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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:54:49 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:54:49 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30943-8.txt b/30943-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3616b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/30943-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14289 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, +No. 12, May, 1851., 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: Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 12, 2010 [EBook #30943] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY, MAY 1851 *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + +HARPER'S + +NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + +No. XII.--MAY, 1851--VOL. II. + + + + +THE NOVELTY WORKS, WITH SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE MACHINERY AND THE +PROCESSES EMPLOYED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE STEAM-ENGINES OF THE +LARGEST CLASS. + +BY JACOB ABBOTT. + + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF THE NOVELTY IRON WORKS, NEW YORK, (_As +seen from the East River._)] + +Perhaps no one of those vast movements which are now going forward among +mankind, and which mark so strikingly the industrial power and genius of +the present age, is watched with more earnest interest by thinking men, +than the successive steps of the progress by which the mechanical power +of steam and machinery is gradually advancing, in its contest for the +dominion of the seas. There is a double interest in this conflict. In +fact, the conflict itself is a double one. There is first a struggle +between the mechanical power and ingenuity of man, on the one hand, and +the uncontrollable and remorseless violence of ocean storms on the +other; and, secondly, there is the rivalry, not unfriendly, though +extremely ardent and keen, between the two most powerful commercial +nations on the globe, each eager to be the first to conquer the common +foe. + +The armories in which the ordnance and ammunition for this warfare are +prepared, consist, so far as this country is concerned, of certain +establishments, vast in their extent and capacity, though unpretending +in external appearance, which are situated in the upper part of the city +of New York, on the shores of the East River. As the city of New York is +sustained almost entirely by its commerce, and as this commerce is +becoming every year more and more dependent for its prosperity and +progress upon the power of the enormous engines by which its most +important functions are now performed, the establishments where these +engines are invented and made, and fitted into the ships which they are +destined to propel, constitute really the heart of the metropolis; +though, the visitor, who comes down for the first time by the East +River, from the Sound, in the morning boat from Norwich or Fall River, +is very prone to pass them carelessly by--his thoughts intent upon what +he considers the superior glory and brilliancy which emanate from the +hotels and theatres of Broadway. + +In fact, there is very little to attract the eye of the unthinking +traveler to these establishments as he glides swiftly by them in the +early morning. He is astonished perhaps at the multitude of steamers +which he sees lining the shores in this part of the city, some drawn up +into the docks for repairs; others new, and moored alongside a pier to +receive their machinery; and others still upon the stocks in the +capacious ship-yards, in the various stages of that skeleton condition +which in the ship marks the commencement, as in animal life it does the +end, of existence. Beyond and above the masts and spars and smoke-pipes +of this mass of shipping, the observer sees here and there a columnar +chimney, or the arms of a monstrous derrick or crane, or a steam-pipe +ejecting vapor in successive puffs with the regularity of an animal +pulsation. He little thinks that these are the beatings which mark the +spot where the true heart of the great metropolis really lies. But it is +actually so. The splendor and the fashion of the Fifth Avenue, and of +Union-square, as well as the brilliancy, and the ceaseless movement and +din of Broadway, are the mere incidents and ornaments of the structure, +while these establishments, and others of kindred character and +function, form the foundation on which the whole of the vast edifice +reposes. + +We select, rather by accident than otherwise, the Novelty Works as a +specimen of the establishments to which we have been alluding, for +description in this Number. A general view of the works as they appear +from the river, is presented in the engraving at the head of this +article, with the docks and piers belonging to the establishment in the +fore-ground. + +The entrance to the inclosure is by a great gateway, through which the +visitor on approaching it, will, very probably see an enormous truck or +car issuing, drawn by a long team of horses, and bearing some ponderous +piece of machinery suspended beneath it by means of levers and chains. +On the right of the entrance gate is the porter's lodge, with entrances +from it to the offices, as represented in the plan on the adjoining page +Beyond the entrance, and just within the inclosure may be seen a great +crane used for receiving or delivering the vast masses of metal, the +shafts, the cylinders, the boilers, the vacuum pans, and other ponderous +formations which are continually coming and going to and from the yard. +Beyond the crane is seen the bell by which the hours of work are +regulated. + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE NOVELTY WORKS.] + +The plan upon the adjoining page will give the reader some idea of the +extent of the accommodations required for the manufacture of such heavy +and massive machinery. On the right of the entrance may be seen the +porter's lodge, shown in perspective in the view below. Beyond it, in +the yard, stands the crane, which is seen likewise in the view. Turning +to the left, just beyond the crane, the visitor enters the iron foundry, +a spacious inclosure, with ovens and furnaces along the sides, and +enormous cranes swinging in various directions in the centre. These +cranes are for hoisting the heavy castings out of the pits in which they +are formed. The parts marked v v v, are ovens for drying the moulds. + +[Illustration] + +Turning to the right from the foundry, and passing down through the +yard, the visitor finds himself in the midst of a complicated maze of +buildings, which extend in long ranges toward the water, with lanes and +passages between them like the streets of a town. In these passages +companies of workmen are seen, some going to and fro, drawing heavy +masses of machinery upon iron trucks; others employed in hoisting some +ponderous cylinder or shaft by a crane, or stacking pigs of iron in +great heaps, to be ready for the furnaces which are roaring near as if +eager to devour them. And all the time there issues from the open doors +of the great boiler-shops and forging-shops below, an incessant clangor, +produced by the blows of the sledges upon the rivets of the boilers, or +of the trip-hammers at the forges. + +The relative positions of the various shops where the different +operations are performed will be seen by examination of the plan. The +motive power by which all the machinery of the establishment is driven, +is furnished by a stationary engine in the very centre of the works, +represented in the plan. It stands between two of the principal shops. +On the right is seen the boiler, and on the left the engine--while the +black square below, just within the great boiler-shop, represents the +chimney. Other similar squares in different parts of the plan represent +chimneys also, in the different parts of the establishment. These +chimneys may be seen in perspective in the general view, at the head of +this article, and may be identified with their several representations +in the plan, by a careful comparison. The one belonging to the engine is +the central one in the picture as well as in the plan--that is, the one +from which the heaviest volume of smoke is issuing. + +This central engine, since it carries all the machinery of the works, by +means of which every thing is formed and fashioned, is the life and soul +of the establishment--the _mother_, in fact, of all the monsters which +issue from it; and it is impossible to look upon her, as she toils on +industriously in her daily duty, and think of her Titanic progeny, +scattered now over every ocean on the globe, without a certain feeling +of respect and even of admiration. + +A careful inspection of the plan will give the reader some ideas of the +nature of the functions performed in these establishments, and of the +general arrangements adopted in them. The magnitude and extent of them +is shown by this fact, that the number of men employed at the Novelty +Works is from one thousand to twelve hundred. These are all _men_, in +the full vigor of life. If now we add to this number a proper estimate +for the families of these men, and for the mechanics and artisans who +supply their daily wants, all of whom reside in the streets surrounding +the works, we shall find that the establishment represents, at a +moderate calculation, a population of _ten thousand souls_. + +The proper regulation of the labors of so large a body of workmen as are +employed in such an establishment, requires, of course, much system in +the general arrangements, and very constant and careful supervision on +the part of those intrusted with the charge of the various divisions of +the work. The establishment forms, in fact, a regularly organized +community, having, like any state or kingdom, its gradations of rank, +its established usages, its written laws, its police, its finance, its +records, its rewards, and its penalties. The operation of the principles +of system, and of the requirements of law, leads, in such a community as +this, to many very curious and striking results, some of which it would +be interesting to describe, if we had space for such descriptions. But +we must pass to the more immediate subject in this article, which is the +structure of the engine itself, and not that of the community which +produces it. + +The engraving on the next page represents the interior of the +engine-room of the Humboldt--a new steamer, which was lying at the dock +at the time of our visit, receiving her machinery; though probably +before these pages shall come under the eye of the reader, she will be +steadily forcing her way over the foaming surges of the broad Atlantic. +The machinery, as we saw it, was incomplete, and the parts in +disorder--the various masses of which it was ultimately to be composed, +resting on temporary supports, in different stages, apparently of their +slow journey to the place and the connection in which they respectively +belonged. The ingenious artist, however, who made the drawings, +succeeded in doing, by means of his imagination, at once, what it will +require the workmen several weeks to perform, with all their complicated +machinery of derricks, tackles, and cranes. He put every thing in its +place, and has given us a view of the whole structure as it will appear +when the ship is ready for sea. + +There are _two_ engines and _four_ boilers; thus the machinery is all +double, so that if any fatal accident or damage should accrue to any +part, only one half of the moving force on which the ship relies would +be suspended. The heads of two of the boilers are to be seen on the left +of the view. They are called the _starboard_ and _larboard_ +boilers--those words meaning _right_ and _left_. That is, the one on the +right to a person standing before them in the engine room, and facing +them, is the starboard, and the other the larboard boiler. It is the +larboard boiler which is nearest the spectator in the engraving. + +The boilers, the heads of which only are seen in the engraving, are +enormous in magnitude and capacity, extending as they do far forward +into the hold of the ship. In marine engines of the largest class they +are sometimes thirty-six feet long and over twelve feet in diameter. +There is many a farmer's dwelling house among the mountains, which is +deemed by its inmates spacious and comfortable, that has less capacity. +In fact, placed upon end, one of these boilers would form a tower with a +very good sized room on each floor, and four stories high. The manner in +which the boilers are made will be presently explained. + +The steam generated in the boilers is conveyed to the engine, where it +is to do its work, by what is called the steam pipe. The steam pipe of +the larboard engine, that is, of the one nearest the spectator, is not +represented in the engraving, as it would have intercepted too much the +view of the other parts. That belonging to the starboard engine, +however, may be seen passing across from the boiler to the engine, on +the back side of the room. The destination of the steam is the +_cylinder_. + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF A MARINE ENGINE.] + +The cylinder, marked C, is seen on the extreme right, in the view. It +may be known, too, by its form, which corresponds with its name. The +cylinder is the heart and soul of the engine, being the seat and centre +of its power. The steam is generated in the boilers, but while it +remains there it remains quiescent and inert. The action in which its +mighty power is expended, and by means of which all subsequent effects +are produced, is the lifting and bringing down of the enormous piston +which plays within the cylinder. This piston is a massive metallic disc +or plate, fitting the interior of the cylinder by its edges, and rising +or falling by the expansive force of the steam, as it is admitted +alternatively above and below it. + +The round beam which is seen issuing from the centre of the head of the +cylinder is called the piston rod. The piston itself is firmly secured +to the lower end of this rod within the cylinder. Of course, when the +piston is forced upward by the pressure of the steam admitted beneath +it, the piston rod rises, too, with all the force of the expansion. This +is, in the case of the largest marine engines, a force of about a +hundred tons. That is to say, if in the place of the cross head--the +beam marked H in the engraving which surmounts the piston--there were a +mass of rock weighing a hundred tons, which would be, in the case of +granite, a block four feet square and eighty feet high, the force of the +steam beneath the piston in the cylinder would be competent to lift it. + +The piston rod, rising with this immense force carries up the cross +head, and with the cross head the two _side rods_, one of which is seen +in full, in the engraving, and is marked S. There is a side rod on each +side of the cylinders. The lower ends of these rods are firmly connected +with the back ends of what are called the _side levers_. One of these +side levers is seen in full view in the engraving. It is the massive +flat beam, marked L, near the fore-ground of the view. It turns upon an +enormous pivot which passes through the centre of it, as seen in the +drawing, in such a manner that when the cylinder end is drawn up by the +lifting of the cross head, the other end is borne down to the same +extent, and with the same prodigious force. There is another side beam, +on the other side of the cylinder, which moves isochronously with the +one in view. The forward end of this other beam may be seen, though the +main body of it is concealed from view. These two forward ends of the +levers are connected by a heavy bar, called the _cross tail_, which +passes across from one to the other. From the centre of this cross tail, +a bar called the connecting rod rises to the crank, where the force +exerted by the steam in the cylinders is finally expended in turning the +great paddle wheels by means of the main shaft, S, which is seen resting +in the pillow block, P, above. These are the essential parts of the +engine, and we now proceed to consider the mode of manufacturing these +several parts, somewhat in detail. + +[Illustration: THE CUTTING ENGINE.] + +The boilers are formed of wrought iron. The material is previously +rolled into plates of the requisite thickness, and then the first part +of the process of forming these plates into a boiler is to cut them into +proper forms. The monster that fulfills the function of shears for this +purpose, bears a very slight resemblance to any ordinary cutting +implement It resembles, on the other hand, as represented in the +adjoining engraving, an enormous letter U, standing perpendicularly upon +one of its edges. Through the centre of the upper branch of it there +passes a shaft or axle, which is turned by the wheels and machinery +behind it, and which itself works the cutter at the outer end of it by +means of an eccentric wheel. This cutter may be seen just protruding +from its place, upon the plate which the workmen are holding underneath. +The iron plates thus presented are sometimes nearly half an inch thick, +but the monstrous jaw of the engine, though it glides up and down when +there is nothing beneath it in the most gentle and quiet manner +possible, cuts them through, as if they were plates of wax, and +apparently without feeling the obstruction. + +[Illustration: THE BENDING AND PUNCHING ENGINES.] + +The plates, when cut, are to be bent to the proper curvature. The +machine by which this bending is effected is seen above, in the +back-ground. It consists of three rollers, placed in such a position in +relation to each other, that the plate, in being forced through between +them, is bent to any required curvature. These rollers are made to +revolve by great wheels at the sides, with handles at the circumference +of them, which handles act as levers, and are worked by men, as seen in +the engraving. + +The separate plates of which a boiler is composed are fastened together +by means of massive rivets, and it is necessary, accordingly, to punch +rows of holes along the edges of the plates for the insertion of the +rivets. This process may be seen on the _left_ in the above engraving. +Two men are holding the plate which is to be punched. The punch is +driven through the plate by means of the great lever, which forms the +upper part of the engine. The upright part in front is driven forward by +means of the cam in the large wheel behind, a part of which only is seen +in the engraving. This cam raises the long arm of the lever by means of +the pulley in the end of it, and so drives the point of the punch +through the plate. There is a support for the plate behind it, between +the plate and the man, with a small opening in it, into which the punch +enters, driving before it the round button of iron which it has cut from +the plate. + +On the right, in the above engraving, is a punching engine worked by +men, the other being driven by steam power. These machines are +sufficient to make all the ordinary perforations required in +boiler-plates. Larger holes, when required, have to be bored by a drill, +as represented in the following engraving. + +[Illustration: THE BORING-ENGINE.] + +The view below represents the interior of one of the great boiler rooms +where the boilers are put together by riveting the plates to each other +at their edges. Some men stand inside, holding heavy sledges against the +heads of the rivets, while others on the outside, with other sledges, +beat down the part of the iron which protrudes, so as to form another +head to each rivet, on the outside. This process can be seen distinctly +in the boiler nearest to the observer in the view below. The planks +which are seen crossing each other in the open end, are temporary +braces, put in to preserve the cylindrical form of the mass, to prevent +the iron from bending itself by its own weight, before the iron heads +are put in. + +[Illustration: RIVETING THE BOILERS.] + +Sometimes operations must be performed upon the sides of the boiler +requiring the force of machinery. To effect this purpose, shafts carried +by the central engine to which we have already alluded, are attached to +the walls in various parts of the room, as seen in the engraving. +Connected with these shafts are various drilling and boring machines, +which can at any time be set in motion, or put to rest, by being thrown +in or out of gear. One of these machines is seen on the right of the +boiler above referred to, and another in the left-hand corner of the +room quite in the back-ground. Near the fore-ground, on the left, is +seen a forge, where any small mass of iron may be heated, as occasion +may require. + +The semi-cylindrical piece which lies in the centre of the room, toward +the fore-ground, is part of a locomotive boiler, and is of course much +smaller in size than the others, though it is constructed in the same +manner with the large boilers used for sea-going ships. The process of +riveting, as will be seen by the engraving, is the same. One man holds +up against the under side of the plate a support for the rivet, while +two men with hammers form a head above--striking alternately upon the +iron which protrudes. + +From the boiler we proceed to the cylinder, which is in fact the _heart_ +of the engine,--the seat and centre of its power. It is to the cylinder +that the steam, quietly generated in the boiler, comes to exercise its +energy, by driving, alternately up and down, the ponderous piston. The +cylinder must be strong so as to resist the vast expansive force which +is exercised within it. It must be stiff, so as to preserve in all +circumstances its exact form. It must be substantial, so as to allow of +being turned and polished on its interior surface with mathematical +precision, in order that the piston in ascending and descending, may +glide smoothly up and down, without looseness, and at the same time +without friction. To answer these conditions it is necessary that it +should be formed of cast iron. + +The cylinders are cast, accordingly, in the iron foundry, which, as will +be seen by the plan, is on the left, as the visitor enters the works. +There is a range of monstrous cranes extending through the interior of +the room, as represented in the plan, one of which is exhibited +conspicuously in the engraving below. At different places in the ground, +beneath this foundry, for it has no floor, there have been excavated +deep pits, some of which are twelve feet in diameter and eighteen feet +deep, the sides of which are secured by strong inclosures, formed of +plates of boiler iron riveted together. These pits are filled with +moulding sand--a composition of a damp and tenacious character, used in +moulding. The mould is made and lowered into one of these pits, the pit +is filled up, the sand being rammed as hard as possible all around it. +When all is ready, the top of the mould, with the cross by which it is +to be lifted and lowered surmounting it, presents the appearance +represented on the right hand lower corner of the engraving below. + +[Illustration: CASTING A CYLINDER.] + +A reservoir to contain the melted metal necessary for the casting is +then placed in a convenient position near it, with a channel or conduit +leading from it to the mould. This reservoir may be seen in the +engraving near the centre of the view, at the foot of the crane. An +inclined plane is then laid, as seen in the engraving, to the left of +the reservoir, up which the workmen carry the molten metal in ladles, +which, though they do not appear very large, it requires _five men_ to +carry. A party carrying such a ladle may be seen in the engraving in the +back-ground on the left. These ladles are filled from the various +furnaces, the iron throwing out an intense heat, and projecting the most +brilliant scintillations in every direction, as it flows. In the case of +the largest castings it requires sometimes four or five hours to get +together, from the furnaces, a sufficient supply of metal. The largest +reservoir thus filled will hold about thirty tons of iron. + +[Illustration: FILLING THE LADLES.] + +The flowing of the metal from the reservoir to the mould in a great +casting, forms a magnificent spectacle. The vast mass of molten iron in +the reservoir, the stream flowing down the conduit, throwing out the +most brilliant corruscations, the gaseous flames issuing from the upper +portions of the mould, and the currents of melted iron which sometimes +overflow and spread, like mimic streams of lava, over the ground, +present in their combination quite an imposing pyrotechnic display. In +fact there is a chance for the visitor, in the case of castings of a +certain kind, that he may be treated to an explosion as a part of the +spectacle. The imprisoned vapors and gases which are formed in the mould +below, break out sometimes with considerable violence, scattering the +burning and scintillating metal in every direction around. + +[Illustration: THE EXPLOSION.] + +When the casting is completed it is of course allowed to remain +undisturbed until the iron has had time to cool, and then the whole mass +is to be dug out of the pit in which it is imbedded. So much heat, +however, still remains in the iron and in the sand surrounding it, that +the mould itself and the twenty or thirty men engaged in disinterring +it, are enveloped in dense clouds of vapor which rise all around them +while the operation is proceeding. + +[Illustration: DIGGING OUT THE CYLINDER.] + +It is necessary that the sand which surrounds these moulds should be +rammed down in the most compact and solid manner to sustain the sides of +the mould and enable them to resist the enormous pressure to which it is +subject, especially in the lower portions, while the iron continues +fluid. In the case of iron, the weight of four inches in height is +equivalent to the pressure of a pound upon the square inch. In a pit, +therefore, eighteen feet deep, as some of the pits at this foundry are, +we should have a pressure at the bottom of fifty-four pounds to the +inch. Now, in the most powerful sea-going steamers, the pressure of +steam at which the engines are worked, is seldom more than _eighteen_ +pounds to the inch; that of the Cunard line is said to be from twelve to +fifteen, and that of the Collins line from fifteen to eighteen. In other +words there is a pressure to be resisted at the lower ends of these long +castings equal to three times that at which the most powerful low +pressure engines are worked, and which sometimes results in such +terrific explosions. + +When the cylinder is freed from the pressure of the sand around it, in +its bed, the great iron cross by which the mould was lowered into the +pit, as seen in the engraving of the Casting, is once more brought down +to its place, and the stirrups at the tops of the iron rods seen in the +engraving below, are brought over the ends of the arms of the cross. The +lower ends of these rods take hold of a frame or platform below, upon +which the whole mould, together with the cylinder within it, is +supported. The arm of the crane is then brought round to the spot. The +hook pendant from it is attached to the ring in the centre of the cross, +and by means of the wheels and machinery of the crane, the whole is +slowly hoisted out, and then swung round to some convenient level, where +the ponderous mass is freed from its casing of masonry, and brought out +at last to open day. It is then thoroughly examined with a view to the +discovery of any latent flaw or imperfection, and, if found complete in +every part, is conveyed away to be the subject of a long series of +finishing operations in another place,--operations many and complicated, +but all essential to enable it finally to fulfill its functions. + +These cylinders though very massive and ponderous are not the heaviest +castings made. They are much exceeded in weight by what is called a bed +plate, which is an enormous frame of iron cast in one mass, or else in +two or three separate masses and then strongly bolted together, to form +a foundation on which the engine is to rest in the hold of the ship. The +bed plate can not be seen in the view of the engine room already given, +as it lies below the floor, being underneath all the machinery. A bed +plate weighs sometimes thirty-five tons--which is the weight of about +five hundred men. Such a mass as this has to be transported on ways, +like those used in the launching of a ship. It is drawn along upon these +ways by blocks and pullies, and when brought alongside the ship is +hoisted on board by means of an enormous derrick, and let down slowly to +the bottom of the hold--the place where it is finally to repose, unless +perchance it should at last be liberated by some disaster, from this +dungeon, and sent to seek its ultimate destination in the bottom of the +sea. + +The engraving below represents the forges, where all those parts of the +machinery are formed and fitted which consist of wrought iron. The room +in which these forges are situated is called the smith's shop, in the +plan. In the back-ground, a little to the right, is one of the trip +hammers, in the act of striking. The trip-hammer is a massive hammer +carried by machinery. The machinery which drives it may at any time be +thrown in or out of gear, so that the blows of the hammer are always +under the control of the workman. The iron bar to be forged is far too +heavy to be held by hand. It is accordingly supported as seen in the +engraving, by a crane; and only guided to its place upon the anvil by +the workmen who have hold of it. The chain to which this bar is +suspended comes down from a little truck which rests upon the top of the +crane, and which may be made to traverse to and fro, thus carrying +whatever is suspended from it further outward, or drawing it in, as may +be required. All the cranes, both in the smith's shop and in the +foundry, are fitted with the same contrivance. These trucks are moved by +means of a wheel at the foot of the crane. + +[Illustration: THE FORGES.] + +On the extreme right of the picture, and somewhat in the distance, may +be seen another trip-hammer with a bar upon the anvil beneath it, this +bar being suspended likewise from a crane. When the iron becomes too +cold to yield any longer to the percussion, the hammer is stopped, the +crane is swung round, and the iron is replaced in the forge to be heated +anew; and at length, when heated, it is brought back again under the +hammer as before. + +The forging of shafts requires heavier machinery even than this. The +enormous mass of iron that is in this case to be forged, is bricked up +in a furnace to be heated, and remains there many hours. The masonry is +then broken away and the red hot beam is swung round under the hammer, +as seen below. It is suspended from the crane by heavy chains, and is +guided by the workmen by means of iron handles clamped to it at a +distance from the heated part, as seen in the engraving in the adjoining +column. The hammer is lifted by means of the cam below it, as seen in +the engraving below. This cam is a projection from an axis revolving +beneath the floor, and which, as it revolves, carries the cams +successively against a projection upon the under side of the hammer, +which is partly concealed in the engraving by the figure of the man. +When the point of the cam has passed beyond the projection it allows the +hammer to fall. + +[Illustration: HEATING A SHAFT.] + +[Illustration: FORGING A SHAFT.] + +While the process of forging such a shaft is going on, one man throws +water upon the work, to effect some purpose connected with the scaling +of the iron, while another, with an instrument called the callipers, +measures the diameter of the shaft, to regulate the size, as the forging +proceeds. + +[Illustration: THE LATHES.] + +The shafts, when forged, are to be turned in a lathe, and the engine +used for this purpose is represented on the left in the engraving below. +The shaft itself is seen in the lathe, while the tool which cuts it as +it revolves, is fixed firmly in the "rest," which slides along the side. +The point of the tool is seen in the engraving, with the spiral shaving +which it cuts falling down from it. The shaft is made to revolve by the +band seen coming down obliquely from above, at the hither end of the +engine. The wheel by which the band turns the lathe has different +grooves at different distances from the centre, in order that the +workmen may regulate the velocity of the rotation--as different degrees +of velocity are required for the different species of work. The _rest_, +to which the cutting tool is attached, is brought slowly along the side +of the shaft as the shaft revolves, by means of a long screw which is +concealed in the frame of the lathe, and which is turned continually by +the mechanism of the small wheels which are seen at the hither end of +the engine. + +On the right hand of this view is represented another kind of lathe +called a _face lathe_, which is employed for turning wheels, and flat +plates, and interiors of cavities, and such other pieces of work as do +not furnish two opposite points of support. In the fore-ground are a +company of men drawing a massive piece of iron upon a truck, destined +apparently to be turned in the left hand lathe. + +[Illustration: FINISHING.] + +Although thus a great part of the work in respect to all the details of +the engine, is performed by machinery, much remains after all to be +wrought and fashioned by hand. In passing through the establishment the +visitor finds the workmen engaged in these labors, in every conceivable +attitude and position. One man is filing a curved surface with a curved +file, another is hidden almost wholly from view within a great misshapen +box of iron: a third is mounted upon a ladder, and is slowly boring +through the wall of some monstrous formation, or cutting away +excrescences of iron from some massive casting with a cold chisel. In a +word, the details are so endlessly varied as to excite the wonder of the +beholder that any human head should have been capable of containing +them all, so as to have planned and arranged the fitting of such +complicated parts with any hope of their ever coming rightly together. + +They do come together, however, at last, and then follows the excitement +of the trial. There is nothing more striking in the history of the +construction of a steam engine than this, that there can be no partial +or private tests of the work by the workmen in the course of its +progress--but every thing remains in suspense until all is complete, and +the ship and the machinery are actually ready for sea. The immense and +ponderous masses which constitute the elements of the mighty structure +are hoisted slowly on board and let down into their places. Multitudes +of men are incessantly employed for many weeks in arranging the limbs +and members of the monster, and in screwing and bolting every thing into +its place. Still nothing can be tried. The machinery is too ponderous +and massive to be put in action by any power less than that of the +mighty mover on which its ultimate performance is to depend; and this +mover has not yet been called into being. + +At length the day of trial arrives. The engineers, the workmen, the +owners, and perhaps many spectators, have assembled to watch the result. +The boiler is filled; the fires are lighted. Hour after hour the process +goes on of raising the force and pressure of the steam. All this time, +however, the machinery lies inert and lifeless. It is a powerless mass +of dead and heavy brass and iron. At length an engineer, standing upon a +platform, with a lever in his hand, receives the signal, opens the +valve, and breathes into the monstrous body the breath of life. The +ponderous piston slowly rises; the beam descends; the crank turns; the +vast paddles revolve, and the monster walks away through the water with +its enormous burden, having leaped suddenly, at its first breath, into +the complete and full possession of its gigantic powers. + +[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF THE PACIFIC FOR EUROPE.] + +In due time the equipment is complete, and the ship having received on +board its burden of costly cargo and valuable lives, moves away from +the shore, with a certain expression of calm and quiet dignity in her +appearance and demeanor, which almost seems to denote a consciousness on +her part of the vast responsibilities which she is assuming, and of the +abundant power which she possesses fully to sustain them all. + + + + +CHARLES WOLFE. + + +It is probable that to many of our readers the name which stands at the +head of this sketch is unknown, and that those who recognize it will +only know it as that of the author of the well-known lines upon the +death of Sir John Moore--a lyric of such surpassing beauty, that so +high a judge as Lord Byron considered it the perfection of English +lyrical poetry, preferring it before Coleridge's lines on +Switzerland--Campbell's Hohenlinden--and the finest of Moore's Irish +melodies, which were instanced by Shelley and others. Yet, unknown as +the Rev. Charles Wolfe is, it is unquestionable that he was a man +possessing the highest powers of imagination, and a powerful intellect, +cultivated to a very high point of perfection, and fitting him to become +one of the brightest stars of the world of literature. Why he is unknown +is then probably a question which will suggest itself to the minds of +many, and the answer must be, because he _did_ so little for the world +to remember him by. The whole of his literary remains, including his +sermons, and a biographical sketch, which fills one half of the book, is +contained in a moderate sized octavo volume, published after his death +by the Rev. J. A. Russell, Archdeacon of Clogher, whose affection for +the memory of Mr. Wolfe prompted him to edit and give to the world the +fragmentary manuscripts, which are the only lasting and appreciable +records of the residence of a great spirit among us. But it may be asked +why, with such capabilities and powers as we have stated Mr. Wolfe to +possess, he did so little? and to that interrogation many replies may be +given. Mr. Wolfe died at the early age of 32, just when the powers are +in their full vigor--and in the later years of his life he had devoted +himself enthusiastically to the duties which devolved upon him as the +curate of a large and populous parish in the north of Ireland. Neither +of these reasons, however, is sufficient, for we know that the poetic +intellect is precocious, and brings forth fruit early. Shelley, who died +younger, left productions behind him, which will hand his name down to +the latest posterity; and the comparatively voluminous writings of the +witty dean, Sidney Smith, prove that a man may bear the weight of the +clerical office, and take an active part in politics in addition, and +yet leave enough behind him to keep his name green in the memory of the +world. + +The true reason why Mr. Wolfe did so little is no doubt to be found in +the character of his mind, and this is easily traceable, both in the +mild, child-like, almost simple, but intelligent expression of the +portrait which forms a frontispiece to the volume to which we have +adverted, and in most of the passages of his life. There was a want of +strong resolution, and an absence of concentration so marked, that he +seldom read completely through even those books which most deeply +interested him--there was a nervous susceptibility, and an openness to +new impressions, which caused him as it were to dwell upon every passage +he did read, to linger over its beauties, to start objections to its +theories, to argue them out, and to develop to its fullest every +suggestive thought; and there was in him a spirit of good-nature +trenching upon weak compliance, which put his time at the service of all +who chose to thrust employment upon him. Added to this, and arising out +of his want of steady resolution and earnest will, there was a habit of +putting off till to-morrow what should be done to-day, of which he was +himself fully sensible, and which he speaks of in one of his letters, as +that "fatal habit of delay and procrastination, for which I am so +pre-eminently distinguished." + +Charles Wolfe was the youngest son of Theobald Wolfe, Esq., of +Blackball, in the County of Kildare, Ireland, and was born in Dublin on +the 13th of December, 1791. The family was not unknown to fame, for the +celebrated General Wolfe, who fell at Quebec, was one of its members, +and Lord Kilwarden, an eminent man at the Irish bar, and who was +afterward elevated to the dignity of a judgeship, was another. At an +early age the father of our hero died, and the family removed to +England, where Charles Wolfe was sent to a school at Bath. Here, +however, at the age of ten years, his studies were interrupted by +failing health for a period of twelve months. After that, he was in the +establishment of Dr. Evans, of Salisbury; and in 1805 we find him at +Winchester school, under the superintendence of Mr. Richards, senior. +Here he became conspicuous for his classical knowledge, and his great +powers of versification, which gave promise of future excellence. What +appears more distinctly, though, than his mental ability at this age, +was the amiability of his disposition, and the tractability of his +nature. His kindness, cheerfulness, and open sympathy drew to him the +love of his fellows; and the esteem in which he was held by his masters +may be judged from the fact, that during the whole period of his +pupilage his conduct never drew down upon him punishment, or even a +reprimand. His tender and affectionate disposition endeared him to his +own family, with whom he was an especial favorite; and in connection +with this, we may mention one circumstance strongly indicative of his +yielding character. In spite of his gentle nature, he, animated no doubt +by that desire for glory so common to poetical minds, and which, looking +on the brighter side of war, hides its terrors and its horrors from the +young and ardent, wished to enter the army; but finding that the idea +gave pain to his mother, he immediately abandoned the notion, and +appears from thenceforth to have looked upon the clerical office as his +destined part in life. Strange transition, from the aspiration to carry +forth death and destruction to that of being the bearer of the glad +tidings of "peace on earth, and good-will toward men." The change, +however, is one which we believe to be not unfrequent. The same desire +for fame urges men to the bar, the pulpit, and the tented field, and but +for maternal love, Charles Wolfe, carrying with him that martial spirit +which now and then breaks out in his poetry, might have been like his +namesake, the General, a blood-stained hero, instead of a peaceful, +loving Irish curate. So powerful are circumstances to mould man's +fate--and Wolfe was of that mould on which circumstances act with +peculiar force. Had he been a soldier, it may be that the occupation +would have strengthened his _physique_ at the expense of his mentality, +and that his bodily powers, unimpaired by sedentary habits, would have +carried him on to a good old age. There is food for reflection in that +idea, of how every course in life has its mixed good and evil. + +In 1808 the family returned to Ireland, and in 1809 Charles Wolfe became +a student of Dublin University. Here his classical learning and poetical +attainments soon made him conspicuous, and he carried off prizes from +the most distinguished of his competitors. The Historical Society of the +University, the object of which was the cultivation of history, poetry, +and oratory, also afforded him scope for the display of his talents, and +gave him opportunity to win several medals and prizes. Most of the few +poetical efforts of Mr. Wolfe were made at this period, including the +Death of Sir John Moore, and a beautiful song, connected with which is +an anecdote so strikingly characteristic of the nature of the author's +mind, and so indicative of his extreme sensibility, that it is worth +notice. + +He was particularly open to the influence of music, and one of his +favorite melodies was the popular Irish air "Gramachree," to which, at +the request of a friend, he wrote the following song: + + "If I had thought thou could'st have died, + I might not weep for thee: + But I forgot, when by thy side, + That thou could'st mortal be: + It never through my mind had pass'd, + The time would e'er be o'er, + And I on thee should look my last, + And thou should'st smile no more! + + "And still upon that face I look, + And think 'twill smile again; + And still the thought I will not brook, + That I must look in vain! + But when I speak thou dost not say, + What thou ne'er left'st unsaid; + And now I feel, as well I may, + Sweet Mary! thou art dead! + + "If thou would'st stay, e'en as thou art, + All cold, and all serene-- + I still might press thy silent heart, + And where thy smiles have been! + While e'en thy chill, bleak corse I have, + Thou seemest still mine own; + But there I lay thee in thy grave-- + And I am now alone. + + "I do not think, where'er thou art, + Thou hast forgotten me; + And I, perhaps, may soothe this heart, + In thinking too of thee: + Yet there was round thee such a dawn + Of light ne'er seen before, + As fancy never could have drawn, + And never can restore." + +His friends asked him whether he had any real incident in his mind which +suggested the stanzas; he said, "he had not; but that he had sung the +air over and over, till he burst into a flood of tears, in which mood he +composed the words." + +In the first year of Mr. Wolfe's attendance at the university, death +took his mother, to whom he was most affectionately attached--an event +which for some time interrupted his studies, and when he resumed them, +he did not manifest much inclination to apply himself to the exact +sciences. Here, however, that kindness of disposition which made him +more useful to others than to himself, and induced him to neglect his +own interests, and lend himself to those of his friends with an almost +fatal facility, came to his aid, and stood him in good stead. The desire +to assist a less gifted acquaintance impelled him to study more +strenuously than he would have done, for his own benefit, and had the +effect of so drawing out his own talents for scientific pursuits, that +at an examination upon the severer sciences he carried away the prize +from a host of talented candidates. Soon after, when his straitened +circumstances induced him to become a college tutor, he found the +benefit of his scientific acquirements; but in that capacity his +amiability of character was a disadvantage to him, for he was so anxious +for the progress of his pupils, and so prodigal of his time and labor +upon them, that he had but little opportunity for his own studies, or +for relaxation. + +After the usual period at the university, Mr. Wolfe took a scholarship, +with the highest honors, and went into residence, and in 1814 he took +the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His friends, seeing the talents he +evinced for scientific pursuits, urged him to read for a fellowship, and +for some time he prosecuted his studies with marked effect; but the want +of the power of continuous application, and intense concentration, made +him the sport of every trifling interruption, and the habit he had of +throwing aside books partly read, and dwelling upon striking passages +and disputable theories, impeded his progress. It is probable, however, +that with his great mental facilities, a less amount of exertion would +have sufficed than with less gifted students, and that despite his want +of industrial energy, and his unfavorable habits of mind, he would have +succeeded, but he was doomed to be disappointed in a manner which must +have had a very depressing effect on a mind constituted as his was. He +had formed an intimacy with a family in the vicinity of Dublin, and +while his visits to the beautiful scenery in which their dwelling was +situated, stimulated his poetical faculties, the charms of a daughter of +the house touched the sensitive heart of the young scholar. The +attachment was mutual, and ripened apace, but his want of "prospects" +induced the prudent parents to break off the intimacy. The expectant +fellowship indeed would have afforded him sufficient means, but a +barbarous statute was in force which imposed celibacy upon the fellows, +and barred his hopes. If this disappointment had happened to a man of +strong resolute will it would, in all likelihood, after the first shock +was over, have thrown him back upon his studies more determinedly than +ever, but on a nature like that of our hero, it had the contrary effect. +It damped his ardor, he lost both his mistress and the chance of +preferment; and, turning to religion for consolation, he was ordained in +November, 1817, and shortly after was engaged in temporary duty in the +North of Ireland, and finally settled as curate of Donoughmore, where he +continued the greater part of the remainder of his life. + +For the occupation of the ministry, Mr. Wolfe, notwithstanding his +youthful military tendency and love of society, was eminently fitted. +His mind was naturally of a devotional cast, and fitted peculiarly for +his new position. He was thoroughly in earnest--the strong impulse +supplied by intense devotional feeling served to counteract his want of +application. The kindness of his heart, and the desire to serve others, +which was so prominent a feature of his mind, made him untiring; the +dislike of contest which marked him led him to dwell on the vital points +common to all religions, and avoid controversial ground. That want of +self-esteem, too, which at the university had ever made him distrustful +of his own powers, and kept him from claiming the stanzas on Sir John +Moore, when they were claimed by, or attributed to others, induced him +to converse familiarly with the peasant, and to submit to contradiction +and even insult from those who, both socially and intellectually, were +inferior to himself. Add to this, that he thoroughly understood the +Irish character, which had many points in common with his own impulsive +versatile nature, and it may be conceived how influential he was in his +remote curacy. Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, all gathered round him +and often filled his little church, listening to his concise, +plain-spoken sermons, which far oftener treated of the hopes and mercies +than the terrors and punishments of Christianity, and in his parish +school the children of all denominations were taught together. This, +however, was not to last long. He had applied himself too assiduously to +his task for his physical strength. Oppressed with a sense of the +responsibility of his position he had, upon entering upon the ministry, +given up all thoughts of literature. He lived in an old, half-furnished +house, slept in a damp room, and traversed bog and moor on foot in all +weathers to visit his flock. Under these labors the latent tendency of +his constitution developed itself, his cough became day by day more +violent, and in 1821 it was evident that consumption had laid its hand +upon its prey. Still he was unwilling to retire from his ministry, and +it was only in compliance with the reiterated entreaties of his friends +that he at last proceeded to Scotland to consult a celebrated physician. +His return to his parish after that short absence proved the estimation +in which he was held among the people. As he rode by the cabins of the +peasantry, the occupants rushed out, and, with all the impulsive +devotion of the Irish toward those whom they regard as benefactors, fell +upon their knees, and invoked blessings upon him, and pursued the +carriage in which he rode, with fervent prayers. His health, however, +still continued to fail, and his friends at length persuaded him to +remove to Dublin, where he continued to preach occasionally, till his +physician forbade such effort, and to use his own words, "stripped him +of his gown." Toward the winter of 1821, it was thought advisable to +remove him to Bordeaux for a time, but adverse gales twice drove him +back to Holyhead, and he suffered so much from fatigue and sea-sickness +that it appeared best to locate him near Exeter, where he staid till the +spring of 1822, in the house of a clergyman, whose practice among the +poor had qualified him to act the part of a physician to the invalid. In +the spring, apparently somewhat improved, he returned to Dublin, and in +the summer made a short voyage to Bordeaux, where he staid about a +month. He then again returned to Dublin, and from that time steadily +declined. In November, 1822, accompanied by a relative and the Rev. Mr. +Russell, his biographer, he removed to the Cove of Cork, but all efforts +to recruit his failing strength were unavailing, and he expired there on +the 21st of February, 1823, in the 32d year of his age. About a +twelvemonth previous to his death, he had been preferred to the +important curacy of Armagh, but he never lived to visit his new parish. +All the letters written during his protracted illness prove his +amiability, and the patience with which he suffered, as well as the +ardor of the Christian faith on which he so confidently leaned, and few +men were more sincerely mourned by a large number of devoted and +admiring friends. + +Charles Wolfe was one of those characters eminently fitted to make good +men, but destitute of some of the qualities for what the world calls +greatness. He was a high type of that class who form the cynosure of +their own peculiar circles, where they are admired as much for the +kindliness of their nature as the extent of their attainments, and the +power and versatility of their talents. But wanting the self-esteem, the +unwavering self-confidence, the perseverance and unshaken resolution +which go to make up greatness, he possessed in an eminent degree those +kindly sympathies, tender feelings, and that earnest devotion to the +interests and wishes of his fellows, which among friends and intimates +make goodness so much more lovable than greatness. + + + + +MAURICE TIERNAY, THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. + +(_Continued from Page 478._) + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A REMNANT OF "FONTENOY." + +There was no resisting the inquisitive curiosity of my companion. The +short, dry cough, the little husky "ay," that sounded like any thing +rather than assent, which followed on my replies to his questions, and, +more than all, the keen, oblique glances of his shrewd gray eyes, told +me that I had utterly failed in all my attempts at mystification, and +that he read me through and through. + +"And so," said he, at last, after a somewhat lengthy narrative of my +shipwreck, "and so the Flemish sailors wear spurs?" + +"Spurs! of course not; why should they?" asked I, in some astonishment. + +"Well, but don't they?" asked he again. + +"No such thing; it would be absurd to suppose it." + +"So I thought," rejoined he; "and when I looked at yer 'honor's' boots +(it was the first time he had addressed me by this title of deference), +and saw the marks on the heel for spurs, I soon knew how much of a +sailor you were." + +"And if not a sailor, what am I, then?" asked I; for, in the loneliness +of the mountain region where we walked, I could afford to throw off my +disguise without risk. + +"Ye'r a French officer of dragoons, and God bless ye; but ye'r young to +be at the trade. Arn't I right now?" + +"Not very far from it certainly, for I am a lieutenant of hussars," said +I, with a little of that pride which we of the loose pelisse always feel +on the mention of our corps. + +"I knew it well all along," said he, coolly; "the way you stood in the +room, your step as you walked, and, above all, how ye believed me when I +spoke of the spring tides, and the moon only in her second quarter, I +saw you never was a sailor anyhow. And so I set a-thinking what you +were. You were too silent for a peddler, and your hands were too white +to be in the smuggling trade; but when I saw your boots, I had the +secret at once, and knew ye were one of the French army that landed the +other day at Killala." + +"It was stupid enough of me not to have remembered the boots!" said I, +laughing. + +"Arrah, what use would it be?" replied he; "sure ye'r too straight in +the back, and your walk is too reg'lar, and your toes turns in too much, +for a sailor; the very way you hould a switch in your hand would betray +you!" + +"So it seems; then I must try some other disguise," said I, "if I'm to +keep company with people as shrewd as you are." + +"You needn't," said he, shaking his head, doubtfully; "any that wants to +betray ye, wouldn't find it hard." + +I was not much flattered by the depreciating tone in which he dismissed +my efforts at personation, and walked on for some time without +speaking. + +"Yez came too late, four months too late," said he, with a sorrowful +gesture of the hands. "When the Wexford boys was up, and the Kildare +chaps, and plenty more ready to come in from the North, then, indeed, a +few thousand French down here in the West would have made a differ; but +what's the good in it now? The best men we had are hanged, or in jail; +some are frightened; more are traitors! 'Tis too late--too late!" + +"But not too late for a large force, landing in the North, to rouse the +island to another effort for liberty." + +"Who would be the gin'ral?" asked he, suddenly. + +"Napper Tandy, your own countryman," replied I, proudly. + +"I wish ye luck of him!" said he, with a bitter laugh; "'tis more like +mocking us than any thing else the French does be, with the chaps they +sent here to be gin'rals. Sure it isn't Napper Tandy, nor a set of young +lawyers, like Tone and the rest of them, we wanted. It was men that knew +how to drill and manage troops--fellows that was used to fightin'; so +that when they said a thing, we might believe that they understhood it, +at laste. I'm ould enough to remimber the 'Wild Geese,' as they used to +call them--the fellows that ran away from this to take sarvice in +France; and I remimber, too, the sort of men the French were that came +over to inspect them--soldiers, real soldiers, every inch of them: and a +fine sarvice it was. Volle-face!" cried he, holding himself erect, and +shouldering his stick like a musket; "marche! Ha, ha! ye didn't think +_that_ was in me; but I was at the thrade long before you were born." + +"How is this," said I, in amazement, "you were not in the French army?" + +"Wasn't I, though? maybe I didn't get that stick there." And he bared +his breast as he spoke, to show the cicatrix of an old flesh-wound from +a Highlander's bayonet. "I was at Fontenoy!" + +The last few words he uttered, with a triumphant pride, that I shall +never forget. As for me, the mere name was magical. "Fontenoy" was like +one of those great words which light up a whole page of history; and it +almost seemed impossible that I should see before me a soldier of that +glorious battle. + +"Ay, faith!" he added, "'tis more than fifty, 'tis nigh sixty years now +since that, and I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was in the +regiment 'Tourville;' I was recruited for the 'Wellon,' but they +scattered us about among the other corps afterward, because we used now +and then to be fighting and quarrelin' among one an' other. Well, it was +the Wellons that gained the battle; for after the English was in the +village of Fontenoy, and the French was falling back upon the heights +near the wood--arrah, what's the name of the wood?--sure I'll forget my +own name next. Ay, to be sure, Verzon--the 'wood of Verzon.' Major +Jodillon--that's what the French called him, but his name was Joe +Wellon--turned an eight-pounder short round into a little yard of a +farm-house, and, making a breach for the gun, he opened a dreadful fire +on the English column. It was loaded with grape, and at half-musket +range, so you may think what a peppering they got. At last the column +halted, and lay down; and Joe seen an officer ride off to the rear, to +bring up artillery to silence our guns. A few minutes more, and it would +be all over with us. So Joe shouts out as loud as he could, 'Cavalry +there! tell off by threes, and prepare to charge!' I needn't tell you +that the devil a horse nor a rider was within a mile of us at the time; +but the English didn't know that; and, hearin' the order, up they jumps, +and we heerd the word passin', 'Prepare to receive cavalry!' They formed +square at once, and the same minute we plumped into them with such a +charge as tore a lane right through the middle of them. Before they +could recover, we opened a platoon fire on their flank; they staggered, +broke, and at last fell back in disorder upon Aeth, with the whole of +the French army after them. Such firin'--grape, round-shot, and +musketry--I never seed afore, and we all shouting like divils, for it +was more like a hunt nor any thing else; for ye see the Dutch never came +up, but left the English to do all the work themselves, and that's the +reason they couldn't form, for they had no supportin' colum'. + +"It was then I got that stick of the bayonet, for there was such runnin' +that we only thought of pelting after them as hard as we could; but ye +see, there's nothin' so treacherous as a Highlander. I was just behind +one, and had my sword-point between his blade-hones, ready to run him +through, when he turned short about, and run his bayonet into me under +the short ribs, and that was all I saw of the battle; for I bled till I +fainted, and never knew more of what happened. 'Tisn't by way of making +little of Frenchmen I say it, for I sarved too long wid them for +_that_--but sorra taste of that victory ever they'd see if it wasn't for +the Wellons, and Major Joe that commanded them! The English knows it +well, too! Maybe they don't do us many a spite for it to this very day!" + +"And what became of you after that?" + +"The same summer I came over to Scotland with the young Prince Charles, +and was at the battle of Preston-pans afterward; and, what's worse, I +was at Culloden! Oh, that was the terrible day! We were dead bate before +we began the battle. We were on the march from one o'clock the night +before, under the most dreadful rain ever ye seen! We lost our way +twice; and, after four hours of hard marching, we found ourselves +opposite a mill-dam we crossed early that same morning; for the guides +led us all astray! Then came ordhers to wheel about face, and go back +again; and back we went, cursing the blaguards that deceived us, and +almost faintin' with hunger. Some of us had nothing to eat for two +days, and the Prince, I seen myself, had only a brown bannock to a +wooden measure of whiskey for his own breakfast. Well, it's no use +talking, we were bate, and we retreated to Inverness that night, and +next morning we surrendered and laid down our arms--that is, the +'Regiment du Tournay,' and the 'Voltigeurs de Metz,' the corps I was in +myself." + +"And did you return to France?" + +"No; I made my way back to Ireland, and after loiterin' about home some +time, and not liking the ways of turning to work again, I took sarvice +with one Mister Brooke, of Castle Brooke, in Fermanagh, a young man that +was just come of age, and as great a devil, God forgive me, as ever was +spawned. He was a Protestant, but he didn't care much about one side or +the other, but only wanted divarsion and his own fun out of the world; +and faix he took it, too! He had plenty of money, was a fine man to look +at, and had courage to face a lion! + +"The first place we went to was Aix-la-Chapelle, for Mr. Brooke was +named something--I forget what--to Lord Sandwich, that was going there +as an embassador. It was a grand life there while it lasted. Such +liveries, such coaches, such elegant dinners every day, I never saw even +in Paris. But my master was soon sent away for a piece of wildness he +did. There was an ould Austrian there--a Count Riedensegg was his +name--and he was always plottin' and schamin' with this, that, and the +other; buyin' up the sacrets of others, and gettin' at their sacret +papers one way or the other; and at last he begins to thry the same game +with us; and as he saw that Mr. Brooke was very fond of high play, and +would bet any thing one offered him, the ould Count sends for a great +gambler from Vienna, the greatest villain, they say, that ever touched a +card. Ye may have heerd of him, tho' 'twas long ago that he lived, for +he was well known in them times. He was the Baron von Breckendorf, and a +great friend afterward of the Prince Ragint and all the other blaguards +in London. + +"Well, sir, the baron arrives in great state, with dispatches, they +said, but sorrow other dispatch he carried nor some packs of marked +cards, and a dice-box that could throw sixes whenever ye wanted; and he +puts up at the Grand Hotel, with all his servants in fine liveries, and +as much state as a prince. That very day Mr. Brooke dined with the +count, and in the evening himself and the baron sits down to the cards; +and, pretending to be only playin' for silver, they were betting a +hundred guineas on every game. + +"I always heerd that my master was cute with the cards, and that few was +equal to him in any game with pasteboard or ivory; but, be my +conscience, he met his match now, for if it was ould Nick was playin' he +couldn't do the thrick nater nor the baron. He made every thing come up +just like magic: if he wanted a seven of diamonds, or an ace of spades, +or the knave of clubs, there it was for you. + +"Most gentlemen would have lost temper at seein' the luck so dead agin' +them, and every thing goin' so bad, but my master only smiled, and kept +muttering to himself, 'Faix, it's beautiful; by my conscience it is +elegant; I never saw any body could do it like that.' At last the baron +stops and asks, 'What is it he's saying to himself?' 'I'll tell you +by-and-by,' says my master, 'when we're done playing;' and so on they +went, betting higher and higher, till at last the stakes wasn't very far +from a thousand pounds on a single card. At the end, Mr. Brooke lost +every thing, and in the last game, by way of generosity, the baron says +to him, 'Double or quit?' and he tuk it. + +"This time luck stood to my master, and he turned the queen of hearts; +and as there was only one card could beat him, the game was all as one +as his own. The baron takes up the pack, and begins to deal, 'Wait,' +says my master, leaning over the table, and talking in a whisper; +'wait,' says he, 'what are ye doin' there wid your thumb?' for sure +enough he had his thumb dug hard into the middle of the pack. + +"'Do you mane to insult me,' says the baron, getting mighty red, and +throwing down the cards on the table, 'Is that what you're at?' + +"'Go on with the deal,' says Mr. Brooke, quietly; 'but listen to me,' +and here he dropped his voice to a whisper, 'as sure as you turn the +king of hearts I'll send a bullet through your skull! Go on now, and +don't rise from that seat till you've finished the game.' Faix, he just +did as he was bid; he turned a little two or three of diamonds, and +gettin' up from the table, he left the room, and the next morning there +was no more seen of him in Aix-la-Chapelle. But that wasn't the end of +it, for scarce was the baron two posts on his journey, when my master +sends in his name, and says he wants to speak to Count Riedensegg. There +was a long time, and a great debatin', I believe, whether they'd let him +in or not; for the count couldn't make if it was mischief he was after; +but at last he was ushered into the bedroom where the other was in bed. + +"'Count,' says he, after he fastened the door, and saw that they was +alone, 'Count, you tried a dirty thrick with that dirty spalpeen of a +baron--an ould blaguard that's as well known as Freney, the robber--but +I forgive you for it all, for you did it in the way of business. I know +well what you was afther; you wanted a peep at our dispatches--there, ye +needn't look cross and angry--why wouldn't ye do it, just as the baron +always took a sly glance at my cards before he played his own. Well, +now, I'm just in the humor to sarve you. They're not trating me as they +ought here, and I'm going away, and if you'll give me a few letthers to +some of the pretty women in Vienna, Kateuka Batthyani, and Amalia +Gradoffsky, and one or two men in the best set, I'll send you in return +something will surprise you.' + +"It was after a long time and great batin' about the bush, that the ould +count came in; but the sight of a sacret cipher did the business, and he +consented. + +"'There it is,' says Mr. Brooke, 'there's the whole key to our +correspondence, study it well, and I'll bring you a sacret dispatch in +the evening--something that will surprise you.' + +"'Ye will--will ye?' says the count. + +"'On the honor of an Irish gentleman, I will,' says Mr. Brooke. + +"The count sits down on the spot and writes the letters to all the +princesses and countesses in Vienna, saying that Mr. Brooke was the +elegantest, and politest, and most trusty young gentleman ever he met; +and telling them to treat him with every consideration. + +"'There will be another account of me,' says the master to me, 'by the +post; but I'll travel faster, and give me a fair start, and I ask no +more.' + +"And he was as good as his word, for he started that evening for Vienna, +without lave or license, and that's the way he got dismissed from his +situation." + +"And did he break his promise to the count, or did he really send him +any intelligence?" + +"He kept his word like a gentleman; he promised him something that would +surprise him, and so he did. He sent him the weddin' of Ballyporeen in +cipher. It took a week to make out, and I suppose they've never got to +the right understandin' it yet." + +"I'm curious to hear how he was received in Vienna after this," said I. +"I suppose you accompanied him to that city." + +"Troth I did, and a short life we led there; but here we are now, at the +end of our journey. That's Father Doogan's down there, that small, low, +thatched house in the hollow." + +"A lonely spot, too. I don't see another near it for miles on any side." + +"Nor is there. His chapel is at Murrah, about three miles off. My eyes +isn't over good; but I don't think there's any smoke coming out of the +chimley." + +"You are right--there is not." + +"He's not at home, then, and that's a bad job for us, for there's not +another place to stop the night in." + +"But there will be surely some one in the house." + +"Most likely not; 'tis a brat of a boy from Murrah does be with him when +he's at home, and I'm sure he's not there now." + +This reply was not very cheering, nor was the prospect itself much +brighter. The solitary cabin, to which we were approaching, stood in a +rugged glen, the sides of which were covered with a low furze, +intermixed here and there with the scrub of what once had been an oak +forest. A brown, mournful tint was over every thing--sky and landscape +alike; and even the little stream of clear water that wound its twining +course along, took the same color from the gravelly bed it flowed over. +Not a cow nor sheep was to be seen, nor even a bird; all was silent and +still. + +"There's few would like to pass their lives down there, then!" said my +companion, as if speaking to himself. + +"I suppose the priest, like a soldier, has no choice in these matters." + +"Sometimes he has, though. Father Doogan might have had the pick of the +county, they say; but he chose this little quiet spot here. He's a friar +of some ordher abroad, and when he came over, two or three years ago, he +could only spake a little Irish, and, I believe, less English; but there +wasn't his equal, for other tongues, in all Europe. They wanted him to +stop and be the head of a college somewhere in Spain, but he wouldn't. +'There was work to do in Ireland,' he said, and there he'd go, and to +the wildest and laste civilized bit of it besides; and ye see that he +was not far out in his choice when he took Murrah." + +"Is he much liked here by the people?" + +"They'd worship him, if he'd let them, that's what it is; for if he has +more larnin' and knowledge in his head than ever a bishop in Ireland, +there's not a child in the barony his equal for simplicity. He that +knows the names of the stars, and what they do be doing, and where the +world's going, and what's comin' afther her, hasn't a thought for the +wickedness of this life, no more than a sucking infant! He could tell +you every crop to put in your ground from this to the day of judgment, +and I don't think he'd know which end of the spade goes into the +ground." + +While we were thus talking, we reached the door, which, as well as the +windows, was closely barred and fastened. The great padlock, however, on +the former, with characteristic acuteness, was locked without being +hasped, so that, in a few seconds, my old guide had undone all the +fastenings, and we found ourselves under shelter. + +A roomy kitchen, with a few cooking utensils, formed the entrance hall; +and as a small supply of turf stood in one corner, my companion at once +proceeded to make a fire, congratulating me as he went on with the fact +of our being housed, for a long-threatening thunder storm had already +burst, and the rain was swooping along in torrents. + +While he was thus busied I took a ramble through the little cabin, +curious to see something of the "interior" of one whose life had already +interested me. There were but two small chambers, one at either side of +the kitchen. The first I entered was a bedroom, the only furniture being +a common bed, or a tressel like that of an hospital, a little colored +print of St. Michael adorning the wall overhead. The bed-covering was +cleanly, but patched in many places, and bespeaking much poverty, and +the black "soutane" of silk that hung against the wall seemed to show +long years of service. The few articles of any pretension to comfort +were found in the sitting-room, where a small book-shelf with some +well-thumbed volumes, and a writing-table covered with papers, maps, and +a few pencil-drawings, appeared. All seemed as if he had just quitted +the spot a few minutes before; the pencil lay across a half-finished +sketch; two or three wild plants were laid within the leaves of a little +book on botany; and a chess problem, with an open book beside it, still +waited for solution on a little board, whose workmanship clearly enough +betrayed it to be by his own hands. + +I inspected every thing with an interest inspired by all I had been +hearing of the poor priest, and turned over the little volumes of his +humble library to trace, if I might, some clew to his habits in his +readings. They were all, however, of one cast and character--religious +tracts and offices, covered with annotations and remarks, and showing, +by many signs the most careful and frequent perusal. It was easy to see +that his taste for drawing or for chess were the only dissipations he +permitted himself to indulge. What a strange life of privation, thought +I, alone and companionless as he must be! and while speculating on the +sense of duty which impelled such a man to accept a post so humble and +unpromising, I perceived that on the wall right opposite to me there +hung a picture, covered by a little curtain of green silk. + +Curious to behold the saintly effigy so carefully enshrined, I drew +aside the curtain, and what was my astonishment to find a little colored +sketch of a boy about twelve years old, dressed in the tawdry and +much-worn uniform of a drummer. I started. Something flashed suddenly +across my mind, that the features, the dress, the air, were not unknown +to me. Was I awake, or were my senses misleading me? I took it down and +held it to the light, and as well as my trembling hands permitted, I +spelled out, at the foot of the drawing, the words "Le Petit Maurice, as +I saw him last." Yes: it was my own portrait, and the words were in the +writing of my dearest friend in the world, the Père Michael. Scarce +knowing what I did, I ransacked books and papers on every side, to +confirm my suspicions, and although his name was nowhere to be found, I +had no difficulty in recognizing his hand, now so forcibly recalled to +my memory. + +Hastening into the kitchen, I told my guide, that I must set out to +Murrah at once, that it was above all important that I should see the +priest immediately. It was in vain that he told me he was unequal to the +fatigue of going further, that the storm was increasing, the mountain +torrents were swelling to a formidable size, that the path could not be +discovered after dark; I could not brook the thought of delay, and would +not listen to the detail of difficulties. "I must see him and I will," +were my answers to every obstacle. If I were resolved on one side, _he_ +was no less obstinate on the other; and after explaining with patience +all the dangers and hazards of the attempt, and still finding me +unconvinced, he boldly declared that I might go alone, if I would, but +that he would not leave the shelter of a roof, such a night, for any +one. + +There was nothing in the shape of argument I did not essay. I tried +bribery, I tried menace, flattery, intimidation, all--and all with the +like result. "Wherever he is to-night, he'll not leave it, that's +certain," was the only satisfaction he would vouchsafe, and I retired +beaten from the contest, and disheartened. Twice I left the cottage, +resolved to go alone and unaccompanied, but the utter darkness of the +night, the torrents of rain that beat against my face, soon showed me +the impracticability of the attempt, and I retraced my steps +crest-fallen and discomfited. The most intense curiosity to know how and +by what chances he had come to Ireland mingled with my ardent desire to +meet him. What stores of reminiscence had we to interchange! Nor was it +without pride that I bethought me of the position I then held--an +officer of a Hussar regiment, a soldier of more than one campaign, and +high on the list for promotion. If I hoped, too, that many of the good +father's prejudices against the career I followed would give way to the +records of my own past life, I also felt how, in various respects, I had +myself conformed to many of his notions. We should be dearer, closer +friends than ever. This I knew and was sure of. + +I never slept the whole night through; tired and weary as the day's +journey had left me, excitement was still too strong for repose, and I +walked up and down, lay for half an hour on my bed, rose to look out, +and peer for coming dawn! Never did hours lag so lazily. The darkness +seemed to last for an eternity, and when at last day did break, it was +through the lowering gloom of skies still charged with rain, and an +atmosphere loaded with vapor. + +"This is a day for the chimney corner, and thankful to have it we ought +to be," said my old guide, as he replenished the turf fire, at which he +was preparing our breakfast. "Father Doogan will be home here afore +night, I'm sure, and as we have nothing better to do, I'll tell you some +of our old adventures when I lived with Mr. Brooke. 'Twill sarve to pass +the time, any way." + +"I'm off to Murrah, as soon as I have eaten something," replied I. + +"'Tis little you know what a road it is," said he, smiling dubiously. +"'Tis four mountain rivers you'd have to cross, two of them, at least, +deeper than your head, and there's the pass of Barnascorny, where you'd +have to turn the side of a mountain, with a precipice hundreds of feet +below you, and a wind blowing that would wreck a seventy-four! There's +never a man in the barony would venture over the same path, with a storm +ragin' from the nor'west." + +"I never heard of a man being blown away off a mountain," said I, +laughing contemptuously. + +"Arrah, didn't ye then? then maybe ye never tried in parts where the +heaviest plows and harrows that can be laid in the thatch of a cabin are +flung here and there, like straws, and the strongest timbers torn out of +the walls, and scattered for miles along the coast, like the spars of a +shipwreck." + +"But so long as a man has hands to grip with." + +"How ye talk; sure when the wind can tear the strongest trees up by the +roots; when it rolls big rocks fifty and a hundred feet out of their +place; when the very shingle on the mountain side is flyin' about like +dust and sand, where would your grip be? It is not only on the mountains +either, but down in the plains, ay, even in the narrowest glens, that +the cattle lies down under shelter of the rocks; and many's the time a +sheep, or even a heifer, is swept away off the cliffs into the sea." + +With many an anecdote of storm and hurricane he seasoned our little meal +of potatoes. Some curious enough, as illustrating the precautionary +habits of a peasantry, who, on land, experience many of the vicissitudes +supposed peculiar to the sea; others too miraculous for easy credence, +but yet vouched for by him with every affirmative of truth. He displayed +all his powers of agreeability and amusement, but his tales fell on +unwilling ears, and when our meal was over I started up and began to +prepare for the road. + +"So you will go, will you?" said he, peevishly. "'Tis in your country to +be obstinate, so I'll say nothing more; but maybe 'tis only into +throubles you'd be running after all!" + +"I'm determined on it," said I, "and I only ask you to tell me what road +to take." + +"There is only one, so there is no mistakin' it; keep to the sheep path, +and never leave it except at the torrents; you must pass them how ye +can, and when ye come to four big rocks in the plain leave them to your +left, and keep the side of the mountain for two miles, 'till ye see the +smoke of the village underneath you. Murrah is a small place, and ye'll +have to look out sharp or maybe ye'll miss it." + +"That's enough," said I, putting some silver in his hand as I pressed +it. "We'll probably meet no more; good-by, and many thanks for your +pleasant company." + +"No, we're not like to meet again," said he, thoughtfully, "and that's +the reason I'd like to give you a bit of advice. Hear me now," said he, +drawing closer and talking in a whisper; "you can't go far in this +country without being known; 'tisn't your looks alone, but your voice, +and your tongue, will show what ye are. Get away out of it as fast as +you can! there's thraitors in every cause, and there's chaps in Ireland +would rather make money as informers than earn it by honest industry! +Get over to the Scotch islands; get to Isla or Barra; get any where out +of this for the time." + +"Thanks for the counsel," said I, somewhat coldly, "I'll have time to +think over it as I go along," and with these words I set forth on my +journey. + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +"THE CRANAGH." + +I will not weary my reader with a narrative of my mountain walk, nor the +dangers and difficulties which beset me on that day of storm and +hurricane. Few as were the miles to travel, what with accidents, +mistakes of the path, and the halts to take shelter, I only reached +Murrah as the day was declining. + +The little village, which consisted of some twenty cabins, occupied a +narrow gorge between two mountains, and presented an aspect of greater +misery than I had ever witnessed before, not affording even the humblest +specimen of a house of entertainment. From some peasants that were +lounging in the street I learned that "Father Doogan" had passed through +two days before in company with a naval officer, whom they believed to +be French. At least, "he came from one of the ships in the Lough, and +could speak no English." Since that the priest had not returned, and +many thought that he had gone away forever. This story, varied in a few +unimportant particulars, I heard from several; and also learned that a +squadron of several sail had, for three or four days, been lying at the +entrance of Lough Swilly, with, it was said, large reinforcements for +the "army of independence." There was then no time to be lost: here was +the very force which I had been sent to communicate with; there were the +troops that should at that moment be disembarking. The success of my +mission might all depend now on a little extra exertion, and so I at +once engaged a guide to conduct me to the coast, and having fortified +myself with a glass of mountain whiskey, I felt ready for the road. My +guide could only speak a very little English; so that our way was passed +in almost unbroken silence; and, as for security, he followed the least +frequented paths, we scarcely met a living creature as we went. It was +with a strange sense of half pride, half despondency, that I bethought +me of my own position there--a Frenchman, alone, and separated from his +countrymen--in a wild mountain region of Ireland, carrying about him +documents that, if detected, might peril his life; involved in a cause +that had for its object the independence of a nation; and that against +the power of the mightiest kingdom in Europe. An hour earlier or later, +an accident by the way, a swollen torrent, a chance impediment of any +kind that should delay me--and what a change might that produce in the +whole destiny of the world. The dispatches I carried conveyed +instructions the most precise and accurate--the places for combined +action of the two armies--information as to the actual state of parties, +and the condition of the native forces, was contained in them. All that +could instruct the newly-come generals, or encourage them to decisive +measures were there; and, yet, on what narrow contingencies did their +safe arrival depend! It was thus, in exaggerating to myself the part I +played--in elevating my humble position into all the importance of a +high trust--that I sustained my drooping spirits, and acquired energy to +carry me through fatigue and exhaustion. During that night, and the +greater part of the following day, we walked on, almost without halt, +scarcely eating, and, except by an occasional glass of whisky, totally +unrefreshed; and I am free to own, that my poor guide--a bare-legged +youth of about seventeen, without any of those high-sustaining illusions +which stirred within my heart--suffered far less either from hunger or +weariness than _I_ did. So much for motives. A shilling or two were +sufficient to equalize the balance against all the weight of my heroism +and patriotic ardor together! + +A bright sun, and a sharp wind from the north, had succeeded to the +lowering sky and heavy atmosphere of the morning, and we traveled along +with light hearts and brisk steps, breasting the side of a deep ascent, +from the summit of which my guide told me, I should behold the sea--the +sea, not only the great plain on which I expected to see our armament, +but the link which bound me to my country! Suddenly, just as I turned +the angle of a cliff, it burst upon my sight--one vast mirror of golden +splendor--appearing almost at my feet! In the yellow gleams of a setting +sun, long columns of azure-colored light streaked its calm surface, and +tinged the atmosphere with a warm and rosy hue. While I was lost in +admiration of the picture, I heard the sound of voices close beneath me, +and, on looking down, saw two figures who, with telescopes in hand, were +steadily gazing on a little bay that extended toward the west. + +At first, my attention was more occupied by the strangers than by the +object of their curiosity, and I remarked that they were dressed and +equipped like sportsmen, their guns and game-bags lying against the rock +behind them. + +"Do you still think that they are hovering about the coast, Tom?" said +the elder of the two, "or are you not convinced, at last, that I am +right?" + +"I believe you are," replied the other; "but it certainly did not look +like it yesterday evening, with their boats rowing ashore every half +hour, signals flying, and blue lights burning; all seemed to threaten a +landing." + +"If they ever thought of it, they soon changed their minds," said the +former. "The defeat of their comrades in the west, and the apathy of the +peasantry here, would have cooled down warmer ardor than theirs. There +they go, Tom. I only hope that they'll fall in with Warren's squadron, +and French insolence receive at sea the lesson we failed to give them on +land." + +"Not so," rejoined the younger; "Humbert's capitulation, and the total +break-up of the expedition ought to satisfy even your patriotism." + +"It fell far short of it, then!" cried the other. "I'd never have +treated those fellows other than as bandits and freebooters. I'd have +hanged them as highwaymen. There was less war than rapine; but what +could you expect? I have been assured that Humbert's force consisted of +little other than liberated felons and galley slaves--the refuse of the +worst population of Europe!" + +Distracted with the terrible tidings I had overheard--overwhelmed with +the sight of the ships, now glistening like bright specks on the verge +of the horizon, I forgot my own position--my safety--every thing but the +insult thus cast upon my gallant comrades. + +"Whoever said so was a liar, and a base coward, to boot!" cried I, +springing down from the height and confronting them both where they +stood. They started back, and, seizing their guns, assumed an attitude +of defense, and then, quickly perceiving that I was alone--for the boy +had taken to flight as fast as he could--they stood regarding me with +faces of intense astonishment. + +"Yes," said I, still boiling with passion, "you are two to one, on your +own soil besides, the odds you are best used to; and yet I repeat it, +that he who asperses the character of General Humbert's force is a +liar." + +"He's French." + +"No, he's Irish," muttered the elder. "What signifies my country, sirs," +cried I passionately, "if I demand retraction for a falsehood." + +"It signifies more than you think of, young man," said the elder, +calmly, and without evincing even the slightest irritation in his +manner. "If you be a Frenchman born, the lenity of our government +accords you the privilege of a prisoner of war. If you be only French by +adoption, and a uniform, a harsher destiny awaits you." + +"And who says I am a prisoner yet?" asked I, drawing myself up, and +staring them steadily in the face. + +"We should be worse men, and poorer patriots, than you give us credit +for, or we should be able to make you so," said he quietly, "but this is +no case for ill-temper on either side. The expedition has failed. Well, +if you will not believe _me_, read that. There, in that paper, you will +see the official account of General Humbert's surrender at Boyle. The +news is already over the length and breadth of the island; even if you +only landed last night, I can not conceive how you should be ignorant of +it!" I covered my face with my hands to hide my emotion; and he went on: +"If you be French, you have only to claim and prove your nationality, +and you partake the fortunes of your countrymen." + +"And if he be not," whispered the other, in a voice which, although low, +I could still detect, "why should _we_, give him up?" + +"Hush, Tom, be quiet," replied the elder, "let him plead for himself." + +"Let me see the newspaper," said I, endeavoring to seem calm and +collected; and taking it at the place he pointed out, I read the heading +in capitals, "CAPITULATION OF GENERAL HUMBERT AND HIS WHOLE FORCE." I +could see no more. I could not trace the details of so horrible a +disaster, nor did I ask to know by what means it occurred. My attitude +and air of apparent occupation, however, deceived the other; and the +elder, supposing that I was engaged in considering the paragraph, said, +"You'll see the government proclamation on the other side, a general +amnesty to all under the rank of officers in the rebel army, who give up +their arms within six days. The French to be treated as prisoners of +war." + +"Is he too late to regain the fleet," whispered the younger. + +"Of course he is. They are already hull down; besides, who's to assist +his escape, Tom? You forget the position he stands in." + +"But I do not forget it," answered I, "and you need not be afraid that I +will seek to compromise you, gentlemen. Tell me where to find the +nearest justice of the peace, and I will go and surrender myself." + +"It is your wisest and best policy," said the elder; "I am not in the +commission, but a neighbor of mine is, and lives a few miles off, and if +you like we'll accompany you to his house." + +I accepted the offer, and soon found myself descending the steep path of +the mountain in perfect good-fellowship with the two strangers. It is +likely enough, that if they had taken any peculiar pains to obliterate +the memory of our first meeting, or if they had displayed any +extraordinary efforts of conciliation, that I should be on my guard +against them; but their manner, on the contrary, was easy and unaffected +in every respect. They spoke of the expedition sensibly and +dispassionately, and while acknowledging that there were many things +they would like to see altered in the English rule of Ireland, they were +very averse from the desire of a foreign intervention to rectify them. + +I avowed to them that we had been grossly deceived. That all the +representations made us, depicted Ireland as a nation of soldiers, +wanting only arms and military stores to rise as a vast army. That the +peasantry were animated by one spirit, and the majority of the gentry +willing to hazard every thing on the issue of a struggle. Our Killala +experiences, of which I detailed some, heartily amused them, and it was +in a merry interchange of opinions that we now walked along together. + +A cluster of houses, too small to be called a village, and known as the +"Cranagh," stood in a little nook of the bay; and here they lived. They +were brothers; and the elder held some small appointment in the revenue, +which maintained them as bachelors in this cheap country. In a low +conversation that passed between them, it was agreed that they would +detain me as their guest for that evening, and on the morrow accompany +me to the magistrate's house, about five miles distant. I was not sorry +to accept their hospitable offer. I longed for a few hours of rest and +respite before embarking on another sea of troubles. The failure of the +expedition, and the departure of the fleet, had overwhelmed me with +grief, and I was in no mood to confront new perils. + +If my new acquaintances could have read my inmost thoughts, their manner +toward me could not have displayed more kindness or good-breeding. Not +pressing me with questions on subjects where the greatest curiosity +would have been permissible, they suffered me to tell only so much as I +wished of our late plans; and as if purposely to withdraw my thoughts +from the unhappy theme of our defeat, led me to talk of France, and her +career in Europe. + +It was not without surprise that I saw how conversant the newspapers had +made them with European politics, nor how widely different did events +appear, when viewed from afar off, and by the lights of another and +different nationality Thus all that we were doing on the Continent to +propagate liberal notions, and promote the spread of freedom, seemed to +their eyes but the efforts of an ambitious power to crush abroad what +they had annihilated at home, and extend their own influence in +disseminating doctrines, all to revert, one day or other, to some grand +despotism, whenever the man arose capable to exercise it. The elder +would not even concede to us that we were fit for freedom. + +"You are glorious fellows at destroying an old edifice," said he; "but +sorry architects when comes the question of rebuilding; and as to +liberty, your highest notion of it is an occasional anarchy. Like +school-boys, you will bear any tyranny for ten years, to have ten days +of a 'barring out' afterward." + +I was not much flattered by these opinions; and what was worse, I could +not get them out of my head all night afterward. Many things I had never +doubted about now kept puzzling and confounding me, and I began, for the +first time, to know the misery of the struggle between implicit +obedience and conviction. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +SOME NEW ACQUAINTANCES. + +I went to bed at night in all apparent health; save from the flurry and +excitement of an anxious mind, I was in no respect different from my +usual mood; and yet when I awoke next morning, my head was distracted +with a racking pain, cramps were in all my limbs, and I could not turn +or even move without intense suffering. The long exposure to rain, while +my mind was in a condition of extreme excitement, had brought on an +attack of fever, and before evening set in, I was raving in wild +delirium. Every scene I had passed through, each eventful incident of +my life, came flashing in disjointed portions through my poor brain; and +I raved away of France, of Germany, of the dreadful days of terror, and +the fearful orgies of the "Revolution." Scenes of strife and +struggle--the terrible conflicts of the streets--all rose before me; and +the names of every blood-stained hero of France now mingled with the +obscure titles of Irish insurrection. + +What narratives of my early life I may have given--what stories I may +have revealed of my strange career, I can not tell; but the interest my +kind hosts took in me grew stronger every day. There was no care nor +kindness they did not lavish on me. Taking alternate nights to sit up +with me, they watched beside my bed, like brothers. All that affection +could give they rendered me; and even from their narrow fortunes they +paid a physician, who came from a distant town to visit me. When I was +sufficiently recovered to leave my bed, and sit at the window, or stroll +slowly in the garden, I became aware of the full extent to which their +kindness had carried them, and in the precautions for secrecy, I saw the +peril to which my presence exposed them. From an excess of delicacy +toward me, they did not allude to the subject, nor show the slightest +uneasiness about the matter; but day by day some little circumstance +would occur, some slight and trivial fact reveal the state of anxiety +they lived in. + +They were averse, too, from all discussion of late events, and either +answered my questions vaguely or with a certain reserve; and when I +hinted at my hope of being soon able to appear before a magistrate and +establish my claim as a French citizen, they replied that the moment was +an unfavorable one; the lenity of the government had latterly been +abused; their gracious intentions misstated and perverted; that, in +fact, a reaction toward severity had occurred, and military law and +courts-martial were summarily disposing of cases that a short time back +would have received the mildest sentences of civil tribunals. It was +clear, from all they said, that if the rebellion was suppressed, the +insurrectionary feeling was not extinguished, and that England was the +very reverse of tranquil on the subject of Ireland. + +It was to no purpose that I repeated my personal indifference to all +these measures of severity; that in my capacity as a Frenchman and an +officer, I stood exempt from all the consequences they alluded to. Their +reply was, that in times of trouble and alarm things were done which +quieter periods would never have sanctioned, and that indiscreet and +over-zealous men would venture on acts that neither law nor justice +could substantiate. In fact, they gave me to believe, that such was the +excitement of the moment, such the embittered vengeance of those whose +families or fortunes had suffered by the rebellion, that no reprisals +would be thought too heavy, nor any harshness too great, for those who +aided the movement. + +Whatever I might have said against the injustice of this proceeding, in +my secret heart I had to confess that it was only what might have been +expected, and coming from a country where it was enough to call a man an +aristocrat and then cry "a la lanterne," I saw nothing unreasonable in +it all. + +My friends, advised me, therefore, instead of preferring any formal +claim to immunity, to take the first occasion of escaping to America, +whence I could not fail, later on, of returning to France. At first, the +counsel only irritated me, but by degrees, as I came to think more +calmly and seriously of the difficulties, I began to regard it in a +different light; and at last I fully concurred in the wisdom of the +advice, and resolved on adopting it. + +To sit on the cliffs, and watch the ocean for hours, became now the +practice of my life--to gaze from daybreak almost to the falling of +night over the wide expanse of sea, straining my eyes at each sail, and +conjecturing to what distant shore they were tending. The hopes which at +first sustained, at last deserted me, as week after week passed over, +and no prospect of escape appeared. The life of inactivity gradually +depressed my spirits, and I fell into a low and moping condition, in +which my hours rolled over without thought or notice. Still, I returned +each day to my accustomed spot, a lofty peak of rock that stood over the +sea, and from which the view extended for miles on every side. There, +half hid in the wild heath, I used to lie for hours long, my eyes bent +upon the sea, but my thoughts wandering away to a past that never was to +be renewed, and a future I was never destined to experience. + +Although late in the autumn, the season was mild and genial, and the sea +calm and waveless, save along the shore, where, even in the stillest +weather, the great breakers come tumbling in with a force, independent +of storm, and listening to their booming thunder, I have dreamed away +hour after hour unconsciously. It was one day, as I lay thus, that my +attention was caught by the sight of three large vessels on the very +verge of the horizon. Habit had now given me a certain acuteness, and I +could perceive from their height and size that they were ships of war. +For a while they seemed as if steering for the entrance of the "lough," +but afterward they changed their course, and headed toward the west. At +length they separated, and one of smaller size, and probably a frigate +from her speed, shot forward beyond the rest, and, in less than half an +hour, disappeared from view. The other two gradually sunk beneath the +horizon, and not a sail was to be seen over the wide expanse. While +speculating on what errand the squadron might be employed, I thought I +could hear the deep and rolling sound of distant cannonading. My ear was +too practiced in the thundering crash of the breakers along shore to +confound the noises; and as I listened I fancied that I could +distinguish the sound of single guns from the louder roar of a whole +broadside. This could not mean saluting, nor was it likely to be a mere +exercise of the fleet. They were not times when much powder was expended +unprofitably. Was it then an engagement? But with what or whom? Tandy's +expedition, as it was called, had long since sailed, and must ere this +have been captured or safe in France. I tried a hundred conjectures to +explain the mystery, which now, from the long continuance of the sounds, +seemed to denote a desperately contested engagement. It was not 'till +after three hours that the cannonading ceased, and then I could descry a +thick dark canopy of smoke that hung hazily over one spot in the +horizon, as if marking out the scene of the struggle. With what aching, +torturing anxiety I burned to know what had happened, and with which +side rested the victory. + +Well habituated to hear of the English as victors in every naval +engagement, I yet went on hoping against hope itself, that Fortune might +for once have favored us; nor was it till the falling night prevented my +being able to trace out distant objects, that I could leave the spot and +turn homeward. With wishes so directly opposed to theirs, I did not +venture to tell my two friends what I had witnessed, nor trust myself to +speak on a subject where my feelings might have betrayed me into +unseemly expressions of my hopes. I was glad to find that they knew +nothing of the matter, and talked away indifferently of other subjects. +By daybreak, the next morning, I was at my post, a sharp nor'wester +blowing, and a heavy sea rolling in from the Atlantic. Instinctively +carrying my eyes to the spot where I had heard the cannonnade, I could +distinctly see the tops of spars, as if the upper rigging of some +vessels, beyond the horizon. Gradually they rose higher and higher, till +I could detect the yard-arms and cross-trees, and finally the great +hulls of five vessels that were bearing toward me. + +For above an hour I could see their every movement, as with all canvas +spread they held on majestically toward the land, when at length a lofty +promontory of the bay intervened, and they were lost to my view. I +jumped to my legs at once, and set off down the cliff to reach the +headland, from whence an uninterrupted prospect extended. The distance +was greater than I had supposed, and in my eagerness to take a direct +line to it, I got entangled in difficult gorges among the hills, and +impeded by mountain torrents which often compelled me to go back a +considerable distance; it was already late in the afternoon as I gained +the crest of a ridge over the Bay of Lough Swilly. Beneath me lay the +calm surface of the lough, landlocked and still; but further out, +seaward, there was a sight that made my very limbs tremble, and sickened +my heart as I beheld it. There was a large frigate, that, with +studding-sails set, stood boldly up the bay, followed by a dismasted +three-decker, at whose mizen floated the ensign of England over the +French "tri-color." Several other vessels were grouped about the offing, +all of them displaying English colors. + +The dreadful secret was out. There had been a tremendous sea fight, and +the Hoche, of seventy-four guns, was the sad spectacle which, with +shattered sides and ragged rigging, I now beheld entering the Bay. Oh, +the humiliation of that sight! I can never forget it. And although on +all the surrounding hills scarcely fifty country people were assembled, +I felt as if the whole of Europe were spectators of our defeat. The flag +I had always believed triumphant now hung ignominiously beneath the +ensign of the enemy, and the decks of our noble ship were crowded with +the uniforms of English sailors and marines. + +The blue water surged and spouted from the shot holes as the great hull +loomed heavily from side to side, and broken spars and ropes still hung +over the side as she went, a perfect picture of defeat. Never was +disaster more legibly written. I watched her till the anchor dropped, +and then, in a burst of emotion, I turned away, unable to endure more. +As I hastened homeward I met the elder of my two hosts coming to meet +me, in considerable anxiety. He had heard of the capture of the Hoche, +but his mind was far more intent on another and less important event. +Two men had just been at his cottage with a warrant for my arrest. The +document bore my name and rank, as well as a description of my +appearance, and significantly alleged, that although Irish by birth, I +affected a foreign accent for the sake of concealment. + +"There is no chance of escape now," said my friend; "we are surrounded +with spies on every hand. My advice is, therefore, to hasten to Lord +Cavan's quarters--he is now at Letterkenny--and give yourself up as a +prisoner. There is at least the chance of your being treated like the +rest of your countrymen. I have already provided you with a horse and a +guide, for I must not accompany you myself. Go, then, Maurice. We shall +never see each other again; but we'll not forget you, nor do we fear +that you will forget _us_. My brother could not trust himself to take +leave of you, but his best wishes and prayers go with you." + +Such were the last words my kind-hearted friend spoke to me; nor do I +know what reply I made, as, overcome by emotion, my voice became thick +and broken. I wanted to tell all my gratitude, and yet could say +nothing. To this hour I know not with what impression of me he went +away. I can only assert, that, in all the long career of vicissitudes of +a troubled and adventurous life, these brothers have occupied the chosen +spot of my affection, for every thing that was disinterested in kindness +and generous in good feeling. + +They have done more, for they have often reconciled me to a world of +harsh injustice and illiberality, by remembering that two such +exceptions existed, and that others may have experienced what fell to +_my_ lot. + +For a mile or two my way lay through the mountains, but after reaching +the high road, I had not proceeded far when I was overtaken by a +jaunting-car, on which a gentleman was seated, with his leg supported by +a cushion, and bearing all the signs of a severe injury. + +"Keep the near side of the way, sir, I beg of you," cried he; "I have a +broken leg, and am excessively uneasy when a horse passes close to me." + +I touched my cap in salute, and immediately turned my horse's head to +comply with his request. + +"Did you see that, George?" cried another gentleman, who sat on the +opposite side of the vehicle; "did you remark that fellow's salute? My +life on't he's a French soldier." + +"Nonsense, man--he's the steward of a Clyde smack, or a clerk in a +counting-house," said the first, in a voice which, though purposely low, +my quick hearing could catch perfectly. + +"Are we far from Letterkenny just now, sir?" said the other, addressing +me. + +"I believe about five miles," said I, with a prodigious effort to make +my pronunciation pass muster. + +"You're a stranger in these parts, I see, sir," rejoined he, with a +cunning glance at his friend, while he added, lower, "Was I right, +Hill?" + +Although seeing that all concealment was now hopeless, I was in no wise +disposed to plead guilty at once, and therefore, with a cut of my +switch, pushed my beast into a sharp canter to get forward. + +My friends, however, gave chase, and now the jaunting-car, +notwithstanding the sufferings of the invalid, was clattering after me +at about nine miles an hour. At first I rather enjoyed the malice of the +penalty their curiosity was costing, but as I remembered that the +invalid was not the chief offender, I began to feel compunction at the +severity of the lesson, and drew up to a walk. + +They at once shortened their pace, and came up beside me. + +"A clever hack you're riding, sir," said the inquisitive man. + +"Not so bad for an animal of this country," said I, superciliously. + +"Oh, then, what kind of a horse are you accustomed to?" asked he, half +insolently. + +"The Limousin," said I, coolly, "what we always mount in our Hussar +regiments in France." + +"And you are a French soldier, then?" cried he, in evident astonishment +at my frankness. + +"At your service, sir," said I, saluting; "a Lieutenant of Hussars; and +if you are tormented by any further curiosity concerning me, I may as +well relieve you by stating that I am proceeding to Lord Cavan's +head-quarters, to surrender as a prisoner." + +"Frank enough, that!" said he of the broken leg, laughing heartily as he +spoke. + +"Well, sir," said the other, "you are, as your countrymen would call +it, '_bien venu_,' for we are bound in that direction ourselves, and +will be happy to have your company." + +One piece of tact my worldly experience had profoundly impressed upon +me, and that was, the necessity of always assuming an air of easy +unconcern in every circumstance of doubtful issue. There was quite +enough of difficulty in the present case to excite my anxiety, but I +rode along beside the jaunting-car, chatting familiarly with my new +acquaintances, and, I believe, without exhibiting the slightest degree +of uneasiness regarding my own position. + +From them I learned so much as they had heard of the late naval +engagement. The report was that Bompard's fleet had fallen in with Sir +John Warren's squadron, and having given orders for his fastest sailers +to make the best of their way to France, had, with the Hoche, the Loire, +and the Resolve, given battle to the enemy. These had all been captured, +as well as four others which fled, two alone of the whole succeeding in +their escape. I think now that, grievous as these tidings were, there +was nothing of either boastfulness or insolence in the tone in which +they were communicated to me. Every praise was accorded to Bompard for +skill and bravery, and the defense was spoken of in terms of generous +eulogy. The only trait of acrimony that showed itself in the recital +was, a regret that a number of Irish rebels should have escaped in the +Biche, one of the smaller frigates; and several emissaries of the +people, who had been deputed to the admiral, were also alleged to have +been on board of that vessel. + +"You are sorry to have had missed your friend, the priest of Murrah," +said Hill, jocularly. + +"Yes, by George, that fellow should have graced a gallows if I had been +lucky enough to have taken him." + +"What was his crime, sir?" asked I, with seeming unconcern. + +"Nothing more than exciting to rebellion a people with whom he had no +tie of blood or kindred! He was a Frenchman, and devoted himself to the +cause of Ireland, as they call it, from pure sympathy--" + +"And a dash of popery," broke in Hill. + +"It's hard to say even that; my own opinion is, that French Jacobinism +cares very little for the pope. Am I right, young gentleman--you don't +go very often to confession?" + +"I should do so less frequently if I were to be subjected to such a +system of interrogatory as yours," said I, tartly. + +They both took my impertinent speech in good part, and laughed heartily +at it; and thus, half amicably, half in earnest, we entered the little +town of Letterkenny, just as night was falling. + +"If you'll be our guest for this evening, sir," said Hill, "we shall be +happy to have your company." + +I accepted the invitation, and followed them into the inn. + +(_To be continued._) + + + + +THE UNNAMED SHELL. + + +At the corner of the boulevard Montmartre, near the angle of the +faubourg, is situated a magazine of natural history, that continually +draws around its windows groups of curious idlers. Open the door, walk +in, and, in place of a mere merchant, you will be surprised to encounter +an artist and a scholar. The man is still young, yet he has explored a +portion of Southern Africa; and has joined in formidable chases of +elephants, lions, and all the wild animals of those barbarous regions. +He has sought his treasures of natural history in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, +China, and Cochin-China; has visited Batavia, Samarang and Madura; and +returned to Paris rich in knowledge and collections. + +It is rarely that you will find him alone. The laboratory of the +boulevard Montmartre is the rendezvous of all the scholars, travelers, +naturalists, artists, and authors, who bask in the sunshine of +celebrity. Temming, the old glory, yet with so much youth about him, of +natural history; Wilson, collector for his brother in the immense +undertaking of completing the museum of Philadelphia; Philippe Rousseau, +who bestows life and animation on the animals which he paints; Ledieu, +Léon Gozlan, Biard; Delgorgue, the intrepid chaser of elephants; +Lagéronière, who was for one instant on the point of becoming the king +of a savage tribe, and of whom Dumas, in his "Thousand and One +Phantoms," has related in so improbable a manner a fabulous episode of +real adventures; Gray, whom London cites with pride among its +naturalists; Mitchell, director of the London Zoological Gardens; Henry +Monnier, the sparkling reflection of Molière; Alphonse Karr; Deshayes, +for whom conchology and the labyrinths of its classifications have no +further mysteries; De Lafresnage, chief of ornithologists; Emile +Blanchard, who spends his life in the dissection of living atoms, or +beings almost microscopical; Delamarre-Piquot, who travels from one +world to another, to gather the alimentary substances with which he +wishes to endow Europe; M. Michelin, who consecrates his rare holidays +to an unrivaled collection of polypi; there they are to be found, every +day, studying, admiring, copying, describing, all the strange animals +that come from every quarter of the globe to this little corner of the +boulevard Montmartre, thence to be distributed among the collections of +Europe and America. + +There may one listen to sallies of fancy, scientific discussion, +episodes of likely and unlikely adventures, tales that make one burst +with laughter, histories that fill the eyes with tears, real dramas that +freeze the soul with horror, and of which the historian is almost always +the hero. In the midst of all this noise of conversation and going and +coming, the master of the establishment loses not a moment. He issues +orders, he lends a helping hand; he classes, describes, and attends to +strangers: and occasionally sends as presents to other museums +unparalleled treasures of natural history. Just let us mention, _en +passant_, that the museum of Paris has been loaded for twenty years back +with his precious gifts. At each step you take in the galleries, you may +read his name inscribed upon numerous objects, before which the curious +in such matters stop with surprise, and the learned with admiration. + +One evening, he was laboring with his usual feverish activity to form +collections of shells, according to their species, and after the method +of Lamarck; for to popularize science is his fervent desire and constant +aim. These collections would not nearly reimburse him for the trouble +and cost bestowed upon them; but they would create a few conchologists +the more; they would facilitate the studies of those who had already +commenced their initiation into the marvels of a science so attractive, +by the beautiful objects to which it consecrates itself, and this was +what the enthusiastic _savant_ wished above all. + +"Ah!" said one of the visitors, taking up a shell, "I never see a +spiral, without calling to mind a drama that was once enacted here, and +which I will relate to you: + +"It was eight or ten years ago, one evening, as it might be to-day. The +smoke from five or six cigars filled the laboratory with its fantastic +rings. A lamp, vailed under a semi-opaque shade, served only to render +more visible the shadows of this strange chamber. Here and there, the +glow from the hearth illuminated animals from all parts of the world, +hung at random upon the walls, which they confusedly burdened. The +master of the magazine took up a shell which chance placed under his +hand, and presented it to a tall man, hoary with age, who was silently +seated, according to his custom, a little on one side. The stranger +approached the lamp, looked at the shell, smiled, sighed, and placed it +in his pocket. A light crash was heard; he re-seated himself, and +revived the fire of his half-extinguished cigar. Then, perceiving that +every one was looking curiously at him--'I have broken it,' said he; and +he threw the fragments of the shell upon the floor, and ground them +beneath his heel. + +"For several instants there was a profound silence, caused by the +surprise of the company at this gratuitous destruction. The old man +continued, with a melancholy smile, 'I will tell you, gentlemen, +wherefore I broke the shell. Science, or rather its fanaticism, leads to +strange weaknesses. If my folly can any where find indulgence, surely it +will be among you, who are all, more or less, collectors. Perhaps, I +shall even meet with some auditor not only capable of comprehending, but +likewise of imitating me. This shell is a spiral that has never been +either named or copied. I possess in my collection the only similar one +that is known to the scientific world. I procured it, ten years ago, +from this magazine. The first time that I saw this unique shell, my +heart beat with joy,' continued the old man, with a voice that had +regained all the energy of youth. 'I was poor, but I must have it at +whatever price. I carried it home with me, and passed entire days in +contemplating it, and examining its minutest details. Two years were +necessary to make up its price--two entire years of privation. Each +month, I carried the dealer small sums, often spared from my most +pressing necessities. What mattered it? I possessed the shell; it was +mine alone; no one could show me its like. I would not permit any one to +describe it. When, on rare occasions, I displayed it to some initiated +ones, it was upon the condition that they would not speak of it in their +faunas. A lover madly enamored, is not more jealous than I then was, +than I still am, of this treasure. When the two years of which I have +spoken had elapsed, and I had paid the price of my dear spiral, I came +here one evening as usual. On opening, according to my custom, one of +the boxes that contain the shells, I uttered a cry. I had found another +spiral similar to that which I possessed! Judge of my sorrow, of my +despair. My shell was no longer unique. Another collection possessed a +treasure similar to mine. A cold sweat bathed my forehead. Though very +poor, though I had resigned the little employment which I had held in an +office, and my humble allowance was transformed into a pension more +humble still, I hesitated not. I bought the shell, and carried it with +me, but this time without joy. I possessed several good pictures, dear +and old heirlooms belonging to my family. I sold them to pay for the +shell, which I broke as soon as I had made up the price. Three years +more elapsed, and poverty weighed down my old age more and more. The +failure of a bank had deprived me of a little sum of money, the interest +of which, added to my pension, had enabled me to live, and to augment, +from time to time, my collection of a few good shells. Deprived of this +enjoyment, the only one that remained to me, I had no consolation but in +the possession of the treasure-hoard which I could no longer increase. +My precious spiral often detained me before it for hours. One evening +(never shall I forget, the sorrow the sight cost me), I beheld +here--there--in that box--three spirals like mine! Maledictions hovered +about my lips. I took the shells in my fingers, I slowly examined them, +and returned them to my friend. 'I can not buy them,' I said. He raised +his eyes, he saw my palor and my tears--my tears, gentlemen, for I wept! +He smiled, took a hammer, and pulverized the three precious shells. You +saw what he did just now. God bless him for his disinterestedness, and +his devotion to an old friend! I should die of despair, gentlemen, if, +during my life, another possessed a spiral like mine.' + +"Speaking thus, the old man rose, and left us, enveloping himself, as +well as he could, in his fragmentary cloak." + +One morning, three or four years ago, God separated the fanatic +conchologist from the collection that was his life. They found the aged +man seated before his cabinet, opposite to his unique spiral. He had +died alone, with his eyes fixed upon that which had possessed his +affections during so many years. His collection has now reverted to the +friend who showed so much sympathy with his jealousy and insensate +passion. + +By a strange caprice of fortune, no other spiral similar to his has +since arrived in Europe. It still remains unique and nameless, as when +he possessed it. For the rest, this spiral, which occupied so large a +place in the existence and affections of a scientific man, has, for a +common eye, nothing in its appearance to justify the intense passion +that it inspired. Its rarity constitutes its value. One of our most +learned conchologists is now engaged, in describing, classing, and +publishing a drawing of it. We hope that, in memory of its first +possessor, he will give it the name of _l'hélice innominata_, the +"nameless spiral." + + + + +THE STORY OF GIOVANNI BELZONI. + + +One day in the beginning of the year 1803, Mr. Salt, whose name has +since become so celebrated among the discoverers of Egyptian +antiquities, observed before one of the public rooms of Edinburgh, a +great crowd assembled. For almost every one there exists a mysterious +attraction in the sight of a number of people, and Mr. Salt, no wiser +than his neighbors, pushed his way, when the doors were opened, into the +room. There, on a sort of stage, he saw a tall and powerfully-built +young man, performing various gymnastic exercises, and feats of +strength. While this Hercules in tinsel was lifting enormous weights, +and jumping from a table over the heads of twelve men, a pretty, +delicate-looking young woman, was arranging some hydraulic machines and +musical glasses, with which the entertainment was to terminate. As the +price of admission was nominal, she occasionally also handed round a +small wooden bowl, in order to collect gratuities from the spectators. + +Very few of those who were enjoying the exhibition gave any thing; and +when the young woman approached her husband, and showed him the few +coins she had received, he hastened to terminate his performance. Mr. +Salt pitied the poor fellow, and as the young woman was passing, said to +her: + +"You forgot to present your bowl for my contribution. Here it is." + +He slipped a silver coin into her hand. Both she and her husband thanked +him warmly; the latter in broken English, and with an Italian accent. + +Mr. Salt, who had but just returned from Rome, replied in Italian; and, +perceiving in the stranger's manner of expressing himself a degree of +refinement not to be expected from a mountebank, asked him whence he +came, and what was his history? + +"Six months ago, sir," replied the man, "if any man had told me that I +should be reduced to earn my bread by exhibiting my strength in public, +I should have felt greatly inclined to knock him down. I came to England +for the purpose of making known some hydraulic machines of my invention; +but the spirit of routine, and the love of ignorance, closed every +avenue against me. Previously, before losing all my hopes of success, I +married this young girl. Had I been alone in the world, I verily believe +that the bitter destruction of my expectations would have rendered me +careless of supporting life; but how could I leave _her_ in misery?" + +"But why not try to display your really extraordinary strength and +dexterity under more favorable circumstances? Why do you not offer your +services to some theatrical manager?" + +"Hungry people, sir, can not wait. I did not think of resorting to this +method of earning a piece of bread, until I saw my wife ready to perish +for the want of it." + +The kind Mr. Salt not only relieved his immediate wants, but offered to +recommend him and his wife to the manager of Astley's Circus, in London. +Gratefully and eagerly did the wanderers accept this offer; and while, +in company with their benefactor, who paid for their places on the +coach, they journeyed toward town, the man related his history. Born at +Padua, the son of a poor barber, and one of fourteen children, Giovanni +Battista Belzoni felt from his earliest youth a longing desire to visit +foreign lands. This "truant disposition" was fostered, if not caused, by +the stories of maritime adventures told him by an old sailor; who was +strongly suspected of having, during many years, practiced the +profession of a pirate. + +The reading, or rather devouring, of a translated copy of "Robinson +Crusoe" (and it is a most remarkable circumstance that the book which +has for its avowed purpose the disheartening of restless adventurers, +should have made wanderers and voyagers innumerable), gave form and +fixedness to his purpose of rambling; and, in company with his youngest +brother, the boy set out one fine morning, without any intention but the +somewhat vague one of "traveling to seek their fortune." The young +fugitives walked several miles, without knowing, in the least, whither +they were going, when a peddler, who was riding slowly by in a cart, +accosted them, and asked if they were going to Ferrara. Belzoni, +although he never heard the name before, immediately answered in the +affirmative. The good-natured merchant, pleased with the countenances, +and pitying the tired looks of the children, not only gave them a place +in his vehicle, but shared with them his luncheon of bread, cheese, and +fruit. That night they occupied part of their companion's lodging; but +next day, as his business required him to stop at the village where they +slept, the two boys took leave of him, and pursued their journey. Their +next adventure was not so fortunate. Meeting an empty return carriage, +they asked the _vetturino_ to give them a ride; and he consenting, they +joyfully got in. Arrived at Ferrara, the _vetturino_ asked them for +money. Giovanni, astonished, replied that they had none; and the +unfeeling man stripped the poor children of their upper garments, +leaving them half-naked and penniless in the streets of an unknown city. +Giovanni's undaunted spirit would have led him still to persevere in the +wild-goose chase which had lured him from his home; but his brother +Antonio wept, and complained so loudly, that he was fain to console the +child by consenting to retrace their steps to Padua. That night, clasped +in each other's arms, they slept beneath a doorway, and the next morning +set out for their native city, begging their food on the journey. + +The severe chastisement which Giovanni, as the instigator of this +escapade, received on his return, did not in anywise cure his love of +rambling. He submitted, however, to learn his father's trade, and at the +age of eighteen, armed with shaving and hair-cutting implements, he set +out for Rome, and there exercised the occupation of a barber with +success. After some time, he became deeply attached to a girl who, after +encouraging his addresses, deserted him and married a wealthy rival. +This disappointment preyed so deeply on Belzoni, that, renouncing at the +same time love and the razor, the world and the brazen bowl of suds, he +entered a convent, and became a Capuchin. The leisure of the cloister +was employed by him in the study of hydraulics; and he was busy in +constructing an Artesian well within the monastic precincts when the +French army under Napoleon took possession of Rome. The monks of every +order were expelled and dispersed; and our poor Capuchin, obliged to cut +his own beard, purchased once more the implements of his despised +calling, and traveled into Holland, the head-quarters of hydraulics, +which were still his passion. The Dutch did not encourage him, and he +came to this country. Here he met his future wife, and consoled himself +for his past misfortunes by marrying one who proved, through weal and +woe, a fond and faithful partner. The crude hydraulic inventions of a +wandering Italian were as little heeded here, as on the Continent; and +we have already seen the expedient to which Belzoni was obliged to have +recourse when Mr. Salt met him in Edinburgh. + +Having reached London, the kind antiquary introduced his _protégés_ to +the manager of Astley's. The practiced eye of the renowned equestrian +immediately appreciated at their value the beauty and athletic vigor of +the Paduan Goliath; and he engaged both him and his wife at a liberal +salary. He caused a piece, entitled "The Twelve Labors of Hercules" to +be arranged expressly for his new performers; and Mr. Salt had soon +afterward the satisfaction of seeing Giovanni Belzoni appear on the +stage, carrying twelve men on his arms and shoulders, while madame, in +the costume of Cupid, stood at the top, as the apex of a pyramid, and +waved a tiny crimson flag. + +After some time, Mr. Salt went to Egypt as consul, and there became +acquainted with Signor Drouetti. The two friends, equally enthusiastic +on the subject of Egyptian antiquities, set to work to prosecute +researches, with an ardor of rivalship which approached somewhat too +nearly to jealousy. Each aspired to undertake the boldest expeditions, +and to attempt the most hazardous excavations. But the great object of +their ambition was an enormous bust of Memnon, in rose-colored granite, +which lay half buried in the sand on the left bank of the Nile. + +Signor Drouetti had failed in all his attempts to raise it, nor was Mr. +Salt a whit more successful. One day, while the latter was thinking what +a pity it was that such a precious monument should be left to perish by +decay, a stranger asked to speak with him. Mr. Salt desired him to be +admitted; and immediately, despite his visitor's Oriental garb and long +beard, he recognized the Hercules of Astley's. + +"What has brought you to Egypt?" asked the astonished consul. + +"You shall hear, sir," replied the Italian. "After having completed my +engagement in London, I set out for Lisbon, where I was employed by the +manager of the theatre of San Carlo to perform the part of Samson, in a +scriptural piece which had been arranged expressly for me. From thence I +went to Madrid, where I appeared with applause in the theatre Della +Puerta del Sol. After having collected a tolerable sum of money, I +resolved to come here. My first object is to induce the Pasha to adopt +an hydraulic machine for raising the waters of the Nile." + +Mr. Salt then explained his wishes respecting the antiquities; but +Belzoni, could not, he said, enter upon that till he had carried out his +scheme of water-works. + +He was accompanied, he said in continuation, by Mrs. Belzoni, and by an +Irish lad of the name of James Curtain; and had reached Alexandria just +as the plague was beginning to disappear from that city, as it always +does on the approach of St. John's day, when, as almost every body +knows, "out of respect for the saint," it entirely ceases. The state of +the country was still very alarming, yet Mr. Belzoni and his little +party ventured to land, and performed quarantine in the French quarter; +where, though really very unwell, they were wise enough to disguise +their situation; "for the plague is so dreadful a scourge," he observed, +"and operates so powerfully on human fears and human prejudices, that, +during its prevalence, if a man be ill, he must be ill of the plague, +and if he die, he must have died of the plague." + +Belzoni went straight to Cairo, where he was well received by Mr. +Baghos, interpreter to Mohammed Ali, to whom Mr. Salt recommended him. +Mr. Baghos immediately prepared to introduce him to the Pasha, that he +might come to some arrangement respecting the hydraulic machine, which +he proposed to construct for watering the gardens of the seraglio. As +they were proceeding toward the palace, through one of the principal +streets of Cairo, a fanatical Mussulman struck Mr. Belzoni so fiercely +on the leg with his staff, that it tore away a large piece of flesh. The +blow was severe, and the discharge of blood copious, and he was obliged +to be conveyed home, where he remained under cure thirty days before he +could support himself on the wounded leg. When able to leave the house, +he was presented to the Pasha, who received him very civilly; but on +being told of the misfortune which had happened to him, contented +himself with coolly observing "that such accidents could not be avoided +where there were troops." + +An arrangement was immediately concluded for erecting a machine which +was to raise as much water with one ox as the ordinary ones do with +four. Mr. Belzoni soon found, however, that he had many prejudices to +encounter, and many obstacles to overcome, on the part of those who were +employed in the construction of the work, as well as of those who owned +the cattle engaged in drawing water for the Pasha's gardens. The fate of +a machine which had been sent from England taught him to augur no good +for that which he had undertaken to construct. Though of the most costly +description, and every way equal to perform what it was calculated to +do, it had failed to answer the unreasonable expectations of the +Turks--because "the quantity of water raised by it was not sufficient to +inundate the whole country in an hour!--which was their measure of the +power of an English water-wheel." + +When that of Belzoni was completed, the Pasha proceeded to the gardens +of Soubra to witness its effect. The machine was set to work, and, +although constructed of bad materials, and of unskillful workmanship, +its powers were greater than had been contracted for; yet the Arabs, +from interested motives, declared against it. The Pasha, however, though +evidently disappointed, admitted that it was equal to four of the +ordinary kind, and, consequently, accorded with the agreement. +Unluckily, he took it into his head to have the oxen removed, and, "by +way of frolic," to see what effect could be produced by putting fifteen +men into the wheel. The Irish lad got in with them; but no sooner had +the wheel begun to turn than the Arabs jumped out, leaving the lad alone +in it. The wheel, relieved from its load, flew back with such velocity, +that poor Curtain was flung out, and in the fall broke one of his +thighs; and, being entangled in the machinery, would, in all +probability, have lost his life, had not Belzoni applied his prodigious +strength to the wheel, and stopped it. The accident, however, was fatal +to the project and to the future hopes of the projector. + +At that time the insolence of the Turkish officers of the Pashalic was +at its height, and the very sight of a "dog of a Christian" raised the +ire of the more bigoted followers of the Prophet. While at Soubra, which +is close to Cairo, Belzoni had a narrow escape from assassination. He +relates the adventure in his work on Egypt: + +"Some particular business calling me to Cairo. I was on my ass in one of +the narrow streets, where I met a loaded camel. The space that remained +between the camel and the wall was so little, that I could scarcely +pass; and at that moment I was met by a Binbashi, a subaltern officer, +at the head of his men. For the instant I was the only obstacle that +prevented his proceeding on the road; and I could neither retreat nor +turn round, to give him room to pass. Seeing it was a Frank who stopped +his way, he gave me a violent blow on my stomach. Not being accustomed +to put up with such salutations, I returned the compliment with my whip +across his naked shoulders. Instantly he took his pistol out of his +belt; I jumped off my ass; he retired about two yards, pulled the +trigger, fired at my head, singed the hair near my right ear, and killed +one of his own soldiers, who, by this time, had come behind me. Finding +that he had missed his aim, he took a second pistol; but his own +soldiers assailed and disarmed him. A great noise arose in the street, +and, as it happened to be close to the seraglio in the Esbakie, some of +the guards ran up; but on seeing what the matter was, they interfered +and stopped the Binbashi. I thought my company was not wanted, so I +mounted my charger, and rode off. I went to Mr. Baghos, and told him +what had happened. We repaired immediately to the citadel, saw the +Pasha, and related the circumstance to him. He was much concerned, and +wished to know where the soldier was, but observed that it was too late +that evening to have him taken up. However, he was apprehended the next +day, and I never heard or knew any thing more about him. Such a lesson +on the subject was not lost upon me; and I took good care, in future, +not to give the least opportunity of the kind to men of that +description, who can murder an European with as much indifference as +they would kill an insect." + +Ruined by the loss of all his savings, which he had spent in the +construction of his water machines, Belzoni once more applied to Mr. +Salt, and undertook the furtherance of his scheme, to convey to England +the bust of Memnon. So eager was he, that the same day, the Italian set +out for the ruins of Thebes, and hired a hundred natives, whom he made +clear away the sand which half covered the stone colossus. With a large +staff in his hand, Belzoni commanded his army of Mussulmans, directed +their labors, astonished them with displays of his physical strength, +learned to speak their language with marvelous facility, and speedily +came to be regarded by them as a superior being, endowed with magical +power. + +One day, however, his money failed; and at the same time the rising of +the Nile destroyed in two hours, the work of three months. The _fellahs_ +rebeled: one of them rushed toward Belzoni, intending to strike him with +his dagger. The Italian coolly waited his approach, disarmed him; and +then, seizing him by the feet, lifted him as though he had been a hazel +wand, and began to inflict vigorous blows on the other insurgents with +this novel and extemporary weapon of defense. The lesson was not thrown +away: very speedily the _fellahs_ returned to their duty; and after +eighteen days' incessant labor, Memnon trembled at his base, and was +moved toward the bank of the Nile. + +The embarkation of this enormous statue presented difficulties almost as +great as those which attended its disinterment and land transport. +Nevertheless, the intelligence and perseverance of Belzoni surmounted +every obstacle; and he brought his wondrous conquest to London, where +its arrival produced a sensation similar to that caused more recently in +Paris by the sight of the Obelisk of Luxor. Loaded with praise, and also +with more substantial gifts, Belzoni, now become an important personage, +returned to Egypt and to his friend Mr. Salt. The latter proposed to him +to go up the Nile, and attempt the removal of the sand-hills which +covered the principal portion of the magnificent temple of Ebsamboul. +Belzoni readily consented, set out for Lower Nubia, ventured boldly +among the savage tribes who wander through the sandy desert; returning +to Thebes, he was rewarded, not only by the success of his special +mission, but also by discovering the temple of Luxor. + +In all his undertakings, however enterprising, Belzoni was aided and +cheered by the presence of his wife. The expedition to Nubia was, +however, thought too hazardous for her to undertake. But in the absence +of her husband she was not idle; she dug up the statue of Jupiter Ammon, +with the ram's head on his knee; which is now in the British Museum. + +The temple of Luxor had been so completely and for so long a period, +buried in sand, that even its existence remained unsuspected. It had +been dedicated to Isis by the Queen of Rameses the Great; and the +descriptions which travelers give of it, resemble those of the palaces +in the "Arabian Nights." Four colossal figures, sixty-one feet in +height, are seated in front. Eight others, forty-eight in height, and +standing up, support the roof of the principal inner hall, in which +gigantic bas-reliefs represent the whole history of Rameses. Sixteen +other halls, scarcely smaller than the first, display, in all their +primitive splendor, many gorgeous paintings, and the mysterious forms of +myriads of statues. + +After this discovery, Belzoni took up his temporary abode in the valley +of _Biban el Mouloch_ (Tombs of the Kings). He had already remarked +there, among the rocks, a fissure of a peculiar form, and which was +evidently the work of man. He caused this opening to be enlarged, and +soon discovered the entrance to a long corridor, whose walls were +covered with sculptures and hieroglyphical paintings. A deep fosse and a +wall barred the further end of the cave; but he broke a passage +through, and found a second vault, in which stood an alabaster +sarcophagus, covered with hieroglyphics. He took possession of this and +sent it safely to Europe. His own account of these difficulties is +extremely interesting: + +"Of some of these tombs many persons could not withstand the suffocating +air, which often causes fainting. A vast quantity of dust rises, so fine +that it enters the throat and nostrils, and chokes the nose and mouth to +such a degree, that it requires great power of lungs to resist it and +the strong effluvia of the mummies. This is not all; the entry or +passage where the bodies are is roughly cut in the rocks, and the +falling of the sand from the upper part or ceiling of the passage causes +it to be nearly filled up. In some places there is not more than the +vacancy of a foot left, which you must contrive to pass through in a +creeping posture, like a snail, on pointed and keen stones, that cut +like glass. After getting through these passages, some of them two or +three hundred yards long, you generally find a more commodious place, +perhaps high enough to sit. But what a place of rest! surrounded by +bodies, by heaps of mummies in all directions; which, previous to my +being accustomed to the sight, impressed me with horror. The blackness +of the walls, the faint light given by the candles or torches for want +of air, the different objects that surrounded me, seeming to converse +with each other, and the Arabs, with the candles or torches in their +hands, naked and covered with dust, themselves resembling living +mummies, absolutely formed a scene that can not be described. In such a +situation I found myself several times, and often returned exhausted and +fainting, till at last I became inured to it, and indifferent to what I +suffered, except from the dust which never failed to choke my throat and +nose; and though, fortunately, I am destitute of the sense of smelling, +I could taste that the mummies were rather unpleasant to swallow. After +the exertion of entering into such a place, through a passage of fifty, +a hundred, three hundred, or perhaps six hundred yards, nearly overcome, +I sought a resting-place, found one, and contrived to sit; but when my +weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a band-box. I +naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found +no better support; so that I sunk altogether among the broken mummies, +with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which raised such a dust +as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided +again. I could not remove from the place, however, without increasing +it, and every step I took I crushed a mummy in some part or other. Once +I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a +passage of about twenty feet in length, and no wider than that a body +could be forced through. It was choked with mummies, and I could not +pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed +Egyptian; but as the passage inclined downward, my own weight helped me +on: however, I could not avoid being covered with bones, legs, arms, and +heads rolling from above. Thus I proceeded from one cave to another, all +full of mummies piled up in various ways--some standing, some lying, and +some on their heads." + +Afterward, Belzoni traveled to the shores of the Red Sea, inspected the +ruins of Berenice; then returned to Cairo, and directed excavations to +be made at the bases of the great pyramids of Ghizeh; penetrated into +that of Chephren--which had hitherto been inaccessible to Europeans--and +discovered within it the sacred chamber where repose the hallowed bones +of the bull Apis. The Valley of Faioum, the Lake Moeris, the ruins of +Arsinoë, the sands of Libya, all yielded up their secrets to his +dauntless spirit of research. He visited the oasis of El-Cassar, and the +Fountain of the Sun; strangled in his arms two treacherous guides who +tried to assassinate him; and then left Egypt, and returned to Padua +with his wife. + +The son of the humble barber had now become a rich and celebrated +personage. A triumphal entry was prepared for him; and the municipal +authorities of his native city met him at the gate, and presented him +with an address. Manfredini was commissioned to engrave a medal which +should commemorate the history of the illustrious traveler. England, +however, soon claimed him; and on his arrival in London, he was received +with the same honors as in his own country. Then he published an account +of his travels, under the following title: "Narrative of the Operations +and recent Discoveries in the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Cities of +Egypt and Nubia, &c." + +In 1822, Belzoni returned to Africa, with the intention of penetrating +to Timbuctoo. Passing in the following year from the Bight of Benin +toward Houssa, he was attacked with dysentery; was carried back to Gato, +and thence put on board an English vessel lying off the coast. There, +with much firmness and resignation, he prepared to meet his end. He +intrusted the captain with a large amethyst to be given to his wife, and +also with a letter which he wrote to his companion through good and evil +days. Soon afterward, he breathed his last. They buried him at Gato, at +the foot of a large tree, and engraved on his tomb the following epitaph +in English-- + +"_Here lies Belzoni, who died at this place, on his way to Timbuctoo, +December 3d, 1823._" + +Belzoni was but forty-five years old when he died. A statue of him was +erected at Padua, on the 4th of July, 1827. Very recently, the +government of Great Britain bestowed on his widow the tardy solace of a +small pension. + +Giovanni Belzoni, the once starving mountebank, became one of the most +illustrious men in Europe!--an encouraging example to all those who have +not only sound heads to project, but stout hearts to execute. + + + + +PHANTOMS AND REALITIES.--AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. + +(_Continued from Page 613._) + +PART THE SECOND--NOON. + + +V. + +To reason upon the effects of the discovery, or confession of our +feelings, was not a process for which either of us was qualified by +temperament or inclination. We did not pause to consider whether it was +prudent to take our hearts and natures for granted all at once, and risk +upon the strange delight of a single moment of luxurious emotion the +happiness, perhaps, of a whole lifetime. We did not stop to ask if there +were any obstacles in the way, any jarring chords to be attuned, any +thing to be known or thought of into which our position demanded a +scrutiny. We resigned ourselves at once to our impulses. We believed +that we had seen enough of the world, and were strong enough in our +self-sustaining power, and clear enough in our penetration, to dispense +with ordinary safeguards, and act as if we were superior to them. We +made our own world, and so went on as if we could control the planet in +which we lived at our own will and pleasure. + +I soon perceived that my attentions to Astræa had become a subject of +much remark. The peering coterie about us were so vigilant in matters of +that kind, that, as it appeared afterward, they had found out the fact +before it had taken place. For my own part, there was nobody half so +much surprised at the circumstance as I was myself. I believed that the +heart, like that plant which is said to blow once and die, was incapable +of a second growth of love; but I now felt the fallacy of that doctrine, +and was at first humiliated by the discovery. It struck me like a great +heresy against truth and purity; it seemed to lay bare before me the +corruptibility and feebleness of poor human nature. To strive against +it, however, was idle. The second growth was in full flower, yet with a +difference from the first, which I could detect even against the grain +of the passion that was subjugating me. I felt that the second growth +was less simple and devotional than the first; that it had more +exuberance, and was of a wilder character; that it struck not its roots +so deeply, but spread its blossoms more widely; that it was less +engrossing, but more agitating; that it was cultivated with greater +consciousness and premeditation, risked with more caution, fed with more +prudence, and tended more constantly--but all with a lesser waste of the +imagination; that its delights were more fervid but less appeasing; that +it looked not so much into the future with hope and promise, as it +filled the present with rapture; that its memories were neither so sad +nor so vivid, and that it let in caprice, and vanity, and +unreasonableness, and self-love, and the world's esteem, which are all +as dust in the balance, or a feather in the whirlwind, to impetuous +love. I was amazed to find myself a daily waiter upon beauty. Yet so it +was. The vision of Gertrude was now gone from my path--the spectre had +vanished in the broad light of the new passion. + +Still, while I paid my court to Astræa, it was not with any intention of +publicity, but furtively, as if a private dread hung over us, or as if +we thought it pleasanter to vail our feelings from observation. We +understood each other in silent looks, which we supposed to be +unintelligible to every body else; she seemed to avoid, designedly, all +appearance of interest in me, and sometimes played the part to such +admiration, as to give me not a few passing pangs of doubt and +uneasiness; and I, seeing how scrupulous she was on that point, and not +choosing to incur rude jests at her expense, was equally unwilling to +betray a feeling which was rendered the more delicious by secrecy. We +imagined ourselves secure; but neither of us could have had much worldly +sagacity or we must have known that all our caution was fruitless. +Basilisks' eyes were around us, and we trod a path beset with serpents. +Fortunately we were both looked up to as persons who could not be +approached with familiarity; and that preserved us from the open +badinage to which others, in similar circumstances, might have been +subjected. + +Alone, and liberated from this vexatious surveillance, we gave free vent +to our thoughts. The suddenness of our new confidence, and the rapidity +with which we already shaped its issues, bewildered us by the intensity +of the emotions that came crowding for speech and explanation. Astræa +sometimes had misgivings, although she never knew how to give them a +definite form. One day she said to me, "We are wrong in giving way to +this feeling. It is not a love likely to procure us peace. I say this to +you because I feel it--perhaps, because I know it; but I confess myself +unable to argue upon a question upon which my reason, my whole being is +held in suspense. I say so, simply because I ought to say so, and not +because I am prepared of myself to act, or even to advise. I am like a +leaf in a tempest, and can not guide myself. I yield to the irresistible +power that has swept me from the firm land, and deprived me of the +strength to regain it." + +I fancied that this left me but one course to take, and I replied, "We +have pronounced our destiny, Astræa, for good or for evil. We ought to +have no choice but to abide by it. If you do not fail in your faith, +mine is irrevocable." + +At these words she looked gravely at me, and answered, + +"My faith dies with me. It is a part of my life. It was not taken up in +an hour, to be as lightly thrown aside. Without it, life would be +insupportable; with it, life in any shape of seclusion, privation, +banishment, contains all the blessings I covet upon earth. It was not +for that, or of that I spoke. Understand me clearly, and put no +construction on my words outside their plain and ordinary meaning. All I +ask, all that is necessary for me is your society; to hear you speak, to +drink in the words of kindness and power that flow from your lips, to +be ever near you, to tend, solace, and console you. I should be content +to enjoy the privilege of seeing that you were happy, without even +aspiring to the higher glory of creating happiness for you. That is my +nature--capable of a wider range, and a loftier flight, but happiest in +its devotion. In any capacity I will serve you--and feel that the +servitude of love is dominion!" + +So firm and constant was the character of Astræa, tinged with a romantic +inspiration, that all this homage was serious and real, and issued +gravely from her heart through her lips. She meant every syllable she +spoke in its true sense; and I felt that she was ready to fulfill it, +and sustain it to the end. She believed that all endurances were +possible for love's sake, and that she could even enact miracles of +stoicism in the strength of her fidelity. + +For many months our intercourse, always thus sophisticating its aims and +interpretations, was carried on in secret. We had become necessary to +each other; but being still shut up in our mystery, we had not made as +much advance toward any definite result as one single moment of +disclosure to the people we were among would have inevitably compelled +us to decide upon. We were very prudent in our outward bearing, and +hardly aware of the avidity with which the concealed passion was +devouring our hearts. + +The dwarf followed me, and hovered about me more than ever. But I +learned to bear with him on account of his being in the house with +Astræa. Any body who was constantly in her society, and admitted to +terms of intimacy with her, was welcome to me--as relics from the altar +of a saint are welcome to the devotee, or a leaf snatched, from a tree +in the haunts of home is welcome to the exile. It was a pleasure when I +met him even to ask for Astræa, to have an excuse for uttering her name, +or to hear him speak of her, or to speak of her myself, or to talk of +any thing that we had before talked of together. Such are the resources, +the feints, the stratagems, the foibles of love! + + +VI. + +One night my indefatigable Mephistophiles took me to a tavern. He was in +a vagrant mood, and I indulged him. + +"Come, we shall see life to-night," he said. + +"With all my heart," I replied. It was not much to my taste, but I +fancied there was something unusual in his manner, and my curiosity was +awakened to see what it would lead to. + +We entered a bustling and brilliantly-lighted house. Numerous guests +were scattered about at different tables, variously engaged in getting +rid of time at the smallest possible cost of reflection. The dwarf +sauntered through the room, whispered a waiter, and, beckoning me to +follow, led the way up-stairs to a lesser apartment, where we found +ourselves alone. + +"You will not see much life here," I observed, rather surprised at his +selection of a secluded room in preference to the lively _salon_ through +which we had just passed. + +"We can make our own life," he answered, with a sarcastic twinge of the +mouth, "and imagine more things in five minutes than we should see or +hear below in a month." + +I thought this very odd. It looked as if he had some concealed motive; +but I acquiesced in his notion, and was secretly pleased, not less at +the exchange of the din and riot for ease and quietness, than at the +opportunity it opened to him for the free play of the humor, whatever it +was, that I could plainly see was working upon him. + +We drank freely--that was a great resource with him when he was in a +mood of extravagance--talked rapidly about a chaos of things, laughed +loudly, and in the pauses of the strange revel relapsed every now and +then into silence and abstraction. During these brief and sudden +intervals, the dwarf would amuse himself by drawing uncouth lines on the +table, with his head hanging over them, as if his thoughts were +elsewhere engaged, and the unintelligible pastime of his fingers were +resorted to only to hide them. + +I could not tell why it was, but I felt uneasy and restless. My +companion appeared to me like a man who was mentally laboring at some +revelation, yet did not know how to begin it. He was constantly talking +at something that was evidently troubling his mind, yet he still evaded +his own purpose, as if he did not like the task to which he had set +himself. Throughout the whole time he never mentioned Astræa's name, and +this circumstance gave me additional cause for suspicion. + +At last, summoning up all his energy, and fixing himself with the points +of his elbows on the table, and his long, wiry hands, which looked like +talons, stretched up into his elfin hair at each side of his face, while +his eyes, shooting out their malignant fires, were riveted upon me to +scan the effect of what he was about to say, he suddenly exclaimed, + +"You have been remarked in your attentions to Astræa." + +The mystery was out. And what was there in it, after all? I was a free +agent, and so was Astræa. Why should he make so much theatrical parade +about so very simple a business? + +"Well!" I exclaimed, scarcely able to repress a smile, which the +exaggerated earnestness of his manner excited. + +"Well! You acknowledge that it is so?" + +"Acknowledge? Why should I either acknowledge or deny it? There is no +treason in it; the lady is the best judge--let me add, the only +judge--of any attentions I may have paid to her." + +"But I say you have been remarked--it has been spoken of--it is already +a common topic of conversation." + +"Indeed! A common topic of conversation! Well, I have no objection, +provided my good-natured friends do not say any thing injurious, or +wound the lady's feelings by an improper use of my name." + +He paused for a moment, and lowering his voice, then went on, + +"You never said any thing of this before." + +"Why should I? The inquiry was never made of me before." + +"I have made no inquiry," he retorted. "I didn't ask you to confess. You +have avowed it all yourself, unconsciously." + +I felt that the dwarf was getting serious, and that he was likely to +make me more in earnest before he was done than I had at first +anticipated. I saw the necessity of showing him at once that I would not +brook his interference, and I addressed him in a more deliberate tone +than I had hitherto adopted. + +"Allow me to ask," I demanded, "what interest you may take in this +matter, and by what right you assume the office of interrogating me so +authoritatively?" + +"By what right?" he answered. "My right to do so is rather clearer than +your right to refuse an explanation. You met her at my mother's +house--you meet her there. She is under our roof, under our guardianship +and protection. That gives me the right. It is not pleasant to interfere +in this way; but I am called upon to do so by my position, and I delayed +it in the hope that you would render it unnecessary." + +"Why should you hope so? Why should you desire any explanation on the +subject? The lady is her own mistress: she is under your roof, it is +true; but not under your control. The same thing might happen under any +other roof, and nobody would thereby acquire a right to interfere in a +matter that concerns her alone. You will surely see the propriety of not +suffering your curiosity to meddle any further in the affair?" + +"Meddle!" he reiterated; "control! Are these the phrases with which you +taunt me? But," dropping his voice again, he added, "you are right in +suggesting that I have discharged my office when I demand, to what end +those very marked attentions are paid to Astræa?" + +"You make an unwarrantable demand, and you shall have a fitting answer +to it; and my answer is, that to Astræa alone will I confide my +confession, as you call it. She is old enough and wise enough to think +and act for herself; nor will I consent to compromise my respect for her +understanding by admitting that she requires an arbitrator--perhaps I +ought to say, champion." + +"Have a care," he replied, kindling up all at once into a sort of +frenzy--"have a care what you say or do. You move in darkness--you tread +on smothered fire." + +"Do you threaten me?" said I. + +"No; I do not threaten you. Look at your arm and mine--compare your +muscles with my shrunken and stunted frame," he cried, with an +expression of pain and bitterness; "I do not threaten you, but I warn +you--mark me, I warn you! Heed my warning, I beseech, I implore +you--nay, heed it for your life!" + +I could not but admire the sibyl-like grandeur of his head and +outstretched arms as he uttered these strange words. His voice was +hoarse with some surging emotion; and if so poor a creature could have +been the recipient of a supernatural inspiration, he might have sat at +that moment for the portrait of one of the deformed soothsayers in a +tale of magic. + +"Do I understand you correctly?" said I; "or are you only playing off +some new freak upon me? Answer me frankly one question, and I shall be +better able to comprehend the meaning of your mysterious menace. Are +you--but I know it is absurd, I feel that the question is very +ridiculous, only that your reply to it will, perhaps, set us both +right--do you love Astræa? I really can not conceive any thing short of +some such feeling to justify this violence." + +"Love her? _I_ love _Astræa?_ If there be a mortal I hate in the core of +my heart, it is Astræa. Are you satisfied?" he replied, with an +expression of fiendish satisfaction in his face, as if he were glad of +the excuse for giving vent to his malignity. + +"Hate her?" said I, calmly; "that is unreasonable: but the whole +discussion is unreasonable. I have given you my answer; none other shall +you have from me. So, good-night." + +"One word," he said, leaping out of his chair into the middle of the +room. "One word before you go. I am a dwarf--do not delude yourself into +any contempt of me on that account. I know as well as you do my +disadvantages in the world; I am as conscious as you are of my physical +defects and shortcomings, my distorted spine, and the parsimony of +nature in all particulars when she made me. But I have passions like +other men; and I pursue them like other men, only, as I am shut out from +the summary and open process, I am compelled, perchance, to the choice +of dark and crooked means. Perhaps, too, my passions are all the more +turbulent and dangerous because they are pent up in an incapable frame, +and denied the vents and appliances which men like you have at their +command. Mark me! see Astræa no more. Let your last interview with her +be your last forever. Enter our house no more; that interdict, at least, +I have a right to pronounce. But for myself, and from myself, and apart +from the privilege of my own roof, I warn you at your peril, and on my +own responsibility, never to see Astræa again." + +"Are you mad?" I exclaimed. "Never to see Astræa again! To forsake her +society at your bidding! Wherefore do you make this monstrous demand? Do +you not feel how preposterous it is to thrust yourself into a quarrel +with me in a matter which not only does not concern you, but which +involves the feelings, perhaps the whole future happiness, of a person +whom you have just ostentatiously declared is the object of your hate?" + +"I make no quarrel with you," he answered; "I will not quarrel with you. +I should be mad, indeed, if I did. What! set myself against your thews +and sinews? No, no--I break no bones with you--but I tell you, once +again, your fate is in my hands. I am your destiny, if you will have it +so. You may trample on the oracle; but you can not, with all your show +of bravery and your proud pretensions, with the lady, too, in triumph on +your side, escape its denunciations." + +"Did you, or did you not," I inquired, bewildered by his language, and +not quite satisfied that he was in possession of his senses, "did you, +or did you not, observe those attentions some months ago of which you +now complain for the first time?" + +"I did," he answered. + +"And why did you not then speak to me on the subject?" + +"Because it wasn't ripe!" + +"Ripe? If you have any meaning in these obscure hints, why do you not +explain it for your own sake, since you can not believe that I will +submit patiently to your insane threats? Again I ask you, did you, or +did you not, promote these attentions by every artifice and suggestion +in your power?" + +"I did." + +"Did you not watch them anxiously, forward them daily, and exult in +their progress, until you became secretly convinced that both Astræa's +feelings and mine were engaged beyond recall?" + +"I did--I did--I did!" roared the dwarf. + +"Did you not produce this very result yourself? Did you not seek it, +urge it, fan it to its height, and even glory in the flame you had +nursed so cunningly?" + +"I did--I did--I did!" he shrieked, his whole body seeming to take part +in the frenzy that convulsed him. + +"Fiend!" I cried; "inexplicable devil! what would you have, then? What +is your aim in thus coming with your curses between us?" + +"You shall never know," he replied, "unless to deplore it to the last +hour of your life. You can never know unless you outrage my will. I have +the power to make you wretched forever, to blight and destroy you. And +if you treat my warning with contempt, I will do it without fail, +without mercy, without remorse. The jester who has contributed so +largely to your entertainment, and furnished such a delectable theme for +your secret and cowardly mockery, will shoot a bolt of a graver cast +when you least expect it, and think yourself most secure. Mark me--note +me well. These are not words of rage, or transient passion: remember +them, be wise, and look to your safety. See Astræa no more. With this I +leave you. Our next meeting must be of your making." + +I was alone. Overwhelmed and awed by the demoniacal maledictions of the +wretched creature whom I had hitherto so intensely despised, I knew not +what to think, or how to act. He had assumed a fresh shape, more +marvelous than any he had hitherto put on in the whole round of his +extraordinary mummery. The raillery and tipsy recklessness which +appeared constitutional in him had suddenly passed away, leaving not a +solitary trace behind. Even his figure, while he had been speaking, +seemed to heave with a new life, and to dilate into unnatural +dimensions. I was perplexed to the last extremity; not that the malice +of the demon could scare me from my resolves, but that his motives were +so impenetrable as to suffer no clew to escape by which I could discover +the evil purpose that lay at the bottom. + +It was not the machination or revenge of a disappointed suitor. He never +could have aspired to a hope of Astræa, and he avowed his aversion to +her. She was ignorant of all this bravado about her; and would be even +more indignant to hear of it than I was to suffer it. I resolved, +therefore, not to insult her by revealing it to her. Fortunately, I had +made an appointment to meet her alone on the following day. That meeting +would decide every thing. She might, perhaps, throw some light upon what +was at present a profound mystery to me. At all events, my course was +clear. Under the circumstances in which I was placed, I felt that there +lay but one alternative before me. + + +VII. + +My resolution was taken, as I thought, very composedly. I tried to +persuade myself that I was not in the least ruffled or agitated by the +scene I had passed through; but I was secretly conscious, +notwithstanding, of a vague dread which I endeavored in vain to stifle. +The defiance which the dwarf had so insolently flung at me, the contrast +he drew between his shriveled frame and my physical advantages, and the +Satanic pride with which he rose superior to his wretched deformities, +gave me no slight cause for uneasiness, although I could not analyze the +nature of the fear that possessed me. All through the night I abandoned +myself to the wildest speculations upon the unaccountable conduct and +designs of my arch-enemy; but as morning advanced that oppressive train +of reflections gave way to more agreeable thoughts, just as the hideous +images of the night-mare vanish before the approach of day. + +The prospect of meeting Astræa excluded all other considerations. As +impediments to the flow of a current only serve to increase its force, +so the opposition which the dwarf had thrown in my way gave an +additional impetus to my feelings. The very publicity which our +intercourse had attracted altered our relations to each other. It was no +longer possible to indulge in the romantic dreams, secret looks, and +stolen conversations with which we had hitherto pampered our +imagination; it was necessary to act. I felt the responsibility that was +thus cast upon me; and I confess that I was rather obliged to my +villainous Mephistophiles than angry with him for having, as it were, +brought all my wayward raptures to so immediate and decisive a +conclusion. As to his anathemas and warnings, I treated them as so much +buffoonery on the wrong side of the grotesque. In short, I was too much +engrossed by the approaching interview, and too much intoxicated by the +contemplation of the result to which it inevitably led, to think at all +about that imp of darkness and his ludicrous fulminations. Astræa +occupied brain and heart, and left no room for my tormentor. + +I fancied she looked unusually happy that morning; but not so happy as I +was, not so disturbed and unsettled by happiness. She was perfectly +tranquil, and it was evident that nothing had transpired in the interval +to awaken a suspicion of what had occurred between me and the dwarf. She +observed at once that a change had taken place in my manner. + +"You are in marvelously high spirits to-day," she said; "but this +exuberant gayety is not quite natural to you." + +"High spirits! I am not conscious of it." + +"So much the worse," she replied; then, placing her hand upon my arm, +and looking earnestly at me, she added, "something has happened since I +saw you. What is it? It would be wrong, and useless as well as wrong, to +affect to deny it." + +I had noticed at times in Astræa an air of solemnity, which would fall +upon her face like a shadow, slowly receding again before its habitual, +but always subdued brightness; and occasionally I imagined that I +detected a sudden and brief sternness in her eyes, which conveyed an +impression that she was interrogating with their concentrated rays, the +concealed thoughts of the person upon whom they were directed. These +were some of the outward signs of that mystery of her nature which I +never could penetrate. Upon this occasion a world of latent doubts and +suspicions appeared to be condensed in her look. It seemed as if in that +single glance she read the whole incident which, to spare her feelings, +I was so unwilling to disclose. + +"What do you suppose, Astræa," I inquired, "can have happened since I +saw you?" + +"You are not candid with me," she returned. "I ask you a question, and +you answer by asking me another. If nothing has happened, you can easily +satisfy me; if it be otherwise, and you are silent, I must draw my own +conclusions." + +"Whatever conclusions you draw, Astræa, I know you have too firm a +reliance on my truth and devotion not to believe that I am actuated by +the purest motives. Have I not always been sincere and frank with you?" + +"Always." + +"Have you not an implicit confidence in the steadfastness of my love?" + +"Were it otherwise, should I be now standing here questioning you, or +should there be need of questions of this kind between us? Confidence! +Why am I so sensitive to the slightest fluctuations of tone and manner I +observe in you, and where do I derive the intuitive perception of their +meanings? Love must have confidence! But it has instincts also. I feel +there is something--I am sure of it--but I will urge you no further. It +is not, perhaps, for your happiness or mine that I should seek to +know." + +"Astræa," I exclaimed, passionately, "there is nothing I would conceal +from you that I think you ought to know, or that would make you happier +to know; and if I have any reserve from you, it is for your sake, and +you must ascribe it to the tenderness of my regard for you." + +"For _my_ sake?" she repeated, with a slightly terrified and curious +expression. + +"Now listen to me; I have something to say to you which is of more +importance to us both than these wise, loving conjectures of yours. Take +my arm, and let us get into the Park." + +We were near one of the inclosures of the Regent's Park; and when we +reached a more secluded place, I resumed: + +"First of all, I should like to have your own unbiased opinion about +your friends with whom you are residing. Have you observed any change in +their manner toward you?" + +"Change? None whatever." + +"Do you think--I mean from any thing you have yourself noticed--that +they have watched our actions or been inquisitive in our affairs?" + +She looked inquiringly at me, and hesitated. + +"I think it would be impossible to be much with them and escape their +_persiflage_, let us act as we might. But beyond that sort of idle +criticism which they deal out indiscriminately to every body, I have +observed nothing. Why do you ask?" + +"Because I have reason to believe that my attentions to you have +attracted more observation than either of us suspected; and that, in +fact, they have made such remarks on us as no longer leaves our future +course at our own time or option." + +"You have reason to believe this?" + +"The best possible reason." + +"Who is your authority?" + +"Will you not accept my own authority, without seeking further?" + +"No. It is not a time to hold back from any false delicacy to me, or any +mistaken respect for the confidence of others. Beware of such +confidences, if there be any. They are not meant for your peace or mine, +but to plunge us both into an abyss in which we shall be left to perish. +I must know all. I am entitled to know it. If your love be a hundredth +part as strong and devoted, and as prepared for sacrifice as mine, you +will place a full and entire trust in me." + +"And I do. You shall know all; but I must exact a solemn promise from +you, before I tell you how, and in what manner, this information was +communicated to me. It is impossible for me to foresee how it may affect +or wound your feelings; and it is due to me, if I yield to your request +against my own judgment, that you should pledge yourself, be the +consequences what they may, to give me a public right to protect you +against the further malignity--I can not call it by any milder term--of +your enemies and mine." + +She was deeply affected by this request, which was spoken in so low and +tremulous a voice, so burdened with a painful earnestness, that she +appeared to gather from it the final conviction that upon her answer +depended the future happiness or misery of our lives. I confess, for my +own part, that the pause which ensued, during which she almost +unconsciously repeated to herself, "Be the consequences what they may!" +was to me harrowing beyond expression. It seemed as if there was some +sinister influence at work to destroy us both; and that even the +immediate prospect of our union was not sufficient to allay the terror +that influence inspired, and into the causes and springs of which I now +began to imagine she had a clearer insight than I had previously +suspected. But I was steeped in a tumultuous passion, which would not +suffer me to investigate intervening difficulties. What the source of +her terror was I knew not; mine arose only from the apprehension of +losing her; and to have secured her at that moment, looking as she did, +in the agitation that gave such a wild lustre to her eyes, more lovely +than ever, I would have cheerfully relinquished every thing else in the +world. So far from being anxious to have the cause of her fears and +hesitation cleared up, I was in the utmost alarm lest she should enter +upon an explanation that might delay the consummation of my wishes. I +sought only an affirmative reply to my request, which, come what might, +would make her mine forever. + +She loosened herself from my arm, and walked apart from me in silence. +This action, and the sort of panic it indicated, filled me with alarm. + +"Astræa, you have not answered my question. What is the reason of your +silence?" + +"Be the consequences what they may!" she reiterated. "I did not think of +that, but it is right I should. I should have thought of it before--I +did think of it; but of what avail, while I suffered myself to indulge +in a dream which that thought ought to have dispelled?" + +"You speak in a language that is unintelligible to me; but there is no +time now for explanations. We must decide, Astræa, at once, for to-day +and forever. I only ask your explicit pledge. Let us reserve +explanations for hereafter." + +"You say this in ignorance of what awaits you. I feel that I ought not +to make any pledge until--" and she hesitated again. + +"If I am satisfied to take your pledge, and all consequences with it, +and to repay it with the devotion of my life, why, beloved Astræa, +should you hesitate? Let the responsibility fall on me--of that another +time. Every hour is precious now, and you will understand why I urge you +so impatiently when I tell you that I can never again enter the house +where you are now residing." + +"I knew it. I saw it clearly from the first word you uttered. It was +revealed to me in the very tone of your voice. Now hear me patiently. +Your peace, your honor, all feelings that contribute to the respect and +happiness of life, are at stake upon this moment." + +The determination of her manner left me no choice but to listen. + +"Are you prepared to risk all other ties, obligations, and prospects, in +the consummation of this one object? to hazard friends, opinion, the +world--perhaps it may be, to sacrifice them for the love that has grown +up between us, and which, for good or evil, must this day bind us +together, or sever us for the rest of our lives?" + +"What a question to put to me! The 'world!' it is ashes without you. I +tell you, Astræa, that if the choice lay between the grave and the +single word that would sunder us, I would die rather than utter it. I +don't know what your question implies--I don't seek to know; and would +prefer to remain ignorant of it, that I may the more clearly prove to +you the depth of my trust and devotion, which will be satisfied with the +simple pledge that makes you mine. That, at least, you have in your own +power; let me answer for the rest." + +"Consider well what you are saying. Is your love strong enough to bear +the hazards I have pointed out? Search your own nature--look into your +pride, your sensitiveness to neglect and censure, your high sense of +personal dignity. I have seen how ill you can brook slight affronts--do +you believe that your love will enable you to bear great ones--scorn, +contumely, perhaps opprobrium? Think, think, and weigh well your +decision." + +"Astræa, you put me upon the rack. I have no other answer to give. For +you, and for your sake, come what may, I am ready to risk all!" + +"For me and for my sake, if it be necessary, to forsake the world? to +relinquish friends and kindred? to dedicate yourself in solitude to her +who, in solitude, would be content to find her whole world in you? To do +this, without repining, without looking back with anguish and remorse +upon the sacrifices you had made, without a regret or a reproach? A +woman can do this. Is it so sure there lives a man equal to such +trials?" + +"If these sacrifices be imperative upon us, we make them together. There +can be nothing for either of us to reproach the other with. And as to +the solitude you speak of, my heart yearns for it. It is in that +solitude we can the more fully understand and develop the profound +devotion that shall have drawn us into it. I am sick of the world--weary +and tired of it, and longing for the repose which you alone can +consecrate. It will be no sacrifice to abandon the world for you. +Sacrifice, my Astræa? it will be the crowning happiness of my life!" + +"And you are confident that you can depend upon the firmness of your +resolution? I do not ask this for my own sake--for I know myself, what I +can suffer and outlive--but for yours." + +"I solemnly and finally answer, that no earthly influence can shake my +resolution." + +"Then," said Astræa, placing her hand in mine, and in a grave voice, +laden with emotion, "I am yours forever. Henceforth, I owe no allegiance +elsewhere--here, in the sight of Heaven, I pledge my faith to you, and +hold the compact as binding as if at this moment it were plighted at the +altar." + +I was transported with the earnestness of these words, and covering her +hand with kisses, I exclaimed-- + +"And I ratify it, Astræa, my own Astræa, with my whole heart. Now, who +shall divide us? We are one, and no human power can part us." + +I then related to her the circumstances that had taken place the +preceding evening. She heard me throughout with a calmness that +surprised me. I expected that the extraordinary conduct of the dwarf +would have excited her indignation; but she seemed to know him better +than I did, and although I could perceive a heavy flush sometimes rush +into her cheeks, and a sudden pallor succeed it, the narrative of his +mysterious menaces did not appear to produce half as much astonishment +in her mind as it did in mine. + +"We will talk of this another time," she observed; "at present we must +think of ourselves. I know his character--I know the demoniac revenge he +is capable of; and, for our own safety, we must avoid him." + +"Revenge!" I echoed. The phrase coming from Astræa fell strangely on my +ears. + +"I will leave the house to-morrow; but, for your sake, I will hold no +communication with you till I am beyond his reach. Once assured of that, +I will write to you, and you will come to me. This is the only act I +will ask to take upon my own responsibility, and I do so because it will +secure our mutual safety. From that hour I shall be implicitly guided by +you." + +I should have been glad to have adopted a different course, and to have +claimed her openly. My pride, wounded by the insolent denunciations of +the dwarf, demanded a more public vindication of her independence and +mine; and this stolen flight, and the necessity it imposed upon me of +observing a similar caution in my own movements, looked so like fear and +evasion that I submitted to it very reluctantly. The notion of +concealment and secrecy galled me, and even at this moment, when my +happiness was on the eve of consummation, it gave me a thrill of +uneasiness that cast an oppressive shadow over the future. Astræa, +however, had evidently a strong reason for insisting on privacy, and I +was too anxious about hastening our union to throw any new obstacle in +the way of its accomplishment. + +We separated in the Park, Astræa being unwilling to suffer me to escort +her any further lest we should be seen together. This little incident, +trifling as it was, increased the nervous annoyance and sense of +humiliation I felt at being required to act as if I had any fear of the +results; nor could I comprehend why she should be so much alarmed at +being seen walking with me alone, when she knew that in a few days we +should be indissolubly united. But I submitted to her wishes. Passion is +willful and unreasonable, and takes a wayward pleasure in shutting its +eyes, and rushing onward in the dare. I stifled my vexation in the +anticipation of the joy that lay before me, which would be victory +enough over the impotent hatred of Mephistophiles. + + +VIII. + +Throughout the whole of the next day I waited anxiously in the +expectation of hearing from Astræa. Evening came and passed, and there +was no communication. When the last post-hour was gone by, and all hope +of a letter was at an end, I ventured into the streets, hoping to gather +some signs of her movements from the outside of her house. The blinds +were down as usual in the drawing-room windows, and there seemed to be +rather an extraordinary flush of lights within, as if some commotion was +going forward. I could see huge, shapeless shadows of people moving +about the room, in great bustle and excitement; and it appeared to me, +from the frequency and confusion of then: motions, that the ordinary +family party was augmented by additional numbers. The gathering, +whatever it might have been, was not for festivity; and the constant +swaying backward and forward, and vehement tossing of long streaks of +heads and arms on the blinds, resembled the action of a violent domestic +scene, in which the angry passions were strenuously engaged. I hardly +knew what to conclude from this incoherent pantomime. Either Astræa was +there, in the midst of a stormy contention; or she had left the house, +and they were disputing furiously over the causes of her departure. + +After I had been some time watching this unintelligible phantasmagoria, +and vainly endeavoring to collect a meaning for it, the hall-door +opened, and in the momentary gleam of light that shot into the street I +saw the dwarf issuing out, muffled to the ears in a cloak. He stood for +a moment on the pavement, and adjusting his cloak more carefully about +his face, and crushing his hat down over his eyes, he set off at a quick +pace in an opposite direction to that part of the street where I was +standing. I confess I felt ashamed of the espionage in which I was +occupied, and although I followed my mercurial fiend at a safe distance, +for the distinct purpose of earthing him wherever he was going, I by no +means liked the office which a sort of fatality had forced upon me. But +I was somewhat reconciled to it by a secret conviction that the +abominable little demon had himself come out upon an equally +discreditable expedition, which I soon detected from the infinite pains +he took to elude observation. + +Instead of keeping in the public streets, he darted down numerous dark +alleys and lanes, and once with considerable difficulty I chased him +through the unsavory depths of a straggling mews, where he doubled in an +out with such rapidity as to render it no easy matter to keep upon his +track without betraying myself. Two or three times I nearly lost sight +of him; and it was not until he emerged out of a gloomy passage, of the +existence of which I was until that moment ignorant, into the street +where I lived, that I had the least suspicion of the direction he was +taking. It was presently evident that his object had some reference to +me, for he had no sooner entered the street than he darted into the deep +recess of a hall-door, where he stood for full ten minutes crouched and +transfixed, looking up at my windows, which were exactly opposite to +him. + +Fortunately I was able to note his movements without being myself +perceived, as I lurked in the shadow of the passage from whence he had +just issued. + +The windows of my chambers being dark, I presume he concluded that I was +from home; and under that impression, no doubt, he crossed over and +knocked stealthily at the door--just as one would knock who did not wish +to attract the attention of the inmates, but merely to convey an +intimation to the servants. I was seized with a strong impulse to rush +upon him suddenly, present myself as the door opened, and confound him +on the spot; but I remembered how earnestly Astræa had urged upon me the +prudence of avoiding him, and I restrained myself. Stepping cautiously +into a doorway, I continued to watch his further proceedings. + +The door was opened by a servant, and my dwarf, burying himself up to +the eyes in his cloak, so that it was impossible to distinguish his +features, appeared to enter into a confidential conversation with her. +It seemed to me to last a long time; but my impatience, no doubt, +exaggerated its duration. At length it drew to an end, and hastily +nodding to the servant, who looked after him, as I thought with much +curiosity and astonishment, he dropped down the street at the same +flying pace with which he had entered it. That he had come to my house +for the purpose of picking up some intelligence about me was clear; upon +that point I was satisfied, and the discovery only served to heighten my +anxiety to find out what he was going to do next. + +As he darted along I could not help admiring his wonderful agility. +There was a certain sort of confident swagger about his ordinary style +of walking, such as you frequently observe in small vivacious men, who +strut and swing through the streets as if the great globe itself were +their private property; but upon this occasion it resolved itself into +the swift and impetuous flight of a meteor. He shot from one angle of a +street to another something in the manner of a will-o'-the-wisp, and it +was almost as difficult to fix his course and follow him up. Thus +hanging closely on his footsteps, I was not a little mortified to find, +after all, that the trouble I had taken led to nothing. Striking out a +different, but a much shorter route, the hideous creature went back to +his own house. The lights were already extinguished in the +drawing-room, and the windows, even to the dormitories, were in +darkness. The domestics, apparently, had retired to bed; for the dwarf, +hastily opening the door with a latch-key, vanished from my sight almost +at the same instant that he ascended the steps. I lingered for A few +moments at a distance, and then slowly returned home, congratulating +myself on having detected his sinister expedition, and impatient to +ascertain the substance of his conversation with the servant. + +When I interrogated her on the subject, she betrayed a little fear and +hesitation, but at last she told me every thing that had transpired. The +strange gentleman, whom she had never seen before, and who so completely +concealed his features that she should not be able to identify him +again, asked her a great number of questions about my movements, and +especially if I had been out during the day. He appeared surprised to +learn that I had only just left home, and wanted to know whether I was +expected back that night, and whether I was going out of town. It +happened that I had occupied myself throughout the morning in packing my +carpet-bag and portmanteau, so that I might be able to attend Astræa's +expected summons at a moment's notice; and the servant, whose distrust +was awakened by the urgent manner of the questioner, tried to fence off +his inquiries about my traveling preparations, but his superior +dexterity finally extracted the fact from her. Having obtained that +significant clew to my intentions, he suddenly wished her good-night, +and disappeared. The girl was so frightened by his mysterious air and +abrupt interrogations, that I believe she fancied I was going to fight a +duel; for about that time there had been a fatal duel, which furnished a +topic of general conversation, and which, I suppose, put the sagacious +suspicion into her head. + +"Forewarned, forearmed," says the old proverb. I was now fairly apprised +that the dwarf was upon my track, and I resolved, as a mere measure of +precaution, ignorant as I was of the machinations I had to fear, that +whatever course it might become necessary to adopt, should be carried +out with the utmost secrecy. + +The next morning came a letter from Astræa. No language can adequately +depict the agitation with which I opened the envelope. I felt as if my +fate was contained in the inclosure--as it was! + +It consisted of only a single line, scrawled in haste over a great sheet +of paper, at the top of which was an address in the country, in another +hand-writing, with the following words beneath, written by Astræa: + +"I am here: come to me _quickly_.--A." + +The assurance which this brief intimation conveyed that Astræa had left +London, relieved me of at least one source of anxiety; and all that now +remained was to obey her mandate, and join her without loss of time in +her retreat. I own that I felt rather like a culprit in the way in +which I abandoned my chambers. Feeling assured that the dwarf, having +once set himself as a spy upon my actions, would stop at no means of +tracing me out of town, I determined to leave such an account of myself +behind as should effectually put him upon a false scent. I accordingly +informed the people of the house that I was going into Buckinghamshire +for two days; and, as that was nearly the opposite direction to the +route I was really about to take--for my destination lay among the +sylvan valleys of Kent--I hoped to baffle him at the start. My +arrangements were speedily completed, and, having made a hasty +inspection of the street before I ventured out, I sprang into a +cabriolet, and drove off. + +The imperceptible degrees by which men, in the pursuit of passionate +ends, suffer themselves to fall into deceptions, at which their reason +and their probity would revolt in calmer moments, might suggest a useful +train of reflections at this point of my narrative. But the moral is +obvious enough, without requiring to be formally pointed. I shall only +remark, that my ruminations in the post-chaise that carried me to Astræa +ran chiefly upon the self-humiliation I felt in contemplating the +mystery in which I had become entangled step by step, and the sort of +guiltiness which my studious evasion of the dwarf seemed to argue to my +own mind. Men who act openly never have any reason to entertain a fear +of others, and may look the world boldly in the face. It is only men +that commit themselves to actions which will not bear the light who +resort to subterfuges and concealments, and are harrowed by +apprehensions. My dilemma was a singular one. There was nothing I had +done which I had the slightest reason to hide or feel alarm about; yet I +was taking as cautious measures to avoid publicity as if I were flying +from justice, and was haunted all the time by a thrill of terror which I +could not assign to any intelligible cause. + +In the dusk of the evening, I had the profound happiness of reaching my +destination, and all inquietude was lulled into oblivion by the music of +those tones which always went direct to my heart. The past and the +future were equally absorbed in the luxury of Astræa's society, and I +felt that if I needed an excuse for the strange circumstances in which I +was placed, I had an ample one in the devotion of such a woman. The very +danger--if danger it was, with which I was as yet unacquainted--the +anxiety, the concealment, the flight we had passed through to secure our +union, enhanced the rapture with which we now met never to be sundered +again. + +That evening I related to her what had happened the night before, and +she gave me an account of the manner in which she had managed to escape +from the dwarf's house; for, in spite of the self-possession with which +she described the incident, it more nearly resembled an escape than a +departure. In fact, she had left the house in the morning, on foot, and +was expected back, as usual, to luncheon after her walk. But luncheon +passed, and there were no tidings of her; and, at dinner-time, a brief +note by the post announced her leave-taking, excusing its abruptness, on +the ground of a sudden and urgent call into the country. This was, no +doubt, the subject which the angry shadows on the blinds had been so +vehemently discussing the night before. So violent an infraction of +etiquette would have pained me seriously had it occurred under any other +circumstances, or had it been inflicted upon any other persons than the +members of that eccentric family. But we knew them well; how unlike they +were to the rest of the world, and how slight an impression the mere +breach of courtesy would make upon them, in comparison with the +malicious curiosity it would awaken! They were like Bohemians in their +habits and ways of thinking; and were themselves so accustomed to +violate established usages, that the most extravagant irregularities +could not very materially surprise them. This consideration reconciled +me to a proceeding which must otherwise have been a source of regret to +me, on Astræa's account; besides, I was by no means unwilling to accept +the sacrifice she had thus made of her own independence as an additional +proof of her attachment. + +But what was the cause of all these stratagems and concealments? I +should learn that the next day. I saw that Astræa was suffering under a +despondency natural enough to her novel situation, and I patiently +waited her own time for disclosures which I now began to look forward to +with nervous apprehensions. + +The house in which I found her lay buried in the foliage of a secluded +valley. It was in the cottage style, covered with creepers that dropped +in at the windows, and filled the rooms with scent; and it belonged to +people in an humble rank of life, who had known Astræa from her infancy, +and were devoted to her interest. Under the shelter of their roof, she +was secure. The place was extremely picturesque on a small scale--a +green glen, where the surrounding heights were broken into a variety of +forms, and where the eye, on whatever spot it rested, caught some point +of beauty. An impetuous little stream rushed from the jaws of a ravine +that formed a sort of vista at one extremity, and, brawling away through +the wooded depths of the valley, tossed itself into the air over a group +of artificial rooks at the foot of the tiny lawn. Dark trees filled the +openings in the hills, and the sward round their roots was dotted with +clusters of wild flowers, like a garden. A rustic bridge spanned the +water, and graceful willows dipped their tresses into the spray. Aquatic +plants clung about the rocks--parasite tendrils climbed the ancient +wood; and there was altogether a feeling of solitude and repose in the +scene, that rendered it the most fitting seclusion on earth to ripen +into a new life of love two ardent hearts like ours. + +With what anxiety I looked forward to the next day, when Astræa and I, +liberated from all eyes, should wander about these lonely paths! It came +at last, and with it brought my doom! + +(_To be continued._) + + + + +STORY OF SILVER-VOICE AND HER SISTER ZOE. + + +The phenomena of memory are singular objects of study. I have often +thought that a certain class of ideas and observations could be so +arranged as to form an orderly, connected chain, one link of which would +bring home all the others, however deeply sunken in the mind. But +experience teaches me that this is not the case. During my residence in +the East, though I kept a careful journal of every thing that seemed +interesting at the time, a thousand circumstances came to my notice +which I did not set down; and when I have endeavored to recall them, +many have stubbornly refused to appear when wanted. But suddenly, when I +at least expect it, I now and then find myself irresistibly carried back +to old times. Forms that had faded into distance--thoughts that had +seemed dissolved into nothing--scenes and impressions which I had in +vain sought to revive--obtrude themselves irresistibly on my notice. In +general, the unexpected visitants are welcome; the fireside is rendered +brighter and more cheerful by them; and their presence sends a glow +through this northern atmosphere, which allows autumn to steal on +unperceived. + +I was prevented last night from sleeping by the perpetual recurrence in +my reveries of the name of Lady Silver-Voice. I had forgotten her +existence, as one is apt to forget a beautiful thing amidst the material +cares of this life. Let me endeavor to tell her story as simply as it +was told to me. + +But first, how I came to see her--for I have had that privilege. It was +one evening in winter-time, that, after a prolonged illness, I was +taking a stroll on the roof of a palace-like mansion in Cairo. The sun +had set _for me_; it had gone down behind the interminable sea of +houses. But I could still see it shining on the forest of minarets that +rose through the moist, balmy air, and on the vast dome of the mosque +that now towers above the citadel. The terrace-roof on which I was, +though commanded at a distance by much more lofty buildings, was far +raised above the humble dwellings near at hand, so that I could look +down and observe the movements of my neighbors, who were most varied in +race and costume--Turks and Maltese, Arabs and Greeks, Armenians and +Copts--to say nothing of "Jews and poultry," which my servant, who +brought me a pipe, added to the enumeration. + +I passed some time in examining the movements of these various +personages, who all come out upon their terraces to enjoy the evening +air; and though I did not observe any thing very characteristic, any +thing which would necessarily go down in my journal, I was sufficiently +interested not to notice the flight of time, and to allow complete +darkness to gather round me while I still leaned over the parapet. +Suddenly I was aroused from my contemplations by a snatch of a strange +song sung in the most marvelously-sweet voice I had ever heard. I +started, not exactly like a guilty thing, but transfixed, as it were, by +an almost painful shaft of delight. The voice swelled up on the night +air, until, in spite of its divine sweetness, it became almost a cry of +sorrow, and then ceased, leaving a thrill running through my frame that +gradually seemed to shrink back to my heart, and expire there in a +feeling of mingled joy and pain. Perhaps the state of my health rendered +me peculiarly susceptible of strong emotions: I am afraid I wept. The +darkness, however, prevented this weakness from being witnessed by Ali, +who came to announce that my dinner was ready. I went down the winding +staircase to the vast lonely hall, where I usually ate alone--the master +of the house being absent on a journey; but though my appetite was that +of a convalescent, I am sure I did not enliven the meal for myself by my +usual humorous observations: to the officer, for example, that I was +doubtful whether the beef was camel, or the mutton was donkey. Ali +seemed rather surprised, especially when I asked him, abruptly, who it +was that sang so sweetly in the neighborhood. + +He did not know! My curiosity was unsatisfied; but, perhaps, I went to +bed that night with a fuller gush of happiness at my heart than if I had +heard this prosy fellow's account of the matter. It is a frequent +subject of meditation with me, whether or not I am constituted as other +men are. Are others played upon in this way by some slight +occurrence--by meeting with a face seen before only in a dream, by a +peculiar smile, by a gesture, by a sigh, by a voice singing in the +darkness? If not, who will understand the delicious watchful hours I +passed that night, or the dreams, spangled with bright eyes, fairy +forms, purple clouds, golden gleams, and buzzing with sweeter warblings +than ever rolled in a nightingale's throat, that lured me on until +morning? + +Naturally, the first inquiries I made were about the voice; but I did +not that day meet with any success. When evening approached, I again +went up to the terrace; and, not to lengthen the story, I did see, just +as the sun went down upon a low house not very far off, but looking into +another street, a little fairy figure walking up and down, and leading a +child by the hand. A kind of instinct told me that the voice was +embodied before me; and, presently, all doubt was set at rest. The same +silver tones rose upon the air; and this time I recognized that the song +was in the Greek language. I remained looking intently in that +direction, until the form faded into a mere shadow; and then, as +darkness increased, seemed to multiply before my aching eyes, and assume +all sorts of fantastical shapes. Every now and then, a couplet, or a +stanza, came sweeping up. It was evident the lady, whoever she might +be, was not singing merely to amuse the child. The notes were sometimes +lively, but, in general, sad and plaintive. I listened long after the +last quaver had died away; and was rather sulky when Ali came with the +persevering joke that "the camel was getting cold!" + +Next day I suddenly remembered that an old Greek priest had frequently +invited me to go to his house; and reproaching myself with the want of +politeness I had hitherto exhibited, I ordered my donkey to be saddled, +and started off. The ride was only of a few streets; it seemed to me +quite a journey. On arriving, the worthy _papa_ was fortunately at home, +and by himself. He was delighted with my visit; and, after a small +altercation with his servant, succeeded in getting me some coffee and a +pipe. I admired the art with which I wound toward my query. The old +gentleman suspected nothing; but when I casually asked if he knew who it +was among his countrymen who sang like an angel, he quickly replied, "It +must be Silver-Voice, as she is called among the Moslem!" + +I overturned my pipe on the mat in my eagerness to turn round and +listen. Excellent old man! instead of clapping his hands for the +servant, he went down upon his knees to collect the scattered tobacco, +and replace it in the bowl, and silenced my excuse with as mild an "It +is no matter, my son!" as ever passed the lips of one of our species. He +grew before my eyes in that humble posture; and when he returned to his +seat, seemed fifty times as venerable as before. The same spirit would +have led him to wash the feet of the poor. + +He then told me the story of Silver-Voice and her sister: + +"Many years ago, a Greek merchant was walking through the slave-market, +when he beheld for sale a little girl, so beautiful, and yet so sad, +that though he was on the way to conclude a bargain for fifty thousand +ardebs of beans, he could not prevail on himself to pass indifferently +on. + +"'Of what country?' he inquired. + +"'A Candiote,' replied the slave-dealer. She was from his own beloved +island. + +"'How much?' + +"'Five thousand piastres.' + +"'I will pay the price.' The bargain was concluded on the spot. Another +merchant got the beans; but Kariades took home the Silver-Voice to his +house. + +"The girl followed him silently, hanging down her head, and refusing to +answer the questions he put in his kind, bluff way. Some great sorrow +evidently weighed upon her, and she refused to be comforted. When, +however, Kariades presented her to his wife, and said, 'This shall be +our daughter,' the child opened her mouth and cried, 'Wherefore, oh +father, didst thou not come to the slave-market one short hour before?' +He asked her meaning, and she explained that her sister had been +separated from her, and sold to a Turk; 'and,' cried she, 'I will not +live unless Zoë be brought back to my side.' Kariades smiled as he +replied, 'I went forth, this day to buy beans, and I have come back with +a daughter. Must I needs go and fetch another?' 'You must!' said the +girl, resolutely. + +"From that hour forth she was the queen in the house. Kariades returned +to the slave-market, but, strange to say, could find no clew to the fate +of Zoë, although he offered double her price to the dealer. It was +believed that she had been bought by a stranger merely passing through +Cairo, and making no stay; for the public crier was employed to go about +the streets and proclaim that whoever would produce the girl should +receive whatever he demanded. All was in vain. Time passed on; and the +active grief of the Silver-Voice sobered down into steadfast melancholy. +She continued living as the daughter or rather as the mistress of the +house, knowing no want but that of her sister, and enchanting every one +with the magnificence of her singing, until she reached the age of +sixteen years. + +"One day Kariades said to her, 'My child, I must seek a husband for thee +among the merchants of my people.' But she firmly refused, declaring +that there could be no joy for her unless she knew that her sister was +not living in wretched thralldom in the house of some cruel Turk. + +"'But,' said he, 'what if death have overtaken her?' + +"'We promised, as we lay folded in each other's arms the night before we +were parted, to be happy or sorrowful together--to laugh at the same +time, to weep at the same time--and if one died, the other was never to +cease grieving. I remember that, as they were dragging Zoë away, she +turned her pale face, all sparkling with tears, toward me, and cried, +_forever_!' + +"'Meaning that you were parted forever?' + +"'No; but that we were to be faithful to our vow forever. I never shall +forget the agonizing expression of that face. How can I? I see it every +night in my dreams; and painful though it be, I rush into sleep as +eagerly to behold it as if I were going into Paradise. No: I will never +marry while that face threatens to interpose between my husband and me.' + +"'Then this vision torments thee?' + +"'Ah, father!' and she shuddered, and bent her head. + +"It was evident that her mind was weakened by too much contemplation of +one idea. + +"Kariades yielded before a will stronger than his own, and nothing more +was said either about marriage or the lost Zoë for nearly a year. At the +end of this time, Silver-Voice appeared before the good old man, and +said, 'Father, give me money; I have thought of a means by which I may +find my sister Zoë.' He looked sadly at her, but gave her what she +required. Next day she disappeared, and was not heard of for several +weeks. Then she returned, consoled her adopted parents by her presence +for a while, and again departed without giving the least indication of +how she employed her time. Nor did they ask her, confident that all she +did was prompted by that most powerful of all loves--the love of a +sister supplying a mother's place. "The truth was, that she had hired a +number of houses in various parts of Cairo, and visited them +alternately, in order to pass the evenings singing on the terrace. +Despite the failure of the researches made by Kariades, she remained +persuaded that Zoë was in Cairo, and hoped that the echoes of her +magnificent voice might at length go as messengers into the depths of +every harem, and make known her presence. The whole city was by turns +rendered happy by the Silver-Voice; but as it was heard now in the +Citadel, now near the Bisket-el-Fil, anon at the Bab Zuweileh, men began +to think strange things. It was curious, indeed, to hear the +speculations of the gossiping Turks about this ubiquitous voice. I +remember laughing much at the wise arguments by which one of them, who +had heard the fable of Memnon's statue, demonstrated to me that the +sound came from no human organ at all, but was produced by the rays of +the setting sun striking in some peculiar way upon the minarets. + +"A whole year passed in this manner without bringing any thing new; but +the beautiful patience of the Silver-Voice was at length after a fashion +rewarded. Better had it been, perhaps, for her, had her soul been wafted +away in some sad song. She was standing one evening, long after the sun +had set, filling the air with her plaintive notes, and calling, as +usual, upon her sister; suddenly there rose a cry--a piercing, terrible +cry, such as no mortal ever utters but when the sanctuary of life is +invaded. At that awful sound the Silver-Voice was struck dumb. She stood +listening like a gazelle when it hears the howl of a wolf afar off upon +the desert. The wild accents seemed to hang for a moment over her, and +then fell into her ear, moulding, as they fell, into the words, "My +sister!" How it came to pass she could not tell: over the parapet, along +a crumbling wall, across a ruined house, she passed as if by magic, +until she fell like a moonbeam through an open window, and saw upon a +rich couch the form of an expiring woman lying. It was her sister Zoë. +The blow had been too well aimed: it had gone to her heart, and the +life-blood bubbled rapidly forth between her white fingers, which she +pressed, to her side. One eloquent glance, in which eyes mingled with +eyes, while lips hung upon lips, was exchanged. There was not time, +neither was there need, to tell their stories in any other way. The +dying woman made one effort, pointed to a cradle that stood under a +cloud of gauze curtains in a corner, then smiled a long, impassioned +smile of recognition, of gratitude, and of love, seemed to wander a +little back in memory, murmured some pleasant sounds, and was still. + +"The Silver-Voice rose solemnly, and casting her eyes about, beheld a +man crouching in a corner weeping. 'It is all over!' she said. 'All +over!' he replied, looking up. But I will not weary you with the scene +in which the wretched man--a Greek renegade--related how he had bought +Zoë--how he had loved her, and made her his wife--how they had traveled +in far countries--how he was jealous, ever, as he acknowledged, without +cause--and how, in a fit of madness, he had slain the mother of his +child. When he had finished, he led the bewildered Silver-Voice to the +cradle, and thrusting aside the curtains, disclosed the miniature +counterpart of Zoë, sleeping as if it had been lulled into deeper +slumber by its mother's death-cries. Then, stealing toward the corpse +with the step of one about to commit a new crime, he snatched a hasty +kiss, and rushed away. What became of him was never known. Silver-Voice +performed the last duties for poor Zoë, and took the child under her +care. Since that time she has almost always continued to live in the +house from the roof of which she heard her sister's cry; and though +apparently rational in every thing else, never fails to go up each +evening and sing the song she used to sing of old, though in a more +plaintive and despairing tone. If asked wherefore she acts in this wise, +her reply is, that she is seeking for her sister Zoë, and nobody +attempts to contradict the harmless delusion. Several years have now +passed away since this event, and the child has become a handsome boy. +You may see them both at the church to-morrow." + +I thanked the worthy _papa_ for his story more warmly, perhaps, than he +expected. He had been as much pleased by narrating as I had been by +listening; but he was not very particular about the quality of his +facts, and unintentionally made me do penance for the excessive pleasure +I had experienced by giving me an account--two hours long, and with +equal unction--of a tremendous controversy then raging as to the proper +form of electing the sub-patriarch of Cairo. It would have been +ungrateful to interrupt him, although there seemed no end to his +garrulity. Fortunately, two or three people at length came in; I +compromised my dignity as a heretic by kissing his hand, and escaped, to +turn over this curious story in my mind. Next day I went to the Greek +church, and saw a melancholy-looking face through the bars of the +cage-like gallery in which the women sit. I am quite certain it was that +of Lady Silver-Voice, but no one whom I asked seemed to know her. The +boy did not show himself. It was my intention to go another Sunday, and +observe more accurately, for I really felt a deep interest in this +unfortunate lady. But other thoughts and occupations came upon me, and +it was only by an accident that, as I have said, these circumstances +recurred last night to my mind. + + + + +THE CROCODILE BATTERY. + + +In the summer of 1846, when every body in England was crazy with railway +gambling, I was sojourning on the banks of the Rohan, a small stream in +one of the northwestern provinces of India. Here I first became +acquainted, with the Mugger, or Indian crocodile. I had often before +leaving England, seen, in museums, stuffed specimens of the animal, and +had read in "Voyages and Travels," all sorts of horrible and incredible +stories concerning them. I had a lively recollection of Waterton riding +close to the water's edge on the back of an American cayman, and I had a +confused notion of sacred crocodiles on the banks of the Nile. I always +felt more or less inclined to regard the whole race as having affinities +with Sinbad's "roc," and the wild men of the woods, who only refrained +from speaking for fear of being made to work. + +My ideas respecting the natural history of crocodiles were in this stage +of development when, one day, while paddling up the Rohan, I saw what +appeared to be a half-burned log of wood lying on a sand-bank. I paddled +close up to it. To my astonishment, it proved to be a huge reptile. The +old stories of dragons, griffins, and monsters, seemed no longer fables; +the speculations of geologists concerning, _mososaurians, hylæsaurians,_ +and _plesiosaurians_, were no longer dreams. There, in all his scaly +magnificence, was a _real_ saurian, nearly eighteen feet long. For a +while I stood gazing at this, to me, new fellow-citizen of the world, +and speculating on his mental constitution. The monster was, or +pretended to be, asleep. I wondered if he dreamt, and what his dreams or +reveries might be about; possibly he was dreaming of the same old world +with which I associated him--possibly of the fish who were swimming in +the waters below: or, he might be thinking of the men and women he had +swallowed in the course of his existence. There was a snort; perhaps +that was occasioned by the bugles and heavy brass ornaments which had +adorned the limbs of some Hindoo beauty he had eaten, and which were +lying heavy and indigestible on his stomach. But presently the brute lay +so still, and seemed so tranquil and placid in his sleep, that it was +difficult to imagine him guilty of such atrocities. He did not appear to +be disturbed by remorse, or the twitchings of a guilty conscience: it +may have been all a slander. I felt so kindly disposed toward him, that +I could not imagine it possible that if awake he would feel disposed to +eat me. Let us see! so making a splash with my paddle, I wakened the +sleeping beauty. He instantly started up, and opened, what +appeared--what indeed proved to be--an enlarged man-trap; disclosing a +red, slimy cavern within, fringed with great conical fangs. He closed it +with a snap that made me shudder, and then plunged into the water, his +eyes glaring with hate and defiance. + +Some days after I had made this new acquaintance, I was sitting at home +talking with my brother, when a native woman came crying and screaming +to the bungalow door, tearing her hair out in handfuls; she got down on +the veranda floor and struck her head against it, as if she really +meant to dash her brains out. A crowd of other women stood at a short +distance, crying and lamenting as if they were frantic. What was the +matter? Half-a-dozen voices made answer in a discordant chorus, that +while the poor woman was washing her clothes by the river side, her +child--an infant about a year old--had been seized and swallowed by a +Mugger. Although convinced that aid was now impossible, we took our guns +and hastened to the spot where the accident happened; but all was still +there, not a wavelet disturbed the surface of the stream. A small +speckled kingfisher was hovering overhead, as if balanced in the air, +with its beak bent down on its breast, watching the fish beneath; +presently it darted like an arrow into the water; returned with an empty +bill, and then went off, with its clear, sharp, twittering note, as if +to console itself for the failure. + +One day I was sitting on the high bank of the river, taking snap shots +with my gun at the large fish who were every now and then leaping out of +the water. A favorite spaniel was bringing a fish out of the water that +I had hit. It had swam already half way across the stream, when the +water about six yards below her became suddenly disturbed; and, to my +horror, up started the head and open jaws of an enormous crocodile. The +dog gave a loud shriek, and sprang half out of the water. The Mugger +swam rapidly, and had got within a yard of his intended victim, when I +raised my gun, and took aim at the monster's head. A thud, a splash, a +bubble, and a dusky red streak in the water, was all that ensued. +Presently, however, Juno's glossy black head emerged from the water; +and, to my delight, began to make rapid progress toward me, and landed +safely. The poor brute, wet and shivering, coiled herself up at my feet, +with her bright hazel eyes fixed on mine with ineffable satisfaction. +Poor Juno subsequently fell a victim to the Muggers, when her master was +not at hand to succor her. I mention these facts, to show that the +diabolical revenge with which I afterward assisted in visiting these +monsters, was not groundless. But the strongest occasion of it remains +to be told. + +Just as the "rains" were beginning, my neighbor, Mr. Hall, sent me word +that he intended paying me a short visit, and requested me to send a +_syce_ (groom), with a saddle-horse, to meet him at a certain place on +the road. The syce, Sidhoo, was a smart, open-chested, sinewy-limbed +little fellow, a perfect model of a biped racer. He could run--as is the +custom in the East--alongside his horse at a pace of seven or eight +miles an hour, for a length of time that would astonish the best English +pedestrian I ever heard of. + +Toward evening, Mr. Hall rode up to the bungalow, dripping with water, +and covered with mud. I saw at once that some accident had happened, and +hastened to assist him. + +As soon as he got inside, he said, in answer to my bantering about his +"spill"-- + +"I am in no humor for jesting. Your syce is lost!" + +"Drowned?" + +"No; eaten!--by an enormous crocodile!" + +He added that, on arriving at a small nulla about two miles off, he +found it so much swollen by rain, that he had to swim his horse across +it, holding one end of the cord which Sidhoo, in common with most +Hindoos, wore coiled round his waist, and which was used in pulling +water from the deep wells of the country. Hall got safely across, and +then commenced pulling Sidhoo over by means of the cord. The black face, +with the white teeth and turban, were bobbing above the muddy water, +when all at once the groom threw up his arms, gave a loud shriek, and +sank below the surface. Mr. Hall, who had doubled the cord round his +hand, was dragged into the water; where he got a momentary glimpse of +the long serrated tail of a Mugger, lashing the water a short way ahead +of him. In his efforts to save himself, he lost his hold of the string, +and with much difficulty clambered up the slippery bank of the nulla. +All was now still. Only Sidhoo's turban was to be seen floating loosely, +a considerable way down the stream. Hall ran toward it, with the sort of +feeling which makes a drowning man catch at a straw; and, by means of a +stick he succeeded in fishing it out, and brought it with him, as the +only remnant of Sidhoo he could give an account of. + +Bad news soon spreads in an Indian village, and Sidhoo's fate was soon +made known to his wife; and in a short time she came crying and sobbing +to the bungalow, and laid her youngest child at our friend's feet. The +tears glistened in the poor fellow's eyes as he tried to soothe and +console her; which he did by promising to provide for her and her +children. + +Although Hall was generally running over with fun, we smoked our +cheroots that evening in silence; except when we proposed schemes for +the annihilation of the crocodiles. A great many plans were +discussed--but none that offered much chance of success. The next day, +after breakfast, I was showing my visitor a galvanic blasting apparatus, +lately received from England, for blowing up the snags (stumps of trees) +which obstruct the navigation of the river. I was explaining its mode of +action to him, when he suddenly interrupted me--"The very thing! Instead +of snags, why not blow up the Muggers?" + +I confessed that there could be no reason why we should not blast the +Muggers. The difficulty was only how to manage it; yet the more we +talked of it, the more feasible did the scheme appear. + +The brutes keep pretty constant to the same quarters, when the fish are +plentiful; and we soon ascertained that poor Sidhoo's murderer was well +known in the neighborhood of the nulla. He had on several occasions +carried off goats, sheep, pigs, and children; and had once attempted to +drag a buffalo, whom he had caught drinking, into the water; but, from +all accounts, came off second best in this rencontre. There not being +enough of water in the nulla to drown the buffalo, the Mugger soon found +he had caught a Tartar; and after being well mauled by the buffalo's +horns, he was fain to scuttle off and hide himself among the mud. + +I had observed, when blasting the snags, that the concussion produced by +the discharge had the effect of killing all the fish within a range of +some twenty or thirty yards. After every explosion, they were found in +great numbers, floating on the surface of the water with their bellies +uppermost. It now occurred to me, that if we could only get within a +moderate distance of the Mugger, if we did not blow him to pieces, we +would at all events give him a shock that would rather astonish him. An +explosion of gunpowder under water communicates a much severer shock to +the objects in its immediate vicinity, than the same quantity of powder +exploded in the air; the greater density of the water enabling it, as it +were, to give a harder blow. + +Having made our arrangements, Mr. Hall, my brother, and myself, got into +a small canoe, with the blasting apparatus on board, and dropt down the +stream to where the nulla discharged its waters into the Rohan. He then +got out and proceeded to a village close by, where we obtained for a few +annas, the carcass of a young kid. A flask with about six pounds of +gunpowder, and having the conducting wires attached, was then sewn into +the kid's belly. Two Strong ropes were also tied to this bait; and, to +one of these, the conducting wire was firmly bound with small cord. The +ropes were about thirty yards long, and had each attached to its +extremities one of the inflated goat-skins used by water-carriers. Hall, +with his goat-skin under his arm, and a coil of loose rope in his hand, +took one side of the nulla, while my brother, similarly provided took +the other. My brother's rope contained the wire; so I walked beside him, +while two coolies, with the battery ready charged, and slung to a pole +which rested on their shoulders, accompanied me. A small float was also +attached by a string to the kid, so as to indicate its position. + +These arrangements being made, we commenced walking up the nulla, +dragging the carcass of the kid in the stream, and moving it across, +from side to side, so as to leave no part of the bed untried; and, as +the nulla was only about twelve yards wide, we felt pretty confident +that, if the Mugger were in it, we could scarcely fail of coming in +contact with him. We had proceeded only about a quarter of a mile, when +the float suddenly dipt. My brother and Hall threw the loose coil of +ropes they carried on the water, along with the inflated skins. These +made it soon evident by their motion that the Mugger had seized the kid. +He was dashing across, in a zig-zag direction, down the stream. I ran +after him as fast as I could; and paying out the cord from the reel, +when I found it impossible to keep up with him. On reaching a place +where the banks were steeper than usual, he came to a stand still. I +got on the top of the bank, and commenced hauling in the rope. I did +not, however, venture to lift the skin out of the water, for fear of +disturbing him, until the coolies with the battery had time to come up. +This was a very anxious time; for, if the Mugger had shifted his +quarters before they came up, a fresh run with him would have ensued, +with the chance of his breaking the wires with his teeth. After a while +I heard the coolies approaching, and my brother scolding them, and +urging them to hasten on. Just as their heads appeared above the bank, +the foremost coolie tripped his foot and fell--I groaned with +disappointment--presently, my brother came along with them, and brought +the battery to my feet; a good deal of the acid had been spilt, but, +with the aid of a bottle of fresh acid we had brought along with us, we +soon got the battery up to the requisite power. Every thing being now in +order, I commenced pulling up the rope with the wire. I proceeded as +cautiously as possible for fear of disturbing the Mugger; but, in spite +of all my efforts, the inflated skin, in coming up the bank, dislodged +some loose pieces of earth, and sent them splashing into the water. +Fortunately, however, the Mugger had made up his mind to digest the kid +where he was. I could not help chuckling when I at length got hold of +the end of the wires. While my brother was fastening one of them to the +battery, I got the other ready for completing the circuit. The Mugger +all the while lying still at the bottom of the nulla with, most likely, +a couple of fathoms of water over his head, unconscious of danger, and +little dreaming that the two-legged creatures on the bank had got a +nerve communicating with his stomach, through which they were going to +send a flash of lightning that would shatter his scaly hulk to pieces. + +Every thing being now ready, I made the fatal contact. Our success was +complete! We felt a shock, as if something had fallen down the bank--a +mound of muddy water rose, with a muffled, rumbling sound, and then +burst out to a column of dark smoke. A splashing and bubbling succeeded, +and then a great crimson patch floated on the water, like a variegated +carpet pattern. Strange-looking fragments of scaly skin were picked up +by the natives from the water's edge, and brought to us amidst a very +general rejoicing. The exploded Mugger floated down the stream, and the +current soon carried it out of sight. We were not at all sorry, for it +looked such a horrible mess that we felt no desire to examine it. + +Our sense of triumphant satisfaction was, however, sadly damped about a +week afterward, when we received the mortifying announcement, that +Sidhoo's Mugger was still alive, and on his old beat, apparently +uninjured. It was evident that we had blasted the wrong Mugger! We +consoled ourselves with the reflection, that if he were not Sidhoo's +murderer, it was very _likely_ he was not wholly innocent of other +atrocities, and therefore deserved his fate. + +Of course it was impossible to rest while Sidhoo's Mugger remained +alive, so we were not long in preparing for a second expedition. This +time we took the precaution of not charging the battery until we were +certain that the bait was swallowed. The acid, diluted to the necessary +strength, was, therefore, carried in one of those brown earthenware jars +called gray-beards, which had come out to us full of Glenlivet whisky. +We commenced dragging the kid up the stream, as before; but, having +walked more than a mile without getting a bite, we were getting rather +disheartened, and sat down to rest, struck a light, and smoked a +cheroot. Hall laid down, having manufactured an impromptu easy chair out +of his coil of rope, with the inflated goat-skin placed above it. My +brother was not long in imitating his example, and I laid down under the +shade of some reeds, near to the water's edge. The heat was oppressive, +and we were discussing the probability of getting a bite that day, and +lamenting that we had not brought some pale ale along with us, when, +when, all at once, I got a sharp blow on the leg, while my brother came +spinning down the bank like a teetotem--a companion picture to Hall; who +was revolving down the opposite bank. The ropes and skins went rushing +down the nulla at a tremendous pace. As soon as we recovered from the +laughter into which we were thrown by this droll contretemps, we set off +in pursuit, guided by the track which the inflated skins made in the +water. On they went, dashing from side to side, as they had done in our +first attempt. On coming to a place where the nulla made a sharp turn, +they stood still under the high bank, on the inner curve of the bend. It +unfortunately happened that the bank, near to which the skins were +floating, was too precipitous for us to get near them, without starting +the Mugger from his present position. With much labor, we detached some +loose sods from the top of the bank, and sent them with a loud splash +into the water, directly over where we imagined him to have taken up his +quarters. This had the desired effect, for the skins began to move +slowly down the stream, as if the Mugger were crawling leisurely along +the bottom. + +Leaving my brother with the coolies in charge of the battery, I ran on +to where the bank was more shelving. By good luck, the stream was +rushing up, after its sudden sweep, and sent a strong current against +this bank. I had not waited many minutes, before the skins came floating +round the corner, to where I was standing. I seized the one to which the +wire was attached, desiring my brother to charge the battery, and bring +it down. This he did much sooner than I could have expected; for, as the +battery was now empty, one coolie was able to carry it on his head, +while my brother took the jar of acid in his hand. It was evident from +the motion of the other skin in the water that the Mugger was still +moving--so no time was to be lost. I made the connection with the +battery with one of the wires; in another instant the circuit was +complete, and the Mugger's doom sealed. + +There was a momentary pause--owing, I suppose, to some slight loss of +insulation in the wires--then came the premonitory shock, then the +rumble, the smoke, and the sparks; and a great bloated mass of flesh and +blood rose to the surface of the water. Hall called out to us to drag it +ashore, and see whether we could get any trace of poor Sidhoo. We tried +by means of a bamboo pole to pull it to the bank, but the glimpse we got +of it as it neared was so unutterably disgusting, that we pushed it off +again, and allowed it to float away down with the current. + +That this was Sidhoo's Mugger, there could be no doubt; for he was never +seen or heard of in the neighborhood again. + + + + +A CHAPTER ON DREAMS. + + +When we picture to ourselves a person lying in a state of profound +sleep--the body slightly curved upon itself; the limbs relaxed; the head +reclining on its pillow; and eyelids closed--it is wonderful to think +what strange and startling imagery may be passing through the brain of +that apparently unconscious being. The events of his whole life may +hurry past him in dim obscurity; he may be revisited by the dead; he may +be transported into regions he never before beheld; and his ideas +visibly assuming phantasmal shapes, may hover round him like shadows +reflected from another and more spiritual state of existence. + +Let us draw the curtains gently aside, and study the physiognomy of +sleep. + +The countenance may, occasionally, be observed lighted up, as it were, +from within by a passing dream--its expression is frequently one of +peculiar mildness and benignity; the breathing may be slow, but it is +calm and uniform: the pulse not so rapid as in the waking state, but +soft and regular; the composure of the whole body may continue +trance-like and perfect. There is, indeed, no sign of innocence more +touching than the smile of a sleeping infant. But, suddenly, this state +of tranquillity may be disturbed; the dreamer changes his position and +become restless; he moans grievously--perhaps sobs--and tears may be +observed glimmering underneath his eyelids; his whole body now seems to +be shaken by some inward convulsion; but, presently, the strife abates; +the storm-cloud gradually passes; he stretches his limbs, opens his +eyes, and, as he awakes, daylight, in an instant, dispels the vision, +perhaps leaving not behind the faintest trace or recollection of a +single incident which occurred in this mysterious state. + +But what are dreams? Whence come they? What do they portend? Not man +only, but all animals, it is presumed, dream, more or less, when they +are asleep. Horses neigh, and sometimes kick violently; cows, when +suckling their young calves, often utter piteous lowings; dogs bark in +suppressed tones, and, from the motions of their paws, appear to fancy +themselves in the field of the chase; even frogs, particularly during +summer, croak loudly and discordantly until midnight, and then retire, +and become silent. Birds also dream; and will sometimes, when +frightened, fall from their roosting-perch, or flutter about their cage, +in evident alarm. A bullfinch, says Bechstein, belonging to a lady, was +subject to very frightful dreams, which made it drop off its perch; but +no sooner did it hear the voice of its affectionate mistress than it +became immediately tranquil, and reascended its perch to sleep again. It +is pretty certain that parrots dream. It is, indeed, a curious +circumstance that the best way of teaching this bird to talk is to cover +the cage over so as to darken it, and while he is going to sleep +pronounce, audibly and slowly, the word he is to learn; if the winged +pupil be a clever one, he will, upon the repetition of the lesson, in a +morning or two, begin to repeat it. + +Upon the same principle, school-boys commit their tasks to memory by +reading them over the last thing before they go to bed. It is to be +remembered that during sleep the mind may not be wholly under eclipse; +for, although some of its faculties--such as perception, comparison, +judgment, and especially the will, may be suspended--others (for +example, memory and imagination), are often more active than in the +waking state. But some persons, it is said, never dream. We are assured +by Locke that he knew a gentleman who had an excellent memory, yet could +not recollect ever having dreamed until his twenty-sixth year. Dr. Reid, +for many years before his death, had no recollection of having ever +dreamed. Dr. Eliotson also relates, apparently upon good authority, the +case of a man who never dreamed until after he had a fever, in his +fortieth year; and we ourselves know several persons who are not +conscious of ever dreaming. Nevertheless, many contend that in all such +cases dreams really occur, but that they escape the recollection; for +they contend that it is impossible that the mind can, being an +independent principle, ever be in a state of absolute rest. This is +arguing within a very narrow circle. We must not forget that the +intimate alliance of the mind with the body, subjects it to its general +laws; the "heat-oppressed brain" requires rest to renew its energies, +and the mind, of which it is the organ, in the mean time, may, as in +profound sleep, remain perfectly quiescent. The lids of the outward +senses are closed; a vail is drawn over the immaterial principle of our +nature; and mind and body alike, for a period, lie in a state of utter +unconsciousness. + +Here, however, it may fairly be asked, how happens it that the same +person will at one time remember, and, at another, forget his dreams? +This circumstance may, we conceive, thus be explained: + +Those dreams which occur in very deep sleep, and in the early part of +the night, are not so likely to be remembered as those which happen +toward morning, when the sleep is less profound; hence the popular +notion that our morning dreams--which are always best remembered--are +likely to prove true. Then, again, the imagery of some dreams is more +striking, and actually makes a deeper impression than the incidents of +other dreams. We are told by Sir Humphrey Davy, that, on one occasion, a +dream was so strongly impressed upon his eye, that even after he had +risen and walked out, he could not be persuaded of its unreal nature, +until his friends convinced him of its impossibility. The effect of some +dreams upon children is very remarkable; they are, it is believed, more +liable to dreams of terror than grown persons, which may be accounted +for by their being more subject to a variety of internal complaints, +such as teething, convulsions, derangement of the bowels, &c.; added to +which, their reasoning faculties are not as yet sufficiently developed +to correct such erroneous impressions. Hence, sometimes, children +appear, when they awake, bewildered and distressed, and remain for a +considerable period in a state of agitation almost resembling delirium. +The incidents which are conceived in dreams are indeed not unfrequently +confounded by adults with real events; hence, we often hear people, in +alluding to some doubtful circumstance, exclaim, "Well! if it be not +true, I certainly must have dreamed it." We confess we have ourselves +been puzzled in this way; the spell may be broken; but the impression +made by the delusion still clings to us; its shadow is still thrown +across our path. + +The question therefore recurs, What are Dreams? Whence do they arise? We +believe that the ideas and emotions which take place in the dreaming +state may be ascribed to a twofold origin. They may arise from certain +bodily sensations, which may suggest particular trains of thought and +feeling; or they may be derived from the operations or activity of the +thinking principle itself; in which case they are purely mental. The +celebrated Dr. James Gregory--whose premature death was a great loss to +science--states, that having gone to bed with a vessel of hot water at +his feet, he dreamed of walking up the crater of Mount Etna, and felt +the ground warm under him. He likewise, on another occasion, dreamed of +spending a winter at Hudson's Bay, and of suffering much distress from +intense frost; and found, when he awoke, that he had thrown off the +bed-clothes in his sleep, and exposed himself to cold. He had been +reading, a few days before, a very particular account of this colony. +The eminent metaphysician, Dr. Reid, relates of himself that the +dressing of a blister, which he had applied to his head, becoming +ruffled, so as to produce pain, he dreamed that he had fallen into the +hands of a party of North American Indians, who were scalping him. These +were dreams suggested by sensations which, were conveyed from the +surface of the body, through the nerves, until corresponding impression +was produced on the mind. Upon the same principle, very strong +impressions received during the day may modify and very materially +influence the character of our dreams at night. Dr. Beattie states that +once, after riding thirty miles in a very high wind, he passed a night +of dreams which were so terrible, that he found it expedient to keep +himself awake, that he might no longer be tormented with them. "Had I +been superstitious," he observes, "I should have thought that some +disaster was impending; but it occurred to me that the tempestuous +weather I had encountered the preceding day might be the cause of all +these horrors." Other and less obvious causes are in constant operation. +A change in the weather--in the electrical state of the atmosphere--and +its barometrical pressure--the temperature of the bedroom--arrangements +of the bed-furniture--the adjustment of the bed-clothes--nay, the +position of the sleeper, particularly if he cramp a foot or benumb an +arm, will at once affect the entire concatenation and issue of his +dreams. + +Furthermore, impressions may be made on the mind during sleep, by +speaking gently to a person, or even whispering in the ear. We +ourselves, when in Italy, could on one occasion trace the origin of a +very remarkable dream to our having heard, in an obscure and +half-conscious manner, during sleep, the noise of people in the streets, +on All Souls'-night, invoking alms for the dead. Dr. Beattie knew a man +in whom any kind of dream could be produced if his friends, gently +addressing him, afforded the subject-matter for his ideas. Equally +curious is the circumstance that dreams may be produced by whispering in +the ear. A case of this description is recorded by Dr. Abercrombie: + +"An officer, whose susceptibility of having his dreams thus conjured +before him, was so remarkable, that his friends could produce any kind +of dream they pleased, by softly whispering in his ear, especially if +this were done by one with whose voice he was familiar. His companions +were in the constant habit of amusing themselves at his expense. On one +occasion they conducted him through the whole progress of a quarrel, +which ended in a duel; and when the parties were supposed to meet, a +pistol was put into his hand, which he fired off in his sleep, and was +awakened by the report. On another, they found him asleep on the top of +a locker or bunker in the cabin, when, by whispering, they made him +believe he had fallen overboard; and they then exhorted him to save +himself by swimming. He immediately imitated the motions of swimming. +They then suggested to him that he was being pursued by a shark, and +entreated him to dive for his life. This he did, or rather attempted, +with so much violence, that he threw himself off the locker, by which he +was bruised, and, of course, awakened." Dr. Abercrombie adds, that the +most remarkable circumstance connected with this case was, that after +these and a variety of other pranks had been played upon him, "he had +no distinct recollection of his dreams, but only a confused feeling of +oppression or fatigue, and used to tell his friends that he was sure +they had been playing some tricks upon him." + +It appears, also--and the fact is very remarkable--that a similar kind +of sensation will produce the same description of dream in a number of +individuals at the same time. Hence different people will sometimes have +the same dream. We read of a whole regiment starting up in alarm, +declaring they were dreaming that a black dog had jumped upon their +breasts and disappeared, which curious circumstance was explained by the +discovery, that they had all been exposed to the influence of a +deleterious gas, which was generated in the monastery. The effect of +music, also, in exciting delightful dreams, has often been attested. A +French philosopher whose experiments are reported by Magendie, according +to the airs which he had arranged should be played while he was asleep, +could have the character of his dreams directed at pleasure. "There is +an art," says Sir Thomas Browne--in his usual quaint style--"to make +dreams as well as their interpretations; and physicians will tell us +that some food makes turbulent, some gives quiet dreams. Cato, who +doated upon cabbage, might find the crude effects thereof; and +Pythagoras might have had calmer sleeps if he had totally abstained from +beans." + +The influences of the day's occurrences, and the thoughts which have +occupied the mind during the day, have been said to give a corresponding +tone and coloring to our dreams at night. Thus the lover dreams of his +mistress; the miser of his gold; the merchant of his speculations; the +man of science of his discoveries. The poets of all ages and nations +adopt this view. Virgil describes Dido forsaken by Æneas, wandering +alone on a desert shore in pursuit of the Tyrians. Milton represents Eve +relating to Adam the dreams which were very naturally the repetition of +her waking thoughts. Petrarch invokes the beauty of Laura. Eloisa, +separated from Abelard, is again happy in his company, even amid the +"dreary wastes" and "low-browed rocks." + +There can be no doubt that the dreams of many persons are very greatly +influenced by the reflections and emotions they have experienced the +preceding day; but this is by no means invariably the case. We have +known persons whose dreams refer habitually to events which occurred to +them, perhaps, twenty years ago, and upon whom recent events seem to +possess no such influence. We have often been told by ladies happily and +affectionately married, that while they were engaged, although their +thoughts were naturally much set on their engagement, they never dreamed +of their lovers. So, also, the father of a family, habitually impressed +with a sense of his responsibility and affection toward his offspring, +will sometimes dream often enough of his neighbor's children, but +seldom or, perhaps, never, of his own. Try to dream on a given +subject--resolve and fix the attention upon it--going to sleep, and no +sooner are our eyelids closed, than fantastic fancy will conjure up the +most opposite and incongruous imagery. We have heard this dream-problem +explained by referring it to a principle of _antagonism_, which, waking +or sleeping, may be observed in the animal economy. If a limb become +fatigued by remaining too long in one position, it will be relieved by +being thrown into the very opposite condition; if the eye fatigue itself +by gazing intently on the disc of any bright color, and the eyelids +close, the very opposite, or antagonistic color will be depicted upon +the retina: in like manner, when our waking thoughts--in connection with +the nerve matter, which is their material instrument--have exhausted +their energy, we can easily conceive how the very opposite condition +will be produced. Hence the most unconnected and preposterous train of +imagery may arise from the very earnestness with which we desire a +contrary effect. We dream of events which do not concern us, instead of +those in which we are most deeply interested; we dream of persons to +whom we are indifferent, instead of those to whom we are attached. But, +in the midst of all this curious and perplexing contrariety, it is +remarkable--and may be esteemed a proof of the immateriality of the +mind--that we always preserve the consciousness of our own identity. No +man dreams that he is a woman, or any other person than himself; we have +heard of persons who have dreamed they were dead, and in a spiritual +state; but the spirit was still their own--they maintained their +identity. Sir Thomas Lawrence once made an interesting observation on +this subject to Mrs. Butler--then Miss Fanny Kemble: he pointed out, in +conversation, that he never heard of any lady who ever dreamed that she +was younger than she really was. We retain in our dreams even the +identity of our age. It has been said--we think by Sir Thomas +Browne--that some persons of virtuous and honorable principles will +commit, as they fancy, actions in their dreams which they would shudder +at in their waking moments; but we can not believe that the identity of +moral goodness can be so perverted in the dreaming state. We can, +however, readily conceive that, when the mind is oppressed, or disturbed +by the recollection of some event it dreads to dwell upon, it may be +disturbed by the most terrific and ghastly images. A guilty conscience, +too, will unquestionably produce restlessness, agitation, and +awe-inspiring dreams. Hence Manfred, in pacing restlessly his lonely +Gothic gallery at midnight, pictures to himself the terrors of sleep: + + "The lamp must be replenished; even then + It will not burn so long as I must watch. + My slumbers, if I slumber, are not sleep, + _But a continuance of enduring thought, + Which then I can resist not. In my heart + There is a vigil; and these eyes + But close to look within._" + +Contrition and remorse oppose his rest. If we remember right, it was +Bishop Newton who remarked, that the sleep of innocence differed +essentially from the sleep of guilt. + +The assistance supposed to be sometimes furnished in sleep toward the +solution of problems which puzzled the waking sense, opens up a curious +subject of investigation. Cases of the kind have been recorded upon +undoubted authority. Hence some philosophers, like Sir Thomas Browne and +Addison, have been induced to suppose that the soul in this state is +partially disengaged from the encumbrance of the body, and therefore +more intelligent, which is a mere fancy--a poetical fiction. Surely it +is absurd to suppose that the soul, which we invest with such high and +perfect attributes, should commit such frivolous and irrational acts as +these which take place so constantly in our dreams. "Methinks," observed +Locke, "every drowsy nod shakes this doctrine." All we remark, is, that +some of the ordinary mental faculties act in such cases with increased +energy. But beyond this we can not go. We are informed by Cabains, that +Franklin on several occasions mentioned to him, that he had been +assisted in his dreams on the issue of many affairs in which he was +engaged. So, also, Condillac, while writing his "Cours d'Etudes," states +that he was frequently obliged to leave a chapter incomplete, and retire +to bed: and that on waking, he found it, on more than one occasion, +finished in his head. Condorcet, upon leaving his deep and complicated +calculations unfinished, after having retired to rest, often found their +results unfolded to him in his dreams. Voltaire assures us that he, like +La Fontaine, composed verses frequently in his sleep, which he +remembered on awaking. Doctor Johnson states that he once in a dream had +a contest of wit with some other person, and that he was very much +mortified by imagining that his opponent had the better of him. +Coleridge, in a dream, composed the wild and beautiful poem of "Kubla +Khan," which was suggested to him by a passage he was reading in +"Purchas's Pilgrimage" when he fell asleep. On awaking he had a distinct +recollection of the whole, and, taking his pen, ink, and paper, +instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines which have been so much +admired. + +One of the most striking circumstances connected with the human mind is +the extreme lightning-like rapidity of its thoughts, even in our waking +hours; but the transactions which appear to take place in our dreams are +accomplished with still more incalculable rapidity; the relations of +space, the duration of time, appear to be alike annihilated; we are +transported in an instant to the most distant regions of the earth, and +the events of ages are condensed into the span of a few seconds. The +accidental jarring of a door, or any noise, will, at the same moment, it +awakens a person, suggest the incidents of an entire dream. Hence some +persons--Lord Brougham in particular--have supposed that all our dreams +take place in the transition or interval between sleep and waking. A +gentleman dreamt that he had enlisted as a soldier, joined his regiment, +deserted, was apprehended, carried back, tried, condemned to be shot, +and, at last, led out for execution. After all the usual preparations a +gun was fired; he awoke with the report, and found that a noise in an +adjoining room had, in the same moment, produced the dream and awakened +him. The same want of any notion of the duration of time occurs, more or +less, in all dreams; hence our ignorance when we awake of the length of +the night. A friend of Doctor Abercrombie's dreamt that he crossed the +Atlantic and spent a fortnight in America. In embarking, on his return, +he fell into the sea, and, awakening with the fright, discovered he had +not been ten minutes asleep. "I lately dreamed," says Dr. Macnish, "that +I made a voyage--remained some days in Calcutta--returned home--then +took ship for Egypt, where I visited the cataracts of the Nile, Grand +Cairo, and the Pyramids; and to crown the whole, had the honor of an +interview with Mehemet Ali, Cleopatra, and Alexander the Great." All +this was the work of a single hour, or even a few minutes. In one of the +dreams which Mr. De Quincey describes--when under the influence of +opium--"The sense of Space and in the end of Time were," he states, +"both powerfully affected. Buildings, landscapes, &c., were exhibited in +proportions so vast as the bodily eye is not fitted to receive. Space +swelled, and was amplified to a sense of unutterable infinity. This, +however, did not disturb me so much as the vast expansion of Time; I +sometimes seemed to have lived for seventy or one hundred years in one +night; nay, sometimes had feelings representative of a millenium, passed +in that time; or, however, of a duration far beyond the limits of any +human experience." One of the miracles of Mohammed appears to be +illustrative of the same phenomenon. We read, in the Koran, that the +angel Gabriel took Mohammed, one morning, out of his bed to give him a +sight of all things in the Seven Heavens and in Paradise; and, after +holding ninety thousand spiritual conferences, he was brought back again +to his bed; all which was transacted in so small a space of time that +Mohammed, upon his return, found his bed still warm. + +Are dreams so much varied as is generally supposed? Or, taking into +consideration our different mental and physical constitutions, is there +not rather a remarkable sameness in them? It is certainly a very unusual +circumstance to hear of any dream that does violence to the common +experience of mankind. One class of dreams, which may be termed +RETROSPECTIVE, is of frequent occurrence. These are characterized by the +revival of associations long since forgotten. The faculty of Memory +appears to be preternaturally exalted; the vail is withdrawn which +obscured the vista of our past life; and the minutest events of +childhood pass in vivid review before us. There can be no doubt that +something analogous to this occurs in drowning; when, after the alarm +and struggle for life has subsided, sensations and visions supervene +with indescribable rapidity. The same very remarkable phenomenon takes +place also sometimes in hanging; but is by no means uniformly produced. +"Of all whom I have seen restored from drowning," observes Dr. Lettsom, +"I never found one who had the smallest recollection of any thing that +passed under water until the time they were restored." Persons must not, +therefore, be deceived by imagining that an Elysium is to be found at +the bottom of a garden-well, or a canal, or a river. + +But to return--it is not only the very early incidents of childhood +which may thus be recalled by our dreams, but recent events, which in +our waking hours had escaped the memory, are sometimes suddenly +recalled. In his "Notes to Waverley," Sir Walter Scott relates the +following anecdote: "A gentleman connected with a Bank in Glasgow, while +employed in the occupation of cashier, was annoyed by a person, out of +his turn, demanding the payment of a check for six pounds. Having paid +him, but with reluctance, out of his turn, he thought no more of the +transaction. At the end of the year, which was eight or nine months +after, a difficulty was experienced in making the books balance, in +consequence of a deficiency of six pounds. Several days and nights were +exhausted in endeavors to discover the source of the error, but without +success; and the discomfited and chagrined cashier retired one night to +his bed, disappointed and fatigued. He fell asleep and dreamed he was at +his Bank, and once again the whole scene of the annoying man and his +six-pound check arose before him; and, on examination, it was discovered +that the sum paid to this person had been neglected to be inserted in +the book of interests, and that it exactly accounted for the error in +the balance." We read of another gentleman, a solicitor, who, on one +occasion, lost a very important document connected with the conveyance +of some property; the most anxious search was made for it in vain; and +the night preceding the day on which the parties were to meet for the +final settlement the son of this gentleman then went to bed, under much +anxiety and disappointment, and dreamt that, at the time when the +missing paper was delivered to his father, his table was covered with +papers connected with the affairs of a particular client; and there +found the paper they had been in search of, which had been tied up in a +parcel to which it was in no way related. + +There is another class of dreams which would appear to be much more +extraordinary than these of a Retrospective Character, to wit: those in +which the dreamer appears to take cognizance of incidents which are +occurring at a distance, which may be designated Dreams of COINCIDENCE. +In the "Memoirs of Margaret de Valois" we read, that her mother, +Catherine de Medicis, when ill of the plague at Metz, saw her son, the +Duc d'Anjou, at the victory of Jarnac, thrown from his horse, and the +Prince de Condé dead--events which happened exactly at that moment. Dr. +Macnish relates, as the most striking example he ever met with of the +co-existence between a dream and a passing event, the following +melancholy story: Miss M., a young lady, a native of Ross-shire, was +deeply in love with an officer who accompanied Sir John Moore in the +Peninsular War. The constant danger to which he was exposed had an +evident effect upon her spirits. She became pale and melancholy in +perpetually brooding over his fortunes; and, in spite of all that reason +could do, felt a certain conviction that, when she last parted from her +lover, she had parted with him forever. In a surprisingly short period +her graceful form declined into all the appalling characteristics of a +fatal illness, and she seemed rapidly hastening to the grave, when a +dream confirmed the horrors she had long anticipated, and gave the +finishing stroke to her sorrows. One night, after falling asleep, she +imagined she saw her lover, pale, bloody, and wounded in the breast, +enter her apartment. He drew aside the curtains of the bed, and, with a +look of the utmost mildness, informed her that he had been slain in +battle, desiring her, at the same time, to comfort herself, and not take +his death too seriously to heart. It is needless to say what influence +this vision had upon a mind so replete with woe. It withered it +entirely, and the poor girl died a few days afterward, but, not without +desiring her parents to note down the day of the month on which it +happened, and see if it would not be confirmed, as she confidently +declared it would. Her anticipation was correct, for accounts were +shortly afterward received that the young man was slain at the battle of +Corunna, which was fought on the very day of the night of which his +betrothed had beheld the vision. It is certainly very natural to suppose +that there must be some mysterious connection between such a dream and +the event which appears to have simultaneously taken place--but, upon +reflecting further upon the subject, we shall find that the co-existence +is purely accidental. If, as Sir Walter Scott observed, any event, such +as the death of the person dreamt of, chance to take place, so as to +correspond with the nature and time of the apparition, the circumstance +is conceived to be supernatural, although the coincidence is one which +must frequently occur, since our dreams usually refer to the +accomplishment of that which haunts our minds when awake, and often +presage the most probable events. Such a concatenation, therefore, must +often take place when it is considered "of what stuff dreams are made," +and how naturally they turn upon those who occupy our mind when awake. +When a soldier is exposed to death in battle; when a sailor is incurring +the dangers of the sea; when a beloved wife or relative is attacked by +disease, how readily our sleeping imagination rushes to the very point +of alarm which, when waking, it had shuddered to anticipate. Considering +the many thousands of dreams which must, night after night, pass +through the imagination of individuals, the number of coincidences +between the vision and the event are fewer and less remarkable than a +fair calculation of chance would warrant us to expect. + +In addition to these, we sometimes hear of dreams which appear to reveal +the secrets of futurity; and which may be designated PROPHETIC +Dreams--unvailing, as they are supposed to do, the destiny which awaits +particular individuals. The prophetic dream of Cromwell, that he should +live to be the greatest man in England, has often been referred to as an +example of special revelation; but surely there can be nothing very +wonderful in the occurrence--for, after all, if we could only penetrate +into the thoughts, hopes, and designs which inflamed the ambition of +such men as Ireton, Lambert, and the like, we should find both their +waking and sleeping visions equally suggestive of self-aggrandizement. +The Protector himself was not the only usurper, in those troubled times, +who dreamed of being "every inch a king;" but we want the data to +compute the probabilities which the laws of chance would give in favor +of such a prophecy or dream being fulfilled. The prophetic dream refers +generally to some event which, in the course of nature, is likely to +happen: is it, then, wonderful that it should occur? It would be curious +to know how often Napoleon dreamed that he was the Emperor of the +civilized world, or confined as a prisoner of war; how many thrones he +imagined himself to have ascended or abdicated; how often he +accomplished the rebuilding of Jerusalem. A few years ago, some very +cruel murders were perpetrated in Edinburgh, by men named Burke and +Hare, who sold the bodies of their victims to the Anatomical Schools. We +had ourselves an interview with Burke, after his condemnation, when he +told us that many months before he was apprehended and convicted, he +used to dream that the murders he committed had been discovered; then he +imagined himself going to be executed, and his chief anxiety was, how he +should comport himself on the scaffold before the assembled multitude, +whose faces he beheld gazing up and fixed upon him. His dream was, in +every respect, verified; but who, for an instant, would suppose there +could have been any thing preternatural, or prophetic, in such a vision? +For the most part, dreams of this description are supposed to portend +the illness, or the time of the death, of particular individuals; and +these, too, upon the simple doctrine of chance, turn out, perhaps, to be +as often wrong as right. It may be true, that Lord Lyttleton died at the +exact hour which he said had been predicted to him in a dream; but +Voltaire outlived a similar prophecy for many years. It must, however, +be conceded, that persons in ill-health may have their death expedited +by believing in such fatal predictions. Tell a timorous man that he will +die; and the sentence, if pronounced with sufficient solemnity, and the +semblance of its fore-knowledge, will, under certain circumstances, +execute itself. But, on the other hand, the self-sustaining power of the +will, with a corresponding concentration of nervous energy, will +sometimes triumph over the presence of disease, and for awhile ward off +even the hand of death. The anecdote is told of Muley Moloch, who, being +informed that his army was likely to be defeated, sprang from his sick +bed in great excitement, led his men on to victory, and, on returning to +his tent, lay down and almost instantly expired. + +But again it may be asked--what then do dreams portend? Do they admit of +any rational interpretation? This branch of the art of divination, which +was called formerly by the name of "Oneiromancy," has been practiced in +all ages; and there is, perhaps, not a village in Great Britain, or on +the great continent of Europe, India, or America, in which some +fortune-telling old woman will not be found who professes to be an +oracle in propounding their mystical signification. The magicians of old +were supposed to be skillful interpreters of dreams, which, like the +wiseacres of Christendom, they viewed under very contradictory aspects. + +From one of the most ancient Arabic manuscripts on the subject, we learn +that if you see an angel, it is a good sign; but if you dream that you +converse with one, it forebodes evil--to dream you bathe in a clear +fountain denotes joy--but if it be muddy, an enemy will bring against +you some false accusation. To dream of carrying any weight upon the back +denotes servitude, if you are rich--honor if you are poor. There is not +an object in nature--not an event that can occur in life--that our +modern fortune-tellers have not converted, when seen in a dream, into +some sign ominous of good or of evil; and many even well-educated +persons are in the habit of fostering their credulity by attaching an +undue importance to their dreams. It is a curious circumstance, however, +which militates against this mystic art, that the same sign in different +countries carries with it a very contrary signification. The peasant +girl in England thinks, if she dream of a rose, that it is a sure sign +of happiness; but the _paysanne_ in Normandy believes that it portends +vexation and disappointment. The Englishman conceives that to dream of +an oak-tree is a sign of prosperity; but in Switzerland, the same vision +is thought to be a forewarning of some dreadful calamity. + +The domestic superstitions which are connected with dreams, are +sometimes favored by, and perhaps dependent upon a certain morbid +condition or irritability of the nervous system, which suggests the +dread of some impending calamity, a painful and indefinite sense of +apprehension for which no ostensible reason can be assigned. Strange as +it might appear, the influence of our dreams upon our waking state is +very remarkable; we may awaken refreshed from a dream which has made us, +in our sleep, superlatively happy; or we may rise with melancholic +feelings after suffering intense affliction in some dream, and the +details of both dreams may alike be forgotten. We can not, after being +so much disturbed, at once regain our composure; the billows continue +heaving after the tempest has subsided; the troubled nerves continue to +vibrate after the causes that disturbed them have ceased to act; the +impression still remains, and checkers the happiness of the future day. +Even men of strong mind, who do not believe in the interpretation of +dreams, may be so affected. When Henry the Fourth of France was once +told by an astrologer that he would be assassinated, he smiled at the +prediction, and did not believe it; but he confessed that it often +haunted him afterward, and although he placed no faith in it, still it +sometimes depressed his spirits, and he often expressed a wish that he +had never heard it. In like manner, dreams, which persons do not believe +in, will unconsciously affect the tenor of their thoughts and feelings. + +There are many persons who appear to have habitually the most +extraordinary dreams, and there is scarcely a family circle that +assemble round the domestic hearth, in which some one or other of the +party is not able to relate some very wonderful story. We have, +ourselves, a _répertoire_, from which we could select a host of such +narrations; but we have preferred, at the risk of being thought +recapitulative, to dwell upon those which have been recorded upon +unimpeachable authority. The dreams which men like Locke, Reid, Gregory, +Abercrombie, Macnish, &c., have attested, come with a weight of evidence +before us which the dreams of persons unknown in the scientific or +literary world would not possess. The impressions produced by dreams are +so fugitive--so easy is it for persons unintentionally to deceive +themselves in recalling their dreams' experience--that Epictetus, long +ago, advised young men not to entertain any company by relating their +dreams, as they could only, he affirmed, be interesting to themselves, +and perhaps would, after all their pains, be disbelieved by their +auditors. Nevertheless, it would be well for all persons to study, +whether waking or dreaming, the phenomena of their own minds. The +ingenious naturalist, Doctor Fleming, suggests that persons should, in +contra-distinction to a "Diary," keep a "Nocturnal," in which they +should register their dreams. Doubtless such a journal might turn out to +be a very amusing psychological record. + + + + +A FAIR IN MUNICH. + + +I wonder when there is not a fair in Munich. This, however, was _Die +Drei Könige Dult_, or the Fair of the Three Kings. By way of amusement, +I thought I would go to it; but as I could not very well go alone, I +invited Madame Thekla to accompany me, with which she was very well +pleased, as I promised to treat her to the shows. As far as buying and +selling, and the crowds of peasants, and townspeople, and students, and +soldiers, go, it was like any other fair. At a little distance from the +long array of booths, stood the shows--and thither we bent our steps. + +The first thing we came upon was a small ladder-wagon, covered with an +arched awning; and, bound to one side of the wagon, were tall poles, +from which floated a series of ghastly pictures--hideous +raw-head-and-bloody-bone pictures! There were murders, executions, +be-headings in German fashion; the criminal extended on a horrid sort of +rack, and his head being chopped off by a grim executioner, with a +sword, while a priest stood by in his long robes; there were houses on +fire; drownings, miraculous escapes; there were tall, smirking hussars, +and weeping ladies in white--heroes and heroines in these bloody +histories! + +The subjects, the hideous drawing, the hard outlines, the goggle-eyes, +the blood, the knives, the very fire, made you feel sick. A considerable +crowd was collected, and listened breathlessly to the sounds of an +organ, to which two Tyrolians sang their appalling tragedies. They sang +in such clear, sweet, mountain tones, that you were strangely +fascinated. Mournfully sang they, in a monotonous chaunt, of blood, and +crime, and terror, till you felt your blood creep; and, by a frightful +fascination, your eyes gloated on the disgusting pictures. + +What a terribly immoral influence must such exhibitions have upon such +an uneducated crowd as surrounded these sirens! Why should not a +_paternal_ government, which guards its people from immoral books and +disgusting newspapers, not guard them equally from such a disgusting +sight and sound as this Tyrolian exhibition? These Tyrolians sold +printed histories of the fearful crimes and calamities which were +depicted on their banners. These histories are very exciting and +romantic reading, as you may believe when I give some of their +titles:--"The History of the Great and Terrible Monster, who cruelly +murdered his Beloved, his Child, his Father, his Mother, his two +Sisters, and his Brother, on the 8th of July, 1850." "Heroic +Self-sacrifice of a Bohemian Hussar Officer, and the Punishment of his +Murderers." "A true and dreadful History which occurred on the 14th of +March, 1850, in Schopka, near Milineck, in Bohemia." "The Might of +Mutual Love: a highly remarkable event, which occurred at Thoulon, in +the year 1849." "The Cursed Mill: a Warning from Real Life." "The +Temptation; the Deed; the Consequences!" + +If you care to know any thing of the style of these remarkable +productions, I will give you a specimen. One begins thus:--"In +Ross-dorf, in Hanover, lived the criminal Peter Natzer. He was by trade +a glazier, his father having followed the same calling. Peter was +five-and-twenty years old, and was, from his earliest youth, addicted to +every species of crime. He had a sweetheart, named Lucie Braun, a poor +girl, &c., &c." + +Again:--"Silent sat the miller, Leverm, in his garden; thoughtfully +gazed he into the distant valley. He was scarcely thirty years of age, +but heavy cares had bowed him, and robbed him of his fresh, youthful +bloom. Beside him sat his wife, who cast many an anxious but +affectionate glance on her husband. How tender and lovely was this young +wife! The inhabitants of the neighborhood called her 'The Rose of the +Valley.'" In this way begins a most awful tragedy. + +Of course we did not read these things in the fair. It was enough for +us, there, to listen to the mournful chant of the mountaineers, till our +blood was frozen in our veins. I took home with me these printed +histories, as many another simple soul did; and now, after I have read +them, and been filled with horror and disgust by them, I have put them +away from me as unholy things. But think of the effect they will have in +many a lonely village, this winter--in many a desolate farm-house or +cottage--on the wide plain, or among the mountains! These papers are +productive seeds of murder and crime; of that one may be certain. + +The next wonder that stopped us in the fair, was a little fat man, who +was shouting away at the top of his voice, while he briskly sharpened a +knife on a long, rough board, which was smeared over with a black +ointment. He was a vender of magical strop-salve! something in the +fashion of Mechi. "Ladies and gentlemen;" shouted he, "witness my +wonderful invention! The dullest knife, stick-knife, bread-knife, +clasp-knife, table-knife, carving-knife, shaving-knife, +(_rasier-messer_) pen-knife, pruning-knife, though dull as this +knife--_though dull as this knife_!" and here he began hacking away upon +the edge of a big knife with a strong piece of broken pitcher. "Yes, +though dull, dull, dull as this knife!--when subjected to my wonderful +salve," and here he smeared it with his black ointment, "will cut a +hair, or the most delicate shaving of paper--as it now does!" and with +that he severed paper shavings as if they had been nothing. If it was +really the _same knife_, his was a wonderful invention, and beat Mechi +hollow. + +Next, I had my fortune told at three different places, for six +kreutzers, or two-pence each, and as I was promised pretty much the same +fortune by all, I suppose I ought to believe in the truth of it. They +foretold me lots of trouble in the way of love-crosses, false friends, +and unkind relations, and such small trifles; but were equally liberal +of rich lovers, and plenty of them, plenty of money, and a good husband +to crown all, and good children to be the _props_ of my old age; so I +think I had, after all, a good sixpenny-worth. + +Next we came upon a little caravan, on the steps of which vociferated a +most picturesque Tyrolian, in broad-brimmed sugar-loafed hat, adorned +with chamois hair, and eagles' feathers; in broad-ribbed stockings, and +with a broad, gayly-embroidened band round his waist, which half covered +his chest. He assured the crowd below that there was not in the whole +of Bavaria, any thing half as interesting, half as extraordinary, half +as astounding as the singularly gifted, singularly beautiful, singularly +intellectual being within; a being from another quarter of the globe, a +being adapted to an entirely different mode of existence to ours; a +being who could see in the dark, a being who only lived upon raw meat! A +wonderful Albino who could speak the German tongue! + +Of course we must see the Albino; so in we went, and some way or other I +felt an unusual shock. There he sat, in a black velvet dress spangled +with silver, the light coming in from the top of the caravan, and his +transparent complexion, his burning, fiery eyes, like carbuncles, his +long waves of white, silky hair, and his long, curling, snow-white, +silky beard, gave him the appearance of some enchanted dwarf--some +cobold or gnome out of a subterranean palace. + +But I had not much time to lose myself in dreams about enchanted dwarfs +or gnomes, for there was something else burning in the caravan besides +the Albino's eyes, and that was Madame Thekla's grand silk cloak! She +had come out with me in all her grandeur; and now, while we stood +enchanted before the Albino, her fine silk cloak was singeing at a +little iron stove that stood behind the door. Poor Madame Thekla! Out we +rushed, and she revenged herself by vociferating to the crowd outside, +as the Tyrolian had done just before, and by exhibiting her unlucky +cloak in a sort of savage despair. + +An hour afterward, we again passed the caravan, and the Tyrolian in the +ribbed stockings was again holding forth on the steps, when, at sight of +us, he interrupted his oration, and politely invited us to re-enter, and +complete, _free of cost_, our inspection of the Albino. But Madame +Thekla, pointing with stern dignity to her cloak, declined, and marched +on. + +After this we went to the _wäffeln_-booths, were we ate hot-baked +_wäffeln_, a kind of gofre cake; and then, resisting a wonderful +elephant show, we hastened to the monkey theatre, the poor elephant's +rival exhibition; the "Grand Monkey Theatre from Paris," in which +forty-two apes and poodles, the property of M. Le Cerf, would exhibit +the most wonderful and artistic feats. + +We had to wait some time till the four o'clock performance was over, +which unfortunately had begun before we arrived; and while Madame Thekla +and I stood impatiently waiting in the cold, up there came a merry-faced +lad of about ten, and began, in great glee, to describe to us the +glorious things that were performed by those "dear little monkeys and +dogs." He was quite eloquent in his delight; and, "Oh!" said he, "if I +had but another _sechser_ (twopenny-piece), wouldn't I see it again!" +"There is another _sechser_, then!" said I, and put one into his fat +little hand. What an astonished, bright face looked up into mine; and he +seized my hand in both his, and shook it almost off. And away he ran up +the steps for his ticket, flying down again to us, and keeping as close +to us as possible, talking all the time, and fairly dancing for joy. + +"You've quite bewitched that little fellow," said Madame Thekla; and I +seemed to have bewitched all the little lads in the fair, for, by a +strangely-mysterious power, they were drawn toward us in crowds, from +all hands--little fellows in blouses, little fellows in little green and +brown surtouts, little fellows in old-fashioned and, in England, almost +forgotten, buttoned-up suits--and all crept bashfully toward us! Oh, the +wonderful magic of a twopenny-piece! Heaven only knows how the news of +this munificent gift of a _sechser_ had so swiftly spread through the +fair! One little lad actually had the bravery to say to me that +"children were admitted at half-price!" And was I not a cold-hearted +wretch to reply, "Oh, indeed!" just as though it were a matter of +perfect indifference to me, though, in truth, it was not; but I felt +rather appalled at the sight of such a crowd of little eager heads, well +knowing that my purse was not full to overflowing, even with +twopenny-pieces! + +At length we were seated in the little theatre; and, after a fearful +charivari from the orchestra, the curtain drew up, and we beheld, seated +at a long table, a company of monkeys! It was a _table d'hôte_. A +dandified young fellow--perhaps Monsieur Le Cerf himself--in the most +elegant of cravats, the most elegant white wristbands, the most elegant +ring, and the most elegant moustache, performed the part of host; the +waiter and waitress were monkeys. The waiter--a most drunken, +good-for-nothing waiter he seemed--a fat, big ape--drank behind the +backs of the guests the very wine he was serving them with; he seemed so +very tipsy, that he could hardly walk; he staggered backward and +forward, and leaned against the wall for support, as he emptied the +bottle he was bringing for the company. But the little waitress! She was +a little darling; the tiniest of little monkeys, and she came skipping +on the stage in a little broad-brimmed straw hat, and a bright-colored +little dress, with the daintiest of little white muslin aprons on; she +looked just like a little fairy. Every body was enchanted with her. Even +Monsieur Le Cerf himself caressed her, and gave her not only, every now +and then, a nut, but a kiss. She behaved beautifully. But as to the +guests! They quarreled, and even fought--Monsieur Le Cerf said it was +about paying the bill. + +I can't pretend to tell you half the clever things the monkeys did in +the way of swinging, dancing, firing off muskets, riding on a pony, &c. +Wonderful things, too, were performed by the dogs, splendid spaniels and +setters. One large black-and-tan creature walked on his fore-legs, in +the style of what children call "playing at a wheelbarrow," only he +himself, poor wretch, had to wheel the barrow. He walked demurely round +and round the stage, carrying his two unlucky hind-legs up in the air; +then he walked on three legs, and then, the most difficult task of all +for a dog, as we were assured, upon two legs on the same side. Another +beautiful white spaniel came walking in most grandly on her hind legs, +as _Madame de Pompadour_, in a long-trained dress which was borne by a +tiny monkey in livery, bearing a little lantern in his hand. + +The finale was the besieging of a fortress; and to see some twenty +milk-white spaniels rushing up and down the stairs of the burning +fortress, illumined by brilliant rose-colored, green, and blue lights, +was very curious indeed. If I could have forgotten the terrible training +through which these poor creatures must have gone, I should have enjoyed +it much more. But I did not wonder, after seeing all their feats, that +our little friend had been so enchanted. He sat behind us in the +half-price seats, but for all that we continued to exchange many smiling +glances during the performance. I only wished I could have seen a whole +row of little fellows all equally delighted and surprised by their good +fortune. + + + + +THE WIFE'S STRATAGEM. + + +Captain Marmaduke Smith, is--judging from his present mundane, +matter-of-fact character, about the last man one would suspect of having +been at any time of his life a victim to the "tender passion." A +revelation he volunteered to two or three cronies at the club the other +evening undeceived us. The captain on this occasion, as was generally +the case on the morrow of a too great indulgence, was somewhat dull +spirited and lachrymose. The weather, too, was gloomy; a melancholy +barrel-organ had been droning dreadfully for some time beneath the +windows; and to crown all, Mr. Tape, who has a quick eye for the +sentimental, had discovered, and read aloud, a common, but sad story of +madness and suicide in the evening paper. It is not, therefore, so +surprising that tender recollections should have revived with unusual +force in the veteran's memory. + +"You would hardly believe it, Tape," said Captain Smith, after a dull +pause, and emitting a sound somewhat resembling a sigh, as he re-lighted +the cigar which had gone out during Mr. Tape's reading--"you would +hardly believe it, perhaps; but I was woman-witched once myself!" + +"Never!" exclaimed the astonished gentleman whom he addressed. "A man of +your strength of mind, captain? I can't believe it; it's impossible!" + +"It's an extraordinary fact, I admit; and, to own the truth, I have +never been able to account exactly for it myself. Fortunately, I took +the disorder as I did the measles--young; and neither of these +complaints is apt to be so fatal then, I'm told, as when they pick a man +up later in life. It was, however, a very severe attack while it lasted. +A very charming hand at hooking a gudgeon was that delightful Coralie +Dufour, I _must_ say." + +"Any relation to the Monsieur and Madame Dufour we saw some years ago in +Paris?" asked Tape. "The husband, I remember, was remarkably fond of +expressing his gratitude to you for having once wonderfully carried him +through his difficulties." + +Captain Smith looked sharply at Mr. Tape, as if he suspected some +lurking irony beneath the bland innocence of his words. Perceiving, as +usual, nothing in the speaker's countenance, Mr. Smith--blowing at the +same time a tremendous cloud to conceal a faint blush which, to my +extreme astonishment, I observed stealing over his unaccustomed +features--said, gravely, almost solemnly: "You, Mr. Tape are a married +man, and the father of a family, and your own experience, therefore, in +the female line must be ample for a lifetime; but you, sir," continued +the captain, patronizingly, addressing another of his auditors, "are, I +believe, as yet 'unattached,' in a legal sense, and may therefore derive +profit, as well as instruction, from an example of the way in which +ardent and inexperienced youth is sometimes entrapped and bamboozled by +womankind. Mr. Tape, oblige me by touching the bell." + +The instant the captain's order had been obeyed, he commenced the +narrative of his love adventure, and for a time spoke with his +accustomed calmness: but toward the close he became so exceeding +discursive and excited, and it was with so much difficulty we drew from +him many little particulars it was essential to hear, that I have been +compelled, from regard to brevity as well as strict decorum, to soften +down and render in my own words some of the chief incidents of his +mishap. + +Just previous to the winter campaign which witnessed the second siege +and fall of Badajoz, Mr. Smith, in the zealous exercise of his perilous +vocation, entered that city in his usual disguise of a Spanish +countryman, with strict orders to keep his eyes and ears wide open, and +to report as speedily as possible upon various military details, which +it was desirable the British general should be made acquainted with. Mr. +Smith, from the first moment the pleasant proposition was hinted to him, +had manifested considerable reluctance to undertake the task; more +especially as General Phillipon, who commanded the French garrison, had +not very long before been much too near catching him, to render a +possibly still more intimate acquaintance with so sharp a practitioner +at all desirable. Nevertheless, as the service was urgent, and no one, +it Was agreed, so competent as himself to the duty--indeed upon this +point Mr. Smith remarked that the most flattering unanimity of opinion +was exhibited by all the gentlemen likely, should he decline the honor, +to be selected in his place--he finally consented and in due time found +himself fairly within the walls of the devoted city. "It was an +uncomfortable business," the captain said, "very much so--and in more +ways than one. It took a long time to accomplish; and what was worse +than all, rations were miserably short. The French garrison were living +upon salted horse-flesh, and you may guess, therefore, at the condition +of the civilians' victualing department. Wine was, however, to be had in +sufficient plenty; and I used frequently to pass a few hours at a place +of entertainment kept by an Andalusian woman, whose bitter hatred of the +French invaders, and favorable disposition toward the British were well +known to me, though successfully concealed from Napoleon's soldiers, +many of whom--sous-officiers chiefly--were her customers. My chief +amusement there was playing at dominoes for a few glasses. I played, +when I had a choice, with a smart, goodish-looking sous-lieutenant of +voltigeurs--a glib-tongued chap, of the sort that tell all they know, +and something over, with very little pressing. His comrades addressed +him as Victor, the only name I then knew him by. He and I became very +good friends, the more readily that I was content he should generally +win. I soon reckoned Master Victor up; but there was an old, wiry +_gredin_ of a sergeant-major sometimes present, whose suspicious manner +caused me frequent twinges. One day especially I caught him looking at +me in a way that sent the blood galloping through my veins like +wildfire. A look, Mr. Tape, which may be very likely followed in a few +minutes afterward by a halter, or by half-a-dozen bullets through one's +body, is apt to excite an unpleasant sensation." + +"I should think so. I wouldn't be in such a predicament for the +creation." + +"It's a situation that would hardly suit you, Mr. Tape," replied the +veteran, with a grim smile. "Well, the gray-headed old fox followed up +his look with a number of interesting queries concerning my birth, +parentage, and present occupation, my answers to which so operated upon +him, that I felt quite certain when he shook hands with me, and +expressed himself perfectly satisfied, and sauntered carelessly out of +the place,-that he was gone to report his surmises, and would be +probably back again in two twos with a file of soldiers and an order for +my arrest. He had put me so smartly through my facings, that although it +was quite a cold day for Spain, I give you my honor I perspired to the +very tips of my fingers And toes. The chance of escape was, I felt, +almost desperate. The previous evening a rumor had circulated that the +British general had stormed Ciudad Rodrigo, and might therefore be +already hastening in his seven-league boots, toward Badajoz. The French +were consequently more than ever on the alert, and keen eyes watched +with sharpened eagerness for indications of sympathy or correspondence +between the citizens and the advancing army. I jumped up as soon as the +sergeant-major had disappeared, and was about to follow, when the +mistress of the place approached, and said, hastily, 'I have heard all, +and if not quick, you will be sacrificed by those French dogs: this +way.' I followed to an inner apartment, where she drew from a +well-concealed recess, a French officer's uniform, complete. 'On with +it!' she exclaimed, as she left the room. 'I know the word and +countersign.' I did not require twice telling, you may be sure; and in +less than no time was togged off beautifully in a lieutenant's uniform, +and walking at a smart pace toward one of the gates. I was within twenty +yards of the corps-de-garde, when whom should I run against but +Sous-lieutenant Victor! He stared, but either did not for the moment +recognize me, or else doubted the evidence of his own senses. I +quickened my steps--the guard challenged--I gave the words, 'Napoleon, +Austerlitz!'--passed on; and as soon as a turn of the road hid me from +view, increased my pace to a run. My horse, I should have stated, had +been left in sure hands at about two miles' distance. Could I reach so +far, there was, I felt, a chance. Unfortunately, I had not gone more +than five or six hundred yards, when a hubbub of shouts, and +musket-shots in my rear, announced that I was pursued. I glanced round; +and I assure you, gentlemen, I have seen in my life many pleasanter +prospects than met my view--Richmond Hill, for instance, on a fine +summer day. Between twenty and thirty voltigeurs, headed by my friend +Victor, who had armed himself, like the others, with a musket, were in +full pursuit; and once, I was quite satisfied, within gun-shot, my +business would be very effectually; and speedily settled. + +"I ran on with eager desperation: and though gradually neared by my +friends, gained the hut where I had left the horse in safety. The +voltigeurs were thrown out for a few minutes They knew, however, that I +had not passed the thickish clumps of trees which partially concealed +the cottage; and they extended themselves in a semi-circle to inclose, +and thus make sure of their prey. Juan Sanchez, luckily for himself, was +not at home; but my horse, as I have stated, was safe, and in prime +condition for a race. I saddled, bridled, and brought him out, still +concealed by the trees and hut from the French, whose exulting shouts, +as they gradually closed upon the spot, grew momently louder and +fiercer. The sole desperate chance left was to dash right through them; +and I don't mind telling you, gentlemen, that I was confoundedly +frightened, and that but for the certainty of being instantly +sacrificed, without benefit of clergy, I should have surrendered at +once. There was, however, no time for shilly-shallying. I took another +pull at the saddle-girths, mounted, drove the only spur I had time to +strap on sharply into the animal's flank, and in an instant broke cover +in full and near view of the expecting and impatient voltigeurs; and a +very brilliant reception they gave me--quite a stunner in fact! It's a +very grand thing, no doubt, to be the exclusive object of attention to +twenty or thirty gallant men, but so little selfish, gentlemen, have I +been from my youth up ward in the article of 'glory,' that I assure you +I should have been remarkably well-pleased to have had a few +companions--the more the merrier--to share the monopoly which I +engrossed as I came suddenly in sight. The flashes, reports, bullets, +_sacrés_, which in an instant gleamed in my eyes, and roared and sang +about my ears were deafening. How they all contrived to miss me I can't +imagine, but miss me they did; and I had passed them about sixty paces, +when who should start up over a hedge, a few yards in advance, but my +domino-player, Sous-lieutenant Victor! In an instant his musket was +raised within two or three feet of my face. Flash! bang! I felt a blow +as if from a thrust of red-hot steel; and for a moment made sure that my +head was off. With difficulty I kept my seat. The horse dashed on, and I +was speedily beyond the chance of capture or pursuit. I drew bridle at +the first village I reached, and found that Victor's bullet had gone +clean through both cheeks. The marks, you see, are still plain enough." + +This was quite true. On slightly separating the gray hairs of the +captain's whiskers, the places where the ball had made its entrance and +exit were distinctly visible. + +"A narrow escape," I remarked. + +"Yes, rather; but a miss is as good as a mile. The effusion of blood +nearly choked me; and it was astonishing how much wine and spirits it +required to wash the taste out of my mouth. I found," continued Mr. +Smith, "on arriving at head-quarters, that Ciudad Rodrigo had fallen as +reported, and that Lord Wellington was hurrying on to storm Badajoz +before the echo of his guns should have reached Massena or Soult in the +fool's paradise where they were both slumbering. I was of course for +some time on the sick-list, and consequently only assisted at the +assault of Badajoz as a distant spectator--a part I always preferred +when I had a choice. It was an awful, terrible business," added Mr. +Smith, with unusual solemnity. "I am not much of a philosopher that I +know of, nor, except in service hours, particularly given to religion, +but I remember, when the roar and tumult of the fierce hurricane broke +upon the calm and silence of the night, and a storm of hell-fire seemed +to burst from and encircle the devoted city, wondering what the stars, +which were shining brightly overhead, thought of the strife and dim they +looked so calmly down upon. It was gallantly done, however," the veteran +added, in a brisker tone, "and read well in the Gazette; and that +perhaps is the chief thing." + +"But what," I asked, "has all this to do with the charming Coralie and +your love-adventure?" + +"Every thing to do with it, as you will immediately find. I remained in +Badajoz a considerable time after the departure of the army, and was a +more frequent visitor than ever at the house of the excellent dame who +had so opportunely aided my escape. She was a kind-hearted soul with all +her vindictiveness; and now that the French were no longer riding +rough-shod over the city, spoke of those who were lurking about in +concealment--of whom there were believed to be not a few, with sorrow +and compassion. At length the wound I had received at Lieutenant +Victor's hands was thoroughly healed, and I was thinking of departure, +when the Andalusian dame introduced me in her taciturn, expressive way +to a charming young Frenchwoman, whose husband, a Spaniard, had been +slain during the assault or sack of the city. The intimacy thus begun +soon kindled on my part, into an intense admiration. Coralie was gentle, +artless, confiding as she was beautiful, and moreover--as Jeannette, her +sprightly, black-eyed maid informed me in confidence--extremely rich. +Here, gentlemen, was a combination of charms to which only a heart of +stone could remain insensible, and mine at the time was not only young, +but particularly sensitive and tender, owing in some degree, I daresay, +to the low diet to which I had been so long confined; for nothing, in my +opinion, takes the sense and pluck out of a man so quickly as that. At +all events I soon surrendered at discretion, and was coyly accepted by +the blushing lady. 