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diff --git a/36820-8.txt b/36820-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e55ad3a --- /dev/null +++ b/36820-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5646 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with +Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected, by Anna Jameson + +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: Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected + Vol. III (of 3) + +Author: Anna Jameson + +Release Date: July 23, 2011 [EBook #36820] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISITS AND SKETCHES, VOL III *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +VISITS AND SKETCHES AT HOME AND ABROAD. + +VOL. III. + + + + + + +VISITS AND SKETCHES AT HOME AND ABROAD + +WITH TALES AND MISCELLANIES NOW FIRST COLLECTED. + +BY MRS. JAMESON, + +AUTHOR OF "THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN," "LIVES OF CELEBRATED FEMALE +SOVEREIGNS," &c. + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. III. + +SECOND EDITION. + + + LONDON + SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT STREET. + 1835. + + + LONDON: + IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. III. + + + PAGE + + Sketch of Mrs. Siddons 3 + Sketch of Fanny Kemble 49 + The False One 93 + Halloran the Pedlar 177 + The Indian Mother 231 + Much Coin, Much Care 263 + + +VOL. III. + + Page 42, line 5, _for_ the full stop _read_ a comma, and _for_ she had + _read_ having. + + 59,--4, _for_ cannot _read_ could not. + + + + +MRS. SIDDONS. + + +[The following little sketch was written a few days after the death of +Mrs. Siddons, and was called forth by certain paragraphs which appeared +in the daily papers. A misapprehension of the real character of this +remarkable woman, which I know to exist in the minds of many who admired +and venerated her talents, has induced me to enlarge the first very +slight sketch, into a more finished but still inadequate portrait. +I have spared no pains to verify the truth of my own conception by +testimony of every kind that was attainable. I have penned every word as +if I had been in that great final court where the thoughts of all hearts +are manifested; and those who best knew the individual I have attempted +to delineate bear witness to the fidelity of the portrait, as far as it +goes. I must be permitted to add, that in this and the succeeding sketch +I have not only been inspired by the wish to do justice to individual +virtue and talent,--I wished to impress and illustrate that important +truth, that a gifted woman may pursue a public vocation, yet preserve +the purity and maintain the dignity of her sex--that there is no +prejudice which will not shrink away before moral energy, and no +profession which may not be made compatible with the respect due to us +as women, the cultivation of every feminine virtue, and the practice of +every private duty. I might here multiply examples and exceptions, and +discuss causes and results; but it is a consideration I reserve for +another opportunity.] + + + + +MRS. SIDDONS + + +"_Implora pace!_"--She, who upon earth ruled the souls and senses +of men, as the moon rules the surge of waters; the acknowledged and +liege empress of all the realms of illusion; the crowned queen; the +throned muse; the sceptred shadow of departed genius, majesty, and +beauty,--supplicates--_Peace!_ + +What unhallowed work has been going forward in some of the daily +papers since this illustrious creature has been laid in her quiet +unostentatious grave! ay, even before her poor remains were cold! +What pains have been taken to cater trifling scandal for the blind, +heartless, gossip-loving vulgar! and to throw round the memory of a +woman, whose private life was as irreproachable as her public career was +glorious, some ridiculous or unamiable association which should tend to +unsphere her from her throne in our imagination, and degrade from her +towering pride of place, the heroine of Shakspeare, and the Muse of +Tragedy! + +That stupid malignity which revels in the martyrdom of fame--which +rejoices when, by some approximation of the mean and ludicrous with the +beautiful and sublime, it can for a moment bring down the rainbow-like +glory in which the fancy invests genius, to the drab-coloured level of +mediocrity--is always hateful and contemptible; but in the present case +it is something worse; it has a peculiar degree of _cowardly_ injustice. +If some elegant biographer inform us that the same hand which painted +the infant Hercules, or Ugolino, or Mrs. Sheridan, half seraph and half +saint--could clutch a guinea with satisfaction, or drive a bargain with +a footman; if some discreet friend, from the mere love of truth, no +doubt, reveal to us the puerile, lamentable frailties of that bright +spirit which poured itself forth in torrents of song and passion: what +then? 'tis pitiful, certainly, wondrous pitiful; but there is no great +harm done,--no irremediable injury inflicted; for there stand their +works: the poet's immortal page, the painter's breathing canvass witness +for them. "Death hath had no power yet upon _their_ beauty"--over them +scandal cannot draw her cold slimy finger;--on _them_ calumny cannot +breathe her mildew; nor envy wither _them_ with a blast from hell. There +they stand for ever to confute injustice, to rectify error, to defy +malice; to silence, and long outlive the sneer, the lie, the jest, the +reproach. But _she_--who was of painters the model, the wonder, the +despair;--she, who realised in her own presence and person the poet's +divinest dreams and noblest creations;--she, who has enriched our +language with a new epithet, and made the word _Siddonian_ synonymous +with all we can imagine of feminine grace and grandeur: she has left +nothing behind her, but the memory of a great name: she has bequeathed +it to our reverence, our gratitude, our charity, and our sympathy; and +if it is not to be sacred, I know not what is--or ever will be. + +Mrs. Siddons, as an _artist_, presented a singular example of the union +of all the faculties, mental and physical, which constitute excellence +in her art, directed to the end for which they seemed created. In any +other situation or profession, some one or other of her splendid gifts +would have been misplaced or dormant. It was her especial good fortune, +and not less that of the time in which she lived, that this wonderful +combination of mental powers and external graces, was fully and +completely developed by the circumstances in which she was placed.[1] +"With the most commanding beauty of face and form, and varied grace +of action; with the most noble combination of features, and extensive +capability of expression in each of them; with an unequalled genius +for her art, the utmost patience in study, and the strongest ardour of +feeling; there was not a passion which she could not delineate; not +the nicest shade, not the most delicate modification of passion, which +she could not seize with philosophical accuracy, and render with such +immediate force of nature and truth, as well as precision, that what +was the result of profound study and unwearied practice, appeared like +sudden inspiration. There was not a height of grandeur to which she +could not soar, nor a darkness of misery to which she could not descend; +not a chord of feeling, from the sternest to the most delicate, which +she could not cause to vibrate at her will. She had reached that point +of perfection in art, where it ceases to be art, and becomes a second +nature. She had studied most profoundly the powers and capabilities of +language; so that the most critical sagacity could not have suggested a +delicacy of emphasis, by which the meaning of the author might be more +distinctly conveyed, or a shade of intonation by which the sentiment +could be more fully, or more faithfully expressed. While other performers +of the past or present time, have made approaches to excellence, or +attained it now and then, Mrs. Siddons alone was pronounced faultless; +and, in _her_, the last generation witnessed what we shall not see in +ours;--no, nor our children after us;--that amazing union of splendid +intellectual powers, with unequalled charms of person, which, in the +tragic department of her art, realized the idea of perfection." + +Such was the magnificent portrait drawn of Mrs. Siddons twenty years +ago; and it will be admitted by those who remember her, and must be +believed by those who do not, that in this case, eulogy could not wander +into exaggeration, nor enthusiasm be exalted beyond the bounds of truth. + +I have heard people most unreasonably surprised or displeased, because +this exceeding dignity of demeanour was not confined to the stage, but +was carried into private life. Had it been merely conventional,--a thing +put on and put off,--it might have been so; but the grandeur of her +mind, and the light of her glorious beauty, were not as a diadem and +robe for state occasions only; her's was not only dignity of manner +and person, it was moral and innate, and, I may add, hereditary. Mrs. +Siddons, with all her graces of form and feature, her magnificence of +deportment, her deep-toned, measured voice, and impressive enunciation, +was in reality a softened reflection of her more stern, stately, +majestic mother, whose genuine loftiness of spirit and of bearing, whose +rare beauty, and imperious despotism of character, have often been +described to me as absolutely awful,--even her children trembled in her +presence. + +"All the Kembles," said Sir Thomas Lawrence, "have historical faces;" +and for several generations their minds seem to have been cast in a +poetical mould. It has, however, been disputed, whether Mrs. Siddons +possessed genius. Whether genius be exclusively defined as the creative +and inventive faculty of the soul, or taken, in its usual acceptation, +as "a mind of large general faculties, accidentally determined to some +particular direction," I think she did possess it in both senses. The +grand characteristic of her mind was power, but it was power of a very +peculiar kind: it was slowly roused--slowly developed--not easily moved; +her perceptions were not rapid, nor her sensations quick; she required +time for every thing,--time to think, time to comprehend, time to speak. +There was nothing superficial about her; no vivacity of manner; to petty +gossip she would not descend, and evil-speaking she abhorred; she cared +not to shine in general conversation. Like some majestic "Argosie," +bearing freight of precious metal, she was a-ground and cumbrous and +motionless among the shallows of common life; but set her upon the deep +waters of poetry and passion--there was her element--there was her +reign. Ask her an opinion, she could not give it you till she had looked +on the subject, and considered it on every side,--then you might trust +to it without appeal. Her powers, though not easily put in motion, were +directed by an incredible energy; her mind, when called to action, +seemed to rear itself up like a great wave of the sea, and roll forwards +with an irresistible force. This prodigious intellectual power was one +of her chief characteristics. Another was _truth_, which in the human +mind is generally allied with power. It is, I think, a mistaken idea, +that habits of impersonation on the stage tend to impair the sincerity +or the individuality of a character. If any injury is done in this +way, it is by the continual and strong excitement of the vanity, the +dependence on applause, which in time _may_ certainly corrode away the +integrity of the manner, if not of the mind. It is difficult for an +admired actress not to be vain, and difficult for a very vain person to +be quite unaffected, on or off the stage; it is, however, certain that +some of the truest, most natural persons I ever met with in my life, +were actresses. In the character of Mrs. Siddons, truth, and a reverence +for truth, were commensurate with her vast power: Heaven is not +farther removed from earth than she was from falsehood. Allied to this +conscientious turn was her love of order. She was extremely punctual +in all her arrangements; methodical and exact in every thing she did; +circumstantial and accurate in all she said. In little and in great +things, in the very texture and constitution of her mind, she was +integrity itself: "It was," (said one of her most intimate friends,) +"a mind far above the average standard, not only in ability, but in moral +and religious qualities; that these should have exhausted themselves in +the world of fiction, may be regretted in reference to her individual +happiness, but she certainly exercised, during her _reign_, a most +powerful moral influence:--she excited the nobler feelings and higher +faculties of every mind which came in contact with her own. I speak with +the deepest sense of personal obligation: it was at a very early age +that she repeated to me, in a manner and tone which left an indelible +impression, + + 'Sincerity, + Thou first of virtues! let no mortal leave + Thy onward path,' &c. + + +and I never knew her to omit an opportunity of making her fine genius +minister to piety and virtue." Now what are the bravos of a whole +theatre, + + "When all the thunder of the pit ascends," + + +compared to such praise as this? + +"Her mind" (again I am enabled to give the very words of one who knew +her well) "was a perfect mirror of the sublime and beautiful; like +a lake that reflected only the heavens above, or the summits of the +mountains around, nothing below a certain level could appear in it. +The ideal was her vital air. She breathed with difficulty in the +atmosphere of this 'working-day world,' and withdrew from it as much as +possible. Hence her moral principles were seldom brought to bear upon +the actual and ordinary concerns of life. She was rather the associate +of 'the mighty dead,' than the fellow-creature of the living. To the +latter she was known chiefly through others, and often through those who +were incapable of reflecting her qualities faithfully, though impressed +with the utmost veneration for her genius. In their very anxiety for +what they considered her interests, (and of her worldly interests +she took _no charge_,) they would in her name authorize prudential +arrangements, which gave rise to the suspicion of covetousness, whilst +she was sitting rapt in heavenly contemplation. Had she given her mind +to the consideration and investigation of relative claims, she might +on some occasions have acted differently--or, rather, _she_ would have +acted where in fact _others only_ acted: for never, as I have reason +to believe, was a case of distress _presented to her_ without her being +ready to give even till her 'hand lacked means.' Many of the poor in her +neighbourhood were pensioned by her. + +"She was credulous--simple--to an extraordinary degree. Profession +had, therefore, too much weight with her. She was accustomed to +_manifestations_ of the sentiments she excited, and in seeking the +demonstration sometimes overlooked the silent reality;--this was a +consequence of her profession. + +"She was not only exact in the performance of her religious duties; her +religion was a pervading sentiment, influencing her to the strictest +observance of truth and charity--I mean charity in judging others: the +very active and excursive benevolence which + + '_Seeks_ the duty, nay, _prevents_ the need,' + + +would have been incompatible with her toilsome engrossing avocations +and with the visionary tendencies of her character. But the visionary +has his own sphere of action, and can often touch the master-springs of +other minds, so as to give the first impulse to the good deeds flowing +from _them_. There are some who can trace back to the sympathies which +Mrs. Siddons awakened, their devotedness to the cause of the suffering +and oppressed. Faithfully did she perform the part in life which she +believed allotted to her; and who may presume to judge that she did not +choose the better part?" + +The idea that she was a cold woman is eminently false. Her affections, +like her intellectual powers, were slow, but tenacious; they enveloped +in folds, strong as flesh and blood, those whom she had found worthy and +taken to her heart; and her happiness was more entwined with them than +those who knew her only in her professional character could have supposed; +she would return home from the theatre, every nerve thrilling with the +excitement of sympathy, and applause, and admiration, and a cold look +or word from her husband has sent her to bed in tears. She had that +sure indication of a good heart and a fine mind, an exceeding love for +children, and a power to attract and amuse them. It was remarked that +her voice always softened in addressing a child. I remember a letter of +her's relative to a young mother and her infant, in which, among other +tender and playful things, she says, "I wonder whether Lady N---- is as +good a talker of baby-nonsense as I flatter myself _I_ am!" A lady who +was intimate with her, happening to enter her bedroom early one morning, +found her with two of her little grand-children romping on her bed, and +playing with the tresses of her long dark hair, which she had let down +for their amusement. Her own children adored her; her surviving friends +refer to her with tenderness, with gratitude, even with tears. I speak +here of what I _know_. I have seldom been more touched to the heart than +by the perusal of some of her _most_ private letters and notes, which +for tenderness of sentiment, genuine feeling, and simple yet forcible +expression, could not be surpassed.[2] Actress though she was, she had +no idea of doing any thing for the sake of appearances, or of courting +popularity by any means but excellence in her art. She loved the +elegances and refinements of life--enjoyed, and freely shared what she +had toiled to obtain--and in the earlier part of her career was the +frequent victim of her own kind and careless nature. She has been known +to give generously, nobly,--to sympathize warmly; but did she deny to +greedy selfishness or spendthrift vanity the twentieth demand on her +purse or her benevolence? Was she, while absorbed in her poetical, +ideal existence, the dupe of exterior shows in judging of character? +Or did she, from total ignorance of, or indifference to, the common-place +prejudices, or customary forms of society, unconsciously wound the +_amour-propre_ of some shallow flatterer or critic,--or by bringing the +gravity and glory of her histrionic impersonations into the frivolities +and hard realities of this our world, render herself obnoxious to vulgar +ridicule?--then was she made to feel what it is to live in the public +eye: then flew round the malignant slander, the vengeful lie, the base +sneer, the impertinent misinterpretation of what few could understand +and fewer feel! Reach _her_ these libels could not--but sometimes they +reached those whose affectionate reverence fenced her round from the +rude contact of real life. In some things Mrs. Siddons was like a child. +I have heard anecdotes of her extreme simplicity, which by the force of +contrast made me smile--at _them_, not at _her_: who could have laughed +at Mrs. Siddons? I should as soon have thought of laughing at the +Delphic Sybil. + +As an artist, her genius appears to have been slowly developed. She did +not, as it has been said of her niece, "spring at once into the chair +of the tragic muse;" but toiled her way up to glory and excellence in +her profession, through length of time, difficulties, and obstacles +innumerable. She was exclusively professional; and all her attainments, +and all her powers, seem to have been directed to one end and aim. +Yet I suppose no one would have said of Mrs. Siddons, that she was +a "_mere actress_," as it was usually said of Garrick, that he was a +"_mere player_;"--the most admirable and versatile actor that ever +existed; but still the mere player;--nothing more--nothing better. He +does not appear to have had a tincture of that high gentlemanly feeling, +that native elevation of character, and general literary taste which +strike us in John Kemble and his brother Charles; nor any thing of the +splendid imagination, the enthusiasm of art, the personal grace and +grandeur, which threw such a glory around Mrs. Siddons. Of John Kemble +it might be said,[3] as Dryden said of Harte in his time, that "kings +and princes might have come to him, and taken lessons how to comport +themselves with dignity." And with the noble presence of Mrs. Siddons, +we associated in public and in private, something absolutely awful. We +were accustomed to bring her before our fancy as one habitually elevated +above the sphere of familiar life,-- + + "Attired in all the majesty of art-- + Crown'd with the rich traditions of a soul + That hates to have her dignity profan'd + By any relish of an earthly thought."[4] + + +Who was it?--(I think Northcote the painter,) who said he had +seen a group of young ladies of rank, Lady Fannys and Lady Marys, +peeping through the half-open door of a room where Mrs. Siddons was +sitting, with the same timidity and curiosity as if it had been some +preternatural being,--much more than if it had been the queen: which +I can easily believe. I remember that the first time I found myself in +the same room with Mrs. Siddons, (I was then about twenty,) I gazed on +her as I should have gazed at one of the Egyptian pyramids--nay, with +a deeper awe, for what is material and physical immensity, compared +with moral and poetical grandeur? I was struck with a sensation which +made my heart pause, and rendered me dumb for some minutes; and when I +was led into conversation with her, my first words came faltering and +thick,--which never certainly would have been the case in presence of +the autocratrix of all the Russias. The greatest, the noblest in the +land approached her with a deference not unmingled with a shade of +embarrassment, while she stood in regal guise majestic, with the air of +one who bestowed and never received honour.[5] Nor was this feeling of +her power, which was derived, partly from her own peculiar dignity of +deportment, partly from her association with all that was grand, +poetical, terrible, confined to those who could appreciate the full +measure of her endowments. Every member of that public, whose idol she +was, from the greatest down to the meanest, felt it more or less. I knew +a poor woman who once went to the house of Mrs. Siddons to be paid by +her daughter for some embroidery. Mrs. Siddons happened to be in the +room, and the woman perceiving who it was, was so overpowered, that she +could not count her money, and scarcely dared to draw her breath. "And +when I went away, ma'am," added she, in describing her own sensations, +"I walked all the way down the street, feeling myself a great deal +taller." This was the same unconscious feeling of the sublime, which +made Bouchardon say that, after reading the Iliad, he fancied himself +seven feet high. + +She modelled very beautifully, and in this talent, which was in a manner +intuitive, she displayed a creative as well as an imitative power. +Might we not say that in the peculiar character of her genius--in the +combination of the _very_ real with the _very_ ideal, of the demonstrative +and the visionary, of vastness and symmetry, of the massive material +and the grand unearthly forms into which it shaped itself--there was +something analogous to sculpture? At all events, it is the opinion of +many who knew her, that if she had not been a great actress she would +have devoted herself to sculpture. She was never so happy as when +occupied with her modelling tools; she would stand at her work eight +hours together, scarcely turning her head. Music she passionately loved: +in her younger days her voice in singing was exquisitely sweet and +flexible. She would sometimes compose verses, and sing them to an +extemporaneous air; but I believe she did not perform on any instrument. + +To complete this sketch I shall add an outline of her professional life. + +Mrs. Siddons was born in 1755. She might be said, almost without +metaphor, to have been "born on the stage." All the family, I believe, +for two or three generations, had been players. In her early life she +endured many vicissitudes, and was acquainted with misery and hardship +in many repulsive forms. On this subject she had none of the pride +of a little mind; but alluded to her former situation with perfect +simplicity. The description in Mrs. Inchbald's Memoirs of "Mrs. Siddons +singing and mending her children's clothes," is from the life, and +charming as well as touching, when we consider her peculiar character +and her subsequent destinies. She was in her twenty-first year when +she made her first attempt in London, (for it was but an attempt,) in +the character of Portia. She also appeared as Lady Anne in Richard +III. and in comedy as Mrs. Strickland to Garrick's Ranger. She was +not successful: Garrick is said to have been jealous of her rising +powers: the public did not discover in her the future tragic muse, and +for herself--"She felt that she was greater than she knew." She returned +to her provincial career; she spent seven years in patient study, in +reflection, in contemplation, and in mastering the practical part of her +profession; and then she returned at the age of twenty-eight, and burst +upon the world in the prime of her beauty and transcendent powers, with +all the attributes of confirmed and acknowledged excellence. + +It appears that, in her first season, she did not play one of Shakspeare's +characters: she performed Isabella, Euphrasia, Jane Shore, Calista, +and Zara. In a visit she paid to Dr. Johnson, at the conclusion of the +season, she informed him that it was her intention, the following year, +to bring out some of Shakspeare's heroines, particularly Katherine of +Arragon, to which she _then_ gave the preference as a character. Dr. +Johnson agreed with her, and added that, when she played Katherine, he +would hobble to the theatre himself to see her; but he did not live to +pay her this tribute of admiration. He, however, paid her another not +less valuable: describing his visitor after her departure, he said, "she +left nothing behind her to be censured or despised; neither praise nor +money, those two powerful corrupters of mankind, seem to have depraved +her."[6] In this interview she seems to have pleased the old critic and +moralist, who was also a severe and acute judge of human nature, and not +inclined to judge favourably of actresses, by the union of modesty with +native dignity which at all times distinguished her;--a rare union! and +most delightful in those who are the objects of the public gaze, and +when the popular enthusiasm is still in all its first intoxicating +effervescence. + +The first of Shakspeare's characters which Mrs. Siddons performed was +Isabella, in Measure for Measure, (1784,) and the next Constance. In the +same year Sir Joshua painted her as the tragic Muse.[7] With what a deep +interest shall we now visit this her true apotheosis,--now that it has +received its last consecration! The rest of Shakspeare's characters +followed in this order: Lady Macbeth in 1785, and, soon afterwards, as +if by way of contrast, Desdemona, Ophelia, Rosalind. In 1786 she played +Imogen; in 1788 Katherine of Arragon; and, in 1789, Volumnia; and in the +same season she played Juliet, being then in her thirty-fifth year,--too +old for Juliet; nor did this ever become one of her popular parts; she +left it to her niece to identify herself for ever with the poetry and +sensibility, the youthful grace and fervid passion of Shakspeare's +Juliet; and we have as little chance of ever seeing such another Juliet +as Fanny Kemble, as of ever seeing such another Lady Macbeth as her +magnificent aunt. + +A good critic, who was also a great admirer of Mrs. Siddons, asserts +that there must be something in acting which levels all poetical +distinctions, since people talked in the same breath of her Lady Macbeth +and Mrs. Beverley as being equally "fine pieces of acting." I think he +is mistaken. No one--no one at least but the most vulgar part of her +audience--ever equalized these two characters, even as pieces of acting; +or imagined for a moment that the same degree of talent which sufficed +to represent Mrs. Beverley could have grasped the towering grandeur +of such a character as Lady Macbeth;--dived into its profound and +gloomy depths--seized and reflected its wonderful gradations--displayed +its magnificence--developed its beauties, and revealed its terrors: +no such thing. She might have drawn more tears in Isabella than in +Constance--thrown more young ladies into hysterics in Belvidera than in +Katherine of Arragon; but all with whom I have conversed on the subject +of Mrs. Siddons, are agreed in this;--that her finest characters, as +pieces of art, were those which afforded the fullest scope for her +powers, and contained in themselves the largest materials in poetry, +grandeur, and passion: consequently, that her Constance, Katherine of +Arragon, Volumnia, Hermione, and Lady Macbeth stood pre-eminent. In +playing Jane de Montfort, in Joanna Baillie's tragedy, her audience +almost lost the sense of impersonation in the feeling of identity. +She _was_ Jane de Montfort--the actress, the woman, the character, +blended into each other. It is a mistaken idea that she herself +preferred the part of Aspasia (in Rowe's Bajazet) to any of these grand +impersonations. She spoke of it as one in which she had produced the +most extraordinary effect on the _nerves_ of her audience; and this is +true. "I recollect," said a gentleman to me, "being present at one of +the last representations of Bajazet: and at the moment when the order is +given to strangle Moneses, while Aspasia stands immoveable in front of +the stage, I turned my head, unable to endure more, and to my amazement +I beheld the whole pit staring ghastly, with upward faces, dilated eyes, +and mouths wide open--gasping--fascinated. Nor shall I ever forget the +strange effect produced by that sea of human faces, all fixed in one +simultaneous expression of stony horror. It realized for a moment the +fabled power of the Medusa--it was terrible!" + +Of all her great characters, Lord Byron, I believe, preferred Constance, +to which she gave the preference herself, and esteemed it the most +difficult and the most finished of all her impersonations; but the +general opinion stamps her Lady Macbeth as the grandest effort of her +art; and therefore, as she was the first in her art, as the _ne plus +ultra_ of acting. This at least was the opinion of one who admired her +with all the fervour of a kindred genius, and could lavish on her praise +of such "rich words composed as made the gift more sweet." Of her Lady +Macbeth, he says, "nothing could have been imagined grander,--it was +something above nature; it seemed almost as if a being of a superior +order had dropped from a higher sphere to awe the world with the majesty +of her appearance. Power was seated on her brow, passion emanated from +her breast as from a shrine. In coming on in the sleeping scene, her +eyes were open, but their sense was shut; she was like a person +bewildered: her lips moved involuntarily; all her gestures seemed +mechanical--she glided on and off the stage like an apparition. To have +seen her in that character was an event in every one's life never to be +forgotten." + +By profound and incessant study she had brought her conception and +representation of this character to such a pitch of perfection that the +imagination could conceive of nothing more magnificent or more finished; +and yet she has been heard to say, after playing it for thirty years, +that she never read over the part without discovering in it something +new; nor ever went on the stage to perform it, without spending the +whole morning in studying and meditating it, line by line, as intently +as if she were about to act it for the first time. In this character +she bid farewell to her profession and the public, (June 29th, 1812.) +The audience, on this occasion, paid her a singular and touching tribute +of respect. On her going off in the sleeping scene, they commanded the +curtain to fall, and would not suffer the play to proceed.[8] + +The idea that Mrs. Siddons was quite unmoved by the emotions she +portrayed--the sorrows and the passions she embodied with such inimitable +skill and truth, is altogether false. Fine acting may accidentally be +mere impulse; it never can be wholly mechanical. To a late period of her +life she continued to be strongly, sometimes painfully, excited by her +own acting; the part of Constance always affected her powerfully--she +invariably left the stage, her face streaming with tears; and after +playing Lady Macbeth, she could not sleep: even after reading the play +of Macbeth a feverish, wakeful night was generally the consequence. + +I am not old enough to remember Mrs. Siddons in her best days; but, +judging from my own recollections, I should say that, to hear her _read_ +one of Shakspeare's plays, was a higher, a more complete gratification, +and a more astonishing display of her powers than her performance of any +single character. On the stage she was the perfect actress; when she was +reading Shakspeare, her profound enthusiastic admiration of the poet, +and deep insight into his most hidden beauties, made her almost a poetess, +or at least, like a priestess, full of the god of her idolatry. Her +whole soul looked out from her regal brow and effulgent eyes; and then +her countenance!