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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature
+and Science, Volume 20. December, 1877., by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 20. December, 1877.
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: November 7, 2011 [EBook #37946]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE
+
+OF
+
+_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_.
+
+DECEMBER, 1877.
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT
+& Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
+
+
+
+
+A MONTH IN SICILY.
+
+FIRST PAPER.
+
+
+[Illustration: LA FAVORITA.]
+
+Early on the morning of the first of February we stood on the deck of the
+steamer for Palermo, watching the sun rise over the water. Far away in the
+south the blue edge of the sea began to grow bluer with the rising of the
+distant land. A fresh breeze blew from the shore--not a pleasant feature in
+February weather at home, but suggesting comparisons with the warmest
+morning of a New England May. With the swift advance of the steamer the
+blue line in the south rapidly rose above the level of the sea into the
+definite shape of a rugged mountain-range: gradually the blueness of
+distance changed to rich shades of brown and red on the jagged, treeless
+summits, and to deepest green where long orange-farms border the bases of
+the mountains.
+
+Who has not longed to see Sicily? Every one who loves poetry, romance or
+the history of ancient civilization must often turn in thought to this
+beautiful and famous Mediterranean island. To the most ancient poets it was
+a mysterious land, where dwelt the monster Charybdis and the bloody
+Laestrigones; where Ulysses met the Cyclops; where the immortal gods waged
+battles with the giant sons of Earth, and bound Enceladus in his eternal
+prison. No doubt it was the terrific natural phenomena of Sicily--the
+earthquakes and the outbursts of Etna--which rendered it so much a land of
+horrors to the early Greek imagination. But in that far-distant age it was
+not only the terrors of the place that had worked upon the imaginative
+Greeks: the almost tropical luxuriance of the country, the unrivalled
+scenery, the brilliancy of the sky, made it a fitting ground for the
+adventures of nymphs, heroes and gods. In the fountain of Sicilian Ortygia
+dwelt Arethusa, the nymph dear to the poets; beside the Lake of Enna, where
+rich vegetation overran the lips of the extinct volcano, was the spot
+called in mythology the meeting-place of Pluto and Proserpine--the power of
+darkness and the springing plant personified; and so through all the
+country places were found made sacred by the presence of the great
+divinities, and temples were erected in their honor.
+
+When the age of fable had passed away, far back in the early dawn of
+European history begins authentic knowledge about Sicily. While wicked Ahaz
+reigned in the kingdom of Judah, and Isaiah had not ceased to utter his
+prophecies, the Greek colonization of Sicily began. Seven hundred and
+thirty-five years before Christ, Theocles with his band of Greeks from
+Euboea founded Naxos on the coast, hard by the fertile slopes of Etna.
+Within three centuries from that time the whole Sicilian coast had been
+studded with Greek cities, and to such wealth, power and splendor of art
+had they attained that all succeeding epochs of the island's history seem
+degenerate times when compared with that early golden age.
+
+It has been truly said that "there is not a nation which has materially
+influenced the destinies of European civilization that has not left
+distinct traces of its activity in this island." Phoenicians, Greeks,
+Romans, Saracens, Normans, Spaniards, French and English have successively
+occupied the island, and noble monuments of the varied civilizations are
+standing to this day. Scattered through the island, their architectural
+remains crown the mountain-tops or lie in confusion along the Mediterranean
+shore, a series of ruins extending through twenty-five centuries, unmatched
+in any other country for variety of age and style.
+
+At ten o'clock our steamer entered the Gulf of Palermo, passing near the
+base of Monte Pellegrino, a wild promontory which towers up two thousand
+feet from the sea. On the day before I had entered for the first time the
+famous Bay of Naples, but with less delight than I now looked upon the
+beauties of this Sicilian gulf. Flanked with lofty mountains, colored with
+the matchless blue of the Mediterranean, studded with picturesque lateen
+sails, the bay is a fitting entrance to this fair historic island: a more
+beautiful approach could hardly be imagined even to the Islands of the
+Blessed.
+
+The Italians call Palermo _la felice_ ("the happy"). It is most happy in
+its climate, its situation and its noble streets and gardens. Below the
+city lies the lovely bay: behind it stretches back for miles, between
+converging mountain-chains, the fruit-producing level of the Golden Shell
+(_La Conca d'Oro_). The plain is one vast orchard of oranges and lemons
+which every year distributes its huge crop over half the habitable globe.
+The city is worthy of its position. The chief streets are broad, clean and
+handsomely built--a contrast to the universal shabbiness and squalor we had
+found in Naples.
+
+[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF PALERMO.]
+
+A traveller is sure to be put in a good humor with the place by the many
+and unusual comforts which he meets in the great sea-fronting hotel; and
+the first look from the windows of his apartment confirms the opinion that
+Palermo is the fairest of Southern cities. The outlook is upon the grand
+seashore drive, the Marina, as gay and pretty a sight as can be found in
+any European capital. The broad, tree-shaded avenue, bordered on one side
+by hotels and palaces, on the other by the waters of the bay, is thronged
+with private carriages. Beginning at the sea-facing gate of the city, the
+road commands through all its length a view of the mountains, the bay and
+the open sea: at its terminus lie the public flower-gardens--acres of our
+choicest hothouse plants growing in tropical profusion.
+
+In Palermo, as in so many European towns, the cathedral is the chief
+architectural attraction. To approach it from the bay the whole length of
+the city must be traversed on the Corso Vittorio Emmanuele, the chief
+business street. This corso is crossed at the centre of the town by another
+of equal width, which also commemorates by its name Italian unity--the
+Corso Garibaldi. There is one other broad and important street which no
+American can enter without remembering that even in this distant land the
+interest and sympathy of the people have been with our country in its
+struggles and successes: it is the Via Lincoln.
+
+The drive up the Corso gives an opportunity for seeing a remarkably
+handsome street lined with gay shops, and for studying the peculiar and
+often fine faces of the Sicilian people; but nothing of striking interest
+appears until, near the centre of the town, a street opening on the left
+discloses a vista ending in a small forest of white marble statues. On a
+nearer view it is found that the statues belong to the immense fountain of
+the Piazza Pretoria, a work erected about A. D. 1550 by command of the
+senate of Palermo. It is perhaps the largest and most elaborate fountain in
+Europe, and, though it is easy to criticise the countless sculptures that
+adorn it, the whole effect of their combination into an architectural unit
+is most imposing.
+
+Continuing the drive up the Corso, a broad piazza suddenly opens on the
+right, flanked by the cathedral. The abruptness of the transition from
+between the dark lines of buildings into the sunlight of the square adds to
+the first strong impression produced by the beauty of the vast duomo. In
+its external architecture the church is unique: the charm of it to one who
+has been travelling through Italy is its utter dissimilarity to all the
+Italian churches. Architectural writers call it a building of the "Sicilian
+Gothic style;" and, though the expression does not convey a vivid image
+except to the student of art, any one can see its essential difference from
+the style of the North, and can recognize the rare grandeur and beauty of
+the church. The form is simple, but the dimensions are grand. Without the
+boldness of outline of true Gothic churches, the walls are so covered with
+ornaments of interlacing arches, cornices and arabesque slightly raised on
+the masonry as to produce an effect of wonderful richness. The style is
+peculiarly Sicilian, yet every observer of mediaeval churches will at once
+detect the Norman, Italian and Saracenic influences blended in an exquisite
+harmony. Connected with the church by light arches, but separated from it
+by a street, stands the campanile, a mass of enormous solidity, terminating
+in many pinnacles and one slender and graceful tower rising above them all.
+Four other lofty towers, springing from the corners of the church, give
+additional lightness to its elegant design: they were added to the building
+nearly three centuries after the Norman conquest of Sicily, and yet their
+minaret-like form and pointed panel ornaments show how strong and lasting
+had been the influence of Arabian art upon the mediaeval architects of
+Sicily.
+
+[Illustration: GROTTO OF SANTA ROSALIA.]
+
+It is seven hundred years since the foundations of the duomo were laid. In
+that distant age, and in a land so remote, it is a curious circumstance
+that its founder was an Englishman: _Gualterio Offamilio_ is the amusing
+Italian corruption by which the name of Walter of the Mill was suited to
+the Southern tongue. After Roger and his Normans had driven from Sicily the
+Arab power which had held the land for more than two centuries, and when
+Christianity had succeeded the Mohammedan religion throughout the island,
+Archbishop Walter assumed spiritual sovereignty in Palermo, and founded
+this cathedral on the site of an ancient mosque. Only a part of the
+original building remains in the crypt and two walls of the present church.
+All subsequent ages have changed and added to its original simple form, but
+often have taken from its beauty. Within the church only a part of the
+south aisle commands close attention: there in canopied sarcophagi of
+porphyry reposes the dust of Roger, king of Sicily (1154), of Henry VI.,
+emperor of Germany, and of Frederick II., Roger's most illustrious
+grandson, king of Sicily, king of Jerusalem and emperor of Germany. In a
+chapel at the right of the high altar, sacred to Santa Rosalia, rest the
+bones of the saint enshrined in a sarcophagus of silver. Thirteen hundred
+pounds of the precious metal are wrought into the shrine, and the whole
+chapel is sumptuous with marble frescoes and gilding, for to the pious
+souls of Palermo this is the very holy of holies. The cathedral is
+dedicated to Rosalia, and almost divine honors are paid to her by the city
+from which she fled in horror at its wickedness.
+
+Every summer a festival of three days is held in honor of this favorite
+saint; and again in September a day is kept to commemorate her death, when
+a vast concourse of people from Palermo climb the side of the neighboring
+Monte Pellegrino to worship at the grotto of St. Rosalia, a natural cavern
+situated under an overhanging crag of the summit. Here the faithful
+Sicilians believe that the holy maiden dwelt in solitude for many years;
+and here were found in 1624 the bones of the saint, which put a stop to the
+plague then raging in Palermo. The cave has been made a church by building
+a porch at the entrance. Twisted columns of alabaster support the roof of
+the vestibule, but within the cavern the walls are of the natural rock,
+contrasting strangely with the magnificent workmanship of the high altar,
+beneath which lies the marble statue of the saint overlaid with a robe of
+gold, while about the recumbent figure are placed a book and skull and
+other objects of pure gold. It is a figure of a fair young girl,
+represented by the artist as dying, with her head at rest upon one hand.
+Though the statue is the work of no very famous artist, Goethe in the
+narrative of his Sicilian travel has truly said of it, "The head and hands
+of white marble are, if not faultless in style, at least so pleasing and
+natural that one cannot help expecting to see them move."
+
+Under the southern precipices of this Mountain of the Pilgrim lies a royal
+park, and in the midst of it stands a gaudy and fantastic villa called La
+Favorita. The house is worth a visit for the sake of seeing what a
+half-crazy fancy will produce when united with royal wealth. King Ferdinand
+I., during his stay in Sicily early in this century, amused himself by
+building this country palace in the style of a Chinese villa, and adorned
+it with innumerable little bells, to be rung by every movement of the wind.
+
+It was in the Favorita that the old king found himself cornered by Lord
+William Bentinck and his army during the British occupation of the island
+in 1812. It is said that his faithful subjects from Palermo encamped by
+thousands in the neighborhood--not, however, for the sake of defending
+their aged monarch, but to enjoy the fun of witnessing a fight in which
+both sides were hated by them with equal cordiality.
+
+To an enterprising traveller some of the pleasantest hours of a long tour
+are those when, cutting loose from all guides and books, he wanders alone
+through the streets of an old city, enjoying with a sense of discovery the
+scraps of antiquity not described in any book which he is sure to meet
+with. Palermo and its neighborhood afford a most fertile field for such
+researches. The Saracenic villas of the suburbs and the early Norman
+buildings of the town will repay considerable patience spent in looking up
+the beauties to be found in the details of their construction. For
+instance, in the plain old church of S. Agostino there is a doorway and
+wheel window one sight of which is an ample reward for much wandering and
+searching.
+
+[Illustration: MONREALE]
+
+On a morning too fresh and beautiful for staying in the city we rendered a
+vivacious cabman ecstatically happy by an engagement to drive us to
+Monreale. A brisk drive past the royal palace, out of the southern gate and
+five miles across the orange-covered plain brought us to the foot of an
+abrupt mountain. Not a half mile away, but far above, on the seemingly
+unapproachable heights, was perched the quaint village which was our
+destination: its ancient towering buildings glittered white and hot in the
+February sun under the canopy of cloudless blue. Ascending for half an hour
+on the well-constructed zigzag road, we stopped at the gate in the
+town-wall to buy the luscious-looking fruit of the cactus from a road-side
+vender, one of those ideal hags, apparently preserved by desiccation under
+the torrid sun, whom only Italy can produce in perfection. Then onward and
+upward we pushed through the village street--a street characteristic of
+these Southern walled villages, narrow, dark, festooned above with
+interminable lines of drying macaroni, covered below with abundant filth,
+and bordered by house-walls of enormous thickness, built for resisting
+heat. At every house-door or on the pavement in front sits the man of the
+house plying his trade, that all the world may know whether his goods are
+well made or ill. Up and down the street flow the lines of dark-eyed,
+swarthy people--women robed in rags, occasionally set off by a bit of
+striking color; children who in their astonishment become rigid at the
+sight of a foreigner; here and there an officer of the Italian army
+carefully picking his way through the mud; and everywhere produce-laden
+asses driven toward Palermo by the most picturesque of cut-throats, for
+without its ever-present force of soldiers Monreale would at once relapse
+into a hotbed of brigandage, as its recent history shows.
+
+Almost at the summit of the town, facing a broad, paved square, stands the
+cathedral and its adjacent Benedictine monastery, both built upon the brink
+of the precipitous mountain, and both in external appearance severely
+plain, almost to shabbiness.
+
+William II., king of Sicily, called the Good, founded on this Royal Mount a
+monastery for the Benedictine friars, and built it up with all the strength
+of a fortress and the magnificence of a palace. Little is left of that
+original building, which was finished in 1174, but in its few remains have
+fortunately been preserved the most splendid of cloisters. This scene of
+centuries of Benedictine meditations is a large quadrangle surrounded by an
+arcade of multitudinous small pointed arches resting upon pairs of slender
+white marble columns, like stalks of snow-white lilies in their grace and
+lightness. Some of the marble shafts are wrought with reliefs of flowers
+and trailing vines, while most of them were inlaid in bands or spirals of
+mosaic in gold and colors, now injured by age. The capitals which crown
+these shafts are exquisitely carved, and all mythology, the legends of the
+Church and the book of Nature have been ransacked to furnish subjects for
+the designs; so that out of two hundred or more no two are similar. All the
+decaying magnificence of the great building is pervaded by an oppressive
+silence, for it is one of the innumerable religious houses suppressed by
+the Italian government.
+
+From the monastery to the cathedral is a walk of but a few steps. All
+disappointment at the external plainness is forgotten in approaching the
+chief entrance of the church. Michael Angelo said of Ghiberti's doors at
+Florence that "they were worthy to be the entrance to Paradise." They have
+rightly become famous through all the world, and yet these doors of
+Monreale leave on the mind of the beholder a strong impression of their
+beauty not less lasting than the Baptistery gates at Florence. In the
+execution of the biblical reliefs which completely encrust the massive
+leaves of bronze they must yield, of course, to the mature art of
+Ghiberti's later age; but the stately height of the solid metal doors, the
+alternate bands of mosaic and wrought-stone arabesques which flank them and
+surround over head the Arabian arch, and, above all, the sense that they
+conceal from view unparalleled splendors beyond, leave on the mind an
+impression which cannot be effaced.
+
+Perhaps no other building deserves the epithet "splendid" so exactly as the
+cathedral of Monreale: the whole interior is radiant from the vast extent
+of its pictured walls. All the walls and vaulting of the nave and aisles,
+transepts and tribune, are overspread with ancient mosaics on a golden
+ground. It is natural to compare St. Mark's cathedral at Venice with this
+church, on account of its immense mosaic-covered surface: its sumptuous
+interior delights every beholder with the satisfying completeness which
+belongs to it; yet in all the Oriental splendor of the Venetian church
+nothing can equal in impressiveness a glance down the nave of Monreale.
+Wherever the eye turns it rests upon the glowing colors of some sacred
+picture--scenes from the Old Testament history, bright-robed figures of
+flying angels, haloed saints in the quaint Byzantine style, apostles and
+martyrs, patriarchs and prophets, and, high above them all, from a great
+picture in the vaulting of the apse, a startling face of Christ looking
+solemnly down through the length of the cathedral. Half the stiffness which
+characterizes these early mosaics seems to have been cast aside in treating
+this supreme subject. The colossal size of the figure, the hand raised in
+blessing the multitude, the sad but awful expression of the countenance,
+make it an all-pervading presence in the church. Amid all the glittering
+splendor of the building, while the gorgeous pomp of a holiday mass
+progressed and rippling strains of organ-music ran echoing through the
+arches, through all the bewildering brightness of the spectacle, the
+majesty of that Presence could not for a moment be forgotten, nor could the
+eyes avoid straying off from the glitter below to answer again and again to
+that solemn gaze above.
+
+[Illustration: LA ZIZA.]
+
+It is impossible, in any ordinary picture, to convey more than a very faint
+idea of this building, in which the peculiar beauties are dependent upon
+color, unlike the Gothic churches of the North: nothing but an oil painting
+of minute details could render the effects produced by the bars of sunshine
+descending through the twilight of the church and striking on the glowing,
+pictured walls. The extent of surface covered by the mosaics is said to be
+more than sixty thousand square feet.
+
+By the bounty of the same pious monarch who endowed the neighboring
+monastery the cathedral was completed just seven hundred years ago. His
+body lies entombed in the transept: his monument is the wonderful pile
+whose construction has made his name to be remembered by succeeding ages
+more than all his other deeds.
+
+Outside the cathedral, adjoining the monastery-wall, a commanding terrace
+is built upon the verge of the precipice. Leaning from its edge, we gazed
+almost vertically into the orange-groves below, where the ripe fruit glowed
+with the brightness of a flame contrasted with the darkness of the foliage.
+Far and wide were spread the fruit-gardens over the plain, to where the
+mountains towered up in the east, and northward to the city and the sea. It
+is one of those bright and satisfying scenes from which a traveller can
+hardly turn away without a tinge of bitterness in the thought of never
+seeing them again.
+
+The drive back to the town was pleasantly varied by a detour which brought
+us to the Capuchin monastery and the Saracenic villa of La Ziza. The vaults
+of the monastery are mentioned as one of the interesting sights, but it
+must be a very ghoulish soul that would take pleasure in them. The horrors
+of the more famous Capuchin vaults at Rome are tame in comparison with
+these. There the ornaments are skulls and skeletons in a tolerable state of
+cleanliness: here the departed brethren have been subjected to some
+mummifying process, and as they lie piled in hideous confusion their
+withered faces stare horribly in the twilight of the cellar. Numerous
+fiery-eyed cats run about with much scratching and scrabbling over the dry
+bodies, making the place none the pleasanter with their uncanny wails. A
+very brief visit is sufficient.
+
+La Ziza, the only Saracenic house of this region which is still inhabited,
+is simply a massive, battlemented tower of unmistakably Arabian appearance.
+The outside walls are adorned with the depressed panels characteristic of
+the Saracenic style, but within the Oriental look has almost vanished under
+the repairs and decorations of many centuries. Only the lofty hallway,
+arched above with a kind of honeycomb vaulting and cooled by a little
+cascade of water rushing through it, retains much of the Oriental beauty,
+and seems like a hall of the Alhambra. Along a wall of the vestibule runs
+an inscription in Arabic which has been a puzzle to Orientalists, and of
+which no undisputed interpretation is given. The palace was built as a
+country pleasure-house by one of the Saracenic princes of Palermo, and can
+be little less than a thousand years old; indeed, an inscription on its
+walls, inscribed by one of the Spanish proprietors, claims for the house an
+antiquity of eleven hundred years.
+
+From the battlements of La Ziza one has the loveliest near view of Palermo
+and the plain of the Golden Shell. An enthusiastic verse, written over the
+doorway of the palace, declares it to be the most beautiful scene upon our
+planet, and while the eyes are resting on the view it is easy to believe
+the poet; but many of the mountain-views about the city surpass it.
+
+One of the most attractive of the mountain-excursions from Palermo is that
+to the monastery of San Martino. At a height of seventeen hundred feet
+above the city, in a lonely spot, the monastery stands on another flank of
+the mountain on which Monreale is also perched. The mule-path from the
+suburban village of Boccadifalco to San Martino would be worth traversing
+for its own wild beauty alone. It first enters a gorge between grand
+cliffs: then, climbing a rocky ascent which commands a superb view of the
+plain, it runs through a fruitful valley, where the monastery suddenly
+appears in the front.
+
+[Illustration: Palermo.]
+
+The monastery of San Martino has been the wealthiest in Sicily. The
+entrance-hall is on a scale of regal magnificence, adorned with
+many-colored marbles. The brethren were all of noble extraction. Though the
+external architecture of the building is not in the best taste, the grand
+scale on which it is built, and still more the wild, picturesque site, give
+to the monastery a beauty which even an Italian architect of the last
+century could not disfigure. Ascending a grand staircase with balustrades
+of purple marble, an upper hall is reached, from which the wonderful view
+may be seen to the best advantage. Turning the eye to the north and east
+across the savage-looking mountains, a short reach of the coast is seen,
+and beyond is the boundless expanse of sea, dotted on the horizon by the
+volcanoes of the AEolian Islands, which lie more than a hundred miles away.
+The abbey abounds in pictures by masters of the seventeenth century, and
+there is also a museum of Greek and Saracenic remains, but nothing within
+the walls compares with the interest of the window-views.
+
+Attractive as are the sights of Palermo, most of them must be passed over
+or very hastily visited if the tour of the island is to be made in a month,
+for the Greek cities beyond demand a greater share of time by reason of
+their immense antiquity and the grandeur of their remains.
+
+Being well prepared for the inland journey, and eager to see antiquities so
+little known to the outer world, one question arose to give us pause--a
+question which every year keeps thousands of prudent tourists from
+exploring a country as full of glorious scenery as Switzerland, possessing
+more of Greek antiquities than Greece itself, and a far lovelier winter
+climate than Italy--"Is it safe?" The doubtful question whether this
+rarely-attempted journey should be accomplished was settled by the friendly
+advice of the courteous consul of the United States at Palermo. That advice
+may be of use to travellers in the future: it was to the effect that for
+two American gentlemen travelling alone and without ostentation through
+Sicily there is no more danger of capture or violent death than in any
+civilized country. It is admitted that highway robbery is not impossible,
+as in many places nearer home, but the simple preventive is to carry as
+little ready money as possible over the short spaces of unsettled country,
+and to forward superfluous baggage by steamer. That there are banditti in
+certain districts of the island no one denies, but their object is the
+capture of wealthy Sicilians, whose ransom is sure and ample, while that of
+a foreigner is uncertain and necessarily long delayed.
+
+A dark afternoon found us comfortably established in the best seats of an
+old-fashioned stage-coach in front of the general post-office of Palermo,
+whence the stage-lines radiate to the various parts of the island. After
+the long deliberation which seems to characterize all business (especially
+official business) transacted outside of England and America, the mail-bags
+were delivered, and our journey began in the midst of a shower descending
+with all the tremendous impetuosity of a semi-tropical rainy season. The
+cumbersome vehicle dashed on with considerable spirit through streets
+almost emptied by the violence of the shower, and out through the broad
+arch of the stately Porta Nuova crowded by multitudes seeking shelter from
+the storm. Late twilight found us at the end of the first stage in
+Monreale. From thence onward the journey continued for a while through
+pitchy darkness. The broad highway is engineered with admirable skill along
+the sides of mountains and over deep ravines, through a region of most
+uncommon beauty, it is said, but now hidden from us by the impenetrable
+gloom. However, as the night advanced the clouds rolled away with
+surprising suddenness, and left a bright moon rising over the mountains. We
+began to see something of the beautifully varied country, though viewing
+it at a disadvantage through the narrow window of a covered coach. Wherever
+the rugged nature of the country permitted every rood of ground was under
+exquisite cultivation, and already had its first soft covering of springing
+vegetation. The night-air was sweet with the spring-like odors of
+freshly-turned earth and of wild-flowers: from time to time white masses of
+flower-laden almond trees flashed past the window, looking in the moonlight
+wonderfully like the snow-drifts which at this season line the roads in New
+England.
+
+[Illustration: CONVENT OF SAN MARINO, NEAR PALERMO.]
+
+After nightfall the surface of the rich and well-cultivated country seemed
+as solitary as a wilderness: not a creature was stirring along the road.
+The intense silence of the night was broken only by the hum of our
+coach-wheels and the sharp snap of hoofs from our cavalry guard. How unlike
+were all the surroundings to those of an ordinary modern night-journey over
+the mail-routes of Europe! The primitive conveyance, the quiet of the
+lonely road, the arms of the attendant troop of horsemen flashing in the
+light of the moon,--all the concomitants of an old-time night-journey
+seemed to carry us back from the age of railroads to an earlier time.
+
+Eleven drowsy hours of staging, and then a long, slow ascent, brought us up
+to the hilltop where stands the village of Calatafimi. The chief inn of the
+town is probably not surpassed in Europe in the number of its small
+discomforts, animate and inanimate, but it must be made the base of
+operations for visiting the ruins of Segesta. The remnant of the night
+spent in sleep prepared us for our investigations on the following day. It
+was pleasant, rising in the cool early morning, to step out from the
+comfortless interior of the tavern to enjoy on a southern balcony the
+temperate warmth of the low sun and to look down on the lovely landscape.
+Before us lay a fertile rolling country clad with verdure, and rising
+gradually upward toward the south to an elevation deserving to be called a
+mountain from its great height, yet from its gentle slope and cultivated
+sides rather to be called a hill. A field near the crest of that distant
+hill, marked only by a few white crosses, is a spot memorable in Sicilian
+history, for there lie the heroes who fell fighting with Garibaldi for the
+unity of Italy on May 15, 1860. Sicily has in all ages been a battle-ground
+for the contending races of two continents: on Sicilian soil Athens
+received her most disabling blow, and here too the Punic power was broken;
+yet there is hardly one among the battlefields of Sicily upon which greater
+destinies have been settled than on this field of Calatafimi.
+
+Before the morning was far advanced we started out in search of the village
+cure, the unfailing friend of strangers, that we might inquire of him about
+the safety of visiting the ruin and in regard to the pleasantest way of
+reaching it. Picking our way about through the mud of the squalid village,
+we at length found the old gentleman just coming from his little church on
+the side of the castle hill at the end of the town. Filled with unfeigned
+delight that the monotony of his existence should be broken by the advent
+of two foreigners, especially such living wonders as Americans, the benign
+priest took a lively interest in our case, gave us the information for
+which we had asked, vouching for the safety of the country, and begged us
+to walk on with him. For five minutes we followed on together the road cut
+in the hillside beneath the walls of the Saracenic citadel, our companion
+all the while talking vehemently, and helping out our lame knowledge of the
+language with gestures so dramatic that an understanding of his words was
+hardly needed. Suddenly the road curved round the side of the hill; we
+stood on the floor of a deserted quarry; the old man ceased speaking and
+pointed forward: "_Ecco!_" Before us the hill dropped abruptly down in a
+precipice: far below a deep valley spread out before our eyes, "fair as the
+garden of the Lord." As the light of the morning sun streamed down through
+its length, bringing out in great brilliancy the fresh green of spring, it
+looked like a paradise of luxuriant vegetation. The gray of olive trees and
+the darkness of orange-groves contrasted with the color of springing
+plants, and everywhere were scattered the pink-and-white plumes of the
+blossoming almonds. Beyond the valley a rugged, saddle-shaped mountain
+rose to an imposing height, and upon the summit line stood in solitary
+majesty the Doric temple of Segesta, each column in clear relief against
+the blue of the sky. It is so far removed from all abodes of men, standing
+alone for thousands of years in the region of the clouds--so grand in its
+severe and noble outlines--so venerable in its mysterious antiquity--so
+blended with the natural beauties of the place,--that it seems rather to
+belong to the power that raised the mountains than to any workmanship of
+man. The world cannot show a more wonderful example of art exquisitely
+harmonized with the grandeur of natural scenery.
+
+Eager for a closer view of the temple, we returned immediately to the town,
+and, being provided with a guide and a beast, were soon on the way down the
+winding road to the valley. A bridle-path diverged from the main road: an
+avenue of over-arching olive trees shaded the way, and on all sides here,
+as everywhere through the country, the orange-crop loaded the trees almost
+to breaking--the most beautiful of all crops as the fruit hangs upon the
+branches. As we passed the lower slopes dotted with browsing sheep, and
+began the rugged ascent of the mountain on which the temple stands, the
+pathway crept up the edge of a profound gorge: it was a perilous way,
+clinging close to the edge of the bank, and at some points, where we could
+look down a thousand feet to the torrent below, the path was so narrow and
+broken that even our sure-footed mountain-donkeys hesitated to advance. The
+picturesque but hard climb at length came to an end at the edge of the
+broad, flattened summit of the mountain. Again the temple suddenly came in
+sight, but now near at hand. The mountain-shepherds have planted with wheat
+the level of the summit, and the pale yellow of the volcanic rock from
+which the temple is built harmonizes well with the color of its
+surroundings. It cannot be called a ruin. It stands as the builders left it
+in the fifth century before Christ. Not a column is broken, not a stone has
+fallen. The interior was never finished, but the outside is perfect.
+
+The pure outlines of a Doric temple are beautiful in any situation, but the
+impression which this one made upon us in the bright morning sunlight,
+standing in the midst of verdure and flowers on the brink of that
+stupendous chasm and overlooking that glorious country, is not a thing to
+be conveyed in words.
+
+The interest of the temple is comprised in its size, antiquity and beauty,
+for no mention of it is made in history. Its approximate age is inferred
+from the internal evidence of the structure. The subjection of the city of
+Segesta from B. C. 409 to the powers of Carthage and Rome successively, and
+the subsequent decline of its own power and wealth, render it certain that
+no such work as this temple would have been undertaken after that date:
+moreover, the purity of its simple Doric form places it in the earlier ages
+of Sicilian history. The Carthaginian invasion of the island was doubtless
+the event which arrested the building. Cicero has described a wonderful
+statue of Diana in bronze which the people of Segesta showed him with pride
+as the greatest ornament of their city: it was of colossal size and
+faultless beauty, belonging to the best period of Greek art. As the statue
+was in existence before the Carthaginian invasion, it seems to me highly
+improbable that the citizens of Segesta would have built so grand a temple
+for any other purpose than to enshrine their most admired and revered
+statue and to make it a place of worship for Diana. This theory may explain
+in part the reason why the building was arrested, for it is known that the
+image was stolen to adorn the city of Carthage,[A] and its loss, as well as
+the subsequent poverty of Segesta, would have been a sufficient reason for
+ceasing to build a temple to contain it. Diana's worshippers of old must
+have looked upon these lovely mountain-ranges as an abode dear to the queen
+of the nymphs and the hunter's patron deity. It seems as if nothing less
+than the presence of the mountain-goddess lingering round her shrine could
+have kept the temple in its marvellous perfection through the lapse of
+ages in a land of wars and earthquakes. The houses of the neighboring city
+are indistinguishably levelled with the earth, but hardly a stone of the
+sacred building is displaced.