'There was only one obstacle,' she timidly observed, +'to our happiness. The relatives of her late husband, by law her +guardians, were prejudiced, mercenary wretches, anxious to marry her to +an old hunks of a Spaniard, so that the property of her late husband, +chiefly consisting of precious stones--he had been a lapidary--might not +pass into the hands of foreigners.' I can scarcely believe it now," +added Mr. Smith, with great heat; "but if I didn't swallow all this +stuff like sack and sugar, I'm a Dutchman! The thought of it, old as I +am, sets my very blood on fire. + +"At length," continued Mr. Marmaduke Smith, as soon as he had partially +recovered his equanimity--"at length it was agreed, after all sorts of +schemes had been canvassed and rejected, that the fair widow should be +smuggled out of Badajoz as luggage in a large chest, which Jeannette and +the Andalusian landlady--I forget that woman's name--undertook to have +properly prepared. The marriage ceremony was to be performed by a priest +at a village about twelve English miles off, with whom Coralie undertook +to communicate. 'I trust,' said that lady, 'to the honor of a British +officer'--I had not then received my commission, but no matter--'that +he, that you, Captain Smith, will respect the sanctity of my concealment +till we arrive in the presence of the reverend gentleman who,' she +added, with a smile like a sunset, 'will, I trust, unite our destinies +forever.' She placed, as she spoke, her charming little hand in mine, +and I, you will hardly credit it, tumbled down on my knees, and vowed to +religiously respect the dear angel's slightest wish! Mr. Tape, for +mercy's sake, pass the wine, or the bare recollection will choke me!" + +I must now, for the reasons previously stated, Continue the narrative in +my own words Every thing was speedily arranged for flight. Mr. Smith +found no difficulty in procuring from the Spanish commandant an order +which would enable him to pass his luggage through the barrier +unsearched; Jeannette was punctual at the rendezvous, and pointed +exultingly to a large chest, which she whispered contained the trembling +Coralie. The chinks were sufficiently wide to admit of the requisite +quantity of air; it locked inside, and when a kind of sail-cloth was +thrown loosely over it, there was nothing very unusual in its +appearance. Tenderly, tremulously did the rejoicing lover assist the +precious load into the hired bullock-cart, and off they started, Mr. +Smith and Jeannette walking by the side of the richly-freighted vehicle. + +Mr. Smith trod on air, but the cart, which had to be dragged over some +of the worst roads in the world, mocked his impatience by its +marvelously slow progress, and when they halted at noon to give the oxen +water, they were still three good miles from their destination. + +"Do you think?" said Mr. Smith, in a whisper to Jeannette, holding up a +full pint flask, which he had just drawn from his pocket, and pointing +toward the chest, "do you think?--Brandy and water--eh?" + +Jeannette nodded, and the gallant Smith gently approached, tapped at the +lid, and in a soft low whisper proffered the cordial. The lid was, with +the slightest possible delay, just sufficiently raised to admit the +flask, and instantly reclosed and locked. In about ten minutes the flask +was returned as silently as it had been received. The enamored soldier +raised it to his lips, made a profound inclination toward his concealed +fiancée, and said, gently, "A votre santé, charmante Coralie!" The +benignant and joyous expression of Mr. Smith's face, as he vainly +elevated the angle of the flask in expectation of the anticipated +draught, assumed an exceedingly puzzled and bewildered expression. He +peered into the opaque tin vessel; pushed his little finger into its +neck to remove the loose cork or other substance that impeded the genial +flow; then shook it, and listened curiously for a splash or gurgle. Not +a sound! Coralie had drained it to the last drop! Mr. Smith looked with +comical earnestness at Jeannette, who burst into a fit of uncontrollable +laughter. + +"Madame is thirsty," she said, as soon as she could catch sufficient +breath: "it must be so hot in there." + +"A full pint!" said the captain, still in blank astonishment, "and +strong--very!" + +The approach of the carter interrupted what he further might have had to +say, and in a few minutes the journey was resumed. The captain fell into +a reverie which was not broken till the cart again stopped. The chest +was then glided gently to the ground: the driver, who had been +previously paid, turned the heads of his team toward Badajoz, and with a +brief salutation departed homeward. + +Jeanette was stooping over the chest, conversing in a low tone with her +mistress, and Captain Smith surveyed the position in which he found +himself with some astonishment. No house, much less a church or village +was visible, and not a human being was to be seen. + +"Captain Smith," said Jeannette, approaching the puzzled warrior with +some hesitation, "a slight contretemps has occurred. The friends who +were to have met us here, and helped to convey our precious charge to a +place of safety, are not, as you perceive, arrived: perhaps they do not +think it prudent to venture quite so far." + +"It is quite apparent they are not here," observed Mr. Smith; "but why +not have proceeded in the cart?" + +"What, captain! Betray your and madame's secret to yonder Spanish boor. +How you talk!" + +"Well, but my good girl, what _is_ to be done? Will madame get out and +walk?" + +"Impossible--impossible!" ejaculated the amiable damsel. "We should be +both recognized, dragged back to that hateful Badajoz, and madame would +be shut up in a convent for life. It is but about a quarter of a mile," +added Jeannette, in an insinuating, caressing tone, "and madame is not +so _very_ heavy." + +"The devil!" exclaimed Mr. Smith, taken completely aback by this +extraordinary proposal. "You can't mean that I should take that +infer--that chest upon my shoulders!" + +"Mon Dieu! what else _can_ be done?" replied Jeannette, with pathetic +earnestness: "unless you are determined to sacrifice my dear +mistress--she whom you pretended to so love--you hard-hearted, faithless +man!" + +Partially moved by the damsel's tearful vehemence, Mr. Smith reluctantly +approached, and gently lifted one end of the chest, as an experiment. + +"There are a great many valuables there besides madame," said Jeannette, +in reply to the captain's look, "and silver coin is, you know, very +heavy." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the perplexed lover. "It is deucedly +unfortunate--still--Don't you think," he added earnestly, after again +essaying the weight of the precious burden, "that if madame were to wrap +herself well up in this sail-cloth, we might reach your friend the +priest's house without detection?" + +"Oh, no--no--no!" rejoined the girl. "Mon Dieu! how can you think of +exposing madame to such hazard?" + +"How far do you say it is?" asked Captain Smith, after a rather sullen +pause. + +"Only just over the fields yonder--half-a-mile perhaps." + +Mr. Smith still hesitated, but finally the tears and entreaties of the +attendant, his regard for the lady and her fortune, the necessity of the +position, in short, determined him to undertake the task. A belt was +passed tightly round the chest, by means of which he could keep it on +his back; and after several unsuccessful efforts, the charming load was +fairly hoisted, and on the captain manfully staggered, Jeannette +bringing up the rear. + +Valiantly did Mr. Smith, though perspiring in every pore of his body, +and dry as a cartouch-box--for madame had emptied the only flask he +had--toil on under a burden which seemed to grind his shoulder-blades to +powder. He declares he must have lost a stone of flesh at least before, +after numerous restings, he arrived, at the end of about an hour, at the +door of a small house, which Jeannette announced to be the private +residence of the priest. The door was quickly opened by a smart lad, who +seemed to have been expecting them; the chest was deposited on the +floor, and Jeannette instantly vanished. The lad, with considerate +intelligence, handed Mr. Smith a draught of wine. It was scarcely +swallowed when the key turned in the lock, the eager lover, greatly +revived by the wine, sprang forward with extended arms, and received in +his enthusiastic embrace--whom do you think? + +"Coralie, half-stifled for want of air, and nearly dead with fright," +suggested Mr. Tape. + +"That rascally Sous-lieutenant Victor! half-drunk with +brandy-and-water," roared Captain Smith, who had by this time worked +himself into a state of great excitement. "At the same moment in ran +Jeannette, and, I could hardly believe my eyes, that Jezebel Coralie, +followed by half-a-dozen French voltigeurs, screaming with laughter! I +saw I was done," continued Mr. Smith, "but not for the moment precisely +how, and but for his comrades, I should have settled old and new scores +with Master Victor very quickly. As it was, they had some difficulty in +getting him out of my clutches, for I was, as you may suppose, awfully +savage. An hour or so afterward, when philosophy, a pipe, and some very +capital wine--they were not bad fellows those voltigeurs--had exercised +their soothing influence, I was informed of the exact motives and +particulars of the trick which had been played me. Coralie was Victor +Dufour's wife. He had been wounded at the assault of Badajoz, and +successfully concealed in that Andalusian woman's house; and as the +best, perhaps only mode of saving him from a Spanish prison, or worse, +the scheme of which I had been the victim, was concocted. Had not Dufour +wounded me, they would, I was assured, have thrown themselves upon my +honor and generosity--which honor and generosity, by-the-by, would never +have got Coralie's husband upon my back, I'll be sworn!" + +"You will forgive us, mon cher capitaine?" said that lady, with one of +her sweetest smiles, as she handed me a cup of wine. "In love and war, +you know, every thing is fair." + +"A soldier, gentlemen, is not made of adamant. I was, I confess, +softened; and by the time the party broke up, we were all the best +friends in the world." + +"And so that fat, jolly looking Madame Dufour we saw in Paris, is the +beautiful Coralie that bewitched Captain Smith?" said Mr. Tape +thoughtfully--"Well!" + +"She was younger forty years ago, Mr. Tape, than when you saw her. +Beautiful Coralies are rare, I fancy, at her present age, and very +fortunately, too, in my opinion," continued Captain Smith; "for what, I +should like to know, would become of the peace and comfort of society, +if a woman of sixty could bewitch a man as easily as she does at +sixteen?" + + + + +THE CHAMPION. + +A ROMANTIC INCIDENT IN EARLY SPANISH HISTORY. + + +The clang of arms and the inspiriting sounds of martial music resounded +through the court-yard of the palace of Navarre. The chivalry of +Arragon, Castile, and Navarre had assembled at the summons of their +sovereign, to fight under his banner against the infidels, and now +waited impatiently for the moment when the monarch should mount his +gallant steed, and lead them to battle and to victory. + +Sancho the Fourth was at that moment bidding farewell to his queen, the +gentle Dona Nuna, who clung to her lord in an agony of tears. + +"Be comforted, my beloved," he said to her; "I shall return to you with +added laurels to my kingly wreath. Do not fear for me, nor let your +sweet face grow pale by brooding over the dangers and chances of war. +For my part, I never felt more exulting anticipations of success, and am +persuaded that triumph and victory will crown our undertaking." + +"Alas! it is not so with me," said Nuna, sadly. "A presentiment of +approaching evil weighs heavily on my heart." + +"You shudder at the thought if our separation, Nuna, more like a timid +young bride parting from her newly-wedded lord, than a matron who has +shared her husband's joys and sorrows for well-nigh twenty years." + +"You are now far dearer to me, Sancho, than when I gave you my hand: +have I not to thank you for the love and tenderness which has made these +long years of wedded life so blissful and happy?" + +"In sooth, I believe, Nuna, it is even so: and you love me as warmly as +ever. Receive my assurances in return, dear wife, that your face is as +fair to me, and the gift of your true heart as fondly prized, as when I +first led you to these halls, my youthful and beautiful bride. But +suffer me to bid you farewell, or my nobles will wax impatient. I leave +you to the society of our son, and the guardianship of my trusty Pedro +Sésé, who will attend to your behests. One word more. I intrust to your +safe keeping my beautiful steed, Ilderim. You know how I value the noble +animal, my first capture from the Moor. See that he is carefully tended +in my absence, I shall accept it as a proof of your regard for my +wishes. And now, adieu, dearest wife. Think of me, and supplicate Heaven +that I may be speedily and safely restored to your arms." + +So saying, Sancho the Great, tenderly embraced his wife; and mounting +his war charger, placed himself at the head of his gallant army. The +clatter of horses' hoofs soon died away in the distance, leaving the +court-yard of the castle in silence and gloom. + +Three days after the king's departure, the young Don Garcia entered the +court-yard of the palace at Navarre. + +"Pedro Sésé, Pedro Sésé!" he cried; "my noble Arab El Toro lies dead in +a cleft of the rocks: I have returned to seek another steed for the +chase: such a boar hunt has not been among the forests of Navarre since +the Pyrenees echoed to the horn of Roland: give me forth black Ilderim, +Pedro, my friend; saddle me my father's charger, for there is no other +steed in the king's stables worthy of the hunt of to-day!" + +"Don Garcia," replied the master of the horse, "black Ilderim is only +for the king's mounting: I dare not saddle him for any other." + +"But the Infante commands it--the king that is to be." + +"Chafe not with a faithful servant, Don Garcia: it is but yesterday I +refused the same request of the bastard of Arragon." + +"What! darest thou compare me with the base-born Ramiro? Insolent! I +shall bear my complaint to the queen." + +To the queen Don Garcia bore his complaint and his petition: "Oh, my +mother, wouldst thou see me dishonored by a menial? Am I not thine only +son, the rightful heir of Arragon, Castile, and Navarre? who may command +here, if I may not? Assert my authority, then, and order the false Pedro +Sésé that he give me forth black Ilderim." + +"Pedro Sésé has faithfully discharged his duty to my lord the king, who +enjoined on him and on me the safe keeping of his favorite horse," said +Dona Nuna. "The royal stables are open; take, my son, any other steed, +but leave black Ilderim till thy father's return." + +"Nay, by Heaven and by the saints, I will have Ilderim to ride this day, +or I will have vengeance!" + +The headstrong youth returned to the court-yard, and again demanded the +steed: again the master of the horse refused. Don Garcia, pale with +concentrated rage, sprang on another of the king's chargers, and +galloped from the palace. Instead, however, of returning to the hunt, he +urged his horse into the _despoblado_, or open plain, lying to the south +of the castle, and disappeared on the road to Burgos. + +Time passed heavily, in her lord's absence, with the gentle Nuna. At +first, she received frequent and joyful tidings of the successes which +crowned his arms, and the brilliant victories gained by his forces over +the Moslem army. Of late, and since the departure of Garcia from the +castle, Sancho's affectionate dispatches had altogether ceased; and +Nuna, now thoroughly wretched, from the wayward perversity of her son, +and from uncertainty as to her husband's fate, had prepared to rejoin +him at any risk, and share the perils to which he might be exposed. + +Her resolution was no sooner formed than it was promptly carried into +effect: she summoned to her aid the trusty Pedro Sésé; and, protected by +a small escort under his command, bade adieu to Navarre, and commenced +her long and perilous journey toward the theatre of war. + +The little cavalcade had reached Najarra, when, to their surprise and +joy, they beheld a gallant band of horsemen rapidly approaching: the +united banner of Arragon, Castile, and Navarre, floating proudly before +them, announced to all beholders that Sancho the Fourth led his knights +in person. + +Nuna's heart beat fast and tumultuously; in a few moments, and the long +absent one would clasp her closely to his breast. She looked up to the +master of the horse who rode by her side, and urged him to increased +speed. They moved briskly forward; and the advancing knights who formed +the king's body-guard became more distinctly visible. Sancho, as we have +said, headed them; but as soon as they had arrived within a short +distance of the queen's followers, the monarch advanced a few paces, and +in tones of thunder called on them to halt. His brow was darkened with +evil passions, his countenance flushed with anger. + +"On the peril of your allegiance!" he shouted, rather than spoke, "seize +the traitress, I command ye! My heart refused to hearken to the tale of +her guilt, even when spoken by the lips of her son; but mine eyes have +seen it. I have lived--wretched that I am--to witness her infamy. But +the adulteress, and the companion of her crime, shall not escape my +righteous vengeance. See to it, that the queen and Pedro Sésé remain +your prisoners." + +If a thunderbolt had fallen at the feet of the miserable Nuna, she could +not have been more horror-struck, or more confounded. Her life-long +dream of happiness was dissipated; the husband of her youth had recoiled +from her as from the veriest reptile that crawls on the face of God's +earth; and the worker of her woe and ruin was her own child--her own +flesh and blood--her son Garcia! Who would believe her to be pure and +innocent when such lips pronounced the tale of her guilt? Unhappy wife; +still more unhappy mother! In the deepest dungeon of the castle of +Najarra she was left to mourn over her unparalleled misery. Alone, +unfriended, and solitary, Nuna--who so lately had seen herself a beloved +and cherished wife, a fond mother, and a mighty sovereign--struggled +with her bitter and mournful reflections. She could not reproach her +husband, for she felt that his ear had been poisoned against her by an +accuser he could scarcely mistrust, even by the insinuations of her son, +confirmed--as he deemed them to be--by the evidence of his senses, when +he met her so unexpectedly traveling under the escort of Pedro Sésé. + +But short space was left to Nuna for these agonizing thoughts. Death, a +shameful death, was the punishment of the adulteress; but Sancho, more +merciful than she had dared to hope, had granted her one loop-hole for +escape--one slender chance of proving her innocence. The lists were to +be open to any champion believing in the lady's guiltlessness, who +should adventure his life in her defense. If any such should proffer his +services, he might do battle in single combat with her accuser. +God--according to the belief of those days--would give victory to him +who maintained the truth! + +The fatal day approached, arrived, and had well-nigh passed. Garcia, +unopposed, bestrode his war-steed, the redoubtable black Ilderim, whose +possession he had so eagerly coveted, and purchased at so fearful a +price. The discrowned queen, in conformity with custom, was placed +within sight of the arena, tied to a stake, surmounting what would prove +her funeral pile if no champion appeared on her behalf, or if her +defender should suffer defeat. + +Who can paint the agitation of Dona Nuna, thus placed within view of the +lists, when the precious hours passed, one by one, and no champion stood +forth in defense of her purity and truth? She was about to resign +herself hopelessly to her inexorable fate, when the sound of a horse's +tramp was heard, approaching at a rapid pace; and a knight, in complete +armor, mounted on a charger, whose foaming mouth and reeking sides told +that he had been ridden at a fearful pace, dashed into the lists, flung +down his gauntlet of defiance, and announced that he was come to do +battle in behalf of the falsely-accused, but stainless and guiltless +queen. + +There was an involuntary movement among the assembled multitude when +Garcia prepared for the inevitable encounter. None knew, or could guess, +who the knight might be. No device nor emblem, by which his identity +would be discovered, could be traced on his helmet or on his shield! but +the ease with which he surmounted his steed, and his graceful and +gallant bearing, evinced that he was an accomplished warrior. + +In a few seconds, the preliminary arrangements were complete; and, with +lances in rest, the opponents approached. In the first encounter, to the +amazement of all, Garcia was unhorsed, and fell heavily to the ground. + +"She is innocent! She is innocent!" shouted the multitude. + +"God be praised! though I have lost a son," was the subdued ejaculation +of the king. + +"I am prepared, in defense of the much-injured lady, to do combat to the +death," said the stranger knight. "Base and dastardly villain! confess +thy unnatural crime, or prepare to meet me once more, when I swear I +will not let thee escape so lightly." + +Garcia hesitated; he was evidently torn by conflicting emotions. +Conscious guilt--fear of the just retribution of Heaven, executed by the +stranger's avenging sword--urged him to confess his villainy. On the +other hand, apprehension of the execrations of the multitude, and the +indignation of his injured parents, restrained him from making a frank +avowal of his crime. + +"Remount, miscreant! and make ready for another encounter, or confess +that you have lied in your throat," exclaimed the stranger, sternly. + +Before Garcia could reply, an aged and venerable ecclesiastic threw +himself between the opponents. + +"In the name of Heaven! I command ye to withhold from this unnatural +strife," he exclaimed, addressing them; "brothers are ye; the blood of a +common father flows in your veins. Ramiro--forbear. Garcia--the combat +this day has testified to your guilt; make the only atonement in your +power, by a full confession." + +Ejaculations of astonishment and pity burst from all the spectators. +"Long live the noble bastard! The base-born has made base the well-born! +The step-son has proved the true son! Praise be to the Virgin, the +mother of the people has not been left without a godson to fight for +her!" And all the matrons, and many even of the hardened warriors among +the multitude, wept with tenderness and joy. + +In a few moments the agitated queen found herself in her husband's arms. +He implored her forgiveness for the sorrow she had endured; nor could +she withhold it, even for a moment, when she listened to the avowals of +the degraded Garcia, who confessed how, step by step, he had poisoned +his father's mind by tales of her infidelity, in revenge for her +refusal, and that of Pedro Sésé, to intrust him with Sancho's favorite +charger, black Ilderim. + +Nuna turned from her abject son, and motioned her young champion to +approach. He knelt at her feet. + +"Ramiro," she softly said, as she unclasped the helmet and visor which +concealed the handsome features of Sancho's illegitimate son, "child of +my affections, for whom I have ever felt a mother's love, though I have +not borne for thee a mother's pains; how shall I thank thee? Thou hast +this day more than repaid the tenderness I lavished on thy infant years. +Thou hast made clear my fair fame to all men; even at the risk of thy +own young life." + +"I would lay down life itself for such a friend as you have been, and +esteem the sacrifice light," rejoined Ramiro, with deep emotion. "I +remember my childish days--before you came to Navarre, a bright, happy, +innocent bride--when I wandered through my father's palace an unloved +and neglected boy; and I can recall vividly the moment when you first +encountered me, and, struck by the resemblance I bore to the king, +surmised the truth. Instead of hating me with the unjust aversion of an +ungenerous nature, you took the despised child to your heart, and, for +the love you bore your lord, you loved and cherished his base-born son. +For the genial atmosphere you created around me, and in which my +affections expanded, and for the care you have bestowed on my +education, I owe you a debt of gratitude far deeper than ever child bore +his own mother. Nature dictates maternal love, in the one instance--but +it is to the suggestions of a noble and generous heart that I have been +indebted for the happiness of my life. You owe me no thanks--for, for +such a friend no sacrifice can be too great." + +Nuna turned to the king; and, taking his hand in hers, placed it on the +head of her young champion. "I have brought you kingdoms as my dower," +she said, "but I have not, alas! brought you a son so worthy as Ramiro +of being their ruler. I freely forgive the Infante the suffering he has +caused me, and hope that, with advancing years, he will cultivate the +virtues in which he has shown himself to be deficient. But Ramiro has +already given evidence of the possession of those exalted qualities +which insure the happiness of a people when possessed by their rulers. +Invest him then, at my entreaty, with the crown of Arragon; receive back +to your confidence our faithful Pedro Sésé; and suffer me to forget my +past griefs in the anticipation of a love which shall never again be +interrupted." + +The king raised his hand in assent; and the assembled multitude +confirmed the investiture with one mighty shout--"Ramiro! Ramiro! long +live Ramiro! Infante of Arragon!" + + + + +THE FARM-LABORER.--THE SON. + +BY HARRIET MARTINEAU. + + +It has been told that Susan Banks found herself well placed, after the +death of her insane aunt obliged her to look for a home and a +maintenance. As I am not telling her story, I will pass over the account +of the efforts she made to be a schoolmistress, and the instruction she +had as a dressmaker. She was in poor health (reduced by hunger) and in +debt £3 to her uncle, and nervous and anxious, when she heard that a +lady from the North, then visiting in the neighborhood, wanted just such +a maid as Susan thought she could become with a little teaching. She +obtained the place, took pains to learn to wait at table, &c., and +within a year had paid her debt to her uncle, and spared £2 besides to +her family; and all this, though her box had had but few clothes in it +when she went to her new home. + +At the end of a year, her employer, Miss Foote, began to think of +cultivating the small portion of land about the house which had hitherto +been let off for grazing, and which was deteriorating in quality from +the mismanagement of the tenant. Not approving of the methods of tillage +in the neighborhood, and knowing that there were no spare hands there, +Miss Foote wrote to a parish officer in Susan's and her own native +county, to ask if a laborer of good character and sound qualifications +could be sent to her by the parish, on her engaging to pay him twelve +shillings a week for a year and a half, while her experiment of +cultivation was under trial; and longer, if it should be found to +answer. This was all she could undertake, as she could not afford to +carry on the scheme at a loss. The answer was some time in coming. When +it came, it told that pauper laborers could not be recommended; but a +better sort of laborer might be sent, and his place in the parish would +be filled, only too easily, by some of the young men from the workhouse. +The proposal was to send the very best man of his class known to the +parish officers. He and his wife had money enough in the savings' bank +to pay their journey, and they were willing to make the venture. The +man's name was Harry Banks. Miss Foote took the letter into the kitchen, +and read it to Susan and her fellow-servant. When Susan heard the name, +she started as if she had been shot, and screamed out, "Why, that's my +brother!" Thus far, far away from home, she was to have a brother and +his wife beside her, living in the pretty little cottage which was +building behind the oak copse for the new laborer. Miss Foote inquired +about the wife, but could learn little. Susan told nothing but that she +was a respectable woman, but so old, and otherwise unsuitable, that it +was a vexation to the family that Harry had made such a marriage. Harry +never seemed to see a single fault in her; but his father and mother did +not like Dinah at all. + +When Miss Foote afterward came to know the whole, she thought this +marriage the most terribly significant part of the whole family history +of the Bankses. At thirty years of age Harry was a pattern of a +farm-laborer; yet he had no prospect in life but of earning a precarious +nine shillings a week, till he should be too old to earn so much. He +worked for a rich, close-fisted Dissenting gentleman, who had always +pious sayings on his lips and at the point of his pen, but never took +off his eye for an instant from his money gains and savings. His wife +was like him, and their servants grew like them--even the warm-hearted, +impetuous Harry, and much more Dinah, their worn out maid-of-all-work. +Dinah always said that the register of her birth was unfortunately lost, +and she could not tell precisely how old she was; and she called herself +"upwards o' forty." Most people supposed her about sixty when she +married. She used to tell Harry that she was the prettiest girl in the +city when she was young, and Harry did not ask how long ago that was, +nor look too much at the little wizened face, not more marked by +small-pox than by signs of over-exhausting toil. Whatever might be her +age, she was worn out by excessive work. When Harry's father heard that +she and Harry were going before the registrar to be married, he kindly +and seriously asked Harry if he had considered what he was about; and +Harry's reply was enough to make any heart ache. + +"Yes, father, I have. I'm not so very much set on it; but I think it +will be most comfortable. You see, there's no use in people like us +thinking of having children. Children would only starve us downright, +and bring us to the Union. You see, none of us are married, nor likely +to be, except me with Dinah. She's clean and tidy, you see, and she has +some wages laid by, and so have I; and so nobody need find fault. And I +shall be more comfortable like, with somebody to do for me at home; +and--" + +And he was going on to tell how Dinah would cook his dinner and mend his +clothes, but his father could not bear to hear him, and finished off +with saying that it was his own affair, and he wished them well. + +It was within a year after their marriage that Harry was engaged, by +Miss Foote. In great glee he made haste to prepare himself for his +important new place in every way he could think of. He learned to trim a +vine, not knowing that the place he was going to was too far north for +vine-growing. He made interest with a butcher to learn how to kill a +pig. He made a little collection of superior cabbage and turnip seeds, +seed potatoes, &c., thus proving to Miss Foote at the outset that he had +plenty of energy and quickness. She found, too, that he had courage. His +employers, vexed to lose two servants whom they had trained to excessive +economy, as well as hard work, did every thing that was possible, while +there was any chance of success, to frighten them from moving northward. +They told Dinah, with mournful countenances, that they should certainly +die--that it was all the same as being transported--that it was cruelty +in the parish officers to let them be tempted. Dinah repeated all this +to Harry; and it staggered him at first; but he presently remembered +that Susan wrote that her health had improved; and her letters had not +only contained post-office orders, but plain signs that she was very +happy. Harry determined to proceed; and when he had once made up his +mind, his employers showed themselves very kind--helping their +preparations, and having them to dinner on the last day. + +By their own account their journey must have been a curious affair. +Their heads were so full of notions of thieves and sharpers, that they +did every thing in the slyest way, and wrapped themselves in mystery, +and pretended to despise their boxes, while in one continued agony about +them. When met by a kind gentleman who was to see them through London, +Dinah pretended not to be the right person, lest the gentleman should +not be the right; so that it was lucky they did lose his help +altogether. Miss Foote was disagreeably impressed by their account of +their great slyness, and not less by the suspicious temper--natural, +perhaps, to Dinah, but not at all so to Harry--in which they began their +new mode of life. Dinah was no servant of hers; so she had nothing to do +with Dinah's ways, but to check the jealousy and suspicion she showed of +her young sister-in-law and the young cook. On occasion of leaving home +for some weeks, the lady took the opportunity of intimating to the +people at the cottage that there was a perfect understanding between +the girls and herself, as perfect a confidence as there can be between +mother and daughters; that their acquaintances came by her permission, +and so forth. Harry promised to be attentive and sociable with his +sister, and not to grow hot with the cook about how to feed the fowls +and manage the churn. That was the time when Dinah left off peeping +through the laurels to see who went to the back door, and looking +mysterious and sympathetic when holding forth to Miss Foote about young +people. Still it was long before she left off locking her door and +hiding the key, if she turned her back for a minute, and taking every +body she did not know for a thief. She was left to her own notions; but +with Harry a serious remonstrance was necessary, more than once, within +the first year of his new service. Miss Foote was as much annoyed as +amused with his higgling ways, all in zeal for her interests. She feared +that she should have the reputation in the neighborhood of being a +perfect miser, so wonderful were Harry's stories of the bargains he +attempted to drive. She told him she hoped he would never succeed in any +one such bargain as the many he told her of; and she laid her positive +commands upon him never, in her name, to beat down the seller of any +article she sent him to buy. As she supposed, she found he had caught up +the trick from example, and had not the knowledge whereby to remedy it. +When she told him it was not the way of the place to cheat in making +charges he shook his head, and very nearly put his tongue in his cheek; +but when she explained to him how prices came to be, and how an article +can not properly be bought for less than it took to make or grow it, he +was convinced at once, and his higgling method was softened down into a +mere excessive strictness and vigilance in buying and selling +transactions. There never was any real meanness about the man. In a few +months he sent his father ten shillings; in a few months more he sent +him £1. A small anecdote will show better than this, that money is not +naturally the first object with him. When his employer kills a pig he is +allowed to take a quarter at wholesale price, and Dinah cures the ham so +well that by selling it they get their bacon for next to nothing. One +autumn, when two pigs were killed, there was such a scramble for them, +and so many neighbors would be "hurt in their feelings" if they could +not have a portion, that Miss Foote found herself left with two gammons, +but no ham. Harry heard this in the kitchen. He kept silence till his +ham was finely cured, and then, touching his hat as if asking a favor, +he told his employer that she had done good things for him, and he had +never been able to do any for her, and he should be much pleased if she +would take the ham for what he gave for it. Though not agreeing to this +exactly, Miss Foote found herself obliged to take the ham very cheap. + +Another small incident showed the same gentlemanly spirit. At the time +when his whole soul was engrossed with the desire to make "the +experiment" answer, he had a request to present, as often during a whole +winter as he could edge it in. There was a certain long, ugly hedge, +pernicious in every way, which divided the field from a neighbor's. The +hedge belonged to the neighbor; and it appeared that he would be +heartily glad to give it away to any body who would take it down and put +up some fence which would cover less ground and harbor less vermin. +Harry was so eager to be allowed to remove the hedge, that Miss Foote at +last told him that she should never have dreamed of his undertaking such +a job in addition to his regular work; but that he might please himself. +She would put up a new fence if he chose to make way for it. He did it +with no help but in felling some pollards. One afternoon, when wheeling +up hill an enormous load of wood from the hedge, he heard himself +laughed at from the next field. Now, no man winces more under a laugh +than Harry; yet he bore it well this time. Some men called out mockingly +that he was doing horse's work and man's work at once, and they would +not do that to please any body. "No," said Harry, turning full round +toward them, "nor, I neither. Miss Foote never asked me to do this. I do +it to please myself." + +No man, I have said, winces under a laugh more than Harry; and his only +suffering worth mentioning, since he came to his new place, has been +from this dislike of ridicule. When the cottage was ready, Miss Foote +proposed a house-warming, and invited herself and her two maids there to +tea. It was a particularly pleasant evening, with a fine fire, and +plenty of light, and good tea and cake, and all the five in capital +spirits. Harry was made to take the arm-chair by his own fireside; and +when he began to crack his jokes it appeared that he had his own notions +of the ridiculous. He quizzed his nearest neighbor, an old man, who had +married a comparatively young woman, and whose children were forever +playing about Miss Foote's gate. When Harry joked about that unequal +match, Miss Foote could not laugh. She thought his own infinitely worse. +And the poor fellow soon saw that others were quizzing him, much more +severely than he had quizzed the old man. He looks grave about Dinah +now, and has left off talking of his own prudence in making such a +marriage. He has also told his sister that when Dinah dies he shall not +marry again. It is very painful; and yet Dinah is improved beyond all +that could have been anticipated. She has put off her false front, and +lets her grizzled hair appear. She no longer scans Miss Foote's face to +make out what it would be most acceptable that she should say, but +rattles away about her affairs with a sort of youthful glee. She no +longer speaks in a whining tone, but lets her voice take its own way. +One day she leaned on her rake (when she was trimming her own +flower-bed), and told Miss Foote, without any canting whatever, that she +had quite changed her mind about the maids since she came. She was +looking too far then, and so did not see what they were; but she found +in time that there was no slyness or pretense, but that they were really +good faithful girls, working for their employer's good, and with no +plots of their own. Old as Dinah seemed to be, there appears to be a +chance of her growing ingenuous and agreeable before she dies. The +gentry who come to the house observe that they never saw two people so +altered as Harry and Dinah; that they seem to have got new faces, a new +gait--a new mind. + +Harry had other ridicule to wince about. The neighbors laughed at him +and his employer about their whole plan; they had never heard of keeping +cows on less than three acres per cow, or, at least, five acres for two; +they had never seen such deep digging; they had never known any body +take the trouble to remove stones, or do any thing but bury them out of +sight; they had never seen a currycomb used to a cow; they had never +known a hardworking man so poor-spirited as to be a water-drinker. The +milk must cost Miss Foote 6_d._ a quart; the cow would die; Harry would +wear himself out; and so forth. One day, the first winter, the cow was +very ill. Between the fear of the experiment being given up, and love +for the creature, and dread of the neighbors, Harry was wretched. The +tears streamed down his face as he waited on the sick beast. She got +well, however; and now Harry meets ridicule with a bolder face. A +temperance society having been set up in the place, he has joined it, +though far above all temptation to drink. He finds it a convenience, +when pressed to drink, to cut the matter short by saying that he is a +pledged member--and a curious temperance preacher he is. When told +lately that his cows would rot under his method of treatment, his answer +was: "No, it isn't they that will rot. I'll tell you who 'tis that will +rot; 'tis them that put filthy spirits into their stomachs to turn their +brains, that will rot, and not my cows, that drink sweet water." + +There is a grave side to Harry's lot now, happy as he is. He looks +serious and hurt at times, though his health has much strengthened, his +earnings are sure, his wages are raised, his Sunday dress is like that +of a gentleman, there is meat on his table daily, and he has had the +comfort of assisting his parents. Notwithstanding all this, a cloud +comes over his face at times. As his sister says, "he feels the _injury_ +of his want of education." His mind is opening very rapidly. At any +spare quarter of an hour he lectures Miss Foote on industry, temperance, +duty to parents, and other good topics. The moral discoveries he has +made are wonderful to him. He has attended church all his life; but +truths come with new force into his mind when they enter through the +spirit of hope and the medium of success. He says "it was wonderful the +ideas that come into a man's mind when he sets himself a-thinking over +his work, and there is no care to take up his thoughts." Hence the +brightened countenance which the neighbors remark on: but hence, too, +the bitter regret at his wasted years of school life--at "the _injury_ +of his want of education." What might he not hope to be and do now, +Susan says, if he had but the knowledge that every man may be said to +have the right to be possessed of? Yet, the good fellow has raised his +family to a point of comfort. A gentleman who heard of his merits, as a +first-rate laborer, wrote to the same parish officers, to inquire if +there were any brothers. There was Tom; and Tom is now in a happy +situation, highly esteemed by his employer, and earning 14_s._ a week. +The employer, finding that Tom sadly missed intercourse with his family, +and knowing that he could neither read nor write letters, sent for the +sister, Lizzy, to be under-nursemaid in the family. In another way Harry +has done a deeper and wider good. Miss Foote's friends tell her that his +example is beginning to _tell_ in the neighborhood; his example, not +only of strenuous and skillful labor, but by integrity, temperance, and +disinterested attachment to his employer. + +All this is well--very pleasant to contemplate--but a disturbing +question arises in the midst of it: What can society say to these +excellent young men in excuse for their deprivation of family life? And +again, what is at best their prospect for old age? + + + + +(From Bentley's Miscellany.) + +A CHAPTER ON WOLVES. + +BY THE AUTHOR OF "LORD BACON IN ADVERSITY," ETC. + + We rustled through the leaves like wind, + Left shrubs and trees and wolves behind; + By night I beard them on the track, + Their troop came hard upon our back, + With their long gallop, which can tire + The hounds' deep hate and hunter's fire; + Where'er we flew, they followed on, + Nor left us with the morning sun. + Behind I saw them, scarce a rood + At daybreak winding through the wood, + And through the night had heard their feet, + Their stealing, rustling step repeat. + Oh! how I wished for spear or sword + At least to die amidst the horde, + And perish--if it must be so-- + At bay, destroying many a foe! + _Mazeppa._ + + +A peculiar interest attaches to the wolf, from the close analogy which +in all its essential features it presents to the faithful companion of +man. So close indeed is the analogy, that some of the ablest zoologists, +the celebrated John Hunter included, have entertained the opinion that +dogs, in all their varieties, and wolves, have descended from a common +stock. With the exception of an obliquity in the position of the eyes, +there is no appreciable anatomical difference between these animals. The +question is one of difficulty; but we believe we are correct in stating +that the majority of the highest authorities agree in the belief that +these animals are not derived from a common parent, but were originally +distinct, and will ever so continue. There are several species of wild +dogs known, quite distinct from the wolf; and although the opportunities +have been numerous for dogs resuming their pristine form, by long +continuance in a savage state, no instance has ever occurred of their +becoming wolves, however much they might degenerate from the domestic +breed. The honest and intelligent shepherd-dog was regarded by Buffon as +the "_fons et origo_," from which all other dogs, great and small, have +sprung; and he drew up a kind of genealogical table, showing how +climate, food, education, and intermixture of breeds gave rise to the +varieties. At Katmandoo there are many plants found in a wild state, +which man has carried with him in his migrations, and wild animals, +which may present the typical forms whence some of our domestic races +have been derived; among these is a wild dog, which Mr. Hodgson +considers to be the primitive species of the whole canine race. By +Professor Kretchner, the jackal was regarded as the type of the dogs of +ancient Egypt, an idea supported by the representations on the walls of +the temples. This question, however, of the origin of the canine race, +is so thoroughly obscured by the mists of countless ages, as to be +incapable of direct proof. Philosophers may indulge themselves with +speculations; but in the absence of that keystone, proof, the matter +must rest on the basis of theory alone. + +The following are some of the chief differences between wolves, wild +dogs, and domestic dogs. The ears of the wild animals are always +pricked, the lop or drooping ear being essentially a mark of +civilization; with very rare exceptions, their tails hang more or less +and are bushy, the honest cock of the tail so characteristic of a +respectable dog, being wanting. This is certainly the rule; but, curious +enough, the Zoological Gardens contain at the present moment, a +Portuguese female wolf which carries her tail as erect and with as bold +an air as any dog. Wolves and wild dogs growl, howl, yelp, and cry most +discordantly, but with one exception, do not bark; that exception being +the wild hunting-dog of South Africa, which, according to Mr. Cumming, +has three distinct cries; one is peculiarly soft and melodious, but +distinguishable at a great distance: this is analogous to the +trumpet-call, "halt and rally," of cavalry, serving to collect the +scattered pack when broken in hot chase. A second cry, which has been +compared to the chattering of monkeys, is emitted at night when the dogs +are excited; and the third note is described as a sharp, angry bark, +usually uttered when they behold an object they can not make out, but +which differs from the true, well-known bark of the domestic dog. + +The common or European wolf is found from Egypt to Lapland, and is most +probably the variety that formerly haunted these islands. The wolves of +Russia are large and fierce, and have a peculiarly savage aspect. The +Swedish and Norwegian are similar to the Russian in form, but are +lighter in color, and in winter, totally white. Those of France are +browner and smaller than either of these, and the Alpine wolves are +smaller still. Wolves are very numerous in the northern regions of +America; "their foot-marks," says Sir John Richardson, "may be seen by +the side of every stream, and a traveler can rarely pass the night in +these wilds without hearing them howling around him."[1] These wolves +burrow, and bring forth their young in earths with several outlets, like +those of a fox. Sir John saw none with the gaunt appearance, the long +jaw and tapering nose, long legs and slender feet, of the Pyrenean +wolves. + +India, too, is infested with wolves, which are smaller than the +European. There is a remarkably fine animal at the Zoological Gardens, +born of a European father and Indian mother, which, in size and other +respects, so closely partakes of the characteristics of his sire, that +he might well pass for pure blood. + +Among the ancients, wolves gave rise to many superstitious fictions. For +instance, it was said that they possessed "an evil eye," and that, if +they looked on a man before he saw them, he would forthwith lose his +voice. Again, we find the Roman witches, like the weird sisters of +Macbeth, employing the wolf in their incantations: + + "Utque lupi barbam variæ cum dente colubræ + Abdiderint furtim terris." + + HOR. _Sat._ viii. lib. i. + +There was a myth prevalent among the ancients, that in Arcadia there +lived a certain family of the Antæi, of which one was ever obliged to be +transformed into a wolf. The members of the family cast lots, and all +accompanied the luckless wight on whom the lot fell, to a pool of water. +This he swam over, and having entered into the wilderness on the other +side, was forthwith in form, a wolf, and for nine years kept company +with wolves: at the expiration of that period he again swam across the +pool, and was restored to his natural shape, only that the addition of +nine years was placed upon his features. It was also imagined that the +tail of the wolf contained a hair, which acted as a love philtre and +excited the tender passion. The myth of Romulus and Remus having been +suckled by a wolf, arose from the simple circumstance of their nurse +having been named Lupa--an explanation which sadly does away with the +garland of romance that so long surrounded the story of the founders of +Rome. The figure of the wolf at one time formed a standard for the Roman +legions, as saith Pliny, "Caius Marius, in his second consulship, +ordained that the legions of Roman soldiers only should have the egle +for their standard, and no other signe, for before time the egle +marched foremost indeed, but in a ranke of foure others, to wit, +wolves, minotaures, horses, and bores."[2] + +The dried snout of a wolf held, in the estimation of the ancients, the +same rank that a horseshoe does now with the credulous. It was nailed +upon the gates of country farms, as a counter-charm against the evil +eye, and was supposed to be a powerful antidote to incantations and +witchcraft. New-married ladies were wont, upon their wedding-day, to +anoint the side-posts of their husbands' houses with wolves' grease, to +defeat all demoniac arts. These animals bore, however, but a bad +character when alive; for, exclusive of their depredations, it was +imagined that if horses chanced to tread in the foot-tracks of wolves, +their feet were immediately benumbed; but Pliny also says, "Verily, the +great master teeth and grinders of a wolf being hanged about an horse +necke, cause him that he shall never tire and be weary, be he put to +never so much running in any race whatsoever." When a territory was much +infested with wolves, the following ceremony was performed with much +solemnity and deep subsequent carousal: A wolf would be caught alive, +and his legs carefully broken. He was then dragged around the confines +of the farm, being bled with a knife from time to time, so that the +blood might sprinkle the ground. Being generally dead when the journey +had been completed, he was buried in the very spot whence he had started +on his painful race. + +There was scarcely a filthy thing upon the earth, or under the earth, +which the ancients did not in some way use medicinally; and we find +Paulus Ægineta recommends the dry and pounded liver of a wolf, steeped +in sweet wine, as a sovereign remedy for diseases of the liver, &c. + +Our English word _wolf_ is derived from the Saxon _wulf_ and from the +same root, the German _wolf_, the Swedish _ulf_, and Danish _ulv_ are +probably derived. Wolves were at one time a great scourge to this +country, the dense forests which formerly covered the land favoring +their safety and their increase. Edgar applied himself seriously to rid +his subjects of this pest, by commuting the punishment of certain crimes +into the acceptance of a number of wolves' tongues from each criminal; +and in Wales by commuting a tax of gold and silver imposed on the +Princes of Cambria by Ethelstan, into an annual tribute of three hundred +wolves' heads, which Jenaf, Prince of North Wales, paid so punctually, +that by the fourth year the breed was extinct. Not so, however, in +England, for like ill weeds, they increased and multiplied here, +rendering necessary the appointment, in the reign of the first Edward, +of a _wolf-hunter_ general, in the person of one Peter Corbet; and his +majesty thought it not beneath his dignity to issue a mandamus, bearing +date May 14th, 1281, to all bailiffs, &c., to aid and assist the said +Peter in the destruction of wolves in the counties of Gloucester, +Worcester, Hereford, Shropshire, and Stafford; and Camden informs us +that in Derby, lands were held at Wormhill by the duty of hunting and +taking the wolves that infested that county. In the reign of Athelstan, +these pests had so abounded in Yorkshire, that a retreat was built at +Flixton in that county, "to defend passengers from the wolves that they +should not be devoured by them." Our Saxon ancestors also called +January, when wolves pair, _wolf-moneth_; and an outlaw was termed +_wolfshed_, being out of the protection of the law, and as liable to be +killed as that destructive beast. + +A curious notice of the existence of wolves and foxes in Scotland is +afforded in Bellenden's translation of Boetius.[3] "The wolffis are +right noisome to tame beastial in all parts of Scotland, except one part +thereof, named Glenmorris, in which the tame beastial gets little damage +of wild beastial, especially of tods (foxes); for each house nurses a +young tod certain days, and mengis (mixes) the flesh thereof, after it +be slain, with such meat as they give to their fowls or other small +beasts, and so many as eat of this meat are preserved two months after +from any damage of tods; for tods will eat no flesh that gusts of their +own kind." The last wolf killed in Scotland is said to have fallen by +the hand of Sir Ewen Cameron, about 1680; and singular to say, the skin +of this venerable quadruped may yet be in existence: in a catalogue of +Mr. Donnovan's sale of the London Museum, in April, 1818, there occurs +the following item, "Lot 832. Wolf, a noble animal in a large glass +case. The last wolf killed in Scotland, by Sir E. Cameron." It would be +interesting to know what became of this lot. + +The pairing time is January, when after many battles with rivals, the +strongest males attach themselves to the females. The female wolf +prepares a warm nest for her young, of soft moss and her own hair, +carefully blended together. The cubs are watched by the parents with +tender solicitude, are gradually accustomed to flesh, and when +sufficiently strong their education begins, and they are taken to join +in the chase; not the least curious part is the discipline by which they +are inured to suffering and taught to bear pain without complaint; their +parents are said to bite, maltreat, and drag them by the tail, punishing +them if they utter a cry, until they have learned to be mute. To this +quality Macaulay alludes when speaking of a wolf in his "Prophecy of +Capys:" + + "When all the pack, loud baying, + Her bloody lair surrounds, + She dies in silence, biting hard, + Amidst the dying hounds." + +It is curious to observe the cunning acquired by wolves in well +inhabited districts, where they are eagerly sought for destruction; they +then never quit cover to windward: they trot along just within the edges +of the wood until they meet the wind from the open country, and are +assured by their keen scent that no danger awaits them in that +quarter--then they advance, keeping under cover of hedgerows as much as +possible, moving in single file and treading in each other's track; +narrow roads they bound across, without leaving a footprint. When a wolf +contemplates a visit to a farmyard, he first carefully reconnoitres the +ground, listening, snuffing up the air, and smelling the earth; he then +springs over the threshold without touching it and seizes on his prey. +In retreat his head is low, turned obliquely, with one ear forward the +other back, and the eyes glaring. He trots crouching, his brush +obliterating the track of his feet till at some distance from the scene +of his depredation, then feeling himself secure, he waves his tail erect +in triumph, and boldly pushes on to cover. + +In northern India, wolves together with jackals and pariah dogs, prowl +about the dwellings of Europeans. Colonel Hamilton Smith relates a +curious accident which befell a servant who was sleeping in a verandah +with his head near the outer lattice: a wolf thrust his jaws between the +bamboo, seized the man by the head, and endeavored to drag him through; +the man's shrieks awakened the whole neighborhood, and assistance came, +but though the wolf was struck at by many, he escaped. Wolves have even +been known to attack sentries when single, as in the last campaign of +the French armies in the vicinity of Vienna, when several of the +videttes were carried off by them. During the retreat of Napoleon's army +from Russia, wolves of the Siberian race followed the troops to the +borders of the Rhine; specimens of these wolves shot in the vicinity, +and easily distinguishable from the native breed, are still preserved in +the museums of Neuwied, Frankfort, and Cassel. + +Captain Lyon[4] relates the following singular instance of the cunning +of a wolf which had been caught in a trap, and, being to all appearance +dead, was dragged on board ship: "The eyes, however, were observed to +wink whenever an object was placed near them, some precautions were, +therefore, considered necessary, and the legs being tied the animal was +hoisted up with his head downward. He then, to our surprise, made a +vigorous spring at those near him, and afterward repeatedly turned +himself upward so as to reach the rope by which he was suspended, +endeavoring to gnaw it asunder, and making angry snaps at the persons +who prevented him. Several heavy blows were struck on the back of his +neck, and a bayonet was thrust through him, yet above a quarter of an +hour elapsed before he died." + +Hearne, in his journey to the Northern Ocean, says, that the wolves +always burrow under ground at the breeding season, and though it is +natural to suppose them very fierce at those times, yet he has +frequently seen the Indians go to their dens, take out the cubs and play +with them. These they never hurt, and always scrupulously put them in +the den again, although they occasionally painted their faces with +vermilion and red ochre, in strange and grotesque patterns. + +This statement is supported by incidents which have occurred in this +metropolis; there was a bitch wolf in the Tower Menagerie, which, though +excessively fond of her cubs, suffered the keepers to handle them, and +even remove them from the den, without evincing the slightest symptom +either of anger or alarm; and a still more remarkable instance is +related from observation, by Mr. Bell: "There was a wolf at the +Zoological Gardens (says that able naturalist) which would always come +to the front bars of the den as soon as I or any other person whom she +knew, approached; she had pups, too, and so eager, in fact, was she that +her little ones should share with her in the notice of her friends, that +she killed all of them in succession by rubbing them against the bars of +her den as she brought them forward to be fondled." + +During the last year, 8807 wolves' skins were imported by the Hudson's +Bay Company from their settlements; of which 8784 came from the York +Fort and Mackenzie River stations; we recently had the opportunity of +examining the stock, and found it principally composed of white wolves' +skins from the Churchill River, with black and gray skins of every +shade. The most valuable are from animals killed in the depth of winter, +and of these, the white skins, which are beautifully soft and fine, are +worth about thirty shillings apiece, and are exported to Hungary, where +they are in great favor with the nobles as trimming for pelisses and +hussar jackets; the gray wolves' skins are worth from three shillings +and sixpence upward, and are principally exported to America and the +North of Europe, to be used as cloak-linings. + +Colonel H. Smith mentions a curious instance of the treacherous ferocity +of the wolf. A butcher at New York had brought up, and believed he had +tamed, a wolf, which he kept for above two years chained up in the +slaughterhouse, where it lived in a complete superabundance of blood and +offal. One night, having occasion for some implement which he believed +was accessible in the dark, he went into this little Smithfield without +thinking of the wolf. He was clad in a thick frieze coat, and while +stooping to grope for what he wanted, he heard the chain rattle, and in +a moment was struck down by the animal springing upon him. Fortunately, +a favorite cattle-dog had accompanied his master, and rushed forward to +defend him: the wolf had hold of the man's collar, and being obliged to +turn in his own defense, the butcher had time to draw a large knife, +with which he ripped his assailant open. The same able writer relates an +incident which occurred to an English gentleman, holding a high public +situation in the peninsula, during a wolf-hunt in the mountains, near +Madrid. The sportsmen were placed in ambush, and the country-people +drove the game toward them; presently an animal came bounding upward +toward this gentleman, so large that he took it, while driving through +the high grass and bushes, for a donkey; it was a wolf, however, whose +glaring eyes meant mischief, but, scared by the click of the rifle, he +turned and made his escape, though a bullet whistled after him; at the +close of the hunt seven were found slain, and so large were they that +this gentleman, though of uncommon strength, could not lift one entirely +from the ground. + +The wolf of America is at times remarkable for cowardice, though bold +enough when pressed by hunger, or with other wolves. Mr. R. C. Taylor, +of Philadelphia, states that this animal, when trapped, is silent, +subdued, and unresisting. He was present when a fine young wolf, about +fifteen months old, was taken by surprise, and suddenly attacked with a +club. The animal offered no resistance, but, crouching down in the +supplicating manner of a dog, suffered himself to be knocked on the +head. An old hunter told Mr. Taylor that he had frequently taken a wolf +out of the trap, and compelled it by a few blows to lie down by his +side, while he reset his trap. + +The Esquimaux wolf-trap is made of strong slabs of ice, long and so +narrow, that a fox can with difficulty turn himself in it, and a wolf +must actually remain in the position in which he is taken. The door is a +heavy portcullis of ice, sliding in two well-secured grooves of the same +substance, and is kept up by a line which, passing over the top of the +trap, is carried through a hole at the farthest extremity. To the end of +the line is fastened a small hoop of whale-bone, and to this any kind of +flesh bait is attached. From the slab which terminates the trap, a +projection of ice, or a peg of bone or wood, points inward near the +bottom, and under this the hoop is slightly hooked; the slightest pull +at the bait liberates it, the door falls in an instant, and the wolf is +speared where he lies. + +Sir John Richardson states that, when near the Copper Mines River in +North America, he had more than once an opportunity of seeing a single +wolf in pursuit of a reindeer, and especially on Point Lake, when +covered with ice, when a fine buck reindeer was overtaken by a large +white wolf, and disabled by a bite in the flank. An Indian, who was +concealed, ran in and cut the deer's throat with his knife, the wolf at +once relinquishing his prey and sneaking off. In the chase the poor deer +urged its flight by great bounds, which for a time exceeded the speed of +the wolf; but it stopped so frequently to gaze on its relentless enemy, +that the latter, toiling on at a long gallop (so admirably described by +Byron), with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, gradually came up. +After each hasty look, the deer redoubled its efforts to escape, but, +either exhausted by fatigue or enervated by fear, it became, just before +it was overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet. + +Captain Lyon gives some interesting illustrations of the habits of the +wolves of Melville Peninsula, which were sadly destructive to his dogs. +"A fine dog was lost in the afternoon. It had strayed to the hummocks +ahead, without its master; and Mr. Elder, who was near the spot, saw +five wolves rush at, attack, and devour it, in an incredibly short space +of time: before he could reach the place, the carcass was torn in +pieces, and he found only the lower part of one leg. The boldness of the +wolves was altogether astonishing, as they were almost constantly seen +among the hummocks, or lying quietly, at no great distance, in wait for +the dogs. From all we observed, I have no reason to suppose that they +would attack a single unarmed man, both English and Esquimaux frequently +passing them, without a stick in their hands. The animals, however, +exhibited no symptoms of fear, but rather a kind of tacit agreement not +to be the beginners of a quarrel, even though they might have been +certain of proving victorious."[5] Another time, when pressed by hunger, +the wolves broke into a snow-hut, in which were a couple of +newly-purchased Esquimaux dogs, and carried the poor animals off, but +not without some difficulty; for even the ceiling of the hut was next +morning found sprinkled with blood and hair. When the alarm was given, +and the wolves were fired at, one of them was observed carrying a dead +dog in his mouth, clear of the ground, and going, with ease, at a +canter, notwithstanding the animal was of his own weight. It was curious +to observe the fear these dogs seemed, at times, to entertain of wolves. + +During Sir John Richardson's residence at Cumberland-house, in 1820, a +wolf, which had been prowling round the fort, was wounded by a +musket-ball, and driven off, but returned after dark, while the blood +was still flowing from its wound, and carried off a dog from among fifty +others, that had not the courage to unite in an attack on their enemy. +The same writer says, that he has frequently observed an Indian dog, +after being worsted in combat with a black wolf, retreat into a corner, +and howl, at intervals, for an hour together; these Indian dogs, also, +howl piteously when apprehensive of punishment, and throw themselves +into attitudes strongly resembling those of a wolf when caught in a +trap. + +Foxes are frequently taken in the pitfalls set for wolves, and seem to +possess more cunning. An odd incident is related by Mr. Lloyd: A fox was +lying at the bottom of a pitfall, apparently helpless, when a very stout +peasant, having placed a ladder, began to descend with cautious and +creaking steps to destroy the vermin. Reynard, however, thought he might +benefit by the ladder, as well as his corpulent visitor, and, just as +the latter reached the ground, jumped, first, on his stern, then, on his +shoulder, skipped out of the pit, and was off in a moment, leaving the +man staring and swearing at his impudent escape! + +Captain Lyon mentions an instance of the sagacity of the fox: he had +caught and tamed one of these animals, which he kept on deck, in a +small hutch, with a scope of chain. Finding himself repeatedly drawn out +of his hutch by this, the sagacious little fellow, whenever he retreated +within his castle, took the chain in his mouth, and drew it so +completely in after him, that no one, who valued his fingers, would +endeavor to take hold of the end attached to the staple. + +Mr. Lloyd mentions a curious contest that took place in the vicinity of +Uddeholm. A peasant had just got into bed, when his ears were assailed +by a tremendous uproar in his cattle-shed. On hearing this noise, he +jumped up, and, though almost in a state of nudity, rushed into the +building to see what was the matter: here he found an immense wolf, +which he gallantly seized by the ears, and called out most lustily for +assistance. His wife--the gallant Trulla--came to his aid, armed with a +hatchet, with which she severely wounded the wolf's head; but it was not +until she had driven the handle of the hatchet down the animal's throat, +that she succeeded in dispatching him. During the conflict, the man's +hands and wrists were bitten through and through; and, when seen by Mr. +Lloyd, the wounds were not healed. + +Like dogs, wolves are capable of strong attachment; but such instances +are comparatively rare: the most striking, perhaps, was that recorded by +M. Frederick Cuvier, as having come under his notice at the Ménagerie du +Roi at Paris. The wolf in question was brought up as a young dog, became +familiar with persons he was in the habit of seeing, and, in particular, +followed his master every where, evincing chagrin at his absence, +obeying his voice, and showing a degree of submission scarcely +differing, in any respect, from that of the most thoroughly-domesticated +dog. His master, being obliged to be absent for a time, presented his +pet to the menagerie, where he was confined in a den. Here he became +disconsolate, pined, and would scarcely take food; at length, he was +reconciled to his new situation, recovered his health, became attached +to his keepers, and appeared to have forgotten "auld lang syne," when, +after the lapse of eighteen months, his old master returned. At the +first sound of his voice--that well-known, much-loved voice--the wolf, +which had not perceived him in a crowd of persons, exhibited the most +lively joy, and, being set at liberty, lavished upon him the most +affectionate caresses, just as the most attached dog would have done. +With some difficulty, he was enticed to his den. But a second separation +was followed by similar demonstrations of sorrow to the former; which, +however, again yielded to time. Three years passed away, and the wolf +was living happily with a dog which had been placed with him, when his +master again appeared--and again the long-lost, but well-remembered +voice, was instantly replied to by the most impatient cries, redoubled +as soon as the poor fellow was at liberty. Rushing to his master, he +placed his fore-feet on his shoulders, licking his face with every mark +of the most lively joy, and menacing the keepers who offered to remove +him. A third separation, however, took place, but it was too much for +the poor creature's temper: he became gloomy, refused his food, and, for +some time, it was feared he would die. Time, however, which blunts the +grief of wolves, as well as of men, brought comfort to his wounded +heart, and his health gradually returned; but, looking upon mankind as +false deceivers, he no longer permitted the caresses of any but his +keepers, manifesting to all strangers the savageness and moroseness of +his species. + +Another instance of the attachment of wolves is mentioned by Mr. Lloyd, +in his work on the Sports of the North. Mr. Greiff, who had studied the +habits of wild animals, for which his position, as _ofüerjäg mästare_, +afforded peculiar facilities, says: "I reared up two young wolves until +they were full-grown: they were male and female. The latter became so +tame, that she played with me, and licked my hands, and I had her often +with me in the sledge, in winter. Once, when I was absent, she got loose +from the chain, and was away three days. When I returned home, I went +out on a hill, and called, 'where's my Tussa?' as she was named, when +she immediately came home, and fondled with me, like the most friendly +dog." + +Between the dog and the wolf there is a natural enmity, and those +animals seldom encounter each other on at all equal terms without a +combat taking place. Should the wolf prove victorious, he devours his +adversary, but if the contrary be the case, the dog leaves untouched the +carcass of his antagonist. + +The wolf feeds on the rat, hare, fox, badger, roebuck, stag, reindeer +and elk; likewise upon blackcock and capercali. He is possessed of great +strength, especially in the muscles of the neck and jaws, is said always +to seize his prey by the throat, and when it happens to be a large +animal, as the elk, he is often dragged for a considerable distance. + +After a deep fall of snow the wolf is unusually ferocious; if he +besmears himself with the blood of a victim, or is so wounded that blood +flows, it is positively asserted that his companions will instantly kill +and devour him. + +In the year 1799 a peasant at Frederickshall in Norway was looking out +of his cottage window, when he espied a large wolf enter his premises +and seize one of his goats. At this time he had a child of eighteen +months old in his arms; he incautiously laid her down in a small porch +fronting the house, and, catching hold of a stick, the nearest weapon at +hand, attacked the wolf, which was in the act of carrying off the goat. +The wolf dropped this, and getting sight of the child, in the twinkling +of an eye seized it, threw it across his shoulders, and was off like +lightning. He made good his escape, and not a vestige was ever seen of +the child. + +Wolves are found all over Scandinavia, but are most common in the +Midland and Northern Provinces of Sweden. Like "Elia," they are very +partial to young pig, a failing taken advantage of by sportsmen thus: +they sew up in a sack a small porker, leaving only his snout free, and +place him in a sledge, to the back of which is fastened by a rope about +fifty feet long, a small bundle of straw, covered with black sheep skin; +this, when the sledge is in motion, dangles about like a young pig. + +During a very severe winter a party started in the vicinity of +Forsbacka, well provided with guns, &c. On reaching a likely spot they +pinched the pig, which squealed lustily, and, as they anticipated, soon +drew a multitude of famished wolves about the sledge. When these had +approached within range the party opened fire on them, and shot several; +all that were either killed or wounded were quickly torn to pieces and +devoured by their companions, but the blood with which the ravenous +beasts had now glutted themselves only served to make them more savage +than before, and, in spite of the fire kept up by the party, they +advanced close to the sledge, apparently determined on making an instant +attack. To preserve the party, therefore, the pig was thrown to the +wolves, which had for a moment the effect of diverting their attention. +While this was going forward, the horse, driven to desperation by the +near approach of the wolves, struggled and plunged so violently that he +broke the shafts to pieces, galloped off, and made good his escape. The +pig was devoured, and the wolves again threatened to attack the +sportsmen. The captain and his friends finding matters had become +serious, turned the sledge bottom up and took shelter beneath it, in +which position they remained many hours, the wolves making repeated +attempts to get at them by tearing the sledge with their teeth, but at +length the party were relieved by friends from then perilous position. + +Lieutenant Oldenburg once witnessed a curious occurrence. He was +standing near the margin of a large lake which at that time was frozen +over. At some little distance from the land a small aperture had been +made for the purpose of procuring water, and at this hole a pig was +drinking. While looking toward the horizon, the lieutenant saw a mere +speck or ball, as it were, rapidly moving along the ice: presently this +took the form of a large wolf, which was making for the pig at top +speed. Lieutenant Oldenburg now seized his gun, and ran to the +assistance of the pig; but before he got up to the spot the wolf had +closed with the porker, which, though of large size, he tumbled over and +over in a trice. His attention was so much occupied, that Lieutenant +Oldenburg was able to approach within a few paces and dispatch him with +a shot. A piece as large as a man's foot had been torn out of the pig's +hind quarters; and he was so terribly frightened that he followed the +lieutenant home like a dog, and would not quit his heels for a moment. + +Mr. Lloyd mentions an incident that befell him, in consequence of swine +mistaking his dogs for wolves, to which they bear the most instinctive +antipathy. One day, in the depth of winter, accompanied by his Irish +servant, he struck into the forest, in the vicinity of Carlstadt, for +the purpose of shooting capercali. Toward evening they came to a small +hamlet, situated in the recesses of the forest. Here an old sow with her +litter were feeding; and immediately on seeing the two valuable pointers +which accompanied the sportsman, she made a determined and most +ferocious dash at them. The servant had a light spear in his hand, +similar to that used by our lancers. This Mr. Lloyd seized, and +directing Paddy to throw the dogs over a fence, received the charge of +the pig with a heavy blow across the snout with the butt end of the +spear. Nothing daunted, she made her next attack upon him; and, in +self-defense, he was obliged to give her a home thrust with the blade of +the spear. These attacks she repeated three several times, always +getting the spear up to the hilt in her head or neck. Then, and not +before, did she slowly retreat, bleeding at all points. The peasants, +supposing Mr. Lloyd to be the aggressor, assumed a very hostile aspect, +and it was only by showing a bold bearing, and menacing them with his +gun, that he escaped in safety. + +A poor soldier was one day, in the depth of winter, crossing the large +lake called Storsyön, and was attacked by a drove of wolves. His only +weapon was a sword, with which he defended himself so gallantly, that he +killed and wounded several wolves, and succeeded in driving off the +remainder. After a time, he was again attacked by the same drove, but +was now unable to extricate himself from his perilous situation in the +same manner as before, for having neglected to wipe the blood from his +sword after the former encounter, it had become firmly frozen to the +scabbard. The ferocious beasts therefore, quickly closed with him, +killed and devoured him. If we remember aright, Captain Kincaid, the +present gallant Exon of the Yeoman Guard, nearly lost his life at +Waterloo, from a somewhat similar cause. He had been skirmishing all the +earlier part of the day with the Rifles, when a sudden charge of French +cavalry placed him in great danger. He essayed to draw his sabre, tugged +and tugged, but the trusty steel had become firmly rusted to the +scabbard; and we believe that he owed his life to an accidental +diversion of the attention of the attacking troopers. + +Closely resembling in many respects the wolf, the jackal is widely +spread over India, Asia, and Africa. These animals hunt in packs, and +there are few sounds more startling to the unaccustomed ear, than a +chorus of their cries. "We hardly know," says Captain Beechey, "a sound +which partakes less of harmony than that which is at present in +question; and, indeed, the sudden burst of the answering long protracted +scream, succeeding immediately to the opening note, is scarcely less +impressive than the roll of the thunder clap immediately after a flash +of lightning. The effect of this music is very much increased when the +first note is heard in the distance, a circumstance which often occurs, +and the answering yell bursts out from several points at once, within a +few yards or feet of the place where the auditors are sleeping." + +Poultry and the smaller animals, together with dead bodies, are the +ordinary food of jackals, but when rendered bold by hanger, they will +occasionally attack the larger quadrupeds and even man. + +A bold, undaunted presence and defiant aspect, generally proves the best +protection when an unarmed man is threatened by these or other animals, +but artifice is sometimes necessary. A ludicrous instance is related by +an old quartermaster (whom we knew some years ago), in a small volume of +memoirs. At Christmas, 1826, he was sent up the country to a mission, +about thirty-two miles from San Francisco. He and the others erected a +tent; after which they all lay down on the ground. "I slept like a top," +says he, "till four the next morning, at which time I was awakened by +the man whose duty it was to officiate as cook for the day, who told me +if I would go up the village and get a light, he would have a good +breakfast ready for the lads by the time they awoke. I must describe my +dress, for that very dress saved my life. Over the rest of my clothing, +as a seaman, I had a huge frock made from the skin of a reindeer. It was +long enough, when let down, to cover my feet well, and turned up at +foot, buttoning all round the skirt. At the top was a hood, made from +the skin, taken off the head of a bear, ears and all. In front was a +square lappel, which, in the day, hung loosely over the breast, but at +night, buttoned just behind the ears, leaving only the mouth, nose, and +eyes free for respiration, so that one, with such a dress, might lie +down any where and sleep, warm and comfortable. Mr. S---- had given +eight dollars for it in Kamtschatka, and, on our return to more genial +climes, forgot the future, and gave it to me. Fancy, then, my figure +thus accoutred, issuing from under the canvas tent, with a lantern in my +hand. I had not advanced twenty yards, when first only two or three, and +then an immense number of jackals surrounded me. I was at first disposed +to think but lightly of them: but seeing their numbers increase so +rapidly, I grew alarmed, and probably gave way to fear sooner than I +ought. A few shots from the tent would probably have sent them away with +speed, but no one saw me. Every moment they drew closer and closer in a +complete round, and seemed to look at me with determined hunger. For +some moments I remained in a most dreadful state of alarm. It just then +occurred to me that I once heard of a boy who had driven back a bull out +of a field by walking backward on his hands and feet. Fortunate thought! +I caught at the idea; in a moment I was on all fours, with my head as +near the earth as I could keep it, and commenced cutting all the capers +of which I was capable. The jackals, who no doubt had never seen so +strange an animal, first stopped, then retreated, and, as I drew near +the tent, flew in all directions. The men awoke just in time to see my +danger, and have a hearty laugh at me and the jackals." + +Our old friend was more fortunate than a certain youth who attempted to +rob an orchard by deluding a fierce bulldog with this approach _à +posteriori,_ but who, to his sorrow, found the dog too knowing, for he +carried to his dying day the marks of the guardian's teeth in that spot +where honor has its seat. + +The same quartermaster told us a quaint story of a fright another of the +crew received from these jackals. + +While at San Francisco the ship's crew were laying in a store of +provisions; a large tent was erected on shore for salting the meat; the +cooper lived in it, and hung up his hammock at one end. The beef which +had been killed during the day was also hung up all around, in readiness +for salting. One night a large pack of jackals came down from the woods, +and being attracted by the smell of the meat, soon got into the tent, +and pulling at one of the sides of beef, brought it down with a crash, +which woke the old cooper, who was a remarkably stout, and rather +nervous man. Finding himself thus surrounded in the dead of the night by +wild beasts, whose forms and size, dimly seen, were magnified by his +fears, he fired off his musket, and clasping his arms, in an agony of +terror, round a quarter of beef which hung close to his hammock, was +found perfectly senseless by an officer who came to see the cause of the +alarm. Some difficulty was experienced in getting him to relinquish his +hold of the beef--which he stuck to like a Briton--and it was several +days before his nerves recovered from the shock of the fright. + +The wolf and the jackal tribes are by no means without their use in the +economy of nature, though from their predatory habits they are justly +regarded as pests in the countries they infest: that they will disturb +the dead and rifle the graves is true, but they also clear away offal, +and with vultures, are the scavengers of hot countries; they follow on +the track of herds, and put a speedy end to the weak, the wounded, and +the dying; they are the most useful, though most disgusting of camp +followers, and after a battle, when thousands of corpses of men and +horses are collected within a limited space, they are of essential +service-- + + I stood in a swampy-field of battle, + With bones and skulls I made a rattle + To frighten the wolf and carrion crow + And the homeless dog--but they would not go; + So off I flew--for how could I bear + To see them gorge their dainty fare. + COLERIDGE. + +Revolting and heart-sickening though such scenes may be, the evil is +less than would result from the undisturbed decay of the dead: were that +to take place, the air would hang heavy with pestilence, and the winds +of heaven laden with noisome exhalations would carry death and +desolation far and near, rendering still more terrible the horrors and +calamities of war. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 62. + +[2] Holland's Plinie's Naturall Historie, ed. 1635 + +[3] Edit, Edin. 1541, quoted from Magazine of Natural History. + +[4] Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, 1824. + +[5] Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, 1824. + + + + +A SPECIMEN OF RUSSIAN JUSTICE. + + +Among the French prisoners taken at the battle of Vitebsk, during +Napoleon's disastrous retreat in Prussia, was a French general, who was +accompanied by: his wife and daughter. Being badly wounded, he was +removed to the military hospital, but the ladies were received into the +private house of Madame Strognof, whose husband held, at that time, a +subordinate appointment under the Russian Government. + +A certain Botwinko was then procureur at Vitebsk. Without the +procureur's sanction nothing can be done in his department; for he +represents the emperor himself, and is usually called "the eye of His +Majesty." His salary is only about twenty-five pounds a year; but he +makes, usually, a good income by receiving bribes. Among other duties, +he had to visit the hospitals daily, and to report upon the condition of +the prisoner patients. He paid great attention to the unhappy general, +who required every consolation; for, despite his own deplorable +condition, it was decreed that he should outlive his wife. That lady +caught a contagious fever, which was raging at that time at Vitebsk, and +died in a few hours. This event so distressed the general that he soon +departed this world, with the only consolation, that Procureur Botwinko, +a married but childless man, would adopt his daughter. This promise was +actually fulfilled, and the little orphan was taken from Madame +Strognof, and established under the procureur's roof. Her parents' +property, consisting of a carriage, horses, jewelry, and no small sum of +ready money, was also taken possession of by Botwinko in quality of +guardian to the little orphan. + +As the girl, whom they called "Sophie," grew up, she became very +engaging, and was kindly treated by Mr. and Madame Botwinko. She never +lost an opportunity, when any visitors were in the procureur's house, of +praising her protectors for their kindness to her; and this, connected +with other circumstances, contributed to the promotion of Mr. Botwinko, +who obtained the more profitable situation of procureur-general at +Vilna, the capital of Lithuania. + +Removal from their old connections, and from those who knew all the +circumstances of little Sophie's history, produced a change in the +treatment of the new procureur-general and his wife toward the child. +Their kindness rapidly diminished. Sophie was not allowed to appear in +the drawing-rooms, in their new residence at Vilna. They incessantly +found fault with her; and, ultimately, she was not only sent to the +kitchen under the control of the cook, but, on the census of the +population being taken, in 1816, her name was inscribed on the books as +that of a serf. + +As the poor girl grew up she became used to the duties imposed upon +her. Associating constantly with the servants, they considered her their +equal, and taunted her when, relying on her infantine recollections, she +laid claim to noble descent, by calling her in derision "Mademoiselle +French General." She knew full well that she was entitled to better +treatment, and that, in the absence of paternal authority, she had the +right of disposing of herself according to her own will. A strong +inducement to alter her condition was presented in the person of a young +clerk in a government office, whose duty sometimes brought him with +papers to the procureur for signature. While Botwinko was engaged with +his breakfast and the perusal of the papers, this clerk was sometimes +kept dangling for hours in the ante-chamber. After a time, these hours +were agreeably spent in the society of Sophie, to whom he eventually +made a proposal of marriage. She consented, but, unwilling to leave her +guardian like a fugitive, she apprised him of her determination, and +humbly requested an account of the property which she had been informed +he had taken charge of at her parents' death. + +The procureur-general at first excused himself from giving her an +immediate answer. The next day he presented himself at the police +office, the whole of whose functionaries were under his control. What he +said or did is not known, but the result was that Sophie was taken into +custody by the police, and committed to jail. + +Many months elapsed before her fate was known at home. It was stated +that she absconded. The clerk, banished the procureur's house, could not +discover the cause of the girl's disappearance; and as all Russian +criminal proceedings are conducted with great secrecy, he only +ascertained by a mere accident that the girl had been sentenced, by a +superior court, to receive a certain number of lashes by the knout, and +to be sent to Siberia. The crime of which they accused her was that of +attempting to poison her master and mistress. + +Alarmed at this information, the young man, without waiting for more +particulars, addressed a petition to the war governor of Vilna--the old +General Korsakof--whose power in that province was almost omnipotent, +and, if not misdirected, was very often beneficial to the inhabitants. +The petitioner requested the general's interference, and an +investigation of the case, assuring him that the girl was innocent, and +that the legal authorities who condemned her had been corrupted. + +The general was accustomed to decide every case _en militaire_. He had +received from the police court an unfavorable opinion of the +petitioner's character, which was described as "restless;" and was, +moreover, rather offended at his authority having been appealed to by a +subordinate. He therefore settled the business summarily, by sending the +young petitioner to the military service for life, in virtue of the +vagrant act. + +Still the young man's petition produced a good effect: the poor girl was +not flogged, lest that might have provoked some disturbance in the town. +She was merely dressed in convict's apparel, and sent off to Siberia. + +The transport of Russian convicts costs the government but very little. +They go on foot, sleep in _étapes_ or barracks, and the daily allowance +for their subsistence amounts only to five kopecks--equal to a halfpenny +in English money. This they, as well as the poor old soldiers who escort +them, have to eke out by charity. For that purpose, the most attractive +person among each party of exiles is delegated--box in hand, but with an +armed soldier behind--to beg alms of the benevolent; and Sophie was +appointed to be the suppliant for the rest of her wretched companions. + +The road from Vilna to Siberia passes through Vitebsk. The convicts had +not been long in the town before Sophie encountered Madame Strognof, who +recognized the girl from her very great likeness to her mother, who had +died in that lady's house. When she learned that Sophie had been living +with the Botwinkos, she had no longer a doubt. + +The girl asserted her innocence of the pretended crime for which she was +on her way to Siberia, with tearful energy, and the good Madame S. +believed her; but her husband, who was at that time the Vice-Governor of +Vitebsk, to disabuse his wife's romantic dreams, as he called them, sent +for the officer escorting the prisoners, and showed her the list of +prisoners, which contained a full record, not only of the crime imputed +to the orphan girl, but also of the punishment to which she had been +condemned. + +In the face of an official document which appeared to be regular, and +which detailed the girl's presumed offense with circumstantial +consistency, Madame Strognof began to waver in her belief of Sophie's +protestations; but the unfortunate girl asserted her innocence so +strongly and incessantly, that the vice-governor himself was at length +induced to look into the facts. The first suspicion that entered his +mind was derived from the circumstance of the document stating that the +culprit had been punished with the knout, while it was evident from her +appearance, that that dreadful torture had not been inflicted. He caused +a medical man to examine her, who testified that not a scar appeared; +yet the knout always leaves ineffaceable traces for life. + +In consequence of this discrepancy, Sophie was allowed to remain for +some time at Vitebsk under the plea of illness; which, at the request of +the vice-governor, was readily certified by an official surgeon. After +some delay, a memorial was forwarded by the unfortunate sufferer to the +late Emperor Alexander, in consequence of which a court-messenger was +sent immediately to Vilna. This gentleman brought back to St. +Petersburgh an enormous volume, containing the so-called depositions, +taken at the pseudo trial. After careful inspection of them, the +emperor decided that they proved the legality of the proceedings. So +artfully were these infamous depositions framed; that, among them, +appeared the formula of a chemical analysis of the poison which the girl +was accused of administering, and a full confession; to which the +culprit's signature was forged. + +The answer, therefore, from the throne was not only unfavorable; but the +authorities of Vitebsk were reprimanded for allowing the girl to +importune his majesty without sufficient grounds. + +Notwithstanding, Madame Strognof was not discouraged; and, to the great +alarm of her husband, had another petition drawn up and forwarded with a +suitable memorial to the Princess Maria Fedorowna, the emperor's mother, +who was known to all the country as a pious and charitable lady. This +petition, presented to his majesty by his own mother, had so great an +influence over him, that he ordered the girl to be brought to St. +Petersburgh. He felt convinced that some unaccountable mystery was +involved in the case. + +In due time Sophie arrived at St. Petersburgh, and underwent a rigid +examination. She asseverated with the most earnest truthfulness, that +all the depositions were fictitious; that the chemical analysis was a +wicked invention; and that the signature to her fabricated confession +was a forgery. She also denied that any trial had taken place, or that +she had been examined in any court whatever. Upon this, the emperor +appointed Mr. Getzewicz, the Governor of Minsk--who was known as a most +trust-worthy man--to go personally to Vilna; to investigate the case; +and to report the result. For this purpose the papers and the girl were +forwarded back to Vilna. + +The mission of Mr. Getzewicz was by no means an easy or a pleasant one: +he had to contend with a swarm of official insects; which, like Canadian +musquitoes when disturbed, attack the new comer from every side. +However, Mr. Getzewicz stood his ground firmly. He soon discovered that +the secretary of the police court who had drawn up the depositions was a +convict, sentenced for life to Siberia for having been associated with +highway robbers. He had escaped and was retained in his situation by +merely changing his Christian name, and by being reported "dead" by Mr. +Botwinko. The components of the rest of the court were no less +suspicious. In Russia, the police and sheriff's courts, and even the +provincial senate itself, are the asylums for military veterans; who, +during their long service, had never been trained up to the law. The +secretaries draw documents for them, which they sign--very often without +reading; that task being tiresome, and often incomprehensible to them. + +The court which had promoted and confirmed Sophie's prosecution, +consisted of illiterate, worn-out officers, who had no scruple in +committing the procureur-general's victim for trial to the First +Criminal Court (Sond Grodoski). + +But how was the deception carried on before the higher tribunals? This +would puzzle the most ingenious rascality to guess. But Botwinko was a +genius in his way: he actually brought before that court, as well as +before the highest criminal tribunal, another young woman; who +represented herself to be the girl in question, and confessed her +supposed guilt with all the desired particulars. The extraordinary +intrigue was the more easily accomplished from the secrecy with which +criminal investigations in Russia are conducted. Whenever the culprit +acknowledges his crime, the sentence follows without further inquiry; +and, the jail being under the control of the police-office, and the +judges of the criminal courts not knowing the prisoners personally, they +were obliged to receive in this instance the confessions of any girl +whom the police thought proper to send to them. + +When the trial was over, the procureur paid his hireling well, dismissed +her, and drew forth his victim from her cell; substituted her for the +wretch who had stood at the bar, and sent her to Siberia. Villainy, +however, be it ever so cunning, seldom half does its work of deception. +If Botwinko had had the whole sentence carried into effect, and poor +Sophie knouted, he would not, perhaps, have been discovered by his +colleague at Vitebsk; and he might have lived a respected public officer +to this day; for of such characters does the Russian system admit the +prosperous existence. As it was, however, on the report of Mr. +Getzewicz, Botwinko, the secretary of police, and many of his superiors, +were thrown into prison. + +The end of this dreadful story is melancholy; for in the end guilt +triumphed. The procureur-general, having several partners in his guilty +practices, had, if one may so abuse the expression, many friends. At +first they tried most ingeniously to bribe Mr. Getzewicz, and to induce +him to give up further proceedings; but, finding him inflexible, they +put a stop to all that business by administering poison to the +unfortunate Sophie. They even threatened the Governor of Minsk himself, +in an anonymous letter, to do the same for him. + +That threat, it seems, produced the desired effect on the honest but +weak-minded man. Seeing with what desperate people he had to contend--so +much so, that his own life was in danger--he sent his final report to +the (at that time) lingering Emperor Alexander, with request for further +instructions. In the mean time he retired to his own residence at Minsk, +leaving the illustrious Vilna officials in their own prison. + +Shortly afterward, the emperor died at Taganrog. His second brother, the +present emperor, Nicholas I.--greeted, on his accession to the throne, +with a formidable insurrection at St Petersburgh, and with alarming +conspiracies and political intrigues in the army--had no time to direct +his attention to so trifling an affair as that of our heroine. Political +prisoners were to be punished first, in order to spread terror among +those who were not discovered as yet. The stability of the throne would +not allow him to alarm the administrative servants and other criminals +who never thought of subverting Romanoff's dynasty. Hence, with the +exception of the political offenders, all others, whose actions were +pending in different courts of justice, but not yet adjudicated, were +amnestied by the emperor, on the occasion of his coronation, in 1826, at +Moscow. + +Thus, the procureur and his associates were released from prison, losing +nothing but their former situations. The procureur, having scraped +together a fortune by his bribes and graspings, did not care much at +becoming an independent gentleman. + +What became of Sophie's lover--the unfortunate clerk, who was sent to +the army, for his honest but untimely application--could not be learned. +He may now think that his punishment was deserved, and that the girl was +really guilty; but it is more than probable that he will never again +interfere to restrain the grossest injustice. + +And here ends our melancholy tale, which the censorship of the press in +Russia prevented from ever before being publicly related. Corroboration +can, however, be derived from the inhabitants of Vilna, who lived there +from 1816 to 1826; from the archives of criminal courts of that place, +where M. Getzewicz's correspondence is preserved; from the list of all +the crown servants of Russia, sent every year to the State Secretary of +the Home Department at St. Petersburgh; in which, for 1825 and 1826, +Procureur Botwinko was reported to be imprisoned at Vilna for the above +case, and that the Strapchy of Oszmiana was acting in his stead as +procureur _pro tem._ + + + + +NAPOLEON AND THE POPE.--A SCENE AT FONTAINEBLEAU. + + +In the autumn of 1804, the court was at Fontainebleau. The Consulate had +but recently merged in the Empire, with the consent of all the orders of +the state. The senate by a decree had declared the First Consul to be +Emperor of the French; and the people, to whom the question of +succession had been deferred, had, by a majority of three millions to +three thousand, decided that the imperial dignity should be hereditary +in his family. History, as Alison observes when recording the fact, +affords no instance of a nation having so unanimously taken refuge from +the ills of agitation and anarchy under the cold shade of despotism. + +A new order of things having commenced, all, as may easily be imagined, +was in a state of transformation and change in the composition of the +court, as well as in the arrangement of the imperial household. Under +the republican _régime_, a great degree of simplicity had prevailed in +the appointments of the various departments of the state, as well as in +the domestic economy of family circles: it could not, however, be +called unpretending; there was a certain affectation in it, evidently +assumed with a view to contrast, even in minute particulars, the system +of the republic with that of the old monarchy--the plainness of the one +with the profuseness of the other. But this was not fated to last long: +it had already been giving way under the Consulate, and was now +disappearing altogether in accordance with the views of the new monarch. +Titles and dignities were to be restored; court formalities and +ceremonials were being revived, and new ones instituted. The old +nobility, sprung from the feudal system, and dating, as some of them +did, from the Crusades, having been swept away by the revolutionary +storm, their places were to be supplied, as supporters of the throne, by +a new race of men. During this period of transition and change, the +movement at the château was unceasing. Arrivals and departures were +taking place almost every hour, to which very different degrees of +importance were attached. One arrival, however, was spoken of as having +a more than ordinary interest: it was that of the dignitary who, as it +was then understood, was to place the imperial crown on the brow of the +new sovereign. "To recall," observes Alison, "as Napoleon was anxious to +do on every occasion, the memory of Charlemagne, the first French +Emperor of the West, the Pope had been invited, with an urgency which it +would not have been prudent to resist, to be present at the +consecration, and had accordingly crossed the Alps for the purpose." + +Whatever may have been the views which originally prompted the +invitation--whether it was to play a mere secondary part in a court +pageant, or a leading one, as the public at first supposed--or whether +all such notions were swept away by some new deluge of ideas, as +Châteaubriand somewhere says--"It is now pretty clear that the presence +of the pontiff at the ceremony was a minor consideration, and that the +real motive was that which came out in their interview, as will appear +in the sequel." Be this as it may, it was evident to all that the +emperor awaited his coming with impatience; and when his approach was +announced--though preparations had been carefully made for their first +meeting--the arrangements were such as to give it the air of an +_imprévu_. It was on the road some distance from Fontainebleau that the +emperor met the Pope: the potentate alighted from his horse, the pontiff +from his traveling chaise, and a coach being at hand, as if +accidentally, they ascended its steps at the same moment from opposite +sides, so that precedence was neither taken nor given. How Italian the +artifice! + +They had not ridden long together when Bonaparte, quitting the coach, +got on horseback, and returned to the château at a gallop, and with +scarcely an attendant. The drum beat to arms, the guard turned out, but +before they had time to fall in and salute, he had alighted, and was +mounting the steps of the vestibule. + +It was always so with him; he gave such vivacity to all his movements, +such energy to all his actions, that speed seemed a necessary condition +of his existence. Still so natural was it to him, that it did not wear +the semblance of hurry. Scarcely had the beat of the drum been heard at +the gate, before the clatter of his heels resounded in the hall, as the +flash of a cannon precedes the report. + +This time, however, he seemed fitful and even agitated. On entering the +saloon, he paced it like one who waited with impatience. Having taken a +few turns from one end to the other, he moved to a window, and began +beating a march with his fingers on the window-frame. The rolling of a +carriage was heard in the court, he ceased to beat, and after a short +pause stamped on the floor, as if impatient at seeing something done too +slowly; then stepping hastily to the door, opened it--it was for the +Pope. + +Pius VII. entered alone; Bonaparte closed the door after him. The Pope +was tall, but stooped somewhat; his countenance, elongated and sallow, +wore an expression of suffering, which seemed to have been induced upon +a habitual tone of elevation and courtesy. His eyes were black and +large, and on his lips, which were slightly opened, played a smile +indicative at once of urbanity and benevolence. He wore on his head a +white calotte or headpiece, partially covering his hair, which was +naturally black, but now blended with some silver locks; on his +shoulders he had a camail, or cape of red velvet, and his long robe +reached to his feet. Those who have seen his portrait by Lawrence, +though taken ten or eleven years later, will recognize at once the +correctness of this description. As he entered the room he moved slowly, +with a calm and measured step like that of an aged female; and having +taken his seat in an arm-chair, he turned his eyes toward the floor, and +seemed to wait for what the other Italian was going to say. + +Bonaparte, as all know, was short in stature, being below the middle +height; but in all other respects he was, at the period here referred +to, very different in personal appearance from what he became +subsequently. Far from having that fullness which approached to +corpulence--that sallow puffiness of cheek which verged on the +unhealthy--or that heaviness of limb, or general obesity, which +threatened infirmity--he was slender in frame, but firm and +well-proportioned; yet there was something which indicated premature +wear, by hardship in the field and toil in the cabinet; he was quick and +nervous in every movement, rapid and almost convulsive in his gestures +when excited. Still he could be at any time graceful in attitude, and +elegant in manner. Even then he stooped a little, so that his shoulders +inclined forward, which gave something of flatness to his chest. His +face was thin and elongated; but what a forehead! What eyes! What beauty +in the contour of his intellectual visage! In repose, its habitual +expression was reflective and concentrated, with a strong tinge of +melancholy. + +Bonaparte ceased not to pace the room after the Pope had entered. After +a while, altering his curve somewhat, and having taken a turn round the +chair, as if making a _reconnaissance,_ he stopped short, and resumed +the thread of the conversation which had been commenced in the carriage, +and abruptly broken off. + +"I repeat, holy father, I am not an _esprit fort_, nor do I like +word-spinners or idea-mongers. I assure you, that in spite of my old +republicans I will go to mass." + +These words he tossed off toward the Pope, as if he were giving him a +dash of the incense-box; then paused to observe their effect. He seemed +to imagine that, after the impieties of the republican _régime_, such an +avowal ought to produce a decided effect. + +Pius, however, remained unmoved; he continued as before to look steadily +downward, and pressing firmly with his hands the eagle-heads that tipped +the arms of his chair, seemed, in thus assuming the fixity of a statue, +to say, "I must submit to listen to all the profane things which it may +please him to say to me." + +Seeing this, Bonaparte took a turn round the room, and another round the +chair, which stood in the middle of it, appearing but little satisfied +with his adversary, and still less with himself for the tone of levity +with which he had resumed the conversation. He at once changed his +manner, and began to speak more composedly, still continuing to pace the +room. As he passed to and fro, he glanced at the mirrors which +ornamented the walls, and reflected the grave visage of the pontiff, +eying him now and then in profile, never in front, to avoid appearing +anxious as to the impression his words may make. + +"One thing I must say, holy father, hangs heavily upon me: it is that +you seem to consent to the coronation by constraint, as you did formerly +to the concordat. As you sit there before me, you have the air of a +martyr, and assume an attitude of resignation, as if you were making an +offering of your sorrows up to Heaven. But surely you are not a +prisoner; such is not your position in any sense: grand Dieu! you are +free as air." + +Pius smiled, and looked him full in the face. He seemed to feel how +enormous was the exigence of that despotic character, which +requires--and all such natures do the like--not only obedience, but +submission, absolute submission, and that, too, wearing the air of +devotion to their will. + +"Yes," continued Bonaparte with increasing energy, "you are free, +perfectly free: you may return to Rome; the road is open to you; no one +detains you." + +Pius sighed, slightly raised his right hand, and looked upward without +uttering a word; then slowly inclining his head downward, seemed to look +attentively at a golden cross which hung from his neck. Bonaparte +continued speaking, but his steps became slow, and at the same time he +gave a marked degree of mildness to his tone, and of courtesy to his +expression. + +"Holy father," said he, "if the gravity of your character did not forbid +me, I would say that you are somewhat ungrateful. You do not seem to +retain a sufficient recollection of the services which France has +rendered to you. If I am not much mistaken the conclave of Venice, which +elected you, appeared to have taken its inspiration from my Italian +campaign, and from some words which I let fall with regard to you. It +can not be said that Austria behaved well to you; far from it; and I was +really sorry for it. If my memory does not deceive me, you were obliged +to return to Rome by sea, as you could not have ventured to cross the +Austrian territories." + +He stopped short, as if waiting for a reply from his silent guest. Pius, +however, but slightly inclined his head, and then sunk back into a sort +of apathy, which seemed inconsistent with even listening; while +Bonaparte, putting his foot on the rim of a stool, pushed it near the +Pope's chair, and thus continued, "It was, in good truth, as a Catholic +that such an incident gave me pain; for though I have never had time to +study theology, I have great confidence in the power of the church: it +has a prodigious vitality. Voltaire did it some damage in his time, but +I shall let loose upon him some unfrocked Oratorians: you'll be pleased, +if I mistake not, at the result. Now see, you and I may do many things +in common by-and-by, if you wish it." Then with an air at once juvenile +and careless, he continued, "For my part I do not see--I am weary of +conjecturing--what objection you can have to establish your see in +Paris, as it formerly was in Avignon. I will cede to you the palace of +the Tuilleries: I seldom occupy it. You will find there your apartments +prepared for you, as at Monte Cavallo. Do you not see, padre, that Paris +is the real capital of the world? As for me, I shall do whatever you +desire. You will find in me more docility than people give me credit +for. Provided that war and politics, with their fatigues, be left to me, +you may settle the church as you please: I shall be a soldier at your +orders. Do but consider what effect it would have, and how brilliant it +would be, were we to hold our councils as Constantine and Charlemagne +did in their time! I should merely open and close them, leaving the keys +of the world in your hands. As with the sword I came, the sword I should +retain, and with it the privilege of bringing it back for your +benediction after every victory achieved by our arms." And saying these +words he slightly bowed. + +Pius, who up to that moment had remained motionless as a statue, slowly +raised his head, smiled pensively, and drawing a deep sigh, breathed out +one by one the syllables of the word, "_Com-me-di-an-te!_" + +The word was scarcely half out, when Bonaparte made a bound on the floor +like a wounded leopard. A towering passion seized him; he became yellow +with ire. He bit his lips almost to bleeding as he strode to the end of +the room. He no longer paced round in circles; he went straight from +end to end without uttering a word, stamping with his feet as he swept +along, and making the room resound as he struck the floor with his +spurred heels. Every thing around him seemed to vibrate; the very +curtains waved like trees in a storm. At length the pent-up rage found +vent, and burst forth like a bombshell which explodes, "Comedian, say +you? Ah, ha! I am he that will play you comedies to make you weep like +women and children. Comedian, indeed! But you are greatly mistaken if +you think you can play off on me, with impunity, your cool-blooded +insolence. Comedian! Where is my theatre, pray, and what? 'Tis the +world, and the part which I play is that of master and author; while for +actors I have the whole of you--popes, kings, and people; and the cord +by which I move you all is--_fear!_ Comedian, say you? But he who would +dare to hiss me or applaud should be made of different stuff from you, +Signor Chiaramonti! Know you not well that you would still be merely a +poor curé but for me, and that if I did not wear a serious air when I +salute you, France would laugh and scorn yourself and your tiara? Three +or four years ago, who would pronounce aloud the name of the founder of +your system? Pray, then, who would have spoken of the pope? Comedian, +eh! Sire, ye take footing rather quickly among us. And so, forsooth, you +are in ill-humor with me because I am not dolt enough to sign away the +liberties of the Gallican church, as Louis XIV. did. But I am not to be +duped in that fashion. In my grasp I hold you; by a nod I make you flit +from north to south, from east to west, like so many puppets. And now, +when it suits me to make-believe that I count you for something, merely +because you represent an antiquated idea which I wish to revive, you +have not the wit to see my drift, or affect not to perceive it. Seeing, +then, that I must speak out my whole mind, and put the matter just under +your nose, in order that you may see it--more particularly as you seem +to think yourself indispensable to me, and lift up your head in +consequence, as you drape yourself in your old dame's robe--I'll have +you to know that such airs do not in the least impose on me; and if you +persist in that course, I'll deal with your robe as Charles XII. did +with that of the grand vizier--I'll rend it for you with a dash of my +spur!" + +He ceased. Throughout this tirade Pius maintained the same immobility of +attitude, the same calm on his visage. At its close, however, he just +looked up, smiled with something of bitterness, and sighed as he slowly +articulated the word, "_Tra-je-di-an-te!_" + +Bonaparte at that moment was at the further end of the room, leaning on +the chimney-piece. Suddenly starting at the word, and turning round, his +whole person seemed to dilate, and his features to expand as passion +rose within him. His look became fixed, and his eyes flared; then with +the swiftness of an arrow he rushed toward the old man, as if with some +fell purpose. But he stopped short, snatched from the table a porcelain +vase, dashed it to pieces against the andirons, and stamped on its +fragments as they flew along the floor! Then pausing for an instant, as +if to catch breath, he flung himself on a seat in utter exhaustion. It +would be difficult to say which was the more awful--his sudden outburst +of rage, or his immobility and silence after it. + +In some minutes the storm seemed gradually to subside, and a calm to +succeed. His look and bearing changed; something of depression seemed to +steal over him; his voice became deep and melancholy, and the first +syllables which he uttered showed this Proteus recalled to himself, and +tamed by two words. "Hapless existence!" he exclaimed; then pausing, +seemed to muse, and after a while continued, "'tis but too true; +comedian or tragedian, all for me is an affair of acting and costume; so +it has been hitherto, and such it is likely to continue. How fatiguing +and how petty it is to pose--always to pose, in profile for this party, +in full face for that, according to their notions! To guess at the +imaginings of drivelers, and seem to be what they think one ought to be. +To study how to place them between hope and fear--dazzle them with the +prestige of names and distances, of dates and bulletins--be the master +of all, and not know what to do with them; and after all this to be as +weary as I am--'tis too bad! The moment I sit down"--he crossed his +legs, and leaned back in his chair--"ennui seizes me. To be obliged to +hunt for three days in yonder forest would throw me into a mortal +languor. Activity is to me a necessity; I must keep moving myself, and +make others move, but I'll be hanged if I know whither. You see, then, I +disclose my inmost thoughts to you. Plans I have, enough and to spare, +for the lives of a score of emperors. I make one every morning, and +another every evening; my imagination wearies not; but before some three +or four of my plans could be carried out, I should be used up body and +mind: our little lamp of life burns not long before it begins to +flicker. And now, to speak with entire frankness, am I sure that the +world would be happier even if all my plans were put in execution? It +would certainly be a somewhat finer thing than it is, for a magnificent +uniformity would reign throughout it. I am not a philosopher; and in the +affair of common sense, I am bound to own that the Florentine secretary +was a master to us all. I am no proficient in theories: with me +reflection precedes decision, and execution instantly follows: the +shortness of life forbids us to stand still. When I shall have passed +away, there will be comments enough on my actions to exalt me if I +succeed, to disparage me if I fail. Paradoxes are already rife--they are +never wanting in France--but I shall still them to silence while I live; +and when I am gone--no matter. My object is to succeed; for that I have +some capacity. My Iliad I compose in action; every day adds an +episode." + +As he spoke these latter words he rose from his seat with a light +elastic movement, and seemed altogether another person. When relieved +from the turmoil of passion, he became gay, cheerful, and at the same +time unaffected and natural. He made no effort to pose, nor did he seek +to exalt and idealize himself, as he did afterward in the conversations +at St. Helena, to meet some philosophic conception, or to fill up the +portrait of himself which he desired to bequeath to posterity. He was +far from any thing of this sort: in simple reality, he was himself, as +it were, turned inside out. After a slight pause he advanced a step or +two toward the Pope, who had not moved, and smiling, with an expression +half-serious, half-ironical, proceeded in a new vein, in which were +blended something of the elevated and the petty, of the pompous and the +trivial, as was often his usage--all the time speaking with the +volubility so often exhibited by this most versatile genius. + +"Birth is every thing: those who appear on this world's stage poor and +friendless, have a desperate struggle to maintain. According to the +quality of their minds they turn to action or to self-destruction. When +they have resolution to set to work, as I have done, they often play the +winning game. A man must live; he must conquer a position, and make for +himself an abiding-place. I have made mine as a cannon-ball does; so +much the worse for those who stood in my way. Some are content with +little, others never have enough: men eat according to their appetites, +and I have a large one. Mark me, when I was at Toulon, I had not the +price of a pair of epaulets; but instead of them I had on my shoulders +my mother, and I know not how many brothers. All these are now tolerably +well provided for; and as to Josephine, who, it was said, married me +from pity, we are about to crown her in the very teeth of Raguedeau, her +notary, who once told her that I had lost my commission and my sword, +and was not worth a ducat; and faith he was not far wrong! But now, what +is it that rises up in perspective before me? An imperial mantle and a +crown. To me what are such things? a costume, a mere actor's costume. I +shall wear them for the occasion, that's enough: then resuming my +military frock, I'll get on horseback. On horseback said I?--yes, and +perhaps for life; but scarcely shall I have taken up my new position +when I shall run the risk of being pushed off my pedestal. Is that a +state to be envied? There are but two classes of men--those who have +something, and those who have nothing. The first take their rest, the +others remain awake. As I perceived this when starting in the race of +life, I have reached the goal thus early. I know of but two men who +attained it after having set out at the age of forty, and they were +Cromwell and Rousseau. Had the one had but a farm, and the other a few +hundred francs and a domestic, they would neither have commanded, +preached, nor written. There are various sorts of artists--in building, +in forms, in colors, in phrases. I am an artist in battles; I had +executed eighteen of what are called victories before the age of +thirty-five. I have a right to be paid for my work, and if paid with a +throne, it can not be called dear. But, after all, a throne, what is it? +Two or three boards fashioned in this form or in that, and nailed +together, with a strip of red velvet to cover them. By itself it is +nothing; 'tis the man who sits upon it that makes its force. Still, +throne or no throne, I shall follow my vocation: you shall see some more +of my doings. You shall see all dynasties date from mine, 'parvenu' +though I be; and elected, yes, elected like yourself, and chosen from +the crowd. On that point, at all events, we may shake hands." + +So saying, he advanced and held out his hand. The Pope did not decline +the courtesy; but there was an evident constraint in his manner as he +almost tremblingly reached to him the tips of his fingers. He seemed +under the influence of a complex tide of emotion. He was moved somewhat, +perhaps, by the tone of _bonhomie_ that pervaded the latter remarks, and +by the frankness of the advance which concluded them; but the dominant +feeling was evidently of a sombre cast, arising from a reflection on his +own position, and still more on that of so many Christian communities +abandoned to the caprices of selfishness and hazard. + +These movements of the inner man did not escape the scrutinizing glance +of Bonaparte; a light and shadow passed rapidly across his face. He had +carried one point--the coronation was tacitly conceded; the rest may be +left to time. It was evident that, though not entirely without alloy, +the feeling of satisfaction was uppermost as he strode from the room +with all the _brusquerie_ with which he had entered it. + + + + +[From Fraser's Magazine.] + +GABRIELLE; OR, THE SISTERS. + + Those who weep not here, shall weep eternally hereafter. + + _Ecclesiæ Græcæ Monumenta._ + + +Dim voices haunt me from the past--for the dream of life is dreamed, and +may now be revealed; the dreamer is loitering on the Bier Path leading +to the green grass mounds, whence mouldering hands seem to point upward +and say, "Look thy last on the blue skies, and come rest with us." + +I have no happy childhood to recall; for I began to think so early, that +pain and thought are linked together. I had a father, and a sister two +years my senior; and our home was a small cottage, surrounded by a +flower-garden, on the outskirts of a town, where the chime of +church-bells was distinctly heard. These are sweet, romantic +associations; but "garden flowers," and "silvery chimes," and +"childhood's home," are words which awaken no answering chord in my +heart--for Reality was stern, and Fancy wove no fabric of fairy texture +wherewith to cover the naked truth. + +My mother died when I was born; and my father was a thin, pale man, +always wrapped in flannels about the head and throat, and moving slowly +with the aid of a stick. He never breakfasted with us--we were kept in +the kitchen, to save firing--but he came down late in the forenoon, and +when it was warm and sunshiny he would take a gentle stroll into the +fields, never townward. We dined at a late hour, and there were always +delicacies for my father; and after dinner he sat over his wine, smoking +cigars and reading the newspapers, till it was time to go to bed. He +took little notice of Gabrielle or me, except to command silence, or to +send us for any thing he wanted. There were two parlors in the cottage, +one at each side of the door; the furniture was scanty and mean, and the +parlor on the left-hand side never had a fire in it, for my father +always inhabited the other. It was bitter cold for Gabrielle and me in +this left-hand room during the winter, for we were often turned in there +to amuse ourselves; our sole domestic--an ancient Irish servitor, +retained by my father solely on account of her culinary +accomplishments--never admitted us poor shivering girls into the kitchen +when she was cooking, for, said Nelly, + +"If I am teased or narvous I shall, maybe, spoil the dinner, and then +our Lady save us from the masther's growl." + +No one ever came near us--we seemed utterly neglected, and our very +existence unknown. The house was redolent with the fumes of tobacco, and +the garden where we played was a wilderness of weeds, among which roses +bloomed in summer, and Gabrielle and I watched for their coming with +delight: those summer roses, on the great tangled bushes, were surely +more beautiful to us than to other and more fortunate children--we +gathered and preserved each leaf as it fell, and never was fragrance so +delicious! + +Now it may naturally be supposed, that from ignorance our impressions +were not painful; but from the time when I first began to notice and +comprehend, I also began to bitterly feel our condition, and Gabrielle +felt it far more than I did. We knew that we were half-starved, +half-clad, neglected, unloved creatures, and that our parent was a +personification of Selfishness. We saw other children prettily dressed, +walking past with their mothers or nurses--or trotting to school, +healthful and happy; and our hearts yearned to be like them--yearned for +a mother's kiss! Gabrielle was habitually silent and proud, though often +passionate when we were at play together; but the outburst was soon +over, and she hugged me again directly. I early learned to dislike all +ugly things from gazing on her--her beauty was of a kind to dazzle a +child--she was so brilliantly fair and colorless, with clustering golden +hair falling to her waist, and large soft blue eyes, which always made +me think of heaven and the angels; for, thanks to His mercy, I knew of +them when I was yet a child. + +Of course we were unacquainted with our father's history as we afterward +heard it. He was of a decayed but noble family, and--alas! it is a +commonplace tale--he had ruined his fortunes and broken his wife's +heart by gambling. Worse even than this, he was irretrievably disgraced +and lost to society, having been detected as a cheat; and broken down in +every sense of the word, with a trifling annuity only to subsist on, he +lived, as I remember him, pampered, luxurious, and utterly forgetful of +all save Self. And, oh! God grant there be none--poor or rich, high or +low--who can repeat the sacred name of "father" as I do, without an +emotion of tenderness, without the slightest gossamer thread of love or +respect twined around the memory to bind the parental benediction +thereto. + +Nelly had followed our deceased mother from her native isle, for she too +was Irish, and clung to our father, ministering to his habits and +tastes, a good deal, I believe, for our sakes, and to keep near us. She +was a coarse woman; and, unlike her race in general, exhibited but few +outward demonstrations of attachment. When her work was done in the +evening she sometimes taught us the alphabet and to spell words of three +letters; the rest we mastered for ourselves, and taught each other, and +so in process of time we were able to read. The like with writing: Nelly +pointed out the rudiments, and Gabrielle, endowed with magical powers of +swift perception, speedily wrought out lessons both for herself and me. +The only books in the house were a cookery-book; a spelling-book which +Nelly borrowed; a great huge History of England, which formed her usual +footstool; and an ancient, equally large Bible, full of quaint pictures. +Would that I had the latter blessed volume bound in gold now, and set +with diamonds! A new epoch opened in my life. I had already thought, now +I understood; and the light divine dawned on my soul as Nelly, the +humble instrument of grace, in simple words explained all that was +wanting: for our faith is very simple, notwithstanding the ineffable +glories of Jesus and redemption. I dreamed by night of Jesus and of +angels, and of shepherds watching their flocks "all seated on the +ground;" and I used to ask Nelly if she did not think an angel must be +just like Gabrielle, with shining wings, certainly? But Nelly would say +that Miss Gabrielle was too proud for an angel, and never likely to +become one unless she liked her Bible better; and it was too true that +my darling sister had not the same love for holy things that I had then. +She liked to read of Queen Bess and Bluff King Hal; but when we found +our way to a church, and heard the chanting, her emotions far surpassed +mine, and she sobbed outright. At length Gabrielle, who had been +pondering many days without speaking, confided to me her determination +to ask our father to send us to school. + +"Why should I not ask him, Ruth?" she said. "I wonder we never thought +of it before--only he is always poorly, or smoking, or drinking." + +I observed her beautiful lip curl as she spoke in a contemptuous tone, +and I thought that Jesus taught _not so_; but I feared to speak--so I +wept, and knelt down alone and prayed for my sister. + +Gabrielle did ask him, and my father laid down his paper, and took the +cigar from his mouth, gazing in dull amazement at the speaker, but I saw +his gaze become more earnest and observant as he said, + +"Why, girl, how old are you?" + +"I was thirteen last month," replied Gabrielle. + +"You are a monstrous tall girl of your age, then, I declare: and you +have learned to read from Nelly, haven't you?" + +"Yes, we have," was the quiet reply; "but we wish to learn something +more than that." + +"Then you must go to some charity school, miss, for I have no money to +pay for such nonsense; you can read, and write, and sew, and what more +would you have? Pass the claret nearer, and reach me those cigars; and +take yourselves off, for my head is splitting." + +I must draw a vail over Gabrielle's passion when we were alone. + +"It is not for myself only that I sorrow," she exclaimed, as her sobs +subsided; "but you, poor, little, delicate thing, with your lameness, +what is to become of you in the big world if you are left alone? You can +not be a servant; and what are we to do without education? for Nelly has +told me our father's income dies with him." + +Her expressions were incoherent; and when I tried to comfort her, by +assurances that the blessed Saviour cared for the fatherless, she turned +away and left me. So ended the first and last application to our parent. + +When I remember Gabrielle's career from that period to her sixteenth +year I much marvel at the precocity of intellect she exhibited, and the +powers of mind with which she was endowed. We had no money to procure +books--no means to purchase even the common necessaries of clothing, +which too often made us ashamed to appear in church. But suddenly +Gabrielle seemed to become a woman, and I her trusting child. She was +silent and cold; but not sullen or cold to me, though her mouth became +compressed as if from bitter thought, and never lost that expression +again, save when she smiled. Oh, that sunny smile of radiant beauty! I +see it now--I see it now! I tried to win her, by coaxing and fondling, +to read the Holy Book; but Gabrielle said we were outcasts, and deserted +by God. When I heard that my wan cheeks burned with indignation, and I +exclaimed, "You are wicked to say so;" but Gabrielle was not angry, for +tears stood in her eyes as she fixed them on me, whispering, + +"Poor little cripple--sweet, gentle, loving sister--the angels that +whisper these good things to you pass me over. I hear them not, Ruth." + +"Sister, sister, they speak and you will not hear: do you think the +stupid, lame Ruth is favored beyond the clever, the beautiful, the noble +Gabrielle?" + +Then with an outburst of passionate love she would take me in her arms, +and weep long and bitterly. I knew that I could not enter into the +depths of her feelings, but I comprehended her haughty bearing and +scornful glances; for the neighbors looked at us pitifully, and +Gabrielle writhed beneath it: child as she was, there was something +awful and grand in her lonely majesty of demeanor. Her self-denying, +constant devotion toward me--often ailing and pining as I was--I repaid +by an affection which I am sure is quite different from that entertained +by sisters happily placed for each other: Gabrielle was as mother and +sister, and friend and nurse, and playmate, all in one to me. She and +the bright young roses in our neglected garden, were the only two +beautiful creations I had ever seen. It was well for me, in my childish +simplicity, that I knew not the wreck of mind--the waste of brilliant +powers for want of cultivation--of which Gabrielle was the victim; but +she knew it, brooded over it, and the festering poison of hatred and +contempt changed her innocent, affectionate nature, toward all created +things, except her own and only sister. + +We never wearied of listening to Nelly's accounts of the former grandeur +of our maternal ancestors, intermixed with wild legends of chivalrous +love and gallant daring. She told us, too, of our ancient blood on the +father's side, and that we were the great-grandchildren of a belted +earl. Gabrielle's pale cheeks flushed not--her eyes were downcast; but I +knew the sufferings of the proud, beautiful girl. I too, humble as I +was, felt what we were--what we ought to have been, and the blood of the +De Courcys and O'Briens mounted to my throbbing temples. + +Gabrielle was a lady--a lady in each action, word, and look; poorly and +insufficiently clad, her tall, graceful form bore the unmistakable mark +of hereditary breeding, which neither poverty nor neglect could +eradicate. It was not her exceeding loveliness which alone attracted +observation, but it was a refinement and elegance which no education can +bestow--it was Nature's stamp on one of her most peerless and exquisite +productions. One evening, when we had been listening to Nelly's +discourse by the kitchen fire, a sudden and a new thought took hold of +my imagination, nor could I rest until I had imparted it to Gabrielle. +It was this--that she might marry some great, rich man, and so release +us from want and privation; for, of course, my home would always be with +her! + +Gabrielle looked gravely on my upturned face an I knelt beside her, and +confided this "new plan." + +"Ruth," she said, "you are a wise and a singular child, and you deserve +to be trusted. I mean to become a rich man's wife if I have the +opportunity; but how it is to be brought about, your good book, perhaps, +may tell." + +"Oh, darling," I cried, "do not smile so scornfully when you speak of +that blessed, dear book; it would comfort and lead you, indeed it +would, if you would but open and read its pages." + +"Well, well, Parson Ruth," she cried, laughing, "that will do. When the +rich man comes down from the clouds to make me his bride, I promise you +I'll have a book bound in gold like that; and you shall be educated, my +darling Ruth, as the daughters of the De Courcys ought to be, and you +shall forget that we have no father, no mother." + +"Forget our father?" said I. "Never, never!" + +Gabrielle was terribly shaken and agitated: little more than a child in +years, injustice and sorrow had taught her the emotions of age, yet she +was a guileless child in the world's ways, as events soon proved. + +We used to ramble out into the adjacent meadows, and doubtless our +roamings would have extended far and wide, had not my lameness precluded +much walking, and Gabrielle never had a thought of leaving me. So we +were contented to saunter by a shining stream that meandered amid the +rich pasture-land near our home; this stream was frequented by those +fortunate anglers only who obtained permission from the lady of the +manor to fish in it, and this permit was not lavishly bestowed, +consequently our favorite haunt was usually a solitary one. But soon +after Gabrielle had completed her sixteenth year we noted a sickly +youth, who patiently pursued his quiet sport by the hour together, and +never looked round as we passed and repassed him. Some trifling "chance" +(as it is called) led to his thanking Gabrielle for assisting to +disentangle his line, which had caught amid the willow-branches +overhanging the water; the same "chance" caused him to observe his +beautiful assistant, and I saw his start of surprise and admiration. He +was a silly-looking lad, we thought, dressed like a gentleman, and +behaving as one; and he was never absent now from the meadows when we +were there. He always bowed, and often addressed some passing +observation to us, but timidly and respectfully, for Gabrielle was a +girl to command both homage and respect. She pitied the lonely, pale +young man, who seemed so pleased to find any one to speak to, and +exhibited such extraordinary patience and perseverance, for he never +caught a fish that we saw. Through the medium of a gossip of Nelly, who +was kitchen-maid at the principal inn, we ascertained that our new +acquaintance was staying there for his health's benefit, and for the +purpose of angling; that his name was Erminstoun, only son of the rich +Mr. Erminstoun, banker, of T----. Nelly's gossip had a sister who lived +at Erminstoun Hall, so there was no doubt about the correctness of the +information, both as regarded Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's identity, and the +enormous wealth of which it was said his father was possessed. The +informant added, that poor Mr. Thomas was a _leetle_ soft maybe, but the +idol of his parent; and that he squandered "money like nothing," "being +a generous, open-handed, good young gentleman." + +I observed a great change in Gabrielle's manner, after hearing this, +toward her admirer--for so he must be termed--as admiration was so +evident in each word and look: by-and-by Gabrielle went out alone--there +was no one to question or rebuke her; and in six weeks from the day that +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun first saw her she became his wife. Yes, startling +as it appears, it all seemed very natural and simple of accomplishment +then; early one brilliant summer morning, Gabrielle woke me, and bade me +rise directly, as she wished to confide something of great importance, +which was about to take place in a few hours. Pale, but composed, she +proceeded to array herself and me in plain white robes, and straw +bonnets; new and purely white, yet perfectly simple and inexpensive, +though far better than the habiliments we had been accustomed to wear. +Gabrielle took them from a box, which must have come when I was +sleeping; and when our toilet was completed, I compared her in my own +mind to one of those young maidens whom I had seen in the church, when +bands of fair creatures were assembled for confirmation. She looked not +like _a bride_--there was no blushing, no trembling; but a calm +self-possession, and determination of purpose, which awed me. + +"My wise little sister Ruth," she said, "I am going to be married this +morning to Mr. Thomas Erminstoun, at ---- church. You are my bridemaid, +and the clerk gives me away. I shall not come back here any more, for a +chaise and four waits in Yarrow Wood to convey us away directly after +our marriage. You will come home, darling, and take off your marriage +apparel to appear before _him_; and as I do not often dine with him, and +he never asks for me, I shall not be missed. So say nothing--Nelly's +tongue is tied--fear not her. Be patient, beloved one, till you hear +from me: bright days are coming, Ruth, and we do not part for long." + +Here she wept, oh, so bitterly, I thought she would die. Amazed and +trembling, I ventured to ask if she loved Mr. Thomas Erminstoun better +than me, for jealousy rankled, and at fourteen I knew nothing of _love_. + +"Love _him_!" she cried vehemently, clasping her hands wildly; "I love +only you on earth, my Ruth, my sister. He is a fool; and I marry him to +save you and myself from degradation and misery. He buys me with his +wealth. I am little more than sixteen"--she hung down her lovely head, +poor thing--"but I am old in sorrow; I am hardened in sin, for I am +about to commit a great sin. I vow to love, where I despise; to obey, +when I mean to rule; and to honor, when I hold the imbecile youth in +utter contempt!" + +Vain were supplications and prayers to wait. Gabrielle led me away to +the meadows, where a fly was in waiting, which conveyed us to the +church. I saw her married; I signed something in a great book; I felt +her warm tears and embraces, and I knew that Mr. Thomas Erminstoun +kissed me too, as he disappeared with Gabrielle, and the clerk placed me +in the fly alone, which put me down in the same place, in the quiet +meadows by the shining water. I sat down and wept till I became +exhausted. Was this all a dream? Had Gabrielle really gone? My +child-sister married? Become rich and great? But I treasured her words, +hurried home, and put on my old dark dress; and Nelly said not a word. +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's gold had secured her silence; and she was to +"know nothing," but to take care of me for the present. + +Ere my father retired to rest that night, a letter was brought addressed +to him. I never knew the contents, but it was from Gabrielle and +Gabrielle's husband. I did not see him again for some days, and then he +never looked at me; and strange, strange it seemed, Gabrielle had +disappeared like a snow wreath, in silence, in mystery; and I exclaimed +in agony, "Was there ever any thing like this in the world before?" + +My father made himself acquainted with the position of the young man +whom his daughter had gone off with, and also of the legality of their +marriage; that ascertained satisfactorily, he sank into the same +hopeless slothfulness and indolence as heretofore, dozing life away, and +considering he had achieved a prodigious labor in making the necessary +inquiries. + +Very soon after this I had my first letter--doubly dear and interesting +because it was from Gabrielle. The inn servant brought it under pretext +of visiting Nelly, so my father knew nothing about it. Ah, that first +letter! shall I ever forget how I bathed it my with tears, and covered +it with kisses? It was short, and merely said they were in lodgings for +the present, because Mr. Erminstoun had not yet forgiven his son: not a +word about her happiness; not a word of her husband; but she concluded +by saying, "that very soon she hoped to send for her darling Ruth--never +to be parted more." + +I know that my guardian angel whispered the thoughts that now came into +my head as I read and pondered; because I had prayed to be led as a +sheep by the shepherd, being but a simple, weakly child. I determined on +two things--to show the letter I had received from Gabrielle to my +father, for conscience loudly whispered concealment was wrong; and never +to quit him, because the time might come when he, perhaps, would +require, or be glad of my attendance. I felt quite happy after forming +these resolutions on my knees; and I wrote to Gabrielle telling her of +them. I know not if my father observed what I said, but he took no +notice, for he was half asleep and smoking; so I left the letter beside +him, as I ever did afterward, for I often heard from my beloved sister: +and oh! but it _was_ hard to resist her entreaties that I would come to +her--that it was for my sake as well as her own she had taken so bold a +step; and that now she had a pleasant home for me, and I refused. It was +hard to refuse; but God was with me, or I never could have had strength +of myself to persevere in duty, and "_deny myself_." When Gabrielle +found arguments and entreaties vain, she gave way to bursts of anguish +that nearly overcame me; but when "I was weak, then I was strong," and I +clasped my precious Bible, and told her I _dared_ not leave my father. + +Then came presents of books, and all kinds of beautiful and useful +things, to add to my comfort or improvement. Gabrielle told me they were +settled in a pretty cottage near the Hall, and that Mr. Erminstoun had +forgiven his son. Mr. Erminstoun was a widower, and had five daughters +by a former marriage--Gabrielle's husband being the only child of his +second union: the Misses Erminstoun were all flourishing in single +blessedness, and were known throughout the country-side as the "proud +Miss Erminstouns." These ladies were tall, and what some folks call +"dashing women;" wearing high feathers, bright colors, and riding hither +and thither in showy equipages, or going to church on the Sabbath with a +footman following their solemn and majestic approach to the house of +prayer, carrying the richly-emblazoned books of these "miserable +sinners." + +How I pined to hear from Gabrielle that she was happy, and cherished by +her new connections; that she was humbled also, in some measure--abashed +at the bold step she had taken. So young--so fair--so determined. I +trembled, girl as I was, when I thought that God's wrath might fall on +her dear head, and chasten her rebellious spirit. + +Six months subsequent to Gabrielle's departure our father died, after +but a few days' severe suffering. Dying, he took my hand and murmured, +"Good child!" and those precious words fell as a blessing on my soul; +and I know he listened to the prayers which God put into my heart to +make for his departing spirit. I mourned for the dead, because he was my +father and I his child.... + +Nelly accompanied me to my sister's home; and fairyland seemed opening +to my view when I embraced Gabrielle once more. What a pleasant home it +was!--a cottage not much larger than the one I had left--but how +different! Elegance and comfort were combined; and when I saw the rare +exotics in the tasteful conservatory I remembered the roses in our +wilderness. Ah, I doubt if we ever valued flowers as we did those +precious dewy buds. Wood End Cottage stood on the brow of a hill, +commanding a fair prospect of sylvan quietude; the old Parsonage was +adjacent, inhabited by a bachelor curate, "poor and pious," the church +tower peeping forth from a clump of trees. The peal of soft bells in +that mouldering tower seemed to me like unearthly music: my heart +thrilled as I heard their singular, melancholy chime. There were fine +monuments within the church, and it had a superb painted window, on +which the sun always cast its last gleams during the hours of +summer-evening service. + +My brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Erminstoun, was paler and thinner than +when I had seen him last, and I was shocked and alarmed at his +appearance. His love for Gabrielle amounted to idolatry; and for her +sake he loved and cherished me. She was colder and haughtier in manner +than ever, receiving passively all the devoted tenderness lavished by +her husband: this pained me sadly; for though he was assuredly simple, +there was an earnest truthfulness and kindliness about him, which won on +the affections amazingly. He would speak to me of Gabrielle by the hour +together, with ever-increasing delight; we both marveled at her +surpassing beauty, which each week became more angelic and pure in +character. + +On me alone all my sister's caresses were bestowed; all the pent-up love +of a passionate nature found vent in my arms, which were twined around +her with strange enthusiastic love; therefore it was, her faults +occasioned me such agony--for I could not but see them--and I alone, of +all the world, knew her noble nature--knew what she "might have been." I +told her that I expected to have found her cheerful, now she had a happy +home of her own. + +"Happy! cheerful!" she cried, sadly. "A childhood such as mine was, +flings dark shadows over all futurity, Ruth." + +"Oh, speak not so, beloved," I replied; "have you not a good husband, +your error mercifully forgiven? are you not surrounded by blessings?" + +"And dependent," she answered, bitterly + +"But dependent on your husband, as the Bible says every woman should +be." + +"And my husband is utterly dependent on his father, Ruth; he has neither +ability nor health to help himself, and on his father he depends for our +bread. I have but exchanged one bondage for another; and all my hope is +now centred in you, dearest, to educate you--to render you independent +of this cold, hard world." + +"Why, Gabrielle," I said, "you are not seventeen yet--it is not too +late, is it, for you also to be educated?" + +"Too late, too late," answered Gabrielle, mournfully. "Listen, wise +Ruth, I shall be a mother soon; and to my child, if it is spared, and to +you, I devote myself. You have seen the Misses Erminstoun--you have seen +vulgarity, insolence, and absurd pretension; they have taunted me with +my ignorance, and I will not change it now. The blood of the De Courcys +and O'Briens has made me a lady; and all the wealth of the Indies can +not make them so. No, Ruth, I will remain in ignorance, and yet tower +above them, high as the clouds above the dull earth, in innate +superiority and power of mind!" + +"Oh, my sister," I urged timidly, "it is not well to think highly of +one's self--the Bible teaches not so." + +"Ruth! Ruth!" she exclaimed, impatiently, "it is not that I think highly +of myself, as you well know; you well know with what anguish I have +deplored our wants; it is pretension I despise, and rise above; talent, +and learning, and virtue, and nobleness, that I revere, and could +worship!" + +"But, beloved," I urged, "people may be very kind and good, without +being so mighty clever." + +"The Erminstouns female are not kind, are not good," she haughtily +replied: "the Erminstouns male are fools! Ruth, I have changed one +bondage for another, and the sins of the father fall on the innocent +child. I have changed starvation, and cold, and degradation, for hateful +dependence on the vulgar and despised. Woe is me, woe is me! If I can +but save you, my sister, and make you independent, I can bear my lot." + +My education commenced, and they called me a "wise child:" every one was +kind to the poor cripple, even the "proud Miss Erminstouns," who cast +envious and disdainful glances on my beautiful sister, which she repaid +with unutterable scorn--silent, but sure. Oh, how I prayed Gabrielle to +_try_ and win their love; to read her Bible, and therein find that "a +kind word turneth away wrath;" but Gabrielle was proud as Lucifer, and +liked not to read of humility and forbearance. I found a zealous friend +and instructor in Mr. Dacre, the "poor, pious curate;" he was a college +friend of my brother-in-law, and a few years his senior. I felt assured +that Mr. Dacre thought Mr. Thomas's life a very precarious one, from the +way in which he spoke to him on religious subjects, and the anxiety he +evinced as to his spiritual welfare. Mr. Dacre used also to call me his +"wise little friend;" and we were wont to speak of passages in the book +I loved best. What thought I of him? Why, sometimes in my own mind I +would compare him to an apostle--St. Paul, for instance, sincere, +learned, and inspired; but then St. Paul haunted my day-dreams as a +reverend gentleman with a beard and flowing robes, while Mr. Dacre was +young, handsome, and excessively neat in his ecclesiastical costume and +appointments generally. Mr. Dacre had serious dark eyes--solemn eyes +they were, in my estimation, but the very sweetest smile in the world; +and one of the Misses Erminstoun seemed to think so too: but people said +that the pious young minister was vowed to celibacy. + +There was also another frequent visitor at Erminstoun Hall, who not +seldom found his way to Wood End Cottage; and this was no less a +personage than Lord Treherne, who resided at Treherne Abbey in princely +magnificence, and had lately become a widower. This nobleman was upward +of sixty, stately, cold, and reserved in manner, and rarely warmed into +a smile, except in contemplation of woman's beauty; of which, indeed, he +was an enthusiastic admirer. The late Lady Treherne had presented her +lord with no family; and the disappointment was bitterly felt by Lord +Treherne, who most ardently desired an heir to succeed to his ancient +title and immense possessions. It was rumored abroad that the eldest +Miss Erminstoun was likely to become the favored lady on whom his +lordship's second choice might fall: she was still a handsome woman, and +as cold and haughty as Lord Treherne himself; but, notwithstanding her +smiles and encouragement, the ancient cavalier in search of a bride did +not propose. Nay, on the contrary, he evinced considerable interest in +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's failing health; he was the poor young +gentleman's godfather, and it seemed not improbable that, in the event +of his lordship dying childless, his godson might inherit a desirable +fortune. Rare fruits and flowers arrived in profusion from the Abbey; +and my lord showed great interest in my progress, while Gabrielle +treated him with far more freedom than she did any one else, and seemed +pleased and gratified by his fatherly attentions. + +At length the time arrived when Gabrielle became the mother of as lovely +a babe as ever entered this world of woe; and it was a fair and touching +sight to behold the young mother caressing her infant daughter. I have +often wondered that I felt no pangs of jealousy, for the beauteous +stranger more than divided my sister's love for me--she engaged it +nearly all: and there was something fearful and sublime in the exceeding +idolatry of Gabrielle for her sweet baby. Self was immolated altogether; +and when she hung over the baby's couch each night, watching its happy, +peaceful slumbers, it was difficult to say which of the twain was the +more beautiful. Repose marked the countenance of each--Gabrielle's was +imbued with the heavenly repose of parental love. + +In less than twelve months after its birth, that poor baby was +fatherless. I had anticipated and foreseen this calamity; and Gabrielle +conducted herself, as I believed she would, without hypocrisy, but with +serious propriety. Sad scenes followed this solemn event; the Misses +Erminstoun wished to take her child from Gabrielle, to bring it up at +the Hall. Mr. Erminstoun urged her compliance, and recommended my sister +to seek "a situation" for me, as "he had already so expensive an +establishment to keep up; and now poor Thomas was gone, there was really +no occasion for Wood End Cottage to be on his hands. Gabrielle must find +a home in some farm-house." + +All this came about in a few months, from one thing to another; and the +young widow, who had been ever hated as a wife, was grudged her daily +support by her deceased husband's family. "Give up her child?" Gabrielle +only laughed when they spoke of that; but her laugh rings in my ears +yet! though it was as soft and musical as the old church bells. + +We left Wood End Cottage, and found refuge in a retired farm-house, as +Mr. Erminstoun proposed; but we were together: and there were many who +cried "shame" on the rich banker, for thus casting off his +daughter-in-law and his grandchild. Small was the pittance he allowed +for our subsistence; and the Misses Erminstoun never noticed Gabrielle +on her refusal to part with the child. "She was not fit," they bruited +about, "to bring up their poor brother's daughter. She was ignorant, +uneducated, and unamiable, besides being basely ungrateful for kindness +lavished; she had a cold heart and repellant manner, which had steeled +their sympathies toward her." They thought themselves ill-used at +Erminstoun Hall; and the five Misses Erminstoun regarded Gabrielle and +her poor little daughter as mere interlopers, who were robbing them of +their father's money. + +Well might Gabrielle say--"I have changed one bondage for another!" but +I never heard her repeat that now. She was silent, even to me. No murmur +escaped her lips; and what she felt or suffered I knew not. Little Ella +was a pale flower, like her mother; but as similar to the parent rose as +an opening rosebud. + +"What could I do?" were the words I was continually repeating to myself. +"I must not be an added burden to Mr. Erminstoun. I have already +profited by my sister's union with his son, by having gratefully +received instruction in various branches of learning, and can I not do +something for myself?" What this _something_ was to be, I could not +define. My lameness precluded active employment, and I was too young to +become a "companion." I confided my thoughts and wishes to Mr. Dacre, +who often visited us, speaking words of balm and consolation to the +afflicted. Gabrielle listened to his words, as she never had done to +mine; and he could reprove, admonish, exhort, or cheer, when all human +hope seemed deserting us. For where were we to look for a shelter, +should it please Mr. Erminstoun to withdraw his allowance, to force +Gabrielle to abandon her child to have it from want? I verily believe, +had it not been for that precious babe, she would have begged her bread, +and suffered me to do so, rather than be dependent on the +scantily-doled-out bounty of Mr. Erminstoun. + +During the twelve months that elapsed after her husband's death there +was a "great calm" over Gabrielle--a tranquillity, like that exhibited +by an individual walking in sleep. I had expected despair and passion +when her lofty spirit was thus trampled to the dust; but no, as I have +said, she was strangely tranquil--strangely silent. There was no +resignation--that is quite another thing; and, except when my sister +listened to Mr. Dacre, she never read her Bible, or suffered me to read +it to her: but his deep, full, rich voice, inexpressibly touching and +sweet in all its modulations, ever won her rapt, undivided attention. +She attended the church where he officiated; and though the Erminstouns +had a sumptuously-decorated pew there, it was not to that the young +widow resorted; she sat amid the poor in the aisle, beneath a +magnificent monument of the Treherne family, where the glorious sunset +rays, streaming through the illuminated window, fell full upon her +clustering golden hair and downcast eyes. + +There was pride in this, not humility; and Gabrielle deceived herself, +as, with a quiet grace peculiarly her own, she glided to her lowly seat, +rejecting Lord Treherne's proffered accommodation, as he courteously +stood with his pew door open, bowing to the fair creature as if she had +been a queen. The five Misses Erminstoun knelt on their velvet cushions, +arrayed in feathers and finery, and strong in riches and worldly +advantages; but my pale sister, in her coarsely-fashioned mourning-garb, +seated on a bench, and kneeling on the stone, might have been taken for +the regal lady, and they her plebeian attendants. + +Spiteful glances they cast toward Gabrielle, many a time and oft, when +my Lord Treherne so pointedly paid his respectful devoirs; and there was +as much pride and haughtiness in Gabrielle's heart as in theirs. Poor +thing! she said truly, that "early shadows had darkened her soul," and +what had she left but _pride_? Not an iota of woman's besetting +littleness had my sister--noble, generous, self-denying, devoted where +she loved; her sweetness had been poisoned, nor had she sought that +fountain of living water which alone can purify such bitterness. Gentle +in manner, pure in heart, affectionate in disposition, Gabrielle's pride +wrought her misery. Lord Treherne never came in person to our humble +home--he had but once paid his respects to Gabrielle since her +widowhood; but the rarest exotics continued to decorate our poor room, +constantly replenished from Treherne Abbey, and sent, with his +lordship's card, by a confidential domestic. He was always at church +now, and people remarked "how pious my lord had latterly become." I was +far too young and inexperienced then to understand or appreciate this +delicacy and propriety on Lord Treherne's part. But Mr. Dacre understood +it; nor would _he_ have intruded on our privacy, save in his ministerial +capacity, and for the purpose of aiding and assisting me in the studies +I endeavored to pursue. There was a "halo of sanctity" around Mr. Dacre, +which effectually precluded any approach to freedom or frivolous +conversation, in any society wherein he might be placed. He gave the +tone to that society, and the gay and dashing Misses Erminstoun became +subdued in his presence; while Lord Treherne, with excellent taste, not +only showed the outward respect due to Mr. Dacre's sacred and high +office, but the regard which his personal qualities deserved. + +I have often looked back on that time immediately after my +brother-in-law's decease, with wonder at our serenity--nay, almost +contentment and happiness; despite the anguish and humiliation I knew +Gabrielle must endure, her smile was ever beautiful and sweet, and +illumined our poor home with the sunshine of heaven. + +Our baby was, I think I may say, almost equally dear to us both--it had +two mothers, Gabrielle said; and what with nursing the darling little +thing, and learning my lessons, and Mr. Dacre's visits, time flew +rapidly. + +On the appearance of each fresh token of Lord Treherne's remembrance, I +observed an expression flit across my sister's face which I could not +define; it was of triumph and agony combined, and she always flew to her +baby, clasping it convulsively to her bosom, and whispering words of +strange import. On Mr. Dacre's expressive, serious countenance, also, I +noticed passing clouds, as Gabrielle bestowed enthusiastic admiration on +the superb exotics. Why this was I could by no means satisfactorily +decide, as Mr. Dacre, so kind and generous, must approve the +disinterested delicacy exhibited by Lord Treherne, in his offerings to +the fatherless and widow. But the disinterestedness of my lord's +attentions was a myth which I soon discarded: for in twelve months +subsequent to Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's decease, a letter from Treherne +Abbey was brought to Gabrielle, sealed with the armorial bearings of the +Trehernes, and signed by the present representative of that noble race. +We were seated at our fireside, busy with domestic needlework, and I saw +Gabrielle's hands tremble as she opened it, while that strange, wild +expression of triumph and pain, flitted more than once over her face as +she perused the missive. She silently gave it to me, and with amazement +I read its contents--such an idea had never once entered my simple +brain. Lord Treherne made Gabrielle an offer of his hand and heart, +signifying that if she would graciously incline her ear to his suit, a +brilliant destiny awaited her infant daughter--on whom, and on its +lovely mother, the most munificent settlements should be made. I laughed +heartily as I read his lordship's rhapsodies, becoming a young lover; +and I said, returning the epistle to Gabrielle, "What a pity, dearest, +that we can not have such a noble father for our little Ella!" the +possibility of Gabrielle's marrying a man of nearly seventy never +entered into my calculations for a moment. Therefore my astonishment was +overwhelming when she seriously answered, + +"Why can not Lord Treherne be a father to my child, Ruth?" + +"Because, dearest, you could not marry him--he is so old." + +"But I mean to marry him, Ruth: could you doubt it? Could I have lived +on as I have done without prophetic hope to support me? Think you, if +Lord Treherne were double the age, I would refuse rank, wealth and +power? Oh, Ruth, were I alone, it might be different." She spoke in a +tone of suppressed anguish and passionate regret. "But look on her," +pointing to the sleeping cherub, "for her sake I would _immolate myself +on any altar of sacrifice_. Her fate shall be a brighter one than her +mother's--if that mother has power to save and to bless! _She_ must not +be doomed to poverty or dependence. No, no! I give her a father who can +restore in her the ancient glories of our race; for my Ella is a +descendant of the chivalrous O'Briens and the noble De Courcys." + +"And of the Erminstouns of Erminstoun Hall," I gently suggested, for +Gabrielle was greatly excited. + +"Name them not, Ruth; name them not, if you love me. To change their +hated name, what would I not do?" + +Alas! thought I, you are deceiving yourself, my poor sister, in this +supposed immolation on an altar of sacrifice; it is not for your child's +sake alone, though you fancy so. But Blanche Erminstoun will be +disappointed, revenge obtained, and pride amply gratified, and truly +"the heart is deceitful above all things." + +Mr. Dacre entered the apartment as Gabrielle ceased speaking, for we had +not heard his modest signal, and he was unannounced. My sister colored +to the very temples on seeing the young pastor, and her hands trembled +in the vain endeavor to fold Lord Treherne's letter, which at length she +impatiently crushed together. I heard a half-smothered hysterical sob, +as, with a faltering voice, she bade our guest "Good-evening." Ah! when +the heart is aching and throbbing with agony, concealed and suppressed, +it requires heroic self-command to descend to the commonplaces of this +workaday world; but women early learn to conceal and subdue their +feelings, when premature sorrows have divided them from real or +pretended sympathies. + +I read my sister's heart, I knew her secret, and I inwardly murmured, +"Alas for woman's love, it is cast aside!" + + * * * * * + +My sister's marriage with Lord Treherne was a strictly private one +(Gabrielle had stipulated for this), his lordship's chaplain performing +the ceremony. My thoughts reverted to Gabrielle's first marriage, when +the clerk gave her away, and she was clad in muslin; now she was arrayed +in satin and glittering gems, and a peer of the realm, an old friend of +the bridegroom, gave her lily hand at the altar to her noble lover. +Twice she was forsworn; but the desecration to her soul was not so great +on the first as on the present occasion, for then her heart was still +her own; while now, alas for woman's love, it was cast aside! + +In a few weeks after the marriage we all departed for the Continent, +where we remained for the six following years, Gabrielle and myself +receiving instructions in every accomplishment suitable to our position. +It was charming to witness with what celerity my beautiful sister +acquired every thing she undertook, for she was as anxious as her lord +to adorn the high station to which she now belonged. Wherever we went +the fame of Lady Treherne's beauty went with us, while her fascination +of manner and high-bred elegance perfectly satisfied her fastidious +husband that he had made a wise and prudent choice. There was one +drawback to his lordship's perfect contentment, and this was the absence +of the much-wished-for heir, for Gabrielle presented no children to her +husband; and our little Ella, a fairy child, of brilliant gifts and +almost superhuman loveliness, became as necessary to Lord Treherne's +happiness as she was to her doting mother's. It was settled ere we +returned to England, that Ella was to drop the name of Erminstoun, and +as Lord Treherne's acknowledged heiress, legal forms were to be +immediately adopted in order to ratify the change of name to that of the +family appellation of the Trehernes. + +With a murmur of grateful feeling I saw Gabrielle kneel beside her aged +husband, and thank him fondly for this proof of regard; triumph sparkled +in her eyes, and Lord Treherne laid his hand on her fair head, blessing +her as he did so. She had made him a good wife, in every sense of the +term: he had never forgot that her blood equaled his own. But Gabrielle +did, for that very reason; her gratitude made her humble toward him, +because he was humble toward her: nor did Lord Treherne ever cease to +think that Gabrielle had conferred a favor in marrying him. + +A succession of _fêtes_ and entertainments were given at Treherne Abbey +after our return, and Gabrielle was the star on whom all gazed with +delighted admiration. All the country families flocked to pay their +homage, but the Erminstouns came not until Lady Treherne extended a hand +of welcome to her first husband's family; she was too exalted, both in +station and mind, to cherish the pitiful remembrances of their former +unkindness. There were but two Misses Erminstoun now, the others were +well married (according to the world's notion, that is); and the +youngest, who had not given up hopes of yet becoming Mrs. Dacre, had +transformed herself into a nun-like damsel, something between a Sister +of Charity and a Quakeress in exterior: perhaps Mr. Dacre read the +interior too well; and, notwithstanding the lady's assiduous visits to +the poor, and attendance on the charity-schools, and regular loud +devotions at church, Mr. Dacre remained obdurate and wedded to celibacy. +It might be that he disapproved of the marriage of the clergy, but I +think he was at one time vulnerable on that point. + +How delighted I was to see him once more, to hear him call me his "wise +little friend," with his former sweet smile and affectionate manner; six +years had changed him--he looked rather careworn, and well he might, for +he was a true worker in the Lord's vineyard: nor was his mission +confined to the poor; the rich and noble also felt his influence. Lord +and Lady Treherne greeted him as an old and valued friend; nor could I +detect the slightest agitation in Gabrielle's manner, and my former +suspicions almost faded away. She brought our fair Ella to welcome "papa +and mamma's friend" to Treherne; and Ella, with her winning, gentle +ways, soon made Mr. Dacre understand that she loved him very much +indeed: she was a holy child, and the principal joy of her innocent life +was to hear me tell her those stories in which I used to take delight in +my early days--how contrasted to hers! She would sing her pretty hymns, +seated on a low footstool at Lord Treherne's feet; and the stately +nobleman, with tears in his eyes, used to exclaim with pathos, + +"Sister Ruth, sister Ruth, my heart misgives me; the angels surely will +take this child to themselves, and leave us desolate." + +Mr. Dacre came not frequently to Treherne, but he was a quick observer, +and he saw we had set up an idol for ourselves in this child, he +cautioned us, but Gabrielle shivered--yes, _shivered_ with dismay, at +the bare suggestion he hinted at--that God was a "jealous God," and +permitted no idolatrous worship to pass unreproved. + +Poor young mother, how can I relate the scenes I lived to witness! + +Ella died, aged ten years. The mother sat by her coffin four days and +nights, speechless and still; we dared not attempt to remove her, there +way an alarming expression in her eyes if we did, that made the medical +men uncertain how to act. She had tasted no food since the child died; +she was hopeful to the last: it was impossible, she said, that her child +could die; her faculties could not comprehend the immensity of the +anguish in store for her. So there she sat like stone--cold, and silent, +and wan, as the effigy she watched. Who dared to awaken the mother? + +Mr. Dacre undertook the awful task, but it was almost too much for his +tender, sympathizing heart; nerved by strength from above he came to +us--for I never left my sister--and we three were alone with the dead. + +It harrows my soul to dwell on this subject, and it seemed cruel to +awaken the benumbed mother to reality and life again, but it was done; +and then words were spoken far too solemn and sacred to repeat here, and +hearts were opened that otherwise might have remained sealed till the +judgment day. Gabrielle, for the first time in her life, knew herself as +she was; and, prostrate beside her dead child, cried, "I have deserved +thy chastening rod, for thou art the Lord, and I thy creature; deal with +me as thou seest best." Pride abased, hope crushed, heart contrite and +broken, never, never had Gabrielle been so dear to me; and during many +weeks that I watched beside her couch, as she fluctuated between life +and death, I knew that, she was an altered being, and that this bitter, +affliction had not been sent in vain. She came gently home to God, and +humbly knelt a suppliant at the mercy-throne, forever crying, + +"Thou art wisest! Thou art best! Thou, alone knowest what is good for +us! Thy will be done!" + +The blow had fallen heavily on Lord Treherne, but for two years my +sister lived to bless and comfort him; then it became evident to all +that the mother was about to rejoin her child in the mansions of the +blessed. She expressed a wish that Mr. Dacre should read the funeral +service over her, and he administered the last blessed consolations to +her departing spirit; no remnants of mortal weakness lurked in his heart +as he stood beside the dying, for he knew that in this world they were +as pilgrims and strangers, but in that to which Gabrielle was hastening +they would be reunited in glory--no more partings, no more tears. She +died calmly, with her hands clasped in Lord Treherne's and mine; while +Mr. Dacre knelt absorbed in prayer she passed away, and we looked on +each other in speechless sorrow, and then on what had been my young and +beautiful sister. + +Of my own deep grief and lacerated heart I will not speak; Lord Treherne +required all my care and attention, nor would he hear of my quitting +him--indeed, he could scarcely bear me to be out of his sight; the heavy +infirmities of advanced years had suddenly increased since his double +bereavement, and I felt very grateful that to my humble efforts he owed +any glimpse of sunshine. + +He was a severe bodily sufferer for many years, but affliction was not +sent in vain, for Lord Treherne became perfectly prepared for the awful +change awaiting him, trusting in His merits alone. Those were blessed +hours when Mr. Dacre spoke to him of the dear departed, who had only +journeyed on before--of God's ways in bringing us to Himself, chastening +pride and self-reliance, and tolerating no idol worship. Lord Treherne, +with lavish generosity, made an ample provision for his "wise little +Ruth," as he ever smilingly called me to the last. He died peacefully, +and the Abbey came into the possession of a distant branch of the +Treherne family. + +Wood End Cottage was vacant, and I purchased it; and assisted by Mr. +Dacre in the labor of love for our blessed Master, life has not passed +idly, and, I humbly trust, not entirely without being of use in my +generation. Previous to his decease, Lord Treherne caused a splendid +monument to be erected in Wood End church to the memory of Gabrielle, +and Ella his adopted daughter: the spotless marble is exquisitely +wrought, the mother and child reposing side-by-side as if asleep, with +their hands meekly folded on their breasts, and their eyes closed, as if +weary--weary. + +The last fading hues of sunset, which so often rested on Gabrielle's +form as she knelt in her widowhood beneath the monumental glories of the +Trehernes, now illumines the sculptured stone, which mysteriously hints +of hidden things--corruption and the worm. + +I love to kneel in the house of prayer where Gabrielle knelt: dim voices +haunt me from the past: my place is prepared among the green grass +mounds, for no tablet or record shall mark the spot where "Ruth the +cripple" reposes, sweetly slumbering with the sod on her bosom, "dust to +dust." + + + + +THE WASTE OF WAR. + + + Give me the gold that war has cost, + Before this peace-expanding day; + The wasted skill, the labor lost-- + The mental treasure thrown away; + And I will buy each rood of soil + In every yet discovered land; + Where hunters roam, where peasants toil, + Where many-peopled cities stand. + + I'll clothe each shivering wretch on earth. + In needful; nay, in brave attire; + Vesture befitting banquet mirth, + Which kings might envy and admire. + In every vale, on every plain, + A school shall glad the gazer's sight; + Where every poor man's child may gain + Pure knowledge, free as air and light. + + I'll build asylums for the poor, + By age or ailment made forlorn: + And none shall thrust them from the door, + Or sting with looks and words of scorn. + I'll link each alien hemisphere; + Help honest men to conquer wrong; + Art, Science, Labor, nerve and cheer; + Reward the Poet for his song. + + In every crowded town shall rise + Halls Academic, amply graced; + Where Ignorance may soon be wise, + And Coarseness learn both art and taste + To every province shall belong + Collegiate structures, and not few-- + Fill'd with a truth-exploring throng, + And teachers of the good and true. + + In every free and peopled clime + A vast Walhalla hall shall stand; + A marble edifice sublime, + For the illustrious of the land; + A Pantheon for the _truly_ great, + The wise, beneficent, and just; + A place of wide and lofty state + To honor or to hold their dust. + + A temple to attract and teach + Shall lift its spire on every hill, + Where pious men shall feel and preach + Peace, mercy, tolerance, good-will; + Music of bells on Sabbath days, + Round the whole earth shall gladly rise; + And one great Christian song of praise + Stream sweetly upward to the skies! + + + + +A NIGHT WITH AN EARTHQUAKE.[6] + + +The sound had not quite died away, when the feet I stood on seemed +suddenly seized with the cramp. Cup and coffee-pot dropped as dead from +Don Marzio's hand as the ball from St. Francis's palm. There was a rush +as if of many waters, and for about ten seconds my head was overwhelmed +by awful dizziness, which numbed and paralyzed all sensation. Don +Marzio, in form an athlete, in heart a lion, but a man of sudden, +sanguine temperament, bustled up and darted out of the room with the +ease of a man never burdened with a wife, with kith or kin. Donna Betta, +a portly matron, also rose instinctively; but I--I never could account +for the odd freak--laid hold of her arm, bidding her stay. The roar of +eight hundred houses--or how many more can there be in Aquila?--all +reeling and quaking, the yells of ten thousand voices in sudden agony, +had wholly subsided ere I allowed the poor woman calmly and majestically +to waddle up to her good man in the garden. That, I suppose, was my +notion of an orderly retreat. Rosalbina had flown from a window into the +lawn, like a bird. Thank God, we found ourselves all in the open air +under the broad canopy of heaven. We began to count heads. Yes, there we +all stood--cook, laundry-maid, dairy-maids, stable-boys, all as obedient +to the awful summons as the best disciplined troops at the first roll of +the drum. + +It was February, as I have twice observed; and we were in the heart of +the highest Apennines. The day was rather fine, but pinching cold; and +when the fever of the first terror abated, the lady and young lady began +to shiver in every limb. No one dared to break silence; but Don Marzio's +eye wandered significantly enough from one to another countenance in +that awe-stricken group. There was no mistaking his appeal. Yet, one +after another, his menials and laborers returned his gaze with +well-acted perplexity. No one so dull of apprehension as those who will +not understand. My good friends, I was three-and-twenty. I had had my +trials, and could boast of pretty narrow escapes. I may have been +reckless, perhaps, in my day. I smiled dimly, nodded to the old +gentleman, clapped my hands cheerily, and the next moment was once more +where no man in Aquila would at that moment have liked to be for the +world--under a roof. I made a huge armful of cloaks and blankets, +snapped up every rag with all the haste of a marauding party, and moved +toward the door, tottering under the encumbrance. But now the dreadful +crisis was at hand. + +Earthquakes, it is well known, proceed by action and re-action. The +second shock, I was aware, must be imminent. I had just touched the +threshold, and stood under the porch, when that curious spasmodic +sensation once more stiffened every muscle in my limbs. Presently I felt +myself lifted up from the ground. I was now under the portico, and was +hurled against the pillar on my right; the rebound again drove me to the +post on the opposite side; and after being thus repeatedly tossed and +buffeted from right to left like a shuttlecock, I was thrust down, +outward, on the ground on my head, with all that bundle of rags, having +tumbled head-long the whole range of the four marble steps of entrance. +The harm, however, was not so great as the fright; and, thanks to my +gallant devotion, the whole party were wrapped and blanketed, till they +looked like a party of wild Indians; we stood now on comparatively firm +ground, and had leisure to look about us. Don Marzio's garden was open +and spacious, being bounded on three sides by the half-crumbling wall of +the town. On the fourth side was the house--a good, substantial fabric, +but now miserably shaky and rickety. Close by the house was the chapel +of the Ursuline convent, and above that its slender spire rose chaste +and stainless, "pointing the way to heaven." Any rational being might +have deemed himself sufficiently removed from brick and mortar, and, in +so far, out of harm's way. Not so Don Marzio. He pointed to the shadow +of that spire, which, in the pale wintry sunset, stretched all the way +across his garden, and by a strange perversion of judgment, he contended +that so far as the shadow extended, there might also the body that cast +it reach in its fall, for fall it obviously must; and as the danger was +pressing, he deemed it unwise to discuss which of the four cardinal +points the tower might feel a leaning toward, whenever, under the +impulse of the subterranean scourge, it would "look around and choose +its ground." Don Marzio was gifted with animal courage, and even nerve, +proportionate to the might of his stalwart frame. But then his was +merely a combative spirit. Thews and sinews were of no avail in the +case. The garden was no breathing ground for him, and he resolved upon +prompt emigration. + +The people of Aquila, as indeed you may well know, of most towns in +Southern Italy, have the habit of--consequently a peculiar talent +for--earthquakes. They know how to deal with them, and are seldom caught +unprepared. Two hundred yards outside the town gate, there is half a +square mile of table-land on the summit of a hill--a market-place in +days of ease, a harbor of refuge in the urgency of peril. From the first +dropping of the earth-ball from the hand of their guardian saint, the +most far-sighted among the inhabitants had been busy pitching their +tents. The whole population--those, that is, who had escaped unscathed +by flying tiles and chimney-pots--were now swarming there, pulling, +pushing, hauling, and hammering away for very life: with women fainting, +children screeching, Capuchins preaching. It was like a little rehearsal +of doomsday. Don Marzio, a prudent housekeeper, had the latch-key of a +private door at the back of the garden. He threw it open--not without a +misgiving at the moss-grown wall overhead. That night the very stars did +not seem to him sufficiently firm-nailed to the firmament! His family +and dependents trooped after him, eager to follow. Rosalbina looked +back--at one who was left behind. Don Marzio felt he owed me at least +one word of leave-taking. He hemmed twice, came back two steps, and gave +me a feverish shake of the hand. + +"I am heartily sorry for you, my boy," he cried. "A _fuoruscito_, as I +may say, a bird-in-the-bush--you dare not show your nose outside the +door. You would not compromise yourself alone, you know, but all of us +and our friends; we must leave you--safe enough here, I dare say," with +a stolen glance at the Ursuline spire, "but--you see--imperative +duties--head of a family--take care of the females--and so, God bless +you!" + +With this he left me there, under the deadly shade of the +steeple--deadlier to him than the upas-tree; ordered his little +household band out, and away they filed, one by one, the head of the +family manfully closing the rear.... + +I was alone--alone with the earthquake.... There was a wood-cellar in +one of the out-houses, access to which was easy and safe. One of my +host's domestics had slipped flint and steel into my hands. In less than +half-an-hour's time, a cheerful fire was crackling before me. I drew +forth an old lumbering arm-chair from the wood-cellar, together with my +provision of fuel. I shrouded myself in the ample folds of one of Don +Marzio's riding-cloaks; I sat with folded arms, my eyes riveted on the +rising blaze, summoning all my spirits round my heart, and bidding it to +bear up. The sun had long set, and the last gleam of a sickly twilight +rapidly faded. A keen, damp, north-east wind swept over the earth; thin, +black, ragged clouds flitted before it, like uneasy ghosts. A stray star +twinkled here and there in the firmament, and the sickle-shaped moon +hung in the west. But the light of those pale luminaries was wan and +fitful. They seemed to be aware of the hopelessness of their struggle, +and to mourn in anticipation of the moment when they should faint in +fight, and unrelieved darkness should lord it over the fields of the +heavens. + +The town of Aquila, or the Eagle, as the natives name it, is perched, +eagle-like, on the brow of an abrupt cliff in the bosom of the loftiest +Apennines. Monte Reale, Monte Velino, and the giant of the whole chain, +the "Gran Sasso d'Italia," look down upon it from their exalted thrones. +Within the shelter of that massive armor, the town might well seem +invulnerable to time and man. But now, as I gazed despondingly round, +the very hills everlasting seemed rocking from their foundation, and +their crests nodding to destruction. Which of those mighty peaks was to +open the fire of hell's artillery upon us? Was not Etna once as still +and dark as yonder great rock? and yet it now glares by night with its +ominous beacon, and cities and kingdoms have been swept away at its +base. + +Two hours passed away in gloomy meditation. The whole town was a desert. +The camp meeting of the unhoused Aquilani was held somewhere in the +distance: its confused murmur reached me not. Only my neighbors, the +Ursuline nuns, were up and awake. With shrinking delicacy, dreading the +look and touch of the profane even more than the walls of their +prison-house, they had stood their ground with the heroism of true +faith, and reared their temporary asylum under their vine-canopied +bowers, within the shade of the cloisters. A high garden-wall alone +separated me from the holy virgins. They were watching and kneeling. +Every note from their silver voices sank deep in my heart, and impressed +me with something of that pious confidence, of that imploring fervor, +with which they addressed their guardian angels and saints. Two hours +had passed. The awfulness of prevailing tranquillity, the genial warmth +of my fire, and the sweet monotony of that low, mournful chanting, were +by degrees gliding into my troubled senses, and lulling them into a +treacherous security. "Just so," I reasoned, "shock and countershock. +The terrible scourge has by this time exhausted its strength. It was +only a farce, after all. Much ado about nothing. The people of this town +have become so familiar with the earthquake that they make a carnival of +it. By this time they are perhaps feasting and rioting under their +booths. Ho! am I the only craven here? And had I not my desire? Am I not +now on speaking terms with an earthquake?" + +Again my words conjured up the waking enemy. A low, hollow, rumbling +noise, as if from many hundred miles' distance, was heard coming rapidly +onward along the whole line of the Apennines. It reached us, it seemed +to stop underneath our feet, and suddenly changing its horizontal for a +vertical direction, it burst upward. The whole earth heaved with a +sudden pang; it then gave a backward bound, even as a vessel shipping a +sea. The motion then became undulatory, and spread far and wide as the +report of a cannon, awakening every echo in the mountain. There was a +rattle and clatter in the town, as if of a thousand wagons shooting down +paving stones. The Ursuline steeple waved in the air like a reed vexed +by the blast. The chair I stood on was all but capsized, and the fire at +my feet was overthrown. The very vault of heaven swung to and fro, +ebbing and heaving with the general convulsion. The doleful psalmody in +the neighboring ground broke abruptly. The chorus of many feminine +voices sent forth but one rending shriek. The clamor of thousands of the +town-folk from their encampment gave its wakeful response. Then the dead +silence of consternation ensued. I picked up every stick and brand that +had been scattered about, steadied myself in my chair, and hung down my +head. "These black hounds," I mused, "hunt in couples. Now for the +repercussion." + +I had not many minutes to wait. Again the iron-hoofed steeds and heavy +wheels of the state chariot of the prince of darkness were heard +tramping and rattling in their course. Once more the subterranean +avalanche gathered and burst. Once more the ground beneath throbbed and +heaved as if with rending travail. Once more heaven and earth seemed to +yearn to each other; and the embers of my watch-fire were cast upward +and strewn asunder. It was an awful long winter night. The same sable +clouds rioting in the sky, the same cruel wind moaning angrily through +the chinks and crevices of many a shattered edifice. Solitude, the +chillness of night, and the vagueness, even more than the +inevitableness, of the danger, wrought fearfully on my exhausted frame. +Stupor and lethargy soon followed these brief moments of speechless +excitement. Bewildered imagination peopled the air with vague, +unutterable terrors. Legions of phantoms sported on those misshapen +clouds. The clash of a thousand swords was borne on the wind. Tongues of +living flame danced and quivered in every direction. The firmament +seemed all burning with them. I saw myself alone, helpless, hopeless, +the miserable butt of all the rage of warring elements. It was an +uncomfortable night. Ten and twelve times was the dreadful visitation +reproduced between sunset and sunrise, and every shock found me more +utterly unnerved; and the sullen, silent resignation with which I +recomposed and trimmed my fire had something in it consummately abject, +by the side of the doleful accents with which the poor half-hoarse nuns, +my neighbors, called on their blessed Virgin for protection. + +The breaking morn found me utterly prostrated; and when Don Marzio's +servants had so far recovered from their panic as to intrude upon my +solitude, and offer their services for the erection of my tent in the +garden, I had hardly breath enough left to welcome them. Under that tent +I passed days and nights during all the remainder of February. The +shocks, though diminished in strength, almost nightly roused us from our +rest. But the people of Aquila soon learned to despise them. By one, by +two, by three they sought the threshold of their dismantled homes. Last +of all, Don Marzio folded his tent. His fears having, finally, so far +given way, as to allow him to think of something beside himself, he +exerted himself to free me from confinement. He furnished me with +faithful guides, by whose aid I reached the sea-coast. Here a Maltese +vessel was waiting to waft me to a land of freedom and security. I can +tell you, my friends, that from that time I was cured forever of all +curiosity about earthquakes. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] From a work entitled "Scenes of Italian Life," by L. Mariotti, just +published in London. + + + + +A PLEA FOR BRITISH REPTILES. + + +What the flourishing tradesman writes with pride over his shop, we might +in most cases write over our storehouse of antipathies--established in +1720, or 1751. For what good reason we, in 1851, should shudder at the +contact of a spider, or loathe toads, it would be hard to say. Our +forefathers in their ignorance did certainly traduce the characters of +many innocent and interesting animals, and many of us now believe some +portions of their scandal. To be a reptile, for example, is perhaps the +greatest disgrace that can attach to any animal in our eyes. Reptile +passes for about the worst name you can call a man. This is unjust--at +any rate, in England. We have no thought of patting crocodiles under the +chin, or of embracing boa constrictors; but for our English reptiles we +claim good words and good-will. We beg to introduce here, formally, our +unappreciated friends to any of our human friends who may not yet have +cultivated their acquaintance. + +The Common Lizard--surely you know the Common Lizard, if not by his name +of state--_Zootoca vivipara_. He wears a brilliant jacket, and you have +made friends with him, as a nimble, graceful fellow; as a bit of +midsummer. His very name reminds you of a warm bank in the country, and +a sunny day. Is he a reptile? Certainly; suppose we stop two minutes to +remember what a reptile is. + +The heart of a reptile has three cavities; that is to say, it is not +completely double, like our own. It sends only a small part of the blood +which comes into it for renovation into the air-chambers--the lungs; +while the remainder circulates again unpurified. That change made in the +blood by contact with the oxygen of air, is chiefly the cause of heat in +animals. Aëration, therefore, being in reptiles very partial, the amount +of heat evolved is small; reptiles are therefore called cold-blooded. +They are unable to raise their heat above the temperature of the +surrounding air. Fishes are cold-blooded, through deficient aëration in +another way; in them, all the blood passes from the heart into the place +where air shall come in contact with it; but, then there is a limitation +to the store of air supplied, which can be no more than the quantity +extracted from the water. The temperature of water is maintained below +the surface, and we know how that of the air varies, since a certain +quantity of heat is necessary to the vital processes; reptiles, +depending upon air for heat, hybernate or become torpid when the +temperature falls below a certain point. The rapidity of all their vital +actions will depend upon the state of the thermometer; they digest +faster in the heat of summer than in the milder warmth of spring. Their +secretions (as the poison of the adder) are in hot weather more copious, +and in winter are not formed at all. The reptiles breathe, in all cases, +by lungs; but we must except here those called _Batrachians_, as frogs +or newts, which breathe, in the first stage, by gills, and afterward by +gills and lungs, or by lungs only. The _Batrachians_, again, are the +only exception to another great characteristic of the reptile class, the +hard, dry covering of plates or scales. The reptiles all produce their +young from eggs, or are "oviparous"--some hatch their eggs within the +body, and produce their young alive, or are "ovo-viviparous." These are +the characters belonging to all members of the reptile-class. The class +is subdivided into orders somewhat thus: 1. The _Testudinate_ (tortoises +and turtles). 2. _Enaliosaurian_ (all fossil, the _Ichthyosaurus_ and +his like). 3. _Loricate_ (crocodiles and alligators). 4. _Saurian_ +(lizards). 5. _Ophidian_ (serpents); and the last order, _Batrachian_ +(frogs, toads, &c.); which is, by some, parted from the reptiles, and +established as another class. + +Now we have in England no tortoises or turtles, and no crocodiles: and +the fossil order is, in all places, extinct; so our reptiles can belong +only to the three last-named orders, Lizards, Serpents, and Batrachians. + +Thus we come back, then, to our Lizards, of which we have among us but +two genera, a single species of each. These are the Common Lizard, well +known to us all, and the Sand Lizard, known only to some of us who +happen to live upon the southern coast. The species of lizard so +extremely common in this country, has not been found in countries +farther south, and is, in fact, peculiar to our latitude. We, therefore, +may love him as a sympathetic friend. The sand lizard (_Lacerta agilis_) +is found as far north as the country of Linnæus, and as far south as the +northern part of France; in England, however, it seems to be rare, and +has been detected only in Dorsetshire--chiefly near Poole, or in some +other southern counties. It frequents sandy heaths, and is of a brown +sandy color, marked and dotted; but there is a green variety said to be +found among the verdure of marshy places. It is larger than our common +lizard, averaging seven inches long, is very timid, and when made a +prisoner pines and dies. Its female lays eggs, like a turtle, in the +sand, covers them over, and leaves them to be hatched by the summer sun. +This kind of lizard, therefore, is oviparous. The eggs of our common +lizard are hatched also by the sun; for, reptiles having no heat of +their own, can not provide that which is necessary to the development of +an embryo; but in this case the sun hatches them within the parent's +body. The female of this lizard stretches herself out upon a sunny bank, +and lets the bright rays fall upon her body while she lies inactive. At +this period, she will not move for any thing less than a real cause of +alarm. She is not sunning herself lazily, however, but fulfilling an +ordinance of God. The eggs break as the young lizards--three to six--are +born. This lizard is, therefore, ovo-viviparous. The little ones begin +at once to run about, and soon dart after insects, their proper food; +but they accompany the mother with some instinct of affection for a +little time. These lizards are very various in size and color; +difference in these respects does not denote difference in kind. The +little scales which cover them are arranged in a peculiar manner on the +head, under the neck, &c.; and some differences of arrangement, in such +respects, are characteristic. The best distinction between the only two +species of lizard known in this country has been pointed out by Mr. +Bell. In the hind legs, under each thigh, there is a row of openings, +each opening upon a single scale. In sand lizards, the opening is +obviously smaller than the scale; in our common lizards, the opening is +so comparatively large that the scale seems to be the mere edge of a +tube around it. + +These are our lizards, then, our Saurian reptiles; and they do not merit +any hate. Suffer an introduction now to English Snakes. + +The first snake, the Blindworm, is not a snake, nor yet a worm. It is a +half-way animal--between a lizard and a snake. The lizards shade off so +insensibly into the snakes, even the boa preserving rudimentary hind +legs, that some naturalists counsel their union into a single class of +Squamate, or scaled reptiles. By a milder process of arrangement, all +those animals which dwell upon the frontier ground between Lizards or +Saurians, and Ophidians or Snakes, are to be called Saurophidian. The +blindworm then, is Saurophidian; it is quite as much a lizard as a +snake. Snakes have the bones of their head all movable, so that their +jaws can be dilated, until, like carpet-bags, they swallow any thing. +The lizard has its jaws fixed; so has the blindworm. Snakes have a long +tongue, split for some distance, and made double-forked; the blindworm's +tongue has nothing but a little notch upon the tip. It has a smooth +round muzzle, with which it can easily wind its way under dry soil to +hybernate; or else it takes a winter nap in any large heap of dead +leaves. It comes out early in the spring; for it can bear more cold than +reptiles generally like, and it is found all over Europe, from Sweden to +the south of Italy. It feeds upon worms, slugs, and insects. Like the +snakes, it gets a new coat as it grows, and takes the old one off, by +hooking it to some fixed point, and crawling from it, so that the cast +skin is dragged backward, and turned inside out. The slow-worm is of a +dark gray color, silvery, and about a foot long on the average. It is +ovo-viviparous. It is extremely gentle; very rarely thinks of biting +those who handle it, and, when it does bite, inflicts no wound with its +little teeth. Of course it has no fangs and is not poisonous. Shrinking +with fear when taken, it contracts its body and so stiffens it that it +will break if we strike or bend it. Therefore it bears the name Linnæus +gave it--_Anguis fragilis_. + +We have found nothing yet to shudder at among our reptiles. "O! but," +you say perhaps, "that was not a real snake." Well, here is our real +snake. _Natrix torquata_--our common Ringed Snake; he is very common. He +may be three or four feet long, and brownish-gray above, with a green +tinge, yellow marks upon the neck, and rows of black spots down the back +and sides, alternating, like London lamp-posts, with each other. You +will find him any where in England, almost any where in Europe, below +the latitude of Scotland. You will find him most frequently in a moist +place, or near water, for he is rather proud of himself as a swimmer. He +has a handsome coat, and gets a new one two, three, four, or five times +in a season, if his growth require it. When the new coat is quite hard +and fit for use under the old, he strips the old one off among the +thorn-bushes. He and his lady hybernate. The lady leaves her sixteen or +twenty eggs, all glued together, for the sun to vivify. The snake's +tongue, as we have said, is forked, the jaws dilatable; he prefers frogs +for his dinner, but is satisfied with mice, or little birds, or +lizards. He swallows his prey whole. Catching it first, as Mrs. Glasse +would say, between his teeth, which are in double rows upon each jaw, +and directed backward that they may act more effectually, he first +brings the victim to a suitable position--head first he prefers, then, +leaving one set of teeth, say the lower, fixed, he advances the upper +jaw, fixes its teeth into the skin, and leaves them there while he moves +forward, the lower jaw, and so continues till the bird or frog is worked +into his throat; it is then swallowed by the agency of other muscles. +This power of moving each jaw freely and in independence of the other, +is peculiar to Ophidian reptiles. The frog may reach the stomach both +alive and active, so that, if afterward, the snake gapes, as he is apt +to do, a frog has been seen to leap out again. The processes of life are +so slow in reptiles, that one meal will not be digested by the snake for +many days. He is unable to digest vegetable matter. Our snake is very +harmless, and if kept and fed, will quickly learn to recognize its +patron, will feed out of his hand, and nestle up his sleeve; but he +shows a dread of strangers. + +We have Adders? Yes, we have a Viper--_Pelias Berus_ is the name he goes +by, and his fangs are undeniable. This is the only native reptile that +can, in any degree whatever, hurt a man. It is common in England, and, +unlike the snake, prefers a dry place to a moist one. "Adder" and +"viper" are two words applied to the same thing--adder being derived +from the Saxon word for "nether," and viper from viviper; because this +reptile, like our common lizard, hatches her eggs within the body, or is +viviparous. Our viper is found all over Europe; not in Ireland. As for +Ireland, it is an old boast with the Irish that Saint Patrick banned +away all reptiles. The paucity of reptiles in Ireland is remarkable, but +they are not altogether absent. Our common lizard has a large Irish +connection, and frogs were introduced into Ireland years ago. Their +spawn was taken over, put into water, throve, and thereafter frogs have +multiplied. An attempt was also made to introduce our common snake, but +the country-people, with great horror, killed the inlopers; a reward +even was offered for one that was known to remain uncaptured. Ireland is +free from adders. + +The most ready distinction between a common snake and an adder, to +unfamiliar eyes, is founded on the difference of marking. While the +snake has separate alternate spots, the adder has, down its back, a +chain of dark spots, irregularly square, and joined to one another. +Adders are generally brown, but differ very much in color. They have on +their upper jaw, instead of their lower, a row of teeth, the well-known +fangs. These are long, curved teeth, fixed into a movable piece of bone, +and hollow. The hollow is not made out of the substance of the tooth; it +is as if a broad flat tooth had been bent round upon itself to form a +tube. The tube is open below and behind, in the curve, by a little +slit. Above, it is open, and rests upon a tiny bag connected with a +gland that corresponds to a gland in man for the secretion of saliva; +but which, in the present case, secretes a poison. The fang, when out of +use, is bent and hidden in a fleshy case; in feeding, it is rarely used. +The viper catches for himself his birds or mice, after the manner of a +harmless serpent. But, when hurt or angered, he throws back his neck, +drops his fang ready for service, bites, and withdraws his head +immediately. The fang in penetrating, of necessity, was pressed upon the +little bag of poison at its root, and forced a drop along the tube into +the wound. After a few bites, the bag becomes exhausted, and the adder +must wait for a fresh secretion. The poison has no taste or smell, and +may be swallowed with impunity, if there be no raw surface in the mouth, +or sore upon the throat, or in the stomach. It is only through a wound +that it can act like poison. The bite of an adder in this country never +yet proved fatal; but, according to the health of the person bitten, and +according to the greater or less heat of the weather (for in very hot +weather a more active poison is secreted), the wound made will be more +or less severe. It is advisable to get out of an adder's way. + +All the remaining reptiles in this country are two species of Frog, two +species of Toad, and four Newts. They are not only most absolutely +harmless, but, the frogs, at any rate, and toads, are ministers to man; +and they belong to a class of animals more interesting than any other, +perhaps, in the whole range of natural history. We are all well +acquainted with the common frog, whose grander name is _Rana +temporaria._ We see it--and it is to be feared some of us kill it--in +our gardens, among strawberry-beds and damp vegetation. But, whereas +frogs feed upon those slugs and insects which are in the habit of +pasturing upon our plants, and are themselves indebted to us for not a +grain of vegetable matter, we ought by all means to be grateful to them. +So industrious are frogs in slug-hunting, that it would be quite worth +while to introduce them as sub-gardeners upon our flower-beds. In +catching insects, the frog suddenly darts out his tongue, which, at the +hinder part, is loose, and covered with a gummy matter. The insect is +caught, and the tongue returned with wonderful rapidity. The frog, when +it is first hatched, has the constitution of a fish: it is purely +aquatic; has a fish's heart, a fish's circulation, and a fish's gills. +The tadpole swims as a fish does--by the movement, side-ways, of its +tail. For the unassisted eye, and still more for the microscope, what +spectacle can be more marvelous than the gradual process of change by +which this tiny fish becomes a reptile? Legs bud; the fish-like gills +dwindle by a vital process of absorption; the fish-like air-bladder +becomes transmuted, as by a miracle, into the celled structure of lungs; +the tail grows daily shorter, not broken off, but absorbed; the heart +adds to its cells; the fish becomes a reptile as the tadpole changes to +a frog. The same process we observe in toads; and it is also the same in +our newts, excepting that in newts the tail remains. There is no +parallel in nature to this marvelous and instructive metamorphosis. + +The perfectly-formed frog does not live of necessity in water, or near +it, but requires damp air occasionally. It breathes by lungs, as we have +said; but, as it has no ribs, there is no chest to heave mechanically. +The frog's air has to be swallowed, to be gulped down into the lungs. +That is not possible unless the mouth is shut; and, therefore, as we +might suffocate a man by keeping his mouth shut, so we should suffocate +a frog by keeping his mouth open. Yet we should not suffocate him +instantly; we should disable the lungs; but, in this class of animals +the whole skin is a breathing surface. A frog has lived a month after +his lungs had been extracted. All respiratory surfaces, like the inside +of our own lungs, can act only when they are relaxed and moist. That is +the reason why a frog's skin is always moist, and why a frog requires +moist air. It does not need this constantly, because, when moisture is +abundant, there is a bag in which it stores up superfluity of water, to +be used in any day of need. It is this water--pure and clear--which +frogs or toads expel when they are alarmed by being handled. Is not +enough said here, to rescue frogs from our contempt? We may add, that +they are capable of understanding kindness--can be tamed. Frogs +hybernate under the mud of ponds, where they lie close together, in a +stratum, till the spring awakens them to a renewal of their lives and +loves. They lay a vast number of eggs, at the bottom of the water; and +the multitudes of young frogs that swarm upon the shore when their +transformation is; complete, has given rise to many legends of a shower +of frogs. These multitudes provide food for many animals, serpents, as +we have seen, birds, fish. And the survivors are our friends. + +The other species of frog found in this country is the Edible Frog +(_Rana esculenta_). It has for a long time had a colony in Foulmire Fen, +in Cambridgeshire, although properly belonging to a continental race. It +differs from our common frog in wanting a dark mark that runs from eye +to shoulder, and in having, instead of it, a light mark--a streak--from +head to tail along the centre of the back. The male is a more portentous +croaker than our own familiar musicians, by virtue of an air-bladder on +each cheek, into which air is forced, and in which it vibrates +powerfully during the act of croaking. This kind of frog is always in or +near the water, and being very timid, plunges out of sight if any one +approaches. + +These are our frogs; as for our two Toads, they are by no means less +innocent. They are the Common Toad, by style and title _Bufo vulgaris,_ +and a variety of the Natter Jack Toad, to be found on Blackheath, and in +many places about London, and elsewhere. The toad undergoes +transformations like the frog. It is slower in its movements, and less +handsome in appearance: similar in structure. There is a somewhat +unpleasant secretion from its skin, a product of respiration. There is +nothing about it in the faintest degree poisonous. It is remarkably +sensible of kindness; more so than the frog. Examples of tame toads are +not uncommon. Stories are told of the discovery of toads alive, in +blocks of marble, where no air could be; but, there has been difficulty, +hitherto, in finding one such example free from the possibility of +error. It may be found, however, that toads can remain for a series of +years torpid. It has been proved that snails, after apparent death of +fifteen years, have become active on applying moisture. A proof equally +distinct is at present wanting in the case of toads. The toad, like +other reptiles, will occasionally cast its skin. The old skin splits +along the back, and gradually parts, until it comes off on each side, +with a little muscular exertion on the toad's part. Then, having rolled +his jacket up into a ball, he eats it! + +No reptiles remain now to be mentioned, but four species of Newt. These +little creatures are abundant in our ponds and ditches, and some are +most falsely accused of being poisonous. They are utterly harmless. +Their transformations, their habits, their changes of skin, their laying +of eggs, can easily be watched by any who will keep them in a miniature +pond. A large pan of water, with sand and stones at the bottom, decayed +vegetable matter for food, and a few living water-plants, extracted from +their native place, will keep a dozen newts in comfort. The water-plants +are needed, because a newt prefers to lay her egg upon a leaf. She +stands upon it, curls it up with her hind legs, and puts an egg between +the fold, where it remains glued. These being our reptiles, are they +proper objects of abhorrence? At this season they are all finishing +their winter nap. In a few weeks they will come among us, and then, when + + "the songs, the stirring air, + The life re-orient out of dust, + Cry through the sense to hearten trust + In that which made the world so fair"-- + +may we not permit our hearts to be admonished by the reptiles also? + + + + +[From Leigh Hunt's Journal.] + +A DREAM, AND THE INTERPRETATION THEREOF. + + +They stood by her bedside--the father and mother of the maiden--and +watched her slumbers. For she had returned weary from Seville, after a +long absence from this her Lisbon home. They had not gazed on that fair +innocent face for many a month past; and _they_, too, smiled, and +pressed each the other's hand as they marked a radiant smile playing +round the mouth of the sleeper. It was a smile brimful of happiness--the +welling-up of a heart at perfect peace. And it brought gladness to the +hearts of the parents, who-would fain have kissed the cheek of their +gentle girl, but refrained, lest it should break the spell--lest even a +father's and a mother's kiss should dull the blessedness of the dreamer. +So sleep on, Luise! and smile ever as thou sleepest--though it be the +sleep of death. + +These people were poor in worldly goods, but rich in the things of home +and heart. Luise, the first-born, had been staying with a Spanish +relative, who had taken charge of her education, and had now come back +to her native Lisbon "for good." Three younger children there +were--blithe, affectionate prattlers--whose glee at the recovery of +Luise had been so exuberant, so boisterous, that they were now sent to +play in the neighboring vineyards, that they might not disturb their +tired sister's repose. + +Long played that smile upon her face; and never were the two gazers +tired of gazing, and of smiling as they gazed. Luise, they thought, had +seemed a little sad as well as weary when she alighted at the dear +familiar door. But this smile was so full of joy unspeakable, so fraught +with beatific meaning, so reflective of beatific vision, that it laughed +their fears away, and spoke volumes where the seeming sorrow had not +spoken even words. + +The shrill song of a mule-driver passing by the window aroused the +sleeper. The smile vanished, and as she started up and looked hastily +and inquiringly around, a shade of mingled disappointment and +bewilderment gathered darkly on her brow. + +"You must turn and go to sleep again, my child," whispered the mother. +"I wish Pedro were not so proud of his voice, and then you might still +be dreaming of pleasant things." + +"I _was_ dreaming, then?" said Luise, somewhat sadly. "I thought it was +real, and it made me _so_ happy! Ah, if I could dream it again, and +again--three times running, you know--till it became true!" + +"What was it, Luise?" asked her father. "We must know what merry thought +made you so joyful. It will be a dream worth knowing, and, therefore, +worth telling." + +"Not at present," interrupted his wife. "Let her get some more rest; and +then, when she is thoroughly refreshed after such a tedious journey, she +will make us all happy with realities as well as dreams." + +"And are dreams never realities?" asked the girl, with a sigh. + +"Child! child! if we're going to be philosophical, and all that, we +shall never get you to sleep again. Don't talk any more, my Luise; but +close your eyes, and see if _you_ can't realize a dream; that will be +the best answer to your question." + +"I can't go to sleep again," she answered. "See, I'm quite awake, and +it's no use trying. And with the sun so high too! No; you shall send me +to bed an hour or two earlier to-night, and to-morrow morning will find +me as brisk as a bee. I've so much to hear, and so much to tell, that +to sleep again before dusk is out of the question." + +So she arose; and they went all three and sat down in the little garden. +Luise eyed eagerly every flower and every fruit-tree, and had something +to say about every change since she had been there last. But ever and +anon she would look earnestly into the faces of her parents--and never +without something like a tear in her large lustrous eyes. + +Of course, they questioned her upon this. And she, who had never +concealed a thought or a wish from _them_, told them in her own frank, +artless way, why she looked sorrowful when she first saw them, after a +prolonged separation, and how it was that, in her sleep, thoughts had +visited her which were messengers of peace and gladness--whose message +it had saddened her to find, on waking, but airy and unreal. + +At Seville she had been as happy as kindness and care could make one so +far from and so fond of home. But a childish fancy, she said, had +troubled her--childish she knew, and a thing to be ashamed of, but +haunting her none the less--visiting her sleeping and waking hours; a +feeling it was of dejection at the idea of her parents growing old, and +of change and chance breaking up the wonted calm of her little household +circle. That the march of Time should be so irresistible, that his +flight could not be stayed or slackened by pope or kaiser, that his +decrees should be so immutable, his destiny so inexorable, and that the +youngest must soon cease to be young, and the middle-aged become old--or +die! this was the thought that preyed on her very soul. She could not +endure the conviction that her own father must one day walk with a less +elastic step, and smile on her with eyes ever loving indeed, but more +and more dimmed with age--and that her own mother must one day move to +and fro with tottering gait, and speak with the tremulous accents of +those old people who, it seemed to Luise, could never have been children +at all. It was a weak, fantastic thought, this; but she could not master +it, nor escape its presence. + +And when she met them on the threshold of the beloved home--ah, the +absentee's rapid glance saw a wrinkle on her father's cheek that was new +to her, and it saw a clustering of gray hairs on her mother's brow, +where all had been raven black when Luise departed for Seville. Poor +Luise! The sorrows of her young heart were enlarged. Time had not been +absent with the pensive absentee. + +True, he had stolen no charm from her little playmates. Carlos was a +brighter boy than ever; and as for that merry Zingara-like Isabel, and +the yet merrier Manuel--they were not a whit changed, unless for the +better, in look, and manner, and love. Still the too-sensitive Luise was +hurt at the thought that they could not always be children--that Time +was bent on effacing her earliest and dearest impressions, removing from +her home that ideal of family relationship to which all her affections +clung with passionate entreaty. Whatever the future might; have to +reveal of enjoyment and endearment, the past could never be lived over +again; the past could never be identified with things present and things +to come; and it was to the past that her heart was betrothed--a past +that had gone the way of all living, and left her as it were widowed and +not to be comforted. + +"And now I will tell you my dream," said poor foolish Luise; "and you +will see why I looked happy in sleeping, and sorry in waking. I thought +I was sitting here in the garden--crying over what I have been telling +you--and suddenly an angel stood before me, and bade me weep not. +Strange as was his form, and sunny in its exceeding brightness, I was +not frightened; for his words were very, very gentle, and his look too +full of kindness to give me one thrill of alarm. And he said that what I +had longed for so much should be granted; that my father and mother +should _not_ grow old, nor Carlos cease to be the boy he now is, nor +Isabel grow up into a sedate woman, nor Manuel lose the gay childishness +for which we all pet him, nor I feel myself forsaking the old familiar +past, and launching into dim troublous seas of perpetual change. He +promised that we should one and all be freed from the great law of time; +and that as we are this day parents and children, so we should continue +forever--while vicissitude and decay must still have sway in the great +world at large. Can you wonder that I smiled? Or that it pained me when +I awoke, and found that the bright angel and the sweet promise were +only--a dream?"... + +There was no lack of conversation that evening in that Lisbon cottage. +All loved Luise; and she, in the midst of so many artless tokens of +affection and of triumph at her return, forgot all the morbid fancies +that had given rise to her dream, and was as light-hearted, and as +light-footed, as in days of yore. All gave themselves up to the reality +of present gladness; every voice trembled with the music of joy; every +eye looked and reflected love. There was no happier homestead that +evening in Lisbon, nor in the world. + +But ere many hours, Lisbon itself was tossing and heaving with the +throes of dissolution. The sea arose tumultuously against the tottering +city; the ground breathed fire, and quaked, and burst asunder; the +houses reeled and fell, and thousands of inhabitants perished in the +fall. Among them, at one dire swoop, the tenants of that happy cottage +home. Together did these mortals put on immortality. + +And thus was the dream fulfilled. + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD OF SIR THO'S MORE.[7] + +LIBELLUS A MARGARETA MORE, QUINDECIM ANNOS NATA, CHELSEIÆ INCEPTVS. + + "Nulla dies sine linea." + + +This morn, hinting to Bess that she was lacing herselfe too straightlie, +she brisklie replyed, "One w'd think 'twere as great meritt to have a +thick waiste as to be one of y'e earlie Christians!" + +These humourous retorts are ever at her tongue's end; and, albeit, as +Jacky one day angrilie remarked, when she had beene teazing him, "Bess, +thy witt is stupidnesse;" yet, for one who talks soe much at random, no +one can be more keene when she chooseth. Father sayd of her, half +fondly, half apologeticallie to Erasmus, "Her wit has a fine subtletie +that eludes you almoste before you have time to recognize it for what it +really is." To which, Erasmus readilie assented, adding, that it had +y'e rare meritt of playing less on persons than things, and never on +bodilie defects. + +Hum!--I wonder if they ever sayd as much in favour of me. I know, +indeede, Erasmus calls me a forward girl. Alas! that may be taken in two +senses. + + * * * * * + +Grievous work, overnighte, with y'e churning. Nought w'd persuade +Gillian but that y'e creame was bewitched by Gammer Gurney, who was +dissatisfyde last Friday with her dole, and hobbled away mumping and +cursing. At alle events, y'e butter w'd not come; but mother was +resolute not to have soe much goode creame wasted; soe sent for Bess and +me, Daisy and Mercy Giggs, and insisted on our churning in turn till +y'e butter came, if we sate up all nighte for't. 'Twas a hard saying; +and mighte have hampered her like as Jephtha his rash vow: howbeit, soe +soone as she had left us, we turned it into a frolick, and sang Chevy +Chase from end to end, to beguile time; ne'erthelesse, the butter w'd +not come; soe then we grew sober, and, at y'e instance of sweete +Mercy, chaunted y'e 119th Psalme; and, by the time we had attayned to +"Lucerna pedibus," I hearde y'e buttermilk separating and splashing in +righte earneste. 'Twas neare midnighte, however; and Daisy had fallen +asleep on y'e dresser. Gillian will ne'er be convinced but that our +Latin brake the spell. + +Erasmus went to Richmond this morning with Polus (for so he Latinizes +Reginald Pole, after his usual fashion), and some other of his friends. +On his return, he made us laugh at y'e following. They had clomb y'e +hill, and were admiring y'e prospect, when Pole, casting his eyes +aloft, and beginning to make sundrie gesticulations, exclaimed, "What is +it I beholde? May heaven avert y'e omen!" with such-like exclamations, +which raised y'e curiositie of alle. "Don't you beholde," cries he, +"that enormous dragon flying through y'e sky? his horns of fire? his +curly tail?" + +"No," says Erasmus, "nothing like it. The sky is as cleare as unwritten +paper." + +Howbeit, he continued to affirme and to stare, untill at lengthe, one +after another, by dint of strayning theire eyes and theire imaginations, +did admitt, first, that they saw something; nexte, that it mighte be a +dragon; and last, that it was. Of course, on theire passage homeward, +they c'd talk of little else--some made serious reflections; others, +philosophical! speculations; and Pole waggishly triumphed in having +beene y'e firste to discerne the spectacle. + +"And you trulie believe there was a signe in y'e heavens?" we inquired +of Erasmus. + +"What know I?" returned he, smiling; "you know, Constantine saw a cross. +Why shoulde Polus not see a dragon? We must judge by the event. Perhaps +its mission may be to fly away with _him_. He swore to y'e curly +tail." + +How difficulte it is to discerne y'e supernatural from y'e +incredible! We laughe at Gillian's faith in our Latin; Erasmus laughs at +Polus his dragon. Have we a righte to believe noughte but what we can +see or prove? Nay, that will never doe. Father says a capacitie for +reasoning increaseth a capacitie for believing. He believes there is +such a thing as witchcraft, though not that poore olde Gammer Gurney is +a witch; he believes that saints can work miracles, though not in alle +y'e marvels reported of y'e Canterbury shrine. + +Had I beene justice of y'e peace, like y'e king's grandmother, I +w'd have beene very jealous of accusations of witchcraft; and have +taken infinite payns to sift out y'e causes of malice, jealousie, &c., +which mighte have wroughte with y'e poore olde women's enemies. Holie +Writ sayth, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live;" but, questionlesse, +manie have suffered hurte that were noe witches; and for my part, I have +alwaies helde ducking to be a very uncertayn as well as very cruel +teste. + +I cannot helpe smiling, whenever I think of my rencounter with William +this morning. Mr. Gunnell had set me Homer's tiresome list of ships; +and, because of y'e excessive heate within doors, I took my book into +y'e nuttery, to be beyonde y'e wrath of far-darting Phoebus Apollo, +where I clomb into my favourite filbert seat. Anon comes William through +y'e trees without seeing me; and seats him at the foot of my filbert; +then, out with his tablets, and, in a posture I s'd have called +studdied, had he known anie one within sighte, falls a poetizing, I +question not. Having noe mind to be interrupted, I lett him be, thinking +he w'd soon exhauste y'e vein; but a caterpillar dropping from y'e +leaves on to my page, I was fayn for mirthe sake, to shake it down on +his tablets. As ill luck w'd have it, however, y'e little reptile +onlie fell among his curls; which soe took me at vantage, that I could +not helpe hastilie crying, "I beg your pardon." 'Twas worth a world to +see his start! "What!" cries he, looking up, "are there indeede +Hamadryads?" and would have gallanted a little, but I bade him hold down +his head, while that with a twig I switched off y'e caterpillar. +Neither could forbeare laughing; and then he sued me to step downe, but +I was minded to abide where I was. Howbeit, after a minute's pause, he +sayd, in a grave, kind tone, "Come, little wife;" and taking mine arm +steadilie in his hand, I lost my balance and was faine to come down +whether or noe. We walked for some time, _juxta fluvium_; and he talked +not badlie of his travels, inasmuch as I founde there was really more in +him than one w'd think. + + * * * * * + +--Was there ever anie-thing soe perverse, unluckie, and downright +disagreeable? We hurried our afternoone tasks, to goe on y'e water +with my father; and, meaning to give Mr. Gunnel my Latin traduction, +which is in a book like unto this, I never knew he had my journalle +instead, untill that he burst out a laughing. "Soe this is y'e famous +_libellus_," quoth he,... I never waited for another word, but snatcht +it out of his hand; which he, for soe strict a man, bore well enow. I do +not believe he c'd have read a dozen lines, and they were toward y'e +beginning; but I s'd hugelie like to know which dozen lines they were. + +Hum! I have a mind never to write another word. That will be punishing +myselfe, though, insteade of Gunnel. And he bade me not take it to heart +like y'e late Bishop of Durham, to whom a like accident befel, which +soe annoyed him that he died of chagrin. I will never again, howbeit, +write aniething savouring ever soe little of levitie or absurditie. The +saints keepe me to it! And, to know it from my exercise book, I will +henceforthe bind a blue ribbon round it. Furthermore, I will knit y'e +sayd ribbon in soe close a knot, that it shall be worth noe one else's +payns to pick it out. Lastlie, and for entire securitie, I will carry +the same in my pouch, which will hold bigger matters than this. + + * * * * * + +This daye, at dinner, Mr. Clement took y'e Pistoller's place at y'e +reading-desk; and insteade of continuing y'e subject in hand, read a +paraphrase of y'e 103rde Psalm; ye faithfullenesse and elegant turne +of which, Erasmus highlie commended, though he took exceptions to y'e +phrase "renewing thy youth like that of y'e Phoenix," whose fabulous +story he believed to have been unknown to y'e Psalmist, and, +therefore, however poeticall, was unfitt to be introduced. A deepe blush +on sweet Mercy's face ledd to y'e detection of y'e paraphrast, and +drew on her some deserved commendations. Erasmus, turning to my father, +exclaymed with animation, "I woulde call this house the academy of +Plato, were it not injustice to compare it to a place where the usuall +disputations concerning figures and numbers were onlie oocasionallie +intersperst with disquisitions concerning y'e moral virtues." Then, in +a graver mood, he added, "One mighte envie you, but that your precious +privileges are bound up with soe paynfulle anxieties. How manie pledges +have you given to fortune!" + +"If my children are to die out of y'e course of nature, before theire +parents," father firmly replyed, "I w'd rather they died +well-instructed than ignorant." + +"You remind me," rejoyns Erasmus, "of Phocion; whose wife, when he was +aboute to drink y'e fatal cup, exclaimed, 'Ah, my husband! you die +innocent.' 'And woulde you, my wife,' he returned, 'have me die +guilty?'" + +Awhile after, Gonellus askt leave to see Erasmus his signet-ring, which +he handed down to him. In passing it back, William, who was occupyde in +carving a crane, handed it soe negligentlie that it felle to y'e +ground. I never saw such a face as Erasmus made, when 'twas picked out +from y'e rushes! And yet, ours are renewed almoste daylie, which manie +think over nice. He took it gingerlie in his faire, womanlike hands, and +washed and wiped it before he put it on; which escaped not my +step-mother's displeased notice. Indeede, these Dutchmen are +scrupulouslie cleane, though mother calls 'em swinish, because they will +eat raw sallets; though, for that matter, father loves cresses and +ramps. She alsoe mislikes Erasmus for eating cheese and butter together +with his manchet; or what he calls _boetram_; and for being, generallie, +daintie at his sizes, which she sayth is an ill example to soe manie +young people, and becometh not one with soe little money in's purse: +howbeit, I think 'tis not nicetie, but a weak stomach, which makes him +loathe our salt-meat commons from Michaelmasse to Easter, and eschew +fish of y'e coarser sort. He cannot breakfaste on colde milk like +father, but liketh furmity a little spiced. At dinner, he pecks at, +rather than eats, ruffs and reeves, lapwings, or anie smalle birds it +may chance; but affects sweets and subtilties, and loves a cup of wine +or ale, stirred with rosemary. Father never toucheth the wine-cup but to +grace a guest, and loves water from the spring. We growing girls eat +more than either; and father says he loves to see us slice away at the +cob-loaf; it does him goode. What a kind father he is! I wish my +step-mother were as kind. I hate alle sneaping and snubbing, flowting, +fleering, pinching, nipping, and such-like; it onlie creates resentment +insteade of penitence, and lowers y'e minde of either partie. Gillian +throws a rolling-pin at y'e turnspit's head, and we call it low-life; +but we looke for such unmannerlinesse in the kitchen. A whip is onlie +fit for Tisiphone. + +As we rose from table, I noted Argus pearcht on y'e window-sill, +eagerlie watching for his dinner, which he looketh for as punctuallie as +if he c'd tell the diall; and to please the good, patient bird, till +the scullion broughte him his mess of garden-stuff, I fetched him some +pulse, which he took from mine hand, taking good heede not to hurt me +with his sharp beak. While I was feeding him, Erasmus came up, and asked +me concerning Mercy Giggs; and I tolde him how that she was a +friendlesse orphan, to whom deare father afforded protection and the run +of y'e house; and tolde him of her gratitude, her meekness, her +patience, her docilitie, her aptitude for alle goode works and +alms-deeds; and how, in her little chamber, she improved eache spare +moment in y'e way of studdy and prayer. He repeated "Friendlesse? she +cannot be called friendlesse, who hath More for her protector, and his +children for companions;' and then woulde heare more of her parents' sad +story. Alsoe, would hear somewhat of Rupert Allington, and how father +gained his law-suit. Alsoe, of Daisy, whose name he tooke to be y'e +true abbreviation for Margaret, but I tolde him how that my step-sister, +and Mercy, and I, being all three of a name, and I being alwaies called +Meg, we had in sport given one the significative of her characteristic +virtue, and the other that of y'e French Marguerite, which may indeed +be rendered either pearl or daisy. And Chaucer, speaking of our English +daisy, saith + + "Si douce est la Marguerite." + + * * * * * + +Since y'e little wisdom I have capacitie to acquire, soe oft gives me +y'e headache to distraction, I marvel not at Jupiter's payn in his +head, when the goddess of wisdom sprang therefrom full growne. + +This morn, to quiet y'e payn brought on by too busie application, Mr. +Gunnell would have me close my book and ramble forth with Cecy into +y'e fields. We strolled towards Walham Greene; and she was seeking for +shepherd's purses and shepherd's needles, when she came running back to +me, looking rather pale. I askt what had scared her, and she made answer +that Gammer Gurney was coming along y'e hedge. I bade her set aside +her fears; and anon we come up with Gammer, who was puling at y'e +purple blossoms of y'e deadly night-shade. I sayd, "Gammer, to what +purpose gather that weed? knowest not 'tis evill?" + +She sayth, mumbling, "What God hath created, that call not thou evill." + +"Well, but," quo' I, "'tis poison." + +"Aye, and medicine, too," returns Gammer, "I wonder what we poor souls +might come to, if we tooke nowt for our ails and aches but what we could +buy o' the potticary. We've got noe Dr. Clement, we poor folks, to be +our leech o' the household." + +"But hast no feare," quo' I, "of an overdose?" + +"There's manie a doctor," sayth she, with an unpleasant leer, "that hath +given that at first. In time he gets his hand in; and I've had a plenty +o' practice--thanks to self and sister." + +"I knew not," quoth I, "that thou hadst a sister." + +"How should ye, mistress," returns she, shortlie, "when ye never comes +nigh us? We've grubbed on together this many a year." + +"'Tis soe far," I returned, half ashamed. + +"Why, soe it be," answers Gammer; "far from neighbours, far from church, +and far from priest; howbeit, my old legs carries me to _your_ house o' +Fridays; but I know not whether I shall e'er come agayn--the rye bread +was soe hard last time; it may serve for young teeth, and for them as +has got none; but mine, you see, are onlie on the _goe_;" and she opened +her mouth with a ghastly smile. "'Tis not," she added, "that I'm +ungratefulle; but thou sees, mistress, I really _can't_ eat crusts." + +After a moment, I asked, "Where lies your dwelling?" + +"Out by yonder," quoth she, pointing to a shapeless mass like a huge +bird's nest in y'e corner of the field. "There bides poor Joan and I. +Wilt come and looke within, mistress, and see how a Christian can die?" + +I mutelie complyed, in spite of Cecy's pulling at my skirts. Arrived at +y'e wretched abode, which had a hole for its chimney, and another for +door at once and window, I found, sitting in a corner, propped on a heap +of rushes, dried leaves, and olde rags, an aged sick woman, who seemed +to have but a little while to live. A mug of water stoode within her +reach; I saw none other sustenance; but, in her visage, oh, such +peace!... Whispers Gammer with an awfulle look, "She sees 'em now!" + +"Sees who?" quoth I. + +"Why, angels in two long rows, afore y'e throne of God, a bending of +themselves, this way, with theire faces to th' earth, and arms stretched +out afore 'em." + +"Hath she seen a priest?" quoth I. + +"Lord love ye," returns Gammer, "what coulde a priest doe for her? She's +is in heaven alreadie. I doubte if she can heare me." And then, in a +loud, distinct voyce, quite free from her usuall mumping, she beganne to +recite in _English_, "Blessed is every one that feareth y'e Lord, and +walketh in his ways," etc.; which y'e dying woman hearde, although +alreadie speechlesse; and reaching out her feeble arm unto her sister's +neck, she dragged it down till their faces touched; and then, looking +up, pointed at somewhat she aimed to make her see ... and we alle looked +up, but saw noughte. Howbeit, she pointed up three severall times, and +lay, as it were, transfigured before us, a gazing at some transporting +sighte, and ever and anon turning on her sister looks of love; and, the +while we stoode thus agaze, her spiritt passed away without even a +thrill or a shudder. Cecy and I beganne to weepe; and, after a while, +soe did Gammer; then, putting us forthe, she sayd, "Goe, children, goe; +'tis noe goode crying; and yet I'm thankfulle to ye for your teares." + +I sayd, "Is there aught we can doe for thee?" + +She made answer, "Perhaps you can give me tuppence, mistress, to lay on +her poor eyelids and keep 'em down. Bless 'ee, bless 'ee! You're like +y'e good Samaritan--he pulled out two-pence. And maybe, if I come to +'ee to-morrow, you'll give me a lapfulle of rosemarie, to lay on her +poor corpse.... I know you've plenty. God be with 'ee, children; and be +sure ye mind how a Christian can die." + +Soe we left, and came home sober enow. Cecy sayth, "To die is not soe +fearfulle, Meg, as I thoughte, but shoulde _you_ fancy dying without a +priest? I shoulde not; and yet Gammer sayd she wanted not one. Howbeit, +for certayn, Gammer Gurney is noe witch, or she woulde not so prayse +God." + +To conclude, father, on hearing alle, hath given Gammer more than enow +for her present needes; and Cecy and I are y'e almoners of his mercy. + + * * * * * + + June 24. + +Yesternighte, being St. John's Eve, we went into town to see y'e +mustering of y'e watch. Mr. Rastall had secured us a window opposite +y'e King's Head, in Chepe, where theire M'ys. went in state to see +the show. The streets were a marvell to see, being like unto a +continuation of fayr bowres or arbours, garlanded acrosse and over y'e +doors with greene birch, long fennel, orpin, St. John's wort, white +lilies, and such like; with innumerable candles intersperst, the which, +being lit up as soon as 'twas dusk, made the whole look like enchanted +land; while at y'e same time, the leaping over bon-fires commenced, +and produced shouts of laughter. The youths woulde have father goe downe +and joyn 'em; Rupert, speciallie, begged him hard, but he put him off +with, "Sirrah, you goosecap, dost think 'twoulde befitt y'e Judge of +the Sheriffs' Court?" + +At length, to y'e sound of trumpets, came marching up Cheapside two +thousand of the watch, in white fustian, with the City badge; and seven +hundred cressett bearers, eache with his fellow to supplie him with oyl, +and making, with theire flaring lights, the night as cleare as daye. +After 'em, the morris-dancers and City waites; the Lord Mayor on +horseback, very fine, with his giants and pageants: and the Sheriff and +his watch, and _his_ giants and pageants. The streets very uproarious on +our way back to the barge, but the homeward passage delicious; the +nighte ayre cool; and the stars shining brightly. Father and Erasmus had +some astronomick talk; howbeit, methoughte Erasmus less familiar with +y'e heavenlie bodies than father is. Afterwards, they spake of y'e +King, but not over-freelie, by reason of y'e bargemen overhearing. +Thence, to y'e ever-vext question of Martin Luther, of whome Erasmus +spake in terms of earneste, yet qualifyde prayse. + +"If Luther be innocent," quoth he, "I woulde not run him down by a +wicked faction; if he be in error, I woulde rather have him reclaymed +than destroyed; for this is most agreeable to the doctrine of our deare +Lord and Master, who woulde not bruise y'e broken reede, nor quenche +y'e smoaking flax." And much more to same purpose. + +We younger folks felle to choosing our favourite mottoes and devices, in +which y'e elders at length joyned us. Mother's was loyal--"Cleave to +y'e crown though it hang on a bush." Erasmus's pithie--"Festina +lente." William sayd he was indebted for his to St. Paul--"I seeke not +yours, but you." For me, I quoted one I had seene in an olde countrie +church, "Mieux être que paroitre," which pleased father and Erasmus +much. + + * * * * * + +Poor Erasmus caughte colde on y'e water last nighte, and keeps house +to-daye, taking warm possets. 'Tis my week of housekeeping under +mother's guidance, and I never had more pleasure in it: delighting to +suit his taste in sweete things, which, methinks, all men like. I have +enow of time left for studdy, when alle's done. + +He hathe beene the best part of the morning in our academia, looking +over books and manuscripts, taking notes of some, discoursing with Mr. +Gunnell and others; and, in some sorte, interrupting our morning's work; +but how pleasantlie! Besides, as father sayth, "varietie is not always +interruption. That which occasionallie lets and hinders our accustomed +studdies, may prove to y'e ingenious noe less profitable than theire +studdies themselves." + +They beganne with discussing y'e pronunciation of Latin and Greek, on +which Erasmus differeth much from us, though he holds to our +pronunciation of y'e _theta_. Thence, to y'e absurde partie of the +Ciceronians now in Italie, who will admit noe author save Tully to be +read nor quoted, nor anie word not in his writings to be used. Thence, +to y'e Latinitie of y'e Fathers, of whose style he spake slightlie +enow, but rated Jerome above Augustine. At length, to his Greek and +Latin Testament, of late issued from y'e presse, and y'e incredible +labour it hath cost him to make it as perfect as possible: on this +subject he soe warmed, that Bess and I listened with suspended breath. +"May it please God," sayth he, knitting ferventlie his hands, "to make +it a blessing to all Christendom! I look for noe other reward. Scholars +and believers yet unborn, may have reason to thank, and yet may forget +Erasmus." He then went on to explain to Gunnell what he had much felt in +want of, and hoped some scholar might yet undertake; to wit, a sort of +Index Bibliorum, showing in how manie passages of holy writ occurreth +anie given word, etc.; and he e'en proposed it to Gunnell, saying 'twas +onlie y'e work of patience and industry, and mighte be layd aside, and +resumed as occasion offered, and completed at leisure, to y'e great +thankfullenesse of scholars. But Gunnell onlie smiled and shooke his +head. Howbeit, Erasmus set forth his scheme soe playnlie, that I, having +a pen in hand, did privilie note down alle y'e heads of y'e same, +thinking, if none else w'd undertake it, why s'd not I? since +leisure and industrie were alone required, and since 'twoulde be soe +acceptable to manie, 'speciallie to Erasmus. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Continued from the April Number. + + + + +THE STOLEN FRUIT.--A STORY OF NAPOLEON'S CHILDHOOD. + + +On the 15th of August, 1777, two little girls of seven or eight years +old were playing in a garden near Ajaccio in Corsica. After running up +and down among the trees and flowers, one of them stopped the other at +the entrance to a dark grotto under a rock. + +"Eliza," she said, "don't go any further: it frightens me to look into +that black cave." + +"Nonsense! 'Tis only Napoleon's Grotto." + +"This garden belongs to your uncle Fesch: has he given this dark hole to +Napoleon?" + +"No, Panoria; my great-uncle has not given him this grotto. But as he +often comes and spends hours in it by himself, we all call it +_Napoleon's Grotto_." + +"And what can he be doing there?" + +"Talking to himself." + +"What about?" + +"Oh, I don't know: a variety of things. But come, help me to gather a +large bunch of flowers." + +"Just now, when we were on the lower walk, you told me not to pull any, +although there was abundance of sweet ones." + +"Yes; but that was in my uncle the canon's garden. + +"And are his flowers more sacred than those of uncle Fesch?" + +"They are indeed, Panoria." + +"And why?" + +"I'm sure I don't know, but when any one wants to prevent our playing, +they say, 'That will give your uncle the canon a headache!' When we are +not to touch something, 'tis always, 'That belongs to the canon!' If we +want to eat some fine fruit, 'Don't touch that; 'tis for your uncle the +canon!' And even when we are praised or rewarded, 'tis always because +the canon is pleased with us!" + +"Is it because he is archdeacon of Ajaccio that people are so much +afraid of him?" + +"Oh, no, Panoria; but because he is our tutor. Papa is not rich enough +to pay for masters to teach us, and he has not time to look after our +education himself; so our uncle the canon teaches us every thing. He is +not unkind, but he is very strict. If we don't know our lessons, he +slaps us smartly." + +"And don't you call that unkind, Eliza?" + +"Not exactly. Do you never get a whipping yourself, Panoria?" + +"No, indeed, Eliza. It is the Corsican fashion to beat children; but our +family is Greek, and mamma says Greeks must not be beaten." + +"Then I'm sure, Panoria, I wish I were a Greek; for 'tis very unpleasant +to be slapped!" + +"I dare say your brother Napoleon does not like it either." + +"He is the only one of my brothers who does not cry or complain when he +is punished. If you heard what a noise Joseph and Lucien make, you would +fancy that uncle was flaying them alive!" + +"But about Napoleon. What can he be talking about alone in the grotto?" + +"Hush! Here he is! Let us hide ourselves behind this lilac-tree, and +you'll hear." + +"I see Severia coming to call us." + +"Ah! it will take her an hour to gather ripe fruit for uncle the canon. +We shall have time enough. Come!" + +And the little girls, gliding between the rock and the overhanging +shrubs, took up their position in perfect concealment. + +The boy who advanced toward the grotto differed from the generality of +children of his age in the size of his head, the massive form of his +noble brow, and the fixed _examining_ expression of his eyes. He walked +slowly--looking at the bright blue sea--and unconscious that his +proceedings were closely watched by two pair of little bright black +eyes. + +"Here I am my own master!" he said as he entered the grotto. "No one +commands me here!" And seating himself royally on a bench within the +dark entrance, he continued, "This is my birthday. I am eight years old +to-day. I wish I lived among the Spartans, then I should be beyond the +control of women; but now I have to obey such a number of people--old +Severia among the rest. Ah, if I were the master!" + +"Well, and if you were the master, what would you do?" cried Eliza, +thrusting forward her pretty little head. + +"First of all, I'd teach you not to come listening at doors," replied +Napoleon, disconcerted at being overheard. + +"But, brother, there's no door that I can see." + +"No matter, you have been eaves-dropping all the same." + +"Eliza!--Panoria!" cried a loud voice. "Where can these children have +gone to?" + +The young ladies came out of their leafy lurking-place in time to meet +the little Bonapartes' nurse, Severia--a tall old woman, who carried on +her arm a basket filled with the most luscious tempting pears, grapes, +and figs. + +"A pear, Severia!" cried Napoleon, darting forward, and thrusting his +hand into the basket. + +"The saints forbid, child!" exclaimed Severia. "They are for your uncle +the canon!" + +"Ah!" said Napoleon, drawing back his hand as quickly as if a wasp had +stung him. + +Panoria burst out laughing. + +"I never saw such people!" she said, as soon as her mirth allowed her to +speak. "My uncle the canon seems the bugbear of the whole family. Is +Severia afraid of him, too?" + +"Not more than I am," said Napoleon, boldly. + +"And yet you were afraid to take a pear?" + +"Because I did not wish to do it, Panoria." + +"Did not _dare_ do it, Napoleon!" + +"Did not _wish_ to do it, Panoria." + +"And if you wished it, would you do it?" + +"Certainly I would." + +"I think you are a boaster, Napoleon; and in your uncle's presence would +be just as great a coward as Eliza or Pauline?" + +"Come, children, follow me," said Severia, walking on. + +"You think I am a coward?" whispered Eliza to her little friend. "Come +into the house, and see if I don't eat as much of uncle's fruit as I +please. Mamma is gone out to pay a visit, and will not be home until +to-morrow." + +"Then I'll help you," said Panoria. And the little girls, fixing their +wistful eyes on the tempting fruit, followed Severia to the house. + +Napoleon remained some time longer in his grotto; and when supper-time +approached, he went into the house. Feeling very thirsty, he entered +the dining-room, in which was a large cupboard, where fresh water was +usually kept. Just as he was going in, he heard a noise: the cupboard +doors were quickly shut, and he caught a glimpse of a white frock +disappearing through the open window. Instead, however, of looking after +the fugitive, he went quietly to get a glass of water in the cupboard. +Then, to his dismay, he saw his uncle's basket of fruit half empty! +While, forgetting his thirst, he looked with astonishment at the fruit, +considering who could have been the hardy thief, a voice behind him +roused him from his reverie. + +"What are you doing there, Napoleon? You know you are not permitted to +help yourself to supper." + +This was uncle the canon himself--a short, stout old man with a bald +head, whose otherwise ordinary features were lighted up with the eagle +glance which afterward distinguished his grand-nephew. + +"I was not taking any thing, uncle," replied Napoleon. And then suddenly +the idea occurring to him that he might be accused of having taken the +fruit, the blood rushed hotly to his cheeks. + +His confusion was so evident, that the canon said, "I hope you are not +telling a falsehood, Napoleon?" + +"I never tell falsehoods," said the boy, proudly. + +"What were you doing?" + +"I was thirsty; I came to get some water." + +"No harm in that--and then, my boy?" + +"That was all, uncle." + +"Have you drunk the water?" + +"No, uncle; not yet." + +The archdeacon shook his head. "You came to drink, and you did not +drink; that does not hang well together. Napoleon, take care. If you +frankly confess your fault, whatever it may be, you shall be forgiven; +but if you tell a lie, and persist in it, I warn you that I shall punish +you severely." + +The entrance of M. Bonaparte, M. Fesch, and Joseph, Napoleon's eldest +brother, interrupted the conversation; and for some minutes the elder +gentlemen spoke to each other on political subjects; when a sudden +exclamation from Severia, as she opened the cupboard, attracted the +attention of all. + +"Santa Madona! who has taken the fruit?" + +"This is the mystery discovered!" said the canon, turning toward +Napoleon. "So you stole the fruit?" + +"I never touched it," replied the boy. + +"Call in the other children," said the archdeacon. + +In a few minutes five beautiful children, three boys and two girls, +formed a group round their father, who, looking at each one in turn, +asked, "Which of you has taken the fruit that was gathered in your uncle +the canon's garden?" + +"I did not!" "Nor I!" "Nor I!" cried they all. But Eliza's voice was +lower and less assured than those of the others. + +"And you, Napoleon?" + +"I have said, papa, that I did not do it." + +"That's a falsehood!" exclaimed Severia, who, being an old domestic, +took great liberties. + +"If you were not a woman!" said Napoleon, shaking his small clenched +hand at her. + +"Silence! Napoleon," said his father, sternly. + +"It must have been you, Napoleon," said Severia; "for after putting the +fruit into the cupboard, I never left the ante-room, and not a soul +passed through except the archdeacon and yourself. If he has not taken +them--" + +"I wish truly I had," said the old gentleman, "and then I should not +have the grief of seeing one of my children persist in a lie." + +"Uncle, I am not guilty," repeated Napoleon firmly. + +"Do not be obstinate, but confess," said his father. + +"Yes," added the canon; "'tis the only way to escape punishment." + +"But I never touched the fruit--indeed, I did not." + +"Napoleon," said his uncle, "I can not believe you. I shall give you +five minutes; and if, at the end of that time, you do not confess, and +ask for pardon, I shall whip you." + +"A whip is for horses and dogs, not for children!" said the boy. + +"A whip is for disobedient, lying children," replied his father. + +"Then 'tis unjust to give it me, for I am neither a liar nor +disobedient." So saying, Napoleon crossed his arms on his chest, and +settled himself in a firm attitude. + +Meantime his brothers and his sister Pauline came close to him, and +whispered good-natured entreaties that he would confess. + +"But how can I, when I have not done wrong?" + +"So you are still obstinate?" said his uncle. And taking him by the arm, +he led him into the next room. Presently the sound of sharp repeated +blows was heard, but not a cry or complaint from the little sufferer. + +Madame Bonaparte was away from home, and in the evening her husband went +to meet her, accompanied by Joseph, Lucien, and Eliza. M. Fesch and the +canon were also about to depart, and in passing through the ante-room, +they saw Napoleon standing, pale and grave, but proud, and firm-looking +as before. + +"Well, my child," said his father, "I hope you will now ask your uncle's +pardon?" + +"I did not touch the fruit, papa." + +"Still obstinate! As the rod will not do, I shall try another method. +Your mother, brothers, Eliza, and I, will be away for three days, and +during that time you shall have nothing but bread and water, unless you +ask your uncle's forgiveness." + +"But, papa, won't you let him have some cheese with his bread?" +whispered little Pauline. + +"Yes, but not _broccio_." + +"Ah do, papa, please let him have _broccio_ 'tis the nicest cheese in +Corsica!" + +"That's the reason he does not deserve it," said his father, looking at +the boy with an anxious expression, as if he hoped to see some sign of +penitence on his face. But none such appearing, he proceeded toward the +carriage. + +Joseph and Lucien took a kind leave of their brother, but Eliza seemed +unwilling and afraid to go near or look at him. + +The three days passed on, heavily enough for poor Napoleon, who was in +disgrace, and living on bread, water, and cheese, which was not +_broccio_. At length the party returned, and little Panoria, who was +watching for her friend Eliza, came with them into the house. + +"Good-morning, uncle," said Madame Bonaparte to the archdeacon, "how are +you? And where are Napoleon and Pauline?" + +"Here I am, mamma," said the latter throwing her arms around her +mother's neck. + +"And Napoleon?" + +"He is here," said the canon. + +"Has he confessed?" asked his father. + +"No," replied the uncle. "I never before witnessed such obstinacy." + +"What has he done?" asked his mother. + +The canon, in reply, related the story of the fruit; but before he could +finish it, Panoria exclaimed-- + +"Of course, poor fellow, he would not confess what he never did!" + +"And who did take the fruit?" asked the canon. + +"I and Eliza," replied the little girl without hesitation. + +There was a universal exclamation. + +"My poor child," said the archdeacon, embracing Napoleon tenderly, "why +did you not undeceive us?" + +"I suspected it was Eliza," replied Napoleon; "but I was not sure. At +all events, I would not have told, for Panoria's sake, who is not a +liar." + +The reader may imagine how Napoleon was caressed and rewarded to make +him amends for the pain he had unjustly suffered. As to Eliza, she was +severely and rightly punished: first for her gluttony; and then for what +was much worse--her cowardice and deceit in allowing her innocent +brother to suffer for her fault. + + + + +WILBERFORCE AND CHALMERS. + + +I have seldom observed a more amusing and pleasing contrast between two +great men than between Wilberforce and Chalmers. Chalmers is stout and +erect, with a broad countenance--Wilberforce minute, and singularly +twisted: Chalmers, both in body and mind, moves with, a deliberate +step--Wilberforce, infirm as he is in his advanced years, flies about +with astonishing activity, and while, with nimble finger, he seizes on +every thing that adorns or diversifies his path, his mind flits from +object to object with unceasing versatility. I often think that +particular men bear about with them an analogy to particular animals: +Chalmers is like a good-tempered lion--Wilberforce is like a bee: +Chalmers can say a pleasant thing now and then, and laugh when he has +said it, and he has a strong touch of humor in his countenance, but in +general he is _grave_, his thoughts grow to a great size before they are +uttered--Wilberforce sparkles with life and wit, and the characteristic +of his mind is "rapid productiveness." A man might be in Chalmers's +company for an hour, especially in a party, without knowing who or what +he was--though in the end he would be sure to be detected by some +unexpected display of powerful originality. Wilberforce, except when +fairly asleep, is never latent. Chalmers knows how to vail himself in a +decent cloud--Wilberforce is always in sunshine. Seldom, I believe, has +any mind been more strung to a perpetual tune of love and praise. Yet +these persons, distinguished as they are from the world at large, and +from each other, present some admirable points of resemblance. Both of +them are broad thinkers, and liberal feelers; both of them are arrayed +in humility, meekness, and charity: both appear to hold self in little +reputation: above all, both love the Lord Jesus Christ, and reverently +acknowledge him to be their _only Saviour_.--_Hanna's Memoirs of +Chalmers._ + + + + +MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. + +(_Continued from page 698._) + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Mr. Dale had been more than a quarter of an hour conversing with Mrs. +Avenel, and had seemingly made little progress in the object of his +diplomatic mission, for now, slowly drawing on his gloves, he said, + +"I grieve to think, Mrs. Avenel, that you should have so hardened your +heart--yes--you must pardon me--it is my vocation to speak stern truths. +You can not say that I have not kept faith with you, but I must now +invite you to remember that I specially reserved to myself the right of +exercising a discretion to act as I judged best, for the child's +interests, on any future occasion; and it was upon this understanding +that you gave me the promise, which you would now evade, of providing +for him when he came into manhood." + +"I say I will provide for him. I say that you may 'prentice him in any +distant town, and by-and-by we will stock a shop for him. What would you +have more, sir, from folks like us, who have kept shop ourselves? It +ain't reasonable what you ask, sir?" + +"My dear friend," said the Parson, "what I ask of you at present is but +to see him--to receive him kindly--to listen to his conversation--to +judge for yourselves. We can have but a common object--that your +grandson should succeed in life, and do you credit. Now, I doubt very +much whether we can effect this by making him a small shopkeeper." + +"And has Jane Fairfield, who married a common carpenter, brought him up +to despise small shopkeepers?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel, angrily. + +"Heaven forbid! Some of the first men in England have been the sons of +small shopkeepers. But is it a crime in them, or their parents, if their +talents have lifted them into such rank or renown as the haughtiest duke +might envy? England were not England if a man must rest where his father +began." + +"Good!" said, or rather grunted, an approving voice, but neither Mrs. +Avenel nor the Parson heard it. + +"All very fine," said Mrs. Avenel, bluntly. "But to send a boy like that +to the university--where's the money to come from?" + +"My dear Mrs. Avenel," said the Parson, coaxingly, "the cost need not be +great at a small college at Cambridge; and if you will pay half the +expense, I will pay the other half. I have no children of my own, and +can afford it." + +"That's very handsome in you, sir," said Mrs. Avenel, somewhat touched, +yet still not graciously. "But the money is not the only point." + +"Once at Cambridge," continued Mr. Dale, speaking rapidly, "at +Cambridge, where the studies are mathematical--that is, of a nature for +which he has shown so great an aptitude--and I have no doubt he will +distinguish himself; if he does, he will obtain, on leaving, what is +called a fellowship--that is a collegiate dignity accompanied by an +income on which he could maintain himself until he made his way in life. +Come, Mrs. Avenel, you are well off; you have no relations nearer to you +in want of your aid. Your son, I hear, has been very fortunate." + +"Sir," said Mrs. Avenel, interrupting the Parson, "it is not because my +son Richard is an honor to us, and is a good son, and has made his +fortin, that we are to rob him of what we have to leave, and give it to +a boy whom we know nothing about, and who, in spite of what you say, +can't bring upon us any credit at all." + +"Why? I don' see that." + +"Why?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel, fiercely--"why? you know why. No, I don't +want him to rise in life: I don't want folks to be speiring and asking +about him. I think it is a very wicked thing to have put fine notions in +his head, and I am sure my daughter Fairfield could not have done it +herself. And now, to ask me to rob Richard, and bring out a great +boy--who's been a gardener, or plowman, or such like--to disgrace a +gentleman who keeps his carriage, as my son Richard does--I would have +you to know, sir, no! I won't do it, and there's an end to the matter." + +During the last two or three minutes, and just before that approving +"good" had responded to the Parson's popular sentiment, a door +communicating with an inner room had been gently opened, and stood ajar; +but this incident neither party had even noticed. But now the door was +thrown boldly open, and the traveler whom the Parson had met at the inn +walked up to Mr. Dale, and said, "No! that's not the end of the matter. +You say the boy's a 'cute clever lad?" + +"Richard, have you been listening?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel. + +"Well, I guess, yes--the last few minutes." + +"And what have you heard?" + +"Why, that this reverend gentleman thinks so highly of my sister +Fairfield's boy that he offers to pay half of his keep at college. Sir, +I'm very much obliged to you, and there's my hand, if you'll take it." + +The Parson jumped up, overjoyed, and, with a triumphant glance toward +Mrs. Avenel, shook hands heartily with Mr. Richard. + +"Now," said the latter, "just put on your hat, sir, and take a stroll +with me, and we'll discuss the thing business-like. Women don't +understand business; never talk to women on business." + +With these words, Mr. Richard drew out a cigar-case, selected a cigar, +which he applied to the candle, and walked into the hall. + +Mrs. Avenel caught hold of the Parson. "Sir, you'll be on your guard +with Richard. Remember your promise." + +"He does not know all, then?" + +"He? No! And you see he did not overhear more than what he says. I'm +sure you're a gentleman, and won't go agin your word." + +"My word was conditional; but I will promise you never to break the +silence without more reason than I think there is here for it. Indeed, +Mr. Richard Avenel seems to save all necessity for that." + +"Are you coming, sir?" cried Richard, as he opened the street door. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +The Parson joined Mr. Richard Avenel on the road. It was a fine night, +and the moon clear and shining. + +"So, then," said Mr. Richard thoughtfully, "poor Jane, who was always +the drudge of the family, has contrived to bring up her son well; and +the boy is really what you say, eh?--could make a figure at college?" + +"I am sure of it," said the Parson, hooking himself on to the arm which +Mr. Avenel proffered. + +"I should like to see him," said Richard. "Has he any manner? Is he +genteel? or a mere country lout?" + +"Indeed he speaks with so much propriety, and has so much modest +dignity, I might say, about him, that there's many a rich gentleman who +would be proud of such a son." + +"It is odd," observed Richard, "what difference there is in families. +There's Jane now--who can't read nor write, and was just fit to be a +workman's wife--had not a thought above her station; and when I think of +my poor sister Nora--you would not believe it, sir, but _she_ was the +most elegant creature in the world--yes, even as a child (she was but a +child when I went off to America). And often, as I was getting on in +life, often I used to say to myself, 'My little Nora shall be a lady +after all.' Poor thing--but she died young." + +Richard's voice grew husky. + +The Parson kindly pressed the arm on which he leaned, and said, after a +pause, + +"Nothing refines us like education, sir. I believe your sister Nora had +received much instruction, and had the talents to profit by it; it is +the same with your nephew." + +"I'll see him," said Richard, stamping his foot firmly on the ground, +"and if I like him, I'll be as good as a father to him. Look you, Mr. +---- what's your name, sir?" + +"Dale." + +"Mr. Dale, look you, I'm a single man. Perhaps I may marry some day; +perhaps I shan't. I'm not going to throw myself away. If I can get a +lady of quality, why--but that's neither here nor there; meanwhile, I +should be glad of a nephew whom I need not be ashamed of. You see, sir, +I'm a new man, the builder of my own fortunes; and, though I have picked +up a little education--I don't well know how--as I scrambled on, still, +now I come back to the old country I'm well aware that I am not exactly +a match for those d----d aristocrats; don't show so well in a +drawing-room as I could wish. I could be a Parliament man if I liked, +but I might make a goose of myself; so, all things considered, if I can +get a sort of junior partner to do the polite work, and show off the +goods, I think the house of Avenel & Co. might become a pretty +considerable honor to the Britishers. You understand me, sir?" + +"Oh, very well," answered Mr. Dale smiling, though rather gravely. + +"Now," continued the New Man, "I'm not ashamed to have risen in life by +my own merits; and I don't disguise what I've been. And, when I'm in my +own grand house, I'm fond of saying, 'I landed at New York with £10 in +my purse, and here I am!' But it would not do to have the old folks with +me. People take you with all your faults, if you're rich; but they won't +swallow your family into the bargain. So if I don't have my own father +and mother, whom I love dearly, and should like to see sitting at table, +with my servants behind their chairs, I could still less have sister +Jane. I recollect her very well, and she can't have got genteeler as +she's grown older. Therefore I beg you'll not set her on coming after +me; it won't do by any manner of means. Don't say a word about me to +her. But send the boy down here to his grandfather, and I'll see him +quietly, you understand." + +"Yes, but it will be hard to separate her from the boy." + +"Stuff! all boys are separated from their parents when they go into the +world. So that's settled! Now, just tell me. I know the old folks always +snubbed Jane--that is, mother did. My poor dear father never snubbed any +of us. Perhaps mother has not behaved altogether well to Jane. But we +must not blame her for that; you see this is how it happened. There were +a good many of us, while father and mother kept shop in the High-street, +so we were all to be provided for anyhow; and Jane, being very useful +and handy at work, got a place when she was a little girl, and had no +time for learning. Afterward my father made a lucky hit, in getting my +Lord Lansmere's custom after an election, in which he did a great deal +for the Blues (for he was a famous electioneerer, my poor father). My +Lady stood godmother to Nora; and then most of my brothers and sisters +died off, and father retired from business; and when he took Jane from +service, she was so common-like that mother could not help contrasting +her with Nora. You see Jane was their child when they were poor little +shop-people, with their heads scarce above water; and Nora was their +child when they were well off, and had retired from trade, and lived +genteel: so that makes a great difference. And mother did not quite look +on her as her own child. But it was Jane's own fault; for mother would +have made it up with her if she had married the son of our neighbor the +great linendraper, as she might have done; but she would take Mark +Fairfield, a common carpenter. Parents like best those of their children +who succeed best in life. Natural. Why, they did not care for me till I +came back the man I am. But to return to Jane: I'm afraid they've +neglected her. How is she off?" + +"She earns her livelihood, and is poor, but contented." + +"Ah, just be good enough to give her this," (and Richard took a +bank-note of £50 from his pocket-book). "You can say the old folks sent +it to her; or that it is a present from Dick, without telling her he had +come back from America." + +"My dear sir," said the Parson, "I am more and more thankful to have +made your acquaintance. This is a very liberal gift of yours; but your +best plan will be to send it through your mother. For, though I don't +want to betray any confidence you place in me, I should not know what to +answer if Mrs. Fairfield began to question me about her brother. I never +had but one secret to keep, and I hope I shall never have another. A +secret is very like a lie!" + +"You had a secret, then," said Richard, as he took back the bank-note. +He had learned, perhaps, in America, to be a very inquisitive man. He +added point-blank, "Pray what was it?" + +"Why, what it would not be if I told you," said the Parson, with a +forced laugh--"a secret!" + +"Well, I guess we're in a land of liberty--do as you like. Now, I dare +say you think me a very odd fellow to come out of my shell to you in +this off-hand way. But I liked the look of you, even when we were at the +inn together. And just now I was uncommonly pleased to find that, +though you are a Parson, you don't want to keep a man's nose down to a +shop-board, if he has any thing in him. You're not one of the +aristocrats--" + +"Indeed," said the Parson, with imprudent warmth, "it is not the +character of the aristocracy of this country to keep people down. They +make way among themselves for any man, whatever his birth, who has the +talent and energy to aspire to their level. That's the especial boast of +the British constitution, sir!" + +"Oh, you think so, do you?" said Mr. Richard, looking sourly at the +Parson. "I dare say those are the opinions in which you have brought up +the lad. Just keep him yourself, and let the aristocracy provide for +him!" + +The Parson's generous and patriotic warmth evaporated at once, at this +sudden inlet of cold air into the conversation. He perceived that he had +made a terrible blunder; and, as it was not his business at that moment +to vindicate the British constitution, but to serve Leonard Fairfield, +he abandoned the cause of the aristocracy with the most poltroon and +scandalous abruptness. Catching at the arm which Mr. Avenel had +withdrawn from him, he exclaimed: + +"Indeed, sir, you are mistaken; I have never attempted to influence your +nephew's political opinions. On the contrary, if, at his age, he can be +said to have formed any opinion, I am greatly afraid--that is, I think +his opinions are by no means sound--that is, constitutional. I mean, I +mean--" And the poor Parson, anxious to select a word that would not +offend his listener, stopped short in lamentable confusion of idea. + +Mr. Avenel enjoyed his distress for a moment, with a saturnine smile, +and then said, + +"Well, I calculate he's a Radical. Natural enough, if he has not got a +sixpence to lose--all come right by-and-by. I'm not a Radical--at least +not a destructive--much too clever a man for that, I hope. But I wish to +see things very different from what they are. Don't fancy that I want +the common people, who've got nothing, to pretend to dictate to their +betters, because I hate to see a parcel of fellows, who are called lords +and squires, trying to rule the roast. I think, sir, that it is men like +me who ought to be at the top of the tree! and that's the long and short +of it. What do you say?" + +"I've not the least objection," said the crest-fallen Parson, basely. +But, to do him justice, I must add that he did not the least know what +he was saying! + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Unconscious of the change in his fate which the diplomacy of the Parson +sought to effect, Leonard Fairfield was enjoying the first virgin +sweetness of fame; for the principal town in his neighborhood had +followed the then growing fashion of the age, and set up a Mechanics' +Institute; and some worthy persons interested in the formation of that +provincial Athenæum had offered a prize for the best Essay on the +Diffusion of Knowledge--a very trite subject, on which persons seem to +think they can never say too much, and on which there is, nevertheless, +a great deal yet to be said. This prize Leonard Fairfield had recently +won. His Essay had been publicly complimented by a full meeting of the +Institute; it had been printed at the expense of the Society, and had +been rewarded by a silver medal--delineative of Apollo crowning Merit +(poor Merit had not a rag to his back; but Merit, left only to the care +of Apollo, never is too good a customer to the tailor!) And the County +Gazette had declared that Britain had produced another prodigy in the +person of Dr. Riccabocca's self-educated gardener. + +Attention was now directed to Leonard's mechanical contrivances. The +Squire, ever eagerly bent on improvements, had brought an engineer to +inspect the lad's system of irrigation, and the engineer had been +greatly struck by the simple means by which a very considerable +technical difficulty had been overcome. The neighboring farmers now +called Leonard "_Mr._ Fairfield," and invited him on equal terms to +their houses. Mr. Stirn had met him on the high road, touched his hat, +and hoped that "he bore no malice." All this, I say, was the first +sweetness of fame; and if Leonard Fairfield comes to be a great man, he +will never find such sweets in the after fruit. It was this success +which had determined the Parson on the step which he had just taken, and +which he had long before anxiously meditated. For, during the last year +or so, he had renewed his old intimacy with the widow and the boy; and +he had noticed, with great hope and great fear, the rapid growth of an +intellect, which now stood out from the lowly circumstances that +surrounded it in bold and unharmonizing relief. + +It was the evening after his return home that the Parson strolled up to +the Casino. He put Leonard Fairfield's Prize Essay in his pocket. For he +felt that he could not let the young man go forth into the world without +a preparatory lecture, and he intended to scourge poor Merit with the +very laurel wreath which it had received from Apollo. But in this he +wanted Riccabocca's assistance: or rather, he feared that, if he did not +get the Philosopher on his side, the Philosopher might undo all the work +of the Parson. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A sweet sound came through the orange boughs, and floated to the ears of +the Parson, as he wound slowly up the gentle ascent--so sweet, so +silvery, he paused in delight--unaware, wretched man! that he was +thereby conniving at Papistical errors. Soft it came, and sweet: softer +and sweeter--"Ave Maria!" Violante was chanting the evening hymn to the +Virgin Mother. The Parson at last distinguished the sense of the words, +and shook his head with the pious shake of an orthodox Protestant. He +broke from the spell resolutely, and walked on with a sturdy step. +Gaining the terrace, he found the little family seated under an awning. +Mrs. Riccabocca knitting; the Signor with his arms folded on his breast: +the book he had been reading a few moments before had fallen on the +ground, and his dark eyes were soft and dreamy. Violante had finished +her hymn, and seated herself on the ground between the two, pillowing +her head on her step-mother's lap, but with her hand resting on her +father's knee, and her gaze fixed fondly on his face. + +"Good evening," said Mr. Dale. Violante stole up to him, and, pulling +him so as to bring his ear nearer to her lip, whispered, "Talk to papa, +do--and cheerfully; he is sad." + +She escaped from him, as she said this, and appeared to busy herself +with watering the flowers arranged on stands round the awning. But she +kept her swimming, lustrous eyes wistfully on her father. + +"How fares it with you, my dear friend?"' said the Parson, kindly, as he +rested his hand on the Italian's shoulder. "You must not let him get out +of spirits, Mrs. Riccabocca." + +"I am very ungrateful to her if I ever am so," said the poor Italian, +with all his natural gallantry. Many a good wife, who thinks it is a +reproach to her if her husband is ever "out of spirits," might have +turned peevishly from that speech more elegant than sincere, and so have +made bad worse. But Mrs. Riccabocca took her husband's proffered hand +affectionately, and said with great _naiveté_-- + +"You see I am so stupid, Mr. Dale; I never knew I was so stupid till I +married. But I am very glad you are come. You can get on some learned +subject together, and then he will not miss so much his--" + +"His what?" asked Riccabocca inquisitively. + +"His country. Do you think that I can not sometimes read your thoughts?" + +"Very often. But you did not read them just then. The tongue touches +where the tooth aches, but the best dentist can not guess at the tooth +unless one opens one's mouth.--_Basta!_ Can we offer you some wine of +our own making, Mr. Dale? it is pure." + +"I'd rather have some tea," quoth the Parson hastily. + +Mrs. Riccabocca, too pleased to be in her natural element of domestic +use, hurried into the house to prepare our national beverage. And the +Parson, sliding into her chair, said: + +"But you are dejected, then? Fie! If there's a virtue in the world at +which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness." + +"I don't dispute it," said Riccabocca, with a heavy sigh. "But though it +is said by some Greek, who, I think, is quoted by your favorite Seneca, +that a wise man carries his country with him at the soles of his feet, +he can't carry also the sunshine." + +"I tell you what it is," said the Parson, bluntly. "You would have a +much keener sense of happiness if you had much less esteem for +philosophy." + +"_Cospetto!_" said the Doctor, rousing himself. "Just explain, will +you?" + +"Does not the search after wisdom induce desires not satisfied in this +small circle to which your life is confined? It is not so much your +country for which you yearn, as it is for space to your intellect, +employment for your thoughts, career for your aspirations." + +"You have guessed at the tooth which aches," said Riccabocca, with +admiration. + +"Easy to do that," answered the Parson. "Our wisdom teeth come last, and +give us the most pain. And if you would just starve the mind a little, +and nourish the heart more, you would be less of a philosopher, and more +of a--" The Parson had the word "Christian" at the tip of his tongue: he +suppressed a word that, so spoken, would have been exceedingly +irritating, and substituted, with inelegant antithesis, "and more of a +happy man!" + +"I do all I can with my heart," quoth the Doctor. + +"Not you! For a man with such a heart as yours should never feel the +want of the sunshine. My friend, we live in an age of over mental +cultivation. We neglect too much the simple, healthful outer life, in +which there is so much positive joy. In turning to the world within us, +we grow blind to this beautiful world without; in studying ourselves as +men, we almost forget to look up to heaven, and warm to the smile of +God." + +The philosopher mechanically shrugged his shoulders, as he always did +when another man moralized--especially if the moralizer were a priest; +but there was no irony in his smile, as he answered thoughtfully; + +"There is some truth in what you say. I own that we live too much as if +we were all brain. Knowledge has its penalties and pains, as well as its +prizes." + +"That is just what I want you to say to Leonard." + +"How have you settled the object of your journey?" + +"I will tell you as we walk down to him after tea. At present, I am +rather too much occupied with you." + +"Me? The tree is formed--try only to bend the young twig!" + +"Trees are trees, and twigs twigs," said the Parson, dogmatically; "but +man is always growing till he falls into the grave. I think I have heard +you say that you once had a narrow escape of a prison?" + +"Very narrow." + +"Just suppose that you were now in that prison, and that a fairy +conjured up the prospect of this quiet home in a safe land; that you saw +the orange-trees in flower, felt the evening breeze on your cheek; +beheld your child gay or sad, as you smiled or knit your brow; that +within this phantom home was a woman, not, indeed all your young +romance might have dreamed of, but faithful and true, every beat of her +heart all your own--would you not cry from the depth of the dungeon, 'O +fairy! such a change were a paradise.' Ungrateful man! you want +interchange for your mind, and your heart should suffice for all!" + +Riccabocca was touched and silent. + +"Come hither, my child," said Mr. Dale, turning round to Violante, who +still stood among the flowers, out of hearing, but with watchful eyes. +"Come hither," he said, opening his arms. + +Violante bounded forward, and nestled to the good man's heart. + +"Tell me, Violante, when you are alone in the fields or the garden, and +have left your father looking pleased and serene, so that you have no +care for him at your heart--tell me, Violante, though you are all alone, +with the flowers below and the birds singing overhead, do you feel that +life itself is happiness or sorrow?" + +"Happiness!" answered Violante, half shutting her eyes, and in a +measured voice. + +"Can you explain what kind of happiness it is?" + +"Oh, no, impossible! and it is never the same. Sometimes it is so +still--so still--and sometimes so joyous, that I long for wings to fly +up to God, and thank him!" + +"O, friend," said the Parson, "this is the true sympathy between life +and nature, and thus we should feel ever, did we take more care to +preserve the health and innocence of a child. We are told that we must +become as children to enter into the kingdom of heaven; methinks we +should also become as children to know what delight there is in our +heritage of earth!" + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The maid-servant (for Jackeymo was in the fields) brought the table +under the awning, and, with the English luxury of tea, there were other +drinks as cheap and as grateful on summer evenings--drinks which +Jackeymo had retained and taught from the customs of the +south--unebriate liquors, pressed from cooling fruits, sweetened with +honey, and deliciously iced; ice should cost nothing in a country in +which one is frozen up half the year! And Jackeymo, too, had added to +our good, solid, heavy English bread, preparations of wheat much +lighter, and more propitious to digestion--with those crisp _grissins_, +which seem to enjoy being eaten, they make so pleasant a noise between +one's teeth. + +The Parson esteemed it a little treat to drink tea with the Riccaboccas. +There was something of elegance and grace in that homely meal, at the +poor exile's table, which pleased the eye as well as taste. And the very +utensils, plain Wedgewood though they were, had a classical simplicity, +which made Mrs. Hazeldean's old India delf, and Mrs. Dale's best +Worcester china, look tawdry and barbarous in comparison. For it was +Flaxman who gave designs to Wedgewood, and the most truly refined of all +our manufactures in porcelain (if we do not look to the mere material) +is in the reach of the most thrifty. + +The little banquet was at first rather a silent one; but Riccabocca +threw off his gloom, and became gay and animated. Then poor Mrs. +Riccabocca smiled, and pressed the _grissins;_ and Violante, forgetting +all her stateliness, laughed and played tricks on the Parson, stealing +away his cup of warm tea when his head was turned, and substituting iced +cherry-juice. Then the Parson got up and ran after Violante, making +angry faces, and Violante dodged beautifully, till the Parson, fairly +tired out, was too glad to cry "Peace," and come back to the +cherry-juice. Thus time rolled on, till they heard afar the stroke of +the distant church-clock, and Mr. Dale started up and cried, "But we +shall be too late for Leonard. Come, naughty little girl, get your +father his hat." + +"And umbrella!" said Riccabocca, looking up at the cloudless moonlit +sky. + +"Umbrella against the stars?" asked the Parson, laughing. + +"The stars are no friends of mine," said Riccabocca, "and one never +knows what may happen!" + +The Philosopher and the Parson walked on amicably. + +"You have done me good," said Riccabocca, "but I hope I am not always so +unreasonably melancholic as you seem to suspect. The evenings will +sometimes appear long, and dull too, to a man whose thoughts on the past +are almost his sole companions." + +"Sole companions?--your child?" + +"She is so young." + +"Your wife?" + +"She is so--," the bland Italian appeared to check some disparaging +adjective, and mildly added, "so good, I allow; but you must own that we +can not have much in common." + +"I own nothing of the sort. You have your house and your interests, your +happiness and your lives, in common. We men are so exacting, we expect +to find ideal nymphs and goddesses when we condescend to marry a mortal; +and if we did, our chickens would be boiled to rags, and our mutton come +up as cold as a stone." + +"Per Bacco, you are an oracle," said Riccabocca, laughing. "But I am not +so skeptical as you are. I honor the fair sex too much. There are a +great many women who realize the ideal of men to be found in--the +poets!" + +"There's my dear Mrs. Dale," resumed the Parson, not heeding this +sarcastic compliment to the sex, but sinking his voice into a whisper, +and looking round cautiously--"there's my dear Mrs. Dale, the best woman +in the world--an angel I would say, if the word was not profane; BUT--" + +"What's the BUT" asked the Doctor demurely. + +"BUT I too might say that 'we have not much in common,' if I were only +to compare mind to mind, and, when my poor Carry says something less +profound than Madame de Stael might have said, smile on her in contempt +from the elevation of logic and Latin. Yet, when I remember all the +little sorrows and joys that we have shared together, and feel how +solitary I should have been without her--oh, then, I am instantly aware +that there is between us in common something infinitely closer and +better than if the same course of study had given us the same equality +of ideas; and I was forced to brace myself for a combat of intellect, as +I am when I fall in with a tiresome sage like yourself. I don't pretend +to say that Mrs. Riccabocca is a Mrs. Dale," added the Parson, with +lofty candor--"there is but one Mrs. Dale in the world; but still, you +have drawn a prize in the wheel matrimonial! Think of Socrates, and yet +he was content even with his--Xantippe!" + +Dr. Riccabocca called to mind Mrs. Dale's "little tempers," and inly +rejoiced that no second Mrs. Dale had existed to fall to his own lot. +His placid Jemima gained by the contrast. Nevertheless, he had the ill +grace to reply, "Socrates was a man beyond all imitation!--Yet I believe +that even he spent very few of his evenings at home. But, _revenons à +nos moutons_, we are nearly at Mrs. Fairfield's cottage, and you have +not yet told me what you have settled as to Leonard." + +The Parson halted, took Riccabocca by the button, and informed him, in +very few words, that Leonard was to go to Lansmere to see some relations +there, who had the fortune, if they had the will, to give full career to +his abilities. + +"The great thing, in the mean while," said the Parson, "would be to +enlighten him a little as to what he calls--enlightenment." + +"Ah!" said Riccabocca, diverted, and rubbing his hands, "I shall listen +with interest to what you say on that subject." + +"And must aid me; for the first step in this modern march of +enlightenment is to leave the poor Parson behind; and if one calls out, +'Hold! and look at the sign-post,' the traveler hurries on the faster, +saying to himself, 'Pooh, pooh!--that is only the cry of the Parson!' +But my gentleman, when he doubts me, will listen to you--you're a +philosopher!" + +"We philosophers are of some use now and then, even to Parsons!" + +"If you were not so conceited a set of deluded poor creatures already, I +would say 'Yes,'" replied the Parson generously; and, taking hold of +Riccabocca's umbrella, he applied the brass handle thereof, by way of a +knocker, to the cottage door. + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Certainly it is a glorious fever that desire To Know! And there are few +sights in the moral world more sublime than that which many a garret +might afford, if Asmodeus would bare the roofs to our survey--viz., a +brave, patient, earnest human being, toiling his own arduous way, +athwart the iron walls of penury, into the magnificent Infinite, which +is luminous with starry souls. + +So there sits Leonard, the self-taught, in the little cottage alone; +for, though scarcely past the hour in which great folks dine, it is the +hour in which small folks go to bed, and Mrs. Fairfield has retired to +rest, while Leonard has settled to his books. He had placed his table +under the lattice, and from time to time he looked up and enjoyed the +stillness of the moon. Well for him that, in reparation for those hours +stolen from night, the hardy physical labor commenced with dawn. +Students would not be the sad dyspeptics they are, if they worked as +many hours in the open air as my scholar-peasant. But even in him you +could see that the mind had begun a little to affect the frame. They who +task the intellect must pay the penalty with the body. Ill, believe me, +would this work-day world get on if all within it were hard-reading, +studious animals, playing the deuce with the ganglionic apparatus. + +Leonard started as he heard the knock at the door; the Parson's +well-known voice reassured him. In some surprise, he admitted his +visitors. + +"We are come to talk to you, Leonard," said Mr. Dale, "but I fear we +shall disturb Mrs. Fairfield." + +"Oh, no, sir! the door to the staircase is shut, and she sleeps +soundly." + +"Why, this is a French book--do you read French, Leonard?" asked +Riccabocca. + +"I have not found French difficult, sir. Once over the grammar, and the +language is so clear; it seems the very language for reasoning." + +"True. Voltaire said justly, 'Whatever is obscure is not French,'" +observed Riccabocca. + +"I wish I could say the same of English," muttered the Parson. + +"But what is this?--Latin too?--Virgil?" + +"Yes, sir. But I find I make little way there without a master. I fear I +must give it up" (and Leonard sighed). + +The two gentlemen exchanged looks and seated themselves. The young +peasant remained standing modestly, and in his air and mien there was +something that touched the heart while it pleased the eye. He was no +longer the timid boy who had sunk from the frown of Mr. Stirn, nor that +rude personation of simple physical strength, roused to undisciplined +bravery, which had received its downfall on the village-green of +Hazeldean. The power of thought was on his brow--somewhat unquiet still, +but mild and earnest. The features had attained that refinement which is +often attributed to race, but comes, in truth, from elegance of idea, +whether caught from our parents or learned from books. In his rich brown +hair, thrown carelessly from his temples, and curling almost to the +shoulders in his large blue eye, which was deepened to the hue of the +violet by the long dark lash--in that firmness of lip which comes from +the grapple with difficulties, there was considerable beauty, but no +longer the beauty of the mere peasant. And yet there was still about the +whole countenance that expression of goodness and purity which a painter +would give to his ideal of the peasant lover--such as Tasso would have +placed in the _Aminta_, or Fletcher have admitted to the side of the +Faithful Shepherdess. + +"You must draw a chair here, and sit down between us, Leonard," said the +Parson. + +"If any one," said Riccabocca "has a right to sit, it is the one who is +to hear the sermon; and if any one ought to stand, it is the one who is +about to preach it." + +"Don't be frightened, Leonard," said the Parson, graciously; "it is only +a criticism, not a sermon," and he pulled out Leonard's Prize Essay. + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +PARSON.