--the inconceivable flexibility and musical intonations +of her voice! there was no got-up illusion here: no scenes--no trickery +of the stage; there needed no sceptred pall--no sweeping train, nor any +of the gorgeous accompaniments of tragedy:--SHE was Tragedy! When in +reading Macbeth she said, "give me the daggers!" they gleamed before our +eyes. The witch scenes in the same play she rendered awfully terrific +by the magic of looks and tones; she invested the weird sisters with +all their own infernal fascinations; they were the serious, poetical, +tragical personages which the poet intended them to be, and the wild +grotesque horror of their enchantments made the blood curdle. When, +in King John, she came to the passage beginning-- + + "If the midnight bell, + Did with his iron tongue and brazen note," &c. + + +I remember I felt every drop of blood pause, and then run backwards +through my veins with an overpowering awe and horror. No scenic +representation I ever witnessed produced the hundredth part of the +effect of her reading Hamlet. This tragedy was the triumph of her art. +Hamlet and his mother, Polonius, Ophelia, were all there before us. +Those who ever heard her give Ophelia's reply to Hamlet, + + _Hamlet._ I loved you not. + + _Ophelia._ I was the more deceived! + + +and the lines-- + + And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, + That suck'd the honey of his music vows, &c. + + +will never forget their exquisite pathos. What a revelation of love and +woe was there!--the very heart seemed to break upon the utterance. + +Lear was another of her grandest efforts; but her rare talent was not +confined to tragedy; none could exceed her in the power to conceive and +render witty and humorous character. I thought I had never understood +or felt the comic force of such parts as Polonius, Lucio, Gratiano, and +Shakspeare's clowns, till I heard the dialogue from her lips: and to +hear her read the Merchant of Venice and As You Like It, was hardly a +less perfect treat than to hear her read Macbeth. + +The following short extract from a letter of Mrs. Joanna Baillie, dated +about a year before the death of Mrs. Siddons will, I am persuaded, be +read with a double interest, for _her_ sake who penned it, not less than +hers who is the subject of it. + +"The most agreeable thing I have to begin with, is a visit we paid last +week to Mrs. Siddons. We had met her at dinner at Mr. Rogers's a few +days before, and she kindly asked us, our host and his sister, the +Thursday following; an invitation which we gladly accepted, though we +expected to see much decay in her powers of expression, and consequently +to have our pleasure mingled with pain. Judge then of our delight +when we heard her read the best scenes of Hamlet, with expression of +countenance, voice, and action, that would have done honour to her +best days! She was before us as an unconquerable creature, over whose +astonishing gifts of nature time had no power.[9] She complained of her +voice, which she said was not obedient to her will; but it appeared to +my ear to be peculiarly true to nature, and the more so, because it had +lost that deep solemnity of tone which she, perhaps, had considered as +an excellence. I thought I could trace in the pity and tenderness, mixed +with her awe of the ghost, the natural feelings of one who had lost dear +friends, and expected to go to them soon; and her reading of that scene, +(the noblest which dramatic art ever achieved,) went to my heart as +it had never done before. At the end, Mr. Rogers very justly said, +'Oh, that we could have assembled a company of young people to witness +this, that they might have conveyed the memory of it down to another +generation!' In short, we left her full of admiration, as well as of +gratitude, that she had made such an exertion to gratify so small an +audience; for, exclusive of her own family, we were but five." + +She continued to exercise her power of reading and reciting long after +the date of this letter, even till within a few days of her death, +although her health had long been in a declining state.[10] She died at +length on the 8th of June, 1831, after a few hours of acute suffering, +having lived nearly seventy-six years, of which forty-six were spent in +the constant presence and service of the public. She was an honour to +her profession, which was more honoured and honourable in her person and +family than it ever was before, or will be hereafter, till the stage +becomes something very different from what it now is. + +And, since it has pleased some writers, (who apparently knew as little +of her real situation as of her real character,) to lament over the +misfortune of this celebrated woman, in having survived all her +children, &c. &c. it may be interesting to add that, a short time before +her death, she was seated in a room in her own house, when about thirty +of her young relatives, children, grand-children, nephews and nieces, +were assembled, and looked on while they were dancing, with great and +evident pleasure: and that her surviving daughter, Cecilia Siddons,[11] +who had been, for many years, the inseparable friend and companion of +her mother, attended upon her with truly filial devotion and reverence +to the last moment of existence. Her admirers may, therefore, console +themselves with the idea that in "love, obedience, troops of friends," +as well as affluence and fame, she had "all that should accompany old +age." She died full of years and honours; having enjoyed, in her long +life, as much glory and prosperity as any mortal could expect: having +imparted more intense and general pleasure than ever mortal did; and +having paid the tribute of mortality in such suffering and sorrow as +wait on the widowed wife and the bereaved mother. If with such rare +natural gifts were blended some human infirmities;--if the cultivation +of the imaginative far above the perceptive faculties, hazarded +her individual happiness;--if in the course of a professional career +of unexampled continuance and splendour, the love of praise ever +degenerated into the appetite for applause;--if the worshipped actress +languished out of her atmosphere of incense,--is this to be made matter +of wonder or of ill-natured comment? Did ever any human being escape +more _intacte_ in person and mind from the fiery furnace of popular +admiration? Let us remember the severity of the ordeal to which she was +exposed; the hard lot of those who pass their lives in the full-noon +glare of public observation, where every speck is noted! What a +difference too, between the aspiration after immortality and the pursuit +of celebrity!--The noise of distant and future fame is like the sound of +the far-off sea, and the mingled roll of its multitudinous waves, which, +as it swells on the ear, elevates the soul with a sublime emotion; but +present and loud applause, flung continually in one's face, is like the +noisy dash of the surf upon the rock,--and it requires the firmness of +the rock to bear it. + + + + +SKETCHES OF FANNY KEMBLE IN JULIET. + + + + +INTRODUCTION AND NOTES TO MR. JOHN HAYTER'S SKETCHES OF FANNY KEMBLE, +IN THE CHARACTER OF JULIET.[12] + + "Non piace a lei che innumerabil turba + Viva in atto di fuor, morta di dentro, + Le applauda a caso, e mano a man percuota; + Ne si rallegra se le rozzi voci + Volgano a lei quelle induiti lodi-- + --Ma la possanza del divino iugegno + Vita di dentro." + + _Gasparo Gozzi--Sermone xiv._ + + +It would be doing an injustice to the author of these sketches, and +something worse than injustice to her who is the subject of them, +should more be expected than the pencil could possibly convey, and +more required than the artist ever intended to execute. Their merit +consists in their fidelity, as far as they go; their interest in +conveying a lively and distinct idea of some immediate and transient +effects of grace and expression. They do not assume to be portraits of +Miss Kemble; they are merely a series of rapid outlines, caught from +her action, and exhibiting, at the first glance, just so much of the +individual and peculiar character she has thrown into her impersonation +of Juliet, as at once to be recognised by those who have seen her. To +them alone these isolated passages--linked together in the imagination +by all the intervening graces of attitude and sentiment, by the +recollection of a countenance where the kindled soul looks out through +every feature, and of a voice whose tones tremble into one's very +heart--will give some faint reflection of the effect produced by the +whole of this beautiful piece of acting,--or rather of nature, for here +"each seems either." It will be allowed, even by the most enthusiastic +lover of painting, that the merely imitative arts can do but feeble +justice to the powers of a fine actress; for what graphic skill can fix +the evanescent shades of feeling as they melt one into another?-- + + "What fine chisel could ever yet cut breath?" + + +--and yet even those who have not witnessed and may never witness Miss +Kemble's performance, to whom her name alone can be borne through long +intervals of space and time, will not regard these little sketches +without curiosity and interest. If any one had thought of transferring +to paper a connected series of some of the awe-commanding gestures of +Mrs. Siddons in one of her great parts; or caught (flying) some of the +inimitable graces of movement and attitude, and sparkling effects of +manner, with which Mrs. Charles Kemble once enchanted the world, with +what avidity would they now be sought!--they would have served as +studies for their successors in art to the end of time. + +All the fine arts, poetry excepted, possess a limited range of power. +Painting and sculpture can convey none of the graces that belong to +movement and sound: music can suggest vague sentiments and feelings, but +it cannot express incident, or situation, or form, or colour. Poetry +alone grasps an unlimited sceptre, rules over the whole visible and +intellectual universe, and knows no bounds but those of human genius. +And it is here that tragic acting, considered in its perfection, and in +its relation to the fine arts, is allied to poetry, or rather is itself +living, breathing poetry; made sensible in a degree to the hardest and +dullest minds, seizing on the dormant sympathies of our nature, and +dismissing us again to the cares of this "working-day world," if not +very much wiser, or better, or happier, at least enabled to digest with +less bitterness the mixture of our good and evil days. + +But in the midst of the just enthusiasm which a great actor or actress +excites, so long as they exist to minister to our delight;--in the midst +of that atmosphere of light and life they shed around them, it is a +common subject of repining that such glory should be so transient; that +an art requiring in its perfection such a rare combination of mental +and external qualities, can leave behind no permanent monument of its +own excellence, but must depend on the other fine arts for all it can +claim of immortality: that Garrick, for instance, has become a name--no +more--his fame the echo of an echo! that Mrs. Siddons herself has +bequeathed to posterity only a pictured semblance;--that when the voice +of Pasta is heard no longer upon earth, the utmost pomp of words can +only attest her powers! The painter and the poet, struggling through +obscurity to the heights of fame, and consuming a life in the pursuit of +(perhaps) posthumous celebrity, may say to the sublime actress,--"Thou +in thy generation hast had thy meed; we have waited patiently for +ours: thou art vanished like a lost star from the firmament, into the +'uncomfortable night of nothing'; we have left the light of our souls +behind us, and survive to 'blessings and eternal praise!'" And why +should it _not_ be so? Were it otherwise, the even-handed distribution +of the best gifts of Heaven among favoured mortals might with reason be +impugned. Shall the young spirit "dampt by the necessity of oblivion" +disdain what is attainable because it cannot grasp all? Conceive for a +moment the situation of a woman, in the prime and bloom of existence, +with all her youthful enthusiasm, her unworn feelings fresh about her, +privileged to step forth for a short space out of the bounds of common +life, without o'erstepping the modesty of her feminine nature, permitted +to cast off for a while, unreproved and unrestrained, the conventional +trammels of form and manner; and called upon to realise in her own +presence and person the divinest dreams of poetry and romance; to send +forth in a word--a glance,--the electric flash which is felt through a +thousand bosoms at once, till every heart beats the same measure with +her own! Is there nothing in all this to countervail the dangers, the +evils, and the vicissitudes attendant on this splendid and public exercise +of talent? It may possibly become, in time, a thing of habitude; it +_may_ be degraded into a mere _besoin de l'amour propre_--a necessary, +yet palling excitement: but in its outset it is surely a triumph far +beyond the mere intoxication of personal vanity; and to the very last, +it must be deemed a magnificent and an enviable power. + +It was difficult to select for graphic delineation any particular points +from Miss Kemble's representation of Juliet. These drawings may not, +perhaps, justify the enthusiasm she excited: but it ought to add to +their value rather than detract from it, that the causes of their +imperfection comprehend the very foundation on which the present and +future celebrity of this young actress may be said to rest. In the first +place, the power by which she seized at once on public admiration and +sympathy, was not derived from any thing external. It was not founded in +the splendour of her hereditary pretensions, though in them there was +much to fascinate: nor in the departed or fading glories of her race: +nor in the remembrance of her mother--once the young Euphrosyne of our +stage: nor in the name and high talent of her father, with whom, it was +_once_ feared the poetical and classical school of acting was destined +to perish from the scene: nor in any mere personal advantages, for in +these she has been excelled,-- + + "Though on her eyelids many graces sit + Under the shadow of those even brows:" + + +nor in her extreme youth, and delicacy of figure, which tell so +beautifully in the character of Juliet: nor in the acclaim of public +favour-- + + "To have all eyes + Dazzled with admiration, and all tongues + Shouting loud praises; to rob every heart + Of love-- + This glory round about her hath thrown beams." + + +But _such_ glory has circled other brows ere now, and left them again +"shorn of their beams." No! her success was founded on a power superior +to all these--in the power of genius superadded to that moral interest +which claimed irresistibly the best sympathies of her audience. The +peculiar circumstances and feelings which brought Miss Kemble before the +public, contrary (as it is understood) to all the previous wishes and +intentions of her parents, were such as would have justified less +decided talent,--honourable to herself and to her family. The feeling +entertained towards her on this score was really delightful; it was +a species of homage, which, like the quality of mercy, was "twice +blessed;" blessing those who gave and her who received. It produced a +feeling between herself and the public, which mere admiration on the +one hand, and gratified vanity on the other, could not have excited. She +strongly felt this, and no change, no reverse, diminished her feeling of +the kindness with which she had once been received; but her own fervid +genius and sensibility did as much for her. She was herself a poetess; +her mind claimed a natural affinity with all that is feeling, passionate, +and imaginative; not her voice only, but her soul and ear were attuned +to the harmony of verse; and hence she gave forth the poetry of such +parts as Juliet and Portia with an intense and familiar power, as though +every line and sentiment in Shakspeare had been early transplanted into +her heart,--had long been brooded over in silence,--watered with her +tears,--to burst forth at last, like the spontaneous and native growth +of her own soul. An excellent critic of our own day has said, that +"poetical enthusiasm is the rarest faculty among players:" if so, it +cannot be too highly valued. Fanny Kemble possessed this rare faculty; +and in it, a power that could not be taught, or analysed, or feigned, or +put on and off with her tragic drapery;--it pervaded all she was called +upon to do. It was _this_ which in the Grecian Daughter made her look +and step so like a young Muse; which enabled her, by a single glance--a +tone--a gesture--to elevate the character far above the language--and +exalt the most common-place declamation into power and passion. The +indisputable fact, that she appeared on the stage without any previous +study or tuition, ought in justice to her to be generally known; +it is most certain that she was not nineteen when she made her first +appearance, and that six weeks before her debût there was no more +thought of her becoming an actress, than of her becoming an empress. +The assertion must appear superfluous to those who have seen her; +for what teaching, or what artificial aids, could endue her with the +advantages just described?--"unless _Philosophy_ could make a Juliet!" +or what power of pencil, though it were dipped in the rainbow and +tempered in the sunbeams, could convey this bright intelligence, or +justify the enthusiasm with which it is hailed by her audience? There +is a second difficulty which the artist has had to contend with, not +less honourable to the actress: the charm of her impersonation of Juliet +consisted not so much in any particular points, as in the general +conception of the whole part, and in the sustained preservation and +gradual development of the individual character, from the first scene to +the last. Where the merit lies in the beautiful gradations of feeling, +succeeding each other like waves of the sea, till the flood of passion +swells and towers and sweeps away all perceptible distinctions, the +pencil must necessarily be at fault; for as Madame de Staël says truly, +"_l'inexprimable est précisement ce qu'un grand acteur nous fait +connaître_." + +The first drawing is taken from the scene in which Juliet first appears. +The actress has little to do, but to look the character;--that is, to +convey the impression of a gentle, graceful girl, whose passions and +energies lie folded up within her, like gathered lightning in the summer +cloud; all her affections "soft as dews on roses," which must ere long +turn to the fire-shower, and blast her to the earth. The moment chosen +is immediately after Juliet's expostulation to her garrulous old +nurse--"I pr'ythee, peace!" + +The second, third, and fourth sketches are all from the masquerade +scene. The manner in which Juliet receives the parting salutations of +the guests has been justly admired;--nothing is denied to genius and +taste, aided by natural grace, else it might have been thought impossible +to throw so much meaning and sentiment into so common an action. The +first curtsey is to Benvolio. The second, to Mercutio, is distinctly +marked, as though in him she recognised the chosen friend of Romeo. In +the third, to Romeo himself, the bashful sinking of the whole figure, +the conscious drooping of the eyelids, and the hurried, yet graceful +recovery of herself as she exclaims-- + + "Who's he that follows there that would not dance? + Go ask his name!" + + +which is the subject of the third sketch; and lastly, the tone in which +she gave the succeeding lines-- + + "If he be married, + My grave is like to be my wedding-bed!" + + +which seems, in its deep quiet pathos, to anticipate "some consequence +yet hanging in the stars,"--form one unbroken series of the most +beautiful and heart-felt touches of nature. The fourth sketch is from +the conclusion of the same scene, where Juliet, with reluctant steps and +many a lingering look back on the portal through which her lover has +departed, follows her nurse out of the banquet-room. + +The two next drawings are from the balcony scene, which has usually been +considered the criterion of the talent of an actress in this part. The +first represents the action which accompanied the line-- + + "By whose direction found'st thou out this place?" + + +The second is the first "Good night!" + + "Sweet, good night! + This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, + May prove a beauteous flower, when next we meet." + + +Fanny Kemble's conception of character and sentiment in this scene was +peculiarly and entirely her own. Juliet, as she properly felt, is a +young impassioned Italian girl, who has flung her heart, and soul, and +existence upon one cast. + + "She was not made + Thro' years or moons the inner weight to bear, + Which colder hearts endure till they are laid + By age in earth." + + +In this view, the pretty coyness, the playful _coquetterie_, which +has sometimes been thrown into the balcony scene, by way of making an +effect, is out of place, and false to the poetry and feeling of the +part: but in Fanny Kemble's delineation, the earnest, yet bashful +tenderness; the timid, yet growing confidence; the gradual swelling +of emotion from the depths of the heart, up to that fine burst of +enthusiastic passion-- + + "Swear by thy gracious self, + That art the god of my idolatry, + And I'll believe thee!" + + +were all as true to the situation and sentiment, as they were beautifully +and delicately conveyed. The whole of the speech, "Thou know'st the mask +of night is on my face," was in truth "like softest music to attending +ears," from the exquisite and various modulation of voice with which it +was uttered. Perhaps one of the most beautiful and entirely original +points in the whole scene, was the accent and gesture with which she +gave the lines-- + + "Romeo, doff thy name; + And for that name, which is no part of thee, + Take--all myself!" + + +The grace and _abandon_ in the manner, and the softness of accent, which +imparted a new and charming effect to this passage, cannot be expressed +in words; and it was so delicately touched, and so transitory,--so +dependent, like a beautiful chord in music, on that which prepared and +followed it, that it was found impossible to seize and fix it in a +drawing. + +From the first scene with the nurse, two drawings have been made. The +idea of Juliet discovered as the curtain rises, gazing from the window, +and watching for the return of her confidante, is perfectly new. The +attitude (or more properly, one of her attitudes, for they are various +as they are graceful and appropriate) is given in the seventh sketch, +and the artist has conveyed it with peculiar grace and truth. The action +chosen for the eighth drawing occurs immediately after Juliet's little +moment of petulance, (so justly provoked,) and before she utters in a +caressing tone, "Come, what says Romeo?" The first speech in this scene, + + "O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts, + Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams, + Driving back shadows over low'ring hills: + Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw love, + + And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid--wings." + + +--and the soliloquy in the second scene of the third act, "Gallop apace, +ye fiery-footed steeds!" in which there is no particular point of +dramatic effect to be made, are instances of that innate sense of +poetical harmony, which enabled her to impart the most exquisite +pleasure, merely by her feeling, graceful, animated delivery of these +beautiful lines. The most musical intonation of voice, the happiest +emphasis, and the utmost refinement, as well as the most expressive +grace of action, were here combined to carry passion and poetry at once +and vividly to the heart: but this perfect triumph of illusion is more +than painting could convey. + +The ninth and tenth sketches are from the second scene with the nurse, +called in theatrical phrase "the Banishment Scene." One of the grandest +and most impressive passages in the whole performance was Juliet's reply +to her nurse. + + "_Nurse._ Shame come to Romeo! + + _Juliet._ Blister'd be thy tongue, + For such a wish! he was not born to shame: + Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit; + For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd + Sole monarch of the universal earth." + + +The loftiness of look and gesture with which she pronounced the last +line, cannot be forgotten: but the effect consisted so much in the +action of the arm, as she stepped across the stage, and in the kindling +eye and brow, rather than in the attitude only, that it could not well +be conveyed in a drawing. The first point selected is from the passage, +"O break, my heart!--poor bankrupt, break at once!" in which the gesture +is full of expressive and pathetic grace. The tenth drawing represents +the action which accompanied her exclamation, "Tybalt is dead--and +Romeo--banished!" The tone of piercing anguish in which she pronounced +the last word, _banished_, and then threw herself into the arms of her +nurse, in all the helplessness of utter desolation, formed one of the +finest passages in her performance. + +The scene in which the lovers part, called the Garden Scene, follows; +and the passage selected is-- + + "Art thou gone so? my love, my lord, my friend? + I must hear from thee every day i' the hour!" + + +The subdued and tremulous intonation with which all the speeches in +this scene were given, as though the voice were broken and exhausted +with excessive weeping; and the manner in which she still, though half +insensible in her nurse's arms, signed a last farewell to her husband, +were among the most delicate and original beauties of the character. + +The two next drawings are from the fifth scene of the third act. The +latter part of this scene contained many new and beautiful touches of +feeling which originated with Miss Kemble herself. It is here that the +real character of Juliet is first developed;--it is here that, abandoned +by the whole world, and left to struggle alone with her fearful destiny, +the high-souled and devoted woman takes place of the tender, trembling +girl. The confiding, helpless anguish with which she at first throws +herself upon her nurse--("Some comfort, nurse!")--the gradual relaxing +of her embrace, as the old woman counsels her to forget Romeo and marry +Paris--the tone in which she utters the question-- + + "Speakest thou from thy heart? + + _Nurse._ From my soul too, + Or else beshrew them both!" + + +And then the gathering up of herself with all the majesty of offended +virtue, as she pronounces that grand "Amen!"--the effect of which was +felt in every bosom----these were _revelations_ of beauty and feeling +which we owed to Fanny Kemble alone. They were points which had never +before been felt or conveyed in the same manner. The shrinking up wholly +into herself, and the concentrated scorn with which she uttered the +lines-- + + "Go, counsellor! + Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain!" + +are very spiritedly given in the fourteenth drawing. + +From the scene with the friar, in the fourth act, the action selected +is where she grasps her poniard with the resolution of despair-- + + "Give me some present counsel; or, behold, + 'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife + Shall play the umpire!" + + +One of the most original effects of feeling and genius in the whole play +occurred in the course of this scene; but, unfortunately, it was not +found susceptible of graphic delineation. It was the peculiar manner +with which she uttered the words-- + + "Are you at leisure, holy father, now? + Or shall I come to you at evening mass?" + + +The question in itself is nothing; but what a volume of misery and +dread suspense was in that look with which she turned from Paris to the +friar, and the tone with which she uttered those simple words! This was +beyond the pencil's art to convey, and could but be felt and remembered. +The next drawing is therefore from the scene in which she drinks the +sleeping potion. The idea of speaking the first part of the soliloquy +seated, and with the calmness of one settled and bent up "to act a +dismal scene alone," until her fixed meditation on the fearful issue, +and the horrible images crowding on her mind, work her up to gradual +frenzy, was new, and originated with Miss Kemble. The attitude expressed +in the drawing--"O look, methinks I see my cousin's ghost,"--was always +hailed with an excess of enthusiasm of which I thought many parts of her +performance far more deserving. + +The eighteenth sketch is from the sleeping scene; and the last two +drawings are from the tomb scene. The merits of this last scene were +chiefly those of attitude, look, and manner; and the whole were at +once so graceful and beautiful, as well as terribly impressive, that +they afforded some relief from the horrors of the situation, and the +ravings of Romeo. The alteration of Shakspeare, in the last act, is +certainly founded on the historical tale of the Giulietta: but though the +circumstances are borrowed, yet the spirit in which they are related by +the ancient novelist, has not been taken into consideration by those who +manufactured this additional scene of superfluous horror.[13] In Juliet's +death, Miss Kemble seized an original idea, and worked it up with the +most powerful and beautiful effect; but this effect consisted not so +much in one attitude or look, as in a progressive series of action and +expression, so true--so painfully true, that as one of the chief beauties +was the rapidity with which the whole passed from the fascinated yet +aching sight--the artist has relinquished any attempt to fix it on +paper. + + * * * * * + +Fanny Kemble made her first appearance in the character of Juliet, +October 6th, 1829, and bid a last farewell to her London audience +in May, 1832: during these three years she played through a very +diversified range of parts, both in tragedy and high comedy.[14] +Sustained by her native genius and good taste, and by the kindly feeling +of her audience, she could not be said to have failed in any, not even +in those which her inexperience and extreme youth rendered _premature_, +to say the least. She never--except in one or two instances[15]--had a +voice in the selection of her parts, which, I think, was in some cases +exceedingly injudicious, as far as her individual powers were concerned. +I know that she played in several contrary to her own opinion, taste, +and judgment, and from a principle of duty. Not _duty_ only, but a +feeling of delicacy, natural to a generous mind, which disdained the +appearance of presuming on her real power, rendered her docile, in some +instances, to a degree which I regretted while I loved her for it. She +had a perception of some of the traditional absurdities of dress, and +ridiculous technical anomalies of theatrical arrangements, which she had +not power to alter, and which I have seen her endure with wondrous good +temper. Had she remained on the stage, her fine taste and original and +powerful mind would have carried the public with her in some things +which she contemplated: for instance, she had an idea of restoring +King Lear, as originally written by Shakspeare, and playing the _real_ +Cordelia to her father's Lear. When left to her own judgment, she ever +thought more of what was worthy and beautiful in itself, than she +calculated on the amount of vulgar applause it might attract, or the +sums it might bring to the treasury. Thus, for her first benefit she +played Portia, a character which no vain, self-confident actress would +have selected for such an occasion, because, as the play is now +performed, the part is comparatively short, is always considered of +secondary importance, and affords but few effective points: this was +represented to her; but she persisted in her choice: and how she played +it out of her own heart and soul! how she revelled in the poetry of +the part, with a conscious sense and enjoyment of its beauty, which +was communicated to her audience! Self, after the first tremor, was +forgotten, and vanity lost in her glowing perception of the charm of the +character. She lamented over every beautiful line and passage which had +been "_cut out_" by profane hands.