+
+The position of the temple was outside and below the limits of the ancient
+city. The mountain-ridge rises near at hand to a somewhat greater height,
+and terminates in a peak, on the summit and sides of which the town was
+built. Warned by the decline of the sun, we turned from the Segestan house
+of worship and began to climb the slope toward the Segestan place of
+amusement: the Greek theatre still remains with little loss or change. The
+ascent was interrupted by many lingering backward looks toward the grand
+colonnade as it appeared at fresh points of view from above. Hardly a
+living creature appeared on the lonely heights, except that one wandering
+shepherd, seeing the dress of foreigners, came forward to offer his little
+stock of coins ploughed from the earth or found in ancient buildings. As
+usual, most of the pocketful were corroded beyond recognition, but one
+piece bore a noble head executed in the Greek style, and the clear
+inscription, [Greek: PANORMITAN], a coin of Panormus; which is, in modern
+speech, Palermo. A few coppers were accepted as an ample equivalent for a
+coin which will not circulate.
+
+The scattered fragments of a fortress crown the peak; and immediately
+below, cut in the solid rock of the western slope, lies the theatre. It is
+not large as compared with buildings of its class at Athens and Syracuse,
+yet I believe that in its seating capacity it exceeds any opera-house of
+our time. Entering by a ruined stage-door and crossing the orchestra, we
+rested on the lower tiers of seats. The great arc, comprising two-thirds of
+a circle, upon which the spectators were ranged, has still its covering of
+fine cut-stone seats, complete except at one extremity. Every part of the
+desolate building gains a new interest when peopled in imagination with its
+ancient occupants, and when we recall to mind the vast multitudes of many
+generations who have watched with breathless and solemn interest the
+stately progress of Greek tragedy before that ruined _scena_.
+
+As we lounged upon the lowest seats, whereon the high dignitaries of the
+town used to sit, and looked across the open space of the orchestra, there
+at the centre of its farther side lay the slab which supported the altar of
+Bacchus, where stood the chorus-leader: near it a line of stone marks the
+front of the stage, and beyond it is spread an expanse of stage-scenery
+such as no modern royal theatre can boast. The whole broad prospect
+commanded from the colonnade below is seen across the stage of the theatre,
+but widened by the greater height and finished in the foreground by the
+majestic presence of the temple. All the north-western mountains of the
+island are taken in with one glance of the eye: beneath us the valley of
+the little river Scamander opens a long vista northward to the
+Mediterranean Sea, and far away the port of Castellamare glitters, in
+contrast with the blue, as white as a polished shell upon the shore. Most
+distant among the group of peaks is Mount Eryx, the lonely rock by the sea
+on whose summit stood the temple of Venus Erycina, more renowned in the
+ancient world than all other shrines of the goddess.
+
+We climbed to the brow of the hill in order to descend through the entire
+length of the city. Hardly one stone is left upon another of all the
+streets through which the Segestans proudly conducted Cicero. Here and
+there appear the circular openings of cisterns which occupied the centres
+of ancient courtyards. The stones once hewn and carved which are strewn
+over the slope are now reduced to the roughness of boulders, so that one
+might cross the tract and catch no sign that it was once a city. Little has
+been done to discover what remains lie beneath the surface, but at one
+point, where a small excavation has been made, a heap of fallen Ionic
+columns cover the fragments of a tomb built on a scale of regal
+magnificence; and a little lower on the mountain two rooms of a house have
+been exhumed, the floors of which are still covered with beautiful mosaics.
+
+ALFRED T. BACON.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] The statue was restored to Segesta by Scipio.
+
+
+
+
+"FOR PERCIVAL."
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SISSY LOOKS INTO THE MIRROR.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A lady's hero generally has ample leisure. He may write novels or poems, or
+paint the picture or carve the statue of the season, or he is a statesman
+and rules the destinies of nations, or he makes money mysteriously in the
+city, or even, it may be, not less mysteriously on the turf; but he does it
+in his odd minutes. That is his characteristic. Perhaps he spends his
+morning in stupendous efforts to gratify a wish expressed in smiling
+hopelessness by the heroine; later, he calls on her or he rides with her;
+evening comes, he dances with her till the first gray streak of dawn has
+touched the eastern sky. He goes home. His pen flies along the paper--he is
+knee-deep in manuscript; he is possessed with burning enthusiasm and
+energy; her features grow in idealized loveliness beneath his chisel, or
+the sunny tide of daylight pours in to irradiate the finished picture as
+well as the exhausted artist with a golden glory. He has a talent for
+sitting up. He gets up very early indeed if he is in the country, but he
+never goes to bed early, or when would he achieve his triumphs? Some
+things, it is true, must be done by day, but half an hour will work
+wonders. The gigantic intellect is brought to bear on the confidential
+clerk: the latter is, as it were, wound up, and the great machine goes on.
+Or a hasty telegram arrives as the guests file in to dinner. "Pardon me,
+one moment;" and instantly something is sent off in cipher which shall
+change the face of Europe. Unmoved, the hero returns to the love-making
+which is the true business of life.
+
+There are poetry and romance enough in many an outwardly prosaic life. How
+often have we been told this! Nay, we have read stories in which the hero
+possesses a season-ticket, and starts from his trim suburban home after an
+early breakfast, to return in due time to dine, perhaps to talk a little
+"shop" over the meal, and, it may be, even to feel somewhat sleepy in the
+evening. But, as far as my experience goes, the day on which the story
+opens is the last on which he does all this. That morning he meets the
+woman with the haunting eyes or the old friend who died long ago--did not
+the papers say so?--and whose resurrection includes a secret or two. Or he
+is sent for to some out-of-the-way spot in the country where there is a
+mysterious business of some kind to be unravelled. At any rate, he needs
+his season-ticket never again, but changes more or less into the hero we
+all know.
+
+It is hard work for these unresting men, no doubt, yet what is to be done?
+Unless the double-shift system can in any way be applied for their relief,
+I fear they must continue to toil by night that they may appear to be idle
+men.
+
+And, after all, were the hero not altogether heroic, one is tempted to
+doubt if this abundant leisure is quite a gain.
+
+Addie Blake, planning some bright little scheme which needed a whole day
+and an unoccupied squire, said once to Godfrey Hammond, "You can't think
+what a comfort it is to get some one who hasn't to go to business every
+day. I hate the very name of business! Now, you are always at hand when you
+are wanted."
+
+"Yes," he said, "we idle men have a great advantage over the busy ones, no
+doubt; but I think it almost more than counterbalanced by our terrible
+disadvantage."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"We are at hand when we are not wanted," said Godfrey seriously.
+
+And I think he was right. One may have a great liking--nay, something
+warmer than liking--for one's companions in endless idle _tete-a-tetes_,
+but they are perilous nevertheless. Some day the pale ghost--weariness,
+_ennui_, dearth of ideas, I hardly know what its true name is--comes into
+the room to see if the atmosphere will suit it, and sits down between you.
+You cannot see the colorless spectre, but are conscious of a slight
+exhaustion in the air. Everything requires a little effort--to breathe, to
+question, to answer, to look up, to appear interested. You feel that it is
+your own fault, perhaps: you would gladly take all the blame if you could
+only take all the burden. Perhaps the failing _is_ yours, but it is your
+fault only as it is the fault of an electric eel that after many shocks his
+power is weakened and he wants to be left alone to recover it.
+
+Still, though there may be no fault, it is a terrible thing to feel one's
+heart sink suddenly when one's friend pauses for a moment in the doorway as
+if about to return. One thinks, If weariness cannot be kept at bay in the
+society of those we love, where can we be safe from the cold and subtle
+blight? As soon as we are conscious of it, it seems to become part of us,
+and we shrink from the popular idea of the Hereafter, assured of finding
+our spectre even in the courts of heaven.
+
+Godfrey Hammond expressed the fear of too much companionship in speech,
+Percival Thorne in action. He was given to lonely walks if the weather were
+fine--to shutting himself in his own room with a book if it were wet. He
+would dream for hours, for I will frankly confess that when he was shut up
+with a book, his book as often as not was in that condition too.
+
+His grandfather had complained more than once, "You don't often come to
+Brackenhill, Percival, except to solve the problem of how little you can
+see of us in a given time." He did not suspect it, but much of the strong
+attraction which drew him to his grandson lay in that very fact. The latter
+confronted him in grave independence, just touched with the courteous
+deference due from youth to age, but nothing more. Mr. Thorne would have
+thanked Heaven had the boy been a bit of a spendthrift, but Percival was
+too wary for that. He did not refuse his grandfather's gifts, but he never
+seemed in want of them. They might help him to pleasant superfluities, but
+his attitude said plainly enough, "I have sufficient for my needs." He was
+not to be bought: the very aimlessness of his life secured him from that.
+You cannot earn a man's gratitude by helping him onward in his course when
+he is drifting contentedly round and round. He was not to be bullied, being
+conscious of his impregnable position. He was not to be flattered in any
+ordinary way. It was so evident to him that the life he had chosen must
+appear an unwise choice to the majority of his fellow-men that he accepted
+any assurance to the contrary as the verdict of a small minority. Nor was
+he conscious of any especial power or originality, so that he could be
+pleased by being told that he had broken conventional trammels and was a
+great soul. Mr. Thorne did not know how to conquer him, and could not have
+enough of him.
+
+It is needful to note how the day after the agricultural show was spent at
+Brackenhill.
+
+Godfrey Hammond left by an early train. Mrs. Middleton came down to see
+about his breakfast with a splitting headache. The poor old lady's
+suffering was evident, and Sissy's suggestion that it was due to their
+having walked about so much in the broiling sun the day before was
+unanimously accepted. Mrs. Middleton countenanced the theory, though she
+privately attributed it to a sleepless night which had followed a
+conversation with Hammond about Horace.
+
+Percival vanished immediately after breakfast. As soon as he had
+ascertained that there were no especial plans for the day, he slipped
+quietly away with his hands in his pockets, strolled through the park,
+whistling dreamily as he went, and passing out into the road, crossed it
+and made straight for the river. He lay on the grass for half an hour or
+so, studying the growth of willows and the habits of dragon-flies, and
+then sauntered along the bank. Had he gone to the left it would have led
+him past Langley Wood to Fordborough. He went to the right.
+
+It was a gentle little river, which had plenty of time to spare, and amused
+itself with wandering here and there, tracing a bright maze of curves and
+unexpected turns. At times it would linger in shady pools, where, half
+asleep, it seemed to hesitate whether it cared to go on to the county-town
+at all that day. But Percival defied it to have more leisure than he had,
+and followed the silvery clue till all at once he found himself face to
+face with an artist who sat by the river-side sketching.
+
+The young man looked up with a half smile as Percival came suddenly upon
+him from behind a clump of alders. A remark of some kind, were it but
+concerning the weather, was inevitable. It was made, and was followed by
+others. Young Thorne looked, admired and questioned, and they drifted into
+an aimless talk about the art which the painter loved. Even to an outsider,
+such as Percival, it was full of color and grace and a charm half
+understood, vaguely suggestive of a world of beauty--not far off and
+inaccessible, but underlying the common, every-day world of which we are at
+times a little weary. It was as if one should tell us of virtue new and
+strange in the often-turned earth of our garden-plot. Percival was rather
+apt to analyze his pains and pleasures, but his ideal was enjoyment which
+should defy analysis, and he found something of it that morning in the
+summer weather and his new friend's talk.
+
+It was past noon. The young artist looked at his watch and ascertained the
+fact. "Do you live near here?" he asked.
+
+Percival shook his head: "I live anywhere. I am a wanderer on the face of
+the earth. But my grandfather lives in that gray house over yonder, and I
+am free to come and go as I choose. I am staying there now."
+
+"Brackenhill, do you mean? That fine old house on the side of the hill? I
+am lodging at the farm down there, and the farmer--"
+
+"John Collins," said Percival.
+
+"Entertains me every night with stories of its magnificence. Since we have
+smoked our pipes together I have learnt that Brackenhill is the eighth
+wonder of the world."
+
+"Not quite," said Thorne. "But it is a good old manor-house, and, thank
+Heaven, my ancestors for a good many generations wasted their money, and
+had none to spare for restoring and beautifying. I don't mean my
+grandfather: he wouldn't hurt it. It's a quaint old place. Come some
+afternoon and look at it. He shall show you his pictures."
+
+"Thanks," the other said, but he hesitated and looked at his unfinished
+work. "I should like, but I don't quite know. The fact is, when I have done
+for to-day I'm to have old Collins's gig and drive into Fordborough to see
+if there are any letters for me. I am not sure I shall not have to leave
+the first thing to-morrow."
+
+"And I have made you waste your time this morning."
+
+"Don't mention it," said the young artist with the brightest smile. "I'm
+not much given to bemoaning past troubles, and I shall be in a very bad way
+indeed before I begin to find fault with past pleasures. I may not find my
+letter after all, and in that case I should like very much to look you up.
+To-morrow?"
+
+"Pray do." The tone was unmistakably cordial.
+
+"Your grandfather's name is Thorne, isn't it? Shall I ask for young Mr.
+Thorne?"
+
+"Percival Thorne," was the quick correction: "I have a cousin."
+
+They shook hands, but as Thorne turned away the other called after him: "I
+say! is there any name to that little wood out there, looking like a dark
+cloud on the green?"
+
+"Yes--Langley Wood." Percival nodded a second farewell, and went on his way
+pondering. And this was the subject of his thoughts: "Then, my brother, I
+have to go through Langley Wood to-morrow evening, and I am afraid to go
+alone."
+
+Of course he had not forgotten his promise to Addie, but having made his
+arrangements and worked it all out in his own mind, he had dismissed it
+from his thoughts. Now, however, it rose up before him as a slightly
+disagreeable puzzle.
+
+What on earth did Addie want toward nine at night in Langley Wood? The day
+before, in haste to answer her request and anxiety not to betray her, he
+had not considered whether the service he had promised to render were
+pleasant to him or not. In very truth, he was willing to serve Addie, and
+he had professed his willingness the more eagerly that he had expected a
+harder task. She asked so slight a thing that only eager readiness could
+give the service any grace at all.
+
+But when he came to consider it he half wished that his task had been
+harder if it might have been different. He liked Addie, he was ready to
+serve her, but he foresaw possible annoyances to them both from her hasty
+request. He had no confidence in her prudence.
+
+"Some silly freak of hers," he thought while he walked along, catching at
+the tops of the tall flowering weeds as he went. "Some silly girlish freak.
+Why didn't she ask Horace? Wouldn't run any risk of getting him into
+trouble, I suppose."
+
+Did Horace know? he wondered. "I'm not going to be made use of by him and
+her: they needn't think it!" vowed Percival in sudden anger. But next
+moment he smiled at his own folly: "When I have given my word, and must go
+if fifty Horaces had planned it! I had better save my resolutions for next
+time." He did not think, however, that Horace _did_ know. "Which makes it
+all the worse," he reflected. "A charming complication it will be if I get
+into trouble with him about Addie. Suppose some one sees us? Suppose Mrs.
+Blake is down upon me, questioning, and I, pledged to secrecy, haven't a
+word to say for myself? Suppose Lottie--Oh, I say, a delightful arrangement
+this is and no mistake!"
+
+He could only hope that no one would see them, and that Addie's mystery
+would prove a harmless one.
+
+He got in just as they were sitting down to luncheon. Horace and Sissy had
+spent the morning in archery and idleness, Mrs. Middleton in nursing her
+headache. Mr. Thorne was not there.
+
+"Been enjoying a little solitude?" Horace inquired.
+
+"Not much of that," was the answer. "A good deal of talk instead."
+
+"What! did you find a friend out in the fields?"
+
+"Yes," said Percival, "a young artist." As he spoke he remembered that he
+was ignorant of his new friend's name. At least he knew it was "Alf," owing
+to some story the painter had told: "I heard my brother calling 'Alf! Alf!'
+so I," etc. Alf--probably therefore Alfred--surname unknown.
+
+They were halfway through their meal when Mr. Thorne came noiselessly in
+and took his accustomed place. He was very silent, and had a curiously
+intent expression. Horace, who was telling Sissy some trifling story about
+himself (Horace's little stories generally were about himself), finished it
+lamely in a lowered voice. Mr. Thorne smiled.
+
+There was a silence. Percival went steadily on with his luncheon, but
+Horace pushed away his plate and sipped his sherry. The birds were
+twittering outside in the sunshine, but there was no other sound. It was
+like a breathless little pause of expectation.
+
+At last Mr. Thorne spoke, in such sweetly courteous tones that they all
+knew he meant mischief. "Are you particularly engaged this afternoon?" he
+inquired of Horace.
+
+"Not at all engaged," said the young man. His heart gave a great throb.
+
+"Then perhaps you could give me a few minutes in the library?"
+
+"I shall be most--" Horace began. But he checked himself and said,
+"Certainly. When shall I come?"
+
+"As soon as you have finished your luncheon, if that will suit you?"
+
+"I have finished." He drank off his wine, and, without looking at the
+others, walked defiantly to the door, stood aside for his grandfather to
+pass, and followed him out.
+
+Mrs. Middleton and Sissy exchanged glances. "Oh, my dear!" the old lady
+exclaimed. "Oh, I'm so frightened! I am afraid poor Horace is in trouble.
+Godfrey Hammond was saying only last night--"
+
+She paused suddenly, looking at Percival. He sat with his back to the
+window, and the dark face was very dark in the shadow. It was just as well
+perhaps, for he was thinking "Told you so!" a train of thought which seldom
+produces an agreeable expression.
+
+"What did Godfrey Hammond say?" Sissy asked. But nothing was to be got out
+of Aunt Middleton, so they adjourned to the drawing-room to wait for
+Horace's return. Percival read the paper; Mrs. Middleton lay on the sofa;
+Sissy flitted to and fro, now taking up a book, now her work, then at the
+piano, playing idly with one hand or singing snatches of her favorite
+songs. There was a mirror in which, looking sideways, she could see herself
+reflected as she played and Percival as he read--as much of him, at least,
+as was not swallowed up in the _Times_. There is something ghostly about a
+little picture like this reflected in a glass. It is so silent and yet so
+real: the people stir, look up, their lips move, they have every sign of
+life, but there is no sound. There are noises in the room behind you, but
+the people in the mirror make none. The _Times_ may be rustling and
+crackling elsewhere, but Percival's ghost turns a ghostly paper whence no
+sound proceeds. Sissy is playing a little tinkling treble tune, but at the
+piano yonder slim white fingers are silently wandering over the ivory keys,
+and the girl's eyes look strangely out from the polished surface.
+
+Sissy gazed and mused. Perhaps some day Percival will reign at Brackenhill.
+And who will sit at that piano where the ghost-girl sits now, and what
+soundless melodies will be played in that silent room?
+
+Sissy's left hand steals down to the bass, striking solemn chords. "If one
+could but look into the glass," she thinks, "and see the future there, as
+people do in stories! What eyes would look out at me instead of mine? Ah,
+well! If I could but see Percival there I would try to be content, even if
+the girl turned away her face. I _would_ be content. I would! I would!"
+
+She turns resolutely away from the mirror, and begins that old royalist
+song in which yearning for the vanished past and mourning for the dreary
+present cannot triumph over the hope of far-off brightness--"When the king
+enjoys his own again." To Mrs. Middleton, to Percival, a mere song--to
+Sissy a solemn renunciation of all but the one hope. Let her king enjoy his
+own, and the rest be as Fate wills.
+
+The last note dies away. Moved by a sudden impulse, she lifts her eyes to
+the ghost Percival. He has lowered his paper a little, and is looking at
+her with a wondering smile. A voice behind her exclaims, "Why, Sissy!" She
+darts across the room to the speaker and pushes the _Times_ away
+altogether. "Percival," she says in a low, breathless voice, "does Miss
+Lisle play?"
+
+"Miss Lisle!" He is surprised. "Oh yes, she plays. But not as well as her
+brother, I believe."
+
+"And does she sing?"
+
+"Yes. I heard her once. But no better than you sang just now. What has come
+to you, Sissy? You have found the one thing that was wanting."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"Earnestness, depth. You sang it as if your soul and the soul of the song
+were one. Now I can tell you that I fancied you only skimmed over the
+surface of things--like a bird over the sea. I can tell you now, since I
+was wrong."
+
+Her cheeks are glowing. "And Miss Lisle?" she says.
+
+"What, now, about Miss Lisle?" He is amused and perplexed at Sissy's
+persistence.
+
+"She is one of your heroic women;" and Miss Langton nods her pretty head.
+"Oh, I know! Jael and _Judith_ and Charlotte Corday."
+
+"I don't think I said anything about Judith: surely _you_ suggested her.
+And, to tell you the truth, Sissy, I looked in the Apocrypha, and I
+thought I liked I her the least of the trio. It wasn't a swift impulse like
+Jael's, who suddenly saw the tyrant given into her hands, and it wanted the
+grace of Charlotte Corday's utter self-sacrifice and quick death. Judith
+had great honor, and lived to be over a hundred, didn't she? I wonder if
+she often talked about Holofernes when she was eighty or ninety, and about
+her triumph--how she was crowned with a garland and led the dance? She ran
+an awful risk, no doubt, but she was in awful peril: it was glory or death.
+Charlotte Corday had no chance of a triumph: she must have known that
+success, as well as failure, meant the death-cart and the guillotine.
+Judith seems to have played her part fairly well to the end, I allow, but
+don't you think the praises and the after-life spoil it rather?"
+
+Sissy, passing lightly over Percival's views about Charlotte Corday and the
+widow of a hundred and five who was mourned by all Israel, pounced on a
+more interesting avowal: "So you looked Judith out and studied her? Oh,
+Percival!"
+
+"My dear Sissy, shall I tell you how many times I have seen Miss Lisle?" He
+was answering her arch glance rather than her spoken question. "How few
+times, I should say. Twice."
+
+"I've made up _my_ mind about people when I've only seen them once," said
+Sissy, apparently addressing the carpet.
+
+"Very likely: some people have that power," said Percival. "Besides, seeing
+them once may mean that you had a good long interview under favorable
+circumstances. Now," with a smile, "shall I tell you all that Miss Lisle
+and I said to each other in our two meetings?" He paused, encountering
+Sissy's eyes, brilliantly and wickedly full of meaning.
+
+"What! do you remember every word? Oh, Percival!"
+
+"Hush!" said Mrs. Middleton, lifting her head from the cushion: "listen!
+isn't that Horace?"
+
+"I think so;" and Percival stooped for the _Times_, which had fallen on the
+floor. Sissy stood with her hand on his chair, making no attempt to conceal
+her anxiety. The old lady noted her parted lips and eager eyes. "Ah! she
+does care for Horace. I knew it! I knew it!" she thought.
+
+He came in, looking white and angry: his mouth was sternly set, and there
+was a fierce spark in his gray eyes. Mrs. Middleton beckoned him to her
+sofa, and would have drawn the proud head down to her with a tender whisper
+of "Tell me, my dear." But the young fellow straightened himself and faced
+them all as he stood by her side. She clasped and fondled his passive hand.
+"What is the matter, Horace?" she said at last.
+
+"As it happens, there is nothing much the matter," he replied,
+
+"You look as if a good deal might be the matter," said Sissy.
+
+He made no answer for the moment. Then he looked at her with a curious sort
+of smile: "Sissy, when we were little--when you were very little indeed--do
+you remember old Rover?"
+
+"That curly dog? Oh yes."
+
+"I used to have him in a string sometimes, and take him out: it was great
+fun," said Horace pensively. "I liked to feel him all alive, scampering and
+tugging at the end of the string. It was best of all, I think, to give him
+an unexpected jerk just when he was going to sniff at something, and take
+him pretty well off his legs: he was so astonished and disappointed. But it
+was very grand too, if he would but make up his mind he wanted to go one
+way, to pull at him and _make_ him go just the opposite. He was obstinate,
+was old Rover, but that was the fun of it. I was obstinate too, and the
+stronger. How long has he been dead?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know--twelve or thirteen years. Why?"
+
+"Is it as long as that? Well, I dare say it is. It has occurred to me
+to-day for the first time that perhaps it was rather hard on Rover now and
+then.--Aunt Harriet, why did you let me have the poor old fellow and
+ill-use him?"
+
+"My dear boy, what _do_ you mean? I don't think you were ever cruel--not
+really cruel, you know. Children always will be heedless, but I think
+Rover was fond of you."
+
+"I doubt it," said Horace.
+
+"But what do you mean?" The old lady was fairly perplexed. "What makes you
+think of having poor old Rover in a string to-day? I don't understand."
+
+"Which things are an allegory." Horace looked more kindly down at the
+suffering face, and attempted to smile. "It was very nice then, but to-day
+I'm the dog."
+
+"String pulled tight?" said Percival.
+
+"Jerked." He disengaged his hand. "I think I'll go and have a cigar in the
+park." Percival was going to rise, but Horace as he passed pressed his
+fingers on his shoulder: "No, old fellow! not to-day--many thanks. You
+lecture me, you know, and generally I don't care a rap, so you are quite
+welcome. But to-day I'm a little sore, rubbed up the wrong way: I might
+take it seriously. Another time."
+
+And he departed, leaving his lecturer to reflect on this brilliant result
+of all his outpourings of wisdom.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+IN LANGLEY WOOD.
+
+At Brackenhill they invariably dined at six o'clock, nor was the meal a
+lengthy one. Mr. Thorne drank little wine, and Horace was generally only
+too happy to escape to the drawing-room at the earliest opportunity.
+Percival could very well dine at home and yet be true to his rendezvous in
+Langley Wood.
+
+As the time drew near he became thoughtful and, to tell the truth, a little
+out of temper. He liked his dinner, and Addie Blake interfered with his
+quiet enjoyment of it. He would have chosen to lie on the sofa in the cool,
+quaint, rose-scented drawing-room, and get Sissy to sing to him. Instead of
+which he must tramp three miles along a dusty white road that July evening
+to meet a girl he didn't particularly want to see, and to hear a secret
+which he didn't much want to know, and which he distinctly didn't want to
+be bound to keep. Decidedly a bore!
+
+It was only twenty minutes past seven when they joined the ladies. Sissy
+represented the latter force, Aunt Middleton having gone to lie down in the
+hope of being better later in the evening. Mr. Thorne fidgeted about the
+room for a minute, and then went off to the library, whereupon Horace
+stretched himself with a sigh of relief. "Come out, Sissy, and have a turn
+in the garden."
+
+"But, Percival," she hesitated, "what are you going to do?"
+
+"Don't think about me: I must go out for a little while." He left them on
+the terrace and started on his mysterious errand. As he let himself out
+into the road by a little side-gate of which he had pocketed the key, it
+was five-and-twenty minutes to eight. He had abundance of time. It was not
+three miles to the white gate into Langley Wood, a little more than three
+miles to the milestone beyond which he was on no account to go, and he had
+almost an hour to do it in. Nevertheless, he started on his walk like a man
+in haste.
+
+The great Fordborough agricultural show lasted two days, and on the second
+the price of admission was considerably reduced. It had occurred to
+Percival that the roads in every direction would probably be crowded with
+people making their way home--people who would have had more beer than was
+good for them. Addie would never think of such a possibility. It was true
+that the road from Fordborough which led past Brackenhill would be quieter
+than any other, but still young Thorne was seriously uneasy as he strode
+along. It was also true that he met hardly any one as he went, but even
+that failed to reassure him. "A little too early for them to have come so
+far, I suppose," was his comment to himself: "at any rate, she shall not
+wait for me."
+
+He passed the white gate, having encountered only a few stragglers, but
+before he reached the milestone he saw Addie Blake coming along the road to
+meet him.
+
+She was flushed, eager, excited, and looked even handsomer than usual.
+Percival would never fall in love with Addie. That was very certain, but
+the certainty did not prevent a quick thrill of admiration which tingled
+through his blood as she advanced in her ripe dark beauty to meet him. By
+it, as by a charm, the service which had been almost a weariness was
+transmuted to a happy privilege, and the half-reluctant squire became
+willing and devoted.
+
+"You are more than punctual," was his greeting.
+
+She smiled as she held out her hand: "I may say the same of you."
+
+"I was anxious," he confessed. "The roads are not likely to be very quiet
+to-day. And after sunset--"
+
+"Yes," said Addie. "No doubt it seems strange to you that I should choose
+this day and this time--"
+
+"I hardly know what I should have done if I had seen nothing of you when I
+reached the milestone," he went on, interrupting her. His curiosity was
+awakened now that he was so close to Addie's little mystery, but he was
+anxious that she should not feel bound to tell him anything she would
+rather keep to herself--very anxious that she should understand that he
+would not pry into her secrets.
+
+"If you had gone much farther you would have missed me," she said.
+
+"Which way did you come?"
+
+"I did not come straight from home. Do you see that little red house? I am
+drinking tea there, and spending a quiet evening."
+
+"How very pleasant!" said Percival. "And who has the privilege of
+entertaining you?"
+
+"Mrs. Wardlaw. She is the widow of an officer--quite young. She is a friend
+of mine: she lives with an invalid aunt, an old Mrs. Watson."
+
+"And what does Mrs. Wardlaw think of your taking a little stroll by
+yourself in the evening?"
+
+"Mrs. Wardlaw asked me there on purpose. Yesterday I saw her at the show,
+and gave her a little note as we shook hands. This morning came an
+invitation to me to go and drink tea there. I told mamma and Lottie I
+should go--papa is out--so one of the servants walked there with me at
+half-past six, and will call for me again at ten or a little after."
+
+"Very ingeniously managed," said Percival. "And the invalid aunt?"
+
+"Went up to her room and left Mary and me to our devices," smiled Addie. "A
+delightful old lady. Ah, here is the wood."
+
+"We shall probably have this part of our walk to ourselves," Percival
+remarked as he swung the gate open. "People going home from the show are
+not likely to stop to take a turn in Langley Wood."
+
+The sound of a rattling cart and shouts of discordant laughter, mixed with
+what was intended for a song, came along the road they had just quitted.
+Addie took a few hurried steps along the path, which curved enough to hide
+her from observation in a moment. Safe behind a screen of leaves, she
+paused: "What horrible people! Is that a sample of what I may expect as I
+go back?"
+
+"I fear so," said Percival. "I shall see you safe to Mrs. Wardlaw's door."
+
+"You shall see me safe if you have good eyes," she answered. "But you will
+not go to the door with me."