--"You take for your motto this aphorism[8]--'_Knowledge is +Power._--Bacon.'" + +RICCABOCCA.--"Bacon make such an aphorism! The last man in the world to +have said any thing so pert and so shallow." + +LEONARD (astonished).--"Do you mean to say, sir, that that aphorism is +not in Lord Bacon! Why, I have seen it quoted as his in almost every +newspaper, and in almost every speech in favor of popular education." + +RICCABOCCA.--"Then that should be a warning to you never again to fall +into the error of the would-be scholar--viz., quote second-hand. Lord +Bacon wrote a great book to show in what knowledge is power, how that +power should be defined, in what it might be mistaken. And, pray, do you +think so sensible a man would ever have taken the trouble to write a +great book upon the subject, if he could have packed up all he had to +say into the portable dogma, 'Knowledge is power?' Pooh! no such +aphorism is to be found in Bacon from the first page of his writings to +the last." + +PARSON (candidly).--"Well, I supposed it was Lord Bacon's, and I am very +glad to hear that the aphorism has not the sanction of his authority." + +LEONARD (recovering his surprise).--"But why so?" + +PARSON.--"Because it either says a great deal too much, or just--nothing +at all." + +LEONARD.--"At least, sir, it seems to me undeniable." + +PARSON.--"Well, grant that it is undeniable. Does it prove much in favor +of knowledge? Pray, is not ignorance power too?" + +RICCABOCCA.--"And a power that has had much the best end of the +quarter-staff." + +PARSON.--"All evil is power, and does its power make it any thing the +better?" + +RICCABOCCA.--"Fanaticism is power--and a power that has often swept away +knowledge like a whirlwind. The Mussulman burns the library of a +world--and forces the Koran and the sword from the schools of Byzantium +to the colleges of Hindostan." + +PARSON (bearing on with a new column of illustration).--"Hunger is +power. The barbarians, starved out of their energy by their own swarming +population, swept into Italy and annihilated letters. The Romans, +however degraded, had more knowledge, at least, than the Gaul and the +Visigoth." + +RICCABOCCA (bringing up the reserve).--"And even in Greece, when Greek +met Greek, the Athenians--our masters in all knowledge--were beat by the +Spartans, who held learning in contempt." + +PARSON.--"Wherefore you see, Leonard, that though knowledge be power, it +is only _one_ of the powers of the world; that there are others as +strong, and often much stronger; and the assertion either means but a +barren truism, not worth so frequent a repetition, or it means something +that you would find it very difficult to prove." + +LEONARD.--"One nation may be beaten by another that has more physical +strength and more military discipline; which last, permit me to say, +sir, is a species of knowledge--" + +RICCABOCCA.--"Yes; but your knowledge-mongers at present call upon us to +discard military discipline, and the qualities that produce it, from the +list of the useful arts. And in your own essay, you insist upon +knowledge as the great disbander of armies, and the foe of all military +discipline." + +PARSON.--"Let the young man proceed. Nations, you say, may be beaten by +other nations less learned and civilized?" + +LEONARD.--"But knowledge elevates a class. I invite my own humble order +to knowledge, because knowledge will lift them into power." + +RICCABOCCA.--"What do you say to that, Mr. Dale?" + +PARSON.--"In the first place, is it true that the class which has the +most knowledge gets the most power? I suppose philosophers, like my +friend Dr. Riccabocca, think they have the most knowledge. And pray, in +what age have philosophers governed the world? Are they not always +grumbling that nobody attends to them?" + +"Per Bacco," said Riccabocca, "if people had attended to us, it would +have been a droll sort of world by this time!" + +PARSON.--"Very likely. But, as a general rule, those have the most +knowledge who give themselves up to it the most. Let us put out of the +question philosophers (who are often but ingenious lunatics), and speak +only of erudite scholars, men of letters and practical science, +professors, tutors, and fellows of colleges. I fancy any member of +Parliament would tell us that there is no class of men which has less +actual influence on public affairs. They have more knowledge than +manufacturers and ship-owners, squires and farmers; but, do you find +that they have more power over the Government and the votes of the House +of Commons?" + +"They ought to have," said Leonard. + +"Ought they?" said the Parson: "we'll consider that later. Meanwhile, +you must not escape from your own proposition, which is, that knowledge +is power--not that it _ought_ to be. Now, even granting your corollary, +that the power of a class is therefore proportioned to its +knowledge--pray, do you suppose that while your order, the operatives, +are instructing themselves, all the rest of the community are to be at a +stand-still? Diffuse knowledge as you may, you will never produce +equality of knowledge. Those who have most leisure, application, and +aptitude for learning, will still know the most. Nay, by a very natural +law, the more general the appetite for knowledge, the more the increased +competition would favor those most adapted to excel by circumstance and +nature. At this day, there is a vast increase of knowledge spread over +all society, compared with that in the Middle Ages; but is there not a +still greater distinction between the highly-educated gentleman and the +intelligent mechanic, than there was then between the baron who could +not sign his name and the churl at the plow? between the accomplished +statesman, versed in all historical lore, and the voter whose politics +are formed by his newspaper, than there was between the legislator who +passed laws against witches, and the burgher who defended his guild from +some feudal aggression? between the enlightened scholar and the dunce of +to-day, than there was between the monkish alchemist and the block head +of yesterday? Peasant, voter, and dunce of this century are no doubt +wiser than the churl, burgher, and blockhead of the twelfth. But the +gentleman, statesman, and scholar of the present age are at least quite +as favorable a contrast to the alchemist, witch-burner, and baron of +old. As the progress of enlightenment has done hitherto, so will it ever +do. Knowledge is like capital: the more there is in a country, the +greater the disparities in wealth between one man and another. +Therefore, if the working class increase in knowledge, so do the other +classes; and if the working class rise peacefully and legitimately into +power, it is not in proportion to their own knowledge alone, but rather +according as it seems to the knowledge of the other orders of the +community, that such augmentation of proportional power is just, and +safe, and wise." + +Placed between the Parson and the Philosopher, Leonard felt that his +position was not favorable to the display of his forces. Insensibly he +edged his chair somewhat away, and said mournfully-- + +"Then, according to you, the reign of knowledge would be no great +advance in the aggregate freedom and welfare of man?" + +PARSON.--"Let us define. By knowledge, do you mean intellectual +cultivation?--by the reign of knowledge, the ascendency of the most +cultivated minds?" + +LEONARD, (after a pause.)--"Yes." + +RICCABOCCA.--"Oh indiscreet young man, that is an unfortunate concession +of yours: for the ascendency of the most cultivated minds would be a +terrible oligarchy!" + +PARSON.--"Perfectly true; and we now reply to your exclamation, that men +who, by profession, have most learning ought to have more influence than +squires and merchants, farmers and mechanics. Observe, all the knowledge +that we mortals can acquire, is not knowledge positive and perfect, but +knowledge comparative, and subject to all the errors and passions of +humanity. And suppose that you could establish, as the sole regulators +of affairs, those who had the most mental cultivation, do you think they +would not like that power well enough to take all means their superior +intelligence could devise to keep it to themselves? The experiment was +tried of old by the priests of Egypt; and in the empire of China, at +this day, the aristocracy are elected from those who have most +distinguished themselves in learned colleges. If I may call myself a +member of that body, 'the people,' I would rather be an Englishman, +however much displeased with dull Ministers and blundering Parliaments, +than I would be a Chinese under the rule of the picked sages of the +Celestial Empire. Happily, therefore, my dear Leonard, nations are +governed by many things besides what is commonly called knowledge; and +the greatest practical ministers, who, like Themistocles, have made +small states great--and the most dominant races who, like the Romans, +have stretched their rule from a village half over the universe--have +been distinguished by various qualities which a philosopher would sneer +at, and a knowledge-monger would call 'sad prejudices,' and 'lamentable +errors of reason.'" + +LEONARD (bitterly.)--"Sir, you make use of knowledge itself to argue +against knowledge." + +PARSON.--"I make use of the little I know to prove the foolishness of +idolatry. I do not argue against knowledge; I argue against +knowledge-worship. For here, I see in your Essay, that you are not +contented with raising human knowledge into something like divine +omnipotence, you must also confound her with virtue. According to you, +we have only to diffuse the intelligence of the few among the many, and +all at which we preachers aim is accomplished.--Nay more; for whereas we +humble preachers have never presumed to say, with the heathen Stoic, +that even virtue is sure of happiness be low (though it be the best road +to it), you tell us plainly that this knowledge of yours gives not only +the virtue of a saint, but bestows the bliss of a god. Before the steps +of your idol, the evils of life disappear. To hear you, one has but 'to +know,' in order to be exempt from the sins and sorrows of the ignorant. +Has it ever been so? Grant that you diffuse among the many all the +knowledge ever attained by the few. Have the wise few been so unerring +and so happy? You supposed that your motto was accurately cited from +Bacon. What was Bacon himself? The poet tells you-- + + 'The wisest, brightest, _meanest_ of mankind.' + +Can you hope to bestow upon the vast mass of your order the luminous +intelligence of this 'Lord Chancellor of nature?' Grant that you do +so--and what guarantee have you for the virtue and the happiness which +you assume as the concomitants of the gift? See Bacon himself; what +black ingratitude! what miserable self-seeking! what truckling +servility! what abject and pitiful spirit! So far from intellectual +knowledge, in its highest form and type, insuring virtue and bliss, it +is by no means uncommon to find great mental cultivation combined with +great moral corruption." (Aside to Riccabocca)--"Push on, will you?" + +RICCABOCCA.--"A combination remarkable in eras as in individuals. +Petronius shows us a state of morals at which a commonplace devil would +blush, in the midst of a society more intellectually cultivated than +certainly was that which produced Regulus or the Horatii. And the most +learned eras in modern Italy were precisely those which brought the +vices into the most ghastly refinement." + +LEONARD (rising in great agitation, and clasping his hands.)--"I can not +contend with you, who produce against information so slender and crude +as mine the stores which have been locked from my reach. But I feel that +there must be another side to this shield--a shield that you will not +even allow to be silver. And oh, if you thus speak of knowledge, why +have you encouraged me to know?" + + +CHAPTER XX. + +"Ah, my son!" said the Parson, "if I wished to prove the value of +Religion, would you think I served it much, if I took as my motto, +'Religion is power?' Would not that be a base and sordid view of its +advantages? And would you not say he who regards religion as a power, +intends to abuse it as a priestcraft?" + +"Well put!" said Riccabocca. + +"Wait a moment--let me think. Ah--I see, sir!" said Leonard. + +PARSON.--"If the cause be holy, do not weigh it in the scales of the +market; if its objects be peaceful, do not seek to arm it with the +weapons of strife; if it is to be the cement of society, do not vaunt it +as the triumph of class against class." + +LEONARD (ingenuously.)--"You correct me nobly, sir. Knowledge is power, +but not in the sense in which I have interpreted the saying." + +PARSON.--"Knowledge is _one_ of the powers in the moral world, but one +that, in its immediate result, is not always of the most worldly +advantage to the possessor. It is one of the slowest, because one of the +most durable, of agencies. It may take a thousand years for a thought to +come into power; and the thinker who originated it might have died in +rags or in chains." + +RICCABOCCA.--"Our Italian proverb saith that 'the teacher is like the +candle, which lights others in consuming itself.'" + +PARSON.--"Therefore he who has the true ambition of knowledge should +entertain it for the power of his idea, not for the power it may bestow +on himself; it should be lodged in the conscience, and, like the +conscience, look for no certain reward on this side the grave. And since +knowledge is compatible with good and with evil, would it not be better +to say, 'Knowledge is a trust?'" + +"You are right, sir," said Leonard, cheerfully, "pray proceed." + +PARSON.--"You ask me why we encourage you to KNOW. First, because (as +you say yourself in your Essay) knowledge, irrespective of gain, is in +itself a delight, and ought to be something far more. Like liberty, like +religion, it may be abused; but I have no more right to say that the +poor shall be ignorant, than I have to say that the rich only shall be +free, and that the clergy alone shall learn the truths of redemption. +You truly observe in your treatise that knowledge opens to us other +excitements than those of the senses, and another life than that of the +moment. The difference between us is this, that you forget that the same +refinement which brings us new pleasures exposes us to new pains--the +horny hand of the peasant feels not the nettles which sting the fine +skin of the scholar. You forget also, that whatever widens the sphere of +the desires, opens to them also new temptations. Vanity, the desire of +applause, pride, the sense of superiority--gnawing discontent where that +superiority is not recognized--morbid susceptibility, which comes with +all new feelings--the underrating of simple pleasures apart from the +intellectual--the chase of the imagination, often unduly stimulated, for +things unattainable below--all these are surely among the first +temptations that beset the entrance into knowledge." + +Leonard shaded his face with his hand. + +"Hence," continued the Parson, benignantly--"hence, so far from +considering that we do all that is needful to accomplish ourselves as +men, when we cultivate only the intellect, we should remember that we +thereby continually increase the range of our desires, and, therefore, +of our temptations; and we should endeavor, simultaneously, to cultivate +both those affections of the heart, which prove the ignorant to be God's +children no less than the wise, and those moral qualities which have +made men great and good when reading and writing were scarcely known--to +wit, patience and fortitude under poverty and distress; humility and +beneficence amidst grandeur and wealth: and, in counteraction to that +egotism, which all superiority, mental or worldly, is apt to inspire, +Justice, the father of all the more solid virtues, softened by Charity, +which is their loving mother. Thus accompanied, knowledge, indeed, +becomes the magnificent crown of humanity--not the imperious despot, but +the checked and tempered sovereign of the soul." + +The Parson paused, and Leonard, coming near him, timidly took his hand, +with a child's affectionate and grateful impulse. + +RICCABOCCA.--"And if, Leonard, you are not satisfied with our Parson's +excellent definitions, you have only to read what Lord Bacon himself has +said upon the true ends of knowledge, to comprehend at once how angry +the poor great man, whom Mr. Dale treats so harshly, would have been +with those who have stinted his elaborate distinctions and provident +cautions, into that, coxcombical little aphorism, and then misconstrued +all he designed to prove in favor of the commandant, and authority of +learning. For," added the sage, looking up as a man does when he is +tasking his memory, "I think it is thus that, after saying the greatest +error of all is the mistaking or misplacing the end of knowledge, and +denouncing the various objects for which it is vulgarly sought;--I think +it is thus that he proceeds.... 'Knowledge is not a shop for profit or +sale, but a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief +of men's estate.'"[9] + +PARSON (remorsefully.)--"Are those Lord Bacon's words? I am very sorry I +spoke so uncharitably of his life. I must examine it again. I may find +excuses for it now, that I could not when I first formed my judgment. I +was then a raw lad at Oxford. But I see, Leonard, there is still +something on your mind." + +LEONARD.--"It is true, sir. I would but ask whether it is not by +knowledge that we arrive at the qualities and virtues you so well +describe, but which you seem to consider as coming to us through +channels apart from knowledge?" + +PARSON.--"If you mean by the word knowledge something very different +from what you express in your essay--and which those contending for +mental instruction, irrespective of religion and ethics, appear also to +convey by the word--you are right;--but, remember, we have already +agreed that by the word knowledge we mean culture purely intellectual." + +LEONARD.--"That is true--we so understood it." + +PARSON.--"Thus, when this great Lord Bacon erred, you may say that he +erred from want of knowledge--the knowledge that moralists and preachers +would convey. But Lord Bacon had read all that moralists and preachers +could say on such matters; and he certainly did not err from want of +intellectual cultivation. Let me here, my child, invite you to observe, +that He who knew most of our human hearts and our immortal destinies, +did not _insist_ on this intellectual culture as essential to the +virtues that form our well-being here, and conduce to our salvation +hereafter. Had it been essential, the All-wise One would not have +selected humble fishermen for the teachers of his doctrine, instead of +culling his disciples from Roman Portico, or Athenian Academy. And this, +which distinguishes so remarkably the Gospel from the ethics of heathen +philosophy, wherein knowledge is declared to be necessary to virtue, is +a proof how slight was the heathen sage's insight into the nature of +mankind, when compared with the Saviour's; for hard, indeed, would it be +to men, whether high or low, rich or poor, if science and learning, or +contemplative philosophy, were the sole avenues to peace and redemption; +since, in this state of ordeal, requiring active duties, very few, in +any age, whether they be high or low, rich or poor, ever are or can be +devoted to pursuits merely mental. Christ does not represent heaven as a +college for the learned. Therefore the rules of the Celestial Legislator +are rendered clear to the simplest understanding as to the deepest." + +RICCABOCCA.--"And that which Plato and Zeno, Pythagoras and Socrates, +could not do, was done by men whose ignorance would have been a by-word +in the schools of the Greek. The gods of the vulgar were dethroned; the +face of the world was changed! This thought may make us allow, indeed, +that there are agencies more powerful than mere knowledge, and ask, +after all, what is the mission which knowledge should achieve?" + +PARSON.--"The Sacred Book tells us even that; for, after establishing +the truth that, for the multitude, knowledge is not essential to +happiness and good, it accords still to knowledge its sublime part in +the revelation prepared and announced. When an instrument of more than +ordinary intelligence was required for a purpose divine--when the +Gospel, recorded by the simple, was to be explained by the acute, +enforced by the energetic, carried home to the doubts of the +Gentile--the Supreme Will joined to the zeal of the earlier apostles the +learning and genius of St. Paul--not holier than the others--calling +himself the least, yet laboring more abundantly than them all--making +himself all things unto all men, so that some might be saved. The +ignorant may be saved no less surely than the wise; but here comes the +wise man who helps to save! And how the fullness and animation of this +grand Presence, of this indomitable Energy, seem to vivify the toil, and +to speed the work! 'In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils +of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, +in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the +sea, in perils among false brethren.' Behold, my son! does not Heaven +here seem to reveal the true type of Knowledge--a sleepless activity, a +pervading agency, a dauntless heroism, an all-supporting faith?--a +power--a power, indeed--a power apart from the aggrandizement of self--a +power that brings to him who owns and transmits it but 'weariness and +painfulness; in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings +often, in cold and nakedness'--but a power distinct from the mere +circumstance of the man, rushing from him as rays from a sun;--borne +through the air, and clothing it with light--piercing under earth, and +calling forth the harvest! Worship not knowledge--worship not the sun, O +my child! Let the sun but proclaim the Creator; let the knowledge but +illumine the worship!" + +The good man, overcome by his own earnestness, paused; his head drooped +on the young student's breast, and all three were long silent. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Whatever ridicule may be thrown upon Mr. Dale's dissertations by the wit +of the enlightened, they had a considerable, and I think a beneficial +effect upon Leonard Fairfield--an effect which may perhaps create less +surprise, when the reader remembers that Leonard was unaccustomed to +argument, and still retained many of the prejudices natural to his +rustic breeding. Nay, he actually thought it possible that, as both +Riccabocca and Mr. Dale were more than double his age, and had had +opportunities not only of reading twice as many books, but of +contracting experience in wider ranges of life--he actually, I say, +thought it possible that they might be better acquainted with the +properties and distinctions of knowledge than himself. At all events, +the Parson's words were so far well-timed, that they produced in Leonard +very much of that state of mind which Mr. Dale desired to effect, before +communicating to him the startling intelligence that he was to visit +relations whom he had never seen, of whom he had heard but little, and +that it was at least possible that the result of that visit might be to +open to him greater facilities for instruction, and a higher degree in +life. + +Without some such preparation, I fear that Leonard would have gone forth +into the world with an exaggerated notion of his own acquirements, and +with a notion yet more exaggerated as to the kind of power that such +knowledge as he possessed would obtain for itself. As it was, when Mr. +Dale broke to him the news of the experimental journey before him, +cautioning him against being over-sanguine, Leonard received the +intelligence with a serious meekness, and thoughts that were nobly +solemn. + +When the door closed on his visitors, he remained for some moments +motionless, and in deep meditation: then he unclosed the door, and stole +forth. The night was already far advanced, the heavens were luminous +with all the host of stars. "I think," said the student, referring, in +later life, to that crisis in his destiny--"I think it was then, when I +stood alone, yet surrounded by worlds so numberless, that I first felt +the distinction between _mind_ and _soul_." "Tell me," said Riccabocca, +as he parted company with Mr. Dale, "whether you think we should have +given to Frank Hazeldean, on entering life, the same lecture on the +limits and ends of knowledge which we have bestowed on Leonard +Fairfield." + +"My friend," quoth the Parson, with a touch of human conceit; "I have +ridden on horseback, and I know that some horses should be guided by the +bridle, and some should be urged by the spur." + +"Cospetto!" said Riccabocca; "you contrive to put every experience of +yours to some use--even your journey on Mr. Hazeldean's pad. And I see +now why, in this little world of a village, you have picked up so +general an acquaintance with life." + +"Did you ever read White's _Natural History of Selborne?_" + +"No." + +"Do so, and you will find that you need not go far to learn the habits +of birds, and know the difference between a swallow and a swift.--Learn +the difference in a village, and you know the difference wherever +swallows and swifts skim the air." + +"Swallows and swifts!--true; but men--" + +"Are with us all the year round--which is more than we can say of +swallows and swifts." + +"Mr. Dale," said Riccabocca, taking off his hat, with great formality, +"if ever again I find myself in a dilemma, I will come to you instead of +to Machiavelli." + +"Ah!" cried the Parson, "if I could but have a calm hour's talk with you +on the errors of the Papal relig--" + +Riccabocca was off like a shot. + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +The next day, Mr. Dale had a long conversation with Mrs. Fairfield. At +first, he found some difficulty in getting over her pride, and inducing +her to accept overtures from parents who had so long slighted both +Leonard and herself. And it would have been in vain to have put before +the good woman the worldly advantages which such overtures implied. But +when Mr. Dale said, almost sternly, "Your parents are old, your father +infirm; their least wish should be as binding to you as their command," +the widow bowed her head and said, + +"God bless, them, sir, I was very sinful--'Honor your father and +mother.' I'm no scollard, but I know the Commandments. Let Lenny go. But +he'll soon forget me, and mayhap he'll learn to be ashamed of me." + +"There I will trust him," said the Parson; and he contrived easily to +re-assure and soothe her. + +It was not till all this was settled that Mr. Dale drew forth an +unsealed letter, which Mr. Richard Avenel, taking his hint, had given to +him, as from Leonard's grandparents, and said, "This is for you, and it +contains an inclosure of some value." + +"Will you read it, sir? As I said before, I'm no scollard." + +"But Leonard is, and he will read it to you." + +When Leonard returned home that evening, Mrs. Fairfield showed him the +letter. It ran thus: + + "DEAR JANE--Mr. Dale will tell you that we wish Leonard to come + to us. We are glad to hear you are well. We forward, by Mr. + Dale, a bank-note for £50, which comes from Richard, your + brother. So no more at present from your affectionate parents, + + "JOHN AND MARGARET AVENEL." + + + +The letter was in a stiff, female scrawl, and Leonard observed that two +or three mistakes in spelling had been corrected, either in another pen +or in a different hand. + +"Dear brother Dick, how good in him!" cried the widow. "When I saw there +was money, I thought it must be him. How I should like to see Dick +again. But I s'pose he's still in Amerikay. Well, well, this will buy +clothes for you." + +"No; you must keep it all, mother, and put it in the Savings' Bank." + +"I'm not quite so silly as that," cried Mrs. Fairfield with contempt; +and she put the fifty pounds into a cracked teapot. + +"It must not stay there when I'm gone. You may be robbed, mother." + +"Dear me, dear me, that's true. What shall I do with it?--what do I want +with it, too? Dear me! I wish they hadn't sent it. I shan't sleep in +peace. You must e'en put it in your own pouch, and button it up tight, +boy." + +Lenny smiled, and took the note; but he took it to Mr. Dale, and begged +him to put it into the Savings' Bank for his mother. + +The day following he went to take leave of his master, of Jackeymo, of +the fountain, the garden. But, after he had gone through the first of +these adieus with Jackeymo--who, poor man, indulged in all the lively +gesticulations of grief which make half the eloquence of his countrymen; +and then, absolutely blubbering, hurried away--Leonard himself was so +affected that he could not proceed at once to the house, but stood +beside the fountain, trying hard to keep back his tears. + +"You, Leonard--and you are going!" said a soft voice; and the tears fell +faster than ever, for he recognized the voice of Violante. + +"Do not cry," continued the child, with a kind of tender gravity. "You +are going, but papa says it would be selfish in us to grieve, for it is +for your good; and we should be glad. But I am selfish, Leonard, and I +do grieve. I shall miss you sadly." + +"You, young lady--you miss me!" + +"Yes. But I do not cry, Leonard, for I envy you, and I wish I were a +boy: I wish I could do as you." + +The girl clasped her hands, and reared her slight form, with a kind of +passionate dignity. + +"Do as me, and part from all those you love!" + +"But to serve those you love. One day you will come back to your +mother's cottage, and say, 'We have conquered fortune.' Oh that I could +go forth and return, as you will. But my father has no country, and his +only child is a useless girl." + +As Violante spoke, Leonard had dried his tears; her emotion distracted +him from his own. + +"Oh," continued Violante, again raising her head loftily, "what it is to +be a man! A woman sighs, 'I wish,' but man should say 'I will.'" + +Occasionally before, Leonard had noted fitful flashes of a nature grand +and heroic, in the Italian child, especially of late--flashes the more +remarkable from their contrast to a form most exquisitely feminine, and +to a sweetness of temper which made even her pride gentle. But now it +seemed as if the child spoke with the command of a queen--almost with +the inspiration of a Muse. A strange and new sense of courage entered +within him. + +"May I remember these words!" he murmured half audibly. + +The girl turned and surveyed him with eyes brighter for their moisture. +She then extended her hand to him, with a quick movement, and, as he +bent over it, with a grace taught to him by genuine emotion, she +said,--"And if you do, then, girl and child as I am, I shall think I +have aided a brave heart in the great strife for honor!" + +She lingered a moment, smiled as if to herself, and then, gliding away, +was lost among the trees. + +After a long pause, in which Leonard recovered slowly from the surprise +and agitation into which Violante had thrown his spirits--previously +excited as they were--he went, murmuring to himself, toward the house. +But Riccabocca was from home. Leonard turned mechanically to the +terrace, and busied himself with the flowers. But the dark eyes of +Violante shone on his thoughts, and her voice rang in his ear. + +At length Riccabocca appeared, followed up the road by a laborer, who +carried something indistinct under his arm. + +The Italian beckoned to Leonard to follow him into the parlor, and after +conversing with him kindly, and at some length, and packing up, as it +were, a considerable provision of wisdom in the portable shape of +aphorisms and proverbs, the sage left him alone for a few moments, +Riccabocca then returned with his wife, and bearing a small knapsack: + +"It is not much we can do for you, Leonard, and money is the worst gift +in the world for a keepsake; but my wife and I have put our heads +together to furnish you with a little outfit. Giacomo, who was in our +secret, assures us that the clothes will fit; and stole, I fancy, a coat +of yours for the purpose. Put them on when you go to your relations; it +is astonishing what a difference it makes in the ideas people form of +us, according as our coats are cut one way or another. I should not be +presentable in London thus; and nothing is more true than that a tailor +is often the making of a man." + +"The shirts, too, are very good holland," said Mrs. Riccabocca, about to +open the knapsack. + +"Never mind details, my dear," cried the wise man; "shirts are +comprehended in the general principle of clothes. And, Leonard, as a +remembrance somewhat more personal, accept this, which I have worn many +a year when time was a thing of importance to me, and nobler fates than +mine hung on a moment. We missed the moment, or abused it, and here I +am, a waif on a foreign shore. Methinks I have done with Time." + +The exile, as he thus spoke, placed in Leonard's reluctant hands a watch +that would have delighted an antiquary, and shocked a dandy It was +exceedingly thick, having an outer case of enamel, and an inner one of +gold. The hands and the figures of the hours had originally been formed +of brilliants; but the brilliants had long since vanished. Still, even +thus bereft, the watch was much more in character with the giver than +the receiver, and was as little suited to Leonard as would have been the +red silk umbrella. + +"It is old-fashioned," said Mrs. Riccabocca, "but it goes better than +any clock in the country. I really think it will last to the end of the +world." + +"_Carissima mia!_" cried the Doctor, "I thought I had convinced you that +the world is by no means come to its last legs." + +"Oh, I did not mean any thing, Alphonso," said Mrs. Riccabocca, +coloring. + +"And that is all we do mean when we talk about that of which we can know +nothing," said the Doctor, less gallantly than usual, for he resented +that epithet of "old-fashioned," as applied to the watch. + +Leonard, we see, had been silent all this time; he could not +speak--literally and truly, he could not speak. How he got out of his +embarrassment, and how he got out of the room, he never explained to my +satisfaction. But, a few minutes afterward, he was seen hurrying down +the road very briskly. + +Riccabocca and his wife stood at the window gazing after him. + +"There is a depth in that boy's heart," said the sage, "which might +float an argosy." + +"Poor dear boy! I think we have put every thing into the knapsack that +he can possibly want," said good Mrs. Riccabocca musingly. + +The DOCTOR (continuing his soliloquy.)--"They are strong, but they are +not immediately apparent." + +Mrs. RICCABOCCA (resuming hers.)--"They are at the bottom of the +knapsack." + +The DOCTOR.--"They will stand long wear and tear." + +Mrs. RICCABOCCA.--"A year, at least, with proper care at the wash." + +The DOCTOR (startled.)--"Care at the wash! What on earth are you talking +of, ma'am!" + +Mrs. RICCABOCCA (mildly.)--"The shirts to be sure, my love! And you?" + +The DOCTOR (with a heavy sigh.)--"The feelings, ma'am!" Then, after a +pause, taking his wife's hand affectionately--"But you did quite right +to think of the shirts; Mr. Dale said very truly--" + +Mrs. RICCABOCCA.--"What?" + +The DOCTOR.--"That there was a great deal in common between us--even +when I think of feelings, and you but of--shirts." + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +Mr. and Mrs. Avenel sat within the parlor--Mr. Richard stood on the +hearth-rug, whistling Yankee Doodle. "The Parson writes word that the +lad will come to-day," said Richard suddenly--"let me see the +letter--ay, to day. If he took the coach as far as ----, he might walk +the rest of the way in two or three hours. He should be pretty nearly +here. I have a great mind to go and meet him: it will save his asking +questions, and hearing about me. I can clear the town by the back way, +and get out at the high road." + +"You'll not know him from any one else," said Mrs. Avenel. + +"Well, that is a good one! Not know an Avenel! We've all the same cut of +the jib--have not we, father?" + +Poor John laughed heartily, till the tears rolled down his cheeks. + +"We were always a well-favored fam'ly," said John, recomposing himself. +"There was Luke, but he's gone; and Harry, but he's dead too, and Dick, +but he's in Amerikay--no, he's here; and my darling Nora, but--" + +"Hush!" interrupted Mrs. Avenel; "hush, John!" + +The old man stared at her, and then put his tremulous hand to his brow. +"And Nora's gone too!" said he, in a voice of profound woe. Both hands +then fell on his knees, and his head drooped on his breast. + +Mrs. Avenel rose, kissed her husband on the forehead, and walked away to +the window. Richard took up his hat, and brushed the nap carefully with +his handkerchief; but his lips quivered. + +"I'm going," said he abruptly. "Now mind, mother, not a word about Uncle +Richard yet; we must first see how we like each other, and--(in a +whisper) you'll try and get that into my poor father's head?" + +"Ay, Richard," said Mrs. Avenel quietly. Richard put on his hat, and +went out by the back way. He stole along the fields that skirted the +town, and had only once to cross the street before he got into the high +road. + +He walked on till he came to the first milestone. There he seated +himself, lighted his cigar, and awaited his nephew. It was now nearly +the hour of sunset, and the road before him lay westward. Richard from +time to time looked along the road, shading his eyes with his hand; and +at length, just as the disc of the sun had half sunk down the horizon, a +solitary figure came up the way. It emerged suddenly from the turn in +the road: the reddening beams colored all the atmosphere around it. +Solitary and silent it came as from a Land of Light. + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +"You have been walking far, young man," said Richard Avenel. + +"No, sir, not very. That is Lansmere before me, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is Lansmere; you stop there, I guess?" + +Leonard made a sign in the affirmative, and walked on a few paces: then, +seeing the stranger who had accosted him still by his side, he said-- + +"If you know the town, sir, perhaps you will have the goodness to tell +me whereabouts Mr. Avenel lives?" + +"I can put you in a straight cut across the fields, that will bring you +just behind the house." + +"You are very kind, but it will take you out of your way." + +"No, it is in my way. So you are going to Mr. Avenel's?--a good old +gentleman." + +"I've always heard so; and Mrs. Avenel--" + +"A particular superior woman," said Richard. "Any one else to ask +after--I know the family well." + +"No, thank you, sir." + +"They have a son, I believe; but he's in America, is not he?" + +"I believe he is, sir." + +"I see the Parson has kept faith with me," muttered Richard. + +"If you can tell me any thing about _him_," said Leonard, "I should be +very glad." + +"Why so, young man?--perhaps he is hanged by this time." + +"Hanged!" + +"He was a sad dog, I am told." + +"Then you have been told very falsely," said Leonard, coloring. + +"A sad wild dog--his parents were so glad when he cut and run--went off +to the States. They say he made money; but, if so, he neglected his +relations shamefully." + +"Sir," said Leonard, "you are wholly misinformed. He has been most +generous to a relative who had little claim on him; and I never heard +his name mentioned but with love and praise." + +Richard instantly fell to whistling Yankee Doodle, and walked on several +paces without saying a word. He then made a slight apology for his +impertinence--hoped no offense--and, with his usual bold but astute +style of talk, contrived to bring out something of his companion's mind. +He was evidently struck with the clearness and propriety with which +Leonard expressed himself, raised his eyebrows in surprise more than +once, and looked him full in the face with an attentive and pleased +survey. Leonard had put on the new clothes with which Riccabocca and +wife had provided him. They were those appropriate to a young country +tradesman in good circumstances; but as he did not think about the +clothes, so he had unconsciously something of the ease of the gentleman. + +They now came into the fields. Leonard paused before a slip of ground +sown with rye. + +"I should have thought grass land would have answered better, so near a +town," said he. + +"No doubt it would," answered Richard; "but they are sadly behind-hand +in these parts. You see that great park yonder, on the other side of the +road? That would answer better for rye than grass; but then, what would +become of my Lord's deer? The aristocracy eat us up, young man." + +"But the aristocracy did not sow this piece with rye, I suppose?" said +Leonard, smiling. + +"And what do you conclude from that?" + +"Let every man look to his own ground," said Leonard, with a cleverness +of repartee caught from Doctor Riccabocca. + +"'Cute lad you are," said Richard; "and we'll talk more of these matters +another time." + +They now came within sight of Mr. Avenel's house. + +"You can get through the gap in the hedge, by the old pollard oak," said +Richard; "and come round by the front of the house. Why, you're not +afraid--are you?" + +"I am a stranger." + +"Shall I introduce you? I told you that I knew the old couple." + +"Oh no, sir! I would rather meet them alone." + +"Go; and--wait a bit--harkye, young man, Mrs. Avenel is a cold mannered +woman; but don't be abashed by that." + +Leonard thanked the good-natured stranger, crossed the field, passed the +gap, and paused a moment under the stinted shade of the old +hollow-hearted oak. The ravens were returning to their nests. At the +sight of a human form under the tree, they wheeled round, and watched +him afar. From the thick of the boughs, the young ravens sent their +hoarse low cry. + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +The young man entered the neat, prim, formal parlor. + +"You are welcome!" said Mrs. Avenel, in a firm voice. + +"The gentleman is heartily welcome," cried poor John. + +"It is your grandson, Leonard Fairfield," said Mrs. Avenel. + +But John who had risen with knocking knees, gazed hard at Leonard, and +then fell on his breast, sobbing aloud--"Nora's eyes!--he has a blink in +his eyes like Nora's." + +Mrs. Avenel approached with a steady step, and drew away the old man +tenderly. + +"He is a poor creature," she whispered to Leonard--"you excite him. Come +away, I will show you your room." + +Leonard followed her up the stairs, and came into a room--neatly, and +even prettily furnished. The carpet and curtains were faded by the sun, +and of old-fashioned pattern, but there was a look about the room as if +it had long been disused. + +Mrs. Avenel sank down on the first chair on entering. + +Leonard drew his arm round her waist affectionately: "I fear that I have +put you out sadly--my dear grandmother." + +Mrs. Avenel glided hastily from his arm, and her countenance worked +much--every nerve in it twitching as it were; then, placing her hand on +his locks, she said with passion, "God bless you, my grandson," and left +the room. + +Leonard dropped his knapsack on the floor, and looked around him +wistfully. The room seemed as if it had once been occupied by a female. +There was a work-box on the chest of drawers, and over it hanging +shelves for books, suspended by ribbons that had once been blue, with +silk and fringe appended to each shelf, and knots and tassels here and +there--the taste of a woman, or rather of a girl, who seeks to give a +grace to the commonest things around her. With the mechanical habit of a +student, Leonard took down one or two of the volumes still left on the +shelves. He found SPENSER'S _Fairy Queen_, RACINE in French, TASSO in +Italian; and on the fly-leaf of each volume, in the exquisite +hand-writing familiar to his memory, the name "Leonora." He kissed the +books, and replaced them with a feeling akin both to tenderness and awe. + +He had not been alone in his room more than a quarter of an hour, before +the maid-servant knocked at his door and summoned him to tea. + +Poor John had recovered his spirits, and his wife sate by his side +holding his hand in hers. Poor John was even gay. He asked many +questions about his daughter Jane, and did not wait for the answers. +Then he spoke about the Squire, whom he confounded with Audley Egerton, +and talked of elections, and the Blue party, and hoped Leonard would +always be a good Blue; and then he fell to his tea and toast, and said +no more. + +Mrs. Avenel spoke little, but she eyed Leonard askant, as it were, from +time to time; and after each glance the nerves of the poor severe face +twitched again. + +A little after nine o'clock Mrs. Avenel lighted a candle, and placing it +in Leonard's hand, said, "You must be tired--you know your own room now. +Good-night." + +Leonard took the light, and, as was his wont with his mother, kissed +Mrs. Avenel on the cheek. Then he took John's hand and kissed him too. +The old man was half asleep and murmured dreamily, "That's Nora." + +Leonard had retired to his room about half-an-hour, when Richard Avenel +entered the house softly, and joined his parents. + +"Well, mother?" said he. + +"Well, Richard--you have seen him?" + +"And like him. Do you know he has a great look of poor Nora?--more like +her than Jane?" + +"Yes; he is handsomer than Jane ever was, but more like your father than +any one. John was so comely. You take to the boy then?" + +"Ay, that I do. Just tell him in the morning that he is to go with a +gentleman who will be his friend, and don't say more. The chaise shall +be at the door after breakfast. Let him get into it: I shall wait for +him out of the town. What's the room you give him?" + +"The room you would not take." + +"The room in which Nora slept? Oh, no! I could not have slept a wink +there. What a charm there was in that girl!--how we all loved her! But +she was too beautiful and good for us--too good to live!" + +"None of us are too good," said Mrs. Avenel with great austerity, "and I +beg you will not talk in that way. Good-night--I must get your poor +father to bed." + +When Leonard opened his eyes-the next morning, they rested on the face +of Mrs. Avenel, which was bending over his pillow. But it was long +before he could recognize that countenance, so changed was its +expression--so tender, so motherlike. Nay, the face of his own mother +had never seemed to him so soft with a mother's passion. + +"Ah!" he murmured, half rising, and flinging his young arms round her +neck. Mrs. Avenel, this time, and for the first, taken by surprise, +warmly returned the embrace: she clasped him to her breast, she kissed +him again and again. At length with a quick start she escaped, and +walked up and down the room, pressing her hands tightly together. When +she halted her face had recovered its usual severity and cold precision. + +"It is time for you to rise, Leonard," said she. "You will leave us +to-day. A gentleman has promised to take charge of you, and do for you +more than we can. A chaise will be at the door soon--make haste." + +John was absent from the breakfast-table. His wife said that he never +rose till late, and must not be disturbed. + +The meal was scarce over before a chaise and pair came to the door. + +"You must not keep the chaise waiting--the gentleman is very punctual." + +"But he is not come." + +"No, he has walked on before, and will get in after you are out of the +town." + +"What is his name, and why should he care for me, grandmother?" + +"He will tell you himself. Now, come." + +"But you will bless me again, grandmother. I love you already." + +"I do bless you," said Mrs. Avenel firmly. "Be honest and good, and +beware of the first false step." She pressed his hand with a convulsive +grasp, and led him to the outer door. + +The postboy clanked his whip, the chaise rattled off. Leonard put his +head out of the window to catch a last glimpse of the old woman. But the +boughs of the pollard oak, and its gnarled decaying trunk, hid her from +his eye. And look as he would, till the road turned, he saw but the +melancholy tree. + +(_To be continued._) + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] This aphorism has been probably assigned to Lord Bacon upon the mere +authority of the index to his works. It is the aphorism of the +index-maker, certainly not of the great master of inductive philosophy. +Bacon has, it is true, repeatedly dwelt on the power of knowledge, but +with so many explanations and distinctions, that nothing could be more +unjust to his general meaning than to attempt to cramp into a sentence +what it costs him a volume to define. Thus, if in one page he appears to +confound knowledge with power, in another he sets them in the strongest +antithesis to each other; as follows, "Adeo, signanter Deus opera +potentiæ et sapientiæ diseriminavit." But it would be as unfair to Bacon +to convert into an aphorism the sentence that discriminates between +knowledge and power as it is to convert into an aphorism any sentence +that confounds them. + +[9] "But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or +misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge:--for men have +entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a +natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their +minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; +and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and +most times for lucre and profession;"--[that is, for most of those +objects which are meant by the ordinary citers of the saying, 'Knowledge +is power;'] "and seldom, sincerely, to give a true account of these +gifts of reason to the benefit and use of men; as if there were sought +in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; +or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down, with +a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself +upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a +shop for profit or sale--and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the +Creator, and the relief of men's estate."--ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, BOOK +I. + + + + +UNCLE JOHN; OR, THE ROUGH ROAD TO RICHES. + + +England affords, even in these degenerate days of peace, innumerable +examples of the class called "lucky fellows;" that is to say, men who +have begun life with a charity-school education and a shilling, and are +now prosperous in wealth and station. Perhaps it is hardly fair to +impute to good-luck, what may be mainly owing to industry, frugality, +patience, and perseverance. But, after all, one may starve with all +these virtues, in spite of all that copy-book maxims may say to the +contrary. There is good-luck in success, whatever may have been the +qualities by which that good luck has been seized at the right moment +and turned to good account. Industry, frugality, patience, and +perseverance, form a perfect locomotive--good-luck is the engine-driver +who turns the handle and sets them in motion at the right moment. + +Men who have been the "architects of their own fortunes," never admit +that good luck has had any thing to do with their prosperity. Their +pardonable vanity at their own success makes them guilty of a species +of ingratitude to Providence. Listen to one of these old gentlemen +holding forth to his hopeful son or nephew on his, the said old +gentleman's, past life; on his early poverty, his self-denial, his hard +work, and his subsequent reward; and the burden of his discourse is ever +the same, + + "_Alone_ I did it, boy!" + +Should the listener at any point be tempted rashly to exclaim "how +lucky!" the old gentleman will turn on him with a severe frown and say, +"luck, sir; nonsense. There's no such thing as luck. Live on a crust, +sir; that's the only way for a man to get on in the world." The old +gentleman quite forgets that if his first venture in the _Chutnee_ East +Indiaman had been a failure; or his first dabble in the stocks had not +been followed by the battle of Leipsic; or his senior partner, who had +nine-tenths of the profits of the business, had not departed this life +suddenly in an apoplectic fit, he would have held a very different +position in the world, and probably have been now a denizen of the +second floor over his counting-house in the city, instead of a resident +in Hyde Park Gardens. + +An excellent specimen of this class of old gentlemen is "Uncle John." +The obscurity of his early days is so great that even he himself finds +it difficult to penetrate it. That he had a father and a mother is +incontestable; but these worthy people seem to have left this world of +sin at so early a period of "Uncle John's" existence, that, for all +practical purposes, he might as well have been without them. His first +juvenile recollections are connected with yellow stockings, leather +shorts, a cutaway coatee with a tin badge on it, and a little round +woolen cap with a tuft in the middle of it, resting on a head formed by +nature to accommodate a cap of double its dimensions. In a word, "Uncle +John" was a charity-boy. + +It must not be imagined that the above fact has ever been communicated +by Uncle John himself; for the worthy man is weak enough to be ashamed +of it, though he will discourse of his early privations in a mystical +manner, with the design apparently of inducing you to regard him rather +as a counterpart of Louis Philippe in his days of early exile, than as a +commonplace, though equally interesting (to a right-thinking mind) young +gentleman in yellow stockings. It _is_ a fact, however, as indisputable +as that Uncle John is now worth thirty or forty thousand pounds. + +Emerging from the charity-school, and exchanging the leather shorts and +yellow stockings for corduroys and gray worsted socks, Uncle John +obtained the appointment of office-boy to a Temple attorney. His duties +were multifarious--sweeping the office and serving writs, cleaning boots +and copying declarations. His emoluments were not large--seven shillings +a week and "find himself," which was less difficult, poor boy, than to +find any thing _for_ himself. But Uncle John persevered and was not +disheartened. He lived literally on a crust, and regaled himself only +with the savory smells issuing from the cook's-shop, which was not only +an economical luxury, but had the advantage of affording a stimulus to +the imagination. He actually saved two shillings a week out of his +salary, not to mention an occasional donation of a shilling on high days +and holidays from his master. + +Uncle John was never idle. When he had nothing to do for his master, +which was rarely the case, he used to take a pen and any loose piece of +paper or parchment, and copy, or imitate, the lawyer's engrossing +hand--known as court-hand--till he became a good penman in this cramped +style of writing. Having accomplished this object, Uncle John determined +to "better himself," by getting a situation as copying clerk instead of +office boy. He succeeded in his attempts, and was installed in another +attorney's office as engrossing clerk at twelve shillings a week--a +salary which appeared to him, at the time, enormous. But riches did not +turn his head. The only increase which he made in his previous +expenditure, was in wearing a rather cleaner shirt, and discarding +corduroys for some more genteel material. Uncle John was too wise and +too self-denying to be seduced _inside_ the cook's-shop yet. + +He was now saving at least six shillings a week, which is £15 a year! +For four years no change took place in his condition. He still lived in +his solitary garret; worked hard all day, and borrowed law books from +the articled clerks in the office, which he read at home at night. At +home! poor fellow--what a name for his miserable little room up in the +tiles of a house in a narrow court out of Fleet-street! But Uncle John +was a brave fellow, and worked on without stopping to sentimentalize. + +A promotion now took place in the office, and Uncle John was made chief +common-law clerk at one pound a week. He had rendered himself quite +competent for the duties by his midnight studies. He was never absent +from his post, never forgot any thing, and was never ill; for he had the +strength of a horse. It is suspected that about this time, Uncle John +paid one or two visits to the cook's-shop; but it must not be supposed +that the visits were _more_ than one or two. As a rule, Uncle John dined +on a piece of the cheapest meat he could purchase, boiled by himself in +his garret. + +He was wise enough, however, to be very neat in his dress, and thereby +gained the credit of being a very respectable young man in the eyes of +his employer; for it is a very remarkable fact that clerks are always +expected to dress like gentlemen when their salaries are not even large +enough to buy them food. + +Another four years passed away, when one day Uncle John, having duly +screwed up his courage, walked into his master's private room, and, +after a little preliminary hesitation, ventured to hint that he should +like to be articled! The master stared--the clerk remained silently +awaiting his answer. + +"Are you aware," inquired the former, "that the expense of the stamp, +&c., is one hundred and twenty pounds?" + +Uncle John _was_ aware of it, and he was prepared with the money. He had +saved it out of his miserable salary. + +The master stared still more. But, after a short time, he consented to +article Uncle John, and to continue his salary during the term of his +articles. Uncle John was in ecstasies, and so far forgot his usual +prudence that evening as to indulge in half a pint of bad port wine--a +taste, by the way, which he has retained to this day. + +He was now a happy man. Every thing was "en train" now to make him one +day a "gentleman by Act of Parliament"--as attorneys are facetiously +termed. It would certainly require something more than even the +omnipotence of an Act of Parliament to confer the character on some of +the fraternity. + +During the first year of his articles the managing clerk died, and Uncle +John was promoted to that office with a salary of two hundred a year. +Here was, indeed, a rise in life--from seven shillings a week to two +hundred a year! Happy Uncle John. But you deserved it all; for you had +plenty of the courage which is prepared for all ills, and endures those +which it can not conquer. + +Long before the five years of his articles had expired, the clerk had +made himself so absolutely necessary to the master, that the latter +could scarcely have carried on the business for a month without him. +Therefore, when the time arrived at which he ceased to be a clerk and +became himself an attorney, Uncle John hinted to his master that he was +going to leave him. Cunning Uncle John! You had no such intention; but +you knew that your master would take alarm, beg you to stay, and offer +you a partnership. Of course--and he did so. + +Uncle John's path in life was from henceforth comparatively smooth. He +was the working partner in a business which was both profitable and of +good quality. Within a few years his partner was foolish enough to +quarrel with him, and to demand a dissolution of the partnership. Uncle +John readily consented, and all the clients knowing well who was the man +that understood the business and transacted it, followed him; and he +became an attorney with a practice of two thousand a year, and no +partner to share the profits. + +His economical habits never forsook him. He married and kept a decent +table; but save in a love of good wine (or at least what his uneducated +taste considered so), he had nothing but the ordinary necessaries of +life. How much he saved each year who shall say? He had no children, and +his practice increasing while his wants stood still, he became what he +is now--a prosperous and highly respected old gentleman. + +It is the fashion of the old to point out such men as models for the +imitation of the rising generation. The young, on the contrary, make +them the subjects of their ridicule, for their bad grammar and worse +manners. Let us see if we can find out the truth, unbiased by either +party. Uncle John is now a rich man, an honorable man, a hardworking +man, and in the main a sensible man. He has attained his position in +life by patience, perseverance, and industry, favored also by a little +of that good luck to which we first referred. But Uncle John is +deficient in many of the characteristics which adorn human nature. Is it +not natural that he should be so? Where was he to learn the gentler +feelings of his kind--affection, sympathy, benevolence? In his garret, +alone and unfriended? He is mean and parsimonious. He is worth forty +thousand pounds, and his deceased brother's child is starving with his +wife in a suburban garret. Uncle John will not aid him with a penny. Who +aided _him_? Did _he_ not live in a garret, and save money too? Was _he_ +such a fool as to marry before he could keep a wife? Uncle John was +guilty of no weaknesses in those days; he can not forgive them in +another. + +His only brother dies, leaving a large family and a widow--unprovided +for: for the children have eaten up all he could ever earn. Uncle John +does not like the widow (perhaps because she had so many children), but +he gives her £50 a year. His own income is about four thousand. + +His only sister is also left a widow without a sixpence. Uncle John +gives _her_ £50 a year. "People should not marry imprudently. He can +afford no more; he has a great many calls upon him." Perhaps so; but the +answer to such calls is always, "not at home." + +He has many clerks now. He makes them all work twelve hours a day. Why +not? _He_ worked twelve hours a day. + +He has articled clerks too. They must work twelve hours a day also. _He_ +did it. True, Uncle John; but you had your salary for it; while they, on +the contrary, pay you for the privilege of working for you. + +There is an old adage that a slave makes the worst tyrant. Uncle John +exemplifies it. Because he suffered poverty and privation, he thinks +that every youth should endure the same. Because nature had given him +the constitution of a horse, he thinks that every one should have a +similar one. + +Such men as Uncle John are striking examples of certain qualities; and +of those particular qualities which conduce to success in life. Their +highest praise (perhaps there is no higher praise in the world) is their +unflinching integrity. But we can not bring ourselves to think them--on +the whole--models for imitation. After all, there is selfishness at the +bottom of their first motives, and this quality grows with their growth, +and strengthens with their strength, till, in their old age, they are +impatient at all the enjoyments of youth. The hardships of their younger +days are not only to be pitied for the pain they must have inflicted at +the time, but because they have closed up all the avenues through which +the gentler, nobler, and more generous sympathies of our nature find +their way into the heart. Their want of education has not been of the +mind alone, but of the affections; and as it is ten thousand times more +difficult to learn a language or a science in old age than in youth, so +it is infinitely more difficult (if it be not impossible) to teach the +science of the affections, and the language of the heart, to the old man +whose youth has known nothing of either. Affliction and adversity teach +oft-times sympathy and benevolence; but to do so they must have followed +on happier times, and not have been a birth-portion. You may praise and +respect "Uncle Johns," but you can not love them--neither can they love +you. + + + + +DARLING DOREL. + + +Dorothea Sibylla, Duchess of Brieg, was born at Cöln, on the River +Spree, in Prussia, on the 19th of October, 1590. She was the daughter of +Elizabeth of Anhalt, and of John George, Margrave and Elector of +Brandenburg, of the old princely Ascanian race. At the death of her +husband in 1598, the widowed margravine retired to Crossen to +superintend her daughter's education. In due time, suitors were not +wanting for the hand of young Dorothea Sibylla: among others, the King +of Denmark; but he sued in vain. Dorothea, at length, fixed her +affection on John Christian, Duke of Liegnitz and Brieg, who enjoyed a +great reputation for virtue, ability, and integrity. To him, after a +short courtship. Dorothea was married on the 12th of December, 1610, at +Crossen; and reached Brieg--the small capital of her future +dominions--on the first of January in the following year. + +Such is the dry sum of a charming Court biography, which first appeared +in a periodical published in 1829, in Silesia, and which has been twice +republished in a separate form--once (in 1838) at Brieg, under the title +of "Passages from the Life of Dorothea Sibylla, Duchess of Liegnitz and +Brieg." It purports to consist of extracts from the journal of a certain +tanner and furrier of Brieg, named Valentinus Gierth, an occasional +guest at the ducal castle, and ardent admirer of the duchess. As a +simple, and--if internal evidence be worth any thing--truthful picture +of German-Court life during the early part of the seventeenth century, +it is not to be gainsayed; although suspicions of its authenticity have +been cast upon it, similar to those which damaged the charms of the +"Diary of Lady Willoughby," by eventually proving it to be a fiction. + +Dorothea is described as a pattern of goodness, common sense, virtue, +and piety. In domestic management, she was pre-eminent. For her own +immediate attendants, she appointed fourteen maids of honor; and the +first families of the land looked upon it as an inestimable privilege to +place their daughters at the ducal court; which was a high school of +all noble virtues and accomplishments, "whereof the duchess herself was +the chief teacher and most perfect model." + +Nothing could be more primitive than the duchess's intercourse with the +townspeople. Occasionally she walked in the streets of Brieg accompanied +by her maids of honor, and chatted with such of the townspeople as were +sitting on the benches outside their doors. The little children looked +forward with the greatest delight to these town walks of the duchess; +for the ladies-in-waiting invariably carried about with them in their +pockets all sorts of sweetmeats, which the duchess distributed among the +little claimants. For this reason, the little children stood peeping +round the corners of the streets, when it got wind that the duchess was +about to walk out; more especially when it was surmised that the duke +would not be with her. So soon, therefore, as Dorothea Sibylla left the +castle gate, the little urchins would run through the town, like +wildfire, crying out, "The darling Dorel is coming!--the darling Dorel +is coming!" + +The manner in which this endearing designation first came to her ears is +related with affecting simplicity. "It happened," says Master Gierth, +with true German particularity, "on the 10th of September (old style) in +the year of our Lord, 1613;" that being the Feast of St. Sibylla--one of +the duchess's name-saints--and also the second birth-day of her son +George. There was a great feast at the castle; to which the towns-folks +and the children of the High and Guild Schools were invited. + +"From the terrace," quoth the chronicler, "the whole procession moved +along a wide, smooth walk before the orangery; where the quality, as +well as the children, were richly treated with strong, spiced wine, +orange-water, and confectionery. Her ladyship did, likewise, lay certain +presents before the young lord, her son; she did, likewise, examine the +children's school-books, and the master's report, wherein the conduct of +the children was noted, and did put apposite questions to them touching +their Christian belief, and the like; and, on receiving right proper +answers, her face did shine like an angel's. + +"One little maiden, however, which was weak and ignorant, was not able +to answer the questions aright; whereupon her ladyship did ask: + +"'My child, what is your name?' Whereunto she did answer, 'Anna Pohlin.' + +"'Well,' asked her ladyship, 'and what is my name?' + +"Straightway the little maiden did answer, 'Darling Dorel!' + +"Hereupon Master Valentinus Gierth was somewhat affronted, but did +quickly recover himself and, stepping up to her ladyship, did say: + +"'Most gracious lady! I trust your ladyship will pardon these words, and +not take them amiss; inasmuch, as it is true that the women of this +town, as well as of the neighboring villages, when they do speak of your +ladyship, do commonly call your ladyship the Darling Dorel.' + +"Then did the duchess fold her hands, and, raising them to heaven, did +say: + +"'God be praised for such a precious title! the which, as long as I am +in my senses, I would not exchange against 'Your Majesty!' + +"The duke did, thereupon, embrace her ladyship, saying: + +"'Away with the title, 'princely consort!' I will ever henceforth call +thee by none other save 'Darling Dorel!'" + +We by no means intend to follow the good tanner through his minute +records; but merely write thus much, as necessary preface to a quaint +little love story. Premising that the duchess had sent, after her usual +fashion, a marriage present to a certain lady, by two of her maids of +honor (by name Agnes and Mary), we shall transfer the narrative to our +pages in Master Gierth's own manner. + +After the presentation of the gifts, and when the marriage ceremony was +concluded, the two maids of honor were preparing to return to Brieg, +when the bride's father stopped them, saying: + +"'How? Shall I suffer two such angels of joy to depart, without tasting +of my food and my drink? Nay, noble damsels, ye must abide here awhile +beyond the marriage festivities, and be of good cheer! I will +immediately dispatch a trusty messenger on horse to her most gracious +ladyship, the duchess, and obtain leave for your sojourn here.' + +"The two damsels did, therefore, abide there the space of three days, +and became acquainted with two gallants of the place; with whom they did +exchange love-tokens and rings. But when the two damsels returned to +Brieg to render an account of their mission, the duchess did note the +rings on the fingers of the two damsels, and questioned them how they +came thereby. So soon, therefore, as the two damsels did confess the +truth, their mistress, half-jestingly, and half in earnest, said unto +them: + +"'How now, ye gad-abouts! ye have scarce chipped the egg-shell, and +have, as yet, no means to make the pot boil, seeing that ye are poor +orphans, and under age; and ye yet dare to listen to the nonsense of +strange gallants, unbeknown to your foster-mother! Tell me, foolish +young things, ought I not to take the rod to you? Take off the rings +from your fingers, and give them to me. I will send them back; seeing +that the betrothal is null and void, and mere child's play.' + +"The young damsels did then obey her ladyship, but wept apace the while. +This caused her ladyship to have compassion upon them, and she did +minister comfort to them thus: + +"'Ah! beloved daughters! ye shed bitter, hot tears that ye do not +already wear the curch [the German head dress of married women]. But if +ye did but know the heaviness of being wedded wives, even when the cares +are lightest, ye would rejoice! Meanwhile, the matter hath been carried +on against all Christian order. I have always heard that the lover first +maketh his suit known to the parents or the guardians, and that then +the betrothal taketh place. Your suitors must needs be in great haste. +Why stand they in such great necessity of pushing their suit?' + +"Hereupon the damsel Agnes plucked up an heart, and said quickly, + +"'Most gracious lady! the gentlemen did come with us; and have already +the consent of their own parents to make their suit if they be but +encouraged by a sign of approval.' + +"'Ah! Heaven have mercy!' cried the duchess, joining her hands. 'Have +ye, scape-graces indeed, brought your gallants hither? I dare not +inquire further. May be, ye have hidden them in your chambers? Meggy +(the duchess's nurse), beg his lordship to come hither; I must talk the +matter over with him.' + +"'After the duke had come and heard that which had befallen, he +straightways asked the names of the gallants; and when the damsels had +informed his grace thereof, his lordship did turn unto his consort, +saying: + +"'Listen, Darling Dorel: the parents, on both sides, are most worthy +persons, and of unblemished birth. I advise that thou shouldst give thy +consent thereunto! Remember, dearest, that we twain were of one mind +long before I made known my suit unto thy mother.' + +"Whereupon her ladyship did strike her lord upon the mouth with her +kerchief, and said, + +"'Well!--well!--but we must first look at these youths, and learn what +they are like. Tell us now, young damsels, where are your lovers hidden, +and what is the signal ye have agreed upon?' + +"Agnes did immediately tell her ladyship that the gallants were housed +at the Golden Pitcher; and, whereas the Lion's Tower, in the palace, +could thence be plainly discerned, they had agreed to tie a white +kerchief round the neck of one of the lions as a signal that there was +hope for them! The gallants had agreed to abide at the hostel the space +of eight days. Should the matter, however, turn out ill, the kerchief +displayed was to be black. + +"'Well done,' said the duchess to her husband; 'they wish to take two +fortresses at once; and would have the white flag wave without firing a +shot, and without attempting a storm.' + +"Hereupon the Duke Christian did take the hand of his beloved wife, and +spoke, somewhat in an under tone: + +"'Darling wife! was not the green branch so often stuck in your window +at Crossen; also a white flag? Moreover, thou knowest little of a siege; +preparations for storming a citadel are not made during the daylight; +but secretly, in the night season, in order that the garrison perceive +them not. Shots may already have been fired. Tell me, young girls, have +ye already kissed the gallants? Mary, do you speak; ye have not yet +opened your mouth: make a clean breast.' + +"'Ah! most gracious liege,' answered Mary, 'the gentlemen have, indeed, +squeezed hands in secret, while we sat at table; and during the +marriage-dance, and at sundry other dances, we kissed each other--seeing +that others did the like. But we could not be alone with them at any +other time; for the bride's mother was always about us, and we lay in +her room. Neither, on the way home, had we much liberty; seeing that the +old secretary, whom her ladyship did send with us, did observe us most +narrowly. But, when the old man did look out of the window of the +carriage, then did the gallants look tenderly upon us, and did kiss +their hands to us." + +"'There, now,' said his lordship, turning to his wife, 'you see that the +siege was conducted with vigor. The squeezing of hands was the parley; +the kisses the cannon-balls, sent so freely; and the tender looks the +shells. Depend upon it the storm can not long be delayed. Listen, +darling wife, my heart melts when I bethink me that we also, in our +youth, could not brook a long delay.' + +"'Let the drums beat the chamade [parley], and let us show our colors!' +said the duchess; while she threw her arms round her husband's neck, and +stopped his mouth with a kiss. The duke did then ask her, jestingly, +'But which flag shall it be?' + +"Hereupon the two young damsels did cry aloud, as with one voice: + +"'The white!--most gracious liege!--the white!' + +"The duchess could not choose but laugh heartily, and his lordship did +immediately order a servant to mount the tower, and to tie a white +kerchief round one of the lion's necks. His lordship did then sing an +old song the children are wont to sing on May-day: + + "'A stately house my lord doth keep, + Two maidens from the windows peep; + A kerchief white the one doth wave, + Because they fain would husbands have.' + +And then did depart to put on better apparel, wherein to await the +coming of the wooers. He did also command that all the court ladies and +the courtiers should be present at the wooing. Meanwhile, 'Darling +Dorel' did ask the damsels where they had gotten the rings which they +had presented to their gallants in return for theirs? Thereupon Agnes +did reply unto her ladyship: + +"'Most gracious lady! we are but poor orphans, and possess nought save +poor little gold rings belonging to our departed mothers, And these we +could not bear to part with. We have therefore promised to buy rings +with our savings, and deliver them to our gallants on some fitting +opportunity.' + +"'In this case,' said her ladyship, 'ye are but half betrothed, and +there is yet time to think twice of the matter;' nevertheless, her +ladyship did praise the young damsels, inasmuch as they did not part +lightly and rashly with their mothers' trinkets. She advised them, +moreover, to tarry; as they or their gallants might change their minds. + +"This speech did much alarm the damsels, who did then believe the whole +matter to be postponed; and they did forthwith begin to weep, and to +beseech her ladyship, not for this account, to cause their lovers to +alter their mind, seeing that they, the damsels, were poor, and were not +likely soon to get other suitors. + +"The duchess did then say unto them: 'The misfortune would not be so +great! I would find husbands for you soon enough.' Hereupon, she turned +to old Meggy, and said, + +"'Ah! most worthy nurse, what a life does a wretched princess lead! Had +I but married an honest burgher, then should I have had nothing but my +household duties and my children to attend to; I could have gone quietly +to bed, slept without care, and waked with pleasure; but in my position +every thing is otherwise. Alack, when my other damsels come hither, and +learn that these silly girls are already betrothed, they will all run +mad, and I shall have to send them to all the marriage feasts throughout +the duchy to pick up husbands.' + +"Hereupon, she sent the nurse Meggy for her jewel box, opened it, and +gave to each of the two damsels a handsome ring, the which they might +present to their lovers, and thus return their pledge; but under this +condition, that they were not to deliver their rings until the duchess +gave them a sign thereunto with her kerchief. + +"While all this was going on, the duke on his part had entered the +duchess's apartment, accompanied by the chamberlain, all the gentlemen +of his court, and the maids of honor. The lovers, meanwhile, were on the +look out, and were not aware that matters had gone to such a length +touching their love affairs. They had joyfully obeyed the white signal, +and stood near unto the gates of the castle waiting for some opportunity +of seeing their betrothed. The duke perceived this, and hereupon opened +the window, and called unto the soldiers on guard, 'Arrest me those two +fellows, and conduct them to the guard-house, until further orders!' + +"Hereupon the damsels, Agnes and Mary, were exceedingly afraid. The +duke, however, did comfort them with the following words: + +"'This is on your account; hasten and put on proper attire; ye still +have got on your old clothes, and must adorn yourselves.' + +"The damsels ran gleefully and quickly into their rooms; whither the +duchess sent after them two other damsels to aid them in plaiting their +hair. They soon returned; and each of the damsels about to be betrothed +had put on the bridal wreath belonging to her mother. + +"The duke now ordered the lovers to be summoned from the guard-house. +They were sore abashed when they entered the room; especially when his +gracious lordship addressed the following questions to them: + +"'What are your names? Have you passports? and what is your will?' + +"The young men twirled their caps in their hands; stared first at their +loves, and then at their gracious lieges; but could not utter a word, +and stood looking very sheepish. + +"'Ah!' said his lordship, 'never in my life did I meet with two such +dumb fellows. My dominions will soon touch those of Oppeln, and you +serve excellent well as landmarks! can neither of ye say 'yea or nay?' +Answer me straight! Have ye got the consent of your parents to propose +for those two chits; and are ye ready to affirm the same on your word of +honor, as gentlemen?' + +"Then did the young men recover their speech, and they both answered, +'Yea.' + +"'Well,' said the duke, 'I will now believe ye, and keep you at my court +some few days; but as ye may be rogues and vagabonds for all that I +know, I will therefore send a messenger on horseback to your parents to +get further intelligence, and ye must have patience the while.' + +"Hereupon the damsel, Mary, turned to the duchess, and said to her with +great simplicity, + +"'Most gracious lady, the gentlemen have spoken truth! Their parents +have given them permission to woo us. We have concealed nothing from +them, but confessed in the presence of the old lady Wentzkin, that we +were poor orphan girls, and have no dower. But the mothers of our two +lovers said that all was well; if only we brought a blessing from +Darling Dorel, they should value it more than an earldom! This Agnes and +I can affirm on oath.' + +"On hearing this, the duchess folded her hands in prayer, looked toward +heaven with tears in her eyes, and still praying, and gave the signal +with her kerchief. Immediately the damsels placed the rings on the +fingers of their lovers, knelt down before the duchess, and besought her +blessing. The duchess laid her hands upon the heads of the young girls +and said, + +"'God alone, who is in heaven, knows whether this will prove a blessing +or a curse; but, if God hear the prayer of a weak woman, it will prove a +blessing! Bethink ye of your deceased parents; and may their blessing +evermore accompany ye! And therefore, let us most fervently utter the +Lord's Prayer.' + +"Hereupon all present fell upon their knees, and prayed in a low voice; +but her most gracious ladyship did say the Lord's Prayer aloud. + +"After the prayer was finished, the duchess made a sign to the chief +lady about the court, who did thereupon bring, on a silver salver, two +half wreaths, which were twined in the hair of the two damsels, Agnes +and Mary, after they had taken off their own wreaths; for it was the +custom, in Brieg, for betrothed maidens to wear only half wreaths until +their wedding-day, when they wore whole ones. The chamberlain did +hereupon display from the window a red flag; upon which signal the ducal +band did strike up a merry tune with trumpets and kettle-drums from the +castle tower; whereupon a crowd gathered in the town to know the cause +of such rejoicing at the palace. + +"So soon, therefore, as the betrothed couples had duly thanked his grace +and the duchess by kissing the hems of their garments, her gracious +ladyship did announce to the betrothed damsels, that they should tarry +with her for the space of one year, in order more fully to learn their +household duties, and to strengthen them in the practice of the +Christian virtues; seeing that they were still, as the duchess said, as +ignorant as callow geese! Moreover, their clothes and furniture had to +be provided, and the like. But to the gentlemen, she said: + +"Mind, gentlemen, ye must also make the best of it! Ye are scarce out of +leading-strings, and must go through some sort of ordeal. I would advise +you to travel, if so be your parents can afford it.' + +"'By all means,' added the duke; 'my Darling Dorel is perfectly right: +you must travel; and, if ye know not whither, go to Jericho, and get ye +some beards to your faces.' + +"As it was yet early in the day, his gracious lordship did order dinner +to be prepared: to which, besides the Town Council, and their wives and +children, Master Valentinus Gierth and his wife Susanna, were invited. + +"His gracious lordship was exceeding merry, and the duchess was most +kind in her manner; nevertheless, the guests did not fail to mark that +her gracious ladyship did oftentimes look toward the new brides, and +that big tears did sometimes roll down her cheek the while." + + + + +COURTESY OF AMERICANS. + + +I like the Americans more and more: either they have improved +wonderfully lately, or else the criticisms on them have been cruelly +exaggerated. They are particularly courteous and obliging; and seem, I +think, amiably anxious that foreigners should carry away a favorable +impression of them. As for me, let other travelers say what they please +of them, I am determined not to be prejudiced, but to judge of them +exactly as I find them; and I shall most pertinaciously continue to +praise them (if I see no good cause to alter my present humble opinion), +and most especially for their obliging civility and hospitable attention +to strangers, of which I have already seen several instances. + +I have witnessed but very few isolated cases, as yet, of the unrefined +habits so usually ascribed to them; and those cases decidedly were not +among the higher orders of people; for there seems just as much +difference in America as any where else in some respects. The superior +classes here have almost always excellent manners, and a great deal of +real and natural, as well as acquired refinement, and are often besides +(which perhaps will not be believed in fastidious England) extremely +distinguished-looking. By the way, the captains of the steamboats appear +a remarkably gentlemanlike race of men in general, particularly +courteous in their deportment, and very considerate and obliging to the +passengers.--_Lady Emeline Wortley._ + + + + +_Monthly Record of Current Events._ + + +POLITICAL AND GENERAL NEWS. + + +THE UNITED STATES. + +The past month has been remarkable for general quiet and for an absence +of excitement of any kind, rather than for events either of political or +general interest. It has often been noted as characteristic of the +American Republic, that, however fierce and menacing popular excitement +may appear to be, it disappears with the immediate event which gave it +birth. A presidential election, for instance, calls forth the most +embittered and apparently dangerous contests between different sections +of the Union, and an observer, unacquainted with the character of our +people, and the practical working of our institutions, would naturally +expect that the result, whatever it might be, would excite the defeated +party to armed resistance, and plunge the country into civil war. But +the whole country is never so quiet--the public mind is never so free +from agitation, as immediately after an excited election contest. The +adjournment of Congress has had a similar effect. Stimulants to +sectional or party feeling are no longer there applied; the public +attention is no longer fastened upon public men, and social and civil +life resume their ordinary channels of quiet and harmonious progress. + +Some of the State Legislatures are still in session, but their action is +too local to excite general interest. A very important Act has passed +the Legislature of the State of New York, re-organizing the Common +School System of the State, and placing it partially upon the free +basis. By the law of 1849 all the common schools of the State were made +entirely free, their cost being paid by county, town, and district +taxation. This was found to be highly obnoxious, chiefly from that +provision which gave the _voters_ in any district power to tax the +_property_ of the district _ad libitum_ for school purposes. The new law +was passed to remedy those objections. By its provisions a State tax of +$800,000 is annually imposed upon the property of the State, and +distributed among the schools. The balance, if any should be required, +is to be collected by rate-bill from those who send to school, indigent +persons being exempt, at the expense of property of the town. The bill +has become a law and will go into operation next fall. Another very +important measure has been introduced into the Legislature, concerning +the enlargement of the Erie Canal. The Constitution of the State sets +apart the surplus revenues of the canals in each year, for the +completion of the enlargement; but the rapidly increasing competition of +railroads has led the Legislature to perceive the necessity of +accomplishing this work more rapidly than it can be done in the way +hitherto adopted. The bill referred to proposes to borrow money on the +credit of the surplus revenues set apart by the Constitution; and with +the money thus procured, to complete the enlargement forthwith, setting +apart the revenues as a fund to redeem the certificates. The measure was +very strenuously resisted by the Democratic party, chiefly on the ground +that it was unconstitutional. This, however, was denied by the friends +of the bill. It was argued with great ability and zeal on both sides. In +the Assembly the bill passed, by a vote of 76 ayes and 21 nays In the +Senate it is still under consideration. We have already recorded the +attempt and failure of the Legislature to elect a Senator in the +Congress of the United States. On the 18th of March the effort was +renewed by a joint resolution, and after a session protracted until two +hours after midnight, it resulted, through the absence of two Democratic +Senators, in the choice, by separate nomination of each House, of +HAMILTON FISH. In the Senate there were 16 votes for, and 12 against +him. In the House he received 68 votes and there were but 8 against him. +He has accepted the office.--The members of the Legislature and the +State Officers paid a visit of three days to the City of New York, on +the invitation of the Mayor and Common Council. They visited the +different public and charitable institutions, of this city and Brooklyn; +and were entertained at a public dinner at the Astor House, on the +evening of March 22d. This is the first visit of the kind ever made.--A +bill for the suppression of gambling, containing some stringent +provisions, having been introduced into the Senate, and referred to a +committee of three, GEORGE W. BULL, sergeant-at-arms of that body, +endeavored to enter into negotiations with the reputed proprietor of a +gambling "hell" in New York to delay or defeat the bill, for an adequate +compensation. He managed to procure a note from the committee to the +effect that the bill would not come up the present session. The attempt +was exposed, and the offender forthwith dismissed from his office. An +unsuccessful attempt was made to implicate the senatorial committee in +this scandalous affair, upon the ground that they could not have been +ignorant of the purpose for which their note was procured. + +Nothing of special importance has occurred in any section of the +country. In Ohio the Legislature has adopted a series of resolutions +concerning the Fugitive Slave law, urging a faithful execution of the +law, but recommending such modifications as experience may prove to be +essential. In view of the Act of the Legislature of South Carolina, +providing for the appointment of delegates to a Southern Congress, the +General Assembly of Virginia has passed a series of resolutions to the +following purport: 1. That while Virginia sympathizes in the feelings +excited by the interference of the non-slaveholding States with the +domestic institutions of the South, yet the people of that State "are +unwilling to take any action, in consequence of the same, calculated to +destroy the integrity of this Union." 2. That regarding the Compromise +measures, "taken together, as an adjustment of the exciting questions to +which they relate, and cherishing the hope that if fairly executed, they +will restore to the country that harmony and confidence, which of late +have been so unhappily disturbed, the State of Virginia deems it unwise, +in the present condition of the country, to send delegates to the +proposed Southern Congress." 3. Virginia appeals to South Carolina "to +desist from any meditated secession upon her part, which can not but +tend to the destruction of the Union, and the loss to all the States of +the blessings that spring from it." 4. Believing that the Constitution +provides adequate protection to the rights of all the States, Virginia +"invokes all who live under it to adhere more strictly to it, and to +preserve inviolate the safeguards which it affords to the rights of +individual States, and the interests of sectional minorities." 5. +Reprobates all legislation or combinations designed to affect the +institutions peculiar to the South, as derogatory and offensive to the +Southern States, and calculated to "defeat the restoration of peaceful +and harmonious sentiments in these States." These dignified and +temperate resolutions passed with singular unanimity: the 3d with but +three, the 1st with only one, and the 4th and 5th without a single +dissenting voice, out of 118 members present and voting. They were +directed to be transmitted to the Executive of each of the States, with +the exception of Vermont. In the Senate an amendment was passed, +omitting this exception of Vermont; but the House refusing, by a very +close vote, to concur, the Senate receded. + +There is little doubt that these resolutions embody the prevalent +sentiment of the South. The _Richmond Enquirer_, one of the ablest and +most influential Southern papers, affirms them to be "such an expression +of sentiment as will harmonize with the universal sentiment of the +South, with rare exceptions. South Carolina," it goes on to say, "still +wears the front of resistance and war; and in a portion of Mississippi +we expect to hear of secret pledges of dark import, of maps, drawings, +and lines of demarkation for a Southern Confederacy, of a President in +embryo, foreign ministers in expectancy, and, in short, all the +paraphernalia of a Southern Court. We have watched the Southern horizon +with a steady and keen eye, and with the slight exceptions alluded to +above, we can not but regard it as a fixed fact that the South has +already acquiesced in the Compromise measures." + +In Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, all the indications of +public sentiment are of the same tendency. In Missouri the State +Convention has adopted an address and resolutions in favor of the course +pursued by Mr. Benton in opposition to those who are regarded as the +enemies of the Union. + +In South Carolina, the tone of the press and of public men is decidedly +hostile to the Union. It is, however, a significant fact that the +election of delegates to the State Convention failed to draw out a third +of the vote of the State. Col. ISAAC W. HAYNE, the Attorney-General of +the State, and member-elect from Charleston, of the State Convention, +has published a letter in which he laments this apathy on the part of +the voters. He affirms that any State has "a right to withdraw from the +Union, with or without cause;" that he has begun to "loathe the tie +which connects us with our miscalled brethren of the North." "Not the +victims of the tyranny of Mezentius," he goes on to say, "could have +shrunk in more disgust from the unnatural union of warm and breathing +life with the rotting carcass of what had once been a brother man, than +I do from this once cherished but now abhorred and forced connection." +The policy which he recommends, now that the occasion which the +"admission of California and the dismemberment of Texas" might have +afforded, has passed away unimproved is, "to teach that disunion is a +thing certain in the future; to direct, in contemplation of this, all +the energies of oar people first to preparation for a physical contest," +and then "to develop all our own resources, and cut off, as far as +possible, all intercourse with the offending States. This done, to hold +ourselves ready to move on the first general ferment in the South, +which, my life upon it, will occur full soon, and in the meanwhile, to +cultivate the kindest relations, and to keep up, industriously and with +system, the closest intercourse with our sister States of the South." + +A letter from Senator PHELPS of Vermont to a member of the Virginia +Legislature, respecting the Vermont law in relation to fugitives, +appears in the Southern papers. It bears date in January, but we believe +it is now first published. He gives it as his opinion that the law of +Vermont, of which a synopsis may be found in our January Number, was +passed in haste, and without due consideration, and does not embody the +deliberate sense of the people or of the legislative body of that State. +He affirms that the entire Congressional delegation of the State agree +with him in deprecating its passage; and expresses the opinion that it +will be repealed at the next session of the Legislature. + +Chevalier HULSEMANN, the Austrian Chargé, in reply to the famous +dispatch of Mr. Webster, says that the opinions of his Government remain +unaltered with respect to the mission of Mr. Mann; but that it "declines +all ulterior discussion of that annoying incident," from unwillingness +to disturb its friendly relations with the United States. Austria has +not demanded, and will not demand any thing beyond the putting in +practice the principles of non-intervention announced by President +Fillmore; and is "sincerely disposed to remain in friendly relations +with the Government of the United States so long as the United States +shall not deviate from those principles." Mr. WEBSTER, in reply, states +that the President regrets that the dispatch was unsatisfactory, but is +gratified to learn that the Imperial Government desires to continue the +present friendly relations; and also that it approves the sentiments +expressed in his Message, in accordance with which he intends to act. He +says that the Government of the United States is equally disinclined to +prolong the discussion; but declares that the principles and policy +avowed by the United States are "fixed and fastened upon them by their +character, their history, and their position among the nations of the +world; and it may be regarded as certain that these principles and this +policy will not be abandoned or departed from until some extraordinary +change shall take place in the general current of human affairs." + +AMIN BEY, the Turkish Commissioner, in taking leave of the President, +preparatory to returning to his own country, read an address expressing +his appreciation of the courtesy shown him upon his visit, and his sense +of the progress and resources of this country. He carries with him to +Constantinople many valuable works, presented by Government and by +private liberality, relating to the agriculture, industry, and commerce +of the United States. + +In Ohio the Constitutional Convention closed its labors on the 10th of +March, having been in session nearly six months. The Constitution which +they framed is to be voted upon on the third Tuesday in June. It +embraces 16 articles, divided into 168 sections. It provides for freedom +of religion, equality of political rights, trial by jury, the _habeas +corpus_, freedom of speech and of the press, and no imprisonment for +debt. The right of suffrage is vested in all free white male adult +citizens. All patronage is taken from the General Assembly; judicial and +executive officers are to be elected by the people; and the public +printing to be given to the lowest responsible bidder. No new county can +be formed without the sanction of the majority of voters in all the +counties of which the boundaries would be changed. Provision is made for +the liquidation of the State debt; and no new debt can be created by the +General Assembly except in case of war or insurrection, or to a limited +amount to meet any temporary deficiency; and funds borrowed for these +purposes can be used for no other. No special act of incorporation can +be granted; but a general law, subject to alteration or repeal, may be +passed, under which associations may be formed. The General Assembly is +prohibited from assuming the debt of any county, town, or city; from +loaning the credit of the State to, or becoming a stockholder on any +corporation or association. No divorce can be granted by the +Legislature. An article prohibiting licenses for the sale of +intoxicating liquors is to be separately voted upon. Provision is made +for law reform, and for amendments to the Constitution from time to +time. Every twenty years the question of a Constitutional Convention is +to be submitted to vote. The details of the legislative, executive, and +judicial systems, are not essentially different from those which +generally prevail. + +In Virginia a Constitutional Convention is now in session. It is at +present occupied in discussing the question of the basis of +representation. The section of the State east of the Blue Ridge, with +about four-ninths of the free population, pays nearly two-thirds of the +taxes. They desire that one half of the representatives should be +apportioned in the ratio of the voters; and the other half in that of +taxation; which would secure the preponderance to the eastern section. +The west demand that representation shall be in the ratio of the voters, +which would give the political supremacy to their portion of the State. +The debates have been protracted and exciting. + +The frontiers of Texas continue to be harassed by marauding parties of +Indians. An expedition has been fitted out to bring them to terms. + +The little village of Socorro, in New Mexico, has been the scene of a +fearful tragedy. A band of desperadoes had gradually collected there, +who indulged in the most wanton acts of outrage and barbarity, upon the +Mexican residents, finally ending in more than one deliberate murder. A +few members of the Boundary Commission who had been left there, headed +an organization which captured a number of the gang, of whom three were +tried and hung on the spot. The ringleader, who had made his escape, was +soon after taken, and shared the same fate. + +From California we have intelligence up to the 5th of March. The amount +of gold received during the month, exclusive of that in the hands of +passengers is about $1,817,000. The production continues abundant; +though the profits of agriculture are represented to be quite equal, and +more sure, than those of mining. Hostilities with the Indians still +continue. Another engagement has taken place, in which 40 of the Indians +were killed, without loss on the part of the whites. In Sacramento City, +a gambler engaged in a brawl, shot down a citizen who attempted to +prevent outrage. The murderer was seized by the populace, tried by Lynch +law, found guilty, and in spite of the efforts of some citizens, hung +from the branch of a tree, within a few hours of the commission of the +murder. In San Francisco two men came near sharing a similar fate for an +attempt at murder and robbery. They were, however, finally rescued from +the populace, and handed over to the civil authority. No Senator has +been elected. The Legislature met in joint convention; but after 144 +ballots, finding no probability of succeeding in making an election, +adjourned _sine die_. The whole number of votes cast was 49; thus making +25 necessary for a choice. The highest number for Mr. Frémont was 16. +Mr. Heydenfeldt, formerly of Alabama, was for a time the leading +Democratic candidate. He was opposed by a portion of his party, on the +alleged ground of having formerly advocated disunion. This is denied by +himself and his friends. Mr. Weller was subsequently taken up; and at +the last ballot received 18 votes. The Whig candidate throughout was Mr. +King, whose highest vote was 20. + + +MEXICO. + +From Mexico the general aspect of intelligence is gloomy enough. It +would seem doubtful whether there is sufficient vitality left for the +re-organization of society, without an infusion of a more fresh and +vigorous blood. The administration of Arista has not thus far realized +the anticipations which had been cherished of it. The country is +infested with predatory Indians and brigands. On the 15th of February, a +train of wagons was attacked in broad daylight, a few miles from the +capital, by a band of 15 robbers who drove off the military escort and +carried away a large amount of goods. The Minister of War and Marine +urges the establishment of military colonies upon the frontiers; and +recommends the desperate measure of incorporating into these colonies +the agricultural Indians, such as the Seminoles, who are accustomed to +the use of arms, and are disposed to settle in fixed habitations, so +that they may serve as a barrier against the marauding Camanches, +Lipanes, and Apaches. The highroad leading from Mazatlan to the mines is +held by the Indians. In Yucatan fears are entertained of the +extermination of the whites. The refractory Bishop of Michoacan has at +length consented to take the oath to sustain the constitution and laws. +An act of the Legislature of Queretaro, restoring the Jesuits to that +State, has been pronounced by Congress to be a violation of the +Constitution. The exclusive right for 100 years to construct a railroad +from Vera Cruz to Madellan has been granted to Don José Maria Estellan. + + +GREAT BRITAIN. + +Our last Record closed amidst the unsuccessful attempts to find somebody +who would undertake to carry on the government of the country. Stanley +and Russell, the representatives of the Free-trade and Protection +parties, felt too weak. Gladstone would not help Stanley, nor Graham +help Russell; and nobody would help Lord Aberdeen. At last the advice of +the Duke of Wellington was solicited; in accordance with which the +former Ministry were invited to resume their places. They left office on +the 22d of February because they were unable to obtain the confidence of +the House, and resumed on the 3d of March, under the pressure of the +same inability, every man his old office. At a meeting of the members of +the House who usually supported him, summoned by Lord John Russell, he +announced, among other measures, that it was the determination of the +Government to proceed with the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, with certain +modifications. This aroused vehement remonstrances from a number of +Catholic Whigs, who announced their determination to oppose the Ministry +at all hazards. When the bill came to be presented, it was found that +all that remained was the prohibition for Catholic bishops to assume +titles derived from the name of any place in the United Kingdom. Dr. +Wiseman must not call himself Archbishop of Westminster, or Dr. M'Hale +sign himself "John of Tuam," under penalty of £100, if Government should +have the folly to prosecute. Meanwhile they may address each other by +these titles, and all Catholics may consider and address them so +unharmed. The bill, as modified passed to a second reading on the 22d of +March, by 438 ayes to 95 nays--a majority of more than four to one. Such +is the _finale_ of the absurd and disproportionate agitation with +respect to the "Papal Agression." Nobody is satisfied. The Church party, +who mourned over the shortcomings of the bill as originally presented, +are of course still less pleased with it as emasculated. The Catholics +who then opposed it as an injury, now resent it as an insult. + +The Ministry has sustained a series of annoying defeats and checks on +unimportant measures; and have therefore kept back all the leading +business, such as the presentation of the Budget. The Protection and +Free-trade parties are mustering their strength throughout the country, +preparatory to a general election, which will probably take place at the +close of the present session. + +The prevailing crime at present seems to be poisoning by arsenic. Wives +poison their husbands, husbands their wives, and servants both. A bill +has has been introduced by Lord Carlisle prohibiting the sale of arsenic +except in the presence of a witness, who with the purchaser, are to +register their names in a book. It is also proposed to enact that all +arsenic sold shall be mixed with substances which by their taste or +color will give warning of its presence. + +An insurrection has broken out among the Kaffirs at the Cape, which +promises to be annoying and expensive. The ultimate cause is the gradual +expulsion of the savages, which always follows the colonization of their +territories by civilized nations. Thousands are driven from their lands, +and compressed into a space only sufficient for scores, and begin to +think it as well to die fighting as starving. The Governor at the Cape +having formally deposed and outlawed one of the powerful native chiefs, +dispatched an expedition to seize his person. This body of troops, +consisting of 600 men, was attacked in a narrow defile by the Kaffirs, +and suffered some loss. Attacks were then made upon three of the +frontier settlements, and the colonists, to the number of 70 massacred. +A levy _en masse_ of all males between the ages of eighteen and fifty +was summoned by the Governor, "to destroy and exterminate those most +barbarous and treacherous savages, who for the moment are formidable." +Several smart engagements have taken place, in which the savages, though +worsted, displayed great daring, and considerable skill and discipline. + +Attention has been called in Parliament to the proceedings of the +various Revolutionary Committees composed of foreign refugees, and +headed by Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, and Klapka. Their proceedings were +charged with being a violation of the obligations they incurred when +they came to seek the protection of English laws. Members of Government +expressed their decided disapprobation of the course pursued by the +refugees in endeavoring to excite insurrection in foreign countries. + +A Miss Talbot, heiress to a fortune of £80,000, has entered a convent as +"postulant" with the intention of taking the vail in a few months, when +it is supposed that her fortune will pass to the church. This has +occasioned some excitement against convents, and a bill has been +introduced intended to prevent the forcible detention of females in +houses in which the inmates are bound by religious or monastic vows. It +provides that all such establishments shall be registered, and subject +to semi-annual visitation by public officers, who shall have power to +remove any female who desires it. Concealment of any part of the +premises, or of any person therein, false lists of the inmates, and any +obstruction to the visitors, are to be punished as misdemeanors. +Measures are also proposed regulating legacies made for religious +purposes. + +At Chelmsford a man and woman were hung for murder, attended by the +usual disgraceful accompaniments of a public execution. Crowds gathered +from all the surrounding country; at the moment of execution 40,000 or +50,000 persons are said to have been present. Venders of edibles plied +their vocation in the most gross and revolting manner; pickpockets, as +usual, were in attendance, and the general deportment of the spectators, +men, women, and children, was disgusting and brutal. The man confessed +his guilt. The woman, whose crime was poisoning with arsenic, died +protesting her innocence. + +"A monster address" signed by 61 noblemen, 110 members of the House of +Commons, and 321,240 other persons, lay members of the church of +England, has been presented by Lord Ashley to the Queen. It beseeches +her Majesty to resist the Papal aggression; and goes on to speak of that +act having been occasioned and invited by the conduct of many of the +clergy of the church of England, who have shown a desire to assimilate +the doctrines of their church to those of Rome. After specifying the +sacramental system and "histrionic arrangements" in the churches, it +says that "by the constitution and existing laws, there is vested in +your Majesty as the earthly head of our Church, a wholesome power of +interposition, which power we entreat your Majesty now to exercise." + +Charges have been made in the House of Commons against Lord Torrington, +late Governor of Ceylon. He is accused of gross misgovernment, wanton +cruelty in suppressing native insurrection, and the production of false +evidence. Lord John Russell announced that he should postpone the Budget +and the Income Tax, until this charge, which was in effect one against +Government, had been disposed of. Upon which the mover announced that he +should postpone his motion until after the introduction of these +measures. Lord Torrington, in the House of Lords, came forward and +challenged the prosecution of these charges. + +A coal-pit disaster occurred near Glasgow, involving a terrible loss of +life. While 63 men and boys were at work in the mine, an explosion of +fire-damp occurred. Of those in the mine all but two perished. + +A searching investigation is going on into the adulterations of articles +of food. It is asserted that there is scarcely an article which is in +any way susceptible of mixture, that is not mingled with others not +merely of inferior value, but in many cases of the most loathsome and +disgusting nature. Ground coffee is specified as particularly subject to +adulteration. + +A somewhat singular controversy has arisen in reference to a body of +refugees from Hungary, who have recently arrived at Liverpool. They +number 262, of whom the majority are Poles, the remnant of the Polish +legion in Hungary. Government wishes to send them to America, and offers +a bounty of £8, to each man who will go. They wish to remain in England, +evidently anticipating an uprising in some part of Europe, where their +services may be called into requisition. They are entirely destitute of +means of support, and in England can only maintain themselves by +begging. + +The frigate St. Lawrence, having on board the contributions to the +Exhibition from the United States, arrived at Portsmouth on the 13th of +March. A meeting of the American exhibitors has been held at London, at +which great dissatisfaction was expressed with many of the arrangements. +They object in particular to the appointment of jurors to decide upon +the merits of foreign productions; to bronze medals being awarded as +prizes, when more valuable ones had been promised; to the high price of +season tickets; to contributors being compelled to pay for admission, +and be at the expense of their own fittings; and to the delay in +affording protection to the articles which require a patent. Some +leakage has occurred in the roof of the Exhibition Building; but it is +hoped that it may be obviated. All opinion adverse to the suitability of +the painting of the interior has passed away. The theoretical views of +the decorator have been abundantly justified by the practical effect. + +Another expedition in search of Sir John Franklin is to be fitted out +this season. The little "Prince Albert" is to be sent out, it is hoped, +under happier auspices than attended her former voyage. It is expected +to reach Lancaster Sound, by the middle of June. The vessel will be laid +up for wintering in Prince Regent's Inlet. The party will then proceed +in boats as far as practicable. When these can no longer be worked, +native "kyacks" will be used, which will enable the explorers to reach a +point some one or two hundred miles further than boats could carry them, +as the kyacks can be hauled up and dragged over the ice. The expedition +will remain out for at least one season; and a very extensive search to +the westward of Boothia is proposed. It will be under the command of +Capt. W. Kennedy, who has had no small experience in these icy regions. +We do not learn whether Mr. Snow, from whose interesting book we copied +so largely last month, is to be attached to this new expedition. + + +FRANCE. + +The most striking incident which has occurred since our last has been a +debate on a proposition to repeal the law exiling the Bourbon family. M. +Berryer, acting in the name of the Legitimists, opposed the motion on +the ground that the Count of Chambord is not an exiled Frenchman, but an +extruded king, who could not stoop to accept a permission to re-enter +his own hereditary dominions. M. Thiers, as the organ of the Orleanists, +advocated the proposition. The Minister of Justice, in the name of +Government, was favorable to the principle of the bill, but was opposed +to pressing it at present. The Assembly was thrown into violent +agitation by a speech from M. Dufraisse, one of the most able and +earnest of the Montagnards, who delivered a speech which would not have +been misplaced in the mouth of Robespierre or Danton. "The pale head, +compressed lips, and intense expression of the young lawyer of the +Mountain," says an eyewitness, "reminded the auditors, not without a +shudder, of such a thoroughbred Jacobin as St. Just." He declared that +the laws of proscription were just, and ought to be maintained. "The +Revolution can not ask pardon of the dynasties it has justly upset. Have +the family of Orleans laid aside the claims of their birth? Have they +rendered homage to the sovereignty of the nation? Do not the descendants +of St. Louis continually dispute the independence and the conquests of +the people? You tell us that royalty never dies; we reply, Nor does its +punishment. If the principle of sovereignty is eternal, so shall its +punishment be eternal. The law ought to chastise the voluntary +representatives, the willing heirs of a principle which the people have +abolished." He went on to vindicate the execution of Louis XVI., and +declared that those who voted against the death of that monarch, +meditated a return to royalty, and reminded the Assembly that among +those who voted for the execution, was the grandfather of the princes +whose banishment was sought to be repealed. The speech caused a perfect +storm of passion in the Assembly. Members rushed to the tribune, and +shook their fists in the speaker's face. M. Berryer proposed the +adjournment of the question for six months, as he could not vote on the +same side with those who advocated such doctrines. This, which is looked +upon as equivalent to a rejection of the proposition, was carried by +acclamation. + +Rumors have for some time been rife of an intended fusion between the +Bourbon and Orleans interests, with a view to a speedy restoration of +the monarchy. These would seem to be put to rest by a letter from the +Orleans princes in England to the Orleans Committee in Paris, in which +they declare that they will negotiate only on the soil of France, and +while out of their country will take no part in political questions. The +prolongation of the term of the President is urged in many quarters as +the only practicable safeguard against socialism and anarchy. The +present aspect of affairs seems to indicate that he will be continued in +office in some shape or other. + +The Bishop of Chartres, in a pastoral letter, attacks a late circular of +the Archbishop of Paris, recommending the clergy to abstain from +politics, and to yield obedience to the laws of their country. The +bishop considers that when destructive principles are advanced, the +clergy should be found ready to oppose their progress; and he sees no +reason why the ecclesiastical body should be enjoined to take no part in +public affairs. The archbishop, in reply, denounces the conduct of the +bishop, as an unwarrantable interference with his jurisdiction, and as a +breach of the respect due to him as metropolitan: and refers the +bishop's letter to the provincial council to be held during the present +year at Paris. + +The Professors of the College of France held a meeting at the Sorbonne +to take into consideration the tendency of the lectures of M. Michelet, +which were considered prejudicial, in a moral and political point of +view to the students. He himself declined to attend, but defended +himself in a letter stating that his lectures were blamed only by the +Jesuits and the enemies of French nationality. His colleagues, by a vote +of 17 out of 21 decided upon a vote of censure against him, and that the +minutes of their proceedings should be transmitted to the Minister for +approval. It is said that M. Michelet his resigned his chair. + + +GERMANY. + +The German mists grow thicker. All that can now be affirmed with +certainty is, that the Dresden Conference has been no more able to +improvise a German Empire than was the Frankfort Parliament. A month +ago, and it seemed that Austria had outgeneraled Prussia, and made +herself absolute mistress of Germany, and was in a fair way to become +ruler from the Rhine to the Alps. The petty states of Germany were in +alarm; the kingdoms of the second rank began to see themselves in +danger, and to talk of a central power, from which the constitutional +element was not altogether excluded. It is now said that the King of +Prussia is again ambitious of playing the first part on the German +stage, and has refused to sanction the concessions made by his minister. +It seems probable that Germany will fall back upon the old Frankfort +Confederation. In the mean time, we present the following, as what seems +to us the condition and designs of the principal parties; premising that +the very next intelligence may present them under an altogether new +aspect:--Austria wishes to enter the Germanic Confederation with all her +vast and heterogeneous population; thus binding all Germany to assist +her, in the event of any new Hungarian or Italian outbreak. She also +wishes to secure the Federal Executive. If she succeeds in these +projects, the weight of her foreign possessions gives her the +preponderance in Germany, while Germany secures to her the control of +her foreign territories. The interests of the people and princes of +Germany for once coincide in opposing this claim. The vacillating policy +of Prussia has arisen from doubt, whether more could be made out of +Austria by putting herself at the head of the German States, or out of +these States, by joining with Austria. The ultimate decision of this +question is more likely to be effected by accident than by settled +policy. + + +ITALY. + +The feelings of uneasiness, and vague apprehension of insurrection +throughout the Italian Peninsula are nowise abated. Austrian troops are +concentrating within her Italian territories. The railroad across the +Milan Alps, from Cilly to Trieste, is advancing with great rapidity. The +completion of this road will enable Austrian troops to be sent from +Vienna to Milan in twenty-four hours. + +The Austrian Government has issued an ordonnance directing that in those +parts of Italy which are still considered in a state of siege, no +journal shall mention in any way, directly or indirectly, the titles of +the prohibited revolutionary books and pamphlets which are in +circulation among the people. + +Radetzky has issued a proclamation, under date of Feb. 21, from Verona, +directed against revolutionary proclamations and pamphlets, threatening +death against all who are engaged in circulating them. Every one into +whose hands such a pamphlet may fall is directed to deliver it to the +nearest person in office, though but a gendarme, and at the same time to +declare how it came into his possession; the punishment for failure to +do this is imprisonment in irons for a period of from one to five years. + +Washington's Birthday was celebrated at Rome with great enthusiasm. At a +public dinner, Mr. Cass, our Chargé, presided and made a speech. Two +odes, by Mrs. Stephens, were sung. Among the guests were Archbishop +Hughes, and Mr. Hastings, the American Protestant Chaplain. The report +that the American Protestant chapel at Rome had been closed is +authoritatively contradicted by Mr. Hastings, who speaks in terms of +high praise of the liberality which has been manifested toward him by +the papal authorities. + + + + +LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, PERSONAL MOVEMENTS, ETC. + + +UNITED STATES. + +The Exhibition of the National Academy of Design is now open. It is +universally admitted that the paintings surpass those of any previous +year The opening of the Exhibition was celebrated, according to custom, +by a dinner, attended by artists, amateurs, and men of letters. +Admirable speeches were made by Rev. Doctors BELLOWS and BETHUNE, who, +though pole-wide apart in the sphere of theology, spanning the distance +between Arius and Calvin, find common grounds of sympathy in their love +for, and appreciation of Art. Mr. DURAND, the President, in a very +felicitous speech, narrated his experience as an artist and as one of +the founders of the Academy. + +Mr. GREENOUGH, at Florence, has nearly completed his group of the +_Pioneer_, for the Capitol at Washington. It represents a backwoodsman +rescuing his wife and child from an Indian who is in the act of +smothering them in the folds of his blanket. The action of the group +symbolizes the one unvarying story of the contest between civilized and +uncivilized man. The pioneer, standing almost erect, in the pride of +conscious superiority, has dashed upon one knee the Indian, whose +relaxed form, and cowering face upturned despairingly, express +premonitions of the inevitable doom awaiting him, against which all his +efforts would be unavailing. The heavy brow, compressed lip, and firm +chin of the white man announce him one of a race born to conquer and +rule, not so much by mere physical strength as by undaunted courage and +indomitable will. Those who have seen the group pronounce it to be a +sublime conception grandly executed. + +A portrait of Mr. Calhoun, painted at Paris by Mr. HEALEY for the Common +Council of Charleston, was exhibited at the Exposition in Paris, where +it was pronounced one of the best portraits of the season. The size is +seven feet ten inches, by four feet seven. The sum paid for it is one +thousand dollars. We believe it has been forwarded to Charleston. + +Among the pictures by our artists, completed or in progress, we notice +one by Mr. WRIGHT, representing the well-known story of Washington and +the damaged cherry-tree, which is executed with decided cleverness.--Mr. +DUGGAN is engaged upon a David and Goliath, one of those massy subjects +affording ample scope for the bent of the artist's genius.--Mr. STEARNS +has upon his easel a painting of the Interview between Tecumseh and +General Harrison, at Vincennes, in 1811. By some oversight no seat had +been provided for the Indian chief. The unintentional discourtesy was +corrected by General Harrison, with the words, "Warrior, your father, +General Harrison, offers you a seat." Tecumseh drew up his stately form +to its full height, and raising his hand to heaven, exclaimed proudly, +"My father! The Great Spirit is my father, and the Earth my mother; she +feeds me and clothes me, and I recline upon her bosom!"--Mr. T. A. +RICHARDS has recently completed a painting which might appropriately +enough be named "Recollections of Lake Winnipiseogee," portraying rather +the general characteristics of that lake, than depicting the particular +features of any one portion. The scene is an autumn morning, with the +sun bursting forth from the train of a passing shower which has +sprinkled diamonds over foliage and flower. + +JENNY LIND is verging New York-ward. Her next concert here is announced +for May 12. The New York firemen have procured a testimonial to be +presented to her in acknowledgment of her munificent donation of $3000 +to the funds of the Department. It consists of a complete copy of +Audubon's Birds and Quadrupeds of America, in a beautiful case; and a +gold box, appropriately ornamented, containing a copy of their vote of +thanks to her. The following ratherish pretty and altogether German +lines were contributed by her to the album of a gentleman in Washington; + + "In vain I seek for rest + In all created good. + It leaves me still unblest, + And makes me cry for God. + And sure, at rest I can not be + Until my heart finds rest in thee." + +The renowned TUPPER is undergoing the process of lionization. He has +introduced a new feature into his representation of the part, by the +recitation in public of his own verses. He has produced for the Great +London Exhibition a "Hymn for all Nations," which is to be translated +into thirty different languages, set to music, and printed. This +polyglott will be a philological curiosity, if no more. + +Mr. CRALLE, the intimate friend and confidential secretary of Mr. +CALHOUN, is engaged in preparing for publication the Works of the great +southern statesman, to be accompanied by a Biography. The whole will be +comprised, probably, in six octavo volumes. The first volume, which is +now printed, and will soon be ready for publication, is occupied by an +elaborate disquisition on Government, and a Discourse on the +Constitution and Government of the United States. These treatises have +always been spoken of as the "great work" of Mr. Calhoun's life, setting +forth in a systematic manner his views upon the philosophy of civil +government. The treatises were commenced many years since, but never +received the final revision and correction which the author intended to +bestow upon them. + +The Complete Works of ALEXANDER HAMILTON are now in course of +publication by C. S. Francis & Co. They are mainly printed from the +manuscripts purchased by Congress, under the direction of the Library +Committee. The collection will extend to seven octavo volumes. + +It has long been suspected that colors were depicted on Daguerreotype +plates, if they could only be developed. Mr. HILL, of this State, +announces that he has succeeded in producing pictures in which every +tint and shade is accurately represented. We are assured by one of our +most eminent operators, one of the very few who have seen the pictures, +that there is no doubt of the fact. The inventor as yet keeps his +process a secret, though we understand that he is preparing a memoir in +relation to it. + +BAYARD TAYLOR'S El-Dorado has been translated into German by C. Hartman, +author of a Geographical and Historical Description of California. + +Mr. SAMUEL MAVERICK, of Pendleton, S. C., who is still living, assisted +in packing the first bale of cotton ever sent from the United States to +Liverpool. It was sent in the seed, and the consignee informed his South +Carolina correspondent that the article was useless, could not be sold, +and advised him to send no more. + +Dr. GOADBY, who has recently delivered in this city a very interesting +course of lectures upon insects, has a most valuable series of +dissections, prepared at a cost of labor which would seem almost +incredible. The anatomy of a caterpillar, comprising three distinct +preparations--its nervous system, its organs of respiration, and its +organs of nutrition--occupied the undivided labor of thirteen weeks, at +the rate of fourteen hours a day. + +Gen. HENDERSON, who was on trial at New Orleans on the charge of being +implicated in the Cuban invasion, has been discharged, the jury being +unable to agree. The District Attorney therefore entered a _nolle +prosequi_ in the case of Governor Quitman and all others under +indictment. + + +EUROPEAN. + +The new Leipzig _Deutsches Museum_ (Westermann Brothers, New York,) +promises to meet the want which we have for some time found it +impossible to supply, of a German literary Magazine. In the recent +revolutionary storms this class of periodicals generally went down, so +that for information as to the working of the German mind we have been +forced to rely upon chance notices in the political journals, or trust +to foreign sources. It is published semi-monthly. Its cost in Leipzig is +12 _Thalers_; and is furnished here for the same number of dollars. + +Under the title of _Causeries du Lundi_ M. St. Beauve has just put forth +a volume of sketches of contemporary French authors, which almost forces +us to envy the happy land blessed with such a number of men, the worst +of whom exceeds our ideas of any attainable height of perfection. A word +or two of criticism is awarded to Lamartine, but too bland to wound even +the vanity of the gentle Alphonse. But Girardin and Villemain, Cousin +and George Sand, Thiers and Montalembert receive a most unqualified +apotheosis. The title of "Monday Chat" simply indicates that the book is +made up of articles which appeared on Mondays in the _Constitutionnel_ +newspaper. + +Pictures by the "Old Masters," as all the world knows, are manufactured +as readily, and almost as extensively, as calico. It is not, however, so +well known that "old and rare editions" of books are produced nowadays. +The passion of book-collectors has given a new impulse to this business. +Within a few months the beautiful editions of the classics of the +Elzevirs and the Stephens have been reproduced with wonderful skill. In +paper, type, ink, and binding there is no perceptible difference; while +the precise air of antiquity desired is produced by chemical means. + +M. Feuillet de Conches, a Parisian virtuoso, and great admirer of La +Fontaine, has spent a vast sum in having printed for his own sole use a +single copy of the works of the famous fabulist. It is illustrated in +the most gorgeous style, by the first artists of the day; and is +accompanied with notes and prefaces by the most eminent writers, and is +a very miracle of expensive typography and binding. + +Victor Hugo has published nothing for some years, having been paid by a +publisher not to print. Report says that he will, at the close of his +term, which soon expires, make amends for his long silence by issuing +poems to the amount of three volumes, and romances to that of twelve. + +A work by Origen, the celebrated Father in the Church, hitherto unknown, +has been discovered and published by the librarian of the National +Assembly--so M. Villemain announced at a recent meeting of the _Académie +des Belles Lettres_ at Paris. The work traces the heresies of the third +century to the writings of the Pagan Philosophers, and throws new light +upon ancient manners, literature, and philosophy. + +In the album presented to the King of Bavaria by the artists of Münich, +is an admirable composition by Hübner. It is an expression of the +feelings of a large portion of Upper Germany. It represents a female +prostrate upon the ground, with the arms crossed, the face entirely +hidden, in an attitude of the deepest despair. The long hair floats +over the arms, and trails along the ground. The whole figure is a +mixture of majesty and utter abandonment. The simple title of the piece +is--"Germania, 1850." + +_Yeast: a Problem_, is the Sartor-Resartorish title of a collection of +papers reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, where they have excited no +little attention. It purports to be a sample of what is fermenting in +the minds of large classes of young men of the present day, and +leavening the whole mass of society. Though published anonymously, it is +known to be written by the author of "Alton Locke," and partakes largely +of the merits and defects of that remarkable work. It is to be +republished by the Harpers. + +In WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR the material for an admirable newspaper writer +has been thrown away. Witness the following double-handed hitting in a +letter to Lord Duncan, who lately won a victory over the Ministers, "... +A quarrel about hats, caps, and stockings, and the titles they confer, +is too ridiculous. Is a hunchback to be treated with gravity, with +severity, because an ignorant rabble calls him _my lord_. If I chose to +call myself Lord Duncan, I should only be laughed at. People would +stare; some would ask, 'Is this the great Lord Duncan who won the Battle +of Camperdown?' Others would answer, 'No; nor is it he who won as great +a one in Westminster the other day. He is an impostor: haul him out; but +don't hurt him:' I have the honor to be, etc." + +_Dahomey and the Dahomans_, by Frederick E. Forbes, gives an interesting +account, drawn from personal observation, made during the last two +years, of the manners and customs of this savage people. Among the most +revolting is the _Ek-que-noo-ah-toh-meh_ or "Throwing of Presents," in +which the king occupies himself for many hours in throwing gifts from a +raised platform, to the people below. The last of these gifts consists +of a number of live prisoners, who have been exhibited bound upon the +platform; they are flung down to be cut and torn in pieces by the +savages. On the occasion when the author was present there were fourteen +of these victims, of whom he succeeded in saving the lives of three. The +object of the expedition was to induce the king to abandon the +slave-trade, and was altogether unsuccessful. + +_The Dynamical Theory of the Formation of the Earth,_ two mighty octavo +volumes, elicits the following complimentary remarks from the +_Athenæum._ "This work is saved from being mischievous only by the +circumstance of the excessive dullness diffused over these twelve +hundred pages--which will in all probability prevent their being much +read.... Of no one department of science does the author appear to have +a correct conception. His views are all distorted. He is false alike in +his Mechanics, in his Geology, in his Natural History, in his Chemistry, +in his Electricity--in every other consideration of the physical +agencies, and still more false in that which we suppose we must bring +ourselves to call his Logic." + +_Memoirs of a Literary Veteran_, by R. P. Gillies is a book almost worth +reading, quite worth looking at. The author, nephew to the celebrated +historian of Greece, born to a fair estate, and with a propensity to +make verses, spent the one without turning the other to any special +account. Amidst much idle matter, whose only purpose is to swell the +bulk of the volumes, are some rather interesting anecdotes of literary +celebrities. Some over-laudatory epistles from Sir Egerton Brydges, and +a characteristic letter or two from Wordsworth, containing among other +matters, a criticism upon Scott's Guy Mannering, in which considerable +praise is awarded to the management of "this lady," as he solemnly +denominates Meg Merrilies, are perhaps the best things in the book. It +reminds one, but at a wide interval, of Leigh Hunt's Autobiography. + +_A Life of Hartley Coleridge_ prefixed to a volume of his poems, tells a +sad story of powers neutralized and a life thrown away. He was the +eldest son of _the_ Coleridge, and with a portion of his father's genius +combined a large share of his infirmity of purpose and feebleness of +will. He gained a college fellowship, and forfeited it within a year, by +intemperance; after which he maintained himself by his pen. The Life is +by his brother, Derwent Coleridge. The Poems are of decided merit. They +are to be followed by a collection of his prose writings. + + +OBITUARIES. + +ISAAC HILL, formerly Governor of New Hampshire, and Senator in Congress, +died at Washington, March 22d, aged about 63. He was born at +Charlestown, N. H., the son of a farmer, and at an early age learned the +trade of a printer. He established the first Democratic paper at +Concord. To his able conduct is in a great measure to be ascribed the +ascendency which his party acquired in the State, about the year 1828. +Though possessing few of the external qualifications for a popular +leader, being feeble in person, and altogether destitute of oratorical +power, his unrivaled tact and untiring industry gave him an uncontrolled +influence in the State. He was chosen State Senator; and subsequently +United States Senator, which office he held from 1831 to 1836, when he +resigned, in consequence of having been elected Governor of New +Hampshire. He filled the executive chair for two or three terms, and +then retired to private life. In 1840 he was appointed Sub-Treasurer at +Boston; but the repeal of the Sub-Treasury Act the following year +vacated his office. He then returned to New Hampshire; but his star had +waned. He disagreed with his party on the subject of corporations and +other radical questions, lost his political influence, and fell into +comparative insignificance, as a politician, though he always adhered to +his party. For a number of years he edited an agricultural paper of +considerable merit. He suffered much from impaired health during the +last years of his life; and died in moderate pecuniary circumstances. + +MORDECAI MANASSEH NOAH, long known as an able editor and active +politician, died in New York, March 28. He was born at Philadelphia, +July 19, 1784, and has thus attained to within three years of three +score and ten. He was apprenticed to a carver and gilder; but early +abandoned that trade and devoted himself to literature and politics. He +removed to Charleston, S. C., in the early part of the present century, +where he took an active and influential part in public affairs. Having +declined the offer of the consulship at Riga, he was appointed, in 1813, +consul at Tunis, and was charged with a mission to Algiers. This latter +he accomplished, after some adventures, and repaired to Tunis. At the +expiration of ten months he was recalled, under charge, we believe, of +some pecuniary defalcations. Upon his return to this country, he became +connected with the political press. In 1822, he was elected Sheriff of +the City and County of New York, which office he held but a single year. +In 1829, he was appointed Commissioner of the Supreme Court of the +United States, and Surveyor of the port of New York. In the mean while, +he had formed the project of collecting his brethren the Jews, and +rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. He issued a singular proclamation, +appointing Grand Island, near Niagara Falls, as the place of rendezvous, +and summoned the scattered tribes to transmit their contributions. We +have no means of knowing how far he was in earnest in this scheme. At +all events, it came to nothing. In 1840, he was elected Judge of the +Court of General Sessions, which he held till the law constituting the +court was changed. Mr. Noah was, however, more known as an editor than +as a politician. Though without any very lofty aims, or high +qualifications, he was an agreeable and sprightly paragraphist, +possessed of an unfailing good-humor, and a large fund of general +information. He was connected successively with a number of papers, and +at the time of his death was editor of a Sunday paper, _The Messenger +and Times_. He also published at different times a number of works of a +miscellaneous character, chiefly essays and plays, some of which met +with great success at the time of publication; but none of them +possessed sufficient vitality to take a permanent place in the +literature of the country. His death was the consequence of a paralytic +stroke. He lived and died a believer in the faith of his fathers, the +Hebrew religion; and was buried with the solemn ceremonies practiced by +the ancient chosen people. He was of a most generous and genial nature, +and enjoyed the warmest good-will of all with whom he was brought into +personal relations. + +GEORGE M. BROOKE, Brevet Major-General in the United States army, died +at San Antonio, Texas, on the 19th of March. He was a native of +Virginia, and entered the army in 1808. He was brevetted +Lieutenant-Colonel in 1814, for "gallant conduct in the defense of Fort +Erie." A month later he received the rank of Brevet Colonel, for +"distinguished and meritorious services in the sortie from Fort Erie." +In 1824, he was made Brevet Brigadier-General for "ten years' faithful +service as Colonel." In 1848, he was brevetted as Major-General for +"meritorious conduct, particularly in the performance of his duties in +the prosecution of the war with Mexico." + +ALEXANDER S. WADSWORTH, Commodore in the United States Navy, died at +Washington, April 9, in the 61st year of his age. He was a native of +Maine. He entered the service in 1804, and for many years served with +distinction. His commission of post-captain, bears date from 1825. His +name stood the seventh on the naval list. Severe and protracted illness +had for many years disabled him from active duty. + +SAMUEL FARMAR JARVIS, D.D., died at Middletown, Conn., March 26th. He +was born in January, 1787. He had the reputation of being one of the +ripest scholars in the Episcopal Church, and was a member of the +principal literary and historical societies in this country. His +extensive acquirements, and fondness for accurate investigation procured +for him the appointment of "Historigrapher of the Church," which was +conferred upon him in 1838, with a view to his preparing a faithful +"Ecclesiastical History, reaching from the Apostles' time, to the +formation of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States." The +first volume, forming a Chronological Introduction, was published in +1845. It is understood that a continuation of the work was nearly ready +for press at the time of his death. + +JOHN S. SKINNER, Editor of the "_Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil_," and +well known for his agricultural writings, died at Baltimore, March 21, +aged about 70 years. He was universally esteemed for his social +qualities, unassuming demeanor, and generous impulses. His death was +occasioned by a fall into the basement in the Post Office at Baltimore. + + + + +Literary Notices + + +Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued _The House of the Seven Gables_, a +Romance, by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, which is strongly marked with the bold +and unique characteristics that have given its author such a brilliant +position among American novelists. The scene, which is laid in the old +Puritanic town of Salem, extends from the period of the witchcraft +excitement to the present time, connecting the legends of the ancient +superstition with the recent marvels of animal magnetism, and affording +full scope for the indulgence of the most weird and sombre fancies. +Destitute of the high-wrought manifestations of passion which +distinguished the "Scarlet Letter," it is more terrific in its +conception, and not less intense in its execution, but exquisitely +relieved by charming portraitures of character, and quaint and comic +descriptions of social eccentricities. A deep vein of reflection +underlies the whole narrative, often rising naturally to the surface, +and revealing the strength of the foundation on which the subtle, aerial +inventions of the author are erected. His frequent dashes of humor +gracefully blend with the monotone of the story, and soften the harsher +colors in which he delights to clothe his portentous conceptions. In no +former production of his pen, are his unrivalled powers of description +displayed to better advantage. The rusty wooden house in +Pyncheon-street, with its seven sharp-pointed gables, and its huge +clustered chimney--the old elm tree before the door--the grassy yard +seen through the lattice-fence, with its enormous fertility of +burdocks--and the green moss on the slopes of the roof, with the flowers +growing aloft in the air in the nook between two of the gables--present +a picture to the eye as distinct as if our childhood had been passed in +the shadow of the old weather-beaten edifice. Nor are the characters of +the story drawn with less sharp and vigorous perspective. They stand out +from the canvas as living realities. In spite of the supernatural +drapery in which they are enveloped, they have such a genuine expression +of flesh and blood, that we can not doubt we have known them all our +days. They have the air of old acquaintance--only we wonder how the +artist got them to sit for their likenesses. The grouping of these +persons is managed with admirable artistic skill. Old Maid Pyncheon, +concealing under her verjuice scowl the unutterable tenderness of a +sister--her woman-hearted brother, on whose sensitive nature had fallen +such a strange blight--sweet and beautiful Phebe, the noble +village-maiden, whose presence is always like that of some shining +angel--the dreamy, romantic descendant of the legendary wizard--the +bold, bad man of the world, reproduced at intervals in the bloody +Colonel, and the unscrupulous Judge--wise old Uncle Venner--and +inappeasable Ned Higgins--are all made to occupy the place on the canvas +which shows the lights and shades of their character in the most +impressive contrast, and contributes to the wonderful vividness and +harmony of the grand historical picture. On the whole, we regard "The +House of the Seven Gables," though it exhibits no single scenes that may +not be matched in depth and pathos by some of Mr. Hawthorne's previous +creations, as unsurpassed by any thing he has yet written, in exquisite +beauty of finish, in the skillful blending of the tragic and comic, and +in the singular life-like reality with which the wildest traditions of +the Puritanic age are combined with the every-day incidents of modern +society. + +Harper and Brothers have published a translation of _Buttmann's Greek +Grammar_, by Professor EDWARD ROBINSON, from the eighteenth German +edition, containing additions and improvements by ALEXANDER BUTTMANN, +the son of the original author. Since the publication of the thirteenth +edition in 1829, which was the last that the author lived to complete, +gradual changes have been introduced into the Grammar, especially in the +department of syntax, which has been expanded and re-written, with the +aid of the extensive investigations of the last twenty years. The +translation bears the same impress of diligence, accuracy, and +philological tact, which is never looked for in vain in the productions +of the indefatigable and distinguished author. + +_Ecclesiastical Manual_, by LUTHER LEE (published at the Wesleyan +Methodist Book Room), is a brief treatise on the nature of Church +Government, defending the right of visible church organization against +prevailing latitudinarian and transcendental views on the one hand, and +maintaining liberal principles of polity against the high claims of +Episcopacy and the assumptions of the clergy on the other. The argument +is conducted with candor and moderation, though not without spirit, and +may be studied to advantage by all who would understand the points at +issue. + +_William Penn, An Historical Biography_, by WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON +(published by Blanchard and Lea), is a new and complete life of the +founder of Pennsylvania, derived from contemporary papers that have been +brought to light within a recent period, and from original and +unpublished documents. The view given by the author, of the religious +system of Fox and Penn, as coinciding with the principles of republican +freedom, is a reproduction of the admirable exhibition of Quakerism +presented by Bancroft in his History of the United States. In the +Appendix, the charges against William Penn by Macaulay are submitted to +a rigid examination; the evidence on the subject is skillfully and +thoroughly sifted; and the strongest case made out for the accused +against the insinuations of the ingenious and eloquent historian. With +his warm sympathies in favor of the subject of his narrative, and the +familiar knowledge of his career gained by the researches of several +years, Mr. Dixon has produced a genial and instructive piece of +biography, sustaining the claims of the illustrious Quaker to the noble +and elevated rank in which he has been placed by the general voice of +tradition. + +_Physico-Physiological Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, &c._, by +Baron CHARLES VON REICHENBACH, translated from the German, by JOHN +ASHBURNER, M.D., is a scientific treatise, showing the relations of +magnetism, electricity, heat, light, crystallization, and chemism to the +vital forces of the human body. It is founded on an extensive series of +experiments, which tend to bring the mysterious phenomena of Mesmerism +within the domain of physics, and in fact to reduce the whole subject +of physiology to a department of chemical science. The papers, of which +it is composed, were originally intended as contributions to the "Annals +of Chemistry," conducted by the celebrated Professor Liebig, in which +periodical they appeared in the year 1845. In the present collected +form, they have received some necessary corrections, but their spirit +and substance are presented without alteration. The investigations, of +which the results are here described, are of a singularly curious +character, exhibiting the most astonishing developments, with a +philosophical calmness that is rare even among German savants. + +_The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter_, is the title of a novel +illustrative of the revolutionary history of Vermont, by the author of +"The Green Mountain Boys," published by B. B. Mussy and Co., Boston. It +gives many agreeable descriptions of Vermont scenery, with sketches of +its social life during the war of the Revolution, and shows considerable +skill in combining the prominent historical facts of that day with the +fictitious incidents of a lively and exciting plot. + +_The Ballads and Songs_ of WILLIAM PEMBROKE MULCHINOCH (published by T. +W. Strong), is a collection of fugitive poetry, inspired with the +genuine breathings of Irish patriotism, frequently displaying great +facility and sweetness of versification, and pervaded throughout with a +winning sentiment of tenderness and human sympathy. + +Harper and Brothers have published a neat volume, entitled _Nature and +Blessedness of Christian Purity,_ by Rev. R. S. FOSTER, with an +Introduction by EDMUND S. JANES, D.D., one of the Bishops of the +Methodist Episcopal Church. Without aiming at any rivalry with other +writers on the subject, the author devotes his work to the maintenance +of the views which are set forth by the standard Wesleyan authorities. +Avoiding all considerations of a purely speculative character, he +presents the practical aspects of his theme, with discrimination, +earnestness, and force. His style, which is always animated and +effective, betrays the influence of profound and accurate thought, and +is equally adapted to make a favorable impression on the understanding +and on the heart of the attentive reader. The well-written Preface by +Bishop Janes, gives a lucid summary of the contents of the volume, with +a warm commendation of the manner in which it is executed. + +_Lyra Catholica_ (published by E. Dunigan and Brother), is a collection +of the Hymns of the Roman Breviary and Missal, with others adapted for +every day in the week, and the Festivals and Saints' Days throughout the +year. The translation of the Breviary, by Mr. Caswell, is adopted +without change, and forms the first part of the present work, while the +second part consists of hymns and anthems from various sources, +especially from the contributions of Rev. F. W. Faber, Matthew Brydges, +Esq., and Rev. William Young. The third part is devoted to sacred poetry +of a less strictly devotional cast. In addition to a few pieces from +modern poets, it contains a selection from the compositions of Catholic +writers belonging to an earlier age of English literature, including +"the simple and earnest strains of Southwell, a poet, priest, and +martyr, whose unshaken soul passed away in song from the fires of +persecution; Crashaw, whose tender fancy and graceful zeal have extorted +the highest praises of unfriendly judges; the manly virtue of Habington, +pure in an age of license; the later compositions of Dryden, the +atonements laid by his repentant muse on the altar of religion." + +_The Soldier of the Cross_, by the Rev. JOHN LEYBURN, D.D. (published by +Carter and Brothers), is a popular and attractive exposition of +Ephesians vi. 10-18, consisting of a series of discourses delivered from +the pulpit, but recast into the form of plain and practical essays, +written with considerable force. The talents of the author and the taste +of the publishers have made an addition to our religious literature, of +which the public estimation is indicated by the early call for a second +edition. + +_The Irish Confederates, and the Rebellion of 1798_, by HENRY M. FIELD +(published by Harper and Brothers), is a lively historical sketch of the +movements of the Irish patriots in behalf of the freedom of their nation +toward the close of the last century. The volume opens with a rapid +survey of Irish history, traces the love of liberty among the people, +describes the causes of their national characteristics, and minutely +portrays the events of the fruitless struggle, which terminated in the +complete subjection of their beautiful island to the British crown. +Among the biographical sketches, those of Curran, Tone, Lord Edward +Fitzgerald, the Emmets, McNevin, and Sampson of course occupy a +prominent place, and are drawn with an affectionate sympathy, which +delights to linger around every memorial of their noble and chivalrous +characters. Mr. Field has enjoyed peculiar facilities for the +composition of this volume. A visit to Ireland some four years since +awakened a strong interest in the fortunes of her people. At a +subsequent period, he formed an intimate acquaintance with several of +the families of the Irish exiles in New York, and from the narratives +thus obtained, was furnished with some of the most valuable materials +for his story. Nor has he neglected the study of the different +historians of the time. His work, accordingly, combines the vivacity of +a personal narrative, with the accuracy of thorough research. It is +deeply imbued with a love of Ireland, with a sense of indignation at the +outrages which she has endured, and with admiration of the valor and +devotion of her gallant sons; though in no case, do the evident +partialities of the writer appear to have interfered with his strict +historical fidelity, or to have tempted him to an uncritical use of the +facts at his command. His style is simple and unaffected, warmed with a +persuasive earnestness, and animated with a chaste enthusiasm, but owing +none of its interest to the allurements of rhetoric. Indeed, a more +elaborate construction would often have been in better keeping with the +dignity of the subject, while the almost exclusive use of short +sentences at length overcomes the reader with a painful feeling of +monotony. There are also occasional instances of careless and +unauthorized expression, which, in a writer of such real ability and +cultivation as Mr. Field, excite the surprise of the fastidious reader. + +Harper and Brothers have issued an edition of the _History of Greece_, +by Dr. LEONHARD SCHMITZ, which forms an appropriate companion to the +_History of Rome_, published by the accomplished author four years +since. The purpose of Dr. Schmitz in each of these Histories is to give, +in a popular form, the result of the researches by modern scholars which +have placed the subject in a new light. In the composition of this +volume, the author has availed himself of the erudite labors of Bishop +Thirlwall, abridging his great work in some portions, and interweaving +his masterly views into the texture of his narrative, where a free style +was more suitable to the subject. As a manual for young students in +Grecian history, and a work for general and family reading, this volume +is not surpassed by any production of the present day. The experience of +the author as a practical educator, his admirable classical attainments, +and the caution and soundness of his historical judgments, give him +peculiar qualifications for the task he has undertaken. His style is +simple and condensed; his illustrations are singularly apposite; and his +grouping of topics is picturesque and forcible. For popular use, we have +no doubt, that both the Grecian and Roman Histories of Dr. Schmitz will +speedily take the precedence of all others in this country, as they have +done, to a very considerable degree, in Great Britain. + +The popular series of _Franconia Stories_, by JACOB ABBOTT (published by +Harper and Brothers), is completed by the publication of _Mary Bell_ and +_Beechnut_. The excellent author has placed the whole juvenile community +under new obligations by the issue of these delightful stories. He is so +perfectly at home in every phase of country life, and so ingenious in +working up its daily occurrences into a charming narrative, that he can +never fail of a listening audience. Few American authors have the power +of so impressing themselves on the memory and the heart of their +readers. The present series will doubtless add to his beautiful +influence and to his fame. + +The Third Number of _London Labor and The London Poor_, by HENRY MAYHEW, +is issued by Harper and Brothers, and will be found to increase the +interest with which that remarkable series has been received by the +public. His pictures of the condition of the laboring classes in London +have a minuteness and vividness of detail which would not disgrace a +Dutch painting. + +_The Roman Republic of_ 1849, by THEODORE DWIGHT (published by R. Van +Dien), is a brief historical view of the recent revolutionary movements +in Italy, with biographical sketches of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Avezzana, +Filopanti, Foresti, and other leading Italian Republicans. + +Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued the fourth volume of their +beautiful edition of the _Collective Writings_ of THOMAS DE QUINCY, +containing _The Cæsars_, a work characterized by the subtilty of +reflection, curious learning, and original felicities of expression, for +which the author is pre-eminent. + +_Life on the Plains of the Pacific_, by Rev. GUSTAVUS HINE (published by +Geo. H. Derby and Co., Buffalo), is the title of a work devoted to the +history, condition, and prospects of Oregon, with a description of its +geography, climate, and productions, and of personal adventures among +the Indians. It contains a detailed history of the Oregon Mission, drawn +from the most authentic sources, including the notes and journals of the +first missionaries on that station. The journal of the author, +commencing with the departure of the missionaries from New York in 1839, +presents an interesting narrative of the largest expedition of this kind +that ever sailed from an American port, and is enriched with a great +variety of facts and incidents that occurred in the wide field of +observation that forms the subject of the volume. Without pretending to +the graces of literary composition, the writer has produced a work of +sterling value. His authority will no doubt be appealed to with +confidence on all matters pertaining to the important scene of his +labors. + +_Hints to Sportsmen_, by E. J. LEWIS (published by Blanchard and Lea, +Philadelphia), is a regular-built treatise on all the mysteries of the +sporting craft. The author writes like an experienced shot. His book is +not only a valuable manual for the sportsman, but a tempting volume for +the lovers of spirited description. + +_Curran and his Contemporaries_, by CHARLES PHILLIPS (published by +Harper and Brothers), is a reproduction of the celebrated work of +Counselor Phillips, having been subjected by the author to a thorough +revision and amendment. It describes the interesting period of Irish +history during which Curran was the leading member of the Bar, with +great vivacity and force. Touching lightly on the politics of the times, +it presents a series of personal delineations, which are drawn to the +life by the enthusiastic and genial author. The freshness of his +recollections affords an abundance of piquant anecdote, which, with his +warm sympathies with the Irish character, gives a perpetual liveliness +and glow to the narrative, redeeming it from every approach to dullness, +and sustaining the interest of the reader to the close of the volume. + +_Louisiana: Its Colonial History and Romance,_ by CHARLES GAYARRE +(published by Harper and Brothers), is a republication of the lectures +of the author on "The Poetry, or the Romance of the History of +Louisiana," with the addition of seven new lectures, bringing the +subject down to the departure of Bienville, the founder of the colony, +in 1743. Among the interesting topics discussed in the second series of +lectures, are the formation of the Mississippi Company, the History of +Law's financial career, the foundation of New Orleans, the Manners and +Customs of the Natchez tribe, the wars between the Indians and the +Colonists, and others, which bring the romantic incidents connected with +the colonization of Louisiana into prominent view. The period was +fertile in singular adventures, presenting abundant materials for the +poet or novelist. Mr. Gayarre has made a felicitous selection of topics, +which, under the brilliant coloring of a lively imagination, are +presented in a picturesque and attractive form. The substance of his +work is founded on the conclusions of exact historical research, while +the drapery in which its scenes and characters are arrayed form a +graceful accompaniment to the severity of truth. With a perpetual +vivacity of style, and a profusion of glowing imagery, Mr. Gayarre never +becomes tedious or insipid. His volume is always delightful as a poem, +if it is not complete as a record, and will hold a high place among the +popular contributions to the "Romance of History." + +E. C. and J. Biddle have published _An Elementary Treatise on Statics_, +by GASPARD MONGE, translated by WOODS BAKER, a work which has obtained a +distinguished reputation in the scientific literature of France, by its +clear and correct style, its rigorous demonstrations, and its +well-connected propositions. It is adapted to fill a place, for which no +adequate provision has been made by the usual treatises on the subject +in the English language. Most of these are voluminous, and suited only +to the more advanced classes of students, or else composed chiefly of +practical and descriptive details. The present volume treats the subject +in the synthetic method, and can be understood without difficulty by +those who are familiar with Euclid's Elements. + +_Warreniana._--Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued a reprint of this +celebrated _jeu d'esprit,_ which still retains its popularity, together +with the _Rejected Addresses,_ to which it forms an appropriate +companion. The peculiarities of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, +Christopher North, Washington Irving, Scott, Moore, Brougham, +Wilberforce, and other names of sufficient eminence to provoke a quiz, +are hit off with capital success. The most astringent features are +always relaxed in the perusal of these amusing pages. + +J. S. Redfield has issued an edition of JUNG STILLING'S _Theory of +Pneumatology_, and of CAHAGNET'S _Celestial Telegraph_, which are filled +with the latest information on the whole subject of ghosts, +presentiments, visions, and the world of spirits, obtained professedly +from the most authentic sources. Stilling's work is introduced with a +Preface by Rev. Dr. BUSH, highly commending its purposes and character. +The "Celestial Telegraph" beats Jackson Davis and the Rochester +Knockings all hollow. Whoever is curious in the literature of the +supernatural will find enough here to satisfy the most craving love of +the marvelous. + +Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have published a volume of _Poems_, by HENRY +T. TUCKERMAN, distinguished for the sweet and graceful fancies, the +fluent aptness of expression, the joyous sympathy with nature, and the +refined delicacy of taste by which most of the writings of the author +are characterized. The vein of tranquil reflection which pervades them, +and the chastened utterance of feeling which vails rather than embodies +strong emotion, though not among the elements of popular poetry, will +recommend them to the congenial reader. + +J. W. Moore, Philadelphia, has published a useful little volume for +students in design, entitled _The Theory of Effect_, by An Artist. It is +intended not only for the use of beginners, but of those who have +attained a proficiency in the art, while they are unacquainted with the +principles on which the correctness of their pictures depends. The rules +of Effect are laid down with great precision and minuteness, and +illustrated with several neat engravings by Hinckley. + +_The Volcano Diggings_ is the title of a lively story, by a Member of +the Bar, illustrating the administration of the law in California. +Several scenes, which are evidently taken from the life, are described +with a good deal of spirit, and throw a strong, but not altogether +flattering light on the condition of society at the placers. (Published +by J. S. Redfield). + +George P. Putnam has issued _The Wing-and-Wing_, forming another volume +of the Collected Works of J. FENIMORE COOPER. In the Preface to this +edition, the author remarks, that "he acknowledges a strong paternal +feeling in behalf of this book, placing it very high in the estimate of +its merits, as compared with other books from the same pen; a species of +commendation that need wound no man." + +The same publisher has issued a new and revised edition of _The Conquest +of Florida_, by THEODORE IRVING. The author expresses his gratification +in finding his account of De Soto's expedition confirmed by the most +recent investigations. His work is justly entitled to the reputation +which it has obtained, as a classic authority, on an interesting period +of American history. + +Phillips, Sampson, and Co. have published a valuable collection of +financial essays, entitled _The Banker's Commonplace Book_, containing +Mr. A. B. Johnson's pithy treatise on the Principles of Banking and the +Duties of a Banker, Gilbart's Ten Minutes' Advice on Keeping a Bank, +with several articles on Bills of Exchange, and a summary of the Banking +Laws of Massachusetts. It will prove a useful manual on the subject to +which it is devoted. + + + + +TWO LEAVES FROM PUNCH. + +[Illustration: ENCOURAGEMENT TO BOOK-LENDERS. + +"IF YOU PLEASE, SIR, MASTER'S SENT BACK THE FIRST VOLUME, AND HE SAYS +WILL YOU BE SO GOOD AS TO LET HIM 'AVE THE SECOND?"] + + +DIPLOMACY AND GASTRONOMY. + +It is a very generally received opinion that _gammon_ is the basis of +diplomacy; but the fact is, that it is impossible to conduct +international negotiations on the foundation of that humble and +economical fare, even when rendered more palatable by the addition of +spinach. MR. RIVES, it is said, has written a letter to MR. WEBSTER, +complaining that the American Embassadorship can not be done at Paris +under £9000 a year, and adds that + + "_According to_ MR. PAKENHAM, _good dinners are half the battle + of diplomacy, and the most favorable treaties are gained by + liberal feeding._" + +This aphorism suggests important reflections. + +A main point to be attended to in the formation of a diplomatic corps is +the commissariat; and the force must be well armed with knives and +forks, in addition to being supplied with plate armor. + +The trenches in diplomatic warfare must be manned by regular +trenchermen. + +Rivals in diplomacy must be cut out by actual carving; and in order to +dish them, recourse must be had to real dishes. + +If one diplomatist wishes to turn the tables on another, it is requisite +that he and his suite should keep the better tables. + +The politeness of diplomatic intercourse should be qualified, in some +measure, with sauce, and its gravity tempered with gravy. + +Treating, in diplomacy, is best managed by giving "a spread." + +Bold diplomatists are those "who greatly daring, dine." + +The most liberal foreign policy is that of giving grand banquets. + +A plenipotentiary should have unlimited powers of cramming. + +An embassador has been defined to be, "a man sent abroad to lie for the +sake of the commonwealth;" but the definition must be enlarged to +express the fact, that he is also a person deputed to a foreign country +to eat and drink for the interest of his native land. + +The most important diplomatic functions are those of digestion. + +[Illustration: SUPPER AT A JUVENILE PARTY. + +_Alfred._ "I SAY, FRANK, ARN'T YOU GOING TO HAVE SOME SUPPER?" + +_Frank._ "A--NOT AT PRESENT. I SHALL WAIT TILL THE WOMEN LEAVE THE +ROOM."] + +[Illustration: ONE OF THE JUVENILES AFTER THE PARTY. + +_Doctor._ "AHEM! WELL! AND WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MY YOUNG FRIEND, +ADOLPHUS?" + +_Mother._ "WHY, DOCTOR, HE WAS AT A JUVENILE PARTY LAST NIGHT, AND I'M +AFRAID HE'S EATEN SOMETHING THAT DOES'N'T AGREE WITH HIM, POOR DEAR!"] + + +CONVERSATION-BOOKS FOR 1851. + + +It is said that Publishers are getting up a series of Conversation-Books +for the use of foreigners, visiting the Great Exhibition. But the spoken +and written language of London are so different that it is feared these +books will be of little use. Mr. PUNCH furnishes the following +corrections of the two most important chapters, by the diligent study of +which it is hoped that visitors may be enabled to ride and dine. + + +TO CONVERSE WITH A CABMAN. + +_What the Book said._ _What the Man said._ + +Do you wish, Sir, to ride in C'b? (_from every driver on +my cabriolet? the rank, and as many fingers + held up as there are Cabmen._) + +Where do you wish, Sir, that Vere to? (_and a look._) +I should drive you? + +I wish to go to the Exposition. + +Thank you, Sir. I will drive Vere? (_not understanding +you thither without delay. the foreigner's English._) + +What is your fare? + +I have driven you two miles. Two bob and a tanner. +My legal fare for driving you that +distance is one shilling and four-pence. + +As you have driven fast, there is +one shilling and sixpence. + +Thank you, Sir, I am very much obliged Vot's this? (_and a look of +to you. contemptuous curiosity at the + coin presented._) + +I shall be happy to drive you in future. Vel, if hever I drives a scaly + furrinrr again, I'm blessed! + +Good morning to you, Sir. Ollo! You ain't a-goin' hoff + in this 'ere way. + +You have paid me handsomely. Oh--you calls yourself a + gentleman! + + +TO CONVERSE WITH A WAITER. + +Waiter, what have you for dinner? + +You can have what you choose to order, Sir. Din'r, Sir!--Yezzir! + +Here is the bill of fare, Sir. S'p, f'sh, ch'ps, st'ks, cutl't, + Sir! r'nd o' b'f, + Sir!--nice cut, Sir!--sad'l mt'n, + Sir!--Yezzir! + --JOHN, att'nd to the gnl'm.--Yezzir!--JEM, mon'y--com'n, +Sir!--'Ere, Sir!--Yezzir! + +Waiter, how much have I to pay? + +Here, Sir, is your bill. Money! (_calling._) + +Permit me to ask you what you Now, Sir? (_and an +have had to eat, Sir? interrogative look._) + St'k, Sir? Yezzir! shill'n, Sir! + 'taters, Sir? +I have had a beef-steak, with boiled Yezzir! twop'nce, that's + one-and-three, and +potatoes; I have also had a fried sole, bread a penny, one-and-three +and some bread, and two is one-and-five, +with Cheshire cheese, and sole, you said, Sir? Yezzir! +and a pint of porter. that's one shilling: + one-and-eight and five, thirteen, +Sir, the price of all that is two that's two-and-six; and cheese? +shillings. Yezzir! two-and-eight and four, + that's three shill'n; and + porter is four; three, four, + eight, ten, fifteen--four-and-two. + Thank you, Sir! Waiter, Sir? + Thank you, Sir. + Good afternoon, Sir. + + +TO FIND ROOM IN A CROWDED OMNIBUS. + +_Conductor._--Would any gentleman mind going outside, to oblige a lady? + +_Unfortunate Gentleman (tightly wedged in at the back_).--I should be +very happy, but I only came, yesterday, out of the Fever Hospital. + + [_Omnibus clears in a minute!_ + + +A FILE TO SMOOTH ASPERITIES. + +The _Sheffield Times_ describes an extraordinary file, which is to be +sent from Sheffield to the Great Exhibition. This remarkable file is +adorned with designs as numerous as those on the original shield of +ACHILLES, all cut and beaten out with hammer and chisel. How much more +sensible and friendly to show distinguished foreigners files of this +sort, than to exhibit to them files of soldiers! + + +THE LOWEST DEPTH OF MEANNESS. + +A FARCE, FOUNDED ON FACT. + +MR. _and_ MRS. SKINFLINT _are discovered in a Parlor in a Fashionable +Square. The Wife is busy sewing. The Husband is occupied running his +eye, well drilled in all matters of domestic economy, over the +housekeeping account of the previous week._ + +_Mr. Skinflint._--You've been very extravagant in my absence, my dear. + +_Mrs. Skinflint._--It's the same story every week, JOHN. + +_Mr. Skinflint._--But, nonsense, Madam, I tell you, you have. For +instance, you had a Crab for supper last night. + +_Mrs. Skinflint (startled)._--How do you know that? It's not down in the +book. + +_Mr. Skinflint (triumphantly)._--No--but I found the shell in the +dust-bin!!!! + +[Illustration: A LITTLE BIT OF HUMBUG. + +_Shoemaker._ "I THINK, MUM, WE HAD BETTER MAKE YOU A PAIR. YOU SEE, MUM, +YOURS IS SUCH A REMARKABLE LONG AND NARRER FOOT!"] + + + + +FASHIONS FOR MAY. + + +[Illustration: FIG. I.--PROMENADE COSTUMES.] + +This is the season when Fashion is more perplexed than at any other, in +her endeavors to give humanity a _seasonable_ garb. Boreas and Zephyrus +often bear rule on the same day, one reigning with mildness in the +morning, the other despotically at evening. Those votaries of Fashion +are the wiser, who pay court to the former; for, generally, it is almost +June, in our Northern States, before we may be certain that the chilling +breath of early Spring will be no more felt. + +This being the season for rides and promenades, our illustrations for +this month are devoted chiefly to the representation of appropriate +costume for those healthful exercises in the open air. The large figure +in our first plate, represents an elegant style of promenade dress. +_Pardessus_ are much worn at this season, made in a lighter manner than +those used earlier. Velvet _pardessus_ with silk or satin linings, but +not padded, are used. Our illustration represents one of black velvet, +trimmed with several narrow rows of satin of the same color. The dress +is amber-colored figured silk, with a very full plain skirt. _Capotes_ +or bonnets of satin are also worn. An elegant style is made of violet +velvet and satin, ornamented with heart's-ease almost hidden within +_coques_ of satin and velvet, which are arranged in a tasteful manner +upon the exterior of the _capote_, the interior being decorated with +heart's-ease to match, which may or may not be intermixed with lace or +_tulle_, according to the taste of the wearer. + +Costumes for young misses are also represented in our first +illustration. The larger one has a dress of a pale chocolate cachmere, +trimmed with narrow silk fringe; the double robings on each side of the +front as well as the cape, on the half-high corsage, ornamented with a +double row of narrow silk fringe. This trimming is also repeated round +the lower part of the loose sleeve. Chemisette of plaited cambric, +headed with a broad frill of embroidery; full under-sleeves of cambric, +with a row of embroidery round the wrist. Open bonnet of pink satin, a +row of white lace encircling the interior next the face. Boots of pale +violet cachmere and morocco. Trowsers of worked cambric. The smaller +figure has a frock of plaided cachmere. _Paletot_ of purple velvet, or +dark cachmere; a round hat of white satin, the low crown adorned with a +long white ostrich feather. Trowsers and under-sleeves of white +embroidered cambric. Button gaiter boots of chocolate cachmere. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--EVENING COSTUME.] + +Figure 2 represents a most elegant costume for an evening party, or a +ball. It is composed of a beautifully embroidered white satin dress, the +skirt looped up on the right side, and decorated with a bunch of the +pink honey-plant, heading three pink and white _marabout_ tips, from +which depend three ends of deep silk fringe, pink and white. Low +pointed corsage, the top of which is encircled with a small embroidered +pointed cape, edged as well as the short sleeves with a deep pink and +white fringe, and confined upon the centre with a cluster of feathers +and flowers, decorated in the centre with a butterfly composed of +precious stones. The hair is simply arranged with a narrow wreath of +pink and white velvet leaves, finished on the right side with two small +_marabout_ feathers, and two ends of fringe drooping low. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--MORNING PROMENADE COSTUME.] + +Figure 3 is a morning promenade costume. A high dress of black satin, +the body fitting perfectly tight; a small jacket cut on the bias, with +two rows of black velvet laid on a little distance from the edge. The +sleeves are rather large, and have abroad cuff turned back, which is +trimmed to correspond with the jacket. The skirt is long and full; the +dress ornamented up the front in its whole length by rich fancy silk +trimmings, graduating in size from the bottom of the skirt to the waist, +and again increasing to the throat. Bonnet of plum-colored satin; a +bunch of heart's-ease, intermixed with ribbon, placed low on the left +side; the same flowers, but somewhat smaller, ornament the interior. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4 AND 5.--HEAD-DRESSES.] + +Figures 4 and 5 represent different styles of head-dresses for balls or +evening parties. Figure 4 is a combination of flowers and splendid +ribbons, with a fall on each side, of the richest lace. Figure 5 is very +brilliant. It is a wreath of Ceres form, composed of small flowers in +rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, perfectly resembling natural flowers, +with ears of wheat freely intermingled. At this season the head-dresses +are chiefly of the floral description. Feathers and flowers intermixed, +form a very beautiful _coiffure_. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume +2, No. 12, May, 1851., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY, MAY 1851 *** + +***** This file should be named 30943-8.txt or 30943-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/9/4/30943/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 12, 2010 [EBook #30943] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY, MAY 1851 *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_721" id="Page_721">[Pg 721]</a></span></p> + +<h1>HARPER'S</h1> + +<h2>NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.</h2> + +<h3>No. XII.—MAY, 1851—VOL. II.</h3> + +<p class="notes">Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved +to the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.</p> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#THE_NOVELTY_WORKS_WITH_SOME_DESCRIPTION_OF_THE_MACHINERY_AND_THE"><b>THE NOVELTY WORKS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHARLES_WOLFE"><b>CHARLES WOLFE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MAURICE_TIERNAY_THE_SOLDIER_OF_FORTUNE"><b>MAURICE TIERNAY, THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_UNNAMED_SHELL"><b>THE UNNAMED SHELL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_STORY_OF_GIOVANNI_BELZONI"><b>THE STORY OF GIOVANNI BELZONI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#PHANTOMS_AND_REALITIES_AN_AUTOBIOGRAPHY"><b>PHANTOMS AND REALITIES.—AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#STORY_OF_SILVER-VOICE_AND_HER_SISTER_ZOE"><b>STORY OF SILVER-VOICE AND HER SISTER ZOE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_CROCODILE_BATTERY"><b>THE CROCODILE BATTERY.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_CHAPTER_ON_DREAMS"><b>A CHAPTER ON DREAMS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_FAIR_IN_MUNICH"><b>A FAIR IN MUNICH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_WIFES_STRATAGEM"><b>THE WIFE'S STRATAGEM.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_CHAMPION"><b>THE CHAMPION.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_FARM-LABORER_THE_SON"><b>THE FARM-LABORER.—THE SON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#From_Bentleys_Miscellany"><b>A CHAPTER ON WOLVES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_SPECIMEN_OF_RUSSIAN_JUSTICE"><b>A SPECIMEN OF RUSSIAN JUSTICE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#NAPOLEON_AND_THE_POPE_A_SCENE_AT_FONTAINEBLEAU"><b>NAPOLEON AND THE POPE.—A SCENE AT FONTAINEBLEAU.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#From_Frasers_Magazine"><b>GABRIELLE; OR, THE SISTERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_WASTE_OF_WAR"><b>THE WASTE OF WAR.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_NIGHT_WITH_AN_EARTHQUAKE6"><b>A NIGHT WITH AN EARTHQUAKE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_PLEA_FOR_BRITISH_REPTILES"><b>A PLEA FOR BRITISH REPTILES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#From_Leigh_Hunts_Journal"><b>A DREAM, AND THE INTERPRETATION THEREOF.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_HOUSEHOLD_OF_SIR_THO_MORE7"><b>THE HOUSEHOLD OF SIR THO'S MORE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_STOLEN_FRUIT_A_STORY_OF_NAPOLEONS_CHILDHOOD"><b>THE STOLEN FRUIT.—A STORY OF NAPOLEON'S CHILDHOOD.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#WILBERFORCE_AND_CHALMERS"><b>WILBERFORCE AND CHALMERS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#MY_NOVEL_OR_VARIETIES_IN_ENGLISH_LIFE"><b>MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#UNCLE_JOHN_OR_THE_ROUGH_ROAD_TO_RICHES"><b>UNCLE JOHN; OR, THE ROUGH ROAD TO RICHES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DARLING_DOREL"><b>DARLING DOREL.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#COURTESY_OF_AMERICANS"><b>COURTESY OF AMERICANS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Monthly_Record_of_Current_Events"><b>MONTHLY RECORD OF CURRENT EVENTS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#Literary_Notices"><b>LITERARY NOTICES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#TWO_LEAVES_FROM_PUNCH"><b>TWO LEAVES FROM PUNCH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#FASHIONS_FOR_MAY"><b>FASHIONS FOR MAY.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_NOVELTY_WORKS_WITH_SOME_DESCRIPTION_OF_THE_MACHINERY_AND_THE" id="THE_NOVELTY_WORKS_WITH_SOME_DESCRIPTION_OF_THE_MACHINERY_AND_THE"></a>THE NOVELTY WORKS, WITH SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE MACHINERY AND THE +PROCESSES EMPLOYED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE STEAM-ENGINES OF THE +LARGEST CLASS.</h2> + +<h3>BY JACOB ABBOTT.</h3> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image1.jpg" width="500" height="372" alt="GENERAL VIEW OF THE NOVELTY IRON WORKS, NEW YORK, (As +seen from the East River.)" title="" /> +<span class="caption">GENERAL VIEW OF THE NOVELTY IRON WORKS, NEW YORK,<br /> (<i>As +seen from the East River.</i>)</span> +</div> + +<p>Perhaps no one of those vast movements which are now going forward among +mankind, and which mark so strikingly the industrial power and genius of +the present age, is watched with more earnest interest by thinking men, +than the successive steps of the progress by which the mechanical power +of steam and machinery is gradually advancing, in its contest for the +dominion of the seas. There is a double interest in this conflict. In +fact, the conflict itself is a double one. There is first a struggle +between the mechanical power and ingenuity of man, on the one hand, and +the uncontrollable and remorseless violence of ocean storms on the +other; and, secondly, there is the rivalry, not unfriendly, though +extremely ardent and keen, between the two most powerful commercial +nations on the globe, each eager to be the first to conquer the common +foe.</p> + +<p>The armories in which the ordnance and ammunition for this warfare are +prepared, consist, so far as this country is concerned, of certain +establishments, vast in their extent and capacity, though unpretending +in external appearance, which are situated in the upper part of the city +of New York, on the shores of the East River. As the city of New York is +sustained almost entirely by its commerce, and as this commerce is +becoming every year more and more dependent for its prosperity and +progress upon the power of the enormous engines by which its most +important functions are now performed, the establishments where these +engines are invented and made, and fitted into the ships which they are +destined to propel, constitute really the heart of the metropolis; +though, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_722" id="Page_722">[Pg 722]</a></span> visitor, who comes down for the first time by the East +River, from the Sound, in the morning boat from Norwich or Fall River, +is very prone to pass them carelessly by—his thoughts intent upon what +he considers the superior glory and brilliancy which emanate from the +hotels and theatres of Broadway.</p> + +<p>In fact, there is very little to attract the eye of the unthinking +traveler to these establishments as he glides swiftly by them in the +early morning. He is astonished perhaps at the multitude of steamers +which he sees lining the shores in this part of the city, some drawn up +into the docks for repairs; others new, and moored alongside a pier to +receive their machinery; and others still upon the stocks in the +capacious ship-yards, in the various stages of that skeleton condition +which in the ship marks the commencement, as in animal life it does the +end, of existence. Beyond and above the masts and spars and smoke-pipes +of this mass of shipping, the observer sees here and there a columnar +chimney, or the arms of a monstrous derrick or crane, or a steam-pipe +ejecting vapor in successive puffs with the regularity of an animal +pulsation. He little thinks that these are the beatings which mark the +spot where the true heart of the great metropolis really lies. But it is +actually so. The splendor and the fashion of the Fifth Avenue, and of +Union-square, as well as the brilliancy, and the ceaseless movement and +din of Broadway, are the mere incidents and ornaments of the structure, +while these establishments, and others of kindred character and +function, form the foundation on which the whole of the vast edifice +reposes.</p> + +<p>We select, rather by accident than otherwise, the Novelty Works as a +specimen of the establishments to which we have been alluding, for +description in this Number. A general view of the works as they appear +from the river, is presented in the engraving at the head of this +article, with the docks and piers belonging to the establishment in the +fore-ground.</p> + +<p>The entrance to the inclosure is by a great gateway, through which the +visitor on approaching it, will, very probably see an enormous truck or +car issuing, drawn by a long team of horses, and bearing some ponderous +piece of machinery suspended beneath it by means of levers and chains. +On the right of the entrance gate is the porter's lodge, with entrances +from it to the offices, as represented in the plan on the adjoining page +Beyond the entrance, and just within the inclosure may be seen a great +crane used for receiving or delivering the vast masses of metal, the +shafts, the cylinders, the boilers, the vacuum pans, and other ponderous +formations which are continually coming and going to and from the yard. +Beyond the crane is seen the bell by which the hours of work are +regulated.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;"> +<img src="images/image2.jpg" width="368" height="500" alt="ENTRANCE TO THE NOVELTY WORKS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">ENTRANCE TO THE NOVELTY WORKS.</span> +</div> + +<p>The plan upon the adjoining page will give the reader some idea of the +extent of the accommodations required for the manufacture of such heavy +and massive machinery. On the right of the entrance may be seen the +porter's lodge, shown in perspective in the view below. Beyond it, in +the yard, stands the crane, which is seen likewise in the view. Turning +to the left, just beyond the crane, the visitor enters the iron foundry, +a spacious inclosure, with ovens and furnaces along the sides, and +enormous cranes swinging in various directions in the centre. These +cranes are for hoisting the heavy castings out of the pits in which they +are formed. The parts marked v v v, are ovens for drying the moulds.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_723" id="Page_723">[Pg 723]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 443px;"> +<img src="images/image3.jpg" width="443" height="750" alt="" title="" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_724" id="Page_724">[Pg 724]</a></span></p> + +<p>Turning to the right from the foundry, and passing down through the +yard, the visitor finds himself in the midst of a complicated maze of +buildings, which extend in long ranges toward the water, with lanes and +passages between them like the streets of a town. In these passages +companies of workmen are seen, some going to and fro, drawing heavy +masses of machinery upon iron trucks; others employed in hoisting some +ponderous cylinder or shaft by a crane, or stacking pigs of iron in +great heaps, to be ready for the furnaces which are roaring near as if +eager to devour them. And all the time there issues from the open doors +of the great boiler-shops and forging-shops below, an incessant clangor, +produced by the blows of the sledges upon the rivets of the boilers, or +of the trip-hammers at the forges.</p> + +<p>The relative positions of the various shops where the different +operations are performed will be seen by examination of the plan. The +motive power by which all the machinery of the establishment is driven, +is furnished by a stationary engine in the very centre of the works, +represented in the plan. It stands between two of the principal shops. +On the right is seen the boiler, and on the left the engine—while the +black square below, just within the great boiler-shop, represents the +chimney. Other similar squares in different parts of the plan represent +chimneys also, in the different parts of the establishment. These +chimneys may be seen in perspective in the general view, at the head of +this article, and may be identified with their several representations +in the plan, by a careful comparison. The one belonging to the engine is +the central one in the picture as well as in the plan—that is, the one +from which the heaviest volume of smoke is issuing.</p> + +<p>This central engine, since it carries all the machinery of the works, by +means of which every thing is formed and fashioned, is the life and soul +of the establishment—the <i>mother</i>, in fact, of all the monsters which +issue from it; and it is impossible to look upon her, as she toils on +industriously in her daily duty, and think of her Titanic progeny, +scattered now over every ocean on the globe, without a certain feeling +of respect and even of admiration.</p> + +<p>A careful inspection of the plan will give the reader some ideas of the +nature of the functions performed in these establishments, and of the +general arrangements adopted in them. The magnitude and extent of them +is shown by this fact, that the number of men employed at the Novelty +Works is from one thousand to twelve hundred. These are all <i>men</i>, in +the full vigor of life. If now we add to this number a proper estimate +for the families of these men, and for the mechanics and artisans who +supply their daily wants, all of whom reside in the streets surrounding +the works, we shall find that the establishment represents, at a +moderate calculation, a population of <i>ten thousand souls</i>.</p> + +<p>The proper regulation of the labors of so large a body of workmen as are +employed in such an establishment, requires, of course, much system in +the general arrangements, and very constant and careful supervision on +the part of those intrusted with the charge of the various divisions of +the work. The establishment forms, in fact, a regularly organized +community, having, like any state or kingdom, its gradations of rank, +its established usages, its written laws, its police, its finance, its +records, its rewards, and its penalties. The operation of the principles +of system, and of the requirements of law, leads, in such a community as +this, to many very curious and striking results, some of which it would +be interesting to describe, if we had space for such descriptions. But +we must pass to the more immediate subject in this article, which is the +structure of the engine itself, and not that of the community which +produces it.</p> + +<p>The engraving on the next page represents the interior of the +engine-room of the Humboldt—a new steamer, which was lying at the dock +at the time of our visit, receiving her machinery; though probably +before these pages shall come under the eye of the reader, she will be +steadily forcing her way over the foaming surges of the broad Atlantic. +The machinery, as we saw it, was incomplete, and the parts in +disorder—the various masses of which it was ultimately to be composed, +resting on temporary supports, in different stages, apparently of their +slow journey to the place and the connection in which they respectively +belonged. The ingenious artist, however, who made the drawings, +succeeded in doing, by means of his imagination, at once, what it will +require the workmen several weeks to perform, with all their complicated +machinery of derricks, tackles, and cranes. He put every thing in its +place, and has given us a view of the whole structure as it will appear +when the ship is ready for sea.</p> + +<p>There are <i>two</i> engines and <i>four</i> boilers; thus the machinery is all +double, so that if any fatal accident or damage should accrue to any +part, only one half of the moving force on which the ship relies would +be suspended. The heads of two of the boilers are to be seen on the left +of the view. They are called the <i>starboard</i> and <i>larboard</i> +boilers—those words meaning <i>right</i> and <i>left</i>. That is, the one on the +right to a person standing before them in the engine room, and facing +them, is the starboard, and the other the larboard boiler. It is the +larboard boiler which is nearest the spectator in the engraving.</p> + +<p>The boilers, the heads of which only are seen in the engraving, are +enormous in magnitude and capacity, extending as they do far forward +into the hold of the ship. In marine engines of the largest class they +are sometimes thirty-six feet long and over twelve feet in diameter. +There is many a farmer's dwelling house among the mountains, which is +deemed by its inmates spacious and comfortable, that has less capacity. +In fact, placed upon end, one of these boilers would form a tower with a +very good sized room on each floor, and four stories high. The manner in +which the boilers are made will be presently explained.</p> + +<p>The steam generated in the boilers is conveyed to the engine, where it +is to do its work, by what is called the steam pipe. The steam pipe of +the larboard engine, that is, of the one nearest the spectator, is not +represented in the engraving,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_725" id="Page_725">[Pg 725]</a></span> as it would have intercepted too much the +view of the other parts. That belonging to the starboard engine, +however, may be seen passing across from the boiler to the engine, on +the back side of the room. The destination of the steam is the +<i>cylinder</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image4.jpg" width="500" height="355" alt="GENERAL VIEW OF A MARINE ENGINE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">GENERAL VIEW OF A MARINE ENGINE.</span> +</div> + +<p>The cylinder, marked C, is seen on the extreme right, in the view. It +may be known, too, by its form, which corresponds with its name. The +cylinder is the heart and soul of the engine, being the seat and centre +of its power. The steam is generated in the boilers, but while it +remains there it remains quiescent and inert. The action in which its +mighty power is expended, and by means of which all subsequent effects +are produced, is the lifting and bringing down of the enormous piston +which plays within the cylinder. This piston is a massive metallic disc +or plate, fitting the interior of the cylinder by its edges, and rising +or falling by the expansive force of the steam, as it is admitted +alternatively above and below it.</p> + +<p>The round beam which is seen issuing from the centre of the head of the +cylinder is called the piston rod. The piston itself is firmly secured +to the lower end of this rod within the cylinder. Of course, when the +piston is forced upward by the pressure of the steam admitted beneath +it, the piston rod rises, too, with all the force of the expansion. This +is, in the case of the largest marine engines, a force of about a +hundred tons. That is to say, if in the place of the cross head—the +beam marked H in the engraving which surmounts the piston—there were a +mass of rock weighing a hundred tons, which would be, in the case of +granite, a block four feet square and eighty feet high, the force of the +steam beneath the piston in the cylinder would be competent to lift it.</p> + +<p>The piston rod, rising with this immense force carries up the cross +head, and with the cross head the two <i>side rods</i>, one of which is seen +in full, in the engraving, and is marked S. There is a side rod on each +side of the cylinders. The lower ends of these rods are firmly connected +with the back ends of what are called the <i>side levers</i>. One of these +side levers is seen in full view in the engraving. It is the massive +flat beam, marked L, near the fore-ground of the view. It turns upon an +enormous pivot which passes through the centre of it, as seen in the +drawing, in such a manner that when the cylinder end is drawn up by the +lifting of the cross head, the other end is borne down to the same +extent, and with the same prodigious force. There is another side beam, +on the other side of the cylinder, which moves isochronously with the +one in view. The forward end of this other beam may be seen, though the +main body of it is concealed from view. These two forward ends of the +levers are connected by a heavy bar, called the <i>cross tail</i>, which +passes across from one to the other. From the centre of this cross tail, +a bar called the connecting rod rises to the crank, where the force +exerted by the steam in the cylinders is finally expended in turning the +great paddle wheels by means of the main shaft, S, which is seen resting +in the pillow block, P, above. These are the essential parts of the +engine, and we now proceed to consider the mode of manufacturing these +several parts, somewhat in detail.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_726" id="Page_726">[Pg 726]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/image5.jpg" width="450" height="415" alt="THE CUTTING ENGINE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE CUTTING ENGINE.</span> +</div> + +<p>The boilers are formed of wrought iron. The material is previously +rolled into plates of the requisite thickness, and then the first part +of the process of forming these plates into a boiler is to cut them into +proper forms. The monster that fulfills the function of shears for this +purpose, bears a very slight resemblance to any ordinary cutting +implement It resembles, on the other hand, as represented in the +adjoining engraving, an enormous letter U, standing perpendicularly upon +one of its edges. Through the centre of the upper branch of it there +passes a shaft or axle, which is turned by the wheels and machinery +behind it, and which itself works the cutter at the outer end of it by +means of an eccentric wheel. This cutter may be seen just protruding +from its place, upon the plate which the workmen are holding underneath. +The iron plates thus presented are sometimes nearly half an inch thick, +but the monstrous jaw of the engine, though it glides up and down when +there is nothing beneath it in the most gentle and quiet manner +possible, cuts them through, as if they were plates of wax, and +apparently without feeling the obstruction.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image6.jpg" width="600" height="218" alt="THE BENDING AND PUNCHING ENGINES." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE BENDING AND PUNCHING ENGINES.</span> +</div> + +<p>The plates, when cut, are to be bent to the proper curvature. The +machine by which this bending is effected is seen above, in the +back-ground. It consists of three rollers, placed in such a position in +relation to each other, that the plate, in being forced through between +them, is bent to any required curvature. These rollers are made to +revolve by great wheels at the sides, with handles at the circumference +of them, which handles act as levers, and are worked by men, as seen in +the engraving.</p> + +<p>The separate plates of which a boiler is composed are fastened together +by means of massive rivets, and it is necessary, accordingly, to punch +rows of holes along the edges of the plates for the insertion of the +rivets. This process may be seen on the <i>left</i> in the above engraving. +Two men are holding the plate which is to be punched. The punch is +driven through the plate by means of the great lever, which forms the +upper part of the engine. The upright part in front is driven forward by +means of the cam in the large wheel behind, a part of which only is seen +in the engraving. This cam raises the long arm of the lever by means of +the pulley in the end of it, and so drives the point of the punch +through the plate. There is a support for the plate behind it, between +the plate and the man, with a small opening in it, into which the punch +enters, driving before it the round button of iron which it has cut from +the plate.</p> + +<p>On the right, in the above engraving, is a punching engine worked by +men, the other being driven by steam power. These machines are +sufficient to make all the ordinary perforations required in +boiler-plates. Larger holes, when required, have to be bored by a drill, +as represented in the following engraving.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/image7.jpg" width="450" height="455" alt="THE BORING-ENGINE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE BORING-ENGINE.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_727" id="Page_727">[Pg 727]</a></span></p> + +<p>The view below represents the interior of one of the great boiler rooms +where the boilers are put together by riveting the plates to each other +at their edges. Some men stand inside, holding heavy sledges against the +heads of the rivets, while others on the outside, with other sledges, +beat down the part of the iron which protrudes, so as to form another +head to each rivet, on the outside. This process can be seen distinctly +in the boiler nearest to the observer in the view below. The planks +which are seen crossing each other in the open end, are temporary +braces, put in to preserve the cylindrical form of the mass, to prevent +the iron from bending itself by its own weight, before the iron heads +are put in.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/image8.jpg" width="450" height="396" alt="RIVETING THE BOILERS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">RIVETING THE BOILERS.</span> +</div> + +<p>Sometimes operations must be performed upon the sides of the boiler +requiring the force of machinery. To effect this purpose, shafts carried +by the central engine to which we have already alluded, are attached to +the walls in various parts of the room, as seen in the engraving. +Connected with these shafts are various drilling and boring machines, +which can at any time be set in motion, or put to rest, by being thrown +in or out of gear. One of these machines is seen on the right of the +boiler above referred to, and another in the left-hand corner of the +room quite in the back-ground. Near the fore-ground, on the left, is +seen a forge, where any small mass of iron may be heated, as occasion +may require.</p> + +<p>The semi-cylindrical piece which lies in the centre of the room, toward +the fore-ground, is part of a locomotive boiler, and is of course much +smaller in size than the others, though it is constructed in the same +manner with the large boilers used for sea-going ships. The process of +riveting, as will be seen by the engraving, is the same. One man holds +up against the under side of the plate a support for the rivet, while +two men with hammers form a head above—striking alternately upon the +iron which protrudes.</p> + +<p>From the boiler we proceed to the cylinder, which is in fact the <i>heart</i> +of the engine,—the seat and centre of its power. It is to the cylinder +that the steam, quietly generated in the boiler, comes to exercise its +energy, by driving, alternately up and down, the ponderous piston. The +cylinder must be strong so as to resist the vast expansive force which +is exercised within it. It must be stiff, so as to preserve in all +circumstances its exact form. It must be substantial, so as to allow of +being turned and polished on its interior surface with mathematical +precision, in order that the piston in ascending and descending, may +glide smoothly up and down, without looseness, and at the same time +without friction. To answer these conditions it is necessary that it +should be formed of cast iron.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_728" id="Page_728">[Pg 728]</a></span></p> + +<p>The cylinders are cast, accordingly, in the iron foundry, which, as will +be seen by the plan, is on the left, as the visitor enters the works. +There is a range of monstrous cranes extending through the interior of +the room, as represented in the plan, one of which is exhibited +conspicuously in the engraving below. At different places in the ground, +beneath this foundry, for it has no floor, there have been excavated +deep pits, some of which are twelve feet in diameter and eighteen feet +deep, the sides of which are secured by strong inclosures, formed of +plates of boiler iron riveted together. These pits are filled with +moulding sand—a composition of a damp and tenacious character, used in +moulding. The mould is made and lowered into one of these pits, the pit +is filled up, the sand being rammed as hard as possible all around it. +When all is ready, the top of the mould, with the cross by which it is +to be lifted and lowered surmounting it, presents the appearance +represented on the right hand lower corner of the engraving below.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;"> +<img src="images/image9.jpg" width="368" height="350" alt="CASTING A CYLINDER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">CASTING A CYLINDER.</span> +</div> + +<p>A reservoir to contain the melted metal necessary for the casting is +then placed in a convenient position near it, with a channel or conduit +leading from it to the mould. This reservoir may be seen in the +engraving near the centre of the view, at the foot of the crane. An +inclined plane is then laid, as seen in the engraving, to the left of +the reservoir, up which the workmen carry the molten metal in ladles, +which, though they do not appear very large, it requires <i>five men</i> to +carry. A party carrying such a ladle may be seen in the engraving in the +back-ground on the left. These ladles are filled from the various +furnaces, the iron throwing out an intense heat, and projecting the most +brilliant scintillations in every direction, as it flows. In the case of +the largest castings it requires sometimes four or five hours to get +together, from the furnaces, a sufficient supply of metal. The largest +reservoir thus filled will hold about thirty tons of iron.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 437px;"> +<img src="images/image10.jpg" width="437" height="500" alt="FILLING THE LADLES." title="" /> +<span class="caption">FILLING THE LADLES.</span> +</div> + +<p>The flowing of the metal from the reservoir to the mould in a great +casting, forms a magnificent spectacle. The vast mass of molten iron in +the reservoir, the stream flowing down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_729" id="Page_729">[Pg 729]</a></span> the conduit, throwing out the +most brilliant corruscations, the gaseous flames issuing from the upper +portions of the mould, and the currents of melted iron which sometimes +overflow and spread, like mimic streams of lava, over the ground, +present in their combination quite an imposing pyrotechnic display. In +fact there is a chance for the visitor, in the case of castings of a +certain kind, that he may be treated to an explosion as a part of the +spectacle. The imprisoned vapors and gases which are formed in the mould +below, break out sometimes with considerable violence, scattering the +burning and scintillating metal in every direction around.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/image11.jpg" width="450" height="403" alt="THE EXPLOSION." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE EXPLOSION.</span> +</div> + +<p>When the casting is completed it is of course allowed to remain +undisturbed until the iron has had time to cool, and then the whole mass +is to be dug out of the pit in which it is imbedded. So much heat, +however, still remains in the iron and in the sand surrounding it, that +the mould itself and the twenty or thirty men engaged in disinterring +it, are enveloped in dense clouds of vapor which rise all around them +while the operation is proceeding.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image12.jpg" width="500" height="311" alt="DIGGING OUT THE CYLINDER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">DIGGING OUT THE CYLINDER.</span> +</div> + +<p>It is necessary that the sand which surrounds these moulds should be +rammed down in the most compact and solid manner to sustain the sides of +the mould and enable them to resist the enormous pressure to which it is +subject, especially in the lower portions, while the iron continues +fluid. In the case of iron, the weight of four inches in height is +equivalent to the pressure of a pound upon the square inch. In a pit, +therefore, eighteen feet deep, as some of the pits at this foundry are, +we should have a pressure at the bottom of fifty-four pounds to the +inch. Now, in the most powerful sea-going steamers, the pressure of +steam at which the engines are worked, is seldom more than <i>eighteen</i> +pounds to the inch; that of the Cunard line is said to be from twelve to +fifteen, and that of the Collins line from fifteen to eighteen. In other +words there is a pressure to be resisted at the lower ends of these long +castings equal to three times that at which the most powerful low +pressure engines are worked, and which sometimes results in such +terrific explosions.</p> + +<p>When the cylinder is freed from the pressure of the sand around it, in +its bed, the great iron cross by which the mould was lowered into the +pit, as seen in the engraving of the Casting, is once more brought down +to its place, and the stirrups at the tops of the iron rods seen in the +engraving below, are brought over the ends of the arms of the cross. The +lower ends of these rods take hold of a frame or platform below, upon +which the whole mould, together with the cylinder within it, is +supported. The arm of the crane is then brought round to the spot. The +hook pendant from it is attached to the ring in the centre of the cross, +and by means of the wheels and machinery of the crane, the whole is +slowly hoisted out, and then swung round to some convenient level, where +the ponderous mass is freed from its casing of masonry, and brought out +at last to open day. It is then thoroughly examined with a view to the +discovery of any latent flaw or imperfection, and, if found complete in +every part, is conveyed away to be the subject of a long series of +finishing operations in another place,—operations many and complicated, +but all essential to enable it finally to fulfill its functions.</p> + +<p>These cylinders though very massive and ponderous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_730" id="Page_730">[Pg 730]</a></span> are not the heaviest +castings made. They are much exceeded in weight by what is called a bed +plate, which is an enormous frame of iron cast in one mass, or else in +two or three separate masses and then strongly bolted together, to form +a foundation on which the engine is to rest in the hold of the ship. The +bed plate can not be seen in the view of the engine room already given, +as it lies below the floor, being underneath all the machinery. A bed +plate weighs sometimes thirty-five tons—which is the weight of about +five hundred men. Such a mass as this has to be transported on ways, +like those used in the launching of a ship. It is drawn along upon these +ways by blocks and pullies, and when brought alongside the ship is +hoisted on board by means of an enormous derrick, and let down slowly to +the bottom of the hold—the place where it is finally to repose, unless +perchance it should at last be liberated by some disaster, from this +dungeon, and sent to seek its ultimate destination in the bottom of the +sea.</p> + +<p>The engraving below represents the forges, where all those parts of the +machinery are formed and fitted which consist of wrought iron. The room +in which these forges are situated is called the smith's shop, in the +plan. In the back-ground, a little to the right, is one of the trip +hammers, in the act of striking. The trip-hammer is a massive hammer +carried by machinery. The machinery which drives it may at any time be +thrown in or out of gear, so that the blows of the hammer are always +under the control of the workman. The iron bar to be forged is far too +heavy to be held by hand. It is accordingly supported as seen in the +engraving, by a crane; and only guided to its place upon the anvil by +the workmen who have hold of it. The chain to which this bar is +suspended comes down from a little truck which rests upon the top of the +crane, and which may be made to traverse to and fro, thus carrying +whatever is suspended from it further outward, or drawing it in, as may +be required. All the cranes, both in the smith's shop and in the +foundry, are fitted with the same contrivance. These trucks are moved by +means of a wheel at the foot of the crane.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image13.jpg" width="500" height="452" alt="THE FORGES." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE FORGES.</span> +</div> + +<p>On the extreme right of the picture, and somewhat in the distance, may +be seen another trip-hammer with a bar upon the anvil beneath it, this +bar being suspended likewise from a crane. When the iron becomes too +cold to yield any longer to the percussion, the hammer is stopped, the +crane is swung round, and the iron is replaced in the forge to be heated +anew; and at length, when heated, it is brought back again under the +hammer as before.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_731" id="Page_731">[Pg 731]</a></span></p> + +<p>The forging of shafts requires heavier machinery even than this. The +enormous mass of iron that is in this case to be forged, is bricked up +in a furnace to be heated, and remains there many hours. The masonry is +then broken away and the red hot beam is swung round under the hammer, +as seen below. It is suspended from the crane by heavy chains, and is +guided by the workmen by means of iron handles clamped to it at a +distance from the heated part, as seen in the engraving in the adjoining +column. The hammer is lifted by means of the cam below it, as seen in +the engraving below. This cam is a projection from an axis revolving +beneath the floor, and which, as it revolves, carries the cams +successively against a projection upon the under side of the hammer, +which is partly concealed in the engraving by the figure of the man. +When the point of the cam has passed beyond the projection it allows the +hammer to fall.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/image14.jpg" width="450" height="482" alt="HEATING A SHAFT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">HEATING A SHAFT.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image15.jpg" width="500" height="545" alt="FORGING A SHAFT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">FORGING A SHAFT.</span> +</div> + +<p>While the process of forging such a shaft is going on, one man throws +water upon the work,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_732" id="Page_732">[Pg 732]</a></span> to effect some purpose connected with the scaling +of the iron, while another, with an instrument called the callipers, +measures the diameter of the shaft, to regulate the size, as the forging +proceeds.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image16.jpg" width="500" height="360" alt="THE LATHES." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE LATHES.</span> +</div> + +<p>The shafts, when forged, are to be turned in a lathe, and the engine +used for this purpose is represented on the left in the engraving below. +The shaft itself is seen in the lathe, while the tool which cuts it as +it revolves, is fixed firmly in the "rest," which slides along the side. +The point of the tool is seen in the engraving, with the spiral shaving +which it cuts falling down from it. The shaft is made to revolve by the +band seen coming down obliquely from above, at the hither end of the +engine. The wheel by which the band turns the lathe has different +grooves at different distances from the centre, in order that the +workmen may regulate the velocity of the rotation—as different degrees +of velocity are required for the different species of work. The <i>rest</i>, +to which the cutting tool is attached, is brought slowly along the side +of the shaft as the shaft revolves, by means of a long screw which is +concealed in the frame of the lathe, and which is turned continually by +the mechanism of the small wheels which are seen at the hither end of +the engine.</p> + +<p>On the right hand of this view is represented another kind of lathe +called a <i>face lathe</i>, which is employed for turning wheels, and flat +plates, and interiors of cavities, and such other pieces of work as do +not furnish two opposite points of support. In the fore-ground are a +company of men drawing a massive piece of iron upon a truck, destined +apparently to be turned in the left hand lathe.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/image17.jpg" width="450" height="369" alt="FINISHING." title="" /> +<span class="caption">FINISHING.</span> +</div> + +<p>Although thus a great part of the work in respect to all the details of +the engine, is performed by machinery, much remains after all to be +wrought and fashioned by hand. In passing through the establishment the +visitor finds the workmen engaged in these labors, in every conceivable +attitude and position. One man is filing a curved surface with a curved +file, another is hidden almost wholly from view within a great misshapen +box of iron: a third is mounted upon a ladder, and is slowly boring +through the wall of some monstrous formation, or cutting away +excrescences of iron from some massive casting with a cold chisel. In a +word, the details are so endlessly varied as to excite the wonder of the +beholder that any human head should have been capable of containing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_733" id="Page_733">[Pg 733]</a></span> +them all, so as to have planned and arranged the fitting of such +complicated parts with any hope of their ever coming rightly together.</p> + +<p>They do come together, however, at last, and then follows the excitement +of the trial. There is nothing more striking in the history of the +construction of a steam engine than this, that there can be no partial +or private tests of the work by the workmen in the course of its +progress—but every thing remains in suspense until all is complete, and +the ship and the machinery are actually ready for sea. The immense and +ponderous masses which constitute the elements of the mighty structure +are hoisted slowly on board and let down into their places. Multitudes +of men are incessantly employed for many weeks in arranging the limbs +and members of the monster, and in screwing and bolting every thing into +its place. Still nothing can be tried. The machinery is too ponderous +and massive to be put in action by any power less than that of the +mighty mover on which its ultimate performance is to depend; and this +mover has not yet been called into being.</p> + +<p>At length the day of trial arrives. The engineers, the workmen, the +owners, and perhaps many spectators, have assembled to watch the result. +The boiler is filled; the fires are lighted. Hour after hour the process +goes on of raising the force and pressure of the steam. All this time, +however, the machinery lies inert and lifeless. It is a powerless mass +of dead and heavy brass and iron. At length an engineer, standing upon a +platform, with a lever in his hand, receives the signal, opens the +valve, and breathes into the monstrous body the breath of life. The +ponderous piston slowly rises; the beam descends; the crank turns; the +vast paddles revolve, and the monster walks away through the water with +its enormous burden, having leaped suddenly, at its first breath, into +the complete and full possession of its gigantic powers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 515px;"> +<img src="images/image18.jpg" width="515" height="650" alt="DEPARTURE OF THE PACIFIC FOR EUROPE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">DEPARTURE OF THE PACIFIC FOR EUROPE.</span> +</div> + +<p>In due time the equipment is complete, and the ship having received on +board its burden of costly cargo and valuable lives, moves away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_734" id="Page_734">[Pg 734]</a></span> from +the shore, with a certain expression of calm and quiet dignity in her +appearance and demeanor, which almost seems to denote a consciousness on +her part of the vast responsibilities which she is assuming, and of the +abundant power which she possesses fully to sustain them all.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHARLES_WOLFE" id="CHARLES_WOLFE"></a>CHARLES WOLFE.</h2> + + +<p>It is probable that to many of our readers the name which stands at the +head of this sketch is unknown, and that those who recognize it will +only know it as that of the author of the well-known lines upon the +death of Sir John Moore—a lyric of such surpassing beauty, that so high +a judge as Lord Byron considered it the perfection of English lyrical +poetry, preferring it before Coleridge's lines on +Switzerland—Campbell's Hohenlinden—and the finest of Moore's Irish +melodies, which were instanced by Shelley and others. Yet, unknown as +the Rev. Charles Wolfe is, it is unquestionable that he was a man +possessing the highest powers of imagination, and a powerful intellect, +cultivated to a very high point of perfection, and fitting him to become +one of the brightest stars of the world of literature. Why he is unknown +is then probably a question which will suggest itself to the minds of +many, and the answer must be, because he <i>did</i> so little for the world +to remember him by. The whole of his literary remains, including his +sermons, and a biographical sketch, which fills one half of the book, is +contained in a moderate sized octavo volume, published after his death +by the Rev. J. A. Russell, Archdeacon of Clogher, whose affection for +the memory of Mr. Wolfe prompted him to edit and give to the world the +fragmentary manuscripts, which are the only lasting and appreciable +records of the residence of a great spirit among us. But it may be asked +why, with such capabilities and powers as we have stated Mr. Wolfe to +possess, he did so little? and to that interrogation many replies may be +given. Mr. Wolfe died at the early age of 32, just when the powers are +in their full vigor—and in the later years of his life he had devoted +himself enthusiastically to the duties which devolved upon him as the +curate of a large and populous parish in the north of Ireland. Neither +of these reasons, however, is sufficient, for we know that the poetic +intellect is precocious, and brings forth fruit early. Shelley, who died +younger, left productions behind him, which will hand his name down to +the latest posterity; and the comparatively voluminous writings of the +witty dean, Sidney Smith, prove that a man may bear the weight of the +clerical office, and take an active part in politics in addition, and +yet leave enough behind him to keep his name green in the memory of the +world.</p> + +<p>The true reason why Mr. Wolfe did so little is no doubt to be found in +the character of his mind, and this is easily traceable, both in the +mild, child-like, almost simple, but intelligent expression of the +portrait which forms a frontispiece to the volume to which we have +adverted, and in most of the passages of his life. There was a want of +strong resolution, and an absence of concentration so marked, that he +seldom read completely through even those books which most deeply +interested him—there was a nervous susceptibility, and an openness to +new impressions, which caused him as it were to dwell upon every passage +he did read, to linger over its beauties, to start objections to its +theories, to argue them out, and to develop to its fullest every +suggestive thought; and there was in him a spirit of good-nature +trenching upon weak compliance, which put his time at the service of all +who chose to thrust employment upon him. Added to this, and arising out +of his want of steady resolution and earnest will, there was a habit of +putting off till to-morrow what should be done to-day, of which he was +himself fully sensible, and which he speaks of in one of his letters, as +that "fatal habit of delay and procrastination, for which I am so +pre-eminently distinguished."</p> + +<p>Charles Wolfe was the youngest son of Theobald Wolfe, Esq., of +Blackball, in the County of Kildare, Ireland, and was born in Dublin on +the 13th of December, 1791. The family was not unknown to fame, for the +celebrated General Wolfe, who fell at Quebec, was one of its members, +and Lord Kilwarden, an eminent man at the Irish bar, and who was +afterward elevated to the dignity of a judgeship, was another. At an +early age the father of our hero died, and the family removed to +England, where Charles Wolfe was sent to a school at Bath. Here, +however, at the age of ten years, his studies were interrupted by +failing health for a period of twelve months. After that, he was in the +establishment of Dr. Evans, of Salisbury; and in 1805 we find him at +Winchester school, under the superintendence of Mr. Richards, senior. +Here he became conspicuous for his classical knowledge, and his great +powers of versification, which gave promise of future excellence. What +appears more distinctly, though, than his mental ability at this age, +was the amiability of his disposition, and the tractability of his +nature. His kindness, cheerfulness, and open sympathy drew to him the +love of his fellows; and the esteem in which he was held by his masters +may be judged from the fact, that during the whole period of his +pupilage his conduct never drew down upon him punishment, or even a +reprimand. His tender and affectionate disposition endeared him to his +own family, with whom he was an especial favorite; and in connection +with this, we may mention one circumstance strongly indicative of his +yielding character. In spite of his gentle nature, he, animated no doubt +by that desire for glory so common to poetical minds, and which, looking +on the brighter side of war, hides its terrors and its horrors from the +young and ardent, wished to enter the army; but finding that the idea +gave pain to his mother, he immediately abandoned the notion, and +appears from thenceforth to have looked upon the clerical office as his +destined part in life. Strange transition, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_735" id="Page_735">[Pg 735]</a></span> the aspiration to carry +forth death and destruction to that of being the bearer of the glad +tidings of "peace on earth, and good-will toward men." The change, +however, is one which we believe to be not unfrequent. The same desire +for fame urges men to the bar, the pulpit, and the tented field, and but +for maternal love, Charles Wolfe, carrying with him that martial spirit +which now and then breaks out in his poetry, might have been like his +namesake, the General, a blood-stained hero, instead of a peaceful, +loving Irish curate. So powerful are circumstances to mould man's +fate—and Wolfe was of that mould on which circumstances act with +peculiar force. Had he been a soldier, it may be that the occupation +would have strengthened his <i>physique</i> at the expense of his mentality, +and that his bodily powers, unimpaired by sedentary habits, would have +carried him on to a good old age. There is food for reflection in that +idea, of how every course in life has its mixed good and evil.</p> + +<p>In 1808 the family returned to Ireland, and in 1809 Charles Wolfe became +a student of Dublin University. Here his classical learning and poetical +attainments soon made him conspicuous, and he carried off prizes from +the most distinguished of his competitors. The Historical Society of the +University, the object of which was the cultivation of history, poetry, +and oratory, also afforded him scope for the display of his talents, and +gave him opportunity to win several medals and prizes. Most of the few +poetical efforts of Mr. Wolfe were made at this period, including the +Death of Sir John Moore, and a beautiful song, connected with which is +an anecdote so strikingly characteristic of the nature of the author's +mind, and so indicative of his extreme sensibility, that it is worth +notice.</p> + +<p>He was particularly open to the influence of music, and one of his +favorite melodies was the popular Irish air "Gramachree," to which, at +the request of a friend, he wrote the following song:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If I had thought thou could'st have died,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I might not weep for thee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I forgot, when by thy side,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That thou could'st mortal be:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It never through my mind had pass'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The time would e'er be o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I on thee should look my last,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thou should'st smile no more!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And still upon that face I look,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And think 'twill smile again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still the thought I will not brook,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That I must look in vain!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when I speak thou dost not say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What thou ne'er left'st unsaid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now I feel, as well I may,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sweet Mary! thou art dead!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If thou would'st stay, e'en as thou art,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All cold, and all serene—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I still might press thy silent heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And where thy smiles have been!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While e'en thy chill, bleak corse I have,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou seemest still mine own;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But there I lay thee in thy grave—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And I am now alone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I do not think, where'er thou art,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thou hast forgotten me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I, perhaps, may soothe this heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In thinking too of thee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet there was round thee such a dawn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of light ne'er seen before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As fancy never could have drawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And never can restore."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His friends asked him whether he had any real incident in his mind which +suggested the stanzas; he said, "he had not; but that he had sung the +air over and over, till he burst into a flood of tears, in which mood he +composed the words."</p> + +<p>In the first year of Mr. Wolfe's attendance at the university, death +took his mother, to whom he was most affectionately attached—an event +which for some time interrupted his studies, and when he resumed them, +he did not manifest much inclination to apply himself to the exact +sciences. Here, however, that kindness of disposition which made him +more useful to others than to himself, and induced him to neglect his +own interests, and lend himself to those of his friends with an almost +fatal facility, came to his aid, and stood him in good stead. The desire +to assist a less gifted acquaintance impelled him to study more +strenuously than he would have done, for his own benefit, and had the +effect of so drawing out his own talents for scientific pursuits, that +at an examination upon the severer sciences he carried away the prize +from a host of talented candidates. Soon after, when his straitened +circumstances induced him to become a college tutor, he found the +benefit of his scientific acquirements; but in that capacity his +amiability of character was a disadvantage to him, for he was so anxious +for the progress of his pupils, and so prodigal of his time and labor +upon them, that he had but little opportunity for his own studies, or +for relaxation.</p> + +<p>After the usual period at the university, Mr. Wolfe took a scholarship, +with the highest honors, and went into residence, and in 1814 he took +the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His friends, seeing the talents he +evinced for scientific pursuits, urged him to read for a fellowship, and +for some time he prosecuted his studies with marked effect; but the want +of the power of continuous application, and intense concentration, made +him the sport of every trifling interruption, and the habit he had of +throwing aside books partly read, and dwelling upon striking passages +and disputable theories, impeded his progress. It is probable, however, +that with his great mental facilities, a less amount of exertion would +have sufficed than with less gifted students, and that despite his want +of industrial energy, and his unfavorable habits of mind, he would have +succeeded, but he was doomed to be disappointed in a manner which must +have had a very depressing effect on a mind constituted as his was. He +had formed an intimacy with a family in the vicinity of Dublin, and +while his visits to the beautiful scenery in which their dwelling was +situated, stimulated his poetical faculties, the charms of a daughter of +the house touched the sensitive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_736" id="Page_736">[Pg 736]</a></span> heart of the young scholar. The +attachment was mutual, and ripened apace, but his want of "prospects" +induced the prudent parents to break off the intimacy. The expectant +fellowship indeed would have afforded him sufficient means, but a +barbarous statute was in force which imposed celibacy upon the fellows, +and barred his hopes. If this disappointment had happened to a man of +strong resolute will it would, in all likelihood, after the first shock +was over, have thrown him back upon his studies more determinedly than +ever, but on a nature like that of our hero, it had the contrary effect. +It damped his ardor, he lost both his mistress and the chance of +preferment; and, turning to religion for consolation, he was ordained in +November, 1817, and shortly after was engaged in temporary duty in the +North of Ireland, and finally settled as curate of Donoughmore, where he +continued the greater part of the remainder of his life.</p> + +<p>For the occupation of the ministry, Mr. Wolfe, notwithstanding his +youthful military tendency and love of society, was eminently fitted. +His mind was naturally of a devotional cast, and fitted peculiarly for +his new position. He was thoroughly in earnest—the strong impulse +supplied by intense devotional feeling served to counteract his want of +application. The kindness of his heart, and the desire to serve others, +which was so prominent a feature of his mind, made him untiring; the +dislike of contest which marked him led him to dwell on the vital points +common to all religions, and avoid controversial ground. That want of +self-esteem, too, which at the university had ever made him distrustful +of his own powers, and kept him from claiming the stanzas on Sir John +Moore, when they were claimed by, or attributed to others, induced him +to converse familiarly with the peasant, and to submit to contradiction +and even insult from those who, both socially and intellectually, were +inferior to himself. Add to this, that he thoroughly understood the +Irish character, which had many points in common with his own impulsive +versatile nature, and it may be conceived how influential he was in his +remote curacy. Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, all gathered round him +and often filled his little church, listening to his concise, +plain-spoken sermons, which far oftener treated of the hopes and mercies +than the terrors and punishments of Christianity, and in his parish +school the children of all denominations were taught together. This, +however, was not to last long. He had applied himself too assiduously to +his task for his physical strength. Oppressed with a sense of the +responsibility of his position he had, upon entering upon the ministry, +given up all thoughts of literature. He lived in an old, half-furnished +house, slept in a damp room, and traversed bog and moor on foot in all +weathers to visit his flock. Under these labors the latent tendency of +his constitution developed itself, his cough became day by day more +violent, and in 1821 it was evident that consumption had laid its hand +upon its prey. Still he was unwilling to retire from his ministry, and +it was only in compliance with the reiterated entreaties of his friends +that he at last proceeded to Scotland to consult a celebrated physician. +His return to his parish after that short absence proved the estimation +in which he was held among the people. As he rode by the cabins of the +peasantry, the occupants rushed out, and, with all the impulsive +devotion of the Irish toward those whom they regard as benefactors, fell +upon their knees, and invoked blessings upon him, and pursued the +carriage in which he rode, with fervent prayers. His health, however, +still continued to fail, and his friends at length persuaded him to +remove to Dublin, where he continued to preach occasionally, till his +physician forbade such effort, and to use his own words, "stripped him +of his gown." Toward the winter of 1821, it was thought advisable to +remove him to Bordeaux for a time, but adverse gales twice drove him +back to Holyhead, and he suffered so much from fatigue and sea-sickness +that it appeared best to locate him near Exeter, where he staid till the +spring of 1822, in the house of a clergyman, whose practice among the +poor had qualified him to act the part of a physician to the invalid. In +the spring, apparently somewhat improved, he returned to Dublin, and in +the summer made a short voyage to Bordeaux, where he staid about a +month. He then again returned to Dublin, and from that time steadily +declined. In November, 1822, accompanied by a relative and the Rev. Mr. +Russell, his biographer, he removed to the Cove of Cork, but all efforts +to recruit his failing strength were unavailing, and he expired there on +the 21st of February, 1823, in the 32d year of his age. About a +twelvemonth previous to his death, he had been preferred to the +important curacy of Armagh, but he never lived to visit his new parish. +All the letters written during his protracted illness prove his +amiability, and the patience with which he suffered, as well as the +ardor of the Christian faith on which he so confidently leaned, and few +men were more sincerely mourned by a large number of devoted and +admiring friends.</p> + +<p>Charles Wolfe was one of those characters eminently fitted to make good +men, but destitute of some of the qualities for what the world calls +greatness. He was a high type of that class who form the cynosure of +their own peculiar circles, where they are admired as much for the +kindliness of their nature as the extent of their attainments, and the +power and versatility of their talents. But wanting the self-esteem, the +unwavering self-confidence, the perseverance and unshaken resolution +which go to make up greatness, he possessed in an eminent degree those +kindly sympathies, tender feelings, and that earnest devotion to the +interests and wishes of his fellows, which among friends and intimates +make goodness so much more lovable than greatness.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_737" id="Page_737">[Pg 737]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="MAURICE_TIERNAY_THE_SOLDIER_OF_FORTUNE" id="MAURICE_TIERNAY_THE_SOLDIER_OF_FORTUNE"></a>MAURICE TIERNAY, THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.</h2> + +<h4>(<i>Continued from Page 478.</i>)</h4> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXVI.</h3> + +<h4>A REMNANT OF "FONTENOY."</h4> + +<p>There was no resisting the inquisitive curiosity of my companion. The +short, dry cough, the little husky "ay," that sounded like any thing +rather than assent, which followed on my replies to his questions, and, +more than all, the keen, oblique glances of his shrewd gray eyes, told +me that I had utterly failed in all my attempts at mystification, and +that he read me through and through.</p> + +<p>"And so," said he, at last, after a somewhat lengthy narrative of my +shipwreck, "and so the Flemish sailors wear spurs?"</p> + +<p>"Spurs! of course not; why should they?" asked I, in some astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Well, but don't they?" asked he again.</p> + +<p>"No such thing; it would be absurd to suppose it."</p> + +<p>"So I thought," rejoined he; "and when I looked at yer 'honor's' boots +(it was the first time he had addressed me by this title of deference), +and saw the marks on the heel for spurs, I soon knew how much of a +sailor you were."</p> + +<p>"And if not a sailor, what am I, then?" asked I; for, in the loneliness +of the mountain region where we walked, I could afford to throw off my +disguise without risk.</p> + +<p>"Ye'r a French officer of dragoons, and God bless ye; but ye'r young to +be at the trade. Arn't I right now?"</p> + +<p>"Not very far from it certainly, for I am a lieutenant of hussars," said +I, with a little of that pride which we of the loose pelisse always feel +on the mention of our corps.</p> + +<p>"I knew it well all along," said he, coolly; "the way you stood in the +room, your step as you walked, and, above all, how ye believed me when I +spoke of the spring tides, and the moon only in her second quarter, I +saw you never was a sailor anyhow. And so I set a-thinking what you +were. You were too silent for a peddler, and your hands were too white +to be in the smuggling trade; but when I saw your boots, I had the +secret at once, and knew ye were one of the French army that landed the +other day at Killala."</p> + +<p>"It was stupid enough of me not to have remembered the boots!" said I, +laughing.</p> + +<p>"Arrah, what use would it be?" replied he; "sure ye'r too straight in +the back, and your walk is too reg'lar, and your toes turns in too much, +for a sailor; the very way you hould a switch in your hand would betray +you!"</p> + +<p>"So it seems; then I must try some other disguise," said I, "if I'm to +keep company with people as shrewd as you are."</p> + +<p>"You needn't," said he, shaking his head, doubtfully; "any that wants to +betray ye, wouldn't find it hard."</p> + +<p>I was not much flattered by the depreciating tone in which he dismissed +my efforts at personation, and walked on for some time without +speaking.</p> + +<p>"Yez came too late, four months too late," said he, with a sorrowful +gesture of the hands. "When the Wexford boys was up, and the Kildare +chaps, and plenty more ready to come in from the North, then, indeed, a +few thousand French down here in the West would have made a differ; but +what's the good in it now? The best men we had are hanged, or in jail; +some are frightened; more are traitors! 'Tis too late—too late!"</p> + +<p>"But not too late for a large force, landing in the North, to rouse the +island to another effort for liberty."</p> + +<p>"Who would be the gin'ral?" asked he, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Napper Tandy, your own countryman," replied I, proudly.</p> + +<p>"I wish ye luck of him!" said he, with a bitter laugh; "'tis more like +mocking us than any thing else the French does be, with the chaps they +sent here to be gin'rals. Sure it isn't Napper Tandy, nor a set of young +lawyers, like Tone and the rest of them, we wanted. It was men that knew +how to drill and manage troops—fellows that was used to fightin'; so +that when they said a thing, we might believe that they understhood it, +at laste. I'm ould enough to remimber the 'Wild Geese,' as they used to +call them—the fellows that ran away from this to take sarvice in +France; and I remimber, too, the sort of men the French were that came +over to inspect them—soldiers, real soldiers, every inch of them: and a +fine sarvice it was. Volle-face!" cried he, holding himself erect, and +shouldering his stick like a musket; "marche! Ha, ha! ye didn't think +<i>that</i> was in me; but I was at the thrade long before you were born."</p> + +<p>"How is this," said I, in amazement, "you were not in the French army?"</p> + +<p>"Wasn't I, though? maybe I didn't get that stick there." And he bared +his breast as he spoke, to show the cicatrix of an old flesh-wound from +a Highlander's bayonet. "I was at Fontenoy!"</p> + +<p>The last few words he uttered, with a triumphant pride, that I shall +never forget. As for me, the mere name was magical. "Fontenoy" was like +one of those great words which light up a whole page of history; and it +almost seemed impossible that I should see before me a soldier of that +glorious battle.</p> + +<p>"Ay, faith!" he added, "'tis more than fifty, 'tis nigh sixty years now +since that, and I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was in the +regiment 'Tourville;' I was recruited for the 'Wellon,' but they +scattered us about among the other corps afterward, because we used now +and then to be fighting and quarrelin' among one an' other. Well, it was +the Wellons that gained the battle; for after the English was in the +village of Fontenoy, and the French was falling back upon the heights +near the wood—arrah, what's the name of the wood?—sure I'll forget my +own name next. Ay, to be sure,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_738" id="Page_738">[Pg 738]</a></span> Verzon—the 'wood of Verzon.' Major +Jodillon—that's what the French called him, but his name was Joe +Wellon—turned an eight-pounder short round into a little yard of a +farm-house, and, making a breach for the gun, he opened a dreadful fire +on the English column. It was loaded with grape, and at half-musket +range, so you may think what a peppering they got. At last the column +halted, and lay down; and Joe seen an officer ride off to the rear, to +bring up artillery to silence our guns. A few minutes more, and it would +be all over with us. So Joe shouts out as loud as he could, 'Cavalry +there! tell off by threes, and prepare to charge!' I needn't tell you +that the devil a horse nor a rider was within a mile of us at the time; +but the English didn't know that; and, hearin' the order, up they jumps, +and we heerd the word passin', 'Prepare to receive cavalry!' They formed +square at once, and the same minute we plumped into them with such a +charge as tore a lane right through the middle of them. Before they +could recover, we opened a platoon fire on their flank; they staggered, +broke, and at last fell back in disorder upon Aeth, with the whole of +the French army after them. Such firin'—grape, round-shot, and +musketry—I never seed afore, and we all shouting like divils, for it +was more like a hunt nor any thing else; for ye see the Dutch never came +up, but left the English to do all the work themselves, and that's the +reason they couldn't form, for they had no supportin' colum'.</p> + +<p>"It was then I got that stick of the bayonet, for there was such runnin' +that we only thought of pelting after them as hard as we could; but ye +see, there's nothin' so treacherous as a Highlander. I was just behind +one, and had my sword-point between his blade-hones, ready to run him +through, when he turned short about, and run his bayonet into me under +the short ribs, and that was all I saw of the battle; for I bled till I +fainted, and never knew more of what happened. 'Tisn't by way of making +little of Frenchmen I say it, for I sarved too long wid them for +<i>that</i>—but sorra taste of that victory ever they'd see if it wasn't for +the Wellons, and Major Joe that commanded them! The English knows it +well, too! Maybe they don't do us many a spite for it to this very day!"</p> + +<p>"And what became of you after that?"</p> + +<p>"The same summer I came over to Scotland with the young Prince Charles, +and was at the battle of Preston-pans afterward; and, what's worse, I +was at Culloden! Oh, that was the terrible day! We were dead bate before +we began the battle. We were on the march from one o'clock the night +before, under the most dreadful rain ever ye seen! We lost our way +twice; and, after four hours of hard marching, we found ourselves +opposite a mill-dam we crossed early that same morning; for the guides +led us all astray! Then came ordhers to wheel about face, and go back +again; and back we went, cursing the blaguards that deceived us, and +almost faintin' with hunger. Some of us had nothing to eat for two +days, and the Prince, I seen myself, had only a brown bannock to a +wooden measure of whiskey for his own breakfast. Well, it's no use +talking, we were bate, and we retreated to Inverness that night, and +next morning we surrendered and laid down our arms—that is, the +'Regiment du Tournay,' and the 'Voltigeurs de Metz,' the corps I was in +myself."</p> + +<p>"And did you return to France?"</p> + +<p>"No; I made my way back to Ireland, and after loiterin' about home some +time, and not liking the ways of turning to work again, I took sarvice +with one Mister Brooke, of Castle Brooke, in Fermanagh, a young man that +was just come of age, and as great a devil, God forgive me, as ever was +spawned. He was a Protestant, but he didn't care much about one side or +the other, but only wanted divarsion and his own fun out of the world; +and faix he took it, too! He had plenty of money, was a fine man to look +at, and had courage to face a lion!</p> + +<p>"The first place we went to was Aix-la-Chapelle, for Mr. Brooke was +named something—I forget what—to Lord Sandwich, that was going there +as an embassador. It was a grand life there while it lasted. Such +liveries, such coaches, such elegant dinners every day, I never saw even +in Paris. But my master was soon sent away for a piece of wildness he +did. There was an ould Austrian there—a Count Riedensegg was his +name—and he was always plottin' and schamin' with this, that, and the +other; buyin' up the sacrets of others, and gettin' at their sacret +papers one way or the other; and at last he begins to thry the same game +with us; and as he saw that Mr. Brooke was very fond of high play, and +would bet any thing one offered him, the ould Count sends for a great +gambler from Vienna, the greatest villain, they say, that ever touched a +card. Ye may have heerd of him, tho' 'twas long ago that he lived, for +he was well known in them times. He was the Baron von Breckendorf, and a +great friend afterward of the Prince Ragint and all the other blaguards +in London.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, the baron arrives in great state, with dispatches, they +said, but sorrow other dispatch he carried nor some packs of marked +cards, and a dice-box that could throw sixes whenever ye wanted; and he +puts up at the Grand Hotel, with all his servants in fine liveries, and +as much state as a prince. That very day Mr. Brooke dined with the +count, and in the evening himself and the baron sits down to the cards; +and, pretending to be only playin' for silver, they were betting a +hundred guineas on every game.</p> + +<p>"I always heerd that my master was cute with the cards, and that few was +equal to him in any game with pasteboard or ivory; but, be my +conscience, he met his match now, for if it was ould Nick was playin' he +couldn't do the thrick nater nor the baron. He made every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_739" id="Page_739">[Pg 739]</a></span> thing come up +just like magic: if he wanted a seven of diamonds, or an ace of spades, +or the knave of clubs, there it was for you.</p> + +<p>"Most gentlemen would have lost temper at seein' the luck so dead agin' +them, and every thing goin' so bad, but my master only smiled, and kept +muttering to himself, 'Faix, it's beautiful; by my conscience it is +elegant; I never saw any body could do it like that.' At last the baron +stops and asks, 'What is it he's saying to himself?' 'I'll tell you +by-and-by,' says my master, 'when we're done playing;' and so on they +went, betting higher and higher, till at last the stakes wasn't very far +from a thousand pounds on a single card. At the end, Mr. Brooke lost +every thing, and in the last game, by way of generosity, the baron says +to him, 'Double or quit?' and he tuk it.</p> + +<p>"This time luck stood to my master, and he turned the queen of hearts; +and as there was only one card could beat him, the game was all as one +as his own. The baron takes up the pack, and begins to deal, 'Wait,' +says my master, leaning over the table, and talking in a whisper; +'wait,' says he, 'what are ye doin' there wid your thumb?' for sure +enough he had his thumb dug hard into the middle of the pack.</p> + +<p>"'Do you mane to insult me,' says the baron, getting mighty red, and +throwing down the cards on the table, 'Is that what you're at?'</p> + +<p>"'Go on with the deal,' says Mr. Brooke, quietly; 'but listen to me,' +and here he dropped his voice to a whisper, 'as sure as you turn the +king of hearts I'll send a bullet through your skull! Go on now, and +don't rise from that seat till you've finished the game.' Faix, he just +did as he was bid; he turned a little two or three of diamonds, and +gettin' up from the table, he left the room, and the next morning there +was no more seen of him in Aix-la-Chapelle. But that wasn't the end of +it, for scarce was the baron two posts on his journey, when my master +sends in his name, and says he wants to speak to Count Riedensegg. There +was a long time, and a great debatin', I believe, whether they'd let him +in or not; for the count couldn't make if it was mischief he was after; +but at last he was ushered into the bedroom where the other was in bed.</p> + +<p>"'Count,' says he, after he fastened the door, and saw that they was +alone, 'Count, you tried a dirty thrick with that dirty spalpeen of a +baron—an ould blaguard that's as well known as Freney, the robber—but +I forgive you for it all, for you did it in the way of business. I know +well what you was afther; you wanted a peep at our dispatches—there, ye +needn't look cross and angry—why wouldn't ye do it, just as the baron +always took a sly glance at my cards before he played his own. Well, +now, I'm just in the humor to sarve you. They're not trating me as they +ought here, and I'm going away, and if you'll give me a few letthers to +some of the pretty women in Vienna, Kateuka Batthyani, and Amalia +Gradoffsky, and one or two men in the best set, I'll send you in return +something will surprise you.'</p> + +<p>"It was after a long time and great batin' about the bush, that the ould +count came in; but the sight of a sacret cipher did the business, and he +consented.</p> + +<p>"'There it is,' says Mr. Brooke, 'there's the whole key to our +correspondence, study it well, and I'll bring you a sacret dispatch in +the evening—something that will surprise you.'</p> + +<p>"'Ye will—will ye?' says the count.</p> + +<p>"'On the honor of an Irish gentleman, I will,' says Mr. Brooke.</p> + +<p>"The count sits down on the spot and writes the letters to all the +princesses and countesses in Vienna, saying that Mr. Brooke was the +elegantest, and politest, and most trusty young gentleman ever he met; +and telling them to treat him with every consideration.</p> + +<p>"'There will be another account of me,' says the master to me, 'by the +post; but I'll travel faster, and give me a fair start, and I ask no +more.'</p> + +<p>"And he was as good as his word, for he started that evening for Vienna, +without lave or license, and that's the way he got dismissed from his +situation."</p> + +<p>"And did he break his promise to the count, or did he really send him +any intelligence?"</p> + +<p>"He kept his word like a gentleman; he promised him something that would +surprise him, and so he did. He sent him the weddin' of Ballyporeen in +cipher. It took a week to make out, and I suppose they've never got to +the right understandin' it yet."</p> + +<p>"I'm curious to hear how he was received in Vienna after this," said I. +"I suppose you accompanied him to that city."</p> + +<p>"Troth I did, and a short life we led there; but here we are now, at the +end of our journey. That's Father Doogan's down there, that small, low, +thatched house in the hollow."</p> + +<p>"A lonely spot, too. I don't see another near it for miles on any side."</p> + +<p>"Nor is there. His chapel is at Murrah, about three miles off. My eyes +isn't over good; but I don't think there's any smoke coming out of the +chimley."</p> + +<p>"You are right—there is not."</p> + +<p>"He's not at home, then, and that's a bad job for us, for there's not +another place to stop the night in."</p> + +<p>"But there will be surely some one in the house."</p> + +<p>"Most likely not; 'tis a brat of a boy from Murrah does be with him when +he's at home, and I'm sure he's not there now."</p> + +<p>This reply was not very cheering, nor was the prospect itself much +brighter. The solitary cabin, to which we were approaching, stood in a +rugged glen, the sides of which were covered with a low furze, +intermixed here and there with the scrub of what once had been an oak +forest. A brown, mournful tint was over every thing—sky<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_740" id="Page_740">[Pg 740]</a></span> and landscape +alike; and even the little stream of clear water that wound its twining +course along, took the same color from the gravelly bed it flowed over. +Not a cow nor sheep was to be seen, nor even a bird; all was silent and +still.</p> + +<p>"There's few would like to pass their lives down there, then!" said my +companion, as if speaking to himself.</p> + +<p>"I suppose the priest, like a soldier, has no choice in these matters."</p> + +<p>"Sometimes he has, though. Father Doogan might have had the pick of the +county, they say; but he chose this little quiet spot here. He's a friar +of some ordher abroad, and when he came over, two or three years ago, he +could only spake a little Irish, and, I believe, less English; but there +wasn't his equal, for other tongues, in all Europe. They wanted him to +stop and be the head of a college somewhere in Spain, but he wouldn't. +'There was work to do in Ireland,' he said, and there he'd go, and to +the wildest and laste civilized bit of it besides; and ye see that he +was not far out in his choice when he took Murrah."</p> + +<p>"Is he much liked here by the people?"</p> + +<p>"They'd worship him, if he'd let them, that's what it is; for if he has +more larnin' and knowledge in his head than ever a bishop in Ireland, +there's not a child in the barony his equal for simplicity. He that +knows the names of the stars, and what they do be doing, and where the +world's going, and what's comin' afther her, hasn't a thought for the +wickedness of this life, no more than a sucking infant! He could tell +you every crop to put in your ground from this to the day of judgment, +and I don't think he'd know which end of the spade goes into the +ground."</p> + +<p>While we were thus talking, we reached the door, which, as well as the +windows, was closely barred and fastened. The great padlock, however, on +the former, with characteristic acuteness, was locked without being +hasped, so that, in a few seconds, my old guide had undone all the +fastenings, and we found ourselves under shelter.</p> + +<p>A roomy kitchen, with a few cooking utensils, formed the entrance hall; +and as a small supply of turf stood in one corner, my companion at once +proceeded to make a fire, congratulating me as he went on with the fact +of our being housed, for a long-threatening thunder storm had already +burst, and the rain was swooping along in torrents.</p> + +<p>While he was thus busied I took a ramble through the little cabin, +curious to see something of the "interior" of one whose life had already +interested me. There were but two small chambers, one at either side of +the kitchen. The first I entered was a bedroom, the only furniture being +a common bed, or a tressel like that of an hospital, a little colored +print of St. Michael adorning the wall overhead. The bed-covering was +cleanly, but patched in many places, and bespeaking much poverty, and +the black "soutane" of silk that hung against the wall seemed to show +long years of service. The few articles of any pretension to comfort +were found in the sitting-room, where a small book-shelf with some +well-thumbed volumes, and a writing-table covered with papers, maps, and +a few pencil-drawings, appeared. All seemed as if he had just quitted +the spot a few minutes before; the pencil lay across a half-finished +sketch; two or three wild plants were laid within the leaves of a little +book on botany; and a chess problem, with an open book beside it, still +waited for solution on a little board, whose workmanship clearly enough +betrayed it to be by his own hands.</p> + +<p>I inspected every thing with an interest inspired by all I had been +hearing of the poor priest, and turned over the little volumes of his +humble library to trace, if I might, some clew to his habits in his +readings. They were all, however, of one cast and character—religious +tracts and offices, covered with annotations and remarks, and showing, +by many signs the most careful and frequent perusal. It was easy to see +that his taste for drawing or for chess were the only dissipations he +permitted himself to indulge. What a strange life of privation, thought +I, alone and companionless as he must be! and while speculating on the +sense of duty which impelled such a man to accept a post so humble and +unpromising, I perceived that on the wall right opposite to me there +hung a picture, covered by a little curtain of green silk.</p> + +<p>Curious to behold the saintly effigy so carefully enshrined, I drew +aside the curtain, and what was my astonishment to find a little colored +sketch of a boy about twelve years old, dressed in the tawdry and +much-worn uniform of a drummer. I started. Something flashed suddenly +across my mind, that the features, the dress, the air, were not unknown +to me. Was I awake, or were my senses misleading me? I took it down and +held it to the light, and as well as my trembling hands permitted, I +spelled out, at the foot of the drawing, the words "Le Petit Maurice, as +I saw him last." Yes: it was my own portrait, and the words were in the +writing of my dearest friend in the world, the Père Michael. Scarce +knowing what I did, I ransacked books and papers on every side, to +confirm my suspicions, and although his name was nowhere to be found, I +had no difficulty in recognizing his hand, now so forcibly recalled to +my memory.</p> + +<p>Hastening into the kitchen, I told my guide, that I must set out to +Murrah at once, that it was above all important that I should see the +priest immediately. It was in vain that he told me he was unequal to the +fatigue of going further, that the storm was increasing, the mountain +torrents were swelling to a formidable size, that the path could not be +discovered after dark; I could not brook the thought of delay, and would +not listen to the detail of difficulties. "I must see him and I will," +were my answers to every obstacle. If I were resolved on one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_741" id="Page_741">[Pg 741]</a></span> side, <i>he</i> +was no less obstinate on the other; and after explaining with patience +all the dangers and hazards of the attempt, and still finding me +unconvinced, he boldly declared that I might go alone, if I would, but +that he would not leave the shelter of a roof, such a night, for any +one.</p> + +<p>There was nothing in the shape of argument I did not essay. I tried +bribery, I tried menace, flattery, intimidation, all—and all with the +like result. "Wherever he is to-night, he'll not leave it, that's +certain," was the only satisfaction he would vouchsafe, and I retired +beaten from the contest, and disheartened. Twice I left the cottage, +resolved to go alone and unaccompanied, but the utter darkness of the +night, the torrents of rain that beat against my face, soon showed me +the impracticability of the attempt, and I retraced my steps +crest-fallen and discomfited. The most intense curiosity to know how and +by what chances he had come to Ireland mingled with my ardent desire to +meet him. What stores of reminiscence had we to interchange! Nor was it +without pride that I bethought me of the position I then held—an +officer of a Hussar regiment, a soldier of more than one campaign, and +high on the list for promotion. If I hoped, too, that many of the good +father's prejudices against the career I followed would give way to the +records of my own past life, I also felt how, in various respects, I had +myself conformed to many of his notions. We should be dearer, closer +friends than ever. This I knew and was sure of.</p> + +<p>I never slept the whole night through; tired and weary as the day's +journey had left me, excitement was still too strong for repose, and I +walked up and down, lay for half an hour on my bed, rose to look out, +and peer for coming dawn! Never did hours lag so lazily. The darkness +seemed to last for an eternity, and when at last day did break, it was +through the lowering gloom of skies still charged with rain, and an +atmosphere loaded with vapor.</p> + +<p>"This is a day for the chimney corner, and thankful to have it we ought +to be," said my old guide, as he replenished the turf fire, at which he +was preparing our breakfast. "Father Doogan will be home here afore +night, I'm sure, and as we have nothing better to do, I'll tell you some +of our old adventures when I lived with Mr. Brooke. 'Twill sarve to pass +the time, any way."</p> + +<p>"I'm off to Murrah, as soon as I have eaten something," replied I.</p> + +<p>"'Tis little you know what a road it is," said he, smiling dubiously. +"'Tis four mountain rivers you'd have to cross, two of them, at least, +deeper than your head, and there's the pass of Barnascorny, where you'd +have to turn the side of a mountain, with a precipice hundreds of feet +below you, and a wind blowing that would wreck a seventy-four! There's +never a man in the barony would venture over the same path, with a storm +ragin' from the nor'west."</p> + +<p>"I never heard of a man being blown away off a mountain," said I, +laughing contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"Arrah, didn't ye then? then maybe ye never tried in parts where the +heaviest plows and harrows that can be laid in the thatch of a cabin are +flung here and there, like straws, and the strongest timbers torn out of +the walls, and scattered for miles along the coast, like the spars of a +shipwreck."</p> + +<p>"But so long as a man has hands to grip with."</p> + +<p>"How ye talk; sure when the wind can tear the strongest trees up by the +roots; when it rolls big rocks fifty and a hundred feet out of their +place; when the very shingle on the mountain side is flyin' about like +dust and sand, where would your grip be? It is not only on the mountains +either, but down in the plains, ay, even in the narrowest glens, that +the cattle lies down under shelter of the rocks; and many's the time a +sheep, or even a heifer, is swept away off the cliffs into the sea."</p> + +<p>With many an anecdote of storm and hurricane he seasoned our little meal +of potatoes. Some curious enough, as illustrating the precautionary +habits of a peasantry, who, on land, experience many of the vicissitudes +supposed peculiar to the sea; others too miraculous for easy credence, +but yet vouched for by him with every affirmative of truth. He displayed +all his powers of agreeability and amusement, but his tales fell on +unwilling ears, and when our meal was over I started up and began to +prepare for the road.</p> + +<p>"So you will go, will you?" said he, peevishly. "'Tis in your country to +be obstinate, so I'll say nothing more; but maybe 'tis only into +throubles you'd be running after all!"</p> + +<p>"I'm determined on it," said I, "and I only ask you to tell me what road +to take."</p> + +<p>"There is only one, so there is no mistakin' it; keep to the sheep path, +and never leave it except at the torrents; you must pass them how ye +can, and when ye come to four big rocks in the plain leave them to your +left, and keep the side of the mountain for two miles, 'till ye see the +smoke of the village underneath you. Murrah is a small place, and ye'll +have to look out sharp or maybe ye'll miss it."</p> + +<p>"That's enough," said I, putting some silver in his hand as I pressed +it. "We'll probably meet no more; good-by, and many thanks for your +pleasant company."</p> + +<p>"No, we're not like to meet again," said he, thoughtfully, "and that's +the reason I'd like to give you a bit of advice. Hear me now," said he, +drawing closer and talking in a whisper; "you can't go far in this +country without being known; 'tisn't your looks alone, but your voice, +and your tongue, will show what ye are. Get away out of it as fast as +you can! there's thraitors in every cause, and there's chaps in Ireland +would rather make money as informers than earn it by honest industry! +Get over to the Scotch islands; get to Isla or Barra; get any where out +of this for the time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_742" id="Page_742">[Pg 742]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Thanks for the counsel," said I, somewhat coldly, "I'll have time to +think over it as I go along," and with these words I set forth on my +journey.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXVII.</h3> + +<h4>"THE CRANAGH."</h4> + +<p>I will not weary my reader with a narrative of my mountain walk, nor the +dangers and difficulties which beset me on that day of storm and +hurricane. Few as were the miles to travel, what with accidents, +mistakes of the path, and the halts to take shelter, I only reached +Murrah as the day was declining.</p> + +<p>The little village, which consisted of some twenty cabins, occupied a +narrow gorge between two mountains, and presented an aspect of greater +misery than I had ever witnessed before, not affording even the humblest +specimen of a house of entertainment. From some peasants that were +lounging in the street I learned that "Father Doogan" had passed through +two days before in company with a naval officer, whom they believed to +be French. At least, "he came from one of the ships in the Lough, and +could speak no English." Since that the priest had not returned, and +many thought that he had gone away forever. This story, varied in a few +unimportant particulars, I heard from several; and also learned that a +squadron of several sail had, for three or four days, been lying at the +entrance of Lough Swilly, with, it was said, large reinforcements for +the "army of independence." There was then no time to be lost: here was +the very force which I had been sent to communicate with; there were the +troops that should at that moment be disembarking. The success of my +mission might all depend now on a little extra exertion, and so I at +once engaged a guide to conduct me to the coast, and having fortified +myself with a glass of mountain whiskey, I felt ready for the road. My +guide could only speak a very little English; so that our way was passed +in almost unbroken silence; and, as for security, he followed the least +frequented paths, we scarcely met a living creature as we went. It was +with a strange sense of half pride, half despondency, that I bethought +me of my own position there—a Frenchman, alone, and separated from his +countrymen—in a wild mountain region of Ireland, carrying about him +documents that, if detected, might peril his life; involved in a cause +that had for its object the independence of a nation; and that against +the power of the mightiest kingdom in Europe. An hour earlier or later, +an accident by the way, a swollen torrent, a chance impediment of any +kind that should delay me—and what a change might that produce in the +whole destiny of the world. The dispatches I carried conveyed +instructions the most precise and accurate—the places for combined +action of the two armies—information as to the actual state of parties, +and the condition of the native forces, was contained in them. All that +could instruct the newly-come generals, or encourage them to decisive +measures were there; and, yet, on what narrow contingencies did their +safe arrival depend! It was thus, in exaggerating to myself the part I +played—in elevating my humble position into all the importance of a +high trust—that I sustained my drooping spirits, and acquired energy to +carry me through fatigue and exhaustion. During that night, and the +greater part of the following day, we walked on, almost without halt, +scarcely eating, and, except by an occasional glass of whisky, totally +unrefreshed; and I am free to own, that my poor guide—a bare-legged +youth of about seventeen, without any of those high-sustaining illusions +which stirred within my heart—suffered far less either from hunger or +weariness than <i>I</i> did. So much for motives. A shilling or two were +sufficient to equalize the balance against all the weight of my heroism +and patriotic ardor together!</p> + +<p>A bright sun, and a sharp wind from the north, had succeeded to the +lowering sky and heavy atmosphere of the morning, and we traveled along +with light hearts and brisk steps, breasting the side of a deep ascent, +from the summit of which my guide told me, I should behold the sea—the +sea, not only the great plain on which I expected to see our armament, +but the link which bound me to my country! Suddenly, just as I turned +the angle of a cliff, it burst upon my sight—one vast mirror of golden +splendor—appearing almost at my feet! In the yellow gleams of a setting +sun, long columns of azure-colored light streaked its calm surface, and +tinged the atmosphere with a warm and rosy hue. While I was lost in +admiration of the picture, I heard the sound of voices close beneath me, +and, on looking down, saw two figures who, with telescopes in hand, were +steadily gazing on a little bay that extended toward the west.</p> + +<p>At first, my attention was more occupied by the strangers than by the +object of their curiosity, and I remarked that they were dressed and +equipped like sportsmen, their guns and game-bags lying against the rock +behind them.</p> + +<p>"Do you still think that they are hovering about the coast, Tom?" said +the elder of the two, "or are you not convinced, at last, that I am +right?"</p> + +<p>"I believe you are," replied the other; "but it certainly did not look +like it yesterday evening, with their boats rowing ashore every half +hour, signals flying, and blue lights burning; all seemed to threaten a +landing."</p> + +<p>"If they ever thought of it, they soon changed their minds," said the +former. "The defeat of their comrades in the west, and the apathy of the +peasantry here, would have cooled down warmer ardor than theirs. There +they go, Tom. I only hope that they'll fall in with Warren's squadron, +and French insolence receive at sea the lesson we failed to give them on +land."</p> + +<p>"Not so," rejoined the younger; "Humbert's capitulation, and the total +break-up of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_743" id="Page_743">[Pg 743]</a></span> the expedition ought to satisfy even your patriotism."</p> + +<p>"It fell far short of it, then!" cried the other. "I'd never have +treated those fellows other than as bandits and freebooters. I'd have +hanged them as highwaymen. There was less war than rapine; but what +could you expect? I have been assured that Humbert's force consisted of +little other than liberated felons and galley slaves—the refuse of the +worst population of Europe!"</p> + +<p>Distracted with the terrible tidings I had overheard—overwhelmed with +the sight of the ships, now glistening like bright specks on the verge +of the horizon, I forgot my own position—my safety—every thing but the +insult thus cast upon my gallant comrades.</p> + +<p>"Whoever said so was a liar, and a base coward, to boot!" cried I, +springing down from the height and confronting them both where they +stood. They started back, and, seizing their guns, assumed an attitude +of defense, and then, quickly perceiving that I was alone—for the boy +had taken to flight as fast as he could—they stood regarding me with +faces of intense astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, still boiling with passion, "you are two to one, on your +own soil besides, the odds you are best used to; and yet I repeat it, +that he who asperses the character of General Humbert's force is a +liar."</p> + +<p>"He's French."</p> + +<p>"No, he's Irish," muttered the elder. "What signifies my country, sirs," +cried I passionately, "if I demand retraction for a falsehood."</p> + +<p>"It signifies more than you think of, young man," said the elder, +calmly, and without evincing even the slightest irritation in his +manner. "If you be a Frenchman born, the lenity of our government +accords you the privilege of a prisoner of war. If you be only French by +adoption, and a uniform, a harsher destiny awaits you."</p> + +<p>"And who says I am a prisoner yet?" asked I, drawing myself up, and +staring them steadily in the face.</p> + +<p>"We should be worse men, and poorer patriots, than you give us credit +for, or we should be able to make you so," said he quietly, "but this is +no case for ill-temper on either side. The expedition has failed. Well, +if you will not believe <i>me</i>, read that. There, in that paper, you will +see the official account of General Humbert's surrender at Boyle. The +news is already over the length and breadth of the island; even if you +only landed last night, I can not conceive how you should be ignorant of +it!" I covered my face with my hands to hide my emotion; and he went on: +"If you be French, you have only to claim and prove your nationality, +and you partake the fortunes of your countrymen."</p> + +<p>"And if he be not," whispered the other, in a voice which, although low, +I could still detect, "why should <i>we</i>, give him up?"</p> + +<p>"Hush, Tom, be quiet," replied the elder, "let him plead for himself."</p> + +<p>"Let me see the newspaper," said I, endeavoring to seem calm and +collected; and taking it at the place he pointed out, I read the heading +in capitals, "CAPITULATION OF GENERAL HUMBERT AND HIS WHOLE FORCE." I +could see no more. I could not trace the details of so horrible a +disaster, nor did I ask to know by what means it occurred. My attitude +and air of apparent occupation, however, deceived the other; and the +elder, supposing that I was engaged in considering the paragraph, said, +"You'll see the government proclamation on the other side, a general +amnesty to all under the rank of officers in the rebel army, who give up +their arms within six days. The French to be treated as prisoners of +war."</p> + +<p>"Is he too late to regain the fleet," whispered the younger.</p> + +<p>"Of course he is. They are already hull down; besides, who's to assist +his escape, Tom? You forget the position he stands in."</p> + +<p>"But I do not forget it," answered I, "and you need not be afraid that I +will seek to compromise you, gentlemen. Tell me where to find the +nearest justice of the peace, and I will go and surrender myself."</p> + +<p>"It is your wisest and best policy," said the elder; "I am not in the +commission, but a neighbor of mine is, and lives a few miles off, and if +you like we'll accompany you to his house."</p> + +<p>I accepted the offer, and soon found myself descending the steep path of +the mountain in perfect good-fellowship with the two strangers. It is +likely enough, that if they had taken any peculiar pains to obliterate +the memory of our first meeting, or if they had displayed any +extraordinary efforts of conciliation, that I should be on my guard +against them; but their manner, on the contrary, was easy and unaffected +in every respect. They spoke of the expedition sensibly and +dispassionately, and while acknowledging that there were many things +they would like to see altered in the English rule of Ireland, they were +very averse from the desire of a foreign intervention to rectify them.</p> + +<p>I avowed to them that we had been grossly deceived. That all the +representations made us, depicted Ireland as a nation of soldiers, +wanting only arms and military stores to rise as a vast army. That the +peasantry were animated by one spirit, and the majority of the gentry +willing to hazard every thing on the issue of a struggle. Our Killala +experiences, of which I detailed some, heartily amused them, and it was +in a merry interchange of opinions that we now walked along together.</p> + +<p>A cluster of houses, too small to be called a village, and known as the +"Cranagh," stood in a little nook of the bay; and here they lived. They +were brothers; and the elder held some small appointment in the revenue, +which maintained them as bachelors in this cheap country. In a low +conversation that passed between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_744" id="Page_744">[Pg 744]</a></span> them, it was agreed that they would +detain me as their guest for that evening, and on the morrow accompany +me to the magistrate's house, about five miles distant. I was not sorry +to accept their hospitable offer. I longed for a few hours of rest and +respite before embarking on another sea of troubles. The failure of the +expedition, and the departure of the fleet, had overwhelmed me with +grief, and I was in no mood to confront new perils.</p> + +<p>If my new acquaintances could have read my inmost thoughts, their manner +toward me could not have displayed more kindness or good-breeding. Not +pressing me with questions on subjects where the greatest curiosity +would have been permissible, they suffered me to tell only so much as I +wished of our late plans; and as if purposely to withdraw my thoughts +from the unhappy theme of our defeat, led me to talk of France, and her +career in Europe.</p> + +<p>It was not without surprise that I saw how conversant the newspapers had +made them with European politics, nor how widely different did events +appear, when viewed from afar off, and by the lights of another and +different nationality Thus all that we were doing on the Continent to +propagate liberal notions, and promote the spread of freedom, seemed to +their eyes but the efforts of an ambitious power to crush abroad what +they had annihilated at home, and extend their own influence in +disseminating doctrines, all to revert, one day or other, to some grand +despotism, whenever the man arose capable to exercise it. The elder +would not even concede to us that we were fit for freedom.</p> + +<p>"You are glorious fellows at destroying an old edifice," said he; "but +sorry architects when comes the question of rebuilding; and as to +liberty, your highest notion of it is an occasional anarchy. Like +school-boys, you will bear any tyranny for ten years, to have ten days +of a 'barring out' afterward."</p> + +<p>I was not much flattered by these opinions; and what was worse, I could +not get them out of my head all night afterward. Many things I had never +doubted about now kept puzzling and confounding me, and I began, for the +first time, to know the misery of the struggle between implicit +obedience and conviction.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h3> + +<h4>SOME NEW ACQUAINTANCES.</h4> + +<p>I went to bed at night in all apparent health; save from the flurry and +excitement of an anxious mind, I was in no respect different from my +usual mood; and yet when I awoke next morning, my head was distracted +with a racking pain, cramps were in all my limbs, and I could not turn +or even move without intense suffering. The long exposure to rain, while +my mind was in a condition of extreme excitement, had brought on an +attack of fever, and before evening set in, I was raving in wild +delirium. Every scene I had passed through, each eventful incident of +my life, came flashing in disjointed portions through my poor brain; and +I raved away of France, of Germany, of the dreadful days of terror, and +the fearful orgies of the "Revolution." Scenes of strife and +struggle—the terrible conflicts of the streets—all rose before me; and +the names of every blood-stained hero of France now mingled with the +obscure titles of Irish insurrection.</p> + +<p>What narratives of my early life I may have given—what stories I may +have revealed of my strange career, I can not tell; but the interest my +kind hosts took in me grew stronger every day. There was no care nor +kindness they did not lavish on me. Taking alternate nights to sit up +with me, they watched beside my bed, like brothers. All that affection +could give they rendered me; and even from their narrow fortunes they +paid a physician, who came from a distant town to visit me. When I was +sufficiently recovered to leave my bed, and sit at the window, or stroll +slowly in the garden, I became aware of the full extent to which their +kindness had carried them, and in the precautions for secrecy, I saw the +peril to which my presence exposed them. From an excess of delicacy +toward me, they did not allude to the subject, nor show the slightest +uneasiness about the matter; but day by day some little circumstance +would occur, some slight and trivial fact reveal the state of anxiety +they lived in.</p> + +<p>They were averse, too, from all discussion of late events, and either +answered my questions vaguely or with a certain reserve; and when I +hinted at my hope of being soon able to appear before a magistrate and +establish my claim as a French citizen, they replied that the moment was +an unfavorable one; the lenity of the government had latterly been +abused; their gracious intentions misstated and perverted; that, in +fact, a reaction toward severity had occurred, and military law and +courts-martial were summarily disposing of cases that a short time back +would have received the mildest sentences of civil tribunals. It was +clear, from all they said, that if the rebellion was suppressed, the +insurrectionary feeling was not extinguished, and that England was the +very reverse of tranquil on the subject of Ireland.</p> + +<p>It was to no purpose that I repeated my personal indifference to all +these measures of severity; that in my capacity as a Frenchman and an +officer, I stood exempt from all the consequences they alluded to. Their +reply was, that in times of trouble and alarm things were done which +quieter periods would never have sanctioned, and that indiscreet and +over-zealous men would venture on acts that neither law nor justice +could substantiate. In fact, they gave me to believe, that such was the +excitement of the moment, such the embittered vengeance of those whose +families or fortunes had suffered by the rebellion, that no reprisals +would be thought too heavy, nor any harshness too great, for those who +aided the movement.</p> + +<p>Whatever I might have said against the injustice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_745" id="Page_745">[Pg 745]</a></span> of this proceeding, in +my secret heart I had to confess that it was only what might have been +expected, and coming from a country where it was enough to call a man an +aristocrat and then cry "a la lanterne," I saw nothing unreasonable in +it all.</p> + +<p>My friends, advised me, therefore, instead of preferring any formal +claim to immunity, to take the first occasion of escaping to America, +whence I could not fail, later on, of returning to France. At first, the +counsel only irritated me, but by degrees, as I came to think more +calmly and seriously of the difficulties, I began to regard it in a +different light; and at last I fully concurred in the wisdom of the +advice, and resolved on adopting it.</p> + +<p>To sit on the cliffs, and watch the ocean for hours, became now the +practice of my life—to gaze from daybreak almost to the falling of +night over the wide expanse of sea, straining my eyes at each sail, and +conjecturing to what distant shore they were tending. The hopes which at +first sustained, at last deserted me, as week after week passed over, +and no prospect of escape appeared. The life of inactivity gradually +depressed my spirits, and I fell into a low and moping condition, in +which my hours rolled over without thought or notice. Still, I returned +each day to my accustomed spot, a lofty peak of rock that stood over the +sea, and from which the view extended for miles on every side. There, +half hid in the wild heath, I used to lie for hours long, my eyes bent +upon the sea, but my thoughts wandering away to a past that never was to +be renewed, and a future I was never destined to experience.</p> + +<p>Although late in the autumn, the season was mild and genial, and the sea +calm and waveless, save along the shore, where, even in the stillest +weather, the great breakers come tumbling in with a force, independent +of storm, and listening to their booming thunder, I have dreamed away +hour after hour unconsciously. It was one day, as I lay thus, that my +attention was caught by the sight of three large vessels on the very +verge of the horizon. Habit had now given me a certain acuteness, and I +could perceive from their height and size that they were ships of war. +For a while they seemed as if steering for the entrance of the "lough," +but afterward they changed their course, and headed toward the west. At +length they separated, and one of smaller size, and probably a frigate +from her speed, shot forward beyond the rest, and, in less than half an +hour, disappeared from view. The other two gradually sunk beneath the +horizon, and not a sail was to be seen over the wide expanse. While +speculating on what errand the squadron might be employed, I thought I +could hear the deep and rolling sound of distant cannonading. My ear was +too practiced in the thundering crash of the breakers along shore to +confound the noises; and as I listened I fancied that I could +distinguish the sound of single guns from the louder roar of a whole +broadside. This could not mean saluting, nor was it likely to be a mere +exercise of the fleet. They were not times when much powder was expended +unprofitably. Was it then an engagement? But with what or whom? Tandy's +expedition, as it was called, had long since sailed, and must ere this +have been captured or safe in France. I tried a hundred conjectures to +explain the mystery, which now, from the long continuance of the sounds, +seemed to denote a desperately contested engagement. It was not 'till +after three hours that the cannonading ceased, and then I could descry a +thick dark canopy of smoke that hung hazily over one spot in the +horizon, as if marking out the scene of the struggle. With what aching, +torturing anxiety I burned to know what had happened, and with which +side rested the victory.</p> + +<p>Well habituated to hear of the English as victors in every naval +engagement, I yet went on hoping against hope itself, that Fortune might +for once have favored us; nor was it till the falling night prevented my +being able to trace out distant objects, that I could leave the spot and +turn homeward. With wishes so directly opposed to theirs, I did not +venture to tell my two friends what I had witnessed, nor trust myself to +speak on a subject where my feelings might have betrayed me into +unseemly expressions of my hopes. I was glad to find that they knew +nothing of the matter, and talked away indifferently of other subjects. +By daybreak, the next morning, I was at my post, a sharp nor'wester +blowing, and a heavy sea rolling in from the Atlantic. Instinctively +carrying my eyes to the spot where I had heard the cannonnade, I could +distinctly see the tops of spars, as if the upper rigging of some +vessels, beyond the horizon. Gradually they rose higher and higher, till +I could detect the yard-arms and cross-trees, and finally the great +hulls of five vessels that were bearing toward me.</p> + +<p>For above an hour I could see their every movement, as with all canvas +spread they held on majestically toward the land, when at length a lofty +promontory of the bay intervened, and they were lost to my view. I +jumped to my legs at once, and set off down the cliff to reach the +headland, from whence an uninterrupted prospect extended. The distance +was greater than I had supposed, and in my eagerness to take a direct +line to it, I got entangled in difficult gorges among the hills, and +impeded by mountain torrents which often compelled me to go back a +considerable distance; it was already late in the afternoon as I gained +the crest of a ridge over the Bay of Lough Swilly. Beneath me lay the +calm surface of the lough, landlocked and still; but further out, +seaward, there was a sight that made my very limbs tremble, and sickened +my heart as I beheld it. There was a large frigate, that, with +studding-sails set, stood boldly up the bay, followed by a dismasted +three-decker, at whose mizen floated the ensign of England over the +French "tri-color." Several other vessels were grouped about the offing, +all of them displaying English colors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_746" id="Page_746">[Pg 746]</a></span></p> + +<p>The dreadful secret was out. There had been a tremendous sea fight, and +the Hoche, of seventy-four guns, was the sad spectacle which, with +shattered sides and ragged rigging, I now beheld entering the Bay. Oh, +the humiliation of that sight! I can never forget it. And although on +all the surrounding hills scarcely fifty country people were assembled, +I felt as if the whole of Europe were spectators of our defeat. The flag +I had always believed triumphant now hung ignominiously beneath the +ensign of the enemy, and the decks of our noble ship were crowded with +the uniforms of English sailors and marines.