[16] To those which remained, the rich +and mellow tones of her voice gave added power, blending with the music +of the verse. It was by her own earnest wish that she played Camiola, +in Massinger's Maid of Honour, and this was certainly one of her most +exquisite and most finished parts; but the quiet elegance, the perfect +delicacy of the delineation were never appreciated. She was aware of +this: she said, "The first rows of the pit, and the first few boxes will +understand me; for the rest of that great theatre, I ought to play as +they paint the scenes--in great splashes of black and white." Bianca, in +Millman's Fazio, was another of her finest parts, and as it contained +more stage effect, it told more with the public. In this character she +certainly took even her greatest admirers by surprise. The expression +of slumbering passion, and its gradual developement, were so fervently +portrayed, and yet so nicely shaded; the frenzy of jealousy, and the +alienation of intellect, so admirably discriminated, and so powerfully +given, that when the first emotions had subsided, not admiration only, +but wonder seized upon her audience: nor shall I easily forget the +pale composure with which she bore this--one of her most intoxicating +triumphs. + +In Constance, in Queen Katherine, in Lady Macbeth, the want of amplitude +and maturity of person, of physical weight and power, and a deficiency +both of experience and self-confidence, were against her; but her +conception of character was so _true_, and her personal resemblance to +her aunt so striking, in spite of her comparatively diminutive features +and figure, that one of the best and severest of our dramatic critics +said, "it was like looking at Mrs. Siddons through the wrong end of +an opera-glass."[17] She had conceived the idea of giving quite a new +reading, which undoubtedly would have been the _true_ reading, of the +character of Katherine of Arragon, and instead of playing it with the +splendid poetical colouring in which Mrs. Siddons had arrayed it, bring +it down to the prosaic delineation which Shakspeare really gave, and +history and Holbein have transmitted to us; but the experiment was +deemed too hazardous; and it was so. The public at large would never +have understood it. The character of the queen mother, in her own +tragedy of Francis I., was another part of which the weight seemed +to overwhelm her youthful powers, and after the first few nights she +ceased to play it. + +While on the English stage, she never became so far the finished artist +as to be independent of her own emotions, her own individual sentiments. +It was not only necessary that she should understand a character, it was +necessary that she should _feel_ it. She invariably excelled in those +characters in which her sympathies were awakened. In Juliet, in Portia, +in Camiola, in Julia,[18] (perhaps the most _popular_ of all her parts,) +and I believe I may add, in Bianca, she will not soon or easily be +surpassed. For the same reason, if she could be said to have failed in +any part, it was in that of Calista, which she abhorred, and never, I +believe, could comprehend. Isabella[19] was another part which I think +she never really felt; she never could throw her powers into it. The +bald style and the prosaic monotonous misery of the first acts, in which +her aunt called forth such torrents of tears, wearied her; though the +tragic of the situations in the last act roused her, and was given most +effectively. She had not, at the time she took leave of us, conquered +the mechanical part of her profession--the last, but not the least +necessary department of her art, which it had taken her aunt Siddons +seven years, and Pasta almost as long, to achieve; she was too much +under the influence of her own nerves and moods of feeling; the warm +blushes, the hot tears, the sob, the tremor, were at times too real. +After playing in Mrs. Beverly, Bianca, and Julia, the physical suffering +and excitement were sometimes most painful; and the performance of +Constance actually deprived her of her hearing for several hours, and +rendered her own voice inaudible to her; this, it will be allowed, was +paying somewhat dear for her laurels, even though she had valued them +more than in truth she ever did. + +Fanny Kemble, as one of a gifted race, "the latest born of all +Olympus' faded hierarchy," had really a just pride in the professional +distinction of her family. She was proud of being a Kemble, and not +insensible to the idea of treading in the steps of her aunt. But she had +seen the stage desecrated, and never for a moment indulged the thought +that she was destined to regenerate it. She felt truly her own position. +Her ambition was not professional. She had always the consciousness of +a power--of which she has already given evidence--to ensure to herself +a higher, a more real immortality than that which the stage can bestow. +She had a very high idea, abstractedly, of the capabilities of her +art; but the native elegance of her mind, her poetical temperament, her +profound sense of the _serious ideal_, rendered her extremely, and at +times painfully sensitive, to the prosaic drawbacks which attended its +exercise in public, and her strong understanding showed her its possible +evils. She feared for the effect that incessant praise, incessant +excitement, might at length produce on her temper. "I am in dismay," +said she, (I give her _own_ words,) "when I think that all this may +become necessary to me. Could I be sure of retaining my love for higher +and better occupations, and my desire for a nobler, though more distant +fame, I should not have these apprehensions; but I am cut off by constant +labour from those pursuits which I love and honour, and neither they, +nor any of our capabilities, can outlive long neglect and disuse." Thus +she felt, and thus she expressed herself at the age of twenty, and even +while enjoying her success with a true girlish buoyancy of spirit, +the more delightful, the more interesting, inasmuch as it seemed to +tremble at itself. I have actually heard her reproached for not being +_sufficiently_ elated and excited by the public homage; but, the truth +is, she was grateful for praise, rather than intoxicated by it--more +pleased with her success than proud of it.[20] "I dare not," said she, +"feel all I _could_ feel: I must watch myself." And by a more exact +attention to her religious duties, and by giving as much time as +possible to the cultivation of many resources and accomplishments, she +endeavoured to preserve the command over her own faculties, and the even +balance of her mind. I am persuaded that this lofty tone of feeling, +this mixture of self-subjection and self-respect, gave to her general +deportment on the stage that indescribable charm, quite apart from any +grace of person or action, which all who have seen her must have felt, +and none can have forgotten. + +And now, what shall I say more? If I dared to violate the sacredness +of private intercourse, I could indeed say much--_much_ more. That she +came forward and devoted herself for her family in times of trial and +trouble--that twice she saved them from ruin--that she has achieved two +fortunes, besides a brilliant fame, and by her talents won independence +for herself and those she loved,--and that she has done all this +before the age of five-and-twenty, is known to many; but few are aware +how much more admirable, more respectable, than any of her mental +gifts and her well-earned distinction, were the moral strength with +which she sustained the severest ordeal to which a youthful character +could be exposed; the simplicity with which she endured--half +recoiling--the incessant adulation which beset her from morn to +night;[21] her self-command in success; her gentle dignity in reverse; her +straightforward integrity, which knew no turning nor shadow of turning; +her noble spirit, which disdained all petty rivalry; her earnest sense +of religion, "to which alone she trusted to keep her right."[22] Suddenly +she became the idol of the public; suddenly she was transplanted into a +sphere of society, where, as long as she could administer excitement to +fashionable inanity, she was worshipped. She carried into those circles +all the freshness of her vigorous and poetical mind--all the unworn +feelings of her young heart. So much genuine simplicity, such perfect +innocence and modesty, allied to such rare powers, and to an habitual +familiarity with the language of poetry and the delineation of passion, +was not _there_ understood, or rather, was _mis_-understood--and no +wonder! To the _blasé_ men, the vapid girls, and artificial women, who +then surrounded her, her generous feelings, "when the bright soul broke +forth on every side," appeared mere acting; they were indeed constrained +to believe it such; for if for a moment they had deemed it all real, +it must have forced on them comparisons by no means favourable to +themselves. If, under these circumstances, her quick sensibility to +pleasurable emotion of all kinds, and her ready sympathy with all the +_external_ refinement, splendour, and luxury of aristocratic life, +conspired for a moment to dazzle her imagination, she recovered herself +immediately, and from first to last, her warm and strong affections, the +moral texture of her character; the refinement, which was as native to +her mind, "as fragrance to the rose," remained unimpaired. These--a rich +dower--she is about to carry into the shades of domestic life. Another +land will be her future home. By another name shall fame speak of her, +who was endeared to us as FANNY KEMBLE: and _she_, who with no steady +hand pens this slight tribute to the virtues she loved, bids to that +name--farewell! + + + + +THE FALSE ONE.[23] + + And give you, mix'd with western sentimentalism, + Some samples of the finest orientalism. + + LORD BYRON. + + +Akbar, the most enlightened and renowned among the sovereigns of the +East, reigned over all those vast territories, which extend from the +Indus to the Ganges, and from the snowy mountains of the north to the +kingdoms of Guzerat and Candeish on the south. After having subdued the +factious omrahs, and the hereditary enemies of his family, and made +tributary to his power most of the neighbouring kingdoms, there occurred +a short period of profound peace. Assisted by able ministers, Akbar +employed this interval in alleviating the miseries, which half a century +of war and ravage had called down upon this beautiful but ever wretched +country. Commerce was relieved from the heavy imposts, which had +hitherto clogged its progress; the revenues of the empire were improved +and regulated; by a particular decree, the cultivators of the earth were +exempted from serving in the imperial armies; and justice was every +where impartially administered; tempered, however, with that extreme +clemency, which in the early part of his reign, Akbar carried to an +excess almost injurious to his interests. India, so long exposed to the +desolating inroads of invaders, and torn by internal factions, began, at +length, to "wear her plumed and jewelled turban with a smile of peace;" +and all the various nations united under his sway--the warlike Afghans, +the proud Moguls, the gentle-spirited Hindoos, with one voice blessed +the wise and humane government of the son of Baber, and unanimously +bestowed upon him the titles of AKBAR, or the GREAT, and JUGGUT GROW, +or GUARDIAN of MANKIND. + +Meantime the happiness, which he had diffused among millions, seemed to +have fled from the bosom of the sovereign. Cares far different from +those of war, deeper than those of love, (for the love of eastern monarchs +is seldom shadowed by anxiety,) possessed his thoughtful soul. He had +been brought up in the strictest forms of the Mohammedan religion, and +he meditated upon the text, which enjoins the extermination of all who +rejected his prophet, till his conscience became like a troubled lake. +He reflected that in his vast dominions there were at least fifteen +different religions, which were subdivided into about three hundred +and fifty sects: to extirpate thousands and tens of thousands of his +unoffending subjects, and pile up pyramids of human heads in honour of +God and his prophet, as his predecessors had done before him, was, to +his mild nature, not only abhorrent, but impossible. Yet as his power +had never met with any obstacle, which force or address had not subdued +before him, the idea of bringing this vast multitude to agree in one +system of belief and worship appeared to him not utterly hopeless. + +He consulted, after long reflection, his favourite and secretary, Abul +Fazil, the celebrated historian, of whom it was proverbially said, that +"the monarchs of the East feared more the pen of Abul Fazil than the +sword of Akbar." The acute mind of that great man saw instantly the wild +impracticability of such a scheme; but willing to prove it to his master +without absolutely contradicting his favourite scheme, he proposed, as a +preparatory step, that the names of the various sects of religion known +to exist in the sultan's dominions should be registered, and the tenets +of their belief contained in their books of law, or promulgated by their +priests, should be reviewed and compared; thence it would appear how far +it was possible to reconcile them one with another. + +This suggestion pleased the great king: and there went forth a decree +from the imperial throne, commanding that all the religions and sects +of religion to be found within the boundaries of the empire should send +deputies, on a certain day, to the sultan, to deliver up their books of +law, to declare openly the doctrines of their faith, and be registered +by name in a volume kept for this purpose--whether they were followers +of Jesus, of Moses, or of Mohammed; whether they worshipped God in the +sun, in the fire, in the image, or in the stream; by written law or +traditional practice: true believer or pagan infidel, none were excepted. +The imperial mandate was couched in such absolute, as well as alluring +terms, that it became as impossible as impolitic to evade it; it was +therefore the interest of every particular sect, to represent in the +most favourable light the mode of faith professed by each. Some thought +to gain favour by the magnificence of their gifts; others, by the +splendour of their processions. Some rested their hopes on the wisdom +and venerable appearance of the deputies they selected to represent +them; and others, (they were but few,) strong in their faith and +spiritual pride, deemed all such aids unnecessary, and trusted in +the truth of the doctrines they professed, which they only waited an +opportunity to assert, secure that they needed only to be heard, to +convert all who had ears to hear. + +On the appointed day, an immense multitude had assembled from all the +quarters of the empire, and pressed through the gates and streets +of Agra, then the capital and residence of the monarch. The principal +durbar, or largest audience-court of the palace, was thrown open on this +occasion. At the upper end was placed the throne of Akbar. It was a +raised platform, from which sprung twelve twisted pillars of massy gold, +all radiant with innumerable gems, supporting the golden canopy, over +which waved the white umbrella, the insignia of power; the cushions upon +which the emperor reclined, were of cloth of gold, incrusted with rubies +and emeralds; six pages, of exquisite beauty, bearing fans of peacocks' +feathers, were alone permitted to approach within the silver balustrade, +which surrounded the seat of power. On one side stood the vizir Chan +Azim, bold and erect of look, as became a warrior, and Abul Fazil, with +his tablets in his hand, and his eyes modestly cast down: next to him +stood Dominico Cuença, the Portuguese missionary, and two friars of his +order, who had come from Goa by the express command of the sultan; on +the other side, the muftis and doctors of the law. Around were the great +omrahs, the generals, governors, tributary princes, and ambassadors. The +ground was spread with Persian carpets of a thousand tints, sprinkled +with rose-water, and softer beneath the feet than the velvety durva +grass; and clouds of incense, ambergris, and myrrh, filled the air. The +gorgeous trappings of eastern splendour, the waving of standards, the +glittering of warlike weapons, the sparkling of jewelled robes, formed a +scene, almost sublime in its prodigal and lavish magnificence, such as +only an oriental court could show. + +Seven days did the royal Akbar receive and entertain the religious +deputies: every day a hundred thousand strangers feasted at his expense; +and every night the gifts he had received during the day, or the value +of them, were distributed in alms to the vast multitude, without any +regard to difference of belief. Seven days did the royal Akbar sit on +his musnud, and listen graciously to all who appeared before him. Many +were the words spoken, and marvellous was the wisdom uttered; sublime +were the doctrines professed, and pure the morality they enjoined: but +the more the royal Akbar heard, the more was his great mind perplexed; +the last who spoke seemed ever in the right, till the next who appeared +turned all to doubt again. He was amazed, and said within himself, like +the judge of old, "_What is truth?_" + +It was observed, that the many dissenting or heterodox sects of the +Mohammedan religion excited infinitely more indignation among the +orthodox muftis, than the worst among the pagan idolaters. Their hearts +burned within them through impatience and wrath, and they would almost +have died on the spot for the privilege of confuting those blasphemers, +who rejected Abu Becker; who maintained, with Abu Zail, that blue was +holier than green; or with Mozar, that a sinner was worse than an +infidel; or believed with the Morgians, that in paradise God is beheld +only with the eyes of our understanding; or with the Kharejites, that a +prince who abuses his power may be deposed without sin. But the sultan +had forbidden all argument in his presence, and they were constrained +to keep silence, though it was pain and grief to them. + +The Seiks from Lahore, then a new sect, and since a powerful nation, +with their light olive complexions, their rich robes and turbans all +of blue, their noble features and free undaunted deportment, struck the +whole assembly with respect, and were received with peculiar favour +by the sultan. So also were the Ala-ilahiyahs, whose doctrines are a +strange compound of the Christian, the Mohammedan, and the Pagan creeds; +but the Sactas, or Epicureans of India, met with a far different +reception. This sect, which in secret professed the most profane and +detestable opinions, endeavoured to obtain favour by the splendid +offerings they laid at the foot of the throne, and the graceful and +seducing eloquence of their principal speaker. It was, however, in vain, +that he threw over the tenets of his religion, as publicly acknowledged, +the flimsy disguise of rhetoric and poetry; that he endeavoured to +prove, that all happiness consisted in enjoying the world's goods, and +all virtue in mere abstaining from evil; that death is an eternal sleep; +and therefore to reject the pleasures of this life, in any shape, the +extreme of folly; while at every pause of his oration, voices of the +sweetest melody chorussed the famous burden: + + "May the hand never shake which gather'd the grapes! + May the foot never slip which press'd them!" + + +Akbar commanded the Sactas from his presence, amid the murmurs and +execrations of all parties: and though they were protected for the +present by the royal passport, they were subsequently banished beyond +the frontiers of Cashmere. + +The fire-worshippers, from Guzerat, presented the books of their famous +teacher, Zoroaster; to them succeeded the Jainas, the Buddhists, and +many more, innumerable as the leaves upon the banyan tree--countless as +the stars at midnight. + +Last of all came the deputies of the Brahmans. On their approach there +was a hushed silence, and then arose a suppressed murmur of amazement, +curiosity, and admiration. It is well known with what impenetrable +secrecy the Brahmans guard the peculiar mysteries of their religion. In +the reigns of Akbar's predecessors, and during the first invasions of +the Moguls, many had suffered martyrdom in the most horrid forms, rather +than suffer their sanctuaries to be violated, or disclose the contents +of their Vedas or sacred books. Loss of caste, excommunication in this +world, and eternal perdition in the next, were the punishments awarded +to those, who should break this fundamental law of the Brahminical +faith. The mystery was at length to be unveiled; the doubts and +conjectures, to which this pertinacious concealment gave rise, were +now to be ended for ever. The learned doctors and muftis bent forward +with an attentive and eager look--Abul Fazil raised his small, bright, +piercing eyes, while a smile of dubious import passed over his +countenance--the Portuguese monk threw back his cowl, and the calm and +scornful expression of his fine features changed to one of awakened +curiosity and interest: even Akbar raised himself from his jewelled +couch as the deputies of the Brahmans approached. A single delegate had +been chosen from the twelve principal temples and seats of learning, and +they were attended by forty aged men, selected from the three inferior +castes, to represent the mass of the Indian population--warriors, +merchants, and husbandmen. At the head of this majestic procession was +the Brahman Sarma, the high priest, and principal _Gooroo_ or teacher of +theology at Benares. This singular and venerable man had passed several +years of his life in the court of the sultan Baber; and the dignity and +austerity, that became his age and high functions, were blended with a +certain grace and ease in his deportment, which distinguished him above +the rest. + +When the sage Sarma had pronounced the usual benediction, "May the +king be victorious!" Akbar inclined his head with reverence. "Wise +and virtuous Brahmans!" he said, "our court derives honour from your +illustrious presence. Next to the true faith taught by our holy Prophet, +the doctrines of Brahma must exceed all others in wisdom and purity, +even as the priests of Brahma excel in virtue and knowledge the wisest +of the earth: disclose, therefore, your sacred Sastras, that we may +inhale from them, as from the roses of paradise, the precious fragrance +of truth and of knowledge!" + +The Brahman replied, in the soft and musical tones of his people, "O +king of the world! we are not come before the throne of power to betray +the faith of our fathers, but to die for it, if such be the will of the +sultan!" Saying these words, he and his companions prostrated themselves +upon the earth, and, taking off their turbans, flung them down before +them: then, while the rest continued with their foreheads bowed to the +ground, Sarma arose, and stood upright before the throne. No words can +describe the amazement of Akbar. He shrunk back and struck his hands +together; then he frowned, and twisted his small and beautifully curled + +mustachios:--"The sons of Brahma mock us!" said he at length; "is it +thus our imperial decrees are obeyed?" + +"The laws of our faith are immutable," replied the old man, calmly, "and +the contents of the Vedas were pre-ordained from the beginning of time +to be revealed to the TWICE-BORN alone. It is sufficient, that therein +are to be found the essence of all wisdom, the principles of all virtue, +and the means of acquiring immortality." + +"Doubtless, the sons of Brahma are pre-eminently wise," said Akbar, +sarcastically; "but are the followers of the Prophet accounted as fools +in their eyes? The sons of Brahma are excellently virtuous, but are +all the rest of mankind vicious? Has the most high God confined the +knowledge of his attributes to the Brahmans alone, and hidden his face +from the rest of his creatures? Where, then, is his justice? where his +all-embracing mercy?" + +The Brahman, folding his arms, replied: "It is written, Heaven is a +palace with many doors, and every man shall enter by his own way. It is +not given to mortals to examine or arraign the decrees of the Deity, but +to hear and to obey. Let the will of the sultan be accomplished in all +things else. In this let the God of all the earth judge between the king +and his servants." + +"Now, by the head of our Prophet! shall we be braved on our throne by +these insolent and contumacious priests? Tortures shall force the seal +from those lips!" + +"Not so!" said the old Brahman, drawing himself up with a look of +inexpressible dignity. "It is in the power of the Great King to deal +with his slaves as seemeth good to him; but fortitude is the courage of +the weak; and the twice-born sons of Brahma can suffer more in the cause +of truth, than even the wrath of Akbar can inflict." + +At these words, which expressed at once submission and defiance, a +general murmur arose in the assembly. The dense crowd became agitated +as the waves of the Ganges just before the rising of the hurricane. Some +opened their eyes wide with amazement at such audacity, some frowned +with indignation, some looked on with contempt, others with pity. All +awaited in fearful expectation, till the fury of the sultan should burst +forth and consume these presumptuous offenders. But Akbar remained +silent, and for some time played with the hilt of his poniard, half +unsheathing it, and then forcing it back with an angry gesture. At +length he motioned to his secretary to approach; and Abul Fazil, +kneeling upon the silver steps of the throne, received the sultan's +commands. After a conference of some length, inaudible to the attendants +around, Abul Fazil came forward, and announced the will of the sultan, +that the durbar should be presently broken up. The deputies were +severally dismissed with rich presents; all, except the Brahmans, who +were commanded to remain in the quarter assigned to them during the +royal pleasure; and a strong guard was placed over them. + +Meantime Akbar withdrew to the private apartments of his palace, where +he remained for three days inaccessible to all, except his secretary +Abul Fazil, and the Christian monk. On the fourth day he sent for the +high priest of Benares, and successively for the rest of the Brahmans, +his companions; but it was in vain he tried threats and temptations, +and all his arts of argument and persuasion. They remained calmly and +passively immoveable. The sultan at length pardoned and dismissed them +with many expressions of courtesy and admiration. The Brahman Sarma +was distinguished among the rest by gifts of peculiar value and +magnificence, and to him Akbar made a voluntary promise, that, during +his reign, the cruel tax, called the Kerea, which had hitherto been +levied upon the poor Indians whenever they met to celebrate any of their +religious festivals, should be abolished. + +But all these professions were hollow and insidious. Akbar was not +a character to be thus baffled; and assisted by the wily wit of Abul +Fazil, and the bold intriguing monk, he had devised a secret and subtle +expedient, which should at once gratify his curiosity, and avenge his +insulted power. + +Abul Fazil had an only brother, many years younger than himself, whom +he had adopted as his son, and loved with extreme tenderness. He had +intended him to tread, like himself, the intricate path of state policy; +and with this view he had been carefully educated in all the learning of +the East, and had made the most astonishing progress in every branch of +science. Though scarcely past his boyhood, he had already been initiated +into the intrigues of the court; above all, he had been brought up +in sentiments of the most profound veneration and submission for the +monarch he was destined to serve. In some respects Faizi resembled his +brother: he possessed the same versatility of talents, the same acuteness +of mind, the same predilection for literary and sedentary pursuits, the +same insinuating melody of voice and fluent grace of speech; but his +ambition was of a nobler cast, and though his moral perceptions had been +somewhat blunted by a too early acquaintance with court diplomacy, and +an effeminate, though learned education, his mind and talents were +decidedly of a higher order. He also excelled Abul Fazil in the graces +of his person, having inherited from his mother (a Hindoo slave of +surpassing loveliness) a figure of exquisite grace and symmetry, and +features of most faultless and noble beauty. + +Thus fitted by nature and prepared by art for the part he was to +perform, this youth was secretly sent to Allahabad, where the deputies +of the Brahmans rested for some days on their return to the Sacred City. +Here Abul Fazil, with great appearance of mystery and circumspection, +introduced himself to the chief priest, Sarma, and presented to him his +youthful brother as the orphan son of the Brahman Mitra, a celebrated +teacher of astronomy in the court of the late sultan. Abul Fazil had +artfully prepared such documents, as left no doubt of the truth of his +story. His pupil in treachery played his part to admiration, and the +deception was complete and successful. + +"It was the will of the Great King," said the wily Abul Fazil, "that +this fair youth should be brought up in his palace, and converted to +the Moslem faith; but, bound by my vows to a dying friend, I have for +fourteen years eluded the command of the sultan, and in placing him +under thy protection, O most venerable Sarma! I have at length discharged +my conscience, and fulfilled the last wishes of the Brahman Mitra. Peace +be with him! If it seem good in thy sight, let this remain for ever a +secret between me and thee. I have successfully thrown dust in the eyes +of the sultan, and caused it to be reported, that the youth is dead of +a sudden and grievous disease. Should he discover, that he has been +deceived by his slave; should the truth reach his mighty ears, the head +of Abul Fazil would assuredly pay the forfeit of his disobedience." + +The old Brahman replied with many expressions of gratitude and +inviolable discretion; and, wholly unsuspicious of the cruel artifice, +received the youth with joy. He carried him to Benares, where some +months afterwards he publicly adopted him as his son, and gave him the +name of Govinda, "the Beloved," one of the titles under which the Indian +women adore their beautiful and favourite idol, the god Crishna. + +Govinda, so we must now call him, was set to study the sacred language, +and the theology of the Brahmans as it is revealed in their Vedas and +Sastras. In both he made quick and extraordinary progress; and his +singular talents did not more endear him to his preceptor, than his +docility, and the pensive, and even melancholy sweetness of his temper +and manner. His new duties were not unpleasing or unsuited to one of his +indolent and contemplative temper. He possibly felt, at first, a holy +horror at the pagan sacrifices, in which he was obliged to assist, and +some reluctance to feeding consecrated cows, gathering flowers, cooking +rice, and drawing water for offerings and libations: but by degrees he +reconciled his conscience to these occupations, and became attached to +his Gooroo, and interested in his philosophical studies. He would have +been happy, in short, but for certain uneasy sensations of fear and +self-reproach, which he vainly endeavoured to forget or to reason down. + +Abul Fazil, who dreaded not his indiscretion or his treachery, but his +natural sense of rectitude, which had yielded reluctantly, even to the +command of Akbar, maintained a constant intercourse with him by means +of an intelligent mute, who, hovering in the vicinity of Benares, +sometimes in the disguise of a fisherman, sometimes as a coolie, was a +continual spy upon all his movements; and once in every month, when the +moon was in her dark quarter, Govinda met him secretly, and exchanged +communications with his brother. + +The Brahman Sarma was rich; he was proud of his high caste, his spiritual +office, and his learning; he was of the tribe of Narayna, which for a +thousand years had filled the offices of priesthood, without descending +to any meaner occupation, or mingling blood with any inferior caste. +He maintained habitually a cold, austere, and dignified calmness of +demeanour; and flattered himself, that he had attained that state of +perfect indifference to all worldly things, which, according to the +Brahminical philosophy, is the highest point of human virtue; but, +though simple, grave, and austere in his personal habits, he lived +with a splendour becoming his reputation, his high rank, and vast +possessions. He exercised an almost princely hospitality; a hundred +mendicants were fed morning and evening at his gates. He founded and +supported colleges of learning for the poorer Brahmans, and had numerous +pupils, who had come from all parts of India to study under his direction. +These were lodged in separate buildings. Only Govinda, as the adopted +son of Sarma, dwelt under the same roof with his Gooroo, a privilege +which had unconsciously become most precious to his heart: it removed +him from the constrained companionship of those he secretly despised, +and it placed him in delicious and familiar intercourse with one, who +had become too dearly and fatally beloved. + +The Brahman had an only child, the daughter of his old age. She had +been named, at her birth, Priyamvada; (or _softly speaking_;) but