+
+"Ah!" he said. "Mrs. Wardlaw is only half trusted?"
+
+Addie smiled: "What people don't know they can't let out, can they?"
+
+"Pray understand that you are quite at liberty to apply that very
+wise--mark me, that very wise--discovery of yours to my case," said Thorne,
+looking straight at her. "You talked about good eyes just now. Mine are
+good or bad as it suits me." At any rate, they were earnest as they met
+hers.
+
+"Don't shut them on my account," said Addie. "No, Percival: you are not
+like Mrs. Wardlaw. I mean to tell you all about it."
+
+But for a moment she did not speak. They were fairly in the wood; the trees
+were arching high above their heads; their steps were noiseless on the turf
+below; outside were warmth and daylight still, but here the shadows and the
+coolness of the night. A leathern-winged bat flitted across their path
+through the gathering dusk. "They always look like ghosts," said Addie.
+"Doesn't it seem, Percival, as if the night had come upon us unawares?"
+
+As she spoke they reached a little open space. The path forked right and
+left. "Which way?" said Thorne.
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure. There's a cottage on the farther side of the wood,
+toward the river--"
+
+"Is that your destination? To the right, then." And to the right they went.
+
+"When you promised to help me," Addie began, "do you remember what you
+said? I was to consider you as--" She paused, fixing her questioning eyes
+on him.
+
+"As a brother. What then? Have I failed in my duty already?"
+
+She shook her head, smiling: "Percival, what do you think that means to
+me?"
+
+"Ah, that's a difficult question. Of course we who have no brothers can
+only imagine--we cannot know. But I have sometimes fancied that the idea we
+attach to the word brother is higher because no commonplace reality has
+ever stepped in to spoil it. For it is an evident fact that some people
+have brothers who are prosaic, and even disagreeable, while all the noble
+brothers of history and romance are ours. We may take Lord Tresham for our
+ideal (you remember Tresham in _A Blot in the 'Scutcheon?_), and declare
+with him--
+
+    I think, am sure, a brother's love exceeds
+    All the world's love in its unworldliness."
+
+"Stop!" said Addie. "You are going into the question much too
+enthusiastically and much too poetically. I don't know anything about your
+Tresham. And you mustn't class me with yourself, 'we who have no brothers.'
+I have one, Percival."
+
+"A brother? You have one? Why, I always fancied--"
+
+"Well, a half-brother." Addie made this concession to strict truth with
+something of reluctance in her tone, as if she did not like to own that her
+brother could possibly have been any nearer than he was. "It is my brother
+I am going to meet to-night."
+
+Percival, fluent on the subject of brothers in general, was so astonished
+at the idea of this particular brother or half-brother that he said "Oh!"
+
+"Papa married twice," Addie explained--"the first time when he was very
+young. I don't think his first wife was _quite_ a lady," she said, lowering
+her voice as if the beeches might be given to gossiping.
+
+Percival would not have been happy as a dweller in the Palace of Truth. He
+thought, "Then Mr. Blake's two wives were alike in _one_ respect."
+
+"And though Oliver was a dear boy," she went on, "he hasn't been very
+steady. He has had a good deal of money at one time or another, and wasted
+it; and he and mamma don't get on at all."
+
+"Ah! I dare say not."
+
+"Naturally, she thinks more about Lottie and me; and Oliver has been very
+tiresome. He was to be in the business with papa, but he didn't do
+anything, and he got terribly into debt, and then he ran away and enlisted.
+Papa bought him off, and found him something else to do; but mamma was
+dreadfully vexed: she said it was a disgrace to the family."
+
+"Did he do better after that?"
+
+"Not much," Addie owned. "In fact, I think he has spent most of his time
+since then in running away and enlisting. I really believe he has been in a
+dozen regiments. We were always having to write to him, 'Private Oliver
+Blake, Number so and so, C company, such a regiment.' It didn't look well
+at all."
+
+(Addie, as she spoke, remembered how her mother used to sneer, "No doubt
+some day you'll meet your _brother_ in a red jacket with a little cane, his
+cap very much on one side, and a tail of nursemaids wheeling their
+perambulators after him." Such remarks had been painful to Addie, but even
+then she had felt that Mrs. Blake had cause to complain.)
+
+"He was always bought off, I suppose?" said Percival.
+
+"Once papa declared he wouldn't. Oliver went on very quietly for a little
+while, and was to be a corporal. Then he wrote and said he was going to
+desert that day week, and he was afraid it might be very awkward for him
+afterward, especially if he ever enlisted again, but he would take his
+chance sooner than stop. Papa knew he would do it, so he had to buy him off
+again."
+
+"But is this going on for ever?"
+
+"No: for the last three years Oliver has been in dreadful disgrace, I don't
+exactly know why, and we were not allowed to mention his name at home. But
+I don't care," said Addie impetuously: "if he were ever so foolish, and if
+he had enlisted in every regiment under the sun, he's my brother."
+
+"And Lottie? Does she stand by him as valiantly?"
+
+"Oliver is nothing to Lottie: he never was. He is nine years older than she
+is, and when she would really begin to remember him he and mamma were
+always quarrelling. Besides, he always petted me--not Lottie. And now she
+despises him because he doesn't stick to anything and get on. No--poor old
+Noll is _my_ brother, only mine. No one else cares for him, except papa."
+
+"Mr. Blake hasn't given him up, then?"
+
+"Oh, he is angry with Oliver when they are apart, but he always forgives
+him when they meet. He was really angry this last time, but Oliver wrote to
+him, and they made it up. Only, my poor old Noll is to be sent over the sea
+to Canada with a man papa knows something of."
+
+"And this is good-bye? But surely they can't mind your meeting him before
+he goes?"
+
+"They do," said Addie. "Papa and mamma saw him in London ten days ago, and
+he was only forgiven on condition that he went away quietly and said
+nothing to any one. As if he wasn't sure to tell me! Mamma knows how it has
+been before: she thinks if papa or I saw him alone he might get round us,
+and then he wouldn't go. If he is steady and does well there, he is to come
+and see us all in two years."
+
+"That isn't very long, is it?" said Percival cheerfully. It was evident to
+him that this black sheep would be much better away.
+
+"Long! Oh no! Only, you see, Oliver _won't_ do well unless there's
+something very converting in Canadian air. So I may as well say good-bye to
+him, mayn't I? Mind, Percival, you are not to think he's wicked. He won't
+do anything dreadful. He'll spend all the money he can get, and then drift
+away somewhere."
+
+"A sort of Prodigal Son," Thorne suggested.
+
+"Yes. You won't understand him--how should you? You are always wise and
+well-behaved, and a credit to every one--more like the son who stayed at
+home."
+
+"Not an attractive character," was his reply. And he remembered Horace a
+few hours before: "Not to-day, old fellow: you lecture me, you know." He
+was startled. "Good Heavens!" he thought, "am I a prig?"
+
+Addie laughed: "Well, I am trusting to you to understand _me_, at any rate.
+Just like Oliver!" she went on. "He came once, years ago, to stay with old
+Miss Hayward, who left us the house, and he knew something then of the man
+at this cottage; so he tells me to meet him there, without ever thinking
+how I should get to the place by myself at nine at night. Hush! what's
+that?--Oh, Noll! Noll!"
+
+A man's voice was heard at a little distance singing, and she darted
+forward, her eyes alight with joy. Percival followed, slackening his pace
+and listening to Mr. Oliver Blake's rendering of "Champagne Charlie is my
+name." It ceased abruptly. He doubted what to do, took a step or two
+mechanically, and came suddenly out on the open space at the farther side
+of the wood, where was the cottage in question. Addie had run forward and
+forgotten him. He strolled with elaborate unconsciousness to some palings
+near by, turning his back on Addie and her brother, rested his folded arms
+there and gazed at the placid landscape. Below ran the little stream by
+which he had loitered in the morning, hurrying now in a straighter course,
+like an idle messenger who finds that time has fled much faster than he
+thought. The river-mist hung white above the level meadows, and it seemed
+to Percival as if Nature, falling asleep, had glided into a pallid and
+melancholy dream. The last gleams of day were blending with a misty flood
+of moonlight, beneath which the world lay dwarfed and dark. On the horizon
+a little black windmill with motionless sails stood high against the sky,
+looking like a toy, as if a child had set it there and gone to bed.
+
+To Percival, as he stood, came the sound, though not the words, of a rapid
+flow of talk, broken by a short, often-recurring laugh. But at last there
+was a pause, and the two came toward him. He turned to meet them, and saw
+in the moonlight that Oliver Blake was big and broad-shouldered, with black
+hair, curling thickly under a jaunty cap, and bright restless eyes. Addie
+had her arm drawn fondly through her brother's.
+
+"Oliver," she said, "this is Percival: you have heard me speak of him."
+
+Oliver bent his head in a blunt, constrained way and looked doubtfully at
+the other. Percival, who was going to extend his hand, withheld it, and
+made a stately little bow in return.
+
+"That's very magnificent," said Addie to him.--"Why, Noll," she laughed,
+"you needn't be so cautious. Percival knows. He is to be trusted."
+
+"Ah!" said Oliver. "What does that feel like, now?"
+
+"What does what feel like?" said Thorne as they shook hands. "Being
+trusted, do you mean?"
+
+"Ay. Being trusted or being to be trusted. I don't know either sensation
+myself."
+
+"Not likely, dear boy," said Addie, "with your way of going on. And yet Mr.
+Osborne must have trusted you, or how did you get the money and get away?
+You weren't to have any till you sailed, were you?"
+
+"Would you like to know?" said Oliver, his dark eyes twinkling. "I tried to
+persuade him--no good. Then I told him a--don't be horrified--it was a very
+fine specimen of fiction--"
+
+"Oliver!"
+
+"Which is no doubt set down to the governor's account."
+
+"Did he believe you?"
+
+"Well, he didn't know what to do. I don't think he would have, only if it
+wasn't true it was so stupendous, you see. He hesitated, and that made him
+relax his watchfulness a little. So I gave him the slip and pawned part of
+my outfit, which we bought together the day before."
+
+"You bad boy!"
+
+"I left him a bit of a note. I told him that if he held his tongue I would
+surely be there again to-morrow, we'd get the things, and no one would be
+any the wiser. But if he made a row he might whistle for me, and catch me
+if he could."
+
+"And you don't know the effect of that, I suppose?" said Percival.
+
+"Well, no. I read it over when I'd done to try and judge it impartially.
+And I made up my mind--considering the character he'd had of me--that if I
+were Osborne I should say that Blake meant to back out of his bargain with
+all he could lay his hands on, and was trying to secure two days'
+start.--What do you think I did, Addie?"
+
+"Something silly, I've no doubt."
+
+"Well," he said, looking at her with an admiring gaze, which partly
+explained to Percival the secret of her fondness for her brother, "_I_
+thought it was rather clever. I just popped in the letter I had from you,
+and your photograph, and if that doesn't convince him, I give him up."
+
+"Oh, Noll! How _could_ you? What is he like?"
+
+Blake burst out laughing: "Listen to her! A man has got her photograph: he
+instantly becomes an interesting object.--Oh, he isn't a bad-looking
+fellow, Addie. I dare say he's glaring at you now through his spectacles."
+
+"Spectacles! Oliver, you've no business to go giving my photograph to all
+sorts of people. And I hate him too, because if it hadn't been for him
+perhaps you wouldn't have been going away to Canada."
+
+"What then?" said he philosophically. "Your mother would have had a dear
+friend on the point of starting for the Cannibal Islands."
+
+Percival began to feel a little anxious about time, and to wonder when the
+real leave-taking was to commence. He looked at his watch after the manner
+of a stage-aside, and Addie took the hint.
+
+Five minutes later she came toward him with bent head and averted eyes:
+"I'm ready, Percival." But they had not gone a dozen steps when she sobbed,
+"Oh, my poor Noll!" and rushed back. As young Thorne looked after her he
+heard the quick spurt of a match. Oliver had turned on his heel already and
+was lighting his cigar. "Heartless brute!" said Percival.
+
+The verdict was unjust. Oliver had taken infinite pains to secure this
+glimpse of his sister, but since it was over it _was_ over. He loved her,
+and she knew it, but he was not the man to stand sentimentally staring at
+Addie's back as she disappeared into the shadows of Langley Wood. Now,
+Percival could not have failed in such a matter, though he might have
+thought no more about it than did Oliver Blake.
+
+When he and Addie were once more on their way he occupied himself solely
+with the slight difficulties of her path, but before they had gone halfway
+she was making an effort to talk in her usual style, and succeeding fairly
+well. They were just at the place where the paths branched off, and
+Percival was stooping to disentangle her dress, which was caught on a
+bramble. As he raised himself he heard an approaching step, and quick as
+thought he laid his hand on Addie's arm. A couple of yards farther and they
+would be in the one path, and must meet the newcomer. Standing where they
+were, it was an even chance: he might pass them or might go the other way.
+Addie stood breathless, and Percival's heart gave a quick throb, more for
+Addie's sake than his own. But, after all, it might be no one who knew
+them, and in that dim light--
+
+The moon glided with startling swiftness from behind a fleecy cloud and
+shone on their white faces. The man, passing close by, started and stepped
+back, recovered himself with a muttered ejaculation, and said, "Fine
+evening, Mr. Thorne," as he passed.
+
+"Very," Percival replied. "Good-night."
+
+The other returned a "Good-night, sir," and disappeared in the twilight.
+
+"He knew you," said Addie. She looked frightened. Her parting from Oliver
+had unnerved her: difficulties which she had made light of in the happiness
+of anticipation seemed more formidable now. Standing there in the white
+moonlight and dim shadows of the wood, she suddenly realized the strange
+and doubtful aspect her expedition with Percival Thorne must wear to
+ordinary eyes. Nor was her companion likely to reassure her. An air of
+sombre resolution was more in his line than the light-hearted confidence
+which would have treated the whole affair as a trifle. He was, as Addie
+herself had called him, "well behaved." She would have trusted him to the
+death, only just at that moment a little touch of happy recklessness would
+have been a greater comfort to her than his anxious loyalty. But Percival
+could never be reckless: deliberately indifferent he might be, but reckless
+never.
+
+"He knew you," said Addie, as they resumed their walk.
+
+"Yes, but he would not know you. It does not signify much," was Percival's
+reply.
+
+"But he does know me."
+
+"Impossible! Oh, you mean he knows your name."
+
+She nodded: "He often passes our house. Always on Thursday, when a lot of
+people go by. Isn't it a market somewhere?"
+
+"Brookley market. Oh yes, he would go there, no doubt."
+
+"Once or twice I have been walking on the road, and he has driven past. I
+know his face quite well, and I'm sure--I should think--he knows mine."
+
+"Very likely he may not have recognized you in this half-light," said
+Percival.
+
+She shivered: "He did. I felt him look right through me."
+
+"Well, suppose he did. After all, there is no reason why we should not take
+a walk together on a summer evening if we like, is there?"
+
+"Where is he going?" said Addie. "To the cottage?"
+
+"Oh dear, no! There are endless paths in the wood. He will turn off still
+more to the right: he cuts off a corner so going from Fordborough to his
+home."
+
+"Who and what is he?" was Miss Blake's next question as they emerged into
+the road.
+
+"Silas Fielding. He farms a little bit of old Garnett's land, and I rather
+think he rents an outlying field or two of my grandfather's. A horsey sort
+of fellow. I am not particularly fond of Mr. Silas Fielding," said
+Percival, and they walked a little way in silence.
+
+"You mustn't come any farther," said Addie. "Percival, I don't know how to
+thank you."
+
+"Don't do it, then. I see no occasion."
+
+"But I see occasion--very great occasion."
+
+"Then we will consider it done," said Percival.
+
+Mrs. Wardlaw's house was very near. "I'm not late, am I?" said Addie.
+
+He looked at his watch: "A little more than a quarter to ten--very good
+time. I shall watch you along this last little bit of road, and see you let
+in. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night." She went quickly away, and he waited as he had promised. She
+looked back at him once, and saw him stand, dark and motionless like a
+bronze statue. She reached the garden-gate, and just as a farmer's gig,
+with one man in it, dashed past, she ran up the little flight of steps,
+knocked, and was instantly admitted, as if Mrs. Wardlaw stood inside with
+her hand on the latch. Percival, seeing this, turned to begin his homeward
+walk, but as the gig rattled up to him its speed was slackened.
+
+"Mr. Thorne! Isn't it Mr. Percival Thorne?"
+
+It was the young artist driving back to the farm in Mr. Collins's old gig,
+and inducing Mr. Collins's old horse to go at a headlong pace. "I thought
+it was you standing in the moonlight," he said. "Can't I give you a lift?"
+
+Percival accepted, and they started off, if possible more vehemently than
+before.
+
+"I must look sharp," explained the young man whose name was Alf, "or I
+shall be late at the farm."
+
+"You have only just come from Fordborough?" said Percival.
+
+"No. I put up the horse and stayed later than I meant. I'd no idea that
+dull little hole of a town could wake up so. Why, it is flapping with flags
+from one end to the other. I never saw such a lot of tramps and drunken men
+in my life."
+
+"Charming idea you have of waking up!"
+
+"And brass bands and gypsies," the other went on. "When I wanted to come
+away the hostler was drunk and couldn't find the horse, and I couldn't find
+the gig; that is, I could find a score all exactly like this one, but as to
+knowing which of all the gigs in the yard belonged to old Collins, I
+couldn't have told to save my life."
+
+"You got it at last, I suppose?" said Thorne.
+
+The other was cautious: "Well, I got _this_. The man put the horse in
+somehow, and then he was so far gone he began to talk to himself and undo
+the harness again. I believe he thought he'd put in a pair by mistake, and
+was trying to take one out. However, I stopped that, and got away after a
+fashion."
+
+"They are early birds at the farm, no doubt?"
+
+"Early? Rather! At half-past nine old Collins creaks up stairs, and Mrs.
+Collins goes into the kitchen and rakes out the cinders for fear of fire. I
+was out late one night last week, and she couldn't wake the old man up to
+let me in. It was twenty minutes to eleven."
+
+"Did she come herself?" said Percival. "I know Mrs. Collins by daylight,
+but I can't imagine Mrs. Collins aroused from her first sleep."
+
+"'Where ignorance is bliss.' The dear old lady kept me on the doorstep for
+ten minutes or so while she was trying to make up her mind whether she
+would keep her nightcap on, or whether she would take it off and put on
+the light-brown front she ordinarily wears. At last she made up her mind to
+retain the nightcap and add the front by way of a finish. But I have it on
+her own authority that she was flurried and all of a shake, so she didn't
+carry out her idea skilfully. The cap was half off and the front was only
+half on. I saw her forehead getting lower and lower as she spoke to me."
+
+"Could she ever forgive you for seeing her so?"
+
+"Oh yes. I'm rather a favorite, I think. She beamed on me just the same the
+next morning."
+
+"She did?" said Thorne. "A wonderful woman!"
+
+"I think I shall ask her for a lock of her chestnut hair to-morrow before I
+go, to show that my faith in it is--well, as implicit as ever. Ah! by the
+way, I got my letter. I thought most likely I should. I leave the first
+thing in the morning."
+
+"Sorry to hear it," said Percival. But it occurred to him that the artist's
+departure would prevent any talk the next day of the circumstances of their
+meeting that evening. He jumped down, with hasty thanks to his new friend
+when they came to the little gate. "You'll be in a ditch if you don't look
+out," he called after him.
+
+"All right!" was shouted back, and old Collins's gig vanished into the
+outer darkness with the young artist, whom Percival Thorne has never
+chanced to meet again to this day.
+
+He let himself in with his key and hurried up to the house. The door which
+opened on the terrace was unfastened as usual. The lights were burning in
+the drawing-room, but no one was there, and the bright vacant room had a
+strange ghostly aspect, a little island of mellow radiance in the vast
+silence and darkness of the night. He felt like one in a dream, and stood
+idly thinking of the young painter rattling in old Collins's gig to Willow
+Farm; of Silas Fielding striding across the meadows with thoughts intent on
+his bargains; of Oliver Blake turning in with a yawn when his cigar was
+done; of Addie forcing back her unshed tears and hiding deep in her heart
+the well-spring of her tenderness for her poor Noll. He had not done
+justice to Addie Blake. Something of the feeling of underlying beauty,
+unsought or ignored, which he gained from his artist-friend's talk in the
+morning, had come to him in a slightly altered form with Addie that
+evening. With Alf it was the every-day world which revealed new
+beauty--with Addie it was shown in what Percival had taken for a prosaic
+and commonplace character. He found himself wondering whether he might not
+have failed to do justice to others besides Addie. He had looked far away
+for his ideal, and had found a fair faint dream, when it might be that the
+reality was close at hand. Since the wayside had blossomed with unexpected
+loveliness, what grace and charm and hidden treasure might be his prize who
+should win his way into the fenced garden of Sissy's sweet soul!
+
+He started from his reverie, and was surprised to find that it had lasted
+only two or three minutes: it seemed to him as if he had been dreaming a
+long while in that bright loneliness. He walked to the window, with "Where
+can they all be?" on his lips. And for an answer to his question, standing
+at the far end of the terrace was Sissy. As he hurried through the hall to
+join her the library-door opened an inch or two and a voice inquired, "Who
+is that?"
+
+"It is I--Percival," he answered in haste.
+
+At the word "Percival" the door opened wider, and Mr. Thorne looked out:
+"Oh! where is Sissy?"
+
+"On the terrace."
+
+"And Horace?"
+
+"I don't know," still chafing to be gone.
+
+"Sissy ought to come in. It's a quarter-past ten." He looked up at the
+great hall-clock. "Yes, a quarter-past ten, and she will be catching cold."
+
+"I'll tell her."
+
+"Did you come in for a shawl for her? Take her one--anything."
+
+"I will;" and Percival made a dash at the row of pegs and caught down the
+first thing which looked moderately like a cloak. Then he escaped.
+
+Sissy was coming to the house, but so leisurely that the journey was likely
+to take her a considerable time. "At last!" she said as he came up to her:
+"Why, which way--Oh, it's _you_, Percival!"
+
+"You thought I was Horace?" he said as he put the cloak round her.
+
+"Yes, for the moment I did. What are you muffling me up like this for?"
+
+"Orders," said Percival. "My grandfather said you were to come in, and that
+I was to bring you a shawl."
+
+"What is the good of this thing if I'm to go in?"
+
+"Very sensibly put. Evidently no good at all. So we will turn round and go
+to the end of the terrace and back, unless you are tired."
+
+She was not tired.
+
+"And you took me for Horace? I always said we were alike."
+
+"You are not a bit alike."
+
+"Oh no, of course not."
+
+"Don't be absurd," said Sissy. "Anybody's like anybody if it's pitch dark
+and they don't speak."
+
+"I rather suspect Horace and I might be alike if it were a half-light, and
+if we _did_ speak," said Percival. "Remember the photograph. But where is
+Horace all this time? What have you been doing with yourself?"
+
+"He's somewhere about," said Sissy. "First of all, we had a little croquet.
+Then it got too dark to play, so I went to see after Aunt Harriet. Her head
+was worse; so she said she would go to bed."
+
+"Poor old lady! Best thing she could do. She'll be better to-morrow, I
+hope."
+
+"Then Horace and I thought we would go and look up his old nurse. She has
+been teasing me ever so long, wanting to see 'Master Horace,' and it's only
+across a couple of fields. But she wasn't at home, and the cottage was shut
+up."
+
+"Gone to Fordborough for the day, most likely."
+
+"I dare say. She has a niece there. Then we came back, and Horace didn't
+much want to go in, because of this afternoon, you know; so we stayed in
+the long walk, and he smoked and we listened to the nightingales."
+
+"Very delightful," said Percival. "The long walk and the nightingales, I
+mean."
+
+"And then there was a little pinkish light in the sky, and he thought there
+was a fire somewhere. So he went into the park to get a better view, and
+after I had waited for him a little while I came up here and met you."
+
+A quick step was heard on the gravel behind them.
+
+"Oh, here you are!" said Horace. "The fire doesn't seem to be anything,
+Sissy, after all. The light got fainter and fainter, and it's all gone
+now."
+
+"Where did you think it was?" Percival inquired.
+
+"Well, I thought from the direction that it must be at old Garnett's Upland
+Farm, but it can't have been much. So you have got back?"
+
+"Yes. Hadn't we better go in? You must mind what you are about, Horace,
+though it _is_ warm. That cough of yours--"
+
+"Stuff and nonsense about my cough!" But he turned to go in nevertheless.
+
+"By the way," said Percival, as he walked between them, "you've been out
+all the evening: does any one know I've been away?"
+
+"No," said Sissy. "Why, don't you want--"
+
+"I would rather they didn't," he replied. (The stars in their courses
+seemed to fight for Addie and her secret, had it not been for that untoward
+meeting with Silas Fielding.)
+
+Horace wore a knowing expression. He was rather pleased that his lecturer
+should be compelled to seek a pledge of secrecy from him. It made him feel
+more on a level with the well-conducted and independent Percival. "All
+right!" he said.
+
+"You may trust me," in a softly earnest voice on the other side.
+
+"Thank you both," said Percival, but his eyes thanked Sissy.
+
+"What have you been after?" asked Horace. "I thought most likely you were
+off to the friend you met this morning."
+
+The astonishing way in which circumstances conspired to aid in guarding the
+mystery! "I have been with him," said Percival.
+
+(We value the opinion of others too much very often for our own peace.
+Queer, unsubstantial things those opinions often are. "I have been with
+him." Sissy felt a little glow of kindliness toward the unknown: it might
+have been, "I have been with her." She was prejudiced in his favor, and
+sure that he was a nice fellow. Horace was ready to stake something on his
+conviction that he was a bad lot, this fellow Percy had picked up, and that
+Percy knew it.)
+
+Percy was still warm with the chivalrous devotion which had been kindled in
+him that evening. It was reserved for the colder morning light to reveal to
+him that what with Lottie on the hillside and Addie in Langley Wood he was
+plunging into little adventures which were hardly consistent with the
+character of a most prudent young man. Yet such was the character he was
+supposed to have undertaken to support in the world's drama.
+
+They reached the door, and Horace went in, but Sissy lingered yet a moment
+on the threshold. "Isn't it all beautiful?" she said, taking one more look:
+"if it could only last!"
+
+Percival smiled: "Sissy, have _you_ learnt that?"
+
+"November--bare boughs and bitter winds--I hate to think of it," she said.
+
+"I would say, 'Don't think of it,' but it would be no good," he replied.
+"When the thought of change has once occurred to you while you look at a
+landscape, it is a part of every landscape thenceforward. But it gives a
+bitter charm."
+
+"Spring will come again," she said; "but death and parting and loss--they
+are so dreadful! And growing old! Oh, Percival, why must they all be?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders: "The whole world echoes your 'Why?' Sissy, I
+wish I could help you, but I can't. I can only tell you that I understand
+what you feel. It is very terrible looking forward to age--to loss of
+powers, hopes and friends. One feels sometimes as if one could not tread
+that long gray road to the grave."
+
+Sissy shivered, as if she saw it drawn out before her eyes.
+
+"But after all it may be brighter than we think," he went on after a pause.
+"There is joy and beauty in change, as well as bitterness. If everything in
+the world were fixed and unalterable, would not that be far more terrible?
+As it is, we have all the possibilities on our side. Who knows what
+gladness may grow out of endless change?" Yet even as he spoke he was
+conscious of a wild, impotent longing to snatch her--she was so delicate
+and sweet--from beneath the great revolving wheels of time, with a cry of
+
+    Stay as you are, and be loved for ever.
+
+But the poet's very words carry the sentence of doom in the memory that the
+blossom to which they were uttered must have perished years ago.
+
+"Sissy," he said suddenly, "surely there cannot be much suffering reserved
+for you. Oh, poor child! I wish I could take it all in your place." He
+spoke in all earnestness, yet could he have looked into the future he would
+have seen that her suffering would not be long, but very keen, and his not
+to bear, but to inflict.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MEANWHILE.
+
+Percival Thorne had never thought much on the subject of revenge. He rather
+took it for granted that deliberate revenge was an extraordinary and
+altogether exceptional thing. People give way to bursts of passion which
+pass away and leave no trace: they are so hot with fury which comes to
+nothing at all that at the first glance it seems as if the anger which
+bears fruit must be something different in kind. But it is possible that if
+Percival had considered the matter he might have arrived at the conclusion
+that revenge does not depend only on intensity of passion, but on intensity
+of passion and aptness of opportunity together. Disembodied hate soon dies
+unless it is fiendish in its strength.
+
+[Illustration: "ADDIE STOOD BREATHLESS, AND PERCIVAL'S HEART GAVE A QUICK
+THROB."--Page 676.]
+
+He had had fair warning at the birthday party. Lottie, smarting with
+humiliation, had looked him full in the face with a flash of such bitter
+enmity as springs from the consciousness of one's own folly. And Lottie's
+eyes conveyed their meaning well. That very afternoon, when Percival
+looked up as he lay on the turf at her feet, they had been most eloquent of
+love. "Foolish child!" he had thought, "she is only seventeen to-day, and
+childish still." When he encountered the sudden flash of hate he would
+hardly have been surprised at some instant manifestation of it. Had she
+carried a dagger, like
+
+    Our Lombard country-girls along the coast,
+
+vengeance might have come at once. But she spoke to him later in her
+ordinary voice, and touched his hand when she bade him good-night; and it
+was only natural to conclude that nothing would follow her glance of fury.
+Something of bitterness might linger for a while, but Lottie was only
+seventeen, and that afternoon she had loved him.
+
+He was right enough. There was nothing fiendish in Lottie's hatred: it
+would soon have spent its strength in helpless longings and died. But that
+very night it flew straight to Horace Thorne, and unobserved found shelter
+there. It assumed a shape not clearly defined as yet, but a shape which
+time would surely reveal. It drew Lottie to the young man's side while the
+tears of pain and shame were hardly yet dry upon her burning cheeks.
+
+In spite of the talk on her birthday morning, Lottie hardly understood the
+relative positions of the Thornes. Percival was disinherited and Horace was
+the heir. Naturally, she supposed that Horace was the favorite, and that
+the old man was displeased with Percival. She concluded that the small
+income of which the latter had spoken was probably a grudging allowance
+from Mr. Thorne. His grandfather protected and patronized him now, and no
+doubt it would be in Horace's power to protect and patronize him hereafter.
+Lottie hardly knew what she dreamed or wished, but she felt that she should
+indeed be avenged if the dole might in any way be regulated by her caprice,
+given or withheld according to the mood of the moment.
+
+Meanwhile, Percival drifted contentedly on, unconscious that Lottie had
+vowed vengeance and Sissy devotion. Mr. Thorne went about with an air of
+furtive triumph, as if he were tasting the sweetness of having outwitted
+somebody. Horace divided his time between divers pleasures, but contrived
+to run down to Fordborough once just before he went yachting with a friend.