</p> + +<p>The blue water surged and spouted from the shot holes as the great hull +loomed heavily from side to side, and broken spars and ropes still hung +over the side as she went, a perfect picture of defeat. Never was +disaster more legibly written. I watched her till the anchor dropped, +and then, in a burst of emotion, I turned away, unable to endure more. +As I hastened homeward I met the elder of my two hosts coming to meet +me, in considerable anxiety. He had heard of the capture of the Hoche, +but his mind was far more intent on another and less important event. +Two men had just been at his cottage with a warrant for my arrest. The +document bore my name and rank, as well as a description of my +appearance, and significantly alleged, that although Irish by birth, I +affected a foreign accent for the sake of concealment.</p> + +<p>"There is no chance of escape now," said my friend; "we are surrounded +with spies on every hand. My advice is, therefore, to hasten to Lord +Cavan's quarters—he is now at Letterkenny—and give yourself up as a +prisoner. There is at least the chance of your being treated like the +rest of your countrymen. I have already provided you with a horse and a +guide, for I must not accompany you myself. Go, then, Maurice. We shall +never see each other again; but we'll not forget you, nor do we fear +that you will forget <i>us</i>. My brother could not trust himself to take +leave of you, but his best wishes and prayers go with you."</p> + +<p>Such were the last words my kind-hearted friend spoke to me; nor do I +know what reply I made, as, overcome by emotion, my voice became thick +and broken. I wanted to tell all my gratitude, and yet could say +nothing. To this hour I know not with what impression of me he went +away. I can only assert, that, in all the long career of vicissitudes of +a troubled and adventurous life, these brothers have occupied the chosen +spot of my affection, for every thing that was disinterested in kindness +and generous in good feeling.</p> + +<p>They have done more, for they have often reconciled me to a world of +harsh injustice and illiberality, by remembering that two such +exceptions existed, and that others may have experienced what fell to +<i>my</i> lot.</p> + +<p>For a mile or two my way lay through the mountains, but after reaching +the high road, I had not proceeded far when I was overtaken by a +jaunting-car, on which a gentleman was seated, with his leg supported by +a cushion, and bearing all the signs of a severe injury.</p> + +<p>"Keep the near side of the way, sir, I beg of you," cried he; "I have a +broken leg, and am excessively uneasy when a horse passes close to me."</p> + +<p>I touched my cap in salute, and immediately turned my horse's head to +comply with his request.</p> + +<p>"Did you see that, George?" cried another gentleman, who sat on the +opposite side of the vehicle; "did you remark that fellow's salute? My +life on't he's a French soldier."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, man—he's the steward of a Clyde smack, or a clerk in a +counting-house," said the first, in a voice which, though purposely low, +my quick hearing could catch perfectly.</p> + +<p>"Are we far from Letterkenny just now, sir?" said the other, addressing +me.</p> + +<p>"I believe about five miles," said I, with a prodigious effort to make +my pronunciation pass muster.</p> + +<p>"You're a stranger in these parts, I see, sir," rejoined he, with a +cunning glance at his friend, while he added, lower, "Was I right, +Hill?"</p> + +<p>Although seeing that all concealment was now hopeless, I was in no wise +disposed to plead guilty at once, and therefore, with a cut of my +switch, pushed my beast into a sharp canter to get forward.</p> + +<p>My friends, however, gave chase, and now the jaunting-car, +notwithstanding the sufferings of the invalid, was clattering after me +at about nine miles an hour. At first I rather enjoyed the malice of the +penalty their curiosity was costing, but as I remembered that the +invalid was not the chief offender, I began to feel compunction at the +severity of the lesson, and drew up to a walk.</p> + +<p>They at once shortened their pace, and came up beside me.</p> + +<p>"A clever hack you're riding, sir," said the inquisitive man.</p> + +<p>"Not so bad for an animal of this country," said I, superciliously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, then, what kind of a horse are you accustomed to?" asked he, half +insolently.</p> + +<p>"The Limousin," said I, coolly, "what we always mount in our Hussar +regiments in France."</p> + +<p>"And you are a French soldier, then?" cried he, in evident astonishment +at my frankness.</p> + +<p>"At your service, sir," said I, saluting; "a Lieutenant of Hussars; and +if you are tormented by any further curiosity concerning me, I may as +well relieve you by stating that I am proceeding to Lord Cavan's +head-quarters, to surrender as a prisoner."</p> + +<p>"Frank enough, that!" said he of the broken leg, laughing heartily as he +spoke.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," said the other, "you are, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_747" id="Page_747">[Pg 747]</a></span> your countrymen would call +it, '<i>bien venu</i>,' for we are bound in that direction ourselves, and +will be happy to have your company."</p> + +<p>One piece of tact my worldly experience had profoundly impressed upon +me, and that was, the necessity of always assuming an air of easy +unconcern in every circumstance of doubtful issue. There was quite +enough of difficulty in the present case to excite my anxiety, but I +rode along beside the jaunting-car, chatting familiarly with my new +acquaintances, and, I believe, without exhibiting the slightest degree +of uneasiness regarding my own position.</p> + +<p>From them I learned so much as they had heard of the late naval +engagement. The report was that Bompard's fleet had fallen in with Sir +John Warren's squadron, and having given orders for his fastest sailers +to make the best of their way to France, had, with the Hoche, the Loire, +and the Resolve, given battle to the enemy. These had all been captured, +as well as four others which fled, two alone of the whole succeeding in +their escape. I think now that, grievous as these tidings were, there +was nothing of either boastfulness or insolence in the tone in which +they were communicated to me. Every praise was accorded to Bompard for +skill and bravery, and the defense was spoken of in terms of generous +eulogy. The only trait of acrimony that showed itself in the recital +was, a regret that a number of Irish rebels should have escaped in the +Biche, one of the smaller frigates; and several emissaries of the +people, who had been deputed to the admiral, were also alleged to have +been on board of that vessel.</p> + +<p>"You are sorry to have had missed your friend, the priest of Murrah," +said Hill, jocularly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, by George, that fellow should have graced a gallows if I had been +lucky enough to have taken him."</p> + +<p>"What was his crime, sir?" asked I, with seeming unconcern.</p> + +<p>"Nothing more than exciting to rebellion a people with whom he had no +tie of blood or kindred! He was a Frenchman, and devoted himself to the +cause of Ireland, as they call it, from pure sympathy—"</p> + +<p>"And a dash of popery," broke in Hill.</p> + +<p>"It's hard to say even that; my own opinion is, that French Jacobinism +cares very little for the pope. Am I right, young gentleman—you don't +go very often to confession?"</p> + +<p>"I should do so less frequently if I were to be subjected to such a +system of interrogatory as yours," said I, tartly.</p> + +<p>They both took my impertinent speech in good part, and laughed heartily +at it; and thus, half amicably, half in earnest, we entered the little +town of Letterkenny, just as night was falling.</p> + +<p>"If you'll be our guest for this evening, sir," said Hill, "we shall be +happy to have your company."</p> + +<p>I accepted the invitation, and followed them into the inn.</p> + +<h4>(<i>To be continued.</i>)</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_UNNAMED_SHELL" id="THE_UNNAMED_SHELL"></a>THE UNNAMED SHELL.</h2> + + +<p>At the corner of the boulevard Montmartre, near the angle of the +faubourg, is situated a magazine of natural history, that continually +draws around its windows groups of curious idlers. Open the door, walk +in, and, in place of a mere merchant, you will be surprised to encounter +an artist and a scholar. The man is still young, yet he has explored a +portion of Southern Africa; and has joined in formidable chases of +elephants, lions, and all the wild animals of those barbarous regions. +He has sought his treasures of natural history in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, +China, and Cochin-China; has visited Batavia, Samarang and Madura; and +returned to Paris rich in knowledge and collections.</p> + +<p>It is rarely that you will find him alone. The laboratory of the +boulevard Montmartre is the rendezvous of all the scholars, travelers, +naturalists, artists, and authors, who bask in the sunshine of +celebrity. Temming, the old glory, yet with so much youth about him, of +natural history; Wilson, collector for his brother in the immense +undertaking of completing the museum of Philadelphia; Philippe Rousseau, +who bestows life and animation on the animals which he paints; Ledieu, +Léon Gozlan, Biard; Delgorgue, the intrepid chaser of elephants; +Lagéronière, who was for one instant on the point of becoming the king +of a savage tribe, and of whom Dumas, in his "Thousand and One +Phantoms," has related in so improbable a manner a fabulous episode of +real adventures; Gray, whom London cites with pride among its +naturalists; Mitchell, director of the London Zoological Gardens; Henry +Monnier, the sparkling reflection of Molière; Alphonse Karr; Deshayes, +for whom conchology and the labyrinths of its classifications have no +further mysteries; De Lafresnage, chief of ornithologists; Emile +Blanchard, who spends his life in the dissection of living atoms, or +beings almost microscopical; Delamarre-Piquot, who travels from one +world to another, to gather the alimentary substances with which he +wishes to endow Europe; M. Michelin, who consecrates his rare holidays +to an unrivaled collection of polypi; there they are to be found, every +day, studying, admiring, copying, describing, all the strange animals +that come from every quarter of the globe to this little corner of the +boulevard Montmartre, thence to be distributed among the collections of +Europe and America.</p> + +<p>There may one listen to sallies of fancy, scientific discussion, +episodes of likely and unlikely adventures, tales that make one burst +with laughter, histories that fill the eyes with tears, real dramas that +freeze the soul with horror, and of which the historian is almost always +the hero. In the midst of all this noise of conversation and going and +coming, the master of the establishment loses not a moment. He issues +orders, he lends a helping hand; he classes, describes, and attends to +strangers: and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_748" id="Page_748">[Pg 748]</a></span> occasionally sends as presents to other museums +unparalleled treasures of natural history. Just let us mention, <i>en +passant</i>, that the museum of Paris has been loaded for twenty years back +with his precious gifts. At each step you take in the galleries, you may +read his name inscribed upon numerous objects, before which the curious +in such matters stop with surprise, and the learned with admiration.</p> + +<p>One evening, he was laboring with his usual feverish activity to form +collections of shells, according to their species, and after the method +of Lamarck; for to popularize science is his fervent desire and constant +aim. These collections would not nearly reimburse him for the trouble +and cost bestowed upon them; but they would create a few conchologists +the more; they would facilitate the studies of those who had already +commenced their initiation into the marvels of a science so attractive, +by the beautiful objects to which it consecrates itself, and this was +what the enthusiastic <i>savant</i> wished above all.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said one of the visitors, taking up a shell, "I never see a +spiral, without calling to mind a drama that was once enacted here, and +which I will relate to you:</p> + +<p>"It was eight or ten years ago, one evening, as it might be to-day. The +smoke from five or six cigars filled the laboratory with its fantastic +rings. A lamp, vailed under a semi-opaque shade, served only to render +more visible the shadows of this strange chamber. Here and there, the +glow from the hearth illuminated animals from all parts of the world, +hung at random upon the walls, which they confusedly burdened. The +master of the magazine took up a shell which chance placed under his +hand, and presented it to a tall man, hoary with age, who was silently +seated, according to his custom, a little on one side. The stranger +approached the lamp, looked at the shell, smiled, sighed, and placed it +in his pocket. A light crash was heard; he re-seated himself, and +revived the fire of his half-extinguished cigar. Then, perceiving that +every one was looking curiously at him—'I have broken it,' said he; and +he threw the fragments of the shell upon the floor, and ground them +beneath his heel.</p> + +<p>"For several instants there was a profound silence, caused by the +surprise of the company at this gratuitous destruction. The old man +continued, with a melancholy smile, 'I will tell you, gentlemen, +wherefore I broke the shell. Science, or rather its fanaticism, leads to +strange weaknesses. If my folly can any where find indulgence, surely it +will be among you, who are all, more or less, collectors. Perhaps, I +shall even meet with some auditor not only capable of comprehending, but +likewise of imitating me. This shell is a spiral that has never been +either named or copied. I possess in my collection the only similar one +that is known to the scientific world. I procured it, ten years ago, +from this magazine. The first time that I saw this unique shell, my +heart beat with joy,' continued the old man, with a voice that had +regained all the energy of youth. 'I was poor, but I must have it at +whatever price. I carried it home with me, and passed entire days in +contemplating it, and examining its minutest details. Two years were +necessary to make up its price—two entire years of privation. Each +month, I carried the dealer small sums, often spared from my most +pressing necessities. What mattered it? I possessed the shell; it was +mine alone; no one could show me its like. I would not permit any one to +describe it. When, on rare occasions, I displayed it to some initiated +ones, it was upon the condition that they would not speak of it in their +faunas. A lover madly enamored, is not more jealous than I then was, +than I still am, of this treasure. When the two years of which I have +spoken had elapsed, and I had paid the price of my dear spiral, I came +here one evening as usual. On opening, according to my custom, one of +the boxes that contain the shells, I uttered a cry. I had found another +spiral similar to that which I possessed! Judge of my sorrow, of my +despair. My shell was no longer unique. Another collection possessed a +treasure similar to mine. A cold sweat bathed my forehead. Though very +poor, though I had resigned the little employment which I had held in an +office, and my humble allowance was transformed into a pension more +humble still, I hesitated not. I bought the shell, and carried it with +me, but this time without joy. I possessed several good pictures, dear +and old heirlooms belonging to my family. I sold them to pay for the +shell, which I broke as soon as I had made up the price. Three years +more elapsed, and poverty weighed down my old age more and more. The +failure of a bank had deprived me of a little sum of money, the interest +of which, added to my pension, had enabled me to live, and to augment, +from time to time, my collection of a few good shells. Deprived of this +enjoyment, the only one that remained to me, I had no consolation but in +the possession of the treasure-hoard which I could no longer increase. +My precious spiral often detained me before it for hours. One evening +(never shall I forget, the sorrow the sight cost me), I beheld +here—there—in that box—three spirals like mine! Maledictions hovered +about my lips. I took the shells in my fingers, I slowly examined them, +and returned them to my friend. 'I can not buy them,' I said. He raised +his eyes, he saw my palor and my tears—my tears, gentlemen, for I wept! +He smiled, took a hammer, and pulverized the three precious shells. You +saw what he did just now. God bless him for his disinterestedness, and +his devotion to an old friend! I should die of despair, gentlemen, if, +during my life, another possessed a spiral like mine.'</p> + +<p>"Speaking thus, the old man rose, and left us, enveloping himself, as +well as he could, in his fragmentary cloak."</p> + +<p>One morning, three or four years ago, God separated the fanatic +conchologist from the collection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_749" id="Page_749">[Pg 749]</a></span> that was his life. They found the aged +man seated before his cabinet, opposite to his unique spiral. He had +died alone, with his eyes fixed upon that which had possessed his +affections during so many years. His collection has now reverted to the +friend who showed so much sympathy with his jealousy and insensate +passion.</p> + +<p>By a strange caprice of fortune, no other spiral similar to his has +since arrived in Europe. It still remains unique and nameless, as when +he possessed it. For the rest, this spiral, which occupied so large a +place in the existence and affections of a scientific man, has, for a +common eye, nothing in its appearance to justify the intense passion +that it inspired. Its rarity constitutes its value. One of our most +learned conchologists is now engaged, in describing, classing, and +publishing a drawing of it. We hope that, in memory of its first +possessor, he will give it the name of <i>l'hélice innominata</i>, the +"nameless spiral."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_STORY_OF_GIOVANNI_BELZONI" id="THE_STORY_OF_GIOVANNI_BELZONI"></a>THE STORY OF GIOVANNI BELZONI.</h2> + + +<p>One day in the beginning of the year 1803, Mr. Salt, whose name has +since become so celebrated among the discoverers of Egyptian +antiquities, observed before one of the public rooms of Edinburgh, a +great crowd assembled. For almost every one there exists a mysterious +attraction in the sight of a number of people, and Mr. Salt, no wiser +than his neighbors, pushed his way, when the doors were opened, into the +room. There, on a sort of stage, he saw a tall and powerfully-built +young man, performing various gymnastic exercises, and feats of +strength. While this Hercules in tinsel was lifting enormous weights, +and jumping from a table over the heads of twelve men, a pretty, +delicate-looking young woman, was arranging some hydraulic machines and +musical glasses, with which the entertainment was to terminate. As the +price of admission was nominal, she occasionally also handed round a +small wooden bowl, in order to collect gratuities from the spectators.</p> + +<p>Very few of those who were enjoying the exhibition gave any thing; and +when the young woman approached her husband, and showed him the few +coins she had received, he hastened to terminate his performance. Mr. +Salt pitied the poor fellow, and as the young woman was passing, said to +her:</p> + +<p>"You forgot to present your bowl for my contribution. Here it is."</p> + +<p>He slipped a silver coin into her hand. Both she and her husband thanked +him warmly; the latter in broken English, and with an Italian accent.</p> + +<p>Mr. Salt, who had but just returned from Rome, replied in Italian; and, +perceiving in the stranger's manner of expressing himself a degree of +refinement not to be expected from a mountebank, asked him whence he +came, and what was his history?</p> + +<p>"Six months ago, sir," replied the man, "if any man had told me that I +should be reduced to earn my bread by exhibiting my strength in public, +I should have felt greatly inclined to knock him down. I came to England +for the purpose of making known some hydraulic machines of my invention; +but the spirit of routine, and the love of ignorance, closed every +avenue against me. Previously, before losing all my hopes of success, I +married this young girl. Had I been alone in the world, I verily believe +that the bitter destruction of my expectations would have rendered me +careless of supporting life; but how could I leave <i>her</i> in misery?"</p> + +<p>"But why not try to display your really extraordinary strength and +dexterity under more favorable circumstances? Why do you not offer your +services to some theatrical manager?"</p> + +<p>"Hungry people, sir, can not wait. I did not think of resorting to this +method of earning a piece of bread, until I saw my wife ready to perish +for the want of it."</p> + +<p>The kind Mr. Salt not only relieved his immediate wants, but offered to +recommend him and his wife to the manager of Astley's Circus, in London. +Gratefully and eagerly did the wanderers accept this offer; and while, +in company with their benefactor, who paid for their places on the +coach, they journeyed toward town, the man related his history. Born at +Padua, the son of a poor barber, and one of fourteen children, Giovanni +Battista Belzoni felt from his earliest youth a longing desire to visit +foreign lands. This "truant disposition" was fostered, if not caused, by +the stories of maritime adventures told him by an old sailor; who was +strongly suspected of having, during many years, practiced the +profession of a pirate.</p> + +<p>The reading, or rather devouring, of a translated copy of "Robinson +Crusoe" (and it is a most remarkable circumstance that the book which +has for its avowed purpose the disheartening of restless adventurers, +should have made wanderers and voyagers innumerable), gave form and +fixedness to his purpose of rambling; and, in company with his youngest +brother, the boy set out one fine morning, without any intention but the +somewhat vague one of "traveling to seek their fortune." The young +fugitives walked several miles, without knowing, in the least, whither +they were going, when a peddler, who was riding slowly by in a cart, +accosted them, and asked if they were going to Ferrara. Belzoni, +although he never heard the name before, immediately answered in the +affirmative. The good-natured merchant, pleased with the countenances, +and pitying the tired looks of the children, not only gave them a place +in his vehicle, but shared with them his luncheon of bread, cheese, and +fruit. That night they occupied part of their companion's lodging; but +next day, as his business required him to stop at the village where they +slept, the two boys took leave of him, and pursued their journey. Their +next adventure was not so fortunate. Meeting an empty return carriage, +they asked the <i>vetturino</i> to give them a ride; and he consenting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_750" id="Page_750">[Pg 750]</a></span> they +joyfully got in. Arrived at Ferrara, the <i>vetturino</i> asked them for +money. Giovanni, astonished, replied that they had none; and the +unfeeling man stripped the poor children of their upper garments, +leaving them half-naked and penniless in the streets of an unknown city. +Giovanni's undaunted spirit would have led him still to persevere in the +wild-goose chase which had lured him from his home; but his brother +Antonio wept, and complained so loudly, that he was fain to console the +child by consenting to retrace their steps to Padua. That night, clasped +in each other's arms, they slept beneath a doorway, and the next morning +set out for their native city, begging their food on the journey.</p> + +<p>The severe chastisement which Giovanni, as the instigator of this +escapade, received on his return, did not in anywise cure his love of +rambling. He submitted, however, to learn his father's trade, and at the +age of eighteen, armed with shaving and hair-cutting implements, he set +out for Rome, and there exercised the occupation of a barber with +success. After some time, he became deeply attached to a girl who, after +encouraging his addresses, deserted him and married a wealthy rival. +This disappointment preyed so deeply on Belzoni, that, renouncing at the +same time love and the razor, the world and the brazen bowl of suds, he +entered a convent, and became a Capuchin. The leisure of the cloister +was employed by him in the study of hydraulics; and he was busy in +constructing an Artesian well within the monastic precincts when the +French army under Napoleon took possession of Rome. The monks of every +order were expelled and dispersed; and our poor Capuchin, obliged to cut +his own beard, purchased once more the implements of his despised +calling, and traveled into Holland, the head-quarters of hydraulics, +which were still his passion. The Dutch did not encourage him, and he +came to this country. Here he met his future wife, and consoled himself +for his past misfortunes by marrying one who proved, through weal and +woe, a fond and faithful partner. The crude hydraulic inventions of a +wandering Italian were as little heeded here, as on the Continent; and +we have already seen the expedient to which Belzoni was obliged to have +recourse when Mr. Salt met him in Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>Having reached London, the kind antiquary introduced his <i>protégés</i> to +the manager of Astley's. The practiced eye of the renowned equestrian +immediately appreciated at their value the beauty and athletic vigor of +the Paduan Goliath; and he engaged both him and his wife at a liberal +salary. He caused a piece, entitled "The Twelve Labors of Hercules" to +be arranged expressly for his new performers; and Mr. Salt had soon +afterward the satisfaction of seeing Giovanni Belzoni appear on the +stage, carrying twelve men on his arms and shoulders, while madame, in +the costume of Cupid, stood at the top, as the apex of a pyramid, and +waved a tiny crimson flag.</p> + +<p>After some time, Mr. Salt went to Egypt as consul, and there became +acquainted with Signor Drouetti. The two friends, equally enthusiastic +on the subject of Egyptian antiquities, set to work to prosecute +researches, with an ardor of rivalship which approached somewhat too +nearly to jealousy. Each aspired to undertake the boldest expeditions, +and to attempt the most hazardous excavations. But the great object of +their ambition was an enormous bust of Memnon, in rose-colored granite, +which lay half buried in the sand on the left bank of the Nile.</p> + +<p>Signor Drouetti had failed in all his attempts to raise it, nor was Mr. +Salt a whit more successful. One day, while the latter was thinking what +a pity it was that such a precious monument should be left to perish by +decay, a stranger asked to speak with him. Mr. Salt desired him to be +admitted; and immediately, despite his visitor's Oriental garb and long +beard, he recognized the Hercules of Astley's.</p> + +<p>"What has brought you to Egypt?" asked the astonished consul.</p> + +<p>"You shall hear, sir," replied the Italian. "After having completed my +engagement in London, I set out for Lisbon, where I was employed by the +manager of the theatre of San Carlo to perform the part of Samson, in a +scriptural piece which had been arranged expressly for me. From thence I +went to Madrid, where I appeared with applause in the theatre Della +Puerta del Sol. After having collected a tolerable sum of money, I +resolved to come here. My first object is to induce the Pasha to adopt +an hydraulic machine for raising the waters of the Nile."</p> + +<p>Mr. Salt then explained his wishes respecting the antiquities; but +Belzoni, could not, he said, enter upon that till he had carried out his +scheme of water-works.</p> + +<p>He was accompanied, he said in continuation, by Mrs. Belzoni, and by an +Irish lad of the name of James Curtain; and had reached Alexandria just +as the plague was beginning to disappear from that city, as it always +does on the approach of St. John's day, when, as almost every body +knows, "out of respect for the saint," it entirely ceases. The state of +the country was still very alarming, yet Mr. Belzoni and his little +party ventured to land, and performed quarantine in the French quarter; +where, though really very unwell, they were wise enough to disguise +their situation; "for the plague is so dreadful a scourge," he observed, +"and operates so powerfully on human fears and human prejudices, that, +during its prevalence, if a man be ill, he must be ill of the plague, +and if he die, he must have died of the plague."</p> + +<p>Belzoni went straight to Cairo, where he was well received by Mr. +Baghos, interpreter to Mohammed Ali, to whom Mr. Salt recommended him. +Mr. Baghos immediately prepared to introduce him to the Pasha, that he +might come to some arrangement respecting the hydraulic machine, which +he proposed to construct for watering the gardens of the seraglio. As +they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_751" id="Page_751">[Pg 751]</a></span> were proceeding toward the palace, through one of the principal +streets of Cairo, a fanatical Mussulman struck Mr. Belzoni so fiercely +on the leg with his staff, that it tore away a large piece of flesh. The +blow was severe, and the discharge of blood copious, and he was obliged +to be conveyed home, where he remained under cure thirty days before he +could support himself on the wounded leg. When able to leave the house, +he was presented to the Pasha, who received him very civilly; but on +being told of the misfortune which had happened to him, contented +himself with coolly observing "that such accidents could not be avoided +where there were troops."</p> + +<p>An arrangement was immediately concluded for erecting a machine which +was to raise as much water with one ox as the ordinary ones do with +four. Mr. Belzoni soon found, however, that he had many prejudices to +encounter, and many obstacles to overcome, on the part of those who were +employed in the construction of the work, as well as of those who owned +the cattle engaged in drawing water for the Pasha's gardens. The fate of +a machine which had been sent from England taught him to augur no good +for that which he had undertaken to construct. Though of the most costly +description, and every way equal to perform what it was calculated to +do, it had failed to answer the unreasonable expectations of the +Turks—because "the quantity of water raised by it was not sufficient to +inundate the whole country in an hour!—which was their measure of the +power of an English water-wheel."</p> + +<p>When that of Belzoni was completed, the Pasha proceeded to the gardens +of Soubra to witness its effect. The machine was set to work, and, +although constructed of bad materials, and of unskillful workmanship, +its powers were greater than had been contracted for; yet the Arabs, +from interested motives, declared against it. The Pasha, however, though +evidently disappointed, admitted that it was equal to four of the +ordinary kind, and, consequently, accorded with the agreement. +Unluckily, he took it into his head to have the oxen removed, and, "by +way of frolic," to see what effect could be produced by putting fifteen +men into the wheel. The Irish lad got in with them; but no sooner had +the wheel begun to turn than the Arabs jumped out, leaving the lad alone +in it. The wheel, relieved from its load, flew back with such velocity, +that poor Curtain was flung out, and in the fall broke one of his +thighs; and, being entangled in the machinery, would, in all +probability, have lost his life, had not Belzoni applied his prodigious +strength to the wheel, and stopped it. The accident, however, was fatal +to the project and to the future hopes of the projector.</p> + +<p>At that time the insolence of the Turkish officers of the Pashalic was +at its height, and the very sight of a "dog of a Christian" raised the +ire of the more bigoted followers of the Prophet. While at Soubra, which +is close to Cairo, Belzoni had a narrow escape from assassination. He +relates the adventure in his work on Egypt:</p> + +<p>"Some particular business calling me to Cairo. I was on my ass in one of +the narrow streets, where I met a loaded camel. The space that remained +between the camel and the wall was so little, that I could scarcely +pass; and at that moment I was met by a Binbashi, a subaltern officer, +at the head of his men. For the instant I was the only obstacle that +prevented his proceeding on the road; and I could neither retreat nor +turn round, to give him room to pass. Seeing it was a Frank who stopped +his way, he gave me a violent blow on my stomach. Not being accustomed +to put up with such salutations, I returned the compliment with my whip +across his naked shoulders. Instantly he took his pistol out of his +belt; I jumped off my ass; he retired about two yards, pulled the +trigger, fired at my head, singed the hair near my right ear, and killed +one of his own soldiers, who, by this time, had come behind me. Finding +that he had missed his aim, he took a second pistol; but his own +soldiers assailed and disarmed him. A great noise arose in the street, +and, as it happened to be close to the seraglio in the Esbakie, some of +the guards ran up; but on seeing what the matter was, they interfered +and stopped the Binbashi. I thought my company was not wanted, so I +mounted my charger, and rode off. I went to Mr. Baghos, and told him +what had happened. We repaired immediately to the citadel, saw the +Pasha, and related the circumstance to him. He was much concerned, and +wished to know where the soldier was, but observed that it was too late +that evening to have him taken up. However, he was apprehended the next +day, and I never heard or knew any thing more about him. Such a lesson +on the subject was not lost upon me; and I took good care, in future, +not to give the least opportunity of the kind to men of that +description, who can murder an European with as much indifference as +they would kill an insect."</p> + +<p>Ruined by the loss of all his savings, which he had spent in the +construction of his water machines, Belzoni once more applied to Mr. +Salt, and undertook the furtherance of his scheme, to convey to England +the bust of Memnon. So eager was he, that the same day, the Italian set +out for the ruins of Thebes, and hired a hundred natives, whom he made +clear away the sand which half covered the stone colossus. With a large +staff in his hand, Belzoni commanded his army of Mussulmans, directed +their labors, astonished them with displays of his physical strength, +learned to speak their language with marvelous facility, and speedily +came to be regarded by them as a superior being, endowed with magical +power.</p> + +<p>One day, however, his money failed; and at the same time the rising of +the Nile destroyed in two hours, the work of three months. The <i>fellahs</i> +rebeled: one of them rushed toward Belzoni, intending to strike him with +his dagger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_752" id="Page_752">[Pg 752]</a></span> The Italian coolly waited his approach, disarmed him; and +then, seizing him by the feet, lifted him as though he had been a hazel +wand, and began to inflict vigorous blows on the other insurgents with +this novel and extemporary weapon of defense. The lesson was not thrown +away: very speedily the <i>fellahs</i> returned to their duty; and after +eighteen days' incessant labor, Memnon trembled at his base, and was +moved toward the bank of the Nile.</p> + +<p>The embarkation of this enormous statue presented difficulties almost as +great as those which attended its disinterment and land transport. +Nevertheless, the intelligence and perseverance of Belzoni surmounted +every obstacle; and he brought his wondrous conquest to London, where +its arrival produced a sensation similar to that caused more recently in +Paris by the sight of the Obelisk of Luxor. Loaded with praise, and also +with more substantial gifts, Belzoni, now become an important personage, +returned to Egypt and to his friend Mr. Salt. The latter proposed to him +to go up the Nile, and attempt the removal of the sand-hills which +covered the principal portion of the magnificent temple of Ebsamboul. +Belzoni readily consented, set out for Lower Nubia, ventured boldly +among the savage tribes who wander through the sandy desert; returning +to Thebes, he was rewarded, not only by the success of his special +mission, but also by discovering the temple of Luxor.</p> + +<p>In all his undertakings, however enterprising, Belzoni was aided and +cheered by the presence of his wife. The expedition to Nubia was, +however, thought too hazardous for her to undertake. But in the absence +of her husband she was not idle; she dug up the statue of Jupiter Ammon, +with the ram's head on his knee; which is now in the British Museum.</p> + +<p>The temple of Luxor had been so completely and for so long a period, +buried in sand, that even its existence remained unsuspected. It had +been dedicated to Isis by the Queen of Rameses the Great; and the +descriptions which travelers give of it, resemble those of the palaces +in the "Arabian Nights." Four colossal figures, sixty-one feet in +height, are seated in front. Eight others, forty-eight in height, and +standing up, support the roof of the principal inner hall, in which +gigantic bas-reliefs represent the whole history of Rameses. Sixteen +other halls, scarcely smaller than the first, display, in all their +primitive splendor, many gorgeous paintings, and the mysterious forms of +myriads of statues.</p> + +<p>After this discovery, Belzoni took up his temporary abode in the valley +of <i>Biban el Mouloch</i> (Tombs of the Kings). He had already remarked +there, among the rocks, a fissure of a peculiar form, and which was +evidently the work of man. He caused this opening to be enlarged, and +soon discovered the entrance to a long corridor, whose walls were +covered with sculptures and hieroglyphical paintings. A deep fosse and a +wall barred the further end of the cave; but he broke a passage +through, and found a second vault, in which stood an alabaster +sarcophagus, covered with hieroglyphics. He took possession of this and +sent it safely to Europe. His own account of these difficulties is +extremely interesting:</p> + +<p>"Of some of these tombs many persons could not withstand the suffocating +air, which often causes fainting. A vast quantity of dust rises, so fine +that it enters the throat and nostrils, and chokes the nose and mouth to +such a degree, that it requires great power of lungs to resist it and +the strong effluvia of the mummies. This is not all; the entry or +passage where the bodies are is roughly cut in the rocks, and the +falling of the sand from the upper part or ceiling of the passage causes +it to be nearly filled up. In some places there is not more than the +vacancy of a foot left, which you must contrive to pass through in a +creeping posture, like a snail, on pointed and keen stones, that cut +like glass. After getting through these passages, some of them two or +three hundred yards long, you generally find a more commodious place, +perhaps high enough to sit. But what a place of rest! surrounded by +bodies, by heaps of mummies in all directions; which, previous to my +being accustomed to the sight, impressed me with horror. The blackness +of the walls, the faint light given by the candles or torches for want +of air, the different objects that surrounded me, seeming to converse +with each other, and the Arabs, with the candles or torches in their +hands, naked and covered with dust, themselves resembling living +mummies, absolutely formed a scene that can not be described. In such a +situation I found myself several times, and often returned exhausted and +fainting, till at last I became inured to it, and indifferent to what I +suffered, except from the dust which never failed to choke my throat and +nose; and though, fortunately, I am destitute of the sense of smelling, +I could taste that the mummies were rather unpleasant to swallow. After +the exertion of entering into such a place, through a passage of fifty, +a hundred, three hundred, or perhaps six hundred yards, nearly overcome, +I sought a resting-place, found one, and contrived to sit; but when my +weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a band-box. I +naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found +no better support; so that I sunk altogether among the broken mummies, +with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which raised such a dust +as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided +again. I could not remove from the place, however, without increasing +it, and every step I took I crushed a mummy in some part or other. Once +I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a +passage of about twenty feet in length, and no wider than that a body +could be forced through. It was choked with mummies, and I could not +pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed +Egyptian; but as the passage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_753" id="Page_753">[Pg 753]</a></span> inclined downward, my own weight helped me +on: however, I could not avoid being covered with bones, legs, arms, and +heads rolling from above. Thus I proceeded from one cave to another, all +full of mummies piled up in various ways—some standing, some lying, and +some on their heads."</p> + +<p>Afterward, Belzoni traveled to the shores of the Red Sea, inspected the +ruins of Berenice; then returned to Cairo, and directed excavations to +be made at the bases of the great pyramids of Ghizeh; penetrated into +that of Chephren—which had hitherto been inaccessible to Europeans—and +discovered within it the sacred chamber where repose the hallowed bones +of the bull Apis. The Valley of Faioum, the Lake Mœris, the ruins of +Arsinoë, the sands of Libya, all yielded up their secrets to his +dauntless spirit of research. He visited the oasis of El-Cassar, and the +Fountain of the Sun; strangled in his arms two treacherous guides who +tried to assassinate him; and then left Egypt, and returned to Padua +with his wife.</p> + +<p>The son of the humble barber had now become a rich and celebrated +personage. A triumphal entry was prepared for him; and the municipal +authorities of his native city met him at the gate, and presented him +with an address. Manfredini was commissioned to engrave a medal which +should commemorate the history of the illustrious traveler. England, +however, soon claimed him; and on his arrival in London, he was received +with the same honors as in his own country. Then he published an account +of his travels, under the following title: "Narrative of the Operations +and recent Discoveries in the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Cities of +Egypt and Nubia, &c."</p> + +<p>In 1822, Belzoni returned to Africa, with the intention of penetrating +to Timbuctoo. Passing in the following year from the Bight of Benin +toward Houssa, he was attacked with dysentery; was carried back to Gato, +and thence put on board an English vessel lying off the coast. There, +with much firmness and resignation, he prepared to meet his end. He +intrusted the captain with a large amethyst to be given to his wife, and +also with a letter which he wrote to his companion through good and evil +days. Soon afterward, he breathed his last. They buried him at Gato, at +the foot of a large tree, and engraved on his tomb the following epitaph +in English—</p> + +<p>"<i>Here lies Belzoni, who died at this place, on his way to Timbuctoo, +December 3d, 1823.</i>"</p> + +<p>Belzoni was but forty-five years old when he died. A statue of him was +erected at Padua, on the 4th of July, 1827. Very recently, the +government of Great Britain bestowed on his widow the tardy solace of a +small pension.</p> + +<p>Giovanni Belzoni, the once starving mountebank, became one of the most +illustrious men in Europe!—an encouraging example to all those who have +not only sound heads to project, but stout hearts to execute.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PHANTOMS_AND_REALITIES_AN_AUTOBIOGRAPHY" id="PHANTOMS_AND_REALITIES_AN_AUTOBIOGRAPHY"></a>PHANTOMS AND REALITIES.—AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.</h2> + +<h4>(<i>Continued from Page 613.</i>)</h4> + +<h3>PART THE SECOND—NOON.</h3> + + +<h4>V.</h4> + +<p>To reason upon the effects of the discovery, or confession of our +feelings, was not a process for which either of us was qualified by +temperament or inclination. We did not pause to consider whether it was +prudent to take our hearts and natures for granted all at once, and risk +upon the strange delight of a single moment of luxurious emotion the +happiness, perhaps, of a whole lifetime. We did not stop to ask if there +were any obstacles in the way, any jarring chords to be attuned, any +thing to be known or thought of into which our position demanded a +scrutiny. We resigned ourselves at once to our impulses. We believed +that we had seen enough of the world, and were strong enough in our +self-sustaining power, and clear enough in our penetration, to dispense +with ordinary safeguards, and act as if we were superior to them. We +made our own world, and so went on as if we could control the planet in +which we lived at our own will and pleasure.</p> + +<p>I soon perceived that my attentions to Astræa had become a subject of +much remark. The peering coterie about us were so vigilant in matters of +that kind, that, as it appeared afterward, they had found out the fact +before it had taken place. For my own part, there was nobody half so +much surprised at the circumstance as I was myself. I believed that the +heart, like that plant which is said to blow once and die, was incapable +of a second growth of love; but I now felt the fallacy of that doctrine, +and was at first humiliated by the discovery. It struck me like a great +heresy against truth and purity; it seemed to lay bare before me the +corruptibility and feebleness of poor human nature. To strive against +it, however, was idle. The second growth was in full flower, yet with a +difference from the first, which I could detect even against the grain +of the passion that was subjugating me. I felt that the second growth +was less simple and devotional than the first; that it had more +exuberance, and was of a wilder character; that it struck not its roots +so deeply, but spread its blossoms more widely; that it was less +engrossing, but more agitating; that it was cultivated with greater +consciousness and premeditation, risked with more caution, fed with more +prudence, and tended more constantly—but all with a lesser waste of the +imagination; that its delights were more fervid but less appeasing; that +it looked not so much into the future with hope and promise, as it +filled the present with rapture; that its memories were neither so sad +nor so vivid, and that it let in caprice, and vanity, and +unreasonableness, and self-love, and the world's esteem, which are all +as dust in the balance, or a feather in the whirlwind, to impetuous +love. I was amazed to find myself a daily waiter upon beauty. Yet so it +was. The vision of Gertrude was now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_754" id="Page_754">[Pg 754]</a></span> gone from my path—the spectre had +vanished in the broad light of the new passion.</p> + +<p>Still, while I paid my court to Astræa, it was not with any intention of +publicity, but furtively, as if a private dread hung over us, or as if +we thought it pleasanter to vail our feelings from observation. We +understood each other in silent looks, which we supposed to be +unintelligible to every body else; she seemed to avoid, designedly, all +appearance of interest in me, and sometimes played the part to such +admiration, as to give me not a few passing pangs of doubt and +uneasiness; and I, seeing how scrupulous she was on that point, and not +choosing to incur rude jests at her expense, was equally unwilling to +betray a feeling which was rendered the more delicious by secrecy. We +imagined ourselves secure; but neither of us could have had much worldly +sagacity or we must have known that all our caution was fruitless. +Basilisks' eyes were around us, and we trod a path beset with serpents. +Fortunately we were both looked up to as persons who could not be +approached with familiarity; and that preserved us from the open +badinage to which others, in similar circumstances, might have been +subjected.</p> + +<p>Alone, and liberated from this vexatious surveillance, we gave free vent +to our thoughts. The suddenness of our new confidence, and the rapidity +with which we already shaped its issues, bewildered us by the intensity +of the emotions that came crowding for speech and explanation. Astræa +sometimes had misgivings, although she never knew how to give them a +definite form. One day she said to me, "We are wrong in giving way to +this feeling. It is not a love likely to procure us peace. I say this to +you because I feel it—perhaps, because I know it; but I confess myself +unable to argue upon a question upon which my reason, my whole being is +held in suspense. I say so, simply because I ought to say so, and not +because I am prepared of myself to act, or even to advise. I am like a +leaf in a tempest, and can not guide myself. I yield to the irresistible +power that has swept me from the firm land, and deprived me of the +strength to regain it."</p> + +<p>I fancied that this left me but one course to take, and I replied, "We +have pronounced our destiny, Astræa, for good or for evil. We ought to +have no choice but to abide by it. If you do not fail in your faith, +mine is irrevocable."</p> + +<p>At these words she looked gravely at me, and answered,</p> + +<p>"My faith dies with me. It is a part of my life. It was not taken up in +an hour, to be as lightly thrown aside. Without it, life would be +insupportable; with it, life in any shape of seclusion, privation, +banishment, contains all the blessings I covet upon earth. It was not +for that, or of that I spoke. Understand me clearly, and put no +construction on my words outside their plain and ordinary meaning. All I +ask, all that is necessary for me is your society; to hear you speak, to +drink in the words of kindness and power that flow from your lips, to +be ever near you, to tend, solace, and console you. I should be content +to enjoy the privilege of seeing that you were happy, without even +aspiring to the higher glory of creating happiness for you. That is my +nature—capable of a wider range, and a loftier flight, but happiest in +its devotion. In any capacity I will serve you—and feel that the +servitude of love is dominion!"</p> + +<p>So firm and constant was the character of Astræa, tinged with a romantic +inspiration, that all this homage was serious and real, and issued +gravely from her heart through her lips. She meant every syllable she +spoke in its true sense; and I felt that she was ready to fulfill it, +and sustain it to the end. She believed that all endurances were +possible for love's sake, and that she could even enact miracles of +stoicism in the strength of her fidelity.</p> + +<p>For many months our intercourse, always thus sophisticating its aims and +interpretations, was carried on in secret. We had become necessary to +each other; but being still shut up in our mystery, we had not made as +much advance toward any definite result as one single moment of +disclosure to the people we were among would have inevitably compelled +us to decide upon. We were very prudent in our outward bearing, and +hardly aware of the avidity with which the concealed passion was +devouring our hearts.</p> + +<p>The dwarf followed me, and hovered about me more than ever. But I +learned to bear with him on account of his being in the house with +Astræa. Any body who was constantly in her society, and admitted to +terms of intimacy with her, was welcome to me—as relics from the altar +of a saint are welcome to the devotee, or a leaf snatched, from a tree +in the haunts of home is welcome to the exile. It was a pleasure when I +met him even to ask for Astræa, to have an excuse for uttering her name, +or to hear him speak of her, or to speak of her myself, or to talk of +any thing that we had before talked of together. Such are the resources, +the feints, the stratagems, the foibles of love!</p> + + +<h4>VI.</h4> + +<p>One night my indefatigable Mephistophiles took me to a tavern. He was in +a vagrant mood, and I indulged him.</p> + +<p>"Come, we shall see life to-night," he said.</p> + +<p>"With all my heart," I replied. It was not much to my taste, but I +fancied there was something unusual in his manner, and my curiosity was +awakened to see what it would lead to.</p> + +<p>We entered a bustling and brilliantly-lighted house. Numerous guests +were scattered about at different tables, variously engaged in getting +rid of time at the smallest possible cost of reflection. The dwarf +sauntered through the room, whispered a waiter, and, beckoning me to +follow, led the way up-stairs to a lesser apartment, where we found +ourselves alone.</p> + +<p>"You will not see much life here," I observed, rather surprised at his +selection of a secluded room in preference to the lively <i>salon</i> through +which we had just passed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_755" id="Page_755">[Pg 755]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We can make our own life," he answered, with a sarcastic twinge of the +mouth, "and imagine more things in five minutes than we should see or +hear below in a month."</p> + +<p>I thought this very odd. It looked as if he had some concealed motive; +but I acquiesced in his notion, and was secretly pleased, not less at +the exchange of the din and riot for ease and quietness, than at the +opportunity it opened to him for the free play of the humor, whatever it +was, that I could plainly see was working upon him.</p> + +<p>We drank freely—that was a great resource with him when he was in a +mood of extravagance—talked rapidly about a chaos of things, laughed +loudly, and in the pauses of the strange revel relapsed every now and +then into silence and abstraction. During these brief and sudden +intervals, the dwarf would amuse himself by drawing uncouth lines on the +table, with his head hanging over them, as if his thoughts were +elsewhere engaged, and the unintelligible pastime of his fingers were +resorted to only to hide them.</p> + +<p>I could not tell why it was, but I felt uneasy and restless. My +companion appeared to me like a man who was mentally laboring at some +revelation, yet did not know how to begin it. He was constantly talking +at something that was evidently troubling his mind, yet he still evaded +his own purpose, as if he did not like the task to which he had set +himself. Throughout the whole time he never mentioned Astræa's name, and +this circumstance gave me additional cause for suspicion.</p> + +<p>At last, summoning up all his energy, and fixing himself with the points +of his elbows on the table, and his long, wiry hands, which looked like +talons, stretched up into his elfin hair at each side of his face, while +his eyes, shooting out their malignant fires, were riveted upon me to +scan the effect of what he was about to say, he suddenly exclaimed,</p> + +<p>"You have been remarked in your attentions to Astræa."</p> + +<p>The mystery was out. And what was there in it, after all? I was a free +agent, and so was Astræa. Why should he make so much theatrical parade +about so very simple a business?</p> + +<p>"Well!" I exclaimed, scarcely able to repress a smile, which the +exaggerated earnestness of his manner excited.</p> + +<p>"Well! You acknowledge that it is so?"</p> + +<p>"Acknowledge? Why should I either acknowledge or deny it? There is no +treason in it; the lady is the best judge—let me add, the only +judge—of any attentions I may have paid to her."</p> + +<p>"But I say you have been remarked—it has been spoken of—it is already +a common topic of conversation."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! A common topic of conversation! Well, I have no objection, +provided my good-natured friends do not say any thing injurious, or +wound the lady's feelings by an improper use of my name."</p> + +<p>He paused for a moment, and lowering his voice, then went on,</p> + +<p>"You never said any thing of this before."</p> + +<p>"Why should I? The inquiry was never made of me before."</p> + +<p>"I have made no inquiry," he retorted. "I didn't ask you to confess. You +have avowed it all yourself, unconsciously."</p> + +<p>I felt that the dwarf was getting serious, and that he was likely to +make me more in earnest before he was done than I had at first +anticipated. I saw the necessity of showing him at once that I would not +brook his interference, and I addressed him in a more deliberate tone +than I had hitherto adopted.</p> + +<p>"Allow me to ask," I demanded, "what interest you may take in this +matter, and by what right you assume the office of interrogating me so +authoritatively?"</p> + +<p>"By what right?" he answered. "My right to do so is rather clearer than +your right to refuse an explanation. You met her at my mother's +house—you meet her there. She is under our roof, under our guardianship +and protection. That gives me the right. It is not pleasant to interfere +in this way; but I am called upon to do so by my position, and I delayed +it in the hope that you would render it unnecessary."</p> + +<p>"Why should you hope so? Why should you desire any explanation on the +subject? The lady is her own mistress: she is under your roof, it is +true; but not under your control. The same thing might happen under any +other roof, and nobody would thereby acquire a right to interfere in a +matter that concerns her alone. You will surely see the propriety of not +suffering your curiosity to meddle any further in the affair?"</p> + +<p>"Meddle!" he reiterated; "control! Are these the phrases with which you +taunt me? But," dropping his voice again, he added, "you are right in +suggesting that I have discharged my office when I demand, to what end +those very marked attentions are paid to Astræa?"</p> + +<p>"You make an unwarrantable demand, and you shall have a fitting answer +to it; and my answer is, that to Astræa alone will I confide my +confession, as you call it. She is old enough and wise enough to think +and act for herself; nor will I consent to compromise my respect for her +understanding by admitting that she requires an arbitrator—perhaps I +ought to say, champion."</p> + +<p>"Have a care," he replied, kindling up all at once into a sort of +frenzy—"have a care what you say or do. You move in darkness—you tread +on smothered fire."</p> + +<p>"Do you threaten me?" said I.</p> + +<p>"No; I do not threaten you. Look at your arm and mine—compare your +muscles with my shrunken and stunted frame," he cried, with an +expression of pain and bitterness; "I do not threaten you, but I warn +you—mark me, I warn you! Heed my warning, I beseech, I implore +you—nay, heed it for your life!"</p> + +<p>I could not but admire the sibyl-like grandeur of his head and +outstretched arms as he uttered these strange words. His voice was +hoarse with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_756" id="Page_756">[Pg 756]</a></span> some surging emotion; and if so poor a creature could have +been the recipient of a supernatural inspiration, he might have sat at +that moment for the portrait of one of the deformed soothsayers in a +tale of magic.</p> + +<p>"Do I understand you correctly?" said I; "or are you only playing off +some new freak upon me? Answer me frankly one question, and I shall be +better able to comprehend the meaning of your mysterious menace. Are +you—but I know it is absurd, I feel that the question is very +ridiculous, only that your reply to it will, perhaps, set us both +right—do you love Astræa? I really can not conceive any thing short of +some such feeling to justify this violence."</p> + +<p>"Love her? <i>I</i> love <i>Astræa?</i> If there be a mortal I hate in the core of +my heart, it is Astræa. Are you satisfied?" he replied, with an +expression of fiendish satisfaction in his face, as if he were glad of +the excuse for giving vent to his malignity.</p> + +<p>"Hate her?" said I, calmly; "that is unreasonable: but the whole +discussion is unreasonable. I have given you my answer; none other shall +you have from me. So, good-night."</p> + +<p>"One word," he said, leaping out of his chair into the middle of the +room. "One word before you go. I am a dwarf—do not delude yourself into +any contempt of me on that account. I know as well as you do my +disadvantages in the world; I am as conscious as you are of my physical +defects and shortcomings, my distorted spine, and the parsimony of +nature in all particulars when she made me. But I have passions like +other men; and I pursue them like other men, only, as I am shut out from +the summary and open process, I am compelled, perchance, to the choice +of dark and crooked means. Perhaps, too, my passions are all the more +turbulent and dangerous because they are pent up in an incapable frame, +and denied the vents and appliances which men like you have at their +command. Mark me! see Astræa no more. Let your last interview with her +be your last forever. Enter our house no more; that interdict, at least, +I have a right to pronounce. But for myself, and from myself, and apart +from the privilege of my own roof, I warn you at your peril, and on my +own responsibility, never to see Astræa again."</p> + +<p>"Are you mad?" I exclaimed. "Never to see Astræa again! To forsake her +society at your bidding! Wherefore do you make this monstrous demand? Do +you not feel how preposterous it is to thrust yourself into a quarrel +with me in a matter which not only does not concern you, but which +involves the feelings, perhaps the whole future happiness, of a person +whom you have just ostentatiously declared is the object of your hate?"</p> + +<p>"I make no quarrel with you," he answered; "I will not quarrel with you. +I should be mad, indeed, if I did. What! set myself against your thews +and sinews? No, no—I break no bones with you—but I tell you, once +again, your fate is in my hands. I am your destiny, if you will have it +so. You may trample on the oracle; but you can not, with all your show +of bravery and your proud pretensions, with the lady, too, in triumph on +your side, escape its denunciations."</p> + +<p>"Did you, or did you not," I inquired, bewildered by his language, and +not quite satisfied that he was in possession of his senses, "did you, +or did you not, observe those attentions some months ago of which you +now complain for the first time?"</p> + +<p>"I did," he answered.</p> + +<p>"And why did you not then speak to me on the subject?"</p> + +<p>"Because it wasn't ripe!"</p> + +<p>"Ripe? If you have any meaning in these obscure hints, why do you not +explain it for your own sake, since you can not believe that I will +submit patiently to your insane threats? Again I ask you, did you, or +did you not, promote these attentions by every artifice and suggestion +in your power?"</p> + +<p>"I did."</p> + +<p>"Did you not watch them anxiously, forward them daily, and exult in +their progress, until you became secretly convinced that both Astræa's +feelings and mine were engaged beyond recall?"</p> + +<p>"I did—I did—I did!" roared the dwarf.</p> + +<p>"Did you not produce this very result yourself? Did you not seek it, +urge it, fan it to its height, and even glory in the flame you had +nursed so cunningly?"</p> + +<p>"I did—I did—I did!" he shrieked, his whole body seeming to take part +in the frenzy that convulsed him.</p> + +<p>"Fiend!" I cried; "inexplicable devil! what would you have, then? What +is your aim in thus coming with your curses between us?"</p> + +<p>"You shall never know," he replied, "unless to deplore it to the last +hour of your life. You can never know unless you outrage my will. I have +the power to make you wretched forever, to blight and destroy you. And +if you treat my warning with contempt, I will do it without fail, +without mercy, without remorse. The jester who has contributed so +largely to your entertainment, and furnished such a delectable theme for +your secret and cowardly mockery, will shoot a bolt of a graver cast +when you least expect it, and think yourself most secure. Mark me—note +me well. These are not words of rage, or transient passion: remember +them, be wise, and look to your safety. See Astræa no more. With this I +leave you. Our next meeting must be of your making."</p> + +<p>I was alone. Overwhelmed and awed by the demoniacal maledictions of the +wretched creature whom I had hitherto so intensely despised, I knew not +what to think, or how to act. He had assumed a fresh shape, more +marvelous than any he had hitherto put on in the whole round of his +extraordinary mummery. The raillery and tipsy recklessness which +appeared constitutional in him had suddenly passed away, leaving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_757" id="Page_757">[Pg 757]</a></span> not a +solitary trace behind. Even his figure, while he had been speaking, +seemed to heave with a new life, and to dilate into unnatural +dimensions. I was perplexed to the last extremity; not that the malice +of the demon could scare me from my resolves, but that his motives were +so impenetrable as to suffer no clew to escape by which I could discover +the evil purpose that lay at the bottom.</p> + +<p>It was not the machination or revenge of a disappointed suitor. He never +could have aspired to a hope of Astræa, and he avowed his aversion to +her. She was ignorant of all this bravado about her; and would be even +more indignant to hear of it than I was to suffer it. I resolved, +therefore, not to insult her by revealing it to her. Fortunately, I had +made an appointment to meet her alone on the following day. That meeting +would decide every thing. She might, perhaps, throw some light upon what +was at present a profound mystery to me. At all events, my course was +clear. Under the circumstances in which I was placed, I felt that there +lay but one alternative before me.</p> + + +<h4>VII.</h4> + +<p>My resolution was taken, as I thought, very composedly. I tried to +persuade myself that I was not in the least ruffled or agitated by the +scene I had passed through; but I was secretly conscious, +notwithstanding, of a vague dread which I endeavored in vain to stifle. +The defiance which the dwarf had so insolently flung at me, the contrast +he drew between his shriveled frame and my physical advantages, and the +Satanic pride with which he rose superior to his wretched deformities, +gave me no slight cause for uneasiness, although I could not analyze the +nature of the fear that possessed me. All through the night I abandoned +myself to the wildest speculations upon the unaccountable conduct and +designs of my arch-enemy; but as morning advanced that oppressive train +of reflections gave way to more agreeable thoughts, just as the hideous +images of the night-mare vanish before the approach of day.</p> + +<p>The prospect of meeting Astræa excluded all other considerations. As +impediments to the flow of a current only serve to increase its force, +so the opposition which the dwarf had thrown in my way gave an +additional impetus to my feelings. The very publicity which our +intercourse had attracted altered our relations to each other. It was no +longer possible to indulge in the romantic dreams, secret looks, and +stolen conversations with which we had hitherto pampered our +imagination; it was necessary to act. I felt the responsibility that was +thus cast upon me; and I confess that I was rather obliged to my +villainous Mephistophiles than angry with him for having, as it were, +brought all my wayward raptures to so immediate and decisive a +conclusion. As to his anathemas and warnings, I treated them as so much +buffoonery on the wrong side of the grotesque. In short, I was too much +engrossed by the approaching interview, and too much intoxicated by the +contemplation of the result to which it inevitably led, to think at all +about that imp of darkness and his ludicrous fulminations. Astræa +occupied brain and heart, and left no room for my tormentor.</p> + +<p>I fancied she looked unusually happy that morning; but not so happy as I +was, not so disturbed and unsettled by happiness. She was perfectly +tranquil, and it was evident that nothing had transpired in the interval +to awaken a suspicion of what had occurred between me and the dwarf. She +observed at once that a change had taken place in my manner.</p> + +<p>"You are in marvelously high spirits to-day," she said; "but this +exuberant gayety is not quite natural to you."</p> + +<p>"High spirits! I am not conscious of it."</p> + +<p>"So much the worse," she replied; then, placing her hand upon my arm, +and looking earnestly at me, she added, "something has happened since I +saw you. What is it? It would be wrong, and useless as well as wrong, to +affect to deny it."</p> + +<p>I had noticed at times in Astræa an air of solemnity, which would fall +upon her face like a shadow, slowly receding again before its habitual, +but always subdued brightness; and occasionally I imagined that I +detected a sudden and brief sternness in her eyes, which conveyed an +impression that she was interrogating with their concentrated rays, the +concealed thoughts of the person upon whom they were directed. These +were some of the outward signs of that mystery of her nature which I +never could penetrate. Upon this occasion a world of latent doubts and +suspicions appeared to be condensed in her look. It seemed as if in that +single glance she read the whole incident which, to spare her feelings, +I was so unwilling to disclose.</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose, Astræa," I inquired, "can have happened since I +saw you?"</p> + +<p>"You are not candid with me," she returned. "I ask you a question, and +you answer by asking me another. If nothing has happened, you can easily +satisfy me; if it be otherwise, and you are silent, I must draw my own +conclusions."</p> + +<p>"Whatever conclusions you draw, Astræa, I know you have too firm a +reliance on my truth and devotion not to believe that I am actuated by +the purest motives. Have I not always been sincere and frank with you?"</p> + +<p>"Always."</p> + +<p>"Have you not an implicit confidence in the steadfastness of my love?"</p> + +<p>"Were it otherwise, should I be now standing here questioning you, or +should there be need of questions of this kind between us? Confidence! +Why am I so sensitive to the slightest fluctuations of tone and manner I +observe in you, and where do I derive the intuitive perception of their +meanings? Love must have confidence! But it has instincts also. I feel +there is something—I am sure of it—but I will urge you no further. It +is not, perhaps,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_758" id="Page_758">[Pg 758]</a></span> for your happiness or mine that I should seek to +know."</p> + +<p>"Astræa," I exclaimed, passionately, "there is nothing I would conceal +from you that I think you ought to know, or that would make you happier +to know; and if I have any reserve from you, it is for your sake, and +you must ascribe it to the tenderness of my regard for you."</p> + +<p>"For <i>my</i> sake?" she repeated, with a slightly terrified and curious +expression.</p> + +<p>"Now listen to me; I have something to say to you which is of more +importance to us both than these wise, loving conjectures of yours. Take +my arm, and let us get into the Park."</p> + +<p>We were near one of the inclosures of the Regent's Park; and when we +reached a more secluded place, I resumed:</p> + +<p>"First of all, I should like to have your own unbiased opinion about +your friends with whom you are residing. Have you observed any change in +their manner toward you?"</p> + +<p>"Change? None whatever."</p> + +<p>"Do you think—I mean from any thing you have yourself noticed—that +they have watched our actions or been inquisitive in our affairs?"</p> + +<p>She looked inquiringly at me, and hesitated.</p> + +<p>"I think it would be impossible to be much with them and escape their +<i>persiflage</i>, let us act as we might. But beyond that sort of idle +criticism which they deal out indiscriminately to every body, I have +observed nothing. Why do you ask?"</p> + +<p>"Because I have reason to believe that my attentions to you have +attracted more observation than either of us suspected; and that, in +fact, they have made such remarks on us as no longer leaves our future +course at our own time or option."</p> + +<p>"You have reason to believe this?"</p> + +<p>"The best possible reason."</p> + +<p>"Who is your authority?"</p> + +<p>"Will you not accept my own authority, without seeking further?"</p> + +<p>"No. It is not a time to hold back from any false delicacy to me, or any +mistaken respect for the confidence of others. Beware of such +confidences, if there be any. They are not meant for your peace or mine, +but to plunge us both into an abyss in which we shall be left to perish. +I must know all. I am entitled to know it. If your love be a hundredth +part as strong and devoted, and as prepared for sacrifice as mine, you +will place a full and entire trust in me."</p> + +<p>"And I do. You shall know all; but I must exact a solemn promise from +you, before I tell you how, and in what manner, this information was +communicated to me. It is impossible for me to foresee how it may affect +or wound your feelings; and it is due to me, if I yield to your request +against my own judgment, that you should pledge yourself, be the +consequences what they may, to give me a public right to protect you +against the further malignity—I can not call it by any milder term—of +your enemies and mine."</p> + +<p>She was deeply affected by this request, which was spoken in so low and +tremulous a voice, so burdened with a painful earnestness, that she +appeared to gather from it the final conviction that upon her answer +depended the future happiness or misery of our lives. I confess, for my +own part, that the pause which ensued, during which she almost +unconsciously repeated to herself, "Be the consequences what they may!" +was to me harrowing beyond expression. It seemed as if there was some +sinister influence at work to destroy us both; and that even the +immediate prospect of our union was not sufficient to allay the terror +that influence inspired, and into the causes and springs of which I now +began to imagine she had a clearer insight than I had previously +suspected. But I was steeped in a tumultuous passion, which would not +suffer me to investigate intervening difficulties. What the source of +her terror was I knew not; mine arose only from the apprehension of +losing her; and to have secured her at that moment, looking as she did, +in the agitation that gave such a wild lustre to her eyes, more lovely +than ever, I would have cheerfully relinquished every thing else in the +world. So far from being anxious to have the cause of her fears and +hesitation cleared up, I was in the utmost alarm lest she should enter +upon an explanation that might delay the consummation of my wishes. I +sought only an affirmative reply to my request, which, come what might, +would make her mine forever.</p> + +<p>She loosened herself from my arm, and walked apart from me in silence. +This action, and the sort of panic it indicated, filled me with alarm.</p> + +<p>"Astræa, you have not answered my question. What is the reason of your +silence?"</p> + +<p>"Be the consequences what they may!" she reiterated. "I did not think of +that, but it is right I should. I should have thought of it before—I +did think of it; but of what avail, while I suffered myself to indulge +in a dream which that thought ought to have dispelled?"</p> + +<p>"You speak in a language that is unintelligible to me; but there is no +time now for explanations. We must decide, Astræa, at once, for to-day +and forever. I only ask your explicit pledge. Let us reserve +explanations for hereafter."</p> + +<p>"You say this in ignorance of what awaits you. I feel that I ought not +to make any pledge until—" and she hesitated again.</p> + +<p>"If I am satisfied to take your pledge, and all consequences with it, +and to repay it with the devotion of my life, why, beloved Astræa, +should you hesitate? Let the responsibility fall on me—of that another +time. Every hour is precious now, and you will understand why I urge you +so impatiently when I tell you that I can never again enter the house +where you are now residing."</p> + +<p>"I knew it. I saw it clearly from the first word you uttered. It was +revealed to me in the very tone of your voice. Now hear me patiently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_759" id="Page_759">[Pg 759]</a></span> +Your peace, your honor, all feelings that contribute to the respect and +happiness of life, are at stake upon this moment."</p> + +<p>The determination of her manner left me no choice but to listen.</p> + +<p>"Are you prepared to risk all other ties, obligations, and prospects, in +the consummation of this one object? to hazard friends, opinion, the +world—perhaps it may be, to sacrifice them for the love that has grown +up between us, and which, for good or evil, must this day bind us +together, or sever us for the rest of our lives?"</p> + +<p>"What a question to put to me! The 'world!' it is ashes without you. I +tell you, Astræa, that if the choice lay between the grave and the +single word that would sunder us, I would die rather than utter it. I +don't know what your question implies—I don't seek to know; and would +prefer to remain ignorant of it, that I may the more clearly prove to +you the depth of my trust and devotion, which will be satisfied with the +simple pledge that makes you mine. That, at least, you have in your own +power; let me answer for the rest."</p> + +<p>"Consider well what you are saying. Is your love strong enough to bear +the hazards I have pointed out? Search your own nature—look into your +pride, your sensitiveness to neglect and censure, your high sense of +personal dignity. I have seen how ill you can brook slight affronts—do +you believe that your love will enable you to bear great ones—scorn, +contumely, perhaps opprobrium? Think, think, and weigh well your +decision."</p> + +<p>"Astræa, you put me upon the rack. I have no other answer to give. For +you, and for your sake, come what may, I am ready to risk all!"</p> + +<p>"For me and for my sake, if it be necessary, to forsake the world? to +relinquish friends and kindred? to dedicate yourself in solitude to her +who, in solitude, would be content to find her whole world in you? To do +this, without repining, without looking back with anguish and remorse +upon the sacrifices you had made, without a regret or a reproach? A +woman can do this. Is it so sure there lives a man equal to such +trials?"</p> + +<p>"If these sacrifices be imperative upon us, we make them together. There +can be nothing for either of us to reproach the other with. And as to +the solitude you speak of, my heart yearns for it. It is in that +solitude we can the more fully understand and develop the profound +devotion that shall have drawn us into it. I am sick of the world—weary +and tired of it, and longing for the repose which you alone can +consecrate. It will be no sacrifice to abandon the world for you. +Sacrifice, my Astræa? it will be the crowning happiness of my life!"</p> + +<p>"And you are confident that you can depend upon the firmness of your +resolution? I do not ask this for my own sake—for I know myself, what I +can suffer and outlive—but for yours."</p> + +<p>"I solemnly and finally answer, that no earthly influence can shake my +resolution."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Astræa, placing her hand in mine, and in a grave voice, +laden with emotion, "I am yours forever. Henceforth, I owe no allegiance +elsewhere—here, in the sight of Heaven, I pledge my faith to you, and +hold the compact as binding as if at this moment it were plighted at the +altar."</p> + +<p>I was transported with the earnestness of these words, and covering her +hand with kisses, I exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"And I ratify it, Astræa, my own Astræa, with my whole heart. Now, who +shall divide us? We are one, and no human power can part us."</p> + +<p>I then related to her the circumstances that had taken place the +preceding evening. She heard me throughout with a calmness that +surprised me. I expected that the extraordinary conduct of the dwarf +would have excited her indignation; but she seemed to know him better +than I did, and although I could perceive a heavy flush sometimes rush +into her cheeks, and a sudden pallor succeed it, the narrative of his +mysterious menaces did not appear to produce half as much astonishment +in her mind as it did in mine.</p> + +<p>"We will talk of this another time," she observed; "at present we must +think of ourselves. I know his character—I know the demoniac revenge he +is capable of; and, for our own safety, we must avoid him."</p> + +<p>"Revenge!" I echoed. The phrase coming from Astræa fell strangely on my +ears.</p> + +<p>"I will leave the house to-morrow; but, for your sake, I will hold no +communication with you till I am beyond his reach. Once assured of that, +I will write to you, and you will come to me. This is the only act I +will ask to take upon my own responsibility, and I do so because it will +secure our mutual safety. From that hour I shall be implicitly guided by +you."</p> + +<p>I should have been glad to have adopted a different course, and to have +claimed her openly. My pride, wounded by the insolent denunciations of +the dwarf, demanded a more public vindication of her independence and +mine; and this stolen flight, and the necessity it imposed upon me of +observing a similar caution in my own movements, looked so like fear and +evasion that I submitted to it very reluctantly. The notion of +concealment and secrecy galled me, and even at this moment, when my +happiness was on the eve of consummation, it gave me a thrill of +uneasiness that cast an oppressive shadow over the future. Astræa, +however, had evidently a strong reason for insisting on privacy, and I +was too anxious about hastening our union to throw any new obstacle in +the way of its accomplishment.</p> + +<p>We separated in the Park, Astræa being unwilling to suffer me to escort +her any further lest we should be seen together. This little incident, +trifling as it was, increased the nervous annoyance and sense of +humiliation I felt at being required to act as if I had any fear of the +results; nor could I comprehend why she should be so much alarmed at +being seen walking with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_760" id="Page_760">[Pg 760]</a></span> me alone, when she knew that in a few days we +should be indissolubly united. But I submitted to her wishes. Passion is +willful and unreasonable, and takes a wayward pleasure in shutting its +eyes, and rushing onward in the dare. I stifled my vexation in the +anticipation of the joy that lay before me, which would be victory +enough over the impotent hatred of Mephistophiles.</p> + + +<h4>VIII.</h4> + +<p>Throughout the whole of the next day I waited anxiously in the +expectation of hearing from Astræa. Evening came and passed, and there +was no communication. When the last post-hour was gone by, and all hope +of a letter was at an end, I ventured into the streets, hoping to gather +some signs of her movements from the outside of her house. The blinds +were down as usual in the drawing-room windows, and there seemed to be +rather an extraordinary flush of lights within, as if some commotion was +going forward. I could see huge, shapeless shadows of people moving +about the room, in great bustle and excitement; and it appeared to me, +from the frequency and confusion of then: motions, that the ordinary +family party was augmented by additional numbers. The gathering, +whatever it might have been, was not for festivity; and the constant +swaying backward and forward, and vehement tossing of long streaks of +heads and arms on the blinds, resembled the action of a violent domestic +scene, in which the angry passions were strenuously engaged. I hardly +knew what to conclude from this incoherent pantomime. Either Astræa was +there, in the midst of a stormy contention; or she had left the house, +and they were disputing furiously over the causes of her departure.</p> + +<p>After I had been some time watching this unintelligible phantasmagoria, +and vainly endeavoring to collect a meaning for it, the hall-door +opened, and in the momentary gleam of light that shot into the street I +saw the dwarf issuing out, muffled to the ears in a cloak. He stood for +a moment on the pavement, and adjusting his cloak more carefully about +his face, and crushing his hat down over his eyes, he set off at a quick +pace in an opposite direction to that part of the street where I was +standing. I confess I felt ashamed of the espionage in which I was +occupied, and although I followed my mercurial fiend at a safe distance, +for the distinct purpose of earthing him wherever he was going, I by no +means liked the office which a sort of fatality had forced upon me. But +I was somewhat reconciled to it by a secret conviction that the +abominable little demon had himself come out upon an equally +discreditable expedition, which I soon detected from the infinite pains +he took to elude observation.</p> + +<p>Instead of keeping in the public streets, he darted down numerous dark +alleys and lanes, and once with considerable difficulty I chased him +through the unsavory depths of a straggling mews, where he doubled in an +out with such rapidity as to render it no easy matter to keep upon his +track without betraying myself. Two or three times I nearly lost sight +of him; and it was not until he emerged out of a gloomy passage, of the +existence of which I was until that moment ignorant, into the street +where I lived, that I had the least suspicion of the direction he was +taking. It was presently evident that his object had some reference to +me, for he had no sooner entered the street than he darted into the deep +recess of a hall-door, where he stood for full ten minutes crouched and +transfixed, looking up at my windows, which were exactly opposite to +him.</p> + +<p>Fortunately I was able to note his movements without being myself +perceived, as I lurked in the shadow of the passage from whence he had +just issued.</p> + +<p>The windows of my chambers being dark, I presume he concluded that I was +from home; and under that impression, no doubt, he crossed over and +knocked stealthily at the door—just as one would knock who did not wish +to attract the attention of the inmates, but merely to convey an +intimation to the servants. I was seized with a strong impulse to rush +upon him suddenly, present myself as the door opened, and confound him +on the spot; but I remembered how earnestly Astræa had urged upon me the +prudence of avoiding him, and I restrained myself. Stepping cautiously +into a doorway, I continued to watch his further proceedings.</p> + +<p>The door was opened by a servant, and my dwarf, burying himself up to +the eyes in his cloak, so that it was impossible to distinguish his +features, appeared to enter into a confidential conversation with her. +It seemed to me to last a long time; but my impatience, no doubt, +exaggerated its duration. At length it drew to an end, and hastily +nodding to the servant, who looked after him, as I thought with much +curiosity and astonishment, he dropped down the street at the same +flying pace with which he had entered it. That he had come to my house +for the purpose of picking up some intelligence about me was clear; upon +that point I was satisfied, and the discovery only served to heighten my +anxiety to find out what he was going to do next.</p> + +<p>As he darted along I could not help admiring his wonderful agility. +There was a certain sort of confident swagger about his ordinary style +of walking, such as you frequently observe in small vivacious men, who +strut and swing through the streets as if the great globe itself were +their private property; but upon this occasion it resolved itself into +the swift and impetuous flight of a meteor. He shot from one angle of a +street to another something in the manner of a will-o'-the-wisp, and it +was almost as difficult to fix his course and follow him up. Thus +hanging closely on his footsteps, I was not a little mortified to find, +after all, that the trouble I had taken led to nothing. Striking out a +different, but a much shorter route, the hideous creature went back to +his own house. The lights were already extinguished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_761" id="Page_761">[Pg 761]</a></span> in the +drawing-room, and the windows, even to the dormitories, were in +darkness. The domestics, apparently, had retired to bed; for the dwarf, +hastily opening the door with a latch-key, vanished from my sight almost +at the same instant that he ascended the steps. I lingered for A few +moments at a distance, and then slowly returned home, congratulating +myself on having detected his sinister expedition, and impatient to +ascertain the substance of his conversation with the servant.</p> + +<p>When I interrogated her on the subject, she betrayed a little fear and +hesitation, but at last she told me every thing that had transpired. The +strange gentleman, whom she had never seen before, and who so completely +concealed his features that she should not be able to identify him +again, asked her a great number of questions about my movements, and +especially if I had been out during the day. He appeared surprised to +learn that I had only just left home, and wanted to know whether I was +expected back that night, and whether I was going out of town. It +happened that I had occupied myself throughout the morning in packing my +carpet-bag and portmanteau, so that I might be able to attend Astræa's +expected summons at a moment's notice; and the servant, whose distrust +was awakened by the urgent manner of the questioner, tried to fence off +his inquiries about my traveling preparations, but his superior +dexterity finally extracted the fact from her. Having obtained that +significant clew to my intentions, he suddenly wished her good-night, +and disappeared. The girl was so frightened by his mysterious air and +abrupt interrogations, that I believe she fancied I was going to fight a +duel; for about that time there had been a fatal duel, which furnished a +topic of general conversation, and which, I suppose, put the sagacious +suspicion into her head.</p> + +<p>"Forewarned, forearmed," says the old proverb. I was now fairly apprised +that the dwarf was upon my track, and I resolved, as a mere measure of +precaution, ignorant as I was of the machinations I had to fear, that +whatever course it might become necessary to adopt, should be carried +out with the utmost secrecy.</p> + +<p>The next morning came a letter from Astræa. No language can adequately +depict the agitation with which I opened the envelope. I felt as if my +fate was contained in the inclosure—as it was!</p> + +<p>It consisted of only a single line, scrawled in haste over a great sheet +of paper, at the top of which was an address in the country, in another +hand-writing, with the following words beneath, written by Astræa:</p> + +<p>"I am here: come to me <i>quickly</i>.—A."</p> + +<p>The assurance which this brief intimation conveyed that Astræa had left +London, relieved me of at least one source of anxiety; and all that now +remained was to obey her mandate, and join her without loss of time in +her retreat. I own that I felt rather like a culprit in the way in +which I abandoned my chambers. Feeling assured that the dwarf, having +once set himself as a spy upon my actions, would stop at no means of +tracing me out of town, I determined to leave such an account of myself +behind as should effectually put him upon a false scent. I accordingly +informed the people of the house that I was going into Buckinghamshire +for two days; and, as that was nearly the opposite direction to the +route I was really about to take—for my destination lay among the +sylvan valleys of Kent—I hoped to baffle him at the start. My +arrangements were speedily completed, and, having made a hasty +inspection of the street before I ventured out, I sprang into a +cabriolet, and drove off.</p> + +<p>The imperceptible degrees by which men, in the pursuit of passionate +ends, suffer themselves to fall into deceptions, at which their reason +and their probity would revolt in calmer moments, might suggest a useful +train of reflections at this point of my narrative. But the moral is +obvious enough, without requiring to be formally pointed. I shall only +remark, that my ruminations in the post-chaise that carried me to Astræa +ran chiefly upon the self-humiliation I felt in contemplating the +mystery in which I had become entangled step by step, and the sort of +guiltiness which my studious evasion of the dwarf seemed to argue to my +own mind. Men who act openly never have any reason to entertain a fear +of others, and may look the world boldly in the face. It is only men +that commit themselves to actions which will not bear the light who +resort to subterfuges and concealments, and are harrowed by +apprehensions. My dilemma was a singular one. There was nothing I had +done which I had the slightest reason to hide or feel alarm about; yet I +was taking as cautious measures to avoid publicity as if I were flying +from justice, and was haunted all the time by a thrill of terror which I +could not assign to any intelligible cause.</p> + +<p>In the dusk of the evening, I had the profound happiness of reaching my +destination, and all inquietude was lulled into oblivion by the music of +those tones which always went direct to my heart. The past and the +future were equally absorbed in the luxury of Astræa's society, and I +felt that if I needed an excuse for the strange circumstances in which I +was placed, I had an ample one in the devotion of such a woman. The very +danger—if danger it was, with which I was as yet unacquainted—the +anxiety, the concealment, the flight we had passed through to secure our +union, enhanced the rapture with which we now met never to be sundered +again.</p> + +<p>That evening I related to her what had happened the night before, and +she gave me an account of the manner in which she had managed to escape +from the dwarf's house; for, in spite of the self-possession with which +she described the incident, it more nearly resembled an escape than a +departure. In fact, she had left the house in the morning, on foot, and +was expected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_762" id="Page_762">[Pg 762]</a></span> back, as usual, to luncheon after her walk. But luncheon +passed, and there were no tidings of her; and, at dinner-time, a brief +note by the post announced her leave-taking, excusing its abruptness, on +the ground of a sudden and urgent call into the country. This was, no +doubt, the subject which the angry shadows on the blinds had been so +vehemently discussing the night before. So violent an infraction of +etiquette would have pained me seriously had it occurred under any other +circumstances, or had it been inflicted upon any other persons than the +members of that eccentric family. But we knew them well; how unlike they +were to the rest of the world, and how slight an impression the mere +breach of courtesy would make upon them, in comparison with the +malicious curiosity it would awaken! They were like Bohemians in their +habits and ways of thinking; and were themselves so accustomed to +violate established usages, that the most extravagant irregularities +could not very materially surprise them. This consideration reconciled +me to a proceeding which must otherwise have been a source of regret to +me, on Astræa's account; besides, I was by no means unwilling to accept +the sacrifice she had thus made of her own independence as an additional +proof of her attachment.</p> + +<p>But what was the cause of all these stratagems and concealments? I +should learn that the next day. I saw that Astræa was suffering under a +despondency natural enough to her novel situation, and I patiently +waited her own time for disclosures which I now began to look forward to +with nervous apprehensions.</p> + +<p>The house in which I found her lay buried in the foliage of a secluded +valley. It was in the cottage style, covered with creepers that dropped +in at the windows, and filled the rooms with scent; and it belonged to +people in an humble rank of life, who had known Astræa from her infancy, +and were devoted to her interest. Under the shelter of their roof, she +was secure. The place was extremely picturesque on a small scale—a +green glen, where the surrounding heights were broken into a variety of +forms, and where the eye, on whatever spot it rested, caught some point +of beauty. An impetuous little stream rushed from the jaws of a ravine +that formed a sort of vista at one extremity, and, brawling away through +the wooded depths of the valley, tossed itself into the air over a group +of artificial rooks at the foot of the tiny lawn. Dark trees filled the +openings in the hills, and the sward round their roots was dotted with +clusters of wild flowers, like a garden. A rustic bridge spanned the +water, and graceful willows dipped their tresses into the spray. Aquatic +plants clung about the rocks—parasite tendrils climbed the ancient +wood; and there was altogether a feeling of solitude and repose in the +scene, that rendered it the most fitting seclusion on earth to ripen +into a new life of love two ardent hearts like ours.</p> + +<p>With what anxiety I looked forward to the next day, when Astræa and I, +liberated from all eyes, should wander about these lonely paths! It came +at last, and with it brought my doom!</p> + +<h4>(<i>To be continued.</i>)</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="STORY_OF_SILVER-VOICE_AND_HER_SISTER_ZOE" id="STORY_OF_SILVER-VOICE_AND_HER_SISTER_ZOE"></a>STORY OF SILVER-VOICE AND HER SISTER ZOE.</h2> + + +<p>The phenomena of memory are singular objects of study. I have often +thought that a certain class of ideas and observations could be so +arranged as to form an orderly, connected chain, one link of which would +bring home all the others, however deeply sunken in the mind. But +experience teaches me that this is not the case. During my residence in +the East, though I kept a careful journal of every thing that seemed +interesting at the time, a thousand circumstances came to my notice +which I did not set down; and when I have endeavored to recall them, +many have stubbornly refused to appear when wanted. But suddenly, when I +at least expect it, I now and then find myself irresistibly carried back +to old times. Forms that had faded into distance—thoughts that had +seemed dissolved into nothing—scenes and impressions which I had in +vain sought to revive—obtrude themselves irresistibly on my notice. In +general, the unexpected visitants are welcome; the fireside is rendered +brighter and more cheerful by them; and their presence sends a glow +through this northern atmosphere, which allows autumn to steal on +unperceived.</p> + +<p>I was prevented last night from sleeping by the perpetual recurrence in +my reveries of the name of Lady Silver-Voice. I had forgotten her +existence, as one is apt to forget a beautiful thing amidst the material +cares of this life. Let me endeavor to tell her story as simply as it +was told to me.</p> + +<p>But first, how I came to see her—for I have had that privilege. It was +one evening in winter-time, that, after a prolonged illness, I was +taking a stroll on the roof of a palace-like mansion in Cairo. The sun +had set <i>for me</i>; it had gone down behind the interminable sea of +houses. But I could still see it shining on the forest of minarets that +rose through the moist, balmy air, and on the vast dome of the mosque +that now towers above the citadel. The terrace-roof on which I was, +though commanded at a distance by much more lofty buildings, was far +raised above the humble dwellings near at hand, so that I could look +down and observe the movements of my neighbors, who were most varied in +race and costume—Turks and Maltese, Arabs and Greeks, Armenians and +Copts—to say nothing of "Jews and poultry," which my servant, who +brought me a pipe, added to the enumeration.</p> + +<p>I passed some time in examining the movements of these various +personages, who all come out upon their terraces to enjoy the evening +air; and though I did not observe any thing very characteristic, any +thing which would necessarily go down in my journal, I was sufficiently +interested not to notice the flight of time, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_763" id="Page_763">[Pg 763]</a></span> to allow complete +darkness to gather round me while I still leaned over the parapet. +Suddenly I was aroused from my contemplations by a snatch of a strange +song sung in the most marvelously-sweet voice I had ever heard. I +started, not exactly like a guilty thing, but transfixed, as it were, by +an almost painful shaft of delight. The voice swelled up on the night +air, until, in spite of its divine sweetness, it became almost a cry of +sorrow, and then ceased, leaving a thrill running through my frame that +gradually seemed to shrink back to my heart, and expire there in a +feeling of mingled joy and pain. Perhaps the state of my health rendered +me peculiarly susceptible of strong emotions: I am afraid I wept. The +darkness, however, prevented this weakness from being witnessed by Ali, +who came to announce that my dinner was ready. I went down the winding +staircase to the vast lonely hall, where I usually ate alone—the master +of the house being absent on a journey; but though my appetite was that +of a convalescent, I am sure I did not enliven the meal for myself by my +usual humorous observations: to the officer, for example, that I was +doubtful whether the beef was camel, or the mutton was donkey. Ali +seemed rather surprised, especially when I asked him, abruptly, who it +was that sang so sweetly in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>He did not know! My curiosity was unsatisfied; but, perhaps, I went to +bed that night with a fuller gush of happiness at my heart than if I had +heard this prosy fellow's account of the matter. It is a frequent +subject of meditation with me, whether or not I am constituted as other +men are. Are others played upon in this way by some slight +occurrence—by meeting with a face seen before only in a dream, by a +peculiar smile, by a gesture, by a sigh, by a voice singing in the +darkness? If not, who will understand the delicious watchful hours I +passed that night, or the dreams, spangled with bright eyes, fairy +forms, purple clouds, golden gleams, and buzzing with sweeter warblings +than ever rolled in a nightingale's throat, that lured me on until +morning?</p> + +<p>Naturally, the first inquiries I made were about the voice; but I did +not that day meet with any success. When evening approached, I again +went up to the terrace; and, not to lengthen the story, I did see, just +as the sun went down upon a low house not very far off, but looking into +another street, a little fairy figure walking up and down, and leading a +child by the hand. A kind of instinct told me that the voice was +embodied before me; and, presently, all doubt was set at rest. The same +silver tones rose upon the air; and this time I recognized that the song +was in the Greek language. I remained looking intently in that +direction, until the form faded into a mere shadow; and then, as +darkness increased, seemed to multiply before my aching eyes, and assume +all sorts of fantastical shapes. Every now and then, a couplet, or a +stanza, came sweeping up. It was evident the lady, whoever she might +be, was not singing merely to amuse the child. The notes were sometimes +lively, but, in general, sad and plaintive. I listened long after the +last quaver had died away; and was rather sulky when Ali came with the +persevering joke that "the camel was getting cold!"</p> + +<p>Next day I suddenly remembered that an old Greek priest had frequently +invited me to go to his house; and reproaching myself with the want of +politeness I had hitherto exhibited, I ordered my donkey to be saddled, +and started off. The ride was only of a few streets; it seemed to me +quite a journey. On arriving, the worthy <i>papa</i> was fortunately at home, +and by himself. He was delighted with my visit; and, after a small +altercation with his servant, succeeded in getting me some coffee and a +pipe. I admired the art with which I wound toward my query. The old +gentleman suspected nothing; but when I casually asked if he knew who it +was among his countrymen who sang like an angel, he quickly replied, "It +must be Silver-Voice, as she is called among the Moslem!"</p> + +<p>I overturned my pipe on the mat in my eagerness to turn round and +listen. Excellent old man! instead of clapping his hands for the +servant, he went down upon his knees to collect the scattered tobacco, +and replace it in the bowl, and silenced my excuse with as mild an "It +is no matter, my son!" as ever passed the lips of one of our species. He +grew before my eyes in that humble posture; and when he returned to his +seat, seemed fifty times as venerable as before. The same spirit would +have led him to wash the feet of the poor.</p> + +<p>He then told me the story of Silver-Voice and her sister:</p> + +<p>"Many years ago, a Greek merchant was walking through the slave-market, +when he beheld for sale a little girl, so beautiful, and yet so sad, +that though he was on the way to conclude a bargain for fifty thousand +ardebs of beans, he could not prevail on himself to pass indifferently +on.</p> + +<p>"'Of what country?' he inquired.</p> + +<p>"'A Candiote,' replied the slave-dealer. She was from his own beloved +island.</p> + +<p>"'How much?'</p> + +<p>"'Five thousand piastres.'</p> + +<p>"'I will pay the price.' The bargain was concluded on the spot. Another +merchant got the beans; but Kariades took home the Silver-Voice to his +house.</p> + +<p>"The girl followed him silently, hanging down her head, and refusing to +answer the questions he put in his kind, bluff way. Some great sorrow +evidently weighed upon her, and she refused to be comforted. When, +however, Kariades presented her to his wife, and said, 'This shall be +our daughter,' the child opened her mouth and cried, 'Wherefore, oh +father, didst thou not come to the slave-market one short hour before?' +He asked her meaning, and she explained that her sister had been +separated from her, and sold to a Turk; 'and,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_764" id="Page_764">[Pg 764]</a></span> cried she, 'I will not +live unless Zoë be brought back to my side.' Kariades smiled as he +replied, 'I went forth, this day to buy beans, and I have come back with +a daughter. Must I needs go and fetch another?' 'You must!' said the +girl, resolutely.</p> + +<p>"From that hour forth she was the queen in the house. Kariades returned +to the slave-market, but, strange to say, could find no clew to the fate +of Zoë, although he offered double her price to the dealer. It was +believed that she had been bought by a stranger merely passing through +Cairo, and making no stay; for the public crier was employed to go about +the streets and proclaim that whoever would produce the girl should +receive whatever he demanded. All was in vain. Time passed on; and the +active grief of the Silver-Voice sobered down into steadfast melancholy. +She continued living as the daughter or rather as the mistress of the +house, knowing no want but that of her sister, and enchanting every one +with the magnificence of her singing, until she reached the age of +sixteen years.</p> + +<p>"One day Kariades said to her, 'My child, I must seek a husband for thee +among the merchants of my people.' But she firmly refused, declaring +that there could be no joy for her unless she knew that her sister was +not living in wretched thralldom in the house of some cruel Turk.</p> + +<p>"'But,' said he, 'what if death have overtaken her?'</p> + +<p>"'We promised, as we lay folded in each other's arms the night before we +were parted, to be happy or sorrowful together—to laugh at the same +time, to weep at the same time—and if one died, the other was never to +cease grieving. I remember that, as they were dragging Zoë away, she +turned her pale face, all sparkling with tears, toward me, and cried, +<i>forever</i>!'</p> + +<p>"'Meaning that you were parted forever?'</p> + +<p>"'No; but that we were to be faithful to our vow forever. I never shall +forget the agonizing expression of that face. How can I? I see it every +night in my dreams; and painful though it be, I rush into sleep as +eagerly to behold it as if I were going into Paradise. No: I will never +marry while that face threatens to interpose between my husband and me.'</p> + +<p>"'Then this vision torments thee?'</p> + +<p>"'Ah, father!' and she shuddered, and bent her head.</p> + +<p>"It was evident that her mind was weakened by too much contemplation of +one idea.</p> + +<p>"Kariades yielded before a will stronger than his own, and nothing more +was said either about marriage or the lost Zoë for nearly a year. At the +end of this time, Silver-Voice appeared before the good old man, and +said, 'Father, give me money; I have thought of a means by which I may +find my sister Zoë.' He looked sadly at her, but gave her what she +required. Next day she disappeared, and was not heard of for several +weeks. Then she returned, consoled her adopted parents by her presence +for a while, and again departed without giving the least indication of +how she employed her time. Nor did they ask her, confident that all she +did was prompted by that most powerful of all loves—the love of a +sister supplying a mother's place. "The truth was, that she had hired a +number of houses in various parts of Cairo, and visited them +alternately, in order to pass the evenings singing on the terrace. +Despite the failure of the researches made by Kariades, she remained +persuaded that Zoë was in Cairo, and hoped that the echoes of her +magnificent voice might at length go as messengers into the depths of +every harem, and make known her presence. The whole city was by turns +rendered happy by the Silver-Voice; but as it was heard now in the +Citadel, now near the Bisket-el-Fil, anon at the Bab Zuweileh, men began +to think strange things. It was curious, indeed, to hear the +speculations of the gossiping Turks about this ubiquitous voice. I +remember laughing much at the wise arguments by which one of them, who +had heard the fable of Memnon's statue, demonstrated to me that the +sound came from no human organ at all, but was produced by the rays of +the setting sun striking in some peculiar way upon the minarets.</p> + +<p>"A whole year passed in this manner without bringing any thing new; but +the beautiful patience of the Silver-Voice was at length after a fashion +rewarded. Better had it been, perhaps, for her, had her soul been wafted +away in some sad song. She was standing one evening, long after the sun +had set, filling the air with her plaintive notes, and calling, as +usual, upon her sister; suddenly there rose a cry—a piercing, terrible +cry, such as no mortal ever utters but when the sanctuary of life is +invaded. At that awful sound the Silver-Voice was struck dumb. She stood +listening like a gazelle when it hears the howl of a wolf afar off upon +the desert. The wild accents seemed to hang for a moment over her, and +then fell into her ear, moulding, as they fell, into the words, "My +sister!" How it came to pass she could not tell: over the parapet, along +a crumbling wall, across a ruined house, she passed as if by magic, +until she fell like a moonbeam through an open window, and saw upon a +rich couch the form of an expiring woman lying. It was her sister Zoë. +The blow had been too well aimed: it had gone to her heart, and the +life-blood bubbled rapidly forth between her white fingers, which she +pressed, to her side. One eloquent glance, in which eyes mingled with +eyes, while lips hung upon lips, was exchanged. There was not time, +neither was there need, to tell their stories in any other way. The +dying woman made one effort, pointed to a cradle that stood under a +cloud of gauze curtains in a corner, then smiled a long, impassioned +smile of recognition, of gratitude, and of love, seemed to wander a +little back in memory, murmured some pleasant sounds, and was still.</p> + +<p>"The Silver-Voice rose solemnly, and casting her eyes about, beheld a +man crouching in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_765" id="Page_765">[Pg 765]</a></span> corner weeping. 'It is all over!' she said. 'All +over!' he replied, looking up. But I will not weary you with the scene +in which the wretched man—a Greek renegade—related how he had bought +Zoë—how he had loved her, and made her his wife—how they had traveled +in far countries—how he was jealous, ever, as he acknowledged, without +cause—and how, in a fit of madness, he had slain the mother of his +child. When he had finished, he led the bewildered Silver-Voice to the +cradle, and thrusting aside the curtains, disclosed the miniature +counterpart of Zoë, sleeping as if it had been lulled into deeper +slumber by its mother's death-cries. Then, stealing toward the corpse +with the step of one about to commit a new crime, he snatched a hasty +kiss, and rushed away. What became of him was never known. Silver-Voice +performed the last duties for poor Zoë, and took the child under her +care. Since that time she has almost always continued to live in the +house from the roof of which she heard her sister's cry; and though +apparently rational in every thing else, never fails to go up each +evening and sing the song she used to sing of old, though in a more +plaintive and despairing tone. If asked wherefore she acts in this wise, +her reply is, that she is seeking for her sister Zoë, and nobody +attempts to contradict the harmless delusion. Several years have now +passed away since this event, and the child has become a handsome boy. +You may see them both at the church to-morrow."</p> + +<p>I thanked the worthy <i>papa</i> for his story more warmly, perhaps, than he +expected. He had been as much pleased by narrating as I had been by +listening; but he was not very particular about the quality of his +facts, and unintentionally made me do penance for the excessive pleasure +I had experienced by giving me an account—two hours long, and with +equal unction—of a tremendous controversy then raging as to the proper +form of electing the sub-patriarch of Cairo. It would have been +ungrateful to interrupt him, although there seemed no end to his +garrulity. Fortunately, two or three people at length came in; I +compromised my dignity as a heretic by kissing his hand, and escaped, to +turn over this curious story in my mind. Next day I went to the Greek +church, and saw a melancholy-looking face through the bars of the +cage-like gallery in which the women sit. I am quite certain it was that +of Lady Silver-Voice, but no one whom I asked seemed to know her. The +boy did not show himself. It was my intention to go another Sunday, and +observe more accurately, for I really felt a deep interest in this +unfortunate lady. But other thoughts and occupations came upon me, and +it was only by an accident that, as I have said, these circumstances +recurred last night to my mind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_CROCODILE_BATTERY" id="THE_CROCODILE_BATTERY"></a>THE CROCODILE BATTERY.</h2> + + +<p>In the summer of 1846, when every body in England was crazy with railway +gambling, I was sojourning on the banks of the Rohan, a small stream in +one of the northwestern provinces of India. Here I first became +acquainted, with the Mugger, or Indian crocodile. I had often before +leaving England, seen, in museums, stuffed specimens of the animal, and +had read in "Voyages and Travels," all sorts of horrible and incredible +stories concerning them. I had a lively recollection of Waterton riding +close to the water's edge on the back of an American cayman, and I had a +confused notion of sacred crocodiles on the banks of the Nile. I always +felt more or less inclined to regard the whole race as having affinities +with Sinbad's "roc," and the wild men of the woods, who only refrained +from speaking for fear of being made to work.</p> + +<p>My ideas respecting the natural history of crocodiles were in this stage +of development when, one day, while paddling up the Rohan, I saw what +appeared to be a half-burned log of wood lying on a sand-bank. I paddled +close up to it. To my astonishment, it proved to be a huge reptile. The +old stories of dragons, griffins, and monsters, seemed no longer fables; +the speculations of geologists concerning, <i>mososaurians, hylæsaurians,</i> +and <i>plesiosaurians</i>, were no longer dreams. There, in all his scaly +magnificence, was a <i>real</i> saurian, nearly eighteen feet long. For a +while I stood gazing at this, to me, new fellow-citizen of the world, +and speculating on his mental constitution. The monster was, or +pretended to be, asleep. I wondered if he dreamt, and what his dreams or +reveries might be about; possibly he was dreaming of the same old world +with which I associated him—possibly of the fish who were swimming in +the waters below: or, he might be thinking of the men and women he had +swallowed in the course of his existence. There was a snort; perhaps +that was occasioned by the bugles and heavy brass ornaments which had +adorned the limbs of some Hindoo beauty he had eaten, and which were +lying heavy and indigestible on his stomach. But presently the brute lay +so still, and seemed so tranquil and placid in his sleep, that it was +difficult to imagine him guilty of such atrocities. He did not appear to +be disturbed by remorse, or the twitchings of a guilty conscience: it +may have been all a slander. I felt so kindly disposed toward him, that +I could not imagine it possible that if awake he would feel disposed to +eat me. Let us see! so making a splash with my paddle, I wakened the +sleeping beauty. He instantly started up, and opened, what +appeared—what indeed proved to be—an enlarged man-trap; disclosing a +red, slimy cavern within, fringed with great conical fangs. He closed it +with a snap that made me shudder, and then plunged into the water, his +eyes glaring with hate and defiance.</p> + +<p>Some days after I had made this new acquaintance, I was sitting at home +talking with my brother, when a native woman came crying and screaming +to the bungalow door, tearing her hair out in handfuls; she got down on +the veranda floor and struck her head against it, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_766" id="Page_766">[Pg 766]</a></span> if she really +meant to dash her brains out. A crowd of other women stood at a short +distance, crying and lamenting as if they were frantic. What was the +matter? Half-a-dozen voices made answer in a discordant chorus, that +while the poor woman was washing her clothes by the river side, her +child—an infant about a year old—had been seized and swallowed by a +Mugger. Although convinced that aid was now impossible, we took our guns +and hastened to the spot where the accident happened; but all was still +there, not a wavelet disturbed the surface of the stream. A small +speckled kingfisher was hovering overhead, as if balanced in the air, +with its beak bent down on its breast, watching the fish beneath; +presently it darted like an arrow into the water; returned with an empty +bill, and then went off, with its clear, sharp, twittering note, as if +to console itself for the failure.</p> + +<p>One day I was sitting on the high bank of the river, taking snap shots +with my gun at the large fish who were every now and then leaping out of +the water. A favorite spaniel was bringing a fish out of the water that +I had hit. It had swam already half way across the stream, when the +water about six yards below her became suddenly disturbed; and, to my +horror, up started the head and open jaws of an enormous crocodile. The +dog gave a loud shriek, and sprang half out of the water. The Mugger +swam rapidly, and had got within a yard of his intended victim, when I +raised my gun, and took aim at the monster's head. A thud, a splash, a +bubble, and a dusky red streak in the water, was all that ensued. +Presently, however, Juno's glossy black head emerged from the water; +and, to my delight, began to make rapid progress toward me, and landed +safely. The poor brute, wet and shivering, coiled herself up at my feet, +with her bright hazel eyes fixed on mine with ineffable satisfaction. +Poor Juno subsequently fell a victim to the Muggers, when her master was +not at hand to succor her. I mention these facts, to show that the +diabolical revenge with which I afterward assisted in visiting these +monsters, was not groundless. But the strongest occasion of it remains +to be told.</p> + +<p>Just as the "rains" were beginning, my neighbor, Mr. Hall, sent me word +that he intended paying me a short visit, and requested me to send a +<i>syce</i> (groom), with a saddle-horse, to meet him at a certain place on +the road. The syce, Sidhoo, was a smart, open-chested, sinewy-limbed +little fellow, a perfect model of a biped racer. He could run—as is the +custom in the East—alongside his horse at a pace of seven or eight +miles an hour, for a length of time that would astonish the best English +pedestrian I ever heard of.</p> + +<p>Toward evening, Mr. Hall rode up to the bungalow, dripping with water, +and covered with mud. I saw at once that some accident had happened, and +hastened to assist him.</p> + +<p>As soon as he got inside, he said, in answer to my bantering about his +"spill"—</p> + +<p>"I am in no humor for jesting. Your syce is lost!"</p> + +<p>"Drowned?"</p> + +<p>"No; eaten!—by an enormous crocodile!"</p> + +<p>He added that, on arriving at a small nulla about two miles off, he +found it so much swollen by rain, that he had to swim his horse across +it, holding one end of the cord which Sidhoo, in common with most +Hindoos, wore coiled round his waist, and which was used in pulling +water from the deep wells of the country. Hall got safely across, and +then commenced pulling Sidhoo over by means of the cord. The black face, +with the white teeth and turban, were bobbing above the muddy water, +when all at once the groom threw up his arms, gave a loud shriek, and +sank below the surface. Mr. Hall, who had doubled the cord round his +hand, was dragged into the water; where he got a momentary glimpse of +the long serrated tail of a Mugger, lashing the water a short way ahead +of him. In his efforts to save himself, he lost his hold of the string, +and with much difficulty clambered up the slippery bank of the nulla. +All was now still. Only Sidhoo's turban was to be seen floating loosely, +a considerable way down the stream. Hall ran toward it, with the sort of +feeling which makes a drowning man catch at a straw; and, by means of a +stick he succeeded in fishing it out, and brought it with him, as the +only remnant of Sidhoo he could give an account of.</p> + +<p>Bad news soon spreads in an Indian village, and Sidhoo's fate was soon +made known to his wife; and in a short time she came crying and sobbing +to the bungalow, and laid her youngest child at our friend's feet. The +tears glistened in the poor fellow's eyes as he tried to soothe and +console her; which he did by promising to provide for her and her +children.</p> + +<p>Although Hall was generally running over with fun, we smoked our +cheroots that evening in silence; except when we proposed schemes for +the annihilation of the crocodiles. A great many plans were +discussed—but none that offered much chance of success. The next day, +after breakfast, I was showing my visitor a galvanic blasting apparatus, +lately received from England, for blowing up the snags (stumps of trees) +which obstruct the navigation of the river. I was explaining its mode of +action to him, when he suddenly interrupted me—"The very thing! Instead +of snags, why not blow up the Muggers?"</p> + +<p>I confessed that there could be no reason why we should not blast the +Muggers. The difficulty was only how to manage it; yet the more we +talked of it, the more feasible did the scheme appear.</p> + +<p>The brutes keep pretty constant to the same quarters, when the fish are +plentiful; and we soon ascertained that poor Sidhoo's murderer was well +known in the neighborhood of the nulla. He had on several occasions +carried off goats, sheep, pigs, and children; and had once attempted to +drag a buffalo, whom he had caught drinking, into the water; but, from +all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_767" id="Page_767">[Pg 767]</a></span> accounts, came off second best in this rencontre. There not being +enough of water in the nulla to drown the buffalo, the Mugger soon found +he had caught a Tartar; and after being well mauled by the buffalo's +horns, he was fain to scuttle off and hide himself among the mud.</p> + +<p>I had observed, when blasting the snags, that the concussion produced by +the discharge had the effect of killing all the fish within a range of +some twenty or thirty yards. After every explosion, they were found in +great numbers, floating on the surface of the water with their bellies +uppermost. It now occurred to me, that if we could only get within a +moderate distance of the Mugger, if we did not blow him to pieces, we +would at all events give him a shock that would rather astonish him. An +explosion of gunpowder under water communicates a much severer shock to +the objects in its immediate vicinity, than the same quantity of powder +exploded in the air; the greater density of the water enabling it, as it +were, to give a harder blow.</p> + +<p>Having made our arrangements, Mr. Hall, my brother, and myself, got into +a small canoe, with the blasting apparatus on board, and dropt down the +stream to where the nulla discharged its waters into the Rohan. He then +got out and proceeded to a village close by, where we obtained for a few +annas, the carcass of a young kid. A flask with about six pounds of +gunpowder, and having the conducting wires attached, was then sewn into +the kid's belly. Two Strong ropes were also tied to this bait; and, to +one of these, the conducting wire was firmly bound with small cord. The +ropes were about thirty yards long, and had each attached to its +extremities one of the inflated goat-skins used by water-carriers. Hall, +with his goat-skin under his arm, and a coil of loose rope in his hand, +took one side of the nulla, while my brother, similarly provided took +the other. My brother's rope contained the wire; so I walked beside him, +while two coolies, with the battery ready charged, and slung to a pole +which rested on their shoulders, accompanied me. A small float was also +attached by a string to the kid, so as to indicate its position.</p> + +<p>These arrangements being made, we commenced walking up the nulla, +dragging the carcass of the kid in the stream, and moving it across, +from side to side, so as to leave no part of the bed untried; and, as +the nulla was only about twelve yards wide, we felt pretty confident +that, if the Mugger were in it, we could scarcely fail of coming in +contact with him. We had proceeded only about a quarter of a mile, when +the float suddenly dipt. My brother and Hall threw the loose coil of +ropes they carried on the water, along with the inflated skins. These +made it soon evident by their motion that the Mugger had seized the kid. +He was dashing across, in a zig-zag direction, down the stream. I ran +after him as fast as I could; and paying out the cord from the reel, +when I found it impossible to keep up with him. On reaching a place +where the banks were steeper than usual, he came to a stand still. I +got on the top of the bank, and commenced hauling in the rope. I did +not, however, venture to lift the skin out of the water, for fear of +disturbing him, until the coolies with the battery had time to come up. +This was a very anxious time; for, if the Mugger had shifted his +quarters before they came up, a fresh run with him would have ensued, +with the chance of his breaking the wires with his teeth. After a while +I heard the coolies approaching, and my brother scolding them, and +urging them to hasten on. Just as their heads appeared above the bank, +the foremost coolie tripped his foot and fell—I groaned with +disappointment—presently, my brother came along with them, and brought +the battery to my feet; a good deal of the acid had been spilt, but, +with the aid of a bottle of fresh acid we had brought along with us, we +soon got the battery up to the requisite power. Every thing being now in +order, I commenced pulling up the rope with the wire. I proceeded as +cautiously as possible for fear of disturbing the Mugger; but, in spite +of all my efforts, the inflated skin, in coming up the bank, dislodged +some loose pieces of earth, and sent them splashing into the water. +Fortunately, however, the Mugger had made up his mind to digest the kid +where he was. I could not help chuckling when I at length got hold of +the end of the wires. While my brother was fastening one of them to the +battery, I got the other ready for completing the circuit. The Mugger +all the while lying still at the bottom of the nulla with, most likely, +a couple of fathoms of water over his head, unconscious of danger, and +little dreaming that the two-legged creatures on the bank had got a +nerve communicating with his stomach, through which they were going to +send a flash of lightning that would shatter his scaly hulk to pieces.</p> + +<p>Every thing being now ready, I made the fatal contact. Our success was +complete! We felt a shock, as if something had fallen down the bank—a +mound of muddy water rose, with a muffled, rumbling sound, and then +burst out to a column of dark smoke. A splashing and bubbling succeeded, +and then a great crimson patch floated on the water, like a variegated +carpet pattern. Strange-looking fragments of scaly skin were picked up +by the natives from the water's edge, and brought to us amidst a very +general rejoicing. The exploded Mugger floated down the stream, and the +current soon carried it out of sight. We were not at all sorry, for it +looked such a horrible mess that we felt no desire to examine it.</p> + +<p>Our sense of triumphant satisfaction was, however, sadly damped about a +week afterward, when we received the mortifying announcement, that +Sidhoo's Mugger was still alive, and on his old beat, apparently +uninjured. It was evident that we had blasted the wrong Mugger! We +consoled ourselves with the reflection, that if he were not Sidhoo's +murderer, it was very <i>likely</i> he was not wholly innocent of other +atrocities, and therefore deserved his fate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_768" id="Page_768">[Pg 768]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of course it was impossible to rest while Sidhoo's Mugger remained +alive, so we were not long in preparing for a second expedition. This +time we took the precaution of not charging the battery until we were +certain that the bait was swallowed. The acid, diluted to the necessary +strength, was, therefore, carried in one of those brown earthenware jars +called gray-beards, which had come out to us full of Glenlivet whisky. +We commenced dragging the kid up the stream, as before; but, having +walked more than a mile without getting a bite, we were getting rather +disheartened, and sat down to rest, struck a light, and smoked a +cheroot. Hall laid down, having manufactured an impromptu easy chair out +of his coil of rope, with the inflated goat-skin placed above it. My +brother was not long in imitating his example, and I laid down under the +shade of some reeds, near to the water's edge. The heat was oppressive, +and we were discussing the probability of getting a bite that day, and +lamenting that we had not brought some pale ale along with us, when, +when, all at once, I got a sharp blow on the leg, while my brother came +spinning down the bank like a teetotem—a companion picture to Hall; who +was revolving down the opposite bank. The ropes and skins went rushing +down the nulla at a tremendous pace. As soon as we recovered from the +laughter into which we were thrown by this droll contretemps, we set off +in pursuit, guided by the track which the inflated skins made in the +water. On they went, dashing from side to side, as they had done in our +first attempt. On coming to a place where the nulla made a sharp turn, +they stood still under the high bank, on the inner curve of the bend. It +unfortunately happened that the bank, near to which the skins were +floating, was too precipitous for us to get near them, without starting +the Mugger from his present position. With much labor, we detached some +loose sods from the top of the bank, and sent them with a loud splash +into the water, directly over where we imagined him to have taken up his +quarters. This had the desired effect, for the skins began to move +slowly down the stream, as if the Mugger were crawling leisurely along +the bottom.</p> + +<p>Leaving my brother with the coolies in charge of the battery, I ran on +to where the bank was more shelving. By good luck, the stream was +rushing up, after its sudden sweep, and sent a strong current against +this bank. I had not waited many minutes, before the skins came floating +round the corner, to where I was standing. I seized the one to which the +wire was attached, desiring my brother to charge the battery, and bring +it down. This he did much sooner than I could have expected; for, as the +battery was now empty, one coolie was able to carry it on his head, +while my brother took the jar of acid in his hand. It was evident from +the motion of the other skin in the water that the Mugger was still +moving—so no time was to be lost. I made the connection with the +battery with one of the wires; in another instant the circuit was +complete, and the Mugger's doom sealed.</p> + +<p>There was a momentary pause—owing, I suppose, to some slight loss of +insulation in the wires—then came the premonitory shock, then the +rumble, the smoke, and the sparks; and a great bloated mass of flesh and +blood rose to the surface of the water. Hall called out to us to drag it +ashore, and see whether we could get any trace of poor Sidhoo. We tried +by means of a bamboo pole to pull it to the bank, but the glimpse we got +of it as it neared was so unutterably disgusting, that we pushed it off +again, and allowed it to float away down with the current.</p> + +<p>That this was Sidhoo's Mugger, there could be no doubt; for he was never +seen or heard of in the neighborhood again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_CHAPTER_ON_DREAMS" id="A_CHAPTER_ON_DREAMS"></a>A CHAPTER ON DREAMS.</h2> + + +<p>When we picture to ourselves a person lying in a state of profound +sleep—the body slightly curved upon itself; the limbs relaxed; the head +reclining on its pillow; and eyelids closed—it is wonderful to think +what strange and startling imagery may be passing through the brain of +that apparently unconscious being. The events of his whole life may +hurry past him in dim obscurity; he may be revisited by the dead; he may +be transported into regions he never before beheld; and his ideas +visibly assuming phantasmal shapes, may hover round him like shadows +reflected from another and more spiritual state of existence.</p> + +<p>Let us draw the curtains gently aside, and study the physiognomy of +sleep.</p> + +<p>The countenance may, occasionally, be observed lighted up, as it were, +from within by a passing dream—its expression is frequently one of +peculiar mildness and benignity; the breathing may be slow, but it is +calm and uniform: the pulse not so rapid as in the waking state, but +soft and regular; the composure of the whole body may continue +trance-like and perfect. There is, indeed, no sign of innocence more +touching than the smile of a sleeping infant. But, suddenly, this state +of tranquillity may be disturbed; the dreamer changes his position and +become restless; he moans grievously—perhaps sobs—and tears may be +observed glimmering underneath his eyelids; his whole body now seems to +be shaken by some inward convulsion; but, presently, the strife abates; +the storm-cloud gradually passes; he stretches his limbs, opens his +eyes, and, as he awakes, daylight, in an instant, dispels the vision, +perhaps leaving not behind the faintest trace or recollection of a +single incident which occurred in this mysterious state.</p> + +<p>But what are dreams? Whence come they? What do they portend? Not man +only, but all animals, it is presumed, dream, more or less, when they +are asleep. Horses neigh, and sometimes kick violently; cows, when +suckling their young calves, often utter piteous lowings; dogs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_769" id="Page_769">[Pg 769]</a></span> bark in +suppressed tones, and, from the motions of their paws, appear to fancy +themselves in the field of the chase; even frogs, particularly during +summer, croak loudly and discordantly until midnight, and then retire, +and become silent. Birds also dream; and will sometimes, when +frightened, fall from their roosting-perch, or flutter about their cage, +in evident alarm. A bullfinch, says Bechstein, belonging to a lady, was +subject to very frightful dreams, which made it drop off its perch; but +no sooner did it hear the voice of its affectionate mistress than it +became immediately tranquil, and reascended its perch to sleep again. It +is pretty certain that parrots dream. It is, indeed, a curious +circumstance that the best way of teaching this bird to talk is to cover +the cage over so as to darken it, and while he is going to sleep +pronounce, audibly and slowly, the word he is to learn; if the winged +pupil be a clever one, he will, upon the repetition of the lesson, in a +morning or two, begin to repeat it.</p> + +<p>Upon the same principle, school-boys commit their tasks to memory by +reading them over the last thing before they go to bed. It is to be +remembered that during sleep the mind may not be wholly under eclipse; +for, although some of its faculties—such as perception, comparison, +judgment, and especially the will, may be suspended—others (for +example, memory and imagination), are often more active than in the +waking state. But some persons, it is said, never dream. We are assured +by Locke that he knew a gentleman who had an excellent memory, yet could +not recollect ever having dreamed until his twenty-sixth year. Dr. Reid, +for many years before his death, had no recollection of having ever +dreamed. Dr. Eliotson also relates, apparently upon good authority, the +case of a man who never dreamed until after he had a fever, in his +fortieth year; and we ourselves know several persons who are not +conscious of ever dreaming. Nevertheless, many contend that in all such +cases dreams really occur, but that they escape the recollection; for +they contend that it is impossible that the mind can, being an +independent principle, ever be in a state of absolute rest. This is +arguing within a very narrow circle. We must not forget that the +intimate alliance of the mind with the body, subjects it to its general +laws; the "heat-oppressed brain" requires rest to renew its energies, +and the mind, of which it is the organ, in the mean time, may, as in +profound sleep, remain perfectly quiescent. The lids of the outward +senses are closed; a vail is drawn over the immaterial principle of our +nature; and mind and body alike, for a period, lie in a state of utter +unconsciousness.</p> + +<p>Here, however, it may fairly be asked, how happens it that the same +person will at one time remember, and, at another, forget his dreams? +This circumstance may, we conceive, thus be explained:</p> + +<p>Those dreams which occur in very deep sleep, and in the early part of +the night, are not so likely to be remembered as those which happen +toward morning, when the sleep is less profound; hence the popular +notion that our morning dreams—which are always best remembered—are +likely to prove true. Then, again, the imagery of some dreams is more +striking, and actually makes a deeper impression than the incidents of +other dreams. We are told by Sir Humphrey Davy, that, on one occasion, a +dream was so strongly impressed upon his eye, that even after he had +risen and walked out, he could not be persuaded of its unreal nature, +until his friends convinced him of its impossibility. The effect of some +dreams upon children is very remarkable; they are, it is believed, more +liable to dreams of terror than grown persons, which may be accounted +for by their being more subject to a variety of internal complaints, +such as teething, convulsions, derangement of the bowels, &c.; added to +which, their reasoning faculties are not as yet sufficiently developed +to correct such erroneous impressions. Hence, sometimes, children +appear, when they awake, bewildered and distressed, and remain for a +considerable period in a state of agitation almost resembling delirium. +The incidents which are conceived in dreams are indeed not unfrequently +confounded by adults with real events; hence, we often hear people, in +alluding to some doubtful circumstance, exclaim, "Well! if it be not +true, I certainly must have dreamed it." We confess we have ourselves +been puzzled in this way; the spell may be broken; but the impression +made by the delusion still clings to us; its shadow is still thrown +across our path.</p> + +<p>The question therefore recurs, What are Dreams? Whence do they arise? We +believe that the ideas and emotions which take place in the dreaming +state may be ascribed to a twofold origin. They may arise from certain +bodily sensations, which may suggest particular trains of thought and +feeling; or they may be derived from the operations or activity of the +thinking principle itself; in which case they are purely mental. The +celebrated Dr. James Gregory—whose premature death was a great loss to +science—states, that having gone to bed with a vessel of hot water at +his feet, he dreamed of walking up the crater of Mount Etna, and felt +the ground warm under him. He likewise, on another occasion, dreamed of +spending a winter at Hudson's Bay, and of suffering much distress from +intense frost; and found, when he awoke, that he had thrown off the +bed-clothes in his sleep, and exposed himself to cold. He had been +reading, a few days before, a very particular account of this colony. +The eminent metaphysician, Dr. Reid, relates of himself that the +dressing of a blister, which he had applied to his head, becoming +ruffled, so as to produce pain, he dreamed that he had fallen into the +hands of a party of North American Indians, who were scalping him. These +were dreams suggested by sensations which, were conveyed from the +surface of the body, through the nerves, until corresponding impression<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_770" id="Page_770">[Pg 770]</a></span> +was produced on the mind. Upon the same principle, very strong +impressions received during the day may modify and very materially +influence the character of our dreams at night. Dr. Beattie states that +once, after riding thirty miles in a very high wind, he passed a night +of dreams which were so terrible, that he found it expedient to keep +himself awake, that he might no longer be tormented with them. "Had I +been superstitious," he observes, "I should have thought that some +disaster was impending; but it occurred to me that the tempestuous +weather I had encountered the preceding day might be the cause of all +these horrors." Other and less obvious causes are in constant operation. +A change in the weather—in the electrical state of the atmosphere—and +its barometrical pressure—the temperature of the bedroom—arrangements +of the bed-furniture—the adjustment of the bed-clothes—nay, the +position of the sleeper, particularly if he cramp a foot or benumb an +arm, will at once affect the entire concatenation and issue of his +dreams.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, impressions may be made on the mind during sleep, by +speaking gently to a person, or even whispering in the ear. We +ourselves, when in Italy, could on one occasion trace the origin of a +very remarkable dream to our having heard, in an obscure and +half-conscious manner, during sleep, the noise of people in the streets, +on All Souls'-night, invoking alms for the dead. Dr. Beattie knew a man +in whom any kind of dream could be produced if his friends, gently +addressing him, afforded the subject-matter for his ideas. Equally +curious is the circumstance that dreams may be produced by whispering in +the ear. A case of this description is recorded by Dr. Abercrombie:</p> + +<p>"An officer, whose susceptibility of having his dreams thus conjured +before him, was so remarkable, that his friends could produce any kind +of dream they pleased, by softly whispering in his ear, especially if +this were done by one with whose voice he was familiar. His companions +were in the constant habit of amusing themselves at his expense. On one +occasion they conducted him through the whole progress of a quarrel, +which ended in a duel; and when the parties were supposed to meet, a +pistol was put into his hand, which he fired off in his sleep, and was +awakened by the report. On another, they found him asleep on the top of +a locker or bunker in the cabin, when, by whispering, they made him +believe he had fallen overboard; and they then exhorted him to save +himself by swimming. He immediately imitated the motions of swimming. +They then suggested to him that he was being pursued by a shark, and +entreated him to dive for his life. This he did, or rather attempted, +with so much violence, that he threw himself off the locker, by which he +was bruised, and, of course, awakened." Dr. Abercrombie adds, that the +most remarkable circumstance connected with this case was, that after +these and a variety of other pranks had been played upon him, "he had +no distinct recollection of his dreams, but only a confused feeling of +oppression or fatigue, and used to tell his friends that he was sure +they had been playing some tricks upon him."</p> + +<p>It appears, also—and the fact is very remarkable—that a similar kind +of sensation will produce the same description of dream in a number of +individuals at the same time. Hence different people will sometimes have +the same dream. We read of a whole regiment starting up in alarm, +declaring they were dreaming that a black dog had jumped upon their +breasts and disappeared, which curious circumstance was explained by the +discovery, that they had all been exposed to the influence of a +deleterious gas, which was generated in the monastery. The effect of +music, also, in exciting delightful dreams, has often been attested. A +French philosopher whose experiments are reported by Magendie, according +to the airs which he had arranged should be played while he was asleep, +could have the character of his dreams directed at pleasure. "There is +an art," says Sir Thomas Browne—in his usual quaint style—"to make +dreams as well as their interpretations; and physicians will tell us +that some food makes turbulent, some gives quiet dreams. Cato, who +doated upon cabbage, might find the crude effects thereof; and +Pythagoras might have had calmer sleeps if he had totally abstained from +beans."</p> + +<p>The influences of the day's occurrences, and the thoughts which have +occupied the mind during the day, have been said to give a corresponding +tone and coloring to our dreams at night. Thus the lover dreams of his +mistress; the miser of his gold; the merchant of his speculations; the +man of science of his discoveries. The poets of all ages and nations +adopt this view. Virgil describes Dido forsaken by Æneas, wandering +alone on a desert shore in pursuit of the Tyrians. Milton represents Eve +relating to Adam the dreams which were very naturally the repetition of +her waking thoughts. Petrarch invokes the beauty of Laura. Eloisa, +separated from Abelard, is again happy in his company, even amid the +"dreary wastes" and "low-browed rocks."</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that the dreams of many persons are very greatly +influenced by the reflections and emotions they have experienced the +preceding day; but this is by no means invariably the case. We have +known persons whose dreams refer habitually to events which occurred to +them, perhaps, twenty years ago, and upon whom recent events seem to +possess no such influence. We have often been told by ladies happily and +affectionately married, that while they were engaged, although their +thoughts were naturally much set on their engagement, they never dreamed +of their lovers. So, also, the father of a family, habitually impressed +with a sense of his responsibility and affection toward his offspring, +will sometimes dream often enough of his neighbor's children, but +seldom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_771" id="Page_771">[Pg 771]</a></span> or, perhaps, never, of his own. Try to dream on a given +subject—resolve and fix the attention upon it—going to sleep, and no +sooner are our eyelids closed, than fantastic fancy will conjure up the +most opposite and incongruous imagery. We have heard this dream-problem +explained by referring it to a principle of <i>antagonism</i>, which, waking +or sleeping, may be observed in the animal economy. If a limb become +fatigued by remaining too long in one position, it will be relieved by +being thrown into the very opposite condition; if the eye fatigue itself +by gazing intently on the disc of any bright color, and the eyelids +close, the very opposite, or antagonistic color will be depicted upon +the retina: in like manner, when our waking thoughts—in connection with +the nerve matter, which is their material instrument—have exhausted +their energy, we can easily conceive how the very opposite condition +will be produced. Hence the most unconnected and preposterous train of +imagery may arise from the very earnestness with which we desire a +contrary effect. We dream of events which do not concern us, instead of +those in which we are most deeply interested; we dream of persons to +whom we are indifferent, instead of those to whom we are attached. But, +in the midst of all this curious and perplexing contrariety, it is +remarkable—and may be esteemed a proof of the immateriality of the +mind—that we always preserve the consciousness of our own identity. No +man dreams that he is a woman, or any other person than himself; we have +heard of persons who have dreamed they were dead, and in a spiritual +state; but the spirit was still their own—they maintained their +identity. Sir Thomas Lawrence once made an interesting observation on +this subject to Mrs. Butler—then Miss Fanny Kemble: he pointed out, in +conversation, that he never heard of any lady who ever dreamed that she +was younger than she really was. We retain in our dreams even the +identity of our age. It has been said—we think by Sir Thomas +Browne—that some persons of virtuous and honorable principles will +commit, as they fancy, actions in their dreams which they would shudder +at in their waking moments; but we can not believe that the identity of +moral goodness can be so perverted in the dreaming state. We can, +however, readily conceive that, when the mind is oppressed, or disturbed +by the recollection of some event it dreads to dwell upon, it may be +disturbed by the most terrific and ghastly images. A guilty conscience, +too, will unquestionably produce restlessness, agitation, and +awe-inspiring dreams. Hence Manfred, in pacing restlessly his lonely +Gothic gallery at midnight, pictures to himself the terrors of sleep:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The lamp must be replenished; even then<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It will not burn so long as I must watch.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My slumbers, if I slumber, are not sleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>But a continuance of enduring thought,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Which then I can resist not. In my heart</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>There is a vigil; and these eyes</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>But close to look within.</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Contrition and remorse oppose his rest. If we remember right, it was +Bishop Newton who remarked, that the sleep of innocence differed +essentially from the sleep of guilt.</p> + +<p>The assistance supposed to be sometimes furnished in sleep toward the +solution of problems which puzzled the waking sense, opens up a curious +subject of investigation. Cases of the kind have been recorded upon +undoubted authority. Hence some philosophers, like Sir Thomas Browne and +Addison, have been induced to suppose that the soul in this state is +partially disengaged from the encumbrance of the body, and therefore +more intelligent, which is a mere fancy—a poetical fiction. Surely it +is absurd to suppose that the soul, which we invest with such high and +perfect attributes, should commit such frivolous and irrational acts as +these which take place so constantly in our dreams. "Methinks," observed +Locke, "every drowsy nod shakes this doctrine." All we remark, is, that +some of the ordinary mental faculties act in such cases with increased +energy. But beyond this we can not go. We are informed by Cabains, that +Franklin on several occasions mentioned to him, that he had been +assisted in his dreams on the issue of many affairs in which he was +engaged. So, also, Condillac, while writing his "Cours d'Etudes," states +that he was frequently obliged to leave a chapter incomplete, and retire +to bed: and that on waking, he found it, on more than one occasion, +finished in his head. Condorcet, upon leaving his deep and complicated +calculations unfinished, after having retired to rest, often found their +results unfolded to him in his dreams. Voltaire assures us that he, like +La Fontaine, composed verses frequently in his sleep, which he +remembered on awaking. Doctor Johnson states that he once in a dream had +a contest of wit with some other person, and that he was very much +mortified by imagining that his opponent had the better of him. +Coleridge, in a dream, composed the wild and beautiful poem of "Kubla +Khan," which was suggested to him by a passage he was reading in +"Purchas's Pilgrimage" when he fell asleep. On awaking he had a distinct +recollection of the whole, and, taking his pen, ink, and paper, +instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines which have been so much +admired.</p> + +<p>One of the most striking circumstances connected with the human mind is +the extreme lightning-like rapidity of its thoughts, even in our waking +hours; but the transactions which appear to take place in our dreams are +accomplished with still more incalculable rapidity; the relations of +space, the duration of time, appear to be alike annihilated; we are +transported in an instant to the most distant regions of the earth, and +the events of ages are condensed into the span of a few seconds. The +accidental jarring of a door, or any noise, will, at the same moment, it +awakens a person, suggest the incidents of an entire dream. Hence some +persons—Lord Brougham in particular—have supposed that all our dreams +take place in the transition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_772" id="Page_772">[Pg 772]</a></span> or interval between sleep and waking. A +gentleman dreamt that he had enlisted as a soldier, joined his regiment, +deserted, was apprehended, carried back, tried, condemned to be shot, +and, at last, led out for execution. After all the usual preparations a +gun was fired; he awoke with the report, and found that a noise in an +adjoining room had, in the same moment, produced the dream and awakened +him. The same want of any notion of the duration of time occurs, more or +less, in all dreams; hence our ignorance when we awake of the length of +the night. A friend of Doctor Abercrombie's dreamt that he crossed the +Atlantic and spent a fortnight in America. In embarking, on his return, +he fell into the sea, and, awakening with the fright, discovered he had +not been ten minutes asleep. "I lately dreamed," says Dr. Macnish, "that +I made a voyage—remained some days in Calcutta—returned home—then +took ship for Egypt, where I visited the cataracts of the Nile, Grand +Cairo, and the Pyramids; and to crown the whole, had the honor of an +interview with Mehemet Ali, Cleopatra, and Alexander the Great." All +this was the work of a single hour, or even a few minutes. In one of the +dreams which Mr. De Quincey describes—when under the influence of +opium—"The sense of Space and in the end of Time were," he states, +"both powerfully affected. Buildings, landscapes, &c., were exhibited in +proportions so vast as the bodily eye is not fitted to receive. Space +swelled, and was amplified to a sense of unutterable infinity. This, +however, did not disturb me so much as the vast expansion of Time; I +sometimes seemed to have lived for seventy or one hundred years in one +night; nay, sometimes had feelings representative of a millenium, passed +in that time; or, however, of a duration far beyond the limits of any +human experience." One of the miracles of Mohammed appears to be +illustrative of the same phenomenon. We read, in the Koran, that the +angel Gabriel took Mohammed, one morning, out of his bed to give him a +sight of all things in the Seven Heavens and in Paradise; and, after +holding ninety thousand spiritual conferences, he was brought back again +to his bed; all which was transacted in so small a space of time that +Mohammed, upon his return, found his bed still warm.</p> + +<p>Are dreams so much varied as is generally supposed? Or, taking into +consideration our different mental and physical constitutions, is there +not rather a remarkable sameness in them? It is certainly a very unusual +circumstance to hear of any dream that does violence to the common +experience of mankind. One class of dreams, which may be termed +<span class="smcap">Retrospective</span>, is of frequent occurrence. These are characterized by the +revival of associations long since forgotten. The faculty of Memory +appears to be preternaturally exalted; the vail is withdrawn which +obscured the vista of our past life; and the minutest events of +childhood pass in vivid review before us. There can be no doubt that +something analogous to this occurs in drowning; when, after the alarm +and struggle for life has subsided, sensations and visions supervene +with indescribable rapidity. The same very remarkable phenomenon takes +place also sometimes in hanging; but is by no means uniformly produced. +"Of all whom I have seen restored from drowning," observes Dr. Lettsom, +"I never found one who had the smallest recollection of any thing that +passed under water until the time they were restored." Persons must not, +therefore, be deceived by imagining that an Elysium is to be found at +the bottom of a garden-well, or a canal, or a river.</p> + +<p>But to return—it is not only the very early incidents of childhood +which may thus be recalled by our dreams, but recent events, which in +our waking hours had escaped the memory, are sometimes suddenly +recalled. In his "Notes to Waverley," Sir Walter Scott relates the +following anecdote: "A gentleman connected with a Bank in Glasgow, while +employed in the occupation of cashier, was annoyed by a person, out of +his turn, demanding the payment of a check for six pounds. Having paid +him, but with reluctance, out of his turn, he thought no more of the +transaction. At the end of the year, which was eight or nine months +after, a difficulty was experienced in making the books balance, in +consequence of a deficiency of six pounds. Several days and nights were +exhausted in endeavors to discover the source of the error, but without +success; and the discomfited and chagrined cashier retired one night to +his bed, disappointed and fatigued. He fell asleep and dreamed he was at +his Bank, and once again the whole scene of the annoying man and his +six-pound check arose before him; and, on examination, it was discovered +that the sum paid to this person had been neglected to be inserted in +the book of interests, and that it exactly accounted for the error in +the balance." We read of another gentleman, a solicitor, who, on one +occasion, lost a very important document connected with the conveyance +of some property; the most anxious search was made for it in vain; and +the night preceding the day on which the parties were to meet for the +final settlement the son of this gentleman then went to bed, under much +anxiety and disappointment, and dreamt that, at the time when the +missing paper was delivered to his father, his table was covered with +papers connected with the affairs of a particular client; and there +found the paper they had been in search of, which had been tied up in a +parcel to which it was in no way related.</p> + +<p>There is another class of dreams which would appear to be much more +extraordinary than these of a Retrospective Character, to wit: those in +which the dreamer appears to take cognizance of incidents which are +occurring at a distance, which may be designated Dreams of <span class="smcap">Coincidence</span>. +In the "Memoirs of Margaret de Valois" we read, that her mother, +Catherine de Medicis, when ill of the plague at Metz, saw her son, the +Duc d'Anjou, at the victory of Jarnac,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_773" id="Page_773">[Pg 773]</a></span> thrown from his horse, and the +Prince de Condé dead—events which happened exactly at that moment. Dr. +Macnish relates, as the most striking example he ever met with of the +co-existence between a dream and a passing event, the following +melancholy story: Miss M., a young lady, a native of Ross-shire, was +deeply in love with an officer who accompanied Sir John Moore in the +Peninsular War. The constant danger to which he was exposed had an +evident effect upon her spirits. She became pale and melancholy in +perpetually brooding over his fortunes; and, in spite of all that reason +could do, felt a certain conviction that, when she last parted from her +lover, she had parted with him forever. In a surprisingly short period +her graceful form declined into all the appalling characteristics of a +fatal illness, and she seemed rapidly hastening to the grave, when a +dream confirmed the horrors she had long anticipated, and gave the +finishing stroke to her sorrows. One night, after falling asleep, she +imagined she saw her lover, pale, bloody, and wounded in the breast, +enter her apartment. He drew aside the curtains of the bed, and, with a +look of the utmost mildness, informed her that he had been slain in +battle, desiring her, at the same time, to comfort herself, and not take +his death too seriously to heart. It is needless to say what influence +this vision had upon a mind so replete with woe. It withered it +entirely, and the poor girl died a few days afterward, but, not without +desiring her parents to note down the day of the month on which it +happened, and see if it would not be confirmed, as she confidently +declared it would. Her anticipation was correct, for accounts were +shortly afterward received that the young man was slain at the battle of +Corunna, which was fought on the very day of the night of which his +betrothed had beheld the vision. It is certainly very natural to suppose +that there must be some mysterious connection between such a dream and +the event which appears to have simultaneously taken place—but, upon +reflecting further upon the subject, we shall find that the co-existence +is purely accidental. If, as Sir Walter Scott observed, any event, such +as the death of the person dreamt of, chance to take place, so as to +correspond with the nature and time of the apparition, the circumstance +is conceived to be supernatural, although the coincidence is one which +must frequently occur, since our dreams usually refer to the +accomplishment of that which haunts our minds when awake, and often +presage the most probable events. Such a concatenation, therefore, must +often take place when it is considered "of what stuff dreams are made," +and how naturally they turn upon those who occupy our mind when awake. +When a soldier is exposed to death in battle; when a sailor is incurring +the dangers of the sea; when a beloved wife or relative is attacked by +disease, how readily our sleeping imagination rushes to the very point +of alarm which, when waking, it had shuddered to anticipate. Considering +the many thousands of dreams which must, night after night, pass +through the imagination of individuals, the number of coincidences +between the vision and the event are fewer and less remarkable than a +fair calculation of chance would warrant us to expect.</p> + +<p>In addition to these, we sometimes hear of dreams which appear to reveal +the secrets of futurity; and which may be designated <span class="smcap">Prophetic</span> +Dreams—unvailing, as they are supposed to do, the destiny which awaits +particular individuals. The prophetic dream of Cromwell, that he should +live to be the greatest man in England, has often been referred to as an +example of special revelation; but surely there can be nothing very +wonderful in the occurrence—for, after all, if we could only penetrate +into the thoughts, hopes, and designs which inflamed the ambition of +such men as Ireton, Lambert, and the like, we should find both their +waking and sleeping visions equally suggestive of self-aggrandizement. +The Protector himself was not the only usurper, in those troubled times, +who dreamed of being "every inch a king;" but we want the data to +compute the probabilities which the laws of chance would give in favor +of such a prophecy or dream being fulfilled. The prophetic dream refers +generally to some event which, in the course of nature, is likely to +happen: is it, then, wonderful that it should occur? It would be curious +to know how often Napoleon dreamed that he was the Emperor of the +civilized world, or confined as a prisoner of war; how many thrones he +imagined himself to have ascended or abdicated; how often he +accomplished the rebuilding of Jerusalem. A few years ago, some very +cruel murders were perpetrated in Edinburgh, by men named Burke and +Hare, who sold the bodies of their victims to the Anatomical Schools. We +had ourselves an interview with Burke, after his condemnation, when he +told us that many months before he was apprehended and convicted, he +used to dream that the murders he committed had been discovered; then he +imagined himself going to be executed, and his chief anxiety was, how he +should comport himself on the scaffold before the assembled multitude, +whose faces he beheld gazing up and fixed upon him. His dream was, in +every respect, verified; but who, for an instant, would suppose there +could have been any thing preternatural, or prophetic, in such a vision? +For the most part, dreams of this description are supposed to portend +the illness, or the time of the death, of particular individuals; and +these, too, upon the simple doctrine of chance, turn out, perhaps, to be +as often wrong as right. It may be true, that Lord Lyttleton died at the +exact hour which he said had been predicted to him in a dream; but +Voltaire outlived a similar prophecy for many years. It must, however, +be conceded, that persons in ill-health may have their death expedited +by believing in such fatal predictions. Tell a timorous man that he will +die; and the sentence, if pronounced with sufficient solemnity, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_774" id="Page_774">[Pg 774]</a></span> +semblance of its fore-knowledge, will, under certain circumstances, +execute itself. But, on the other hand, the self-sustaining power of the +will, with a corresponding concentration of nervous energy, will +sometimes triumph over the presence of disease, and for awhile ward off +even the hand of death. The anecdote is told of Muley Moloch, who, being +informed that his army was likely to be defeated, sprang from his sick +bed in great excitement, led his men on to victory, and, on returning to +his tent, lay down and almost instantly expired.</p> + +<p>But again it may be asked—what then do dreams portend? Do they admit of +any rational interpretation? This branch of the art of divination, which +was called formerly by the name of "Oneiromancy," has been practiced in +all ages; and there is, perhaps, not a village in Great Britain, or on +the great continent of Europe, India, or America, in which some +fortune-telling old woman will not be found who professes to be an +oracle in propounding their mystical signification. The magicians of old +were supposed to be skillful interpreters of dreams, which, like the +wiseacres of Christendom, they viewed under very contradictory aspects.</p> + +<p>From one of the most ancient Arabic manuscripts on the subject, we learn +that if you see an angel, it is a good sign; but if you dream that you +converse with one, it forebodes evil—to dream you bathe in a clear +fountain denotes joy—but if it be muddy, an enemy will bring against +you some false accusation. To dream of carrying any weight upon the back +denotes servitude, if you are rich—honor if you are poor. There is not +an object in nature—not an event that can occur in life—that our +modern fortune-tellers have not converted, when seen in a dream, into +some sign ominous of good or of evil; and many even well-educated +persons are in the habit of fostering their credulity by attaching an +undue importance to their dreams. It is a curious circumstance, however, +which militates against this mystic art, that the same sign in different +countries carries with it a very contrary signification. The peasant +girl in England thinks, if she dream of a rose, that it is a sure sign +of happiness; but the <i>paysanne</i> in Normandy believes that it portends +vexation and disappointment. The Englishman conceives that to dream of +an oak-tree is a sign of prosperity; but in Switzerland, the same vision +is thought to be a forewarning of some dreadful calamity.</p> + +<p>The domestic superstitions which are connected with dreams, are +sometimes favored by, and perhaps dependent upon a certain morbid +condition or irritability of the nervous system, which suggests the +dread of some impending calamity, a painful and indefinite sense of +apprehension for which no ostensible reason can be assigned. Strange as +it might appear, the influence of our dreams upon our waking state is +very remarkable; we may awaken refreshed from a dream which has made us, +in our sleep, superlatively happy; or we may rise with melancholic +feelings after suffering intense affliction in some dream, and the +details of both dreams may alike be forgotten. We can not, after being +so much disturbed, at once regain our composure; the billows continue +heaving after the tempest has subsided; the troubled nerves continue to +vibrate after the causes that disturbed them have ceased to act; the +impression still remains, and checkers the happiness of the future day. +Even men of strong mind, who do not believe in the interpretation of +dreams, may be so affected. When Henry the Fourth of France was once +told by an astrologer that he would be assassinated, he smiled at the +prediction, and did not believe it; but he confessed that it often +haunted him afterward, and although he placed no faith in it, still it +sometimes depressed his spirits, and he often expressed a wish that he +had never heard it. In like manner, dreams, which persons do not believe +in, will unconsciously affect the tenor of their thoughts and feelings.</p> + +<p>There are many persons who appear to have habitually the most +extraordinary dreams, and there is scarcely a family circle that +assemble round the domestic hearth, in which some one or other of the +party is not able to relate some very wonderful story. We have, +ourselves, a <i>répertoire</i>, from which we could select a host of such +narrations; but we have preferred, at the risk of being thought +recapitulative, to dwell upon those which have been recorded upon +unimpeachable authority. The dreams which men like Locke, Reid, Gregory, +Abercrombie, Macnish, &c., have attested, come with a weight of evidence +before us which the dreams of persons unknown in the scientific or +literary world would not possess. The impressions produced by dreams are +so fugitive—so easy is it for persons unintentionally to deceive +themselves in recalling their dreams' experience—that Epictetus, long +ago, advised young men not to entertain any company by relating their +dreams, as they could only, he affirmed, be interesting to themselves, +and perhaps would, after all their pains, be disbelieved by their +auditors. Nevertheless, it would be well for all persons to study, +whether waking or dreaming, the phenomena of their own minds. The +ingenious naturalist, Doctor Fleming, suggests that persons should, in +contra-distinction to a "Diary," keep a "Nocturnal," in which they +should register their dreams. Doubtless such a journal might turn out to +be a very amusing psychological record.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_FAIR_IN_MUNICH" id="A_FAIR_IN_MUNICH"></a>A FAIR IN MUNICH.</h2> + + +<p>I wonder when there is not a fair in Munich. This, however, was <i>Die +Drei Könige Dult</i>, or the Fair of the Three Kings. By way of amusement, +I thought I would go to it; but as I could not very well go alone, I +invited Madame Thekla to accompany me, with which she was very well +pleased, as I promised to treat her to the shows. As far as buying and +selling, and the crowds of peasants, and townspeople, and students, and +soldiers, go, it was like any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_775" id="Page_775">[Pg 775]</a></span> other fair. At a little distance from the +long array of booths, stood the shows—and thither we bent our steps.</p> + +<p>The first thing we came upon was a small ladder-wagon, covered with an +arched awning; and, bound to one side of the wagon, were tall poles, +from which floated a series of ghastly pictures—hideous +raw-head-and-bloody-bone pictures! There were murders, executions, +be-headings in German fashion; the criminal extended on a horrid sort of +rack, and his head being chopped off by a grim executioner, with a +sword, while a priest stood by in his long robes; there were houses on +fire; drownings, miraculous escapes; there were tall, smirking hussars, +and weeping ladies in white—heroes and heroines in these bloody +histories!</p> + +<p>The subjects, the hideous drawing, the hard outlines, the goggle-eyes, +the blood, the knives, the very fire, made you feel sick. A considerable +crowd was collected, and listened breathlessly to the sounds of an +organ, to which two Tyrolians sang their appalling tragedies. They sang +in such clear, sweet, mountain tones, that you were strangely +fascinated. Mournfully sang they, in a monotonous chaunt, of blood, and +crime, and terror, till you felt your blood creep; and, by a frightful +fascination, your eyes gloated on the disgusting pictures.</p> + +<p>What a terribly immoral influence must such exhibitions have upon such +an uneducated crowd as surrounded these sirens! Why should not a +<i>paternal</i> government, which guards its people from immoral books and +disgusting newspapers, not guard them equally from such a disgusting +sight and sound as this Tyrolian exhibition? These Tyrolians sold +printed histories of the fearful crimes and calamities which were +depicted on their banners. These histories are very exciting and +romantic reading, as you may believe when I give some of their +titles:—"The History of the Great and Terrible Monster, who cruelly +murdered his Beloved, his Child, his Father, his Mother, his two +Sisters, and his Brother, on the 8th of July, 1850." "Heroic +Self-sacrifice of a Bohemian Hussar Officer, and the Punishment of his +Murderers." "A true and dreadful History which occurred on the 14th of +March, 1850, in Schopka, near Milineck, in Bohemia." "The Might of +Mutual Love: a highly remarkable event, which occurred at Thoulon, in +the year 1849." "The Cursed Mill: a Warning from Real Life." "The +Temptation; the Deed; the Consequences!"</p> + +<p>If you care to know any thing of the style of these remarkable +productions, I will give you a specimen. One begins thus:—"In +Ross-dorf, in Hanover, lived the criminal Peter Natzer. He was by trade +a glazier, his father having followed the same calling. Peter was +five-and-twenty years old, and was, from his earliest youth, addicted to +every species of crime. He had a sweetheart, named Lucie Braun, a poor +girl, &c., &c."</p> + +<p>Again:—"Silent sat the miller, Leverm, in his garden; thoughtfully +gazed he into the distant valley. He was scarcely thirty years of age, +but heavy cares had bowed him, and robbed him of his fresh, youthful +bloom. Beside him sat his wife, who cast many an anxious but +affectionate glance on her husband. How tender and lovely was this young +wife! The inhabitants of the neighborhood called her 'The Rose of the +Valley.'" In this way begins a most awful tragedy.</p> + +<p>Of course we did not read these things in the fair. It was enough for +us, there, to listen to the mournful chant of the mountaineers, till our +blood was frozen in our veins. I took home with me these printed +histories, as many another simple soul did; and now, after I have read +them, and been filled with horror and disgust by them, I have put them +away from me as unholy things. But think of the effect they will have in +many a lonely village, this winter—in many a desolate farm-house or +cottage—on the wide plain, or among the mountains! These papers are +productive seeds of murder and crime; of that one may be certain.</p> + +<p>The next wonder that stopped us in the fair, was a little fat man, who +was shouting away at the top of his voice, while he briskly sharpened a +knife on a long, rough board, which was smeared over with a black +ointment. He was a vender of magical strop-salve! something in the +fashion of Mechi. "Ladies and gentlemen;" shouted he, "witness my +wonderful invention! The dullest knife, stick-knife, bread-knife, +clasp-knife, table-knife, carving-knife, shaving-knife, +(<i>rasier-messer</i>) pen-knife, pruning-knife, though dull as this +knife—<i>though dull as this knife</i>!" and here he began hacking away upon +the edge of a big knife with a strong piece of broken pitcher. "Yes, +though dull, dull, dull as this knife!—when subjected to my wonderful +salve," and here he smeared it with his black ointment, "will cut a +hair, or the most delicate shaving of paper—as it now does!" and with +that he severed paper shavings as if they had been nothing. If it was +really the <i>same knife</i>, his was a wonderful invention, and beat Mechi +hollow.</p> + +<p>Next, I had my fortune told at three different places, for six +kreutzers, or two-pence each, and as I was promised pretty much the same +fortune by all, I suppose I ought to believe in the truth of it. They +foretold me lots of trouble in the way of love-crosses, false friends, +and unkind relations, and such small trifles; but were equally liberal +of rich lovers, and plenty of them, plenty of money, and a good husband +to crown all, and good children to be the <i>props</i> of my old age; so I +think I had, after all, a good sixpenny-worth.</p> + +<p>Next we came upon a little caravan, on the steps of which vociferated a +most picturesque Tyrolian, in broad-brimmed sugar-loafed hat, adorned +with chamois hair, and eagles' feathers; in broad-ribbed stockings, and +with a broad, gayly-embroidened band round his waist, which half covered +his chest. He assured the crowd below that there was not in the whole +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_776" id="Page_776">[Pg 776]</a></span> Bavaria, any thing half as interesting, half as extraordinary, half +as astounding as the singularly gifted, singularly beautiful, singularly +intellectual being within; a being from another quarter of the globe, a +being adapted to an entirely different mode of existence to ours; a +being who could see in the dark, a being who only lived upon raw meat! A +wonderful Albino who could speak the German tongue!</p> + +<p>Of course we must see the Albino; so in we went, and some way or other I +felt an unusual shock. There he sat, in a black velvet dress spangled +with silver, the light coming in from the top of the caravan, and his +transparent complexion, his burning, fiery eyes, like carbuncles, his +long waves of white, silky hair, and his long, curling, snow-white, +silky beard, gave him the appearance of some enchanted dwarf—some +cobold or gnome out of a subterranean palace.</p> + +<p>But I had not much time to lose myself in dreams about enchanted dwarfs +or gnomes, for there was something else burning in the caravan besides +the Albino's eyes, and that was Madame Thekla's grand silk cloak! She +had come out with me in all her grandeur; and now, while we stood +enchanted before the Albino, her fine silk cloak was singeing at a +little iron stove that stood behind the door. Poor Madame Thekla! Out we +rushed, and she revenged herself by vociferating to the crowd outside, +as the Tyrolian had done just before, and by exhibiting her unlucky +cloak in a sort of savage despair.</p> + +<p>An hour afterward, we again passed the caravan, and the Tyrolian in the +ribbed stockings was again holding forth on the steps, when, at sight of +us, he interrupted his oration, and politely invited us to re-enter, and +complete, <i>free of cost</i>, our inspection of the Albino. But Madame +Thekla, pointing with stern dignity to her cloak, declined, and marched +on.</p> + +<p>After this we went to the <i>wäffeln</i>-booths, were we ate hot-baked +<i>wäffeln</i>, a kind of gofre cake; and then, resisting a wonderful +elephant show, we hastened to the monkey theatre, the poor elephant's +rival exhibition; the "Grand Monkey Theatre from Paris," in which +forty-two apes and poodles, the property of M. Le Cerf, would exhibit +the most wonderful and artistic feats.</p> + +<p>We had to wait some time till the four o'clock performance was over, +which unfortunately had begun before we arrived; and while Madame Thekla +and I stood impatiently waiting in the cold, up there came a merry-faced +lad of about ten, and began, in great glee, to describe to us the +glorious things that were performed by those "dear little monkeys and +dogs." He was quite eloquent in his delight; and, "Oh!" said he, "if I +had but another <i>sechser</i> (twopenny-piece), wouldn't I see it again!" +"There is another <i>sechser</i>, then!" said I, and put one into his fat +little hand. What an astonished, bright face looked up into mine; and he +seized my hand in both his, and shook it almost off. And away he ran up +the steps for his ticket, flying down again to us, and keeping as close +to us as possible, talking all the time, and fairly dancing for joy.</p> + +<p>"You've quite bewitched that little fellow," said Madame Thekla; and I +seemed to have bewitched all the little lads in the fair, for, by a +strangely-mysterious power, they were drawn toward us in crowds, from +all hands—little fellows in blouses, little fellows in little green and +brown surtouts, little fellows in old-fashioned and, in England, almost +forgotten, buttoned-up suits—and all crept bashfully toward us! Oh, the +wonderful magic of a twopenny-piece! Heaven only knows how the news of +this munificent gift of a <i>sechser</i> had so swiftly spread through the +fair! One little lad actually had the bravery to say to me that +"children were admitted at half-price!" And was I not a cold-hearted +wretch to reply, "Oh, indeed!" just as though it were a matter of +perfect indifference to me, though, in truth, it was not; but I felt +rather appalled at the sight of such a crowd of little eager heads, well +knowing that my purse was not full to overflowing, even with +twopenny-pieces!</p> + +<p>At length we were seated in the little theatre; and, after a fearful +charivari from the orchestra, the curtain drew up, and we beheld, seated +at a long table, a company of monkeys! It was a <i>table d'hôte</i>. A +dandified young fellow—perhaps Monsieur Le Cerf himself—in the most +elegant of cravats, the most elegant white wristbands, the most elegant +ring, and the most elegant moustache, performed the part of host; the +waiter and waitress were monkeys. The waiter—a most drunken, +good-for-nothing waiter he seemed—a fat, big ape—drank behind the +backs of the guests the very wine he was serving them with; he seemed so +very tipsy, that he could hardly walk; he staggered backward and +forward, and leaned against the wall for support, as he emptied the +bottle he was bringing for the company. But the little waitress! She was +a little darling; the tiniest of little monkeys, and she came skipping +on the stage in a little broad-brimmed straw hat, and a bright-colored +little dress, with the daintiest of little white muslin aprons on; she +looked just like a little fairy. Every body was enchanted with her. Even +Monsieur Le Cerf himself caressed her, and gave her not only, every now +and then, a nut, but a kiss. She behaved beautifully. But as to the +guests! They quarreled, and even fought—Monsieur Le Cerf said it was +about paying the bill.</p> + +<p>I can't pretend to tell you half the clever things the monkeys did in +the way of swinging, dancing, firing off muskets, riding on a pony, &c. +Wonderful things, too, were performed by the dogs, splendid spaniels and +setters. One large black-and-tan creature walked on his fore-legs, in +the style of what children call "playing at a wheelbarrow," only he +himself, poor wretch, had to wheel the barrow. He walked demurely round +and round the stage, carrying his two unlucky hind-legs up in the air; +then he walked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_777" id="Page_777">[Pg 777]</a></span> on three legs, and then, the most difficult task of all +for a dog, as we were assured, upon two legs on the same side. Another +beautiful white spaniel came walking in most grandly on her hind legs, +as <i>Madame de Pompadour</i>, in a long-trained dress which was borne by a +tiny monkey in livery, bearing a little lantern in his hand.</p> + +<p>The finale was the besieging of a fortress; and to see some twenty +milk-white spaniels rushing up and down the stairs of the burning +fortress, illumined by brilliant rose-colored, green, and blue lights, +was very curious indeed. If I could have forgotten the terrible training +through which these poor creatures must have gone, I should have enjoyed +it much more. But I did not wonder, after seeing all their feats, that +our little friend had been so enchanted. He sat behind us in the +half-price seats, but for all that we continued to exchange many smiling +glances during the performance. I only wished I could have seen a whole +row of little fellows all equally delighted and surprised by their good +fortune.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_WIFES_STRATAGEM" id="THE_WIFES_STRATAGEM"></a>THE WIFE'S STRATAGEM.</h2> + + +<p>Captain Marmaduke Smith, is—judging from his present mundane, +matter-of-fact character, about the last man one would suspect of having +been at any time of his life a victim to the "tender passion." A +revelation he volunteered to two or three cronies at the club the other +evening undeceived us. The captain on this occasion, as was generally +the case on the morrow of a too great indulgence, was somewhat dull +spirited and lachrymose. The weather, too, was gloomy; a melancholy +barrel-organ had been droning dreadfully for some time beneath the +windows; and to crown all, Mr. Tape, who has a quick eye for the +sentimental, had discovered, and read aloud, a common, but sad story of +madness and suicide in the evening paper. It is not, therefore, so +surprising that tender recollections should have revived with unusual +force in the veteran's memory.</p> + +<p>"You would hardly believe it, Tape," said Captain Smith, after a dull +pause, and emitting a sound somewhat resembling a sigh, as he re-lighted +the cigar which had gone out during Mr. Tape's reading—"you would +hardly believe it, perhaps; but I was woman-witched once myself!"</p> + +<p>"Never!" exclaimed the astonished gentleman whom he addressed. "A man of +your strength of mind, captain? I can't believe it; it's impossible!"</p> + +<p>"It's an extraordinary fact, I admit; and, to own the truth, I have +never been able to account exactly for it myself. Fortunately, I took +the disorder as I did the measles—young; and neither of these +complaints is apt to be so fatal then, I'm told, as when they pick a man +up later in life. It was, however, a very severe attack while it lasted. +A very charming hand at hooking a gudgeon was that delightful Coralie +Dufour, I <i>must</i> say."</p> + +<p>"Any relation to the Monsieur and Madame Dufour we saw some years ago in +Paris?" asked Tape. "The husband, I remember, was remarkably fond of +expressing his gratitude to you for having once wonderfully carried him +through his difficulties."</p> + +<p>Captain Smith looked sharply at Mr. Tape, as if he suspected some +lurking irony beneath the bland innocence of his words. Perceiving, as +usual, nothing in the speaker's countenance, Mr. Smith—blowing at the +same time a tremendous cloud to conceal a faint blush which, to my +extreme astonishment, I observed stealing over his unaccustomed +features—said, gravely, almost solemnly: "You, Mr. Tape are a married +man, and the father of a family, and your own experience, therefore, in +the female line must be ample for a lifetime; but you, sir," continued +the captain, patronizingly, addressing another of his auditors, "are, I +believe, as yet 'unattached,' in a legal sense, and may therefore derive +profit, as well as instruction, from an example of the way in which +ardent and inexperienced youth is sometimes entrapped and bamboozled by +womankind. Mr. Tape, oblige me by touching the bell."</p> + +<p>The instant the captain's order had been obeyed, he commenced the +narrative of his love adventure, and for a time spoke with his +accustomed calmness: but toward the close he became so exceeding +discursive and excited, and it was with so much difficulty we drew from +him many little particulars it was essential to hear, that I have been +compelled, from regard to brevity as well as strict decorum, to soften +down and render in my own words some of the chief incidents of his +mishap.</p> + +<p>Just previous to the winter campaign which witnessed the second siege +and fall of Badajoz, Mr. Smith, in the zealous exercise of his perilous +vocation, entered that city in his usual disguise of a Spanish +countryman, with strict orders to keep his eyes and ears wide open, and +to report as speedily as possible upon various military details, which +it was desirable the British general should be made acquainted with. Mr. +Smith, from the first moment the pleasant proposition was hinted to him, +had manifested considerable reluctance to undertake the task; more +especially as General Phillipon, who commanded the French garrison, had +not very long before been much too near catching him, to render a +possibly still more intimate acquaintance with so sharp a practitioner +at all desirable. Nevertheless, as the service was urgent, and no one, +it Was agreed, so competent as himself to the duty—indeed upon this +point Mr. Smith remarked that the most flattering unanimity of opinion +was exhibited by all the gentlemen likely, should he decline the honor, +to be selected in his place—he finally consented and in due time found +himself fairly within the walls of the devoted city. "It was an +uncomfortable business," the captain said, "very much so—and in more +ways than one. It took a long time to accomplish; and what was worse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_778" id="Page_778">[Pg 778]</a></span> +than all, rations were miserably short. The French garrison were living +upon salted horse-flesh, and you may guess, therefore, at the condition +of the civilians' victualing department. Wine was, however, to be had in +sufficient plenty; and I used frequently to pass a few hours at a place +of entertainment kept by an Andalusian woman, whose bitter hatred of the +French invaders, and favorable disposition toward the British were well +known to me, though successfully concealed from Napoleon's soldiers, +many of whom—sous-officiers chiefly—were her customers. My chief +amusement there was playing at dominoes for a few glasses. I played, +when I had a choice, with a smart, goodish-looking sous-lieutenant of +voltigeurs—a glib-tongued chap, of the sort that tell all they know, +and something over, with very little pressing. His comrades addressed +him as Victor, the only name I then knew him by. He and I became very +good friends, the more readily that I was content he should generally +win. I soon reckoned Master Victor up; but there was an old, wiry +<i>gredin</i> of a sergeant-major sometimes present, whose suspicious manner +caused me frequent twinges. One day especially I caught him looking at +me in a way that sent the blood galloping through my veins like +wildfire. A look, Mr. Tape, which may be very likely followed in a few +minutes afterward by a halter, or by half-a-dozen bullets through one's +body, is apt to excite an unpleasant sensation."</p> + +<p>"I should think so. I wouldn't be in such a predicament for the +creation."</p> + +<p>"It's a situation that would hardly suit you, Mr. Tape," replied the +veteran, with a grim smile. "Well, the gray-headed old fox followed up +his look with a number of interesting queries concerning my birth, +parentage, and present occupation, my answers to which so operated upon +him, that I felt quite certain when he shook hands with me, and +expressed himself perfectly satisfied, and sauntered carelessly out of +the place,-that he was gone to report his surmises, and would be +probably back again in two twos with a file of soldiers and an order for +my arrest. He had put me so smartly through my facings, that although it +was quite a cold day for Spain, I give you my honor I perspired to the +very tips of my fingers And toes. The chance of escape was, I felt, +almost desperate. The previous evening a rumor had circulated that the +British general had stormed Ciudad Rodrigo, and might therefore be +already hastening in his seven-league boots, toward Badajoz. The French +were consequently more than ever on the alert, and keen eyes watched +with sharpened eagerness for indications of sympathy or correspondence +between the citizens and the advancing army. I jumped up as soon as the +sergeant-major had disappeared, and was about to follow, when the +mistress of the place approached, and said, hastily, 'I have heard all, +and if not quick, you will be sacrificed by those French dogs: this +way.' I followed to an inner apartment, where she drew from a +well-concealed recess, a French officer's uniform, complete. 'On with +it!' she exclaimed, as she left the room. 'I know the word and +countersign.' I did not require twice telling, you may be sure; and in +less than no time was togged off beautifully in a lieutenant's uniform, +and walking at a smart pace toward one of the gates. I was within twenty +yards of the corps-de-garde, when whom should I run against but +Sous-lieutenant Victor! He stared, but either did not for the moment +recognize me, or else doubted the evidence of his own senses. I +quickened my steps—the guard challenged—I gave the words, 'Napoleon, +Austerlitz!'—passed on; and as soon as a turn of the road hid me from +view, increased my pace to a run. My horse, I should have stated, had +been left in sure hands at about two miles' distance. Could I reach so +far, there was, I felt, a chance. Unfortunately, I had not gone more +than five or six hundred yards, when a hubbub of shouts, and +musket-shots in my rear, announced that I was pursued. I glanced round; +and I assure you, gentlemen, I have seen in my life many pleasanter +prospects than met my view—Richmond Hill, for instance, on a fine +summer day. Between twenty and thirty voltigeurs, headed by my friend +Victor, who had armed himself, like the others, with a musket, were in +full pursuit; and once, I was quite satisfied, within gun-shot, my +business would be very effectually; and speedily settled.</p> + +<p>"I ran on with eager desperation: and though gradually neared by my +friends, gained the hut where I had left the horse in safety. The +voltigeurs were thrown out for a few minutes They knew, however, that I +had not passed the thickish clumps of trees which partially concealed +the cottage; and they extended themselves in a semi-circle to inclose, +and thus make sure of their prey. Juan Sanchez, luckily for himself, was +not at home; but my horse, as I have stated, was safe, and in prime +condition for a race. I saddled, bridled, and brought him out, still +concealed by the trees and hut from the French, whose exulting shouts, +as they gradually closed upon the spot, grew momently louder and +fiercer. The sole desperate chance left was to dash right through them; +and I don't mind telling you, gentlemen, that I was confoundedly +frightened, and that but for the certainty of being instantly +sacrificed, without benefit of clergy, I should have surrendered at +once. There was, however, no time for shilly-shallying. I took another +pull at the saddle-girths, mounted, drove the only spur I had time to +strap on sharply into the animal's flank, and in an instant broke cover +in full and near view of the expecting and impatient voltigeurs; and a +very brilliant reception they gave me—quite a stunner in fact! It's a +very grand thing, no doubt, to be the exclusive object of attention to +twenty or thirty gallant men, but so little selfish, gentlemen, have I +been from my youth up ward in the article of 'glory,' that I assure you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_779" id="Page_779">[Pg 779]</a></span> +I should have been remarkably well-pleased to have had a few +companions—the more the merrier—to share the monopoly which I +engrossed as I came suddenly in sight. The flashes, reports, bullets, +<i>sacrés</i>, which in an instant gleamed in my eyes, and roared and sang +about my ears were deafening. How they all contrived to miss me I can't +imagine, but miss me they did; and I had passed them about sixty paces, +when who should start up over a hedge, a few yards in advance, but my +domino-player, Sous-lieutenant Victor! In an instant his musket was +raised within two or three feet of my face. Flash! bang! I felt a blow +as if from a thrust of red-hot steel; and for a moment made sure that my +head was off. With difficulty I kept my seat. The horse dashed on, and I +was speedily beyond the chance of capture or pursuit. I drew bridle at +the first village I reached, and found that Victor's bullet had gone +clean through both cheeks. The marks, you see, are still plain enough."</p> + +<p>This was quite true. On slightly separating the gray hairs of the +captain's whiskers, the places where the ball had made its entrance and +exit were distinctly visible.</p> + +<p>"A narrow escape," I remarked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, rather; but a miss is as good as a mile. The effusion of blood +nearly choked me; and it was astonishing how much wine and spirits it +required to wash the taste out of my mouth. I found," continued Mr. +Smith, "on arriving at head-quarters, that Ciudad Rodrigo had fallen as +reported, and that Lord Wellington was hurrying on to storm Badajoz +before the echo of his guns should have reached Massena or Soult in the +fool's paradise where they were both slumbering. I was of course for +some time on the sick-list, and consequently only assisted at the +assault of Badajoz as a distant spectator—a part I always preferred +when I had a choice. It was an awful, terrible business," added Mr. +Smith, with unusual solemnity. "I am not much of a philosopher that I +know of, nor, except in service hours, particularly given to religion, +but I remember, when the roar and tumult of the fierce hurricane broke +upon the calm and silence of the night, and a storm of hell-fire seemed +to burst from and encircle the devoted city, wondering what the stars, +which were shining brightly overhead, thought of the strife and dim they +looked so calmly down upon. It was gallantly done, however," the veteran +added, in a brisker tone, "and read well in the Gazette; and that +perhaps is the chief thing."</p> + +<p>"But what," I asked, "has all this to do with the charming Coralie and +your love-adventure?"</p> + +<p>"Every thing to do with it, as you will immediately find. I remained in +Badajoz a considerable time after the departure of the army, and was a +more frequent visitor than ever at the house of the excellent dame who +had so opportunely aided my escape. She was a kind-hearted soul with all +her vindictiveness; and now that the French were no longer riding +rough-shod over the city, spoke of those who were lurking about in +concealment—of whom there were believed to be not a few, with sorrow +and compassion. At length the wound I had received at Lieutenant +Victor's hands was thoroughly healed, and I was thinking of departure, +when the Andalusian dame introduced me in her taciturn, expressive way +to a charming young Frenchwoman, whose husband, a Spaniard, had been +slain during the assault or sack of the city. The intimacy thus begun +soon kindled on my part, into an intense admiration. Coralie was gentle, +artless, confiding as she was beautiful, and moreover—as Jeannette, her +sprightly, black-eyed maid informed me in confidence—extremely rich. +Here, gentlemen, was a combination of charms to which only a heart of +stone could remain insensible, and mine at the time was not only young, +but particularly sensitive and tender, owing in some degree, I daresay, +to the low diet to which I had been so long confined; for nothing, in my +opinion, takes the sense and pluck out of a man so quickly as that. At +all events I soon surrendered at discretion, and was coyly accepted by +the blushing lady. 'There was only one obstacle,' she timidly observed, +'to our happiness. The relatives of her late husband, by law her +guardians, were prejudiced, mercenary wretches, anxious to marry her to +an old hunks of a Spaniard, so that the property of her late husband, +chiefly consisting of precious stones—he had been a lapidary—might not +pass into the hands of foreigners.' I can scarcely believe it now," +added Mr. Smith, with great heat; "but if I didn't swallow all this +stuff like sack and sugar, I'm a Dutchman! The thought of it, old as I +am, sets my very blood on fire.</p> + +<p>"At length," continued Mr. Marmaduke Smith, as soon as he had partially +recovered his equanimity—"at length it was agreed, after all sorts of +schemes had been canvassed and rejected, that the fair widow should be +smuggled out of Badajoz as luggage in a large chest, which Jeannette and +the Andalusian landlady—I forget that woman's name—undertook to have +properly prepared. The marriage ceremony was to be performed by a priest +at a village about twelve English miles off, with whom Coralie undertook +to communicate. 'I trust,' said that lady, 'to the honor of a British +officer'—I had not then received my commission, but no matter—'that +he, that you, Captain Smith, will respect the sanctity of my concealment +till we arrive in the presence of the reverend gentleman who,' she +added, with a smile like a sunset, 'will, I trust, unite our destinies +forever.' She placed, as she spoke, her charming little hand in mine, +and I, you will hardly credit it, tumbled down on my knees, and vowed to +religiously respect the dear angel's slightest wish! Mr. Tape, for +mercy's sake, pass the wine, or the bare recollection will choke me!"</p> + +<p>I must now, for the reasons previously stated, Continue the narrative in +my own words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_780" id="Page_780">[Pg 780]</a></span> Every thing was speedily arranged for flight. Mr. Smith +found no difficulty in procuring from the Spanish commandant an order +which would enable him to pass his luggage through the barrier +unsearched; Jeannette was punctual at the rendezvous, and pointed +exultingly to a large chest, which she whispered contained the trembling +Coralie. The chinks were sufficiently wide to admit of the requisite +quantity of air; it locked inside, and when a kind of sail-cloth was +thrown loosely over it, there was nothing very unusual in its +appearance. Tenderly, tremulously did the rejoicing lover assist the +precious load into the hired bullock-cart, and off they started, Mr. +Smith and Jeannette walking by the side of the richly-freighted vehicle.</p> + +<p>Mr. Smith trod on air, but the cart, which had to be dragged over some +of the worst roads in the world, mocked his impatience by its +marvelously slow progress, and when they halted at noon to give the oxen +water, they were still three good miles from their destination.</p> + +<p>"Do you think?" said Mr. Smith, in a whisper to Jeannette, holding up a +full pint flask, which he had just drawn from his pocket, and pointing +toward the chest, "do you think?—Brandy and water—eh?"</p> + +<p>Jeannette nodded, and the gallant Smith gently approached, tapped at the +lid, and in a soft low whisper proffered the cordial. The lid was, with +the slightest possible delay, just sufficiently raised to admit the +flask, and instantly reclosed and locked. In about ten minutes the flask +was returned as silently as it had been received. The enamored soldier +raised it to his lips, made a profound inclination toward his concealed +fiancée, and said, gently, "A votre santé, charmante Coralie!" The +benignant and joyous expression of Mr. Smith's face, as he vainly +elevated the angle of the flask in expectation of the anticipated +draught, assumed an exceedingly puzzled and bewildered expression. He +peered into the opaque tin vessel; pushed his little finger into its +neck to remove the loose cork or other substance that impeded the genial +flow; then shook it, and listened curiously for a splash or gurgle. Not +a sound! Coralie had drained it to the last drop! Mr. Smith looked with +comical earnestness at Jeannette, who burst into a fit of uncontrollable +laughter.</p> + +<p>"Madame is thirsty," she said, as soon as she could catch sufficient +breath: "it must be so hot in there."</p> + +<p>"A full pint!" said the captain, still in blank astonishment, "and +strong—very!"</p> + +<p>The approach of the carter interrupted what he further might have had to +say, and in a few minutes the journey was resumed. The captain fell into +a reverie which was not broken till the cart again stopped. The chest +was then glided gently to the ground: the driver, who had been +previously paid, turned the heads of his team toward Badajoz, and with a +brief salutation departed homeward.</p> + +<p>Jeanette was stooping over the chest, conversing in a low tone with her +mistress, and Captain Smith surveyed the position in which he found +himself with some astonishment. No house, much less a church or village +was visible, and not a human being was to be seen.</p> + +<p>"Captain Smith," said Jeannette, approaching the puzzled warrior with +some hesitation, "a slight contretemps has occurred. The friends who +were to have met us here, and helped to convey our precious charge to a +place of safety, are not, as you perceive, arrived: perhaps they do not +think it prudent to venture quite so far."</p> + +<p>"It is quite apparent they are not here," observed Mr. Smith; "but why +not have proceeded in the cart?"</p> + +<p>"What, captain! Betray your and madame's secret to yonder Spanish boor. +How you talk!"</p> + +<p>"Well, but my good girl, what <i>is</i> to be done? Will madame get out and +walk?"</p> + +<p>"Impossible—impossible!" ejaculated the amiable damsel. "We should be +both recognized, dragged back to that hateful Badajoz, and madame would +be shut up in a convent for life. It is but about a quarter of a mile," +added Jeannette, in an insinuating, caressing tone, "and madame is not +so <i>very</i> heavy."</p> + +<p>"The devil!" exclaimed Mr. Smith, taken completely aback by this +extraordinary proposal. "You can't mean that I should take that +infer—that chest upon my shoulders!"</p> + +<p>"Mon Dieu! what else <i>can</i> be done?" replied Jeannette, with pathetic +earnestness: "unless you are determined to sacrifice my dear +mistress—she whom you pretended to so love—you hard-hearted, faithless +man!"</p> + +<p>Partially moved by the damsel's tearful vehemence, Mr. Smith reluctantly +approached, and gently lifted one end of the chest, as an experiment.</p> + +<p>"There are a great many valuables there besides madame," said Jeannette, +in reply to the captain's look, "and silver coin is, you know, very +heavy."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" exclaimed the perplexed lover. "It is deucedly +unfortunate—still—Don't you think," he added earnestly, after again +essaying the weight of the precious burden, "that if madame were to wrap +herself well up in this sail-cloth, we might reach your friend the +priest's house without detection?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no—no—no!" rejoined the girl. "Mon Dieu! how can you think of +exposing madame to such hazard?"</p> + +<p>"How far do you say it is?" asked Captain Smith, after a rather sullen +pause.</p> + +<p>"Only just over the fields yonder—half-a-mile perhaps."</p> + +<p>Mr. Smith still hesitated, but finally the tears and entreaties of the +attendant, his regard for the lady and her fortune, the necessity of the +position, in short, determined him to undertake the task. A belt was +passed tightly round the chest, by means of which he could keep it on +his back; and after several unsuccessful efforts, the charming load was +fairly hoisted, and on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_781" id="Page_781">[Pg 781]</a></span> the captain manfully staggered, Jeannette +bringing up the rear.</p> + +<p>Valiantly did Mr. Smith, though perspiring in every pore of his body, +and dry as a cartouch-box—for madame had emptied the only flask he +had—toil on under a burden which seemed to grind his shoulder-blades to +powder. He declares he must have lost a stone of flesh at least before, +after numerous restings, he arrived, at the end of about an hour, at the +door of a small house, which Jeannette announced to be the private +residence of the priest. The door was quickly opened by a smart lad, who +seemed to have been expecting them; the chest was deposited on the +floor, and Jeannette instantly vanished. The lad, with considerate +intelligence, handed Mr. Smith a draught of wine. It was scarcely +swallowed when the key turned in the lock, the eager lover, greatly +revived by the wine, sprang forward with extended arms, and received in +his enthusiastic embrace—whom do you think?</p> + +<p>"Coralie, half-stifled for want of air, and nearly dead with fright," +suggested Mr. Tape.</p> + +<p>"That rascally Sous-lieutenant Victor! half-drunk with +brandy-and-water," roared Captain Smith, who had by this time worked +himself into a state of great excitement. "At the same moment in ran +Jeannette, and, I could hardly believe my eyes, that Jezebel Coralie, +followed by half-a-dozen French voltigeurs, screaming with laughter! I +saw I was done," continued Mr. Smith, "but not for the moment precisely +how, and but for his comrades, I should have settled old and new scores +with Master Victor very quickly. As it was, they had some difficulty in +getting him out of my clutches, for I was, as you may suppose, awfully +savage. An hour or so afterward, when philosophy, a pipe, and some very +capital wine—they were not bad fellows those voltigeurs—had exercised +their soothing influence, I was informed of the exact motives and +particulars of the trick which had been played me. Coralie was Victor +Dufour's wife. He had been wounded at the assault of Badajoz, and +successfully concealed in that Andalusian woman's house; and as the +best, perhaps only mode of saving him from a Spanish prison, or worse, +the scheme of which I had been the victim, was concocted. Had not Dufour +wounded me, they would, I was assured, have thrown themselves upon my +honor and generosity—which honor and generosity, by-the-by, would never +have got Coralie's husband upon my back, I'll be sworn!"</p> + +<p>"You will forgive us, mon cher capitaine?" said that lady, with one of +her sweetest smiles, as she handed me a cup of wine. "In love and war, +you know, every thing is fair."</p> + +<p>"A soldier, gentlemen, is not made of adamant. I was, I confess, +softened; and by the time the party broke up, we were all the best +friends in the world."</p> + +<p>"And so that fat, jolly looking Madame Dufour we saw in Paris, is the +beautiful Coralie that bewitched Captain Smith?" said Mr. Tape +thoughtfully—"Well!"</p> + +<p>"She was younger forty years ago, Mr. Tape, than when you saw her. +Beautiful Coralies are rare, I fancy, at her present age, and very +fortunately, too, in my opinion," continued Captain Smith; "for what, I +should like to know, would become of the peace and comfort of society, +if a woman of sixty could bewitch a man as easily as she does at +sixteen?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_CHAMPION" id="THE_CHAMPION"></a>THE CHAMPION.</h2> + +<h3>A ROMANTIC INCIDENT IN EARLY SPANISH HISTORY.</h3> + + +<p>The clang of arms and the inspiriting sounds of martial music resounded +through the court-yard of the palace of Navarre. The chivalry of +Arragon, Castile, and Navarre had assembled at the summons of their +sovereign, to fight under his banner against the infidels, and now +waited impatiently for the moment when the monarch should mount his +gallant steed, and lead them to battle and to victory.</p> + +<p>Sancho the Fourth was at that moment bidding farewell to his queen, the +gentle Dona Nuna, who clung to her lord in an agony of tears.</p> + +<p>"Be comforted, my beloved," he said to her; "I shall return to you with +added laurels to my kingly wreath. Do not fear for me, nor let your +sweet face grow pale by brooding over the dangers and chances of war. +For my part, I never felt more exulting anticipations of success, and am +persuaded that triumph and victory will crown our undertaking."</p> + +<p>"Alas! it is not so with me," said Nuna, sadly. "A presentiment of +approaching evil weighs heavily on my heart."</p> + +<p>"You shudder at the thought if our separation, Nuna, more like a timid +young bride parting from her newly-wedded lord, than a matron who has +shared her husband's joys and sorrows for well-nigh twenty years."</p> + +<p>"You are now far dearer to me, Sancho, than when I gave you my hand: +have I not to thank you for the love and tenderness which has made these +long years of wedded life so blissful and happy?"</p> + +<p>"In sooth, I believe, Nuna, it is even so: and you love me as warmly as +ever. Receive my assurances in return, dear wife, that your face is as +fair to me, and the gift of your true heart as fondly prized, as when I +first led you to these halls, my youthful and beautiful bride. But +suffer me to bid you farewell, or my nobles will wax impatient. I leave +you to the society of our son, and the guardianship of my trusty Pedro +Sésé, who will attend to your behests. One word more. I intrust to your +safe keeping my beautiful steed, Ilderim. You know how I value the noble +animal, my first capture from the Moor. See that he is carefully tended +in my absence, I shall accept it as a proof of your regard for my +wishes. And now, adieu, dearest wife. Think of me, and supplicate Heaven +that I may be speedily and safely restored to your arms."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_782" id="Page_782">[Pg 782]</a></span></p> + +<p>So saying, Sancho the Great, tenderly embraced his wife; and mounting +his war charger, placed himself at the head of his gallant army. The +clatter of horses' hoofs soon died away in the distance, leaving the +court-yard of the castle in silence and gloom.</p> + +<p>Three days after the king's departure, the young Don Garcia entered the +court-yard of the palace at Navarre.</p> + +<p>"Pedro Sésé, Pedro Sésé!" he cried; "my noble Arab El Toro lies dead in +a cleft of the rocks: I have returned to seek another steed for the +chase: such a boar hunt has not been among the forests of Navarre since +the Pyrenees echoed to the horn of Roland: give me forth black Ilderim, +Pedro, my friend; saddle me my father's charger, for there is no other +steed in the king's stables worthy of the hunt of to-day!"</p> + +<p>"Don Garcia," replied the master of the horse, "black Ilderim is only +for the king's mounting: I dare not saddle him for any other."</p> + +<p>"But the Infante commands it—the king that is to be."</p> + +<p>"Chafe not with a faithful servant, Don Garcia: it is but yesterday I +refused the same request of the bastard of Arragon."</p> + +<p>"What! darest thou compare me with the base-born Ramiro? Insolent! I +shall bear my complaint to the queen."</p> + +<p>To the queen Don Garcia bore his complaint and his petition: "Oh, my +mother, wouldst thou see me dishonored by a menial? Am I not thine only +son, the rightful heir of Arragon, Castile, and Navarre? who may command +here, if I may not? Assert my authority, then, and order the false Pedro +Sésé that he give me forth black Ilderim."</p> + +<p>"Pedro Sésé has faithfully discharged his duty to my lord the king, who +enjoined on him and on me the safe keeping of his favorite horse," said +Dona Nuna. "The royal stables are open; take, my son, any other steed, +but leave black Ilderim till thy father's return."</p> + +<p>"Nay, by Heaven and by the saints, I will have Ilderim to ride this day, +or I will have vengeance!"</p> + +<p>The headstrong youth returned to the court-yard, and again demanded the +steed: again the master of the horse refused. Don Garcia, pale with +concentrated rage, sprang on another of the king's chargers, and +galloped from the palace. Instead, however, of returning to the hunt, he +urged his horse into the <i>despoblado</i>, or open plain, lying to the south +of the castle, and disappeared on the road to Burgos.</p> + +<p>Time passed heavily, in her lord's absence, with the gentle Nuna. At +first, she received frequent and joyful tidings of the successes which +crowned his arms, and the brilliant victories gained by his forces over +the Moslem army. Of late, and since the departure of Garcia from the +castle, Sancho's affectionate dispatches had altogether ceased; and +Nuna, now thoroughly wretched, from the wayward perversity of her son, +and from uncertainty as to her husband's fate, had prepared to rejoin +him at any risk, and share the perils to which he might be exposed.</p> + +<p>Her resolution was no sooner formed than it was promptly carried into +effect: she summoned to her aid the trusty Pedro Sésé; and, protected by +a small escort under his command, bade adieu to Navarre, and commenced +her long and perilous journey toward the theatre of war.</p> + +<p>The little cavalcade had reached Najarra, when, to their surprise and +joy, they beheld a gallant band of horsemen rapidly approaching: the +united banner of Arragon, Castile, and Navarre, floating proudly before +them, announced to all beholders that Sancho the Fourth led his knights +in person.</p> + +<p>Nuna's heart beat fast and tumultuously; in a few moments, and the long +absent one would clasp her closely to his breast. She looked up to the +master of the horse who rode by her side, and urged him to increased +speed. They moved briskly forward; and the advancing knights who formed +the king's body-guard became more distinctly visible. Sancho, as we have +said, headed them; but as soon as they had arrived within a short +distance of the queen's followers, the monarch advanced a few paces, and +in tones of thunder called on them to halt. His brow was darkened with +evil passions, his countenance flushed with anger.</p> + +<p>"On the peril of your allegiance!" he shouted, rather than spoke, "seize +the traitress, I command ye! My heart refused to hearken to the tale of +her guilt, even when spoken by the lips of her son; but mine eyes have +seen it. I have lived—wretched that I am—to witness her infamy. But +the adulteress, and the companion of her crime, shall not escape my +righteous vengeance. See to it, that the queen and Pedro Sésé remain +your prisoners."</p> + +<p>If a thunderbolt had fallen at the feet of the miserable Nuna, she could +not have been more horror-struck, or more confounded. Her life-long +dream of happiness was dissipated; the husband of her youth had recoiled +from her as from the veriest reptile that crawls on the face of God's +earth; and the worker of her woe and ruin was her own child—her own +flesh and blood—her son Garcia! Who would believe her to be pure and +innocent when such lips pronounced the tale of her guilt? Unhappy wife; +still more unhappy mother! In the deepest dungeon of the castle of +Najarra she was left to mourn over her unparalleled misery. Alone, +unfriended, and solitary, Nuna—who so lately had seen herself a beloved +and cherished wife, a fond mother, and a mighty sovereign—struggled +with her bitter and mournful reflections. She could not reproach her +husband, for she felt that his ear had been poisoned against her by an +accuser he could scarcely mistrust, even by the insinuations of her son, +confirmed—as he deemed them to be—by the evidence of his senses, when +he met her so unexpectedly traveling under the escort of Pedro Sésé.</p> + +<p>But short space was left to Nuna for these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_783" id="Page_783">[Pg 783]</a></span> agonizing thoughts. Death, a +shameful death, was the punishment of the adulteress; but Sancho, more +merciful than she had dared to hope, had granted her one loop-hole for +escape—one slender chance of proving her innocence. The lists were to +be open to any champion believing in the lady's guiltlessness, who +should adventure his life in her defense. If any such should proffer his +services, he might do battle in single combat with her accuser. +God—according to the belief of those days—would give victory to him +who maintained the truth!</p> + +<p>The fatal day approached, arrived, and had well-nigh passed. Garcia, +unopposed, bestrode his war-steed, the redoubtable black Ilderim, whose +possession he had so eagerly coveted, and purchased at so fearful a +price. The discrowned queen, in conformity with custom, was placed +within sight of the arena, tied to a stake, surmounting what would prove +her funeral pile if no champion appeared on her behalf, or if her +defender should suffer defeat.</p> + +<p>Who can paint the agitation of Dona Nuna, thus placed within view of the +lists, when the precious hours passed, one by one, and no champion stood +forth in defense of her purity and truth? She was about to resign +herself hopelessly to her inexorable fate, when the sound of a horse's +tramp was heard, approaching at a rapid pace; and a knight, in complete +armor, mounted on a charger, whose foaming mouth and reeking sides told +that he had been ridden at a fearful pace, dashed into the lists, flung +down his gauntlet of defiance, and announced that he was come to do +battle in behalf of the falsely-accused, but stainless and guiltless +queen.</p> + +<p>There was an involuntary movement among the assembled multitude when +Garcia prepared for the inevitable encounter. None knew, or could guess, +who the knight might be. No device nor emblem, by which his identity +would be discovered, could be traced on his helmet or on his shield! but +the ease with which he surmounted his steed, and his graceful and +gallant bearing, evinced that he was an accomplished warrior.</p> + +<p>In a few seconds, the preliminary arrangements were complete; and, with +lances in rest, the opponents approached. In the first encounter, to the +amazement of all, Garcia was unhorsed, and fell heavily to the ground.</p> + +<p>"She is innocent! She is innocent!" shouted the multitude.</p> + +<p>"God be praised! though I have lost a son," was the subdued ejaculation +of the king.</p> + +<p>"I am prepared, in defense of the much-injured lady, to do combat to the +death," said the stranger knight. "Base and dastardly villain! confess +thy unnatural crime, or prepare to meet me once more, when I swear I +will not let thee escape so lightly."</p> + +<p>Garcia hesitated; he was evidently torn by conflicting emotions. +Conscious guilt—fear of the just retribution of Heaven, executed by the +stranger's avenging sword—urged him to confess his villainy. On the +other hand, apprehension of the execrations of the multitude, and the +indignation of his injured parents, restrained him from making a frank +avowal of his crime.</p> + +<p>"Remount, miscreant! and make ready for another encounter, or confess +that you have lied in your throat," exclaimed the stranger, sternly.</p> + +<p>Before Garcia could reply, an aged and venerable ecclesiastic threw +himself between the opponents.</p> + +<p>"In the name of Heaven! I command ye to withhold from this unnatural +strife," he exclaimed, addressing them; "brothers are ye; the blood of a +common father flows in your veins. Ramiro—forbear. Garcia—the combat +this day has testified to your guilt; make the only atonement in your +power, by a full confession."</p> + +<p>Ejaculations of astonishment and pity burst from all the spectators. +"Long live the noble bastard! The base-born has made base the well-born! +The step-son has proved the true son! Praise be to the Virgin, the +mother of the people has not been left without a godson to fight for +her!" And all the matrons, and many even of the hardened warriors among +the multitude, wept with tenderness and joy.</p> + +<p>In a few moments the agitated queen found herself in her husband's arms. +He implored her forgiveness for the sorrow she had endured; nor could +she withhold it, even for a moment, when she listened to the avowals of +the degraded Garcia, who confessed how, step by step, he had poisoned +his father's mind by tales of her infidelity, in revenge for her +refusal, and that of Pedro Sésé, to intrust him with Sancho's favorite +charger, black Ilderim.</p> + +<p>Nuna turned from her abject son, and motioned her young champion to +approach. He knelt at her feet.</p> + +<p>"Ramiro," she softly said, as she unclasped the helmet and visor which +concealed the handsome features of Sancho's illegitimate son, "child of +my affections, for whom I have ever felt a mother's love, though I have +not borne for thee a mother's pains; how shall I thank thee? Thou hast +this day more than repaid the tenderness I lavished on thy infant years. +Thou hast made clear my fair fame to all men; even at the risk of thy +own young life."</p> + +<p>"I would lay down life itself for such a friend as you have been, and +esteem the sacrifice light," rejoined Ramiro, with deep emotion. "I +remember my childish days—before you came to Navarre, a bright, happy, +innocent bride—when I wandered through my father's palace an unloved +and neglected boy; and I can recall vividly the moment when you first +encountered me, and, struck by the resemblance I bore to the king, +surmised the truth. Instead of hating me with the unjust aversion of an +ungenerous nature, you took the despised child to your heart, and, for +the love you bore your lord, you loved and cherished his base-born son. +For the genial atmosphere you created around me, and in which my +affections expanded, and for the care<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_784" id="Page_784">[Pg 784]</a></span> you have bestowed on my +education, I owe you a debt of gratitude far deeper than ever child bore +his own mother. Nature dictates maternal love, in the one instance—but +it is to the suggestions of a noble and generous heart that I have been +indebted for the happiness of my life. You owe me no thanks—for, for +such a friend no sacrifice can be too great."</p> + +<p>Nuna turned to the king; and, taking his hand in hers, placed it on the +head of her young champion. "I have brought you kingdoms as my dower," +she said, "but I have not, alas! brought you a son so worthy as Ramiro +of being their ruler. I freely forgive the Infante the suffering he has +caused me, and hope that, with advancing years, he will cultivate the +virtues in which he has shown himself to be deficient. But Ramiro has +already given evidence of the possession of those exalted qualities +which insure the happiness of a people when possessed by their rulers. +Invest him then, at my entreaty, with the crown of Arragon; receive back +to your confidence our faithful Pedro Sésé; and suffer me to forget my +past griefs in the anticipation of a love which shall never again be +interrupted."</p> + +<p>The king raised his hand in assent; and the assembled multitude +confirmed the investiture with one mighty shout—"Ramiro! Ramiro! long +live Ramiro! Infante of Arragon!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FARM-LABORER_THE_SON" id="THE_FARM-LABORER_THE_SON"></a>THE FARM-LABORER.—THE SON.</h2> + +<h3>BY HARRIET MARTINEAU.</h3> + + +<p>It has been told that Susan Banks found herself well placed, after the +death of her insane aunt obliged her to look for a home and a +maintenance. As I am not telling her story, I will pass over the account +of the efforts she made to be a schoolmistress, and the instruction she +had as a dressmaker. She was in poor health (reduced by hunger) and in +debt £3 to her uncle, and nervous and anxious, when she heard that a +lady from the North, then visiting in the neighborhood, wanted just such +a maid as Susan thought she could become with a little teaching. She +obtained the place, took pains to learn to wait at table, &c., and +within a year had paid her debt to her uncle, and spared £2 besides to +her family; and all this, though her box had had but few clothes in it +when she went to her new home.</p> + +<p>At the end of a year, her employer, Miss Foote, began to think of +cultivating the small portion of land about the house which had hitherto +been let off for grazing, and which was deteriorating in quality from +the mismanagement of the tenant. Not approving of the methods of tillage +in the neighborhood, and knowing that there were no spare hands there, +Miss Foote wrote to a parish officer in Susan's and her own native +county, to ask if a laborer of good character and sound qualifications +could be sent to her by the parish, on her engaging to pay him twelve +shillings a week for a year and a half, while her experiment of +cultivation was under trial; and longer, if it should be found to +answer. This was all she could undertake, as she could not afford to +carry on the scheme at a loss. The answer was some time in coming. When +it came, it told that pauper laborers could not be recommended; but a +better sort of laborer might be sent, and his place in the parish would +be filled, only too easily, by some of the young men from the workhouse. +The proposal was to send the very best man of his class known to the +parish officers. He and his wife had money enough in the savings' bank +to pay their journey, and they were willing to make the venture. The +man's name was Harry Banks. Miss Foote took the letter into the kitchen, +and read it to Susan and her fellow-servant. When Susan heard the name, +she started as if she had been shot, and screamed out, "Why, that's my +brother!" Thus far, far away from home, she was to have a brother and +his wife beside her, living in the pretty little cottage which was +building behind the oak copse for the new laborer. Miss Foote inquired +about the wife, but could learn little. Susan told nothing but that she +was a respectable woman, but so old, and otherwise unsuitable, that it +was a vexation to the family that Harry had made such a marriage. Harry +never seemed to see a single fault in her; but his father and mother did +not like Dinah at all.</p> + +<p>When Miss Foote afterward came to know the whole, she thought this +marriage the most terribly significant part of the whole family history +of the Bankses. At thirty years of age Harry was a pattern of a +farm-laborer; yet he had no prospect in life but of earning a precarious +nine shillings a week, till he should be too old to earn so much. He +worked for a rich, close-fisted Dissenting gentleman, who had always +pious sayings on his lips and at the point of his pen, but never took +off his eye for an instant from his money gains and savings. His wife +was like him, and their servants grew like them—even the warm-hearted, +impetuous Harry, and much more Dinah, their worn out maid-of-all-work. +Dinah always said that the register of her birth was unfortunately lost, +and she could not tell precisely how old she was; and she called herself +"upwards o' forty." Most people supposed her about sixty when she +married. She used to tell Harry that she was the prettiest girl in the +city when she was young, and Harry did not ask how long ago that was, +nor look too much at the little wizened face, not more marked by +small-pox than by signs of over-exhausting toil. Whatever might be her +age, she was worn out by excessive work. When Harry's father heard that +she and Harry were going before the registrar to be married, he kindly +and seriously asked Harry if he had considered what he was about; and +Harry's reply was enough to make any heart ache.</p> + +<p>"Yes, father, I have. I'm not so very much set on it; but I think it +will be most comfortable. You see, there's no use in people like us +thinking of having children. Children would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_785" id="Page_785">[Pg 785]</a></span> only starve us downright, +and bring us to the Union. You see, none of us are married, nor likely +to be, except me with Dinah. She's clean and tidy, you see, and she has +some wages laid by, and so have I; and so nobody need find fault. And I +shall be more comfortable like, with somebody to do for me at home; +and—"</p> + +<p>And he was going on to tell how Dinah would cook his dinner and mend his +clothes, but his father could not bear to hear him, and finished off +with saying that it was his own affair, and he wished them well.</p> + +<p>It was within a year after their marriage that Harry was engaged, by +Miss Foote. In great glee he made haste to prepare himself for his +important new place in every way he could think of. He learned to trim a +vine, not knowing that the place he was going to was too far north for +vine-growing. He made interest with a butcher to learn how to kill a +pig. He made a little collection of superior cabbage and turnip seeds, +seed potatoes, &c., thus proving to Miss Foote at the outset that he had +plenty of energy and quickness. She found, too, that he had courage. His +employers, vexed to lose two servants whom they had trained to excessive +economy, as well as hard work, did every thing that was possible, while +there was any chance of success, to frighten them from moving northward. +They told Dinah, with mournful countenances, that they should certainly +die—that it was all the same as being transported—that it was cruelty +in the parish officers to let them be tempted. Dinah repeated all this +to Harry; and it staggered him at first; but he presently remembered +that Susan wrote that her health had improved; and her letters had not +only contained post-office orders, but plain signs that she was very +happy. Harry determined to proceed; and when he had once made up his +mind, his employers showed themselves very kind—helping their +preparations, and having them to dinner on the last day.</p> + +<p>By their own account their journey must have been a curious affair. +Their heads were so full of notions of thieves and sharpers, that they +did every thing in the slyest way, and wrapped themselves in mystery, +and pretended to despise their boxes, while in one continued agony about +them. When met by a kind gentleman who was to see them through London, +Dinah pretended not to be the right person, lest the gentleman should +not be the right; so that it was lucky they did lose his help +altogether. Miss Foote was disagreeably impressed by their account of +their great slyness, and not less by the suspicious temper—natural, +perhaps, to Dinah, but not at all so to Harry—in which they began their +new mode of life. Dinah was no servant of hers; so she had nothing to do +with Dinah's ways, but to check the jealousy and suspicion she showed of +her young sister-in-law and the young cook. On occasion of leaving home +for some weeks, the lady took the opportunity of intimating to the +people at the cottage that there was a perfect understanding between +the girls and herself, as perfect a confidence as there can be between +mother and daughters; that their acquaintances came by her permission, +and so forth. Harry promised to be attentive and sociable with his +sister, and not to grow hot with the cook about how to feed the fowls +and manage the churn. That was the time when Dinah left off peeping +through the laurels to see who went to the back door, and looking +mysterious and sympathetic when holding forth to Miss Foote about young +people. Still it was long before she left off locking her door and +hiding the key, if she turned her back for a minute, and taking every +body she did not know for a thief. She was left to her own notions; but +with Harry a serious remonstrance was necessary, more than once, within +the first year of his new service. Miss Foote was as much annoyed as +amused with his higgling ways, all in zeal for her interests. She feared +that she should have the reputation in the neighborhood of being a +perfect miser, so wonderful were Harry's stories of the bargains he +attempted to drive. She told him she hoped he would never succeed in any +one such bargain as the many he told her of; and she laid her positive +commands upon him never, in her name, to beat down the seller of any +article she sent him to buy. As she supposed, she found he had caught up +the trick from example, and had not the knowledge whereby to remedy it. +When she told him it was not the way of the place to cheat in making +charges he shook his head, and very nearly put his tongue in his cheek; +but when she explained to him how prices came to be, and how an article +can not properly be bought for less than it took to make or grow it, he +was convinced at once, and his higgling method was softened down into a +mere excessive strictness and vigilance in buying and selling +transactions. There never was any real meanness about the man. In a few +months he sent his father ten shillings; in a few months more he sent +him £1. A small anecdote will show better than this, that money is not +naturally the first object with him. When his employer kills a pig he is +allowed to take a quarter at wholesale price, and Dinah cures the ham so +well that by selling it they get their bacon for next to nothing. One +autumn, when two pigs were killed, there was such a scramble for them, +and so many neighbors would be "hurt in their feelings" if they could +not have a portion, that Miss Foote found herself left with two gammons, +but no ham. Harry heard this in the kitchen. He kept silence till his +ham was finely cured, and then, touching his hat as if asking a favor, +he told his employer that she had done good things for him, and he had +never been able to do any for her, and he should be much pleased if she +would take the ham for what he gave for it. Though not agreeing to this +exactly, Miss Foote found herself obliged to take the ham very cheap.</p> + +<p>Another small incident showed the same gentlemanly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_786" id="Page_786">[Pg 786]</a></span> spirit. At the time +when his whole soul was engrossed with the desire to make "the +experiment" answer, he had a request to present, as often during a whole +winter as he could edge it in. There was a certain long, ugly hedge, +pernicious in every way, which divided the field from a neighbor's. The +hedge belonged to the neighbor; and it appeared that he would be +heartily glad to give it away to any body who would take it down and put +up some fence which would cover less ground and harbor less vermin. +Harry was so eager to be allowed to remove the hedge, that Miss Foote at +last told him that she should never have dreamed of his undertaking such +a job in addition to his regular work; but that he might please himself. +She would put up a new fence if he chose to make way for it. He did it +with no help but in felling some pollards. One afternoon, when wheeling +up hill an enormous load of wood from the hedge, he heard himself +laughed at from the next field. Now, no man winces more under a laugh +than Harry; yet he bore it well this time. Some men called out mockingly +that he was doing horse's work and man's work at once, and they would +not do that to please any body. "No," said Harry, turning full round +toward them, "nor, I neither. Miss Foote never asked me to do this. I do +it to please myself."</p> + +<p>No man, I have said, winces under a laugh more than Harry; and his only +suffering worth mentioning, since he came to his new place, has been +from this dislike of ridicule. When the cottage was ready, Miss Foote +proposed a house-warming, and invited herself and her two maids there to +tea. It was a particularly pleasant evening, with a fine fire, and +plenty of light, and good tea and cake, and all the five in capital +spirits. Harry was made to take the arm-chair by his own fireside; and +when he began to crack his jokes it appeared that he had his own notions +of the ridiculous. He quizzed his nearest neighbor, an old man, who had +married a comparatively young woman, and whose children were forever +playing about Miss Foote's gate. When Harry joked about that unequal +match, Miss Foote could not laugh. She thought his own infinitely worse. +And the poor fellow soon saw that others were quizzing him, much more +severely than he had quizzed the old man. He looks grave about Dinah +now, and has left off talking of his own prudence in making such a +marriage. He has also told his sister that when Dinah dies he shall not +marry again. It is very painful; and yet Dinah is improved beyond all +that could have been anticipated. She has put off her false front, and +lets her grizzled hair appear. She no longer scans Miss Foote's face to +make out what it would be most acceptable that she should say, but +rattles away about her affairs with a sort of youthful glee. She no +longer speaks in a whining tone, but lets her voice take its own way. +One day she leaned on her rake (when she was trimming her own +flower-bed), and told Miss Foote, without any canting whatever, that she +had quite changed her mind about the maids since she came. She was +looking too far then, and so did not see what they were; but she found +in time that there was no slyness or pretense, but that they were really +good faithful girls, working for their employer's good, and with no +plots of their own. Old as Dinah seemed to be, there appears to be a +chance of her growing ingenuous and agreeable before she dies. The +gentry who come to the house observe that they never saw two people so +altered as Harry and Dinah; that they seem to have got new faces, a new +gait—a new mind.</p> + +<p>Harry had other ridicule to wince about. The neighbors laughed at him +and his employer about their whole plan; they had never heard of keeping +cows on less than three acres per cow, or, at least, five acres for two; +they had never seen such deep digging; they had never known any body +take the trouble to remove stones, or do any thing but bury them out of +sight; they had never seen a currycomb used to a cow; they had never +known a hardworking man so poor-spirited as to be a water-drinker. The +milk must cost Miss Foote 6<i>d.</i> a quart; the cow would die; Harry would +wear himself out; and so forth. One day, the first winter, the cow was +very ill. Between the fear of the experiment being given up, and love +for the creature, and dread of the neighbors, Harry was wretched. The +tears streamed down his face as he waited on the sick beast. She got +well, however; and now Harry meets ridicule with a bolder face. A +temperance society having been set up in the place, he has joined it, +though far above all temptation to drink. He finds it a convenience, +when pressed to drink, to cut the matter short by saying that he is a +pledged member—and a curious temperance preacher he is. When told +lately that his cows would rot under his method of treatment, his answer +was: "No, it isn't they that will rot. I'll tell you who 'tis that will +rot; 'tis them that put filthy spirits into their stomachs to turn their +brains, that will rot, and not my cows, that drink sweet water."</p> + +<p>There is a grave side to Harry's lot now, happy as he is. He looks +serious and hurt at times, though his health has much strengthened, his +earnings are sure, his wages are raised, his Sunday dress is like that +of a gentleman, there is meat on his table daily, and he has had the +comfort of assisting his parents. Notwithstanding all this, a cloud +comes over his face at times. As his sister says, "he feels the <i>injury</i> +of his want of education." His mind is opening very rapidly. At any +spare quarter of an hour he lectures Miss Foote on industry, temperance, +duty to parents, and other good topics. The moral discoveries he has +made are wonderful to him. He has attended church all his life; but +truths come with new force into his mind when they enter through the +spirit of hope and the medium of success. He says "it was wonderful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_787" id="Page_787">[Pg 787]</a></span> the +ideas that come into a man's mind when he sets himself a-thinking over +his work, and there is no care to take up his thoughts." Hence the +brightened countenance which the neighbors remark on: but hence, too, +the bitter regret at his wasted years of school life—at "the <i>injury</i> +of his want of education." What might he not hope to be and do now, +Susan says, if he had but the knowledge that every man may be said to +have the right to be possessed of? Yet, the good fellow has raised his +family to a point of comfort. A gentleman who heard of his merits, as a +first-rate laborer, wrote to the same parish officers, to inquire if +there were any brothers. There was Tom; and Tom is now in a happy +situation, highly esteemed by his employer, and earning 14<i>s.</i> a week. +The employer, finding that Tom sadly missed intercourse with his family, +and knowing that he could neither read nor write letters, sent for the +sister, Lizzy, to be under-nursemaid in the family. In another way Harry +has done a deeper and wider good. Miss Foote's friends tell her that his +example is beginning to <i>tell</i> in the neighborhood; his example, not +only of strenuous and skillful labor, but by integrity, temperance, and +disinterested attachment to his employer.</p> + +<p>All this is well—very pleasant to contemplate—but a disturbing +question arises in the midst of it: What can society say to these +excellent young men in excuse for their deprivation of family life? And +again, what is at best their prospect for old age?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="From_Bentleys_Miscellany" id="From_Bentleys_Miscellany"></a>(From Bentley's Miscellany.)</h4> + +<h2>A CHAPTER ON WOLVES.</h2> + +<h3>BY THE AUTHOR OF "LORD BACON IN ADVERSITY," ETC.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We rustled through the leaves like wind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Left shrubs and trees and wolves behind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By night I beard them on the track,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their troop came hard upon our back,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With their long gallop, which can tire<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hounds' deep hate and hunter's fire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where'er we flew, they followed on,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor left us with the morning sun.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Behind I saw them, scarce a rood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At daybreak winding through the wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through the night had heard their feet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their stealing, rustling step repeat.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh! how I wished for spear or sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At least to die amidst the horde,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And perish—if it must be so—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At bay, destroying many a foe!<br /></span> +<span class="i22"><i>Mazeppa.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>A peculiar interest attaches to the wolf, from the close analogy which +in all its essential features it presents to the faithful companion of +man. So close indeed is the analogy, that some of the ablest zoologists, +the celebrated John Hunter included, have entertained the opinion that +dogs, in all their varieties, and wolves, have descended from a common +stock. With the exception of an obliquity in the position of the eyes, +there is no appreciable anatomical difference between these animals. The +question is one of difficulty; but we believe we are correct in stating +that the majority of the highest authorities agree in the belief that +these animals are not derived from a common parent, but were originally +distinct, and will ever so continue. There are several species of wild +dogs known, quite distinct from the wolf; and although the opportunities +have been numerous for dogs resuming their pristine form, by long +continuance in a savage state, no instance has ever occurred of their +becoming wolves, however much they might degenerate from the domestic +breed. The honest and intelligent shepherd-dog was regarded by Buffon as +the "<i>fons et origo</i>," from which all other dogs, great and small, have +sprung; and he drew up a kind of genealogical table, showing how +climate, food, education, and intermixture of breeds gave rise to the +varieties. At Katmandoo there are many plants found in a wild state, +which man has carried with him in his migrations, and wild animals, +which may present the typical forms whence some of our domestic races +have been derived; among these is a wild dog, which Mr. Hodgson +considers to be the primitive species of the whole canine race. By +Professor Kretchner, the jackal was regarded as the type of the dogs of +ancient Egypt, an idea supported by the representations on the walls of +the temples. This question, however, of the origin of the canine race, +is so thoroughly obscured by the mists of countless ages, as to be +incapable of direct proof. Philosophers may indulge themselves with +speculations; but in the absence of that keystone, proof, the matter +must rest on the basis of theory alone.</p> + +<p>The following are some of the chief differences between wolves, wild +dogs, and domestic dogs. The ears of the wild animals are always +pricked, the lop or drooping ear being essentially a mark of +civilization; with very rare exceptions, their tails hang more or less +and are bushy, the honest cock of the tail so characteristic of a +respectable dog, being wanting. This is certainly the rule; but, curious +enough, the Zoological Gardens contain at the present moment, a +Portuguese female wolf which carries her tail as erect and with as bold +an air as any dog. Wolves and wild dogs growl, howl, yelp, and cry most +discordantly, but with one exception, do not bark; that exception being +the wild hunting-dog of South Africa, which, according to Mr. Cumming, +has three distinct cries; one is peculiarly soft and melodious, but +distinguishable at a great distance: this is analogous to the +trumpet-call, "halt and rally," of cavalry, serving to collect the +scattered pack when broken in hot chase. A second cry, which has been +compared to the chattering of monkeys, is emitted at night when the dogs +are excited; and the third note is described as a sharp, angry bark, +usually uttered when they behold an object they can not make out, but +which differs from the true, well-known bark of the domestic dog.</p> + +<p>The common or European wolf is found from Egypt to Lapland, and is most +probably the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_788" id="Page_788">[Pg 788]</a></span> variety that formerly haunted these islands. The wolves of +Russia are large and fierce, and have a peculiarly savage aspect. The +Swedish and Norwegian are similar to the Russian in form, but are +lighter in color, and in winter, totally white. Those of France are +browner and smaller than either of these, and the Alpine wolves are +smaller still. Wolves are very numerous in the northern regions of +America; "their foot-marks," says Sir John Richardson, "may be seen by +the side of every stream, and a traveler can rarely pass the night in +these wilds without hearing them howling around him."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> These wolves +burrow, and bring forth their young in earths with several outlets, like +those of a fox. Sir John saw none with the gaunt appearance, the long +jaw and tapering nose, long legs and slender feet, of the Pyrenean +wolves.</p> + +<p>India, too, is infested with wolves, which are smaller than the +European. There is a remarkably fine animal at the Zoological Gardens, +born of a European father and Indian mother, which, in size and other +respects, so closely partakes of the characteristics of his sire, that +he might well pass for pure blood.</p> + +<p>Among the ancients, wolves gave rise to many superstitious fictions. For +instance, it was said that they possessed "an evil eye," and that, if +they looked on a man before he saw them, he would forthwith lose his +voice. Again, we find the Roman witches, like the weird sisters of +Macbeth, employing the wolf in their incantations:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Utque lupi barbam variæ cum dente colubræ<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Abdiderint furtim terris."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6"><span class="smcap">Hor.</span> <i>Sat.</i> viii. lib. i.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There was a myth prevalent among the ancients, that in Arcadia there +lived a certain family of the Antæi, of which one was ever obliged to be +transformed into a wolf. The members of the family cast lots, and all +accompanied the luckless wight on whom the lot fell, to a pool of water. +This he swam over, and having entered into the wilderness on the other +side, was forthwith in form, a wolf, and for nine years kept company +with wolves: at the expiration of that period he again swam across the +pool, and was restored to his natural shape, only that the addition of +nine years was placed upon his features. It was also imagined that the +tail of the wolf contained a hair, which acted as a love philtre and +excited the tender passion. The myth of Romulus and Remus having been +suckled by a wolf, arose from the simple circumstance of their nurse +having been named Lupa—an explanation which sadly does away with the +garland of romance that so long surrounded the story of the founders of +Rome. The figure of the wolf at one time formed a standard for the Roman +legions, as saith Pliny, "Caius Marius, in his second consulship, +ordained that the legions of Roman soldiers only should have the egle +for their standard, and no other signe, for before time the egle +marched foremost indeed, but in a ranke of foure others, to wit, +wolves, minotaures, horses, and bores."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The dried snout of a wolf held, in the estimation of the ancients, the +same rank that a horseshoe does now with the credulous. It was nailed +upon the gates of country farms, as a counter-charm against the evil +eye, and was supposed to be a powerful antidote to incantations and +witchcraft. New-married ladies were wont, upon their wedding-day, to +anoint the side-posts of their husbands' houses with wolves' grease, to +defeat all demoniac arts. These animals bore, however, but a bad +character when alive; for, exclusive of their depredations, it was +imagined that if horses chanced to tread in the foot-tracks of wolves, +their feet were immediately benumbed; but Pliny also says, "Verily, the +great master teeth and grinders of a wolf being hanged about an horse +necke, cause him that he shall never tire and be weary, be he put to +never so much running in any race whatsoever." When a territory was much +infested with wolves, the following ceremony was performed with much +solemnity and deep subsequent carousal: A wolf would be caught alive, +and his legs carefully broken. He was then dragged around the confines +of the farm, being bled with a knife from time to time, so that the +blood might sprinkle the ground. Being generally dead when the journey +had been completed, he was buried in the very spot whence he had started +on his painful race.</p> + +<p>There was scarcely a filthy thing upon the earth, or under the earth, +which the ancients did not in some way use medicinally; and we find +Paulus Ægineta recommends the dry and pounded liver of a wolf, steeped +in sweet wine, as a sovereign remedy for diseases of the liver, &c.</p> + +<p>Our English word <i>wolf</i> is derived from the Saxon <i>wulf</i> and from the +same root, the German <i>wolf</i>, the Swedish <i>ulf</i>, and Danish <i>ulv</i> are +probably derived. Wolves were at one time a great scourge to this +country, the dense forests which formerly covered the land favoring +their safety and their increase. Edgar applied himself seriously to rid +his subjects of this pest, by commuting the punishment of certain crimes +into the acceptance of a number of wolves' tongues from each criminal; +and in Wales by commuting a tax of gold and silver imposed on the +Princes of Cambria by Ethelstan, into an annual tribute of three hundred +wolves' heads, which Jenaf, Prince of North Wales, paid so punctually, +that by the fourth year the breed was extinct. Not so, however, in +England, for like ill weeds, they increased and multiplied here, +rendering necessary the appointment, in the reign of the first Edward, +of a <i>wolf-hunter</i> general, in the person of one Peter Corbet; and his +majesty thought it not beneath his dignity to issue a mandamus, bearing +date May 14th, 1281, to all bailiffs, &c., to aid and assist the said +Peter in the destruction of wolves in the counties of Gloucester, +Worcester, Hereford, Shropshire, and Stafford; and Camden informs us +that in Derby, lands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_789" id="Page_789">[Pg 789]</a></span> were held at Wormhill by the duty of hunting and +taking the wolves that infested that county. In the reign of Athelstan, +these pests had so abounded in Yorkshire, that a retreat was built at +Flixton in that county, "to defend passengers from the wolves that they +should not be devoured by them." Our Saxon ancestors also called +January, when wolves pair, <i>wolf-moneth</i>; and an outlaw was termed +<i>wolfshed</i>, being out of the protection of the law, and as liable to be +killed as that destructive beast.</p> + +<p>A curious notice of the existence of wolves and foxes in Scotland is +afforded in Bellenden's translation of Boetius.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> "The wolffis are +right noisome to tame beastial in all parts of Scotland, except one part +thereof, named Glenmorris, in which the tame beastial gets little damage +of wild beastial, especially of tods (foxes); for each house nurses a +young tod certain days, and mengis (mixes) the flesh thereof, after it +be slain, with such meat as they give to their fowls or other small +beasts, and so many as eat of this meat are preserved two months after +from any damage of tods; for tods will eat no flesh that gusts of their +own kind." The last wolf killed in Scotland is said to have fallen by +the hand of Sir Ewen Cameron, about 1680; and singular to say, the skin +of this venerable quadruped may yet be in existence: in a catalogue of +Mr. Donnovan's sale of the London Museum, in April, 1818, there occurs +the following item, "Lot 832. Wolf, a noble animal in a large glass +case. The last wolf killed in Scotland, by Sir E. Cameron." It would be +interesting to know what became of this lot.</p> + +<p>The pairing time is January, when after many battles with rivals, the +strongest males attach themselves to the females. The female wolf +prepares a warm nest for her young, of soft moss and her own hair, +carefully blended together. The cubs are watched by the parents with +tender solicitude, are gradually accustomed to flesh, and when +sufficiently strong their education begins, and they are taken to join +in the chase; not the least curious part is the discipline by which they +are inured to suffering and taught to bear pain without complaint; their +parents are said to bite, maltreat, and drag them by the tail, punishing +them if they utter a cry, until they have learned to be mute. To this +quality Macaulay alludes when speaking of a wolf in his "Prophecy of +Capys:"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When all the pack, loud baying,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her bloody lair surrounds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She dies in silence, biting hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Amidst the dying hounds."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is curious to observe the cunning acquired by wolves in well +inhabited districts, where they are eagerly sought for destruction; they +then never quit cover to windward: they trot along just within the edges +of the wood until they meet the wind from the open country, and are +assured by their keen scent that no danger awaits them in that +quarter—then they advance, keeping under cover of hedgerows as much as +possible, moving in single file and treading in each other's track; +narrow roads they bound across, without leaving a footprint. When a wolf +contemplates a visit to a farmyard, he first carefully reconnoitres the +ground, listening, snuffing up the air, and smelling the earth; he then +springs over the threshold without touching it and seizes on his prey. +In retreat his head is low, turned obliquely, with one ear forward the +other back, and the eyes glaring. He trots crouching, his brush +obliterating the track of his feet till at some distance from the scene +of his depredation, then feeling himself secure, he waves his tail erect +in triumph, and boldly pushes on to cover.</p> + +<p>In northern India, wolves together with jackals and pariah dogs, prowl +about the dwellings of Europeans. Colonel Hamilton Smith relates a +curious accident which befell a servant who was sleeping in a verandah +with his head near the outer lattice: a wolf thrust his jaws between the +bamboo, seized the man by the head, and endeavored to drag him through; +the man's shrieks awakened the whole neighborhood, and assistance came, +but though the wolf was struck at by many, he escaped. Wolves have even +been known to attack sentries when single, as in the last campaign of +the French armies in the vicinity of Vienna, when several of the +videttes were carried off by them. During the retreat of Napoleon's army +from Russia, wolves of the Siberian race followed the troops to the +borders of the Rhine; specimens of these wolves shot in the vicinity, +and easily distinguishable from the native breed, are still preserved in +the museums of Neuwied, Frankfort, and Cassel.</p> + +<p>Captain Lyon<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> relates the following singular instance of the cunning +of a wolf which had been caught in a trap, and, being to all appearance +dead, was dragged on board ship: "The eyes, however, were observed to +wink whenever an object was placed near them, some precautions were, +therefore, considered necessary, and the legs being tied the animal was +hoisted up with his head downward. He then, to our surprise, made a +vigorous spring at those near him, and afterward repeatedly turned +himself upward so as to reach the rope by which he was suspended, +endeavoring to gnaw it asunder, and making angry snaps at the persons +who prevented him. Several heavy blows were struck on the back of his +neck, and a bayonet was thrust through him, yet above a quarter of an +hour elapsed before he died."</p> + +<p>Hearne, in his journey to the Northern Ocean, says, that the wolves +always burrow under ground at the breeding season, and though it is +natural to suppose them very fierce at those times, yet he has +frequently seen the Indians go to their dens, take out the cubs and play +with them. These they never hurt, and always scrupulously put them in +the den again, although they occasionally painted their faces with +vermilion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_790" id="Page_790">[Pg 790]</a></span> and red ochre, in strange and grotesque patterns.</p> + +<p>This statement is supported by incidents which have occurred in this +metropolis; there was a bitch wolf in the Tower Menagerie, which, though +excessively fond of her cubs, suffered the keepers to handle them, and +even remove them from the den, without evincing the slightest symptom +either of anger or alarm; and a still more remarkable instance is +related from observation, by Mr. Bell: "There was a wolf at the +Zoological Gardens (says that able naturalist) which would always come +to the front bars of the den as soon as I or any other person whom she +knew, approached; she had pups, too, and so eager, in fact, was she that +her little ones should share with her in the notice of her friends, that +she killed all of them in succession by rubbing them against the bars of +her den as she brought them forward to be fondled."</p> + +<p>During the last year, 8807 wolves' skins were imported by the Hudson's +Bay Company from their settlements; of which 8784 came from the York +Fort and Mackenzie River stations; we recently had the opportunity of +examining the stock, and found it principally composed of white wolves' +skins from the Churchill River, with black and gray skins of every +shade. The most valuable are from animals killed in the depth of winter, +and of these, the white skins, which are beautifully soft and fine, are +worth about thirty shillings apiece, and are exported to Hungary, where +they are in great favor with the nobles as trimming for pelisses and +hussar jackets; the gray wolves' skins are worth from three shillings +and sixpence upward, and are principally exported to America and the +North of Europe, to be used as cloak-linings.</p> + +<p>Colonel H. Smith mentions a curious instance of the treacherous ferocity +of the wolf. A butcher at New York had brought up, and believed he had +tamed, a wolf, which he kept for above two years chained up in the +slaughterhouse, where it lived in a complete superabundance of blood and +offal. One night, having occasion for some implement which he believed +was accessible in the dark, he went into this little Smithfield without +thinking of the wolf. He was clad in a thick frieze coat, and while +stooping to grope for what he wanted, he heard the chain rattle, and in +a moment was struck down by the animal springing upon him. Fortunately, +a favorite cattle-dog had accompanied his master, and rushed forward to +defend him: the wolf had hold of the man's collar, and being obliged to +turn in his own defense, the butcher had time to draw a large knife, +with which he ripped his assailant open. The same able writer relates an +incident which occurred to an English gentleman, holding a high public +situation in the peninsula, during a wolf-hunt in the mountains, near +Madrid. The sportsmen were placed in ambush, and the country-people +drove the game toward them; presently an animal came bounding upward +toward this gentleman, so large that he took it, while driving through +the high grass and bushes, for a donkey; it was a wolf, however, whose +glaring eyes meant mischief, but, scared by the click of the rifle, he +turned and made his escape, though a bullet whistled after him; at the +close of the hunt seven were found slain, and so large were they that +this gentleman, though of uncommon strength, could not lift one entirely +from the ground.</p> + +<p>The wolf of America is at times remarkable for cowardice, though bold +enough when pressed by hunger, or with other wolves. Mr. R. C. Taylor, +of Philadelphia, states that this animal, when trapped, is silent, +subdued, and unresisting. He was present when a fine young wolf, about +fifteen months old, was taken by surprise, and suddenly attacked with a +club. The animal offered no resistance, but, crouching down in the +supplicating manner of a dog, suffered himself to be knocked on the +head. An old hunter told Mr. Taylor that he had frequently taken a wolf +out of the trap, and compelled it by a few blows to lie down by his +side, while he reset his trap.</p> + +<p>The Esquimaux wolf-trap is made of strong slabs of ice, long and so +narrow, that a fox can with difficulty turn himself in it, and a wolf +must actually remain in the position in which he is taken. The door is a +heavy portcullis of ice, sliding in two well-secured grooves of the same +substance, and is kept up by a line which, passing over the top of the +trap, is carried through a hole at the farthest extremity. To the end of +the line is fastened a small hoop of whale-bone, and to this any kind of +flesh bait is attached. From the slab which terminates the trap, a +projection of ice, or a peg of bone or wood, points inward near the +bottom, and under this the hoop is slightly hooked; the slightest pull +at the bait liberates it, the door falls in an instant, and the wolf is +speared where he lies.</p> + +<p>Sir John Richardson states that, when near the Copper Mines River in +North America, he had more than once an opportunity of seeing a single +wolf in pursuit of a reindeer, and especially on Point Lake, when +covered with ice, when a fine buck reindeer was overtaken by a large +white wolf, and disabled by a bite in the flank. An Indian, who was +concealed, ran in and cut the deer's throat with his knife, the wolf at +once relinquishing his prey and sneaking off. In the chase the poor deer +urged its flight by great bounds, which for a time exceeded the speed of +the wolf; but it stopped so frequently to gaze on its relentless enemy, +that the latter, toiling on at a long gallop (so admirably described by +Byron), with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, gradually came up. +After each hasty look, the deer redoubled its efforts to escape, but, +either exhausted by fatigue or enervated by fear, it became, just before +it was overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet.</p> + +<p>Captain Lyon gives some interesting illustrations of the habits of the +wolves of Melville Peninsula, which were sadly destructive to his dogs. +"A fine dog was lost in the afternoon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_791" id="Page_791">[Pg 791]</a></span> It had strayed to the hummocks +ahead, without its master; and Mr. Elder, who was near the spot, saw +five wolves rush at, attack, and devour it, in an incredibly short space +of time: before he could reach the place, the carcass was torn in +pieces, and he found only the lower part of one leg. The boldness of the +wolves was altogether astonishing, as they were almost constantly seen +among the hummocks, or lying quietly, at no great distance, in wait for +the dogs. From all we observed, I have no reason to suppose that they +would attack a single unarmed man, both English and Esquimaux frequently +passing them, without a stick in their hands. The animals, however, +exhibited no symptoms of fear, but rather a kind of tacit agreement not +to be the beginners of a quarrel, even though they might have been +certain of proving victorious."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Another time, when pressed by hunger, +the wolves broke into a snow-hut, in which were a couple of +newly-purchased Esquimaux dogs, and carried the poor animals off, but +not without some difficulty; for even the ceiling of the hut was next +morning found sprinkled with blood and hair. When the alarm was given, +and the wolves were fired at, one of them was observed carrying a dead +dog in his mouth, clear of the ground, and going, with ease, at a +canter, notwithstanding the animal was of his own weight. It was curious +to observe the fear these dogs seemed, at times, to entertain of wolves.</p> + +<p>During Sir John Richardson's residence at Cumberland-house, in 1820, a +wolf, which had been prowling round the fort, was wounded by a +musket-ball, and driven off, but returned after dark, while the blood +was still flowing from its wound, and carried off a dog from among fifty +others, that had not the courage to unite in an attack on their enemy. +The same writer says, that he has frequently observed an Indian dog, +after being worsted in combat with a black wolf, retreat into a corner, +and howl, at intervals, for an hour together; these Indian dogs, also, +howl piteously when apprehensive of punishment, and throw themselves +into attitudes strongly resembling those of a wolf when caught in a +trap.</p> + +<p>Foxes are frequently taken in the pitfalls set for wolves, and seem to +possess more cunning. An odd incident is related by Mr. Lloyd: A fox was +lying at the bottom of a pitfall, apparently helpless, when a very stout +peasant, having placed a ladder, began to descend with cautious and +creaking steps to destroy the vermin. Reynard, however, thought he might +benefit by the ladder, as well as his corpulent visitor, and, just as +the latter reached the ground, jumped, first, on his stern, then, on his +shoulder, skipped out of the pit, and was off in a moment, leaving the +man staring and swearing at his impudent escape!</p> + +<p>Captain Lyon mentions an instance of the sagacity of the fox: he had +caught and tamed one of these animals, which he kept on deck, in a +small hutch, with a scope of chain. Finding himself repeatedly drawn out +of his hutch by this, the sagacious little fellow, whenever he retreated +within his castle, took the chain in his mouth, and drew it so +completely in after him, that no one, who valued his fingers, would +endeavor to take hold of the end attached to the staple.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lloyd mentions a curious contest that took place in the vicinity of +Uddeholm. A peasant had just got into bed, when his ears were assailed +by a tremendous uproar in his cattle-shed. On hearing this noise, he +jumped up, and, though almost in a state of nudity, rushed into the +building to see what was the matter: here he found an immense wolf, +which he gallantly seized by the ears, and called out most lustily for +assistance. His wife—the gallant Trulla—came to his aid, armed with a +hatchet, with which she severely wounded the wolf's head; but it was not +until she had driven the handle of the hatchet down the animal's throat, +that she succeeded in dispatching him. During the conflict, the man's +hands and wrists were bitten through and through; and, when seen by Mr. +Lloyd, the wounds were not healed.</p> + +<p>Like dogs, wolves are capable of strong attachment; but such instances +are comparatively rare: the most striking, perhaps, was that recorded by +M. Frederick Cuvier, as having come under his notice at the Ménagerie du +Roi at Paris. The wolf in question was brought up as a young dog, became +familiar with persons he was in the habit of seeing, and, in particular, +followed his master every where, evincing chagrin at his absence, +obeying his voice, and showing a degree of submission scarcely +differing, in any respect, from that of the most thoroughly-domesticated +dog. His master, being obliged to be absent for a time, presented his +pet to the menagerie, where he was confined in a den. Here he became +disconsolate, pined, and would scarcely take food; at length, he was +reconciled to his new situation, recovered his health, became attached +to his keepers, and appeared to have forgotten "auld lang syne," when, +after the lapse of eighteen months, his old master returned. At the +first sound of his voice—that well-known, much-loved voice—the wolf, +which had not perceived him in a crowd of persons, exhibited the most +lively joy, and, being set at liberty, lavished upon him the most +affectionate caresses, just as the most attached dog would have done. +With some difficulty, he was enticed to his den. But a second separation +was followed by similar demonstrations of sorrow to the former; which, +however, again yielded to time. Three years passed away, and the wolf +was living happily with a dog which had been placed with him, when his +master again appeared—and again the long-lost, but well-remembered +voice, was instantly replied to by the most impatient cries, redoubled +as soon as the poor fellow was at liberty. Rushing to his master, he +placed his fore-feet on his shoulders, licking his face with every mark +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_792" id="Page_792">[Pg 792]</a></span> the most lively joy, and menacing the keepers who offered to remove +him. A third separation, however, took place, but it was too much for +the poor creature's temper: he became gloomy, refused his food, and, for +some time, it was feared he would die. Time, however, which blunts the +grief of wolves, as well as of men, brought comfort to his wounded +heart, and his health gradually returned; but, looking upon mankind as +false deceivers, he no longer permitted the caresses of any but his +keepers, manifesting to all strangers the savageness and moroseness of +his species.</p> + +<p>Another instance of the attachment of wolves is mentioned by Mr. Lloyd, +in his work on the Sports of the North. Mr. Greiff, who had studied the +habits of wild animals, for which his position, as <i>ofüerjäg mästare</i>, +afforded peculiar facilities, says: "I reared up two young wolves until +they were full-grown: they were male and female. The latter became so +tame, that she played with me, and licked my hands, and I had her often +with me in the sledge, in winter. Once, when I was absent, she got loose +from the chain, and was away three days. When I returned home, I went +out on a hill, and called, 'where's my Tussa?' as she was named, when +she immediately came home, and fondled with me, like the most friendly +dog."</p> + +<p>Between the dog and the wolf there is a natural enmity, and those +animals seldom encounter each other on at all equal terms without a +combat taking place. Should the wolf prove victorious, he devours his +adversary, but if the contrary be the case, the dog leaves untouched the +carcass of his antagonist.</p> + +<p>The wolf feeds on the rat, hare, fox, badger, roebuck, stag, reindeer +and elk; likewise upon blackcock and capercali. He is possessed of great +strength, especially in the muscles of the neck and jaws, is said always +to seize his prey by the throat, and when it happens to be a large +animal, as the elk, he is often dragged for a considerable distance.</p> + +<p>After a deep fall of snow the wolf is unusually ferocious; if he +besmears himself with the blood of a victim, or is so wounded that blood +flows, it is positively asserted that his companions will instantly kill +and devour him.</p> + +<p>In the year 1799 a peasant at Frederickshall in Norway was looking out +of his cottage window, when he espied a large wolf enter his premises +and seize one of his goats. At this time he had a child of eighteen +months old in his arms; he incautiously laid her down in a small porch +fronting the house, and, catching hold of a stick, the nearest weapon at +hand, attacked the wolf, which was in the act of carrying off the goat. +The wolf dropped this, and getting sight of the child, in the twinkling +of an eye seized it, threw it across his shoulders, and was off like +lightning. He made good his escape, and not a vestige was ever seen of +the child.</p> + +<p>Wolves are found all over Scandinavia, but are most common in the +Midland and Northern Provinces of Sweden. Like "Elia," they are very +partial to young pig, a failing taken advantage of by sportsmen thus: +they sew up in a sack a small porker, leaving only his snout free, and +place him in a sledge, to the back of which is fastened by a rope about +fifty feet long, a small bundle of straw, covered with black sheep skin; +this, when the sledge is in motion, dangles about like a young pig.</p> + +<p>During a very severe winter a party started in the vicinity of +Forsbacka, well provided with guns, &c. On reaching a likely spot they +pinched the pig, which squealed lustily, and, as they anticipated, soon +drew a multitude of famished wolves about the sledge. When these had +approached within range the party opened fire on them, and shot several; +all that were either killed or wounded were quickly torn to pieces and +devoured by their companions, but the blood with which the ravenous +beasts had now glutted themselves only served to make them more savage +than before, and, in spite of the fire kept up by the party, they +advanced close to the sledge, apparently determined on making an instant +attack. To preserve the party, therefore, the pig was thrown to the +wolves, which had for a moment the effect of diverting their attention. +While this was going forward, the horse, driven to desperation by the +near approach of the wolves, struggled and plunged so violently that he +broke the shafts to pieces, galloped off, and made good his escape. The +pig was devoured, and the wolves again threatened to attack the +sportsmen. The captain and his friends finding matters had become +serious, turned the sledge bottom up and took shelter beneath it, in +which position they remained many hours, the wolves making repeated +attempts to get at them by tearing the sledge with their teeth, but at +length the party were relieved by friends from then perilous position.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Oldenburg once witnessed a curious occurrence. He was +standing near the margin of a large lake which at that time was frozen +over. At some little distance from the land a small aperture had been +made for the purpose of procuring water, and at this hole a pig was +drinking. While looking toward the horizon, the lieutenant saw a mere +speck or ball, as it were, rapidly moving along the ice: presently this +took the form of a large wolf, which was making for the pig at top +speed. Lieutenant Oldenburg now seized his gun, and ran to the +assistance of the pig; but before he got up to the spot the wolf had +closed with the porker, which, though of large size, he tumbled over and +over in a trice. His attention was so much occupied, that Lieutenant +Oldenburg was able to approach within a few paces and dispatch him with +a shot. A piece as large as a man's foot had been torn out of the pig's +hind quarters; and he was so terribly frightened that he followed the +lieutenant home like a dog, and would not quit his heels for a moment.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lloyd mentions an incident that befell him, in consequence of swine +mistaking his dogs for wolves, to which they bear the most instinctive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_793" id="Page_793">[Pg 793]</a></span> +antipathy. One day, in the depth of winter, accompanied by his Irish +servant, he struck into the forest, in the vicinity of Carlstadt, for +the purpose of shooting capercali. Toward evening they came to a small +hamlet, situated in the recesses of the forest. Here an old sow with her +litter were feeding; and immediately on seeing the two valuable pointers +which accompanied the sportsman, she made a determined and most +ferocious dash at them. The servant had a light spear in his hand, +similar to that used by our lancers. This Mr. Lloyd seized, and +directing Paddy to throw the dogs over a fence, received the charge of +the pig with a heavy blow across the snout with the butt end of the +spear. Nothing daunted, she made her next attack upon him; and, in +self-defense, he was obliged to give her a home thrust with the blade of +the spear. These attacks she repeated three several times, always +getting the spear up to the hilt in her head or neck. Then, and not +before, did she slowly retreat, bleeding at all points. The peasants, +supposing Mr. Lloyd to be the aggressor, assumed a very hostile aspect, +and it was only by showing a bold bearing, and menacing them with his +gun, that he escaped in safety.</p> + +<p>A poor soldier was one day, in the depth of winter, crossing the large +lake called Storsyön, and was attacked by a drove of wolves. His only +weapon was a sword, with which he defended himself so gallantly, that he +killed and wounded several wolves, and succeeded in driving off the +remainder. After a time, he was again attacked by the same drove, but +was now unable to extricate himself from his perilous situation in the +same manner as before, for having neglected to wipe the blood from his +sword after the former encounter, it had become firmly frozen to the +scabbard. The ferocious beasts therefore, quickly closed with him, +killed and devoured him. If we remember aright, Captain Kincaid, the +present gallant Exon of the Yeoman Guard, nearly lost his life at +Waterloo, from a somewhat similar cause. He had been skirmishing all the +earlier part of the day with the Rifles, when a sudden charge of French +cavalry placed him in great danger. He essayed to draw his sabre, tugged +and tugged, but the trusty steel had become firmly rusted to the +scabbard; and we believe that he owed his life to an accidental +diversion of the attention of the attacking troopers.</p> + +<p>Closely resembling in many respects the wolf, the jackal is widely +spread over India, Asia, and Africa. These animals hunt in packs, and +there are few sounds more startling to the unaccustomed ear, than a +chorus of their cries. "We hardly know," says Captain Beechey, "a sound +which partakes less of harmony than that which is at present in +question; and, indeed, the sudden burst of the answering long protracted +scream, succeeding immediately to the opening note, is scarcely less +impressive than the roll of the thunder clap immediately after a flash +of lightning. The effect of this music is very much increased when the +first note is heard in the distance, a circumstance which often occurs, +and the answering yell bursts out from several points at once, within a +few yards or feet of the place where the auditors are sleeping."</p> + +<p>Poultry and the smaller animals, together with dead bodies, are the +ordinary food of jackals, but when rendered bold by hanger, they will +occasionally attack the larger quadrupeds and even man.</p> + +<p>A bold, undaunted presence and defiant aspect, generally proves the best +protection when an unarmed man is threatened by these or other animals, +but artifice is sometimes necessary. A ludicrous instance is related by +an old quartermaster (whom we knew some years ago), in a small volume of +memoirs. At Christmas, 1826, he was sent up the country to a mission, +about thirty-two miles from San Francisco. He and the others erected a +tent; after which they all lay down on the ground. "I slept like a top," +says he, "till four the next morning, at which time I was awakened by +the man whose duty it was to officiate as cook for the day, who told me +if I would go up the village and get a light, he would have a good +breakfast ready for the lads by the time they awoke. I must describe my +dress, for that very dress saved my life. Over the rest of my clothing, +as a seaman, I had a huge frock made from the skin of a reindeer. It was +long enough, when let down, to cover my feet well, and turned up at +foot, buttoning all round the skirt. At the top was a hood, made from +the skin, taken off the head of a bear, ears and all. In front was a +square lappel, which, in the day, hung loosely over the breast, but at +night, buttoned just behind the ears, leaving only the mouth, nose, and +eyes free for respiration, so that one, with such a dress, might lie +down any where and sleep, warm and comfortable. Mr. S—— had given +eight dollars for it in Kamtschatka, and, on our return to more genial +climes, forgot the future, and gave it to me. Fancy, then, my figure +thus accoutred, issuing from under the canvas tent, with a lantern in my +hand. I had not advanced twenty yards, when first only two or three, and +then an immense number of jackals surrounded me. I was at first disposed +to think but lightly of them: but seeing their numbers increase so +rapidly, I grew alarmed, and probably gave way to fear sooner than I +ought. A few shots from the tent would probably have sent them away with +speed, but no one saw me. Every moment they drew closer and closer in a +complete round, and seemed to look at me with determined hunger. For +some moments I remained in a most dreadful state of alarm. It just then +occurred to me that I once heard of a boy who had driven back a bull out +of a field by walking backward on his hands and feet. Fortunate thought! +I caught at the idea; in a moment I was on all fours, with my head as +near the earth as I could keep it, and commenced cutting all the capers +of which I was capable. The jackals, who no doubt had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_794" id="Page_794">[Pg 794]</a></span> never seen so +strange an animal, first stopped, then retreated, and, as I drew near +the tent, flew in all directions. The men awoke just in time to see my +danger, and have a hearty laugh at me and the jackals."</p> + +<p>Our old friend was more fortunate than a certain youth who attempted to +rob an orchard by deluding a fierce bulldog with this approach <i>à +posteriori,</i> but who, to his sorrow, found the dog too knowing, for he +carried to his dying day the marks of the guardian's teeth in that spot +where honor has its seat.</p> + +<p>The same quartermaster told us a quaint story of a fright another of the +crew received from these jackals.</p> + +<p>While at San Francisco the ship's crew were laying in a store of +provisions; a large tent was erected on shore for salting the meat; the +cooper lived in it, and hung up his hammock at one end. The beef which +had been killed during the day was also hung up all around, in readiness +for salting. One night a large pack of jackals came down from the woods, +and being attracted by the smell of the meat, soon got into the tent, +and pulling at one of the sides of beef, brought it down with a crash, +which woke the old cooper, who was a remarkably stout, and rather +nervous man. Finding himself thus surrounded in the dead of the night by +wild beasts, whose forms and size, dimly seen, were magnified by his +fears, he fired off his musket, and clasping his arms, in an agony of +terror, round a quarter of beef which hung close to his hammock, was +found perfectly senseless by an officer who came to see the cause of the +alarm. Some difficulty was experienced in getting him to relinquish his +hold of the beef—which he stuck to like a Briton—and it was several +days before his nerves recovered from the shock of the fright.</p> + +<p>The wolf and the jackal tribes are by no means without their use in the +economy of nature, though from their predatory habits they are justly +regarded as pests in the countries they infest: that they will disturb +the dead and rifle the graves is true, but they also clear away offal, +and with vultures, are the scavengers of hot countries; they follow on +the track of herds, and put a speedy end to the weak, the wounded, and +the dying; they are the most useful, though most disgusting of camp +followers, and after a battle, when thousands of corpses of men and +horses are collected within a limited space, they are of essential +service—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I stood in a swampy-field of battle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With bones and skulls I made a rattle<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To frighten the wolf and carrion crow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the homeless dog—but they would not go;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So off I flew—for how could I bear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see them gorge their dainty fare.<br /></span> +<span class="i27"><span class="smcap">Coleridge.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Revolting and heart-sickening though such scenes may be, the evil is +less than would result from the undisturbed decay of the dead: were that +to take place, the air would hang heavy with pestilence, and the winds +of heaven laden with noisome exhalations would carry death and +desolation far and near, rendering still more terrible the horrors and +calamities of war.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Holland's Plinie's Naturall Historie, ed. 1635</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Edit, Edin. 1541, quoted from Magazine of Natural History.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, 1824.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, 1824.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_SPECIMEN_OF_RUSSIAN_JUSTICE" id="A_SPECIMEN_OF_RUSSIAN_JUSTICE"></a>A SPECIMEN OF RUSSIAN JUSTICE.</h2> + + +<p>Among the French prisoners taken at the battle of Vitebsk, during +Napoleon's disastrous retreat in Prussia, was a French general, who was +accompanied by: his wife and daughter. Being badly wounded, he was +removed to the military hospital, but the ladies were received into the +private house of Madame Strognof, whose husband held, at that time, a +subordinate appointment under the Russian Government.</p> + +<p>A certain Botwinko was then procureur at Vitebsk. Without the +procureur's sanction nothing can be done in his department; for he +represents the emperor himself, and is usually called "the eye of His +Majesty." His salary is only about twenty-five pounds a year; but he +makes, usually, a good income by receiving bribes. Among other duties, +he had to visit the hospitals daily, and to report upon the condition of +the prisoner patients. He paid great attention to the unhappy general, +who required every consolation; for, despite his own deplorable +condition, it was decreed that he should outlive his wife. That lady +caught a contagious fever, which was raging at that time at Vitebsk, and +died in a few hours. This event so distressed the general that he soon +departed this world, with the only consolation, that Procureur Botwinko, +a married but childless man, would adopt his daughter. This promise was +actually fulfilled, and the little orphan was taken from Madame +Strognof, and established under the procureur's roof. Her parents' +property, consisting of a carriage, horses, jewelry, and no small sum of +ready money, was also taken possession of by Botwinko in quality of +guardian to the little orphan.</p> + +<p>As the girl, whom they called "Sophie," grew up, she became very +engaging, and was kindly treated by Mr. and Madame Botwinko. She never +lost an opportunity, when any visitors were in the procureur's house, of +praising her protectors for their kindness to her; and this, connected +with other circumstances, contributed to the promotion of Mr. Botwinko, +who obtained the more profitable situation of procureur-general at +Vilna, the capital of Lithuania.</p> + +<p>Removal from their old connections, and from those who knew all the +circumstances of little Sophie's history, produced a change in the +treatment of the new procureur-general and his wife toward the child. +Their kindness rapidly diminished. Sophie was not allowed to appear in +the drawing-rooms, in their new residence at Vilna. They incessantly +found fault with her; and, ultimately, she was not only sent to the +kitchen under the control of the cook, but, on the census of the +population being taken, in 1816, her name was inscribed on the books as +that of a serf.</p> + +<p>As the poor girl grew up she became used to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_795" id="Page_795">[Pg 795]</a></span> the duties imposed upon +her. Associating constantly with the servants, they considered her their +equal, and taunted her when, relying on her infantine recollections, she +laid claim to noble descent, by calling her in derision "Mademoiselle +French General." She knew full well that she was entitled to better +treatment, and that, in the absence of paternal authority, she had the +right of disposing of herself according to her own will. A strong +inducement to alter her condition was presented in the person of a young +clerk in a government office, whose duty sometimes brought him with +papers to the procureur for signature. While Botwinko was engaged with +his breakfast and the perusal of the papers, this clerk was sometimes +kept dangling for hours in the ante-chamber. After a time, these hours +were agreeably spent in the society of Sophie, to whom he eventually +made a proposal of marriage. She consented, but, unwilling to leave her +guardian like a fugitive, she apprised him of her determination, and +humbly requested an account of the property which she had been informed +he had taken charge of at her parents' death.</p> + +<p>The procureur-general at first excused himself from giving her an +immediate answer. The next day he presented himself at the police +office, the whole of whose functionaries were under his control. What he +said or did is not known, but the result was that Sophie was taken into +custody by the police, and committed to jail.</p> + +<p>Many months elapsed before her fate was known at home. It was stated +that she absconded. The clerk, banished the procureur's house, could not +discover the cause of the girl's disappearance; and as all Russian +criminal proceedings are conducted with great secrecy, he only +ascertained by a mere accident that the girl had been sentenced, by a +superior court, to receive a certain number of lashes by the knout, and +to be sent to Siberia. The crime of which they accused her was that of +attempting to poison her master and mistress.</p> + +<p>Alarmed at this information, the young man, without waiting for more +particulars, addressed a petition to the war governor of Vilna—the old +General Korsakof—whose power in that province was almost omnipotent, +and, if not misdirected, was very often beneficial to the inhabitants. +The petitioner requested the general's interference, and an +investigation of the case, assuring him that the girl was innocent, and +that the legal authorities who condemned her had been corrupted.</p> + +<p>The general was accustomed to decide every case <i>en militaire</i>. He had +received from the police court an unfavorable opinion of the +petitioner's character, which was described as "restless;" and was, +moreover, rather offended at his authority having been appealed to by a +subordinate. He therefore settled the business summarily, by sending the +young petitioner to the military service for life, in virtue of the +vagrant act.</p> + +<p>Still the young man's petition produced a good effect: the poor girl was +not flogged, lest that might have provoked some disturbance in the town. +She was merely dressed in convict's apparel, and sent off to Siberia.