her +companions called her Amrà, the name of a graceful tree bearing blossoms +of peculiar beauty and fragrance, with which the Camdeo (Indian Cupid) +is said to tip his arrows. Amrà was but a child when Govinda first +entered the dwelling of his preceptor; but as time passed on, she +expanded beneath his eye into beauty and maturity, like the lovely +and odoriferous flower, the name of which she bore. + +The Hindoo women of superior rank and unmixed caste are in general +of diminutive size; and accordingly the lovely and high-born Amrà was +formed upon the least possible scale of female beauty: but her figure, +though so exquisitely delicate, had all the flowing outline and rounded +proportions of complete womanhood. Her features were perfectly regular, +and of almost infantine minuteness, except her eyes: those soft oriental +eyes, not sparkling, or often animated, but large, dark, and lustrous; +as if in their calm depth of expression slept unawakened passions, like +the bright deity Heri reposing upon the coiled serpent. Her eyebrows +were finely arched, and most delicately pencilled; her complexion, of a +pale and transparent olive, was on the slightest emotion suffused with +a tint, which resembled that of the crimson water-lily as seen through +the tremulous wave; her lips were like the buds of the Camàlata, and +unclosed to display a row of teeth like seed-pearl of Manar. But one of +her principal charms, because peculiar and unequalled, was the beauty +and redundance of her hair, which in colour and texture resembled black +floss silk, and, when released from confinement, flowed downwards over +her whole person like a veil, and swept the ground. + +Such was Amrà: nor let it be supposed, that so perfect a form was allied +to a merely passive and childish mind. It is on record, that, until the +invasion of Hindostan by the barbarous Moguls, the Indian women enjoyed +comparative freedom: it is only since the occupation of the country by +the Europeans, that they have been kept in entire seclusion. A plurality +of wives was discouraged by their laws; and, among some of the tribes +of Brahmans, it was even forbidden. At the period of our story, that +is, in the reign of Akbar, the Indian women, and more particularly the +Brahminees, enjoyed much liberty. They were well educated, and some +of them, extraordinary as it may seem, distinguished themselves in +war and government. The Indian queen Durgetti, whose history forms a +conspicuous and interesting episode in the life of Akbar, defended her +kingdom for ten years against one of his most valiant generals. Mounted +upon an elephant of war, she led her armies in person; fought several +pitched battles; and being at length defeated in a decisive engagement, +she stabbed herself on the field, rather than submit to her barbarous +conqueror. Nor was this a solitary instance of female heroism and mental +energy: and the effect of this freedom, and the respect with which they +were treated, appeared in the morals and manners of the women. + +The gentle daughter of Sarma was not indeed fitted by nature either to +lead or to govern, and certainly had never dreamed of doing either. Her +figure, gestures, and movements, had that softness at once alluring and +retiring, that indolent grace, that languid repose, common to the women +of tropical regions. + + "All her affections like the dews on roses, + Fair as the flowers themselves; as soft, as gentle." + + +Her spirit, in its "mildness, sweetness, blessedness," seemed as +flexible and unresisting as the tender Vasanta creeper. She had indeed +been educated in all the exclusive pride of her caste, and taught to +regard all who were not of the privileged race of Brahma as _frangi_ +(or impure;) but this principle, though so early instilled into her mind +as to have become a part of her nature, was rather passive than active; +it had never been called forth. She had never been brought into contact +with those, whose very look she would have considered as pollution; for +she had no intercourse but with those of her own nation, and watchful +and sustaining love were all around her. Her learned accomplishments +extended no farther than to read and write the Hindostanee tongue. To +tend and water her flowers, to feed her birds, which inhabited a gaily +gilded aviary in her garden, to string pearls, to embroider muslin, were +her employments; to pay visits and receive them, to lie upon cushions, +and be fanned asleep by her maids, or listen to the endless tales of her +old nurse, Gautami, whose memory was a vast treasure of traditional +wonders--these were her amusements. That there were graver occupations, +and dearer pleasures, proper to her sex, she knew; but thought not of +them, till the young Govinda came to disturb the peace of her innocent +bosom. She had been told to regard him as a brother; and, as she had +never known a brother, she believed, that, in lavishing upon him all the +glowing tenderness of her young heart, she was but obeying her father's +commands. If her bosom fluttered when she heard his footsteps; if she +trembled upon the tones of his voice; if, while he was occupied in the +services of the temple, she sat in her veranda awaiting his return, +and, the moment he appeared through the embowering acacias, a secret +and unaccountable feeling made her breathe quick, and rise in haste +and retire to her inner apartments, till he approached to pay the +salutations due to the daughter of his preceptor; what was it, what +_could_ it be, but the tender solicitude of a sister for a new-found +brother? But Govinda himself was not so entirely deceived. His boyhood +had been passed in a luxurious court, and among the women and slaves +of his brother's harem; and though so young, he was not wholly +inexperienced in a passion, which is the too early growth of an eastern +heart. He knew why he languished in the presence of his beautiful +sister; he could tell why the dark splendour of Amrà's eyes pierced his +soul like the winged flames shot into a besieged city. He could guess, +too, why those eyes kindled with a softer fire beneath his glance: but +the love he felt was so chastened by the awe which her serene purity, +and the dignity of her sweet and feminine bearing shed around her; so +hallowed by the nominal relationship in which they stood; so different, +in short, from any thing he had ever felt, or seen, or heard of, that, +abandoned to all the sweet and dream-like enchantment of a boyish +passion, Govinda was scarcely conscious of the wishes of his own heart, +until accident in the same moment disclosed his secret aspirations to +himself, and bade him for ever despair of their accomplishment. + +On the last day of the dark half of the moon, it was the custom of +the wise and venerable Sarma to bathe at sunset in the Ganges, and +afterwards retire to private meditation upon the thousand names of God, +by the repetition of which, as it is written, a man insures to himself +everlasting felicity. But while Sarma was thus absorbed in holy +abstraction, where were Govinda and Amrà? + +In a spot fairer than the poet's creative pencil ever wrought into a +picture for fancy to dwell on--where, at the extremity of the Brahman's +garden, the broad and beautiful stream that bounded it ran swiftly to +mingle its waves with those of the thrice-holy Ganges; where mangoes +raised their huge twisted roots in a thousand fantastic forms, while +from their boughs hung suspended the nests of the little Baya birds, +which waved to and fro in the evening breeze--there had Amrà and Govinda +met together, it might be, without design. The sun had set, the Cistus +flowers began to fall, and the rich blossoms of the night-loving Nilica +diffused their rich odour. The Peyoo awoke to warble forth his song, and +the fire-flies were just visible, as they flitted under the shade of the +Champac trees. Upon a bank, covered with that soft and beautiful grass, +which, whenever it is pressed or trodden on, yields a delicious perfume, +were Amrà and Govinda seated side by side. Two of her attendants, at +some little distance, were occupied in twining wreaths of flowers. Amrà +had a basket at her feet, in which were two small vessels of porcelain. +One contained cakes of rice, honey, and clarified butter, kneaded by her +own hand; in the other were mangoes, rose-apples, and musk-melons; and +garlands of the holy palàsa blossoms, sacred to the dead, were flung +around the whole. This was the votive offering, which Amrà had prepared +for the tomb of her mother, who was buried in the garden. And now, with +her elbow resting on her knee, and her soft cheek leaning on her hand, +she sat gazing up at the sky, where the stars came flashing forth one +by one; and she watched the auspicious moment for offering her pious +oblation. But Govinda looked neither on the earth, nor on the sky. +What to him were the stars, or the flowers, or the moon rising in dewy +splendour? His eyes were fixed upon one, who was brighter to him than +the stars, lovelier than the moon when she drives her antelopes through +the heavens, sweeter than the night-flower which opens in her beam. + +"O Amrà!" he said, at length, and while he spoke his voice trembled even +at its own tenderness, "Amrà! beautiful and beloved sister! thine eyes +are filled with the glory of that sparkling firmament! the breath of the +evening, which agitates the silky filaments of the Seris, is as pleasant +to thee as to me: but the beauty, which I see, thou canst not see; the +power of deep joy, which thrills over my heart like the breeze over +those floating lotuses--oh! _this_ thou canst not feel!--Let me take +away those pearls and gems scattered among thy radiant tresses, and +replace them with these fragrant and golden clusters of Champac flowers! +If ever there were beauty, which could disdain the aid of ornament, is +it not that of Amrà? If ever there were purity, truth, and goodness, +which could defy the powers of evil, are they not thine? O, then, let +others braid their hair with pearls, and bind round their arms the +demon-scaring amulet, my sister needs no spells to guard her innocence, +and cannot wear a gem that does not hide a charm!" + +The blush, which the beginning of this passionate speech had called up +to her cheek, was changed to a smile, as she looked down upon the mystic +circle of gold, which bound her arm. + +"It is not a talisman," said she, softly; "it is the Tali, the nuptial +bracelet, which was bound upon my arm when I was married." + +"_Married!_" the word rent away from the heart of Govinda that veil, +with which he had hitherto shrouded his secret hopes, fears, wishes, and +affections. His mute agitation sent a trouble into her heart, she knew +not why. She blushed quick-kindling blushes, and drooped her head. + +"Married!" he said, after a breathless pause; "when? to whom? who is +the possessor of a gem of such exceeding price, and yet forbears to +claim it?" + +She replied, "To Adhar, priest of Indore, and the friend of Sarma. I was +married to him while yet an infant, after the manner of our tribe." Then +perceiving his increasing disturbance, she continued, hurriedly, and +with downcast eyes:--"I have never seen him; he has long dwelt in the +countries of the south, whither he was called on an important mission; +but he will soon return to reside here in the sacred city of his fathers, +and will leave it no more. Why then should Govinda be sad?" She laid her +hand timidly upon his arm, and looked up in his face. + +Govinda would fain have taken that beautiful little hand, and covered +it with kisses and with tears; but he was restrained by a feeling of +respect, which he could not himself comprehend. He feared to alarm her; +he contented himself with fixing his eyes on the hand which rested on +his arm; and he said, in a soft melancholy voice, "When Adhar returns, +Govinda will be forgotten." + +"O never! never!" she exclaimed with sudden emotion, and lifting towards +him eyes, that floated in tears. Govinda bent down his head, and pressed +his lips upon her hand. She withdrew it hastily, and rose from the +ground. + +At that moment her nurse, Gautami, approached them. "My child," said +she, in a tone of reproof, "dost thou yet linger here, and the auspicious +moment almost past? If thou delayest longer, evil demons will disturb and +consume the pious oblation, and the dead will frown upon the abandoned +altar. Hasten, my daughter; take up the basket of offerings, and walk +before us." + +Amrà, trembling, leaned upon her maids, and prepared to obey; but when +she had made a few steps, she turned back, as if to salute her brother, +and repeated in a low emphatic tone the word "_Never!_"--then turned +away. Govinda stood looking after the group, till the last wave of their +white veils disappeared; and listened till the tinkling of their silver +anklets could no longer be distinguished. Then he started as from a dream: +he tossed his arms above his head; he flung himself upon the earth in +an agony of jealous fury; he gave way to all the pent-up passions, which +had been for years accumulating in his heart. All at once he rose: he +walked to and fro; he stopped. A hope had darted into his mind, even +through the gloom of despair. "For what," thought he, "have I sold myself? +For riches! for honour! for power! Ah! what are they in such a moment? +Dust of the earth, toys, empty breath! For what is the word of the Great +King pledged to me? Has he not sworn to refuse me nothing? All that is +most precious between earth and heaven, from the mountain to the sea, +lies at my choice! One word, and she is mine! and I hesitate? Fool! she +_shall_ be mine!" + +He looked up towards heaven, and marked the places of the stars. "It is +the appointed hour," he muttered, and cautiously his eye glanced around, +and he listened; but all was solitary and silent. He then stole along +the path, which led through a thick grove of Cadam trees, intermingled +with the tall points of the Cusa grass, that shielded him from all +observation. He came at last to a little promontory, where the river we +have mentioned threw itself into the Ganges. He had not been there above +a minute, when a low whistle, like the note of the Chacora, was heard. +A small boat rowed to the shore, and Sahib stood before him. Quick +of eye and apprehension, the mute perceived instantly that something +unusual had occurred. He pointed to the skiff; but Govinda shook his +head, and made signs for a light and the writing implements. They were +quickly brought; and while Sahib held the lamp, so that its light +was invisible to the opposite shore, Govinda wrote, in the peculiar +cipher they had framed for that purpose, a few words to his brother, +sufficiently intelligible in their import, though dictated by the +impassioned and tumultuous feelings of the moment. When he had finished, +he gave the letter to Sahib, who concealed it carefully in the folds of +his turban, and then, holding up the fingers of both hands thrice over, +to intimate, that in thirty days he would bring the answer, he sprung +into the boat, and was soon lost under the mighty shadow of the trees, +which stretched their huge boughs over the stream. + +Govinda slowly returned; but he saw Amrà no more that night. They met +the next day, and the next; but Amrà was no longer the same: she was +silent, pensive; and when pressed or rebuked, she became tearful and +even sullen. She was always seen with her faithful Gautami, upon whose +arm she leaned droopingly, and hung her head like her own neglected +flowers. Govinda was almost distracted: in vain he watched for a moment +to speak to Amrà alone; the vigilant Gautami seemed resolved, that they +should never meet out of her sight. Sometimes he would raise his eyes to +her as she passed, with such a look of tender and sorrowful reproach, +that Amrà would turn away her face and weep: but still she spoke not: +and never returned his respectful salutation farther than by inclining +her head. + +The old Brahman perceived this change in his beloved daughter; but not +for some time: and it is probable, that, being absorbed in his spiritual +office and sublime speculations, he would have had neither leisure nor +penetration to discover the cause, if the suspicions of the careful +Gautami had not awakened his attention. She ventured to suggest the +propriety of hastening the return of his daughter's betrothed husband; +and the Brahman, having taken her advice in this particular, rested +satisfied; persuading himself, that the arrival of Adhar would be a +certain and all-sufficient remedy for the dreaded evil, which in his +simplicity he had never contemplated, and could scarcely be made to +comprehend. + +A month had thus passed away, and again that appointed day came round, +on which Govinda was wont to meet his brother's emissary: even on +ordinary occasions he could never anticipate it without a thrill of +anxiety,--now every feeling was wrought up to agony; yet it was necessary +to control the slightest sign of impatience, and wear the same external +guise of calm, subdued self-possession, though every vein was burning +with the fever of suspense. + +It was the hour when Sarma, having risen from his mid-day sleep, was +accustomed to listen to Govinda while he read some appointed text. +Accordingly Govinda opened his book, and standing before his preceptor +in an attitude of profound humility, he read thus: + +"Garuna asked of the Crow Bushanda, 'What is the most excellent of +natural forms? the highest good? the chief pain? the dearest pleasure? +the greatest wickedness? the severest punishment? + +"And the Crow Bushanda answered him: 'In the three worlds, empyreal, +terrestrial, and infernal, no form excels the human form. + +"'Supreme felicity, on earth, is found in the conversation of a virtuous +friend. + +"'The keenest pain is inflicted by extreme poverty. + +"'The worst of sins is uncharitableness; and to the uncharitable is +awarded the severest punishment: for while the despisers of their +spiritual guides shall live for a thousand centuries as frogs, and +those who contemn the Brahmans as ravens, and those who scorn other +men as blinking bats, the uncharitable alone shall be condemned to the +profoundest hell, and their punishment shall last for ever.'"[24] + +Govinda closed his book; and the old Brahman was proceeding to make an +elaborate comment on this venerable text, when, looking up in the face +of his pupil, he perceived that he was pale, abstracted, and apparently +unconscious that he was speaking. He stopped: he was about to rebuke +him, but he restrained himself; and after reflecting for a few moments, +he commanded the youth to prepare for the evening sacrifice: but first +he desired him to summon Amrà to her father's presence. + +At this unusual command Govinda almost started. He deposited the sacred +leaves in his bosom, and, with a beating heart and trembling steps, +prepared to obey. When he reached the door of the zenana, he gently +lifted the silken curtain which divided the apartments, and stood for a +few moments contemplating, with silent and sad delight, the group that +met his view. + +Amrà was reclining upon cushions, and looking wan as a star that fades +away before the dawn. Her head drooped upon her bosom, her hair hung +neglected upon her shoulders: yet was she lovely still; and Govinda, +while he gazed, remembered the words of the poet Calidas: "The water-lily, +though dark moss may settle on its head, is nevertheless beautiful; and +the moon, with dewy beams, is rendered yet brighter by its dark spots." +She was clasping round her delicate wrist a bracelet of gems; and when +she observed, that ever as she placed it on her attenuated arm it fell +again upon her hand, she shook her head and smiled mournfully. Two +of her maids sat at her feet, occupied in their embroidery; and old +Gautami, at her side, was relating, in a slow, monotonous recitative, +one of her thousand tales of wonder, to divert the melancholy of her +young mistress. She told how the demi-god Rama was forced to flee +from the demons who had usurped his throne, and how his beautiful and +faithful Seita wandered over the whole earth in search of her consort; +and, being at length overcome with grief and fatigue, she sat down in +the pathless wilderness and wept; and how there arose from the spot, +where her tears sank warm into the earth, a fountain of boiling water +of exquisite clearness and wondrous virtues; and how maidens, who make +a pilgrimage to this sacred well and dip their veils into its wave with +pure devotion, ensure themselves the utmost felicity in marriage: thus +the story ran. Amrà, who appeared at first abstracted and inattentive, +began to be affected by the misfortunes and the love of the beautiful +Seita; and at the mention of the fountain and its virtues, she lifted +her eyes with an expression of eager interest, and met those of Govinda +fixed upon her. She uttered a faint cry, and threw herself into the arms +of Gautami. He hastened to deliver the commands of his preceptor, and +then Amrà, recovering her self-possession, threw her veil round her, +arose, and followed him to her father's presence. + +As they drew near together, the old man looked from one to the other. +Perhaps his heart, though dead to all human passions, felt at that +moment a touch of pity for the youthful, lovely, and loving pair who +stood before him; but his look was calm, cold, and serene, as usual. + +"Draw near, my son," he said; "and thou, my beloved daughter, approach, +and listen to the will of your father. The time is come, when we must +make ready all things for the arrival of the wise and honoured Adhar. +My daughter, let those pious ceremonies, with which virtuous women +prepare themselves ere they enter the dwelling of their husband, be duly +performed: and do thou, Govinda, son of my choice, set my household +in order, that all may be in readiness to receive with honour the +bridegroom, who comes to claim his betrothed. To-morrow we will +sacrifice to Ganesa, who is the guardian of travellers: this night + +must be given to penance and holy meditation. Amrà, retire: and thou, +Govinda, take up that fagot of Tulsi-wood, with the rice and the flowers +for the evening oblation, and follow me to the temple." So saying, the +old man turned away hastily; and without looking back, pursued his path +through the sacred grove. + +Alas for those he had left behind! Govinda remained silent and +motionless. Amrà would have obeyed her father, but her limbs refused +their office. She trembled--she was sinking: she timidly looked up to +Govinda as if for support; his arms were extended to receive her: she +fell upon his neck, and wept unrestrained tears. He held her to his +bosom as though he would have folded her into his inmost heart, and +hidden her there for ever. He murmured passionate words of transport +and fondness in her ear. He drew aside her veil from her pale brow, +and ventured to print a kiss upon her closed eyelids. "To-night," he +whispered, "in the grove of mangoes by the river's bank!" She answered +only by a mute caress; and then supporting her steps to her own +apartments, he resigned her to the arms of her attendants, and hastened +after his preceptor. He forgot, however, the materials for the evening +sacrifice, and in consequence not only had to suffer a severe rebuke +from the old priest, but the infliction of a penance extraordinary, +which detained him in the presence of his preceptor till the night was +far advanced. At length, however, Sarma retired to holy meditation and +mental abstraction, and Govinda was dismissed. + +He had hitherto maintained, with habitual and determined self-command, +that calm, subdued exterior, which becomes a pupil in the presence +of his religious teacher; but no sooner had he crossed the threshold, +and found himself alone breathing the free night-air of heaven, than +the smothered passions burst forth. He paused for one instant, to +anathematise in his soul the Sastras and their contents, the gods and +their temples, the priests and the sacrifices; the futile ceremonies +and profitless suffering to which his life was abandoned, and the cruel +policy to which he had been made an unwilling victim. Then he thought +of Amrà, and all things connected with her changed their aspect. + +In another moment he was beneath the shadow of the mangoes on the +river's brink. He looked round, Amrà was not there: he listened, there +was no sound. The grass bore marks of having been recently pressed, +and still its perfume floated on the air. A few flowers were scattered +round, fresh gathered, and glittering with dew. Govinda wrung his hands +in despair, and flung himself upon the bank, where a month before they +had sat together. On the very spot where Amrà had reclined, he perceived +a lotos-leaf and a palàsa flower laid together. Upon the lotos-leaf +he could perceive written, with a thorn or some sharp point, the word +AMRÀ; and the crimson palasa-buds were sacred to the dead. It was +sufficient: he thrust the leaf and the flowers into his bosom; and, "swift +as the sparkle of a glancing star," he flew along the path which led to +the garden sepulchre. + +The mother of Amrà had died in giving birth to her only child. She was +young, beautiful, and virtuous; and had lived happily with her husband +notwithstanding the disparity of age. The pride and stoicism of his +caste would not allow him to betray any violence of grief, or show +his affection for the dead, otherwise than by raising to her memory a +beautiful tomb. It consisted of four light pillars, richly and grotesquely +carved, supporting a pointed cupola, beneath which was an altar for +oblations: the whole was overlaid with brilliant white stucco, and +glittered through the gloom. A flight of steps led up to this edifice: +upon the highest step, and at the foot of the altar, Amrà was seated +alone and weeping. + +Love--O love! what have I to do with thee? How sinks the heart, how +trembles the hand as it approaches the forbidden theme! Of all the gifts +the gods have sent upon the earth thou most precious--yet ever most +fatal! As serpents dwell among the odorous boughs of the sandal-tree, +and alligators in the thrice sacred waters of the Ganges, so all that is +sweetest, holiest, dearest upon earth, is mixed up with sin, and pain, +and misery, and evil! Thus hath it been ordained from the beginning; and +the love that hath never mourned, is not love. + +How sweet, yet how terrible, were the moments that succeeded! While +Govinda, with fervid eloquence, poured out his whole soul at her feet, +Amrà alternately melted with tenderness, or shrunk with sensitive alarm. +When he darkly intimated the irresistible power he possessed to overcome +all obstacles to their union--when he spoke with certainty of the time +when she should be his, spite of the world and men--when he described +the glorious height to which his love would elevate her--the delights +and the treasures he would lavish around her, she, indeed, understood +not his words; yet, with all a woman's trusting faith in him she loves, +she hung upon his accents--listened and believed. The high and passionate +energy, with which his spirit, so long pent up and crushed within him, +now revealed itself; the consciousness of his own power, the knowledge +that he was beloved, lent such a new and strange expression to his +whole aspect, and touched his fine form and features with such a proud +and sparkling beauty, that Amrà looked up at him with a mixture of +astonishment, admiration, and deep love, not wholly unmingled with fear; +almost believing, that she gazed upon some more than mortal lover, upon +one of those bright genii, who inhabit the lower heaven, and have been +known in the old time to leave their celestial haunts for love of the +earth-born daughters of beauty. + +Amrà did not speak, but Govinda felt his power. He saw his advantage, +and, with the instinctive subtlety of his sex, he pursued it. He sighed, +he wept, he implored, he upbraided. Amrà, overpowered by his emotion +and her own, had turned away her head, and embraced one of the pillars +of her mother's tomb, as if for protection. In accents of the most +plaintive tenderness she entreated him to leave her--to spare her--and +even while she spoke her arm relaxed its hold, and she was yielding to +the gentle force with which he endeavoured to draw her away; when at +this moment, so dangerous to both, a startling sound was heard--a +rustling among the bushes, and then a soft, low whistle. Govinda started +up at that well-known signal, and saw the head of the mute appearing +just above the altar. His turban being green, was undistinguishable +against the leafy back-ground; and his small black eyes glanced and +glittered like those of a snake. Govinda would willingly have annihilated +him at that moment. He made a gesture of angry impatience, and motioned +him to retire; but Sahib stood still, shook his hand with a threatening +expression, and made signs, that he must instantly follow him. + +Amrà, meantime, who had neither seen nor heard any thing, began to +suspect, that Govinda was communing with some invisible spirit; she +clung to him in terror, and endeavoured to recall his attention to +herself by the most tender and soothing words and caresses. After some +time he succeeded in calming her fears; and with a thousand promises of +quick return, he at length tore himself away, and followed through the +thicket the form of Sahib, who glided like a shadow before him. + +When they reached the accustomed spot, the mute leapt into the canoe, +which he had made fast to the root of a mango-tree, and motioning +Govinda to follow him, he pushed from the shore, and rowed rapidly till +they reached a tall, bare rock near the centre of the stream, beneath +the dark shadow of which Sahib moored his little boat, out of the +possible reach of human eye or ear. + +All had passed so quickly, that Govinda felt like one in a dream; but +now, awakening to a sense of his situation, he held out his hand for the +expected letter from his brother, trembling to learn its import, upon +which he felt that more than his life depended. Sahib, meanwhile, did +not appear in haste to obey. At length, after a pause of breathless +suspense, Govinda heard a low and well-remembered voice repeat an +almost-forgotten name: "Faizi!" it said. + +"O Prophet of God! my brother!" and he was clasped in the arms of Abul +Fazil. + +After the first transports of recognition had subsided, Faizi (it is +time to use his real name) sank from his brother's arms to his feet: he +clasped his knees. "My brother!" he exclaimed, "what is now to be my +fate? You have not lightly assumed this disguise, and braved the danger +of discovery! You know all, and have come to save me--to bless me? Is it +not so?" + +Abul Fazil could not see his brother's uplifted countenance, flushed +with the hectic of feverish impatience, or his imploring eyes, that +floated in tears; but his tones were sufficiently expressive. + +"Poor boy!" he said, compassionately, "I should have foreseen this. But +calm these transports, my brother! nothing is denied to the sultan's +power, and nothing will he deny thee." + +"He knows all, then?" + +"All--and by his command am I come. I had feared, that my brother had +sold his vowed obedience for the smile of a dark-eyed girl--what shall +I say?--I feared for his safety!" + +"O my brother! there is no cause!" + +"I know it--enough!--I have seen and heard!" + +Faizi covered his face with his hands. + +"If the sultan----" + +"Have no doubts," said Abul Fazil: "nothing is denied to the sultan's +power, nothing will be denied to thee." + +"And the Brahman Adhar?" + +"It has been looked to--he will not trouble thee." + +"_Dead?_ O merciful Allah! crime upon crime!" + +"His life is cared for," said Abul Fazil, calmly: "ask no more." + +"It is sufficient. O my brother! O Amrà!"-- + +"She is thine!