+He took to letter-writing with praiseworthy regularity, and yet his
+accustomed correspondents were curiously unaware of his sudden energy. He
+too had his look of triumph sometimes, but it was uneasy triumph, as if he
+were not absolutely certain that some one might not have outwitted him.
+Oliver Blake on board the good ship Curlew had passed the period of
+sea-sickness, and was flirting desperately with a lively fellow-passenger,
+while Addie followed him with anxious thoughts. About this time his father
+went in secret to consult a London doctor, and came away with a grave face
+and a tender softening of his heart toward his only son. A visit to his
+lawyer ensued, and of this also Mrs. Blake knew nothing. The girls played
+croquet as before, Lottie won the ivory mallet on the great field-day of
+the Fordborough club, and Mrs. Rawlinson and Miss Lloyd hated her with
+their sweetest smiles. Week after week of glorious weather went by.
+Brackenhill lay stretched in the sleepy golden sunshine, and the leaves in
+Langley Wood, quivering against the unclouded blue, had lost the freshness
+of the early summer. The shadows and the sadness were to come.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+              Well, what's gone from me?
+    What have I lost in you?--R. BROWNING.
+
+Percival awoke one day to the consciousness that the world was smaller,
+grayer and flatter than he had supposed it. At the same moment he became
+aware that a burden was lifted from his shoulders and that a disturbing
+element was gone out of his life.
+
+This is how the change in the universe was effected. Percival met Godfrey
+Hammond, and they talked of indifferent things. As they were parting
+Hammond looked over his shoulder and came back: "I knew there was something
+I wanted to ask you. Have you heard that the young lady with the latent
+nobility in her face is going to be married?"
+
+"What young lady?" said Percival stiffly. He knew perfectly well, and
+Hammond knew that he knew.
+
+"Miss Lisle."
+
+"No, I hadn't heard. Who is he?"
+
+"The happy man? Lord Scarbrook's eldest son."
+
+"Who told you?"
+
+"You are incredulous, but I fear I can't soften the blow. The man who told
+me heard Lisle talking about it."
+
+"There's no blow to soften," said Percival, "I assure you I don't feel it."
+
+"Ah," said Hammond, "there was once a man who didn't know that his head had
+been cut off till he sneezed--wasn't there? Take great care of yourself,
+Percival." And nodding a second farewell Godfrey left him, and Percival
+went on his way through that curiously shrunken world.
+
+And, after all, the blow was premature. Mr. Lisle had only talked of a
+probability which he earnestly hoped would be realized.
+
+But Percival did not doubt it. He tried to analyze his feelings as he
+walked away. He had known but little of Judith Lisle, but when first he saw
+her face he felt that the vague dream which till then had approached, only
+to elude him, in clouds, in fire, in poems, in flowers, in music, had taken
+human shape and looked at him out of her gray eyes. Percival had no certain
+assurance that she _was_ his ideal, but from that time forward he pictured
+his ideal in her guise.
+
+He did not dream of winning her. Mr. Lisle had boasted to him one evening,
+as they sat over their wine, of all that he meant to do for his daughter,
+and of the great match he hoped she would make. Percival had a feeling of
+peculiar loyalty to Mr. Lisle as the friend whom his dead father had
+trusted most of all. He could not think of Judith, for he could never be a
+fit husband for her in Mr. Lisle's eyes. Had he been heir to
+Brackenhill--But he was not.
+
+So he acquiesced, patiently enough. He did not attempt to do anything. What
+was there to do? By the time that he had struggled through the crowd and
+got his foot on the first round of that ladder which _may_ lead to fortune,
+Judith would probably be married. He did not even know certainly that she
+was the woman he wanted to win. Why should he force the lazy stream of his
+existence into a rough and stony channel that he might have a
+chance--infinitesimally small--of winning her.
+
+Yet there were moments of exaltation when it seemed to him as if his
+acquiescence were tame and mean--as if his life would miss its crown unless
+he could attain to his ideal. At such moments he felt the stings of shame
+and ambition. Yet what could he do? The mood passed, and left him drifting
+onward as before.
+
+But now all thought of Judith Lisle was over. Even if she were in truth his
+ideal woman, it was certain that she was no longer within his reach. That
+haunting possibility was gone. All that it had ever done for him was to
+make him dissatisfied with himself from time to time, and yet he found
+himself regretting it.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+CAPTURED BY COSSACKS.
+
+EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF A FRENCH OFFICER IN 1813.[B]
+
+[Illustration: COSSACKS AND FRENCH PRISONERS.]
+
+WISMAR, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, March 8, 1813.
+
+MY DEAR PARENTS: I regret to announce that recent public events have sadly
+disturbed the relatively comfortable circumstances which favored my
+convalescence. Since the 26th ult. our lines have been drawn in, and I have
+accompanied my detachment to this place, where the expected arrival of
+General Morand from Pomerania will probably be the signal of a hasty
+retreat. The lamentable fate of our grand army in barbarous Russia is now
+casting its shadows upon us. It is because so many of our friends remained
+_there_ that we shall have to move from _here_. Possibly, a speedy return
+to the home I left nine years ago may afford some compensation for this
+inglorious retreat. The cities of Hamburg and Lubeck are in open revolt and
+ill-treating and driving away the French authorities. If only we had once
+the Elbe in our rear! The Cossacks are not far off, and the whole country
+is awaiting them with open arms. Adieu for to-day.
+
+
+WISMAR, 13th March, 1813.
+
+General Morand and his command arrived here at noon to-day. My brothers,
+Frank and Louis, are with him and in the best of health. Our trio held a
+council of war an hour ago, and unanimously resolved to remain at the post
+of honor whatever may betide. I reported in person to the general, who,
+after viewing my scar from the Hamburg bullet, assured me that my name
+would appear on the next recommendation for promotions. All the members of
+our brigade who had been on coast-guard duty in Mecklenburg are being
+reorganized into a special battalion, in which I retain the rank of first
+lieutenant. Frank holds a sergeant's commission, while little Louis remains
+a private fusilier. An order of the day announces that furloughs are out of
+the question, and that deserters will be dealt with as every one knows how.
+The latter bit of information is for the special benefit of our Saxon
+allies, of whom our command embraces twelve hundred. The remainder of it
+consists of three hundred artillery-men, four hundred marines, two hundred
+and fifty coast-guards and a squad of civil and military functionaries--all
+French and well armed and equipped. To-morrow the homeward march begins.
+
+
+ACROSS THE ELBE! WINSEN-ON-THE-LUCKE, 18th March.
+
+As the enemy is close upon our heels, we left Wismar in double-quick time.
+On the 16th, on leaving Moellen, Frank and I visited the grave of the
+famous German jester Eulenspiegel, but did not take time to drive memorial
+nails into the surrounding trees, as thousands of pilgrims had done before
+us.
+
+Not far from there we suddenly came upon a band of Cossacks resting their
+jaded nags in a marshy meadow. It was something of a mutual surprise. A
+single glance down our line convinced the hostile commander that we could
+not consistently give him time to get away. Hence, waving a white streamer
+at the butt end of a lance, he rode forward and called in passable German
+for a _parlementaire_. My anxiety to learn all about this new and singular
+race of people induced me to request this appointment, which was promptly
+granted by the commander of our van. No diplomatic chicaneries hampered my
+mission, which was accomplished in a very few minutes. The result was an
+unconditional surrender. The poor fellows were the victims of an excess of
+zeal, having ridden ahead of us while they imagined themselves on our
+flank. The terms of our future relations being mutually agreed upon, the
+commander, who had acquired his German in the Prussian service, and was no
+stranger to Virgil and Horace, offered me a hearty shake of his right hand,
+while the other, deftly unbuckling a holster, drew forth a sample of
+genuine Mecklenburger Kuemmel schnapps, which proved not unworthy of
+cementing a treaty of peace. While the prisoners were being marshalled into
+custody I had ample opportunity to scan the fifty specimens of exotic
+humanity before me, but utterly failed to discover in their outward
+features the proverbial elements of popular terror. Though generally nimble
+and well-proportioned, they were scarcely above the average French
+voltigeur in stature, and a bullet or rapier would find the way through
+their untanned sheepskin jackets just as easily as through any more
+civilized uniform. Apart from their lances, which they are said to handle
+with dangerous skill, these scouts carry no weapons worth mentioning. Their
+rusty horse-pistols are almost harmless toys. A more uncouth-looking
+soldier than a Cossack on foot can hardly be imagined. Perhaps it is not
+fair to judge them in this abnormal predicament. When they were informed
+that they would be treated just like ordinary prisoners, a grin of
+satisfaction lighted up their countenances with an expression of droll
+humor not suspected before. In the pockets of their cloaks
+and _portemanteaux_ were found an amount and variety of pelf somewhat
+difficult to account for in the possession of warriors who had not yet
+reached the enemy's country. Among the rest I will only mention gold,
+silver and copper coins, medals, breastpins, ear- and finger-rings, watches
+and chains, seals, meerschaum pipes, snuff-boxes, brass buttons, beads,
+tea-spoons, feminine miniatures, locks of flaxen hair of the same sex, and,
+last and strangest, bottles of Jean Marie Farina's veritable eau de
+Cologne! It may be charitably assumed that the latter three suggestive
+articles were the heart's gifts of patriotic North German maidens to their
+long-prayed-for liberators. _Honni soit qui mal y pense._ But it is hardly
+probable that the original possessors of the more intrinsic valuables had
+parted with them from equally sentimental motives. Hence our lads wisely
+discriminated in their disposition of the captured treasures, the coins,
+jewelry, tea-spoons and meerschaums being temporarily confiscated "until
+the proper owners could be found." _A la guerre comme a la guerre._
+
+In the night of the 16th-17th we reached Bergdorff, where we halted until
+next afternoon. Just before dusk, at the crossing of a stream, we (the van)
+were attacked by a partisan column, who relieved us of a dozen prisoners,
+and in exchange left a few dead upon the field. We are looking for more of
+this sort of warfare until strongly reinforced. We have to contend not only
+with the Russians and Prussians, but with all the people on our way, who
+have raised their hands against the French. Evidently, we have made few
+friends in this country, which--_entre nous_--to an unbiassed mind does not
+seem at all strange. Somehow, even when not personally molested, we are
+continually losing baggage. I carry only my most indispensable effects on
+my horse. My large trunk, though far behind me now, is in trusty hands,
+with your address in case anything serious should befall its owner. Frank's
+baggage is on the general train, while Louis carries all his worldly
+possessions in his knapsack, which begins to act as a powerful sudorific
+upon the dear little fellow.
+
+
+BREMEN, 24th March.
+
+This city has not yet risen in open rebellion, though the faces here are
+sullen enough. General Carra St. Cyr, with two battalions of cohortes and
+fifteen hundred coast-guards, has succeeded so far in keeping down the
+popular temper. But Bremerloe, six leagues from here, is occupied by a
+formidable band of armed rebels, and at this very moment a detachment is
+being sent out to attend to them. Among the young recruits of St. Cyr's
+command I found quite a number of Alsatians, some from my own birthplace,
+Saverne. They are all in the highest of spirits and eager to go ahead.
+Considering the sacrifice of precious lives our country has made within the
+last twenty years, the enthusiasm of these boys is truly wonderful.
+
+
+25th March.
+
+Bremerloe was captured and the enemy routed. None of your sons were at the
+fray, but while I write my horse is being saddled and all is getting ready
+for a return march toward the Elbe. Has a victory improved the situation in
+our rear, or do some of our retreating brethren need our support? We do not
+know. The order is to march.
+
+
+LUeNEBURG, Braunschweig, 1st April, 10 P. M.
+
+Since our departure from Bremen no bed but the open field or the barest
+floor has rested my limbs until this evening, when, for the first time in a
+week, I enjoyed the luxury of a change of clothes. How sweet it is to rest
+after a hard day's work! This town, surrounded by an old-style ditch and
+wall, was even this forenoon in possession of the enemy. About eighty
+Cossacks, eight hundred German recruits and the whole male population,
+armed with muskets, spears and pitch-forks, defended the place for two
+hours. But as we had sixteen field-guns, and they none fit for use, we
+defeated them with inconsiderable loss. The greater part of the civilians,
+fearing severe punishment, fled with the Cossacks. Our gunners poured in
+the shot and grape until there is scarcely a whole window in the western
+half of the town. Two of our companies headed the Saxons in the assault
+over the wall, while the rest pressed in through the battered-down gates.
+Louis was in the lead, and landed inside without a scratch. Having lost his
+knapsack in a skirmish on the road, he had no surplus weight to carry.
+Frank was close behind me in the rush through the Bardowicker gate. Though
+this day may never be honored with a line in the annals of the great
+Napoleonic wars, it was quite as hot for a while as any other of greater
+fame for those immediately concerned. The street-scenes were ghastly, and
+forcibly reminded me of certain others of saddest memory, when, a boy of
+only nine years of age, I followed you, my dear parents, over the dead and
+mangled bodies of citizens and soldiers out of the town of Saverne,
+disgraced and blood-stained by a revolutionary mob. With this difference,
+however, that here the dead and wounded were our inveterate foes, while
+there they wore the features of our most cherished friends and neighbors.
+
+[Illustration: DON COSSACKS AND BASHKIRS.]
+
+
+IN A VILLAGE NEAR BOITZENBURG, 4th April.
+
+How quickly the leaf has turned! At the date of my last we were victors:
+to-day we are not only vanquished, but prisoners.
+
+Do not be alarmed, however, dearest parents. All three of your sons are
+alive and well, even relatively comfortable. No complaint even from poor
+Louis, who was caught by the Cossacks, robbed of his coat and purse, then
+turned over to the citizens, who, after unspeakable insults and brutal
+treatment, stripped him of everything but his shirt and drawers. My own
+story is too complex to be related to-day. I will only state in brief what
+you may have already divined--that on the day following the capture of
+Lueneburg we were surprised in and around the town by a vastly superior
+force, and worsted after a resistance which was all the more desperate that
+we knew what to expect from such an enemy in case of defeat. The ferocity
+of the German burgher, backed by his liberators in overwhelming strength,
+literally baffles description. I fell in a melee in front of the eastern
+gate under a blow from a spear-shaft, which broke the visor clasp of my
+shako right over my left ear. When I recovered my senses I was in the
+custody of a young "Death Hussar," of whose generous treatment of me more
+hereafter.
+
+
+SAME DAY, afternoon.
+
+The number of my companions in misfortune now collected here is nearly
+three hundred. Our departure Russia-ward, which had been fixed for noon
+to-day, seems to have been countermanded for the present.
+
+Our surprise is mainly attributed to some laxity on the part of our Saxon
+friends, whose German hearts have naturally mellowed since the French
+eagles have taken their homeward flight. This forenoon our brave general,
+mortally wounded in his effort to retrieve the disgrace, was buried with
+the honors of war at Boitzenburg, half a mile from here. We lost altogether
+five hundred dead and wounded, but inflicted a severe loss on the enemy,
+who was the attacking party. As near as I can learn, his force consisted of
+a large brigade of cavalry, four companies of Russian and three of Prussian
+infantry, artillery in proportion, besides the few hundred Cossacks and
+armed citizens we had scared out of Lueneburg on the day before.
+
+Now to return to my story. Perhaps you have not forgotten, my dear parents,
+my reference, four years ago, to the notorious Schill, chief of a corps of
+Prussian partisans, a brave and devoted patriot, who gave us no little
+trouble. Shortly after that time he was pursued by a force of Danes and
+Hollanders, our allies, all the way to Stralsund, and killed in a brave
+fight. His brother now commands the "Death Hussars" in the Prussian
+service. My captor is a Brunswicker of noble birth and character, who
+speaks very good French, and recognized me by name and face in connection
+with an incident near Hamburg which had impressed him favorably with my
+humanity. He seemed to have resolved to do all in his power for my
+protection except directly favoring my escape. After he had shielded me
+from the burghers' mob and furnished me with a modest suit of citizen's
+clothes in order to disguise my rank, I was still encumbered by my
+regulation hat, which betrayed me to every eye. He proposed to provide me
+with a skull-cap from a friend's wardrobe, and left me to wait for him in a
+seemingly deserted lane, a square only from his lodgings. Scarcely,
+however, had he turned the corner when I was overtaken by an athletic
+journeyman baker, who, pouncing upon me with frantic yells, attracted two
+other citizens to the spot, and all now seized hold of me with a vigor
+conveying the soothing impression that my agony would be brief. Acting upon
+the old adage, that while there is life there is hope, I protracted my
+existence by twining my arms around a small linden tree and dealing out
+such blows with my heavy riding-boots as I could in that awkward position.
+At the same time I summoned to my aid all the power of a healthy pair of
+lungs, which my mother often predicted would yet make some noise in the
+world, and just before my wind gave out under the pressure of the
+bakerman's thumbs, my strategy resulted in the desired success. Shouting
+and running at the top of his might, my noble rescuer was soon on the spot
+with the skull-cap in one hand and his drawn sabre in the other. In a
+twinkling the flat of his blade had loosened the hold of my executioners,
+whom he fearlessly berated as cowardly villains for laying hands upon a
+prisoner already in his power, and whom he pursued with threats that
+visibly quickened their retreating pace. Thanking Heaven for the favor of
+permitting him to save my life once more, he now informed me that he had
+done all for me that his own oath and duty permitted, and hoped I should be
+able to make the best use of my improved situation. At my urgent request,
+however, he consented to accompany me to my lodgings, where I had that very
+morning left my portfolio and a gold watch, not dreaming of the surprise
+that subverted my fate in the course of the day. My landlord, still
+gratefully reminiscent of my courteous behavior toward him and his family
+on the day of our victory, promptly delivered my property, with hearty
+apologies for his inability to do more for me at present; and,
+significantly referring to a Prussian captain then at supper in the lower
+story, he quietly pressed into my hand a shining silver thaler, which I as
+quietly returned with thanks, for the simple reason that I was even then
+more able to give than he. "God bless you, my gracious gentleman!" were his
+last words as I pressed his honest fist and assured him that if ever in my
+power his kindness should be remembered.
+
+Night had closed around me when I reached the sombre street with my
+magnanimous protector. After exchanging names, birthplace and the residence
+of our respective parents in our memorandum-books, I thanked him for all
+with a fulness of heart to which the moisture of his own thoughtful blue
+eyes most eloquently responded, and as he rapidly walked away my
+reflections upon the humanity of war were not such as would have
+recommended my promotion to the great captain in whose thankless service I
+am daily exposing my life.
+
+[Illustration: BASHKIR.]
+
+Here, then, I was left absolutely friendless in a hostile town in which my
+life was at the mercy of almost every inhabitant. And my poor brothers,
+what had become of them? How could I find out? My rescuer had informed me
+that the prisoners had already been transported into the country, and that
+the wounded were being cared for at the town-hall. In this dilemma my
+choice was not difficult. Deliberately walking into a tavern where the
+Russian staff were engaged in brewing punch, I declared myself a prisoner,
+hungry, and anxious to join my comrades, whose fate I wished to share. I
+did not conceal the fact that I hoped to find two brothers among them. To
+my agreeable surprise, I found these officers kindly-disposed,
+well-educated men, speaking either French or German fluently. Supper was
+instantly ordered for me, but, though a fast of fifteen hours was gnawing
+at my stomach, I could not prevail upon myself to taste anything before
+having seen our wounded, which I asked and obtained leave to do
+immediately. An orderly was directed to conduct me to the town-hall across
+the square. Here I was distressed to find over sixty of our men and
+officers of all arms more or less severely hurt, but none fatally, the
+unfortunates of that category, as rumor goes, having been _finished by the
+citizens_ before the military took charge of them. I anxiously looked into
+every familiar face, but my brothers were not there. No one could tell me
+the names of our dead. Frank was seen alive after I fell, just before the
+close of the fight, but of Louis nothing whatever was known. Still, I
+breathed more freely. A Prussian surgeon in attendance with our own having
+called my attention to the contusion over my left ear, which had now
+swollen to the size of a small egg, I had it bathed and dressed.
+
+During my supper at the tavern two of the Russian officers, taking seats
+around my table, conversed very freely upon the topics of the day, and, I
+must confess, with much delicate regard for the feelings of an enemy in my
+condition. They had seen Napoleon in Moscow, and hoped soon to return his
+visit in Paris. All Europe was tired of him, his own people not excepted.
+The Bourbons would be restored and universal peace would follow. This was
+their favorite theme, to which, I candidly own, your son's heart was not a
+total stranger. I have long been convinced that Germany could not be
+permanently subdued, and that French rule was the most unpopular of all. My
+impression is that this nation will henceforth unite and fight until the
+foreign yoke is shaken off for ever.
+
+Supper over, I was informed that I could not be conveyed to my
+fellow-prisoners until morning, and that I might share the mattress of a
+French sergeant-major confined in an upper room, which turned out to be the
+garret. Imagine my surprise on recognizing my favorite Delatre, though his
+face was black with mud and powder and his elegant form disguised in the
+linen gown of a Mecklenburger teamster! His sleep was too sweet and
+precious to be disturbed, and I much enjoyed his wonder when, awaking at
+the break of day, he beheld the countenance of one whom he had numbered
+among the dead. Our mutual stories were soon told. Delatre had made an
+attempt to escape, but was recaptured, did not tell a very plausible tale,
+and was held for better identification in the morning. Of my brothers he
+knew only that they were both alive when I fell. It was supposed by the
+survivors of the company that if I was not killed by the blow I must have
+been crushed to death by horses' hoofs and cannon-wheels soon afterward.
+
+My presence in the house proved to be a fortunate coincidence for my friend
+Delatre, since it required my written statement and parole of honor to
+clear him of the suspicion of being a spy. These formalities accomplished,
+three very slightly wounded fusiliers from the hospital were added to our
+number, and we were at once conveyed to this hamlet, on the east side of
+the Elbe, where we found our fellow-sufferers quartered in the spacious
+outbuildings of a comfortable-looking farm. A deafening shout arose from
+one corner of the captive throng so soon as our faces could be
+distinguished; and need I, dear parents, describe the scene which
+immediately followed when all three of your sons, after a heart's agony of
+twenty-four hours, once more, alive and well, fell into each other's arms?
+
+Frank, with the exception of a few buttons, was still in possession of his
+full regimentals, but poor Louis's condition, as already mentioned, was
+pitiable enough. My vest and overalls and half of my necktie restored him
+to relative decency, and out of a blanket which I purchased at the
+farmhouse he is at this moment engaged in planning an elegant-looking Talma
+cloak.
+
+It is significantly remarked that among the three hundred
+prisoners--destined to Siberia, I suppose--there is not a single Saxon.
+There are reasons of state for this discrimination without a doubt.
+
+
+ON A HALT, 5th April, noon.
+
+It was not far from sunset last evening when we began to move under the
+escort of about sixty Cossacks. Our course lay along the east bank of the
+Elbe, and we are _promised_ to be taken to Russia by way of Berlin. It was
+near ten o'clock last night before we reached an enclosed farmyard secure
+enough to hold so many birds, and we went supperless to bed on a munificent
+litter of straw. Frank's humorous stories and mimicry of our friends the
+enemies answered admirably for dessert.
+
+I was one of the first on foot this morning to take a good look at our
+escort. These semi-barbarians feel so secure in our utter helplessness that
+scarcely half a dozen of them remained on guard after the break of day.
+Here they lay stretched in the dew in every conceivable attitude of
+well-earned repose, snoring in concert almost under the very feet of their
+ponies, who enjoy in a standing position their equine dreams of home on the
+distant steppe. The whole barnyard scene, riders, horses and prisoners,
+composed one of the most striking pictures of which I ever formed a part,
+and to which my hasty sketches, herewith enclosed, do not aspire to do
+justice.
+
+These Cossacks, or more properly Bashkirs, seem to belong to a different
+tribe from the Knights of the Don we captured nearly three weeks ago, and
+represent mentally and physically a less advanced type. There is no
+picturing to yourself exactly such faces as these unless you have once seen
+a specimen, upon which your imagination may then work _ad libitum_,
+without fear of exaggeration in the direction of the grotesque. A
+mythological cross between the fabled satyr and the domestic creature which
+furnishes the Westphalia ham is the nearest approach I can suggest to this
+type of humanity. How much of their dusky complexion is due to the sun and
+how much to the earth could only be determined by an exhaustive experiment
+with soap and water, the virtue of which, to them, is still an undiscovered
+blessing. To describe the extent to which the Bashkir carries his contempt
+for cleanliness in every function of daily life would require pages, and
+prematurely disgust you with my interesting subject. The atmosphere for
+half a hundred feet around a middle-aged Bashkir has no parallel in any
+sensation known to the human nostril. His sheepskin cloak, jacket or vest,
+as the case may be, teems with animal life, of which the wearer alone seems
+to be unconscious. In feature these people approach the Tartar type, of
+which, however, the stiff, wispy, yellow hair and beard, the small piggish
+eye, flat nose and fleshy Ethiopian lips seem to mark a characteristic
+variety. Many of them walk clumsily or with a stoop, and show other
+symptoms of grovelling habits and strong drink. As a rule, the Bashkirs,
+like the Cossacks, are armed with lances; among our custodians several
+carry long rifles; and at Lueneburg I even saw a few of these singular
+warriors with bows and arrows, though perhaps more for show than for use.
+As fighting soldiers they strike me as greatly overrated: their native
+instincts seem to qualify them much better for scouts and marauders. Both
+the Bashkir and Cossack when in action excel in the arts of
+self-preservation, skilfully manoeuvring around the verge of danger,
+seeking the weak points, and if by force of numbers and long lances now and
+then succeeding in a charge _a fond_ upon a baggage-train, yet easily
+persuaded into wholesome prudence by a bristling line of bayonets or a
+well-directed volley. Their battle-cry is the same as that of the English,
+"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" only more melodious; and the same may be said of
+their songs, which fall much more agreeably upon a musical ear than the
+popular ballads and comical rhymes of our Britannic neighbors. I wish I
+could speak as favorably of their religious devotions, which combine the
+most bigoted and ludicrous exercises I ever heard of in a Christian sect.
+Both the Don and the Bashkir Cossacks belong to the Greek Church, but
+whether their mode of worship is the orthodox form or adulterated with
+Bashkir improvements, I am not able to state. It is interesting to note
+here that the most extravagant professions are indulged in by the older
+members of the congregation, while the younger seem content to go through
+the principal motions, and not a few even slyly exchange quizzical glances
+over the prostrate backs of their seniors in superstition. Perhaps light
+will dawn some day even on the benighted banks of the Don and the Volga.
+
+[Illustration: CIBULSKY.]
+
+Of the most rudimentary education these simple people do not exhibit a
+trace. Reading and writing appear to them the acme of human science, which
+the poor Cossack may never hope to reach on this side of the Styx. When a
+map is spread before them at random, they promptly inquire which is the
+side of the rising sun, and then turn that very properly to their right,
+but beyond that their intelligence comes to a halt. Streams, roads and
+boundary-lines are to them only a labyrinth of confusion. Even as scouts
+and foragers they would be nearly useless without local guides; hence
+German officers have been added to their native leaders since they left the
+Russian border. The commander of this force is a renegade Pole, a Prussian
+subject, by name Cibulsky, _anglice_ onion-man--a remarkable coincidence,
+in view of his favorite diet. Though he treats me with becoming respect, he
+is not the sort of man to win my affections.
+
+Though intellectually obtuse, the Cossack must not be supposed to lack
+either sagacity or common sense. On the contrary, the keenness of his
+instinct and perception, as in the case of most savages, is quite
+remarkable. Human nature seems to him an open book, and it is instructive
+to watch his ingenuity in getting the upper hand in a bargain, a bet or a
+game of chance. This morning I felt anxious to secure a sketch of one of
+their typical faces, undisfigured by the traditional beard, but coaxing did
+not succeed. A few silbergroschen which I then displayed--all I claimed to
+possess--were merrily gobbled up by right of conquest and divided among the
+group around me. I felt near the end of my wits, when, observing a dirty
+pack of cards protruding from the pocket of my subject, I asked permission
+to show him a trick. It was one of those parlor-magic sleights of
+hand--like Columbus's egg, the simplest trick in the world when you know
+it. I never saw Bashkirs' eyes look half as large as on that occasion, and
+half a dozen beards at once were put upon the market at the same price. For
+want of time, however, I had to decline all except the one I had first
+selected, which rapidly fell under the dexterous scissors of brother Frank;
+and opposite is my sketch.
+
+Of military drill there is very little in Cossack training in the French or
+Prussian sense of the word, although the discipline is much better than
+might be expected from such irregular troops. Their control of their horses
+is unsurpassable, and greatly assisted by the natural docility of the
+animal itself. In size below the standard of our lightest cavalry, these
+ugly little beasts display uncommon strength and endurance. Possibly a
+cross between the Arab and the Percheron might, on a larger scale, produce
+a heavy and yet spirited head like that of the bright-eyed Cossack or
+Ukraine horse, but to attain an equally fantastic neck and rump some less
+symmetrical elements would have to be resorted to.
+
+Speaking of horses, I am on foot at present, as you may well suppose, but
+that only brings me all the nearer to my fellow-sufferers, who, like
+myself, are in need of all the sympathy within their reach. Our Bashkirs
+being, upon the whole, a good-natured set of fellows and much the worse for
+wear, we hope to get along without serious trouble; and for my part I shall
+keep a sharp lookout once we reach a familiar section of country. It looks
+as if our route would take us through Doemitz, one of my former posts. If
+so, patience!
+
+
+COLIS, near Doemitz, Tuesday, 6th April.
+
+Yesterday, at 2 P. M., we halted near a village five miles from here to
+secure the first decent meal since we broke camp. Our sub-officers and
+privates received good pickled meat with vegetables, pumpernickel (black
+bread) and rye whiskey. The officers were taken into the village and
+billeted on comfortable houses for refreshments. Before I started I cut out
+of the belt of my drawers six napoleons d'or, which I divided between my
+brothers, informing them that we were not far from Doemitz. They understood
+me well, and wished me God-speed, promising to follow my example if any
+opportunity occurred before they were exchanged. Their last injunction was
+to report them to you, my dear parents, in good health and spirits and
+bravely resigned to fate; and it was mainly the hope and desire to treat
+you to this satisfaction that nerved me to the risk and pain of separation
+from the dear boys in their deplorable condition. I would have given one
+half of my remaining life to be able to carry them away in my breeches
+pockets. It was because they truly felt this that they cheerfully forgave
+me this desertion. God bless and protect them for ever, for better sons and
+brothers and truer soldiers never lived!
+
+[Illustration: BASHKIR SHORN AND COMBED.]
+
+It was here that I had resolved to attempt my escape, as for many miles
+around I had, during a protracted occupancy, gained a number of personal
+friends, whose feelings I hoped to find unaltered by reverse of fortune. By
+the favor of Heaven I was destined to succeed, so far, beyond expectation.