</p> + +<p>The transport of Russian convicts costs the government but very little. +They go on foot, sleep in <i>étapes</i> or barracks, and the daily allowance +for their subsistence amounts only to five kopecks—equal to a halfpenny +in English money. This they, as well as the poor old soldiers who escort +them, have to eke out by charity. For that purpose, the most attractive +person among each party of exiles is delegated—box in hand, but with an +armed soldier behind—to beg alms of the benevolent; and Sophie was +appointed to be the suppliant for the rest of her wretched companions.</p> + +<p>The road from Vilna to Siberia passes through Vitebsk. The convicts had +not been long in the town before Sophie encountered Madame Strognof, who +recognized the girl from her very great likeness to her mother, who had +died in that lady's house. When she learned that Sophie had been living +with the Botwinkos, she had no longer a doubt.</p> + +<p>The girl asserted her innocence of the pretended crime for which she was +on her way to Siberia, with tearful energy, and the good Madame S. +believed her; but her husband, who was at that time the Vice-Governor of +Vitebsk, to disabuse his wife's romantic dreams, as he called them, sent +for the officer escorting the prisoners, and showed her the list of +prisoners, which contained a full record, not only of the crime imputed +to the orphan girl, but also of the punishment to which she had been +condemned.</p> + +<p>In the face of an official document which appeared to be regular, and +which detailed the girl's presumed offense with circumstantial +consistency, Madame Strognof began to waver in her belief of Sophie's +protestations; but the unfortunate girl asserted her innocence so +strongly and incessantly, that the vice-governor himself was at length +induced to look into the facts. The first suspicion that entered his +mind was derived from the circumstance of the document stating that the +culprit had been punished with the knout, while it was evident from her +appearance, that that dreadful torture had not been inflicted. He caused +a medical man to examine her, who testified that not a scar appeared; +yet the knout always leaves ineffaceable traces for life.</p> + +<p>In consequence of this discrepancy, Sophie was allowed to remain for +some time at Vitebsk under the plea of illness; which, at the request of +the vice-governor, was readily certified by an official surgeon. After +some delay, a memorial was forwarded by the unfortunate sufferer to the +late Emperor Alexander, in consequence of which a court-messenger was +sent immediately to Vilna. This gentleman brought back to St. +Petersburgh an enormous volume, containing the so-called depositions, +taken at the pseudo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_796" id="Page_796">[Pg 796]</a></span> trial. After careful inspection of them, the +emperor decided that they proved the legality of the proceedings. So +artfully were these infamous depositions framed; that, among them, +appeared the formula of a chemical analysis of the poison which the girl +was accused of administering, and a full confession; to which the +culprit's signature was forged.</p> + +<p>The answer, therefore, from the throne was not only unfavorable; but the +authorities of Vitebsk were reprimanded for allowing the girl to +importune his majesty without sufficient grounds.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding, Madame Strognof was not discouraged; and, to the great +alarm of her husband, had another petition drawn up and forwarded with a +suitable memorial to the Princess Maria Fedorowna, the emperor's mother, +who was known to all the country as a pious and charitable lady. This +petition, presented to his majesty by his own mother, had so great an +influence over him, that he ordered the girl to be brought to St. +Petersburgh. He felt convinced that some unaccountable mystery was +involved in the case.</p> + +<p>In due time Sophie arrived at St. Petersburgh, and underwent a rigid +examination. She asseverated with the most earnest truthfulness, that +all the depositions were fictitious; that the chemical analysis was a +wicked invention; and that the signature to her fabricated confession +was a forgery. She also denied that any trial had taken place, or that +she had been examined in any court whatever. Upon this, the emperor +appointed Mr. Getzewicz, the Governor of Minsk—who was known as a most +trust-worthy man—to go personally to Vilna; to investigate the case; +and to report the result. For this purpose the papers and the girl were +forwarded back to Vilna.</p> + +<p>The mission of Mr. Getzewicz was by no means an easy or a pleasant one: +he had to contend with a swarm of official insects; which, like Canadian +musquitoes when disturbed, attack the new comer from every side. +However, Mr. Getzewicz stood his ground firmly. He soon discovered that +the secretary of the police court who had drawn up the depositions was a +convict, sentenced for life to Siberia for having been associated with +highway robbers. He had escaped and was retained in his situation by +merely changing his Christian name, and by being reported "dead" by Mr. +Botwinko. The components of the rest of the court were no less +suspicious. In Russia, the police and sheriff's courts, and even the +provincial senate itself, are the asylums for military veterans; who, +during their long service, had never been trained up to the law. The +secretaries draw documents for them, which they sign—very often without +reading; that task being tiresome, and often incomprehensible to them.</p> + +<p>The court which had promoted and confirmed Sophie's prosecution, +consisted of illiterate, worn-out officers, who had no scruple in +committing the procureur-general's victim for trial to the First +Criminal Court (Sond Grodoski).</p> + +<p>But how was the deception carried on before the higher tribunals? This +would puzzle the most ingenious rascality to guess. But Botwinko was a +genius in his way: he actually brought before that court, as well as +before the highest criminal tribunal, another young woman; who +represented herself to be the girl in question, and confessed her +supposed guilt with all the desired particulars. The extraordinary +intrigue was the more easily accomplished from the secrecy with which +criminal investigations in Russia are conducted. Whenever the culprit +acknowledges his crime, the sentence follows without further inquiry; +and, the jail being under the control of the police-office, and the +judges of the criminal courts not knowing the prisoners personally, they +were obliged to receive in this instance the confessions of any girl +whom the police thought proper to send to them.</p> + +<p>When the trial was over, the procureur paid his hireling well, dismissed +her, and drew forth his victim from her cell; substituted her for the +wretch who had stood at the bar, and sent her to Siberia. Villainy, +however, be it ever so cunning, seldom half does its work of deception. +If Botwinko had had the whole sentence carried into effect, and poor +Sophie knouted, he would not, perhaps, have been discovered by his +colleague at Vitebsk; and he might have lived a respected public officer +to this day; for of such characters does the Russian system admit the +prosperous existence. As it was, however, on the report of Mr. +Getzewicz, Botwinko, the secretary of police, and many of his superiors, +were thrown into prison.</p> + +<p>The end of this dreadful story is melancholy; for in the end guilt +triumphed. The procureur-general, having several partners in his guilty +practices, had, if one may so abuse the expression, many friends. At +first they tried most ingeniously to bribe Mr. Getzewicz, and to induce +him to give up further proceedings; but, finding him inflexible, they +put a stop to all that business by administering poison to the +unfortunate Sophie. They even threatened the Governor of Minsk himself, +in an anonymous letter, to do the same for him.</p> + +<p>That threat, it seems, produced the desired effect on the honest but +weak-minded man. Seeing with what desperate people he had to contend—so +much so, that his own life was in danger—he sent his final report to +the (at that time) lingering Emperor Alexander, with request for further +instructions. In the mean time he retired to his own residence at Minsk, +leaving the illustrious Vilna officials in their own prison.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterward, the emperor died at Taganrog. His second brother, the +present emperor, Nicholas I.—greeted, on his accession to the throne, +with a formidable insurrection at St Petersburgh, and with alarming +conspiracies and political intrigues in the army—had no time to direct +his attention to so trifling an affair as that of our heroine. Political +prisoners were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_797" id="Page_797">[Pg 797]</a></span> to be punished first, in order to spread terror among +those who were not discovered as yet. The stability of the throne would +not allow him to alarm the administrative servants and other criminals +who never thought of subverting Romanoff's dynasty. Hence, with the +exception of the political offenders, all others, whose actions were +pending in different courts of justice, but not yet adjudicated, were +amnestied by the emperor, on the occasion of his coronation, in 1826, at +Moscow.</p> + +<p>Thus, the procureur and his associates were released from prison, losing +nothing but their former situations. The procureur, having scraped +together a fortune by his bribes and graspings, did not care much at +becoming an independent gentleman.</p> + +<p>What became of Sophie's lover—the unfortunate clerk, who was sent to +the army, for his honest but untimely application—could not be learned. +He may now think that his punishment was deserved, and that the girl was +really guilty; but it is more than probable that he will never again +interfere to restrain the grossest injustice.</p> + +<p>And here ends our melancholy tale, which the censorship of the press in +Russia prevented from ever before being publicly related. Corroboration +can, however, be derived from the inhabitants of Vilna, who lived there +from 1816 to 1826; from the archives of criminal courts of that place, +where M. Getzewicz's correspondence is preserved; from the list of all +the crown servants of Russia, sent every year to the State Secretary of +the Home Department at St. Petersburgh; in which, for 1825 and 1826, +Procureur Botwinko was reported to be imprisoned at Vilna for the above +case, and that the Strapchy of Oszmiana was acting in his stead as +procureur <i>pro tem.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NAPOLEON_AND_THE_POPE_A_SCENE_AT_FONTAINEBLEAU" id="NAPOLEON_AND_THE_POPE_A_SCENE_AT_FONTAINEBLEAU"></a>NAPOLEON AND THE POPE.—A SCENE AT FONTAINEBLEAU.</h2> + + +<p>In the autumn of 1804, the court was at Fontainebleau. The Consulate had +but recently merged in the Empire, with the consent of all the orders of +the state. The senate by a decree had declared the First Consul to be +Emperor of the French; and the people, to whom the question of +succession had been deferred, had, by a majority of three millions to +three thousand, decided that the imperial dignity should be hereditary +in his family. History, as Alison observes when recording the fact, +affords no instance of a nation having so unanimously taken refuge from +the ills of agitation and anarchy under the cold shade of despotism.</p> + +<p>A new order of things having commenced, all, as may easily be imagined, +was in a state of transformation and change in the composition of the +court, as well as in the arrangement of the imperial household. Under +the republican <i>régime</i>, a great degree of simplicity had prevailed in +the appointments of the various departments of the state, as well as in +the domestic economy of family circles: it could not, however, be +called unpretending; there was a certain affectation in it, evidently +assumed with a view to contrast, even in minute particulars, the system +of the republic with that of the old monarchy—the plainness of the one +with the profuseness of the other. But this was not fated to last long: +it had already been giving way under the Consulate, and was now +disappearing altogether in accordance with the views of the new monarch. +Titles and dignities were to be restored; court formalities and +ceremonials were being revived, and new ones instituted. The old +nobility, sprung from the feudal system, and dating, as some of them +did, from the Crusades, having been swept away by the revolutionary +storm, their places were to be supplied, as supporters of the throne, by +a new race of men. During this period of transition and change, the +movement at the château was unceasing. Arrivals and departures were +taking place almost every hour, to which very different degrees of +importance were attached. One arrival, however, was spoken of as having +a more than ordinary interest: it was that of the dignitary who, as it +was then understood, was to place the imperial crown on the brow of the +new sovereign. "To recall," observes Alison, "as Napoleon was anxious to +do on every occasion, the memory of Charlemagne, the first French +Emperor of the West, the Pope had been invited, with an urgency which it +would not have been prudent to resist, to be present at the +consecration, and had accordingly crossed the Alps for the purpose."</p> + +<p>Whatever may have been the views which originally prompted the +invitation—whether it was to play a mere secondary part in a court +pageant, or a leading one, as the public at first supposed—or whether +all such notions were swept away by some new deluge of ideas, as +Châteaubriand somewhere says—"It is now pretty clear that the presence +of the pontiff at the ceremony was a minor consideration, and that the +real motive was that which came out in their interview, as will appear +in the sequel." Be this as it may, it was evident to all that the +emperor awaited his coming with impatience; and when his approach was +announced—though preparations had been carefully made for their first +meeting—the arrangements were such as to give it the air of an +<i>imprévu</i>. It was on the road some distance from Fontainebleau that the +emperor met the Pope: the potentate alighted from his horse, the pontiff +from his traveling chaise, and a coach being at hand, as if +accidentally, they ascended its steps at the same moment from opposite +sides, so that precedence was neither taken nor given. How Italian the +artifice!</p> + +<p>They had not ridden long together when Bonaparte, quitting the coach, +got on horseback, and returned to the château at a gallop, and with +scarcely an attendant. The drum beat to arms, the guard turned out, but +before they had time to fall in and salute, he had alighted, and was +mounting the steps of the vestibule.</p> + +<p>It was always so with him; he gave such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_798" id="Page_798">[Pg 798]</a></span> vivacity to all his movements, +such energy to all his actions, that speed seemed a necessary condition +of his existence. Still so natural was it to him, that it did not wear +the semblance of hurry. Scarcely had the beat of the drum been heard at +the gate, before the clatter of his heels resounded in the hall, as the +flash of a cannon precedes the report.</p> + +<p>This time, however, he seemed fitful and even agitated. On entering the +saloon, he paced it like one who waited with impatience. Having taken a +few turns from one end to the other, he moved to a window, and began +beating a march with his fingers on the window-frame. The rolling of a +carriage was heard in the court, he ceased to beat, and after a short +pause stamped on the floor, as if impatient at seeing something done too +slowly; then stepping hastily to the door, opened it—it was for the +Pope.</p> + +<p>Pius VII. entered alone; Bonaparte closed the door after him. The Pope +was tall, but stooped somewhat; his countenance, elongated and sallow, +wore an expression of suffering, which seemed to have been induced upon +a habitual tone of elevation and courtesy. His eyes were black and +large, and on his lips, which were slightly opened, played a smile +indicative at once of urbanity and benevolence. He wore on his head a +white calotte or headpiece, partially covering his hair, which was +naturally black, but now blended with some silver locks; on his +shoulders he had a camail, or cape of red velvet, and his long robe +reached to his feet. Those who have seen his portrait by Lawrence, +though taken ten or eleven years later, will recognize at once the +correctness of this description. As he entered the room he moved slowly, +with a calm and measured step like that of an aged female; and having +taken his seat in an arm-chair, he turned his eyes toward the floor, and +seemed to wait for what the other Italian was going to say.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte, as all know, was short in stature, being below the middle +height; but in all other respects he was, at the period here referred +to, very different in personal appearance from what he became +subsequently. Far from having that fullness which approached to +corpulence—that sallow puffiness of cheek which verged on the +unhealthy—or that heaviness of limb, or general obesity, which +threatened infirmity—he was slender in frame, but firm and +well-proportioned; yet there was something which indicated premature +wear, by hardship in the field and toil in the cabinet; he was quick and +nervous in every movement, rapid and almost convulsive in his gestures +when excited. Still he could be at any time graceful in attitude, and +elegant in manner. Even then he stooped a little, so that his shoulders +inclined forward, which gave something of flatness to his chest. His +face was thin and elongated; but what a forehead! What eyes! What beauty +in the contour of his intellectual visage! In repose, its habitual +expression was reflective and concentrated, with a strong tinge of +melancholy.</p> + +<p>Bonaparte ceased not to pace the room after the Pope had entered. After +a while, altering his curve somewhat, and having taken a turn round the +chair, as if making a <i>reconnaissance,</i> he stopped short, and resumed +the thread of the conversation which had been commenced in the carriage, +and abruptly broken off.</p> + +<p>"I repeat, holy father, I am not an <i>esprit fort</i>, nor do I like +word-spinners or idea-mongers. I assure you, that in spite of my old +republicans I will go to mass."</p> + +<p>These words he tossed off toward the Pope, as if he were giving him a +dash of the incense-box; then paused to observe their effect. He seemed +to imagine that, after the impieties of the republican <i>régime</i>, such an +avowal ought to produce a decided effect.</p> + +<p>Pius, however, remained unmoved; he continued as before to look steadily +downward, and pressing firmly with his hands the eagle-heads that tipped +the arms of his chair, seemed, in thus assuming the fixity of a statue, +to say, "I must submit to listen to all the profane things which it may +please him to say to me."</p> + +<p>Seeing this, Bonaparte took a turn round the room, and another round the +chair, which stood in the middle of it, appearing but little satisfied +with his adversary, and still less with himself for the tone of levity +with which he had resumed the conversation. He at once changed his +manner, and began to speak more composedly, still continuing to pace the +room. As he passed to and fro, he glanced at the mirrors which +ornamented the walls, and reflected the grave visage of the pontiff, +eying him now and then in profile, never in front, to avoid appearing +anxious as to the impression his words may make.</p> + +<p>"One thing I must say, holy father, hangs heavily upon me: it is that +you seem to consent to the coronation by constraint, as you did formerly +to the concordat. As you sit there before me, you have the air of a +martyr, and assume an attitude of resignation, as if you were making an +offering of your sorrows up to Heaven. But surely you are not a +prisoner; such is not your position in any sense: grand Dieu! you are +free as air."</p> + +<p>Pius smiled, and looked him full in the face. He seemed to feel how +enormous was the exigence of that despotic character, which +requires—and all such natures do the like—not only obedience, but +submission, absolute submission, and that, too, wearing the air of +devotion to their will.</p> + +<p>"Yes," continued Bonaparte with increasing energy, "you are free, +perfectly free: you may return to Rome; the road is open to you; no one +detains you."</p> + +<p>Pius sighed, slightly raised his right hand, and looked upward without +uttering a word; then slowly inclining his head downward, seemed to look +attentively at a golden cross which hung from his neck. Bonaparte +continued speaking, but his steps became slow, and at the same time he +gave a marked degree of mildness to his tone, and of courtesy to his +expression.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_799" id="Page_799">[Pg 799]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Holy father," said he, "if the gravity of your character did not forbid +me, I would say that you are somewhat ungrateful. You do not seem to +retain a sufficient recollection of the services which France has +rendered to you. If I am not much mistaken the conclave of Venice, which +elected you, appeared to have taken its inspiration from my Italian +campaign, and from some words which I let fall with regard to you. It +can not be said that Austria behaved well to you; far from it; and I was +really sorry for it. If my memory does not deceive me, you were obliged +to return to Rome by sea, as you could not have ventured to cross the +Austrian territories."</p> + +<p>He stopped short, as if waiting for a reply from his silent guest. Pius, +however, but slightly inclined his head, and then sunk back into a sort +of apathy, which seemed inconsistent with even listening; while +Bonaparte, putting his foot on the rim of a stool, pushed it near the +Pope's chair, and thus continued, "It was, in good truth, as a Catholic +that such an incident gave me pain; for though I have never had time to +study theology, I have great confidence in the power of the church: it +has a prodigious vitality. Voltaire did it some damage in his time, but +I shall let loose upon him some unfrocked Oratorians: you'll be pleased, +if I mistake not, at the result. Now see, you and I may do many things +in common by-and-by, if you wish it." Then with an air at once juvenile +and careless, he continued, "For my part I do not see—I am weary of +conjecturing—what objection you can have to establish your see in +Paris, as it formerly was in Avignon. I will cede to you the palace of +the Tuilleries: I seldom occupy it. You will find there your apartments +prepared for you, as at Monte Cavallo. Do you not see, padre, that Paris +is the real capital of the world? As for me, I shall do whatever you +desire. You will find in me more docility than people give me credit +for. Provided that war and politics, with their fatigues, be left to me, +you may settle the church as you please: I shall be a soldier at your +orders. Do but consider what effect it would have, and how brilliant it +would be, were we to hold our councils as Constantine and Charlemagne +did in their time! I should merely open and close them, leaving the keys +of the world in your hands. As with the sword I came, the sword I should +retain, and with it the privilege of bringing it back for your +benediction after every victory achieved by our arms." And saying these +words he slightly bowed.</p> + +<p>Pius, who up to that moment had remained motionless as a statue, slowly +raised his head, smiled pensively, and drawing a deep sigh, breathed out +one by one the syllables of the word, "<i>Com-me-di-an-te!</i>"</p> + +<p>The word was scarcely half out, when Bonaparte made a bound on the floor +like a wounded leopard. A towering passion seized him; he became yellow +with ire. He bit his lips almost to bleeding as he strode to the end of +the room. He no longer paced round in circles; he went straight from +end to end without uttering a word, stamping with his feet as he swept +along, and making the room resound as he struck the floor with his +spurred heels. Every thing around him seemed to vibrate; the very +curtains waved like trees in a storm. At length the pent-up rage found +vent, and burst forth like a bombshell which explodes, "Comedian, say +you? Ah, ha! I am he that will play you comedies to make you weep like +women and children. Comedian, indeed! But you are greatly mistaken if +you think you can play off on me, with impunity, your cool-blooded +insolence. Comedian! Where is my theatre, pray, and what? 'Tis the +world, and the part which I play is that of master and author; while for +actors I have the whole of you—popes, kings, and people; and the cord +by which I move you all is—<i>fear!</i> Comedian, say you? But he who would +dare to hiss me or applaud should be made of different stuff from you, +Signor Chiaramonti! Know you not well that you would still be merely a +poor curé but for me, and that if I did not wear a serious air when I +salute you, France would laugh and scorn yourself and your tiara? Three +or four years ago, who would pronounce aloud the name of the founder of +your system? Pray, then, who would have spoken of the pope? Comedian, +eh! Sire, ye take footing rather quickly among us. And so, forsooth, you +are in ill-humor with me because I am not dolt enough to sign away the +liberties of the Gallican church, as Louis XIV. did. But I am not to be +duped in that fashion. In my grasp I hold you; by a nod I make you flit +from north to south, from east to west, like so many puppets. And now, +when it suits me to make-believe that I count you for something, merely +because you represent an antiquated idea which I wish to revive, you +have not the wit to see my drift, or affect not to perceive it. Seeing, +then, that I must speak out my whole mind, and put the matter just under +your nose, in order that you may see it—more particularly as you seem +to think yourself indispensable to me, and lift up your head in +consequence, as you drape yourself in your old dame's robe—I'll have +you to know that such airs do not in the least impose on me; and if you +persist in that course, I'll deal with your robe as Charles XII. did +with that of the grand vizier—I'll rend it for you with a dash of my +spur!"</p> + +<p>He ceased. Throughout this tirade Pius maintained the same immobility of +attitude, the same calm on his visage. At its close, however, he just +looked up, smiled with something of bitterness, and sighed as he slowly +articulated the word, "<i>Tra-je-di-an-te!</i>"</p> + +<p>Bonaparte at that moment was at the further end of the room, leaning on +the chimney-piece. Suddenly starting at the word, and turning round, his +whole person seemed to dilate, and his features to expand as passion +rose within him. His look became fixed, and his eyes flared; then with +the swiftness of an arrow he rushed toward the old man, as if with some +fell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_800" id="Page_800">[Pg 800]</a></span> purpose. But he stopped short, snatched from the table a porcelain +vase, dashed it to pieces against the andirons, and stamped on its +fragments as they flew along the floor! Then pausing for an instant, as +if to catch breath, he flung himself on a seat in utter exhaustion. It +would be difficult to say which was the more awful—his sudden outburst +of rage, or his immobility and silence after it.</p> + +<p>In some minutes the storm seemed gradually to subside, and a calm to +succeed. His look and bearing changed; something of depression seemed to +steal over him; his voice became deep and melancholy, and the first +syllables which he uttered showed this Proteus recalled to himself, and +tamed by two words. "Hapless existence!" he exclaimed; then pausing, +seemed to muse, and after a while continued, "'tis but too true; +comedian or tragedian, all for me is an affair of acting and costume; so +it has been hitherto, and such it is likely to continue. How fatiguing +and how petty it is to pose—always to pose, in profile for this party, +in full face for that, according to their notions! To guess at the +imaginings of drivelers, and seem to be what they think one ought to be. +To study how to place them between hope and fear—dazzle them with the +prestige of names and distances, of dates and bulletins—be the master +of all, and not know what to do with them; and after all this to be as +weary as I am—'tis too bad! The moment I sit down"—he crossed his +legs, and leaned back in his chair—"ennui seizes me. To be obliged to +hunt for three days in yonder forest would throw me into a mortal +languor. Activity is to me a necessity; I must keep moving myself, and +make others move, but I'll be hanged if I know whither. You see, then, I +disclose my inmost thoughts to you. Plans I have, enough and to spare, +for the lives of a score of emperors. I make one every morning, and +another every evening; my imagination wearies not; but before some three +or four of my plans could be carried out, I should be used up body and +mind: our little lamp of life burns not long before it begins to +flicker. And now, to speak with entire frankness, am I sure that the +world would be happier even if all my plans were put in execution? It +would certainly be a somewhat finer thing than it is, for a magnificent +uniformity would reign throughout it. I am not a philosopher; and in the +affair of common sense, I am bound to own that the Florentine secretary +was a master to us all. I am no proficient in theories: with me +reflection precedes decision, and execution instantly follows: the +shortness of life forbids us to stand still. When I shall have passed +away, there will be comments enough on my actions to exalt me if I +succeed, to disparage me if I fail. Paradoxes are already rife—they are +never wanting in France—but I shall still them to silence while I live; +and when I am gone—no matter. My object is to succeed; for that I have +some capacity. My Iliad I compose in action; every day adds an +episode."</p> + +<p>As he spoke these latter words he rose from his seat with a light +elastic movement, and seemed altogether another person. When relieved +from the turmoil of passion, he became gay, cheerful, and at the same +time unaffected and natural. He made no effort to pose, nor did he seek +to exalt and idealize himself, as he did afterward in the conversations +at St. Helena, to meet some philosophic conception, or to fill up the +portrait of himself which he desired to bequeath to posterity. He was +far from any thing of this sort: in simple reality, he was himself, as +it were, turned inside out. After a slight pause he advanced a step or +two toward the Pope, who had not moved, and smiling, with an expression +half-serious, half-ironical, proceeded in a new vein, in which were +blended something of the elevated and the petty, of the pompous and the +trivial, as was often his usage—all the time speaking with the +volubility so often exhibited by this most versatile genius.</p> + +<p>"Birth is every thing: those who appear on this world's stage poor and +friendless, have a desperate struggle to maintain. According to the +quality of their minds they turn to action or to self-destruction. When +they have resolution to set to work, as I have done, they often play the +winning game. A man must live; he must conquer a position, and make for +himself an abiding-place. I have made mine as a cannon-ball does; so +much the worse for those who stood in my way. Some are content with +little, others never have enough: men eat according to their appetites, +and I have a large one. Mark me, when I was at Toulon, I had not the +price of a pair of epaulets; but instead of them I had on my shoulders +my mother, and I know not how many brothers. All these are now tolerably +well provided for; and as to Josephine, who, it was said, married me +from pity, we are about to crown her in the very teeth of Raguedeau, her +notary, who once told her that I had lost my commission and my sword, +and was not worth a ducat; and faith he was not far wrong! But now, what +is it that rises up in perspective before me? An imperial mantle and a +crown. To me what are such things? a costume, a mere actor's costume. I +shall wear them for the occasion, that's enough: then resuming my +military frock, I'll get on horseback. On horseback said I?—yes, and +perhaps for life; but scarcely shall I have taken up my new position +when I shall run the risk of being pushed off my pedestal. Is that a +state to be envied? There are but two classes of men—those who have +something, and those who have nothing. The first take their rest, the +others remain awake. As I perceived this when starting in the race of +life, I have reached the goal thus early. I know of but two men who +attained it after having set out at the age of forty, and they were +Cromwell and Rousseau. Had the one had but a farm, and the other a few +hundred francs and a domestic, they would neither have commanded, +preached, nor written. There are various sorts of artists—in building, +in forms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_801" id="Page_801">[Pg 801]</a></span> in colors, in phrases. I am an artist in battles; I had +executed eighteen of what are called victories before the age of +thirty-five. I have a right to be paid for my work, and if paid with a +throne, it can not be called dear. But, after all, a throne, what is it? +Two or three boards fashioned in this form or in that, and nailed +together, with a strip of red velvet to cover them. By itself it is +nothing; 'tis the man who sits upon it that makes its force. Still, +throne or no throne, I shall follow my vocation: you shall see some more +of my doings. You shall see all dynasties date from mine, 'parvenu' +though I be; and elected, yes, elected like yourself, and chosen from +the crowd. On that point, at all events, we may shake hands."</p> + +<p>So saying, he advanced and held out his hand. The Pope did not decline +the courtesy; but there was an evident constraint in his manner as he +almost tremblingly reached to him the tips of his fingers. He seemed +under the influence of a complex tide of emotion. He was moved somewhat, +perhaps, by the tone of <i>bonhomie</i> that pervaded the latter remarks, and +by the frankness of the advance which concluded them; but the dominant +feeling was evidently of a sombre cast, arising from a reflection on his +own position, and still more on that of so many Christian communities +abandoned to the caprices of selfishness and hazard.</p> + +<p>These movements of the inner man did not escape the scrutinizing glance +of Bonaparte; a light and shadow passed rapidly across his face. He had +carried one point—the coronation was tacitly conceded; the rest may be +left to time. It was evident that, though not entirely without alloy, +the feeling of satisfaction was uppermost as he strode from the room +with all the <i>brusquerie</i> with which he had entered it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="From_Frasers_Magazine" id="From_Frasers_Magazine"></a>[From Fraser's Magazine.]</h4> + +<h2>GABRIELLE; OR, THE SISTERS.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Those who weep not here, shall weep eternally hereafter.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i24"><i>Ecclesiæ Græcæ Monumenta.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Dim voices haunt me from the past—for the dream of life is dreamed, and +may now be revealed; the dreamer is loitering on the Bier Path leading +to the green grass mounds, whence mouldering hands seem to point upward +and say, "Look thy last on the blue skies, and come rest with us."</p> + +<p>I have no happy childhood to recall; for I began to think so early, that +pain and thought are linked together. I had a father, and a sister two +years my senior; and our home was a small cottage, surrounded by a +flower-garden, on the outskirts of a town, where the chime of +church-bells was distinctly heard. These are sweet, romantic +associations; but "garden flowers," and "silvery chimes," and +"childhood's home," are words which awaken no answering chord in my +heart—for Reality was stern, and Fancy wove no fabric of fairy texture +wherewith to cover the naked truth.</p> + +<p>My mother died when I was born; and my father was a thin, pale man, +always wrapped in flannels about the head and throat, and moving slowly +with the aid of a stick. He never breakfasted with us—we were kept in +the kitchen, to save firing—but he came down late in the forenoon, and +when it was warm and sunshiny he would take a gentle stroll into the +fields, never townward. We dined at a late hour, and there were always +delicacies for my father; and after dinner he sat over his wine, smoking +cigars and reading the newspapers, till it was time to go to bed. He +took little notice of Gabrielle or me, except to command silence, or to +send us for any thing he wanted. There were two parlors in the cottage, +one at each side of the door; the furniture was scanty and mean, and the +parlor on the left-hand side never had a fire in it, for my father +always inhabited the other. It was bitter cold for Gabrielle and me in +this left-hand room during the winter, for we were often turned in there +to amuse ourselves; our sole domestic—an ancient Irish servitor, +retained by my father solely on account of her culinary +accomplishments—never admitted us poor shivering girls into the kitchen +when she was cooking, for, said Nelly,</p> + +<p>"If I am teased or narvous I shall, maybe, spoil the dinner, and then +our Lady save us from the masther's growl."</p> + +<p>No one ever came near us—we seemed utterly neglected, and our very +existence unknown. The house was redolent with the fumes of tobacco, and +the garden where we played was a wilderness of weeds, among which roses +bloomed in summer, and Gabrielle and I watched for their coming with +delight: those summer roses, on the great tangled bushes, were surely +more beautiful to us than to other and more fortunate children—we +gathered and preserved each leaf as it fell, and never was fragrance so +delicious!</p> + +<p>Now it may naturally be supposed, that from ignorance our impressions +were not painful; but from the time when I first began to notice and +comprehend, I also began to bitterly feel our condition, and Gabrielle +felt it far more than I did. We knew that we were half-starved, +half-clad, neglected, unloved creatures, and that our parent was a +personification of Selfishness. We saw other children prettily dressed, +walking past with their mothers or nurses—or trotting to school, +healthful and happy; and our hearts yearned to be like them—yearned for +a mother's kiss! Gabrielle was habitually silent and proud, though often +passionate when we were at play together; but the outburst was soon +over, and she hugged me again directly. I early learned to dislike all +ugly things from gazing on her—her beauty was of a kind to dazzle a +child—she was so brilliantly fair and colorless, with clustering golden +hair falling to her waist, and large soft blue eyes, which always made +me think of heaven and the angels; for, thanks to His mercy, I knew of +them when I was yet a child.</p> + +<p>Of course we were unacquainted with our father's history as we afterward +heard it. He was of a decayed but noble family, and—alas! it is a +commonplace tale—he had ruined his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_802" id="Page_802">[Pg 802]</a></span> fortunes and broken his wife's +heart by gambling. Worse even than this, he was irretrievably disgraced +and lost to society, having been detected as a cheat; and broken down in +every sense of the word, with a trifling annuity only to subsist on, he +lived, as I remember him, pampered, luxurious, and utterly forgetful of +all save Self. And, oh! God grant there be none—poor or rich, high or +low—who can repeat the sacred name of "father" as I do, without an +emotion of tenderness, without the slightest gossamer thread of love or +respect twined around the memory to bind the parental benediction +thereto.</p> + +<p>Nelly had followed our deceased mother from her native isle, for she too +was Irish, and clung to our father, ministering to his habits and +tastes, a good deal, I believe, for our sakes, and to keep near us. She +was a coarse woman; and, unlike her race in general, exhibited but few +outward demonstrations of attachment. When her work was done in the +evening she sometimes taught us the alphabet and to spell words of three +letters; the rest we mastered for ourselves, and taught each other, and +so in process of time we were able to read. The like with writing: Nelly +pointed out the rudiments, and Gabrielle, endowed with magical powers of +swift perception, speedily wrought out lessons both for herself and me. +The only books in the house were a cookery-book; a spelling-book which +Nelly borrowed; a great huge History of England, which formed her usual +footstool; and an ancient, equally large Bible, full of quaint pictures. +Would that I had the latter blessed volume bound in gold now, and set +with diamonds! A new epoch opened in my life. I had already thought, now +I understood; and the light divine dawned on my soul as Nelly, the +humble instrument of grace, in simple words explained all that was +wanting: for our faith is very simple, notwithstanding the ineffable +glories of Jesus and redemption. I dreamed by night of Jesus and of +angels, and of shepherds watching their flocks "all seated on the +ground;" and I used to ask Nelly if she did not think an angel must be +just like Gabrielle, with shining wings, certainly? But Nelly would say +that Miss Gabrielle was too proud for an angel, and never likely to +become one unless she liked her Bible better; and it was too true that +my darling sister had not the same love for holy things that I had then. +She liked to read of Queen Bess and Bluff King Hal; but when we found +our way to a church, and heard the chanting, her emotions far surpassed +mine, and she sobbed outright. At length Gabrielle, who had been +pondering many days without speaking, confided to me her determination +to ask our father to send us to school.</p> + +<p>"Why should I not ask him, Ruth?" she said. "I wonder we never thought +of it before—only he is always poorly, or smoking, or drinking."</p> + +<p>I observed her beautiful lip curl as she spoke in a contemptuous tone, +and I thought that Jesus taught <i>not so</i>; but I feared to speak—so I +wept, and knelt down alone and prayed for my sister.</p> + +<p>Gabrielle did ask him, and my father laid down his paper, and took the +cigar from his mouth, gazing in dull amazement at the speaker, but I saw +his gaze become more earnest and observant as he said,</p> + +<p>"Why, girl, how old are you?"</p> + +<p>"I was thirteen last month," replied Gabrielle.</p> + +<p>"You are a monstrous tall girl of your age, then, I declare: and you +have learned to read from Nelly, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we have," was the quiet reply; "but we wish to learn something +more than that."</p> + +<p>"Then you must go to some charity school, miss, for I have no money to +pay for such nonsense; you can read, and write, and sew, and what more +would you have? Pass the claret nearer, and reach me those cigars; and +take yourselves off, for my head is splitting."</p> + +<p>I must draw a vail over Gabrielle's passion when we were alone.</p> + +<p>"It is not for myself only that I sorrow," she exclaimed, as her sobs +subsided; "but you, poor, little, delicate thing, with your lameness, +what is to become of you in the big world if you are left alone? You can +not be a servant; and what are we to do without education? for Nelly has +told me our father's income dies with him."</p> + +<p>Her expressions were incoherent; and when I tried to comfort her, by +assurances that the blessed Saviour cared for the fatherless, she turned +away and left me. So ended the first and last application to our parent.</p> + +<p>When I remember Gabrielle's career from that period to her sixteenth +year I much marvel at the precocity of intellect she exhibited, and the +powers of mind with which she was endowed. We had no money to procure +books—no means to purchase even the common necessaries of clothing, +which too often made us ashamed to appear in church. But suddenly +Gabrielle seemed to become a woman, and I her trusting child. She was +silent and cold; but not sullen or cold to me, though her mouth became +compressed as if from bitter thought, and never lost that expression +again, save when she smiled. Oh, that sunny smile of radiant beauty! I +see it now—I see it now! I tried to win her, by coaxing and fondling, +to read the Holy Book; but Gabrielle said we were outcasts, and deserted +by God. When I heard that my wan cheeks burned with indignation, and I +exclaimed, "You are wicked to say so;" but Gabrielle was not angry, for +tears stood in her eyes as she fixed them on me, whispering,</p> + +<p>"Poor little cripple—sweet, gentle, loving sister—the angels that +whisper these good things to you pass me over. I hear them not, Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Sister, sister, they speak and you will not hear: do you think the +stupid, lame Ruth is favored beyond the clever, the beautiful, the noble +Gabrielle?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_803" id="Page_803">[Pg 803]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then with an outburst of passionate love she would take me in her arms, +and weep long and bitterly. I knew that I could not enter into the +depths of her feelings, but I comprehended her haughty bearing and +scornful glances; for the neighbors looked at us pitifully, and +Gabrielle writhed beneath it: child as she was, there was something +awful and grand in her lonely majesty of demeanor. Her self-denying, +constant devotion toward me—often ailing and pining as I was—I repaid +by an affection which I am sure is quite different from that entertained +by sisters happily placed for each other: Gabrielle was as mother and +sister, and friend and nurse, and playmate, all in one to me. She and +the bright young roses in our neglected garden, were the only two +beautiful creations I had ever seen. It was well for me, in my childish +simplicity, that I knew not the wreck of mind—the waste of brilliant +powers for want of cultivation—of which Gabrielle was the victim; but +she knew it, brooded over it, and the festering poison of hatred and +contempt changed her innocent, affectionate nature, toward all created +things, except her own and only sister.</p> + +<p>We never wearied of listening to Nelly's accounts of the former grandeur +of our maternal ancestors, intermixed with wild legends of chivalrous +love and gallant daring. She told us, too, of our ancient blood on the +father's side, and that we were the great-grandchildren of a belted +earl. Gabrielle's pale cheeks flushed not—her eyes were downcast; but I +knew the sufferings of the proud, beautiful girl. I too, humble as I +was, felt what we were—what we ought to have been, and the blood of the +De Courcys and O'Briens mounted to my throbbing temples.</p> + +<p>Gabrielle was a lady—a lady in each action, word, and look; poorly and +insufficiently clad, her tall, graceful form bore the unmistakable mark +of hereditary breeding, which neither poverty nor neglect could +eradicate. It was not her exceeding loveliness which alone attracted +observation, but it was a refinement and elegance which no education can +bestow—it was Nature's stamp on one of her most peerless and exquisite +productions. One evening, when we had been listening to Nelly's +discourse by the kitchen fire, a sudden and a new thought took hold of +my imagination, nor could I rest until I had imparted it to Gabrielle. +It was this—that she might marry some great, rich man, and so release +us from want and privation; for, of course, my home would always be with +her!</p> + +<p>Gabrielle looked gravely on my upturned face an I knelt beside her, and +confided this "new plan."</p> + +<p>"Ruth," she said, "you are a wise and a singular child, and you deserve +to be trusted. I mean to become a rich man's wife if I have the +opportunity; but how it is to be brought about, your good book, perhaps, +may tell."</p> + +<p>"Oh, darling," I cried, "do not smile so scornfully when you speak of +that blessed, dear book; it would comfort and lead you, indeed it +would, if you would but open and read its pages."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, Parson Ruth," she cried, laughing, "that will do. When the +rich man comes down from the clouds to make me his bride, I promise you +I'll have a book bound in gold like that; and you shall be educated, my +darling Ruth, as the daughters of the De Courcys ought to be, and you +shall forget that we have no father, no mother."</p> + +<p>"Forget our father?" said I. "Never, never!"</p> + +<p>Gabrielle was terribly shaken and agitated: little more than a child in +years, injustice and sorrow had taught her the emotions of age, yet she +was a guileless child in the world's ways, as events soon proved.</p> + +<p>We used to ramble out into the adjacent meadows, and doubtless our +roamings would have extended far and wide, had not my lameness precluded +much walking, and Gabrielle never had a thought of leaving me. So we +were contented to saunter by a shining stream that meandered amid the +rich pasture-land near our home; this stream was frequented by those +fortunate anglers only who obtained permission from the lady of the +manor to fish in it, and this permit was not lavishly bestowed, +consequently our favorite haunt was usually a solitary one. But soon +after Gabrielle had completed her sixteenth year we noted a sickly +youth, who patiently pursued his quiet sport by the hour together, and +never looked round as we passed and repassed him. Some trifling "chance" +(as it is called) led to his thanking Gabrielle for assisting to +disentangle his line, which had caught amid the willow-branches +overhanging the water; the same "chance" caused him to observe his +beautiful assistant, and I saw his start of surprise and admiration. He +was a silly-looking lad, we thought, dressed like a gentleman, and +behaving as one; and he was never absent now from the meadows when we +were there. He always bowed, and often addressed some passing +observation to us, but timidly and respectfully, for Gabrielle was a +girl to command both homage and respect. She pitied the lonely, pale +young man, who seemed so pleased to find any one to speak to, and +exhibited such extraordinary patience and perseverance, for he never +caught a fish that we saw. Through the medium of a gossip of Nelly, who +was kitchen-maid at the principal inn, we ascertained that our new +acquaintance was staying there for his health's benefit, and for the +purpose of angling; that his name was Erminstoun, only son of the rich +Mr. Erminstoun, banker, of T——. Nelly's gossip had a sister who lived +at Erminstoun Hall, so there was no doubt about the correctness of the +information, both as regarded Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's identity, and the +enormous wealth of which it was said his father was possessed. The +informant added, that poor Mr. Thomas was a <i>leetle</i> soft maybe, but the +idol of his parent; and that he squandered "money like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_804" id="Page_804">[Pg 804]</a></span> nothing," "being +a generous, open-handed, good young gentleman."</p> + +<p>I observed a great change in Gabrielle's manner, after hearing this, +toward her admirer—for so he must be termed—as admiration was so +evident in each word and look: by-and-by Gabrielle went out alone—there +was no one to question or rebuke her; and in six weeks from the day that +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun first saw her she became his wife. Yes, startling +as it appears, it all seemed very natural and simple of accomplishment +then; early one brilliant summer morning, Gabrielle woke me, and bade me +rise directly, as she wished to confide something of great importance, +which was about to take place in a few hours. Pale, but composed, she +proceeded to array herself and me in plain white robes, and straw +bonnets; new and purely white, yet perfectly simple and inexpensive, +though far better than the habiliments we had been accustomed to wear. +Gabrielle took them from a box, which must have come when I was +sleeping; and when our toilet was completed, I compared her in my own +mind to one of those young maidens whom I had seen in the church, when +bands of fair creatures were assembled for confirmation. She looked not +like <i>a bride</i>—there was no blushing, no trembling; but a calm +self-possession, and determination of purpose, which awed me.</p> + +<p>"My wise little sister Ruth," she said, "I am going to be married this +morning to Mr. Thomas Erminstoun, at —— church. You are my bridemaid, +and the clerk gives me away. I shall not come back here any more, for a +chaise and four waits in Yarrow Wood to convey us away directly after +our marriage. You will come home, darling, and take off your marriage +apparel to appear before <i>him</i>; and as I do not often dine with him, and +he never asks for me, I shall not be missed. So say nothing—Nelly's +tongue is tied—fear not her. Be patient, beloved one, till you hear +from me: bright days are coming, Ruth, and we do not part for long."</p> + +<p>Here she wept, oh, so bitterly, I thought she would die. Amazed and +trembling, I ventured to ask if she loved Mr. Thomas Erminstoun better +than me, for jealousy rankled, and at fourteen I knew nothing of <i>love</i>.</p> + +<p>"Love <i>him</i>!" she cried vehemently, clasping her hands wildly; "I love +only you on earth, my Ruth, my sister. He is a fool; and I marry him to +save you and myself from degradation and misery. He buys me with his +wealth. I am little more than sixteen"—she hung down her lovely head, +poor thing—"but I am old in sorrow; I am hardened in sin, for I am +about to commit a great sin. I vow to love, where I despise; to obey, +when I mean to rule; and to honor, when I hold the imbecile youth in +utter contempt!"</p> + +<p>Vain were supplications and prayers to wait. Gabrielle led me away to +the meadows, where a fly was in waiting, which conveyed us to the +church. I saw her married; I signed something in a great book; I felt +her warm tears and embraces, and I knew that Mr. Thomas Erminstoun +kissed me too, as he disappeared with Gabrielle, and the clerk placed me +in the fly alone, which put me down in the same place, in the quiet +meadows by the shining water. I sat down and wept till I became +exhausted. Was this all a dream? Had Gabrielle really gone? My +child-sister married? Become rich and great? But I treasured her words, +hurried home, and put on my old dark dress; and Nelly said not a word. +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's gold had secured her silence; and she was to +"know nothing," but to take care of me for the present.</p> + +<p>Ere my father retired to rest that night, a letter was brought addressed +to him. I never knew the contents, but it was from Gabrielle and +Gabrielle's husband. I did not see him again for some days, and then he +never looked at me; and strange, strange it seemed, Gabrielle had +disappeared like a snow wreath, in silence, in mystery; and I exclaimed +in agony, "Was there ever any thing like this in the world before?"</p> + +<p>My father made himself acquainted with the position of the young man +whom his daughter had gone off with, and also of the legality of their +marriage; that ascertained satisfactorily, he sank into the same +hopeless slothfulness and indolence as heretofore, dozing life away, and +considering he had achieved a prodigious labor in making the necessary +inquiries.</p> + +<p>Very soon after this I had my first letter—doubly dear and interesting +because it was from Gabrielle. The inn servant brought it under pretext +of visiting Nelly, so my father knew nothing about it. Ah, that first +letter! shall I ever forget how I bathed it my with tears, and covered +it with kisses? It was short, and merely said they were in lodgings for +the present, because Mr. Erminstoun had not yet forgiven his son: not a +word about her happiness; not a word of her husband; but she concluded +by saying, "that very soon she hoped to send for her darling Ruth—never +to be parted more."</p> + +<p>I know that my guardian angel whispered the thoughts that now came into +my head as I read and pondered; because I had prayed to be led as a +sheep by the shepherd, being but a simple, weakly child. I determined on +two things—to show the letter I had received from Gabrielle to my +father, for conscience loudly whispered concealment was wrong; and never +to quit him, because the time might come when he, perhaps, would +require, or be glad of my attendance. I felt quite happy after forming +these resolutions on my knees; and I wrote to Gabrielle telling her of +them. I know not if my father observed what I said, but he took no +notice, for he was half asleep and smoking; so I left the letter beside +him, as I ever did afterward, for I often heard from my beloved sister: +and oh! but it <i>was</i> hard to resist her entreaties that I would come to +her—that it was for my sake as well as her own she had taken so bold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_805" id="Page_805">[Pg 805]</a></span> a +step; and that now she had a pleasant home for me, and I refused. It was +hard to refuse; but God was with me, or I never could have had strength +of myself to persevere in duty, and "<i>deny myself</i>." When Gabrielle +found arguments and entreaties vain, she gave way to bursts of anguish +that nearly overcame me; but when "I was weak, then I was strong," and I +clasped my precious Bible, and told her I <i>dared</i> not leave my father.</p> + +<p>Then came presents of books, and all kinds of beautiful and useful +things, to add to my comfort or improvement. Gabrielle told me they were +settled in a pretty cottage near the Hall, and that Mr. Erminstoun had +forgiven his son. Mr. Erminstoun was a widower, and had five daughters +by a former marriage—Gabrielle's husband being the only child of his +second union: the Misses Erminstoun were all flourishing in single +blessedness, and were known throughout the country-side as the "proud +Miss Erminstouns." These ladies were tall, and what some folks call +"dashing women;" wearing high feathers, bright colors, and riding hither +and thither in showy equipages, or going to church on the Sabbath with a +footman following their solemn and majestic approach to the house of +prayer, carrying the richly-emblazoned books of these "miserable +sinners."</p> + +<p>How I pined to hear from Gabrielle that she was happy, and cherished by +her new connections; that she was humbled also, in some measure—abashed +at the bold step she had taken. So young—so fair—so determined. I +trembled, girl as I was, when I thought that God's wrath might fall on +her dear head, and chasten her rebellious spirit.</p> + +<p>Six months subsequent to Gabrielle's departure our father died, after +but a few days' severe suffering. Dying, he took my hand and murmured, +"Good child!" and those precious words fell as a blessing on my soul; +and I know he listened to the prayers which God put into my heart to +make for his departing spirit. I mourned for the dead, because he was my +father and I his child....</p> + +<p>Nelly accompanied me to my sister's home; and fairyland seemed opening +to my view when I embraced Gabrielle once more. What a pleasant home it +was!—a cottage not much larger than the one I had left—but how +different! Elegance and comfort were combined; and when I saw the rare +exotics in the tasteful conservatory I remembered the roses in our +wilderness. Ah, I doubt if we ever valued flowers as we did those +precious dewy buds. Wood End Cottage stood on the brow of a hill, +commanding a fair prospect of sylvan quietude; the old Parsonage was +adjacent, inhabited by a bachelor curate, "poor and pious," the church +tower peeping forth from a clump of trees. The peal of soft bells in +that mouldering tower seemed to me like unearthly music: my heart +thrilled as I heard their singular, melancholy chime. There were fine +monuments within the church, and it had a superb painted window, on +which the sun always cast its last gleams during the hours of +summer-evening service.</p> + +<p>My brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Erminstoun, was paler and thinner than +when I had seen him last, and I was shocked and alarmed at his +appearance. His love for Gabrielle amounted to idolatry; and for her +sake he loved and cherished me. She was colder and haughtier in manner +than ever, receiving passively all the devoted tenderness lavished by +her husband: this pained me sadly; for though he was assuredly simple, +there was an earnest truthfulness and kindliness about him, which won on +the affections amazingly. He would speak to me of Gabrielle by the hour +together, with ever-increasing delight; we both marveled at her +surpassing beauty, which each week became more angelic and pure in +character.</p> + +<p>On me alone all my sister's caresses were bestowed; all the pent-up love +of a passionate nature found vent in my arms, which were twined around +her with strange enthusiastic love; therefore it was, her faults +occasioned me such agony—for I could not but see them—and I alone, of +all the world, knew her noble nature—knew what she "might have been." I +told her that I expected to have found her cheerful, now she had a happy +home of her own.</p> + +<p>"Happy! cheerful!" she cried, sadly. "A childhood such as mine was, +flings dark shadows over all futurity, Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Oh, speak not so, beloved," I replied; "have you not a good husband, +your error mercifully forgiven? are you not surrounded by blessings?"</p> + +<p>"And dependent," she answered, bitterly</p> + +<p>"But dependent on your husband, as the Bible says every woman should +be."</p> + +<p>"And my husband is utterly dependent on his father, Ruth; he has neither +ability nor health to help himself, and on his father he depends for our +bread. I have but exchanged one bondage for another; and all my hope is +now centred in you, dearest, to educate you—to render you independent +of this cold, hard world."</p> + +<p>"Why, Gabrielle," I said, "you are not seventeen yet—it is not too +late, is it, for you also to be educated?"</p> + +<p>"Too late, too late," answered Gabrielle, mournfully. "Listen, wise +Ruth, I shall be a mother soon; and to my child, if it is spared, and to +you, I devote myself. You have seen the Misses Erminstoun—you have seen +vulgarity, insolence, and absurd pretension; they have taunted me with +my ignorance, and I will not change it now. The blood of the De Courcys +and O'Briens has made me a lady; and all the wealth of the Indies can +not make them so. No, Ruth, I will remain in ignorance, and yet tower +above them, high as the clouds above the dull earth, in innate +superiority and power of mind!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, my sister," I urged timidly, "it is not well to think highly of +one's self—the Bible teaches not so."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_806" id="Page_806">[Pg 806]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ruth! Ruth!" she exclaimed, impatiently, "it is not that I think highly +of myself, as you well know; you well know with what anguish I have +deplored our wants; it is pretension I despise, and rise above; talent, +and learning, and virtue, and nobleness, that I revere, and could +worship!"</p> + +<p>"But, beloved," I urged, "people may be very kind and good, without +being so mighty clever."</p> + +<p>"The Erminstouns female are not kind, are not good," she haughtily +replied: "the Erminstouns male are fools! Ruth, I have changed one +bondage for another, and the sins of the father fall on the innocent +child. I have changed starvation, and cold, and degradation, for hateful +dependence on the vulgar and despised. Woe is me, woe is me! If I can +but save you, my sister, and make you independent, I can bear my lot."</p> + +<p>My education commenced, and they called me a "wise child:" every one was +kind to the poor cripple, even the "proud Miss Erminstouns," who cast +envious and disdainful glances on my beautiful sister, which she repaid +with unutterable scorn—silent, but sure. Oh, how I prayed Gabrielle to +<i>try</i> and win their love; to read her Bible, and therein find that "a +kind word turneth away wrath;" but Gabrielle was proud as Lucifer, and +liked not to read of humility and forbearance. I found a zealous friend +and instructor in Mr. Dacre, the "poor, pious curate;" he was a college +friend of my brother-in-law, and a few years his senior. I felt assured +that Mr. Dacre thought Mr. Thomas's life a very precarious one, from the +way in which he spoke to him on religious subjects, and the anxiety he +evinced as to his spiritual welfare. Mr. Dacre used also to call me his +"wise little friend;" and we were wont to speak of passages in the book +I loved best. What thought I of him? Why, sometimes in my own mind I +would compare him to an apostle—St. Paul, for instance, sincere, +learned, and inspired; but then St. Paul haunted my day-dreams as a +reverend gentleman with a beard and flowing robes, while Mr. Dacre was +young, handsome, and excessively neat in his ecclesiastical costume and +appointments generally. Mr. Dacre had serious dark eyes—solemn eyes +they were, in my estimation, but the very sweetest smile in the world; +and one of the Misses Erminstoun seemed to think so too: but people said +that the pious young minister was vowed to celibacy.</p> + +<p>There was also another frequent visitor at Erminstoun Hall, who not +seldom found his way to Wood End Cottage; and this was no less a +personage than Lord Treherne, who resided at Treherne Abbey in princely +magnificence, and had lately become a widower. This nobleman was upward +of sixty, stately, cold, and reserved in manner, and rarely warmed into +a smile, except in contemplation of woman's beauty; of which, indeed, he +was an enthusiastic admirer. The late Lady Treherne had presented her +lord with no family; and the disappointment was bitterly felt by Lord +Treherne, who most ardently desired an heir to succeed to his ancient +title and immense possessions. It was rumored abroad that the eldest +Miss Erminstoun was likely to become the favored lady on whom his +lordship's second choice might fall: she was still a handsome woman, and +as cold and haughty as Lord Treherne himself; but, notwithstanding her +smiles and encouragement, the ancient cavalier in search of a bride did +not propose. Nay, on the contrary, he evinced considerable interest in +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's failing health; he was the poor young +gentleman's godfather, and it seemed not improbable that, in the event +of his lordship dying childless, his godson might inherit a desirable +fortune. Rare fruits and flowers arrived in profusion from the Abbey; +and my lord showed great interest in my progress, while Gabrielle +treated him with far more freedom than she did any one else, and seemed +pleased and gratified by his fatherly attentions.</p> + +<p>At length the time arrived when Gabrielle became the mother of as lovely +a babe as ever entered this world of woe; and it was a fair and touching +sight to behold the young mother caressing her infant daughter. I have +often wondered that I felt no pangs of jealousy, for the beauteous +stranger more than divided my sister's love for me—she engaged it +nearly all: and there was something fearful and sublime in the exceeding +idolatry of Gabrielle for her sweet baby. Self was immolated altogether; +and when she hung over the baby's couch each night, watching its happy, +peaceful slumbers, it was difficult to say which of the twain was the +more beautiful. Repose marked the countenance of each—Gabrielle's was +imbued with the heavenly repose of parental love.</p> + +<p>In less than twelve months after its birth, that poor baby was +fatherless. I had anticipated and foreseen this calamity; and Gabrielle +conducted herself, as I believed she would, without hypocrisy, but with +serious propriety. Sad scenes followed this solemn event; the Misses +Erminstoun wished to take her child from Gabrielle, to bring it up at +the Hall. Mr. Erminstoun urged her compliance, and recommended my sister +to seek "a situation" for me, as "he had already so expensive an +establishment to keep up; and now poor Thomas was gone, there was really +no occasion for Wood End Cottage to be on his hands. Gabrielle must find +a home in some farm-house."</p> + +<p>All this came about in a few months, from one thing to another; and the +young widow, who had been ever hated as a wife, was grudged her daily +support by her deceased husband's family. "Give up her child?" Gabrielle +only laughed when they spoke of that; but her laugh rings in my ears +yet! though it was as soft and musical as the old church bells.</p> + +<p>We left Wood End Cottage, and found refuge in a retired farm-house, as +Mr. Erminstoun proposed; but we were together: and there were many who +cried "shame" on the rich banker,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_807" id="Page_807">[Pg 807]</a></span> for thus casting off his +daughter-in-law and his grandchild. Small was the pittance he allowed +for our subsistence; and the Misses Erminstoun never noticed Gabrielle +on her refusal to part with the child. "She was not fit," they bruited +about, "to bring up their poor brother's daughter. She was ignorant, +uneducated, and unamiable, besides being basely ungrateful for kindness +lavished; she had a cold heart and repellant manner, which had steeled +their sympathies toward her." They thought themselves ill-used at +Erminstoun Hall; and the five Misses Erminstoun regarded Gabrielle and +her poor little daughter as mere interlopers, who were robbing them of +their father's money.</p> + +<p>Well might Gabrielle say—"I have changed one bondage for another!" but +I never heard her repeat that now. She was silent, even to me. No murmur +escaped her lips; and what she felt or suffered I knew not. Little Ella +was a pale flower, like her mother; but as similar to the parent rose as +an opening rosebud.</p> + +<p>"What could I do?" were the words I was continually repeating to myself. +"I must not be an added burden to Mr. Erminstoun. I have already +profited by my sister's union with his son, by having gratefully +received instruction in various branches of learning, and can I not do +something for myself?" What this <i>something</i> was to be, I could not +define. My lameness precluded active employment, and I was too young to +become a "companion." I confided my thoughts and wishes to Mr. Dacre, +who often visited us, speaking words of balm and consolation to the +afflicted. Gabrielle listened to his words, as she never had done to +mine; and he could reprove, admonish, exhort, or cheer, when all human +hope seemed deserting us. For where were we to look for a shelter, +should it please Mr. Erminstoun to withdraw his allowance, to force +Gabrielle to abandon her child to have it from want? I verily believe, +had it not been for that precious babe, she would have begged her bread, +and suffered me to do so, rather than be dependent on the +scantily-doled-out bounty of Mr. Erminstoun.</p> + +<p>During the twelve months that elapsed after her husband's death there +was a "great calm" over Gabrielle—a tranquillity, like that exhibited +by an individual walking in sleep. I had expected despair and passion +when her lofty spirit was thus trampled to the dust; but no, as I have +said, she was strangely tranquil—strangely silent. There was no +resignation—that is quite another thing; and, except when my sister +listened to Mr. Dacre, she never read her Bible, or suffered me to read +it to her: but his deep, full, rich voice, inexpressibly touching and +sweet in all its modulations, ever won her rapt, undivided attention. +She attended the church where he officiated; and though the Erminstouns +had a sumptuously-decorated pew there, it was not to that the young +widow resorted; she sat amid the poor in the aisle, beneath a +magnificent monument of the Treherne family, where the glorious sunset +rays, streaming through the illuminated window, fell full upon her +clustering golden hair and downcast eyes.</p> + +<p>There was pride in this, not humility; and Gabrielle deceived herself, +as, with a quiet grace peculiarly her own, she glided to her lowly seat, +rejecting Lord Treherne's proffered accommodation, as he courteously +stood with his pew door open, bowing to the fair creature as if she had +been a queen. The five Misses Erminstoun knelt on their velvet cushions, +arrayed in feathers and finery, and strong in riches and worldly +advantages; but my pale sister, in her coarsely-fashioned mourning-garb, +seated on a bench, and kneeling on the stone, might have been taken for +the regal lady, and they her plebeian attendants.</p> + +<p>Spiteful glances they cast toward Gabrielle, many a time and oft, when +my Lord Treherne so pointedly paid his respectful devoirs; and there was +as much pride and haughtiness in Gabrielle's heart as in theirs. Poor +thing! she said truly, that "early shadows had darkened her soul," and +what had she left but <i>pride</i>? Not an iota of woman's besetting +littleness had my sister—noble, generous, self-denying, devoted where +she loved; her sweetness had been poisoned, nor had she sought that +fountain of living water which alone can purify such bitterness. Gentle +in manner, pure in heart, affectionate in disposition, Gabrielle's pride +wrought her misery. Lord Treherne never came in person to our humble +home—he had but once paid his respects to Gabrielle since her +widowhood; but the rarest exotics continued to decorate our poor room, +constantly replenished from Treherne Abbey, and sent, with his +lordship's card, by a confidential domestic. He was always at church +now, and people remarked "how pious my lord had latterly become." I was +far too young and inexperienced then to understand or appreciate this +delicacy and propriety on Lord Treherne's part. But Mr. Dacre understood +it; nor would <i>he</i> have intruded on our privacy, save in his ministerial +capacity, and for the purpose of aiding and assisting me in the studies +I endeavored to pursue. There was a "halo of sanctity" around Mr. Dacre, +which effectually precluded any approach to freedom or frivolous +conversation, in any society wherein he might be placed. He gave the +tone to that society, and the gay and dashing Misses Erminstoun became +subdued in his presence; while Lord Treherne, with excellent taste, not +only showed the outward respect due to Mr. Dacre's sacred and high +office, but the regard which his personal qualities deserved.</p> + +<p>I have often looked back on that time immediately after my +brother-in-law's decease, with wonder at our serenity—nay, almost +contentment and happiness; despite the anguish and humiliation I knew +Gabrielle must endure, her smile was ever beautiful and sweet, and +illumined our poor home with the sunshine of heaven.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_808" id="Page_808">[Pg 808]</a></span></p> + +<p>Our baby was, I think I may say, almost equally dear to us both—it had +two mothers, Gabrielle said; and what with nursing the darling little +thing, and learning my lessons, and Mr. Dacre's visits, time flew +rapidly.</p> + +<p>On the appearance of each fresh token of Lord Treherne's remembrance, I +observed an expression flit across my sister's face which I could not +define; it was of triumph and agony combined, and she always flew to her +baby, clasping it convulsively to her bosom, and whispering words of +strange import. On Mr. Dacre's expressive, serious countenance, also, I +noticed passing clouds, as Gabrielle bestowed enthusiastic admiration on +the superb exotics. Why this was I could by no means satisfactorily +decide, as Mr. Dacre, so kind and generous, must approve the +disinterested delicacy exhibited by Lord Treherne, in his offerings to +the fatherless and widow. But the disinterestedness of my lord's +attentions was a myth which I soon discarded: for in twelve months +subsequent to Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's decease, a letter from Treherne +Abbey was brought to Gabrielle, sealed with the armorial bearings of the +Trehernes, and signed by the present representative of that noble race. +We were seated at our fireside, busy with domestic needlework, and I saw +Gabrielle's hands tremble as she opened it, while that strange, wild +expression of triumph and pain, flitted more than once over her face as +she perused the missive. She silently gave it to me, and with amazement +I read its contents—such an idea had never once entered my simple +brain. Lord Treherne made Gabrielle an offer of his hand and heart, +signifying that if she would graciously incline her ear to his suit, a +brilliant destiny awaited her infant daughter—on whom, and on its +lovely mother, the most munificent settlements should be made. I laughed +heartily as I read his lordship's rhapsodies, becoming a young lover; +and I said, returning the epistle to Gabrielle, "What a pity, dearest, +that we can not have such a noble father for our little Ella!" the +possibility of Gabrielle's marrying a man of nearly seventy never +entered into my calculations for a moment. Therefore my astonishment was +overwhelming when she seriously answered,</p> + +<p>"Why can not Lord Treherne be a father to my child, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Because, dearest, you could not marry him—he is so old."</p> + +<p>"But I mean to marry him, Ruth: could you doubt it? Could I have lived +on as I have done without prophetic hope to support me? Think you, if +Lord Treherne were double the age, I would refuse rank, wealth and +power? Oh, Ruth, were I alone, it might be different." She spoke in a +tone of suppressed anguish and passionate regret. "But look on her," +pointing to the sleeping cherub, "for her sake I would <i>immolate myself +on any altar of sacrifice</i>. Her fate shall be a brighter one than her +mother's—if that mother has power to save and to bless! <i>She</i> must not +be doomed to poverty or dependence. No, no! I give her a father who can +restore in her the ancient glories of our race; for my Ella is a +descendant of the chivalrous O'Briens and the noble De Courcys."</p> + +<p>"And of the Erminstouns of Erminstoun Hall," I gently suggested, for +Gabrielle was greatly excited.</p> + +<p>"Name them not, Ruth; name them not, if you love me. To change their +hated name, what would I not do?"</p> + +<p>Alas! thought I, you are deceiving yourself, my poor sister, in this +supposed immolation on an altar of sacrifice; it is not for your child's +sake alone, though you fancy so. But Blanche Erminstoun will be +disappointed, revenge obtained, and pride amply gratified, and truly +"the heart is deceitful above all things."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dacre entered the apartment as Gabrielle ceased speaking, for we had +not heard his modest signal, and he was unannounced. My sister colored +to the very temples on seeing the young pastor, and her hands trembled +in the vain endeavor to fold Lord Treherne's letter, which at length she +impatiently crushed together. I heard a half-smothered hysterical sob, +as, with a faltering voice, she bade our guest "Good-evening." Ah! when +the heart is aching and throbbing with agony, concealed and suppressed, +it requires heroic self-command to descend to the commonplaces of this +workaday world; but women early learn to conceal and subdue their +feelings, when premature sorrows have divided them from real or +pretended sympathies.</p> + +<p>I read my sister's heart, I knew her secret, and I inwardly murmured, +"Alas for woman's love, it is cast aside!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>My sister's marriage with Lord Treherne was a strictly private one +(Gabrielle had stipulated for this), his lordship's chaplain performing +the ceremony. My thoughts reverted to Gabrielle's first marriage, when +the clerk gave her away, and she was clad in muslin; now she was arrayed +in satin and glittering gems, and a peer of the realm, an old friend of +the bridegroom, gave her lily hand at the altar to her noble lover. +Twice she was forsworn; but the desecration to her soul was not so great +on the first as on the present occasion, for then her heart was still +her own; while now, alas for woman's love, it was cast aside!</p> + +<p>In a few weeks after the marriage we all departed for the Continent, +where we remained for the six following years, Gabrielle and myself +receiving instructions in every accomplishment suitable to our position. +It was charming to witness with what celerity my beautiful sister +acquired every thing she undertook, for she was as anxious as her lord +to adorn the high station to which she now belonged. Wherever we went +the fame of Lady Treherne's beauty went with us, while her fascination +of manner and high-bred elegance perfectly satisfied her fastidious +husband that he had made a wise and prudent choice. There was one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_809" id="Page_809">[Pg 809]</a></span> +drawback to his lordship's perfect contentment, and this was the absence +of the much-wished-for heir, for Gabrielle presented no children to her +husband; and our little Ella, a fairy child, of brilliant gifts and +almost superhuman loveliness, became as necessary to Lord Treherne's +happiness as she was to her doting mother's. It was settled ere we +returned to England, that Ella was to drop the name of Erminstoun, and +as Lord Treherne's acknowledged heiress, legal forms were to be +immediately adopted in order to ratify the change of name to that of the +family appellation of the Trehernes.</p> + +<p>With a murmur of grateful feeling I saw Gabrielle kneel beside her aged +husband, and thank him fondly for this proof of regard; triumph sparkled +in her eyes, and Lord Treherne laid his hand on her fair head, blessing +her as he did so. She had made him a good wife, in every sense of the +term: he had never forgot that her blood equaled his own. But Gabrielle +did, for that very reason; her gratitude made her humble toward him, +because he was humble toward her: nor did Lord Treherne ever cease to +think that Gabrielle had conferred a favor in marrying him.</p> + +<p>A succession of <i>fêtes</i> and entertainments were given at Treherne Abbey +after our return, and Gabrielle was the star on whom all gazed with +delighted admiration. All the country families flocked to pay their +homage, but the Erminstouns came not until Lady Treherne extended a hand +of welcome to her first husband's family; she was too exalted, both in +station and mind, to cherish the pitiful remembrances of their former +unkindness. There were but two Misses Erminstoun now, the others were +well married (according to the world's notion, that is); and the +youngest, who had not given up hopes of yet becoming Mrs. Dacre, had +transformed herself into a nun-like damsel, something between a Sister +of Charity and a Quakeress in exterior: perhaps Mr. Dacre read the +interior too well; and, notwithstanding the lady's assiduous visits to +the poor, and attendance on the charity-schools, and regular loud +devotions at church, Mr. Dacre remained obdurate and wedded to celibacy. +It might be that he disapproved of the marriage of the clergy, but I +think he was at one time vulnerable on that point.</p> + +<p>How delighted I was to see him once more, to hear him call me his "wise +little friend," with his former sweet smile and affectionate manner; six +years had changed him—he looked rather careworn, and well he might, for +he was a true worker in the Lord's vineyard: nor was his mission +confined to the poor; the rich and noble also felt his influence. Lord +and Lady Treherne greeted him as an old and valued friend; nor could I +detect the slightest agitation in Gabrielle's manner, and my former +suspicions almost faded away. She brought our fair Ella to welcome "papa +and mamma's friend" to Treherne; and Ella, with her winning, gentle +ways, soon made Mr. Dacre understand that she loved him very much +indeed: she was a holy child, and the principal joy of her innocent life +was to hear me tell her those stories in which I used to take delight in +my early days—how contrasted to hers! She would sing her pretty hymns, +seated on a low footstool at Lord Treherne's feet; and the stately +nobleman, with tears in his eyes, used to exclaim with pathos,</p> + +<p>"Sister Ruth, sister Ruth, my heart misgives me; the angels surely will +take this child to themselves, and leave us desolate."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dacre came not frequently to Treherne, but he was a quick observer, +and he saw we had set up an idol for ourselves in this child, he +cautioned us, but Gabrielle shivered—yes, <i>shivered</i> with dismay, at +the bare suggestion he hinted at—that God was a "jealous God," and +permitted no idolatrous worship to pass unreproved.</p> + +<p>Poor young mother, how can I relate the scenes I lived to witness!</p> + +<p>Ella died, aged ten years. The mother sat by her coffin four days and +nights, speechless and still; we dared not attempt to remove her, there +way an alarming expression in her eyes if we did, that made the medical +men uncertain how to act. She had tasted no food since the child died; +she was hopeful to the last: it was impossible, she said, that her child +could die; her faculties could not comprehend the immensity of the +anguish in store for her. So there she sat like stone—cold, and silent, +and wan, as the effigy she watched. Who dared to awaken the mother?</p> + +<p>Mr. Dacre undertook the awful task, but it was almost too much for his +tender, sympathizing heart; nerved by strength from above he came to +us—for I never left my sister—and we three were alone with the dead.</p> + +<p>It harrows my soul to dwell on this subject, and it seemed cruel to +awaken the benumbed mother to reality and life again, but it was done; +and then words were spoken far too solemn and sacred to repeat here, and +hearts were opened that otherwise might have remained sealed till the +judgment day. Gabrielle, for the first time in her life, knew herself as +she was; and, prostrate beside her dead child, cried, "I have deserved +thy chastening rod, for thou art the Lord, and I thy creature; deal with +me as thou seest best." Pride abased, hope crushed, heart contrite and +broken, never, never had Gabrielle been so dear to me; and during many +weeks that I watched beside her couch, as she fluctuated between life +and death, I knew that, she was an altered being, and that this bitter, +affliction had not been sent in vain. She came gently home to God, and +humbly knelt a suppliant at the mercy-throne, forever crying,</p> + +<p>"Thou art wisest! Thou art best! Thou, alone knowest what is good for +us! Thy will be done!"</p> + +<p>The blow had fallen heavily on Lord Treherne, but for two years my +sister lived to bless and comfort him; then it became evident to all +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_810" id="Page_810">[Pg 810]</a></span> the mother was about to rejoin her child in the mansions of the +blessed. She expressed a wish that Mr. Dacre should read the funeral +service over her, and he administered the last blessed consolations to +her departing spirit; no remnants of mortal weakness lurked in his heart +as he stood beside the dying, for he knew that in this world they were +as pilgrims and strangers, but in that to which Gabrielle was hastening +they would be reunited in glory—no more partings, no more tears. She +died calmly, with her hands clasped in Lord Treherne's and mine; while +Mr. Dacre knelt absorbed in prayer she passed away, and we looked on +each other in speechless sorrow, and then on what had been my young and +beautiful sister.</p> + +<p>Of my own deep grief and lacerated heart I will not speak; Lord Treherne +required all my care and attention, nor would he hear of my quitting +him—indeed, he could scarcely bear me to be out of his sight; the heavy +infirmities of advanced years had suddenly increased since his double +bereavement, and I felt very grateful that to my humble efforts he owed +any glimpse of sunshine.</p> + +<p>He was a severe bodily sufferer for many years, but affliction was not +sent in vain, for Lord Treherne became perfectly prepared for the awful +change awaiting him, trusting in His merits alone. Those were blessed +hours when Mr. Dacre spoke to him of the dear departed, who had only +journeyed on before—of God's ways in bringing us to Himself, chastening +pride and self-reliance, and tolerating no idol worship. Lord Treherne, +with lavish generosity, made an ample provision for his "wise little +Ruth," as he ever smilingly called me to the last. He died peacefully, +and the Abbey came into the possession of a distant branch of the +Treherne family.</p> + +<p>Wood End Cottage was vacant, and I purchased it; and assisted by Mr. +Dacre in the labor of love for our blessed Master, life has not passed +idly, and, I humbly trust, not entirely without being of use in my +generation. Previous to his decease, Lord Treherne caused a splendid +monument to be erected in Wood End church to the memory of Gabrielle, +and Ella his adopted daughter: the spotless marble is exquisitely +wrought, the mother and child reposing side-by-side as if asleep, with +their hands meekly folded on their breasts, and their eyes closed, as if +weary—weary.</p> + +<p>The last fading hues of sunset, which so often rested on Gabrielle's +form as she knelt in her widowhood beneath the monumental glories of the +Trehernes, now illumines the sculptured stone, which mysteriously hints +of hidden things—corruption and the worm.</p> + +<p>I love to kneel in the house of prayer where Gabrielle knelt: dim voices +haunt me from the past: my place is prepared among the green grass +mounds, for no tablet or record shall mark the spot where "Ruth the +cripple" reposes, sweetly slumbering with the sod on her bosom, "dust to +dust."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_WASTE_OF_WAR" id="THE_WASTE_OF_WAR"></a>THE WASTE OF WAR.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Give me the gold that war has cost,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Before this peace-expanding day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wasted skill, the labor lost—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The mental treasure thrown away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I will buy each rood of soil<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In every yet discovered land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where hunters roam, where peasants toil,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where many-peopled cities stand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I'll clothe each shivering wretch on earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In needful; nay, in brave attire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vesture befitting banquet mirth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which kings might envy and admire.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In every vale, on every plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A school shall glad the gazer's sight;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where every poor man's child may gain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pure knowledge, free as air and light.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I'll build asylums for the poor,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By age or ailment made forlorn:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And none shall thrust them from the door,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or sting with looks and words of scorn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll link each alien hemisphere;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Help honest men to conquer wrong;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Art, Science, Labor, nerve and cheer;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Reward the Poet for his song.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In every crowded town shall rise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Halls Academic, amply graced;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Ignorance may soon be wise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Coarseness learn both art and taste<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To every province shall belong<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Collegiate structures, and not few—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fill'd with a truth-exploring throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And teachers of the good and true.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In every free and peopled clime<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A vast Walhalla hall shall stand;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A marble edifice sublime,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the illustrious of the land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Pantheon for the <i>truly</i> great,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wise, beneficent, and just;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A place of wide and lofty state<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To honor or to hold their dust.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A temple to attract and teach<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall lift its spire on every hill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where pious men shall feel and preach<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Peace, mercy, tolerance, good-will;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Music of bells on Sabbath days,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Round the whole earth shall gladly rise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one great Christian song of praise<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Stream sweetly upward to the skies!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_NIGHT_WITH_AN_EARTHQUAKE6" id="A_NIGHT_WITH_AN_EARTHQUAKE6"></a>A NIGHT WITH AN EARTHQUAKE.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></h2> + + +<p>The sound had not quite died away, when the feet I stood on seemed +suddenly seized with the cramp. Cup and coffee-pot dropped as dead from +Don Marzio's hand as the ball from St. Francis's palm. There was a rush +as if of many waters, and for about ten seconds my head was overwhelmed +by awful dizziness, which numbed and paralyzed all sensation. Don +Marzio, in form an athlete, in heart a lion, but a man of sudden, +sanguine temperament,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_811" id="Page_811">[Pg 811]</a></span> bustled up and darted out of the room with the +ease of a man never burdened with a wife, with kith or kin. Donna Betta, +a portly matron, also rose instinctively; but I—I never could account +for the odd freak—laid hold of her arm, bidding her stay. The roar of +eight hundred houses—or how many more can there be in Aquila?—all +reeling and quaking, the yells of ten thousand voices in sudden agony, +had wholly subsided ere I allowed the poor woman calmly and majestically +to waddle up to her good man in the garden. That, I suppose, was my +notion of an orderly retreat. Rosalbina had flown from a window into the +lawn, like a bird. Thank God, we found ourselves all in the open air +under the broad canopy of heaven. We began to count heads. Yes, there we +all stood—cook, laundry-maid, dairy-maids, stable-boys, all as obedient +to the awful summons as the best disciplined troops at the first roll of +the drum.</p> + +<p>It was February, as I have twice observed; and we were in the heart of +the highest Apennines. The day was rather fine, but pinching cold; and +when the fever of the first terror abated, the lady and young lady began +to shiver in every limb. No one dared to break silence; but Don Marzio's +eye wandered significantly enough from one to another countenance in +that awe-stricken group. There was no mistaking his appeal. Yet, one +after another, his menials and laborers returned his gaze with +well-acted perplexity. No one so dull of apprehension as those who will +not understand. My good friends, I was three-and-twenty. I had had my +trials, and could boast of pretty narrow escapes. I may have been +reckless, perhaps, in my day. I smiled dimly, nodded to the old +gentleman, clapped my hands cheerily, and the next moment was once more +where no man in Aquila would at that moment have liked to be for the +world—under a roof. I made a huge armful of cloaks and blankets, +snapped up every rag with all the haste of a marauding party, and moved +toward the door, tottering under the encumbrance. But now the dreadful +crisis was at hand.</p> + +<p>Earthquakes, it is well known, proceed by action and re-action. The +second shock, I was aware, must be imminent. I had just touched the +threshold, and stood under the porch, when that curious spasmodic +sensation once more stiffened every muscle in my limbs. Presently I felt +myself lifted up from the ground. I was now under the portico, and was +hurled against the pillar on my right; the rebound again drove me to the +post on the opposite side; and after being thus repeatedly tossed and +buffeted from right to left like a shuttlecock, I was thrust down, +outward, on the ground on my head, with all that bundle of rags, having +tumbled head-long the whole range of the four marble steps of entrance. +The harm, however, was not so great as the fright; and, thanks to my +gallant devotion, the whole party were wrapped and blanketed, till they +looked like a party of wild Indians; we stood now on comparatively firm +ground, and had leisure to look about us. Don Marzio's garden was open +and spacious, being bounded on three sides by the half-crumbling wall of +the town. On the fourth side was the house—a good, substantial fabric, +but now miserably shaky and rickety. Close by the house was the chapel +of the Ursuline convent, and above that its slender spire rose chaste +and stainless, "pointing the way to heaven." Any rational being might +have deemed himself sufficiently removed from brick and mortar, and, in +so far, out of harm's way. Not so Don Marzio. He pointed to the shadow +of that spire, which, in the pale wintry sunset, stretched all the way +across his garden, and by a strange perversion of judgment, he contended +that so far as the shadow extended, there might also the body that cast +it reach in its fall, for fall it obviously must; and as the danger was +pressing, he deemed it unwise to discuss which of the four cardinal +points the tower might feel a leaning toward, whenever, under the +impulse of the subterranean scourge, it would "look around and choose +its ground." Don Marzio was gifted with animal courage, and even nerve, +proportionate to the might of his stalwart frame. But then his was +merely a combative spirit. Thews and sinews were of no avail in the +case. The garden was no breathing ground for him, and he resolved upon +prompt emigration.</p> + +<p>The people of Aquila, as indeed you may well know, of most towns in +Southern Italy, have the habit of—consequently a peculiar talent +for—earthquakes. They know how to deal with them, and are seldom caught +unprepared. Two hundred yards outside the town gate, there is half a +square mile of table-land on the summit of a hill—a market-place in +days of ease, a harbor of refuge in the urgency of peril. From the first +dropping of the earth-ball from the hand of their guardian saint, the +most far-sighted among the inhabitants had been busy pitching their +tents. The whole population—those, that is, who had escaped unscathed +by flying tiles and chimney-pots—were now swarming there, pulling, +pushing, hauling, and hammering away for very life: with women fainting, +children screeching, Capuchins preaching. It was like a little rehearsal +of doomsday. Don Marzio, a prudent housekeeper, had the latch-key of a +private door at the back of the garden. He threw it open—not without a +misgiving at the moss-grown wall overhead. That night the very stars did +not seem to him sufficiently firm-nailed to the firmament! His family +and dependents trooped after him, eager to follow. Rosalbina looked +back—at one who was left behind. Don Marzio felt he owed me at least +one word of leave-taking. He hemmed twice, came back two steps, and gave +me a feverish shake of the hand.</p> + +<p>"I am heartily sorry for you, my boy," he cried. "A <i>fuoruscito</i>, as I +may say, a bird-in-the-bush—you dare not show your nose outside the +door. You would not compromise yourself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_812" id="Page_812">[Pg 812]</a></span> alone, you know, but all of us +and our friends; we must leave you—safe enough here, I dare say," with +a stolen glance at the Ursuline spire, "but—you see—imperative +duties—head of a family—take care of the females—and so, God bless +you!"</p> + +<p>With this he left me there, under the deadly shade of the +steeple—deadlier to him than the upas-tree; ordered his little +household band out, and away they filed, one by one, the head of the +family manfully closing the rear....</p> + +<p>I was alone—alone with the earthquake.... There was a wood-cellar in +one of the out-houses, access to which was easy and safe. One of my +host's domestics had slipped flint and steel into my hands. In less than +half-an-hour's time, a cheerful fire was crackling before me. I drew +forth an old lumbering arm-chair from the wood-cellar, together with my +provision of fuel. I shrouded myself in the ample folds of one of Don +Marzio's riding-cloaks; I sat with folded arms, my eyes riveted on the +rising blaze, summoning all my spirits round my heart, and bidding it to +bear up. The sun had long set, and the last gleam of a sickly twilight +rapidly faded. A keen, damp, north-east wind swept over the earth; thin, +black, ragged clouds flitted before it, like uneasy ghosts. A stray star +twinkled here and there in the firmament, and the sickle-shaped moon +hung in the west. But the light of those pale luminaries was wan and +fitful. They seemed to be aware of the hopelessness of their struggle, +and to mourn in anticipation of the moment when they should faint in +fight, and unrelieved darkness should lord it over the fields of the +heavens.</p> + +<p>The town of Aquila, or the Eagle, as the natives name it, is perched, +eagle-like, on the brow of an abrupt cliff in the bosom of the loftiest +Apennines. Monte Reale, Monte Velino, and the giant of the whole chain, +the "Gran Sasso d'Italia," look down upon it from their exalted thrones. +Within the shelter of that massive armor, the town might well seem +invulnerable to time and man. But now, as I gazed despondingly round, +the very hills everlasting seemed rocking from their foundation, and +their crests nodding to destruction. Which of those mighty peaks was to +open the fire of hell's artillery upon us? Was not Etna once as still +and dark as yonder great rock? and yet it now glares by night with its +ominous beacon, and cities and kingdoms have been swept away at its +base.</p> + +<p>Two hours passed away in gloomy meditation. The whole town was a desert. +The camp meeting of the unhoused Aquilani was held somewhere in the +distance: its confused murmur reached me not. Only my neighbors, the +Ursuline nuns, were up and awake. With shrinking delicacy, dreading the +look and touch of the profane even more than the walls of their +prison-house, they had stood their ground with the heroism of true +faith, and reared their temporary asylum under their vine-canopied +bowers, within the shade of the cloisters. A high garden-wall alone +separated me from the holy virgins. They were watching and kneeling. +Every note from their silver voices sank deep in my heart, and impressed +me with something of that pious confidence, of that imploring fervor, +with which they addressed their guardian angels and saints. Two hours +had passed. The awfulness of prevailing tranquillity, the genial warmth +of my fire, and the sweet monotony of that low, mournful chanting, were +by degrees gliding into my troubled senses, and lulling them into a +treacherous security. "Just so," I reasoned, "shock and countershock. +The terrible scourge has by this time exhausted its strength. It was +only a farce, after all. Much ado about nothing. The people of this town +have become so familiar with the earthquake that they make a carnival of +it. By this time they are perhaps feasting and rioting under their +booths. Ho! am I the only craven here? And had I not my desire? Am I not +now on speaking terms with an earthquake?"</p> + +<p>Again my words conjured up the waking enemy. A low, hollow, rumbling +noise, as if from many hundred miles' distance, was heard coming rapidly +onward along the whole line of the Apennines. It reached us, it seemed +to stop underneath our feet, and suddenly changing its horizontal for a +vertical direction, it burst upward. The whole earth heaved with a +sudden pang; it then gave a backward bound, even as a vessel shipping a +sea. The motion then became undulatory, and spread far and wide as the +report of a cannon, awakening every echo in the mountain. There was a +rattle and clatter in the town, as if of a thousand wagons shooting down +paving stones. The Ursuline steeple waved in the air like a reed vexed +by the blast. The chair I stood on was all but capsized, and the fire at +my feet was overthrown. The very vault of heaven swung to and fro, +ebbing and heaving with the general convulsion. The doleful psalmody in +the neighboring ground broke abruptly. The chorus of many feminine +voices sent forth but one rending shriek. The clamor of thousands of the +town-folk from their encampment gave its wakeful response. Then the dead +silence of consternation ensued. I picked up every stick and brand that +had been scattered about, steadied myself in my chair, and hung down my +head. "These black hounds," I mused, "hunt in couples. Now for the +repercussion."</p> + +<p>I had not many minutes to wait. Again the iron-hoofed steeds and heavy +wheels of the state chariot of the prince of darkness were heard +tramping and rattling in their course. Once more the subterranean +avalanche gathered and burst. Once more the ground beneath throbbed and +heaved as if with rending travail. Once more heaven and earth seemed to +yearn to each other; and the embers of my watch-fire were cast upward +and strewn asunder. It was an awful long winter night. The same sable +clouds rioting in the sky, the same cruel wind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_813" id="Page_813">[Pg 813]</a></span> moaning angrily through +the chinks and crevices of many a shattered edifice. Solitude, the +chillness of night, and the vagueness, even more than the +inevitableness, of the danger, wrought fearfully on my exhausted frame. +Stupor and lethargy soon followed these brief moments of speechless +excitement. Bewildered imagination peopled the air with vague, +unutterable terrors. Legions of phantoms sported on those misshapen +clouds. The clash of a thousand swords was borne on the wind. Tongues of +living flame danced and quivered in every direction. The firmament +seemed all burning with them. I saw myself alone, helpless, hopeless, +the miserable butt of all the rage of warring elements. It was an +uncomfortable night. Ten and twelve times was the dreadful visitation +reproduced between sunset and sunrise, and every shock found me more +utterly unnerved; and the sullen, silent resignation with which I +recomposed and trimmed my fire had something in it consummately abject, +by the side of the doleful accents with which the poor half-hoarse nuns, +my neighbors, called on their blessed Virgin for protection.</p> + +<p>The breaking morn found me utterly prostrated; and when Don Marzio's +servants had so far recovered from their panic as to intrude upon my +solitude, and offer their services for the erection of my tent in the +garden, I had hardly breath enough left to welcome them. Under that tent +I passed days and nights during all the remainder of February. The +shocks, though diminished in strength, almost nightly roused us from our +rest. But the people of Aquila soon learned to despise them. By one, by +two, by three they sought the threshold of their dismantled homes. Last +of all, Don Marzio folded his tent. His fears having, finally, so far +given way, as to allow him to think of something beside himself, he +exerted himself to free me from confinement. He furnished me with +faithful guides, by whose aid I reached the sea-coast. Here a Maltese +vessel was waiting to waft me to a land of freedom and security. I can +tell you, my friends, that from that time I was cured forever of all +curiosity about earthquakes.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> From a work entitled "Scenes of Italian Life," by L. +Mariotti, just published in London.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_PLEA_FOR_BRITISH_REPTILES" id="A_PLEA_FOR_BRITISH_REPTILES"></a>A PLEA FOR BRITISH REPTILES.</h2> + + +<p>What the flourishing tradesman writes with pride over his shop, we might +in most cases write over our storehouse of antipathies—established in +1720, or 1751. For what good reason we, in 1851, should shudder at the +contact of a spider, or loathe toads, it would be hard to say. Our +forefathers in their ignorance did certainly traduce the characters of +many innocent and interesting animals, and many of us now believe some +portions of their scandal. To be a reptile, for example, is perhaps the +greatest disgrace that can attach to any animal in our eyes. Reptile +passes for about the worst name you can call a man. This is unjust—at +any rate, in England. We have no thought of patting crocodiles under the +chin, or of embracing boa constrictors; but for our English reptiles we +claim good words and good-will. We beg to introduce here, formally, our +unappreciated friends to any of our human friends who may not yet have +cultivated their acquaintance.</p> + +<p>The Common Lizard—surely you know the Common Lizard, if not by his name +of state—<i>Zootoca vivipara</i>. He wears a brilliant jacket, and you have +made friends with him, as a nimble, graceful fellow; as a bit of +midsummer. His very name reminds you of a warm bank in the country, and +a sunny day. Is he a reptile? Certainly; suppose we stop two minutes to +remember what a reptile is.</p> + +<p>The heart of a reptile has three cavities; that is to say, it is not +completely double, like our own. It sends only a small part of the blood +which comes into it for renovation into the air-chambers—the lungs; +while the remainder circulates again unpurified. That change made in the +blood by contact with the oxygen of air, is chiefly the cause of heat in +animals. Aëration, therefore, being in reptiles very partial, the amount +of heat evolved is small; reptiles are therefore called cold-blooded. +They are unable to raise their heat above the temperature of the +surrounding air. Fishes are cold-blooded, through deficient aëration in +another way; in them, all the blood passes from the heart into the place +where air shall come in contact with it; but, then there is a limitation +to the store of air supplied, which can be no more than the quantity +extracted from the water. The temperature of water is maintained below +the surface, and we know how that of the air varies, since a certain +quantity of heat is necessary to the vital processes; reptiles, +depending upon air for heat, hybernate or become torpid when the +temperature falls below a certain point. The rapidity of all their vital +actions will depend upon the state of the thermometer; they digest +faster in the heat of summer than in the milder warmth of spring. Their +secretions (as the poison of the adder) are in hot weather more copious, +and in winter are not formed at all. The reptiles breathe, in all cases, +by lungs; but we must except here those called <i>Batrachians</i>, as frogs +or newts, which breathe, in the first stage, by gills, and afterward by +gills and lungs, or by lungs only. The <i>Batrachians</i>, again, are the +only exception to another great characteristic of the reptile class, the +hard, dry covering of plates or scales. The reptiles all produce their +young from eggs, or are "oviparous"—some hatch their eggs within the +body, and produce their young alive, or are "ovo-viviparous." These are +the characters belonging to all members of the reptile-class. The class +is subdivided into orders somewhat thus: 1. The <i>Testudinate</i> (tortoises +and turtles). 2. <i>Enaliosaurian</i> (all fossil, the <i>Ichthyosaurus</i> and +his like). 3. <i>Loricate</i> (crocodiles and alligators). 4. <i>Saurian</i> +(lizards). 5. <i>Ophidian</i> (serpents); and the last order, <i>Batrachian</i> +(frogs, toads, &c.); which is, by some, parted from the reptiles, and +established as another class.</p> + +<p>Now we have in England no tortoises or turtles,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_814" id="Page_814">[Pg 814]</a></span> and no crocodiles: and +the fossil order is, in all places, extinct; so our reptiles can belong +only to the three last-named orders, Lizards, Serpents, and Batrachians.</p> + +<p>Thus we come back, then, to our Lizards, of which we have among us but +two genera, a single species of each. These are the Common Lizard, well +known to us all, and the Sand Lizard, known only to some of us who +happen to live upon the southern coast. The species of lizard so +extremely common in this country, has not been found in countries +farther south, and is, in fact, peculiar to our latitude. We, therefore, +may love him as a sympathetic friend. The sand lizard (<i>Lacerta agilis</i>) +is found as far north as the country of Linnæus, and as far south as the +northern part of France; in England, however, it seems to be rare, and +has been detected only in Dorsetshire—chiefly near Poole, or in some +other southern counties. It frequents sandy heaths, and is of a brown +sandy color, marked and dotted; but there is a green variety said to be +found among the verdure of marshy places. It is larger than our common +lizard, averaging seven inches long, is very timid, and when made a +prisoner pines and dies. Its female lays eggs, like a turtle, in the +sand, covers them over, and leaves them to be hatched by the summer sun. +This kind of lizard, therefore, is oviparous. The eggs of our common +lizard are hatched also by the sun; for, reptiles having no heat of +their own, can not provide that which is necessary to the development of +an embryo; but in this case the sun hatches them within the parent's +body. The female of this lizard stretches herself out upon a sunny bank, +and lets the bright rays fall upon her body while she lies inactive. At +this period, she will not move for any thing less than a real cause of +alarm. She is not sunning herself lazily, however, but fulfilling an +ordinance of God. The eggs break as the young lizards—three to six—are +born. This lizard is, therefore, ovo-viviparous. The little ones begin +at once to run about, and soon dart after insects, their proper food; +but they accompany the mother with some instinct of affection for a +little time. These lizards are very various in size and color; +difference in these respects does not denote difference in kind. The +little scales which cover them are arranged in a peculiar manner on the +head, under the neck, &c.; and some differences of arrangement, in such +respects, are characteristic. The best distinction between the only two +species of lizard known in this country has been pointed out by Mr. +Bell. In the hind legs, under each thigh, there is a row of openings, +each opening upon a single scale. In sand lizards, the opening is +obviously smaller than the scale; in our common lizards, the opening is +so comparatively large that the scale seems to be the mere edge of a +tube around it.</p> + +<p>These are our lizards, then, our Saurian reptiles; and they do not merit +any hate. Suffer an introduction now to English Snakes.</p> + +<p>The first snake, the Blindworm, is not a snake, nor yet a worm. It is a +half-way animal—between a lizard and a snake. The lizards shade off so +insensibly into the snakes, even the boa preserving rudimentary hind +legs, that some naturalists counsel their union into a single class of +Squamate, or scaled reptiles. By a milder process of arrangement, all +those animals which dwell upon the frontier ground between Lizards or +Saurians, and Ophidians or Snakes, are to be called Saurophidian. The +blindworm then, is Saurophidian; it is quite as much a lizard as a +snake. Snakes have the bones of their head all movable, so that their +jaws can be dilated, until, like carpet-bags, they swallow any thing. +The lizard has its jaws fixed; so has the blindworm. Snakes have a long +tongue, split for some distance, and made double-forked; the blindworm's +tongue has nothing but a little notch upon the tip. It has a smooth +round muzzle, with which it can easily wind its way under dry soil to +hybernate; or else it takes a winter nap in any large heap of dead +leaves. It comes out early in the spring; for it can bear more cold than +reptiles generally like, and it is found all over Europe, from Sweden to +the south of Italy. It feeds upon worms, slugs, and insects. Like the +snakes, it gets a new coat as it grows, and takes the old one off, by +hooking it to some fixed point, and crawling from it, so that the cast +skin is dragged backward, and turned inside out. The slow-worm is of a +dark gray color, silvery, and about a foot long on the average. It is +ovo-viviparous. It is extremely gentle; very rarely thinks of biting +those who handle it, and, when it does bite, inflicts no wound with its +little teeth. Of course it has no fangs and is not poisonous. Shrinking +with fear when taken, it contracts its body and so stiffens it that it +will break if we strike or bend it. Therefore it bears the name Linnæus +gave it—<i>Anguis fragilis</i>.</p> + +<p>We have found nothing yet to shudder at among our reptiles. "O! but," +you say perhaps, "that was not a real snake." Well, here is our real +snake. <i>Natrix torquata</i>—our common Ringed Snake; he is very common. He +may be three or four feet long, and brownish-gray above, with a green +tinge, yellow marks upon the neck, and rows of black spots down the back +and sides, alternating, like London lamp-posts, with each other. You +will find him any where in England, almost any where in Europe, below +the latitude of Scotland. You will find him most frequently in a moist +place, or near water, for he is rather proud of himself as a swimmer. He +has a handsome coat, and gets a new one two, three, four, or five times +in a season, if his growth require it. When the new coat is quite hard +and fit for use under the old, he strips the old one off among the +thorn-bushes. He and his lady hybernate. The lady leaves her sixteen or +twenty eggs, all glued together, for the sun to vivify. The snake's +tongue, as we have said, is forked, the jaws dilatable; he prefers frogs +for his dinner, but is satisfied with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_815" id="Page_815">[Pg 815]</a></span> mice, or little birds, or +lizards. He swallows his prey whole. Catching it first, as Mrs. Glasse +would say, between his teeth, which are in double rows upon each jaw, +and directed backward that they may act more effectually, he first +brings the victim to a suitable position—head first he prefers, then, +leaving one set of teeth, say the lower, fixed, he advances the upper +jaw, fixes its teeth into the skin, and leaves them there while he moves +forward, the lower jaw, and so continues till the bird or frog is worked +into his throat; it is then swallowed by the agency of other muscles. +This power of moving each jaw freely and in independence of the other, +is peculiar to Ophidian reptiles. The frog may reach the stomach both +alive and active, so that, if afterward, the snake gapes, as he is apt +to do, a frog has been seen to leap out again. The processes of life are +so slow in reptiles, that one meal will not be digested by the snake for +many days. He is unable to digest vegetable matter. Our snake is very +harmless, and if kept and fed, will quickly learn to recognize its +patron, will feed out of his hand, and nestle up his sleeve; but he +shows a dread of strangers.</p> + +<p>We have Adders? Yes, we have a Viper—<i>Pelias Berus</i> is the name he goes +by, and his fangs are undeniable. This is the only native reptile that +can, in any degree whatever, hurt a man. It is common in England, and, +unlike the snake, prefers a dry place to a moist one. "Adder" and +"viper" are two words applied to the same thing—adder being derived +from the Saxon word for "nether," and viper from viviper; because this +reptile, like our common lizard, hatches her eggs within the body, or is +viviparous. Our viper is found all over Europe; not in Ireland. As for +Ireland, it is an old boast with the Irish that Saint Patrick banned +away all reptiles. The paucity of reptiles in Ireland is remarkable, but +they are not altogether absent. Our common lizard has a large Irish +connection, and frogs were introduced into Ireland years ago. Their +spawn was taken over, put into water, throve, and thereafter frogs have +multiplied. An attempt was also made to introduce our common snake, but +the country-people, with great horror, killed the inlopers; a reward +even was offered for one that was known to remain uncaptured. Ireland is +free from adders.</p> + +<p>The most ready distinction between a common snake and an adder, to +unfamiliar eyes, is founded on the difference of marking. While the +snake has separate alternate spots, the adder has, down its back, a +chain of dark spots, irregularly square, and joined to one another. +Adders are generally brown, but differ very much in color. They have on +their upper jaw, instead of their lower, a row of teeth, the well-known +fangs. These are long, curved teeth, fixed into a movable piece of bone, +and hollow. The hollow is not made out of the substance of the tooth; it +is as if a broad flat tooth had been bent round upon itself to form a +tube. The tube is open below and behind, in the curve, by a little +slit. Above, it is open, and rests upon a tiny bag connected with a +gland that corresponds to a gland in man for the secretion of saliva; +but which, in the present case, secretes a poison. The fang, when out of +use, is bent and hidden in a fleshy case; in feeding, it is rarely used. +The viper catches for himself his birds or mice, after the manner of a +harmless serpent. But, when hurt or angered, he throws back his neck, +drops his fang ready for service, bites, and withdraws his head +immediately. The fang in penetrating, of necessity, was pressed upon the +little bag of poison at its root, and forced a drop along the tube into +the wound. After a few bites, the bag becomes exhausted, and the adder +must wait for a fresh secretion. The poison has no taste or smell, and +may be swallowed with impunity, if there be no raw surface in the mouth, +or sore upon the throat, or in the stomach. It is only through a wound +that it can act like poison. The bite of an adder in this country never +yet proved fatal; but, according to the health of the person bitten, and +according to the greater or less heat of the weather (for in very hot +weather a more active poison is secreted), the wound made will be more +or less severe. It is advisable to get out of an adder's way.</p> + +<p>All the remaining reptiles in this country are two species of Frog, two +species of Toad, and four Newts. They are not only most absolutely +harmless, but, the frogs, at any rate, and toads, are ministers to man; +and they belong to a class of animals more interesting than any other, +perhaps, in the whole range of natural history. We are all well +acquainted with the common frog, whose grander name is <i>Rana +temporaria.</i> We see it—and it is to be feared some of us kill it—in +our gardens, among strawberry-beds and damp vegetation. But, whereas +frogs feed upon those slugs and insects which are in the habit of +pasturing upon our plants, and are themselves indebted to us for not a +grain of vegetable matter, we ought by all means to be grateful to them. +So industrious are frogs in slug-hunting, that it would be quite worth +while to introduce them as sub-gardeners upon our flower-beds. In +catching insects, the frog suddenly darts out his tongue, which, at the +hinder part, is loose, and covered with a gummy matter. The insect is +caught, and the tongue returned with wonderful rapidity. The frog, when +it is first hatched, has the constitution of a fish: it is purely +aquatic; has a fish's heart, a fish's circulation, and a fish's gills. +The tadpole swims as a fish does—by the movement, side-ways, of its +tail. For the unassisted eye, and still more for the microscope, what +spectacle can be more marvelous than the gradual process of change by +which this tiny fish becomes a reptile? Legs bud; the fish-like gills +dwindle by a vital process of absorption; the fish-like air-bladder +becomes transmuted, as by a miracle, into the celled structure of lungs; +the tail grows daily shorter, not broken off, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_816" id="Page_816">[Pg 816]</a></span> absorbed; the heart +adds to its cells; the fish becomes a reptile as the tadpole changes to +a frog. The same process we observe in toads; and it is also the same in +our newts, excepting that in newts the tail remains. There is no +parallel in nature to this marvelous and instructive metamorphosis.</p> + +<p>The perfectly-formed frog does not live of necessity in water, or near +it, but requires damp air occasionally. It breathes by lungs, as we have +said; but, as it has no ribs, there is no chest to heave mechanically. +The frog's air has to be swallowed, to be gulped down into the lungs. +That is not possible unless the mouth is shut; and, therefore, as we +might suffocate a man by keeping his mouth shut, so we should suffocate +a frog by keeping his mouth open. Yet we should not suffocate him +instantly; we should disable the lungs; but, in this class of animals +the whole skin is a breathing surface. A frog has lived a month after +his lungs had been extracted. All respiratory surfaces, like the inside +of our own lungs, can act only when they are relaxed and moist. That is +the reason why a frog's skin is always moist, and why a frog requires +moist air. It does not need this constantly, because, when moisture is +abundant, there is a bag in which it stores up superfluity of water, to +be used in any day of need. It is this water—pure and clear—which +frogs or toads expel when they are alarmed by being handled. Is not +enough said here, to rescue frogs from our contempt? We may add, that +they are capable of understanding kindness—can be tamed. Frogs +hybernate under the mud of ponds, where they lie close together, in a +stratum, till the spring awakens them to a renewal of their lives and +loves. They lay a vast number of eggs, at the bottom of the water; and +the multitudes of young frogs that swarm upon the shore when their +transformation is; complete, has given rise to many legends of a shower +of frogs. These multitudes provide food for many animals, serpents, as +we have seen, birds, fish. And the survivors are our friends.</p> + +<p>The other species of frog found in this country is the Edible Frog +(<i>Rana esculenta</i>). It has for a long time had a colony in Foulmire Fen, +in Cambridgeshire, although properly belonging to a continental race. It +differs from our common frog in wanting a dark mark that runs from eye +to shoulder, and in having, instead of it, a light mark—a streak—from +head to tail along the centre of the back. The male is a more portentous +croaker than our own familiar musicians, by virtue of an air-bladder on +each cheek, into which air is forced, and in which it vibrates +powerfully during the act of croaking. This kind of frog is always in or +near the water, and being very timid, plunges out of sight if any one +approaches.</p> + +<p>These are our frogs; as for our two Toads, they are by no means less +innocent. They are the Common Toad, by style and title <i>Bufo vulgaris,</i> +and a variety of the Natter Jack Toad, to be found on Blackheath, and in +many places about London, and elsewhere. The toad undergoes +transformations like the frog. It is slower in its movements, and less +handsome in appearance: similar in structure. There is a somewhat +unpleasant secretion from its skin, a product of respiration. There is +nothing about it in the faintest degree poisonous. It is remarkably +sensible of kindness; more so than the frog. Examples of tame toads are +not uncommon. Stories are told of the discovery of toads alive, in +blocks of marble, where no air could be; but, there has been difficulty, +hitherto, in finding one such example free from the possibility of +error. It may be found, however, that toads can remain for a series of +years torpid. It has been proved that snails, after apparent death of +fifteen years, have become active on applying moisture. A proof equally +distinct is at present wanting in the case of toads. The toad, like +other reptiles, will occasionally cast its skin. The old skin splits +along the back, and gradually parts, until it comes off on each side, +with a little muscular exertion on the toad's part. Then, having rolled +his jacket up into a ball, he eats it!</p> + +<p>No reptiles remain now to be mentioned, but four species of Newt. These +little creatures are abundant in our ponds and ditches, and some are +most falsely accused of being poisonous. They are utterly harmless. +Their transformations, their habits, their changes of skin, their laying +of eggs, can easily be watched by any who will keep them in a miniature +pond. A large pan of water, with sand and stones at the bottom, decayed +vegetable matter for food, and a few living water-plants, extracted from +their native place, will keep a dozen newts in comfort. The water-plants +are needed, because a newt prefers to lay her egg upon a leaf. She +stands upon it, curls it up with her hind legs, and puts an egg between +the fold, where it remains glued. These being our reptiles, are they +proper objects of abhorrence? At this season they are all finishing +their winter nap. In a few weeks they will come among us, and then, when</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"the songs, the stirring air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The life re-orient out of dust,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Cry through the sense to hearten trust<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In that which made the world so fair"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>may we not permit our hearts to be admonished by the reptiles also?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><a name="From_Leigh_Hunts_Journal" id="From_Leigh_Hunts_Journal"></a>[From Leigh Hunt's Journal.]</h4> + +<h2>A DREAM, AND THE INTERPRETATION THEREOF.</h2> + + +<p>They stood by her bedside—the father and mother of the maiden—and +watched her slumbers. For she had returned weary from Seville, after a +long absence from this her Lisbon home. They had not gazed on that fair +innocent face for many a month past; and <i>they</i>, too, smiled, and +pressed each the other's hand as they marked a radiant smile playing +round the mouth of the sleeper. It was a smile brimful of happiness—the +welling-up of a heart at perfect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_817" id="Page_817">[Pg 817]</a></span> peace. And it brought gladness to the +hearts of the parents, who-would fain have kissed the cheek of their +gentle girl, but refrained, lest it should break the spell—lest even a +father's and a mother's kiss should dull the blessedness of the dreamer. +So sleep on, Luise! and smile ever as thou sleepest—though it be the +sleep of death.</p> + +<p>These people were poor in worldly goods, but rich in the things of home +and heart. Luise, the first-born, had been staying with a Spanish +relative, who had taken charge of her education, and had now come back +to her native Lisbon "for good." Three younger children there +were—blithe, affectionate prattlers—whose glee at the recovery of +Luise had been so exuberant, so boisterous, that they were now sent to +play in the neighboring vineyards, that they might not disturb their +tired sister's repose.</p> + +<p>Long played that smile upon her face; and never were the two gazers +tired of gazing, and of smiling as they gazed. Luise, they thought, had +seemed a little sad as well as weary when she alighted at the dear +familiar door. But this smile was so full of joy unspeakable, so fraught +with beatific meaning, so reflective of beatific vision, that it laughed +their fears away, and spoke volumes where the seeming sorrow had not +spoken even words.</p> + +<p>The shrill song of a mule-driver passing by the window aroused the +sleeper. The smile vanished, and as she started up and looked hastily +and inquiringly around, a shade of mingled disappointment and +bewilderment gathered darkly on her brow.</p> + +<p>"You must turn and go to sleep again, my child," whispered the mother. +"I wish Pedro were not so proud of his voice, and then you might still +be dreaming of pleasant things."</p> + +<p>"I <i>was</i> dreaming, then?" said Luise, somewhat sadly. "I thought it was +real, and it made me <i>so</i> happy! Ah, if I could dream it again, and +again—three times running, you know—till it became true!"</p> + +<p>"What was it, Luise?" asked her father. "We must know what merry thought +made you so joyful. It will be a dream worth knowing, and, therefore, +worth telling."</p> + +<p>"Not at present," interrupted his wife. "Let her get some more rest; and +then, when she is thoroughly refreshed after such a tedious journey, she +will make us all happy with realities as well as dreams."</p> + +<p>"And are dreams never realities?" asked the girl, with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Child! child! if we're going to be philosophical, and all that, we +shall never get you to sleep again. Don't talk any more, my Luise; but +close your eyes, and see if <i>you</i> can't realize a dream; that will be +the best answer to your question."</p> + +<p>"I can't go to sleep again," she answered. "See, I'm quite awake, and +it's no use trying. And with the sun so high too! No; you shall send me +to bed an hour or two earlier to-night, and to-morrow morning will find +me as brisk as a bee. I've so much to hear, and so much to tell, that +to sleep again before dusk is out of the question."</p> + +<p>So she arose; and they went all three and sat down in the little garden. +Luise eyed eagerly every flower and every fruit-tree, and had something +to say about every change since she had been there last. But ever and +anon she would look earnestly into the faces of her parents—and never +without something like a tear in her large lustrous eyes.</p> + +<p>Of course, they questioned her upon this. And she, who had never +concealed a thought or a wish from <i>them</i>, told them in her own frank, +artless way, why she looked sorrowful when she first saw them, after a +prolonged separation, and how it was that, in her sleep, thoughts had +visited her which were messengers of peace and gladness—whose message +it had saddened her to find, on waking, but airy and unreal.</p> + +<p>At Seville she had been as happy as kindness and care could make one so +far from and so fond of home. But a childish fancy, she said, had +troubled her—childish she knew, and a thing to be ashamed of, but +haunting her none the less—visiting her sleeping and waking hours; a +feeling it was of dejection at the idea of her parents growing old, and +of change and chance breaking up the wonted calm of her little household +circle. That the march of Time should be so irresistible, that his +flight could not be stayed or slackened by pope or kaiser, that his +decrees should be so immutable, his destiny so inexorable, and that the +youngest must soon cease to be young, and the middle-aged become old—or +die! this was the thought that preyed on her very soul. She could not +endure the conviction that her own father must one day walk with a less +elastic step, and smile on her with eyes ever loving indeed, but more +and more dimmed with age—and that her own mother must one day move to +and fro with tottering gait, and speak with the tremulous accents of +those old people who, it seemed to Luise, could never have been children +at all. It was a weak, fantastic thought, this; but she could not master +it, nor escape its presence.</p> + +<p>And when she met them on the threshold of the beloved home—ah, the +absentee's rapid glance saw a wrinkle on her father's cheek that was new +to her, and it saw a clustering of gray hairs on her mother's brow, +where all had been raven black when Luise departed for Seville. Poor +Luise! The sorrows of her young heart were enlarged. Time had not been +absent with the pensive absentee.</p> + +<p>True, he had stolen no charm from her little playmates. Carlos was a +brighter boy than ever; and as for that merry Zingara-like Isabel, and +the yet merrier Manuel—they were not a whit changed, unless for the +better, in look, and manner, and love. Still the too-sensitive Luise was +hurt at the thought that they could not always be children—that Time +was bent on effacing her earliest and dearest impressions, removing from +her home that ideal of family relationship to which all her affections +clung with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_818" id="Page_818">[Pg 818]</a></span> passionate entreaty. Whatever the future might; have to +reveal of enjoyment and endearment, the past could never be lived over +again; the past could never be identified with things present and things +to come; and it was to the past that her heart was betrothed—a past +that had gone the way of all living, and left her as it were widowed and +not to be comforted.</p> + +<p>"And now I will tell you my dream," said poor foolish Luise; "and you +will see why I looked happy in sleeping, and sorry in waking. I thought +I was sitting here in the garden—crying over what I have been telling +you—and suddenly an angel stood before me, and bade me weep not. +Strange as was his form, and sunny in its exceeding brightness, I was +not frightened; for his words were very, very gentle, and his look too +full of kindness to give me one thrill of alarm. And he said that what I +had longed for so much should be granted; that my father and mother +should <i>not</i> grow old, nor Carlos cease to be the boy he now is, nor +Isabel grow up into a sedate woman, nor Manuel lose the gay childishness +for which we all pet him, nor I feel myself forsaking the old familiar +past, and launching into dim troublous seas of perpetual change. He +promised that we should one and all be freed from the great law of time; +and that as we are this day parents and children, so we should continue +forever—while vicissitude and decay must still have sway in the great +world at large. Can you wonder that I smiled? Or that it pained me when +I awoke, and found that the bright angel and the sweet promise were +only—a dream?"...</p> + +<p>There was no lack of conversation that evening in that Lisbon cottage. +All loved Luise; and she, in the midst of so many artless tokens of +affection and of triumph at her return, forgot all the morbid fancies +that had given rise to her dream, and was as light-hearted, and as +light-footed, as in days of yore. All gave themselves up to the reality +of present gladness; every voice trembled with the music of joy; every +eye looked and reflected love. There was no happier homestead that +evening in Lisbon, nor in the world.</p> + +<p>But ere many hours, Lisbon itself was tossing and heaving with the +throes of dissolution. The sea arose tumultuously against the tottering +city; the ground breathed fire, and quaked, and burst asunder; the +houses reeled and fell, and thousands of inhabitants perished in the +fall. Among them, at one dire swoop, the tenants of that happy cottage +home. Together did these mortals put on immortality.</p> + +<p>And thus was the dream fulfilled.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_HOUSEHOLD_OF_SIR_THO_MORE7" id="THE_HOUSEHOLD_OF_SIR_THO_MORE7"></a>THE HOUSEHOLD OF SIR THO<sup>S</sup> MORE.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></h2> + +<h3>LIBELLUS A MARGARETA MORE, QUINDECIM ANNOS NATA, CHELSEIÆ INCEPTVS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nulla dies sine linea."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>This morn, hinting to Bess that she was lacing herselfe too straightlie, +she brisklie replyed, "One w<sup>d</sup> think 'twere as great meritt to have a +thick waiste as to be one of y<sup>e</sup> earlie Christians!"</p> + +<p>These humourous retorts are ever at her tongue's end; and, albeit, as +Jacky one day angrilie remarked, when she had beene teazing him, "Bess, +thy witt is stupidnesse;" yet, for one who talks soe much at random, no +one can be more keene when she chooseth. Father sayd of her, half +fondly, half apologeticallie to Erasmus, "Her wit has a fine subtletie +that eludes you almoste before you have time to recognize it for what it +really is." To which, Erasmus readilie assented, adding, that it had +y<sup>e</sup> rare meritt of playing less on persons than things, and never on +bodilie defects.</p> + +<p>Hum!—I wonder if they ever sayd as much in favour of me. I know, +indeede, Erasmus calls me a forward girl. Alas! that may be taken in two +senses.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Grievous work, overnighte, with y<sup>e</sup> churning. Nought w<sup>d</sup> persuade +Gillian but that y<sup>e</sup> creame was bewitched by Gammer Gurney, who was +dissatisfyde last Friday with her dole, and hobbled away mumping and +cursing. At alle events, y<sup>e</sup> butter w<sup>d</sup> not come; but mother was +resolute not to have soe much goode creame wasted; soe sent for Bess and +me, Daisy and Mercy Giggs, and insisted on our churning in turn till +y<sup>e</sup> butter came, if we sate up all nighte for't. 'Twas a hard saying; +and mighte have hampered her like as Jephtha his rash vow: howbeit, soe +soone as she had left us, we turned it into a frolick, and sang Chevy +Chase from end to end, to beguile time; ne'erthelesse, the butter w<sup>d</sup> +not come; soe then we grew sober, and, at y<sup>e</sup> instance of sweete +Mercy, chaunted y<sup>e</sup> 119th Psalme; and, by the time we had attayned to +"Lucerna pedibus," I hearde y<sup>e</sup> buttermilk separating and splashing in +righte earneste. 'Twas neare midnighte, however; and Daisy had fallen +asleep on y<sup>e</sup> dresser. Gillian will ne'er be convinced but that our +Latin brake the spell.</p> + +<p>Erasmus went to Richmond this morning with Polus (for so he Latinizes +Reginald Pole, after his usual fashion), and some other of his friends. +On his return, he made us laugh at y<sup>e</sup> following. They had clomb y<sup>e</sup> +hill, and were admiring y<sup>e</sup> prospect, when Pole, casting his eyes +aloft, and beginning to make sundrie gesticulations, exclaimed, "What is +it I beholde? May heaven avert y<sup>e</sup> omen!" with such-like exclamations, +which raised y<sup>e</sup> curiositie of alle. "Don't you beholde," cries he, +"that enormous dragon flying through y<sup>e</sup> sky? his horns of fire? his +curly tail?"</p> + +<p>"No," says Erasmus, "nothing like it. The sky is as cleare as unwritten +paper."</p> + +<p>Howbeit, he continued to affirme and to stare, untill at lengthe, one +after another, by dint of strayning theire eyes and theire imaginations, +did admitt, first, that they saw something; nexte, that it mighte be a +dragon; and last, that it was. Of course, on theire passage homeward, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_819" id="Page_819">[Pg 819]</a></span>they c<sup>d</sup> talk of little else—some made serious reflections; others, +philosophical! speculations; and Pole waggishly triumphed in having +beene y<sup>e</sup> firste to discerne the spectacle.</p> + +<p>"And you trulie believe there was a signe in y<sup>e</sup> heavens?" we inquired +of Erasmus.</p> + +<p>"What know I?" returned he, smiling; "you know, Constantine saw a cross. +Why shoulde Polus not see a dragon? We must judge by the event. Perhaps +its mission may be to fly away with <i>him</i>. He swore to y<sup>e</sup> curly +tail."</p> + +<p>How difficulte it is to discerne y<sup>e</sup> supernatural from y<sup>e</sup> +incredible! We laughe at Gillian's faith in our Latin; Erasmus laughs at +Polus his dragon. Have we a righte to believe noughte but what we can +see or prove? Nay, that will never doe. Father says a capacitie for +reasoning increaseth a capacitie for believing. He believes there is +such a thing as witchcraft, though not that poore olde Gammer Gurney is +a witch; he believes that saints can work miracles, though not in alle +y<sup>e</sup> marvels reported of y<sup>e</sup> Canterbury shrine.</p> + +<p>Had I beene justice of y<sup>e</sup> peace, like y<sup>e</sup> king's grandmother, I +w<sup>d</sup> have beene very jealous of accusations of witchcraft; and have +taken infinite payns to sift out y<sup>e</sup> causes of malice, jealousie, &c., +which mighte have wroughte with y<sup>e</sup> poore olde women's enemies. Holie +Writ sayth, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live;" but, questionlesse, +manie have suffered hurte that were noe witches; and for my part, I have +alwaies helde ducking to be a very uncertayn as well as very cruel +teste.</p> + +<p>I cannot helpe smiling, whenever I think of my rencounter with William +this morning. Mr. Gunnell had set me Homer's tiresome list of ships; +and, because of y<sup>e</sup> excessive heate within doors, I took my book into +y<sup>e</sup> nuttery, to be beyonde y<sup>e</sup> wrath of far-darting Phoebus Apollo, +where I clomb into my favourite filbert seat. Anon comes William through +y<sup>e</sup> trees without seeing me; and seats him at the foot of my filbert; +then, out with his tablets, and, in a posture I s<sup>d</sup> have called +studdied, had he known anie one within sighte, falls a poetizing, I +question not. Having noe mind to be interrupted, I lett him be, thinking +he w<sup>d</sup> soon exhauste y<sup>e</sup> vein; but a caterpillar dropping from y<sup>e</sup> +leaves on to my page, I was fayn for mirthe sake, to shake it down on +his tablets. As ill luck w<sup>d</sup> have it, however, y<sup>e</sup> little reptile +onlie fell among his curls; which soe took me at vantage, that I could +not helpe hastilie crying, "I beg your pardon." 'Twas worth a world to +see his start! "What!" cries he, looking up, "are there indeede +Hamadryads?" and would have gallanted a little, but I bade him hold down +his head, while that with a twig I switched off y<sup>e</sup> caterpillar. +Neither could forbeare laughing; and then he sued me to step downe, but +I was minded to abide where I was. Howbeit, after a minute's pause, he +sayd, in a grave, kind tone, "Come, little wife;" and taking mine arm +steadilie in his hand, I lost my balance and was faine to come down +whether or noe. We walked for some time, <i>juxta fluvium</i>; and he talked +not badlie of his travels, inasmuch as I founde there was really more in +him than one w<sup>d</sup> think.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>—Was there ever anie-thing soe perverse, unluckie, and downright +disagreeable? We hurried our afternoone tasks, to goe on y<sup>e</sup> water +with my father; and, meaning to give Mr. Gunnel my Latin traduction, +which is in a book like unto this, I never knew he had my journalle +instead, untill that he burst out a laughing. "Soe this is y<sup>e</sup> famous +<i>libellus</i>," quoth he,... I never waited for another word, but snatcht +it out of his hand; which he, for soe strict a man, bore well enow. I do +not believe he c<sup>d</sup> have read a dozen lines, and they were toward y<sup>e</sup> +beginning; but I s<sup>d</sup> hugelie like to know which dozen lines they were.</p> + +<p>Hum! I have a mind never to write another word. That will be punishing +myselfe, though, insteade of Gunnel. And he bade me not take it to heart +like y<sup>e</sup> late Bishop of Durham, to whom a like accident befel, which +soe annoyed him that he died of chagrin. I will never again, howbeit, +write aniething savouring ever soe little of levitie or absurditie. The +saints keepe me to it! And, to know it from my exercise book, I will +henceforthe bind a blue ribbon round it. Furthermore, I will knit y<sup>e</sup> +sayd ribbon in soe close a knot, that it shall be worth noe one else's +payns to pick it out. Lastlie, and for entire securitie, I will carry +the same in my pouch, which will hold bigger matters than this.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>This daye, at dinner, Mr. Clement took y<sup>e</sup> Pistoller's place at y<sup>e</sup> +reading-desk; and insteade of continuing y<sup>e</sup> subject in hand, read a +paraphrase of y<sup>e</sup> 103rde Psalm; ye faithfullenesse and elegant turne +of which, Erasmus highlie commended, though he took exceptions to y<sup>e</sup> +phrase "renewing thy youth like that of y<sup>e</sup> Phoenix," whose fabulous +story he believed to have been unknown to y<sup>e</sup> Psalmist, and, +therefore, however poeticall, was unfitt to be introduced. A deepe blush +on sweet Mercy's face ledd to y<sup>e</sup> detection of y<sup>e</sup> paraphrast, and +drew on her some deserved commendations. Erasmus, turning to my father, +exclaymed with animation, "I woulde call this house the academy of +Plato, were it not injustice to compare it to a place where the usuall +disputations concerning figures and numbers were onlie oocasionallie +intersperst with disquisitions concerning y<sup>e</sup> moral virtues." Then, in +a graver mood, he added, "One mighte envie you, but that your precious +privileges are bound up with soe paynfulle anxieties. How manie pledges +have you given to fortune!"</p> + +<p>"If my children are to die out of y<sup>e</sup> course of nature, before theire +parents," father firmly replyed, "I w<sup>d</sup> rather they died +well-instructed than ignorant."</p> + +<p>"You remind me," rejoyns Erasmus, "of Phocion; whose wife, when he was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_820" id="Page_820">[Pg 820]</a></span>aboute to drink y<sup>e</sup> fatal cup, exclaimed, 'Ah, my husband! you die +innocent.' 'And woulde you, my wife,' he returned, 'have me die +guilty?'"</p> + +<p>Awhile after, Gonellus askt leave to see Erasmus his signet-ring, which +he handed down to him. In passing it back, William, who was occupyde in +carving a crane, handed it soe negligentlie that it felle to y<sup>e</sup> +ground. I never saw such a face as Erasmus made, when 'twas picked out +from y<sup>e</sup> rushes! And yet, ours are renewed almoste daylie, which manie +think over nice. He took it gingerlie in his faire, womanlike hands, and +washed and wiped it before he put it on; which escaped not my +step-mother's displeased notice. Indeede, these Dutchmen are +scrupulouslie cleane, though mother calls 'em swinish, because they will +eat raw sallets; though, for that matter, father loves cresses and +ramps. She alsoe mislikes Erasmus for eating cheese and butter together +with his manchet; or what he calls <i>boetram</i>; and for being, generallie, +daintie at his sizes, which she sayth is an ill example to soe manie +young people, and becometh not one with soe little money in's purse: +howbeit, I think 'tis not nicetie, but a weak stomach, which makes him +loathe our salt-meat commons from Michaelmasse to Easter, and eschew +fish of y<sup>e</sup> coarser sort. He cannot breakfaste on colde milk like +father, but liketh furmity a little spiced. At dinner, he pecks at, +rather than eats, ruffs and reeves, lapwings, or anie smalle birds it +may chance; but affects sweets and subtilties, and loves a cup of wine +or ale, stirred with rosemary. Father never toucheth the wine-cup but to +grace a guest, and loves water from the spring. We growing girls eat +more than either; and father says he loves to see us slice away at the +cob-loaf; it does him goode. What a kind father he is! I wish my +step-mother were as kind. I hate alle sneaping and snubbing, flowting, +fleering, pinching, nipping, and such-like; it onlie creates resentment +insteade of penitence, and lowers y<sup>e</sup> minde of either partie. Gillian +throws a rolling-pin at y<sup>e</sup> turnspit's head, and we call it low-life; +but we looke for such unmannerlinesse in the kitchen. A whip is onlie +fit for Tisiphone.</p> + +<p>As we rose from table, I noted Argus pearcht on y<sup>e</sup> window-sill, +eagerlie watching for his dinner, which he looketh for as punctuallie as +if he c<sup>d</sup> tell the diall; and to please the good, patient bird, till +the scullion broughte him his mess of garden-stuff, I fetched him some +pulse, which he took from mine hand, taking good heede not to hurt me +with his sharp beak. While I was feeding him, Erasmus came up, and asked +me concerning Mercy Giggs; and I tolde him how that she was a +friendlesse orphan, to whom deare father afforded protection and the run +of y<sup>e</sup> house; and tolde him of her gratitude, her meekness, her +patience, her docilitie, her aptitude for alle goode works and +alms-deeds; and how, in her little chamber, she improved eache spare +moment in y<sup>e</sup> way of studdy and prayer. He repeated "Friendlesse? she +cannot be called friendlesse, who hath More for her protector, and his +children for companions;' and then woulde heare more of her parents' sad +story. Alsoe, would hear somewhat of Rupert Allington, and how father +gained his law-suit. Alsoe, of Daisy, whose name he tooke to be y<sup>e</sup> +true abbreviation for Margaret, but I tolde him how that my step-sister, +and Mercy, and I, being all three of a name, and I being alwaies called +Meg, we had in sport given one the significative of her characteristic +virtue, and the other that of y<sup>e</sup> French Marguerite, which may indeed +be rendered either pearl or daisy. And Chaucer, speaking of our English +daisy, saith</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Si douce est la Marguerite."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Since y<sup>e</sup> little wisdom I have capacitie to acquire, soe oft gives me +y<sup>e</sup> headache to distraction, I marvel not at Jupiter's payn in his +head, when the goddess of wisdom sprang therefrom full growne.</p> + +<p>This morn, to quiet y<sup>e</sup> payn brought on by too busie application, Mr. +Gunnell would have me close my book and ramble forth with Cecy into +y<sup>e</sup> fields. We strolled towards Walham Greene; and she was seeking for +shepherd's purses and shepherd's needles, when she came running back to +me, looking rather pale. I askt what had scared her, and she made answer +that Gammer Gurney was coming along y<sup>e</sup> hedge. I bade her set aside +her fears; and anon we come up with Gammer, who was puling at y<sup>e</sup> +purple blossoms of y<sup>e</sup> deadly night-shade. I sayd, "Gammer, to what +purpose gather that weed? knowest not 'tis evill?"</p> + +<p>She sayth, mumbling, "What God hath created, that call not thou evill."</p> + +<p>"Well, but," quo' I, "'tis poison."</p> + +<p>"Aye, and medicine, too," returns Gammer, "I wonder what we poor souls +might come to, if we tooke nowt for our ails and aches but what we could +buy o' the potticary. We've got noe Dr. Clement, we poor folks, to be +our leech o' the household."</p> + +<p>"But hast no feare," quo' I, "of an overdose?"</p> + +<p>"There's manie a doctor," sayth she, with an unpleasant leer, "that hath +given that at first. In time he gets his hand in; and I've had a plenty +o' practice—thanks to self and sister."</p> + +<p>"I knew not," quoth I, "that thou hadst a sister."</p> + +<p>"How should ye, mistress," returns she, shortlie, "when ye never comes +nigh us? We've grubbed on together this many a year."</p> + +<p>"'Tis soe far," I returned, half ashamed.</p> + +<p>"Why, soe it be," answers Gammer; "far from neighbours, far from church, +and far from priest; howbeit, my old legs carries me to <i>your</i> house o' +Fridays; but I know not whether I shall e'er come agayn—the rye bread +was soe hard last time; it may serve for young teeth, and for them as +has got none; but mine, you see, are onlie on the <i>goe</i>;" and she opened +her mouth with a ghastly smile. "'Tis not," she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_821" id="Page_821">[Pg 821]</a></span> added, "that I'm +ungratefulle; but thou sees, mistress, I really <i>can't</i> eat crusts."</p> + +<p>After a moment, I asked, "Where lies your dwelling?"</p> + +<p>"Out by yonder," quoth she, pointing to a shapeless mass like a huge +bird's nest in y<sup>e</sup> corner of the field. "There bides poor Joan and I. +Wilt come and looke within, mistress, and see how a Christian can die?"</p> + +<p>I mutelie complyed, in spite of Cecy's pulling at my skirts. Arrived at +y<sup>e</sup> wretched abode, which had a hole for its chimney, and another for +door at once and window, I found, sitting in a corner, propped on a heap +of rushes, dried leaves, and olde rags, an aged sick woman, who seemed +to have but a little while to live. A mug of water stoode within her +reach; I saw none other sustenance; but, in her visage, oh, such +peace!... Whispers Gammer with an awfulle look, "She sees 'em now!"</p> + +<p>"Sees who?" quoth I.</p> + +<p>"Why, angels in two long rows, afore y<sup>e</sup> throne of God, a bending of +themselves, this way, with theire faces to th' earth, and arms stretched +out afore 'em."</p> + +<p>"Hath she seen a priest?" quoth I.</p> + +<p>"Lord love ye," returns Gammer, "what coulde a priest doe for her? She's +is in heaven alreadie. I doubte if she can heare me." And then, in a +loud, distinct voyce, quite free from her usuall mumping, she beganne to +recite in <i>English</i>, "Blessed is every one that feareth y^e Lord, and +walketh in his ways," etc.; which y<sup>e</sup> dying woman hearde, although +alreadie speechlesse; and reaching out her feeble arm unto her sister's +neck, she dragged it down till their faces touched; and then, looking +up, pointed at somewhat she aimed to make her see ... and we alle looked +up, but saw noughte. Howbeit, she pointed up three severall times, and +lay, as it were, transfigured before us, a gazing at some transporting +sighte, and ever and anon turning on her sister looks of love; and, the +while we stoode thus agaze, her spiritt passed away without even a +thrill or a shudder. Cecy and I beganne to weepe; and, after a while, +soe did Gammer; then, putting us forthe, she sayd, "Goe, children, goe; +'tis noe goode crying; and yet I'm thankfulle to ye for your teares."</p> + +<p>I sayd, "Is there aught we can doe for thee?"</p> + +<p>She made answer, "Perhaps you can give me tuppence, mistress, to lay on +her poor eyelids and keep 'em down. Bless 'ee, bless 'ee! You're like +y<sup>e</sup> good Samaritan—he pulled out two-pence. And maybe, if I come to +'ee to-morrow, you'll give me a lapfulle of rosemarie, to lay on her +poor corpse.... I know you've plenty. God be with 'ee, children; and be +sure ye mind how a Christian can die."</p> + +<p>Soe we left, and came home sober enow. Cecy sayth, "To die is not soe +fearfulle, Meg, as I thoughte, but shoulde <i>you</i> fancy dying without a +priest? I shoulde not; and yet Gammer sayd she wanted not one. Howbeit, +for certayn, Gammer Gurney is noe witch, or she woulde not so prayse +God."</p> + +<p>To conclude, father, on hearing alle, hath given Gammer more than enow +for her present needes; and Cecy and I are y<sup>e</sup> almoners of his mercy.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p class="right">June 24.</p> + +<p>Yesternighte, being St. John's Eve, we went into town to see y<sup>e</sup> +mustering of y<sup>e</sup> watch. Mr. Rastall had secured us a window opposite +y<sup>e</sup> King's Head, in Chepe, where theire M<sup>ys.</sup> went in state to see +the show. The streets were a marvell to see, being like unto a +continuation of fayr bowres or arbours, garlanded acrosse and over y<sup>e</sup> +doors with greene birch, long fennel, orpin, St. John's wort, white +lilies, and such like; with innumerable candles intersperst, the which, +being lit up as soon as 'twas dusk, made the whole look like enchanted +land; while at y<sup>e</sup> same time, the leaping over bon-fires commenced, +and produced shouts of laughter. The youths woulde have father goe downe +and joyn 'em; Rupert, speciallie, begged him hard, but he put him off +with, "Sirrah, you goosecap, dost think 'twoulde befitt y<sup>e</sup> Judge of +the Sheriffs' Court?"</p> + +<p>At length, to y<sup>e</sup> sound of trumpets, came marching up Cheapside two +thousand of the watch, in white fustian, with the City badge; and seven +hundred cressett bearers, eache with his fellow to supplie him with oyl, +and making, with theire flaring lights, the night as cleare as daye. +After 'em, the morris-dancers and City waites; the Lord Mayor on +horseback, very fine, with his giants and pageants: and the Sheriff and +his watch, and <i>his</i> giants and pageants. The streets very uproarious on +our way back to the barge, but the homeward passage delicious; the +nighte ayre cool; and the stars shining brightly. Father and Erasmus had +some astronomick talk; howbeit, methoughte Erasmus less familiar with +y<sup>e</sup> heavenlie bodies than father is. Afterwards, they spake of y<sup>e</sup> +King, but not over-freelie, by reason of y<sup>e</sup> bargemen overhearing. +Thence, to y<sup>e</sup> ever-vext question of Martin Luther, of whome Erasmus +spake in terms of earneste, yet qualifyde prayse.</p> + +<p>"If Luther be innocent," quoth he, "I woulde not run him down by a +wicked faction; if he be in error, I woulde rather have him reclaymed +than destroyed; for this is most agreeable to the doctrine of our deare +Lord and Master, who woulde not bruise y<sup>e</sup> broken reede, nor quenche +y<sup>e</sup> smoaking flax." And much more to same purpose.</p> + +<p>We younger folks felle to choosing our favourite mottoes and devices, in +which y<sup>e</sup> elders at length joyned us. Mother's was loyal—"Cleave to +y<sup>e</sup> crown though it hang on a bush." Erasmus's pithie—"Festina +lente." William sayd he was indebted for his to St. Paul—"I seeke not +yours, but you." For me, I quoted one I had seene in an olde countrie +church, "Mieux être que paroitre," which pleased father and Erasmus +much.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Poor Erasmus caughte colde on y<sup>e</sup> water last nighte, and keeps house +to-daye, taking warm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_822" id="Page_822">[Pg 822]</a></span> possets. 'Tis my week of housekeeping under +mother's guidance, and I never had more pleasure in it: delighting to +suit his taste in sweete things, which, methinks, all men like. I have +enow of time left for studdy, when alle's done.</p> + +<p>He hathe beene the best part of the morning in our academia, looking +over books and manuscripts, taking notes of some, discoursing with Mr. +Gunnell and others; and, in some sorte, interrupting our morning's work; +but how pleasantlie! Besides, as father sayth, "varietie is not always +interruption. That which occasionallie lets and hinders our accustomed +studdies, may prove to y<sup>e</sup> ingenious noe less profitable than theire +studdies themselves."</p> + +<p>They beganne with discussing y<sup>e</sup> pronunciation of Latin and Greek, on +which Erasmus differeth much from us, though he holds to our +pronunciation of y<sup>e</sup> <i>theta</i>. Thence, to y<sup>e</sup> absurde partie of the +Ciceronians now in Italie, who will admit noe author save Tully to be +read nor quoted, nor anie word not in his writings to be used. Thence, +to y<sup>e</sup> Latinitie of y<sup>e</sup> Fathers, of whose style he spake slightlie +enow, but rated Jerome above Augustine. At length, to his Greek and +Latin Testament, of late issued from y<sup>e</sup> presse, and y<sup>e</sup> incredible +labour it hath cost him to make it as perfect as possible: on this +subject he soe warmed, that Bess and I listened with suspended breath. +"May it please God," sayth he, knitting ferventlie his hands, "to make +it a blessing to all Christendom! I look for noe other reward. Scholars +and believers yet unborn, may have reason to thank, and yet may forget +Erasmus." He then went on to explain to Gunnell what he had much felt in +want of, and hoped some scholar might yet undertake; to wit, a sort of +Index Bibliorum, showing in how manie passages of holy writ occurreth +anie given word, etc.; and he e'en proposed it to Gunnell, saying 'twas +onlie y<sup>e</sup> work of patience and industry, and mighte be layd aside, and +resumed as occasion offered, and completed at leisure, to y<sup>e</sup> great +thankfullenesse of scholars. But Gunnell onlie smiled and shooke his +head. Howbeit, Erasmus set forth his scheme soe playnlie, that I, having +a pen in hand, did privilie note down alle y<sup>e</sup> heads of y<sup>e</sup> same, +thinking, if none else w<sup>d</sup> undertake it, why s<sup>d</sup> not I? since +leisure and industrie were alone required, and since 'twoulde be soe +acceptable to manie, 'speciallie to Erasmus.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Continued from the April Number.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_STOLEN_FRUIT_A_STORY_OF_NAPOLEONS_CHILDHOOD" id="THE_STOLEN_FRUIT_A_STORY_OF_NAPOLEONS_CHILDHOOD"></a>THE STOLEN FRUIT.—A STORY OF NAPOLEON'S CHILDHOOD.</h2> + + +<p>On the 15th of August, 1777, two little girls of seven or eight years +old were playing in a garden near Ajaccio in Corsica. After running up +and down among the trees and flowers, one of them stopped the other at +the entrance to a dark grotto under a rock.</p> + +<p>"Eliza," she said, "don't go any further: it frightens me to look into +that black cave."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! 'Tis only Napoleon's Grotto."</p> + +<p>"This garden belongs to your uncle Fesch: has he given this dark hole to +Napoleon?"</p> + +<p>"No, Panoria; my great-uncle has not given him this grotto. But as he +often comes and spends hours in it by himself, we all call it +<i>Napoleon's Grotto</i>."</p> + +<p>"And what can he be doing there?"</p> + +<p>"Talking to himself."</p> + +<p>"What about?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know: a variety of things. But come, help me to gather a +large bunch of flowers."</p> + +<p>"Just now, when we were on the lower walk, you told me not to pull any, +although there was abundance of sweet ones."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but that was in my uncle the canon's garden.</p> + +<p>"And are his flowers more sacred than those of uncle Fesch?"</p> + +<p>"They are indeed, Panoria."</p> + +<p>"And why?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I don't know, but when any one wants to prevent our playing, +they say, 'That will give your uncle the canon a headache!' When we are +not to touch something, 'tis always, 'That belongs to the canon!' If we +want to eat some fine fruit, 'Don't touch that; 'tis for your uncle the +canon!' And even when we are praised or rewarded, 'tis always because +the canon is pleased with us!"</p> + +<p>"Is it because he is archdeacon of Ajaccio that people are so much +afraid of him?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Panoria; but because he is our tutor. Papa is not rich enough +to pay for masters to teach us, and he has not time to look after our +education himself; so our uncle the canon teaches us every thing. He is +not unkind, but he is very strict. If we don't know our lessons, he +slaps us smartly."</p> + +<p>"And don't you call that unkind, Eliza?"</p> + +<p>"Not exactly. Do you never get a whipping yourself, Panoria?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, Eliza. It is the Corsican fashion to beat children; but our +family is Greek, and mamma says Greeks must not be beaten."</p> + +<p>"Then I'm sure, Panoria, I wish I were a Greek; for 'tis very unpleasant +to be slapped!"</p> + +<p>"I dare say your brother Napoleon does not like it either."</p> + +<p>"He is the only one of my brothers who does not cry or complain when he +is punished. If you heard what a noise Joseph and Lucien make, you would +fancy that uncle was flaying them alive!"</p> + +<p>"But about Napoleon. What can he be talking about alone in the grotto?"</p> + +<p>"Hush! Here he is! Let us hide ourselves behind this lilac-tree, and +you'll hear."</p> + +<p>"I see Severia coming to call us."</p> + +<p>"Ah! it will take her an hour to gather ripe fruit for uncle the canon. +We shall have time enough. Come!"</p> + +<p>And the little girls, gliding between the rock and the overhanging +shrubs, took up their position in perfect concealment.</p> + +<p>The boy who advanced toward the grotto differed from the generality of +children of his age in the size of his head, the massive form<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_823" id="Page_823">[Pg 823]</a></span> of his +noble brow, and the fixed <i>examining</i> expression of his eyes. He walked +slowly—looking at the bright blue sea—and unconscious that his +proceedings were closely watched by two pair of little bright black +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Here I am my own master!" he said as he entered the grotto. "No one +commands me here!" And seating himself royally on a bench within the +dark entrance, he continued, "This is my birthday. I am eight years old +to-day. I wish I lived among the Spartans, then I should be beyond the +control of women; but now I have to obey such a number of people—old +Severia among the rest. Ah, if I were the master!"</p> + +<p>"Well, and if you were the master, what would you do?" cried Eliza, +thrusting forward her pretty little head.</p> + +<p>"First of all, I'd teach you not to come listening at doors," replied +Napoleon, disconcerted at being overheard.</p> + +<p>"But, brother, there's no door that I can see."</p> + +<p>"No matter, you have been eaves-dropping all the same."</p> + +<p>"Eliza!—Panoria!" cried a loud voice. "Where can these children have +gone to?"</p> + +<p>The young ladies came out of their leafy lurking-place in time to meet +the little Bonapartes' nurse, Severia—a tall old woman, who carried on +her arm a basket filled with the most luscious tempting pears, grapes, +and figs.</p> + +<p>"A pear, Severia!" cried Napoleon, darting forward, and thrusting his +hand into the basket.</p> + +<p>"The saints forbid, child!" exclaimed Severia. "They are for your uncle +the canon!"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Napoleon, drawing back his hand as quickly as if a wasp had +stung him.</p> + +<p>Panoria burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>"I never saw such people!" she said, as soon as her mirth allowed her to +speak. "My uncle the canon seems the bugbear of the whole family. Is +Severia afraid of him, too?"</p> + +<p>"Not more than I am," said Napoleon, boldly.</p> + +<p>"And yet you were afraid to take a pear?"</p> + +<p>"Because I did not wish to do it, Panoria."</p> + +<p>"Did not <i>dare</i> do it, Napoleon!"</p> + +<p>"Did not <i>wish</i> to do it, Panoria."</p> + +<p>"And if you wished it, would you do it?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly I would."</p> + +<p>"I think you are a boaster, Napoleon; and in your uncle's presence would +be just as great a coward as Eliza or Pauline?"</p> + +<p>"Come, children, follow me," said Severia, walking on.</p> + +<p>"You think I am a coward?" whispered Eliza to her little friend. "Come +into the house, and see if I don't eat as much of uncle's fruit as I +please. Mamma is gone out to pay a visit, and will not be home until +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll help you," said Panoria. And the little girls, fixing their +wistful eyes on the tempting fruit, followed Severia to the house.</p> + +<p>Napoleon remained some time longer in his grotto; and when supper-time +approached, he went into the house. Feeling very thirsty, he entered +the dining-room, in which was a large cupboard, where fresh water was +usually kept. Just as he was going in, he heard a noise: the cupboard +doors were quickly shut, and he caught a glimpse of a white frock +disappearing through the open window. Instead, however, of looking after +the fugitive, he went quietly to get a glass of water in the cupboard. +Then, to his dismay, he saw his uncle's basket of fruit half empty! +While, forgetting his thirst, he looked with astonishment at the fruit, +considering who could have been the hardy thief, a voice behind him +roused him from his reverie.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing there, Napoleon? You know you are not permitted to +help yourself to supper."</p> + +<p>This was uncle the canon himself—a short, stout old man with a bald +head, whose otherwise ordinary features were lighted up with the eagle +glance which afterward distinguished his grand-nephew.</p> + +<p>"I was not taking any thing, uncle," replied Napoleon. And then suddenly +the idea occurring to him that he might be accused of having taken the +fruit, the blood rushed hotly to his cheeks.</p> + +<p>His confusion was so evident, that the canon said, "I hope you are not +telling a falsehood, Napoleon?"</p> + +<p>"I never tell falsehoods," said the boy, proudly.</p> + +<p>"What were you doing?"</p> + +<p>"I was thirsty; I came to get some water."</p> + +<p>"No harm in that—and then, my boy?"</p> + +<p>"That was all, uncle."</p> + +<p>"Have you drunk the water?"</p> + +<p>"No, uncle; not yet."</p> + +<p>The archdeacon shook his head. "You came to drink, and you did not +drink; that does not hang well together. Napoleon, take care. If you +frankly confess your fault, whatever it may be, you shall be forgiven; +but if you tell a lie, and persist in it, I warn you that I shall punish +you severely."</p> + +<p>The entrance of M. Bonaparte, M. Fesch, and Joseph, Napoleon's eldest +brother, interrupted the conversation; and for some minutes the elder +gentlemen spoke to each other on political subjects; when a sudden +exclamation from Severia, as she opened the cupboard, attracted the +attention of all.</p> + +<p>"Santa Madona! who has taken the fruit?"</p> + +<p>"This is the mystery discovered!" said the canon, turning toward +Napoleon. "So you stole the fruit?"</p> + +<p>"I never touched it," replied the boy.</p> + +<p>"Call in the other children," said the archdeacon.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes five beautiful children, three boys and two girls, +formed a group round their father, who, looking at each one in turn, +asked, "Which of you has taken the fruit that was gathered in your uncle +the canon's garden?"</p> + +<p>"I did not!" "Nor I!" "Nor I!" cried they all. But Eliza's voice was +lower and less assured than those of the others.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_824" id="Page_824">[Pg 824]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And you, Napoleon?"</p> + +<p>"I have said, papa, that I did not do it."</p> + +<p>"That's a falsehood!" exclaimed Severia, who, being an old domestic, +took great liberties.</p> + +<p>"If you were not a woman!" said Napoleon, shaking his small clenched +hand at her.</p> + +<p>"Silence! Napoleon," said his father, sternly.</p> + +<p>"It must have been you, Napoleon," said Severia; "for after putting the +fruit into the cupboard, I never left the ante-room, and not a soul +passed through except the archdeacon and yourself. If he has not taken +them—"</p> + +<p>"I wish truly I had," said the old gentleman, "and then I should not +have the grief of seeing one of my children persist in a lie."</p> + +<p>"Uncle, I am not guilty," repeated Napoleon firmly.</p> + +<p>"Do not be obstinate, but confess," said his father.</p> + +<p>"Yes," added the canon; "'tis the only way to escape punishment."</p> + +<p>"But I never touched the fruit—indeed, I did not."</p> + +<p>"Napoleon," said his uncle, "I can not believe you. I shall give you +five minutes; and if, at the end of that time, you do not confess, and +ask for pardon, I shall whip you."</p> + +<p>"A whip is for horses and dogs, not for children!" said the boy.</p> + +<p>"A whip is for disobedient, lying children," replied his father.</p> + +<p>"Then 'tis unjust to give it me, for I am neither a liar nor +disobedient." So saying, Napoleon crossed his arms on his chest, and +settled himself in a firm attitude.</p> + +<p>Meantime his brothers and his sister Pauline came close to him, and +whispered good-natured entreaties that he would confess.</p> + +<p>"But how can I, when I have not done wrong?"</p> + +<p>"So you are still obstinate?" said his uncle. And taking him by the arm, +he led him into the next room. Presently the sound of sharp repeated +blows was heard, but not a cry or complaint from the little sufferer.</p> + +<p>Madame Bonaparte was away from home, and in the evening her husband went +to meet her, accompanied by Joseph, Lucien, and Eliza. M. Fesch and the +canon were also about to depart, and in passing through the ante-room, +they saw Napoleon standing, pale and grave, but proud, and firm-looking +as before.</p> + +<p>"Well, my child," said his father, "I hope you will now ask your uncle's +pardon?"</p> + +<p>"I did not touch the fruit, papa."</p> + +<p>"Still obstinate! As the rod will not do, I shall try another method. +Your mother, brothers, Eliza, and I, will be away for three days, and +during that time you shall have nothing but bread and water, unless you +ask your uncle's forgiveness."</p> + +<p>"But, papa, won't you let him have some cheese with his bread?" +whispered little Pauline.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but not <i>broccio</i>."</p> + +<p>"Ah do, papa, please let him have <i>broccio</i> 'tis the nicest cheese in +Corsica!"</p> + +<p>"That's the reason he does not deserve it," said his father, looking at +the boy with an anxious expression, as if he hoped to see some sign of +penitence on his face. But none such appearing, he proceeded toward the +carriage.</p> + +<p>Joseph and Lucien took a kind leave of their brother, but Eliza seemed +unwilling and afraid to go near or look at him.</p> + +<p>The three days passed on, heavily enough for poor Napoleon, who was in +disgrace, and living on bread, water, and cheese, which was not +<i>broccio</i>. At length the party returned, and little Panoria, who was +watching for her friend Eliza, came with them into the house.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning, uncle," said Madame Bonaparte to the archdeacon, "how are +you? And where are Napoleon and Pauline?"</p> + +<p>"Here I am, mamma," said the latter throwing her arms around her +mother's neck.</p> + +<p>"And Napoleon?"</p> + +<p>"He is here," said the canon.</p> + +<p>"Has he confessed?" asked his father.</p> + +<p>"No," replied the uncle. "I never before witnessed such obstinacy."</p> + +<p>"What has he done?" asked his mother.</p> + +<p>The canon, in reply, related the story of the fruit; but before he could +finish it, Panoria exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"Of course, poor fellow, he would not confess what he never did!"</p> + +<p>"And who did take the fruit?" asked the canon.</p> + +<p>"I and Eliza," replied the little girl without hesitation.</p> + +<p>There was a universal exclamation.</p> + +<p>"My poor child," said the archdeacon, embracing Napoleon tenderly, "why +did you not undeceive us?"</p> + +<p>"I suspected it was Eliza," replied Napoleon; "but I was not sure. At +all events, I would not have told, for Panoria's sake, who is not a +liar."</p> + +<p>The reader may imagine how Napoleon was caressed and rewarded to make +him amends for the pain he had unjustly suffered. As to Eliza, she was +severely and rightly punished: first for her gluttony; and then for what +was much worse—her cowardice and deceit in allowing her innocent +brother to suffer for her fault.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WILBERFORCE_AND_CHALMERS" id="WILBERFORCE_AND_CHALMERS"></a>WILBERFORCE AND CHALMERS.</h2> + + +<p>I have seldom observed a more amusing and pleasing contrast between two +great men than between Wilberforce and Chalmers. Chalmers is stout and +erect, with a broad countenance—Wilberforce minute, and singularly +twisted: Chalmers, both in body and mind, moves with, a deliberate +step—Wilberforce, infirm as he is in his advanced years, flies about +with astonishing activity, and while, with nimble finger, he seizes on +every thing that adorns or diversifies his path, his mind flits from +object to object with unceasing versatility. I often think that +particular men bear about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_825" id="Page_825">[Pg 825]</a></span> with them an analogy to particular animals: +Chalmers is like a good-tempered lion—Wilberforce is like a bee: +Chalmers can say a pleasant thing now and then, and laugh when he has +said it, and he has a strong touch of humor in his countenance, but in +general he is <i>grave</i>, his thoughts grow to a great size before they are +uttered—Wilberforce sparkles with life and wit, and the characteristic +of his mind is "rapid productiveness." A man might be in Chalmers's +company for an hour, especially in a party, without knowing who or what +he was—though in the end he would be sure to be detected by some +unexpected display of powerful originality. Wilberforce, except when +fairly asleep, is never latent. Chalmers knows how to vail himself in a +decent cloud—Wilberforce is always in sunshine. Seldom, I believe, has +any mind been more strung to a perpetual tune of love and praise. Yet +these persons, distinguished as they are from the world at large, and +from each other, present some admirable points of resemblance. Both of +them are broad thinkers, and liberal feelers; both of them are arrayed +in humility, meekness, and charity: both appear to hold self in little +reputation: above all, both love the Lord Jesus Christ, and reverently +acknowledge him to be their <i>only Saviour</i>.—<i>Hanna's Memoirs of +Chalmers.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MY_NOVEL_OR_VARIETIES_IN_ENGLISH_LIFE" id="MY_NOVEL_OR_VARIETIES_IN_ENGLISH_LIFE"></a>MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.</h2> + +<h4>(<i>Continued from page 698.</i>)</h4> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<p>Mr. Dale had been more than a quarter of an hour conversing with Mrs. +Avenel, and had seemingly made little progress in the object of his +diplomatic mission, for now, slowly drawing on his gloves, he said,</p> + +<p>"I grieve to think, Mrs. Avenel, that you should have so hardened your +heart—yes—you must pardon me—it is my vocation to speak stern truths. +You can not say that I have not kept faith with you, but I must now +invite you to remember that I specially reserved to myself the right of +exercising a discretion to act as I judged best, for the child's +interests, on any future occasion; and it was upon this understanding +that you gave me the promise, which you would now evade, of providing +for him when he came into manhood."</p> + +<p>"I say I will provide for him. I say that you may 'prentice him in any +distant town, and by-and-by we will stock a shop for him. What would you +have more, sir, from folks like us, who have kept shop ourselves? It +ain't reasonable what you ask, sir?"</p> + +<p>"My dear friend," said the Parson, "what I ask of you at present is but +to see him—to receive him kindly—to listen to his conversation—to +judge for yourselves. We can have but a common object—that your +grandson should succeed in life, and do you credit. Now, I doubt very +much whether we can effect this by making him a small shopkeeper."</p> + +<p>"And has Jane Fairfield, who married a common carpenter, brought him up +to despise small shopkeepers?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel, angrily.</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid! Some of the first men in England have been the sons of +small shopkeepers. But is it a crime in them, or their parents, if their +talents have lifted them into such rank or renown as the haughtiest duke +might envy? England were not England if a man must rest where his father +began."</p> + +<p>"Good!" said, or rather grunted, an approving voice, but neither Mrs. +Avenel nor the Parson heard it.</p> + +<p>"All very fine," said Mrs. Avenel, bluntly. "But to send a boy like that +to the university—where's the money to come from?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Avenel," said the Parson, coaxingly, "the cost need not be +great at a small college at Cambridge; and if you will pay half the +expense, I will pay the other half. I have no children of my own, and +can afford it."</p> + +<p>"That's very handsome in you, sir," said Mrs. Avenel, somewhat touched, +yet still not graciously. "But the money is not the only point."</p> + +<p>"Once at Cambridge," continued Mr. Dale, speaking rapidly, "at +Cambridge, where the studies are mathematical—that is, of a nature for +which he has shown so great an aptitude—and I have no doubt he will +distinguish himself; if he does, he will obtain, on leaving, what is +called a fellowship—that is a collegiate dignity accompanied by an +income on which he could maintain himself until he made his way in life. +Come, Mrs. Avenel, you are well off; you have no relations nearer to you +in want of your aid. Your son, I hear, has been very fortunate."</p> + +<p>"Sir," said Mrs. Avenel, interrupting the Parson, "it is not because my +son Richard is an honor to us, and is a good son, and has made his +fortin, that we are to rob him of what we have to leave, and give it to +a boy whom we know nothing about, and who, in spite of what you say, +can't bring upon us any credit at all."</p> + +<p>"Why? I don' see that."</p> + +<p>"Why?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel, fiercely—"why? you know why. No, I don't +want him to rise in life: I don't want folks to be speiring and asking +about him. I think it is a very wicked thing to have put fine notions in +his head, and I am sure my daughter Fairfield could not have done it +herself. And now, to ask me to rob Richard, and bring out a great +boy—who's been a gardener, or plowman, or such like—to disgrace a +gentleman who keeps his carriage, as my son Richard does—I would have +you to know, sir, no! I won't do it, and there's an end to the matter."</p> + +<p>During the last two or three minutes, and just before that approving +"good" had responded to the Parson's popular sentiment, a door +communicating with an inner room had been gently opened, and stood ajar; +but this incident neither party had even noticed. But now the door was +thrown boldly open, and the traveler whom the Parson had met at the inn +walked up to Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_826" id="Page_826">[Pg 826]</a></span> Dale, and said, "No! that's not the end of the matter. +You say the boy's a 'cute clever lad?"</p> + +<p>"Richard, have you been listening?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess, yes—the last few minutes."</p> + +<p>"And what have you heard?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that this reverend gentleman thinks so highly of my sister +Fairfield's boy that he offers to pay half of his keep at college. Sir, +I'm very much obliged to you, and there's my hand, if you'll take it."</p> + +<p>The Parson jumped up, overjoyed, and, with a triumphant glance toward +Mrs. Avenel, shook hands heartily with Mr. Richard.</p> + +<p>"Now," said the latter, "just put on your hat, sir, and take a stroll +with me, and we'll discuss the thing business-like. Women don't +understand business; never talk to women on business."</p> + +<p>With these words, Mr. Richard drew out a cigar-case, selected a cigar, +which he applied to the candle, and walked into the hall.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Avenel caught hold of the Parson. "Sir, you'll be on your guard +with Richard. Remember your promise."</p> + +<p>"He does not know all, then?"</p> + +<p>"He? No! And you see he did not overhear more than what he says. I'm +sure you're a gentleman, and won't go agin your word."</p> + +<p>"My word was conditional; but I will promise you never to break the +silence without more reason than I think there is here for it. Indeed, +Mr. Richard Avenel seems to save all necessity for that."</p> + +<p>"Are you coming, sir?" cried Richard, as he opened the street door.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + + +<p>The Parson joined Mr. Richard Avenel on the road. It was a fine night, +and the moon clear and shining.</p> + +<p>"So, then," said Mr. Richard thoughtfully, "poor Jane, who was always +the drudge of the family, has contrived to bring up her son well; and +the boy is really what you say, eh?—could make a figure at college?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure of it," said the Parson, hooking himself on to the arm which +Mr. Avenel proffered.</p> + +<p>"I should like to see him," said Richard. "Has he any manner? Is he +genteel? or a mere country lout?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed he speaks with so much propriety, and has so much modest +dignity, I might say, about him, that there's many a rich gentleman who +would be proud of such a son."</p> + +<p>"It is odd," observed Richard, "what difference there is in families. +There's Jane now—who can't read nor write, and was just fit to be a +workman's wife—had not a thought above her station; and when I think of +my poor sister Nora—you would not believe it, sir, but <i>she</i> was the +most elegant creature in the world—yes, even as a child (she was but a +child when I went off to America). And often, as I was getting on in +life, often I used to say to myself, 'My little Nora shall be a lady +after all.' Poor thing—but she died young."</p> + +<p>Richard's voice grew husky.</p> + +<p>The Parson kindly pressed the arm on which he leaned, and said, after a +pause,</p> + +<p>"Nothing refines us like education, sir. I believe your sister Nora had +received much instruction, and had the talents to profit by it; it is +the same with your nephew."</p> + +<p>"I'll see him," said Richard, stamping his foot firmly on the ground, +"and if I like him, I'll be as good as a father to him. Look you, Mr. +—— what's your name, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Dale."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dale, look you, I'm a single man. Perhaps I may marry some day; +perhaps I shan't. I'm not going to throw myself away. If I can get a +lady of quality, why—but that's neither here nor there; meanwhile, I +should be glad of a nephew whom I need not be ashamed of. You see, sir, +I'm a new man, the builder of my own fortunes; and, though I have picked +up a little education—I don't well know how—as I scrambled on, still, +now I come back to the old country I'm well aware that I am not exactly +a match for those d——d aristocrats; don't show so well in a +drawing-room as I could wish. I could be a Parliament man if I liked, +but I might make a goose of myself; so, all things considered, if I can +get a sort of junior partner to do the polite work, and show off the +goods, I think the house of Avenel & Co. might become a pretty +considerable honor to the Britishers. You understand me, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well," answered Mr. Dale smiling, though rather gravely.</p> + +<p>"Now," continued the New Man, "I'm not ashamed to have risen in life by +my own merits; and I don't disguise what I've been. And, when I'm in my +own grand house, I'm fond of saying, 'I landed at New York with £10 in +my purse, and here I am!' But it would not do to have the old folks with +me. People take you with all your faults, if you're rich; but they won't +swallow your family into the bargain. So if I don't have my own father +and mother, whom I love dearly, and should like to see sitting at table, +with my servants behind their chairs, I could still less have sister +Jane. I recollect her very well, and she can't have got genteeler as +she's grown older. Therefore I beg you'll not set her on coming after +me; it won't do by any manner of means. Don't say a word about me to +her. But send the boy down here to his grandfather, and I'll see him +quietly, you understand."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it will be hard to separate her from the boy."</p> + +<p>"Stuff! all boys are separated from their parents when they go into the +world. So that's settled! Now, just tell me. I know the old folks always +snubbed Jane—that is, mother did. My poor dear father never snubbed any +of us. Perhaps mother has not behaved altogether well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_827" id="Page_827">[Pg 827]</a></span> to Jane. But we +must not blame her for that; you see this is how it happened. There were +a good many of us, while father and mother kept shop in the High-street, +so we were all to be provided for anyhow; and Jane, being very useful +and handy at work, got a place when she was a little girl, and had no +time for learning. Afterward my father made a lucky hit, in getting my +Lord Lansmere's custom after an election, in which he did a great deal +for the Blues (for he was a famous electioneerer, my poor father). My +Lady stood godmother to Nora; and then most of my brothers and sisters +died off, and father retired from business; and when he took Jane from +service, she was so common-like that mother could not help contrasting +her with Nora. You see Jane was their child when they were poor little +shop-people, with their heads scarce above water; and Nora was their +child when they were well off, and had retired from trade, and lived +genteel: so that makes a great difference. And mother did not quite look +on her as her own child. But it was Jane's own fault; for mother would +have made it up with her if she had married the son of our neighbor the +great linendraper, as she might have done; but she would take Mark +Fairfield, a common carpenter. Parents like best those of their children +who succeed best in life. Natural. Why, they did not care for me till I +came back the man I am. But to return to Jane: I'm afraid they've +neglected her. How is she off?"</p> + +<p>"She earns her livelihood, and is poor, but contented."</p> + +<p>"Ah, just be good enough to give her this," (and Richard took a +bank-note of £50 from his pocket-book). "You can say the old folks sent +it to her; or that it is a present from Dick, without telling her he had +come back from America."</p> + +<p>"My dear sir," said the Parson, "I am more and more thankful to have +made your acquaintance. This is a very liberal gift of yours; but your +best plan will be to send it through your mother. For, though I don't +want to betray any confidence you place in me, I should not know what to +answer if Mrs. Fairfield began to question me about her brother. I never +had but one secret to keep, and I hope I shall never have another. A +secret is very like a lie!"</p> + +<p>"You had a secret, then," said Richard, as he took back the bank-note. +He had learned, perhaps, in America, to be a very inquisitive man. He +added point-blank, "Pray what was it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, what it would not be if I told you," said the Parson, with a +forced laugh—"a secret!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess we're in a land of liberty—do as you like. Now, I dare +say you think me a very odd fellow to come out of my shell to you in +this off-hand way. But I liked the look of you, even when we were at the +inn together. And just now I was uncommonly pleased to find that, +though you are a Parson, you don't want to keep a man's nose down to a +shop-board, if he has any thing in him. You're not one of the +aristocrats—"</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said the Parson, with imprudent warmth, "it is not the +character of the aristocracy of this country to keep people down. They +make way among themselves for any man, whatever his birth, who has the +talent and energy to aspire to their level. That's the especial boast of +the British constitution, sir!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you think so, do you?" said Mr. Richard, looking sourly at the +Parson. "I dare say those are the opinions in which you have brought up +the lad. Just keep him yourself, and let the aristocracy provide for +him!"</p> + +<p>The Parson's generous and patriotic warmth evaporated at once, at this +sudden inlet of cold air into the conversation. He perceived that he had +made a terrible blunder; and, as it was not his business at that moment +to vindicate the British constitution, but to serve Leonard Fairfield, +he abandoned the cause of the aristocracy with the most poltroon and +scandalous abruptness. Catching at the arm which Mr. Avenel had +withdrawn from him, he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Indeed, sir, you are mistaken; I have never attempted to influence your +nephew's political opinions. On the contrary, if, at his age, he can be +said to have formed any opinion, I am greatly afraid—that is, I think +his opinions are by no means sound—that is, constitutional. I mean, I +mean—" And the poor Parson, anxious to select a word that would not +offend his listener, stopped short in lamentable confusion of idea.</p> + +<p>Mr. Avenel enjoyed his distress for a moment, with a saturnine smile, +and then said,</p> + +<p>"Well, I calculate he's a Radical. Natural enough, if he has not got a +sixpence to lose—all come right by-and-by. I'm not a Radical—at least +not a destructive—much too clever a man for that, I hope. But I wish to +see things very different from what they are. Don't fancy that I want +the common people, who've got nothing, to pretend to dictate to their +betters, because I hate to see a parcel of fellows, who are called lords +and squires, trying to rule the roast. I think, sir, that it is men like +me who ought to be at the top of the tree! and that's the long and short +of it. What do you say?"</p> + +<p>"I've not the least objection," said the crest-fallen Parson, basely. +But, to do him justice, I must add that he did not the least know what +he was saying!</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<p>Unconscious of the change in his fate which the diplomacy of the Parson +sought to effect, Leonard Fairfield was enjoying the first virgin +sweetness of fame; for the principal town in his neighborhood had +followed the then growing fashion of the age, and set up a Mechanics' +Institute; and some worthy persons interested in the formation of that +provincial Athenæum had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_828" id="Page_828">[Pg 828]</a></span> offered a prize for the best Essay on the +Diffusion of Knowledge—a very trite subject, on which persons seem to +think they can never say too much, and on which there is, nevertheless, +a great deal yet to be said. This prize Leonard Fairfield had recently +won. His Essay had been publicly complimented by a full meeting of the +Institute; it had been printed at the expense of the Society, and had +been rewarded by a silver medal—delineative of Apollo crowning Merit +(poor Merit had not a rag to his back; but Merit, left only to the care +of Apollo, never is too good a customer to the tailor!) And the County +Gazette had declared that Britain had produced another prodigy in the +person of Dr. Riccabocca's self-educated gardener.</p> + +<p>Attention was now directed to Leonard's mechanical contrivances. The +Squire, ever eagerly bent on improvements, had brought an engineer to +inspect the lad's system of irrigation, and the engineer had been +greatly struck by the simple means by which a very considerable +technical difficulty had been overcome. The neighboring farmers now +called Leonard "<i>Mr.</i> Fairfield," and invited him on equal terms to +their houses. Mr. Stirn had met him on the high road, touched his hat, +and hoped that "he bore no malice." All this, I say, was the first +sweetness of fame; and if Leonard Fairfield comes to be a great man, he +will never find such sweets in the after fruit. It was this success +which had determined the Parson on the step which he had just taken, and +which he had long before anxiously meditated. For, during the last year +or so, he had renewed his old intimacy with the widow and the boy; and +he had noticed, with great hope and great fear, the rapid growth of an +intellect, which now stood out from the lowly circumstances that +surrounded it in bold and unharmonizing relief.</p> + +<p>It was the evening after his return home that the Parson strolled up to +the Casino. He put Leonard Fairfield's Prize Essay in his pocket. For he +felt that he could not let the young man go forth into the world without +a preparatory lecture, and he intended to scourge poor Merit with the +very laurel wreath which it had received from Apollo. But in this he +wanted Riccabocca's assistance: or rather, he feared that, if he did not +get the Philosopher on his side, the Philosopher might undo all the work +of the Parson.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<p>A sweet sound came through the orange boughs, and floated to the ears of +the Parson, as he wound slowly up the gentle ascent—so sweet, so +silvery, he paused in delight—unaware, wretched man! that he was +thereby conniving at Papistical errors. Soft it came, and sweet: softer +and sweeter—"Ave Maria!" Violante was chanting the evening hymn to the +Virgin Mother. The Parson at last distinguished the sense of the words, +and shook his head with the pious shake of an orthodox Protestant. He +broke from the spell resolutely, and walked on with a sturdy step. +Gaining the terrace, he found the little family seated under an awning. +Mrs. Riccabocca knitting; the Signor with his arms folded on his breast: +the book he had been reading a few moments before had fallen on the +ground, and his dark eyes were soft and dreamy. Violante had finished +her hymn, and seated herself on the ground between the two, pillowing +her head on her step-mother's lap, but with her hand resting on her +father's knee, and her gaze fixed fondly on his face.</p> + +<p>"Good evening," said Mr. Dale. Violante stole up to him, and, pulling +him so as to bring his ear nearer to her lip, whispered, "Talk to papa, +do—and cheerfully; he is sad."</p> + +<p>She escaped from him, as she said this, and appeared to busy herself +with watering the flowers arranged on stands round the awning. But she +kept her swimming, lustrous eyes wistfully on her father.</p> + +<p>"How fares it with you, my dear friend?"' said the Parson, kindly, as he +rested his hand on the Italian's shoulder. "You must not let him get out +of spirits, Mrs. Riccabocca."</p> + +<p>"I am very ungrateful to her if I ever am so," said the poor Italian, +with all his natural gallantry. Many a good wife, who thinks it is a +reproach to her if her husband is ever "out of spirits," might have +turned peevishly from that speech more elegant than sincere, and so have +made bad worse. But Mrs. Riccabocca took her husband's proffered hand +affectionately, and said with great <i>naiveté</i>—</p> + +<p>"You see I am so stupid, Mr. Dale; I never knew I was so stupid till I +married. But I am very glad you are come. You can get on some learned +subject together, and then he will not miss so much his—"</p> + +<p>"His what?" asked Riccabocca inquisitively.</p> + +<p>"His country. Do you think that I can not sometimes read your thoughts?"</p> + +<p>"Very often. But you did not read them just then. The tongue touches +where the tooth aches, but the best dentist can not guess at the tooth +unless one opens one's mouth.—<i>Basta!</i> Can we offer you some wine of +our own making, Mr. Dale? it is pure."</p> + +<p>"I'd rather have some tea," quoth the Parson hastily.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Riccabocca, too pleased to be in her natural element of domestic +use, hurried into the house to prepare our national beverage. And the +Parson, sliding into her chair, said:</p> + +<p>"But you are dejected, then? Fie! If there's a virtue in the world at +which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness."</p> + +<p>"I don't dispute it," said Riccabocca, with a heavy sigh. "But though it +is said by some Greek, who, I think, is quoted by your favorite Seneca, +that a wise man carries his country with him at the soles of his feet, +he can't carry also the sunshine."</p> + +<p>"I tell you what it is," said the Parson,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_829" id="Page_829">[Pg 829]</a></span> bluntly. "You would have a +much keener sense of happiness if you had much less esteem for +philosophy."</p> + +<p>"<i>Cospetto!</i>" said the Doctor, rousing himself. "Just explain, will +you?"</p> + +<p>"Does not the search after wisdom induce desires not satisfied in this +small circle to which your life is confined? It is not so much your +country for which you yearn, as it is for space to your intellect, +employment for your thoughts, career for your aspirations."</p> + +<p>"You have guessed at the tooth which aches," said Riccabocca, with +admiration.</p> + +<p>"Easy to do that," answered the Parson. "Our wisdom teeth come last, and +give us the most pain. And if you would just starve the mind a little, +and nourish the heart more, you would be less of a philosopher, and more +of a—" The Parson had the word "Christian" at the tip of his tongue: he +suppressed a word that, so spoken, would have been exceedingly +irritating, and substituted, with inelegant antithesis, "and more of a +happy man!"</p> + +<p>"I do all I can with my heart," quoth the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Not you! For a man with such a heart as yours should never feel the +want of the sunshine. My friend, we live in an age of over mental +cultivation. We neglect too much the simple, healthful outer life, in +which there is so much positive joy. In turning to the world within us, +we grow blind to this beautiful world without; in studying ourselves as +men, we almost forget to look up to heaven, and warm to the smile of +God."</p> + +<p>The philosopher mechanically shrugged his shoulders, as he always did +when another man moralized—especially if the moralizer were a priest; +but there was no irony in his smile, as he answered thoughtfully;</p> + +<p>"There is some truth in what you say. I own that we live too much as if +we were all brain. Knowledge has its penalties and pains, as well as its +prizes."</p> + +<p>"That is just what I want you to say to Leonard."</p> + +<p>"How have you settled the object of your journey?"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you as we walk down to him after tea. At present, I am +rather too much occupied with you."</p> + +<p>"Me? The tree is formed—try only to bend the young twig!"</p> + +<p>"Trees are trees, and twigs twigs," said the Parson, dogmatically; "but +man is always growing till he falls into the grave. I think I have heard +you say that you once had a narrow escape of a prison?"</p> + +<p>"Very narrow."</p> + +<p>"Just suppose that you were now in that prison, and that a fairy +conjured up the prospect of this quiet home in a safe land; that you saw +the orange-trees in flower, felt the evening breeze on your cheek; +beheld your child gay or sad, as you smiled or knit your brow; that +within this phantom home was a woman, not, indeed all your young +romance might have dreamed of, but faithful and true, every beat of her +heart all your own—would you not cry from the depth of the dungeon, 'O +fairy! such a change were a paradise.' Ungrateful man! you want +interchange for your mind, and your heart should suffice for all!"</p> + +<p>Riccabocca was touched and silent.</p> + +<p>"Come hither, my child," said Mr. Dale, turning round to Violante, who +still stood among the flowers, out of hearing, but with watchful eyes. +"Come hither," he said, opening his arms.</p> + +<p>Violante bounded forward, and nestled to the good man's heart.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Violante, when you are alone in the fields or the garden, and +have left your father looking pleased and serene, so that you have no +care for him at your heart—tell me, Violante, though you are all alone, +with the flowers below and the birds singing overhead, do you feel that +life itself is happiness or sorrow?"</p> + +<p>"Happiness!" answered Violante, half shutting her eyes, and in a +measured voice.</p> + +<p>"Can you explain what kind of happiness it is?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, impossible! and it is never the same. Sometimes it is so +still—so still—and sometimes so joyous, that I long for wings to fly +up to God, and thank him!"</p> + +<p>"O, friend," said the Parson, "this is the true sympathy between life +and nature, and thus we should feel ever, did we take more care to +preserve the health and innocence of a child. We are told that we must +become as children to enter into the kingdom of heaven; methinks we +should also become as children to know what delight there is in our +heritage of earth!"</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> + +<p>The maid-servant (for Jackeymo was in the fields) brought the table +under the awning, and, with the English luxury of tea, there were other +drinks as cheap and as grateful on summer evenings—drinks which +Jackeymo had retained and taught from the customs of the +south—unebriate liquors, pressed from cooling fruits, sweetened with +honey, and deliciously iced; ice should cost nothing in a country in +which one is frozen up half the year! And Jackeymo, too, had added to +our good, solid, heavy English bread, preparations of wheat much +lighter, and more propitious to digestion—with those crisp <i>grissins</i>, +which seem to enjoy being eaten, they make so pleasant a noise between +one's teeth.</p> + +<p>The Parson esteemed it a little treat to drink tea with the Riccaboccas. +There was something of elegance and grace in that homely meal, at the +poor exile's table, which pleased the eye as well as taste. And the very +utensils, plain Wedgewood though they were, had a classical simplicity, +which made Mrs. Hazeldean's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_830" id="Page_830">[Pg 830]</a></span> old India delf, and Mrs. Dale's best +Worcester china, look tawdry and barbarous in comparison. For it was +Flaxman who gave designs to Wedgewood, and the most truly refined of all +our manufactures in porcelain (if we do not look to the mere material) +is in the reach of the most thrifty.</p> + +<p>The little banquet was at first rather a silent one; but Riccabocca +threw off his gloom, and became gay and animated. Then poor Mrs. +Riccabocca smiled, and pressed the <i>grissins;</i> and Violante, forgetting +all her stateliness, laughed and played tricks on the Parson, stealing +away his cup of warm tea when his head was turned, and substituting iced +cherry-juice. Then the Parson got up and ran after Violante, making +angry faces, and Violante dodged beautifully, till the Parson, fairly +tired out, was too glad to cry "Peace," and come back to the +cherry-juice. Thus time rolled on, till they heard afar the stroke of +the distant church-clock, and Mr. Dale started up and cried, "But we +shall be too late for Leonard. Come, naughty little girl, get your +father his hat."</p> + +<p>"And umbrella!" said Riccabocca, looking up at the cloudless moonlit +sky.</p> + +<p>"Umbrella against the stars?" asked the Parson, laughing.</p> + +<p>"The stars are no friends of mine," said Riccabocca, "and one never +knows what may happen!"</p> + +<p>The Philosopher and the Parson walked on amicably.</p> + +<p>"You have done me good," said Riccabocca, "but I hope I am not always so +unreasonably melancholic as you seem to suspect. The evenings will +sometimes appear long, and dull too, to a man whose thoughts on the past +are almost his sole companions."</p> + +<p>"Sole companions?—your child?"</p> + +<p>"She is so young."</p> + +<p>"Your wife?"</p> + +<p>"She is so—," the bland Italian appeared to check some disparaging +adjective, and mildly added, "so good, I allow; but you must own that we +can not have much in common."</p> + +<p>"I own nothing of the sort. You have your house and your interests, your +happiness and your lives, in common. We men are so exacting, we expect +to find ideal nymphs and goddesses when we condescend to marry a mortal; +and if we did, our chickens would be boiled to rags, and our mutton come +up as cold as a stone."</p> + +<p>"Per Bacco, you are an oracle," said Riccabocca, laughing. "But I am not +so skeptical as you are. I honor the fair sex too much. There are a +great many women who realize the ideal of men to be found in—the +poets!"</p> + +<p>"There's my dear Mrs. Dale," resumed the Parson, not heeding this +sarcastic compliment to the sex, but sinking his voice into a whisper, +and looking round cautiously—"there's my dear Mrs. Dale, the best woman +in the world—an angel I would say, if the word was not profane; <span class="smcap">but</span>—"</p> + +<p>"What's the <span class="smcap">BUT</span>" asked the Doctor demurely.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">BUT</span> I too might say that 'we have not much in common,' if I were only +to compare mind to mind, and, when my poor Carry says something less +profound than Madame de Stael might have said, smile on her in contempt +from the elevation of logic and Latin. Yet, when I remember all the +little sorrows and joys that we have shared together, and feel how +solitary I should have been without her—oh, then, I am instantly aware +that there is between us in common something infinitely closer and +better than if the same course of study had given us the same equality +of ideas; and I was forced to brace myself for a combat of intellect, as +I am when I fall in with a tiresome sage like yourself. I don't pretend +to say that Mrs. Riccabocca is a Mrs. Dale," added the Parson, with +lofty candor—"there is but one Mrs. Dale in the world; but still, you +have drawn a prize in the wheel matrimonial! Think of Socrates, and yet +he was content even with his—Xantippe!"</p> + +<p>Dr. Riccabocca called to mind Mrs. Dale's "little tempers," and inly +rejoiced that no second Mrs. Dale had existed to fall to his own lot. +His placid Jemima gained by the contrast. Nevertheless, he had the ill +grace to reply, "Socrates was a man beyond all imitation!—Yet I believe +that even he spent very few of his evenings at home. But, <i>revenons à +nos moutons</i>, we are nearly at Mrs. Fairfield's cottage, and you have +not yet told me what you have settled as to Leonard."</p> + +<p>The Parson halted, took Riccabocca by the button, and informed him, in +very few words, that Leonard was to go to Lansmere to see some relations +there, who had the fortune, if they had the will, to give full career to +his abilities.</p> + +<p>"The great thing, in the mean while," said the Parson, "would be to +enlighten him a little as to what he calls—enlightenment."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Riccabocca, diverted, and rubbing his hands, "I shall listen +with interest to what you say on that subject."</p> + +<p>"And must aid me; for the first step in this modern march of +enlightenment is to leave the poor Parson behind; and if one calls out, +'Hold! and look at the sign-post,' the traveler hurries on the faster, +saying to himself, 'Pooh, pooh!—that is only the cry of the Parson!' +But my gentleman, when he doubts me, will listen to you—you're a +philosopher!"</p> + +<p>"We philosophers are of some use now and then, even to Parsons!"</p> + +<p>"If you were not so conceited a set of deluded poor creatures already, I +would say 'Yes,'" replied the Parson generously; and, taking hold of +Riccabocca's umbrella, he applied the brass handle thereof, by way of a +knocker, to the cottage door.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> + +<p>Certainly it is a glorious fever that desire To Know! And there are few +sights in the moral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_831" id="Page_831">[Pg 831]</a></span> world more sublime than that which many a garret +might afford, if Asmodeus would bare the roofs to our survey—viz., a +brave, patient, earnest human being, toiling his own arduous way, +athwart the iron walls of penury, into the magnificent Infinite, which +is luminous with starry souls.</p> + +<p>So there sits Leonard, the self-taught, in the little cottage alone; +for, though scarcely past the hour in which great folks dine, it is the +hour in which small folks go to bed, and Mrs. Fairfield has retired to +rest, while Leonard has settled to his books. He had placed his table +under the lattice, and from time to time he looked up and enjoyed the +stillness of the moon. Well for him that, in reparation for those hours +stolen from night, the hardy physical labor commenced with dawn. +Students would not be the sad dyspeptics they are, if they worked as +many hours in the open air as my scholar-peasant. But even in him you +could see that the mind had begun a little to affect the frame. They who +task the intellect must pay the penalty with the body. Ill, believe me, +would this work-day world get on if all within it were hard-reading, +studious animals, playing the deuce with the ganglionic apparatus.</p> + +<p>Leonard started as he heard the knock at the door; the Parson's +well-known voice reassured him. In some surprise, he admitted his +visitors.</p> + +<p>"We are come to talk to you, Leonard," said Mr. Dale, "but I fear we +shall disturb Mrs. Fairfield."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sir! the door to the staircase is shut, and she sleeps +soundly."</p> + +<p>"Why, this is a French book—do you read French, Leonard?" asked +Riccabocca.</p> + +<p>"I have not found French difficult, sir. Once over the grammar, and the +language is so clear; it seems the very language for reasoning."</p> + +<p>"True. Voltaire said justly, 'Whatever is obscure is not French,'" +observed Riccabocca.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could say the same of English," muttered the Parson.</p> + +<p>"But what is this?—Latin too?—Virgil?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. But I find I make little way there without a master. I fear I +must give it up" (and Leonard sighed).</p> + +<p>The two gentlemen exchanged looks and seated themselves. The young +peasant remained standing modestly, and in his air and mien there was +something that touched the heart while it pleased the eye. He was no +longer the timid boy who had sunk from the frown of Mr. Stirn, nor that +rude personation of simple physical strength, roused to undisciplined +bravery, which had received its downfall on the village-green of +Hazeldean. The power of thought was on his brow—somewhat unquiet still, +but mild and earnest. The features had attained that refinement which is +often attributed to race, but comes, in truth, from elegance of idea, +whether caught from our parents or learned from books. In his rich brown +hair, thrown carelessly from his temples, and curling almost to the +shoulders in his large blue eye, which was deepened to the hue of the +violet by the long dark lash—in that firmness of lip which comes from +the grapple with difficulties, there was considerable beauty, but no +longer the beauty of the mere peasant. And yet there was still about the +whole countenance that expression of goodness and purity which a painter +would give to his ideal of the peasant lover—such as Tasso would have +placed in the <i>Aminta</i>, or Fletcher have admitted to the side of the +Faithful Shepherdess.</p> + +<p>"You must draw a chair here, and sit down between us, Leonard," said the +Parson.</p> + +<p>"If any one," said Riccabocca "has a right to sit, it is the one who is +to hear the sermon; and if any one ought to stand, it is the one who is +about to preach it."</p> + +<p>"Don't be frightened, Leonard," said the Parson, graciously; "it is only +a criticism, not a sermon," and he pulled out Leonard's Prize Essay.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"You take for your motto this aphorism<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>—'<i>Knowledge is +Power.</i>—Bacon.'"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"Bacon make such an aphorism! The last man in the world to +have said any thing so pert and so shallow."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard</span> (astonished).—"Do you mean to say, sir, that that aphorism is +not in Lord Bacon! Why, I have seen it quoted as his in almost every +newspaper, and in almost every speech in favor of popular education."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"Then that should be a warning to you never again to fall +into the error of the would-be scholar—viz., quote second-hand. Lord +Bacon wrote a great book to show in what knowledge is power, how that +power should be defined, in what it might be mistaken. And, pray, do you +think so sensible a man would ever have taken the trouble to write a +great book upon the subject, if he could have packed up all he had to +say into the portable dogma, 'Knowledge is power?' Pooh! no such +aphorism is to be found in Bacon from the first page of his writings to +the last."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span> (candidly).—"Well, I supposed it was Lord Bacon's, and I am very +glad to hear that the aphorism has not the sanction of his authority."</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_832" id="Page_832">[Pg 832]</a></span></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard</span> (recovering his surprise).—"But why so?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Because it either says a great deal too much, or just—nothing +at all."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard.</span>—"At least, sir, it seems to me undeniable."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Well, grant that it is undeniable. Does it prove much in favor +of knowledge? Pray, is not ignorance power too?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"And a power that has had much the best end of the +quarter-staff."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"All evil is power, and does its power make it any thing the +better?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"Fanaticism is power—and a power that has often swept away +knowledge like a whirlwind. The Mussulman burns the library of a +world—and forces the Koran and the sword from the schools of Byzantium +to the colleges of Hindostan."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span> (bearing on with a new column of illustration).—"Hunger is +power. The barbarians, starved out of their energy by their own swarming +population, swept into Italy and annihilated letters. The Romans, +however degraded, had more knowledge, at least, than the Gaul and the +Visigoth."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span> (bringing up the reserve).—"And even in Greece, when Greek +met Greek, the Athenians—our masters in all knowledge—were beat by the +Spartans, who held learning in contempt."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Wherefore you see, Leonard, that though knowledge be power, it +is only <i>one</i> of the powers of the world; that there are others as +strong, and often much stronger; and the assertion either means but a +barren truism, not worth so frequent a repetition, or it means something +that you would find it very difficult to prove."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard.</span>—"One nation may be beaten by another that has more physical +strength and more military discipline; which last, permit me to say, +sir, is a species of knowledge—"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca.</span>—"Yes; but your knowledge-mongers at present call upon us to +discard military discipline, and the qualities that produce it, from the +list of the useful arts. And in your own essay, you insist upon +knowledge as the great disbander of armies, and the foe of all military +discipline."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Let the young man proceed. Nations, you say, may be beaten by +other nations less learned and civilized?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard.</span>—"But knowledge elevates a class. I invite my own humble order +to knowledge, because knowledge will lift them into power."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca.</span>—"What do you say to that, Mr. Dale?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"In the first place, is it true that the class which has the +most knowledge gets the most power? I suppose philosophers, like my +friend Dr. Riccabocca, think they have the most knowledge. And pray, in +what age have philosophers governed the world? Are they not always +grumbling that nobody attends to them?"</p> + +<p>"Per Bacco," said Riccabocca, "if people had attended to us, it would +have been a droll sort of world by this time!"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Very likely. But, as a general rule, those have the most +knowledge who give themselves up to it the most. Let us put out of the +question philosophers (who are often but ingenious lunatics), and speak +only of erudite scholars, men of letters and practical science, +professors, tutors, and fellows of colleges. I fancy any member of +Parliament would tell us that there is no class of men which has less +actual influence on public affairs. They have more knowledge than +manufacturers and ship-owners, squires and farmers; but, do you find +that they have more power over the Government and the votes of the House +of Commons?"</p> + +<p>"They ought to have," said Leonard.</p> + +<p>"Ought they?" said the Parson: "we'll consider that later. Meanwhile, +you must not escape from your own proposition, which is, that knowledge +is power—not that it <i>ought</i> to be. Now, even granting your corollary, +that the power of a class is therefore proportioned to its +knowledge—pray, do you suppose that while your order, the operatives, +are instructing themselves, all the rest of the community are to be at a +stand-still? Diffuse knowledge as you may, you will never produce +equality of knowledge. Those who have most leisure, application, and +aptitude for learning, will still know the most. Nay, by a very natural +law, the more general the appetite for knowledge, the more the increased +competition would favor those most adapted to excel by circumstance and +nature. At this day, there is a vast increase of knowledge spread over +all society, compared with that in the Middle Ages; but is there not a +still greater distinction between the highly-educated gentleman and the +intelligent mechanic, than there was then between the baron who could +not sign his name and the churl at the plow? between the accomplished +statesman, versed in all historical lore, and the voter whose politics +are formed by his newspaper, than there was between the legislator who +passed laws against witches, and the burgher who defended his guild from +some feudal aggression? between the enlightened scholar and the dunce of +to-day, than there was between the monkish alchemist and the block head +of yesterday? Peasant, voter, and dunce of this century are no doubt +wiser than the churl, burgher, and blockhead of the twelfth. But the +gentleman, statesman, and scholar of the present age are at least quite +as favorable a contrast to the alchemist, witch-burner, and baron of +old. As the progress of enlightenment has done hitherto, so will it ever +do. Knowledge is like capital: the more there is in a country, the +greater the disparities in wealth between one man and another. +Therefore, if the working class increase in knowledge, so do the other +classes; and if the working class rise peacefully and legitimately into +power, it is not in proportion to their own knowledge alone, but rather +according as it seems to the knowledge of the other orders of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_833" id="Page_833">[Pg 833]</a></span> the +community, that such augmentation of proportional power is just, and +safe, and wise."</p> + +<p>Placed between the Parson and the Philosopher, Leonard felt that his +position was not favorable to the display of his forces. Insensibly he +edged his chair somewhat away, and said mournfully—</p> + +<p>"Then, according to you, the reign of knowledge would be no great +advance in the aggregate freedom and welfare of man?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Let us define. By knowledge, do you mean intellectual +cultivation?—by the reign of knowledge, the ascendency of the most +cultivated minds?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard</span>, (after a pause.)—"Yes."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"Oh indiscreet young man, that is an unfortunate concession +of yours: for the ascendency of the most cultivated minds would be a +terrible oligarchy!"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Perfectly true; and we now reply to your exclamation, that men +who, by profession, have most learning ought to have more influence than +squires and merchants, farmers and mechanics. Observe, all the knowledge +that we mortals can acquire, is not knowledge positive and perfect, but +knowledge comparative, and subject to all the errors and passions of +humanity. And suppose that you could establish, as the sole regulators +of affairs, those who had the most mental cultivation, do you think they +would not like that power well enough to take all means their superior +intelligence could devise to keep it to themselves? The experiment was +tried of old by the priests of Egypt; and in the empire of China, at +this day, the aristocracy are elected from those who have most +distinguished themselves in learned colleges. If I may call myself a +member of that body, 'the people,' I would rather be an Englishman, +however much displeased with dull Ministers and blundering Parliaments, +than I would be a Chinese under the rule of the picked sages of the +Celestial Empire. Happily, therefore, my dear Leonard, nations are +governed by many things besides what is commonly called knowledge; and +the greatest practical ministers, who, like Themistocles, have made +small states great—and the most dominant races who, like the Romans, +have stretched their rule from a village half over the universe—have +been distinguished by various qualities which a philosopher would sneer +at, and a knowledge-monger would call 'sad prejudices,' and 'lamentable +errors of reason.'"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard</span> (bitterly.)—"Sir, you make use of knowledge itself to argue +against knowledge."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"I make use of the little I know to prove the foolishness of +idolatry. I do not argue against knowledge; I argue against +knowledge-worship. For here, I see in your Essay, that you are not +contented with raising human knowledge into something like divine +omnipotence, you must also confound her with virtue. According to you, +we have only to diffuse the intelligence of the few among the many, and +all at which we preachers aim is accomplished.—Nay more; for whereas we +humble preachers have never presumed to say, with the heathen Stoic, +that even virtue is sure of happiness be low (though it be the best road +to it), you tell us plainly that this knowledge of yours gives not only +the virtue of a saint, but bestows the bliss of a god. Before the steps +of your idol, the evils of life disappear. To hear you, one has but 'to +know,' in order to be exempt from the sins and sorrows of the ignorant. +Has it ever been so? Grant that you diffuse among the many all the +knowledge ever attained by the few. Have the wise few been so unerring +and so happy? You supposed that your motto was accurately cited from +Bacon. What was Bacon himself? The poet tells you—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The wisest, brightest, <i>meanest</i> of mankind.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Can you hope to bestow upon the vast mass of your order the luminous +intelligence of this 'Lord Chancellor of nature?' Grant that you do +so—and what guarantee have you for the virtue and the happiness which +you assume as the concomitants of the gift? See Bacon himself; what +black ingratitude! what miserable self-seeking! what truckling +servility! what abject and pitiful spirit! So far from intellectual +knowledge, in its highest form and type, insuring virtue and bliss, it +is by no means uncommon to find great mental cultivation combined with +great moral corruption." (Aside to Riccabocca)—"Push on, will you?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"A combination remarkable in eras as in individuals. +Petronius shows us a state of morals at which a commonplace devil would +blush, in the midst of a society more intellectually cultivated than +certainly was that which produced Regulus or the Horatii. And the most +learned eras in modern Italy were precisely those which brought the +vices into the most ghastly refinement."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard</span> (rising in great agitation, and clasping his hands.)—"I can not +contend with you, who produce against information so slender and crude +as mine the stores which have been locked from my reach. But I feel that +there must be another side to this shield—a shield that you will not +even allow to be silver. And oh, if you thus speak of knowledge, why +have you encouraged me to know?"</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XX.</h3> + +<p>"Ah, my son!" said the Parson, "if I wished to prove the value of +Religion, would you think I served it much, if I took as my motto, +'Religion is power?' Would not that be a base and sordid view of its +advantages? And would you not say he who regards religion as a power, +intends to abuse it as a priestcraft?"</p> + +<p>"Well put!" said Riccabocca.</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment—let me think. Ah—I see, sir!" said Leonard.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"If the cause be holy, do not weigh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_834" id="Page_834">[Pg 834]</a></span> it in the scales of the +market; if its objects be peaceful, do not seek to arm it with the +weapons of strife; if it is to be the cement of society, do not vaunt it +as the triumph of class against class."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard</span> (ingenuously.)—"You correct me nobly, sir. Knowledge is power, +but not in the sense in which I have interpreted the saying."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Knowledge is <i>one</i> of the powers in the moral world, but one +that, in its immediate result, is not always of the most worldly +advantage to the possessor. It is one of the slowest, because one of the +most durable, of agencies. It may take a thousand years for a thought to +come into power; and the thinker who originated it might have died in +rags or in chains."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca.</span>—"Our Italian proverb saith that 'the teacher is like the +candle, which lights others in consuming itself.'"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Therefore he who has the true ambition of knowledge should +entertain it for the power of his idea, not for the power it may bestow +on himself; it should be lodged in the conscience, and, like the +conscience, look for no certain reward on this side the grave. And since +knowledge is compatible with good and with evil, would it not be better +to say, 'Knowledge is a trust?'"</p> + +<p>"You are right, sir," said Leonard, cheerfully, "pray proceed."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"You ask me why we encourage you to <span class="smcap">know</span>. First, because (as +you say yourself in your Essay) knowledge, irrespective of gain, is in +itself a delight, and ought to be something far more. Like liberty, like +religion, it may be abused; but I have no more right to say that the +poor shall be ignorant, than I have to say that the rich only shall be +free, and that the clergy alone shall learn the truths of redemption. +You truly observe in your treatise that knowledge opens to us other +excitements than those of the senses, and another life than that of the +moment. The difference between us is this, that you forget that the same +refinement which brings us new pleasures exposes us to new pains—the +horny hand of the peasant feels not the nettles which sting the fine +skin of the scholar. You forget also, that whatever widens the sphere of +the desires, opens to them also new temptations. Vanity, the desire of +applause, pride, the sense of superiority—gnawing discontent where that +superiority is not recognized—morbid susceptibility, which comes with +all new feelings—the underrating of simple pleasures apart from the +intellectual—the chase of the imagination, often unduly stimulated, for +things unattainable below—all these are surely among the first +temptations that beset the entrance into knowledge."</p> + +<p>Leonard shaded his face with his hand.</p> + +<p>"Hence," continued the Parson, benignantly—"hence, so far from +considering that we do all that is needful to accomplish ourselves as +men, when we cultivate only the intellect, we should remember that we +thereby continually increase the range of our desires, and, therefore, +of our temptations; and we should endeavor, simultaneously, to cultivate +both those affections of the heart, which prove the ignorant to be God's +children no less than the wise, and those moral qualities which have +made men great and good when reading and writing were scarcely known—to +wit, patience and fortitude under poverty and distress; humility and +beneficence amidst grandeur and wealth: and, in counteraction to that +egotism, which all superiority, mental or worldly, is apt to inspire, +Justice, the father of all the more solid virtues, softened by Charity, +which is their loving mother. Thus accompanied, knowledge, indeed, +becomes the magnificent crown of humanity—not the imperious despot, but +the checked and tempered sovereign of the soul."</p> + +<p>The Parson paused, and Leonard, coming near him, timidly took his hand, +with a child's affectionate and grateful impulse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"And if, Leonard, you are not satisfied with our Parson's +excellent definitions, you have only to read what Lord Bacon himself has +said upon the true ends of knowledge, to comprehend at once how angry +the poor great man, whom Mr. Dale treats so harshly, would have been +with those who have stinted his elaborate distinctions and provident +cautions, into that, coxcombical little aphorism, and then misconstrued +all he designed to prove in favor of the commandant, and authority of +learning. For," added the sage, looking up as a man does when he is +tasking his memory, "I think it is thus that, after saying the greatest +error of all is the mistaking or misplacing the end of knowledge, and +denouncing the various objects for which it is vulgarly sought;—I think +it is thus that he proceeds.... 'Knowledge is not a shop for profit or +sale, but a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief +of men's estate.'"<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span> (remorsefully.)—"Are those Lord Bacon's words? I am very sorry I +spoke so uncharitably of his life. I must examine it again. I may find +excuses for it now, that I could not when I first formed my judgment. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_835" id="Page_835">[Pg 835]</a></span> +was then a raw lad at Oxford. But I see, Leonard, there is still +something on your mind."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard</span>.—"It is true, sir. I would but ask whether it is not by +knowledge that we arrive at the qualities and virtues you so well +describe, but which you seem to consider as coming to us through +channels apart from knowledge?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"If you mean by the word knowledge something very different +from what you express in your essay—and which those contending for +mental instruction, irrespective of religion and ethics, appear also to +convey by the word—you are right;—but, remember, we have already +agreed that by the word knowledge we mean culture purely intellectual."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leonard</span>.—"That is true—we so understood it."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"Thus, when this great Lord Bacon erred, you may say that he +erred from want of knowledge—the knowledge that moralists and preachers +would convey. But Lord Bacon had read all that moralists and preachers +could say on such matters; and he certainly did not err from want of +intellectual cultivation. Let me here, my child, invite you to observe, +that He who knew most of our human hearts and our immortal destinies, +did not <i>insist</i> on this intellectual culture as essential to the +virtues that form our well-being here, and conduce to our salvation +hereafter. Had it been essential, the All-wise One would not have +selected humble fishermen for the teachers of his doctrine, instead of +culling his disciples from Roman Portico, or Athenian Academy. And this, +which distinguishes so remarkably the Gospel from the ethics of heathen +philosophy, wherein knowledge is declared to be necessary to virtue, is +a proof how slight was the heathen sage's insight into the nature of +mankind, when compared with the Saviour's; for hard, indeed, would it be +to men, whether high or low, rich or poor, if science and learning, or +contemplative philosophy, were the sole avenues to peace and redemption; +since, in this state of ordeal, requiring active duties, very few, in +any age, whether they be high or low, rich or poor, ever are or can be +devoted to pursuits merely mental. Christ does not represent heaven as a +college for the learned. Therefore the rules of the Celestial Legislator +are rendered clear to the simplest understanding as to the deepest."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"And that which Plato and Zeno, Pythagoras and Socrates, +could not do, was done by men whose ignorance would have been a by-word +in the schools of the Greek. The gods of the vulgar were dethroned; the +face of the world was changed! This thought may make us allow, indeed, +that there are agencies more powerful than mere knowledge, and ask, +after all, what is the mission which knowledge should achieve?"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Parson</span>.—"The Sacred Book tells us even that; for, after establishing +the truth that, for the multitude, knowledge is not essential to +happiness and good, it accords still to knowledge its sublime part in +the revelation prepared and announced. When an instrument of more than +ordinary intelligence was required for a purpose divine—when the +Gospel, recorded by the simple, was to be explained by the acute, +enforced by the energetic, carried home to the doubts of the +Gentile—the Supreme Will joined to the zeal of the earlier apostles the +learning and genius of St. Paul—not holier than the others—calling +himself the least, yet laboring more abundantly than them all—making +himself all things unto all men, so that some might be saved. The +ignorant may be saved no less surely than the wise; but here comes the +wise man who helps to save! And how the fullness and animation of this +grand Presence, of this indomitable Energy, seem to vivify the toil, and +to speed the work! 'In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils +of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, +in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the +sea, in perils among false brethren.' Behold, my son! does not Heaven +here seem to reveal the true type of Knowledge—a sleepless activity, a +pervading agency, a dauntless heroism, an all-supporting faith?—a +power—a power, indeed—a power apart from the aggrandizement of self—a +power that brings to him who owns and transmits it but 'weariness and +painfulness; in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings +often, in cold and nakedness'—but a power distinct from the mere +circumstance of the man, rushing from him as rays from a sun;—borne +through the air, and clothing it with light—piercing under earth, and +calling forth the harvest! Worship not knowledge—worship not the sun, O +my child! Let the sun but proclaim the Creator; let the knowledge but +illumine the worship!"</p> + +<p>The good man, overcome by his own earnestness, paused; his head drooped +on the young student's breast, and all three were long silent.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXI.</h3> + +<p>Whatever ridicule may be thrown upon Mr. Dale's dissertations by the wit +of the enlightened, they had a considerable, and I think a beneficial +effect upon Leonard Fairfield—an effect which may perhaps create less +surprise, when the reader remembers that Leonard was unaccustomed to +argument, and still retained many of the prejudices natural to his +rustic breeding. Nay, he actually thought it possible that, as both +Riccabocca and Mr. Dale were more than double his age, and had had +opportunities not only of reading twice as many books, but of +contracting experience in wider ranges of life—he actually, I say, +thought it possible that they might be better acquainted with the +properties and distinctions of knowledge than himself. At all events, +the Parson's words were so far well-timed, that they produced in Leonard +very much of that state of mind which Mr. Dale desired to effect, before +communicating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_836" id="Page_836">[Pg 836]</a></span> to him the startling intelligence that he was to visit +relations whom he had never seen, of whom he had heard but little, and +that it was at least possible that the result of that visit might be to +open to him greater facilities for instruction, and a higher degree in +life.</p> + +<p>Without some such preparation, I fear that Leonard would have gone forth +into the world with an exaggerated notion of his own acquirements, and +with a notion yet more exaggerated as to the kind of power that such +knowledge as he possessed would obtain for itself. As it was, when Mr. +Dale broke to him the news of the experimental journey before him, +cautioning him against being over-sanguine, Leonard received the +intelligence with a serious meekness, and thoughts that were nobly +solemn.</p> + +<p>When the door closed on his visitors, he remained for some moments +motionless, and in deep meditation: then he unclosed the door, and stole +forth. The night was already far advanced, the heavens were luminous +with all the host of stars. "I think," said the student, referring, in +later life, to that crisis in his destiny—"I think it was then, when I +stood alone, yet surrounded by worlds so numberless, that I first felt +the distinction between <i>mind</i> and <i>soul</i>." "Tell me," said Riccabocca, +as he parted company with Mr. Dale, "whether you think we should have +given to Frank Hazeldean, on entering life, the same lecture on the +limits and ends of knowledge which we have bestowed on Leonard +Fairfield."</p> + +<p>"My friend," quoth the Parson, with a touch of human conceit; "I have +ridden on horseback, and I know that some horses should be guided by the +bridle, and some should be urged by the spur."</p> + +<p>"Cospetto!" said Riccabocca; "you contrive to put every experience of +yours to some use—even your journey on Mr. Hazeldean's pad. And I see +now why, in this little world of a village, you have picked up so +general an acquaintance with life."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever read White's <i>Natural History of Selborne?</i>"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Do so, and you will find that you need not go far to learn the habits +of birds, and know the difference between a swallow and a swift.—Learn +the difference in a village, and you know the difference wherever +swallows and swifts skim the air."</p> + +<p>"Swallows and swifts!—true; but men—"</p> + +<p>"Are with us all the year round—which is more than we can say of +swallows and swifts."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dale," said Riccabocca, taking off his hat, with great formality, +"if ever again I find myself in a dilemma, I will come to you instead of +to Machiavelli."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" cried the Parson, "if I could but have a calm hour's talk with you +on the errors of the Papal relig—"</p> + +<p>Riccabocca was off like a shot.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXII.</h3> + +<p>The next day, Mr. Dale had a long conversation with Mrs. Fairfield. At +first, he found some difficulty in getting over her pride, and inducing +her to accept overtures from parents who had so long slighted both +Leonard and herself. And it would have been in vain to have put before +the good woman the worldly advantages which such overtures implied. But +when Mr. Dale said, almost sternly, "Your parents are old, your father +infirm; their least wish should be as binding to you as their command," +the widow bowed her head and said,</p> + +<p>"God bless, them, sir, I was very sinful—'Honor your father and +mother.' I'm no scollard, but I know the Commandments. Let Lenny go. But +he'll soon forget me, and mayhap he'll learn to be ashamed of me."</p> + +<p>"There I will trust him," said the Parson; and he contrived easily to +re-assure and soothe her.</p> + +<p>It was not till all this was settled that Mr. Dale drew forth an +unsealed letter, which Mr. Richard Avenel, taking his hint, had given to +him, as from Leonard's grandparents, and said, "This is for you, and it +contains an inclosure of some value."</p> + +<p>"Will you read it, sir? As I said before, I'm no scollard."</p> + +<p>"But Leonard is, and he will read it to you."</p> + +<p>When Leonard returned home that evening, Mrs. Fairfield showed him the +letter. It ran thus:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Jane</span>—Mr. Dale will tell you that we wish Leonard to come +to us. We are glad to hear you are well. We forward, by Mr. +Dale, a bank-note for £50, which comes from Richard, your +brother. So no more at present from your affectionate parents,</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">"John and Margaret Avenel."</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>The letter was in a stiff, female scrawl, and Leonard observed that two +or three mistakes in spelling had been corrected, either in another pen +or in a different hand.</p> + +<p>"Dear brother Dick, how good in him!" cried the widow. "When I saw there +was money, I thought it must be him. How I should like to see Dick +again. But I s'pose he's still in Amerikay. Well, well, this will buy +clothes for you."</p> + +<p>"No; you must keep it all, mother, and put it in the Savings' Bank."</p> + +<p>"I'm not quite so silly as that," cried Mrs. Fairfield with contempt; +and she put the fifty pounds into a cracked teapot.</p> + +<p>"It must not stay there when I'm gone. You may be robbed, mother."</p> + +<p>"Dear me, dear me, that's true. What shall I do with it?—what do I want +with it, too? Dear me! I wish they hadn't sent it. I shan't sleep in +peace. You must e'en put it in your own pouch, and button it up tight, +boy."</p> + +<p>Lenny smiled, and took the note; but he took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_837" id="Page_837">[Pg 837]</a></span> it to Mr. Dale, and begged +him to put it into the Savings' Bank for his mother.</p> + +<p>The day following he went to take leave of his master, of Jackeymo, of +the fountain, the garden. But, after he had gone through the first of +these adieus with Jackeymo—who, poor man, indulged in all the lively +gesticulations of grief which make half the eloquence of his countrymen; +and then, absolutely blubbering, hurried away—Leonard himself was so +affected that he could not proceed at once to the house, but stood +beside the fountain, trying hard to keep back his tears.</p> + +<p>"You, Leonard—and you are going!" said a soft voice; and the tears fell +faster than ever, for he recognized the voice of Violante.</p> + +<p>"Do not cry," continued the child, with a kind of tender gravity. "You +are going, but papa says it would be selfish in us to grieve, for it is +for your good; and we should be glad. But I am selfish, Leonard, and I +do grieve. I shall miss you sadly."</p> + +<p>"You, young lady—you miss me!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But I do not cry, Leonard, for I envy you, and I wish I were a +boy: I wish I could do as you."</p> + +<p>The girl clasped her hands, and reared her slight form, with a kind of +passionate dignity.</p> + +<p>"Do as me, and part from all those you love!"</p> + +<p>"But to serve those you love. One day you will come back to your +mother's cottage, and say, 'We have conquered fortune.' Oh that I could +go forth and return, as you will. But my father has no country, and his +only child is a useless girl."</p> + +<p>As Violante spoke, Leonard had dried his tears; her emotion distracted +him from his own.</p> + +<p>"Oh," continued Violante, again raising her head loftily, "what it is to +be a man! A woman sighs, 'I wish,' but man should say 'I will.'"</p> + +<p>Occasionally before, Leonard had noted fitful flashes of a nature grand +and heroic, in the Italian child, especially of late—flashes the more +remarkable from their contrast to a form most exquisitely feminine, and +to a sweetness of temper which made even her pride gentle. But now it +seemed as if the child spoke with the command of a queen—almost with +the inspiration of a Muse. A strange and new sense of courage entered +within him.</p> + +<p>"May I remember these words!" he murmured half audibly.</p> + +<p>The girl turned and surveyed him with eyes brighter for their moisture. +She then extended her hand to him, with a quick movement, and, as he +bent over it, with a grace taught to him by genuine emotion, she +said,—"And if you do, then, girl and child as I am, I shall think I +have aided a brave heart in the great strife for honor!"</p> + +<p>She lingered a moment, smiled as if to herself, and then, gliding away, +was lost among the trees.</p> + +<p>After a long pause, in which Leonard recovered slowly from the surprise +and agitation into which Violante had thrown his spirits—previously +excited as they were—he went, murmuring to himself, toward the house. +But Riccabocca was from home. Leonard turned mechanically to the +terrace, and busied himself with the flowers. But the dark eyes of +Violante shone on his thoughts, and her voice rang in his ear.</p> + +<p>At length Riccabocca appeared, followed up the road by a laborer, who +carried something indistinct under his arm.</p> + +<p>The Italian beckoned to Leonard to follow him into the parlor, and after +conversing with him kindly, and at some length, and packing up, as it +were, a considerable provision of wisdom in the portable shape of +aphorisms and proverbs, the sage left him alone for a few moments, +Riccabocca then returned with his wife, and bearing a small knapsack:</p> + +<p>"It is not much we can do for you, Leonard, and money is the worst gift +in the world for a keepsake; but my wife and I have put our heads +together to furnish you with a little outfit. Giacomo, who was in our +secret, assures us that the clothes will fit; and stole, I fancy, a coat +of yours for the purpose. Put them on when you go to your relations; it +is astonishing what a difference it makes in the ideas people form of +us, according as our coats are cut one way or another. I should not be +presentable in London thus; and nothing is more true than that a tailor +is often the making of a man."</p> + +<p>"The shirts, too, are very good holland," said Mrs. Riccabocca, about to +open the knapsack.</p> + +<p>"Never mind details, my dear," cried the wise man; "shirts are +comprehended in the general principle of clothes. And, Leonard, as a +remembrance somewhat more personal, accept this, which I have worn many +a year when time was a thing of importance to me, and nobler fates than +mine hung on a moment. We missed the moment, or abused it, and here I +am, a waif on a foreign shore. Methinks I have done with Time."</p> + +<p>The exile, as he thus spoke, placed in Leonard's reluctant hands a watch +that would have delighted an antiquary, and shocked a dandy It was +exceedingly thick, having an outer case of enamel, and an inner one of +gold. The hands and the figures of the hours had originally been formed +of brilliants; but the brilliants had long since vanished. Still, even +thus bereft, the watch was much more in character with the giver than +the receiver, and was as little suited to Leonard as would have been the +red silk umbrella.</p> + +<p>"It is old-fashioned," said Mrs. Riccabocca, "but it goes better than +any clock in the country. I really think it will last to the end of the +world."</p> + +<p>"<i>Carissima mia!</i>" cried the Doctor, "I thought I had convinced you that +the world is by no means come to its last legs."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I did not mean any thing, Alphonso," said Mrs. Riccabocca, +coloring.</p> + +<p>"And that is all we do mean when we talk about that of which we can know +nothing," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_838" id="Page_838">[Pg 838]</a></span> the Doctor, less gallantly than usual, for he resented +that epithet of "old-fashioned," as applied to the watch.</p> + +<p>Leonard, we see, had been silent all this time; he could not +speak—literally and truly, he could not speak. How he got out of his +embarrassment, and how he got out of the room, he never explained to my +satisfaction. But, a few minutes afterward, he was seen hurrying down +the road very briskly.</p> + +<p>Riccabocca and his wife stood at the window gazing after him.</p> + +<p>"There is a depth in that boy's heart," said the sage, "which might +float an argosy."</p> + +<p>"Poor dear boy! I think we have put every thing into the knapsack that +he can possibly want," said good Mrs. Riccabocca musingly.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Doctor</span> (continuing his soliloquy.)—"They are strong, but they are +not immediately apparent."</p> + +<p>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span> (resuming hers.)—"They are at the bottom of the +knapsack."</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Doctor</span>.—"They will stand long wear and tear."</p> + +<p>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"A year, at least, with proper care at the wash."</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Doctor</span> (startled.)—"Care at the wash! What on earth are you talking +of, ma'am!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span> (mildly.)—"The shirts to be sure, my love! And you?"</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Doctor</span> (with a heavy sigh.)—"The feelings, ma'am!" Then, after a +pause, taking his wife's hand affectionately—"But you did quite right +to think of the shirts; Mr. Dale said very truly—"</p> + +<p>Mrs. <span class="smcap">Riccabocca</span>.—"What?"</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Doctor</span>.—"That there was a great deal in common between us—even +when I think of feelings, and you but of—shirts."</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIII.</h3> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Avenel sat within the parlor—Mr. Richard stood on the +hearth-rug, whistling Yankee Doodle. "The Parson writes word that the +lad will come to-day," said Richard suddenly—"let me see the +letter—ay, to day. If he took the coach as far as ——, he might walk +the rest of the way in two or three hours. He should be pretty nearly +here. I have a great mind to go and meet him: it will save his asking +questions, and hearing about me. I can clear the town by the back way, +and get out at the high road."</p> + +<p>"You'll not know him from any one else," said Mrs. Avenel.</p> + +<p>"Well, that is a good one! Not know an Avenel! We've all the same cut of +the jib—have not we, father?"</p> + +<p>Poor John laughed heartily, till the tears rolled down his cheeks.</p> + +<p>"We were always a well-favored fam'ly," said John, recomposing himself. +"There was Luke, but he's gone; and Harry, but he's dead too, and Dick, +but he's in Amerikay—no, he's here; and my darling Nora, but—"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" interrupted Mrs. Avenel; "hush, John!"</p> + +<p>The old man stared at her, and then put his tremulous hand to his brow. +"And Nora's gone too!" said he, in a voice of profound woe. Both hands +then fell on his knees, and his head drooped on his breast.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Avenel rose, kissed her husband on the forehead, and walked away to +the window. Richard took up his hat, and brushed the nap carefully with +his handkerchief; but his lips quivered.</p> + +<p>"I'm going," said he abruptly. "Now mind, mother, not a word about Uncle +Richard yet; we must first see how we like each other, and—(in a +whisper) you'll try and get that into my poor father's head?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, Richard," said Mrs. Avenel quietly. Richard put on his hat, and +went out by the back way. He stole along the fields that skirted the +town, and had only once to cross the street before he got into the high +road.</p> + +<p>He walked on till he came to the first milestone. There he seated +himself, lighted his cigar, and awaited his nephew. It was now nearly +the hour of sunset, and the road before him lay westward. Richard from +time to time looked along the road, shading his eyes with his hand; and +at length, just as the disc of the sun had half sunk down the horizon, a +solitary figure came up the way. It emerged suddenly from the turn in +the road: the reddening beams colored all the atmosphere around it. +Solitary and silent it came as from a Land of Light.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIV.</h3> + +<p>"You have been walking far, young man," said Richard Avenel.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, not very. That is Lansmere before me, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is Lansmere; you stop there, I guess?"</p> + +<p>Leonard made a sign in the affirmative, and walked on a few paces: then, +seeing the stranger who had accosted him still by his side, he said—</p> + +<p>"If you know the town, sir, perhaps you will have the goodness to tell +me whereabouts Mr. Avenel lives?"</p> + +<p>"I can put you in a straight cut across the fields, that will bring you +just behind the house."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind, but it will take you out of your way."</p> + +<p>"No, it is in my way. So you are going to Mr. Avenel's?—a good old +gentleman."</p> + +<p>"I've always heard so; and Mrs. Avenel—"</p> + +<p>"A particular superior woman," said Richard. "Any one else to ask +after—I know the family well."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you, sir."</p> + +<p>"They have a son, I believe; but he's in America, is not he?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_839" id="Page_839">[Pg 839]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I believe he is, sir."</p> + +<p>"I see the Parson has kept faith with me," muttered Richard.</p> + +<p>"If you can tell me any thing about <i>him</i>," said Leonard, "I should be +very glad."</p> + +<p>"Why so, young man?—perhaps he is hanged by this time."</p> + +<p>"Hanged!"</p> + +<p>"He was a sad dog, I am told."</p> + +<p>"Then you have been told very falsely," said Leonard, coloring.</p> + +<p>"A sad wild dog—his parents were so glad when he cut and run—went off +to the States. They say he made money; but, if so, he neglected his +relations shamefully."</p> + +<p>"Sir," said Leonard, "you are wholly misinformed. He has been most +generous to a relative who had little claim on him; and I never heard +his name mentioned but with love and praise."</p> + +<p>Richard instantly fell to whistling Yankee Doodle, and walked on several +paces without saying a word. He then made a slight apology for his +impertinence—hoped no offense—and, with his usual bold but astute +style of talk, contrived to bring out something of his companion's mind. +He was evidently struck with the clearness and propriety with which +Leonard expressed himself, raised his eyebrows in surprise more than +once, and looked him full in the face with an attentive and pleased +survey. Leonard had put on the new clothes with which Riccabocca and +wife had provided him. They were those appropriate to a young country +tradesman in good circumstances; but as he did not think about the +clothes, so he had unconsciously something of the ease of the gentleman.</p> + +<p>They now came into the fields. Leonard paused before a slip of ground +sown with rye.</p> + +<p>"I should have thought grass land would have answered better, so near a +town," said he.</p> + +<p>"No doubt it would," answered Richard; "but they are sadly behind-hand +in these parts. You see that great park yonder, on the other side of the +road? That would answer better for rye than grass; but then, what would +become of my Lord's deer? The aristocracy eat us up, young man."</p> + +<p>"But the aristocracy did not sow this piece with rye, I suppose?" said +Leonard, smiling.</p> + +<p>"And what do you conclude from that?"</p> + +<p>"Let every man look to his own ground," said Leonard, with a cleverness +of repartee caught from Doctor Riccabocca.</p> + +<p>"'Cute lad you are," said Richard; "and we'll talk more of these matters +another time."</p> + +<p>They now came within sight of Mr. Avenel's house.</p> + +<p>"You can get through the gap in the hedge, by the old pollard oak," said +Richard; "and come round by the front of the house. Why, you're not +afraid—are you?"</p> + +<p>"I am a stranger."</p> + +<p>"Shall I introduce you? I told you that I knew the old couple."</p> + +<p>"Oh no, sir! I would rather meet them alone."</p> + +<p>"Go; and—wait a bit—harkye, young man, Mrs. Avenel is a cold mannered +woman; but don't be abashed by that."</p> + +<p>Leonard thanked the good-natured stranger, crossed the field, passed the +gap, and paused a moment under the stinted shade of the old +hollow-hearted oak. The ravens were returning to their nests. At the +sight of a human form under the tree, they wheeled round, and watched +him afar. From the thick of the boughs, the young ravens sent their +hoarse low cry.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER XXV.</h3> + +<p>The young man entered the neat, prim, formal parlor.</p> + +<p>"You are welcome!" said Mrs. Avenel, in a firm voice.</p> + +<p>"The gentleman is heartily welcome," cried poor John.</p> + +<p>"It is your grandson, Leonard Fairfield," said Mrs. Avenel.</p> + +<p>But John who had risen with knocking knees, gazed hard at Leonard, and +then fell on his breast, sobbing aloud—"Nora's eyes!—he has a blink in +his eyes like Nora's."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Avenel approached with a steady step, and drew away the old man +tenderly.</p> + +<p>"He is a poor creature," she whispered to Leonard—"you excite him. Come +away, I will show you your room."</p> + +<p>Leonard followed her up the stairs, and came into a room—neatly, and +even prettily furnished. The carpet and curtains were faded by the sun, +and of old-fashioned pattern, but there was a look about the room as if +it had long been disused.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Avenel sank down on the first chair on entering.</p> + +<p>Leonard drew his arm round her waist affectionately: "I fear that I have +put you out sadly—my dear grandmother."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Avenel glided hastily from his arm, and her countenance worked +much—every nerve in it twitching as it were; then, placing her hand on +his locks, she said with passion, "God bless you, my grandson," and left +the room.</p> + +<p>Leonard dropped his knapsack on the floor, and looked around him +wistfully. The room seemed as if it had once been occupied by a female. +There was a work-box on the chest of drawers, and over it hanging +shelves for books, suspended by ribbons that had once been blue, with +silk and fringe appended to each shelf, and knots and tassels here and +there—the taste of a woman, or rather of a girl, who seeks to give a +grace to the commonest things around her. With the mechanical habit of a +student, Leonard took down one or two of the volumes still left on the +shelves. He found <span class="smcap">Spenser's</span> <i>Fairy Queen</i>, <span class="smcap">Racine</span> in French, <span class="smcap">Tasso</span> in +Italian; and on the fly-leaf of each volume, in the exquisite +hand-writing familiar to his memory,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_840" id="Page_840">[Pg 840]</a></span> the name "Leonora." He kissed the +books, and replaced them with a feeling akin both to tenderness and awe.</p> + +<p>He had not been alone in his room more than a quarter of an hour, before +the maid-servant knocked at his door and summoned him to tea.</p> + +<p>Poor John had recovered his spirits, and his wife sate by his side +holding his hand in hers. Poor John was even gay. He asked many +questions about his daughter Jane, and did not wait for the answers. +Then he spoke about the Squire, whom he confounded with Audley Egerton, +and talked of elections, and the Blue party, and hoped Leonard would +always be a good Blue; and then he fell to his tea and toast, and said +no more.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Avenel spoke little, but she eyed Leonard askant, as it were, from +time to time; and after each glance the nerves of the poor severe face +twitched again.</p> + +<p>A little after nine o'clock Mrs. Avenel lighted a candle, and placing it +in Leonard's hand, said, "You must be tired—you know your own room now. +Good-night."</p> + +<p>Leonard took the light, and, as was his wont with his mother, kissed +Mrs. Avenel on the cheek. Then he took John's hand and kissed him too. +The old man was half asleep and murmured dreamily, "That's Nora."</p> + +<p>Leonard had retired to his room about half-an-hour, when Richard Avenel +entered the house softly, and joined his parents.</p> + +<p>"Well, mother?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Well, Richard—you have seen him?"</p> + +<p>"And like him. Do you know he has a great look of poor Nora?—more like +her than Jane?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; he is handsomer than Jane ever was, but more like your father than +any one. John was so comely. You take to the boy then?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, that I do. Just tell him in the morning that he is to go with a +gentleman who will be his friend, and don't say more. The chaise shall +be at the door after breakfast. Let him get into it: I shall wait for +him out of the town. What's the room you give him?"</p> + +<p>"The room you would not take."</p> + +<p>"The room in which Nora slept? Oh, no! I could not have slept a wink +there. What a charm there was in that girl!—how we all loved her! But +she was too beautiful and good for us—too good to live!"</p> + +<p>"None of us are too good," said Mrs. Avenel with great austerity, "and I +beg you will not talk in that way. Good-night—I must get your poor +father to bed."</p> + +<p>When Leonard opened his eyes-the next morning, they rested on the face +of Mrs. Avenel, which was bending over his pillow. But it was long +before he could recognize that countenance, so changed was its +expression—so tender, so motherlike. Nay, the face of his own mother +had never seemed to him so soft with a mother's passion.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he murmured, half rising, and flinging his young arms round her +neck. Mrs. Avenel, this time, and for the first, taken by surprise, +warmly returned the embrace: she clasped him to her breast, she kissed +him again and again. At length with a quick start she escaped, and +walked up and down the room, pressing her hands tightly together. When +she halted her face had recovered its usual severity and cold precision.</p> + +<p>"It is time for you to rise, Leonard," said she. "You will leave us +to-day. A gentleman has promised to take charge of you, and do for you +more than we can. A chaise will be at the door soon—make haste."</p> + +<p>John was absent from the breakfast-table. His wife said that he never +rose till late, and must not be disturbed.</p> + +<p>The meal was scarce over before a chaise and pair came to the door.</p> + +<p>"You must not keep the chaise waiting—the gentleman is very punctual."</p> + +<p>"But he is not come."</p> + +<p>"No, he has walked on before, and will get in after you are out of the +town."</p> + +<p>"What is his name, and why should he care for me, grandmother?"</p> + +<p>"He will tell you himself. Now, come."</p> + +<p>"But you will bless me again, grandmother. I love you already."</p> + +<p>"I do bless you," said Mrs. Avenel firmly. "Be honest and good, and +beware of the first false step." She pressed his hand with a convulsive +grasp, and led him to the outer door.</p> + +<p>The postboy clanked his whip, the chaise rattled off. Leonard put his +head out of the window to catch a last glimpse of the old woman. But the +boughs of the pollard oak, and its gnarled decaying trunk, hid her from +his eye. And look as he would, till the road turned, he saw but the +melancholy tree.</p> + +<h4>(<i>To be continued.</i>)</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> This aphorism has been probably assigned to Lord Bacon upon +the mere authority of the index to his works. It is the aphorism of the +index-maker, certainly not of the great master of inductive philosophy. +Bacon has, it is true, repeatedly dwelt on the power of knowledge, but +with so many explanations and distinctions, that nothing could be more +unjust to his general meaning than to attempt to cramp into a sentence +what it costs him a volume to define. Thus, if in one page he appears to +confound knowledge with power, in another he sets them in the strongest +antithesis to each other; as follows, "Adeo, signanter Deus opera +potentiæ et sapientiæ diseriminavit." But it would be as unfair to Bacon +to convert into an aphorism the sentence that discriminates between +knowledge and power as it is to convert into an aphorism any sentence +that confounds them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> "But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or +misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge:—for men have +entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a +natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their +minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; +and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and +most times for lucre and profession;"—[that is, for most of those +objects which are meant by the ordinary citers of the saying, 'Knowledge +is power;'] "and seldom, sincerely, to give a true account of these +gifts of reason to the benefit and use of men; as if there were sought +in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; +or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down, with +a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself +upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a +shop for profit or sale—and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the +Creator, and the relief of men's estate."—<span class="smcap">Advancement of Learning, Book +I</span>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="UNCLE_JOHN_OR_THE_ROUGH_ROAD_TO_RICHES" id="UNCLE_JOHN_OR_THE_ROUGH_ROAD_TO_RICHES"></a>UNCLE JOHN; OR, THE ROUGH ROAD TO RICHES.</h2> + + +<p>England affords, even in these degenerate days of peace, innumerable +examples of the class called "lucky fellows;" that is to say, men who +have begun life with a charity-school education and a shilling, and are +now prosperous in wealth and station. Perhaps it is hardly fair to +impute to good-luck, what may be mainly owing to industry, frugality, +patience, and perseverance. But, after all, one may starve with all +these virtues, in spite of all that copy-book maxims may say to the +contrary. There is good-luck in success, whatever may have been the +qualities by which that good luck has been seized at the right moment +and turned to good account. Industry, frugality, patience, and +perseverance, form a perfect locomotive—good-luck is the engine-driver +who turns the handle and sets them in motion at the right moment.</p> + +<p>Men who have been the "architects of their own fortunes," never admit +that good luck has had any thing to do with their prosperity. Their +pardonable vanity at their own success<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_841" id="Page_841">[Pg 841]</a></span> makes them guilty of a species +of ingratitude to Providence. Listen to one of these old gentlemen +holding forth to his hopeful son or nephew on his, the said old +gentleman's, past life; on his early poverty, his self-denial, his hard +work, and his subsequent reward; and the burden of his discourse is ever +the same,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Alone</i> I did it, boy!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Should the listener at any point be tempted rashly to exclaim "how +lucky!" the old gentleman will turn on him with a severe frown and say, +"luck, sir; nonsense. There's no such thing as luck. Live on a crust, +sir; that's the only way for a man to get on in the world." The old +gentleman quite forgets that if his first venture in the <i>Chutnee</i> East +Indiaman had been a failure; or his first dabble in the stocks had not +been followed by the battle of Leipsic; or his senior partner, who had +nine-tenths of the profits of the business, had not departed this life +suddenly in an apoplectic fit, he would have held a very different +position in the world, and probably have been now a denizen of the +second floor over his counting-house in the city, instead of a resident +in Hyde Park Gardens.</p> + +<p>An excellent specimen of this class of old gentlemen is "Uncle John." +The obscurity of his early days is so great that even he himself finds +it difficult to penetrate it. That he had a father and a mother is +incontestable; but these worthy people seem to have left this world of +sin at so early a period of "Uncle John's" existence, that, for all +practical purposes, he might as well have been without them. His first +juvenile recollections are connected with yellow stockings, leather +shorts, a cutaway coatee with a tin badge on it, and a little round +woolen cap with a tuft in the middle of it, resting on a head formed by +nature to accommodate a cap of double its dimensions. In a word, "Uncle +John" was a charity-boy.</p> + +<p>It must not be imagined that the above fact has ever been communicated +by Uncle John himself; for the worthy man is weak enough to be ashamed +of it, though he will discourse of his early privations in a mystical +manner, with the design apparently of inducing you to regard him rather +as a counterpart of Louis Philippe in his days of early exile, than as a +commonplace, though equally interesting (to a right-thinking mind) young +gentleman in yellow stockings. It <i>is</i> a fact, however, as indisputable +as that Uncle John is now worth thirty or forty thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>Emerging from the charity-school, and exchanging the leather shorts and +yellow stockings for corduroys and gray worsted socks, Uncle John +obtained the appointment of office-boy to a Temple attorney. His duties +were multifarious—sweeping the office and serving writs, cleaning boots +and copying declarations. His emoluments were not large—seven shillings +a week and "find himself," which was less difficult, poor boy, than to +find any thing <i>for</i> himself. But Uncle John persevered and was not +disheartened. He lived literally on a crust, and regaled himself only +with the savory smells issuing from the cook's-shop, which was not only +an economical luxury, but had the advantage of affording a stimulus to +the imagination. He actually saved two shillings a week out of his +salary, not to mention an occasional donation of a shilling on high days +and holidays from his master.</p> + +<p>Uncle John was never idle. When he had nothing to do for his master, +which was rarely the case, he used to take a pen and any loose piece of +paper or parchment, and copy, or imitate, the lawyer's engrossing +hand—known as court-hand—till he became a good penman in this cramped +style of writing. Having accomplished this object, Uncle John determined +to "better himself," by getting a situation as copying clerk instead of +office boy. He succeeded in his attempts, and was installed in another +attorney's office as engrossing clerk at twelve shillings a week—a +salary which appeared to him, at the time, enormous. But riches did not +turn his head. The only increase which he made in his previous +expenditure, was in wearing a rather cleaner shirt, and discarding +corduroys for some more genteel material. Uncle John was too wise and +too self-denying to be seduced <i>inside</i> the cook's-shop yet.</p> + +<p>He was now saving at least six shillings a week, which is £15 a year! +For four years no change took place in his condition. He still lived in +his solitary garret; worked hard all day, and borrowed law books from +the articled clerks in the office, which he read at home at night. At +home! poor fellow—what a name for his miserable little room up in the +tiles of a house in a narrow court out of Fleet-street! But Uncle John +was a brave fellow, and worked on without stopping to sentimentalize.</p> + +<p>A promotion now took place in the office, and Uncle John was made chief +common-law clerk at one pound a week. He had rendered himself quite +competent for the duties by his midnight studies. He was never absent +from his post, never forgot any thing, and was never ill; for he had the +strength of a horse. It is suspected that about this time, Uncle John +paid one or two visits to the cook's-shop; but it must not be supposed +that the visits were <i>more</i> than one or two. As a rule, Uncle John dined +on a piece of the cheapest meat he could purchase, boiled by himself in +his garret.</p> + +<p>He was wise enough, however, to be very neat in his dress, and thereby +gained the credit of being a very respectable young man in the eyes of +his employer; for it is a very remarkable fact that clerks are always +expected to dress like gentlemen when their salaries are not even large +enough to buy them food.</p> + +<p>Another four years passed away, when one day Uncle John, having duly +screwed up his courage, walked into his master's private room, and, +after a little preliminary hesitation, ventured to hint that he should +like to be articled! The master stared—the clerk remained silently +awaiting his answer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_842" id="Page_842">[Pg 842]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Are you aware," inquired the former, "that the expense of the stamp, +&c., is one hundred and twenty pounds?"</p> + +<p>Uncle John <i>was</i> aware of it, and he was prepared with the money. He had +saved it out of his miserable salary.</p> + +<p>The master stared still more. But, after a short time, he consented to +article Uncle John, and to continue his salary during the term of his +articles. Uncle John was in ecstasies, and so far forgot his usual +prudence that evening as to indulge in half a pint of bad port wine—a +taste, by the way, which he has retained to this day.</p> + +<p>He was now a happy man. Every thing was "en train" now to make him one +day a "gentleman by Act of Parliament"—as attorneys are facetiously +termed. It would certainly require something more than even the +omnipotence of an Act of Parliament to confer the character on some of +the fraternity.</p> + +<p>During the first year of his articles the managing clerk died, and Uncle +John was promoted to that office with a salary of two hundred a year. +Here was, indeed, a rise in life—from seven shillings a week to two +hundred a year! Happy Uncle John. But you deserved it all; for you had +plenty of the courage which is prepared for all ills, and endures those +which it can not conquer.</p> + +<p>Long before the five years of his articles had expired, the clerk had +made himself so absolutely necessary to the master, that the latter +could scarcely have carried on the business for a month without him. +Therefore, when the time arrived at which he ceased to be a clerk and +became himself an attorney, Uncle John hinted to his master that he was +going to leave him. Cunning Uncle John! You had no such intention; but +you knew that your master would take alarm, beg you to stay, and offer +you a partnership. Of course—and he did so.</p> + +<p>Uncle John's path in life was from henceforth comparatively smooth. He +was the working partner in a business which was both profitable and of +good quality. Within a few years his partner was foolish enough to +quarrel with him, and to demand a dissolution of the partnership. Uncle +John readily consented, and all the clients knowing well who was the man +that understood the business and transacted it, followed him; and he +became an attorney with a practice of two thousand a year, and no +partner to share the profits.</p> + +<p>His economical habits never forsook him. He married and kept a decent +table; but save in a love of good wine (or at least what his uneducated +taste considered so), he had nothing but the ordinary necessaries of +life. How much he saved each year who shall say? He had no children, and +his practice increasing while his wants stood still, he became what he +is now—a prosperous and highly respected old gentleman.</p> + +<p>It is the fashion of the old to point out such men as models for the +imitation of the rising generation. The young, on the contrary, make +them the subjects of their ridicule, for their bad grammar and worse +manners. Let us see if we can find out the truth, unbiased by either +party. Uncle John is now a rich man, an honorable man, a hardworking +man, and in the main a sensible man. He has attained his position in +life by patience, perseverance, and industry, favored also by a little +of that good luck to which we first referred. But Uncle John is +deficient in many of the characteristics which adorn human nature. Is it +not natural that he should be so? Where was he to learn the gentler +feelings of his kind—affection, sympathy, benevolence? In his garret, +alone and unfriended? He is mean and parsimonious. He is worth forty +thousand pounds, and his deceased brother's child is starving with his +wife in a suburban garret. Uncle John will not aid him with a penny. Who +aided <i>him</i>? Did <i>he</i> not live in a garret, and save money too? Was <i>he</i> +such a fool as to marry before he could keep a wife? Uncle John was +guilty of no weaknesses in those days; he can not forgive them in +another.</p> + +<p>His only brother dies, leaving a large family and a widow—unprovided +for: for the children have eaten up all he could ever earn. Uncle John +does not like the widow (perhaps because she had so many children), but +he gives her £50 a year. His own income is about four thousand.</p> + +<p>His only sister is also left a widow without a sixpence. Uncle John +gives <i>her</i> £50 a year. "People should not marry imprudently. He can +afford no more; he has a great many calls upon him." Perhaps so; but the +answer to such calls is always, "not at home."</p> + +<p>He has many clerks now. He makes them all work twelve hours a day. Why +not? <i>He</i> worked twelve hours a day.</p> + +<p>He has articled clerks too. They must work twelve hours a day also. <i>He</i> +did it. True, Uncle John; but you had your salary for it; while they, on +the contrary, pay you for the privilege of working for you.</p> + +<p>There is an old adage that a slave makes the worst tyrant. Uncle John +exemplifies it. Because he suffered poverty and privation, he thinks +that every youth should endure the same. Because nature had given him +the constitution of a horse, he thinks that every one should have a +similar one.</p> + +<p>Such men as Uncle John are striking examples of certain qualities; and +of those particular qualities which conduce to success in life. Their +highest praise (perhaps there is no higher praise in the world) is their +unflinching integrity. But we can not bring ourselves to think them—on +the whole—models for imitation. After all, there is selfishness at the +bottom of their first motives, and this quality grows with their growth, +and strengthens with their strength, till, in their old age, they are +impatient at all the enjoyments of youth. The hardships of their younger +days are not only to be pitied for the pain they must have inflicted at +the time,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_843" id="Page_843">[Pg 843]</a></span> but because they have closed up all the avenues through which +the gentler, nobler, and more generous sympathies of our nature find +their way into the heart. Their want of education has not been of the +mind alone, but of the affections; and as it is ten thousand times more +difficult to learn a language or a science in old age than in youth, so +it is infinitely more difficult (if it be not impossible) to teach the +science of the affections, and the language of the heart, to the old man +whose youth has known nothing of either. Affliction and adversity teach +oft-times sympathy and benevolence; but to do so they must have followed +on happier times, and not have been a birth-portion. You may praise and +respect "Uncle Johns," but you can not love them—neither can they love +you.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DARLING_DOREL" id="DARLING_DOREL"></a>DARLING DOREL.</h2> + + +<p>Dorothea Sibylla, Duchess of Brieg, was born at Cöln, on the River +Spree, in Prussia, on the 19th of October, 1590. She was the daughter of +Elizabeth of Anhalt, and of John George, Margrave and Elector of +Brandenburg, of the old princely Ascanian race. At the death of her +husband in 1598, the widowed margravine retired to Crossen to +superintend her daughter's education. In due time, suitors were not +wanting for the hand of young Dorothea Sibylla: among others, the King +of Denmark; but he sued in vain. Dorothea, at length, fixed her +affection on John Christian, Duke of Liegnitz and Brieg, who enjoyed a +great reputation for virtue, ability, and integrity. To him, after a +short courtship. Dorothea was married on the 12th of December, 1610, at +Crossen; and reached Brieg—the small capital of her future +dominions—on the first of January in the following year.</p> + +<p>Such is the dry sum of a charming Court biography, which first appeared +in a periodical published in 1829, in Silesia, and which has been twice +republished in a separate form—once (in 1838) at Brieg, under the title +of "Passages from the Life of Dorothea Sibylla, Duchess of Liegnitz and +Brieg." It purports to consist of extracts from the journal of a certain +tanner and furrier of Brieg, named Valentinus Gierth, an occasional +guest at the ducal castle, and ardent admirer of the duchess. As a +simple, and—if internal evidence be worth any thing—truthful picture +of German-Court life during the early part of the seventeenth century, +it is not to be gainsayed; although suspicions of its authenticity have +been cast upon it, similar to those which damaged the charms of the +"Diary of Lady Willoughby," by eventually proving it to be a fiction.</p> + +<p>Dorothea is described as a pattern of goodness, common sense, virtue, +and piety. In domestic management, she was pre-eminent. For her own +immediate attendants, she appointed fourteen maids of honor; and the +first families of the land looked upon it as an inestimable privilege to +place their daughters at the ducal court; which was a high school of +all noble virtues and accomplishments, "whereof the duchess herself was +the chief teacher and most perfect model."</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more primitive than the duchess's intercourse with the +townspeople. Occasionally she walked in the streets of Brieg accompanied +by her maids of honor, and chatted with such of the townspeople as were +sitting on the benches outside their doors. The little children looked +forward with the greatest delight to these town walks of the duchess; +for the ladies-in-waiting invariably carried about with them in their +pockets all sorts of sweetmeats, which the duchess distributed among the +little claimants. For this reason, the little children stood peeping +round the corners of the streets, when it got wind that the duchess was +about to walk out; more especially when it was surmised that the duke +would not be with her. So soon, therefore, as Dorothea Sibylla left the +castle gate, the little urchins would run through the town, like +wildfire, crying out, "The darling Dorel is coming!—the darling Dorel +is coming!"</p> + +<p>The manner in which this endearing designation first came to her ears is +related with affecting simplicity. "It happened," says Master Gierth, +with true German particularity, "on the 10th of September (old style) in +the year of our Lord, 1613;" that being the Feast of St. Sibylla—one of +the duchess's name-saints—and also the second birth-day of her son +George. There was a great feast at the castle; to which the towns-folks +and the children of the High and Guild Schools were invited.</p> + +<p>"From the terrace," quoth the chronicler, "the whole procession moved +along a wide, smooth walk before the orangery; where the quality, as +well as the children, were richly treated with strong, spiced wine, +orange-water, and confectionery. Her ladyship did, likewise, lay certain +presents before the young lord, her son; she did, likewise, examine the +children's school-books, and the master's report, wherein the conduct of +the children was noted, and did put apposite questions to them touching +their Christian belief, and the like; and, on receiving right proper +answers, her face did shine like an angel's.</p> + +<p>"One little maiden, however, which was weak and ignorant, was not able +to answer the questions aright; whereupon her ladyship did ask:</p> + +<p>"'My child, what is your name?' Whereunto she did answer, 'Anna Pohlin.'</p> + +<p>"'Well,' asked her ladyship, 'and what is my name?'</p> + +<p>"Straightway the little maiden did answer, 'Darling Dorel!'</p> + +<p>"Hereupon Master Valentinus Gierth was somewhat affronted, but did +quickly recover himself and, stepping up to her ladyship, did say:</p> + +<p>"'Most gracious lady! I trust your ladyship will pardon these words, and +not take them amiss; inasmuch, as it is true that the women of this +town, as well as of the neighboring villages, when they do speak of your +ladyship, do commonly call your ladyship the Darling Dorel.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_844" id="Page_844">[Pg 844]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then did the duchess fold her hands, and, raising them to heaven, did +say:</p> + +<p>"'God be praised for such a precious title! the which, as long as I am +in my senses, I would not exchange against 'Your Majesty!'</p> + +<p>"The duke did, thereupon, embrace her ladyship, saying:</p> + +<p>"'Away with the title, 'princely consort!' I will ever henceforth call +thee by none other save 'Darling Dorel!'"</p> + +<p>We by no means intend to follow the good tanner through his minute +records; but merely write thus much, as necessary preface to a quaint +little love story. Premising that the duchess had sent, after her usual +fashion, a marriage present to a certain lady, by two of her maids of +honor (by name Agnes and Mary), we shall transfer the narrative to our +pages in Master Gierth's own manner.</p> + +<p>After the presentation of the gifts, and when the marriage ceremony was +concluded, the two maids of honor were preparing to return to Brieg, +when the bride's father stopped them, saying:</p> + +<p>"'How? Shall I suffer two such angels of joy to depart, without tasting +of my food and my drink? Nay, noble damsels, ye must abide here awhile +beyond the marriage festivities, and be of good cheer! I will +immediately dispatch a trusty messenger on horse to her most gracious +ladyship, the duchess, and obtain leave for your sojourn here.'</p> + +<p>"The two damsels did, therefore, abide there the space of three days, +and became acquainted with two gallants of the place; with whom they did +exchange love-tokens and rings. But when the two damsels returned to +Brieg to render an account of their mission, the duchess did note the +rings on the fingers of the two damsels, and questioned them how they +came thereby. So soon, therefore, as the two damsels did confess the +truth, their mistress, half-jestingly, and half in earnest, said unto +them:</p> + +<p>"'How now, ye gad-abouts! ye have scarce chipped the egg-shell, and +have, as yet, no means to make the pot boil, seeing that ye are poor +orphans, and under age; and ye yet dare to listen to the nonsense of +strange gallants, unbeknown to your foster-mother! Tell me, foolish +young things, ought I not to take the rod to you? Take off the rings +from your fingers, and give them to me. I will send them back; seeing +that the betrothal is null and void, and mere child's play.'</p> + +<p>"The young damsels did then obey her ladyship, but wept apace the while. +This caused her ladyship to have compassion upon them, and she did +minister comfort to them thus:</p> + +<p>"'Ah! beloved daughters! ye shed bitter, hot tears that ye do not +already wear the curch [the German head dress of married women]. But if +ye did but know the heaviness of being wedded wives, even when the cares +are lightest, ye would rejoice! Meanwhile, the matter hath been carried +on against all Christian order. I have always heard that the lover first +maketh his suit known to the parents or the guardians, and that then +the betrothal taketh place. Your suitors must needs be in great haste. +Why stand they in such great necessity of pushing their suit?'</p> + +<p>"Hereupon the damsel Agnes plucked up an heart, and said quickly,</p> + +<p>"'Most gracious lady! the gentlemen did come with us; and have already +the consent of their own parents to make their suit if they be but +encouraged by a sign of approval.'</p> + +<p>"'Ah! Heaven have mercy!' cried the duchess, joining her hands. 'Have +ye, scape-graces indeed, brought your gallants hither? I dare not +inquire further. May be, ye have hidden them in your chambers? Meggy +(the duchess's nurse), beg his lordship to come hither; I must talk the +matter over with him.'</p> + +<p>"'After the duke had come and heard that which had befallen, he +straightways asked the names of the gallants; and when the damsels had +informed his grace thereof, his lordship did turn unto his consort, +saying:</p> + +<p>"'Listen, Darling Dorel: the parents, on both sides, are most worthy +persons, and of unblemished birth. I advise that thou shouldst give thy +consent thereunto! Remember, dearest, that we twain were of one mind +long before I made known my suit unto thy mother.'</p> + +<p>"Whereupon her ladyship did strike her lord upon the mouth with her +kerchief, and said,</p> + +<p>"'Well!—well!—but we must first look at these youths, and learn what +they are like. Tell us now, young damsels, where are your lovers hidden, +and what is the signal ye have agreed upon?'