twilight, but the place to which our people had determined on
+going, lay beyond the foot of a mountain which projected to a nearer
+approach with the island. This was the very mountain on the top of
+which the Vladika had placed his batteries. They considered it
+prudent, therefore, to wait till dark, before passing within
+point-blank range of the enemy's guns. We, therefore, hauled the boat
+up, and waited under lee of the point. As soon as the light had
+failed, we moved forward, passing stealthily along the shore to within
+about three hundred yards of the fort. The previous garrulity of our
+party was now hushed, and they exhibited the most laudable prudence. I
+observed, however, that they had all their guns cocked and ready, as
+if they intended to have returned any compliment from the fortress;
+but no such contingency was at hand. The Albanians were engaged in
+chanting martial choruses, possibly to maintain their own valour as
+well as dismay their opponents, and show what excellent health and
+spirits they possessed after the two days' siege. At any rate, they
+made too much noise to hear any thing but themselves. As we went along
+shore, we were several times challenged by those on the look-out, and
+long explanations passed in low yet distinct tones. At length the
+danger was passed, and we went a-head for about two miles along the
+lake; then, turning off up a deep sluggish stream, we came in sight of
+our quarters. A large fire blazed in the principal of three huts, and
+by its light numerous persons were seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> around it. Landing with our
+baggage and equipage, we soon joined the circle; about a dozen
+warriors were here assembled. They were very civil to us, and glad to
+see our party. They gave us the best place at the fire, where,
+spreading our plaids, we were soon occupied with such dainties as the
+place or our own providence supplied. When it came to be bed-time, the
+fighting part of the community good-naturedly suffered themselves to
+be persuaded to go to the other end of the room, by which means we
+were enabled to lie down by the fire. There they rolled themselves up,
+and, in the shortest possible time, were in a state of oblivion. I may
+observe that the people in general, men or women, have seldom any
+beds. They lie down any where on the floor, ensconced in a capote or
+cloak, removing perhaps their opunkas, but scarcely ever any other
+garment. We should have been pretty comfortable but for the minute
+hosts that peopled the apartment. Late at night, too, the extreme cold
+compelled several parties to seek refuge by the fire who had no right
+or little thereto&mdash;as the house-cat and her two kittens; she would
+take no denial, however often repelled. Whenever one awoke, there she
+would be with her interesting offspring close nestled under one's
+chin. The family dog, too, suffered severely from cold; he was, as
+often as he entered, kicked out by his master in a way that did the
+heart good; and his murmurs of complaint and resentment would last for
+a full ten minutes. But the door would not fasten, and he always found
+his way in again, trampling over, in his way to the fire, the
+recumbent forms of the sleepers, in a manner far from conducive to
+good-humour. It was, therefore, not to be wondered at that our
+slumbers were not prolonged to a late hour. I set forth at break of
+day to find a clear-looking place in the river: for as I was to be
+presented to his highness, I could not afford to forego any
+advantages. The ice was on the side of the pools; but with the aid of
+a small box I carried under my arm, I soon had all the requisites of
+an elaborate dressing-room. Several of the Montenegrians were also on
+the alert, rubbing their faces with the muddy water on the edge of the
+lake; but whether to make them cleaner or dirtier did not appear.
+Breakfast was soon dispatched. Already the cannonade had commenced,
+and we hastened to the scene of action. Lessandro is a small low
+islet, perhaps a hundred yards long by forty or fifty wide; at one end
+was the principal, at the other, a minor fort. The first consisted of
+a thick round tower, flat at top, where their largest gun was mounted.
+This was surrounded by a low wall, with two small bastions at
+different angles; the other was a square building, with a bastion at
+one corner, containing, I believe, the stores. All over the island
+were the tents of the soldiers&mdash;that of the commander distinguished by
+a red flag. I think I counted about forty. The Montenegrians declared
+they had in the island five hundred men. Not one was visible however,
+the whole day. Under the lee of the chief fort was anchored a small
+gun-boat from Scutari. On one side of Lessandro rises, in immediate
+proximity, the mountainous island of Vranina. It was here that the
+Vladika at first wished to have taken up his position; but boats, it
+was said, were wanting to transport his men and munitions. Had he
+attempted this, a serious encounter would probably have taken place;
+but he had given up the idea, and it was as in consequence of this
+that we had met the men returning home the day before. The spot he
+fixed on was a mountain directly opposite Vranina, but at a greater
+distance from the object of attack. He had not with him altogether
+above fifty men. This time we had once more to pass within a quarter
+of a mile of the fort; and as we were a boat-load of armed men
+hastening to headquarters, I somewhat expected they might have
+condescended to notice us. Such, however, was not the case; and we
+landed and ascended the hill to where the battery was placed. We had
+not been there long before the Vladika, who was on a higher part of
+the ground, having heard of our arrival, came down to meet us. I felt
+for a moment rather modest, and began to wonder what business I had
+there. However, we advanced with all boldness, and soon distinguished
+the chief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>tain from his attendants by his giant stature. No bishop's
+cassock covered his towering form. Clothed in scarlet and gold, he
+descended the hill with the true Albanian strut. His manner was frank
+and cordial; and on his invitation we all three sat down on the grass
+to partake of a camp luncheon. The Vladika was then in the
+thirty-fifth year of his age. In truth, he was a goodly man&mdash;a very
+Saul among his people. His height I should think very nearly midway
+between six and seven feet. He was not fat, but the breadth and
+massiveness of his chest and limbs was extraordinary. His figure was
+very finely proportioned, and his movements free and active. His face
+was somewhat broad, with good features, and his voice peculiarly soft
+and pleasing. His hair and beard black, and, after the fashion of the
+Greek clergy, uncut. He wore a Turkish pelisse of scarlet, coming
+nearly to the knee, and trimmed with gold and sable, a large fur cap,
+and the usual blue drawers and opunkas of the Montenegrians. A pair of
+plain European pistols were in his belt&mdash;the only arms he wore. The
+place where we sat was in a most picturesque situation. The Turkish
+balls kept whizzing past, forming, as his highness remarked, beautiful
+music. Indeed, it seemed to me we were very nearly in the line a
+well-directed shot ought to have taken; but, of course, it was not my
+place to speak. Our fare consisted of cold meat carved in slices with
+the yataghan, and rum out of the mouth of the same bottle. He
+conversed in French fluently, and various courteous speeches showed it
+was not the first time he had encountered female society. He seemed
+excited when relating the misdeeds of his enemies, and his usually
+languid voice assumed a little asperity, as he described the way in
+which, while he made war in Bosnia, "ces diables des Turcs" had
+surprised his garrison at Lessandro. My knowledge of gunnery was not
+extensive, still I could not be ignorant of the chance he had, with
+three short twelve-pounders, of injuring any building whatever, when
+firing at it at a distance of eight hundred yards, in an almost
+perpendicular direction. The fort, besides, seemed very sturdy and
+solid, and I could not flatter him with hopes of success. He did not,
+however, appear to be without hope. Certainly, had he chosen to risk
+an assault with some trifling loss, the place might have been in his
+possession; but boats were not at hand in sufficient numbers, and
+besides, such a proceeding might not have been popular with amateur
+soldiers. He asked me if I had brought any letters to him; I frankly
+owned I had not. "Ah!" he said, "you came from curiosity, that you
+might talk in the gay circles of London, of having seen the Vladika of
+Montenegro." I did not say, that were I to do so, I should talk very
+unintelligibly to a great many of my hearers. After our collation was
+finished, we rose and proceeded to the battery, if it could be
+honoured with such a name. But had its power been as extensive as the
+view from it, it would have amply sufficed. The day was now most
+beautiful and spring-like, and various flowers, with sportive
+butterflies and other insects, enlivened the mountain side. The broad
+blue lake lay beneath, and in the extreme distance the position of
+Scutari itself could be distinguished. Three ranges of mountains were
+visible, rising one above the other, till the snowy chains of Bosnia
+bounded the horizon. The cannonade, as there was little to be
+apprehended, added to the beauty and interest. The wreathing of the
+white smoke on the Turkish tower, and the report borne along in the
+calm air, and echoed a dozen times by the distant mountains&mdash;the
+gradual approach and whizzing of the balls, and the shot from our
+guns, as it hit the buildings, or occasionally bounded along the
+water, were all interesting novelties. I made a sketch, to the best of
+my ability, of every object of interest in the vicinity of this lovely
+spot. As regards matters purely military, we had three guns in
+operation&mdash;short twelves, as I have already mentioned; a rampart was
+before them, formed of earth, bound with stakes, and about three feet
+thick. I was told this had only been struck four times. Few people
+were about. Nor could gunners of fame have been in plenty, for I soon
+discovered Petrarca pointing the cannon. The shot also was of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+different sizes&mdash;any that could be got, as Austria does not favour the
+importation of warlike materials into Montenegro; and to this
+disparity of metal may be ascribed the constant difficulty which the
+Montenegrian gunners experienced in hitting even the island. Still
+they kept the game alive, the Turks not giving one shot for three.
+They appeared to have four guns, but their biggest was on the platform
+of the chief tower, a screen of masonry protecting it from lying
+entirely open to our position on the hill. They fired also several
+shells, but they did no damage, exploding high in the air. At length
+the Vladika approached the best cannon, anxious to display his skill.
+He took a long aim, and then fired, exulting greatly when the ball
+struck the stone screenwork at top of the tower. This was just where
+he aimed, and it was the best shot by far that I had seen. A little
+dust seemed to fly, but no further damage. The reply of the Turks came
+promptly, but his highness did not honour their skill by even ducking
+below the rampart. It lodged in the side of the hill several feet
+below us. We remained, enjoying the interesting scene and beautiful
+day, till about one o'clock, when the Montenegrian batteries suspended
+operations from a temporary failure of ammunition. Being desirous of
+passing the night in less crowded quarters than the previous one, we
+now took our leave of the Vladika, and returned to the hamlet we had
+left in the morning; and having with some difficulty procured a pony,
+we set off to get as far on our road to Cattaro as we could, not
+returning by Cettigna, which would have been round about, but entering
+the Austrian territory above Budua and Castel Astua&mdash;Cattaro at
+present lying to the north-west of us. The boy who conducted this same
+pony, (a little mare, with a mule foal running beside her,) was the
+most unmitigated savage I have met with on my travels, though not more
+than ten years old. He was the ugliest little urchin I ever saw&mdash;his
+only clothing was a piece of an old sack and ragged opunkas. After
+galloping some distance to meet us, his mind misgave him as to his
+pistol, and he returned and made his father, who was working in the
+field, exchange with him. He then undertook to lead the pony, (the
+animals here do not go pleasantly unless led, and also by some one
+they are acquainted with,) which he did in the most desperate manner,
+walking at about seven miles an hour. No concern of his what became of
+the knees of the occupant, or with what stones or thorns they might be
+brought into collision. When he came to a precipice in the road, and
+there were many, down he jumped tugging the beast after him, and not
+looking behind once. All this time the foal kept jamming up against
+its mother. It was soon evident that the dismissal of this youth and
+his cattle was a <i>sine qua non</i>, as cautions were vain. But on a sum
+being offered which he considered less than his due, having come about
+a mile, he took his own part in a manner most edifying in one so
+young; and had the retainers of our party not been as well provided as
+he, I believe he would have pistolled the whole of us. At length,
+finding his efforts fruitless, he sprang on the pony, and putting her
+to her best pace, was soon out of sight. About the same time we fell
+in with two monks from the convent of Bercelli, who were on their way
+to pay their respects to the Vladika. This was fortunate, as we had
+intended to sleep there. These were the only inmates, and had the key
+of the place with them. After treating the party to brandy, one of
+them turned back with us. He was an old man, and he had to return a
+distance of twelve miles; but he never seemed to give this a thought.
+They were dressed in black gowns, and high black caps. Our road lay
+through a populous district, and many were the salutations Petrarca
+received, coupled with enquiries respecting us&mdash;long conversations
+taking place over miles of intervening hill and dale. This time, I
+believe, I filled the part of the English ambassador. The outward
+appearance of our quarters, when we arrived, was not prepossessing;
+but the state of dirt of the best room could hardly have been
+anticipated. Its equal&mdash;I speak advisedly&mdash;could not be found out of
+the country we were in. The floors mouldy and rat-eaten&mdash;old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> shelves
+hanging about, containing every kind of rubbish&mdash;crusts of bread, a
+bit of tallow candle in a bottle&mdash;old cups and glasses in different
+directions, with the remains of something in the bottom of every one.
+The only covering on the boards which formed the bed, was a sheepskin
+blanket, very old and dirty, looking like the mother of fleas. It
+would take a page to mention the manifold horrors that presented
+themselves. At length, after a late bad supper, I felt repose
+desirable, be it where it might. We had stipulated, however, for the
+sole possession of this melancholy dormitory, and having made up the
+best bed I could, turned in with loathing; but the cold made one less
+particular, as it was hard frost, and the windows had no shutter or
+fastening of any kind. I found, however, there was one exception to
+our sole right of tenure; no other than the old priest himself, whom I
+had shortly to get up and let in. Poor man! he had nowhere else to go;
+and having given up his luxurious couch, he proposed for himself to
+court slumber on the top of an old chest&mdash;it looked hard, certainly,
+and the poor old man seemed ill at ease. All night he rested none. He
+groaned much, and was afflicted with a cough and its usual results;
+and in each result he laboured long and strenuously, as though putting
+his whole soul in it, till a severe shock on the opposite wall showed
+the successful issue of his exertions. We did not lie in bed next
+morning very long after waking, and by six o'clock were on our road,
+expressing a firm determination to reach Cattaro or perish, sooner
+than pass another night in a Montenegrian homestead. There was no
+other mule to be procured to-day, so it was a case of riding and tying
+with the portmanteau. When the latter walked, it usually did so on the
+head of the poor woman who brought the mule. The remainder of our
+luggage consisted of two carpet-bags, and Spiro and Melo slung one of
+these upon each of their guns, and proceeded merrily. We entered the
+Austrian territory by the village of Braitsch. The people hereabouts
+are very poor and ill-off. Our way overlooked the sea; below us lay
+Budua. We halted, to give ourselves and the mule a drink, by the fort
+of Stanivitch. This was formerly a convent, and under the dominion of
+Montenegro; but Austria has lately become possessor of it, through, I
+believe, a pecuniary arrangement with the Vladika. His territory,
+however, at no time reached the sea in any part, though this is not
+distant above two or three miles; it was now a military post. A
+Moravian captain was in command, who most politely invited us to stay
+the night, fearing we should be unable to reach Cattaro; however, it
+was then only four o'clock, the day was bright, and the sight of the
+sea encouraged us. Besides, I noticed a <i>flea</i> on the collar of his
+coat. We thanked him for his kindness, and persevered on our journey.
+Our road lay nearly all on the descent, and while it was good, and the
+daylight lasted, we hurried forward with all speed. At length it
+became very rocky and precipitous; and, as the light soon failed
+entirely, it became necessary to mount the portmanteau, as it was not
+possible for any biped to sustain it longer on their head, and to
+maintain their equilibrium as well. From very bad, things got to much
+worse. The track, as well as the whole country, was composed of
+angular grey rocks, among which, in the now total darkness, it became
+nearly impossible to discern the path. These stones had a light
+appearance, and it was desirable to avoid bringing one's shins in
+contact with them; but if a spot seemed dark, and might be imagined to
+be soft ground, it proved to be one of the villanous prickly bushes of
+the country. This shrub grows all over Albania and Dalmatia, and, I
+believe, in Italy; it is low and bushy, with abundance of flat round
+seed; the spines are set both ways, up and down the twig, and are the
+most malignant thorns I ever met with. Whatever part of your garments
+they catch hold of, from that they have never been known to part.
+Presently our road became inhabited by a stream of water, and every
+step that avoided the stones was ankle-deep in mud. How the mule could
+have got on, as I could not see, I cannot imagine, but the box which
+it carried was not seriously damaged. The two guides in their opunkas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+walked firmly, but the others were tumbling frequently. The female who
+had come with us now fairly "compounded," according to the sporting
+phrase, and gave vent to her sufferings in tears and reproaches. This
+had, however, a reviving effect upon others of our party, who were
+near compounding themselves&mdash;for I had rather been holding out the
+endurance of this poor woman, who had walked most of the day with a
+portmanteau on her head, as an example for imitation. The town of
+Cattaro at length became visible far below us, after almost the
+longest three hours I ever passed. At other times, I might have been
+tempted to derive amusement from the mishaps of my friends under
+similar circumstances; but at present, some of the party had been
+reduced to such desperation, that I began sometimes to doubt the
+favourable issue of our journey. By nine o'clock the land gates are
+closed, and this we had heard already strike. The sea gate is open for
+another hour. It was not till after this, that, having gained the
+coast road which leads to Cattaro from the south, we reached the town.
+There, a boat was requisite to take us over the sea gate; but all the
+town boats had long since retired, and it took us at least half an
+hour to awake somebody on board a trabacolo in the harbour. When at
+length we were conveyed to the gate, a small gratuity to the sentinels
+gained us admission, and a little before midnight we found ourselves
+once more in our favourite inn. We remained some days at Cattaro,
+arranging for our departure. During this time, we heard that the
+Vladika had at length found his task hopeless, and abandoned
+hostilities. He had been, however, a week arriving at such a
+conclusion, and the sound of the cannonade was heard during the whole
+of the time occupied by our return. It was a pity to see a worthy
+potentate of moderate means spending his pocket-money so fruitlessly.
+The philanthropist will be glad to learn that no lives were sacrificed
+during this protracted siege. The Montenegrians, more modest than some
+of our own neighbours on a late occasion of very similar glory, laid
+claim only to having wounded one man in the fort; but an Albanian
+bulletin might have denied even that.</p>
+
+<p>Before concluding, a few further particulars concerning Montenegro
+will not be out of place. In former days, as I have observed, they
+were but a den of mountain thieves, dangerous to each other, and
+unapproachable by strangers. At the present time, no country can boast
+superiority in either of these respects. Indeed, in so small a
+community, crime is rare, from the greater certainty of detection. I
+speak nothing, of course, of border pastimes with their neighbours;
+and these, possibly, form a safety-valve to the pent-up propensities
+of the inhabitants. This important change has been brought about
+within fifty years, but, most of all, during the twelve years that the
+present Vladika has reigned. But the Vladikas who have effected this
+change, actuated by the desire of improving the condition of their
+people, have been obliged to barter their independence, in a manner,
+for Russian gold, in order to give them the means of effecting it. I
+am not able to say when the subsidizing system first commenced, but at
+present the Vladika, as well as all the officials and senators,
+receive their stipends. That of the Vladika amounts, I believe, to
+about eight thousand pounds annually; but this may include a small tax
+of, I think, two shillings on each household, which is paid by the
+Montenegrians themselves. Of the senators, there are forty who are
+elected by the communes, and paid by Russia. There is also a force of
+eight hundred men paid, and residing in different districts, which
+forms an executive police; but there is nothing in the shape of a
+standing army. The Vladikas are appointed by the emperor in nepotal
+succession from the family of Petrovitch. The present Vladika received
+his education at St Petersburg, and several of his nephews are now
+there, from whom his successor will be chosen. I am not acquainted
+with the amount of temporal power possessed by the Vladika, but I
+should think it was subject to much restraint. I have heard that, on
+more than one occasion in the senate, he has been personally
+threatened during the stormy debates which have occurred. Though he is
+generally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> popular, it would seem that here, as elsewhere, there
+exists a strong party opposed to all reform, and pining for the good
+old days of general license. The demeanour of the Montenegrians to
+their Vladika, though respectful, is free and independent. On meeting
+him the hand is raised to the head, or, if near, they offer to kiss
+his hand. This salutation is paid to any ordinary priest, and
+occasionally, through all Dalmatia, to a stranger like myself. Russia,
+it will be seen, reigns as completely in Montenegro as though its
+passes were occupied by her soldiers. The supplies stopped, all would
+be anarchy and confusion. Nor do the Montenegrians object to this in
+any way. Their personal independence is in no way compromised, and
+their laws and usages remain unaltered. There is not a single Russian
+in Montenegro, and, only knowing them at distance, they regard them at
+present with hearty good-will. The Vladika, however, who reaps the
+greatest benefits, has, it would appear, to submit to a certain loss
+of freedom. During the past summer he visited Trieste and Vienna; and
+I was informed, on good authority, had desired to go to England, but
+had been unable to obtain the permission of an emperor who seems
+determined no one shall travel but himself. The Vladika had certainly
+expressed to me a hope that he should visit England some time. There
+can be no doubt that it is well worth while thus to secure the
+alliance of the Montenegrians, for they would prove a bitter thorn in
+any collision either with Turkey or Austria. The country is divided
+into twelve military jurisdictions, under so many captains, and every
+man is bound to serve, though by what power, except inclination, I am
+sure I do not know. I do not imagine that this has been particularly
+provided for, so willing are they to serve uncalled.</p>
+
+<p>The population of Montenegro is at the present time not short of one
+hundred and twenty thousand souls. Of these, more than half would be
+serviceable were their own territory invaded; for every boy of eight
+years old and upwards carries a gun, and there is no reason he should
+not point it as straight as an older person, presenting, at the same
+time, a smaller mark to the enemy. The women even occasionally assist,
+and at all times carry the ammunition and supplies. I used sometimes
+to think, when meeting one of these armed urchins, how ignominious it
+would be to be robbed by him; and yet, were he only cunning enough to
+keep out of arm's-length, I don't exactly know how it could be helped.
+The arms of the Montenegrians consist of a long gun, usually very
+elegantly mounted, the stock short, and curved like a horse's neck;
+round his waist is a belt with cartouch-boxes containing the spare
+ammunition, the cartridges for immediate use being in the pistol-belt
+in front. Here, in a leather case, is a mass of arms which occupy the
+same relative position to the wearer as the youthful kangaroo to its
+parent; here are a brace of pistols with a pointed pommel, and a
+yataghan, which is used in these countries to the entire exclusion of
+the sword, and which, from its position in the belt, does not get in
+the way when walking&mdash;the ramrod for the pistols also, which in the
+East is a separate arm, containing sometimes a dagger or a pair of
+tongs for adjusting the never-absent pipe, and a smaller knife is
+often slung on behind. In ordinary times, a yataghan or pistol may be
+dispensed with; but whatever may be the occupation of man or boy, the
+gun is never left behind, whether ploughing, or cutting wood, or
+carrying the heaviest burdens. It is almost extraordinary that they
+should thus encumber themselves, as, within their own boundary, none
+are so safe, and their mountains seldom afford them a living mark. I
+believe it arises very much from a fondness for the weapon. The
+greatest care is taken of it, and it undergoes a complete cleaning
+after every shot. The arms of the people in general present a striking
+contrast to their dress. On the former they spend most of their spare
+money, and they are kept in great order and cleanliness. The warriors,
+when they take the field, fight more for plunder than for honour and
+glory. The spoils of houses and farm-steads, or the arms or heads of
+their enemies, (a prisoner is never spared,) all form desirable
+prizes. It must be remembered their service is chiefly voluntary, and
+they receive no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> pay. It is not their tactics to expose themselves
+much in battle. The grey rocks, which suit well the colour of their
+dress, afford a shelter, from behind which they take well-directed
+aim. Every man acts to the best of his judgment&mdash;usually acute where
+self-preservation is the law; and their great activity and powers of
+endurance enable them, in their difficult country, to contend with
+many advantages against regular troops. In 1838, during a temporary
+collision with Austria, they gave as good as they received, to say the
+least; and perhaps it was owing to this that peace was so soon
+concluded. In such a country cavalry is out of the question, and
+horses are seldom used. The Vladika himself possesses a considerable
+stud. The dress of the people&mdash;at all seasons the same&mdash;consists of a
+white coat of coarse cloth, with generally a blue edging, open in
+front, and reaching nearly to the knee. This has no buttons, but is
+fastened round the waist by a red sash. They are usually shirtless,
+and their hardy bosoms brave the storm in all weathers. Around their
+shoulders is thrown a description of plaid, generally of a brown
+colour, about three feet wide and six feet long; and from keeping this
+in its proper position, a slight stoop becomes habitual. They have
+wide drawers of blue serge, or sometimes of the material of their
+coats, which is thicker; of this also are their leggings formed. Under
+the opunkas is worn a thick woollen sock; but in wet weather the men
+and women usually go barefooted. On their head is a small round cap of
+scarlet or black cloth. Their custom is to shave the whole of the face
+excepting the mustaches, as well as the sides and crown of the head;
+but from long neglect, it is often difficult to distinguish the
+favoured localities. Petrarca, in his avocation of barber, was in the
+greatest request. The costume of the women does not differ widely, but
+the coat is longer, and a petticoat replaces the blue drawers&mdash;round
+their waist is a belt of great weight, about three inches wide, and of
+the thickest leather, set with cornelians and other coarse stones,
+mounted in brass. The red cap is usual, and the hair is often prettily
+braided. I have seen some head-dresses composed of silver coins. None
+of the people seem to be in the habit of bathing or washing, and they
+do not remove their garments at night. The children have often nothing
+but a shirt. As a nation they are healthy and robust, though fevers
+occur at certain times in some districts. Among the men two casts of
+features are general; the one, known among us as the "Jack Sheppard
+face"&mdash;the lower parts rather prominent, and the nose short and
+somewhat turned up, the complexion and hair very dark. The other is
+very different, a bright colour and high handsome features; yet nearly
+every person one meets belongs to one of these two varieties. The
+latter is commonest among the tallest men. They have all very good
+teeth, and their expression is intelligent and good-humoured. As in
+feature, so in stature, considerable uniformity appears. Their height
+averages about five feet ten, with great development of muscle. The
+women are relatively inferior in looks&mdash;they are broad and short,
+seeming to possess great strength; but the labour they undergo, and
+the burdens they carry, appear inimical to beauty. They have often
+pleasant countenances and good brick-dust complexions. The Servian or
+Naski here spoken is considered among the purest dialects of
+Sclavonic&mdash;it has a very pleasing sound, being softer and more
+melodious than the Russian. My stay was unfortunately not long enough
+to obtain much knowledge of it, and this want will sufficiently
+account for any errors that may appear in my descriptions of what I
+did not personally witness; for it prevented that free intercourse
+with the people, by which a true insight to their manners can alone be
+acquired. Their laws seem very simple; he who kills is
+killed&mdash;shooting being the mode of execution. He who robs must make
+good; and, as few of the people are in abject poverty, this is usually
+done. Should they fail, a summary flogging is inflicted. At Cettigna
+is a small prison; I believe there is no other. When any one is there
+confined, he trusts entirely to his friends for subsistence. They are
+good-humoured, obliging, and extremely loquacious; but their continued
+spitting is very disagreeable. I witnessed no games or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> diversions
+among them except the one-stringed fiddle; but I understood that they
+have a few athletic sports, such as wrestling and putting the stone.
+They often go to sea. I encountered two among the crew of an Austrian
+packet. They all profess the Greek faith, and are in their way very
+religious. When passing a church they bow and cross themselves, and
+perform all sorts of pious movements, which sometimes border on the
+ludicrous. Before going to sleep they make long prayers. Previous to
+visiting the Vladika, an armed Montenegrian entered in the morning the
+house where we slept, and casting aside his gun and cloak, commenced
+reading mass to the assembled party. This was the priest of the
+parish. The older members of the community are not usually very
+enlightened; but through the schools established by the Vladika, where
+instruction is dispensed gratuitously, most of the rising generation
+can read and write their native language, and a sufficiency of neatly
+printed books are issued from the press he keeps employed at Cettigna.
+No social distinctions are yet known among them, and the most perfect
+equality prevails&mdash;even the sons address their father by his Christian
+name. The only exception is in the person of the Vladika&mdash;his lot on
+the whole is not an enviable one. The only educated mind among the
+many&mdash;the only polished gentleman among simple peasants; he is indeed
+an isolated being. Handsome and in the prime of life, yet there must
+be none to cheer his lot, or lighten his solitude, nor any to whom he
+would love to transmit his mountain throne. In this respect the laws
+of his order are stringent, and the breath of scandal has never yet
+sullied his fair name, though it is quite true that whilst in his
+native land the temptations are not very severe. I should not be
+surprised if a report I heard current should prove true, that he
+intended, at no very distant period, to relinquish the government of
+Montenegro, and spend the remainder of his days among a people more
+congenial to the habits of a man of education. Were he an absolute
+potentate, an extended field for benefiting his countrymen might be
+obtained; but with his more constitutional power, the attempts he has
+been able to make have been constantly thwarted by prejudice and
+ignorance. Had he the privileges or the ties of an ordinary man, then,
+as we all know, the barrener the rocks, the dearer seems the love of
+the native land; but, situated as he is, he can hardly be accused of
+want of patriotism if his stay in Montenegro should not extend beyond
+the time required in saving sufficient of his income to quit it.</p>
+
+<p>Our voyage from Cattaro to Corfu was accomplished in a small
+trabacolo&mdash;the San Marco of Spalatro&mdash;having on board three men and a
+boy. These boats, though not fast, are very safe, and the Dalmatians
+in general manage small craft well. The north wind is scarce at this
+time of the year, but a beautiful <i>tramontana</i> blew during the time we
+were working out of the Bocca. This we lost entirely, and not a breath
+moved its calm waters. We had also to wait some hours at Port Rosa,
+situated at the entrance of the Bocca, for our papers. By the time we
+were out at sea, the wind had nearly died away, and the next day found
+us employed gathering wild pomegranates on the desolate shores near
+Antiversi, in Albania. Again a beautiful tramontana sprang up, and in
+a vessel of first-rate sailing powers, would almost have brought us
+in. All day we went gallantly along. The heads of Ducazzo&mdash;Dyrrichium
+of old&mdash;began to appear, and soon we passed it in a foam. All night we
+held on, and in the morning were beside the "<i>infames scopulos
+Acroceraunia</i>," and in sight of the island of Sassina, near the
+harbour of Avlona. On we went still, till at length there appeared the
+land of the Ph&oelig;acians, "like a shield upon the sea;" but there was
+a cloud over it which portended ill. It advanced towards us, and
+extended rapidly. It was soon evident to the most sanguine that the
+wind was changing, and there was shortly no mistake about the matter.
+I implored our skipper to keep on, though he tacked to the coast of
+Apulia; but he knew his trade too well&mdash;the trade of a trabacolo
+consisting in never losing sight of shore. So we were obliged to put
+in to Avlona harbour, deeply lamenting. Two days were spent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> here, not
+daring to land for fear of putting ourselves in quarantine. Above the
+town rises the fortress of Canina, but all wears a ruined appearance.
+The people of the neighbourhood, called Chimariots, have the worst
+reputation of all the Albanians. The coast of Albania between this and
+Corfu has a very barren and inhospitable appearance. The snowy peaks
+of the Pindus rise directly from the sea. A few bushes were visible on
+the mountains, but timber of any size is scarce. Villages and houses
+are seldom seen. A glad contrast was presented when, on the tenth day
+of our voyage, we approached the beautiful shores of Corfu; and it was
+no small comfort, after so long an imprisonment in this little tub,
+with holes to creep in about the size of a dog-kennel, and in the
+roughest possible weather, to find ourselves in one of the most
+comfortable hotels in Europe, and surrounded by old friends.</p>
+
+<p>Since my visit to Montenegro, the Vladika went to Vienna&mdash;I believe to
+gain the mediation of Austria concerning the disputed territory of
+Lessandro. After his return I understand he was visited by Lord
+Clarence Paget, commanding her Majesty's frigate L'Aigle, who had been
+sent to gain some information regarding his territory; so that,
+perhaps, a more accurate account may be obtained than what is to be
+found in these rough notes.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>&AElig;STHETICS OF DRESS.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Case of Hats</span>.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Of all the follies that can be fairly placed to the charge of the
+human race&mdash;and, Heaven knows, they are thick as gnats in a summer
+sunbeam&mdash;none can be laid at more people's doors than the fickleness
+and vagaries of the judgment in adorning, to say nothing of covering,
+man's outer scaffolding&mdash;the body. And the worst of it is, that this
+folly-cap fits all men, from the Red Indian of America to the
+sallow-faced, eye-slitted Chinese; and through all the robed pomp of
+the solemn Turk to the chattering and capering monkeyism of the
+Parisian exquisite&mdash;there are fops every where. As Mr Catlin will tell
+you, one of his lanky Ojibbeway, or Ioway, or Cutaway, or
+Anyotherkindo'way Indians varies the feathers in his head-dress, and
+sticks new tinsel on his buffalo-mantle, whenever he can get them;
+spending as much time in be-painting his cheeks on a summer morning,
+as Beau Brummell, of departed memory, ever wasted in tying his cravat.
+And so it has ever been&mdash;so it will ever be; man is not only a
+two-legged unfledged animal, but he is also a vain imitative ape, fond
+of his own dear visage, blind to his deformities, and ever desirous of
+setting himself off to the best advantage. It is of no use quarrelling
+with ourselves for this physiological fact&mdash;for we presume it to be
+one of the best ascertained phenomena connected with the genus
+<i>homo</i>&mdash;it is better to take it as we find it; and if we cannot hope
+to cure man of the absurdity any time this side of the millennium, let
+us try if we cannot turn the failing to some account, and make it
+useful as well as ornamental.</p>
+
+<p>The chief quarrel to be picked with man for his dressing propensities,
+is on the ground that he not only hides and disfigures the fair
+proportions bestowed on him by his Maker, but that he ever and anon
+loads himself with such masses of useless incongruities, that the very
+end and object of his care are stultified. Instead of making himself
+smart, pretty, becoming, beautiful&mdash;or any other word that you can
+find in the dandy's dictionary&mdash;he frequently succeeds in making
+himself positively ugly&mdash;frightful, in the pure abstract sense of the
+term&mdash;or detestable, in the lingo of the Stultzean tribe&mdash;and
+relapses, as a Frenchman would say, from civism to brutism: <i>Ah! quel
+animal que l'homme!</i></p>
+
+<p>But let it not be supposed that we speak of man only, as applied to
+that great branch of the species designated by the most experienced
+naturalists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> as <i>homo vir</i>; it is quite as true of the other moiety,
+the <i>homo femina</i>. If it be possible that a woman should ever be made
+frightful by any thing except age, then it is surely by dress; if a
+woman never does a foolish thing in any other way, yet at least she
+errs in her habiliments; if she be fickle at all, (and speak to the
+fact, ye disappointed bachelors and ye complaisant husbands!) in what
+is she more fickle than in dress? We might waste a life in finding a
+suitable simile for her volatility in this matter: rainbows with
+changing colours, water on a windy day, the wind itself in the month
+of March, the much-desiderated perpetual motion; all are feeble
+similes to describe a woman's fickleness in dress. Shall we liken it
+to her tongue's untiring play? or shall we not rather say that it is a
+psychological fact standing <i>per se</i>? the concomitant effect and
+consequence of her beauty? But, dear creatures! we are not going to
+quarrel with them for what gives us so much unconscious pleasure, (we
+do not mean milliners' bills, gentle reader;) we glory in living under
+a petticoat government, and in essentially petticoatian times. All we
+shall do is to give a word of advice; and in trying on their caps for
+them, we will show them the <i>rationale</i> of their bows and their lace,
+if they will only have the patience to sit still for the experiment.</p>
+
+<p>Before embarking on such an important project, allow us to say that we
+are not going to quiz old Whang-Fong for his pig-tail and peacock
+feathers, nor his Cannibalean majesty for his obstinate refusal to
+wear a decent pair of inexpressibles; it is a stiff subject to meddle
+with the dressing propensities of people that live "in many a place
+that's underneath the world." For all we care, Abd el Kader and his
+Arabs may stifle themselves up in their greasy blankets swarming with
+ancestral vermin under a nearly tropical sun; and the good people of
+Igloolik may bedeck themselves with the spoils of fish, flesh, and
+fowl, to set the fashions of the Arctic circle. We are going to speak
+merely of our home acquaintances and our European friends; if these
+only would be reasonable in their dress, what a new thing it would be
+in the world&mdash;<i>quel progr&eacute;s! quel &eacute;v&egrave;nement!</i></p>
+
+<p>The fundamental rule of dress we take to be the following&mdash;utility in
+all cases, ornament when practicable. The first should ever precede,
+and serve as the basis to the second; and it is the inversion of their
+due positions that causes so many applications of the <i>utile</i> and the
+<i>dulce</i> to end in sheer absurdity. The <i>usefulness</i> of any article or
+system of dress depends entirely upon climate, modified of course by
+the occupation or pursuits of the wearer; the <i>beauty</i> of it or the
+suitableness of the ornament to the character of the vestment. We defy
+all the editors of the <i>Recueils des Modes, Petits Courriers des
+Dames, Belles Assembl&eacute;es</i>, &amp;c., with even the poet-laureates of Moses
+and Son, Hyam and Co., with the whole host of Israelitish schneiders,
+to find out a better &aelig;sthetic definition of the law of dress than
+this. Who would have the effrontery to maintain that an Englishman,
+the very type of the useful at Calcutta in his cotton jacket and
+nankeens, would in the same habiliments be a suitably dressed man at
+St Petersburg? and however much a well-set ring may ornament an
+aristocratic finger, (though aristocratic fingers, like aristocratic
+hands, as Byron observes, need no ornament to tell their origin,) who
+but an Otaheitan would admire the application of them to the gouty
+toes of some "fine old English gentleman?" Usefulness first, then, and
+ornament afterwards; think first of what you actually want for your
+health or comfort; cut your coat upon that pattern, clap on your lace
+afterwards; but enrich it only to improve its appearance, not to
+interfere with, to conceal, or to alter its original destination.</p>
+
+
+<p>To begin, however, methodically, let us take what are commonly
+understood by well-dressed English people of the present day, and let
+us criticise them from top to toe. And first, then, of a gentleman's
+head&mdash;<i>le chef</i>, as the French call it&mdash;and the <i>chapeau</i>, its present
+gear. What a covering! what a termination to the capital of that
+pillar of the creation, Man! what an ungraceful, mis-shapen, useless,
+and uncomfortable appendage to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> seat of reason&mdash;the brain-box!
+Does it protect the head from either heat, cold, or wet? Does it set
+off any of natural beauty of the human cranium? Are its lines in
+harmony with, or in becoming contrast to, the expressive features of
+the face? Is it comfortable, portable, durable, or cheap? What
+qualities, either of use or ornament, has it in its favour that it
+should be the crowning point of a well-dressed man's toilet? The hat
+is, beyond all doubt, one of the strangest vestimental anomalies of
+the nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>The history of the hat is this:&mdash;The simplest covering for a man's
+head after his own unshorn locks&mdash;(do not remind us of the matted and
+<i>living</i> locks of the Indians or Hottentots)&mdash;must have been something
+like the Greek skull-cap. This we hold to have been the root, or
+nucleus, of the hat; and yet even this cap had a fault in point of
+utility, for it failed to shadow the eyes: and on the earliest Greek
+monuments we find a cap with a wide brim appended, or a flattish
+straw-hat following close upon the Phrygian bonnet. A light flattish
+hat has its recommendation in a warm country, but it will not do for
+the winds and storms of a northern clime; and hence all the old Gauls,
+the northern nations, the Tartars, and the peasants of Europe, for
+many a long century wore a modified cap&mdash;sometimes swelling out into
+ornamental proportions, at others shrinking into the primitive
+simplicity of the Phrygian or Greek cap. Shall we confess it,
+fastidious reader?&mdash;we strongly suspect the cap worn by that idle
+fellow Paris, when he so impudently ogled the goddesses on Mount Ida,
+to have been very similar to the good old <i>bonnet de nuit</i> of our
+grandfathers&mdash;(shall we whisper it, of ourselves?) Yes, that little
+cocked-up corner at the top looks like a budding tassel; he never had
+such bad taste as to tie it with a riband round his brows; and we do
+not read in Homer that Helen, though a capital workwoman, ever gave
+him one; but we are inclined to believe that the old punty-dunty,
+pudding-bag-shaped cap which is still worn by the French peasantry in
+their field occupations, and is still patronized by a large portion of
+Queen Victoria's loving subjects, is of the highest antiquity, and
+based, we have no doubt, on utility. We must be candid enough to say,
+that we give up the argument as to the intrinsic beauty of this
+species of cap&mdash;truly we think it the very type of all that is
+slovenly; but for use, there is not a more comfortable, portable,
+pliable, buyable, and washable a commodity, than your&mdash;nightcap are we
+to say? no&mdash;than your <i>bonnet Grec</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Hats, properly so called, whether of cloth or fur, were evidently the
+invention of some out-of-door people; but then they were not the
+brimless pyramidal canisters of the present fashion, but were either
+caps with dependent brims, or else broad and flexible Spanish
+<i>sombreros</i>. The very idea of a hat is that of utility&mdash;something to
+keep off the sun and the rain&mdash;any thing will do for warmth that will
+aid the hair in keeping in the natural caloric of a man's head; and
+hence we much doubt whether the Irish, that hot-headed nation, ever
+wore hats in early times. From the want of shade being early felt by
+civilized nations, more than shelter from rain, and from hat-shapes
+being found on early southern monuments, we are inclined to think that
+the hat was more extensively worn in Southern than in Northern Europe;
+more, as it is, in Southern England than in Northern Scotland. Hence,
+although we find many iron skull-caps, like hats, used by the military
+in the fifteenth century; and although we find traces of hats even in
+the plebeian costumes of the middle ages&mdash;yet we look upon the Spanish
+and Italian hat of the sixteenth century, as the more immediate origin
+of its degenerate successor, the actual <i>chapeau</i>. We need not trace
+the variations of its form through the seventeenth century, from the
+high-crowned things of Henry III. of France, and James I. of England,
+to the graceful beavers of Louis XIII., Philip III., and Charles I. of
+England; the change was all in favour of the beaver; and certainly the
+hat reached its culminating point of excellence during the reign of
+our martyr king. Who has studied the splendid portraits of Vandyke, or
+the heads of Rubens, and has not perceived the uncommon grace given to
+them by the well-proportioned and not exces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>sive hat? Who does not
+remember the fine portrait of Rubens himself, with his black Spanish
+hat turned up in front, the very perfection of that style of
+head-dress? Put a modern hat by the side of this hat of Rubens, and
+say which bears off the palm; there can hardly be two opinions upon
+the subject. The great change of this hat took place, as is well
+known, in Louis XIV.'s court, where first of all feathers were laid
+all round upon the flat of the brim, and next the brim was edged with
+lace, and pinched or cocked up, for greater use in military service.
+It might have been useful for a military man, especially one who had
+to handle a bayoneted musket; but it was a fatal invasion of the
+principle of beauty to adopt a permanent cock. There is no doubt that
+the flat cocked hat, the small three-cornered pinched hat of the days
+of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., gave much smartness to the soldier, and
+much neatness to the civilian; the change, too, corresponded with
+other alterations of dress, from the loose and flowing, to the tight
+and succinct principle; but picturesque effect was entirely lost; all
+the sentimentality, all the romance of the hat, evaporated in the
+formal cock. But this small flat hat of the seventeenth and eighteenth
+centuries, was perfection and beauty itself, compared with the
+outrageous and elevated cocked hat which came into fashion sometime
+before 1750, and which is the immediate prototype of the present
+military cocked hat. Here the principle of utility was entirely
+abandoned; it was sacrificed to the display of an unnatural brim. The
+hat was no longer formed by the pinching up of a circular brim of
+moderate dimensions; but three enormous flaps were made to rear their
+unwieldy height in the air, and were strengthened, stiffened, and
+supported, against the envious winds, to the torment of the wearer,
+and to the disfigurement of his person. All through the first half of
+the tasteless reign of good old George III., did this horrible
+covering disguise the beau's head; and the effect of it may still be
+judged of by his grandchildren, when they contemplate, not without
+awe, the rubicund figure of some metropolitan church-beadle with his
+large-caped coat, silver-headed cane, and monstrous three-cornered
+hat. Our modern great ladies, strange to say, seem to have an especial
+affection for this hat, since they take particular care to have a
+couple of footmen behind their carriage glorying in this capital
+atrocity, while on the coach-box they encourage the older form of the
+flat cocked hat of Louis XV.</p>
+
+<p>All cocked hats, be it observed, are glorious rain-traps; the only
+improvement they are capable of is one not yet patented, namely, the
+appending of neat flexible spouts, say of Macintosh cloth, from each
+corner, so as to convey the water in pleasant meanderings over the
+back and coat-tails. In dry weather these spouts might be tied up, and
+would form graceful curves either before, behind, or on one side of
+the cocked flaps, while in a shower they would add dignity to utility,
+as they hung all adown the back of the wearer. One kind of utility,
+however, the old cocked hat certainly had; it served in some degree,
+maugre the looping up of the brim, to shelter the face from the sun;
+not indeed when worn full front, as it was in Dr Johnson's time, and
+as we remember the household troops used to wear it&mdash;but when, by a
+daring innovation of revolutionary times, it came to be turned round
+on its human pivot, and lay gently athwart the line of vision. Thus it
+is that our generals wear it in this nineteenth century; thus it was
+that the Great Duke got all through Spain with it; though Napoleon,
+who greatly reduced its dimensions, always kept to the orthodox
+full-front; and in all positions, except the latter, it certainly does
+shade some portion of the face from the sun. But while, for example,
+the projection of one peak shades the nose, the ears and cheeks are
+left to fish for themselves; or else, if the hat wheels round again to
+the front, the ears come under its benignant shade, but the tip of the
+proboscis suffers awfully. The cocked hat has always been a two-horned
+dilemma ever since the third peak moved up in the world from its
+original position of horizontal equality, and aspired to be a near
+neighbour of the cockade or towering plume.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>It was that wicked revolution of France, or rather that dissolute time
+preceding it, which produced the most mischief in the hat line. Look
+at any of the pictures of that day&mdash;look at the portraits of the
+Conventionalists&mdash;look at the old prints of country gentlemen hunting
+or riding races at Newmarket&mdash;remember the Sir Joshuas in many a noble
+gallery; and you will not fail to remark that the choice spirits of
+the day, the go-ahead lads of that time, had let down the flaps of
+their cocked hats into slouching, and we must say, most slovenly
+circular brims. There was a sort of free-and-easy look affected in
+that day about the head, totally at enmity with the prim rigidity of
+the cocked beaver; you might have taken off your <i>chapeau rond</i>, as it
+then came to be called, and you might have sat on it&mdash;it would have
+been never the worse; but not so with its stiff old father&mdash;no
+liberties were to be taken with him; once sit upon him, and you would
+have crushed him forever. This very difference of hats marked a
+difference of politics&mdash;at least in France. There the old <i>chapeau &agrave;
+trois cornes</i> was the badge of the aristocracy: the <i>chapeau rond</i> and
+the <i>bonnet rouge</i> were sworn brothers in the cause of democracy. The
+times were getting unhinged; all fashions were relaxing; so were
+public morals; so were private morals; so were men's hats: hats and
+heads seemed to have a sympathy, and to have gone wrong together.</p>
+
+<p>And what has been the history of the hat since that day?&mdash;the
+civilian's hat we mean. Who remembers the overlapping crowns which
+came into fashion soon after the great peace, at a time when Frenchmen
+wore their brims extravagantly pinched up at the sides, and deeply
+pulled down fore and aft? Sometimes the hat rose up in pyramidal
+majesty; sometimes it was shut in like a telescope wanting to be
+pulled out. And then every kind of fancy man had a fancy hat: there
+was the Neck-or-nothing hat, the Bang-up, the Corinthian, the Jerry,
+and the Logic; or else distinguished leaders of <i>ton</i> lent their names
+to it, and we had the Petershams, the Barringtons, &amp;c. Through every
+degree of absurdity has the <i>chapeau rond</i> passed, until it seems to
+have settled down into that quiescent state of mediocrity which marks
+the decline of empires and of hats. The brim is no longer only half an
+inch broad as it was once, nor four inches broad as we also remember
+it: it seems to vary between the limits of one inch and two&mdash;a breadth
+just sufficient to let the line of shade, when the head is erect, come
+upon the eye-lids, and just sufficient to clear the ears. But if the
+head be moved ever so little, or if the rain come down ever so
+slantingly, the services of the hat are at an end: it is well enough
+to intercept any thing coming down perpendicularly, but
+"slantendicularly," as friend Slick says&mdash;no. Its present height is
+just enough to prevent your wearing it in a carriage, and such, too,
+as to give a moderate wind a good purchase upon it: the substance is
+such that the least exposure to wet ruins it, whether of beaver or
+silk; a moderate blow will crack or break its form; and for the first
+week, if you have any thing like a sensitive head, or any bosses of
+unknown qualities protruding from your cranium, you are doomed to
+incessant headache from hat-pinchings. It has no properties of
+usefulness to recommend it, and none of ornament, saving this&mdash;if it
+can be called such&mdash;the being an invaluable appendage for a little man
+to make himself appear tall. What a wide interval from the simplicity
+of its Phrygian original!</p>
+
+<p>Having, therefore, criticized our present head-gear, and condemned our
+hats, without pulling them to pieces, let us enquire what a proper
+covering for the head should be: first of all in point of usefulness,
+and next in point of comely appearance. But let no man vainly imagine
+that we expect to suit the fancies of all the creatures privileged to
+wear hats, or even to cover their heads; we do not pretend to invent,
+or decide upon, any one given type or form of head-dress. So many are
+the wants of a man in covering his head, so widely differing from each
+other are the exigencies of different people, that uniformity in hats
+is to be given up as a bad job: to attempt it would foil the strength
+of a Hercules: the utmost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> we can hope to effect is to lay down
+certain limits for the variations of this apex of human pride.</p>
+
+<p>For us, then, who live in a climate rainy, windy, hot, and cold, all
+within any twenty-four hours of the year, just as the case may be, it
+is plain that we want for general use something that will be proof
+against the atmospherical accidents that may befall any man who goes
+abroad to take the air. And here let it be observed, that in reasoning
+about hats, all thoughts about that effeminate invention, the
+umbrella, are to be laid aside. This utensil is truly a disgrace to
+the manhood of the times; and its existence, by allowing people to
+dispense with warm cloaks and other anti-rain appliances, has caused
+more disease, in letting them catch cold, than any thing else we know
+of. Our stalwart ancestors did admirably well without umbrellas; they
+wore good cloaks or coats, and broad beavers to keep the rain out of
+their necks, faring not a jot the worse for it. Umbrellas are only fit
+for men-milliners, Cockney travellers, and women. The nature of a hat,
+we flatter ourselves, is something independent of cotton and
+whalebone; and instead of the umbrella claiming precedence over the
+hat, the hat, we take it, should be above the umbrella. An
+Englishman's hat, then, should be something that will keep the rain
+off his face and neck when the weather is bad, and shield his eyes
+from the glare of the sun on the few days when sunlight is
+oppressive&mdash;and these two requirements settle at once, on all
+principles of common sense, that a man, if he has only one kind of
+covering for the head, should have a hat with a broad brim. This is
+the very foundation of the definition of an useful hat, providing that
+a hat is really to be the thing worn for protecting a man's upper
+story. Usefulness will also decide against height in the crown. <i>Cui
+bono</i> this same high crown of ours, that looks more like a
+watering-pot deprived of its spout and handle than a reasonable
+article of human apparel? Down with the crowns, say we! If you will
+wear a hat, down with your crown. You may put down your half-sovereign
+or sovereign, or whatever you please, for your new hat first of all,
+but down with your crown too. Here, gentle reader, you will exclaim
+against our taste, and will protest that we would sacrifice every
+thing to that horrid utilitarian principle, which opposes all ideas of
+beauty and poetry. We are free to confess that, in our opinion, there
+is not much poetry to be made about such a subject&mdash;unless some
+obsolete verses, "All round my hat," may be alleged to the contrary;
+but as for the beauty of the head-piece, we protest that we admit its
+existence, and think that it should be consulted by whomsoever would
+pay proper attention to his own outward appearance. The merely useful
+may possibly make the shape approximate to that of a Quaker's or a
+jarvey's, but the beautiful has to elevate and modify it into the
+mystical proportions fit for a man of taste. One other quality,
+however, which is intimately connected with the useful, has to be
+noticed. The substance should not be hard and unyielding. Witness, ye
+reminiscences&mdash;ye painful images of bygone headachs, even yet flitting
+through our brain like Titanic thunderbolts!&mdash;accursed be the memory
+of that fellow Tightfit in Old Bond Street, who used to screw his hats
+on our cranium when we were young, and ere London had awakened us! As
+you value your comfort, dear reader, never purchase a hard hat. A hard
+heart may be borne with, but a hard hat&mdash;never! And last of all, a hat
+should be light&mdash;yes, the lighter the better&mdash;light as a gossamer web,
+though 'tis a simile that will not bear stretching. You may have the
+misfortune to be a heavy-headed man, but do not add to it that of
+being heavy-hatted. Avoid the extremity of suffering; and observe the
+climax of ill from which we would shield your head&mdash;a narrow-brimmed,
+hard, heavy, high-crowned hat&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><ins class="correction" title="tode gar brotois megiston &ecirc;lthet ek the&ocirc;n kakon.">"&#964;&#959;&#948;&#949; &#947;&#945;&#961; &#946;&#961;&#959;&#964;&#959;&#943;&#962; &#956;&#949;&#947;&#953;&#963;&#964;&#959;&#957; &#951;&#955;&#952;&#949;&#964;&#146; &#949;&#954; &#952;&#949;&#969;&#957; &#954;&#945;&#954;&#959;&#957;."</ins></span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The covering of the head, then, must have its usefulness made
+ornamental, if not beautiful; and the due ornamentation of it will
+depend principally upon its form, but also upon its colour and
+material. Now, form is the principal thing; every one that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> has half
+an eye for art will tell you this&mdash;'tis an admitted axiom. Either,
+then, the shape of the covering should conform to that of the head, or
+it should not, and we take our ground in support of the latter
+position. The natural form of the head is determined by the rotundity
+of the cranium, beautifully modified by the waving curls of the
+hair&mdash;we speak of the abstract well-formed head; and nothing that
+approaches to the same shape will ever do more than give a bad
+substitute for the outline of the head as nature framed it. Any
+covering conceals the hair; and if you remove from sight this
+intrinsically beautiful integument, it is a principle of bad taste to
+put in its place only a poor copy of the same contour. If you cover
+the head, cover it with something that forms lines not curving like
+the skull, nor yet so angular as to create too striking an opposition
+of ideas in the mind of the beholder. A close-fitting untasseled
+skull-cap does not improve the form of the head, for it is not half so
+graceful as the hair; but a square hat or pyramidal cap is truly
+detestable. This is the reason why the common nightcap is ugly; it
+fits the head too closely, and its upper end conveys the ludicrous
+idea of something made to be pulled at. On the other hand, the double
+nightcap, pulled out and allowed to hang down on one shoulder, Spanish
+fashion, is less ugly&mdash;though far removed from our own ideas of
+beauty&mdash;because it introduces a new system of curves, and acts as a
+kind of dependent drapery to compensate for the concealment of the
+hair. Here is also the reason why the common hat is so frightful; it
+gives us straight or nearly straight lines, going upwards like
+tangents from the oval of the face, and cut off above by another
+straight line (the section of the crown) at right angles: all such
+lines and angles are foreign to the face and head. The common nightcap
+is too familiar, the common hat too stiff. Observe the lines of the
+face and head; the projection of the nose, the rounded angularity of
+the chin; the vertical section of the head affording curves with
+decided yet harmonious irregularities; the horizontal section
+producing a nearly regular contour. Well, it is upon principles of
+this kind that the covering of the head should be beautified. Now, we
+profess ourselves unable to make any better reconciliation of the
+useful with the beautiful for this purpose, than in the small,
+flexible, light, and broad-brimmed hat, which is still to be found in
+some Spanish and Italian pictures; a hat not quite so large as that
+worn in the reign of Charles I., yet with all its freedom and
+capability of assuming a variety of graceful forms; not so stiff as
+the beaux of the Spanish court, and the rakes of our own merry
+monarch's palace made it; not so formal as we know James I. and Lord
+Bacon used to wear; but something between all these three types. The
+prevalence of straight lines in it should be avoided without its
+appearing slovenly, and its dimensions should be such as to consult
+convenience without relapsing into a homely vulgarity. Such a kind of
+hat admits of any further ornament which the fancy of the wearer may
+induce him to add; a feather, a band, a buckle, or even a plain button
+for occasionally looping up the brim on one side or other, (not two
+sides, for it would return to the old cocked hat,)&mdash;any of these
+extraneous additions would harmonize, and would be in due character
+with its shape. Such a hat would certainly be useful; and that it
+would be ornamental we have only to decide by consulting our eyes, and
+by looking at our ancestors' portraits of the seventeenth century.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another kind of covering for the head, which, for its
+peculiar purposes, seems to us more useful and more ornamental even
+than this hat; we allude to the common round travelling cap, the
+officers' undress cap in the British army. Are you going a journey?
+have you any rough work to do? have you got a headach and want
+something light? would you put on something that will not spoil by
+being pulled about, sat on, slept on, and stood on? something handy,
+useful, comfortable, and withal good-looking?&mdash;What do you do? you get
+a foraging cap. Every man looks well in a foraging cap; it harmonizes
+with every body's face: it makes the old look young, and the young
+look smart: it is, without pretence, plain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> in detail, and yet elegant
+in outline: it has no straight lines in it, and yet its curves are in
+contrast with those of the head; they run in opposite directions: and
+the shade of the cap, if it has one, emulates the decisiveness of the
+nose, and gives character to the profile of the head, just as the nose
+gives point and force to the face. Nothing so easily admits of
+suitable ornament: a plain band&mdash;a golden one&mdash;or even a coloured
+one&mdash;makes it suitable to the various ranks and occupations of men:
+while its material, admitting of infinite variety, according to the
+taste of the wearer, never injures the source of its beauty its form.
+The cap fails in only one thing; it is unfit for rainy weather; it
+will only do for dry days. Do not attempt to put a flap behind it, and
+tie it under your chin&mdash;you at once convert it into an ugly nightcap;
+its curves then imitate those of the head, and the ridiculous takes
+the place of the becoming. For three hundred days, however, out of the
+three hundred and sixty-five, such a cap may be worn with the greatest
+comfort and advantage: while, for simplicity and elegance, it has no
+rival. We exclude most vigorously all other kinds of caps; we admit
+nothing but the common round foraging cap, with a small shade over the
+eyes; we especially set our faces against the little quirked Highland
+cap, now revived, and becoming popular among the southrons. This cap
+has part of its curves&mdash;those behind the head approximating too
+closely to the curve of the skull: in fact, at the hinder part it is a
+skull-cap; whereas, the other part of the curves in front are too much
+in opposition to the outline of the face: they bend over and form an
+unpleasant contrast with the nose and chin: they are deficient in the
+shade or visor, and there is not one man in a thousand whose face they
+suit. All fancy-caps with whalebone, falling tops, angular
+projections, &amp;c., are utterly abominate; we pin our faith to the
+quiet, unsophisticated, gentlemanlike cap worn by our officers: it
+beats almost any other head-dress in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The prevailing tendency of the age is to avoid distinctions of dress
+except in the value of the material, and then only between the two
+great divisions of society&mdash;the affluent and the poor. Hence all
+ornament seems to be a superfluity, except upon occasions of public
+display or military service; and men will not now listen to any one
+who advises them to put feathers and gold lace on their hats and caps:
+they would as soon think of returning to the embroidered coats of
+their grandfathers. The principle is a good one: in the palmy days of
+Rome, the differences of dress bore no proportion to the differences
+of station; distinction in dress was the failing of the middle ages, a
+consequence of some lurking seeds of northern barbarism, which are
+only now ceasing to be propagated. We seem, like the great men of the
+Eternal City eighteen hundred years ago, to be looking more at the
+inward worth and influence of a man, than at his outward state and
+dress; and it is a good sign of the times; it is a reasonable
+inclination of the mind; but it confines the exercise of taste in
+dress. Men of the present day are determined to be plain about the
+head as well as about the body; all ornament of head-dress they have
+left to soldiers and to the fairer half of the creation:&mdash;<i>sed h&aelig;c
+hactenus</i>&mdash;we reserve our remarks on the <i>coiffures</i> of these two
+classes for another occasion.</p>
+
+<div class="right">H. L. J.</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+<h3>THE THREE GUARDSMEN.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Guardsmen have at all periods been a racketing, rollicking set of
+fellows. Whether ancients or moderns, infidels or Christians,
+pr&aelig;torians or janissaries, the <i>mousquetaires</i> and Scottish archers of
+the French Louises, or the lifeguards of "bonnie Dundee's" own
+regiment, they have always claimed, and usually enjoyed, a greater
+degree of license than is accorded to the more unpretending soldiery
+of the line. The first in the field, and the last out of it, they have
+sometimes seemed to think that, by thrashing the king's enemies, they
+acquired a right to baton his subjects, that captured cities atoned
+for the wrongs of deluded damsels, and that each extra blow struck in
+the fight, entitled them to an extra bottle in the barrack-room. On
+duty, discipline&mdash;off duty, dissipation&mdash;seems to have been the motto
+of these gentlemen; and if it be the case, that they occasionally
+forgot the former part of their device, it, on the other hand, is no
+where upon record, that they were oblivious of its latter portion.
+Fighting hard and drinking hard, living hard and dying hard, the
+bravest men and most desperate debauchees of all countries, have worn
+the uniform of guardsmen.</p>
+
+<p>Our old friend, M. Alexandre Dumas, who, if we may believe one of his
+biographers, passes twelve hours a-day in driving a goosequill for the
+entertainment and particular edification of his countrymen, found
+himself, one fine morning, desperately at a loss for something to
+write about. He is, perhaps, not the first writer of fiction who has
+been in a like predicament; and even if he were, it would be neither
+wonderful nor unpardonable, seeing that his average rate of production
+is about three volumes per month. There is a limit to all things, even
+to the imagination of a French romance writer; and M. Dumas, without
+exception the most prolific of modern scribblers, was for once hard up
+for a subject.</p>
+
+<p><i>L'h&ocirc;pital n'est pas pour les chiens</i>, says the French proverb. It
+occurred to M. Dumas, that the league or two of books in the
+Biblioth&egrave;que Royale were not placed there for the mere purpose of
+astonishing provincials, or causing English tourists to stare and lift
+up their hands in admiration; but that one of the objects of their
+preservation might well be, that they should afford suggestions to any
+distinguished <i>litt&eacute;rateur</i> who happened to be, like himself, in want
+of an idea. Emerging, therefore, from his comfortable abode in the
+Chauss&eacute;e d'Antin, he turned his steps in the direction of the royal
+library, and was soon up to his ears in dusty tomes and jaundiced
+parchments. After much research, he discovered a folio manuscript,
+numbered, as he tells us in his preface, 4772 or 4773, and purporting
+to be a memoir, by a certain Count de la F&egrave;re, of events that occurred
+in France towards the latter part of the reign of Louis the
+Thirteenth. Upon perusal, he found this MS. so interesting, that he
+applied for, and obtained permission to publish it; and the memoir in
+question saw the light under the title of <i>Les Trois Mousquetaires</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The piquant and interesting matter contained in this book, caused it
+to be much read, and numerous persons were curious to see the original
+manuscript. To their infinite surprise, however, they could obtain no
+account whatever of such a document; and what was still more
+provoking, the librarians seemed to look upon them as insane when they
+asked for it. There was much running up and down the library stairs,
+much mounting upon step-ladders, and tumbling of paper and parchment,
+much grumbling of puzzled librarians and disappointed applicants,
+until at last, the most obstinate became convinced that the aforesaid
+MS. had no existence save in the imagination of M. Dumas, who had, as
+it is vulgarly styled, "taken a rise" out of the public.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of the year 1625, a young Gascon gentleman named
+D'Artagnan, left his home to seek fortune at Paris. He was mounted on
+an ill-looking cob, some fourteen years of age&mdash;that is to say,
+within<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> four years as old as its rider; the sword which his father
+buckled on him at parting, was more remarkable for its length than its
+elegance; his purse contained fifteen crowns, and his valise a couple
+of shirts. To compensate for this meagre equipment, he rode like a
+Tartar, and fenced like a St George; and was moreover possessed of
+three qualifications invaluable to a man who has his way to make in
+the world&mdash;a clear head, a light heart, and a courage that nothing
+could daunt. One thing more he had; a letter of recommendation from
+his father to Monsieur de Treville, captain of the mousquetaires, or
+body-guards, of his Majesty Louis the Thirteenth.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly the last words of the worthy old Gascon, who was compelled by
+his poverty to send his son forth into the world thus slenderly
+provided, were an injunction to honour the King and Cardinal
+Richelieu, then in the zenith of his power, and to fight as often as
+he could get an opportunity. With such counsels yet ringing in his
+ears, it is not surprising, that before reaching Paris young
+D'Artagnan gets into a very pretty quarrel against overpowering odds,
+is somewhat maltreated, and, while senseless from the blows he has
+received, has his letter stolen from him by an emissary of the
+Cardinal, among whose political enemies M. de Treville stands in the
+foremost rank. The young adventurer, however, consoles himself for his
+loss, shakes his feathers, and arrives at Paris without further
+accident. Before entering the capital he disposes of his horse, of
+whose uncouth appearance he is heartily ashamed; and after improving
+his toilet as well as his scanty wardrobe will allow, he proceeds to
+the hotel of Monsieur de Treville, where he falls in with the three
+mousquetaires who give a title to the book, in which, however,
+D'Artagnan plays the most conspicuous and important part. He finds the
+hotel Treville throned with applicants for an audience, petitioners,
+mousquetaires, and lackeys bearing letters from persons of the first
+importance. He sends in his name, and after some delay, is admitted.
+Here is M. Dumas' account of the interview.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Monsieur de Treville was that day in a particularly bad humour;
+nevertheless he returned D'Artagnan's profound bow with a polite
+inclination of the head, and smiled at the strong Gascon accent in
+which the young man uttered his compliments. The sound recalled to his
+mind his own youth and his native country, two things of which the
+recollection is apt to make most men smile. He then waved his hand to
+D'Artagnan, as if requesting him to have a moment's patience, and
+approaching the door leading to the anteroom, he called out in an
+imperious and angry tone&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'Athos! Porthos! Aramis!'</p>
+
+<p>"Two mousquetaires, who had already attracted D'Artagnan's
+attention, left the groups of which they formed a part, and
+entered the audience chamber, of which the door was immediately
+closed behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"There was a remarkable contrast in the appearance of these two
+guardsmen. One was a man of gigantic stature, loud-voiced, and of
+stern and haughty countenance; the other, on the contrary, was of
+gentle and <i>na&iuml;ve</i> physiognomy, with smooth rosy cheeks, a soft
+expression in his black eye, a delicate mustache on his upper lip,
+white hands, and a voice and smile remarkable for their mildness.
+The bearing of these two gentlemen upon entering the presence of
+their captain, showed a happy mixture of submission and dignity,
+which excited the admiration of D'Artagnan, who was already
+disposed to look upon the mousquetaires as demigods, and upon
+their chief as an Olympic Jupiter, armed with all his thunders.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur de Treville took two or three turns up and down the
+apartment, silent, and with a contracted brow, passing each time
+before Porthos and Aramis, who remained mute and immoveable as if
+upon the parade ground. Suddenly he stopped, and measured them
+from head to foot with an angry glance.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you know what the King told me, gentlemen, and that no longer
+ago than yesternight? Do you know, I say, what his Majesty told
+me?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' replied the two guardsmen after a moment's silence. 'No,
+sir, we do not know it.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But I hope you will do us the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> honour to inform us,' said Aramis
+in his most polite tone, and with his most graceful bow.</p>
+
+<p>"'He told me that henceforward he would recruit his mousquetaires
+from among the guards of Monsieur le Cardinal.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Among the guards of Monsieur le Cardinal! And why so?' demanded
+Porthos abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"'Because he finds that his own sour wine requires to be improved
+by the admixture of some more generous liquor.'</p>
+
+<p>"The two guardsmen coloured up to the eyes. D'Artagnan felt
+uncertain whether he was standing on his head or his heels.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' continued Monsieur de Treville with increased vivacity,
+'and his Majesty is right; for, by my honour, the mousquetaires
+cut a sorry figure at the court! Monsieur le Cardinal was relating
+yesterday at the King's card-table, in a tone of condolence that
+displeased me no little, how those infernal mousquetaires, those
+<i>sabreurs</i> as he ironically called them, had forgotten themselves
+over their bottle at a tavern in the Rue Ferou, and how a patrol
+of his guards had found it necessary to arrest them. I thought he
+was going to laugh in my face as he said the words, looking at me
+all the time with his tiger-cat eyes. <i>Morbleu!</i> you ought to know
+something about it. You were amongst them; the cardinal named you.
+Mousquetaires, indeed, who allow themselves to be arrested! But it
+is my fault for not choosing my men better. What the devil
+possessed you, Aramis, to ask me for a guardsman's uniform, when a
+priest's surplice would have fitted you better? And you, Porthos,
+what is the use of your wearing that magnificent embroidered
+sword-belt, if the weapon it supports is of such small service to
+you? And Athos, I do not see Athos. Where is he?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Sir,' replied Aramis gravely, 'he is ill&mdash;very ill.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ill, say you? And of what disease?'</p>
+
+<p>"'It is feared that it is the small-pox, sir,' replied Porthos,
+who was desirous of putting in a word. 'It would be a great pity,
+for it would assuredly spoil his appearance.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The small-pox! A fine story indeed! The small-pox at his age!
+Not so! But wounded, I suppose&mdash;killed perhaps. <i>Sangdieu!</i>
+Messieurs les Mousquetaires, I insist upon your ceasing to
+frequent taverns and places of bad repute. I will have no more
+brawling and sword-playing in the public streets. I will not have
+my regiment made a laughing-stock to the Cardinal's guards, who
+are brave fellows, prudent and quiet&mdash;who do not get themselves
+into trouble, and if they did, would not allow themselves to be
+arrested. Not they! They would sooner die upon the spot than
+recede an inch. It is only the King's mousquetaires who run away
+or are taken prisoners.'</p>
+
+<p>"Porthos and Aramis trembled with rage. They would willingly have
+strangled their chief, if they had not felt that it was the great
+affection he bore them that induced him to speak thus harshly.
+They bit their lips till the blood came, and clutched the hilts of
+their swords in silent fury. Several of the guardsmen in the
+anteroom, who had heard Monsieur de Treville's summons to Athos,
+Porthos, and Aramis, and <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'susspected'">suspected</ins> what was going on, had applied
+their ears to the tapestry, and lost not a word of their captain's
+reproaches, which they repeated to those around them, who in their
+turn repeated them to their comrades on the staircase and in the
+courtyard. In an instant, from the anteroom to the street, all was
+commotion.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ha! his Majesty's mousquetaires allow themselves to be arrested
+by the Cardinal's guards!' continued Monsieur de Treville, who was
+as furious as his soldiers. 'Aha! sirs, six of his Eminence's
+guards arrest six of the King's! <i>Morbleu!</i> I have made up my mind
+what to do. I will go at once to the Louvre, resign my post as
+captain of mousquetaires, and solicit a lieutenancy in the
+Cardinal's guards; and if I am refused, <i>morbleu!</i> I will turn
+priest!'</p>
+
+<p>"At these words the murmur outside the audience chamber became an
+explosion. On all sides oaths and blasphemies were resounding.
+D'Artagnan looked about for a place to hide himself. He felt a
+strong inclination to get under the table.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, captain,' said Porthos,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> who was completely beside himself
+with rage and vexation, 'the truth is that we were six against
+six; but they attacked us treacherously; and before we could draw
+a sword, two of us were dead men, and Athos desperately wounded
+and equally useless. You know Athos, captain; well, twice he tried
+to get up, and twice he fell down again. Nevertheless, we did not
+yield ourselves prisoners; we were taken off by main force, and on
+the way to the guard-house we managed to break away from them. As
+to Athos, they thought him dead, and left him on the ground. That
+is the real truth of the matter. And what then, captain! One
+cannot win every battle. The great Pompey lost that of Pharsalia,
+and Francis I., who, from what I have heard, was no fool in the
+fighting way, got roughly handled at Pavia.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And I have the honour to assure you, sir,' said Aramis, 'that I
+killed one of the guards with his own sword, for mine was broken
+at the first onset.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I did not know that,' said Treville in a more gentle tone. 'I
+see that the Cardinal exaggerated matters.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But for heaven's sake, sir,' continued Aramis, encouraged by the
+softened manner of his commander, 'for heaven's sake, do not
+mention that Athos is wounded: he would be in despair if the King
+heard of it; and as the wound is very serious, having passed
+through the shoulder and entered the breast, it is to be
+feared....'</p>
+
+<p>"At this moment the tapestry that covered the door was raised, and
+the head of a man of noble aspect and handsome features, but
+fearfully pale, appeared below the fringe.</p>
+
+<p>"'Athos!' exclaimed the two guardsmen.</p>
+
+<p>"'Athos!' repeated Monsieur de Treville himself.</p>
+
+<p>"You asked for me, sir,' said Athos to Monsieur de Treville, in a
+calm but enfeebled voice&mdash;'my comrades told me that you asked for
+me, and I hastened to obey your summons.'</p>
+
+<p>"And so saying, the mousquetaire entered the room with a tolerably
+firm step, in full uniform and belted as usual. Monsieur de
+Treville, touched to the soul by this proof of courage, sprang to
+meet him.</p>
+
+<p>"'I was telling these gentlemen,' said he, 'that I forbid my
+mousquetaires to expose their lives without necessity; that brave
+men are very dear to the King, and his Majesty knows that his
+mousquetaires are the bravest men upon the face of the earth. Your
+hand, Athos!'</p>
+
+<p>"And without waiting for the new comer to hold out his right hand,
+Monsieur de Treville seized and pressed it energetically, not
+observing that Athos, in spite of his command over himself,
+writhed with pain, and grew each moment paler than before. The
+room-door had remained half open, and a loud murmur of
+satisfaction from without replied to the words addressed to Athos
+by Monsieur de Treville. The heads of two or three mousquetaires,
+who forgot themselves in the enthusiasm of the moment, appeared at
+the opening of the tapestry. Doubtless Monsieur de Treville was
+about to check sharply this infraction of the laws of etiquette,
+when he suddenly felt the hand of Athos contract in his, and
+looking at the guardsman, he saw that he was going to faint. At
+the same moment Athos, who had summoned all his energies to
+struggle against the sufferings he endured, was overcome by the
+torture of his wound, and fell senseless to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"'A surgeon!' cried Monsieur de Treville. 'My surgeon&mdash;the
+King's&mdash;the best! A surgeon! or, <i>sangdieu!</i> my brave Athos will
+die!'"</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The swoon of Athos had merely been occasioned by loss of blood. The
+surgeon declares there is no danger, and D'Artagnan, who has stood his
+ground with true Gascon tenacity, at length obtains an audience. The
+loss of his letter of recommendation now proves a great disadvantage
+to him. In those days of court intrigue and espionage, men were
+naturally suspicious of each other, and the mingled <i>na&iuml;vet&eacute;</i> and
+shrewdness of the young B&eacute;arnais, are causes for Monsieur de Treville
+at first suspecting him of being a spy of the Cardinal's. His
+suspicions, however, are wearing off, and he is disposed to be useful
+to D'Artagnan, although he cannot admit him into the mousquetaires&mdash;a
+noviciate of two years in some other regiment being the indispensable
+condition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> of admission into that favoured corps&mdash;when D'Artagnan,
+happening to look out of the window, starts, reddens with anger, and
+rushes to the door. He has recognised, in a passer-by, the person who
+had stolen his letter; and leaves Monsieur de Treville in doubt
+whether he has to do with a madman or with an emissary of the
+Cardinal's, who, fearing himself suspected, takes this pretext for
+effecting a retreat.</p>
+
+<p>In his hurry to leave the hotel and pursue his robber, D'Artagnan gets
+into all sorts of scrapes. On the landing-place he runs against Athos,
+who is returning home after having his wound dressed. Some hasty words
+pass, a challenge is the result, and rendezvous is taken for noon in a
+field near the Carmelite convent, then a favourite duelling ground. In
+the gateway of the courtyard, Porthos is talking with one of his
+comrades, and D'Artagnan, in trying to pass between them, gets
+entangled in the velvet cloak of the former, and discovers, what the
+guardsman had been most anxious to conceal, that the front only of his
+embroidered shoulder-belt was gold, and the back mere leather.
+Porthos, not having sufficient pistoles to purchase a whole belt, had
+gratified his vanity with half a one, and wore his cloak to conceal
+the deficiency. The young Gascon finds himself with a second duel on
+his hands, and sets himself down as a dead man. Meantime his robber
+has disappeared, and as D'Artagnan is proceeding in the direction of
+his lodging, he encounters Aramis, standing in the middle of the
+street with some other gentlemen. Furious with himself for the follies
+he has been committing, D'Artagnan has made a resolution to be all
+things to all men, at least for the hour or two that he still has to
+live; and observing that Aramis has dropped a handkerchief, and placed
+his foot upon it, he hastens to drag it from under his boot, and
+present it to him with a most gracious bow and smile. A coronet and
+cipher on the embroidered cambric attract notice, and draw down a
+shower of raillery upon the head of the mousquetaire, who, in order to
+shield the honour of a lady, is compelled to deny that the
+handkerchief is his. His companions walk away, and Aramis reproaches
+D'Artagnan with his officiousness. The Gascon blood gets up, good
+resolutions are forgotten, and a third rendezvous is the result.</p>
+
+<p>M. Dumas is never more at home than in the description of duels.
+Himself an excellent swordsman, he luxuriates and excels in the
+description of points and parries, cartes and tierces, and of the
+vigorous estocades which his heroes administer to each other. One of
+the good chapters of the book&mdash;and there are many such&mdash;is the one in
+which D'Artagnan encounters the three redoubtable champions whom he
+has so heedlessly provoked. We will endeavour, by abridgement, to lay
+it before our readers.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"D'Artagnan knew nobody at Paris, and betook himself, therefore,
+to his first rendezvous without seconds, intending to content
+himself with those whom his adversary should bring. Moreover, his
+firm intention was to make all reasonable apologies to Athos,
+fearing that there would result from this duel the usual
+consequence of an encounter between a young and vigorous man and
+a wounded and feeble one&mdash;if the former is conquered, his
+antagonist's triumph is doubled; and if he conquers, he is
+accused of taking an advantage, or of being brave at small risk.
+Besides this, either we have been unsuccessful in the exposition
+of our young adventurer's character, or the reader will have
+already perceived that D'Artagnan was no ordinary man. Thus,
+although he repeated to himself that his death was inevitable, he
+by no means made up his mind to fall an easy sacrifice, as one
+less cool and courageous than himself might perhaps have done. He
+reflected on the different characters of the three men with whom
+he had to fight, and began to think that his case was not so
+desperate as it might have been. He hoped, by the candid and
+loyal apology which he intended to offer, to make himself a
+friend of Athos, whose austere mien and noble air pleased him
+greatly. He flattered himself that he should be able to
+intimidate Porthos by the affair of the shoulder-belt, which he
+could, if not killed upon the spot, relate to every body, and
+which would cover the giant with ridicule. Finally, he did not
+feel much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> afraid of Aramis, and he resolved, if he lived long
+enough, either to kill him, or at least to administer to him a
+wound in the face, that would considerably impair the beauty of
+which he was evidently so proud.</p>
+
+<p>"When D'Artagnan arrived in sight of the waste land adjoining the
+convent of barefooted Carmelites, noon was striking, and Athos
+was already on the ground. The guardsman, who still suffered
+cruelly from his wound, was seated on a post, and awaiting his
+adversary with the calm countenance and dignified air that never
+abandoned him. Upon D'Artagnan's appearance, he rose courteously,
+and advanced a few steps to meet him. Our Gascon, on his side,
+made his approach hat in hand, the plume trailing on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"'Sir,' said Athos, 'I have given notice to two gentlemen to act
+as my seconds, but they are not come. I am surprised at it, for
+they are usually punctual.'</p>
+
+<p>"'For my part, sir,' returned D'Artagnan, 'I have no seconds. I
+arrived in Paris yesterday, and know no one but Monsieur de
+Treville, to whom I was recommended by my father, who has the
+honour to be a friend of his.'</p>
+
+<p>"Athos glanced at the beardless chin and youthful mien of his
+adversary, and seemed to reflect for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>Ah &ccedil;a</i>!' said he at last, speaking half to himself and half to
+D'Artagnan; '<i>ah &ccedil;a</i>! but if I kill you, it will be something
+very like child-murder.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Not exactly, sir,' replied D'Artagnan, with a bow that was not
+without its dignity; 'not exactly, sir, since you do me the
+honour to meet me with a wound by which you must be greatly
+inconvenienced.'</p>
+
+<p>"Inconvenienced certainly, and you hurt me terribly, I must
+acknowledge, when you ran against me just now; but I will use my
+left hand, according to my custom in such circumstances. Do not
+suppose on that account that I am sparing you; I fight decently
+with both hands, and a left-handed swordsman is an awkward
+antagonist when one is not prepared for him. I am sorry I did not
+tell you of it sooner, that you might have got your hand in
+accordingly.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Truly, sir,' said D'Artagnan, with another bow, 'I know not how
+to express my gratitude for such courtesy.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You are too obliging to say so,' returned Athos, with his
+princely air; 'let us talk of something else, if not disagreeable
+to you. Ah, <i>sangbleu</i>! you hurt me terribly! My shoulder burns.'</p>
+
+<p>"'If you would permit me,' said D'Artagnan, timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"'What then, sir?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I have a balm that is wonderfully efficacious in the cure of
+wounds. I hold the recipe from my mother, and have myself
+experienced its good effects.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Well?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, I am sure that in less than three days it would heal your
+wound; and at the end of that time, sir, it would still be a
+great honour for me to meet you.'</p>
+
+<p>"D'Artagnan said these words with a simplicity that did credit to
+his natural courtesy of feeling, at the same time that it could
+not give rise to the slightest doubt of his courage.</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>Pardieu</i>, sir!' said Athos, 'your proposition pleases me, not
+that I can accept it, but because it is that of a chivalrous
+gentleman. It is thus that spoke and acted those heroes of
+Charlemagne's days, on whom every cavalier should strive to model
+himself. Unfortunately we do not live in the times of the great
+emperor, but in those of Cardinal Richelieu; and however well we
+might keep our secret, it would be known before three days had
+elapsed that we intended to fight, and our duel would be
+prevented. <i>Ah &ccedil;a</i>! where can those idlers be?'</p>
+
+<p>"'If you are in haste, sir,' resumed D'Artagnan with the same
+simplicity with which he had a moment before proposed to put off
+the duel for three days&mdash;'if you are pressed for time, and that
+it pleases you to finish with me at once, let me beg of you to do
+so.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Another proposal that I like,' said Athos with an approving nod
+of the head; 'it is that of a man lacking neither wit nor valour.
+Sir, I like men of your stamp; and I see that if we do not kill
+one another, I shall hereafter have much pleasure in your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+society. But let us wait for these gentlemen, I beg of you. I
+have plenty of time, and it will be more according to rule. Ha!
+here comes one of them.'</p>
+
+<p>"At that moment the gigantic form of Porthos appeared at the
+extremity of the Rue Vaugirard.</p>
+
+<p>"'What!' cried D'Artagnan, 'Monsieur Porthos is one of your
+seconds?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes; is it disagreeable to you?'</p>
+
+<p>"'By no means.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And here is the other.'</p>
+
+<p>"D'Artagnan turned his head and recognised Aramis.</p>
+
+<p>"'What!' he exclaimed in still greater astonishment, 'Monsieur
+Aramis is the other?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly; do you not know that we are never seen asunder, and
+are known in court, camp, and city, as Athos, Porthos, and
+Aramis, or the three inseparables? But you are just arrived from
+Gascony, which accounts for your being unacquainted with these
+circumstances.'</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile Porthos, who had abandoned his cloak and changed his
+shoulder-belt, approached, nodded to Athos, but on beholding
+D'Artagnan, remained struck with astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"'This is the gentleman I am to fight with,' said Athos
+indicating D'Artagnan with his hand, at the same time bowing to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"'It is with him that I am to fight,' said Porthos.</p>
+
+<p>"'Not till one o'clock,' said D'Artagnan.</p>
+
+<p>"'And I also,' said Aramis, who just then came up.</p>
+
+<p>"'Our appointment was for two o'clock,' said D'Artagnan with
+perfect composure.</p>
+
+<p>"'What are you going to fight about, Athos?' asked Aramis.</p>
+
+<p>"'Faith, I can hardly tell you. He hurt my shoulder. And you,
+Porthos?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I fight because I am so minded,' replied Porthos colouring.</p>
+
+<p>"Athos, whom nothing escaped, saw a slight smile curling
+D'Artagnan's lip.</p>
+
+<p>"'We had a dispute about dress,' said the young Gascon.</p>
+
+<p>"'And you, Aramis?' asked Athos.</p>
+
+<p>"'A theological difference,' replied Aramis, making a sign to
+D'Artagnan that he wished the cause of their duel to remain a
+secret.</p>
+
+<p>"'Indeed!' said Athos looking at D'Artagnan.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, a point of St Augustin on which we are not agreed,' said
+the latter.</p>
+
+<p>"'Decidedly he is a man of wit and sense,' muttered Athos to
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"'And now that you are all assembled, gentlemen,' said
+D'Artagnan, 'allow me to apologise to you.'</p>
+
+<p>"At the word apologise, a cloud passed across the features of
+Athos, Porthos smiled contemptuously, Aramis made a negative
+sign.</p>
+
+<p>"'You do not understand me, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan raising
+his head proudly. 'I only apologise in case I should not be able
+to pay my debt to all of you; for Monsieur Athos has the right to
+kill me the first, which greatly diminishes the value of my debt
+to you, Monsieur Porthos, and renders that to Monsieur Aramis
+nearly worthless. And now, gentlemen, I say again, accept my
+apologies, but on that account only&mdash;and to work!'</p>
+
+<p>"And so saying, he drew his sword with the most fearless and
+gallant mien possible to be seen. His blood was up, and at that
+moment he would have fought not only Athos, Porthos, and Aramis,
+but the whole regiment of mousquetaires.</p>
+
+<p>"'When you please, sir,' said Athos, putting himself on guard.</p>
+
+<p>"'I was waiting your orders,' returned D'Artagnan.</p>
+
+<p>"But the two rapiers had scarcely clashed together, when five of
+the Cardinal's guards, commanded by Monsieur de Jussac, appeared
+from behind a corner of the convent.</p>
+
+<p>"'The Cardinal's guards!' exclaimed Porthos and Aramis. 'Sheath
+your swords, gentlemen!'</p>
+
+<p>"But it was too late. The combatants had been seen in an attitude
+that left no doubt as to their pugnacious intentions.</p>
+
+<p>"'Hola!' cried Jussac advancing towards them, followed by his
+men. 'Hola, mousquetaires! fighting here? And the edicts. We have
+forgotten them, eh?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Your generosity is really remarkable, gentlemen of the
+guards,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> said Athos bitterly, for Jussac had been one of the
+aggressors in the recent affray. 'I promise you that if we saw
+you fighting we would not interrupt you. Leave us alone, then,
+and you will have your amusement for nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Gentlemen,' said Jussac, 'I am grieved to tell you that the
+thing is impossible. Duty before every thing. Be pleased to
+sheath your swords, and follow us.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Sir,' replied Aramis, parodying Jussac's manner, 'we should
+have the greatest pleasure in accepting your polite invitation,
+if it depended upon us so to do, but unfortunately the thing is
+impossible; Monsieur de Treville has forbidden it. Move on,
+therefore; it is the best thing you can do.'</p>
+
+<p>"This bantering exasperated Jussac. 'We will charge you,' said
+he, 'if you disobey.'</p>
+
+<p>"'They are five,' said Athos in a low voice, 'and we are but
+three; we shall be beaten again, and we must die here; for I
+swear not to reappear before the captain if conquered.'</p>
+
+<p>"Athos, Porthos, and Aramis drew closer to each other. Jussac was
+arranging his men in line. This single moment of delay was
+sufficient for D'Artagnan to make up his mind; it was one of
+those moments that decide a man's whole life. The choice was to
+be made between King and Cardinal, and, once made, it must be
+persevered in. If he fought, he disobeyed the law, risked his
+head, and made an enemy of a minister more powerful than the king
+himself. All these considerations passed like lightning through
+the mind of the young Gascon; but, be it said to his honour, he
+did not hesitate an instant. Turning towards Athos and his
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>"'Gentlemen,' said he, 'allow me to amend the words last spoken.
+You said you were only three, but to my thinking we are four.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But you are not one of us,' said Porthos.</p>
+
+<p>"'True,' replied D'Artagnan, 'I have not the coat; but I have the
+spirit. In my heart I am a mousquetaire&mdash;I feel it, and that
+leads me on.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You may retire, young man,' cried Jussac, who doubtless guessed
+D'Artagnan's intentions by his gestures and the expression of his
+face. 'You may retire, we permit it. Be-gone, then, and quickly.'</p>
+
+<p>"D'Artagnan did not stir.</p>
+
+<p>"'Decidedly you are a fine fellow,' said Athos, pressing the
+young man's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"But the three mousquetaires thought of D'Artagnan's youth, and
+distrusted his inexperience.</p>
+
+<p>"'We should only be three, of whom one wounded, and a child,'
+said Athos; 'but they will say all the same, that there were four
+of us.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, 'only try me, and I swear by my
+honour that if we are conquered I will not leave the ground
+alive.'</p>
+
+<p>"'What is your name, my brave fellow?' said Athos.</p>
+
+<p>"'D'Artagnan, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, then, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan, forwards!'
+cried Athos.</p>
+
+<p>"'What do you decide to do?' cried Jussac.</p>
+
+<p>"'We are going to have the honour of charging you,' said Aramis,
+raising his hat with one hand and drawing his sword with the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"And the nine combatants precipitated themselves on each other
+with a fury that did not exclude a certain degree of method.
+Athos took one Cahusac, a favourite of the Cardinal's; Porthos
+had Bicarat; and Aramis found himself opposed to two adversaries.
+As to D'Artagnan, he encountered Jussac himself.</p>
+
+<p>"The heart of the young Gascon beat high, not with fear, there
+was no shadow of it, but with emulation; he fought like an
+enraged tiger, turning about his enemy, changing each moment his
+ground and his guard. Jussac was one of the good blades of the
+day, and had had much practice; but he had, nevertheless, all the
+difficulty in the world to defend himself against a supple and
+active antagonist, who was constantly deviating from the received
+rules of fencing, attacking him on all sides at once, and
+parrying, at the same time, like a man who had the greatest
+regard for his epidermis. At last Jussac lost patience. Furious
+at being thus kept at bay by one whom he looked upon as a child,
+his <i>sang-froid</i> abandoned him, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> began to commit blunders.
+D'Artagnan, who, although lacking practice, was perfect in
+theory, redoubled his agility. Jussac, with the design of
+finishing him at once, delivered a terrible thrust, which
+D'Artagnan parried adroitly, and, before his opponent could raise
+himself, he glided like a serpent under his guard, and passed his
+sword through his body. Jussac fell heavily to the earth.</p>
+
+<p>"D'Artagnan now cast an uneasy and rapid glance over the field of
+battle. Aramis had already killed one of his adversaries. The
+other gave him plenty to do, but Aramis was able to take care of
+himself. Bicarat and Porthos were wounded; Porthos in the arm,
+and Bicarat in the thigh. But neither wound was serious, and the
+sight of their blood made them fight all the better. There was no
+need to interfere there. Athos, wounded again by Cahusac, was
+growing each moment paler, but he did not give way an inch. He
+had changed his sword to his left hand. D'Artagnan caught his eye
+as he was looking to see who most required his aid. The look of
+the wounded mousquetaire was most eloquent; he would have died
+sooner than call for assistance, but his glance said how much he
+stood in need of it. With a single bound, D'Artagnan was upon
+Cahusac's flank.</p>
+
+<p>"'Have a care, sir guardsman,' cried he, 'or I slay you on the
+spot.'</p>
+
+<p>"Cahusac turned to face his new opponent. It was high time, for
+Athos, who had only been sustained by his extreme courage, sank
+upon one knee.</p>
+
+<p>"'<i>Sangdieu!</i>' cried he to D'Artagnan, 'do not kill him, young
+man, I beg of you; I have an old quarrel to terminate with him
+when my wound is healed. Disarm him only&mdash;So&mdash;Well done!'</p>
+
+<p>"This last exclamation was caused by Cahusac's sword, which flew
+from his hand to a distance of twenty paces. D'Artagnan and
+Cahusac rushed to pick it up, but D'Artagnan reached it first,
+and put his foot upon it. Cahusac ran to the guardsman whom
+Aramis had killed, took his rapier, and was returning to
+D'Artagnan; but on his road he met Athos, who had taken breath
+during the moment's respite which the latter had procured him,
+and now recommenced the fight, fearing that the Gascon would kill
+his enemy. D'Artagnan saw that he should disoblige him by again
+interfering. A few seconds later, Cahusac fell with a wound
+through the throat. At the same moment Aramis placed his sword's
+point on the breast of his prostrate adversary, and forced him to
+sue for mercy.</p>
+
+<p>"Porthos and Bicarat alone remained. Porthos, while fighting,
+indulged in all sorts of fanfarronades, asking Bicarat what time
+of day it was, and complimenting him on the company which his
+brother had just attained in the regiment of Navarre. In spite of
+his jests, however, he did not gain ground. Bicarat was a
+stubborn and skilful opponent. It was time to bring matters to a
+conclusion before some patrol should arrive, and take both
+royalists and cardinalists into custody. Athos, Aramis, and
+D'Artagnan, surrounded Bicarat, and summoned him to surrender.
+Although alone against four, and with a wound through the thigh,
+he would not give in, though Jussac, who had raised himself on
+his elbow, called out to him to yield. Bicarat was a Gascon, like
+D'Artagnan; he only laughed, and pretended not to hear, at the
+same time pointing to the ground at his feet. 'Here will die
+Bicarat,' said he, 'the last of those who are with him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But they are four against you,' cried Jussac; 'I order you to
+desist.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah, if you order me, it is another affair!' said Bicarat; 'you
+are my superior, and I must obey.'</p>
+
+<p>"And giving a spring backwards, he broke his sword across his
+knee, in order not to yield it up, threw the pieces over the
+convent wall, and, crossing his arms, whistled a Cardinalist air.</p>
+
+<p>"Courage is always respected even in an enemy. The mousquetaires
+saluted Bicarat with their swords, and returned them to their
+scabbards. D'Artagnan did the same, and, assisted by Bicarat, he
+carried under the convent porch Jussac, Cahusac, and that one of
+Aramis's adversaries who was only wounded. The other, as already
+observed, was dead. They then rang the bell, and left the ground;
+the mousquetaires and D'Artagnan,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> intoxicated with joy, carrying
+away four swords out of five, and taking the direction of
+Monsieur de Treville's hotel. Every mousquetaire whom they met,
+and informed of what had happened, turned back and accompanied
+them; so that at last their march was like a triumphal
+procession. D'Artagnan was beside himself with delight; he walked
+between Athos and Porthos, holding an arm of each.</p>
+
+<p>"'If I am not yet a mousquetaire,' said he to his new friends, as
+they crossed the threshold of the Hotel Treville, 'I may at least
+say that I am received apprentice.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The result of this affair is to procure D'Artagnan the favour of
+Monsieur de Treville and the King&mdash;the latter of whom dislikes the
+Cardinal in secret nearly as much as he fears him. The young Gascon
+has an audience of Louis the Just, who recruits his finances by the
+present of a handful of pistoles; and a few days later he is appointed
+to a cadetship in the company of guards of the Chevalier des Essarts,
+a brother-in-law of Treville. According to the singular ideas of those
+days, there was nothing degrading to a gentleman in receiving money
+from the king's hand. D'Artagnan, therefore, pockets the pistoles with
+many thanks, and takes an early opportunity of dividing them with his
+friends with the mythological names, Messieurs Athos, Porthos, and
+Aramis, who, according to the custom of mousquetaires, have more gold
+upon their coats than in their purses. The courage and good qualities
+of the Gascon have won the hearts of the three guardsmen, and he is
+admitted to make a fourth in their brotherhood, of which the motto is,
+"<i>Un pour tous, et tous pour un</i>." All is in common amongst
+them&mdash;pleasures, perils, pistoles.</p>
+
+<p>The characters of the three mousquetaires are well sketched and
+sustained, and illustrate admirably the vices, virtues, and
+propensities of their time and station. Aramis, who was originally
+intended for the church, has relinquished the black coat of an abb&eacute; in
+order to fight a nobleman who had insulted him. He still, however,
+persists in considering himself as a guardsman only <i>pro tempore</i>; and
+whenever fortune or his mistress frowns upon him, he declares his
+intention of abandoning his sinful mode of life, and throwing himself
+into the arms of mother church. Vanity is the failing of Porthos, who
+shines more by his imposing appearance, brilliant attire, and bull-dog
+courage, than by any qualities of the head. To Athos, who is the most
+interesting of the three, a certain mystery is attached, which,
+however, is seen through early in the book. He is a man of high birth,
+princely manners, and chivalrous feeling, but whose stormy life has
+cast a strong tinge of melancholy over his character, and who now
+finds his sole consolation in the wine-cup. It must not be therefore
+supposed that Athos is a sot, a wallower in wine, or a haunter of
+tavern orgies. He drinks, it is true, enough to prostrate any three
+ordinary men; but he takes his liquor, as he does every thing else, so
+much like a gentleman, and, moreover, there is so much self-devotion
+and generosity in his character, such dignity of manner and rectitude
+of feeling&mdash;his temper so even and kindly&mdash;his courage so heroic&mdash;that
+he is unquestionably the most amiable and interesting of the <i>dramatis
+person&aelig;</i>, preferable to D'Artagnan, to whom premature worldly wisdom
+gives a hardness bordering upon egotism. While Aramis is sighing
+sonnets to his mistress, and Porthos parading on the crown of the
+causeway in all the glory of gold lace and embroidery, Athos sits
+tranquilly at home, and says, like Gregory in the Deserter&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"J'aime mieux boire."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>His real name&mdash;for Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are merely assumed
+ones&mdash;is known only to the King and to Monsieur de Treville.</p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult within the limits of this paper to give an idea
+of the entire plot of the <i>Three Mousquetaires</i>, which is, in fact,
+less a tale with a regular intrigue and <i>d&eacute;nouement</i>, than a narrative
+of adventures and incidents, extending over a period of nearly three
+years. D'Artagnan, whose enterprising character and Gascon acuteness
+qualify him admirably to take a part in the court intrigues of the
+time, soon finds himself almost at open war with the Cardinal, and
+en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>gaged in serving the interests of Louis the Thirteenth's unhappy
+queen, Anne of Austria, who, by rejecting the suit of the scarlet
+duke&mdash;as the mousquetaires irreverently style the Cardinal Duke of
+Richelieu&mdash;has drawn upon herself the deadly hatred of that omnipotent
+personage. The Duke of Buckingham, who is madly in love with the
+queen, visits Paris in disguise, and obtains an interview with her. At
+parting, he implores her to give him some trifle, which he may
+preserve as a <i>souvenir</i> of their attachment; and Anne of Austria
+gives him the first thing that comes to hand, which happens to be a
+jewel-case, containing twelve diamond clasps or <i>ferrets</i> that she has
+lately received from the King. The Cardinal, omnipresent by his spies,
+learns this; manages adroitly to rouse the king's jealousy; and
+prevails on him to give a ball, at which the queen is desired to
+appear, wearing the ferrets in question. Anne of Austria is in
+despair. To obtain the restitution of the jewels within the eight days
+that have to elapse before the one fixed for the ball, appears
+impossible. Buckingham is in England; if she writes, her letter will
+be intercepted by the Cardinal; if she sends, her messenger will be
+stopped. Nothing could at that time be done in France without coming
+to the knowledge of Richelieu. In her extremity she is induced to
+confide in one of her attendants, with whom D'Artagnan is in love; and
+a few hours later, the intrepid Gascon and his three inseparable
+friends set out for England, provided with a leave of absence from
+Monsieur de Treville, and attended by their four lackeys. D'Artagnan
+alone knows the object of their journey; but the others, confiding
+implicitly in his judgment, and bound, moreover, by the rules of their
+association, ask no questions, and willingly brave the dangers that
+the Cardinal strews in their path. It is agreed that, in case of
+rencontres by the way, the dead or wounded are to be left to their
+fate, and the others are to push on without an instant's delay. Should
+D'Artagnan fall, the survivors are to take from his pocket the queen's
+letter to Buckingham, and continue their route.</p>
+
+<p>The adventurers are not allowed to proceed far without molestation.