+My captain, sub-lieutenant and myself were billeted on one of the last
+houses on the road leading to Doemitz, and in charge of a single Bashkir, a
+grizzly, good-humored old fellow, and not the very brightest of the lot.
+After seeing us comfortably seated around a savory dinner, he squarely
+established himself in the front-door, where he was soon absorbed in the
+dissection of a huge plate of fishes steeped in fragrant linseed oil. I
+should here add that spoons and forks seem unknown to the Bashkir family,
+except as trophies of war, especially when they happen to be of silver.
+After replenishing my French stomach by means of a regular Mecklenburger
+appetite, I left my companions engaged in garnishing their pockets with the
+remnants of the feast, and stepped out into the yard bareheaded and
+carelessly picking my teeth. Having secured the good-will of my Bashkir
+friend by tasting a bite or two of his greasy fish, I proceeded to
+entertain him with a variety of gymnastic pranks, especially challenging
+his admiration by balancing his lance on the end of my nose until it looked
+as flat as his own. This complimentary trick delighted him to such an
+extent that the corners of his mouth carried the tips of his broom-sedge
+moustache several inches behind his ears. There was not a human being in
+the street or yard, the bulk of the population having flocked out to stare
+at the rest of the prisoners. Pretending to play with the Bashkir's horse,
+which was despatching its oats near the garden-gate, I passed repeatedly
+around the corner of the house, gradually increasing the intervals of my
+reappearance until I had succeeded in fastening the bridle to the fence by
+the nearest imitation possible of a gordian knot. Then coming into view
+once more, and beholding my confiding jailer about to seal the fate of his
+last fish, I again put the corner of the house between him and me, this
+time to return no more.
+
+My next prank was to leap from the saddle of the Cossack steed over the
+fence into the garden, and thence over another fence into a shady orchard,
+without being seen by mortal eye. At the outer end of an adjoining barnyard
+an old shed with a sunken thatched roof beckoned me into its friendly
+shelter, and there, between some old hay-ladders and broken wheels, I
+twisted myself through the rotten straw into a cavity to which I confided
+my trembling body until dusk. There was of course a moment of critical
+suspense, but except the faint, hesitative bark of a small dog that rushed
+past my hiding-place and suddenly turned back as if on a false alarm, there
+was not a sound or a sign indicating that my movements had been observed or
+that search was being made for the fugitive. Did not the jolly old hero
+know the difference between two and three, or had he forgotten me over his
+fish?
+
+However that may be, the last stroke of the village curfew found me once
+more in the open air. There were just stars enough peeping out between the
+fleeting clouds to light my devious path through brush and field to the
+house of a trusty friend, whom I aroused from his peaceful slumber at
+eleven o'clock. He is the same forester (_Oberfoerster_) of whose attachment
+for me I mentioned several instances in my last year's correspondence. His
+delight on recognizing me was unfeigned, and he would have been too happy
+to shelter me for any length of time but for the fact that the same hostile
+command that had captured us in Lueneburg was now retreating toward Doemitz,
+having again been driven across the Elbe by the expected advance of Marshal
+Davoust's corps. Of course I cannot remain here to compromise my friend,
+but shall proceed two leagues farther, to the house of a wealthy farmer,
+where I may be concealed until enabled to reach the South Baltic coast.
+There, at Christinenfeld, near Kluetz, I shall find more friends, my trunk
+with money, clothes and other effects, if this property has not been
+betrayed into the enemy's hand.
+
+
+ELDENA, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 15th April.
+
+Here I am, since the 8th, safely housed with my old friend, the hospitable
+farmer. Yesterday, in a suitable disguise, I visited a public functionary,
+son of the county judge (_Oberamtmann_), with whom I was quartered four
+years ago, and upon whose discretion I could rely. I broached the subject
+of a pass under an assumed name and nationality wherewith to reach Kluetz,
+only twenty-four leagues away. Speaking as I do the German language, and
+even the Plattdeutsch dialect, almost like a native, I had hoped that my
+friend would not hesitate to assume that risk. But upon his exhibiting to
+me the stringent orders lately received upon that subject, and mentioning
+the penalty attached to detection, I did not insist upon my request. I
+shall undertake the journey as best I can, without a passport, _a la garde
+de Dieu_.
+
+
+CHRISTINENFELD, 17th April.
+
+Yesterday morning, Good Friday, I rode from Eldena to Ludwigslust in
+company with a gamekeeper well known in this section. Thence I walked to
+Schwerin, the capital of the duchy, thence took stage to Gravismuehlen, and
+lastly footed it again to Kluetz, accomplishing the journey of twenty-four
+leagues between 3 A. M. and 9 P. M. Here I found the people as kindly
+disposed as ever, and my trunk unmolested. My dear mother, who never rated
+me as the wittiest if the most accomplished of her boys, may possibly feel
+more hopeful upon learning by what _ruse de guerre_ I managed to traverse
+the capital of Mecklenburg-Schwerin without a passport in such times as
+these. In addition to the usual civil police, every gate of the city was
+guarded by a military argus not likely to be caught napping. In Ludwigslust
+I had read a proclamation offering a reward for every Frenchman captured
+within the state. While resting on a milestone a short distance out of
+Schwerin, and wiping the sweat of agony from my brow, I noticed the
+establishment of a florist on the other side of the road. Thither I stepped
+at once, and selecting a beautiful early rose in full bloom, I had it
+potted for transportation. Then dusting off my boots and disarranging my
+cravat, I placed the flower-pot in my cap, and taking this novel passport
+upon my left arm, I abstractedly sallied forth toward the redoubtable gate.
+Very much as I expected, all eyes were turned upon the beautiful early
+flower, whose carrier passed unobserved. I felt so exultant over the
+success of my stratagem that I had the audacity to call for half a bottle
+of French wine, with bread and cheese, at the first inn I came to, and to
+enjoy my treasonable meal right under the nose of a vociferous Prussian
+_Kuerassier-hauptmann_ expounding the latest news from the seat of war to
+what I took to be a knot of terrified civil functionaries. The drift of it
+all was that the beak of the French eagle was once more turned to the East.
+_Inde Irae._
+
+
+AT A COUNTRY-SEAT IN HOLSTEIN, Danish ground.
+
+My stay near Kluetz was of short duration, owing to another proclamation
+from the ruler of this duchy, ordering the arrest of all straggling
+Frenchmen, and their delivery to the nearest Russian or Prussian outpost,
+under penalty of treason. My friends, whom I did not wish to expose any
+longer, kindly recommended me to this place, where I have been very
+hospitably received. How long this may last is, however, uncertain, as it
+is feared Sweden may compel Denmark into an alliance against the French.
+
+
+SCHWANENSEE, Mecklenburg, 29th May.
+
+I was driven from Danish soil by a false alarm in regard to Swedish
+movements, and am the guest here of another old friend, Baron Haesseler,
+with whom I was quartered three years ago. But this is Mecklenburg again,
+and not safe either for me or my generous host. This Wandering-Jew sort of
+a life is demoralizing me fast: I cannot hold out much longer.
+
+
+CASTLE BUeLOW, at Gudow, Duchy of Lauenburg, 6th June.
+
+Thank Heaven! Mecklenburg is once more behind me. This is still the enemy's
+country, but its little sovereign has not yet issued any proclamation
+thirsting for French blood. After leaving my Danish retreat I spent a few
+weeks at Kluetz under the tile-roof of a henhouse, where I was nearly crazed
+by the heat and confinement. Dropping crumbs to a family of friendly mice
+who have not heard of the proclamation was my only pastime. At Schwanensee
+I made the acquaintance of the Landmarschallin von Buelow, a noble and
+accomplished lady, who managed to convey me to this manor, her place of
+residence. She is one of the few in the land who has not yet learned to
+hate us Frenchmen "as we deserve." She is the mother of two sons, the elder
+of whom, like all young men of his class, is in the field against us. To
+the younger, a bright lad of sixteen, I was introduced this morning as his
+preceptor, Mr. Fr. J. Dierks, a native of Freiburg, Baden. This is my
+identity for all who may know me here. The lord of this manor, who, for
+reasons of public business, resides at Ratzeburg, a few miles from here,
+knows me in no other capacity. He seems to think much of me, and placed a
+horse and his hunting-ground at my disposal. Even my trunk was sent after
+me here through the kindness of the countess. But in the midst of all this
+comfort, right from the Kluetzer henhouse, I feel restless and unhappy. My
+place is not here. Had I remained on the Danish side I could now, as things
+have turned out, pass through Holstein to Hamburg, which is again in
+possession of Davoust's corps. I may accomplish it yet.
+
+
+GUDOW, 7th July.
+
+I hope soon to be able to forward you my letters, which I have just now
+finished transcribing from the cipher. Since the middle of last month there
+reigns some sort of a truce, but up to date I have tried in vain to get off
+my mail or to slip through the outposts in person. The Cossacks are
+swarming through this section, and have doubled all the picket-lines. It is
+part of my duty here to furnish supplies to those stationed within the
+Landmarschall's domain; and though, in that capacity, I am on the best of
+terms with our protectors, they have shown no disposition yet to help me
+across the Stekenitz, a muddy stream which forms the neutral line between
+the hostile armies. Think of it, my dear parents, only a few miles off I
+should find the French flag, French uniforms, comrades, friends, almost
+home once more! It is very trying to hold up my head under a false role and
+to sign my false name daily to a dozen papers. If detected now, so near the
+lines, no power on earth could save me from the death of a spy, and it is
+very difficult for me sometimes not to look upon myself as a deserter.
+
+
+July 10th.
+
+From the countess I learned to-day that the crown-prince of Sweden
+(ex-Marshal Bernadotte), commanding the invading army, having learned that
+a French officer or spy was concealed on Baron Haesseler's domain, quartered
+upon him a squad of hussars, who are making diligent search for me. They
+may find my trail to this place at any hour. I am on the wing this moment.
+
+
+STOWE, a country-seat near Ratzeburg, 1st August.
+
+If ever I was in a tight place, it is now. General Tettenborn, a Badener by
+birth, commanding the Russian forces posted five miles from Gudow, wishes
+to make the personal acquaintance of his countryman, Mr. Dierks. The
+Swedish hussars have furnished him my description, and the protege of the
+countess von Buelow is suspected to be no other than the mysterious guest of
+Baron Haesseler. My disguise and concealment here at the house of a most
+generous friend has successfully baffled detection so far, but the old
+Landmarschall having joined in the pursuit of me to vindicate his own
+loyalty, I am not safe here any longer. My devoted host has just devised a
+plan for my conveyance to Kluetz, whence I must absolutely try to reach
+Holstein and Hamburg without delay.
+
+
+KLUeTZ, 6th August.
+
+The night of the 2d-3d inst. saw me safely landed here. The place is full
+of Swedish troops, and several officers are quartered in the house of which
+my hen-coop is a dependancy. I have but little paper left to write for
+pastime, but my faithful mice have not forgotten me. Very unlike many human
+beings, they are gratefully looking up toward the source of their daily
+bread, and even standing on their hind legs against the wall, as if anxious
+to pay me a visit.
+
+
+9th August.
+
+No change yet in the situation within or without. If I could hope that
+Davoust's corps would push across the Elbe at once and drive the Swedes,
+Russians and Prussians to where they belong, I would remain here and await
+his coming. But that is still uncertain, and my position is becoming
+untenable. I have wished a thousand times I had never left my brothers.
+Their fate is enviable compared to mine. To-night I shall get a reply to a
+proposition I made for my transfer to Holstein by water. I have ample funds
+to accomplish it if all else is favorable. The French advance has reached
+Lubeck.
+
+
+LUBECK, 12th August.
+
+Heaven be praised, dearest parents! I am free and once more among my own!
+
+In the night of the 10th-11th my plans culminated at last in my conveyance
+in a fisherman's boat across the south-west corner of the Baltic to
+Neustadt, in Danish Holstein, whence I proceeded to this city as fast as
+the best horse within reach could carry me. I must forbear, from want of
+time, giving you to-day the particulars of this dangerous and providential
+escape, which would appear to you almost incredible. I cannot but attribute
+the special protection of a kind Providence to a recognition of such of my
+qualities of heart as you, my dear parents, have so religiously cultivated
+in your children, and which nine years' absence from home and the varied
+experiences of a cruel and relentless war have never yet obliterated. I
+believe I have always striven to be faithful to my duty, kind and just to
+my inferiors and humane to our enemies. It is this consciousness that ever
+sustained my hope in the darkest hour of peril. It told me that I was too
+good to die ignominiously at the end of a Mecklenburger pitchfork or hempen
+rope. Again, thanks and praise to Whom they are due!
+
+
+LUeNEBURG, 25th August.
+
+I lost no time in reporting to head-quarters at Lubeck, and was at once
+ordered here, where I found again united all of our command who fought
+their way out of this place on the day of my capture. Of our poor
+prisoners, only one, Sautier, a corporal of artillery, seems to have made
+his escape. This occurred at Colberg, Prussia, on the Baltic, where our
+boys were embarked for Russia, Riga being their port of destination. At
+that time both Frank and Louis enjoyed remarkably good health, and, summer
+approaching, Russia had lost much of its terror in their minds. The trip by
+land was performed in short marches and without any unusual hardships. Long
+before they reached Berlin their escort was replaced by another of
+exclusively Don Cossacks. Sautier reached Denmark by water from Wismar,
+where he had travelled in various disguises, principally following the
+coast. My own escape was not discovered by Captain Cibulsky until next day.
+It appears that the old Bashkir, on returning my captain and sub-lieutenant
+to the caravan after dinner, made no report concerning the missing
+lieutenant, and when the roll-call betrayed my absence next morning the
+clannish Bashkirs played so adroitly into each other's hands that the
+commander could not determine whom to hold accountable for the offence,
+and, after notifying the civil authorities to keep a lookout for me,
+resumed his march. After that accident, however, the captive officers were
+not permitted to leave camp for any purpose except under escort equal to
+their own number--one Cossack one prisoner, one Cossack one prisoner, and
+so on--which would not leave room for miscounts. I heartily rejoice over
+the impunity of my old friend of the doorsill, and only regret now not
+having had the presence of mind to tie a napoleon d'or into that
+treacherous knot in his bridle. But, _qui sait?_ we may meet again!
+
+
+27th August.
+
+Yesterday I received my full pay in arrears, and am again blazing forth in
+complete regimentals after a _bourgeois_ neglige of nearly five months.
+To-day, when taking my first official round through the town, I suddenly
+found myself face to face with the journeyman baker who had undertaken to
+put a stop to my earthly career on the fatal 2d of April. He turned pale as
+death, and seemed riveted to the ground. Taking hold of his chin, I asked
+him whether he would think it strange to be sent before a court-martial and
+shot before next sunrise. The cowardly bully looked so contrite and
+chapfallen that I pitied him, and the fear that he might be dealt with just
+as he deserved caused me to dismiss him with an impressive admonition, of
+which the bystanders of his class may have taken to heart their respective
+shares. Before night the magnanimity of the French officer was the gossip
+of the town.
+
+I almost forgot to mention that I have also recovered my horse, which had
+been appropriated by a civil functionary and smuggled into the country
+upon the return of our forces. Although I shall not be reassigned to the
+coast-guard service, I am permitted to retain the animal at my own expense.
+We learn to-day that Marshal Davoust is advancing rapidly through
+Mecklenburg, and has already issued a proclamation from Schwerin, where
+roses count for passports. In a very few days we shall be sufficiently
+reorganized to follow. Every step will bring me nearer to my brothers. God
+bless you all, my dear parents and sisters! These leaves at last will be
+wafted homeward to-day. More in a few days from our eastward line of
+march.
+
+NOTE.--Lieutenant Diss Debar served in the corps of Davoust until the
+departure of Napoleon for Elba. The second invasion found him promoted to a
+captaincy, and engaged in the defence of Neu Breisach, which closed his
+military career. After the restoration of the Bourbons the influence of his
+father's Legitimist friends procured for him a comfortable position in the
+administration of "Waters and Forests," which he retained through all the
+political changes up to within a few years of his death, in 1864, in the
+eighty-fifth year of his age. His brother Frank was exchanged in 1815, and
+returned to France, but "poor little Louis" was not destined to the same
+good fortune. He died at Riga in January, 1814, from amputation of his
+frozen feet, the result of barbarous exposure.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[B] The writer of these letters, Joseph Diss Debar, served with the corps
+of Marshal Davonst. Before the French Revolution his father had filled the
+office of intendant of domains of the prince-cardinal de Rohan-Guemenee, of
+royal necklace memory, then residing on his estates at Saverne, Alsace, in
+the diocese of Strassburg, of which he was the beneficiary. Soon after the
+capture of the Bastille the revolutionary movement spread to this locality,
+and destroyed, imprisoned or drove into exile all the avowed adherents of
+the royal cause, including the cardinal and his friends. The greater part
+of the Saverne refugees gathered at Ettenheim in Baden, only one league
+from the Rhine, where a large stipend, allowed to the cardinal by the
+British government, enabled him to keep his friends and followers above
+want until they could find other means of support. Thirteen years later
+Ettenheim also attracted the unfortunate duc d'Enghien, who in March, 1804,
+was kidnapped by orders of Bonaparte and shot in the ditch at Vincennes.
+The terror inspired by this high-handed _coup d'etat_, which destroyed the
+_emigres'_ safety upon neutral soil, caused many of the younger generation
+of exiles to return to their native country and to enter the army, the
+military career being the only one open to them. Among these were the
+writer and his two brothers, the oldest being then twenty-four and the
+youngest seventeen years of age.
+
+
+
+
+A PORTRAIT.
+
+
+Every day I passed there in going between the room where I lodge and my
+business. It was an old shop, full of trash, ambitious of being a
+bric-a-brac establishment, but its contents had neither beauty nor pedigree
+to recommend them, only age and cheapness. Its doorsill lay even with the
+pavement, inviting custom by an easy access, while repelling it by its
+squalor. The light entered hesitatingly through a cobwebbed window, as if
+loath to touch the unsightly objects within. Of these, some few had strayed
+through the door and stood in blinking confusion on the sidewalk--chairs
+with three legs, desks with no shelves, sofas without seats, clocks
+eternally silent, and ornaments maimed, cracked, and seamed with glue.
+
+It was in this company I first saw him. He had dark eyes with heavy lids,
+that gave a pathetic look to his face, and one eyebrow was slightly pointed
+near its termination on the temple, while the other was straight--an
+irregularity often found in persons of erratic temperament. His nose,
+sensitive and refined, was in beautiful proportion to the face: his full
+lips and square chin were partly concealed by a curling brown beard and
+moustache, and the hair, which met a forehead rather broad than high, was
+of the same color. Perhaps I should have mentioned that _he_ was a
+portrait.
+
+How had he arrived among his present surroundings, standing on the dirty
+street, smeared with mud that passing feet cast in his face, splashed by
+rain, and torn from contact with the edges of chairs or the careless canes
+of pedestrians--even showing the print of a boot-heel impressed on one
+cheek? At times he disappeared for days together, as if lost in the maze
+within: then again I would see his tragic eyes gazing at me through a
+pelting storm or his skin blistering under a blinding sun. Was it any
+wonder that I sought to save him from his capricious fate--that I pitied
+him, that I bought him?
+
+I took the opportunity of doing so when the owner of the shop, whom I
+respectfully christened Sticks, was absent, and was thereby enabled to
+purchase the portrait from a shock-headed boy in charge for the modest sum
+of two francs.
+
+My acquisition gave me much pleasure, but, unfortunately, it immediately
+became the subject of an altercation between my two selves. I must here
+say that my inner and outer self seldom agree, the latter being a
+practical man and a clerk in a retail lace business, while the former is an
+idealist who despises the other's employment and ridicules his opinions,
+frequently bewailing the lot that links him to a clod without aspirations.
+
+It was to settle this dispute that I resolved, if possible, to discover
+some facts about the portrait's history, and for this purpose I stopped at
+the shop next morning, fortunately finding the shock-headed boy alone. Old
+Sticks would not have _given_ even an answer, his business being buying and
+selling.
+
+"Where did you get that picture I bought of you yesterday?" I began.
+
+"Think it's an old master?" he asked with a wink.
+
+"Will you answer my question, you blockhead?" I said, threatening him with
+my stick.
+
+"I brought it from No. 42 Rue Notre Dame de Lorette," he whimpered,
+avoiding the cane as if it recalled disagreeable memories.
+
+"To whom did it belong?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Speak out, my man, and you shall have this for your reward." The proffered
+half-franc made him voluble.
+
+"I was sent for it to No. 42. The concierge gave it to me. He had it
+carefully wrapped up: that made me laugh when I saw it opened."
+
+"How long ago did this happen?"
+
+"About six months. Where do _you_ live?"
+
+"What is that to you, my young friend?"
+
+"You had better not pass here often: the old man is furious that I sold the
+picture--asked me all about how you looked, and if you ever passed the
+shop. I told him I never saw you before, and that you had black hair and
+squinted."
+
+"Why did you say that?"
+
+"I owe him one. He beat me last night, and went off this morning without
+giving me a bite to eat. Last thing he said was, 'You are sure he squints?'
+I said, 'Yes, sure.'"
+
+Then, as I gave him the silver, the boy said, "Just mind the shop a moment,
+while I run and get something to eat;" and off he went, leaving me in
+charge.
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" asked my inner self ironically.
+
+"I am going to No. 42;" and without awaiting the boy's return I set out.
+
+A few minutes brought me to the street. I passed No. 42 in review from the
+opposite side of the way, thinking I might get some idea of its occupants
+from the exterior. The house, wedged in by similar houses, possessed no
+particular physiognomy. I gazed at each window in turn, and finally
+crossing the street asked the concierge, "What is the name of the artist
+living in this house?"
+
+"Only respectable people live here," he answered in a surly tone.
+
+"When did he leave?" I went on, determined not to notice his rudeness.
+
+"There has never been one here since I came."
+
+"How long have you been here?"
+
+"I can't remember."
+
+"But you can remember a picture that you sold to a furniture-dealer in the
+Rue St. Lazare about six months ago."
+
+"No I can't. I never sold one."
+
+"His boy told me he got it from you."
+
+"He is mistaken: I never sold one."
+
+"Perhaps it merely passed through your hands. No harm will come to you if
+you tell me what you know about it."
+
+"I know nothing," he exclaimed angrily, and began to pick up some scraps on
+the floor, so that I could not see his face.
+
+Evidently suspecting there was something wrong, and that he might be held
+accountable, the man was prepared to deny everything, and my time being
+limited I left. As I did so I saw a plainly-dressed individual approach
+him, and on once looking back I thought from their gestures they were
+speaking of me. Of course my inner self exclaimed, "Absurd!"
+
+For two days after I was confined to my room by a slight illness, but on
+the third, as I neared the furniture-shop, I noticed Sticks disconsolately
+seated in what might be called his best chair, seeing that the cover,
+though faded, was whole, and it lacked but one arm. This total disregard
+for the sanctity of his wares struck me as ominous, but confident, from the
+boy's description of me, that I should not be recognized, I went boldly
+forward. What was my astonishment to see him as I passed start from his
+seat and exclaim, "Is it you?"
+
+"The boy has betrayed us," said I to my inner self.
+
+"Perhaps he was bribed by another half-franc," replied he, as if sneering
+at my liberality.
+
+"Let us see what old Sticks will do," I remarked in order to change the
+subject.
+
+Thereupon we stopped before the excited man, who was trying vainly to calm
+himself while he asked nervously, "Can I show monsieur something? Something
+cheap, _cheap_--a bargain, artistic, grand, beautiful."
+
+"Not this morning, thanks."
+
+"Ah, this is not kind. Enter a moment: the opportunity is there; do not
+disappoint it."
+
+He stood before me, and laying one knotty hand on my sleeve gently pushed
+me over the threshold, while he murmured, "A bargain, beautiful, cheap."
+Mephistopheles could not have looked more persuasive as, pointing his other
+hand--which matched his wares by the loss of a finger--to a worm-eaten
+cabinet, he leered at me with the only eye he had left.
+
+"I could not carry it," I said with a shrug.
+
+"I will send the article," he answered, eagerly pulling a soiled bit of
+paper and the end of a pencil from his pocket. "What is monsieur's
+address?"
+
+"He is anxious to know where I live: that is evident," said I to my usual
+confidant as I moved on and stopped before a table which had once been
+inlaid, but which now presented the appearance of a painted beauty whose
+rouge has dropped off.
+
+"Monsieur's choice is wise," said the merchant, following me. "Real Louis
+Quatorze: and besides its beauty it has a secret drawer to recommend it.
+That, however, I can only show you in the privacy of your own apartment."
+
+"I think he wants to steal the portrait," I remarked to the invisible
+presence accompanying me. Then I asked the dealer, watching him closely the
+while, "Have you any pictures to sell?"
+
+Sticks coughed nervously, looked about him, and walked the whole length of
+his shop, dusting the things with his red cap, before he spoke. He must
+have been much preoccupied thus rashly to destroy the venerable appearance
+of his stock. Then he said, "Perhaps _you_ might have one you would sell?"
+
+"I suppose you mean the one I bought of you. Why do you want it? In what
+does its value lie? What is the secret connected with it?"
+
+The old man could not repress an involuntary "Hush!" Then recovering
+himself, he asked, "Will you sell it? I offer double what you gave."
+
+I shook my head negatively.
+
+"Name your price," he begged eagerly.
+
+I obstinately continued to shake my head. There must be some reason for his
+wanting it back, and I resolved to find this out before I parted with it.
+Thereupon my inner self ejaculated "Nonsense!" but the dealer's anxiety was
+too evident, and his liberality too unusual, not to be suspicious.
+
+"I must bid you good-morning," I said, in order to bring the matter to a
+crisis.
+
+"Stay a moment: I will explain, I will tell you all. A poor widow sold me
+the picture: it was a portrait of the husband of her youth. Yesterday she
+came to buy it back: she had saved the money for this purpose sou by sou.
+Monsieur will not be cruel, and I promise to divide the profits equally
+with him."
+
+"I can name my price?" I asked, stopping at the door.
+
+"Certainly, monsieur."
+
+"Tell the poor widow she had better spend her savings in buying a new
+husband instead of an old portrait. You can mention me as a pretender."
+With that I walked off, believing that I could come sooner to the truth by
+feigning indifference.
+
+Several times during the day I imagined some one was watching me, and
+returning home at night I was sure I was followed; which proved to be
+true, as on reaching my door the shock-headed boy from the shop passed and
+whispered, "Be careful! They are on your track;" then disappeared before I
+could ask an explanation.
+
+"I wonder if Sticks meditates a night-attack, and has sent the boy to
+reconnoitre?" said I to my confidential friend.
+
+"You had better bribe him to tell you," replied this ironical adviser.
+
+But nothing happened until morning, when a woman, the concierge of the
+house I live in, knocked at the door and asked if it would be convenient
+for me to pay my rent that day: it would oblige the proprietor. This was an
+unusual request, the rent not being due for a week to come; but I counted
+out the necessary sum, and handing it to her went on with my preparations
+to go out. Still she remained, and when I turned to see what detained her,
+I saw her eyes fixed on the portrait.
+
+"It is so like my son," she said, observing my regard. "Monsieur has not
+had it long?"
+
+"No, a few days only."
+
+"My poor son was killed," she continued, wiping her eyes: "he was a mason
+and fell from a scaffolding. If he had only been contented to be a
+street-paver, as I begged him, he would never have fallen."
+
+"Blessed are the lowly-minded, for being already down they cannot fall!"
+This voiceless remark I made to my other self as a warning.
+
+"It is such a broken-up portrait that monsieur cannot want it. I would like
+to buy it for a little sum if monsieur would sell it. My poor son! That
+hole in the forehead especially looks like Jean when I saw him last." Here
+she covered her eyes.
+
+"How much did that one-eyed man give you to come and buy that portrait?"
+asked I, guessing that this was an envoy of Sticks.
+
+"He?" she said, confused: "it was no _he_." Then recovering herself:
+"Monsieur is mistaken if he thinks I would take a bribe;" after which the
+lady withdrew.
+
+"Was not my question well thought of?" asked I of my other self in triumph.
+
+"I think you are becoming a monomaniac," was his complimentary reply.
+
+The day passed uneventfully, although I still had a suspicion that I was
+watched, but I had no means of making it a certainty. When I returned home
+my first look was toward the portrait. It was still safe.
+
+At that moment there was a knock at the door. I opened it, and found there
+my washerwoman, or I should say my washerwoman's substitute, one whom I had
+never before seen. She was a bright, talkative little thing, a pearl of
+soapsuds, and said glibly that my usual attendant was ill, and she had come
+instead. I told her I was glad she had.
+
+While putting down her basket her brown eyes took in the whole of my room,
+and she remarked with a shiver, "What a sad home you live in!--gloomy, ugly
+little chamber."
+
+"Does your young man have a better one, my dear?"
+
+"You are not my confessor," she answered saucily.
+
+"I wish I were."
+
+"Let me be yours."
+
+"No objections."
+
+"Who is the _joli garcon_ you condemn to share with you this gloomy
+apartment?" She pointed to the portrait.
+
+"A dear friend of mine."
+
+"He looks as if he drank absinthe, and had broken his head on the pavement;
+nevertheless, I like him. Bring him to see me."
+
+"Willingly: when shall we call?"
+
+"As soon as possible: meanwhile I will carry this with me." She lightly
+jumped on a chair, took my portrait and retreated with it to the door,
+saying, "Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, No. 42, to-morrow."
+
+"Not so fast, please," said I, taking the canvas from her hand.
+
+"Stingy fellow! you might let me have it. He would be so much surprised
+when you brought him _chez moi_ to see it hanging on the wall. Give it to
+me;" and she held out her hand with a charming gesture.
+
+"No, no, my dear: you may come and see it here whenever you like, but here
+it must remain."
+
+I turned and hung it on its accustomed nail: when I looked again she was
+gone. Not even the sound of her foot on the stairs nor a moving shadow on
+the steps when I looked over the balustrade.
+
+"Either the world is going mad, or I am," I exclaimed.
+
+"You need not be in doubt which."
+
+"Any one would think it odd. Could she be the forlorn widow in search of
+the portrait of the husband of her youth?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Does old Sticks look as if he could play a practical joke?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Or my concierge?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Or my washerwoman?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And this radiant little bubble of soapsuds who was just here, what do you
+think of her?"
+
+But my other self, having nothing more to say, was sensible enough to keep
+silent, and we slept.
+
+In dreams the pretty washerwoman and the portrait became mixed
+inextricably. I believed she looked like the portrait--that she was the
+portrait; and when I awoke in the morning and saw the melancholy eyes
+hanging opposite my bed, I could not help exclaiming, "Pardi! she does look
+like him! It is true her eyes are brighter and her dimpled chin rounder;
+otherwise the faces are the same. And did she not invite me to the house
+from which the portrait had been brought? I must see her again--the sooner
+the better." With this I arose and hurriedly dressed, my other self
+protesting against my resolution the while; but as the physical power is
+all on my side, he was obliged to accompany me.