--Now hear the will of Akbar." Faizi bowed his head with +submission. "Speak!" he said; "the slave of Akbar listens." + +"In three months from this time," continued Abul Fazil, "and on this +appointed night, it will be dark, and the pagodas deserted. Then, and +not till then, will Sahib be found at the accustomed spot. He will +bring in the skiff a dress, which is the sultan's gift, and will be +a sufficient disguise. On the left bank of the stream there shall be +stationed an ample guard, with a close litter and a swift Arabian. Thou +shalt mount the one, and in the other shall be placed this fair girl. +Then fly: having first flung her veil upon the river to beguile pursuit; +the rest I leave to thine own quick wit. But let all be done with secrecy +and subtlety; for the sultan, though he can refuse thee nothing, would +not willingly commit an open wrong against a people he has lately +conciliated; and the violation of a Brahminee woman were enough to raise +a province." + +"It shall not need," exclaimed the youth, clasping his hands: "she loves +me! She shall live for me--only for me--while others weep her dead!" + +"It is well: now return we in silence, the night wears fast away." He +took one of the oars, Faizi seized the other, and with some difficulty +they rowed up the stream, keeping close under the overshadowing banks. +Having reached the little promontory, they parted with a strict and mute +embrace. + +Faizi looked for a moment after his brother, then sprung forward to the +spot where he had left Amrà; but she was no longer there: apparently she +had been recalled by her nurse to her own apartments, and did not again +make her appearance. + +Three months more completed the five years which had been allotted for +Govinda's Brahminical studies; they passed but too rapidly away. During +this time the Brahman Adhar did not arrive, nor was his name again +uttered: and Amrà, restored to health, was more than ever tender and +beautiful, and more than ever beloved. + +The old Brahman, who had hitherto maintained towards his pupil and adopted +son a cold and distant demeanour, now relaxed from his accustomed +austerity, and when he addressed him it was in a tone of mildness, and +even tenderness. Alas for Govinda! every proof of this newly-awakened +affection pierced his heart with unavailing remorse. He had lived long +enough among the Brahmans, to anticipate with terror the effects of his +treachery, when once discovered; but he repelled such obtrusive images, +and resolutely shut his eyes against a future, which he could neither +control nor avert. He tried to persuade himself, that it was now too +late; that the stoical indifference to all earthly evil, passion, +and suffering, which the Pundit Sarma taught and practised, would +sufficiently arm him against the double blow preparing for him. Yet, as +the hour approached, the fever of suspense consumed his heart. Contrary +passions distracted and bewildered him: his ideas of right and wrong +became fearfully perplexed. He would have given the treasures of Istakar +to arrest the swift progress of time. He felt like one entangled in the +wheels of some vast machine, and giddily and irresistibly whirled along +he knew not how nor whither. + +At length the day arrived: the morning broke forth in all that splendour +with which she descends upon "the Indian steep." Govinda prepared +for the early sacrifice, the last he was to perform. In spite of the +heaviness and confusion which reigned in his own mind, he could perceive +that something unusual occupied the thoughts of his preceptor: some +emotion of a pleasurable kind had smoothed the old man's brow. His +voice was softened; and though his lips were compressed, almost a smile +lighted up his eyes, when he turned them on Govinda. The sacrifice was +one of unusual pomp and solemnity, in honour of the goddess Parvati, and +lasted till the sun's decline. When they returned to the dwelling of +Sarma he dismissed his pupils from their learned exercises, desiring +them to make that day a day of rest and recreation, as if it were the +festival of Sri, the goddess of learning, when books, pens, and paper, +being honoured as her emblems, remain untouched, and her votaries enjoy +a sabbath. When they were departed, the old Brahman commanded Govinda to +seat himself on the ground opposite to him. This being the first time he +had ever sat in the presence of his preceptor, the young man hesitated; +but Sarma motioned him to obey, and accordingly he sat down at a +respectful distance, keeping his eyes reverently cast upon the ground. +The old man then spoke these words: + +"It is now five years since the son of Mitra entered my dwelling. He was +then but a child, helpless, orphaned, ignorant of all true knowledge; +expelled from the faith of his fathers and the privileges of his high +caste. I took him to my heart with joy, I fed him, I clothed him, I +opened his mind to truth, I poured into his soul the light of knowledge: +he became to me a son. If in any thing I have omitted the duty of a +father towards him, if ever I refused to him the wish of his heart or +the desire of his eyes, let him now speak!" + +"O my father!"-- + +"No more," said the Brahman, gently, "I am answered in that one word; +but all that I have yet done seems as nothing in mine eyes: for the love +I bear my son is wide as the wide earth, and my bounty shall be as the +boundless firmament. Know that I have read thy soul! Start not! I have +received letters from the south country. Amrà is no longer the wife of +Adhar; for Adhar has vowed himself to a life of penance and celibacy in +the temple of Indore, by order of an offended prince;--may he find peace! +The writings of divorce are drawn up, and my daughter being already past +the age when a prudent father hastens to marry his child, in order that +the souls of the dead may be duly honoured by their posterity, I have +sought for her a husband, such as a parent might desire; learned in the +sciences, graced with every virtue; of unblemished life, of unmixed +caste, and rich in the goods of this world." + +The Brahman stopped short. Faizi, breathing with difficulty, felt his +blood pause at his heart. + +"My son!" continued the old man, "I have not coveted possessions or +riches, but the gods have blessed me with prosperity; be they praised +for their gifts! Look around upon this fair dwelling, upon those fertile +lands, which spread far and wide, a goodly prospect; and the herds that +feed on them, and the bondsmen who cultivate them; with silver and gold, +and garments, and rich stores heaped up, more than I can count--all +these do I give thee freely: possess them! and with them I give thee a +greater gift, and one that I well believe is richer and dearer in thine +eyes--my daughter, my last and best treasure! Thus do I resign all +worldly cares, devoting myself henceforth solely to pious duties and +religious meditation: for the few days he has to live, let the old man +repose upon thy love! A little water, a little rice, a roof to shelter +him, these thou shalt bestow--he asks no more." + +The Brahman's voice faltered. He rose, and Govinda stood up, trembling +in every nerve. The old priest then laid his hand solemnly upon his +bowed head and blessed him. "My son! to me far better than many sons, be +thou blest as thou hast blessed me! The just gods requite thee with full +measure all thou hast done! May the wife I bestow on thee bring to thy +bosom all the felicity thou broughtest to me and mine, and thy last +hours be calm and bright, as those thy love has prepared for me!" + +"Ah, curse me not!" exclaimed Govinda, with a cry of horror; for in +the anguish of that moment he felt as if the bitter malediction, thus +unconsciously pronounced, was already fulfilling. He flung himself upon +the earth in an agony of self-humiliation; he crawled to the feet of +his preceptor, he kissed them, he clasped his knees. In broken words he +revealed himself, and confessed the treacherous artifice of which he +was at once the instrument and the victim. The Brahman stood motionless, +scarcely comprehending the words spoken. At length he seemed to awaken +to the sense of what he heard, and trembled from head to foot with an +exceeding horror; but he uttered no word of reproach: and after a pause, +he suddenly drew the sacrificial poniard from his girdle, and would have +plunged it into his own bosom, if Faizi had not arrested his arm, and +without difficulty snatched the weapon from his shaking and powerless +grasp. + +"If yet there be mercy for me," he exclaimed, "add not to my crimes +this worst of all--make me not a sacrilegious murderer! Here," he +added, kneeling, and opening his bosom, "strike! satisfy at once a just +vengeance, and end all fears in the blood of an abhorred betrayer! +Strike, ere it be too late!" + +The old man twice raised his hand, but it was without strength. He +dropped the knife, and folding his arms, and sinking his head upon his +bosom, he remained silent. + +"O yet!" exclaimed Faizi, lifting with reverence the hem of his robe and +pressing it to his lips, "if there remain a hope for me, tell me by what +penance--terrible, prolonged, and unheard-of--I may expiate this sin; +and hear me swear, that, henceforth, neither temptation, nor torture, +nor death itself, shall force me to reveal the secrets of the Brahmin +faith, nor divulge the holy characters in which they are written: and +if I break this vow, may I perish from off the earth like a dog!" + +The Brahman clasped his hands, and turned his eyes for a moment on the +imploring countenance of the youth, but averted them instantly with a +shudder. + +"What have I to do with thee," he said, at length, "thou serpent! Well +is it written--'Though the upas-tree were watered with nectar from +heaven instead of dew, yet would it bear poison.' Yet swear--" + +"I do--I will--" + +"Never to behold my face again, nor utter with those guileful and +polluted lips the name of my daughter." + +"My father!" + +"Father!" repeated the old man, with a flash of indignation, but it +was instantly subdued. "Swear!" he repeated, "if vows can bind a thing +so vile!" + +"My father, I embrace thy knees! Not heaven itself can annul the past, +and Amrà is mine beyond the power of fate or vengeance to disunite +us--but by death!" + +"Hah!" said the Brahman, stepping back, "it is then as I feared! and +this is well too!"--he muttered; "Heaven required a victim!" + +He moved slowly to the door, and called his daughter with a loud voice: +Amrà heard and trembled in the recesses of her apartments. The voice was +her father's, but the tones of that voice made her soul sicken with +fear; and, drawing her drapery round to conceal that alteration in her +lovely form which was but too apparent, she came forth with faltering +steps. + +"Approach!" said the Brahman, fixing his eyes upon her, while those of +Faizi, after the first eager glance, remained rivetted to the earth. +She drew near with affright, and gazed wildly from one to the other. + +"Ay! look well upon him! whom dost thou behold?" + +"My father!--Ah! spare me!" + +"Is he your husband?" + +"Govinda! alas!--speak for us!"-- + +"Fool!"--he grasped her supplicating hands,--"say but the word--are you +a wife?" + +"I am! I am! _his_, before the face of Heaven!" + +"No!"--he dropped her hands, and spoke in a rapid and broken voice: +"No! Heaven disclaims the monstrous mixture! hell itself rejects it! Had +he been the meanest among the sons of Brahma, I had borne it: but an +Infidel, a base-born Moslem, has contaminated the stream of my life! +Accursed was the hour when he came beneath my roof, like a treacherous +fox and a ravening wolf, to betray and to destroy! Accursed was the +hour, which mingled the blood of Narayna with that of the son of a +slave-girl! Shall I live to look upon a race of outcasts, abhorred on +earth and excommunicate from heaven, and say, 'These are the offspring +of Sarma?' Miserable girl! thou wert preordained a sacrifice! Die! and +thine infamy perish with thee!" Even while he spoke he snatched up the +poniard which lay at his feet, but this he needed not--the blow was +already struck home, and to her very heart. Before the vengeful steel +could reach her, she fell, without a cry--a groan--senseless, and, as +it seemed, lifeless, upon the earth. + +Faizi, almost with a shriek, sprang forward; but the old man interposed: +and, with the strong grasp of supernatural strength--the strength of +despair--held him back. Meantime the women, alarmed by his cries, +rushed wildly in, and bore away in their arms the insensible form of +Amrà. Faizi strove to follow; but, at a sign from the Brahman, the door +was quickly closed and fastened within, so that it resisted all his +efforts to force it. He turned almost fiercely--"She will yet live!" +he passionately exclaimed; and the Brahman replied, calmly and +disdainfully, "If she be the daughter of Sarma, she will die!" Then +rending his garments, and tearing off his turban, he sat down upon the +sacrificial hearth; and taking up dust and ashes, scattered them on his +bare head and flowing beard: he then remained motionless, with his chin +upon his bosom, and his arms crossed upon his knees. In vain did Faizi +kneel before him, and weep, and supplicate for one word, one look: he +was apparently lost to all consciousness, rigid, torpid; and, but that +he breathed, and that there was at times a convulsive movement in his +eyelids, it might have been thought, that life itself was suspended, or +had altogether ceased. + +Thus did this long and most miserable day wear away, and night came on. +Faizi--who had spent the hours in walking to and fro like a troubled +demon, now listening at the door of the zenana, from which no sound +proceeded, now endeavouring in vain to win, by the most earnest +entreaties, some sign of life or recognition from the old man--could +no longer endure the horror of his own sensations. He stepped into the +open air, and leaned his head against the porch. The breeze, which blew +freshly against his parched lips and throbbing temples, revived his +faculties. After a few moments he thought he could distinguish voices, +and the trampling of men and horses, borne on the night air. He raised +his hands in ecstacy. Again he bent his ear to listen: he heard the +splash of an oar. "They come!" he exclaimed, almost aloud, "one more +plunge, and it is done! This hapless and distracted old man I will save +from his own and other's fury, and still be to him a son, in his own +despite. And, Amrà! my own! my beautiful! my beloved! oh, how richly +shall the future atone for these hours of anguish! In these arms the +cruel pride and prejudices of thy race shall be forgotten. At thy feet +I will pour the treasures of the world, and lift thee to joys beyond +the brightest visions of youthful fancy! But--O merciful Allah!"-- + +At the same moment a long, loud, and piercing shriek was heard from the +women's apartments, followed by lamentable wailings. He made but one +bound to the door. It resisted, but his despair was strong. He rushed +against it with a force, that burst it from its hinges, and precipitated +him into the midst of the chamber. It was empty and dark; so was the +next, and the next. At last he reached the inner and most sacred +apartment. He beheld the lifeless form of Amrà extended on the ground. +Over her face was thrown an embroidered veil: her head rested on the lap +of her nurse, whose features appeared rigid with horror. The rest of the +women, who were weeping and wailing, covered their heads, and fled at +his approach. Faizi called upon the name of her he loved: he snatched +the veil from that once lovely face--that face which had never been +revealed to him but in tender and soul-beaming beauty. He looked, and +fell senseless on the floor. + +The unhappy Amrà, in recovering from her long swoon, had fallen into +a stupor, which her attendants mistook for slumber, and left her for a +short interval. She awoke, wretched girl! alone, she awoke to the sudden +and maddening sense of her lost state, to all the pangs of outraged +love, violated faith, shame, anguish, and despair. In a paroxysm of +delirium, when none were near to soothe or to save, she had made her own +luxuriant and beautiful tresses the instrument of her destruction, and +choked herself by swallowing her hair. + +When the emissaries of the sultan entered this house of desolation, they +found Faizi still insensible at the side of her he had so loved. He was +borne away before recollection returned, placed in the litter which had +been prepared for Amrà, and earned to Ferrukabad, where the sultan was +then hunting with his whole court. What became of the old Brahman is +not known. He passed away like a shadow from the earth, "and his place +knew him not." Whether he sought a voluntary death, or wore away his +remaining years in secret penance, can only be conjectured, for all +search was vain. + +Eastern records tell, that Faizi kept his promise sacred, and never +revealed the mysteries intrusted to him. Yet he retained the favour of +Akbar, by whose command he translated from the Sanscrit tongue several +poetical and historical works into the choicest Persian. He became himself +an illustrious poet; and, like other poets of greater fame, created +"an immortality of his tears." He acquired the title of _Sheich_, or +"the learned," and rose to the highest civil offices of the empire. All +outward renown, prosperity, and fame, were his; but there was, at least, +retributive justice in his early and tragical death. + +Towards the conclusion of Akbar's reign, Abul Fazil was sent upon a +secret mission into the Deccan, and Faizi accompanied him. The favour +which these celebrated brothers enjoyed at court, their influence over +the mind of the sultan, and their entire union, had long excited the +jealousy of Prince Selim,[25] the eldest son of Akbar, and he had vowed +their destruction. On their return from the south, with a small escort, +they were attacked by a numerous band of assassins, disguised as robbers, +and both perished. Faizi was found lying upon the body of Abul Fazil, +whom he had bravely defended to the last. The death of these illustrious +brothers was lamented, not only within the bounds of the empire, but +through all the kingdoms of the East, whither their fame had extended; +and by the sultan's command they were interred together, and with +extraordinary pomp. One incident only remains to be added. When the +bodies were stripped for burial, there was found within the inner vest +of the Sheich Faizi, and close to his heart, a withered Lotus leaf +inscribed with certain characters. So great was the fame of the dead for +wisdom, learning, and devotion, that it was supposed to be a talisman +endued with extraordinary virtues, and immediately transmitted to the +sultan. Akbar considered the relic with surprise. It was nothing but +a simple Lotus leaf, faded, shrivelled, and stained with blood; but on +examining it more closely, he could trace, in ill-formed and scarcely +legible Indian letters, the word AMRÀ. + +And when Akbar looked upon this tender memorial of a hapless love, and +undying sorrow, his great heart melted within him, and he wept. + + + + +HALLORAN THE PEDLAR.[26] + + +"It grieves me," said an eminent poet once to me, "it grieves and +humbles me to reflect how much our moral nature is in the power of +circumstances. Our best faculties would remain unknown even to ourselves +did not the influences of external excitement call them forth like +animalculæ, which lie torpid till awakened into life by the transient +sunbeam." + +This is generally true. How many walk through the beaten paths of +every-day life, who but for the novelist's page would never weep or +wonder; and who would know nothing of the passions but as they are +represented in some tragedy or stage piece? not that they are incapable +of high resolve and energy; but because the finer qualities have never +been called forth by imperious circumstances; for while the wheels of +existence roll smoothly along, the soul will continue to slumber in her +vehicle like a lazy traveller. But for the French revolution, how many +hundreds--_thousands_--whose courage, fortitude, and devotedness have +sanctified their names, would have frittered away a frivolous, useless, +or vicious life in the saloons of Paris! We have heard of death in its +most revolting forms braved by delicate females, who would have screamed +at the sight of the most insignificant reptile or insect; and men +cheerfully toiling at mechanic trades for bread, who had lounged away +the best years of their lives at the toilettes of their mistresses. We +know not of what we are capable till the trial comes;--till it comes, +perhaps, in a form which makes the strong man quail, and turns the +gentler woman into a heroine. + +The power of outward circumstances suddenly to awaken dormant +faculties--the extraordinary influence which the mere instinct of +self-preservation can exert over the mind, and the triumph of mind thus +excited over physical weakness, were never more truly exemplified than +in the story of HALLORAN THE PEDLAR. + +The real circumstances of this singular case, differing essentially from +the garbled and incorrect account which appeared in the newspapers some +years ago, came to my knowledge in the following simple manner. My +cousin George C * * *, an Irish barrister of some standing, lately +succeeded to his family estates by the death of a near relative; and no +sooner did he find himself in possession of independence than, abjuring +the bar, where, after twenty years of hard struggling, he was just +beginning to make a figure, he set off on a tour through Italy and +Greece, to forget the wrangling of courts, the contumely of attornies, +and the impatience of clients. He left in my hands a mass of papers, +to burn or not, as I might feel inclined: and truly the contents of +his desk were no bad illustration of the character and pursuits of +its owner. Here I found abstracts of cases, and on their backs copies +of verses, sketches of scenery, and numerous caricatures of judges, +jurymen, witnesses, and his brethren of the bar--a bundle of old briefs, +and the beginnings of two tragedies; with a long list of Lord N----'s +best jokes to serve his purposes as occasion might best offer. Among +these heterogeneous and confused articles were a number of scraps +carefully pinned together, containing notes on a certain trial, the first +in which he had been retained as counsel for the crown. The intense +interest with which I perused these documents, suggested the plan of +throwing the whole into a connected form, and here it is for the +reader's benefit. + +In a little village to the south of Clonmell lived a poor peasant named +Michael, or as it was there pronounced Mickle Reilly. He was a labourer +renting a cabin and a plot of potatoe-ground; and, on the strength +of these possessions, a robust frame which feared no fatigue, and a +sanguine mind which dreaded no reverse, Reilly paid his addresses to +Cathleen Bray, a young girl of his own parish, and they were married. +Reilly was able, skilful, and industrious; Cathleen was the best spinner +in the county, and had constant sale for her work at Clonmell: they +wanted nothing; and for the first year, as Cathleen said, "There wasn't +upon the blessed earth two happier souls than themselves, for Mick was +the best boy in the world, and hadn't a fault to _spake_ of--barring +he took a drop now and then; an' why wouldn't he?" But as it happened, +poor Reilly's love of "_the drop_" was the beginning of all their +misfortunes. In an evil hour he went to the Fair of Clonmell to sell a +dozen hanks of yarn of his wife's spinning, and a fat pig, the produce +of which was to pay half a year's rent, and add to their little +comforts. Here he met with a jovial companion, who took him into a +booth, and treated him to sundry potations of whiskey; and while in his +company his pocket was picked of the money he had just received, and +something more; in short, of all he possessed in the world. At that +luckless moment, while maddened by his loss and heated with liquor, he +fell into the company of a recruiting serjeant. The many-coloured and +gaily fluttering cockade in the soldier's cap shone like a rainbow of +hope and promise before the drunken eyes of Mickle Reilly, and ere +morning he was enlisted into a regiment under orders for embarkation, +and instantly sent off to Cork. + +Distracted by the ruin he had brought upon himself, and his wife, +(whom he loved a thousand times better than himself,) poor Reilly sent a +friend to inform Cathleen of his mischance, and to assure her that on a +certain day, in a week from that time, a letter would await her at the +Clonmell post-office: the same friend was commissioned to deliver her +his silver watch, and a guinea out of his bounty-money. Poor Cathleen +turned from the gold with horror, as the price of her husband's blood, +and vowed that nothing on earth should induce her to touch it. She +was not a good calculator of time and distance, and therefore rather +surprised that so long a time must elapse before his letter arrived. +On the appointed day she was too impatient to wait the arrival of the +carrier, but set off to Clonmell herself, a distance of ten miles: there, +at the post-office, she duly found the promised letter; but it was not +till she had it in her possession that she remembered she could not +read: she had therefore to hasten back to consult her friend Nancy, the +schoolmaster's daughter, and the best scholar in the village. Reilly's +letter, on being deciphered with some difficulty even by the learned +Nancy, was found to contain much of sorrow, much of repentance, and yet +more of affection: he assured her that he was far better off than he had +expected or deserved; that the embarkation of the regiment to which he +belonged was delayed for three weeks, and entreated her, if she could +forgive him, to follow him to Cork without delay, that they might "part +in love and kindness, and then come what might, he would demane himself +like a man, and die asy," which he assured her he could not do without +embracing her once more. + +Cathleen listened to her husband's letter with clasped hands and drawn +breath, but quiet in her nature, she gave no other signs of emotion than +a few large tears which trickled slowly down her cheeks. "And will I +see him again?" she exclaimed; "poor fellow! poor boy! I knew the heart +of him was sore for me! and who knows, Nancy dear, but they'll let me +go out with him to the foreign parts? Oh! sure they wouldn't be so +hard-hearted as to part man and wife that way!" + +After a hurried consultation with her neighbours, who sympathised with +her as only the poor sympathise with the poor, a letter was indited by +Nancy and sent by the carrier that night, to inform her husband that she +purposed setting off for Cork the next blessed morning, being Tuesday, +and as the distance was about forty-eight miles English, she reckoned +on reaching that city by Wednesday afternoon; for as she had walked to +Clonmell and back (about twenty miles) that same day, without feeling +fatigued at all, "_to signify_," Cathleen thought there would be no +doubt that she could walk to Cork in less than two days. In this +sanguine calculation she was, however, overruled by her more experienced +neighbours, and by their advice appointed Thursday as the day on which +her husband was to expect her, "God willing." + +Cathleen spent the rest of the day in making preparations for her +journey: she set her cabin in order, and made a small bundle of a few +articles of clothing belonging to herself and her husband. The watch and +the guinea she wrapped up together, and crammed into the toe of an old +shoe, which she deposited in the said bundle, and the next morning, at +"sparrow chirp," she arose, locked her cabin door, carefully hid the +key in the thatch, and with a light expecting heart commenced her long +journey. + +It is worthy of remark, that this poor woman, who was called upon to +play the heroine in such a strange tragedy, and under such appalling +circumstances, had nothing heroic in her exterior: nothing that in +the slightest degree indicated strength of nerve or superiority of +intellect. Cathleen was twenty-three years of age, of a low stature, and +in her form rather delicate than robust: she was of ordinary appearance; +her eyes were mild and dove-like, and her whole countenance, though not +absolutely deficient in intelligence, was more particularly expressive +of simplicity, good temper, and kindness of heart. + +It was summer, about the end of June: the days were long, the weather +fine, and some gentle showers rendered travelling easy and pleasant. +Cathleen walked on stoutly towards Cork, and by the evening she had +accomplished, with occasional pauses of rest, nearly twenty-one miles. +She lodged at a little inn by the road side, and the following day set +forward again, but soon felt stiff with the travel of two previous days: +the sun became hotter, the ways dustier; and she could not with all +her endeavours get farther than Rathcormuck, eighteen miles from Cork. +The next day, unfortunately for poor Cathleen, proved hotter and more +fatiguing than the preceding. The cross road lay over a wild country, +consisting of low bogs and bare hills. About noon she turned aside to +a rivulet bordered by a few trees, and sitting down in the shade, she +bathed her swollen feet in the stream: then overcome by heat, weakness, +and excessive weariness, she put her little bundle under her head for +a pillow, and sank into a deep sleep. + +On waking she perceived with dismay that the sun was declining: and +on looking about, her fears were increased by the discovery that her +bundle was gone. Her first thought was that the good people, (i. e. +_the fairies_) had been there and stolen it away; but on examining +farther she plainly perceived large foot-prints in the soft bank, +and was convinced it was the work of no unearthly marauder. Bitterly +reproaching herself for her carelessness, she again set forward; and +still hoping to reach Cork that night, she toiled on and on with +increasing difficulty and distress, till as the evening closed her +spirits failed, she became faint, foot-sore and hungry, not having +tasted any thing since the morning but a cold potatoe and a draught +of buttermilk. She then looked round her in hopes of discovering +some habitation, but there was none in sight except a lofty castle +on a distant hill, which raising its proud turrets from amidst the +plantations which surrounded it, glimmered faintly through the gathering +gloom, and held out no temptation for the poor wanderer to turn in there +and rest. In her despair she sat her down on a bank by the road side, +and wept as she thought of her husband. + +Several horsemen rode by, and one carriage and four attended by +servants, who took no farther notice of her than by a passing look; +while they went on their way like the priest and the Levite in the +parable, poor Cathleen dropped her head despairingly on her bosom. +A faintness and torpor seemed to be stealing like a dark cloud over +her senses, when the fast approaching sound of footsteps roused her +attention, and turning, she saw at her side a man whose figure, too +singular to be easily forgotten, she recognized immediately: it was +Halloran the Pedlar. + +Halloran had been known for thirty years past in all the towns and +villages between Waterford and Kerry. He was very old, he himself did +not know his own age; he only remembered that he was a "tall slip of a +boy" when he was one of the ---- regiment of foot, and fought in America +in 1778. His dress was strange, it consisted of a woollen cap, beneath +which strayed a few white hairs, this was surmounted by an old military +cocked hat, adorned with a few fragments of tarnished gold lace; a frieze +great coat with the sleeves dangling behind, was fastened at his throat, +and served to protect his box of wares which was slung at his back; and +he always carried a thick oak stick or _kippeen_ in his hand. There was +nothing of the infirmity of age in his appearance: his cheek, though +wrinkled and weather-beaten, was still ruddy: his step still firm, his +eyes still bright: his jovial disposition made him a welcome guest in +every cottage, and his jokes, though not equal to my Lord Norbury's, +were repeated and applauded through the whole country. Halloran was +returning from the fair of Kilkenny, where apparently his commercial +speculations had been attended with success, as his pack was considerably +diminished in size. Though he did not appear to recollect Cathleen, he +addressed her in Irish, and asked her what she did there: she related +in a few words her miserable situation. + +"In troth, then, my heart is sorry for ye, poor woman," he replied, +compassionately; "and what will ye do?" + +"An' what _can_ I do?" replied Cathleen, disconsolately; "and how will +I even find the ford and get across to Cork, when I don't know where +I am this blessed moment?" + +"Musha, then, it's little ye'll get there this night," said the pedlar, +shaking his head. + +"Then I'll lie down here and die," said Cathleen, bursting into fresh +tears. + +"Die! ye wouldn't!" he exclaimed, approaching nearer; "is it to me, +Peter Halloran, ye spake that word; and am I the man that would lave a +faymale at this dark hour by the way-side, let alone one that has the +face of a friend, though I cannot remember me of your name either, for +the soul of me. But what matter for that?" + +"Sure, I'm Katty Reilly, of Castle Conn." + +"Katty Reilly, sure enough! and so no more talk of dying; cheer up, and +see, a mile farther on, isn't there Biddy Hogan's? _Was_, I mane, if +the house and all isn't gone: and it's there we'll get a bite and a +sup, and a bed, too, please God. So lean upon my arm, ma vourneen, it's +strong enough yet." + +So saying, the old man, with an air of gallantry, half rustic, half +military, assisted her in rising; and supporting her on one arm, with +the other he flourished his kippeen over his head, and they trudged on +together, he singing Cruiskeen-lawn at the top of his voice, "just," +as he said, "to put the heart into her." + +After about half an hour's walking, they came to two crossways, +diverging from the high road: down one of these the pedlar turned, and +in a few minutes they came in sight of a lonely house, situated at a +little distance from the way-side. Above the door was a long stick +projecting from the wall, at the end of which dangled a truss of straw, +signifying that within there was entertainment (good or