+They stop to breakfast, and a stranger picks a quarrel with Porthos,
+who stays behind to fight him, and does not rejoin them. Near Beauvais
+they receive a volley from some pretended labourers; D'Artagnan's hat
+is knocked off by a ball; a lackey is left in the road, and Aramis is
+badly wounded, and obliged to remain at the next town. D'Artagnan,
+Athos, and their two attendants, reach Amiens at midnight, and stop to
+sleep at the sign of the Golden Lily. Here various suspicious
+incidents occur, and in the morning their horses are found to be
+dead-lame, and unable to proceed. One that might still have gone on
+has been bled by mistake.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"All these accidents succeeding each other began to alarm our
+travellers; they might be the result of chance, but they were
+more probably that of an organized plot. Athos and <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'd'Artagnan'">D'Artagnan</ins>
+left their room, while Planchet (D'Artagnan's groom) went to
+enquire whether there were any horses to be bought in the
+neighbourhood. At the door were standing two vigorous animals,
+saddled and bridled, and which would have suited the guardsmen
+well. Planchet asked to whom they belonged, and was told that
+their masters had passed the night at the inn, and were then
+paying their score previous to departure. Athos went to do the
+same, while D'Artagnan and Planchet remained at the street door.</p>
+
+<p>"The host was in a small back room, which Athos was requested to
+enter. He did so without suspicion, and took out some pistoles to
+pay. The innkeeper, who was seated at a desk, of which one of the
+drawers was half-open, took the money, turned it about, and
+examined it on all sides, and suddenly exclaiming that it was
+false, declared that he would have Athos and his companion
+arrested as coiners.</p>
+
+<p>"'Scoundrel!' cried Athos, advancing towards him; 'I will cut
+your ears off for your insolence.'</p>
+
+<p>"But the man stooped down, took a brace of pistols out of the
+open drawer, and pointing them at Athos, called loudly for help.
+On the instant four armed men entered by a side-door, and
+attacked Athos.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>"'I am taken!' cried the mousquetaire, with all the power of his
+lungs. 'To horse, D'Artagnan! Spur! spur!'</p>
+
+<p>"And he fired both his pistols. D'Artagnan and Planchet untied
+the two horses that were waiting at the door, sprang upon their
+backs, and set off full gallop.</p>
+
+<p>"By dint of spurring and precaution, D'Artagnan and his follower
+reach Calais without further accident; the horse of the former
+falling dead within a hundred yards of the town. They hasten to
+the port, and find themselves close to a gentleman and his
+servant, dusty and travel-stained, who are enquiring for a vessel
+to take them to England. The master of a sloop that is ready to
+sail informs them, that an order had arrived that very morning to
+prevent any ship from leaving the harbour without an express
+permission from the Cardinal.</p>
+
+<p>"'I have that permission,' said the gentleman, taking a paper
+from his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"'Very good!' said the sailor. 'Get it countersigned by the
+governor of the port, and give me the preference.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Where shall I find the governor?'</p>
+
+<p>"'At his country-house, a quarter of a league from the town. You
+see it yonder. A slated roof at the foot of a little hill.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The gentleman and his attendant take the direction of the governor's
+house. D'Artagnan follows them; picks a quarrel with the stranger, who
+is a certain Count de Wardes, an adherent of the Cardinal's, wounds
+him desperately, himself receiving a scratch, takes the pass, gets it
+countersigned, and proceeds to England. The Duke of Buckingham is
+hunting at Windsor with the king; but the indefatigable Gascon follows
+him thither, and delivers his letter. The duke hurries with him to
+London to give him the ferrets; but, to his unspeakable consternation,
+finds that two out of the twelve are missing. They had been cut from
+his dress by an emissary of the Cardinal's at a ball at Windsor
+Castle, at which he had worn the queen's present. The ferrets are of
+immense value, and difficult workmanship. Buckingham sends for his
+jeweller, who demands eight days and three thousand pistoles to
+replace the missing ornaments. The duke locks him up in a room, with
+his tools and a workman, and allows him six thousand pistoles, and
+thirty-six hours to complete then. The ferrets are ready within the
+prescribed period. Furnished with a password from the duke, who has
+trusty agents in France, D'Artagnan reaches Paris by a different road
+and without impediment, arriving in time to save the queen, who
+appears at the ball with her twelve ferrets, to the vast discomfiture
+of the Cardinal. Meanwhile D'Artagnan's mistress had been spirited
+away by Richelieu, and the young Gascon is in despair. He confides his
+misfortunes to Monsieur de Treville, who promises to do what he can to
+find the lady, and advises D'Artagnan to leave Paris till the
+Cardinal's wrath is a little blown over. D'Artagnan takes his advice;
+bethinks him of the three mousquetaires, and sets out to look for
+them. He finds Porthos and Aramis where he left them, nearly recovered
+from their wounds; and proceeding to Amiens, enters the hotel of the
+Golden Lily, and confronts the host&mdash;his whip in his right hand, his
+left on his sword-hilt, and evidently meaning mischief.</p>
+
+<p>The innkeeper, however, turns out to be more an object of pity than
+blame. Previously to the arrival of D'Artagnan and Athos on their way
+to England, he had received information from the authorities, that a
+party of coiners, disguised as guardsmen, would arrive at his inn, and
+that he was to take measures to arrest them. The six men who brought
+him these orders disguised themselves as servants and stable-boys, and
+remained to assist in the capture. In the skirmish, Athos shot two of
+them, wounded a third, cut the host across the face with the flat of
+his sword, and retreated fighting to the cellar stairs. Entering the
+cellar, he pulled the door to and barricaded it. His assailants left
+the house, carrying off their killed and wounded; and when the
+innkeeper, recovering a little from his alarm, went to inform the
+governor of what had occurred, the latter declared himself totally
+ignorant of the whole business, denied that he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> given orders to
+arrest any coiners, and threatened to hang the unlucky host if he
+mixed up his name in the affair.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'But, Athos!' cried D'Artagnan, losing all patience at the
+innkeeper's prolixity,&mdash;'Athos, what is become of him?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I was eager to repair my wrongs towards the gentleman,' replied
+the innkeeper, 'and hurried to the cellar to set him at liberty.
+But on my declaring what I came for, he swore it was only a snare
+laid for him, and insisted upon making his conditions before he
+came out. I told him very humbly&mdash;for I was aware of the scrape
+into which I had got myself by my violence towards one of the
+King's mousquetaires&mdash;that I was ready to submit to them.'</p>
+
+<p>"'In the first place,' said he, 'I must have my servant delivered
+to me, fully armed.'</p>
+
+<p>"His order was obeyed, and Monsieur Grimaud was taken down to the
+cellar, wounded as he was. His master received him, barricaded
+the door again, and bid us go to the devil.</p>
+
+<p>"'But where is he?' cried D'Artagnan. 'Where is Athos?'</p>
+
+<p>"'In the cellar, sir.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Scoundrel! you have kept him all this time in the cellar?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Good heavens, sir! <i>I</i> keep him in the cellar! You do not know
+what he is doing there, or you would not suppose it. If you can
+prevail upon him to come out, I shall be grateful to you to the
+last day of my life; I will adore you as my guardian angel.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I shall find him there, then?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly you will, sir&mdash;he won't come out. Every day we are
+obliged to hand him down bread at the end of a hay-fork, and meat
+too, when he asks for it. But, alas! it is not of bread and meat
+that he makes the largest consumption. I tried once to enter the
+cellar with two of my servants, and he put himself in a most
+terrible passion. I heard him and his lackey cocking their
+pistols and carbine; and when we asked what their intentions
+were, your friend said that they had forty shots to fire, and
+that they would fire every one before allowing us to enter the
+cellar. I then went to complain to the governor, and he told me
+that I had only got what I deserved, and that it would teach me
+to maltreat honourable gentlemen who used my house.'</p>
+
+<p>"'So that, since that time....' said D'Artagnan, who could not
+help laughing at the pitiable countenance of the host.</p>
+
+<p>"'Since that time, sir,' continued the latter, 'we lead the most
+wretched life imaginable; for you must know that all our
+provisions are in the cellar, our wine in bottle and our wine in
+cask, beer, oil, and spices, hams and sausages; and as we cannot
+get at them, we are unable to give food or drink to the
+travellers who alight here, and our inn is losing all its custom.
+If your friend stops one week longer in my cellar, I am a ruined
+man.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And quite right that you should be, scoundrel! It was easy to
+see by our appearance, that we were men of quality and not
+coiners.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sir, you are right,' replied poor Boniface. 'But only
+listen to him, he is getting into a passion.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Doubtless somebody has disturbed him,' said D'Artagnan.</p>
+
+<p>"'We are obliged to disturb him,' cried the host; 'two English
+gentlemen have just arrived. The English, as you know, love good
+wine, and these have asked for the best. My wife is gone to beg
+Monsieur Athos to let her in, and he has no doubt refused as
+usual. Holy Virgin! What a racket he is making.'</p>
+
+<p>"D'Artagnan rose from his seat, and followed by the host and by
+Planchet with his cocked carbine, took the direction of the
+cellar, whence a tremendous noise was proceeding. The Englishmen
+were exasperated; they had just come off a long journey, and were
+dying of hunger and thirst.</p>
+
+<p>"'It is perfect tyranny,' cried they in very good French, 'that
+this madman will not allow these good people the use of their
+wine. But we will break open the door, and if he is too furious,
+we will kill him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Not so fast, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, drawing his pistols
+from his belt. 'You will kill nobody, if you please.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Let them come,' said Athos, in his usual calm voice, from the
+other side of the door, 'let them come in, and we shall see.'</p>
+
+<p>"Brave as they appeared to be, the two Englishmen hesitated and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+looked at one another. One might almost have supposed that the
+cellar was garrisoned by one of those hungry ogres of the fairy
+tale, whose cavern no one could enter with impunity. There was a
+moment's silence; but the Englishmen were ashamed to retreat, and
+one of them, descending the five or six steps leading to the
+cellar, gave the door a kick that made it rattle on its hinges.</p>
+
+<p>"'Planchet,' said D'Artagnan, cocking his pistols, 'you take the
+one at the bottom of the stairs; I will take the other. Since you
+are for a fight, gentlemen, you shall have a bellyfull.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Is that D'Artagnan's voice?' cried Athos.</p>
+
+<p>"'It is,' replied the Gascon.</p>
+
+<p>"'Very good,' said Athos, 'we will work them a little, these
+door-breakers.'</p>
+
+<p>"'A moment's patience, Athos,' said D'Artagnan. 'Gentlemen,' he
+continued, turning to the Englishmen, 'you are between two fires.
+My servant and myself have three shots to fire, you will receive
+as many from the cellar, besides which we have got our swords,
+with the use of which, I can assure you, my friend and myself are
+tolerably well acquainted. Allow me to arrange matters. I give
+you my word that you shall have some wine just now.'</p>
+
+<p>"'If there is any left,' growled Athos in a tone of raillery.</p>
+
+<p>"'What does he mean&mdash;if there is any left?' cried the host, who
+felt a cold perspiration break out all over him.</p>
+
+<p>"'Nonsense, there will be some left,' replied D'Artagnan; 'two
+men cannot have drunk the whole cellar out.'</p>
+
+<p>"The Englishmen sheathed their swords, and D'Artagnan related to
+them the history of the imprisonment of Athos, upon hearing which
+they greatly blamed the innkeeper.</p>
+
+<p>"'Now, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, 'if you will be pleased to
+return to your apartment, in ten minutes you shall have what you
+require.'</p>
+
+<p>"The Englishmen bowed and retired.</p>
+
+<p>"'I am alone, my dear Athos,' said D'Artagnan.&mdash;'Open the door.'</p>
+
+<p>"There was a great noise of fagots and beams falling down; the
+besieged was demolishing his counter-scarps and bastions. The
+next moment the door opened, and the pale face of the
+mousquetaire appeared. D'Artagnan sprang forward and embraced
+him, but when he tried to lead him out of the cellar, he
+perceived that Athos staggered.</p>
+
+<p>"'You are wounded?' cried he.</p>
+
+<p>"'I! not the least,' was the reply. 'I am dead drunk, that is
+all, and never did any man better deserve to be so. Fore God!
+mine host, I have drunk for my share, at least one hundred and
+fifty bottles.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Heaven have mercy on me!' cried the host. 'If the servant has
+drunk half as much as the master, I am a ruined man.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Grimaud knows his place too well to drink the same wine as his
+master; he has drunk from the cask. By-the-by, I think he must
+have forgotten to put in the spigot&mdash;I hear a running.'</p>
+
+<p>"D'Artagnan burst into a fit of laughter. The innkeeper was in a
+high fever. Just then Grimaud showed himself behind his master,
+his carbine on his shoulder, and his head shaking like that of
+the drunken satyr in some of Rubens' pictures. His clothes were
+smeared with an unctuous liquid, which the host immediately
+recognized as his best olive oil.</p>
+
+<p>"D'Artagnan and Athos now crossed the common room, and installed
+themselves in the best apartment of the hotel; while the
+innkeeper and his wife lighted lamps, and rushed into the cellar,
+where a frightful spectacle awaited them. In rear of the
+fortifications, in which Athos had made a breach for his exit,
+and which were composed of fagots, planks, and empty casks,
+arranged according to all the rules of strategy, were numerous
+pools of oil and wine, in which the bones of the hams that had
+been eaten were lying. In one corner was a pile of broken
+bottles, and in another a huge cask of wine was just yielding up
+the last drops of its blood. Out of fifty large sausages that had
+been suspended to the beams of the roof, ten only were remaining.
+The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> image of devastation and death, as the ancient poet said,
+reigned there as upon a field of battle."</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>With characteristic generosity and <i>insouciance</i>, Athos forgives the
+host, and compensates him for the damage done to his property. The two
+guardsmen then sit down to drink, and D'Artagnan tells his friend of
+the misfortune he has had in the loss of his mistress.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Your misfortune makes me laugh,' said Athos, shrugging his
+shoulders. 'I wonder what you would say to a love story that I
+could tell you.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Something that happened to yourself?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Or to one of my friends; no matter.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Tell it me.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I would rather drink.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You can do both.'</p>
+
+<p>"'True,' said Athos, filling his glass; 'the two things go well
+together.'</p>
+
+<p>"The mousquetaire paused, and seemed to be collecting his
+thoughts; and as he did so, D'Artagnan observed that he grew each
+moment paler. He had reached that stage of intoxication at which
+ordinary drinkers fall under the table and sleep. Athos, however,
+did not do that; he dreamed aloud without sleeping. There was
+something frightful in this somnambulism of drunkenness.</p>
+
+<p>"'One of my friends,' he began&mdash;'one of my friends, mind you, not
+myself,' interrupted he with a gloomy smile; 'a count of my
+province, that is to say of Berri, noble as a Dandolo or a
+Montmorency, fell in love when twenty-five years of age, with a
+young girl of seventeen, beautiful as painters have depicted
+Venus. Joined to the <i>na&iuml;vet&eacute;</i> of her age, she possessed the soul
+and feeling of a poet; she could not be said to please&mdash;she
+intoxicated all who approached her. She lived in a little village
+with her brother, who was a priest. None knew who they were, nor
+whence they came; but she was so beautiful, and her brother so
+pious, that none thought of asking. It was rumoured and believed
+that they were of good family. My friend, who was lord of that
+country, might have seduced the young girl or taken her by force,
+as he chose; he was the master; who would have come to the
+assistance of two friendless strangers? Unfortunately he was an
+honest man, and he married her. The fool-the idiot!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Why a fool, since he loved her?' asked D'Artagnan.</p>
+
+<p>"'Patience,' said Athos. 'He conducted her to his castle, and
+made her the first lady of the province; and, to do her justice,
+she knew perfectly how to support her rank.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Well?' said D'Artagnan.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well! one day she was out hunting with her husband,' continued
+Athos, speaking in a low tone and very fast, 'she was overcome by
+the heat, and fell from her horse in a swoon; the count sprang to
+her assistance, and as her clothes seemed to prevent her
+breathing, he cut them open with his dagger, and her shoulder was
+uncovered. Guess what she had upon her shoulder, D'Artagnan?'
+said Athos with a strange wild laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"'How can I tell?' said D'Artagnan.</p>
+
+<p>"'A <i>fleur-de-lis</i>. She was branded!'</p>
+
+<p>"And Athos emptied at a draught the cup that stood before him.</p>
+
+<p>"'Horror!' exclaimed D'Artagnan. 'What do you tell me?'</p>
+
+<p>"'The truth&mdash;the angel was a devil&mdash;the innocent young girl was a
+convict.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And what did the count do?'</p>
+
+<p>"'The count was a powerful nobleman; he had right of pit and
+halter upon his lands; he bared the shoulder of the countess,
+tied her hands behind her back, and hung her to a tree.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Heavens! Athos! a murder!' cried D'Artagnan.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, a murder, nothing more,' said Athos, pale as death. 'But
+there is no wine&mdash;we are drinking nothing.'</p>
+
+<p>"And Athos seized the last bottle by the neck, put it to his
+mouth, and emptied it as though it had been an ordinary glass."</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>This strange story, that could hardly have proceeded from any but a
+French imagination, is nevertheless very effective, far more so in
+Monsieur Dumas' terse and pointed diction than in our imperfect
+translation. The dame with the fleur-de-lis on her shoulder is not
+dead, but on the contrary married again, and proves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> to be no other
+than an emissary of the Cardinal, a certain Lady de Winter, or Milady,
+as M. Dumas persists in calling her. She it was who cut the diamonds
+off Buckingham's dress, and informed the Cardinal of the same.
+Throughout the whole book she plays the part of a sort of
+Mephistopheles in petticoats, doing evil for evil's sake; and finally,
+when in prison in England, gains over a fanatical young officer named
+Felton, who is set to guard her, and working on him by the power of
+her charms and an artfully devised story, instigates him to the murder
+of Buckingham, who is at Portsmouth fitting out an armament for the
+relief of La Rochelle, then besieged by Richelieu. She escapes to
+France, but there falls into the hands of her deadly enemy,
+D'Artagnan, and of her first husband, Athos, otherwise Count de la
+F&egrave;re. Her punishment is one of the last and most striking scenes in
+the book, which concludes with the capture of La Rochelle, leaving
+D'Artagnan a lieutenant of mousquetaires, and, to all appearance, on
+the high-road to further preferment. Some account of his future
+fortune is promised us by Monsieur Dumas; and, however alarming a
+continuation to a book in eight volumes may sound, we cannot help
+wishing he may keep his promise. There is less occasion to be alarmed
+at the length of a six or eight volume book from his hands, than at
+that of a three volume one from those of many other writers; and
+moreover one must take into account the ingenuity of French
+publishers, who manage to have the type spread out over the largest
+possible amount of white paper. The system of putting little in a
+page, and diminishing that little by the interpolation of huge and
+apparently objectless blank spaces, has reached its height in Paris;
+and, although an imposition on the public, it perhaps renders a book
+lighter and pleasanter to read. Light reading and pleasant reading
+Monsieur Dumas' romance assuredly is; and we can wish our readers no
+better pastime, during the long evenings of this wintry season, than
+the perusal of the feats and fortunes of the <i>Trois Mousquetaires</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+<h3>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.</h3>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Part</span> XV.</h4>
+
+<div class="poem">
+"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?<br />
+Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,<br />
+Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?<br />
+Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,<br />
+And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?<br />
+Have I not in the pitched battle heard<br />
+Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 18em;"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare</span>.</span></div>
+
+
+<p>Valenciennes was now captured. The sagacity of my friend, the French
+engineer, had not been deceived. The explosion of the three great
+mines, an operation from its magnitude almost new to war, and in its
+effects irresistible, had thrown open the fortress. The garrison had
+done their work gallantly, and the result was a capitulation, hastened
+by the outcry of the famishing inhabitants. I hastened to the quarters
+of my regiment, was received with all cordiality, had the honour of an
+interview with the royal duke, who, at all times affable, was now in
+peculiar good-humour, and who led me into a long detail of such public
+opinions as might be gathered from my intercourse with the garrison.
+At the close of our interview he gave me a note, which was to be
+forwarded to the adjutant-general. I made my bow, and retired.</p>
+
+<p>All in the camp was festivity. A great achievement had been
+accomplished, and the barriers of France were broken down. But in the
+midst of national triumph, I felt a depression which rendered me
+wholly incapable of sharing it. The wounds of the spirit are not to be
+healed like those of the frame; and with the recollection of the noble
+creature whom I had lost, bitterness mingled in every sound, and
+sight, and exultation. My first request would have been for leave of
+absence, that I might follow her, if she were still in France, or in
+the world. But the bustle at headquarters told me that some movement
+was about to take place; and, under those circumstances, to ask for
+leave was impossible. Still I continued making every imaginable
+enquiry, dispatching letters, and seeing postmasters, to obtain
+intelligence of the route which Clotilde had taken. After tracing her
+for the first few leagues, all tidings were lost; and I had only to
+trust to that hope which was a part of my sanguine nature, and which
+was sustained by a kind of consciousness that a being so superior
+could not be flung away in the chances which visit the multitude.</p>
+
+<p>While I was thus pondering and perplexed, I was summoned to attend one
+of the principal officers of his royal highness's staff. "We are
+sending despatches of some importance to London," said he, "and it is
+the wish of the commander-in-chief that you should take them. I have
+the pleasure to tell you, that he feels an interest in you from the
+opportunities which you have had of distinguishing yourself in the
+campaign, and that he has appointed you an extra aide-de-camp. Your
+service begins soon," added my informant with a smile, "for you must
+set off to-night. The despatch mentioning the capitulation of the
+fortress was, of course, sent off at once; but as the commission, in
+those cases, is given by routine, it is desirable to have some one in
+London capable of explaining the 'explanation,' or perhaps taking the
+place of the 'honourable,' or 'right honourable' personage who has
+been made the official bearer of the despatch. His royal highness is
+satisfied, from his conversation with you, that you will be perfectly
+fit for this purpose; and here is the despatch, with which you are to
+make all expedition to the Horse-Guards."</p>
+
+<p>After giving my orders for the journey, I hastened to take leave of
+the man whom I most honoured and esteemed, my unfailing friend
+Guiscard. To my surprise, he received the in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>telligence of my
+appointment with scarcely a word of congratulation. Little as I myself
+was now excitable by any thing in the shape of human fortune, I was
+chagrined by his obstinate gravity. He observed it, and started from
+his seat. "Come," said he, "let us take a walk, and get out of the
+sight of mankind, if we can." He took my arm, and we strayed along the
+banks of the Scheldt, where, however, his purpose was unobtainable,
+for the whole breadth of the river was covered with the provision
+barges of the troops. The bargemen were enjoying the fine July evening
+in the national style&mdash;swilling the worst beer that ever punished the
+taste for that barbarian beverage, and filling the fresh breeze with
+the fumes of tobacco, worthy of the beer. Guiscard stopped to gaze at
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"I envy those fellows," said he. "Not merely for their escaping all
+care, and being able to extract enjoyment out of their execrable drink
+and pipes, but from their being exempt from all contact with
+portfolios."</p>
+
+<p>"But such enjoyment is only that of the swine."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and is not that of the swine perfect?&mdash;and what would you have
+more than perfection?"</p>
+
+<p>A huge herd of those creatures, basking along the miry edge of the
+river, helped his illustration. "Mr Marston, you have not been for the
+last month on the staff of the commander-in-chief of the allied
+armies, or you would not look so incredulous. Sir, man's senses may be
+as suitable for his purposes, as those of the animals which we see
+wallowing there." I stared, waiting for the conclusion. He proceeded.
+"But man has drawbacks on his natural faculties, which they have not.
+Possibly nature intended that we should be as happy as they. But make
+nine-tenths of them hewers of wood and drawers of water&mdash;send some of
+them to dungeons&mdash;enforce a conscription among the rest, and send them
+to use their tusks upon each other, and the most complacent of them
+would rebel: or, as the last trial of temper, put the meekest of the
+race into a cabinet of princes and general-officers, themselves
+controlled by a cabinet five hundred miles off; and if they do not
+growl as I do now, I shall give up all my knowledge of quadruped
+nature."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Guiscard, what is the matter with you to-night? Have we not
+gained our point? You are like the Thracians, who always mourned at
+the birth of a child."</p>
+
+<p>"And the Thracians were perfectly right, if the child were to be
+reared a diplomatist. You talk of success!" Our path had led to where
+a view of Valenciennes opened on us through the trees; and its
+shattered ramparts and curtains, the trees felled along its glacis,
+and its bastions stripped and broken by our cannon-balls, certainly
+presented a rueful spectacle. The Austrian flag was flying on the
+citadel.</p>
+
+<p>"There," said he, "is our prize. It is not worth the loading of a
+single gun; but it has cost us more millions to ruin than it took
+francs to build it&mdash;it has cost us the conquest of France; and will
+cost Europe the war, which we might have extinguished three months ago
+if we had but left it behind. I acknowledge that I speak in the
+bitterness of my heart; delay has ruined every thing. Our march to
+Paris, and our march to Georgium Sidus, will now be finished on the
+same day."</p>
+
+<p>I attempted to laugh off his predictions, but he was intractable. "The
+business," said he, "is all over. That flag is the signal of European
+jealousy&mdash;the apple of discord. Yon are going to England; and, if you
+have any regard for my opinion, tell your friends there to withdraw
+their troops as soon as they can. That flag, which pretends to
+partition France, will unite it as one man. Our sages here are
+actually about to play its game. Orders have come to divide the army.
+What folly! What inconceivable infatuation! In the very face of the
+most fantastic and furious population of mankind, whom the most
+trivial success inflames into enthusiasts; they are going to break up
+their force, and seek adventures by brigades and battalions."</p>
+
+<p>He stamped the ground with indignation; but, suddenly recovering his
+calmness, he turned to me with his grave smile. "I am ashamed,
+Marston, of thus betraying a temper which time ought to have cooled.
+But, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> all, what is public life but a burlesque; a thing of
+ludicrous disappointment; a tragedy, with a farce always at hand to
+relieve the tedium and the tinsel; the fall of kingdoms made laughable
+by the copper lace of the stage wardrobe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you object to our duke?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least. He is personally a gallant fellow; and if he wants
+experience, so must every man at one time or other. His only error,
+hitherto, has been his condescending to come at all with so small a
+force under his command. No English army should ever plant its foot
+upon the Continent with less than fifty thousand men on its
+muster-roll. The duke's being put at the head of your troops&mdash;only a
+division after all&mdash;seems to me the only wise thing that has been
+done. It was a declaration of the heartiness of your alliance; and I
+honour your country for the distinctness of the avowal. Your king
+gives his son, as your country gives her soldiers, and your people
+give their money. The whole was manly, magnanimous, or, as the highest
+panegyric, it was English all over."</p>
+
+<p>This language at once put an end to all my reserve. I shook his hand
+in the spirit of old friendship; and, on our parting, extracted a
+promise of keeping up our communication on all possible opportunities.
+We had already separated, when I heard my name called again, and
+Guiscard returned. "I had forgotten," said he, "to tell you what I was
+most anxious to say. If I had seen no other prospect for you, I should
+be the last man to make you discontented with your profession. My only
+request is, that when you once more tread on English ground, you will
+seriously consider whether you will continue in the army. If know you
+at all, I think that you would not be altogether satisfied with
+wearing your epaulettes at reviews and parades. And, if I am not
+entirely mistaken, you will have nothing else for the next dozen
+years. Your army are moving homewards already. You are now in the
+secret."</p>
+
+<p>"But is the campaign absolutely coming to an end? Are the hopes of
+attacking the French so suddenly given up? Is France always to baffle
+us?" was my vexed question.</p>
+
+<p>"As to the fate of France, you should consult a prophet, not a
+Prussian engineer&mdash;and one terribly tired of his trade besides," was
+the reply. We parted; but the conversation was not lost upon me.</p>
+
+<p>By midnight I was on my journey. My route lay through the Flemish
+provinces, which had now recovered all their luxuriance, if not
+derived additional animation from the activity which every where
+follows the movements of a successful army. Troops marching to join
+the general advance frequently and strikingly diversified the scene.
+Huge trains of the commissariat were continually on the road. The
+little civic authorities were doubly conscious of the dignity of
+functions which brought them into contact with soldiership, from the
+quartermaster up to the general. But the contrast of the tumult which
+I left behind with the quietness of the scenes around me&mdash;the haste,
+the anxiety, and the restlessness of a huge camp, with the calm of the
+fields, with the regularity which seemed to govern all the operations
+of farming life, and with the grave opulence of the old mansions,
+which seemed to be formed for the natural receptacles of the wealth of
+Flemish fields&mdash;at once refreshed me after the mental fever in which I
+had tossed so long, and perhaps impressed on me more deeply the
+parting advice of my friend the philosopher.</p>
+
+<p>But, from the moment when I touched British ground, the whole sleepy
+tranquillity which gathers over every man in the quietude of Flanders,
+where man seems to have followed the same plough from the deluge, had
+utterly vanished. I was in the midst of a nation in a ferment. The war
+was the universal topic; party was in full life. From the inn at Dover
+up to the waiting-room at the Horse-Guards, I heard nothing but
+politics. The conduct of our army&mdash;the absurdity of every thing that
+had been done, or left undone&mdash;the failures of the Allies&mdash;the
+fanaticism of the French&mdash;the hopes of popular liberty on one side,
+and the indignation of established power on the other&mdash;came rushing
+round me in a chaos of discordant conceptions, that for the time
+bewildered me. How simple was the gossip of the camp to this
+heterogeneous mass of struggling to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>pics! How straightforward was even
+the wild haranguing of the Palais Royal to the thousand reports and
+protests, remonstrances and replications, of the whole ringing and
+raging, public mind of England! This was the age of pamphleteering.
+Every sage who could, or could not, write, flung his pamphlet in the
+teeth of the party whose existence he conceived to be ruinous to his
+country, or perhaps prejudicial to his own prospect of a sinecure. The
+journals printed their columns in gall; the satirists dipped their
+pens in concentrated acid; the popular haranguers dashed the oil of
+vitriol of contempt in each other's faces. The confusion, the
+collision, the uproar, was indescribable.</p>
+
+<p>But my whole experience of public life has told me, that however the
+popular opinion may be wrong, the public opinion is right; and I felt
+that the nation was already adverse to the conduct of the campaign.
+The utmost skill of the cabinet was required to prevent a dangerous
+reaction. The member of administration with whom my chief intercourse
+officially existed, was the same manly and kind-natured individual to
+whom I had formerly been indebted for so much civility; and, as if
+proud of his own work, his civility now took the form of friendship.
+Ill news came from abroad; and I expressed my impatience of remaining
+with the pen in my hand, when I should have worn my sword. To all my
+suggestions on the subject, the good-humoured answer was, that my
+services were still necessary at home. At length, on my making a
+decided request that I should be permitted to return to my regiment,
+he told me in confidence that the campaign was probably at an end;
+that the British commander-in-chief was about to return; and that, in
+fact, the strength of England would be turned to the naval war. At the
+close of one of those conversations, fixing his keen grey eye upon me,
+he said, "Pray, what think you of Parliament?" My answer was, "That
+mediocrity was more contemptible there than any where else; while
+success was more difficult."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean such success as Pitt's: you mean victory. But you must get
+these Greek and Roman notions out of your head. An English House does
+not want orators. One on a side is quite enough. They are like the
+gold plate on a sideboard; it is well to show that we have such
+things, for the honour of our establishment; but no one thinks of
+making use of them at table. Pitt is an exception; he is equal to
+every thing; an incomparable man of business. Burke, or some other man
+of metaphor, compared him to the falcon; which, however high it may
+soar, always follows the prey with its eye along the ground. But two
+Pitts, if nature could be prolific of such magnificent monsters, would
+absolutely perplex us. What could be more confusing than to have two
+suns shining at the same time?"</p>
+
+<p>"But is Fox nothing?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"A great deal," was the answer. "He is the finest talker, I suppose,
+in the world. The first of babblers."</p>
+
+<p>"Of babblers!" I involuntarily repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; for what is babbling but speaking in vain, pouring out endless
+speculations without a purpose or the hope of a purpose, indulging a
+remarkably powerful and productive mind with the waste of its own
+conceptions, pouring out a whole coinage of splendid thoughts with no
+more expectancy of practical result than if he poured the mint into
+the Thames? You may rely upon it that such is the opinion of the
+House, as it will be yours when you get there; and such will be that
+of posterity, if they shall ever take the trouble to think about any
+of us."</p>
+
+<p>This conversation was evidently more than accidental; and I gave to it
+some of my most perplexing hours. I had an original fondness for the
+life of arms. I was of the age to feel its variety, animation, and
+ardour. My experience had been fortunate; I had seen nothing but
+victory, and had been flattered by personal distinction. But then came
+the reverse of the medal. I remembered the opinion of the most
+sagacious and penetrating spirit which it had been my lot ever to
+know; and I felt that the Continent was to be our field of battle no
+longer. The languor of home service, to one who had seen war in its
+stateliest shape, and in its most powerful activity, rose before my
+mind with an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> inexpressible sense of weariness. On the other hand,
+supposing that I possessed the faculties for political life, was I
+possessed of the temper, the endurance of toil, the measureless
+patience, the inexhaustible equanimity, which every night of my public
+existence would <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'henceforch'">henceforth</ins> demand? Why was this heart-wearying
+struggle to be preferred to the simple and straightforward pursuit of
+an honourable profession, in which the only weight was the carrying of
+my sword, and the only secret of distinction possessing an untarnished
+name?</p>
+
+<p>But I soon made up my mind. The question narrowed itself to this:
+which was the more active life? The point of honour was no longer the
+adherence to a profession whose purposes were necessarily changed.
+Every hour gave additional evidence that the gates of the Continent
+were closing upon the English soldier. Influence, impression,
+publicity, were the prizes of a political career. I saw all other
+names fade before the great senatorial names of England. I saw men of
+humble extraction filling the world with their fame. I saw a
+succession of individuals, who, if their profession had been arms, or
+if their birth-place had been the Continent, would have lived and died
+in the routine of obscure service, here rising to the height of
+national homage, lustres of their generation, and guiding by their
+opinions the courts of Europe. Whether I should ever take my place
+among those illustrious names, scarcely entered into my thoughts. But
+I was determined never to waste my life in conscious indolence.
+Scarcely knowing what faculties I might possess, I had fully resolved
+on trying their utmost strength; and grown almost indifferent to the
+ordinary pursuits of human indulgence, I looked with something of a
+melancholy yet proud hope, to the enjoyment which was to be found in
+giving myself up to the solitary and stern toil of living for a great
+cause, and leaving a name behind me that should not be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>On that very day the intelligence arrived that the British troops had
+marched towards the north of Germany; that the royal duke had returned
+to England; and that the Allies had, by common consent, abandoned the
+invasion of France. My habits were always prompt. Before the hour was
+over in which the gazette appeared, I waited on my ministerial friend,
+and expressed my full acquiescence in his proposal.</p>
+
+<p>I pass by the process of getting into Parliament. It was then a
+simpler matter than it has since become. A treasury borough was then
+the gate through which all the leading names of the country had
+entered the legislature, and I merely followed the path of all but the
+lords of acres.</p>
+
+<p>Every man who will make himself master of an occupation must serve an
+apprenticeship. Parliament, too, has its seven years' indentures, and
+the few who have refused the training have seldom been the wiser for
+their precipitancy. I "bided my time," taking a slight occasional
+share in debates with whose topics I happened to be well acquainted;
+and expecting the chances, which, to every one who employs himself
+vigorously, are all but certainties. Still I felt that this mere
+hovering on the outskirts of debate must not last too long, and that
+nothing was more hazardous to final reputation than to be too slow in
+attempting to lay its first stone. Yet I felt some difficulty in every
+great question; and, after bracing my nerves for the onset, I always
+found my courage fail at the sight of the actual encounter. I felt as
+a young knight might have felt in some of the tilting-matches of
+old&mdash;master of his charger in the open field, and delighting in the
+pressure of his armour and the weight of his lance; but when he once
+rode within the barrier, saw the galleries filled, and the heralds
+lifting the trumpets to their lips, feeling his blood grow chill, and
+the light depart from his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>I mentioned my embarrassment to my Scottish friend, and almost
+expected a remonstrance. To my great surprise and infinite pleasure,
+he congratulated me. "You cannot give a better sign," said he. "My
+only fear of you was, that you would dash into debate at once, like a
+tumbler jumping from a precipice; and that, like him, all that you
+would have gained by it would be broken limbs for life. If the fellow
+had kept to his slack-rope and his stage, he would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> have been safe
+enough, and gained some applause besides."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is to be done in the House, without some hazard of the
+kind?"</p>
+
+<p>"Wrong&mdash;quite wrong. A great deal is to be done. Take myself for the
+example. You see where I am, and yet I never made a <i>speech</i> in my
+life. From the beginning of my career, I never allowed any one to look
+for any thing of the kind from me; and the consequence was, that by
+some I was regarded as a much shrewder personage than I ever believed
+myself to be; and by others was thought to know a great deal more than
+I ever acquired."</p>
+
+<p>"But will this account for the rapid distinctions of your public
+life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly, so far as they have gone. I obtained ministerial
+confidence on the essential merits of being a safe man&mdash;one who made
+no ambitious attempts to lower the crests of those above me. I escaped
+the jealousy of those below me by adopting the style which mediocrity
+assumes by nature. I was thus like the senior subaltern in a marching
+regiment&mdash;I wore the same uniform with the colonel, and went through
+the same exercise with the ensign. The field-officers knew that I
+would not tread upon their heels, and every subaltern wished to see my
+promotion, as a step to his own."</p>
+
+<p>My official duties, the mere entrance into office, occupied me
+laboriously for a while, and I felt all the habitual difficulties of
+my noviciate. It had been fully my intention to follow the advice of
+my experienced friend, and leave the hour which was to call for my
+exertions in the House to the chances of the time. But that time came
+more rapidly than I had expected. The public mind was fevered, hour by
+hour; the news from the Continent was more and more startling; the
+successes of the Republican armies had assumed a shape which our
+desponding politicians regarded as invincibility, and which our
+factious ones pronounced to be the ruin of Europe. The cabinet offered
+only the prospect of a melancholy struggle. But six months before, it
+had stood, strong as a citadel erected by the national hands, and
+garrisoned by the spirit of the empire. It still stood, but it stood
+dismantled; there were evident breaches in its walls, and the
+fugitives of Opposition, rallying with the hope of success, advanced
+again to the storm, headed by their great leader, and sustained by the
+capricious and fluctuating multitude. The premier was harassed by the
+incessant toil of defence&mdash;a toil in which he had scarcely a sharer,
+and which exposed him to the most remorseless hostility. Yet, if the
+historian were to choose the moment for his true fame, this was the
+moment which ought to be chosen. He rose with the severity of the
+struggle; assault seemed to give him new vigour; the attempt to tear
+the robe of office from his shoulders only gave the nobler display of
+his intellectual proportions. When I saw him, night after night,
+standing almost alone, with nothing but disaster in front and timidity
+in the rear, combating a force such as had never before been arrayed
+under the banners of Opposition; the whole scene of magnificent
+conflict and still grander fortitude, reminded me of the Homeric war
+and its warriors.&mdash;The champion of the kingdom, standing forth in
+despite of evil omens thickening round him, of the deepening cloud,
+and the sinister thunders.</p>
+
+<p>I speak of those times, and of the great men of those times, in no
+invidious contrast with later days. I have so strong a faith in the
+infinite ability which freedom gives to a great empire, that I am
+convinced of our being able, in all its eras, to find the species of
+public talent essential to its services. I regard the national mind,
+as the philosopher does the natural soil, always capable of the
+essential produce, where we give it the due tillage. The great men of
+the past century have passed away along with it; they were summoned
+for a day of conflict, and were formed for the conflict; their
+muscular vigour, the power with which they wielded their weapons, the
+giant step and the giant hand, were all necessary, and were all shaped
+and sustained by that necessity. But this day had its close; the
+leaders of man&mdash;like the "mighty hunters" of an Age, when the land was
+still overshadowed with the forest, and the harvest was overrun with
+the lion and the panther,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> would naturally give place to a less daring
+and lofty generation, when the forest had given way to the field, and
+the lair of the wild beast had become the highway and the bower. But
+if the evil day should again return, the guardian power of intellect
+and virtue will again come forth in the human shape, and vindicate the
+providence that watches over the progress of mankind. I utterly deny
+the exhaustion of national genius; I even deny its exhaustibility. If
+the moral vegetation languishes, and the soil is parched for a while,
+the great source of refreshing and fertility still lies before us&mdash;the
+public mind, in its boundless expansion, and in its unfathomable
+depth; the intellectual ocean which no plummet has ever sounded, and
+which no shore has ever circumscribed, lies ready to restore the
+balance of nature.</p>
+
+<p>But the sense of power itself in the national mind forbids the
+exhibition of its strength in tranquil times. It is lofty and
+fastidious; it will not stoop to a contest in which nothing is to be
+contended for. It is not an actor; and it cannot adopt the figured
+passion of the actor, rend its robe, and flourish, and obtest heaven
+against the traitor and the oppressor, to the sound of an orchestra,
+or in the glitter of stage lamps. The true ability of the empire must
+scorn all mimic encounter; and what else can be the little struggles
+of party shut up in the legislature, whose sound scarcely transpires
+through the walls, whose triumphs are a tax, and whose oracles are an
+intrigue? But, when the true day of trial shall come&mdash;when an enemy
+shall be seen hovering on the coasts of the Constitution&mdash;when trumpet
+answers trumpet, and the "country is proclaimed in danger"&mdash;then, and
+not till then, shall we know the superb resources of our intellectual
+strength: whatever may have been the prowess of the past, we may see
+it not merely rivaled but thrown into eclipse by the future; the
+burnished armour, and massive swords and maces of our old intellectual
+chivalry, superseded by more manageable and more destructive
+implements of success; and the sterner conflict followed by the more
+consummate triumph. Yet, when we undervalue the living ability of a
+nation from its quietude at the moment, we but adopt the example of
+every past age in succession. The last ten years of the last century
+were preceded by a period of despair; Chatham's career was run, and
+the national regrets over his tomb were mingled with sorrows for the
+extinction of all parliamentary renown!&mdash;The day had gone down, and
+darkness was to cover the sky for ever. But while the prediction was
+scarcely uttered, the horizon as in a blaze, mighty meteors rushed
+across it in a thousand courses of eccentric speed and splendour; and
+a period of intellectual display began, which at once dazzled and
+delighted mankind. Anne's Augustan age of war, negotiation, and
+eloquence, was once pronounced to be, like the Augustan age of Rome,
+incapable of rivalship by posterity; but our own times have seen a
+bolder war, a broader peace, and a richer development of science,
+invention, and eloquence. For fifty years, England was pronounced to
+have worn herself out by the prolific brilliancy of the half century
+before; like a precocious infant, to have anticipated her powers, and
+ensured their premature decay; like the B&oelig;otians, to have had her
+Pindaric period, and thenceforward to have paid for its raptures and
+renown by perpetual darkness; or like the Israelites in Egypt, to be
+condemned to drudgery for life, sunk into an intellectual
+slave-caste;&mdash;when in the midst of the scoffing, or the sorrow,
+suddenly arrived a new epoch, a new summons to the national genius, a
+time of lofty interpositions, "thunderings in the air, and lightning
+running along the ground," an era of the marvellous things of mind;
+the chains fell off the hands, and the generation went forth, with a
+new sense of superiority, into new scenes of knowledge, discovery, and
+empire.</p>
+
+<p>Whether it was my good or ill fortune to make my first effort in the
+midst of the men whose names have immortalized their day, I shall not
+venture to decide. But my resolve had been firmly taken&mdash;not to remain
+in Parliament unless I discovered in myself faculties fit for its
+service. I was determined not to play the mute if I had the means of
+uttering a voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> But now the whole force of administration was
+demanded; and I made up my mind to ascertain by trial, what no man can
+be sure of without that trial, whether I possessed any capacity for
+public life.</p>
+
+<p>The subject on which I first spoke was an address to the throne, in
+answer to the King's message on the war. On this night Pitt, but
+lately recovered from a fit of his hereditary gout, spoke briefly, and
+with evident feebleness of frame. Fox, whose energy seemed always to
+depend on his rival's power, and whose eloquence always rose or fell
+with the vigour or languor of the minister&mdash;Fox, never so great as
+when Pitt put forth all his strength, on this night idled away his
+hour, through the mere want of an antagonist; but Sheridan made ample
+compensation for his leader. The House had fallen into lassitude, and
+the benches were already thin when he arose. I had heard him as the
+humorist on some trivial occasions of debate. I had enjoyed the social
+pleasantry which placed him at the head of the wits; but I was still
+but imperfectly acquainted with the strong sarcasm, the deep disdain,
+and the grave sophistry, which this extraordinary man could exhibit
+with such redundant ease, and wield with such vigorous dexterity. I
+must give but an outline:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"You have made war," said he, "and you have made the arms of your
+country contemptible by failures, which you rendered inevitable by
+your rashness. You, sir," and he fixed his flashing eye on the
+premier, "have commenced that war by a series of declarations,
+which made our diplomacy as contemptible as our campaigns. The
+national sword had been wrested from our hands. But you were not
+content with that humiliation, and you added to it the disgrace of
+the national understanding. You laid down a succession of
+principles, and then trampled them in the dust on the first
+opportunity. You encumbered yourself for action with pledges which
+you could never have intended to sustain, or which in the first
+collision your pusillanimity threw away. Yet I deprecate your
+perfidy even more than I despise your weakness. I can comprehend
+the effrontery of a fair aggression; but I scorn the meanness of
+intrigue. I may face the man-at-arms, but I shudder at the
+assassin. I may determine to hunt down and destroy the lion, but I
+disdain the trap and the pitfall. And what has been the pretext of
+his majesty's ministers? Moderation. In this spirit of moderation
+they invaded France; in this spirit of moderation they captured
+her fortresses, and then handed them over to the Emperor; in this
+spirit of moderation they denounced the men who had given France a
+constitution; and in this spirit of moderation you now prepare to
+rebuild her Bastile, to restore her scaffolds, to reforge her
+chains, and summon all the kings of Europe, instead of taking a
+salutary lesson from the tomb of the monarchy, to see its skeleton
+exhumed, and placed, robed and crowned, upon the throne, with the
+nation forced to offer homage, at once in mockery and terror, to
+the grinning emblem; in which, with all your philtres, you can
+never put life again."</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>The orator then gave a general and singularly imposing view of the
+state of our European connexions; which he described as utterly frail,
+the result of interested motives, and sure to be broken up at the
+first temptation. But the "first lord of the treasury and chancellor
+of his majesty's exchequer," said he, "smiles at my alarm; he has his
+security at his side&mdash;he has the purse, which commands all the baser
+portion of our nature with such irresistible control! On one point I
+fully agree with the right honourable gentleman&mdash;that nothing but the
+purse could ever keep them faithful. Yet, is there nothing but gold
+that can bribe? is there no bribe in territory? will he not find, when
+he hurries to the purchase of allies with the millions of the treasury
+in his hand, that more powerful purchasers have been there before him?
+When he offers the loan, will he not find them offering the province?
+when he bids with the subsidy, will he not be outbid with the kingdom?
+Or, if the anticipated conquerors of Europe, raising their sense of
+dignity to the level of their power, should disdain the traffic of
+corruption; will not the roaring of the French cannon in the ears of
+kings make them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> feel, that, to persist in your ill-omened alliance,
+is to devote themselves to ruin? will they bargain, in sight of the
+axe? will they dare to traffic in the blood of their people, with the
+grave dug at their feet? will they be dazzled by your gold, while the
+French bayonet is startling their eyes? Within ten years, if England
+exists, she will be without an ally; or, if she continues to fight, it
+will be in loneliness, in terror, and in despair."</p>
+
+<p>In this strain he poured out his daring conceptions for more than two
+hours, during which he kept the whole audience in the deepest
+attention. He concluded in an uproar of plaudits from both sides of
+the House.</p>
+
+<p>My time now came. And the rising of a new member, always regarded with
+a generous spirit of courtesy, produced some additional interest, from
+the knowledge of my services on the Continent, and my immediate
+connexion with the ministry. The House, which had filled to
+overflowing in the course of Sheridan's incomparable speech, was now
+hushed to the most total silence, and every eye was turned on me. I
+shall say nothing of my perturbation, further than that I had stood
+before an enemy's line of ten thousand men, with their muskets
+levelled within half a hundred yards of me; and that I thought the
+benches of the House of Commons on that night looked much the more
+formidable of the two. My head swam, my throat burned, my eyes grew
+dim. I thought that the ground was shaking under my feet, and I could
+have almost rejoiced to have sunk into it, from the gaze and the
+silence, which equally appalled me. While I attempted to mutter a few
+sentences, of which I felt the sound die within my lips, my eye was
+caught by the quick turn of Pitt's head, who fixed his impatient
+glance upon me. Fox, with that kindliness of heart which always forgot
+party when a good-natured act was to be done, gave his sonorous cheer.
+From that instant I was another man; I breathed freely, and,
+recovering my voice and mind together, I plunged boldly into the
+boundless subject before me.</p>
+
+<p>After scattering a few of the showy sophisms which the orator of the
+opposition had constructed into his specious argument, I placed the
+war on the ground of necessity. "Nations cannot act like
+individuals&mdash;they cannot submit to self-sacrifice&mdash;they cannot give up
+their rights&mdash;they cannot affect an indolent disdain or an idle
+generosity. The reason of the distinction is, that in every instance
+the nation is a trustee&mdash;It has the rights of posterity in its
+keeping; it has nothing of its own to throw away; it is responsible to
+every generation to come. If war be essential to the integrity of the
+empire, war is as much a duty&mdash;a terrible duty, I allow&mdash;as the
+protection of our children's property from the grasp of rapine, or the
+defence of their lives against the midnight robber. But we are advised
+to peace. No man on earth would do more willing homage than myself to
+that beneficent genius of nations. But where am I to offer my homage?
+Am I to kneel on the high-road where the enemy's armies, fierce with
+the hope of plunder, are rushing along? Am I to build my altar in the
+midst of contending thousands, or on the ground covered with
+corpses&mdash;in the battle, or on the grave? Or am I to carry my offering
+to the capital, and there talk the language of national cordiality in
+the ear of the multitude dragging their king to the scaffold? Am I to
+appeal to the feelings of human brotherhood in streets smoking with
+civil massacre; to adjure the nation by the national honour, where
+revolt is an avowed principle; to press upon them the opinion of
+Europe, where they have proclaimed war with the world; to invoke them
+by the faith which they have renounced, the allegiance which they have
+disdained, the God whom they have blasphemed? Those things are
+impossible. If we are to have a treaty with this new order of thinking
+and action, it must be a compact of crime, a solemn agreement of
+treachery, a formal bond of plunder; it must be a treaty fitter for
+the cavern of conspiracy than for the chamber of council; its pledge
+must be like that of Catiline, the cup of human blood! No; the most
+powerful reprobation which ever shot from the indignant lip of the
+moralist, would not be too strong for the baseness which stooped to
+such a treaty, or the folly which entangled itself in its toils. No
+burning language of pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>phecy would be too solemn and too stinging for
+the premeditated wretchedness, and incurable calamity, of such a bond.
+No; if we must violate the simplicity of our national interests by
+such degrading, and such desperate involvements&mdash;if we should not
+shrink from this conspiracy against mankind, let it, at least, not be
+consummated in the face of day; let us at once abandon the hollow
+pretences of human honesty; let us pledge ourselves to a perpetual
+league of rapine and revolution; let it be transacted in some lower
+region of existence, where it shall not disgrace the light of the sun;
+and let its ceremonial be worthy of the spirit of evil which it
+embodies, whose power it proclaims, and to whose supremacy it commands
+all nations to bow down."</p>
+
+<p>In alluding to the menace that our allies would soon desert us, I
+asked, "Is this the magnanimity of party? Is England to be pronounced
+so poor, or so pusillanimous, that she must give up all hope unless
+she can be suffered to lurk in the rear of the battle? What says her
+prince of poets?&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'England shall never rue,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If England to herself shall be but true.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Is this 'little body with a mighty heart,' to depend for existence on
+the decaying strength or the decrepit courage of the Continent? Is she
+only to borrow the shattered armour which has hung up for ages in the
+halls of continental royalty, and encumber herself with its broken and
+rusty panoply for the ridicule of the world? The European governments
+have undergone the vicissitudes of fortune. Instead of scoffing at the
+facility of their overthrow, let us raise them on their feet again;
+or, if that be beyond human means, I shall not join the party-cry
+which insults their fall&mdash;I certainly shall not exult in that
+melancholy pageant of mixed mirth and scorn, in which, like the old
+Roman triumph, the soldier with his ruthless jest and song goes before
+the chariot, and the captive monarch follows behind; wearing the royal
+robe and the diadem only till he has gratified a barbarous curiosity
+or a cruel pride, and then exchanging them for the manacle and the
+dungeon. I deprecate the loss of these alliances; and yet I doubt
+whether the country will ever be conscious of her true strength until
+the war of the Continent is at an end. I more than doubt the wisdom of
+suffering others to take the lead, which belongs to us by the right of
+superior rank, superior prowess, and superior fame. I shall have but
+slight regret for the fall of those outworks which&mdash;massive, nay,
+majestic, as they are&mdash;waste the power of England by the division of
+her force, and make us decline the gallant enterprize of the
+field&mdash;ramparts and fosses which reduce us to defence, and which,
+while they offer a thousand points of entrance to an active assault,
+shut us in, and disqualify us from victory."</p>
+
+<p>I now repeat this language of the moment, merely from later and long
+experience of its truth. I fully believe, that if England had come
+forward to the front of the battle in the early years of the war, she
+would have crushed all resistance; or if she had found, by the chance
+of things, the Continent impenetrable to her arms, she would have
+surrounded it with a wall of fire, until its factions had left nothing
+of themselves but their ashes.</p>
+
+<p>I was now fully engaged in public life. The effort which I had made in
+Parliament had received the approval of Pitt, who, without stooping to
+notice things so trivial as style and manner on questions of national
+life and death, highly applauded the courage which had dared to face
+so distinguished a Parliamentary favourite as Sheridan, and had taken
+a view of affairs so accordant with his own. From this period, I was
+constantly occupied in debate; and, taking the premier for my model, I
+made rapid proficiency in the difficult art of addressing a British
+House of Commons. Of course, I have no idea of giving myself the
+praise on this subject, which no man can give to himself on any,
+without offence. But I felt that this was an <i>art</i> which might escape,
+and which had often escaped, men of distinguished ability, and which
+might be possessed by men of powers altogether inferior. I must
+acknowledge, that a portion of my success was ow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>ing to the advice of
+that shrewdest, and at the same time most friendly, of human beings,
+the secretary. "You must be a man of business," said he, "or you will
+be nothing; for praise is nothing&mdash;popularity is nothing&mdash;even the
+applause of the House is nothing. These matters pass away, and the
+orators pass away with them. John Bull is a solid animal, and likes
+reality. This is the true secret of the successes of hundreds of men
+of mediocrity, and of the failures of almost every man of brilliant
+faculties. The latter fly too high, and thus make no way along the
+ground. They always alight on the same spot; while the weaker, but
+wiser, have put one foot before another, and have pushed on. Sheridan,
+at this moment, has no more weight in the House than he had within a
+twelvemonth after taking his seat. Fox, with the most powerful
+abilities, is looked on simply as a magnificent speechmaker. His only
+weight is in his following. If his party fell from him to-morrow, all
+his eloquence would find its only echo in bare walls, and its only
+panegyric in street-placards. Pitt is a man of business, complete,
+profound, indefatigable. If you have his talents, copy his prudence;
+if you have not, still copy his prudence&mdash;make it the interest of men
+to consult you, and you must be ultimately successful."</p>
+
+<p>I laughingly observed, that the "Nullum numen abest" had been honoured
+with an unexpected illustration.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," said the minister, fixing his keen grey eye upon me, "if Eton
+had never taught any other maxim, it would have been well worth all
+the tail of its longs and shorts. It is the concentration of wisdom,
+personal, private, and public; the polar star of politics, as probably
+you would say; or, as in my matter-of-fact style should express it,
+the fingerpost of the road to fortune."</p>
+
+<p>But there never was a time when all the maxims of political wisdom
+were more required. A long succession of disasters had already broken
+down the outworks of the continental thrones. The renown of the great
+armies of Germany was lost; the discipline of the Prussian, and the
+steady intrepidity of the Austrian, had been swept before the wild
+disorder of the French. Men began to believe that the art of war had
+been hitherto unknown, and that the enemy had at length mastered the
+exclusive secret. Monarchy came to be regarded as only another name
+for weakness; and civilized order for national decrepitude. A kind of
+superstition stole over the minds of men; the signs of European
+overthrow were discovered in every change; calculations were calmly
+raised on the chances of existence to the most powerful dynasties; the
+age of crowns was in the move, the age of republics was in the
+ascendant; and while the feebler minds looked with quiescent awe on
+what they regarded as the inevitable tide of events, the more daring
+regarded the prospect as a summons to prepare for their part of the
+spoil. The struggles of Opposition grew more resolute as the hope of
+success came nearer, and the Government began to feel the effects of
+this perpetual assault, in the sudden neutrality of some of its most
+ostentatious champions, and in the general reserve of its supporters
+in the House. Even the superb perseverance of Pitt was beginning to be
+weary of a contest, in which victory lost its fruits on the one side,
+while defeat seemed only to give fresh vigour on the other. But a new
+triumph was to cheer the face of things.</p>
+
+<p>I was returning one morning from the House after a night spent in a
+fierce debate on the war, which Fox denounced with an asperity unusual
+to his generous temperament. The premier had made a powerful speech,
+vindicating the government from all share in the continental
+misfortunes; pronouncing loftily, that, in a war not made for
+conquest, it was sophistry to speak of our failure of possession as a
+crime; and declaring in a tone of singular boldness and energy&mdash;that
+if the Continent were untrod by a British soldier, there was a still
+broader field for the arms and the triumphs of England. But his
+eloquence had more effect in exposing the errors, than in reducing the
+numbers of his opponents, and the smallness of his majority would have
+made a feebler mind resign on the spot. The announcement of the
+numbers was received with an insulting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> cheer by the minority, and the
+cabinet was already by anticipation in their hands.</p>
+
+<p>I left the House wearied and dejected, and was returning to Downing
+Street, to throw myself on a couch, and get a few hours of rest before
+my morning toil; when I found a messenger at the door of my office,
+bearing a request from the secretary of state, that I should attend
+him as soon as possible. I found my friend before a table covered with
+despatches, his brow furrowed with weariness like my own.</p>
+
+<p>"You see me here, Marston, more tired than any ploughman or watchman,
+or any other son of labour from this to John O'Groat's House. I was
+sent for, from the House, six hours ago, and every hour since have I
+been poring over those puzzled papers. How long I can stand this wear
+and tear the physicians must tell, but it would require the
+constitution of Hercules or Samson, or both together, to go through
+the work that is beginning to fall on the members of the cabinet."</p>
+
+<p>I offered to give him such assistance as was in my power.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Marston; I am chained to the oar for this night at least, and
+must pull till I fall asleep. My purpose in keeping you from your
+pillow at this time of night, is not to relieve myself from trouble;
+but to ask whether you are disposed to relieve the government from
+serious difficulty, and in a way which I hope will be not disagreeable
+to yourself." I concluded that my mission was to be continental, and
+my heart danced at the suggestion. In England it was impossible to
+continue my search for the being in whom all my thoughts were fixed;
+but once beyond the sea I should have the world before me. I asked
+whether there was any intention of trying the chances of attack again
+on the French frontier.</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever. The greater probability is, that the French will make
+some experiment on the strength of ours."</p>
+
+<p>I looked all astonishment. He interpreted my look, and said&mdash;"To solve
+the enigma at once, It is our wish to send you to Ireland."</p>
+
+<p>I listened in silence while he went into a long detail of the hazard
+of the island, arising from the interests of a powerful republican
+party, who, inflamed by the successes of France, were preparing to
+receive troops and arms from the republic. He finished by saying, in a
+tone of compliment, which, from him, was as unusual as I believe it
+was sincere, that my exertions in debate had attracted high
+consideration in the highest quarter, and that I had been proposed by
+the monarch himself for the chief-secretaryship of Ireland. The
+premier had assented to the appointment at once; "and here," said he,
+"is the warrant, which I have prepared in anticipation of its
+acceptance. You are, from this moment, virtual viceroy of Ireland."</p>
+
+<p>This was elevation indeed! I had at once surmounted all the slow
+gradations of office. The broadest prospect of official ambition had
+suddenly opened before me; popularity, founded on the most solid
+grounds, was now waiting only my acceptance; the sense of power,
+always dear to the heart of man, glowed in every vein; and it is only
+justice to myself to say, that the strongest impulse of all was the
+desire to leave my name as a benefactor to a people, who seemed to me
+as much gifted by nature as they were unhappy by circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>"How long will it take you to prepare for the journey?" asked the
+minister.</p>
+
+<p>"Half an hour," was my reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Bravo! Marston. I see your campaigning has not been thrown away upon
+you. You have the soldier's promptitude. We were prepared to allow you
+a week. But the sooner you set off the better. The truth is," said he
+rising, "we are in great difficulties in that quarter. The most
+thoroughly English portion of the island is at this moment the most
+disturbed. There are drillings, purchases of arms, midnight
+musterings, and even something not far from prepared attacks upon the
+king's troops. The papers among which you found me, contain a regular
+and a very complete organization of an insurrectionary government. You
+will require all the energy of the soldier and all the prudence of the
+statesman."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me add to them," said I,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> "what is essential to the success of
+both in a country of generous hearts and quick conceptions, the
+sincerity of a patriot."</p>
+
+<p>"The experiment is worth trying," said he with a smile, "if it were
+only for the sake of its novelty. But Ireland has qualities which,
+like those of her soil, require only to be turned up to the light to
+reward all the labours of wealth or wisdom." Before that evening
+closed in, I was a hundred miles on my way to the Irish capital.</p>
+
+<p>A rapid journey, and a tranquil passage over the sixty miles that lie
+between Wales and Ireland, gave me what an old Roman would regard as
+an omen of the peacefulness of my mission. On the dawn of one of the
+finest mornings of the year, I came within sight of the Irish coast,
+and was struck, as all travellers have been, by the beauty of the bold
+and picturesque coast which rose from the waters before me. In front
+was a province of mountains, touched by all the variety of colours,
+which are painted in such richness by the summer sun, on groups of
+pinnacles and cones, forest hills, and the fine diversities of
+woodland and mountain scenery. On one side the eye glanced over a vast
+sheet of water, shut in by headlands, and as blue and bright as a lake
+under a serene sky. At the extremity of this noble estuary, a cloud,
+unchanging and unmoving, showed where a city sent up the smoke of its
+ten thousand fires; beyond this, all was purple confusion. My official
+rank threw open all the <i>&eacute;lite</i> of Irish society to me at my first
+step; and I found it, as it has been found by every one else,
+animated, graceful, and hospitable. The nature of its government
+tended to those qualifications. While the grave business of the state
+was done in London, the lighter business of show was sedulously
+sustained in the Irish capital. The lord-lieutenant was generally a
+nobleman, selected more for his rank and his wealth than for his
+statesmanship. A rich, showy, and good-humoured peer was the true man
+for the head of affairs in Ireland. It was of more importance that he
+should give balls and suppers, say lively things to the ladies, and be
+jocular with the gentleman, than that he should have the brains of
+Bolingbroke or the tongue of Chatham. But the position of the
+secretary was the absolute antipode of this tranquil and festive
+sinecure. He was in Ireland what the premier was in England, but with
+ten times more of the difficulty, and ten times less of the power. The
+whole conduct of public affairs lay on his shoulders; he was
+responsible for every thing, while he was free in nothing; perpetually
+assailed by opposition for measures which he was not at liberty to
+explain, and standing between the English cabinet and the Irish party
+as a scapegoat for the mistakes of the one, and a target for the shot
+of the other. But the chief trial of temper was in the House of
+Commons. Opposition in Ireland never had a list of more brilliant
+names. Government had the majority behind its bench, and that majority
+recruited from the ranks of Opposition; but the more distinguished
+were fixed to party by their own celebrity; and the recruits, however
+able, were so liable to be attacked for their change of side, that
+they were paralyzed; in some instances, they were so much galled by
+the merciless sharpshooting of their former associates, that they ran
+back, and left the minister to fight the field alone.</p>
+
+<p>I was fortunately free from the entanglements of that question, which
+has since formed so large a portion of the political disquietudes of
+Irish debate. The religion of the south was not yet among
+parliamentary topics. The religion of the north, active ardent, and
+indefatigable, was our most restless theme; and the political theories
+which seemed to grow out of its bold abstractions, kept the government
+in perpetual anxiety. The whole northern portion of the island was
+ripe for revolt. America had blown the hot-blast of the revolutionary
+furnace across the Atlantic, and a spark from France would have now
+ignited the whole hot surface of the soil.</p>
+
+<p>One of my first acts after arranging the preliminary business of
+office, was to make a flying tour through Ulster. I was astonished at
+its beauty. Even after being familiar with the loveliness of the
+English landscape, I was in a state of continued surprise at the
+variety, rich<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>ness, and singularity of nature in the northern
+counties. Mountain, lake, magnificent bay, and broad river, followed
+each other in noble and unceasing succession. I was still more struck
+with the skill and good fortune, by which the people had contrived to
+combine the industry of manufactures with the life of the fields; a
+problem which England herself had failed to solve. But, most of all, I
+was attracted by the independent air, and handsome and vigorous
+appearance of the people; almost every man was proprietor, and had the
+look which proprietorship alone can give. I found books in almost
+every cottage, decency of dress every where, and among the higher
+orders frequent elegance and accomplishment. The women were cultivated
+and intelligent; the men, spirited and enquiring. But the politics of
+France had made their way through a large portion of the province, and
+the glories of a republic "loomed large" before the popular eye. As it
+was my purpose to see all that I could with my own eyes, I mingled
+largely in society, made no distinction between honourable men of
+different political creeds, enjoyed to-day the stag-hunt and claret of
+the noble Whig, and to-morrow the stag-hunt and claret of the noble
+Tory, listened to all, laughed with all, and learned something from
+all. The English aristocrat, especially if he holds high official
+place, once haunted the imaginations of the Irish of all conditions,
+like an incarnation of an Indian deity&mdash;all fierceness and frigidity;
+and it must be acknowledged that the general order of viceroys and
+secretaries had not tended much to remove the conception. They were
+chiefly men of advanced life, with their habits formed by intercourse
+with the most exclusive class in existence, the English peerage, or
+rendered rigid by the dry formalities of official life. But I was
+young, had seen a good deal of that rough work of the world which
+gives pliancy, if not polish, to all characters; and I was, besides,
+really delighted with the animation, pleasantry, and winning kindness
+which exhibited themselves every where round me. I was half a son of
+Ireland already, and I regarded the recognition as the pledge of my
+success.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know," said one of the most influential and accomplished
+noblemen of the country to me, one day at his sumptuous table&mdash;"how
+many of the lords-lieutenant do you think have left a popular
+recollection behind them?"</p>
+
+<p>I professed my ignorance, but enumerated some names remarkable for
+intelligence and vigour of administration.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said my entertainer, "that was not the question! Great statesmen
+and showy governors, capital rulers of the country and bold managers
+of our factions, we have had in sufficient succession, but I speak of
+the faculty of being remembered; the talent of making a public
+impression; the power of escaping that national oblivion into which
+mere official services, let them be of what magnitude they may,
+inevitably drop when their performer has disappeared. Well, then, I
+shall tell you. <i>Two</i>, and no more."</p>
+
+<p>I begged to know the names of those "discoverers of the grand secret,
+the philosopher's stone of popularity," the alchemists who had power
+to fix the floating essence of the Irish mind!</p>
+
+<p>"Chesterfield and Townshend. Chesterfield, regarded as a fop in
+England, was a daring, steady, and subtle governor of the unruly
+spirits of Ireland, in one of the most hazardous periods. That the
+throne of the Brunswicks did not see an Irish revolt at the moment
+when it saw a Scottish invasion, was the service of Chesterfield. But
+he ruled not by his wisdom, but by his wit. He broke down faction by
+<i>bon-mots</i>; he extinguished conspiracy by passing compliments; he
+administered the sternest law with the most polished smile; and cut
+down rebellion by quotations from La Fontaine, and <i>calembourgs</i> from
+Scarron. But with these fortunate pleasantries he combined public and
+solid services. He threw a large portion of the crown lands in the
+neighbourhood of the capital into a park for the recreation of the
+citizens, and thus gave one of the earliest and most munificent
+examples of regard for the health and enjoyment of the people; a more
+enduring monument of his statesmanship could not have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> been offered to
+the gratitude of the country."</p>
+
+<p>Of the Marquis Townshend I had heard as a gallant soldier, and a
+stirring viceroy, but I still had to learn the source of his
+popularity.</p>
+
+<p>"Townshend was one of those singular men who possess faculties of
+which they have no knowledge, until the moment when they become
+necessary. He began life as a soldier, and finished his soldiership in
+the most brilliant victory of his day&mdash;the battle of Quebec. On his
+appointment to the viceroyalty, he found his government a nothing; a
+government faction superseding the governor, and an opposition faction
+engrossing the people. He now, for the first time, became a
+politician. He resolved to crush both, and he succeeded. He treated
+the government faction in Ireland with contumely, and he treated the
+opposition with contempt. Both were indignant; he laughed at both, and
+treated them with still more scorn. Both were astonished&mdash;the
+government faction intrigued against him in England, the opposition
+threatened impeachment. He defied them still more haughtily. They now
+found that he was not to be shaken, and both submitted. The nation
+joined him, was pacified, grew in vigour, as it required tranquillity;
+and here you have the secret of all the privileges which Ireland has
+obtained. Townshend performed, only on a smaller scale, the same
+national service which Pitt performed on a larger one. He took the
+people out of the hands of aristocracy, broke up the league of
+opulence and power, and gave the island that popular freedom which the
+great minister of England gave to the empire. For this the name of
+Townshend lives among us still. His bold satires are recorded, his
+gallant bearing is remembered, his passing pleasantries have become a
+portion of the national wit, and his rough but effectual services are
+among the memorials of our independence as a people."</p>
+
+<p>The evening of this hospitable day concluded with a ball to the
+neighbouring families, and all was graceful and animated enjoyment. My
+host had travelled much in early life, and had brought home some fine
+pictures and valuable sculptures. He was an accomplished classical
+scholar&mdash;a quality which I found in some degree fashionable among the
+leading personages of the time, and which unquestionably added much to
+the high tone of conversation among the parliamentary circles. In his
+magnificent mansion an artist might have found studies, a scholar
+learning, a philosopher wisdom, and a man of the world all the charms
+of polished life. How soon, and how fearfully, were they all to be
+extinguished! How bitterly were all who honoured and esteemed that
+generous and highly-gifted nobleman, to feel what shadows we are, and
+what shadows we pursue!</p>
+
+<p>Our mornings were chiefly spent in hunting over the fine landscape
+which spread, in all the various beauty of vegetation, within view of
+the mansion. On one of those days the attention of the field was
+caught by the fierce riding of a singular-looking man, scarcely above
+the peasant in his general appearance, and yet mounted on one of the
+finest English horses that I had ever seen. He rode at every thing,
+managed his horse with practised skill, and soon became an object of
+general emulation. To "ride up" to the "wild horseman," was found to
+be a task not easily accomplished, and at length all was a trial of
+speed with this dashing exhibitor. A glance which, when on the point
+of one of his most desperate leaps, he threw back at me, seemed to be
+a kind of challenge, and I rushed on at speed. The Irish hunter
+matchless at "topping" stone walls, but his practice has not lain much
+among rivers; and the English horse is sometimes his master at the
+deep and rapid streams which, running between crumbling banks, are
+perhaps the severest trials to both horse and rider. The majority of
+the hunt pulled up at the edge of one of those formidable chasms, and
+I was by no means unwilling to follow their example; but the look of
+the strange rider had a sneer along with it, which put me on my
+mettle, and I dashed after him. The hounds had scrambled through, and
+we rode nearly abreast through a broken country, that mixture of bog
+and firm ground which occurs frequently in newly cleared land, and
+over which nothing but the most powerful sinews can make way. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> had
+now left every one behind us, were struggling on through the dimness
+of a hazy day, sinking into twilight. Suddenly my mysterious rival
+turned his horse full upon me, and to my utter amazement discharged a
+pistol at my head. The discharge was so close that I escaped only by
+the swerving of my horse at the flash. I felt my face burn, and in the
+impulse of the pain made a blind blow at him with my whip. He had
+drawn out another pistol in an instant, which the blow luckily dashed
+out of his hand. No words passed between us, but I bounded on him to
+seize him. He slipped away from my grasp, and, striking in the spur,
+galloped madly forward, I in pursuit. The twilight had now deepened,
+and he plunged into a lane bounded on both sides by steep hedges, and
+which, from some former hunting in this quarter, I knew to be a
+<i>cul-de-sac</i>. This doubled my determination to make myself master of
+the assassin; and even in the hurry of the moment I formed some
+conception of my having seen his face before, and that the attempt to
+put me out of the way was connected, in some way or other, with public
+affairs. This question was soon decided. He reached the end of the
+lane, which was shut in with a wall of about the height of a man. His
+horse shied at the obstacle. The rider, with an oath and a desperate
+exertion, pushed him to it again. I was now within a few yards of him,
+and arrived just in time to see the animal make a convulsive spring,
+touch with his hind feet on the top of the wall, and roll over. My
+Irish horse cleared it in the native style, and I found my enemy
+crushed under his hunter, and evidently in the pangs of death. He had
+been flung on a heap of stones, and the weight of the falling horse
+had broken his spine. I poured some brandy down his throat, relieved
+him from the incumbrance of the hunter&mdash;attempted to give him
+hope&mdash;but he told me that it was useless; that he felt death coming
+on, and that I was the last man who should wish him to live, "as he
+had pledged himself to my extinction." For a while, his recollections
+were wild, and he talked of events in France and Spain, where he
+seemed to have done some deeds which affected him with peculiar horror
+in the prospect of dissolution. But, after a brief period of those
+terrible disclosures, his pains totally ceased, his mind grew clear;
+and he acknowledged that he was one of the leading agents of a
+National Conspiracy to republicanize Ireland. "You are too kind," said
+he to me, "to one who now sees the madness of the design, and is
+sensible of the guilt of taking away the lives of honourable men." A
+lapse of weakness here tied his tongue; and I brought him a draught of
+water from a spring which gurgled beside the wall. He thanked me, and
+proceeded to say, that my "character for vigilance and activity had
+alarmed the principal conspirators, and that he, thinking all crimes
+meritorious in a popular cause, had resolved to signalize the
+commencement of his services, by putting the English secretary to
+death on the first occasion." For this purpose, he had followed my
+steps for some time in the metropolis, but without finding a fit
+opportunity. The intelligence of my hunting days in the north gave him
+renewed expectations, and he had followed me in various disguises; had
+been present at dinners and balls, where I was the principal guest;
+had even frequently conversed with me on public and foreign topics; in
+fact, had haunted me with a case of pistols constantly in his bosom;
+yet had never been able to find the true opportunity of despatching me
+without <i>eclat</i>. He had, at last, determined to give up the object as
+altogether hopeless; and had already prepared to act on a bolder scale
+by heading open rebellion, when he heard of my intending to hunt on
+this day. It was to be his last experiment; "and how rejoiced I am,"
+said he, "that it has failed!" He now remained for a while in apparent
+meditation, and then suddenly raising himself on his hand, said, in a
+full and manly tone&mdash;"One thing I still can do in this world, if it
+may not be too late. Leave me here; I must die; go back in all haste
+to your friends, and tell them to prepare either to fly or defend
+their lives. This is the night appointed for the breaking out of the
+insurrection. Fifty thousand men are already armed in the mountains,
+and ready for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> signal to march on the principal towns. The few
+troops in the country are to be made prisoners in their barracks. The
+government stores are to be divided among the people. Before twelve
+hours are over we shall have a force of a hundred thousand men on
+foot; and a republic will be proclaimed."</p>
+
+<p>The intelligence was startling, but not wholly unexpected. I demanded
+the names of the leaders; but on this head he refused to make any
+answer. I next enquired, whether the rebel directory had any hope of
+assistance from the Continent. "That I can fully answer," said he, now
+almost at his last gasp. "I myself was the negotiator. It is but a
+month since I was in Paris. The government agreed to send seven sail
+of the line, with ten thousand troops, and Hoche, the favourite
+general of the republic, to the north; or, in case of unexpected
+obstacles, to the south of Ireland. I have been looking out for their
+flag from hour to hour." The man sank back on the ground. I prepared
+to run for help, if there were any to be found in that desolate place.
+He grasped my hand; his was icy. "No," said he, "I must now be left
+alone; I am dying, and I am not sorry to die. I am free from your
+blood, and I shall not share in the horrors which I see at hand. Men
+in health, and men dying think differently of those things. Farewell!"
+He gave my hand a convulsive clasp, and expired.</p>
+
+<p>My situation was an anxious one. Night had fallen, and the hour was
+full of peril to those whom I had left behind; it was even possible
+that the insurrection might have already broken out. Sounds, which
+seemed to me, in the stillness of the hour, to be the signals of the
+peasantry&mdash;the echoes of horns, and trampling of bodies of
+horse&mdash;began to rise upon the gust, and yet I was unwilling to leave
+my unfortunate victim on the ground. A length a loud shout, and the
+firing of musketry on the skirts of the wood, awoke me to a sense of
+the real danger of my situation. I forced my way through the thickets,
+and saw a skirmish between a large mass of armed men, and a picket of
+troops in a village on the borders of the wood. There was now no time
+to be lost. I returned to the spot where the body lay, placed my hand
+on its forehead, to ascertain whether any remnant of life lingered
+there; found all cold; and, remounting my horse, wound my dreary and
+difficult way back to the mansion.</p>
+
+<p>To my surprise, I found the windows blazing with lights, carriages
+arriving, and all the signs of a night of gala. I had forgotten that
+this was my noble entertainer's birthday, and that the whole circle of
+the neighbouring nobles and gentlemen had been for the last month
+invited. There were to be private theatricals, followed by a ball and
+supper. The whole country continued to pour in. Full of my disastrous
+intelligence, my first enquiry was for the noble host; he was not to
+be seen. I was at length informed under the seal of secrecy by his
+secretary, that some information of popular movements within a few
+miles, having been conveyed to him late in the day, he had put himself
+at the head of a squadron of his yeomanry to ascertain the nature of
+the disturbance, and as it was then too late to countermand the
+invitations to the ball, had given strict orders that the cause of his
+absence should be concealed, and that the entertainments should go on
+as if he were present.</p>
+
+<p>Agreeing that this was the wisest thing which could be done, to avoid
+unnecessary alarm, which paralyses action beforehand, and renders all
+ridiculous after, I seldom felt it more difficult to play my part than
+on this occasion. As a minister, any thing in the shape of solicitude
+on my part, was sure to be magnified into actual disaster, and I was
+forced to keep an unembarrassed countenance. I immediately sent out
+servants in every direction to bring intelligence of the actual state
+of affairs, and above all, to ascertain what had detained their
+master. Though all this was done with the utmost secrecy, it was
+impossible to suppress the growing impression that something
+extraordinary must have occurred, to withdraw from his own hospitable
+roof, and so long detain, the lord of the mansion, distinguished as he
+was for the most polished courtesy. As the hour waned, the enquiries
+became more urgent, the dance languished, and the showy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> crowd forming
+into groups, and wandering through the saloons, or gathered to the
+windows, had evidently lost all the spirit of festivity. To my
+astonishment, strong opinions began to find utterance, and I
+discovered that his lordship, in his general and lofty disregard of
+the shades of popular sentiment, had among his guests some individuals
+whose rank and wealth had not preserved them from the taint of
+republicanism. As it was not my purpose to make a ball-room the scene
+of a political squabble, and as I felt it due to my official position
+to avoid any unnecessary entanglement in the obscure follies of
+provincial partizanship, I first tried to laugh down the topic. But a
+young orator, a handsome and fluent enthusiast, recently returned from
+a continental excursion, gave so stirring a picture of the glories of
+French independence, and the glittering advantages which must accrue
+to all countries following the example, that I was forced to stand on
+my defence. The gallant republican was not to be repelled; he poured
+out upon me, as he warmed with the theme, so vast a catalogue of
+public injuries, in language so menacing, yet so eloquent, that I was
+forced to ask whether I was standing in the midst of a Jacobin
+club&mdash;whether his object was actually to establish a democracy, to
+govern by the guillotine, to close up the churches, and inscribe the
+tombs with&mdash;death is an eternal sleep; to swear to the extinction of
+monarchy, and proclaim universal war. Our dispute had now attracted
+general notice. He answered with still more vehement and elaborate
+detail. I had evidently the majority on my side, but some few adhered
+to him, and those, too, men of consequence, and obvious determination.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies shrank affrighted, as the contest grew more angry; and the
+usual and unhappy result of political discussion in Ireland, an
+exchange of cards, was about to take place, when one of the servants
+brought me a small packet of papers which had been found on the body
+of the assassin. Glancing over them, I saw a list of the leaders of
+the insurrection, and the first name in the paper that of my
+antagonist. I crushed the document in my hand, and beckoned him to a
+window. There, alone, and out of hearing of the guests, who, however,
+followed us anxiously with their eyes, I charged him with his guilt.
+He denied it fiercely. I gave him five minutes to consider whether he
+would confess or abide the consequences. His countenance visibly
+exhibited the perturbations of his mind; he turned pale and red
+alternately, shuddered, then braced himself up with desperate
+resolution, and finally ended by denying and defying every thing. It
+was not in my nature to press upon this moment of agony; but telling
+him, that nothing but compassion prevented my ordering his arrest on
+the spot, I again warned him to make his peace in time with the
+government, by a solemn abjuration of his design.</p>
+
+<p>I have the whole scene before me still. This man was destined to a
+memorable and melancholy fate. I never remember a countenance more
+expressive of intellectual refinement; but there was a look of strange
+and feverish restlessness in his large grey eye, almost ominous of his
+future career. He was still young, though he had already gone through
+vicissitudes enough to darken the longest life. He had been, a few
+years before, called to the bar, the favourite profession of the Irish
+gentry, where he had exhibited talents of a remarkable order; but an
+impatience of the slow success of this profession drove him to the
+hazards of political change. He had married, and this increased his
+difficulties, until party came athwart him with its promises of
+boundless honour and rapid fortune. His sanguine nature embraced the
+temptation at once; but the parliamentary opposition was too
+deliberate and too frigid for his boiling blood; he plunged into the
+deeper and wilder region of conspiracy, took the lead, which is so
+soon assigned to the brilliant and the bold, and became the soul of
+the tremendous faction which was ready to proclaim the separation of
+the empire.</p>
+
+<p>He had but now returned from France, with a commission in the army of
+the Republic, and a plan agreed on with the Directory for the invasion
+of Ireland; but these were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> discoveries to be made hereafter. On this
+night I saw nothing but a gallant enthusiast, filled with classic
+recollections, inflamed with the ardour of early life, and deluded by
+the dreams of political perfection. My sense of the utter ruin which
+he was preparing for himself was so strong, that I pressed him from
+point to point, until he was forced to take refuge in flight, and,
+rushing from me, burst open a door which led to the demesne. While I
+paused, not unwilling to give him the opportunity to escape, I heard a
+wild burst of wailing, and a confusion of voices outside. In the next
+moment, I saw the fugitive return, with a tottering step, a bloodless
+countenance, and a look of horror. Without a word, he pointed to the
+door; I followed the direction, and saw what might well justify his
+feelings. The troop of yeomanry had been attacked on their return from
+patrolling the country; an ambuscade had been laid for them by a large
+force of the insurgents, in one of the narrow roads which bordered the
+demesne, and where, from its vicinity, they had imagined themselves
+secure. As they moved down this defile with their noble commandant at
+their head, a heavy fire of musketry assailed them from both sides;
+and as the assailants were unapproachable, they had no resource but to
+gallop on. But they had no sooner reached the wider part of the road,
+than they found themselves fired on again from behind a barricade of
+carts and waggons drawn across the road. The affair now seemed
+desperate; the muzzles of the muskets almost touched their breasts,
+and every shot told. Their pistols could only keep up a random fire,
+and their sabres were wholly useless. They were now falling helplessly
+and fast, when the earl ordered them to charge the insurgents in
+front, and force their way over the barricade at all risks. He bravely
+led the way, and they burst through under a volley from the rebels. A
+ball fatally struck him as he was in the act of cheering on his men,
+and he dropped dead from his horse without a groan. The troop, furious
+at their loss, had taken a desperate revenge, cleared the road, and
+had now brought the dead body of their lord to that mansion, where he
+had so long presided as the example of every high-toned quality, and
+which his fate was now to turn into a scene of terror and woe.</p>
+
+<p>The melancholy tidings could not now be suppressed, and the ball-room
+was filled with screams and faintings. The corpse was brought in,
+borne on the arms of the yeomanry, most of them wounded, and looking
+ghastly from loss of blood and the agitation of the encounter. The
+guests crowded round the sofa on which the body was laid, with all the
+varieties of sorrow and strong emotion conceivable, under the loss of
+a common and honoured friend. Tears fell down many a manly cheek; sobs
+were heard on every side, mingled with outcries of indignation against
+the rebellious spirit by which so deep a calamity had been produced.
+But all other considerations were quickly absorbed in the sense of
+general danger. A tremendous shout was heard round the mansion,
+followed by the discharge of musketry and the clashing of pikes. All
+rushed to the windows, and we saw the hills in a blaze with fires, and
+the demesne crowded with the armed thousands of the insurrection.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+<h3>JANUS;</h3>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">The God of New-year's Day, From the Fasti of Ovid</span>.</h4>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Janus">
+<tr><td>
+Behold with omens blithe and bright, on festive New-Year's Day,<br />
+First in the year old Janus comes, and foremost in my lay!<br />
+Twin-headed god, source of the year that silent glides away,<br />
+Who only of the Olympian throng canst thine own back survey;<br />
+Bless thou our noble chiefs, whose arms have purchased gentle peace<br />
+To fruitful Earth, and lent the wave from pirate-chase release;<br />
+On senators and people smile, who call Quirinus god,<br />
+All temples bright, in shining white, fly open at thy nod!<br />
+A lucky sun doth shine; nor voice, nor thought of ill, be stirr'd<br />
+To tempt the time; the happy day demands the happy word.<br />
+No brawls assail the ear; cease now the harsh-vex'd forum's hum,<br />
+And calumny with eager tongue, for once thy spite be dumb!<br />
+Lo! where the pure and fragrant flame from every altar round<br />
+Upwreathes, while ears devout receive the saffron's crackling sound!<br />
+The wandering flame, far darting, strikes the golden-fretted roof,<br />
+And with the tremulous ray aloft, it weaves a shining woof.<br />
+In stately pomp, the people wend up the Tarpeian slope,<br />
+All brightly, on a bright day clad, the pure white robes of hope;<br />
+New axes shine, and in the sun new purple bravely sports,<br />
+And greeted-far the curule chair new weight of worth supports;[<a name="f12.1" id="f12.1" href="#f12">12</a>]<br />
+New oxen come that lately cropp'd the sweet Faliscan grass,<br />
+And yield to Jove their willing necks on which no yoke did pass.<br />
+He, from his starry throne sublime, looks East and West; and lo!<br />
+He sees but Rome, and Rome's domain, in all he sways below.<br />
+Hail happy day, and still return to bless with happier face<br />
+The sons of Romulus, lords of Earth, not thankless for thy grace!<br />
+But who art thou, strange biform god, and what thy power? for Greece<br />
+With all her gods of thee and thine hath bade her Muses cease;<br />
+This say; and say why thou alone of all celestial kind,<br />
+Dost forwards still look steadfastly and also gaze behind?<br />
+Thus with myself I mused, and held my tablets to indite,<br />
+When sudden through the room there shone an unaccustom'd light,<br />
+And in the light the double shape of Janus hoar appear'd,<br />
+And 'fore my view with fix'd regard his double face he rear'd.<br />
+I stood aghast, each rigid hair erect rose on my head,<br />
+And through my frame with freezing touch the creeping terror sped.<br />
+He in his right hand held a staff, and in his left a key,<br />
+And with the mouth to-me-ward turn'd these words he spake to me&mdash;<br />
+"Fear not, pains-taking bard, whose pen doth chronicle the days,<br />
+Receive my word with faithful ear, and sound it in thy lays.<br />
+When earth was young, primeval speech first call'd me Chaos; I<br />
+Am no birth of to-day&mdash;a name of hoar antiquity.<br />
+This lucid air, and the other three, which elements ye class,<br />
+Fire, water, earth, were then one rude and undigested mass;<br />
+But soon within the mingled heap a secret strife did brew,<br />
+And to self-chosen homes anon the hostile atoms flew.<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+First rose the flame sublime, the air assumed the middle berth,<br />
+And to the central base were bound strong ocean, and firm earth.<br />
+Then I, till then a mass confused, a huge and shapeless round,<br />
+New features worthy of a god, and worthy members found;<br />
+Still of my primal shapeless bulk remain'd the little trace,<br />
+That I alone have no true back, but show both ways a face.<br />
+One cause thou hast; another hear, and with my figure know,<br />
+My virtue and my power above, my office here below.<br />
+Whate'er thou see'st, the earth, the sea, the air, the fiery cope,<br />
+At my command they shut their gates, at my command they ope.<br />
+I of the vasty universe do hold the secret key,<br />
+The hinge of every thing that turns is turn'd alone by me.<br />
+Peace, when I please to send her forth from her secure retreats,<br />
+Walks freely o'er the unfenced fields, and treads free-gated streets;<br />
+The mighty globe would quake convulsed by blood and murderous din,<br />
+Did not my brazen bolt confine the store of strife within.<br />
+The gates of Heaven are mine; I watch there with the gentle Hours,<br />
+That Jove supreme must wait my time in the Olympian bowers.<br />
+Thence my name Janus;[<a name="f13.1" id="f13.1" href="#f13">13</a>] thence the priest who on my altar places<br />
+The salted cake, the sacred meal, with strange-mouth'd titles graces<br />
+My hoary deity; thence you hear Patulcius now, and now<br />
+Clusius, crown the votive gift, and seal the mystic vow.[<a name="f14.1" id="f14.1" href="#f14">14</a>]<br />
+Thus rude antiquity at first its simple creed confess'd,<br />
+And with twin words the functions twain of one same god express'd.<br />
+My power you know&mdash;the god of gates&mdash;now for my figure, why?<br />
+The cause is plain, and may be read by half a poet's eye.<br />
+There is no door but looks two ways; into the busy street<br />
+This way, and that way back towards the quiet Lar's retreat;[<a name="f15.1" id="f15.1" href="#f15">15</a>]<br />
+And as the porter whom you place to keep watch at your gate,<br />
+Sees who goes out and who comes in at early hour and late,<br />
+Thus I, the warden of the sky, from heaven's wide-tented blue,<br />
+Look forth, and scan both east and west with comprehensive view.<br />
+The triform image you have seen, and any where may see,<br />
+Of Hecate standing at the point where one road parts in three;<br />
+Thus I, lest turning of my neck my function might delay,<br />
+The motive world on either side without a move survey."<br />
+Thus spake the god with friendly mien and eye, that seem'd to say&mdash;<br />
+"If wish be yours to question more, command me; I obey."<br />
+Due thanks I gave; strong fear no more my eager tongue possess'd,<br />
+And with a look that sought the ground, the immortal I address'd.<br />
+"This would I know, why frosty days and storms begin the year,<br />
+Which flowery spring had usher'd in with more auspicious cheer;<br />
+Then all things flourish&mdash;all things then of youth and freshness tell,<br />
+The juicy vine begins to flow, the bud begins to swell;<br />
+With fresh green leaves the tree is clad, a virgin sheen appears,<br />
+The bursting seed above the ground the fresh green blade uprears.<br />
+With fresh full-throated warblings then the blithe birds stir the air,<br />
+And lamb and lambkin in the mead their frisking sports prepare.<br />
+Then suns are mild; its south retreat the stranger swallow leaves,<br />
+And skilful builds the well-known clay beneath the lofty eaves.<br />
+Then walks the ploughman forth; the clod yields to the sturdy steer;<br />
+Soothly the fittest time was this to omen in the year."<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+My words were many, but in words few and well-chosen, He,<br />
+Within the compass of two lines, thus made reply to me.<br />
+"What time the sun that sunk before mounts loftier to the view,<br />
+This fitliest closed the parting year, and usher'd in the new."<br />
+I ask'd again, "Why on this day the forum's strife should end<br />
+Only in part."&mdash;"The cause," said he, "I will explain; attend.<br />
+The young year's starting day I made but partial holiday,<br />
+Lest labourless begun, the year might run to the end in play;<br />
+Each cunning hand on Janus' feast makes prelude to his trade,<br />
+Of all the rest a timely test on New-Year's day is made."<br />
+Then I, this further&mdash;"Tell me why, when I bring frankincense<br />
+To Jove or any other god, with thee I still commence?"<br />
+"Because of things in heaven and earth I hold the sacred key,<br />
+The first approach to all the gods is made alone through me."<br />
+"But on thy kalends, why are men, so harsh on other days,<br />
+Keen to return the kindly look, and change the friendly phrase?"<br />
+To this the god, his strong right hand upon his good staff leaning,<br />
+"All ominous things when first observed speak out their fateful meaning.<br />
+To the first voice of things that cry, ye lend a trembling ear,<br />
+And the first flight of bodeful wings fills pious hearts with fear.<br />
+The ears are open of the gods, to catch on New-Year's day<br />
+What random words, or thoughtless prayer, a hasty fool may say."<br />
+Thus ceased the god; nor slow was I the broken thread to join,<br />
+But of the last words that he spake, thus trode the heels with mine.<br />
+"But what have dates to do with thee, and wrinkled figs, this tell,<br />
+And what the honey dew that drops pure from its snowy cell?"[<a name="f16.1" id="f16.1" href="#f16">16</a>]<br />
+"Here, too, an omen lies," he said; "the cause is passing clear,<br />
+That from sweet things a savour sweet may relish the whole year."<br />
+Thus taught, the cause I understood of dates, and figs, and honey;<br />
+"But tell me now, wise god!" I said, "what means the piece of money?"<br />
+He smiled. "Alas! how much thy age deceives thy wit," he said;<br />
+"As if sweet honey by the touch of gold were sweeter made.<br />
+Even in good Saturn's day, 'twas hard to find a heart all pure,<br />
+From the infection of base gain, and gainful lust secure.<br />
+Small at the birth, it grew apace the thirst of yellow ore,<br />
+Till heap on heap ye pile so high, that ye can pile no more.<br />
+Not so the measure was of wealth in Rome's primeval time,<br />
+When all was poor that now is rich, and low that's now sublime;<br />
+When a small hut was all that held the son of Mars divine,<br />
+And gather'd reeds were all the couch on which he drain'd the wine;<br />
+When Jove within his narrow cell erect could scarcely stand,<br />
+An earthen Jove, and of base clay the bolt that arm'd his hand.<br />
+When with wild-flowers the fane was deck'd that now with jewels gleams,<br />
+And his own sheep the senator fed near the rural streams;<br />
+When gently woo'd by healthy sleep the rustic warrior lay<br />
+On straw, and praised above all down a truss of bristling hay;<br />
+When to give laws to Rome the peasant consul left the plough,<br />
+And gold was then as great a crime as 'tis a virtue now.<br />
+But when our fates were lifted high, and to the stars sublime,<br />
+Perch'd on her base of seven-hill'd state proud Rome had learn'd to climb;<br />
+Wealth grew with power, and lust of wealth, a madness of the brain,<br />
+And still the more that they possess'd, the more they sought to gain.<br />
+Eager to make that they might spend, spending to make anew,<br />
+Change nursed by change of fell extremes to monstrous nature grew;<br />
+Thus he whose sickly body swells with water in the veins,<br />
+The more he drinks, the more within the thirsty fever reigns.<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+All things are prized by price; to wealth all honours now are sure;<br />
+Wealth buys the rich man friends; forlorn and friendless pines the poor.<br />
+If now you ask why copper coins are chiefly my delight,<br />
+The ancient brass of Rome should I, the ancient Janus, slight?<br />
+Brass was their wealth of old; though now the better omen's gold,<br />
+And the new metal from the field has fairly beat the old.<br />
+Myself, though simple and severe, approve a golden shrine&mdash;<br />
+This metal hath a majesty that suits a power divine.<br />
+We praise the ancients, and 'tis well; but use our modern ways&mdash;<br />
+All fashions in due time and place are worthy of our praise."<br />
+Thus ceased the god; but I, to set all rising doubts at rest,<br />
+The hoar key-bearer of the sky thus with meek words address'd:&mdash;<br />
+"Much I have learn'd; but tell me this&mdash;why of our copper coin<br />
+Does one side bear a ship, and one a double head like thine?"[<a name="f17.1" id="f17.1" href="#f17">17</a>]<br />
+"That head is mine; you might have known the likeness of the face<br />
+But that hoar age and wear have dull'd the sharpness of the trace.<br />
+As for the ship, attend: the god that bears the scythe whilcome<br />
+Far-wandering in the Tuscan flood at length had ceased to roam.[<a name="f18.1" id="f18.1" href="#f18">18</a>]<br />
+Well I remember when he came, and hold the memory dear&mdash;<br />
+Saturn, by Jove expell'd from heaven, and kindly welcom'd here.<br />
+Thence was the land Saturnia call'd; and Latium still we name<br />
+The part where ancient Saturn lurk'd in safety when he came.[<a name="f19.1" id="f19.1" href="#f19">19</a>]<br />
+Our pious sires upon the brass the sacred ship impress'd,<br />
+Whose keel to blest Ausonian shores had borne the Olympian guest.<br />
+Then on that spot I made my home where Tiber's waters glide,<br />
+And eat the yielding banks away with sandy-rolling tide.<br />
+Here, where Rome stands, wild copse green grew; the busy forum now<br />
+Was then a peaceful glen, disturb'd by wandering oxen's low.<br />
+My fortress then was that same hill which pious Rome reveres<br />
+Even now, and thinks on Janus when Janiculum she hears.<br />
+Here I was king, when holy earth of heavenly guests could tell,<br />
+And in the haunts of men the gods were not ashamed to dwell;<br />
+Ere Justice, shrinking from the sight of human guilt and crime,<br />
+Last of immortals left the earth, and sought the starry clime;<br />
+When hearts were sway'd by love, and held by bonds of holy awe,<br />
+And light the labour was to shape for willing hearts the law.<br />
+Stern war I knew not, and the gates I held were gates of peace;<br />
+While in my hand the key declared&mdash;Let garner'd stores increase!"<br />
+Here closed the god his lips; but I, not bashful, open'd mine,<br />
+And with the mortal voice again unseal'd the voice divine.<br />
+"Since many gates are thine in Rome, say why dost thou appear<br />
+In perfect shape and size nowhere but at the forums here?"[<a name="f20.1" id="f20.1" href="#f20">20</a>]<br />
+Whereto the god, with gentle hand stroking his long beard hoary,<br />
+Forthwith recounted in my ear &OElig;balian Tatius' story;<br />
+And how, by Sabine gauds ensnared, the fair and faithless maid<br />
+The path that to the Capitol leads to the Sabine lord betray'd.<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+"As there is now, so then there was, a slope by which you go<br />
+Steep from the citadel to the plain, and forum stretch'd below;<br />
+And now the twain had reach'd the gate where Juno's partial ward<br />
+The only bolts that closed their way propitiously unbarr'd,<br />
+When I, too wise with Saturn's seed in open fight to join,<br />
+Contrived a scheme that baffled hers, a plan entirely mine;<br />
+I oped (in opening lies my strength) a gate where waters slept,<br />
+And from the solid rock straightway a stream impetuous leapt;<br />
+To the hot spring such sulphurous steams my timely aid supplied<br />
+That eager Tatius quail'd and shrunk back from the rolling tide.<br />
+The Sabines fled; the gushing fount miraculous ceased to flow;<br />
+Nor pious Rome to own the power that sent such aid was slow;<br />
+A little altar on a shrine not large to Janus' name<br />
+Was raised; there sprinkled meal and cake smokes mingled with the flame."<br />
+"But this say further,&mdash;why thy gates in war are open, why<br />
+In peace are closed?" whereto the god thus gave the prompt reply;<br />
+"That till her sons fierce war have quench'd, and crush'd the crude revolt,<br />
+Rome to receive the homeward host may keep unbarr'd the bolt;<br />
+In peace my locks are closed, that none may causeless leave his home,<br />
+Nor few the years I shall be closed while C&aelig;sar reigns in Rome."<br />
+Thus spake the god; and lifting high his head of diverse view,<br />
+Scann'd east and west, and all that's spread beneath the ethereal blue;<br />
+And peace rein'd o'er wide earth; ev'n where i' the north, with surly wave,<br />
+The rebel Rhine to C&aelig;sar's arms their latest triumph gave;<br />
+Peace, hoary Janus, make thou sure for ever; and may they<br />
+Who purchased peace embrace the globe with everlasting sway.</td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>TO A BLIND GIRL.</h3>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Blind Girl">
+<tr><td>
+I do not sigh as some may sigh,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To see thee in thy darkness led</span><br />
+Along the path where sunbeams lie,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And bloom is shed.</span><br />
+<br />
+I do not weep as some may weep,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon thy rayless brow to look;</span><br />
+A boon more rare 'twas thine to keep,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">When light forsook.</span><br />
+<br />
+A glorious boon! Thou shalt not view<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One treasure from the earth depart&mdash;</span><br />
+Its starry buds, its pearls of dew,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lie in thy heart.</span><br />
+<br />
+No need to heed the frosty air,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No need to heed the blasts that chafe,</span><br />
+The scatter'd sheaf, the vintage spare&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Thy hoard is safe</i>.</span><br />
+<br />
+Thou shalt not mark the silent change<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That falls upon the heart like blight,</span><br />
+The smile that grows all cold and strange.&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Bless'd is thy night!</span><br />
+<br />
+Thou shalt not watch the slow decay,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor see the ivy clasp the fane,</span><br />
+Nor trace upon the column gray<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The mildew stain.</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Ours</i> is the darkness&mdash;thine the light.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Within thy brow a glory plays;</span><br />
+Shrine, blossom, dewdrop, all are bright<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With quenchless rays.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 15em;">J. D.</span></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+<h3>THE FORCED SALE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>A large red brick house, with a multitude of gable-ends, and rows of
+small, dingy-looking windows, had hidden itself for many generations
+in a clump of fine old trees in a large green field&mdash;almost qualified
+to take rank as a park&mdash;at a distance of six or seven miles from St
+Paul's. In the days of the good Queen Anne, the city lay comfortably
+huddled up round the cathedral church, and looked upon her sister of
+Westminster as too far removed, and of too lofty a rank, to be visited
+except on rare occasions. London was then contained within reasonable
+limits, and it was easy to walk round her boundaries; you could even
+point out the precise spot at which the town ended and the country
+began. The inhabitants of the large brick house, known by the name of
+Surbridge Hall, at rare intervals, and then only to visit the shops,
+undertook the journey into the city; and, unless in the stillest of
+autumn evenings, when the enormous tongue of the metropolitan clock
+made itself audible on the Surbridge lawn, they might have forgotten
+that such a place as the capital was within fifty miles. That
+generation died off; and London had begun to put out feelers in all
+directions, and had outgrown the ancient limits. Streets began to move
+out a little way into the country for change of air; and, in making
+their usual shopping-visits to the great city, the inhabitants of
+Surbridge Hall had now to drive through a short row of houses, where
+the elders of the party remembered nothing but a hedge. That
+generation also died out; and the city, like an old dowager who has
+once been a beauty, and boasted of a waist, grew out of all shape.