+
+We went to No. 42 Notre Dame de Lorette, and were met by the same
+disagreeable concierge that we had seen before. To my questions he answered
+that no washerwoman lived in the house, and when I insisted he exclaimed
+pathetically, "For Heaven's sake go away! I have a wife and six children."
+
+I was so impressed by this startling information that I ejaculated, "What a
+philanthropist!" whilst my inner self, who luckily has not the gift of
+speech, said, "What a fool!" Then I remembered that asking after a
+washerwoman in Paris without knowing her name was rather quixotic, and I
+went my way.
+
+During the day I still had the disagreeable sensation of being watched. Men
+appeared to be noticing me from alleys, street-corners and windows, and
+once I made a sale to an individual who I was sure observed me more than
+the lace he was purchasing. When I passed the shop in the evening, Sticks
+neither looked at me nor returned my salutation, and when I half stopped to
+examine a new piece of dilapidation on the sidewalk he whispered abruptly,
+"Move on, I beg of you: _your_ custom is not wanted here."
+
+Was it strange that a series of the wildest conjectures should fill my
+mind? It was just before the Franco-German war, when the whole of Paris was
+in a fever of excitement and every event seemed to predict a political
+crisis. But in what manner could I, a simple lace-selling clerk, be
+connected with it? This last reflection of course emanated from my
+plain-talking self, who would rather believe the whole world mad than that
+anything important should happen to me. I was "not made of the stuff that
+distinction loves," he said, and begged me not to think that the eyes of
+the Empire were upon me.
+
+As I entered the house I tried to question my concierge about the pretty
+girl who had brought home my clothes, but found my efforts useless. The
+woman said she knew nothing of my washerwoman, not even her name. I tried
+by describing the girl to get a more definite answer. She intimated that
+she would have little to do if she looked at every one going up or down the
+stairs; then burst into tears, and begged me to leave her--that she was
+dependent on her place for support; that her reputation was all she had;
+and more to the same effect, which I avoided by making a precipitate
+retreat.
+
+I rushed to my room and to my glass, eagerly scanning the reflection
+therein to see if any change in my appearance within the last few days
+could cause people thus to avoid me, suspect me, and treat me as if
+contaminated. It was the same insignificant face I had known from
+childhood, with what my other self called a "stupidly innocent expression."
+I next thought of examining the portrait, taking it from the wall for this
+purpose. It was certainly modern: the slightest acquaintance with art
+settled this beyond doubt. (I must here acknowledge that my second self is
+rather a cultivated man; his discrimination has often been praised by the
+members of our firm; and it is owing to his delicate taste that I have been
+sent several times to Belgium to make large purchases of lace for our
+house; therefore I could rely on his judgment in this matter.) But might it
+not conceal another? I held it between me and the light, and could see
+through it, not only where there were holes, but everywhere between the
+interstices of the thinly-painted, badly-made canvas. I turned the back:
+there was nothing but the name of the seller stamped upon it: it was not
+likely he would remember who had bought this particular article. There was
+no frame, and I detached the cloth from the stretcher, that nothing might
+escape me. Not the slightest clew--no bit of paper, message or token. I put
+back the tacks, and was hanging my unsolved puzzle on the wall when I heard
+a knock at the door.
+
+This time it was my _bona-fide_ washerwoman, who came for the soiled
+clothes the other in her hasty retreat had forgotten, and as she gathered
+them together I carelessly asked after the fair unknown.
+
+"She is my niece," was the reply.
+
+"Does she live with you?"
+
+"No: she lives in the country."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"What is her name?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+By this time the dame ended her task by tying the clothes in a bundle, and
+seemed in haste to be off.
+
+"Is it not rather strange that you should know neither your niece's name
+nor where she lives?"
+
+"I don't care," she said, defiantly resting a hand on either hip: "I will
+have nothing more to do with it." Here the bundle at her feet received a
+kick which sent it spinning over the floor, and she would have left the
+room had I not stood in her way.
+
+"Why did you begin it?" I asked quickly, seeing here a chance of solving
+the mystery.
+
+"She would take no refusal; and besides, she gave me twenty francs."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Merely to allow her to carry home your wash. I hope you found nothing
+missing?"
+
+"Nothing. But listen: I will give you another twenty francs if you tell me
+all you know about her."
+
+"Make it thirty," she said eagerly.
+
+"It shall be thirty."
+
+"The young girl--"
+
+"The brown-eyed one who brought my wash?"
+
+"Yes. She came to my house on Friday last. Madame Trois, your concierge,
+had given her my address. The girl said she must see you in your room, and
+must have an excuse for going there--all for a bit of fun. But Madame Trois
+told me to-day that it was a picture she wanted, for she gave her fifty
+francs the day before for trying to get it, and promised her as much more
+as it might cost if you should consent to sell it. When Madame Trois
+failed, the girl asked what other woman went to your room, and she sent her
+to me."
+
+"Then she is no niece of yours?"
+
+"If I had a niece she would not be running about alone in that way; but the
+girl said if you should question me I must tell you she is my niece, and
+give her any name I pleased. As if I did not have enough trouble naming my
+own children without puzzling over one for her! especially when she gave me
+but twenty francs, and Madame Trois throwing it in my teeth that she got
+fifty! I am even with her now;" and she held out her hand for the money
+with the pose of a malignant Victory.
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"All about her, but Madame Trois says there is something wrong, for the
+house is watched by the police."
+
+"Police!"
+
+"Yes. Madame Trois is up to their tricks. Her husband that is dead was a
+policeman, and she says those that don't dress in uniform are the worst."
+
+"Madame Trois says a great deal; for instance, she told me she knew nothing
+about the girl, nor of you either, not even your name," I remarked.
+
+"_She_ was paid enough not to tell; besides, she is dreadfully afraid of
+the police; and no wonder. Such a dance as her husband led her! though I
+must say she deserved it. We have been friends for years."
+
+I saw there was nothing more to gain, so I paid the woman and dismissed
+her, while my two selves both talked at once, making a distracting duet
+that nearly set me wild.
+
+Here was confirmation of my worst fears. I was under suspicion, for what
+cause I knew not, but the picture must be in some way connected with it.
+Had the portrait been stolen, and did its possession implicate me in the
+theft? Yet who would care to recover so worthless a thing? Should I destroy
+it and thus end the ravel? No, if innocent why should I fear? and was not
+this the only connecting link between me and the brown-eyed girl who
+strangely resembled it?
+
+"Come what will, the picture shall be preserved," I exclaimed finally.
+
+Nevertheless, my night was restless, and the day following it more so. I
+went about my business distraught, mixing the distinctions between Alencon
+and Chantilly, and not having even the poor satisfaction of quarrelling
+with my confidant, who now kept up a moody silence. I was glad when evening
+came that I might be free to think, but evening brought a new complication.
+
+On entering the Rue St. Lazare, I saw a person who in the shadow of a
+porte-cochere appeared to await me. As I passed him he leaned forward and
+placed in my hand a packet wrapped and rewrapped with twine, whispering,
+"For the cause." Then I recognized the shock-headed boy from the
+furniture-shop. I was too much surprised at this to notice, as I should
+otherwise have done, two men who at this moment seemed to start from the
+darkness and keep near me until I reached my door. There they seized me by
+the arms, and before I could think of resistance had placed me in a cab
+standing in readiness.
+
+We drove very quietly along the street until we stopped at what I found to
+be the police head-quarters. I omitted to say that one of my captors had
+grasped my hand holding the packet when he first seized me. This man never
+relaxed his grasp during our ride, nor while descending from the cab, nor
+while we threaded a long corridor leading to an antechamber; and when we
+finally stood before a person who appeared to be high in authority he still
+retained my hand. Thus I had no chance of getting rid of what I feared
+might be my ruin.
+
+"Confront the prisoner," ordered the high personage briefly.
+
+"I am here," replied one of my captors, whom I now recognized as the same
+individual to whom I had sold lace two days before.
+
+"What is your charge?"
+
+"This man is suspected of being connected with a secret society the
+principles of which are inimical to the Empire."
+
+"Have you any proofs?"
+
+"I saw him receive a secret communication to-night: it is here." With this
+he raised my hand.
+
+"Stand forward."
+
+I moved toward the light, while the officer unclosed my fingers, to which I
+offered no resistance. There lay the packet enclosed with its many cords.
+
+"What does it contain?" asked the great man.
+
+"I have not ventured to touch it," answered he at my right obsequiously.
+
+"Cut the cords."
+
+This was done amid profound silence: my anxiety may be imagined as I
+awaited the result. There was as much wrapping-paper as string, and when
+the last fold had been carefully undone it revealed--two large sous. I
+breathed more freely.
+
+There was a pause of blank amazement on the part of the officials, a
+whispered conference, and the paper was held to the light, heated by the
+fire, and examined with a glass, without result. The sous were handled in
+the same manner, and finally their date and description were written in a
+book; after which came an order in the same quiet tone that had been used
+before: "Search the prisoner."
+
+In five minutes more all the clothing upon me had been cut into shreds and
+minutely examined: even my hat did not escape, and my watch was opened. Of
+course nothing was found, but that did not alter the fact that my best suit
+of clothes was a heap of ruins. My pocket-book was turned inside out, and
+my passport, that I always carry with me, it being often necessary to start
+on my employers' business at a moment's notice, received a great deal of
+attention. At last other clothes nearly identical with those I had lost
+were handed me, and when I donned them I was given a hat; my pocket-book,
+passport and watch were returned; and the conductor of ceremonies begged my
+pardon for the slight (he called it _slight_) trouble he had occasioned me,
+said he found the suspicions of my accuser unfounded, and ordered him to
+"conduct the gentleman to his residence;" which was accordingly done.
+
+When there, I could neither read nor sleep, and to escape the tormenting
+round of questions and answers that brought no solution to the mystery
+surrounding me, I resolved to spend the evening at the theatre. I went to
+the Francais. It was useless: the dialogue unremittingly kept up between my
+two selves prevented my hearing that on the stage.
+
+My eyes were wandering in dreamy abstraction over the mass of faces partly
+turned toward me during the entr'acte, when I was suddenly roused to full
+consciousness by recognizing in one of them the features of my portrait.
+The man was regarding me as if waiting to catch my eye: when he saw by my
+start of surprise that he had succeeded, he made a movement with his lips
+and turned away. In a moment he was lost in the crowd.
+
+My inner self, who always doubts the evidence of the senses, suggested that
+it was a mistake. "Would this person, even were he the original of the
+portrait, know you or make you a sign?" said he, adding thereto other
+arguments, which, though I emphatically disbelieved, I was too agitated to
+contradict.
+
+I tried to remain during the second act, hoping to verify my first
+impression, but after twisting my neck in order to look behind, and
+straining my eyes in front, receiving angry glances and "'Sh! 'sh!" from my
+neighbors, annoyed by these movements, I concluded to leave.
+
+Close to the Fountain Moliere I thought I heard footsteps following me:
+there was one pair besides my own in the street. I listened to them for
+some time, and finally they seemed to regulate themselves with mine.
+
+"'Tis the police!" I confided to my other self.
+
+"Always fearful," was his reply.
+
+"You can be very cool: _you_ have no neck in danger."
+
+"I am happy to say _my_ ideas need not be influenced by such paltry
+considerations. In fact, you are a coward!"
+
+"You are a fool!" I returned.
+
+At this desperate juncture the quarrel fortunately ended by its object
+coming nearer and in a deep musical voice saying, "Good-evening, friend."
+
+"Good-evening," I answered gruffly.
+
+"You don't appear to know me."
+
+He took a shabby cap from his head and turned his face: a chill ran through
+me when in the dim street-light I recognized my portrait, moving, speaking,
+living. A black patch above the brow made me wonder if the wound it
+concealed passed through the head, as did that in the picture, and his eyes
+were more brilliant and eager than the painted ones, with their pathetic
+look changed to one of defiance, as if a devil had taken possession of
+those beautiful features. For a moment superstition kept me silent, then I
+said briefly, "I don't know you."
+
+"Allow me to introduce myself--Favart the International. You are delighted
+to make my acquaintance, no doubt. Calm your transports: time does not
+admit of them. We start for Belgium to-night."
+
+"Who start?" I asked, now thinking the man a maniac.
+
+"I, you, all of us."
+
+"I am none of you."
+
+"But you are suspected of being, which is worse, much worse. Hold! I will
+sketch your position accurately. Let us enter this cabaret: it is kept by
+one of us." I followed him mechanically, and when we were seated in a dark
+corner, with some wine he called for before us, he continued: "I divide the
+sketch into three heads, historical, personal and political. There is a
+theory called Socialism--a people called Socialists, or Chartists, or
+Communists: they have different names in different countries. You may have
+heard of them in the past: you shall hear more of them in the future. They
+have a good organization and magnificent sympathies."
+
+"But you called yourself an International."
+
+"Just so. Socialism is the idea, Internationalism is its result. And now
+the historic is mingled with the personal. This society was lately
+meditating a _coup:_ it was necessary to have meetings, and we had to
+devise a signal for rallying. I submitted one to the committee, which was
+unanimously adopted as simple yet efficient. My portrait--I was not then
+sufficiently known to make it suspicious--was to stand outside the door of
+the shop where you found it on the days when a meeting would be held. The
+old furniture-dealer is one of us: so is the concierge of No. 42 Notre Dame
+de Lorette. About a week ago the former came to me in distress, saying the
+portrait had been sold in his absence: he did not even know to whom. I told
+him it must be recovered at all hazards, as it would cause great
+inconvenience and loss of time to fix on another signal. The next day you
+were supposed to have it through the inquiries you made at No. 42, where
+you frightened the concierge nearly out of his wits, he taking you for a
+spy. He immediately informed his friend the furniture-dealer that the
+police were on our track, and when told of the sale of the picture said you
+must have it. However, they did not dare bring mere conjectures to me: they
+watched and waited. On the third day after you passed the shop: the dealer
+knew you through the concierge's description, inveigled you in, and easily
+obtained the information he wanted about the picture, but failed to gain
+possession of it. Then Sidonia took the matter in hand--Sidonia always
+helps us out of a difficulty--but her attempts also failed, though she
+discovered not only that you were no spy, but that you were yourself under
+suspicion. The police were following us closely: they had found out the use
+we made of the portrait, which rendered its recovery profitless to us. I
+resolved to drop both you and it. Shortly after I perceived that it would
+be necessary for us to leave the city, and you being implicated, Sidonia
+insisted on my warning you before we went, though, as you do not belong to
+us, I could see no use in it."
+
+"So, then, it was not the dealer's boy who informed on me?"
+
+"No: he gave a description calculated to mislead. I believe he has by
+listening gained some half truths, and thinks _you_ are an International:
+it was for that cause he gave you the packet which brought you into trouble
+this evening. Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"How do you know I have been in trouble?"
+
+"Through one of our spies in the police service: he was present at your
+examination, and was detailed to watch you to-night. He told me of your
+being at the theatre; hence my opportunity of speaking to you. I can say no
+more: the political part of my sketch you have had a specimen of at the
+police-station to-night; if you stay you are likely to see more. Believe
+me, they only liberated you so politely in order, by watching you, to find
+your companions. To-morrow, after we are gone, there will be discoveries
+made through this same agent of ours in their employ. As they are already
+on our track, we take this method to gain their confidence for our man. If
+you fancy another examination by the police, remain."
+
+"But I am innocent!"
+
+"Unfortunately, you are. You know absolutely nothing with which to buy your
+liberty. What I have told you will be of no service: it will be already
+theirs. If you wish to go to Belgium ask at No. 33 Rue Lafitte for a
+travelling suit: you will receive one like mine."
+
+He looked down at his heavy shoes, soiled overalls and tattered blouse,
+then touching the latter with his fingers, continued: "I use it now for a
+disguise, but the day will come when this blouse will be our standard--the
+laborer shall possess the earth. He who works shall live, and idleness,
+with the riches that foster it, will end. Necessities shall be plenty and
+luxuries unattainable. Palaces shall fall to give material for poor men's
+dwellings; monuments that glorify one man at the expense of his brothers
+must disappear; and churches, promises of another world, can no longer
+trick us out of our share, our birthright, in this. Paris will arise a new
+and better Sparta. Sparta, great mother of communes! I salute you!
+Leonidas! Favart aspires to eclipse your glory! Not for one nation does he
+labor, but for humanity--for the workers of the world, whose rightful dues
+are filched from them by the drones. Nature resents this wrong: the drones
+must die."
+
+He had risen as he pronounced these words, low but rapidly: a moment he
+stood before me, his face glowing, his hand clenched, then his expression
+rapidly changed, and he said briefly, "It is a time for action, not for
+words. Good-night!"
+
+A conflagration, an electric spark, was this shabby man, and I could easily
+believe what I afterward heard of his influence with the people.
+
+He left me with my mind more perplexed than ever. What had been the _coup_
+these people were meditating, in which I, in the eyes of the police, was
+implicated? Murder? Treason? Arson? Nothing was beyond them with their
+magnificent sympathies. Perhaps this might be my only chance of escape;
+yet in doing so did I not cast my lot with theirs? should I not make myself
+doubly suspected? Embarrassing questions, to which neither self was ready
+with an answer. There was the prospect, too, of losing my situation if I
+remained long away, but in opposition to this practical consideration was
+the remembrance of my air-bath and the doubt about my future if I remained.
+In this chaos of thought can you guess what decided me? It was Favart's
+words: "We are all going." Did not _we_ include her whom he called Sidonia,
+who had visited my room and had insisted I should be warned? Yes.
+
+Not in disguise: I was in no humor to complicate the situation. Having my
+passport in my pocket, and knowing the policeman who was watching me would
+not prevent my flight, I simply walked to the station and took a
+first-class ticket to Brussels. First class, for I knew the man in the
+blouse must travel third, and I was anxious to be as far from him as
+possible.
+
+I reached the frontier in safety. My examination ended, the officer turned
+to my only travelling companion, a lady who up to this time appeared to
+have been sleeping. As he threw the light of his lantern into her face I
+also looked at her. Good Heavens! could I be mistaken? The hair, it is
+true, was blond, and the dress a robe of deep mourning, but the eyes were
+the eyes of my portrait, the eyes of Favart, the eyes of my pretty
+washerwoman--Sidonia! The ordeal passed, the door shut, the train moved on.
+
+"Have I your permission to speak, mademoiselle?" I asked in an agitated
+voice.
+
+"If you wish, monsieur." She turned toward me a sad, tear-stained face that
+well suited her mourning.
+
+"You are suffering: you have been weeping. Has anything occurred? Why this
+dress?"
+
+"Nothing has occurred _yet_," she answered, trying to smile. "The danger
+for my brother is over once more. This dress is simply a disguise. God
+grant I may not soon be wearing it in token of sorrow!"
+
+"Is Favart your brother?" I asked eagerly.
+
+"Yes, my only one. I cannot bear to lose him. And you too have become
+implicated: it seemed as if Fate led you on."
+
+I did not dare tell her how I felt that any fate was blessed that brought
+me to know her, to see her again. The thrill I experienced at this
+unexpected meeting revealed to me the strength of my feelings.
+
+"In a few days I think matters will be arranged so that you can return to
+Paris," she went on, "but I thought it best for you to be absent at first.
+I hope it will not put you to inconvenience. What do you do?"
+
+I told her my employment, not without wishing it was higher, but she said
+sweetly, "I am glad you are a working-man: your hands are so white I feared
+you were an idler."
+
+"You endorse your brother's principles, mademoiselle? You too are a
+Socialist?"
+
+"I honor labor--any and all kinds of labor. They say they admire it, but do
+they work? Ah no! Once my Charles was different. We come of laboring
+people. Our father owned a few fields, which we cultivated ourselves. I
+kept the dairy and assisted in harvest and at the vintage. Those were happy
+days. The good cure taught us to read and write, and lent my brother books,
+but Charles has forgotten his kindness. He was discontented even then, and
+would throw stones at the park-wall that surrounded the chateau near our
+property, and scowl at the little marquises as they passed us on horseback
+when we were afoot."
+
+"How did you come to Paris?" I asked, seeing that in her present state of
+excitement speaking relieved her.
+
+"Our parents died: my brother had a taste for painting, and wished to go to
+Paris and study. Monsieur le cure had given him some lessons and was proud
+of his talent: he counselled me to accompany Charles, and came with us to
+get me a place in a shop and recommend Charles to an artist of his
+acquaintance; and yet Charles says the cures are not our friends! The rent
+of our fields, with what I received, supported us. We had two little rooms
+and lived together, Charles and I. He made such rapid progress! The
+portrait you bought he painted at my request in the evening, while I sewed
+beside him. We were so happy. O mon Dieu! why could it not have lasted?"
+
+She covered her face with her hands and burst into tears, but only for a
+moment: before I could think what to say to comfort her she was again
+speaking: "I do not often weep, but this dress depresses me: it is
+ill-omened."
+
+"Do not think so: you are tired, over-wrought, to-night. The danger is
+past, and maybe you can persuade your brother to return to his art, and
+happier days will come."
+
+"Impossible! When he first joined the society I tried in vain. Now he
+belongs to it heart and soul. He has set an example of communism by selling
+our land and giving the proceeds to the cause, and he now lives on
+contributions, which he is not ashamed to take, because he believes that
+what the earth produces is common to all, and he only receives his rightful
+share."
+
+"But you also belong--is it not so?"
+
+"When I found he would not return I followed: we could not be separated."
+
+"And you share all his danger?"
+
+"All," she answered firmly. "Danger shared is lessened, you know. Where he
+is, I am. But I wished to speak of your affairs. I forgot myself: sorrow is
+selfish. You must write to your employers and give some explanation of your
+absence: in a week at furthest I trust you will be able to return without
+annoyance. I will see that information which will exculpate you is given to
+the authorities. And, as far as my brother and myself are concerned, I know
+from your face I can trust you."
+
+I would sooner have had my homely features at that moment than those of
+Apollo. When I arrived in Brussels I wrote to my employers, as she
+requested, but after excusing my sudden departure I begged them to
+recommend me to some firm in that city, for I resolved not to leave until I
+had offered Sidonia the protection of a husband. The answer to my letter
+was most favorable. I had the pleasure of showing it to Sidonia and telling
+her my plans, from which she tried to dissuade me with all the eloquence in
+her power.
+
+"We are dangerous acquaintance, dangerous friends and dangerous enemies.
+The sooner we fade from your life the better," she said; but I would not
+listen.
+
+The happiest month of my life I spent in Brussels. I found employment: I
+saw Sidonia every day, and if possible admired her hourly more. She had a
+quick judgment, born of the experience she had gained through the part she
+took in her brother's affairs. She knew whom to trust, and I am happy to
+say she trusted me; but, though frank, I never again saw the manner she had
+adopted when she came to my room: inclining naturally to be gay, she was
+always dignified. Once I ventured to apologize for the way I had spoken to
+her during that visit.
+
+"My behavior gave rise to it," she answered. "I was obliged to act a part.
+But you gentlemen should have more respect for those poor girls whose daily
+wants often expose them to insult."
+
+"After a man loves one good woman he learns to respect all women for her
+sake. You have taught me that lesson."
+
+She taught me much more, my wise, my sensible Sidonia. With the example of
+her busy hands and the advocacy of her sweet lips my second self was
+brought to recognize the beauty and nobility of honest toil. Favart's life
+afforded an illustration of how the most exalted opinions can lead a man
+astray; and he humbly confessed that had my course been modelled according
+to his views, I should not now be able to offer Sidonia a home, which he
+heartily approved of my doing. I in turn acknowledged that I owed much in
+the estimation of my darling to his cultivation. I saw that she respected
+his acquirements, and that his longest conversations were agreeable to her;
+while had I been left with only the merits of lace to expatiate upon I
+should have failed to please.
+
+But with my love my fears for her increased. Favart was seldom at home--now
+in England, now in Germany, now in Italy. What new scheme was he
+meditating? what new danger was he recklessly preparing for his sister?
+Tormented by misgivings, I resolved to make an effort to turn him from his
+course, and, failing in that, to gain his consent to a speedy marriage
+between me and Sidonia. Knowing his egotism, I approached him with a
+compliment: "Sidonia tells me you are the painter of the portrait that
+brought me into trouble: from its merit I should venture to predict great
+things of your future."
+
+"Your prediction is likely to be fulfilled, but my fame will rest on
+something more profitable to humanity than painting."
+
+"Do you never intend to paint again?" I ventured.
+
+"Never: my time is employed in nobler work."
+
+"Do you ever think of the danger you incur? do you ever count the suffering
+to others you may cause in attaining your object?"
+
+"I think of success!" As he said these words the devil in his eyes flashed
+a triumphant glance, and I noticed for the first time the change for the
+worse that a few weeks had made in him. His face was haggard, his movements
+were restless: a life of constant excitement was telling on mind and body.
+
+"And your sister?"
+
+"She is worthy of me. With a mind fertile in resources she has an undaunted
+courage: we could not do without her. Twice she has saved my life, and once
+her address turned away the police from a meeting where there would have
+been at least twenty of our leading men arrested had they found us."
+
+"And you never think of the danger she is exposed to? You never realize
+what an improper, what a cruel position it is in which to place a young and
+beautiful girl--you who are her natural protector? Listen to me, I beseech
+you: leave this life before it is too late; spare yourself, spare her;
+return to the ambition that made you happy before this frenzy seized you.
+I know now of some lace designs you could get to make: it would be a
+beginning, and--"
+
+"Lace designs!" he interrupted, contemptuously. "He seeks to bind a man's
+ambition with _lace_! he would stifle the breath of purpose with _lace_! he
+would swaddle a sublime project in _lace_, until it is as weak as his own
+courage, as petty as his own soul! The noble idea!"
+
+"I suppose it is nobler to live on contributions," I answered hotly.
+
+"I take but my own. Nature provides enough for all if we behave as children
+of one parent and divide her bounty."
+
+"Live as you please, run what risks you like, but spare your sister."
+
+"That is, give her to you," he sneered.
+
+"Yes, give her to me. I love her: _my_ ambition will be to protect her. I
+ask for none better. And surely if you are not utterly selfish, when in
+peril you will be glad to know of her safety. Give her to me."
+
+"Never! never! never! I waste time in talking to you. Your understanding is
+less even than I thought, but if Sidonia likes to have a tame cat about to
+amuse her leisure, I have no objections. As for a marriage with you,
+neither she nor I would think of it." So saying, with his usual abrupt
+manner he left me.
+
+I made a passionate appeal to Sidonia. "Be my wife and leave the
+Internationals," I said. "What is the use of your sacrificing yourself for
+principles in which you do not believe? It is true, I can only offer you
+safety and love."
+
+"Safety?" she repeated sadly. "Could it include my brother I would ask
+Heaven for no other blessing."
+
+I begged, I pleaded, I argued, but to all she answered, "Who will save him
+if I am absent?"
+
+I was obliged to wait and hope.
+
+Now came the war, when disaster followed disaster until the Germans had
+completed the investment of Paris: then she begged me to go.
+
+"Your country needs you: join the army of the Loire and do what you can to
+help it. You have been with us too long: already it would be difficult to
+make people believe that you do not belong to us. But if you serve
+suspicion will be averted. For my sake, go!"
+
+"For your sake I stay."
+
+"You are mistaken: if I need your protection you will be in a better
+position to give it by going than by staying."
+
+"If you need my protection, will you let me give it?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"The protection of my name, the protection of a husband?"
+
+"Yes, the protection of a husband."
+
+It was an invention of her goodness, my darling! Knowing the monstrous plot
+the Socialists were meditating, she wished me to be absent. And I went,
+regretting only our present separation and fearing nothing for the future.
+
+I was defeated with Motterouge, and afterward fought with D'Aurelle and
+Chanzy until hostilities ceased. On the third of March Paris was evacuated
+by the Germans, and fifteen days after followed the revolt of the Commune.
+Heaven only knows how I suffered during that time. I would have given my
+life to know she was safe: I would have risked it by deserting could I have
+hoped to find and protect her. But had she not said, "Where he is, I am"?
+and would not Favart be in the thickest of the fight? Oh cruel necessity!
+My best chance of meeting her was at the point of the bayonet with the
+troops.
+
+Fort Valerien was taken: we entered Paris, and like a living web encircled
+the insurgents. Step by step they retreated, step by step we followed: we
+could not miss the way; ruin and blood marked their path.
+
+On the twenty-sixth of May but one barricade remained standing. I was in
+the front rank when the order was given to charge on it, and amid smoke and
+noise and the glare of burning buildings we obeyed. There I saw Favart:
+almost face to face we met. His eyes the color of blood and starting from
+his head, his nostrils distended, his face livid, his hair and moustache
+bristling with rage, his hoarse voice shouting commands, he stood
+indifferent to danger, fighting like a wild beast, furious as a madman. A
+moment, and then, a bullet entering his forehead, he fell, and a woman's
+shriek rang on the air.
+
+Oh for the strength of a thousand men! oh for wings! oh for power! Might my
+whole life be contained in that moment could I but save her! Suddenly the
+street, the barricade, the houses on either side, trembled, heaved and
+leapt into the air. A tremendous explosion, with flame and debris, forced
+what remained of us to retreat--forced also the poor remnant of our enemy
+to surrender. A cordon was formed around the quarter, so that none escaped.
+Wounded, blackened, bleeding, torn, they crawled by, and she was among
+them, my darling, my angel--among those shameless women, those hardened
+men!
+
+I could not save her, tried, convicted and sentenced at Versailles, my
+beautiful, innocent Sidonia. I wrote letters; my perseverance gained me
+admission to the highest authorities; I prayed, I wept, I pleaded, but the
+name of Favart closed every avenue to pity. The most active, the most
+cruel, the most merciless in the Commune, foremost in destruction,
+indefatigable in barbarity, her brother, the shadow of her life, was the
+cause of her death.
+
+I heard the sentence pronounced, "Transportation for life:" it did not seem
+to move her. Wan, her once neat dress in disorder, a shadow of her former
+self, she sat immovable. Once I met her eye, but she did not recognize me:
+only when the wind accidentally blew back the torn sleeve from her white
+arm I saw a moment's consciousness, and she blushed as she replaced it.
+Haply, she was deaf to the cries of "Petroleuse!" and shouts of imprecation
+that met her as she was taken through the crowd; but what fearful suffering
+must that sensitive mind have endured before its faculties were thus
+benumbed!
+
+I gained one slight concession: I was permitted to write one letter to her
+before she was sent away. I begged her not to lose hope that after the
+first excitement was over I might gain for her a commutation of the
+sentence--to have courage and trust me. I received no answer. I do not even
+know if her condition permitted her to receive one ray of comfort from my
+love: I only know she died. She never reached Cayenne. The transport-ship
+was her deathbed, and the ocean my martyr's grave.