</p> + +<p>"Agnes did immediately tell her ladyship that the gallants were housed +at the Golden Pitcher; and, whereas the Lion's Tower, in the palace, +could thence be plainly discerned, they had agreed to tie a white +kerchief round the neck of one of the lions as a signal that there was +hope for them! The gallants had agreed to abide at the hostel the space +of eight days. Should the matter, however, turn out ill, the kerchief +displayed was to be black.</p> + +<p>"'Well done,' said the duchess to her husband; 'they wish to take two +fortresses at once; and would have the white flag wave without firing a +shot, and without attempting a storm.'</p> + +<p>"Hereupon the Duke Christian did take the hand of his beloved wife, and +spoke, somewhat in an under tone:</p> + +<p>"'Darling wife! was not the green branch so often stuck in your window +at Crossen; also a white flag? Moreover, thou knowest little of a siege; +preparations for storming a citadel are not made during the daylight; +but secretly, in the night season, in order that the garrison perceive +them not. Shots may already have been fired. Tell me, young girls, have +ye already kissed the gallants? Mary, do you speak; ye have not yet +opened your mouth: make a clean breast.'</p> + +<p>"'Ah! most gracious liege,' answered Mary, 'the gentlemen have, indeed, +squeezed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_845" id="Page_845">[Pg 845]</a></span> hands in secret, while we sat at table; and during the +marriage-dance, and at sundry other dances, we kissed each other—seeing +that others did the like. But we could not be alone with them at any +other time; for the bride's mother was always about us, and we lay in +her room. Neither, on the way home, had we much liberty; seeing that the +old secretary, whom her ladyship did send with us, did observe us most +narrowly. But, when the old man did look out of the window of the +carriage, then did the gallants look tenderly upon us, and did kiss +their hands to us."</p> + +<p>"'There, now,' said his lordship, turning to his wife, 'you see that the +siege was conducted with vigor. The squeezing of hands was the parley; +the kisses the cannon-balls, sent so freely; and the tender looks the +shells. Depend upon it the storm can not long be delayed. Listen, +darling wife, my heart melts when I bethink me that we also, in our +youth, could not brook a long delay.'</p> + +<p>"'Let the drums beat the chamade [parley], and let us show our colors!' +said the duchess; while she threw her arms round her husband's neck, and +stopped his mouth with a kiss. The duke did then ask her, jestingly, +'But which flag shall it be?'</p> + +<p>"Hereupon the two young damsels did cry aloud, as with one voice:</p> + +<p>"'The white!—most gracious liege!—the white!'</p> + +<p>"The duchess could not choose but laugh heartily, and his lordship did +immediately order a servant to mount the tower, and to tie a white +kerchief round one of the lion's necks. His lordship did then sing an +old song the children are wont to sing on May-day:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'A stately house my lord doth keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two maidens from the windows peep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A kerchief white the one doth wave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because they fain would husbands have.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And then did depart to put on better apparel, wherein to await the +coming of the wooers. He did also command that all the court ladies and +the courtiers should be present at the wooing. Meanwhile, 'Darling +Dorel' did ask the damsels where they had gotten the rings which they +had presented to their gallants in return for theirs? Thereupon Agnes +did reply unto her ladyship:</p> + +<p>"'Most gracious lady! we are but poor orphans, and possess nought save +poor little gold rings belonging to our departed mothers, And these we +could not bear to part with. We have therefore promised to buy rings +with our savings, and deliver them to our gallants on some fitting +opportunity.'</p> + +<p>"'In this case,' said her ladyship, 'ye are but half betrothed, and +there is yet time to think twice of the matter;' nevertheless, her +ladyship did praise the young damsels, inasmuch as they did not part +lightly and rashly with their mothers' trinkets. She advised them, +moreover, to tarry; as they or their gallants might change their minds.</p> + +<p>"This speech did much alarm the damsels, who did then believe the whole +matter to be postponed; and they did forthwith begin to weep, and to +beseech her ladyship, not for this account, to cause their lovers to +alter their mind, seeing that they, the damsels, were poor, and were not +likely soon to get other suitors.</p> + +<p>"The duchess did then say unto them: 'The misfortune would not be so +great! I would find husbands for you soon enough.' Hereupon, she turned +to old Meggy, and said,</p> + +<p>"'Ah! most worthy nurse, what a life does a wretched princess lead! Had +I but married an honest burgher, then should I have had nothing but my +household duties and my children to attend to; I could have gone quietly +to bed, slept without care, and waked with pleasure; but in my position +every thing is otherwise. Alack, when my other damsels come hither, and +learn that these silly girls are already betrothed, they will all run +mad, and I shall have to send them to all the marriage feasts throughout +the duchy to pick up husbands.'</p> + +<p>"Hereupon, she sent the nurse Meggy for her jewel box, opened it, and +gave to each of the two damsels a handsome ring, the which they might +present to their lovers, and thus return their pledge; but under this +condition, that they were not to deliver their rings until the duchess +gave them a sign thereunto with her kerchief.</p> + +<p>"While all this was going on, the duke on his part had entered the +duchess's apartment, accompanied by the chamberlain, all the gentlemen +of his court, and the maids of honor. The lovers, meanwhile, were on the +look out, and were not aware that matters had gone to such a length +touching their love affairs. They had joyfully obeyed the white signal, +and stood near unto the gates of the castle waiting for some opportunity +of seeing their betrothed. The duke perceived this, and hereupon opened +the window, and called unto the soldiers on guard, 'Arrest me those two +fellows, and conduct them to the guard-house, until further orders!'</p> + +<p>"Hereupon the damsels, Agnes and Mary, were exceedingly afraid. The +duke, however, did comfort them with the following words:</p> + +<p>"'This is on your account; hasten and put on proper attire; ye still +have got on your old clothes, and must adorn yourselves.'</p> + +<p>"The damsels ran gleefully and quickly into their rooms; whither the +duchess sent after them two other damsels to aid them in plaiting their +hair. They soon returned; and each of the damsels about to be betrothed +had put on the bridal wreath belonging to her mother.</p> + +<p>"The duke now ordered the lovers to be summoned from the guard-house. +They were sore abashed when they entered the room; especially when his +gracious lordship addressed the following questions to them:</p> + +<p>"'What are your names? Have you passports? and what is your will?'</p> + +<p>"The young men twirled their caps in their hands; stared first at their +loves, and then at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_846" id="Page_846">[Pg 846]</a></span> their gracious lieges; but could not utter a word, +and stood looking very sheepish.</p> + +<p>"'Ah!' said his lordship, 'never in my life did I meet with two such +dumb fellows. My dominions will soon touch those of Oppeln, and you +serve excellent well as landmarks! can neither of ye say 'yea or nay?' +Answer me straight! Have ye got the consent of your parents to propose +for those two chits; and are ye ready to affirm the same on your word of +honor, as gentlemen?'</p> + +<p>"Then did the young men recover their speech, and they both answered, +'Yea.'</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said the duke, 'I will now believe ye, and keep you at my court +some few days; but as ye may be rogues and vagabonds for all that I +know, I will therefore send a messenger on horseback to your parents to +get further intelligence, and ye must have patience the while.'</p> + +<p>"Hereupon the damsel, Mary, turned to the duchess, and said to her with +great simplicity,</p> + +<p>"'Most gracious lady, the gentlemen have spoken truth! Their parents +have given them permission to woo us. We have concealed nothing from +them, but confessed in the presence of the old lady Wentzkin, that we +were poor orphan girls, and have no dower. But the mothers of our two +lovers said that all was well; if only we brought a blessing from +Darling Dorel, they should value it more than an earldom! This Agnes and +I can affirm on oath.'</p> + +<p>"On hearing this, the duchess folded her hands in prayer, looked toward +heaven with tears in her eyes, and still praying, and gave the signal +with her kerchief. Immediately the damsels placed the rings on the +fingers of their lovers, knelt down before the duchess, and besought her +blessing. The duchess laid her hands upon the heads of the young girls +and said,</p> + +<p>"'God alone, who is in heaven, knows whether this will prove a blessing +or a curse; but, if God hear the prayer of a weak woman, it will prove a +blessing! Bethink ye of your deceased parents; and may their blessing +evermore accompany ye! And therefore, let us most fervently utter the +Lord's Prayer.'</p> + +<p>"Hereupon all present fell upon their knees, and prayed in a low voice; +but her most gracious ladyship did say the Lord's Prayer aloud.</p> + +<p>"After the prayer was finished, the duchess made a sign to the chief +lady about the court, who did thereupon bring, on a silver salver, two +half wreaths, which were twined in the hair of the two damsels, Agnes +and Mary, after they had taken off their own wreaths; for it was the +custom, in Brieg, for betrothed maidens to wear only half wreaths until +their wedding-day, when they wore whole ones. The chamberlain did +hereupon display from the window a red flag; upon which signal the ducal +band did strike up a merry tune with trumpets and kettle-drums from the +castle tower; whereupon a crowd gathered in the town to know the cause +of such rejoicing at the palace.</p> + +<p>"So soon, therefore, as the betrothed couples had duly thanked his grace +and the duchess by kissing the hems of their garments, her gracious +ladyship did announce to the betrothed damsels, that they should tarry +with her for the space of one year, in order more fully to learn their +household duties, and to strengthen them in the practice of the +Christian virtues; seeing that they were still, as the duchess said, as +ignorant as callow geese! Moreover, their clothes and furniture had to +be provided, and the like. But to the gentlemen, she said:</p> + +<p>"Mind, gentlemen, ye must also make the best of it! Ye are scarce out of +leading-strings, and must go through some sort of ordeal. I would advise +you to travel, if so be your parents can afford it.'</p> + +<p>"'By all means,' added the duke; 'my Darling Dorel is perfectly right: +you must travel; and, if ye know not whither, go to Jericho, and get ye +some beards to your faces.'</p> + +<p>"As it was yet early in the day, his gracious lordship did order dinner +to be prepared: to which, besides the Town Council, and their wives and +children, Master Valentinus Gierth and his wife Susanna, were invited.</p> + +<p>"His gracious lordship was exceeding merry, and the duchess was most +kind in her manner; nevertheless, the guests did not fail to mark that +her gracious ladyship did oftentimes look toward the new brides, and +that big tears did sometimes roll down her cheek the while."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="COURTESY_OF_AMERICANS" id="COURTESY_OF_AMERICANS"></a>COURTESY OF AMERICANS.</h2> + + +<p>I like the Americans more and more: either they have improved +wonderfully lately, or else the criticisms on them have been cruelly +exaggerated. They are particularly courteous and obliging; and seem, I +think, amiably anxious that foreigners should carry away a favorable +impression of them. As for me, let other travelers say what they please +of them, I am determined not to be prejudiced, but to judge of them +exactly as I find them; and I shall most pertinaciously continue to +praise them (if I see no good cause to alter my present humble opinion), +and most especially for their obliging civility and hospitable attention +to strangers, of which I have already seen several instances.</p> + +<p>I have witnessed but very few isolated cases, as yet, of the unrefined +habits so usually ascribed to them; and those cases decidedly were not +among the higher orders of people; for there seems just as much +difference in America as any where else in some respects. The superior +classes here have almost always excellent manners, and a great deal of +real and natural, as well as acquired refinement, and are often besides +(which perhaps will not be believed in fastidious England) extremely +distinguished-looking. By the way, the captains of the steamboats appear +a remarkably gentlemanlike race of men in general, particularly +courteous in their deportment, and very considerate and obliging to the +passengers.—<i>Lady Emeline Wortley.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_847" id="Page_847">[Pg 847]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Monthly_Record_of_Current_Events" id="Monthly_Record_of_Current_Events"></a><i>Monthly Record of Current Events.</i></h2> + + +<h3>POLITICAL AND GENERAL NEWS.</h3> + + +<h4>THE UNITED STATES.</h4> + +<p>The past month has been remarkable for general quiet and for an absence +of excitement of any kind, rather than for events either of political or +general interest. It has often been noted as characteristic of the +American Republic, that, however fierce and menacing popular excitement +may appear to be, it disappears with the immediate event which gave it +birth. A presidential election, for instance, calls forth the most +embittered and apparently dangerous contests between different sections +of the Union, and an observer, unacquainted with the character of our +people, and the practical working of our institutions, would naturally +expect that the result, whatever it might be, would excite the defeated +party to armed resistance, and plunge the country into civil war. But +the whole country is never so quiet—the public mind is never so free +from agitation, as immediately after an excited election contest. The +adjournment of Congress has had a similar effect. Stimulants to +sectional or party feeling are no longer there applied; the public +attention is no longer fastened upon public men, and social and civil +life resume their ordinary channels of quiet and harmonious progress.</p> + +<p>Some of the State Legislatures are still in session, but their action is +too local to excite general interest. A very important Act has passed +the Legislature of the State of New York, re-organizing the Common +School System of the State, and placing it partially upon the free +basis. By the law of 1849 all the common schools of the State were made +entirely free, their cost being paid by county, town, and district +taxation. This was found to be highly obnoxious, chiefly from that +provision which gave the <i>voters</i> in any district power to tax the +<i>property</i> of the district <i>ad libitum</i> for school purposes. The new law +was passed to remedy those objections. By its provisions a State tax of +$800,000 is annually imposed upon the property of the State, and +distributed among the schools. The balance, if any should be required, +is to be collected by rate-bill from those who send to school, indigent +persons being exempt, at the expense of property of the town. The bill +has become a law and will go into operation next fall. Another very +important measure has been introduced into the Legislature, concerning +the enlargement of the Erie Canal. The Constitution of the State sets +apart the surplus revenues of the canals in each year, for the +completion of the enlargement; but the rapidly increasing competition of +railroads has led the Legislature to perceive the necessity of +accomplishing this work more rapidly than it can be done in the way +hitherto adopted. The bill referred to proposes to borrow money on the +credit of the surplus revenues set apart by the Constitution; and with +the money thus procured, to complete the enlargement forthwith, setting +apart the revenues as a fund to redeem the certificates. The measure was +very strenuously resisted by the Democratic party, chiefly on the ground +that it was unconstitutional. This, however, was denied by the friends +of the bill. It was argued with great ability and zeal on both sides. In +the Assembly the bill passed, by a vote of 76 ayes and 21 nays In the +Senate it is still under consideration. We have already recorded the +attempt and failure of the Legislature to elect a Senator in the +Congress of the United States. On the 18th of March the effort was +renewed by a joint resolution, and after a session protracted until two +hours after midnight, it resulted, through the absence of two Democratic +Senators, in the choice, by separate nomination of each House, of +<span class="smcap">Hamilton Fish</span>. In the Senate there were 16 votes for, and 12 against +him. In the House he received 68 votes and there were but 8 against him. +He has accepted the office.—The members of the Legislature and the +State Officers paid a visit of three days to the City of New York, on +the invitation of the Mayor and Common Council. They visited the +different public and charitable institutions, of this city and Brooklyn; +and were entertained at a public dinner at the Astor House, on the +evening of March 22d. This is the first visit of the kind ever made.—A +bill for the suppression of gambling, containing some stringent +provisions, having been introduced into the Senate, and referred to a +committee of three, <span class="smcap">George W. Bull</span>, sergeant-at-arms of that body, +endeavored to enter into negotiations with the reputed proprietor of a +gambling "hell" in New York to delay or defeat the bill, for an adequate +compensation. He managed to procure a note from the committee to the +effect that the bill would not come up the present session. The attempt +was exposed, and the offender forthwith dismissed from his office. An +unsuccessful attempt was made to implicate the senatorial committee in +this scandalous affair, upon the ground that they could not have been +ignorant of the purpose for which their note was procured.</p> + +<p>Nothing of special importance has occurred in any section of the +country. In Ohio the Legislature has adopted a series of resolutions +concerning the Fugitive Slave law, urging a faithful execution of the +law, but recommending such modifications as experience may prove to be +essential. In view of the Act of the Legislature of South Carolina, +providing for the appointment of delegates to a Southern Congress, the +General Assembly of Virginia has passed a series of resolutions to the +following purport: 1. That while Virginia sympathizes in the feelings +excited by the interference of the non-slaveholding States with the +domestic institutions of the South, yet the people of that State "are +unwilling to take any action, in consequence of the same, calculated to +destroy the integrity of this Union." 2. That regarding the Compromise +measures, "taken together, as an adjustment of the exciting questions to +which they relate, and cherishing the hope that if fairly executed, they +will restore to the country that harmony and confidence, which of late +have been so unhappily disturbed, the State of Virginia deems it unwise, +in the present condition of the country, to send delegates to the +proposed Southern Congress." 3. Virginia appeals to South Carolina "to +desist from any meditated secession upon her part, which can not but +tend to the destruction of the Union, and the loss to all the States of +the blessings that spring from it." 4. Believing that the Constitution +provides adequate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_848" id="Page_848">[Pg 848]</a></span> protection to the rights of all the States, Virginia +"invokes all who live under it to adhere more strictly to it, and to +preserve inviolate the safeguards which it affords to the rights of +individual States, and the interests of sectional minorities." 5. +Reprobates all legislation or combinations designed to affect the +institutions peculiar to the South, as derogatory and offensive to the +Southern States, and calculated to "defeat the restoration of peaceful +and harmonious sentiments in these States." These dignified and +temperate resolutions passed with singular unanimity: the 3d with but +three, the 1st with only one, and the 4th and 5th without a single +dissenting voice, out of 118 members present and voting. They were +directed to be transmitted to the Executive of each of the States, with +the exception of Vermont. In the Senate an amendment was passed, +omitting this exception of Vermont; but the House refusing, by a very +close vote, to concur, the Senate receded.</p> + +<p>There is little doubt that these resolutions embody the prevalent +sentiment of the South. The <i>Richmond Enquirer</i>, one of the ablest and +most influential Southern papers, affirms them to be "such an expression +of sentiment as will harmonize with the universal sentiment of the +South, with rare exceptions. South Carolina," it goes on to say, "still +wears the front of resistance and war; and in a portion of Mississippi +we expect to hear of secret pledges of dark import, of maps, drawings, +and lines of demarkation for a Southern Confederacy, of a President in +embryo, foreign ministers in expectancy, and, in short, all the +paraphernalia of a Southern Court. We have watched the Southern horizon +with a steady and keen eye, and with the slight exceptions alluded to +above, we can not but regard it as a fixed fact that the South has +already acquiesced in the Compromise measures."</p> + +<p>In Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, all the indications of +public sentiment are of the same tendency. In Missouri the State +Convention has adopted an address and resolutions in favor of the course +pursued by Mr. Benton in opposition to those who are regarded as the +enemies of the Union.</p> + +<p>In South Carolina, the tone of the press and of public men is decidedly +hostile to the Union. It is, however, a significant fact that the +election of delegates to the State Convention failed to draw out a third +of the vote of the State. Col. <span class="smcap">Isaac W. Hayne</span>, the Attorney-General of +the State, and member-elect from Charleston, of the State Convention, +has published a letter in which he laments this apathy on the part of +the voters. He affirms that any State has "a right to withdraw from the +Union, with or without cause;" that he has begun to "loathe the tie +which connects us with our miscalled brethren of the North." "Not the +victims of the tyranny of Mezentius," he goes on to say, "could have +shrunk in more disgust from the unnatural union of warm and breathing +life with the rotting carcass of what had once been a brother man, than +I do from this once cherished but now abhorred and forced connection." +The policy which he recommends, now that the occasion which the +"admission of California and the dismemberment of Texas" might have +afforded, has passed away unimproved is, "to teach that disunion is a +thing certain in the future; to direct, in contemplation of this, all +the energies of oar people first to preparation for a physical contest," +and then "to develop all our own resources, and cut off, as far as +possible, all intercourse with the offending States. This done, to hold +ourselves ready to move on the first general ferment in the South, +which, my life upon it, will occur full soon, and in the meanwhile, to +cultivate the kindest relations, and to keep up, industriously and with +system, the closest intercourse with our sister States of the South."</p> + +<p>A letter from Senator <span class="smcap">Phelps</span> of Vermont to a member of the Virginia +Legislature, respecting the Vermont law in relation to fugitives, +appears in the Southern papers. It bears date in January, but we believe +it is now first published. He gives it as his opinion that the law of +Vermont, of which a synopsis may be found in our January Number, was +passed in haste, and without due consideration, and does not embody the +deliberate sense of the people or of the legislative body of that State. +He affirms that the entire Congressional delegation of the State agree +with him in deprecating its passage; and expresses the opinion that it +will be repealed at the next session of the Legislature.</p> + +<p>Chevalier <span class="smcap">Hulsemann</span>, the Austrian Chargé, in reply to the famous +dispatch of Mr. Webster, says that the opinions of his Government remain +unaltered with respect to the mission of Mr. Mann; but that it "declines +all ulterior discussion of that annoying incident," from unwillingness +to disturb its friendly relations with the United States. Austria has +not demanded, and will not demand any thing beyond the putting in +practice the principles of non-intervention announced by President +Fillmore; and is "sincerely disposed to remain in friendly relations +with the Government of the United States so long as the United States +shall not deviate from those principles." Mr. <span class="smcap">Webster</span>, in reply, states +that the President regrets that the dispatch was unsatisfactory, but is +gratified to learn that the Imperial Government desires to continue the +present friendly relations; and also that it approves the sentiments +expressed in his Message, in accordance with which he intends to act. He +says that the Government of the United States is equally disinclined to +prolong the discussion; but declares that the principles and policy +avowed by the United States are "fixed and fastened upon them by their +character, their history, and their position among the nations of the +world; and it may be regarded as certain that these principles and this +policy will not be abandoned or departed from until some extraordinary +change shall take place in the general current of human affairs."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Amin Bey</span>, the Turkish Commissioner, in taking leave of the President, +preparatory to returning to his own country, read an address expressing +his appreciation of the courtesy shown him upon his visit, and his sense +of the progress and resources of this country. He carries with him to +Constantinople many valuable works, presented by Government and by +private liberality, relating to the agriculture, industry, and commerce +of the United States.</p> + +<p>In Ohio the Constitutional Convention closed its labors on the 10th of +March, having been in session nearly six months. The Constitution which +they framed is to be voted upon on the third Tuesday in June. It +embraces 16 articles, divided into 168 sections. It provides for freedom +of religion, equality of political rights, trial by jury, the <i>habeas +corpus</i>, freedom of speech and of the press, and no imprisonment for +debt. The right of suffrage is vested in all free white male adult +citizens. All patronage is taken from the General Assembly; judicial and +executive officers are to be elected by the people; and the public +printing to be given to the lowest responsible bidder. No new county can +be formed without the sanction of the majority of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_849" id="Page_849">[Pg 849]</a></span> voters in all the +counties of which the boundaries would be changed. Provision is made for +the liquidation of the State debt; and no new debt can be created by the +General Assembly except in case of war or insurrection, or to a limited +amount to meet any temporary deficiency; and funds borrowed for these +purposes can be used for no other. No special act of incorporation can +be granted; but a general law, subject to alteration or repeal, may be +passed, under which associations may be formed. The General Assembly is +prohibited from assuming the debt of any county, town, or city; from +loaning the credit of the State to, or becoming a stockholder on any +corporation or association. No divorce can be granted by the +Legislature. An article prohibiting licenses for the sale of +intoxicating liquors is to be separately voted upon. Provision is made +for law reform, and for amendments to the Constitution from time to +time. Every twenty years the question of a Constitutional Convention is +to be submitted to vote. The details of the legislative, executive, and +judicial systems, are not essentially different from those which +generally prevail.</p> + +<p>In Virginia a Constitutional Convention is now in session. It is at +present occupied in discussing the question of the basis of +representation. The section of the State east of the Blue Ridge, with +about four-ninths of the free population, pays nearly two-thirds of the +taxes. They desire that one half of the representatives should be +apportioned in the ratio of the voters; and the other half in that of +taxation; which would secure the preponderance to the eastern section. +The west demand that representation shall be in the ratio of the voters, +which would give the political supremacy to their portion of the State. +The debates have been protracted and exciting.</p> + +<p>The frontiers of Texas continue to be harassed by marauding parties of +Indians. An expedition has been fitted out to bring them to terms.</p> + +<p>The little village of Socorro, in New Mexico, has been the scene of a +fearful tragedy. A band of desperadoes had gradually collected there, +who indulged in the most wanton acts of outrage and barbarity, upon the +Mexican residents, finally ending in more than one deliberate murder. A +few members of the Boundary Commission who had been left there, headed +an organization which captured a number of the gang, of whom three were +tried and hung on the spot. The ringleader, who had made his escape, was +soon after taken, and shared the same fate.</p> + +<p>From California we have intelligence up to the 5th of March. The amount +of gold received during the month, exclusive of that in the hands of +passengers is about $1,817,000. The production continues abundant; +though the profits of agriculture are represented to be quite equal, and +more sure, than those of mining. Hostilities with the Indians still +continue. Another engagement has taken place, in which 40 of the Indians +were killed, without loss on the part of the whites. In Sacramento City, +a gambler engaged in a brawl, shot down a citizen who attempted to +prevent outrage. The murderer was seized by the populace, tried by Lynch +law, found guilty, and in spite of the efforts of some citizens, hung +from the branch of a tree, within a few hours of the commission of the +murder. In San Francisco two men came near sharing a similar fate for an +attempt at murder and robbery. They were, however, finally rescued from +the populace, and handed over to the civil authority. No Senator has +been elected. The Legislature met in joint convention; but after 144 +ballots, finding no probability of succeeding in making an election, +adjourned <i>sine die</i>. The whole number of votes cast was 49; thus making +25 necessary for a choice. The highest number for Mr. Frémont was 16. +Mr. Heydenfeldt, formerly of Alabama, was for a time the leading +Democratic candidate. He was opposed by a portion of his party, on the +alleged ground of having formerly advocated disunion. This is denied by +himself and his friends. Mr. Weller was subsequently taken up; and at +the last ballot received 18 votes. The Whig candidate throughout was Mr. +King, whose highest vote was 20.</p> + + +<h4>MEXICO.</h4> + +<p>From Mexico the general aspect of intelligence is gloomy enough. It +would seem doubtful whether there is sufficient vitality left for the +re-organization of society, without an infusion of a more fresh and +vigorous blood. The administration of Arista has not thus far realized +the anticipations which had been cherished of it. The country is +infested with predatory Indians and brigands. On the 15th of February, a +train of wagons was attacked in broad daylight, a few miles from the +capital, by a band of 15 robbers who drove off the military escort and +carried away a large amount of goods. The Minister of War and Marine +urges the establishment of military colonies upon the frontiers; and +recommends the desperate measure of incorporating into these colonies +the agricultural Indians, such as the Seminoles, who are accustomed to +the use of arms, and are disposed to settle in fixed habitations, so +that they may serve as a barrier against the marauding Camanches, +Lipanes, and Apaches. The highroad leading from Mazatlan to the mines is +held by the Indians. In Yucatan fears are entertained of the +extermination of the whites. The refractory Bishop of Michoacan has at +length consented to take the oath to sustain the constitution and laws. +An act of the Legislature of Queretaro, restoring the Jesuits to that +State, has been pronounced by Congress to be a violation of the +Constitution. The exclusive right for 100 years to construct a railroad +from Vera Cruz to Madellan has been granted to Don José Maria Estellan.</p> + + +<h4>GREAT BRITAIN.</h4> + +<p>Our last Record closed amidst the unsuccessful attempts to find somebody +who would undertake to carry on the government of the country. Stanley +and Russell, the representatives of the Free-trade and Protection +parties, felt too weak. Gladstone would not help Stanley, nor Graham +help Russell; and nobody would help Lord Aberdeen. At last the advice of +the Duke of Wellington was solicited; in accordance with which the +former Ministry were invited to resume their places. They left office on +the 22d of February because they were unable to obtain the confidence of +the House, and resumed on the 3d of March, under the pressure of the +same inability, every man his old office. At a meeting of the members of +the House who usually supported him, summoned by Lord John Russell, he +announced, among other measures, that it was the determination of the +Government to proceed with the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, with certain +modifications. This aroused vehement remonstrances from a number of +Catholic Whigs, who announced their determination to oppose the Ministry +at all hazards. When the bill came to be presented, it was found that +all that remained was the prohibition for Catholic bishops to assume +titles derived from the name of any place in the United Kingdom. Dr. +Wiseman must not call himself Archbishop of Westminster,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_850" id="Page_850">[Pg 850]</a></span> or Dr. M'Hale +sign himself "John of Tuam," under penalty of £100, if Government should +have the folly to prosecute. Meanwhile they may address each other by +these titles, and all Catholics may consider and address them so +unharmed. The bill, as modified passed to a second reading on the 22d of +March, by 438 ayes to 95 nays—a majority of more than four to one. Such +is the <i>finale</i> of the absurd and disproportionate agitation with +respect to the "Papal Agression." Nobody is satisfied. The Church party, +who mourned over the shortcomings of the bill as originally presented, +are of course still less pleased with it as emasculated. The Catholics +who then opposed it as an injury, now resent it as an insult.</p> + +<p>The Ministry has sustained a series of annoying defeats and checks on +unimportant measures; and have therefore kept back all the leading +business, such as the presentation of the Budget. The Protection and +Free-trade parties are mustering their strength throughout the country, +preparatory to a general election, which will probably take place at the +close of the present session.</p> + +<p>The prevailing crime at present seems to be poisoning by arsenic. Wives +poison their husbands, husbands their wives, and servants both. A bill +has has been introduced by Lord Carlisle prohibiting the sale of arsenic +except in the presence of a witness, who with the purchaser, are to +register their names in a book. It is also proposed to enact that all +arsenic sold shall be mixed with substances which by their taste or +color will give warning of its presence.</p> + +<p>An insurrection has broken out among the Kaffirs at the Cape, which +promises to be annoying and expensive. The ultimate cause is the gradual +expulsion of the savages, which always follows the colonization of their +territories by civilized nations. Thousands are driven from their lands, +and compressed into a space only sufficient for scores, and begin to +think it as well to die fighting as starving. The Governor at the Cape +having formally deposed and outlawed one of the powerful native chiefs, +dispatched an expedition to seize his person. This body of troops, +consisting of 600 men, was attacked in a narrow defile by the Kaffirs, +and suffered some loss. Attacks were then made upon three of the +frontier settlements, and the colonists, to the number of 70 massacred. +A levy <i>en masse</i> of all males between the ages of eighteen and fifty +was summoned by the Governor, "to destroy and exterminate those most +barbarous and treacherous savages, who for the moment are formidable." +Several smart engagements have taken place, in which the savages, though +worsted, displayed great daring, and considerable skill and discipline.</p> + +<p>Attention has been called in Parliament to the proceedings of the +various Revolutionary Committees composed of foreign refugees, and +headed by Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, and Klapka. Their proceedings were +charged with being a violation of the obligations they incurred when +they came to seek the protection of English laws. Members of Government +expressed their decided disapprobation of the course pursued by the +refugees in endeavoring to excite insurrection in foreign countries.</p> + +<p>A Miss Talbot, heiress to a fortune of £80,000, has entered a convent as +"postulant" with the intention of taking the vail in a few months, when +it is supposed that her fortune will pass to the church. This has +occasioned some excitement against convents, and a bill has been +introduced intended to prevent the forcible detention of females in +houses in which the inmates are bound by religious or monastic vows. It +provides that all such establishments shall be registered, and subject +to semi-annual visitation by public officers, who shall have power to +remove any female who desires it. Concealment of any part of the +premises, or of any person therein, false lists of the inmates, and any +obstruction to the visitors, are to be punished as misdemeanors. +Measures are also proposed regulating legacies made for religious +purposes.</p> + +<p>At Chelmsford a man and woman were hung for murder, attended by the +usual disgraceful accompaniments of a public execution. Crowds gathered +from all the surrounding country; at the moment of execution 40,000 or +50,000 persons are said to have been present. Venders of edibles plied +their vocation in the most gross and revolting manner; pickpockets, as +usual, were in attendance, and the general deportment of the spectators, +men, women, and children, was disgusting and brutal. The man confessed +his guilt. The woman, whose crime was poisoning with arsenic, died +protesting her innocence.</p> + +<p>"A monster address" signed by 61 noblemen, 110 members of the House of +Commons, and 321,240 other persons, lay members of the church of +England, has been presented by Lord Ashley to the Queen. It beseeches +her Majesty to resist the Papal aggression; and goes on to speak of that +act having been occasioned and invited by the conduct of many of the +clergy of the church of England, who have shown a desire to assimilate +the doctrines of their church to those of Rome. After specifying the +sacramental system and "histrionic arrangements" in the churches, it +says that "by the constitution and existing laws, there is vested in +your Majesty as the earthly head of our Church, a wholesome power of +interposition, which power we entreat your Majesty now to exercise."</p> + +<p>Charges have been made in the House of Commons against Lord Torrington, +late Governor of Ceylon. He is accused of gross misgovernment, wanton +cruelty in suppressing native insurrection, and the production of false +evidence. Lord John Russell announced that he should postpone the Budget +and the Income Tax, until this charge, which was in effect one against +Government, had been disposed of. Upon which the mover announced that he +should postpone his motion until after the introduction of these +measures. Lord Torrington, in the House of Lords, came forward and +challenged the prosecution of these charges.</p> + +<p>A coal-pit disaster occurred near Glasgow, involving a terrible loss of +life. While 63 men and boys were at work in the mine, an explosion of +fire-damp occurred. Of those in the mine all but two perished.</p> + +<p>A searching investigation is going on into the adulterations of articles +of food. It is asserted that there is scarcely an article which is in +any way susceptible of mixture, that is not mingled with others not +merely of inferior value, but in many cases of the most loathsome and +disgusting nature. Ground coffee is specified as particularly subject to +adulteration.</p> + +<p>A somewhat singular controversy has arisen in reference to a body of +refugees from Hungary, who have recently arrived at Liverpool. They +number 262, of whom the majority are Poles, the remnant of the Polish +legion in Hungary. Government wishes to send them to America, and offers +a bounty of £8, to each man who will go. They wish to remain in England, +evidently anticipating an uprising in some part of Europe, where their +services may be called into requisition. They are entirely destitute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_851" id="Page_851">[Pg 851]</a></span> of +means of support, and in England can only maintain themselves by +begging.</p> + +<p>The frigate St. Lawrence, having on board the contributions to the +Exhibition from the United States, arrived at Portsmouth on the 13th of +March. A meeting of the American exhibitors has been held at London, at +which great dissatisfaction was expressed with many of the arrangements. +They object in particular to the appointment of jurors to decide upon +the merits of foreign productions; to bronze medals being awarded as +prizes, when more valuable ones had been promised; to the high price of +season tickets; to contributors being compelled to pay for admission, +and be at the expense of their own fittings; and to the delay in +affording protection to the articles which require a patent. Some +leakage has occurred in the roof of the Exhibition Building; but it is +hoped that it may be obviated. All opinion adverse to the suitability of +the painting of the interior has passed away. The theoretical views of +the decorator have been abundantly justified by the practical effect.</p> + +<p>Another expedition in search of Sir John Franklin is to be fitted out +this season. The little "Prince Albert" is to be sent out, it is hoped, +under happier auspices than attended her former voyage. It is expected +to reach Lancaster Sound, by the middle of June. The vessel will be laid +up for wintering in Prince Regent's Inlet. The party will then proceed +in boats as far as practicable. When these can no longer be worked, +native "kyacks" will be used, which will enable the explorers to reach a +point some one or two hundred miles further than boats could carry them, +as the kyacks can be hauled up and dragged over the ice. The expedition +will remain out for at least one season; and a very extensive search to +the westward of Boothia is proposed. It will be under the command of +Capt. W. Kennedy, who has had no small experience in these icy regions. +We do not learn whether Mr. Snow, from whose interesting book we copied +so largely last month, is to be attached to this new expedition.</p> + + +<h4>FRANCE.</h4> + +<p>The most striking incident which has occurred since our last has been a +debate on a proposition to repeal the law exiling the Bourbon family. M. +Berryer, acting in the name of the Legitimists, opposed the motion on +the ground that the Count of Chambord is not an exiled Frenchman, but an +extruded king, who could not stoop to accept a permission to re-enter +his own hereditary dominions. M. Thiers, as the organ of the Orleanists, +advocated the proposition. The Minister of Justice, in the name of +Government, was favorable to the principle of the bill, but was opposed +to pressing it at present. The Assembly was thrown into violent +agitation by a speech from M. Dufraisse, one of the most able and +earnest of the Montagnards, who delivered a speech which would not have +been misplaced in the mouth of Robespierre or Danton. "The pale head, +compressed lips, and intense expression of the young lawyer of the +Mountain," says an eyewitness, "reminded the auditors, not without a +shudder, of such a thoroughbred Jacobin as St. Just." He declared that +the laws of proscription were just, and ought to be maintained. "The +Revolution can not ask pardon of the dynasties it has justly upset. Have +the family of Orleans laid aside the claims of their birth? Have they +rendered homage to the sovereignty of the nation? Do not the descendants +of St. Louis continually dispute the independence and the conquests of +the people? You tell us that royalty never dies; we reply, Nor does its +punishment. If the principle of sovereignty is eternal, so shall its +punishment be eternal. The law ought to chastise the voluntary +representatives, the willing heirs of a principle which the people have +abolished." He went on to vindicate the execution of Louis XVI., and +declared that those who voted against the death of that monarch, +meditated a return to royalty, and reminded the Assembly that among +those who voted for the execution, was the grandfather of the princes +whose banishment was sought to be repealed. The speech caused a perfect +storm of passion in the Assembly. Members rushed to the tribune, and +shook their fists in the speaker's face. M. Berryer proposed the +adjournment of the question for six months, as he could not vote on the +same side with those who advocated such doctrines. This, which is looked +upon as equivalent to a rejection of the proposition, was carried by +acclamation.</p> + +<p>Rumors have for some time been rife of an intended fusion between the +Bourbon and Orleans interests, with a view to a speedy restoration of +the monarchy. These would seem to be put to rest by a letter from the +Orleans princes in England to the Orleans Committee in Paris, in which +they declare that they will negotiate only on the soil of France, and +while out of their country will take no part in political questions. The +prolongation of the term of the President is urged in many quarters as +the only practicable safeguard against socialism and anarchy. The +present aspect of affairs seems to indicate that he will be continued in +office in some shape or other.</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Chartres, in a pastoral letter, attacks a late circular of +the Archbishop of Paris, recommending the clergy to abstain from +politics, and to yield obedience to the laws of their country. The +bishop considers that when destructive principles are advanced, the +clergy should be found ready to oppose their progress; and he sees no +reason why the ecclesiastical body should be enjoined to take no part in +public affairs. The archbishop, in reply, denounces the conduct of the +bishop, as an unwarrantable interference with his jurisdiction, and as a +breach of the respect due to him as metropolitan: and refers the +bishop's letter to the provincial council to be held during the present +year at Paris.</p> + +<p>The Professors of the College of France held a meeting at the Sorbonne +to take into consideration the tendency of the lectures of M. Michelet, +which were considered prejudicial, in a moral and political point of +view to the students. He himself declined to attend, but defended +himself in a letter stating that his lectures were blamed only by the +Jesuits and the enemies of French nationality. His colleagues, by a vote +of 17 out of 21 decided upon a vote of censure against him, and that the +minutes of their proceedings should be transmitted to the Minister for +approval. It is said that M. Michelet his resigned his chair.</p> + + +<h4>GERMANY.</h4> + +<p>The German mists grow thicker. All that can now be affirmed with +certainty is, that the Dresden Conference has been no more able to +improvise a German Empire than was the Frankfort Parliament. A month +ago, and it seemed that Austria had outgeneraled Prussia, and made +herself absolute mistress of Germany, and was in a fair way to become +ruler from the Rhine to the Alps. The petty states of Germany were in +alarm; the kingdoms of the second rank began to see themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_852" id="Page_852">[Pg 852]</a></span> in +danger, and to talk of a central power, from which the constitutional +element was not altogether excluded. It is now said that the King of +Prussia is again ambitious of playing the first part on the German +stage, and has refused to sanction the concessions made by his minister. +It seems probable that Germany will fall back upon the old Frankfort +Confederation. In the mean time, we present the following, as what seems +to us the condition and designs of the principal parties; premising that +the very next intelligence may present them under an altogether new +aspect:—Austria wishes to enter the Germanic Confederation with all her +vast and heterogeneous population; thus binding all Germany to assist +her, in the event of any new Hungarian or Italian outbreak. She also +wishes to secure the Federal Executive. If she succeeds in these +projects, the weight of her foreign possessions gives her the +preponderance in Germany, while Germany secures to her the control of +her foreign territories. The interests of the people and princes of +Germany for once coincide in opposing this claim. The vacillating policy +of Prussia has arisen from doubt, whether more could be made out of +Austria by putting herself at the head of the German States, or out of +these States, by joining with Austria. The ultimate decision of this +question is more likely to be effected by accident than by settled +policy.</p> + + +<h4>ITALY.</h4> + +<p>The feelings of uneasiness, and vague apprehension of insurrection +throughout the Italian Peninsula are nowise abated. Austrian troops are +concentrating within her Italian territories. The railroad across the +Milan Alps, from Cilly to Trieste, is advancing with great rapidity. The +completion of this road will enable Austrian troops to be sent from +Vienna to Milan in twenty-four hours.</p> + +<p>The Austrian Government has issued an ordonnance directing that in those +parts of Italy which are still considered in a state of siege, no +journal shall mention in any way, directly or indirectly, the titles of +the prohibited revolutionary books and pamphlets which are in +circulation among the people.</p> + +<p>Radetzky has issued a proclamation, under date of Feb. 21, from Verona, +directed against revolutionary proclamations and pamphlets, threatening +death against all who are engaged in circulating them. Every one into +whose hands such a pamphlet may fall is directed to deliver it to the +nearest person in office, though but a gendarme, and at the same time to +declare how it came into his possession; the punishment for failure to +do this is imprisonment in irons for a period of from one to five years.</p> + +<p>Washington's Birthday was celebrated at Rome with great enthusiasm. At a +public dinner, Mr. Cass, our Chargé, presided and made a speech. Two +odes, by Mrs. Stephens, were sung. Among the guests were Archbishop +Hughes, and Mr. Hastings, the American Protestant Chaplain. The report +that the American Protestant chapel at Rome had been closed is +authoritatively contradicted by Mr. Hastings, who speaks in terms of +high praise of the liberality which has been manifested toward him by +the papal authorities.</p> + + +<h3>LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, PERSONAL MOVEMENTS, ETC.</h3> + + +<h4>UNITED STATES.</h4> + +<p>The Exhibition of the National Academy of Design is now open. It is +universally admitted that the paintings surpass those of any previous +year The opening of the Exhibition was celebrated, according to custom, +by a dinner, attended by artists, amateurs, and men of letters. +Admirable speeches were made by Rev. Doctors <span class="smcap">Bellows</span> and <span class="smcap">Bethune</span>, who, +though pole-wide apart in the sphere of theology, spanning the distance +between Arius and Calvin, find common grounds of sympathy in their love +for, and appreciation of Art. Mr. <span class="smcap">Durand</span>, the President, in a very +felicitous speech, narrated his experience as an artist and as one of +the founders of the Academy.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Greenough</span>, at Florence, has nearly completed his group of the +<i>Pioneer</i>, for the Capitol at Washington. It represents a backwoodsman +rescuing his wife and child from an Indian who is in the act of +smothering them in the folds of his blanket. The action of the group +symbolizes the one unvarying story of the contest between civilized and +uncivilized man. The pioneer, standing almost erect, in the pride of +conscious superiority, has dashed upon one knee the Indian, whose +relaxed form, and cowering face upturned despairingly, express +premonitions of the inevitable doom awaiting him, against which all his +efforts would be unavailing. The heavy brow, compressed lip, and firm +chin of the white man announce him one of a race born to conquer and +rule, not so much by mere physical strength as by undaunted courage and +indomitable will. Those who have seen the group pronounce it to be a +sublime conception grandly executed.</p> + +<p>A portrait of Mr. Calhoun, painted at Paris by Mr. <span class="smcap">Healey</span> for the Common +Council of Charleston, was exhibited at the Exposition in Paris, where +it was pronounced one of the best portraits of the season. The size is +seven feet ten inches, by four feet seven. The sum paid for it is one +thousand dollars. We believe it has been forwarded to Charleston.</p> + +<p>Among the pictures by our artists, completed or in progress, we notice +one by Mr. <span class="smcap">Wright</span>, representing the well-known story of Washington and +the damaged cherry-tree, which is executed with decided cleverness.—Mr. +<span class="smcap">Duggan</span> is engaged upon a David and Goliath, one of those massy subjects +affording ample scope for the bent of the artist's genius.—Mr. <span class="smcap">Stearns</span> +has upon his easel a painting of the Interview between Tecumseh and +General Harrison, at Vincennes, in 1811. By some oversight no seat had +been provided for the Indian chief. The unintentional discourtesy was +corrected by General Harrison, with the words, "Warrior, your father, +General Harrison, offers you a seat." Tecumseh drew up his stately form +to its full height, and raising his hand to heaven, exclaimed proudly, +"My father! The Great Spirit is my father, and the Earth my mother; she +feeds me and clothes me, and I recline upon her bosom!"—Mr. T. A. +<span class="smcap">Richards</span> has recently completed a painting which might appropriately +enough be named "Recollections of Lake Winnipiseogee," portraying rather +the general characteristics of that lake, than depicting the particular +features of any one portion. The scene is an autumn morning, with the +sun bursting forth from the train of a passing shower which has +sprinkled diamonds over foliage and flower.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jenny Lind</span> is verging New York-ward. Her next concert here is announced +for May 12. The New York firemen have procured a testimonial to be +presented to her in acknowledgment of her munificent donation of $3000 +to the funds of the Department. It consists of a complete copy of +Audubon's Birds and Quadrupeds of America, in a beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_853" id="Page_853">[Pg 853]</a></span> case; and a +gold box, appropriately ornamented, containing a copy of their vote of +thanks to her. The following ratherish pretty and altogether German +lines were contributed by her to the album of a gentleman in Washington;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In vain I seek for rest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In all created good.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It leaves me still unblest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And makes me cry for God.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sure, at rest I can not be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until my heart finds rest in thee."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The renowned <span class="smcap">Tupper</span> is undergoing the process of lionization. He has +introduced a new feature into his representation of the part, by the +recitation in public of his own verses. He has produced for the Great +London Exhibition a "Hymn for all Nations," which is to be translated +into thirty different languages, set to music, and printed. This +polyglott will be a philological curiosity, if no more.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Cralle</span>, the intimate friend and confidential secretary of Mr. +<span class="smcap">Calhoun</span>, is engaged in preparing for publication the Works of the great +southern statesman, to be accompanied by a Biography. The whole will be +comprised, probably, in six octavo volumes. The first volume, which is +now printed, and will soon be ready for publication, is occupied by an +elaborate disquisition on Government, and a Discourse on the +Constitution and Government of the United States. These treatises have +always been spoken of as the "great work" of Mr. Calhoun's life, setting +forth in a systematic manner his views upon the philosophy of civil +government. The treatises were commenced many years since, but never +received the final revision and correction which the author intended to +bestow upon them.</p> + +<p>The Complete Works of <span class="smcap">Alexander Hamilton</span> are now in course of +publication by C. S. Francis & Co. They are mainly printed from the +manuscripts purchased by Congress, under the direction of the Library +Committee. The collection will extend to seven octavo volumes.</p> + +<p>It has long been suspected that colors were depicted on Daguerreotype +plates, if they could only be developed. Mr. <span class="smcap">Hill</span>, of this State, +announces that he has succeeded in producing pictures in which every +tint and shade is accurately represented. We are assured by one of our +most eminent operators, one of the very few who have seen the pictures, +that there is no doubt of the fact. The inventor as yet keeps his +process a secret, though we understand that he is preparing a memoir in +relation to it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bayard Taylor's</span> El-Dorado has been translated into German by C. Hartman, +author of a Geographical and Historical Description of California.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Samuel Maverick</span>, of Pendleton, S. C., who is still living, assisted +in packing the first bale of cotton ever sent from the United States to +Liverpool. It was sent in the seed, and the consignee informed his South +Carolina correspondent that the article was useless, could not be sold, +and advised him to send no more.</p> + +<p>Dr. <span class="smcap">Goadby</span>, who has recently delivered in this city a very interesting +course of lectures upon insects, has a most valuable series of +dissections, prepared at a cost of labor which would seem almost +incredible. The anatomy of a caterpillar, comprising three distinct +preparations—its nervous system, its organs of respiration, and its +organs of nutrition—occupied the undivided labor of thirteen weeks, at +the rate of fourteen hours a day.</p> + +<p>Gen. <span class="smcap">Henderson</span>, who was on trial at New Orleans on the charge of being +implicated in the Cuban invasion, has been discharged, the jury being +unable to agree. The District Attorney therefore entered a <i>nolle +prosequi</i> in the case of Governor Quitman and all others under +indictment.</p> + + +<h4>EUROPEAN.</h4> + +<p>The new Leipzig <i>Deutsches Museum</i> (Westermann Brothers, New York,) +promises to meet the want which we have for some time found it +impossible to supply, of a German literary Magazine. In the recent +revolutionary storms this class of periodicals generally went down, so +that for information as to the working of the German mind we have been +forced to rely upon chance notices in the political journals, or trust +to foreign sources. It is published semi-monthly. Its cost in Leipzig is +12 <i>Thalers</i>; and is furnished here for the same number of dollars.</p> + +<p>Under the title of <i>Causeries du Lundi</i> M. St. Beauve has just put forth +a volume of sketches of contemporary French authors, which almost forces +us to envy the happy land blessed with such a number of men, the worst +of whom exceeds our ideas of any attainable height of perfection. A word +or two of criticism is awarded to Lamartine, but too bland to wound even +the vanity of the gentle Alphonse. But Girardin and Villemain, Cousin +and George Sand, Thiers and Montalembert receive a most unqualified +apotheosis. The title of "Monday Chat" simply indicates that the book is +made up of articles which appeared on Mondays in the <i>Constitutionnel</i> +newspaper.</p> + +<p>Pictures by the "Old Masters," as all the world knows, are manufactured +as readily, and almost as extensively, as calico. It is not, however, so +well known that "old and rare editions" of books are produced nowadays. +The passion of book-collectors has given a new impulse to this business. +Within a few months the beautiful editions of the classics of the +Elzevirs and the Stephens have been reproduced with wonderful skill. In +paper, type, ink, and binding there is no perceptible difference; while +the precise air of antiquity desired is produced by chemical means.</p> + +<p>M. Feuillet de Conches, a Parisian virtuoso, and great admirer of La +Fontaine, has spent a vast sum in having printed for his own sole use a +single copy of the works of the famous fabulist. It is illustrated in +the most gorgeous style, by the first artists of the day; and is +accompanied with notes and prefaces by the most eminent writers, and is +a very miracle of expensive typography and binding.</p> + +<p>Victor Hugo has published nothing for some years, having been paid by a +publisher not to print. Report says that he will, at the close of his +term, which soon expires, make amends for his long silence by issuing +poems to the amount of three volumes, and romances to that of twelve.</p> + +<p>A work by Origen, the celebrated Father in the Church, hitherto unknown, +has been discovered and published by the librarian of the National +Assembly—so M. Villemain announced at a recent meeting of the <i>Académie +des Belles Lettres</i> at Paris. The work traces the heresies of the third +century to the writings of the Pagan Philosophers, and throws new light +upon ancient manners, literature, and philosophy.</p> + +<p>In the album presented to the King of Bavaria by the artists of Münich, +is an admirable composition by Hübner. It is an expression of the +feelings of a large portion of Upper Germany. It represents a female +prostrate upon the ground, with the arms crossed, the face entirely +hidden, in an attitude of the deepest despair. The long hair floats<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_854" id="Page_854">[Pg 854]</a></span> +over the arms, and trails along the ground. The whole figure is a +mixture of majesty and utter abandonment. The simple title of the piece +is—"Germania, 1850."</p> + +<p><i>Yeast: a Problem</i>, is the Sartor-Resartorish title of a collection of +papers reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, where they have excited no +little attention. It purports to be a sample of what is fermenting in +the minds of large classes of young men of the present day, and +leavening the whole mass of society. Though published anonymously, it is +known to be written by the author of "Alton Locke," and partakes largely +of the merits and defects of that remarkable work. It is to be +republished by the Harpers.</p> + +<p>In <span class="smcap">Walter Savage Landor</span> the material for an admirable newspaper writer +has been thrown away. Witness the following double-handed hitting in a +letter to Lord Duncan, who lately won a victory over the Ministers, "... +A quarrel about hats, caps, and stockings, and the titles they confer, +is too ridiculous. Is a hunchback to be treated with gravity, with +severity, because an ignorant rabble calls him <i>my lord</i>. If I chose to +call myself Lord Duncan, I should only be laughed at. People would +stare; some would ask, 'Is this the great Lord Duncan who won the Battle +of Camperdown?' Others would answer, 'No; nor is it he who won as great +a one in Westminster the other day. He is an impostor: haul him out; but +don't hurt him:' I have the honor to be, etc."</p> + +<p><i>Dahomey and the Dahomans</i>, by Frederick E. Forbes, gives an interesting +account, drawn from personal observation, made during the last two +years, of the manners and customs of this savage people. Among the most +revolting is the <i>Ek-que-noo-ah-toh-meh</i> or "Throwing of Presents," in +which the king occupies himself for many hours in throwing gifts from a +raised platform, to the people below. The last of these gifts consists +of a number of live prisoners, who have been exhibited bound upon the +platform; they are flung down to be cut and torn in pieces by the +savages. On the occasion when the author was present there were fourteen +of these victims, of whom he succeeded in saving the lives of three. The +object of the expedition was to induce the king to abandon the +slave-trade, and was altogether unsuccessful.</p> + +<p><i>The Dynamical Theory of the Formation of the Earth,</i> two mighty octavo +volumes, elicits the following complimentary remarks from the +<i>Athenæum.</i> "This work is saved from being mischievous only by the +circumstance of the excessive dullness diffused over these twelve +hundred pages—which will in all probability prevent their being much +read.... Of no one department of science does the author appear to have +a correct conception. His views are all distorted. He is false alike in +his Mechanics, in his Geology, in his Natural History, in his Chemistry, +in his Electricity—in every other consideration of the physical +agencies, and still more false in that which we suppose we must bring +ourselves to call his Logic."</p> + +<p><i>Memoirs of a Literary Veteran</i>, by R. P. Gillies is a book almost worth +reading, quite worth looking at. The author, nephew to the celebrated +historian of Greece, born to a fair estate, and with a propensity to +make verses, spent the one without turning the other to any special +account. Amidst much idle matter, whose only purpose is to swell the +bulk of the volumes, are some rather interesting anecdotes of literary +celebrities. Some over-laudatory epistles from Sir Egerton Brydges, and +a characteristic letter or two from Wordsworth, containing among other +matters, a criticism upon Scott's Guy Mannering, in which considerable +praise is awarded to the management of "this lady," as he solemnly +denominates Meg Merrilies, are perhaps the best things in the book. It +reminds one, but at a wide interval, of Leigh Hunt's Autobiography.</p> + +<p><i>A Life of Hartley Coleridge</i> prefixed to a volume of his poems, tells a +sad story of powers neutralized and a life thrown away. He was the +eldest son of <i>the</i> Coleridge, and with a portion of his father's genius +combined a large share of his infirmity of purpose and feebleness of +will. He gained a college fellowship, and forfeited it within a year, by +intemperance; after which he maintained himself by his pen. The Life is +by his brother, Derwent Coleridge. The Poems are of decided merit. They +are to be followed by a collection of his prose writings.</p> + + +<h3>OBITUARIES.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Isaac Hill</span>, formerly Governor of New Hampshire, and Senator in Congress, +died at Washington, March 22d, aged about 63. He was born at +Charlestown, N. H., the son of a farmer, and at an early age learned the +trade of a printer. He established the first Democratic paper at +Concord. To his able conduct is in a great measure to be ascribed the +ascendency which his party acquired in the State, about the year 1828. +Though possessing few of the external qualifications for a popular +leader, being feeble in person, and altogether destitute of oratorical +power, his unrivaled tact and untiring industry gave him an uncontrolled +influence in the State. He was chosen State Senator; and subsequently +United States Senator, which office he held from 1831 to 1836, when he +resigned, in consequence of having been elected Governor of New +Hampshire. He filled the executive chair for two or three terms, and +then retired to private life. In 1840 he was appointed Sub-Treasurer at +Boston; but the repeal of the Sub-Treasury Act the following year +vacated his office. He then returned to New Hampshire; but his star had +waned. He disagreed with his party on the subject of corporations and +other radical questions, lost his political influence, and fell into +comparative insignificance, as a politician, though he always adhered to +his party. For a number of years he edited an agricultural paper of +considerable merit. He suffered much from impaired health during the +last years of his life; and died in moderate pecuniary circumstances.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mordecai Manasseh Noah</span>, long known as an able editor and active +politician, died in New York, March 28. He was born at Philadelphia, +July 19, 1784, and has thus attained to within three years of three +score and ten. He was apprenticed to a carver and gilder; but early +abandoned that trade and devoted himself to literature and politics. He +removed to Charleston, S. C., in the early part of the present century, +where he took an active and influential part in public affairs. Having +declined the offer of the consulship at Riga, he was appointed, in 1813, +consul at Tunis, and was charged with a mission to Algiers. This latter +he accomplished, after some adventures, and repaired to Tunis. At the +expiration of ten months he was recalled, under charge, we believe, of +some pecuniary defalcations. Upon his return to this country, he became +connected with the political press. In 1822, he was elected Sheriff of +the City and County of New York, which office he held but a single year. +In 1829, he was appointed Commissioner of the Supreme Court of the +United States, and Surveyor of the port of New York. In the mean while, +he had formed the project of collecting his brethren the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_855" id="Page_855">[Pg 855]</a></span> Jews, and +rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. He issued a singular proclamation, +appointing Grand Island, near Niagara Falls, as the place of rendezvous, +and summoned the scattered tribes to transmit their contributions. We +have no means of knowing how far he was in earnest in this scheme. At +all events, it came to nothing. In 1840, he was elected Judge of the +Court of General Sessions, which he held till the law constituting the +court was changed. Mr. Noah was, however, more known as an editor than +as a politician. Though without any very lofty aims, or high +qualifications, he was an agreeable and sprightly paragraphist, +possessed of an unfailing good-humor, and a large fund of general +information. He was connected successively with a number of papers, and +at the time of his death was editor of a Sunday paper, <i>The Messenger +and Times</i>. He also published at different times a number of works of a +miscellaneous character, chiefly essays and plays, some of which met +with great success at the time of publication; but none of them +possessed sufficient vitality to take a permanent place in the +literature of the country. His death was the consequence of a paralytic +stroke. He lived and died a believer in the faith of his fathers, the +Hebrew religion; and was buried with the solemn ceremonies practiced by +the ancient chosen people. He was of a most generous and genial nature, +and enjoyed the warmest good-will of all with whom he was brought into +personal relations.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George M. Brooke</span>, Brevet Major-General in the United States army, died +at San Antonio, Texas, on the 19th of March. He was a native of +Virginia, and entered the army in 1808. He was brevetted +Lieutenant-Colonel in 1814, for "gallant conduct in the defense of Fort +Erie." A month later he received the rank of Brevet Colonel, for +"distinguished and meritorious services in the sortie from Fort Erie." +In 1824, he was made Brevet Brigadier-General for "ten years' faithful +service as Colonel." In 1848, he was brevetted as Major-General for +"meritorious conduct, particularly in the performance of his duties in +the prosecution of the war with Mexico."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alexander S. Wadsworth</span>, Commodore in the United States Navy, died at +Washington, April 9, in the 61st year of his age. He was a native of +Maine. He entered the service in 1804, and for many years served with +distinction. His commission of post-captain, bears date from 1825. His +name stood the seventh on the naval list. Severe and protracted illness +had for many years disabled him from active duty.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Samuel Farmar Jarvis</span>, D.D., died at Middletown, Conn., March 26th. He +was born in January, 1787. He had the reputation of being one of the +ripest scholars in the Episcopal Church, and was a member of the +principal literary and historical societies in this country. His +extensive acquirements, and fondness for accurate investigation procured +for him the appointment of "Historigrapher of the Church," which was +conferred upon him in 1838, with a view to his preparing a faithful +"Ecclesiastical History, reaching from the Apostles' time, to the +formation of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States." The +first volume, forming a Chronological Introduction, was published in +1845. It is understood that a continuation of the work was nearly ready +for press at the time of his death.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">John S. Skinner</span>, Editor of the "<i>Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil</i>," and +well known for his agricultural writings, died at Baltimore, March 21, +aged about 70 years. He was universally esteemed for his social +qualities, unassuming demeanor, and generous impulses. His death was +occasioned by a fall into the basement in the Post Office at Baltimore.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Literary_Notices" id="Literary_Notices"></a>Literary Notices</h2> + + +<p>Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued <i>The House of the Seven Gables</i>, a +Romance, by <span class="smcap">Nathaniel Hawthorne</span>, which is strongly marked with the bold +and unique characteristics that have given its author such a brilliant +position among American novelists. The scene, which is laid in the old +Puritanic town of Salem, extends from the period of the witchcraft +excitement to the present time, connecting the legends of the ancient +superstition with the recent marvels of animal magnetism, and affording +full scope for the indulgence of the most weird and sombre fancies. +Destitute of the high-wrought manifestations of passion which +distinguished the "Scarlet Letter," it is more terrific in its +conception, and not less intense in its execution, but exquisitely +relieved by charming portraitures of character, and quaint and comic +descriptions of social eccentricities. A deep vein of reflection +underlies the whole narrative, often rising naturally to the surface, +and revealing the strength of the foundation on which the subtle, aerial +inventions of the author are erected. His frequent dashes of humor +gracefully blend with the monotone of the story, and soften the harsher +colors in which he delights to clothe his portentous conceptions. In no +former production of his pen, are his unrivalled powers of description +displayed to better advantage. The rusty wooden house in +Pyncheon-street, with its seven sharp-pointed gables, and its huge +clustered chimney—the old elm tree before the door—the grassy yard +seen through the lattice-fence, with its enormous fertility of +burdocks—and the green moss on the slopes of the roof, with the flowers +growing aloft in the air in the nook between two of the gables—present +a picture to the eye as distinct as if our childhood had been passed in +the shadow of the old weather-beaten edifice. Nor are the characters of +the story drawn with less sharp and vigorous perspective. They stand out +from the canvas as living realities. In spite of the supernatural +drapery in which they are enveloped, they have such a genuine expression +of flesh and blood, that we can not doubt we have known them all our +days. They have the air of old acquaintance—only we wonder how the +artist got them to sit for their likenesses. The grouping of these +persons is managed with admirable artistic skill. Old Maid Pyncheon, +concealing under her verjuice scowl the unutterable tenderness of a +sister—her woman-hearted brother, on whose sensitive nature had fallen +such a strange blight—sweet and beautiful Phebe, the noble +village-maiden, whose presence is always like that of some shining +angel—the dreamy, romantic descendant of the legendary wizard—the +bold, bad man of the world, reproduced at intervals in the bloody +Colonel, and the unscrupulous Judge—wise old Uncle Venner—and +inappeasable Ned Higgins—are all made to occupy the place on the canvas +which shows the lights and shades of their character in the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_856" id="Page_856">[Pg 856]</a></span> +impressive contrast, and contributes to the wonderful vividness and +harmony of the grand historical picture. On the whole, we regard "The +House of the Seven Gables," though it exhibits no single scenes that may +not be matched in depth and pathos by some of Mr. Hawthorne's previous +creations, as unsurpassed by any thing he has yet written, in exquisite +beauty of finish, in the skillful blending of the tragic and comic, and +in the singular life-like reality with which the wildest traditions of +the Puritanic age are combined with the every-day incidents of modern +society.</p> + +<p>Harper and Brothers have published a translation of <i>Buttmann's Greek +Grammar</i>, by Professor <span class="smcap">Edward Robinson</span>, from the eighteenth German +edition, containing additions and improvements by <span class="smcap">Alexander Buttmann</span>, +the son of the original author. Since the publication of the thirteenth +edition in 1829, which was the last that the author lived to complete, +gradual changes have been introduced into the Grammar, especially in the +department of syntax, which has been expanded and re-written, with the +aid of the extensive investigations of the last twenty years. The +translation bears the same impress of diligence, accuracy, and +philological tact, which is never looked for in vain in the productions +of the indefatigable and distinguished author.</p> + +<p><i>Ecclesiastical Manual</i>, by <span class="smcap">Luther Lee</span> (published at the Wesleyan +Methodist Book Room), is a brief treatise on the nature of Church +Government, defending the right of visible church organization against +prevailing latitudinarian and transcendental views on the one hand, and +maintaining liberal principles of polity against the high claims of +Episcopacy and the assumptions of the clergy on the other. The argument +is conducted with candor and moderation, though not without spirit, and +may be studied to advantage by all who would understand the points at +issue.</p> + +<p><i>William Penn, An Historical Biography</i>, by <span class="smcap">William Hepworth Dixon</span> +(published by Blanchard and Lea), is a new and complete life of the +founder of Pennsylvania, derived from contemporary papers that have been +brought to light within a recent period, and from original and +unpublished documents. The view given by the author, of the religious +system of Fox and Penn, as coinciding with the principles of republican +freedom, is a reproduction of the admirable exhibition of Quakerism +presented by Bancroft in his History of the United States. In the +Appendix, the charges against William Penn by Macaulay are submitted to +a rigid examination; the evidence on the subject is skillfully and +thoroughly sifted; and the strongest case made out for the accused +against the insinuations of the ingenious and eloquent historian. With +his warm sympathies in favor of the subject of his narrative, and the +familiar knowledge of his career gained by the researches of several +years, Mr. Dixon has produced a genial and instructive piece of +biography, sustaining the claims of the illustrious Quaker to the noble +and elevated rank in which he has been placed by the general voice of +tradition.</p> + +<p><i>Physico-Physiological Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, &c.</i>, by +Baron <span class="smcap">Charles Von Reichenbach</span>, translated from the German, by <span class="smcap">John +Ashburner</span>, M.D., is a scientific treatise, showing the relations of +magnetism, electricity, heat, light, crystallization, and chemism to the +vital forces of the human body. It is founded on an extensive series of +experiments, which tend to bring the mysterious phenomena of Mesmerism +within the domain of physics, and in fact to reduce the whole subject +of physiology to a department of chemical science. The papers, of which +it is composed, were originally intended as contributions to the "Annals +of Chemistry," conducted by the celebrated Professor Liebig, in which +periodical they appeared in the year 1845. In the present collected +form, they have received some necessary corrections, but their spirit +and substance are presented without alteration. The investigations, of +which the results are here described, are of a singularly curious +character, exhibiting the most astonishing developments, with a +philosophical calmness that is rare even among German savants.</p> + +<p><i>The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter</i>, is the title of a novel +illustrative of the revolutionary history of Vermont, by the author of +"The Green Mountain Boys," published by B. B. Mussy and Co., Boston. It +gives many agreeable descriptions of Vermont scenery, with sketches of +its social life during the war of the Revolution, and shows considerable +skill in combining the prominent historical facts of that day with the +fictitious incidents of a lively and exciting plot.</p> + +<p><i>The Ballads and Songs</i> of <span class="smcap">William Pembroke Mulchinoch</span> (published by T. +W. Strong), is a collection of fugitive poetry, inspired with the +genuine breathings of Irish patriotism, frequently displaying great +facility and sweetness of versification, and pervaded throughout with a +winning sentiment of tenderness and human sympathy.</p> + +<p>Harper and Brothers have published a neat volume, entitled <i>Nature and +Blessedness of Christian Purity,</i> by Rev. <span class="smcap">R. S. Foster</span>, with an +Introduction by <span class="smcap">Edmund S. Janes</span>, D.D., one of the Bishops of the +Methodist Episcopal Church. Without aiming at any rivalry with other +writers on the subject, the author devotes his work to the maintenance +of the views which are set forth by the standard Wesleyan authorities. +Avoiding all considerations of a purely speculative character, he +presents the practical aspects of his theme, with discrimination, +earnestness, and force. His style, which is always animated and +effective, betrays the influence of profound and accurate thought, and +is equally adapted to make a favorable impression on the understanding +and on the heart of the attentive reader. The well-written Preface by +Bishop Janes, gives a lucid summary of the contents of the volume, with +a warm commendation of the manner in which it is executed.</p> + +<p><i>Lyra Catholica</i> (published by E. Dunigan and Brother), is a collection +of the Hymns of the Roman Breviary and Missal, with others adapted for +every day in the week, and the Festivals and Saints' Days throughout the +year. The translation of the Breviary, by Mr. Caswell, is adopted +without change, and forms the first part of the present work, while the +second part consists of hymns and anthems from various sources, +especially from the contributions of Rev. F. W. Faber, Matthew Brydges, +Esq., and Rev. William Young. The third part is devoted to sacred poetry +of a less strictly devotional cast. In addition to a few pieces from +modern poets, it contains a selection from the compositions of Catholic +writers belonging to an earlier age of English literature, including +"the simple and earnest strains of Southwell, a poet, priest, and +martyr, whose unshaken soul passed away in song from the fires of +persecution; Crashaw, whose tender fancy and graceful zeal have extorted +the highest praises of unfriendly judges; the manly virtue of Habington, +pure in an age of license; the later compositions of Dryden, the +atonements laid by his repentant muse on the altar of religion."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_857" id="Page_857">[Pg 857]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>The Soldier of the Cross</i>, by the Rev. <span class="smcap">John Leyburn</span>, D.D. (published by +Carter and Brothers), is a popular and attractive exposition of +Ephesians vi. 10-18, consisting of a series of discourses delivered from +the pulpit, but recast into the form of plain and practical essays, +written with considerable force. The talents of the author and the taste +of the publishers have made an addition to our religious literature, of +which the public estimation is indicated by the early call for a second +edition.</p> + +<p><i>The Irish Confederates, and the Rebellion of 1798</i>, by <span class="smcap">Henry M. Field</span> +(published by Harper and Brothers), is a lively historical sketch of the +movements of the Irish patriots in behalf of the freedom of their nation +toward the close of the last century. The volume opens with a rapid +survey of Irish history, traces the love of liberty among the people, +describes the causes of their national characteristics, and minutely +portrays the events of the fruitless struggle, which terminated in the +complete subjection of their beautiful island to the British crown. +Among the biographical sketches, those of Curran, Tone, Lord Edward +Fitzgerald, the Emmets, McNevin, and Sampson of course occupy a +prominent place, and are drawn with an affectionate sympathy, which +delights to linger around every memorial of their noble and chivalrous +characters. Mr. Field has enjoyed peculiar facilities for the +composition of this volume. A visit to Ireland some four years since +awakened a strong interest in the fortunes of her people. At a +subsequent period, he formed an intimate acquaintance with several of +the families of the Irish exiles in New York, and from the narratives +thus obtained, was furnished with some of the most valuable materials +for his story. Nor has he neglected the study of the different +historians of the time. His work, accordingly, combines the vivacity of +a personal narrative, with the accuracy of thorough research. It is +deeply imbued with a love of Ireland, with a sense of indignation at the +outrages which she has endured, and with admiration of the valor and +devotion of her gallant sons; though in no case, do the evident +partialities of the writer appear to have interfered with his strict +historical fidelity, or to have tempted him to an uncritical use of the +facts at his command. His style is simple and unaffected, warmed with a +persuasive earnestness, and animated with a chaste enthusiasm, but owing +none of its interest to the allurements of rhetoric. Indeed, a more +elaborate construction would often have been in better keeping with the +dignity of the subject, while the almost exclusive use of short +sentences at length overcomes the reader with a painful feeling of +monotony. There are also occasional instances of careless and +unauthorized expression, which, in a writer of such real ability and +cultivation as Mr. Field, excite the surprise of the fastidious reader.</p> + +<p>Harper and Brothers have issued an edition of the <i>History of Greece</i>, +by Dr. <span class="smcap">Leonhard Schmitz</span>, which forms an appropriate companion to the +<i>History of Rome</i>, published by the accomplished author four years +since. The purpose of Dr. Schmitz in each of these Histories is to give, +in a popular form, the result of the researches by modern scholars which +have placed the subject in a new light. In the composition of this +volume, the author has availed himself of the erudite labors of Bishop +Thirlwall, abridging his great work in some portions, and interweaving +his masterly views into the texture of his narrative, where a free style +was more suitable to the subject. As a manual for young students in +Grecian history, and a work for general and family reading, this volume +is not surpassed by any production of the present day. The experience of +the author as a practical educator, his admirable classical attainments, +and the caution and soundness of his historical judgments, give him +peculiar qualifications for the task he has undertaken. His style is +simple and condensed; his illustrations are singularly apposite; and his +grouping of topics is picturesque and forcible. For popular use, we have +no doubt, that both the Grecian and Roman Histories of Dr. Schmitz will +speedily take the precedence of all others in this country, as they have +done, to a very considerable degree, in Great Britain.</p> + +<p>The popular series of <i>Franconia Stories</i>, by <span class="smcap">Jacob Abbott</span> (published by +Harper and Brothers), is completed by the publication of <i>Mary Bell</i> and +<i>Beechnut</i>. The excellent author has placed the whole juvenile community +under new obligations by the issue of these delightful stories. He is so +perfectly at home in every phase of country life, and so ingenious in +working up its daily occurrences into a charming narrative, that he can +never fail of a listening audience. Few American authors have the power +of so impressing themselves on the memory and the heart of their +readers. The present series will doubtless add to his beautiful +influence and to his fame.</p> + +<p>The Third Number of <i>London Labor and The London Poor</i>, by <span class="smcap">Henry Mayhew</span>, +is issued by Harper and Brothers, and will be found to increase the +interest with which that remarkable series has been received by the +public. His pictures of the condition of the laboring classes in London +have a minuteness and vividness of detail which would not disgrace a +Dutch painting.</p> + +<p><i>The Roman Republic of</i> 1849, by <span class="smcap">Theodore Dwight</span> (published by R. Van +Dien), is a brief historical view of the recent revolutionary movements +in Italy, with biographical sketches of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Avezzana, +Filopanti, Foresti, and other leading Italian Republicans.</p> + +<p>Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued the fourth volume of their +beautiful edition of the <i>Collective Writings</i> of <span class="smcap">Thomas De Quincy</span>, +containing <i>The Cæsars</i>, a work characterized by the subtilty of +reflection, curious learning, and original felicities of expression, for +which the author is pre-eminent.</p> + +<p><i>Life on the Plains of the Pacific</i>, by Rev. <span class="smcap">Gustavus Hine</span> (published by +Geo. H. Derby and Co., Buffalo), is the title of a work devoted to the +history, condition, and prospects of Oregon, with a description of its +geography, climate, and productions, and of personal adventures among +the Indians. It contains a detailed history of the Oregon Mission, drawn +from the most authentic sources, including the notes and journals of the +first missionaries on that station. The journal of the author, +commencing with the departure of the missionaries from New York in 1839, +presents an interesting narrative of the largest expedition of this kind +that ever sailed from an American port, and is enriched with a great +variety of facts and incidents that occurred in the wide field of +observation that forms the subject of the volume. Without pretending to +the graces of literary composition, the writer has produced a work of +sterling value. His authority will no doubt be appealed to with +confidence on all matters pertaining to the important scene of his +labors.</p> + +<p><i>Hints to Sportsmen</i>, by E. J. <span class="smcap">Lewis</span> (published by Blanchard and Lea, +Philadelphia), is a regular-built treatise on all the mysteries of the +sporting craft. The author writes like an experienced shot.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_858" id="Page_858">[Pg 858]</a></span> His book is +not only a valuable manual for the sportsman, but a tempting volume for +the lovers of spirited description.</p> + +<p><i>Curran and his Contemporaries</i>, by <span class="smcap">Charles Phillips</span> (published by +Harper and Brothers), is a reproduction of the celebrated work of +Counselor Phillips, having been subjected by the author to a thorough +revision and amendment. It describes the interesting period of Irish +history during which Curran was the leading member of the Bar, with +great vivacity and force. Touching lightly on the politics of the times, +it presents a series of personal delineations, which are drawn to the +life by the enthusiastic and genial author. The freshness of his +recollections affords an abundance of piquant anecdote, which, with his +warm sympathies with the Irish character, gives a perpetual liveliness +and glow to the narrative, redeeming it from every approach to dullness, +and sustaining the interest of the reader to the close of the volume.</p> + +<p><i>Louisiana: Its Colonial History and Romance,</i> by <span class="smcap">Charles Gayarre</span> +(published by Harper and Brothers), is a republication of the lectures +of the author on "The Poetry, or the Romance of the History of +Louisiana," with the addition of seven new lectures, bringing the +subject down to the departure of Bienville, the founder of the colony, +in 1743. Among the interesting topics discussed in the second series of +lectures, are the formation of the Mississippi Company, the History of +Law's financial career, the foundation of New Orleans, the Manners and +Customs of the Natchez tribe, the wars between the Indians and the +Colonists, and others, which bring the romantic incidents connected with +the colonization of Louisiana into prominent view. The period was +fertile in singular adventures, presenting abundant materials for the +poet or novelist. Mr. Gayarre has made a felicitous selection of topics, +which, under the brilliant coloring of a lively imagination, are +presented in a picturesque and attractive form. The substance of his +work is founded on the conclusions of exact historical research, while +the drapery in which its scenes and characters are arrayed form a +graceful accompaniment to the severity of truth. With a perpetual +vivacity of style, and a profusion of glowing imagery, Mr. Gayarre never +becomes tedious or insipid. His volume is always delightful as a poem, +if it is not complete as a record, and will hold a high place among the +popular contributions to the "Romance of History."</p> + +<p>E. C. and J. Biddle have published <i>An Elementary Treatise on Statics</i>, +by <span class="smcap">Gaspard Monge</span>, translated by <span class="smcap">Woods Baker</span>, a work which has obtained a +distinguished reputation in the scientific literature of France, by its +clear and correct style, its rigorous demonstrations, and its +well-connected propositions. It is adapted to fill a place, for which no +adequate provision has been made by the usual treatises on the subject +in the English language. Most of these are voluminous, and suited only +to the more advanced classes of students, or else composed chiefly of +practical and descriptive details. The present volume treats the subject +in the synthetic method, and can be understood without difficulty by +those who are familiar with Euclid's Elements.</p> + +<p><i>Warreniana.</i>—Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued a reprint of this +celebrated <i>jeu d'esprit,</i> which still retains its popularity, together +with the <i>Rejected Addresses,</i> to which it forms an appropriate +companion. The peculiarities of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, +Christopher North, Washington Irving, Scott, Moore, Brougham, +Wilberforce, and other names of sufficient eminence to provoke a quiz, +are hit off with capital success. The most astringent features are +always relaxed in the perusal of these amusing pages.</p> + +<p>J. S. Redfield has issued an edition of <span class="smcap">Jung Stilling's</span> <i>Theory of +Pneumatology</i>, and of <span class="smcap">Cahagnet's</span> <i>Celestial Telegraph</i>, which are filled +with the latest information on the whole subject of ghosts, +presentiments, visions, and the world of spirits, obtained professedly +from the most authentic sources. Stilling's work is introduced with a +Preface by Rev. Dr. <span class="smcap">Bush</span>, highly commending its purposes and character. +The "Celestial Telegraph" beats Jackson Davis and the Rochester +Knockings all hollow. Whoever is curious in the literature of the +supernatural will find enough here to satisfy the most craving love of +the marvelous.</p> + +<p>Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have published a volume of <i>Poems</i>, by <span class="smcap">Henry +T. Tuckerman</span>, distinguished for the sweet and graceful fancies, the +fluent aptness of expression, the joyous sympathy with nature, and the +refined delicacy of taste by which most of the writings of the author +are characterized. The vein of tranquil reflection which pervades them, +and the chastened utterance of feeling which vails rather than embodies +strong emotion, though not among the elements of popular poetry, will +recommend them to the congenial reader.</p> + +<p>J. W. Moore, Philadelphia, has published a useful little volume for +students in design, entitled <i>The Theory of Effect</i>, by An Artist. It is +intended not only for the use of beginners, but of those who have +attained a proficiency in the art, while they are unacquainted with the +principles on which the correctness of their pictures depends. The rules +of Effect are laid down with great precision and minuteness, and +illustrated with several neat engravings by Hinckley.</p> + +<p><i>The Volcano Diggings</i> is the title of a lively story, by a Member of +the Bar, illustrating the administration of the law in California. +Several scenes, which are evidently taken from the life, are described +with a good deal of spirit, and throw a strong, but not altogether +flattering light on the condition of society at the placers. (Published +by J. S. Redfield).</p> + +<p>George P. Putnam has issued <i>The Wing-and-Wing</i>, forming another volume +of the Collected Works of <span class="smcap">J. Fenimore Cooper.</span> In the Preface to this +edition, the author remarks, that "he acknowledges a strong paternal +feeling in behalf of this book, placing it very high in the estimate of +its merits, as compared with other books from the same pen; a species of +commendation that need wound no man."</p> + +<p>The same publisher has issued a new and revised edition of <i>The Conquest +of Florida</i>, by <span class="smcap">Theodore Irving</span>. The author expresses his gratification +in finding his account of De Soto's expedition confirmed by the most +recent investigations. His work is justly entitled to the reputation +which it has obtained, as a classic authority, on an interesting period +of American history.</p> + +<p>Phillips, Sampson, and Co. have published a valuable collection of +financial essays, entitled <i>The Banker's Commonplace Book</i>, containing +Mr. A. B. Johnson's pithy treatise on the Principles of Banking and the +Duties of a Banker, Gilbart's Ten Minutes' Advice on Keeping a Bank, +with several articles on Bills of Exchange, and a summary of the Banking +Laws of Massachusetts. It will prove a useful manual on the subject to +which it is devoted.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_859" id="Page_859">[Pg 859]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="TWO_LEAVES_FROM_PUNCH" id="TWO_LEAVES_FROM_PUNCH"></a>TWO LEAVES FROM PUNCH.</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 455px;"> +<img src="images/image19.jpg" width="455" height="550" alt="ENCOURAGEMENT TO BOOK-LENDERS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">ENCOURAGEMENT TO BOOK-LENDERS.<br /> + +"<span class="smcap">If you please, Sir, Master's sent back the First Volume, and he says +will you be so good as to let him 'ave the Second?</span>"</span> +</div> + + +<h3>DIPLOMACY AND GASTRONOMY.</h3> + +<p>It is a very generally received opinion that <i>gammon</i> is the basis of +diplomacy; but the fact is, that it is impossible to conduct +international negotiations on the foundation of that humble and +economical fare, even when rendered more palatable by the addition of +spinach. <span class="smcap">Mr. Rives</span>, it is said, has written a letter to <span class="smcap">Mr. Webster</span>, +complaining that the American Embassadorship can not be done at Paris +under £9000 a year, and adds that</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>According to</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Pakenham</span>, <i>good dinners are half the battle +of diplomacy, and the most favorable treaties are gained by +liberal feeding.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>This aphorism suggests important reflections.</p> + +<p>A main point to be attended to in the formation of a diplomatic corps is +the commissariat; and the force must be well armed with knives and +forks, in addition to being supplied with plate armor.</p> + +<p>The trenches in diplomatic warfare must be manned by regular +trenchermen.</p> + +<p>Rivals in diplomacy must be cut out by actual carving; and in order to +dish them, recourse must be had to real dishes.</p> + +<p>If one diplomatist wishes to turn the tables on another, it is requisite +that he and his suite should keep the better tables.</p> + +<p>The politeness of diplomatic intercourse should be qualified, in some +measure, with sauce, and its gravity tempered with gravy.</p> + +<p>Treating, in diplomacy, is best managed by giving "a spread."</p> + +<p>Bold diplomatists are those "who greatly daring, dine."</p> + +<p>The most liberal foreign policy is that of giving grand banquets.</p> + +<p>A plenipotentiary should have unlimited powers of cramming.</p> + +<p>An embassador has been defined to be, "a man sent abroad to lie for the +sake of the commonwealth;" but the definition must be enlarged to +express the fact, that he is also a person deputed to a foreign country +to eat and drink for the interest of his native land.</p> + +<p>The most important diplomatic functions are those of digestion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_860" id="Page_860">[Pg 860]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image20.jpg" width="500" height="280" alt="SUPPER AT A JUVENILE PARTY." title="" /> +<span class="caption">SUPPER AT A JUVENILE PARTY.<br /> + +<i>Alfred.</i> <span class="smcap">"I say, Frank, arn't you going to have some Supper?"</span><br /> + +<i>Frank.</i> "<span class="smcap">A—Not at present. I shall wait till the Women leave the +room."</span></span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_861" id="Page_861">[Pg 861]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image21.jpg" width="500" height="402" alt="ONE OF THE JUVENILES AFTER THE PARTY." title="" /> +<span class="caption">ONE OF THE JUVENILES AFTER THE PARTY.<br /> + +<i>Doctor.</i> "<span class="smcap">Ahem! Well! and what's the matter with my young friend, +Adolphus?</span>"<br /><br /> + +<i>Mother.</i> "<span class="smcap">Why, doctor, he was at a Juvenile Party last night, and I'm +afraid he's eaten something that does'n't agree with him, poor dear!</span>"</span> +</div> + + +<h3>CONVERSATION-BOOKS FOR 1851.</h3> + + +<p>It is said that Publishers are getting up a series of Conversation-Books +for the use of foreigners, visiting the Great Exhibition. But the spoken +and written language of London are so different that it is feared these +books will be of little use. Mr. PUNCH furnishes the following +corrections of the two most important chapters, by the diligent study of +which it is hoped that visitors may be enabled to ride and dine.</p> + + +<h4>TO CONVERSE WITH A CABMAN.</h4> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><i>What the Book said.</i></td><td align='left'><i>What the Man said.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do you wish, Sir, to ride in my cabriolet?</td><td align='left'>C'b? (<i>from every driver on the rank, and as many fingers held up as there are Cabmen.</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Where do you wish, Sir, that I should drive you?</td><td align='left'>Vere to? (<i>and a look.</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>I wish to go to the Exposition.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Thank you, Sir. I will drive you thither without delay.</td><td align='left'>Vere? (<i>not understanding the foreigner's English.</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>What is your fare?</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>I have driven you two miles. My legal fare for driving you that distance is one shilling and four-pence.</td><td align='left'>Two bob and a tanner.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>As you have driven fast, there is one shilling and sixpence.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Thank you, Sir, I am very much obliged to you.</td><td align='left'>Vot's this? (<i>and a look of contemptuous curiosity at the coin presented.</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>I shall be happy to drive you in future.</td><td align='left'>Vel, if hever I drives a scaly furrinrr again, I'm blessed!</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Good morning to you, Sir.</td><td align='left'>Ollo! You ain't a-goin' hoff in this 'ere way.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>You have paid me handsomely.</td><td align='left'>Oh—you calls yourself a gentleman!</td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_862" id="Page_862">[Pg 862]</a></span></p> + + +<h4>TO CONVERSE WITH A WAITER.</h4> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Waiter, what have you for dinner?</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>You can have what you choose to order, Sir.</td><td align='left'>Din'r, Sir!—Yezzir!</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Here is the bill of fare, Sir.</td><td align='left'>S'p, f'sh, ch'ps, st'ks, cutl't, Sir! r'nd o' b'f, Sir!—nice cut, Sir!—sad'l mt'n, Sir!—Yezzir!</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>—John, att'nd to the gnl'm.—Yezzir!—Jem, mon'y—com'n, Sir!—'Ere, Sir!—Yezzir!</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Waiter, how much have I to pay?</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Here, Sir, is your bill.</td><td align='left'>Money! (<i>calling.</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Permit me to ask you what you have had to eat, Sir?</td><td align='left'>Now, Sir? (<i>and an interrogative look.</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>I have had a beef-steak, with boiled potatoes; I have also had a fried sole, and some bread, with Cheshire cheese, and a pint of porter.</td><td align='left'>St'k, Sir? Yezzir! shill'n, Sir! 'taters, Sir? Yezzir! twop'nce, that's one-and-three, and bread a penny, one-and-three and two is one-and-five, and sole, you said, Sir? Yezzir! that's one shilling: one-and-eight and five, thirteen, that's two-and-six; and cheese?</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Sir, the price of all that is two shillings.</td><td align='left'>Yezzir! two-and-eight and four, that's three shill'n; and porter is four; three, four, eight, ten, fifteen—four-and-two. Thank you, Sir! Waiter, Sir? Thank you, Sir. Good afternoon, Sir.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<h4>TO FIND ROOM IN A CROWDED OMNIBUS.</h4> + +<p><i>Conductor.</i>—Would any gentleman mind going outside, to oblige a lady?</p> + +<p><i>Unfortunate Gentleman (tightly wedged in at the back</i>).—I should be +very happy, but I only came, yesterday, out of the Fever Hospital.</p> + +<p class="right">[<i>Omnibus clears in a minute!</i></p> + + +<h4>A FILE TO SMOOTH ASPERITIES.</h4> + +<p>The <i>Sheffield Times</i> describes an extraordinary file, which is to be +sent from Sheffield to the Great Exhibition. This remarkable file is +adorned with designs as numerous as those on the original shield of +<span class="smcap">Achilles</span>, all cut and beaten out with hammer and chisel. How much more +sensible and friendly to show distinguished foreigners files of this +sort, than to exhibit to them files of soldiers!</p> + + +<h4>THE LOWEST DEPTH OF MEANNESS.</h4> + +<h4>A FARCE, FOUNDED ON FACT.</h4> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr.</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Skinflint</span> <i>are discovered in a Parlor in a Fashionable +Square. The Wife is busy sewing. The Husband is occupied running his +eye, well drilled in all matters of domestic economy, over the +housekeeping account of the previous week.</i></p> + +<p><i>Mr. Skinflint.</i>—You've been very extravagant in my absence, my dear.</p> + +<p><i>Mrs. Skinflint.</i>—It's the same story every week, <span class="smcap">John</span>.</p> + +<p><i>Mr. Skinflint.</i>—But, nonsense, Madam, I tell you, you have. For +instance, you had a Crab for supper last night.</p> + +<p><i>Mrs. Skinflint (startled).</i>—How do you know that? It's not down in the +book.</p> + +<p><i>Mr. Skinflint (triumphantly).</i>—No—but I found the shell in the +dust-bin!!!!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/image22.jpg" width="550" height="393" alt="A LITTLE BIT OF HUMBUG." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A LITTLE BIT OF HUMBUG.<br /> + +<i>Shoemaker.</i> "<span class="smcap">I think, Mum, we had better make you a pair. You see, Mum, +yours is such a remarkable long and narrer Foot!</span>"</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_863" id="Page_863">[Pg 863]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="FASHIONS_FOR_MAY" id="FASHIONS_FOR_MAY"></a>FASHIONS FOR MAY.</h2> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image23.jpg" width="500" height="606" alt="Fig. I.—Promenade Costumes." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Fig. I.—Promenade Costumes.</span> +</div> + +<p>This is the season when Fashion is more perplexed than at any other, in +her endeavors to give humanity a <i>seasonable</i> garb. Boreas and Zephyrus +often bear rule on the same day, one reigning with mildness in the +morning, the other despotically at evening. Those votaries of Fashion +are the wiser, who pay court to the former; for, generally, it is almost +June, in our Northern States, before we may be certain that the chilling +breath of early Spring will be no more felt.</p> + +<p>This being the season for rides and promenades, our illustrations for +this month are devoted chiefly to the representation of appropriate +costume for those healthful exercises in the open air. The large figure +in our first plate, represents an elegant style of promenade dress. +<i>Pardessus</i> are much worn at this season, made in a lighter manner than +those used earlier. Velvet <i>pardessus</i> with silk or satin linings, but +not padded, are used. Our illustration represents one of black velvet, +trimmed with several narrow rows of satin of the same color. The dress +is amber-colored figured silk, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_864" id="Page_864">[Pg 864]</a></span> very full plain skirt. <i>Capotes</i> +or bonnets of satin are also worn. An elegant style is made of violet +velvet and satin, ornamented with heart's-ease almost hidden within +<i>coques</i> of satin and velvet, which are arranged in a tasteful manner +upon the exterior of the <i>capote</i>, the interior being decorated with +heart's-ease to match, which may or may not be intermixed with lace or +<i>tulle</i>, according to the taste of the wearer.</p> + +<p>Costumes for young misses are also represented in our first +illustration. The larger one has a dress of a pale chocolate cachmere, +trimmed with narrow silk fringe; the double robings on each side of the +front as well as the cape, on the half-high corsage, ornamented with a +double row of narrow silk fringe. This trimming is also repeated round +the lower part of the loose sleeve. Chemisette of plaited cambric, +headed with a broad frill of embroidery; full under-sleeves of cambric, +with a row of embroidery round the wrist. Open bonnet of pink satin, a +row of white lace encircling the interior next the face. Boots of pale +violet cachmere and morocco. Trowsers of worked cambric. The smaller +figure has a frock of plaided cachmere. <i>Paletot</i> of purple velvet, or +dark cachmere; a round hat of white satin, the low crown adorned with a +long white ostrich feather. Trowsers and under-sleeves of white +embroidered cambric. Button gaiter boots of chocolate cachmere.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 291px;"> +<img src="images/image24.jpg" width="291" height="500" alt="Fig. 2.—Evening Costume." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Fig. 2.—Evening Costume.</span> +</div> + +<p>Figure 2 represents a most elegant costume for an evening party, or a +ball. It is composed of a beautifully embroidered white satin dress, the +skirt looped up on the right side, and decorated with a bunch of the +pink honey-plant, heading three pink and white <i>marabout</i> tips, from +which depend three ends of deep silk fringe, pink and white. Low +pointed corsage, the top of which is encircled with a small embroidered +pointed cape, edged as well as the short sleeves with a deep pink and +white fringe, and confined upon the centre with a cluster of feathers +and flowers, decorated in the centre with a butterfly composed of +precious stones. The hair is simply arranged with a narrow wreath of +pink and white velvet leaves, finished on the right side with two small +<i>marabout</i> feathers, and two ends of fringe drooping low.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image25.jpg" width="350" height="447" alt="Fig. 3.—Morning Promenade Costume." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Fig. 3.—Morning Promenade Costume.</span> +</div> + +<p>Figure 3 is a morning promenade costume. A high dress of black satin, +the body fitting perfectly tight; a small jacket cut on the bias, with +two rows of black velvet laid on a little distance from the edge. The +sleeves are rather large, and have abroad cuff turned back, which is +trimmed to correspond with the jacket. The skirt is long and full; the +dress ornamented up the front in its whole length by rich fancy silk +trimmings, graduating in size from the bottom of the skirt to the waist, +and again increasing to the throat. Bonnet of plum-colored satin; a +bunch of heart's-ease, intermixed with ribbon, placed low on the left +side; the same flowers, but somewhat smaller, ornament the interior.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/image26.jpg" width="350" height="199" alt="Fig. 4 And 5.—Head-Dresses." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Fig. 4 And 5.—Head-Dresses.</span> +</div> + +<p>Figures 4 and 5 represent different styles of head-dresses for balls or +evening parties. Figure 4 is a combination of flowers and splendid +ribbons, with a fall on each side, of the richest lace. Figure 5 is very +brilliant. It is a wreath of Ceres form, composed of small flowers in +rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, perfectly resembling natural flowers, +with ears of wheat freely intermingled. At this season the head-dresses +are chiefly of the floral description. Feathers and flowers intermixed, +form a very beautiful <i>coiffure</i>.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume +2, No. 12, May, 1851., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY, MAY 1851 *** + +***** This file should be named 30943-h.htm or 30943-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/9/4/30943/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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b/30943-h/images/image9.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5783b82 --- /dev/null +++ b/30943-h/images/image9.jpg diff --git a/30943.txt b/30943.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f79212e --- /dev/null +++ b/30943.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14289 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, +No. 12, May, 1851., 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: Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 12, 2010 [EBook #30943] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY, MAY 1851 *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + +HARPER'S + +NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. + +No. XII.--MAY, 1851--VOL. II. + + + + +THE NOVELTY WORKS, WITH SOME DESCRIPTION OF THE MACHINERY AND THE +PROCESSES EMPLOYED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF MARINE STEAM-ENGINES OF THE +LARGEST CLASS. + +BY JACOB ABBOTT. + + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF THE NOVELTY IRON WORKS, NEW YORK, (_As +seen from the East River._)] + +Perhaps no one of those vast movements which are now going forward among +mankind, and which mark so strikingly the industrial power and genius of +the present age, is watched with more earnest interest by thinking men, +than the successive steps of the progress by which the mechanical power +of steam and machinery is gradually advancing, in its contest for the +dominion of the seas. There is a double interest in this conflict. In +fact, the conflict itself is a double one. There is first a struggle +between the mechanical power and ingenuity of man, on the one hand, and +the uncontrollable and remorseless violence of ocean storms on the +other; and, secondly, there is the rivalry, not unfriendly, though +extremely ardent and keen, between the two most powerful commercial +nations on the globe, each eager to be the first to conquer the common +foe. + +The armories in which the ordnance and ammunition for this warfare are +prepared, consist, so far as this country is concerned, of certain +establishments, vast in their extent and capacity, though unpretending +in external appearance, which are situated in the upper part of the city +of New York, on the shores of the East River. As the city of New York is +sustained almost entirely by its commerce, and as this commerce is +becoming every year more and more dependent for its prosperity and +progress upon the power of the enormous engines by which its most +important functions are now performed, the establishments where these +engines are invented and made, and fitted into the ships which they are +destined to propel, constitute really the heart of the metropolis; +though, the visitor, who comes down for the first time by the East +River, from the Sound, in the morning boat from Norwich or Fall River, +is very prone to pass them carelessly by--his thoughts intent upon what +he considers the superior glory and brilliancy which emanate from the +hotels and theatres of Broadway. + +In fact, there is very little to attract the eye of the unthinking +traveler to these establishments as he glides swiftly by them in the +early morning. He is astonished perhaps at the multitude of steamers +which he sees lining the shores in this part of the city, some drawn up +into the docks for repairs; others new, and moored alongside a pier to +receive their machinery; and others still upon the stocks in the +capacious ship-yards, in the various stages of that skeleton condition +which in the ship marks the commencement, as in animal life it does the +end, of existence. Beyond and above the masts and spars and smoke-pipes +of this mass of shipping, the observer sees here and there a columnar +chimney, or the arms of a monstrous derrick or crane, or a steam-pipe +ejecting vapor in successive puffs with the regularity of an animal +pulsation. He little thinks that these are the beatings which mark the +spot where the true heart of the great metropolis really lies. But it is +actually so. The splendor and the fashion of the Fifth Avenue, and of +Union-square, as well as the brilliancy, and the ceaseless movement and +din of Broadway, are the mere incidents and ornaments of the structure, +while these establishments, and others of kindred character and +function, form the foundation on which the whole of the vast edifice +reposes. + +We select, rather by accident than otherwise, the Novelty Works as a +specimen of the establishments to which we have been alluding, for +description in this Number. A general view of the works as they appear +from the river, is presented in the engraving at the head of this +article, with the docks and piers belonging to the establishment in the +fore-ground. + +The entrance to the inclosure is by a great gateway, through which the +visitor on approaching it, will, very probably see an enormous truck or +car issuing, drawn by a long team of horses, and bearing some ponderous +piece of machinery suspended beneath it by means of levers and chains. +On the right of the entrance gate is the porter's lodge, with entrances +from it to the offices, as represented in the plan on the adjoining page +Beyond the entrance, and just within the inclosure may be seen a great +crane used for receiving or delivering the vast masses of metal, the +shafts, the cylinders, the boilers, the vacuum pans, and other ponderous +formations which are continually coming and going to and from the yard. +Beyond the crane is seen the bell by which the hours of work are +regulated. + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE NOVELTY WORKS.] + +The plan upon the adjoining page will give the reader some idea of the +extent of the accommodations required for the manufacture of such heavy +and massive machinery. On the right of the entrance may be seen the +porter's lodge, shown in perspective in the view below. Beyond it, in +the yard, stands the crane, which is seen likewise in the view. Turning +to the left, just beyond the crane, the visitor enters the iron foundry, +a spacious inclosure, with ovens and furnaces along the sides, and +enormous cranes swinging in various directions in the centre. These +cranes are for hoisting the heavy castings out of the pits in which they +are formed. The parts marked v v v, are ovens for drying the moulds. + +[Illustration] + +Turning to the right from the foundry, and passing down through the +yard, the visitor finds himself in the midst of a complicated maze of +buildings, which extend in long ranges toward the water, with lanes and +passages between them like the streets of a town. In these passages +companies of workmen are seen, some going to and fro, drawing heavy +masses of machinery upon iron trucks; others employed in hoisting some +ponderous cylinder or shaft by a crane, or stacking pigs of iron in +great heaps, to be ready for the furnaces which are roaring near as if +eager to devour them. And all the time there issues from the open doors +of the great boiler-shops and forging-shops below, an incessant clangor, +produced by the blows of the sledges upon the rivets of the boilers, or +of the trip-hammers at the forges. + +The relative positions of the various shops where the different +operations are performed will be seen by examination of the plan. The +motive power by which all the machinery of the establishment is driven, +is furnished by a stationary engine in the very centre of the works, +represented in the plan. It stands between two of the principal shops. +On the right is seen the boiler, and on the left the engine--while the +black square below, just within the great boiler-shop, represents the +chimney. Other similar squares in different parts of the plan represent +chimneys also, in the different parts of the establishment. These +chimneys may be seen in perspective in the general view, at the head of +this article, and may be identified with their several representations +in the plan, by a careful comparison. The one belonging to the engine is +the central one in the picture as well as in the plan--that is, the one +from which the heaviest volume of smoke is issuing. + +This central engine, since it carries all the machinery of the works, by +means of which every thing is formed and fashioned, is the life and soul +of the establishment--the _mother_, in fact, of all the monsters which +issue from it; and it is impossible to look upon her, as she toils on +industriously in her daily duty, and think of her Titanic progeny, +scattered now over every ocean on the globe, without a certain feeling +of respect and even of admiration. + +A careful inspection of the plan will give the reader some ideas of the +nature of the functions performed in these establishments, and of the +general arrangements adopted in them. The magnitude and extent of them +is shown by this fact, that the number of men employed at the Novelty +Works is from one thousand to twelve hundred. These are all _men_, in +the full vigor of life. If now we add to this number a proper estimate +for the families of these men, and for the mechanics and artisans who +supply their daily wants, all of whom reside in the streets surrounding +the works, we shall find that the establishment represents, at a +moderate calculation, a population of _ten thousand souls_. + +The proper regulation of the labors of so large a body of workmen as are +employed in such an establishment, requires, of course, much system in +the general arrangements, and very constant and careful supervision on +the part of those intrusted with the charge of the various divisions of +the work. The establishment forms, in fact, a regularly organized +community, having, like any state or kingdom, its gradations of rank, +its established usages, its written laws, its police, its finance, its +records, its rewards, and its penalties. The operation of the principles +of system, and of the requirements of law, leads, in such a community as +this, to many very curious and striking results, some of which it would +be interesting to describe, if we had space for such descriptions. But +we must pass to the more immediate subject in this article, which is the +structure of the engine itself, and not that of the community which +produces it. + +The engraving on the next page represents the interior of the +engine-room of the Humboldt--a new steamer, which was lying at the dock +at the time of our visit, receiving her machinery; though probably +before these pages shall come under the eye of the reader, she will be +steadily forcing her way over the foaming surges of the broad Atlantic. +The machinery, as we saw it, was incomplete, and the parts in +disorder--the various masses of which it was ultimately to be composed, +resting on temporary supports, in different stages, apparently of their +slow journey to the place and the connection in which they respectively +belonged. The ingenious artist, however, who made the drawings, +succeeded in doing, by means of his imagination, at once, what it will +require the workmen several weeks to perform, with all their complicated +machinery of derricks, tackles, and cranes. He put every thing in its +place, and has given us a view of the whole structure as it will appear +when the ship is ready for sea. + +There are _two_ engines and _four_ boilers; thus the machinery is all +double, so that if any fatal accident or damage should accrue to any +part, only one half of the moving force on which the ship relies would +be suspended. The heads of two of the boilers are to be seen on the left +of the view. They are called the _starboard_ and _larboard_ +boilers--those words meaning _right_ and _left_. That is, the one on the +right to a person standing before them in the engine room, and facing +them, is the starboard, and the other the larboard boiler. It is the +larboard boiler which is nearest the spectator in the engraving. + +The boilers, the heads of which only are seen in the engraving, are +enormous in magnitude and capacity, extending as they do far forward +into the hold of the ship. In marine engines of the largest class they +are sometimes thirty-six feet long and over twelve feet in diameter. +There is many a farmer's dwelling house among the mountains, which is +deemed by its inmates spacious and comfortable, that has less capacity. +In fact, placed upon end, one of these boilers would form a tower with a +very good sized room on each floor, and four stories high. The manner in +which the boilers are made will be presently explained. + +The steam generated in the boilers is conveyed to the engine, where it +is to do its work, by what is called the steam pipe. The steam pipe of +the larboard engine, that is, of the one nearest the spectator, is not +represented in the engraving, as it would have intercepted too much the +view of the other parts. That belonging to the starboard engine, +however, may be seen passing across from the boiler to the engine, on +the back side of the room. The destination of the steam is the +_cylinder_. + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF A MARINE ENGINE.] + +The cylinder, marked C, is seen on the extreme right, in the view. It +may be known, too, by its form, which corresponds with its name. The +cylinder is the heart and soul of the engine, being the seat and centre +of its power. The steam is generated in the boilers, but while it +remains there it remains quiescent and inert. The action in which its +mighty power is expended, and by means of which all subsequent effects +are produced, is the lifting and bringing down of the enormous piston +which plays within the cylinder. This piston is a massive metallic disc +or plate, fitting the interior of the cylinder by its edges, and rising +or falling by the expansive force of the steam, as it is admitted +alternatively above and below it. + +The round beam which is seen issuing from the centre of the head of the +cylinder is called the piston rod. The piston itself is firmly secured +to the lower end of this rod within the cylinder. Of course, when the +piston is forced upward by the pressure of the steam admitted beneath +it, the piston rod rises, too, with all the force of the expansion. This +is, in the case of the largest marine engines, a force of about a +hundred tons. That is to say, if in the place of the cross head--the +beam marked H in the engraving which surmounts the piston--there were a +mass of rock weighing a hundred tons, which would be, in the case of +granite, a block four feet square and eighty feet high, the force of the +steam beneath the piston in the cylinder would be competent to lift it. + +The piston rod, rising with this immense force carries up the cross +head, and with the cross head the two _side rods_, one of which is seen +in full, in the engraving, and is marked S. There is a side rod on each +side of the cylinders. The lower ends of these rods are firmly connected +with the back ends of what are called the _side levers_. One of these +side levers is seen in full view in the engraving. It is the massive +flat beam, marked L, near the fore-ground of the view. It turns upon an +enormous pivot which passes through the centre of it, as seen in the +drawing, in such a manner that when the cylinder end is drawn up by the +lifting of the cross head, the other end is borne down to the same +extent, and with the same prodigious force. There is another side beam, +on the other side of the cylinder, which moves isochronously with the +one in view. The forward end of this other beam may be seen, though the +main body of it is concealed from view. These two forward ends of the +levers are connected by a heavy bar, called the _cross tail_, which +passes across from one to the other. From the centre of this cross tail, +a bar called the connecting rod rises to the crank, where the force +exerted by the steam in the cylinders is finally expended in turning the +great paddle wheels by means of the main shaft, S, which is seen resting +in the pillow block, P, above. These are the essential parts of the +engine, and we now proceed to consider the mode of manufacturing these +several parts, somewhat in detail. + +[Illustration: THE CUTTING ENGINE.] + +The boilers are formed of wrought iron. The material is previously +rolled into plates of the requisite thickness, and then the first part +of the process of forming these plates into a boiler is to cut them into +proper forms. The monster that fulfills the function of shears for this +purpose, bears a very slight resemblance to any ordinary cutting +implement It resembles, on the other hand, as represented in the +adjoining engraving, an enormous letter U, standing perpendicularly upon +one of its edges. Through the centre of the upper branch of it there +passes a shaft or axle, which is turned by the wheels and machinery +behind it, and which itself works the cutter at the outer end of it by +means of an eccentric wheel. This cutter may be seen just protruding +from its place, upon the plate which the workmen are holding underneath. +The iron plates thus presented are sometimes nearly half an inch thick, +but the monstrous jaw of the engine, though it glides up and down when +there is nothing beneath it in the most gentle and quiet manner +possible, cuts them through, as if they were plates of wax, and +apparently without feeling the obstruction. + +[Illustration: THE BENDING AND PUNCHING ENGINES.] + +The plates, when cut, are to be bent to the proper curvature. The +machine by which this bending is effected is seen above, in the +back-ground. It consists of three rollers, placed in such a position in +relation to each other, that the plate, in being forced through between +them, is bent to any required curvature. These rollers are made to +revolve by great wheels at the sides, with handles at the circumference +of them, which handles act as levers, and are worked by men, as seen in +the engraving. + +The separate plates of which a boiler is composed are fastened together +by means of massive rivets, and it is necessary, accordingly, to punch +rows of holes along the edges of the plates for the insertion of the +rivets. This process may be seen on the _left_ in the above engraving. +Two men are holding the plate which is to be punched. The punch is +driven through the plate by means of the great lever, which forms the +upper part of the engine. The upright part in front is driven forward by +means of the cam in the large wheel behind, a part of which only is seen +in the engraving. This cam raises the long arm of the lever by means of +the pulley in the end of it, and so drives the point of the punch +through the plate. There is a support for the plate behind it, between +the plate and the man, with a small opening in it, into which the punch +enters, driving before it the round button of iron which it has cut from +the plate. + +On the right, in the above engraving, is a punching engine worked by +men, the other being driven by steam power. These machines are +sufficient to make all the ordinary perforations required in +boiler-plates. Larger holes, when required, have to be bored by a drill, +as represented in the following engraving. + +[Illustration: THE BORING-ENGINE.] + +The view below represents the interior of one of the great boiler rooms +where the boilers are put together by riveting the plates to each other +at their edges. Some men stand inside, holding heavy sledges against the +heads of the rivets, while others on the outside, with other sledges, +beat down the part of the iron which protrudes, so as to form another +head to each rivet, on the outside. This process can be seen distinctly +in the boiler nearest to the observer in the view below. The planks +which are seen crossing each other in the open end, are temporary +braces, put in to preserve the cylindrical form of the mass, to prevent +the iron from bending itself by its own weight, before the iron heads +are put in. + +[Illustration: RIVETING THE BOILERS.] + +Sometimes operations must be performed upon the sides of the boiler +requiring the force of machinery. To effect this purpose, shafts carried +by the central engine to which we have already alluded, are attached to +the walls in various parts of the room, as seen in the engraving. +Connected with these shafts are various drilling and boring machines, +which can at any time be set in motion, or put to rest, by being thrown +in or out of gear. One of these machines is seen on the right of the +boiler above referred to, and another in the left-hand corner of the +room quite in the back-ground. Near the fore-ground, on the left, is +seen a forge, where any small mass of iron may be heated, as occasion +may require. + +The semi-cylindrical piece which lies in the centre of the room, toward +the fore-ground, is part of a locomotive boiler, and is of course much +smaller in size than the others, though it is constructed in the same +manner with the large boilers used for sea-going ships. The process of +riveting, as will be seen by the engraving, is the same. One man holds +up against the under side of the plate a support for the rivet, while +two men with hammers form a head above--striking alternately upon the +iron which protrudes. + +From the boiler we proceed to the cylinder, which is in fact the _heart_ +of the engine,--the seat and centre of its power. It is to the cylinder +that the steam, quietly generated in the boiler, comes to exercise its +energy, by driving, alternately up and down, the ponderous piston. The +cylinder must be strong so as to resist the vast expansive force which +is exercised within it. It must be stiff, so as to preserve in all +circumstances its exact form. It must be substantial, so as to allow of +being turned and polished on its interior surface with mathematical +precision, in order that the piston in ascending and descending, may +glide smoothly up and down, without looseness, and at the same time +without friction. To answer these conditions it is necessary that it +should be formed of cast iron. + +The cylinders are cast, accordingly, in the iron foundry, which, as will +be seen by the plan, is on the left, as the visitor enters the works. +There is a range of monstrous cranes extending through the interior of +the room, as represented in the plan, one of which is exhibited +conspicuously in the engraving below. At different places in the ground, +beneath this foundry, for it has no floor, there have been excavated +deep pits, some of which are twelve feet in diameter and eighteen feet +deep, the sides of which are secured by strong inclosures, formed of +plates of boiler iron riveted together. These pits are filled with +moulding sand--a composition of a damp and tenacious character, used in +moulding. The mould is made and lowered into one of these pits, the pit +is filled up, the sand being rammed as hard as possible all around it. +When all is ready, the top of the mould, with the cross by which it is +to be lifted and lowered surmounting it, presents the appearance +represented on the right hand lower corner of the engraving below. + +[Illustration: CASTING A CYLINDER.] + +A reservoir to contain the melted metal necessary for the casting is +then placed in a convenient position near it, with a channel or conduit +leading from it to the mould. This reservoir may be seen in the +engraving near the centre of the view, at the foot of the crane. An +inclined plane is then laid, as seen in the engraving, to the left of +the reservoir, up which the workmen carry the molten metal in ladles, +which, though they do not appear very large, it requires _five men_ to +carry. A party carrying such a ladle may be seen in the engraving in the +back-ground on the left. These ladles are filled from the various +furnaces, the iron throwing out an intense heat, and projecting the most +brilliant scintillations in every direction, as it flows. In the case of +the largest castings it requires sometimes four or five hours to get +together, from the furnaces, a sufficient supply of metal. The largest +reservoir thus filled will hold about thirty tons of iron. + +[Illustration: FILLING THE LADLES.] + +The flowing of the metal from the reservoir to the mould in a great +casting, forms a magnificent spectacle. The vast mass of molten iron in +the reservoir, the stream flowing down the conduit, throwing out the +most brilliant corruscations, the gaseous flames issuing from the upper +portions of the mould, and the currents of melted iron which sometimes +overflow and spread, like mimic streams of lava, over the ground, +present in their combination quite an imposing pyrotechnic display. In +fact there is a chance for the visitor, in the case of castings of a +certain kind, that he may be treated to an explosion as a part of the +spectacle. The imprisoned vapors and gases which are formed in the mould +below, break out sometimes with considerable violence, scattering the +burning and scintillating metal in every direction around. + +[Illustration: THE EXPLOSION.] + +When the casting is completed it is of course allowed to remain +undisturbed until the iron has had time to cool, and then the whole mass +is to be dug out of the pit in which it is imbedded. So much heat, +however, still remains in the iron and in the sand surrounding it, that +the mould itself and the twenty or thirty men engaged in disinterring +it, are enveloped in dense clouds of vapor which rise all around them +while the operation is proceeding. + +[Illustration: DIGGING OUT THE CYLINDER.] + +It is necessary that the sand which surrounds these moulds should be +rammed down in the most compact and solid manner to sustain the sides of +the mould and enable them to resist the enormous pressure to which it is +subject, especially in the lower portions, while the iron continues +fluid. In the case of iron, the weight of four inches in height is +equivalent to the pressure of a pound upon the square inch. In a pit, +therefore, eighteen feet deep, as some of the pits at this foundry are, +we should have a pressure at the bottom of fifty-four pounds to the +inch. Now, in the most powerful sea-going steamers, the pressure of +steam at which the engines are worked, is seldom more than _eighteen_ +pounds to the inch; that of the Cunard line is said to be from twelve to +fifteen, and that of the Collins line from fifteen to eighteen. In other +words there is a pressure to be resisted at the lower ends of these long +castings equal to three times that at which the most powerful low +pressure engines are worked, and which sometimes results in such +terrific explosions. + +When the cylinder is freed from the pressure of the sand around it, in +its bed, the great iron cross by which the mould was lowered into the +pit, as seen in the engraving of the Casting, is once more brought down +to its place, and the stirrups at the tops of the iron rods seen in the +engraving below, are brought over the ends of the arms of the cross. The +lower ends of these rods take hold of a frame or platform below, upon +which the whole mould, together with the cylinder within it, is +supported. The arm of the crane is then brought round to the spot. The +hook pendant from it is attached to the ring in the centre of the cross, +and by means of the wheels and machinery of the crane, the whole is +slowly hoisted out, and then swung round to some convenient level, where +the ponderous mass is freed from its casing of masonry, and brought out +at last to open day. It is then thoroughly examined with a view to the +discovery of any latent flaw or imperfection, and, if found complete in +every part, is conveyed away to be the subject of a long series of +finishing operations in another place,--operations many and complicated, +but all essential to enable it finally to fulfill its functions. + +These cylinders though very massive and ponderous are not the heaviest +castings made. They are much exceeded in weight by what is called a bed +plate, which is an enormous frame of iron cast in one mass, or else in +two or three separate masses and then strongly bolted together, to form +a foundation on which the engine is to rest in the hold of the ship. The +bed plate can not be seen in the view of the engine room already given, +as it lies below the floor, being underneath all the machinery. A bed +plate weighs sometimes thirty-five tons--which is the weight of about +five hundred men. Such a mass as this has to be transported on ways, +like those used in the launching of a ship. It is drawn along upon these +ways by blocks and pullies, and when brought alongside the ship is +hoisted on board by means of an enormous derrick, and let down slowly to +the bottom of the hold--the place where it is finally to repose, unless +perchance it should at last be liberated by some disaster, from this +dungeon, and sent to seek its ultimate destination in the bottom of the +sea. + +The engraving below represents the forges, where all those parts of the +machinery are formed and fitted which consist of wrought iron. The room +in which these forges are situated is called the smith's shop, in the +plan. In the back-ground, a little to the right, is one of the trip +hammers, in the act of striking. The trip-hammer is a massive hammer +carried by machinery. The machinery which drives it may at any time be +thrown in or out of gear, so that the blows of the hammer are always +under the control of the workman. The iron bar to be forged is far too +heavy to be held by hand. It is accordingly supported as seen in the +engraving, by a crane; and only guided to its place upon the anvil by +the workmen who have hold of it. The chain to which this bar is +suspended comes down from a little truck which rests upon the top of the +crane, and which may be made to traverse to and fro, thus carrying +whatever is suspended from it further outward, or drawing it in, as may +be required. All the cranes, both in the smith's shop and in the +foundry, are fitted with the same contrivance. These trucks are moved by +means of a wheel at the foot of the crane. + +[Illustration: THE FORGES.] + +On the extreme right of the picture, and somewhat in the distance, may +be seen another trip-hammer with a bar upon the anvil beneath it, this +bar being suspended likewise from a crane. When the iron becomes too +cold to yield any longer to the percussion, the hammer is stopped, the +crane is swung round, and the iron is replaced in the forge to be heated +anew; and at length, when heated, it is brought back again under the +hammer as before. + +The forging of shafts requires heavier machinery even than this. The +enormous mass of iron that is in this case to be forged, is bricked up +in a furnace to be heated, and remains there many hours. The masonry is +then broken away and the red hot beam is swung round under the hammer, +as seen below. It is suspended from the crane by heavy chains, and is +guided by the workmen by means of iron handles clamped to it at a +distance from the heated part, as seen in the engraving in the adjoining +column. The hammer is lifted by means of the cam below it, as seen in +the engraving below. This cam is a projection from an axis revolving +beneath the floor, and which, as it revolves, carries the cams +successively against a projection upon the under side of the hammer, +which is partly concealed in the engraving by the figure of the man. +When the point of the cam has passed beyond the projection it allows the +hammer to fall. + +[Illustration: HEATING A SHAFT.] + +[Illustration: FORGING A SHAFT.] + +While the process of forging such a shaft is going on, one man throws +water upon the work, to effect some purpose connected with the scaling +of the iron, while another, with an instrument called the callipers, +measures the diameter of the shaft, to regulate the size, as the forging +proceeds. + +[Illustration: THE LATHES.] + +The shafts, when forged, are to be turned in a lathe, and the engine +used for this purpose is represented on the left in the engraving below. +The shaft itself is seen in the lathe, while the tool which cuts it as +it revolves, is fixed firmly in the "rest," which slides along the side. +The point of the tool is seen in the engraving, with the spiral shaving +which it cuts falling down from it. The shaft is made to revolve by the +band seen coming down obliquely from above, at the hither end of the +engine. The wheel by which the band turns the lathe has different +grooves at different distances from the centre, in order that the +workmen may regulate the velocity of the rotation--as different degrees +of velocity are required for the different species of work. The _rest_, +to which the cutting tool is attached, is brought slowly along the side +of the shaft as the shaft revolves, by means of a long screw which is +concealed in the frame of the lathe, and which is turned continually by +the mechanism of the small wheels which are seen at the hither end of +the engine. + +On the right hand of this view is represented another kind of lathe +called a _face lathe_, which is employed for turning wheels, and flat +plates, and interiors of cavities, and such other pieces of work as do +not furnish two opposite points of support. In the fore-ground are a +company of men drawing a massive piece of iron upon a truck, destined +apparently to be turned in the left hand lathe. + +[Illustration: FINISHING.] + +Although thus a great part of the work in respect to all the details of +the engine, is performed by machinery, much remains after all to be +wrought and fashioned by hand. In passing through the establishment the +visitor finds the workmen engaged in these labors, in every conceivable +attitude and position. One man is filing a curved surface with a curved +file, another is hidden almost wholly from view within a great misshapen +box of iron: a third is mounted upon a ladder, and is slowly boring +through the wall of some monstrous formation, or cutting away +excrescences of iron from some massive casting with a cold chisel. In a +word, the details are so endlessly varied as to excite the wonder of the +beholder that any human head should have been capable of containing +them all, so as to have planned and arranged the fitting of such +complicated parts with any hope of their ever coming rightly together. + +They do come together, however, at last, and then follows the excitement +of the trial. There is nothing more striking in the history of the +construction of a steam engine than this, that there can be no partial +or private tests of the work by the workmen in the course of its +progress--but every thing remains in suspense until all is complete, and +the ship and the machinery are actually ready for sea. The immense and +ponderous masses which constitute the elements of the mighty structure +are hoisted slowly on board and let down into their places. Multitudes +of men are incessantly employed for many weeks in arranging the limbs +and members of the monster, and in screwing and bolting every thing into +its place. Still nothing can be tried. The machinery is too ponderous +and massive to be put in action by any power less than that of the +mighty mover on which its ultimate performance is to depend; and this +mover has not yet been called into being. + +At length the day of trial arrives. The engineers, the workmen, the +owners, and perhaps many spectators, have assembled to watch the result. +The boiler is filled; the fires are lighted. Hour after hour the process +goes on of raising the force and pressure of the steam. All this time, +however, the machinery lies inert and lifeless. It is a powerless mass +of dead and heavy brass and iron. At length an engineer, standing upon a +platform, with a lever in his hand, receives the signal, opens the +valve, and breathes into the monstrous body the breath of life. The +ponderous piston slowly rises; the beam descends; the crank turns; the +vast paddles revolve, and the monster walks away through the water with +its enormous burden, having leaped suddenly, at its first breath, into +the complete and full possession of its gigantic powers. + +[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF THE PACIFIC FOR EUROPE.] + +In due time the equipment is complete, and the ship having received on +board its burden of costly cargo and valuable lives, moves away from +the shore, with a certain expression of calm and quiet dignity in her +appearance and demeanor, which almost seems to denote a consciousness on +her part of the vast responsibilities which she is assuming, and of the +abundant power which she possesses fully to sustain them all. + + + + +CHARLES WOLFE. + + +It is probable that to many of our readers the name which stands at the +head of this sketch is unknown, and that those who recognize it will +only know it as that of the author of the well-known lines upon the +death of Sir John Moore--a lyric of such surpassing beauty, that so +high a judge as Lord Byron considered it the perfection of English +lyrical poetry, preferring it before Coleridge's lines on +Switzerland--Campbell's Hohenlinden--and the finest of Moore's Irish +melodies, which were instanced by Shelley and others. Yet, unknown as +the Rev. Charles Wolfe is, it is unquestionable that he was a man +possessing the highest powers of imagination, and a powerful intellect, +cultivated to a very high point of perfection, and fitting him to become +one of the brightest stars of the world of literature. Why he is unknown +is then probably a question which will suggest itself to the minds of +many, and the answer must be, because he _did_ so little for the world +to remember him by. The whole of his literary remains, including his +sermons, and a biographical sketch, which fills one half of the book, is +contained in a moderate sized octavo volume, published after his death +by the Rev. J. A. Russell, Archdeacon of Clogher, whose affection for +the memory of Mr. Wolfe prompted him to edit and give to the world the +fragmentary manuscripts, which are the only lasting and appreciable +records of the residence of a great spirit among us. But it may be asked +why, with such capabilities and powers as we have stated Mr. Wolfe to +possess, he did so little? and to that interrogation many replies may be +given. Mr. Wolfe died at the early age of 32, just when the powers are +in their full vigor--and in the later years of his life he had devoted +himself enthusiastically to the duties which devolved upon him as the +curate of a large and populous parish in the north of Ireland. Neither +of these reasons, however, is sufficient, for we know that the poetic +intellect is precocious, and brings forth fruit early. Shelley, who died +younger, left productions behind him, which will hand his name down to +the latest posterity; and the comparatively voluminous writings of the +witty dean, Sidney Smith, prove that a man may bear the weight of the +clerical office, and take an active part in politics in addition, and +yet leave enough behind him to keep his name green in the memory of the +world. + +The true reason why Mr. Wolfe did so little is no doubt to be found in +the character of his mind, and this is easily traceable, both in the +mild, child-like, almost simple, but intelligent expression of the +portrait which forms a frontispiece to the volume to which we have +adverted, and in most of the passages of his life. There was a want of +strong resolution, and an absence of concentration so marked, that he +seldom read completely through even those books which most deeply +interested him--there was a nervous susceptibility, and an openness to +new impressions, which caused him as it were to dwell upon every passage +he did read, to linger over its beauties, to start objections to its +theories, to argue them out, and to develop to its fullest every +suggestive thought; and there was in him a spirit of good-nature +trenching upon weak compliance, which put his time at the service of all +who chose to thrust employment upon him. Added to this, and arising out +of his want of steady resolution and earnest will, there was a habit of +putting off till to-morrow what should be done to-day, of which he was +himself fully sensible, and which he speaks of in one of his letters, as +that "fatal habit of delay and procrastination, for which I am so +pre-eminently distinguished." + +Charles Wolfe was the youngest son of Theobald Wolfe, Esq., of +Blackball, in the County of Kildare, Ireland, and was born in Dublin on +the 13th of December, 1791. The family was not unknown to fame, for the +celebrated General Wolfe, who fell at Quebec, was one of its members, +and Lord Kilwarden, an eminent man at the Irish bar, and who was +afterward elevated to the dignity of a judgeship, was another. At an +early age the father of our hero died, and the family removed to +England, where Charles Wolfe was sent to a school at Bath. Here, +however, at the age of ten years, his studies were interrupted by +failing health for a period of twelve months. After that, he was in the +establishment of Dr. Evans, of Salisbury; and in 1805 we find him at +Winchester school, under the superintendence of Mr. Richards, senior. +Here he became conspicuous for his classical knowledge, and his great +powers of versification, which gave promise of future excellence. What +appears more distinctly, though, than his mental ability at this age, +was the amiability of his disposition, and the tractability of his +nature. His kindness, cheerfulness, and open sympathy drew to him the +love of his fellows; and the esteem in which he was held by his masters +may be judged from the fact, that during the whole period of his +pupilage his conduct never drew down upon him punishment, or even a +reprimand. His tender and affectionate disposition endeared him to his +own family, with whom he was an especial favorite; and in connection +with this, we may mention one circumstance strongly indicative of his +yielding character. In spite of his gentle nature, he, animated no doubt +by that desire for glory so common to poetical minds, and which, looking +on the brighter side of war, hides its terrors and its horrors from the +young and ardent, wished to enter the army; but finding that the idea +gave pain to his mother, he immediately abandoned the notion, and +appears from thenceforth to have looked upon the clerical office as his +destined part in life. Strange transition, from the aspiration to carry +forth death and destruction to that of being the bearer of the glad +tidings of "peace on earth, and good-will toward men." The change, +however, is one which we believe to be not unfrequent. The same desire +for fame urges men to the bar, the pulpit, and the tented field, and but +for maternal love, Charles Wolfe, carrying with him that martial spirit +which now and then breaks out in his poetry, might have been like his +namesake, the General, a blood-stained hero, instead of a peaceful, +loving Irish curate. So powerful are circumstances to mould man's +fate--and Wolfe was of that mould on which circumstances act with +peculiar force. Had he been a soldier, it may be that the occupation +would have strengthened his _physique_ at the expense of his mentality, +and that his bodily powers, unimpaired by sedentary habits, would have +carried him on to a good old age. There is food for reflection in that +idea, of how every course in life has its mixed good and evil. + +In 1808 the family returned to Ireland, and in 1809 Charles Wolfe became +a student of Dublin University. Here his classical learning and poetical +attainments soon made him conspicuous, and he carried off prizes from +the most distinguished of his competitors. The Historical Society of the +University, the object of which was the cultivation of history, poetry, +and oratory, also afforded him scope for the display of his talents, and +gave him opportunity to win several medals and prizes. Most of the few +poetical efforts of Mr. Wolfe were made at this period, including the +Death of Sir John Moore, and a beautiful song, connected with which is +an anecdote so strikingly characteristic of the nature of the author's +mind, and so indicative of his extreme sensibility, that it is worth +notice. + +He was particularly open to the influence of music, and one of his +favorite melodies was the popular Irish air "Gramachree," to which, at +the request of a friend, he wrote the following song: + + "If I had thought thou could'st have died, + I might not weep for thee: + But I forgot, when by thy side, + That thou could'st mortal be: + It never through my mind had pass'd, + The time would e'er be o'er, + And I on thee should look my last, + And thou should'st smile no more! + + "And still upon that face I look, + And think 'twill smile again; + And still the thought I will not brook, + That I must look in vain! + But when I speak thou dost not say, + What thou ne'er left'st unsaid; + And now I feel, as well I may, + Sweet Mary! thou art dead! + + "If thou would'st stay, e'en as thou art, + All cold, and all serene-- + I still might press thy silent heart, + And where thy smiles have been! + While e'en thy chill, bleak corse I have, + Thou seemest still mine own; + But there I lay thee in thy grave-- + And I am now alone. + + "I do not think, where'er thou art, + Thou hast forgotten me; + And I, perhaps, may soothe this heart, + In thinking too of thee: + Yet there was round thee such a dawn + Of light ne'er seen before, + As fancy never could have drawn, + And never can restore." + +His friends asked him whether he had any real incident in his mind which +suggested the stanzas; he said, "he had not; but that he had sung the +air over and over, till he burst into a flood of tears, in which mood he +composed the words." + +In the first year of Mr. Wolfe's attendance at the university, death +took his mother, to whom he was most affectionately attached--an event +which for some time interrupted his studies, and when he resumed them, +he did not manifest much inclination to apply himself to the exact +sciences. Here, however, that kindness of disposition which made him +more useful to others than to himself, and induced him to neglect his +own interests, and lend himself to those of his friends with an almost +fatal facility, came to his aid, and stood him in good stead. The desire +to assist a less gifted acquaintance impelled him to study more +strenuously than he would have done, for his own benefit, and had the +effect of so drawing out his own talents for scientific pursuits, that +at an examination upon the severer sciences he carried away the prize +from a host of talented candidates. Soon after, when his straitened +circumstances induced him to become a college tutor, he found the +benefit of his scientific acquirements; but in that capacity his +amiability of character was a disadvantage to him, for he was so anxious +for the progress of his pupils, and so prodigal of his time and labor +upon them, that he had but little opportunity for his own studies, or +for relaxation. + +After the usual period at the university, Mr. Wolfe took a scholarship, +with the highest honors, and went into residence, and in 1814 he took +the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His friends, seeing the talents he +evinced for scientific pursuits, urged him to read for a fellowship, and +for some time he prosecuted his studies with marked effect; but the want +of the power of continuous application, and intense concentration, made +him the sport of every trifling interruption, and the habit he had of +throwing aside books partly read, and dwelling upon striking passages +and disputable theories, impeded his progress. It is probable, however, +that with his great mental facilities, a less amount of exertion would +have sufficed than with less gifted students, and that despite his want +of industrial energy, and his unfavorable habits of mind, he would have +succeeded, but he was doomed to be disappointed in a manner which must +have had a very depressing effect on a mind constituted as his was. He +had formed an intimacy with a family in the vicinity of Dublin, and +while his visits to the beautiful scenery in which their dwelling was +situated, stimulated his poetical faculties, the charms of a daughter of +the house touched the sensitive heart of the young scholar. The +attachment was mutual, and ripened apace, but his want of "prospects" +induced the prudent parents to break off the intimacy. The expectant +fellowship indeed would have afforded him sufficient means, but a +barbarous statute was in force which imposed celibacy upon the fellows, +and barred his hopes. If this disappointment had happened to a man of +strong resolute will it would, in all likelihood, after the first shock +was over, have thrown him back upon his studies more determinedly than +ever, but on a nature like that of our hero, it had the contrary effect. +It damped his ardor, he lost both his mistress and the chance of +preferment; and, turning to religion for consolation, he was ordained in +November, 1817, and shortly after was engaged in temporary duty in the +North of Ireland, and finally settled as curate of Donoughmore, where he +continued the greater part of the remainder of his life. + +For the occupation of the ministry, Mr. Wolfe, notwithstanding his +youthful military tendency and love of society, was eminently fitted. +His mind was naturally of a devotional cast, and fitted peculiarly for +his new position. He was thoroughly in earnest--the strong impulse +supplied by intense devotional feeling served to counteract his want of +application. The kindness of his heart, and the desire to serve others, +which was so prominent a feature of his mind, made him untiring; the +dislike of contest which marked him led him to dwell on the vital points +common to all religions, and avoid controversial ground. That want of +self-esteem, too, which at the university had ever made him distrustful +of his own powers, and kept him from claiming the stanzas on Sir John +Moore, when they were claimed by, or attributed to others, induced him +to converse familiarly with the peasant, and to submit to contradiction +and even insult from those who, both socially and intellectually, were +inferior to himself. Add to this, that he thoroughly understood the +Irish character, which had many points in common with his own impulsive +versatile nature, and it may be conceived how influential he was in his +remote curacy. Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic, all gathered round him +and often filled his little church, listening to his concise, +plain-spoken sermons, which far oftener treated of the hopes and mercies +than the terrors and punishments of Christianity, and in his parish +school the children of all denominations were taught together. This, +however, was not to last long. He had applied himself too assiduously to +his task for his physical strength. Oppressed with a sense of the +responsibility of his position he had, upon entering upon the ministry, +given up all thoughts of literature. He lived in an old, half-furnished +house, slept in a damp room, and traversed bog and moor on foot in all +weathers to visit his flock. Under these labors the latent tendency of +his constitution developed itself, his cough became day by day more +violent, and in 1821 it was evident that consumption had laid its hand +upon its prey. Still he was unwilling to retire from his ministry, and +it was only in compliance with the reiterated entreaties of his friends +that he at last proceeded to Scotland to consult a celebrated physician. +His return to his parish after that short absence proved the estimation +in which he was held among the people. As he rode by the cabins of the +peasantry, the occupants rushed out, and, with all the impulsive +devotion of the Irish toward those whom they regard as benefactors, fell +upon their knees, and invoked blessings upon him, and pursued the +carriage in which he rode, with fervent prayers. His health, however, +still continued to fail, and his friends at length persuaded him to +remove to Dublin, where he continued to preach occasionally, till his +physician forbade such effort, and to use his own words, "stripped him +of his gown." Toward the winter of 1821, it was thought advisable to +remove him to Bordeaux for a time, but adverse gales twice drove him +back to Holyhead, and he suffered so much from fatigue and sea-sickness +that it appeared best to locate him near Exeter, where he staid till the +spring of 1822, in the house of a clergyman, whose practice among the +poor had qualified him to act the part of a physician to the invalid. In +the spring, apparently somewhat improved, he returned to Dublin, and in +the summer made a short voyage to Bordeaux, where he staid about a +month. He then again returned to Dublin, and from that time steadily +declined. In November, 1822, accompanied by a relative and the Rev. Mr. +Russell, his biographer, he removed to the Cove of Cork, but all efforts +to recruit his failing strength were unavailing, and he expired there on +the 21st of February, 1823, in the 32d year of his age. About a +twelvemonth previous to his death, he had been preferred to the +important curacy of Armagh, but he never lived to visit his new parish. +All the letters written during his protracted illness prove his +amiability, and the patience with which he suffered, as well as the +ardor of the Christian faith on which he so confidently leaned, and few +men were more sincerely mourned by a large number of devoted and +admiring friends. + +Charles Wolfe was one of those characters eminently fitted to make good +men, but destitute of some of the qualities for what the world calls +greatness. He was a high type of that class who form the cynosure of +their own peculiar circles, where they are admired as much for the +kindliness of their nature as the extent of their attainments, and the +power and versatility of their talents. But wanting the self-esteem, the +unwavering self-confidence, the perseverance and unshaken resolution +which go to make up greatness, he possessed in an eminent degree those +kindly sympathies, tender feelings, and that earnest devotion to the +interests and wishes of his fellows, which among friends and intimates +make goodness so much more lovable than greatness. + + + + +MAURICE TIERNAY, THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. + +(_Continued from Page 478._) + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A REMNANT OF "FONTENOY." + +There was no resisting the inquisitive curiosity of my companion. The +short, dry cough, the little husky "ay," that sounded like any thing +rather than assent, which followed on my replies to his questions, and, +more than all, the keen, oblique glances of his shrewd gray eyes, told +me that I had utterly failed in all my attempts at mystification, and +that he read me through and through. + +"And so," said he, at last, after a somewhat lengthy narrative of my +shipwreck, "and so the Flemish sailors wear spurs?" + +"Spurs! of course not; why should they?" asked I, in some astonishment. + +"Well, but don't they?" asked he again. + +"No such thing; it would be absurd to suppose it." + +"So I thought," rejoined he; "and when I looked at yer 'honor's' boots +(it was the first time he had addressed me by this title of deference), +and saw the marks on the heel for spurs, I soon knew how much of a +sailor you were." + +"And if not a sailor, what am I, then?" asked I; for, in the loneliness +of the mountain region where we walked, I could afford to throw off my +disguise without risk. + +"Ye'r a French officer of dragoons, and God bless ye; but ye'r young to +be at the trade. Arn't I right now?" + +"Not very far from it certainly, for I am a lieutenant of hussars," said +I, with a little of that pride which we of the loose pelisse always feel +on the mention of our corps. + +"I knew it well all along," said he, coolly; "the way you stood in the +room, your step as you walked, and, above all, how ye believed me when I +spoke of the spring tides, and the moon only in her second quarter, I +saw you never was a sailor anyhow. And so I set a-thinking what you +were. You were too silent for a peddler, and your hands were too white +to be in the smuggling trade; but when I saw your boots, I had the +secret at once, and knew ye were one of the French army that landed the +other day at Killala." + +"It was stupid enough of me not to have remembered the boots!" said I, +laughing. + +"Arrah, what use would it be?" replied he; "sure ye'r too straight in +the back, and your walk is too reg'lar, and your toes turns in too much, +for a sailor; the very way you hould a switch in your hand would betray +you!" + +"So it seems; then I must try some other disguise," said I, "if I'm to +keep company with people as shrewd as you are." + +"You needn't," said he, shaking his head, doubtfully; "any that wants to +betray ye, wouldn't find it hard." + +I was not much flattered by the depreciating tone in which he dismissed +my efforts at personation, and walked on for some time without +speaking. + +"Yez came too late, four months too late," said he, with a sorrowful +gesture of the hands. "When the Wexford boys was up, and the Kildare +chaps, and plenty more ready to come in from the North, then, indeed, a +few thousand French down here in the West would have made a differ; but +what's the good in it now? The best men we had are hanged, or in jail; +some are frightened; more are traitors! 'Tis too late--too late!" + +"But not too late for a large force, landing in the North, to rouse the +island to another effort for liberty." + +"Who would be the gin'ral?" asked he, suddenly. + +"Napper Tandy, your own countryman," replied I, proudly. + +"I wish ye luck of him!" said he, with a bitter laugh; "'tis more like +mocking us than any thing else the French does be, with the chaps they +sent here to be gin'rals. Sure it isn't Napper Tandy, nor a set of young +lawyers, like Tone and the rest of them, we wanted. It was men that knew +how to drill and manage troops--fellows that was used to fightin'; so +that when they said a thing, we might believe that they understhood it, +at laste. I'm ould enough to remimber the 'Wild Geese,' as they used to +call them--the fellows that ran away from this to take sarvice in +France; and I remimber, too, the sort of men the French were that came +over to inspect them--soldiers, real soldiers, every inch of them: and a +fine sarvice it was. Volle-face!" cried he, holding himself erect, and +shouldering his stick like a musket; "marche! Ha, ha! ye didn't think +_that_ was in me; but I was at the thrade long before you were born." + +"How is this," said I, in amazement, "you were not in the French army?" + +"Wasn't I, though? maybe I didn't get that stick there." And he bared +his breast as he spoke, to show the cicatrix of an old flesh-wound from +a Highlander's bayonet. "I was at Fontenoy!" + +The last few words he uttered, with a triumphant pride, that I shall +never forget. As for me, the mere name was magical. "Fontenoy" was like +one of those great words which light up a whole page of history; and it +almost seemed impossible that I should see before me a soldier of that +glorious battle. + +"Ay, faith!" he added, "'tis more than fifty, 'tis nigh sixty years now +since that, and I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was in the +regiment 'Tourville;' I was recruited for the 'Wellon,' but they +scattered us about among the other corps afterward, because we used now +and then to be fighting and quarrelin' among one an' other. Well, it was +the Wellons that gained the battle; for after the English was in the +village of Fontenoy, and the French was falling back upon the heights +near the wood--arrah, what's the name of the wood?--sure I'll forget my +own name next. Ay, to be sure, Verzon--the 'wood of Verzon.' Major +Jodillon--that's what the French called him, but his name was Joe +Wellon--turned an eight-pounder short round into a little yard of a +farm-house, and, making a breach for the gun, he opened a dreadful fire +on the English column. It was loaded with grape, and at half-musket +range, so you may think what a peppering they got. At last the column +halted, and lay down; and Joe seen an officer ride off to the rear, to +bring up artillery to silence our guns. A few minutes more, and it would +be all over with us. So Joe shouts out as loud as he could, 'Cavalry +there! tell off by threes, and prepare to charge!' I needn't tell you +that the devil a horse nor a rider was within a mile of us at the time; +but the English didn't know that; and, hearin' the order, up they jumps, +and we heerd the word passin', 'Prepare to receive cavalry!' They formed +square at once, and the same minute we plumped into them with such a +charge as tore a lane right through the middle of them. Before they +could recover, we opened a platoon fire on their flank; they staggered, +broke, and at last fell back in disorder upon Aeth, with the whole of +the French army after them. Such firin'--grape, round-shot, and +musketry--I never seed afore, and we all shouting like divils, for it +was more like a hunt nor any thing else; for ye see the Dutch never came +up, but left the English to do all the work themselves, and that's the +reason they couldn't form, for they had no supportin' colum'. + +"It was then I got that stick of the bayonet, for there was such runnin' +that we only thought of pelting after them as hard as we could; but ye +see, there's nothin' so treacherous as a Highlander. I was just behind +one, and had my sword-point between his blade-hones, ready to run him +through, when he turned short about, and run his bayonet into me under +the short ribs, and that was all I saw of the battle; for I bled till I +fainted, and never knew more of what happened. 'Tisn't by way of making +little of Frenchmen I say it, for I sarved too long wid them for +_that_--but sorra taste of that victory ever they'd see if it wasn't for +the Wellons, and Major Joe that commanded them! The English knows it +well, too! Maybe they don't do us many a spite for it to this very day!" + +"And what became of you after that?" + +"The same summer I came over to Scotland with the young Prince Charles, +and was at the battle of Preston-pans afterward; and, what's worse, I +was at Culloden! Oh, that was the terrible day! We were dead bate before +we began the battle. We were on the march from one o'clock the night +before, under the most dreadful rain ever ye seen! We lost our way +twice; and, after four hours of hard marching, we found ourselves +opposite a mill-dam we crossed early that same morning; for the guides +led us all astray! Then came ordhers to wheel about face, and go back +again; and back we went, cursing the blaguards that deceived us, and +almost faintin' with hunger. Some of us had nothing to eat for two +days, and the Prince, I seen myself, had only a brown bannock to a +wooden measure of whiskey for his own breakfast. Well, it's no use +talking, we were bate, and we retreated to Inverness that night, and +next morning we surrendered and laid down our arms--that is, the +'Regiment du Tournay,' and the 'Voltigeurs de Metz,' the corps I was in +myself." + +"And did you return to France?" + +"No; I made my way back to Ireland, and after loiterin' about home some +time, and not liking the ways of turning to work again, I took sarvice +with one Mister Brooke, of Castle Brooke, in Fermanagh, a young man that +was just come of age, and as great a devil, God forgive me, as ever was +spawned. He was a Protestant, but he didn't care much about one side or +the other, but only wanted divarsion and his own fun out of the world; +and faix he took it, too! He had plenty of money, was a fine man to look +at, and had courage to face a lion! + +"The first place we went to was Aix-la-Chapelle, for Mr. Brooke was +named something--I forget what--to Lord Sandwich, that was going there +as an embassador. It was a grand life there while it lasted. Such +liveries, such coaches, such elegant dinners every day, I never saw even +in Paris. But my master was soon sent away for a piece of wildness he +did. There was an ould Austrian there--a Count Riedensegg was his +name--and he was always plottin' and schamin' with this, that, and the +other; buyin' up the sacrets of others, and gettin' at their sacret +papers one way or the other; and at last he begins to thry the same game +with us; and as he saw that Mr. Brooke was very fond of high play, and +would bet any thing one offered him, the ould Count sends for a great +gambler from Vienna, the greatest villain, they say, that ever touched a +card. Ye may have heerd of him, tho' 'twas long ago that he lived, for +he was well known in them times. He was the Baron von Breckendorf, and a +great friend afterward of the Prince Ragint and all the other blaguards +in London. + +"Well, sir, the baron arrives in great state, with dispatches, they +said, but sorrow other dispatch he carried nor some packs of marked +cards, and a dice-box that could throw sixes whenever ye wanted; and he +puts up at the Grand Hotel, with all his servants in fine liveries, and +as much state as a prince. That very day Mr. Brooke dined with the +count, and in the evening himself and the baron sits down to the cards; +and, pretending to be only playin' for silver, they were betting a +hundred guineas on every game. + +"I always heerd that my master was cute with the cards, and that few was +equal to him in any game with pasteboard or ivory; but, be my +conscience, he met his match now, for if it was ould Nick was playin' he +couldn't do the thrick nater nor the baron. He made every thing come up +just like magic: if he wanted a seven of diamonds, or an ace of spades, +or the knave of clubs, there it was for you. + +"Most gentlemen would have lost temper at seein' the luck so dead agin' +them, and every thing goin' so bad, but my master only smiled, and kept +muttering to himself, 'Faix, it's beautiful; by my conscience it is +elegant; I never saw any body could do it like that.' At last the baron +stops and asks, 'What is it he's saying to himself?' 'I'll tell you +by-and-by,' says my master, 'when we're done playing;' and so on they +went, betting higher and higher, till at last the stakes wasn't very far +from a thousand pounds on a single card. At the end, Mr. Brooke lost +every thing, and in the last game, by way of generosity, the baron says +to him, 'Double or quit?' and he tuk it. + +"This time luck stood to my master, and he turned the queen of hearts; +and as there was only one card could beat him, the game was all as one +as his own. The baron takes up the pack, and begins to deal, 'Wait,' +says my master, leaning over the table, and talking in a whisper; +'wait,' says he, 'what are ye doin' there wid your thumb?' for sure +enough he had his thumb dug hard into the middle of the pack. + +"'Do you mane to insult me,' says the baron, getting mighty red, and +throwing down the cards on the table, 'Is that what you're at?' + +"'Go on with the deal,' says Mr. Brooke, quietly; 'but listen to me,' +and here he dropped his voice to a whisper, 'as sure as you turn the +king of hearts I'll send a bullet through your skull! Go on now, and +don't rise from that seat till you've finished the game.' Faix, he just +did as he was bid; he turned a little two or three of diamonds, and +gettin' up from the table, he left the room, and the next morning there +was no more seen of him in Aix-la-Chapelle. But that wasn't the end of +it, for scarce was the baron two posts on his journey, when my master +sends in his name, and says he wants to speak to Count Riedensegg. There +was a long time, and a great debatin', I believe, whether they'd let him +in or not; for the count couldn't make if it was mischief he was after; +but at last he was ushered into the bedroom where the other was in bed. + +"'Count,' says he, after he fastened the door, and saw that they was +alone, 'Count, you tried a dirty thrick with that dirty spalpeen of a +baron--an ould blaguard that's as well known as Freney, the robber--but +I forgive you for it all, for you did it in the way of business. I know +well what you was afther; you wanted a peep at our dispatches--there, ye +needn't look cross and angry--why wouldn't ye do it, just as the baron +always took a sly glance at my cards before he played his own. Well, +now, I'm just in the humor to sarve you. They're not trating me as they +ought here, and I'm going away, and if you'll give me a few letthers to +some of the pretty women in Vienna, Kateuka Batthyani, and Amalia +Gradoffsky, and one or two men in the best set, I'll send you in return +something will surprise you.' + +"It was after a long time and great batin' about the bush, that the ould +count came in; but the sight of a sacret cipher did the business, and he +consented. + +"'There it is,' says Mr. Brooke, 'there's the whole key to our +correspondence, study it well, and I'll bring you a sacret dispatch in +the evening--something that will surprise you.' + +"'Ye will--will ye?' says the count. + +"'On the honor of an Irish gentleman, I will,' says Mr. Brooke. + +"The count sits down on the spot and writes the letters to all the +princesses and countesses in Vienna, saying that Mr. Brooke was the +elegantest, and politest, and most trusty young gentleman ever he met; +and telling them to treat him with every consideration. + +"'There will be another account of me,' says the master to me, 'by the +post; but I'll travel faster, and give me a fair start, and I ask no +more.' + +"And he was as good as his word, for he started that evening for Vienna, +without lave or license, and that's the way he got dismissed from his +situation." + +"And did he break his promise to the count, or did he really send him +any intelligence?" + +"He kept his word like a gentleman; he promised him something that would +surprise him, and so he did. He sent him the weddin' of Ballyporeen in +cipher. It took a week to make out, and I suppose they've never got to +the right understandin' it yet." + +"I'm curious to hear how he was received in Vienna after this," said I. +"I suppose you accompanied him to that city." + +"Troth I did, and a short life we led there; but here we are now, at the +end of our journey. That's Father Doogan's down there, that small, low, +thatched house in the hollow." + +"A lonely spot, too. I don't see another near it for miles on any side." + +"Nor is there. His chapel is at Murrah, about three miles off. My eyes +isn't over good; but I don't think there's any smoke coming out of the +chimley." + +"You are right--there is not." + +"He's not at home, then, and that's a bad job for us, for there's not +another place to stop the night in." + +"But there will be surely some one in the house." + +"Most likely not; 'tis a brat of a boy from Murrah does be with him when +he's at home, and I'm sure he's not there now." + +This reply was not very cheering, nor was the prospect itself much +brighter. The solitary cabin, to which we were approaching, stood in a +rugged glen, the sides of which were covered with a low furze, +intermixed here and there with the scrub of what once had been an oak +forest. A brown, mournful tint was over every thing--sky and landscape +alike; and even the little stream of clear water that wound its twining +course along, took the same color from the gravelly bed it flowed over. +Not a cow nor sheep was to be seen, nor even a bird; all was silent and +still. + +"There's few would like to pass their lives down there, then!" said my +companion, as if speaking to himself. + +"I suppose the priest, like a soldier, has no choice in these matters." + +"Sometimes he has, though. Father Doogan might have had the pick of the +county, they say; but he chose this little quiet spot here. He's a friar +of some ordher abroad, and when he came over, two or three years ago, he +could only spake a little Irish, and, I believe, less English; but there +wasn't his equal, for other tongues, in all Europe. They wanted him to +stop and be the head of a college somewhere in Spain, but he wouldn't. +'There was work to do in Ireland,' he said, and there he'd go, and to +the wildest and laste civilized bit of it besides; and ye see that he +was not far out in his choice when he took Murrah." + +"Is he much liked here by the people?" + +"They'd worship him, if he'd let them, that's what it is; for if he has +more larnin' and knowledge in his head than ever a bishop in Ireland, +there's not a child in the barony his equal for simplicity. He that +knows the names of the stars, and what they do be doing, and where the +world's going, and what's comin' afther her, hasn't a thought for the +wickedness of this life, no more than a sucking infant! He could tell +you every crop to put in your ground from this to the day of judgment, +and I don't think he'd know which end of the spade goes into the +ground." + +While we were thus talking, we reached the door, which, as well as the +windows, was closely barred and fastened. The great padlock, however, on +the former, with characteristic acuteness, was locked without being +hasped, so that, in a few seconds, my old guide had undone all the +fastenings, and we found ourselves under shelter. + +A roomy kitchen, with a few cooking utensils, formed the entrance hall; +and as a small supply of turf stood in one corner, my companion at once +proceeded to make a fire, congratulating me as he went on with the fact +of our being housed, for a long-threatening thunder storm had already +burst, and the rain was swooping along in torrents. + +While he was thus busied I took a ramble through the little cabin, +curious to see something of the "interior" of one whose life had already +interested me. There were but two small chambers, one at either side of +the kitchen. The first I entered was a bedroom, the only furniture being +a common bed, or a tressel like that of an hospital, a little colored +print of St. Michael adorning the wall overhead. The bed-covering was +cleanly, but patched in many places, and bespeaking much poverty, and +the black "soutane" of silk that hung against the wall seemed to show +long years of service. The few articles of any pretension to comfort +were found in the sitting-room, where a small book-shelf with some +well-thumbed volumes, and a writing-table covered with papers, maps, and +a few pencil-drawings, appeared. All seemed as if he had just quitted +the spot a few minutes before; the pencil lay across a half-finished +sketch; two or three wild plants were laid within the leaves of a little +book on botany; and a chess problem, with an open book beside it, still +waited for solution on a little board, whose workmanship clearly enough +betrayed it to be by his own hands. + +I inspected every thing with an interest inspired by all I had been +hearing of the poor priest, and turned over the little volumes of his +humble library to trace, if I might, some clew to his habits in his +readings. They were all, however, of one cast and character--religious +tracts and offices, covered with annotations and remarks, and showing, +by many signs the most careful and frequent perusal. It was easy to see +that his taste for drawing or for chess were the only dissipations he +permitted himself to indulge. What a strange life of privation, thought +I, alone and companionless as he must be! and while speculating on the +sense of duty which impelled such a man to accept a post so humble and +unpromising, I perceived that on the wall right opposite to me there +hung a picture, covered by a little curtain of green silk. + +Curious to behold the saintly effigy so carefully enshrined, I drew +aside the curtain, and what was my astonishment to find a little colored +sketch of a boy about twelve years old, dressed in the tawdry and +much-worn uniform of a drummer. I started. Something flashed suddenly +across my mind, that the features, the dress, the air, were not unknown +to me. Was I awake, or were my senses misleading me? I took it down and +held it to the light, and as well as my trembling hands permitted, I +spelled out, at the foot of the drawing, the words "Le Petit Maurice, as +I saw him last." Yes: it was my own portrait, and the words were in the +writing of my dearest friend in the world, the Pere Michael. Scarce +knowing what I did, I ransacked books and papers on every side, to +confirm my suspicions, and although his name was nowhere to be found, I +had no difficulty in recognizing his hand, now so forcibly recalled to +my memory. + +Hastening into the kitchen, I told my guide, that I must set out to +Murrah at once, that it was above all important that I should see the +priest immediately. It was in vain that he told me he was unequal to the +fatigue of going further, that the storm was increasing, the mountain +torrents were swelling to a formidable size, that the path could not be +discovered after dark; I could not brook the thought of delay, and would +not listen to the detail of difficulties. "I must see him and I will," +were my answers to every obstacle. If I were resolved on one side, _he_ +was no less obstinate on the other; and after explaining with patience +all the dangers and hazards of the attempt, and still finding me +unconvinced, he boldly declared that I might go alone, if I would, but +that he would not leave the shelter of a roof, such a night, for any +one. + +There was nothing in the shape of argument I did not essay. I tried +bribery, I tried menace, flattery, intimidation, all--and all with the +like result. "Wherever he is to-night, he'll not leave it, that's +certain," was the only satisfaction he would vouchsafe, and I retired +beaten from the contest, and disheartened. Twice I left the cottage, +resolved to go alone and unaccompanied, but the utter darkness of the +night, the torrents of rain that beat against my face, soon showed me +the impracticability of the attempt, and I retraced my steps +crest-fallen and discomfited. The most intense curiosity to know how and +by what chances he had come to Ireland mingled with my ardent desire to +meet him. What stores of reminiscence had we to interchange! Nor was it +without pride that I bethought me of the position I then held--an +officer of a Hussar regiment, a soldier of more than one campaign, and +high on the list for promotion. If I hoped, too, that many of the good +father's prejudices against the career I followed would give way to the +records of my own past life, I also felt how, in various respects, I had +myself conformed to many of his notions. We should be dearer, closer +friends than ever. This I knew and was sure of. + +I never slept the whole night through; tired and weary as the day's +journey had left me, excitement was still too strong for repose, and I +walked up and down, lay for half an hour on my bed, rose to look out, +and peer for coming dawn! Never did hours lag so lazily. The darkness +seemed to last for an eternity, and when at last day did break, it was +through the lowering gloom of skies still charged with rain, and an +atmosphere loaded with vapor. + +"This is a day for the chimney corner, and thankful to have it we ought +to be," said my old guide, as he replenished the turf fire, at which he +was preparing our breakfast. "Father Doogan will be home here afore +night, I'm sure, and as we have nothing better to do, I'll tell you some +of our old adventures when I lived with Mr. Brooke. 'Twill sarve to pass +the time, any way." + +"I'm off to Murrah, as soon as I have eaten something," replied I. + +"'Tis little you know what a road it is," said he, smiling dubiously. +"'Tis four mountain rivers you'd have to cross, two of them, at least, +deeper than your head, and there's the pass of Barnascorny, where you'd +have to turn the side of a mountain, with a precipice hundreds of feet +below you, and a wind blowing that would wreck a seventy-four! There's +never a man in the barony would venture over the same path, with a storm +ragin' from the nor'west." + +"I never heard of a man being blown away off a mountain," said I, +laughing contemptuously. + +"Arrah, didn't ye then? then maybe ye never tried in parts where the +heaviest plows and harrows that can be laid in the thatch of a cabin are +flung here and there, like straws, and the strongest timbers torn out of +the walls, and scattered for miles along the coast, like the spars of a +shipwreck." + +"But so long as a man has hands to grip with." + +"How ye talk; sure when the wind can tear the strongest trees up by the +roots; when it rolls big rocks fifty and a hundred feet out of their +place; when the very shingle on the mountain side is flyin' about like +dust and sand, where would your grip be? It is not only on the mountains +either, but down in the plains, ay, even in the narrowest glens, that +the cattle lies down under shelter of the rocks; and many's the time a +sheep, or even a heifer, is swept away off the cliffs into the sea." + +With many an anecdote of storm and hurricane he seasoned our little meal +of potatoes. Some curious enough, as illustrating the precautionary +habits of a peasantry, who, on land, experience many of the vicissitudes +supposed peculiar to the sea; others too miraculous for easy credence, +but yet vouched for by him with every affirmative of truth. He displayed +all his powers of agreeability and amusement, but his tales fell on +unwilling ears, and when our meal was over I started up and began to +prepare for the road. + +"So you will go, will you?" said he, peevishly. "'Tis in your country to +be obstinate, so I'll say nothing more; but maybe 'tis only into +throubles you'd be running after all!" + +"I'm determined on it," said I, "and I only ask you to tell me what road +to take." + +"There is only one, so there is no mistakin' it; keep to the sheep path, +and never leave it except at the torrents; you must pass them how ye +can, and when ye come to four big rocks in the plain leave them to your +left, and keep the side of the mountain for two miles, 'till ye see the +smoke of the village underneath you. Murrah is a small place, and ye'll +have to look out sharp or maybe ye'll miss it." + +"That's enough," said I, putting some silver in his hand as I pressed +it. "We'll probably meet no more; good-by, and many thanks for your +pleasant company." + +"No, we're not like to meet again," said he, thoughtfully, "and that's +the reason I'd like to give you a bit of advice. Hear me now," said he, +drawing closer and talking in a whisper; "you can't go far in this +country without being known; 'tisn't your looks alone, but your voice, +and your tongue, will show what ye are. Get away out of it as fast as +you can! there's thraitors in every cause, and there's chaps in Ireland +would rather make money as informers than earn it by honest industry! +Get over to the Scotch islands; get to Isla or Barra; get any where out +of this for the time." + +"Thanks for the counsel," said I, somewhat coldly, "I'll have time to +think over it as I go along," and with these words I set forth on my +journey. + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +"THE CRANAGH." + +I will not weary my reader with a narrative of my mountain walk, nor the +dangers and difficulties which beset me on that day of storm and +hurricane. Few as were the miles to travel, what with accidents, +mistakes of the path, and the halts to take shelter, I only reached +Murrah as the day was declining. + +The little village, which consisted of some twenty cabins, occupied a +narrow gorge between two mountains, and presented an aspect of greater +misery than I had ever witnessed before, not affording even the humblest +specimen of a house of entertainment. From some peasants that were +lounging in the street I learned that "Father Doogan" had passed through +two days before in company with a naval officer, whom they believed to +be French. At least, "he came from one of the ships in the Lough, and +could speak no English." Since that the priest had not returned, and +many thought that he had gone away forever. This story, varied in a few +unimportant particulars, I heard from several; and also learned that a +squadron of several sail had, for three or four days, been lying at the +entrance of Lough Swilly, with, it was said, large reinforcements for +the "army of independence." There was then no time to be lost: here was +the very force which I had been sent to communicate with; there were the +troops that should at that moment be disembarking. The success of my +mission might all depend now on a little extra exertion, and so I at +once engaged a guide to conduct me to the coast, and having fortified +myself with a glass of mountain whiskey, I felt ready for the road. My +guide could only speak a very little English; so that our way was passed +in almost unbroken silence; and, as for security, he followed the least +frequented paths, we scarcely met a living creature as we went. It was +with a strange sense of half pride, half despondency, that I bethought +me of my own position there--a Frenchman, alone, and separated from his +countrymen--in a wild mountain region of Ireland, carrying about him +documents that, if detected, might peril his life; involved in a cause +that had for its object the independence of a nation; and that against +the power of the mightiest kingdom in Europe. An hour earlier or later, +an accident by the way, a swollen torrent, a chance impediment of any +kind that should delay me--and what a change might that produce in the +whole destiny of the world. The dispatches I carried conveyed +instructions the most precise and accurate--the places for combined +action of the two armies--information as to the actual state of parties, +and the condition of the native forces, was contained in them. All that +could instruct the newly-come generals, or encourage them to decisive +measures were there; and, yet, on what narrow contingencies did their +safe arrival depend! It was thus, in exaggerating to myself the part I +played--in elevating my humble position into all the importance of a +high trust--that I sustained my drooping spirits, and acquired energy to +carry me through fatigue and exhaustion. During that night, and the +greater part of the following day, we walked on, almost without halt, +scarcely eating, and, except by an occasional glass of whisky, totally +unrefreshed; and I am free to own, that my poor guide--a bare-legged +youth of about seventeen, without any of those high-sustaining illusions +which stirred within my heart--suffered far less either from hunger or +weariness than _I_ did. So much for motives. A shilling or two were +sufficient to equalize the balance against all the weight of my heroism +and patriotic ardor together! + +A bright sun, and a sharp wind from the north, had succeeded to the +lowering sky and heavy atmosphere of the morning, and we traveled along +with light hearts and brisk steps, breasting the side of a deep ascent, +from the summit of which my guide told me, I should behold the sea--the +sea, not only the great plain on which I expected to see our armament, +but the link which bound me to my country! Suddenly, just as I turned +the angle of a cliff, it burst upon my sight--one vast mirror of golden +splendor--appearing almost at my feet! In the yellow gleams of a setting +sun, long columns of azure-colored light streaked its calm surface, and +tinged the atmosphere with a warm and rosy hue. While I was lost in +admiration of the picture, I heard the sound of voices close beneath me, +and, on looking down, saw two figures who, with telescopes in hand, were +steadily gazing on a little bay that extended toward the west. + +At first, my attention was more occupied by the strangers than by the +object of their curiosity, and I remarked that they were dressed and +equipped like sportsmen, their guns and game-bags lying against the rock +behind them. + +"Do you still think that they are hovering about the coast, Tom?" said +the elder of the two, "or are you not convinced, at last, that I am +right?" + +"I believe you are," replied the other; "but it certainly did not look +like it yesterday evening, with their boats rowing ashore every half +hour, signals flying, and blue lights burning; all seemed to threaten a +landing." + +"If they ever thought of it, they soon changed their minds," said the +former. "The defeat of their comrades in the west, and the apathy of the +peasantry here, would have cooled down warmer ardor than theirs. There +they go, Tom. I only hope that they'll fall in with Warren's squadron, +and French insolence receive at sea the lesson we failed to give them on +land." + +"Not so," rejoined the younger; "Humbert's capitulation, and the total +break-up of the expedition ought to satisfy even your patriotism." + +"It fell far short of it, then!" cried the other. "I'd never have +treated those fellows other than as bandits and freebooters. I'd have +hanged them as highwaymen. There was less war than rapine; but what +could you expect? I have been assured that Humbert's force consisted of +little other than liberated felons and galley slaves--the refuse of the +worst population of Europe!" + +Distracted with the terrible tidings I had overheard--overwhelmed with +the sight of the ships, now glistening like bright specks on the verge +of the horizon, I forgot my own position--my safety--every thing but the +insult thus cast upon my gallant comrades. + +"Whoever said so was a liar, and a base coward, to boot!" cried I, +springing down from the height and confronting them both where they +stood. They started back, and, seizing their guns, assumed an attitude +of defense, and then, quickly perceiving that I was alone--for the boy +had taken to flight as fast as he could--they stood regarding me with +faces of intense astonishment. + +"Yes," said I, still boiling with passion, "you are two to one, on your +own soil besides, the odds you are best used to; and yet I repeat it, +that he who asperses the character of General Humbert's force is a +liar." + +"He's French." + +"No, he's Irish," muttered the elder. "What signifies my country, sirs," +cried I passionately, "if I demand retraction for a falsehood." + +"It signifies more than you think of, young man," said the elder, +calmly, and without evincing even the slightest irritation in his +manner. "If you be a Frenchman born, the lenity of our government +accords you the privilege of a prisoner of war. If you be only French by +adoption, and a uniform, a harsher destiny awaits you." + +"And who says I am a prisoner yet?" asked I, drawing myself up, and +staring them steadily in the face. + +"We should be worse men, and poorer patriots, than you give us credit +for, or we should be able to make you so," said he quietly, "but this is +no case for ill-temper on either side. The expedition has failed. Well, +if you will not believe _me_, read that. There, in that paper, you will +see the official account of General Humbert's surrender at Boyle. The +news is already over the length and breadth of the island; even if you +only landed last night, I can not conceive how you should be ignorant of +it!" I covered my face with my hands to hide my emotion; and he went on: +"If you be French, you have only to claim and prove your nationality, +and you partake the fortunes of your countrymen." + +"And if he be not," whispered the other, in a voice which, although low, +I could still detect, "why should _we_, give him up?" + +"Hush, Tom, be quiet," replied the elder, "let him plead for himself." + +"Let me see the newspaper," said I, endeavoring to seem calm and +collected; and taking it at the place he pointed out, I read the heading +in capitals, "CAPITULATION OF GENERAL HUMBERT AND HIS WHOLE FORCE." I +could see no more. I could not trace the details of so horrible a +disaster, nor did I ask to know by what means it occurred. My attitude +and air of apparent occupation, however, deceived the other; and the +elder, supposing that I was engaged in considering the paragraph, said, +"You'll see the government proclamation on the other side, a general +amnesty to all under the rank of officers in the rebel army, who give up +their arms within six days. The French to be treated as prisoners of +war." + +"Is he too late to regain the fleet," whispered the younger. + +"Of course he is. They are already hull down; besides, who's to assist +his escape, Tom? You forget the position he stands in." + +"But I do not forget it," answered I, "and you need not be afraid that I +will seek to compromise you, gentlemen. Tell me where to find the +nearest justice of the peace, and I will go and surrender myself." + +"It is your wisest and best policy," said the elder; "I am not in the +commission, but a neighbor of mine is, and lives a few miles off, and if +you like we'll accompany you to his house." + +I accepted the offer, and soon found myself descending the steep path of +the mountain in perfect good-fellowship with the two strangers. It is +likely enough, that if they had taken any peculiar pains to obliterate +the memory of our first meeting, or if they had displayed any +extraordinary efforts of conciliation, that I should be on my guard +against them; but their manner, on the contrary, was easy and unaffected +in every respect. They spoke of the expedition sensibly and +dispassionately, and while acknowledging that there were many things +they would like to see altered in the English rule of Ireland, they were +very averse from the desire of a foreign intervention to rectify them. + +I avowed to them that we had been grossly deceived. That all the +representations made us, depicted Ireland as a nation of soldiers, +wanting only arms and military stores to rise as a vast army. That the +peasantry were animated by one spirit, and the majority of the gentry +willing to hazard every thing on the issue of a struggle. Our Killala +experiences, of which I detailed some, heartily amused them, and it was +in a merry interchange of opinions that we now walked along together. + +A cluster of houses, too small to be called a village, and known as the +"Cranagh," stood in a little nook of the bay; and here they lived. They +were brothers; and the elder held some small appointment in the revenue, +which maintained them as bachelors in this cheap country. In a low +conversation that passed between them, it was agreed that they would +detain me as their guest for that evening, and on the morrow accompany +me to the magistrate's house, about five miles distant. I was not sorry +to accept their hospitable offer. I longed for a few hours of rest and +respite before embarking on another sea of troubles. The failure of the +expedition, and the departure of the fleet, had overwhelmed me with +grief, and I was in no mood to confront new perils. + +If my new acquaintances could have read my inmost thoughts, their manner +toward me could not have displayed more kindness or good-breeding. Not +pressing me with questions on subjects where the greatest curiosity +would have been permissible, they suffered me to tell only so much as I +wished of our late plans; and as if purposely to withdraw my thoughts +from the unhappy theme of our defeat, led me to talk of France, and her +career in Europe. + +It was not without surprise that I saw how conversant the newspapers had +made them with European politics, nor how widely different did events +appear, when viewed from afar off, and by the lights of another and +different nationality Thus all that we were doing on the Continent to +propagate liberal notions, and promote the spread of freedom, seemed to +their eyes but the efforts of an ambitious power to crush abroad what +they had annihilated at home, and extend their own influence in +disseminating doctrines, all to revert, one day or other, to some grand +despotism, whenever the man arose capable to exercise it. The elder +would not even concede to us that we were fit for freedom. + +"You are glorious fellows at destroying an old edifice," said he; "but +sorry architects when comes the question of rebuilding; and as to +liberty, your highest notion of it is an occasional anarchy. Like +school-boys, you will bear any tyranny for ten years, to have ten days +of a 'barring out' afterward." + +I was not much flattered by these opinions; and what was worse, I could +not get them out of my head all night afterward. Many things I had never +doubted about now kept puzzling and confounding me, and I began, for the +first time, to know the misery of the struggle between implicit +obedience and conviction. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +SOME NEW ACQUAINTANCES. + +I went to bed at night in all apparent health; save from the flurry and +excitement of an anxious mind, I was in no respect different from my +usual mood; and yet when I awoke next morning, my head was distracted +with a racking pain, cramps were in all my limbs, and I could not turn +or even move without intense suffering. The long exposure to rain, while +my mind was in a condition of extreme excitement, had brought on an +attack of fever, and before evening set in, I was raving in wild +delirium. Every scene I had passed through, each eventful incident of +my life, came flashing in disjointed portions through my poor brain; and +I raved away of France, of Germany, of the dreadful days of terror, and +the fearful orgies of the "Revolution." Scenes of strife and +struggle--the terrible conflicts of the streets--all rose before me; and +the names of every blood-stained hero of France now mingled with the +obscure titles of Irish insurrection. + +What narratives of my early life I may have given--what stories I may +have revealed of my strange career, I can not tell; but the interest my +kind hosts took in me grew stronger every day. There was no care nor +kindness they did not lavish on me. Taking alternate nights to sit up +with me, they watched beside my bed, like brothers. All that affection +could give they rendered me; and even from their narrow fortunes they +paid a physician, who came from a distant town to visit me. When I was +sufficiently recovered to leave my bed, and sit at the window, or stroll +slowly in the garden, I became aware of the full extent to which their +kindness had carried them, and in the precautions for secrecy, I saw the +peril to which my presence exposed them. From an excess of delicacy +toward me, they did not allude to the subject, nor show the slightest +uneasiness about the matter; but day by day some little circumstance +would occur, some slight and trivial fact reveal the state of anxiety +they lived in. + +They were averse, too, from all discussion of late events, and either +answered my questions vaguely or with a certain reserve; and when I +hinted at my hope of being soon able to appear before a magistrate and +establish my claim as a French citizen, they replied that the moment was +an unfavorable one; the lenity of the government had latterly been +abused; their gracious intentions misstated and perverted; that, in +fact, a reaction toward severity had occurred, and military law and +courts-martial were summarily disposing of cases that a short time back +would have received the mildest sentences of civil tribunals. It was +clear, from all they said, that if the rebellion was suppressed, the +insurrectionary feeling was not extinguished, and that England was the +very reverse of tranquil on the subject of Ireland. + +It was to no purpose that I repeated my personal indifference to all +these measures of severity; that in my capacity as a Frenchman and an +officer, I stood exempt from all the consequences they alluded to. Their +reply was, that in times of trouble and alarm things were done which +quieter periods would never have sanctioned, and that indiscreet and +over-zealous men would venture on acts that neither law nor justice +could substantiate. In fact, they gave me to believe, that such was the +excitement of the moment, such the embittered vengeance of those whose +families or fortunes had suffered by the rebellion, that no reprisals +would be thought too heavy, nor any harshness too great, for those who +aided the movement. + +Whatever I might have said against the injustice of this proceeding, in +my secret heart I had to confess that it was only what might have been +expected, and coming from a country where it was enough to call a man an +aristocrat and then cry "a la lanterne," I saw nothing unreasonable in +it all. + +My friends, advised me, therefore, instead of preferring any formal +claim to immunity, to take the first occasion of escaping to America, +whence I could not fail, later on, of returning to France. At first, the +counsel only irritated me, but by degrees, as I came to think more +calmly and seriously of the difficulties, I began to regard it in a +different light; and at last I fully concurred in the wisdom of the +advice, and resolved on adopting it. + +To sit on the cliffs, and watch the ocean for hours, became now the +practice of my life--to gaze from daybreak almost to the falling of +night over the wide expanse of sea, straining my eyes at each sail, and +conjecturing to what distant shore they were tending. The hopes which at +first sustained, at last deserted me, as week after week passed over, +and no prospect of escape appeared. The life of inactivity gradually +depressed my spirits, and I fell into a low and moping condition, in +which my hours rolled over without thought or notice. Still, I returned +each day to my accustomed spot, a lofty peak of rock that stood over the +sea, and from which the view extended for miles on every side. There, +half hid in the wild heath, I used to lie for hours long, my eyes bent +upon the sea, but my thoughts wandering away to a past that never was to +be renewed, and a future I was never destined to experience. + +Although late in the autumn, the season was mild and genial, and the sea +calm and waveless, save along the shore, where, even in the stillest +weather, the great breakers come tumbling in with a force, independent +of storm, and listening to their booming thunder, I have dreamed away +hour after hour unconsciously. It was one day, as I lay thus, that my +attention was caught by the sight of three large vessels on the very +verge of the horizon. Habit had now given me a certain acuteness, and I +could perceive from their height and size that they were ships of war. +For a while they seemed as if steering for the entrance of the "lough," +but afterward they changed their course, and headed toward the west. At +length they separated, and one of smaller size, and probably a frigate +from her speed, shot forward beyond the rest, and, in less than half an +hour, disappeared from view. The other two gradually sunk beneath the +horizon, and not a sail was to be seen over the wide expanse. While +speculating on what errand the squadron might be employed, I thought I +could hear the deep and rolling sound of distant cannonading. My ear was +too practiced in the thundering crash of the breakers along shore to +confound the noises; and as I listened I fancied that I could +distinguish the sound of single guns from the louder roar of a whole +broadside. This could not mean saluting, nor was it likely to be a mere +exercise of the fleet. They were not times when much powder was expended +unprofitably. Was it then an engagement? But with what or whom? Tandy's +expedition, as it was called, had long since sailed, and must ere this +have been captured or safe in France. I tried a hundred conjectures to +explain the mystery, which now, from the long continuance of the sounds, +seemed to denote a desperately contested engagement. It was not 'till +after three hours that the cannonading ceased, and then I could descry a +thick dark canopy of smoke that hung hazily over one spot in the +horizon, as if marking out the scene of the struggle. With what aching, +torturing anxiety I burned to know what had happened, and with which +side rested the victory. + +Well habituated to hear of the English as victors in every naval +engagement, I yet went on hoping against hope itself, that Fortune might +for once have favored us; nor was it till the falling night prevented my +being able to trace out distant objects, that I could leave the spot and +turn homeward. With wishes so directly opposed to theirs, I did not +venture to tell my two friends what I had witnessed, nor trust myself to +speak on a subject where my feelings might have betrayed me into +unseemly expressions of my hopes. I was glad to find that they knew +nothing of the matter, and talked away indifferently of other subjects. +By daybreak, the next morning, I was at my post, a sharp nor'wester +blowing, and a heavy sea rolling in from the Atlantic. Instinctively +carrying my eyes to the spot where I had heard the cannonnade, I could +distinctly see the tops of spars, as if the upper rigging of some +vessels, beyond the horizon. Gradually they rose higher and higher, till +I could detect the yard-arms and cross-trees, and finally the great +hulls of five vessels that were bearing toward me. + +For above an hour I could see their every movement, as with all canvas +spread they held on majestically toward the land, when at length a lofty +promontory of the bay intervened, and they were lost to my view. I +jumped to my legs at once, and set off down the cliff to reach the +headland, from whence an uninterrupted prospect extended. The distance +was greater than I had supposed, and in my eagerness to take a direct +line to it, I got entangled in difficult gorges among the hills, and +impeded by mountain torrents which often compelled me to go back a +considerable distance; it was already late in the afternoon as I gained +the crest of a ridge over the Bay of Lough Swilly. Beneath me lay the +calm surface of the lough, landlocked and still; but further out, +seaward, there was a sight that made my very limbs tremble, and sickened +my heart as I beheld it. There was a large frigate, that, with +studding-sails set, stood boldly up the bay, followed by a dismasted +three-decker, at whose mizen floated the ensign of England over the +French "tri-color." Several other vessels were grouped about the offing, +all of them displaying English colors. + +The dreadful secret was out. There had been a tremendous sea fight, and +the Hoche, of seventy-four guns, was the sad spectacle which, with +shattered sides and ragged rigging, I now beheld entering the Bay. Oh, +the humiliation of that sight! I can never forget it. And although on +all the surrounding hills scarcely fifty country people were assembled, +I felt as if the whole of Europe were spectators of our defeat. The flag +I had always believed triumphant now hung ignominiously beneath the +ensign of the enemy, and the decks of our noble ship were crowded with +the uniforms of English sailors and marines. + +The blue water surged and spouted from the shot holes as the great hull +loomed heavily from side to side, and broken spars and ropes still hung +over the side as she went, a perfect picture of defeat. Never was +disaster more legibly written. I watched her till the anchor dropped, +and then, in a burst of emotion, I turned away, unable to endure more. +As I hastened homeward I met the elder of my two hosts coming to meet +me, in considerable anxiety. He had heard of the capture of the Hoche, +but his mind was far more intent on another and less important event. +Two men had just been at his cottage with a warrant for my arrest. The +document bore my name and rank, as well as a description of my +appearance, and significantly alleged, that although Irish by birth, I +affected a foreign accent for the sake of concealment. + +"There is no chance of escape now," said my friend; "we are surrounded +with spies on every hand. My advice is, therefore, to hasten to Lord +Cavan's quarters--he is now at Letterkenny--and give yourself up as a +prisoner. There is at least the chance of your being treated like the +rest of your countrymen. I have already provided you with a horse and a +guide, for I must not accompany you myself. Go, then, Maurice. We shall +never see each other again; but we'll not forget you, nor do we fear +that you will forget _us_. My brother could not trust himself to take +leave of you, but his best wishes and prayers go with you." + +Such were the last words my kind-hearted friend spoke to me; nor do I +know what reply I made, as, overcome by emotion, my voice became thick +and broken. I wanted to tell all my gratitude, and yet could say +nothing. To this hour I know not with what impression of me he went +away. I can only assert, that, in all the long career of vicissitudes of +a troubled and adventurous life, these brothers have occupied the chosen +spot of my affection, for every thing that was disinterested in kindness +and generous in good feeling. + +They have done more, for they have often reconciled me to a world of +harsh injustice and illiberality, by remembering that two such +exceptions existed, and that others may have experienced what fell to +_my_ lot. + +For a mile or two my way lay through the mountains, but after reaching +the high road, I had not proceeded far when I was overtaken by a +jaunting-car, on which a gentleman was seated, with his leg supported by +a cushion, and bearing all the signs of a severe injury. + +"Keep the near side of the way, sir, I beg of you," cried he; "I have a +broken leg, and am excessively uneasy when a horse passes close to me." + +I touched my cap in salute, and immediately turned my horse's head to +comply with his request. + +"Did you see that, George?" cried another gentleman, who sat on the +opposite side of the vehicle; "did you remark that fellow's salute? My +life on't he's a French soldier." + +"Nonsense, man--he's the steward of a Clyde smack, or a clerk in a +counting-house," said the first, in a voice which, though purposely low, +my quick hearing could catch perfectly. + +"Are we far from Letterkenny just now, sir?" said the other, addressing +me. + +"I believe about five miles," said I, with a prodigious effort to make +my pronunciation pass muster. + +"You're a stranger in these parts, I see, sir," rejoined he, with a +cunning glance at his friend, while he added, lower, "Was I right, +Hill?" + +Although seeing that all concealment was now hopeless, I was in no wise +disposed to plead guilty at once, and therefore, with a cut of my +switch, pushed my beast into a sharp canter to get forward. + +My friends, however, gave chase, and now the jaunting-car, +notwithstanding the sufferings of the invalid, was clattering after me +at about nine miles an hour. At first I rather enjoyed the malice of the +penalty their curiosity was costing, but as I remembered that the +invalid was not the chief offender, I began to feel compunction at the +severity of the lesson, and drew up to a walk. + +They at once shortened their pace, and came up beside me. + +"A clever hack you're riding, sir," said the inquisitive man. + +"Not so bad for an animal of this country," said I, superciliously. + +"Oh, then, what kind of a horse are you accustomed to?" asked he, half +insolently. + +"The Limousin," said I, coolly, "what we always mount in our Hussar +regiments in France." + +"And you are a French soldier, then?" cried he, in evident astonishment +at my frankness. + +"At your service, sir," said I, saluting; "a Lieutenant of Hussars; and +if you are tormented by any further curiosity concerning me, I may as +well relieve you by stating that I am proceeding to Lord Cavan's +head-quarters, to surrender as a prisoner." + +"Frank enough, that!" said he of the broken leg, laughing heartily as he +spoke. + +"Well, sir," said the other, "you are, as your countrymen would call +it, '_bien venu_,' for we are bound in that direction ourselves, and +will be happy to have your company." + +One piece of tact my worldly experience had profoundly impressed upon +me, and that was, the necessity of always assuming an air of easy +unconcern in every circumstance of doubtful issue. There was quite +enough of difficulty in the present case to excite my anxiety, but I +rode along beside the jaunting-car, chatting familiarly with my new +acquaintances, and, I believe, without exhibiting the slightest degree +of uneasiness regarding my own position. + +From them I learned so much as they had heard of the late naval +engagement. The report was that Bompard's fleet had fallen in with Sir +John Warren's squadron, and having given orders for his fastest sailers +to make the best of their way to France, had, with the Hoche, the Loire, +and the Resolve, given battle to the enemy. These had all been captured, +as well as four others which fled, two alone of the whole succeeding in +their escape. I think now that, grievous as these tidings were, there +was nothing of either boastfulness or insolence in the tone in which +they were communicated to me. Every praise was accorded to Bompard for +skill and bravery, and the defense was spoken of in terms of generous +eulogy. The only trait of acrimony that showed itself in the recital +was, a regret that a number of Irish rebels should have escaped in the +Biche, one of the smaller frigates; and several emissaries of the +people, who had been deputed to the admiral, were also alleged to have +been on board of that vessel. + +"You are sorry to have had missed your friend, the priest of Murrah," +said Hill, jocularly. + +"Yes, by George, that fellow should have graced a gallows if I had been +lucky enough to have taken him." + +"What was his crime, sir?" asked I, with seeming unconcern. + +"Nothing more than exciting to rebellion a people with whom he had no +tie of blood or kindred! He was a Frenchman, and devoted himself to the +cause of Ireland, as they call it, from pure sympathy--" + +"And a dash of popery," broke in Hill. + +"It's hard to say even that; my own opinion is, that French Jacobinism +cares very little for the pope. Am I right, young gentleman--you don't +go very often to confession?" + +"I should do so less frequently if I were to be subjected to such a +system of interrogatory as yours," said I, tartly. + +They both took my impertinent speech in good part, and laughed heartily +at it; and thus, half amicably, half in earnest, we entered the little +town of Letterkenny, just as night was falling. + +"If you'll be our guest for this evening, sir," said Hill, "we shall be +happy to have your company." + +I accepted the invitation, and followed them into the inn. + +(_To be continued._) + + + + +THE UNNAMED SHELL. + + +At the corner of the boulevard Montmartre, near the angle of the +faubourg, is situated a magazine of natural history, that continually +draws around its windows groups of curious idlers. Open the door, walk +in, and, in place of a mere merchant, you will be surprised to encounter +an artist and a scholar. The man is still young, yet he has explored a +portion of Southern Africa; and has joined in formidable chases of +elephants, lions, and all the wild animals of those barbarous regions. +He has sought his treasures of natural history in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, +China, and Cochin-China; has visited Batavia, Samarang and Madura; and +returned to Paris rich in knowledge and collections. + +It is rarely that you will find him alone. The laboratory of the +boulevard Montmartre is the rendezvous of all the scholars, travelers, +naturalists, artists, and authors, who bask in the sunshine of +celebrity. Temming, the old glory, yet with so much youth about him, of +natural history; Wilson, collector for his brother in the immense +undertaking of completing the museum of Philadelphia; Philippe Rousseau, +who bestows life and animation on the animals which he paints; Ledieu, +Leon Gozlan, Biard; Delgorgue, the intrepid chaser of elephants; +Lageroniere, who was for one instant on the point of becoming the king +of a savage tribe, and of whom Dumas, in his "Thousand and One +Phantoms," has related in so improbable a manner a fabulous episode of +real adventures; Gray, whom London cites with pride among its +naturalists; Mitchell, director of the London Zoological Gardens; Henry +Monnier, the sparkling reflection of Moliere; Alphonse Karr; Deshayes, +for whom conchology and the labyrinths of its classifications have no +further mysteries; De Lafresnage, chief of ornithologists; Emile +Blanchard, who spends his life in the dissection of living atoms, or +beings almost microscopical; Delamarre-Piquot, who travels from one +world to another, to gather the alimentary substances with which he +wishes to endow Europe; M. Michelin, who consecrates his rare holidays +to an unrivaled collection of polypi; there they are to be found, every +day, studying, admiring, copying, describing, all the strange animals +that come from every quarter of the globe to this little corner of the +boulevard Montmartre, thence to be distributed among the collections of +Europe and America. + +There may one listen to sallies of fancy, scientific discussion, +episodes of likely and unlikely adventures, tales that make one burst +with laughter, histories that fill the eyes with tears, real dramas that +freeze the soul with horror, and of which the historian is almost always +the hero. In the midst of all this noise of conversation and going and +coming, the master of the establishment loses not a moment. He issues +orders, he lends a helping hand; he classes, describes, and attends to +strangers: and occasionally sends as presents to other museums +unparalleled treasures of natural history. Just let us mention, _en +passant_, that the museum of Paris has been loaded for twenty years back +with his precious gifts. At each step you take in the galleries, you may +read his name inscribed upon numerous objects, before which the curious +in such matters stop with surprise, and the learned with admiration. + +One evening, he was laboring with his usual feverish activity to form +collections of shells, according to their species, and after the method +of Lamarck; for to popularize science is his fervent desire and constant +aim. These collections would not nearly reimburse him for the trouble +and cost bestowed upon them; but they would create a few conchologists +the more; they would facilitate the studies of those who had already +commenced their initiation into the marvels of a science so attractive, +by the beautiful objects to which it consecrates itself, and this was +what the enthusiastic _savant_ wished above all. + +"Ah!" said one of the visitors, taking up a shell, "I never see a +spiral, without calling to mind a drama that was once enacted here, and +which I will relate to you: + +"It was eight or ten years ago, one evening, as it might be to-day. The +smoke from five or six cigars filled the laboratory with its fantastic +rings. A lamp, vailed under a semi-opaque shade, served only to render +more visible the shadows of this strange chamber. Here and there, the +glow from the hearth illuminated animals from all parts of the world, +hung at random upon the walls, which they confusedly burdened. The +master of the magazine took up a shell which chance placed under his +hand, and presented it to a tall man, hoary with age, who was silently +seated, according to his custom, a little on one side. The stranger +approached the lamp, looked at the shell, smiled, sighed, and placed it +in his pocket. A light crash was heard; he re-seated himself, and +revived the fire of his half-extinguished cigar. Then, perceiving that +every one was looking curiously at him--'I have broken it,' said he; and +he threw the fragments of the shell upon the floor, and ground them +beneath his heel. + +"For several instants there was a profound silence, caused by the +surprise of the company at this gratuitous destruction. The old man +continued, with a melancholy smile, 'I will tell you, gentlemen, +wherefore I broke the shell. Science, or rather its fanaticism, leads to +strange weaknesses. If my folly can any where find indulgence, surely it +will be among you, who are all, more or less, collectors. Perhaps, I +shall even meet with some auditor not only capable of comprehending, but +likewise of imitating me. This shell is a spiral that has never been +either named or copied. I possess in my collection the only similar one +that is known to the scientific world. I procured it, ten years ago, +from this magazine. The first time that I saw this unique shell, my +heart beat with joy,' continued the old man, with a voice that had +regained all the energy of youth. 'I was poor, but I must have it at +whatever price. I carried it home with me, and passed entire days in +contemplating it, and examining its minutest details. Two years were +necessary to make up its price--two entire years of privation. Each +month, I carried the dealer small sums, often spared from my most +pressing necessities. What mattered it? I possessed the shell; it was +mine alone; no one could show me its like. I would not permit any one to +describe it. When, on rare occasions, I displayed it to some initiated +ones, it was upon the condition that they would not speak of it in their +faunas. A lover madly enamored, is not more jealous than I then was, +than I still am, of this treasure. When the two years of which I have +spoken had elapsed, and I had paid the price of my dear spiral, I came +here one evening as usual. On opening, according to my custom, one of +the boxes that contain the shells, I uttered a cry. I had found another +spiral similar to that which I possessed! Judge of my sorrow, of my +despair. My shell was no longer unique. Another collection possessed a +treasure similar to mine. A cold sweat bathed my forehead. Though very +poor, though I had resigned the little employment which I had held in an +office, and my humble allowance was transformed into a pension more +humble still, I hesitated not. I bought the shell, and carried it with +me, but this time without joy. I possessed several good pictures, dear +and old heirlooms belonging to my family. I sold them to pay for the +shell, which I broke as soon as I had made up the price. Three years +more elapsed, and poverty weighed down my old age more and more. The +failure of a bank had deprived me of a little sum of money, the interest +of which, added to my pension, had enabled me to live, and to augment, +from time to time, my collection of a few good shells. Deprived of this +enjoyment, the only one that remained to me, I had no consolation but in +the possession of the treasure-hoard which I could no longer increase. +My precious spiral often detained me before it for hours. One evening +(never shall I forget, the sorrow the sight cost me), I beheld +here--there--in that box--three spirals like mine! Maledictions hovered +about my lips. I took the shells in my fingers, I slowly examined them, +and returned them to my friend. 'I can not buy them,' I said. He raised +his eyes, he saw my palor and my tears--my tears, gentlemen, for I wept! +He smiled, took a hammer, and pulverized the three precious shells. You +saw what he did just now. God bless him for his disinterestedness, and +his devotion to an old friend! I should die of despair, gentlemen, if, +during my life, another possessed a spiral like mine.' + +"Speaking thus, the old man rose, and left us, enveloping himself, as +well as he could, in his fragmentary cloak." + +One morning, three or four years ago, God separated the fanatic +conchologist from the collection that was his life. They found the aged +man seated before his cabinet, opposite to his unique spiral. He had +died alone, with his eyes fixed upon that which had possessed his +affections during so many years. His collection has now reverted to the +friend who showed so much sympathy with his jealousy and insensate +passion. + +By a strange caprice of fortune, no other spiral similar to his has +since arrived in Europe. It still remains unique and nameless, as when +he possessed it. For the rest, this spiral, which occupied so large a +place in the existence and affections of a scientific man, has, for a +common eye, nothing in its appearance to justify the intense passion +that it inspired. Its rarity constitutes its value. One of our most +learned conchologists is now engaged, in describing, classing, and +publishing a drawing of it. We hope that, in memory of its first +possessor, he will give it the name of _l'helice innominata_, the +"nameless spiral." + + + + +THE STORY OF GIOVANNI BELZONI. + + +One day in the beginning of the year 1803, Mr. Salt, whose name has +since become so celebrated among the discoverers of Egyptian +antiquities, observed before one of the public rooms of Edinburgh, a +great crowd assembled. For almost every one there exists a mysterious +attraction in the sight of a number of people, and Mr. Salt, no wiser +than his neighbors, pushed his way, when the doors were opened, into the +room. There, on a sort of stage, he saw a tall and powerfully-built +young man, performing various gymnastic exercises, and feats of +strength. While this Hercules in tinsel was lifting enormous weights, +and jumping from a table over the heads of twelve men, a pretty, +delicate-looking young woman, was arranging some hydraulic machines and +musical glasses, with which the entertainment was to terminate. As the +price of admission was nominal, she occasionally also handed round a +small wooden bowl, in order to collect gratuities from the spectators. + +Very few of those who were enjoying the exhibition gave any thing; and +when the young woman approached her husband, and showed him the few +coins she had received, he hastened to terminate his performance. Mr. +Salt pitied the poor fellow, and as the young woman was passing, said to +her: + +"You forgot to present your bowl for my contribution. Here it is." + +He slipped a silver coin into her hand. Both she and her husband thanked +him warmly; the latter in broken English, and with an Italian accent. + +Mr. Salt, who had but just returned from Rome, replied in Italian; and, +perceiving in the stranger's manner of expressing himself a degree of +refinement not to be expected from a mountebank, asked him whence he +came, and what was his history? + +"Six months ago, sir," replied the man, "if any man had told me that I +should be reduced to earn my bread by exhibiting my strength in public, +I should have felt greatly inclined to knock him down. I came to England +for the purpose of making known some hydraulic machines of my invention; +but the spirit of routine, and the love of ignorance, closed every +avenue against me. Previously, before losing all my hopes of success, I +married this young girl. Had I been alone in the world, I verily believe +that the bitter destruction of my expectations would have rendered me +careless of supporting life; but how could I leave _her_ in misery?" + +"But why not try to display your really extraordinary strength and +dexterity under more favorable circumstances? Why do you not offer your +services to some theatrical manager?" + +"Hungry people, sir, can not wait. I did not think of resorting to this +method of earning a piece of bread, until I saw my wife ready to perish +for the want of it." + +The kind Mr. Salt not only relieved his immediate wants, but offered to +recommend him and his wife to the manager of Astley's Circus, in London. +Gratefully and eagerly did the wanderers accept this offer; and while, +in company with their benefactor, who paid for their places on the +coach, they journeyed toward town, the man related his history. Born at +Padua, the son of a poor barber, and one of fourteen children, Giovanni +Battista Belzoni felt from his earliest youth a longing desire to visit +foreign lands. This "truant disposition" was fostered, if not caused, by +the stories of maritime adventures told him by an old sailor; who was +strongly suspected of having, during many years, practiced the +profession of a pirate. + +The reading, or rather devouring, of a translated copy of "Robinson +Crusoe" (and it is a most remarkable circumstance that the book which +has for its avowed purpose the disheartening of restless adventurers, +should have made wanderers and voyagers innumerable), gave form and +fixedness to his purpose of rambling; and, in company with his youngest +brother, the boy set out one fine morning, without any intention but the +somewhat vague one of "traveling to seek their fortune." The young +fugitives walked several miles, without knowing, in the least, whither +they were going, when a peddler, who was riding slowly by in a cart, +accosted them, and asked if they were going to Ferrara. Belzoni, +although he never heard the name before, immediately answered in the +affirmative. The good-natured merchant, pleased with the countenances, +and pitying the tired looks of the children, not only gave them a place +in his vehicle, but shared with them his luncheon of bread, cheese, and +fruit. That night they occupied part of their companion's lodging; but +next day, as his business required him to stop at the village where they +slept, the two boys took leave of him, and pursued their journey. Their +next adventure was not so fortunate. Meeting an empty return carriage, +they asked the _vetturino_ to give them a ride; and he consenting, they +joyfully got in. Arrived at Ferrara, the _vetturino_ asked them for +money. Giovanni, astonished, replied that they had none; and the +unfeeling man stripped the poor children of their upper garments, +leaving them half-naked and penniless in the streets of an unknown city. +Giovanni's undaunted spirit would have led him still to persevere in the +wild-goose chase which had lured him from his home; but his brother +Antonio wept, and complained so loudly, that he was fain to console the +child by consenting to retrace their steps to Padua. That night, clasped +in each other's arms, they slept beneath a doorway, and the next morning +set out for their native city, begging their food on the journey. + +The severe chastisement which Giovanni, as the instigator of this +escapade, received on his return, did not in anywise cure his love of +rambling. He submitted, however, to learn his father's trade, and at the +age of eighteen, armed with shaving and hair-cutting implements, he set +out for Rome, and there exercised the occupation of a barber with +success. After some time, he became deeply attached to a girl who, after +encouraging his addresses, deserted him and married a wealthy rival. +This disappointment preyed so deeply on Belzoni, that, renouncing at the +same time love and the razor, the world and the brazen bowl of suds, he +entered a convent, and became a Capuchin. The leisure of the cloister +was employed by him in the study of hydraulics; and he was busy in +constructing an Artesian well within the monastic precincts when the +French army under Napoleon took possession of Rome. The monks of every +order were expelled and dispersed; and our poor Capuchin, obliged to cut +his own beard, purchased once more the implements of his despised +calling, and traveled into Holland, the head-quarters of hydraulics, +which were still his passion. The Dutch did not encourage him, and he +came to this country. Here he met his future wife, and consoled himself +for his past misfortunes by marrying one who proved, through weal and +woe, a fond and faithful partner. The crude hydraulic inventions of a +wandering Italian were as little heeded here, as on the Continent; and +we have already seen the expedient to which Belzoni was obliged to have +recourse when Mr. Salt met him in Edinburgh. + +Having reached London, the kind antiquary introduced his _proteges_ to +the manager of Astley's. The practiced eye of the renowned equestrian +immediately appreciated at their value the beauty and athletic vigor of +the Paduan Goliath; and he engaged both him and his wife at a liberal +salary. He caused a piece, entitled "The Twelve Labors of Hercules" to +be arranged expressly for his new performers; and Mr. Salt had soon +afterward the satisfaction of seeing Giovanni Belzoni appear on the +stage, carrying twelve men on his arms and shoulders, while madame, in +the costume of Cupid, stood at the top, as the apex of a pyramid, and +waved a tiny crimson flag. + +After some time, Mr. Salt went to Egypt as consul, and there became +acquainted with Signor Drouetti. The two friends, equally enthusiastic +on the subject of Egyptian antiquities, set to work to prosecute +researches, with an ardor of rivalship which approached somewhat too +nearly to jealousy. Each aspired to undertake the boldest expeditions, +and to attempt the most hazardous excavations. But the great object of +their ambition was an enormous bust of Memnon, in rose-colored granite, +which lay half buried in the sand on the left bank of the Nile. + +Signor Drouetti had failed in all his attempts to raise it, nor was Mr. +Salt a whit more successful. One day, while the latter was thinking what +a pity it was that such a precious monument should be left to perish by +decay, a stranger asked to speak with him. Mr. Salt desired him to be +admitted; and immediately, despite his visitor's Oriental garb and long +beard, he recognized the Hercules of Astley's. + +"What has brought you to Egypt?" asked the astonished consul. + +"You shall hear, sir," replied the Italian. "After having completed my +engagement in London, I set out for Lisbon, where I was employed by the +manager of the theatre of San Carlo to perform the part of Samson, in a +scriptural piece which had been arranged expressly for me. From thence I +went to Madrid, where I appeared with applause in the theatre Della +Puerta del Sol. After having collected a tolerable sum of money, I +resolved to come here. My first object is to induce the Pasha to adopt +an hydraulic machine for raising the waters of the Nile." + +Mr. Salt then explained his wishes respecting the antiquities; but +Belzoni, could not, he said, enter upon that till he had carried out his +scheme of water-works. + +He was accompanied, he said in continuation, by Mrs. Belzoni, and by an +Irish lad of the name of James Curtain; and had reached Alexandria just +as the plague was beginning to disappear from that city, as it always +does on the approach of St. John's day, when, as almost every body +knows, "out of respect for the saint," it entirely ceases. The state of +the country was still very alarming, yet Mr. Belzoni and his little +party ventured to land, and performed quarantine in the French quarter; +where, though really very unwell, they were wise enough to disguise +their situation; "for the plague is so dreadful a scourge," he observed, +"and operates so powerfully on human fears and human prejudices, that, +during its prevalence, if a man be ill, he must be ill of the plague, +and if he die, he must have died of the plague." + +Belzoni went straight to Cairo, where he was well received by Mr. +Baghos, interpreter to Mohammed Ali, to whom Mr. Salt recommended him. +Mr. Baghos immediately prepared to introduce him to the Pasha, that he +might come to some arrangement respecting the hydraulic machine, which +he proposed to construct for watering the gardens of the seraglio. As +they were proceeding toward the palace, through one of the principal +streets of Cairo, a fanatical Mussulman struck Mr. Belzoni so fiercely +on the leg with his staff, that it tore away a large piece of flesh. The +blow was severe, and the discharge of blood copious, and he was obliged +to be conveyed home, where he remained under cure thirty days before he +could support himself on the wounded leg. When able to leave the house, +he was presented to the Pasha, who received him very civilly; but on +being told of the misfortune which had happened to him, contented +himself with coolly observing "that such accidents could not be avoided +where there were troops." + +An arrangement was immediately concluded for erecting a machine which +was to raise as much water with one ox as the ordinary ones do with +four. Mr. Belzoni soon found, however, that he had many prejudices to +encounter, and many obstacles to overcome, on the part of those who were +employed in the construction of the work, as well as of those who owned +the cattle engaged in drawing water for the Pasha's gardens. The fate of +a machine which had been sent from England taught him to augur no good +for that which he had undertaken to construct. Though of the most costly +description, and every way equal to perform what it was calculated to +do, it had failed to answer the unreasonable expectations of the +Turks--because "the quantity of water raised by it was not sufficient to +inundate the whole country in an hour!--which was their measure of the +power of an English water-wheel." + +When that of Belzoni was completed, the Pasha proceeded to the gardens +of Soubra to witness its effect. The machine was set to work, and, +although constructed of bad materials, and of unskillful workmanship, +its powers were greater than had been contracted for; yet the Arabs, +from interested motives, declared against it. The Pasha, however, though +evidently disappointed, admitted that it was equal to four of the +ordinary kind, and, consequently, accorded with the agreement. +Unluckily, he took it into his head to have the oxen removed, and, "by +way of frolic," to see what effect could be produced by putting fifteen +men into the wheel. The Irish lad got in with them; but no sooner had +the wheel begun to turn than the Arabs jumped out, leaving the lad alone +in it. The wheel, relieved from its load, flew back with such velocity, +that poor Curtain was flung out, and in the fall broke one of his +thighs; and, being entangled in the machinery, would, in all +probability, have lost his life, had not Belzoni applied his prodigious +strength to the wheel, and stopped it. The accident, however, was fatal +to the project and to the future hopes of the projector. + +At that time the insolence of the Turkish officers of the Pashalic was +at its height, and the very sight of a "dog of a Christian" raised the +ire of the more bigoted followers of the Prophet. While at Soubra, which +is close to Cairo, Belzoni had a narrow escape from assassination. He +relates the adventure in his work on Egypt: + +"Some particular business calling me to Cairo. I was on my ass in one of +the narrow streets, where I met a loaded camel. The space that remained +between the camel and the wall was so little, that I could scarcely +pass; and at that moment I was met by a Binbashi, a subaltern officer, +at the head of his men. For the instant I was the only obstacle that +prevented his proceeding on the road; and I could neither retreat nor +turn round, to give him room to pass. Seeing it was a Frank who stopped +his way, he gave me a violent blow on my stomach. Not being accustomed +to put up with such salutations, I returned the compliment with my whip +across his naked shoulders. Instantly he took his pistol out of his +belt; I jumped off my ass; he retired about two yards, pulled the +trigger, fired at my head, singed the hair near my right ear, and killed +one of his own soldiers, who, by this time, had come behind me. Finding +that he had missed his aim, he took a second pistol; but his own +soldiers assailed and disarmed him. A great noise arose in the street, +and, as it happened to be close to the seraglio in the Esbakie, some of +the guards ran up; but on seeing what the matter was, they interfered +and stopped the Binbashi. I thought my company was not wanted, so I +mounted my charger, and rode off. I went to Mr. Baghos, and told him +what had happened. We repaired immediately to the citadel, saw the +Pasha, and related the circumstance to him. He was much concerned, and +wished to know where the soldier was, but observed that it was too late +that evening to have him taken up. However, he was apprehended the next +day, and I never heard or knew any thing more about him. Such a lesson +on the subject was not lost upon me; and I took good care, in future, +not to give the least opportunity of the kind to men of that +description, who can murder an European with as much indifference as +they would kill an insect." + +Ruined by the loss of all his savings, which he had spent in the +construction of his water machines, Belzoni once more applied to Mr. +Salt, and undertook the furtherance of his scheme, to convey to England +the bust of Memnon. So eager was he, that the same day, the Italian set +out for the ruins of Thebes, and hired a hundred natives, whom he made +clear away the sand which half covered the stone colossus. With a large +staff in his hand, Belzoni commanded his army of Mussulmans, directed +their labors, astonished them with displays of his physical strength, +learned to speak their language with marvelous facility, and speedily +came to be regarded by them as a superior being, endowed with magical +power. + +One day, however, his money failed; and at the same time the rising of +the Nile destroyed in two hours, the work of three months. The _fellahs_ +rebeled: one of them rushed toward Belzoni, intending to strike him with +his dagger. The Italian coolly waited his approach, disarmed him; and +then, seizing him by the feet, lifted him as though he had been a hazel +wand, and began to inflict vigorous blows on the other insurgents with +this novel and extemporary weapon of defense. The lesson was not thrown +away: very speedily the _fellahs_ returned to their duty; and after +eighteen days' incessant labor, Memnon trembled at his base, and was +moved toward the bank of the Nile. + +The embarkation of this enormous statue presented difficulties almost as +great as those which attended its disinterment and land transport. +Nevertheless, the intelligence and perseverance of Belzoni surmounted +every obstacle; and he brought his wondrous conquest to London, where +its arrival produced a sensation similar to that caused more recently in +Paris by the sight of the Obelisk of Luxor. Loaded with praise, and also +with more substantial gifts, Belzoni, now become an important personage, +returned to Egypt and to his friend Mr. Salt. The latter proposed to him +to go up the Nile, and attempt the removal of the sand-hills which +covered the principal portion of the magnificent temple of Ebsamboul. +Belzoni readily consented, set out for Lower Nubia, ventured boldly +among the savage tribes who wander through the sandy desert; returning +to Thebes, he was rewarded, not only by the success of his special +mission, but also by discovering the temple of Luxor. + +In all his undertakings, however enterprising, Belzoni was aided and +cheered by the presence of his wife. The expedition to Nubia was, +however, thought too hazardous for her to undertake. But in the absence +of her husband she was not idle; she dug up the statue of Jupiter Ammon, +with the ram's head on his knee; which is now in the British Museum. + +The temple of Luxor had been so completely and for so long a period, +buried in sand, that even its existence remained unsuspected. It had +been dedicated to Isis by the Queen of Rameses the Great; and the +descriptions which travelers give of it, resemble those of the palaces +in the "Arabian Nights." Four colossal figures, sixty-one feet in +height, are seated in front. Eight others, forty-eight in height, and +standing up, support the roof of the principal inner hall, in which +gigantic bas-reliefs represent the whole history of Rameses. Sixteen +other halls, scarcely smaller than the first, display, in all their +primitive splendor, many gorgeous paintings, and the mysterious forms of +myriads of statues. + +After this discovery, Belzoni took up his temporary abode in the valley +of _Biban el Mouloch_ (Tombs of the Kings). He had already remarked +there, among the rocks, a fissure of a peculiar form, and which was +evidently the work of man. He caused this opening to be enlarged, and +soon discovered the entrance to a long corridor, whose walls were +covered with sculptures and hieroglyphical paintings. A deep fosse and a +wall barred the further end of the cave; but he broke a passage +through, and found a second vault, in which stood an alabaster +sarcophagus, covered with hieroglyphics. He took possession of this and +sent it safely to Europe. His own account of these difficulties is +extremely interesting: + +"Of some of these tombs many persons could not withstand the suffocating +air, which often causes fainting. A vast quantity of dust rises, so fine +that it enters the throat and nostrils, and chokes the nose and mouth to +such a degree, that it requires great power of lungs to resist it and +the strong effluvia of the mummies. This is not all; the entry or +passage where the bodies are is roughly cut in the rocks, and the +falling of the sand from the upper part or ceiling of the passage causes +it to be nearly filled up. In some places there is not more than the +vacancy of a foot left, which you must contrive to pass through in a +creeping posture, like a snail, on pointed and keen stones, that cut +like glass. After getting through these passages, some of them two or +three hundred yards long, you generally find a more commodious place, +perhaps high enough to sit. But what a place of rest! surrounded by +bodies, by heaps of mummies in all directions; which, previous to my +being accustomed to the sight, impressed me with horror. The blackness +of the walls, the faint light given by the candles or torches for want +of air, the different objects that surrounded me, seeming to converse +with each other, and the Arabs, with the candles or torches in their +hands, naked and covered with dust, themselves resembling living +mummies, absolutely formed a scene that can not be described. In such a +situation I found myself several times, and often returned exhausted and +fainting, till at last I became inured to it, and indifferent to what I +suffered, except from the dust which never failed to choke my throat and +nose; and though, fortunately, I am destitute of the sense of smelling, +I could taste that the mummies were rather unpleasant to swallow. After +the exertion of entering into such a place, through a passage of fifty, +a hundred, three hundred, or perhaps six hundred yards, nearly overcome, +I sought a resting-place, found one, and contrived to sit; but when my +weight bore on the body of an Egyptian, it crushed it like a band-box. I +naturally had recourse to my hands to sustain my weight, but they found +no better support; so that I sunk altogether among the broken mummies, +with a crash of bones, rags, and wooden cases, which raised such a dust +as kept me motionless for a quarter of an hour, waiting till it subsided +again. I could not remove from the place, however, without increasing +it, and every step I took I crushed a mummy in some part or other. Once +I was conducted from such a place to another resembling it, through a +passage of about twenty feet in length, and no wider than that a body +could be forced through. It was choked with mummies, and I could not +pass without putting my face in contact with that of some decayed +Egyptian; but as the passage inclined downward, my own weight helped me +on: however, I could not avoid being covered with bones, legs, arms, and +heads rolling from above. Thus I proceeded from one cave to another, all +full of mummies piled up in various ways--some standing, some lying, and +some on their heads." + +Afterward, Belzoni traveled to the shores of the Red Sea, inspected the +ruins of Berenice; then returned to Cairo, and directed excavations to +be made at the bases of the great pyramids of Ghizeh; penetrated into +that of Chephren--which had hitherto been inaccessible to Europeans--and +discovered within it the sacred chamber where repose the hallowed bones +of the bull Apis. The Valley of Faioum, the Lake Moeris, the ruins of +Arsinoe, the sands of Libya, all yielded up their secrets to his +dauntless spirit of research. He visited the oasis of El-Cassar, and the +Fountain of the Sun; strangled in his arms two treacherous guides who +tried to assassinate him; and then left Egypt, and returned to Padua +with his wife. + +The son of the humble barber had now become a rich and celebrated +personage. A triumphal entry was prepared for him; and the municipal +authorities of his native city met him at the gate, and presented him +with an address. Manfredini was commissioned to engrave a medal which +should commemorate the history of the illustrious traveler. England, +however, soon claimed him; and on his arrival in London, he was received +with the same honors as in his own country. Then he published an account +of his travels, under the following title: "Narrative of the Operations +and recent Discoveries in the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Cities of +Egypt and Nubia, &c." + +In 1822, Belzoni returned to Africa, with the intention of penetrating +to Timbuctoo. Passing in the following year from the Bight of Benin +toward Houssa, he was attacked with dysentery; was carried back to Gato, +and thence put on board an English vessel lying off the coast. There, +with much firmness and resignation, he prepared to meet his end. He +intrusted the captain with a large amethyst to be given to his wife, and +also with a letter which he wrote to his companion through good and evil +days. Soon afterward, he breathed his last. They buried him at Gato, at +the foot of a large tree, and engraved on his tomb the following epitaph +in English-- + +"_Here lies Belzoni, who died at this place, on his way to Timbuctoo, +December 3d, 1823._" + +Belzoni was but forty-five years old when he died. A statue of him was +erected at Padua, on the 4th of July, 1827. Very recently, the +government of Great Britain bestowed on his widow the tardy solace of a +small pension. + +Giovanni Belzoni, the once starving mountebank, became one of the most +illustrious men in Europe!--an encouraging example to all those who have +not only sound heads to project, but stout hearts to execute. + + + + +PHANTOMS AND REALITIES.--AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. + +(_Continued from Page 613._) + +PART THE SECOND--NOON. + + +V. + +To reason upon the effects of the discovery, or confession of our +feelings, was not a process for which either of us was qualified by +temperament or inclination. We did not pause to consider whether it was +prudent to take our hearts and natures for granted all at once, and risk +upon the strange delight of a single moment of luxurious emotion the +happiness, perhaps, of a whole lifetime. We did not stop to ask if there +were any obstacles in the way, any jarring chords to be attuned, any +thing to be known or thought of into which our position demanded a +scrutiny. We resigned ourselves at once to our impulses. We believed +that we had seen enough of the world, and were strong enough in our +self-sustaining power, and clear enough in our penetration, to dispense +with ordinary safeguards, and act as if we were superior to them. We +made our own world, and so went on as if we could control the planet in +which we lived at our own will and pleasure. + +I soon perceived that my attentions to Astraea had become a subject of +much remark. The peering coterie about us were so vigilant in matters of +that kind, that, as it appeared afterward, they had found out the fact +before it had taken place. For my own part, there was nobody half so +much surprised at the circumstance as I was myself. I believed that the +heart, like that plant which is said to blow once and die, was incapable +of a second growth of love; but I now felt the fallacy of that doctrine, +and was at first humiliated by the discovery. It struck me like a great +heresy against truth and purity; it seemed to lay bare before me the +corruptibility and feebleness of poor human nature. To strive against +it, however, was idle. The second growth was in full flower, yet with a +difference from the first, which I could detect even against the grain +of the passion that was subjugating me. I felt that the second growth +was less simple and devotional than the first; that it had more +exuberance, and was of a wilder character; that it struck not its roots +so deeply, but spread its blossoms more widely; that it was less +engrossing, but more agitating; that it was cultivated with greater +consciousness and premeditation, risked with more caution, fed with more +prudence, and tended more constantly--but all with a lesser waste of the +imagination; that its delights were more fervid but less appeasing; that +it looked not so much into the future with hope and promise, as it +filled the present with rapture; that its memories were neither so sad +nor so vivid, and that it let in caprice, and vanity, and +unreasonableness, and self-love, and the world's esteem, which are all +as dust in the balance, or a feather in the whirlwind, to impetuous +love. I was amazed to find myself a daily waiter upon beauty. Yet so it +was. The vision of Gertrude was now gone from my path--the spectre had +vanished in the broad light of the new passion. + +Still, while I paid my court to Astraea, it was not with any intention of +publicity, but furtively, as if a private dread hung over us, or as if +we thought it pleasanter to vail our feelings from observation. We +understood each other in silent looks, which we supposed to be +unintelligible to every body else; she seemed to avoid, designedly, all +appearance of interest in me, and sometimes played the part to such +admiration, as to give me not a few passing pangs of doubt and +uneasiness; and I, seeing how scrupulous she was on that point, and not +choosing to incur rude jests at her expense, was equally unwilling to +betray a feeling which was rendered the more delicious by secrecy. We +imagined ourselves secure; but neither of us could have had much worldly +sagacity or we must have known that all our caution was fruitless. +Basilisks' eyes were around us, and we trod a path beset with serpents. +Fortunately we were both looked up to as persons who could not be +approached with familiarity; and that preserved us from the open +badinage to which others, in similar circumstances, might have been +subjected. + +Alone, and liberated from this vexatious surveillance, we gave free vent +to our thoughts. The suddenness of our new confidence, and the rapidity +with which we already shaped its issues, bewildered us by the intensity +of the emotions that came crowding for speech and explanation. Astraea +sometimes had misgivings, although she never knew how to give them a +definite form. One day she said to me, "We are wrong in giving way to +this feeling. It is not a love likely to procure us peace. I say this to +you because I feel it--perhaps, because I know it; but I confess myself +unable to argue upon a question upon which my reason, my whole being is +held in suspense. I say so, simply because I ought to say so, and not +because I am prepared of myself to act, or even to advise. I am like a +leaf in a tempest, and can not guide myself. I yield to the irresistible +power that has swept me from the firm land, and deprived me of the +strength to regain it." + +I fancied that this left me but one course to take, and I replied, "We +have pronounced our destiny, Astraea, for good or for evil. We ought to +have no choice but to abide by it. If you do not fail in your faith, +mine is irrevocable." + +At these words she looked gravely at me, and answered, + +"My faith dies with me. It is a part of my life. It was not taken up in +an hour, to be as lightly thrown aside. Without it, life would be +insupportable; with it, life in any shape of seclusion, privation, +banishment, contains all the blessings I covet upon earth. It was not +for that, or of that I spoke. Understand me clearly, and put no +construction on my words outside their plain and ordinary meaning. All I +ask, all that is necessary for me is your society; to hear you speak, to +drink in the words of kindness and power that flow from your lips, to +be ever near you, to tend, solace, and console you. I should be content +to enjoy the privilege of seeing that you were happy, without even +aspiring to the higher glory of creating happiness for you. That is my +nature--capable of a wider range, and a loftier flight, but happiest in +its devotion. In any capacity I will serve you--and feel that the +servitude of love is dominion!" + +So firm and constant was the character of Astraea, tinged with a romantic +inspiration, that all this homage was serious and real, and issued +gravely from her heart through her lips. She meant every syllable she +spoke in its true sense; and I felt that she was ready to fulfill it, +and sustain it to the end. She believed that all endurances were +possible for love's sake, and that she could even enact miracles of +stoicism in the strength of her fidelity. + +For many months our intercourse, always thus sophisticating its aims and +interpretations, was carried on in secret. We had become necessary to +each other; but being still shut up in our mystery, we had not made as +much advance toward any definite result as one single moment of +disclosure to the people we were among would have inevitably compelled +us to decide upon. We were very prudent in our outward bearing, and +hardly aware of the avidity with which the concealed passion was +devouring our hearts. + +The dwarf followed me, and hovered about me more than ever. But I +learned to bear with him on account of his being in the house with +Astraea. Any body who was constantly in her society, and admitted to +terms of intimacy with her, was welcome to me--as relics from the altar +of a saint are welcome to the devotee, or a leaf snatched, from a tree +in the haunts of home is welcome to the exile. It was a pleasure when I +met him even to ask for Astraea, to have an excuse for uttering her name, +or to hear him speak of her, or to speak of her myself, or to talk of +any thing that we had before talked of together. Such are the resources, +the feints, the stratagems, the foibles of love! + + +VI. + +One night my indefatigable Mephistophiles took me to a tavern. He was in +a vagrant mood, and I indulged him. + +"Come, we shall see life to-night," he said. + +"With all my heart," I replied. It was not much to my taste, but I +fancied there was something unusual in his manner, and my curiosity was +awakened to see what it would lead to. + +We entered a bustling and brilliantly-lighted house. Numerous guests +were scattered about at different tables, variously engaged in getting +rid of time at the smallest possible cost of reflection. The dwarf +sauntered through the room, whispered a waiter, and, beckoning me to +follow, led the way up-stairs to a lesser apartment, where we found +ourselves alone. + +"You will not see much life here," I observed, rather surprised at his +selection of a secluded room in preference to the lively _salon_ through +which we had just passed. + +"We can make our own life," he answered, with a sarcastic twinge of the +mouth, "and imagine more things in five minutes than we should see or +hear below in a month." + +I thought this very odd. It looked as if he had some concealed motive; +but I acquiesced in his notion, and was secretly pleased, not less at +the exchange of the din and riot for ease and quietness, than at the +opportunity it opened to him for the free play of the humor, whatever it +was, that I could plainly see was working upon him. + +We drank freely--that was a great resource with him when he was in a +mood of extravagance--talked rapidly about a chaos of things, laughed +loudly, and in the pauses of the strange revel relapsed every now and +then into silence and abstraction. During these brief and sudden +intervals, the dwarf would amuse himself by drawing uncouth lines on the +table, with his head hanging over them, as if his thoughts were +elsewhere engaged, and the unintelligible pastime of his fingers were +resorted to only to hide them. + +I could not tell why it was, but I felt uneasy and restless. My +companion appeared to me like a man who was mentally laboring at some +revelation, yet did not know how to begin it. He was constantly talking +at something that was evidently troubling his mind, yet he still evaded +his own purpose, as if he did not like the task to which he had set +himself. Throughout the whole time he never mentioned Astraea's name, and +this circumstance gave me additional cause for suspicion. + +At last, summoning up all his energy, and fixing himself with the points +of his elbows on the table, and his long, wiry hands, which looked like +talons, stretched up into his elfin hair at each side of his face, while +his eyes, shooting out their malignant fires, were riveted upon me to +scan the effect of what he was about to say, he suddenly exclaimed, + +"You have been remarked in your attentions to Astraea." + +The mystery was out. And what was there in it, after all? I was a free +agent, and so was Astraea. Why should he make so much theatrical parade +about so very simple a business? + +"Well!" I exclaimed, scarcely able to repress a smile, which the +exaggerated earnestness of his manner excited. + +"Well! You acknowledge that it is so?" + +"Acknowledge? Why should I either acknowledge or deny it? There is no +treason in it; the lady is the best judge--let me add, the only +judge--of any attentions I may have paid to her." + +"But I say you have been remarked--it has been spoken of--it is already +a common topic of conversation." + +"Indeed! A common topic of conversation! Well, I have no objection, +provided my good-natured friends do not say any thing injurious, or +wound the lady's feelings by an improper use of my name." + +He paused for a moment, and lowering his voice, then went on, + +"You never said any thing of this before." + +"Why should I? The inquiry was never made of me before." + +"I have made no inquiry," he retorted. "I didn't ask you to confess. You +have avowed it all yourself, unconsciously." + +I felt that the dwarf was getting serious, and that he was likely to +make me more in earnest before he was done than I had at first +anticipated. I saw the necessity of showing him at once that I would not +brook his interference, and I addressed him in a more deliberate tone +than I had hitherto adopted. + +"Allow me to ask," I demanded, "what interest you may take in this +matter, and by what right you assume the office of interrogating me so +authoritatively?" + +"By what right?" he answered. "My right to do so is rather clearer than +your right to refuse an explanation. You met her at my mother's +house--you meet her there. She is under our roof, under our guardianship +and protection. That gives me the right. It is not pleasant to interfere +in this way; but I am called upon to do so by my position, and I delayed +it in the hope that you would render it unnecessary." + +"Why should you hope so? Why should you desire any explanation on the +subject? The lady is her own mistress: she is under your roof, it is +true; but not under your control. The same thing might happen under any +other roof, and nobody would thereby acquire a right to interfere in a +matter that concerns her alone. You will surely see the propriety of not +suffering your curiosity to meddle any further in the affair?" + +"Meddle!" he reiterated; "control! Are these the phrases with which you +taunt me? But," dropping his voice again, he added, "you are right in +suggesting that I have discharged my office when I demand, to what end +those very marked attentions are paid to Astraea?" + +"You make an unwarrantable demand, and you shall have a fitting answer +to it; and my answer is, that to Astraea alone will I confide my +confession, as you call it. She is old enough and wise enough to think +and act for herself; nor will I consent to compromise my respect for her +understanding by admitting that she requires an arbitrator--perhaps I +ought to say, champion." + +"Have a care," he replied, kindling up all at once into a sort of +frenzy--"have a care what you say or do. You move in darkness--you tread +on smothered fire." + +"Do you threaten me?" said I. + +"No; I do not threaten you. Look at your arm and mine--compare your +muscles with my shrunken and stunted frame," he cried, with an +expression of pain and bitterness; "I do not threaten you, but I warn +you--mark me, I warn you! Heed my warning, I beseech, I implore +you--nay, heed it for your life!" + +I could not but admire the sibyl-like grandeur of his head and +outstretched arms as he uttered these strange words. His voice was +hoarse with some surging emotion; and if so poor a creature could have +been the recipient of a supernatural inspiration, he might have sat at +that moment for the portrait of one of the deformed soothsayers in a +tale of magic. + +"Do I understand you correctly?" said I; "or are you only playing off +some new freak upon me? Answer me frankly one question, and I shall be +better able to comprehend the meaning of your mysterious menace. Are +you--but I know it is absurd, I feel that the question is very +ridiculous, only that your reply to it will, perhaps, set us both +right--do you love Astraea? I really can not conceive any thing short of +some such feeling to justify this violence." + +"Love her? _I_ love _Astraea?_ If there be a mortal I hate in the core of +my heart, it is Astraea. Are you satisfied?" he replied, with an +expression of fiendish satisfaction in his face, as if he were glad of +the excuse for giving vent to his malignity. + +"Hate her?" said I, calmly; "that is unreasonable: but the whole +discussion is unreasonable. I have given you my answer; none other shall +you have from me. So, good-night." + +"One word," he said, leaping out of his chair into the middle of the +room. "One word before you go. I am a dwarf--do not delude yourself into +any contempt of me on that account. I know as well as you do my +disadvantages in the world; I am as conscious as you are of my physical +defects and shortcomings, my distorted spine, and the parsimony of +nature in all particulars when she made me. But I have passions like +other men; and I pursue them like other men, only, as I am shut out from +the summary and open process, I am compelled, perchance, to the choice +of dark and crooked means. Perhaps, too, my passions are all the more +turbulent and dangerous because they are pent up in an incapable frame, +and denied the vents and appliances which men like you have at their +command. Mark me! see Astraea no more. Let your last interview with her +be your last forever. Enter our house no more; that interdict, at least, +I have a right to pronounce. But for myself, and from myself, and apart +from the privilege of my own roof, I warn you at your peril, and on my +own responsibility, never to see Astraea again." + +"Are you mad?" I exclaimed. "Never to see Astraea again! To forsake her +society at your bidding! Wherefore do you make this monstrous demand? Do +you not feel how preposterous it is to thrust yourself into a quarrel +with me in a matter which not only does not concern you, but which +involves the feelings, perhaps the whole future happiness, of a person +whom you have just ostentatiously declared is the object of your hate?" + +"I make no quarrel with you," he answered; "I will not quarrel with you. +I should be mad, indeed, if I did. What! set myself against your thews +and sinews? No, no--I break no bones with you--but I tell you, once +again, your fate is in my hands. I am your destiny, if you will have it +so. You may trample on the oracle; but you can not, with all your show +of bravery and your proud pretensions, with the lady, too, in triumph on +your side, escape its denunciations." + +"Did you, or did you not," I inquired, bewildered by his language, and +not quite satisfied that he was in possession of his senses, "did you, +or did you not, observe those attentions some months ago of which you +now complain for the first time?" + +"I did," he answered. + +"And why did you not then speak to me on the subject?" + +"Because it wasn't ripe!" + +"Ripe? If you have any meaning in these obscure hints, why do you not +explain it for your own sake, since you can not believe that I will +submit patiently to your insane threats? Again I ask you, did you, or +did you not, promote these attentions by every artifice and suggestion +in your power?" + +"I did." + +"Did you not watch them anxiously, forward them daily, and exult in +their progress, until you became secretly convinced that both Astraea's +feelings and mine were engaged beyond recall?" + +"I did--I did--I did!" roared the dwarf. + +"Did you not produce this very result yourself? Did you not seek it, +urge it, fan it to its height, and even glory in the flame you had +nursed so cunningly?" + +"I did--I did--I did!" he shrieked, his whole body seeming to take part +in the frenzy that convulsed him. + +"Fiend!" I cried; "inexplicable devil! what would you have, then? What +is your aim in thus coming with your curses between us?" + +"You shall never know," he replied, "unless to deplore it to the last +hour of your life. You can never know unless you outrage my will. I have +the power to make you wretched forever, to blight and destroy you. And +if you treat my warning with contempt, I will do it without fail, +without mercy, without remorse. The jester who has contributed so +largely to your entertainment, and furnished such a delectable theme for +your secret and cowardly mockery, will shoot a bolt of a graver cast +when you least expect it, and think yourself most secure. Mark me--note +me well. These are not words of rage, or transient passion: remember +them, be wise, and look to your safety. See Astraea no more. With this I +leave you. Our next meeting must be of your making." + +I was alone. Overwhelmed and awed by the demoniacal maledictions of the +wretched creature whom I had hitherto so intensely despised, I knew not +what to think, or how to act. He had assumed a fresh shape, more +marvelous than any he had hitherto put on in the whole round of his +extraordinary mummery. The raillery and tipsy recklessness which +appeared constitutional in him had suddenly passed away, leaving not a +solitary trace behind. Even his figure, while he had been speaking, +seemed to heave with a new life, and to dilate into unnatural +dimensions. I was perplexed to the last extremity; not that the malice +of the demon could scare me from my resolves, but that his motives were +so impenetrable as to suffer no clew to escape by which I could discover +the evil purpose that lay at the bottom. + +It was not the machination or revenge of a disappointed suitor. He never +could have aspired to a hope of Astraea, and he avowed his aversion to +her. She was ignorant of all this bravado about her; and would be even +more indignant to hear of it than I was to suffer it. I resolved, +therefore, not to insult her by revealing it to her. Fortunately, I had +made an appointment to meet her alone on the following day. That meeting +would decide every thing. She might, perhaps, throw some light upon what +was at present a profound mystery to me. At all events, my course was +clear. Under the circumstances in which I was placed, I felt that there +lay but one alternative before me. + + +VII. + +My resolution was taken, as I thought, very composedly. I tried to +persuade myself that I was not in the least ruffled or agitated by the +scene I had passed through; but I was secretly conscious, +notwithstanding, of a vague dread which I endeavored in vain to stifle. +The defiance which the dwarf had so insolently flung at me, the contrast +he drew between his shriveled frame and my physical advantages, and the +Satanic pride with which he rose superior to his wretched deformities, +gave me no slight cause for uneasiness, although I could not analyze the +nature of the fear that possessed me. All through the night I abandoned +myself to the wildest speculations upon the unaccountable conduct and +designs of my arch-enemy; but as morning advanced that oppressive train +of reflections gave way to more agreeable thoughts, just as the hideous +images of the night-mare vanish before the approach of day. + +The prospect of meeting Astraea excluded all other considerations. As +impediments to the flow of a current only serve to increase its force, +so the opposition which the dwarf had thrown in my way gave an +additional impetus to my feelings. The very publicity which our +intercourse had attracted altered our relations to each other. It was no +longer possible to indulge in the romantic dreams, secret looks, and +stolen conversations with which we had hitherto pampered our +imagination; it was necessary to act. I felt the responsibility that was +thus cast upon me; and I confess that I was rather obliged to my +villainous Mephistophiles than angry with him for having, as it were, +brought all my wayward raptures to so immediate and decisive a +conclusion. As to his anathemas and warnings, I treated them as so much +buffoonery on the wrong side of the grotesque. In short, I was too much +engrossed by the approaching interview, and too much intoxicated by the +contemplation of the result to which it inevitably led, to think at all +about that imp of darkness and his ludicrous fulminations. Astraea +occupied brain and heart, and left no room for my tormentor. + +I fancied she looked unusually happy that morning; but not so happy as I +was, not so disturbed and unsettled by happiness. She was perfectly +tranquil, and it was evident that nothing had transpired in the interval +to awaken a suspicion of what had occurred between me and the dwarf. She +observed at once that a change had taken place in my manner. + +"You are in marvelously high spirits to-day," she said; "but this +exuberant gayety is not quite natural to you." + +"High spirits! I am not conscious of it." + +"So much the worse," she replied; then, placing her hand upon my arm, +and looking earnestly at me, she added, "something has happened since I +saw you. What is it? It would be wrong, and useless as well as wrong, to +affect to deny it." + +I had noticed at times in Astraea an air of solemnity, which would fall +upon her face like a shadow, slowly receding again before its habitual, +but always subdued brightness; and occasionally I imagined that I +detected a sudden and brief sternness in her eyes, which conveyed an +impression that she was interrogating with their concentrated rays, the +concealed thoughts of the person upon whom they were directed. These +were some of the outward signs of that mystery of her nature which I +never could penetrate. Upon this occasion a world of latent doubts and +suspicions appeared to be condensed in her look. It seemed as if in that +single glance she read the whole incident which, to spare her feelings, +I was so unwilling to disclose. + +"What do you suppose, Astraea," I inquired, "can have happened since I +saw you?" + +"You are not candid with me," she returned. "I ask you a question, and +you answer by asking me another. If nothing has happened, you can easily +satisfy me; if it be otherwise, and you are silent, I must draw my own +conclusions." + +"Whatever conclusions you draw, Astraea, I know you have too firm a +reliance on my truth and devotion not to believe that I am actuated by +the purest motives. Have I not always been sincere and frank with you?" + +"Always." + +"Have you not an implicit confidence in the steadfastness of my love?" + +"Were it otherwise, should I be now standing here questioning you, or +should there be need of questions of this kind between us? Confidence! +Why am I so sensitive to the slightest fluctuations of tone and manner I +observe in you, and where do I derive the intuitive perception of their +meanings? Love must have confidence! But it has instincts also. I feel +there is something--I am sure of it--but I will urge you no further. It +is not, perhaps, for your happiness or mine that I should seek to +know." + +"Astraea," I exclaimed, passionately, "there is nothing I would conceal +from you that I think you ought to know, or that would make you happier +to know; and if I have any reserve from you, it is for your sake, and +you must ascribe it to the tenderness of my regard for you." + +"For _my_ sake?" she repeated, with a slightly terrified and curious +expression. + +"Now listen to me; I have something to say to you which is of more +importance to us both than these wise, loving conjectures of yours. Take +my arm, and let us get into the Park." + +We were near one of the inclosures of the Regent's Park; and when we +reached a more secluded place, I resumed: + +"First of all, I should like to have your own unbiased opinion about +your friends with whom you are residing. Have you observed any change in +their manner toward you?" + +"Change? None whatever." + +"Do you think--I mean from any thing you have yourself noticed--that +they have watched our actions or been inquisitive in our affairs?" + +She looked inquiringly at me, and hesitated. + +"I think it would be impossible to be much with them and escape their +_persiflage_, let us act as we might. But beyond that sort of idle +criticism which they deal out indiscriminately to every body, I have +observed nothing. Why do you ask?" + +"Because I have reason to believe that my attentions to you have +attracted more observation than either of us suspected; and that, in +fact, they have made such remarks on us as no longer leaves our future +course at our own time or option." + +"You have reason to believe this?" + +"The best possible reason." + +"Who is your authority?" + +"Will you not accept my own authority, without seeking further?" + +"No. It is not a time to hold back from any false delicacy to me, or any +mistaken respect for the confidence of others. Beware of such +confidences, if there be any. They are not meant for your peace or mine, +but to plunge us both into an abyss in which we shall be left to perish. +I must know all. I am entitled to know it. If your love be a hundredth +part as strong and devoted, and as prepared for sacrifice as mine, you +will place a full and entire trust in me." + +"And I do. You shall know all; but I must exact a solemn promise from +you, before I tell you how, and in what manner, this information was +communicated to me. It is impossible for me to foresee how it may affect +or wound your feelings; and it is due to me, if I yield to your request +against my own judgment, that you should pledge yourself, be the +consequences what they may, to give me a public right to protect you +against the further malignity--I can not call it by any milder term--of +your enemies and mine." + +She was deeply affected by this request, which was spoken in so low and +tremulous a voice, so burdened with a painful earnestness, that she +appeared to gather from it the final conviction that upon her answer +depended the future happiness or misery of our lives. I confess, for my +own part, that the pause which ensued, during which she almost +unconsciously repeated to herself, "Be the consequences what they may!" +was to me harrowing beyond expression. It seemed as if there was some +sinister influence at work to destroy us both; and that even the +immediate prospect of our union was not sufficient to allay the terror +that influence inspired, and into the causes and springs of which I now +began to imagine she had a clearer insight than I had previously +suspected. But I was steeped in a tumultuous passion, which would not +suffer me to investigate intervening difficulties. What the source of +her terror was I knew not; mine arose only from the apprehension of +losing her; and to have secured her at that moment, looking as she did, +in the agitation that gave such a wild lustre to her eyes, more lovely +than ever, I would have cheerfully relinquished every thing else in the +world. So far from being anxious to have the cause of her fears and +hesitation cleared up, I was in the utmost alarm lest she should enter +upon an explanation that might delay the consummation of my wishes. I +sought only an affirmative reply to my request, which, come what might, +would make her mine forever. + +She loosened herself from my arm, and walked apart from me in silence. +This action, and the sort of panic it indicated, filled me with alarm. + +"Astraea, you have not answered my question. What is the reason of your +silence?" + +"Be the consequences what they may!" she reiterated. "I did not think of +that, but it is right I should. I should have thought of it before--I +did think of it; but of what avail, while I suffered myself to indulge +in a dream which that thought ought to have dispelled?" + +"You speak in a language that is unintelligible to me; but there is no +time now for explanations. We must decide, Astraea, at once, for to-day +and forever. I only ask your explicit pledge. Let us reserve +explanations for hereafter." + +"You say this in ignorance of what awaits you. I feel that I ought not +to make any pledge until--" and she hesitated again. + +"If I am satisfied to take your pledge, and all consequences with it, +and to repay it with the devotion of my life, why, beloved Astraea, +should you hesitate? Let the responsibility fall on me--of that another +time. Every hour is precious now, and you will understand why I urge you +so impatiently when I tell you that I can never again enter the house +where you are now residing." + +"I knew it. I saw it clearly from the first word you uttered. It was +revealed to me in the very tone of your voice. Now hear me patiently. +Your peace, your honor, all feelings that contribute to the respect and +happiness of life, are at stake upon this moment." + +The determination of her manner left me no choice but to listen. + +"Are you prepared to risk all other ties, obligations, and prospects, in +the consummation of this one object? to hazard friends, opinion, the +world--perhaps it may be, to sacrifice them for the love that has grown +up between us, and which, for good or evil, must this day bind us +together, or sever us for the rest of our lives?" + +"What a question to put to me! The 'world!' it is ashes without you. I +tell you, Astraea, that if the choice lay between the grave and the +single word that would sunder us, I would die rather than utter it. I +don't know what your question implies--I don't seek to know; and would +prefer to remain ignorant of it, that I may the more clearly prove to +you the depth of my trust and devotion, which will be satisfied with the +simple pledge that makes you mine. That, at least, you have in your own +power; let me answer for the rest." + +"Consider well what you are saying. Is your love strong enough to bear +the hazards I have pointed out? Search your own nature--look into your +pride, your sensitiveness to neglect and censure, your high sense of +personal dignity. I have seen how ill you can brook slight affronts--do +you believe that your love will enable you to bear great ones--scorn, +contumely, perhaps opprobrium? Think, think, and weigh well your +decision." + +"Astraea, you put me upon the rack. I have no other answer to give. For +you, and for your sake, come what may, I am ready to risk all!" + +"For me and for my sake, if it be necessary, to forsake the world? to +relinquish friends and kindred? to dedicate yourself in solitude to her +who, in solitude, would be content to find her whole world in you? To do +this, without repining, without looking back with anguish and remorse +upon the sacrifices you had made, without a regret or a reproach? A +woman can do this. Is it so sure there lives a man equal to such +trials?" + +"If these sacrifices be imperative upon us, we make them together. There +can be nothing for either of us to reproach the other with. And as to +the solitude you speak of, my heart yearns for it. It is in that +solitude we can the more fully understand and develop the profound +devotion that shall have drawn us into it. I am sick of the world--weary +and tired of it, and longing for the repose which you alone can +consecrate. It will be no sacrifice to abandon the world for you. +Sacrifice, my Astraea? it will be the crowning happiness of my life!" + +"And you are confident that you can depend upon the firmness of your +resolution? I do not ask this for my own sake--for I know myself, what I +can suffer and outlive--but for yours." + +"I solemnly and finally answer, that no earthly influence can shake my +resolution." + +"Then," said Astraea, placing her hand in mine, and in a grave voice, +laden with emotion, "I am yours forever. Henceforth, I owe no allegiance +elsewhere--here, in the sight of Heaven, I pledge my faith to you, and +hold the compact as binding as if at this moment it were plighted at the +altar." + +I was transported with the earnestness of these words, and covering her +hand with kisses, I exclaimed-- + +"And I ratify it, Astraea, my own Astraea, with my whole heart. Now, who +shall divide us? We are one, and no human power can part us." + +I then related to her the circumstances that had taken place the +preceding evening. She heard me throughout with a calmness that +surprised me. I expected that the extraordinary conduct of the dwarf +would have excited her indignation; but she seemed to know him better +than I did, and although I could perceive a heavy flush sometimes rush +into her cheeks, and a sudden pallor succeed it, the narrative of his +mysterious menaces did not appear to produce half as much astonishment +in her mind as it did in mine. + +"We will talk of this another time," she observed; "at present we must +think of ourselves. I know his character--I know the demoniac revenge he +is capable of; and, for our own safety, we must avoid him." + +"Revenge!" I echoed. The phrase coming from Astraea fell strangely on my +ears. + +"I will leave the house to-morrow; but, for your sake, I will hold no +communication with you till I am beyond his reach. Once assured of that, +I will write to you, and you will come to me. This is the only act I +will ask to take upon my own responsibility, and I do so because it will +secure our mutual safety. From that hour I shall be implicitly guided by +you." + +I should have been glad to have adopted a different course, and to have +claimed her openly. My pride, wounded by the insolent denunciations of +the dwarf, demanded a more public vindication of her independence and +mine; and this stolen flight, and the necessity it imposed upon me of +observing a similar caution in my own movements, looked so like fear and +evasion that I submitted to it very reluctantly. The notion of +concealment and secrecy galled me, and even at this moment, when my +happiness was on the eve of consummation, it gave me a thrill of +uneasiness that cast an oppressive shadow over the future. Astraea, +however, had evidently a strong reason for insisting on privacy, and I +was too anxious about hastening our union to throw any new obstacle in +the way of its accomplishment. + +We separated in the Park, Astraea being unwilling to suffer me to escort +her any further lest we should be seen together. This little incident, +trifling as it was, increased the nervous annoyance and sense of +humiliation I felt at being required to act as if I had any fear of the +results; nor could I comprehend why she should be so much alarmed at +being seen walking with me alone, when she knew that in a few days we +should be indissolubly united. But I submitted to her wishes. Passion is +willful and unreasonable, and takes a wayward pleasure in shutting its +eyes, and rushing onward in the dare. I stifled my vexation in the +anticipation of the joy that lay before me, which would be victory +enough over the impotent hatred of Mephistophiles. + + +VIII. + +Throughout the whole of the next day I waited anxiously in the +expectation of hearing from Astraea. Evening came and passed, and there +was no communication. When the last post-hour was gone by, and all hope +of a letter was at an end, I ventured into the streets, hoping to gather +some signs of her movements from the outside of her house. The blinds +were down as usual in the drawing-room windows, and there seemed to be +rather an extraordinary flush of lights within, as if some commotion was +going forward. I could see huge, shapeless shadows of people moving +about the room, in great bustle and excitement; and it appeared to me, +from the frequency and confusion of then: motions, that the ordinary +family party was augmented by additional numbers. The gathering, +whatever it might have been, was not for festivity; and the constant +swaying backward and forward, and vehement tossing of long streaks of +heads and arms on the blinds, resembled the action of a violent domestic +scene, in which the angry passions were strenuously engaged. I hardly +knew what to conclude from this incoherent pantomime. Either Astraea was +there, in the midst of a stormy contention; or she had left the house, +and they were disputing furiously over the causes of her departure. + +After I had been some time watching this unintelligible phantasmagoria, +and vainly endeavoring to collect a meaning for it, the hall-door +opened, and in the momentary gleam of light that shot into the street I +saw the dwarf issuing out, muffled to the ears in a cloak. He stood for +a moment on the pavement, and adjusting his cloak more carefully about +his face, and crushing his hat down over his eyes, he set off at a quick +pace in an opposite direction to that part of the street where I was +standing. I confess I felt ashamed of the espionage in which I was +occupied, and although I followed my mercurial fiend at a safe distance, +for the distinct purpose of earthing him wherever he was going, I by no +means liked the office which a sort of fatality had forced upon me. But +I was somewhat reconciled to it by a secret conviction that the +abominable little demon had himself come out upon an equally +discreditable expedition, which I soon detected from the infinite pains +he took to elude observation. + +Instead of keeping in the public streets, he darted down numerous dark +alleys and lanes, and once with considerable difficulty I chased him +through the unsavory depths of a straggling mews, where he doubled in an +out with such rapidity as to render it no easy matter to keep upon his +track without betraying myself. Two or three times I nearly lost sight +of him; and it was not until he emerged out of a gloomy passage, of the +existence of which I was until that moment ignorant, into the street +where I lived, that I had the least suspicion of the direction he was +taking. It was presently evident that his object had some reference to +me, for he had no sooner entered the street than he darted into the deep +recess of a hall-door, where he stood for full ten minutes crouched and +transfixed, looking up at my windows, which were exactly opposite to +him. + +Fortunately I was able to note his movements without being myself +perceived, as I lurked in the shadow of the passage from whence he had +just issued. + +The windows of my chambers being dark, I presume he concluded that I was +from home; and under that impression, no doubt, he crossed over and +knocked stealthily at the door--just as one would knock who did not wish +to attract the attention of the inmates, but merely to convey an +intimation to the servants. I was seized with a strong impulse to rush +upon him suddenly, present myself as the door opened, and confound him +on the spot; but I remembered how earnestly Astraea had urged upon me the +prudence of avoiding him, and I restrained myself. Stepping cautiously +into a doorway, I continued to watch his further proceedings. + +The door was opened by a servant, and my dwarf, burying himself up to +the eyes in his cloak, so that it was impossible to distinguish his +features, appeared to enter into a confidential conversation with her. +It seemed to me to last a long time; but my impatience, no doubt, +exaggerated its duration. At length it drew to an end, and hastily +nodding to the servant, who looked after him, as I thought with much +curiosity and astonishment, he dropped down the street at the same +flying pace with which he had entered it. That he had come to my house +for the purpose of picking up some intelligence about me was clear; upon +that point I was satisfied, and the discovery only served to heighten my +anxiety to find out what he was going to do next. + +As he darted along I could not help admiring his wonderful agility. +There was a certain sort of confident swagger about his ordinary style +of walking, such as you frequently observe in small vivacious men, who +strut and swing through the streets as if the great globe itself were +their private property; but upon this occasion it resolved itself into +the swift and impetuous flight of a meteor. He shot from one angle of a +street to another something in the manner of a will-o'-the-wisp, and it +was almost as difficult to fix his course and follow him up. Thus +hanging closely on his footsteps, I was not a little mortified to find, +after all, that the trouble I had taken led to nothing. Striking out a +different, but a much shorter route, the hideous creature went back to +his own house. The lights were already extinguished in the +drawing-room, and the windows, even to the dormitories, were in +darkness. The domestics, apparently, had retired to bed; for the dwarf, +hastily opening the door with a latch-key, vanished from my sight almost +at the same instant that he ascended the steps. I lingered for A few +moments at a distance, and then slowly returned home, congratulating +myself on having detected his sinister expedition, and impatient to +ascertain the substance of his conversation with the servant. + +When I interrogated her on the subject, she betrayed a little fear and +hesitation, but at last she told me every thing that had transpired. The +strange gentleman, whom she had never seen before, and who so completely +concealed his features that she should not be able to identify him +again, asked her a great number of questions about my movements, and +especially if I had been out during the day. He appeared surprised to +learn that I had only just left home, and wanted to know whether I was +expected back that night, and whether I was going out of town. It +happened that I had occupied myself throughout the morning in packing my +carpet-bag and portmanteau, so that I might be able to attend Astraea's +expected summons at a moment's notice; and the servant, whose distrust +was awakened by the urgent manner of the questioner, tried to fence off +his inquiries about my traveling preparations, but his superior +dexterity finally extracted the fact from her. Having obtained that +significant clew to my intentions, he suddenly wished her good-night, +and disappeared. The girl was so frightened by his mysterious air and +abrupt interrogations, that I believe she fancied I was going to fight a +duel; for about that time there had been a fatal duel, which furnished a +topic of general conversation, and which, I suppose, put the sagacious +suspicion into her head. + +"Forewarned, forearmed," says the old proverb. I was now fairly apprised +that the dwarf was upon my track, and I resolved, as a mere measure of +precaution, ignorant as I was of the machinations I had to fear, that +whatever course it might become necessary to adopt, should be carried +out with the utmost secrecy. + +The next morning came a letter from Astraea. No language can adequately +depict the agitation with which I opened the envelope. I felt as if my +fate was contained in the inclosure--as it was! + +It consisted of only a single line, scrawled in haste over a great sheet +of paper, at the top of which was an address in the country, in another +hand-writing, with the following words beneath, written by Astraea: + +"I am here: come to me _quickly_.