+There were squares and crescents rising in every quarter and the white
+tops of chimneys, and the blue dinginess of roofs, became visible from
+the upper windows of Surbridge Hall. The proprietor, terrified perhaps
+by the approach of such neighbours, advertised the Hall for sale,
+speedily found a purchaser, and, somewhere about the beginning of this
+century, the old family name of the Walronds disappeared from the
+country, and Surbridge Hall became the property of William Wilkins,
+Esq. We may observe that, much about the same time, the name of the
+senior partner disappeared from the door of a dingy-looking house in
+Riches Court, and the firm of Wilkins &amp; Roe was deprived of its larger
+half. The old lion-rampant, that had stood on its hind-legs for so
+many years on the top of one of the piers of the entrance gates, as if
+in act to spring upon the deer that lay ruminating on the top of the
+other, was now displaced; and, in a few days, his position was taken
+by a plaster-of-Paris cast of Hebe, benevolently holding forth an
+empty goblet towards the thirsty statue of Apollo which did duty on
+the other side. The floors in the old hall were new laid, the windows
+fitted with plate glass, the painting and decoration put into the
+hands of a Bond-street finisher, who covered the walls with acres of
+gilding, and hung chandeliers from the ceilings, and placed mirrors
+upon the walls, till the rooms looked like the show galleries of an
+upholsterer, and very different from the fine solid habitable
+apartments they used to be in the time of the late proprietor. And a
+change nearly as remarkable took place on Mr Wilkins himself as in his
+house. He attended county meetings, and became learned in rents and
+agriculture. He built new houses for his tenants, and only regretted
+he had never learned to ride, or he would have followed the hounds.
+But though he was no Nimrod, he dressed like one of his sons, and
+encased his thick legs in top-boots, and generally carried a whip. At
+last, by dint of good dinners, and voting on the right side at the
+elections, he became a magistrate; and if Mrs Wilkins had had the
+politeness to die, he would have married Lady Diana O'Huggomy, the
+daughter of an Irish earl; but Mrs Wilkins did not die, and Lady Diana
+ran away with a dancing-master. His son had been eighteen years at the
+bar, and never had had a brief; his daughters had been twenty years on
+the world, and never had had an offer;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> but he still expected to see
+Richard lord chancellor, and his three girls peeresses. A country
+gentleman, a county magistrate, perfectly healthy and tolerably rich,
+was there any thing wanting to Mr Wilkins's felicity? Yes. Alexander
+the Great was wretched when he had conquered the world, and was ten
+times happier when he was breaking-in Bucephalus; and Mr Wilkins, if
+the truth must be told, was very like Alexander the Great, at least in
+his discontent, and was never so gay as he used to be in the dingy
+mansion in Riches Court. The dinners he gave were formal, cold
+affairs, where he never felt at his ease: he could not help thinking
+that the neighbours quizzed and looked down on him; and, in short, he
+felt out of his element, and longed sometimes for the free-and-easy
+dinners he had relished so much in the city. His farm-houses were at
+last all built, his improvements all completed, and there was no
+further occupation for either himself or his money. He sometimes drove
+into Harley Street to see his son, but he found that gentleman also on
+the rack of idleness, and went home again, wondering how Roe was
+getting on in the old premises, though never venturing to go near
+him&mdash;for his family had insisted on a dead cut between the partners,
+and could not endure the thoughts of Mr Roe coming between the wind
+and their newly acquired nobility. Time wore on. Old Wilkins grew
+older. He used to sit at the window of his drawing-room and look
+towards London, fancying to himself the bustle and stir that were
+going on, the crowding in Fleet Street, the crush at the Bank; and
+occasionally imagination conjured up to him the image of an active
+citizen bustling down towards the Exchange, radiant with success, and
+filled with activity and hope; and he could scarcely recognise his own
+identity with that joyous citizen, the William Wilkins of that happier
+time. The flood of building, which had only reached to within three
+miles of Surbridge when the Walronds retired to the ark of some estate
+they retained in Yorkshire, had now increased to such a degree, as to
+have submerged many of the fields and orchards that lay at very short
+distance from the Hall. "Willars," with Italian fronts and little
+greenhouses at the side, took post all along the road, and, from the
+open windows, sounded in summer evenings the Battle of Prague, or God
+save the King, so that you walked amidst perpetual music, for no house
+was so ungenteel as to be without a piano. Surbridge Hall itself ran a
+great risk of becoming a suburban villa at no distant time; and Mr
+Wilkins was in some hopes that his family would allow him to consider
+himself an inhabitant of London once more, and no longer doom him to
+the cold nothingness of squireship and gentility. But whether they
+might have relented in this respect can never be known; for while he
+was meditating a renewal of his acquaintance with his late partner,
+and an occasional dive into Riches Court, he changed his bed at the
+Hall for the family vault (newly built) in Surbridge church, and his
+great-coat and riding-whip for a Roman toga and a long gilt baton,
+with which he pointed to heaven from the top of a splendid monument
+near the south wall. Richard now succeeded to the family honours; and
+as he had married a Miss Gillingham&mdash;a name which he preferred to his
+ancestral appellation&mdash;he did her the honour to take it to himself,
+and was duly enrolled in the list of justices as Wilkins Gillingham,
+Esq. His son was sent to Christchurch, and his three daughters to a
+fashionable boarding-school. His mother and sisters retired to
+Tunbridge Wells, and they all began to persuade themselves that
+Surbridge had been in the family from the time of the Conquest. By way
+of strengthening their claims to county consideration, it was wisely
+determined to oppose the building invasion as powerfully as they
+could. Several farms and fields were bought, plantations were
+skilfully placed, two or three feet were added to the height of the
+walls all round the property; and it was hoped that some impression
+was made on the advancing architectural enemy; for in the speculative
+year of 1819, a dozen or two of builders were removed to the Queen's
+Bench, and whole rows of houses were left looking up to heaven, in
+vain expectation of a roof. Wilkins Gillingham<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> served the office of
+High Sheriff, caught a surfeit in entertaining the judges, and in a
+few weeks gave place to his heir. Augustus had passed two years at
+Oxford&mdash;had then married a beauty&mdash;the daughter of a country surgeon
+of the name of Howard; and as he inherited his father's tastes, along
+with his property, he changed his family name; and poor old Widow
+Wilkins, who still survived, enlivened the tea-tables of the Wells
+with anecdotes and descriptions of her grandson, Gillingham Howard.
+Death seemed entirely to have forgotten the relict of the original
+William. She stood like an ancient pillar, to point out where the
+building it once belonged to was placed; and was looked upon by her
+descendants pretty much as a native American looks upon a venerable
+squaw of some Indian nation&mdash;the connecting link between New York and
+the woods. The widow was the sole point of union left between
+Surbridge Hall and Riches Court. Whether her grandson did not relish
+the reminiscence, or from what cause no one can hazard more than a
+guess, certain it is that on the death of his wife, who left him with
+two daughters, four or five years old, he did not summon his venerable
+ancestor from the Wells, but installed one of her daughters&mdash;Aunt
+Susannah&mdash;in the temporary charge of his house. By some secret
+arrangement, into the causes of which we have no time to enquire, such
+a change took place in Aunt Susannah, that though she left Tunbridge,
+having secured her place in the inside of the coach in the name of
+Miss S. Wilkins, she was brought out from London in Mr Howard's
+carriage in the name of Miss S. Gillingham; and there was no person of
+the name of Wilkins in the whole of the establishment. Aunt Susannah
+was not a person to hesitate long as to a change of name. It had been
+the whole object of her life, till five-and-thirty years of
+disappointment had almost made her despair of succeeding in her
+object, by the help of special license or even vulgar banns; and she
+accordingly made no scruple in adopting the more euphonious
+Gillingham, and sinking all mention of the other. Mr Gillingham Howard
+followed the example of his predecessors. He was a <i>bona fide</i> country
+gentleman, with the one drawback to his otherwise stupendous
+respectability, of being the greatest drawer of the long-bow since the
+days of Mendez Pinto. He added two feet more to the height of his
+boundary walls, and bought all the disposable land round his estate;
+but if he had transplanted a couple of miles of the Chinese wall to
+Surbridge, he could no more have kept off the intrusion of the
+barbarian villa-builders than the Celestials have been able to shut
+out the same pushing, bustling, active, energetic, unabashable
+individuals from the Flowery land. Architecture went on, and now the
+gigantic city had stuck her arms so majestically on either hip, that
+one of her elbows actually came into contact with the park of
+Surbridge Hall. There was a gentle elevation&mdash;in those flat regions
+honoured with the name of a hill&mdash;which lay at one side of the
+Surbridge lands. It was a beautifully wooded little property of thirty
+or forty acres, which it had always been the ambition of the Surbridge
+owners to buy; but it was so involved with lawsuits or doubtful
+titles, that it had hitherto been impossible to get possession of it
+for love or money. The upper part of it rose high above the glades of
+Surbridge park, and the clump of trees on the summit formed a very
+fine object in the view from the drawing-room windows. It was all laid
+down in the richest pasture, and would have formed the most valuable
+addition to the property, both in making it compact and keeping it
+secluded. The owner of it died at last in the Fleet, and it was
+advertised for sale, with a perfect title and immediate possession.
+The sale was by auction, and the day drew rapidly near. Mr Gillingham
+Howard went carefully over the ground, examined the condition of his
+credit&mdash;for his surplus cash was gone&mdash;had the property valued; and
+determined to give a thousand more than its worth, to prevent it
+falling into any one else's hands. When the day of sale arrived, he
+placed himself in front of the auctioneer, and determined, by the
+fierceness of his "bids," to frighten any competitor from the field.
+The room was crowded, and the sale began. All the eloquence of the
+celebrated Puff was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> displayed on this occasion; and when he paused
+after his glowing description, and asked any gentleman to be kind
+enough to name a sum to begin with&mdash;suggesting, at the same time, four
+thousand pounds. "Gentlemen, shall we say four thousand guineas?" Mr
+Gillingham Howard, in a voice that was calculated to show that he was
+in earnest, and did not stand upon trifles, nodded his head, and said
+"seven!" The auctioneer himself was overcome with the success of his
+oratory, and there was a dead silence among the spectators. "Thank
+you, sir&mdash;seven thousand guineas," he said, "Will any gentleman make
+an advance?" looking round, at the same time, as if he considered it
+useless to waste any breath in endeavouring to enhance the price. His
+hammer mechanically went up, and was on the point of falling, when a
+weak voice near the orator's pulpit whispered "eight."</p>
+
+<p>The voice proceeded from an old man wrapped up in a thick great-coat,
+though it was a warm day in June&mdash;a clear-eyed, small-featured,
+diminutive old man, who had sat the whole time, taking no apparent
+interest in the proceedings. All eyes were turned upon him in a
+moment, and he quietly repeated the awful monosyllable&mdash;"eight!" Mr
+Gillingham Howard looked at the old gentleman with detestation in
+every feature, for he felt that the person, whoever he was, was
+actually robbing him of a thousand pounds; and he would have had very
+few scruples in sending the culprit to Botany Bay for so tremendous an
+outrage. A sort of smile ran round the assemblage at seeing the sudden
+alteration produced on his countenance; and though he had determined
+not to give more than the original seven, he was ashamed to be cowed
+by an unknown individual at once; and after a few minutes' pause, and
+a glance of ineffable hatred at the little old man, who had relapsed
+into his state of contented unconcern, he looked at the auctioneer,
+and said, "Five hundred more!" Saying this, he put his hands into his
+pockets, and kept his eye fixed on his competitor. Without a moment's
+hesitation, the old gentleman nodded his head once more, and said, "Mr
+Puff, I'm in a hurry. Will this gentleman give ten thousand guineas? I
+will!"</p>
+
+<p>The auctioneer gave one look to Mr Gillingham Howard, and saw, from
+the blank expression of that gentleman's countenance, that competition
+was at an end. The hammer fell, and seemed like a great rock on Mr
+Gillingham Howard's heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Your name, if you please, sir," said Mr Puff.</p>
+
+<p>The little old gentleman rose up and said, "Give me a pen and ink.
+I'll write an order for the money. My name is Thomas Roe, No. 20,.
+Riches Court."</p>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'IV'">II</ins>.</h4>
+
+<p>A week had passed, and Mr Gillingham Howard nursed his wrath, like Tam
+O'Shanter's wife, to keep it warm. The name of the successful
+purchaser had struck him with a feeling of horror; for as silence had
+brooded for fifty years over the history of his grandfather&mdash;and as
+the misty period preceding the purchase of Surbridge had given rise to
+a whole mythology of ancestry like to the anti-historic periods of
+Greece, and other imaginative nations&mdash;he looked upon the appearance
+of the veritable contemporary of that fabulous age in the same way as
+Romulus would have regarded any surviving friend and companion of the
+real <i>bona fide</i> robber or pig-driver to whom he probably owed his
+birth. It is needless, therefore, to say, that over all other feelings
+fear and disgust predominated. He determined to withdraw himself into
+still more aristocratic seclusion than before, and on no account to
+recognise the existence of his new neighbour. A month or two passed
+on, and no steps seemed taken on the part of the purchaser to avail
+himself of his new acquisition. Day after day Mr Gillingham Howard
+looked up to the tuft of trees that crowned the beautiful field beyond
+his park, and on seeing no symptoms of cutting down, nor other
+preparations for house-building,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> began to indulge in the pleasing
+anticipation that the old gentleman had no intention of the kind; and
+by cherishing this idea for some time, he succeeded at last in
+believing, that if he did in reality turn his ground to any such a
+purpose, he would be guilty of a fresh injustice. Three months had
+elapsed, and the beautiful colours of Autumn just unfurled themselves
+in order to be struck at the first broadside of a November frost&mdash;the
+sun was shining so warmly, that the leaves had every reason to be
+ashamed of their yellow complexions; and a young lady&mdash;like a
+butterfly awakened by the brightness of the day&mdash;fluttered forward
+from the porch of Surbridge Hall, dressed in all the hues of the
+rainbow. A green bonnet, a pink pelisse, a red shawl, and lilac
+parasol, were scarcely in keeping with the sylvan scene on which she
+hurriedly entered. She was very tall and very thin, and had been
+taught to walk by a Parisian <i>promeneuse</i> at a guinea a lesson; so
+that the tail of her gown described a half circle every time she
+stept, and her progress was apparently on the principle of the
+propeller screw. A small sketch-book was under her arm, and across her
+wrist she bore a supernumerary shawl. "If he should be there again,"
+she thought, "he will surely speak. He looked as if he wished to do it
+last time. But he's bashful, perhaps, to a person of my rank. Poor
+fellow&mdash;how handsome he looked as he turned away!" The thought seemed
+to be a pleasant one, for a sort of smile rose to her thin lips as she
+dwelt on it, and she increased her pace. She opened a little gate, and
+moved rapidly on towards an ornamental poultry-house near the boundary
+of the estate. The extra shawl was soon spread upon the stump of a
+tree, the sketch-book opened, and with her eye intently fixed on the
+fantastic chimney of the hen-house, she listened for every sound. She
+moved the pencil as if busily engaged in sketching; but, strange to
+say, the figure produced by her touch, took (involuntarily as it were)
+the appearance of a very handsome young man, for whose bright eyes and
+smiling countenance there was no warrant in the twisted bricks and
+oddly shaped cans of the original. As if her drawing had been the
+mystic configurations of a conjurer, the spirit came when she did call
+for it; and with a side glance of her eye, she perceived at no great
+distance from her a young man, who seemed to be gazing at her with
+great earnestness, and was only prevented from addressing her by the
+awe, that formed of course the body-guard of a daughter of Mr
+Gillingham Howard. There are many ways in which it is possible to show
+that the said body-guard may be broken through, without subjecting the
+culprit to the penalties of high-treason. A short cough, as if
+preparatory to a conversation&mdash;a hurried look, and then a scarcely
+perceptible smile&mdash;a sort of fidgety uneasiness, as if the stump of
+the tree was something rather different from an air-cushion&mdash;such were
+the methods pursued by Miss Arabel Howard on the present occasion with
+complete success. The stranger combated with his respect, and going
+near to where the sketcher&mdash;again utterly unconscious of his presence,
+was putting in a tuft of ivy&mdash;he took off his hat and bowed&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" exclaimed Miss Arabel, in a state of most becoming surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope I do not alarm you, madam," said the stranger; "though my
+sudden presence here requires an apology."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!&mdash;I beg&mdash;I feel sure&mdash;any gentleman&mdash;my father will be most happy
+to"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind. I perceive you appreciate the beauty of this
+situation as much as I do. You are sketching the gable and
+chimney"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;but pray don't look."</p>
+
+<p>But before she had time to close the page and clasp the book, he had
+caught a view of a well drawn hat, and very tastefully touched
+whiskers.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed a beautiful little work," he continued.</p>
+
+<p>"And the building so very picturesque. Grandpapa pulled down a row of
+cottages that the poor people lived in, and built this romantic little
+hermitage."</p>
+
+<p>"So I have heard."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, have you? Grandpapa improved this place very much. Think how the
+view must have been spoilt by a row of nasty cottages, and a crowd of
+horrid poor people."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>"It was very near the church for the cottagers."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but papa is going to get the horrid old church removed to the
+other end of the parish, and have a beautiful building instead of the
+present tumble-down old ruin."</p>
+
+<p>"Taste seems hereditary in your family."</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed: ages ago great improvements were made by papa's
+grandfather. He got quit of all the cottages except the row that stood
+here&mdash;for what can be more horrid than the sight of a set of dirty
+ignorant people in such beautiful scenery? They should all live in a
+common, or hide themselves in some dark streets in London. Don't you
+think so?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great many of them do; but, if I were a sketcher, I think I could
+make a very interesting subject out of a poor man's cottage, with his
+little children playing about the garden."</p>
+
+<p>"Not real poor children!" exclaimed Miss Arabel, "nor a real poor
+man&mdash;no. I have made sketches myself of papa and the Misses
+Warrible&mdash;Sir Stephen Warrible's daughters&mdash;dressing them in fancy
+rags, and filling the garden they played in with flowers from our
+conservatory, and giving the cottage French windows and a trellis-work
+veranda. He stands leaning on a spade, with silver buckles in his
+shoes, and the children are playing <i>La Grace</i> with the hoops, covered
+with pink ribands. I called it 'The Poor Man's Joy;' and Lord Moon has
+begged me to give it to an engraver."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will comply with his lordship's request."</p>
+
+<p>"I would if I could escape the publicity of the thing. Papa would be
+so angry if he thought I was so nearly professional as to be the
+author of a published sketch."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid your father is too particular. No scruple of the kind
+fettered the genius of one of the princesses of France."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, but she was one of the new people! There was no artist in the
+elder branch. Papa can't endure Louis Philippe, and says they are all
+very low."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman was attacked with a slight cough, and after a pause
+renewed the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have seen you engaged on this subject for some time."</p>
+
+<p>"It takes a long time to get in all these twists and corners," replied
+Miss Arabel with a smile of satisfaction, to find that the recontre
+was not more one of chance on his side than her own.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you devote yourself entirely to sketching?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no! I paint as well. We have a large gallery at home, and it is an
+excellent school. The family portraits are, many of them, very fine."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it go far back in the English school?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you should see the great wigs of the Charleses and jack-boots of
+the cavaliers! We were all cavaliers, I suppose, for I don't see a
+single roundhead among them."</p>
+
+<p>"And the ladies?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, such hoops and farthingales! such pyramids of muslin on their
+heads, and pillars of red leather upon their heels!"</p>
+
+<p>"And is the painting good of that ancient date? How do you like it
+compared to the modern?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have very few modern portraits; and none of any ladies later than
+George II."</p>
+
+<p>"No?" enquired the young man anxiously. "No lady later than that? Ah,
+then I have been misinformed!" he added in a disappointed tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Had you heard of our collection, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;no&mdash;that is&mdash;I believe, in most old family houses, there is a
+regular series of portraits that may enable the student to trace the
+alterations of the English school from its very commencement."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;a student&mdash;are you?&mdash;that is&mdash;have I the pleasure of speaking to
+a painter?" enquired Miss Arabel with great dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, madam; only an admirer of the art."</p>
+
+<p>"And you are disappointed at the want of recent female portraits,"
+said Arabel more graciously, the faintest possible hope springing to
+her heart that he was disappointed at the absence of her own.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to have heard the opinion of a competent judge on so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+interesting a subject. A comparison between Kneller for instance and
+Sir Joshua would be worthy of your taste."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Kneller by all means, and Lely better than both! I believe, now
+that you put me in mind of it, there is a pale colourless Sir Joshua
+in the nursery&mdash;the school-room I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"A lady?" enquired the stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"A person," replied Miss Arabel, who never allowed lady's rank to any
+one whose status she did not know&mdash;"with long hair falling about her
+face, and a little boy lying asleep in her lap. Whether she was a lady
+or not, I don't know, but I rather think not, for I never heard of her
+being connected with our family. Perhaps she was a nurse."</p>
+
+<p>"And are you sure it is a Sir Joshua?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes!&mdash;His name is written on the back; and Mr Ochre, my
+drawing-master, says it is all out of proportion, and of no merit at
+all. But why are you so anxious about the daub? Mr Ochre wishes to be
+allowed to retouch it."</p>
+
+<p>"If he lays a brush on it"&mdash;the stranger began in a furious tone, but
+checked himself&mdash;"if he lays a brush on it, he will spoil an old
+master."</p>
+
+<p>"A master!" said Miss Arabel with a contemptuous giggle. "I only wish
+you could see it."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could," replied the young gentleman; "but I am afraid I
+shall never be so happy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!"&mdash;The young lady did not say any thing more, but looked at the
+stranger, as if taking measure of his respectability to see if an
+<i>entr&eacute;e</i> to Surbridge Hall was really above his hopes. He was tall,
+well made, with an air such as she had not seen in any of the visitors
+at that aristocratic mansion.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure," she repeated, looking down and speaking with interesting
+hesitation, "my papa would be happy to show his gallery to any
+gentleman in the neighbourhood. Perhaps you know papa?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the honour, but since I know what a treasure he possesses,
+I should think it a great happiness to make his acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>The lady said nothing, but thought it the most neatly turned
+compliment she ever heard in her life.</p>
+
+<p>"I am on a visit to a family near this," he continued, "and may
+perhaps have the opportunity of meeting Mr Howard.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, where is it?" exclaimed Miss Arabel. "What is their name? We know
+every body in the neighbourhood&mdash;that is, of course, you know"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Every body that's worth knowing," said the stranger with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. Is it the Rayleighs of Borley Castle, we know them very
+well; or the Manbys of Flixley Abbey, delightful people, we are quite
+intimate with them; or the Sundridges of Fairley Manor, there are no
+pleasanter people in the world&mdash;so good, so ladylike, and yet they say
+Mrs Sundridge's father was something very low, a Calcutta merchant, or
+India director, or something of that sort. Is it any of these?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! It is with a gentleman who has lately taken a small villa in the
+neighbourhood, and I am afraid he will think I have been absent from
+him too long. Do you sketch here every day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Till I have finished this tiresome building," replied Miss Arabel. "I
+must avail myself of the fine weather, and not miss a single morning."</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman smiled, and so did the lady. With another apology for
+having intruded, he bowed and withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Arabel continued where she was, till she lost his graceful figure
+among the windings of the shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>"He is a charming man," she thought, "and might easily manage to get
+acquainted with papa if he chose. Who can he be?&mdash;he's very clever and
+very accomplished&mdash;and walks so nobly. I wonder if he is in the
+Guards."</p>
+
+<p>She opened her sketch-book once more, and was busy with her pencil,
+and her thoughts at the same time. She had not seen what necessity
+there was for taking his leave so hurriedly, and perhaps a faint idea
+came to her, that it was not impossible he might return. While she was
+new-pointing her pencil, and recalling all that the stranger had said,
+she heard a footstep coming through the plantation.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>"Hush! He is coming again. He can't stay away."</p>
+
+<p>"Servant, young mum&mdash;servant, and all that," said a voice close behind
+her;&mdash;"Scratch! scratch! there you go, painting bricks as if they was
+Christians, and all that."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir! Are you aware this is private property. Papa would be very angry
+if"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He heard I was here. I dassay he would, and all that&mdash;but I don't
+intend to wait for him here. I'll beat up his quarters at the hall&mdash;I
+will&mdash;and all that."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Arabel had a profound contempt for old people and little people;
+and the person who at present addressed her was both little and old.
+He wore a short flaxen wig, and a spenser over a long-tailed blue
+coat; grey nether habiliments, with four or five inches of a white
+worsted stocking visible between his knee and his gaiter. It was a
+very well-shaped leg, and the owner thereof seemed to know it.</p>
+
+<p>"You will not find papa at home," said Miss Arabel. "He has gone out
+to a magistrate's meeting."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't say I was going there to-day, did I?&mdash;and he don't go
+justicing every day in the week, I hope. I'll see him soon, depend
+on't, and make acquaintance with his young 'uns, and all that. How
+many is there of you?"</p>
+
+<p>"My sister and myself&mdash;if you enquire as to the number of Mr
+Gillingham Howard's family," replied Miss Arabel.</p>
+
+<p>"What! ha'n't ye picked up ne'er a man yet? ne'er a one on you? Is
+your sister any thing like yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Arabel cast a look of haughty indignation on her questioner; but
+disdained a reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Pr'aps you're looking out for a juke or a bernet, or some regular
+nobleman, and all that&mdash;for I hear you carries all your heads uncommon
+high&mdash;whereby it wouldn't be unagreeable to pull 'em down a bit, and
+all that. Come, come, don't pout nor be sulky. Be friendly, young
+'oman, now that we're going to be neighbours, and all that."</p>
+
+<p>"Friendly, indeed!" said Miss Arabel, with a toss of her head that
+would have snapped a martingale in fifty pieces. "Pray walk on, sir. I
+am a lady, and papa would be very indignant at your impertinence."</p>
+
+<p>"I dassay he would; but not a bit more than I have been at his'n this
+many a long day. Why, I've dandled him on my knee a hundred times."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you? Perhaps you were his nurse's husband, or the butler. If you
+come to the servants' hall"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! What to do? To see fine ladies' maids give themselves airs,
+and disgust people with their insolence and affectation. Much obliged
+to you all the same; but when I wants to see sights like that, I'll
+come into the drawing-room."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you mean, and beg you'll retire. Papa put an Irish
+beggar into prison for three weeks for insulting my aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"What! old Susie&mdash;old Two-to-the-Pound, and all that. He must have
+been very much of an Irishman to insult the old Roman."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean, sir? Do you know my aunt Susannah?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, to be sure. Ain't I one of her elders? Lord love ye, I've known
+old Susie since she was just up to my knee&mdash;and a reg'lar speciment
+she was. We always called her Two-to-the-Pound. Many's the laugh her
+father and I has had about her dumpiness, and all that."</p>
+
+<p>"Papa's grandfather? Did you know him, sir?" enquired Miss Arabel,
+examining her companion at the same time to see if he was not the
+Wandering-Jew or St Leon; for she considered her papa's grandfather as
+the principal personage of a very remote historical era; and would
+have been little more surprised to hear that the old gentleman before
+her had smoked cigars with Sir Walter Raleigh. "Did you know my
+great-grandfather, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I? There wasn't a bigger snob, though I says it, in all
+England; and just about two-and-forty years ago, him and me was as
+thick as two thieves, though only one of us was a thief. He was a old
+man then, and I was a young 'un, and all that. Your father was summut
+about eight years old, and my daughter was born the very month afore
+he bought this here estate. So you see it ain't no great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> time to talk
+about, seeing my daughter aint a old 'oman yet, though she has a girl
+twenty year old."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand what you say," repeated Miss Arabel.</p>
+
+<p>"Old Susie will understand me better, and so will little Gus."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is Gus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gus is your father&mdash;Augustus he was christened; but we always called
+him Gus. Well, it's quite pleasant, I declare, to be among old
+friends; and I'm glad I've took a willa so close."</p>
+
+<p>The sound of the word "willa," even with the initial "w," attracted
+Miss Arabel's attention. Could it be possible that this was the old
+gentleman with whom the handsome stranger was on a visit?</p>
+
+<p>"If you live so near, you can, of course, have an opportunity of
+seeing papa."</p>
+
+<p>"Seeing him? yes, and telling him a bit of my mind. I'll see every
+thing in the house&mdash;from old Susie Two-to-the-Pound, down to the last
+born kitten. You keeps cats of course, and all that? Susie must be
+pleased to see me. Sich laughs, to be sure, we had about her and a
+young man of the Excise. He was about seven feet high, and she wa'n't
+above four and a half, so we always called him her young man of the
+extra size. Wasn't it funny? But he died of a decline; and I hear
+she's a broad as she's long. Well, we must all die!"</p>
+
+<p>"I must wish you good-day, sir. I'm going home," said Miss Arabel,
+rising to go away, and assuming as much dignity as she could.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, good-day, and good-luck to you," said the old man. "Why, how
+tall you are! and the wick not half covered. You wouldn't do credit to
+old Bill Wilkins's manufacture, though I says it as shouldn't. You
+ain't much better than one of the single dips. I'll call on your
+father one of these fine days; for now that I've come to the
+neighbourhood, I've little better to do than pay off old scores&mdash;and
+interest's been running on for two-and-forty years. Tell him he had
+better set a price on Surbridge, and prepare to move, for I want to
+buy the estate for a friend of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg, sir&mdash;I insist&mdash;I don't know you, sir," said the agitated and
+angry Arabel.</p>
+
+<p>"He does though. He knows me precious well; and, what's more, you may
+tell him my name if you like."</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell him, sir, that he may send you to prison for your
+impertinence. He's a magistrate."</p>
+
+<p>"I know all about him. He's a boastful blockhead. Tell him I told you
+so. My name is Mr Thomas Roe, 20, Riches Court."</p>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> III.</h4>
+
+<p>The account given by Miss Arabel of her interview with the hateful
+purchaser of the coveted meadows, was so confused, that to persons
+less interested in the matter than Mr Gillingham Howard and Miss
+Susannah Wilkins, (or Gillingham by brevet,) it would have been
+altogether unintelligible. But before these two terror-struck
+individuals rose a vision of their detected boasts and overthrown
+pretensions, that filled them with dismay. What! Mr Gillingham Howard
+exposed in all quarters as the descendant of a tallow-chandler, and
+the censorious Miss Susan as having been known from her childhood by
+the name of Two-to-the-Pound? Could they silence the accuser by
+making him their friend?&mdash;or could they repel his revelations by dint
+of unhesitating, unqualified lying?&mdash;or finally, would it be necessary
+to quit the neighbourhood? Mr Gillingham Howard was a tall portly man,
+with his hair slightly grizzled, and an air of quiet assurance
+reposing on his somewhat coarse features, which his partial aunt
+considered the solemn dignity of virtue and high birth. To a less
+blinded observed his narrow brow and heavy chin showed strong
+indications of the animal preponderating over the intellectual in his
+organization, and his slow, solemn talk&mdash;always about himself&mdash;showed
+the importance he attached to the slightest incident that had occurred
+to so distinguished an individual. Not that Mr Gillingham Howard, as
+we remarked before, limited his narratives merely to what had actually
+occurred&mdash;they diffused themselves over every circumstance that had
+happened to any one else, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> might by any possibility have happened
+to him. By this means he had an extraordinary fund of conversational
+anecdote; for whatever story he heard, or adventure he read, he
+immediately appropriated to himself; and thought nothing of killing
+his eight hundred ducks at one shot with Munchausen, or finding out
+false concords in a Greek play with the Bishop of London. His aunt was
+so used to hear his marvellous tales, that we must in charity suppose
+she believed some of them to be true; and in that persuasion she was
+called upon on all occasions to bear witness to the facts. She
+testified accordingly, with the most perfect readiness, to all his
+achievements in the rows at Oxford; his suggestions to the other
+magistrates, that were always approved; his courage in every danger;
+his mastery in every game, and his skill in every science. She was a
+little, vulgar-looking woman, with small cunning eyes, and a very
+round face, glistening and shining with its absurd obesity; and in
+shape and complexion bearing a close resemblance to a sun-flower stuck
+into a Dutch cheese. The awe with which she regarded her nephew arose
+partly from his size, but principally from the aristocratic loftiness
+of his birth&mdash;being the third in descent from the original founder of
+the family, while nothing stood between her and the tallow vat except
+the six years during which her father had enacted the country squire.
+What could be more appalling to these unhappy beings than the
+threatened visit, and long-delayed vengeance of the implacable Thomas
+Roe? In the mean time, Miss Arabel had only a confused notion of the
+meaning of all the threats and messages, the mere report of which
+wrought such anguish in the paternal breast. Her thoughts dwelt more
+constantly on the interview she had had with the mysterious stranger;
+and the speech he had made about the treasure he had heard of in
+Surbridge Hall, came every moment to her mind. It was so pretty a
+speech; and he looked so full of admiration when he said it! Was there
+no way of getting him introduced to papa? Not a word of the meeting
+could she mention to her sister; for Miss Arabel was one of those
+amiable beings not uncommon in ball-rooms, who will not risk the peace
+of mind of a friend by making her acquainted with a rich or
+fascinating partner on any account. And if this holds good with a
+friend, much more in the case of Miss Arabel did it hold good with a
+sister. So she sat in her own room and devised fifty expedients for
+legitimating her acquaintance with the interesting unknown.</p>
+
+<p>But while Surbridge Hall is frightened from its propriety, let us pass
+over for a moment to the hostile camp, and see what is going on there.
+A beautiful young girl is sitting at a table, on which a number of
+maps and plans are laid out; and, while her eyes are busily running
+over the various lines and measurements, her small white hand is
+resting we are sorry to say, without making the smallest effort for
+liberty, within that of the very same young gentleman whose appearance
+we have already commemorated. Beautiful blue eyes they are, and fitter
+for other employment than to pore over architectural or horticultural
+designs; and so she seems to think, for she occasionally lifts them to
+those of her companion, and a sweet smile brightens over all her face.
+That is Fanny Smith, the granddaughter of Thomas Roe&mdash;the child of a
+Yorkshire parson, who had been lucky enough to win the heart of Mary
+Roe&mdash;and wise enough not to despise her father, though he lived in
+Riches Court.</p>
+
+<p>"But grandpapa says it is of no use, Charles, to look at all these
+plans for houses. He'll never build on the new ground, for he says he
+is determined to establish us at Surbridge Hall."</p>
+
+<p>"The old gentleman is too sanguine," replied Charles. "He will never
+persuade the present proprietor to leave it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he will, though! You don't know what a determined man grandpapa
+is. He'll weary them out&mdash;or shame them away."</p>
+
+<p>"Shame!" enquired the other&mdash;"How do you think shame can have any
+effect in people so lost to truth, and so encased in ignorance and
+conceit?"</p>
+
+<p>"But grandpapa will expose them&mdash;and, besides, he'll pay them
+hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>somely to go. I don't the least despair of getting quit of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, if people would only take the trouble to enquire into the actual
+facts of any part of their behaviour, and not take their own account
+of it&mdash;the boastful falsehoods of the nephew, the malicious
+insinuations of the aunt, their disregard of truth in serious affairs
+as well as in trifles, their selfishness, narrow-mindedness, and want
+of charity&mdash;they would hesitate before they countenanced such
+characters, in spite of the dinners they occasionally give, and the
+position they hold. But society winks on vices which it is the duty of
+society to punish, since the law takes no cognizance of them, though
+more hurtful and disgraceful than theft or swindling. And, I am
+afraid, even if your grandfather unmasks the solemn pretender, he will
+still carry his head as high as if he had a right from any quality but
+his wealth to mix with honest men."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never fear!" said Fanny, laughing; "those boastful people are
+always easiest frightened, and a very short time will see us in
+Surbridge Hall."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Fanny, that would be too much happiness! I've heard of nothing
+but Surbridge since I was a child; and if my father could but see me
+in it, living there, my own property, or yours, Fanny, which is the
+same thing, he would almost die with joy; but no, no, it is
+impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! deuce a bit of it!" exclaimed the old gentleman himself;
+bustling into the room. "I tell you that Surbridge is the house you
+will take Fanny home to. I've a great mind to say you sha'n't marry
+her at all unless she gives you Surbridge as part of her fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't say that, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, don't say that, grandpapa, for you know those horrid people may
+be obstinate," said Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to see them," said the old man knitting his brow. "No,
+no, they must go. The bully is soon bullied. See, he has sent me a
+flag of truce already; a note asking if I will allow him to call on me
+at three o'clock to renew his old acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"And will you let him?" enquired Fanny.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure I will; and I'll return his visit too; but he'll be here
+in a few minutes now. I think you had better take a walk, Charles, and
+leave Fanny and me to entertain them. You can go and take some more
+lessons in sketching, eh? Don't keep your teacher waiting."</p>
+
+<p>Charles looked at his watch, and then at Fanny, and finally hurried
+away as he was ordered. The young lady also left the room.</p>
+
+<p>The old man sat down, and sank in thought. He had his eye on the
+conduct of his partner's grandson for forty years, though little did
+that ostentatious individual suspect that any person saw within his
+pharisaical exterior, and knew him for the mass of selfishness,
+falsehood, and meanness, he actually was. Moreover the old gentleman
+knew that his victim was not so rich as he appeared, and had struggled
+in vain to better his fortunes by speculations of various kinds, and
+even (the last refuge of the sinking respectables) by thrusting
+himself into trusteeships. He felt an assurance, therefore, that his
+threatened exposures&mdash;united to an offer of the full value of the
+estate&mdash;would secure him the possession of Surbridge Hall; if it had
+not been for the enjoyment he anticipated in uncloaking the hypocrite,
+he might perhaps have contented himself with the acquisition of the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>A knock was heard at the door, and Mr Gillingham Howard and his aunt
+walked into the room. Mr Gillingham Howard was very pale, and his eye
+evidently quailed as it met the glance of Mr Thomas Roe. The little
+fat Susannah was immensely red in the face, but whether from agitation
+of mind, or the exertion of climbing the hall steps, it is impossible
+to decide.</p>
+
+<p>"I've called, my dear old friend, to take you by the hand," said Mr
+Gillingham Howard. "I've long wished, I assure you, to renew our
+acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a thumper!" replied the old man; "you have wished nothing of
+the kind. Oh, Gus, haven't you conquered the horrid habit of
+story-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>telling that used to make you the laughing-stock of all the
+young men in the shop. And you, my little Two-to-the-Pound, what a
+time it is since we've met, never since the exciseman died, I do
+believe. Well, you've not grown thin on't. Do you study the ninth
+commandment as much as you used to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"The ninth commandment, sir," said the lady tossing her head. "I don't
+know what you mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you do, Susan; the ninth commandment is the one about false
+witness, you know. And sich a gal as you used to be for slashing a
+character, or trying to make your kindest friends ridiculous, there
+wasn't in all the city. You were always so tremendously witty, you
+never had a good word for any body; for witty gals, as you used to be,
+thinks nothing funny that isn't what they calls severe. But you're a
+old woman now, and I hope you're improved."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Susannah had never been called an old woman before. If she had
+seen Mr Gillingham Howard looking with his usual brazen assurance, she
+would have broken out in a torrent of invective against her merciless
+tormentor&mdash;but the fight was entirely out of that illustrious
+character, and he stood in trembling silence before his opponent.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir," he said at last, "you are too severe on my aunt&mdash;but
+you were always a wag. I've heard my father say he never knew any one
+so full of humour."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed?"</p>
+
+<p>"And I myself remember how good-natured you used to be when you
+visited my father in Harley Street."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, indeed&mdash;let me see. Had your father risen to be at the top of the
+profession by that time, with a promise of the chancellorship in his
+pocket when his father died?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear sir, I don't know what you mean&mdash;why&mdash;what"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Haven't you been in the habit of telling your friends so after
+dinner?" enquired Mr Roe; "now, remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! I may perhaps have said that he hoped to be chancellor."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no&mdash;you have uniformly stated as a fact that he had the written
+promise of the office&mdash;and you have constantly appealed to your aunt
+for the truth of your statement."</p>
+
+<p>"La! Mr Roe&mdash;how should I know about law and chancellorships? It isn't
+a lady's business."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a lady's business not to corroborate a falsehood."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, my good sir," said Mr Gillingham Howard, "you are too hard on
+a little after-dinner talk."</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit, not a bit&mdash;that after-dinner talk, as you call it, for
+forty years, day after day retailing falsehoods, and asseverating them
+so constantly, that you at last almost succeed in deceiving yourself,
+does away all the distinctions in your mind between truth and
+falsehood&mdash;and when once the boundary is broke down, there is no
+farther pause. A man may go on, and boast about his cricket and
+shooting till he would not stick at a false oath."</p>
+
+<p>"Sir! I bear many things from an old friend of our family, but an
+imputation on my veracity is intolerable. Do I ever deviate from the
+truth, Aunt Susan?"</p>
+
+<p>"You! Oh, no! if there's any quality you excel in more than another,
+it is your truth. Low people may tell lies, and of course do; but you!
+Mr Gillingham Howard!&mdash;you are a perfect gentleman, from the crown of
+your head to the sole of your foot."</p>
+
+<p>"Omitting all the intermediate parts," replied Mr Roe. "You know very
+well what I mean, sir; and, moreover, you know that what I say is
+true&mdash;but I will spare you at present. I wish to purchase Surbridge
+Hall. I will give you the full price. Will you sell it or not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, a place that has been long in one's family"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I was nearly forty years old when it was bought&mdash;and hope to live few
+years yet," interposed Mr Roe.</p>
+
+<p>"And I don't see what pleasure you could take in acquiring a place to
+which you have no hereditary ties&mdash;my poor father&mdash;and my dear
+grandfather"&mdash;&mdash;continued Mr Gillingham Howard.</p>
+
+<p>"Should have stuck to the melting tub, both of them&mdash;but it isn't for
+myself I want the property. I have <i>a</i> grandchild, sir; a
+grandson&mdash;but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> that has nothing to do with it. Will you let me have
+your answer soon? I will call on you, to hear your decision,
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Always happy to see an old friend."</p>
+
+<p>"Provided he come with a new face," interposed Mr Roe; "but you don't
+much like the sight of my rough old phiz. At any rate, there's no
+deceit in it, and now we understand each other."</p>
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> IV.</h4>
+
+<p>It was on the day succeeding this visit of reconciliation, that Miss
+Arabel and the stumpy Susannah pursued their way to the shrubbery
+walk, in a rapid and mysterious manner, as if they hoped to escape
+observation.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa is so unreasonable, aunt," said the young lady. "Why should he
+wish to leave Surbridge, just when"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You think you have caught a lover," interposed the aunt; "don't be
+too sure. You've been deceived in that way before now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you only saw him! He met me yesterday, and said he would see
+me again to-day; and paid such compliments, and looked so handsome."</p>
+
+<p>"But who is he? Is he a gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he is," replied Miss Arabel; "or do you think he would
+venture to speak to <i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did he tell you his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. All he has told me is&mdash;he is living with an old gentleman in one
+of the villas in the neighbourhood."</p>
+
+<p>"An old gentleman," mused Miss Susannah, "in a villa&mdash;it must be the
+same&mdash;it must be old Roe's Grandson. If it is, and he takes a fancy to
+this girl, it will be all well yet. What has he ever called you? Did
+he ever say you were an angel?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. He thought me one, though; and said he had heard of what a
+treasure Surbridge contained; and yesterday he repeated it, and said
+he would give the world to be able to call it his."</p>
+
+<p>"That's something. You must get him to say something of the kind
+before a witness."</p>
+
+<p>"But how? What witness can there be, when I can never bring him to the
+house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Ah, how I recollect, in the back parlour," said Miss
+Susannah, her memory unconsciously wandering back to the love
+incidents of her youth.</p>
+
+<p>"The back parlour?" enquired Miss Arabel.</p>
+
+<p>"The back&mdash;I didn't say back parlour. I said black parlour&mdash;the oaken
+dining-room in my father's house."</p>
+
+<p>"And what of it, aunt? What made you think of the black parlour now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it was a picture," stammered Miss Susan, inventing an excuse for
+her mistake; "a beautiful old portrait&mdash;a sort of&mdash;I don't recollect
+what it was."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! that puts me in mind of what he speaks of often&mdash;the pictures in
+our house. I say, aunt," she continued, as if a thought had struck
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose I were to invite him to come into the Hall and see the
+portraits?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so you might. Your father would think he was as fond of drawing
+as you are; and if he be the person I think he is, your father will be
+delighted that you have made a friend of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? Oh, I'm so happy! I'll ask him to the house this very day;
+and perhaps if he says anything, aunt, about the treasure, you can be
+in the way to hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"That I will, and I'll bring your father, too. There's nothing like a
+father or brother in cases of the kind. If I had had a brother that
+would fight, I might have been married myself. Dear me, what an
+uncommon handsome young man in the avenue! I know him to be a lord by
+his walk."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Arabel stretched her neck, and nearly strained her eyeballs in
+the effort to follow the direction of Susannah's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"That's he," she said; "go now, and leave me to get him into the
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"He can't be any relation of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> Thomas Roe: he's too handsome for that,"
+thought Miss Susannah; "but whoever he is, she'll be a lucky girl to
+catch him. My Sam was a foot or two taller, but very like him in every
+other respect&mdash;except the limp in the left leg."</p>
+
+<p>As she turned back before entering the house, she saw the young people
+in full conversation in the shrubbery walk.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if he <i>is</i> old Thomas Roe's grandson, and Arabel can hook him
+into a marriage, there will be no occasion to leave Surbridge Hall.
+Does the monster wish us to be tallow-chandlers again?"</p>
+
+<p>On hurrying to the drawing-room to communicate to her nephew the fact
+that Mr Roe's heir was desperately in love with Arabel, she found Mr
+Gillingham Howard endeavouring to carry on a conversation with the
+very individual she most dreaded to see. Mr Roe had walked up,
+accompanied by Fanny Smith, to return the visit of the day before.</p>
+
+<p>"This is so kind," said Miss Susannah, "and so friendly to bring your
+pretty grandchild. Our girls will be delighted to be her friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Fanny's a good girl," replied the old man; "and you mustn't spoil
+her. Gus was just going to tell me if he had made up his mind, when
+you came in. You've thought of my offer, Gus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly; any thing you say shall always have my best consideration.
+As far as I am concerned, I could settle in Bucks, where I have a
+small estate, with satisfaction; but my girls are enthusiastically
+attached to this place. Arabel would break her heart if we took her
+away from Surbridge."</p>
+
+<p>"I warrant her heart against all breakage and other damages, save and
+except the ordinary wear and tear&mdash;as Puff says in letting a furnished
+house; and, if it only depends on the young lady, I think I'll answer
+for her being more anxious for the arrangement than I am. But here's
+company coming, and I must have your answer before I go."</p>
+
+<p>Mr Gillingham Howard heard the carriage stop at the door. He felt it
+was impossible to present so rough-mannered a man as Mr Roe to any of
+his friends without a certainty of exposure, and he was strongly
+tempted to agree to his demand at once, if he would immediately leave
+the house; but before he had time to arrange his thoughts, the door
+opened, and the Rayleighs of Borley Castle were announced.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Gillingham Howard, by a great effort, received them with his usual
+courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>"I have brought Mr Tinter with me," said Mrs Rayleigh, "and I hope you
+will let him see your family portraits. We have told him so much of
+them, that he is anxious to see them himself. He is writing a
+description of the private collections in the county."</p>
+
+<p>Mr Tinter bowed; and Mr Gillingham Howard, with an imploring look to
+Mr Roe, who sat resting his chin upon his walking-stick, professed
+himself highly honoured by Mrs Rayleigh's request.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you have portraits of the Sidney family, sir," said Mr
+Tinter, "as I hear from Mrs Rayleigh&mdash;you are nearly related to them;
+I should like very much to compare them with the pictures at
+Penshurst."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Mr Howard says the Penshurst pictures are only copies of his,"
+said Mrs Rayleigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I, madam? Did I say all?"</p>
+
+<p>"If not all, you said most of them; and also, that you had some
+originals of those in your distant relation, the Duke of Norfolk's gallery."</p>
+
+<p>Mr Gillingham Howard felt that Mr Roe's appalling eye was fixed upon
+him, though he did not venture to look in the direction of where he sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr Tinter will tell you at once which are the copies. You can do that, Mr Tinter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can guess at the age of the picture, and the name of the painter,
+if he is a master," replied Mr Tinter.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but Mr Howard has some pictures that Sir Thomas Lawrence said
+were the finest in Europe. Didn't he say so, Mr Howard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, ma'am&mdash;I think&mdash;at least, so I understood him. Didn't Sir Thomas
+Lawrence praise some of my pictures, aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't remember," said Miss Susannah, looking more at Mr Roe
+than at her nephew.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>"Oh, I thought you told us last time we dined here, that Sir Thomas
+stayed with you weeks at a time, and copied five or six of them
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>"P'r'aps I knows more of them family portraits," said Mr Roe with a
+wilful exaggeration of accent and magnanimous contempt of
+grammar&mdash;"than e'er a one on ye."</p>
+
+<p>All eyes were immediately directed to the old man. Mrs Rayleigh, who
+was a fine lady, and had never seen so queer a specimen of a critic as
+Mr Roe, was a little alarmed at his uncouth pronunciation. And Mr
+Gillingham Howard made a feeble and unsuccessful effort to deaden the
+effect of his remarks.</p>
+
+<p>"My friend is a remarkably good judge of the fine arts, but quite a
+character. An amazing humourist, and very much given to quizzing.
+You'll hear what fun he'll make of us all."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is he?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh, in the same confidential whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"A person who has grown very rich in some sort of trade. He was a
+proteg&eacute; of a relation of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"And you bear with his eccentricities in hopes of his succession?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"I minds the getting of the whole lot on 'em. I can give you the
+birth, parentage, and edication, of every one on 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"Of the pictures, sir?" enquired Mr Tinter, taking out his note-book.
+"I shall be delighted with any information."</p>
+
+<p>"But where is the gallery, Mr Howard?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, madam, many of the pictures&mdash;in fact, all the best of them are
+in London at the cleaner's; but in the passage to the Conservatory
+there are some remaining, but the place is dark. I hope you'll rather
+look at them some other time."</p>
+
+<p>"Now's the best," said Mr Roe, starting up. "Let's see the family
+picters, Gus."</p>
+
+<p>Mr Howard was forced by the entreaties of all the party, and led the
+way to the passage where his pictures were hung, followed by Mrs
+Rayleigh and her two daughters, and Mr Tinter, Mr Roe, and Fanny, and
+Aunt Susannah.</p>
+
+<p>"That seems a portrait of Queen Anne's time," said Mr Tinter, pointing
+to a much bewigged old gentleman in an antique frame. "Pray, what is
+its history?"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that your grandfather's uncle, the general who won the battle
+of Ramillies against Marlborough's orders?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh. "Do
+tell Mr Tinter all about it."</p>
+
+<p>"I reminds all about it," said Mr Roe, before the agonized Mr Howard
+could make any reply. "One of our agents failed, and we seized on his
+furniture, and old Bill Wilkins took this'n 'cause of the oak frame.
+He was a grocer in the Boro', and his name was&mdash;was&mdash;but I forgets his
+name."</p>
+
+<p>"Who took the furniture?" asked Mr Tinter, "and who was a grocer in
+the Boro'?"</p>
+
+<p>"The man as had that picter, and a sight more besides. There's one on
+'em; the young 'oman a holding an orange in her hand, and a parrot on
+her shoulder."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought that was the Saccharissa, Mr Howard, that had been in your
+family ever since the time of Waller."</p>
+
+<p>"I told you he was a wag," said Mr Howard, in the last desperate
+struggle to avoid detection.</p>
+
+<p>"But who is he? He is a very impudent old man to be so free."</p>
+
+<p>"He is rich; the succession, you know," replied the gentleman with a
+forced laugh; but before he could mumble any thing more, the party
+turned round one of the corners of the passage, and heard voices in
+earnest talk.</p>
+
+<p>"How can I refuse, when you tell me your happiness depends on it?"
+came distinctly to the ears of all, in the sharp clear tones of Miss
+Arabel.</p>
+
+<p>"You are too good," replied a voice, which Fanny Smith immediately
+recognized as that of Charles. "You will make my whole family proud
+and happy when they hear you have consented."</p>
+
+<p>"But won't you think I yield too soon; and without having asked papa's
+consent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;yes&mdash;I don't know how he will bear the loss of such a treasure.
+But he will reconcile himself to the want of it when he knows how
+happy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> it makes another in the possession. Say, when may I call it
+mine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, now&mdash;this moment&mdash;any time"&mdash;said Arabel, who had heard a noise
+in the passage, and concluded it was aunt Susannah enacting the part
+of a witness.</p>
+
+<p>"Again I thank you!"&mdash;exclaimed Charles. "I will take it in my arms
+this instant, and carry it down the shrubbery walk to Mr Roe's."</p>
+
+<p>"As you please&mdash;and wherever you like," said Arabel, throwing herself
+upon his shoulder. "I'm your's."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what in the name of wonder is all this here?" cried Mr Roe,
+hurrying on, and pouncing on the pair. "Are you making love to this
+here gal in the very presence of Fanny Smith?"</p>
+
+<p>"I, sir?"&mdash;said Charles, astonished at his situation, and still
+supporting Miss Arabel, who pretended to be in a faint. "I asked this
+young lady to show me the picture of my father's mother; and, to my
+great delight, she said she would give it me; and, when I expressed my
+gratitude, she flung herself upon my shoulder, and said she would give
+me herself."</p>
+
+<p>"And was it not me you meant by the treasure you talked of?" said Miss
+Arabel, starting up.</p>
+
+<p>"No, madam. 'Twas my grandmother's portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, that's all right," said Mr Roe. "This young gentleman is the one
+I talked of, Gus&mdash;that I wants to buy this house for. I don't think
+your daughter will care to give it up to poor Charles that she took
+such a fancy to"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"They seem attached, sir," replied Mr Howard. "And if they like to
+marry"&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!&mdash;he's to be married next week to my little grandchild, Fanny
+Smith, and we'll include the pictures in the purchase-money, for one
+of them is a portrait that was left by mistake when Bill Wilkins
+bought the hall, and he would never give it back to the real owners.
+But, now that Charles Walrond is to be my grandson, I'll take good
+care he recovers his grandmother's likeness. Come&mdash;shall I go on and
+give these ladies the facts of some of your other stories, or will you
+close with my terms at once?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr Gillingham Howard did not take long to decide, and a very short
+time saw Surbridge Hall once more in the ancient line; and old Mr Roe,
+in relating the means he used to expel the vainglorious descendant of
+his partner, generally concluded with the moral, if not the words of
+Shakspeare&mdash;"Men's pleasant vices make whips to scourge them."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>VANITIES IN VERSE.</h3>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">By B. Simmons</span>.</h4>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Letters of the Dead</span>.</h4>
+<h4><span class="smcap">To Livia</span>.</h4>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Letters of the Dead">
+<tr><td>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">I.</span><br />
+<br />
+How few the moons since last, immersed<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In thoughts of fev'rish, worldly care,</span><br />
+My casket's heap'd contents reversed,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I sought some scroll I wanted there;</span><br />
+How died at once abstraction's air&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How fix'd my frame, as by a spell,</span><br />
+When on THY lines, so slight, so fair,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My hurrying glance arrested fell!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">II.</span><br />
+<br />
+My soul that instant saw thee far<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sit in thy crown of bridal flowers,</span><br />
+And with Another watch the star<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We watch'd in vanish'd vesper hours.</span><br />
+And as I paced the lonely room,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I wonder'd how that holy ray</span><br />
+Could with its light a world illume<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So fill'd with falsehood and decay.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">III.</span><br />
+<br />
+Once more&mdash;above those slender lines<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I bend me with suspended breath&mdash;</span><br />
+The hand that traced them now reclines<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clasp'd in th' unclosing hand of Death.</span><br />
+The worm hath made that brow its own<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where Love his wreath so lately set;</span><br />
+And in this heart survive alone<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Forgiveness&mdash;pity&mdash;and regret.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">IV.</span><br />
+<br />
+'Twas 'mid the theatre's gay throng&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Life's loveliest colours round me spread&mdash;</span><br />
+That mid the pauses of a song,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I caught the careless "<i>She is dead!</i>"</span><br />
+The gaudy crowd&mdash;thy sudden grave&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I shrank in that contrasting shock,</span><br />
+Like midnight Listener by the wave,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When splits some bark upon the rock.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">V.</span><br />
+<br />
+This <span class="smcap">Early Death</span>&mdash;within its pale<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sad air each angry feeling fades&mdash;</span><br />
+An evening haze, whose tender veil<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The landscape's harsher features shades.</span><br />
+Ah, Scornful One&mdash;thy bier's white hue<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stole every earth-stain from thy cheek,</span><br />
+And left thee all to <span class="smcap">Memory's</span> view<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That <span class="smcap">Hope</span> once dared in thee to seek.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+1836.</td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Parting Precepts</span>.</h4>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Parting Precepts">
+<tr><td>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">I.</span><br />
+<br />
+How graceful was that Grecian creed<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which taught that tongues, of old,</span><br />
+Dwelt in the mountain and the mead,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And where the torrent roll'd,</span><br />
+And that in times of sacred fear,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With sweet mysterious moans,</span><br />
+They spoke aloud, while some pale Seer<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Interpreted their tones.[<a name="f21.1" id="f21.1" href="#f21">21</a>]</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">II.</span><br />
+<br />
+And, <span class="smcap">Lady</span>, why should we not deem<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That in each echoing hill,</span><br />
+And sounding wood, and dancing stream,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A language lingers still?</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+No lovelier scenes round <span class="smcap">Delphi</span> spread<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than round thee stretch divine;</span><br />
+Nor Grecian maid bent brighter head<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By haunted stream than thine.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">III.</span><br />
+<br />
+Then fancy thus that to thine ear,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While dies the autumn day,</span><br />
+The <span class="smcap">Voices</span> of <span class="smcap">the Woodlands</span> bear<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This tributary lay.</span><br />
+Soft winds that steal from where the moon<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Brightens the mountain spring,</span><br />
+Shall blend with Mulla's[<a name="f22.1" id="f22.1" href="#f22">22</a>] distant tune,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And these the words they sing:&mdash;</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">1.</span><br />
+<br />
+"Thou'st shared our thousand harmonies;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>At morn</i> thy sleep we stirr'd</span><br />
+With sounds from many a balmy breeze,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And many a jocund bird;</span><br />
+And far from Us, when pleasure's lure<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Around thy steps shall be,</span><br />
+Ah, keep thy soul as freshly pure<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As We came pure to thee!</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">2.</span><br />
+<br />
+"<i>At noon</i>, beneath September's heat,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Was it not sweet to feel,</span><br />
+Through shadowy grasses at thy feet,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our silver waters steal?</span><br />
+Sparklingly clear, as now the truth<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Seems in thy glance to glow;</span><br />
+So may, through worldly crowds, thy youth<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A stainless current flow.</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">3.</span><br />
+<br />
+"<i>At eve</i>, our hills for thee detain'd<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sun's departure bright.</span><br />
+He sank&mdash;how long our woods were stain'd<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For thee with rosy light!</span><br />
+The worth, the warmth, the peace serene,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thou'st known our vales among,</span><br />
+Say, shall they be reflected seen<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Upon thy heart as long?</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">4.</span><br />
+<br />
+"Morn, noon, and eve&mdash;bird, beam, and breeze,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here blent to bless thy day;</span><br />
+May portion of their memories<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Be ever round thy way!</span><br />
+Sweet waters for the weary Bark,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through parching seas that sails;</span><br />
+Friends may grow false and fortune dark,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But <span class="smcap">Nature</span> never fails."</span></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+<h3>COLERIDGE AND OPIUM-EATING.[<a name="f23.1" id="f23.1" href="#f23">23</a>]</h3>
+
+
+<p>What is the deadest of things earthly? It is, says the world, ever
+forward and rash&mdash;"a door-nail!" But the world is wrong. There is a
+thing deader than a door-nail, viz., Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I.
+Dead, more dead, most dead, is Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I.; and this
+upon more arguments than one. The book has clearly not completed its
+elementary act of respiration; the <i>systole</i> of Vol. I. is absolutely
+useless and lost without the <i>diastole</i> of that Vol. II., which is
+never to exist. That is one argument, and perhaps this second argument
+is stronger. Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I., deals rashly, unjustly, and
+almost maliciously, with some of our own particular friends; and yet,
+until late in this summer, <i>Anno Domini</i> 1844, we&mdash;that is, neither
+ourselves nor our friends&mdash;ever heard of its existence. Now a sloth,
+even without the benefit of Mr Waterton's evidence to his character,
+will travel faster than that. But malice, which travels fastest of all
+things, must be dead and cold at starting, when it can thus have
+lingered in the rear for six years; and therefore, though the world
+was so far right, that people <i>do</i> say, "Dead as a door-nail," yet,
+henceforwards, the weakest of these people will see the propriety of
+saying&mdash;"Dead as Gillman's Coleridge."</p>
+
+<p>The reader of experience, on sliding over the surface of this opening
+paragraph, begins to think there's mischief singing in the upper air.
+No, reader&mdash;not at all. We never were cooler in our days. And this we
+protest, that, were it not for the excellence of the subject,
+<i>Coleridge and Opium-Eating</i>, Mr Gillman would have been dismissed by
+us unnoticed. Indeed, we not only forgive Mr Gillman, but we have a
+kindness for him; and on this account, that he was good, he was
+generous, he was most forbearing, through twenty years, to poor
+Coleridge, when thrown upon his hospitality. An excellent thing
+<i>that</i>, Mr Gillman, and one sufficient to blot out a world of libels
+on ourselves! But still, noticing the theme suggested by this unhappy
+Vol. I., we are forced at times to notice its author. Nor is this to
+be regretted. We remember a line of Horace never yet properly
+translated, viz:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Nec scutic&acirc; dignum horribili sect&ecirc;re flagello."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The true translation of which, as we assure the unlearned reader,
+is&mdash;"Nor must you pursue with the horrid knout of Christopher that man
+who merits only a switching." Very true. We protest against all
+attempts to invoke the exterminating knout; for <i>that</i> sends a man to
+the hospital for two months; but you see that the same judicious poet,
+who dissuades an appeal to the knout, indirectly recommends the
+switch, which, indeed, is rather pleasant than otherwise, amiably
+playful in some of its little caprices, and in its worst, suggesting
+only a pennyworth of diachylon.</p>
+
+<p>We begin by professing, with hearty sincerity, our fervent admiration
+of the extraordinary man who furnishes the theme for Mr Gillman's
+<i>coup-d'essai</i> in biography. He was, in a literary sense, our
+brother&mdash;for he also was amongst the contributors to <i>Blackwood</i>&mdash;and
+will, we presume, take his station in that Blackwood gallery of
+portraits, which, in a century hence, will possess more interest for
+intellectual Europe than any merely martial series of portraits, or
+any gallery of statesmen assembled in congress, except as regards one
+or two leaders; for defunct major-generals, and secondary
+diplomatists, when their date is past, awake no more emotion than last
+year's advertisements, or obsolete directories; whereas those who, in
+a stormy age, have swept the harps of passion, of genial wit, or of
+the wrestling and gladiatorial reason, become more interesting to men
+when they can no longer be seen as bodily agents, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>than even in the
+middle chorus of that intellectual music over which, living, they
+presided.</p>
+
+<p>Of this great camp Coleridge was a leader, and fought amongst the
+<i>primipili</i>; yet, comparatively, he is still unknown. Heavy, indeed,
+are the arrears still due to philosophic curiosity on the real merits,
+and on the separate merits, of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge as a
+
+poet&mdash;Coleridge as a philosopher! How extensive are those questions,
+if those were all! and upon neither question have we yet any
+investigation&mdash;such as, by compass of views, by research, or even by
+earnestness of sympathy with the subject, can, or ought to satisfy, a
+philosophic demand. Blind is that man who can persuade himself that
+the interest in Coleridge, taken as a total object, is becoming an
+obsolete interest. We are of opinion that even Milton, now viewed from
+a distance of two centuries, is still inadequately judged or
+appreciated in his character of poet, of patriot and partisan, or,
+finally, in his character of accomplished scholar. But, if so, how
+much less can it be pretended that satisfaction has been rendered to
+the claims of Coleridge? for, upon Milton, libraries have been
+written. There has been time for the malice of men, for the jealousy
+of men, for the enthusiasm, the scepticism, the adoring admiration of
+men, to expand themselves! There has been room for a Bentley, for an
+Addison, for a Johnson, for a wicked Lauder, for an avenging Douglas,
+for an idolizing Chateaubriand; and yet, after all, little enough has
+been done towards any comprehensive estimate of the mighty being
+concerned. Piles of materials have been gathered to the ground; but,
+for the monument which should have risen from these materials, neither
+the first stone has been laid, nor has a qualified architect yet
+presented his credentials. On the other hand, upon Coleridge little,
+comparatively, has yet been written, whilst the separate characters on
+which the judgment is awaited, are more by one than those which Milton
+sustained. Coleridge, also, is a poet; Coleridge, also, was mixed up
+with the fervent politics of his age&mdash;an age how memorably reflecting
+the revolutionary agitations of Milton's age<ins class="correction" title="Blank space in original.">. Cole</ins>ridge, also, was
+an extensive and brilliant scholar. Whatever might be the separate
+proportions of the two men in each particular department of the three
+here noticed, think as the reader will upon that point, sure we are
+that either subject is ample enough to make a strain upon the amplest
+faculties. How alarming, therefore, for any <i>honest</i> critic, who
+should undertake this later subject of Coleridge, to recollect that,
+after pursuing him through a zodiac of splendours corresponding to
+those of Milton in kind, however different in degree&mdash;after weighing
+him as a poet, as a philosophic politician, as a scholar, he will have
+to wheel after him into another orbit, into the unfathomable <i>nimbus</i>
+of transcendental metaphysics. Weigh him the critic must in the golden
+balance of philosophy the most abstruse&mdash;a balance which even itself
+requires weighing previously, or he will have done nothing that can be
+received for an estimate of the composite Coleridge. This astonishing
+man, be it again remembered, besides being an exquisite poet, a
+profound political speculator, a philosophic student of literature
+through all its chambers and recesses, was also a circumnavigator on
+the most pathless waters of scholasticism and metaphysics. He had
+sounded, without guiding charts, the secret deeps of Proclus and
+Plotinus; he had laid down buoys on the twilight, or moonlight, ocean
+of Jacob Boehmen;[<a name="f24.1" id="f24.1" href="#f24">24</a>] he had cruised over the broad Atlantic of Kant
+and Schelling, of Fichte and Oken. Where is the man who shall be equal
+to these things?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>We at least make no such adventurous effort; or, if ever we should
+presume to do so, not at present. Here we design only to make a
+coasting voyage of survey round the headlands and most conspicuous
+sea-marks of our subject, as they are brought forward by Mr Gillman,
+or collaterally suggested by our own reflections; and especially we
+wish to say a word or two on Coleridge as an opium-eater.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally the first point to which we direct our attention, is the
+history and personal relations of Coleridge. Living with Mr Gillman
+for nineteen years as a domesticated friend, Coleridge ought to have
+been known intimately. And it is reasonable to expect, from so much
+intercourse, some additions to our slender knowledge of Coleridge's
+adventures, (if we may use so coarse a word,) and of the secret
+springs at work in those early struggles of Coleridge at Cambridge,
+London, Bristol, which have been rudely told to the world, and
+repeatedly told, as showy romances, but never rationally explained.</p>
+
+<p>The anecdotes, however, which Mr Gillman has added to the personal
+history of Coleridge, are as little advantageous to the effect of his
+own book as they are to the interest of the memorable character which
+he seeks to illustrate. Always they are told without grace, and
+generally are suspicious in their details. Mr Gillman we believe to be
+too upright a man for countenancing any untruth. He has been deceived.
+For example, will any man believe this? A certain "excellent
+equestrian" falling in with Coleridge on horseback, thus accosted
+him&mdash;"Pray, sir, did you meet a tailor along the road?" "<i>A tailor</i>!"
+answered Coleridge; "<i>I did meet a person answering such a
+description, who told me he had dropped his goose; that if I rode a
+little further I should find it; and I guess he must have meant you</i>."
+In Joe Miller this story would read, perhaps, sufferably. Joe has a
+privilege; and we do not look too narrowly into the mouth of a
+Joe-Millerism. But Mr Gillman, writing the life of a philosopher, and
+no jest-book, is under a different law of decorum. That retort,
+however, which silences the jester, it may seem, must be a good one.
+And we are desired to believe that, in this case, the baffled
+assailant rode off in a spirit of benign candour, saying aloud to
+himself, like the excellent philosopher the he evidently was, "Caught
+a Tartar!"</p>
+
+<p>But another story of a sporting baronet, who was besides a Member of
+Parliament, is much worse, and altogether degrading to Coleridge. This
+gentleman, by way of showing off before a party of ladies, is
+represented as insulting Coleridge by putting questions to him on the
+qualities of his horse, so as to draw the animal's miserable defects
+into public notice, and then closing his display by demanding what he
+would take for the horse "including the rider." The supposed reply of
+Coleridge might seem good to those who understand nothing of true
+dignity; for, as an <i>impromptu</i>, it was smart and even caustic. The
+baronet, it seems, was reputed to have been bought by the minister;
+and the reader will at once divine that the retort took advantage of
+that current belief, so as to throw back the sarcasm, by proclaiming
+that neither horse nor rider had a price placarded in the market at
+which any man could become their purchaser. But this was not the
+temper in which Coleridge either did reply, or could have replied.
+Coleridge showed, in the <i>spirit</i> of his manner a profound sensibility
+to the nature of gentleman; and he felt too justly what it became a
+self-respecting person to say, ever to have aped the sort of flashy
+fencing which might seem fine to a theatrical blood.</p>
+
+<p>Another story is self-refuted: "a hired partisan" had come to one of
+Coleridge's political lectures with the express purpose of bringing
+the lecturer into trouble; and most preposterously he laid himself
+open to his own snare by refusing to pay for admission. Spies must be
+poor artists who proceed thus. Upon which Coleridge remarked&mdash;"That,
+before the gentleman kicked up a dust, surely he would down with the
+dust." So far the story will not do. But what follows is possible
+enough. The <i>same</i> "hired" gentleman, by way of giving unity to the
+tale, is described as having hissed. Upon this a cry arose of "turn
+him out!" But Coleridge interfered to protect him; he insisted on the
+man's right to hiss if he thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> fit; it was legal to hiss; it was
+natural to hiss; "for what is to be expected, gentlemen, when the cool
+waters of reason come in contact with red-hot aristocracy, but a
+hiss?" <i>Euge!</i></p>
+
+<p>Amongst all the anecdotes, however, of this splendid man, often
+trivial, often incoherent, often unauthenticated, there is one which
+strikes us as both true and interesting; and we are grateful to Mr
+Gillman for preserving it. We find it introduced, and partially
+authenticated, by the following sentence from Coleridge
+himself:&mdash;"From eight to fourteen I was a playless day-dreamer, a
+<i>helluo librorum</i>; my appetite for which was indulged by a singular
+incident. A stranger, who was struck by my conversation, made me free
+of a circulating library in King's Street, Cheapside." The more
+circumstantial explanation of Mr Gillman is this: "The incident indeed
+was singular. Going down the Strand, in one of his day-dreams,
+fancying himself swimming across the Hellespont, thrusting his hands
+before him as in the act of swimming, his hand came in contact with a
+gentleman's pocket. The gentleman seized his hand, turning round, and
+looking at him with some anger&mdash;'What! so young, and yet so wicked?'
+at the same time accused him of an attempt to pick his pocket. The
+frightened boy sobbed out his denial of the intention, and explained
+to him how he thought himself Leander swimming across the Hellespont.
+The gentleman was so struck and delighted with the novelty of the
+thing, and with the simplicity and intelligence of the boy, that he
+subscribed, as before stated, to the library; in consequence of which
+Coleridge was further enabled to indulge his love of reading."</p>
+
+<p>We fear that this slovenly narrative is the very perfection of bad
+story-telling. But the story itself is striking, and, by the very
+oddness of the incidents, not likely to have been invented. The
+effect, from the position of the two parties&mdash;on the one side, a
+simple child from Devonshire, dreaming in the Strand that he was
+swimming over from Sestos to Abydos, and, on the other, the
+experienced man, dreaming only of this world, its knaves and its
+thieves, but still kind and generous&mdash;is beautiful and picturesque.
+<i>Oh! si sic omnia</i>!</p>
+
+<p>But the most interesting to us of the <i>personalities</i> connected with
+Coleridge are his feuds and his personal dislikes. Incomprehensible to
+us is the war of extermination which Coleridge made upon the political
+economists. Did Sir James Steuart, in speaking of vine-dressers, (not
+<i>as</i> vine-dressers, but generally as cultivators,) tell his readers,
+that, if such a man simply replaced his own consumption, having no
+surplus whatever or increment for the public capital, he could not be
+considered a useful citizen? Not the beast in the Revelation is held
+up by Coleridge as more hateful to the spirit of truth than the
+Jacobite baronet. And yet we know of an author&mdash;viz. one S.T.
+Coleridge&mdash;who repeated that same doctrine without finding any evil in
+it. Look at the first part of the <i>Wallenstein</i>, where Count Isolani
+having said, "Pooh! we are <i>all</i> his subjects," <i>i. e.</i> soldiers,
+(though unproductive labourers,) not less than productive peasants,
+the emperor's envoy replies&mdash;"Yet with a difference, general;" and the
+difference implies Sir James's scale, his vine-dresser being the
+equatorial case between the two extremes of the envoy.&mdash;Malthus again,
+in his population-book, contends for a mathematic difference between
+animal and vegetable life, in respect to the law of increase, as
+though the first increased by geometrical ratios, the last by
+arithmetical! No proposition more worthy of laughter; since both, when
+permitted to expand, increase by geometrical ratios, and the latter by
+much higher ratios. Whereas, Malthus persuaded himself of his crotchet
+simply by refusing the requisite condition in the vegetable case, and
+granting it in the other. If you take a few grains of wheat, and are
+required to plant all successive generations of their produce in the
+same flower-pot for ever, of course you neutralise its expansion by
+your own act of arbitrary limitation.[<a name="f25.1" id="f25.1" href="#f25">25</a>] But so you would do, if you
+tried the case of <i>animal</i> increase by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> still exterminating all but
+one replacing couple of parents. This is not to try, but merely a
+pretence of trying, one order of powers against another. That was
+folly. But Coleridge combated this idea in a manner so obscure, that
+nobody understood it. And leaving these speculative conundrums, in
+coming to the great practical interests afloat in the Poor Laws,
+Coleridge did so little real work, that he left, as a <i>res integra</i>,
+to Dr Alison, the capital argument that legal and <i>adequate</i> provision
+for the poor, whether impotent poor or poor accidentally out of work,
+does not extend pauperism&mdash;no, but is the one great resource for
+putting it down. Dr Alison's overwhelming and <i>experimental</i>
+manifestations of that truth have prostrated Malthus and his
+generation for ever. This comes of not attending to the Latin
+maxim&mdash;"<i>Hoc</i> age"&mdash;mind the object before you. Dr Alison, a wise man,
+"<i>hoc</i> egit:" Coleridge "<i>aliud</i> egit." And we see the result. In a
+case which suited him, by interesting his peculiar feeling, Coleridge
+could command</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Attention full ten times as much as there needs."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But search documents, value evidence, or thresh out bushels of
+statistical tables, Coleridge could not, any more than he could ride
+with Elliot's dragoons.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance of Coleridge's inaptitude for such studies as
+political economy is found in his fancy, by no means "rich and rare,"
+but meagre and trite, that taxes can never injure public prosperity by
+mere excess of quantity; if they injure, we are to conclude that it
+must be by their quality and mode of operation, or by their false
+appropriation, (as, for instance, if they are sent out of the country
+and spent abroad.) Because, says Coleridge, if the taxes are exhaled
+from the country as vapors, back they come in drenching showers.
+Twenty pounds ascend in a Scotch mist to the Chancellor of the
+Exchequer from Leeds; but does it evaporate? Not at all: By return of
+post down comes an order for twenty pounds' worth of Leeds cloth, on
+account of Government, seeing that the poor men of the &mdash;&mdash;th regiment
+want new gaiters. True; but of this return twenty pounds, not more
+than four will be profit, <i>i. e.</i>, surplus accruing to the public
+capital; whereas, of the original twenty pounds, every shilling was
+surplus. The same unsound fancy has been many times brought forward;
+often in England, often in France. But it is curious, that its first
+appearance upon any stage was precisely two centuries ago, when as yet
+political economy slept with the pre-Adamites, viz. in the Long
+Parliament. In a quarto volume of the debates during 1644-5, printed
+as an independent work, will be found the same identical doctrine,
+supported very sonorously by the same little love of an illustration
+from the see-saw of mist and rain.</p>
+
+<p>Political economy was not Coleridge's forte. In politics he was
+happier. In mere personal politics, he (like every man when reviewed
+from a station distant by forty years) will often appear to have
+erred; nay, he will be detected and nailed in error. But this is the
+necessity of us all. Keen are the refutations of time. And absolute
+results to posterity are the fatal touchstone of opinions in the past.
+It is undeniable, besides, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> Coleridge had strong personal
+antipathies, for instance, to Messrs Pitt and Dundas. Yet <i>why</i>, we
+never could understand. We once heard him tell a story upon
+Windermere, to the late Mr Curwen, then M.P. for Workington, which was
+meant, apparently, to account for this feeling. The story amounted to
+this: that, when a freshman at Cambridge, Mr Pitt had wantonly amused
+himself at a dinner party in Trinity, in smashing with filberts
+(discharged in showers like grape-shot) a most costly dessert set of
+cut glass, from which Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued a principle of
+destructiveness in his <i>cerebellum</i>. Now, if this dessert set belonged
+to some poor suffering Trinitarian, and not to himself, we are of
+opinion that he was faulty, and ought, upon his own great subsequent
+maxim, to have been coerced into "indemnity for the past, and security
+for the future." But, besides that this glassy <i>mythus</i> belongs to an
+&aelig;ra fifteen years earlier than Coleridge's, so as to justify a shadow
+of scepticism, we really cannot find, in such an <i>escapade</i> under the
+boiling blood of youth, any sufficient justification of that withering
+malignity towards the name of Pitt, which runs through Coleridge's
+famous <i>Fire, Famine, and Slaughter</i>. As this little viperous
+<i>jeu-d'esprit</i> (published anonymously) subsequently became the subject
+of a celebrated after-dinner discussion in London, at which Coleridge
+(<i>comme de raison</i>) was the chief speaker, the reader of this
+generation may wish to know the question at issue; and in order to
+judge of <i>that</i>, he must know the outline of this devil's squib. The
+writer brings upon the scene three pleasant young ladies, viz. Miss
+Fire, Miss Famine, and Miss Slaughter. "What are you up to? What's the
+row?"&mdash;we may suppose to be the introductory question of the poet. And
+the answer of the ladies makes us aware that they are fresh from
+larking in Ireland, and in France. A glorious spree they had; lots of
+fun; and laughter <i>&agrave; discretion</i>. At all times <i>gratus puell&aelig; risus ab
+angulo</i>; so that we listen to their little gossip with interest. They
+had been setting men, it seems, by the ears; and the drollest little
+atrocities they do certainly report. Not but we have seen better in
+the Nenagh paper, so far as Ireland is concerned. But the pet little
+joke was in La Vend&eacute;e. Miss Famine, who is the girl for our money,
+raises the question&mdash;whether any of them can tell the name of the
+leader and prompter to these high jinks of hell&mdash;if so, let her
+whisper it.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Whisper it, sister, so and so,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In a dark hint&mdash;distinct and low."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Upon which the playful Miss Slaughter replies:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Letters <i>four</i> do form his name.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*<span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span>*</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He came by stealth and unlock'd my den;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And I have drunk the blood since then</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of thrice three hundred thousand men."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Good: But the sting of the hornet lies in the conclusion. If this
+quadril<i>i</i>teral man had done so much for <i>them</i>, (though really, we
+think, 6s. 8d. might have settled his claim,) what, says Fire, setting
+her arms a-kimbo, would they do for <i>him</i>? Slaughter replies, rather
+crustily, that, as far as a good kicking would go&mdash;or (says Famine) a
+little matter of tearing to pieces by the mob&mdash;they would be glad to
+take tickets at his benefit. "How, you bitches!" says Fire, "is that
+all?</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"I alone am faithful; I</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Cling to him everlastingly</i>."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The sentiment is diabolical. And the question argued at the London
+dinner-table was&mdash;Could the writer have been other than a devil? The
+dinner was at the late excellent Mr Sotheby's, known advantageously in
+those days as the translator of Wieland's <i>Oberon</i>. Several of the
+great guns amongst the literary body were present; in particular, Sir
+Walter Scott; and he, we believe, with his usual good-nature, took the
+apologetic side of the dispute. In fact, he was in the secret. Nobody
+else, barring the author, knew at first whose good name was at stake.
+The scene must have been high. The company kicked about the poor
+diabolic writer's head as if it had been a tennis-ball. Coleridge, the
+yet unknown criminal, absolutely perspired and fumed in pleading for
+the defendant; the company demurred; the orator grew urgent; wits
+began to <i>smoke</i> the case, as active verbs; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> advocate to <i>smoke</i>,
+as a neuter verb; the "fun grew fast and furious;" until at length
+<i>delinquent arose</i>, burning tears in his eyes, and confessed to an
+audience, (now bursting with stifled laughter, but whom he supposed to
+be bursting with fiery indignation,) "Lo! I am he that wrote it."</p>
+
+<p>For our own parts, we side with Coleridge. Malice is not always of the
+heart. There is a malice of the understanding and the fancy. Neither
+do we think the worse of a man for having invented the most horrible
+and old-woman-troubling curse that demons ever listened to. We are too
+apt to swear horribly ourselves; and often have we frightened the cat,
+to say nothing of the kettle, by our shocking [far too shocking!]
+oaths.</p>
+
+<p>There were other celebrated men whom Coleridge detested, or seemed to
+detest&mdash;Paley, Sir Sidney Smith, Lord Hutchinson, (the last Lord
+Donoughmore,) and Cuvier. To Paley it might seem as if his antipathy
+had been purely philosophic; but we believe that partly it was
+personal; and it tallies with this belief, that, in his earliest
+political tracts, Coleridge charged the archdeacon repeatedly with his
+own joke, as if it had been a serious saying, viz.&mdash;"that he could not
+afford to keep a conscience;" such luxuries, like a carriage, for
+instance, being obviously beyond the finances of poor men.</p>
+
+<p>With respect to the philosophic question between the parties, as to
+the grounds of moral election, we hope it is no treason to suggest
+that both were perhaps in error. Against Paley, it occurs at once that
+he himself would not have made consequences the <i>practical</i> test in
+valuing the morality of an act, since these can very seldom be traced
+at all up to the final stages, and in the earliest stages are
+exceedingly different under different circumstances; so that the same
+act, tried by its consequences, would bear a fluctuating appreciation.
+This could not have been Paley's <i>revised</i> meaning. Consequently, had
+he been pressed by opposition, it would have come out, that by <i>test</i>
+he meant only <i>speculative</i> test: a very harmless doctrine certainly,
+but useless and impertinent to any purpose of his system. The reader
+may catch our meaning in the following illustration. It is a matter of
+general belief, that happiness, upon the whole, follows in a higher
+degree from constant integrity, than from the closest attention to
+self-interest. Now happiness is one of those consequences which Paley
+meant by final or remotest. But we could never use this idea as an
+exponent of integrity, or interchangeable criterion, because happiness
+cannot be ascertained or appreciated except upon long tracts of time,
+whereas the particular act of integrity depends continually upon the
+election of the moment. No man, therefore, could venture to lay down
+as a rule, Do what makes you happy; use this as your test of actions,
+satisfied that in that case always you will do the thing which is
+right. For he cannot discern independently what <i>will</i> make him happy;
+and he must decide on the spot. The use of the <i>nexus</i> between
+morality and happiness must therefore be inverted; it is not practical
+or prospective, but simply retrospective; and in that form it says no
+more than the good old rules hallowed in every cottage. But this
+furnishes no practical guide for moral election which a man had not,
+before he ever thought of this <i>nexus</i>. In the sense in which it is
+true, we need not go to the professor's chair for this maxim; in the
+sense in which it would serve Paley, it is absolutely false.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, as against Coleridge, it is certain that many acts
+could be mentioned which are judged to be good or bad only because
+their consequences are known to be so, whilst the great catholic acts
+of life are entirely (and, if we may so phrase it, haughtily)
+independent of consequences. For instance, fidelity to a trust is a
+law of immutable morality subject to no casuistry whatever. You have
+been left executor to a friend&mdash;you are to pay over his last legacy to
+X, though a dissolute scoundrel; and you are to give no shilling of it
+to the poor brother of X, though a good man, and a wise man,
+struggling with adversity. You are absolutely excluded from all
+contemplation of results. It was your deceased friend's right to make
+the will; it is yours simply to see it executed. Now, in opposition to
+this primary class of actions stands another, such as the habit of
+intoxication, which are known to be wrong only by observing the
+consequences.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> If drunkenness did not terminate, after some years, in
+producing bodily weakness, irritability in the temper, and so forth,
+it would <i>not</i> be a vicious act. And accordingly, if a transcendent
+motive should arise in favour of drunkenness, as that it would enable
+you to face a degree of cold, or contagion, else menacing to life, a
+duty would arise, <i>pro h&acirc;c vice</i>, of getting drunk. We had an amiable
+friend who suffered under the infirmity of cowardice; an awful coward
+he was when sober; but, when very drunk, he had courage enough for the
+Seven Champions of Christendom. Therefore, in an emergency, where he
+knew himself suddenly loaded with the responsibility of defending a
+family, we approved highly of his getting drunk. But to violate a
+trust could never become right under any change of circumstances.
+Coleridge, however, altogether overlooked this distinction; which, on
+the other hand, stirring in Paley's mind, but never brought out to
+distinct consciousness, nor ever investigated, nor limited, has
+undermined his system. Perhaps it is not very important how a man
+<i>theorizes</i> upon morality; happily for us all, God has left no man in
+such questions practically to the guidance of his understanding; but
+still, considering that academic bodies <i>are</i> partly instituted for
+the support of speculative truth as well as truth practical, we must
+think it a blot upon the splendour of Oxford and Cambridge that both
+of them, in a Christian land, make Paley the foundation of their
+ethics; the alternative being Aristotle. And, in our mind, though far
+inferior as a moralist to the Stoics, Aristotle is often less a pagan
+than Paley.</p>
+
+<p>Coleridge's dislike to Sir Sidney Smith and the Egyptian Lord
+Hutchinson fell under the category of Martial's case.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hoc solum novi&mdash;non amo te, Sabidi."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Against Lord Hutchinson, we never heard him plead any thing of moment,
+except that he was finically Frenchified in his diction; of which he
+gave this instance&mdash;that having occasion to notice a brick wall,
+(which was literally <i>that</i>, not more and not less,) when
+reconnoitring the French defences, he called it a <i>rev&ecirc;tement</i>. And we
+ourselves remember his using the French word <i>gloriole</i> rather
+ostentatiously; that is, when no particular emphasis attached to the
+case. But every man has his foibles; and few, perhaps, are less
+conspicuously annoying than this of Lord Hutchinson's. Sir Sidney's
+crimes were less distinctly revealed to our mind. As to Cuvier,
+Coleridge's hatred of <i>him</i> was more to our taste; for (though quite
+unreasonable, we fear) it took the shape of patriotism. He insisted on
+it, that our British John Hunter was the genuine article, and that
+Cuvier was a humbug. Now, speaking privately to the public, we cannot
+go quite so far as <i>that</i>. But, when publicly we address that most
+respectable character, <i>en grand costume</i>, we always mean to back
+Coleridge. For we are a horrible John Bull ourselves. As Joseph Hume
+observes, it makes no difference to us&mdash;right or wrong, black or
+white&mdash;when our countrymen are concerned. And John Hunter,
+notwithstanding he had a bee in his bonnet,[<a name="f26.1" id="f26.1" href="#f26">26</a>] was really a great
+man; though it will not follow that Cuvier must, therefore, have been
+a little one. We do not pretend to be acquainted with the tenth part
+of Cuvier's performances; but we suspect that Coleridge's range in
+that respect was not much greater than our own.</p>
+
+<p>Other cases of monomaniac antipathy we might revive from our
+recollections of Coleridge, had we a sufficient motive. But in
+compensation, and by way of redressing the balance, he had many
+strange likings&mdash;equally monomaniac&mdash;and, unaccountably, he chose to
+exhibit his whimsical partialities by dressing up, as it were, in his
+own clothes, such a set of scarecrows as eye has not beheld. Heavens!
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>what an ark of unclean beasts would have been Coleridge's private
+<i>menagerie</i> of departed philosophers, could they all have been trotted
+out in succession! But did the reader feel them to be the awful bores
+which, in fact, they were? No; because Coleridge had blown upon these
+withered anatomies, through the blowpipe of his own creative genius, a
+stream of gas that swelled the tissue of their antediluvian wrinkles,
+forced colour upon their cheeks, and splendour upon their sodden eyes.
+Such a process of ventriloquism never <i>has</i> existed. He spoke by their
+organs. They were the tubes; and he forced through their wooden
+machinery his own Beethoven harmonies.</p>
+
+<p>First came Dr Andrew Bell. We knew him. Was he dull? Is a wooden spoon
+dull? Fishy were his eyes; torpedinous was his manner; and his main
+idea, out of two which he really had, related to the moon&mdash;from which
+you infer, perhaps, that he was lunatic. By no means. It was no craze,
+under the influence of the moon, which possessed him; it was an idea
+of mere hostility to the moon. The Madras people, like many others,
+had an idea that she influenced the weather. Subsequently the
+Herschels, senior and junior, systematized this idea; and then the
+wrath of Andrew, previously in a crescent state, actually dilated to a
+plenilunar orb. The Westmoreland people (for at the lakes it was we
+knew him) expounded his condition to us by saying that he was
+"maffled;" which word means "perplexed in the extreme." His wrath did
+not pass into lunacy; it produced simple distraction; an uneasy
+fumbling with the idea; like that of an old superannuated dog who
+longs to worry, but cannot for want of teeth. In this condition you
+will judge that he was rather tedious. And in this condition Coleridge
+took him up. Andrew's other idea, because he <i>had</i> two, related to
+education. Perhaps six-sevenths of that also came from Madras. No
+matter, Coleridge took <i>that</i> up; Southey also; but Southey with his
+usual temperate fervour. Coleridge, on the other hand, found celestial
+marvels both in the scheme and in the man. Then commenced the
+apotheosis of Andrew Bell; and because it happened that his opponent,
+Lancaster, between ourselves, really <i>had</i> stolen his ideas from Bell,
+what between the sad wickedness of Lancaster and the celestial
+transfiguration of Bell, gradually Coleridge heated himself to such an
+extent, that people, when referring to that subject, asked each other:
+"Have you heard Coleridge lecture on <i>Bel and the Dragon</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>The next man glorified by Coleridge was John Woolman, the Quaker. Him,
+though we once possessed his works, it cannot be truly affirmed that
+we ever read. Try to read John, we often did; but read John we did
+not. This however, you say, might be our fault, and not John's. Very
+likely. And we have a notion that now, with our wiser thoughts, we
+<i>should</i> read John, if he were here on this table. It is certain that
+he was a good man, and one of the earliest in America, if not in
+Christendom, who lifted up his hand to protest against the
+slave-trade. But still, we suspect, that had John been all that
+Coleridge represented, he would not have repelled us from reading his
+travels in the fearful way that he did. But, again, we beg pardon, and
+entreat the earth of Virginia to lie light upon the remains of John
+Woolman; for he was an Israelite, indeed, in whom there was no guile.</p>
+
+<p>The third person raised to divine honours by Coleridge was Bowyer, the
+master of Christ's Hospital, London&mdash;a man whose name rises into the
+nostrils of all who knew him with the gracious odour of a
+tallow-chandler's melting-house upon melting day, and whose memory is
+embalmed in the hearty detestation of all his pupils. Coleridge
+describes this man as a profound critic. Our idea of him is different.
+We are of opinion that Bowyer was the greatest villain of the
+eighteenth century. We may be wrong; but we cannot be <i>far</i> wrong.