bad) for man +and beast. By this time it was nearly dark, and the pedlar going up +to the door, lifted the latch, expecting it to yield to his hand; but +it was fastened within: he then knocked and called, but there was no +answer. The building, which was many times larger than an ordinary +cabin, had once been a manufactory, and afterwards a farm-house. One end +of it was deserted, and nearly in ruins; the other end bore signs of +having been at least recently inhabited. But such a dull hollow echo +rung through the edifice at every knock, that it seemed the whole place +was now deserted. + +Cathleen began to be alarmed, and crossed herself, ejaculating, "O God +preserve us!" But the pedlar, who appeared well acquainted with the +premises, led her round to the back part of the house, where there were +some ruined out-buildings, and another low entrance. Here, raising his +stout stick, he let fall such a heavy thump on the door that it cracked +again; and a shrill voice from the other side demanded who was there? +After a satisfactory answer, the door was slowly and cautiously opened, +and the figure of a wrinkled, half-famished, and half-naked beldam +appeared, shading a rush candle with one hand. Halloran, who was of a +fiery and hasty temper, began angrily: "Why, then, in the name of the +great devil himself, didn't you open to us?" But he stopped suddenly, +as if struck with surprise at the miserable object before him. + +"Is it Biddy Hogan herself, I see!" he exclaimed, snatching the candle +from her hand, and throwing the light full on her face. A moment's +scrutiny seemed enough, and too much; for, giving it back hastily, he +supported Cathleen into the kitchen, the old woman leading the way, and +placed her on an old settle, the first seat which presented itself. When +she was sufficiently recovered to look about her, Cathleen could not +help feeling some alarm at finding herself in so gloomy and dreary a +place. It had once been a large kitchen, or hall: at one end was an +ample chimney, such as are yet to be seen in some old country houses. +The rafters were black with smoke or rottenness: the walls had been +wainscoted with oak, but the greatest part had been torn down for +firing. A table with three legs, a large stool, a bench in the chimney +propped up with turf sods, and the seat Cathleen occupied, formed the +only furniture. Every thing spoke utter misery, filth, and famine--the +very "abomination of desolation." + +"And what have ye in the house, Biddy, honey?" was the pedlar's first +question, as the old woman set down the light. "Little enough, I'm +thinking." + +"Little! It's nothing, then--no, not so much as a midge would eat have +I in the house this blessed night, and nobody to send down to Balgowna." + +"No need of that, as our good luck would have it," said Halloran, and +pulling a wallet from under his loose coat, he drew from it a bone of +cold meat, a piece of bacon, a lump of bread, and some cold potatoes. +The old woman, roused by the sight of so much good cheer, began to blow +up the dying embers on the hearth; put down among them the few potatoes +to warm, and busied herself in making some little preparations to +entertain her guests. Meantime the old pedlar, casting from time to time +an anxious glance towards Cathleen, and now and then an encouraging +word, sat down on the low stool, resting his arms on his knees. + +"Times are sadly changed with ye, Biddy Hogan," said he at length, after +a long silence. + +"Troth, ye may say so," she replied, with a sort of groan. "Bitter bad +luck have we had in this world, any how." + +"And where's the man of the house? And where's the lad, Barny?" + +"Where are they, is it? Where should they be? may be gone down to +Ahnamoe." + +"But what's come of Barny? The boy was a stout workman, and a good +son, though a devil-may-care fellow, too. I remember teaching him the +soldier's exercise with this very blessed stick now in my hand; and by +the same token, him doubling his fist at me when he wasn't bigger than +the turf-kish yonder; aye, and as long as Barny Hogan could turn a sod +of turf on my lord's land, I thought his father and mother would never +have wanted the bit and sup while the life was in him." + +At the mention of her son, the old woman looked up a moment, but +immediately hung her head again. + +"Barny doesn't work for my lord now," said she. + +"And what for, then?" + +The old woman seemed reluctant to answer--she hesitated. + +"Ye didn't hear, then, how he got into trouble with my lord; and +how--myself doesn't know the rights of it--but Barny had always a bit of +wild blood about him; and since that day he's taken to bad ways, and the +ould man's ruled by him quite entirely; and the one's glum and fierce +like--and t'other's bothered; and, oh! bitter's the time I have 'twixt +'em both!" + +While the old woman was uttering these broken complaints, she placed the +eatables on the table; and Cathleen, who was yet more faint from hunger +than subdued by fatigue, was first helped by the good-natured pedlar to +the best of what was there: but, just as she was about to taste the food +set before her, she chanced to see the eyes of the old woman fixed upon +the morsel in her hand with such an envious and famished look, that from +a sudden impulse of benevolent feeling, she instantly held it out to +her. The woman started, drew back her extended hand, and gazed at her +wildly. + +"What is it then ails ye?" said Cathleen, looking at her with wonder; +then to herself, "hunger's turned the wits of her, poor soul! Take +it--take it, mother," added she aloud: "eat, good mother; sure there's +plenty for us all, and to spare," and she pressed it upon her with all +the kindness of her nature. The old woman eagerly seized it. + +"God reward ye," said she, grasping Cathleen's hand, convulsively, and +retiring to a corner, she devoured the food with almost wolfish +voracity. + +While they were eating, the two Hogans, father and son, came in. They +had been setting snares for rabbits and game on the neighbouring hills; +and evidently were both startled and displeased to find the house +occupied; which, since Barny Hogan's disgrace with "my lord," had been +entirely shunned by the people round about. The old man gave the pedlar +a sulky welcome. The son, with a muttered curse, went and took his seat +in the chimney, where, turning his back, he set himself to chop a billet +of wood. The father was a lean stooping figure, "bony, and gaunt, and +grim:" he was either deaf, or affected deafness. The son was a short, +brawny, thickset man, with features not naturally ugly, but rendered +worse than ugly by an expression of louring ferocity disgustingly +blended with a sort of stupid drunken leer, the effect of habitual +intoxication. + +Halloran stared at them awhile with visible astonishment and indignation, +but pity and sorrow for a change so lamentable, smothered the old man's +wrath; and as the eatables were by this time demolished, he took from +his side pocket a tin flask of whiskey, calling to the old woman to boil +some water "screeching hot," that he might make what he termed "a jug of +stiff punch--enough to make a cat _spake_." He offered to share it with +his hosts, who did not decline drinking; and the noggin went round to all +but Cathleen, who, feverish with travelling, and, besides, disliking +spirits, would not taste it. The old pedlar, reconciled to his old +acquaintances by this show of good fellowship, began to grow merry under +the influence of his whiskey-punch: he boasted of his late success in +trade, showed with exultation his almost empty pack, and taking out the +only two handkerchiefs left in it, threw one to Cathleen, and the other +to the old woman of the house; then slapping his pocket, in which a +quantity of loose money was heard to jingle, he swore he would treat +Cathleen to a good breakfast next morning; and threw a shilling on the +table, desiring the old woman would provide "stirabout for a dozen," +and have it ready by the first light. + +Cathleen listened to this rhodomontade in some alarm; she fancied she +detected certain suspicious glances between the father and son, and +began to feel an indescribable dread of her company. She arose from the +table, urging the pedlar good-humouredly to retire to rest, as they +intended to be up and away so early next morning: then concealing her +apprehensions under an affectation of extreme fatigue and drowsiness, +she desired to be shown where she was to sleep. The old woman lighted +a lanthorn, and led the way up some broken steps into a sort of loft, +where she showed her two beds standing close together; one of these she +intimated was for the pedlar, and the other for herself. Now Cathleen +had been born and bred in an Irish cabin, where the inmates are usually +lodged after a very promiscuous fashion; our readers, therefore, will +not wonder at the arrangement. Cathleen, however, required that, if +possible, some kind of skreen should be placed between the beds. The old +hag at first replied to this request with the most disgusting impudence; +but Cathleen insisting, the beds were moved asunder, leaving a space of +about two feet between them; and after a long search a piece of old +frieze was dragged out from among some rubbish, and hung up to the low +rafters, so as to form a curtain or partition half-way across the room. +Having completed this arrangement, and wished her "a sweet sleep and a +sound, and lucky dreams," the old woman put the lanthorn on the floor, +for there was neither chair nor table, and left her guest to repose. + +Cathleen said her prayers, only partly undressed herself, and lifting +up the worn-out coverlet, lay down upon the bed. In a quarter of an hour +afterwards the pedlar staggered into the room, and as he passed the foot +of her bed, bid God bless her, in a low voice. He then threw himself +down on his bed, and in a few minutes, as she judged by his hard and +equal breathing, the old man was in a deep sleep. + +All was now still in the house, but Cathleen could not sleep. She was +feverish and restless; her limbs ached, her head throbbed and burned, +undefinable fears beset her fancy; and whenever she tried to compose +herself to slumber, the faces of the two men she had left below flitted +and glared before her eyes. A sense of heat and suffocation, accompanied +by a parching thirst, came over her, caused, perhaps, by the unusual +closeness of the room. This feeling of oppression increased till the +very walls and rafters seemed to approach nearer and close upon her +all around. Unable any longer to endure this intolerable smothering +sensation, she was just about to rise and open the door or window, +when she heard the whispering of voices. She lay still and listened. +The latch was raised cautiously,--the door opened, and the two Hogans +entered: they trod so softly that, though she saw them move before +her, she heard no foot-fall. They approached the bed of Halloran, and +presently she heard a dull heavy blow, and then sounds--appalling +sickening sounds--as of subdued struggles and smothered agony, which +convinced her that they were murdering the unfortunate pedlar. + +Cathleen listened, almost congealed with horror, but she did not +swoon: her turn, she thought, must come next, though in the same instant +she felt instinctively that her only chance of preservation was to +counterfeit profound sleep. The murderers, having done their work on the +poor Pedlar, approached her bed, and threw the gleam of their lanthorn +full on her face; she lay quite still, breathing calmly and regularly. +They brought the light to her eye-lids, but they did not wink or +move;--there was a pause, a terrible pause, and then a whispering;--and +presently Cathleen thought she could distinguish a third voice, as of +expostulation, but all in so very low a tone that though the voices +were close to her she could not hear a word that was uttered. After +some moments, which appeared an age of agonising suspense, the wretches +withdrew, and Cathleen was left alone, and in darkness. Then, indeed, +she felt as one ready to die: to use her own affecting language, "the +heart within me," said she, "melted away like water, but I was resolute +not to swoon, and I _did not_. I knew that if I would preserve my life, +I must keep the sense in me, and _I did_." + +Now and then she fancied she heard the murdered man move, and creep +about in his bed, and this horrible conceit almost maddened her with +terror: but she set herself to listen fixedly, and convinced her reason +that all was still--that all was over. + +She then turned her thoughts to the possibility of escape. The window +first suggested itself: the faint moon-light was just struggling +through its dirty and cobwebbed panes: it was very small, and Cathleen +reflected, that besides the difficulty, and, perhaps, impossibility of +getting through, it must be some height from the ground: neither could +she tell on which side of the house it was situated, nor in what direction +to turn, supposing she reached the ground: and, above all, she was aware +that the slightest noise must cause her instant destruction. She thus +resolved upon remaining quiet. + +It was most fortunate that Cathleen came to this determination, for +without the slightest previous sound the door again opened, and in the +faint light, to which her eyes were now accustomed, she saw the head of +the old woman bent forward in a listening attitude: in a few minutes +the door closed, and then followed a whispering outside. She could not +at first distinguish a word until the woman's sharper tones broke out, +though in suppressed vehemence, with "If ye touch her life, Barny, a +mother's curse go with ye! enough's done." + +"She'll live, then, to hang us all," said the miscreant son. + +"Sooner than that, I'd draw this knife across her throat with my own +hands; and I'd do it again and again, sooner than they should touch your +life, Barny, jewel: but no fear, the creature's asleep or dead already, +with the fright of it." + +The son then said something which Cathleen could not hear; the old woman +replied, + +"Hisht! I tell ye, no,--no; the ship's now in the Cove of Cork that's to +carry her over the salt seas far enough out of the way: and haven't we +all she has in the world? and more, didn't she take the bit out of her +own mouth to put into mine?" + +The son again spoke inaudibly; and then the voices ceased, leaving +Cathleen uncertain as to her fate. + +Shortly after the door opened, and the father and son again entered, and +carried out the body of the wretched pedlar. They seemed to have the art +of treading without noise, for though Cathleen saw them move, she could +not hear a sound of a footstep. The old woman was all this time standing +by her bed, and every now and then casting the light full upon her eyes; +but as she remained quite still, and apparently in a deep calm sleep, +they left her undisturbed, and she neither saw nor heard any more of +them that night. + +It ended at length--that long, long night of horror. Cathleen lay quiet +till she thought the morning sufficiently advanced. She then rose, and +went down into the kitchen: the old woman was lifting a pot off the +fire, and nearly let it fall as Cathleen suddenly addressed her, and +with an appearance of surprise and concern, asked for her friend the +pedlar, saying she had just looked into his bed, supposing he was still +asleep, and to her great amazement had found it empty. The old woman +replied, that he had set out at early daylight for Mallow, having only +just remembered that his business called him that way before he went to +Cork. Cathleen affected great wonder and perplexity, and reminded the +woman that he had promised to pay for her breakfast. + +"An' so he did, sure enough," she replied, "and paid for it too; and by +the same token didn't I go down to Balgowna myself for the milk and the +_male_ before the sun was over the tree tops; and here it is for ye, ma +colleen:" so saying, she placed a bowl of stirabout and some milk before +Cathleen, and then sat down on the stool opposite to her, watching her +intently. + +Poor Cathleen! she had but little inclination to eat, and felt as if +every bit would choke her: yet she continued to force down her breakfast, +and apparently with the utmost ease and appetite, even to the last +morsel set before her. While eating, she inquired about the husband and +son, and the old woman replied, that they had started at the first burst +of light to cut turf in a bog, about five miles distant. + +When Cathleen had finished her breakfast, she returned the old woman many +thanks for her kind treatment, and then desired to know the nearest way +to Cork. The woman Hogan informed her that the distance was about seven +miles, and though the usual road was by the high-way from which they +had turned the preceding evening, there was a much shorter way across +some fields which she pointed out. Cathleen listened attentively to +her directions, and then bidding farewell with many demonstrations of +gratitude, she proceeded on her fearful journey. The cool morning air, +the cheerful song of the early birds, the dewy freshness of the turf, +were all unnoticed and unfelt: the sense of danger was paramount, while +her faculties were all alive and awake to meet it, for a feverish and +unnatural strength seemed to animate her limbs. She stepped on, shortly +debating with herself whether to follow the directions given by the old +woman. The high-road appeared the safest; on the other hand, she was +aware that the slightest betrayal of mistrust would perhaps be followed +by her destruction; and thus rendered brave even by the excess of her +fears, she determined to take the cross path. Just as she had come to +this resolution, she reached the gate which she had been directed to +pass through; and without the slightest apparent hesitation, she turned +in, and pursued the lonely way through the fields. Often did she fancy +she heard footsteps stealthily following her, and never approached a +hedge without expecting to see the murderers start up from behind it; +yet she never once turned her head, nor quickened nor slackened her +pace; + + Like one that on a lonesome road + Doth walk in fear and dread, + Because he knows a frightful fiend + Doth close behind him tread. + + +She had proceeded in this manner about three-quarters of a mile, and +approached a thick and dark grove of underwood, when she beheld seated +upon the opposite stile an old woman in a red cloak. The sight of a +human being made her heart throb more quickly for a moment; but on +approaching nearer, with all her faculties sharpened by the sense of +danger, she perceived that it was no old woman, but the younger Hogan, +the murderer of Halloran, who was thus disguised. His face was partly +concealed by a blue handkerchief tied round his head and under his chin, +but she knew him by the peculiar and hideous expression of his eyes: yet +with amazing and almost incredible self-possession, she continued to +advance without manifesting the least alarm, or sign of recognition; +and walking up to the pretended old woman, said in a clear voice, "The +blessing of the morning on ye, good mother! a fine day for travellers +like you and me!" + +"A fine day," he replied, coughing and mumbling in a feigned voice, "but +ye see, hugh, ugh! ye see I've walked this morning from the Cove of Cork, +jewel, and troth I'm almost spent, and I've a bad cowld, and a cough on +me, as ye may hear," and he coughed vehemently. Cathleen made a motion +to pass the stile, but the disguised old woman stretching out a great +bony hand, seized her gown. Still Cathleen did not quail. "Musha, then, +have ye nothing to give a poor ould woman?" said the monster, in a +whining, snuffling tone. + +"Nothing have I in this wide world," said Cathleen, quietly disengaging +her gown, but without moving. "Sure it's only yesterday I was robbed of +all I had but the little clothes on my back, and if I hadn't met with +charity from others, I had starved by the way-side by this time." + +"Och! and is there no place hereby where they would give a potatoe and +a cup of cowld water to a poor old woman ready to drop on her road?" + +Cathleen instantly pointed forward to the house she had just left, and +recommended her to apply there. "Sure they're good, honest people, +though poor enough, God help them," she continued, "and I wish ye, +mother, no worse luck than myself had, and that's a good friend to treat +you to a supper--aye, and a breakfast too; there it is, ye may just see +the light smoke rising like a thread over the hill, just fornent ye; and +so God speed ye!" + +Cathleen turned to descend the stile as she spoke, expecting to be again +seized with a strong and murderous grasp; but her enemy, secure in his +disguise, and never doubting her perfect unconsciousness, suffered her +to pass unmolested. + +Another half-mile brought her to the top of a rising ground, within +sight of the high-road; she could see crowds of people on horseback and +on foot, with cars and carriages passing along in one direction; for it +was, though Cathleen did not then know it, the first day of the Cork +Assizes. As she gazed, she wished for the wings of a bird that she might +in a moment flee over the space which intervened between her and safety; +for though she could clearly see the high-road from the hill on which +she stood, a valley of broken ground at its foot, and two wide fields +still separated her from it; but with the same unfailing spirit, and at +the same steady pace, she proceeded onwards: and now she had reached the +middle of the last field, and a thrill of new-born hope was beginning to +flutter at her heart, when suddenly two men burst through the fence at +the farther side of the field, and advanced towards her. One of these +she thought at the first glance resembled her husband, but that it +_was_ her husband himself was an idea which never entered her mind. Her +imagination was possessed with the one supreme idea of danger and death +by murderous hands; she doubted not that these were the two Hogans in +some new disguise, and silently recommending herself to God, she steeled +her heart to meet this fresh trial of her fortitude; aware, that however +it might end, it _must_ be the last. At this moment one of the men +throwing up his arms, ran forward, shouting her name, in a voice--a dear +and well-known voice, in which she _could_ not be deceived:--it was her +husband! + +The poor woman, who had hitherto supported her spirits and her +self-possession, stood as if rooted to the ground, weak, motionless, and +gasping for breath. A cold dew burst from every pore; her ears tingled, +her heart fluttered as though it would burst from her bosom. When she +attempted to call out, and raise her hand in token of recognition, the +sounds died away, rattling in her throat; her arm dropped powerless at +her side; and when her husband came up, and she made a last effort to +spring towards him, she sank down at his feet in strong convulsions. + +Reilly, much shocked at what he supposed the effect of sudden surprise, +knelt down and chafed his wife's temples; his comrade ran to a +neighbouring spring for water, which they sprinkled plentifully over +her: when, however, she returned to life, her intellects appeared to +have fled for ever, and she uttered such wild shrieks and exclamations, +and talked so incoherently, that the men became exceedingly terrified, +and poor Reilly himself almost as distracted as his wife. After vainly +attempting to soothe and recover her, they at length forcibly carried +her down to the inn at Balgowna, a hamlet about a mile farther on, +where she remained for several hours in a state of delirium, one fit +succeeding another with little intermission. + +Towards evening she became more composed, and was able to give some +account of the horrible events of the preceding night. It happened, +opportunely, that a gentleman of fortune in the neighbourhood, and a +magistrate, was riding by late that evening on his return from the +Assizes at Cork, and stopped at the inn to refresh his horse. Hearing +that something unusual and frightful had occurred, he alighted, and +examined the woman himself, in the presence of one or two persons. +Her tale appeared to him so strange and wild from the manner in which +she told it, and her account of her own courage and sufferings so +exceedingly incredible, that he was at first inclined to disbelieve the +whole, and suspected the poor woman either of imposture or insanity. +He did not, however, think proper totally to neglect her testimony, but +immediately sent off information of the murder to Cork. Constables with +a warrant were despatched the same night to the house of the Hogans, +which they found empty, and the inmates already fled: but after a long +search, the body of the wretched Halloran, and part of his property, +were found concealed in a stack of old chimneys among the ruins; and +this proof of guilt was decisive. The country was instantly _up_; the +most active search after the murderers was made by the police, assisted +by all the neighbouring peasantry; and before twelve o'clock the +following night, the three Hogans, father, mother, and son, had been +apprehended in different places of concealment, and placed in safe +custody. Meantime the Coroner's inquest having sat on the body, brought +in a verdict of wilful murder. + +As the judges were then at Cork, the trial came on immediately; and from +its extraordinary circumstances, excited the most intense and general +interest. Among the property of poor Halloran discovered in the house, +were a pair of shoes and a cap which Cathleen at once identified as +belonging to herself, and Reilly's silver watch was found on the younger +Hogan. When questioned how they came into his possession, he sullenly +refused to answer. His mother eagerly, and as if to shield her son, +confessed that she was the person who had robbed Cathleen in the former +part of the day, that she had gone out on the Carrick road to beg, having +been left by her husband and son for two days without the means of +support; and finding Cathleen asleep, she had taken away the bundle, +supposing it to contain food; and did not recognize her as the same +person she had robbed, till Cathleen offered her part of her supper. + +The surgeon, who had been called to examine the body of Halloran, +deposed to the cause of his death;--that the old man had been first +stunned by a heavy blow on the temple, and then strangled. Other +witnesses deposed to the finding of the body: the previous character of +the Hogans, and the circumstances attending their apprehension; but the +principal witness was Cathleen. She appeared, leaning on her husband, +her face was ashy pale, and her limbs too weak for support; yet she, +however, was perfectly collected, and gave her testimony with that +precision, simplicity, and modesty, peculiar to her character. When she +had occasion to allude to her own feelings, it was with such natural +and heart-felt eloquence that the whole court was affected; and when +she described her rencontre at the stile, there was a general pressure +and a breathless suspense: and then a loud murmur of astonishment and +admiration fully participated by even the bench of magistrates. The +evidence was clear and conclusive; and the jury, without retiring, +gave their verdict, guilty--Death. + +When the miserable wretches were asked, in the usual forms, if they had +any thing to say why the awful sentence should not be passed upon them, +the old man replied by a look of idiotic vacancy, and was mute--the +younger Hogan answered sullenly, "Nothing:" the old woman, staring wildly +on her son, tried to speak; her lips moved, but without a sound--and she +fell forward on the bar in strong fits. + +At this moment Cathleen rushed from the arms of her husband, and throwing +herself on her knees, with clasped hands, and cheeks streaming with +tears, begged for mercy for the old woman. "Mercy, my lord judge!" she +exclaimed. "Gentlemen, your honours, have mercy on her. She had mercy +on me! She only did _their_ bidding. As for the bundle, and all in it, +I give it to her with all my soul, so it's no robbery. The grip of +hunger's hard to bear; and if she hadn't taken it then, where would I +have been now? Sure they would have killed me for the sake of the watch, +and I would have been a corpse before your honours this moment. O mercy! +mercy for her! or never will I sleep asy on this side of the grave!" + + +The judge, though much affected, was obliged to have her forcibly +carried from the court, and justice took its awful course. Sentence of +death was pronounced on all the prisoners; but the woman was reprieved, +and afterwards transported. The two men were executed within forty-eight +hours after their conviction, on the Gallows Green. They made no public +confession of their guilt, and met their fate with sullen indifference. +The awful ceremony was for a moment interrupted by an incident which +afterwards furnished ample matter for wonder and speculation among the +superstitious populace. It was well known that the younger Hogan had +been long employed on the estate of a nobleman in the neighbourhood; +but having been concerned in the abduction of a young female, under +circumstances of peculiar atrocity, which for want of legal evidence +could not be brought home to him, he was dismissed; and, finding himself +an object of general execration, he had since been skulking about the +country, associating with housebreakers and other lawless and abandoned +characters. At the moment the hangman was adjusting the rope round his +neck, a shrill voice screamed from the midst of the crowd, "Barny Hogan! +do ye mind Grace Power, and the last words ever she spoke to ye?" There +was a general movement and confusion; no one could or would tell whence +the voice proceeded. The wretched man was seen to change countenance for +the first time, and raising himself on tiptoe, gazed wildly round upon +the multitude: but he said nothing; and in a few minutes he was no more. + +The reader may wish to know what has become of Cathleen, our _heroine_, +in the true sense of the word. Her story, her sufferings, her +extraordinary fortitude, and pure simplicity of character, made her an +object of general curiosity and interest: a subscription was raised +for her, which soon amounted to a liberal sum; they were enabled to +procure Reilly's discharge from the army, and with a part of the money, +Cathleen, who, among her other perfections, was exceedingly pious after +the fashion of her creed and country, founded yearly masses for the soul +of the poor pedlar; and vowed herself to make a pilgrimage of thanksgiving +to St. Gobnate's well. Mr. L., the magistrate who had first examined +her in the little inn at Balgowna, made her a munificent present; and +anxious, perhaps, to offer yet farther amends for his former doubts of +her veracity, he invited Reilly, on very advantageous terms, to settle +on his estate, where he rented a neat cabin, and a _handsome_ plot of +potatoe ground. There Reilly and his Cathleen were living ten years ago, +with an increasing family, and in the enjoyment of much humble happiness; +and there, for aught I know to the contrary, they may be living at this +day. + + + + +THE INDIAN MOTHER.[27] + + There is a comfort in the strength of love, + Making that pang endurable, which else + Would overset the brain--or break the heart. + + _Wordsworth._ + + +The monuments which human art has raised to human pride or power may +decay with that power, or survive to mock that pride; but sooner or +later they perish--their place knows them not. In the aspect of a +ruin, however imposing in itself, and however magnificent or dear the +associations connected with it, there is always something sad and +humiliating, reminding us how poor and how frail are the works of man, +how unstable his hopes, and how limited his capacity compared to his +aspirations! But when man has made to himself monuments of the works +of God; when the memory of human affections, human intellect, human +power, is blended with the immutable features of nature, they consecrate +each other, and both endure together to the end. In a state of high +civilization, man trusts to the record of brick and marble--the pyramid, +the column, the temple, the tomb: + + "Then the bust + And altar rise--then sink again to dust." + + +In the earlier stages of society, the isolated rock--the mountain, +cloud-encircled--the river, rolling to its ocean-home--the very stars +themselves--were endued with sympathies, and constituted the first, +as they will be the last, witnesses and records of our human destinies +and feelings. The glories of the Parthenon shall fade into oblivion; but +while the heights of Thermopylæ stand, and while a wave murmurs in the +gulph of Salamis, a voice shall cry aloud to the universe--"Freedom +and glory to those who can dare to die!