+
+But I cannot die. Memory, the portrait, and I live together--the portrait
+at once recalling the angel, the devil, the joy, the sorrow of my life. Yet
+let me not curse him: he was her brother, and she loved him. I would not
+vex my Sidonia in heaven.
+
+ITA ANIOL PROKOP.
+
+
+
+
+"GOD'S POOR."
+
+    Who are "God's poor"?
+      Not they alone who stand
+      With empty, pleading hand
+    At Dives' door
+      (Thou mayst be sure
+      Such only are _man's_ poor);
+    But they who therein stay,
+      And every soul deny
+      That lifts its needy cry.
+    "God's poor"--ay, _poorest_ they!
+
+                  E. R. CHAMPLIN
+
+
+
+
+DAYS OF MY YOUTH.
+
+
+The life depicted in the Waverley novels seems to me scarcely more remote
+than that in Virginia before the war. As is well known, the land, the
+wealth, the influence, the education were possessed by comparatively few
+families; and I think there has never been so much happiness enjoyed by any
+other community or class of people in this country as those families
+enjoyed for generations. Whatever may be said of their social system--and I
+am aware that it was not the best--it was perfect of its kind. From their
+point of view, everything was as it should be, always excepting the acts of
+one or the other party in politics. Life was made easy, and such exacting
+cares and responsibilities as could not be honorably evaded were met
+without friction, without struggle, without question. Beyond the observance
+of a few perfectly-defined habits and customs we did not feel it necessary
+to wander in search of social law. What a vast amount of the worry that
+perplexes too many other people we escaped! What does the world think? what
+will people say? whom shall we recognize? how do we appear?--such
+questions, that bring so many of my sex to premature gray hairs, disturbed
+us not. If one's standing was what it should be, all Virginia knew it; and
+that was the end of it. If one's standing was not what it should be, all
+Virginia knew that; and there, again, was the end of it. It is not easy for
+ladies reared under less settled conditions to realize how much this
+heritage meant to us. We loved our time-honored pleasures; we loved our
+friends; we loved the old homes and old ways in which our ancestors,
+undisturbed by the restlessness of the North and West, had lived and died
+before us; we loved our State.
+
+To voluntarily put all this behind me after the meridian of life was
+passed; to take poverty for my companion and go forth into a world I had
+never seen; to send an only son to fight against the traditions, the
+kindred, the State that were so dear,--what this cost may Heaven spare the
+women of the North from ever knowing! _They_ could hope and pray for the
+preservation of what they cherished and for the destruction of what they
+condemned. But the Southern woman who was loyal, view it as she would,
+could but hope and pray for the destruction of what she loved. Looking back
+now on those dreadful days, sorrowing for the sad necessities of the case,
+I can but thank God for the fortitude and insight with which He then
+endowed me, for the result that at length justified my trust, and put away
+all other recollections of the later time as something too painful to dwell
+upon even in thought. The Virginia that shall live in my memory is one that
+is gone for ever.
+
+Living as we did on a spur of the Blue Ridge, in the most salubrious part
+of the State, one would have thought there was no necessity for going
+elsewhere during the hot months. But my mother, near half a century ago,
+thought differently. About the first of July we always started on what I
+used to call, when a girl, our "pilgrimage." In an old-fashioned coach,
+round as an apple and lifted high in the air--which in my childish fancy
+was ever associated with the one the fairy made from Cinderella's
+pumpkin--with a fat old coachman, and horses as fat and lazy as he, we
+would make the distance of twenty miles a day. We accomplished about half
+this in the cool morning, stopping at some country tavern during the heat
+of the day, and driving another ten miles amid the shades of evening.
+Behind us, at a respectful distance, trundled our baggage-wagon. We had
+relations in every county, as all true Virginians were bound to have; and
+we would tarry for days with them on our journeys, with as little regard to
+reaching a definite place at a definite time as if a thousand years
+remained to us.
+
+One of these summer jaunts, when I was a girl, on which I first saw Mr.
+Madison, is particularly impressed on my memory. We sojourned several days
+at his lovely seat, Montpelier, Mrs. Madison being an old friend of my
+mother's. The venerable ex-President was then much emaciated, and I thought
+was failing rapidly. He lay most of the time on a couch in the middle of
+the room adjoining the dining-room, wrapped in a black silk dressing-gown
+elaborately quilted, and did not look larger than a boy of thirteen. At
+dinner the first day I was attacked by ague, and Mrs. Madison, leading me
+into the next room, placed me on his couch. I awoke an hour or two after in
+a high fever, and the look of his face which has outlived all others in my
+recollection is that of amusement which lighted the wan features on
+beholding the expression of bewilderment and confusion which overspread
+mine as I opened my eyes, half delirious, and found him lying beside me.
+
+In her long talks with us on this occasion Mrs. Madison told many incidents
+of her life in Philadelphia and Washington. The two following are in her
+own words, as nearly as I can repeat them: "One day in Philadelphia," she
+said, "I was sitting in my parlor with a very dear friend, Mrs. R. B. Lee,
+when in walked Payne Todd [her son] dressed in my calico bed-gown. While we
+were laughing at the figure he cut, the servant threw open the door and
+announced General and Mrs. Washington. What to do with that dreadful boy I
+didn't know. He could not face the President in that garb. Neither could he
+leave the room without meeting them, for the door they were entering was
+the only one. I made him crawl quickly under a low, broad settee on which I
+was sitting. I had just time to arrange the drapery when the Washingtons
+entered. After the courtly greeting and the usual compliments of the
+season, there came from under the settee a heavy sigh, which evidently
+attracted the general's notice. However, I only talked and laughed a little
+louder, hoping to divert his attention, when--oh me!--there came an outcry
+and a kick that could not be ignored. So I stooped down and dragged Payne
+out by the leg. General Washington's dignity left him for once. Laugh? why
+he fairly roared! He nearly went into convulsions. The sight of that boy in
+that gown, all so unexpected, coming wrong end first from under my
+seat,--it was too much."
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Madison would in private sometimes romp and tease each other
+like two children, and engage in antics that would astonish the muse of
+History. Mrs. Madison was stronger as well as larger than he. She
+could--and did--seize his hands, draw him upon her back and go round the
+room with him whenever she particularly wished to impress him with a due
+sense of man's inferiority. Speaking of their flight from Washington on the
+24th of August, 1814, she said: "After Mr. Madison had left the White House
+for Fairfax, I busied myself in gathering up the little things I prized and
+packing them in the carriage, which stood ready at the door. I had placed a
+servant at the gate to warn me of the approach of the English troops. I had
+just left the sitting-room with a cup and saucer which had belonged to
+Marie Antoinette when in rushed my sentinel. After securing the portrait of
+Washington, and getting that into the carriage, I jumped in myself, and
+away we went for the Chain Bridge. I was dreadfully frightened, and
+expected to be pursued. We drove as fast as we could without breaking the
+carriage to pieces. I looked out of the back window, thinking I might see
+what was going on in Washington; and, sure enough, to my horror there was a
+British officer galloping after us at full speed, followed by some
+soldiers. I was so alarmed that I opened the door and sprang into the road.
+I had no bonnet--only a purple turban--on my head, and my face, I knew, was
+red as a poppy. In my excitement I thought I could run faster than the
+carriage. The officer passed me, wheeled suddenly, bowed low, and asked me
+if he saw Mrs. Madison, the President's lady, at the same time placing his
+hand in the bosom of his coat. I inclined my head, expecting that he would
+draw forth nothing less than a pistol. But it was a package instead of a
+pistol that he offered, saying, 'I was requested to place this in your
+hands by Lady ---- of England, and finding you had just left your
+residence, I questioned your servants and took the liberty of following
+you.' He turned with a low bow, and was gone, leaving me overwhelmed with
+mortification."
+
+The seat that inspired _Swallow Barn_ was the home of my aunt. John P.
+Kennedy was her nephew and my cousin. In its main features the book is
+singularly true, as an artist would say, in its effects. The prominent
+character of Mr. Tracy is almost a literal portrait. To me, so familiar
+with the real scenes, there seemed an appearance of rather too much
+restraint, as if the conscientious author felt too constantly the fear that
+his hand, gentle as it was, might transgress the laws of hospitality and
+decorum. This feeling on my part arose, no doubt, from the single fact that
+I did know the reality, and thus knew many episodes that would have made
+the sketches richer to us giddy young people of that jolly household, but
+which did not commend themselves to the practised writer. He took pains to
+place Swallow Barn on the lower James. But it was west of the Blue Ridge,
+in Jefferson county. The mother of Kennedy was a very beautiful and highly
+accomplished woman. She was known among her friends as "Kennedy's angel."
+She excelled particularly in music, always tuning her piano herself, and
+giving her preference to the works of Mozart. Here at her sister's, Mrs.
+Dandridge's--at "Swallow Barn," as we may now call it--she and Kennedy's
+father passed their later years, and here many of Cousin John's happiest
+days were spent. He always retained his boyish love of fun. He and
+Washington Irving would come up to the old place together, and then beware!
+No one escaped their mischief. They spared neither age, sex nor previous
+condition. Such pranks, such absurdities, such good-natured deviltry, as
+reigned supreme till they were gone! During harvest they would take their
+seats under the trees with the hands at the long dinner-tables, and
+assiduously bottle up quaint sayings and odd doings for future use.
+
+One adventure in particular, which I think is not alluded to in _Swallow
+Barn_, should have formed a chapter there. Kennedy himself was the
+ringleader, and his wife's father the victim. The old gentleman was
+expected to arrive on a certain day, as a visitor, from Baltimore. It was
+not long after Nat Turner's insurrection, and he had conceived an
+exaggerated idea of the affair. He was a little timid, in consequence,
+about travelling into Virginia alone at that particular time. John knew
+that his father-in-law was decidedly "nervous" on the subject. So he, with
+what we used to call "the clan," the endless line or circle of
+cousins--Dandridges, Kennedys, Pendletons--blacked their faces, clothed
+themselves like plantation hands, carrying old muskets, spades and forks,
+with cocks' feathers in the hats of the leaders, and marched to meet their
+prey. When "attacked" by the gang, the old gentleman gave himself up for
+lost. They surrounded his carriage, but before dragging him forth to his
+doom they began delivering to him the most preposterous harangue; which,
+notwithstanding his fright, led him to detect a son-in-law under the
+disguise of the principal desperado. Anger was useless with such a party,
+and by the time he reached the house his prayers for mercy had changed to
+laughter. Prominent in "the clan" and its diversions in those days was
+Colonel Strother, subsequently "Porte Crayon:" "Cousin Dave" was his title
+then.
+
+When Hon. Charles J. Faulkner was married he was keeping bachelor's hall,
+and it was proposed that he should give his bride a breakfast the next
+morning. Kennedy was the master spirit in the arrangements. The table was
+covered with a cloth that was far from immaculate, and set with broken,
+cracked and odd pieces of china. The viands were bacon, corn-bread, etc.,
+arranged in the most grotesque manner possible. When the bridal-party were
+ushered in, profoundly ignorant of the joke, they stood horror-stricken.
+Kennedy, solemn as an owl, clad as a butler and with white apron, advanced
+and presented to the bride about a peck of great rusty keys strung on a
+chain that might have drawn a plough, the whole so heavy she could not lift
+them. And the speech in which he presented them! Any attempt to repeat or
+describe its drollery would only spoil it. I believe he never wrote
+anything so witty, so inimitably funny. He wound up by saying that he
+resigned, with tears in his eyes--which were tears of laughter--all
+authority and control over the establishment. When the farce was played out
+there was another announcement, and then a breakfast fit for the gods was
+served in earnest.
+
+John P. Kennedy had no children, but was passionately fond of the children
+of his relations, especially those of his brothers, who in turn almost
+worshipped him. Making all allowances, of course, for the differences in
+their surroundings, the geographical difference in their homes, it always
+seemed to me that there was an interesting resemblance between him and
+Irving in many little things that the world could scarcely know. In what
+they have written the similarity of their humor and style must be apparent
+to every one, and Kennedy's literary character was fashioned very much, I
+think, by the influence of his more famous friend's. When quite a young man
+Kennedy edited, with some kindred spirits, a kind of Salmagundi paper in
+Baltimore, ridiculing most effectively a certain class of people whose
+pretensions so far exceeded their social worth as to make them legitimate
+game for his shafts. It was called _The Red Letter_. Many suspected, but
+none of the victims knew, who were the writers. Some amusing incidents grew
+out of it, the aforesaid victims being afraid to invite the aforesaid
+kindred spirits to their parties, but still more afraid not to invite them.
+Lest some reader should have a doubt about the attitude of this genial,
+gentle and true man on one important public question, let me add that one
+of the last things I knew of his doing was to induce Sheridan to send an
+escort of cavalry through to Martinsburg to bring out a young girl whose
+parents were Unionists and were then cut off by Southern troops, taking her
+to his house and educating her as if she had been his daughter. The last
+time I saw his friend Irving was when Kennedy was retiring from the
+Secretaryship of the Navy. The new administration had come in, and the
+members of the old cabinet were very busy in closing up and turning over
+their portfolios and arranging their personal affairs for departure. The
+domestic concerns of the retiring Secretary, whose guest Irving had been
+during the winter, were therefore in the same state of upheaval as were
+affairs at the department. I called to take leave of the family, but not a
+soul was in the house except Irving. I inquired lightly how he would
+dispose of himself in the general break-up, "Well," answered the quizzical
+old bachelor with mock plaintiveness, "I suppose Mrs. Kennedy will pack me
+up with the rest of the old crockery."
+
+American country-life can hardly again be so picturesque as it was on some
+of the plantations of Virginia in my young days. The cavalcades of huntsmen
+returning with a fox-brush in the cap of the foremost rider, or counting
+their partridges on the porch before the ladies--partridges being the birds
+known as quails in the North; the riding in the great carriage to church,
+surrounded by a retinue on horseback; the coming and going of company to
+spend the day, which meant from noon till twilight; the gathering of the
+rose-leaves to be dried and sprinkled over the table- and bed-linen for the
+odor they imparted;--an atmosphere whose charm cannot be reproduced
+envelopes these scenes of the far-away past.
+
+The chief agricultural event of the year in the region where I lived was
+the harvesting of the grain. All the laboring white men who could be of
+service were employed with the slaves at such times. Their dinners were
+eaten at long tables under the trees, with a tub of iced toddy or
+mint-julep in the shade near by. Supper, when the day's work was done,
+brought hot coffee, rolls and biscuits, and a dance on the grass to the
+music of fiddle and banjo closed the scene at bedtime. The long lines of
+"cradlers," following their leader and laying the golden swaths smoothly
+across hill and valley, were a sight which was lost with keen regret by me.
+I shall never forget when the first reaping-machine came clattering into
+the wheat-fields, sounding the knell of all that was most pleasing in the
+harvest-time. What a commotion that first reaper made! A certain
+distinguished Senator of the United States--I think he was then Speaker of
+the House--came from afar to witness its operations and to consider its
+introduction on his own rather unproductive plantation. After silently
+taking in its movements, his hands meditatively in his pockets and his chin
+buried solemnly in his neckcloth, he turned away in disgust, with a comment
+that was brief and to the point: "Wouldn't have such a d----d _fast_ thing
+on my place!" Much of the distrust, however, with which improved utensils
+were regarded had a better reason. Complicated and delicate machines in the
+hands of plantation negroes were too much like "all the modern
+improvements" in the terrible hands of Biddy.
+
+I saw personally but little of the darker side of slavery. The worst
+pictures I could draw from my own personal knowledge would not be
+sufficiently hideous to be interesting. The fairest I could draw would be
+of my old black "mammy." From my infancy she was the comforter, counsellor
+and guide whose sympathy and assistance never failed me. As dignified as a
+duchess; as neat in her striped, home-made dress, kerchief and turban as it
+was possible for mortal to be; jealous of the honor of the family; serene,
+affectionate, proud of her usefulness,--she is among the first from whom I
+expect a loving welcome in heaven. My father gave her free papers after she
+had nursed a sick member of the family with especial faithfulness on one
+occasion. She locked them up in her trunk, and that was the end of them,
+except when she took them out to show to her friends. I think it gratified
+her to receive them, however. I recollect the incredulity of a good lady
+from Boston, who asked her if she would not like to live there, where there
+were no masters and mistresses. "No indeed, honey!" was the reply.
+
+When a girl I passed a winter in the White House. It was during the last
+term of General Jackson. That high white head; the perpendicular hair; the
+clear blue eyes--one moment melting with a woman's tenderness, the next
+blazing like an angry lion's--peering earnestly from under the great shaggy
+eyebrows and over the top of the silver spectacles; the furrowed, pained
+face, worn with suffering and perpetual warfare, but occasionally lighted
+by a sudden gleam of the old fire, which nothing but death could quench,
+when his cane would come down with a thump and "By the Eternal!" would
+break forth--the nearest approach to profanity ever heard from his lips by
+me, or by anybody, I think, at that period of his life,--how vividly all
+these come back! I saw him at his best. The storms of life had wellnigh
+passed. His beloved wife was beckoning him to a world of rest and peace. He
+was the idol of a majority of his countrymen. He occupied a second time, in
+obedience to their voices, what he regarded as the most honorable position
+that any man could hold on earth--the Presidency of the United States. In
+pursuing what he took to be right he had conquered everybody and everything
+that opposed him. He had ever been the incarnation of chivalry toward
+women. It is natural, therefore, that under all these circumstances, in
+those last days of his and first days of mine, he should have appeared to
+me a higher type of man than many people would judge him to be from a
+strictly dispassionate consideration of his whole life. I was never given
+to hero-worship, but at that time I did come near worshipping this old
+hero. I am not here questioning the justice of his latest and completest
+biography--Mr. Parton's--but would simply remark how difficult it is for
+me, seeing him as I did, and only so, to realize that he was the same being
+who enlivens some of the earlier scenes of that book. Toward the women he
+respected--and there hardly seemed to be one whom he did not respect--he
+had a courtliness of bearing, a considerateness, a gentleness, a
+nobility--in short, a charm of manner--which made him, as a mere "carpet
+knight," the most winning old _gentleman_ I ever knew.
+
+In speaking of the superstitions of the Scotch-Irish, Mr. Parton says:
+"General Jackson himself, to the end of his life, never liked to begin
+anything of consequence on Friday, and would not if it could be avoided
+without serious injury to some important interest." So far from abstaining
+from any undertaking on Friday, the general has told me himself that he
+made it a point to start on a journey and begin such things on that day;
+and he laughed at the superstition. Nevertheless, I am inclined to suspect
+that this very fact should be taken as evidence that the superstition did
+exist in him; that he was conscious of it; that his judgment told him it
+was an unworthy weakness; and that he was determined to conquer it. He
+acknowledged its influence by the care he took to defy it.
+
+In those days visitors to the White House knocked or rang as they would at
+the mansion-door of any private gentleman. One rainy day a visitor thus
+announced himself, but for some reason no servant appeared immediately to
+admit him. The family heard it, and so did the general in his office, where
+he was writing. It did not occur to me or any one else that interference
+with the servants' duties was necessary. Suddenly there was a rustle of
+papers and an apparition. "What!" thundered the President. "A citizen of
+the United States stands knocking at my door in the rain, and it isn't
+opened!" The door was opened soon after that remark.
+
+One day the general received a letter of four or five pages of foolscap
+from Ireland--I do not know whether it came from Carrickfergus or not--in
+which the writer said that he was a cousin of the President's, and that he
+recollected perfectly when the general was born, and gave the exact
+locality and all the attendant circumstances. He closed by saying he would
+like to come over. Jackson laughed over the letter, and expressed his
+surprise that he should have been born in Ireland and in Carolina too.
+
+It was his custom, when he had no one dining with him besides the family,
+to say, as he raised his single glass of wine, "Here's to absent friends!"
+Then, glancing toward me, he would add in a low tone, "And sweethearts,
+too,----."
+
+On one occasion, when I was ill, the general called in Dr. Hunt, his family
+physician. The doctor was a tall, lank, ugly man--"as good as gold," but
+with none of the graces that are supposed to win young ladies; yet he was
+married to one of the loveliest young creatures I ever knew. General
+Jackson accompanied him to my room, and after my pulse had been duly felt
+and my tongue duly inspected, they drew their chairs to the fire and began
+to talk.
+
+"Hunt," suddenly exclaimed the President, "how came you to get such a young
+and pretty wife?"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you," replied the doctor. "I was called to attend a young
+lady at the convent in Georgetown. Her eyes were bad: she had to keep them
+bandaged. I cured her without her ever having had a distinct view of me.
+She left the institution, and a year afterward she appeared here in
+society, a belle and a beauty. At a ball I introduced myself, without the
+slightest ulterior design, as the physician who had restored her sight,
+although I supposed she had never really seen me. She instantly expressed
+the most heartfelt gratitude. It seemed so deep and genuine that I was
+touched. That very evening she informed me that she had a severe cold, and
+that I must again prescribe for her. Well! it don't look reasonable, but I
+did it. I wrote my name on a bit of paper, folded it and handed it to her,
+telling her she must take that prescription. She read it and laughed. 'It's
+a bitter pill,' she said, 'and must be well gilded if ever I take it.' But
+whether it was bitter or whether it was gilded, we were married."
+
+The hospitality of the White House at that time, like that of the
+Hermitage, has become proverbial. Very few brought letters of introduction
+who were not invited to dinner. Consequently, the table was almost always
+full. It seemed to me that Jackson never heard of a wrong to any human
+being, or what he conceived to be such, without trying to right it.
+
+When Aaron Burr was at the Hermitage in 1805 he wrote in his diary, for the
+entertainment of Theodosia: "The general has no children, but two lovely
+nieces made a visit of some days, contributed greatly to my amusement, and
+have cured me of all the evils of my wilderness jaunt. If I had time I
+would describe to you these two girls, for they deserve it." The temptation
+is strong to give the descriptions omitted by Mr. Burr, but it would lead
+me too far. They were nieces of Mrs. Jackson rather than the general's. One
+of them, whom he had adopted as his daughter, married her cousin, A. J.
+Donelson--her own maiden name being also Donelson--who was secretary to the
+President when I knew them, afterward minister to Austria, and candidate
+for Vice-President in 1856 on the ticket with Mr. Fillmore.
+
+One Sunday evening, after dinner, Mrs. Donelson, Mrs. Jackson and I, with
+several other ladies, were gossiping in the Blue Room. This Mrs. Jackson,
+who had been a pretty Philadelphia girl, was the wife of another cousin and
+nephew who was born a Donelson, but who was adopted by the general, took
+the name of Jackson and inherited the Hermitage. Mr. Van Buren, then
+Secretary of State, had what is now known as "the inside track" for the
+succession. He, was the friend and choice of Jackson; and that settled it
+in the minds of those who knew both men. Mrs. Jackson--the lady mentioned
+above, of course, for the General's wife did not live to see the White
+House--disliked Van Buren for some reason. Mrs. Donelson, turning to me
+with affected gravity, said, "When you are Mrs. President Van Buren, I want
+you to send my husband to England as minister." I solemnly assured her she
+should have whatever she wished. Then Mrs. Barker appealed to me in behalf
+of her husband as collector at Philadelphia. Turning to Mrs. Jackson, I
+asked what she would like. "Nothing at Mr. Van Buren's hands," was the
+sudden reply. At that instant I heard a rustle behind me. There stood Mr.
+Van Buren! He was smiling, and evidently amused. We were so completely
+caught that there was no resource but the suppressed giggling little scream
+that never fails a true woman when no other strategy is possible. He gave
+no intimation of having heard a word. Indeed, I never saw Mr. Van Buren's
+perfect self-possession fail him but once: that was when he fell off his
+horse for me on Pennsylvania Avenue. And with this ridiculous performance
+these rambling reminiscences must end.
+
+One fine spring morning the President insisted that we should invite the
+Cass girls, the Forsyths and some others, make a riding-party, and return
+with them all to the White House for lunch. He sent to Mr. Blair for the
+white horse he had ridden in a grand procession at New York, which Blair
+had bought. This fiery charger, very appropriate for such a horseman as
+General Jackson on a state occasion, was so spirited and appeared so
+unmanageable that I was afraid to touch him. But the general had made up
+his mind that I should ride that horse on that occasion, and I knew what it
+meant when his mind was made up. He put me on himself, saying, "Why, child,
+if you can't ride him, you couldn't ride a sheep." We reached the avenue
+very well, when the horse seemed to remember New York and General Jackson.
+He reared, plunged and dashed off. Mr. Van Buren, in trying to seize the
+reins, was drawn from his own saddle and dragged some distance. His
+position for a few moments was rather undignified, but he came up smiling
+and unhurt, and made as creditable an appearance as could be expected. We
+had a happy day in spite of the mishap, but not even the will of General
+Jackson ever got me on that horse again.
+
+M. T.
+
+
+
+
+A LAW UNTO HERSELF.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+The reason which Mr. Van Ness offered for Jane's disappearance, he
+protested, would suggest itself to everybody as the only possible one: her
+grief had deranged her, and she had wandered away bent on self-destruction.
+But the house was filled now with the friends of the captain, among them
+Judge Rhodes and Mrs. Wilde, and he read doubt and lurking suspicion on
+every face. The judge, it is true, directed the hurried searches through
+the grounds and the dragging of the lake.
+
+"But I wish the captain had not pushed the marriage so hard. Drill-major to
+the last gasp. I was to blame in suggesting it at first," he said,
+point-blank to Van Ness.
+
+"Suicide? Nothing of the kind," said Mrs. Wilde. "Jane is eccentric, as
+every thoroughly truthful woman is. But sane. One of the sanest people I
+know."
+
+She summoned Betty, and the two women were closeted together for half an
+hour.
+
+"You should have sent for me," she said when the story was ended. "The
+child should not have been left to the tender mercies of these men. Call
+him in."
+
+When Van Ness appeared he saw that the old lady's eyes were red.
+
+"You are going in pursuit of her? Mrs. Nichols has told me all," she said
+blandly.
+
+"I shall search for her, undoubtedly. Her mind was evidently shaken. There
+is a bare chance that she may have gone on the train. But the river being
+so near and her grief so great, I fear the worst, Mrs. Wilde."
+
+"No doubt, no doubt! But if you do follow her on the train--How was she
+dressed, Betty?"
+
+"In gray. Black hat and gray feather," said Betty like a parrot.
+
+"Thank you! That will be of assistance to me.--They are trying to help her
+escape," he thought as he went out, with a bow and melancholy smile. He had
+waited to talk with Mr. Lampret. He asked him for a certificate of the
+marriage.
+
+"If my wife is living and wandering insane through the country, it will be
+necessary to prove my right to claim her."
+
+To his surprise, the clergyman grew red and stammered, with a painful
+anxiety in his boyish face.
+
+"I fear we were too hasty, Mr. Van Ness. Are you quite sure she consented
+freely to the marriage? There was no moral compulsion used?"
+
+"There was none," coldly. "My marriage, as I believe, had in it all the
+elements of future happiness. Besides, that is hardly a question, it
+appears to me, for you to consider now. Whether suitable or not, the
+marriage was legal. When can you give me the certificate?"
+
+Mr. Lampret did not speak for a moment. "I suppose it is irrevocable," he
+said with a long breath. "The making out of the certificate will involve a
+delay of a couple of hours."
+
+"I shall wait for it," said Van Ness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was midnight before he left The Hemlocks and took the train into New
+York. There he had other work to do, which consumed an hour or two. He must
+lay plans to free himself from any hold which Charlotte had upon him. He
+had not courage to live, in even the rare delights to which he looked
+forward as Jane's husband, with that sword at his throat. He could find no
+trace of Charlotte. But he wakened up a lawyer (not the eminent counsel who
+systematized his vast benevolent schemes), and gave him full instructions
+and a blank cheque.
+
+"I must have this connection closed at once. And at any price," he said as
+he left the door at one o'clock in the morning.
+
+"To Desbrosses street ferry. In time to catch the Philadelphia express," he
+ordered the cabman.
+
+He had not tried to find a clew to her in New York. She was unknown
+there--not likely to be recognized even by officials on the trains running
+up to The Hemlocks.
+
+"She would try to escape from a place where she is a stranger. But it would
+cut her deeply to leave her father unburied," he argued shrewdly. "She
+would go direct to their old home in Philadelphia, where the associations
+with him were strongest. She is full of such foolish notions!" He glowed
+with admiration of these warm affections, so becoming to a beautiful woman,
+as he leaned back in his seat in the car. Van Ness had indeed a keen
+appreciation of fine sentiments in books or in people. A noble thought
+fitly uttered or a pathetic strain of music would bring the tears to his
+eyes. All his friends will testify to-day that he is a man of most
+sensitive nature. He remembered this admirable trait in himself as he sat
+thinking over his future married life that night. It was one of the means
+by which he would be sure to win the love of his wife, and drive away her
+grief for the poor old captain. He took out a tiny volume from his pocket
+and studied it carefully by the dull light of the lamp overhead. The
+conductor, who knew the great Christian financier by sight, looked on
+reverently at a distance. It was some epitome of wisdom that he pored over:
+perhaps the Book of books. There was, in fact, a little mirror set in the
+inside of the binding. Van Ness studied the glisten on his yellow beard,
+the gluey softness of his blue eyes. "There never was a woman who would not
+yield to me," he thought, shutting the book. "But it does not matter
+whether she does or not," he added, his fingers searching for the marriage
+certificate in his pocket and closing on it with a fierce grip.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Van Ness had really but slight knowledge of the places in which Jane's
+early life had been passed. On reaching Philadelphia he was forced to
+search through old directories for the houses in which the captain had
+lived, and go to them in turn--a tedious process enough, as the old man had
+migrated, as his whim or purse dictated, from Kensington to Southwark, from
+a close-built block in the business quarter to a tumble-down cottage on the
+Wissahickon. It was near night before he arrived at the old house
+surrounded by trees in the Neck which had been their last home in
+Philadelphia. Disappointment and secret rage had only made the unctuous
+sweetness of his manner a little coarser in flavor. The woman who came to
+the door adjusting a pink bow at her collar found his familiar greeting
+exactly suited to the level of her own breeding.
+
+"A young lady? With blue eyes and yellow hair? Oh yes, sir. Colored pretty
+much like yourself. But she don't favor you, either. Come in! come in! My
+name's Crawford. Young lady's yer sister, likely?"
+
+"At what time was she here?"
+
+"Just at breakfast-time. Well, say seven. She didn't come in no furder than
+this room. Said she'd lived here with a friend, and would like to take a
+look ag'in at the old place. She sat there, on that settee, and looked in
+the fire a while, and then went out to the garden and walked up and down. I
+suspicioned she wa'n't right in her mind," volubly. "The idee of comin'
+back to look at a house and yard! I guess I was right. Somethin'
+wantin'--eh?" touching her forehead.