+Talk of knouting indeed! which we did at the beginning of this paper
+in the mere playfulness of our hearts&mdash;and which the great master of
+the knout, Christopher, who visited men's trespasses like the
+Eumenides, never resorted to but in love for some great idea which had
+been outraged; why, this man knouted his way through life, from bloody
+youth up to truculent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> old age. Grim idol! whose altars reeked with
+children's blood, and whose dreadful eyes never smiled except as the
+stern goddess of the Thugs smiles, when the sound of human
+lamentations inhabits her ears. So much had the monster fed upon this
+great idea of "flogging," and transmuted it into the very nutriment of
+his heart, that he seems to have conceived the gigantic project of
+flogging all mankind; nay worse, for Mr Gillman, on Coleridge's
+authority, tells us (p. 24) the following anecdote:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'<i>Sirrah, I'll flog you</i>,' were words so familiar to him, that
+on one occasion some <i>female</i> friend of one of the boys," (who
+had come on an errand of intercession,) "still lingering at the
+door, after having been abruptly told to go, Bowyer
+exclaimed&mdash;'Bring that woman here, and I'll flog her.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>To this horrid incarnation of whips and scourges, Coleridge, in his
+<i>Biographia Literaria</i>, ascribes ideas upon criticism and taste, which
+every man will recognise as the intense peculiarities of Coleridge.
+Could these notions really have belonged to Bowyer, then how do we
+know but he wrote <i>The Ancient Mariner</i>? Yet, on consideration, no.
+For even Coleridge admitted that, spite of his fine theorizing upon
+composition, Mr Bowyer did not prosper in the practice. Of which he
+gave us this illustration; and as it is supposed to be the only
+specimen of the Bowyeriana which now survives in this sublunary world,
+we are glad to extend its glory. It is the most curious example extant
+of the melodious in sound:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"'Twas thou that smooth'd'st the rough-rugg'd bed of pain."</span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>"Smooth'd'st!" Would the teeth of a crocodile not splinter under that
+word? It seems to us as if Mr Bowyer's verses ought to be boiled
+before they can be read. And when he says, '<i>Twas thou</i>, what is the
+wretch talking to? Can he be apostrophising the knout? We very much
+fear it. If so then, you see (reader!) that, even when incapacitated
+by illness from operating, he still adores the image of his holy
+scourge, and invokes it as alone able to smooth "his rough-rugg'd
+bed." Oh, thou infernal Bowyer! upon whom even Trollope (<i>History of
+Christ's Hospital</i>) charges "a discipline <i>tinctured</i> with more than
+due severity;"&mdash;can there be any partners found for thee in a
+quadrille, except Draco, the bloody lawgiver, Bishop Bonner, and Mrs
+Brownrigg?</p>
+
+<p>The next pet was Sir Alexander Ball. Concerning Bowyer, Coleridge did
+not talk much, but chiefly wrote; concerning Bell, he did not write
+much, but chiefly talked. Concerning Ball, however, he both wrote and
+talked. It was in vain to muse upon any plan for having Ball
+blackballed, or for rebelling against Bell. Think of a man, who had
+fallen into one pit called Bell, secondly falling into another pit
+called Ball. This was too much. We were obliged to quote poetry
+against them:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Letters four do form his name;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He came by stealth and unlock'd my den;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And the nightmare I have felt since then</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of thrice three hundred thousand men."</span></p>
+
+<p>Not that we insinuate any disrespect to Sir Alexander Ball. He was
+about the foremost, we believe, in all good qualities, amongst
+Nelson's admirable captains at the Nile. He commanded a seventy-four
+most effectually in that battle; he governed Malta as well as Sancho
+governed Barataria; and he was a true practical philosopher&mdash;as,
+indeed, was Sancho. But still, by all that we could ever learn, Sir
+Alexander had no taste for the abstract upon any subject; and would
+have read, as mere delirious wanderings, those philosophic opinions
+which Coleridge fastened like wings upon his respectable, but
+astounded, shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>We really beg pardon for having laughed a little at these crazes of
+Coleridge. But laugh we did, of mere necessity, in those days, at Bell
+and Ball, whenever we did not groan. And, as the same precise
+alternative offered itself now, viz., that, in recalling the case, we
+must reverberate either the groaning or the laughter, we presumed the
+reader would vote for the last. Coleridge, we are well convinced, owed
+all these wandering and exaggerated estimates of men&mdash;these diseased
+impulses, that, like the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> <i>mirage</i>, showed lakes and fountains where
+in reality there were only arid deserts, to the derangements worked by
+opium. But now, for the sake of change, let us pass to another topic.
+Suppose we say a word or two on Coleridge's accomplishments as a
+scholar. We are not going to enter on so large a field as that of his
+scholarship in connexion with his philosophic labours, scholarship in
+the result; not this, but scholarship in the means and machinery,
+range of <i>verbal</i> scholarship, is what we propose for a moment's
+review.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, what sort of a German scholar was Coleridge? We dare say
+that, because in his version of the <i>Wallenstein</i> there are some
+inaccuracies, those who may have noticed them will hold him cheap in
+this particular pretension. But, to a certain degree, they will be
+wrong. Coleridge was not <i>very</i> accurate in any thing but in the use
+of logic. All his philological attainments were imperfect. He did not
+talk German; or so obscurely&mdash;and, if he attempted to speak fast, so
+erroneously&mdash;that in his second sentence, when conversing with a
+German lady of rank, he contrived to assure her that in his humble
+opinion she was a &mdash;&mdash;. Hard it is to fill up the hiatus decorously;
+but, in fact, the word very coarsely expressed that she was no better
+than she should be. Which reminds us of a parallel misadventure to a
+German, whose colloquial English had been equally neglected. Having
+obtained an interview with an English lady, he opened his business
+(whatever it might be) thus&mdash;"High-born madam, since your husband have
+kicked de bucket"&mdash;&mdash; "Sir!" interrupted the lady, astonished and
+displeased. "Oh, pardon!&mdash;nine, ten tousand pardon! Now, I make new
+beginning&mdash;quite oder beginning. Madam, since your husband have cut
+his stick"&mdash;&mdash; It may be supposed that this did not mend matters; and,
+reading that in the lady's countenance, the German drew out an octavo
+dictionary, and said, perspiring with shame at having a second time
+missed fire,&mdash;"Madam, since your husband have gone to kingdom
+come"&mdash;&mdash; This he said beseechingly; but the lady was past
+propitiation by this time, and rapidly moved towards the door. Things
+had now reached a crisis; and, if something were not done quickly, the
+game was up. Now, therefore, taking a last hurried look at his
+dictionary, the German flew after the lady, crying out in a voice of
+despair&mdash;"Madam, since your husband, your most respected husband, have
+hopped de twig"&mdash;&mdash; This was his sheet-anchor; and, as this also <i>came
+home</i>, of course the poor man was totally wrecked. It turned out that
+the dictionary he had used (Arnold's, we think,)&mdash;a work of a hundred
+years back, and, from mere ignorance, giving slang translations from
+Tom Brown, L'Estrange, and other jocular writers&mdash;had put down the
+verb <i>sterben</i> (<i>to die</i>) with the following worshipful series of
+equivalents&mdash;1. To kick the bucket; 2. To cut one's stick; 3. To go to
+kingdom come; 4. To hop the twig.</p>
+
+<p>But, though Coleridge did not pretend to any fluent command of
+conversational German, he read it with great ease. His knowledge of
+German literature was, indeed, too much limited by his rare
+opportunities for commanding any thing like a well-mounted library.
+And particularly it surprised us that Coleridge knew little or nothing
+of John Paul (Richter.) But his acquaintance with the German
+philosophic masters was extensive. And his valuation of many
+individual German words or phrases was delicate and sometimes
+profound.</p>
+
+<p>As a Grecian, Coleridge must be estimated with a reference to the
+state and standard of Greek literature at that time and in this
+country. Porson had not yet raised our ideal. The earliest laurels of
+Coleridge were gathered, however, in that field. Yet no man will, at
+this day, pretend that the Greek of his prize ode is sufferable.
+Neither did Coleridge ever become an accurate Grecian in later times,
+when better models of scholarship, and better aids to scholarship, had
+begun to multiply. But still we must assert this point of superiority
+for Coleridge, that, whilst he never was what may be called a
+well-mounted scholar in any department of verbal scholarship, he yet
+displayed sometimes a brilliancy of conjectural sagacity, and a
+felicity of philosophic investigation, even in this path, such as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+better scholars do not often attain, and of a kind which cannot be
+learned from books. But, as respects his accuracy, again we must
+recall to the reader the state of Greek literature in England during
+Coleridge's youth; and, in all equity, as a means of placing Coleridge
+in the balances, specifically we must recall the state of Greek
+metrical composition at that period.</p>
+
+<p>To measure the condition of Greek literature even in Cambridge, about
+the initial period of Coleridge, we need only look back to the several
+translations of Gray's <i>Elegy</i> by three (if not four) of the reverend
+gentlemen at that time attached to Eton College. Mathias, no very
+great scholar himself in this particular field, made himself merry, in
+his <i>Pursuits of Literature</i>, with these Eton translations. In that he
+was right. But he was <i>not</i> right in praising a contemporary
+translation by Cook, who (we believe) was the immediate predecessor of
+Porson in the Greek chair. As a specimen of this translation,[<a name="f27.1" id="f27.1" href="#f27">27</a>] we
+cite one stanza; and we cannot be supposed to select unfairly, because
+it is the stanza which Mathias praises in extravagant terms. "Here,"
+says he, "Gray, Cook, and nature, do seem to contend for the mastery."
+The English quatrain must be familiar to every body:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Await alike the inevitable hour;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The paths of glory lead but to the grave."</span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>And the following, we believe, though quoting from a thirty-three
+years' recollection of it, is the exact Greek version of Cook:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<ins class="correction" title="Ha charis eugene&ocirc;n, charis ha basil&ecirc;idos archas,">&#7945; &#967;&#945;&#961;&#953;&#962; &#949;&#8016;&#947;&#949;&#957;&#949;&#969;&#957;, &#967;&#945;&#961;&#953;&#962; &#7937; &#946;&#945;&#963;&#953;&#955;&#951;&#953;&#948;&#959;&#962; &#7936;&#961;&#967;&#945;&#962;,</ins><br />
+<ins class="correction" title="D&#244;ra tuch&ecirc;s chruse&ecirc;s, Aphrodit&ecirc;s kala ta d&ocirc;ra,">&#916;&#969;&#961;&#945; &#964;&#965;&#967;&#951;&#962; &#967;&#961;&#965;&#963;&#949;&#951;&#962;, &#7944;&#966;&#961;&#959;&#948;&#953;&#964;&#951;&#962; &#954;&#945;&#955;&#945; &#964;&#945; &#948;&#969;&#961;&#945;,</ins><br />
+<ins class="correction" title="Panth' hama tauta tethn&ecirc;ke, kai eiden morsimon hamar;">&#928;&#945;&#957;&#952;&#146; &#7937;&#956;&#945; &#964;&#945;&#965;&#964;&#945; &#964;&#949;&#952;&#957;&#951;&#954;&#949;, &#954;&#945;&#953; &#949;&#7984;&#948;&#949;&#957; &#956;&#959;&#961;&#963;&#953;&#956;&#959;&#957; &#7937;&#956;&#945;&#961;&#183;</ins><br />
+<ins class="correction" title="H&ecirc;r&ocirc;&ocirc;n kle' ol&ocirc;le, kai &ocirc;cheto xunon es Ad&ecirc;n.">&#7977;&#961;&#969;&#969;&#957; &#954;&#955;&#949;&#146; &#8000;&#955;&#969;&#955;&#949;, &#954;&#945;&#953; &#8032;&#967;&#949;&#964;&#959; &#958;&#965;&#957;&#959;&#957;	&#7952;&#962; &#7944;&#948;&#951;&#957;.</ins></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Now really these verses, by force of a little mosaic tesselation from
+genuine Greek sources, pass fluently over the tongue; but can they be
+considered other than a <i>cento</i>? Swarms of English schoolboys, at this
+day, would not feel very proud to adopt them. In fact, we remember (at
+a period say twelve years later than this) some iambic verses, which
+were really composed by a boy, viz. son of Dr Prettyman, (afterwards
+Tomline,) bishop of Winchester, and, in earlier times, private tutor
+to Mr Pitt; they were published by Middleton, first bishop of
+Calcutta, in the preface to his work on the Greek article; and for
+racy idiomatic Greek, self-originated, and not a mere mocking-bird's
+iteration of alien notes, are so much superior to all the attempts of
+these sexagenarian doctors, as distinctly to mark the growth of a new
+era and a new generation in this difficult accomplishment, within the
+first decennium of this century. It is singular that only one blemish
+is suggested by any of the contemporary critics in Dr Cook's verses,
+viz. in the word <ins class="correction" title="xunon"> &#958;&#965;&#957;&#959;&#957;</ins>, for which this critic proposes to
+substitute <ins class="correction" title="&ocirc;oinon">&#8033;&#959;&#953;&#957;&#959;&#957;</ins>, to prevent, as he observes, the last
+syllable of <ins class="correction" title="&ocirc;cheto">&#8032;&#967;&#949;&#964;&#959;</ins> from being lengthened by the <ins class="correction" title="x">&#958;</ins>.
+Such considerations as these are necessary to the <i>trutin&aelig;
+castigatio</i>, before we can value Coleridge's place on the scale of his
+own day; which day, <i>quoad hoc</i>, be it remembered, was 1790.</p>
+
+<p>As to French, Coleridge read it with too little freedom to find
+pleasure in French literature. Accordingly, we never recollect his
+referring for any purpose, either of argument or illustration, to a
+French classic. Latin, from his regular scholastic training, naturally
+he read with a scholar's fluency; and indeed, he read constantly in
+authors, such as Petrarch, Erasmus, Calvin, &amp;c., whom he could not
+then have found in translations. But Coleridge had not cultivated an
+acquaint<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>ance with the delicacies of classic Latinity. And it is
+remarkable that Wordsworth, educated most negligently at Hawkshead
+school, subsequently by reading the lyric poetry of Horace, simply for
+his own delight as a student of composition, made himself a master of
+Latinity in its most difficult form; whilst Coleridge, trained
+regularly in a great Southern school, never carried his Latin to any
+classical polish.</p>
+
+<p>There is another accomplishment of Coleridge's, less broadly open to
+the judgment of this generation, and not at all of the next&mdash;viz. his
+splendid art of conversation, on which it will be interesting to say a
+word. Ten years ago, when the music of this rare performance had not
+yet ceased to vibrate in men's ears, what a sensation was gathering
+amongst the educated classes on this particular subject! What a tumult
+of anxiety prevailed to "hear Mr Coleridge"&mdash;or even to talk with a
+man who <i>had</i> heard him! Had he lived till this day, not Paganini
+would have been so much sought after. That sensation is now decaying;
+because a new generation has emerged during the ten years since his
+death. But many still remain whose sympathy (whether of curiosity in
+those who did <i>not</i> know him, or of admiration in those who <i>did</i>)
+still reflects as in a mirror the great stir upon this subject which
+then was moving in the world. To these, if they should enquire for the
+great distinguishing principle of Coleridge's conversation, we might
+say that it was the power of vast combination "in linked sweetness
+long drawn out." He gathered into focal concentration the largest body
+of objects, <i>apparently</i> disconnected, that any man ever yet, by any
+magic, could assemble, or, <i>having</i> assembled, could manage. His great
+fault was, that, by not opening sufficient spaces for reply or
+suggestion, or collateral notice, he not only narrowed his own field,
+but he grievously injured the final impression. For when men's minds
+are purely passive, when they are not allowed to re-act, then it is
+that they collapse most, and that their sense of what is said must
+ever be feeblest. Doubtless there must have been great conversational
+masters elsewhere, and at many periods; but in this lay Coleridge's
+characteristic advantage, that he was a great natural power, and also
+a great artist. He was a power in the art, and he carried a new art
+into the power.</p>
+
+<p>But now, finally&mdash;having left ourselves little room for more&mdash;one or
+two words on Coleridge as an opium-eater.</p>
+
+<p>We have not often read a sentence falling from a wise man with
+astonishment so profound, as that particular one in a letter of
+Coleridge's to Mr Gillman, which speaks of the effort to wean
+one's-self from opium as a trivial task. There are, we believe,
+several such passages. But we refer to that one in particular which
+assumes that a single "week" will suffice for the whole process of so
+mighty a revolution. Is indeed leviathan <i>so</i> tamed? In that case the
+quarantine of the opium-eater might be finished within Coleridge's
+time, and with Coleridge's romantic ease. But mark the contradictions
+of this extraordinary man. Not long ago we were domesticated with a
+venerable rustic, strongheaded, but incurably obstinate in his
+prejudices, who treated the whole body of medical men as ignorant
+pretenders, knowing absolutely nothing of the system which they
+professed to superintend. This, you will remark, is no very singular
+case. No; nor, as we believe, is the antagonist case of ascribing to
+such men magical powers. Nor, what is worse still, the co-existence of
+both cases in the same mind, as in fact happened here. For this same
+obstinate friend of ours, who treated all medical pretensions as the
+mere jest of the universe, every third day was exacting from his own
+medical attendants some exquisite <i>tour-de-force</i>, as that they should
+know or should do something, which, if they <i>had</i> known or done, all
+men would have suspected them reasonably of magic. He rated the whole
+medical body as infants; and yet what he exacted from them every third
+day as a matter of course, virtually presumed them to be the only
+giants within the whole range of science. Parallel and equal is the
+contradiction of Coleridge. He speaks of opium excess, his own excess,
+we mean&mdash;the excess of twenty-five years&mdash;as a thing to be laid aside
+easily and for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> ever within seven days; and yet, on the other hand, he
+describes it pathetically, sometimes with a frantic pathos, as the
+scourge, the curse, the one almighty blight which had desolated his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>This shocking contradiction we need not press. All readers will see
+<i>that</i>. But some will ask&mdash;was Mr Coleridge right in either view?
+Being so atrociously wrong in the first notion, (viz. that the opium
+of twenty-five years was a thing easily to be forsworn,) where a child
+could know that he was wrong, was he even altogether right, secondly,
+in believing that his own life, root and branch, had been withered by
+opium? For it will not follow, because, with a relation to happiness
+and tranquillity, a man may have found opium his curse, that
+therefore, as a creature of energies and great purposes, he must have
+been the wreck which he seems to suppose. Opium gives and takes away.
+It defeats the <i>steady</i> habit of exertion, but it creates spasms of
+irregular exertion; it ruins the natural power of life, but it
+developes preternatural paroxysms of intermitting power.</p>
+
+<p>Let us ask of any man who holds that not Coleridge himself but the
+world, as interested in Coleridge's usefulness, has suffered by his
+addiction to opium; whether he is aware of the way in which opium
+affected Coleridge; and secondly, whether he is aware of the actual
+contributions to literature&mdash;how large they were&mdash;which Coleridge made
+<i>in spite</i> of opium. All who were intimate with Coleridge must
+remember the fits of genial animation which were created continually
+in his manner and in his buoyancy of thought by a recent or by an
+<i>extra</i> dose of the omnipotent drug. A lady, who knew nothing
+experimentally of opium, once told us, that she "could tell when Mr
+Coleridge had taken too much opium by his shining countenance." She
+was right; we know that mark of opium excesses well, and the cause of
+it; or at least we believe the cause to lie in the quickening of the
+insensible perspiration which accumulates and glistens on the face. Be
+that as it may, a criterion it was that could not deceive us as to the
+condition of Coleridge. And uniformly in that condition he made his
+most effective intellectual displays. It is true that he might not be
+happy under this fiery animation, and we fully believe that he was
+not. Nobody is happy under laudanum except for a very short term of
+years. But in what way did that operate upon his exertions as a
+writer? We are of opinion that it killed Coleridge as a poet. "The
+harp of Quantock" was silenced for ever by the torment of opium. But
+proportionably it roused and stung by misery his metaphysical
+instincts into more spasmodic life. Poetry can flourish only in the
+atmosphere of happiness. But subtle and perplexed investigations of
+difficult problems are amongst the commonest resources for beguiling
+the sense of misery. And for this we have the direct authority of
+Coleridge himself speculating on his own case. In the beautiful though
+unequal ode entitled <i>Dejection</i>, stanza six, occurs the following
+passage:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">"For not to think of what I needs must feel,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But to be still and patient all I can;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>And haply by abstruse research to steal</i></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>From my own nature all the natural man</i>&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">This was my sole resource, my only plan;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Till that, which suits a part, infects the whole,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And now is almost grown the habit of my soul."</span></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Considering the exquisite quality of some poems which Coleridge has
+composed, nobody can grieve (or <i>has</i> grieved) more than ourselves, at
+seeing so beautiful a fountain choked up with weeds. But had Coleridge
+been a happier man, it is our fixed belief that we should have had far
+less of his philosophy, and perhaps, but not certainly, might have had
+more of his general literature. In the estimate of the public,
+doubtless, <i>that</i> will seem a bad exchange. Every man to his taste.
+Meantime, what we wish to show is, that the loss was not absolute, but
+merely relative.</p>
+
+<p>It is urged, however, that, even on his philosophic speculations,
+opium operated unfavourably in one respect, by often causing him to
+leave them unfinished. This is true. Whenever Coleridge (being highly
+charged, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> saturated, with opium) had written with distempered
+vigour upon any question, there occurred soon after a recoil of
+intense disgust, not from his own paper only, but even from the
+subject. All opium-eaters are tainted with the infirmity of leaving
+works unfinished, and suffering reactions of disgust. But Coleridge
+
+taxed himself with that infirmity in verse before he could at all have
+commenced opium-eating. Besides, it is too much assumed by Coleridge
+and by his biographer, that to leave off opium was of course to regain
+juvenile health. But all opium-eaters make the mistake of supposing
+every pain or irritation which they suffer to be the product of opium.
+Whereas a wise man will say, suppose you <i>do</i> leave off opium, that
+will not deliver you from the load of years (say sixty-three) which
+you carry on your back. Charles Lamb, another man of true genius, and
+another head belonging to the Blackwood Gallery, made that mistake in
+his <i>Confessions of a Drunkard</i>. "I looked back," says he, "to the
+time when always, on waking in the morning, I had a song rising to my
+lips." At present, it seems, being a <ins class="correction" title="Original reads 'drunkark'">drunkard</ins>, he has no such song.
+Ay, dear Lamb, but note this, that the drunkard was fifty-six years
+old, the songster was twenty-three. Take twenty-three from fifty-six,
+and we have some reason to believe that thirty-three will remain;
+which period of thirty-three years is a pretty good reason for not
+singing in the morning, even if brandy has been out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>It is singular, as respects Coleridge, that Mr Gillman never says one
+word upon the event of the great Highgate experiment for leaving off
+laudanum, though Coleridge came to Mr Gillman's for no other purpose;
+and in a week, this vast creation of new earth, sea, and all that in
+them is, was to have been accomplished. We <i>rayther</i> think, as Bayley
+junior observes, that the explosion must have hung fire. But <i>that</i> is
+a trifle. We have another pleasing hypothesis on the subject. Mr
+Wordsworth, in his exquisite lines written on a fly-leaf of his own
+<i>Castle of Indolence</i>, having described Coleridge as "a noticeable man
+with large grey eyes," goes on to say, "He" (viz. Coleridge) "did that
+other man entice" to view his imagery. Now we are sadly afraid that
+"the noticeable man with large grey eyes" did entice "that other man,"
+viz. Gillman, to commence opium-eating. This is droll; and it makes us
+laugh horribly. Gillman should have reformed <i>him</i>; and lo! <i>he</i>
+corrupts Gillman. S. T. Coleridge visited Highgate by way of being
+converted from the heresy of opium; and the issue is&mdash;that, in two
+months' time, various grave men, amongst whom our friend Gillman
+marches first in great pomp, are found to have faces shining and
+glorious as that of &AElig;sculapius; a fact of which we have already
+explained the secret meaning. And scandal says (but then what will not
+scandal say?) that a hogshead of opium goes up daily through Highgate
+tunnel. Surely one corroboration of our hypothesis may be found in the
+fact, that Vol. I. of Gillman's Coleridge is forever to stand
+unpropped by Vol. II. For we have already observed&mdash;that opium-eaters,
+though good fellows upon the whole, never finish any thing.</p>
+
+<p>What then? A man has a right never to finish any thing. Certainly he
+has; and by Magna Charta. But he has no right, by Magna Charta or by
+Parva Charta, to slander decent men, like ourselves and our friend the
+author of the <i>Opium Confessions</i>. Here it is that our complaint
+arises against Mr Gillman. If he has taken to opium-eating, can we
+help <i>that</i>? If <i>his</i> face shines, must our faces be blackened? He has
+very improperly published some intemperate passages from Coleridge's
+letters, which ought to have been considered confidential, unless
+Coleridge had left them for publication, charging upon the author of
+the <i>Opium Confessions</i> a reckless disregard of the temptations which,
+in that work, he was scattering abroad amongst men. Now this author is
+connected with ourselves, and we cannot neglect his defence, unless in
+the case that he undertakes it himself.</p>
+
+<p>We complain, also, that Coleridge raises (and is backed by Mr Gillman
+in raising) a distinction perfectly perplexing to us, between himself
+and the author of the <i>Opium Confessions</i> upon the question&mdash;Why they
+severally began the practice of opium-eating? In himself, it seems,
+this motive was to relieve pain, whereas the Confessor was
+surreptitiously seeking for pleasure. Ay, indeed&mdash;where did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> he learn
+<i>that</i>? We have no copy of the <i>Confessions</i> here, so we cannot quote
+chapter and verse; but we distinctly remember, that toothach is
+recorded in that book as the particular occasion which first
+introduced the author to the knowledge of opium. Whether afterwards,
+having been thus initiated by the demon of pain, the opium confessor
+did not apply powers thus discovered to purposes of mere pleasure, is
+a question for himself; and the same question applies with the same
+cogency to Coleridge. Coleridge began in rheumatic pains. What then?
+That is no proof that he did not end in voluptuousness. For our parts,
+we are slow to believe that ever any man did, or could, learn the
+somewhat awful truth, that in a certain ruby-coloured elixir, there
+lurked a divine power to chase away the genius of ennui, without
+subsequently abusing this power. To taste but once from the tree of
+knowledge, is fatal to the subsequent power of abstinence. True it is,
+that generations have used laudanum as an anodyne, (for instance,
+hospital patients,) who have not afterwards courted its powers as a
+voluptuous stimulant; but that, be sure, has arisen from no abstinence
+in <i>them</i>. There are, in fact, two classes of temperaments as to this
+terrific drug&mdash;those which are, and those which are not, preconformed
+to its power; those which genially expand to its temptations, and
+those which frostily exclude them. Not in the energies of the will,
+but in the qualities of the nervous organization, lies the dread
+arbitration of&mdash;Fall or stand: doomed thou art to yield; or,
+strengthened constitutionally, to resist. Most of those who have but a
+low sense of the spells lying couchant in opium, have practically none
+at all. For the initial fascination is for <i>them</i> effectually defeated
+by the sickness which nature has associated with the first stages of
+opium-eating. But to that other class, whose nervous sensibilities
+vibrate to their profoundest depths under the first touch of the
+angelic poison, even as a lover's ear thrills on hearing unexpectedly
+the voice of her whom he loves, opium is the Amreeta cup of beatitude.
+You know the <i>Paradise Lost</i>? and you remember, from the eleventh
+book, in its earlier part, that laudanum already existed in Eden&mdash;nay,
+that it was used medicinally by an archangel; for, after Michael had
+"purged with euphrasy and rue" the eyes of Adam, lest he should be
+unequal to the mere <i>sight</i> of the great visions about to unfold their
+draperies before him, next he fortifies his fleshly spirits against
+the <i>affliction</i> of these visions, of which visions the first was
+death. And how?</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"He from the well of life three drops instill'd."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>What was their operation?</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Even to the inmost seat of mental sight</i>,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sank down, and all his spirits became entranced.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But him the gentle angel by the hand</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Soon raised"&mdash;&mdash;</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The second of these lines it is which betrays the presence of
+laudanum. It is in the faculty of mental vision, it is in the
+increased power of dealing with the shadowy and the dark, that the
+characteristic virtue of opium lies. Now, in the original higher
+sensibility is found some palliation for the <i>practice</i> of
+opium-eating; in the greater temptation is a greater excuse. And in
+this faculty of self-revelation is found some palliation for
+<i>reporting</i> the case to the world, which both Coleridge and his
+biographer have overlooked.</p>
+
+<p>On all this, however, we need say no more; for we have just received a
+note from the writer of the <i>Opium Confessions</i>, more learned than
+ourselves in such mysteries, which promises us a sequel or <i>finale</i> to
+those Confessions. And this, which we have reason to think a record of
+profound experiences, we shall probably publish next month.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<h4><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work.</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><a name="Footnotes" id="Footnotes"></a>Footnotes:</p>
+
+
+<p>[<a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">1</a>] Reynolds' Discourses, No. 16, <i>ad finem</i>.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">2</a>] Macaulay.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">3</a>] The finest design ever conceived by Michael Angelo was a cartoon
+representing warriors bathing, and some buckling on their armour at
+the sound of the trumpet, which summoned them to their standards in
+the war between Pisa and Florence. It perished, however, in the
+troubles of the latter city, but an engraved copy remains of part,
+which justifies the eulogiums bestowed upon it.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">4</a>] The state of Missouri as almost entirely peopled by emigration
+from Kentucky.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">5</a>] The Mississippi water, although slimy, becomes clear after it has
+stood few hours, and is then excellent to drink.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">6</a>] An excellent map of Montenegro has been made by an Austrian
+officer of engineers, who resided there for the purpose&mdash;but I have
+not now the advantage of referring to it. This country is divided into
+twelve military departments; the natives reckon its extent about three
+days' journey in the longest, by two in the widest part. Those, of
+course, are foot or mule journeys.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f7" id="f7" href="#f7.1">7</a>] It was this man's father who, shortly before our arrival, having
+been entrusted to receive from Lloyd's Company a packet containing a
+large sum of money, converted the contents into two cannon-balls, and
+forwarded them to the Vladika.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f8" id="f8" href="#f8.1">8</a>] The late Vladika received the honours of sanctity after his death.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f9" id="f9" href="#f9.1">9</a>] Meaning dressed in the European or Frank costume.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f10" id="f10" href="#f10.1">10</a>] The Vladika bears the Russian eagle rising from a crown.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f11" id="f11" href="#f11.1">11</a>] He passed but one night in Montenegro, at Cettigna, and returned
+the following day to Cattaro.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f12" id="f12" href="#f12.1">12</a>] On the kalends of January the consuls-elect were formally
+installed; and on this occasion a procession was made to the Capitol,
+and sacrifice performed to Jupiter. The principal part of the
+procession, of course, was the consuls in their curule chair, preceded
+by the lictors bearing the <i>fasces</i>, or bundles of rods and axes.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f13" id="f13" href="#f13.1">13</a>] From <i>Janua</i>, a gate.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f14" id="f14" href="#f14.1">14</a>] The etymology of these old epithets, from <i>pateo</i> (to open) and
+<i>claudo</i> (to shut,) is obvious enough.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f15" id="f15" href="#f15.1">15</a>] The <i>lar familiaris</i>, or domestic god of the family, who had an
+altar in the inner part of the Roman house.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f16" id="f16" href="#f16.1">16</a>] The allusion here, and in the following lines, is to the
+different <i>stren&aelig;</i> or New-Year's gifts, which used to be given by the
+Romans.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f17" id="f17" href="#f17.1">17</a>] The old Roman <i>as</i>, with the double head on one side and a ship
+on the reverse, is well known among numismatists.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f18" id="f18" href="#f18.1">18</a>] The Tuscan flood is a common appellation for the Tiber, as rising
+in Etruria, and forming the ancient boundary between that country and
+Latium, opposite Rome.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f19" id="f19" href="#f19.1">19</a>] A silly etymology&mdash;from <i>lateo</i>, to lurk; mentioned also by
+Virgil.&mdash;<i>&AElig;n</i>. viii. 323.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f20" id="f20" href="#f20.1">20</a>] "The Romans gave the name of <i>Jani</i> to arches like that of
+Temple-Bar in London, under which people passed from one street into
+another. They were always double; people entering by one and going out
+by the other, every one keeping to the right. The temple or gateway
+mentioned in this place, adjacent to the ox and the fish markets, was
+built by Duilius."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Keightly</span>.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f21" id="f21" href="#f21.1">21</a>] Although the allusion refers, in the verses, to Delphi, it was, I
+think, at Dodona, in the earliest period of oracular influence, that
+this belief prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f22" id="f22" href="#f22.1">22</a>] "And Mullah mine, whose waves whilome I taught to
+weep."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Spenser</span>.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f23" id="f23" href="#f23.1">23</a>] <i>The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge</i>. By <span class="smcap">James Gillman</span>. Vol. I,
+London; 1838.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f24" id="f24" href="#f24.1">24</a>] "Jacob Boehmen." We ourselves had the honour of presenting to Mr
+Coleridge Law's English version of Jacob&mdash;a set of huge quartos. Some
+months afterwards we saw this work lying open, and one volume at least
+overflowing, in parts, with the commentaries and the <i>corollaries</i> of
+Coleridge. Whither has this work, and so many others swathed about
+with Coleridge's MS. notes, vanished from the world?</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f25" id="f25" href="#f25.1">25</a>] Malthus would have rejoined by saying&mdash;that the flower-pot
+limitation was the actual limitation of nature in our present
+circumstances. In America it is otherwise, he would say; but England
+<i>is</i> the very flower-pot you suppose: she is a flower-pot which cannot
+be multiplied, and cannot even be enlarged. Very well; so be it:
+(Which we say in order to waive irrelevant disputes.) But then the
+true inference will be&mdash;not that vegetable increase proceeds under a
+different law from that which governs animal increase, but that,
+through an accident of position, the experiment cannot be tried in
+England. Surely the levers of Archimedes, with submission to Sir
+Edward B. Lytton, were not the less levers because he wanted the
+<i>locum standi</i>. It is proper, by the way, that we should inform the
+reader of this generation where to look for Coleridge's skirmishings
+with Malthus. They are to be found chiefly in the late Mr William
+Hazlitt's work on that subject: a work which Coleridge so far claimed
+as to assert that it had been substantially made up from his own
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f26" id="f26" href="#f26.1">26</a>] <i>Vide</i>, in particular, for the most exquisite specimen of
+pig-headedness that the world can furnish, his perverse evidence on
+the once famous case at the Warwick assizes, of Captain Donelan for
+poisoning his brother-in-law, Sir Theodosius Boughton.</p>
+
+<p>[<a name="f27" id="f27" href="#f27.1">27</a>] It was printed at the end of Aristotle's <i>Poetics</i>, which Dr Cook
+edited.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p>Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<p>Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as presented in the original text.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine --
+Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JAN. 1845 ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume
+57, No. 351, January 1845, 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 57, No. 351, January 1845
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: August 4, 2009 [EBook #29605]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JAN. 1845 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Brendan OConnor, Jonathan Ingram, Stephanie
+Eason 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.
+
+  No. CCCLI.    JANUARY, 1845.    Vol. LVII.
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+
+  Homer, Dante, and Michael Angelo,                     1
+
+  Settled at Last, Or, Red River Recollections,        18
+
+  Borodino. An Ode,                                    30
+
+  A Ramble in Montenegro,                              33
+
+  AEsthetics of Dress. A Case of Hats,                  51
+
+  The Three Guardsmen,                                 59
+
+  Marston; Or the Memoirs of a Statesman. Part XV.,    75
+
+  Janus: From the Fasti of Ovid,                       94
+
+  To a Blind Girl,                                     98
+
+  The Forced Sale,                                     99
+
+  Vanities in Verse. By B. Simmons,                   114
+
+  Coleridge and Opium-eating,                         117
+
+  EDINBURGH:
+
+  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET.
+  AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+  _To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed_.
+
+  SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
+
+
+  PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+  BLACKWOOD'S
+  EDINBURGH
+  MAGAZINE.
+
+  VOL. LVII.
+
+  JANUARY-JUNE, 1845.
+
+
+  WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH,
+
+  AND
+
+  22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.
+
+  1845.
+
+
+
+
+     BLACKWOOD'S
+  EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
+
+NO. CCCLI.  JANUARY, 1845.  Vol. LVII.
+
+
+
+HOMER, DANTE, AND MICHAEL ANGELO.
+
+
+There is something inexpressibly striking, it may almost be said
+awful, in the fame of HOMER. Three thousand years have elapsed since
+the bard of Chios began to pour forth his strains; and their
+reputation, so far from declining, is on the increase. Successive
+nations are employed in celebrating his works; generation after
+generation of men are fascinated by his imagination. Discrepancies of
+race, of character, of institutions, of religion, of age, of the
+world, are forgotten in the common worship of his genius. In this
+universal tribute of gratitude, modern Europe vies with remote
+antiquity, the light Frenchman with the volatile Greek, the
+impassioned Italian with the enthusiastic German, the sturdy
+Englishman with the unconquerable Roman, the aspiring Russian with the
+proud American. Seven cities, in ancient times, competed for the
+honour of having given him birth, but seventy nations have since been
+moulded by his productions. He gave a mythology to the ancients; he
+has given the fine arts to the modern world. Jupiter, Saturn, Mars,
+Juno, are still household words in every tongue; Vulcan is yet the god
+of fire, Neptune of the ocean, Venus of love. When Michael Angelo and
+Canova strove to embody their conceptions of heroism or beauty, they
+portrayed the heroes of the _Iliad_. Flaxman's genius was elevated to
+the highest point in embodying its events. Epic poets, in subsequent
+times, have done little more than imitate his machinery, copy his
+characters, adopt his similes, and, in a few instances, improve upon
+his descriptions. Painting and statuary, for two thousand years, have
+been employed in striving to portray, by the pencil or the chisel, his
+yet breathing conceptions. Language and thought itself have been
+moulded by the influence of his poetry. Images of wrath are still
+taken from Achilles, of pride from Agamemnon, of astuteness from
+Ulysses, of patriotism from Hector, of tenderness from Andromache, of
+age from Nestor. The galleys of Rome were, the line-of-battle ships of
+France and England still are, called after his heroes. The Agamemnon
+long bore the flag of Nelson; the Ajax perished by the flames within
+sight of the tomb of the Telamonian hero, on the shores of the
+Hellespont; the Achilles was blown up at the battle of Trafalgar.
+Alexander the Great ran round the tomb of Achilles before undertaking
+the conquest of Asia. It was the boast of Napoleon that his mother
+reclined on tapestry representing the heroes of the _Iliad_, when he
+was brought into the world. The greatest poets of ancient and modern
+times have spent their lives in the study of his genius or the
+imitation of his works. Withdraw from subsequent poetry the images,
+mythology, and characters of the _Iliad_, and what would remain?
+Petrarch spent his best years in restoring his verses. Tasso portrayed
+the siege of Jerusalem, and the shock of Europe and Asia, almost
+exactly as Homer had done the contest of the same forces, on the same
+shores, two thousand five hundred years before. Milton's old age, when
+blind and poor, was solaced by hearing the verses recited of the poet,
+to whose conceptions his own mighty spirit had been so much indebted;
+and Pope deemed himself fortunate in devoting his life to the
+translation of the _Iliad_.
+
+No writer in modern times has equalled the wide-spread fame of the
+Grecian bard; but it may be doubted whether, in the realms of thought,
+and in sway over the reflecting world, the influence of DANTE has not
+been almost as considerable. Little more than five hundred years,
+indeed, have elapsed--not a sixth of the thirty centuries which have
+tested the strength of the Grecian patriarch--since the immortal
+Florentine poured forth his divine conceptions; but yet there is
+scarcely a writer of eminence since that time, in works even bordering
+on imagination, in which traces of his genius are not to be found. The
+_Inferno_ has penetrated the world. If images of horror are sought
+after, it is to his works that all subsequent ages have turned; if
+those of love and divine felicity are desired, all turn to the
+_Paradise_ and the _Spirit of Beatrice_. When the historians of the
+French Revolution wished to convey an idea of the utmost agonies they
+were called on to portray, they contented themselves with saying it
+equalled all that the imagination of Dante had conceived of the
+terrible. Sir Joshua Reynolds has exerted his highest genius in
+depicting the frightful scene described by him, when Ugolino perished
+of hunger in the tower of Pisa. Alfieri, Metastasio, Corneille, Lope
+de Vega, and all the great masters of the tragic muse, have sought in
+his works the germs of their finest conceptions. The first of these
+tragedians marked two-thirds of the _Inferno_ and _Paradiso_ as worthy
+of being committed to memory. Modern novelists have found in his
+prolific mind the storehouse from which they have drawn their noblest
+imagery, the chord by which to strike the profoundest feelings of the
+human heart. Eighty editions of his poems have been published in
+Europe within the last half century; and the public admiration, so far
+from being satiated, is augmenting. Every scholar knows how largely
+Milton was indebted to his poems for many of his most powerful images.
+Byron inherited, though often at second hand, his mantle, in many of
+his most moving conceptions. Schiller has embodied them in a noble
+historic mirror; and the dreams of Goethe reveal the secret influence
+of the terrible imagination which portrayed the deep remorse and
+hopeless agonies of Malebolge.
+
+MICHAEL ANGELO has exercised an influence on modern art little, if at
+all, inferior to that produced on the realms of thought by Homer and
+Dante. The father of Italian painting, the author of the frescoes on
+the Sistine Chapel, he was, at the same time, the restorer of ancient
+sculpture, and the intrepid architect who placed the Pantheon in the
+air. Raphael confessed, that he owed to the contemplation of his works
+his most elevated conceptions of their divine art. Sculpture, under
+his original hand, started from the slumber of a thousand years, in
+all the freshness of youthful vigour; architecture, in subsequent
+times, has sought in vain to equal, and can never hope to surpass, his
+immortal monument in the matchless dome of St Peters. He found
+painting in its infancy--he left it arrived at absolute perfection. He
+first demonstrated of what that noble art is capable. In the Last
+Judgment he revealed its wonderful powers, exhibiting, as it were, at
+one view, the whole circles of Dante's _Inferno_--portraying with
+terrible fidelity the agonies of the wicked, when the last trumpet
+shall tear the veil from their faces, and exhibit in undisguised truth
+that most fearful of spectacles--_a naked human heart_. Casting aside,
+perhaps with undue contempt, the adventitious aids derived from
+finishing, colouring, and execution, he threw the whole force of his
+genius into the design, the expression of the features, the drawing of
+the figures. There never was such a delineator of bone and muscle as
+Michael Angelo. His frescoes stand out in bold relief from the walls
+of the Vatican, like the sculptures of Phidias from the pediment of
+the Parthenon. He was the founder of the school of painting both at
+Rome and Florence--that great school which, disdaining the
+representation of still life, and all the subordinate appliances of
+the art, devoted itself to the representation of the grand and the
+beautiful; to the expression of passion in all its vehemence--of
+emotion in all its intensity. His incomparable delineation of bones
+and muscles was but a means to an end; it was the human heart, the
+throes of human passion, that his master-hand laid bare. Raphael
+congratulated himself, and thanked God that he had given him life in
+the same age with that painter; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his last
+address to the Academy, "reflected, not without vanity, that his
+Discourses bore testimony to his admiration of that truly divine man,
+and desired that the last words he pronounced in that academy, and
+from that chair, might be the name of Michael Angelo."[1]
+
+The fame of these illustrious men has long been placed beyond the
+reach of cavil. Criticism cannot reach, envy cannot detract from,
+emulation cannot equal them. Great present celebrity, indeed, is no
+guarantee for future and enduring fame; in many cases, it is the
+reverse, but there is a wide difference between the judgment of the
+present and that of future ages. The favour of the great, the passions
+of the multitude, the efforts of reviewers, the interest of
+booksellers, a clique of authors, a coterie of ladies, accidental
+events, degrading propensities, often enter largely into the
+composition of present reputation. But opinion is freed from all these
+disturbing influences by the lapse of time. The grave is the greatest
+of all purifiers. Literary jealousy, interested partiality, vulgar
+applause, exclusive favour, alike disappear before the hand of death.
+We never can be sufficiently distrustful of present opinion, so
+largely is it directed by passion or interest. But we may rely with
+confidence on the judgment of successive generations on departed
+eminence; for it is detached from the chief cause of present
+aberration. So various are the prejudices, so contradictory the
+partialities and predilections of men, in different countries and ages
+of the world, that they never can concur through a course of centuries
+in one opinion, if it is not founded in truth and justice. The _vox
+populi_ is often little more than the _vox diaboli_; but the voice of
+ages is the voice of God.
+
+It is of more moment to consider in what the greatness of these
+illustrious men really consists--to what it has probably been
+owing--and in what particulars they bear an analogy to each other.
+
+They are all three distinguished by one peculiarity, which doubtless
+entered largely into their transcendent merit--they wrote in the
+infancy of civilization. Homer, as all the world knows, is the oldest
+profane author in existence. Dante flourished about the year 1300: he
+lived at a time when the English barons lived in rooms strewed with
+rushes, and few of them could sign their names. The long life of
+Michael Angelo, extending from 1474 to 1564, over ninety years, if not
+passed in the infancy of civilization, was at least passed in the
+childhood of the arts: before his time, painting was in its cradle.
+Cimabue had merely unfolded the first dawn of beauty at Florence; and
+the stiff figures of Pietro Perugino, which may be traced in the first
+works of his pupil Raphael, still attest the backward state of the
+arts at Rome. This peculiarity, applicable alike to all these three
+great men, is very remarkable, and beyond all question had a powerful
+influence, both in forming their peculiar character, and elevating
+them to the astonishing greatness which they speedily attained.
+
+It gave them--what Johnson has justly termed the first requisite to
+human greatness--self-confidence. They were the first--at least the
+first known to themselves and their contemporaries--who adventured on
+their several arts; and thus they proceeded _fearlessly_ in their
+great career. They had neither critics to fear, nor lords to flatter,
+nor former excellence to imitate. They portrayed with the pencil, or
+in verse, what they severally felt, undisturbed by fear, unswayed by
+example, unsolicitous about fame, unconscious of excellence. They did
+so for the first time. Thence the freshness and originality, the
+vigour and truth, the simplicity and raciness by which they are
+distinguished. Shakspeare owed much of his greatness to the same
+cause; and thence his similarity, in many respects, to these great
+masters of his own or the sister arts. When Pope asked Bentley what he
+thought of his translation of the _Iliad_, the scholar replied, "You
+have written a pretty book, Mr Pope; but you must not call it Homer."
+Bentley was right. With all its pomp of language and melody of
+versification, its richness of imagery and magnificence of diction,
+Pope's Homer is widely different from the original. He could not avoid
+it. The "awful simplicity of the Grecian bard, his artless grandeur
+and unaffected majesty," will be sought for in vain in the
+translation; but if they had appeared there, it would have been
+unreadable in that age. Michael Angelo, in his bold conceptions,
+energetic will, and rapid execution, bears a close resemblance to the
+father of poetry. In both, the same faults, as we esteem them, are
+conspicuous, arising from a too close imitation of nature, and a
+carelessness in rejecting images or objects which are of an ordinary
+or homely description. Dante was incomparably more learned than
+either: he followed Virgil in his descent to the infernal regions; and
+exhibits an intimate acquaintance with ancient history, as well as
+that of the modern Italian states, in the account of the characters he
+meets in that scene of torment. But in his own line he was entirely
+original. Homer and Virgil had, in episodes of their poems, introduced
+a picture of the infernal regions; but nothing on the plan of Dante's
+_Inferno_ had before been thought of in the world. With much of the
+machinery of the ancients, it bears the stamp of the spiritual faith
+of modern times. It lays bare the heart in a way unknown even to Homer
+and Euripides. It reveals the inmost man in a way which bespeaks the
+centuries of self-reflection in the cloister which had preceded it. It
+is the basis of all the spiritual poetry of modern, as the _Iliad_ is
+of all the external imagery of ancient, times.
+
+In this respect there is a most grievous impediment to genius in
+later, or, as we term them, more civilized times, from which, in
+earlier ages, it is wholly exempt. Criticism, public opinion, the
+dread of ridicule--then too often crush the strongest minds. The
+weight of former examples, the influence of early habits, the halo of
+long-established reputation, force original genius from the untrodden
+path of invention into the beaten one of imitation. Early talent feels
+itself overawed by the colossus which all the world adores; it falls
+down and worships, instead of conceiving. The dread of ridicule
+extinguishes originality in its birth. Immense is the incubus thus
+laid upon the efforts of genius. It is the chief cause of the
+degradation of taste, the artificial style, the want of original
+conception, by which the literature of old nations is invariably
+distinguished. The early poet or painter who portrays what he feels or
+has seen, with no anxiety but to do so powerfully and truly, is
+relieved of a load which crushes his subsequent compeers to the earth.
+Mediocrity is ever envious of genius--ordinary capacity of original
+thought. Such envy in early times is innocuous or does not exist, at
+least to the extent which is felt as so baneful in subsequent periods.
+But in a refined and enlightened age, its influence becomes
+incalculable. Whoever strikes out a new region of thought or
+composition, whoever opens a fresh vein of imagery or excellence, is
+persecuted by the critics. He disturbs settled ideas, endangers
+established reputations, brings forward rivals to dominant fame. That
+is sufficient to render him the enemy of all the existing rulers in
+the world of taste. Even Jeffrey seriously lamented, in one of his
+first reviews of Scott's poems, that he should have identified himself
+with the unpicturesque and expiring images of feudality, which no
+effort could render poetical. Racine's tragedies were received with
+such a storm of criticism as wellnigh cost the sensitive author his
+life; and Rousseau was so rudely handled by contemporary writers on
+his first appearance, that it confirmed him in his morbid hatred of
+civilization. The vigour of these great men, indeed, overcame the
+obstacles created by contemporary envy; but how seldom, especially in
+a refined age, can genius effect such a prodigy? how often is it
+crushed in the outset of its career, or turned aside into the humble
+and unobtrusive path of imitation, to shun the danger with which that
+of originality is beset!
+
+Milton's _Paradise Lost_ contains many more lines of poetic beauty
+than Homer's _Iliad_; and there is nothing in the latter poem of equal
+length, which will bear any comparison with the exquisite picture of
+the primeval innocence of our First Parents in his fourth book.
+Nevertheless, the _Iliad_ is a more interesting poem than the
+_Paradise Lost_; and has produced and will produce a much more
+extensive impression on mankind. The reason is, that it is much fuller
+of event, is more varied, is more filled with images familiar to all
+mankind, and is less lost in metaphysical or philosophical
+abstractions. Homer, though the father of poets, was essentially
+dramatic; he was an incomparable painter; and it is his dramatic
+scenes, the moving panorama of his pictures, which fascinates the
+world. He often speaks to the heart, and is admirable in the
+delineation of character; but he is so, not by conveying the inward
+feeling, but by painting with matchless fidelity its external
+symptoms, or putting into the mouths of his characters the precise
+words they would have used in similar circumstances in real life. Even
+his immortal parting of Hector and Andromache is no exception to this
+remark; he paints the scene at the Scaean gate exactly as it would have
+occurred in nature, and moves us as if we had seen the Trojan hero
+taking off his helmet to assuage the terrors of his infant son, and
+heard the lamentations of his mother at parting with her husband. But
+he does not lay bare the heart, with the terrible force of Dante, by a
+line or a word. There is nothing in Homer which conveys so piercing an
+idea of misery as the line in the _Inferno_, where the Florentine bard
+assigns the reason of the lamentations of the spirits in Malebolge--
+
+  "Questi non hanno speranza di morte."
+
+"These have not the _hope of death_." There speaks the spiritual poet;
+he does not paint to the eye, he does not even convey character by the
+words he makes then utter; he pierces by a single expression, at once
+to the heart.
+
+Milton strove to raise earth to heaven: Homer brought down heaven to
+earth. The latter attempt was a much easier one than the former; it
+was more consonant to human frailty; and, therefore, it has met with
+more success. The gods and goddesses in the _Iliad_ are men and women,
+endowed with human passions, affections, and desires, and
+distinguished only from sublunary beings by superior power and the
+gift of immortality. We are interested in them as we are in the genii
+or magicians of an eastern romance. There is a sort of aerial epic
+poem going on between earth and heaven. They take sides in the
+terrestrial combat, and engage in the actual strife with the heroes
+engaged in it. Mars and Venus were wounded by Diomede when combating
+in the Trojan ranks; their blood, or rather the
+
+  "Ichor which blest immortals shed,"
+
+flowed profusely; they fled howling to the palaces of heaven.
+Enlightened by a spiritual faith, fraught with sublime ideas of the
+divine nature and government, Milton was incomparably more just in his
+descriptions of the Supreme Being, and more elevated in his picture of
+the angels and arch-angels who carried on the strife in heaven; but he
+frequently falls into metaphysical abstractions or theological
+controversies, which detract from the interest of his poem.
+
+Despite Milton's own opinion, the concurring voice of all subsequent
+ages and countries has assigned to the _Paradise Regained_ a much
+lower place than to the _Paradise Lost_. The reason is, that it is
+less dramatic--it has less incident and action. Great part of the poem
+is but an abstract theological debate between our Saviour and Satan.
+The speeches he makes them utter are admirable, the reasoning is
+close, the arguments cogent, the sentiments elevated in the speakers,
+but dialectic too. In many of the speeches of the angel Raphael, and
+in the council of heaven, in the _Paradise Lost_ there is too much of
+that species of discussion for a poem which is to interest the
+generality of men. Dryden says, that Satan is Milton's real hero; and
+every reader of the _Paradise Lost_ must have felt, that in the Prince
+of Darkness, and Adam and Eve, the interest of the poem consists. The
+reason is, that the vices of the first, and the weakness of the two
+last, bring them nearer than any other characters in the poem to the
+standard of mortality; and we are so constituted, that we cannot take
+any great interest but in persons who share in our failings.
+
+Perhaps the greatest cause of the sustained interest of the _Iliad_ is
+the continued and vehement _action_ which is maintained. The attention
+is seldom allowed to flag. Either in the council of the gods, the
+assembly of the Grecian or Trojan chiefs, or the contest of the
+leaders on the field of battle, an incessant interest is maintained.
+Great events are always on the wing: the issue of the contest is
+perpetually hanging, often almost even, in the balance. It is the art
+with which this is done, and a state of anxious suspense, like the
+crisis of a great battle kept up, that the great art of the poet
+consists. It is done by making the whole dramatic--bringing the
+characters forward constantly to speak for themselves, making the
+events succeed each other with almost breathless rapidity, and
+balancing success alternately from one side to the other, without
+letting it ever incline decisively to either. Tasso has adopted the
+same plan in his _Jerusalem Delivered_, and the contests of the
+Christian knights and Saracen leaders with the lance and the sword,
+closely resemble those of the Grecian and Trojan chiefs on the plain
+of Troy. Ariosto has carried it still further. The exploits of his
+Paladins--their adventures on earth, in air, and water; their loves,
+their sufferings, their victories, their dangers--keep the reader in a
+continual state of suspense. It is this sustained and varied interest
+which makes so many readers prefer the _Orlando Furioso_ to the
+_Jerusalem Delivered_. But Ariosto has pushed it too far. In the
+search of variety, he has lost sight of unity. His heroes are not
+congregated round the banners of two rival potentates; there is no one
+object or interest in his poem. No narrow plain, like that watered by
+the Scamander, is the theatre of their exploits. Jupiter, from the
+summit of Gargarus, could not have beheld the contending armies. The
+most ardent imagination, indeed, is satiated with his adventures, but
+the closest attention can hardly follow their thread. Story after
+story is told, the exploits of knight after knight are recounted, till
+the mind is fatigued, the memory perplexed, and all general interest
+in the poem lost.
+
+Milton has admirably preserved the unity of his poem; the grand and
+all-important object of the fall of man could hardly admit of
+subordinate or rival interests. But the great defect in the _Paradise
+Lost_, arising from that very unity, is want of variety. It is strung
+throughout on too lofty a key; it does not come down sufficiently to
+the wants and cravings of mortality. The mind is awe-struck by the
+description of Satan careering through the immensity of space, of the
+battle of the angels, of the fall of Lucifer, of the suffering, and
+yet unsubdued spirit of his fellow rebels, of the adamantine gates,
+and pitchy darkness, and burning lake of hell. But after the first
+feeling of surprise and admiration is over, it is felt by all, that
+these lofty contemplations are not interesting to mortals like
+ourselves. They are too much above real life--too much out of the
+sphere of ordinary event and interest.
+
+The fourth book is the real scene of interest in the _Paradise Lost_;
+it is its ravishing scenes of primeval innocence and bliss which have
+given it immortality. We are never tired of recurring to the bower of
+Eve, to her devotion to Adam, to the exquisite scenes of Paradise, its
+woods, its waters, its flowers, its enchantments. We are so, because
+we feel that it paints the Elysium to which all aspire, which all have
+for a brief period felt, but which none in this world can durably
+enjoy.
+
+No one can doubt that Homer was endowed with the true poetic spirit,
+and yet there is very little of what we now call poetry in his
+writings. There is neither sentiment nor declamation--painting nor
+reflection. He is neither descriptive nor didactic. With great powers
+for portraying nature, as the exquisite choice of his epithets, and
+the occasional force of his similes prove, he never makes any
+laboured attempt to delineate her features. He had the eye of a great
+painter; but his pictorial talents are employed, almost unconsciously,
+in the fervour of narrating events, or the animation of giving
+utterance to thoughts. He painted by an epithet or a line. Even the
+celebrated description of the fires in the plain of Troy, likened to
+the moon in a serene night, is contained in seven lines. His
+rosy-fingered morn--cloud-compelling Jupiter--Neptune, stiller of the
+waves--Aurora rising from her crocus bed--Night drawing her veil over
+the heavens--the black keel careering through the lashing waves--the
+shout of the far-sounding sea--and the like, from which subsequent
+poets and dramatists have borrowed so largely, are all brief
+allusions, or epithets, which evidently did not form the main object
+of his strains. He was a close observer of nature--its lights, its
+shades, its storms and calms, its animals, their migrations, their
+cries and habits; but he never suspends his narrative to describe
+them. We shall look in vain in the _Iliad_, and even the _Odyssey_,
+for the lengthened pictures of scenery which are so frequent in Virgil
+and Tasso, and appear in such rich profusion in Milton. He describes
+storms only as objects of terror, not to paint them to the eye. Such
+things are to be found in the book of Job and in the Psalms, but with
+the same brevity and magical force of emphatic expression. There never
+was a greater painter of nature than Homer; there never was a man who
+aimed less at being so.
+
+The portraying of character and event was the great and evident object
+of the Grecian bard; and there his powers may almost be pronounced
+unrivalled. He never tells you, unless it is sometimes to be inferred
+on an epithet, what the man's character that he introduces is. He
+trusts to the character to delineate itself. He lets us get acquainted
+with his heroes, as we do with persons around us, by hearing them
+speak, and seeing them act. In preserving character, in this dramatic
+way of representing it, he is unrivalled. He does not tell you that
+Nestor had the garrulity of age, and loved to recur to the events of
+his youth; but he never makes him open his mouth without descanting on
+the adventures of his early years, and the degenerate race of mortals
+who have succeeded the paladins of former days. He does not tell us
+that Achilles was wrathful and impetuous; but every time he speaks,
+the anger of the son of Peleus comes boiling over his lips. He does
+not describe Agamemnon as overbearing and haughty; but the pride of
+the king of men is continually appearing in his words and actions, and
+it is the evident moral of the _Iliad_ to represent its pernicious
+effects on the affairs of the Helenic confederacy. Ulysses never
+utters a word in which the cautious and prudent counsellor, sagacious
+in design but prompt in execution, wary in the council but decided in
+the field, far-seeing but yet persevering, is not apparent. Diomede
+never falters; alike in the field and the council he is indomitable.
+When Hector was careering in his chariot round their fortifications,
+and the king of men counselled retreat, he declared he would remain,
+were it only with Sthenelus and his friends. So completely marked, so
+well defined are his characters, though they were all rapacious chiefs
+at first sight, little differing from each other, that it has been
+observed with truth, that one well acquainted with the _Iliad_ could
+tell, upon hearing one of the speeches read out without a name, who
+was the chief who uttered it.
+
+The two authors, since his time, who have most nearly approached him
+in this respect, are Shakespeare and Scott. Both seem to have received
+the pencil which paints the human heart from nature herself. Both had
+a keen and searching eye for character in all grades and walks of
+life; and what is a general accompaniment of such a disposition, a
+strong sense of the ridiculous. Both seized the salient points in
+mental disposition, and perceived at a glance, as it were, the ruling
+propensity. Both impressed this character so strongly on their minds,
+that they threw themselves, as it were, into the very souls of the
+persons whom they delineated, and made them speak and act like nature
+herself. It is this extraordinary faculty of identifying themselves
+with their characters, and bringing out of their mouth the very words
+which, in real life, would have come, which constitutes the chief and
+permanent attraction of these wonderful masters of the human heart.
+Cervantes had it in an equal degree; and thence it is that Homer,
+Shakspeare, Cervantes, and Scott, have made so great, and, to all
+appearance, durable impression on mankind. The human heart is, at
+bottom, every where the same. There is infinite diversity in the dress
+he wears, but the naked human figure of one country scarcely differs
+from another. The writers who have succeeded in reaching this deep
+substratum, this far-hidden but common source of human action, are
+understood and admired over all the world. It is the same on the banks
+of the Simois as on those of the Avon--on the Sierra Morena as the
+Scottish hills. They are understood alike in Europe as Asia--in
+antiquity as modern times; one unanimous burst of admiration salutes
+them from the North Cape to Cape Horn--from the age of Pisistratus to
+that of Napoleon.
+
+Strange as it may appear to superficial observers, Cervantes bears a
+close analogy, in many particulars, to Homer. Circumstances, and an
+inherent turn for humour, made him throw his genius into an exquisite
+ridicule of the manners of chivalry; but the author of _Don Quixote_
+had in him the spirit of a great epic poet. His lesser pieces prove
+it; unequivocal traces of it are to be found in the adventures of the
+Knight of La Mancha himself. The elevation of mind which, amidst all
+his aberrations, appears in that erratic character; the incomparable
+traits of nature with which the work abounds; the faculty of
+describing events in the most striking way; of painting scenes in a
+few words; of delineating characters with graphic fidelity, and
+keeping them up with perfect consistency, which are so conspicuous in
+_Don Quixote_, are so many of the most essential qualities of an epic
+poet. Nor was the ardour of imagination, the romantic disposition, the
+brilliancy of fancy, the lofty aspirations, the tender heart, which
+form the more elevated and not less essential part of such a
+character, wanting in the Spanish novelist.
+
+Sir Walter Scott more nearly resembles Homer than any poet who has
+sung since the siege of Troy. Not that he has produced any poem which
+will for a moment bear a comparison with the _Iliad_--fine as the
+_Lady of the Lake_ and _Marmion_ are, it would be the height of
+national partiality to make any such comparison. But, nevertheless,
+Sir Walter's mind is of the same dimensions as that of Homer. We see
+in him the same combination of natural sagacity with acquired
+information; of pictorial eye with dramatic effect; of observation of
+character with reflection and feeling; of graphic power with poetic
+fervour; of ardour of imagination with rectitude of principle; of
+warlike enthusiasm with pacific tenderness, which have rendered the
+Grecian bard immortal. It is in his novels, however, more than his
+poetry, that this resemblance appears; the author of _Waverley_ more
+nearly approaches the blind bard than the author of the _Lay_. His
+romances in verse contain some passages which are sublime, many which
+are beautiful, some pathetic. They are all interesting, and written in
+the same easy, careless style, interspersed with the most homely and
+grotesque expressions, which is so well known to all the readers of
+the _Iliad_. The battle in _Marmion_ is beyond all question, as
+Jeffrey long ago remarked, the most _Homeric_ strife which has been
+sung since the days of Homer. But these passages are few and far
+between; his poems are filled with numerous and long interludes,
+written with little art, and apparently no other object but to fill up
+the pages or eke out the story. It is in prose that the robust
+strength, the powerful arm, the profound knowledge of the heart,
+appear; and it is there, accordingly, that he approaches at times so
+closely to Homer. If we could conceive a poem, in which the storming
+of Front-de-Boeuf's castle in _Ivanhoe_--the death of Fergus in
+_Waverley_--the storm on the coast, and death scene in the fisher's
+hut, in the _Antiquary_--the devoted love in the _Bride of
+Lammermoor_--the fervour of the Covenanters in _Old Mortality_, and
+the combats of Richard and Saladin in the _Talisman_, were united
+together, and intermingled with the incomparable characters,
+descriptions, and incidents with which these novels abound, they would
+form an epic poem.
+
+Doubts have sometimes been expressed, as to whether the _Iliad_ and
+_Odyssey_ are all the production of one man. Never, perhaps, was doubt
+not merely so ill founded, but so decisively disproved by internal
+evidence. If ever in human composition the traces of one mind are
+conspicuous, they are in Homer. His beauties equally with his defects,
+his variety and uniformity, attest this. Never was an author who had
+so fertile an imagination for varying of incidents; never was one who
+expressed them in language in which the same words so constantly
+recur. This is the invariable characteristic of a great and powerful,
+but at the same time self-confident and careless mind. It is to be
+seen in the most remarkable manner in Bacon and Machiavel, and not a
+little of it may be traced both in the prose and poetical works of
+Scott. The reason is, that the strength of the mind is thrown into the
+thought as the main object; the language, as a subordinate matter, is
+little considered. Expressions capable of energetically expressing the
+prevailing ideas of the imagination are early formed; but, when this
+is done, the powerful, careless mind, readily adopts them on all
+future occasions where they are at all applicable. There is scarcely a
+great and original thinker in whose writings the same expressions do
+not very frequently recur, often in exactly the same words. How much
+this is the case with Homer--with how much discrimination and genius
+his epithets and expressions were first chosen, and how frequently he
+repeats them, almost in every page, need be told to none who are
+acquainted with his writings. That is the most decisive mark at once
+of genius and identity. Original thinkers fall into repetition of
+expression, because they are always speaking from one model--their own
+thoughts. Subordinate writers avoid this fault, because they are
+speaking from the thoughts of others, and share their variety. It
+requires as great an effort for the first to introduce difference of
+expression, as for the last to reach diversity of thought.
+
+The reader of Dante must not look for the heart-stirring and animated
+narrative--the constant interest--the breathless suspense, which
+hurries us along the rapid current of the _Iliad_. There are no
+councils of the gods; no messengers winging their way through the
+clouds; no combats of chiefs; no cities to storm; no fields to win. It
+is the infernal regions which the poet, under the guidance of his
+great leader, Virgil, visits; it is the scene of righteous retribution
+through which he is led; it is the apportionment of punishment and
+reward to crime or virtue, in this upper world, that he is doomed to
+witness. We enter the city of lamentation--we look down the depths of
+the bottomless pit--we stand at the edge of the burning lake. His
+survey is not a mere transient visit like that of Ulysses in Homer, or
+of AEneas in Virgil. He is taken slowly and deliberately through every
+successive circle of Malebolge; descending down which, like the
+visitor of the tiers of vaults, one beneath another, in a feudal
+castle, he finds every species of malefactors, from the chiefs and
+kings whose heroic lives were stained only by a few deeds of cruelty,
+to the depraved malefactors whose base course was unrelieved by one
+ray of virtue. In the very conception of such a poem, is to be found
+decisive evidence of the mighty change which the human mind had
+undergone since the expiring lays of poetry were last heard in the
+ancient world; of the vast revolution of thought and inward conviction
+which, during a thousand years, in the solitude of the monastery, and
+under the sway of a spiritual faith, had taken place in the human
+heart. A gay and poetic mythology no longer amazed the world by its
+fictions, or charmed it by its imagery. Religion no longer basked in
+the sunshine of imagination. The awful words of judgment to come had
+been spoken; and, like Felix, mankind had trembled. Ridiculous legends
+had ceased to be associated with the shades below--their place had
+been taken by images of horror. Conscience had resumed its place in
+the direction of thought. Superstition had lent its awful power to the
+sanctions of religion. Terror of future punishment had subdued the
+fiercest passions--internal agony tamed the proudest spirits. It was
+the picture of a future world--of a world of retribution--conceived
+under such impressions, that Dante proposed to give; it is that which
+he has given with such terrible fidelity.
+
+Melancholy was the prevailing characteristic of the great Italian's
+mind. It was so profound that it penetrated all his thoughts; so
+intense that it pervaded all his conceptions. Occasionally bright and
+beautiful ideas flitted across his imagination; visions of bliss,
+experienced for a moment, and then lost for ever, as if to render more
+profound the darkness by which they are surrounded. They are given
+with exquisite beauty; but they shine amidst the gloom like sunbeams
+struggling through the clouds. He inherited from the dark ages the
+austerity of the cloister; but he inherited with it the deep feelings
+and sublime conceptions which its seclusion had generated. His mind
+was a world within itself. He drew all his conceptions from that
+inexhaustible source; but he drew them forth so clear and lucid, that
+they emerged, embodied as it were, in living images. His characters
+are emblematic of the various passions and views for which different
+degrees of punishment were reserved in the world to come; but his
+conception of them was so distinct, his description so vivid, that
+they stand forth to our gaze in all the agony of their sufferings,
+like real flesh and blood. We see them--we feel them--we hear their
+cries--our very flesh creeps at the perception of their sufferings. We
+stand on the edge of the lake of boiling pitch--we feel the weight of
+the leaden mantles--we see the snow-like flakes of burning sand--we
+hear the cries of those who had lost the last earthly consolations,
+the hope of death:--
+
+    "Quivi sospiri, pianti ed alti guai
+  Risonavan per l' aer senza stelle,
+  Perch' io al cominciar ne lacrimai.
+    Diverse lingue, orribili favelle,
+  Parole di dolore, accenti d' ira,
+  Voci alte e fioche, e suon di man con elle
+    Facevano un tumulto, il qual s' aggira
+  Sempre 'n quell' aria senza tempo tinta,
+  Come la rena quando 'l turbo spira.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+    Ed io: maestro, che e tanto greve
+  A lor che lamentar li fa si forte?
+  Rispose: dicerolti molto breve.
+    Questi non hanno speranza di morte."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. iii.
+
+
+    "Here sighs, with lamentations and loud moans,
+  Resounded through the air pierced by no star,
+  That e'en I wept at entering. Various tongues,
+  Horrible languages, outcries of woe,
+  Accents of anger, voices deep and hoarse,
+  With hands together smote that swell'd the sounds,
+  Made up a tumult, that for ever whirls
+  Round through that air with solid darkness stain'd,
+  Like to the sand that in the whirlwind flies.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+    I then: Master! What doth aggrieve them thus,
+  That they lament so loud? He straight replied:
+  That will I tell thee briefly. These of death
+  No hope may entertain."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante, Inferno_, c. iii.
+
+
+Here is Dante portrayed to the life in the very outset. What a
+collection of awful images in a few lines! Loud lamentations, hideous
+cries, mingled with the sound of clasped hands, beneath a starless
+sky; and the terrible answer, as the cause of this suffering, "These
+have not the hope of death."
+
+The very first lines of the _Inferno_, when the gates of Hell were
+approached, and the inscription over them appeared, paints the dismal
+character of the poem, and yet mingled with the sense of divine love
+and justice with which the author was penetrated.
+
+    "Per me si va nella citta dolente;
+  Per me si va nell' eterno dolore;
+  Per me si va tra la perduta gente:
+    Giustizia mosse 'l mio alto Fattore;
+  Fecemi la divina Potestate,
+  La somma Sapienza e 'l primo Amore.
+    Dinanzi a me non fur cose create,
+  Se non eterne; ed io eterno duro:
+  Lasciate ogni speranza voi che 'ntrate."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. iii.
+
+
+    "Through me you pass into the city of woe:
+  Through me you pass into eternal pain:
+  Through me among the people lost for aye.
+  Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
+  To rear me was the task of power divine,
+  Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
+  Before me things create were none, save things
+  Eternal, and eternal I endure.
+  All hope abandon, ye who enter here."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante, Inferno_, c. iii.
+
+
+Dante had much more profound feelings than Homer, and therefore he has
+painted deep mysteries of the human heart with greater force and
+fidelity. The more advanced age of the world, the influence of
+spiritual faith, the awful anticipation of judgment to come, the
+inmost feelings which, during long centuries of seclusion, had been
+drawn forth in the cloister, the protracted sufferings of the dark
+ages, had laid bare the human heart. Its sufferings, its terrors, its
+hopes, its joys, had become as household words. The Italian poet
+shared, as all do, in the ideas and images of his age, and to these he
+added many which were entirely his own. He painted the inward man, and
+painted him from his own feelings, not the observation of others. That
+is the grand distinction between him and Homer; and that it is which
+has given him, in the delineation of mind, his great superiority. The
+Grecian bard was an incomparable observer; he had an inexhaustible
+imagination for fiction, as well as a graphic eye for the delineation
+of real life; but he had not a deep or feeling heart. He did not know
+it, like Dante and Shakspeare, from his own suffering. He painted the
+external symptoms of passion and emotion with the hand of a master;
+but he did not reach the inward spring of feeling. He lets us into his
+characters by their speeches, their gestures, their actions, and keeps
+up their consistency with admirable fidelity; but he does not, by a
+word, an expression, or an epithet, admit us into the inmost folds of
+the heart. None can do so but such as themselves feel warmly and
+profoundly, and paint passion, emotion, or suffering from their own
+experience, not the observation of others. Dante has acquired his
+colossal fame from the matchless force with which he has portrayed the
+wildest passions, the deepest feelings, the most intense sufferings of
+the heart. He is the refuge of all those who labour and are heavy
+laden--of all who feel profoundly or have suffered deeply. His verses
+are in the mouth of all who are torn by passion, gnawed by remorse, or
+tormented by apprehension; and how many are they in this scene of woe!
+
+A distinguished modern critic[2] has said, that he who would now
+become a great poet must first become a little child. There is no
+doubt he is right. The seen and unseen fetters of civilization; the
+multitude of old ideas afloat in the world; the innumerable worn-out
+channels into which new ones are ever apt to flow; the general clamour
+with which critics, nursed amidst such fetters, receive any attempts
+at breaking them; the prevalence, in a wealthy and highly civilized
+age, of worldly or selfish ideas; the common approximation of
+characters by perpetual intercourse, as of coins, by continual rubbing
+in passing from man to man, have taken away all freshness and
+originality from ideas. The learned, the polished, the highly
+educated, can hardly escape the fetters which former greatness throws
+over the soul. Milton could not avoid them: half the images in his
+poems are taken from Homer, Virgil, and Dante; and who dare hope for
+emancipation when Milton was enthralled? The mechanical arts increase
+in perfection as society advances. Science ever takes its renewed
+flights from the platform which former efforts have erected. Industry,
+guided by experience, in successive ages, brings to the highest point
+all the contrivances and inventions which minister to the comfort or
+elegances of life. But it is otherwise with genius. It sinks in the
+progress of society, as much as science and the arts rise. The country
+of Homer and AEschylus sank for a thousand years into the torpor of the
+Byzantine empire. Originality perishes amidst acquisition. Freshness
+of conception is its life: like the flame, it burns fierce and clear
+in the first gales of a pure atmosphere; but languishes and dies in
+that polluted by many breaths.
+
+It was the resurrection of the human mind, after the seclusion and
+solitary reflection of the middle ages, which gave this vein of
+original ideas to Dante, as their first wakening had given to Homer.
+Thought was not extinct; the human mind was not dormant during the
+dark ages; far from it--it never, in some respects, was more active.
+It was the first collision of their deep and lonely meditations with
+the works of the great ancient poets, which occasioned the prodigy.
+Universally it will be found to be the same. After the first flights
+of genius have been taken, it is by the collision of subsequent
+thought with it that the divine spark is again elicited. The meeting
+of two great minds is necessary to beget fresh ideas, as that of two
+clouds is to bring forth lightning, or the collision of flint and
+steel to produce fire. Johnson said he could not get new ideas till he
+had read. He was right; though it is not one in a thousand who strikes
+out original thoughts from studying the works of others. The great
+sage did not read to imbibe the opinions of others, but to engender
+new ones for himself; he did not study to imitate, but to create. It
+was the same with Dante; it is the same with every really great man.
+His was the first powerful and original mind which, fraught with the
+profound and gloomy ideas nourished in seclusion during the middle
+ages, came into contact with the brilliant imagery, touching pathos,
+and harmonious language of the ancients. Hence his astonishing
+greatness. He almost worshipped Virgil, he speaks of him as a species
+of god; he mentions Homer as the first of poets. But he did not copy
+either the one or the other; he scarcely imitated them. He strove to
+rival their brevity and beauty of expression; but he did so in giving
+vent to new ideas, in painting new images, in awakening new emotions.
+The _Inferno_ is as original as the _Iliad_; incomparably more so than
+the _AEneid_. The offspring of originality with originality is a new
+and noble creation; of originality with mediocrity, a spurious and
+degraded imitation.
+
+Dante paints the spirits of all the generations of men, each in their
+circle undergoing their allotted punishment; expiating by suffering
+the sins of an upper world. Virgil gave a glimpse, as it were, into
+that scene of retribution; Minos and Rhadamanthus passing judgment on
+the successive spirits brought before them; the flames of Tartarus,
+the rock of Sisyphus, the wheel of Ixion, the vulture gnawing
+Prometheus. But with Homer and Virgil, the descent into the infernal
+regions was a brief episode; with Dante it was the whole poem. Immense
+was the effort of imagination requisite to give variety to such a
+subject, to prevent the mind from experiencing weariness amidst the
+eternal recurrence of crime and punishment. But the genius of Dante
+was equal to the task. His fancy was prodigious; his invention
+boundless; his imagination inexhaustible. Fenced in, as he was,
+within narrow and gloomy limits by the nature of his subject, his
+creative spirit equals that of Homer himself. He has given birth to as
+many new ideas in the _Inferno_ and the _Paradiso_, as the Grecian
+bard in the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_.
+
+Though he had reflected so much and so deeply on the human heart, and
+was so perfect a master of all the anatomy of mental suffering,
+Dante's mind was essentially descriptive. He was a great painter as
+well as a profound thinker; he clothed deep feeling in the garb of the
+senses; he conceived a vast brood of new ideas, he arrayed them in a
+surprising manner in flesh and blood. He is ever clear and definite,
+at least in the _Inferno_. He exhibits in every canto of that
+wonderful poem a fresh image, but it is a clear one, of horror or
+anguish, which leaves nothing to the imagination to add or conceive.
+His ideal characters are real persons; they are present to our senses;
+we feel their flesh, see the quivering of their limbs, hear their
+lamentations, and feel a thrill of joy at their felicity. In the
+_Paradiso_ he is more vague and general, and thence its acknowledged
+inferiority to the _Inferno_. But the images of horror are much more
+powerful than those of happiness; and it is they which have entranced
+the world. "It is easier," says Madame de Stael, "to convey ideas of
+suffering than those of happiness; for the former are too well known
+to every heart, the latter only to a few."
+
+The melancholy tone which pervades Dante's writings was doubtless, in
+a great measure, owing to the misfortunes of his life; and to them we
+are also indebted for many of the most caustic and powerful of his
+verses--perhaps for the design of the _Inferno_ itself. He took
+vengeance on the generation which had persecuted and exiled him, by
+exhibiting its leaders suffering in the torments of hell. In his long
+seclusion, chiefly in the monastery of Santa Croce di Fonte Avellana,
+a wild and solitary retreat in the territory of Gubbio, and in a tower
+belonging to the Conte Falcucci, in the same district, his immortal
+work was written. The mortifications he underwent during this long and
+dismal exile are thus described by himself:--"Wandering over almost
+every part in which our language extends, I have gone about like a
+mendicant; showing against my will the wound with which fortune has
+smitten me, and which is often falsely imputed to the demerit of him
+by whom it is endured. I have been, indeed, a vessel without sail or
+steerage, carried about to divers ports, and roads, and shores, by the
+dry wind that springs out of sad poverty."
+
+In the third circle of hell, Dante sees those who are punished by the
+plague of burning sand falling perpetually on them. Their torments are
+thus described--
+
+    "Supin giaceva in terra alcuna gente;
+  Alcuna si sedea tutta raccolta;
+  Ed altra andava continuamente.
+    Quella che giva intorno era piu molta;
+  E quella men che giaceva al tormento;
+  Ma piu al duolo avea la lingua sciolta.
+    Sovra tutto 'l sabbion d'un cader lento
+  Piovean di fuoco dilatate falde,
+  Come di neve in alpe senza vento.
+    Quali Alessandro in quelle parti calde
+  D' India vide sovra lo suo stuolo
+  Fiamme cadere infino a terra salde."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. xiv.
+
+
+    "Of naked spirits many a flock I saw,
+  All weeping piteously, to different laws
+  Subjected: for on earth some lay supine,
+  Some crouching close were seated, others paced
+  Incessantly around; the latter tribe
+  More numerous, those fewer who beneath
+  The torment lay, but louder in their grief.
+    O'er all the sand fell slowly wafting down
+  Dilated flakes of fire, as flakes of snow
+  On Alpine summit, when the wind is hush'd.
+  As, in the torrid Indian clime, the son
+  Of Ammon saw, upon his warrior band
+  Descending, solid flames, that to the ground
+  Came down."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante_, c. xiv.
+
+
+The first appearance of Malebolge is described in these striking
+lines--
+
+    "Luogo e in Inferno, detto Malebolge,
+  Tutto di pietra e di color ferrigno,
+  Come la cerchia che d'intorno il volge.
+    Nel dritto mezzo del campo maligno
+  Vaneggia un pozzo assai largo e profondo,
+  Di cui suo luogo contera l' ordigno.
+    Quel cinghio che rimane adunque e tondo
+  Tra 'l pozzo e 'l pie dell' alta ripa dura,
+  E ha distinto in dieci valli al fondo."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. xviii.
+
+
+    "There is a place within the depths of hell
+  Call'd Malebolge, all of rock dark-stain'd
+  With hue ferruginous, e'en as the steep
+  That round it circling winds. Right in the midst
+  Of that abominable region yawns
+  A spacious gulf profound, whereof the frame
+  Due time shall tell. The circle, that remains,
+  Throughout its round, between the gulf and base
+  Of the high craggy banks, successive forms
+  Ten bastions, in its hollow bottom raised."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante_, c. xviii.
+
+
+This is the outward appearance of Malebolge, the worst place of
+punishment in hell. It had many frightful abysses; what follows is the
+picture of the first:--
+
+    "Ristemmo per veder l'altra fessura
+  Di Malebolge e gli altri pianti vani:
+  E vidila mirabilmente oscura.
+    Quale nell' arzana de' Veneziani
+  Bolle l' inverno la tenace pece,
+  A rimpalmar li legni lor non sani--
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  Tal non per fuoco ma per divina arte,
+  Bollia laggiuso una pegola spessa,
+    Che 'nviscava la ripa d'ogni parte.
+  I' vedea lei, ma non vedeva in essa
+  Ma che le bolle che 'l bollor levava,
+    E gonfiar tutta e riseder compressa.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  E vidi dietro a noi un diavol nero
+  Correndo su per lo scoglio venire.
+    Ahi quant' egli era nell' aspetto fiero!
+  E quanto mi parea nell' atto acerbo,
+  Con l' ali aperte e sovre i pie leggiero!
+    L' omero suo ch' era acuto e superbo
+  Carcava un peccator con ambo l'anche,
+  Ed ei tenea de' pie ghermito il nerbo.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+    Laggiu il butto e per lo scoglio duro
+  Si volse, e mai non fu mastino sciolto
+  Con tanta fretta a seguitar lo furo.
+    Quei s' attuffo e torno su convolto;
+  Ma i demon che del ponte avean coverchio
+  Gridar: qui non ha luogo il Santo Volto.
+    Qui si nuota altramenti che nel Serchio:
+  Pero se tu non vuoi de' nostri graffi,
+  Non far sovra la pegola soverchio.
+    Poi l' addentar con piu di cento raffi,
+  Disser: coverto convien che qui balli,
+  Si che se puoi nascosamente accaffi."
+                                    _Inferno_, c. xxi.
+
+
+  "----To the summit reaching, stood
+  To view another gap, within the round
+  Of Malebolge, other bootless pangs.
+    Marvellous darkness shadow'd o'er the place.
+    In the Venetians' arsenal as boils
+  Through wintry months tenacious pitch, to smear
+  Their unsound vessels in the wintry clime.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  So, not by force of fire but art divine,
+  Boil'd here a glutinous thick mass, that round
+  Limed all the shore beneath. I that beheld,
+  But therein not distinguish'd, save the bubbles
+  Raised by the boiling, and one mighty swell
+  Heave, and by turns subsiding fall.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  Behind me I beheld a devil black,
+  That running up, advanced along the rock.
+  Ah! what fierce cruelty his look bespake.
+  In act how bitter did he seem, with wings
+  Buoyant outstretch'd, and feet of nimblest tread.
+  His shoulder, proudly eminent and sharp,
+  Was with a sinner charged; by either haunch
+  He held him, the foot's sinew griping fast.
+       *       *       *       *       *
+  Him dashing down, o'er the rough rock he turn'd;
+  Nor ever after thief a mastiff loosed
+  Sped with like eager haste. That other sank,
+  And forthwith writhing to the surface rose.
+  But those dark demons, shrouded by the bridge,
+  Cried--Here the hallow'd visage saves not: here
+  Is other swimming than in Serchio's wave,
+  Wherefore, if thou desire we rend thee not,
+  Take heed thou mount not o'er the pitch. This said,
+  They grappled him with more than hundred hooks,
+  And shouted--Cover'd thou must sport thee here;
+  So, if thou canst, in secret mayst thou filch."
+                                    CARY'S _Dante_, c. xxi.
+
+
+Fraught as his imagination was with gloomy ideas, with images of
+horror, it is the fidelity of his descriptions, the minute reality of
+his pictures, which gives them their terrible power. He knew well what
+it is that penetrates the soul. His images of horror in the infernal
+regions were all founded on those familiar to every one in the upper
+world; it was from the caldron of boiling pitch in the arsenal of
+Venice that he took his idea of one of the pits of Malebolge. But what
+a picture does he there exhibit! The writhing sinner plunged headlong
+into the boiling waves, rising to the surface, and a hundred demons,
+mocking his sufferings, and with outstretched hooks tearing his flesh
+till he dived again beneath the liquid fire! It is the reality of the
+scene, the images familiar yet magnified in horror, which constitutes
+its power: we stand by; our flesh creeps as it would at witnessing an
+_auto-da-fe_ of Castile, or on beholding a victim perishing under the
+knout in Russia.
+
+Michael Angelo was, in one sense, the painter of the Old Testament, as
+his bold and aspiring genius arrived rather at delineating the events
+of warfare, passion, or suffering, chronicled in the records of the
+Jews, than the scenes of love, affection, and benevolence, depicted in
+the gospels. But his mind was not formed merely on the events
+recorded in antiquity: it is no world doubtful of the immortality of
+the soul which he depicts. He is rather the personification in
+painting of the soul of Dante. His imagination was evidently fraught
+with the conceptions of the _Inferno_. The expression of mind beams
+forth in all his works. Vehement passion, stern resolve, undaunted
+valour, sainted devotion, infant innocence, alternately occupied his
+pencil. It is hard to say in which he was greatest. In all his works
+we see marks of the genius of antiquity meeting the might of modern
+times: the imagery of mythology blended with the aspirations of
+Christianity. We see it in the dome of St Peter's, we see it in the
+statue of Moses. Grecian sculpture was the realization in form of the
+conceptions of Homer; Italian painting the representation on canvass
+of the revelations of the gospel, which Dante clothed in the garb of
+poetry. Future ages should ever strive to equal, but can never hope to
+excel them.
+
+Never did artist work with more persevering vigour than Michael
+Angelo. He himself said that he laboured harder for fame, than ever
+poor artist did for bread. Born of a noble family, the heir to
+considerable possessions, he took to the arts from his earliest years
+from enthusiastic passion and conscious power. During a long life of
+ninety years, he prosecuted them with the ardent zeal of youth. He was
+consumed by the thirst for fame, the desire of great achievements, the
+invariable mark of heroic minds; and which, as it is altogether beyond
+the reach of the great bulk of mankind, so is the feeling of all
+others which to them is most incomprehensible. Nor was that noble
+enthusiasm without its reward. It was his extraordinary good fortune
+to be called to form, at the same time, the Last Judgment on the wall
+of the Sistine Chapel, the glorious dome of St Peter's, and the group
+of Notre Dame de Pitie, which now adorns the chapel of the Crucifix,
+under the roof of that august edifice. The "Holy Family" in the
+Palazzo Pitti at Florence, and the "Three Fates" in the same
+collection, give an idea of his powers in oil-painting: thus he
+carried to the highest perfection, at the same time, the rival arts of
+architecture, sculpture, fresco and oil painting.[3] He may truly be
+called the founder of Italian painting, as Homer was of the ancient
+epic, and Dante of the great style in modern poetry. None but a
+colossal mind could have done such things. Raphael took lessons from
+him in painting, and professed through life the most unbounded respect
+for his great preceptor. None have attempted to approach him in
+architecture; the cupola of St Peter's stands alone in the world.
+
+But notwithstanding all this, Michael Angelo had some defects. He
+created the great style in painting, a style which has made modern
+Italy as immortal as the arms of the legions did the ancient. But the
+very grandeur of his conceptions, the vigour of his drawing, his
+incomparable command of bone and muscle, his lofty expression and
+impassioned mind, made him neglect, and perhaps despise, the lesser
+details of his art. Ardent in the pursuit of expression, he often
+overlooked execution. When he painted the Last Judgment or the Fall of
+the Titans in fresco, on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel,
+he was incomparable; but that gigantic style was unsuitable for lesser
+pictures or rooms of ordinary proportions. By the study of his
+masterpieces, subsequent painters have often been led astray; they
+have aimed at force of expression to the neglect of delicacy in
+execution. This defect is, in an especial manner, conspicuous in Sir
+Joshua Reynolds, who worshipped Michael Angelo with the most devoted
+fervour; and through him it has descended to Lawrence, and nearly the
+whole modern school of England. When we see Sir Joshua's noble glass
+window in Magdalen College, Oxford, we behold the work of a worthy
+pupil of Michael Angelo; we see the great style of painting in its
+proper place, and applied to its appropriate object. But when we
+compare his portraits, or imaginary pieces in oil, with those of
+Titian, Velasquez, or Vandyke, the inferiority is manifest. It is not
+in the design but the finishing; not in the conception but the
+execution. The colours are frequently raw and harsh; the details or
+distant parts of the piece ill-finished or neglected. The bold neglect
+of Michael Angelo is very apparent. Raphael, with less original genius
+than his immortal master, had more taste and much greater delicacy of
+pencil; his conceptions, less extensive and varied, are more perfect;
+his finishing is always exquisite. Unity of emotion was his great
+object in design; equal delicacy of finishing in execution. Thence he
+has attained by universal consent the highest place in painting.
+
+"Nothing," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "is denied to well-directed
+labour; nothing is to be attained without it." "Excellence in any
+department," says Johnson, "can now be attained only by the labour of
+a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price." These words
+should ever be present to the minds of all who aspire to rival the
+great of former days; who feel in their bosoms a spark of the spirit
+which led Homer, Dante, and Michael Angelo to immortality. In a
+luxurious age, comfort or station is deemed the chief good of life; in
+a commercial community, money becomes the universal object of
+ambition. Thence our acknowledged deficiency in the fine arts; thence
+our growing weakness in the higher branches of literature. Talent
+looks for its reward too soon. Genius seeks an immediate recompense;
+long protracted exertions are never attempted; great things are not
+done, because great efforts are not made.
+
+None will work now without the prospect of an immediate return. Very
+possibly it is so; but then let us not hope or wish for immortality.
+"Present time and future," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "are rivals; he
+who solicits the one must expect to be discountenanced by the other."
+It is not that we want genius; what we want is the great and heroic
+spirit which will devote itself; by strenuous efforts, to great
+things, without seeking any reward but their accomplishment.
+
+Nor let it be said that great subjects for the painter's pencil, the
+poet's muse, are not to be found--that they are exhausted by former
+efforts, and nothing remains to us but imitation. Nature is
+inexhaustible; the events of men are unceasing, their variety is
+endless. Philosophers were mourning the monotony of time, historians
+were deploring the sameness of events, in the years preceding the
+French Revolution--on the eve of the Reign of Terror, the flames of
+Moscow, the retreat from Russia. What was the strife around Troy to
+the battle of Leipsic?--the contests of Florence and Pisa to the
+revolutionary war? What ancient naval victory to that of Trafalgar?
+Rely upon it, subjects for genius are not wanting; genius itself,
+steadily and perseveringly directed, is the thing required. But genius
+and energy alone are not sufficient; COURAGE and disinterestedness are
+needed more than all. Courage to withstand the assaults of envy, to
+despise the ridicule of mediocrity--disinterestedness to trample under
+foot the seductions of ease, and disregard the attractions of
+opulence. An heroic mind is more wanted in the library or the studio,
+than in the field. It is wealth and cowardice which extinguish the
+light of genius, and dig the grave of literature as of nations.
+
+
+
+
+SETTLED AT LAST; OR, RED RIVER RECOLLECTIONS.
+
+CHAP. I.
+
+HOMEWARD BOUND.
+
+
+I had left New Orleans with the full intention of proceeding without
+stop or delay to my home upon the Red River; but notwithstanding this
+determination, my wife and myself were unable to resist Richards'
+pressing invitation to pause for a day or two at his house. Upon our
+yielding to his solicitations, he proceeded to recruit other guests
+among our travelling companions, and soon got together a pleasant
+party. My father-in-law, Monsieur Menou, went on to my plantation, but
+Julie remained with us, as did also her aunt, Madame Duras, an
+agreeable old lady with a slight expression of perfidy in her light
+blue, French-looking eyes, possessed withal of infinite delicacy and
+_finesse_--a fervent admirer of the old court school of Louis the
+Fifteenth, in the _chronique scandaleuse_ of which she was as well
+versed as if she had been herself a contemporary of that
+pleasure-loving monarch. Besides these ladies, there was a young
+Frenchman named Vergennes, the third son of some Gascon viscount, and
+a distant cousin of the Menous, who had come to America till the
+scandal occasioned by certain republican scribblings of his in one of
+the newspapers of the day should have blown over, and till he could
+revisit his country without risk of obtaining a lodging gratis in the
+Conciergerie. He had brought with him a head crammed with schemes for
+the political regeneration of the whole world, and a trunkful of
+French fashions, neither of which, as I reckoned, were likely to take
+much with us. He made me laugh inwardly twenty times a-day by his
+Utopian theories and fancies. Truth to tell, in matters of politics or
+of sound common sense, these Frenchmen are for the most part mere
+children, and reach their dying day without ever becoming men. Take
+them by their weak points, their unlimited vanity or their love of
+what they call glory, and you may ride them like a horse to water.
+Vergennes, however, when one could get him off his hobby, was a
+pleasant gentlemanly fellow enough.
+
+It was impossible to spare Richards more than three days, and at six
+o'clock on the morning of the fourth, we went on board the steamer
+Alexandria. I had prevailed on my friend and his wife, and the whole
+party, to come and pass a week or two at my house, which was now quite
+ready for the reception of guests. The three days we had remained with
+Richards had been one continued fete, and considering the good living,
+and the heat of the weather--the thermometer ranging from 95 deg. to
+100 deg.--there were few things more agreeable or better to be done, than
+to take a steam up the Red River. The fresh breezes on the water might
+save some of us a touch of fever. On board we went therefore, all in
+high glee and good-humour with each other.
+
+We had passed the Atchafalaya, and had crossed over to the
+Francisville side, in order to avoid the powerful current occasioned
+by the influx of the Red River into the Mississippi. A strong wind had
+sprung up, and in the middle of the stream the waves were of a
+considerable height. The Mississippi was full to overflowing, and the
+mouth of the Red River, as far as the eye could reach, presented the
+appearance of an extensive lake, with thousands of tree trunks
+floating upon it. I had left the cabin, and was standing on deck with
+Richards and Vergennes, looking out upon the broad sheet of water that
+lay before us. We were just turning into the Red River when I observed
+a rowboat pulling across from the direction of Woodville, and which
+had already arrived within a hundred yards of us without attracting
+the attention of any one on board the steamer. It was cutting in and
+out amongst the enormous floating trees, with a boldness that, in that
+part of the river--near the middle of which we were--might almost be
+called insanity.
+
+"That man must be mad, or in love!" cried the captain.
+
+"It is Ralph Doughby!" exclaimed Richards. "Captain, it is Mister
+Doughby. Pray, stop the ship and let him come on board."
+
+Doughby it was. The mad fellow was standing bolt upright, and hardly
+taking the trouble to bend to one side or the other in conformity with
+the movements of the boat, which was dancing about on the waves and
+between the tree-trunks, while the six negro rowers were washed over
+and over by the spray.
+
+"Here's your famous Red River!" shouted the harebrained Doughby. "A
+fine country for wild-ducks and geese, and alligators too. Hurra,
+boys!"
+
+"For God's sake, Mr Doughby!" screamed and implored the ladies, as the
+Kentuckian dashed his boat slap up to the side of the steamer, without
+waiting till the speed of the vessel was slackened, and hastily caught
+a rope which was thrown to him. Just at that moment a wave as high as
+a man rose between the steamer and the boat and separated them, and
+Doughby still maintaining his hold on the rope, he was dragged out of
+his skiff and tossed like a feather against the steamer's side, where
+he hung half in and half out of the water.
+
+"Haul in, boys--haul me in, lads--or your d----d paddles will do it!"
+
+"Pull him in!" shouted we all, "pull him in for God's sake!"
+
+"Ay, pull in!" cried Doughby, and giving a spring upwards he caught
+hold of the railing of the deck, threw himself over it with a bound,
+and stood in all safety amongst the astonished and grinny-visaged
+Cyclops who were hastening to his assistance. We hurried down from the
+quarterdeck, breathless with astonishment at this desperate and
+unnecessary piece of daring.
+
+"Pshaw" cried Doughby; "steward, a glass of hot; and, captain, see
+that my portmanteau comes on board, and that my negers get away with
+whole skins; and a good morning to you, gentlemen--in five minutes we
+shall meet again."
+
+And so saying, he emptied the glass which the black steward held out
+to him, made a slight bow to the ladies on the quarterdeck, sprang
+into the gentlemen's cabin, and thence into the first state-room that
+stood open.
+
+"An _entree en scene_ quite _a la_ Doughby," said Richards laughing.
+
+"Quite so," replied I.
+
+Ralph Doughby, Esquire of New Feliciana, La., was an old acquaintance
+of Richards and myself, and an excellent specimen of a warm-hearted,
+impetuous, breakneck Kentuckian, with a share of earthquake in his
+composition that might be deemed large, even in Kentucky. He had come
+to Louisiana some eight years previously, a voyage of a thousand miles
+or more down the Cumberland River, the Ohio, and Mississippi, in a
+flat boat with half a dozen negroes, some casks of flour, hams, and
+Indian corn, and a few horses, and had settled at Woodville on a
+couple of thousand acres of good land, bought at five dollars an acre,
+to be paid in five years. His industry and energy had caused him to
+thrive, and he was now as well established planter as any on the
+Mississippi; his six negroes had amounted to forty, his wilderness had
+become a respectable plantation, his cotton was sought after, and he
+had not only paid for his acres but had already a large sum in the
+Planters' Bank. His frank open character had made him friends on all
+hands, and there was not a more popular man in Louisiana than Major
+Ralph Doughby.