--woe and everlasting infamy to +him who would enthral the unconquerable spirit!" The Coliseum with its +sanguinary trophies is crumbling to decay; but the islet of Nisida, +where Brutus parted with his Portia--the steep of Leucadia, still remain +fixed as the foundations of the earth; and lasting as the round world +itself shall be the memories that hover over them! As long as the waters +of the Hellespont flow between Sestos and Abydos, the fame of the love +that perished there shall never pass away. A traveller, pursuing his +weary way through the midst of an African desert--a barren, desolate, +and almost boundless solitude--found a gigantic sculptured head, shattered +and half-buried in the sand; and near it the fragment of a pedestal, on +which these words might be with pain deciphered: "_I am Ozymandias, King +of kings; look upon my works, ye mighty ones, and despair!_" Who was +Ozymandias?--where are now his works?--what bond of thought or feeling, +links his past with our present? The Arab, with his beasts of burthen, +tramples unheeding over these forlorn vestiges of human art and human +grandeur. In the wildest part of the New Continent, hidden amid the +depths of interminable forests, there stands a huge rock, hallowed by +a tradition so recent that the man is not yet grey-headed who was born +its contemporary; but that rock, and the tale which consecrates it, shall +carry down to future ages a deep lesson--a moral interest lasting as +itself--however the aspect of things and the conditions of people change +around it. Henceforth no man shall gaze on it with careless eye; but +each shall whisper to his own bosom--"What is stronger than love in a +mother's heart?--what more fearful than power wielded by ignorance?--or +what more lamentable than the abuse of a beneficent name to purposes of +selfish cruelty?" + +Those vast regions which occupy the central part of South America, +stretching from Guinea to the foot of the Andes, overspread with +gigantic and primeval forests, and watered by mighty rivers--those +solitary wilds where man appears unessential in the scale of creation, +and the traces of his power are few and far between--have lately occupied +much of the attention of Europeans; partly from the extraordinary events +and unexpected revolutions which have convulsed the nations round them; +and partly from the researches of enterprising travellers who have +penetrated into their remotest districts. But till within the last +twenty years these wild regions have been unknown, except through the +means of the Spanish and Portuguese priests, settled as missionaries +along the banks of the Orinoco and the Paraguay. The men thus devoted to +utter banishment from all intercourse with civilized life, are generally +Franciscan or Capuchin friars, born in the Spanish Colonies. Their pious +duties are sometimes voluntary, and sometimes imposed by the superiors +of their order; in either case their destiny appears at first view +deplorable, and their self-sacrifice sublime; yet, when we recollect +that these poor monks generally exchanged the monotonous solitude of +the cloister for the magnificent loneliness of the boundless woods and +far-spreading savannahs, the sacrifice appears less terrible; even where +accompanied by suffering, privation, and occasionally by danger. When +these men combine with their religious zeal some degree of understanding +and enlightened benevolence, they have been enabled to enlarge the +sphere of knowledge and civilization, by exploring the productions and +geography of these unknown regions; and by collecting into villages and +humanizing the manners of the native tribes, who seem strangely to unite +the fiercest and most abhorred traits of savage life, with some of the +gentlest instincts of our common nature. But when it has happened that +these priests have been men of narrow minds and tyrannical tempers, they +have on some occasions fearfully abused the authority entrusted to them; +and being removed many thousand miles from the European settlements and +the restraint of the laws, the power they have exercised has been as far +beyond control as the calamities they have caused have been beyond all +remedy and all relief. + +Unfortunately for those who were trusted to his charge, Father Gomez was +a missionary of this character. He was a Franciscan friar of the order +of Observance, and he dwelt in the village of San Fernando, near the +source of the Orinoco, whence his authority extended as president over +several missions in the neighbourhood of which San Fernando was the +capital. The temper of this man was naturally cruel and despotic; he was +wholly uneducated, and had no idea, no feeling, of the true spirit of +christian benevolence: in this respect, the savages whom he had been +sent to instruct and civilize were in reality less savage and less +ignorant than himself. + +Among the passions and vices which Father Gomez had brought from his +cell in the convent of Angostara, to spread contamination and oppression +through his new domain, were pride and avarice; and both were interested +in increasing the number of his converts, or rather, of his slaves. In +spite of the wise and humane law of Charles the Third, prohibiting the +conversion of the Indian natives by force, Gomez, like others of his +brethren in the more distant missions, often accomplished his purpose by +direct violence. He was accustomed to go, with a party of his people, +and lie in wait near the hordes of unreclaimed Indians: when the men +were absent he would forcibly seize on the women and children, bind +them, and bring them off in triumph to his village. There, being +baptized and taught to make the sign of the cross, they were _called_ +Christians, but in reality were slaves. In general, the women thus +detained pined away and died; but the children became accustomed to +their new mode of life, forgot their woods, and paid to their Christian +master a willing and blind obedience; thus in time they became the +oppressors of their own people. + +Father Gomez called these incursions, _la conquista espiritual_--the +conquest of souls. + +One day he set off on an expedition of this nature, attended by twelve +armed Indians; and after rowing some leagues up the river Guaviare, +which flows into the Orinoco, they perceived, through an opening in the +trees, and at a little distance from the shore, an Indian hut. It is +the custom of these people to live isolated in families; and so strong +is their passion for solitude, that when collected into villages they +frequently build themselves a little cabin at a distance from their +usual residence, and retire to it, at certain seasons, for days +together. The cabin of which I speak was one of these solitary +_villas_--if I may so apply the word. It was constructed with peculiar +neatness, thatched with palm leaves, and overshadowed with cocoa trees +and laurels; it stood alone in the wilderness, embowered in luxuriant +vegetation, and looked like the chosen abode of simple and quiet +happiness. Within this hut a young Indian woman (whom I shall call +Guahiba, from the name of her tribe) was busied in making cakes of the +cassava root, and preparing the family meal, against the return of her +husband, who was fishing at some distance up the river; her eldest +child, about five or six years old, assisted her; and from time to time, +while thus employed, the mother turned her eyes, beaming with fond +affection, upon the playful gambols of two little infants, who, being +just able to crawl alone, were rolling together on the ground, laughing +and crowing with all their might. + +Their food being nearly prepared, the Indian woman looked towards the +river, impatient for the return of her husband. But her bright dark +eyes, swimming with eagerness and affectionate solicitude, became fixed +and glazed with terror when, instead of him she so fondly expected, she +beheld the attendants of Father Gomez, creeping stealthily along the +side of the thicket towards her cabin. Instantly aware of her danger +(for the nature and object of these incursions were the dread of all the +country round) she uttered a piercing shriek, snatched up her infants +in her arms, and, calling on the other to follow, rushed from the hut +towards the forest. As she had considerably the start of her pursuers, +she would probably have escaped, and have hidden herself effectually in +its tangled depths, if her precious burthen had not impeded her flight; +but thus encumbered she was easily overtaken. Her eldest child, fleet +of foot and wily as the young jaguar, escaped to carry to the wretched +father the news of his bereavement, and neither father nor child were +ever more beheld in their former haunts. + +Meantime, the Indians seized upon Guahiba--bound her, tied her two +children together, and dragged her down to the river, where Father Gomez +was sitting in his canoe, waiting the issue of the expedition. At the +sight of the captives his eyes sparkled with a cruel triumph; he thanked +his patron saint that three more souls were added to his community; +and then, heedless of the tears of the mother, and the cries of her +children, he commanded his followers to row back with all speed to San +Fernando. + +There Guahiba and her infants were placed in a hut under the guard of +two Indians; some food was given to her, which she at first refused, but +afterwards, as if on reflection, accepted. A young Indian girl was then +sent to her--a captive convert of her own tribe, who had not yet quite +forgotten her native language. She tried to make Guahiba comprehend that +in this village she and her children must remain during the rest of +their lives, in order that they might go to heaven after they were dead. +Guahiba listened, but understood nothing of what was addressed to her; +nor could she be made to conceive for what purpose she was torn from her +husband and her home, nor why she was to dwell for the remainder of her +life among a strange people, and against her will. During that night she +remained tranquil, watching over her infants as they slumbered by her +side; but the moment the dawn appeared she took them in her arms and ran +off to the woods. She was immediately brought back; but no sooner were +the eyes of her keepers turned from her than she snatched up her children, +and again fled;--again--and again! At every new attempt she was punished +with more and more severity; she was kept from food, and at length +repeatedly and cruelly beaten. In vain!--apparently she did not even +understand why she was thus treated; and one instinctive idea alone, +the desire of escape, seemed to possess her mind and govern all her +movements. If her oppressors only turned from her, or looked another +way, for an instant, she invariably caught up her children and ran off +towards the forest. Father Gomez was at length wearied by what he termed +her "blind obstinacy;" and, as the only means of securing all three, he +took measures to separate the mother from her children, and resolved to +convey Guahiba to a distant mission, whence she should never find her +way back either to them or to her home. + +In pursuance of this plan, poor Guahiba, with her hands tied behind her, +was placed in the bow of a canoe. Father Gomez seated himself at the +helm, and they rowed away. + +The few travellers who have visited these regions agree in describing +a phenomenon, the cause of which is still a mystery to geologists, +and which imparts to the lonely depths of these unappropriated and +unviolated shades an effect intensely and indescribably mournful. The +granite rocks which border the river, and extend far into the contiguous +woods, assume strange, fantastic shapes; and are covered with a black +incrustation, or deposit, which contrasted with the snow-white foam of +the waves breaking on them below, and the pale lichens which spring from +their crevices and creep along their surface above, give these shores an +aspect perfectly funereal. Between these melancholy rocks--so high and +so steep that a landing-place seldom occurred for leagues together--the +canoe of Father Gomez slowly glided, though urged against the stream by +eight robust Indians. + +The unhappy Guahiba sat at first perfectly unmoved, and apparently +amazed and stunned by her situation; she did not comprehend what they +were going to do with her; but after a while she looked up towards the +sun, then down upon the stream; and perceiving, by the direction of the +one and the course of the other, that every stroke of the oar carried +her farther and farther from her beloved and helpless children, her +husband, and her native home, her countenance was seen to change and +assume a fearful expression. As the possibility of escape, in her +present situation, had never once occurred to her captors, she had been +very slightly and carelessly bound. She watched her opportunity, burst +the withes on her arms, with a sudden effort flung herself overboard, +and dived under the waves; but in another moment she rose again at a +considerable distance, and swam to the shore. The current, being rapid +and strong, carried her down to the base of a dark granite rock which +projected into the stream; she climbed it with fearless agility, stood +for an instant on its summit, looking down upon her tyrants, then +plunged into the forest, and was lost to sight. + +Father Gomez, beholding his victim thus unexpectedly escape him, sat +mute and thunderstruck for some moments, unable to give utterance to the +extremity of his rage and astonishment. When, at length, he found voice, +he commanded his Indians to pull with all their might to the shore; then +to pursue the poor fugitive, and bring her back to him, dead or alive. + +Guahiba, meantime, while strength remained to break her way through +the tangled wilderness, continued her flight; but soon exhausted and +breathless, with the violence of her exertions, she was obliged to relax +in her efforts, and at length sunk down at the foot of a huge laurel +tree, where she concealed herself, as well as she might, among the +long, interwoven grass. There, crouching and trembling in her lair, +she heard the voices of her persecutors hallooing to each other through +the thicket. She would probably have escaped but for a large mastiff +which the Indians had with them, and which scented her out in her +hiding-place. The moment she heard the dreaded animal snuffing in the +air, and tearing his way through the grass, she knew she was lost. The +Indians came up. She attempted no vain resistance; but, with a sullen +passiveness, suffered herself to be seized and dragged to the shore. + +When the merciless priest beheld her, he determined to inflict on her +such discipline as he thought would banish her children from her memory, +and cure her for ever of her passion for escaping. He ordered her to be +stretched upon that granite rock where she had landed from the canoe, on +the summit of which she had stood, as if exulting in her flight,--THE ROCK +OF THE MOTHER, as it has ever since been denominated--and there flogged +till she could scarcely move or speak. She was then bound more securely, +placed in the canoe, and carried to Javita, the seat of a mission far up +the river. + +It was near sunset when they arrived at this village, and the inhabitants +were preparing to go to rest. Guahiba was deposited for the night in a +large barn-like building, which served as a place of worship, a public +magazine, and, occasionally, as a barrack. Father Gomez ordered two or +three Indians of Javita to keep guard over her alternately, relieving +each other through the night; and then went to repose himself after the +fatigues of his voyage. As the wretched captive neither resisted nor +complained, Father Gomez flattered himself that she was now reduced to +submission. Little could he fathom the bosom of this fond mother! He +mistook for stupor, or resignation, the calmness of a fixed resolve. +In absence, in bonds, and in torture, her heart throbbed with but one +feeling; one thought alone possessed her whole soul:--her children--her +children--and still her children! + +Among the Indians appointed to watch her was a youth, about eighteen +or nineteen years of age, who, perceiving that her arms were miserably +bruised by the stripes she had received, and that she suffered the most +acute agony from the savage tightness with which the cords were drawn, +let fall an exclamation of pity in the language of her tribe. Quick she +seized the moment of feeling, and addressed him as one of her people. + +"Guahibo," she said, in a whispered tone, "thou speakest my language, +and doubtless thou art my brother! Wilt thou see me perish without pity, +O son of my people? Ah, cut these bonds which enter into my flesh! +I faint with pain! I die!" + +The young man heard, and, as if terrified, removed a few paces from her +and kept silence. Afterwards, when his companions were out of sight, +and he was left alone to watch, he approached, and said, "Guahiba!--our +fathers were the same, and I may not see thee die; but if I cut these +bonds, white man will flog me:--wilt thou be content if I loosen them, +and give thee ease?" And as he spoke, he stooped and loosened the thongs +on her wrists and arms; she smiled upon him languidly, and appeared +satisfied. + +Night was now coming on. Guahiba dropped her head on her bosom, and +closed her eyes, as if exhausted by weariness. The young Indian, believing +that she slept, after some hesitation laid himself down on his mat. His +companions were already slumbering in the porch of the building, and all +was still. + +Then Guahiba raised her head. It was night--dark night--without moon or +star. There was no sound, except the breathing of the sleepers around +her, and the humming of the mosquitoes. She listened for some time with +her whole soul; but all was silence. She then gnawed the loosened thongs +asunder with her teeth. Her hands once free, she released her feet; and +when the morning came she had disappeared. Search was made for her in +every direction, but in vain; and Father Gomez, baffled and wrathful, +returned to his village. + +The distance between Javita and San Fernando, where Guahiba had left her +infants, is twenty-five leagues in a straight line. A fearful wilderness +of gigantic forest trees, and intermingling underwood, separated these +two missions;--a savage and awful solitude, which, probably, since +the beginning of the world, had never been trodden by human foot. All +communication was carried on by the river; and there lived not a man, +whether Indian or European, bold enough to have attempted the route +along the shore. It was the commencement of the rainy season. The sky, +obscured by clouds, seldom revealed the sun by day; and neither moon +nor gleam of twinkling star by night. The rivers had overflowed, and +the lowlands were inundated. There was no visible object to direct +the traveller; no shelter, no defence, no aid, no guide. Was it +Providence--was it the strong instinct of maternal love, which led +this courageous woman through the depths of the pathless woods--where +rivulets, swollen to torrents by the rains, intercepted her at every +step; where the thorny lianas, twining from tree to tree, opposed an +almost impenetrable barrier; where the mosquitoes hung in clouds upon +her path; where the jaguar and the alligator lurked to devour her; where +the rattle-snake and the water-serpent lay coiled up in the damp grass, +ready to spring at her; where she had no food to support her exhausted +frame, but a few berries, and the large black ants which build their +nests on the trees? How directed--how sustained--cannot be told: the +poor woman herself could not tell. All that can be known with any +certainty is, that the fourth rising sun beheld her at San Fernando; a +wild, and wasted, and fearful object; her feet swelled and bleeding--her +hands torn--her body covered with wounds, and emaciated with famine and +fatigue;--but once more near her children! + +For several hours she hovered round the hut in which she had left them, +gazing on it from a distance with longing eyes and a sick heart, without +daring to advance: at length she perceived that all the inhabitants +had quitted their cottages to attend vespers; then she stole from the +thicket, and approached, with faint and timid steps, the spot which +contained her hearths treasures. She entered, and found her infants left +alone, and playing together on a mat: they screamed at her appearance, +so changed was she by suffering; but when she called them by name, they +knew her tender voice, and stretched out their little arms towards her. +In that moment, the mother forgot all she had endured--all her anguish, +all her fears, every thing on earth but the objects which blessed her +eyes. She sat down between her children--she took them on her knees--she +clasped them in an agony of fondness to her bosom--she covered them with +kisses--she shed torrents of tears on their little heads, as she hugged +them to her. Suddenly she remembered where she was, and why she was +there: new terrors seized her; she rose up hastily, and, with her babies +in her arms, she staggered out of the cabin--fainting, stumbling, and +almost blind with loss of blood and inanition. She tried to reach the +woods, but too feeble to sustain her burthen, which yet she would not +relinquish, her limbs trembled, and sank beneath her. At this moment +an Indian, who was watching the public oven, perceived her. He gave the +alarm by ringing a bell, and the people rushed forth, gathering round +Guahiba with fright and astonishment. They gazed upon her as if upon +an apparition, till her sobs, and imploring looks, and trembling and +wounded limbs, convinced them that she yet lived, though apparently nigh +to death. They looked upon her in silence, and then at each other; their +savage bosoms were touched with commiseration for her sad plight, and +with admiration, and even awe, at this unexampled heroism of maternal +love. + +While they hesitated, and none seemed willing to seize her, or to take +her children from her, Father Gomez, who had just landed on his return +from Javita, approached in haste, and commanded them to be separated. +Guahiba clasped her children closer to her breast, and the Indians +shrunk back. + +"What!" thundered the monk: "will ye suffer this woman to steal two +precious souls from heaven?--two members from our community? See ye not, +that while she is suffered to approach them, there is no salvation for +either mother or children?--part them, and instantly!" + +The Indians, accustomed to his ascendancy, and terrified at his voice, +tore the children of Guahiba once more from her feeble arms: she uttered +nor word nor cry, but sunk in a swoon upon the earth. + +While in this state, Father Gomez, with a cruel mercy, ordered her +wounds to be carefully dressed: her arms and legs were swathed with +cotton bandages; she was then placed in a canoe, and conveyed to a +mission, far, far off, on the river Esmeralda, beyond the Upper Orinoco. +She continued in a state of exhaustion and torpor during the voyage; +but after being taken out of the boat and carried inland, restoratives +brought her back to life, and to a sense of her situation. When she +perceived, as reason and consciousness returned, that she was in a +strange place, unknowing how she was brought there--among a tribe who +spoke a language different from any she had ever heard before, and from +whom, therefore, according to Indian prejudices, she could hope nor +aid nor pity;--when she recollected that she was far from her beloved +children;--when she saw no means of discovering the bearing or the +distance of their abode--no clue to guide her back to it:--_then_, +and only then, did the mother's heart yield to utter despair; and +thenceforward refusing to speak or to move, and obstinately rejecting +all nourishment, thus she died. + +The boatman, on the river Atabapo, suspends his oar with a sigh as he +passes the ROCK OF THE MOTHER. He points it out to the traveller, and +weeps as he relates the tale of her sufferings and her fate. Ages hence, +when these solitary regions have become the seats of civilization, of +power, and intelligence; when the pathless wilds, which poor Guahiba +traversed in her anguish, are replaced by populous cities, and smiling +gardens, and pastures, and waving harvests,--still that dark rock shall +stand, frowning o'er the stream; tradition and history shall preserve +its name and fame; and when even the pyramids, those vast, vain monuments +to human pride, have passed away, it shall endure, to carry down to the +end of the world the memory of the Indian Mother. + + + + +MUCH COIN, MUCH CARE. + +A DRAMATIC PROVERB. + +WRITTEN FOR HYACINTHE, EMILY, CAROLINE, AND EDWARD. + + + + +CHARACTERS. + + + DICK, the Cobbler, a very honest man, and very merry withal, + much given to singing. + + MARGERY, his wife, simple and affectionate, and one of the best + women in the world. + + LADY AMARANTHE, a fine lady, full of airs and affectation, but + not without good feeling. + + MADEMOISELLE JUSTINE, her French maid, very like other French maids. + + +The SCENE lies partly in the Garret of the Cobbler, and partly in LADY +AMARANTHE's Drawing-room. + + + + +MUCH COIN, MUCH CARE. + + +SCENE I. + + _A Garret meanly furnished; several pairs of old shoes, a coat, + hat, bonnet, and shawl hanging against the Wall. DICK is seated + on a low stool in front. He works, and sings._ + + + As she lay on that day + In the Bay of Biscay O! + + +Now that's what _I_ call a good song; but my wife, she can't abear them +blusteration songs, she says; she likes something tender and genteel, +full of fine words. (_Sings in a mincing voice._) + + Vake, dearest, vake, and again united + Ve'll vander by the sea-he-he-e. + + +Hang me, if I can understand a word of it! but when my wife sings it +out with her pretty little mouth, it does one's heart good to hear her; +and I could listen to her for ever: but, for my own part, what I like +is a song that comes thundering out with a meaning in it! (_Sings, and +flourishes his hammer with enthusiasm, beating time upon the shoe._) + + March! march! Eskdale and Tiviotdale, + All the blue bonnets are over the border! + + +MARGERY--(_from within._) + +Dick! Dick! what a noise you do keep! + +DICK. + +A noise, eh? Why, Meg, you didn't use to think it a noise: you used to +like to hear me sing! + +MARGERY--(_entering._) + +And so I did, and so I do. I loves music with all my heart; but the whole +parish will hear you if you go for to bawl out so monstrous loud. + +DICK. + +And let them! who cares? + + [_He sings, she laughs._ + +MARGERY. + +Nay, sing away if you like it! + +DICK--(_stopping suddenly._) + +I won't sing another bit if you don't like it, Meg. + +MARGERY. + +Oh, I do like! Lord bless us! not like it! it sounds so merry! Why, +Dick, love, every body said yesterday that you sung as well as Mr. +Thingumee at Sadler's Wells, and says they, "Who is that young man +as sings like any nightingale?" and I says (_drawing herself up_), +"That's my husband!" + +DICK. + +Ay! flummery!--But, Meg, I say, how did you like the wedding yesterday? + +MARGERY. + +Oh, hugeously! such heaps of smart people, as fine as fivepence, I +warrant; and such gay gowns and caps! and plenty to eat and drink!--But +what I liked best was the walking in the gardens at Bagnigge Wells, and +the tea, and the crumpets! + +DICK. + +And the punch! + +MARGERY. + +Yes--ha! ha! I could see you thought _that_ good! and then the dancing! + +DICK. + +Ay, ay; and there wasn't one amongst them that footed it away like my +Margery. And folks says to me, "Pray, who is that pretty modest young +woman as hops over the ground as light as a feather?" says they; and +says I, "Why, that there pretty young woman is my wife, to be sure!" + +MARGERY. + +Ah, you're at your jokes, Dick! + +DICK. + +I'll be hanged then! + +MARGERY--(_leaning on his shoulder._) + +Well, to be sure, we were happy yesterday. It's good to make holiday +just now and then, but some how I was very glad to come home to our own +little room again. O Dick!--did you mind that Mrs. Pinchtoe, that gave +herself such grand airs?--she in the fine lavender silk gown--that +turned up her nose at me so, and all because she's a master shoemaker's +wife! and you are only--only--a cobbler!--(_sighs_) I wish _you_ were a +master shoemaker, Dick. + +DICK. + +That you might be a master shoemaker's wife, hay! and turn up your nose +like Mrs. Pinchtoe? + +MARGERY--(_laughing._) + +No, no; I have more manners. + +DICK. + +Would you love me better, Meg, if I were a master shoemaker? + +MARGERY. + +No, I couldn't love you better if you were a king; and that you know, +Dick; and, after all, we're happy now, and who knows what might be if +he were to change? + +DICK. + +Ay, indeed! who knows? you might grow into a fine lady like she over the +way, who comes home o'nights just as we're getting up in the morning, +with the flams flaring, and blazing like any thing; and that puts me in +mind---- + +MARGERY. + +Of what, Dick? tell me! + +DICK. + +Why, cousin Tom's wedding put it all out of my head last night; but +yesterday there comes over to me one of those fine bedizened fellows we +see lounging about the door there, with a cocked hat, and things like +stay laces dangling at his shoulder. + +MARGERY. + +What could he want, I wonder! + +DICK. + +O! he comes over to me as I was just standing at the door below, a +thinking of nothing at all, and singing Paddy O'Raffety to myself, and +says he to me, "You cobbler fellor," says he, "don't you go for to keep +such a bawling every morning, awakening people out of their first +sleep," says he, "for if you do, my lord will have you put into the +stocks," says he. + +MARGERY. + +The stocks! O goodness gracious me! and what for, pray? + +DICK--(_with a grin._) + +Why, for singing, honey! So says I, "Hark 'ee, Mr. Scrape-trencher, +there go words to that bargain: what right have you to go for to speak +in that there way to me?" says I; and says he, "We'll have you 'dited +for a nuisance, fellor," says he. + +MARGERY--(_clasping her hands._) + +A nuisance! my Dick a nuisance! O Lord a' mercy! + +DICK. + +Never fear, girl; I'm a free-born Englishman, and I knows the laws well +enough: and says I, "No more a fellor than yourself; I'm an honest man, +following an honest calling, and I don't care _that_ for you nor your +lord neither; and I'll sing _when_ I please, and I'll sing _what_ I +please, and I'll sing as loud as I please; I will, by jingo!" and so he +lifts me up his cane, and I says quite cool, "This house is my castle; +and if you don't take yourself out of that in a jiffey, why, I'll give +your laced jacket such a dusting as it never had before in its life--I +will." + +MARGERY. + +O, Dick! you've a spirit of your own, I warrant. Well, and then? + +DICK. + +Oh, I promise you he was off in the twinkling of a bed-post, and I've +heard no more of him; but I was determined to wake you this morning with +a thundering song; just to show 'em I didn't care for 'em--ha! ha! ha! + +MARGERY. + +Oh, ho! that was the reason, then, that you bawled so in my ear, and +frightened me out of my sleep--was it? Oh, well, I forgive you; but +bless me! I stand chattering here, and it's twelve o'clock, as I live! +I must go to market--(_putting on her shawl and bonnet._) What would you +like to have for dinner, Dick, love? a nice rasher of bacon, by way of +a relish? + +DICK--(_smacking his lips._) + +Just the very thing, honey. + +MARGERY. + +Well, give me the shilling, then. + +DICK--(_scratching his head._) + +What shilling? + +MARGERY. + +Why, the shilling you had yesterday. + +DICK--(_feeling in his pockets._) + +A shilling! + +MARGERY. + +Yes, a shilling. (_Gaily._) To have meat, one must have money; and folks +must eat as well as sing, Dick, love. Come, out with it! + +DICK. + +But suppose I haven't got it? + +MARGERY. + +How! what! you don't mean for to say that the last shilling that you put +in your pocket, just to make a show, is gone? + +DICK--(_with a sigh._) + +But I do, though--it's gone. + +MARGERY. + +What shall we do? + +DICK. + +I don't know. (_A pause. They look at each other._) Stay, that's lucky. +Here's a pair of dancing pumps as belongs to old Mrs. Crusty, the +baker's wife at the corner-- + +MARGERY--(_gaily._) + +We can't eat _them_ for dinner, I guess. + +DICK. + +No, no; but I'm just at the last stitch. + +MARGERY. + +Yes-- + +DICK--(_speaking and working in a hurry._) + +And so you'll take them home-- + +MARGERY. + +Yes-- + +DICK. + +And tell her I must have seven-pence halfpenny for them. (_Gives them._) + +MARGERY--(_examining the shoes._) + +But, Dick, isn't that some'at extortionate, as a body may say? +seven-pence halfpenny! + +DICK. + +Why, here's heel-pieces, and a patch upon each toe; one must live, Meg! + +MARGERY. + +Yes, Dick, love; but so must other folks. Now I think seven-pence would +be enough in all conscience--what do you say? + +DICK. + +Well, settle it as you like; only get a bit of dinner for us, for I'm as +hungry as a hunter, I know. + +MARGERY. + +I'm going. Good bye, Dick! + +DICK. + +Take care of theeself--and don't spend the change in caps and ribbons, +Meg. + +MARGERY. + +Caps and ribbons out of seven-pence! Lord help the man! ha, ha, ha! +(_She goes out._) + +DICK--(_calling after her._) + +And come back soon, d'ye hear? There she goes--hop, skip, and jump, down +the stairs. Somehow, I can't abear to have her out of my sight a minute. +Well, if ever there was a man could say he had a good wife, why, that's +me myself--tho'f I say it--the cheerfullest, sweetest temperedst, +cleanliest, lovingest woman in the whole parish, that never gives one +an ill word from year's end to year's end, and deserves at least that a +man should work hard for her--it's all I can do--and we must think for +to-morrow as well as to-day. (_He works with great energy, and sings at +the same time with equal enthusiasm._) + + Cannot ye do as I do? + Cannot ye do as I do ? + Spend your money, and work for more; + _That's_ the way that I do! + Tol de rol lol. + + +_Re-enter MARGERY in haste._ + +MARG.