--A." + +The assurance which this brief intimation conveyed that Astraea had left +London, relieved me of at least one source of anxiety; and all that now +remained was to obey her mandate, and join her without loss of time in +her retreat. I own that I felt rather like a culprit in the way in +which I abandoned my chambers. Feeling assured that the dwarf, having +once set himself as a spy upon my actions, would stop at no means of +tracing me out of town, I determined to leave such an account of myself +behind as should effectually put him upon a false scent. I accordingly +informed the people of the house that I was going into Buckinghamshire +for two days; and, as that was nearly the opposite direction to the +route I was really about to take--for my destination lay among the +sylvan valleys of Kent--I hoped to baffle him at the start. My +arrangements were speedily completed, and, having made a hasty +inspection of the street before I ventured out, I sprang into a +cabriolet, and drove off. + +The imperceptible degrees by which men, in the pursuit of passionate +ends, suffer themselves to fall into deceptions, at which their reason +and their probity would revolt in calmer moments, might suggest a useful +train of reflections at this point of my narrative. But the moral is +obvious enough, without requiring to be formally pointed. I shall only +remark, that my ruminations in the post-chaise that carried me to Astraea +ran chiefly upon the self-humiliation I felt in contemplating the +mystery in which I had become entangled step by step, and the sort of +guiltiness which my studious evasion of the dwarf seemed to argue to my +own mind. Men who act openly never have any reason to entertain a fear +of others, and may look the world boldly in the face. It is only men +that commit themselves to actions which will not bear the light who +resort to subterfuges and concealments, and are harrowed by +apprehensions. My dilemma was a singular one. There was nothing I had +done which I had the slightest reason to hide or feel alarm about; yet I +was taking as cautious measures to avoid publicity as if I were flying +from justice, and was haunted all the time by a thrill of terror which I +could not assign to any intelligible cause. + +In the dusk of the evening, I had the profound happiness of reaching my +destination, and all inquietude was lulled into oblivion by the music of +those tones which always went direct to my heart. The past and the +future were equally absorbed in the luxury of Astraea's society, and I +felt that if I needed an excuse for the strange circumstances in which I +was placed, I had an ample one in the devotion of such a woman. The very +danger--if danger it was, with which I was as yet unacquainted--the +anxiety, the concealment, the flight we had passed through to secure our +union, enhanced the rapture with which we now met never to be sundered +again. + +That evening I related to her what had happened the night before, and +she gave me an account of the manner in which she had managed to escape +from the dwarf's house; for, in spite of the self-possession with which +she described the incident, it more nearly resembled an escape than a +departure. In fact, she had left the house in the morning, on foot, and +was expected back, as usual, to luncheon after her walk. But luncheon +passed, and there were no tidings of her; and, at dinner-time, a brief +note by the post announced her leave-taking, excusing its abruptness, on +the ground of a sudden and urgent call into the country. This was, no +doubt, the subject which the angry shadows on the blinds had been so +vehemently discussing the night before. So violent an infraction of +etiquette would have pained me seriously had it occurred under any other +circumstances, or had it been inflicted upon any other persons than the +members of that eccentric family. But we knew them well; how unlike they +were to the rest of the world, and how slight an impression the mere +breach of courtesy would make upon them, in comparison with the +malicious curiosity it would awaken! They were like Bohemians in their +habits and ways of thinking; and were themselves so accustomed to +violate established usages, that the most extravagant irregularities +could not very materially surprise them. This consideration reconciled +me to a proceeding which must otherwise have been a source of regret to +me, on Astraea's account; besides, I was by no means unwilling to accept +the sacrifice she had thus made of her own independence as an additional +proof of her attachment. + +But what was the cause of all these stratagems and concealments? I +should learn that the next day. I saw that Astraea was suffering under a +despondency natural enough to her novel situation, and I patiently +waited her own time for disclosures which I now began to look forward to +with nervous apprehensions. + +The house in which I found her lay buried in the foliage of a secluded +valley. It was in the cottage style, covered with creepers that dropped +in at the windows, and filled the rooms with scent; and it belonged to +people in an humble rank of life, who had known Astraea from her infancy, +and were devoted to her interest. Under the shelter of their roof, she +was secure. The place was extremely picturesque on a small scale--a +green glen, where the surrounding heights were broken into a variety of +forms, and where the eye, on whatever spot it rested, caught some point +of beauty. An impetuous little stream rushed from the jaws of a ravine +that formed a sort of vista at one extremity, and, brawling away through +the wooded depths of the valley, tossed itself into the air over a group +of artificial rooks at the foot of the tiny lawn. Dark trees filled the +openings in the hills, and the sward round their roots was dotted with +clusters of wild flowers, like a garden. A rustic bridge spanned the +water, and graceful willows dipped their tresses into the spray. Aquatic +plants clung about the rocks--parasite tendrils climbed the ancient +wood; and there was altogether a feeling of solitude and repose in the +scene, that rendered it the most fitting seclusion on earth to ripen +into a new life of love two ardent hearts like ours. + +With what anxiety I looked forward to the next day, when Astraea and I, +liberated from all eyes, should wander about these lonely paths! It came +at last, and with it brought my doom! + +(_To be continued._) + + + + +STORY OF SILVER-VOICE AND HER SISTER ZOE. + + +The phenomena of memory are singular objects of study. I have often +thought that a certain class of ideas and observations could be so +arranged as to form an orderly, connected chain, one link of which would +bring home all the others, however deeply sunken in the mind. But +experience teaches me that this is not the case. During my residence in +the East, though I kept a careful journal of every thing that seemed +interesting at the time, a thousand circumstances came to my notice +which I did not set down; and when I have endeavored to recall them, +many have stubbornly refused to appear when wanted. But suddenly, when I +at least expect it, I now and then find myself irresistibly carried back +to old times. Forms that had faded into distance--thoughts that had +seemed dissolved into nothing--scenes and impressions which I had in +vain sought to revive--obtrude themselves irresistibly on my notice. In +general, the unexpected visitants are welcome; the fireside is rendered +brighter and more cheerful by them; and their presence sends a glow +through this northern atmosphere, which allows autumn to steal on +unperceived. + +I was prevented last night from sleeping by the perpetual recurrence in +my reveries of the name of Lady Silver-Voice. I had forgotten her +existence, as one is apt to forget a beautiful thing amidst the material +cares of this life. Let me endeavor to tell her story as simply as it +was told to me. + +But first, how I came to see her--for I have had that privilege. It was +one evening in winter-time, that, after a prolonged illness, I was +taking a stroll on the roof of a palace-like mansion in Cairo. The sun +had set _for me_; it had gone down behind the interminable sea of +houses. But I could still see it shining on the forest of minarets that +rose through the moist, balmy air, and on the vast dome of the mosque +that now towers above the citadel. The terrace-roof on which I was, +though commanded at a distance by much more lofty buildings, was far +raised above the humble dwellings near at hand, so that I could look +down and observe the movements of my neighbors, who were most varied in +race and costume--Turks and Maltese, Arabs and Greeks, Armenians and +Copts--to say nothing of "Jews and poultry," which my servant, who +brought me a pipe, added to the enumeration. + +I passed some time in examining the movements of these various +personages, who all come out upon their terraces to enjoy the evening +air; and though I did not observe any thing very characteristic, any +thing which would necessarily go down in my journal, I was sufficiently +interested not to notice the flight of time, and to allow complete +darkness to gather round me while I still leaned over the parapet. +Suddenly I was aroused from my contemplations by a snatch of a strange +song sung in the most marvelously-sweet voice I had ever heard. I +started, not exactly like a guilty thing, but transfixed, as it were, by +an almost painful shaft of delight. The voice swelled up on the night +air, until, in spite of its divine sweetness, it became almost a cry of +sorrow, and then ceased, leaving a thrill running through my frame that +gradually seemed to shrink back to my heart, and expire there in a +feeling of mingled joy and pain. Perhaps the state of my health rendered +me peculiarly susceptible of strong emotions: I am afraid I wept. The +darkness, however, prevented this weakness from being witnessed by Ali, +who came to announce that my dinner was ready. I went down the winding +staircase to the vast lonely hall, where I usually ate alone--the master +of the house being absent on a journey; but though my appetite was that +of a convalescent, I am sure I did not enliven the meal for myself by my +usual humorous observations: to the officer, for example, that I was +doubtful whether the beef was camel, or the mutton was donkey. Ali +seemed rather surprised, especially when I asked him, abruptly, who it +was that sang so sweetly in the neighborhood. + +He did not know! My curiosity was unsatisfied; but, perhaps, I went to +bed that night with a fuller gush of happiness at my heart than if I had +heard this prosy fellow's account of the matter. It is a frequent +subject of meditation with me, whether or not I am constituted as other +men are. Are others played upon in this way by some slight +occurrence--by meeting with a face seen before only in a dream, by a +peculiar smile, by a gesture, by a sigh, by a voice singing in the +darkness? If not, who will understand the delicious watchful hours I +passed that night, or the dreams, spangled with bright eyes, fairy +forms, purple clouds, golden gleams, and buzzing with sweeter warblings +than ever rolled in a nightingale's throat, that lured me on until +morning? + +Naturally, the first inquiries I made were about the voice; but I did +not that day meet with any success. When evening approached, I again +went up to the terrace; and, not to lengthen the story, I did see, just +as the sun went down upon a low house not very far off, but looking into +another street, a little fairy figure walking up and down, and leading a +child by the hand. A kind of instinct told me that the voice was +embodied before me; and, presently, all doubt was set at rest. The same +silver tones rose upon the air; and this time I recognized that the song +was in the Greek language. I remained looking intently in that +direction, until the form faded into a mere shadow; and then, as +darkness increased, seemed to multiply before my aching eyes, and assume +all sorts of fantastical shapes. Every now and then, a couplet, or a +stanza, came sweeping up. It was evident the lady, whoever she might +be, was not singing merely to amuse the child. The notes were sometimes +lively, but, in general, sad and plaintive. I listened long after the +last quaver had died away; and was rather sulky when Ali came with the +persevering joke that "the camel was getting cold!" + +Next day I suddenly remembered that an old Greek priest had frequently +invited me to go to his house; and reproaching myself with the want of +politeness I had hitherto exhibited, I ordered my donkey to be saddled, +and started off. The ride was only of a few streets; it seemed to me +quite a journey. On arriving, the worthy _papa_ was fortunately at home, +and by himself. He was delighted with my visit; and, after a small +altercation with his servant, succeeded in getting me some coffee and a +pipe. I admired the art with which I wound toward my query. The old +gentleman suspected nothing; but when I casually asked if he knew who it +was among his countrymen who sang like an angel, he quickly replied, "It +must be Silver-Voice, as she is called among the Moslem!" + +I overturned my pipe on the mat in my eagerness to turn round and +listen. Excellent old man! instead of clapping his hands for the +servant, he went down upon his knees to collect the scattered tobacco, +and replace it in the bowl, and silenced my excuse with as mild an "It +is no matter, my son!" as ever passed the lips of one of our species. He +grew before my eyes in that humble posture; and when he returned to his +seat, seemed fifty times as venerable as before. The same spirit would +have led him to wash the feet of the poor. + +He then told me the story of Silver-Voice and her sister: + +"Many years ago, a Greek merchant was walking through the slave-market, +when he beheld for sale a little girl, so beautiful, and yet so sad, +that though he was on the way to conclude a bargain for fifty thousand +ardebs of beans, he could not prevail on himself to pass indifferently +on. + +"'Of what country?' he inquired. + +"'A Candiote,' replied the slave-dealer. She was from his own beloved +island. + +"'How much?' + +"'Five thousand piastres.' + +"'I will pay the price.' The bargain was concluded on the spot. Another +merchant got the beans; but Kariades took home the Silver-Voice to his +house. + +"The girl followed him silently, hanging down her head, and refusing to +answer the questions he put in his kind, bluff way. Some great sorrow +evidently weighed upon her, and she refused to be comforted. When, +however, Kariades presented her to his wife, and said, 'This shall be +our daughter,' the child opened her mouth and cried, 'Wherefore, oh +father, didst thou not come to the slave-market one short hour before?' +He asked her meaning, and she explained that her sister had been +separated from her, and sold to a Turk; 'and,' cried she, 'I will not +live unless Zoe be brought back to my side.' Kariades smiled as he +replied, 'I went forth, this day to buy beans, and I have come back with +a daughter. Must I needs go and fetch another?' 'You must!' said the +girl, resolutely. + +"From that hour forth she was the queen in the house. Kariades returned +to the slave-market, but, strange to say, could find no clew to the fate +of Zoe, although he offered double her price to the dealer. It was +believed that she had been bought by a stranger merely passing through +Cairo, and making no stay; for the public crier was employed to go about +the streets and proclaim that whoever would produce the girl should +receive whatever he demanded. All was in vain. Time passed on; and the +active grief of the Silver-Voice sobered down into steadfast melancholy. +She continued living as the daughter or rather as the mistress of the +house, knowing no want but that of her sister, and enchanting every one +with the magnificence of her singing, until she reached the age of +sixteen years. + +"One day Kariades said to her, 'My child, I must seek a husband for thee +among the merchants of my people.' But she firmly refused, declaring +that there could be no joy for her unless she knew that her sister was +not living in wretched thralldom in the house of some cruel Turk. + +"'But,' said he, 'what if death have overtaken her?' + +"'We promised, as we lay folded in each other's arms the night before we +were parted, to be happy or sorrowful together--to laugh at the same +time, to weep at the same time--and if one died, the other was never to +cease grieving. I remember that, as they were dragging Zoe away, she +turned her pale face, all sparkling with tears, toward me, and cried, +_forever_!' + +"'Meaning that you were parted forever?' + +"'No; but that we were to be faithful to our vow forever. I never shall +forget the agonizing expression of that face. How can I? I see it every +night in my dreams; and painful though it be, I rush into sleep as +eagerly to behold it as if I were going into Paradise. No: I will never +marry while that face threatens to interpose between my husband and me.' + +"'Then this vision torments thee?' + +"'Ah, father!' and she shuddered, and bent her head. + +"It was evident that her mind was weakened by too much contemplation of +one idea. + +"Kariades yielded before a will stronger than his own, and nothing more +was said either about marriage or the lost Zoe for nearly a year. At the +end of this time, Silver-Voice appeared before the good old man, and +said, 'Father, give me money; I have thought of a means by which I may +find my sister Zoe.' He looked sadly at her, but gave her what she +required. Next day she disappeared, and was not heard of for several +weeks. Then she returned, consoled her adopted parents by her presence +for a while, and again departed without giving the least indication of +how she employed her time. Nor did they ask her, confident that all she +did was prompted by that most powerful of all loves--the love of a +sister supplying a mother's place. "The truth was, that she had hired a +number of houses in various parts of Cairo, and visited them +alternately, in order to pass the evenings singing on the terrace. +Despite the failure of the researches made by Kariades, she remained +persuaded that Zoe was in Cairo, and hoped that the echoes of her +magnificent voice might at length go as messengers into the depths of +every harem, and make known her presence. The whole city was by turns +rendered happy by the Silver-Voice; but as it was heard now in the +Citadel, now near the Bisket-el-Fil, anon at the Bab Zuweileh, men began +to think strange things. It was curious, indeed, to hear the +speculations of the gossiping Turks about this ubiquitous voice. I +remember laughing much at the wise arguments by which one of them, who +had heard the fable of Memnon's statue, demonstrated to me that the +sound came from no human organ at all, but was produced by the rays of +the setting sun striking in some peculiar way upon the minarets. + +"A whole year passed in this manner without bringing any thing new; but +the beautiful patience of the Silver-Voice was at length after a fashion +rewarded. Better had it been, perhaps, for her, had her soul been wafted +away in some sad song. She was standing one evening, long after the sun +had set, filling the air with her plaintive notes, and calling, as +usual, upon her sister; suddenly there rose a cry--a piercing, terrible +cry, such as no mortal ever utters but when the sanctuary of life is +invaded. At that awful sound the Silver-Voice was struck dumb. She stood +listening like a gazelle when it hears the howl of a wolf afar off upon +the desert. The wild accents seemed to hang for a moment over her, and +then fell into her ear, moulding, as they fell, into the words, "My +sister!" How it came to pass she could not tell: over the parapet, along +a crumbling wall, across a ruined house, she passed as if by magic, +until she fell like a moonbeam through an open window, and saw upon a +rich couch the form of an expiring woman lying. It was her sister Zoe. +The blow had been too well aimed: it had gone to her heart, and the +life-blood bubbled rapidly forth between her white fingers, which she +pressed, to her side. One eloquent glance, in which eyes mingled with +eyes, while lips hung upon lips, was exchanged. There was not time, +neither was there need, to tell their stories in any other way. The +dying woman made one effort, pointed to a cradle that stood under a +cloud of gauze curtains in a corner, then smiled a long, impassioned +smile of recognition, of gratitude, and of love, seemed to wander a +little back in memory, murmured some pleasant sounds, and was still. + +"The Silver-Voice rose solemnly, and casting her eyes about, beheld a +man crouching in a corner weeping. 'It is all over!' she said. 'All +over!' he replied, looking up. But I will not weary you with the scene +in which the wretched man--a Greek renegade--related how he had bought +Zoe--how he had loved her, and made her his wife--how they had traveled +in far countries--how he was jealous, ever, as he acknowledged, without +cause--and how, in a fit of madness, he had slain the mother of his +child. When he had finished, he led the bewildered Silver-Voice to the +cradle, and thrusting aside the curtains, disclosed the miniature +counterpart of Zoe, sleeping as if it had been lulled into deeper +slumber by its mother's death-cries. Then, stealing toward the corpse +with the step of one about to commit a new crime, he snatched a hasty +kiss, and rushed away. What became of him was never known. Silver-Voice +performed the last duties for poor Zoe, and took the child under her +care. Since that time she has almost always continued to live in the +house from the roof of which she heard her sister's cry; and though +apparently rational in every thing else, never fails to go up each +evening and sing the song she used to sing of old, though in a more +plaintive and despairing tone. If asked wherefore she acts in this wise, +her reply is, that she is seeking for her sister Zoe, and nobody +attempts to contradict the harmless delusion. Several years have now +passed away since this event, and the child has become a handsome boy. +You may see them both at the church to-morrow." + +I thanked the worthy _papa_ for his story more warmly, perhaps, than he +expected. He had been as much pleased by narrating as I had been by +listening; but he was not very particular about the quality of his +facts, and unintentionally made me do penance for the excessive pleasure +I had experienced by giving me an account--two hours long, and with +equal unction--of a tremendous controversy then raging as to the proper +form of electing the sub-patriarch of Cairo. It would have been +ungrateful to interrupt him, although there seemed no end to his +garrulity. Fortunately, two or three people at length came in; I +compromised my dignity as a heretic by kissing his hand, and escaped, to +turn over this curious story in my mind. Next day I went to the Greek +church, and saw a melancholy-looking face through the bars of the +cage-like gallery in which the women sit. I am quite certain it was that +of Lady Silver-Voice, but no one whom I asked seemed to know her. The +boy did not show himself. It was my intention to go another Sunday, and +observe more accurately, for I really felt a deep interest in this +unfortunate lady. But other thoughts and occupations came upon me, and +it was only by an accident that, as I have said, these circumstances +recurred last night to my mind. + + + + +THE CROCODILE BATTERY. + + +In the summer of 1846, when every body in England was crazy with railway +gambling, I was sojourning on the banks of the Rohan, a small stream in +one of the northwestern provinces of India. Here I first became +acquainted, with the Mugger, or Indian crocodile. I had often before +leaving England, seen, in museums, stuffed specimens of the animal, and +had read in "Voyages and Travels," all sorts of horrible and incredible +stories concerning them. I had a lively recollection of Waterton riding +close to the water's edge on the back of an American cayman, and I had a +confused notion of sacred crocodiles on the banks of the Nile. I always +felt more or less inclined to regard the whole race as having affinities +with Sinbad's "roc," and the wild men of the woods, who only refrained +from speaking for fear of being made to work. + +My ideas respecting the natural history of crocodiles were in this stage +of development when, one day, while paddling up the Rohan, I saw what +appeared to be a half-burned log of wood lying on a sand-bank. I paddled +close up to it. To my astonishment, it proved to be a huge reptile. The +old stories of dragons, griffins, and monsters, seemed no longer fables; +the speculations of geologists concerning, _mososaurians, hylaesaurians,_ +and _plesiosaurians_, were no longer dreams. There, in all his scaly +magnificence, was a _real_ saurian, nearly eighteen feet long. For a +while I stood gazing at this, to me, new fellow-citizen of the world, +and speculating on his mental constitution. The monster was, or +pretended to be, asleep. I wondered if he dreamt, and what his dreams or +reveries might be about; possibly he was dreaming of the same old world +with which I associated him--possibly of the fish who were swimming in +the waters below: or, he might be thinking of the men and women he had +swallowed in the course of his existence. There was a snort; perhaps +that was occasioned by the bugles and heavy brass ornaments which had +adorned the limbs of some Hindoo beauty he had eaten, and which were +lying heavy and indigestible on his stomach. But presently the brute lay +so still, and seemed so tranquil and placid in his sleep, that it was +difficult to imagine him guilty of such atrocities. He did not appear to +be disturbed by remorse, or the twitchings of a guilty conscience: it +may have been all a slander. I felt so kindly disposed toward him, that +I could not imagine it possible that if awake he would feel disposed to +eat me. Let us see! so making a splash with my paddle, I wakened the +sleeping beauty. He instantly started up, and opened, what +appeared--what indeed proved to be--an enlarged man-trap; disclosing a +red, slimy cavern within, fringed with great conical fangs. He closed it +with a snap that made me shudder, and then plunged into the water, his +eyes glaring with hate and defiance. + +Some days after I had made this new acquaintance, I was sitting at home +talking with my brother, when a native woman came crying and screaming +to the bungalow door, tearing her hair out in handfuls; she got down on +the veranda floor and struck her head against it, as if she really +meant to dash her brains out. A crowd of other women stood at a short +distance, crying and lamenting as if they were frantic. What was the +matter? Half-a-dozen voices made answer in a discordant chorus, that +while the poor woman was washing her clothes by the river side, her +child--an infant about a year old--had been seized and swallowed by a +Mugger. Although convinced that aid was now impossible, we took our guns +and hastened to the spot where the accident happened; but all was still +there, not a wavelet disturbed the surface of the stream. A small +speckled kingfisher was hovering overhead, as if balanced in the air, +with its beak bent down on its breast, watching the fish beneath; +presently it darted like an arrow into the water; returned with an empty +bill, and then went off, with its clear, sharp, twittering note, as if +to console itself for the failure. + +One day I was sitting on the high bank of the river, taking snap shots +with my gun at the large fish who were every now and then leaping out of +the water. A favorite spaniel was bringing a fish out of the water that +I had hit. It had swam already half way across the stream, when the +water about six yards below her became suddenly disturbed; and, to my +horror, up started the head and open jaws of an enormous crocodile. The +dog gave a loud shriek, and sprang half out of the water. The Mugger +swam rapidly, and had got within a yard of his intended victim, when I +raised my gun, and took aim at the monster's head. A thud, a splash, a +bubble, and a dusky red streak in the water, was all that ensued. +Presently, however, Juno's glossy black head emerged from the water; +and, to my delight, began to make rapid progress toward me, and landed +safely. The poor brute, wet and shivering, coiled herself up at my feet, +with her bright hazel eyes fixed on mine with ineffable satisfaction. +Poor Juno subsequently fell a victim to the Muggers, when her master was +not at hand to succor her. I mention these facts, to show that the +diabolical revenge with which I afterward assisted in visiting these +monsters, was not groundless. But the strongest occasion of it remains +to be told. + +Just as the "rains" were beginning, my neighbor, Mr. Hall, sent me word +that he intended paying me a short visit, and requested me to send a +_syce_ (groom), with a saddle-horse, to meet him at a certain place on +the road. The syce, Sidhoo, was a smart, open-chested, sinewy-limbed +little fellow, a perfect model of a biped racer. He could run--as is the +custom in the East--alongside his horse at a pace of seven or eight +miles an hour, for a length of time that would astonish the best English +pedestrian I ever heard of. + +Toward evening, Mr. Hall rode up to the bungalow, dripping with water, +and covered with mud. I saw at once that some accident had happened, and +hastened to assist him. + +As soon as he got inside, he said, in answer to my bantering about his +"spill"-- + +"I am in no humor for jesting. Your syce is lost!" + +"Drowned?" + +"No; eaten!--by an enormous crocodile!" + +He added that, on arriving at a small nulla about two miles off, he +found it so much swollen by rain, that he had to swim his horse across +it, holding one end of the cord which Sidhoo, in common with most +Hindoos, wore coiled round his waist, and which was used in pulling +water from the deep wells of the country. Hall got safely across, and +then commenced pulling Sidhoo over by means of the cord. The black face, +with the white teeth and turban, were bobbing above the muddy water, +when all at once the groom threw up his arms, gave a loud shriek, and +sank below the surface. Mr. Hall, who had doubled the cord round his +hand, was dragged into the water; where he got a momentary glimpse of +the long serrated tail of a Mugger, lashing the water a short way ahead +of him. In his efforts to save himself, he lost his hold of the string, +and with much difficulty clambered up the slippery bank of the nulla. +All was now still. Only Sidhoo's turban was to be seen floating loosely, +a considerable way down the stream. Hall ran toward it, with the sort of +feeling which makes a drowning man catch at a straw; and, by means of a +stick he succeeded in fishing it out, and brought it with him, as the +only remnant of Sidhoo he could give an account of. + +Bad news soon spreads in an Indian village, and Sidhoo's fate was soon +made known to his wife; and in a short time she came crying and sobbing +to the bungalow, and laid her youngest child at our friend's feet. The +tears glistened in the poor fellow's eyes as he tried to soothe and +console her; which he did by promising to provide for her and her +children. + +Although Hall was generally running over with fun, we smoked our +cheroots that evening in silence; except when we proposed schemes for +the annihilation of the crocodiles. A great many plans were +discussed--but none that offered much chance of success. The next day, +after breakfast, I was showing my visitor a galvanic blasting apparatus, +lately received from England, for blowing up the snags (stumps of trees) +which obstruct the navigation of the river. I was explaining its mode of +action to him, when he suddenly interrupted me--"The very thing! Instead +of snags, why not blow up the Muggers?" + +I confessed that there could be no reason why we should not blast the +Muggers. The difficulty was only how to manage it; yet the more we +talked of it, the more feasible did the scheme appear. + +The brutes keep pretty constant to the same quarters, when the fish are +plentiful; and we soon ascertained that poor Sidhoo's murderer was well +known in the neighborhood of the nulla. He had on several occasions +carried off goats, sheep, pigs, and children; and had once attempted to +drag a buffalo, whom he had caught drinking, into the water; but, from +all accounts, came off second best in this rencontre. There not being +enough of water in the nulla to drown the buffalo, the Mugger soon found +he had caught a Tartar; and after being well mauled by the buffalo's +horns, he was fain to scuttle off and hide himself among the mud. + +I had observed, when blasting the snags, that the concussion produced by +the discharge had the effect of killing all the fish within a range of +some twenty or thirty yards. After every explosion, they were found in +great numbers, floating on the surface of the water with their bellies +uppermost. It now occurred to me, that if we could only get within a +moderate distance of the Mugger, if we did not blow him to pieces, we +would at all events give him a shock that would rather astonish him. An +explosion of gunpowder under water communicates a much severer shock to +the objects in its immediate vicinity, than the same quantity of powder +exploded in the air; the greater density of the water enabling it, as it +were, to give a harder blow. + +Having made our arrangements, Mr. Hall, my brother, and myself, got into +a small canoe, with the blasting apparatus on board, and dropt down the +stream to where the nulla discharged its waters into the Rohan. He then +got out and proceeded to a village close by, where we obtained for a few +annas, the carcass of a young kid. A flask with about six pounds of +gunpowder, and having the conducting wires attached, was then sewn into +the kid's belly. Two Strong ropes were also tied to this bait; and, to +one of these, the conducting wire was firmly bound with small cord. The +ropes were about thirty yards long, and had each attached to its +extremities one of the inflated goat-skins used by water-carriers. Hall, +with his goat-skin under his arm, and a coil of loose rope in his hand, +took one side of the nulla, while my brother, similarly provided took +the other. My brother's rope contained the wire; so I walked beside him, +while two coolies, with the battery ready charged, and slung to a pole +which rested on their shoulders, accompanied me. A small float was also +attached by a string to the kid, so as to indicate its position. + +These arrangements being made, we commenced walking up the nulla, +dragging the carcass of the kid in the stream, and moving it across, +from side to side, so as to leave no part of the bed untried; and, as +the nulla was only about twelve yards wide, we felt pretty confident +that, if the Mugger were in it, we could scarcely fail of coming in +contact with him. We had proceeded only about a quarter of a mile, when +the float suddenly dipt. My brother and Hall threw the loose coil of +ropes they carried on the water, along with the inflated skins. These +made it soon evident by their motion that the Mugger had seized the kid. +He was dashing across, in a zig-zag direction, down the stream. I ran +after him as fast as I could; and paying out the cord from the reel, +when I found it impossible to keep up with him. On reaching a place +where the banks were steeper than usual, he came to a stand still. I +got on the top of the bank, and commenced hauling in the rope. I did +not, however, venture to lift the skin out of the water, for fear of +disturbing him, until the coolies with the battery had time to come up. +This was a very anxious time; for, if the Mugger had shifted his +quarters before they came up, a fresh run with him would have ensued, +with the chance of his breaking the wires with his teeth. After a while +I heard the coolies approaching, and my brother scolding them, and +urging them to hasten on. Just as their heads appeared above the bank, +the foremost coolie tripped his foot and fell--I groaned with +disappointment--presently, my brother came along with them, and brought +the battery to my feet; a good deal of the acid had been spilt, but, +with the aid of a bottle of fresh acid we had brought along with us, we +soon got the battery up to the requisite power. Every thing being now in +order, I commenced pulling up the rope with the wire. I proceeded as +cautiously as possible for fear of disturbing the Mugger; but, in spite +of all my efforts, the inflated skin, in coming up the bank, dislodged +some loose pieces of earth, and sent them splashing into the water. +Fortunately, however, the Mugger had made up his mind to digest the kid +where he was. I could not help chuckling when I at length got hold of +the end of the wires. While my brother was fastening one of them to the +battery, I got the other ready for completing the circuit. The Mugger +all the while lying still at the bottom of the nulla with, most likely, +a couple of fathoms of water over his head, unconscious of danger, and +little dreaming that the two-legged creatures on the bank had got a +nerve communicating with his stomach, through which they were going to +send a flash of lightning that would shatter his scaly hulk to pieces. + +Every thing being now ready, I made the fatal contact. Our success was +complete! We felt a shock, as if something had fallen down the bank--a +mound of muddy water rose, with a muffled, rumbling sound, and then +burst out to a column of dark smoke. A splashing and bubbling succeeded, +and then a great crimson patch floated on the water, like a variegated +carpet pattern. Strange-looking fragments of scaly skin were picked up +by the natives from the water's edge, and brought to us amidst a very +general rejoicing. The exploded Mugger floated down the stream, and the +current soon carried it out of sight. We were not at all sorry, for it +looked such a horrible mess that we felt no desire to examine it. + +Our sense of triumphant satisfaction was, however, sadly damped about a +week afterward, when we received the mortifying announcement, that +Sidhoo's Mugger was still alive, and on his old beat, apparently +uninjured. It was evident that we had blasted the wrong Mugger! We +consoled ourselves with the reflection, that if he were not Sidhoo's +murderer, it was very _likely_ he was not wholly innocent of other +atrocities, and therefore deserved his fate. + +Of course it was impossible to rest while Sidhoo's Mugger remained +alive, so we were not long in preparing for a second expedition. This +time we took the precaution of not charging the battery until we were +certain that the bait was swallowed. The acid, diluted to the necessary +strength, was, therefore, carried in one of those brown earthenware jars +called gray-beards, which had come out to us full of Glenlivet whisky. +We commenced dragging the kid up the stream, as before; but, having +walked more than a mile without getting a bite, we were getting rather +disheartened, and sat down to rest, struck a light, and smoked a +cheroot. Hall laid down, having manufactured an impromptu easy chair out +of his coil of rope, with the inflated goat-skin placed above it. My +brother was not long in imitating his example, and I laid down under the +shade of some reeds, near to the water's edge. The heat was oppressive, +and we were discussing the probability of getting a bite that day, and +lamenting that we had not brought some pale ale along with us, when, +when, all at once, I got a sharp blow on the leg, while my brother came +spinning down the bank like a teetotem--a companion picture to Hall; who +was revolving down the opposite bank. The ropes and skins went rushing +down the nulla at a tremendous pace. As soon as we recovered from the +laughter into which we were thrown by this droll contretemps, we set off +in pursuit, guided by the track which the inflated skins made in the +water. On they went, dashing from side to side, as they had done in our +first attempt. On coming to a place where the nulla made a sharp turn, +they stood still under the high bank, on the inner curve of the bend. It +unfortunately happened that the bank, near to which the skins were +floating, was too precipitous for us to get near them, without starting +the Mugger from his present position. With much labor, we detached some +loose sods from the top of the bank, and sent them with a loud splash +into the water, directly over where we imagined him to have taken up his +quarters. This had the desired effect, for the skins began to move +slowly down the stream, as if the Mugger were crawling leisurely along +the bottom. + +Leaving my brother with the coolies in charge of the battery, I ran on +to where the bank was more shelving. By good luck, the stream was +rushing up, after its sudden sweep, and sent a strong current against +this bank. I had not waited many minutes, before the skins came floating +round the corner, to where I was standing. I seized the one to which the +wire was attached, desiring my brother to charge the battery, and bring +it down. This he did much sooner than I could have expected; for, as the +battery was now empty, one coolie was able to carry it on his head, +while my brother took the jar of acid in his hand. It was evident from +the motion of the other skin in the water that the Mugger was still +moving--so no time was to be lost. I made the connection with the +battery with one of the wires; in another instant the circuit was +complete, and the Mugger's doom sealed. + +There was a momentary pause--owing, I suppose, to some slight loss of +insulation in the wires--then came the premonitory shock, then the +rumble, the smoke, and the sparks; and a great bloated mass of flesh and +blood rose to the surface of the water. Hall called out to us to drag it +ashore, and see whether we could get any trace of poor Sidhoo. We tried +by means of a bamboo pole to pull it to the bank, but the glimpse we got +of it as it neared was so unutterably disgusting, that we pushed it off +again, and allowed it to float away down with the current. + +That this was Sidhoo's Mugger, there could be no doubt; for he was never +seen or heard of in the neighborhood again. + + + + +A CHAPTER ON DREAMS. + + +When we picture to ourselves a person lying in a state of profound +sleep--the body slightly curved upon itself; the limbs relaxed; the head +reclining on its pillow; and eyelids closed--it is wonderful to think +what strange and startling imagery may be passing through the brain of +that apparently unconscious being. The events of his whole life may +hurry past him in dim obscurity; he may be revisited by the dead; he may +be transported into regions he never before beheld; and his ideas +visibly assuming phantasmal shapes, may hover round him like shadows +reflected from another and more spiritual state of existence. + +Let us draw the curtains gently aside, and study the physiognomy of +sleep. + +The countenance may, occasionally, be observed lighted up, as it were, +from within by a passing dream--its expression is frequently one of +peculiar mildness and benignity; the breathing may be slow, but it is +calm and uniform: the pulse not so rapid as in the waking state, but +soft and regular; the composure of the whole body may continue +trance-like and perfect. There is, indeed, no sign of innocence more +touching than the smile of a sleeping infant. But, suddenly, this state +of tranquillity may be disturbed; the dreamer changes his position and +become restless; he moans grievously--perhaps sobs--and tears may be +observed glimmering underneath his eyelids; his whole body now seems to +be shaken by some inward convulsion; but, presently, the strife abates; +the storm-cloud gradually passes; he stretches his limbs, opens his +eyes, and, as he awakes, daylight, in an instant, dispels the vision, +perhaps leaving not behind the faintest trace or recollection of a +single incident which occurred in this mysterious state. + +But what are dreams? Whence come they? What do they portend? Not man +only, but all animals, it is presumed, dream, more or less, when they +are asleep. Horses neigh, and sometimes kick violently; cows, when +suckling their young calves, often utter piteous lowings; dogs bark in +suppressed tones, and, from the motions of their paws, appear to fancy +themselves in the field of the chase; even frogs, particularly during +summer, croak loudly and discordantly until midnight, and then retire, +and become silent. Birds also dream; and will sometimes, when +frightened, fall from their roosting-perch, or flutter about their cage, +in evident alarm. A bullfinch, says Bechstein, belonging to a lady, was +subject to very frightful dreams, which made it drop off its perch; but +no sooner did it hear the voice of its affectionate mistress than it +became immediately tranquil, and reascended its perch to sleep again. It +is pretty certain that parrots dream. It is, indeed, a curious +circumstance that the best way of teaching this bird to talk is to cover +the cage over so as to darken it, and while he is going to sleep +pronounce, audibly and slowly, the word he is to learn; if the winged +pupil be a clever one, he will, upon the repetition of the lesson, in a +morning or two, begin to repeat it. + +Upon the same principle, school-boys commit their tasks to memory by +reading them over the last thing before they go to bed. It is to be +remembered that during sleep the mind may not be wholly under eclipse; +for, although some of its faculties--such as perception, comparison, +judgment, and especially the will, may be suspended--others (for +example, memory and imagination), are often more active than in the +waking state. But some persons, it is said, never dream. We are assured +by Locke that he knew a gentleman who had an excellent memory, yet could +not recollect ever having dreamed until his twenty-sixth year. Dr. Reid, +for many years before his death, had no recollection of having ever +dreamed. Dr. Eliotson also relates, apparently upon good authority, the +case of a man who never dreamed until after he had a fever, in his +fortieth year; and we ourselves know several persons who are not +conscious of ever dreaming. Nevertheless, many contend that in all such +cases dreams really occur, but that they escape the recollection; for +they contend that it is impossible that the mind can, being an +independent principle, ever be in a state of absolute rest. This is +arguing within a very narrow circle. We must not forget that the +intimate alliance of the mind with the body, subjects it to its general +laws; the "heat-oppressed brain" requires rest to renew its energies, +and the mind, of which it is the organ, in the mean time, may, as in +profound sleep, remain perfectly quiescent. The lids of the outward +senses are closed; a vail is drawn over the immaterial principle of our +nature; and mind and body alike, for a period, lie in a state of utter +unconsciousness. + +Here, however, it may fairly be asked, how happens it that the same +person will at one time remember, and, at another, forget his dreams? +This circumstance may, we conceive, thus be explained: + +Those dreams which occur in very deep sleep, and in the early part of +the night, are not so likely to be remembered as those which happen +toward morning, when the sleep is less profound; hence the popular +notion that our morning dreams--which are always best remembered--are +likely to prove true. Then, again, the imagery of some dreams is more +striking, and actually makes a deeper impression than the incidents of +other dreams. We are told by Sir Humphrey Davy, that, on one occasion, a +dream was so strongly impressed upon his eye, that even after he had +risen and walked out, he could not be persuaded of its unreal nature, +until his friends convinced him of its impossibility. The effect of some +dreams upon children is very remarkable; they are, it is believed, more +liable to dreams of terror than grown persons, which may be accounted +for by their being more subject to a variety of internal complaints, +such as teething, convulsions, derangement of the bowels, &c.; added to +which, their reasoning faculties are not as yet sufficiently developed +to correct such erroneous impressions. Hence, sometimes, children +appear, when they awake, bewildered and distressed, and remain for a +considerable period in a state of agitation almost resembling delirium. +The incidents which are conceived in dreams are indeed not unfrequently +confounded by adults with real events; hence, we often hear people, in +alluding to some doubtful circumstance, exclaim, "Well! if it be not +true, I certainly must have dreamed it." We confess we have ourselves +been puzzled in this way; the spell may be broken; but the impression +made by the delusion still clings to us; its shadow is still thrown +across our path. + +The question therefore recurs, What are Dreams? Whence do they arise? We +believe that the ideas and emotions which take place in the dreaming +state may be ascribed to a twofold origin. They may arise from certain +bodily sensations, which may suggest particular trains of thought and +feeling; or they may be derived from the operations or activity of the +thinking principle itself; in which case they are purely mental. The +celebrated Dr. James Gregory--whose premature death was a great loss to +science--states, that having gone to bed with a vessel of hot water at +his feet, he dreamed of walking up the crater of Mount Etna, and felt +the ground warm under him. He likewise, on another occasion, dreamed of +spending a winter at Hudson's Bay, and of suffering much distress from +intense frost; and found, when he awoke, that he had thrown off the +bed-clothes in his sleep, and exposed himself to cold. He had been +reading, a few days before, a very particular account of this colony. +The eminent metaphysician, Dr. Reid, relates of himself that the +dressing of a blister, which he had applied to his head, becoming +ruffled, so as to produce pain, he dreamed that he had fallen into the +hands of a party of North American Indians, who were scalping him. These +were dreams suggested by sensations which, were conveyed from the +surface of the body, through the nerves, until corresponding impression +was produced on the mind. Upon the same principle, very strong +impressions received during the day may modify and very materially +influence the character of our dreams at night. Dr. Beattie states that +once, after riding thirty miles in a very high wind, he passed a night +of dreams which were so terrible, that he found it expedient to keep +himself awake, that he might no longer be tormented with them. "Had I +been superstitious," he observes, "I should have thought that some +disaster was impending; but it occurred to me that the tempestuous +weather I had encountered the preceding day might be the cause of all +these horrors." Other and less obvious causes are in constant operation. +A change in the weather--in the electrical state of the atmosphere--and +its barometrical pressure--the temperature of the bedroom--arrangements +of the bed-furniture--the adjustment of the bed-clothes--nay, the +position of the sleeper, particularly if he cramp a foot or benumb an +arm, will at once affect the entire concatenation and issue of his +dreams. + +Furthermore, impressions may be made on the mind during sleep, by +speaking gently to a person, or even whispering in the ear. We +ourselves, when in Italy, could on one occasion trace the origin of a +very remarkable dream to our having heard, in an obscure and +half-conscious manner, during sleep, the noise of people in the streets, +on All Souls'-night, invoking alms for the dead. Dr. Beattie knew a man +in whom any kind of dream could be produced if his friends, gently +addressing him, afforded the subject-matter for his ideas. Equally +curious is the circumstance that dreams may be produced by whispering in +the ear. A case of this description is recorded by Dr. Abercrombie: + +"An officer, whose susceptibility of having his dreams thus conjured +before him, was so remarkable, that his friends could produce any kind +of dream they pleased, by softly whispering in his ear, especially if +this were done by one with whose voice he was familiar. His companions +were in the constant habit of amusing themselves at his expense. On one +occasion they conducted him through the whole progress of a quarrel, +which ended in a duel; and when the parties were supposed to meet, a +pistol was put into his hand, which he fired off in his sleep, and was +awakened by the report. On another, they found him asleep on the top of +a locker or bunker in the cabin, when, by whispering, they made him +believe he had fallen overboard; and they then exhorted him to save +himself by swimming. He immediately imitated the motions of swimming. +They then suggested to him that he was being pursued by a shark, and +entreated him to dive for his life. This he did, or rather attempted, +with so much violence, that he threw himself off the locker, by which he +was bruised, and, of course, awakened." Dr. Abercrombie adds, that the +most remarkable circumstance connected with this case was, that after +these and a variety of other pranks had been played upon him, "he had +no distinct recollection of his dreams, but only a confused feeling of +oppression or fatigue, and used to tell his friends that he was sure +they had been playing some tricks upon him." + +It appears, also--and the fact is very remarkable--that a similar kind +of sensation will produce the same description of dream in a number of +individuals at the same time. Hence different people will sometimes have +the same dream. We read of a whole regiment starting up in alarm, +declaring they were dreaming that a black dog had jumped upon their +breasts and disappeared, which curious circumstance was explained by the +discovery, that they had all been exposed to the influence of a +deleterious gas, which was generated in the monastery. The effect of +music, also, in exciting delightful dreams, has often been attested. A +French philosopher whose experiments are reported by Magendie, according +to the airs which he had arranged should be played while he was asleep, +could have the character of his dreams directed at pleasure. "There is +an art," says Sir Thomas Browne--in his usual quaint style--"to make +dreams as well as their interpretations; and physicians will tell us +that some food makes turbulent, some gives quiet dreams. Cato, who +doated upon cabbage, might find the crude effects thereof; and +Pythagoras might have had calmer sleeps if he had totally abstained from +beans." + +The influences of the day's occurrences, and the thoughts which have +occupied the mind during the day, have been said to give a corresponding +tone and coloring to our dreams at night. Thus the lover dreams of his +mistress; the miser of his gold; the merchant of his speculations; the +man of science of his discoveries. The poets of all ages and nations +adopt this view. Virgil describes Dido forsaken by AEneas, wandering +alone on a desert shore in pursuit of the Tyrians. Milton represents Eve +relating to Adam the dreams which were very naturally the repetition of +her waking thoughts. Petrarch invokes the beauty of Laura. Eloisa, +separated from Abelard, is again happy in his company, even amid the +"dreary wastes" and "low-browed rocks." + +There can be no doubt that the dreams of many persons are very greatly +influenced by the reflections and emotions they have experienced the +preceding day; but this is by no means invariably the case. We have +known persons whose dreams refer habitually to events which occurred to +them, perhaps, twenty years ago, and upon whom recent events seem to +possess no such influence. We have often been told by ladies happily and +affectionately married, that while they were engaged, although their +thoughts were naturally much set on their engagement, they never dreamed +of their lovers. So, also, the father of a family, habitually impressed +with a sense of his responsibility and affection toward his offspring, +will sometimes dream often enough of his neighbor's children, but +seldom or, perhaps, never, of his own. Try to dream on a given +subject--resolve and fix the attention upon it--going to sleep, and no +sooner are our eyelids closed, than fantastic fancy will conjure up the +most opposite and incongruous imagery. We have heard this dream-problem +explained by referring it to a principle of _antagonism_, which, waking +or sleeping, may be observed in the animal economy. If a limb become +fatigued by remaining too long in one position, it will be relieved by +being thrown into the very opposite condition; if the eye fatigue itself +by gazing intently on the disc of any bright color, and the eyelids +close, the very opposite, or antagonistic color will be depicted upon +the retina: in like manner, when our waking thoughts--in connection with +the nerve matter, which is their material instrument--have exhausted +their energy, we can easily conceive how the very opposite condition +will be produced. Hence the most unconnected and preposterous train of +imagery may arise from the very earnestness with which we desire a +contrary effect. We dream of events which do not concern us, instead of +those in which we are most deeply interested; we dream of persons to +whom we are indifferent, instead of those to whom we are attached. But, +in the midst of all this curious and perplexing contrariety, it is +remarkable--and may be esteemed a proof of the immateriality of the +mind--that we always preserve the consciousness of our own identity. No +man dreams that he is a woman, or any other person than himself; we have +heard of persons who have dreamed they were dead, and in a spiritual +state; but the spirit was still their own--they maintained their +identity. Sir Thomas Lawrence once made an interesting observation on +this subject to Mrs. Butler--then Miss Fanny Kemble: he pointed out, in +conversation, that he never heard of any lady who ever dreamed that she +was younger than she really was. We retain in our dreams even the +identity of our age. It has been said--we think by Sir Thomas +Browne--that some persons of virtuous and honorable principles will +commit, as they fancy, actions in their dreams which they would shudder +at in their waking moments; but we can not believe that the identity of +moral goodness can be so perverted in the dreaming state. We can, +however, readily conceive that, when the mind is oppressed, or disturbed +by the recollection of some event it dreads to dwell upon, it may be +disturbed by the most terrific and ghastly images. A guilty conscience, +too, will unquestionably produce restlessness, agitation, and +awe-inspiring dreams. Hence Manfred, in pacing restlessly his lonely +Gothic gallery at midnight, pictures to himself the terrors of sleep: + + "The lamp must be replenished; even then + It will not burn so long as I must watch. + My slumbers, if I slumber, are not sleep, + _But a continuance of enduring thought, + Which then I can resist not. In my heart + There is a vigil; and these eyes + But close to look within._" + +Contrition and remorse oppose his rest. If we remember right, it was +Bishop Newton who remarked, that the sleep of innocence differed +essentially from the sleep of guilt. + +The assistance supposed to be sometimes furnished in sleep toward the +solution of problems which puzzled the waking sense, opens up a curious +subject of investigation. Cases of the kind have been recorded upon +undoubted authority. Hence some philosophers, like Sir Thomas Browne and +Addison, have been induced to suppose that the soul in this state is +partially disengaged from the encumbrance of the body, and therefore +more intelligent, which is a mere fancy--a poetical fiction. Surely it +is absurd to suppose that the soul, which we invest with such high and +perfect attributes, should commit such frivolous and irrational acts as +these which take place so constantly in our dreams. "Methinks," observed +Locke, "every drowsy nod shakes this doctrine." All we remark, is, that +some of the ordinary mental faculties act in such cases with increased +energy. But beyond this we can not go. We are informed by Cabains, that +Franklin on several occasions mentioned to him, that he had been +assisted in his dreams on the issue of many affairs in which he was +engaged. So, also, Condillac, while writing his "Cours d'Etudes," states +that he was frequently obliged to leave a chapter incomplete, and retire +to bed: and that on waking, he found it, on more than one occasion, +finished in his head. Condorcet, upon leaving his deep and complicated +calculations unfinished, after having retired to rest, often found their +results unfolded to him in his dreams. Voltaire assures us that he, like +La Fontaine, composed verses frequently in his sleep, which he +remembered on awaking. Doctor Johnson states that he once in a dream had +a contest of wit with some other person, and that he was very much +mortified by imagining that his opponent had the better of him. +Coleridge, in a dream, composed the wild and beautiful poem of "Kubla +Khan," which was suggested to him by a passage he was reading in +"Purchas's Pilgrimage" when he fell asleep. On awaking he had a distinct +recollection of the whole, and, taking his pen, ink, and paper, +instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines which have been so much +admired. + +One of the most striking circumstances connected with the human mind is +the extreme lightning-like rapidity of its thoughts, even in our waking +hours; but the transactions which appear to take place in our dreams are +accomplished with still more incalculable rapidity; the relations of +space, the duration of time, appear to be alike annihilated; we are +transported in an instant to the most distant regions of the earth, and +the events of ages are condensed into the span of a few seconds. The +accidental jarring of a door, or any noise, will, at the same moment, it +awakens a person, suggest the incidents of an entire dream. Hence some +persons--Lord Brougham in particular--have supposed that all our dreams +take place in the transition or interval between sleep and waking. A +gentleman dreamt that he had enlisted as a soldier, joined his regiment, +deserted, was apprehended, carried back, tried, condemned to be shot, +and, at last, led out for execution. After all the usual preparations a +gun was fired; he awoke with the report, and found that a noise in an +adjoining room had, in the same moment, produced the dream and awakened +him. The same want of any notion of the duration of time occurs, more or +less, in all dreams; hence our ignorance when we awake of the length of +the night. A friend of Doctor Abercrombie's dreamt that he crossed the +Atlantic and spent a fortnight in America. In embarking, on his return, +he fell into the sea, and, awakening with the fright, discovered he had +not been ten minutes asleep. "I lately dreamed," says Dr. Macnish, "that +I made a voyage--remained some days in Calcutta--returned home--then +took ship for Egypt, where I visited the cataracts of the Nile, Grand +Cairo, and the Pyramids; and to crown the whole, had the honor of an +interview with Mehemet Ali, Cleopatra, and Alexander the Great." All +this was the work of a single hour, or even a few minutes. In one of the +dreams which Mr. De Quincey describes--when under the influence of +opium--"The sense of Space and in the end of Time were," he states, +"both powerfully affected. Buildings, landscapes, &c., were exhibited in +proportions so vast as the bodily eye is not fitted to receive. Space +swelled, and was amplified to a sense of unutterable infinity. This, +however, did not disturb me so much as the vast expansion of Time; I +sometimes seemed to have lived for seventy or one hundred years in one +night; nay, sometimes had feelings representative of a millenium, passed +in that time; or, however, of a duration far beyond the limits of any +human experience." One of the miracles of Mohammed appears to be +illustrative of the same phenomenon. We read, in the Koran, that the +angel Gabriel took Mohammed, one morning, out of his bed to give him a +sight of all things in the Seven Heavens and in Paradise; and, after +holding ninety thousand spiritual conferences, he was brought back again +to his bed; all which was transacted in so small a space of time that +Mohammed, upon his return, found his bed still warm. + +Are dreams so much varied as is generally supposed? Or, taking into +consideration our different mental and physical constitutions, is there +not rather a remarkable sameness in them? It is certainly a very unusual +circumstance to hear of any dream that does violence to the common +experience of mankind. One class of dreams, which may be termed +RETROSPECTIVE, is of frequent occurrence. These are characterized by the +revival of associations long since forgotten. The faculty of Memory +appears to be preternaturally exalted; the vail is withdrawn which +obscured the vista of our past life; and the minutest events of +childhood pass in vivid review before us. There can be no doubt that +something analogous to this occurs in drowning; when, after the alarm +and struggle for life has subsided, sensations and visions supervene +with indescribable rapidity. The same very remarkable phenomenon takes +place also sometimes in hanging; but is by no means uniformly produced. +"Of all whom I have seen restored from drowning," observes Dr. Lettsom, +"I never found one who had the smallest recollection of any thing that +passed under water until the time they were restored." Persons must not, +therefore, be deceived by imagining that an Elysium is to be found at +the bottom of a garden-well, or a canal, or a river. + +But to return--it is not only the very early incidents of childhood +which may thus be recalled by our dreams, but recent events, which in +our waking hours had escaped the memory, are sometimes suddenly +recalled. In his "Notes to Waverley," Sir Walter Scott relates the +following anecdote: "A gentleman connected with a Bank in Glasgow, while +employed in the occupation of cashier, was annoyed by a person, out of +his turn, demanding the payment of a check for six pounds. Having paid +him, but with reluctance, out of his turn, he thought no more of the +transaction. At the end of the year, which was eight or nine months +after, a difficulty was experienced in making the books balance, in +consequence of a deficiency of six pounds. Several days and nights were +exhausted in endeavors to discover the source of the error, but without +success; and the discomfited and chagrined cashier retired one night to +his bed, disappointed and fatigued. He fell asleep and dreamed he was at +his Bank, and once again the whole scene of the annoying man and his +six-pound check arose before him; and, on examination, it was discovered +that the sum paid to this person had been neglected to be inserted in +the book of interests, and that it exactly accounted for the error in +the balance." We read of another gentleman, a solicitor, who, on one +occasion, lost a very important document connected with the conveyance +of some property; the most anxious search was made for it in vain; and +the night preceding the day on which the parties were to meet for the +final settlement the son of this gentleman then went to bed, under much +anxiety and disappointment, and dreamt that, at the time when the +missing paper was delivered to his father, his table was covered with +papers connected with the affairs of a particular client; and there +found the paper they had been in search of, which had been tied up in a +parcel to which it was in no way related. + +There is another class of dreams which would appear to be much more +extraordinary than these of a Retrospective Character, to wit: those in +which the dreamer appears to take cognizance of incidents which are +occurring at a distance, which may be designated Dreams of COINCIDENCE. +In the "Memoirs of Margaret de Valois" we read, that her mother, +Catherine de Medicis, when ill of the plague at Metz, saw her son, the +Duc d'Anjou, at the victory of Jarnac, thrown from his horse, and the +Prince de Conde dead--events which happened exactly at that moment. Dr. +Macnish relates, as the most striking example he ever met with of the +co-existence between a dream and a passing event, the following +melancholy story: Miss M., a young lady, a native of Ross-shire, was +deeply in love with an officer who accompanied Sir John Moore in the +Peninsular War. The constant danger to which he was exposed had an +evident effect upon her spirits. She became pale and melancholy in +perpetually brooding over his fortunes; and, in spite of all that reason +could do, felt a certain conviction that, when she last parted from her +lover, she had parted with him forever. In a surprisingly short period +her graceful form declined into all the appalling characteristics of a +fatal illness, and she seemed rapidly hastening to the grave, when a +dream confirmed the horrors she had long anticipated, and gave the +finishing stroke to her sorrows. One night, after falling asleep, she +imagined she saw her lover, pale, bloody, and wounded in the breast, +enter her apartment. He drew aside the curtains of the bed, and, with a +look of the utmost mildness, informed her that he had been slain in +battle, desiring her, at the same time, to comfort herself, and not take +his death too seriously to heart. It is needless to say what influence +this vision had upon a mind so replete with woe. It withered it +entirely, and the poor girl died a few days afterward, but, not without +desiring her parents to note down the day of the month on which it +happened, and see if it would not be confirmed, as she confidently +declared it would. Her anticipation was correct, for accounts were +shortly afterward received that the young man was slain at the battle of +Corunna, which was fought on the very day of the night of which his +betrothed had beheld the vision. It is certainly very natural to suppose +that there must be some mysterious connection between such a dream and +the event which appears to have simultaneously taken place--but, upon +reflecting further upon the subject, we shall find that the co-existence +is purely accidental. If, as Sir Walter Scott observed, any event, such +as the death of the person dreamt of, chance to take place, so as to +correspond with the nature and time of the apparition, the circumstance +is conceived to be supernatural, although the coincidence is one which +must frequently occur, since our dreams usually refer to the +accomplishment of that which haunts our minds when awake, and often +presage the most probable events. Such a concatenation, therefore, must +often take place when it is considered "of what stuff dreams are made," +and how naturally they turn upon those who occupy our mind when awake. +When a soldier is exposed to death in battle; when a sailor is incurring +the dangers of the sea; when a beloved wife or relative is attacked by +disease, how readily our sleeping imagination rushes to the very point +of alarm which, when waking, it had shuddered to anticipate. Considering +the many thousands of dreams which must, night after night, pass +through the imagination of individuals, the number of coincidences +between the vision and the event are fewer and less remarkable than a +fair calculation of chance would warrant us to expect. + +In addition to these, we sometimes hear of dreams which appear to reveal +the secrets of futurity; and which may be designated PROPHETIC +Dreams--unvailing, as they are supposed to do, the destiny which awaits +particular individuals. The prophetic dream of Cromwell, that he should +live to be the greatest man in England, has often been referred to as an +example of special revelation; but surely there can be nothing very +wonderful in the occurrence--for, after all, if we could only penetrate +into the thoughts, hopes, and designs which inflamed the ambition of +such men as Ireton, Lambert, and the like, we should find both their +waking and sleeping visions equally suggestive of self-aggrandizement. +The Protector himself was not the only usurper, in those troubled times, +who dreamed of being "every inch a king;" but we want the data to +compute the probabilities which the laws of chance would give in favor +of such a prophecy or dream being fulfilled. The prophetic dream refers +generally to some event which, in the course of nature, is likely to +happen: is it, then, wonderful that it should occur? It would be curious +to know how often Napoleon dreamed that he was the Emperor of the +civilized world, or confined as a prisoner of war; how many thrones he +imagined himself to have ascended or abdicated; how often he +accomplished the rebuilding of Jerusalem. A few years ago, some very +cruel murders were perpetrated in Edinburgh, by men named Burke and +Hare, who sold the bodies of their victims to the Anatomical Schools. We +had ourselves an interview with Burke, after his condemnation, when he +told us that many months before he was apprehended and convicted, he +used to dream that the murders he committed had been discovered; then he +imagined himself going to be executed, and his chief anxiety was, how he +should comport himself on the scaffold before the assembled multitude, +whose faces he beheld gazing up and fixed upon him. His dream was, in +every respect, verified; but who, for an instant, would suppose there +could have been any thing preternatural, or prophetic, in such a vision? +For the most part, dreams of this description are supposed to portend +the illness, or the time of the death, of particular individuals; and +these, too, upon the simple doctrine of chance, turn out, perhaps, to be +as often wrong as right. It may be true, that Lord Lyttleton died at the +exact hour which he said had been predicted to him in a dream; but +Voltaire outlived a similar prophecy for many years. It must, however, +be conceded, that persons in ill-health may have their death expedited +by believing in such fatal predictions. Tell a timorous man that he will +die; and the sentence, if pronounced with sufficient solemnity, and the +semblance of its fore-knowledge, will, under certain circumstances, +execute itself. But, on the other hand, the self-sustaining power of the +will, with a corresponding concentration of nervous energy, will +sometimes triumph over the presence of disease, and for awhile ward off +even the hand of death. The anecdote is told of Muley Moloch, who, being +informed that his army was likely to be defeated, sprang from his sick +bed in great excitement, led his men on to victory, and, on returning to +his tent, lay down and almost instantly expired. + +But again it may be asked--what then do dreams portend? Do they admit of +any rational interpretation? This branch of the art of divination, which +was called formerly by the name of "Oneiromancy," has been practiced in +all ages; and there is, perhaps, not a village in Great Britain, or on +the great continent of Europe, India, or America, in which some +fortune-telling old woman will not be found who professes to be an +oracle in propounding their mystical signification. The magicians of old +were supposed to be skillful interpreters of dreams, which, like the +wiseacres of Christendom, they viewed under very contradictory aspects. + +From one of the most ancient Arabic manuscripts on the subject, we learn +that if you see an angel, it is a good sign; but if you dream that you +converse with one, it forebodes evil--to dream you bathe in a clear +fountain denotes joy--but if it be muddy, an enemy will bring against +you some false accusation. To dream of carrying any weight upon the back +denotes servitude, if you are rich--honor if you are poor. There is not +an object in nature--not an event that can occur in life--that our +modern fortune-tellers have not converted, when seen in a dream, into +some sign ominous of good or of evil; and many even well-educated +persons are in the habit of fostering their credulity by attaching an +undue importance to their dreams. It is a curious circumstance, however, +which militates against this mystic art, that the same sign in different +countries carries with it a very contrary signification. The peasant +girl in England thinks, if she dream of a rose, that it is a sure sign +of happiness; but the _paysanne_ in Normandy believes that it portends +vexation and disappointment. The Englishman conceives that to dream of +an oak-tree is a sign of prosperity; but in Switzerland, the same vision +is thought to be a forewarning of some dreadful calamity. + +The domestic superstitions which are connected with dreams, are +sometimes favored by, and perhaps dependent upon a certain morbid +condition or irritability of the nervous system, which suggests the +dread of some impending calamity, a painful and indefinite sense of +apprehension for which no ostensible reason can be assigned. Strange as +it might appear, the influence of our dreams upon our waking state is +very remarkable; we may awaken refreshed from a dream which has made us, +in our sleep, superlatively happy; or we may rise with melancholic +feelings after suffering intense affliction in some dream, and the +details of both dreams may alike be forgotten. We can not, after being +so much disturbed, at once regain our composure; the billows continue +heaving after the tempest has subsided; the troubled nerves continue to +vibrate after the causes that disturbed them have ceased to act; the +impression still remains, and checkers the happiness of the future day. +Even men of strong mind, who do not believe in the interpretation of +dreams, may be so affected. When Henry the Fourth of France was once +told by an astrologer that he would be assassinated, he smiled at the +prediction, and did not believe it; but he confessed that it often +haunted him afterward, and although he placed no faith in it, still it +sometimes depressed his spirits, and he often expressed a wish that he +had never heard it. In like manner, dreams, which persons do not believe +in, will unconsciously affect the tenor of their thoughts and feelings. + +There are many persons who appear to have habitually the most +extraordinary dreams, and there is scarcely a family circle that +assemble round the domestic hearth, in which some one or other of the +party is not able to relate some very wonderful story. We have, +ourselves, a _repertoire_, from which we could select a host of such +narrations; but we have preferred, at the risk of being thought +recapitulative, to dwell upon those which have been recorded upon +unimpeachable authority. The dreams which men like Locke, Reid, Gregory, +Abercrombie, Macnish, &c., have attested, come with a weight of evidence +before us which the dreams of persons unknown in the scientific or +literary world would not possess. The impressions produced by dreams are +so fugitive--so easy is it for persons unintentionally to deceive +themselves in recalling their dreams' experience--that Epictetus, long +ago, advised young men not to entertain any company by relating their +dreams, as they could only, he affirmed, be interesting to themselves, +and perhaps would, after all their pains, be disbelieved by their +auditors. Nevertheless, it would be well for all persons to study, +whether waking or dreaming, the phenomena of their own minds. The +ingenious naturalist, Doctor Fleming, suggests that persons should, in +contra-distinction to a "Diary," keep a "Nocturnal," in which they +should register their dreams. Doubtless such a journal might turn out to +be a very amusing psychological record. + + + + +A FAIR IN MUNICH. + + +I wonder when there is not a fair in Munich. This, however, was _Die +Drei Koenige Dult_, or the Fair of the Three Kings. By way of amusement, +I thought I would go to it; but as I could not very well go alone, I +invited Madame Thekla to accompany me, with which she was very well +pleased, as I promised to treat her to the shows. As far as buying and +selling, and the crowds of peasants, and townspeople, and students, and +soldiers, go, it was like any other fair. At a little distance from the +long array of booths, stood the shows--and thither we bent our steps. + +The first thing we came upon was a small ladder-wagon, covered with an +arched awning; and, bound to one side of the wagon, were tall poles, +from which floated a series of ghastly pictures--hideous +raw-head-and-bloody-bone pictures! There were murders, executions, +be-headings in German fashion; the criminal extended on a horrid sort of +rack, and his head being chopped off by a grim executioner, with a +sword, while a priest stood by in his long robes; there were houses on +fire; drownings, miraculous escapes; there were tall, smirking hussars, +and weeping ladies in white--heroes and heroines in these bloody +histories! + +The subjects, the hideous drawing, the hard outlines, the goggle-eyes, +the blood, the knives, the very fire, made you feel sick. A considerable +crowd was collected, and listened breathlessly to the sounds of an +organ, to which two Tyrolians sang their appalling tragedies. They sang +in such clear, sweet, mountain tones, that you were strangely +fascinated. Mournfully sang they, in a monotonous chaunt, of blood, and +crime, and terror, till you felt your blood creep; and, by a frightful +fascination, your eyes gloated on the disgusting pictures. + +What a terribly immoral influence must such exhibitions have upon such +an uneducated crowd as surrounded these sirens! Why should not a +_paternal_ government, which guards its people from immoral books and +disgusting newspapers, not guard them equally from such a disgusting +sight and sound as this Tyrolian exhibition? These Tyrolians sold +printed histories of the fearful crimes and calamities which were +depicted on their banners. These histories are very exciting and +romantic reading, as you may believe when I give some of their +titles:--"The History of the Great and Terrible Monster, who cruelly +murdered his Beloved, his Child, his Father, his Mother, his two +Sisters, and his Brother, on the 8th of July, 1850." "Heroic +Self-sacrifice of a Bohemian Hussar Officer, and the Punishment of his +Murderers." "A true and dreadful History which occurred on the 14th of +March, 1850, in Schopka, near Milineck, in Bohemia." "The Might of +Mutual Love: a highly remarkable event, which occurred at Thoulon, in +the year 1849." "The Cursed Mill: a Warning from Real Life." "The +Temptation; the Deed; the Consequences!" + +If you care to know any thing of the style of these remarkable +productions, I will give you a specimen. One begins thus:--"In +Ross-dorf, in Hanover, lived the criminal Peter Natzer. He was by trade +a glazier, his father having followed the same calling. Peter was +five-and-twenty years old, and was, from his earliest youth, addicted to +every species of crime. He had a sweetheart, named Lucie Braun, a poor +girl, &c., &c." + +Again:--"Silent sat the miller, Leverm, in his garden; thoughtfully +gazed he into the distant valley. He was scarcely thirty years of age, +but heavy cares had bowed him, and robbed him of his fresh, youthful +bloom. Beside him sat his wife, who cast many an anxious but +affectionate glance on her husband. How tender and lovely was this young +wife! The inhabitants of the neighborhood called her 'The Rose of the +Valley.'" In this way begins a most awful tragedy. + +Of course we did not read these things in the fair. It was enough for +us, there, to listen to the mournful chant of the mountaineers, till our +blood was frozen in our veins. I took home with me these printed +histories, as many another simple soul did; and now, after I have read +them, and been filled with horror and disgust by them, I have put them +away from me as unholy things. But think of the effect they will have in +many a lonely village, this winter--in many a desolate farm-house or +cottage--on the wide plain, or among the mountains! These papers are +productive seeds of murder and crime; of that one may be certain. + +The next wonder that stopped us in the fair, was a little fat man, who +was shouting away at the top of his voice, while he briskly sharpened a +knife on a long, rough board, which was smeared over with a black +ointment. He was a vender of magical strop-salve! something in the +fashion of Mechi. "Ladies and gentlemen;" shouted he, "witness my +wonderful invention! The dullest knife, stick-knife, bread-knife, +clasp-knife, table-knife, carving-knife, shaving-knife, +(_rasier-messer_) pen-knife, pruning-knife, though dull as this +knife--_though dull as this knife_!" and here he began hacking away upon +the edge of a big knife with a strong piece of broken pitcher. "Yes, +though dull, dull, dull as this knife!--when subjected to my wonderful +salve," and here he smeared it with his black ointment, "will cut a +hair, or the most delicate shaving of paper--as it now does!" and with +that he severed paper shavings as if they had been nothing. If it was +really the _same knife_, his was a wonderful invention, and beat Mechi +hollow. + +Next, I had my fortune told at three different places, for six +kreutzers, or two-pence each, and as I was promised pretty much the same +fortune by all, I suppose I ought to believe in the truth of it. They +foretold me lots of trouble in the way of love-crosses, false friends, +and unkind relations, and such small trifles; but were equally liberal +of rich lovers, and plenty of them, plenty of money, and a good husband +to crown all, and good children to be the _props_ of my old age; so I +think I had, after all, a good sixpenny-worth. + +Next we came upon a little caravan, on the steps of which vociferated a +most picturesque Tyrolian, in broad-brimmed sugar-loafed hat, adorned +with chamois hair, and eagles' feathers; in broad-ribbed stockings, and +with a broad, gayly-embroidened band round his waist, which half covered +his chest. He assured the crowd below that there was not in the whole +of Bavaria, any thing half as interesting, half as extraordinary, half +as astounding as the singularly gifted, singularly beautiful, singularly +intellectual being within; a being from another quarter of the globe, a +being adapted to an entirely different mode of existence to ours; a +being who could see in the dark, a being who only lived upon raw meat! A +wonderful Albino who could speak the German tongue! + +Of course we must see the Albino; so in we went, and some way or other I +felt an unusual shock. There he sat, in a black velvet dress spangled +with silver, the light coming in from the top of the caravan, and his +transparent complexion, his burning, fiery eyes, like carbuncles, his +long waves of white, silky hair, and his long, curling, snow-white, +silky beard, gave him the appearance of some enchanted dwarf--some +cobold or gnome out of a subterranean palace. + +But I had not much time to lose myself in dreams about enchanted dwarfs +or gnomes, for there was something else burning in the caravan besides +the Albino's eyes, and that was Madame Thekla's grand silk cloak! She +had come out with me in all her grandeur; and now, while we stood +enchanted before the Albino, her fine silk cloak was singeing at a +little iron stove that stood behind the door. Poor Madame Thekla! Out we +rushed, and she revenged herself by vociferating to the crowd outside, +as the Tyrolian had done just before, and by exhibiting her unlucky +cloak in a sort of savage despair. + +An hour afterward, we again passed the caravan, and the Tyrolian in the +ribbed stockings was again holding forth on the steps, when, at sight of +us, he interrupted his oration, and politely invited us to re-enter, and +complete, _free of cost_, our inspection of the Albino. But Madame +Thekla, pointing with stern dignity to her cloak, declined, and marched +on. + +After this we went to the _waeffeln_-booths, were we ate hot-baked +_waeffeln_, a kind of gofre cake; and then, resisting a wonderful +elephant show, we hastened to the monkey theatre, the poor elephant's +rival exhibition; the "Grand Monkey Theatre from Paris," in which +forty-two apes and poodles, the property of M. Le Cerf, would exhibit +the most wonderful and artistic feats. + +We had to wait some time till the four o'clock performance was over, +which unfortunately had begun before we arrived; and while Madame Thekla +and I stood impatiently waiting in the cold, up there came a merry-faced +lad of about ten, and began, in great glee, to describe to us the +glorious things that were performed by those "dear little monkeys and +dogs." He was quite eloquent in his delight; and, "Oh!" said he, "if I +had but another _sechser_ (twopenny-piece), wouldn't I see it again!" +"There is another _sechser_, then!" said I, and put one into his fat +little hand. What an astonished, bright face looked up into mine; and he +seized my hand in both his, and shook it almost off. And away he ran up +the steps for his ticket, flying down again to us, and keeping as close +to us as possible, talking all the time, and fairly dancing for joy. + +"You've quite bewitched that little fellow," said Madame Thekla; and I +seemed to have bewitched all the little lads in the fair, for, by a +strangely-mysterious power, they were drawn toward us in crowds, from +all hands--little fellows in blouses, little fellows in little green and +brown surtouts, little fellows in old-fashioned and, in England, almost +forgotten, buttoned-up suits--and all crept bashfully toward us! Oh, the +wonderful magic of a twopenny-piece! Heaven only knows how the news of +this munificent gift of a _sechser_ had so swiftly spread through the +fair! One little lad actually had the bravery to say to me that +"children were admitted at half-price!" And was I not a cold-hearted +wretch to reply, "Oh, indeed!" just as though it were a matter of +perfect indifference to me, though, in truth, it was not; but I felt +rather appalled at the sight of such a crowd of little eager heads, well +knowing that my purse was not full to overflowing, even with +twopenny-pieces! + +At length we were seated in the little theatre; and, after a fearful +charivari from the orchestra, the curtain drew up, and we beheld, seated +at a long table, a company of monkeys! It was a _table d'hote_. A +dandified young fellow--perhaps Monsieur Le Cerf himself--in the most +elegant of cravats, the most elegant white wristbands, the most elegant +ring, and the most elegant moustache, performed the part of host; the +waiter and waitress were monkeys. The waiter--a most drunken, +good-for-nothing waiter he seemed--a fat, big ape--drank behind the +backs of the guests the very wine he was serving them with; he seemed so +very tipsy, that he could hardly walk; he staggered backward and +forward, and leaned against the wall for support, as he emptied the +bottle he was bringing for the company. But the little waitress! She was +a little darling; the tiniest of little monkeys, and she came skipping +on the stage in a little broad-brimmed straw hat, and a bright-colored +little dress, with the daintiest of little white muslin aprons on; she +looked just like a little fairy. Every body was enchanted with her. Even +Monsieur Le Cerf himself caressed her, and gave her not only, every now +and then, a nut, but a kiss. She behaved beautifully. But as to the +guests! They quarreled, and even fought--Monsieur Le Cerf said it was +about paying the bill. + +I can't pretend to tell you half the clever things the monkeys did in +the way of swinging, dancing, firing off muskets, riding on a pony, &c. +Wonderful things, too, were performed by the dogs, splendid spaniels and +setters. One large black-and-tan creature walked on his fore-legs, in +the style of what children call "playing at a wheelbarrow," only he +himself, poor wretch, had to wheel the barrow. He walked demurely round +and round the stage, carrying his two unlucky hind-legs up in the air; +then he walked on three legs, and then, the most difficult task of all +for a dog, as we were assured, upon two legs on the same side. Another +beautiful white spaniel came walking in most grandly on her hind legs, +as _Madame de Pompadour_, in a long-trained dress which was borne by a +tiny monkey in livery, bearing a little lantern in his hand. + +The finale was the besieging of a fortress; and to see some twenty +milk-white spaniels rushing up and down the stairs of the burning +fortress, illumined by brilliant rose-colored, green, and blue lights, +was very curious indeed. If I could have forgotten the terrible training +through which these poor creatures must have gone, I should have enjoyed +it much more. But I did not wonder, after seeing all their feats, that +our little friend had been so enchanted. He sat behind us in the +half-price seats, but for all that we continued to exchange many smiling +glances during the performance. I only wished I could have seen a whole +row of little fellows all equally delighted and surprised by their good +fortune. + + + + +THE WIFE'S STRATAGEM. + + +Captain Marmaduke Smith, is--judging from his present mundane, +matter-of-fact character, about the last man one would suspect of having +been at any time of his life a victim to the "tender passion." A +revelation he volunteered to two or three cronies at the club the other +evening undeceived us. The captain on this occasion, as was generally +the case on the morrow of a too great indulgence, was somewhat dull +spirited and lachrymose. The weather, too, was gloomy; a melancholy +barrel-organ had been droning dreadfully for some time beneath the +windows; and to crown all, Mr. Tape, who has a quick eye for the +sentimental, had discovered, and read aloud, a common, but sad story of +madness and suicide in the evening paper. It is not, therefore, so +surprising that tender recollections should have revived with unusual +force in the veteran's memory. + +"You would hardly believe it, Tape," said Captain Smith, after a dull +pause, and emitting a sound somewhat resembling a sigh, as he re-lighted +the cigar which had gone out during Mr. Tape's reading--"you would +hardly believe it, perhaps; but I was woman-witched once myself!" + +"Never!" exclaimed the astonished gentleman whom he addressed. "A man of +your strength of mind, captain? I can't believe it; it's impossible!" + +"It's an extraordinary fact, I admit; and, to own the truth, I have +never been able to account exactly for it myself. Fortunately, I took +the disorder as I did the measles--young; and neither of these +complaints is apt to be so fatal then, I'm told, as when they pick a man +up later in life. It was, however, a very severe attack while it lasted. +A very charming hand at hooking a gudgeon was that delightful Coralie +Dufour, I _must_ say." + +"Any relation to the Monsieur and Madame Dufour we saw some years ago in +Paris?" asked Tape. "The husband, I remember, was remarkably fond of +expressing his gratitude to you for having once wonderfully carried him +through his difficulties." + +Captain Smith looked sharply at Mr. Tape, as if he suspected some +lurking irony beneath the bland innocence of his words. Perceiving, as +usual, nothing in the speaker's countenance, Mr. Smith--blowing at the +same time a tremendous cloud to conceal a faint blush which, to my +extreme astonishment, I observed stealing over his unaccustomed +features--said, gravely, almost solemnly: "You, Mr. Tape are a married +man, and the father of a family, and your own experience, therefore, in +the female line must be ample for a lifetime; but you, sir," continued +the captain, patronizingly, addressing another of his auditors, "are, I +believe, as yet 'unattached,' in a legal sense, and may therefore derive +profit, as well as instruction, from an example of the way in which +ardent and inexperienced youth is sometimes entrapped and bamboozled by +womankind. Mr. Tape, oblige me by touching the bell." + +The instant the captain's order had been obeyed, he commenced the +narrative of his love adventure, and for a time spoke with his +accustomed calmness: but toward the close he became so exceeding +discursive and excited, and it was with so much difficulty we drew from +him many little particulars it was essential to hear, that I have been +compelled, from regard to brevity as well as strict decorum, to soften +down and render in my own words some of the chief incidents of his +mishap. + +Just previous to the winter campaign which witnessed the second siege +and fall of Badajoz, Mr. Smith, in the zealous exercise of his perilous +vocation, entered that city in his usual disguise of a Spanish +countryman, with strict orders to keep his eyes and ears wide open, and +to report as speedily as possible upon various military details, which +it was desirable the British general should be made acquainted with. Mr. +Smith, from the first moment the pleasant proposition was hinted to him, +had manifested considerable reluctance to undertake the task; more +especially as General Phillipon, who commanded the French garrison, had +not very long before been much too near catching him, to render a +possibly still more intimate acquaintance with so sharp a practitioner +at all desirable. Nevertheless, as the service was urgent, and no one, +it Was agreed, so competent as himself to the duty--indeed upon this +point Mr. Smith remarked that the most flattering unanimity of opinion +was exhibited by all the gentlemen likely, should he decline the honor, +to be selected in his place--he finally consented and in due time found +himself fairly within the walls of the devoted city. "It was an +uncomfortable business," the captain said, "very much so--and in more +ways than one. It took a long time to accomplish; and what was worse +than all, rations were miserably short. The French garrison were living +upon salted horse-flesh, and you may guess, therefore, at the condition +of the civilians' victualing department. Wine was, however, to be had in +sufficient plenty; and I used frequently to pass a few hours at a place +of entertainment kept by an Andalusian woman, whose bitter hatred of the +French invaders, and favorable disposition toward the British were well +known to me, though successfully concealed from Napoleon's soldiers, +many of whom--sous-officiers chiefly--were her customers. My chief +amusement there was playing at dominoes for a few glasses. I played, +when I had a choice, with a smart, goodish-looking sous-lieutenant of +voltigeurs--a glib-tongued chap, of the sort that tell all they know, +and something over, with very little pressing. His comrades addressed +him as Victor, the only name I then knew him by. He and I became very +good friends, the more readily that I was content he should generally +win. I soon reckoned Master Victor up; but there was an old, wiry +_gredin_ of a sergeant-major sometimes present, whose suspicious manner +caused me frequent twinges. One day especially I caught him looking at +me in a way that sent the blood galloping through my veins like +wildfire. A look, Mr. Tape, which may be very likely followed in a few +minutes afterward by a halter, or by half-a-dozen bullets through one's +body, is apt to excite an unpleasant sensation." + +"I should think so. I wouldn't be in such a predicament for the +creation." + +"It's a situation that would hardly suit you, Mr. Tape," replied the +veteran, with a grim smile. "Well, the gray-headed old fox followed up +his look with a number of interesting queries concerning my birth, +parentage, and present occupation, my answers to which so operated upon +him, that I felt quite certain when he shook hands with me, and +expressed himself perfectly satisfied, and sauntered carelessly out of +the place,-that he was gone to report his surmises, and would be +probably back again in two twos with a file of soldiers and an order for +my arrest. He had put me so smartly through my facings, that although it +was quite a cold day for Spain, I give you my honor I perspired to the +very tips of my fingers And toes. The chance of escape was, I felt, +almost desperate. The previous evening a rumor had circulated that the +British general had stormed Ciudad Rodrigo, and might therefore be +already hastening in his seven-league boots, toward Badajoz. The French +were consequently more than ever on the alert, and keen eyes watched +with sharpened eagerness for indications of sympathy or correspondence +between the citizens and the advancing army. I jumped up as soon as the +sergeant-major had disappeared, and was about to follow, when the +mistress of the place approached, and said, hastily, 'I have heard all, +and if not quick, you will be sacrificed by those French dogs: this +way.' I followed to an inner apartment, where she drew from a +well-concealed recess, a French officer's uniform, complete. 'On with +it!' she exclaimed, as she left the room. 'I know the word and +countersign.' I did not require twice telling, you may be sure; and in +less than no time was togged off beautifully in a lieutenant's uniform, +and walking at a smart pace toward one of the gates. I was within twenty +yards of the corps-de-garde, when whom should I run against but +Sous-lieutenant Victor! He stared, but either did not for the moment +recognize me, or else doubted the evidence of his own senses. I +quickened my steps--the guard challenged--I gave the words, 'Napoleon, +Austerlitz!'--passed on; and as soon as a turn of the road hid me from +view, increased my pace to a run. My horse, I should have stated, had +been left in sure hands at about two miles' distance. Could I reach so +far, there was, I felt, a chance. Unfortunately, I had not gone more +than five or six hundred yards, when a hubbub of shouts, and +musket-shots in my rear, announced that I was pursued. I glanced round; +and I assure you, gentlemen, I have seen in my life many pleasanter +prospects than met my view--Richmond Hill, for instance, on a fine +summer day. Between twenty and thirty voltigeurs, headed by my friend +Victor, who had armed himself, like the others, with a musket, were in +full pursuit; and once, I was quite satisfied, within gun-shot, my +business would be very effectually; and speedily settled. + +"I ran on with eager desperation: and though gradually neared by my +friends, gained the hut where I had left the horse in safety. The +voltigeurs were thrown out for a few minutes They knew, however, that I +had not passed the thickish clumps of trees which partially concealed +the cottage; and they extended themselves in a semi-circle to inclose, +and thus make sure of their prey. Juan Sanchez, luckily for himself, was +not at home; but my horse, as I have stated, was safe, and in prime +condition for a race. I saddled, bridled, and brought him out, still +concealed by the trees and hut from the French, whose exulting shouts, +as they gradually closed upon the spot, grew momently louder and +fiercer. The sole desperate chance left was to dash right through them; +and I don't mind telling you, gentlemen, that I was confoundedly +frightened, and that but for the certainty of being instantly +sacrificed, without benefit of clergy, I should have surrendered at +once. There was, however, no time for shilly-shallying. I took another +pull at the saddle-girths, mounted, drove the only spur I had time to +strap on sharply into the animal's flank, and in an instant broke cover +in full and near view of the expecting and impatient voltigeurs; and a +very brilliant reception they gave me--quite a stunner in fact! It's a +very grand thing, no doubt, to be the exclusive object of attention to +twenty or thirty gallant men, but so little selfish, gentlemen, have I +been from my youth up ward in the article of 'glory,' that I assure you +I should have been remarkably well-pleased to have had a few +companions--the more the merrier--to share the monopoly which I +engrossed as I came suddenly in sight. The flashes, reports, bullets, +_sacres_, which in an instant gleamed in my eyes, and roared and sang +about my ears were deafening. How they all contrived to miss me I can't +imagine, but miss me they did; and I had passed them about sixty paces, +when who should start up over a hedge, a few yards in advance, but my +domino-player, Sous-lieutenant Victor! In an instant his musket was +raised within two or three feet of my face. Flash! bang! I felt a blow +as if from a thrust of red-hot steel; and for a moment made sure that my +head was off. With difficulty I kept my seat. The horse dashed on, and I +was speedily beyond the chance of capture or pursuit. I drew bridle at +the first village I reached, and found that Victor's bullet had gone +clean through both cheeks. The marks, you see, are still plain enough." + +This was quite true. On slightly separating the gray hairs of the +captain's whiskers, the places where the ball had made its entrance and +exit were distinctly visible. + +"A narrow escape," I remarked. + +"Yes, rather; but a miss is as good as a mile. The effusion of blood +nearly choked me; and it was astonishing how much wine and spirits it +required to wash the taste out of my mouth. I found," continued Mr. +Smith, "on arriving at head-quarters, that Ciudad Rodrigo had fallen as +reported, and that Lord Wellington was hurrying on to storm Badajoz +before the echo of his guns should have reached Massena or Soult in the +fool's paradise where they were both slumbering. I was of course for +some time on the sick-list, and consequently only assisted at the +assault of Badajoz as a distant spectator--a part I always preferred +when I had a choice. It was an awful, terrible business," added Mr. +Smith, with unusual solemnity. "I am not much of a philosopher that I +know of, nor, except in service hours, particularly given to religion, +but I remember, when the roar and tumult of the fierce hurricane broke +upon the calm and silence of the night, and a storm of hell-fire seemed +to burst from and encircle the devoted city, wondering what the stars, +which were shining brightly overhead, thought of the strife and dim they +looked so calmly down upon. It was gallantly done, however," the veteran +added, in a brisker tone, "and read well in the Gazette; and that +perhaps is the chief thing." + +"But what," I asked, "has all this to do with the charming Coralie and +your love-adventure?" + +"Every thing to do with it, as you will immediately find. I remained in +Badajoz a considerable time after the departure of the army, and was a +more frequent visitor than ever at the house of the excellent dame who +had so opportunely aided my escape. She was a kind-hearted soul with all +her vindictiveness; and now that the French were no longer riding +rough-shod over the city, spoke of those who were lurking about in +concealment--of whom there were believed to be not a few, with sorrow +and compassion. At length the wound I had received at Lieutenant +Victor's hands was thoroughly healed, and I was thinking of departure, +when the Andalusian dame introduced me in her taciturn, expressive way +to a charming young Frenchwoman, whose husband, a Spaniard, had been +slain during the assault or sack of the city. The intimacy thus begun +soon kindled on my part, into an intense admiration. Coralie was gentle, +artless, confiding as she was beautiful, and moreover--as Jeannette, her +sprightly, black-eyed maid informed me in confidence--extremely rich. +Here, gentlemen, was a combination of charms to which only a heart of +stone could remain insensible, and mine at the time was not only young, +but particularly sensitive and tender, owing in some degree, I daresay, +to the low diet to which I had been so long confined; for nothing, in my +opinion, takes the sense and pluck out of a man so quickly as that. At +all events I soon surrendered at discretion, and was coyly accepted by +the blushing lady. 'There was only one obstacle,' she timidly observed, +'to our happiness. The relatives of her late husband, by law her +guardians, were prejudiced, mercenary wretches, anxious to marry her to +an old hunks of a Spaniard, so that the property of her late husband, +chiefly consisting of precious stones--he had been a lapidary--might not +pass into the hands of foreigners.' I can scarcely believe it now," +added Mr. Smith, with great heat; "but if I didn't swallow all this +stuff like sack and sugar, I'm a Dutchman! The thought of it, old as I +am, sets my very blood on fire. + +"At length," continued Mr. Marmaduke Smith, as soon as he had partially +recovered his equanimity--"at length it was agreed, after all sorts of +schemes had been canvassed and rejected, that the fair widow should be +smuggled out of Badajoz as luggage in a large chest, which Jeannette and +the Andalusian landlady--I forget that woman's name--undertook to have +properly prepared. The marriage ceremony was to be performed by a priest +at a village about twelve English miles off, with whom Coralie undertook +to communicate. 'I trust,' said that lady, 'to the honor of a British +officer'--I had not then received my commission, but no matter--'that +he, that you, Captain Smith, will respect the sanctity of my concealment +till we arrive in the presence of the reverend gentleman who,' she +added, with a smile like a sunset, 'will, I trust, unite our destinies +forever.' She placed, as she spoke, her charming little hand in mine, +and I, you will hardly credit it, tumbled down on my knees, and vowed to +religiously respect the dear angel's slightest wish! Mr. Tape, for +mercy's sake, pass the wine, or the bare recollection will choke me!" + +I must now, for the reasons previously stated, Continue the narrative in +my own words Every thing was speedily arranged for flight. Mr. Smith +found no difficulty in procuring from the Spanish commandant an order +which would enable him to pass his luggage through the barrier +unsearched; Jeannette was punctual at the rendezvous, and pointed +exultingly to a large chest, which she whispered contained the trembling +Coralie. The chinks were sufficiently wide to admit of the requisite +quantity of air; it locked inside, and when a kind of sail-cloth was +thrown loosely over it, there was nothing very unusual in its +appearance. Tenderly, tremulously did the rejoicing lover assist the +precious load into the hired bullock-cart, and off they started, Mr. +Smith and Jeannette walking by the side of the richly-freighted vehicle. + +Mr. Smith trod on air, but the cart, which had to be dragged over some +of the worst roads in the world, mocked his impatience by its +marvelously slow progress, and when they halted at noon to give the oxen +water, they were still three good miles from their destination. + +"Do you think?" said Mr. Smith, in a whisper to Jeannette, holding up a +full pint flask, which he had just drawn from his pocket, and pointing +toward the chest, "do you think?--Brandy and water--eh?" + +Jeannette nodded, and the gallant Smith gently approached, tapped at the +lid, and in a soft low whisper proffered the cordial. The lid was, with +the slightest possible delay, just sufficiently raised to admit the +flask, and instantly reclosed and locked. In about ten minutes the flask +was returned as silently as it had been received. The enamored soldier +raised it to his lips, made a profound inclination toward his concealed +fiancee, and said, gently, "A votre sante, charmante Coralie!" The +benignant and joyous expression of Mr. Smith's face, as he vainly +elevated the angle of the flask in expectation of the anticipated +draught, assumed an exceedingly puzzled and bewildered expression. He +peered into the opaque tin vessel; pushed his little finger into its +neck to remove the loose cork or other substance that impeded the genial +flow; then shook it, and listened curiously for a splash or gurgle. Not +a sound! Coralie had drained it to the last drop! Mr. Smith looked with +comical earnestness at Jeannette, who burst into a fit of uncontrollable +laughter. + +"Madame is thirsty," she said, as soon as she could catch sufficient +breath: "it must be so hot in there." + +"A full pint!" said the captain, still in blank astonishment, "and +strong--very!" + +The approach of the carter interrupted what he further might have had to +say, and in a few minutes the journey was resumed. The captain fell into +a reverie which was not broken till the cart again stopped. The chest +was then glided gently to the ground: the driver, who had been +previously paid, turned the heads of his team toward Badajoz, and with a +brief salutation departed homeward. + +Jeanette was stooping over the chest, conversing in a low tone with her +mistress, and Captain Smith surveyed the position in which he found +himself with some astonishment. No house, much less a church or village +was visible, and not a human being was to be seen. + +"Captain Smith," said Jeannette, approaching the puzzled warrior with +some hesitation, "a slight contretemps has occurred. The friends who +were to have met us here, and helped to convey our precious charge to a +place of safety, are not, as you perceive, arrived: perhaps they do not +think it prudent to venture quite so far." + +"It is quite apparent they are not here," observed Mr. Smith; "but why +not have proceeded in the cart?" + +"What, captain! Betray your and madame's secret to yonder Spanish boor. +How you talk!" + +"Well, but my good girl, what _is_ to be done? Will madame get out and +walk?" + +"Impossible--impossible!" ejaculated the amiable damsel. "We should be +both recognized, dragged back to that hateful Badajoz, and madame would +be shut up in a convent for life. It is but about a quarter of a mile," +added Jeannette, in an insinuating, caressing tone, "and madame is not +so _very_ heavy." + +"The devil!" exclaimed Mr. Smith, taken completely aback by this +extraordinary proposal. "You can't mean that I should take that +infer--that chest upon my shoulders!" + +"Mon Dieu! what else _can_ be done?" replied Jeannette, with pathetic +earnestness: "unless you are determined to sacrifice my dear +mistress--she whom you pretended to so love--you hard-hearted, faithless +man!" + +Partially moved by the damsel's tearful vehemence, Mr. Smith reluctantly +approached, and gently lifted one end of the chest, as an experiment. + +"There are a great many valuables there besides madame," said Jeannette, +in reply to the captain's look, "and silver coin is, you know, very +heavy." + +"Ah!" exclaimed the perplexed lover. "It is deucedly +unfortunate--still--Don't you think," he added earnestly, after again +essaying the weight of the precious burden, "that if madame were to wrap +herself well up in this sail-cloth, we might reach your friend the +priest's house without detection?" + +"Oh, no--no--no!" rejoined the girl. "Mon Dieu! how can you think of +exposing madame to such hazard?" + +"How far do you say it is?" asked Captain Smith, after a rather sullen +pause. + +"Only just over the fields yonder--half-a-mile perhaps." + +Mr. Smith still hesitated, but finally the tears and entreaties of the +attendant, his regard for the lady and her fortune, the necessity of the +position, in short, determined him to undertake the task. A belt was +passed tightly round the chest, by means of which he could keep it on +his back; and after several unsuccessful efforts, the charming load was +fairly hoisted, and on the captain manfully staggered, Jeannette +bringing up the rear. + +Valiantly did Mr. Smith, though perspiring in every pore of his body, +and dry as a cartouch-box--for madame had emptied the only flask he +had--toil on under a burden which seemed to grind his shoulder-blades to +powder. He declares he must have lost a stone of flesh at least before, +after numerous restings, he arrived, at the end of about an hour, at the +door of a small house, which Jeannette announced to be the private +residence of the priest. The door was quickly opened by a smart lad, who +seemed to have been expecting them; the chest was deposited on the +floor, and Jeannette instantly vanished. The lad, with considerate +intelligence, handed Mr. Smith a draught of wine. It was scarcely +swallowed when the key turned in the lock, the eager lover, greatly +revived by the wine, sprang forward with extended arms, and received in +his enthusiastic embrace--whom do you think? + +"Coralie, half-stifled for want of air, and nearly dead with fright," +suggested Mr. Tape. + +"That rascally Sous-lieutenant Victor! half-drunk with +brandy-and-water," roared Captain Smith, who had by this time worked +himself into a state of great excitement. "At the same moment in ran +Jeannette, and, I could hardly believe my eyes, that Jezebel Coralie, +followed by half-a-dozen French voltigeurs, screaming with laughter! I +saw I was done," continued Mr. Smith, "but not for the moment precisely +how, and but for his comrades, I should have settled old and new scores +with Master Victor very quickly. As it was, they had some difficulty in +getting him out of my clutches, for I was, as you may suppose, awfully +savage. An hour or so afterward, when philosophy, a pipe, and some very +capital wine--they were not bad fellows those voltigeurs--had exercised +their soothing influence, I was informed of the exact motives and +particulars of the trick which had been played me. Coralie was Victor +Dufour's wife. He had been wounded at the assault of Badajoz, and +successfully concealed in that Andalusian woman's house; and as the +best, perhaps only mode of saving him from a Spanish prison, or worse, +the scheme of which I had been the victim, was concocted. Had not Dufour +wounded me, they would, I was assured, have thrown themselves upon my +honor and generosity--which honor and generosity, by-the-by, would never +have got Coralie's husband upon my back, I'll be sworn!" + +"You will forgive us, mon cher capitaine?" said that lady, with one of +her sweetest smiles, as she handed me a cup of wine. "In love and war, +you know, every thing is fair." + +"A soldier, gentlemen, is not made of adamant. I was, I confess, +softened; and by the time the party broke up, we were all the best +friends in the world." + +"And so that fat, jolly looking Madame Dufour we saw in Paris, is the +beautiful Coralie that bewitched Captain Smith?" said Mr. Tape +thoughtfully--"Well!" + +"She was younger forty years ago, Mr. Tape, than when you saw her. +Beautiful Coralies are rare, I fancy, at her present age, and very +fortunately, too, in my opinion," continued Captain Smith; "for what, I +should like to know, would become of the peace and comfort of society, +if a woman of sixty could bewitch a man as easily as she does at +sixteen?" + + + + +THE CHAMPION. + +A ROMANTIC INCIDENT IN EARLY SPANISH HISTORY. + + +The clang of arms and the inspiriting sounds of martial music resounded +through the court-yard of the palace of Navarre. The chivalry of +Arragon, Castile, and Navarre had assembled at the summons of their +sovereign, to fight under his banner against the infidels, and now +waited impatiently for the moment when the monarch should mount his +gallant steed, and lead them to battle and to victory. + +Sancho the Fourth was at that moment bidding farewell to his queen, the +gentle Dona Nuna, who clung to her lord in an agony of tears. + +"Be comforted, my beloved," he said to her; "I shall return to you with +added laurels to my kingly wreath. Do not fear for me, nor let your +sweet face grow pale by brooding over the dangers and chances of war. +For my part, I never felt more exulting anticipations of success, and am +persuaded that triumph and victory will crown our undertaking." + +"Alas! it is not so with me," said Nuna, sadly. "A presentiment of +approaching evil weighs heavily on my heart." + +"You shudder at the thought if our separation, Nuna, more like a timid +young bride parting from her newly-wedded lord, than a matron who has +shared her husband's joys and sorrows for well-nigh twenty years." + +"You are now far dearer to me, Sancho, than when I gave you my hand: +have I not to thank you for the love and tenderness which has made these +long years of wedded life so blissful and happy?" + +"In sooth, I believe, Nuna, it is even so: and you love me as warmly as +ever. Receive my assurances in return, dear wife, that your face is as +fair to me, and the gift of your true heart as fondly prized, as when I +first led you to these halls, my youthful and beautiful bride. But +suffer me to bid you farewell, or my nobles will wax impatient. I leave +you to the society of our son, and the guardianship of my trusty Pedro +Sese, who will attend to your behests. One word more. I intrust to your +safe keeping my beautiful steed, Ilderim. You know how I value the noble +animal, my first capture from the Moor. See that he is carefully tended +in my absence, I shall accept it as a proof of your regard for my +wishes. And now, adieu, dearest wife. Think of me, and supplicate Heaven +that I may be speedily and safely restored to your arms." + +So saying, Sancho the Great, tenderly embraced his wife; and mounting +his war charger, placed himself at the head of his gallant army. The +clatter of horses' hoofs soon died away in the distance, leaving the +court-yard of the castle in silence and gloom. + +Three days after the king's departure, the young Don Garcia entered the +court-yard of the palace at Navarre. + +"Pedro Sese, Pedro Sese!" he cried; "my noble Arab El Toro lies dead in +a cleft of the rocks: I have returned to seek another steed for the +chase: such a boar hunt has not been among the forests of Navarre since +the Pyrenees echoed to the horn of Roland: give me forth black Ilderim, +Pedro, my friend; saddle me my father's charger, for there is no other +steed in the king's stables worthy of the hunt of to-day!" + +"Don Garcia," replied the master of the horse, "black Ilderim is only +for the king's mounting: I dare not saddle him for any other." + +"But the Infante commands it--the king that is to be." + +"Chafe not with a faithful servant, Don Garcia: it is but yesterday I +refused the same request of the bastard of Arragon." + +"What! darest thou compare me with the base-born Ramiro? Insolent! I +shall bear my complaint to the queen." + +To the queen Don Garcia bore his complaint and his petition: "Oh, my +mother, wouldst thou see me dishonored by a menial? Am I not thine only +son, the rightful heir of Arragon, Castile, and Navarre? who may command +here, if I may not? Assert my authority, then, and order the false Pedro +Sese that he give me forth black Ilderim." + +"Pedro Sese has faithfully discharged his duty to my lord the king, who +enjoined on him and on me the safe keeping of his favorite horse," said +Dona Nuna. "The royal stables are open; take, my son, any other steed, +but leave black Ilderim till thy father's return." + +"Nay, by Heaven and by the saints, I will have Ilderim to ride this day, +or I will have vengeance!" + +The headstrong youth returned to the court-yard, and again demanded the +steed: again the master of the horse refused. Don Garcia, pale with +concentrated rage, sprang on another of the king's chargers, and +galloped from the palace. Instead, however, of returning to the hunt, he +urged his horse into the _despoblado_, or open plain, lying to the south +of the castle, and disappeared on the road to Burgos. + +Time passed heavily, in her lord's absence, with the gentle Nuna. At +first, she received frequent and joyful tidings of the successes which +crowned his arms, and the brilliant victories gained by his forces over +the Moslem army. Of late, and since the departure of Garcia from the +castle, Sancho's affectionate dispatches had altogether ceased; and +Nuna, now thoroughly wretched, from the wayward perversity of her son, +and from uncertainty as to her husband's fate, had prepared to rejoin +him at any risk, and share the perils to which he might be exposed. + +Her resolution was no sooner formed than it was promptly carried into +effect: she summoned to her aid the trusty Pedro Sese; and, protected by +a small escort under his command, bade adieu to Navarre, and commenced +her long and perilous journey toward the theatre of war. + +The little cavalcade had reached Najarra, when, to their surprise and +joy, they beheld a gallant band of horsemen rapidly approaching: the +united banner of Arragon, Castile, and Navarre, floating proudly before +them, announced to all beholders that Sancho the Fourth led his knights +in person. + +Nuna's heart beat fast and tumultuously; in a few moments, and the long +absent one would clasp her closely to his breast. She looked up to the +master of the horse who rode by her side, and urged him to increased +speed. They moved briskly forward; and the advancing knights who formed +the king's body-guard became more distinctly visible. Sancho, as we have +said, headed them; but as soon as they had arrived within a short +distance of the queen's followers, the monarch advanced a few paces, and +in tones of thunder called on them to halt. His brow was darkened with +evil passions, his countenance flushed with anger. + +"On the peril of your allegiance!" he shouted, rather than spoke, "seize +the traitress, I command ye! My heart refused to hearken to the tale of +her guilt, even when spoken by the lips of her son; but mine eyes have +seen it. I have lived--wretched that I am--to witness her infamy. But +the adulteress, and the companion of her crime, shall not escape my +righteous vengeance. See to it, that the queen and Pedro Sese remain +your prisoners." + +If a thunderbolt had fallen at the feet of the miserable Nuna, she could +not have been more horror-struck, or more confounded. Her life-long +dream of happiness was dissipated; the husband of her youth had recoiled +from her as from the veriest reptile that crawls on the face of God's +earth; and the worker of her woe and ruin was her own child--her own +flesh and blood--her son Garcia! Who would believe her to be pure and +innocent when such lips pronounced the tale of her guilt? Unhappy wife; +still more unhappy mother! In the deepest dungeon of the castle of +Najarra she was left to mourn over her unparalleled misery. Alone, +unfriended, and solitary, Nuna--who so lately had seen herself a beloved +and cherished wife, a fond mother, and a mighty sovereign--struggled +with her bitter and mournful reflections. She could not reproach her +husband, for she felt that his ear had been poisoned against her by an +accuser he could scarcely mistrust, even by the insinuations of her son, +confirmed--as he deemed them to be--by the evidence of his senses, when +he met her so unexpectedly traveling under the escort of Pedro Sese. + +But short space was left to Nuna for these agonizing thoughts. Death, a +shameful death, was the punishment of the adulteress; but Sancho, more +merciful than she had dared to hope, had granted her one loop-hole for +escape--one slender chance of proving her innocence. The lists were to +be open to any champion believing in the lady's guiltlessness, who +should adventure his life in her defense. If any such should proffer his +services, he might do battle in single combat with her accuser. +God--according to the belief of those days--would give victory to him +who maintained the truth! + +The fatal day approached, arrived, and had well-nigh passed. Garcia, +unopposed, bestrode his war-steed, the redoubtable black Ilderim, whose +possession he had so eagerly coveted, and purchased at so fearful a +price. The discrowned queen, in conformity with custom, was placed +within sight of the arena, tied to a stake, surmounting what would prove +her funeral pile if no champion appeared on her behalf, or if her +defender should suffer defeat. + +Who can paint the agitation of Dona Nuna, thus placed within view of the +lists, when the precious hours passed, one by one, and no champion stood +forth in defense of her purity and truth? She was about to resign +herself hopelessly to her inexorable fate, when the sound of a horse's +tramp was heard, approaching at a rapid pace; and a knight, in complete +armor, mounted on a charger, whose foaming mouth and reeking sides told +that he had been ridden at a fearful pace, dashed into the lists, flung +down his gauntlet of defiance, and announced that he was come to do +battle in behalf of the falsely-accused, but stainless and guiltless +queen. + +There was an involuntary movement among the assembled multitude when +Garcia prepared for the inevitable encounter. None knew, or could guess, +who the knight might be. No device nor emblem, by which his identity +would be discovered, could be traced on his helmet or on his shield! but +the ease with which he surmounted his steed, and his graceful and +gallant bearing, evinced that he was an accomplished warrior. + +In a few seconds, the preliminary arrangements were complete; and, with +lances in rest, the opponents approached. In the first encounter, to the +amazement of all, Garcia was unhorsed, and fell heavily to the ground. + +"She is innocent! She is innocent!" shouted the multitude. + +"God be praised! though I have lost a son," was the subdued ejaculation +of the king. + +"I am prepared, in defense of the much-injured lady, to do combat to the +death," said the stranger knight. "Base and dastardly villain! confess +thy unnatural crime, or prepare to meet me once more, when I swear I +will not let thee escape so lightly." + +Garcia hesitated; he was evidently torn by conflicting emotions. +Conscious guilt--fear of the just retribution of Heaven, executed by the +stranger's avenging sword--urged him to confess his villainy. On the +other hand, apprehension of the execrations of the multitude, and the +indignation of his injured parents, restrained him from making a frank +avowal of his crime. + +"Remount, miscreant! and make ready for another encounter, or confess +that you have lied in your throat," exclaimed the stranger, sternly. + +Before Garcia could reply, an aged and venerable ecclesiastic threw +himself between the opponents. + +"In the name of Heaven! I command ye to withhold from this unnatural +strife," he exclaimed, addressing them; "brothers are ye; the blood of a +common father flows in your veins. Ramiro--forbear. Garcia--the combat +this day has testified to your guilt; make the only atonement in your +power, by a full confession." + +Ejaculations of astonishment and pity burst from all the spectators. +"Long live the noble bastard! The base-born has made base the well-born! +The step-son has proved the true son! Praise be to the Virgin, the +mother of the people has not been left without a godson to fight for +her!" And all the matrons, and many even of the hardened warriors among +the multitude, wept with tenderness and joy. + +In a few moments the agitated queen found herself in her husband's arms. +He implored her forgiveness for the sorrow she had endured; nor could +she withhold it, even for a moment, when she listened to the avowals of +the degraded Garcia, who confessed how, step by step, he had poisoned +his father's mind by tales of her infidelity, in revenge for her +refusal, and that of Pedro Sese, to intrust him with Sancho's favorite +charger, black Ilderim. + +Nuna turned from her abject son, and motioned her young champion to +approach. He knelt at her feet. + +"Ramiro," she softly said, as she unclasped the helmet and visor which +concealed the handsome features of Sancho's illegitimate son, "child of +my affections, for whom I have ever felt a mother's love, though I have +not borne for thee a mother's pains; how shall I thank thee? Thou hast +this day more than repaid the tenderness I lavished on thy infant years. +Thou hast made clear my fair fame to all men; even at the risk of thy +own young life." + +"I would lay down life itself for such a friend as you have been, and +esteem the sacrifice light," rejoined Ramiro, with deep emotion. "I +remember my childish days--before you came to Navarre, a bright, happy, +innocent bride--when I wandered through my father's palace an unloved +and neglected boy; and I can recall vividly the moment when you first +encountered me, and, struck by the resemblance I bore to the king, +surmised the truth. Instead of hating me with the unjust aversion of an +ungenerous nature, you took the despised child to your heart, and, for +the love you bore your lord, you loved and cherished his base-born son. +For the genial atmosphere you created around me, and in which my +affections expanded, and for the care you have bestowed on my +education, I owe you a debt of gratitude far deeper than ever child bore +his own mother. Nature dictates maternal love, in the one instance--but +it is to the suggestions of a noble and generous heart that I have been +indebted for the happiness of my life. You owe me no thanks--for, for +such a friend no sacrifice can be too great." + +Nuna turned to the king; and, taking his hand in hers, placed it on the +head of her young champion. "I have brought you kingdoms as my dower," +she said, "but I have not, alas! brought you a son so worthy as Ramiro +of being their ruler. I freely forgive the Infante the suffering he has +caused me, and hope that, with advancing years, he will cultivate the +virtues in which he has shown himself to be deficient. But Ramiro has +already given evidence of the possession of those exalted qualities +which insure the happiness of a people when possessed by their rulers. +Invest him then, at my entreaty, with the crown of Arragon; receive back +to your confidence our faithful Pedro Sese; and suffer me to forget my +past griefs in the anticipation of a love which shall never again be +interrupted." + +The king raised his hand in assent; and the assembled multitude +confirmed the investiture with one mighty shout--"Ramiro! Ramiro! long +live Ramiro! Infante of Arragon!" + + + + +THE FARM-LABORER.--THE SON. + +BY HARRIET MARTINEAU. + + +It has been told that Susan Banks found herself well placed, after the +death of her insane aunt obliged her to look for a home and a +maintenance. As I am not telling her story, I will pass over the account +of the efforts she made to be a schoolmistress, and the instruction she +had as a dressmaker. She was in poor health (reduced by hunger) and in +debt L3 to her uncle, and nervous and anxious, when she heard that a +lady from the North, then visiting in the neighborhood, wanted just such +a maid as Susan thought she could become with a little teaching. She +obtained the place, took pains to learn to wait at table, &c., and +within a year had paid her debt to her uncle, and spared L2 besides to +her family; and all this, though her box had had but few clothes in it +when she went to her new home. + +At the end of a year, her employer, Miss Foote, began to think of +cultivating the small portion of land about the house which had hitherto +been let off for grazing, and which was deteriorating in quality from +the mismanagement of the tenant. Not approving of the methods of tillage +in the neighborhood, and knowing that there were no spare hands there, +Miss Foote wrote to a parish officer in Susan's and her own native +county, to ask if a laborer of good character and sound qualifications +could be sent to her by the parish, on her engaging to pay him twelve +shillings a week for a year and a half, while her experiment of +cultivation was under trial; and longer, if it should be found to +answer. This was all she could undertake, as she could not afford to +carry on the scheme at a loss. The answer was some time in coming. When +it came, it told that pauper laborers could not be recommended; but a +better sort of laborer might be sent, and his place in the parish would +be filled, only too easily, by some of the young men from the workhouse. +The proposal was to send the very best man of his class known to the +parish officers. He and his wife had money enough in the savings' bank +to pay their journey, and they were willing to make the venture. The +man's name was Harry Banks. Miss Foote took the letter into the kitchen, +and read it to Susan and her fellow-servant. When Susan heard the name, +she started as if she had been shot, and screamed out, "Why, that's my +brother!" Thus far, far away from home, she was to have a brother and +his wife beside her, living in the pretty little cottage which was +building behind the oak copse for the new laborer. Miss Foote inquired +about the wife, but could learn little. Susan told nothing but that she +was a respectable woman, but so old, and otherwise unsuitable, that it +was a vexation to the family that Harry had made such a marriage. Harry +never seemed to see a single fault in her; but his father and mother did +not like Dinah at all. + +When Miss Foote afterward came to know the whole, she thought this +marriage the most terribly significant part of the whole family history +of the Bankses. At thirty years of age Harry was a pattern of a +farm-laborer; yet he had no prospect in life but of earning a precarious +nine shillings a week, till he should be too old to earn so much. He +worked for a rich, close-fisted Dissenting gentleman, who had always +pious sayings on his lips and at the point of his pen, but never took +off his eye for an instant from his money gains and savings. His wife +was like him, and their servants grew like them--even the warm-hearted, +impetuous Harry, and much more Dinah, their worn out maid-of-all-work. +Dinah always said that the register of her birth was unfortunately lost, +and she could not tell precisely how old she was; and she called herself +"upwards o' forty." Most people supposed her about sixty when she +married. She used to tell Harry that she was the prettiest girl in the +city when she was young, and Harry did not ask how long ago that was, +nor look too much at the little wizened face, not more marked by +small-pox than by signs of over-exhausting toil. Whatever might be her +age, she was worn out by excessive work. When Harry's father heard that +she and Harry were going before the registrar to be married, he kindly +and seriously asked Harry if he had considered what he was about; and +Harry's reply was enough to make any heart ache. + +"Yes, father, I have. I'm not so very much set on it; but I think it +will be most comfortable. You see, there's no use in people like us +thinking of having children. Children would only starve us downright, +and bring us to the Union. You see, none of us are married, nor likely +to be, except me with Dinah. She's clean and tidy, you see, and she has +some wages laid by, and so have I; and so nobody need find fault. And I +shall be more comfortable like, with somebody to do for me at home; +and--" + +And he was going on to tell how Dinah would cook his dinner and mend his +clothes, but his father could not bear to hear him, and finished off +with saying that it was his own affair, and he wished them well. + +It was within a year after their marriage that Harry was engaged, by +Miss Foote. In great glee he made haste to prepare himself for his +important new place in every way he could think of. He learned to trim a +vine, not knowing that the place he was going to was too far north for +vine-growing. He made interest with a butcher to learn how to kill a +pig. He made a little collection of superior cabbage and turnip seeds, +seed potatoes, &c., thus proving to Miss Foote at the outset that he had +plenty of energy and quickness. She found, too, that he had courage. His +employers, vexed to lose two servants whom they had trained to excessive +economy, as well as hard work, did every thing that was possible, while +there was any chance of success, to frighten them from moving northward. +They told Dinah, with mournful countenances, that they should certainly +die--that it was all the same as being transported--that it was cruelty +in the parish officers to let them be tempted. Dinah repeated all this +to Harry; and it staggered him at first; but he presently remembered +that Susan wrote that her health had improved; and her letters had not +only contained post-office orders, but plain signs that she was very +happy. Harry determined to proceed; and when he had once made up his +mind, his employers showed themselves very kind--helping their +preparations, and having them to dinner on the last day. + +By their own account their journey must have been a curious affair. +Their heads were so full of notions of thieves and sharpers, that they +did every thing in the slyest way, and wrapped themselves in mystery, +and pretended to despise their boxes, while in one continued agony about +them. When met by a kind gentleman who was to see them through London, +Dinah pretended not to be the right person, lest the gentleman should +not be the right; so that it was lucky they did lose his help +altogether. Miss Foote was disagreeably impressed by their account of +their great slyness, and not less by the suspicious temper--natural, +perhaps, to Dinah, but not at all so to Harry--in which they began their +new mode of life. Dinah was no servant of hers; so she had nothing to do +with Dinah's ways, but to check the jealousy and suspicion she showed of +her young sister-in-law and the young cook. On occasion of leaving home +for some weeks, the lady took the opportunity of intimating to the +people at the cottage that there was a perfect understanding between +the girls and herself, as perfect a confidence as there can be between +mother and daughters; that their acquaintances came by her permission, +and so forth. Harry promised to be attentive and sociable with his +sister, and not to grow hot with the cook about how to feed the fowls +and manage the churn. That was the time when Dinah left off peeping +through the laurels to see who went to the back door, and looking +mysterious and sympathetic when holding forth to Miss Foote about young +people. Still it was long before she left off locking her door and +hiding the key, if she turned her back for a minute, and taking every +body she did not know for a thief. She was left to her own notions; but +with Harry a serious remonstrance was necessary, more than once, within +the first year of his new service. Miss Foote was as much annoyed as +amused with his higgling ways, all in zeal for her interests. She feared +that she should have the reputation in the neighborhood of being a +perfect miser, so wonderful were Harry's stories of the bargains he +attempted to drive. She told him she hoped he would never succeed in any +one such bargain as the many he told her of; and she laid her positive +commands upon him never, in her name, to beat down the seller of any +article she sent him to buy. As she supposed, she found he had caught up +the trick from example, and had not the knowledge whereby to remedy it. +When she told him it was not the way of the place to cheat in making +charges he shook his head, and very nearly put his tongue in his cheek; +but when she explained to him how prices came to be, and how an article +can not properly be bought for less than it took to make or grow it, he +was convinced at once, and his higgling method was softened down into a +mere excessive strictness and vigilance in buying and selling +transactions. There never was any real meanness about the man. In a few +months he sent his father ten shillings; in a few months more he sent +him L1. A small anecdote will show better than this, that money is not +naturally the first object with him. When his employer kills a pig he is +allowed to take a quarter at wholesale price, and Dinah cures the ham so +well that by selling it they get their bacon for next to nothing. One +autumn, when two pigs were killed, there was such a scramble for them, +and so many neighbors would be "hurt in their feelings" if they could +not have a portion, that Miss Foote found herself left with two gammons, +but no ham. Harry heard this in the kitchen. He kept silence till his +ham was finely cured, and then, touching his hat as if asking a favor, +he told his employer that she had done good things for him, and he had +never been able to do any for her, and he should be much pleased if she +would take the ham for what he gave for it. Though not agreeing to this +exactly, Miss Foote found herself obliged to take the ham very cheap. + +Another small incident showed the same gentlemanly spirit. At the time +when his whole soul was engrossed with the desire to make "the +experiment" answer, he had a request to present, as often during a whole +winter as he could edge it in. There was a certain long, ugly hedge, +pernicious in every way, which divided the field from a neighbor's. The +hedge belonged to the neighbor; and it appeared that he would be +heartily glad to give it away to any body who would take it down and put +up some fence which would cover less ground and harbor less vermin. +Harry was so eager to be allowed to remove the hedge, that Miss Foote at +last told him that she should never have dreamed of his undertaking such +a job in addition to his regular work; but that he might please himself. +She would put up a new fence if he chose to make way for it. He did it +with no help but in felling some pollards. One afternoon, when wheeling +up hill an enormous load of wood from the hedge, he heard himself +laughed at from the next field. Now, no man winces more under a laugh +than Harry; yet he bore it well this time. Some men called out mockingly +that he was doing horse's work and man's work at once, and they would +not do that to please any body. "No," said Harry, turning full round +toward them, "nor, I neither. Miss Foote never asked me to do this. I do +it to please myself." + +No man, I have said, winces under a laugh more than Harry; and his only +suffering worth mentioning, since he came to his new place, has been +from this dislike of ridicule. When the cottage was ready, Miss Foote +proposed a house-warming, and invited herself and her two maids there to +tea. It was a particularly pleasant evening, with a fine fire, and +plenty of light, and good tea and cake, and all the five in capital +spirits. Harry was made to take the arm-chair by his own fireside; and +when he began to crack his jokes it appeared that he had his own notions +of the ridiculous. He quizzed his nearest neighbor, an old man, who had +married a comparatively young woman, and whose children were forever +playing about Miss Foote's gate. When Harry joked about that unequal +match, Miss Foote could not laugh. She thought his own infinitely worse. +And the poor fellow soon saw that others were quizzing him, much more +severely than he had quizzed the old man. He looks grave about Dinah +now, and has left off talking of his own prudence in making such a +marriage. He has also told his sister that when Dinah dies he shall not +marry again. It is very painful; and yet Dinah is improved beyond all +that could have been anticipated. She has put off her false front, and +lets her grizzled hair appear. She no longer scans Miss Foote's face to +make out what it would be most acceptable that she should say, but +rattles away about her affairs with a sort of youthful glee. She no +longer speaks in a whining tone, but lets her voice take its own way. +One day she leaned on her rake (when she was trimming her own +flower-bed), and told Miss Foote, without any canting whatever, that she +had quite changed her mind about the maids since she came. She was +looking too far then, and so did not see what they were; but she found +in time that there was no slyness or pretense, but that they were really +good faithful girls, working for their employer's good, and with no +plots of their own. Old as Dinah seemed to be, there appears to be a +chance of her growing ingenuous and agreeable before she dies. The +gentry who come to the house observe that they never saw two people so +altered as Harry and Dinah; that they seem to have got new faces, a new +gait--a new mind. + +Harry had other ridicule to wince about. The neighbors laughed at him +and his employer about their whole plan; they had never heard of keeping +cows on less than three acres per cow, or, at least, five acres for two; +they had never seen such deep digging; they had never known any body +take the trouble to remove stones, or do any thing but bury them out of +sight; they had never seen a currycomb used to a cow; they had never +known a hardworking man so poor-spirited as to be a water-drinker. The +milk must cost Miss Foote 6_d._ a quart; the cow would die; Harry would +wear himself out; and so forth. One day, the first winter, the cow was +very ill. Between the fear of the experiment being given up, and love +for the creature, and dread of the neighbors, Harry was wretched. The +tears streamed down his face as he waited on the sick beast. She got +well, however; and now Harry meets ridicule with a bolder face. A +temperance society having been set up in the place, he has joined it, +though far above all temptation to drink. He finds it a convenience, +when pressed to drink, to cut the matter short by saying that he is a +pledged member--and a curious temperance preacher he is. When told +lately that his cows would rot under his method of treatment, his answer +was: "No, it isn't they that will rot. I'll tell you who 'tis that will +rot; 'tis them that put filthy spirits into their stomachs to turn their +brains, that will rot, and not my cows, that drink sweet water." + +There is a grave side to Harry's lot now, happy as he is. He looks +serious and hurt at times, though his health has much strengthened, his +earnings are sure, his wages are raised, his Sunday dress is like that +of a gentleman, there is meat on his table daily, and he has had the +comfort of assisting his parents. Notwithstanding all this, a cloud +comes over his face at times. As his sister says, "he feels the _injury_ +of his want of education." His mind is opening very rapidly. At any +spare quarter of an hour he lectures Miss Foote on industry, temperance, +duty to parents, and other good topics. The moral discoveries he has +made are wonderful to him. He has attended church all his life; but +truths come with new force into his mind when they enter through the +spirit of hope and the medium of success. He says "it was wonderful the +ideas that come into a man's mind when he sets himself a-thinking over +his work, and there is no care to take up his thoughts." Hence the +brightened countenance which the neighbors remark on: but hence, too, +the bitter regret at his wasted years of school life--at "the _injury_ +of his want of education." What might he not hope to be and do now, +Susan says, if he had but the knowledge that every man may be said to +have the right to be possessed of? Yet, the good fellow has raised his +family to a point of comfort. A gentleman who heard of his merits, as a +first-rate laborer, wrote to the same parish officers, to inquire if +there were any brothers. There was Tom; and Tom is now in a happy +situation, highly esteemed by his employer, and earning 14_s._ a week. +The employer, finding that Tom sadly missed intercourse with his family, +and knowing that he could neither read nor write letters, sent for the +sister, Lizzy, to be under-nursemaid in the family. In another way Harry +has done a deeper and wider good. Miss Foote's friends tell her that his +example is beginning to _tell_ in the neighborhood; his example, not +only of strenuous and skillful labor, but by integrity, temperance, and +disinterested attachment to his employer. + +All this is well--very pleasant to contemplate--but a disturbing +question arises in the midst of it: What can society say to these +excellent young men in excuse for their deprivation of family life? And +again, what is at best their prospect for old age? + + + + +(From Bentley's Miscellany.) + +A CHAPTER ON WOLVES. + +BY THE AUTHOR OF "LORD BACON IN ADVERSITY," ETC. + + We rustled through the leaves like wind, + Left shrubs and trees and wolves behind; + By night I beard them on the track, + Their troop came hard upon our back, + With their long gallop, which can tire + The hounds' deep hate and hunter's fire; + Where'er we flew, they followed on, + Nor left us with the morning sun. + Behind I saw them, scarce a rood + At daybreak winding through the wood, + And through the night had heard their feet, + Their stealing, rustling step repeat. + Oh! how I wished for spear or sword + At least to die amidst the horde, + And perish--if it must be so-- + At bay, destroying many a foe! + _Mazeppa._ + + +A peculiar interest attaches to the wolf, from the close analogy which +in all its essential features it presents to the faithful companion of +man. So close indeed is the analogy, that some of the ablest zoologists, +the celebrated John Hunter included, have entertained the opinion that +dogs, in all their varieties, and wolves, have descended from a common +stock. With the exception of an obliquity in the position of the eyes, +there is no appreciable anatomical difference between these animals. The +question is one of difficulty; but we believe we are correct in stating +that the majority of the highest authorities agree in the belief that +these animals are not derived from a common parent, but were originally +distinct, and will ever so continue. There are several species of wild +dogs known, quite distinct from the wolf; and although the opportunities +have been numerous for dogs resuming their pristine form, by long +continuance in a savage state, no instance has ever occurred of their +becoming wolves, however much they might degenerate from the domestic +breed. The honest and intelligent shepherd-dog was regarded by Buffon as +the "_fons et origo_," from which all other dogs, great and small, have +sprung; and he drew up a kind of genealogical table, showing how +climate, food, education, and intermixture of breeds gave rise to the +varieties. At Katmandoo there are many plants found in a wild state, +which man has carried with him in his migrations, and wild animals, +which may present the typical forms whence some of our domestic races +have been derived; among these is a wild dog, which Mr. Hodgson +considers to be the primitive species of the whole canine race. By +Professor Kretchner, the jackal was regarded as the type of the dogs of +ancient Egypt, an idea supported by the representations on the walls of +the temples. This question, however, of the origin of the canine race, +is so thoroughly obscured by the mists of countless ages, as to be +incapable of direct proof. Philosophers may indulge themselves with +speculations; but in the absence of that keystone, proof, the matter +must rest on the basis of theory alone. + +The following are some of the chief differences between wolves, wild +dogs, and domestic dogs. The ears of the wild animals are always +pricked, the lop or drooping ear being essentially a mark of +civilization; with very rare exceptions, their tails hang more or less +and are bushy, the honest cock of the tail so characteristic of a +respectable dog, being wanting. This is certainly the rule; but, curious +enough, the Zoological Gardens contain at the present moment, a +Portuguese female wolf which carries her tail as erect and with as bold +an air as any dog. Wolves and wild dogs growl, howl, yelp, and cry most +discordantly, but with one exception, do not bark; that exception being +the wild hunting-dog of South Africa, which, according to Mr. Cumming, +has three distinct cries; one is peculiarly soft and melodious, but +distinguishable at a great distance: this is analogous to the +trumpet-call, "halt and rally," of cavalry, serving to collect the +scattered pack when broken in hot chase. A second cry, which has been +compared to the chattering of monkeys, is emitted at night when the dogs +are excited; and the third note is described as a sharp, angry bark, +usually uttered when they behold an object they can not make out, but +which differs from the true, well-known bark of the domestic dog. + +The common or European wolf is found from Egypt to Lapland, and is most +probably the variety that formerly haunted these islands. The wolves of +Russia are large and fierce, and have a peculiarly savage aspect. The +Swedish and Norwegian are similar to the Russian in form, but are +lighter in color, and in winter, totally white. Those of France are +browner and smaller than either of these, and the Alpine wolves are +smaller still. Wolves are very numerous in the northern regions of +America; "their foot-marks," says Sir John Richardson, "may be seen by +the side of every stream, and a traveler can rarely pass the night in +these wilds without hearing them howling around him."[1] These wolves +burrow, and bring forth their young in earths with several outlets, like +those of a fox. Sir John saw none with the gaunt appearance, the long +jaw and tapering nose, long legs and slender feet, of the Pyrenean +wolves. + +India, too, is infested with wolves, which are smaller than the +European. There is a remarkably fine animal at the Zoological Gardens, +born of a European father and Indian mother, which, in size and other +respects, so closely partakes of the characteristics of his sire, that +he might well pass for pure blood. + +Among the ancients, wolves gave rise to many superstitious fictions. For +instance, it was said that they possessed "an evil eye," and that, if +they looked on a man before he saw them, he would forthwith lose his +voice. Again, we find the Roman witches, like the weird sisters of +Macbeth, employing the wolf in their incantations: + + "Utque lupi barbam variae cum dente colubrae + Abdiderint furtim terris." + + HOR. _Sat._ viii. lib. i. + +There was a myth prevalent among the ancients, that in Arcadia there +lived a certain family of the Antaei, of which one was ever obliged to be +transformed into a wolf. The members of the family cast lots, and all +accompanied the luckless wight on whom the lot fell, to a pool of water. +This he swam over, and having entered into the wilderness on the other +side, was forthwith in form, a wolf, and for nine years kept company +with wolves: at the expiration of that period he again swam across the +pool, and was restored to his natural shape, only that the addition of +nine years was placed upon his features. It was also imagined that the +tail of the wolf contained a hair, which acted as a love philtre and +excited the tender passion. The myth of Romulus and Remus having been +suckled by a wolf, arose from the simple circumstance of their nurse +having been named Lupa--an explanation which sadly does away with the +garland of romance that so long surrounded the story of the founders of +Rome. The figure of the wolf at one time formed a standard for the Roman +legions, as saith Pliny, "Caius Marius, in his second consulship, +ordained that the legions of Roman soldiers only should have the egle +for their standard, and no other signe, for before time the egle +marched foremost indeed, but in a ranke of foure others, to wit, +wolves, minotaures, horses, and bores."[2] + +The dried snout of a wolf held, in the estimation of the ancients, the +same rank that a horseshoe does now with the credulous. It was nailed +upon the gates of country farms, as a counter-charm against the evil +eye, and was supposed to be a powerful antidote to incantations and +witchcraft. New-married ladies were wont, upon their wedding-day, to +anoint the side-posts of their husbands' houses with wolves' grease, to +defeat all demoniac arts. These animals bore, however, but a bad +character when alive; for, exclusive of their depredations, it was +imagined that if horses chanced to tread in the foot-tracks of wolves, +their feet were immediately benumbed; but Pliny also says, "Verily, the +great master teeth and grinders of a wolf being hanged about an horse +necke, cause him that he shall never tire and be weary, be he put to +never so much running in any race whatsoever." When a territory was much +infested with wolves, the following ceremony was performed with much +solemnity and deep subsequent carousal: A wolf would be caught alive, +and his legs carefully broken. He was then dragged around the confines +of the farm, being bled with a knife from time to time, so that the +blood might sprinkle the ground. Being generally dead when the journey +had been completed, he was buried in the very spot whence he had started +on his painful race. + +There was scarcely a filthy thing upon the earth, or under the earth, +which the ancients did not in some way use medicinally; and we find +Paulus AEgineta recommends the dry and pounded liver of a wolf, steeped +in sweet wine, as a sovereign remedy for diseases of the liver, &c. + +Our English word _wolf_ is derived from the Saxon _wulf_ and from the +same root, the German _wolf_, the Swedish _ulf_, and Danish _ulv_ are +probably derived. Wolves were at one time a great scourge to this +country, the dense forests which formerly covered the land favoring +their safety and their increase. Edgar applied himself seriously to rid +his subjects of this pest, by commuting the punishment of certain crimes +into the acceptance of a number of wolves' tongues from each criminal; +and in Wales by commuting a tax of gold and silver imposed on the +Princes of Cambria by Ethelstan, into an annual tribute of three hundred +wolves' heads, which Jenaf, Prince of North Wales, paid so punctually, +that by the fourth year the breed was extinct. Not so, however, in +England, for like ill weeds, they increased and multiplied here, +rendering necessary the appointment, in the reign of the first Edward, +of a _wolf-hunter_ general, in the person of one Peter Corbet; and his +majesty thought it not beneath his dignity to issue a mandamus, bearing +date May 14th, 1281, to all bailiffs, &c., to aid and assist the said +Peter in the destruction of wolves in the counties of Gloucester, +Worcester, Hereford, Shropshire, and Stafford; and Camden informs us +that in Derby, lands were held at Wormhill by the duty of hunting and +taking the wolves that infested that county. In the reign of Athelstan, +these pests had so abounded in Yorkshire, that a retreat was built at +Flixton in that county, "to defend passengers from the wolves that they +should not be devoured by them." Our Saxon ancestors also called +January, when wolves pair, _wolf-moneth_; and an outlaw was termed +_wolfshed_, being out of the protection of the law, and as liable to be +killed as that destructive beast. + +A curious notice of the existence of wolves and foxes in Scotland is +afforded in Bellenden's translation of Boetius.[3] "The wolffis are +right noisome to tame beastial in all parts of Scotland, except one part +thereof, named Glenmorris, in which the tame beastial gets little damage +of wild beastial, especially of tods (foxes); for each house nurses a +young tod certain days, and mengis (mixes) the flesh thereof, after it +be slain, with such meat as they give to their fowls or other small +beasts, and so many as eat of this meat are preserved two months after +from any damage of tods; for tods will eat no flesh that gusts of their +own kind." The last wolf killed in Scotland is said to have fallen by +the hand of Sir Ewen Cameron, about 1680; and singular to say, the skin +of this venerable quadruped may yet be in existence: in a catalogue of +Mr. Donnovan's sale of the London Museum, in April, 1818, there occurs +the following item, "Lot 832. Wolf, a noble animal in a large glass +case. The last wolf killed in Scotland, by Sir E. Cameron." It would be +interesting to know what became of this lot. + +The pairing time is January, when after many battles with rivals, the +strongest males attach themselves to the females. The female wolf +prepares a warm nest for her young, of soft moss and her own hair, +carefully blended together. The cubs are watched by the parents with +tender solicitude, are gradually accustomed to flesh, and when +sufficiently strong their education begins, and they are taken to join +in the chase; not the least curious part is the discipline by which they +are inured to suffering and taught to bear pain without complaint; their +parents are said to bite, maltreat, and drag them by the tail, punishing +them if they utter a cry, until they have learned to be mute. To this +quality Macaulay alludes when speaking of a wolf in his "Prophecy of +Capys:" + + "When all the pack, loud baying, + Her bloody lair surrounds, + She dies in silence, biting hard, + Amidst the dying hounds." + +It is curious to observe the cunning acquired by wolves in well +inhabited districts, where they are eagerly sought for destruction; they +then never quit cover to windward: they trot along just within the edges +of the wood until they meet the wind from the open country, and are +assured by their keen scent that no danger awaits them in that +quarter--then they advance, keeping under cover of hedgerows as much as +possible, moving in single file and treading in each other's track; +narrow roads they bound across, without leaving a footprint. When a wolf +contemplates a visit to a farmyard, he first carefully reconnoitres the +ground, listening, snuffing up the air, and smelling the earth; he then +springs over the threshold without touching it and seizes on his prey. +In retreat his head is low, turned obliquely, with one ear forward the +other back, and the eyes glaring. He trots crouching, his brush +obliterating the track of his feet till at some distance from the scene +of his depredation, then feeling himself secure, he waves his tail erect +in triumph, and boldly pushes on to cover. + +In northern India, wolves together with jackals and pariah dogs, prowl +about the dwellings of Europeans. Colonel Hamilton Smith relates a +curious accident which befell a servant who was sleeping in a verandah +with his head near the outer lattice: a wolf thrust his jaws between the +bamboo, seized the man by the head, and endeavored to drag him through; +the man's shrieks awakened the whole neighborhood, and assistance came, +but though the wolf was struck at by many, he escaped. Wolves have even +been known to attack sentries when single, as in the last campaign of +the French armies in the vicinity of Vienna, when several of the +videttes were carried off by them. During the retreat of Napoleon's army +from Russia, wolves of the Siberian race followed the troops to the +borders of the Rhine; specimens of these wolves shot in the vicinity, +and easily distinguishable from the native breed, are still preserved in +the museums of Neuwied, Frankfort, and Cassel. + +Captain Lyon[4] relates the following singular instance of the cunning +of a wolf which had been caught in a trap, and, being to all appearance +dead, was dragged on board ship: "The eyes, however, were observed to +wink whenever an object was placed near them, some precautions were, +therefore, considered necessary, and the legs being tied the animal was +hoisted up with his head downward. He then, to our surprise, made a +vigorous spring at those near him, and afterward repeatedly turned +himself upward so as to reach the rope by which he was suspended, +endeavoring to gnaw it asunder, and making angry snaps at the persons +who prevented him. Several heavy blows were struck on the back of his +neck, and a bayonet was thrust through him, yet above a quarter of an +hour elapsed before he died." + +Hearne, in his journey to the Northern Ocean, says, that the wolves +always burrow under ground at the breeding season, and though it is +natural to suppose them very fierce at those times, yet he has +frequently seen the Indians go to their dens, take out the cubs and play +with them. These they never hurt, and always scrupulously put them in +the den again, although they occasionally painted their faces with +vermilion and red ochre, in strange and grotesque patterns. + +This statement is supported by incidents which have occurred in this +metropolis; there was a bitch wolf in the Tower Menagerie, which, though +excessively fond of her cubs, suffered the keepers to handle them, and +even remove them from the den, without evincing the slightest symptom +either of anger or alarm; and a still more remarkable instance is +related from observation, by Mr. Bell: "There was a wolf at the +Zoological Gardens (says that able naturalist) which would always come +to the front bars of the den as soon as I or any other person whom she +knew, approached; she had pups, too, and so eager, in fact, was she that +her little ones should share with her in the notice of her friends, that +she killed all of them in succession by rubbing them against the bars of +her den as she brought them forward to be fondled." + +During the last year, 8807 wolves' skins were imported by the Hudson's +Bay Company from their settlements; of which 8784 came from the York +Fort and Mackenzie River stations; we recently had the opportunity of +examining the stock, and found it principally composed of white wolves' +skins from the Churchill River, with black and gray skins of every +shade. The most valuable are from animals killed in the depth of winter, +and of these, the white skins, which are beautifully soft and fine, are +worth about thirty shillings apiece, and are exported to Hungary, where +they are in great favor with the nobles as trimming for pelisses and +hussar jackets; the gray wolves' skins are worth from three shillings +and sixpence upward, and are principally exported to America and the +North of Europe, to be used as cloak-linings. + +Colonel H. Smith mentions a curious instance of the treacherous ferocity +of the wolf. A butcher at New York had brought up, and believed he had +tamed, a wolf, which he kept for above two years chained up in the +slaughterhouse, where it lived in a complete superabundance of blood and +offal. One night, having occasion for some implement which he believed +was accessible in the dark, he went into this little Smithfield without +thinking of the wolf. He was clad in a thick frieze coat, and while +stooping to grope for what he wanted, he heard the chain rattle, and in +a moment was struck down by the animal springing upon him. Fortunately, +a favorite cattle-dog had accompanied his master, and rushed forward to +defend him: the wolf had hold of the man's collar, and being obliged to +turn in his own defense, the butcher had time to draw a large knife, +with which he ripped his assailant open. The same able writer relates an +incident which occurred to an English gentleman, holding a high public +situation in the peninsula, during a wolf-hunt in the mountains, near +Madrid. The sportsmen were placed in ambush, and the country-people +drove the game toward them; presently an animal came bounding upward +toward this gentleman, so large that he took it, while driving through +the high grass and bushes, for a donkey; it was a wolf, however, whose +glaring eyes meant mischief, but, scared by the click of the rifle, he +turned and made his escape, though a bullet whistled after him; at the +close of the hunt seven were found slain, and so large were they that +this gentleman, though of uncommon strength, could not lift one entirely +from the ground. + +The wolf of America is at times remarkable for cowardice, though bold +enough when pressed by hunger, or with other wolves. Mr. R. C. Taylor, +of Philadelphia, states that this animal, when trapped, is silent, +subdued, and unresisting. He was present when a fine young wolf, about +fifteen months old, was taken by surprise, and suddenly attacked with a +club. The animal offered no resistance, but, crouching down in the +supplicating manner of a dog, suffered himself to be knocked on the +head. An old hunter told Mr. Taylor that he had frequently taken a wolf +out of the trap, and compelled it by a few blows to lie down by his +side, while he reset his trap. + +The Esquimaux wolf-trap is made of strong slabs of ice, long and so +narrow, that a fox can with difficulty turn himself in it, and a wolf +must actually remain in the position in which he is taken. The door is a +heavy portcullis of ice, sliding in two well-secured grooves of the same +substance, and is kept up by a line which, passing over the top of the +trap, is carried through a hole at the farthest extremity. To the end of +the line is fastened a small hoop of whale-bone, and to this any kind of +flesh bait is attached. From the slab which terminates the trap, a +projection of ice, or a peg of bone or wood, points inward near the +bottom, and under this the hoop is slightly hooked; the slightest pull +at the bait liberates it, the door falls in an instant, and the wolf is +speared where he lies. + +Sir John Richardson states that, when near the Copper Mines River in +North America, he had more than once an opportunity of seeing a single +wolf in pursuit of a reindeer, and especially on Point Lake, when +covered with ice, when a fine buck reindeer was overtaken by a large +white wolf, and disabled by a bite in the flank. An Indian, who was +concealed, ran in and cut the deer's throat with his knife, the wolf at +once relinquishing his prey and sneaking off. In the chase the poor deer +urged its flight by great bounds, which for a time exceeded the speed of +the wolf; but it stopped so frequently to gaze on its relentless enemy, +that the latter, toiling on at a long gallop (so admirably described by +Byron), with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, gradually came up. +After each hasty look, the deer redoubled its efforts to escape, but, +either exhausted by fatigue or enervated by fear, it became, just before +it was overtaken, scarcely able to keep its feet. + +Captain Lyon gives some interesting illustrations of the habits of the +wolves of Melville Peninsula, which were sadly destructive to his dogs. +"A fine dog was lost in the afternoon. It had strayed to the hummocks +ahead, without its master; and Mr. Elder, who was near the spot, saw +five wolves rush at, attack, and devour it, in an incredibly short space +of time: before he could reach the place, the carcass was torn in +pieces, and he found only the lower part of one leg. The boldness of the +wolves was altogether astonishing, as they were almost constantly seen +among the hummocks, or lying quietly, at no great distance, in wait for +the dogs. From all we observed, I have no reason to suppose that they +would attack a single unarmed man, both English and Esquimaux frequently +passing them, without a stick in their hands. The animals, however, +exhibited no symptoms of fear, but rather a kind of tacit agreement not +to be the beginners of a quarrel, even though they might have been +certain of proving victorious."[5] Another time, when pressed by hunger, +the wolves broke into a snow-hut, in which were a couple of +newly-purchased Esquimaux dogs, and carried the poor animals off, but +not without some difficulty; for even the ceiling of the hut was next +morning found sprinkled with blood and hair. When the alarm was given, +and the wolves were fired at, one of them was observed carrying a dead +dog in his mouth, clear of the ground, and going, with ease, at a +canter, notwithstanding the animal was of his own weight. It was curious +to observe the fear these dogs seemed, at times, to entertain of wolves. + +During Sir John Richardson's residence at Cumberland-house, in 1820, a +wolf, which had been prowling round the fort, was wounded by a +musket-ball, and driven off, but returned after dark, while the blood +was still flowing from its wound, and carried off a dog from among fifty +others, that had not the courage to unite in an attack on their enemy. +The same writer says, that he has frequently observed an Indian dog, +after being worsted in combat with a black wolf, retreat into a corner, +and howl, at intervals, for an hour together; these Indian dogs, also, +howl piteously when apprehensive of punishment, and throw themselves +into attitudes strongly resembling those of a wolf when caught in a +trap. + +Foxes are frequently taken in the pitfalls set for wolves, and seem to +possess more cunning. An odd incident is related by Mr. Lloyd: A fox was +lying at the bottom of a pitfall, apparently helpless, when a very stout +peasant, having placed a ladder, began to descend with cautious and +creaking steps to destroy the vermin. Reynard, however, thought he might +benefit by the ladder, as well as his corpulent visitor, and, just as +the latter reached the ground, jumped, first, on his stern, then, on his +shoulder, skipped out of the pit, and was off in a moment, leaving the +man staring and swearing at his impudent escape! + +Captain Lyon mentions an instance of the sagacity of the fox: he had +caught and tamed one of these animals, which he kept on deck, in a +small hutch, with a scope of chain. Finding himself repeatedly drawn out +of his hutch by this, the sagacious little fellow, whenever he retreated +within his castle, took the chain in his mouth, and drew it so +completely in after him, that no one, who valued his fingers, would +endeavor to take hold of the end attached to the staple. + +Mr. Lloyd mentions a curious contest that took place in the vicinity of +Uddeholm. A peasant had just got into bed, when his ears were assailed +by a tremendous uproar in his cattle-shed. On hearing this noise, he +jumped up, and, though almost in a state of nudity, rushed into the +building to see what was the matter: here he found an immense wolf, +which he gallantly seized by the ears, and called out most lustily for +assistance. His wife--the gallant Trulla--came to his aid, armed with a +hatchet, with which she severely wounded the wolf's head; but it was not +until she had driven the handle of the hatchet down the animal's throat, +that she succeeded in dispatching him. During the conflict, the man's +hands and wrists were bitten through and through; and, when seen by Mr. +Lloyd, the wounds were not healed. + +Like dogs, wolves are capable of strong attachment; but such instances +are comparatively rare: the most striking, perhaps, was that recorded by +M. Frederick Cuvier, as having come under his notice at the Menagerie du +Roi at Paris. The wolf in question was brought up as a young dog, became +familiar with persons he was in the habit of seeing, and, in particular, +followed his master every where, evincing chagrin at his absence, +obeying his voice, and showing a degree of submission scarcely +differing, in any respect, from that of the most thoroughly-domesticated +dog. His master, being obliged to be absent for a time, presented his +pet to the menagerie, where he was confined in a den. Here he became +disconsolate, pined, and would scarcely take food; at length, he was +reconciled to his new situation, recovered his health, became attached +to his keepers, and appeared to have forgotten "auld lang syne," when, +after the lapse of eighteen months, his old master returned. At the +first sound of his voice--that well-known, much-loved voice--the wolf, +which had not perceived him in a crowd of persons, exhibited the most +lively joy, and, being set at liberty, lavished upon him the most +affectionate caresses, just as the most attached dog would have done. +With some difficulty, he was enticed to his den. But a second separation +was followed by similar demonstrations of sorrow to the former; which, +however, again yielded to time. Three years passed away, and the wolf +was living happily with a dog which had been placed with him, when his +master again appeared--and again the long-lost, but well-remembered +voice, was instantly replied to by the most impatient cries, redoubled +as soon as the poor fellow was at liberty. Rushing to his master, he +placed his fore-feet on his shoulders, licking his face with every mark +of the most lively joy, and menacing the keepers who offered to remove +him. A third separation, however, took place, but it was too much for +the poor creature's temper: he became gloomy, refused his food, and, for +some time, it was feared he would die. Time, however, which blunts the +grief of wolves, as well as of men, brought comfort to his wounded +heart, and his health gradually returned; but, looking upon mankind as +false deceivers, he no longer permitted the caresses of any but his +keepers, manifesting to all strangers the savageness and moroseness of +his species. + +Another instance of the attachment of wolves is mentioned by Mr. Lloyd, +in his work on the Sports of the North. Mr. Greiff, who had studied the +habits of wild animals, for which his position, as _ofueerjaeg maestare_, +afforded peculiar facilities, says: "I reared up two young wolves until +they were full-grown: they were male and female. The latter became so +tame, that she played with me, and licked my hands, and I had her often +with me in the sledge, in winter. Once, when I was absent, she got loose +from the chain, and was away three days. When I returned home, I went +out on a hill, and called, 'where's my Tussa?' as she was named, when +she immediately came home, and fondled with me, like the most friendly +dog." + +Between the dog and the wolf there is a natural enmity, and those +animals seldom encounter each other on at all equal terms without a +combat taking place. Should the wolf prove victorious, he devours his +adversary, but if the contrary be the case, the dog leaves untouched the +carcass of his antagonist. + +The wolf feeds on the rat, hare, fox, badger, roebuck, stag, reindeer +and elk; likewise upon blackcock and capercali. He is possessed of great +strength, especially in the muscles of the neck and jaws, is said always +to seize his prey by the throat, and when it happens to be a large +animal, as the elk, he is often dragged for a considerable distance. + +After a deep fall of snow the wolf is unusually ferocious; if he +besmears himself with the blood of a victim, or is so wounded that blood +flows, it is positively asserted that his companions will instantly kill +and devour him. + +In the year 1799 a peasant at Frederickshall in Norway was looking out +of his cottage window, when he espied a large wolf enter his premises +and seize one of his goats. At this time he had a child of eighteen +months old in his arms; he incautiously laid her down in a small porch +fronting the house, and, catching hold of a stick, the nearest weapon at +hand, attacked the wolf, which was in the act of carrying off the goat. +The wolf dropped this, and getting sight of the child, in the twinkling +of an eye seized it, threw it across his shoulders, and was off like +lightning. He made good his escape, and not a vestige was ever seen of +the child. + +Wolves are found all over Scandinavia, but are most common in the +Midland and Northern Provinces of Sweden. Like "Elia," they are very +partial to young pig, a failing taken advantage of by sportsmen thus: +they sew up in a sack a small porker, leaving only his snout free, and +place him in a sledge, to the back of which is fastened by a rope about +fifty feet long, a small bundle of straw, covered with black sheep skin; +this, when the sledge is in motion, dangles about like a young pig. + +During a very severe winter a party started in the vicinity of +Forsbacka, well provided with guns, &c. On reaching a likely spot they +pinched the pig, which squealed lustily, and, as they anticipated, soon +drew a multitude of famished wolves about the sledge. When these had +approached within range the party opened fire on them, and shot several; +all that were either killed or wounded were quickly torn to pieces and +devoured by their companions, but the blood with which the ravenous +beasts had now glutted themselves only served to make them more savage +than before, and, in spite of the fire kept up by the party, they +advanced close to the sledge, apparently determined on making an instant +attack. To preserve the party, therefore, the pig was thrown to the +wolves, which had for a moment the effect of diverting their attention. +While this was going forward, the horse, driven to desperation by the +near approach of the wolves, struggled and plunged so violently that he +broke the shafts to pieces, galloped off, and made good his escape. The +pig was devoured, and the wolves again threatened to attack the +sportsmen. The captain and his friends finding matters had become +serious, turned the sledge bottom up and took shelter beneath it, in +which position they remained many hours, the wolves making repeated +attempts to get at them by tearing the sledge with their teeth, but at +length the party were relieved by friends from then perilous position. + +Lieutenant Oldenburg once witnessed a curious occurrence. He was +standing near the margin of a large lake which at that time was frozen +over. At some little distance from the land a small aperture had been +made for the purpose of procuring water, and at this hole a pig was +drinking. While looking toward the horizon, the lieutenant saw a mere +speck or ball, as it were, rapidly moving along the ice: presently this +took the form of a large wolf, which was making for the pig at top +speed. Lieutenant Oldenburg now seized his gun, and ran to the +assistance of the pig; but before he got up to the spot the wolf had +closed with the porker, which, though of large size, he tumbled over and +over in a trice. His attention was so much occupied, that Lieutenant +Oldenburg was able to approach within a few paces and dispatch him with +a shot. A piece as large as a man's foot had been torn out of the pig's +hind quarters; and he was so terribly frightened that he followed the +lieutenant home like a dog, and would not quit his heels for a moment. + +Mr. Lloyd mentions an incident that befell him, in consequence of swine +mistaking his dogs for wolves, to which they bear the most instinctive +antipathy. One day, in the depth of winter, accompanied by his Irish +servant, he struck into the forest, in the vicinity of Carlstadt, for +the purpose of shooting capercali. Toward evening they came to a small +hamlet, situated in the recesses of the forest. Here an old sow with her +litter were feeding; and immediately on seeing the two valuable pointers +which accompanied the sportsman, she made a determined and most +ferocious dash at them. The servant had a light spear in his hand, +similar to that used by our lancers. This Mr. Lloyd seized, and +directing Paddy to throw the dogs over a fence, received the charge of +the pig with a heavy blow across the snout with the butt end of the +spear. Nothing daunted, she made her next attack upon him; and, in +self-defense, he was obliged to give her a home thrust with the blade of +the spear. These attacks she repeated three several times, always +getting the spear up to the hilt in her head or neck. Then, and not +before, did she slowly retreat, bleeding at all points. The peasants, +supposing Mr. Lloyd to be the aggressor, assumed a very hostile aspect, +and it was only by showing a bold bearing, and menacing them with his +gun, that he escaped in safety. + +A poor soldier was one day, in the depth of winter, crossing the large +lake called Storsyoen, and was attacked by a drove of wolves. His only +weapon was a sword, with which he defended himself so gallantly, that he +killed and wounded several wolves, and succeeded in driving off the +remainder. After a time, he was again attacked by the same drove, but +was now unable to extricate himself from his perilous situation in the +same manner as before, for having neglected to wipe the blood from his +sword after the former encounter, it had become firmly frozen to the +scabbard. The ferocious beasts therefore, quickly closed with him, +killed and devoured him. If we remember aright, Captain Kincaid, the +present gallant Exon of the Yeoman Guard, nearly lost his life at +Waterloo, from a somewhat similar cause. He had been skirmishing all the +earlier part of the day with the Rifles, when a sudden charge of French +cavalry placed him in great danger. He essayed to draw his sabre, tugged +and tugged, but the trusty steel had become firmly rusted to the +scabbard; and we believe that he owed his life to an accidental +diversion of the attention of the attacking troopers. + +Closely resembling in many respects the wolf, the jackal is widely +spread over India, Asia, and Africa. These animals hunt in packs, and +there are few sounds more startling to the unaccustomed ear, than a +chorus of their cries. "We hardly know," says Captain Beechey, "a sound +which partakes less of harmony than that which is at present in +question; and, indeed, the sudden burst of the answering long protracted +scream, succeeding immediately to the opening note, is scarcely less +impressive than the roll of the thunder clap immediately after a flash +of lightning. The effect of this music is very much increased when the +first note is heard in the distance, a circumstance which often occurs, +and the answering yell bursts out from several points at once, within a +few yards or feet of the place where the auditors are sleeping." + +Poultry and the smaller animals, together with dead bodies, are the +ordinary food of jackals, but when rendered bold by hanger, they will +occasionally attack the larger quadrupeds and even man. + +A bold, undaunted presence and defiant aspect, generally proves the best +protection when an unarmed man is threatened by these or other animals, +but artifice is sometimes necessary. A ludicrous instance is related by +an old quartermaster (whom we knew some years ago), in a small volume of +memoirs. At Christmas, 1826, he was sent up the country to a mission, +about thirty-two miles from San Francisco. He and the others erected a +tent; after which they all lay down on the ground. "I slept like a top," +says he, "till four the next morning, at which time I was awakened by +the man whose duty it was to officiate as cook for the day, who told me +if I would go up the village and get a light, he would have a good +breakfast ready for the lads by the time they awoke. I must describe my +dress, for that very dress saved my life. Over the rest of my clothing, +as a seaman, I had a huge frock made from the skin of a reindeer. It was +long enough, when let down, to cover my feet well, and turned up at +foot, buttoning all round the skirt. At the top was a hood, made from +the skin, taken off the head of a bear, ears and all. In front was a +square lappel, which, in the day, hung loosely over the breast, but at +night, buttoned just behind the ears, leaving only the mouth, nose, and +eyes free for respiration, so that one, with such a dress, might lie +down any where and sleep, warm and comfortable. Mr. S---- had given +eight dollars for it in Kamtschatka, and, on our return to more genial +climes, forgot the future, and gave it to me. Fancy, then, my figure +thus accoutred, issuing from under the canvas tent, with a lantern in my +hand. I had not advanced twenty yards, when first only two or three, and +then an immense number of jackals surrounded me. I was at first disposed +to think but lightly of them: but seeing their numbers increase so +rapidly, I grew alarmed, and probably gave way to fear sooner than I +ought. A few shots from the tent would probably have sent them away with +speed, but no one saw me. Every moment they drew closer and closer in a +complete round, and seemed to look at me with determined hunger. For +some moments I remained in a most dreadful state of alarm. It just then +occurred to me that I once heard of a boy who had driven back a bull out +of a field by walking backward on his hands and feet. Fortunate thought! +I caught at the idea; in a moment I was on all fours, with my head as +near the earth as I could keep it, and commenced cutting all the capers +of which I was capable. The jackals, who no doubt had never seen so +strange an animal, first stopped, then retreated, and, as I drew near +the tent, flew in all directions. The men awoke just in time to see my +danger, and have a hearty laugh at me and the jackals." + +Our old friend was more fortunate than a certain youth who attempted to +rob an orchard by deluding a fierce bulldog with this approach _a +posteriori,_ but who, to his sorrow, found the dog too knowing, for he +carried to his dying day the marks of the guardian's teeth in that spot +where honor has its seat. + +The same quartermaster told us a quaint story of a fright another of the +crew received from these jackals. + +While at San Francisco the ship's crew were laying in a store of +provisions; a large tent was erected on shore for salting the meat; the +cooper lived in it, and hung up his hammock at one end. The beef which +had been killed during the day was also hung up all around, in readiness +for salting. One night a large pack of jackals came down from the woods, +and being attracted by the smell of the meat, soon got into the tent, +and pulling at one of the sides of beef, brought it down with a crash, +which woke the old cooper, who was a remarkably stout, and rather +nervous man. Finding himself thus surrounded in the dead of the night by +wild beasts, whose forms and size, dimly seen, were magnified by his +fears, he fired off his musket, and clasping his arms, in an agony of +terror, round a quarter of beef which hung close to his hammock, was +found perfectly senseless by an officer who came to see the cause of the +alarm. Some difficulty was experienced in getting him to relinquish his +hold of the beef--which he stuck to like a Briton--and it was several +days before his nerves recovered from the shock of the fright. + +The wolf and the jackal tribes are by no means without their use in the +economy of nature, though from their predatory habits they are justly +regarded as pests in the countries they infest: that they will disturb +the dead and rifle the graves is true, but they also clear away offal, +and with vultures, are the scavengers of hot countries; they follow on +the track of herds, and put a speedy end to the weak, the wounded, and +the dying; they are the most useful, though most disgusting of camp +followers, and after a battle, when thousands of corpses of men and +horses are collected within a limited space, they are of essential +service-- + + I stood in a swampy-field of battle, + With bones and skulls I made a rattle + To frighten the wolf and carrion crow + And the homeless dog--but they would not go; + So off I flew--for how could I bear + To see them gorge their dainty fare. + COLERIDGE. + +Revolting and heart-sickening though such scenes may be, the evil is +less than would result from the undisturbed decay of the dead: were that +to take place, the air would hang heavy with pestilence, and the winds +of heaven laden with noisome exhalations would carry death and +desolation far and near, rendering still more terrible the horrors and +calamities of war. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 62. + +[2] Holland's Plinie's Naturall Historie, ed. 1635 + +[3] Edit, Edin. 1541, quoted from Magazine of Natural History. + +[4] Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, 1824. + +[5] Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon, 1824. + + + + +A SPECIMEN OF RUSSIAN JUSTICE. + + +Among the French prisoners taken at the battle of Vitebsk, during +Napoleon's disastrous retreat in Prussia, was a French general, who was +accompanied by: his wife and daughter. Being badly wounded, he was +removed to the military hospital, but the ladies were received into the +private house of Madame Strognof, whose husband held, at that time, a +subordinate appointment under the Russian Government. + +A certain Botwinko was then procureur at Vitebsk. Without the +procureur's sanction nothing can be done in his department; for he +represents the emperor himself, and is usually called "the eye of His +Majesty." His salary is only about twenty-five pounds a year; but he +makes, usually, a good income by receiving bribes. Among other duties, +he had to visit the hospitals daily, and to report upon the condition of +the prisoner patients. He paid great attention to the unhappy general, +who required every consolation; for, despite his own deplorable +condition, it was decreed that he should outlive his wife. That lady +caught a contagious fever, which was raging at that time at Vitebsk, and +died in a few hours. This event so distressed the general that he soon +departed this world, with the only consolation, that Procureur Botwinko, +a married but childless man, would adopt his daughter. This promise was +actually fulfilled, and the little orphan was taken from Madame +Strognof, and established under the procureur's roof. Her parents' +property, consisting of a carriage, horses, jewelry, and no small sum of +ready money, was also taken possession of by Botwinko in quality of +guardian to the little orphan. + +As the girl, whom they called "Sophie," grew up, she became very +engaging, and was kindly treated by Mr. and Madame Botwinko. She never +lost an opportunity, when any visitors were in the procureur's house, of +praising her protectors for their kindness to her; and this, connected +with other circumstances, contributed to the promotion of Mr. Botwinko, +who obtained the more profitable situation of procureur-general at +Vilna, the capital of Lithuania. + +Removal from their old connections, and from those who knew all the +circumstances of little Sophie's history, produced a change in the +treatment of the new procureur-general and his wife toward the child. +Their kindness rapidly diminished. Sophie was not allowed to appear in +the drawing-rooms, in their new residence at Vilna. They incessantly +found fault with her; and, ultimately, she was not only sent to the +kitchen under the control of the cook, but, on the census of the +population being taken, in 1816, her name was inscribed on the books as +that of a serf. + +As the poor girl grew up she became used to the duties imposed upon +her. Associating constantly with the servants, they considered her their +equal, and taunted her when, relying on her infantine recollections, she +laid claim to noble descent, by calling her in derision "Mademoiselle +French General." She knew full well that she was entitled to better +treatment, and that, in the absence of paternal authority, she had the +right of disposing of herself according to her own will. A strong +inducement to alter her condition was presented in the person of a young +clerk in a government office, whose duty sometimes brought him with +papers to the procureur for signature. While Botwinko was engaged with +his breakfast and the perusal of the papers, this clerk was sometimes +kept dangling for hours in the ante-chamber. After a time, these hours +were agreeably spent in the society of Sophie, to whom he eventually +made a proposal of marriage. She consented, but, unwilling to leave her +guardian like a fugitive, she apprised him of her determination, and +humbly requested an account of the property which she had been informed +he had taken charge of at her parents' death. + +The procureur-general at first excused himself from giving her an +immediate answer. The next day he presented himself at the police +office, the whole of whose functionaries were under his control. What he +said or did is not known, but the result was that Sophie was taken into +custody by the police, and committed to jail. + +Many months elapsed before her fate was known at home. It was stated +that she absconded. The clerk, banished the procureur's house, could not +discover the cause of the girl's disappearance; and as all Russian +criminal proceedings are conducted with great secrecy, he only +ascertained by a mere accident that the girl had been sentenced, by a +superior court, to receive a certain number of lashes by the knout, and +to be sent to Siberia. The crime of which they accused her was that of +attempting to poison her master and mistress. + +Alarmed at this information, the young man, without waiting for more +particulars, addressed a petition to the war governor of Vilna--the old +General Korsakof--whose power in that province was almost omnipotent, +and, if not misdirected, was very often beneficial to the inhabitants. +The petitioner requested the general's interference, and an +investigation of the case, assuring him that the girl was innocent, and +that the legal authorities who condemned her had been corrupted. + +The general was accustomed to decide every case _en militaire_. He had +received from the police court an unfavorable opinion of the +petitioner's character, which was described as "restless;" and was, +moreover, rather offended at his authority having been appealed to by a +subordinate. He therefore settled the business summarily, by sending the +young petitioner to the military service for life, in virtue of the +vagrant act. + +Still the young man's petition produced a good effect: the poor girl was +not flogged, lest that might have provoked some disturbance in the town. +She was merely dressed in convict's apparel, and sent off to Siberia. + +The transport of Russian convicts costs the government but very little. +They go on foot, sleep in _etapes_ or barracks, and the daily allowance +for their subsistence amounts only to five kopecks--equal to a halfpenny +in English money. This they, as well as the poor old soldiers who escort +them, have to eke out by charity. For that purpose, the most attractive +person among each party of exiles is delegated--box in hand, but with an +armed soldier behind--to beg alms of the benevolent; and Sophie was +appointed to be the suppliant for the rest of her wretched companions. + +The road from Vilna to Siberia passes through Vitebsk. The convicts had +not been long in the town before Sophie encountered Madame Strognof, who +recognized the girl from her very great likeness to her mother, who had +died in that lady's house. When she learned that Sophie had been living +with the Botwinkos, she had no longer a doubt. + +The girl asserted her innocence of the pretended crime for which she was +on her way to Siberia, with tearful energy, and the good Madame S. +believed her; but her husband, who was at that time the Vice-Governor of +Vitebsk, to disabuse his wife's romantic dreams, as he called them, sent +for the officer escorting the prisoners, and showed her the list of +prisoners, which contained a full record, not only of the crime imputed +to the orphan girl, but also of the punishment to which she had been +condemned. + +In the face of an official document which appeared to be regular, and +which detailed the girl's presumed offense with circumstantial +consistency, Madame Strognof began to waver in her belief of Sophie's +protestations; but the unfortunate girl asserted her innocence so +strongly and incessantly, that the vice-governor himself was at length +induced to look into the facts. The first suspicion that entered his +mind was derived from the circumstance of the document stating that the +culprit had been punished with the knout, while it was evident from her +appearance, that that dreadful torture had not been inflicted. He caused +a medical man to examine her, who testified that not a scar appeared; +yet the knout always leaves ineffaceable traces for life. + +In consequence of this discrepancy, Sophie was allowed to remain for +some time at Vitebsk under the plea of illness; which, at the request of +the vice-governor, was readily certified by an official surgeon. After +some delay, a memorial was forwarded by the unfortunate sufferer to the +late Emperor Alexander, in consequence of which a court-messenger was +sent immediately to Vilna. This gentleman brought back to St. +Petersburgh an enormous volume, containing the so-called depositions, +taken at the pseudo trial. After careful inspection of them, the +emperor decided that they proved the legality of the proceedings. So +artfully were these infamous depositions framed; that, among them, +appeared the formula of a chemical analysis of the poison which the girl +was accused of administering, and a full confession; to which the +culprit's signature was forged. + +The answer, therefore, from the throne was not only unfavorable; but the +authorities of Vitebsk were reprimanded for allowing the girl to +importune his majesty without sufficient grounds. + +Notwithstanding, Madame Strognof was not discouraged; and, to the great +alarm of her husband, had another petition drawn up and forwarded with a +suitable memorial to the Princess Maria Fedorowna, the emperor's mother, +who was known to all the country as a pious and charitable lady. This +petition, presented to his majesty by his own mother, had so great an +influence over him, that he ordered the girl to be brought to St. +Petersburgh. He felt convinced that some unaccountable mystery was +involved in the case. + +In due time Sophie arrived at St. Petersburgh, and underwent a rigid +examination. She asseverated with the most earnest truthfulness, that +all the depositions were fictitious; that the chemical analysis was a +wicked invention; and that the signature to her fabricated confession +was a forgery. She also denied that any trial had taken place, or that +she had been examined in any court whatever. Upon this, the emperor +appointed Mr. Getzewicz, the Governor of Minsk--who was known as a most +trust-worthy man--to go personally to Vilna; to investigate the case; +and to report the result. For this purpose the papers and the girl were +forwarded back to Vilna. + +The mission of Mr. Getzewicz was by no means an easy or a pleasant one: +he had to contend with a swarm of official insects; which, like Canadian +musquitoes when disturbed, attack the new comer from every side. +However, Mr. Getzewicz stood his ground firmly. He soon discovered that +the secretary of the police court who had drawn up the depositions was a +convict, sentenced for life to Siberia for having been associated with +highway robbers. He had escaped and was retained in his situation by +merely changing his Christian name, and by being reported "dead" by Mr. +Botwinko. The components of the rest of the court were no less +suspicious. In Russia, the police and sheriff's courts, and even the +provincial senate itself, are the asylums for military veterans; who, +during their long service, had never been trained up to the law. The +secretaries draw documents for them, which they sign--very often without +reading; that task being tiresome, and often incomprehensible to them. + +The court which had promoted and confirmed Sophie's prosecution, +consisted of illiterate, worn-out officers, who had no scruple in +committing the procureur-general's victim for trial to the First +Criminal Court (Sond Grodoski). + +But how was the deception carried on before the higher tribunals? This +would puzzle the most ingenious rascality to guess. But Botwinko was a +genius in his way: he actually brought before that court, as well as +before the highest criminal tribunal, another young woman; who +represented herself to be the girl in question, and confessed her +supposed guilt with all the desired particulars. The extraordinary +intrigue was the more easily accomplished from the secrecy with which +criminal investigations in Russia are conducted. Whenever the culprit +acknowledges his crime, the sentence follows without further inquiry; +and, the jail being under the control of the police-office, and the +judges of the criminal courts not knowing the prisoners personally, they +were obliged to receive in this instance the confessions of any girl +whom the police thought proper to send to them. + +When the trial was over, the procureur paid his hireling well, dismissed +her, and drew forth his victim from her cell; substituted her for the +wretch who had stood at the bar, and sent her to Siberia. Villainy, +however, be it ever so cunning, seldom half does its work of deception. +If Botwinko had had the whole sentence carried into effect, and poor +Sophie knouted, he would not, perhaps, have been discovered by his +colleague at Vitebsk; and he might have lived a respected public officer +to this day; for of such characters does the Russian system admit the +prosperous existence. As it was, however, on the report of Mr. +Getzewicz, Botwinko, the secretary of police, and many of his superiors, +were thrown into prison. + +The end of this dreadful story is melancholy; for in the end guilt +triumphed. The procureur-general, having several partners in his guilty +practices, had, if one may so abuse the expression, many friends. At +first they tried most ingeniously to bribe Mr. Getzewicz, and to induce +him to give up further proceedings; but, finding him inflexible, they +put a stop to all that business by administering poison to the +unfortunate Sophie. They even threatened the Governor of Minsk himself, +in an anonymous letter, to do the same for him. + +That threat, it seems, produced the desired effect on the honest but +weak-minded man. Seeing with what desperate people he had to contend--so +much so, that his own life was in danger--he sent his final report to +the (at that time) lingering Emperor Alexander, with request for further +instructions. In the mean time he retired to his own residence at Minsk, +leaving the illustrious Vilna officials in their own prison. + +Shortly afterward, the emperor died at Taganrog. His second brother, the +present emperor, Nicholas I.--greeted, on his accession to the throne, +with a formidable insurrection at St Petersburgh, and with alarming +conspiracies and political intrigues in the army--had no time to direct +his attention to so trifling an affair as that of our heroine. Political +prisoners were to be punished first, in order to spread terror among +those who were not discovered as yet. The stability of the throne would +not allow him to alarm the administrative servants and other criminals +who never thought of subverting Romanoff's dynasty. Hence, with the +exception of the political offenders, all others, whose actions were +pending in different courts of justice, but not yet adjudicated, were +amnestied by the emperor, on the occasion of his coronation, in 1826, at +Moscow. + +Thus, the procureur and his associates were released from prison, losing +nothing but their former situations. The procureur, having scraped +together a fortune by his bribes and graspings, did not care much at +becoming an independent gentleman. + +What became of Sophie's lover--the unfortunate clerk, who was sent to +the army, for his honest but untimely application--could not be learned. +He may now think that his punishment was deserved, and that the girl was +really guilty; but it is more than probable that he will never again +interfere to restrain the grossest injustice. + +And here ends our melancholy tale, which the censorship of the press in +Russia prevented from ever before being publicly related. Corroboration +can, however, be derived from the inhabitants of Vilna, who lived there +from 1816 to 1826; from the archives of criminal courts of that place, +where M. Getzewicz's correspondence is preserved; from the list of all +the crown servants of Russia, sent every year to the State Secretary of +the Home Department at St. Petersburgh; in which, for 1825 and 1826, +Procureur Botwinko was reported to be imprisoned at Vilna for the above +case, and that the Strapchy of Oszmiana was acting in his stead as +procureur _pro tem._ + + + + +NAPOLEON AND THE POPE.--A SCENE AT FONTAINEBLEAU. + + +In the autumn of 1804, the court was at Fontainebleau. The Consulate had +but recently merged in the Empire, with the consent of all the orders of +the state. The senate by a decree had declared the First Consul to be +Emperor of the French; and the people, to whom the question of +succession had been deferred, had, by a majority of three millions to +three thousand, decided that the imperial dignity should be hereditary +in his family. History, as Alison observes when recording the fact, +affords no instance of a nation having so unanimously taken refuge from +the ills of agitation and anarchy under the cold shade of despotism. + +A new order of things having commenced, all, as may easily be imagined, +was in a state of transformation and change in the composition of the +court, as well as in the arrangement of the imperial household. Under +the republican _regime_, a great degree of simplicity had prevailed in +the appointments of the various departments of the state, as well as in +the domestic economy of family circles: it could not, however, be +called unpretending; there was a certain affectation in it, evidently +assumed with a view to contrast, even in minute particulars, the system +of the republic with that of the old monarchy--the plainness of the one +with the profuseness of the other. But this was not fated to last long: +it had already been giving way under the Consulate, and was now +disappearing altogether in accordance with the views of the new monarch. +Titles and dignities were to be restored; court formalities and +ceremonials were being revived, and new ones instituted. The old +nobility, sprung from the feudal system, and dating, as some of them +did, from the Crusades, having been swept away by the revolutionary +storm, their places were to be supplied, as supporters of the throne, by +a new race of men. During this period of transition and change, the +movement at the chateau was unceasing. Arrivals and departures were +taking place almost every hour, to which very different degrees of +importance were attached. One arrival, however, was spoken of as having +a more than ordinary interest: it was that of the dignitary who, as it +was then understood, was to place the imperial crown on the brow of the +new sovereign. "To recall," observes Alison, "as Napoleon was anxious to +do on every occasion, the memory of Charlemagne, the first French +Emperor of the West, the Pope had been invited, with an urgency which it +would not have been prudent to resist, to be present at the +consecration, and had accordingly crossed the Alps for the purpose." + +Whatever may have been the views which originally prompted the +invitation--whether it was to play a mere secondary part in a court +pageant, or a leading one, as the public at first supposed--or whether +all such notions were swept away by some new deluge of ideas, as +Chateaubriand somewhere says--"It is now pretty clear that the presence +of the pontiff at the ceremony was a minor consideration, and that the +real motive was that which came out in their interview, as will appear +in the sequel." Be this as it may, it was evident to all that the +emperor awaited his coming with impatience; and when his approach was +announced--though preparations had been carefully made for their first +meeting--the arrangements were such as to give it the air of an +_imprevu_. It was on the road some distance from Fontainebleau that the +emperor met the Pope: the potentate alighted from his horse, the pontiff +from his traveling chaise, and a coach being at hand, as if +accidentally, they ascended its steps at the same moment from opposite +sides, so that precedence was neither taken nor given. How Italian the +artifice! + +They had not ridden long together when Bonaparte, quitting the coach, +got on horseback, and returned to the chateau at a gallop, and with +scarcely an attendant. The drum beat to arms, the guard turned out, but +before they had time to fall in and salute, he had alighted, and was +mounting the steps of the vestibule. + +It was always so with him; he gave such vivacity to all his movements, +such energy to all his actions, that speed seemed a necessary condition +of his existence. Still so natural was it to him, that it did not wear +the semblance of hurry. Scarcely had the beat of the drum been heard at +the gate, before the clatter of his heels resounded in the hall, as the +flash of a cannon precedes the report. + +This time, however, he seemed fitful and even agitated. On entering the +saloon, he paced it like one who waited with impatience. Having taken a +few turns from one end to the other, he moved to a window, and began +beating a march with his fingers on the window-frame. The rolling of a +carriage was heard in the court, he ceased to beat, and after a short +pause stamped on the floor, as if impatient at seeing something done too +slowly; then stepping hastily to the door, opened it--it was for the +Pope. + +Pius VII. entered alone; Bonaparte closed the door after him. The Pope +was tall, but stooped somewhat; his countenance, elongated and sallow, +wore an expression of suffering, which seemed to have been induced upon +a habitual tone of elevation and courtesy. His eyes were black and +large, and on his lips, which were slightly opened, played a smile +indicative at once of urbanity and benevolence. He wore on his head a +white calotte or headpiece, partially covering his hair, which was +naturally black, but now blended with some silver locks; on his +shoulders he had a camail, or cape of red velvet, and his long robe +reached to his feet. Those who have seen his portrait by Lawrence, +though taken ten or eleven years later, will recognize at once the +correctness of this description. As he entered the room he moved slowly, +with a calm and measured step like that of an aged female; and having +taken his seat in an arm-chair, he turned his eyes toward the floor, and +seemed to wait for what the other Italian was going to say. + +Bonaparte, as all know, was short in stature, being below the middle +height; but in all other respects he was, at the period here referred +to, very different in personal appearance from what he became +subsequently. Far from having that fullness which approached to +corpulence--that sallow puffiness of cheek which verged on the +unhealthy--or that heaviness of limb, or general obesity, which +threatened infirmity--he was slender in frame, but firm and +well-proportioned; yet there was something which indicated premature +wear, by hardship in the field and toil in the cabinet; he was quick and +nervous in every movement, rapid and almost convulsive in his gestures +when excited. Still he could be at any time graceful in attitude, and +elegant in manner. Even then he stooped a little, so that his shoulders +inclined forward, which gave something of flatness to his chest. His +face was thin and elongated; but what a forehead! What eyes! What beauty +in the contour of his intellectual visage! In repose, its habitual +expression was reflective and concentrated, with a strong tinge of +melancholy. + +Bonaparte ceased not to pace the room after the Pope had entered. After +a while, altering his curve somewhat, and having taken a turn round the +chair, as if making a _reconnaissance,_ he stopped short, and resumed +the thread of the conversation which had been commenced in the carriage, +and abruptly broken off. + +"I repeat, holy father, I am not an _esprit fort_, nor do I like +word-spinners or idea-mongers. I assure you, that in spite of my old +republicans I will go to mass." + +These words he tossed off toward the Pope, as if he were giving him a +dash of the incense-box; then paused to observe their effect. He seemed +to imagine that, after the impieties of the republican _regime_, such an +avowal ought to produce a decided effect. + +Pius, however, remained unmoved; he continued as before to look steadily +downward, and pressing firmly with his hands the eagle-heads that tipped +the arms of his chair, seemed, in thus assuming the fixity of a statue, +to say, "I must submit to listen to all the profane things which it may +please him to say to me." + +Seeing this, Bonaparte took a turn round the room, and another round the +chair, which stood in the middle of it, appearing but little satisfied +with his adversary, and still less with himself for the tone of levity +with which he had resumed the conversation. He at once changed his +manner, and began to speak more composedly, still continuing to pace the +room. As he passed to and fro, he glanced at the mirrors which +ornamented the walls, and reflected the grave visage of the pontiff, +eying him now and then in profile, never in front, to avoid appearing +anxious as to the impression his words may make. + +"One thing I must say, holy father, hangs heavily upon me: it is that +you seem to consent to the coronation by constraint, as you did formerly +to the concordat. As you sit there before me, you have the air of a +martyr, and assume an attitude of resignation, as if you were making an +offering of your sorrows up to Heaven. But surely you are not a +prisoner; such is not your position in any sense: grand Dieu! you are +free as air." + +Pius smiled, and looked him full in the face. He seemed to feel how +enormous was the exigence of that despotic character, which +requires--and all such natures do the like--not only obedience, but +submission, absolute submission, and that, too, wearing the air of +devotion to their will. + +"Yes," continued Bonaparte with increasing energy, "you are free, +perfectly free: you may return to Rome; the road is open to you; no one +detains you." + +Pius sighed, slightly raised his right hand, and looked upward without +uttering a word; then slowly inclining his head downward, seemed to look +attentively at a golden cross which hung from his neck. Bonaparte +continued speaking, but his steps became slow, and at the same time he +gave a marked degree of mildness to his tone, and of courtesy to his +expression. + +"Holy father," said he, "if the gravity of your character did not forbid +me, I would say that you are somewhat ungrateful. You do not seem to +retain a sufficient recollection of the services which France has +rendered to you. If I am not much mistaken the conclave of Venice, which +elected you, appeared to have taken its inspiration from my Italian +campaign, and from some words which I let fall with regard to you. It +can not be said that Austria behaved well to you; far from it; and I was +really sorry for it. If my memory does not deceive me, you were obliged +to return to Rome by sea, as you could not have ventured to cross the +Austrian territories." + +He stopped short, as if waiting for a reply from his silent guest. Pius, +however, but slightly inclined his head, and then sunk back into a sort +of apathy, which seemed inconsistent with even listening; while +Bonaparte, putting his foot on the rim of a stool, pushed it near the +Pope's chair, and thus continued, "It was, in good truth, as a Catholic +that such an incident gave me pain; for though I have never had time to +study theology, I have great confidence in the power of the church: it +has a prodigious vitality. Voltaire did it some damage in his time, but +I shall let loose upon him some unfrocked Oratorians: you'll be pleased, +if I mistake not, at the result. Now see, you and I may do many things +in common by-and-by, if you wish it." Then with an air at once juvenile +and careless, he continued, "For my part I do not see--I am weary of +conjecturing--what objection you can have to establish your see in +Paris, as it formerly was in Avignon. I will cede to you the palace of +the Tuilleries: I seldom occupy it. You will find there your apartments +prepared for you, as at Monte Cavallo. Do you not see, padre, that Paris +is the real capital of the world? As for me, I shall do whatever you +desire. You will find in me more docility than people give me credit +for. Provided that war and politics, with their fatigues, be left to me, +you may settle the church as you please: I shall be a soldier at your +orders. Do but consider what effect it would have, and how brilliant it +would be, were we to hold our councils as Constantine and Charlemagne +did in their time! I should merely open and close them, leaving the keys +of the world in your hands. As with the sword I came, the sword I should +retain, and with it the privilege of bringing it back for your +benediction after every victory achieved by our arms." And saying these +words he slightly bowed. + +Pius, who up to that moment had remained motionless as a statue, slowly +raised his head, smiled pensively, and drawing a deep sigh, breathed out +one by one the syllables of the word, "_Com-me-di-an-te!_" + +The word was scarcely half out, when Bonaparte made a bound on the floor +like a wounded leopard. A towering passion seized him; he became yellow +with ire. He bit his lips almost to bleeding as he strode to the end of +the room. He no longer paced round in circles; he went straight from +end to end without uttering a word, stamping with his feet as he swept +along, and making the room resound as he struck the floor with his +spurred heels. Every thing around him seemed to vibrate; the very +curtains waved like trees in a storm. At length the pent-up rage found +vent, and burst forth like a bombshell which explodes, "Comedian, say +you? Ah, ha! I am he that will play you comedies to make you weep like +women and children. Comedian, indeed! But you are greatly mistaken if +you think you can play off on me, with impunity, your cool-blooded +insolence. Comedian! Where is my theatre, pray, and what? 'Tis the +world, and the part which I play is that of master and author; while for +actors I have the whole of you--popes, kings, and people; and the cord +by which I move you all is--_fear!_ Comedian, say you? But he who would +dare to hiss me or applaud should be made of different stuff from you, +Signor Chiaramonti! Know you not well that you would still be merely a +poor cure but for me, and that if I did not wear a serious air when I +salute you, France would laugh and scorn yourself and your tiara? Three +or four years ago, who would pronounce aloud the name of the founder of +your system? Pray, then, who would have spoken of the pope? Comedian, +eh! Sire, ye take footing rather quickly among us. And so, forsooth, you +are in ill-humor with me because I am not dolt enough to sign away the +liberties of the Gallican church, as Louis XIV. did. But I am not to be +duped in that fashion. In my grasp I hold you; by a nod I make you flit +from north to south, from east to west, like so many puppets. And now, +when it suits me to make-believe that I count you for something, merely +because you represent an antiquated idea which I wish to revive, you +have not the wit to see my drift, or affect not to perceive it. Seeing, +then, that I must speak out my whole mind, and put the matter just under +your nose, in order that you may see it--more particularly as you seem +to think yourself indispensable to me, and lift up your head in +consequence, as you drape yourself in your old dame's robe--I'll have +you to know that such airs do not in the least impose on me; and if you +persist in that course, I'll deal with your robe as Charles XII. did +with that of the grand vizier--I'll rend it for you with a dash of my +spur!" + +He ceased. Throughout this tirade Pius maintained the same immobility of +attitude, the same calm on his visage. At its close, however, he just +looked up, smiled with something of bitterness, and sighed as he slowly +articulated the word, "_Tra-je-di-an-te!_" + +Bonaparte at that moment was at the further end of the room, leaning on +the chimney-piece. Suddenly starting at the word, and turning round, his +whole person seemed to dilate, and his features to expand as passion +rose within him. His look became fixed, and his eyes flared; then with +the swiftness of an arrow he rushed toward the old man, as if with some +fell purpose. But he stopped short, snatched from the table a porcelain +vase, dashed it to pieces against the andirons, and stamped on its +fragments as they flew along the floor! Then pausing for an instant, as +if to catch breath, he flung himself on a seat in utter exhaustion. It +would be difficult to say which was the more awful--his sudden outburst +of rage, or his immobility and silence after it. + +In some minutes the storm seemed gradually to subside, and a calm to +succeed. His look and bearing changed; something of depression seemed to +steal over him; his voice became deep and melancholy, and the first +syllables which he uttered showed this Proteus recalled to himself, and +tamed by two words. "Hapless existence!" he exclaimed; then pausing, +seemed to muse, and after a while continued, "'tis but too true; +comedian or tragedian, all for me is an affair of acting and costume; so +it has been hitherto, and such it is likely to continue. How fatiguing +and how petty it is to pose--always to pose, in profile for this party, +in full face for that, according to their notions! To guess at the +imaginings of drivelers, and seem to be what they think one ought to be. +To study how to place them between hope and fear--dazzle them with the +prestige of names and distances, of dates and bulletins--be the master +of all, and not know what to do with them; and after all this to be as +weary as I am--'tis too bad! The moment I sit down"--he crossed his +legs, and leaned back in his chair--"ennui seizes me. To be obliged to +hunt for three days in yonder forest would throw me into a mortal +languor. Activity is to me a necessity; I must keep moving myself, and +make others move, but I'll be hanged if I know whither. You see, then, I +disclose my inmost thoughts to you. Plans I have, enough and to spare, +for the lives of a score of emperors. I make one every morning, and +another every evening; my imagination wearies not; but before some three +or four of my plans could be carried out, I should be used up body and +mind: our little lamp of life burns not long before it begins to +flicker. And now, to speak with entire frankness, am I sure that the +world would be happier even if all my plans were put in execution? It +would certainly be a somewhat finer thing than it is, for a magnificent +uniformity would reign throughout it. I am not a philosopher; and in the +affair of common sense, I am bound to own that the Florentine secretary +was a master to us all. I am no proficient in theories: with me +reflection precedes decision, and execution instantly follows: the +shortness of life forbids us to stand still. When I shall have passed +away, there will be comments enough on my actions to exalt me if I +succeed, to disparage me if I fail. Paradoxes are already rife--they are +never wanting in France--but I shall still them to silence while I live; +and when I am gone--no matter. My object is to succeed; for that I have +some capacity. My Iliad I compose in action; every day adds an +episode." + +As he spoke these latter words he rose from his seat with a light +elastic movement, and seemed altogether another person. When relieved +from the turmoil of passion, he became gay, cheerful, and at the same +time unaffected and natural. He made no effort to pose, nor did he seek +to exalt and idealize himself, as he did afterward in the conversations +at St. Helena, to meet some philosophic conception, or to fill up the +portrait of himself which he desired to bequeath to posterity. He was +far from any thing of this sort: in simple reality, he was himself, as +it were, turned inside out. After a slight pause he advanced a step or +two toward the Pope, who had not moved, and smiling, with an expression +half-serious, half-ironical, proceeded in a new vein, in which were +blended something of the elevated and the petty, of the pompous and the +trivial, as was often his usage--all the time speaking with the +volubility so often exhibited by this most versatile genius. + +"Birth is every thing: those who appear on this world's stage poor and +friendless, have a desperate struggle to maintain. According to the +quality of their minds they turn to action or to self-destruction. When +they have resolution to set to work, as I have done, they often play the +winning game. A man must live; he must conquer a position, and make for +himself an abiding-place. I have made mine as a cannon-ball does; so +much the worse for those who stood in my way. Some are content with +little, others never have enough: men eat according to their appetites, +and I have a large one. Mark me, when I was at Toulon, I had not the +price of a pair of epaulets; but instead of them I had on my shoulders +my mother, and I know not how many brothers. All these are now tolerably +well provided for; and as to Josephine, who, it was said, married me +from pity, we are about to crown her in the very teeth of Raguedeau, her +notary, who once told her that I had lost my commission and my sword, +and was not worth a ducat; and faith he was not far wrong! But now, what +is it that rises up in perspective before me? An imperial mantle and a +crown. To me what are such things? a costume, a mere actor's costume. I +shall wear them for the occasion, that's enough: then resuming my +military frock, I'll get on horseback. On horseback said I?--yes, and +perhaps for life; but scarcely shall I have taken up my new position +when I shall run the risk of being pushed off my pedestal. Is that a +state to be envied? There are but two classes of men--those who have +something, and those who have nothing. The first take their rest, the +others remain awake. As I perceived this when starting in the race of +life, I have reached the goal thus early. I know of but two men who +attained it after having set out at the age of forty, and they were +Cromwell and Rousseau. Had the one had but a farm, and the other a few +hundred francs and a domestic, they would neither have commanded, +preached, nor written. There are various sorts of artists--in building, +in forms, in colors, in phrases. I am an artist in battles; I had +executed eighteen of what are called victories before the age of +thirty-five. I have a right to be paid for my work, and if paid with a +throne, it can not be called dear. But, after all, a throne, what is it? +Two or three boards fashioned in this form or in that, and nailed +together, with a strip of red velvet to cover them. By itself it is +nothing; 'tis the man who sits upon it that makes its force. Still, +throne or no throne, I shall follow my vocation: you shall see some more +of my doings. You shall see all dynasties date from mine, 'parvenu' +though I be; and elected, yes, elected like yourself, and chosen from +the crowd. On that point, at all events, we may shake hands." + +So saying, he advanced and held out his hand. The Pope did not decline +the courtesy; but there was an evident constraint in his manner as he +almost tremblingly reached to him the tips of his fingers. He seemed +under the influence of a complex tide of emotion. He was moved somewhat, +perhaps, by the tone of _bonhomie_ that pervaded the latter remarks, and +by the frankness of the advance which concluded them; but the dominant +feeling was evidently of a sombre cast, arising from a reflection on his +own position, and still more on that of so many Christian communities +abandoned to the caprices of selfishness and hazard. + +These movements of the inner man did not escape the scrutinizing glance +of Bonaparte; a light and shadow passed rapidly across his face. He had +carried one point--the coronation was tacitly conceded; the rest may be +left to time. It was evident that, though not entirely without alloy, +the feeling of satisfaction was uppermost as he strode from the room +with all the _brusquerie_ with which he had entered it. + + + + +[From Fraser's Magazine.] + +GABRIELLE; OR, THE SISTERS. + + Those who weep not here, shall weep eternally hereafter. + + _Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta._ + + +Dim voices haunt me from the past--for the dream of life is dreamed, and +may now be revealed; the dreamer is loitering on the Bier Path leading +to the green grass mounds, whence mouldering hands seem to point upward +and say, "Look thy last on the blue skies, and come rest with us." + +I have no happy childhood to recall; for I began to think so early, that +pain and thought are linked together. I had a father, and a sister two +years my senior; and our home was a small cottage, surrounded by a +flower-garden, on the outskirts of a town, where the chime of +church-bells was distinctly heard. These are sweet, romantic +associations; but "garden flowers," and "silvery chimes," and +"childhood's home," are words which awaken no answering chord in my +heart--for Reality was stern, and Fancy wove no fabric of fairy texture +wherewith to cover the naked truth. + +My mother died when I was born; and my father was a thin, pale man, +always wrapped in flannels about the head and throat, and moving slowly +with the aid of a stick. He never breakfasted with us--we were kept in +the kitchen, to save firing--but he came down late in the forenoon, and +when it was warm and sunshiny he would take a gentle stroll into the +fields, never townward. We dined at a late hour, and there were always +delicacies for my father; and after dinner he sat over his wine, smoking +cigars and reading the newspapers, till it was time to go to bed. He +took little notice of Gabrielle or me, except to command silence, or to +send us for any thing he wanted. There were two parlors in the cottage, +one at each side of the door; the furniture was scanty and mean, and the +parlor on the left-hand side never had a fire in it, for my father +always inhabited the other. It was bitter cold for Gabrielle and me in +this left-hand room during the winter, for we were often turned in there +to amuse ourselves; our sole domestic--an ancient Irish servitor, +retained by my father solely on account of her culinary +accomplishments--never admitted us poor shivering girls into the kitchen +when she was cooking, for, said Nelly, + +"If I am teased or narvous I shall, maybe, spoil the dinner, and then +our Lady save us from the masther's growl." + +No one ever came near us--we seemed utterly neglected, and our very +existence unknown. The house was redolent with the fumes of tobacco, and +the garden where we played was a wilderness of weeds, among which roses +bloomed in summer, and Gabrielle and I watched for their coming with +delight: those summer roses, on the great tangled bushes, were surely +more beautiful to us than to other and more fortunate children--we +gathered and preserved each leaf as it fell, and never was fragrance so +delicious! + +Now it may naturally be supposed, that from ignorance our impressions +were not painful; but from the time when I first began to notice and +comprehend, I also began to bitterly feel our condition, and Gabrielle +felt it far more than I did. We knew that we were half-starved, +half-clad, neglected, unloved creatures, and that our parent was a +personification of Selfishness. We saw other children prettily dressed, +walking past with their mothers or nurses--or trotting to school, +healthful and happy; and our hearts yearned to be like them--yearned for +a mother's kiss! Gabrielle was habitually silent and proud, though often +passionate when we were at play together; but the outburst was soon +over, and she hugged me again directly. I early learned to dislike all +ugly things from gazing on her--her beauty was of a kind to dazzle a +child--she was so brilliantly fair and colorless, with clustering golden +hair falling to her waist, and large soft blue eyes, which always made +me think of heaven and the angels; for, thanks to His mercy, I knew of +them when I was yet a child. + +Of course we were unacquainted with our father's history as we afterward +heard it. He was of a decayed but noble family, and--alas! it is a +commonplace tale--he had ruined his fortunes and broken his wife's +heart by gambling. Worse even than this, he was irretrievably disgraced +and lost to society, having been detected as a cheat; and broken down in +every sense of the word, with a trifling annuity only to subsist on, he +lived, as I remember him, pampered, luxurious, and utterly forgetful of +all save Self. And, oh! God grant there be none--poor or rich, high or +low--who can repeat the sacred name of "father" as I do, without an +emotion of tenderness, without the slightest gossamer thread of love or +respect twined around the memory to bind the parental benediction +thereto. + +Nelly had followed our deceased mother from her native isle, for she too +was Irish, and clung to our father, ministering to his habits and +tastes, a good deal, I believe, for our sakes, and to keep near us. She +was a coarse woman; and, unlike her race in general, exhibited but few +outward demonstrations of attachment. When her work was done in the +evening she sometimes taught us the alphabet and to spell words of three +letters; the rest we mastered for ourselves, and taught each other, and +so in process of time we were able to read. The like with writing: Nelly +pointed out the rudiments, and Gabrielle, endowed with magical powers of +swift perception, speedily wrought out lessons both for herself and me. +The only books in the house were a cookery-book; a spelling-book which +Nelly borrowed; a great huge History of England, which formed her usual +footstool; and an ancient, equally large Bible, full of quaint pictures. +Would that I had the latter blessed volume bound in gold now, and set +with diamonds! A new epoch opened in my life. I had already thought, now +I understood; and the light divine dawned on my soul as Nelly, the +humble instrument of grace, in simple words explained all that was +wanting: for our faith is very simple, notwithstanding the ineffable +glories of Jesus and redemption. I dreamed by night of Jesus and of +angels, and of shepherds watching their flocks "all seated on the +ground;" and I used to ask Nelly if she did not think an angel must be +just like Gabrielle, with shining wings, certainly? But Nelly would say +that Miss Gabrielle was too proud for an angel, and never likely to +become one unless she liked her Bible better; and it was too true that +my darling sister had not the same love for holy things that I had then. +She liked to read of Queen Bess and Bluff King Hal; but when we found +our way to a church, and heard the chanting, her emotions far surpassed +mine, and she sobbed outright. At length Gabrielle, who had been +pondering many days without speaking, confided to me her determination +to ask our father to send us to school. + +"Why should I not ask him, Ruth?" she said. "I wonder we never thought +of it before--only he is always poorly, or smoking, or drinking." + +I observed her beautiful lip curl as she spoke in a contemptuous tone, +and I thought that Jesus taught _not so_; but I feared to speak--so I +wept, and knelt down alone and prayed for my sister. + +Gabrielle did ask him, and my father laid down his paper, and took the +cigar from his mouth, gazing in dull amazement at the speaker, but I saw +his gaze become more earnest and observant as he said, + +"Why, girl, how old are you?" + +"I was thirteen last month," replied Gabrielle. + +"You are a monstrous tall girl of your age, then, I declare: and you +have learned to read from Nelly, haven't you?" + +"Yes, we have," was the quiet reply; "but we wish to learn something +more than that." + +"Then you must go to some charity school, miss, for I have no money to +pay for such nonsense; you can read, and write, and sew, and what more +would you have? Pass the claret nearer, and reach me those cigars; and +take yourselves off, for my head is splitting." + +I must draw a vail over Gabrielle's passion when we were alone. + +"It is not for myself only that I sorrow," she exclaimed, as her sobs +subsided; "but you, poor, little, delicate thing, with your lameness, +what is to become of you in the big world if you are left alone? You can +not be a servant; and what are we to do without education? for Nelly has +told me our father's income dies with him." + +Her expressions were incoherent; and when I tried to comfort her, by +assurances that the blessed Saviour cared for the fatherless, she turned +away and left me. So ended the first and last application to our parent. + +When I remember Gabrielle's career from that period to her sixteenth +year I much marvel at the precocity of intellect she exhibited, and the +powers of mind with which she was endowed. We had no money to procure +books--no means to purchase even the common necessaries of clothing, +which too often made us ashamed to appear in church. But suddenly +Gabrielle seemed to become a woman, and I her trusting child. She was +silent and cold; but not sullen or cold to me, though her mouth became +compressed as if from bitter thought, and never lost that expression +again, save when she smiled. Oh, that sunny smile of radiant beauty! I +see it now--I see it now! I tried to win her, by coaxing and fondling, +to read the Holy Book; but Gabrielle said we were outcasts, and deserted +by God. When I heard that my wan cheeks burned with indignation, and I +exclaimed, "You are wicked to say so;" but Gabrielle was not angry, for +tears stood in her eyes as she fixed them on me, whispering, + +"Poor little cripple--sweet, gentle, loving sister--the angels that +whisper these good things to you pass me over. I hear them not, Ruth." + +"Sister, sister, they speak and you will not hear: do you think the +stupid, lame Ruth is favored beyond the clever, the beautiful, the noble +Gabrielle?" + +Then with an outburst of passionate love she would take me in her arms, +and weep long and bitterly. I knew that I could not enter into the +depths of her feelings, but I comprehended her haughty bearing and +scornful glances; for the neighbors looked at us pitifully, and +Gabrielle writhed beneath it: child as she was, there was something +awful and grand in her lonely majesty of demeanor. Her self-denying, +constant devotion toward me--often ailing and pining as I was--I repaid +by an affection which I am sure is quite different from that entertained +by sisters happily placed for each other: Gabrielle was as mother and +sister, and friend and nurse, and playmate, all in one to me. She and +the bright young roses in our neglected garden, were the only two +beautiful creations I had ever seen. It was well for me, in my childish +simplicity, that I knew not the wreck of mind--the waste of brilliant +powers for want of cultivation--of which Gabrielle was the victim; but +she knew it, brooded over it, and the festering poison of hatred and +contempt changed her innocent, affectionate nature, toward all created +things, except her own and only sister. + +We never wearied of listening to Nelly's accounts of the former grandeur +of our maternal ancestors, intermixed with wild legends of chivalrous +love and gallant daring. She told us, too, of our ancient blood on the +father's side, and that we were the great-grandchildren of a belted +earl. Gabrielle's pale cheeks flushed not--her eyes were downcast; but I +knew the sufferings of the proud, beautiful girl. I too, humble as I +was, felt what we were--what we ought to have been, and the blood of the +De Courcys and O'Briens mounted to my throbbing temples. + +Gabrielle was a lady--a lady in each action, word, and look; poorly and +insufficiently clad, her tall, graceful form bore the unmistakable mark +of hereditary breeding, which neither poverty nor neglect could +eradicate. It was not her exceeding loveliness which alone attracted +observation, but it was a refinement and elegance which no education can +bestow--it was Nature's stamp on one of her most peerless and exquisite +productions. One evening, when we had been listening to Nelly's +discourse by the kitchen fire, a sudden and a new thought took hold of +my imagination, nor could I rest until I had imparted it to Gabrielle. +It was this--that she might marry some great, rich man, and so release +us from want and privation; for, of course, my home would always be with +her! + +Gabrielle looked gravely on my upturned face an I knelt beside her, and +confided this "new plan." + +"Ruth," she said, "you are a wise and a singular child, and you deserve +to be trusted. I mean to become a rich man's wife if I have the +opportunity; but how it is to be brought about, your good book, perhaps, +may tell." + +"Oh, darling," I cried, "do not smile so scornfully when you speak of +that blessed, dear book; it would comfort and lead you, indeed it +would, if you would but open and read its pages." + +"Well, well, Parson Ruth," she cried, laughing, "that will do. When the +rich man comes down from the clouds to make me his bride, I promise you +I'll have a book bound in gold like that; and you shall be educated, my +darling Ruth, as the daughters of the De Courcys ought to be, and you +shall forget that we have no father, no mother." + +"Forget our father?" said I. "Never, never!" + +Gabrielle was terribly shaken and agitated: little more than a child in +years, injustice and sorrow had taught her the emotions of age, yet she +was a guileless child in the world's ways, as events soon proved. + +We used to ramble out into the adjacent meadows, and doubtless our +roamings would have extended far and wide, had not my lameness precluded +much walking, and Gabrielle never had a thought of leaving me. So we +were contented to saunter by a shining stream that meandered amid the +rich pasture-land near our home; this stream was frequented by those +fortunate anglers only who obtained permission from the lady of the +manor to fish in it, and this permit was not lavishly bestowed, +consequently our favorite haunt was usually a solitary one. But soon +after Gabrielle had completed her sixteenth year we noted a sickly +youth, who patiently pursued his quiet sport by the hour together, and +never looked round as we passed and repassed him. Some trifling "chance" +(as it is called) led to his thanking Gabrielle for assisting to +disentangle his line, which had caught amid the willow-branches +overhanging the water; the same "chance" caused him to observe his +beautiful assistant, and I saw his start of surprise and admiration. He +was a silly-looking lad, we thought, dressed like a gentleman, and +behaving as one; and he was never absent now from the meadows when we +were there. He always bowed, and often addressed some passing +observation to us, but timidly and respectfully, for Gabrielle was a +girl to command both homage and respect. She pitied the lonely, pale +young man, who seemed so pleased to find any one to speak to, and +exhibited such extraordinary patience and perseverance, for he never +caught a fish that we saw. Through the medium of a gossip of Nelly, who +was kitchen-maid at the principal inn, we ascertained that our new +acquaintance was staying there for his health's benefit, and for the +purpose of angling; that his name was Erminstoun, only son of the rich +Mr. Erminstoun, banker, of T----. Nelly's gossip had a sister who lived +at Erminstoun Hall, so there was no doubt about the correctness of the +information, both as regarded Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's identity, and the +enormous wealth of which it was said his father was possessed. The +informant added, that poor Mr. Thomas was a _leetle_ soft maybe, but the +idol of his parent; and that he squandered "money like nothing," "being +a generous, open-handed, good young gentleman." + +I observed a great change in Gabrielle's manner, after hearing this, +toward her admirer--for so he must be termed--as admiration was so +evident in each word and look: by-and-by Gabrielle went out alone--there +was no one to question or rebuke her; and in six weeks from the day that +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun first saw her she became his wife. Yes, startling +as it appears, it all seemed very natural and simple of accomplishment +then; early one brilliant summer morning, Gabrielle woke me, and bade me +rise directly, as she wished to confide something of great importance, +which was about to take place in a few hours. Pale, but composed, she +proceeded to array herself and me in plain white robes, and straw +bonnets; new and purely white, yet perfectly simple and inexpensive, +though far better than the habiliments we had been accustomed to wear. +Gabrielle took them from a box, which must have come when I was +sleeping; and when our toilet was completed, I compared her in my own +mind to one of those young maidens whom I had seen in the church, when +bands of fair creatures were assembled for confirmation. She looked not +like _a bride_--there was no blushing, no trembling; but a calm +self-possession, and determination of purpose, which awed me. + +"My wise little sister Ruth," she said, "I am going to be married this +morning to Mr. Thomas Erminstoun, at ---- church. You are my bridemaid, +and the clerk gives me away. I shall not come back here any more, for a +chaise and four waits in Yarrow Wood to convey us away directly after +our marriage. You will come home, darling, and take off your marriage +apparel to appear before _him_; and as I do not often dine with him, and +he never asks for me, I shall not be missed. So say nothing--Nelly's +tongue is tied--fear not her. Be patient, beloved one, till you hear +from me: bright days are coming, Ruth, and we do not part for long." + +Here she wept, oh, so bitterly, I thought she would die. Amazed and +trembling, I ventured to ask if she loved Mr. Thomas Erminstoun better +than me, for jealousy rankled, and at fourteen I knew nothing of _love_. + +"Love _him_!" she cried vehemently, clasping her hands wildly; "I love +only you on earth, my Ruth, my sister. He is a fool; and I marry him to +save you and myself from degradation and misery. He buys me with his +wealth. I am little more than sixteen"--she hung down her lovely head, +poor thing--"but I am old in sorrow; I am hardened in sin, for I am +about to commit a great sin. I vow to love, where I despise; to obey, +when I mean to rule; and to honor, when I hold the imbecile youth in +utter contempt!" + +Vain were supplications and prayers to wait. Gabrielle led me away to +the meadows, where a fly was in waiting, which conveyed us to the +church. I saw her married; I signed something in a great book; I felt +her warm tears and embraces, and I knew that Mr. Thomas Erminstoun +kissed me too, as he disappeared with Gabrielle, and the clerk placed me +in the fly alone, which put me down in the same place, in the quiet +meadows by the shining water. I sat down and wept till I became +exhausted. Was this all a dream? Had Gabrielle really gone? My +child-sister married? Become rich and great? But I treasured her words, +hurried home, and put on my old dark dress; and Nelly said not a word. +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's gold had secured her silence; and she was to +"know nothing," but to take care of me for the present. + +Ere my father retired to rest that night, a letter was brought addressed +to him. I never knew the contents, but it was from Gabrielle and +Gabrielle's husband. I did not see him again for some days, and then he +never looked at me; and strange, strange it seemed, Gabrielle had +disappeared like a snow wreath, in silence, in mystery; and I exclaimed +in agony, "Was there ever any thing like this in the world before?" + +My father made himself acquainted with the position of the young man +whom his daughter had gone off with, and also of the legality of their +marriage; that ascertained satisfactorily, he sank into the same +hopeless slothfulness and indolence as heretofore, dozing life away, and +considering he had achieved a prodigious labor in making the necessary +inquiries. + +Very soon after this I had my first letter--doubly dear and interesting +because it was from Gabrielle. The inn servant brought it under pretext +of visiting Nelly, so my father knew nothing about it. Ah, that first +letter! shall I ever forget how I bathed it my with tears, and covered +it with kisses? It was short, and merely said they were in lodgings for +the present, because Mr. Erminstoun had not yet forgiven his son: not a +word about her happiness; not a word of her husband; but she concluded +by saying, "that very soon she hoped to send for her darling Ruth--never +to be parted more." + +I know that my guardian angel whispered the thoughts that now came into +my head as I read and pondered; because I had prayed to be led as a +sheep by the shepherd, being but a simple, weakly child. I determined on +two things--to show the letter I had received from Gabrielle to my +father, for conscience loudly whispered concealment was wrong; and never +to quit him, because the time might come when he, perhaps, would +require, or be glad of my attendance. I felt quite happy after forming +these resolutions on my knees; and I wrote to Gabrielle telling her of +them. I know not if my father observed what I said, but he took no +notice, for he was half asleep and smoking; so I left the letter beside +him, as I ever did afterward, for I often heard from my beloved sister: +and oh! but it _was_ hard to resist her entreaties that I would come to +her--that it was for my sake as well as her own she had taken so bold a +step; and that now she had a pleasant home for me, and I refused. It was +hard to refuse; but God was with me, or I never could have had strength +of myself to persevere in duty, and "_deny myself_." When Gabrielle +found arguments and entreaties vain, she gave way to bursts of anguish +that nearly overcame me; but when "I was weak, then I was strong," and I +clasped my precious Bible, and told her I _dared_ not leave my father. + +Then came presents of books, and all kinds of beautiful and useful +things, to add to my comfort or improvement. Gabrielle told me they were +settled in a pretty cottage near the Hall, and that Mr. Erminstoun had +forgiven his son. Mr. Erminstoun was a widower, and had five daughters +by a former marriage--Gabrielle's husband being the only child of his +second union: the Misses Erminstoun were all flourishing in single +blessedness, and were known throughout the country-side as the "proud +Miss Erminstouns." These ladies were tall, and what some folks call +"dashing women;" wearing high feathers, bright colors, and riding hither +and thither in showy equipages, or going to church on the Sabbath with a +footman following their solemn and majestic approach to the house of +prayer, carrying the richly-emblazoned books of these "miserable +sinners." + +How I pined to hear from Gabrielle that she was happy, and cherished by +her new connections; that she was humbled also, in some measure--abashed +at the bold step she had taken. So young--so fair--so determined. I +trembled, girl as I was, when I thought that God's wrath might fall on +her dear head, and chasten her rebellious spirit. + +Six months subsequent to Gabrielle's departure our father died, after +but a few days' severe suffering. Dying, he took my hand and murmured, +"Good child!" and those precious words fell as a blessing on my soul; +and I know he listened to the prayers which God put into my heart to +make for his departing spirit. I mourned for the dead, because he was my +father and I his child.... + +Nelly accompanied me to my sister's home; and fairyland seemed opening +to my view when I embraced Gabrielle once more. What a pleasant home it +was!--a cottage not much larger than the one I had left--but how +different! Elegance and comfort were combined; and when I saw the rare +exotics in the tasteful conservatory I remembered the roses in our +wilderness. Ah, I doubt if we ever valued flowers as we did those +precious dewy buds. Wood End Cottage stood on the brow of a hill, +commanding a fair prospect of sylvan quietude; the old Parsonage was +adjacent, inhabited by a bachelor curate, "poor and pious," the church +tower peeping forth from a clump of trees. The peal of soft bells in +that mouldering tower seemed to me like unearthly music: my heart +thrilled as I heard their singular, melancholy chime. There were fine +monuments within the church, and it had a superb painted window, on +which the sun always cast its last gleams during the hours of +summer-evening service. + +My brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Erminstoun, was paler and thinner than +when I had seen him last, and I was shocked and alarmed at his +appearance. His love for Gabrielle amounted to idolatry; and for her +sake he loved and cherished me. She was colder and haughtier in manner +than ever, receiving passively all the devoted tenderness lavished by +her husband: this pained me sadly; for though he was assuredly simple, +there was an earnest truthfulness and kindliness about him, which won on +the affections amazingly. He would speak to me of Gabrielle by the hour +together, with ever-increasing delight; we both marveled at her +surpassing beauty, which each week became more angelic and pure in +character. + +On me alone all my sister's caresses were bestowed; all the pent-up love +of a passionate nature found vent in my arms, which were twined around +her with strange enthusiastic love; therefore it was, her faults +occasioned me such agony--for I could not but see them--and I alone, of +all the world, knew her noble nature--knew what she "might have been." I +told her that I expected to have found her cheerful, now she had a happy +home of her own. + +"Happy! cheerful!" she cried, sadly. "A childhood such as mine was, +flings dark shadows over all futurity, Ruth." + +"Oh, speak not so, beloved," I replied; "have you not a good husband, +your error mercifully forgiven? are you not surrounded by blessings?" + +"And dependent," she answered, bitterly + +"But dependent on your husband, as the Bible says every woman should +be." + +"And my husband is utterly dependent on his father, Ruth; he has neither +ability nor health to help himself, and on his father he depends for our +bread. I have but exchanged one bondage for another; and all my hope is +now centred in you, dearest, to educate you--to render you independent +of this cold, hard world." + +"Why, Gabrielle," I said, "you are not seventeen yet--it is not too +late, is it, for you also to be educated?" + +"Too late, too late," answered Gabrielle, mournfully. "Listen, wise +Ruth, I shall be a mother soon; and to my child, if it is spared, and to +you, I devote myself. You have seen the Misses Erminstoun--you have seen +vulgarity, insolence, and absurd pretension; they have taunted me with +my ignorance, and I will not change it now. The blood of the De Courcys +and O'Briens has made me a lady; and all the wealth of the Indies can +not make them so. No, Ruth, I will remain in ignorance, and yet tower +above them, high as the clouds above the dull earth, in innate +superiority and power of mind!" + +"Oh, my sister," I urged timidly, "it is not well to think highly of +one's self--the Bible teaches not so." + +"Ruth! Ruth!" she exclaimed, impatiently, "it is not that I think highly +of myself, as you well know; you well know with what anguish I have +deplored our wants; it is pretension I despise, and rise above; talent, +and learning, and virtue, and nobleness, that I revere, and could +worship!" + +"But, beloved," I urged, "people may be very kind and good, without +being so mighty clever." + +"The Erminstouns female are not kind, are not good," she haughtily +replied: "the Erminstouns male are fools! Ruth, I have changed one +bondage for another, and the sins of the father fall on the innocent +child. I have changed starvation, and cold, and degradation, for hateful +dependence on the vulgar and despised. Woe is me, woe is me! If I can +but save you, my sister, and make you independent, I can bear my lot." + +My education commenced, and they called me a "wise child:" every one was +kind to the poor cripple, even the "proud Miss Erminstouns," who cast +envious and disdainful glances on my beautiful sister, which she repaid +with unutterable scorn--silent, but sure. Oh, how I prayed Gabrielle to +_try_ and win their love; to read her Bible, and therein find that "a +kind word turneth away wrath;" but Gabrielle was proud as Lucifer, and +liked not to read of humility and forbearance. I found a zealous friend +and instructor in Mr. Dacre, the "poor, pious curate;" he was a college +friend of my brother-in-law, and a few years his senior. I felt assured +that Mr. Dacre thought Mr. Thomas's life a very precarious one, from the +way in which he spoke to him on religious subjects, and the anxiety he +evinced as to his spiritual welfare. Mr. Dacre used also to call me his +"wise little friend;" and we were wont to speak of passages in the book +I loved best. What thought I of him? Why, sometimes in my own mind I +would compare him to an apostle--St. Paul, for instance, sincere, +learned, and inspired; but then St. Paul haunted my day-dreams as a +reverend gentleman with a beard and flowing robes, while Mr. Dacre was +young, handsome, and excessively neat in his ecclesiastical costume and +appointments generally. Mr. Dacre had serious dark eyes--solemn eyes +they were, in my estimation, but the very sweetest smile in the world; +and one of the Misses Erminstoun seemed to think so too: but people said +that the pious young minister was vowed to celibacy. + +There was also another frequent visitor at Erminstoun Hall, who not +seldom found his way to Wood End Cottage; and this was no less a +personage than Lord Treherne, who resided at Treherne Abbey in princely +magnificence, and had lately become a widower. This nobleman was upward +of sixty, stately, cold, and reserved in manner, and rarely warmed into +a smile, except in contemplation of woman's beauty; of which, indeed, he +was an enthusiastic admirer. The late Lady Treherne had presented her +lord with no family; and the disappointment was bitterly felt by Lord +Treherne, who most ardently desired an heir to succeed to his ancient +title and immense possessions. It was rumored abroad that the eldest +Miss Erminstoun was likely to become the favored lady on whom his +lordship's second choice might fall: she was still a handsome woman, and +as cold and haughty as Lord Treherne himself; but, notwithstanding her +smiles and encouragement, the ancient cavalier in search of a bride did +not propose. Nay, on the contrary, he evinced considerable interest in +Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's failing health; he was the poor young +gentleman's godfather, and it seemed not improbable that, in the event +of his lordship dying childless, his godson might inherit a desirable +fortune. Rare fruits and flowers arrived in profusion from the Abbey; +and my lord showed great interest in my progress, while Gabrielle +treated him with far more freedom than she did any one else, and seemed +pleased and gratified by his fatherly attentions. + +At length the time arrived when Gabrielle became the mother of as lovely +a babe as ever entered this world of woe; and it was a fair and touching +sight to behold the young mother caressing her infant daughter. I have +often wondered that I felt no pangs of jealousy, for the beauteous +stranger more than divided my sister's love for me--she engaged it +nearly all: and there was something fearful and sublime in the exceeding +idolatry of Gabrielle for her sweet baby. Self was immolated altogether; +and when she hung over the baby's couch each night, watching its happy, +peaceful slumbers, it was difficult to say which of the twain was the +more beautiful. Repose marked the countenance of each--Gabrielle's was +imbued with the heavenly repose of parental love. + +In less than twelve months after its birth, that poor baby was +fatherless. I had anticipated and foreseen this calamity; and Gabrielle +conducted herself, as I believed she would, without hypocrisy, but with +serious propriety. Sad scenes followed this solemn event; the Misses +Erminstoun wished to take her child from Gabrielle, to bring it up at +the Hall. Mr. Erminstoun urged her compliance, and recommended my sister +to seek "a situation" for me, as "he had already so expensive an +establishment to keep up; and now poor Thomas was gone, there was really +no occasion for Wood End Cottage to be on his hands. Gabrielle must find +a home in some farm-house." + +All this came about in a few months, from one thing to another; and the +young widow, who had been ever hated as a wife, was grudged her daily +support by her deceased husband's family. "Give up her child?" Gabrielle +only laughed when they spoke of that; but her laugh rings in my ears +yet! though it was as soft and musical as the old church bells. + +We left Wood End Cottage, and found refuge in a retired farm-house, as +Mr. Erminstoun proposed; but we were together: and there were many who +cried "shame" on the rich banker, for thus casting off his +daughter-in-law and his grandchild. Small was the pittance he allowed +for our subsistence; and the Misses Erminstoun never noticed Gabrielle +on her refusal to part with the child. "She was not fit," they bruited +about, "to bring up their poor brother's daughter. She was ignorant, +uneducated, and unamiable, besides being basely ungrateful for kindness +lavished; she had a cold heart and repellant manner, which had steeled +their sympathies toward her." They thought themselves ill-used at +Erminstoun Hall; and the five Misses Erminstoun regarded Gabrielle and +her poor little daughter as mere interlopers, who were robbing them of +their father's money. + +Well might Gabrielle say--"I have changed one bondage for another!" but +I never heard her repeat that now. She was silent, even to me. No murmur +escaped her lips; and what she felt or suffered I knew not. Little Ella +was a pale flower, like her mother; but as similar to the parent rose as +an opening rosebud. + +"What could I do?" were the words I was continually repeating to myself. +"I must not be an added burden to Mr. Erminstoun. I have already +profited by my sister's union with his son, by having gratefully +received instruction in various branches of learning, and can I not do +something for myself?" What this _something_ was to be, I could not +define. My lameness precluded active employment, and I was too young to +become a "companion." I confided my thoughts and wishes to Mr. Dacre, +who often visited us, speaking words of balm and consolation to the +afflicted. Gabrielle listened to his words, as she never had done to +mine; and he could reprove, admonish, exhort, or cheer, when all human +hope seemed deserting us. For where were we to look for a shelter, +should it please Mr. Erminstoun to withdraw his allowance, to force +Gabrielle to abandon her child to have it from want? I verily believe, +had it not been for that precious babe, she would have begged her bread, +and suffered me to do so, rather than be dependent on the +scantily-doled-out bounty of Mr. Erminstoun. + +During the twelve months that elapsed after her husband's death there +was a "great calm" over Gabrielle--a tranquillity, like that exhibited +by an individual walking in sleep. I had expected despair and passion +when her lofty spirit was thus trampled to the dust; but no, as I have +said, she was strangely tranquil--strangely silent. There was no +resignation--that is quite another thing; and, except when my sister +listened to Mr. Dacre, she never read her Bible, or suffered me to read +it to her: but his deep, full, rich voice, inexpressibly touching and +sweet in all its modulations, ever won her rapt, undivided attention. +She attended the church where he officiated; and though the Erminstouns +had a sumptuously-decorated pew there, it was not to that the young +widow resorted; she sat amid the poor in the aisle, beneath a +magnificent monument of the Treherne family, where the glorious sunset +rays, streaming through the illuminated window, fell full upon her +clustering golden hair and downcast eyes. + +There was pride in this, not humility; and Gabrielle deceived herself, +as, with a quiet grace peculiarly her own, she glided to her lowly seat, +rejecting Lord Treherne's proffered accommodation, as he courteously +stood with his pew door open, bowing to the fair creature as if she had +been a queen. The five Misses Erminstoun knelt on their velvet cushions, +arrayed in feathers and finery, and strong in riches and worldly +advantages; but my pale sister, in her coarsely-fashioned mourning-garb, +seated on a bench, and kneeling on the stone, might have been taken for +the regal lady, and they her plebeian attendants. + +Spiteful glances they cast toward Gabrielle, many a time and oft, when +my Lord Treherne so pointedly paid his respectful devoirs; and there was +as much pride and haughtiness in Gabrielle's heart as in theirs. Poor +thing! she said truly, that "early shadows had darkened her soul," and +what had she left but _pride_? Not an iota of woman's besetting +littleness had my sister--noble, generous, self-denying, devoted where +she loved; her sweetness had been poisoned, nor had she sought that +fountain of living water which alone can purify such bitterness. Gentle +in manner, pure in heart, affectionate in disposition, Gabrielle's pride +wrought her misery. Lord Treherne never came in person to our humble +home--he had but once paid his respects to Gabrielle since her +widowhood; but the rarest exotics continued to decorate our poor room, +constantly replenished from Treherne Abbey, and sent, with his +lordship's card, by a confidential domestic. He was always at church +now, and people remarked "how pious my lord had latterly become." I was +far too young and inexperienced then to understand or appreciate this +delicacy and propriety on Lord Treherne's part. But Mr. Dacre understood +it; nor would _he_ have intruded on our privacy, save in his ministerial +capacity, and for the purpose of aiding and assisting me in the studies +I endeavored to pursue. There was a "halo of sanctity" around Mr. Dacre, +which effectually precluded any approach to freedom or frivolous +conversation, in any society wherein he might be placed. He gave the +tone to that society, and the gay and dashing Misses Erminstoun became +subdued in his presence; while Lord Treherne, with excellent taste, not +only showed the outward respect due to Mr. Dacre's sacred and high +office, but the regard which his personal qualities deserved. + +I have often looked back on that time immediately after my +brother-in-law's decease, with wonder at our serenity--nay, almost +contentment and happiness; despite the anguish and humiliation I knew +Gabrielle must endure, her smile was ever beautiful and sweet, and +illumined our poor home with the sunshine of heaven. + +Our baby was, I think I may say, almost equally dear to us both--it had +two mothers, Gabrielle said; and what with nursing the darling little +thing, and learning my lessons, and Mr. Dacre's visits, time flew +rapidly. + +On the appearance of each fresh token of Lord Treherne's remembrance, I +observed an expression flit across my sister's face which I could not +define; it was of triumph and agony combined, and she always flew to her +baby, clasping it convulsively to her bosom, and whispering words of +strange import. On Mr. Dacre's expressive, serious countenance, also, I +noticed passing clouds, as Gabrielle bestowed enthusiastic admiration on +the superb exotics. Why this was I could by no means satisfactorily +decide, as Mr. Dacre, so kind and generous, must approve the +disinterested delicacy exhibited by Lord Treherne, in his offerings to +the fatherless and widow. But the disinterestedness of my lord's +attentions was a myth which I soon discarded: for in twelve months +subsequent to Mr. Thomas Erminstoun's decease, a letter from Treherne +Abbey was brought to Gabrielle, sealed with the armorial bearings of the +Trehernes, and signed by the present representative of that noble race. +We were seated at our fireside, busy with domestic needlework, and I saw +Gabrielle's hands tremble as she opened it, while that strange, wild +expression of triumph and pain, flitted more than once over her face as +she perused the missive. She silently gave it to me, and with amazement +I read its contents--such an idea had never once entered my simple +brain. Lord Treherne made Gabrielle an offer of his hand and heart, +signifying that if she would graciously incline her ear to his suit, a +brilliant destiny awaited her infant daughter--on whom, and on its +lovely mother, the most munificent settlements should be made. I laughed +heartily as I read his lordship's rhapsodies, becoming a young lover; +and I said, returning the epistle to Gabrielle, "What a pity, dearest, +that we can not have such a noble father for our little Ella!" the +possibility of Gabrielle's marrying a man of nearly seventy never +entered into my calculations for a moment. Therefore my astonishment was +overwhelming when she seriously answered, + +"Why can not Lord Treherne be a father to my child, Ruth?" + +"Because, dearest, you could not marry him--he is so old." + +"But I mean to marry him, Ruth: could you doubt it? Could I have lived +on as I have done without prophetic hope to support me? Think you, if +Lord Treherne were double the age, I would refuse rank, wealth and +power? Oh, Ruth, were I alone, it might be different." She spoke in a +tone of suppressed anguish and passionate regret. "But look on her," +pointing to the sleeping cherub, "for her sake I would _immolate myself +on any altar of sacrifice_. Her fate shall be a brighter one than her +mother's--if that mother has power to save and to bless! _She_ must not +be doomed to poverty or dependence. No, no! I give her a father who can +restore in her the ancient glories of our race; for my Ella is a +descendant of the chivalrous O'Briens and the noble De Courcys." + +"And of the Erminstouns of Erminstoun Hall," I gently suggested, for +Gabrielle was greatly excited. + +"Name them not, Ruth; name them not, if you love me. To change their +hated name, what would I not do?" + +Alas! thought I, you are deceiving yourself, my poor sister, in this +supposed immolation on an altar of sacrifice; it is not for your child's +sake alone, though you fancy so. But Blanche Erminstoun will be +disappointed, revenge obtained, and pride amply gratified, and truly +"the heart is deceitful above all things." + +Mr. Dacre entered the apartment as Gabrielle ceased speaking, for we had +not heard his modest signal, and he was unannounced. My sister colored +to the very temples on seeing the young pastor, and her hands trembled +in the vain endeavor to fold Lord Treherne's letter, which at length she +impatiently crushed together. I heard a half-smothered hysterical sob, +as, with a faltering voice, she bade our guest "Good-evening." Ah! when +the heart is aching and throbbing with agony, concealed and suppressed, +it requires heroic self-command to descend to the commonplaces of this +workaday world; but women early learn to conceal and subdue their +feelings, when premature sorrows have divided them from real or +pretended sympathies. + +I read my sister's heart, I knew her secret, and I inwardly murmured, +"Alas for woman's love, it is cast aside!" + + * * * * * + +My sister's marriage with Lord Treherne was a strictly private one +(Gabrielle had stipulated for this), his lordship's chaplain performing +the ceremony. My thoughts reverted to Gabrielle's first marriage, when +the clerk gave her away, and she was clad in muslin; now she was arrayed +in satin and glittering gems, and a peer of the realm, an old friend of +the bridegroom, gave her lily hand at the altar to her noble lover. +Twice she was forsworn; but the desecration to her soul was not so great +on the first as on the present occasion, for then her heart was still +her own; while now, alas for woman's love, it was cast aside! + +In a few weeks after the marriage we all departed for the Continent, +where we remained for the six following years, Gabrielle and myself +receiving instructions in every accomplishment suitable to our position. +It was charming to witness with what celerity my beautiful sister +acquired every thing she undertook, for she was as anxious as her lord +to adorn the high station to which she now belonged. Wherever we went +the fame of Lady Treherne's beauty went with us, while her fascination +of manner and high-bred elegance perfectly satisfied her fastidious +husband that he had made a wise and prudent choice. There was one +drawback to his lordship's perfect contentment, and this was the absence +of the much-wished-for heir, for Gabrielle presented no children to her +husband; and our little Ella, a fairy child, of brilliant gifts and +almost superhuman loveliness, became as necessary to Lord Treherne's +happiness as she was to her doting mother's. It was settled ere we +returned to England, that Ella was to drop the name of Erminstoun, and +as Lord Treherne's acknowledged heiress, legal forms were to be +immediately adopted in order to ratify the change of name to that of the +family appellation of the Trehernes. + +With a murmur of grateful feeling I saw Gabrielle kneel beside her aged +husband, and thank him fondly for this proof of regard; triumph sparkled +in her eyes, and Lord Treherne laid his hand on her fair head, blessing +her as he did so. She had made him a good wife, in every sense of the +term: he had never forgot that her blood equaled his own. But Gabrielle +did, for that very reason; her gratitude made her humble toward him, +because he was humble toward her: nor did Lord Treherne ever cease to +think that Gabrielle had conferred a favor in marrying him. + +A succession of _fetes_ and entertainments were given at Treherne Abbey +after our return, and Gabrielle was the star on whom all gazed with +delighted admiration. All the country families flocked to pay their +homage, but the Erminstouns came not until Lady Treherne extended a hand +of welcome to her first husband's family; she was too exalted, both in +station and mind, to cherish the pitiful remembrances of their former +unkindness. There were but two Misses Erminstoun now, the others were +well married (according to the world's notion, that is); and the +youngest, who had not given up hopes of yet becoming Mrs. Dacre, had +transformed herself into a nun-like damsel, something between a Sister +of Charity and a Quakeress in exterior: perhaps Mr. Dacre read the +interior too well; and, notwithstanding the lady's assiduous visits to +the poor, and attendance on the charity-schools, and regular loud +devotions at church, Mr. Dacre remained obdurate and wedded to celibacy. +It might be that he disapproved of the marriage of the clergy, but I +think he was at one time vulnerable on that point. + +How delighted I was to see him once more, to hear him call me his "wise +little friend," with his former sweet smile and affectionate manner; six +years had changed him--he looked rather careworn, and well he might, for +he was a true worker in the Lord's vineyard: nor was his mission +confined to the poor; the rich and noble also felt his influence. Lord +and Lady Treherne greeted him as an old and valued friend; nor could I +detect the slightest agitation in Gabrielle's manner, and my former +suspicions almost faded away. She brought our fair Ella to welcome "papa +and mamma's friend" to Treherne; and Ella, with her winning, gentle +ways, soon made Mr. Dacre understand that she loved him very much +indeed: she was a holy child, and the principal joy of her innocent life +was to hear me tell her those stories in which I used to take delight in +my early days--how contrasted to hers! She would sing her pretty hymns, +seated on a low footstool at Lord Treherne's feet; and the stately +nobleman, with tears in his eyes, used to exclaim with pathos, + +"Sister Ruth, sister Ruth, my heart misgives me; the angels surely will +take this child to themselves, and leave us desolate." + +Mr. Dacre came not frequently to Treherne, but he was a quick observer, +and he saw we had set up an idol for ourselves in this child, he +cautioned us, but Gabrielle shivered--yes, _shivered_ with dismay, at +the bare suggestion he hinted at--that God was a "jealous God," and +permitted no idolatrous worship to pass unreproved. + +Poor young mother, how can I relate the scenes I lived to witness! + +Ella died, aged ten years. The mother sat by her coffin four days and +nights, speechless and still; we dared not attempt to remove her, there +way an alarming expression in her eyes if we did, that made the medical +men uncertain how to act. She had tasted no food since the child died; +she was hopeful to the last: it was impossible, she said, that her child +could die; her faculties could not comprehend the immensity of the +anguish in store for her. So there she sat like stone--cold, and silent, +and wan, as the effigy she watched. Who dared to awaken the mother? + +Mr. Dacre undertook the awful task, but it was almost too much for his +tender, sympathizing heart; nerved by strength from above he came to +us--for I never left my sister--and we three were alone with the dead. + +It harrows my soul to dwell on this subject, and it seemed cruel to +awaken the benumbed mother to reality and life again, but it was done; +and then words were spoken far too solemn and sacred to repeat here, and +hearts were opened that otherwise might have remained sealed till the +judgment day. Gabrielle, for the first time in her life, knew herself as +she was; and, prostrate beside her dead child, cried, "I have deserved +thy chastening rod, for thou art the Lord, and I thy creature; deal with +me as thou seest best." Pride abased, hope crushed, heart contrite and +broken, never, never had Gabrielle been so dear to me; and during many +weeks that I watched beside her couch, as she fluctuated between life +and death, I knew that, she was an altered being, and that this bitter, +affliction had not been sent in vain. She came gently home to God, and +humbly knelt a suppliant at the mercy-throne, forever crying, + +"Thou art wisest! Thou art best! Thou, alone knowest what is good for +us! Thy will be done!" + +The blow had fallen heavily on Lord Treherne, but for two years my +sister lived to bless and comfort him; then it became evident to all +that the mother was about to rejoin her child in the mansions of the +blessed. She expressed a wish that Mr. Dacre should read the funeral +service over her, and he administered the last blessed consolations to +her departing spirit; no remnants of mortal weakness lurked in his heart +as he stood beside the dying, for he knew that in this world they were +as pilgrims and strangers, but in that to which Gabrielle was hastening +they would be reunited in glory--no more partings, no more tears. She +died calmly, with her hands clasped in Lord Treherne's and mine; while +Mr. Dacre knelt absorbed in prayer she passed away, and we looked on +each other in speechless sorrow, and then on what had been my young and +beautiful sister. + +Of my own deep grief and lacerated heart I will not speak; Lord Treherne +required all my care and attention, nor would he hear of my quitting +him--indeed, he could scarcely bear me to be out of his sight; the heavy +infirmities of advanced years had suddenly increased since his double +bereavement, and I felt very grateful that to my humble efforts he owed +any glimpse of sunshine. + +He was a severe bodily sufferer for many years, but affliction was not +sent in vain, for Lord Treherne became perfectly prepared for the awful +change awaiting him, trusting in His merits alone. Those were blessed +hours when Mr. Dacre spoke to him of the dear departed, who had only +journeyed on before--of God's ways in bringing us to Himself, chastening +pride and self-reliance, and tolerating no idol worship. Lord Treherne, +with lavish generosity, made an ample provision for his "wise little +Ruth," as he ever smilingly called me to the last. He died peacefully, +and the Abbey came into the possession of a distant branch of the +Treherne family. + +Wood End Cottage was vacant, and I purchased it; and assisted by Mr. +Dacre in the labor of love for our blessed Master, life has not passed +idly, and, I humbly trust, not entirely without being of use in my +generation. Previous to his decease, Lord Treherne caused a splendid +monument to be erected in Wood End church to the memory of Gabrielle, +and Ella his adopted daughter: the spotless marble is exquisitely +wrought, the mother and child reposing side-by-side as if asleep, with +their hands meekly folded on their breasts, and their eyes closed, as if +weary--weary. + +The last fading hues of sunset, which so often rested on Gabrielle's +form as she knelt in her widowhood beneath the monumental glories of the +Trehernes, now illumines the sculptured stone, which mysteriously hints +of hidden things--corruption and the worm. + +I love to kneel in the house of prayer where Gabrielle knelt: dim voices +haunt me from the past: my place is prepared among the green grass +mounds, for no tablet or record shall mark the spot where "Ruth the +cripple" reposes, sweetly slumbering with the sod on her bosom, "dust to +dust." + + + + +THE WASTE OF WAR. + + + Give me the gold that war has cost, + Before this peace-expanding day; + The wasted skill, the labor lost-- + The mental treasure thrown away; + And I will buy each rood of soil + In every yet discovered land; + Where hunters roam, where peasants toil, + Where many-peopled cities stand. + + I'll clothe each shivering wretch on earth. + In needful; nay, in brave attire; + Vesture befitting banquet mirth, + Which kings might envy and admire. + In every vale, on every plain, + A school shall glad the gazer's sight; + Where every poor man's child may gain + Pure knowledge, free as air and light. + + I'll build asylums for the poor, + By age or ailment made forlorn: + And none shall thrust them from the door, + Or sting with looks and words of scorn. + I'll link each alien hemisphere; + Help honest men to conquer wrong; + Art, Science, Labor, nerve and cheer; + Reward the Poet for his song. + + In every crowded town shall rise + Halls Academic, amply graced; + Where Ignorance may soon be wise, + And Coarseness learn both art and taste + To every province shall belong + Collegiate structures, and not few-- + Fill'd with a truth-exploring throng, + And teachers of the good and true. + + In every free and peopled clime + A vast Walhalla hall shall stand; + A marble edifice sublime, + For the illustrious of the land; + A Pantheon for the _truly_ great, + The wise, beneficent, and just; + A place of wide and lofty state + To honor or to hold their dust. + + A temple to attract and teach + Shall lift its spire on every hill, + Where pious men shall feel and preach + Peace, mercy, tolerance, good-will; + Music of bells on Sabbath days, + Round the whole earth shall gladly rise; + And one great Christian song of praise + Stream sweetly upward to the skies! + + + + +A NIGHT WITH AN EARTHQUAKE.