+
+During the stay I made at Richards' house previously to my marriage,
+Doughby had passed a day there in company with one Mr Lambton and his
+daughter, Yankees--the latter a beautiful girl, but cold and formal
+like most of her countrywomen. An aunt of hers, who possessed large
+plantations on the Mississippi, had made up a match between Miss
+Lambton and Doughby, and they were then proceeding to New York, where
+the marriage was in due time to be solemnized. Richards and myself had
+observed, however, that the wild headlong manners and character of the
+Kentuckian, joined though they were to great goodness of heart and
+many sterling qualities, did not appear very pleasing to the stiff,
+etiquette-loving fine lady, and it was without any great surprise
+that we heard, some time afterwards, of the marriage being broken off,
+in consequence, it was said, of some wild freak of Doughby's. We were
+asking one another for the particulars of this rupture, which neither
+of us had heard, when the Kentuckian made his reappearance in the
+cabin. He had changed his dress, and, taking him altogether, was by no
+means an ill-looking fellow. His light blue gingham frock and
+snow-white trousers fitted him well; an elegant straw hat, very fine
+linen, and a diamond shirt-pin that must have cost the best part of a
+thousand dollars, contributed to give a sort of genteel planter-like
+air. His first care upon emerging from his state-room was to empty a
+glass of toddy. He then approached Richards and myself.
+
+"And Miss Lambton?" said Richards enquiringly.
+
+"Haven't you heard?" said Doughby; "you must have heard! It's all
+up--she won't hear speak of me--persists in her resolution--won't see
+me; or give me a chance of making my peace. I'm the most unlucky
+fellow on the face of the earth," continued he, changing his tone on a
+sudden to a melancholy sort of whine--"I wish I lay three hundred feet
+deep in the bed of the Mississippi. I tell you, boys, it's clean up
+with me, I feel that. I'm a lost man, done for entirely--shall never
+recover it!"
+
+We burst out into a violent fit of laughter, as who would not have
+done at the sight of a young giant of seven-and-twenty, with cheeks as
+red as poppies, shoulders that seemed made like those of Atlas to
+support a world; pair of dark blue-grey eyes with a laughing devil
+dancing in them, and a little moist just now from the effects of the
+toddy, and the man dying of love! He measured five feet thirteen
+inches in his stockings, with legs that might have belonged to an
+elephant, and fists calculated to frighten a buffalo.
+
+"Be d----d to your laughing!" cried Doughby--"Steward, another
+glass--d'ye hear, you cursed neger, where are you hidden? Don't you
+hear when a gentleman speaks to you? D'ye want me to tattoo your black
+brainpan? You laugh," he continued to Richards and myself, relapsing
+into his whimpering tones; "but if you only knew--none of the women
+will have me--this is the seventh who has packed me off."
+
+"The seventh!" cried I laughing, "what, only the seventh, Doughby?
+Pshaw! that's nothing; during my bachelor's life I had at least two
+dozen refusals, and I am only a year older than yourself."
+
+"You be hanged with your two dozen! Steward, the toddy is only fit for
+old women--too much water in it; you don't know how to make toddy.
+Tell your captain to come here. I'll have you sent to the devil. No, I
+tell you my heart is so full, it feels as if it would burst. She won't
+hear of me. I will tell you all about it, boys--but who is that?"
+interrupted he, pointing to Vergennes, who was standing near us, and
+looking on in great wonderment. "Ah, Monshur Tonson! happy to see you,
+Monshur Tonson! Parleh vouh English? Prenez un seat, et un glass de
+Madeira. Nous parlerons hansamble le Franseh. Neger, a bottle of
+Madeira; and let it be good, or you'll get the bottle across your
+crooked shins. A bottle of Irish for me, d'ye hear, real Irish whisky,
+or if you haven't any, Scotch will do. No, boys, I tell you I am a
+gone man. Dismissed, sent away, packed off with a flea in my ear, as
+they say."
+
+And so saying, he threw himself on a sofa with a violence that made it
+crack again; the steward brought the Madeira and the whisky, and we
+drew round the table to condole with the love-stricken Kentuckian. A
+few minutes passed in the composition of the toddy, which was
+evidently destined to play the chief part in the way of a consoler;
+and when Doughby had got a large beer-glass of the comfortable mixture
+before him, he began his narrative.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE RACE.
+
+"I will tell you how it all happened, and how it was that Miss
+Lambton--in short you shall hear it all--it's the first time I have
+spoken about it, but now it shall out; you shall judge and decide
+between us, by Jove you shall! You recollect it was in the beginning
+of June that we left your house, Richards, to go up the
+Mississippi--it was a Friday, a day that I hate. All seamen and
+hunters do hate it; it's an unlucky day. All the bad luck I ever had,
+came to me on Fridays. I had a feeling that something would go wrong
+when we went on board the Helen M'Gregor. I thought Miss Lambton
+looked shy upon me, and the old gentleman stiffer than ever. I
+followed the Miss, however, wherever she went, so close, that once or
+twice I trod the fringe off her petticoats."
+
+"That was bad manners, Doughby."
+
+"Pshaw! What did it matter? I told her not to bother her head about
+it, that when we got to New York, or even to Cincinnati or Louisville,
+I would buy her a whole shopful of dresses. She made no answer to
+that; but when I had the misfortune to tear her third flounce, she
+said, that if I went on in that way she would not have a whole gown
+left when she got to Louisville. 'With a whole one or none at all,
+Miss,' said I, 'you'll always be a charming creature.' That now was as
+pretty a compliment as ever was paid in Kentucky, but she did not seen
+to hear it.
+
+"On the third day we were just passing St Helena, when old Lambton
+came up to me. 'Mister Doughby,' said he, quite confidential like,
+'pardon me, my dear good Mister Doughby, but don't you think that you
+sometimes take rather too much ardent spirits, and thereby injure your
+health as well as give a bad example to your fellow-citizens, which,
+on the part of a respectable man like yourself, is very much to be
+regretted?'
+
+"'Bad example!' says I--'to be regretted, Mister Lambton!--I take too
+much ardent spirits! I certainly am not of that opinion, Mister
+Lambton, and if you are I can only say you are very much mistaken. You
+shall see yourself,' said I, 'how much ballast an old Kentuckian can
+take in without sinking under it: devil a diving duck ever swallowed
+more water than a Kentucky man can rum.'
+
+"I thought to let the old squaretoes see that he had a man before him,
+not one of his spindleshanked tallow-chopped Yankees, who go sneaking
+about the meeting-house from morning till night, or moping in their
+rooms, and calculating and speculating how they can best take in
+honest warm-blooded South and Westlanders. 'You shall see,' said
+I--but he shook his head and walked away, and I looked after him, and
+shook my head too. Pah! I found out afterwards that he was president
+of a temperance society, the devil take them all! Temperance
+societies! What is rum for, if it isn't to be drank?"
+
+Doughby was rapidly warming with his subject.
+
+"He is a queer old fellow, that Mister Lambton, as stiff and as cold
+as an icicle on a water-butt. Of a morning he was scarcely out of bed
+when he knocked at the door of the ladies' cabin in his brocade
+dressing-gown, and Miss Lambton must come out and hear him read the
+whole morning service of the Episcopal Church, and make the responses,
+and so on, for a full hour. Then the whole day he walked about as
+grave and solemn as the chief-justice of the district court. Before
+dinner he said a grace which lasted a full quarter of an hour. The
+soup was often cold, and half the dinner eaten up from under our
+noses, while this was going on. Sometimes most of the other passengers
+had done their dinner, and were gone to the bar to take a glass, and
+he still praying. I was often ready to jump out of my skin with
+impatience."
+
+"The praying was all well enough, if it had not lasted so long," said
+I, laughing.
+
+"Pah! I hate people who are always wanting to be a shining light to
+their fellow-citizens. There's a deal of pride, a deal of arrogance
+and presumption in it. If a man wishes to pray, let him do so, and I
+do it myself; but people don't want to be reminded of those things. I
+tell you I have always found pride behind that sort of piety. The
+Yankees think we are heathens, and that they are the elect who are to
+enlighten us. Pshaw! I hate such humbug."
+
+"Not so badly reasoned," observed Richards.
+
+"However," continued Doughby, "I soon saw that, with one thing or
+another, I was getting out of the old gentleman's good books. He
+became more and more stiff and silent. That wouldn't have annoyed me
+much; but one morning the captain came to me and said, in a sort of
+apologising manner, that the ladies had desired him to beg me not to
+pay so many visits to their cabin, particularly of a morning, when
+some of them had not quite finished their toilet, but that I should
+always ask leave first and have myself announced, as it is set down in
+the regulations."
+
+"'What!' says I, 'have myself announced when I go to see my own wife,
+that is to be? What do the other ladies matter to me, whether they've
+got on silk gowns or cotton ones? I only go to see Miss Lambton.'
+
+"'Miss Lambton was present,' said the captain, 'when the ladies gave
+me the commission; and she and Mr Lambton most particularly requested
+me to have the regulations enforced.'
+
+"'Miss Lambton!' said I; 'that's a lie now, captain. She never could
+have done that.'
+
+"'Mister Doughby,' said he, 'it is no lie; and if another than
+yourself had said such a thing, I would have struck him down like a
+mad dog. And I must beg of you to retract your words, and ascertain to
+your own satisfaction that what I have said is a fact.'
+
+"So I ran off and asked Miss Lambton and Mr Lambton, and they answered
+me as dry as fagots, and said the captain had spoken the truth. I was
+a'most raving mad when I heard this, as savage as a panther; and, to
+console myself, I drank perhaps a trifle more than I should have done.
+But what else can one do on a voyage up the Mississippi? Much as I
+like him, old father Mississip, one gets awful sick of him after a
+time, steaming along for days and weeks together, nothing to be heard
+but clap-clap-clap, trap-trap-trap, or to be seen but the dull muddy
+waters and the never-ending forest. Day and night, wood and water,
+water and wood. It is wearisome work at the best.
+
+"It was exactly two o'clock in the afternoon on the seventh day of our
+voyage when we got beyond Wolf's Island, which, as you know, lies
+above New Madrid and below the mouth of the Ohio. The poor Helen
+M'Gregor burst her boiler since then, as you'll have heard, at that
+very place, and sent half a hundred passengers into the other world.
+Past Wolf's Island, we came up with the Ploughboy, the Huntress, the
+Louisville, and a couple more steamers, all going our way. It made
+quite a little fleet. I was sitting in the cabin with Miss Lambton and
+the old gentleman, who were cool and silent enough, when somebody
+called out, 'Here comes the George Washington.' A glorious steamer it
+is that George, more like a floating palace than a boat, as it goes
+skimming along as lightly and smoothly as a swan. It's a real pleasure
+to see it. I kept my place by Miss Lambton; but, to tell you the
+truth, I was sitting upon hot coals. What can be the reason that we
+men feel so deucedly cowed and quailed by the petticoats? Hang me if I
+know. Suddenly there was a cry upon deck, 'The Washington is passing
+us.' I could stand it no longer, but bolted up-stairs, and sure enough
+there it came in all its pride and power, trarara, trarara, rushing
+and dashing and spitting fire like Emperor Nap. at the head of his
+guards and dragoons and artillery. It was already in the midst of the
+other five steamers, passing them all. The whole of our passengers
+were on deck looking on, and I can tell you that our hearts beat quick
+as we saw the George walking up to us. The dinner-bell rang. Not a
+foot moved to go below. 'Captain,' cried I, 'we must not let the
+George pass us; you can't think of allowing such a thing?' says I;
+'must show them that we are Mississippi men.'
+
+"'Mister Doughby,' says he, 'it's the George Washington,' says
+he--'hundred and twenty horse power,' says he.
+
+"'Devil a hundred,' said I. 'You only say so because you are afraid to
+race him. And if he had two hundred horse power, what then? Shorten
+your stirrups and give your horse the spur,' say I.
+
+"I saw that the captain's blood was getting up; his eyes were fixed on
+the old George as if he would have eaten it, and he became red and
+blue and green, all manner of colours, like a dolphin; his teeth
+chattered, and he bit his lips till the blood ran over his chin. On
+came the Washington quicker than ever, the paddles clattering, the
+steam hissing, the crew hurraing like mad.
+
+"'Captain,' cried I, 'the Washington's passing you; it's all up with
+the honour of the Helen M'Gregor.'
+
+"The captain stood there as if his face had been rubbed over with
+chalk, and the drops of sweat ran down his forehead. The five steamers
+that we had passed were now hurraing with delight to see that we
+should be humbled in our turn. 'Captain,' said I, 'will you let
+yourself be beaten out of the field without firing a shot? The Helen
+M'Gregor is a new ship--Crack on, man!'
+
+"He could stand it no longer, but ran forward and screamed out to the
+stokers. 'More wood!' cried he, 'High pressure, high pressure!'
+
+"'Blaze away, boys!' cried I, 'Blaze away, and hurra for the Helen
+M'Gregor!'
+
+"And the fellows pitched whole cartloads of wood upon the fire, and
+stirred and poked away till they were wet through with perspiration,
+and our chimney began to whistle and sing, that it was a pleasure to
+hear it. We were just entering the Ohio, the Washington close upon our
+heels, when old Lambton and Emily came running upon deck in an
+almighty fright.
+
+"'Mr Doughby, for heaven's sake! Mr Doughby--captain, for God's sake!
+Will you destroy yourself, and the steamer, and your fellow-citizens?
+Will you race with the George Washington?'
+
+"'For God's sake, Mr Doughby!' cried the Miss.
+
+"'Mr Doughby!' squealed the old Yankee, who had quite forgotten his
+stiffness, 'I demand and insist that you use your influence to prevent
+the captain from racing.'
+
+"'Pshaw!' said I, 'it's nothing of the sort--ain't going to race--only
+want to see which ship goes quickest.'
+
+"'That must not be. I protest against it--the safety of our
+fellow-citizens--our own. If the boiler bursts'----
+
+"'Nonsense!' said I--'safety of our fellow-citizens! Our
+fellow-citizens _are_ in safety. We don't mean to race, Mister
+Lambton,' says I; 'we are only trying for a minute which ship can go
+the fastest.'
+
+"'Mr Doughby!' cried Emily, half beside herself--throwing her arms
+round me, and trying to drag me towards the engine--'Mr Doughby, if
+you have the smallest affection--regard I would say--for me, exert
+your influence, stop this horrid racing!'
+
+"And then she left me and ran to the captain, who was standing beside
+the engineer.
+
+"The Washington was close behind us--we, as I said before, were
+running slap into the mouth of the Ohio. There's no finer piece of
+water in the whole world for a race. The current of the Mississippi
+drives back that of the Ohio as far as Trinity, so that upon entering
+the river, the stream is in your favour. The two rivers are together
+four or five miles wide, and form a sort of circus, enclosed by the
+shores of Illinois, of Old Kentuck, and her daughter Missouri.[4] We
+were nearest to the Illinois side, which gave us a small advantage
+over our opponent, who was more on the Kentucky side, end kept coming
+on faster and faster, with the other five boats, who had also clapped
+more steam on, a short distance behind him. Our Helen M'Gregor still
+kept the lead; who the devil could have helped racing? No one, of a
+certainty, except such a mackerel-blooded Yankee as old Lambton. All
+was heat and steam, rattle and clatter; the engines thumping, the
+water splashing, the fire blazing and roaring out of the chimneys,
+which sent out clouds of smoke and showers of sparks. The enemy was
+close upon us, Father George's honest face almost in a line with our
+stern.
+
+"'Helen M'Gregor, hold your own!' cried I. 'Don't spare the wood,
+boys, lay it on thick, pile it up moun_tain_eous; ten dollars for you
+when you've beaten him!'
+
+"'Hurra!' cried the hundred passengers; 'hurra! The Washington loses,
+we are gaining ground.'
+
+"Only the captain could not say a word; he stood there with his blue
+lips pressed hard together, looking more like a statue than a man. We
+were going our twenty knots, and keep it up we must if we did not want
+to fall back amongst the mob of the Huntress, the Ploughboy, and the
+rest of them. Every joint and hinge in the boat seemed to be cracking,
+the engine roared and groaned, the steam howled and hissed.
+
+"'The Helen M'Gregor is a gallant lass!' cried I. 'A brave
+Scotchwoman! She has fire in her veins.'
+
+"And so she really had. She stretched out like a racehorse that feels
+the spur in his flank for the first time; not steaming or swimming,
+but flying like a bird, rushing like a wild-cat or an elk that's been
+shot at; the waters of the Ohio flashing from her side in a white
+creamy foam. The Kentucky shores on our right, with their forests and
+cotton-trees, were flying away from us; on our left, the banks of
+Illinois seemed to dance past us, the big trees looking like witches
+scampering off on their broomsticks. Behind us, the high land of
+Missouri was rapidly disappearing, Colonel Boon's plantation getting
+smaller every second, till at last it appeared no bigger than a
+dovecot. Every thing around us seemed in motion, swimming, flying,
+racing. Hurras by thousands; seven steamers groaning, creaking,
+hissing, and rattling; a noise and a heat that made our heads dizzy,
+blinded our eyes, and took away our hearing. It was a gallopade, a
+race between giants.
+
+"We were close to the wood below Trinity--the race as good as won, for
+Trinity was of course the winning post. Suddenly the captain cried
+out, 'He is passing us!' and, as he said the word, he looked as wild
+as a tortured redskin, and bit his lips more savage than ever, and
+caught hold of the quarterdeck railing as if he would have torn it
+down.
+
+"'Captain,' said I, 'it's impossible--he is not passing us.'
+
+"'Look yourself, Mr Doughby,' said he.
+
+"The man was right. The old George is an almighty fast ship, that is
+certain. I saw that in two minutes we should be beaten. We had not
+even so long to wait.
+
+"'By my soul he is passing us!' cried I.
+
+"'He is passing us,' repeated the captain in a low voice. He was
+deadly white. I couldn't say a word; and as for him, he was obliged to
+support himself against the railing, or he would have fallen down.
+There was no help for it, however; the Washington's figure-head was
+already in a line with our stern--in ten seconds, a third of the
+vessel's length was parallel with us--another ten seconds, two-thirds,
+and in less than a minute he dashed proudly before us with a deafening
+hurra from crew and passengers, which was echoed from the other five
+steamers, till we heard nothing on all sides but hurras and hurras. I
+would have given a thousand dollars down to have reached Trinity two
+minutes sooner. Just then a number of voices cried out, 'The boiler's
+bursting! The boiler's bursting!' And there was a cracking noise, and
+then a loud rush. Here comes the hot bath, thought I, and wished
+myself a pleasant journey out of the world. But it was nothing; the
+cry came from a couple of negers, echoed by Miss Lambton and Mister
+Lambton, and the rest of the old women folk from the ladies' cabin.
+They had gone in a body to the engineer, and had so begged, and
+prayed, and bothered him, that he had given in, and opened the valve,
+and we only half a mile from Trinity. I am certain that if the
+cowardly rascal had not done that, we should have made a drawn race
+of it, for the Washington got in not two minutes before us. I fell
+upon the engineer, and if it had not been for the captain, and one or
+two old acquaintances, I should have leathered him upon the spot--ay,
+if it were to have cost me a thousand dollars; he deserved it well,
+the dishonourable scamp! We were now in Trinity, we had done five
+miles in less than twelve minutes; but Miss Lambton was so angry, and
+the old gentleman so bitter cold and stiff--a pair of fire-tongs is
+nothing compared to him--Couldn't be helped, however. Honor before
+every thing."
+
+"But you really were too foolhardy," observed Richards.
+
+"Foolhardy!" repeated Doughby, "foolhardy, when the honour of a ship
+was at stake!"
+
+"Pshaw! The honour of a steam-boat!"
+
+"Pshaw, do you say, Richards? Well, if I didn't know you to be a
+thoroughbred Virginian, hang me if I should not almost take you for
+one of those wishywashy Creoles. Pshaw, say you, the honour of a
+steam-boat! A steamer, let me tell you, is also a ship, and a big one
+too, and an American one, a thorough American one. It's our ship; we
+invented it, they'd have been long enough in the old country before
+finding such a thing out--Pshaw, do you say? And if Percy had said
+pshaw upon Lake Erie, or Lawrence on Champlain, or Rogers, or Porter,
+you might say pshaw to every thing--to the honour of a steamer, a
+ship, a country. But I tell you that the man who says pshaw when his
+ship is beaten in a race, will also say it when it is taken in a
+fight. In short, that sort of pride is emulation, and that emulation
+is the real thing."
+
+"But the life of so many men?"
+
+"I tell you, that of the hundred and twenty passengers that we had on
+board the Helen, there were not three besides that leathern old
+Yankee, Mister Lambton, and the women, who would have cared one straw
+if the boiler had burst, provided we had got to Trinity two minutes
+the sooner."
+
+We could not help laughing at this Kentucky bull, but at the same time
+we were compelled to admit the truth of what Doughby meant to say. In
+spite of Uncle Sam's usual phlegm and _nonchalance_, there are
+occasions when he seems to change his nature; and in the anxiety to
+see his ship first at the goal, to forget what he does not otherwise
+easily lose sight of, namely, wife and child, land and goods; as to
+his own life, it does not weigh a feather in the balance. He becomes a
+perfect madman, setting every thing upon a single cast. And the yearly
+loss of five hundred to a thousand lives, sacrificed in these
+desperate races, does not appear to cure him in any degree of his
+mania.
+
+"Well," continued Doughby, resuming his narrative, "it was as much as
+I could do to get a word from Miss Emily during the rest of the
+voyage. The time went terribly slow, and my patience was clean
+expended when we got to Louisville. We stopped at the Lafayette Hotel,
+and I was in my room before dinner, when the waiter brought me a
+letter from Mister Lambton. The old gentleman had the honour to inform
+me, in accordance with his daughter's wishes, that there did not exist
+sufficient harmony between my character and that of Miss Emily to
+render a union between us desirable. And, under these circumstances,
+he took leave to request of me that I would consider the projected
+marriage as entirely broken off; and, with his and his daughter's best
+wishes for my happiness, he had the honour to be my very humble
+servant. There was a deal more of it, but that was the pith. When I
+had read it, I burst out of my room like mad, either to throttle old
+Lambton or to throw myself at his daughter's feet, I didn't rightly
+know which. But the Yankee had been too cunning for me. He had left
+the hotel with his daughter, and gone off by the Cincinnati steamer. I
+went on board the next that was going, and got to Cincinnati three
+hours after him, but missed him again. He had taken a chaise and
+started for his estate at Dayton, near Yellow Springs. And all I have
+done since is no use. She won't hear of me, and I'm the most unhappy
+fellow alive."
+
+And so saying, he threw his feet upon the table, crossed his arms,
+and remained in this position for a couple of minutes, staring
+earnestly at the ceiling. Suddenly he brought his legs down again,
+started up, and gazed through the cabin window.
+
+"Hallo!" cried he, "here are your Red River bottoms. Will have a look
+at them--will go on deck? You may take away, steward. Come, Monshur
+Tonson, come with me, come, my dear little Frenchman! Nous parlons
+hansamble le Fransch."
+
+And thereupon he struck up the favourite western ditty, "Let's go to
+Old Kentuck," seized young De Vergennes by the arm, and dragged him
+through the folding-doors and out upon deck.
+
+"He's not the man to break his heart about a woman," said I to
+Richards.
+
+"Hardly," replied my friend.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE STAG HUNT.
+
+We had sat for some time talking over Doughby's mishaps, when we were
+interrupted by a noise upon deck. Hurras and hellos were resounding
+off on every side and corner of the steamer. We hurried out to see
+what was the matter, and found the cause of the tumult to be a fallow
+deer, that had taken the water some two hundred yards from our
+steamer, and was swimming steadily across from the right to the left
+bank of the river. The yawl had already been lowered, and was pushing
+off from the side with five men in it, amongst whom Doughby of course
+took the lead.
+
+"There he is again," cited Richards. "Of a certainty the man is
+possessed by a devil."
+
+"Hurra, boys! Give way!" shouted Doughby, flourishing a rifle full six
+feet in length. The four oars clipped into the water, and the boat
+flew to the encounter of the deer, who was tranquilly pursuing his
+liquid path.
+
+We were about entering one of those picturesque _spreads_, or bays of
+the Red River, which perhaps no other stream can boast of in such
+abundance, and on so magnificent a scale. The lofty trees and huge
+masses of foliage of the dense forest that covered the left bank, bent
+forward over the water, the dark green of the cypresses, and the
+silver white of the gigantic cotton-trees, casting a bronze-tinted
+shadow upon the dusky red stream, which at that point is full fifteen
+hundred feet broad; the right bank offering a succession of the most
+luxuriant palmetto grounds, with here and there a bean or tulip tree,
+amongst the branches of which innumerable parroquets were chattering
+and bickering. A pleasant breeze swept across from the palmetto
+fields, scarcely sufficient, however, to ruffle the water, which
+flowed tranquilly along, undisturbed save by the paddle of our
+steamer, that caused the huge black logs and tree-trunks floating upon
+the surface, to knock against each other, and heave up their
+extremities like so many porpoises. The steamer had just entered the
+bay when a boat shot out from under the wood on the left bank, and
+greatly increased the romantic character of the scene.
+
+It was a long Indian canoe made out of the hollowed trunk of a cotton
+tree; a many-tined antler was stuck in the prow, and dried legs and
+haunches of venison lay in the fore part of the boat; towards the
+stern sat a young girl, partially enveloped in a striped blanket, but
+naked from the waist upwards, impelling the boat in the direction of
+the deer by long graceful sweeps of her oar; in front of her was a
+squaw of maturer age, performing a like labour. In the centre of the
+canoe were two children, queer guinea-pig-looking little devils, and
+near these lay a man in all the lazy apathy of a redskin on his return
+from on the hunting ground; but towards the stern stood a splendid
+Antinous-like young savage, leaning in an attitude of graceful
+negligence on his rifle, and evidently waiting an opportunity to get a
+blow or a shot at the stag. As soon as these children of the forest
+caught sight of the steamer and of Doughby's boat, they ceased
+rowing, only recommencing when encouraged by some loud hurras, and
+even then visibly taking care to keep as far as possible from the
+fire-ship. It was a picturesque and interesting sight to observe the
+two boats describing a sort of circle on the broad ruddy stream, while
+the steamer rounding to, formed in a manner the base of the operation,
+and cut off the stag's retreat. Presently a shot fired without effect
+from Doughby's boat, drove the beast over towards the canoe. The long
+slender bark darted across the animal's track with the swiftness of an
+arrow, and as it did so, the Indian who was standing up dealt the stag
+a blow that caused it to reel and spin round in the water, and change
+its course for the second time. When I again glanced at the canoe, the
+young Indian had disappeared.
+
+"Here he comes" shouted Doughby, pointing to the deer, which was now
+swimming towards his boat. "Give way, boys! the Indians must learn of
+a Kentucky man how to strike a stag. Give way, I say!"
+
+The noble beast had recovered from the severe blow it had received,
+and had now approached the steamer towards which it cast such a
+supplicating tearful look, that the hearts of the ladies were touched
+with compassion.
+
+"Mr Doughby," cried half a score feminine voices, "spare the poor
+beast! Pray, pray let it go!"
+
+"Spare a stag, ladies! Where did you ever hear of such a thing? Hurra,
+boys!" shouted he, as the boat came up with the deer, and clubbing his
+rifle, he delivered a blow with the but-end that split the stock in
+two, and threw the stunned animal upon the gunwale of the boat. Quick
+as thought, Doughty clutched the antlers with one hand, while with the
+other he reached for the knife which one of his companions held out to
+him. At that moment the deer threw itself on one side with a
+convulsive movement, the boat rocked, Doughby lost his balance, the
+stag, which was now recovering its strength, drew itself violently
+back, and in an instant the Kentuckian was floundering in the water,
+struggling with the deer, to whose horns he held on with the gripe of
+a tiger.
+
+"Hallo, Mister Doughby in the Red River!"
+
+The whole ship was now in an uproar, the ladies screaming, the men
+shouting directions and advice to those in the boat. We began to be
+somewhat anxious as to the result; for although these water hunts are
+by no means uncommon occurrences, they are often dangerous and
+sometimes fatal to the hunter. The deer had been severely stunned and
+hurt, but not killed, by the blow it had received, and it now strove
+fiercely against its powerful opponent, throwing him from side to side
+by violent tossess of its head. Doughby still held on like grim death,
+but his eyes began to roll and stare wildly, his strength was
+evidently diminishing, and he had each moment more difficulty in
+partially controlling the stag's movements, and preventing the furious
+beast from running its antlers into his body. It was in vain that the
+four men in the boat endeavoured to render assistance. Man and beast
+were rolling and twisting about in the river like two water snakes.
+The scene that had at first been interesting had now become painful to
+behold.
+
+"Fire, Parker! Fire, Rolby!" shouted several voices from the steamer
+to the men in the boat.
+
+"Knock the cussed redskin on the head!" was the unintelligible
+rejoinder of one of the latter.
+
+The stag had now got Doughby close to a tree-trunk, against which it
+was making violent efforts to crush him. His life was in imminent
+peril, and a universal cry of horror and alarm burst from the
+spectators. Just then the head of the deer fell on its breast, the
+eyes glazing and the legs flinging out convulsively in the agony of
+death; at the same time, however, Doughby began to sink, and a bright
+streak of blood that rose to the surface of the water, and spread in a
+circle round the combatants, gave reason to fear that the mad
+Kentuckian had received some deadly hurt. At last the men in the boat
+succeeded in getting hold of Doughby and the stag, the former being
+seized by the hair of the head, while his hands still clung to the
+deer's antlers with the desperate grasp of a drowning man. A shout of
+triumph echoed from one end of the steam-boat to the other, and we
+all felt a sensation of relief proportionate to the painful state of
+suspense in which we had been kept.
+
+Doughby sat for a short space doubled up in the bottom of the boat,
+gazing straight before him with a fixed unconscious sort of look. The
+grating of the boat against the side of the steamer seemed to rouse
+him from his apathy, and he slowly ascended the ladder.
+
+"For heaven's sake, Doughby," cried Richards, as the Kentuckian set
+his foot upon deck, "what demon is it that possesses you, and drives
+you to risk your neck at every turn?"
+
+"The devil take you," retorted Doughby, "and your Red River water to
+boot! Brr, brr! d----d bad water your Red River water, say I! No, no,
+talk to me of Mississippi water.[5] If I am to be drowned, it sha'n't
+be in the stinking Red River. I've a taste in my mouth as if I had
+swallowed saltpetre and sulphur, with a dash of prussic acid. But tell
+me," cried he to the passengers and sailors by whom he was surrounded,
+"who gave him his settler? The deer, I mean. Who finished him?"
+
+"Who?" repeated every body, "why, who but yourself, Mister Doughby?"
+
+"I!" replied Doughby, shaking his head, "I had something else to do
+besides knifing the stag. No, no, I had plenty to think of to keep
+away from the tree-trunk. Besides, I let the knife fall at the very
+moment the beast dragged me out of the boat. But see there, boys!"
+added he, pointing to the deer, which was at this moment hoisted upon
+deck.
+
+The animal had a deep knife wound in the belly, and the tendons of the
+hind legs were cut right across.
+
+"That's the Indian's handiwork," said Doughby.
+
+"What Indian?" cried we all.
+
+"The Indian whom Rolby was going to knock on the head."
+
+"I thought he wanted to chouse us out of the deer," said Rolby; "I saw
+his bacon-face appear for a minute from behind the tree-trunk, and at
+first I took it for a log, but I soon saw it was a redskin. It
+wouldn't have been a great harm if I had sent a bit of lead through
+him. What business has an Injun to meddle, when gentlemen"----
+
+"No great harm!" interrupted Doughby impatiently. "The Indian, I can
+tell you----d'ye hear? Ralph Doughby tells you----has more real blood
+in his little finger than ten such leather-chopped fellows as yourself
+in their whole bodies, making all allowance for your white hide and
+your citizenship, neither of which, by the way, are much better than
+they should be. Ten times more, I tell you, and, if you don't believe
+it, I'll let you know it. A fine fellow he is, that redskin. He saw
+that I was at a pinch, and he came to help me when none of my own
+friends were able. And now, see yonder, there he stands in his canoe
+again, just as if he had done nothing but the most natural thing in
+the world. Chouse us out of the deer, say ye; and who had a right to
+hinder him if he had? The beast was bred in his woods as well as ours;
+a fair field and no favour is our motto in old Kentuck. I tell you the
+Indian is a brave redskin, and the stag is his; but I'll buy it of
+him. Hallo, captain! a dozen bottles of rum into the boat! Howard,
+Richards, let me have half a dozen dollars, silver dollars, d'ye hear?
+I'll pay the Indian a visit on board his canoe, and thank him as he
+ought to be thanked."
+
+No sooner said than done. The captain, however unwilling to lose any
+more time, could not resist the impetuosity of the good-natured
+scatterbrain, who sprang, dripping wet as he was, into the boat, a
+bottle in each hand, and a friendly hurra upon his lips. The Indians
+at first seemed alarmed and doubtful as to his intentions; but the
+signs and words of peace and encouragement that were given, and
+shouted to them from all sides, and above all, the sight of the
+bottles, soon removed their fears. In another minute or two we saw
+Doughby in their canoe, shaking hands with them, and putting one of
+the bottles to his mouth. A little more, and I believe they would all,
+men, women, and children, have begun the war-dance in the canoe, so
+delighted were they with the magnificent present of the rum and
+dollars. As it was, they shook and mauled Doughby till he was fain to
+jump back into his boat, and escape as well as he could from their
+wild caresses and demonstrative gratitude.
+
+But we have been nearly twelve hours on the water, and the Alexandria
+is a noted fast steamer. Our course has lain for some time between
+banks covered with gigantic forests of live oak, cotton, bean, and
+cypress trees, with here and there a palmetto field, and on the north
+shore an occasional plantation, for the most part a mere log-hut, with
+a strip of tobacco, cotton, or Indian corn. We have seen numerous
+deer, who, on the appearance of our steamer, gallop back into the
+woods--swans, cranes, geese, and ducks, wild pigeons, turkeys, and
+alligators, are there by thousands. We now enter a broad part of the
+river, and are gliding along in front of a wide clearing, some half
+mile long, and surrounded by colossal evergreen oaks; a snug-looking
+house of greenish-white colour stands in the middle of the plantation,
+with orange gardens--that are to be--laid out and enclosed in front of
+it; one enormous live oak, that looks as if it had stood there since
+the flood, spreading its knotty limbs over the eastern side of the
+habitation. The windows on the balconies are open, the Venetian blinds
+drawn up, the sinking sun throws its mellow rays over the whole
+peaceful and pleasant scene. And see there! We are expected: a small
+variegated ball flies up to the top of the lightning conductor, and
+the banner of our Union flutters out, displaying its thirteen stripes
+and twenty-four stars, and the white American eagle, the thunder of
+Jupiter and the symbols of peace in his talons. At the same moment,
+Plato and Tully, two of my negroes, come rushing like demented
+creatures out of the house, one with a stick in his hand, the other
+bearing a pan of hot coals. They are closely pursued by Bangor, who
+seems disposed to dispute Tully's title to the embers. In the struggle
+the coals fly in every direction; of a surety, the dingy rascals will
+burn my house before my eyes. Now comes Philip, a fourth negro, and
+tries to snatch the stick from Plato's hand; but the latter is on his
+guard, and fetches his adversary a wipe over the pate, that snaps the
+stick--a tolerably thick one, by the way--in two. Both retreat a short
+distance, and lowering their heads like a couple of angry steers, run
+full tilt against each other, with force that would fracture any
+skulls except African ones. Once, twice, three times--at the third
+encounter, Plato the sage bites the dust before the hero of Macedon.
+Confound the fellows! My companions are laughing fit to split
+themselves, but I see nothing to laugh at. I shall have them in
+hospital for the next ten days. Tully, however, has picked up the pan
+and the embers, and is rushing towards a flag-staff near the shore,
+from which the Louisianian flag is waving. I see now what they are all
+at. They have brought down the Wasp and the Scorpion from on Menou's
+plantation, two four-pounders so named, which were taken last year on
+board a Porto Rico pirate, and which my father-in-law bought.
+Boum--boum--and at the sound the whole black population of the
+plantation comes flocking to the shore, capering and jumping like so
+many opera-dancers, only not quite so gracefully, and shouting
+out--"Massa come; hurra, massa come! Massa maum bring; hurra, massa!"
+and manifesting a joy that is probably rendered more lively by the
+hopes of an extra ration of rum and salt-fish. And now Monsieur Menou
+and his son hurry down to receive us; the steamer stops, the plank is
+thrown across, and amidst shaking of hands, and farewells, and good
+wishes, our party hurries on shore. Thank heaven! we are home, and
+settled at last.
+
+
+
+
+BORODINO.--AN ODE.
+
+  STROPHE.
+
+    Weep for the _living_! mourn no more
+    Thy children slain on Moskwa's shore,
+  Cut off from evil! want, and anguish,
+      And care, for ever brooding and in vain;
+  No more to be beguiled! no more to languish
+    Under the yoke of labour and of pain!
+    Their doom of future joy or woe
+    For good or evil done below,
+  The Judge of all the earth will order rightly!
+    Flee winding error through the flowery way,
+  To daily follow truth! to ponder nightly
+    On time, and death, and judgment, nearer day by day!
+  Bewail thy bane, deluded France,
+    Vain-glory, overweening pride,
+  And harrying earth with eagle glance,
+    Ambition, frantic homicide!
+  Lament, of all that armed throng
+    How few may reach their native land!
+  By war and tempest to be borne along,
+    To strew, like leaves, the Scythian strand?
+  Before Jehovah who can stand?
+    His path in evil hour the dragon cross'd!
+  He casteth forth his ice! at his command
+    The deep is frozen!--all is lost!
+  For who, great God, is able to abide thy frost?
+
+
+  EPODE.
+
+  Elate of heart, and wild of eye,
+  Crested horror hurtles by;
+  Myriads, hurrying north and east,
+  Gather round the funeral feast!
+  From lands remote, beyond the Rhine,
+  Running o'er with oil and wine,
+  Wide-waving over hill and plain,
+  Herbage green, and yellow grain;
+  From Touraine's smooth irriguous strand,
+  Garden of a fruitful land,
+  To thy dominion, haughty Rhone,
+  Leaping from thy craggy throne;
+  From Alp and Apennine to where
+  Gleam the Pyrenees in air;
+  From pastoral vales and piny woods,
+  Rocks and lakes and mountain-floods,
+  The warriors come, in armed might
+  Careering, careless of the right!
+  Their leader he who sternly bade
+  Freedom fall; and glory fade,
+  The scourge of nations ripe for ruin,
+  Planning oft their own undoing!
+  But who in yonder swarming host
+  Locust-like from coast to coast,
+  Reluctant move, an alien few,
+  Sullen, fierce, of sombre hue,
+  Who, forced unhallow'd arms to bear,
+  Mutter to the moaning air,
+  Whose curses on the welkin cast
+  Edge the keen and icy blast!
+  Iberia, sorrow bade thee nurse
+  Those who now the tyrant curse,
+  Whose wrongs for vengeance cry aloud!
+  Lo, the coming of a cloud!
+  To burst in wrath, and sweep away
+  Light as chaff the firm array!
+  To rack with pain, or lull to rest
+  Both oppressor and oppress'd.
+
+
+  ANTISTROPHE.
+
+    Is it the wind from tower to tower
+    Low-murmuring at midnight hour?
+  Athwart the darkness light is stealing,
+    Portentous, red with unrelenting ire,
+  Inhuman deeds, and secrets dark revealing!
+    Ye guilty, who may quench the kindled fire!
+    Fall, city of the Czars, to rise
+    Ennobled by self-sacrifice,
+  Than tower and temple higher and more holy!
+    The wilful king appointed o'er mankind
+  To plague the lofty heart, and prove the lowly,
+    Is fled!--Avenger, mount the chariot of the wind!
+      Be thine, to guide the rapid scythe,
+    To blind with snow the frozen sun,
+      Against th' invader doomed to writhe,
+  To rouse the Tartar, Russ, and Hun!
+  Bid terror to the battle ride!
+  Indignant honour, burning shame,
+  Revenge, and hate, and patriotic pride!
+  But not the quick unerring aim
+  Of volley'd thunder winged with flame,
+  Nor famine keener than the bird of prey,
+      Nor death--avail the hard of heart to tame!
+      Blow wind, and pierce the dire array,
+  Flung, drifted by thy breath, athwart the frozen way!
+
+
+  EPODE.
+
+    Before the blast as flakes of snow
+    Drive blindly, reeling to and fro,
+    Or down the river black and deep
+    Melt--so the mighty sink to sleep!
+    Like Asshur, never more to boast!
+    Or Pharaoh, sunk with all his host!
+    So perish who would trample down
+    The rights of freedom, for renown!
+    So fall, who born and nurtured free
+    Adore the proud on bended knee!
+    Roll, Beresina, 'neath the bridge
+    Of death! rise Belgium's fatal ridge!
+    Rise, lonely rock in a wide ocean,
+  To curb each haughty mad emotion!
+  To prove, while force and genius fail,
+  That truth is great, and will prevail!
+
+    The hour is coming--seize the hour!
+  Divide the spoil, the prey devour!
+  Howl o'er the dead and dying, cry
+  All ye that raven earth and sky!
+  With beak and talon rend the prey,
+  Track carnage on her gory way,
+  To chide o'er many a gleamy bone
+  The moon, or with the wind to moan!
+  Benumb'd with cold, by torture wrung,
+  To winter leave the famine-clung,
+  O thou for whom they toil and bleed,
+  Deserted in their utmost need!
+  Hear, hear them faithful unto death
+  Invoke thee with the fleeting breath,
+  And feel (for human still thou art)
+  Ruth touch that adamantine heart!
+  Survive the storm and battle-shock,
+  To linger on th' Atlantic rock!
+
+    From ghastly dream, from death-like trance
+  Awake to woe, devoted France!
+  To care and trouble, toil and pain,
+  Till glory be acknowledged vain,
+  And martial pomp a mere parade,
+  And war, the bravo's bloody trade!
+  A beacon o'er the tide of time
+  Be thou, to point the wreck of crime!
+  The spoiler spoil'd, from empire hurl'd,
+  The dread and pity of the world!
+
+    O then, by tribulation tried,
+  Abjuring envy, hate, and pride,
+  Warn'd of the dying hour foretold
+  Of earth and heaven together roll'd,
+  Revering each prophetic sign
+  Of judgment and of love divine,
+  Bow down, and hide thee in the dust,
+  And own the retribution just;
+  So may contrition, prayer, and praise,
+  Preserve thee in the latter days!
+
+  E. PEEL.
+
+
+
+
+A RAMBLE IN MONTENEGRO.
+
+
+Few nations of Europe have been less known than the Montenegrians, and
+the name even of their country is seldom found on maps.[6] Surrounded
+by great empires, they have always preserved the independence of their
+rugged mountains, and have even succeeded in wresting several rich
+plains from the sway of Turkey. With this power hostilities seldom
+cease; but such is the system with which her resources are managed,
+that while the Montenegrians are at peace with one pasha, they are
+enabled to concentrate their force against another--and all the while
+the Sublime Porte does not condescend to interfere. Not many years
+ago, they possessed the reputation of being a horde of robbers; and,
+in all probability, the pilgrim who ventured among them would have
+returned, if at all, as shirtless as themselves. But the breath of the
+spirit of the age, though faintly wafted to their mountains, has
+softened something of their character, without destroying in the least
+their independence or nationality. Bold, hardy, and free, ready and
+eager for the foray and the fray, a stranger is now as safe among them
+as in any part of her Majesty's kingdom.
+
+Whoever wishes to make the acquaintance of this primitive people, will
+do well to embark on board the Austrian Lloyd's Company's steamer from
+Trieste to Cattaro. They will be well accommodated, at reasonable
+charges, and have an opportunity of seeing the principal towns of
+Dalmatia, a country little frequented by travellers. Such was the case
+with ourselves, (an English lady and gentleman,) who quitted Trieste
+on the 5th of November 1843. The voyage commenced pleasantly, and we
+had the good-luck to have the ladies' cabin to ourselves. The captain
+was a very gentlemanlike person, the steward attentive, and the
+passengers full of politeness. Zara, the capital of Dalmatia, where we
+stopped a day and a night, is a walled town of moderate extent, said
+to contain 8000 inhabitants. It possesses some antiquities. Over the
+gates of this, and all other of the Dalmatian seaports, the Lions of
+Saint Mark yet remain. It is best known for the excellence of its
+_rosoglio_. The next town we arrived at was Sebenico, now much
+decayed, and Spalatro, the most interesting of all, where the badness
+of the weather, during the short time we stayed, prevented our landing
+to see the extensive Roman remains. After anchoring off Curzola for a
+night, we came to Ragusa, where we stopped two days. At Zara and
+Sebenico we had opportunities of seeing the Morlaccian race. These are
+the rural inhabitants of Dalmatia, speaking a Sclavonic dialect, while
+in the towns they pride themselves on their Venetian origin and
+language. Amongst these peasants were the noblest specimens of the
+human kind I have ever seen. Of stature almost gigantic, and of the
+amplest development of chest, their symmetry of limb and elasticity of
+step would have called forth notice in a Scottish Highlander. Nor
+could a somewhat manifest omission to cares of the toilet disguise
+complexion and features almost faultless, and in which an expression
+of frankness and good-nature left one nothing to fear from their armed
+numbers. I speak not of a few among a crowd, but of nearly all I saw.
+It was from amongst these that the French, during their occupation,
+chose their finest grenadiers; but at present, in consequence of the
+scantiness of the population, the humanity of the Austrian government
+has suspended all conscription. Still it is possible, that, in the
+hour of danger, Austria might profit more from the devoted loyalty of
+this armed and stalwart peasantry, than if her ranks were filled with
+its forced recruits. Their dress consists of a coarse brown jacket,
+and a waistcoat of red cloth, both ornamented on the edges, and made
+to sit close on the shoulders, without any collar, and which
+advantageously display their well put on head and neck. They wear a
+small red skull-cap, round at top; but, when married, they usually
+surround this with a white turban. Their pantaloons are of blue, and
+fit close from the knee to the ankle, and below they wear the
+_opunka_--a species of sandal, made of sheepskin, and bound with
+thongs, which, as may be seen from their elastic step and upright
+carriage, are well fitted to their country; round their waist is a red
+sash, and in front a leather belt, in which is placed a yataghan and a
+smaller knife, and exhibiting usually the handsome pommels of silver
+or brass-mounted pistols. Over all is a long brown cloak, open in
+front, and fastening over the chest, forming a dress which, with their
+free and martial bearing, gives them the appearance of ready-made
+soldiers. The women are, comparatively, inferior to the men; but their
+countenances are cheerful, and a white napkin gracefully put on the
+head, had a very classical appearance. For the rest, they wore a
+coarse shirt--over that a coarser, without arms, neither coming much
+below the knee--a party-coloured apron and stockings, with opunkas,
+like the men. Near Zara is a small colony of Albanians, who still
+retain their national manners and dress, though settled time out of
+mind.
+
+Ragusa--of old a republic, with its doge and senate--is a city whose
+glory has departed. This little state--consisting of the town, the
+promontory of Sabioncello, the island of Melida, with a few smaller
+ones--numbering about forty thousand inhabitants, had never been
+subject by Venice, and was governed on the most aristocratic
+principles. At the time of the late war, the inhabitants of the city
+owned about four hundred large vessels--and observing the profiting by
+neutrality, they traded every where, and acquired great wealth. But
+they were not destined to escape the storm which overthrew so many
+mightier states. In 1809 they became compulsory allies of the French.
+Their nominal independence lasted about two years longer. During the
+time the French occupied it, the city was attacked by the combined
+forces of the Russians and Montenegrians; the former by sea, while the
+latter conducted the operations on land. Luckily they failed to take
+it; but they burned and destroyed, without exception, every one of the
+numerous villas by which it was surrounded. Since the loss of her
+independence, the trade of Ragusa has ceased, and her wealth has
+departed; while many of her once haughty nobility have no other
+subsistence than a scanty pension, which the bounty of the government
+affords them. The town is interesting, and some of its buildings
+ancient and peculiar, though hardly to be called handsome--the scale
+being small. Of the country houses desolated by the Montenegrians, not
+one in twenty has been repaired; and they remain roofless and
+blackened, a lasting memorial of the ferocity of that people. The
+neighbourhood is beautiful, and appears more so after the stony
+desolation which the rest of Dalmatia exhibits. Though the houses
+still remain in ruins, the gardens continue to be cultivated. Olives,
+vines, figs, and carruba trees grow in them, and the tops of the hills
+are covered with stone pines and delightful evergreens, of heaths,
+junipers, cypress, and other plants, which at home we coax to grow in
+our greenhouses.
+
+Quitting Ragusa, after having been once driven back by the badness of
+the weather, we at length entered the Bocca of Cattaro, after a
+passage of about nine hours. Both in its general and immediate
+position, few spots can be imagined so cut off from the rest of the
+world as Cattaro. Standing close on the sea, with stupendous mountains
+overhanging it on each side, it is deprived even of the light of the
+sun for the greater part of the day; and, towards the end of
+November--this is no boon. By land the Dalmatian coast-road (the only
+one, I believe, in the country) passes through it, but it would prove
+indifferent, I should think, to any but the pedestrian; and there is
+also the mountain-path, of three hours' ascent, which leads into
+Montenegro, and issues up from the gates of the town in a zigzag form,
+till it appears lost in the clouds. Any one wishing to quit Cattaro,
+has indeed, like the country waiter in England, but "three desperate
+alternatives." He must wait for the next steamer, a whole month if in
+winter, and return the way he came. Or he may attempt to pass through
+Albania to Greece or the islands, which would in all likelihood prove
+the last attempt he would ever make. Or he may hire one of the country
+_trabacolos_ to take him where he likes. They are neither fast in
+their sailing nor luxurious in their accommodation--the price being
+any thing but cheap. In one thing the traveller has no difficulty,
+which is to discover the first hotel, as their number is strictly
+limited. Consequently in about half an hour, during which the steamer
+had taken her departure, we found ourselves the inmates of the
+principal _salon_ in the Locanda della Corona. It is ever a comfort,
+when expectation is not at its highest, to find things better; and
+happy the mind that seeks it!
+
+The house was not very dirty, the landlady was full of kindness, and
+not destitute of good looks. After her first paroxysms of welcome and
+surprise had passed, then succeeded admiration, then a general
+presentation to all friends and relations of the family that could be
+summoned on a short notice, with many fervent blessings and prayers
+for our welfare, and at length, which pleased us as much as any thing,
+a very eatable dinner. During that day, and part of the ensuing week,
+I improved my acquaintance with Cattaro--an acquaintance which, before
+final separation, became very intimate indeed. It contains several
+small squares or places, with some churches and other public
+buildings. There is a respectable _cafe_, which is frequented by the
+officers of the garrison, and on the whole it is rather a neat little
+town. The population may be about three thousand. It is fortified,
+having two gates to the land and one to the sea. Perched above, at a
+great height, is the castle, said to be of considerable strength. In
+the late war Cattaro was taken from the French by Sir William Hoste,
+Bart., and afterwards garrisoned by the _Vladika_ of Montenegro, since
+which time an Englishman has hardly been seen by the people within
+their gates. Consequently their ideas of robbing the stranger are
+faint and barbarous; here, as throughout Dalmatia, should you give a
+man money, and the sum be not even more than twice the value of the
+obligation, the poor ignoramus is delighted, and thanks and blesses
+you most fervently. The climate of Cattaro is not considered healthy.
+The inhabitants die of consumption in the winter, and fever in the
+summer, and they generally have a sickly appearance. There are smart
+silversmith shops, and many ornaments are wrought with much neatness.
+There are several also devoted to the sale of arms, as the Montenegrians
+here buy and repair the principal weapons they use. Pistols, guns, and
+yataghans are mounted in silver and mother-of-pearl, coral and other
+stones, with skill and taste. The population are as remote in
+appearance from that of any town in western Europe, as in the most
+primitive part of the East. The town's-people wear a black jacket of
+cloth or velvet, with silver basket buttons, a small cap, and wide
+drawers of the same cloth, with black stockings or high boots, and a
+red sash. The costumes of some of the villages along the shores of the
+Bocca are very pretty. The women from Dulcinea wear a body petticoat
+and jacket of scarlet, with silver buttons and buckles, and a white
+covering tastefully enfolding the head and shoulders. The peasantry to
+the south wear the Montenegrian dress; the poorer ones, in extreme
+scantiness. These profess, like that people, the tenets of the Greek
+church, and in appearance and dialect do not differ from them. A
+bolder look, however, and an air of independence, usually mark the
+Montenegrian. Between Cattaro and Montenegro there is no quarantine or
+restriction of intercourse. Without the latter the former would cease
+to exist--without the former life would be burdensome in Montenegro.
+Three times a-week a bazar is held outside each of the land gates, to
+which the Montenegrians descend, themselves loaded with arms and
+independence, and their women and mules with the richest products of
+their country. Of these, mutton hams of peculiar excellence, potatoes
+that cannot be imitated in these parts, salt fish from the lake of
+Scutari, (to be caught, I fear, no more,) a root which looks yellow,
+and dyes to match, with hides, poultry, and pigs, form the principal.
+One of the chief articles which they seek is salt, with which some of
+the above luxuries are compounded. This being a government monopoly,
+is sold at the office in the town, and an animated scene takes place
+on its opening, each striving to be served first, and, as a matter of
+course, all speaking at once.
+
+Having in a few days almost exhausted the varieties of Cattaro, and
+the weather assuming a more favourable aspect, it became time to
+execute our intended journey up the mountain. Times were stirring in
+Montenegro. The nation was at war with two pashas, and the Vladika had
+taken the field in person. Rumours were numerous; we could not have
+come at a better time, and our trip promised to be one of interest.
+His highness's postmaster, a gigantic warrior,[7] waited on us to
+furnish mules and guides. Cesarea Petrarca, gentleman, of Cattaro,
+hairdresser, auctioneer, and appraiser, ex-courier, formerly _chef de
+cuisine_ to the Vladika--an "_homme capable_," as he not unaptly
+styled himself, attended us to cook and interpret; and we started for
+Cettigna on the 17th of November, about nine o'clock. I may here say a
+few words concerning the state of politics then existing in
+Montenegro. For the last half century or more, under the auspices of
+the late revered bishop, so highly sainted in soul,[8] and so
+beautifully preserved in body, the Montenegrians, backed secretly by
+an influential power in the north, have been pursuing a system of
+territorial encroachment as well as internal improvement. Anciently
+their domain consisted of but a range of gloomy and barren rocks,
+which would alike oppose the footsteps and extinguish the hopes of the
+invader; since which various fertile _pianuras_ have been gained on
+the side of Herzigovina and Bosnia. In 1781 Kara Mahmoot, hereditary
+bey of Scutari, marched with a great army into Montenegro. Advancing
+towards Cettigna, he was attacked in a narrow defile by the Vladika.
+This was a great day for Montenegro. The Albanians were utterly
+routed, and Black Mahmoot, being taken prisoner, surrendered his glory
+and his head to his priestly conqueror, and it remains there among the
+trophies of the Episcopal dwelling. The present Vladika is not
+unworthy of his martial uncle. He is truly the flower of the house of
+Petrowitch. On his first arrival from St Petersburg to assume the
+government, his appearance was that of a Frank[9] gentleman, and his
+habits those of a priest; but he discovered before long that the dress
+of his native mountains better became his manly form, while the
+troubles in which his state was so constantly engaged, soon made him
+exchange the crosier for the sword, and become as ardent a warrior as
+his predecessor. Ever since the beginning of the summer, war had been
+waged with Osman Pasha of Mostar, concerning a disputed territory. On
+one occasion the opposed forces were in sight for a week. The
+Montenegrians consisted of seven thousand foot--the Turks (I write
+according to my information) of forty thousand horse. (!) Every day
+they fought, sometimes for two, sometimes four hours and upwards, as
+fancy dictated. About fifty persons had been more or less injured in
+this pastime, but their ardour was rather increasing than diminishing,
+when the pasha of Scutari, without notice or warning, seized on the
+islands of Vranina and Lessandro, at the head of the lake of Scutari.
+The Montenegrians had there a post of about twenty men, but they were
+overpowered, several killed, and the rest sent captive to Scutari.
+Not satisfied with this, he fortified Lessandro in such a manner that
+no Montenegrian could fish in the lake with any kind of pleasure or
+comfort. This was a vital blow. Visions of the market of Cattaro rose
+before the eyes of the nation. Peace with Osman Pasha was concluded at
+any sacrifice, and the Vladika instantly hastened to concentrate his
+energies toward the recovery of the lost islands.
+
+Our party consisted of ourselves and two mules, one being for the
+luggage--Cesarea Petrarca, in the full pride of office, and armed for
+our protection with a very small sword and a very small gun--a woman
+who had charge of the mules--and Spiro Martinowitch, an old and
+respectable Montenegrian, with Milo his son, to act as guides. We
+began the ascent about ten o'clock. Close outside the walls was
+pointed out a village, the residence of a race of valiant butchers,
+who have ever been at feud with the Montenegrians, by whom their
+numbers have been much reduced. A tale was related of three having
+defended themselves against four hundred of the enemy. After following
+the steep but otherwise good road for about two hours, we arrived at a
+stone with different species of eagles on two sides,[10] which marks
+the boundary of the respective territories. The road instantly
+degenerates into an indifferent mule-track. It took another hour to
+gain the principal ascent, then, pursuing our way along the high land,
+we reached a small hamlet, where we stopped a few minutes to comfort
+ourselves with what could be procured. The path from hence to Cettigna
+passes over a country which, at any season, must appear barren and
+inhospitable. The peaks of the highest mountains in Montenegro rise
+immediately above it. The ground was now covered with about an inch of
+snow, and the air extremely cold. A few stunted bushes of beech
+underwood, which serves for fuel, seemed to be the only vegetation.
+Every thing else, grey rocks, sharp and rugged, to the smallest
+fragment. We passed on our way the village of Negusi, the paternal
+seat of the family of Petrowitch. Here the present Vladika was born,
+in a mansion which was pointed out to us. It is a long-shaped hut,
+built of loose stones, without windows or upper story. A somewhat
+better dwelling is the property of the bishop's uncle, who governs the
+village and adjacent district. Passing on by the hamlets of Bayitzi
+and Donikrai, we arrived at the Episcopal residence about half-past
+five in the evening, and immediately took up our quarters in the first
+hotel. I will not say that the decorations of the chief apartment were
+in the highest style of magnificence; but the bed was clean, and to
+find any thing clean in these parts may be considered a victory
+gained. Our hostess was from Cattaro, the seat of every refinement to
+the ideas of a Montenegrian; and our host was a kind civil man,
+speaking both French and Italian, and had been formerly engaged in the
+great war. For the present he found it convenient to remain in
+Montenegro, having been lately concerned in an "unfortunate affair"
+near Budua, where certain tenements were harried and burned. Cattaro,
+therefore, and its delights, were denied him for the present; but it
+was hoped that the temporary bad odour would soon pass away. The
+village was nearly deserted; few remained that night in Cettigna but
+ancient men. The Vladika was on and away. He had departed that
+morning, his brother remaining to take charge of the place. To-morrow
+the assault of the fortress was to commence, or, some said, it had
+already begun. We felt we had arrived at a good moment, and were
+prepared to hasten in the morning to the scene of action, thirsting
+with excitement. It was thought not unlikely that a battle might take
+place. The evening was cold and wet, and we therefore took up our
+position over the kitchen fire. In these regions this is placed in the
+middle of the room, and the smoke gets out how it can, or not at all.
+A peculiar sensation in the eyes will present itself to the mind as
+the result of such an arrangement. The kitchen, however, besides being
+the warmest, was by far the gayest place. Here we watched our dinner
+cooked, and ate it afterwards; heard of wars and rumours of wars;
+listened to heroic ballads, chanted by a warrior, and accompanied by a
+species of one-stringed fiddle; and made the acquaintance of two very
+fashionable young men. One was the bishop's nephew, a handsome lad
+about seventeen, who was, on account of his youth, very shy and
+modest, and acted as _cavaliero servente_ to the kitchen-maid. The
+other was a remarkably good-looking and well-dressed young man, whom I
+had observed on entering the place, and set down to be somebody. He
+was, alas! but a tailor from Bosnia, who had come on a speculation to
+Cettigna. A barren profession his, where fashions remain the same
+summer and winter, and a suit lasts till it drops off. He was an
+accomplished musician, as well, on the one-stringed instrument;
+boasted of a white pocket-handkerchief, and his Italian, added to our
+Servian, made up about twelve words in common; so that the evening
+passed very sociably, and we retired to rest full of hope for the
+morrow. But when that morrow came, one melancholy prospect of rain and
+mist presented itself. The white clouds hung on the mountain-tops
+immediately above. Not a breath of wind was stirring, and the rain
+descended in torrents. There seemed not a chance of its clearing, nor
+did it during the whole day. It was not, therefore, considered prudent
+to proceed, where no bed was to be found, and where the chance of even
+shelter was any thing but certain. Add to which, my companion in arms
+was taken with a violent cold; so we felt obliged to restrain our
+military ardour for one day, and proceeded to seek such recreation as
+the metropolis afforded. Cettigna, the seat of the government of
+Montenegro, and residence of the Vladika, is yet a city of no great
+magnitude. It is situated prettily enough on a little plain, around
+which the rocky summits of the mountains rise in the form of an
+amphitheatre; not to any great height, however--the elevation of the
+plain itself being very great. The most ancient building, indeed the
+only one which seems not to have been erected within these few years,
+is the monastery. This was till very lately the residence of the
+Vladika and his predecessors, and it was here the King of Saxony
+lodged when he visited Montenegro in 1836.[11] It is situated on the
+side of the rocks which bound the plain, and consists of several
+buildings of different periods joined together. The oldest has two
+rows of arched passages, or cloisters, in front, one above the other.
+Behind the convent, a wall runs up the hill, and encloses a small
+circuit of rocky ground. The whole is in a very uncertain state of
+repair. On the summit of a small rock immediately above, is a round
+tower, built apparently for ornament at no very ancient date, but
+never finished or roofed. It does not owe its decorations to the hand
+of the architect. They are of a rarer kind. From the ends of poles
+fastened into the top of the wall, two or three dozen heads, in all
+stages of decay, overlook the residence of a Christian bishop. These
+are Turks or Albanians who have fallen in different encounters, or
+possibly in cold blood, as the Montenegrians never spare the life of a
+prisoner. It was with somewhat doubtful feelings that I contemplated
+these trophies. Around, the earth was strewed with skulls and other
+relics of humanity. It was said that no head had been put up for
+nearly two years. Certain it is, that the Lord Vladika did _not_ cause
+to be placed there the heads of eighteen Turkish commissioners, who,
+in the August previous, entered Montenegro to discuss a boundary
+question. But why should I tell tales? I was hospitably received, and
+treated, me and mine, with civility and kindness, not only by the
+Vladika, but by every individual I met, and returned with my head
+undisturbed by the trip. Some of the countenances still bore traces of
+good looks, though withered by the sun and storm of years. It was a
+severe test for beauty; but the head of one young man certainly stood
+the trial. Fine features, of a cast frequently seen towards the north
+of Albania, and a set of the best teeth, (this is very general,)
+showed that he might have once been more prosperous in love than he
+proved to be in war. I thought of a relic, and took up a skull, the
+best I could find, but it was full of red earth, and seemed damp and
+unpleasant; so I put it down again. I next discovered a beautiful
+tooth; this would have surpassed the former in elegance and
+convenience, but I fancied it not either, and came away, trusting to
+my mind for a remembrance of the spot. From hence I made a sketch of
+the present residence of the bishop, the second among the remarkable
+edifices of Cettigna and its environs. It was built within these five
+years, under the auspices of no less than my trusty attendant
+Petrarca. The style is not, strictly speaking, imposing. Perhaps this
+arose from suggestions of economy, or possibly from the mind of the
+architect being at that moment unprepared with any other. Simplicity
+in design and execution characterize it throughout. It consists of a
+long single building of one low story, containing two rows of about
+twenty windows on each side. There is a door in the middle, and at
+each end a small wing placed crosswise, and a very little higher than
+the rest, containing a window above and a door below. Both before and
+behind, a large court is enclosed by a low wall of loose stones, with
+little turrets at the corners, and two doorways in the principal. In
+the front court are some old brass and iron cannon, lying
+dismounted--trophies of Turkish war. Behind is an attempted kitchen
+garden. The remainder of Cettigna is small, hardly worth
+mentioning--six or seven houses with an upper floor, and about twice
+as many ordinary huts. This forms the metropolis of Montenegro. But
+small as it is, I doubt if there be a bigger village in the country,
+the population, though sufficiently numerous, dwelling in small
+scattered hamlets. The better houses act as hostelries when called on,
+which may be the case when Parliament is sitting; but apart from the
+bishop's officials and retainers, the place does not probably contain
+a hundred souls. It being now noon, and the rain unabated, we
+determined to see all the sights of the city. His highness's residence
+was first visited. It contains the Chamber of Deputies, a printing
+establishment, and various apartments for the accommodation of friends
+and relatives. Entering one of these we found the Vladika's brother,
+whom I have previously alluded to, and had the honour of a
+presentation. He is a very ordinary-looking personage; and, as the
+powers of language were wanting to express our feelings, we soon took
+leave. The bishop's rooms for public and private reception, consist of
+a billiard-room no bigger than is necessary for the due performance of
+the game, at which he is a great adept, a small anteroom and bedroom.
+His valet and chamberlain, a well-dressed Montenegrian, did the
+honours. In the billiard-room the walls are hung with arms, though
+some of these were now absent on service. I observed some fine Turkish
+swords, some of an ancient date, presents to different Vladikas; some
+Albanian daggers, straight, with a triangular blade, resembling the
+ancient Venetian _misericordes_; and a handsomely mounted and antique
+Servian sword, the blade with the wolf-mark, so well known in the
+Highlands and other parts of Europe. There were some handsome
+fire-arms; and, among others, a splendid pipe lately presented by
+Osman Pasha of Mostar. In the anteroom I remarked with pleasure a
+small three-legged stand, with a basin and towel; and I have heard
+that other contrivances for the purification of the Episcopal person
+are not wanting, though no such met my eye. In the bedroom, where the
+odour of tobacco still remained unmitigated, was a cabinet, which,
+when opened, displayed objects well worthy the attention of the next
+pasha who may visit Cettigna. Russian orders and snuff-boxes
+uncountable, set in the choicest brilliants; presents from the
+Emperors of Austria of no mean value; a remembrance or two of the King
+of Saxony, &c. &c. All these were opened by the _cameriere_ to our
+free inspection; but not for this, nor the trouble we afterwards gave
+him when exhibiting the sacerdotal robes, keeping him above half the
+day, would he accept the smallest remuneration. This completed the
+public rooms, (his highness is reported on occasions to give grand
+entertainments, but the whereabouts was not manifest,) and we
+proceeded to the ancient convent. This, formerly the Episcopal
+dwelling, is still the residence of the chief officials attached to
+the Vladika. The first among these is the vicar--(his other avocations
+having only permitted the Vladika to officiate on two occasions)--"no
+baron or squire or knight of the shire," &c. Truly on this occasion
+the holy father had not been unmindful of himself; and, considering
+the early hour and dreary state of the weather; was as jovial as the
+heart could desire. A peculiar leer and frequent ebullitions of
+laughter, from mysterious causes, showed the frame of mind he was in.
+After coffee, and a glass of aniseed brandy, we viewed his priestly
+robes, which were of cloth of gold and very handsome. We then
+proceeded to make the acquaintance of the other officials, going the
+round of the convent. We were most cordially received; indeed, we
+appeared to be a godsend to these poor people. There was a Dalmatian
+schoolmaster, a very intelligent young man, who superintended the
+branch of national education; his highness's secretary, an Italian;
+and a woman from Cattaro, the wife of another now absent at the camp,
+and the only example of female aristocracy in Montenegro. At the
+apartment of each of the inmates, coffee, invariably excellent, and
+glasses of brandy, were handed round. These the holy personage in our
+company always emptied to the uttermost, and then would romp and
+wrestle with the schoolmaster, and perform all kinds of frolics. He
+was a Hungarian by birth. When our German or his Italian respectively
+failed, then Latin assisted our communications; and, what with the wet
+weather and the coffee, we all became very sociable and chatty. After
+an hour or two so spent, we took our way to the chapel. It is very
+small; not capable, I should say, of accommodating above twenty or
+thirty persons. There, embalmed, are the remains of the late Vladika.
+The vicar removed the lid of the coffin, and he there appeared attired
+in full canonicals. His face, however, was hidden, and the covering
+was not removed. The limbs appeared to be much shrunk. The holy man
+took the hand of the deceased, and, kissing it with the most solemn
+devotion, burst into a wild laugh, and closed the lid. A small trifle
+_pro salute animae_ was expected in a box adjoining it. We next went to
+the robe-room, passing along a series of mouldy and rat-eaten floors
+to a small room, such as might be found in a dilapidated stable-loft;
+there, from old dingy boxes, were drawn forth such garments as created
+astonishment--the richest damask and cloth of gold of all
+colours--their weight enormous--so massive that they would almost
+stand alone. I have never seen any thing so splendid; and the effect
+of such upon the fine form of the Vladika must be worth beholding. In
+another chest were deposited the crowns of different Vladikas. They
+are of a shape resembling the ancient Russian diadem, being not of the
+form of any kind of coronet, but a cap all covered or entire, globular
+at top, and diminishing towards where they fit the head. Perhaps there
+were half a dozen or more. They were richly ornamented with precious
+stones--the present Vladika's the most so. I understand they are
+presents from St Petersburg. By nine next morning the rain had
+somewhat cleared, and the weather was mild and promising. We started,
+therefore, hoping that night to reach the quarters of the Vladika,
+though no one could speak positively to the place. We made some
+enquiries as to the chance of finding shelter, as the nights were
+singularly cold; but it was of course apparent that time alone could
+decide. None of our friends from the monastery, who had been so
+warlike the day before, made their appearance; so we started without
+any addition to our party. The road was nearly all on the descent, and
+usually so stony and rough as to make riding the mule a matter of
+difficulty. We passed by Dobro Skorsello, one of the richest communes
+of Montenegro; there figs, vines, and olives are grown: a wild species
+of mulberry occurs, and large trees of it frequently appeared before a
+hut or hamlet. These are wide-spreading and ancient, but not tall.
+This district furnishes seven thousand fighting men. Here we met the
+wife of one of the principal senators among a troop of females with
+bundles of wood upon their head. We now had the first intelligence
+from the camp. Descending into a little plain we met about two hundred
+men returning to celebrate a village fete, as their services were not
+just then required. They passed in single file; wild, active-looking
+fellows they certainly were. In about half an hour after, we
+encountered forty or fifty others. These were peculiarly warm in their
+friendship, and slapped me so hard on the back that it required my
+utmost force to return the compliment with any thing like cordiality.
+They took it into their heads that I was a certain long-expected
+bombardier who was to direct their artillery against Lessandro, and
+they loaded me with compliments and good wishes. I almost, at the
+moment, regretted my want of knowledge in the art. About one o'clock
+we descended upon the Nariako river, then a rapid clear green stream,
+which conducts the torrents of the upper mountains to the lake of
+Scutari; and, in another hour, reached the village of that name, which
+is known also by the Italian one of Fiumara. We trusted here to
+procuring a boat which would convey us the remainder of the journey;
+but the natives of this free country are seldom in a hurry, and in
+fact it was necessary that we should be made popular idols for a
+certain space; nor had we the means of keeping each other in
+countenance. I was hurried off, accompanied by Petrarca, to the house
+of the captain of the district, a senator, I understood, and eminently
+brave; while my unfortunate companion, without any one to help, was
+taken possession of by a lady of rank, a Cattarese by birth, but who
+had nearly forgotten her native tongue, and in a short time was
+surrounded by all the females and olive branches of the place. The
+usual brandy, with coffee and pipes, was served to our party. The
+houses, or little dirty huts rather, have in front a small balcony
+covered at top, and raised about four or five feet from the ground;
+here Spiro, Petrarca, and myself were seated, with my host and several
+others. While the lady of the house brought in the pipes and
+refreshments, I made some very sensible observations, which Petrarca
+clothed in Servian, and the replies seemed in every way equal;
+notwithstanding, in about an hour the liveliness of the scene began
+somewhat to wear off, and I took the first opportunity of hastening to
+rescue the other sufferer. Here I discovered the object of public
+attention seated on a bench with her host and hostess, one on each
+knee as it were, and the room thronged with spectators; women and
+children were squatted or perched on every conceivable spot. The
+harmony of the party had, however, undergone for a moment a trifling
+disorder; for, while all the rest had been full of compliment and
+courtesy, one elderly lady had thought proper to express herself in a
+manner contradictory to the general feeling, and in the strongest
+terms, going even the length of shaking her fist at the occupant of
+the post of honour. She was, however, bundled out most unceremoniously,
+neck and crop, as the phrase is. After further delays, and declining a
+most uninviting dormitory, a boat was got ready; four warriors were in
+her, and we departed amid the cheers of the population and a
+promiscuous discharge of fire-arms. This was warmly responded to by
+our party; nor did I much regret when these demonstrations had ceased,
+as a Montenegrian considers it quite etiquette to discharge his
+heavy-loaded piece any where in the immediate vicinity of the head, so
+long as the muzzle just clears the honoured individual. In a few
+minutes we were gliding down the beautiful stream. The absence of all
+wild animals is peculiarly observable in the mountains. A woodcock or
+red-legged partridge are occasionally seen; but few quadrupeds are met
+with, and the larger and fiercer kinds are rarely known to occur. This
+deficiency, however, in the general zoology, is amply compensated by
+the birds which frequent the Fiumara river. As we proceeded, muffled
+up in the bottom of the boat, for it was very cold, the fitful
+exertions of our warlike crew disturbed quantities of aquatic birds.
+The river widened greatly, the mountain banks disappearing, till at
+length the shores became obscure in the distance, and thus it
+imperceptibly enters and forms the lake of Scutari. Cormorants and
+ducks passed over in flocks; noble herons got up screaming on every
+side. One of these was the milk-white aigrette; superior in size to
+the common heron. The kingfishers had a beautiful appearance. I never
+saw this bird elsewhere in such multitudes. I did not request any of
+my crew to try their skill, as I had had enough of firing for the time
+being, nor did I take a fancy to do so myself. The large bore and
+light metal of their arms, added to the weight of the charge, spoke of
+a recoil any thing but pleasing, and which I hear usually takes place.
+Next day, however, I asked the captain of the boat to show me a shot;
+he took aim at a diver which kept appearing a-head; he fired when
+nothing but the neck was visible above water, and the ball completely
+divided it, the head barely hanging by a bit of skin. The bird was
+distant about fifty yards, and the boat moving, while he stood on the
+bow. At some longer shots he was not so successful. We passed a
+village at a small distance, and lay on our oars to hear the news.
+Most of the people were absent; but one, a great man, was seated on
+the hut-top, with a few idlers round him. This was the chief president
+of the senate--the speaker of the house, in short; and undoubtedly, if
+stentorian lungs are of any use for that office in a Montenegrian
+parliament, he was most amply qualified. For twenty minutes this
+eminent man conversed with us--the distance at first being about a
+quarter of a mile, and probably it might be three miles or more before
+he was finally out of hearing. The Turkish fortress of Dzabiack now
+appeared perched on a steep isolated hill rising from the marsh. It
+seemed, as we passed it about two miles off, to be in a very
+dilapidated condition. The Montenegrians, however, had at present no
+designs upon it; and its garrison maintained a peaceful neutrality.
+They have on several occasions destroyed this fortress, which has been
+occupied again by the Turks. It gives then little annoyance, being
+distant, I should think, five miles from the head of the lake. All was
+now water, but the principal channels above were passable, the rest
+being overgrown with weeds. At several of these, long consultations
+occurred as to our best route. It began to rain a little, and the
+place of our destination seemed doubtful. At length we emerged on the
+broad beautiful lake, and our progress was easy. We soon came in sight
+of the beleaguered island and fortress of Lessandro. The cannonade,
+which we had heard during the earlier part of the day, had long
+ceased, and all seemed quiet. It was still twilight, but the place to
+which our people had determined on going, lay beyond the foot of a
+mountain which projected to a nearer approach with the island. This
+was the very mountain on the top of which the Vladika had placed his
+batteries. They considered it prudent, therefore, to wait till dark,
+before passing within point-blank range of the enemy's guns. We,
+therefore, hauled the boat up, and waited under lee of the point. As
+soon as the light had failed, we moved forward, passing stealthily
+along the shore to within about three hundred yards of the fort. The
+previous garrulity of our party was now hushed, and they exhibited the
+most laudable prudence. I observed, however, that they had all their
+guns cocked and ready, as if they intended to have returned any
+compliment from the fortress; but no such contingency was at hand. The
+Albanians were engaged in chanting martial choruses, possibly to
+maintain their own valour as well as dismay their opponents, and show
+what excellent health and spirits they possessed after the two days'
+siege. At any rate, they made too much noise to hear any thing but
+themselves. As we went along shore, we were several times challenged
+by those on the look-out, and long explanations passed in low yet
+distinct tones. At length the danger was passed, and we went a-head
+for about two miles along the lake; then, turning off up a deep
+sluggish stream, we came in sight of our quarters. A large fire blazed
+in the principal of three huts, and by its light numerous persons were
+seen around it. Landing with our baggage and equipage, we soon joined
+the circle; about a dozen warriors were here assembled. They were
+very civil to us, and glad to see our party. They gave us the best
+place at the fire, where, spreading our plaids, we were soon occupied
+with such dainties as the place or our own providence supplied. When
+it came to be bed-time, the fighting part of the community
+good-naturedly suffered themselves to be persuaded to go to the other
+end of the room, by which means we were enabled to lie down by the
+fire. There they rolled themselves up, and, in the shortest possible
+time, were in a state of oblivion. I may observe that the people in
+general, men or women, have seldom any beds. They lie down any where
+on the floor, ensconced in a capote or cloak, removing perhaps their
+opunkas, but scarcely ever any other garment. We should have been
+pretty comfortable but for the minute hosts that peopled the
+apartment. Late at night, too, the extreme cold compelled several
+parties to seek refuge by the fire who had no right or little
+thereto--as the house-cat and her two kittens; she would take no
+denial, however often repelled. Whenever one awoke, there she would be
+with her interesting offspring close nestled under one's chin. The
+family dog, too, suffered severely from cold; he was, as often as he
+entered, kicked out by his master in a way that did the heart good;
+and his murmurs of complaint and resentment would last for a full ten
+minutes. But the door would not fasten, and he always found his way in
+again, trampling over, in his way to the fire, the recumbent forms of
+the sleepers, in a manner far from conducive to good-humour. It was,
+therefore, not to be wondered at that our slumbers were not prolonged
+to a late hour. I set forth at break of day to find a clear-looking
+place in the river: for as I was to be presented to his highness, I
+could not afford to forego any advantages. The ice was on the side of
+the pools; but with the aid of a small box I carried under my arm, I
+soon had all the requisites of an elaborate dressing-room. Several of
+the Montenegrians were also on the alert, rubbing their faces with the
+muddy water on the edge of the lake; but whether to make them cleaner
+or dirtier did not appear. Breakfast was soon dispatched. Already the
+cannonade had commenced, and we hastened to the scene of action.
+Lessandro is a small low islet, perhaps a hundred yards long by forty
+or fifty wide; at one end was the principal, at the other, a minor
+fort. The first consisted of a thick round tower, flat at top, where
+their largest gun was mounted. This was surrounded by a low wall, with
+two small bastions at different angles; the other was a square
+building, with a bastion at one corner, containing, I believe, the
+stores. All over the island were the tents of the soldiers--that of
+the commander distinguished by a red flag. I think I counted about
+forty. The Montenegrians declared they had in the island five hundred
+men. Not one was visible however, the whole day. Under the lee of the
+chief fort was anchored a small gun-boat from Scutari. On one side of
+Lessandro rises, in immediate proximity, the mountainous island of
+Vranina. It was here that the Vladika at first wished to have taken up
+his position; but boats, it was said, were wanting to transport his
+men and munitions. Had he attempted this, a serious encounter would
+probably have taken place; but he had given up the idea, and it was as
+in consequence of this that we had met the men returning home the day
+before. The spot he fixed on was a mountain directly opposite Vranina,
+but at a greater distance from the object of attack. He had not with
+him altogether above fifty men. This time we had once more to pass
+within a quarter of a mile of the fort; and as we were a boat-load of
+armed men hastening to headquarters, I somewhat expected they might
+have condescended to notice us. Such, however, was not the case; and
+we landed and ascended the hill to where the battery was placed. We
+had not been there long before the Vladika, who was on a higher part
+of the ground, having heard of our arrival, came down to meet us. I
+felt for a moment rather modest, and began to wonder what business I
+had there. However, we advanced with all boldness, and soon
+distinguished the chieftain from his attendants by his giant stature.
+No bishop's cassock covered his towering form. Clothed in scarlet and
+gold, he descended the hill with the true Albanian strut. His manner
+was frank and cordial; and on his invitation we all three sat down on
+the grass to partake of a camp luncheon. The Vladika was then in the
+thirty-fifth year of his age. In truth, he was a goodly man--a very
+Saul among his people. His height I should think very nearly midway
+between six and seven feet. He was not fat, but the breadth and
+massiveness of his chest and limbs was extraordinary. His figure was
+very finely proportioned, and his movements free and active. His face
+was somewhat broad, with good features, and his voice peculiarly soft
+and pleasing. His hair and beard black, and, after the fashion of the
+Greek clergy, uncut. He wore a Turkish pelisse of scarlet, coming
+nearly to the knee, and trimmed with gold and sable, a large fur cap,
+and the usual blue drawers and opunkas of the Montenegrians. A pair of
+plain European pistols were in his belt--the only arms he wore. The
+place where we sat was in a most picturesque situation. The Turkish
+balls kept whizzing past, forming, as his highness remarked, beautiful
+music. Indeed, it seemed to me we were very nearly in the line a
+well-directed shot ought to have taken; but, of course, it was not my
+place to speak. Our fare consisted of cold meat carved in slices with
+the yataghan, and rum out of the mouth of the same bottle. He
+conversed in French fluently, and various courteous speeches showed it
+was not the first time he had encountered female society. He seemed
+excited when relating the misdeeds of his enemies, and his usually
+languid voice assumed a little asperity, as he described the way in
+which, while he made war in Bosnia, "ces diables des Turcs" had
+surprised his garrison at Lessandro. My knowledge of gunnery was not
+extensive, still I could not be ignorant of the chance he had, with
+three short twelve-pounders, of injuring any building whatever, when
+firing at it at a distance of eight hundred yards, in an almost
+perpendicular direction. The fort, besides, seemed very sturdy and
+solid, and I could not flatter him with hopes of success. He did not,
+however, appear to be without hope. Certainly, had he chosen to risk
+an assault with some trifling loss, the place might have been in his
+possession; but boats were not at hand in sufficient numbers, and
+besides, such a proceeding might not have been popular with amateur
+soldiers. He asked me if I had brought any letters to him; I frankly
+owned I had not. "Ah!" he said, "you came from curiosity, that you
+might talk in the gay circles of London, of having seen the Vladika of
+Montenegro." I did not say, that were I to do so, I should talk very
+unintelligibly to a great many of my hearers. After our collation was
+finished, we rose and proceeded to the battery, if it could be
+honoured with such a name. But had its power been as extensive as the
+view from it, it would have amply sufficed. The day was now most
+beautiful and spring-like, and various flowers, with sportive
+butterflies and other insects, enlivened the mountain side. The broad
+blue lake lay beneath, and in the extreme distance the position of
+Scutari itself could be distinguished. Three ranges of mountains were
+visible, rising one above the other, till the snowy chains of Bosnia
+bounded the horizon. The cannonade, as there was little to be
+apprehended, added to the beauty and interest. The wreathing of the
+white smoke on the Turkish tower, and the report borne along in the
+calm air, and echoed a dozen times by the distant mountains--the
+gradual approach and whizzing of the balls, and the shot from our
+guns, as it hit the buildings, or occasionally bounded along the
+water, were all interesting novelties. I made a sketch, to the best of
+my ability, of every object of interest in the vicinity of this lovely
+spot. As regards matters purely military, we had three guns in
+operation--short twelves, as I have already mentioned; a rampart was
+before them, formed of earth, bound with stakes, and about three feet
+thick. I was told this had only been struck four times. Few people
+were about. Nor could gunners of fame have been in plenty, for I soon
+discovered Petrarca pointing the cannon. The shot also was of
+different sizes--any that could be got, as Austria does not favour
+the importation of warlike materials into Montenegro; and to this
+disparity of metal may be ascribed the constant difficulty which the
+Montenegrian gunners experienced in hitting even the island. Still
+they kept the game alive, the Turks not giving one shot for three.
+They appeared to have four guns, but their biggest was on the platform
+of the chief tower, a screen of masonry protecting it from lying
+entirely open to our position on the hill. They fired also several
+shells, but they did no damage, exploding high in the air. At length
+the Vladika approached the best cannon, anxious to display his skill.
+He took a long aim, and then fired, exulting greatly when the ball
+struck the stone screenwork at top of the tower. This was just where
+he aimed, and it was the best shot by far that I had seen. A little
+dust seemed to fly, but no further damage. The reply of the Turks came
+promptly, but his highness did not honour their skill by even ducking
+below the rampart. It lodged in the side of the hill several feet
+below us. We remained, enjoying the interesting scene and beautiful
+day, till about one o'clock, when the Montenegrian batteries suspended
+operations from a temporary failure of ammunition. Being desirous of
+passing the night in less crowded quarters than the previous one, we
+now took our leave of the Vladika, and returned to the hamlet we had
+left in the morning; and having with some difficulty procured a pony,
+we set off to get as far on our road to Cattaro as we could, not
+returning by Cettigna, which would have been round about, but entering
+the Austrian territory above Budua and Castel Astua--Cattaro at
+present lying to the north-west of us. The boy who conducted this same
+pony, (a little mare, with a mule foal running beside her,) was the
+most unmitigated savage I have met with on my travels, though not more
+than ten years old. He was the ugliest little urchin I ever saw--his
+only clothing was a piece of an old sack and ragged opunkas. After
+galloping some distance to meet us, his mind misgave him as to his
+pistol, and he returned and made his father, who was working in the
+field, exchange with him. He then undertook to lead the pony, (the
+animals here do not go pleasantly unless led, and also by some one
+they are acquainted with,) which he did in the most desperate manner,
+walking at about seven miles an hour. No concern of his what became of
+the knees of the occupant, or with what stones or thorns they might be
+brought into collision. When he came to a precipice in the road, and
+there were many, down he jumped tugging the beast after him, and not
+looking behind once. All this time the foal kept jamming up against
+its mother. It was soon evident that the dismissal of this youth and
+his cattle was a _sine qua non_, as cautions were vain. But on a sum
+being offered which he considered less than his due, having come about
+a mile, he took his own part in a manner most edifying in one so
+young; and had the retainers of our party not been as well provided as
+he, I believe he would have pistolled the whole of us. At length,
+finding his efforts fruitless, he sprang on the pony, and putting her
+to her best pace, was soon out of sight. About the same time we fell
+in with two monks from the convent of Bercelli, who were on their way
+to pay their respects to the Vladika. This was fortunate, as we had
+intended to sleep there. These were the only inmates, and had the key
+of the place with them. After treating the party to brandy, one of
+them turned back with us. He was an old man, and he had to return a
+distance of twelve miles; but he never seemed to give this a thought.
+They were dressed in black gowns, and high black caps. Our road lay
+through a populous district, and many were the salutations Petrarca
+received, coupled with enquiries respecting us--long conversations
+taking place over miles of intervening hill and dale. This time, I
+believe, I filled the part of the English ambassador. The outward
+appearance of our quarters, when we arrived, was not prepossessing;
+but the state of dirt of the best room could hardly have been
+anticipated. Its equal--I speak advisedly--could not be found out of
+the country we were in. The floors mouldy and rat-eaten--old shelves
+hanging about, containing every kind of rubbish--crusts of bread, a
+bit of tallow candle in a bottle--old cups and glasses in different
+directions, with the remains of something in the bottom of every one.
+The only covering on the boards which formed the bed, was a sheepskin
+blanket, very old and dirty, looking like the mother of fleas. It
+would take a page to mention the manifold horrors that presented
+themselves. At length, after a late bad supper, I felt repose
+desirable, be it where it might. We had stipulated, however, for the
+sole possession of this melancholy dormitory, and having made up the
+best bed I could, turned in with loathing; but the cold made one less
+particular, as it was hard frost, and the windows had no shutter or
+fastening of any kind. I found, however, there was one exception to
+our sole right of tenure; no other than the old priest himself, whom I
+had shortly to get up and let in. Poor man! he had nowhere else to go;
+and having given up his luxurious couch, he proposed for himself to
+court slumber on the top of an old chest--it looked hard, certainly,
+and the poor old man seemed ill at ease. All night he rested none. He
+groaned much, and was afflicted with a cough and its usual results;
+and in each result he laboured long and strenuously, as though putting
+his whole soul in it, till a severe shock on the opposite wall showed
+the successful issue of his exertions. We did not lie in bed next
+morning very long after waking, and by six o'clock were on our road,
+expressing a firm determination to reach Cattaro or perish, sooner
+than pass another night in a Montenegrian homestead. There was no
+other mule to be procured to-day, so it was a case of riding and tying
+with the portmanteau. When the latter walked, it usually did so on the
+head of the poor woman who brought the mule. The remainder of our
+luggage consisted of two carpet-bags, and Spiro and Melo slung one of
+these upon each of their guns, and proceeded merrily. We entered the
+Austrian territory by the village of Braitsch. The people hereabouts
+are very poor and ill-off. Our way overlooked the sea; below us lay
+Budua. We halted, to give ourselves and the mule a drink, by the fort
+of Stanivitch. This was formerly a convent, and under the dominion of
+Montenegro; but Austria has lately become possessor of it, through, I
+believe, a pecuniary arrangement with the Vladika. His territory,
+however, at no time reached the sea in any part, though this is not
+distant above two or three miles; it was now a military post. A
+Moravian captain was in command, who most politely invited us to stay
+the night, fearing we should be unable to reach Cattaro; however, it
+was then only four o'clock, the day was bright, and the sight of the
+sea encouraged us. Besides, I noticed a _flea_ on the collar of his
+coat. We thanked him for his kindness, and persevered on our journey.
+Our road lay nearly all on the descent, and while it was good, and the
+daylight lasted, we hurried forward with all speed. At length it
+became very rocky and precipitous; and, as the light soon failed
+entirely, it became necessary to mount the portmanteau, as it was not
+possible for any biped to sustain it longer on their head, and to
+maintain their equilibrium as well. From very bad, things got to much
+worse. The track, as well as the whole country, was composed of
+angular grey rocks, among which, in the now total darkness, it became
+nearly impossible to discern the path. These stones had a light
+appearance, and it was desirable to avoid bringing one's shins in
+contact with them; but if a spot seemed dark, and might be imagined to
+be soft ground, it proved to be one of the villanous prickly bushes of
+the country. This shrub grows all over Albania and Dalmatia, and, I
+believe, in Italy; it is low and bushy, with abundance of flat round
+seed; the spines are set both ways, up and down the twig, and are the
+most malignant thorns I ever met with. Whatever part of your garments
+they catch hold of, from that they have never been known to part.
+Presently our road became inhabited by a stream of water, and every
+step that avoided the stones was ankle-deep in mud. How the mule could
+have got on, as I could not see, I cannot imagine, but the box which
+it carried was not seriously damaged. The two guides in their opunkas
+walked firmly, but the others were tumbling frequently. The female
+who had come with us now fairly "compounded," according to the
+sporting phrase, and gave vent to her sufferings in tears and
+reproaches. This had, however, a reviving effect upon others of our
+party, who were near compounding themselves--for I had rather been
+holding out the endurance of this poor woman, who had walked most of
+the day with a portmanteau on her head, as an example for imitation.
+The town of Cattaro at length became visible far below us, after
+almost the longest three hours I ever passed. At other times, I might
+have been tempted to derive amusement from the mishaps of my friends
+under similar circumstances; but at present, some of the party had
+been reduced to such desperation, that I began sometimes to doubt the
+favourable issue of our journey. By nine o'clock the land gates are
+closed, and this we had heard already strike. The sea gate is open for
+another hour. It was not till after this, that, having gained the
+coast road which leads to Cattaro from the south, we reached the town.
+There, a boat was requisite to take us over the sea gate; but all the
+town boats had long since retired, and it took us at least half an
+hour to awake somebody on board a trabacolo in the harbour. When at
+length we were conveyed to the gate, a small gratuity to the sentinels
+gained us admission, and a little before midnight we found ourselves
+once more in our favourite inn. We remained some days at Cattaro,
+arranging for our departure. During this time, we heard that the
+Vladika had at length found his task hopeless, and abandoned
+hostilities. He had been, however, a week arriving at such a
+conclusion, and the sound of the cannonade was heard during the whole
+of the time occupied by our return. It was a pity to see a worthy
+potentate of moderate means spending his pocket-money so fruitlessly.
+The philanthropist will be glad to learn that no lives were sacrificed
+during this protracted siege. The Montenegrians, more modest than some
+of our own neighbours on a late occasion of very similar glory, laid
+claim only to having wounded one man in the fort; but an Albanian
+bulletin might have denied even that.
+
+Before concluding, a few further particulars concerning Montenegro
+will not be out of place. In former days, as I have observed, they
+were but a den of mountain thieves, dangerous to each other, and
+unapproachable by strangers. At the present time, no country can boast
+superiority in either of these respects. Indeed, in so small a
+community, crime is rare, from the greater certainty of detection. I
+speak nothing, of course, of border pastimes with their neighbours;
+and these, possibly, form a safety-valve to the pent-up propensities
+of the inhabitants. This important change has been brought about
+within fifty years, but, most of all, during the twelve years that the
+present Vladika has reigned. But the Vladikas who have effected this
+change, actuated by the desire of improving the condition of their
+people, have been obliged to barter their independence, in a manner,
+for Russian gold, in order to give them the means of effecting it. I
+am not able to say when the subsidizing system first commenced, but at
+present the Vladika, as well as all the officials and senators,
+receive their stipends. That of the Vladika amounts, I believe, to
+about eight thousand pounds annually; but this may include a small tax
+of, I think, two shillings on each household, which is paid by the
+Montenegrians themselves. Of the senators, there are forty who are
+elected by the communes, and paid by Russia. There is also a force of
+eight hundred men paid, and residing in different districts, which
+forms an executive police; but there is nothing in the shape of a
+standing army. The Vladikas are appointed by the emperor in nepotal
+succession from the family of Petrovitch. The present Vladika received
+his education at St Petersburg, and several of his nephews are now
+there, from whom his successor will be chosen. I am not acquainted
+with the amount of temporal power possessed by the Vladika, but I
+should think it was subject to much restraint. I have heard that, on
+more than one occasion in the senate, he has been personally
+threatened during the stormy debates which have occurred. Though he is
+generally popular, it would seem that here, as elsewhere, there
+exists a strong party opposed to all reform, and pining for the good
+old days of general license. The demeanour of the Montenegrians to
+their Vladika, though respectful, is free and independent. On meeting
+him the hand is raised to the head, or, if near, they offer to kiss
+his hand. This salutation is paid to any ordinary priest, and
+occasionally, through all Dalmatia, to a stranger like myself. Russia,
+it will be seen, reigns as completely in Montenegro as though its
+passes were occupied by her soldiers. The supplies stopped, all would
+be anarchy and confusion. Nor do the Montenegrians object to this in
+any way. Their personal independence is in no way compromised, and
+their laws and usages remain unaltered. There is not a single Russian
+in Montenegro, and, only knowing them at distance, they regard them at
+present with hearty good-will. The Vladika, however, who reaps the
+greatest benefits, has, it would appear, to submit to a certain loss
+of freedom. During the past summer he visited Trieste and Vienna; and
+I was informed, on good authority, had desired to go to England, but
+had been unable to obtain the permission of an emperor who seems
+determined no one shall travel but himself. The Vladika had certainly
+expressed to me a hope that he should visit England some time. There
+can be no doubt that it is well worth while thus to secure the
+alliance of the Montenegrians, for they would prove a bitter thorn in
+any collision either with Turkey or Austria. The country is divided
+into twelve military jurisdictions, under so many captains, and every
+man is bound to serve, though by what power, except inclination, I am
+sure I do not know. I do not imagine that this has been particularly
+provided for, so willing are they to serve uncalled.
+
+The population of Montenegro is at the present time not short of one
+hundred and twenty thousand souls. Of these, more than half would be
+serviceable were their own territory invaded; for every boy of eight
+years old and upwards carries a gun, and there is no reason he should
+not point it as straight as an older person, presenting, at the same
+time, a smaller mark to the enemy. The women even occasionally assist,
+and at all times carry the ammunition and supplies. I used sometimes
+to think, when meeting one of these armed urchins, how ignominious it
+would be to be robbed by him; and yet, were he only cunning enough to
+keep out of arm's-length, I don't exactly know how it could be helped.