--(_out of breath._) + +Oh, Dick, husband! Dick, I say! + +DICK. + +Hay! what's the matter now? + +MARGERY. + +Here be one of those fine powdered laced fellows from over the way comed +after you again. + +DICK--(_rising._) + +An impudent jackanapes! I'll give him as good as he brings. + +MARGERY. + +Oh, no, no! he's monstrous civil now; for he chucked me under the chin, +and says he, "My pretty girl!" + +DICK. + +Ho! monstrous civil indeed, with a vengeance! + +MARGERY. + +And says he, "Do you belong to this here house?" "Yes, sir," says I, +making a curtsy, for I couldn't do no less when he spoke so civil; and +says he, "Is there an honest cobbler as lives here?" "Yes, sir," says I, +"my husband that is." "Then, my dear," says he, "just tell him to step +over the way, for my Lady Amaranthe wishes to speak to him immediately." + +DICK. + +A lady? O Lord! + +MARGERY. + +Yes, so you must go directly. Here, take off your apron, and let me comb +your hair a bit. + +DICK. + +What the mischief can a lady want with me? I've nothing to do with +ladies, as I knows of. + +MARGERY. + +Why, she won't eat you up, I reckon. + +DICK. + +And yet I--I--I be afeard, Meg! + +MARGERY. + +Afeard of a lady! that's a good one! + +DICK. + +Ay, just--if it were a man, I shouldn't care a fig. + +MARGERY. + +But we've never done no harm to nobody in our whole lives, so what is +there to be afraid of? + +DICK. + +Nay, that's true. + +MARGERY. + +Now let me help you on with your best coat. Pooh! what is the man +about?--Why, you're putting the back to the front, and the front to +the back, like Paddy from Cork, with his coat buttoned behind! + +DICK. + +My head do turn round, just for all the world like a peg-top.--A lady! +what _can_ a lady have to say to me, I wonder? + +MARGERY. + +May be, she's a customer. + +DICK. + +No, no, great gentlefolks like she never wears patched toes nor + +heel-pieces, I reckon. + +MARGERY. + +Here's your hat. Now let me see how you can make a bow. (_He bows +awkwardly._) Hold up your head--turn out your toes. That will do +capital! (_She walks round him with admiration._) How nice you look! +there's ne'er a gentleman of them all can come up to my Dick. + +DICK--(_hesitating._) + +But--a--a--Meg, you'll come with me, won't you, and just see me safe in +at the door, eh? + +MARGERY. + +Yes, to be sure; walk on before, and let me look at you. Hold up your +head--there, that's it! + +DICK--(_marching._) + +Come along. Hang it, who's afraid? + + [_They go out._ + + + _Scene changes to a Drawing-room in the House of LADY AMARANTHE._ + +_Enter _Lady Amaranthe_, leaning upon her maid, MADEMOISELLE JUSTINE._ + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Avancez un fauteuil, ma chère! arrangez les coussins. (_JUSTINE settles +the chair, and places a footstool. LADY AMARANTHE, sinking into the +arm-chair with a languid air._) Justine, I shall die, I shall certainly +die! I never can survive this! + +JUSTINE. + +Mon Dieu! madame, ne parlez pas comme çà! c'est m'enfoncer un poignard +dans le coeur! + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_despairingly._) + +No rest--no possibility of sleeping-- + +JUSTINE. + +Et le medecin de madame, qui a ordonné la plus grande tranquillité--qui +a mème voulu que je me taisais--moi, par exemple! + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +After fatiguing myself to death with playing the agreeable to disagreeable +people, and talking common-place to common-place acquaintance, I return +home, to lay my aching head upon my pillow, and just as my eyes are +closing, I start--I wake,--a voice that would rouse the dead out of their +graves echoes in my ears! In vain I bury my head in the pillow--in vain +draw the curtains close--multiply defences against my window--change from +room to room--it haunts me! Ah! I think I hear it still! (_covering her +ears_) it will certainly drive me distracted! + +[_During this speech, JUSTINE has made sundry exclamations and gestures +expressive of horror, sympathy, and commiseration._] + +JUSTINE. + +Vraiment, c'est affreux. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +In any more civilized country it never could have been endured--I should +have had him removed at once; but here the vulgar people talk of laws! + +JUSTINE. + +Ah, oui, madame, mais il faut avouer que c'est ici un pays bien barbare, +où tout le monde parle loi et métaphysique, et où l'on ne fait point de +différence entre les riches et les pauvres. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +But what provokes me more than all the rest is this unheard-of +insolence! (_rises and walks about the room_,)--a cobbler too--a cobbler +who presumes to sing, and to sing when all the rest of the world is +asleep! This is the march of intellect with a vengeance! + +JUSTINE. + +C'est vrai, il ne chante que des marches et de gros chansons à boire--s'il +chantait bien doucement quelque joli roman par exemple--(_She +sings_)--_dormez, dormez, mes chers amours_! + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Justine, did you send the butler over to request civilly that he would +not disturb me in the morning? + +JUSTINE. + +Oui, miladi, dat is, I have send John; de butler he was went out. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +And his answer was, that he would sing in spite of me, and louder than +ever? + +JUSTINE. + +Oui, miladi, le monstre! il dit comme çà, dat he will sing more louder +den ever. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_sinking again into her chair._) + +Ah! the horrid man! + +JUSTINE. + +Ah! dere is no politesse, no more den dere is police in dis country. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +If Lord Amaranthe were not two hundred miles off--but, as it is, I must +find some remedy--let me think--bribery, I suppose. Have they sent for +him? I dread to see the wretch. What noise is that? allez voir, ma chère! + +JUSTINE--(_goes and returns._) + +Madame, c'est justement notre homme, voulez-vous qu'il entre? + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Oui, faites entrer. + + [_She leans back in her chair._ + +JUSTINE--(_at the door._) + +Entrez, entrez toujours, dat is, come in, good mister. + +_Enter DICK. He bows; and, squeezing his hat in his hands, looks +round him with considerable embarrassment._ + +JUSTINE--(_to Lady Amaranthe._) + +Bah! comme il sent le cuir, n'est-ce pas, madame? + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Faugh! mes sels--ma vinaigrette, Justine--non, l'eau de Cologne, qui est +là sur la table. (_JUSTINE brings her some eau de Cologne; she pours some +upon her handkerchief, and applies it to her temples and to her nose, +as if overcome; then, raising her eye-glass, she examines DICK from +head to foot._) Good man--a--pray, what is your name? + +DICK--(_with a profound bow._) + +Dick, please your ladyship. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Hum--a--a--pray, Mr. Dick-- + +DICK. + +Folks just call me plain Dick, my lady. I'm a poor honest cobbler, and +no mister. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_pettishly._) + +Well, sir, it is of no consequence. You live in the small house over the +way, I think? + +DICK. + +Yes, ma'am, my lady, I does; I rents the attics. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +You appear a good civil sort of man enough. (_He bows._) I sent my +servant over to request that you would not disturb me in the night--or +the morning, as you call it. I have very weak health--am quite an +invalid--your loud singing in the morning just opposite to my windows---- + +DICK--(_eagerly._) + +Ma'am, I--I'm very sorry; I ax your ladyship's pardon; I'll never sing +no more above my breath, if you please. + +JUSTINE. + +Comment! c'est honnête, par exemple. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_surprised._) + +Then you did not tell my servant that you would sing louder than ever, +in spite of me? + +DICK. + +Me, my Lady? I never said no such thing. + + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +This is strange; or is there some mistake? Perhaps you are not the same +Mr. Dick? + +DICK. + +Why, yes, my lady, for that matter, I be the same Dick. (_Approaching a +few steps, and speaking confidentially._) I'll just tell your ladyship +the whole truth, and not a bit of a lie. There comes an impudent fellow +to me, and he tells me, just out of his own head, I'll be bound, that if +I sung o' mornings, he would have me put in the stocks. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Good heavens! + +JUSTINE--(_in the same tone._) + +Grands dieux! + +DICK--(_with a grin._) + +Now the stocks is for a rogue, as the saying is. As for my singing, +that's neither here nor there; but no jackanapes shall threaten _me_. +I _will_ sing if I please, (_sturdily_,) and I won't sing if I don't +please; and (_lowering his tone_) I don't please, if it disturbs your +ladyship. (_Retreating_) I wish your ladyship a good day, and better +health. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Stay; you are not then the rude uncivil person I was told of? + +DICK. + +I hopes I knows better than to do an uncivil thing by a lady. + + [_Bows and retreats towards the door._ + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Stay, sir--a--a--one word. + +DICK. + +Oh, as many as you please, ma'am; I'm in no hurry. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_graciously._) + +Are you married? + +DICK--(_rubbing his hands with glee._) + +Yes, ma'am, I be; and to as tight a bit of a wife as any in the parish. + +JUSTINE. + +Ah! il parait que ce monsieur Dick aime sa femme! Est-il amusant! + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +You love her then? + +DICK. + +Oh, then I do! I love her with all my heart! who could help it? + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Indeed! and how do you live? + +DICK. + +Why, bless you, ma'am, sometimes well, sometimes ill, according as I +have luck and work. When we can get a bit of dinner, we eat it, and when +we can't, why, we go without: or, may be, a kind neighbour helps us. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Poor creatures! + +DICK. + +Oh, not so poor neither, my lady; many folks is worser off. I'm always +merry, night and day; and my Meg is the good temperedst, best wife in +the world. We've never had nothing from the parish, and never will, +please God, while I have health and hands. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +And you are happy? + +DICK. + +As happy as the day is long. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_aside._) + +This is a lesson to me. Eh bien, Justine! voilà donc notre sauvage! + + +JUSTINE. + +Il est gentil ce monsieur Dick, et à present que je le regarde--vraiment +il a une assez jolie tournure. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_with increasing interest._) + +Have you any children? + +DICK--(_with a sigh._) + +No, ma'am; and that's the only thing as frets us. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Good heavens! you do not mean to say you wish for them, and have scarce +enough for yourselves? how would you feed them? + +DICK. + +Oh, I should leave Meg to feed them; I should have nothing to do but to +work for them. Providence would take care of us while they were little; +and, when they were big, they would help us. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_aside._) + +I could not have conceived this. (_She whispers JUSTINE, who goes out._) +(_To DICK._) Can I do any thing to serve you? + +DICK. + +Only, if your ladyship could recommend me any custom; I mend shoes as +cheap as e'er a cobbler in London, though I say it. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +I shall certainly desire that all my people employ you whenever there +is occasion. + +_Re-enter JUSTINE, holding a purse in her hand._ + +DICK--(_bowing._) + +Much obliged, my lady; I hopes to give satisfaction, but (_looking with +admiration at LADY AMARANTHE's foot as it rests on the footstool_) such +a pretty, little, delicate, beautiful foot as yon, I never fitted in all +my born days. It can't cost your ladyship much in shoe leather, I guess? + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_smiling complacently._) + +Rather more than you would imagine, I fancy, my good friend. + +JUSTINE. + +Comment donc--ce Monsieur Dick, fait aussi des complimens à Madame? Il +ne manque pas de goût,--(_aside_) et il sait ce qu'il fait, apparemment. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_glancing at her foot._) + +C'est à dire--il a du bon sens, et ne parle pas mal. (_She takes the +purse._) As you so civilly obliged me, you must allow me to make you +some return. + +DICK--(_putting his hand behind him._) + +Me, ma'am! I'm sure I don't want to be paid for being civil. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +But as I have deprived you of a pleasure, my good friend, some amends +surely-- + +DICK. + +Oh, ma'am, pray don't mention it; my wife's a little tired and sleepy +sometimes of a morning, and if I didn't sing her out of bed, I do think +she would, by chance, snooze away till six o'clock, like any duchess; +but a pinch or a shake or a kiss will do as well, may be: and +(_earnestly_) she's, for all that, the best woman in the world. + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_smiling._) + +I can believe it, though she _does_ sleep till six o'clock like a +duchess. Well, my good friend, there are five guineas in this purse; the +purse is my own work; and I request you will present it to your wife +from me, with many thanks for your civility. + +DICK--(_confused._) + +Much obliged, much obliged, but I can't, I can't indeed, my lady. Five +guineas! O Lord! I should never know what to do with such a power of +money. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Your wife will not say the same, depend upon it; she will find some use +for it. + +DICK. + +My Meg, poor woman! she never had so much money in all her life. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +I must insist upon it; you will offend me. + +JUSTINE--(_taking the purse out of her lady's hand, and forcing it upon +DICK._) + +Dieux! est-il bête!--you no understand?--It is de gold and de silver +money (_laughing._) Comme il a l'air ébahi! + +DICK--(_putting up the money._) + +Many thanks, and I pray God bless your ladyship! + +LADY AMARANTHE--(_gaily._) + +Good morning, Mr. Dick. Remember me to your wife. + +DICK. + +I will, my lady. I wish your ladyship, and you, miss, a good morning. +(_To himself._) Five guineas!--what will Meg say?--Now I'll be a master +shoemaker. (_Going out in an ecstasy, he knocks his head against the +wall._) + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Take care, friend. Montrez-lui la porte, Justine! + +JUSTINE. + +Mais venez donc, Monsieur Dick--par ici--et n'allez pas donner le nez +contre la porte! + + [_DICK follows JUSTINE out of the door, + after making several bows._ + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Poor man!--well, he's silenced--he does not look as if he would sing, +morning or night, for the next twelve months. + +_Re-enter JUSTINE._ + +JUSTINE. + +Voici Madame Mincetaille, qui vient pour essayer la robe-de-bal de +madame. + +LADY AMARANTHE. + +Ah! allons donc. + + [_They go out._ + + + _The SCENE changes to the Cobbler's Garret._ + +_Enter MARGERY, in haste; a basket in her hand. She looks about her._ + +MARGERY. + +Not come back yet! what can keep him, I wonder! (_Takes off her bonnet +and shawl._) Well, I must get the dinner ready. (_Pauses, and looks +anxious._) But, somehow, I feel not easy in my mind. What could they +want with him?--Hark! (_Goes to the door_) No--what a time he is! But +suppose they should 'dite him for a nuisance--O me! or send him to the +watchhouse--O my poor dear Dick! I must go and see after him! I must go +this very instant moment! (_Snatches up her bonnet._) Oh, I hear him +now; but how slowly he comes up! + + [_Runs to the door, and leads him in._ + +_Enter DICK._ + +MARGERY. + +Oh, my dear, dear Dick, I am so glad you are come at last! But how pale +you look! all I don't know how! What's the matter? why don't you speak +to me, Dick, love? + +DICK--(_fanning himself with his hat._) + +Let me breathe, wife. + +MARGERY. + +But what's the matter? where have you been? who did you see? what did +they say to you? Come, tell me quick. + +DICK. + +Why, Meg, how your tongue does gallop! as if a man could answer twenty +questions in a breath. + +MARGERY. + +Did you see the lady herself? Tell me that. + +DICK--(_looking round the room auspiciously._) + +Shut the door first. + +MARGERY. + +There. + + [_Shuts it._ + +DICK. + +Shut the other. + +MARGERY. + +The other?--There. + + [_Shuts it._ + +DICK. + +Lock it fast, I say. + +MARGERY. + +There's no lock; and that you know. + +DICK--(_frightened._) + +No lock;--then we shall all be robbed! + +MARGERY. + +Robbed of what? Sure, there's nothing here for any one to rob! You never +took such a thing into your head before. + + [_DICK goes to the door, and tries to fasten it._ + +MARGERY--(_aside._) + +For sartain, he's bewitched--or have they given him something to +drink?--or, perhaps, he's ill. (_Very affectionately, and laying her +hand on his shoulder._) Are you not well, Dick, love? Will you go to +bed, sweetheart? + +DICK--(_gruffly._) + +No. Go to bed in the broad day!--the woman's cracked. + +MARGERY--(_whimpering._) + +Oh, Dick, what in the world has come to you? + +DICK. + +Nothing--nothing but good, you fool. There--there--don't cry, I tell +you. + +MARGERY--(_wiping her eyes._) + +And did you see the lady? + +DICK. + +Ay, I seed her; and a most beautiful lady she is, and she sends her +sarvice to you? + +MARGERY. + +Indeed! lauk-a-daisy! I'm sure I'm much obliged--but what did she say +to you? + +DICK. + +Oh, she said this, and that, and t'other--a great deal. + +MARGERY. + +But what, Dick? + +DICK. + +Why, she said--she said as how I sung so fine, she couldn't sleep o' +mornings. + +MARGERY. + +Sleep o' mornings! that's a good joke! Let people sleep o' nights, +I say. + +DICK--(_solemnly._) + +But she can't, poor soul, she's very ill; she has pains here, and pains +there, and everywhere. + +MARGERY. + +Indeed! poor lady! then you mustn't disturb her no more, Dick, that's a +sure thing. + +DICK. + +Ay, so I said; and so she gave me this. + + [_Takes out the purse, and holds it up._ + +MARGERY--(_clapping her hands._) + +O goodness! what a fine purse!--Is there any thing in it? + +DICK--(_chinks the money._) + +Do ye hear that? Guess now. + +MARGERY--(_timidly._) + +Five shillings, perhaps, eh? + +DICK. + +Five shillings!--five guineas, girl. + +MARGERY--(_with a scream._) + +Five guineas! five guineas! (_skips about_) tal, lal, la! five guineas! +(_Runs and embraces her husband._) Oh, Dick! we'll be so rich and so +happy. I want a power of things. I'll have a new gown--lavender, shall +it be?--Yes, it shall be lavender; and a dimity petticoat; and a lace +cap, like Mrs. Pinchtoe's, with pink ribbons--how she will stare! and +I'll have two silver spoons, and a nutmeg-grater, and---- + +DICK. + +Ho, ho, ho! what a jabber! din, din, din! You'll have this, and you'll +have that! First, I'll have a good stock of neat's leather. + +MARGERY. + +Well, well, give me the purse; I'll take care of it. + + [_Snatches at it._ + +DICK. + +No, thankee, _I'll_ take care of it. + +MARGERY--(_coaxing._) + +You know I always keep the money, Dick! + +DICK. + +Ay, Meg, but I'll keep this, do ye mind? + +MARGERY. + +What! keep it all to yourself?--No, you won't; an't I your wife, and +haven't I a right? I ax you that. + +DICK. + +Pooh! don't be bothering me. + +MARGERY. + +Come, give it me at once, there's a dear Dick! + +DICK. + +What, to waste it all in woman's nonsense and frippery? Don't be a fool! +we're rich, and we'll keep it safe. + +MARGERY. + +Why, where's the use of money but to spend? Come, come, I _will_ have it. + +DICK. + +Hey-day! you will?--You shan't; who's the master here, I say? + +MARGERY--(_passionately._) + +Why, if you come to that, who's the mistress here, I say? + +DICK. + +Now, Meg, don't you go for to provoke me. + +MARGERY. + +Pooh! I defy you. + +DICK--(_doubling his fist._) + +Don't you put me in a passion, Meg! + +MARGERY. + +Get along; I don't care that for you! (_snaps her fingers._) You used to +be my own dear Dick, and now you're a cross, miserly curmudgeon-- + +DICK--(_quite furious._) + +You will have it then! Why, then, take it, with a mischief; take that, +and that, and that! + + [_He beats her; she screams._ + +MARGERY. + +Oh! oh! oh!--pray don't--pray--(_Breaks from him, and throws herself +into a chair._) O Dick! to go for to strike me! O that I should ever see +the day!--you cruel, unkind----Oh! oh! + + [_Covers her face with her apron, sobs, and cries; and + he stands looking at her sheepishly. A long pause._ + +DICK--(_in great agitation._) + +Eh, why! women be made of eggshells, I do think. Why, Meg, I didn't +hurt you, did I? why don't you speak? Now, don't you be sulky, come; it +wasn't much. A man is but flesh and blood, after all; come, I say--I'll +never get into a passion with you again to my dying day--I won't--come, +don't cry; (_tries to remove the apron_,) come, kiss, and be friends. +Won't you forgive your own dear Dick, won't you? (_ready to cry_) She +won't!--Here, here's the money, and the purse and all--take it, do what +you like with it. (_She shakes her head._) What, you won't then? why, +then, there--(_throws it on the ground._) Deuce fetch me if ever I +touch it again! and I wish my fingers had been burnt before ever I took +it,--so I do! (_with feeling._) We were so happy this morning, when we +hadn't a penny to bless ourselves with, nor even a bit to eat; and now, +since all this money has come to us of a suddent, why, it's all as one +as if old Nick himself were in the purse. I'll tell you what, Meg, eh! +shall I? Shall I take it back to the lady, and give our duty to her, and +tell her we don't want her guineas, shall I, Meg? shall I, dear heart? + + [_During the last few words MARGERY lets the apron + fall from her face, looks up at him, and smiles._ + +DICK. + +Oh, that's right, and we'll be happy again, and never quarrel more. + +MARGERY. + +No, never! (_They embrace._) Take it away, for I can't bear the sight of +it. + +DICK. + +Take it _you_ then, for you know, Meg, I said I would never touch it +again; and what I says, I says--and what I says, I sticks to. + + [_Pushes it towards her with his foot._ + +MARGERY. + +And so do I: and I vowed to myself that I wouldn't touch it, and I +won't. + + [_Kicks it back to him._ + +DICK. + +How shall we manage then? Oh, I have it. Fetch me the tongs here. +(_Takes up the purse in the tongs, and holds it at arm's length._) Now +I'm going. So, Meg, if you repent, now's the time. Speak--or for ever +hold your tongue. + +MARGERY. + +Me repent? No, my dear Dick! I feel, somehow, quite light, as if a great +weight were gone away from here. (_Laying her hands on her bosom._) +Money may be a good thing when it comes little by little, and we gain +it honestly by our own hard work; but when it comes this way, in a +lump--one doesn't know how or why--it's quite too surprising, as one +may say;--it gets into one's head, like--the punch, Dick! + +DICK. + +Aye, and worser--turns it all the wrong way; but I've done with +both:--I'll have no more to say to drinking, and fine ladies, and purses +o' money;--we'll go and live in the stall round the corner, and I'll +take to my work and my singing again--eh, Meg? + +MARGERY. + +Bless you, my dear, dear Dick! (_kisses him._) + +DICK. + +Ay, that's as it should be:--so now come along. We never should have +believed this, if we hadn't tried; but it's just what my old mother used +to say--MUCH COIN, MUCH CARE.[28] + + * * * * * + +THE END. + + LONDON: + IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. + + * * * * * + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[Footnote 1: Some of the sentences which follow (marked by inverted +commas,) are taken from a portrait of Mrs. Siddons, dated 1812, and +attributed to Sir Walter Scott.] + +[Footnote 2: I am permitted to give the following little extract as farther +illustrating that tenderness of nature which I have only touched +upon. "I owe ---- ---- a letter, but I don't know how it is, now +that I am arrived at that time of life when I supposed I should be +able to sit down and indulge my natural indolence, I find the business +of it thickens and increases around me; and I am now as +much occupied about the affairs of others as I have been about my +own. I am just now expecting my son George's two babies from +India. The ship which took them from their parents, I thank heaven, +is safely arrived: _Oh! that they could know it!_ For the present I +shall have them near me. There is a school between my little +hut and the church, where they will have delicious air, and I shall +be able to see the poor dears every day."] + +[Footnote 3: I believe it _has_ been said; but, like Madlle. de +Montpensier my imagination and my memory are sometimes confounded.] + +[Footnote 4: Ben Jonson.] + +[Footnote 5: George the Fourth, after conversing with her, said with +emphasis, "She is the only _real_ queen!"] + +[Footnote 6: In a letter to Mrs. Thrale.] + +[Footnote 7: In the Grosvenor gallery. There is a duplicate of this +picture in the Dulwich gallery.] + +[Footnote 8: She afterwards played Lady Randolph for Mr. Charles +Kemble's benefit, and performed Lady Macbeth at the request of the +Princess Charlotte in 1816. This was her final appearance. She was +then sixty-one, and her powers unabated. I recollect a characteristic +passage in one of her letters relating to this circumstance: she says, +"The princess honoured me with several gracious (not _graceful_) nods; +but the newspapers gave me credit for much more _sensibility_ than I +either felt or displayed on the occasion. I was by no means so much +_overwhelmed_ by her Royal Highness's kindness, as they were pleased +to represent me."] + +[Footnote 9: + + "For time hath laid his hand so gently on her + As he too had been awed." + + DE MONTFORT.] + +[Footnote 10: The last play she read aloud was Henry V. only ten days +before she died.] + +[Footnote 11: Now Mrs. George Combe.] + +[Footnote 12: These sketches, once intended for publication, are now in +the possession of Lord Francis Egerton. The introduction and notes were +written in March, 1830--the conclusion in March, 1834.] + +[Footnote 13: The alteration and interpolations are by Garrick, of whom +it was said and believed, that "he never read through a whole play of +Shakspeare's except with some nefarious design of cutting and mangling +it."] + +[Footnote 14: She played in London the following parts successively:-- +Juliet, Belvidera, the Grecian Daughter, Mrs. Beverley, Portia, +Isabella, Lady Townly, Calista, Bianca, Beatrice, Constance, Camiola, +Lady Teazle, Donna Sol, (in Lord Francis Egerton's translation of +Hemani, when played before the queen at Bridgewater House,) Queen +Katherine, Catherine of Cleves, Louisa of Savoy, in Francis I., Lady +Macbeth, Julia in the Hunchback.] + +[Footnote 15: The only parts which, to my knowledge, she chose for +herself, were Portia, Camiola, and Julia in the Hunchback. She was +accused of having declined playing Inez de Castro in Miss Mitford's +tragedy, and I heard her repel that accusation very indignantly. +She added--"Setting aside my respect for Miss Mitford, I never, on +principle, have refused a part. It is my business to do whatever is +deemed advantageous to the whole concern, to do as much good as I can; +not to think of myself. If they bid me act Scrubb, I would act it!"] + +[Footnote 16: At Dresden and at Frankfort I saw the Merchant of Venice +played as it stands in Shakspeare, with all the stately scenes between +Portia and her suitors--the whole of the character of Jessica--the +lovely moon-light dialogue between Jessica and Lorenzo, and the beautiful +speeches given to Portia, all which, by sufferance of an English audience, +are omitted on our stage. When I confessed to some of the great German +critics, that the Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, &c. +were performed in England not only with important omissions of the text, +but with absolute alterations, affecting equally the truth of character, +and the construction of the story, they looked at me, at first, as if +half incredulous, and their perception of the barbarism, as well as the +absurdity, was so forcibly expressed on their countenances, and their +contempt so justifiable, that I confess I felt ashamed for my countrymen.] + +[Footnote 17: The resemblance was in the brow and eye. When she was +sitting to Sir Thomas Lawrence, he said, "These are the eyes of Mrs. +Siddons." She said, "You mean _like_ those of Mrs. Siddons." "No," he +replied, "they are the _same_ eyes, the construction is the same, and +to draw them is the same thing." + +I have ever been at a loss for a word which should express the peculiar +property of an eye like that of Mrs. Siddons, which could not be called +piercing or penetrating, or any thing that gives the idea of searching +or acute; but it was an eye which, in its softest look, and, to a late +period of her life, went straight into the depths of the soul as a ray +of light finds the bottom of the ocean. Once, when I was conversing +with the celebrated German critic, Böttigar, of Dresden, and he was +describing the person of Madame Schirmer, after floundering in a sea +of English epithets, none of which conveyed his meaning, he at last +exclaimed with enthusiasm--"Madam! her eye was _perforating_!"] + +[Footnote 18: In the Hunchback.] + +[Footnote 19: In the Fatal Marriage.] + +[Footnote 20: I recollect being present when some one was repeating to +her a very high-flown and enthusiastic eulogy, of which she was the +subject. She listened very quietly, and then said with indescribable +_naiveté_--"Perhaps I ought to blush to have all these things thus +repeated to my face; but the truth is, I _cannot_. I cannot, by any +effort of my own imagination, see myself as people speak of me. It +gives no reflection back to my mind. I cannot fancy myself like this. +All I can clearly understand is, that you and every body are very much +pleased, and I am very glad of it!"] + +[Footnote 21: It must be remembered that it was not _only_ fashionable +incense and public applause; it was the open enthusiastic admiration +of such men as Sir Walter Scott, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Moore, Rogers, +Campbell, Barry Cornwall, and others of great name, who brought rich +flattery in prose and in verse, and laid it at her feet. Just before +she came on the stage she had spent about a year in Scotland with her +excellent relative and friend, Mrs. Henry Siddons, and always referred +to this period as her "Sabbatical year, granted to her to prepare her +mind and principles for _this great trial_."] + +[Footnote 22: Her own words.] + +[Footnote 23: First published in 1827. The anecdote on which this tale +is founded, I met with in the first volume of Dow's Translation of +Ferishta's History of Judea.] + +[Footnote 24: _Vide_ the Heetopadessa.] + +[Footnote 25: Afterwards the Emperor Jehangire.] + +[Footnote 26: This little tale was written in March, 1826, and in the +hands of the publishers long before the appearance of Bainim's novel of +"The Nowlans" which contains a similar incident, probably founded on the +same fact.] + +[Footnote 27: This little tale (written in 1830) is founded on a +striking incident related in Humboldt's narrative. The facts remain +unaltered.] + +[Footnote 28: It need hardly be observed that this little trifle was +written exclusively for very young actors, to whom the style was +adapted; and though below all criticism, it has been included here to +gratify those for whom it was originally written, and as a memorial of +past times. The subject is imitated from one of Théodore Leclerq's +_Proverbes Dramatiques_.] + + * * * * * + +[Transcriber's Note: Errata as given in the original have been applied to +the text. Other than the most exceedingly obvious typographical errors, +all inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, diacriticals, archaic usage, etc. +have been preserved as printed in the original.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad +with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected, by Anna Jameson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VISITS AND SKETCHES, VOL III *** + +***** This file should be named 36820-8.txt or 36820-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/2/36820/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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