[6] + + +The sound had not quite died away, when the feet I stood on seemed +suddenly seized with the cramp. Cup and coffee-pot dropped as dead from +Don Marzio's hand as the ball from St. Francis's palm. There was a rush +as if of many waters, and for about ten seconds my head was overwhelmed +by awful dizziness, which numbed and paralyzed all sensation. Don +Marzio, in form an athlete, in heart a lion, but a man of sudden, +sanguine temperament, bustled up and darted out of the room with the +ease of a man never burdened with a wife, with kith or kin. Donna Betta, +a portly matron, also rose instinctively; but I--I never could account +for the odd freak--laid hold of her arm, bidding her stay. The roar of +eight hundred houses--or how many more can there be in Aquila?--all +reeling and quaking, the yells of ten thousand voices in sudden agony, +had wholly subsided ere I allowed the poor woman calmly and majestically +to waddle up to her good man in the garden. That, I suppose, was my +notion of an orderly retreat. Rosalbina had flown from a window into the +lawn, like a bird. Thank God, we found ourselves all in the open air +under the broad canopy of heaven. We began to count heads. Yes, there we +all stood--cook, laundry-maid, dairy-maids, stable-boys, all as obedient +to the awful summons as the best disciplined troops at the first roll of +the drum. + +It was February, as I have twice observed; and we were in the heart of +the highest Apennines. The day was rather fine, but pinching cold; and +when the fever of the first terror abated, the lady and young lady began +to shiver in every limb. No one dared to break silence; but Don Marzio's +eye wandered significantly enough from one to another countenance in +that awe-stricken group. There was no mistaking his appeal. Yet, one +after another, his menials and laborers returned his gaze with +well-acted perplexity. No one so dull of apprehension as those who will +not understand. My good friends, I was three-and-twenty. I had had my +trials, and could boast of pretty narrow escapes. I may have been +reckless, perhaps, in my day. I smiled dimly, nodded to the old +gentleman, clapped my hands cheerily, and the next moment was once more +where no man in Aquila would at that moment have liked to be for the +world--under a roof. I made a huge armful of cloaks and blankets, +snapped up every rag with all the haste of a marauding party, and moved +toward the door, tottering under the encumbrance. But now the dreadful +crisis was at hand. + +Earthquakes, it is well known, proceed by action and re-action. The +second shock, I was aware, must be imminent. I had just touched the +threshold, and stood under the porch, when that curious spasmodic +sensation once more stiffened every muscle in my limbs. Presently I felt +myself lifted up from the ground. I was now under the portico, and was +hurled against the pillar on my right; the rebound again drove me to the +post on the opposite side; and after being thus repeatedly tossed and +buffeted from right to left like a shuttlecock, I was thrust down, +outward, on the ground on my head, with all that bundle of rags, having +tumbled head-long the whole range of the four marble steps of entrance. +The harm, however, was not so great as the fright; and, thanks to my +gallant devotion, the whole party were wrapped and blanketed, till they +looked like a party of wild Indians; we stood now on comparatively firm +ground, and had leisure to look about us. Don Marzio's garden was open +and spacious, being bounded on three sides by the half-crumbling wall of +the town. On the fourth side was the house--a good, substantial fabric, +but now miserably shaky and rickety. Close by the house was the chapel +of the Ursuline convent, and above that its slender spire rose chaste +and stainless, "pointing the way to heaven." Any rational being might +have deemed himself sufficiently removed from brick and mortar, and, in +so far, out of harm's way. Not so Don Marzio. He pointed to the shadow +of that spire, which, in the pale wintry sunset, stretched all the way +across his garden, and by a strange perversion of judgment, he contended +that so far as the shadow extended, there might also the body that cast +it reach in its fall, for fall it obviously must; and as the danger was +pressing, he deemed it unwise to discuss which of the four cardinal +points the tower might feel a leaning toward, whenever, under the +impulse of the subterranean scourge, it would "look around and choose +its ground." Don Marzio was gifted with animal courage, and even nerve, +proportionate to the might of his stalwart frame. But then his was +merely a combative spirit. Thews and sinews were of no avail in the +case. The garden was no breathing ground for him, and he resolved upon +prompt emigration. + +The people of Aquila, as indeed you may well know, of most towns in +Southern Italy, have the habit of--consequently a peculiar talent +for--earthquakes. They know how to deal with them, and are seldom caught +unprepared. Two hundred yards outside the town gate, there is half a +square mile of table-land on the summit of a hill--a market-place in +days of ease, a harbor of refuge in the urgency of peril. From the first +dropping of the earth-ball from the hand of their guardian saint, the +most far-sighted among the inhabitants had been busy pitching their +tents. The whole population--those, that is, who had escaped unscathed +by flying tiles and chimney-pots--were now swarming there, pulling, +pushing, hauling, and hammering away for very life: with women fainting, +children screeching, Capuchins preaching. It was like a little rehearsal +of doomsday. Don Marzio, a prudent housekeeper, had the latch-key of a +private door at the back of the garden. He threw it open--not without a +misgiving at the moss-grown wall overhead. That night the very stars did +not seem to him sufficiently firm-nailed to the firmament! His family +and dependents trooped after him, eager to follow. Rosalbina looked +back--at one who was left behind. Don Marzio felt he owed me at least +one word of leave-taking. He hemmed twice, came back two steps, and gave +me a feverish shake of the hand. + +"I am heartily sorry for you, my boy," he cried. "A _fuoruscito_, as I +may say, a bird-in-the-bush--you dare not show your nose outside the +door. You would not compromise yourself alone, you know, but all of us +and our friends; we must leave you--safe enough here, I dare say," with +a stolen glance at the Ursuline spire, "but--you see--imperative +duties--head of a family--take care of the females--and so, God bless +you!" + +With this he left me there, under the deadly shade of the +steeple--deadlier to him than the upas-tree; ordered his little +household band out, and away they filed, one by one, the head of the +family manfully closing the rear.... + +I was alone--alone with the earthquake.... There was a wood-cellar in +one of the out-houses, access to which was easy and safe. One of my +host's domestics had slipped flint and steel into my hands. In less than +half-an-hour's time, a cheerful fire was crackling before me. I drew +forth an old lumbering arm-chair from the wood-cellar, together with my +provision of fuel. I shrouded myself in the ample folds of one of Don +Marzio's riding-cloaks; I sat with folded arms, my eyes riveted on the +rising blaze, summoning all my spirits round my heart, and bidding it to +bear up. The sun had long set, and the last gleam of a sickly twilight +rapidly faded. A keen, damp, north-east wind swept over the earth; thin, +black, ragged clouds flitted before it, like uneasy ghosts. A stray star +twinkled here and there in the firmament, and the sickle-shaped moon +hung in the west. But the light of those pale luminaries was wan and +fitful. They seemed to be aware of the hopelessness of their struggle, +and to mourn in anticipation of the moment when they should faint in +fight, and unrelieved darkness should lord it over the fields of the +heavens. + +The town of Aquila, or the Eagle, as the natives name it, is perched, +eagle-like, on the brow of an abrupt cliff in the bosom of the loftiest +Apennines. Monte Reale, Monte Velino, and the giant of the whole chain, +the "Gran Sasso d'Italia," look down upon it from their exalted thrones. +Within the shelter of that massive armor, the town might well seem +invulnerable to time and man. But now, as I gazed despondingly round, +the very hills everlasting seemed rocking from their foundation, and +their crests nodding to destruction. Which of those mighty peaks was to +open the fire of hell's artillery upon us? Was not Etna once as still +and dark as yonder great rock? and yet it now glares by night with its +ominous beacon, and cities and kingdoms have been swept away at its +base. + +Two hours passed away in gloomy meditation. The whole town was a desert. +The camp meeting of the unhoused Aquilani was held somewhere in the +distance: its confused murmur reached me not. Only my neighbors, the +Ursuline nuns, were up and awake. With shrinking delicacy, dreading the +look and touch of the profane even more than the walls of their +prison-house, they had stood their ground with the heroism of true +faith, and reared their temporary asylum under their vine-canopied +bowers, within the shade of the cloisters. A high garden-wall alone +separated me from the holy virgins. They were watching and kneeling. +Every note from their silver voices sank deep in my heart, and impressed +me with something of that pious confidence, of that imploring fervor, +with which they addressed their guardian angels and saints. Two hours +had passed. The awfulness of prevailing tranquillity, the genial warmth +of my fire, and the sweet monotony of that low, mournful chanting, were +by degrees gliding into my troubled senses, and lulling them into a +treacherous security. "Just so," I reasoned, "shock and countershock. +The terrible scourge has by this time exhausted its strength. It was +only a farce, after all. Much ado about nothing. The people of this town +have become so familiar with the earthquake that they make a carnival of +it. By this time they are perhaps feasting and rioting under their +booths. Ho! am I the only craven here? And had I not my desire? Am I not +now on speaking terms with an earthquake?" + +Again my words conjured up the waking enemy. A low, hollow, rumbling +noise, as if from many hundred miles' distance, was heard coming rapidly +onward along the whole line of the Apennines. It reached us, it seemed +to stop underneath our feet, and suddenly changing its horizontal for a +vertical direction, it burst upward. The whole earth heaved with a +sudden pang; it then gave a backward bound, even as a vessel shipping a +sea. The motion then became undulatory, and spread far and wide as the +report of a cannon, awakening every echo in the mountain. There was a +rattle and clatter in the town, as if of a thousand wagons shooting down +paving stones. The Ursuline steeple waved in the air like a reed vexed +by the blast. The chair I stood on was all but capsized, and the fire at +my feet was overthrown. The very vault of heaven swung to and fro, +ebbing and heaving with the general convulsion. The doleful psalmody in +the neighboring ground broke abruptly. The chorus of many feminine +voices sent forth but one rending shriek. The clamor of thousands of the +town-folk from their encampment gave its wakeful response. Then the dead +silence of consternation ensued. I picked up every stick and brand that +had been scattered about, steadied myself in my chair, and hung down my +head. "These black hounds," I mused, "hunt in couples. Now for the +repercussion." + +I had not many minutes to wait. Again the iron-hoofed steeds and heavy +wheels of the state chariot of the prince of darkness were heard +tramping and rattling in their course. Once more the subterranean +avalanche gathered and burst. Once more the ground beneath throbbed and +heaved as if with rending travail. Once more heaven and earth seemed to +yearn to each other; and the embers of my watch-fire were cast upward +and strewn asunder. It was an awful long winter night. The same sable +clouds rioting in the sky, the same cruel wind moaning angrily through +the chinks and crevices of many a shattered edifice. Solitude, the +chillness of night, and the vagueness, even more than the +inevitableness, of the danger, wrought fearfully on my exhausted frame. +Stupor and lethargy soon followed these brief moments of speechless +excitement. Bewildered imagination peopled the air with vague, +unutterable terrors. Legions of phantoms sported on those misshapen +clouds. The clash of a thousand swords was borne on the wind. Tongues of +living flame danced and quivered in every direction. The firmament +seemed all burning with them. I saw myself alone, helpless, hopeless, +the miserable butt of all the rage of warring elements. It was an +uncomfortable night. Ten and twelve times was the dreadful visitation +reproduced between sunset and sunrise, and every shock found me more +utterly unnerved; and the sullen, silent resignation with which I +recomposed and trimmed my fire had something in it consummately abject, +by the side of the doleful accents with which the poor half-hoarse nuns, +my neighbors, called on their blessed Virgin for protection. + +The breaking morn found me utterly prostrated; and when Don Marzio's +servants had so far recovered from their panic as to intrude upon my +solitude, and offer their services for the erection of my tent in the +garden, I had hardly breath enough left to welcome them. Under that tent +I passed days and nights during all the remainder of February. The +shocks, though diminished in strength, almost nightly roused us from our +rest. But the people of Aquila soon learned to despise them. By one, by +two, by three they sought the threshold of their dismantled homes. Last +of all, Don Marzio folded his tent. His fears having, finally, so far +given way, as to allow him to think of something beside himself, he +exerted himself to free me from confinement. He furnished me with +faithful guides, by whose aid I reached the sea-coast. Here a Maltese +vessel was waiting to waft me to a land of freedom and security. I can +tell you, my friends, that from that time I was cured forever of all +curiosity about earthquakes. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] From a work entitled "Scenes of Italian Life," by L. Mariotti, just +published in London. + + + + +A PLEA FOR BRITISH REPTILES. + + +What the flourishing tradesman writes with pride over his shop, we might +in most cases write over our storehouse of antipathies--established in +1720, or 1751. For what good reason we, in 1851, should shudder at the +contact of a spider, or loathe toads, it would be hard to say. Our +forefathers in their ignorance did certainly traduce the characters of +many innocent and interesting animals, and many of us now believe some +portions of their scandal. To be a reptile, for example, is perhaps the +greatest disgrace that can attach to any animal in our eyes. Reptile +passes for about the worst name you can call a man. This is unjust--at +any rate, in England. We have no thought of patting crocodiles under the +chin, or of embracing boa constrictors; but for our English reptiles we +claim good words and good-will. We beg to introduce here, formally, our +unappreciated friends to any of our human friends who may not yet have +cultivated their acquaintance. + +The Common Lizard--surely you know the Common Lizard, if not by his name +of state--_Zootoca vivipara_. He wears a brilliant jacket, and you have +made friends with him, as a nimble, graceful fellow; as a bit of +midsummer. His very name reminds you of a warm bank in the country, and +a sunny day. Is he a reptile? Certainly; suppose we stop two minutes to +remember what a reptile is. + +The heart of a reptile has three cavities; that is to say, it is not +completely double, like our own. It sends only a small part of the blood +which comes into it for renovation into the air-chambers--the lungs; +while the remainder circulates again unpurified. That change made in the +blood by contact with the oxygen of air, is chiefly the cause of heat in +animals. Aeration, therefore, being in reptiles very partial, the amount +of heat evolved is small; reptiles are therefore called cold-blooded. +They are unable to raise their heat above the temperature of the +surrounding air. Fishes are cold-blooded, through deficient aeration in +another way; in them, all the blood passes from the heart into the place +where air shall come in contact with it; but, then there is a limitation +to the store of air supplied, which can be no more than the quantity +extracted from the water. The temperature of water is maintained below +the surface, and we know how that of the air varies, since a certain +quantity of heat is necessary to the vital processes; reptiles, +depending upon air for heat, hybernate or become torpid when the +temperature falls below a certain point. The rapidity of all their vital +actions will depend upon the state of the thermometer; they digest +faster in the heat of summer than in the milder warmth of spring. Their +secretions (as the poison of the adder) are in hot weather more copious, +and in winter are not formed at all. The reptiles breathe, in all cases, +by lungs; but we must except here those called _Batrachians_, as frogs +or newts, which breathe, in the first stage, by gills, and afterward by +gills and lungs, or by lungs only. The _Batrachians_, again, are the +only exception to another great characteristic of the reptile class, the +hard, dry covering of plates or scales. The reptiles all produce their +young from eggs, or are "oviparous"--some hatch their eggs within the +body, and produce their young alive, or are "ovo-viviparous." These are +the characters belonging to all members of the reptile-class. The class +is subdivided into orders somewhat thus: 1. The _Testudinate_ (tortoises +and turtles). 2. _Enaliosaurian_ (all fossil, the _Ichthyosaurus_ and +his like). 3. _Loricate_ (crocodiles and alligators). 4. _Saurian_ +(lizards). 5. _Ophidian_ (serpents); and the last order, _Batrachian_ +(frogs, toads, &c.); which is, by some, parted from the reptiles, and +established as another class. + +Now we have in England no tortoises or turtles, and no crocodiles: and +the fossil order is, in all places, extinct; so our reptiles can belong +only to the three last-named orders, Lizards, Serpents, and Batrachians. + +Thus we come back, then, to our Lizards, of which we have among us but +two genera, a single species of each. These are the Common Lizard, well +known to us all, and the Sand Lizard, known only to some of us who +happen to live upon the southern coast. The species of lizard so +extremely common in this country, has not been found in countries +farther south, and is, in fact, peculiar to our latitude. We, therefore, +may love him as a sympathetic friend. The sand lizard (_Lacerta agilis_) +is found as far north as the country of Linnaeus, and as far south as the +northern part of France; in England, however, it seems to be rare, and +has been detected only in Dorsetshire--chiefly near Poole, or in some +other southern counties. It frequents sandy heaths, and is of a brown +sandy color, marked and dotted; but there is a green variety said to be +found among the verdure of marshy places. It is larger than our common +lizard, averaging seven inches long, is very timid, and when made a +prisoner pines and dies. Its female lays eggs, like a turtle, in the +sand, covers them over, and leaves them to be hatched by the summer sun. +This kind of lizard, therefore, is oviparous. The eggs of our common +lizard are hatched also by the sun; for, reptiles having no heat of +their own, can not provide that which is necessary to the development of +an embryo; but in this case the sun hatches them within the parent's +body. The female of this lizard stretches herself out upon a sunny bank, +and lets the bright rays fall upon her body while she lies inactive. At +this period, she will not move for any thing less than a real cause of +alarm. She is not sunning herself lazily, however, but fulfilling an +ordinance of God. The eggs break as the young lizards--three to six--are +born. This lizard is, therefore, ovo-viviparous. The little ones begin +at once to run about, and soon dart after insects, their proper food; +but they accompany the mother with some instinct of affection for a +little time. These lizards are very various in size and color; +difference in these respects does not denote difference in kind. The +little scales which cover them are arranged in a peculiar manner on the +head, under the neck, &c.; and some differences of arrangement, in such +respects, are characteristic. The best distinction between the only two +species of lizard known in this country has been pointed out by Mr. +Bell. In the hind legs, under each thigh, there is a row of openings, +each opening upon a single scale. In sand lizards, the opening is +obviously smaller than the scale; in our common lizards, the opening is +so comparatively large that the scale seems to be the mere edge of a +tube around it. + +These are our lizards, then, our Saurian reptiles; and they do not merit +any hate. Suffer an introduction now to English Snakes. + +The first snake, the Blindworm, is not a snake, nor yet a worm. It is a +half-way animal--between a lizard and a snake. The lizards shade off so +insensibly into the snakes, even the boa preserving rudimentary hind +legs, that some naturalists counsel their union into a single class of +Squamate, or scaled reptiles. By a milder process of arrangement, all +those animals which dwell upon the frontier ground between Lizards or +Saurians, and Ophidians or Snakes, are to be called Saurophidian. The +blindworm then, is Saurophidian; it is quite as much a lizard as a +snake. Snakes have the bones of their head all movable, so that their +jaws can be dilated, until, like carpet-bags, they swallow any thing. +The lizard has its jaws fixed; so has the blindworm. Snakes have a long +tongue, split for some distance, and made double-forked; the blindworm's +tongue has nothing but a little notch upon the tip. It has a smooth +round muzzle, with which it can easily wind its way under dry soil to +hybernate; or else it takes a winter nap in any large heap of dead +leaves. It comes out early in the spring; for it can bear more cold than +reptiles generally like, and it is found all over Europe, from Sweden to +the south of Italy. It feeds upon worms, slugs, and insects. Like the +snakes, it gets a new coat as it grows, and takes the old one off, by +hooking it to some fixed point, and crawling from it, so that the cast +skin is dragged backward, and turned inside out. The slow-worm is of a +dark gray color, silvery, and about a foot long on the average. It is +ovo-viviparous. It is extremely gentle; very rarely thinks of biting +those who handle it, and, when it does bite, inflicts no wound with its +little teeth. Of course it has no fangs and is not poisonous. Shrinking +with fear when taken, it contracts its body and so stiffens it that it +will break if we strike or bend it. Therefore it bears the name Linnaeus +gave it--_Anguis fragilis_. + +We have found nothing yet to shudder at among our reptiles. "O! but," +you say perhaps, "that was not a real snake." Well, here is our real +snake. _Natrix torquata_--our common Ringed Snake; he is very common. He +may be three or four feet long, and brownish-gray above, with a green +tinge, yellow marks upon the neck, and rows of black spots down the back +and sides, alternating, like London lamp-posts, with each other. You +will find him any where in England, almost any where in Europe, below +the latitude of Scotland. You will find him most frequently in a moist +place, or near water, for he is rather proud of himself as a swimmer. He +has a handsome coat, and gets a new one two, three, four, or five times +in a season, if his growth require it. When the new coat is quite hard +and fit for use under the old, he strips the old one off among the +thorn-bushes. He and his lady hybernate. The lady leaves her sixteen or +twenty eggs, all glued together, for the sun to vivify. The snake's +tongue, as we have said, is forked, the jaws dilatable; he prefers frogs +for his dinner, but is satisfied with mice, or little birds, or +lizards. He swallows his prey whole. Catching it first, as Mrs. Glasse +would say, between his teeth, which are in double rows upon each jaw, +and directed backward that they may act more effectually, he first +brings the victim to a suitable position--head first he prefers, then, +leaving one set of teeth, say the lower, fixed, he advances the upper +jaw, fixes its teeth into the skin, and leaves them there while he moves +forward, the lower jaw, and so continues till the bird or frog is worked +into his throat; it is then swallowed by the agency of other muscles. +This power of moving each jaw freely and in independence of the other, +is peculiar to Ophidian reptiles. The frog may reach the stomach both +alive and active, so that, if afterward, the snake gapes, as he is apt +to do, a frog has been seen to leap out again. The processes of life are +so slow in reptiles, that one meal will not be digested by the snake for +many days. He is unable to digest vegetable matter. Our snake is very +harmless, and if kept and fed, will quickly learn to recognize its +patron, will feed out of his hand, and nestle up his sleeve; but he +shows a dread of strangers. + +We have Adders? Yes, we have a Viper--_Pelias Berus_ is the name he goes +by, and his fangs are undeniable. This is the only native reptile that +can, in any degree whatever, hurt a man. It is common in England, and, +unlike the snake, prefers a dry place to a moist one. "Adder" and +"viper" are two words applied to the same thing--adder being derived +from the Saxon word for "nether," and viper from viviper; because this +reptile, like our common lizard, hatches her eggs within the body, or is +viviparous. Our viper is found all over Europe; not in Ireland. As for +Ireland, it is an old boast with the Irish that Saint Patrick banned +away all reptiles. The paucity of reptiles in Ireland is remarkable, but +they are not altogether absent. Our common lizard has a large Irish +connection, and frogs were introduced into Ireland years ago. Their +spawn was taken over, put into water, throve, and thereafter frogs have +multiplied. An attempt was also made to introduce our common snake, but +the country-people, with great horror, killed the inlopers; a reward +even was offered for one that was known to remain uncaptured. Ireland is +free from adders. + +The most ready distinction between a common snake and an adder, to +unfamiliar eyes, is founded on the difference of marking. While the +snake has separate alternate spots, the adder has, down its back, a +chain of dark spots, irregularly square, and joined to one another. +Adders are generally brown, but differ very much in color. They have on +their upper jaw, instead of their lower, a row of teeth, the well-known +fangs. These are long, curved teeth, fixed into a movable piece of bone, +and hollow. The hollow is not made out of the substance of the tooth; it +is as if a broad flat tooth had been bent round upon itself to form a +tube. The tube is open below and behind, in the curve, by a little +slit. Above, it is open, and rests upon a tiny bag connected with a +gland that corresponds to a gland in man for the secretion of saliva; +but which, in the present case, secretes a poison. The fang, when out of +use, is bent and hidden in a fleshy case; in feeding, it is rarely used. +The viper catches for himself his birds or mice, after the manner of a +harmless serpent. But, when hurt or angered, he throws back his neck, +drops his fang ready for service, bites, and withdraws his head +immediately. The fang in penetrating, of necessity, was pressed upon the +little bag of poison at its root, and forced a drop along the tube into +the wound. After a few bites, the bag becomes exhausted, and the adder +must wait for a fresh secretion. The poison has no taste or smell, and +may be swallowed with impunity, if there be no raw surface in the mouth, +or sore upon the throat, or in the stomach. It is only through a wound +that it can act like poison. The bite of an adder in this country never +yet proved fatal; but, according to the health of the person bitten, and +according to the greater or less heat of the weather (for in very hot +weather a more active poison is secreted), the wound made will be more +or less severe. It is advisable to get out of an adder's way. + +All the remaining reptiles in this country are two species of Frog, two +species of Toad, and four Newts. They are not only most absolutely +harmless, but, the frogs, at any rate, and toads, are ministers to man; +and they belong to a class of animals more interesting than any other, +perhaps, in the whole range of natural history. We are all well +acquainted with the common frog, whose grander name is _Rana +temporaria._ We see it--and it is to be feared some of us kill it--in +our gardens, among strawberry-beds and damp vegetation. But, whereas +frogs feed upon those slugs and insects which are in the habit of +pasturing upon our plants, and are themselves indebted to us for not a +grain of vegetable matter, we ought by all means to be grateful to them. +So industrious are frogs in slug-hunting, that it would be quite worth +while to introduce them as sub-gardeners upon our flower-beds. In +catching insects, the frog suddenly darts out his tongue, which, at the +hinder part, is loose, and covered with a gummy matter. The insect is +caught, and the tongue returned with wonderful rapidity. The frog, when +it is first hatched, has the constitution of a fish: it is purely +aquatic; has a fish's heart, a fish's circulation, and a fish's gills. +The tadpole swims as a fish does--by the movement, side-ways, of its +tail. For the unassisted eye, and still more for the microscope, what +spectacle can be more marvelous than the gradual process of change by +which this tiny fish becomes a reptile? Legs bud; the fish-like gills +dwindle by a vital process of absorption; the fish-like air-bladder +becomes transmuted, as by a miracle, into the celled structure of lungs; +the tail grows daily shorter, not broken off, but absorbed; the heart +adds to its cells; the fish becomes a reptile as the tadpole changes to +a frog. The same process we observe in toads; and it is also the same in +our newts, excepting that in newts the tail remains. There is no +parallel in nature to this marvelous and instructive metamorphosis. + +The perfectly-formed frog does not live of necessity in water, or near +it, but requires damp air occasionally. It breathes by lungs, as we have +said; but, as it has no ribs, there is no chest to heave mechanically. +The frog's air has to be swallowed, to be gulped down into the lungs. +That is not possible unless the mouth is shut; and, therefore, as we +might suffocate a man by keeping his mouth shut, so we should suffocate +a frog by keeping his mouth open. Yet we should not suffocate him +instantly; we should disable the lungs; but, in this class of animals +the whole skin is a breathing surface. A frog has lived a month after +his lungs had been extracted. All respiratory surfaces, like the inside +of our own lungs, can act only when they are relaxed and moist. That is +the reason why a frog's skin is always moist, and why a frog requires +moist air. It does not need this constantly, because, when moisture is +abundant, there is a bag in which it stores up superfluity of water, to +be used in any day of need. It is this water--pure and clear--which +frogs or toads expel when they are alarmed by being handled. Is not +enough said here, to rescue frogs from our contempt? We may add, that +they are capable of understanding kindness--can be tamed. Frogs +hybernate under the mud of ponds, where they lie close together, in a +stratum, till the spring awakens them to a renewal of their lives and +loves. They lay a vast number of eggs, at the bottom of the water; and +the multitudes of young frogs that swarm upon the shore when their +transformation is; complete, has given rise to many legends of a shower +of frogs. These multitudes provide food for many animals, serpents, as +we have seen, birds, fish. And the survivors are our friends. + +The other species of frog found in this country is the Edible Frog +(_Rana esculenta_). It has for a long time had a colony in Foulmire Fen, +in Cambridgeshire, although properly belonging to a continental race. It +differs from our common frog in wanting a dark mark that runs from eye +to shoulder, and in having, instead of it, a light mark--a streak--from +head to tail along the centre of the back. The male is a more portentous +croaker than our own familiar musicians, by virtue of an air-bladder on +each cheek, into which air is forced, and in which it vibrates +powerfully during the act of croaking. This kind of frog is always in or +near the water, and being very timid, plunges out of sight if any one +approaches. + +These are our frogs; as for our two Toads, they are by no means less +innocent. They are the Common Toad, by style and title _Bufo vulgaris,_ +and a variety of the Natter Jack Toad, to be found on Blackheath, and in +many places about London, and elsewhere. The toad undergoes +transformations like the frog. It is slower in its movements, and less +handsome in appearance: similar in structure. There is a somewhat +unpleasant secretion from its skin, a product of respiration. There is +nothing about it in the faintest degree poisonous. It is remarkably +sensible of kindness; more so than the frog. Examples of tame toads are +not uncommon. Stories are told of the discovery of toads alive, in +blocks of marble, where no air could be; but, there has been difficulty, +hitherto, in finding one such example free from the possibility of +error. It may be found, however, that toads can remain for a series of +years torpid. It has been proved that snails, after apparent death of +fifteen years, have become active on applying moisture. A proof equally +distinct is at present wanting in the case of toads. The toad, like +other reptiles, will occasionally cast its skin. The old skin splits +along the back, and gradually parts, until it comes off on each side, +with a little muscular exertion on the toad's part. Then, having rolled +his jacket up into a ball, he eats it! + +No reptiles remain now to be mentioned, but four species of Newt. These +little creatures are abundant in our ponds and ditches, and some are +most falsely accused of being poisonous. They are utterly harmless. +Their transformations, their habits, their changes of skin, their laying +of eggs, can easily be watched by any who will keep them in a miniature +pond. A large pan of water, with sand and stones at the bottom, decayed +vegetable matter for food, and a few living water-plants, extracted from +their native place, will keep a dozen newts in comfort. The water-plants +are needed, because a newt prefers to lay her egg upon a leaf. She +stands upon it, curls it up with her hind legs, and puts an egg between +the fold, where it remains glued. These being our reptiles, are they +proper objects of abhorrence? At this season they are all finishing +their winter nap. In a few weeks they will come among us, and then, when + + "the songs, the stirring air, + The life re-orient out of dust, + Cry through the sense to hearten trust + In that which made the world so fair"-- + +may we not permit our hearts to be admonished by the reptiles also? + + + + +[From Leigh Hunt's Journal.] + +A DREAM, AND THE INTERPRETATION THEREOF. + + +They stood by her bedside--the father and mother of the maiden--and +watched her slumbers. For she had returned weary from Seville, after a +long absence from this her Lisbon home. They had not gazed on that fair +innocent face for many a month past; and _they_, too, smiled, and +pressed each the other's hand as they marked a radiant smile playing +round the mouth of the sleeper. It was a smile brimful of happiness--the +welling-up of a heart at perfect peace. And it brought gladness to the +hearts of the parents, who-would fain have kissed the cheek of their +gentle girl, but refrained, lest it should break the spell--lest even a +father's and a mother's kiss should dull the blessedness of the dreamer. +So sleep on, Luise! and smile ever as thou sleepest--though it be the +sleep of death. + +These people were poor in worldly goods, but rich in the things of home +and heart. Luise, the first-born, had been staying with a Spanish +relative, who had taken charge of her education, and had now come back +to her native Lisbon "for good." Three younger children there +were--blithe, affectionate prattlers--whose glee at the recovery of +Luise had been so exuberant, so boisterous, that they were now sent to +play in the neighboring vineyards, that they might not disturb their +tired sister's repose. + +Long played that smile upon her face; and never were the two gazers +tired of gazing, and of smiling as they gazed. Luise, they thought, had +seemed a little sad as well as weary when she alighted at the dear +familiar door. But this smile was so full of joy unspeakable, so fraught +with beatific meaning, so reflective of beatific vision, that it laughed +their fears away, and spoke volumes where the seeming sorrow had not +spoken even words. + +The shrill song of a mule-driver passing by the window aroused the +sleeper. The smile vanished, and as she started up and looked hastily +and inquiringly around, a shade of mingled disappointment and +bewilderment gathered darkly on her brow. + +"You must turn and go to sleep again, my child," whispered the mother. +"I wish Pedro were not so proud of his voice, and then you might still +be dreaming of pleasant things." + +"I _was_ dreaming, then?" said Luise, somewhat sadly. "I thought it was +real, and it made me _so_ happy! Ah, if I could dream it again, and +again--three times running, you know--till it became true!" + +"What was it, Luise?" asked her father. "We must know what merry thought +made you so joyful. It will be a dream worth knowing, and, therefore, +worth telling." + +"Not at present," interrupted his wife. "Let her get some more rest; and +then, when she is thoroughly refreshed after such a tedious journey, she +will make us all happy with realities as well as dreams." + +"And are dreams never realities?" asked the girl, with a sigh. + +"Child! child! if we're going to be philosophical, and all that, we +shall never get you to sleep again. Don't talk any more, my Luise; but +close your eyes, and see if _you_ can't realize a dream; that will be +the best answer to your question." + +"I can't go to sleep again," she answered. "See, I'm quite awake, and +it's no use trying. And with the sun so high too! No; you shall send me +to bed an hour or two earlier to-night, and to-morrow morning will find +me as brisk as a bee. I've so much to hear, and so much to tell, that +to sleep again before dusk is out of the question." + +So she arose; and they went all three and sat down in the little garden. +Luise eyed eagerly every flower and every fruit-tree, and had something +to say about every change since she had been there last. But ever and +anon she would look earnestly into the faces of her parents--and never +without something like a tear in her large lustrous eyes. + +Of course, they questioned her upon this. And she, who had never +concealed a thought or a wish from _them_, told them in her own frank, +artless way, why she looked sorrowful when she first saw them, after a +prolonged separation, and how it was that, in her sleep, thoughts had +visited her which were messengers of peace and gladness--whose message +it had saddened her to find, on waking, but airy and unreal. + +At Seville she had been as happy as kindness and care could make one so +far from and so fond of home. But a childish fancy, she said, had +troubled her--childish she knew, and a thing to be ashamed of, but +haunting her none the less--visiting her sleeping and waking hours; a +feeling it was of dejection at the idea of her parents growing old, and +of change and chance breaking up the wonted calm of her little household +circle. That the march of Time should be so irresistible, that his +flight could not be stayed or slackened by pope or kaiser, that his +decrees should be so immutable, his destiny so inexorable, and that the +youngest must soon cease to be young, and the middle-aged become old--or +die! this was the thought that preyed on her very soul. She could not +endure the conviction that her own father must one day walk with a less +elastic step, and smile on her with eyes ever loving indeed, but more +and more dimmed with age--and that her own mother must one day move to +and fro with tottering gait, and speak with the tremulous accents of +those old people who, it seemed to Luise, could never have been children +at all. It was a weak, fantastic thought, this; but she could not master +it, nor escape its presence. + +And when she met them on the threshold of the beloved home--ah, the +absentee's rapid glance saw a wrinkle on her father's cheek that was new +to her, and it saw a clustering of gray hairs on her mother's brow, +where all had been raven black when Luise departed for Seville. Poor +Luise! The sorrows of her young heart were enlarged. Time had not been +absent with the pensive absentee. + +True, he had stolen no charm from her little playmates. Carlos was a +brighter boy than ever; and as for that merry Zingara-like Isabel, and +the yet merrier Manuel--they were not a whit changed, unless for the +better, in look, and manner, and love. Still the too-sensitive Luise was +hurt at the thought that they could not always be children--that Time +was bent on effacing her earliest and dearest impressions, removing from +her home that ideal of family relationship to which all her affections +clung with passionate entreaty. Whatever the future might; have to +reveal of enjoyment and endearment, the past could never be lived over +again; the past could never be identified with things present and things +to come; and it was to the past that her heart was betrothed--a past +that had gone the way of all living, and left her as it were widowed and +not to be comforted. + +"And now I will tell you my dream," said poor foolish Luise; "and you +will see why I looked happy in sleeping, and sorry in waking. I thought +I was sitting here in the garden--crying over what I have been telling +you--and suddenly an angel stood before me, and bade me weep not. +Strange as was his form, and sunny in its exceeding brightness, I was +not frightened; for his words were very, very gentle, and his look too +full of kindness to give me one thrill of alarm. And he said that what I +had longed for so much should be granted; that my father and mother +should _not_ grow old, nor Carlos cease to be the boy he now is, nor +Isabel grow up into a sedate woman, nor Manuel lose the gay childishness +for which we all pet him, nor I feel myself forsaking the old familiar +past, and launching into dim troublous seas of perpetual change. He +promised that we should one and all be freed from the great law of time; +and that as we are this day parents and children, so we should continue +forever--while vicissitude and decay must still have sway in the great +world at large. Can you wonder that I smiled? Or that it pained me when +I awoke, and found that the bright angel and the sweet promise were +only--a dream?"... + +There was no lack of conversation that evening in that Lisbon cottage. +All loved Luise; and she, in the midst of so many artless tokens of +affection and of triumph at her return, forgot all the morbid fancies +that had given rise to her dream, and was as light-hearted, and as +light-footed, as in days of yore. All gave themselves up to the reality +of present gladness; every voice trembled with the music of joy; every +eye looked and reflected love. There was no happier homestead that +evening in Lisbon, nor in the world. + +But ere many hours, Lisbon itself was tossing and heaving with the +throes of dissolution. The sea arose tumultuously against the tottering +city; the ground breathed fire, and quaked, and burst asunder; the +houses reeled and fell, and thousands of inhabitants perished in the +fall. Among them, at one dire swoop, the tenants of that happy cottage +home. Together did these mortals put on immortality. + +And thus was the dream fulfilled. + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD OF SIR THO'S MORE.[7] + +LIBELLUS A MARGARETA MORE, QUINDECIM ANNOS NATA, CHELSEIAE INCEPTVS. + + "Nulla dies sine linea." + + +This morn, hinting to Bess that she was lacing herselfe too straightlie, +she brisklie replyed, "One w'd think 'twere as great meritt to have a +thick waiste as to be one of y'e earlie Christians!" + +These humourous retorts are ever at her tongue's end; and, albeit, as +Jacky one day angrilie remarked, when she had beene teazing him, "Bess, +thy witt is stupidnesse;" yet, for one who talks soe much at random, no +one can be more keene when she chooseth. Father sayd of her, half +fondly, half apologeticallie to Erasmus, "Her wit has a fine subtletie +that eludes you almoste before you have time to recognize it for what it +really is." To which, Erasmus readilie assented, adding, that it had +y'e rare meritt of playing less on persons than things, and never on +bodilie defects. + +Hum!--I wonder if they ever sayd as much in favour of me. I know, +indeede, Erasmus calls me a forward girl. Alas! that may be taken in two +senses. + + * * * * * + +Grievous work, overnighte, with y'e churning. Nought w'd persuade +Gillian but that y'e creame was bewitched by Gammer Gurney, who was +dissatisfyde last Friday with her dole, and hobbled away mumping and +cursing. At alle events, y'e butter w'd not come; but mother was +resolute not to have soe much goode creame wasted; soe sent for Bess and +me, Daisy and Mercy Giggs, and insisted on our churning in turn till +y'e butter came, if we sate up all nighte for't. 'Twas a hard saying; +and mighte have hampered her like as Jephtha his rash vow: howbeit, soe +soone as she had left us, we turned it into a frolick, and sang Chevy +Chase from end to end, to beguile time; ne'erthelesse, the butter w'd +not come; soe then we grew sober, and, at y'e instance of sweete +Mercy, chaunted y'e 119th Psalme; and, by the time we had attayned to +"Lucerna pedibus," I hearde y'e buttermilk separating and splashing in +righte earneste. 'Twas neare midnighte, however; and Daisy had fallen +asleep on y'e dresser. Gillian will ne'er be convinced but that our +Latin brake the spell. + +Erasmus went to Richmond this morning with Polus (for so he Latinizes +Reginald Pole, after his usual fashion), and some other of his friends. +On his return, he made us laugh at y'e following. They had clomb y'e +hill, and were admiring y'e prospect, when Pole, casting his eyes +aloft, and beginning to make sundrie gesticulations, exclaimed, "What is +it I beholde? May heaven avert y'e omen!" with such-like exclamations, +which raised y'e curiositie of alle. "Don't you beholde," cries he, +"that enormous dragon flying through y'e sky? his horns of fire? his +curly tail?" + +"No," says Erasmus, "nothing like it. The sky is as cleare as unwritten +paper." + +Howbeit, he continued to affirme and to stare, untill at lengthe, one +after another, by dint of strayning theire eyes and theire imaginations, +did admitt, first, that they saw something; nexte, that it mighte be a +dragon; and last, that it was. Of course, on theire passage homeward, +they c'd talk of little else--some made serious reflections; others, +philosophical! speculations; and Pole waggishly triumphed in having +beene y'e firste to discerne the spectacle. + +"And you trulie believe there was a signe in y'e heavens?" we inquired +of Erasmus. + +"What know I?" returned he, smiling; "you know, Constantine saw a cross. +Why shoulde Polus not see a dragon? We must judge by the event. Perhaps +its mission may be to fly away with _him_. He swore to y'e curly +tail." + +How difficulte it is to discerne y'e supernatural from y'e +incredible! We laughe at Gillian's faith in our Latin; Erasmus laughs at +Polus his dragon. Have we a righte to believe noughte but what we can +see or prove? Nay, that will never doe. Father says a capacitie for +reasoning increaseth a capacitie for believing. He believes there is +such a thing as witchcraft, though not that poore olde Gammer Gurney is +a witch; he believes that saints can work miracles, though not in alle +y'e marvels reported of y'e Canterbury shrine. + +Had I beene justice of y'e peace, like y'e king's grandmother, I +w'd have beene very jealous of accusations of witchcraft; and have +taken infinite payns to sift out y'e causes of malice, jealousie, &c., +which mighte have wroughte with y'e poore olde women's enemies. Holie +Writ sayth, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live;" but, questionlesse, +manie have suffered hurte that were noe witches; and for my part, I have +alwaies helde ducking to be a very uncertayn as well as very cruel +teste. + +I cannot helpe smiling, whenever I think of my rencounter with William +this morning. Mr. Gunnell had set me Homer's tiresome list of ships; +and, because of y'e excessive heate within doors, I took my book into +y'e nuttery, to be beyonde y'e wrath of far-darting Phoebus Apollo, +where I clomb into my favourite filbert seat. Anon comes William through +y'e trees without seeing me; and seats him at the foot of my filbert; +then, out with his tablets, and, in a posture I s'd have called +studdied, had he known anie one within sighte, falls a poetizing, I +question not. Having noe mind to be interrupted, I lett him be, thinking +he w'd soon exhauste y'e vein; but a caterpillar dropping from y'e +leaves on to my page, I was fayn for mirthe sake, to shake it down on +his tablets. As ill luck w'd have it, however, y'e little reptile +onlie fell among his curls; which soe took me at vantage, that I could +not helpe hastilie crying, "I beg your pardon." 'Twas worth a world to +see his start! "What!" cries he, looking up, "are there indeede +Hamadryads?" and would have gallanted a little, but I bade him hold down +his head, while that with a twig I switched off y'e caterpillar. +Neither could forbeare laughing; and then he sued me to step downe, but +I was minded to abide where I was. Howbeit, after a minute's pause, he +sayd, in a grave, kind tone, "Come, little wife;" and taking mine arm +steadilie in his hand, I lost my balance and was faine to come down +whether or noe. We walked for some time, _juxta fluvium_; and he talked +not badlie of his travels, inasmuch as I founde there was really more in +him than one w'd think. + + * * * * * + +--Was there ever anie-thing soe perverse, unluckie, and downright +disagreeable? We hurried our afternoone tasks, to goe on y'e water +with my father; and, meaning to give Mr. Gunnel my Latin traduction, +which is in a book like unto this, I never knew he had my journalle +instead, untill that he burst out a laughing. "Soe this is y'e famous +_libellus_," quoth he,... I never waited for another word, but snatcht +it out of his hand; which he, for soe strict a man, bore well enow. I do +not believe he c'd have read a dozen lines, and they were toward y'e +beginning; but I s'd hugelie like to know which dozen lines they were. + +Hum! I have a mind never to write another word. That will be punishing +myselfe, though, insteade of Gunnel. And he bade me not take it to heart +like y'e late Bishop of Durham, to whom a like accident befel, which +soe annoyed him that he died of chagrin. I will never again, howbeit, +write aniething savouring ever soe little of levitie or absurditie. The +saints keepe me to it! And, to know it from my exercise book, I will +henceforthe bind a blue ribbon round it. Furthermore, I will knit y'e +sayd ribbon in soe close a knot, that it shall be worth noe one else's +payns to pick it out. Lastlie, and for entire securitie, I will carry +the same in my pouch, which will hold bigger matters than this. + + * * * * * + +This daye, at dinner, Mr. Clement took y'e Pistoller's place at y'e +reading-desk; and insteade of continuing y'e subject in hand, read a +paraphrase of y'e 103rde Psalm; ye faithfullenesse and elegant turne +of which, Erasmus highlie commended, though he took exceptions to y'e +phrase "renewing thy youth like that of y'e Phoenix," whose fabulous +story he believed to have been unknown to y'e Psalmist, and, +therefore, however poeticall, was unfitt to be introduced. A deepe blush +on sweet Mercy's face ledd to y'e detection of y'e paraphrast, and +drew on her some deserved commendations. Erasmus, turning to my father, +exclaymed with animation, "I woulde call this house the academy of +Plato, were it not injustice to compare it to a place where the usuall +disputations concerning figures and numbers were onlie oocasionallie +intersperst with disquisitions concerning y'e moral virtues." Then, in +a graver mood, he added, "One mighte envie you, but that your precious +privileges are bound up with soe paynfulle anxieties. How manie pledges +have you given to fortune!" + +"If my children are to die out of y'e course of nature, before theire +parents," father firmly replyed, "I w'd rather they died +well-instructed than ignorant." + +"You remind me," rejoyns Erasmus, "of Phocion; whose wife, when he was +aboute to drink y'e fatal cup, exclaimed, 'Ah, my husband! you die +innocent.' 'And woulde you, my wife,' he returned, 'have me die +guilty?'" + +Awhile after, Gonellus askt leave to see Erasmus his signet-ring, which +he handed down to him. In passing it back, William, who was occupyde in +carving a crane, handed it soe negligentlie that it felle to y'e +ground. I never saw such a face as Erasmus made, when 'twas picked out +from y'e rushes! And yet, ours are renewed almoste daylie, which manie +think over nice. He took it gingerlie in his faire, womanlike hands, and +washed and wiped it before he put it on; which escaped not my +step-mother's displeased notice. Indeede, these Dutchmen are +scrupulouslie cleane, though mother calls 'em swinish, because they will +eat raw sallets; though, for that matter, father loves cresses and +ramps. She alsoe mislikes Erasmus for eating cheese and butter together +with his manchet; or what he calls _boetram_; and for being, generallie, +daintie at his sizes, which she sayth is an ill example to soe manie +young people, and becometh not one with soe little money in's purse: +howbeit, I think 'tis not nicetie, but a weak stomach, which makes him +loathe our salt-meat commons from Michaelmasse to Easter, and eschew +fish of y'e coarser sort. He cannot breakfaste on colde milk like +father, but liketh furmity a little spiced. At dinner, he pecks at, +rather than eats, ruffs and reeves, lapwings, or anie smalle birds it +may chance; but affects sweets and subtilties, and loves a cup of wine +or ale, stirred with rosemary. Father never toucheth the wine-cup but to +grace a guest, and loves water from the spring. We growing girls eat +more than either; and father says he loves to see us slice away at the +cob-loaf; it does him goode. What a kind father he is! I wish my +step-mother were as kind. I hate alle sneaping and snubbing, flowting, +fleering, pinching, nipping, and such-like; it onlie creates resentment +insteade of penitence, and lowers y'e minde of either partie. Gillian +throws a rolling-pin at y'e turnspit's head, and we call it low-life; +but we looke for such unmannerlinesse in the kitchen. A whip is onlie +fit for Tisiphone. + +As we rose from table, I noted Argus pearcht on y'e window-sill, +eagerlie watching for his dinner, which he looketh for as punctuallie as +if he c'd tell the diall; and to please the good, patient bird, till +the scullion broughte him his mess of garden-stuff, I fetched him some +pulse, which he took from mine hand, taking good heede not to hurt me +with his sharp beak. While I was feeding him, Erasmus came up, and asked +me concerning Mercy Giggs; and I tolde him how that she was a +friendlesse orphan, to whom deare father afforded protection and the run +of y'e house; and tolde him of her gratitude, her meekness, her +patience, her docilitie, her aptitude for alle goode works and +alms-deeds; and how, in her little chamber, she improved eache spare +moment in y'e way of studdy and prayer. He repeated "Friendlesse? she +cannot be called friendlesse, who hath More for her protector, and his +children for companions;' and then woulde heare more of her parents' sad +story. Alsoe, would hear somewhat of Rupert Allington, and how father +gained his law-suit. Alsoe, of Daisy, whose name he tooke to be y'e +true abbreviation for Margaret, but I tolde him how that my step-sister, +and Mercy, and I, being all three of a name, and I being alwaies called +Meg, we had in sport given one the significative of her characteristic +virtue, and the other that of y'e French Marguerite, which may indeed +be rendered either pearl or daisy. And Chaucer, speaking of our English +daisy, saith + + "Si douce est la Marguerite." + + * * * * * + +Since y'e little wisdom I have capacitie to acquire, soe oft gives me +y'e headache to distraction, I marvel not at Jupiter's payn in his +head, when the goddess of wisdom sprang therefrom full growne. + +This morn, to quiet y'e payn brought on by too busie application, Mr. +Gunnell would have me close my book and ramble forth with Cecy into +y'e fields. We strolled towards Walham Greene; and she was seeking for +shepherd's purses and shepherd's needles, when she came running back to +me, looking rather pale. I askt what had scared her, and she made answer +that Gammer Gurney was coming along y'e hedge. I bade her set aside +her fears; and anon we come up with Gammer, who was puling at y'e +purple blossoms of y'e deadly night-shade. I sayd, "Gammer, to what +purpose gather that weed? knowest not 'tis evill?" + +She sayth, mumbling, "What God hath created, that call not thou evill." + +"Well, but," quo' I, "'tis poison." + +"Aye, and medicine, too," returns Gammer, "I wonder what we poor souls +might come to, if we tooke nowt for our ails and aches but what we could +buy o' the potticary. We've got noe Dr. Clement, we poor folks, to be +our leech o' the household." + +"But hast no feare," quo' I, "of an overdose?" + +"There's manie a doctor," sayth she, with an unpleasant leer, "that hath +given that at first. In time he gets his hand in; and I've had a plenty +o' practice--thanks to self and sister." + +"I knew not," quoth I, "that thou hadst a sister." + +"How should ye, mistress," returns she, shortlie, "when ye never comes +nigh us? We've grubbed on together this many a year." + +"'Tis soe far," I returned, half ashamed. + +"Why, soe it be," answers Gammer; "far from neighbours, far from church, +and far from priest; howbeit, my old legs carries me to _your_ house o' +Fridays; but I know not whether I shall e'er come agayn--the rye bread +was soe hard last time; it may serve for young teeth, and for them as +has got none; but mine, you see, are onlie on the _goe_;" and she opened +her mouth with a ghastly smile. "'Tis not," she added, "that I'm +ungratefulle; but thou sees, mistress, I really _can't_ eat crusts." + +After a moment, I asked, "Where lies your dwelling?" + +"Out by yonder," quoth she, pointing to a shapeless mass like a huge +bird's nest in y'e corner of the field. "There bides poor Joan and I. +Wilt come and looke within, mistress, and see how a Christian can die?" + +I mutelie complyed, in spite of Cecy's pulling at my skirts. Arrived at +y'e wretched abode, which had a hole for its chimney, and another for +door at once and window, I found, sitting in a corner, propped on a heap +of rushes, dried leaves, and olde rags, an aged sick woman, who seemed +to have but a little while to live. A mug of water stoode within her +reach; I saw none other sustenance; but, in her visage, oh, such +peace!... Whispers Gammer with an awfulle look, "She sees 'em now!" + +"Sees who?" quoth I. + +"Why, angels in two long rows, afore y'e throne of God, a bending of +themselves, this way, with theire faces to th' earth, and arms stretched +out afore 'em." + +"Hath she seen a priest?" quoth I. + +"Lord love ye," returns Gammer, "what coulde a priest doe for her? She's +is in heaven alreadie. I doubte if she can heare me." And then, in a +loud, distinct voyce, quite free from her usuall mumping, she beganne to +recite in _English_, "Blessed is every one that feareth y'e Lord, and +walketh in his ways," etc.; which y'e dying woman hearde, although +alreadie speechlesse; and reaching out her feeble arm unto her sister's +neck, she dragged it down till their faces touched; and then, looking +up, pointed at somewhat she aimed to make her see ... and we alle looked +up, but saw noughte. Howbeit, she pointed up three severall times, and +lay, as it were, transfigured before us, a gazing at some transporting +sighte, and ever and anon turning on her sister looks of love; and, the +while we stoode thus agaze, her spiritt passed away without even a +thrill or a shudder. Cecy and I beganne to weepe; and, after a while, +soe did Gammer; then, putting us forthe, she sayd, "Goe, children, goe; +'tis noe goode crying; and yet I'm thankfulle to ye for your teares." + +I sayd, "Is there aught we can doe for thee?" + +She made answer, "Perhaps you can give me tuppence, mistress, to lay on +her poor eyelids and keep 'em down. Bless 'ee, bless 'ee! You're like +y'e good Samaritan--he pulled out two-pence. And maybe, if I come to +'ee to-morrow, you'll give me a lapfulle of rosemarie, to lay on her +poor corpse.... I know you've plenty. God be with 'ee, children; and be +sure ye mind how a Christian can die." + +Soe we left, and came home sober enow. Cecy sayth, "To die is not soe +fearfulle, Meg, as I thoughte, but shoulde _you_ fancy dying without a +priest? I shoulde not; and yet Gammer sayd she wanted not one. Howbeit, +for certayn, Gammer Gurney is noe witch, or she woulde not so prayse +God." + +To conclude, father, on hearing alle, hath given Gammer more than enow +for her present needes; and Cecy and I are y'e almoners of his mercy. + + * * * * * + + June 24. + +Yesternighte, being St. John's Eve, we went into town to see y'e +mustering of y'e watch. Mr. Rastall had secured us a window opposite +y'e King's Head, in Chepe, where theire M'ys. went in state to see +the show. The streets were a marvell to see, being like unto a +continuation of fayr bowres or arbours, garlanded acrosse and over y'e +doors with greene birch, long fennel, orpin, St. John's wort, white +lilies, and such like; with innumerable candles intersperst, the which, +being lit up as soon as 'twas dusk, made the whole look like enchanted +land; while at y'e same time, the leaping over bon-fires commenced, +and produced shouts of laughter. The youths woulde have father goe downe +and joyn 'em; Rupert, speciallie, begged him hard, but he put him off +with, "Sirrah, you goosecap, dost think 'twoulde befitt y'e Judge of +the Sheriffs' Court?" + +At length, to y'e sound of trumpets, came marching up Cheapside two +thousand of the watch, in white fustian, with the City badge; and seven +hundred cressett bearers, eache with his fellow to supplie him with oyl, +and making, with theire flaring lights, the night as cleare as daye. +After 'em, the morris-dancers and City waites; the Lord Mayor on +horseback, very fine, with his giants and pageants: and the Sheriff and +his watch, and _his_ giants and pageants. The streets very uproarious on +our way back to the barge, but the homeward passage delicious; the +nighte ayre cool; and the stars shining brightly. Father and Erasmus had +some astronomick talk; howbeit, methoughte Erasmus less familiar with +y'e heavenlie bodies than father is. Afterwards, they spake of y'e +King, but not over-freelie, by reason of y'e bargemen overhearing. +Thence, to y'e ever-vext question of Martin Luther, of whome Erasmus +spake in terms of earneste, yet qualifyde prayse. + +"If Luther be innocent," quoth he, "I woulde not run him down by a +wicked faction; if he be in error, I woulde rather have him reclaymed +than destroyed; for this is most agreeable to the doctrine of our deare +Lord and Master, who woulde not bruise y'e broken reede, nor quenche +y'e smoaking flax." And much more to same purpose. + +We younger folks felle to choosing our favourite mottoes and devices, in +which y'e elders at length joyned us. Mother's was loyal--"Cleave to +y'e crown though it hang on a bush." Erasmus's pithie--"Festina +lente." William sayd he was indebted for his to St. Paul--"I seeke not +yours, but you." For me, I quoted one I had seene in an olde countrie +church, "Mieux etre que paroitre," which pleased father and Erasmus +much. + + * * * * * + +Poor Erasmus caughte colde on y'e water last nighte, and keeps house +to-daye, taking warm possets. 'Tis my week of housekeeping under +mother's guidance, and I never had more pleasure in it: delighting to +suit his taste in sweete things, which, methinks, all men like. I have +enow of time left for studdy, when alle's done. + +He hathe beene the best part of the morning in our academia, looking +over books and manuscripts, taking notes of some, discoursing with Mr. +Gunnell and others; and, in some sorte, interrupting our morning's work; +but how pleasantlie! Besides, as father sayth, "varietie is not always +interruption. That which occasionallie lets and hinders our accustomed +studdies, may prove to y'e ingenious noe less profitable than theire +studdies themselves." + +They beganne with discussing y'e pronunciation of Latin and Greek, on +which Erasmus differeth much from us, though he holds to our +pronunciation of y'e _theta_. Thence, to y'e absurde partie of the +Ciceronians now in Italie, who will admit noe author save Tully to be +read nor quoted, nor anie word not in his writings to be used. Thence, +to y'e Latinitie of y'e Fathers, of whose style he spake slightlie +enow, but rated Jerome above Augustine. At length, to his Greek and +Latin Testament, of late issued from y'e presse, and y'e incredible +labour it hath cost him to make it as perfect as possible: on this +subject he soe warmed, that Bess and I listened with suspended breath. +"May it please God," sayth he, knitting ferventlie his hands, "to make +it a blessing to all Christendom! I look for noe other reward. Scholars +and believers yet unborn, may have reason to thank, and yet may forget +Erasmus." He then went on to explain to Gunnell what he had much felt in +want of, and hoped some scholar might yet undertake; to wit, a sort of +Index Bibliorum, showing in how manie passages of holy writ occurreth +anie given word, etc.; and he e'en proposed it to Gunnell, saying 'twas +onlie y'e work of patience and industry, and mighte be layd aside, and +resumed as occasion offered, and completed at leisure, to y'e great +thankfullenesse of scholars. But Gunnell onlie smiled and shooke his +head. Howbeit, Erasmus set forth his scheme soe playnlie, that I, having +a pen in hand, did privilie note down alle y'e heads of y'e same, +thinking, if none else w'd undertake it, why s'd not I? since +leisure and industrie were alone required, and since 'twoulde be soe +acceptable to manie, 'speciallie to Erasmus. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Continued from the April Number. + + + + +THE STOLEN FRUIT.--A STORY OF NAPOLEON'S CHILDHOOD. + + +On the 15th of August, 1777, two little girls of seven or eight years +old were playing in a garden near Ajaccio in Corsica. After running up +and down among the trees and flowers, one of them stopped the other at +the entrance to a dark grotto under a rock. + +"Eliza," she said, "don't go any further: it frightens me to look into +that black cave." + +"Nonsense! 'Tis only Napoleon's Grotto." + +"This garden belongs to your uncle Fesch: has he given this dark hole to +Napoleon?" + +"No, Panoria; my great-uncle has not given him this grotto. But as he +often comes and spends hours in it by himself, we all call it +_Napoleon's Grotto_." + +"And what can he be doing there?" + +"Talking to himself." + +"What about?" + +"Oh, I don't know: a variety of things. But come, help me to gather a +large bunch of flowers." + +"Just now, when we were on the lower walk, you told me not to pull any, +although there was abundance of sweet ones." + +"Yes; but that was in my uncle the canon's garden. + +"And are his flowers more sacred than those of uncle Fesch?" + +"They are indeed, Panoria." + +"And why?" + +"I'm sure I don't know, but when any one wants to prevent our playing, +they say, 'That will give your uncle the canon a headache!' When we are +not to touch something, 'tis always, 'That belongs to the canon!' If we +want to eat some fine fruit, 'Don't touch that; 'tis for your uncle the +canon!' And even when we are praised or rewarded, 'tis always because +the canon is pleased with us!" + +"Is it because he is archdeacon of Ajaccio that people are so much +afraid of him?" + +"Oh, no, Panoria; but because he is our tutor. Papa is not rich enough +to pay for masters to teach us, and he has not time to look after our +education himself; so our uncle the canon teaches us every thing. He is +not unkind, but he is very strict. If we don't know our lessons, he +slaps us smartly." + +"And don't you call that unkind, Eliza?" + +"Not exactly. Do you never get a whipping yourself, Panoria?" + +"No, indeed, Eliza. It is the Corsican fashion to beat children; but our +family is Greek, and mamma says Greeks must not be beaten." + +"Then I'm sure, Panoria, I wish I were a Greek; for 'tis very unpleasant +to be slapped!" + +"I dare say your brother Napoleon does not like it either." + +"He is the only one of my brothers who does not cry or complain when he +is punished. If you heard what a noise Joseph and Lucien make, you would +fancy that uncle was flaying them alive!" + +"But about Napoleon. What can he be talking about alone in the grotto?" + +"Hush! Here he is! Let us hide ourselves behind this lilac-tree, and +you'll hear." + +"I see Severia coming to call us." + +"Ah! it will take her an hour to gather ripe fruit for uncle the canon. +We shall have time enough. Come!" + +And the little girls, gliding between the rock and the overhanging +shrubs, took up their position in perfect concealment. + +The boy who advanced toward the grotto differed from the generality of +children of his age in the size of his head, the massive form of his +noble brow, and the fixed _examining_ expression of his eyes. He walked +slowly--looking at the bright blue sea--and unconscious that his +proceedings were closely watched by two pair of little bright black +eyes. + +"Here I am my own master!" he said as he entered the grotto. "No one +commands me here!" And seating himself royally on a bench within the +dark entrance, he continued, "This is my birthday. I am eight years old +to-day. I wish I lived among the Spartans, then I should be beyond the +control of women; but now I have to obey such a number of people--old +Severia among the rest. Ah, if I were the master!" + +"Well, and if you were the master, what would you do?" cried Eliza, +thrusting forward her pretty little head. + +"First of all, I'd teach you not to come listening at doors," replied +Napoleon, disconcerted at being overheard. + +"But, brother, there's no door that I can see." + +"No matter, you have been eaves-dropping all the same." + +"Eliza!--Panoria!" cried a loud voice. "Where can these children have +gone to?" + +The young ladies came out of their leafy lurking-place in time to meet +the little Bonapartes' nurse, Severia--a tall old woman, who carried on +her arm a basket filled with the most luscious tempting pears, grapes, +and figs. + +"A pear, Severia!" cried Napoleon, darting forward, and thrusting his +hand into the basket. + +"The saints forbid, child!" exclaimed Severia. "They are for your uncle +the canon!" + +"Ah!" said Napoleon, drawing back his hand as quickly as if a wasp had +stung him. + +Panoria burst out laughing. + +"I never saw such people!" she said, as soon as her mirth allowed her to +speak. "My uncle the canon seems the bugbear of the whole family. Is +Severia afraid of him, too?" + +"Not more than I am," said Napoleon, boldly. + +"And yet you were afraid to take a pear?" + +"Because I did not wish to do it, Panoria." + +"Did not _dare_ do it, Napoleon!" + +"Did not _wish_ to do it, Panoria." + +"And if you wished it, would you do it?" + +"Certainly I would." + +"I think you are a boaster, Napoleon; and in your uncle's presence would +be just as great a coward as Eliza or Pauline?" + +"Come, children, follow me," said Severia, walking on. + +"You think I am a coward?" whispered Eliza to her little friend. "Come +into the house, and see if I don't eat as much of uncle's fruit as I +please. Mamma is gone out to pay a visit, and will not be home until +to-morrow." + +"Then I'll help you," said Panoria. And the little girls, fixing their +wistful eyes on the tempting fruit, followed Severia to the house. + +Napoleon remained some time longer in his grotto; and when supper-time +approached, he went into the house. Feeling very thirsty, he entered +the dining-room, in which was a large cupboard, where fresh water was +usually kept. Just as he was going in, he heard a noise: the cupboard +doors were quickly shut, and he caught a glimpse of a white frock +disappearing through the open window. Instead, however, of looking after +the fugitive, he went quietly to get a glass of water in the cupboard. +Then, to his dismay, he saw his uncle's basket of fruit half empty! +While, forgetting his thirst, he looked with astonishment at the fruit, +considering who could have been the hardy thief, a voice behind him +roused him from his reverie. + +"What are you doing there, Napoleon? You know you are not permitted to +help yourself to supper." + +This was uncle the canon himself--a short, stout old man with a bald +head, whose otherwise ordinary features were lighted up with the eagle +glance which afterward distinguished his grand-nephew. + +"I was not taking any thing, uncle," replied Napoleon. And then suddenly +the idea occurring to him that he might be accused of having taken the +fruit, the blood rushed hotly to his cheeks. + +His confusion was so evident, that the canon said, "I hope you are not +telling a falsehood, Napoleon?" + +"I never tell falsehoods," said the boy, proudly. + +"What were you doing?" + +"I was thirsty; I came to get some water." + +"No harm in that--and then, my boy?" + +"That was all, uncle." + +"Have you drunk the water?" + +"No, uncle; not yet." + +The archdeacon shook his head. "You came to drink, and you did not +drink; that does not hang well together. Napoleon, take care. If you +frankly confess your fault, whatever it may be, you shall be forgiven; +but if you tell a lie, and persist in it, I warn you that I shall punish +you severely." + +The entrance of M. Bonaparte, M. Fesch, and Joseph, Napoleon's eldest +brother, interrupted the conversation; and for some minutes the elder +gentlemen spoke to each other on political subjects; when a sudden +exclamation from Severia, as she opened the cupboard, attracted the +attention of all. + +"Santa Madona! who has taken the fruit?" + +"This is the mystery discovered!" said the canon, turning toward +Napoleon. "So you stole the fruit?" + +"I never touched it," replied the boy. + +"Call in the other children," said the archdeacon. + +In a few minutes five beautiful children, three boys and two girls, +formed a group round their father, who, looking at each one in turn, +asked, "Which of you has taken the fruit that was gathered in your uncle +the canon's garden?" + +"I did not!" "Nor I!" "Nor I!" cried they all. But Eliza's voice was +lower and less assured than those of the others. + +"And you, Napoleon?" + +"I have said, papa, that I did not do it." + +"That's a falsehood!" exclaimed Severia, who, being an old domestic, +took great liberties. + +"If you were not a woman!" said Napoleon, shaking his small clenched +hand at her. + +"Silence! Napoleon," said his father, sternly. + +"It must have been you, Napoleon," said Severia; "for after putting the +fruit into the cupboard, I never left the ante-room, and not a soul +passed through except the archdeacon and yourself. If he has not taken +them--" + +"I wish truly I had," said the old gentleman, "and then I should not +have the grief of seeing one of my children persist in a lie." + +"Uncle, I am not guilty," repeated Napoleon firmly. + +"Do not be obstinate, but confess," said his father. + +"Yes," added the canon; "'tis the only way to escape punishment." + +"But I never touched the fruit--indeed, I did not." + +"Napoleon," said his uncle, "I can not believe you. I shall give you +five minutes; and if, at the end of that time, you do not confess, and +ask for pardon, I shall whip you." + +"A whip is for horses and dogs, not for children!" said the boy. + +"A whip is for disobedient, lying children," replied his father. + +"Then 'tis unjust to give it me, for I am neither a liar nor +disobedient." So saying, Napoleon crossed his arms on his chest, and +settled himself in a firm attitude. + +Meantime his brothers and his sister Pauline came close to him, and +whispered good-natured entreaties that he would confess. + +"But how can I, when I have not done wrong?" + +"So you are still obstinate?" said his uncle. And taking him by the arm, +he led him into the next room. Presently the sound of sharp repeated +blows was heard, but not a cry or complaint from the little sufferer. + +Madame Bonaparte was away from home, and in the evening her husband went +to meet her, accompanied by Joseph, Lucien, and Eliza. M. Fesch and the +canon were also about to depart, and in passing through the ante-room, +they saw Napoleon standing, pale and grave, but proud, and firm-looking +as before. + +"Well, my child," said his father, "I hope you will now ask your uncle's +pardon?" + +"I did not touch the fruit, papa." + +"Still obstinate! As the rod will not do, I shall try another method. +Your mother, brothers, Eliza, and I, will be away for three days, and +during that time you shall have nothing but bread and water, unless you +ask your uncle's forgiveness." + +"But, papa, won't you let him have some cheese with his bread?" +whispered little Pauline. + +"Yes, but not _broccio_." + +"Ah do, papa, please let him have _broccio_ 'tis the nicest cheese in +Corsica!" + +"That's the reason he does not deserve it," said his father, looking at +the boy with an anxious expression, as if he hoped to see some sign of +penitence on his face. But none such appearing, he proceeded toward the +carriage. + +Joseph and Lucien took a kind leave of their brother, but Eliza seemed +unwilling and afraid to go near or look at him. + +The three days passed on, heavily enough for poor Napoleon, who was in +disgrace, and living on bread, water, and cheese, which was not +_broccio_. At length the party returned, and little Panoria, who was +watching for her friend Eliza, came with them into the house. + +"Good-morning, uncle," said Madame Bonaparte to the archdeacon, "how are +you? And where are Napoleon and Pauline?" + +"Here I am, mamma," said the latter throwing her arms around her +mother's neck. + +"And Napoleon?" + +"He is here," said the canon. + +"Has he confessed?" asked his father. + +"No," replied the uncle. "I never before witnessed such obstinacy." + +"What has he done?" asked his mother. + +The canon, in reply, related the story of the fruit; but before he could +finish it, Panoria exclaimed-- + +"Of course, poor fellow, he would not confess what he never did!" + +"And who did take the fruit?" asked the canon. + +"I and Eliza," replied the little girl without hesitation. + +There was a universal exclamation. + +"My poor child," said the archdeacon, embracing Napoleon tenderly, "why +did you not undeceive us?" + +"I suspected it was Eliza," replied Napoleon; "but I was not sure. At +all events, I would not have told, for Panoria's sake, who is not a +liar." + +The reader may imagine how Napoleon was caressed and rewarded to make +him amends for the pain he had unjustly suffered. As to Eliza, she was +severely and rightly punished: first for her gluttony; and then for what +was much worse--her cowardice and deceit in allowing her innocent +brother to suffer for her fault. + + + + +WILBERFORCE AND CHALMERS. + + +I have seldom observed a more amusing and pleasing contrast between two +great men than between Wilberforce and Chalmers. Chalmers is stout and +erect, with a broad countenance--Wilberforce minute, and singularly +twisted: Chalmers, both in body and mind, moves with, a deliberate +step--Wilberforce, infirm as he is in his advanced years, flies about +with astonishing activity, and while, with nimble finger, he seizes on +every thing that adorns or diversifies his path, his mind flits from +object to object with unceasing versatility. I often think that +particular men bear about with them an analogy to particular animals: +Chalmers is like a good-tempered lion--Wilberforce is like a bee: +Chalmers can say a pleasant thing now and then, and laugh when he has +said it, and he has a strong touch of humor in his countenance, but in +general he is _grave_, his thoughts grow to a great size before they are +uttered--Wilberforce sparkles with life and wit, and the characteristic +of his mind is "rapid productiveness." A man might be in Chalmers's +company for an hour, especially in a party, without knowing who or what +he was--though in the end he would be sure to be detected by some +unexpected display of powerful originality. Wilberforce, except when +fairly asleep, is never latent. Chalmers knows how to vail himself in a +decent cloud--Wilberforce is always in sunshine. Seldom, I believe, has +any mind been more strung to a perpetual tune of love and praise. Yet +these persons, distinguished as they are from the world at large, and +from each other, present some admirable points of resemblance. Both of +them are broad thinkers, and liberal feelers; both of them are arrayed +in humility, meekness, and charity: both appear to hold self in little +reputation: above all, both love the Lord Jesus Christ, and reverently +acknowledge him to be their _only Saviour_.--_Hanna's Memoirs of +Chalmers._ + + + + +MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. + +(_Continued from page 698._) + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Mr. Dale had been more than a quarter of an hour conversing with Mrs. +Avenel, and had seemingly made little progress in the object of his +diplomatic mission, for now, slowly drawing on his gloves, he said, + +"I grieve to think, Mrs. Avenel, that you should have so hardened your +heart--yes--you must pardon me--it is my vocation to speak stern truths. +You can not say that I have not kept faith with you, but I must now +invite you to remember that I specially reserved to myself the right of +exercising a discretion to act as I judged best, for the child's +interests, on any future occasion; and it was upon this understanding +that you gave me the promise, which you would now evade, of providing +for him when he came into manhood." + +"I say I will provide for him. I say that you may 'prentice him in any +distant town, and by-and-by we will stock a shop for him. What would you +have more, sir, from folks like us, who have kept shop ourselves? It +ain't reasonable what you ask, sir?" + +"My dear friend," said the Parson, "what I ask of you at present is but +to see him--to receive him kindly--to listen to his conversation--to +judge for yourselves. We can have but a common object--that your +grandson should succeed in life, and do you credit. Now, I doubt very +much whether we can effect this by making him a small shopkeeper." + +"And has Jane Fairfield, who married a common carpenter, brought him up +to despise small shopkeepers?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel, angrily. + +"Heaven forbid! Some of the first men in England have been the sons of +small shopkeepers. But is it a crime in them, or their parents, if their +talents have lifted them into such rank or renown as the haughtiest duke +might envy? England were not England if a man must rest where his father +began." + +"Good!" said, or rather grunted, an approving voice, but neither Mrs. +Avenel nor the Parson heard it. + +"All very fine," said Mrs. Avenel, bluntly. "But to send a boy like that +to the university--where's the money to come from?" + +"My dear Mrs. Avenel," said the Parson, coaxingly, "the cost need not be +great at a small college at Cambridge; and if you will pay half the +expense, I will pay the other half. I have no children of my own, and +can afford it." + +"That's very handsome in you, sir," said Mrs. Avenel, somewhat touched, +yet still not graciously. "But the money is not the only point." + +"Once at Cambridge," continued Mr. Dale, speaking rapidly, "at +Cambridge, where the studies are mathematical--that is, of a nature for +which he has shown so great an aptitude--and I have no doubt he will +distinguish himself; if he does, he will obtain, on leaving, what is +called a fellowship--that is a collegiate dignity accompanied by an +income on which he could maintain himself until he made his way in life. +Come, Mrs. Avenel, you are well off; you have no relations nearer to you +in want of your aid. Your son, I hear, has been very fortunate." + +"Sir," said Mrs. Avenel, interrupting the Parson, "it is not because my +son Richard is an honor to us, and is a good son, and has made his +fortin, that we are to rob him of what we have to leave, and give it to +a boy whom we know nothing about, and who, in spite of what you say, +can't bring upon us any credit at all." + +"Why? I don' see that." + +"Why?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel, fiercely--"why? you know why. No, I don't +want him to rise in life: I don't want folks to be speiring and asking +about him. I think it is a very wicked thing to have put fine notions in +his head, and I am sure my daughter Fairfield could not have done it +herself. And now, to ask me to rob Richard, and bring out a great +boy--who's been a gardener, or plowman, or such like--to disgrace a +gentleman who keeps his carriage, as my son Richard does--I would have +you to know, sir, no! I won't do it, and there's an end to the matter." + +During the last two or three minutes, and just before that approving +"good" had responded to the Parson's popular sentiment, a door +communicating with an inner room had been gently opened, and stood ajar; +but this incident neither party had even noticed. But now the door was +thrown boldly open, and the traveler whom the Parson had met at the inn +walked up to Mr. Dale, and said, "No! that's not the end of the matter. +You say the boy's a 'cute clever lad?" + +"Richard, have you been listening?" exclaimed Mrs. Avenel. + +"Well, I guess, yes--the last few minutes." + +"And what have you heard?" + +"Why, that this reverend gentleman thinks so highly of my sister +Fairfield's boy that he offers to pay half of his keep at college. Sir, +I'm very much obliged to you, and there's my hand, if you'll take it." + +The Parson jumped up, overjoyed, and, with a triumphant glance toward +Mrs. Avenel, shook hands heartily with Mr. Richard. + +"Now," said the latter, "just put on your hat, sir, and take a stroll +with me, and we'll discuss the thing business-like. Women don't +understand business; never talk to women on business." + +With these words, Mr. Richard drew out a cigar-case, selected a cigar, +which he applied to the candle, and walked into the hall. + +Mrs. Avenel caught hold of the Parson. "Sir, you'll be on your guard +with Richard. Remember your promise." + +"He does not know all, then?" + +"He? No! And you see he did not overhear more than what he says. I'm +sure you're a gentleman, and won't go agin your word." + +"My word was conditional; but I will promise you never to break the +silence without more reason than I think there is here for it. Indeed, +Mr. Richard Avenel seems to save all necessity for that." + +"Are you coming, sir?" cried Richard, as he opened the street door. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +The Parson joined Mr. Richard Avenel on the road. It was a fine night, +and the moon clear and shining. + +"So, then," said Mr. Richard thoughtfully, "poor Jane, who was always +the drudge of the family, has contrived to bring up her son well; and +the boy is really what you say, eh?--could make a figure at college?" + +"I am sure of it," said the Parson, hooking himself on to the arm which +Mr. Avenel proffered. + +"I should like to see him," said Richard. "Has he any manner? Is he +genteel? or a mere country lout?" + +"Indeed he speaks with so much propriety, and has so much modest +dignity, I might say, about him, that there's many a rich gentleman who +would be proud of such a son." + +"It is odd," observed Richard, "what difference there is in families. +There's Jane now--who can't read nor write, and was just fit to be a +workman's wife--had not a thought above her station; and when I think of +my poor sister Nora--you would not believe it, sir, but _she_ was the +most elegant creature in the world--yes, even as a child (she was but a +child when I went off to America). And often, as I was getting on in +life, often I used to say to myself, 'My little Nora shall be a lady +after all.' Poor thing--but she died young." + +Richard's voice grew husky. + +The Parson kindly pressed the arm on which he leaned, and said, after a +pause, + +"Nothing refines us like education, sir. I believe your sister Nora had +received much instruction, and had the talents to profit by it; it is +the same with your nephew." + +"I'll see him," said Richard, stamping his foot firmly on the ground, +"and if I like him, I'll be as good as a father to him. Look you, Mr. +---- what's your name, sir?" + +"Dale." + +"Mr. Dale, look you, I'm a single man. Perhaps I may marry some day; +perhaps I shan't. I'm not going to throw myself away. If I can get a +lady of quality, why--but that's neither here nor there; meanwhile, I +should be glad of a nephew whom I need not be ashamed of. You see, sir, +I'm a new man, the builder of my own fortunes; and, though I have picked +up a little education--I don't well know how--as I scrambled on, still, +now I come back to the old country I'm well aware that I am not exactly +a match for those d----d aristocrats; don't show so well in a +drawing-room as I could wish. I could be a Parliament man if I liked, +but I might make a goose of myself; so, all things considered, if I can +get a sort of junior partner to do the polite work, and show off the +goods, I think the house of Avenel & Co. might become a pretty +considerable honor to the Britishers. You understand me, sir?" + +"Oh, very well," answered Mr. Dale smiling, though rather gravely. + +"Now," continued the New Man, "I'm not ashamed to have risen in life by +my own merits; and I don't disguise what I've been. And, when I'm in my +own grand house, I'm fond of saying, 'I landed at New York with L10 in +my purse, and here I am!' But it would not do to have the old folks with +me. People take you with all your faults, if you're rich; but they won't +swallow your family into the bargain. So if I don't have my own father +and mother, whom I love dearly, and should like to see sitting at table, +with my servants behind their chairs, I could still less have sister +Jane. I recollect her very well, and she can't have got genteeler as +she's grown older. Therefore I beg you'll not set her on coming after +me; it won't do by any manner of means. Don't say a word about me to +her. But send the boy down here to his grandfather, and I'll see him +quietly, you understand." + +"Yes, but it will be hard to separate her from the boy." + +"Stuff! all boys are separated from their parents when they go into the +world. So that's settled! Now, just tell me. I know the old folks always +snubbed Jane--that is, mother did. My poor dear father never snubbed any +of us. Perhaps mother has not behaved altogether well to Jane. But we +must not blame her for that; you see this is how it happened. There were +a good many of us, while father and mother kept shop in the High-street, +so we were all to be provided for anyhow; and Jane, being very useful +and handy at work, got a place when she was a little girl, and had no +time for learning. Afterward my father made a lucky hit, in getting my +Lord Lansmere's custom after an election, in which he did a great deal +for the Blues (for he was a famous electioneerer, my poor father). My +Lady stood godmother to Nora; and then most of my brothers and sisters +died off, and father retired from business; and when he took Jane from +service, she was so common-like that mother could not help contrasting +her with Nora. You see Jane was their child when they were poor little +shop-people, with their heads scarce above water; and Nora was their +child when they were well off, and had retired from trade, and lived +genteel: so that makes a great difference. And mother did not quite look +on her as her own child. But it was Jane's own fault; for mother would +have made it up with her if she had married the son of our neighbor the +great linendraper, as she might have done; but she would take Mark +Fairfield, a common carpenter. Parents like best those of their children +who succeed best in life. Natural. Why, they did not care for me till I +came back the man I am. But to return to Jane: I'm afraid they've +neglected her. How is she off?" + +"She earns her livelihood, and is poor, but contented." + +"Ah, just be good enough to give her this," (and Richard took a +bank-note of L50 from his pocket-book). "You can say the old folks sent +it to her; or that it is a present from Dick, without telling her he had +come back from America." + +"My dear sir," said the Parson, "I am more and more thankful to have +made your acquaintance. This is a very liberal gift of yours; but your +best plan will be to send it through your mother. For, though I don't +want to betray any confidence you place in me, I should not know what to +answer if Mrs. Fairfield began to question me about her brother. I never +had but one secret to keep, and I hope I shall never have another. A +secret is very like a lie!" + +"You had a secret, then," said Richard, as he took back the bank-note. +He had learned, perhaps, in America, to be a very inquisitive man. He +added point-blank, "Pray what was it?" + +"Why, what it would not be if I told you," said the Parson, with a +forced laugh--"a secret!" + +"Well, I guess we're in a land of liberty--do as you like. Now, I dare +say you think me a very odd fellow to come out of my shell to you in +this off-hand way. But I liked the look of you, even when we were at the +inn together. And just now I was uncommonly pleased to find that, +though you are a Parson, you don't want to keep a man's nose down to a +shop-board, if he has any thing in him. You're not one of the +aristocrats--" + +"Indeed," said the Parson, with imprudent warmth, "it is not the +character of the aristocracy of this country to keep people down. They +make way among themselves for any man, whatever his birth, who has the +talent and energy to aspire to their level. That's the especial boast of +the British constitution, sir!" + +"Oh, you think so, do you?" said Mr. Richard, looking sourly at the +Parson. "I dare say those are the opinions in which you have brought up +the lad. Just keep him yourself, and let the aristocracy provide for +him!" + +The Parson's generous and patriotic warmth evaporated at once, at this +sudden inlet of cold air into the conversation. He perceived that he had +made a terrible blunder; and, as it was not his business at that moment +to vindicate the British constitution, but to serve Leonard Fairfield, +he abandoned the cause of the aristocracy with the most poltroon and +scandalous abruptness. Catching at the arm which Mr. Avenel had +withdrawn from him, he exclaimed: + +"Indeed, sir, you are mistaken; I have never attempted to influence your +nephew's political opinions. On the contrary, if, at his age, he can be +said to have formed any opinion, I am greatly afraid--that is, I think +his opinions are by no means sound--that is, constitutional. I mean, I +mean--" And the poor Parson, anxious to select a word that would not +offend his listener, stopped short in lamentable confusion of idea. + +Mr. Avenel enjoyed his distress for a moment, with a saturnine smile, +and then said, + +"Well, I calculate he's a Radical. Natural enough, if he has not got a +sixpence to lose--all come right by-and-by. I'm not a Radical--at least +not a destructive--much too clever a man for that, I hope. But I wish to +see things very different from what they are. Don't fancy that I want +the common people, who've got nothing, to pretend to dictate to their +betters, because I hate to see a parcel of fellows, who are called lords +and squires, trying to rule the roast. I think, sir, that it is men like +me who ought to be at the top of the tree! and that's the long and short +of it. What do you say?" + +"I've not the least objection," said the crest-fallen Parson, basely. +But, to do him justice, I must add that he did not the least know what +he was saying! + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Unconscious of the change in his fate which the diplomacy of the Parson +sought to effect, Leonard Fairfield was enjoying the first virgin +sweetness of fame; for the principal town in his neighborhood had +followed the then growing fashion of the age, and set up a Mechanics' +Institute; and some worthy persons interested in the formation of that +provincial Athenaeum had offered a prize for the best Essay on the +Diffusion of Knowledge--a very trite subject, on which persons seem to +think they can never say too much, and on which there is, nevertheless, +a great deal yet to be said. This prize Leonard Fairfield had recently +won. His Essay had been publicly complimented by a full meeting of the +Institute; it had been printed at the expense of the Society, and had +been rewarded by a silver medal--delineative of Apollo crowning Merit +(poor Merit had not a rag to his back; but Merit, left only to the care +of Apollo, never is too good a customer to the tailor!) And the County +Gazette had declared that Britain had produced another prodigy in the +person of Dr. Riccabocca's self-educated gardener. + +Attention was now directed to Leonard's mechanical contrivances. The +Squire, ever eagerly bent on improvements, had brought an engineer to +inspect the lad's system of irrigation, and the engineer had been +greatly struck by the simple means by which a very considerable +technical difficulty had been overcome. The neighboring farmers now +called Leonard "_Mr._ Fairfield," and invited him on equal terms to +their houses. Mr. Stirn had met him on the high road, touched his hat, +and hoped that "he bore no malice." All this, I say, was the first +sweetness of fame; and if Leonard Fairfield comes to be a great man, he +will never find such sweets in the after fruit. It was this success +which had determined the Parson on the step which he had just taken, and +which he had long before anxiously meditated. For, during the last year +or so, he had renewed his old intimacy with the widow and the boy; and +he had noticed, with great hope and great fear, the rapid growth of an +intellect, which now stood out from the lowly circumstances that +surrounded it in bold and unharmonizing relief. + +It was the evening after his return home that the Parson strolled up to +the Casino. He put Leonard Fairfield's Prize Essay in his pocket. For he +felt that he could not let the young man go forth into the world without +a preparatory lecture, and he intended to scourge poor Merit with the +very laurel wreath which it had received from Apollo. But in this he +wanted Riccabocca's assistance: or rather, he feared that, if he did not +get the Philosopher on his side, the Philosopher might undo all the work +of the Parson. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A sweet sound came through the orange boughs, and floated to the ears of +the Parson, as he wound slowly up the gentle ascent--so sweet, so +silvery, he paused in delight--unaware, wretched man! that he was +thereby conniving at Papistical errors. Soft it came, and sweet: softer +and sweeter--"Ave Maria!" Violante was chanting the evening hymn to the +Virgin Mother. The Parson at last distinguished the sense of the words, +and shook his head with the pious shake of an orthodox Protestant. He +broke from the spell resolutely, and walked on with a sturdy step. +Gaining the terrace, he found the little family seated under an awning. +Mrs. Riccabocca knitting; the Signor with his arms folded on his breast: +the book he had been reading a few moments before had fallen on the +ground, and his dark eyes were soft and dreamy. Violante had finished +her hymn, and seated herself on the ground between the two, pillowing +her head on her step-mother's lap, but with her hand resting on her +father's knee, and her gaze fixed fondly on his face. + +"Good evening," said Mr. Dale. Violante stole up to him, and, pulling +him so as to bring his ear nearer to her lip, whispered, "Talk to papa, +do--and cheerfully; he is sad." + +She escaped from him, as she said this, and appeared to busy herself +with watering the flowers arranged on stands round the awning. But she +kept her swimming, lustrous eyes wistfully on her father. + +"How fares it with you, my dear friend?"' said the Parson, kindly, as he +rested his hand on the Italian's shoulder. "You must not let him get out +of spirits, Mrs. Riccabocca." + +"I am very ungrateful to her if I ever am so," said the poor Italian, +with all his natural gallantry. Many a good wife, who thinks it is a +reproach to her if her husband is ever "out of spirits," might have +turned peevishly from that speech more elegant than sincere, and so have +made bad worse. But Mrs. Riccabocca took her husband's proffered hand +affectionately, and said with great _naivete_-- + +"You see I am so stupid, Mr. Dale; I never knew I was so stupid till I +married. But I am very glad you are come. You can get on some learned +subject together, and then he will not miss so much his--" + +"His what?" asked Riccabocca inquisitively. + +"His country. Do you think that I can not sometimes read your thoughts?" + +"Very often. But you did not read them just then. The tongue touches +where the tooth aches, but the best dentist can not guess at the tooth +unless one opens one's mouth.--_Basta!_ Can we offer you some wine of +our own making, Mr. Dale? it is pure." + +"I'd rather have some tea," quoth the Parson hastily. + +Mrs. Riccabocca, too pleased to be in her natural element of domestic +use, hurried into the house to prepare our national beverage. And the +Parson, sliding into her chair, said: + +"But you are dejected, then? Fie! If there's a virtue in the world at +which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness." + +"I don't dispute it," said Riccabocca, with a heavy sigh. "But though it +is said by some Greek, who, I think, is quoted by your favorite Seneca, +that a wise man carries his country with him at the soles of his feet, +he can't carry also the sunshine." + +"I tell you what it is," said the Parson, bluntly. "You would have a +much keener sense of happiness if you had much less esteem for +philosophy." + +"_Cospetto!_" said the Doctor, rousing himself. "Just explain, will +you?" + +"Does not the search after wisdom induce desires not satisfied in this +small circle to which your life is confined? It is not so much your +country for which you yearn, as it is for space to your intellect, +employment for your thoughts, career for your aspirations." + +"You have guessed at the tooth which aches," said Riccabocca, with +admiration. + +"Easy to do that," answered the Parson. "Our wisdom teeth come last, and +give us the most pain. And if you would just starve the mind a little, +and nourish the heart more, you would be less of a philosopher, and more +of a--" The Parson had the word "Christian" at the tip of his tongue: he +suppressed a word that, so spoken, would have been exceedingly +irritating, and substituted, with inelegant antithesis, "and more of a +happy man!" + +"I do all I can with my heart," quoth the Doctor. + +"Not you! For a man with such a heart as yours should never feel the +want of the sunshine. My friend, we live in an age of over mental +cultivation. We neglect too much the simple, healthful outer life, in +which there is so much positive joy. In turning to the world within us, +we grow blind to this beautiful world without; in studying ourselves as +men, we almost forget to look up to heaven, and warm to the smile of +God." + +The philosopher mechanically shrugged his shoulders, as he always did +when another man moralized--especially if the moralizer were a priest; +but there was no irony in his smile, as he answered thoughtfully; + +"There is some truth in what you say. I own that we live too much as if +we were all brain. Knowledge has its penalties and pains, as well as its +prizes." + +"That is just what I want you to say to Leonard." + +"How have you settled the object of your journey?" + +"I will tell you as we walk down to him after tea. At present, I am +rather too much occupied with you." + +"Me? The tree is formed--try only to bend the young twig!" + +"Trees are trees, and twigs twigs," said the Parson, dogmatically; "but +man is always growing till he falls into the grave. I think I have heard +you say that you once had a narrow escape of a prison?" + +"Very narrow." + +"Just suppose that you were now in that prison, and that a fairy +conjured up the prospect of this quiet home in a safe land; that you saw +the orange-trees in flower, felt the evening breeze on your cheek; +beheld your child gay or sad, as you smiled or knit your brow; that +within this phantom home was a woman, not, indeed all your young +romance might have dreamed of, but faithful and true, every beat of her +heart all your own--would you not cry from the depth of the dungeon, 'O +fairy! such a change were a paradise.' Ungrateful man! you want +interchange for your mind, and your heart should suffice for all!" + +Riccabocca was touched and silent. + +"Come hither, my child," said Mr. Dale, turning round to Violante, who +still stood among the flowers, out of hearing, but with watchful eyes. +"Come hither," he said, opening his arms. + +Violante bounded forward, and nestled to the good man's heart. + +"Tell me, Violante, when you are alone in the fields or the garden, and +have left your father looking pleased and serene, so that you have no +care for him at your heart--tell me, Violante, though you are all alone, +with the flowers below and the birds singing overhead, do you feel that +life itself is happiness or sorrow?" + +"Happiness!" answered Violante, half shutting her eyes, and in a +measured voice. + +"Can you explain what kind of happiness it is?" + +"Oh, no, impossible! and it is never the same. Sometimes it is so +still--so still--and sometimes so joyous, that I long for wings to fly +up to God, and thank him!" + +"O, friend," said the Parson, "this is the true sympathy between life +and nature, and thus we should feel ever, did we take more care to +preserve the health and innocence of a child. We are told that we must +become as children to enter into the kingdom of heaven; methinks we +should also become as children to know what delight there is in our +heritage of earth!" + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +The maid-servant (for Jackeymo was in the fields) brought the table +under the awning, and, with the English luxury of tea, there were other +drinks as cheap and as grateful on summer evenings--drinks which +Jackeymo had retained and taught from the customs of the +south--unebriate liquors, pressed from cooling fruits, sweetened with +honey, and deliciously iced; ice should cost nothing in a country in +which one is frozen up half the year! And Jackeymo, too, had added to +our good, solid, heavy English bread, preparations of wheat much +lighter, and more propitious to digestion--with those crisp _grissins_, +which seem to enjoy being eaten, they make so pleasant a noise between +one's teeth. + +The Parson esteemed it a little treat to drink tea with the Riccaboccas. +There was something of elegance and grace in that homely meal, at the +poor exile's table, which pleased the eye as well as taste. And the very +utensils, plain Wedgewood though they were, had a classical simplicity, +which made Mrs. Hazeldean's old India delf, and Mrs. Dale's best +Worcester china, look tawdry and barbarous in comparison. For it was +Flaxman who gave designs to Wedgewood, and the most truly refined of all +our manufactures in porcelain (if we do not look to the mere material) +is in the reach of the most thrifty. + +The little banquet was at first rather a silent one; but Riccabocca +threw off his gloom, and became gay and animated. Then poor Mrs. +Riccabocca smiled, and pressed the _grissins;_ and Violante, forgetting +all her stateliness, laughed and played tricks on the Parson, stealing +away his cup of warm tea when his head was turned, and substituting iced +cherry-juice. Then the Parson got up and ran after Violante, making +angry faces, and Violante dodged beautifully, till the Parson, fairly +tired out, was too glad to cry "Peace," and come back to the +cherry-juice. Thus time rolled on, till they heard afar the stroke of +the distant church-clock, and Mr. Dale started up and cried, "But we +shall be too late for Leonard. Come, naughty little girl, get your +father his hat." + +"And umbrella!" said Riccabocca, looking up at the cloudless moonlit +sky. + +"Umbrella against the stars?" asked the Parson, laughing. + +"The stars are no friends of mine," said Riccabocca, "and one never +knows what may happen!" + +The Philosopher and the Parson walked on amicably. + +"You have done me good," said Riccabocca, "but I hope I am not always so +unreasonably melancholic as you seem to suspect. The evenings will +sometimes appear long, and dull too, to a man whose thoughts on the past +are almost his sole companions." + +"Sole companions?--your child?" + +"She is so young." + +"Your wife?" + +"She is so--," the bland Italian appeared to check some disparaging +adjective, and mildly added, "so good, I allow; but you must own that we +can not have much in common." + +"I own nothing of the sort. You have your house and your interests, your +happiness and your lives, in common. We men are so exacting, we expect +to find ideal nymphs and goddesses when we condescend to marry a mortal; +and if we did, our chickens would be boiled to rags, and our mutton come +up as cold as a stone." + +"Per Bacco, you are an oracle," said Riccabocca, laughing. "But I am not +so skeptical as you are. I honor the fair sex too much. There are a +great many women who realize the ideal of men to be found in--the +poets!" + +"There's my dear Mrs. Dale," resumed the Parson, not heeding this +sarcastic compliment to the sex, but sinking his voice into a whisper, +and looking round cautiously--"there's my dear Mrs. Dale, the best woman +in the world--an angel I would say, if the word was not profane; BUT--" + +"What's the BUT" asked the Doctor demurely. + +"BUT I too might say that 'we have not much in common,' if I were only +to compare mind to mind, and, when my poor Carry says something less +profound than Madame de Stael might have said, smile on her in contempt +from the elevation of logic and Latin. Yet, when I remember all the +little sorrows and joys that we have shared together, and feel how +solitary I should have been without her--oh, then, I am instantly aware +that there is between us in common something infinitely closer and +better than if the same course of study had given us the same equality +of ideas; and I was forced to brace myself for a combat of intellect, as +I am when I fall in with a tiresome sage like yourself. I don't pretend +to say that Mrs. Riccabocca is a Mrs. Dale," added the Parson, with +lofty candor--"there is but one Mrs. Dale in the world; but still, you +have drawn a prize in the wheel matrimonial! Think of Socrates, and yet +he was content even with his--Xantippe!" + +Dr. Riccabocca called to mind Mrs. Dale's "little tempers," and inly +rejoiced that no second Mrs. Dale had existed to fall to his own lot. +His placid Jemima gained by the contrast. Nevertheless, he had the ill +grace to reply, "Socrates was a man beyond all imitation!--Yet I believe +that even he spent very few of his evenings at home. But, _revenons a +nos moutons_, we are nearly at Mrs. Fairfield's cottage, and you have +not yet told me what you have settled as to Leonard." + +The Parson halted, took Riccabocca by the button, and informed him, in +very few words, that Leonard was to go to Lansmere to see some relations +there, who had the fortune, if they had the will, to give full career to +his abilities. + +"The great thing, in the mean while," said the Parson, "would be to +enlighten him a little as to what he calls--enlightenment." + +"Ah!" said Riccabocca, diverted, and rubbing his hands, "I shall listen +with interest to what you say on that subject." + +"And must aid me; for the first step in this modern march of +enlightenment is to leave the poor Parson behind; and if one calls out, +'Hold! and look at the sign-post,' the traveler hurries on the faster, +saying to himself, 'Pooh, pooh!--that is only the cry of the Parson!' +But my gentleman, when he doubts me, will listen to you--you're a +philosopher!" + +"We philosophers are of some use now and then, even to Parsons!" + +"If you were not so conceited a set of deluded poor creatures already, I +would say 'Yes,'" replied the Parson generously; and, taking hold of +Riccabocca's umbrella, he applied the brass handle thereof, by way of a +knocker, to the cottage door. + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Certainly it is a glorious fever that desire To Know! And there are few +sights in the moral world more sublime than that which many a garret +might afford, if Asmodeus would bare the roofs to our survey--viz., a +brave, patient, earnest human being, toiling his own arduous way, +athwart the iron walls of penury, into the magnificent Infinite, which +is luminous with starry souls. + +So there sits Leonard, the self-taught, in the little cottage alone; +for, though scarcely past the hour in which great folks dine, it is the +hour in which small folks go to bed, and Mrs. Fairfield has retired to +rest, while Leonard has settled to his books. He had placed his table +under the lattice, and from time to time he looked up and enjoyed the +stillness of the moon. Well for him that, in reparation for those hours +stolen from night, the hardy physical labor commenced with dawn. +Students would not be the sad dyspeptics they are, if they worked as +many hours in the open air as my scholar-peasant. But even in him you +could see that the mind had begun a little to affect the frame. They who +task the intellect must pay the penalty with the body. Ill, believe me, +would this work-day world get on if all within it were hard-reading, +studious animals, playing the deuce with the ganglionic apparatus. + +Leonard started as he heard the knock at the door; the Parson's +well-known voice reassured him. In some surprise, he admitted his +visitors. + +"We are come to talk to you, Leonard," said Mr. Dale, "but I fear we +shall disturb Mrs. Fairfield." + +"Oh, no, sir! the door to the staircase is shut, and she sleeps +soundly." + +"Why, this is a French book--do you read French, Leonard?" asked +Riccabocca. + +"I have not found French difficult, sir. Once over the grammar, and the +language is so clear; it seems the very language for reasoning." + +"True. Voltaire said justly, 'Whatever is obscure is not French,'" +observed Riccabocca. + +"I wish I could say the same of English," muttered the Parson. + +"But what is this?--Latin too?--Virgil?" + +"Yes, sir. But I find I make little way there without a master. I fear I +must give it up" (and Leonard sighed). + +The two gentlemen exchanged looks and seated themselves. The young +peasant remained standing modestly, and in his air and mien there was +something that touched the heart while it pleased the eye. He was no +longer the timid boy who had sunk from the frown of Mr. Stirn, nor that +rude personation of simple physical strength, roused to undisciplined +bravery, which had received its downfall on the village-green of +Hazeldean. The power of thought was on his brow--somewhat unquiet still, +but mild and earnest. The features had attained that refinement which is +often attributed to race, but comes, in truth, from elegance of idea, +whether caught from our parents or learned from books. In his rich brown +hair, thrown carelessly from his temples, and curling almost to the +shoulders in his large blue eye, which was deepened to the hue of the +violet by the long dark lash--in that firmness of lip which comes from +the grapple with difficulties, there was considerable beauty, but no +longer the beauty of the mere peasant. And yet there was still about the +whole countenance that expression of goodness and purity which a painter +would give to his ideal of the peasant lover--such as Tasso would have +placed in the _Aminta_, or Fletcher have admitted to the side of the +Faithful Shepherdess. + +"You must draw a chair here, and sit down between us, Leonard," said the +Parson. + +"If any one," said Riccabocca "has a right to sit, it is the one who is +to hear the sermon; and if any one ought to stand, it is the one who is +about to preach it." + +"Don't be frightened, Leonard," said the Parson, graciously; "it is only +a criticism, not a sermon," and he pulled out Leonard's Prize Essay. + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +PARSON.--"You take for your motto this aphorism[8]--'_Knowledge is +Power._--Bacon.'" + +RICCABOCCA.--"Bacon make such an aphorism! The last man in the world to +have said any thing so pert and so shallow." + +LEONARD (astonished).--"Do you mean to say, sir, that that aphorism is +not in Lord Bacon! Why, I have seen it quoted as his in almost every +newspaper, and in almost every speech in favor of popular education." + +RICCABOCCA.--"Then that should be a warning to you never again to fall +into the error of the would-be scholar--viz., quote second-hand. Lord +Bacon wrote a great book to show in what knowledge is power, how that +power should be defined, in what it might be mistaken. And, pray, do you +think so sensible a man would ever have taken the trouble to write a +great book upon the subject, if he could have packed up all he had to +say into the portable dogma, 'Knowledge is power?' Pooh! no such +aphorism is to be found in Bacon from the first page of his writings to +the last." + +PARSON (candidly).--"Well, I supposed it was Lord Bacon's, and I am very +glad to hear that the aphorism has not the sanction of his authority." + +LEONARD (recovering his surprise).--"But why so?" + +PARSON.--"Because it either says a great deal too much, or just--nothing +at all." + +LEONARD.--"At least, sir, it seems to me undeniable." + +PARSON.--"Well, grant that it is undeniable. Does it prove much in favor +of knowledge? Pray, is not ignorance power too?" + +RICCABOCCA.--"And a power that has had much the best end of the +quarter-staff." + +PARSON.--"All evil is power, and does its power make it any thing the +better?" + +RICCABOCCA.--"Fanaticism is power--and a power that has often swept away +knowledge like a whirlwind. The Mussulman burns the library of a +world--and forces the Koran and the sword from the schools of Byzantium +to the colleges of Hindostan." + +PARSON (bearing on with a new column of illustration).--"Hunger is +power. The barbarians, starved out of their energy by their own swarming +population, swept into Italy and annihilated letters. The Romans, +however degraded, had more knowledge, at least, than the Gaul and the +Visigoth." + +RICCABOCCA (bringing up the reserve).--"And even in Greece, when Greek +met Greek, the Athenians--our masters in all knowledge--were beat by the +Spartans, who held learning in contempt." + +PARSON.--"Wherefore you see, Leonard, that though knowledge be power, it +is only _one_ of the powers of the world; that there are others as +strong, and often much stronger; and the assertion either means but a +barren truism, not worth so frequent a repetition, or it means something +that you would find it very difficult to prove." + +LEONARD.--"One nation may be beaten by another that has more physical +strength and more military discipline; which last, permit me to say, +sir, is a species of knowledge--" + +RICCABOCCA.--"Yes; but your knowledge-mongers at present call upon us to +discard military discipline, and the qualities that produce it, from the +list of the useful arts. And in your own essay, you insist upon +knowledge as the great disbander of armies, and the foe of all military +discipline." + +PARSON.--"Let the young man proceed. Nations, you say, may be beaten by +other nations less learned and civilized?" + +LEONARD.--"But knowledge elevates a class. I invite my own humble order +to knowledge, because knowledge will lift them into power." + +RICCABOCCA.--"What do you say to that, Mr. Dale?" + +PARSON.--"In the first place, is it true that the class which has the +most knowledge gets the most power? I suppose philosophers, like my +friend Dr. Riccabocca, think they have the most knowledge. And pray, in +what age have philosophers governed the world? Are they not always +grumbling that nobody attends to them?" + +"Per Bacco," said Riccabocca, "if people had attended to us, it would +have been a droll sort of world by this time!" + +PARSON.--"Very likely. But, as a general rule, those have the most +knowledge who give themselves up to it the most. Let us put out of the +question philosophers (who are often but ingenious lunatics), and speak +only of erudite scholars, men of letters and practical science, +professors, tutors, and fellows of colleges. I fancy any member of +Parliament would tell us that there is no class of men which has less +actual influence on public affairs. They have more knowledge than +manufacturers and ship-owners, squires and farmers; but, do you find +that they have more power over the Government and the votes of the House +of Commons?" + +"They ought to have," said Leonard. + +"Ought they?" said the Parson: "we'll consider that later. Meanwhile, +you must not escape from your own proposition, which is, that knowledge +is power--not that it _ought_ to be. Now, even granting your corollary, +that the power of a class is therefore proportioned to its +knowledge--pray, do you suppose that while your order, the operatives, +are instructing themselves, all the rest of the community are to be at a +stand-still? Diffuse knowledge as you may, you will never produce +equality of knowledge. Those who have most leisure, application, and +aptitude for learning, will still know the most. Nay, by a very natural +law, the more general the appetite for knowledge, the more the increased +competition would favor those most adapted to excel by circumstance and +nature. At this day, there is a vast increase of knowledge spread over +all society, compared with that in the Middle Ages; but is there not a +still greater distinction between the highly-educated gentleman and the +intelligent mechanic, than there was then between the baron who could +not sign his name and the churl at the plow? between the accomplished +statesman, versed in all historical lore, and the voter whose politics +are formed by his newspaper, than there was between the legislator who +passed laws against witches, and the burgher who defended his guild from +some feudal aggression? between the enlightened scholar and the dunce of +to-day, than there was between the monkish alchemist and the block head +of yesterday? Peasant, voter, and dunce of this century are no doubt +wiser than the churl, burgher, and blockhead of the twelfth. But the +gentleman, statesman, and scholar of the present age are at least quite +as favorable a contrast to the alchemist, witch-burner, and baron of +old. As the progress of enlightenment has done hitherto, so will it ever +do. Knowledge is like capital: the more there is in a country, the +greater the disparities in wealth between one man and another. +Therefore, if the working class increase in knowledge, so do the other +classes; and if the working class rise peacefully and legitimately into +power, it is not in proportion to their own knowledge alone, but rather +according as it seems to the knowledge of the other orders of the +community, that such augmentation of proportional power is just, and +safe, and wise." + +Placed between the Parson and the Philosopher, Leonard felt that his +position was not favorable to the display of his forces. Insensibly he +edged his chair somewhat away, and said mournfully-- + +"Then, according to you, the reign of knowledge would be no great +advance in the aggregate freedom and welfare of man?" + +PARSON.--"Let us define. By knowledge, do you mean intellectual +cultivation?--by the reign of knowledge, the ascendency of the most +cultivated minds?" + +LEONARD, (after a pause.)--"Yes." + +RICCABOCCA.--"Oh indiscreet young man, that is an unfortunate concession +of yours: for the ascendency of the most cultivated minds would be a +terrible oligarchy!" + +PARSON.--"Perfectly true; and we now reply to your exclamation, that men +who, by profession, have most learning ought to have more influence than +squires and merchants, farmers and mechanics. Observe, all the knowledge +that we mortals can acquire, is not knowledge positive and perfect, but +knowledge comparative, and subject to all the errors and passions of +humanity. And suppose that you could establish, as the sole regulators +of affairs, those who had the most mental cultivation, do you think they +would not like that power well enough to take all means their superior +intelligence could devise to keep it to themselves? The experiment was +tried of old by the priests of Egypt; and in the empire of China, at +this day, the aristocracy are elected from those who have most +distinguished themselves in learned colleges. If I may call myself a +member of that body, 'the people,' I would rather be an Englishman, +however much displeased with dull Ministers and blundering Parliaments, +than I would be a Chinese under the rule of the picked sages of the +Celestial Empire. Happily, therefore, my dear Leonard, nations are +governed by many things besides what is commonly called knowledge; and +the greatest practical ministers, who, like Themistocles, have made +small states great--and the most dominant races who, like the Romans, +have stretched their rule from a village half over the universe--have +been distinguished by various qualities which a philosopher would sneer +at, and a knowledge-monger would call 'sad prejudices,' and 'lamentable +errors of reason.'" + +LEONARD (bitterly.)--"Sir, you make use of knowledge itself to argue +against knowledge." + +PARSON.--"I make use of the little I know to prove the foolishness of +idolatry. I do not argue against knowledge; I argue against +knowledge-worship. For here, I see in your Essay, that you are not +contented with raising human knowledge into something like divine +omnipotence, you must also confound her with virtue. According to you, +we have only to diffuse the intelligence of the few among the many, and +all at which we preachers aim is accomplished.--Nay more; for whereas we +humble preachers have never presumed to say, with the heathen Stoic, +that even virtue is sure of happiness be low (though it be the best road +to it), you tell us plainly that this knowledge of yours gives not only +the virtue of a saint, but bestows the bliss of a god. Before the steps +of your idol, the evils of life disappear. To hear you, one has but 'to +know,' in order to be exempt from the sins and sorrows of the ignorant. +Has it ever been so? Grant that you diffuse among the many all the +knowledge ever attained by the few. Have the wise few been so unerring +and so happy? You supposed that your motto was accurately cited from +Bacon. What was Bacon himself? The poet tells you-- + + 'The wisest, brightest, _meanest_ of mankind.' + +Can you hope to bestow upon the vast mass of your order the luminous +intelligence of this 'Lord Chancellor of nature?' Grant that you do +so--and what guarantee have you for the virtue and the happiness which +you assume as the concomitants of the gift? See Bacon himself; what +black ingratitude! what miserable self-seeking! what truckling +servility! what abject and pitiful spirit! So far from intellectual +knowledge, in its highest form and type, insuring virtue and bliss, it +is by no means uncommon to find great mental cultivation combined with +great moral corruption." (Aside to Riccabocca)--"Push on, will you?" + +RICCABOCCA.--"A combination remarkable in eras as in individuals. +Petronius shows us a state of morals at which a commonplace devil would +blush, in the midst of a society more intellectually cultivated than +certainly was that which produced Regulus or the Horatii. And the most +learned eras in modern Italy were precisely those which brought the +vices into the most ghastly refinement." + +LEONARD (rising in great agitation, and clasping his hands.)--"I can not +contend with you, who produce against information so slender and crude +as mine the stores which have been locked from my reach. But I feel that +there must be another side to this shield--a shield that you will not +even allow to be silver. And oh, if you thus speak of knowledge, why +have you encouraged me to know?" + + +CHAPTER XX. + +"Ah, my son!" said the Parson, "if I wished to prove the value of +Religion, would you think I served it much, if I took as my motto, +'Religion is power?' Would not that be a base and sordid view of its +advantages? And would you not say he who regards religion as a power, +intends to abuse it as a priestcraft?" + +"Well put!" said Riccabocca. + +"Wait a moment--let me think. Ah--I see, sir!" said Leonard. + +PARSON.--"If the cause be holy, do not weigh it in the scales of the +market; if its objects be peaceful, do not seek to arm it with the +weapons of strife; if it is to be the cement of society, do not vaunt it +as the triumph of class against class." + +LEONARD (ingenuously.)--"You correct me nobly, sir. Knowledge is power, +but not in the sense in which I have interpreted the saying." + +PARSON.--"Knowledge is _one_ of the powers in the moral world, but one +that, in its immediate result, is not always of the most worldly +advantage to the possessor. It is one of the slowest, because one of the +most durable, of agencies. It may take a thousand years for a thought to +come into power; and the thinker who originated it might have died in +rags or in chains." + +RICCABOCCA.--"Our Italian proverb saith that 'the teacher is like the +candle, which lights others in consuming itself.'" + +PARSON.--"Therefore he who has the true ambition of knowledge should +entertain it for the power of his idea, not for the power it may bestow +on himself; it should be lodged in the conscience, and, like the +conscience, look for no certain reward on this side the grave. And since +knowledge is compatible with good and with evil, would it not be better +to say, 'Knowledge is a trust?'" + +"You are right, sir," said Leonard, cheerfully, "pray proceed." + +PARSON.--"You ask me why we encourage you to KNOW. First, because (as +you say yourself in your Essay) knowledge, irrespective of gain, is in +itself a delight, and ought to be something far more. Like liberty, like +religion, it may be abused; but I have no more right to say that the +poor shall be ignorant, than I have to say that the rich only shall be +free, and that the clergy alone shall learn the truths of redemption. +You truly observe in your treatise that knowledge opens to us other +excitements than those of the senses, and another life than that of the +moment. The difference between us is this, that you forget that the same +refinement which brings us new pleasures exposes us to new pains--the +horny hand of the peasant feels not the nettles which sting the fine +skin of the scholar. You forget also, that whatever widens the sphere of +the desires, opens to them also new temptations. Vanity, the desire of +applause, pride, the sense of superiority--gnawing discontent where that +superiority is not recognized--morbid susceptibility, which comes with +all new feelings--the underrating of simple pleasures apart from the +intellectual--the chase of the imagination, often unduly stimulated, for +things unattainable below--all these are surely among the first +temptations that beset the entrance into knowledge." + +Leonard shaded his face with his hand. + +"Hence," continued the Parson, benignantly--"hence, so far from +considering that we do all that is needful to accomplish ourselves as +men, when we cultivate only the intellect, we should remember that we +thereby continually increase the range of our desires, and, therefore, +of our temptations; and we should endeavor, simultaneously, to cultivate +both those affections of the heart, which prove the ignorant to be God's +children no less than the wise, and those moral qualities which have +made men great and good when reading and writing were scarcely known--to +wit, patience and fortitude under poverty and distress; humility and +beneficence amidst grandeur and wealth: and, in counteraction to that +egotism, which all superiority, mental or worldly, is apt to inspire, +Justice, the father of all the more solid virtues, softened by Charity, +which is their loving mother. Thus accompanied, knowledge, indeed, +becomes the magnificent crown of humanity--not the imperious despot, but +the checked and tempered sovereign of the soul." + +The Parson paused, and Leonard, coming near him, timidly took his hand, +with a child's affectionate and grateful impulse. + +RICCABOCCA.--"And if, Leonard, you are not satisfied with our Parson's +excellent definitions, you have only to read what Lord Bacon himself has +said upon the true ends of knowledge, to comprehend at once how angry +the poor great man, whom Mr. Dale treats so harshly, would have been +with those who have stinted his elaborate distinctions and provident +cautions, into that, coxcombical little aphorism, and then misconstrued +all he designed to prove in favor of the commandant, and authority of +learning. For," added the sage, looking up as a man does when he is +tasking his memory, "I think it is thus that, after saying the greatest +error of all is the mistaking or misplacing the end of knowledge, and +denouncing the various objects for which it is vulgarly sought;--I think +it is thus that he proceeds.... 'Knowledge is not a shop for profit or +sale, but a rich storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the relief +of men's estate.'"[9] + +PARSON (remorsefully.)--"Are those Lord Bacon's words? I am very sorry I +spoke so uncharitably of his life. I must examine it again. I may find +excuses for it now, that I could not when I first formed my judgment. I +was then a raw lad at Oxford. But I see, Leonard, there is still +something on your mind." + +LEONARD.--"It is true, sir. I would but ask whether it is not by +knowledge that we arrive at the qualities and virtues you so well +describe, but which you seem to consider as coming to us through +channels apart from knowledge?" + +PARSON.--"If you mean by the word knowledge something very different +from what you express in your essay--and which those contending for +mental instruction, irrespective of religion and ethics, appear also to +convey by the word--you are right;--but, remember, we have already +agreed that by the word knowledge we mean culture purely intellectual." + +LEONARD.--"That is true--we so understood it." + +PARSON.--"Thus, when this great Lord Bacon erred, you may say that he +erred from want of knowledge--the knowledge that moralists and preachers +would convey. But Lord Bacon had read all that moralists and preachers +could say on such matters; and he certainly did not err from want of +intellectual cultivation. Let me here, my child, invite you to observe, +that He who knew most of our human hearts and our immortal destinies, +did not _insist_ on this intellectual culture as essential to the +virtues that form our well-being here, and conduce to our salvation +hereafter. Had it been essential, the All-wise One would not have +selected humble fishermen for the teachers of his doctrine, instead of +culling his disciples from Roman Portico, or Athenian Academy. And this, +which distinguishes so remarkably the Gospel from the ethics of heathen +philosophy, wherein knowledge is declared to be necessary to virtue, is +a proof how slight was the heathen sage's insight into the nature of +mankind, when compared with the Saviour's; for hard, indeed, would it be +to men, whether high or low, rich or poor, if science and learning, or +contemplative philosophy, were the sole avenues to peace and redemption; +since, in this state of ordeal, requiring active duties, very few, in +any age, whether they be high or low, rich or poor, ever are or can be +devoted to pursuits merely mental. Christ does not represent heaven as a +college for the learned. Therefore the rules of the Celestial Legislator +are rendered clear to the simplest understanding as to the deepest." + +RICCABOCCA.--"And that which Plato and Zeno, Pythagoras and Socrates, +could not do, was done by men whose ignorance would have been a by-word +in the schools of the Greek. The gods of the vulgar were dethroned; the +face of the world was changed! This thought may make us allow, indeed, +that there are agencies more powerful than mere knowledge, and ask, +after all, what is the mission which knowledge should achieve?" + +PARSON.--"The Sacred Book tells us even that; for, after establishing +the truth that, for the multitude, knowledge is not essential to +happiness and good, it accords still to knowledge its sublime part in +the revelation prepared and announced. When an instrument of more than +ordinary intelligence was required for a purpose divine--when the +Gospel, recorded by the simple, was to be explained by the acute, +enforced by the energetic, carried home to the doubts of the +Gentile--the Supreme Will joined to the zeal of the earlier apostles the +learning and genius of St. Paul--not holier than the others--calling +himself the least, yet laboring more abundantly than them all--making +himself all things unto all men, so that some might be saved. The +ignorant may be saved no less surely than the wise; but here comes the +wise man who helps to save! And how the fullness and animation of this +grand Presence, of this indomitable Energy, seem to vivify the toil, and +to speed the work! 'In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils +of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, +in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the +sea, in perils among false brethren.' Behold, my son! does not Heaven +here seem to reveal the true type of Knowledge--a sleepless activity, a +pervading agency, a dauntless heroism, an all-supporting faith?--a +power--a power, indeed--a power apart from the aggrandizement of self--a +power that brings to him who owns and transmits it but 'weariness and +painfulness; in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings +often, in cold and nakedness'--but a power distinct from the mere +circumstance of the man, rushing from him as rays from a sun;--borne +through the air, and clothing it with light--piercing under earth, and +calling forth the harvest! Worship not knowledge--worship not the sun, O +my child! Let the sun but proclaim the Creator; let the knowledge but +illumine the worship!" + +The good man, overcome by his own earnestness, paused; his head drooped +on the young student's breast, and all three were long silent. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Whatever ridicule may be thrown upon Mr. Dale's dissertations by the wit +of the enlightened, they had a considerable, and I think a beneficial +effect upon Leonard Fairfield--an effect which may perhaps create less +surprise, when the reader remembers that Leonard was unaccustomed to +argument, and still retained many of the prejudices natural to his +rustic breeding. Nay, he actually thought it possible that, as both +Riccabocca and Mr. Dale were more than double his age, and had had +opportunities not only of reading twice as many books, but of +contracting experience in wider ranges of life--he actually, I say, +thought it possible that they might be better acquainted with the +properties and distinctions of knowledge than himself. At all events, +the Parson's words were so far well-timed, that they produced in Leonard +very much of that state of mind which Mr. Dale desired to effect, before +communicating to him the startling intelligence that he was to visit +relations whom he had never seen, of whom he had heard but little, and +that it was at least possible that the result of that visit might be to +open to him greater facilities for instruction, and a higher degree in +life. + +Without some such preparation, I fear that Leonard would have gone forth +into the world with an exaggerated notion of his own acquirements, and +with a notion yet more exaggerated as to the kind of power that such +knowledge as he possessed would obtain for itself. As it was, when Mr. +Dale broke to him the news of the experimental journey before him, +cautioning him against being over-sanguine, Leonard received the +intelligence with a serious meekness, and thoughts that were nobly +solemn. + +When the door closed on his visitors, he remained for some moments +motionless, and in deep meditation: then he unclosed the door, and stole +forth. The night was already far advanced, the heavens were luminous +with all the host of stars. "I think," said the student, referring, in +later life, to that crisis in his destiny--"I think it was then, when I +stood alone, yet surrounded by worlds so numberless, that I first felt +the distinction between _mind_ and _soul_." "Tell me," said Riccabocca, +as he parted company with Mr. Dale, "whether you think we should have +given to Frank Hazeldean, on entering life, the same lecture on the +limits and ends of knowledge which we have bestowed on Leonard +Fairfield." + +"My friend," quoth the Parson, with a touch of human conceit; "I have +ridden on horseback, and I know that some horses should be guided by the +bridle, and some should be urged by the spur." + +"Cospetto!" said Riccabocca; "you contrive to put every experience of +yours to some use--even your journey on Mr. Hazeldean's pad. And I see +now why, in this little world of a village, you have picked up so +general an acquaintance with life." + +"Did you ever read White's _Natural History of Selborne?_" + +"No." + +"Do so, and you will find that you need not go far to learn the habits +of birds, and know the difference between a swallow and a swift.--Learn +the difference in a village, and you know the difference wherever +swallows and swifts skim the air." + +"Swallows and swifts!--true; but men--" + +"Are with us all the year round--which is more than we can say of +swallows and swifts." + +"Mr. Dale," said Riccabocca, taking off his hat, with great formality, +"if ever again I find myself in a dilemma, I will come to you instead of +to Machiavelli." + +"Ah!" cried the Parson, "if I could but have a calm hour's talk with you +on the errors of the Papal relig--" + +Riccabocca was off like a shot. + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +The next day, Mr. Dale had a long conversation with Mrs. Fairfield. At +first, he found some difficulty in getting over her pride, and inducing +her to accept overtures from parents who had so long slighted both +Leonard and herself. And it would have been in vain to have put before +the good woman the worldly advantages which such overtures implied. But +when Mr. Dale said, almost sternly, "Your parents are old, your father +infirm; their least wish should be as binding to you as their command," +the widow bowed her head and said, + +"God bless, them, sir, I was very sinful--'Honor your father and +mother.' I'm no scollard, but I know the Commandments. Let Lenny go. But +he'll soon forget me, and mayhap he'll learn to be ashamed of me." + +"There I will trust him," said the Parson; and he contrived easily to +re-assure and soothe her. + +It was not till all this was settled that Mr. Dale drew forth an +unsealed letter, which Mr. Richard Avenel, taking his hint, had given to +him, as from Leonard's grandparents, and said, "This is for you, and it +contains an inclosure of some value." + +"Will you read it, sir? As I said before, I'm no scollard." + +"But Leonard is, and he will read it to you." + +When Leonard returned home that evening, Mrs. Fairfield showed him the +letter. It ran thus: + + "DEAR JANE--Mr. Dale will tell you that we wish Leonard to come + to us. We are glad to hear you are well. We forward, by Mr. + Dale, a bank-note for L50, which comes from Richard, your + brother. So no more at present from your affectionate parents, + + "JOHN AND MARGARET AVENEL." + + + +The letter was in a stiff, female scrawl, and Leonard observed that two +or three mistakes in spelling had been corrected, either in another pen +or in a different hand. + +"Dear brother Dick, how good in him!" cried the widow. "When I saw there +was money, I thought it must be him. How I should like to see Dick +again. But I s'pose he's still in Amerikay. Well, well, this will buy +clothes for you." + +"No; you must keep it all, mother, and put it in the Savings' Bank." + +"I'm not quite so silly as that," cried Mrs. Fairfield with contempt; +and she put the fifty pounds into a cracked teapot. + +"It must not stay there when I'm gone. You may be robbed, mother." + +"Dear me, dear me, that's true. What shall I do with it?--what do I want +with it, too? Dear me! I wish they hadn't sent it. I shan't sleep in +peace. You must e'en put it in your own pouch, and button it up tight, +boy." + +Lenny smiled, and took the note; but he took it to Mr. Dale, and begged +him to put it into the Savings' Bank for his mother. + +The day following he went to take leave of his master, of Jackeymo, of +the fountain, the garden. But, after he had gone through the first of +these adieus with Jackeymo--who, poor man, indulged in all the lively +gesticulations of grief which make half the eloquence of his countrymen; +and then, absolutely blubbering, hurried away--Leonard himself was so +affected that he could not proceed at once to the house, but stood +beside the fountain, trying hard to keep back his tears. + +"You, Leonard--and you are going!" said a soft voice; and the tears fell +faster than ever, for he recognized the voice of Violante. + +"Do not cry," continued the child, with a kind of tender gravity. "You +are going, but papa says it would be selfish in us to grieve, for it is +for your good; and we should be glad. But I am selfish, Leonard, and I +do grieve. I shall miss you sadly." + +"You, young lady--you miss me!" + +"Yes. But I do not cry, Leonard, for I envy you, and I wish I were a +boy: I wish I could do as you." + +The girl clasped her hands, and reared her slight form, with a kind of +passionate dignity. + +"Do as me, and part from all those you love!" + +"But to serve those you love. One day you will come back to your +mother's cottage, and say, 'We have conquered fortune.' Oh that I could +go forth and return, as you will. But my father has no country, and his +only child is a useless girl." + +As Violante spoke, Leonard had dried his tears; her emotion distracted +him from his own. + +"Oh," continued Violante, again raising her head loftily, "what it is to +be a man! A woman sighs, 'I wish,' but man should say 'I will.'" + +Occasionally before, Leonard had noted fitful flashes of a nature grand +and heroic, in the Italian child, especially of late--flashes the more +remarkable from their contrast to a form most exquisitely feminine, and +to a sweetness of temper which made even her pride gentle. But now it +seemed as if the child spoke with the command of a queen--almost with +the inspiration of a Muse. A strange and new sense of courage entered +within him. + +"May I remember these words!" he murmured half audibly. + +The girl turned and surveyed him with eyes brighter for their moisture. +She then extended her hand to him, with a quick movement, and, as he +bent over it, with a grace taught to him by genuine emotion, she +said,--"And if you do, then, girl and child as I am, I shall think I +have aided a brave heart in the great strife for honor!" + +She lingered a moment, smiled as if to herself, and then, gliding away, +was lost among the trees. + +After a long pause, in which Leonard recovered slowly from the surprise +and agitation into which Violante had thrown his spirits--previously +excited as they were--he went, murmuring to himself, toward the house. +But Riccabocca was from home. Leonard turned mechanically to the +terrace, and busied himself with the flowers. But the dark eyes of +Violante shone on his thoughts, and her voice rang in his ear. + +At length Riccabocca appeared, followed up the road by a laborer, who +carried something indistinct under his arm. + +The Italian beckoned to Leonard to follow him into the parlor, and after +conversing with him kindly, and at some length, and packing up, as it +were, a considerable provision of wisdom in the portable shape of +aphorisms and proverbs, the sage left him alone for a few moments, +Riccabocca then returned with his wife, and bearing a small knapsack: + +"It is not much we can do for you, Leonard, and money is the worst gift +in the world for a keepsake; but my wife and I have put our heads +together to furnish you with a little outfit. Giacomo, who was in our +secret, assures us that the clothes will fit; and stole, I fancy, a coat +of yours for the purpose. Put them on when you go to your relations; it +is astonishing what a difference it makes in the ideas people form of +us, according as our coats are cut one way or another. I should not be +presentable in London thus; and nothing is more true than that a tailor +is often the making of a man." + +"The shirts, too, are very good holland," said Mrs. Riccabocca, about to +open the knapsack. + +"Never mind details, my dear," cried the wise man; "shirts are +comprehended in the general principle of clothes. And, Leonard, as a +remembrance somewhat more personal, accept this, which I have worn many +a year when time was a thing of importance to me, and nobler fates than +mine hung on a moment. We missed the moment, or abused it, and here I +am, a waif on a foreign shore. Methinks I have done with Time." + +The exile, as he thus spoke, placed in Leonard's reluctant hands a watch +that would have delighted an antiquary, and shocked a dandy It was +exceedingly thick, having an outer case of enamel, and an inner one of +gold. The hands and the figures of the hours had originally been formed +of brilliants; but the brilliants had long since vanished. Still, even +thus bereft, the watch was much more in character with the giver than +the receiver, and was as little suited to Leonard as would have been the +red silk umbrella. + +"It is old-fashioned," said Mrs. Riccabocca, "but it goes better than +any clock in the country. I really think it will last to the end of the +world." + +"_Carissima mia!_" cried the Doctor, "I thought I had convinced you that +the world is by no means come to its last legs." + +"Oh, I did not mean any thing, Alphonso," said Mrs. Riccabocca, +coloring. + +"And that is all we do mean when we talk about that of which we can know +nothing," said the Doctor, less gallantly than usual, for he resented +that epithet of "old-fashioned," as applied to the watch. + +Leonard, we see, had been silent all this time; he could not +speak--literally and truly, he could not speak. How he got out of his +embarrassment, and how he got out of the room, he never explained to my +satisfaction. But, a few minutes afterward, he was seen hurrying down +the road very briskly. + +Riccabocca and his wife stood at the window gazing after him. + +"There is a depth in that boy's heart," said the sage, "which might +float an argosy." + +"Poor dear boy! I think we have put every thing into the knapsack that +he can possibly want," said good Mrs. Riccabocca musingly. + +The DOCTOR (continuing his soliloquy.)--"They are strong, but they are +not immediately apparent." + +Mrs. RICCABOCCA (resuming hers.)--"They are at the bottom of the +knapsack." + +The DOCTOR.--"They will stand long wear and tear." + +Mrs. RICCABOCCA.--"A year, at least, with proper care at the wash." + +The DOCTOR (startled.)--"Care at the wash! What on earth are you talking +of, ma'am!" + +Mrs. RICCABOCCA (mildly.)--"The shirts to be sure, my love! And you?" + +The DOCTOR (with a heavy sigh.)--"The feelings, ma'am!" Then, after a +pause, taking his wife's hand affectionately--"But you did quite right +to think of the shirts; Mr. Dale said very truly--" + +Mrs. RICCABOCCA.--"What?" + +The DOCTOR.--"That there was a great deal in common between us--even +when I think of feelings, and you but of--shirts." + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +Mr. and Mrs. Avenel sat within the parlor--Mr. Richard stood on the +hearth-rug, whistling Yankee Doodle. "The Parson writes word that the +lad will come to-day," said Richard suddenly--"let me see the +letter--ay, to day. If he took the coach as far as ----, he might walk +the rest of the way in two or three hours. He should be pretty nearly +here. I have a great mind to go and meet him: it will save his asking +questions, and hearing about me. I can clear the town by the back way, +and get out at the high road." + +"You'll not know him from any one else," said Mrs. Avenel. + +"Well, that is a good one! Not know an Avenel! We've all the same cut of +the jib--have not we, father?" + +Poor John laughed heartily, till the tears rolled down his cheeks. + +"We were always a well-favored fam'ly," said John, recomposing himself. +"There was Luke, but he's gone; and Harry, but he's dead too, and Dick, +but he's in Amerikay--no, he's here; and my darling Nora, but--" + +"Hush!" interrupted Mrs. Avenel; "hush, John!" + +The old man stared at her, and then put his tremulous hand to his brow. +"And Nora's gone too!" said he, in a voice of profound woe. Both hands +then fell on his knees, and his head drooped on his breast. + +Mrs. Avenel rose, kissed her husband on the forehead, and walked away to +the window. Richard took up his hat, and brushed the nap carefully with +his handkerchief; but his lips quivered. + +"I'm going," said he abruptly. "Now mind, mother, not a word about Uncle +Richard yet; we must first see how we like each other, and--(in a +whisper) you'll try and get that into my poor father's head?" + +"Ay, Richard," said Mrs. Avenel quietly. Richard put on his hat, and +went out by the back way. He stole along the fields that skirted the +town, and had only once to cross the street before he got into the high +road. + +He walked on till he came to the first milestone. There he seated +himself, lighted his cigar, and awaited his nephew. It was now nearly +the hour of sunset, and the road before him lay westward. Richard from +time to time looked along the road, shading his eyes with his hand; and +at length, just as the disc of the sun had half sunk down the horizon, a +solitary figure came up the way. It emerged suddenly from the turn in +the road: the reddening beams colored all the atmosphere around it. +Solitary and silent it came as from a Land of Light. + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +"You have been walking far, young man," said Richard Avenel. + +"No, sir, not very. That is Lansmere before me, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is Lansmere; you stop there, I guess?" + +Leonard made a sign in the affirmative, and walked on a few paces: then, +seeing the stranger who had accosted him still by his side, he said-- + +"If you know the town, sir, perhaps you will have the goodness to tell +me whereabouts Mr. Avenel lives?" + +"I can put you in a straight cut across the fields, that will bring you +just behind the house." + +"You are very kind, but it will take you out of your way." + +"No, it is in my way. So you are going to Mr. Avenel's?--a good old +gentleman." + +"I've always heard so; and Mrs. Avenel--" + +"A particular superior woman," said Richard. "Any one else to ask +after--I know the family well." + +"No, thank you, sir." + +"They have a son, I believe; but he's in America, is not he?" + +"I believe he is, sir." + +"I see the Parson has kept faith with me," muttered Richard. + +"If you can tell me any thing about _him_," said Leonard, "I should be +very glad." + +"Why so, young man?--perhaps he is hanged by this time." + +"Hanged!" + +"He was a sad dog, I am told." + +"Then you have been told very falsely," said Leonard, coloring. + +"A sad wild dog--his parents were so glad when he cut and run--went off +to the States. They say he made money; but, if so, he neglected his +relations shamefully." + +"Sir," said Leonard, "you are wholly misinformed. He has been most +generous to a relative who had little claim on him; and I never heard +his name mentioned but with love and praise." + +Richard instantly fell to whistling Yankee Doodle, and walked on several +paces without saying a word. He then made a slight apology for his +impertinence--hoped no offense--and, with his usual bold but astute +style of talk, contrived to bring out something of his companion's mind. +He was evidently struck with the clearness and propriety with which +Leonard expressed himself, raised his eyebrows in surprise more than +once, and looked him full in the face with an attentive and pleased +survey. Leonard had put on the new clothes with which Riccabocca and +wife had provided him. They were those appropriate to a young country +tradesman in good circumstances; but as he did not think about the +clothes, so he had unconsciously something of the ease of the gentleman. + +They now came into the fields. Leonard paused before a slip of ground +sown with rye. + +"I should have thought grass land would have answered better, so near a +town," said he. + +"No doubt it would," answered Richard; "but they are sadly behind-hand +in these parts. You see that great park yonder, on the other side of the +road? That would answer better for rye than grass; but then, what would +become of my Lord's deer? The aristocracy eat us up, young man." + +"But the aristocracy did not sow this piece with rye, I suppose?" said +Leonard, smiling. + +"And what do you conclude from that?" + +"Let every man look to his own ground," said Leonard, with a cleverness +of repartee caught from Doctor Riccabocca. + +"'Cute lad you are," said Richard; "and we'll talk more of these matters +another time." + +They now came within sight of Mr. Avenel's house. + +"You can get through the gap in the hedge, by the old pollard oak," said +Richard; "and come round by the front of the house. Why, you're not +afraid--are you?" + +"I am a stranger." + +"Shall I introduce you? I told you that I knew the old couple." + +"Oh no, sir! I would rather meet them alone." + +"Go; and--wait a bit--harkye, young man, Mrs. Avenel is a cold mannered +woman; but don't be abashed by that." + +Leonard thanked the good-natured stranger, crossed the field, passed the +gap, and paused a moment under the stinted shade of the old +hollow-hearted oak. The ravens were returning to their nests. At the +sight of a human form under the tree, they wheeled round, and watched +him afar. From the thick of the boughs, the young ravens sent their +hoarse low cry. + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +The young man entered the neat, prim, formal parlor. + +"You are welcome!" said Mrs. Avenel, in a firm voice. + +"The gentleman is heartily welcome," cried poor John. + +"It is your grandson, Leonard Fairfield," said Mrs. Avenel. + +But John who had risen with knocking knees, gazed hard at Leonard, and +then fell on his breast, sobbing aloud--"Nora's eyes!--he has a blink in +his eyes like Nora's." + +Mrs. Avenel approached with a steady step, and drew away the old man +tenderly. + +"He is a poor creature," she whispered to Leonard--"you excite him. Come +away, I will show you your room." + +Leonard followed her up the stairs, and came into a room--neatly, and +even prettily furnished. The carpet and curtains were faded by the sun, +and of old-fashioned pattern, but there was a look about the room as if +it had long been disused. + +Mrs. Avenel sank down on the first chair on entering. + +Leonard drew his arm round her waist affectionately: "I fear that I have +put you out sadly--my dear grandmother." + +Mrs. Avenel glided hastily from his arm, and her countenance worked +much--every nerve in it twitching as it were; then, placing her hand on +his locks, she said with passion, "God bless you, my grandson," and left +the room. + +Leonard dropped his knapsack on the floor, and looked around him +wistfully. The room seemed as if it had once been occupied by a female. +There was a work-box on the chest of drawers, and over it hanging +shelves for books, suspended by ribbons that had once been blue, with +silk and fringe appended to each shelf, and knots and tassels here and +there--the taste of a woman, or rather of a girl, who seeks to give a +grace to the commonest things around her. With the mechanical habit of a +student, Leonard took down one or two of the volumes still left on the +shelves. He found SPENSER'S _Fairy Queen_, RACINE in French, TASSO in +Italian; and on the fly-leaf of each volume, in the exquisite +hand-writing familiar to his memory, the name "Leonora." He kissed the +books, and replaced them with a feeling akin both to tenderness and awe. + +He had not been alone in his room more than a quarter of an hour, before +the maid-servant knocked at his door and summoned him to tea. + +Poor John had recovered his spirits, and his wife sate by his side +holding his hand in hers. Poor John was even gay. He asked many +questions about his daughter Jane, and did not wait for the answers. +Then he spoke about the Squire, whom he confounded with Audley Egerton, +and talked of elections, and the Blue party, and hoped Leonard would +always be a good Blue; and then he fell to his tea and toast, and said +no more. + +Mrs. Avenel spoke little, but she eyed Leonard askant, as it were, from +time to time; and after each glance the nerves of the poor severe face +twitched again. + +A little after nine o'clock Mrs. Avenel lighted a candle, and placing it +in Leonard's hand, said, "You must be tired--you know your own room now. +Good-night." + +Leonard took the light, and, as was his wont with his mother, kissed +Mrs. Avenel on the cheek. Then he took John's hand and kissed him too. +The old man was half asleep and murmured dreamily, "That's Nora." + +Leonard had retired to his room about half-an-hour, when Richard Avenel +entered the house softly, and joined his parents. + +"Well, mother?" said he. + +"Well, Richard--you have seen him?" + +"And like him. Do you know he has a great look of poor Nora?--more like +her than Jane?" + +"Yes; he is handsomer than Jane ever was, but more like your father than +any one. John was so comely. You take to the boy then?" + +"Ay, that I do. Just tell him in the morning that he is to go with a +gentleman who will be his friend, and don't say more. The chaise shall +be at the door after breakfast. Let him get into it: I shall wait for +him out of the town. What's the room you give him?" + +"The room you would not take." + +"The room in which Nora slept? Oh, no! I could not have slept a wink +there. What a charm there was in that girl!--how we all loved her! But +she was too beautiful and good for us--too good to live!" + +"None of us are too good," said Mrs. Avenel with great austerity, "and I +beg you will not talk in that way. Good-night--I must get your poor +father to bed." + +When Leonard opened his eyes-the next morning, they rested on the face +of Mrs. Avenel, which was bending over his pillow. But it was long +before he could recognize that countenance, so changed was its +expression--so tender, so motherlike. Nay, the face of his own mother +had never seemed to him so soft with a mother's passion. + +"Ah!" he murmured, half rising, and flinging his young arms round her +neck. Mrs. Avenel, this time, and for the first, taken by surprise, +warmly returned the embrace: she clasped him to her breast, she kissed +him again and again. At length with a quick start she escaped, and +walked up and down the room, pressing her hands tightly together. When +she halted her face had recovered its usual severity and cold precision. + +"It is time for you to rise, Leonard," said she. "You will leave us +to-day. A gentleman has promised to take charge of you, and do for you +more than we can. A chaise will be at the door soon--make haste." + +John was absent from the breakfast-table. His wife said that he never +rose till late, and must not be disturbed. + +The meal was scarce over before a chaise and pair came to the door. + +"You must not keep the chaise waiting--the gentleman is very punctual." + +"But he is not come." + +"No, he has walked on before, and will get in after you are out of the +town." + +"What is his name, and why should he care for me, grandmother?" + +"He will tell you himself. Now, come." + +"But you will bless me again, grandmother. I love you already." + +"I do bless you," said Mrs. Avenel firmly. "Be honest and good, and +beware of the first false step." She pressed his hand with a convulsive +grasp, and led him to the outer door. + +The postboy clanked his whip, the chaise rattled off. Leonard put his +head out of the window to catch a last glimpse of the old woman. But the +boughs of the pollard oak, and its gnarled decaying trunk, hid her from +his eye. And look as he would, till the road turned, he saw but the +melancholy tree. + +(_To be continued._) + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] This aphorism has been probably assigned to Lord Bacon upon the mere +authority of the index to his works. It is the aphorism of the +index-maker, certainly not of the great master of inductive philosophy. +Bacon has, it is true, repeatedly dwelt on the power of knowledge, but +with so many explanations and distinctions, that nothing could be more +unjust to his general meaning than to attempt to cramp into a sentence +what it costs him a volume to define. Thus, if in one page he appears to +confound knowledge with power, in another he sets them in the strongest +antithesis to each other; as follows, "Adeo, signanter Deus opera +potentiae et sapientiae diseriminavit." But it would be as unfair to Bacon +to convert into an aphorism the sentence that discriminates between +knowledge and power as it is to convert into an aphorism any sentence +that confounds them. + +[9] "But the greatest error of all the rest is the mistaking or +misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowledge:--for men have +entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes upon a +natural curiosity and inquisitive appetite; sometimes to entertain their +minds with variety and delight; sometimes for ornament and reputation; +and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction; and +most times for lucre and profession;"--[that is, for most of those +objects which are meant by the ordinary citers of the saying, 'Knowledge +is power;'] "and seldom, sincerely, to give a true account of these +gifts of reason to the benefit and use of men; as if there were sought +in knowledge a couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless spirit; +or a terrace for a wandering and variable mind to walk up and down, with +a fair prospect; or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise itself +upon; or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention; or a +shop for profit or sale--and not a rich storehouse for the glory of the +Creator, and the relief of men's estate."--ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, BOOK +I. + + + + +UNCLE JOHN; OR, THE ROUGH ROAD TO RICHES. + + +England affords, even in these degenerate days of peace, innumerable +examples of the class called "lucky fellows;" that is to say, men who +have begun life with a charity-school education and a shilling, and are +now prosperous in wealth and station. Perhaps it is hardly fair to +impute to good-luck, what may be mainly owing to industry, frugality, +patience, and perseverance. But, after all, one may starve with all +these virtues, in spite of all that copy-book maxims may say to the +contrary. There is good-luck in success, whatever may have been the +qualities by which that good luck has been seized at the right moment +and turned to good account. Industry, frugality, patience, and +perseverance, form a perfect locomotive--good-luck is the engine-driver +who turns the handle and sets them in motion at the right moment. + +Men who have been the "architects of their own fortunes," never admit +that good luck has had any thing to do with their prosperity. Their +pardonable vanity at their own success makes them guilty of a species +of ingratitude to Providence. Listen to one of these old gentlemen +holding forth to his hopeful son or nephew on his, the said old +gentleman's, past life; on his early poverty, his self-denial, his hard +work, and his subsequent reward; and the burden of his discourse is ever +the same, + + "_Alone_ I did it, boy!" + +Should the listener at any point be tempted rashly to exclaim "how +lucky!" the old gentleman will turn on him with a severe frown and say, +"luck, sir; nonsense. There's no such thing as luck. Live on a crust, +sir; that's the only way for a man to get on in the world." The old +gentleman quite forgets that if his first venture in the _Chutnee_ East +Indiaman had been a failure; or his first dabble in the stocks had not +been followed by the battle of Leipsic; or his senior partner, who had +nine-tenths of the profits of the business, had not departed this life +suddenly in an apoplectic fit, he would have held a very different +position in the world, and probably have been now a denizen of the +second floor over his counting-house in the city, instead of a resident +in Hyde Park Gardens. + +An excellent specimen of this class of old gentlemen is "Uncle John." +The obscurity of his early days is so great that even he himself finds +it difficult to penetrate it. That he had a father and a mother is +incontestable; but these worthy people seem to have left this world of +sin at so early a period of "Uncle John's" existence, that, for all +practical purposes, he might as well have been without them. His first +juvenile recollections are connected with yellow stockings, leather +shorts, a cutaway coatee with a tin badge on it, and a little round +woolen cap with a tuft in the middle of it, resting on a head formed by +nature to accommodate a cap of double its dimensions. In a word, "Uncle +John" was a charity-boy. + +It must not be imagined that the above fact has ever been communicated +by Uncle John himself; for the worthy man is weak enough to be ashamed +of it, though he will discourse of his early privations in a mystical +manner, with the design apparently of inducing you to regard him rather +as a counterpart of Louis Philippe in his days of early exile, than as a +commonplace, though equally interesting (to a right-thinking mind) young +gentleman in yellow stockings. It _is_ a fact, however, as indisputable +as that Uncle John is now worth thirty or forty thousand pounds. + +Emerging from the charity-school, and exchanging the leather shorts and +yellow stockings for corduroys and gray worsted socks, Uncle John +obtained the appointment of office-boy to a Temple attorney. His duties +were multifarious--sweeping the office and serving writs, cleaning boots +and copying declarations. His emoluments were not large--seven shillings +a week and "find himself," which was less difficult, poor boy, than to +find any thing _for_ himself. But Uncle John persevered and was not +disheartened. He lived literally on a crust, and regaled himself only +with the savory smells issuing from the cook's-shop, which was not only +an economical luxury, but had the advantage of affording a stimulus to +the imagination. He actually saved two shillings a week out of his +salary, not to mention an occasional donation of a shilling on high days +and holidays from his master. + +Uncle John was never idle. When he had nothing to do for his master, +which was rarely the case, he used to take a pen and any loose piece of +paper or parchment, and copy, or imitate, the lawyer's engrossing +hand--known as court-hand--till he became a good penman in this cramped +style of writing. Having accomplished this object, Uncle John determined +to "better himself," by getting a situation as copying clerk instead of +office boy. He succeeded in his attempts, and was installed in another +attorney's office as engrossing clerk at twelve shillings a week--a +salary which appeared to him, at the time, enormous. But riches did not +turn his head. The only increase which he made in his previous +expenditure, was in wearing a rather cleaner shirt, and discarding +corduroys for some more genteel material. Uncle John was too wise and +too self-denying to be seduced _inside_ the cook's-shop yet. + +He was now saving at least six shillings a week, which is L15 a year! +For four years no change took place in his condition. He still lived in +his solitary garret; worked hard all day, and borrowed law books from +the articled clerks in the office, which he read at home at night. At +home! poor fellow--what a name for his miserable little room up in the +tiles of a house in a narrow court out of Fleet-street! But Uncle John +was a brave fellow, and worked on without stopping to sentimentalize. + +A promotion now took place in the office, and Uncle John was made chief +common-law clerk at one pound a week. He had rendered himself quite +competent for the duties by his midnight studies. He was never absent +from his post, never forgot any thing, and was never ill; for he had the +strength of a horse. It is suspected that about this time, Uncle John +paid one or two visits to the cook's-shop; but it must not be supposed +that the visits were _more_ than one or two. As a rule, Uncle John dined +on a piece of the cheapest meat he could purchase, boiled by himself in +his garret. + +He was wise enough, however, to be very neat in his dress, and thereby +gained the credit of being a very respectable young man in the eyes of +his employer; for it is a very remarkable fact that clerks are always +expected to dress like gentlemen when their salaries are not even large +enough to buy them food. + +Another four years passed away, when one day Uncle John, having duly +screwed up his courage, walked into his master's private room, and, +after a little preliminary hesitation, ventured to hint that he should +like to be articled! The master stared--the clerk remained silently +awaiting his answer. + +"Are you aware," inquired the former, "that the expense of the stamp, +&c., is one hundred and twenty pounds?" + +Uncle John _was_ aware of it, and he was prepared with the money. He had +saved it out of his miserable salary. + +The master stared still more. But, after a short time, he consented to +article Uncle John, and to continue his salary during the term of his +articles. Uncle John was in ecstasies, and so far forgot his usual +prudence that evening as to indulge in half a pint of bad port wine--a +taste, by the way, which he has retained to this day. + +He was now a happy man. Every thing was "en train" now to make him one +day a "gentleman by Act of Parliament"--as attorneys are facetiously +termed. It would certainly require something more than even the +omnipotence of an Act of Parliament to confer the character on some of +the fraternity. + +During the first year of his articles the managing clerk died, and Uncle +John was promoted to that office with a salary of two hundred a year. +Here was, indeed, a rise in life--from seven shillings a week to two +hundred a year! Happy Uncle John. But you deserved it all; for you had +plenty of the courage which is prepared for all ills, and endures those +which it can not conquer. + +Long before the five years of his articles had expired, the clerk had +made himself so absolutely necessary to the master, that the latter +could scarcely have carried on the business for a month without him. +Therefore, when the time arrived at which he ceased to be a clerk and +became himself an attorney, Uncle John hinted to his master that he was +going to leave him. Cunning Uncle John! You had no such intention; but +you knew that your master would take alarm, beg you to stay, and offer +you a partnership. Of course--and he did so. + +Uncle John's path in life was from henceforth comparatively smooth. He +was the working partner in a business which was both profitable and of +good quality. Within a few years his partner was foolish enough to +quarrel with him, and to demand a dissolution of the partnership. Uncle +John readily consented, and all the clients knowing well who was the man +that understood the business and transacted it, followed him; and he +became an attorney with a practice of two thousand a year, and no +partner to share the profits. + +His economical habits never forsook him. He married and kept a decent +table; but save in a love of good wine (or at least what his uneducated +taste considered so), he had nothing but the ordinary necessaries of +life. How much he saved each year who shall say? He had no children, and +his practice increasing while his wants stood still, he became what he +is now--a prosperous and highly respected old gentleman. + +It is the fashion of the old to point out such men as models for the +imitation of the rising generation. The young, on the contrary, make +them the subjects of their ridicule, for their bad grammar and worse +manners. Let us see if we can find out the truth, unbiased by either +party. Uncle John is now a rich man, an honorable man, a hardworking +man, and in the main a sensible man. He has attained his position in +life by patience, perseverance, and industry, favored also by a little +of that good luck to which we first referred. But Uncle John is +deficient in many of the characteristics which adorn human nature. Is it +not natural that he should be so? Where was he to learn the gentler +feelings of his kind--affection, sympathy, benevolence? In his garret, +alone and unfriended? He is mean and parsimonious. He is worth forty +thousand pounds, and his deceased brother's child is starving with his +wife in a suburban garret. Uncle John will not aid him with a penny. Who +aided _him_? Did _he_ not live in a garret, and save money too? Was _he_ +such a fool as to marry before he could keep a wife? Uncle John was +guilty of no weaknesses in those days; he can not forgive them in +another. + +His only brother dies, leaving a large family and a widow--unprovided +for: for the children have eaten up all he could ever earn. Uncle John +does not like the widow (perhaps because she had so many children), but +he gives her L50 a year. His own income is about four thousand. + +His only sister is also left a widow without a sixpence. Uncle John +gives _her_ L50 a year. "People should not marry imprudently. He can +afford no more; he has a great many calls upon him." Perhaps so; but the +answer to such calls is always, "not at home." + +He has many clerks now. He makes them all work twelve hours a day. Why +not? _He_ worked twelve hours a day. + +He has articled clerks too. They must work twelve hours a day also. _He_ +did it. True, Uncle John; but you had your salary for it; while they, on +the contrary, pay you for the privilege of working for you. + +There is an old adage that a slave makes the worst tyrant. Uncle John +exemplifies it. Because he suffered poverty and privation, he thinks +that every youth should endure the same. Because nature had given him +the constitution of a horse, he thinks that every one should have a +similar one. + +Such men as Uncle John are striking examples of certain qualities; and +of those particular qualities which conduce to success in life. Their +highest praise (perhaps there is no higher praise in the world) is their +unflinching integrity. But we can not bring ourselves to think them--on +the whole--models for imitation. After all, there is selfishness at the +bottom of their first motives, and this quality grows with their growth, +and strengthens with their strength, till, in their old age, they are +impatient at all the enjoyments of youth. The hardships of their younger +days are not only to be pitied for the pain they must have inflicted at +the time, but because they have closed up all the avenues through which +the gentler, nobler, and more generous sympathies of our nature find +their way into the heart. Their want of education has not been of the +mind alone, but of the affections; and as it is ten thousand times more +difficult to learn a language or a science in old age than in youth, so +it is infinitely more difficult (if it be not impossible) to teach the +science of the affections, and the language of the heart, to the old man +whose youth has known nothing of either. Affliction and adversity teach +oft-times sympathy and benevolence; but to do so they must have followed +on happier times, and not have been a birth-portion. You may praise and +respect "Uncle Johns," but you can not love them--neither can they love +you. + + + + +DARLING DOREL. + + +Dorothea Sibylla, Duchess of Brieg, was born at Coeln, on the River +Spree, in Prussia, on the 19th of October, 1590. She was the daughter of +Elizabeth of Anhalt, and of John George, Margrave and Elector of +Brandenburg, of the old princely Ascanian race. At the death of her +husband in 1598, the widowed margravine retired to Crossen to +superintend her daughter's education. In due time, suitors were not +wanting for the hand of young Dorothea Sibylla: among others, the King +of Denmark; but he sued in vain. Dorothea, at length, fixed her +affection on John Christian, Duke of Liegnitz and Brieg, who enjoyed a +great reputation for virtue, ability, and integrity. To him, after a +short courtship. Dorothea was married on the 12th of December, 1610, at +Crossen; and reached Brieg--the small capital of her future +dominions--on the first of January in the following year. + +Such is the dry sum of a charming Court biography, which first appeared +in a periodical published in 1829, in Silesia, and which has been twice +republished in a separate form--once (in 1838) at Brieg, under the title +of "Passages from the Life of Dorothea Sibylla, Duchess of Liegnitz and +Brieg." It purports to consist of extracts from the journal of a certain +tanner and furrier of Brieg, named Valentinus Gierth, an occasional +guest at the ducal castle, and ardent admirer of the duchess. As a +simple, and--if internal evidence be worth any thing--truthful picture +of German-Court life during the early part of the seventeenth century, +it is not to be gainsayed; although suspicions of its authenticity have +been cast upon it, similar to those which damaged the charms of the +"Diary of Lady Willoughby," by eventually proving it to be a fiction. + +Dorothea is described as a pattern of goodness, common sense, virtue, +and piety. In domestic management, she was pre-eminent. For her own +immediate attendants, she appointed fourteen maids of honor; and the +first families of the land looked upon it as an inestimable privilege to +place their daughters at the ducal court; which was a high school of +all noble virtues and accomplishments, "whereof the duchess herself was +the chief teacher and most perfect model." + +Nothing could be more primitive than the duchess's intercourse with the +townspeople. Occasionally she walked in the streets of Brieg accompanied +by her maids of honor, and chatted with such of the townspeople as were +sitting on the benches outside their doors. The little children looked +forward with the greatest delight to these town walks of the duchess; +for the ladies-in-waiting invariably carried about with them in their +pockets all sorts of sweetmeats, which the duchess distributed among the +little claimants. For this reason, the little children stood peeping +round the corners of the streets, when it got wind that the duchess was +about to walk out; more especially when it was surmised that the duke +would not be with her. So soon, therefore, as Dorothea Sibylla left the +castle gate, the little urchins would run through the town, like +wildfire, crying out, "The darling Dorel is coming!--the darling Dorel +is coming!" + +The manner in which this endearing designation first came to her ears is +related with affecting simplicity. "It happened," says Master Gierth, +with true German particularity, "on the 10th of September (old style) in +the year of our Lord, 1613;" that being the Feast of St. Sibylla--one of +the duchess's name-saints--and also the second birth-day of her son +George. There was a great feast at the castle; to which the towns-folks +and the children of the High and Guild Schools were invited. + +"From the terrace," quoth the chronicler, "the whole procession moved +along a wide, smooth walk before the orangery; where the quality, as +well as the children, were richly treated with strong, spiced wine, +orange-water, and confectionery. Her ladyship did, likewise, lay certain +presents before the young lord, her son; she did, likewise, examine the +children's school-books, and the master's report, wherein the conduct of +the children was noted, and did put apposite questions to them touching +their Christian belief, and the like; and, on receiving right proper +answers, her face did shine like an angel's. + +"One little maiden, however, which was weak and ignorant, was not able +to answer the questions aright; whereupon her ladyship did ask: + +"'My child, what is your name?' Whereunto she did answer, 'Anna Pohlin.' + +"'Well,' asked her ladyship, 'and what is my name?' + +"Straightway the little maiden did answer, 'Darling Dorel!' + +"Hereupon Master Valentinus Gierth was somewhat affronted, but did +quickly recover himself and, stepping up to her ladyship, did say: + +"'Most gracious lady! I trust your ladyship will pardon these words, and +not take them amiss; inasmuch, as it is true that the women of this +town, as well as of the neighboring villages, when they do speak of your +ladyship, do commonly call your ladyship the Darling Dorel.' + +"Then did the duchess fold her hands, and, raising them to heaven, did +say: + +"'God be praised for such a precious title! the which, as long as I am +in my senses, I would not exchange against 'Your Majesty!' + +"The duke did, thereupon, embrace her ladyship, saying: + +"'Away with the title, 'princely consort!' I will ever henceforth call +thee by none other save 'Darling Dorel!'" + +We by no means intend to follow the good tanner through his minute +records; but merely write thus much, as necessary preface to a quaint +little love story. Premising that the duchess had sent, after her usual +fashion, a marriage present to a certain lady, by two of her maids of +honor (by name Agnes and Mary), we shall transfer the narrative to our +pages in Master Gierth's own manner. + +After the presentation of the gifts, and when the marriage ceremony was +concluded, the two maids of honor were preparing to return to Brieg, +when the bride's father stopped them, saying: + +"'How? Shall I suffer two such angels of joy to depart, without tasting +of my food and my drink? Nay, noble damsels, ye must abide here awhile +beyond the marriage festivities, and be of good cheer! I will +immediately dispatch a trusty messenger on horse to her most gracious +ladyship, the duchess, and obtain leave for your sojourn here.' + +"The two damsels did, therefore, abide there the space of three days, +and became acquainted with two gallants of the place; with whom they did +exchange love-tokens and rings. But when the two damsels returned to +Brieg to render an account of their mission, the duchess did note the +rings on the fingers of the two damsels, and questioned them how they +came thereby. So soon, therefore, as the two damsels did confess the +truth, their mistress, half-jestingly, and half in earnest, said unto +them: + +"'How now, ye gad-abouts! ye have scarce chipped the egg-shell, and +have, as yet, no means to make the pot boil, seeing that ye are poor +orphans, and under age; and ye yet dare to listen to the nonsense of +strange gallants, unbeknown to your foster-mother! Tell me, foolish +young things, ought I not to take the rod to you? Take off the rings +from your fingers, and give them to me. I will send them back; seeing +that the betrothal is null and void, and mere child's play.' + +"The young damsels did then obey her ladyship, but wept apace the while. +This caused her ladyship to have compassion upon them, and she did +minister comfort to them thus: + +"'Ah! beloved daughters! ye shed bitter, hot tears that ye do not +already wear the curch [the German head dress of married women]. But if +ye did but know the heaviness of being wedded wives, even when the cares +are lightest, ye would rejoice! Meanwhile, the matter hath been carried +on against all Christian order. I have always heard that the lover first +maketh his suit known to the parents or the guardians, and that then +the betrothal taketh place. Your suitors must needs be in great haste. +Why stand they in such great necessity of pushing their suit?' + +"Hereupon the damsel Agnes plucked up an heart, and said quickly, + +"'Most gracious lady! the gentlemen did come with us; and have already +the consent of their own parents to make their suit if they be but +encouraged by a sign of approval.' + +"'Ah! Heaven have mercy!' cried the duchess, joining her hands. 'Have +ye, scape-graces indeed, brought your gallants hither? I dare not +inquire further. May be, ye have hidden them in your chambers? Meggy +(the duchess's nurse), beg his lordship to come hither; I must talk the +matter over with him.' + +"'After the duke had come and heard that which had befallen, he +straightways asked the names of the gallants; and when the damsels had +informed his grace thereof, his lordship did turn unto his consort, +saying: + +"'Listen, Darling Dorel: the parents, on both sides, are most worthy +persons, and of unblemished birth. I advise that thou shouldst give thy +consent thereunto! Remember, dearest, that we twain were of one mind +long before I made known my suit unto thy mother.' + +"Whereupon her ladyship did strike her lord upon the mouth with her +kerchief, and said, + +"'Well!--well!--but we must first look at these youths, and learn what +they are like. Tell us now, young damsels, where are your lovers hidden, +and what is the signal ye have agreed upon?' + +"Agnes did immediately tell her ladyship that the gallants were housed +at the Golden Pitcher; and, whereas the Lion's Tower, in the palace, +could thence be plainly discerned, they had agreed to tie a white +kerchief round the neck of one of the lions as a signal that there was +hope for them! The gallants had agreed to abide at the hostel the space +of eight days. Should the matter, however, turn out ill, the kerchief +displayed was to be black. + +"'Well done,' said the duchess to her husband; 'they wish to take two +fortresses at once; and would have the white flag wave without firing a +shot, and without attempting a storm.' + +"Hereupon the Duke Christian did take the hand of his beloved wife, and +spoke, somewhat in an under tone: + +"'Darling wife! was not the green branch so often stuck in your window +at Crossen; also a white flag? Moreover, thou knowest little of a siege; +preparations for storming a citadel are not made during the daylight; +but secretly, in the night season, in order that the garrison perceive +them not. Shots may already have been fired. Tell me, young girls, have +ye already kissed the gallants? Mary, do you speak; ye have not yet +opened your mouth: make a clean breast.' + +"'Ah! most gracious liege,' answered Mary, 'the gentlemen have, indeed, +squeezed hands in secret, while we sat at table; and during the +marriage-dance, and at sundry other dances, we kissed each other--seeing +that others did the like. But we could not be alone with them at any +other time; for the bride's mother was always about us, and we lay in +her room. Neither, on the way home, had we much liberty; seeing that the +old secretary, whom her ladyship did send with us, did observe us most +narrowly. But, when the old man did look out of the window of the +carriage, then did the gallants look tenderly upon us, and did kiss +their hands to us." + +"'There, now,' said his lordship, turning to his wife, 'you see that the +siege was conducted with vigor. The squeezing of hands was the parley; +the kisses the cannon-balls, sent so freely; and the tender looks the +shells. Depend upon it the storm can not long be delayed. Listen, +darling wife, my heart melts when I bethink me that we also, in our +youth, could not brook a long delay.' + +"'Let the drums beat the chamade [parley], and let us show our colors!' +said the duchess; while she threw her arms round her husband's neck, and +stopped his mouth with a kiss. The duke did then ask her, jestingly, +'But which flag shall it be?' + +"Hereupon the two young damsels did cry aloud, as with one voice: + +"'The white!--most gracious liege!--the white!' + +"The duchess could not choose but laugh heartily, and his lordship did +immediately order a servant to mount the tower, and to tie a white +kerchief round one of the lion's necks. His lordship did then sing an +old song the children are wont to sing on May-day: + + "'A stately house my lord doth keep, + Two maidens from the windows peep; + A kerchief white the one doth wave, + Because they fain would husbands have.' + +And then did depart to put on better apparel, wherein to await the +coming of the wooers. He did also command that all the court ladies and +the courtiers should be present at the wooing. Meanwhile, 'Darling +Dorel' did ask the damsels where they had gotten the rings which they +had presented to their gallants in return for theirs? Thereupon Agnes +did reply unto her ladyship: + +"'Most gracious lady! we are but poor orphans, and possess nought save +poor little gold rings belonging to our departed mothers, And these we +could not bear to part with. We have therefore promised to buy rings +with our savings, and deliver them to our gallants on some fitting +opportunity.' + +"'In this case,' said her ladyship, 'ye are but half betrothed, and +there is yet time to think twice of the matter;' nevertheless, her +ladyship did praise the young damsels, inasmuch as they did not part +lightly and rashly with their mothers' trinkets. She advised them, +moreover, to tarry; as they or their gallants might change their minds. + +"This speech did much alarm the damsels, who did then believe the whole +matter to be postponed; and they did forthwith begin to weep, and to +beseech her ladyship, not for this account, to cause their lovers to +alter their mind, seeing that they, the damsels, were poor, and were not +likely soon to get other suitors. + +"The duchess did then say unto them: 'The misfortune would not be so +great! I would find husbands for you soon enough.' Hereupon, she turned +to old Meggy, and said, + +"'Ah! most worthy nurse, what a life does a wretched princess lead! Had +I but married an honest burgher, then should I have had nothing but my +household duties and my children to attend to; I could have gone quietly +to bed, slept without care, and waked with pleasure; but in my position +every thing is otherwise. Alack, when my other damsels come hither, and +learn that these silly girls are already betrothed, they will all run +mad, and I shall have to send them to all the marriage feasts throughout +the duchy to pick up husbands.' + +"Hereupon, she sent the nurse Meggy for her jewel box, opened it, and +gave to each of the two damsels a handsome ring, the which they might +present to their lovers, and thus return their pledge; but under this +condition, that they were not to deliver their rings until the duchess +gave them a sign thereunto with her kerchief. + +"While all this was going on, the duke on his part had entered the +duchess's apartment, accompanied by the chamberlain, all the gentlemen +of his court, and the maids of honor. The lovers, meanwhile, were on the +look out, and were not aware that matters had gone to such a length +touching their love affairs. They had joyfully obeyed the white signal, +and stood near unto the gates of the castle waiting for some opportunity +of seeing their betrothed. The duke perceived this, and hereupon opened +the window, and called unto the soldiers on guard, 'Arrest me those two +fellows, and conduct them to the guard-house, until further orders!' + +"Hereupon the damsels, Agnes and Mary, were exceedingly afraid. The +duke, however, did comfort them with the following words: + +"'This is on your account; hasten and put on proper attire; ye still +have got on your old clothes, and must adorn yourselves.' + +"The damsels ran gleefully and quickly into their rooms; whither the +duchess sent after them two other damsels to aid them in plaiting their +hair. They soon returned; and each of the damsels about to be betrothed +had put on the bridal wreath belonging to her mother. + +"The duke now ordered the lovers to be summoned from the guard-house. +They were sore abashed when they entered the room; especially when his +gracious lordship addressed the following questions to them: + +"'What are your names? Have you passports? and what is your will?' + +"The young men twirled their caps in their hands; stared first at their +loves, and then at their gracious lieges; but could not utter a word, +and stood looking very sheepish. + +"'Ah!' said his lordship, 'never in my life did I meet with two such +dumb fellows. My dominions will soon touch those of Oppeln, and you +serve excellent well as landmarks! can neither of ye say 'yea or nay?' +Answer me straight! Have ye got the consent of your parents to propose +for those two chits; and are ye ready to affirm the same on your word of +honor, as gentlemen?' + +"Then did the young men recover their speech, and they both answered, +'Yea.' + +"'Well,' said the duke, 'I will now believe ye, and keep you at my court +some few days; but as ye may be rogues and vagabonds for all that I +know, I will therefore send a messenger on horseback to your parents to +get further intelligence, and ye must have patience the while.' + +"Hereupon the damsel, Mary, turned to the duchess, and said to her with +great simplicity, + +"'Most gracious lady, the gentlemen have spoken truth! Their parents +have given them permission to woo us. We have concealed nothing from +them, but confessed in the presence of the old lady Wentzkin, that we +were poor orphan girls, and have no dower. But the mothers of our two +lovers said that all was well; if only we brought a blessing from +Darling Dorel, they should value it more than an earldom! This Agnes and +I can affirm on oath.' + +"On hearing this, the duchess folded her hands in prayer, looked toward +heaven with tears in her eyes, and still praying, and gave the signal +with her kerchief. Immediately the damsels placed the rings on the +fingers of their lovers, knelt down before the duchess, and besought her +blessing. The duchess laid her hands upon the heads of the young girls +and said, + +"'God alone, who is in heaven, knows whether this will prove a blessing +or a curse; but, if God hear the prayer of a weak woman, it will prove a +blessing! Bethink ye of your deceased parents; and may their blessing +evermore accompany ye! And therefore, let us most fervently utter the +Lord's Prayer.' + +"Hereupon all present fell upon their knees, and prayed in a low voice; +but her most gracious ladyship did say the Lord's Prayer aloud. + +"After the prayer was finished, the duchess made a sign to the chief +lady about the court, who did thereupon bring, on a silver salver, two +half wreaths, which were twined in the hair of the two damsels, Agnes +and Mary, after they had taken off their own wreaths; for it was the +custom, in Brieg, for betrothed maidens to wear only half wreaths until +their wedding-day, when they wore whole ones. The chamberlain did +hereupon display from the window a red flag; upon which signal the ducal +band did strike up a merry tune with trumpets and kettle-drums from the +castle tower; whereupon a crowd gathered in the town to know the cause +of such rejoicing at the palace. + +"So soon, therefore, as the betrothed couples had duly thanked his grace +and the duchess by kissing the hems of their garments, her gracious +ladyship did announce to the betrothed damsels, that they should tarry +with her for the space of one year, in order more fully to learn their +household duties, and to strengthen them in the practice of the +Christian virtues; seeing that they were still, as the duchess said, as +ignorant as callow geese! Moreover, their clothes and furniture had to +be provided, and the like. But to the gentlemen, she said: + +"Mind, gentlemen, ye must also make the best of it! Ye are scarce out of +leading-strings, and must go through some sort of ordeal. I would advise +you to travel, if so be your parents can afford it.' + +"'By all means,' added the duke; 'my Darling Dorel is perfectly right: +you must travel; and, if ye know not whither, go to Jericho, and get ye +some beards to your faces.' + +"As it was yet early in the day, his gracious lordship did order dinner +to be prepared: to which, besides the Town Council, and their wives and +children, Master Valentinus Gierth and his wife Susanna, were invited. + +"His gracious lordship was exceeding merry, and the duchess was most +kind in her manner; nevertheless, the guests did not fail to mark that +her gracious ladyship did oftentimes look toward the new brides, and +that big tears did sometimes roll down her cheek the while." + + + + +COURTESY OF AMERICANS. + + +I like the Americans more and more: either they have improved +wonderfully lately, or else the criticisms on them have been cruelly +exaggerated. They are particularly courteous and obliging; and seem, I +think, amiably anxious that foreigners should carry away a favorable +impression of them. As for me, let other travelers say what they please +of them, I am determined not to be prejudiced, but to judge of them +exactly as I find them; and I shall most pertinaciously continue to +praise them (if I see no good cause to alter my present humble opinion), +and most especially for their obliging civility and hospitable attention +to strangers, of which I have already seen several instances. + +I have witnessed but very few isolated cases, as yet, of the unrefined +habits so usually ascribed to them; and those cases decidedly were not +among the higher orders of people; for there seems just as much +difference in America as any where else in some respects. The superior +classes here have almost always excellent manners, and a great deal of +real and natural, as well as acquired refinement, and are often besides +(which perhaps will not be believed in fastidious England) extremely +distinguished-looking. By the way, the captains of the steamboats appear +a remarkably gentlemanlike race of men in general, particularly +courteous in their deportment, and very considerate and obliging to the +passengers.--_Lady Emeline Wortley._ + + + + +_Monthly Record of Current Events._ + + +POLITICAL AND GENERAL NEWS. + + +THE UNITED STATES. + +The past month has been remarkable for general quiet and for an absence +of excitement of any kind, rather than for events either of political or +general interest. It has often been noted as characteristic of the +American Republic, that, however fierce and menacing popular excitement +may appear to be, it disappears with the immediate event which gave it +birth. A presidential election, for instance, calls forth the most +embittered and apparently dangerous contests between different sections +of the Union, and an observer, unacquainted with the character of our +people, and the practical working of our institutions, would naturally +expect that the result, whatever it might be, would excite the defeated +party to armed resistance, and plunge the country into civil war. But +the whole country is never so quiet--the public mind is never so free +from agitation, as immediately after an excited election contest. The +adjournment of Congress has had a similar effect. Stimulants to +sectional or party feeling are no longer there applied; the public +attention is no longer fastened upon public men, and social and civil +life resume their ordinary channels of quiet and harmonious progress. + +Some of the State Legislatures are still in session, but their action is +too local to excite general interest. A very important Act has passed +the Legislature of the State of New York, re-organizing the Common +School System of the State, and placing it partially upon the free +basis. By the law of 1849 all the common schools of the State were made +entirely free, their cost being paid by county, town, and district +taxation. This was found to be highly obnoxious, chiefly from that +provision which gave the _voters_ in any district power to tax the +_property_ of the district _ad libitum_ for school purposes. The new law +was passed to remedy those objections. By its provisions a State tax of +$800,000 is annually imposed upon the property of the State, and +distributed among the schools. The balance, if any should be required, +is to be collected by rate-bill from those who send to school, indigent +persons being exempt, at the expense of property of the town. The bill +has become a law and will go into operation next fall. Another very +important measure has been introduced into the Legislature, concerning +the enlargement of the Erie Canal. The Constitution of the State sets +apart the surplus revenues of the canals in each year, for the +completion of the enlargement; but the rapidly increasing competition of +railroads has led the Legislature to perceive the necessity of +accomplishing this work more rapidly than it can be done in the way +hitherto adopted. The bill referred to proposes to borrow money on the +credit of the surplus revenues set apart by the Constitution; and with +the money thus procured, to complete the enlargement forthwith, setting +apart the revenues as a fund to redeem the certificates. The measure was +very strenuously resisted by the Democratic party, chiefly on the ground +that it was unconstitutional. This, however, was denied by the friends +of the bill. It was argued with great ability and zeal on both sides. In +the Assembly the bill passed, by a vote of 76 ayes and 21 nays In the +Senate it is still under consideration. We have already recorded the +attempt and failure of the Legislature to elect a Senator in the +Congress of the United States. On the 18th of March the effort was +renewed by a joint resolution, and after a session protracted until two +hours after midnight, it resulted, through the absence of two Democratic +Senators, in the choice, by separate nomination of each House, of +HAMILTON FISH. In the Senate there were 16 votes for, and 12 against +him. In the House he received 68 votes and there were but 8 against him. +He has accepted the office.--The members of the Legislature and the +State Officers paid a visit of three days to the City of New York, on +the invitation of the Mayor and Common Council. They visited the +different public and charitable institutions, of this city and Brooklyn; +and were entertained at a public dinner at the Astor House, on the +evening of March 22d. This is the first visit of the kind ever made.--A +bill for the suppression of gambling, containing some stringent +provisions, having been introduced into the Senate, and referred to a +committee of three, GEORGE W. BULL, sergeant-at-arms of that body, +endeavored to enter into negotiations with the reputed proprietor of a +gambling "hell" in New York to delay or defeat the bill, for an adequate +compensation. He managed to procure a note from the committee to the +effect that the bill would not come up the present session. The attempt +was exposed, and the offender forthwith dismissed from his office. An +unsuccessful attempt was made to implicate the senatorial committee in +this scandalous affair, upon the ground that they could not have been +ignorant of the purpose for which their note was procured. + +Nothing of special importance has occurred in any section of the +country. In Ohio the Legislature has adopted a series of resolutions +concerning the Fugitive Slave law, urging a faithful execution of the +law, but recommending such modifications as experience may prove to be +essential. In view of the Act of the Legislature of South Carolina, +providing for the appointment of delegates to a Southern Congress, the +General Assembly of Virginia has passed a series of resolutions to the +following purport: 1. That while Virginia sympathizes in the feelings +excited by the interference of the non-slaveholding States with the +domestic institutions of the South, yet the people of that State "are +unwilling to take any action, in consequence of the same, calculated to +destroy the integrity of this Union." 2. That regarding the Compromise +measures, "taken together, as an adjustment of the exciting questions to +which they relate, and cherishing the hope that if fairly executed, they +will restore to the country that harmony and confidence, which of late +have been so unhappily disturbed, the State of Virginia deems it unwise, +in the present condition of the country, to send delegates to the +proposed Southern Congress." 3. Virginia appeals to South Carolina "to +desist from any meditated secession upon her part, which can not but +tend to the destruction of the Union, and the loss to all the States of +the blessings that spring from it." 4. Believing that the Constitution +provides adequate protection to the rights of all the States, Virginia +"invokes all who live under it to adhere more strictly to it, and to +preserve inviolate the safeguards which it affords to the rights of +individual States, and the interests of sectional minorities." 5. +Reprobates all legislation or combinations designed to affect the +institutions peculiar to the South, as derogatory and offensive to the +Southern States, and calculated to "defeat the restoration of peaceful +and harmonious sentiments in these States." These dignified and +temperate resolutions passed with singular unanimity: the 3d with but +three, the 1st with only one, and the 4th and 5th without a single +dissenting voice, out of 118 members present and voting. They were +directed to be transmitted to the Executive of each of the States, with +the exception of Vermont. In the Senate an amendment was passed, +omitting this exception of Vermont; but the House refusing, by a very +close vote, to concur, the Senate receded. + +There is little doubt that these resolutions embody the prevalent +sentiment of the South. The _Richmond Enquirer_, one of the ablest and +most influential Southern papers, affirms them to be "such an expression +of sentiment as will harmonize with the universal sentiment of the +South, with rare exceptions. South Carolina," it goes on to say, "still +wears the front of resistance and war; and in a portion of Mississippi +we expect to hear of secret pledges of dark import, of maps, drawings, +and lines of demarkation for a Southern Confederacy, of a President in +embryo, foreign ministers in expectancy, and, in short, all the +paraphernalia of a Southern Court. We have watched the Southern horizon +with a steady and keen eye, and with the slight exceptions alluded to +above, we can not but regard it as a fixed fact that the South has +already acquiesced in the Compromise measures." + +In Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, all the indications of +public sentiment are of the same tendency. In Missouri the State +Convention has adopted an address and resolutions in favor of the course +pursued by Mr. Benton in opposition to those who are regarded as the +enemies of the Union. + +In South Carolina, the tone of the press and of public men is decidedly +hostile to the Union. It is, however, a significant fact that the +election of delegates to the State Convention failed to draw out a third +of the vote of the State. Col. ISAAC W. HAYNE, the Attorney-General of +the State, and member-elect from Charleston, of the State Convention, +has published a letter in which he laments this apathy on the part of +the voters. He affirms that any State has "a right to withdraw from the +Union, with or without cause;" that he has begun to "loathe the tie +which connects us with our miscalled brethren of the North." "Not the +victims of the tyranny of Mezentius," he goes on to say, "could have +shrunk in more disgust from the unnatural union of warm and breathing +life with the rotting carcass of what had once been a brother man, than +I do from this once cherished but now abhorred and forced connection." +The policy which he recommends, now that the occasion which the +"admission of California and the dismemberment of Texas" might have +afforded, has passed away unimproved is, "to teach that disunion is a +thing certain in the future; to direct, in contemplation of this, all +the energies of oar people first to preparation for a physical contest," +and then "to develop all our own resources, and cut off, as far as +possible, all intercourse with the offending States. This done, to hold +ourselves ready to move on the first general ferment in the South, +which, my life upon it, will occur full soon, and in the meanwhile, to +cultivate the kindest relations, and to keep up, industriously and with +system, the closest intercourse with our sister States of the South." + +A letter from Senator PHELPS of Vermont to a member of the Virginia +Legislature, respecting the Vermont law in relation to fugitives, +appears in the Southern papers. It bears date in January, but we believe +it is now first published. He gives it as his opinion that the law of +Vermont, of which a synopsis may be found in our January Number, was +passed in haste, and without due consideration, and does not embody the +deliberate sense of the people or of the legislative body of that State. +He affirms that the entire Congressional delegation of the State agree +with him in deprecating its passage; and expresses the opinion that it +will be repealed at the next session of the Legislature. + +Chevalier HULSEMANN, the Austrian Charge, in reply to the famous +dispatch of Mr. Webster, says that the opinions of his Government remain +unaltered with respect to the mission of Mr. Mann; but that it "declines +all ulterior discussion of that annoying incident," from unwillingness +to disturb its friendly relations with the United States. Austria has +not demanded, and will not demand any thing beyond the putting in +practice the principles of non-intervention announced by President +Fillmore; and is "sincerely disposed to remain in friendly relations +with the Government of the United States so long as the United States +shall not deviate from those principles." Mr. WEBSTER, in reply, states +that the President regrets that the dispatch was unsatisfactory, but is +gratified to learn that the Imperial Government desires to continue the +present friendly relations; and also that it approves the sentiments +expressed in his Message, in accordance with which he intends to act. He +says that the Government of the United States is equally disinclined to +prolong the discussion; but declares that the principles and policy +avowed by the United States are "fixed and fastened upon them by their +character, their history, and their position among the nations of the +world; and it may be regarded as certain that these principles and this +policy will not be abandoned or departed from until some extraordinary +change shall take place in the general current of human affairs." + +AMIN BEY, the Turkish Commissioner, in taking leave of the President, +preparatory to returning to his own country, read an address expressing +his appreciation of the courtesy shown him upon his visit, and his sense +of the progress and resources of this country. He carries with him to +Constantinople many valuable works, presented by Government and by +private liberality, relating to the agriculture, industry, and commerce +of the United States. + +In Ohio the Constitutional Convention closed its labors on the 10th of +March, having been in session nearly six months. The Constitution which +they framed is to be voted upon on the third Tuesday in June. It +embraces 16 articles, divided into 168 sections. It provides for freedom +of religion, equality of political rights, trial by jury, the _habeas +corpus_, freedom of speech and of the press, and no imprisonment for +debt. The right of suffrage is vested in all free white male adult +citizens. All patronage is taken from the General Assembly; judicial and +executive officers are to be elected by the people; and the public +printing to be given to the lowest responsible bidder. No new county can +be formed without the sanction of the majority of voters in all the +counties of which the boundaries would be changed. Provision is made for +the liquidation of the State debt; and no new debt can be created by the +General Assembly except in case of war or insurrection, or to a limited +amount to meet any temporary deficiency; and funds borrowed for these +purposes can be used for no other. No special act of incorporation can +be granted; but a general law, subject to alteration or repeal, may be +passed, under which associations may be formed. The General Assembly is +prohibited from assuming the debt of any county, town, or city; from +loaning the credit of the State to, or becoming a stockholder on any +corporation or association. No divorce can be granted by the +Legislature. An article prohibiting licenses for the sale of +intoxicating liquors is to be separately voted upon. Provision is made +for law reform, and for amendments to the Constitution from time to +time. Every twenty years the question of a Constitutional Convention is +to be submitted to vote. The details of the legislative, executive, and +judicial systems, are not essentially different from those which +generally prevail. + +In Virginia a Constitutional Convention is now in session. It is at +present occupied in discussing the question of the basis of +representation. The section of the State east of the Blue Ridge, with +about four-ninths of the free population, pays nearly two-thirds of the +taxes. They desire that one half of the representatives should be +apportioned in the ratio of the voters; and the other half in that of +taxation; which would secure the preponderance to the eastern section. +The west demand that representation shall be in the ratio of the voters, +which would give the political supremacy to their portion of the State. +The debates have been protracted and exciting. + +The frontiers of Texas continue to be harassed by marauding parties of +Indians. An expedition has been fitted out to bring them to terms. + +The little village of Socorro, in New Mexico, has been the scene of a +fearful tragedy. A band of desperadoes had gradually collected there, +who indulged in the most wanton acts of outrage and barbarity, upon the +Mexican residents, finally ending in more than one deliberate murder. A +few members of the Boundary Commission who had been left there, headed +an organization which captured a number of the gang, of whom three were +tried and hung on the spot. The ringleader, who had made his escape, was +soon after taken, and shared the same fate. + +From California we have intelligence up to the 5th of March. The amount +of gold received during the month, exclusive of that in the hands of +passengers is about $1,817,000. The production continues abundant; +though the profits of agriculture are represented to be quite equal, and +more sure, than those of mining. Hostilities with the Indians still +continue. Another engagement has taken place, in which 40 of the Indians +were killed, without loss on the part of the whites. In Sacramento City, +a gambler engaged in a brawl, shot down a citizen who attempted to +prevent outrage. The murderer was seized by the populace, tried by Lynch +law, found guilty, and in spite of the efforts of some citizens, hung +from the branch of a tree, within a few hours of the commission of the +murder. In San Francisco two men came near sharing a similar fate for an +attempt at murder and robbery. They were, however, finally rescued from +the populace, and handed over to the civil authority. No Senator has +been elected. The Legislature met in joint convention; but after 144 +ballots, finding no probability of succeeding in making an election, +adjourned _sine die_. The whole number of votes cast was 49; thus making +25 necessary for a choice. The highest number for Mr. Fremont was 16. +Mr. Heydenfeldt, formerly of Alabama, was for a time the leading +Democratic candidate. He was opposed by a portion of his party, on the +alleged ground of having formerly advocated disunion. This is denied by +himself and his friends. Mr. Weller was subsequently taken up; and at +the last ballot received 18 votes. The Whig candidate throughout was Mr. +King, whose highest vote was 20. + + +MEXICO. + +From Mexico the general aspect of intelligence is gloomy enough. It +would seem doubtful whether there is sufficient vitality left for the +re-organization of society, without an infusion of a more fresh and +vigorous blood. The administration of Arista has not thus far realized +the anticipations which had been cherished of it. The country is +infested with predatory Indians and brigands. On the 15th of February, a +train of wagons was attacked in broad daylight, a few miles from the +capital, by a band of 15 robbers who drove off the military escort and +carried away a large amount of goods. The Minister of War and Marine +urges the establishment of military colonies upon the frontiers; and +recommends the desperate measure of incorporating into these colonies +the agricultural Indians, such as the Seminoles, who are accustomed to +the use of arms, and are disposed to settle in fixed habitations, so +that they may serve as a barrier against the marauding Camanches, +Lipanes, and Apaches. The highroad leading from Mazatlan to the mines is +held by the Indians. In Yucatan fears are entertained of the +extermination of the whites. The refractory Bishop of Michoacan has at +length consented to take the oath to sustain the constitution and laws. +An act of the Legislature of Queretaro, restoring the Jesuits to that +State, has been pronounced by Congress to be a violation of the +Constitution. The exclusive right for 100 years to construct a railroad +from Vera Cruz to Madellan has been granted to Don Jose Maria Estellan. + + +GREAT BRITAIN. + +Our last Record closed amidst the unsuccessful attempts to find somebody +who would undertake to carry on the government of the country. Stanley +and Russell, the representatives of the Free-trade and Protection +parties, felt too weak. Gladstone would not help Stanley, nor Graham +help Russell; and nobody would help Lord Aberdeen. At last the advice of +the Duke of Wellington was solicited; in accordance with which the +former Ministry were invited to resume their places. They left office on +the 22d of February because they were unable to obtain the confidence of +the House, and resumed on the 3d of March, under the pressure of the +same inability, every man his old office. At a meeting of the members of +the House who usually supported him, summoned by Lord John Russell, he +announced, among other measures, that it was the determination of the +Government to proceed with the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, with certain +modifications. This aroused vehement remonstrances from a number of +Catholic Whigs, who announced their determination to oppose the Ministry +at all hazards. When the bill came to be presented, it was found that +all that remained was the prohibition for Catholic bishops to assume +titles derived from the name of any place in the United Kingdom. Dr. +Wiseman must not call himself Archbishop of Westminster, or Dr. M'Hale +sign himself "John of Tuam," under penalty of L100, if Government should +have the folly to prosecute. Meanwhile they may address each other by +these titles, and all Catholics may consider and address them so +unharmed. The bill, as modified passed to a second reading on the 22d of +March, by 438 ayes to 95 nays--a majority of more than four to one. Such +is the _finale_ of the absurd and disproportionate agitation with +respect to the "Papal Agression." Nobody is satisfied. The Church party, +who mourned over the shortcomings of the bill as originally presented, +are of course still less pleased with it as emasculated. The Catholics +who then opposed it as an injury, now resent it as an insult. + +The Ministry has sustained a series of annoying defeats and checks on +unimportant measures; and have therefore kept back all the leading +business, such as the presentation of the Budget. The Protection and +Free-trade parties are mustering their strength throughout the country, +preparatory to a general election, which will probably take place at the +close of the present session. + +The prevailing crime at present seems to be poisoning by arsenic. Wives +poison their husbands, husbands their wives, and servants both. A bill +has has been introduced by Lord Carlisle prohibiting the sale of arsenic +except in the presence of a witness, who with the purchaser, are to +register their names in a book. It is also proposed to enact that all +arsenic sold shall be mixed with substances which by their taste or +color will give warning of its presence. + +An insurrection has broken out among the Kaffirs at the Cape, which +promises to be annoying and expensive. The ultimate cause is the gradual +expulsion of the savages, which always follows the colonization of their +territories by civilized nations. Thousands are driven from their lands, +and compressed into a space only sufficient for scores, and begin to +think it as well to die fighting as starving. The Governor at the Cape +having formally deposed and outlawed one of the powerful native chiefs, +dispatched an expedition to seize his person. This body of troops, +consisting of 600 men, was attacked in a narrow defile by the Kaffirs, +and suffered some loss. Attacks were then made upon three of the +frontier settlements, and the colonists, to the number of 70 massacred. +A levy _en masse_ of all males between the ages of eighteen and fifty +was summoned by the Governor, "to destroy and exterminate those most +barbarous and treacherous savages, who for the moment are formidable." +Several smart engagements have taken place, in which the savages, though +worsted, displayed great daring, and considerable skill and discipline. + +Attention has been called in Parliament to the proceedings of the +various Revolutionary Committees composed of foreign refugees, and +headed by Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, and Klapka. Their proceedings were +charged with being a violation of the obligations they incurred when +they came to seek the protection of English laws. Members of Government +expressed their decided disapprobation of the course pursued by the +refugees in endeavoring to excite insurrection in foreign countries. + +A Miss Talbot, heiress to a fortune of L80,000, has entered a convent as +"postulant" with the intention of taking the vail in a few months, when +it is supposed that her fortune will pass to the church. This has +occasioned some excitement against convents, and a bill has been +introduced intended to prevent the forcible detention of females in +houses in which the inmates are bound by religious or monastic vows. It +provides that all such establishments shall be registered, and subject +to semi-annual visitation by public officers, who shall have power to +remove any female who desires it. Concealment of any part of the +premises, or of any person therein, false lists of the inmates, and any +obstruction to the visitors, are to be punished as misdemeanors. +Measures are also proposed regulating legacies made for religious +purposes. + +At Chelmsford a man and woman were hung for murder, attended by the +usual disgraceful accompaniments of a public execution. Crowds gathered +from all the surrounding country; at the moment of execution 40,000 or +50,000 persons are said to have been present. Venders of edibles plied +their vocation in the most gross and revolting manner; pickpockets, as +usual, were in attendance, and the general deportment of the spectators, +men, women, and children, was disgusting and brutal. The man confessed +his guilt. The woman, whose crime was poisoning with arsenic, died +protesting her innocence. + +"A monster address" signed by 61 noblemen, 110 members of the House of +Commons, and 321,240 other persons, lay members of the church of +England, has been presented by Lord Ashley to the Queen. It beseeches +her Majesty to resist the Papal aggression; and goes on to speak of that +act having been occasioned and invited by the conduct of many of the +clergy of the church of England, who have shown a desire to assimilate +the doctrines of their church to those of Rome. After specifying the +sacramental system and "histrionic arrangements" in the churches, it +says that "by the constitution and existing laws, there is vested in +your Majesty as the earthly head of our Church, a wholesome power of +interposition, which power we entreat your Majesty now to exercise." + +Charges have been made in the House of Commons against Lord Torrington, +late Governor of Ceylon. He is accused of gross misgovernment, wanton +cruelty in suppressing native insurrection, and the production of false +evidence. Lord John Russell announced that he should postpone the Budget +and the Income Tax, until this charge, which was in effect one against +Government, had been disposed of. Upon which the mover announced that he +should postpone his motion until after the introduction of these +measures. Lord Torrington, in the House of Lords, came forward and +challenged the prosecution of these charges. + +A coal-pit disaster occurred near Glasgow, involving a terrible loss of +life. While 63 men and boys were at work in the mine, an explosion of +fire-damp occurred. Of those in the mine all but two perished. + +A searching investigation is going on into the adulterations of articles +of food. It is asserted that there is scarcely an article which is in +any way susceptible of mixture, that is not mingled with others not +merely of inferior value, but in many cases of the most loathsome and +disgusting nature. Ground coffee is specified as particularly subject to +adulteration. + +A somewhat singular controversy has arisen in reference to a body of +refugees from Hungary, who have recently arrived at Liverpool. They +number 262, of whom the majority are Poles, the remnant of the Polish +legion in Hungary. Government wishes to send them to America, and offers +a bounty of L8, to each man who will go. They wish to remain in England, +evidently anticipating an uprising in some part of Europe, where their +services may be called into requisition. They are entirely destitute of +means of support, and in England can only maintain themselves by +begging. + +The frigate St. Lawrence, having on board the contributions to the +Exhibition from the United States, arrived at Portsmouth on the 13th of +March. A meeting of the American exhibitors has been held at London, at +which great dissatisfaction was expressed with many of the arrangements. +They object in particular to the appointment of jurors to decide upon +the merits of foreign productions; to bronze medals being awarded as +prizes, when more valuable ones had been promised; to the high price of +season tickets; to contributors being compelled to pay for admission, +and be at the expense of their own fittings; and to the delay in +affording protection to the articles which require a patent. Some +leakage has occurred in the roof of the Exhibition Building; but it is +hoped that it may be obviated. All opinion adverse to the suitability of +the painting of the interior has passed away. The theoretical views of +the decorator have been abundantly justified by the practical effect. + +Another expedition in search of Sir John Franklin is to be fitted out +this season. The little "Prince Albert" is to be sent out, it is hoped, +under happier auspices than attended her former voyage. It is expected +to reach Lancaster Sound, by the middle of June. The vessel will be laid +up for wintering in Prince Regent's Inlet. The party will then proceed +in boats as far as practicable. When these can no longer be worked, +native "kyacks" will be used, which will enable the explorers to reach a +point some one or two hundred miles further than boats could carry them, +as the kyacks can be hauled up and dragged over the ice. The expedition +will remain out for at least one season; and a very extensive search to +the westward of Boothia is proposed. It will be under the command of +Capt. W. Kennedy, who has had no small experience in these icy regions. +We do not learn whether Mr. Snow, from whose interesting book we copied +so largely last month, is to be attached to this new expedition. + + +FRANCE. + +The most striking incident which has occurred since our last has been a +debate on a proposition to repeal the law exiling the Bourbon family. M. +Berryer, acting in the name of the Legitimists, opposed the motion on +the ground that the Count of Chambord is not an exiled Frenchman, but an +extruded king, who could not stoop to accept a permission to re-enter +his own hereditary dominions. M. Thiers, as the organ of the Orleanists, +advocated the proposition. The Minister of Justice, in the name of +Government, was favorable to the principle of the bill, but was opposed +to pressing it at present. The Assembly was thrown into violent +agitation by a speech from M. Dufraisse, one of the most able and +earnest of the Montagnards, who delivered a speech which would not have +been misplaced in the mouth of Robespierre or Danton. "The pale head, +compressed lips, and intense expression of the young lawyer of the +Mountain," says an eyewitness, "reminded the auditors, not without a +shudder, of such a thoroughbred Jacobin as St. Just." He declared that +the laws of proscription were just, and ought to be maintained. "The +Revolution can not ask pardon of the dynasties it has justly upset. Have +the family of Orleans laid aside the claims of their birth? Have they +rendered homage to the sovereignty of the nation? Do not the descendants +of St. Louis continually dispute the independence and the conquests of +the people? You tell us that royalty never dies; we reply, Nor does its +punishment. If the principle of sovereignty is eternal, so shall its +punishment be eternal. The law ought to chastise the voluntary +representatives, the willing heirs of a principle which the people have +abolished." He went on to vindicate the execution of Louis XVI., and +declared that those who voted against the death of that monarch, +meditated a return to royalty, and reminded the Assembly that among +those who voted for the execution, was the grandfather of the princes +whose banishment was sought to be repealed. The speech caused a perfect +storm of passion in the Assembly. Members rushed to the tribune, and +shook their fists in the speaker's face. M. Berryer proposed the +adjournment of the question for six months, as he could not vote on the +same side with those who advocated such doctrines. This, which is looked +upon as equivalent to a rejection of the proposition, was carried by +acclamation. + +Rumors have for some time been rife of an intended fusion between the +Bourbon and Orleans interests, with a view to a speedy restoration of +the monarchy. These would seem to be put to rest by a letter from the +Orleans princes in England to the Orleans Committee in Paris, in which +they declare that they will negotiate only on the soil of France, and +while out of their country will take no part in political questions. The +prolongation of the term of the President is urged in many quarters as +the only practicable safeguard against socialism and anarchy. The +present aspect of affairs seems to indicate that he will be continued in +office in some shape or other. + +The Bishop of Chartres, in a pastoral letter, attacks a late circular of +the Archbishop of Paris, recommending the clergy to abstain from +politics, and to yield obedience to the laws of their country. The +bishop considers that when destructive principles are advanced, the +clergy should be found ready to oppose their progress; and he sees no +reason why the ecclesiastical body should be enjoined to take no part in +public affairs. The archbishop, in reply, denounces the conduct of the +bishop, as an unwarrantable interference with his jurisdiction, and as a +breach of the respect due to him as metropolitan: and refers the +bishop's letter to the provincial council to be held during the present +year at Paris. + +The Professors of the College of France held a meeting at the Sorbonne +to take into consideration the tendency of the lectures of M. Michelet, +which were considered prejudicial, in a moral and political point of +view to the students. He himself declined to attend, but defended +himself in a letter stating that his lectures were blamed only by the +Jesuits and the enemies of French nationality. His colleagues, by a vote +of 17 out of 21 decided upon a vote of censure against him, and that the +minutes of their proceedings should be transmitted to the Minister for +approval. It is said that M. Michelet his resigned his chair. + + +GERMANY. + +The German mists grow thicker. All that can now be affirmed with +certainty is, that the Dresden Conference has been no more able to +improvise a German Empire than was the Frankfort Parliament. A month +ago, and it seemed that Austria had outgeneraled Prussia, and made +herself absolute mistress of Germany, and was in a fair way to become +ruler from the Rhine to the Alps. The petty states of Germany were in +alarm; the kingdoms of the second rank began to see themselves in +danger, and to talk of a central power, from which the constitutional +element was not altogether excluded. It is now said that the King of +Prussia is again ambitious of playing the first part on the German +stage, and has refused to sanction the concessions made by his minister. +It seems probable that Germany will fall back upon the old Frankfort +Confederation. In the mean time, we present the following, as what seems +to us the condition and designs of the principal parties; premising that +the very next intelligence may present them under an altogether new +aspect:--Austria wishes to enter the Germanic Confederation with all her +vast and heterogeneous population; thus binding all Germany to assist +her, in the event of any new Hungarian or Italian outbreak. She also +wishes to secure the Federal Executive. If she succeeds in these +projects, the weight of her foreign possessions gives her the +preponderance in Germany, while Germany secures to her the control of +her foreign territories. The interests of the people and princes of +Germany for once coincide in opposing this claim. The vacillating policy +of Prussia has arisen from doubt, whether more could be made out of +Austria by putting herself at the head of the German States, or out of +these States, by joining with Austria. The ultimate decision of this +question is more likely to be effected by accident than by settled +policy. + + +ITALY. + +The feelings of uneasiness, and vague apprehension of insurrection +throughout the Italian Peninsula are nowise abated. Austrian troops are +concentrating within her Italian territories. The railroad across the +Milan Alps, from Cilly to Trieste, is advancing with great rapidity. The +completion of this road will enable Austrian troops to be sent from +Vienna to Milan in twenty-four hours. + +The Austrian Government has issued an ordonnance directing that in those +parts of Italy which are still considered in a state of siege, no +journal shall mention in any way, directly or indirectly, the titles of +the prohibited revolutionary books and pamphlets which are in +circulation among the people. + +Radetzky has issued a proclamation, under date of Feb. 21, from Verona, +directed against revolutionary proclamations and pamphlets, threatening +death against all who are engaged in circulating them. Every one into +whose hands such a pamphlet may fall is directed to deliver it to the +nearest person in office, though but a gendarme, and at the same time to +declare how it came into his possession; the punishment for failure to +do this is imprisonment in irons for a period of from one to five years. + +Washington's Birthday was celebrated at Rome with great enthusiasm. At a +public dinner, Mr. Cass, our Charge, presided and made a speech. Two +odes, by Mrs. Stephens, were sung. Among the guests were Archbishop +Hughes, and Mr. Hastings, the American Protestant Chaplain. The report +that the American Protestant chapel at Rome had been closed is +authoritatively contradicted by Mr. Hastings, who speaks in terms of +high praise of the liberality which has been manifested toward him by +the papal authorities. + + + + +LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, PERSONAL MOVEMENTS, ETC. + + +UNITED STATES. + +The Exhibition of the National Academy of Design is now open. It is +universally admitted that the paintings surpass those of any previous +year The opening of the Exhibition was celebrated, according to custom, +by a dinner, attended by artists, amateurs, and men of letters. +Admirable speeches were made by Rev. Doctors BELLOWS and BETHUNE, who, +though pole-wide apart in the sphere of theology, spanning the distance +between Arius and Calvin, find common grounds of sympathy in their love +for, and appreciation of Art. Mr. DURAND, the President, in a very +felicitous speech, narrated his experience as an artist and as one of +the founders of the Academy. + +Mr. GREENOUGH, at Florence, has nearly completed his group of the +_Pioneer_, for the Capitol at Washington. It represents a backwoodsman +rescuing his wife and child from an Indian who is in the act of +smothering them in the folds of his blanket. The action of the group +symbolizes the one unvarying story of the contest between civilized and +uncivilized man. The pioneer, standing almost erect, in the pride of +conscious superiority, has dashed upon one knee the Indian, whose +relaxed form, and cowering face upturned despairingly, express +premonitions of the inevitable doom awaiting him, against which all his +efforts would be unavailing. The heavy brow, compressed lip, and firm +chin of the white man announce him one of a race born to conquer and +rule, not so much by mere physical strength as by undaunted courage and +indomitable will. Those who have seen the group pronounce it to be a +sublime conception grandly executed. + +A portrait of Mr. Calhoun, painted at Paris by Mr. HEALEY for the Common +Council of Charleston, was exhibited at the Exposition in Paris, where +it was pronounced one of the best portraits of the season. The size is +seven feet ten inches, by four feet seven. The sum paid for it is one +thousand dollars. We believe it has been forwarded to Charleston. + +Among the pictures by our artists, completed or in progress, we notice +one by Mr. WRIGHT, representing the well-known story of Washington and +the damaged cherry-tree, which is executed with decided cleverness.--Mr. +DUGGAN is engaged upon a David and Goliath, one of those massy subjects +affording ample scope for the bent of the artist's genius.--Mr. STEARNS +has upon his easel a painting of the Interview between Tecumseh and +General Harrison, at Vincennes, in 1811. By some oversight no seat had +been provided for the Indian chief. The unintentional discourtesy was +corrected by General Harrison, with the words, "Warrior, your father, +General Harrison, offers you a seat." Tecumseh drew up his stately form +to its full height, and raising his hand to heaven, exclaimed proudly, +"My father! The Great Spirit is my father, and the Earth my mother; she +feeds me and clothes me, and I recline upon her bosom!"--Mr. T. A. +RICHARDS has recently completed a painting which might appropriately +enough be named "Recollections of Lake Winnipiseogee," portraying rather +the general characteristics of that lake, than depicting the particular +features of any one portion. The scene is an autumn morning, with the +sun bursting forth from the train of a passing shower which has +sprinkled diamonds over foliage and flower. + +JENNY LIND is verging New York-ward. Her next concert here is announced +for May 12. The New York firemen have procured a testimonial to be +presented to her in acknowledgment of her munificent donation of $3000 +to the funds of the Department. It consists of a complete copy of +Audubon's Birds and Quadrupeds of America, in a beautiful case; and a +gold box, appropriately ornamented, containing a copy of their vote of +thanks to her. The following ratherish pretty and altogether German +lines were contributed by her to the album of a gentleman in Washington; + + "In vain I seek for rest + In all created good. + It leaves me still unblest, + And makes me cry for God. + And sure, at rest I can not be + Until my heart finds rest in thee." + +The renowned TUPPER is undergoing the process of lionization. He has +introduced a new feature into his representation of the part, by the +recitation in public of his own verses. He has produced for the Great +London Exhibition a "Hymn for all Nations," which is to be translated +into thirty different languages, set to music, and printed. This +polyglott will be a philological curiosity, if no more. + +Mr. CRALLE, the intimate friend and confidential secretary of Mr. +CALHOUN, is engaged in preparing for publication the Works of the great +southern statesman, to be accompanied by a Biography. The whole will be +comprised, probably, in six octavo volumes. The first volume, which is +now printed, and will soon be ready for publication, is occupied by an +elaborate disquisition on Government, and a Discourse on the +Constitution and Government of the United States. These treatises have +always been spoken of as the "great work" of Mr. Calhoun's life, setting +forth in a systematic manner his views upon the philosophy of civil +government. The treatises were commenced many years since, but never +received the final revision and correction which the author intended to +bestow upon them. + +The Complete Works of ALEXANDER HAMILTON are now in course of +publication by C. S. Francis & Co. They are mainly printed from the +manuscripts purchased by Congress, under the direction of the Library +Committee. The collection will extend to seven octavo volumes. + +It has long been suspected that colors were depicted on Daguerreotype +plates, if they could only be developed. Mr. HILL, of this State, +announces that he has succeeded in producing pictures in which every +tint and shade is accurately represented. We are assured by one of our +most eminent operators, one of the very few who have seen the pictures, +that there is no doubt of the fact. The inventor as yet keeps his +process a secret, though we understand that he is preparing a memoir in +relation to it. + +BAYARD TAYLOR'S El-Dorado has been translated into German by C. Hartman, +author of a Geographical and Historical Description of California. + +Mr. SAMUEL MAVERICK, of Pendleton, S. C., who is still living, assisted +in packing the first bale of cotton ever sent from the United States to +Liverpool. It was sent in the seed, and the consignee informed his South +Carolina correspondent that the article was useless, could not be sold, +and advised him to send no more. + +Dr. GOADBY, who has recently delivered in this city a very interesting +course of lectures upon insects, has a most valuable series of +dissections, prepared at a cost of labor which would seem almost +incredible. The anatomy of a caterpillar, comprising three distinct +preparations--its nervous system, its organs of respiration, and its +organs of nutrition--occupied the undivided labor of thirteen weeks, at +the rate of fourteen hours a day. + +Gen. HENDERSON, who was on trial at New Orleans on the charge of being +implicated in the Cuban invasion, has been discharged, the jury being +unable to agree. The District Attorney therefore entered a _nolle +prosequi_ in the case of Governor Quitman and all others under +indictment. + + +EUROPEAN. + +The new Leipzig _Deutsches Museum_ (Westermann Brothers, New York,) +promises to meet the want which we have for some time found it +impossible to supply, of a German literary Magazine. In the recent +revolutionary storms this class of periodicals generally went down, so +that for information as to the working of the German mind we have been +forced to rely upon chance notices in the political journals, or trust +to foreign sources. It is published semi-monthly. Its cost in Leipzig is +12 _Thalers_; and is furnished here for the same number of dollars. + +Under the title of _Causeries du Lundi_ M. St. Beauve has just put forth +a volume of sketches of contemporary French authors, which almost forces +us to envy the happy land blessed with such a number of men, the worst +of whom exceeds our ideas of any attainable height of perfection. A word +or two of criticism is awarded to Lamartine, but too bland to wound even +the vanity of the gentle Alphonse. But Girardin and Villemain, Cousin +and George Sand, Thiers and Montalembert receive a most unqualified +apotheosis. The title of "Monday Chat" simply indicates that the book is +made up of articles which appeared on Mondays in the _Constitutionnel_ +newspaper. + +Pictures by the "Old Masters," as all the world knows, are manufactured +as readily, and almost as extensively, as calico. It is not, however, so +well known that "old and rare editions" of books are produced nowadays. +The passion of book-collectors has given a new impulse to this business. +Within a few months the beautiful editions of the classics of the +Elzevirs and the Stephens have been reproduced with wonderful skill. In +paper, type, ink, and binding there is no perceptible difference; while +the precise air of antiquity desired is produced by chemical means. + +M. Feuillet de Conches, a Parisian virtuoso, and great admirer of La +Fontaine, has spent a vast sum in having printed for his own sole use a +single copy of the works of the famous fabulist. It is illustrated in +the most gorgeous style, by the first artists of the day; and is +accompanied with notes and prefaces by the most eminent writers, and is +a very miracle of expensive typography and binding. + +Victor Hugo has published nothing for some years, having been paid by a +publisher not to print. Report says that he will, at the close of his +term, which soon expires, make amends for his long silence by issuing +poems to the amount of three volumes, and romances to that of twelve. + +A work by Origen, the celebrated Father in the Church, hitherto unknown, +has been discovered and published by the librarian of the National +Assembly--so M. Villemain announced at a recent meeting of the _Academie +des Belles Lettres_ at Paris. The work traces the heresies of the third +century to the writings of the Pagan Philosophers, and throws new light +upon ancient manners, literature, and philosophy. + +In the album presented to the King of Bavaria by the artists of Muenich, +is an admirable composition by Huebner. It is an expression of the +feelings of a large portion of Upper Germany. It represents a female +prostrate upon the ground, with the arms crossed, the face entirely +hidden, in an attitude of the deepest despair. The long hair floats +over the arms, and trails along the ground. The whole figure is a +mixture of majesty and utter abandonment. The simple title of the piece +is--"Germania, 1850." + +_Yeast: a Problem_, is the Sartor-Resartorish title of a collection of +papers reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, where they have excited no +little attention. It purports to be a sample of what is fermenting in +the minds of large classes of young men of the present day, and +leavening the whole mass of society. Though published anonymously, it is +known to be written by the author of "Alton Locke," and partakes largely +of the merits and defects of that remarkable work. It is to be +republished by the Harpers. + +In WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR the material for an admirable newspaper writer +has been thrown away. Witness the following double-handed hitting in a +letter to Lord Duncan, who lately won a victory over the Ministers, "... +A quarrel about hats, caps, and stockings, and the titles they confer, +is too ridiculous. Is a hunchback to be treated with gravity, with +severity, because an ignorant rabble calls him _my lord_. If I chose to +call myself Lord Duncan, I should only be laughed at. People would +stare; some would ask, 'Is this the great Lord Duncan who won the Battle +of Camperdown?' Others would answer, 'No; nor is it he who won as great +a one in Westminster the other day. He is an impostor: haul him out; but +don't hurt him:' I have the honor to be, etc." + +_Dahomey and the Dahomans_, by Frederick E. Forbes, gives an interesting +account, drawn from personal observation, made during the last two +years, of the manners and customs of this savage people. Among the most +revolting is the _Ek-que-noo-ah-toh-meh_ or "Throwing of Presents," in +which the king occupies himself for many hours in throwing gifts from a +raised platform, to the people below. The last of these gifts consists +of a number of live prisoners, who have been exhibited bound upon the +platform; they are flung down to be cut and torn in pieces by the +savages. On the occasion when the author was present there were fourteen +of these victims, of whom he succeeded in saving the lives of three. The +object of the expedition was to induce the king to abandon the +slave-trade, and was altogether unsuccessful. + +_The Dynamical Theory of the Formation of the Earth,_ two mighty octavo +volumes, elicits the following complimentary remarks from the +_Athenaeum._ "This work is saved from being mischievous only by the +circumstance of the excessive dullness diffused over these twelve +hundred pages--which will in all probability prevent their being much +read.... Of no one department of science does the author appear to have +a correct conception. His views are all distorted. He is false alike in +his Mechanics, in his Geology, in his Natural History, in his Chemistry, +in his Electricity--in every other consideration of the physical +agencies, and still more false in that which we suppose we must bring +ourselves to call his Logic." + +_Memoirs of a Literary Veteran_, by R. P. Gillies is a book almost worth +reading, quite worth looking at. The author, nephew to the celebrated +historian of Greece, born to a fair estate, and with a propensity to +make verses, spent the one without turning the other to any special +account. Amidst much idle matter, whose only purpose is to swell the +bulk of the volumes, are some rather interesting anecdotes of literary +celebrities. Some over-laudatory epistles from Sir Egerton Brydges, and +a characteristic letter or two from Wordsworth, containing among other +matters, a criticism upon Scott's Guy Mannering, in which considerable +praise is awarded to the management of "this lady," as he solemnly +denominates Meg Merrilies, are perhaps the best things in the book. It +reminds one, but at a wide interval, of Leigh Hunt's Autobiography. + +_A Life of Hartley Coleridge_ prefixed to a volume of his poems, tells a +sad story of powers neutralized and a life thrown away. He was the +eldest son of _the_ Coleridge, and with a portion of his father's genius +combined a large share of his infirmity of purpose and feebleness of +will. He gained a college fellowship, and forfeited it within a year, by +intemperance; after which he maintained himself by his pen. The Life is +by his brother, Derwent Coleridge. The Poems are of decided merit. They +are to be followed by a collection of his prose writings. + + +OBITUARIES. + +ISAAC HILL, formerly Governor of New Hampshire, and Senator in Congress, +died at Washington, March 22d, aged about 63. He was born at +Charlestown, N. H., the son of a farmer, and at an early age learned the +trade of a printer. He established the first Democratic paper at +Concord. To his able conduct is in a great measure to be ascribed the +ascendency which his party acquired in the State, about the year 1828. +Though possessing few of the external qualifications for a popular +leader, being feeble in person, and altogether destitute of oratorical +power, his unrivaled tact and untiring industry gave him an uncontrolled +influence in the State. He was chosen State Senator; and subsequently +United States Senator, which office he held from 1831 to 1836, when he +resigned, in consequence of having been elected Governor of New +Hampshire. He filled the executive chair for two or three terms, and +then retired to private life. In 1840 he was appointed Sub-Treasurer at +Boston; but the repeal of the Sub-Treasury Act the following year +vacated his office. He then returned to New Hampshire; but his star had +waned. He disagreed with his party on the subject of corporations and +other radical questions, lost his political influence, and fell into +comparative insignificance, as a politician, though he always adhered to +his party. For a number of years he edited an agricultural paper of +considerable merit. He suffered much from impaired health during the +last years of his life; and died in moderate pecuniary circumstances. + +MORDECAI MANASSEH NOAH, long known as an able editor and active +politician, died in New York, March 28. He was born at Philadelphia, +July 19, 1784, and has thus attained to within three years of three +score and ten. He was apprenticed to a carver and gilder; but early +abandoned that trade and devoted himself to literature and politics. He +removed to Charleston, S. C., in the early part of the present century, +where he took an active and influential part in public affairs. Having +declined the offer of the consulship at Riga, he was appointed, in 1813, +consul at Tunis, and was charged with a mission to Algiers. This latter +he accomplished, after some adventures, and repaired to Tunis. At the +expiration of ten months he was recalled, under charge, we believe, of +some pecuniary defalcations. Upon his return to this country, he became +connected with the political press. In 1822, he was elected Sheriff of +the City and County of New York, which office he held but a single year. +In 1829, he was appointed Commissioner of the Supreme Court of the +United States, and Surveyor of the port of New York. In the mean while, +he had formed the project of collecting his brethren the Jews, and +rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. He issued a singular proclamation, +appointing Grand Island, near Niagara Falls, as the place of rendezvous, +and summoned the scattered tribes to transmit their contributions. We +have no means of knowing how far he was in earnest in this scheme. At +all events, it came to nothing. In 1840, he was elected Judge of the +Court of General Sessions, which he held till the law constituting the +court was changed. Mr. Noah was, however, more known as an editor than +as a politician. Though without any very lofty aims, or high +qualifications, he was an agreeable and sprightly paragraphist, +possessed of an unfailing good-humor, and a large fund of general +information. He was connected successively with a number of papers, and +at the time of his death was editor of a Sunday paper, _The Messenger +and Times_. He also published at different times a number of works of a +miscellaneous character, chiefly essays and plays, some of which met +with great success at the time of publication; but none of them +possessed sufficient vitality to take a permanent place in the +literature of the country. His death was the consequence of a paralytic +stroke. He lived and died a believer in the faith of his fathers, the +Hebrew religion; and was buried with the solemn ceremonies practiced by +the ancient chosen people. He was of a most generous and genial nature, +and enjoyed the warmest good-will of all with whom he was brought into +personal relations. + +GEORGE M. BROOKE, Brevet Major-General in the United States army, died +at San Antonio, Texas, on the 19th of March. He was a native of +Virginia, and entered the army in 1808. He was brevetted +Lieutenant-Colonel in 1814, for "gallant conduct in the defense of Fort +Erie." A month later he received the rank of Brevet Colonel, for +"distinguished and meritorious services in the sortie from Fort Erie." +In 1824, he was made Brevet Brigadier-General for "ten years' faithful +service as Colonel." In 1848, he was brevetted as Major-General for +"meritorious conduct, particularly in the performance of his duties in +the prosecution of the war with Mexico." + +ALEXANDER S. WADSWORTH, Commodore in the United States Navy, died at +Washington, April 9, in the 61st year of his age. He was a native of +Maine. He entered the service in 1804, and for many years served with +distinction. His commission of post-captain, bears date from 1825. His +name stood the seventh on the naval list. Severe and protracted illness +had for many years disabled him from active duty. + +SAMUEL FARMAR JARVIS, D.D., died at Middletown, Conn., March 26th. He +was born in January, 1787. He had the reputation of being one of the +ripest scholars in the Episcopal Church, and was a member of the +principal literary and historical societies in this country. His +extensive acquirements, and fondness for accurate investigation procured +for him the appointment of "Historigrapher of the Church," which was +conferred upon him in 1838, with a view to his preparing a faithful +"Ecclesiastical History, reaching from the Apostles' time, to the +formation of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States." The +first volume, forming a Chronological Introduction, was published in +1845. It is understood that a continuation of the work was nearly ready +for press at the time of his death. + +JOHN S. SKINNER, Editor of the "_Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil_," and +well known for his agricultural writings, died at Baltimore, March 21, +aged about 70 years. He was universally esteemed for his social +qualities, unassuming demeanor, and generous impulses. His death was +occasioned by a fall into the basement in the Post Office at Baltimore. + + + + +Literary Notices + + +Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued _The House of the Seven Gables_, a +Romance, by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, which is strongly marked with the bold +and unique characteristics that have given its author such a brilliant +position among American novelists. The scene, which is laid in the old +Puritanic town of Salem, extends from the period of the witchcraft +excitement to the present time, connecting the legends of the ancient +superstition with the recent marvels of animal magnetism, and affording +full scope for the indulgence of the most weird and sombre fancies. +Destitute of the high-wrought manifestations of passion which +distinguished the "Scarlet Letter," it is more terrific in its +conception, and not less intense in its execution, but exquisitely +relieved by charming portraitures of character, and quaint and comic +descriptions of social eccentricities. A deep vein of reflection +underlies the whole narrative, often rising naturally to the surface, +and revealing the strength of the foundation on which the subtle, aerial +inventions of the author are erected. His frequent dashes of humor +gracefully blend with the monotone of the story, and soften the harsher +colors in which he delights to clothe his portentous conceptions. In no +former production of his pen, are his unrivalled powers of description +displayed to better advantage. The rusty wooden house in +Pyncheon-street, with its seven sharp-pointed gables, and its huge +clustered chimney--the old elm tree before the door--the grassy yard +seen through the lattice-fence, with its enormous fertility of +burdocks--and the green moss on the slopes of the roof, with the flowers +growing aloft in the air in the nook between two of the gables--present +a picture to the eye as distinct as if our childhood had been passed in +the shadow of the old weather-beaten edifice. Nor are the characters of +the story drawn with less sharp and vigorous perspective. They stand out +from the canvas as living realities. In spite of the supernatural +drapery in which they are enveloped, they have such a genuine expression +of flesh and blood, that we can not doubt we have known them all our +days. They have the air of old acquaintance--only we wonder how the +artist got them to sit for their likenesses. The grouping of these +persons is managed with admirable artistic skill. Old Maid Pyncheon, +concealing under her verjuice scowl the unutterable tenderness of a +sister--her woman-hearted brother, on whose sensitive nature had fallen +such a strange blight--sweet and beautiful Phebe, the noble +village-maiden, whose presence is always like that of some shining +angel--the dreamy, romantic descendant of the legendary wizard--the +bold, bad man of the world, reproduced at intervals in the bloody +Colonel, and the unscrupulous Judge--wise old Uncle Venner--and +inappeasable Ned Higgins--are all made to occupy the place on the canvas +which shows the lights and shades of their character in the most +impressive contrast, and contributes to the wonderful vividness and +harmony of the grand historical picture. On the whole, we regard "The +House of the Seven Gables," though it exhibits no single scenes that may +not be matched in depth and pathos by some of Mr. Hawthorne's previous +creations, as unsurpassed by any thing he has yet written, in exquisite +beauty of finish, in the skillful blending of the tragic and comic, and +in the singular life-like reality with which the wildest traditions of +the Puritanic age are combined with the every-day incidents of modern +society. + +Harper and Brothers have published a translation of _Buttmann's Greek +Grammar_, by Professor EDWARD ROBINSON, from the eighteenth German +edition, containing additions and improvements by ALEXANDER BUTTMANN, +the son of the original author. Since the publication of the thirteenth +edition in 1829, which was the last that the author lived to complete, +gradual changes have been introduced into the Grammar, especially in the +department of syntax, which has been expanded and re-written, with the +aid of the extensive investigations of the last twenty years. The +translation bears the same impress of diligence, accuracy, and +philological tact, which is never looked for in vain in the productions +of the indefatigable and distinguished author. + +_Ecclesiastical Manual_, by LUTHER LEE (published at the Wesleyan +Methodist Book Room), is a brief treatise on the nature of Church +Government, defending the right of visible church organization against +prevailing latitudinarian and transcendental views on the one hand, and +maintaining liberal principles of polity against the high claims of +Episcopacy and the assumptions of the clergy on the other. The argument +is conducted with candor and moderation, though not without spirit, and +may be studied to advantage by all who would understand the points at +issue. + +_William Penn, An Historical Biography_, by WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON +(published by Blanchard and Lea), is a new and complete life of the +founder of Pennsylvania, derived from contemporary papers that have been +brought to light within a recent period, and from original and +unpublished documents. The view given by the author, of the religious +system of Fox and Penn, as coinciding with the principles of republican +freedom, is a reproduction of the admirable exhibition of Quakerism +presented by Bancroft in his History of the United States. In the +Appendix, the charges against William Penn by Macaulay are submitted to +a rigid examination; the evidence on the subject is skillfully and +thoroughly sifted; and the strongest case made out for the accused +against the insinuations of the ingenious and eloquent historian. With +his warm sympathies in favor of the subject of his narrative, and the +familiar knowledge of his career gained by the researches of several +years, Mr. Dixon has produced a genial and instructive piece of +biography, sustaining the claims of the illustrious Quaker to the noble +and elevated rank in which he has been placed by the general voice of +tradition. + +_Physico-Physiological Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, &c._, by +Baron CHARLES VON REICHENBACH, translated from the German, by JOHN +ASHBURNER, M.D., is a scientific treatise, showing the relations of +magnetism, electricity, heat, light, crystallization, and chemism to the +vital forces of the human body. It is founded on an extensive series of +experiments, which tend to bring the mysterious phenomena of Mesmerism +within the domain of physics, and in fact to reduce the whole subject +of physiology to a department of chemical science. The papers, of which +it is composed, were originally intended as contributions to the "Annals +of Chemistry," conducted by the celebrated Professor Liebig, in which +periodical they appeared in the year 1845. In the present collected +form, they have received some necessary corrections, but their spirit +and substance are presented without alteration. The investigations, of +which the results are here described, are of a singularly curious +character, exhibiting the most astonishing developments, with a +philosophical calmness that is rare even among German savants. + +_The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter_, is the title of a novel +illustrative of the revolutionary history of Vermont, by the author of +"The Green Mountain Boys," published by B. B. Mussy and Co., Boston. It +gives many agreeable descriptions of Vermont scenery, with sketches of +its social life during the war of the Revolution, and shows considerable +skill in combining the prominent historical facts of that day with the +fictitious incidents of a lively and exciting plot. + +_The Ballads and Songs_ of WILLIAM PEMBROKE MULCHINOCH (published by T. +W. Strong), is a collection of fugitive poetry, inspired with the +genuine breathings of Irish patriotism, frequently displaying great +facility and sweetness of versification, and pervaded throughout with a +winning sentiment of tenderness and human sympathy. + +Harper and Brothers have published a neat volume, entitled _Nature and +Blessedness of Christian Purity,_ by Rev. R. S. FOSTER, with an +Introduction by EDMUND S. JANES, D.D., one of the Bishops of the +Methodist Episcopal Church. Without aiming at any rivalry with other +writers on the subject, the author devotes his work to the maintenance +of the views which are set forth by the standard Wesleyan authorities. +Avoiding all considerations of a purely speculative character, he +presents the practical aspects of his theme, with discrimination, +earnestness, and force. His style, which is always animated and +effective, betrays the influence of profound and accurate thought, and +is equally adapted to make a favorable impression on the understanding +and on the heart of the attentive reader. The well-written Preface by +Bishop Janes, gives a lucid summary of the contents of the volume, with +a warm commendation of the manner in which it is executed. + +_Lyra Catholica_ (published by E. Dunigan and Brother), is a collection +of the Hymns of the Roman Breviary and Missal, with others adapted for +every day in the week, and the Festivals and Saints' Days throughout the +year. The translation of the Breviary, by Mr. Caswell, is adopted +without change, and forms the first part of the present work, while the +second part consists of hymns and anthems from various sources, +especially from the contributions of Rev. F. W. Faber, Matthew Brydges, +Esq., and Rev. William Young. The third part is devoted to sacred poetry +of a less strictly devotional cast. In addition to a few pieces from +modern poets, it contains a selection from the compositions of Catholic +writers belonging to an earlier age of English literature, including +"the simple and earnest strains of Southwell, a poet, priest, and +martyr, whose unshaken soul passed away in song from the fires of +persecution; Crashaw, whose tender fancy and graceful zeal have extorted +the highest praises of unfriendly judges; the manly virtue of Habington, +pure in an age of license; the later compositions of Dryden, the +atonements laid by his repentant muse on the altar of religion." + +_The Soldier of the Cross_, by the Rev. JOHN LEYBURN, D.D. (published by +Carter and Brothers), is a popular and attractive exposition of +Ephesians vi. 10-18, consisting of a series of discourses delivered from +the pulpit, but recast into the form of plain and practical essays, +written with considerable force. The talents of the author and the taste +of the publishers have made an addition to our religious literature, of +which the public estimation is indicated by the early call for a second +edition. + +_The Irish Confederates, and the Rebellion of 1798_, by HENRY M. FIELD +(published by Harper and Brothers), is a lively historical sketch of the +movements of the Irish patriots in behalf of the freedom of their nation +toward the close of the last century. The volume opens with a rapid +survey of Irish history, traces the love of liberty among the people, +describes the causes of their national characteristics, and minutely +portrays the events of the fruitless struggle, which terminated in the +complete subjection of their beautiful island to the British crown. +Among the biographical sketches, those of Curran, Tone, Lord Edward +Fitzgerald, the Emmets, McNevin, and Sampson of course occupy a +prominent place, and are drawn with an affectionate sympathy, which +delights to linger around every memorial of their noble and chivalrous +characters. Mr. Field has enjoyed peculiar facilities for the +composition of this volume. A visit to Ireland some four years since +awakened a strong interest in the fortunes of her people. At a +subsequent period, he formed an intimate acquaintance with several of +the families of the Irish exiles in New York, and from the narratives +thus obtained, was furnished with some of the most valuable materials +for his story. Nor has he neglected the study of the different +historians of the time. His work, accordingly, combines the vivacity of +a personal narrative, with the accuracy of thorough research. It is +deeply imbued with a love of Ireland, with a sense of indignation at the +outrages which she has endured, and with admiration of the valor and +devotion of her gallant sons; though in no case, do the evident +partialities of the writer appear to have interfered with his strict +historical fidelity, or to have tempted him to an uncritical use of the +facts at his command. His style is simple and unaffected, warmed with a +persuasive earnestness, and animated with a chaste enthusiasm, but owing +none of its interest to the allurements of rhetoric. Indeed, a more +elaborate construction would often have been in better keeping with the +dignity of the subject, while the almost exclusive use of short +sentences at length overcomes the reader with a painful feeling of +monotony. There are also occasional instances of careless and +unauthorized expression, which, in a writer of such real ability and +cultivation as Mr. Field, excite the surprise of the fastidious reader. + +Harper and Brothers have issued an edition of the _History of Greece_, +by Dr. LEONHARD SCHMITZ, which forms an appropriate companion to the +_History of Rome_, published by the accomplished author four years +since. The purpose of Dr. Schmitz in each of these Histories is to give, +in a popular form, the result of the researches by modern scholars which +have placed the subject in a new light. In the composition of this +volume, the author has availed himself of the erudite labors of Bishop +Thirlwall, abridging his great work in some portions, and interweaving +his masterly views into the texture of his narrative, where a free style +was more suitable to the subject. As a manual for young students in +Grecian history, and a work for general and family reading, this volume +is not surpassed by any production of the present day. The experience of +the author as a practical educator, his admirable classical attainments, +and the caution and soundness of his historical judgments, give him +peculiar qualifications for the task he has undertaken. His style is +simple and condensed; his illustrations are singularly apposite; and his +grouping of topics is picturesque and forcible. For popular use, we have +no doubt, that both the Grecian and Roman Histories of Dr. Schmitz will +speedily take the precedence of all others in this country, as they have +done, to a very considerable degree, in Great Britain. + +The popular series of _Franconia Stories_, by JACOB ABBOTT (published by +Harper and Brothers), is completed by the publication of _Mary Bell_ and +_Beechnut_. The excellent author has placed the whole juvenile community +under new obligations by the issue of these delightful stories. He is so +perfectly at home in every phase of country life, and so ingenious in +working up its daily occurrences into a charming narrative, that he can +never fail of a listening audience. Few American authors have the power +of so impressing themselves on the memory and the heart of their +readers. The present series will doubtless add to his beautiful +influence and to his fame. + +The Third Number of _London Labor and The London Poor_, by HENRY MAYHEW, +is issued by Harper and Brothers, and will be found to increase the +interest with which that remarkable series has been received by the +public. His pictures of the condition of the laboring classes in London +have a minuteness and vividness of detail which would not disgrace a +Dutch painting. + +_The Roman Republic of_ 1849, by THEODORE DWIGHT (published by R. Van +Dien), is a brief historical view of the recent revolutionary movements +in Italy, with biographical sketches of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Avezzana, +Filopanti, Foresti, and other leading Italian Republicans. + +Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued the fourth volume of their +beautiful edition of the _Collective Writings_ of THOMAS DE QUINCY, +containing _The Caesars_, a work characterized by the subtilty of +reflection, curious learning, and original felicities of expression, for +which the author is pre-eminent. + +_Life on the Plains of the Pacific_, by Rev. GUSTAVUS HINE (published by +Geo. H. Derby and Co., Buffalo), is the title of a work devoted to the +history, condition, and prospects of Oregon, with a description of its +geography, climate, and productions, and of personal adventures among +the Indians. It contains a detailed history of the Oregon Mission, drawn +from the most authentic sources, including the notes and journals of the +first missionaries on that station. The journal of the author, +commencing with the departure of the missionaries from New York in 1839, +presents an interesting narrative of the largest expedition of this kind +that ever sailed from an American port, and is enriched with a great +variety of facts and incidents that occurred in the wide field of +observation that forms the subject of the volume. Without pretending to +the graces of literary composition, the writer has produced a work of +sterling value. His authority will no doubt be appealed to with +confidence on all matters pertaining to the important scene of his +labors. + +_Hints to Sportsmen_, by E. J. LEWIS (published by Blanchard and Lea, +Philadelphia), is a regular-built treatise on all the mysteries of the +sporting craft. The author writes like an experienced shot. His book is +not only a valuable manual for the sportsman, but a tempting volume for +the lovers of spirited description. + +_Curran and his Contemporaries_, by CHARLES PHILLIPS (published by +Harper and Brothers), is a reproduction of the celebrated work of +Counselor Phillips, having been subjected by the author to a thorough +revision and amendment. It describes the interesting period of Irish +history during which Curran was the leading member of the Bar, with +great vivacity and force. Touching lightly on the politics of the times, +it presents a series of personal delineations, which are drawn to the +life by the enthusiastic and genial author. The freshness of his +recollections affords an abundance of piquant anecdote, which, with his +warm sympathies with the Irish character, gives a perpetual liveliness +and glow to the narrative, redeeming it from every approach to dullness, +and sustaining the interest of the reader to the close of the volume. + +_Louisiana: Its Colonial History and Romance,_ by CHARLES GAYARRE +(published by Harper and Brothers), is a republication of the lectures +of the author on "The Poetry, or the Romance of the History of +Louisiana," with the addition of seven new lectures, bringing the +subject down to the departure of Bienville, the founder of the colony, +in 1743. Among the interesting topics discussed in the second series of +lectures, are the formation of the Mississippi Company, the History of +Law's financial career, the foundation of New Orleans, the Manners and +Customs of the Natchez tribe, the wars between the Indians and the +Colonists, and others, which bring the romantic incidents connected with +the colonization of Louisiana into prominent view. The period was +fertile in singular adventures, presenting abundant materials for the +poet or novelist. Mr. Gayarre has made a felicitous selection of topics, +which, under the brilliant coloring of a lively imagination, are +presented in a picturesque and attractive form. The substance of his +work is founded on the conclusions of exact historical research, while +the drapery in which its scenes and characters are arrayed form a +graceful accompaniment to the severity of truth. With a perpetual +vivacity of style, and a profusion of glowing imagery, Mr. Gayarre never +becomes tedious or insipid. His volume is always delightful as a poem, +if it is not complete as a record, and will hold a high place among the +popular contributions to the "Romance of History." + +E. C. and J. Biddle have published _An Elementary Treatise on Statics_, +by GASPARD MONGE, translated by WOODS BAKER, a work which has obtained a +distinguished reputation in the scientific literature of France, by its +clear and correct style, its rigorous demonstrations, and its +well-connected propositions. It is adapted to fill a place, for which no +adequate provision has been made by the usual treatises on the subject +in the English language. Most of these are voluminous, and suited only +to the more advanced classes of students, or else composed chiefly of +practical and descriptive details. The present volume treats the subject +in the synthetic method, and can be understood without difficulty by +those who are familiar with Euclid's Elements. + +_Warreniana._--Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have issued a reprint of this +celebrated _jeu d'esprit,_ which still retains its popularity, together +with the _Rejected Addresses,_ to which it forms an appropriate +companion. The peculiarities of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, +Christopher North, Washington Irving, Scott, Moore, Brougham, +Wilberforce, and other names of sufficient eminence to provoke a quiz, +are hit off with capital success. The most astringent features are +always relaxed in the perusal of these amusing pages. + +J. S. Redfield has issued an edition of JUNG STILLING'S _Theory of +Pneumatology_, and of CAHAGNET'S _Celestial Telegraph_, which are filled +with the latest information on the whole subject of ghosts, +presentiments, visions, and the world of spirits, obtained professedly +from the most authentic sources. Stilling's work is introduced with a +Preface by Rev. Dr. BUSH, highly commending its purposes and character. +The "Celestial Telegraph" beats Jackson Davis and the Rochester +Knockings all hollow. Whoever is curious in the literature of the +supernatural will find enough here to satisfy the most craving love of +the marvelous. + +Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have published a volume of _Poems_, by HENRY +T. TUCKERMAN, distinguished for the sweet and graceful fancies, the +fluent aptness of expression, the joyous sympathy with nature, and the +refined delicacy of taste by which most of the writings of the author +are characterized. The vein of tranquil reflection which pervades them, +and the chastened utterance of feeling which vails rather than embodies +strong emotion, though not among the elements of popular poetry, will +recommend them to the congenial reader. + +J. W. Moore, Philadelphia, has published a useful little volume for +students in design, entitled _The Theory of Effect_, by An Artist. It is +intended not only for the use of beginners, but of those who have +attained a proficiency in the art, while they are unacquainted with the +principles on which the correctness of their pictures depends. The rules +of Effect are laid down with great precision and minuteness, and +illustrated with several neat engravings by Hinckley. + +_The Volcano Diggings_ is the title of a lively story, by a Member of +the Bar, illustrating the administration of the law in California. +Several scenes, which are evidently taken from the life, are described +with a good deal of spirit, and throw a strong, but not altogether +flattering light on the condition of society at the placers. (Published +by J. S. Redfield). + +George P. Putnam has issued _The Wing-and-Wing_, forming another volume +of the Collected Works of J. FENIMORE COOPER. In the Preface to this +edition, the author remarks, that "he acknowledges a strong paternal +feeling in behalf of this book, placing it very high in the estimate of +its merits, as compared with other books from the same pen; a species of +commendation that need wound no man." + +The same publisher has issued a new and revised edition of _The Conquest +of Florida_, by THEODORE IRVING. The author expresses his gratification +in finding his account of De Soto's expedition confirmed by the most +recent investigations. His work is justly entitled to the reputation +which it has obtained, as a classic authority, on an interesting period +of American history. + +Phillips, Sampson, and Co. have published a valuable collection of +financial essays, entitled _The Banker's Commonplace Book_, containing +Mr. A. B. Johnson's pithy treatise on the Principles of Banking and the +Duties of a Banker, Gilbart's Ten Minutes' Advice on Keeping a Bank, +with several articles on Bills of Exchange, and a summary of the Banking +Laws of Massachusetts. It will prove a useful manual on the subject to +which it is devoted. + + + + +TWO LEAVES FROM PUNCH. + +[Illustration: ENCOURAGEMENT TO BOOK-LENDERS. + +"IF YOU PLEASE, SIR, MASTER'S SENT BACK THE FIRST VOLUME, AND HE SAYS +WILL YOU BE SO GOOD AS TO LET HIM 'AVE THE SECOND?"] + + +DIPLOMACY AND GASTRONOMY. + +It is a very generally received opinion that _gammon_ is the basis of +diplomacy; but the fact is, that it is impossible to conduct +international negotiations on the foundation of that humble and +economical fare, even when rendered more palatable by the addition of +spinach. MR. RIVES, it is said, has written a letter to MR. WEBSTER, +complaining that the American Embassadorship can not be done at Paris +under L9000 a year, and adds that + + "_According to_ MR. PAKENHAM, _good dinners are half the battle + of diplomacy, and the most favorable treaties are gained by + liberal feeding._" + +This aphorism suggests important reflections. + +A main point to be attended to in the formation of a diplomatic corps is +the commissariat; and the force must be well armed with knives and +forks, in addition to being supplied with plate armor. + +The trenches in diplomatic warfare must be manned by regular +trenchermen. + +Rivals in diplomacy must be cut out by actual carving; and in order to +dish them, recourse must be had to real dishes. + +If one diplomatist wishes to turn the tables on another, it is requisite +that he and his suite should keep the better tables. + +The politeness of diplomatic intercourse should be qualified, in some +measure, with sauce, and its gravity tempered with gravy. + +Treating, in diplomacy, is best managed by giving "a spread." + +Bold diplomatists are those "who greatly daring, dine." + +The most liberal foreign policy is that of giving grand banquets. + +A plenipotentiary should have unlimited powers of cramming. + +An embassador has been defined to be, "a man sent abroad to lie for the +sake of the commonwealth;" but the definition must be enlarged to +express the fact, that he is also a person deputed to a foreign country +to eat and drink for the interest of his native land. + +The most important diplomatic functions are those of digestion. + +[Illustration: SUPPER AT A JUVENILE PARTY. + +_Alfred._ "I SAY, FRANK, ARN'T YOU GOING TO HAVE SOME SUPPER?" + +_Frank._ "A--NOT AT PRESENT. I SHALL WAIT TILL THE WOMEN LEAVE THE +ROOM."] + +[Illustration: ONE OF THE JUVENILES AFTER THE PARTY. + +_Doctor._ "AHEM! WELL! AND WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MY YOUNG FRIEND, +ADOLPHUS?" + +_Mother._ "WHY, DOCTOR, HE WAS AT A JUVENILE PARTY LAST NIGHT, AND I'M +AFRAID HE'S EATEN SOMETHING THAT DOES'N'T AGREE WITH HIM, POOR DEAR!"] + + +CONVERSATION-BOOKS FOR 1851. + + +It is said that Publishers are getting up a series of Conversation-Books +for the use of foreigners, visiting the Great Exhibition. But the spoken +and written language of London are so different that it is feared these +books will be of little use. Mr. PUNCH furnishes the following +corrections of the two most important chapters, by the diligent study of +which it is hoped that visitors may be enabled to ride and dine. + + +TO CONVERSE WITH A CABMAN. + +_What the Book said._ _What the Man said._ + +Do you wish, Sir, to ride in C'b? (_from every driver on +my cabriolet? the rank, and as many fingers + held up as there are Cabmen._) + +Where do you wish, Sir, that Vere to? (_and a look._) +I should drive you? + +I wish to go to the Exposition. + +Thank you, Sir. I will drive Vere? (_not understanding +you thither without delay. the foreigner's English._) + +What is your fare? + +I have driven you two miles. Two bob and a tanner. +My legal fare for driving you that +distance is one shilling and four-pence. + +As you have driven fast, there is +one shilling and sixpence. + +Thank you, Sir, I am very much obliged Vot's this? (_and a look of +to you. contemptuous curiosity at the + coin presented._) + +I shall be happy to drive you in future. Vel, if hever I drives a scaly + furrinrr again, I'm blessed! + +Good morning to you, Sir. Ollo! You ain't a-goin' hoff + in this 'ere way. + +You have paid me handsomely. Oh--you calls yourself a + gentleman! + + +TO CONVERSE WITH A WAITER. + +Waiter, what have you for dinner? + +You can have what you choose to order, Sir. Din'r, Sir!--Yezzir! + +Here is the bill of fare, Sir. S'p, f'sh, ch'ps, st'ks, cutl't, + Sir! r'nd o' b'f, + Sir!--nice cut, Sir!--sad'l mt'n, + Sir!--Yezzir! + --JOHN, att'nd to the gnl'm.--Yezzir!--JEM, mon'y--com'n, +Sir!--'Ere, Sir!--Yezzir! + +Waiter, how much have I to pay? + +Here, Sir, is your bill. Money! (_calling._) + +Permit me to ask you what you Now, Sir? (_and an +have had to eat, Sir? interrogative look._) + St'k, Sir? Yezzir! shill'n, Sir! + 'taters, Sir? +I have had a beef-steak, with boiled Yezzir! twop'nce, that's + one-and-three, and +potatoes; I have also had a fried sole, bread a penny, one-and-three +and some bread, and two is one-and-five, +with Cheshire cheese, and sole, you said, Sir? Yezzir! +and a pint of porter. that's one shilling: + one-and-eight and five, thirteen, +Sir, the price of all that is two that's two-and-six; and cheese? +shillings. Yezzir! two-and-eight and four, + that's three shill'n; and + porter is four; three, four, + eight, ten, fifteen--four-and-two. + Thank you, Sir! Waiter, Sir? + Thank you, Sir. + Good afternoon, Sir. + + +TO FIND ROOM IN A CROWDED OMNIBUS. + +_Conductor._--Would any gentleman mind going outside, to oblige a lady? + +_Unfortunate Gentleman (tightly wedged in at the back_).--I should be +very happy, but I only came, yesterday, out of the Fever Hospital. + + [_Omnibus clears in a minute!_ + + +A FILE TO SMOOTH ASPERITIES. + +The _Sheffield Times_ describes an extraordinary file, which is to be +sent from Sheffield to the Great Exhibition. This remarkable file is +adorned with designs as numerous as those on the original shield of +ACHILLES, all cut and beaten out with hammer and chisel. How much more +sensible and friendly to show distinguished foreigners files of this +sort, than to exhibit to them files of soldiers! + + +THE LOWEST DEPTH OF MEANNESS. + +A FARCE, FOUNDED ON FACT. + +MR. _and_ MRS. SKINFLINT _are discovered in a Parlor in a Fashionable +Square. The Wife is busy sewing. The Husband is occupied running his +eye, well drilled in all matters of domestic economy, over the +housekeeping account of the previous week._ + +_Mr. Skinflint._--You've been very extravagant in my absence, my dear. + +_Mrs. Skinflint._--It's the same story every week, JOHN. + +_Mr. Skinflint._--But, nonsense, Madam, I tell you, you have. For +instance, you had a Crab for supper last night. + +_Mrs. Skinflint (startled)._--How do you know that? It's not down in the +book. + +_Mr. Skinflint (triumphantly)._--No--but I found the shell in the +dust-bin!!!! + +[Illustration: A LITTLE BIT OF HUMBUG. + +_Shoemaker._ "I THINK, MUM, WE HAD BETTER MAKE YOU A PAIR. YOU SEE, MUM, +YOURS IS SUCH A REMARKABLE LONG AND NARRER FOOT!"] + + + + +FASHIONS FOR MAY. + + +[Illustration: FIG. I.--PROMENADE COSTUMES.] + +This is the season when Fashion is more perplexed than at any other, in +her endeavors to give humanity a _seasonable_ garb. Boreas and Zephyrus +often bear rule on the same day, one reigning with mildness in the +morning, the other despotically at evening. Those votaries of Fashion +are the wiser, who pay court to the former; for, generally, it is almost +June, in our Northern States, before we may be certain that the chilling +breath of early Spring will be no more felt. + +This being the season for rides and promenades, our illustrations for +this month are devoted chiefly to the representation of appropriate +costume for those healthful exercises in the open air. The large figure +in our first plate, represents an elegant style of promenade dress. +_Pardessus_ are much worn at this season, made in a lighter manner than +those used earlier. Velvet _pardessus_ with silk or satin linings, but +not padded, are used. Our illustration represents one of black velvet, +trimmed with several narrow rows of satin of the same color. The dress +is amber-colored figured silk, with a very full plain skirt. _Capotes_ +or bonnets of satin are also worn. An elegant style is made of violet +velvet and satin, ornamented with heart's-ease almost hidden within +_coques_ of satin and velvet, which are arranged in a tasteful manner +upon the exterior of the _capote_, the interior being decorated with +heart's-ease to match, which may or may not be intermixed with lace or +_tulle_, according to the taste of the wearer. + +Costumes for young misses are also represented in our first +illustration. The larger one has a dress of a pale chocolate cachmere, +trimmed with narrow silk fringe; the double robings on each side of the +front as well as the cape, on the half-high corsage, ornamented with a +double row of narrow silk fringe. This trimming is also repeated round +the lower part of the loose sleeve. Chemisette of plaited cambric, +headed with a broad frill of embroidery; full under-sleeves of cambric, +with a row of embroidery round the wrist. Open bonnet of pink satin, a +row of white lace encircling the interior next the face. Boots of pale +violet cachmere and morocco. Trowsers of worked cambric. The smaller +figure has a frock of plaided cachmere. _Paletot_ of purple velvet, or +dark cachmere; a round hat of white satin, the low crown adorned with a +long white ostrich feather. Trowsers and under-sleeves of white +embroidered cambric. Button gaiter boots of chocolate cachmere. + +[Illustration: FIG. 2.--EVENING COSTUME.] + +Figure 2 represents a most elegant costume for an evening party, or a +ball. It is composed of a beautifully embroidered white satin dress, the +skirt looped up on the right side, and decorated with a bunch of the +pink honey-plant, heading three pink and white _marabout_ tips, from +which depend three ends of deep silk fringe, pink and white. Low +pointed corsage, the top of which is encircled with a small embroidered +pointed cape, edged as well as the short sleeves with a deep pink and +white fringe, and confined upon the centre with a cluster of feathers +and flowers, decorated in the centre with a butterfly composed of +precious stones. The hair is simply arranged with a narrow wreath of +pink and white velvet leaves, finished on the right side with two small +_marabout_ feathers, and two ends of fringe drooping low. + +[Illustration: FIG. 3.--MORNING PROMENADE COSTUME.] + +Figure 3 is a morning promenade costume. A high dress of black satin, +the body fitting perfectly tight; a small jacket cut on the bias, with +two rows of black velvet laid on a little distance from the edge. The +sleeves are rather large, and have abroad cuff turned back, which is +trimmed to correspond with the jacket. The skirt is long and full; the +dress ornamented up the front in its whole length by rich fancy silk +trimmings, graduating in size from the bottom of the skirt to the waist, +and again increasing to the throat. Bonnet of plum-colored satin; a +bunch of heart's-ease, intermixed with ribbon, placed low on the left +side; the same flowers, but somewhat smaller, ornament the interior. + +[Illustration: FIG. 4 AND 5.--HEAD-DRESSES.] + +Figures 4 and 5 represent different styles of head-dresses for balls or +evening parties. Figure 4 is a combination of flowers and splendid +ribbons, with a fall on each side, of the richest lace. Figure 5 is very +brilliant. It is a wreath of Ceres form, composed of small flowers in +rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, perfectly resembling natural flowers, +with ears of wheat freely intermingled. At this season the head-dresses +are chiefly of the floral description. Feathers and flowers intermixed, +form a very beautiful _coiffure_. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume +2, No. 12, May, 1851., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY, MAY 1851 *** + +***** This file should be named 30943.txt or 30943.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/9/4/30943/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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