+The arms of the Montenegrians consist of a long gun, usually very
+elegantly mounted, the stock short, and curved like a horse's neck;
+round his waist is a belt with cartouch-boxes containing the spare
+ammunition, the cartridges for immediate use being in the pistol-belt
+in front. Here, in a leather case, is a mass of arms which occupy the
+same relative position to the wearer as the youthful kangaroo to its
+parent; here are a brace of pistols with a pointed pommel, and a
+yataghan, which is used in these countries to the entire exclusion of
+the sword, and which, from its position in the belt, does not get in
+the way when walking--the ramrod for the pistols also, which in the
+East is a separate arm, containing sometimes a dagger or a pair of
+tongs for adjusting the never-absent pipe, and a smaller knife is
+often slung on behind. In ordinary times, a yataghan or pistol may be
+dispensed with; but whatever may be the occupation of man or boy, the
+gun is never left behind, whether ploughing, or cutting wood, or
+carrying the heaviest burdens. It is almost extraordinary that they
+should thus encumber themselves, as, within their own boundary, none
+are so safe, and their mountains seldom afford them a living mark. I
+believe it arises very much from a fondness for the weapon. The
+greatest care is taken of it, and it undergoes a complete cleaning
+after every shot. The arms of the people in general present a striking
+contrast to their dress. On the former they spend most of their spare
+money, and they are kept in great order and cleanliness. The warriors,
+when they take the field, fight more for plunder than for honour and
+glory. The spoils of houses and farm-steads, or the arms or heads of
+their enemies, (a prisoner is never spared,) all form desirable
+prizes. It must be remembered their service is chiefly voluntary, and
+they receive no pay. It is not their tactics to expose themselves
+much in battle. The grey rocks, which suit well the colour of their
+dress, afford a shelter, from behind which they take well-directed
+aim. Every man acts to the best of his judgment--usually acute where
+self-preservation is the law; and their great activity and powers of
+endurance enable them, in their difficult country, to contend with
+many advantages against regular troops. In 1838, during a temporary
+collision with Austria, they gave as good as they received, to say the
+least; and perhaps it was owing to this that peace was so soon
+concluded. In such a country cavalry is out of the question, and
+horses are seldom used. The Vladika himself possesses a considerable
+stud. The dress of the people--at all seasons the same--consists of a
+white coat of coarse cloth, with generally a blue edging, open in
+front, and reaching nearly to the knee. This has no buttons, but is
+fastened round the waist by a red sash. They are usually shirtless,
+and their hardy bosoms brave the storm in all weathers. Around their
+shoulders is thrown a description of plaid, generally of a brown
+colour, about three feet wide and six feet long; and from keeping this
+in its proper position, a slight stoop becomes habitual. They have
+wide drawers of blue serge, or sometimes of the material of their
+coats, which is thicker; of this also are their leggings formed. Under
+the opunkas is worn a thick woollen sock; but in wet weather the men
+and women usually go barefooted. On their head is a small round cap of
+scarlet or black cloth. Their custom is to shave the whole of the face
+excepting the mustaches, as well as the sides and crown of the head;
+but from long neglect, it is often difficult to distinguish the
+favoured localities. Petrarca, in his avocation of barber, was in the
+greatest request. The costume of the women does not differ widely, but
+the coat is longer, and a petticoat replaces the blue drawers--round
+their waist is a belt of great weight, about three inches wide, and of
+the thickest leather, set with cornelians and other coarse stones,
+mounted in brass. The red cap is usual, and the hair is often prettily
+braided. I have seen some head-dresses composed of silver coins. None
+of the people seem to be in the habit of bathing or washing, and they
+do not remove their garments at night. The children have often nothing
+but a shirt. As a nation they are healthy and robust, though fevers
+occur at certain times in some districts. Among the men two casts of
+features are general; the one, known among us as the "Jack Sheppard
+face"--the lower parts rather prominent, and the nose short and
+somewhat turned up, the complexion and hair very dark. The other is
+very different, a bright colour and high handsome features; yet nearly
+every person one meets belongs to one of these two varieties. The
+latter is commonest among the tallest men. They have all very good
+teeth, and their expression is intelligent and good-humoured. As in
+feature, so in stature, considerable uniformity appears. Their height
+averages about five feet ten, with great development of muscle. The
+women are relatively inferior in looks--they are broad and short,
+seeming to possess great strength; but the labour they undergo, and
+the burdens they carry, appear inimical to beauty. They have often
+pleasant countenances and good brick-dust complexions. The Servian or
+Naski here spoken is considered among the purest dialects of
+Sclavonic--it has a very pleasing sound, being softer and more
+melodious than the Russian. My stay was unfortunately not long enough
+to obtain much knowledge of it, and this want will sufficiently
+account for any errors that may appear in my descriptions of what I
+did not personally witness; for it prevented that free intercourse
+with the people, by which a true insight to their manners can alone be
+acquired. Their laws seem very simple; he who kills is killed--shooting
+being the mode of execution. He who robs must make good; and, as few
+of the people are in abject poverty, this is usually done. Should they
+fail, a summary flogging is inflicted. At Cettigna is a small prison;
+I believe there is no other. When any one is there confined, he trusts
+entirely to his friends for subsistence. They are good-humoured,
+obliging, and extremely loquacious; but their continued spitting is
+very disagreeable. I witnessed no games or diversions among them
+except the one-stringed fiddle; but I understood that they have a few
+athletic sports, such as wrestling and putting the stone. They often
+go to sea. I encountered two among the crew of an Austrian packet.
+They all profess the Greek faith, and are in their way very religious.
+When passing a church they bow and cross themselves, and perform all
+sorts of pious movements, which sometimes border on the ludicrous.
+Before going to sleep they make long prayers. Previous to visiting the
+Vladika, an armed Montenegrian entered in the morning the house where
+we slept, and casting aside his gun and cloak, commenced reading mass
+to the assembled party. This was the priest of the parish. The older
+members of the community are not usually very enlightened; but through
+the schools established by the Vladika, where instruction is dispensed
+gratuitously, most of the rising generation can read and write their
+native language, and a sufficiency of neatly printed books are issued
+from the press he keeps employed at Cettigna. No social distinctions
+are yet known among them, and the most perfect equality prevails--even
+the sons address their father by his Christian name. The only
+exception is in the person of the Vladika--his lot on the whole is not
+an enviable one. The only educated mind among the many--the only
+polished gentleman among simple peasants; he is indeed an isolated
+being. Handsome and in the prime of life, yet there must be none to
+cheer his lot, or lighten his solitude, nor any to whom he would love
+to transmit his mountain throne. In this respect the laws of his order
+are stringent, and the breath of scandal has never yet sullied his
+fair name, though it is quite true that whilst in his native land the
+temptations are not very severe. I should not be surprised if a report
+I heard current should prove true, that he intended, at no very
+distant period, to relinquish the government of Montenegro, and spend
+the remainder of his days among a people more congenial to the habits
+of a man of education. Were he an absolute potentate, an extended
+field for benefiting his countrymen might be obtained; but with his
+more constitutional power, the attempts he has been able to make have
+been constantly thwarted by prejudice and ignorance. Had he the
+privileges or the ties of an ordinary man, then, as we all know, the
+barrener the rocks, the dearer seems the love of the native land; but,
+situated as he is, he can hardly be accused of want of patriotism if
+his stay in Montenegro should not extend beyond the time required in
+saving sufficient of his income to quit it.
+
+Our voyage from Cattaro to Corfu was accomplished in a small
+trabacolo--the San Marco of Spalatro--having on board three men and a
+boy. These boats, though not fast, are very safe, and the Dalmatians
+in general manage small craft well. The north wind is scarce at this
+time of the year, but a beautiful _tramontana_ blew during the time we
+were working out of the Bocca. This we lost entirely, and not a breath
+moved its calm waters. We had also to wait some hours at Port Rosa,
+situated at the entrance of the Bocca, for our papers. By the time we
+were out at sea, the wind had nearly died away, and the next day found
+us employed gathering wild pomegranates on the desolate shores near
+Antiversi, in Albania. Again a beautiful tramontana sprang up, and in
+a vessel of first-rate sailing powers, would almost have brought us
+in. All day we went gallantly along. The heads of Ducazzo--Dyrrichium
+of old--began to appear, and soon we passed it in a foam. All night we
+held on, and in the morning were beside the "_infames scopulos
+Acroceraunia_," and in sight of the island of Sassina, near the
+harbour of Avlona. On we went still, till at length there appeared the
+land of the Phoeacians, "like a shield upon the sea;" but there was
+a cloud over it which portended ill. It advanced towards us, and
+extended rapidly. It was soon evident to the most sanguine that the
+wind was changing, and there was shortly no mistake about the matter.
+I implored our skipper to keep on, though he tacked to the coast of
+Apulia; but he knew his trade too well--the trade of a trabacolo
+consisting in never losing sight of shore. So we were obliged to put
+in to Avlona harbour, deeply lamenting. Two days were spent here, not
+daring to land for fear of putting ourselves in quarantine. Above the
+town rises the fortress of Canina, but all wears a ruined appearance.
+The people of the neighbourhood, called Chimariots, have the worst
+reputation of all the Albanians. The coast of Albania between this and
+Corfu has a very barren and inhospitable appearance. The snowy peaks
+of the Pindus rise directly from the sea. A few bushes were visible on
+the mountains, but timber of any size is scarce. Villages and houses
+are seldom seen. A glad contrast was presented when, on the tenth day
+of our voyage, we approached the beautiful shores of Corfu; and it was
+no small comfort, after so long an imprisonment in this little tub,
+with holes to creep in about the size of a dog-kennel, and in the
+roughest possible weather, to find ourselves in one of the most
+comfortable hotels in Europe, and surrounded by old friends.
+
+Since my visit to Montenegro, the Vladika went to Vienna--I believe to
+gain the mediation of Austria concerning the disputed territory of
+Lessandro. After his return I understand he was visited by Lord
+Clarence Paget, commanding her Majesty's frigate L'Aigle, who had been
+sent to gain some information regarding his territory; so that,
+perhaps, a more accurate account may be obtained than what is to be
+found in these rough notes.
+
+
+
+
+AESTHETICS OF DRESS.
+
+A CASE OF HATS.
+
+
+Of all the follies that can be fairly placed to the charge of the
+human race--and, Heaven knows, they are thick as gnats in a summer
+sunbeam--none can be laid at more people's doors than the fickleness
+and vagaries of the judgment in adorning, to say nothing of covering,
+man's outer scaffolding--the body. And the worst of it is, that this
+folly-cap fits all men, from the Red Indian of America to the
+sallow-faced, eye-slitted Chinese; and through all the robed pomp of
+the solemn Turk to the chattering and capering monkeyism of the
+Parisian exquisite--there are fops every where. As Mr Catlin will tell
+you, one of his lanky Ojibbeway, or Ioway, or Cutaway, or
+Anyotherkindo'way Indians varies the feathers in his head-dress, and
+sticks new tinsel on his buffalo-mantle, whenever he can get them;
+spending as much time in be-painting his cheeks on a summer morning,
+as Beau Brummell, of departed memory, ever wasted in tying his cravat.
+And so it has ever been--so it will ever be; man is not only a
+two-legged unfledged animal, but he is also a vain imitative ape, fond
+of his own dear visage, blind to his deformities, and ever desirous of
+setting himself off to the best advantage. It is of no use quarrelling
+with ourselves for this physiological fact--for we presume it to be
+one of the best ascertained phenomena connected with the genus
+_homo_--it is better to take it as we find it; and if we cannot hope
+to cure man of the absurdity any time this side of the millennium, let
+us try if we cannot turn the failing to some account, and make it
+useful as well as ornamental.
+
+The chief quarrel to be picked with man for his dressing propensities,
+is on the ground that he not only hides and disfigures the fair
+proportions bestowed on him by his Maker, but that he ever and anon
+loads himself with such masses of useless incongruities, that the very
+end and object of his care are stultified. Instead of making himself
+smart, pretty, becoming, beautiful--or any other word that you can
+find in the dandy's dictionary--he frequently succeeds in making
+himself positively ugly--frightful, in the pure abstract sense of the
+term--or detestable, in the lingo of the Stultzean tribe--and
+relapses, as a Frenchman would say, from civism to brutism: _Ah! quel
+animal que l'homme!_
+
+But let it not be supposed that we speak of man only, as applied to
+that great branch of the species designated by the most experienced
+naturalists as _homo vir_; it is quite as true of the other moiety,
+the _homo femina_. If it be possible that a woman should ever be made
+frightful by any thing except age, then it is surely by dress; if a
+woman never does a foolish thing in any other way, yet at least she
+errs in her habiliments; if she be fickle at all, (and speak to the
+fact, ye disappointed bachelors and ye complaisant husbands!) in what
+is she more fickle than in dress? We might waste a life in finding a
+suitable simile for her volatility in this matter: rainbows with
+changing colours, water on a windy day, the wind itself in the month
+of March, the much-desiderated perpetual motion; all are feeble
+similes to describe a woman's fickleness in dress. Shall we liken it
+to her tongue's untiring play? or shall we not rather say that it is a
+psychological fact standing _per se_? the concomitant effect and
+consequence of her beauty? But, dear creatures! we are not going to
+quarrel with them for what gives us so much unconscious pleasure, (we
+do not mean milliners' bills, gentle reader;) we glory in living under
+a petticoat government, and in essentially petticoatian times. All we
+shall do is to give a word of advice; and in trying on their caps for
+them, we will show them the _rationale_ of their bows and their lace,
+if they will only have the patience to sit still for the experiment.
+
+Before embarking on such an important project, allow us to say that we
+are not going to quiz old Whang-Fong for his pig-tail and peacock
+feathers, nor his Cannibalean majesty for his obstinate refusal to
+wear a decent pair of inexpressibles; it is a stiff subject to meddle
+with the dressing propensities of people that live "in many a place
+that's underneath the world." For all we care, Abd el Kader and his
+Arabs may stifle themselves up in their greasy blankets swarming with
+ancestral vermin under a nearly tropical sun; and the good people of
+Igloolik may bedeck themselves with the spoils of fish, flesh, and
+fowl, to set the fashions of the Arctic circle. We are going to speak
+merely of our home acquaintances and our European friends; if these
+only would be reasonable in their dress, what a new thing it would be
+in the world--_quel progres! quel evenement!_
+
+The fundamental rule of dress we take to be the following--utility in
+all cases, ornament when practicable. The first should ever precede,
+and serve as the basis to the second; and it is the inversion of their
+due positions that causes so many applications of the _utile_ and the
+_dulce_ to end in sheer absurdity. The _usefulness_ of any article or
+system of dress depends entirely upon climate, modified of course by
+the occupation or pursuits of the wearer; the _beauty_ of it or the
+suitableness of the ornament to the character of the vestment. We defy
+all the editors of the _Recueils des Modes, Petits Courriers des
+Dames, Belles Assemblees_, &c., with even the poet-laureates of Moses
+and Son, Hyam and Co., with the whole host of Israelitish schneiders,
+to find out a better aesthetic definition of the law of dress than
+this. Who would have the effrontery to maintain that an Englishman,
+the very type of the useful at Calcutta in his cotton jacket and
+nankeens, would in the same habiliments be a suitably dressed man at
+St Petersburg? and however much a well-set ring may ornament an
+aristocratic finger, (though aristocratic fingers, like aristocratic
+hands, as Byron observes, need no ornament to tell their origin,) who
+but an Otaheitan would admire the application of them to the gouty
+toes of some "fine old English gentleman?" Usefulness first, then, and
+ornament afterwards; think first of what you actually want for your
+health or comfort; cut your coat upon that pattern, clap on your lace
+afterwards; but enrich it only to improve its appearance, not to
+interfere with, to conceal, or to alter its original destination.
+
+To begin, however, methodically, let us take what are commonly
+understood by well-dressed English people of the present day, and let
+us criticise them from top to toe. And first, then, of a gentleman's
+head--_le chef_, as the French call it--and the _chapeau_, its present
+gear. What a covering! what a termination to the capital of that
+pillar of the creation, Man! what an ungraceful, mis-shapen, useless,
+and uncomfortable appendage to the seat of reason--the brain-box!
+Does it protect the head from either heat, cold, or wet? Does it set
+off any of natural beauty of the human cranium? Are its lines in
+harmony with, or in becoming contrast to, the expressive features of
+the face? Is it comfortable, portable, durable, or cheap? What
+qualities, either of use or ornament, has it in its favour that it
+should be the crowning point of a well-dressed man's toilet? The hat
+is, beyond all doubt, one of the strangest vestimental anomalies of
+the nineteenth century.
+
+The history of the hat is this:--The simplest covering for a man's
+head after his own unshorn locks--(do not remind us of the matted and
+_living_ locks of the Indians or Hottentots)--must have been something
+like the Greek skull-cap. This we hold to have been the root, or
+nucleus, of the hat; and yet even this cap had a fault in point of
+utility, for it failed to shadow the eyes: and on the earliest Greek
+monuments we find a cap with a wide brim appended, or a flattish
+straw-hat following close upon the Phrygian bonnet. A light flattish
+hat has its recommendation in a warm country, but it will not do for
+the winds and storms of a northern clime; and hence all the old Gauls,
+the northern nations, the Tartars, and the peasants of Europe, for
+many a long century wore a modified cap--sometimes swelling out into
+ornamental proportions, at others shrinking into the primitive
+simplicity of the Phrygian or Greek cap. Shall we confess it,
+fastidious reader?--we strongly suspect the cap worn by that idle
+fellow Paris, when he so impudently ogled the goddesses on Mount Ida,
+to have been very similar to the good old _bonnet de nuit_ of our
+grandfathers--(shall we whisper it, of ourselves?) Yes, that little
+cocked-up corner at the top looks like a budding tassel; he never had
+such bad taste as to tie it with a riband round his brows; and we do
+not read in Homer that Helen, though a capital workwoman, ever gave
+him one; but we are inclined to believe that the old punty-dunty,
+pudding-bag-shaped cap which is still worn by the French peasantry in
+their field occupations, and is still patronized by a large portion of
+Queen Victoria's loving subjects, is of the highest antiquity, and
+based, we have no doubt, on utility. We must be candid enough to say,
+that we give up the argument as to the intrinsic beauty of this
+species of cap--truly we think it the very type of all that is
+slovenly; but for use, there is not a more comfortable, portable,
+pliable, buyable, and washable a commodity, than your--nightcap are we
+to say? no--than your _bonnet Grec_.
+
+Hats, properly so called, whether of cloth or fur, were evidently the
+invention of some out-of-door people; but then they were not the
+brimless pyramidal canisters of the present fashion, but were either
+caps with dependent brims, or else broad and flexible Spanish
+_sombreros_. The very idea of a hat is that of utility--something to
+keep off the sun and the rain--any thing will do for warmth that will
+aid the hair in keeping in the natural caloric of a man's head; and
+hence we much doubt whether the Irish, that hot-headed nation, ever
+wore hats in early times. From the want of shade being early felt by
+civilized nations, more than shelter from rain, and from hat-shapes
+being found on early southern monuments, we are inclined to think that
+the hat was more extensively worn in Southern than in Northern Europe;
+more, as it is, in Southern England than in Northern Scotland. Hence,
+although we find many iron skull-caps, like hats, used by the military
+in the fifteenth century; and although we find traces of hats even in
+the plebeian costumes of the middle ages--yet we look upon the Spanish
+and Italian hat of the sixteenth century, as the more immediate origin
+of its degenerate successor, the actual _chapeau_. We need not trace
+the variations of its form through the seventeenth century, from the
+high-crowned things of Henry III. of France, and James I. of England,
+to the graceful beavers of Louis XIII., Philip III., and Charles I. of
+England; the change was all in favour of the beaver; and certainly the
+hat reached its culminating point of excellence during the reign of
+our martyr king. Who has studied the splendid portraits of Vandyke, or
+the heads of Rubens, and has not perceived the uncommon grace given to
+them by the well-proportioned and not excessive hat? Who does not
+remember the fine portrait of Rubens himself, with his black Spanish
+hat turned up in front, the very perfection of that style of
+head-dress? Put a modern hat by the side of this hat of Rubens, and
+say which bears off the palm; there can hardly be two opinions upon
+the subject. The great change of this hat took place, as is well
+known, in Louis XIV.'s court, where first of all feathers were laid
+all round upon the flat of the brim, and next the brim was edged with
+lace, and pinched or cocked up, for greater use in military service.
+It might have been useful for a military man, especially one who had
+to handle a bayoneted musket; but it was a fatal invasion of the
+principle of beauty to adopt a permanent cock. There is no doubt that
+the flat cocked hat, the small three-cornered pinched hat of the days
+of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., gave much smartness to the soldier, and
+much neatness to the civilian; the change, too, corresponded with
+other alterations of dress, from the loose and flowing, to the tight
+and succinct principle; but picturesque effect was entirely lost; all
+the sentimentality, all the romance of the hat, evaporated in the
+formal cock. But this small flat hat of the seventeenth and eighteenth
+centuries, was perfection and beauty itself, compared with the
+outrageous and elevated cocked hat which came into fashion sometime
+before 1750, and which is the immediate prototype of the present
+military cocked hat. Here the principle of utility was entirely
+abandoned; it was sacrificed to the display of an unnatural brim. The
+hat was no longer formed by the pinching up of a circular brim of
+moderate dimensions; but three enormous flaps were made to rear their
+unwieldy height in the air, and were strengthened, stiffened, and
+supported, against the envious winds, to the torment of the wearer,
+and to the disfigurement of his person. All through the first half of
+the tasteless reign of good old George III., did this horrible
+covering disguise the beau's head; and the effect of it may still be
+judged of by his grandchildren, when they contemplate, not without
+awe, the rubicund figure of some metropolitan church-beadle with his
+large-caped coat, silver-headed cane, and monstrous three-cornered
+hat. Our modern great ladies, strange to say, seem to have an especial
+affection for this hat, since they take particular care to have a
+couple of footmen behind their carriage glorying in this capital
+atrocity, while on the coach-box they encourage the older form of the
+flat cocked hat of Louis XV.
+
+All cocked hats, be it observed, are glorious rain-traps; the only
+improvement they are capable of is one not yet patented, namely, the
+appending of neat flexible spouts, say of Macintosh cloth, from each
+corner, so as to convey the water in pleasant meanderings over the
+back and coat-tails. In dry weather these spouts might be tied up, and
+would form graceful curves either before, behind, or on one side of
+the cocked flaps, while in a shower they would add dignity to utility,
+as they hung all adown the back of the wearer. One kind of utility,
+however, the old cocked hat certainly had; it served in some degree,
+maugre the looping up of the brim, to shelter the face from the sun;
+not indeed when worn full front, as it was in Dr Johnson's time, and
+as we remember the household troops used to wear it--but when, by a
+daring innovation of revolutionary times, it came to be turned round
+on its human pivot, and lay gently athwart the line of vision. Thus it
+is that our generals wear it in this nineteenth century; thus it was
+that the Great Duke got all through Spain with it; though Napoleon,
+who greatly reduced its dimensions, always kept to the orthodox
+full-front; and in all positions, except the latter, it certainly does
+shade some portion of the face from the sun. But while, for example,
+the projection of one peak shades the nose, the ears and cheeks are
+left to fish for themselves; or else, if the hat wheels round again to
+the front, the ears come under its benignant shade, but the tip of the
+proboscis suffers awfully. The cocked hat has always been a two-horned
+dilemna ever since the third peak moved up in the world from its
+original position of horizontal equality, and aspired to be a near
+neighbour of the cockade or towering plume.
+
+It was that wicked revolution of France, or rather that dissolute time
+preceding it, which produced the most mischief in the hat line. Look
+at any of the pictures of that day--look at the portraits of the
+Conventionalists--look at the old prints of country gentlemen hunting
+or riding races at Newmarket--remember the Sir Joshuas in many a noble
+gallery; and you will not fail to remark that the choice spirits of
+the day, the go-ahead lads of that time, had let down the flaps of
+their cocked hats into slouching, and we must say, most slovenly
+circular brims. There was a sort of free-and-easy look affected in
+that day about the head, totally at enmity with the prim rigidity of
+the cocked beaver; you might have taken off your _chapeau rond_, as it
+then came to be called, and you might have sat on it--it would have
+been never the worse; but not so with its stiff old father--no
+liberties were to be taken with him; once sit upon him, and you would
+have crushed him forever. This very difference of hats marked a
+difference of politics--at least in France. There the old _chapeau a
+trois cornes_ was the badge of the aristocracy: the _chapeau rond_ and
+the _bonnet rouge_ were sworn brothers in the cause of democracy. The
+times were getting unhinged; all fashions were relaxing; so were
+public morals; so were private morals; so were men's hats: hats and
+heads seemed to have a sympathy, and to have gone wrong together.
+
+And what has been the history of the hat since that day?--the
+civilian's hat we mean. Who remembers the overlapping crowns which
+came into fashion soon after the great peace, at a time when Frenchmen
+wore their brims extravagantly pinched up at the sides, and deeply
+pulled down fore and aft? Sometimes the hat rose up in pyramidal
+majesty; sometimes it was shut in like a telescope wanting to be
+pulled out. And then every kind of fancy man had a fancy hat: there
+was the Neck-or-nothing hat, the Bang-up, the Corinthian, the Jerry,
+and the Logic; or else distinguished leaders of _ton_ lent their names
+to it, and we had the Petershams, the Barringtons, &c. Through every
+degree of absurdity has the _chapeau rond_ passed, until it seems to
+have settled down into that quiescent state of mediocrity which marks
+the decline of empires and of hats. The brim is no longer only half an
+inch broad as it was once, nor four inches broad as we also remember
+it: it seems to vary between the limits of one inch and two--a breadth
+just sufficient to let the line of shade, when the head is erect, come
+upon the eye-lids, and just sufficient to clear the ears. But if the
+head be moved ever so little, or if the rain come down ever so
+slantingly, the services of the hat are at an end: it is well enough
+to intercept any thing coming down perpendicularly, but
+"slantendicularly," as friend Slick says--no. Its present height is
+just enough to prevent your wearing it in a carriage, and such, too,
+as to give a moderate wind a good purchase upon it: the substance is
+such that the least exposure to wet ruins it, whether of beaver or
+silk; a moderate blow will crack or break its form; and for the first
+week, if you have any thing like a sensitive head, or any bosses of
+unknown qualities protruding from your cranium, you are doomed to
+incessant headache from hat-pinchings. It has no properties of
+usefulness to recommend it, and none of ornament, saving this--if it
+can be called such--the being an invaluable appendage for a little man
+to make himself appear tall. What a wide interval from the simplicity
+of its Phrygian original!
+
+Having, therefore, criticized our present head-gear, and condemned our
+hats, without pulling them to pieces, let us enquire what a proper
+covering for the head should be: first of all in point of usefulness,
+and next in point of comely appearance. But let no man vainly imagine
+that we expect to suit the fancies of all the creatures privileged to
+wear hats, or even to cover their heads; we do not pretend to invent,
+or decide upon, any one given type or form of head-dress. So many are
+the wants of a man in covering his head, so widely differing from each
+other are the exigencies of different people, that uniformity in hats
+is to be given up as a bad job: to attempt it would foil the strength
+of a Hercules: the utmost we can hope to effect is to lay down
+certain limits for the variations of this apex of human pride.
+
+For us, then, who live in a climate rainy, windy, hot, and cold, all
+within any twenty-four hours of the year, just as the case may be, it
+is plain that we want for general use something that will be proof
+against the atmospherical accidents that may befall any man who goes
+abroad to take the air. And here let it be observed, that in reasoning
+about hats, all thoughts about that effeminate invention, the
+umbrella, are to be laid aside. This utensil is truly a disgrace to
+the manhood of the times; and its existence, by allowing people to
+dispense with warm cloaks and other anti-rain appliances, has caused
+more disease, in letting them catch cold, than any thing else we know
+of. Our stalwart ancestors did admirably well without umbrellas; they
+wore good cloaks or coats, and broad beavers to keep the rain out of
+their necks, faring not a jot the worse for it. Umbrellas are only fit
+for men-milliners, Cockney travellers, and women. The nature of a hat,
+we flatter ourselves, is something independent of cotton and
+whalebone; and instead of the umbrella claiming precedence over the
+hat, the hat, we take it, should be above the umbrella. An
+Englishman's hat, then, should be something that will keep the rain
+off his face and neck when the weather is bad, and shield his eyes
+from the glare of the sun on the few days when sunlight is
+oppressive--and these two requirements settle at once, on all
+principles of common sense, that a man, if he has only one kind of
+covering for the head, should have a hat with a broad brim. This is
+the very foundation of the definition of an useful hat, providing that
+a hat is really to be the thing worn for protecting a man's upper
+story. Usefulness will also decide against height in the crown. _Cui
+bono_ this same high crown of ours, that looks more like a
+watering-pot deprived of its spout and handle than a reasonable
+article of human apparel? Down with the crowns, say we! If you will
+wear a hat, down with your crown. You may put down your half-sovereign
+or sovereign, or whatever you please, for your new hat first of all,
+but down with your crown too. Here, gentle reader, you will exclaim
+against our taste, and will protest that we would sacrifice every
+thing to that horrid utilitarian principle, which opposes all ideas of
+beauty and poetry. We are free to confess that, in our opinion, there
+is not much poetry to be made about such a subject--unless some
+obsolete verses, "All round my hat," may be alleged to the contrary;
+but as for the beauty of the head-piece, we protest that we admit its
+existence, and think that it should be consulted by whomsoever would
+pay proper attention to his own outward appearance. The merely useful
+may possibly make the shape approximate to that of a Quaker's or a
+jarvey's, but the beautiful has to elevate and modify it into the
+mystical proportions fit for a man of taste. One other quality,
+however, which is intimately connected with the useful, has to be
+noticed. The substance should not be hard and unyielding. Witness, ye
+reminiscences--ye painful images of bygone headachs, even yet flitting
+through our brain like Titanic thunderbolts!--accursed be the memory
+of that fellow Tightfit in Old Bond Street, who used to screw his hats
+on our cranium when we were young, and ere London had awakened us! As
+you value your comfort, dear reader, never purchase a hard hat. A hard
+heart may be borne with, but a hard hat--never! And last of all, a hat
+should be light--yes, the lighter the better--light as a gossamer web,
+though 'tis a simile that will not bear stretching. You may have the
+misfortune to be a heavy-headed man, but do not add to it that of
+being heavy-hatted. Avoid the extremity of suffering; and observe the
+climax of ill from which we would shield your head--a narrow-brimmed,
+hard, heavy, high-crowned hat--
+
+  "tode gar brotois megiston elthet' ek theon kakon."
+
+
+The covering of the head, then, must have its usefulness made
+ornamental, if not beautiful; and the due ornamentation of it will
+depend principally upon its form, but also upon its colour and
+material. Now, form is the principal thing; every one that has half
+an eye for art will tell you this--'tis an admitted axiom. Either,
+then, the shape of the covering should conform to that of the head, or
+it should not, and we take our ground in support of the latter
+position. The natural form of the head is determined by the rotundity
+of the cranium, beautifully modified by the waving curls of the
+hair--we speak of the abstract well-formed head; and nothing that
+approaches to the same shape will ever do more than give a bad
+substitute for the outline of the head as nature framed it. Any
+covering conceals the hair; and if you remove from sight this
+intrinsically beautiful integument, it is a principle of bad taste to
+put in its place only a poor copy of the same contour. If you cover
+the head, cover it with something that forms lines not curving like
+the skull, nor yet so angular as to create too striking an opposition
+of ideas in the mind of the beholder. A close-fitting untasseled
+skull-cap does not improve the form of the head, for it is not half so
+graceful as the hair; but a square hat or pyramidal cap is truly
+detestable. This is the reason why the common nightcap is ugly; it
+fits the head too closely, and its upper end conveys the ludicrous
+idea of something made to be pulled at. On the other hand, the double
+nightcap, pulled out and allowed to hang down on one shoulder, Spanish
+fashion, is less ugly--though far removed from our own ideas of
+beauty--because it introduces a new system of curves, and acts as a
+kind of dependent drapery to compensate for the concealment of the
+hair. Here is also the reason why the common hat is so frightful; it
+gives us straight or nearly straight lines, going upwards like
+tangents from the oval of the face, and cut off above by another
+straight line (the section of the crown) at right angles: all such
+lines and angles are foreign to the face and head. The common nightcap
+is too familiar, the common hat too stiff. Observe the lines of the
+face and head; the projection of the nose, the rounded angularity of
+the chin; the vertical section of the head affording curves with
+decided yet harmonious irregularities; the horizontal section
+producing a nearly regular contour. Well, it is upon principles of
+this kind that the covering of the head should be beautified. Now, we
+profess ourselves unable to make any better reconciliation of the
+useful with the beautiful for this purpose, than in the small,
+flexible, light, and broad-brimmed hat, which is still to be found in
+some Spanish and Italian pictures; a hat not quite so large as that
+worn in the reign of Charles I., yet with all its freedom and
+capability of assuming a variety of graceful forms; not so stiff as
+the beaux of the Spanish court, and the rakes of our own merry
+monarch's palace made it; not so formal as we know James I. and Lord
+Bacon used to wear; but something between all these three types. The
+prevalence of straight lines in it should be avoided without its
+appearing slovenly, and its dimensions should be such as to consult
+convenience without relapsing into a homely vulgarity. Such a kind of
+hat admits of any further ornament which the fancy of the wearer may
+induce him to add; a feather, a band, a buckle, or even a plain button
+for occasionally looping up the brim on one side or other, (not two
+sides, for it would return to the old cocked hat,)--any of these
+extraneous additions would harmonize, and would be in due character
+with its shape. Such a hat would certainly be useful; and that it
+would be ornamental we have only to decide by consulting our eyes, and
+by looking at our ancestors' portraits of the seventeenth century.
+
+But there is another kind of covering for the head, which, for its
+peculiar purposes, seems to us more useful and more ornamental even
+than this hat; we allude to the common round travelling cap, the
+officers' undress cap in the British army. Are you going a journey?
+have you any rough work to do? have you got a headach and want
+something light? would you put on something that will not spoil by
+being pulled about, sat on, slept on, and stood on? something handy,
+useful, comfortable, and withal good-looking?--What do you do? you get
+a foraging cap. Every man looks well in a foraging cap; it harmonizes
+with every body's face: it makes the old look young, and the young
+look smart: it is, without pretence, plain in detail, and yet elegant
+in outline: it has no straight lines in it, and yet its curves are in
+contrast with those of the head; they run in opposite directions: and
+the shade of the cap, if it has one, emulates the decisiveness of the
+nose, and gives character to the profile of the head, just as the nose
+gives point and force to the face. Nothing so easily admits of
+suitable ornament: a plain band--a golden one--or even a coloured
+one--makes it suitable to the various ranks and occupations of men:
+while its material, admitting of infinite variety, according to the
+taste of the wearer, never injures the source of its beauty its form.
+The cap fails in only one thing; it is unfit for rainy weather; it
+will only do for dry days. Do not attempt to put a flap behind it, and
+tie it under your chin--you at once convert it into an ugly nightcap;
+its curves then imitate those of the head, and the ridiculous takes
+the place of the becoming. For three hundred days, however, out of the
+three hundred and sixty-five, such a cap may be worn with the greatest
+comfort and advantage: while, for simplicity and elegance, it has no
+rival. We exclude most vigorously all other kinds of caps; we admit
+nothing but the common round foraging cap, with a small shade over the
+eyes; we especially set our faces against the little quirked Highland
+cap, now revived, and becoming popular among the southrons. This cap
+has part of its curves--those behind the head approximating too
+closely to the curve of the skull: in fact, at the hinder part it is a
+skull-cap; whereas, the other part of the curves in front are too much
+in opposition to the outline of the face: they bend over and form an
+unpleasant contrast with the nose and chin: they are deficient in the
+shade or visor, and there is not one man in a thousand whose face they
+suit. All fancy-caps with whalebone, falling tops, angular
+projections, &c., are utterly abominate; we pin our faith to the
+quiet, unsophisticated, gentlemanlike cap worn by our officers: it
+beats almost any other head-dress in the world.
+
+The prevailing tendency of the age is to avoid distinctions of dress
+except in the value of the material, and then only between the two
+great divisions of society--the affluent and the poor. Hence all
+ornament seems to be a superfluity, except upon occasions of public
+display or military service; and men will not now listen to any one
+who advises them to put feathers and gold lace on their hats and caps:
+they would as soon think of returning to the embroidered coats of
+their grandfathers. The principle is a good one: in the palmy days of
+Rome, the differences of dress bore no proportion to the differences
+of station; distinction in dress was the failing of the middle ages, a
+consequence of some lurking seeds of northern barbarism, which are
+only now ceasing to be propagated. We seem, like the great men of the
+Eternal City eighteen hundred years ago, to be looking more at the
+inward worth and influence of a man, than at his outward state and
+dress; and it is a good sign of the times; it is a reasonable
+inclination of the mind; but it confines the exercise of taste in
+dress. Men of the present day are determined to be plain about the
+head as well as about the body; all ornament of head-dress they have
+left to soldiers and to the fairer half of the creation:--_sed haec
+hactenus_--we reserve our remarks on the _coiffures_ of these two
+classes for another occasion.
+
+                                                       H. L. J.
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE GUARDSMEN.
+
+
+Guardsmen have at all periods been a racketing, rollicking set of
+fellows. Whether ancients or moderns, infidels or Christians,
+praetorians or janissaries, the _mousquetaires_ and Scottish archers of
+the French Louises, or the lifeguards of "bonnie Dundee's" own
+regiment, they have always claimed, and usually enjoyed, a greater
+degree of license than is accorded to the more unpretending soldiery
+of the line. The first in the field, and the last out of it, they have
+sometimes seemed to think that, by thrashing the king's enemies, they
+acquired a right to baton his subjects, that captured cities atoned
+for the wrongs of deluded damsels, and that each extra blow struck in
+the fight, entitled them to an extra bottle in the barrack-room. On
+duty, discipline--off duty, dissipation--seems to have been the motto
+of these gentlemen; and if it be the case, that they occasionally
+forgot the former part of their device, it, on the other hand, is no
+where upon record, that they were oblivious of its latter portion.
+Fighting hard and drinking hard, living hard and dying hard, the
+bravest men and most desperate debauchees of all countries, have worn
+the uniform of guardsmen.
+
+Our old friend, M. Alexandre Dumas, who, if we may believe one of his
+biographers, passes twelve hours a-day in driving a goosequill for the
+entertainment and particular edification of his countrymen, found
+himself, one fine morning, desperately at a loss for something to
+write about. He is, perhaps, not the first writer of fiction who has
+been in a like predicament; and even if he were, it would be neither
+wonderful nor unpardonable, seeing that his average rate of production
+is about three volumes per month. There is a limit to all things, even
+to the imagination of a French romance writer; and M. Dumas, without
+exception the most prolific of modern scribblers, was for once hard up
+for a subject.
+
+_L'hopital n'est pas pour les chiens_, says the French proverb. It
+occurred to M. Dumas, that the league or two of books in the
+Bibliotheque Royale were not placed there for the mere purpose of
+astonishing provincials, or causing English tourists to stare and lift
+up their hands in admiration; but that one of the objects of their
+preservation might well be, that they should afford suggestions to any
+distinguished _litterateur_ who happened to be, like himself, in want
+of an idea. Emerging, therefore, from his comfortable abode in the
+Chaussee d'Antin, he turned his steps in the direction of the royal
+library, and was soon up to his ears in dusty tomes and jaundiced
+parchments. After much research, he discovered a folio manuscript,
+numbered, as he tells us in his preface, 4772 or 4773, and purporting
+to be a memoir, by a certain Count de la Fere, of events that occurred
+in France towards the latter part of the reign of Louis the
+Thirteenth. Upon perusal, he found this MS. so interesting, that he
+applied for, and obtained permission to publish it; and the memoir in
+question saw the light under the title of _Les Trois Mousquetaires_.
+
+The piquant and interesting matter contained in this book, caused it
+to be much read, and numerous persons were curious to see the original
+manuscript. To their infinite surprise, however, they could obtain no
+account whatever of such a document; and what was still more
+provoking, the librarians seemed to look upon them as insane when they
+asked for it. There was much running up and down the library stairs,
+much mounting upon step-ladders, and tumbling of paper and parchment,
+much grumbling of puzzled librarians and disappointed applicants,
+until at last, the most obstinate became convinced that the aforesaid
+MS. had no existence save in the imagination of M. Dumas, who had, as
+it is vulgarly styled, "taken a rise" out of the public.
+
+In the spring of the year 1625, a young Gascon gentleman named
+D'Artagnan, left his home to seek fortune at Paris. He was mounted on
+an ill-looking cob, some fourteen years of age--that is to say,
+within four years as old as its rider; the sword which his father
+buckled on him at parting, was more remarkable for its length than its
+elegance; his purse contained fifteen crowns, and his valise a couple
+of shirts. To compensate for this meagre equipment, he rode like a
+Tartar, and fenced like a St George; and was moreover possessed of
+three qualifications invaluable to a man who has his way to make in
+the world--a clear head, a light heart, and a courage that nothing
+could daunt. One thing more he had; a letter of recommendation from
+his father to Monsieur de Treville, captain of the mousquetaires, or
+body-guards, of his Majesty Louis the Thirteenth.
+
+Nearly the last words of the worthy old Gascon, who was compelled by
+his poverty to send his son forth into the world thus slenderly
+provided, were an injunction to honour the King and Cardinal
+Richelieu, then in the zenith of his power, and to fight as often as
+he could get an opportunity. With such counsels yet ringing in his
+ears, it is not surprising, that before reaching Paris young
+D'Artagnan gets into a very pretty quarrel against overpowering odds,
+is somewhat maltreated, and, while senseless from the blows he has
+received, has his letter stolen from him by an emissary of the
+Cardinal, among whose political enemies M. de Treville stands in the
+foremost rank. The young adventurer, however, consoles himself for his
+loss, shakes his feathers, and arrives at Paris without further
+accident. Before entering the capital he disposes of his horse, of
+whose uncouth appearance he is heartily ashamed; and after improving
+his toilet as well as his scanty wardrobe will allow, he proceeds to
+the hotel of Monsieur de Treville, where he falls in with the three
+mousquetaires who give a title to the book, in which, however,
+D'Artagnan plays the most conspicuous and important part. He finds the
+hotel Treville throned with applicants for an audience, petitioners,
+mousquetaires, and lackeys bearing letters from persons of the first
+importance. He sends in his name, and after some delay, is admitted.
+Here is M. Dumas' account of the interview.
+
+    "Monsieur de Treville was that day in a particularly bad humour;
+    nevertheless he returned D'Artagnan's profound bow with a polite
+    inclination of the head, and smiled at the strong Gascon accent in
+    which the young man uttered his compliments. The sound recalled to
+    his mind his own youth and his native country, two things of which
+    the recollection is apt to make most men smile. He then waved his
+    hand to D'Artagnan, as if requesting him to have a moment's
+    patience, and approaching the door leading to the anteroom, he
+    called out in an imperious and angry tone--
+
+    "'Athos! Porthos! Aramis!'
+
+    "Two mousquetaires, who had already attracted D'Artagnan's
+    attention, left the groups of which they formed a part, and
+    entered the audience chamber, of which the door was immediately
+    closed behind them.
+
+    "There was a remarkable contrast in the appearance of these two
+    guardsmen. One was a man of gigantic stature, loud-voiced, and of
+    stern and haughty countenance; the other, on the contrary, was of
+    gentle and _naive_ physiognomy, with smooth rosy cheeks, a soft
+    expression in his black eye, a delicate mustache on his upper lip,
+    white hands, and a voice and smile remarkable for their mildness.
+    The bearing of these two gentlemen upon entering the presence of
+    their captain, showed a happy mixture of submission and dignity,
+    which excited the admiration of D'Artagnan, who was already
+    disposed to look upon the mousquetaires as demigods, and upon
+    their chief as an Olympic Jupiter, armed with all his thunders.
+
+    "Monsieur de Treville took two or three turns up and down the
+    apartment, silent, and with a contracted brow, passing each time
+    before Porthos and Aramis, who remained mute and immoveable as if
+    upon the parade ground. Suddenly he stopped, and measured them
+    from head to foot with an angry glance.
+
+    "'Do you know what the King told me, gentlemen, and that no longer
+    ago than yesternight? Do you know, I say, what his Majesty told
+    me?'
+
+    "'No,' replied the two guardsmen after a moment's silence. 'No,
+    sir, we do not know it.'
+
+    "'But I hope you will do us the honour to inform us,' said Aramis
+    in his most polite tone, and with his most graceful bow.
+
+    "'He told me that henceforward he would recruit his mousquetaires
+    from among the guards of Monsieur le Cardinal.'
+
+    "'Among the guards of Monsieur le Cardinal! And why so?' demanded
+    Porthos abruptly.
+
+    "'Because he finds that his own sour wine requires to be improved
+    by the admixture of some more generous liquor.'
+
+    "The two guardsmen coloured up to the eyes. D'Artagnan felt
+    uncertain whether he was standing on his head or his heels.
+
+    "'Yes,' continued Monsieur de Treville with increased vivacity,
+    'and his Majesty is right; for, by my honour, the mousquetaires
+    cut a sorry figure at the court! Monsieur le Cardinal was relating
+    yesterday at the King's card-table, in a tone of condolence that
+    displeased me no little, how those infernal mousquetaires, those
+    _sabreurs_ as he ironically called them, had forgotten themselves
+    over their bottle at a tavern in the Rue Ferou, and how a patrol
+    of his guards had found it necessary to arrest them. I thought he
+    was going to laugh in my face as he said the words, looking at me
+    all the time with his tiger-cat eyes. _Morbleu!_ you ought to know
+    something about it. You were amongst them; the cardinal named you.
+    Mousquetaires, indeed, who allow themselves to be arrested! But it
+    is my fault for not choosing my men better. What the devil
+    possessed you, Aramis, to ask me for a guardsman's uniform, when a
+    priest's surplice would have fitted you better? And you, Porthos,
+    what is the use of your wearing that magnificent embroidered
+    sword-belt, if the weapon it supports is of such small service to
+    you? And Athos, I do not see Athos. Where is he?'
+
+    "'Sir,' replied Aramis gravely, 'he is ill--very ill.'
+
+    "'Ill, say you? And of what disease?'
+
+    "'It is feared that it is the small-pox, sir,' replied Porthos,
+    who was desirous of putting in a word. 'It would be a great pity,
+    for it would assuredly spoil his appearance.'
+
+    "'The small-pox! A fine story indeed! The small-pox at his age!
+    Not so! But wounded, I suppose--killed perhaps. _Sangdieu!_
+    Messieurs les Mousquetaires, I insist upon your ceasing to
+    frequent taverns and places of bad repute. I will have no more
+    brawling and sword-playing in the public streets. I will not have
+    my regiment made a laughing-stock to the Cardinal's guards, who
+    are brave fellows, prudent and quiet--who do not get themselves
+    into trouble, and if they did, would not allow themselves to be
+    arrested. Not they! They would sooner die upon the spot than
+    recede an inch. It is only the King's mousquetaires who run away
+    or are taken prisoners.'
+
+    "Porthos and Aramis trembled with rage. They would willingly have
+    strangled their chief, if they had not felt that it was the great
+    affection he bore them that induced him to speak thus harshly.
+    They bit their lips till the blood came, and clutched the hilts of
+    their swords in silent fury. Several of the guardsmen in the
+    anteroom, who had heard Monsieur de Treville's summons to Athos,
+    Porthos, and Aramis, and suspected what was going on, had applied
+    their ears to the tapestry, and lost not a word of their captain's
+    reproaches, which they repeated to those around them, who in their
+    turn repeated them to their comrades on the staircase and in the
+    courtyard. In an instant, from the anteroom to the street, all was
+    commotion.
+
+    "'Ha! his Majesty's mousquetaires allow themselves to be arrested
+    by the Cardinal's guards!' continued Monsieur de Treville, who was
+    as furious as his soldiers. 'Aha! sirs, six of his Eminence's
+    guards arrest six of the King's! _Morbleu!_ I have made up my mind
+    what to do. I will go at once to the Louvre, resign my post as
+    captain of mousquetaires, and solicit a lieutenancy in the
+    Cardinal's guards; and if I am refused, _morbleu!_ I will turn
+    priest!'
+
+    "At these words the murmur outside the audience chamber became an
+    explosion. On all sides oaths and blasphemies were resounding.
+    D'Artagnan looked about for a place to hide himself. He felt a
+    strong inclination to get under the table.
+
+    "'Well, captain,' said Porthos, who was completely beside himself
+    with rage and vexation, 'the truth is that we were six against
+    six; but they attacked us treacherously; and before we could draw
+    a sword, two of us were dead men, and Athos desperately wounded
+    and equally useless. You know Athos, captain; well, twice he tried
+    to get up, and twice he fell down again. Nevertheless, we did not
+    yield ourselves prisoners; we were taken off by main force, and on
+    the way to the guard-house we managed to break away from them. As
+    to Athos, they thought him dead, and left him on the ground. That
+    is the real truth of the matter. And what then, captain! One
+    cannot win every battle. The great Pompey lost that of Pharsalia,
+    and Francis I., who, from what I have heard, was no fool in the
+    fighting way, got roughly handled at Pavia.'
+
+    "'And I have the honour to assure you, sir,' said Aramis, 'that I
+    killed one of the guards with his own sword, for mine was broken
+    at the first onset.'
+
+    "'I did not know that,' said Treville in a more gentle tone. 'I
+    see that the Cardinal exaggerated matters.'
+
+    "'But for heaven's sake, sir,' continued Aramis, encouraged by the
+    softened manner of his commander, 'for heaven's sake, do not
+    mention that Athos is wounded: he would be in despair if the King
+    heard of it; and as the wound is very serious, having passed
+    through the shoulder and entered the breast, it is to be
+    feared....'
+
+    "At this moment the tapestry that covered the door was raised, and
+    the head of a man of noble aspect and handsome features, but
+    fearfully pale, appeared below the fringe.
+
+    "'Athos!' exclaimed the two guardsmen.
+
+    "'Athos!' repeated Monsieur de Treville himself.
+
+    "You asked for me, sir,' said Athos to Monsieur de Treville, in a
+    calm but enfeebled voice--'my comrades told me that you asked for
+    me, and I hastened to obey your summons.'
+
+    "And so saying, the mousquetaire entered the room with a tolerably
+    firm step, in full uniform and belted as usual. Monsieur de
+    Treville, touched to the soul by this proof of courage, sprang to
+    meet him.
+
+    "'I was telling these gentlemen,' said he, 'that I forbid my
+    mousquetaires to expose their lives without necessity; that brave
+    men are very dear to the King, and his Majesty knows that his
+    mousquetaires are the bravest men upon the face of the earth. Your
+    hand, Athos!'
+
+    "And without waiting for the new comer to hold out his right hand,
+    Monsieur de Treville seized and pressed it energetically, not
+    observing that Athos, in spite of his command over himself,
+    writhed with pain, and grew each moment paler than before. The
+    room-door had remained half open, and a loud murmur of
+    satisfaction from without replied to the words addressed to Athos
+    by Monsieur de Treville. The heads of two or three mousquetaires,
+    who forgot themselves in the enthusiasm of the moment, appeared at
+    the opening of the tapestry. Doubtless Monsieur de Treville was
+    about to check sharply this infraction of the laws of etiquette,
+    when he suddenly felt the hand of Athos contract in his, and
+    looking at the guardsman, he saw that he was going to faint. At
+    the same moment Athos, who had summoned all his energies to
+    struggle against the sufferings he endured, was overcome by the
+    torture of his wound, and fell senseless to the ground.
+
+    "'A surgeon!' cried Monsieur de Treville. 'My surgeon--the
+    King's--the best! A surgeon! or, _sangdieu!_ my brave Athos will
+    die!'"
+
+
+The swoon of Athos had merely been occasioned by loss of blood. The
+surgeon declares there is no danger, and D'Artagnan, who has stood his
+ground with true Gascon tenacity, at length obtains an audience. The
+loss of his letter of recommendation now proves a great disadvantage
+to him. In those days of court intrigue and espionage, men were
+naturally suspicious of each other, and the mingled _naivete_ and
+shrewdness of the young Bearnais, are causes for Monsieur de Treville
+at first suspecting him of being a spy of the Cardinal's. His
+suspicions, however, are wearing off, and he is disposed to be useful
+to D'Artagnan, although he cannot admit him into the mousquetaires--a
+noviciate of two years in some other regiment being the indispensable
+condition of admission into that favoured corps--when D'Artagnan,
+happening to look out of the window, starts, reddens with anger, and
+rushes to the door. He has recognised, in a passer-by, the person who
+had stolen his letter; and leaves Monsieur de Treville in doubt
+whether he has to do with a madman or with an emissary of the
+Cardinal's, who, fearing himself suspected, takes this pretext for
+effecting a retreat.
+
+In his hurry to leave the hotel and pursue his robber, D'Artagnan gets
+into all sorts of scrapes. On the landing-place he runs against Athos,
+who is returning home after having his wound dressed. Some hasty words
+pass, a challenge is the result, and rendezvous is taken for noon in a
+field near the Carmelite convent, then a favourite duelling ground. In
+the gateway of the courtyard, Porthos is talking with one of his
+comrades, and D'Artagnan, in trying to pass between them, gets
+entangled in the velvet cloak of the former, and discovers, what the
+guardsman had been most anxious to conceal, that the front only of his
+embroidered shoulder-belt was gold, and the back mere leather.
+Porthos, not having sufficient pistoles to purchase a whole belt, had
+gratified his vanity with half a one, and wore his cloak to conceal
+the deficiency. The young Gascon finds himself with a second duel on
+his hands, and sets himself down as a dead man. Meantime his robber
+has disappeared, and as D'Artagnan is proceeding in the direction of
+his lodging, he encounters Aramis, standing in the middle of the
+street with some other gentlemen. Furious with himself for the follies
+he has been committing, D'Artagnan has made a resolution to be all
+things to all men, at least for the hour or two that he still has to
+live; and observing that Aramis has dropped a handkerchief, and placed
+his foot upon it, he hastens to drag it from under his boot, and
+present it to him with a most gracious bow and smile. A coronet and
+cipher on the embroidered cambric attract notice, and draw down a
+shower of raillery upon the head of the mousquetaire, who, in order to
+shield the honour of a lady, is compelled to deny that the
+handkerchief is his. His companions walk away, and Aramis reproaches
+D'Artagnan with his officiousness. The Gascon blood gets up, good
+resolutions are forgotten, and a third rendezvous is the result.
+
+M. Dumas is never more at home than in the description of duels.
+Himself an excellent swordsman, he luxuriates and excels in the
+description of points and parries, cartes and tierces, and of the
+vigorous estocades which his heroes administer to each other. One of
+the good chapters of the book--and there are many such--is the one in
+which D'Artagnan encounters the three redoubtable champions whom he
+has so heedlessly provoked. We will endeavour, by abridgement, to lay
+it before our readers.
+
+     "D'Artagnan knew nobody at Paris, and betook himself, therefore,
+     to his first rendezvous without seconds, intending to content
+     himself with those whom his adversary should bring. Moreover, his
+     firm intention was to make all reasonable apologies to Athos,
+     fearing that there would result from this duel the usual
+     consequence of an encounter between a young and vigorous man and
+     a wounded and feeble one--if the former is conquered, his
+     antagonist's triumph is doubled; and if he conquers, he is
+     accused of taking an advantage, or of being brave at small risk.
+     Besides this, either we have been unsuccessful in the exposition
+     of our young adventurer's character, or the reader will have
+     already perceived that D'Artagnan was no ordinary man. Thus,
+     although he repeated to himself that his death was inevitable, he
+     by no means made up his mind to fall an easy sacrifice, as one
+     less cool and courageous than himself might perhaps have done. He
+     reflected on the different characters of the three men with whom
+     he had to fight, and began to think that his case was not so
+     desperate as it might have been. He hoped, by the candid and
+     loyal apology which he intended to offer, to make himself a
+     friend of Athos, whose austere mien and noble air pleased him
+     greatly. He flattered himself that he should be able to
+     intimidate Porthos by the affair of the shoulder-belt, which he
+     could, if not killed upon the spot, relate to every body, and
+     which would cover the giant with ridicule. Finally, he did not
+     feel much afraid of Aramis, and he resolved, if he lived long
+     enough, either to kill him, or at least to administer to him a
+     wound in the face, that would considerably impair the beauty of
+     which he was evidently so proud.
+
+     "When D'Artagnan arrived in sight of the waste land adjoining the
+     convent of barefooted Carmelites, noon was striking, and Athos
+     was already on the ground. The guardsman, who still suffered
+     cruelly from his wound, was seated on a post, and awaiting his
+     adversary with the calm countenance and dignified air that never
+     abandoned him. Upon D'Artagnan's appearance, he rose courteously,
+     and advanced a few steps to meet him. Our Gascon, on his side,
+     made his approach hat in hand, the plume trailing on the earth.
+
+     "'Sir,' said Athos, 'I have given notice to two gentlemen to act
+     as my seconds, but they are not come. I am surprised at it, for
+     they are usually punctual.'
+
+     "'For my part, sir,' returned D'Artagnan, 'I have no seconds. I
+     arrived in Paris yesterday, and know no one but Monsieur de
+     Treville, to whom I was recommended by my father, who has the
+     honour to be a friend of his.'
+
+     "Athos glanced at the beardless chin and youthful mien of his
+     adversary, and seemed to reflect for a moment.
+
+     "'_Ah ca_!' said he at last, speaking half to himself and half to
+     D'Artagnan; '_ah ca_! but if I kill you, it will be something
+     very like child-murder.'
+
+     "'Not exactly, sir,' replied D'Artagnan, with a bow that was not
+     without its dignity; 'not exactly, sir, since you do me the
+     honour to meet me with a wound by which you must be greatly
+     inconvenienced.'
+
+     "Inconvenienced certainly, and you hurt me terribly, I must
+     acknowledge, when you ran against me just now; but I will use my
+     left hand, according to my custom in such circumstances. Do not
+     suppose on that account that I am sparing you; I fight decently
+     with both hands, and a left-handed swordsman is an awkward
+     antagonist when one is not prepared for him. I am sorry I did not
+     tell you of it sooner, that you might have got your hand in
+     accordingly.'
+
+     "'Truly, sir,' said D'Artagnan, with another bow, 'I know not how
+     to express my gratitude for such courtesy.'
+
+     "'You are too obliging to say so,' returned Athos, with his
+     princely air; 'let us talk of something else, if not disagreeable
+     to you. Ah, _sangbleu_! you hurt me terribly! My shoulder burns.'
+
+     "'If you would permit me,' said D'Artagnan, timidly.
+
+     "'What then, sir?'
+
+     "'I have a balm that is wonderfully efficacious in the cure of
+     wounds. I hold the recipe from my mother, and have myself
+     experienced its good effects.'
+
+     "'Well?'
+
+     "'Well, I am sure that in less than three days it would heal your
+     wound; and at the end of that time, sir, it would still be a
+     great honour for me to meet you.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan said these words with a simplicity that did credit to
+     his natural courtesy of feeling, at the same time that it could
+     not give rise to the slightest doubt of his courage.
+
+     "'_Pardieu_, sir!' said Athos, 'your proposition pleases me, not
+     that I can accept it, but because it is that of a chivalrous
+     gentleman. It is thus that spoke and acted those heroes of
+     Charlemagne's days, on whom every cavalier should strive to model
+     himself. Unfortunately we do not live in the times of the great
+     emperor, but in those of Cardinal Richelieu; and however well we
+     might keep our secret, it would be known before three days had
+     elapsed that we intended to fight, and our duel would be
+     prevented. _Ah ca_! where can those idlers be?'
+
+     "'If you are in haste, sir,' resumed D'Artagnan with the same
+     simplicity with which he had a moment before proposed to put off
+     the duel for three days--'if you are pressed for time, and that
+     it pleases you to finish with me at once, let me beg of you to do
+     so.'
+
+     "'Another proposal that I like,' said Athos with an approving nod
+     of the head; 'it is that of a man lacking neither wit nor valour.
+     Sir, I like men of your stamp; and I see that if we do not kill
+     one another, I shall hereafter have much pleasure in your
+     society. But let us wait for these gentlemen, I beg of you. I
+     have plenty of time, and it will be more according to rule. Ha!
+     here comes one of them.'
+
+     "At that moment the gigantic form of Porthos appeared at the
+     extremity of the Rue Vaugirard.
+
+     "'What!' cried D'Artagnan, 'Monsieur Porthos is one of your
+     seconds?'
+
+     "'Yes; is it disagreeable to you?'
+
+     "'By no means.'
+
+     "'And here is the other.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan turned his head and recognised Aramis.
+
+     "'What!' he exclaimed in still greater astonishment, 'Monsieur
+     Aramis is the other?'
+
+     "'Certainly; do you not know that we are never seen asunder, and
+     are known in court, camp, and city, as Athos, Porthos, and
+     Aramis, or the three inseparables? But you are just arrived from
+     Gascony, which accounts for your being unacquainted with these
+     circumstances.'
+
+     "Meanwhile Porthos, who had abandoned his cloak and changed his
+     shoulder-belt, approached, nodded to Athos, but on beholding
+     D'Artagnan, remained struck with astonishment.
+
+     "'This is the gentleman I am to fight with,' said Athos
+     indicating D'Artagnan with his hand, at the same time bowing to
+     him.
+
+     "'It is with him that I am to fight,' said Porthos.
+
+     "'Not till one o'clock,' said D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'And I also,' said Aramis, who just then came up.
+
+     "'Our appointment was for two o'clock,' said D'Artagnan with
+     perfect composure.
+
+     "'What are you going to fight about, Athos?' asked Aramis.
+
+     "'Faith, I can hardly tell you. He hurt my shoulder. And you,
+     Porthos?'
+
+     "'I fight because I am so minded,' replied Porthos colouring.
+
+     "Athos, whom nothing escaped, saw a slight smile curling
+     D'Artagnan's lip.
+
+     "'We had a dispute about dress,' said the young Gascon.
+
+     "'And you, Aramis?' asked Athos.
+
+     "'A theological difference,' replied Aramis, making a sign to
+     D'Artagnan that he wished the cause of their duel to remain a
+     secret.
+
+     "'Indeed!' said Athos looking at D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'Yes, a point of St Augustin on which we are not agreed,' said
+     the latter.
+
+     "'Decidedly he is a man of wit and sense,' muttered Athos to
+     himself.
+
+     "'And now that you are all assembled, gentlemen,' said
+     D'Artagnan, 'allow me to apologise to you.'
+
+     "At the word apologise, a cloud passed across the features of
+     Athos, Porthos smiled contemptuously, Aramis made a negative
+     sign.
+
+     "'You do not understand me, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan raising
+     his head proudly. 'I only apologise in case I should not be able
+     to pay my debt to all of you; for Monsieur Athos has the right to
+     kill me the first, which greatly diminishes the value of my debt
+     to you, Monsieur Porthos, and renders that to Monsieur Aramis
+     nearly worthless. And now, gentlemen, I say again, accept my
+     apologies, but on that account only--and to work!'
+
+     "And so saying, he drew his sword with the most fearless and
+     gallant mien possible to be seen. His blood was up, and at that
+     moment he would have fought not only Athos, Porthos, and Aramis,
+     but the whole regiment of mousquetaires.
+
+     "'When you please, sir,' said Athos, putting himself on guard.
+
+     "'I was waiting your orders,' returned D'Artagnan.
+
+     "But the two rapiers had scarcely clashed together, when five of
+     the Cardinal's guards, commanded by Monsieur de Jussac, appeared
+     from behind a corner of the convent.
+
+     "'The Cardinal's guards!' exclaimed Porthos and Aramis. 'Sheath
+     your swords, gentlemen!'
+
+     "But it was too late. The combatants had been seen in an attitude
+     that left no doubt as to their pugnacious intentions.
+
+     "'Hola!' cried Jussac advancing towards them, followed by his
+     men. 'Hola, mousquetaires! fighting here? And the edicts. We have
+     forgotten them, eh?'
+
+     "'Your generosity is really remarkable, gentlemen of the
+     guards,' said Athos bitterly, for Jussac had been one of the
+     aggressors in the recent affray. 'I promise you that if we saw
+     you fighting we would not interrupt you. Leave us alone, then,
+     and you will have your amusement for nothing.'
+
+     "'Gentlemen,' said Jussac, 'I am grieved to tell you that the
+     thing is impossible. Duty before every thing. Be pleased to
+     sheath your swords, and follow us.'
+
+     "'Sir,' replied Aramis, parodying Jussac's manner, 'we should
+     have the greatest pleasure in accepting your polite invitation,
+     if it depended upon us so to do, but unfortunately the thing is
+     impossible; Monsieur de Treville has forbidden it. Move on,
+     therefore; it is the best thing you can do.'
+
+     "This bantering exasperated Jussac. 'We will charge you,' said
+     he, 'if you disobey.'
+
+     "'They are five,' said Athos in a low voice, 'and we are but
+     three; we shall be beaten again, and we must die here; for I
+     swear not to reappear before the captain if conquered.'
+
+     "Athos, Porthos, and Aramis drew closer to each other. Jussac was
+     arranging his men in line. This single moment of delay was
+     sufficient for D'Artagnan to make up his mind; it was one of
+     those moments that decide a man's whole life. The choice was to
+     be made between King and Cardinal, and, once made, it must be
+     persevered in. If he fought, he disobeyed the law, risked his
+     head, and made an enemy of a minister more powerful than the king
+     himself. All these considerations passed like lightning through
+     the mind of the young Gascon; but, be it said to his honour, he
+     did not hesitate an instant. Turning towards Athos and his
+     friends.
+
+     "'Gentlemen,' said he, 'allow me to amend the words last spoken.
+     You said you were only three, but to my thinking we are four.'
+
+     "'But you are not one of us,' said Porthos.
+
+     "'True,' replied D'Artagnan, 'I have not the coat; but I have the
+     spirit. In my heart I am a mousquetaire--I feel it, and that
+     leads me on.'
+
+     "'You may retire, young man,' cried Jussac, who doubtless guessed
+     D'Artagnan's intentions by his gestures and the expression of his
+     face. 'You may retire, we permit it. Be-gone, then, and quickly.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan did not stir.
+
+     "'Decidedly you are a fine fellow,' said Athos, pressing the
+     young man's hand.
+
+     "But the three mousquetaires thought of D'Artagnan's youth, and
+     distrusted his inexperience.
+
+     "'We should only be three, of whom one wounded, and a child,'
+     said Athos; 'but they will say all the same, that there were four
+     of us.'
+
+     "'Gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, 'only try me, and I swear by my
+     honour that if we are conquered I will not leave the ground
+     alive.'
+
+     "'What is your name, my brave fellow?' said Athos.
+
+     "'D'Artagnan, sir.'
+
+     "'Well, then, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan, forwards!'
+     cried Athos.
+
+     "'What do you decide to do?' cried Jussac.
+
+     "'We are going to have the honour of charging you,' said Aramis,
+     raising his hat with one hand and drawing his sword with the
+     other.
+
+     "And the nine combatants precipitated themselves on each other
+     with a fury that did not exclude a certain degree of method.
+     Athos took one Cahusac, a favourite of the Cardinal's; Porthos
+     had Bicarat; and Aramis found himself opposed to two adversaries.
+     As to D'Artagnan, he encountered Jussac himself.
+
+     "The heart of the young Gascon beat high, not with fear, there
+     was no shadow of it, but with emulation; he fought like an
+     enraged tiger, turning about his enemy, changing each moment his
+     ground and his guard. Jussac was one of the good blades of the
+     day, and had had much practice; but he had, nevertheless, all the
+     difficulty in the world to defend himself against a supple and
+     active antagonist, who was constantly deviating from the received
+     rules of fencing, attacking him on all sides at once, and
+     parrying, at the same time, like a man who had the greatest
+     regard for his epidermis. At last Jussac lost patience. Furious
+     at being thus kept at bay by one whom he looked upon as a child,
+     his _sang-froid_ abandoned him, and he began to commit blunders.
+     D'Artagnan, who, although lacking practice, was perfect in
+     theory, redoubled his agility. Jussac, with the design of
+     finishing him at once, delivered a terrible thrust, which
+     D'Artagnan parried adroitly, and, before his opponent could raise
+     himself, he glided like a serpent under his guard, and passed his
+     sword through his body. Jussac fell heavily to the earth.
+
+     "D'Artagnan now cast an uneasy and rapid glance over the field of
+     battle. Aramis had already killed one of his adversaries. The
+     other gave him plenty to do, but Aramis was able to take care of
+     himself. Bicarat and Porthos were wounded; Porthos in the arm,
+     and Bicarat in the thigh. But neither wound was serious, and the
+     sight of their blood made them fight all the better. There was no
+     need to interfere there. Athos, wounded again by Cahusac, was
+     growing each moment paler, but he did not give way an inch. He
+     had changed his sword to his left hand. D'Artagnan caught his eye
+     as he was looking to see who most required his aid. The look of
+     the wounded mousquetaire was most eloquent; he would have died
+     sooner than call for assistance, but his glance said how much he
+     stood in need of it. With a single bound, D'Artagnan was upon
+     Cahusac's flank.
+
+     "'Have a care, sir guardsman,' cried he, 'or I slay you on the
+     spot.'
+
+     "Cahusac turned to face his new opponent. It was high time, for
+     Athos, who had only been sustained by his extreme courage, sank
+     upon one knee.
+
+     "'_Sangdieu!_' cried he to D'Artagnan, 'do not kill him, young
+     man, I beg of you; I have an old quarrel to terminate with him
+     when my wound is healed. Disarm him only--So--Well done!'
+
+     "This last exclamation was caused by Cahusac's sword, which flew
+     from his hand to a distance of twenty paces. D'Artagnan and
+     Cahusac rushed to pick it up, but D'Artagnan reached it first,
+     and put his foot upon it. Cahusac ran to the guardsman whom
+     Aramis had killed, took his rapier, and was returning to
+     D'Artagnan; but on his road he met Athos, who had taken breath
+     during the moment's respite which the latter had procured him,
+     and now recommenced the fight, fearing that the Gascon would kill
+     his enemy. D'Artagnan saw that he should disoblige him by again
+     interfering. A few seconds later, Cahusac fell with a wound
+     through the throat. At the same moment Aramis placed his sword's
+     point on the breast of his prostrate adversary, and forced him to
+     sue for mercy.
+
+     "Porthos and Bicarat alone remained. Porthos, while fighting,
+     indulged in all sorts of fanfarronades, asking Bicarat what time
+     of day it was, and complimenting him on the company which his
+     brother had just attained in the regiment of Navarre. In spite of
+     his jests, however, he did not gain ground. Bicarat was a
+     stubborn and skilful opponent. It was time to bring matters to a
+     conclusion before some patrol should arrive, and take both
+     royalists and cardinalists into custody. Athos, Aramis, and
+     D'Artagnan, surrounded Bicarat, and summoned him to surrender.
+     Although alone against four, and with a wound through the thigh,
+     he would not give in, though Jussac, who had raised himself on
+     his elbow, called out to him to yield. Bicarat was a Gascon, like
+     D'Artagnan; he only laughed, and pretended not to hear, at the
+     same time pointing to the ground at his feet. 'Here will die
+     Bicarat,' said he, 'the last of those who are with him.'
+
+     "'But they are four against you,' cried Jussac; 'I order you to
+     desist.'
+
+     "'Ah, if you order me, it is another affair!' said Bicarat; 'you
+     are my superior, and I must obey.'
+
+     "And giving a spring backwards, he broke his sword across his
+     knee, in order not to yield it up, threw the pieces over the
+     convent wall, and, crossing his arms, whistled a Cardinalist air.
+
+     "Courage is always respected even in an enemy. The mousquetaires
+     saluted Bicarat with their swords, and returned them to their
+     scabbards. D'Artagnan did the same, and, assisted by Bicarat, he
+     carried under the convent porch Jussac, Cahusac, and that one of
+     Aramis's adversaries who was only wounded. The other, as already
+     observed, was dead. They then rang the bell, and left the ground;
+     the mousquetaires and D'Artagnan, intoxicated with joy, carrying
+     away four swords out of five, and taking the direction of
+     Monsieur de Treville's hotel. Every mousquetaire whom they met,
+     and informed of what had happened, turned back and accompanied
+     them; so that at last their march was like a triumphal
+     procession. D'Artagnan was beside himself with delight; he walked
+     between Athos and Porthos, holding an arm of each.
+
+     "'If I am not yet a mousquetaire,' said he to his new friends, as
+     they crossed the threshold of the Hotel Treville, 'I may at least
+     say that I am received apprentice.'"
+
+
+The result of this affair is to procure D'Artagnan the favour of
+Monsieur de Treville and the King--the latter of whom dislikes the
+Cardinal in secret nearly as much as he fears him. The young Gascon
+has an audience of Louis the Just, who recruits his finances by the
+present of a handful of pistoles; and a few days later he is appointed
+to a cadetship in the company of guards of the Chevalier des Essarts,
+a brother-in-law of Treville. According to the singular ideas of those
+days, there was nothing degrading to a gentleman in receiving money
+from the king's hand. D'Artagnan, therefore, pockets the pistoles with
+many thanks, and takes an early opportunity of dividing them with his
+friends with the mythological names, Messieurs Athos, Porthos, and
+Aramis, who, according to the custom of mousquetaires, have more gold
+upon their coats than in their purses. The courage and good qualities
+of the Gascon have won the hearts of the three guardsmen, and he is
+admitted to make a fourth in their brotherhood, of which the motto is,
+"_Un pour tous, et tous pour un_." All is in common amongst
+them--pleasures, perils, pistoles.
+
+The characters of the three mousquetaires are well sketched and
+sustained, and illustrate admirably the vices, virtues, and
+propensities of their time and station. Aramis, who was originally
+intended for the church, has relinquished the black coat of an abbe in
+order to fight a nobleman who had insulted him. He still, however,
+persists in considering himself as a guardsman only _pro tempore_; and
+whenever fortune or his mistress frowns upon him, he declares his
+intention of abandoning his sinful mode of life, and throwing himself
+into the arms of mother church. Vanity is the failing of Porthos, who
+shines more by his imposing appearance, brilliant attire, and bull-dog
+courage, than by any qualities of the head. To Athos, who is the most
+interesting of the three, a certain mystery is attached, which,
+however, is seen through early in the book. He is a man of high birth,
+princely manners, and chivalrous feeling, but whose stormy life has
+cast a strong tinge of melancholy over his character, and who now
+finds his sole consolation in the wine-cup. It must not be therefore
+supposed that Athos is a sot, a wallower in wine, or a haunter of
+tavern orgies. He drinks, it is true, enough to prostrate any three
+ordinary men; but he takes his liquor, as he does every thing else, so
+much like a gentleman, and, moreover, there is so much self-devotion
+and generosity in his character, such dignity of manner and rectitude
+of feeling--his temper so even and kindly--his courage so heroic--that
+he is unquestionably the most amiable and interesting of the _dramatis
+personae_, preferable to D'Artagnan, to whom premature worldly wisdom
+gives a hardness bordering upon egotism. While Aramis is sighing
+sonnets to his mistress, and Porthos parading on the crown of the
+causeway in all the glory of gold lace and embroidery, Athos sits
+tranquilly at home, and says, like Gregory in the Deserter--
+
+  "J'aime mieux boire."
+
+His real name--for Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are merely assumed
+ones--is known only to the King and to Monsieur de Treville.
+
+It would be difficult within the limits of this paper to give an idea
+of the entire plot of the _Three Mousquetaires_, which is, in fact,
+less a tale with a regular intrigue and _denouement_, than a narrative
+of adventures and incidents, extending over a period of nearly three
+years. D'Artagnan, whose enterprising character and Gascon acuteness
+qualify him admirably to take a part in the court intrigues of the
+time, soon finds himself almost at open war with the Cardinal, and
+engaged in serving the interests of Louis the Thirteenth's unhappy
+queen, Anne of Austria, who, by rejecting the suit of the scarlet
+duke--as the mousquetaires irreverently style the Cardinal Duke of
+Richelieu--has drawn upon herself the deadly hatred of that omnipotent
+personage. The Duke of Buckingham, who is madly in love with the
+queen, visits Paris in disguise, and obtains an interview with her. At
+parting, he implores her to give him some trifle, which he may
+preserve as a _souvenir_ of their attachment; and Anne of Austria
+gives him the first thing that comes to hand, which happens to be a
+jewel-case, containing twelve diamond clasps or _ferrets_ that she has
+lately received from the King. The Cardinal, omnipresent by his spies,
+learns this; manages adroitly to rouse the king's jealousy; and
+prevails on him to give a ball, at which the queen is desired to
+appear, wearing the ferrets in question. Anne of Austria is in
+despair. To obtain the restitution of the jewels within the eight days
+that have to elapse before the one fixed for the ball, appears
+impossible. Buckingham is in England; if she writes, her letter will
+be intercepted by the Cardinal; if she sends, her messenger will be
+stopped. Nothing could at that time be done in France without coming
+to the knowledge of Richelieu. In her extremity she is induced to
+confide in one of her attendants, with whom D'Artagnan is in love; and
+a few hours later, the intrepid Gascon and his three inseparable
+friends set out for England, provided with a leave of absence from
+Monsieur de Treville, and attended by their four lackeys. D'Artagnan
+alone knows the object of their journey; but the others, confiding
+implicitly in his judgment, and bound, moreover, by the rules of their
+association, ask no questions, and willingly brave the dangers that
+the Cardinal strews in their path. It is agreed that, in case of
+rencontres by the way, the dead or wounded are to be left to their
+fate, and the others are to push on without an instant's delay. Should
+D'Artagnan fall, the survivors are to take from his pocket the queen's
+letter to Buckingham, and continue their route.
+
+The adventurers are not allowed to proceed far without molestation.
+They stop to breakfast, and a stranger picks a quarrel with Porthos,
+who stays behind to fight him, and does not rejoin them. Near Beauvais
+they receive a volley from some pretended labourers; D'Artagnan's hat
+is knocked off by a ball; a lackey is left in the road, and Aramis is
+badly wounded, and obliged to remain at the next town. D'Artagnan,
+Athos, and their two attendants, reach Amiens at midnight, and stop to
+sleep at the sign of the Golden Lily. Here various suspicious
+incidents occur, and in the morning their horses are found to be
+dead-lame, and unable to proceed. One that might still have gone on
+has been bled by mistake.
+
+     "All these accidents succeeding each other began to alarm our
+     travellers; they might be the result of chance, but they were
+     more probably that of an organized plot. Athos and D'Artagnan
+     left their room, while Planchet (D'Artagnan's groom) went to
+     enquire whether there were any horses to be bought in the
+     neighbourhood. At the door were standing two vigorous animals,
+     saddled and bridled, and which would have suited the guardsmen
+     well. Planchet asked to whom they belonged, and was told that
+     their masters had passed the night at the inn, and were then
+     paying their score previous to departure. Athos went to do the
+     same, while D'Artagnan and Planchet remained at the street door.
+
+     "The host was in a small back room, which Athos was requested to
+     enter. He did so without suspicion, and took out some pistoles to
+     pay. The innkeeper, who was seated at a desk, of which one of the
+     drawers was half-open, took the money, turned it about, and
+     examined it on all sides, and suddenly exclaiming that it was
+     false, declared that he would have Athos and his companion
+     arrested as coiners.
+
+     "'Scoundrel!' cried Athos, advancing towards him; 'I will cut
+     your ears off for your insolence.'
+
+     "But the man stooped down, took a brace of pistols out of the
+     open drawer, and pointing them at Athos, called loudly for help.
+     On the instant four armed men entered by a side-door, and
+     attacked Athos.
+
+     "'I am taken!' cried the mousquetaire, with all the power of his
+     lungs. 'To horse, D'Artagnan! Spur! spur!'
+
+     "And he fired both his pistols. D'Artagnan and Planchet untied
+     the two horses that were waiting at the door, sprang upon their
+     backs, and set off full gallop.
+
+     "By dint of spurring and precaution, D'Artagnan and his follower
+     reach Calais without further accident; the horse of the former
+     falling dead within a hundred yards of the town. They hasten to
+     the port, and find themselves close to a gentleman and his
+     servant, dusty and travel-stained, who are enquiring for a vessel
+     to take them to England. The master of a sloop that is ready to
+     sail informs them, that an order had arrived that very morning to
+     prevent any ship from leaving the harbour without an express
+     permission from the Cardinal.
+
+     "'I have that permission,' said the gentleman, taking a paper
+     from his pocket.
+
+     "'Very good!' said the sailor. 'Get it countersigned by the
+     governor of the port, and give me the preference.'
+
+     "'Where shall I find the governor?'
+
+     "'At his country-house, a quarter of a league from the town. You
+     see it yonder. A slated roof at the foot of a little hill.'"
+
+
+The gentleman and his attendant take the direction of the governor's
+house. D'Artagnan follows them; picks a quarrel with the stranger, who
+is a certain Count de Wardes, an adherent of the Cardinal's, wounds
+him desperately, himself receiving a scratch, takes the pass, gets it
+countersigned, and proceeds to England. The Duke of Buckingham is
+hunting at Windsor with the king; but the indefatigable Gascon follows
+him thither, and delivers his letter. The duke hurries with him to
+London to give him the ferrets; but, to his unspeakable consternation,
+finds that two out of the twelve are missing. They had been cut from
+his dress by an emissary of the Cardinal's at a ball at Windsor
+Castle, at which he had worn the queen's present. The ferrets are of
+immense value, and difficult workmanship. Buckingham sends for his
+jeweller, who demands eight days and three thousand pistoles to
+replace the missing ornaments. The duke locks him up in a room, with
+his tools and a workman, and allows him six thousand pistoles, and
+thirty-six hours to complete then. The ferrets are ready within the
+prescribed period. Furnished with a password from the duke, who has
+trusty agents in France, D'Artagnan reaches Paris by a different road
+and without impediment, arriving in time to save the queen, who
+appears at the ball with her twelve ferrets, to the vast discomfiture
+of the Cardinal. Meanwhile D'Artagnan's mistress had been spirited
+away by Richelieu, and the young Gascon is in despair. He confides his
+misfortunes to Monsieur de Treville, who promises to do what he can to
+find the lady, and advises D'Artagnan to leave Paris till the
+Cardinal's wrath is a little blown over. D'Artagnan takes his advice;
+bethinks him of the three mousquetaires, and sets out to look for
+them. He finds Porthos and Aramis where he left them, nearly recovered
+from their wounds; and proceeding to Amiens, enters the hotel of the
+Golden Lily, and confronts the host--his whip in his right hand, his
+left on his sword-hilt, and evidently meaning mischief.
+
+The innkeeper, however, turns out to be more an object of pity than
+blame. Previously to the arrival of D'Artagnan and Athos on their way
+to England, he had received information from the authorities, that a
+party of coiners, disguised as guardsmen, would arrive at his inn, and
+that he was to take measures to arrest them. The six men who brought
+him these orders disguised themselves as servants and stable-boys, and
+remained to assist in the capture. In the skirmish, Athos shot two of
+them, wounded a third, cut the host across the face with the flat of
+his sword, and retreated fighting to the cellar stairs. Entering the
+cellar, he pulled the door to and barricaded it. His assailants left
+the house, carrying off their killed and wounded; and when the
+innkeeper, recovering a little from his alarm, went to inform the
+governor of what had occurred, the latter declared himself totally
+ignorant of the whole business, denied that he had given orders to
+arrest any coiners, and threatened to hang the unlucky host if he
+mixed up his name in the affair.
+
+     "'But, Athos!' cried D'Artagnan, losing all patience at the
+     innkeeper's prolixity,--'Athos, what is become of him?'
+
+     "'I was eager to repair my wrongs towards the gentleman,' replied
+     the innkeeper, 'and hurried to the cellar to set him at liberty.
+     But on my declaring what I came for, he swore it was only a snare
+     laid for him, and insisted upon making his conditions before he
+     came out. I told him very humbly--for I was aware of the scrape
+     into which I had got myself by my violence towards one of the
+     King's mousquetaires--that I was ready to submit to them.'
+
+     "'In the first place,' said he, 'I must have my servant delivered
+     to me, fully armed.'
+
+     "His order was obeyed, and Monsieur Grimaud was taken down to the
+     cellar, wounded as he was. His master received him, barricaded
+     the door again, and bid us go to the devil.
+
+     "'But where is he?' cried D'Artagnan. 'Where is Athos?'
+
+     "'In the cellar, sir.'
+
+     "'Scoundrel! you have kept him all this time in the cellar?'
+
+     "'Good heavens, sir! _I_ keep him in the cellar! You do not know
+     what he is doing there, or you would not suppose it. If you can
+     prevail upon him to come out, I shall be grateful to you to the
+     last day of my life; I will adore you as my guardian angel.'
+
+     "'I shall find him there, then?'
+
+     "'Certainly you will, sir--he won't come out. Every day we are
+     obliged to hand him down bread at the end of a hay-fork, and meat
+     too, when he asks for it. But, alas! it is not of bread and meat
+     that he makes the largest consumption. I tried once to enter the
+     cellar with two of my servants, and he put himself in a most
+     terrible passion. I heard him and his lackey cocking their
+     pistols and carbine; and when we asked what their intentions
+     were, your friend said that they had forty shots to fire, and
+     that they would fire every one before allowing us to enter the
+     cellar. I then went to complain to the governor, and he told me
+     that I had only got what I deserved, and that it would teach me
+     to maltreat honourable gentlemen who used my house.'
+
+     "'So that, since that time....' said D'Artagnan, who could not
+     help laughing at the pitiable countenance of the host.
+
+     "'Since that time, sir,' continued the latter, 'we lead the most
+     wretched life imaginable; for you must know that all our
+     provisions are in the cellar, our wine in bottle and our wine in
+     cask, beer, oil, and spices, hams and sausages; and as we cannot
+     get at them, we are unable to give food or drink to the
+     travellers who alight here, and our inn is losing all its custom.
+     If your friend stops one week longer in my cellar, I am a ruined
+     man.'
+
+     "'And quite right that you should be, scoundrel! It was easy to
+     see by our appearance, that we were men of quality and not
+     coiners.'
+
+     "'Yes, sir, you are right,' replied poor Boniface. 'But only
+     listen to him, he is getting into a passion.'
+
+     "'Doubtless somebody has disturbed him,' said D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'We are obliged to disturb him,' cried the host; 'two English
+     gentlemen have just arrived. The English, as you know, love good
+     wine, and these have asked for the best. My wife is gone to beg
+     Monsieur Athos to let her in, and he has no doubt refused as
+     usual. Holy Virgin! What a racket he is making.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan rose from his seat, and followed by the host and by
+     Planchet with his cocked carbine, took the direction of the
+     cellar, whence a tremendous noise was proceeding. The Englishmen
+     were exasperated; they had just come off a long journey, and were
+     dying of hunger and thirst.
+
+     "'It is perfect tyranny,' cried they in very good French, 'that
+     this madman will not allow these good people the use of their
+     wine. But we will break open the door, and if he is too furious,
+     we will kill him.'
+
+     "'Not so fast, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, drawing his pistols
+     from his belt. 'You will kill nobody, if you please.'
+
+     "'Let them come,' said Athos, in his usual calm voice, from the
+     other side of the door, 'let them come in, and we shall see.'
+
+     "Brave as they appeared to be, the two Englishmen hesitated and
+     looked at one another. One might almost have supposed that the
+     cellar was garrisoned by one of those hungry ogres of the fairy
+     tale, whose cavern no one could enter with impunity. There was a
+     moment's silence; but the Englishmen were ashamed to retreat, and
+     one of them, descending the five or six steps leading to the
+     cellar, gave the door a kick that made it rattle on its hinges.
+
+     "'Planchet,' said D'Artagnan, cocking his pistols, 'you take the
+     one at the bottom of the stairs; I will take the other. Since you
+     are for a fight, gentlemen, you shall have a bellyfull.'
+
+     "'Is that D'Artagnan's voice?' cried Athos.
+
+     "'It is,' replied the Gascon.
+
+     "'Very good,' said Athos, 'we will work them a little, these
+     door-breakers.'
+
+     "'A moment's patience, Athos,' said D'Artagnan. 'Gentlemen,' he
+     continued, turning to the Englishmen, 'you are between two fires.
+     My servant and myself have three shots to fire, you will receive
+     as many from the cellar, besides which we have got our swords,
+     with the use of which, I can assure you, my friend and myself are
+     tolerably well acquainted. Allow me to arrange matters. I give
+     you my word that you shall have some wine just now.'
+
+     "'If there is any left,' growled Athos in a tone of raillery.
+
+     "'What does he mean--if there is any left?' cried the host, who
+     felt a cold perspiration break out all over him.
+
+     "'Nonsense, there will be some left,' replied D'Artagnan; 'two
+     men cannot have drunk the whole cellar out.'
+
+     "The Englishmen sheathed their swords, and D'Artagnan related to
+     them the history of the imprisonment of Athos, upon hearing which
+     they greatly blamed the innkeeper.
+
+     "'Now, gentlemen,' said D'Artagnan, 'if you will be pleased to
+     return to your apartment, in ten minutes you shall have what you
+     require.'
+
+     "The Englishmen bowed and retired.
+
+     "'I am alone, my dear Athos,' said D'Artagnan.--'Open the door.'
+
+     "There was a great noise of fagots and beams falling down; the
+     besieged was demolishing his counter-scarps and bastions. The
+     next moment the door opened, and the pale face of the
+     mousquetaire appeared. D'Artagnan sprang forward and embraced
+     him, but when he tried to lead him out of the cellar, he
+     perceived that Athos staggered.
+
+     "'You are wounded?' cried he.
+
+     "'I! not the least,' was the reply. 'I am dead drunk, that is
+     all, and never did any man better deserve to be so. Fore God!
+     mine host, I have drunk for my share, at least one hundred and
+     fifty bottles.'
+
+     "'Heaven have mercy on me!' cried the host. 'If the servant has
+     drunk half as much as the master, I am a ruined man.'
+
+     "'Grimaud knows his place too well to drink the same wine as his
+     master; he has drunk from the cask. By-the-by, I think he must
+     have forgotten to put in the spigot--I hear a running.'
+
+     "D'Artagnan burst into a fit of laughter. The innkeeper was in a
+     high fever. Just then Grimaud showed himself behind his master,
+     his carbine on his shoulder, and his head shaking like that of
+     the drunken satyr in some of Rubens' pictures. His clothes were
+     smeared with an unctuous liquid, which the host immediately
+     recognized as his best olive oil.
+
+     "D'Artagnan and Athos now crossed the common room, and installed
+     themselves in the best apartment of the hotel; while the
+     innkeeper and his wife lighted lamps, and rushed into the cellar,
+     where a frightful spectacle awaited them. In rear of the
+     fortifications, in which Athos had made a breach for his exit,
+     and which were composed of fagots, planks, and empty casks,
+     arranged according to all the rules of strategy, were numerous
+     pools of oil and wine, in which the bones of the hams that had
+     been eaten were lying. In one corner was a pile of broken
+     bottles, and in another a huge cask of wine was just yielding up
+     the last drops of its blood. Out of fifty large sausages that had
+     been suspended to the beams of the roof, ten only were remaining.
+     The image of devastation and death, as the ancient poet said,
+     reigned there as upon a field of battle."
+
+
+With characteristic generosity and _insouciance_, Athos forgives the
+host, and compensates him for the damage done to his property. The two
+guardsmen then sit down to drink, and D'Artagnan tells his friend of
+the misfortune he has had in the loss of his mistress.
+
+     "'Your misfortune makes me laugh,' said Athos, shrugging his
+     shoulders. 'I wonder what you would say to a love story that I
+     could tell you.'
+
+     "'Something that happened to yourself?'
+
+     "'Or to one of my friends; no matter.'
+
+     "'Tell it me.'
+
+     "'I would rather drink.'
+
+     "'You can do both.'
+
+     "'True,' said Athos, filling his glass; 'the two things go well
+     together.'
+
+     "The mousquetaire paused, and seemed to be collecting his
+     thoughts; and as he did so, D'Artagnan observed that he grew each
+     moment paler. He had reached that stage of intoxication at which
+     ordinary drinkers fall under the table and sleep. Athos, however,
+     did not do that; he dreamed aloud without sleeping. There was
+     something frightful in this somnambulism of drunkenness.
+
+     "'One of my friends,' he began--'one of my friends, mind you, not
+     myself,' interrupted he with a gloomy smile; 'a count of my
+     province, that is to say of Berri, noble as a Dandolo or a
+     Montmorency, fell in love when twenty-five years of age, with a
+     young girl of seventeen, beautiful as painters have depicted
+     Venus. Joined to the _naivete_ of her age, she possessed the soul
+     and feeling of a poet; she could not be said to please--she
+     intoxicated all who approached her. She lived in a little village
+     with her brother, who was a priest. None knew who they were, nor
+     whence they came; but she was so beautiful, and her brother so
+     pious, that none thought of asking. It was rumoured and believed
+     that they were of good family. My friend, who was lord of that
+     country, might have seduced the young girl or taken her by force,
+     as he chose; he was the master; who would have come to the
+     assistance of two friendless strangers? Unfortunately he was an
+     honest man, and he married her. The fool-the idiot!'
+
+     "'Why a fool, since he loved her?' asked D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'Patience,' said Athos. 'He conducted her to his castle, and
+     made her the first lady of the province; and, to do her justice,
+     she knew perfectly how to support her rank.'
+
+     "'Well?' said D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'Well! one day she was out hunting with her husband,' continued
+     Athos, speaking in a low tone and very fast, 'she was overcome by
+     the heat, and fell from her horse in a swoon; the count sprang to
+     her assistance, and as her clothes seemed to prevent her
+     breathing, he cut them open with his dagger, and her shoulder was
+     uncovered. Guess what she had upon her shoulder, D'Artagnan?'
+     said Athos with a strange wild laugh.
+
+     "'How can I tell?' said D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'A _fleur-de-lis_. She was branded!'
+
+     "And Athos emptied at a draught the cup that stood before him.
+
+     "'Horror!' exclaimed D'Artagnan. 'What do you tell me?'
+
+     "'The truth--the angel was a devil--the innocent young girl was a
+     convict.'
+
+     "'And what did the count do?'
+
+     "'The count was a powerful nobleman; he had right of pit and
+     halter upon his lands; he bared the shoulder of the countess,
+     tied her hands behind her back, and hung her to a tree.'
+
+     "'Heavens! Athos! a murder!' cried D'Artagnan.
+
+     "'Yes, a murder, nothing more,' said Athos, pale as death. 'But
+     there is no wine--we are drinking nothing.'
+
+     "And Athos seized the last bottle by the neck, put it to his
+     mouth, and emptied it as though it had been an ordinary glass."
+
+
+This strange story, that could hardly have proceeded from any but a
+French imagination, is nevertheless very effective, far more so in
+Monsieur Dumas' terse and pointed diction than in our imperfect
+translation. The dame with the fleur-de-lis on her shoulder is not
+dead, but on the contrary married again, and proves to be no other
+than an emissary of the Cardinal, a certain Lady de Winter, or Milady,
+as M. Dumas persists in calling her. She it was who cut the diamonds
+off Buckingham's dress, and informed the Cardinal of the same.
+Throughout the whole book she plays the part of a sort of
+Mephistopheles in petticoats, doing evil for evil's sake; and finally,
+when in prison in England, gains over a fanatical young officer named
+Felton, who is set to guard her, and working on him by the power of
+her charms and an artfully devised story, instigates him to the murder
+of Buckingham, who is at Portsmouth fitting out an armament for the
+relief of La Rochelle, then besieged by Richelieu. She escapes to
+France, but there falls into the hands of her deadly enemy,
+D'Artagnan, and of her first husband, Athos, otherwise Count de la
+Fere. Her punishment is one of the last and most striking scenes in
+the book, which concludes with the capture of La Rochelle, leaving
+D'Artagnan a lieutenant of mousquetaires, and, to all appearance, on
+the high-road to further preferment. Some account of his future
+fortune is promised us by Monsieur Dumas; and, however alarming a
+continuation to a book in eight volumes may sound, we cannot help
+wishing he may keep his promise. There is less occasion to be alarmed
+at the length of a six or eight volume book from his hands, than at
+that of a three volume one from those of many other writers; and
+moreover one must take into account the ingenuity of French
+publishers, who manage to have the type spread out over the largest
+possible amount of white paper. The system of putting little in a
+page, and diminishing that little by the interpolation of huge and
+apparently objectless blank spaces, has reached its height in Paris;
+and, although an imposition on the public, it perhaps renders a book
+lighter and pleasanter to read. Light reading and pleasant reading
+Monsieur Dumas' romance assuredly is; and we can wish our readers no
+better pastime, during the long evenings of this wintry season, than
+the perusal of the feats and fortunes of the _Trois Mousquetaires_.
+
+
+
+
+MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
+
+PART XV.
+
+  "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
+  Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
+  Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
+  Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
+  And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
+  Have I not in the pitched battle heard
+  Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
+                                                    SHAKSPEARE.
+
+
+Valenciennes was now captured. The sagacity of my friend, the French
+engineer, had not been deceived. The explosion of the three great
+mines, an operation from its magnitude almost new to war, and in its
+effects irresistible, had thrown open the fortress. The garrison had
+done their work gallantly, and the result was a capitulation, hastened
+by the outcry of the famishing inhabitants. I hastened to the quarters
+of my regiment, was received with all cordiality, had the honour of an
+interview with the royal duke, who, at all times affable, was now in
+peculiar good-humour, and who led me into a long detail of such public
+opinions as might be gathered from my intercourse with the garrison.
+At the close of our interview he gave me a note, which was to be
+forwarded to the adjutant-general. I made my bow, and retired.
+
+All in the camp was festivity. A great achievement had been
+accomplished, and the barriers of France were broken down. But in the
+midst of national triumph, I felt a depression which rendered me
+wholly incapable of sharing it. The wounds of the spirit are not to be
+healed like those of the frame; and with the recollection of the noble
+creature whom I had lost, bitterness mingled in every sound, and
+sight, and exultation. My first request would have been for leave of
+absence, that I might follow her, if she were still in France, or in
+the world. But the bustle at headquarters told me that some movement
+was about to take place; and, under those circumstances, to ask for
+leave was impossible. Still I continued making every imaginable
+enquiry, dispatching letters, and seeing postmasters, to obtain
+intelligence of the route which Clotilde had taken. After tracing her
+for the first few leagues, all tidings were lost; and I had only to
+trust to that hope which was a part of my sanguine nature, and which
+was sustained by a kind of consciousness that a being so superior
+could not be flung away in the chances which visit the multitude.
+
+While I was thus pondering and perplexed, I was summoned to attend one
+of the principal officers of his royal highness's staff. "We are
+sending despatches of some importance to London," said he, "and it is
+the wish of the commander-in-chief that you should take them. I have
+the pleasure to tell you, that he feels an interest in you from the
+opportunities which you have had of distinguishing yourself in the
+campaign, and that he has appointed you an extra aide-de-camp. Your
+service begins soon," added my informant with a smile, "for you must
+set off to-night. The despatch mentioning the capitulation of the
+fortress was, of course, sent off at once; but as the commission, in
+those cases, is given by routine, it is desirable to have some one in
+London capable of explaining the 'explanation,' or perhaps taking the
+place of the 'honourable,' or 'right honourable' personage who has
+been made the official bearer of the despatch. His royal highness is
+satisfied, from his conversation with you, that you will be perfectly
+fit for this purpose; and here is the despatch, with which you are to
+make all expedition to the Horse-Guards."
+
+After giving my orders for the journey, I hastened to take leave of
+the man whom I most honoured and esteemed, my unfailing friend
+Guiscard. To my surprise, he received the intelligence of my
+appointment with scarcely a word of congratulation. Little as I myself
+was now excitable by any thing in the shape of human fortune, I was
+chagrined by his obstinate gravity. He observed it, and started from
+his seat. "Come," said he, "let us take a walk, and get out of the
+sight of mankind, if we can." He took my arm, and we strayed along the
+banks of the Scheldt, where, however, his purpose was unobtainable,
+for the whole breadth of the river was covered with the provision
+barges of the troops. The bargemen were enjoying the fine July evening
+in the national style--swilling the worst beer that ever punished the
+taste for that barbarian beverage, and filling the fresh breeze with
+the fumes of tobacco, worthy of the beer. Guiscard stopped to gaze at
+them.
+
+"I envy those fellows," said he. "Not merely for their escaping all
+care, and being able to extract enjoyment out of their execrable drink
+and pipes, but from their being exempt from all contact with
+portfolios."
+
+"But such enjoyment is only that of the swine."
+
+"Well, and is not that of the swine perfect?--and what would you have
+more than perfection?"
+
+A huge herd of those creatures, basking along the miry edge of the
+river, helped his illustration. "Mr Marston, you have not been for the
+last month on the staff of the commander-in-chief of the allied
+armies, or you would not look so incredulous. Sir, man's senses may be
+as suitable for his purposes, as those of the animals which we see
+wallowing there." I stared, waiting for the conclusion. He proceeded.
+"But man has drawbacks on his natural faculties, which they have not.
+Possibly nature intended that we should be as happy as they. But make
+nine-tenths of them hewers of wood and drawers of water--send some of
+them to dungeons--enforce a conscription among the rest, and send them
+to use their tusks upon each other, and the most complacent of them
+would rebel: or, as the last trial of temper, put the meekest of the
+race into a cabinet of princes and general-officers, themselves
+controlled by a cabinet five hundred miles off; and if they do not
+growl as I do now, I shall give up all my knowledge of quadruped
+nature."
+
+"Why, Guiscard, what is the matter with you to-night? Have we not
+gained our point? You are like the Thracians, who always mourned at
+the birth of a child."
+
+"And the Thracians were perfectly right, if the child were to be
+reared a diplomatist. You talk of success!" Our path had led to where
+a view of Valenciennes opened on us through the trees; and its
+shattered ramparts and curtains, the trees felled along its glacis,
+and its bastions stripped and broken by our cannon-balls, certainly
+presented a rueful spectacle. The Austrian flag was flying on the
+citadel.
+
+"There," said he, "is our prize. It is not worth the loading of a
+single gun; but it has cost us more millions to ruin than it took
+francs to build it--it has cost us the conquest of France; and will
+cost Europe the war, which we might have extinguished three months ago
+if we had but left it behind. I acknowledge that I speak in the
+bitterness of my heart; delay has ruined every thing. Our march to
+Paris, and our march to Georgium Sidus, will now be finished on the
+same day."
+
+I attempted to laugh off his predictions, but he was intractable. "The
+business," said he, "is all over. That flag is the signal of European
+jealousy--the apple of discord. Yon are going to England; and, if you
+have any regard for my opinion, tell your friends there to withdraw
+their troops as soon as they can. That flag, which pretends to
+partition France, will unite it as one man. Our sages here are
+actually about to play its game. Orders have come to divide the army.
+What folly! What inconceivable infatuation! In the very face of the
+most fantastic and furious population of mankind, whom the most
+trivial success inflames into enthusiasts; they are going to break up
+their force, and seek adventures by brigades and battalions."
+
+He stamped the ground with indignation; but, suddenly recovering his
+calmness, he turned to me with his grave smile. "I am ashamed,
+Marston, of thus betraying a temper which time ought to have cooled.
+But, after all, what is public life but a burlesque; a thing of
+ludicrous disappointment; a tragedy, with a farce always at hand to
+relieve the tedium and the tinsel; the fall of kingdoms made laughable
+by the copper lace of the stage wardrobe?"
+
+"Do you object to our duke?"
+
+"Not in the least. He is personally a gallant fellow; and if he wants
+experience, so must every man at one time or other. His only error,
+hitherto, has been his condescending to come at all with so small a
+force under his command. No English army should ever plant its foot
+upon the Continent with less than fifty thousand men on its
+muster-roll. The duke's being put at the head of your troops--only a
+division after all--seems to me the only wise thing that has been
+done. It was a declaration of the heartiness of your alliance; and I
+honour your country for the distinctness of the avowal. Your king
+gives his son, as your country gives her soldiers, and your people
+give their money. The whole was manly, magnanimous, or, as the highest
+panegyric, it was English all over."
+
+This language at once put an end to all my reserve. I shook his hand
+in the spirit of old friendship; and, on our parting, extracted a
+promise of keeping up our communication on all possible opportunities.
+We had already separated, when I heard my name called again, and
+Guiscard returned. "I had forgotten," said he, "to tell you what I was
+most anxious to say. If I had seen no other prospect for you, I should
+be the last man to make you discontented with your profession. My only
+request is, that when you once more tread on English ground, you will
+seriously consider whether you will continue in the army. If know you
+at all, I think that you would not be altogether satisfied with
+wearing your epaulettes at reviews and parades. And, if I am not
+entirely mistaken, you will have nothing else for the next dozen
+years. Your army are moving homewards already. You are now in the
+secret."
+
+"But is the campaign absolutely coming to an end? Are the hopes of
+attacking the French so suddenly given up? Is France always to baffle
+us?" was my vexed question.
+
+"As to the fate of France, you should consult a prophet, not a
+Prussian engineer--and one terribly tired of his trade besides," was
+the reply. We parted; but the conversation was not lost upon me.
+
+By midnight I was on my journey. My route lay through the Flemish
+provinces, which had now recovered all their luxuriance, if not
+derived additional animation from the activity which every where
+follows the movements of a successful army. Troops marching to join
+the general advance frequently and strikingly diversified the scene.
+Huge trains of the commissariat were continually on the road. The
+little civic authorities were doubly conscious of the dignity of
+functions which brought them into contact with soldiership, from the
+quartermaster up to the general. But the contrast of the tumult which
+I left behind with the quietness of the scenes around me--the haste,
+the anxiety, and the restlessness of a huge camp, with the calm of the
+fields, with the regularity which seemed to govern all the operations
+of farming life, and with the grave opulence of the old mansions,
+which seemed to be formed for the natural receptacles of the wealth of
+Flemish fields--at once refreshed me after the mental fever in which I
+had tossed so long, and perhaps impressed on me more deeply the
+parting advice of my friend the philosopher.
+
+But, from the moment when I touched British ground, the whole sleepy
+tranquillity which gathers over every man in the quietude of Flanders,
+where man seems to have followed the same plough from the deluge, had
+utterly vanished. I was in the midst of a nation in a ferment. The war
+was the universal topic; party was in full life. From the inn at Dover
+up to the waiting-room at the Horse-Guards, I heard nothing but
+politics. The conduct of our army--the absurdity of every thing that
+had been done, or left undone--the failures of the Allies--the
+fanaticism of the French--the hopes of popular liberty on one side,
+and the indignation of established power on the other--came rushing
+round me in a chaos of discordant conceptions, that for the time
+bewildered me. How simple was the gossip of the camp to this
+heterogeneous mass of struggling topics! How straightforward was even
+the wild haranguing of the Palais Royal to the thousand reports and
+protests, remonstrances and replications, of the whole ringing and
+raging, public mind of England! This was the age of pamphleteering.
+Every sage who could, or could not, write, flung his pamphlet in the
+teeth of the party whose existence he conceived to be ruinous to his
+country, or perhaps prejudicial to his own prospect of a sinecure. The
+journals printed their columns in gall; the satirists dipped their
+pens in concentrated acid; the popular haranguers dashed the oil of
+vitriol of contempt in each other's faces. The confusion, the
+collision, the uproar, was indescribable.
+
+But my whole experience of public life has told me, that however the
+popular opinion may be wrong, the public opinion is right; and I felt
+that the nation was already adverse to the conduct of the campaign.
+The utmost skill of the cabinet was required to prevent a dangerous
+reaction. The member of administration with whom my chief intercourse
+officially existed, was the same manly and kind-natured individual to
+whom I had formerly been indebted for so much civility; and, as if
+proud of his own work, his civility now took the form of friendship.
+Ill news came from abroad; and I expressed my impatience of remaining
+with the pen in my hand, when I should have worn my sword. To all my
+suggestions on the subject, the good-humoured answer was, that my
+services were still necessary at home. At length, on my making a
+decided request that I should be permitted to return to my regiment,
+he told me in confidence that the campaign was probably at an end;
+that the British commander-in-chief was about to return; and that, in
+fact, the strength of England would be turned to the naval war. At the
+close of one of those conversations, fixing his keen grey eye upon me,
+he said, "Pray, what think you of Parliament?" My answer was, "That
+mediocrity was more contemptible there than any where else; while
+success was more difficult."
+
+"You mean such success as Pitt's: you mean victory. But you must get
+these Greek and Roman notions out of your head. An English House does
+not want orators. One on a side is quite enough. They are like the
+gold plate on a sideboard; it is well to show that we have such
+things, for the honour of our establishment; but no one thinks of
+making use of them at table. Pitt is an exception; he is equal to
+every thing; an incomparable man of business. Burke, or some other man
+of metaphor, compared him to the falcon; which, however high it may
+soar, always follows the prey with its eye along the ground. But two
+Pitts, if nature could be prolific of such magnificent monsters, would
+absolutely perplex us. What could be more confusing than to have two
+suns shining at the same time?"
+
+"But is Fox nothing?" I asked.
+
+"A great deal," was the answer. "He is the finest talker, I suppose,
+in the world. The first of babblers."
+
+"Of babblers!" I involuntarily repeated.
+
+"Yes; for what is babbling but speaking in vain, pouring out endless
+speculations without a purpose or the hope of a purpose, indulging a
+remarkably powerful and productive mind with the waste of its own
+conceptions, pouring out a whole coinage of splendid thoughts with no
+more expectancy of practical result than if he poured the mint into
+the Thames? You may rely upon it that such is the opinion of the
+House, as it will be yours when you get there; and such will be that
+of posterity, if they shall ever take the trouble to think about any
+of us."
+
+This conversation was evidently more than accidental; and I gave to it
+some of my most perplexing hours. I had an original fondness for the
+life of arms. I was of the age to feel its variety, animation, and
+ardour. My experience had been fortunate; I had seen nothing but
+victory, and had been flattered by personal distinction. But then came
+the reverse of the medal. I remembered the opinion of the most
+sagacious and penetrating spirit which it had been my lot ever to
+know; and I felt that the Continent was to be our field of battle no
+longer. The languor of home service, to one who had seen war in its
+stateliest shape, and in its most powerful activity, rose before my
+mind with an inexpressible sense of weariness. On the other hand,
+supposing that I possessed the faculties for political life, was I
+possessed of the temper, the endurance of toil, the measureless
+patience, the inexhaustible equanimity, which every night of my public
+existence would henceforth demand? Why was this heart-wearying
+struggle to be preferred to the simple and straightforward pursuit of
+an honourable profession, in which the only weight was the carrying of
+my sword, and the only secret of distinction possessing an untarnished
+name?
+
+But I soon made up my mind. The question narrowed itself to this:
+which was the more active life? The point of honour was no longer the
+adherence to a profession whose purposes were necessarily changed.
+Every hour gave additional evidence that the gates of the Continent
+were closing upon the English soldier. Influence, impression,
+publicity, were the prizes of a political career. I saw all other
+names fade before the great senatorial names of England. I saw men of
+humble extraction filling the world with their fame. I saw a
+succession of individuals, who, if their profession had been arms, or
+if their birth-place had been the Continent, would have lived and died
+in the routine of obscure service, here rising to the height of
+national homage, lustres of their generation, and guiding by their
+opinions the courts of Europe. Whether I should ever take my place
+among those illustrious names, scarcely entered into my thoughts. But
+I was determined never to waste my life in conscious indolence.
+Scarcely knowing what faculties I might possess, I had fully resolved
+on trying their utmost strength; and grown almost indifferent to the
+ordinary pursuits of human indulgence, I looked with something of a
+melancholy yet proud hope, to the enjoyment which was to be found in
+giving myself up to the solitary and stern toil of living for a great
+cause, and leaving a name behind me that should not be forgotten.
+
+On that very day the intelligence arrived that the British troops had
+marched towards the north of Germany; that the royal duke had returned
+to England; and that the Allies had, by common consent, abandoned the
+invasion of France. My habits were always prompt. Before the hour was
+over in which the gazette appeared, I waited on my ministerial friend,
+and expressed my full acquiescence in his proposal.
+
+I pass by the process of getting into Parliament. It was then a
+simpler matter than it has since become. A treasury borough was then
+the gate through which all the leading names of the country had
+entered the legislature, and I merely followed the path of all but the
+lords of acres.
+
+Every man who will make himself master of an occupation must serve an
+apprenticeship. Parliament, too, has its seven years' indentures, and
+the few who have refused the training have seldom been the wiser for
+their precipitancy. I "bided my time," taking a slight occasional
+share in debates with whose topics I happened to be well acquainted;
+and expecting the chances, which, to every one who employs himself
+vigorously, are all but certainties. Still I felt that this mere
+hovering on the outskirts of debate must not last too long, and that
+nothing was more hazardous to final reputation than to be too slow in
+attempting to lay its first stone. Yet I felt some difficulty in every
+great question; and, after bracing my nerves for the onset, I always
+found my courage fail at the sight of the actual encounter. I felt as
+a young knight might have felt in some of the tilting-matches of
+old--master of his charger in the open field, and delighting in the
+pressure of his armour and the weight of his lance; but when he once
+rode within the barrier, saw the galleries filled, and the heralds
+lifting the trumpets to their lips, feeling his blood grow chill, and
+the light depart from his eyes.
+
+I mentioned my embarrassment to my Scottish friend, and almost
+expected a remonstrance. To my great surprise and infinite pleasure,
+he congratulated me. "You cannot give a better sign," said he. "My
+only fear of you was, that you would dash into debate at once, like a
+tumbler jumping from a precipice; and that, like him, all that you
+would have gained by it would be broken limbs for life. If the fellow
+had kept to his slack-rope and his stage, he would have been safe
+enough, and gained some applause besides."
+
+"But what is to be done in the House, without some hazard of the
+kind?"
+
+"Wrong--quite wrong. A great deal is to be done. Take myself for the
+example. You see where I am, and yet I never made a _speech_ in my
+life. From the beginning of my career, I never allowed any one to look
+for any thing of the kind from me; and the consequence was, that by
+some I was regarded as a much shrewder personage than I ever believed
+myself to be; and by others was thought to know a great deal more than
+I ever acquired."
+
+"But will this account for the rapid distinctions of your public
+life?"
+
+"Perfectly, so far as they have gone. I obtained ministerial
+confidence on the essential merits of being a safe man--one who made
+no ambitious attempts to lower the crests of those above me. I escaped
+the jealousy of those below me by adopting the style which mediocrity
+assumes by nature. I was thus like the senior subaltern in a marching
+regiment--I wore the same uniform with the colonel, and went through
+the same exercise with the ensign. The field-officers knew that I
+would not tread upon their heels, and every subaltern wished to see my
+promotion, as a step to his own."
+
+My official duties, the mere entrance into office, occupied me
+laboriously for a while, and I felt all the habitual difficulties of
+my noviciate. It had been fully my intention to follow the advice of
+my experienced friend, and leave the hour which was to call for my
+exertions in the House to the chances of the time. But that time came
+more rapidly than I had expected. The public mind was fevered, hour by
+hour; the news from the Continent was more and more startling; the
+successes of the Republican armies had assumed a shape which our
+desponding politicians regarded as invincibility, and which our
+factious ones pronounced to be the ruin of Europe. The cabinet offered
+only the prospect of a melancholy struggle. But six months before, it
+had stood, strong as a citadel erected by the national hands, and
+garrisoned by the spirit of the empire. It still stood, but it stood
+dismantled; there were evident breaches in its walls, and the
+fugitives of Opposition, rallying with the hope of success, advanced
+again to the storm, headed by their great leader, and sustained by the
+capricious and fluctuating multitude. The premier was harassed by the
+incessant toil of defence--a toil in which he had scarcely a sharer,
+and which exposed him to the most remorseless hostility. Yet, if the
+historian were to choose the moment for his true fame, this was the
+moment which ought to be chosen. He rose with the severity of the
+struggle; assault seemed to give him new vigour; the attempt to tear
+the robe of office from his shoulders only gave the nobler display of
+his intellectual proportions. When I saw him, night after night,
+standing almost alone, with nothing but disaster in front and timidity
+in the rear, combating a force such as had never before been arrayed
+under the banners of Opposition; the whole scene of magnificent
+conflict and still grander fortitude, reminded me of the Homeric war
+and its warriors.--The champion of the kingdom, standing forth in
+despite of evil omens thickening round him, of the deepening cloud,
+and the sinister thunders.
+
+I speak of those times, and of the great men of those times, in no
+invidious contrast with later days. I have so strong a faith in the
+infinite ability which freedom gives to a great empire, that I am
+convinced of our being able, in all its eras, to find the species of
+public talent essential to its services. I regard the national mind,
+as the philosopher does the natural soil, always capable of the
+essential produce, where we give it the due tillage. The great men of
+the past century have passed away along with it; they were summoned
+for a day of conflict, and were formed for the conflict; their
+muscular vigour, the power with which they wielded their weapons, the
+giant step and the giant hand, were all necessary, and were all shaped
+and sustained by that necessity. But this day had its close; the
+leaders of man--like the "mighty hunters" of an Age, when the land was
+still overshadowed with the forest, and the harvest was overrun with
+the lion and the panther, would naturally give place to a less daring
+and lofty generation, when the forest had given way to the field, and
+the lair of the wild beast had become the highway and the bower. But
+if the evil day should again return, the guardian power of intellect
+and virtue will again come forth in the human shape, and vindicate the
+providence that watches over the progress of mankind. I utterly deny
+the exhaustion of national genius; I even deny its exhaustibility. If
+the moral vegetation languishes, and the soil is parched for a while,
+the great source of refreshing and fertility still lies before us--the
+public mind, in its boundless expansion, and in its unfathomable
+depth; the intellectual ocean which no plummet has ever sounded, and
+which no shore has ever circumscribed, lies ready to restore the
+balance of nature.
+
+But the sense of power itself in the national mind forbids the
+exhibition of its strength in tranquil times. It is lofty and
+fastidious; it will not stoop to a contest in which nothing is to be
+contended for. It is not an actor; and it cannot adopt the figured
+passion of the actor, rend its robe, and flourish, and obtest heaven
+against the traitor and the oppressor, to the sound of an orchestra,
+or in the glitter of stage lamps. The true ability of the empire must
+scorn all mimic encounter; and what else can be the little struggles
+of party shut up in the legislature, whose sound scarcely transpires
+through the walls, whose triumphs are a tax, and whose oracles are an
+intrigue? But, when the true day of trial shall come--when an enemy
+shall be seen hovering on the coasts of the Constitution--when trumpet
+answers trumpet, and the "country is proclaimed in danger"--then, and
+not till then, shall we know the superb resources of our intellectual
+strength: whatever may have been the prowess of the past, we may see
+it not merely rivaled but thrown into eclipse by the future; the
+burnished armour, and massive swords and maces of our old intellectual
+chivalry, superseded by more manageable and more destructive
+implements of success; and the sterner conflict followed by the more
+consummate triumph. Yet, when we undervalue the living ability of a
+nation from its quietude at the moment, we but adopt the example of
+every past age in succession. The last ten years of the last century
+were preceded by a period of despair; Chatham's career was run, and
+the national regrets over his tomb were mingled with sorrows for the
+extinction of all parliamentary renown!--The day had gone down, and
+darkness was to cover the sky for ever. But while the prediction was
+scarcely uttered, the horizon as in a blaze, mighty meteors rushed
+across it in a thousand courses of eccentric speed and splendour; and
+a period of intellectual display began, which at once dazzled and
+delighted mankind. Anne's Augustan age of war, negotiation, and
+eloquence, was once pronounced to be, like the Augustan age of Rome,
+incapable of rivalship by posterity; but our own times have seen a
+bolder war, a broader peace, and a richer development of science,
+invention, and eloquence. For fifty years, England was pronounced to
+have worn herself out by the prolific brilliancy of the half century
+before; like a precocious infant, to have anticipated her powers, and
+ensured their premature decay; like the Boeotians, to have had her
+Pindaric period, and thenceforward to have paid for its raptures and
+renown by perpetual darkness; or like the Israelites in Egypt, to be
+condemned to drudgery for life, sunk into an intellectual
+slave-caste;--when in the midst of the scoffing, or the sorrow,
+suddenly arrived a new epoch, a new summons to the national genius, a
+time of lofty interpositions, "thunderings in the air, and lightning
+running along the ground," an era of the marvellous things of mind;
+the chains fell off the hands, and the generation went forth, with a
+new sense of superiority, into new scenes of knowledge, discovery, and
+empire.
+
+Whether it was my good or ill fortune to make my first effort in the
+midst of the men whose names have immortalized their day, I shall not
+venture to decide. But my resolve had been firmly taken--not to remain
+in Parliament unless I discovered in myself faculties fit for its
+service. I was determined not to play the mute if I had the means of
+uttering a voice. But now the whole force of administration was
+demanded; and I made up my mind to ascertain by trial, what no man can
+be sure of without that trial, whether I possessed any capacity for
+public life.
+
+The subject on which I first spoke was an address to the throne, in
+answer to the King's message on the war. On this night Pitt, but
+lately recovered from a fit of his hereditary gout, spoke briefly, and
+with evident feebleness of frame. Fox, whose energy seemed always to
+depend on his rival's power, and whose eloquence always rose or fell
+with the vigour or languor of the minister--Fox, never so great as
+when Pitt put forth all his strength, on this night idled away his
+hour, through the mere want of an antagonist; but Sheridan made ample
+compensation for his leader. The House had fallen into lassitude, and
+the benches were already thin when he arose. I had heard him as the
+humorist on some trivial occasions of debate. I had enjoyed the social
+pleasantry which placed him at the head of the wits; but I was still
+but imperfectly acquainted with the strong sarcasm, the deep disdain,
+and the grave sophistry, which this extraordinary man could exhibit
+with such redundant ease, and wield with such vigorous dexterity. I
+must give but an outline:--
+
+    "You have made war," said he, "and you have made the arms of your
+    country contemptible by failures, which you rendered inevitable by
+    your rashness. You, sir," and he fixed his flashing eye on the
+    premier, "have commenced that war by a series of declarations,
+    which made our diplomacy as contemptible as our campaigns. The
+    national sword had been wrested from our hands. But you were not
+    content with that humiliation, and you added to it the disgrace of
+    the national understanding. You laid down a succession of
+    principles, and then trampled them in the dust on the first
+    opportunity. You encumbered yourself for action with pledges which
+    you could never have intended to sustain, or which in the first
+    collision your pusillanimity threw away. Yet I deprecate your
+    perfidy even more than I despise your weakness. I can comprehend
+    the effrontery of a fair aggression; but I scorn the meanness of
+    intrigue. I may face the man-at-arms, but I shudder at the
+    assassin. I may determine to hunt down and destroy the lion, but I
+    disdain the trap and the pitfall. And what has been the pretext of
+    his majesty's ministers? Moderation. In this spirit of moderation
+    they invaded France; in this spirit of moderation they captured
+    her fortresses, and then handed them over to the Emperor; in this
+    spirit of moderation they denounced the men who had given France a
+    constitution; and in this spirit of moderation you now prepare to
+    rebuild her Bastile, to restore her scaffolds, to reforge her
+    chains, and summon all the kings of Europe, instead of taking a
+    salutary lesson from the tomb of the monarchy, to see its skeleton
+    exhumed, and placed, robed and crowned, upon the throne, with the
+    nation forced to offer homage, at once in mockery and terror, to
+    the grinning emblem; in which, with all your philtres, you can
+    never put life again."
+
+
+The orator then gave a general and singularly imposing view of the
+state of our European connexions; which he described as utterly frail,
+the result of interested motives, and sure to be broken up at the
+first temptation. But the "first lord of the treasury and chancellor
+of his majesty's exchequer," said he, "smiles at my alarm; he has his
+security at his side--he has the purse, which commands all the baser
+portion of our nature with such irresistible control! On one point I
+fully agree with the right honourable gentleman--that nothing but the
+purse could ever keep them faithful. Yet, is there nothing but gold
+that can bribe? is there no bribe in territory? will he not find, when
+he hurries to the purchase of allies with the millions of the treasury
+in his hand, that more powerful purchasers have been there before him?
+When he offers the loan, will he not find them offering the province?
+when he bids with the subsidy, will he not be outbid with the kingdom?
+Or, if the anticipated conquerors of Europe, raising their sense of
+dignity to the level of their power, should disdain the traffic of
+corruption; will not the roaring of the French cannon in the ears of
+kings make them feel, that, to persist in your ill-omened alliance,
+is to devote themselves to ruin? will they bargain, in sight of the
+axe? will they dare to traffic in the blood of their people, with the
+grave dug at their feet? will they be dazzled by your gold, while the
+French bayonet is startling their eyes? Within ten years, if England
+exists, she will be without an ally; or, if she continues to fight, it
+will be in loneliness, in terror, and in despair."
+
+In this strain he poured out his daring conceptions for more than two
+hours, during which he kept the whole audience in the deepest
+attention. He concluded in an uproar of plaudits from both sides of
+the House.
+
+My time now came. And the rising of a new member, always regarded with
+a generous spirit of courtesy, produced some additional interest, from
+the knowledge of my services on the Continent, and my immediate
+connexion with the ministry. The House, which had filled to
+overflowing in the course of Sheridan's incomparable speech, was now
+hushed to the most total silence, and every eye was turned on me. I
+shall say nothing of my perturbation, further than that I had stood
+before an enemy's line of ten thousand men, with their muskets
+levelled within half a hundred yards of me; and that I thought the
+benches of the House of Commons on that night looked much the more
+formidable of the two. My head swam, my throat burned, my eyes grew
+dim. I thought that the ground was shaking under my feet, and I could
+have almost rejoiced to have sunk into it, from the gaze and the
+silence, which equally appalled me. While I attempted to mutter a few
+sentences, of which I felt the sound die within my lips, my eye was
+caught by the quick turn of Pitt's head, who fixed his impatient
+glance upon me. Fox, with that kindliness of heart which always forgot
+party when a good-natured act was to be done, gave his sonorous cheer.
+From that instant I was another man; I breathed freely, and,
+recovering my voice and mind together, I plunged boldly into the
+boundless subject before me.
+
+After scattering a few of the showy sophisms which the orator of the
+opposition had constructed into his specious argument, I placed the
+war on the ground of necessity. "Nations cannot act like
+individuals--they cannot submit to self-sacrifice--they cannot give up
+their rights--they cannot affect an indolent disdain or an idle
+generosity. The reason of the distinction is, that in every instance
+the nation is a trustee--It has the rights of posterity in its
+keeping; it has nothing of its own to throw away; it is responsible to
+every generation to come. If war be essential to the integrity of the
+empire, war is as much a duty--a terrible duty, I allow--as the
+protection of our children's property from the grasp of rapine, or the
+defence of their lives against the midnight robber. But we are advised
+to peace. No man on earth would do more willing homage than myself to
+that beneficent genius of nations. But where am I to offer my homage?
+Am I to kneel on the high-road where the enemy's armies, fierce with
+the hope of plunder, are rushing along? Am I to build my altar in the
+midst of contending thousands, or on the ground covered with
+corpses--in the battle, or on the grave? Or am I to carry my offering
+to the capital, and there talk the language of national cordiality in
+the ear of the multitude dragging their king to the scaffold? Am I to
+appeal to the feelings of human brotherhood in streets smoking with
+civil massacre; to adjure the nation by the national honour, where
+revolt is an avowed principle; to press upon them the opinion of
+Europe, where they have proclaimed war with the world; to invoke them
+by the faith which they have renounced, the allegiance which they have
+disdained, the God whom they have blasphemed? Those things are
+impossible. If we are to have a treaty with this new order of thinking
+and action, it must be a compact of crime, a solemn agreement of
+treachery, a formal bond of plunder; it must be a treaty fitter for
+the cavern of conspiracy than for the chamber of council; its pledge
+must be like that of Catiline, the cup of human blood! No; the most
+powerful reprobation which ever shot from the indignant lip of the
+moralist, would not be too strong for the baseness which stooped to
+such a treaty, or the folly which entangled itself in its toils. No
+burning language of prophecy would be too solemn and too stinging for
+the premeditated wretchedness, and incurable calamity, of such a bond.
+No; if we must violate the simplicity of our national interests by
+such degrading, and such desperate involvements--if we should not
+shrink from this conspiracy against mankind, let it, at least, not be
+consummated in the face of day; let us at once abandon the hollow
+pretences of human honesty; let us pledge ourselves to a perpetual
+league of rapine and revolution; let it be transacted in some lower
+region of existence, where it shall not disgrace the light of the sun;
+and let its ceremonial be worthy of the spirit of evil which it
+embodies, whose power it proclaims, and to whose supremacy it commands
+all nations to bow down."
+
+In alluding to the menace that our allies would soon desert us, I
+asked, "Is this the magnanimity of party? Is England to be pronounced
+so poor, or so pusillanimous, that she must give up all hope unless
+she can be suffered to lurk in the rear of the battle? What says her
+prince of poets?--
+
+  'England shall never rue,
+  If England to herself shall be but true.'
+
+Is this 'little body with a mighty heart,' to depend for existence on
+the decaying strength or the decrepit courage of the Continent? Is she
+only to borrow the shattered armour which has hung up for ages in the
+halls of continental royalty, and encumber herself with its broken and
+rusty panoply for the ridicule of the world? The European governments
+have undergone the vicissitudes of fortune. Instead of scoffing at the
+facility of their overthrow, let us raise them on their feet again;
+or, if that be beyond human means, I shall not join the party-cry
+which insults their fall--I certainly shall not exult in that
+melancholy pageant of mixed mirth and scorn, in which, like the old
+Roman triumph, the soldier with his ruthless jest and song goes before
+the chariot, and the captive monarch follows behind; wearing the royal
+robe and the diadem only till he has gratified a barbarous curiosity
+or a cruel pride, and then exchanging them for the manacle and the
+dungeon. I deprecate the loss of these alliances; and yet I doubt
+whether the country will ever be conscious of her true strength until
+the war of the Continent is at an end. I more than doubt the wisdom of
+suffering others to take the lead, which belongs to us by the right of
+superior rank, superior prowess, and superior fame. I shall have but
+slight regret for the fall of those outworks which--massive, nay,
+majestic, as they are--waste the power of England by the division of
+her force, and make us decline the gallant enterprize of the
+field--ramparts and fosses which reduce us to defence, and which,
+while they offer a thousand points of entrance to an active assault,
+shut us in, and disqualify us from victory."
+
+I now repeat this language of the moment, merely from later and long
+experience of its truth. I fully believe, that if England had come
+forward to the front of the battle in the early years of the war, she
+would have crushed all resistance; or if she had found, by the chance
+of things, the Continent impenetrable to her arms, she would have
+surrounded it with a wall of fire, until its factions had left nothing
+of themselves but their ashes.
+
+I was now fully engaged in public life. The effort which I had made in
+Parliament had received the approval of Pitt, who, without stooping to
+notice things so trivial as style and manner on questions of national
+life and death, highly applauded the courage which had dared to face
+so distinguished a Parliamentary favourite as Sheridan, and had taken
+a view of affairs so accordant with his own. From this period, I was
+constantly occupied in debate; and, taking the premier for my model, I
+made rapid proficiency in the difficult art of addressing a British
+House of Commons. Of course, I have no idea of giving myself the
+praise on this subject, which no man can give to himself on any,
+without offence. But I felt that this was an _art_ which might escape,
+and which had often escaped, men of distinguished ability, and which
+might be possessed by men of powers altogether inferior. I must
+acknowledge, that a portion of my success was owing to the advice of
+that shrewdest, and at the same time most friendly, of human beings,
+the secretary. "You must be a man of business," said he, "or you will
+be nothing; for praise is nothing--popularity is nothing--even the
+applause of the House is nothing. These matters pass away, and the
+orators pass away with them. John Bull is a solid animal, and likes
+reality. This is the true secret of the successes of hundreds of men
+of mediocrity, and of the failures of almost every man of brilliant
+faculties. The latter fly too high, and thus make no way along the
+ground. They always alight on the same spot; while the weaker, but
+wiser, have put one foot before another, and have pushed on. Sheridan,
+at this moment, has no more weight in the House than he had within a
+twelvemonth after taking his seat. Fox, with the most powerful
+abilities, is looked on simply as a magnificent speechmaker. His only
+weight is in his following. If his party fell from him to-morrow, all
+his eloquence would find its only echo in bare walls, and its only
+panegyric in street-placards. Pitt is a man of business, complete,
+profound, indefatigable. If you have his talents, copy his prudence;
+if you have not, still copy his prudence--make it the interest of men
+to consult you, and you must be ultimately successful."
+
+I laughingly observed, that the "Nullum numen abest" had been honoured
+with an unexpected illustration.
+
+"Sir," said the minister, fixing his keen grey eye upon me, "if Eton
+had never taught any other maxim, it would have been well worth all
+the tail of its longs and shorts. It is the concentration of wisdom,
+personal, private, and public; the polar star of politics, as probably
+you would say; or, as in my matter-of-fact style should express it,
+the fingerpost of the road to fortune."
+
+But there never was a time when all the maxims of political wisdom
+were more required. A long succession of disasters had already broken
+down the outworks of the continental thrones. The renown of the great
+armies of Germany was lost; the discipline of the Prussian, and the
+steady intrepidity of the Austrian, had been swept before the wild
+disorder of the French. Men began to believe that the art of war had
+been hitherto unknown, and that the enemy had at length mastered the
+exclusive secret. Monarchy came to be regarded as only another name
+for weakness; and civilized order for national decrepitude. A kind of
+superstition stole over the minds of men; the signs of European
+overthrow were discovered in every change; calculations were calmly
+raised on the chances of existence to the most powerful dynasties; the
+age of crowns was in the move, the age of republics was in the
+ascendant; and while the feebler minds looked with quiescent awe on
+what they regarded as the inevitable tide of events, the more daring
+regarded the prospect as a summons to prepare for their part of the
+spoil. The struggles of Opposition grew more resolute as the hope of
+success came nearer, and the Government began to feel the effects of
+this perpetual assault, in the sudden neutrality of some of its most
+ostentatious champions, and in the general reserve of its supporters
+in the House. Even the superb perseverance of Pitt was beginning to be
+weary of a contest, in which victory lost its fruits on the one side,
+while defeat seemed only to give fresh vigour on the other. But a new
+triumph was to cheer the face of things.
+
+I was returning one morning from the House after a night spent in a
+fierce debate on the war, which Fox denounced with an asperity unusual
+to his generous temperament. The premier had made a powerful speech,
+vindicating the government from all share in the continental
+misfortunes; pronouncing loftily, that, in a war not made for
+conquest, it was sophistry to speak of our failure of possession as a
+crime; and declaring in a tone of singular boldness and energy--that
+if the Continent were untrod by a British soldier, there was a still
+broader field for the arms and the triumphs of England. But his
+eloquence had more effect in exposing the errors, than in reducing the
+numbers of his opponents, and the smallness of his majority would have
+made a feebler mind resign on the spot. The announcement of the
+numbers was received with an insulting cheer by the minority, and the
+cabinet was already by anticipation in their hands.
+
+I left the House wearied and dejected, and was returning to Downing
+Street, to throw myself on a couch, and get a few hours of rest before
+my morning toil; when I found a messenger at the door of my office,
+bearing a request from the secretary of state, that I should attend
+him as soon as possible. I found my friend before a table covered with
+despatches, his brow furrowed with weariness like my own.
+
+"You see me here, Marston, more tired than any ploughman or watchman,
+or any other son of labour from this to John O'Groat's House. I was
+sent for, from the House, six hours ago, and every hour since have I
+been poring over those puzzled papers. How long I can stand this wear
+and tear the physicians must tell, but it would require the
+constitution of Hercules or Samson, or both together, to go through
+the work that is beginning to fall on the members of the cabinet."
+
+I offered to give him such assistance as was in my power.
+
+"No, no, Marston; I am chained to the oar for this night at least, and
+must pull till I fall asleep. My purpose in keeping you from your
+pillow at this time of night, is not to relieve myself from trouble;
+but to ask whether you are disposed to relieve the government from
+serious difficulty, and in a way which I hope will be not disagreeable
+to yourself." I concluded that my mission was to be continental, and
+my heart danced at the suggestion. In England it was impossible to
+continue my search for the being in whom all my thoughts were fixed;
+but once beyond the sea I should have the world before me. I asked
+whether there was any intention of trying the chances of attack again
+on the French frontier.
+
+"None whatever. The greater probability is, that the French will make
+some experiment on the strength of ours."
+
+I looked all astonishment. He interpreted my look, and said--"To solve
+the enigma at once, It is our wish to send you to Ireland."
+
+I listened in silence while he went into a long detail of the hazard
+of the island, arising from the interests of a powerful republican
+party, who, inflamed by the successes of France, were preparing to
+receive troops and arms from the republic. He finished by saying, in a
+tone of compliment, which, from him, was as unusual as I believe it
+was sincere, that my exertions in debate had attracted high
+consideration in the highest quarter, and that I had been proposed by
+the monarch himself for the chief-secretaryship of Ireland. The
+premier had assented to the appointment at once; "and here," said he,
+"is the warrant, which I have prepared in anticipation of its
+acceptance. You are, from this moment, virtual viceroy of Ireland."
+
+This was elevation indeed! I had at once surmounted all the slow
+gradations of office. The broadest prospect of official ambition had
+suddenly opened before me; popularity, founded on the most solid
+grounds, was now waiting only my acceptance; the sense of power,
+always dear to the heart of man, glowed in every vein; and it is only
+justice to myself to say, that the strongest impulse of all was the
+desire to leave my name as a benefactor to a people, who seemed to me
+as much gifted by nature as they were unhappy by circumstances.
+
+"How long will it take you to prepare for the journey?" asked the
+minister.
+
+"Half an hour," was my reply.
+
+"Bravo! Marston. I see your campaigning has not been thrown away upon
+you. You have the soldier's promptitude. We were prepared to allow you
+a week. But the sooner you set off the better. The truth is," said he
+rising, "we are in great difficulties in that quarter. The most
+thoroughly English portion of the island is at this moment the most
+disturbed. There are drillings, purchases of arms, midnight
+musterings, and even something not far from prepared attacks upon the
+king's troops. The papers among which you found me, contain a regular
+and a very complete organization of an insurrectionary government. You
+will require all the energy of the soldier and all the prudence of the
+statesman."
+
+"Let me add to them," said I, "what is essential to the success of
+both in a country of generous hearts and quick conceptions, the
+sincerity of a patriot."
+
+"The experiment is worth trying," said he with a smile, "if it were
+only for the sake of its novelty. But Ireland has qualities which,
+like those of her soil, require only to be turned up to the light to
+reward all the labours of wealth or wisdom." Before that evening
+closed in, I was a hundred miles on my way to the Irish capital.
+
+A rapid journey, and a tranquil passage over the sixty miles that lie
+between Wales and Ireland, gave me what an old Roman would regard as
+an omen of the peacefulness of my mission. On the dawn of one of the
+finest mornings of the year, I came within sight of the Irish coast,
+and was struck, as all travellers have been, by the beauty of the bold
+and picturesque coast which rose from the waters before me. In front
+was a province of mountains, touched by all the variety of colours,
+which are painted in such richness by the summer sun, on groups of
+pinnacles and cones, forest hills, and the fine diversities of
+woodland and mountain scenery. On one side the eye glanced over a vast
+sheet of water, shut in by headlands, and as blue and bright as a lake
+under a serene sky. At the extremity of this noble estuary, a cloud,
+unchanging and unmoving, showed where a city sent up the smoke of its
+ten thousand fires; beyond this, all was purple confusion. My official
+rank threw open all the _elite_ of Irish society to me at my first
+step; and I found it, as it has been found by every one else,
+animated, graceful, and hospitable. The nature of its government
+tended to those qualifications. While the grave business of the state
+was done in London, the lighter business of show was sedulously
+sustained in the Irish capital. The lord-lieutenant was generally a
+nobleman, selected more for his rank and his wealth than for his
+statesmanship. A rich, showy, and good-humoured peer was the true man
+for the head of affairs in Ireland. It was of more importance that he
+should give balls and suppers, say lively things to the ladies, and be
+jocular with the gentleman, than that he should have the brains of
+Bolingbroke or the tongue of Chatham. But the position of the
+secretary was the absolute antipode of this tranquil and festive
+sinecure. He was in Ireland what the premier was in England, but with
+ten times more of the difficulty, and ten times less of the power. The
+whole conduct of public affairs lay on his shoulders; he was
+responsible for every thing, while he was free in nothing; perpetually
+assailed by opposition for measures which he was not at liberty to
+explain, and standing between the English cabinet and the Irish party
+as a scapegoat for the mistakes of the one, and a target for the shot
+of the other. But the chief trial of temper was in the House of
+Commons. Opposition in Ireland never had a list of more brilliant
+names. Government had the majority behind its bench, and that majority
+recruited from the ranks of Opposition; but the more distinguished
+were fixed to party by their own celebrity; and the recruits, however
+able, were so liable to be attacked for their change of side, that
+they were paralyzed; in some instances, they were so much galled by
+the merciless sharpshooting of their former associates, that they ran
+back, and left the minister to fight the field alone.
+
+I was fortunately free from the entanglements of that question, which
+has since formed so large a portion of the political disquietudes of
+Irish debate. The religion of the south was not yet among
+parliamentary topics. The religion of the north, active ardent, and
+indefatigable, was our most restless theme; and the political theories
+which seemed to grow out of its bold abstractions, kept the government
+in perpetual anxiety. The whole northern portion of the island was
+ripe for revolt. America had blown the hot-blast of the revolutionary
+furnace across the Atlantic, and a spark from France would have now
+ignited the whole hot surface of the soil.
+
+One of my first acts after arranging the preliminary business of
+office, was to make a flying tour through Ulster. I was astonished at
+its beauty. Even after being familiar with the loveliness of the
+English landscape, I was in a state of continued surprise at the
+variety, richness, and singularity of nature in the northern
+counties. Mountain, lake, magnificent bay, and broad river, followed
+each other in noble and unceasing succession. I was still more struck
+with the skill and good fortune, by which the people had contrived to
+combine the industry of manufactures with the life of the fields; a
+problem which England herself had failed to solve. But, most of all, I
+was attracted by the independent air, and handsome and vigorous
+appearance of the people; almost every man was proprietor, and had the
+look which proprietorship alone can give. I found books in almost
+every cottage, decency of dress every where, and among the higher
+orders frequent elegance and accomplishment. The women were cultivated
+and intelligent; the men, spirited and enquiring. But the politics of
+France had made their way through a large portion of the province, and
+the glories of a republic "loomed large" before the popular eye. As it
+was my purpose to see all that I could with my own eyes, I mingled
+largely in society, made no distinction between honourable men of
+different political creeds, enjoyed to-day the stag-hunt and claret of
+the noble Whig, and to-morrow the stag-hunt and claret of the noble
+Tory, listened to all, laughed with all, and learned something from
+all. The English aristocrat, especially if he holds high official
+place, once haunted the imaginations of the Irish of all conditions,
+like an incarnation of an Indian deity--all fierceness and frigidity;
+and it must be acknowledged that the general order of viceroys and
+secretaries had not tended much to remove the conception. They were
+chiefly men of advanced life, with their habits formed by intercourse
+with the most exclusive class in existence, the English peerage, or
+rendered rigid by the dry formalities of official life. But I was
+young, had seen a good deal of that rough work of the world which
+gives pliancy, if not polish, to all characters; and I was, besides,
+really delighted with the animation, pleasantry, and winning kindness
+which exhibited themselves every where round me. I was half a son of
+Ireland already, and I regarded the recognition as the pledge of my
+success.
+
+"Do you know," said one of the most influential and accomplished
+noblemen of the country to me, one day at his sumptuous table--"how
+many of the lords-lieutenant do you think have left a popular
+recollection behind them?"
+
+I professed my ignorance, but enumerated some names remarkable for
+intelligence and vigour of administration.
+
+"Oh," said my entertainer, "that was not the question! Great statesmen
+and showy governors, capital rulers of the country and bold managers
+of our factions, we have had in sufficient succession, but I speak of
+the faculty of being remembered; the talent of making a public
+impression; the power of escaping that national oblivion into which
+mere official services, let them be of what magnitude they may,
+inevitably drop when their performer has disappeared. Well, then, I
+shall tell you. _Two_, and no more."
+
+I begged to know the names of those "discoverers of the grand secret,
+the philosopher's stone of popularity," the alchemists who had power
+to fix the floating essence of the Irish mind!
+
+"Chesterfield and Townshend. Chesterfield, regarded as a fop in
+England, was a daring, steady, and subtle governor of the unruly
+spirits of Ireland, in one of the most hazardous periods. That the
+throne of the Brunswicks did not see an Irish revolt at the moment
+when it saw a Scottish invasion, was the service of Chesterfield. But
+he ruled not by his wisdom, but by his wit. He broke down faction by
+_bon-mots_; he extinguished conspiracy by passing compliments; he
+administered the sternest law with the most polished smile; and cut
+down rebellion by quotations from La Fontaine, and _calembourgs_ from
+Scarron. But with these fortunate pleasantries he combined public and
+solid services. He threw a large portion of the crown lands in the
+neighbourhood of the capital into a park for the recreation of the
+citizens, and thus gave one of the earliest and most munificent
+examples of regard for the health and enjoyment of the people; a more
+enduring monument of his statesmanship could not have been offered to
+the gratitude of the country."
+
+Of the Marquis Townshend I had heard as a gallant soldier, and a
+stirring viceroy, but I still had to learn the source of his
+popularity.
+
+"Townshend was one of those singular men who possess faculties of
+which they have no knowledge, until the moment when they become
+necessary. He began life as a soldier, and finished his soldiership in
+the most brilliant victory of his day--the battle of Quebec. On his
+appointment to the viceroyalty, he found his government a nothing; a
+government faction superseding the governor, and an opposition faction
+engrossing the people. He now, for the first time, became a
+politician. He resolved to crush both, and he succeeded. He treated
+the government faction in Ireland with contumely, and he treated the
+opposition with contempt. Both were indignant; he laughed at both, and
+treated them with still more scorn. Both were astonished--the
+government faction intrigued against him in England, the opposition
+threatened impeachment. He defied them still more haughtily. They now
+found that he was not to be shaken, and both submitted. The nation
+joined him, was pacified, grew in vigour, as it required tranquillity;
+and here you have the secret of all the privileges which Ireland has
+obtained. Townshend performed, only on a smaller scale, the same
+national service which Pitt performed on a larger one. He took the
+people out of the hands of aristocracy, broke up the league of
+opulence and power, and gave the island that popular freedom which the
+great minister of England gave to the empire. For this the name of
+Townshend lives among us still. His bold satires are recorded, his
+gallant bearing is remembered, his passing pleasantries have become a
+portion of the national wit, and his rough but effectual services are
+among the memorials of our independence as a people."
+
+The evening of this hospitable day concluded with a ball to the
+neighbouring families, and all was graceful and animated enjoyment. My
+host had travelled much in early life, and had brought home some fine
+pictures and valuable sculptures. He was an accomplished classical
+scholar--a quality which I found in some degree fashionable among the
+leading personages of the time, and which unquestionably added much to
+the high tone of conversation among the parliamentary circles. In his
+magnificent mansion an artist might have found studies, a scholar
+learning, a philosopher wisdom, and a man of the world all the charms
+of polished life. How soon, and how fearfully, were they all to be
+extinguished! How bitterly were all who honoured and esteemed that
+generous and highly-gifted nobleman, to feel what shadows we are, and
+what shadows we pursue!
+
+Our mornings were chiefly spent in hunting over the fine landscape
+which spread, in all the various beauty of vegetation, within view of
+the mansion. On one of those days the attention of the field was
+caught by the fierce riding of a singular-looking man, scarcely above
+the peasant in his general appearance, and yet mounted on one of the
+finest English horses that I had ever seen. He rode at every thing,
+managed his horse with practised skill, and soon became an object of
+general emulation. To "ride up" to the "wild horseman," was found to
+be a task not easily accomplished, and at length all was a trial of
+speed with this dashing exhibitor. A glance which, when on the point
+of one of his most desperate leaps, he threw back at me, seemed to be
+a kind of challenge, and I rushed on at speed. The Irish hunter
+matchless at "topping" stone walls, but his practice has not lain much
+among rivers; and the English horse is sometimes his master at the
+deep and rapid streams which, running between crumbling banks, are
+perhaps the severest trials to both horse and rider. The majority of
+the hunt pulled up at the edge of one of those formidable chasms, and
+I was by no means unwilling to follow their example; but the look of
+the strange rider had a sneer along with it, which put me on my
+mettle, and I dashed after him. The hounds had scrambled through, and
+we rode nearly abreast through a broken country, that mixture of bog
+and firm ground which occurs frequently in newly cleared land, and
+over which nothing but the most powerful sinews can make way. We had
+now left every one behind us, were struggling on through the dimness
+of a hazy day, sinking into twilight. Suddenly my mysterious rival
+turned his horse full upon me, and to my utter amazement discharged a
+pistol at my head. The discharge was so close that I escaped only by
+the swerving of my horse at the flash. I felt my face burn, and in the
+impulse of the pain made a blind blow at him with my whip. He had
+drawn out another pistol in an instant, which the blow luckily dashed
+out of his hand. No words passed between us, but I bounded on him to
+seize him. He slipped away from my grasp, and, striking in the spur,
+galloped madly forward, I in pursuit. The twilight had now deepened,
+and he plunged into a lane bounded on both sides by steep hedges, and
+which, from some former hunting in this quarter, I knew to be a
+_cul-de-sac_. This doubled my determination to make myself master of
+the assassin; and even in the hurry of the moment I formed some
+conception of my having seen his face before, and that the attempt to
+put me out of the way was connected, in some way or other, with public
+affairs. This question was soon decided. He reached the end of the
+lane, which was shut in with a wall of about the height of a man. His
+horse shied at the obstacle. The rider, with an oath and a desperate
+exertion, pushed him to it again. I was now within a few yards of him,
+and arrived just in time to see the animal make a convulsive spring,
+touch with his hind feet on the top of the wall, and roll over. My
+Irish horse cleared it in the native style, and I found my enemy
+crushed under his hunter, and evidently in the pangs of death. He had
+been flung on a heap of stones, and the weight of the falling horse
+had broken his spine. I poured some brandy down his throat, relieved
+him from the incumbrance of the hunter--attempted to give him
+hope--but he told me that it was useless; that he felt death coming
+on, and that I was the last man who should wish him to live, "as he
+had pledged himself to my extinction." For a while, his recollections
+were wild, and he talked of events in France and Spain, where he
+seemed to have done some deeds which affected him with peculiar horror
+in the prospect of dissolution. But, after a brief period of those
+terrible disclosures, his pains totally ceased, his mind grew clear;
+and he acknowledged that he was one of the leading agents of a
+National Conspiracy to republicanize Ireland. "You are too kind," said
+he to me, "to one who now sees the madness of the design, and is
+sensible of the guilt of taking away the lives of honourable men." A
+lapse of weakness here tied his tongue; and I brought him a draught of
+water from a spring which gurgled beside the wall. He thanked me, and
+proceeded to say, that my "character for vigilance and activity had
+alarmed the principal conspirators, and that he, thinking all crimes
+meritorious in a popular cause, had resolved to signalize the
+commencement of his services, by putting the English secretary to
+death on the first occasion." For this purpose, he had followed my
+steps for some time in the metropolis, but without finding a fit
+opportunity. The intelligence of my hunting days in the north gave him
+renewed expectations, and he had followed me in various disguises; had
+been present at dinners and balls, where I was the principal guest;
+had even frequently conversed with me on public and foreign topics; in
+fact, had haunted me with a case of pistols constantly in his bosom;
+yet had never been able to find the true opportunity of despatching me
+without _eclat_. He had, at last, determined to give up the object as
+altogether hopeless; and had already prepared to act on a bolder scale
+by heading open rebellion, when he heard of my intending to hunt on
+this day. It was to be his last experiment; "and how rejoiced I am,"
+said he, "that it has failed!" He now remained for a while in apparent
+meditation, and then suddenly raising himself on his hand, said, in a
+full and manly tone--"One thing I still can do in this world, if it
+may not be too late. Leave me here; I must die; go back in all haste
+to your friends, and tell them to prepare either to fly or defend
+their lives. This is the night appointed for the breaking out of the
+insurrection. Fifty thousand men are already armed in the mountains,
+and ready for the signal to march on the principal towns. The few
+troops in the country are to be made prisoners in their barracks. The
+government stores are to be divided among the people. Before twelve
+hours are over we shall have a force of a hundred thousand men on
+foot; and a republic will be proclaimed."
+
+The intelligence was startling, but not wholly unexpected. I demanded
+the names of the leaders; but on this head he refused to make any
+answer. I next enquired, whether the rebel directory had any hope of
+assistance from the Continent. "That I can fully answer," said he, now
+almost at his last gasp. "I myself was the negotiator. It is but a
+month since I was in Paris. The government agreed to send seven sail
+of the line, with ten thousand troops, and Hoche, the favourite
+general of the republic, to the north; or, in case of unexpected
+obstacles, to the south of Ireland. I have been looking out for their
+flag from hour to hour." The man sank back on the ground. I prepared
+to run for help, if there were any to be found in that desolate place.
+He grasped my hand; his was icy. "No," said he, "I must now be left
+alone; I am dying, and I am not sorry to die. I am free from your
+blood, and I shall not share in the horrors which I see at hand. Men
+in health, and men dying think differently of those things. Farewell!"
+He gave my hand a convulsive clasp, and expired.
+
+My situation was an anxious one. Night had fallen, and the hour was
+full of peril to those whom I had left behind; it was even possible
+that the insurrection might have already broken out. Sounds, which
+seemed to me, in the stillness of the hour, to be the signals of the
+peasantry--the echoes of horns, and trampling of bodies of
+horse--began to rise upon the gust, and yet I was unwilling to leave
+my unfortunate victim on the ground. A length a loud shout, and the
+firing of musketry on the skirts of the wood, awoke me to a sense of
+the real danger of my situation. I forced my way through the thickets,
+and saw a skirmish between a large mass of armed men, and a picket of
+troops in a village on the borders of the wood. There was now no time
+to be lost. I returned to the spot where the body lay, placed my hand
+on its forehead, to ascertain whether any remnant of life lingered
+there; found all cold; and, remounting my horse, wound my dreary and
+difficult way back to the mansion.
+
+To my surprise, I found the windows blazing with lights, carriages
+arriving, and all the signs of a night of gala. I had forgotten that
+this was my noble entertainer's birthday, and that the whole circle of
+the neighbouring nobles and gentlemen had been for the last month
+invited. There were to be private theatricals, followed by a ball and
+supper. The whole country continued to pour in. Full of my disastrous
+intelligence, my first enquiry was for the noble host; he was not to
+be seen. I was at length informed under the seal of secrecy by his
+secretary, that some information of popular movements within a few
+miles, having been conveyed to him late in the day, he had put himself
+at the head of a squadron of his yeomanry to ascertain the nature of
+the disturbance, and as it was then too late to countermand the
+invitations to the ball, had given strict orders that the cause of his
+absence should be concealed, and that the entertainments should go on
+as if he were present.
+
+Agreeing that this was the wisest thing which could be done, to avoid
+unnecessary alarm, which paralyses action beforehand, and renders all
+ridiculous after, I seldom felt it more difficult to play my part than
+on this occasion. As a minister, any thing in the shape of solicitude
+on my part, was sure to be magnified into actual disaster, and I was
+forced to keep an unembarrassed countenance. I immediately sent out
+servants in every direction to bring intelligence of the actual state
+of affairs, and above all, to ascertain what had detained their
+master. Though all this was done with the utmost secrecy, it was
+impossible to suppress the growing impression that something
+extraordinary must have occurred, to withdraw from his own hospitable
+roof, and so long detain, the lord of the mansion, distinguished as he
+was for the most polished courtesy. As the hour waned, the enquiries
+became more urgent, the dance languished, and the showy crowd forming
+into groups, and wandering through the saloons, or gathered to the
+windows, had evidently lost all the spirit of festivity. To my
+astonishment, strong opinions began to find utterance, and I
+discovered that his lordship, in his general and lofty disregard of
+the shades of popular sentiment, had among his guests some individuals
+whose rank and wealth had not preserved them from the taint of
+republicanism. As it was not my purpose to make a ball-room the scene
+of a political squabble, and as I felt it due to my official position
+to avoid any unnecessary entanglement in the obscure follies of
+provincial partizanship, I first tried to laugh down the topic. But a
+young orator, a handsome and fluent enthusiast, recently returned from
+a continental excursion, gave so stirring a picture of the glories of
+French independence, and the glittering advantages which must accrue
+to all countries following the example, that I was forced to stand on
+my defence. The gallant republican was not to be repelled; he poured
+out upon me, as he warmed with the theme, so vast a catalogue of
+public injuries, in language so menacing, yet so eloquent, that I was
+forced to ask whether I was standing in the midst of a Jacobin
+club--whether his object was actually to establish a democracy, to
+govern by the guillotine, to close up the churches, and inscribe the
+tombs with--death is an eternal sleep; to swear to the extinction of
+monarchy, and proclaim universal war. Our dispute had now attracted
+general notice. He answered with still more vehement and elaborate
+detail. I had evidently the majority on my side, but some few adhered
+to him, and those, too, men of consequence, and obvious determination.
+
+The ladies shrank affrighted, as the contest grew more angry; and the
+usual and unhappy result of political discussion in Ireland, an
+exchange of cards, was about to take place, when one of the servants
+brought me a small packet of papers which had been found on the body
+of the assassin. Glancing over them, I saw a list of the leaders of
+the insurrection, and the first name in the paper that of my
+antagonist. I crushed the document in my hand, and beckoned him to a
+window. There, alone, and out of hearing of the guests, who, however,
+followed us anxiously with their eyes, I charged him with his guilt.
+He denied it fiercely. I gave him five minutes to consider whether he
+would confess or abide the consequences. His countenance visibly
+exhibited the perturbations of his mind; he turned pale and red
+alternately, shuddered, then braced himself up with desperate
+resolution, and finally ended by denying and defying every thing. It
+was not in my nature to press upon this moment of agony; but telling
+him, that nothing but compassion prevented my ordering his arrest on
+the spot, I again warned him to make his peace in time with the
+government, by a solemn abjuration of his design.
+
+I have the whole scene before me still. This man was destined to a
+memorable and melancholy fate. I never remember a countenance more
+expressive of intellectual refinement; but there was a look of strange
+and feverish restlessness in his large grey eye, almost ominous of his
+future career. He was still young, though he had already gone through
+vicissitudes enough to darken the longest life. He had been, a few
+years before, called to the bar, the favourite profession of the Irish
+gentry, where he had exhibited talents of a remarkable order; but an
+impatience of the slow success of this profession drove him to the
+hazards of political change. He had married, and this increased his
+difficulties, until party came athwart him with its promises of
+boundless honour and rapid fortune. His sanguine nature embraced the
+temptation at once; but the parliamentary opposition was too
+deliberate and too frigid for his boiling blood; he plunged into the
+deeper and wilder region of conspiracy, took the lead, which is so
+soon assigned to the brilliant and the bold, and became the soul of
+the tremendous faction which was ready to proclaim the separation of
+the empire.
+
+He had but now returned from France, with a commission in the army of
+the Republic, and a plan agreed on with the Directory for the invasion
+of Ireland; but these were discoveries to be made hereafter. On this
+night I saw nothing but a gallant enthusiast, filled with classic
+recollections, inflamed with the ardour of early life, and deluded by
+the dreams of political perfection. My sense of the utter ruin which
+he was preparing for himself was so strong, that I pressed him from
+point to point, until he was forced to take refuge in flight, and,
+rushing from me, burst open a door which led to the demesne. While I
+paused, not unwilling to give him the opportunity to escape, I heard a
+wild burst of wailing, and a confusion of voices outside. In the next
+moment, I saw the fugitive return, with a tottering step, a bloodless
+countenance, and a look of horror. Without a word, he pointed to the
+door; I followed the direction, and saw what might well justify his
+feelings. The troop of yeomanry had been attacked on their return from
+patrolling the country; an ambuscade had been laid for them by a large
+force of the insurgents, in one of the narrow roads which bordered the
+demesne, and where, from its vicinity, they had imagined themselves
+secure. As they moved down this defile with their noble commandant at
+their head, a heavy fire of musketry assailed them from both sides;
+and as the assailants were unapproachable, they had no resource but to
+gallop on. But they had no sooner reached the wider part of the road,
+than they found themselves fired on again from behind a barricade of
+carts and waggons drawn across the road. The affair now seemed
+desperate; the muzzles of the muskets almost touched their breasts,
+and every shot told. Their pistols could only keep up a random fire,
+and their sabres were wholly useless. They were now falling helplessly
+and fast, when the earl ordered them to charge the insurgents in
+front, and force their way over the barricade at all risks. He bravely
+led the way, and they burst through under a volley from the rebels. A
+ball fatally struck him as he was in the act of cheering on his men,
+and he dropped dead from his horse without a groan. The troop, furious
+at their loss, had taken a desperate revenge, cleared the road, and
+had now brought the dead body of their lord to that mansion, where he
+had so long presided as the example of every high-toned quality, and
+which his fate was now to turn into a scene of terror and woe.
+
+The melancholy tidings could not now be suppressed, and the ball-room
+was filled with screams and faintings. The corpse was brought in,
+borne on the arms of the yeomanry, most of them wounded, and looking
+ghastly from loss of blood and the agitation of the encounter. The
+guests crowded round the sofa on which the body was laid, with all the
+varieties of sorrow and strong emotion conceivable, under the loss of
+a common and honoured friend. Tears fell down many a manly cheek; sobs
+were heard on every side, mingled with outcries of indignation against
+the rebellious spirit by which so deep a calamity had been produced.
+But all other considerations were quickly absorbed in the sense of
+general danger. A tremendous shout was heard round the mansion,
+followed by the discharge of musketry and the clashing of pikes. All
+rushed to the windows, and we saw the hills in a blaze with fires, and
+the demesne crowded with the armed thousands of the insurrection.
+
+
+
+
+JANUS;
+
+THE GOD OF NEW-YEAR'S DAY, FROM THE FASTI OF OVID.
+
+
+  Behold with omens blithe and bright, on festive New-Year's Day,
+  First in the year old Janus comes, and foremost in my lay!
+  Twin-headed god, source of the year that silent glides away,
+  Who only of the Olympian throng canst thine own back survey;
+  Bless thou our noble chiefs, whose arms have purchased gentle peace
+  To fruitful Earth, and lent the wave from pirate-chase release;
+  On senators and people smile, who call Quirinus god,
+  All temples bright, in shining white, fly open at thy nod!
+  A lucky sun doth shine; nor voice, nor thought of ill, be stirr'd
+  To tempt the time; the happy day demands the happy word.
+  No brawls assail the ear; cease now the harsh-vex'd forum's hum,
+  And calumny with eager tongue, for once thy spite be dumb!
+  Lo! where the pure and fragrant flame from every altar round
+  Upwreathes, while ears devout receive the saffron's crackling sound!
+  The wandering flame, far darting, strikes the golden-fretted roof,
+  And with the tremulous ray aloft, it weaves a shining woof.
+  In stately pomp, the people wend up the Tarpeian slope,
+  All brightly, on a bright day clad, the pure white robes of hope;
+  New axes shine, and in the sun new purple bravely sports,
+  And greeted-far the curule chair new weight of worth supports;[12]
+  New oxen come that lately cropp'd the sweet Faliscan grass,
+  And yield to Jove their willing necks on which no yoke did pass.
+  He, from his starry throne sublime, looks East and West; and lo!
+  He sees but Rome, and Rome's domain, in all he sways below.
+  Hail happy day, and still return to bless with happier face
+  The sons of Romulus, lords of Earth, not thankless for thy grace!
+  But who art thou, strange biform god, and what thy power? for Greece
+  With all her gods of thee and thine hath bade her Muses cease;
+  This say; and say why thou alone of all celestial kind,
+  Dost forwards still look steadfastly and also gaze behind?
+  Thus with myself I mused, and held my tablets to indite,
+  When sudden through the room there shone an unaccustom'd light,
+  And in the light the double shape of Janus hoar appear'd,
+  And 'fore my view with fix'd regard his double face he rear'd.
+  I stood aghast, each rigid hair erect rose on my head,
+  And through my frame with freezing touch the creeping terror sped.
+  He in his right hand held a staff, and in his left a key,
+  And with the mouth to-me-ward turn'd these words he spake to me--
+  "Fear not, pains-taking bard, whose pen doth chronicle the days,
+  Receive my word with faithful ear, and sound it in thy lays.
+  When earth was young, primeval speech first call'd me Chaos; I
+  Am no birth of to-day--a name of hoar antiquity.
+  This lucid air, and the other three, which elements ye class,
+  Fire, water, earth, were then one rude and undigested mass;
+  But soon within the mingled heap a secret strife did brew,
+  And to self-chosen homes anon the hostile atoms flew.
+  First rose the flame sublime, the air assumed the middle berth,
+  And to the central base were bound strong ocean, and firm earth.
+  Then I, till then a mass confused, a huge and shapeless round,
+  New features worthy of a god, and worthy members found;
+  Still of my primal shapeless bulk remain'd the little trace,
+  That I alone have no true back, but show both ways a face.
+  One cause thou hast; another hear, and with my figure know,
+  My virtue and my power above, my office here below.
+  Whate'er thou see'st, the earth, the sea, the air, the fiery cope,
+  At my command they shut their gates, at my command they ope.
+  I of the vasty universe do hold the secret key,
+  The hinge of every thing that turns is turn'd alone by me.
+  Peace, when I please to send her forth from her secure retreats,
+  Walks freely o'er the unfenced fields, and treads free-gated streets;
+  The mighty globe would quake convulsed by blood and murderous din,
+  Did not my brazen bolt confine the store of strife within.
+  The gates of Heaven are mine; I watch there with the gentle Hours,
+  That Jove supreme must wait my time in the Olympian bowers.
+  Thence my name Janus;[13] thence the priest who on my altar places
+  The salted cake, the sacred meal, with strange-mouth'd titles graces
+  My hoary deity; thence you hear Patulcius now, and now
+  Clusius, crown the votive gift, and seal the mystic vow.[14]
+  Thus rude antiquity at first its simple creed confess'd,
+  And with twin words the functions twain of one same god express'd.
+  My power you know--the god of gates--now for my figure, why?
+  The cause is plain, and may be read by half a poet's eye.
+  There is no door but looks two ways; into the busy street
+  This way, and that way back towards the quiet Lar's retreat;[15]
+  And as the porter whom you place to keep watch at your gate,
+  Sees who goes out and who comes in at early hour and late,
+  Thus I, the warden of the sky, from heaven's wide-tented blue,
+  Look forth, and scan both east and west with comprehensive view.
+  The triform image you have seen, and any where may see,
+  Of Hecate standing at the point where one road parts in three;
+  Thus I, lest turning of my neck my function might delay,
+  The motive world on either side without a move survey."
+  Thus spake the god with friendly mien and eye, that seem'd to say--
+  "If wish be yours to question more, command me; I obey."
+  Due thanks I gave; strong fear no more my eager tongue possess'd,
+  And with a look that sought the ground, the immortal I address'd.
+  "This would I know, why frosty days and storms begin the year,
+  Which flowery spring had usher'd in with more auspicious cheer;
+  Then all things flourish--all things then of youth and freshness tell,
+  The juicy vine begins to flow, the bud begins to swell;
+  With fresh green leaves the tree is clad, a virgin sheen appears,
+  The bursting seed above the ground the fresh green blade uprears.
+  With fresh full-throated warblings then the blithe birds stir the air,
+  And lamb and lambkin in the mead their frisking sports prepare.
+  Then suns are mild; its south retreat the stranger swallow leaves,
+  And skilful builds the well-known clay beneath the lofty eaves.
+  Then walks the ploughman forth; the clod yields to the sturdy steer;
+  Soothly the fittest time was this to omen in the year."
+  My words were many, but in words few and well-chosen, He,
+  Within the compass of two lines, thus made reply to me.
+  "What time the sun that sunk before mounts loftier to the view,
+  This fitliest closed the parting year, and usher'd in the new."
+  I ask'd again, "Why on this day the forum's strife should end
+  Only in part."--"The cause," said he, "I will explain; attend.
+  The young year's starting day I made but partial holiday,
+  Lest labourless begun, the year might run to the end in play;
+  Each cunning hand on Janus' feast makes prelude to his trade,
+  Of all the rest a timely test on New-Year's day is made."
+  Then I, this further--"Tell me why, when I bring frankincense
+  To Jove or any other god, with thee I still commence?"
+  "Because of things in heaven and earth I hold the sacred key,
+  The first approach to all the gods is made alone through me."
+  "But on thy kalends, why are men, so harsh on other days,
+  Keen to return the kindly look, and change the friendly phrase?"
+  To this the god, his strong right hand upon his good staff leaning,
+  "All ominous things when first observed speak out their fateful meaning.
+  To the first voice of things that cry, ye lend a trembling ear,
+  And the first flight of bodeful wings fills pious hearts with fear.
+  The ears are open of the gods, to catch on New-Year's day
+  What random words, or thoughtless prayer, a hasty fool may say."
+  Thus ceased the god; nor slow was I the broken thread to join,
+  But of the last words that he spake, thus trode the heels with mine.
+  "But what have dates to do with thee, and wrinkled figs, this tell,
+  And what the honey dew that drops pure from its snowy cell?"[16]
+  "Here, too, an omen lies," he said; "the cause is passing clear,
+  That from sweet things a savour sweet may relish the whole year."
+  Thus taught, the cause I understood of dates, and figs, and honey;
+  "But tell me now, wise god!" I said, "what means the piece of money?"
+  He smiled. "Alas! how much thy age deceives thy wit," he said;
+  "As if sweet honey by the touch of gold were sweeter made.
+  Even in good Saturn's day, 'twas hard to find a heart all pure,
+  From the infection of base gain, and gainful lust secure.
+  Small at the birth, it grew apace the thirst of yellow ore,
+  Till heap on heap ye pile so high, that ye can pile no more.
+  Not so the measure was of wealth in Rome's primeval time,
+  When all was poor that now is rich, and low that's now sublime;
+  When a small hut was all that held the son of Mars divine,
+  And gather'd reeds were all the couch on which he drain'd the wine;
+  When Jove within his narrow cell erect could scarcely stand,
+  An earthen Jove, and of base clay the bolt that arm'd his hand.
+  When with wild-flowers the fane was deck'd that now with jewels gleams,
+  And his own sheep the senator fed near the rural streams;
+  When gently woo'd by healthy sleep the rustic warrior lay
+  On straw, and praised above all down a truss of bristling hay;
+  When to give laws to Rome the peasant consul left the plough,
+  And gold was then as great a crime as 'tis a virtue now.
+  But when our fates were lifted high, and to the stars sublime,
+  Perch'd on her base of seven-hill'd state proud Rome had learn'd to
+    climb;
+  Wealth grew with power, and lust of wealth, a madness of the brain,
+  And still the more that they possess'd, the more they sought to gain.
+  Eager to make that they might spend, spending to make anew,
+  Change nursed by change of fell extremes to monstrous nature grew;
+  Thus he whose sickly body swells with water in the veins,
+  The more he drinks, the more within the thirsty fever reigns.
+  All things are prized by price; to wealth all honours now are sure;
+  Wealth buys the rich man friends; forlorn and friendless pines the poor.
+  If now you ask why copper coins are chiefly my delight,
+  The ancient brass of Rome should I, the ancient Janus, slight?
+  Brass was their wealth of old; though now the better omen's gold,
+  And the new metal from the field has fairly beat the old.
+  Myself, though simple and severe, approve a golden shrine--
+  This metal hath a majesty that suits a power divine.
+  We praise the ancients, and 'tis well; but use our modern ways--
+  All fashions in due time and place are worthy of our praise."
+  Thus ceased the god; but I, to set all rising doubts at rest,
+  The hoar key-bearer of the sky thus with meek words address'd:--
+  "Much I have learn'd; but tell me this--why of our copper coin
+  Does one side bear a ship, and one a double head like thine?"[17]
+  "That head is mine; you might have known the likeness of the face
+  But that hoar age and wear have dull'd the sharpness of the trace.
+  As for the ship, attend: the god that bears the scythe whilcome
+  Far-wandering in the Tuscan flood at length had ceased to roam.[18]
+  Well I remember when he came, and hold the memory dear--
+  Saturn, by Jove expell'd from heaven, and kindly welcom'd here.
+  Thence was the land Saturnia call'd; and Latium still we name
+  The part where ancient Saturn lurk'd in safety when he came.[19]
+  Our pious sires upon the brass the sacred ship impress'd,
+  Whose keel to blest Ausonian shores had borne the Olympian guest.
+  Then on that spot I made my home where Tiber's waters glide,
+  And eat the yielding banks away with sandy-rolling tide.
+  Here, where Rome stands, wild copse green grew; the busy forum now
+  Was then a peaceful glen, disturb'd by wandering oxen's low.
+  My fortress then was that same hill which pious Rome reveres
+  Even now, and thinks on Janus when Janiculum she hears.
+  Here I was king, when holy earth of heavenly guests could tell,
+  And in the haunts of men the gods were not ashamed to dwell;
+  Ere Justice, shrinking from the sight of human guilt and crime,
+  Last of immortals left the earth, and sought the starry clime;
+  When hearts were sway'd by love, and held by bonds of holy awe,
+  And light the labour was to shape for willing hearts the law.
+  Stern war I knew not, and the gates I held were gates of peace;
+  While in my hand the key declared--Let garner'd stores increase!"
+  Here closed the god his lips; but I, not bashful, open'd mine,
+  And with the mortal voice again unseal'd the voice divine.
+  "Since many gates are thine in Rome, say why dost thou appear
+  In perfect shape and size nowhere but at the forums here?"[20]
+  Whereto the god, with gentle hand stroking his long beard hoary,
+  Forthwith recounted in my ear OEbalian Tatius' story;
+  And how, by Sabine gauds ensnared, the fair and faithless maid
+  The path that to the Capitol leads to the Sabine lord betray'd.
+  "As there is now, so then there was, a slope by which you go
+  Steep from the citadel to the plain, and forum stretch'd below;
+  And now the twain had reach'd the gate where Juno's partial ward
+  The only bolts that closed their way propitiously unbarr'd,
+  When I, too wise with Saturn's seed in open fight to join,
+  Contrived a scheme that baffled hers, a plan entirely mine;
+  I oped (in opening lies my strength) a gate where waters slept,
+  And from the solid rock straightway a stream impetuous leapt;
+  To the hot spring such sulphurous steams my timely aid supplied
+  That eager Tatius quail'd and shrunk back from the rolling tide.
+  The Sabines fled; the gushing fount miraculous ceased to flow;
+  Nor pious Rome to own the power that sent such aid was slow;
+  A little altar on a shrine not large to Janus' name
+  Was raised; there sprinkled meal and cake smokes mingled with the flame."
+  "But this say further,--why thy gates in war are open, why
+  In peace are closed?" whereto the god thus gave the prompt reply;
+  "That till her sons fierce war have quench'd, and crush'd the crude
+    revolt,
+  Rome to receive the homeward host may keep unbarr'd the bolt;
+  In peace my locks are closed, that none may causeless leave his home,
+  Nor few the years I shall be closed while Caesar reigns in Rome."
+  Thus spake the god; and lifting high his head of diverse view,
+  Scann'd east and west, and all that's spread beneath the ethereal blue;
+  And peace rein'd o'er wide earth; ev'n where i' the north, with surly
+    wave,
+  The rebel Rhine to Caesar's arms their latest triumph gave;
+  Peace, hoary Janus, make thou sure for ever; and may they
+  Who purchased peace embrace the globe with everlasting sway.
+
+
+
+
+TO A BLIND GIRL.
+
+
+  I do not sigh as some may sigh,
+    To see thee in thy darkness led
+  Along the path where sunbeams lie,
+      And bloom is shed.
+
+  I do not weep as some may weep,
+    Upon thy rayless brow to look;
+  A boon more rare 'twas thine to keep,
+        When light forsook.
+
+  A glorious boon! Thou shalt not view
+    One treasure from the earth depart--
+  Its starry buds, its pearls of dew,
+        Lie in thy heart.
+
+  No need to heed the frosty air,
+    No need to heed the blasts that chafe,
+  The scatter'd sheaf, the vintage spare--
+        _Thy hoard is safe_.
+
+  Thou shalt not mark the silent change
+    That falls upon the heart like blight,
+  The smile that grows all cold and strange.--
+        Bless'd is thy night!
+
+  Thou shalt not watch the slow decay,
+    Nor see the ivy clasp the fane,
+  Nor trace upon the column gray
+        The mildew stain.
+
+  _Ours_ is the darkness--thine the light.
+    Within thy brow a glory plays;
+  Shrine, blossom, dewdrop, all are bright
+        With quenchless rays.
+
+  J. D.
+
+
+
+
+THE FORCED SALE.
+
+
+A large red brick house, with a multitude of gable-ends, and rows of
+small, dingy-looking windows, had hidden itself for many generations
+in a clump of fine old trees in a large green field--almost qualified
+to take rank as a park--at a distance of six or seven miles from St
+Paul's. In the days of the good Queen Anne, the city lay comfortably
+huddled up round the cathedral church, and looked upon her sister of
+Westminster as too far removed, and of too lofty a rank, to be visited
+except on rare occasions. London was then contained within reasonable
+limits, and it was easy to walk round her boundaries; you could even
+point out the precise spot at which the town ended and the country
+began. The inhabitants of the large brick house, known by the name of
+Surbridge Hall, at rare intervals, and then only to visit the shops,
+undertook the journey into the city; and, unless in the stillest of
+autumn evenings, when the enormous tongue of the metropolitan clock
+made itself audible on the Surbridge lawn, they might have forgotten
+that such a place as the capital was within fifty miles. That
+generation died off; and London had begun to put out feelers in all
+directions, and had outgrown the ancient limits. Streets began to move
+out a little way into the country for change of air; and, in making
+their usual shopping-visits to the great city, the inhabitants of
+Surbridge Hall had now to drive through a short row of houses, where
+the elders of the party remembered nothing but a hedge. That
+generation also died out; and the city, like an old dowager who has
+once been a beauty, and boasted of a waist, grew out of all shape.
+There were squares and crescents rising in every quarter and the white
+tops of chimneys, and the blue dinginess of roofs, became visible from
+the upper windows of Surbridge Hall. The proprietor, terrified perhaps
+by the approach of such neighbours, advertised the Hall for sale,
+speedily found a purchaser, and, somewhere about the beginning of this
+century, the old family name of the Walronds disappeared from the
+country, and Surbridge Hall became the property of William Wilkins,
+Esq. We may observe that, much about the same time, the name of the
+senior partner disappeared from the door of a dingy-looking house in
+Riches Court, and the firm of Wilkins & Roe was deprived of its larger
+half. The old lion-rampant, that had stood on its hind-legs for so
+many years on the top of one of the piers of the entrance gates, as if
+in act to spring upon the deer that lay ruminating on the top of the
+other, was now displaced; and, in a few days, his position was taken
+by a plaster-of-Paris cast of Hebe, benevolently holding forth an
+empty goblet towards the thirsty statue of Apollo which did duty on
+the other side. The floors in the old hall were new laid, the windows
+fitted with plate glass, the painting and decoration put into the
+hands of a Bond-street finisher, who covered the walls with acres of
+gilding, and hung chandeliers from the ceilings, and placed mirrors
+upon the walls, till the rooms looked like the show galleries of an
+upholsterer, and very different from the fine solid habitable
+apartments they used to be in the time of the late proprietor. And a
+change nearly as remarkable took place on Mr Wilkins himself as in his
+house. He attended county meetings, and became learned in rents and
+agriculture. He built new houses for his tenants, and only regretted
+he had never learned to ride, or he would have followed the hounds.
+But though he was no Nimrod, he dressed like one of his sons, and
+encased his thick legs in top-boots, and generally carried a whip. At
+last, by dint of good dinners, and voting on the right side at the
+elections, he became a magistrate; and if Mrs Wilkins had had the
+politeness to die, he would have married Lady Diana O'Huggomy, the
+daughter of an Irish earl; but Mrs Wilkins did not die, and Lady Diana
+ran away with a dancing-master. His son had been eighteen years at the
+bar, and never had had a brief; his daughters had been twenty years on
+the world, and never had had an offer; but he still expected to see
+Richard lord chancellor, and his three girls peeresses. A country
+gentleman, a county magistrate, perfectly healthy and tolerably rich,
+was there any thing wanting to Mr Wilkins's felicity? Yes. Alexander
+the Great was wretched when he had conquered the world, and was ten
+times happier when he was breaking-in Bucephalus; and Mr Wilkins, if
+the truth must be told, was very like Alexander the Great, at least in
+his discontent, and was never so gay as he used to be in the dingy
+mansion in Riches Court. The dinners he gave were formal, cold
+affairs, where he never felt at his ease: he could not help thinking
+that the neighbours quizzed and looked down on him; and, in short, he
+felt out of his element, and longed sometimes for the free-and-easy
+dinners he had relished so much in the city. His farm-houses were at
+last all built, his improvements all completed, and there was no
+further occupation for either himself or his money. He sometimes drove
+into Harley Street to see his son, but he found that gentleman also on
+the rack of idleness, and went home again, wondering how Roe was
+getting on in the old premises, though never venturing to go near
+him--for his family had insisted on a dead cut between the partners,
+and could not endure the thoughts of Mr Roe coming between the wind
+and their newly acquired nobility. Time wore on. Old Wilkins grew
+older. He used to sit at the window of his drawing-room and look
+towards London, fancying to himself the bustle and stir that were
+going on, the crowding in Fleet Street, the crush at the Bank; and
+occasionally imagination conjured up to him the image of an active
+citizen bustling down towards the Exchange, radiant with success, and
+filled with activity and hope; and he could scarcely recognise his own
+identity with that joyous citizen, the William Wilkins of that happier
+time. The flood of building, which had only reached to within three
+miles of Surbridge when the Walronds retired to the ark of some estate
+they retained in Yorkshire, had now increased to such a degree, as to
+have submerged many of the fields and orchards that lay at very short
+distance from the Hall. "Willars," with Italian fronts and little
+greenhouses at the side, took post all along the road, and, from the
+open windows, sounded in summer evenings the Battle of Prague, or God
+save the King, so that you walked amidst perpetual music, for no house
+was so ungenteel as to be without a piano. Surbridge Hall itself ran a
+great risk of becoming a suburban villa at no distant time; and Mr
+Wilkins was in some hopes that his family would allow him to consider
+himself an inhabitant of London once more, and no longer doom him to
+the cold nothingness of squireship and gentility. But whether they
+might have relented in this respect can never be known; for while he
+was meditating a renewal of his acquaintance with his late partner,
+and an occasional dive into Riches Court, he changed his bed at the
+Hall for the family vault (newly built) in Surbridge church, and his
+great-coat and riding-whip for a Roman toga and a long gilt baton,
+with which he pointed to heaven from the top of a splendid monument
+near the south wall. Richard now succeeded to the family honours; and
+as he had married a Miss Gillingham--a name which he preferred to his
+ancestral appellation--he did her the honour to take it to himself,
+and was duly enrolled in the list of justices as Wilkins Gillingham,
+Esq. His son was sent to Christchurch, and his three daughters to a
+fashionable boarding-school. His mother and sisters retired to
+Tunbridge Wells, and they all began to persuade themselves that
+Surbridge had been in the family from the time of the Conquest. By way
+of strengthening their claims to county consideration, it was wisely
+determined to oppose the building invasion as powerfully as they
+could. Several farms and fields were bought, plantations were
+skilfully placed, two or three feet were added to the height of the
+walls all round the property; and it was hoped that some impression
+was made on the advancing architectural enemy; for in the speculative
+year of 1819, a dozen or two of builders were removed to the Queen's
+Bench, and whole rows of houses were left looking up to heaven, in
+vain expectation of a roof. Wilkins Gillingham served the office of
+High Sheriff, caught a surfeit in entertaining the judges, and in a
+few weeks gave place to his heir. Augustus had passed two years at
+Oxford--had then married a beauty--the daughter of a country surgeon
+of the name of Howard; and as he inherited his father's tastes, along
+with his property, he changed his family name; and poor old Widow
+Wilkins, who still survived, enlivened the tea-tables of the Wells
+with anecdotes and descriptions of her grandson, Gillingham Howard.
+Death seemed entirely to have forgotten the relict of the original
+William. She stood like an ancient pillar, to point out where the
+building it once belonged to was placed; and was looked upon by her
+descendants pretty much as a native American looks upon a venerable
+squaw of some Indian nation--the connecting link between New York and
+the woods. The widow was the sole point of union left between
+Surbridge Hall and Riches Court. Whether her grandson did not relish
+the reminiscence, or from what cause no one can hazard more than a
+guess, certain it is that on the death of his wife, who left him with
+two daughters, four or five years old, he did not summon his venerable
+ancestor from the Wells, but installed one of her daughters--Aunt
+Susannah--in the temporary charge of his house. By some secret
+arrangement, into the causes of which we have no time to enquire, such
+a change took place in Aunt Susannah, that though she left Tunbridge,
+having secured her place in the inside of the coach in the name of
+Miss S. Wilkins, she was brought out from London in Mr Howard's
+carriage in the name of Miss S. Gillingham; and there was no person of
+the name of Wilkins in the whole of the establishment. Aunt Susannah
+was not a person to hesitate long as to a change of name. It had been
+the whole object of her life, till five-and-thirty years of
+disappointment had almost made her despair of succeeding in her
+object, by the help of special license or even vulgar banns; and she
+accordingly made no scruple in adopting the more euphonious
+Gillingham, and sinking all mention of the other. Mr Gillingham Howard
+followed the example of his predecessors. He was a _bona fide_ country
+gentleman, with the one drawback to his otherwise stupendous
+respectability, of being the greatest drawer of the long-bow since the
+days of Mendez Pinto. He added two feet more to the height of his
+boundary walls, and bought all the disposable land round his estate;
+but if he had transplanted a couple of miles of the Chinese wall to
+Surbridge, he could no more have kept off the intrusion of the
+barbarian villa-builders than the Celestials have been able to shut
+out the same pushing, bustling, active, energetic, unabashable
+individuals from the Flowery land. Architecture went on, and now the
+gigantic city had stuck her arms so majestically on either hip, that
+one of her elbows actually came into contact with the park of
+Surbridge Hall. There was a gentle elevation--in those flat regions
+honoured with the name of a hill--which lay at one side of the
+Surbridge lands. It was a beautifully wooded little property of thirty
+or forty acres, which it had always been the ambition of the Surbridge
+owners to buy; but it was so involved with lawsuits or doubtful
+titles, that it had hitherto been impossible to get possession of it
+for love or money. The upper part of it rose high above the glades of
+Surbridge park, and the clump of trees on the summit formed a very
+fine object in the view from the drawing-room windows. It was all laid
+down in the richest pasture, and would have formed the most valuable
+addition to the property, both in making it compact and keeping it
+secluded. The owner of it died at last in the Fleet, and it was
+advertised for sale, with a perfect title and immediate possession.
+The sale was by auction, and the day drew rapidly near. Mr Gillingham
+Howard went carefully over the ground, examined the condition of his
+credit--for his surplus cash was gone--had the property valued; and
+determined to give a thousand more than its worth, to prevent it
+falling into any one else's hands. When the day of sale arrived, he
+placed himself in front of the auctioneer, and determined, by the
+fierceness of his "bids," to frighten any competitor from the field.
+The room was crowded, and the sale began. All the eloquence of the
+celebrated Puff was displayed on this occasion; and when he paused
+after his glowing description, and asked any gentleman to be kind
+enough to name a sum to begin with--suggesting, at the same time, four
+thousand pounds. "Gentlemen, shall we say four thousand guineas?" Mr
+Gillingham Howard, in a voice that was calculated to show that he was
+in earnest, and did not stand upon trifles, nodded his head, and said
+"seven!" The auctioneer himself was overcome with the success of his
+oratory, and there was a dead silence among the spectators. "Thank
+you, sir--seven thousand guineas," he said, "Will any gentleman make
+an advance?" looking round, at the same time, as if he considered it
+useless to waste any breath in endeavouring to enhance the price. His
+hammer mechanically went up, and was on the point of falling, when a
+weak voice near the orator's pulpit whispered "eight."
+
+The voice proceeded from an old man wrapped up in a thick great-coat,
+though it was a warm day in June--a clear-eyed, small-featured,
+diminutive old man, who had sat the whole time, taking no apparent
+interest in the proceedings. All eyes were turned upon him in a
+moment, and he quietly repeated the awful monosyllable--"eight!" Mr
+Gillingham Howard looked at the old gentleman with detestation in
+every feature, for he felt that the person, whoever he was, was
+actually robbing him of a thousand pounds; and he would have had very
+few scruples in sending the culprit to Botany Bay for so tremendous an
+outrage. A sort of smile ran round the assemblage at seeing the sudden
+alteration produced on his countenance; and though he had determined
+not to give more than the original seven, he was ashamed to be cowed
+by an unknown individual at once; and after a few minutes' pause, and
+a glance of ineffable hatred at the little old man, who had relapsed
+into his state of contented unconcern, he looked at the auctioneer,
+and said, "Five hundred more!" Saying this, he put his hands into his
+pockets, and kept his eye fixed on his competitor. Without a moment's
+hesitation, the old gentleman nodded his head once more, and said, "Mr
+Puff, I'm in a hurry. Will this gentleman give ten thousand guineas? I
+will!"
+
+The auctioneer gave one look to Mr Gillingham Howard, and saw, from
+the blank expression of that gentleman's countenance, that competition
+was at an end. The hammer fell, and seemed like a great rock on Mr
+Gillingham Howard's heart.
+
+"Your name, if you please, sir," said Mr Puff.
+
+The little old gentleman rose up and said, "Give me a pen and ink.
+I'll write an order for the money. My name is Thomas Roe, No. 20,
+Riches Court."
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A week had passed, and Mr Gillingham Howard nursed his wrath, like Tam
+O'Shanter's wife, to keep it warm. The name of the successful
+purchaser had struck him with a feeling of horror; for as silence had
+brooded for fifty years over the history of his grandfather--and as
+the misty period preceding the purchase of Surbridge had given rise to
+a whole mythology of ancestry like to the anti-historic periods of
+Greece, and other imaginative nations--he looked upon the appearance
+of the veritable contemporary of that fabulous age in the same way as
+Romulus would have regarded any surviving friend and companion of the
+real _bona fide_ robber or pig-driver to whom he probably owed his
+birth. It is needless, therefore, to say, that over all other feelings
+fear and disgust predominated. He determined to withdraw himself into
+still more aristocratic seclusion than before, and on no account to
+recognise the existence of his new neighbour. A month or two passed
+on, and no steps seemed taken on the part of the purchaser to avail
+himself of his new acquisition. Day after day Mr Gillingham Howard
+looked up to the tuft of trees that crowned the beautiful field beyond
+his park, and on seeing no symptoms of cutting down, nor other
+preparations for house-building, began to indulge in the pleasing
+anticipation that the old gentleman had no intention of the kind; and
+by cherishing this idea for some time, he succeeded at last in
+believing, that if he did in reality turn his ground to any such a
+purpose, he would be guilty of a fresh injustice. Three months had
+elapsed, and the beautiful colours of Autumn just unfurled themselves
+in order to be struck at the first broadside of a November frost--the
+sun was shining so warmly, that the leaves had every reason to be
+ashamed of their yellow complexions; and a young lady--like a
+butterfly awakened by the brightness of the day--fluttered forward
+from the porch of Surbridge Hall, dressed in all the hues of the
+rainbow. A green bonnet, a pink pelisse, a red shawl, and lilac
+parasol, were scarcely in keeping with the sylvan scene on which she
+hurriedly entered. She was very tall and very thin, and had been
+taught to walk by a Parisian _promeneuse_ at a guinea a lesson; so
+that the tail of her gown described a half circle every time she
+stept, and her progress was apparently on the principle of the
+propeller screw. A small sketch-book was under her arm, and across her
+wrist she bore a supernumerary shawl. "If he should be there again,"
+she thought, "he will surely speak. He looked as if he wished to do it
+last time. But he's bashful, perhaps, to a person of my rank. Poor
+fellow--how handsome he looked as he turned away!" The thought seemed
+to be a pleasant one, for a sort of smile rose to her thin lips as she
+dwelt on it, and she increased her pace. She opened a little gate, and
+moved rapidly on towards an ornamental poultry-house near the boundary
+of the estate. The extra shawl was soon spread upon the stump of a
+tree, the sketch-book opened, and with her eye intently fixed on the
+fantastic chimney of the hen-house, she listened for every sound. She
+moved the pencil as if busily engaged in sketching; but, strange to
+say, the figure produced by her touch, took (involuntarily as it were)
+the appearance of a very handsome young man, for whose bright eyes and
+smiling countenance there was no warrant in the twisted bricks and
+oddly shaped cans of the original. As if her drawing had been the
+mystic configurations of a conjurer, the spirit came when she did call
+for it; and with a side glance of her eye, she perceived at no great
+distance from her a young man, who seemed to be gazing at her with
+great earnestness, and was only prevented from addressing her by the
+awe, that formed of course the body-guard of a daughter of Mr
+Gillingham Howard. There are many ways in which it is possible to show
+that the said body-guard may be broken through, without subjecting the
+culprit to the penalties of high-treason. A short cough, as if
+preparatory to a conversation--a hurried look, and then a scarcely
+perceptible smile--a sort of fidgety uneasiness, as if the stump of
+the tree was something rather different from an air-cushion--such were
+the methods pursued by Miss Arabel Howard on the present occasion with
+complete success. The stranger combated with his respect, and going
+near to where the sketcher--again utterly unconscious of his presence,
+was putting in a tuft of ivy--he took off his hat and bowed--
+
+"Ha!" exclaimed Miss Arabel, in a state of most becoming surprise.
+
+"I hope I do not alarm you, madam," said the stranger; "though my
+sudden presence here requires an apology."
+
+"Oh!--I beg--I feel sure--any gentleman--my father will be most happy
+to"----
+
+"You are very kind. I perceive you appreciate the beauty of this
+situation as much as I do. You are sketching the gable and
+chimney"----
+
+"Yes--but pray don't look."
+
+But before she had time to close the page and clasp the book, he had
+caught a view of a well drawn hat, and very tastefully touched
+whiskers.
+
+The stranger smiled.
+
+"It is indeed a beautiful little work," he continued.
+
+"And the building so very picturesque. Grandpapa pulled down a row of
+cottages that the poor people lived in, and built this romantic little
+hermitage."
+
+"So I have heard."
+
+"Oh, have you? Grandpapa improved this place very much. Think how the
+view must have been spoilt by a row of nasty cottages, and a crowd of
+horrid poor people."
+
+"It was very near the church for the cottagers."
+
+"Oh! but papa is going to get the horrid old church removed to the
+other end of the parish, and have a beautiful building instead of the
+present tumble-down old ruin."
+
+"Taste seems hereditary in your family."
+
+"It is indeed: ages ago great improvements were made by papa's
+grandfather. He got quit of all the cottages except the row that stood
+here--for what can be more horrid than the sight of a set of dirty
+ignorant people in such beautiful scenery? They should all live in a
+common, or hide themselves in some dark streets in London. Don't you
+think so?"
+
+"A great many of them do; but, if I were a sketcher, I think I could
+make a very interesting subject out of a poor man's cottage, with his
+little children playing about the garden."
+
+"Not real poor children!" exclaimed Miss Arabel, "nor a real poor
+man--no. I have made sketches myself of papa and the Misses
+Warrible--Sir Stephen Warrible's daughters--dressing them in fancy
+rags, and filling the garden they played in with flowers from our
+conservatory, and giving the cottage French windows and a trellis-work
+veranda. He stands leaning on a spade, with silver buckles in his
+shoes, and the children are playing _La Grace_ with the hoops, covered
+with pink ribands. I called it 'The Poor Man's Joy;' and Lord Moon has
+begged me to give it to an engraver."
+
+"I hope you will comply with his lordship's request."
+
+"I would if I could escape the publicity of the thing. Papa would be
+so angry if he thought I was so nearly professional as to be the
+author of a published sketch."
+
+"I am afraid your father is too particular. No scruple of the kind
+fettered the genius of one of the princesses of France."
+
+"Ah, but she was one of the new people! There was no artist in the
+elder branch. Papa can't endure Louis Philippe, and says they are all
+very low."
+
+The gentleman was attacked with a slight cough, and after a pause
+renewed the conversation.
+
+"I think I have seen you engaged on this subject for some time."
+
+"It takes a long time to get in all these twists and corners," replied
+Miss Arabel with a smile of satisfaction, to find that the recontre
+was not more one of chance on his side than her own.
+
+"Do you devote yourself entirely to sketching?"
+
+"Oh no! I paint as well. We have a large gallery at home, and it is an
+excellent school. The family portraits are, many of them, very fine."
+
+"Does it go far back in the English school?"
+
+"Oh, you should see the great wigs of the Charleses and jack-boots of
+the cavaliers! We were all cavaliers, I suppose, for I don't see a
+single roundhead among them."
+
+"And the ladies?"
+
+"Oh, such hoops and farthingales! such pyramids of muslin on their
+heads, and pillars of red leather upon their heels!"
+
+"And is the painting good of that ancient date? How do you like it
+compared to the modern?"
+
+"We have very few modern portraits; and none of any ladies later than
+George II."
+
+"No?" enquired the young man anxiously. "No lady later than that? Ah,
+then I have been misinformed!" he added in a disappointed tone.
+
+"Had you heard of our collection, then?"
+
+"Yes--no--that is--I believe, in most old family houses, there is a
+regular series of portraits that may enable the student to trace the
+alterations of the English school from its very commencement."
+
+"Oh--a student--are you?--that is--have I the pleasure of speaking to
+a painter?" enquired Miss Arabel with great dignity.
+
+"Oh no, madam; only an admirer of the art."
+
+"And you are disappointed at the want of recent female portraits,"
+said Arabel more graciously, the faintest possible hope springing to
+her heart that he was disappointed at the absence of her own.
+
+"I should like to have heard the opinion of a competent judge on so
+interesting a subject. A comparison between Kneller for instance and
+Sir Joshua would be worthy of your taste."
+
+"Oh, Kneller by all means, and Lely better than both! I believe, now
+that you put me in mind of it, there is a pale colourless Sir Joshua
+in the nursery--the school-room I mean."
+
+"A lady?" enquired the stranger.
+
+"A person," replied Miss Arabel, who never allowed lady's rank to any
+one whose status she did not know--"with long hair falling about her
+face, and a little boy lying asleep in her lap. Whether she was a lady
+or not, I don't know, but I rather think not, for I never heard of her
+being connected with our family. Perhaps she was a nurse."
+
+"And are you sure it is a Sir Joshua?"
+
+"Oh, yes!--His name is written on the back; and Mr Ochre, my
+drawing-master, says it is all out of proportion, and of no merit at
+all. But why are you so anxious about the daub? Mr Ochre wishes to be
+allowed to retouch it."
+
+"If he lays a brush on it"--the stranger began in a furious tone, but
+checked himself--"if he lays a brush on it, he will spoil an old
+master."
+
+"A master!" said Miss Arabel with a contemptuous giggle. "I only wish
+you could see it."
+
+"I wish I could," replied the young gentleman; "but I am afraid I
+shall never be so happy."
+
+"Oh!"--The young lady did not say any thing more, but looked at the
+stranger, as if taking measure of his respectability to see if an
+_entree_ to Surbridge Hall was really above his hopes. He was tall,
+well made, with an air such as she had not seen in any of the visitors
+at that aristocratic mansion.
+
+"I'm sure," she repeated, looking down and speaking with interesting
+hesitation, "my papa would be happy to show his gallery to any
+gentleman in the neighbourhood. Perhaps you know papa?"
+
+"I have not the honour, but since I know what a treasure he possesses,
+I should think it a great happiness to make his acquaintance."
+
+The lady said nothing, but thought it the most neatly turned
+compliment she ever heard in her life.
+
+"I am on a visit to a family near this," he continued, "and may
+perhaps have the opportunity of meeting Mr Howard.
+
+"Oh, where is it?" exclaimed Miss Arabel. "What is their name? We know
+every body in the neighbourhood--that is, of course, you know"----
+
+"Every body that's worth knowing," said the stranger with a smile.
+
+"Exactly. Is it the Rayleighs of Borley Castle, we know them very
+well; or the Manbys of Flixley Abbey, delightful people, we are quite
+intimate with them; or the Sundridges of Fairley Manor, there are no
+pleasanter people in the world--so good, so ladylike, and yet they say
+Mrs Sundridge's father was something very low, a Calcutta merchant, or
+India director, or something of that sort. Is it any of these?"
+
+"No! It is with a gentleman who has lately taken a small villa in the
+neighbourhood, and I am afraid he will think I have been absent from
+him too long. Do you sketch here every day?"
+
+"Till I have finished this tiresome building," replied Miss Arabel. "I
+must avail myself of the fine weather, and not miss a single morning."
+
+The gentleman smiled, and so did the lady. With another apology for
+having intruded, he bowed and withdrew.
+
+Miss Arabel continued where she was, till she lost his graceful figure
+among the windings of the shrubbery.
+
+"He is a charming man," she thought, "and might easily manage to get
+acquainted with papa if he chose. Who can he be?--he's very clever and
+very accomplished--and walks so nobly. I wonder if he is in the
+Guards."
+
+She opened her sketch-book once more, and was busy with her pencil,
+and her thoughts at the same time. She had not seen what necessity
+there was for taking his leave so hurriedly, and perhaps a faint idea
+came to her, that it was not impossible he might return. While she was
+new-pointing her pencil, and recalling all that the stranger had said,
+she heard a footstep coming through the plantation.
+
+"Hush! He is coming again. He can't stay away."
+
+"Servant, young mum--servant, and all that," said a voice close behind
+her;--"Scratch! scratch! there you go, painting bricks as if they was
+Christians, and all that."
+
+"Sir! Are you aware this is private property. Papa would be very angry
+if"----
+
+"He heard I was here. I dassay he would, and all that--but I don't
+intend to wait for him here. I'll beat up his quarters at the hall--I
+will--and all that."
+
+Miss Arabel had a profound contempt for old people and little people;
+and the person who at present addressed her was both little and old.
+He wore a short flaxen wig, and a spenser over a long-tailed blue
+coat; grey nether habiliments, with four or five inches of a white
+worsted stocking visible between his knee and his gaiter. It was a
+very well-shaped leg, and the owner thereof seemed to know it.
+
+"You will not find papa at home," said Miss Arabel. "He has gone out
+to a magistrate's meeting."
+
+"I didn't say I was going there to-day, did I?--and he don't go
+justicing every day in the week, I hope. I'll see him soon, depend
+on't, and make acquaintance with his young 'uns, and all that. How
+many is there of you?"
+
+"My sister and myself--if you enquire as to the number of Mr
+Gillingham Howard's family," replied Miss Arabel.
+
+"What! ha'n't ye picked up ne'er a man yet? ne'er a one on you? Is
+your sister any thing like yourself?"
+
+Miss Arabel cast a look of haughty indignation on her questioner; but
+disdained a reply.
+
+"Pr'aps you're looking out for a juke or a bernet, or some regular
+nobleman, and all that--for I hear you carries all your heads uncommon
+high--whereby it wouldn't be unagreeable to pull 'em down a bit, and
+all that. Come, come, don't pout nor be sulky. Be friendly, young
+'oman, now that we're going to be neighbours, and all that."
+
+"Friendly, indeed!" said Miss Arabel, with a toss of her head that
+would have snapped a martingale in fifty pieces. "Pray walk on, sir. I
+am a lady, and papa would be very indignant at your impertinence."
+
+"I dassay he would; but not a bit more than I have been at his'n this
+many a long day. Why, I've dandled him on my knee a hundred times."
+
+"Have you? Perhaps you were his nurse's husband, or the butler. If you
+come to the servants' hall"----
+
+"Indeed! What to do? To see fine ladies' maids give themselves airs,
+and disgust people with their insolence and affectation. Much obliged
+to you all the same; but when I wants to see sights like that, I'll
+come into the drawing-room."
+
+"I don't know what you mean, and beg you'll retire. Papa put an Irish
+beggar into prison for three weeks for insulting my aunt."
+
+"What! old Susie--old Two-to-the-Pound, and all that. He must have
+been very much of an Irishman to insult the old Roman."
+
+"What do you mean, sir? Do you know my aunt Susannah?"
+
+"Ay, to be sure. Ain't I one of her elders? Lord love ye, I've known
+old Susie since she was just up to my knee--and a reg'lar speciment
+she was. We always called her Two-to-the-Pound. Many's the laugh her
+father and I has had about her dumpiness, and all that."
+
+"Papa's grandfather? Did you know him, sir?" enquired Miss Arabel,
+examining her companion at the same time to see if he was not the
+Wandering-Jew or St Leon; for she considered her papa's grandfather as
+the principal personage of a very remote historical era; and would
+have been little more surprised to hear that the old gentleman before
+her had smoked cigars with Sir Walter Raleigh. "Did you know my
+great-grandfather, sir?"
+
+"Didn't I? There wasn't a bigger snob, though I says it, in all
+England; and just about two-and-forty years ago, him and me was as
+thick as two thieves, though only one of us was a thief. He was a old
+man then, and I was a young 'un, and all that. Your father was summut
+about eight years old, and my daughter was born the very month afore
+he bought this here estate. So you see it ain't no great time to talk
+about, seeing my daughter aint a old 'oman yet, though she has a girl
+twenty year old."
+
+"I don't understand what you say," repeated Miss Arabel.
+
+"Old Susie will understand me better, and so will little Gus."
+
+"Who is Gus?"
+
+"Gus is your father--Augustus he was christened; but we always called
+him Gus. Well, it's quite pleasant, I declare, to be among old
+friends; and I'm glad I've took a willa so close."
+
+The sound of the word "willa," even with the initial "w," attracted
+Miss Arabel's attention. Could it be possible that this was the old
+gentleman with whom the handsome stranger was on a visit?
+
+"If you live so near, you can, of course, have an opportunity of
+seeing papa."
+
+"Seeing him? yes, and telling him a bit of my mind. I'll see every
+thing in the house--from old Susie Two-to-the-Pound, down to the last
+born kitten. You keeps cats of course, and all that? Susie must be
+pleased to see me. Sich laughs, to be sure, we had about her and a
+young man of the Excise. He was about seven feet high, and she wa'n't
+above four and a half, so we always called him her young man of the
+extra size. Wasn't it funny? But he died of a decline; and I hear
+she's a broad as she's long. Well, we must all die!"
+
+"I must wish you good-day, sir. I'm going home," said Miss Arabel,
+rising to go away, and assuming as much dignity as she could.
+
+"Well, good-day, and good-luck to you," said the old man. "Why, how
+tall you are! and the wick not half covered. You wouldn't do credit to
+old Bill Wilkins's manufacture, though I says it as shouldn't. You
+ain't much better than one of the single dips. I'll call on your
+father one of these fine days; for now that I've come to the
+neighbourhood, I've little better to do than pay off old scores--and
+interest's been running on for two-and-forty years. Tell him he had
+better set a price on Surbridge, and prepare to move, for I want to
+buy the estate for a friend of mine."
+
+"I beg, sir--I insist--I don't know you, sir," said the agitated and
+angry Arabel.
+
+"He does though. He knows me precious well; and, what's more, you may
+tell him my name if you like."
+
+"I will tell him, sir, that he may send you to prison for your
+impertinence. He's a magistrate."
+
+"I know all about him. He's a boastful blockhead. Tell him I told you
+so. My name is Mr Thomas Roe, 20, Riches Court."
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+The account given by Miss Arabel of her interview with the hateful
+purchaser of the coveted meadows, was so confused, that to persons
+less interested in the matter than Mr Gillingham Howard and Miss
+Susannah Wilkins, (or Gillingham by brevet,) it would have been
+altogether unintelligible. But before these two terror-struck
+individuals rose a vision of their detected boasts and overthrown
+pretensions, that filled them with dismay. What! Mr Gillingham Howard
+exposed in all quarters as the descendant of a tallow-chandler, and
+the censorious Miss Susan as having been known from her childhood by
+the name of Two-to-the-Pound? Could they silence the accuser by
+making him their friend?--or could they repel his revelations by dint
+of unhesitating, unqualified lying?--or finally, would it be necessary
+to quit the neighbourhood? Mr Gillingham Howard was a tall portly man,
+with his hair slightly grizzled, and an air of quiet assurance
+reposing on his somewhat coarse features, which his partial aunt
+considered the solemn dignity of virtue and high birth. To a less
+blinded observed his narrow brow and heavy chin showed strong
+indications of the animal preponderating over the intellectual in his
+organization, and his slow, solemn talk--always about himself--showed
+the importance he attached to the slightest incident that had occurred
+to so distinguished an individual. Not that Mr Gillingham Howard, as
+we remarked before, limited his narratives merely to what had actually
+occurred--they diffused themselves over every circumstance that had
+happened to any one else, and might by any possibility have happened
+to him. By this means he had an extraordinary fund of conversational
+anecdote; for whatever story he heard, or adventure he read, he
+immediately appropriated to himself; and thought nothing of killing
+his eight hundred ducks at one shot with Munchausen, or finding out
+false concords in a Greek play with the Bishop of London. His aunt was
+so used to hear his marvellous tales, that we must in charity suppose
+she believed some of them to be true; and in that persuasion she was
+called upon on all occasions to bear witness to the facts. She
+testified accordingly, with the most perfect readiness, to all his
+achievements in the rows at Oxford; his suggestions to the other
+magistrates, that were always approved; his courage in every danger;
+his mastery in every game, and his skill in every science. She was a
+little, vulgar-looking woman, with small cunning eyes, and a very
+round face, glistening and shining with its absurd obesity; and in
+shape and complexion bearing a close resemblance to a sun-flower stuck
+into a Dutch cheese. The awe with which she regarded her nephew arose
+partly from his size, but principally from the aristocratic loftiness
+of his birth--being the third in descent from the original founder of
+the family, while nothing stood between her and the tallow vat except
+the six years during which her father had enacted the country squire.
+What could be more appalling to these unhappy beings than the
+threatened visit, and long-delayed vengeance of the implacable Thomas
+Roe? In the mean time, Miss Arabel had only a confused notion of the
+meaning of all the threats and messages, the mere report of which
+wrought such anguish in the paternal breast. Her thoughts dwelt more
+constantly on the interview she had had with the mysterious stranger;
+and the speech he had made about the treasure he had heard of in
+Surbridge Hall, came every moment to her mind. It was so pretty a
+speech; and he looked so full of admiration when he said it! Was there
+no way of getting him introduced to papa? Not a word of the meeting
+could she mention to her sister; for Miss Arabel was one of those
+amiable beings not uncommon in ball-rooms, who will not risk the peace
+of mind of a friend by making her acquainted with a rich or
+fascinating partner on any account. And if this holds good with a
+friend, much more in the case of Miss Arabel did it hold good with a
+sister. So she sat in her own room and devised fifty expedients for
+legitimating her acquaintance with the interesting unknown.
+
+But while Surbridge Hall is frightened from its propriety, let us pass
+over for a moment to the hostile camp, and see what is going on there.
+A beautiful young girl is sitting at a table, on which a number of
+maps and plans are laid out; and, while her eyes are busily running
+over the various lines and measurements, her small white hand is
+resting we are sorry to say, without making the smallest effort for
+liberty, within that of the very same young gentleman whose appearance
+we have already commemorated. Beautiful blue eyes they are, and fitter
+for other employment than to pore over architectural or horticultural
+designs; and so she seems to think, for she occasionally lifts them to
+those of her companion, and a sweet smile brightens over all her face.
+That is Fanny Smith, the granddaughter of Thomas Roe--the child of a
+Yorkshire parson, who had been lucky enough to win the heart of Mary
+Roe--and wise enough not to despise her father, though he lived in
+Riches Court.
+
+"But grandpapa says it is of no use, Charles, to look at all these
+plans for houses. He'll never build on the new ground, for he says he
+is determined to establish us at Surbridge Hall."
+
+"The old gentleman is too sanguine," replied Charles. "He will never
+persuade the present proprietor to leave it."
+
+"Oh, he will, though! You don't know what a determined man grandpapa
+is. He'll weary them out--or shame them away."
+
+"Shame!" enquired the other--"How do you think shame can have any
+effect in people so lost to truth, and so encased in ignorance and
+conceit?"
+
+"But grandpapa will expose them--and, besides, he'll pay them
+handsomely to go. I don't the least despair of getting quit of them."
+
+"Why, if people would only take the trouble to enquire into the actual
+facts of any part of their behaviour, and not take their own account
+of it--the boastful falsehoods of the nephew, the malicious
+insinuations of the aunt, their disregard of truth in serious affairs
+as well as in trifles, their selfishness, narrow-mindedness, and want
+of charity--they would hesitate before they countenanced such
+characters, in spite of the dinners they occasionally give, and the
+position they hold. But society winks on vices which it is the duty of
+society to punish, since the law takes no cognizance of them, though
+more hurtful and disgraceful than theft or swindling. And, I am
+afraid, even if your grandfather unmasks the solemn pretender, he will
+still carry his head as high as if he had a right from any quality but
+his wealth to mix with honest men."
+
+"Oh, never fear!" said Fanny, laughing; "those boastful people are
+always easiest frightened, and a very short time will see us in
+Surbridge Hall."
+
+"Ah, Fanny, that would be too much happiness! I've heard of nothing
+but Surbridge since I was a child; and if my father could but see me
+in it, living there, my own property, or yours, Fanny, which is the
+same thing, he would almost die with joy; but no, no, it is
+impossible."
+
+"Impossible! deuce a bit of it!" exclaimed the old gentleman himself;
+bustling into the room. "I tell you that Surbridge is the house you
+will take Fanny home to. I've a great mind to say you sha'n't marry
+her at all unless she gives you Surbridge as part of her fortune."
+
+"Oh, don't say that, sir!"
+
+"No, don't say that, grandpapa, for you know those horrid people may
+be obstinate," said Fanny.
+
+"I should like to see them," said the old man knitting his brow. "No,
+no, they must go. The bully is soon bullied. See, he has sent me a
+flag of truce already; a note asking if I will allow him to call on me
+at three o'clock to renew his old acquaintance."
+
+"And will you let him?" enquired Fanny.
+
+"To be sure I will; and I'll return his visit too; but he'll be here
+in a few minutes now. I think you had better take a walk, Charles, and
+leave Fanny and me to entertain them. You can go and take some more
+lessons in sketching, eh? Don't keep your teacher waiting."
+
+Charles looked at his watch, and then at Fanny, and finally hurried
+away as he was ordered. The young lady also left the room.
+
+The old man sat down, and sank in thought. He had his eye on the
+conduct of his partner's grandson for forty years, though little did
+that ostentatious individual suspect that any person saw within his
+pharisaical exterior, and knew him for the mass of selfishness,
+falsehood, and meanness, he actually was. Moreover the old gentleman
+knew that his victim was not so rich as he appeared, and had struggled
+in vain to better his fortunes by speculations of various kinds, and
+even (the last refuge of the sinking respectables) by thrusting
+himself into trusteeships. He felt an assurance, therefore, that his
+threatened exposures--united to an offer of the full value of the
+estate--would secure him the possession of Surbridge Hall; if it had
+not been for the enjoyment he anticipated in uncloaking the hypocrite,
+he might perhaps have contented himself with the acquisition of the
+land.
+
+A knock was heard at the door, and Mr Gillingham Howard and his aunt
+walked into the room. Mr Gillingham Howard was very pale, and his eye
+evidently quailed as it met the glance of Mr Thomas Roe. The little
+fat Susannah was immensely red in the face, but whether from agitation
+of mind, or the exertion of climbing the hall steps, it is impossible
+to decide.
+
+"I've called, my dear old friend, to take you by the hand," said Mr
+Gillingham Howard. "I've long wished, I assure you, to renew our
+acquaintance."
+
+"That's a thumper!" replied the old man; "you have wished nothing of
+the kind. Oh, Gus, haven't you conquered the horrid habit of
+story-telling that used to make you the laughing-stock of all the
+young men in the shop. And you, my little Two-to-the-Pound, what a
+time it is since we've met, never since the exciseman died, I do
+believe. Well, you've not grown thin on't. Do you study the ninth
+commandment as much as you used to do?"
+
+"The ninth commandment, sir," said the lady tossing her head. "I don't
+know what you mean."
+
+"Yes, you do, Susan; the ninth commandment is the one about false
+witness, you know. And sich a gal as you used to be for slashing a
+character, or trying to make your kindest friends ridiculous, there
+wasn't in all the city. You were always so tremendously witty, you
+never had a good word for any body; for witty gals, as you used to be,
+thinks nothing funny that isn't what they calls severe. But you're a
+old woman now, and I hope you're improved."
+
+Miss Susannah had never been called an old woman before. If she had
+seen Mr Gillingham Howard looking with his usual brazen assurance, she
+would have broken out in a torrent of invective against her merciless
+tormentor--but the fight was entirely out of that illustrious
+character, and he stood in trembling silence before his opponent.
+
+"My dear sir," he said at last, "you are too severe on my aunt--but
+you were always a wag. I've heard my father say he never knew any one
+so full of humour."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"And I myself remember how good-natured you used to be when you
+visited my father in Harley Street."
+
+"Ay, indeed--let me see. Had your father risen to be at the top of the
+profession by that time, with a promise of the chancellorship in his
+pocket when his father died?"
+
+"My dear sir, I don't know what you mean--why--what"--
+
+Haven't you been in the habit of telling your friends so after
+dinner?" enquired Mr Roe; "now, remember."
+
+"Well! I may perhaps have said that he hoped to be chancellor."
+
+"No, no--you have uniformly stated as a fact that he had the written
+promise of the office--and you have constantly appealed to your aunt
+for the truth of your statement."
+
+"La! Mr Roe--how should I know about law and chancellorships? It isn't
+a lady's business."
+
+"It is a lady's business not to corroborate a falsehood."
+
+"Really, my good sir," said Mr Gillingham Howard, "you are too hard on
+a little after-dinner talk."
+
+"Not a bit, not a bit--that after-dinner talk, as you call it, for
+forty years, day after day retailing falsehoods, and asseverating them
+so constantly, that you at last almost succeed in deceiving yourself,
+does away all the distinctions in your mind between truth and
+falsehood--and when once the boundary is broke down, there is no
+farther pause. A man may go on, and boast about his cricket and
+shooting till he would not stick at a false oath."
+
+"Sir! I bear many things from an old friend of our family, but an
+imputation on my veracity is intolerable. Do I ever deviate from the
+truth, Aunt Susan?"
+
+"You! Oh, no! if there's any quality you excel in more than another,
+it is your truth. Low people may tell lies, and of course do; but you!
+Mr Gillingham Howard!--you are a perfect gentleman, from the crown of
+your head to the sole of your foot."
+
+"Omitting all the intermediate parts," replied Mr Roe. "You know very
+well what I mean, sir; and, moreover, you know that what I say is
+true--but I will spare you at present. I wish to purchase Surbridge
+Hall. I will give you the full price. Will you sell it or not?"
+
+"Why, sir, a place that has been long in one's family"----
+
+"I was nearly forty years old when it was bought--and hope to live few
+years yet," interposed Mr Roe.
+
+"And I don't see what pleasure you could take in acquiring a place to
+which you have no hereditary ties--my poor father--and my dear
+grandfather"----continued Mr Gillingham Howard.
+
+"Should have stuck to the melting tub, both of them--but it isn't for
+myself I want the property. I have _a_ grandchild, sir; a
+grandson--but that has nothing to do with it. Will you let me have
+your answer soon? I will call on you, to hear your decision,
+to-morrow."
+
+"Always happy to see an old friend."
+
+"Provided he come with a new face," interposed Mr Roe; "but you don't
+much like the sight of my rough old phiz. At any rate, there's no
+deceit in it, and now we understand each other."
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+It was on the day succeeding this visit of reconciliation, that Miss
+Arabel and the stumpy Susannah pursued their way to the shrubbery
+walk, in a rapid and mysterious manner, as if they hoped to escape
+observation.
+
+"Papa is so unreasonable, aunt," said the young lady. "Why should he
+wish to leave Surbridge, just when"----
+
+"You think you have caught a lover," interposed the aunt; "don't be
+too sure. You've been deceived in that way before now."
+
+"Oh, if you only saw him! He met me yesterday, and said he would see
+me again to-day; and paid such compliments, and looked so handsome."
+
+"But who is he? Is he a gentleman?"
+
+"Of course he is," replied Miss Arabel; "or do you think he would
+venture to speak to _me_?"
+
+"Did he tell you his name?"
+
+"No. All he has told me is--he is living with an old gentleman in one
+of the villas in the neighbourhood."
+
+"An old gentleman," mused Miss Susannah, "in a villa--it must be the
+same--it must be old Roe's Grandson. If it is, and he takes a fancy to
+this girl, it will be all well yet. What has he ever called you? Did
+he ever say you were an angel?"
+
+"No. He thought me one, though; and said he had heard of what a
+treasure Surbridge contained; and yesterday he repeated it, and said
+he would give the world to be able to call it his."
+
+"That's something. You must get him to say something of the kind
+before a witness."
+
+"But how? What witness can there be, when I can never bring him to the
+house?"
+
+"Why not? Ah, how I recollect, in the back parlour," said Miss
+Susannah, her memory unconsciously wandering back to the love
+incidents of her youth.
+
+"The back parlour?" enquired Miss Arabel.
+
+"The back--I didn't say back parlour. I said black parlour--the oaken
+dining-room in my father's house."
+
+"And what of it, aunt? What made you think of the black parlour now?"
+
+"Oh, it was a picture," stammered Miss Susan, inventing an excuse for
+her mistake; "a beautiful old portrait--a sort of--I don't recollect
+what it was."
+
+"Ah! that puts me in mind of what he speaks of often--the pictures in
+our house. I say, aunt," she continued, as if a thought had struck
+her.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Suppose I were to invite him to come into the Hall and see the
+portraits?"
+
+"Well, so you might. Your father would think he was as fond of drawing
+as you are; and if he be the person I think he is, your father will be
+delighted that you have made a friend of him."
+
+"Indeed? Oh, I'm so happy! I'll ask him to the house this very day;
+and perhaps if he says anything, aunt, about the treasure, you can be
+in the way to hear it."
+
+"That I will, and I'll bring your father, too. There's nothing like a
+father or brother in cases of the kind. If I had had a brother that
+would fight, I might have been married myself. Dear me, what an
+uncommon handsome young man in the avenue! I know him to be a lord by
+his walk."
+
+Miss Arabel stretched her neck, and nearly strained her eyeballs in
+the effort to follow the direction of Susannah's eyes.
+
+"That's he," she said; "go now, and leave me to get him into the
+house."
+
+"He can't be any relation of Thomas Roe: he's too handsome for that,"
+thought Miss Susannah; "but whoever he is, she'll be a lucky girl to
+catch him. My Sam was a foot or two taller, but very like him in every
+other respect--except the limp in the left leg."
+
+As she turned back before entering the house, she saw the young people
+in full conversation in the shrubbery walk.
+
+"Well, if he _is_ old Thomas Roe's grandson, and Arabel can hook him
+into a marriage, there will be no occasion to leave Surbridge Hall.
+Does the monster wish us to be tallow-chandlers again?"
+
+On hurrying to the drawing-room to communicate to her nephew the fact
+that Mr Roe's heir was desperately in love with Arabel, she found Mr
+Gillingham Howard endeavouring to carry on a conversation with the
+very individual she most dreaded to see. Mr Roe had walked up,
+accompanied by Fanny Smith, to return the visit of the day before.
+
+"This is so kind," said Miss Susannah, "and so friendly to bring your
+pretty grandchild. Our girls will be delighted to be her friends."
+
+"Fanny's a good girl," replied the old man; "and you mustn't spoil
+her. Gus was just going to tell me if he had made up his mind, when
+you came in. You've thought of my offer, Gus?"
+
+"Certainly; any thing you say shall always have my best consideration.
+As far as I am concerned, I could settle in Bucks, where I have a
+small estate, with satisfaction; but my girls are enthusiastically
+attached to this place. Arabel would break her heart if we took her
+away from Surbridge."
+
+"I warrant her heart against all breakage and other damages, save and
+except the ordinary wear and tear--as Puff says in letting a furnished
+house; and, if it only depends on the young lady, I think I'll answer
+for her being more anxious for the arrangement than I am. But here's
+company coming, and I must have your answer before I go."
+
+Mr Gillingham Howard heard the carriage stop at the door. He felt it
+was impossible to present so rough-mannered a man as Mr Roe to any of
+his friends without a certainty of exposure, and he was strongly
+tempted to agree to his demand at once, if he would immediately leave
+the house; but before he had time to arrange his thoughts, the door
+opened, and the Rayleighs of Borley Castle were announced.
+
+Mr Gillingham Howard, by a great effort, received them with his usual
+courtesy.
+
+"I have brought Mr Tinter with me," said Mrs Rayleigh, "and I hope you
+will let him see your family portraits. We have told him so much of
+them, that he is anxious to see them himself. He is writing a
+description of the private collections in the county."
+
+Mr Tinter bowed; and Mr Gillingham Howard, with an imploring look to
+Mr Roe, who sat resting his chin upon his walking-stick, professed
+himself highly honoured by Mrs Rayleigh's request.
+
+"I believe you have portraits of the Sidney family, sir," said Mr
+Tinter, "as I hear from Mrs Rayleigh--you are nearly related to them;
+I should like very much to compare them with the pictures at
+Penshurst."
+
+"Oh! Mr Howard says the Penshurst pictures are only copies of his,"
+said Mrs Rayleigh.
+
+"Did I, madam? Did I say all?"
+
+"If not all, you said most of them; and also, that you had some
+originals of those in your distant relation, the Duke of Norfolk's
+gallery."
+
+Mr Gillingham Howard felt that Mr Roe's appalling eye was fixed upon
+him, though he did not venture to look in the direction of where he
+sat.
+
+"Mr Tinter will tell you at once which are the copies. You can do
+that, Mr Tinter?"
+
+"I can guess at the age of the picture, and the name of the painter,
+if he is a master," replied Mr Tinter.
+
+"Oh! but Mr Howard has some pictures that Sir Thomas Lawrence said
+were the finest in Europe. Didn't he say so, Mr Howard?"
+
+"Why, ma'am--I think--at least, so I understood him. Didn't Sir Thomas
+Lawrence praise some of my pictures, aunt?"
+
+"I really don't remember," said Miss Susannah, looking more at Mr Roe
+than at her nephew.
+
+"Oh, I thought you told us last time we dined here, that Sir Thomas
+stayed with you weeks at a time, and copied five or six of them
+himself."
+
+"P'r'aps I knows more of them family portraits," said Mr Roe with a
+wilful exaggeration of accent and magnanimous contempt of
+grammar--"than e'er a one on ye."
+
+All eyes were immediately directed to the old man. Mrs Rayleigh, who
+was a fine lady, and had never seen so queer a specimen of a critic as
+Mr Roe, was a little alarmed at his uncouth pronunciation. And Mr
+Gillingham Howard made a feeble and unsuccessful effort to deaden the
+effect of his remarks.
+
+"My friend is a remarkably good judge of the fine arts, but quite a
+character. An amazing humourist, and very much given to quizzing.
+You'll hear what fun he'll make of us all."
+
+"Who is he?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh, in the same confidential whisper.
+
+"A person who has grown very rich in some sort of trade. He was a
+protege of a relation of mine."
+
+"And you bear with his eccentricities in hopes of his succession?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I minds the getting of the whole lot on 'em. I can give you the
+birth, parentage, and edication, of every one on 'em."
+
+"Of the pictures, sir?" enquired Mr Tinter, taking out his note-book.
+"I shall be delighted with any information."
+
+"But where is the gallery, Mr Howard?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh.
+
+"Why, madam, many of the pictures--in fact, all the best of them are
+in London at the cleaner's; but in the passage to the Conservatory
+there are some remaining, but the place is dark. I hope you'll rather
+look at them some other time."
+
+"Now's the best," said Mr Roe, starting up. "Let's see the family
+picters, Gus."
+
+Mr Howard was forced by the entreaties of all the party, and led the
+way to the passage where his pictures were hung, followed by Mrs
+Rayleigh and her two daughters, and Mr Tinter, Mr Roe, and Fanny, and
+Aunt Susannah.
+
+"That seems a portrait of Queen Anne's time," said Mr Tinter, pointing
+to a much bewigged old gentleman in an antique frame. "Pray, what is
+its history?"
+
+"Isn't that your grandfather's uncle, the general who won the battle
+of Ramillies against Marlborough's orders?" enquired Mrs Rayleigh. "Do
+tell Mr Tinter all about it."
+
+"I reminds all about it," said Mr Roe, before the agonized Mr Howard
+could make any reply. "One of our agents failed, and we seized on his
+furniture, and old Bill Wilkins took this'n 'cause of the oak frame.
+He was a grocer in the Boro', and his name was--was--but I forgets his
+name."
+
+"Who took the furniture?" asked Mr Tinter, "and who was a grocer in
+the Boro'?"
+
+"The man as had that picter, and a sight more besides. There's one on
+'em; the young 'oman a holding an orange in her hand, and a parrot on
+her shoulder."
+
+"I thought that was the Saccharissa, Mr Howard, that had been in your
+family ever since the time of Waller."
+
+"I told you he was a wag," said Mr Howard, in the last desperate
+struggle to avoid detection.
+
+"But who is he? He is a very impudent old man to be so free."
+
+"He is rich; the succession, you know," replied the gentleman with a
+forced laugh; but before he could mumble any thing more, the party
+turned round one of the corners of the passage, and heard voices in
+earnest talk.
+
+"How can I refuse, when you tell me your happiness depends on it?"
+came distinctly to the ears of all, in the sharp clear tones of Miss
+Arabel.
+
+"You are too good," replied a voice, which Fanny Smith immediately
+recognized as that of Charles. "You will make my whole family proud
+and happy when they hear you have consented."
+
+"But won't you think I yield too soon; and without having asked papa's
+consent?"
+
+"Ah--yes--I don't know how he will bear the loss of such a treasure.
+But he will reconcile himself to the want of it when he knows how
+happy it makes another in the possession. Say, when may I call it
+mine?"
+
+"Oh, now--this moment--any time"--said Arabel, who had heard a noise
+in the passage, and concluded it was aunt Susannah enacting the part
+of a witness.
+
+"Again I thank you!"--exclaimed Charles. "I will take it in my arms
+this instant, and carry it down the shrubbery walk to Mr Roe's."
+
+"As you please--and wherever you like," said Arabel, throwing herself
+upon his shoulder. "I'm your's."
+
+"Why, what in the name of wonder is all this here?" cried Mr Roe,
+hurrying on, and pouncing on the pair. "Are you making love to this
+here gal in the very presence of Fanny Smith?"
+
+"I, sir?"--said Charles, astonished at his situation, and still
+supporting Miss Arabel, who pretended to be in a faint. "I asked this
+young lady to show me the picture of my father's mother; and, to my
+great delight, she said she would give it me; and, when I expressed my
+gratitude, she flung herself upon my shoulder, and said she would give
+me herself."
+
+"And was it not me you meant by the treasure you talked of?" said Miss
+Arabel, starting up.
+
+"No, madam. 'Twas my grandmother's portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds."
+
+"Now, that's all right," said Mr Roe. "This young gentleman is the one
+I talked of, Gus--that I wants to buy this house for. I don't think
+your daughter will care to give it up to poor Charles that she took
+such a fancy to"----
+
+"They seem attached, sir," replied Mr Howard. "And if they like to
+marry"----
+
+"Bah!--he's to be married next week to my little grandchild, Fanny
+Smith, and we'll include the pictures in the purchase-money, for one
+of them is a portrait that was left by mistake when Bill Wilkins
+bought the hall, and he would never give it back to the real owners.
+But, now that Charles Walrond is to be my grandson, I'll take good
+care he recovers his grandmother's likeness. Come--shall I go on and
+give these ladies the facts of some of your other stories, or will you
+close with my terms at once?"
+
+Mr Gillingham Howard did not take long to decide, and a very short
+time saw Surbridge Hall once more in the ancient line; and old Mr Roe,
+in relating the means he used to expel the vainglorious descendant of
+his partner, generally concluded with the moral, if not the words of
+Shakspeare--"Men's pleasant vices make whips to scourge them."
+
+
+
+
+VANITIES IN VERSE.
+
+BY B. SIMMONS.
+
+
+  LETTERS OF THE DEAD.
+
+  TO LIVIA.
+
+  I.
+
+  How few the moons since last, immersed
+    In thoughts of fev'rish, worldly care,
+  My casket's heap'd contents reversed,
+    I sought some scroll I wanted there;
+  How died at once abstraction's air--
+    How fix'd my frame, as by a spell,
+  When on THY lines, so slight, so fair,
+    My hurrying glance arrested fell!
+
+
+  II.
+
+  My soul that instant saw thee far
+    Sit in thy crown of bridal flowers,
+  And with Another watch the star
+    We watch'd in vanish'd vesper hours.
+  And as I paced the lonely room,
+    I wonder'd how that holy ray
+  Could with its light a world illume
+    So fill'd with falsehood and decay.
+
+
+  III.
+
+  Once more--above those slender lines
+    I bend me with suspended breath--
+  The hand that traced them now reclines
+    Clasp'd in th' unclosing hand of Death.
+  The worm hath made that brow its own
+    Where Love his wreath so lately set;
+  And in this heart survive alone
+    Forgiveness--pity--and regret.
+
+
+  IV.
+
+  'Twas 'mid the theatre's gay throng--
+    Life's loveliest colours round me spread--
+  That mid the pauses of a song,
+    I caught the careless "_She is dead!_"
+  The gaudy crowd--thy sudden grave--
+    I shrank in that contrasting shock,
+  Like midnight Listener by the wave,
+    When splits some bark upon the rock.
+
+
+  V.
+
+  This EARLY DEATH--within its pale
+    Sad air each angry feeling fades--
+  An evening haze, whose tender veil
+    The landscape's harsher features shades.
+  Ah, Scornful One--thy bier's white hue
+    Stole every earth-stain from thy cheek,
+  And left thee all to MEMORY'S view
+    That HOPE once dared in thee to seek.
+
+
+  1836.
+
+
+
+PARTING PRECEPTS.
+
+  I.
+
+  How graceful was that Grecian creed
+    Which taught that tongues, of old,
+  Dwelt in the mountain and the mead,
+    And where the torrent roll'd,
+  And that in times of sacred fear,
+    With sweet mysterious moans,
+  They spoke aloud, while some pale Seer
+    Interpreted their tones.[21]
+
+
+  II.
+
+  And, LADY, why should we not deem
+    That in each echoing hill,
+  And sounding wood, and dancing stream,
+    A language lingers still?
+  No lovelier scenes round DELPHI spread
+    Than round thee stretch divine;
+  Nor Grecian maid bent brighter head
+    By haunted stream than thine.
+
+
+  III.
+
+   Then fancy thus that to thine ear,
+    While dies the autumn day,
+  The VOICES of THE WOODLANDS bear
+    This tributary lay.
+  Soft winds that steal from where the moon
+    Brightens the mountain spring,
+  Shall blend with Mulla's[22] distant tune,
+    And these the words they sing:--
+
+
+  1.
+
+  "Thou'st shared our thousand harmonies;
+    _At morn_ thy sleep we stirr'd
+  With sounds from many a balmy breeze,
+    And many a jocund bird;
+  And far from Us, when pleasure's lure
+    Around thy steps shall be,
+  Ah, keep thy soul as freshly pure
+    As We came pure to thee!
+
+
+  2.
+
+  "_At noon_, beneath September's heat,
+    Was it not sweet to feel,
+  Through shadowy grasses at thy feet,
+    Our silver waters steal?
+  Sparklingly clear, as now the truth
+    Seems in thy glance to glow;
+  So may, through worldly crowds, thy youth
+    A stainless current flow.
+
+
+  3.
+
+  "_At eve_, our hills for thee detain'd
+    The sun's departure bright.
+  He sank--how long our woods were stain'd
+    For thee with rosy light!
+  The worth, the warmth, the peace serene,
+    Thou'st known our vales among,
+  Say, shall they be reflected seen
+    Upon thy heart as long?
+
+
+  4.
+
+  "Morn, noon, and eve--bird, beam, and breeze,
+    Here blent to bless thy day;
+  May portion of their memories
+    Be ever round thy way!
+  Sweet waters for the weary Bark,
+    Through parching seas that sails;
+  Friends may grow false and fortune dark,
+    But NATURE never fails."
+
+
+
+
+COLERIDGE AND OPIUM-EATING.[23]
+
+
+What is the deadest of things earthly? It is, says the world, ever
+forward and rash--"a door-nail!" But the world is wrong. There is a
+thing deader than a door-nail, viz., Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I.
+Dead, more dead, most dead, is Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I.; and this
+upon more arguments than one. The book has clearly not completed its
+elementary act of respiration; the _systole_ of Vol. I. is absolutely
+useless and lost without the _diastole_ of that Vol. II., which is
+never to exist. That is one argument, and perhaps this second argument
+is stronger. Gillman's Coleridge, Vol. I., deals rashly, unjustly, and
+almost maliciously, with some of our own particular friends; and yet,
+until late in this summer, _Anno Domini_ 1844, we--that is, neither
+ourselves nor our friends--ever heard of its existence. Now a sloth,
+even without the benefit of Mr Waterton's evidence to his character,
+will travel faster than that. But malice, which travels fastest of all
+things, must be dead and cold at starting, when it can thus have
+lingered in the rear for six years; and therefore, though the world
+was so far right, that people _do_ say, "Dead as a door-nail," yet,
+henceforwards, the weakest of these people will see the propriety of
+saying--"Dead as Gillman's Coleridge."
+
+The reader of experience, on sliding over the surface of this opening
+paragraph, begins to think there's mischief singing in the upper air.
+No, reader--not at all. We never were cooler in our days. And this we
+protest, that, were it not for the excellence of the subject,
+_Coleridge and Opium-Eating_, Mr Gillman would have been dismissed by
+us unnoticed. Indeed, we not only forgive Mr Gillman, but we have a
+kindness for him; and on this account, that he was good, he was
+generous, he was most forbearing, through twenty years, to poor
+Coleridge, when thrown upon his hospitality. An excellent thing
+_that_, Mr Gillman, and one sufficient to blot out a world of libels
+on ourselves! But still, noticing the theme suggested by this unhappy
+Vol. I., we are forced at times to notice its author. Nor is this to
+be regretted. We remember a line of Horace never yet properly
+translated, viz:--
+
+  "Nec scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello."
+
+The true translation of which, as we assure the unlearned reader,
+is--"Nor must you pursue with the horrid knout of Christopher that man
+who merits only a switching." Very true. We protest against all
+attempts to invoke the exterminating knout; for _that_ sends a man to
+the hospital for two months; but you see that the same judicious poet,
+who dissuades an appeal to the knout, indirectly recommends the
+switch, which, indeed, is rather pleasant than otherwise, amiably
+playful in some of its little caprices, and in its worst, suggesting
+only a pennyworth of diachylon.
+
+We begin by professing, with hearty sincerity, our fervent admiration
+of the extraordinary man who furnishes the theme for Mr Gillman's
+_coup-d'essai_ in biography. He was, in a literary sense, our
+brother--for he also was amongst the contributors to _Blackwood_--and
+will, we presume, take his station in that Blackwood gallery of
+portraits, which, in a century hence, will possess more interest for
+intellectual Europe than any merely martial series of portraits, or
+any gallery of statesmen assembled in congress, except as regards one
+or two leaders; for defunct major-generals, and secondary
+diplomatists, when their date is past, awake no more emotion than last
+year's advertisements, or obsolete directories; whereas those who, in
+a stormy age, have swept the harps of passion, of genial wit, or of
+the wrestling and gladiatorial reason, become more interesting to men
+when they can no longer be seen as bodily agents, than even in the
+middle chorus of that intellectual music over which, living, they
+presided.
+
+Of this great camp Coleridge was a leader, and fought amongst the
+_primipili_; yet, comparatively, he is still unknown. Heavy, indeed,
+are the arrears still due to philosophic curiosity on the real merits,
+and on the separate merits, of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge as a
+poet--Coleridge as a philosopher! How extensive are those questions,
+if those were all! and upon neither question have we yet any
+investigation--such as, by compass of views, by research, or even by
+earnestness of sympathy with the subject, can, or ought to satisfy, a
+philosophic demand. Blind is that man who can persuade himself that
+the interest in Coleridge, taken as a total object, is becoming an
+obsolete interest. We are of opinion that even Milton, now viewed from
+a distance of two centuries, is still inadequately judged or
+appreciated in his character of poet, of patriot and partisan, or,
+finally, in his character of accomplished scholar. But, if so, how
+much less can it be pretended that satisfaction has been rendered to
+the claims of Coleridge? for, upon Milton, libraries have been
+written. There has been time for the malice of men, for the jealousy
+of men, for the enthusiasm, the scepticism, the adoring admiration of
+men, to expand themselves! There has been room for a Bentley, for an
+Addison, for a Johnson, for a wicked Lauder, for an avenging Douglas,
+for an idolizing Chateaubriand; and yet, after all, little enough has
+been done towards any comprehensive estimate of the mighty being
+concerned. Piles of materials have been gathered to the ground; but,
+for the monument which should have risen from these materials, neither
+the first stone has been laid, nor has a qualified architect yet
+presented his credentials. On the other hand, upon Coleridge little,
+comparatively, has yet been written, whilst the separate characters on
+which the judgment is awaited, are more by one than those which Milton
+sustained. Coleridge, also, is a poet; Coleridge, also, was mixed up
+with the fervent politics of his age--an age how memorably reflecting
+the revolutionary agitations of Milton's age ________ridge, also, was
+an extensive and brilliant scholar. Whatever might be the separate
+proportions of the two men in each particular department of the three
+here noticed, think as the reader will upon that point, sure we are
+that either subject is ample enough to make a strain upon the amplest
+faculties. How alarming, therefore, for any _honest_ critic, who
+should undertake this later subject of Coleridge, to recollect that,
+after pursuing him through a zodiac of splendours corresponding to
+those of Milton in kind, however different in degree--after weighing
+him as a poet, as a philosophic politician, as a scholar, he will have
+to wheel after him into another orbit, into the unfathomable _nimbus_
+of transcendental metaphysics. Weigh him the critic must in the golden
+balance of philosophy the most abstruse--a balance which even itself
+requires weighing previously, or he will have done nothing that can be
+received for an estimate of the composite Coleridge. This astonishing
+man, be it again remembered, besides being an exquisite poet, a
+profound political speculator, a philosophic student of literature
+through all its chambers and recesses, was also a circumnavigator on
+the most pathless waters of scholasticism and metaphysics. He had
+sounded, without guiding charts, the secret deeps of Proclus and
+Plotinus; he had laid down buoys on the twilight, or moonlight, ocean
+of Jacob Boehmen;[24] he had cruised over the broad Atlantic of Kant
+and Schelling, of Fichte and Oken. Where is the man who shall be equal
+to these things?
+
+We at least make no such adventurous effort; or, if ever we should
+presume to do so, not at present. Here we design only to make a
+coasting voyage of survey round the headlands and most conspicuous
+sea-marks of our subject, as they are brought forward by Mr Gillman,
+or collaterally suggested by our own reflections; and especially we
+wish to say a word or two on Coleridge as an opium-eater.
+
+Naturally the first point to which we direct our attention, is the
+history and personal relations of Coleridge. Living with Mr Gillman
+for nineteen years as a domesticated friend, Coleridge ought to have
+been known intimately. And it is reasonable to expect, from so much
+intercourse, some additions to our slender knowledge of Coleridge's
+adventures, (if we may use so coarse a word,) and of the secret
+springs at work in those early struggles of Coleridge at Cambridge,
+London, Bristol, which have been rudely told to the world, and
+repeatedly told, as showy romances, but never rationally explained.
+
+The anecdotes, however, which Mr Gillman has added to the personal
+history of Coleridge, are as little advantageous to the effect of his
+own book as they are to the interest of the memorable character which
+he seeks to illustrate. Always they are told without grace, and
+generally are suspicious in their details. Mr Gillman we believe to be
+too upright a man for countenancing any untruth. He has been deceived.
+For example, will any man believe this? A certain "excellent
+equestrian" falling in with Coleridge on horseback, thus accosted
+him--"Pray, sir, did you meet a tailor along the road?" "_A tailor_!"
+answered Coleridge; "_I did meet a person answering such a
+description, who told me he had dropped his goose; that if I rode a
+little further I should find it; and I guess he must have meant you_."
+In Joe Miller this story would read, perhaps, sufferably. Joe has a
+privilege; and we do not look too narrowly into the mouth of a
+Joe-Millerism. But Mr Gillman, writing the life of a philosopher, and
+no jest-book, is under a different law of decorum. That retort,
+however, which silences the jester, it may seem, must be a good one.
+And we are desired to believe that, in this case, the baffled
+assailant rode off in a spirit of benign candour, saying aloud to
+himself, like the excellent philosopher the he evidently was, "Caught
+a Tartar!"
+
+But another story of a sporting baronet, who was besides a Member of
+Parliament, is much worse, and altogether degrading to Coleridge. This
+gentleman, by way of showing off before a party of ladies, is
+represented as insulting Coleridge by putting questions to him on the
+qualities of his horse, so as to draw the animal's miserable defects
+into public notice, and then closing his display by demanding what he
+would take for the horse "including the rider." The supposed reply of
+Coleridge might seem good to those who understand nothing of true
+dignity; for, as an _impromptu_, it was smart and even caustic. The
+baronet, it seems, was reputed to have been bought by the minister;
+and the reader will at once divine that the retort took advantage of
+that current belief, so as to throw back the sarcasm, by proclaiming
+that neither horse nor rider had a price placarded in the market at
+which any man could become their purchaser. But this was not the
+temper in which Coleridge either did reply, or could have replied.
+Coleridge showed, in the _spirit_ of his manner a profound sensibility
+to the nature of gentleman; and he felt too justly what it became a
+self-respecting person to say, ever to have aped the sort of flashy
+fencing which might seem fine to a theatrical blood.
+
+Another story is self-refuted: "a hired partisan" had come to one of
+Coleridge's political lectures with the express purpose of bringing
+the lecturer into trouble; and most preposterously he laid himself
+open to his own snare by refusing to pay for admission. Spies must be
+poor artists who proceed thus. Upon which Coleridge remarked--"That,
+before the gentleman kicked up a dust, surely he would down with the
+dust." So far the story will not do. But what follows is possible
+enough. The _same_ "hired" gentleman, by way of giving unity to the
+tale, is described as having hissed. Upon this a cry arose of "turn
+him out!" But Coleridge interfered to protect him; he insisted on the
+man's right to hiss if he thought fit; it was legal to hiss; it was
+natural to hiss; "for what is to be expected, gentlemen, when the cool
+waters of reason come in contact with red-hot aristocracy, but a
+hiss?" _Euge!_
+
+Amongst all the anecdotes, however, of this splendid man, often
+trivial, often incoherent, often unauthenticated, there is one which
+strikes us as both true and interesting; and we are grateful to Mr
+Gillman for preserving it. We find it introduced, and partially
+authenticated, by the following sentence from Coleridge
+himself:--"From eight to fourteen I was a playless day-dreamer, a
+_helluo librorum_; my appetite for which was indulged by a singular
+incident. A stranger, who was struck by my conversation, made me free
+of a circulating library in King's Street, Cheapside." The more
+circumstantial explanation of Mr Gillman is this: "The incident indeed
+was singular. Going down the Strand, in one of his day-dreams,
+fancying himself swimming across the Hellespont, thrusting his hands
+before him as in the act of swimming, his hand came in contact with a
+gentleman's pocket. The gentleman seized his hand, turning round, and
+looking at him with some anger--'What! so young, and yet so wicked?'
+at the same time accused him of an attempt to pick his pocket. The
+frightened boy sobbed out his denial of the intention, and explained
+to him how he thought himself Leander swimming across the Hellespont.
+The gentleman was so struck and delighted with the novelty of the
+thing, and with the simplicity and intelligence of the boy, that he
+subscribed, as before stated, to the library; in consequence of which
+Coleridge was further enabled to indulge his love of reading."
+
+We fear that this slovenly narrative is the very perfection of bad
+story-telling. But the story itself is striking, and, by the very
+oddness of the incidents, not likely to have been invented. The
+effect, from the position of the two parties--on the one side, a
+simple child from Devonshire, dreaming in the Strand that he was
+swimming over from Sestos to Abydos, and, on the other, the
+experienced man, dreaming only of this world, its knaves and its
+thieves, but still kind and generous--is beautiful and picturesque.
+_Oh! si sic omnia_!
+
+But the most interesting to us of the _personalities_ connected with
+Coleridge are his feuds and his personal dislikes. Incomprehensible to
+us is the war of extermination which Coleridge made upon the political
+economists. Did Sir James Steuart, in speaking of vine-dressers, (not
+_as_ vine-dressers, but generally as cultivators,) tell his readers,
+that, if such a man simply replaced his own consumption, having no
+surplus whatever or increment for the public capital, he could not be
+considered a useful citizen? Not the beast in the Revelation is held
+up by Coleridge as more hateful to the spirit of truth than the
+Jacobite baronet. And yet we know of an author--viz. one S.T.
+Coleridge--who repeated that same doctrine without finding any evil in
+it. Look at the first part of the _Wallenstein_, where Count Isolani
+having said, "Pooh! we are _all_ his subjects," _i. e._ soldiers,
+(though unproductive labourers,) not less than productive peasants,
+the emperor's envoy replies--"Yet with a difference, general;" and the
+difference implies Sir James's scale, his vine-dresser being the
+equatorial case between the two extremes of the envoy.--Malthus again,
+in his population-book, contends for a mathematic difference between
+animal and vegetable life, in respect to the law of increase, as
+though the first increased by geometrical ratios, the last by
+arithmetical! No proposition more worthy of laughter; since both, when
+permitted to expand, increase by geometrical ratios, and the latter by
+much higher ratios. Whereas, Malthus persuaded himself of his crotchet
+simply by refusing the requisite condition in the vegetable case, and
+granting it in the other. If you take a few grains of wheat, and are
+required to plant all successive generations of their produce in the
+same flower-pot for ever, of course you neutralise its expansion by
+your own act of arbitrary limitation.[25] But so you would do, if you
+tried the case of _animal_ increase by still exterminating all but
+one replacing couple of parents. This is not to try, but merely a
+pretence of trying, one order of powers against another. That was
+folly. But Coleridge combated this idea in a manner so obscure, that
+nobody understood it. And leaving these speculative conundrums, in
+coming to the great practical interests afloat in the Poor Laws,
+Coleridge did so little real work, that he left, as a _res integra_,
+to Dr Alison, the capital argument that legal and _adequate_ provision
+for the poor, whether impotent poor or poor accidentally out of work,
+does not extend pauperism--no, but is the one great resource for
+putting it down. Dr Alison's overwhelming and _experimental_
+manifestations of that truth have prostrated Malthus and his
+generation for ever. This comes of not attending to the Latin
+maxim--"_Hoc_ age"--mind the object before you. Dr Alison, a wise man,
+"_hoc_ egit:" Coleridge "_aliud_ egit." And we see the result. In a
+case which suited him, by interesting his peculiar feeling, Coleridge
+could command
+
+  "Attention full ten times as much as there needs."
+
+But search documents, value evidence, or thresh out bushels of
+statistical tables, Coleridge could not, any more than he could ride
+with Elliot's dragoons.
+
+Another instance of Coleridge's inaptitude for such studies as
+political economy is found in his fancy, by no means "rich and rare,"
+but meagre and trite, that taxes can never injure public prosperity by
+mere excess of quantity; if they injure, we are to conclude that it
+must be by their quality and mode of operation, or by their false
+appropriation, (as, for instance, if they are sent out of the country
+and spent abroad.) Because, says Coleridge, if the taxes are exhaled
+from the country as vapors, back they come in drenching showers.
+Twenty pounds ascend in a Scotch mist to the Chancellor of the
+Exchequer from Leeds; but does it evaporate? Not at all: By return of
+post down comes an order for twenty pounds' worth of Leeds cloth, on
+account of Government, seeing that the poor men of the ----th regiment
+want new gaiters. True; but of this return twenty pounds, not more
+than four will be profit, _i. e._, surplus accruing to the public
+capital; whereas, of the original twenty pounds, every shilling was
+surplus. The same unsound fancy has been many times brought forward;
+often in England, often in France. But it is curious, that its first
+appearance upon any stage was precisely two centuries ago, when as yet
+political economy slept with the pre-Adamites, viz. in the Long
+Parliament. In a quarto volume of the debates during 1644-5, printed
+as an independent work, will be found the same identical doctrine,
+supported very sonorously by the same little love of an illustration
+from the see-saw of mist and rain.
+
+Political economy was not Coleridge's forte. In politics he was
+happier. In mere personal politics, he (like every man when reviewed
+from a station distant by forty years) will often appear to have
+erred; nay, he will be detected and nailed in error. But this is the
+necessity of us all. Keen are the refutations of time. And absolute
+results to posterity are the fatal touchstone of opinions in the past.
+It is undeniable, besides, that Coleridge had strong personal
+antipathies, for instance, to Messrs Pitt and Dundas. Yet _why_, we
+never could understand. We once heard him tell a story upon
+Windermere, to the late Mr Curwen, then M.P. for Workington, which was
+meant, apparently, to account for this feeling. The story amounted to
+this: that, when a freshman at Cambridge, Mr Pitt had wantonly amused
+himself at a dinner party in Trinity, in smashing with filberts
+(discharged in showers like grape-shot) a most costly dessert set of
+cut glass, from which Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued a principle of
+destructiveness in his _cerebellum_. Now, if this dessert set belonged
+to some poor suffering Trinitarian, and not to himself, we are of
+opinion that he was faulty, and ought, upon his own great subsequent
+maxim, to have been coerced into "indemnity for the past, and security
+for the future." But, besides that this glassy _mythus_ belongs to an
+aera fifteen years earlier than Coleridge's, so as to justify a shadow
+of scepticism, we really cannot find, in such an _escapade_ under the
+boiling blood of youth, any sufficient justification of that withering
+malignity towards the name of Pitt, which runs through Coleridge's
+famous _Fire, Famine, and Slaughter_. As this little viperous
+_jeu-d'esprit_ (published anonymously) subsequently became the subject
+of a celebrated after-dinner discussion in London, at which Coleridge
+(_comme de raison_) was the chief speaker, the reader of this
+generation may wish to know the question at issue; and in order to
+judge of _that_, he must know the outline of this devil's squib. The
+writer brings upon the scene three pleasant young ladies, viz. Miss
+Fire, Miss Famine, and Miss Slaughter. "What are you up to? What's the
+row?"--we may suppose to be the introductory question of the poet. And
+the answer of the ladies makes us aware that they are fresh from
+larking in Ireland, and in France. A glorious spree they had; lots of
+fun; and laughter _a discretion_. At all times _gratus puellae risus ab
+angulo_; so that we listen to their little gossip with interest. They
+had been setting men, it seems, by the ears; and the drollest little
+atrocities they do certainly report. Not but we have seen better in
+the Nenagh paper, so far as Ireland is concerned. But the pet little
+joke was in La Vendee. Miss Famine, who is the girl for our money,
+raises the question--whether any of them can tell the name of the
+leader and prompter to these high jinks of hell--if so, let her
+whisper it.
+
+  "Whisper it, sister, so and so,
+  In a dark hint--distinct and low."
+
+Upon which the playful Miss Slaughter replies:--
+
+  "Letters _four_ do form his name.
+      *       *       *       *
+  He came by stealth and unlock'd my den;
+  And I have drunk the blood since then
+  Of thrice three hundred thousand men."
+
+Good: But the sting of the hornet lies in the conclusion. If this
+quadril_i_teral man had done so much for _them_, (though really, we
+think, 6s. 8d. might have settled his claim,) what, says Fire, setting
+her arms a-kimbo, would they do for _him_? Slaughter replies, rather
+crustily, that, as far as a good kicking would go--or (says Famine) a
+little matter of tearing to pieces by the mob--they would be glad to
+take tickets at his benefit. "How, you bitches!" says Fire, "is that
+all?
+
+  "I alone am faithful; I
+  _Cling to him everlastingly_."
+
+The sentiment is diabolical. And the question argued at the London
+dinner-table was--Could the writer have been other than a devil? The
+dinner was at the late excellent Mr Sotheby's, known advantageously in
+those days as the translator of Wieland's _Oberon_. Several of the
+great guns amongst the literary body were present; in particular, Sir
+Walter Scott; and he, we believe, with his usual good-nature, took the
+apologetic side of the dispute. In fact, he was in the secret. Nobody
+else, barring the author, knew at first whose good name was at stake.
+The scene must have been high. The company kicked about the poor
+diabolic writer's head as if it had been a tennis-ball. Coleridge, the
+yet unknown criminal, absolutely perspired and fumed in pleading for
+the defendant; the company demurred; the orator grew urgent; wits
+began to _smoke_ the case, as active verbs; the advocate to _smoke_,
+as a neuter verb; the "fun grew fast and furious;" until at length
+_delinquent arose_, burning tears in his eyes, and confessed to an
+audience, (now bursting with stifled laughter, but whom he supposed to
+be bursting with fiery indignation,) "Lo! I am he that wrote it."
+
+For our own parts, we side with Coleridge. Malice is not always of the
+heart. There is a malice of the understanding and the fancy. Neither
+do we think the worse of a man for having invented the most horrible
+and old-woman-troubling curse that demons ever listened to. We are too
+apt to swear horribly ourselves; and often have we frightened the cat,
+to say nothing of the kettle, by our shocking [far too shocking!]
+oaths.
+
+There were other celebrated men whom Coleridge detested, or seemed to
+detest--Paley, Sir Sidney Smith, Lord Hutchinson, (the last Lord
+Donoughmore,) and Cuvier. To Paley it might seem as if his antipathy
+had been purely philosophic; but we believe that partly it was
+personal; and it tallies with this belief, that, in his earliest
+political tracts, Coleridge charged the archdeacon repeatedly with his
+own joke, as if it had been a serious saying, viz.--"that he could not
+afford to keep a conscience;" such luxuries, like a carriage, for
+instance, being obviously beyond the finances of poor men.
+
+With respect to the philosophic question between the parties, as to
+the grounds of moral election, we hope it is no treason to suggest
+that both were perhaps in error. Against Paley, it occurs at once that
+he himself would not have made consequences the _practical_ test in
+valuing the morality of an act, since these can very seldom be traced
+at all up to the final stages, and in the earliest stages are
+exceedingly different under different circumstances; so that the same
+act, tried by its consequences, would bear a fluctuating appreciation.
+This could not have been Paley's _revised_ meaning. Consequently, had
+he been pressed by opposition, it would have come out, that by _test_
+he meant only _speculative_ test: a very harmless doctrine certainly,
+but useless and impertinent to any purpose of his system. The reader
+may catch our meaning in the following illustration. It is a matter of
+general belief, that happiness, upon the whole, follows in a higher
+degree from constant integrity, than from the closest attention to
+self-interest. Now happiness is one of those consequences which Paley
+meant by final or remotest. But we could never use this idea as an
+exponent of integrity, or interchangeable criterion, because happiness
+cannot be ascertained or appreciated except upon long tracts of time,
+whereas the particular act of integrity depends continually upon the
+election of the moment. No man, therefore, could venture to lay down
+as a rule, Do what makes you happy; use this as your test of actions,
+satisfied that in that case always you will do the thing which is
+right. For he cannot discern independently what _will_ make him happy;
+and he must decide on the spot. The use of the _nexus_ between
+morality and happiness must therefore be inverted; it is not practical
+or prospective, but simply retrospective; and in that form it says no
+more than the good old rules hallowed in every cottage. But this
+furnishes no practical guide for moral election which a man had not,
+before he ever thought of this _nexus_. In the sense in which it is
+true, we need not go to the professor's chair for this maxim; in the
+sense in which it would serve Paley, it is absolutely false.
+
+On the other hand, as against Coleridge, it is certain that many acts
+could be mentioned which are judged to be good or bad only because
+their consequences are known to be so, whilst the great catholic acts
+of life are entirely (and, if we may so phrase it, haughtily)
+independent of consequences. For instance, fidelity to a trust is a
+law of immutable morality subject to no casuistry whatever. You have
+been left executor to a friend--you are to pay over his last legacy to
+X, though a dissolute scoundrel; and you are to give no shilling of it
+to the poor brother of X, though a good man, and a wise man,
+struggling with adversity. You are absolutely excluded from all
+contemplation of results. It was your deceased friend's right to make
+the will; it is yours simply to see it executed. Now, in opposition to
+this primary class of actions stands another, such as the habit of
+intoxication, which are known to be wrong only by observing the
+consequences. If drunkenness did not terminate, after some years, in
+producing bodily weakness, irritability in the temper, and so forth,
+it would _not_ be a vicious act. And accordingly, if a transcendent
+motive should arise in favour of drunkenness, as that it would enable
+you to face a degree of cold, or contagion, else menacing to life, a
+duty would arise, _pro hac vice_, of getting drunk. We had an amiable
+friend who suffered under the infirmity of cowardice; an awful coward
+he was when sober; but, when very drunk, he had courage enough for the
+Seven Champions of Christendom. Therefore, in an emergency, where he
+knew himself suddenly loaded with the responsibility of defending a
+family, we approved highly of his getting drunk. But to violate a
+trust could never become right under any change of circumstances.
+Coleridge, however, altogether overlooked this distinction; which, on
+the other hand, stirring in Paley's mind, but never brought out to
+distinct consciousness, nor ever investigated, nor limited, has
+undermined his system. Perhaps it is not very important how a man
+_theorizes_ upon morality; happily for us all, God has left no man in
+such questions practically to the guidance of his understanding; but
+still, considering that academic bodies _are_ partly instituted for
+the support of speculative truth as well as truth practical, we must
+think it a blot upon the splendour of Oxford and Cambridge that both
+of them, in a Christian land, make Paley the foundation of their
+ethics; the alternative being Aristotle. And, in our mind, though far
+inferior as a moralist to the Stoics, Aristotle is often less a pagan
+than Paley.
+
+Coleridge's dislike to Sir Sidney Smith and the Egyptian Lord
+Hutchinson fell under the category of Martial's case.
+
+  "Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare,
+  Hoc solum novi--non amo te, Sabidi."
+
+Against Lord Hutchinson, we never heard him plead any thing of moment,
+except that he was finically Frenchified in his diction; of which he
+gave this instance--that having occasion to notice a brick wall,
+(which was literally _that_, not more and not less,) when
+reconnoitring the French defences, he called it a _revetement_. And we
+ourselves remember his using the French word _gloriole_ rather
+ostentatiously; that is, when no particular emphasis attached to the
+case. But every man has his foibles; and few, perhaps, are less
+conspicuously annoying than this of Lord Hutchinson's. Sir Sidney's
+crimes were less distinctly revealed to our mind. As to Cuvier,
+Coleridge's hatred of _him_ was more to our taste; for (though quite
+unreasonable, we fear) it took the shape of patriotism. He insisted on
+it, that our British John Hunter was the genuine article, and that
+Cuvier was a humbug. Now, speaking privately to the public, we cannot
+go quite so far as _that_. But, when publicly we address that most
+respectable character, _en grand costume_, we always mean to back
+Coleridge. For we are a horrible John Bull ourselves. As Joseph Hume
+observes, it makes no difference to us--right or wrong, black or
+white--when our countrymen are concerned. And John Hunter,
+notwithstanding he had a bee in his bonnet,[26] was really a great
+man; though it will not follow that Cuvier must, therefore, have been
+a little one. We do not pretend to be acquainted with the tenth part
+of Cuvier's performances; but we suspect that Coleridge's range in
+that respect was not much greater than our own.
+
+Other cases of monomaniac antipathy we might revive from our
+recollections of Coleridge, had we a sufficient motive. But in
+compensation, and by way of redressing the balance, he had many
+strange likings--equally monomaniac--and, unaccountably, he chose to
+exhibit his whimsical partialities by dressing up, as it were, in his
+own clothes, such a set of scarecrows as eye has not beheld. Heavens!
+what an ark of unclean beasts would have been Coleridge's private
+_menagerie_ of departed philosophers, could they all have been trotted
+out in succession! But did the reader feel them to be the awful bores
+which, in fact, they were? No; because Coleridge had blown upon these
+withered anatomies, through the blowpipe of his own creative genius, a
+stream of gas that swelled the tissue of their antediluvian wrinkles,
+forced colour upon their cheeks, and splendour upon their sodden eyes.
+Such a process of ventriloquism never _has_ existed. He spoke by their
+organs. They were the tubes; and he forced through their wooden
+machinery his own Beethoven harmonies.
+
+First came Dr Andrew Bell. We knew him. Was he dull? Is a wooden spoon
+dull? Fishy were his eyes; torpedinous was his manner; and his main
+idea, out of two which he really had, related to the moon--from which
+you infer, perhaps, that he was lunatic. By no means. It was no craze,
+under the influence of the moon, which possessed him; it was an idea
+of mere hostility to the moon. The Madras people, like many others,
+had an idea that she influenced the weather. Subsequently the
+Herschels, senior and junior, systematized this idea; and then the
+wrath of Andrew, previously in a crescent state, actually dilated to a
+plenilunar orb. The Westmoreland people (for at the lakes it was we
+knew him) expounded his condition to us by saying that he was
+"maffled;" which word means "perplexed in the extreme." His wrath did
+not pass into lunacy; it produced simple distraction; an uneasy
+fumbling with the idea; like that of an old superannuated dog who
+longs to worry, but cannot for want of teeth. In this condition you
+will judge that he was rather tedious. And in this condition Coleridge
+took him up. Andrew's other idea, because he _had_ two, related to
+education. Perhaps six-sevenths of that also came from Madras. No
+matter, Coleridge took _that_ up; Southey also; but Southey with his
+usual temperate fervour. Coleridge, on the other hand, found celestial
+marvels both in the scheme and in the man. Then commenced the
+apotheosis of Andrew Bell; and because it happened that his opponent,
+Lancaster, between ourselves, really _had_ stolen his ideas from Bell,
+what between the sad wickedness of Lancaster and the celestial
+transfiguration of Bell, gradually Coleridge heated himself to such an
+extent, that people, when referring to that subject, asked each other:
+"Have you heard Coleridge lecture on _Bel and the Dragon_?"
+
+The next man glorified by Coleridge was John Woolman, the Quaker. Him,
+though we once possessed his works, it cannot be truly affirmed that
+we ever read. Try to read John, we often did; but read John we did
+not. This however, you say, might be our fault, and not John's. Very
+likely. And we have a notion that now, with our wiser thoughts, we
+_should_ read John, if he were here on this table. It is certain that
+he was a good man, and one of the earliest in America, if not in
+Christendom, who lifted up his hand to protest against the
+slave-trade. But still, we suspect, that had John been all that
+Coleridge represented, he would not have repelled us from reading his
+travels in the fearful way that he did. But, again, we beg pardon, and
+entreat the earth of Virginia to lie light upon the remains of John
+Woolman; for he was an Israelite, indeed, in whom there was no guile.
+
+The third person raised to divine honours by Coleridge was Bowyer, the
+master of Christ's Hospital, London--a man whose name rises into the
+nostrils of all who knew him with the gracious odour of a
+tallow-chandler's melting-house upon melting day, and whose memory is
+embalmed in the hearty detestation of all his pupils. Coleridge
+describes this man as a profound critic. Our idea of him is different.
+We are of opinion that Bowyer was the greatest villain of the
+eighteenth century. We may be wrong; but we cannot be _far_ wrong.
+Talk of knouting indeed! which we did at the beginning of this paper
+in the mere playfulness of our hearts--and which the great master of
+the knout, Christopher, who visited men's trespasses like the
+Eumenides, never resorted to but in love for some great idea which had
+been outraged; why, this man knouted his way through life, from bloody
+youth up to truculent old age. Grim idol! whose altars reeked with
+children's blood, and whose dreadful eyes never smiled except as the
+stern goddess of the Thugs smiles, when the sound of human
+lamentations inhabits her ears. So much had the monster fed upon this
+great idea of "flogging," and transmuted it into the very nutriment of
+his heart, that he seems to have conceived the gigantic project of
+flogging all mankind; nay worse, for Mr Gillman, on Coleridge's
+authority, tells us (p. 24) the following anecdote:--
+
+     "'_Sirrah, I'll flog you_,' were words so familiar to him, that
+     on one occasion some _female_ friend of one of the boys," (who
+     had come on an errand of intercession,) "still lingering at the
+     door, after having been abruptly told to go, Bowyer
+     exclaimed--'Bring that woman here, and I'll flog her.'"
+
+
+To this horrid incarnation of whips and scourges, Coleridge, in his
+_Biographia Literaria_, ascribes ideas upon criticism and taste, which
+every man will recognise as the intense peculiarities of Coleridge.
+Could these notions really have belonged to Bowyer, then how do we
+know but he wrote _The Ancient Mariner_? Yet, on consideration, no.
+For even Coleridge admitted that, spite of his fine theorizing upon
+composition, Mr Bowyer did not prosper in the practice. Of which he
+gave us this illustration; and as it is supposed to be the only
+specimen of the Bowyeriana which now survives in this sublunary world,
+we are glad to extend its glory. It is the most curious example extant
+of the melodious in sound:--
+
+  "'Twas thou that smooth'd'st the rough-rugg'd bed of pain."
+
+
+"Smooth'd'st!" Would the teeth of a crocodile not splinter under that
+word? It seems to us as if Mr Bowyer's verses ought to be boiled
+before they can be read. And when he says, '_Twas thou_, what is the
+wretch talking to? Can he be apostrophising the knout? We very much
+fear it. If so then, you see (reader!) that, even when incapacitated
+by illness from operating, he still adores the image of his holy
+scourge, and invokes it as alone able to smooth "his rough-rugg'd
+bed." Oh, thou infernal Bowyer! upon whom even Trollope (_History of
+Christ's Hospital_) charges "a discipline _tinctured_ with more than
+due severity;"--can there be any partners found for thee in a
+quadrille, except Draco, the bloody lawgiver, Bishop Bonner, and Mrs
+Brownrigg?
+
+The next pet was Sir Alexander Ball. Concerning Bowyer, Coleridge did
+not talk much, but chiefly wrote; concerning Bell, he did not write
+much, but chiefly talked. Concerning Ball, however, he both wrote and
+talked. It was in vain to muse upon any plan for having Ball
+blackballed, or for rebelling against Bell. Think of a man, who had
+fallen into one pit called Bell, secondly falling into another pit
+called Ball. This was too much. We were obliged to quote poetry
+against them:--
+
+  "Letters four do form his name;
+  He came by stealth and unlock'd my den;
+  And the nightmare I have felt since then
+  Of thrice three hundred thousand men."
+
+Not that we insinuate any disrespect to Sir Alexander Ball. He was
+about the foremost, we believe, in all good qualities, amongst
+Nelson's admirable captains at the Nile. He commanded a seventy-four
+most effectually in that battle; he governed Malta as well as Sancho
+governed Barataria; and he was a true practical philosopher--as,
+indeed, was Sancho. But still, by all that we could ever learn, Sir
+Alexander had no taste for the abstract upon any subject; and would
+have read, as mere delirious wanderings, those philosophic opinions
+which Coleridge fastened like wings upon his respectable, but
+astounded, shoulders.
+
+We really beg pardon for having laughed a little at these crazes of
+Coleridge. But laugh we did, of mere necessity, in those days, at Bell
+and Ball, whenever we did not groan. And, as the same precise
+alternative offered itself now, viz., that, in recalling the case, we
+must reverberate either the groaning or the laughter, we presumed the
+reader would vote for the last. Coleridge, we are well convinced, owed
+all these wandering and exaggerated estimates of men--these diseased
+impulses, that, like the _mirage_, showed lakes and fountains where
+in reality there were only arid deserts, to the derangements worked by
+opium. But now, for the sake of change, let us pass to another topic.
+Suppose we say a word or two on Coleridge's accomplishments as a
+scholar. We are not going to enter on so large a field as that of his
+scholarship in connexion with his philosophic labours, scholarship in
+the result; not this, but scholarship in the means and machinery,
+range of _verbal_ scholarship, is what we propose for a moment's
+review.
+
+For instance, what sort of a German scholar was Coleridge? We dare say
+that, because in his version of the _Wallenstein_ there are some
+inaccuracies, those who may have noticed them will hold him cheap in
+this particular pretension. But, to a certain degree, they will be
+wrong. Coleridge was not _very_ accurate in any thing but in the use
+of logic. All his philological attainments were imperfect. He did not
+talk German; or so obscurely--and, if he attempted to speak fast, so
+erroneously--that in his second sentence, when conversing with a
+German lady of rank, he contrived to assure her that in his humble
+opinion she was a ----. Hard it is to fill up the hiatus decorously;
+but, in fact, the word very coarsely expressed that she was no better
+than she should be. Which reminds us of a parallel misadventure to a
+German, whose colloquial English had been equally neglected. Having
+obtained an interview with an English lady, he opened his business
+(whatever it might be) thus--"High-born madam, since your husband have
+kicked de bucket"---- "Sir!" interrupted the lady, astonished and
+displeased. "Oh, pardon!--nine, ten tousand pardon! Now, I make new
+beginning--quite oder beginning. Madam, since your husband have cut
+his stick"---- It may be supposed that this did not mend matters; and,
+reading that in the lady's countenance, the German drew out an octavo
+dictionary, and said, perspiring with shame at having a second time
+missed fire,--"Madam, since your husband have gone to kingdom
+come"---- This he said beseechingly; but the lady was past
+propitiation by this time, and rapidly moved towards the door. Things
+had now reached a crisis; and, if something were not done quickly, the
+game was up. Now, therefore, taking a last hurried look at his
+dictionary, the German flew after the lady, crying out in a voice of
+despair--"Madam, since your husband, your most respected husband, have
+hopped de twig"---- This was his sheet-anchor; and, as this also _came
+home_, of course the poor man was totally wrecked. It turned out that
+the dictionary he had used (Arnold's, we think,)--a work of a hundred
+years back, and, from mere ignorance, giving slang translations from
+Tom Brown, L'Estrange, and other jocular writers--had put down the
+verb _sterben_ (_to die_) with the following worshipful series of
+equivalents--1. To kick the bucket; 2. To cut one's stick; 3. To go to
+kingdom come; 4. To hop the twig.
+
+But, though Coleridge did not pretend to any fluent command of
+conversational German, he read it with great ease. His knowledge of
+German literature was, indeed, too much limited by his rare
+opportunities for commanding any thing like a well-mounted library.
+And particularly it surprised us that Coleridge knew little or nothing
+of John Paul (Richter.) But his acquaintance with the German
+philosophic masters was extensive. And his valuation of many
+individual German words or phrases was delicate and sometimes
+profound.
+
+As a Grecian, Coleridge must be estimated with a reference to the
+state and standard of Greek literature at that time and in this
+country. Porson had not yet raised our ideal. The earliest laurels of
+Coleridge were gathered, however, in that field. Yet no man will, at
+this day, pretend that the Greek of his prize ode is sufferable.
+Neither did Coleridge ever become an accurate Grecian in later times,
+when better models of scholarship, and better aids to scholarship, had
+begun to multiply. But still we must assert this point of superiority
+for Coleridge, that, whilst he never was what may be called a
+well-mounted scholar in any department of verbal scholarship, he yet
+displayed sometimes a brilliancy of conjectural sagacity, and a
+felicity of philosophic investigation, even in this path, such as
+better scholars do not often attain, and of a kind which cannot be
+learned from books. But, as respects his accuracy, again we must
+recall to the reader the state of Greek literature in England during
+Coleridge's youth; and, in all equity, as a means of placing Coleridge
+in the balances, specifically we must recall the state of Greek
+metrical composition at that period.
+
+To measure the condition of Greek literature even in Cambridge, about
+the initial period of Coleridge, we need only look back to the several
+translations of Gray's _Elegy_ by three (if not four) of the reverend
+gentlemen at that time attached to Eton College. Mathias, no very
+great scholar himself in this particular field, made himself merry, in
+his _Pursuits of Literature_, with these Eton translations. In that he
+was right. But he was _not_ right in praising a contemporary
+translation by Cook, who (we believe) was the immediate predecessor of
+Porson in the Greek chair. As a specimen of this translation,[27] we
+cite one stanza; and we cannot be supposed to select unfairly, because
+it is the stanza which Mathias praises in extravagant terms. "Here,"
+says he, "Gray, Cook, and nature, do seem to contend for the mastery."
+The English quatrain must be familiar to every body:--
+
+  "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
+    And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
+  Await alike the inevitable hour;
+    The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
+
+
+And the following, we believe, though quoting from a thirty-three
+years' recollection of it, is the exact Greek version of Cook:--
+
+    Ha charis eugeneon, charis ha basileidos archas,
+    Dora tuches chrusees, Aphrodites kala ta dora,
+    Panth' hama tauta tethneke, kai eiden morsimon hamar;
+    Heroon kle' olole, kai ocheto xunon es Aden.
+
+
+Now really these verses, by force of a little mosaic tesselation from
+genuine Greek sources, pass fluently over the tongue; but can they be
+considered other than a _cento_? Swarms of English schoolboys, at this
+day, would not feel very proud to adopt them. In fact, we remember (at
+a period say twelve years later than this) some iambic verses, which
+were really composed by a boy, viz. son of Dr Prettyman, (afterwards
+Tomline,) bishop of Winchester, and, in earlier times, private tutor
+to Mr Pitt; they were published by Middleton, first bishop of
+Calcutta, in the preface to his work on the Greek article; and for
+racy idiomatic Greek, self-originated, and not a mere mocking-bird's
+iteration of alien notes, are so much superior to all the attempts of
+these sexagenarian doctors, as distinctly to mark the growth of a new
+era and a new generation in this difficult accomplishment, within the
+first decennium of this century. It is singular that only one blemish
+is suggested by any of the contemporary critics in Dr Cook's verses,
+viz. in the word xunon, for which this critic proposes to substitute
+ooinon, to prevent, as he observes, the last syllable of ocheto from
+being lengthened by the x. Such considerations as these are necessary
+to the _trutinae castigatio_, before we can value Coleridge's place on
+the scale of his own day; which day, _quoad hoc_, be it remembered,
+was 1790.
+
+As to French, Coleridge read it with too little freedom to find
+pleasure in French literature. Accordingly, we never recollect his
+referring for any purpose, either of argument or illustration, to a
+French classic. Latin, from his regular scholastic training, naturally
+he read with a scholar's fluency; and indeed, he read constantly in
+authors, such as Petrarch, Erasmus, Calvin, &c., whom he could not
+then have found in translations. But Coleridge had not cultivated an
+acquaintance with the delicacies of classic Latinity. And it is
+remarkable that Wordsworth, educated most negligently at Hawkshead
+school, subsequently by reading the lyric poetry of Horace, simply for
+his own delight as a student of composition, made himself a master of
+Latinity in its most difficult form; whilst Coleridge, trained
+regularly in a great Southern school, never carried his Latin to any
+classical polish.
+
+There is another accomplishment of Coleridge's, less broadly open to
+the judgment of this generation, and not at all of the next--viz. his
+splendid art of conversation, on which it will be interesting to say a
+word. Ten years ago, when the music of this rare performance had not
+yet ceased to vibrate in men's ears, what a sensation was gathering
+amongst the educated classes on this particular subject! What a tumult
+of anxiety prevailed to "hear Mr Coleridge"--or even to talk with a
+man who _had_ heard him! Had he lived till this day, not Paganini
+would have been so much sought after. That sensation is now decaying;
+because a new generation has emerged during the ten years since his
+death. But many still remain whose sympathy (whether of curiosity in
+those who did _not_ know him, or of admiration in those who _did_)
+still reflects as in a mirror the great stir upon this subject which
+then was moving in the world. To these, if they should enquire for the
+great distinguishing principle of Coleridge's conversation, we might
+say that it was the power of vast combination "in linked sweetness
+long drawn out." He gathered into focal concentration the largest body
+of objects, _apparently_ disconnected, that any man ever yet, by any
+magic, could assemble, or, _having_ assembled, could manage. His great
+fault was, that, by not opening sufficient spaces for reply or
+suggestion, or collateral notice, he not only narrowed his own field,
+but he grievously injured the final impression. For when men's minds
+are purely passive, when they are not allowed to re-act, then it is
+that they collapse most, and that their sense of what is said must
+ever be feeblest. Doubtless there must have been great conversational
+masters elsewhere, and at many periods; but in this lay Coleridge's
+characteristic advantage, that he was a great natural power, and also
+a great artist. He was a power in the art, and he carried a new art
+into the power.
+
+But now, finally--having left ourselves little room for more--one or
+two words on Coleridge as an opium-eater.
+
+We have not often read a sentence falling from a wise man with
+astonishment so profound, as that particular one in a letter of
+Coleridge's to Mr Gillman, which speaks of the effort to wean
+one's-self from opium as a trivial task. There are, we believe,
+several such passages. But we refer to that one in particular which
+assumes that a single "week" will suffice for the whole process of so
+mighty a revolution. Is indeed leviathan _so_ tamed? In that case the
+quarantine of the opium-eater might be finished within Coleridge's
+time, and with Coleridge's romantic ease. But mark the contradictions
+of this extraordinary man. Not long ago we were domesticated with a
+venerable rustic, strongheaded, but incurably obstinate in his
+prejudices, who treated the whole body of medical men as ignorant
+pretenders, knowing absolutely nothing of the system which they
+professed to superintend. This, you will remark, is no very singular
+case. No; nor, as we believe, is the antagonist case of ascribing to
+such men magical powers. Nor, what is worse still, the co-existence of
+both cases in the same mind, as in fact happened here. For this same
+obstinate friend of ours, who treated all medical pretensions as the
+mere jest of the universe, every third day was exacting from his own
+medical attendants some exquisite _tour-de-force_, as that they should
+know or should do something, which, if they _had_ known or done, all
+men would have suspected them reasonably of magic. He rated the whole
+medical body as infants; and yet what he exacted from them every third
+day as a matter of course, virtually presumed them to be the only
+giants within the whole range of science. Parallel and equal is the
+contradiction of Coleridge. He speaks of opium excess, his own excess,
+we mean--the excess of twenty-five years--as a thing to be laid aside
+easily and for ever within seven days; and yet, on the other hand, he
+describes it pathetically, sometimes with a frantic pathos, as the
+scourge, the curse, the one almighty blight which had desolated his
+life.
+
+This shocking contradiction we need not press. All readers will see
+_that_. But some will ask--was Mr Coleridge right in either view?
+Being so atrociously wrong in the first notion, (viz. that the opium
+of twenty-five years was a thing easily to be forsworn,) where a child
+could know that he was wrong, was he even altogether right, secondly,
+in believing that his own life, root and branch, had been withered by
+opium? For it will not follow, because, with a relation to happiness
+and tranquillity, a man may have found opium his curse, that
+therefore, as a creature of energies and great purposes, he must have
+been the wreck which he seems to suppose. Opium gives and takes away.
+It defeats the _steady_ habit of exertion, but it creates spasms of
+irregular exertion; it ruins the natural power of life, but it
+developes preternatural paroxysms of intermitting power.
+
+Let us ask of any man who holds that not Coleridge himself but the
+world, as interested in Coleridge's usefulness, has suffered by his
+addiction to opium; whether he is aware of the way in which opium
+affected Coleridge; and secondly, whether he is aware of the actual
+contributions to literature--how large they were--which Coleridge made
+_in spite_ of opium. All who were intimate with Coleridge must
+remember the fits of genial animation which were created continually
+in his manner and in his buoyancy of thought by a recent or by an
+_extra_ dose of the omnipotent drug. A lady, who knew nothing
+experimentally of opium, once told us, that she "could tell when Mr
+Coleridge had taken too much opium by his shining countenance." She
+was right; we know that mark of opium excesses well, and the cause of
+it; or at least we believe the cause to lie in the quickening of the
+insensible perspiration which accumulates and glistens on the face. Be
+that as it may, a criterion it was that could not deceive us as to the
+condition of Coleridge. And uniformly in that condition he made his
+most effective intellectual displays. It is true that he might not be
+happy under this fiery animation, and we fully believe that he was
+not. Nobody is happy under laudanum except for a very short term of
+years. But in what way did that operate upon his exertions as a
+writer? We are of opinion that it killed Coleridge as a poet. "The
+harp of Quantock" was silenced for ever by the torment of opium. But
+proportionably it roused and stung by misery his metaphysical
+instincts into more spasmodic life. Poetry can flourish only in the
+atmosphere of happiness. But subtle and perplexed investigations of
+difficult problems are amongst the commonest resources for beguiling
+the sense of misery. And for this we have the direct authority of
+Coleridge himself speculating on his own case. In the beautiful though
+unequal ode entitled _Dejection_, stanza six, occurs the following
+passage:
+
+    "For not to think of what I needs must feel,
+    But to be still and patient all I can;
+    _And haply by abstruse research to steal
+    From my own nature all the natural man_--
+    This was my sole resource, my only plan;
+  Till that, which suits a part, infects the whole,
+  And now is almost grown the habit of my soul."
+
+
+Considering the exquisite quality of some poems which Coleridge has
+composed, nobody can grieve (or _has_ grieved) more than ourselves, at
+seeing so beautiful a fountain choked up with weeds. But had Coleridge
+been a happier man, it is our fixed belief that we should have had far
+less of his philosophy, and perhaps, but not certainly, might have had
+more of his general literature. In the estimate of the public,
+doubtless, _that_ will seem a bad exchange. Every man to his taste.
+Meantime, what we wish to show is, that the loss was not absolute, but
+merely relative.
+
+It is urged, however, that, even on his philosophic speculations,
+opium operated unfavourably in one respect, by often causing him to
+leave them unfinished. This is true. Whenever Coleridge (being highly
+charged, or saturated, with opium) had written with distempered
+vigour upon any question, there occurred soon after a recoil of
+intense disgust, not from his own paper only, but even from the
+subject. All opium-eaters are tainted with the infirmity of leaving
+works unfinished, and suffering reactions of disgust. But Coleridge
+taxed himself with that infirmity in verse before he could at all have
+commenced opium-eating. Besides, it is too much assumed by Coleridge
+and by his biographer, that to leave off opium was of course to regain
+juvenile health. But all opium-eaters make the mistake of supposing
+every pain or irritation which they suffer to be the product of opium.
+Whereas a wise man will say, suppose you _do_ leave off opium, that
+will not deliver you from the load of years (say sixty-three) which
+you carry on your back. Charles Lamb, another man of true genius, and
+another head belonging to the Blackwood Gallery, made that mistake in
+his _Confessions of a Drunkard_. "I looked back," says he, "to the
+time when always, on waking in the morning, I had a song rising to my
+lips." At present, it seems, being a drunkard, he has no such song.
+Ay, dear Lamb, but note this, that the drunkard was fifty-six years
+old, the songster was twenty-three. Take twenty-three from fifty-six,
+and we have some reason to believe that thirty-three will remain;
+which period of thirty-three years is a pretty good reason for not
+singing in the morning, even if brandy has been out of the question.
+
+It is singular, as respects Coleridge, that Mr Gillman never says one
+word upon the event of the great Highgate experiment for leaving off
+laudanum, though Coleridge came to Mr Gillman's for no other purpose;
+and in a week, this vast creation of new earth, sea, and all that in
+them is, was to have been accomplished. We _rayther_ think, as Bayley
+junior observes, that the explosion must have hung fire. But _that_ is
+a trifle. We have another pleasing hypothesis on the subject. Mr
+Wordsworth, in his exquisite lines written on a fly-leaf of his own
+_Castle of Indolence_, having described Coleridge as "a noticeable man
+with large grey eyes," goes on to say, "He" (viz. Coleridge) "did that
+other man entice" to view his imagery. Now we are sadly afraid that
+"the noticeable man with large grey eyes" did entice "that other man,"
+viz. Gillman, to commence opium-eating. This is droll; and it makes us
+laugh horribly. Gillman should have reformed _him_; and lo! _he_
+corrupts Gillman. S. T. Coleridge visited Highgate by way of being
+converted from the heresy of opium; and the issue is--that, in two
+months' time, various grave men, amongst whom our friend Gillman
+marches first in great pomp, are found to have faces shining and
+glorious as that of AEsculapius; a fact of which we have already
+explained the secret meaning. And scandal says (but then what will not
+scandal say?) that a hogshead of opium goes up daily through Highgate
+tunnel. Surely one corroboration of our hypothesis may be found in the
+fact, that Vol. I. of Gillman's Coleridge is forever to stand
+unpropped by Vol. II. For we have already observed--that opium-eaters,
+though good fellows upon the whole, never finish any thing.
+
+What then? A man has a right never to finish any thing. Certainly he
+has; and by Magna Charta. But he has no right, by Magna Charta or by
+Parva Charta, to slander decent men, like ourselves and our friend the
+author of the _Opium Confessions_. Here it is that our complaint
+arises against Mr Gillman. If he has taken to opium-eating, can we
+help _that_? If _his_ face shines, must our faces be blackened? He has
+very improperly published some intemperate passages from Coleridge's
+letters, which ought to have been considered confidential, unless
+Coleridge had left them for publication, charging upon the author of
+the _Opium Confessions_ a reckless disregard of the temptations which,
+in that work, he was scattering abroad amongst men. Now this author is
+connected with ourselves, and we cannot neglect his defence, unless in
+the case that he undertakes it himself.
+
+We complain, also, that Coleridge raises (and is backed by Mr Gillman
+in raising) a distinction perfectly perplexing to us, between himself
+and the author of the _Opium Confessions_ upon the question--Why they
+severally began the practice of opium-eating? In himself, it seems,
+this motive was to relieve pain, whereas the Confessor was
+surreptitiously seeking for pleasure. Ay, indeed--where did he learn
+_that_? We have no copy of the _Confessions_ here, so we cannot quote
+chapter and verse; but we distinctly remember, that toothach is
+recorded in that book as the particular occasion which first
+introduced the author to the knowledge of opium. Whether afterwards,
+having been thus initiated by the demon of pain, the opium confessor
+did not apply powers thus discovered to purposes of mere pleasure, is
+a question for himself; and the same question applies with the same
+cogency to Coleridge. Coleridge began in rheumatic pains. What then?
+That is no proof that he did not end in voluptuousness. For our parts,
+we are slow to believe that ever any man did, or could, learn the
+somewhat awful truth, that in a certain ruby-coloured elixir, there
+lurked a divine power to chase away the genius of ennui, without
+subsequently abusing this power. To taste but once from the tree of
+knowledge, is fatal to the subsequent power of abstinence. True it is,
+that generations have used laudanum as an anodyne, (for instance,
+hospital patients,) who have not afterwards courted its powers as a
+voluptuous stimulant; but that, be sure, has arisen from no abstinence
+in _them_. There are, in fact, two classes of temperaments as to this
+terrific drug--those which are, and those which are not, preconformed
+to its power; those which genially expand to its temptations, and
+those which frostily exclude them. Not in the energies of the will,
+but in the qualities of the nervous organization, lies the dread
+arbitration of--Fall or stand: doomed thou art to yield; or,
+strengthened constitutionally, to resist. Most of those who have but a
+low sense of the spells lying couchant in opium, have practically none
+at all. For the initial fascination is for _them_ effectually defeated
+by the sickness which nature has associated with the first stages of
+opium-eating. But to that other class, whose nervous sensibilities
+vibrate to their profoundest depths under the first touch of the
+angelic poison, even as a lover's ear thrills on hearing unexpectedly
+the voice of her whom he loves, opium is the Amreeta cup of beatitude.
+You know the _Paradise Lost_? and you remember, from the eleventh
+book, in its earlier part, that laudanum already existed in Eden--nay,
+that it was used medicinally by an archangel; for, after Michael had
+"purged with euphrasy and rue" the eyes of Adam, lest he should be
+unequal to the mere _sight_ of the great visions about to unfold their
+draperies before him, next he fortifies his fleshly spirits against
+the _affliction_ of these visions, of which visions the first was
+death. And how?
+
+  "He from the well of life three drops instill'd."
+
+What was their operation?
+
+  "So deep the power of these ingredients pierced,
+  _Even to the inmost seat of mental sight_,
+  That Adam, now enforced to close his eyes
+  Sank down, and all his spirits became entranced.
+  But him the gentle angel by the hand
+  Soon raised"----
+
+The second of these lines it is which betrays the presence of
+laudanum. It is in the faculty of mental vision, it is in the
+increased power of dealing with the shadowy and the dark, that the
+characteristic virtue of opium lies. Now, in the original higher
+sensibility is found some palliation for the _practice_ of
+opium-eating; in the greater temptation is a greater excuse. And in
+this faculty of self-revelation is found some palliation for
+_reporting_ the case to the world, which both Coleridge and his
+biographer have overlooked.
+
+On all this, however, we need say no more; for we have just received a
+note from the writer of the _Opium Confessions_, more learned than
+ourselves in such mysteries, which promises us a sequel or _finale_ to
+those Confessions. And this, which we have reason to think a record of
+profound experiences, we shall probably publish next month.
+
+
+
+_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+[1] Reynolds' Discourses, No. 16, _ad finem_.
+
+[2] Macaulay.
+
+[3] The finest design ever conceived by Michael Angelo was a cartoon
+representing warriors bathing, and some buckling on their armour at
+the sound of the trumpet, which summoned them to their standards in
+the war between Pisa and Florence. It perished, however, in the
+troubles of the latter city, but an engraved copy remains of part,
+which justifies the eulogiums bestowed upon it.
+
+[4] The state of Missouri as almost entirely peopled by emigration
+from Kentucky.
+
+[5] The Mississippi water, although slimy, becomes clear after it has
+stood few hours, and is then excellent to drink.
+
+[6] An excellent map of Montenegro has been made by an Austrian
+officer of engineers, who resided there for the purpose--but I have
+not now the advantage of referring to it. This country is divided into
+twelve military departments; the natives reckon its extent about three
+days' journey in the longest, by two in the widest part. Those, of
+course, are foot or mule journeys.
+
+[7] It was this man's father who, shortly before our arrival, having
+been entrusted to receive from Lloyd's Company a packet containing a
+large sum of money, converted the contents into two cannon-balls, and
+forwarded them to the Vladika.
+
+[8] The late Vladika received the honours of sanctity after his death.
+
+[9] Meaning dressed in the European or Frank costume.
+
+[10] The Vladika bears the Russian eagle rising from a crown.
+
+[11] He passed but one night in Montenegro, at Cettigna, and returned
+the following day to Cattaro.
+
+[12] On the kalends of January the consuls-elect were formally
+installed; and on this occasion a procession was made to the Capitol,
+and sacrifice performed to Jupiter. The principal part of the
+procession, of course, was the consuls in their curule chair, preceded
+by the lictors bearing the _fasces_, or bundles of rods and axes.
+
+[13] From _Janua_, a gate.
+
+[14] The etymology of these old epithets, from _pateo_ (to open) and
+_claudo_ (to shut,) is obvious enough.
+
+[15] The _lar familiaris_, or domestic god of the family, who had an
+altar in the inner part of the Roman house.
+
+[16] The allusion here, and in the following lines, is to the
+different _strenae_ or New-Year's gifts, which used to be given by the
+Romans.
+
+[17] The old Roman _as_, with the double head on one side and a ship
+on the reverse, is well known among numismatists.
+
+[18] The Tuscan flood is a common appellation for the Tiber, as rising
+in Etruria, and forming the ancient boundary between that country and
+Latium, opposite Rome.
+
+[19] A silly etymology--from _lateo_, to lurk; mentioned also by
+Virgil.--_AEn_. viii. 323.
+
+[20] "The Romans gave the name of _Jani_ to arches like that of
+Temple-Bar in London, under which people passed from one street into
+another. They were always double; people entering by one and going out
+by the other, every one keeping to the right. The temple or gateway
+mentioned in this place, adjacent to the ox and the fish markets, was
+built by Duilius."--KEIGHTLY.
+
+[21] Although the allusion refers, in the verses, to Delphi, it was, I
+think, at Dodona, in the earliest period of oracular influence, that
+this belief prevailed.
+
+[22] "And Mullah mine, whose waves whilome I taught to
+weep."--SPENSER.
+
+[23] _The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge_. By JAMES GILLMAN. Vol. I,
+London; 1838.
+
+[24] "Jacob Boehmen." We ourselves had the honour of presenting to Mr
+Coleridge Law's English version of Jacob--a set of huge quartos. Some
+months afterwards we saw this work lying open, and one volume at least
+overflowing, in parts, with the commentaries and the _corollaries_ of
+Coleridge. Whither has this work, and so many others swathed about
+with Coleridge's MS. notes, vanished from the world?
+
+[25] Malthus would have rejoined by saying--that the flower-pot
+limitation was the actual limitation of nature in our present
+circumstances. In America it is otherwise, he would say; but England
+_is_ the very flower-pot you suppose: she is a flower-pot which cannot
+be multiplied, and cannot even be enlarged. Very well; so be it:
+(Which we say in order to waive irrelevant disputes.) But then the
+true inference will be--not that vegetable increase proceeds under a
+different law from that which governs animal increase, but that,
+through an accident of position, the experiment cannot be tried in
+England. Surely the levers of Archimedes, with submission to Sir
+Edward B. Lytton, were not the less levers because he wanted the
+_locum standi_. It is proper, by the way, that we should inform the
+reader of this generation where to look for Coleridge's skirmishings
+with Malthus. They are to be found chiefly in the late Mr William
+Hazlitt's work on that subject: a work which Coleridge so far claimed
+as to assert that it had been substantially made up from his own
+conversation.
+
+[26] _Vide_, in particular, for the most exquisite specimen of
+pig-headedness that the world can furnish, his perverse evidence on
+the once famous case at the Warwick assizes, of Captain Donelan for
+poisoning his brother-in-law, Sir Theodosius Boughton.
+
+[27] It was printed at the end of Aristotle's _Poetics_, which Dr Cook
+edited.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+  Passages in italics indicated by underscore _italics_.
+
+  The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
+  letters have been replaced with transliterations.
+
+  The original text includes missing printing represented by
+  _______________ in this text version.
+
+  Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
+  both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as
+  presented in the original text.
+
+  Misprints corrected:
+    "noice" corrected to "noise" (page 24)
+    "opportunites" corrected to "opportunities" (page 33)
+    "susspected" corrected to "suspected" (page 61)
+    "d'Artagnan" standardized to "D'Artagnan" (page 69)
+    "henceforch" corrected to "henceforth" (page 79)
+    "Chapter IV" corrected to "Chapter II" (page 102)
+    "drunkark" corrected to "drunkard" (page 131)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine --
+Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE, JAN. 1845 ***
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