+
+"Yes. Do you know in which direction she went, Mrs. Crawford?"
+
+"I haven't the least notion. If I'd ha' had any intimation, now, that she
+had escaped from her friends, I'd ha' done all I could to help 'em. My
+George could hev' followed her all day, for that matter. What was the
+cause, now? Religious excitement? Disappintment?"
+
+"Both, both! You did not observe her dress, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh yes, I did. Brown waterproof and brown hat. 'Twouldn't be easy to trace
+her by her dress."
+
+"Did she speak of returning here?"
+
+"No. I wish I'd incouraged her!" her zeal reaching fever-heat in this
+hinted tragedy. "She come in an' thanked me very gravely, an' said she
+would probably never see the old house ag'in. Poor thing! She gave George
+some money, which wa'n't at all necessary, I'm sure."
+
+"If she did not expect to see the house again, she meant to leave the
+city," said Van Ness when he was again in the street. "She will be easily
+traced at the railway-stations."
+
+But in this he was disappointed. Young women dressed in the uniform
+travelling costume daily came and went in troops through the avenues of
+travel: a dozen indifferent ticket-agents had hazy recollections of this
+especial traveller on her way to Boston, to San Francisco, to Baltimore.
+Mr. Van Ness, too, found that his own social dignity and prominence sorely
+hindered his researches. Everybody in the city knew Pliny Van Ness by
+sight. It would not do for him, as for any common man, to go from office to
+office inquiring for the heroine of a mysterious elopement. The Christian
+humanitarian must keep his garments clean of suspicion as jealously as
+Caesar's wife.
+
+Reporters, too, had their eyes upon him, turn which way he would, for the
+opinions and movements of Mr. Van Ness had long furnished welcome material
+for the columns of "Personals" in the morning journals. What if a hint of
+this episode of his marriage and his wife's disappearance should creep into
+the blatant newspapers? He moved, threatened, hampered, by this open-day
+terror, one unsuccessful day slipping into another until three weeks had
+gone by.
+
+Early one chilly October morning he found himself without any definite aim
+knocking at Mrs. Crawford's door, and was welcomed by her with effusion,
+for she had supposed her chance of any share in the tragedy to be gone.
+
+"And you hain't found her yet, eh? Dear! dear! If I'd only knowed in time!
+It's told on you, sir. Yes, indeed. You've aged considerable in this
+month."
+
+The only real change in Van Ness was a certain new alien expression which
+was now and then perceptible under the blandishment of his smile, like some
+savage beast peeping out from behind the painted canvas of his cage. His
+news from the lawyer in New York was unsatisfactory; he was baffled at
+every turn by insignificant difficulties in his search for Jane; there was
+every temptation for the beast which was in him to break its bonds. But
+luck had turned for him.
+
+"Dear! dear!" continued Mrs. Crawford. "Have you tried the police? Though
+they're of little account. She could not have come to any bodily harm. The
+dog would protect her."
+
+"Dog? You said nothing about a dog. Had she that damnable brute with her?"
+starting up.
+
+"A large hound; sir. Why, to be sure, I told you!--Lord! he's gone!"
+
+Here at last was a clew! It proved effectual. The agent at the Pennsylvania
+Railroad office remembered distinctly the young girl who wished to take her
+dog with her down to some station on the coast, and the difficulty which
+the train-master meant to make about it. "But she took him," he added. "She
+was a very beautiful woman. Nobody cared to refuse her."
+
+Van Ness went down to the Branch, to Beach Haven, Manasquan, all the
+fishing-villages along the coast, among the rest to Sutphen's Point. He
+talked to old Sutphen himself, his foot resting on a barnacle-eaten log
+where Jane herself had sat the day before. But the old man was loyal. He
+was stupid, stared vacantly at Van Ness, had seen no young woman and no
+dog: there had never been any such at the Point. Van Ness went hurriedly on
+to the next station, spent a couple of days in the search, and returned to
+Philadelphia.
+
+"So the young lady came back before you?" said the agent, nodding
+familiarly as he passed the ticket-window.
+
+"Yes. You saw her?"
+
+"Oh, she bought her ticket of me. Yesterday, you know."
+
+"For what point?" Van Ness's voice was so hoarse that the man heard him
+with difficulty.
+
+"Richmond. Took the dog, too."
+
+"Give me a ticket for Richmond, please. When does the next train go?"
+
+"In half an hour. She has twenty-four hours the start of you, sir," with a
+significant laugh as he handed out the ticket and change.
+
+Van Ness arrived at dawn the following morning at the little wooden shed
+with its garden of dahlias and lilacs which called itself a depot on the
+outskirts of the drowsy country town so lately the focus on which had
+rested the eyes of the civilized world. Two or three negroes bustled into
+activity as the train rolled in: an old woman dusted the rocking-chairs
+about the stove. They all remembered the tall, handsome young lady with the
+dog, who had flung about her money so freely the day before.
+
+"I brought her breakfast, sah. I'm Dabney. Everybody knows Dabney's
+reliable. Mighty fine hound, sah. De young lady went on to Morganton, Nothe
+Callina. Oh, tank you, sah!"
+
+Morganton is a village perched on a spur of the Blue Ridge, made dusky by
+shadows of overhanging hills. The garrulous landlord of the inn was ready
+to point out his prey to Van Ness.
+
+"A lady? Miss Swendon, you mean? I've known her since she was a child.
+Captain Swendon came to the Balsam Mountings for years for the hunting.
+Allays brought the little girl. She's broken down terrible. Her father's
+death's interrupted her, powerful."
+
+"She is here, then?" lowering his voice.
+
+"No. She went on to the captain's camping-ground on the Old Black. Seemed
+as if she must go every place where he had been. He allays buried himself
+among the mountings. I doubt if you can find the place."
+
+"Where Miss Swendon can go I surely can follow."
+
+"Dunno. She's used to the mountings. P'raps you can get a guide at
+Asheville. It's the last place whah human beings live--high up on the
+Black: an old hunter, Glenn and his wife--kind, decent people, but not jest
+civilized. The captain was allays in cahoot with them, and they was
+powerful fond of Jane."
+
+There was no regular conveyance then across the Blue Ridge to Asheville.
+Van Ness crossed the range on horseback with a guide: the horse broke down,
+and caused a delay of a day. He arrived, therefore, at the little hill-town
+late in the afternoon of Friday. Miss Swendon had gone up into the
+mountains two days before, he learned, with the old hunter Glenn, who
+happened to be in the village with a load of roots and peltry.
+
+"I must go on to-night," said Van Ness urgently.
+
+The ex-Confederate colonel who kept the inn surveyed him leisurely.
+"Glenn's house lies about thirty miles up in the Balsam Range," he said
+deliberately. "The passes are dangerous in daylight: it would be impossible
+to make the ascent at night. I shall not be able to find a guide for you
+until to-morrow."
+
+Van Ness was exhausted in mind and body. The night's rest was tempting.
+
+"I shall find her at this man Glenn's? She will not go farther?"
+
+The colonel laughed: "Not unless she turns hermit or takes up her lodging
+with the wild beasts. Glenn's hut is the last human habitation on the
+mountains. You have her, sure."
+
+"Then I will take supper and a bed."
+
+He slept soundly that night, and sipped his coffee at breakfast
+comfortably, smiling now and then to himself. The silly creature was making
+herself happy this morning in the mountain-fastness, going over her
+father's old haunts, thinking that she was hidden where he would never find
+her. But how easily he had run her down! The horses and guide were waiting
+at the door. Before the sun set he would have her in his hold securely, as
+easily as he could grasp that bird in its cage yonder.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Glenn's house was in fact but a rambling log hut built under the shelter of
+one of the peaks of the Old Black. The Appalachian ranges at this point
+reach their highest altitude on the continent. The unbroken primeval forest
+came up to the very door of the hut. A few feet off a stream, the
+head-water of the Swannanoa, dashed over the precipice.
+
+As the sun was setting that evening, the old hunter's wife waited in the
+door to meet Jane, who came slowly down the gorge, with the dog beside her.
+The two women stood together watching the red ball of fire go down behind
+Old Craggy. It threw sharp shafts of light into the heavy cloud that hung
+halfway up the peak, while overhead the sky was green and translucent as
+the sea.
+
+The hunter's wife did not speak to Jane as she stood beside her, and did
+not watch her. The incurious habit of silence of these mountaineers rested
+the girl. They had been her friends when she was a little girl: she had
+come back, as sure of finding their friendship as the rock on which their
+house was built. She had come up with her heart and brain full of
+unwholesome sickness to be cured in these silent solitudes of the world.
+The cure was begun. Her eye was clearer, the hopeless load was lifted from
+her life. What did pain matter? Or death? There was about her here a great
+repose in which these things faded out.
+
+She looked at the glittering stream close by, at the unending slopes of
+underbrush blazing scarlet with the rowan and the shonieho, and then beyond
+these lower hills--fold and fold of living color--to the great bare peak
+wrapped in clouds, a few dead trees climbing its base, which stands like a
+mighty warder of the Atlantic coast. The tears rose to her eyes.
+
+"One must have a mean and selfish soul to be unhappy here," she thought.
+The twilight fell suddenly. The sides of the mountains went into shadow:
+only the sky about the peaks burned redly. Jane went in and sat down by the
+old hunter before the big log-fire.
+
+"I wish you to let me stay with you," she said. "I have a little money,
+which will last a long time here. After it is gone I can make more,
+somehow."
+
+Glenn for answer only put out his hand and touched hers gently. The hand
+was as bony as her father's, and his hair was as white. That comforted the
+girl more than any words. His wife, who was always the speaker, said,
+"You've always been welcome, Jane. You know that. You won't need money. We
+get our living out of the mountings for the taking of it. When your father
+was gone it was nateral for you to come straight here, an' to stay."
+
+"Yes, I will stay," said Jane.
+
+Presently the old man raised his hand: "Hark! There's folks coming."
+
+"I hear nothing, father," said Mrs. Glenn.
+
+"Yes. There's horses at the lower ford. Two of 'em. They're acrost now.
+It's more'n a year since anybody's bin up the mounting. Kin it be any one
+a-followin' you, Jane?"
+
+She got up slowly: "Who could follow me?"
+
+The next moment the hoofs of the horses rang on the shelving rocks outside.
+The door opened, and Van Ness stood on the threshold.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+The Scotia was within a few hours of Liverpool. The passengers were all
+gathered on deck--the women, eager and garrulous, eying each other a little
+curiously in their new costumes--even the most _blase_ traveller among them
+roused by the smell of land. Miss Fleming, however, sat quietly apart, with
+Mr. Neckart beside her. The other passengers were accustomed to see these
+two together, silent and uncommunicative even to each other. Cornelia had
+early understood that Neckart's ailment, whatever it was, whether mood or
+disease, craved quiet. She instantly suited herself to its need. Captain
+Swendon had always rejoiced in her as one of the most loquacious and
+sociable of human beings. Bruce, on the contrary, was strongly attracted by
+the aloofness and unconscious repose of this taciturn woman, who held
+herself apart from the vulgarly fashionable crowd in the cabins, not being
+of their kind. He fell into the habit of taking his seat near her, partly
+to avoid the others, partly for the comfort of being able to sleep, talk,
+or be silent undisturbed. After a few days he began to be conscious of a
+fine similarity of taste and convictions between them. Whether it was a
+question of political law or the color of a curling wave, Cornelia's
+thought about it evidently ran in the same groove as his own, though more
+weakly, as became the intellect of a woman. A word or a laughing glance was
+enough to convey this subtle sympathy between them. It had undeniably
+soothed and brightened the passage.
+
+Bruce Neckart, at night, alone in his state-room, knew that he had left
+ambition, love, happiness, behind him--that he was cut off from all the
+chances of life. At night the indescribable feeling of vacancy at the base
+of the brain, the stricture as of an iron band about his jaws, the
+occasional sudden numbness of nerve and thought, as though he were stricken
+for the instant with extreme old age, were hints which brought his
+approaching fate before him as with a horror of great darkness. But on
+deck, in daylight, the swell lapping the vessel, his feeble appetite
+gratified by a well-cooked meal, there was some interest yet to be found in
+the Southern problem or the claims of the Pre-Raphaelites; and he was
+grateful to Chance for this companion who sat ready to grasp any subject
+which attracted him, with a woman's fine intuition, but who demanded only
+the personal courtesy due to an innocent, manly boy. She showed him, too,
+during the voyage, much womanly, personal kindness, for which, being of an
+honest, affectionate nature, he was grateful.
+
+Now that they were nearing land, therefore, Mr. Neckart's thoughts as he
+sat beside her were wholly busied with his companion. He was heartily sorry
+for her. Ordinary observers, he reflected, would mistake her for one of the
+strong-minded Advanced Sisterhood, but he knew her to be sensitive and
+delicate in the extreme. He felt a certain sense of ownership in her as his
+discovery. How was she to find her way alone in Europe? He had meant to
+cut absolutely loose from every tie of his past life on landing, but this
+thread held him still. Could he arrange any future occasional intercourse
+with her? He did not mean to hamper himself at all. Still, he might be
+useful to her, etc., etc. In short, the pillow on which he had rested his
+aching head had been warm and pleasant to him, and he threw it away
+reluctantly. There really was no reason, he argued (according to the
+invariable argument of men concerning this woman), no reason whatever, why
+firm and fervent friendships should not exist between persons of opposite
+sex. He would have been insulted at a hint that this sympathy, _bonne
+camaraderie_, with the little woman in green beside him involved disloyalty
+to Jane. The little woman, however, gave neither of these fine names to
+their traffic of sentiment. The Cornelias of their sex make no mistakes in
+this matter.
+
+It was a sombre, foreboding day. The passengers were gathered on the
+forward deck. Neckart and Cornelia were alone, the gray fog shutting them
+in. She sat with her head turned from him, immovable, but he was conscious,
+through the strong subtle magnetism that belonged to this woman, of the
+powerful excitement which she controlled. He quite forgot his own trouble.
+This delicate, lonely creature venturing into the world! He asked her some
+questions as to her plans on landing, but she answered vaguely. She heard
+only the throb of the steamer beating out the few moments left to her. Her
+whole life was risked upon this voyage. Had she failed? There was but an
+hour left. What woman could do she had done. Good God! why must she be
+silent? Her whole soul had called out for this man for years: she had loved
+him with a man's force of passion. Why could she not speak now and tell him
+so? She must sit beside him dumb, lifeless, unless he put out his hand to
+take her!
+
+"Half-past four," said Neckart, looking at his watch. "I am sure you are
+sorry the voyage is so nearly over."
+
+She did not speak, but he caught a gleam in her eye that startled him.
+Under all her coldness she was a strange, vivid creature well worth study.
+He leaned forward eagerly,
+
+"Your undertaking terrifies you, now that the time has come. You would
+rather turn back?"
+
+She moved restlessly under his keen scrutiny, as though it hurt her. Her
+hands were clasped on her knees, her eyes fixed on the black line on the
+horizon which marked land. "No, I will go on."
+
+"Cornelia," with warm kindness in his face and voice, "I am afraid you have
+overrated your devotion to your work. A woman must be possessed by her art
+as by a demon to enable her to endure years of solitude in a foreign
+country, homeless and friendless. Have you counted all the cost? When you
+leave me you cut yourself loose from all your old life." She turned her
+head away, but made no reply. "I do not believe you are strong enough, poor
+child!" he said presently.
+
+Silence pleaded for her as no words of her own could have done. Neckart saw
+the strained eyes, the quivering chin: his interest suddenly became alive,
+intense--a feeling quite apart from the kindliness which his words
+expressed.
+
+"I begin to think you have mistaken your vocation altogether. You are too
+dependent, too tender a woman, for an artist. You should have chosen a
+domestic life, Cornelia." And, after an embarrassed pause of a moment, "You
+should have married."
+
+He saw the quick shudder: his own blood beat feverishly. He had always been
+curious about women. He would push the probe a little deeper: "If there had
+been any friend who was more to you than your art?--"
+
+She turned her head slowly. The bleached face and burning eyes fastened on
+his own told her story before she spoke: "I have had no friend but you,
+Bruce."
+
+Neckart started to his feet, hot from head to foot like a blushing girl. He
+paced the deck dumb with shame and confusion. It was long before he found
+courage to look at her. Her hands were clasped over her face: she was
+sobbing in a helpless, strengthless way that seemed to put her on the
+ground at his feet. He looked toward the land. Would it never come nearer?
+Finally, feeling himself wholly a scoundrel, and moved by a great
+compassion and as great annoyance, he pushed the green cloak aside and sat
+down hastily on the bench beside her, beginning to talk rapidly. If the
+limb must come off, the quicker the better.
+
+"I understand just what you mean, Miss Fleming. You need a friend, an
+adviser, being here in Europe alone. Of course you turn to me, remembering
+old times in Delaware, and--and--" She had stopped sobbing now, and was
+watching him breathlessly, her eyes following his lips as he spoke.
+Neckart, looking at her, broke down.
+
+"How can I do it?" he thought. "This woman's whole life has been given to
+me, and I did not know it!--It's natural," he began again aloud, "that you
+should turn to me. You know how gladly I would be your friend--"
+
+She shook her head, her straining eyes on his. "Yes, gladly--thankfully!"
+(Surely, it was only right to soften the blow.) "You cannot know how--how
+dear you have always been to me, Cornelia. But I can have nothing to do
+with friendship or any other relation which makes a man's life worth
+endurance. I am barred out from so much of my birthright by my blood."
+
+"What do you mean, Bruce?"
+
+"You know the fate of the Davidges: I need not go over the story. God knows
+it is not a pleasant subject for me to dwell upon. But for the last year I
+have had unmistakable proof that I have the hereditary disease. That is the
+reason why I have given up my business and every tie in life, and
+expatriated myself."
+
+As he spoke she rose, shaken with excitement; her face took on a new
+meaning; for the moment she was a young and beautiful woman: "Oh, Bruce!
+Bruce! you are all wrong! Is it possible that you have never been
+undeceived? There is not a drop of the Davidge blood in your veins!"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I have heard the story from my mother a hundred times. Your father was
+married twice--the first time in Maryland, where you were born. Your mother
+died at your birth. He came to Kent county and married Miss Davidge, who
+never had any children. It was the first symptom of her insanity that she
+conceived the idea that you were her own son, and your father willingly
+humored her in the belief. You were deceived too as a child, lest you might
+betray the real facts to her. But I thought when you were a man you would
+be told the truth."
+
+"How could I?" said Neckart, bewildered. "My father died when I was a boy
+of ten, and my mother--But she was not my mother!" His eyes filled: he
+turned hastily away. It seemed to him as if the dear old mother had just
+then died to him.
+
+Cornelia timidly touched his arm: "But you do not understand. You are not a
+Davidge. You are free from the Davidge disease."
+
+"Free?" It was not easy to turn back the convictions and terrors of a
+lifetime in a moment. He stared at her stunned: "Then these symptoms have
+been only caused by overwork, as the doctors said? I--I am like other men?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Merciful God!"
+
+Cornelia leaned over the taffrail. Would he come to her? The blood ebbed
+weakly in her veins; the rush of the water below roared like thunder; as
+the minutes passed a deadly sickness came into her breast. She looked to
+find him. He was at the other end of the deck, talking with the captain,
+his swarthy face glowing, his eyes like coals of fire.
+
+"The Russia is the first steamer to New York," she heard the captain say.
+"You can board her to-night. This is a very sudden resolution, Mr.
+Neckart?"
+
+"Yes. But I must return to my business at once. There are other matters too
+which--matters which I have neglected."
+
+"But your health? You mentioned a cerebral disorder which required rest?"
+
+"Oh, I am much better! The sea-voyage--I am another man, sir!"
+
+He walked down the deck, his back toward her. It was the heavy figure, the
+swinging awkward gait, which she remembered twenty years ago on the old
+farm-road. The world was born anew to him: health, work, chances--he had
+but to stretch out his hands and clutch them all again, and under all was
+the sweet triumphant passion.
+
+"Jane! Jane!"
+
+His eyes strained back over the long waste of water. But as for Cornelia,
+he had forgotten that she was in the world.
+
+When the people were leaving the steamer to go on the tug, she came up to
+him. It was easier to bear another turn of the rack than be utterly dropped
+out of remembrance.
+
+"We part here, Mr. Neckart," with an admirably cordial little smile,
+holding out her gloved hand.
+
+Neckart stammered with sudden remorse and pity: "'Pon my soul, Miss
+Fleming, I forgot that you were going ashore! Forgive me. But a man
+reprieved with the axe at his neck can't be expected to have his senses at
+call."
+
+"You go back, then?"
+
+"Oh, immediately! I must regain my--my work. What can I do for you?"
+zealously. "Your baggage, now? There will be nothing dutiable, of course.
+Will you have it sent to London or direct to the Continent? You told me
+your plans, but--"
+
+"You have forgotten them," smiling. "The baggage is already on its way. You
+forget I am one of the capable, self-reliant sisterhood. No. You can do
+nothing for me but to say good-bye."
+
+Neckart caught her hand and wrung it vehemently, but it lay with its smooth
+kid covering passive in his palm. He began to say something to her about
+her art and success, but the words seemed a ghastly mockery and died in his
+throat.
+
+"Oh, I shall succeed, undoubtedly, but in a low grade. My ability is of
+inferior quality. I know all my limitations," with a sudden metallic laugh.
+
+"You will return in a year or two, and--"
+
+"No, I shall not return. I shall never see you again," looking for the
+first time in his face.
+
+Neckart glanced beyond her to the strange city, vast and dreary in the
+twilight and drizzle and falling soot. The docks were swarming with life.
+Some of their fellow-passengers had already landed and been met by eager
+friends, and were driven away to their homes. This woman was going
+friendless into the night and crowd. She was so little and lonely and
+hardly used! But what could he do? He had not a minute to lose if he would
+board the Russia.
+
+"Miss Fleming, I owe a fresh lease of life to you. I shall always think of
+you with gratitude."
+
+"What I gave you was a free gift," she said in a very quiet voice. "I want
+no gratitude in return for it. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye."
+
+She suddenly raised his hand and kissed it.
+
+"Cornelia!"
+
+But she was gone, and in a moment was lost in the hurrying crowds, on which
+a sullen rain was beginning to fall.
+
+Before midnight Neckart was ploughing his way back. His brain was quite
+clear--no threats of paralysis or sudden age. He lay awake building honest
+air-castles--new plans for the paper, dreams of happiness for Jane as fresh
+and sweet as a boy's of his first love. But through them all the kiss on
+his hand burned like fire. He rubbed it again and again angrily.
+
+He wanted no guilty damned spot about him when he came to Jane.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+When the door of the hut opened Bruno growled furiously. Mr. Van Ness
+appeared on the threshold, smiling, benign, a goodly sight, from his blond
+head and the yellow topaz on his snowy shirt-front to the polished boots.
+
+"Down, Bruno, down!" said Jane.
+
+The old hunter observed that though she stood erect she could not bring her
+voice above a whisper. She looked at Van Ness like a kid that the dogs
+were going to tear to death. Glenn came up hastily between her and the
+stranger. He had the dog's sudden antipathy to him and to his smile.
+
+"What is your business?"
+
+Van Ness advanced and held out his hand cordially. The mountains had had
+their effect upon him: his irritated nerves lay now quieted out of sight in
+the thick cool flesh. As he ascended the heights he had laid his plans.
+Gentleness first, force if need be: gentle measures would no doubt suffice.
+The law would ensure to him immediate possession of his wife. She had the
+devilish obstinacy of a mule, but she was his wife. He would bring her to
+love him at last, and their future life would be eminently respectable and
+comfortable. Laidley's estate must yield now, on an average? The remainder
+of the ride had passed in pleasant calculation. Never had his temper been
+more serene or firm than when he presented himself before his wife.
+
+"What's your business?" said the old man.
+
+"My business," gently, "is with that lady. I have followed her here from
+New York, and I thank you heartily, sir, for taking care of her."
+
+"Of course I'll take care of Jane. I'll not allow her to be follered or
+disturbed, neyther.--Do you want to see this man, child?"
+
+Jane did not hear him. Her eyes were fastened on the handsome figure, all
+light and benignity. She had thought she was done with it for ever. It
+seemed to her now as if it never would leave her sight again.
+
+"You kin see clearly that you're unwelcome to her," said Glenn.--"Wife,
+take Jane into her own room until this gentleman is gone."
+
+"When I go," said Van Ness with a pleasant, airy wave of the hand, "she
+goes with me. You are kind, my dear sir, but unreasonable. I have a claim
+upon this lady which even you will allow is sufficient."
+
+"What claim has he on you, Jane?" turning his back abruptly on Van Ness.
+"Has he any right to talk in this way?"
+
+"Yes. I am his wife."
+
+"Wife! Married! Not accordin' to law?"
+
+"There is the certificate."
+
+At the sight of this slip of paper, and with the rustle of it in Glenn's
+hand, her strength ebbed away from Jane. It was the Law. Her prejudices and
+dislikes seemed suddenly insignificant, helpless, in this mighty force. It
+had the same effect on the ignorant, law-abiding mountaineer.
+
+"I don't see but as it's correct," turning it over, perplexed. "She's yer
+legal wife."
+
+"No matter ef she were his wife a hundred times," cried his wife: "she
+shall not go back ef she chooses to stay. P'raps he's abused her. He shall
+not force her away."
+
+"I have no wish to force her to leave you," in the same gentle, cheerful
+tone. "Be rational, dear friends. I leave Jane to answer whether I have
+ever used toward her a word or action that was not loving and tender."
+
+"No," said Jane, dully.
+
+"Do you know anything of me which would justify your flight? Answer me
+candidly. Is there a single reason why you should not honor and respect me
+as your husband?"
+
+Jane was silent. The law within her gave a savage answer. But what was that
+but blind prejudice? She must answer according to the judgment of the
+outside world.
+
+"Is there any reason?"
+
+"No--none."
+
+Van Ness nodded cheerfully, and motioned the hunter and his wife
+confidentially to his side: "I will explain the matter to you precisely as
+it stands," his light eyes looking over their heads to Jane.
+
+She stood irresolutely a moment, and then went into the little room which
+had been set apart for her. She could not draw her breath so near to him.
+
+Van Ness, peering through the open door, saw that there was but one narrow
+window inside, opening over a sheer descent of rocks. "It is quite natural
+that you should love Jane and wish to defend her, as you knew her when she
+was a child," he said, raising his voice that she might hear. "But you do
+not understand. She married me of her own free will by the bedside of her
+dying father. His last act was to give her to me with his blessing. You can
+judge whether he would have chosen an unworthy husband for her."
+
+"'Tain't likely," said Glenn. But his wife shook her head.
+
+"An hour after his death Jane escaped: left her dead father--left me whom
+she loved. The only rational way of accounting for her course is that the
+nervous strain had proved too much for her, and that she was temporarily
+insane. You can question her whether I have stated the facts correctly."
+
+The old people glanced doubtfully in at the tall figure standing motionless
+at the open window.
+
+"She don't contradict you in nothin', sir. I'm sorry ef I was onjust to
+you," said the old man slowly.
+
+"I honor you for it! You could have no claim to my friendship as strong as
+your affection for my wife."
+
+"Yes," with deliberation, "we've allays been powerful fond of Jane. But
+marriage is marriage. We won't interfere. Them as God hes jined together--"
+
+Van Ness rose: "I shall take her with me to Asheville. Her mental trouble
+may make her seem disinclined to go. But firmness and affectionate care
+will soon restore her." He walked to the door: "Come, my dear wife."
+
+Jane turned and faced him. Her very lips seemed withered: "I have given you
+the money."
+
+"I want _you_."
+
+Van Ness waited smiling, without a word after that, his white hands held
+out.
+
+"Come, my pretty!" whispered the old woman, stroking her arm soothingly.
+"Suppose you don't like him so much at first? You'll grow into it. Hundreds
+of women marry without love. You must give up to the law."
+
+The law, the whole world, were against her.
+
+Van Ness came closer, step by step, with the inexorable steadiness of Fate
+in his eye. Mrs. Glenn drew back and left them alone.
+
+"You married me."
+
+"I wanted to give you the money. There was my mistake."
+
+"You cannot repair it. There is no one to help you."
+
+She looked out at the bare peaks and the sky near at hand, and raised her
+arms, clasping her hands back of her head. Her lips moved. "God will help
+me," Van Ness thought he heard her say.
+
+He put his hand on her shoulder: "Come. We must return to-night, at least
+part of the way," with quiet authority.
+
+He drew her toward him, stooped to kiss her lips.
+
+At that moment there was a loud knocking at the outer door, and a man and
+woman entered. Van Ness saw them. His hand fell from Jane's arm, his
+countenance relaxed: for a moment he stood unnerved: then with quick
+decision he stepped boldly forward to meet them, drawing to the door of the
+chamber behind him.
+
+"Charlotte?"
+
+"Yes," with a shrug, "or Princess Trebizoff, Madame Varens, what you
+choose. By any other name I am as dear to you. Heavens! what a chase!"
+perching herself airily on the settle in front of the fire. "I am one
+living ache.--I can't congratulate you on your roads, madam. But your
+scenery! Ah, that goes to the heart!"
+
+Mr. Neckart stood beside her, calmly waiting until Van Ness should turn to
+him. The great reformer was brought to bay: he was alert, prompt, ready.
+
+"You followed me here, Mr. Neckart?" turning sharply.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"For what purpose?"
+
+"To bring your wife to you," glancing at Charlotte.
+
+"I inferred that was the story which this poor creature had imposed upon
+you. Surely, you know her character, Neckart? Why, she has levied blackmail
+for years by just such ingenious devices. I did not suppose any statement
+of hers would bear a minute's investigation from a shrewd, practical man
+like yourself. So she really deceived you, eh?" with a discordant laugh.
+
+Charlotte, drying her dainty feet at the fire, looked contemptuously over
+her shoulder at him.
+
+"There is no need of any discussion in the matter," said Neckart dryly. "We
+are not here to play melodrama. The matter is easily understood. I returned
+from Europe last week, and went direct to the Hemlock Farm. From the
+servants I heard the details of the forced marriage and of Jane's flight. I
+followed her."
+
+"How did you find her here?"
+
+"Betty Nichols knew that she was coming."
+
+"Damn her! She hid it from me, her husband!"
+
+Neckart stepped hastily forward, then controlled himself and drew back:
+"She had given the route to Charlotte also. I overtook her at Baltimore.
+She had stopped to obtain legal proof of your marriage to her in 1847. We
+followed an hour behind you from Richmond."
+
+Even in this imminent moment Van Ness secretly wondered how this passionate
+brute of a Neckart held himself in check and talked coolly to the man who
+had stolen from him the woman that he loved. It would have been in
+character for him to tear his life out, like Bruno. But this was admirable
+self-command! It really gratified Van Ness's taste, tottering on the verge
+of ruin as he was. The truth was, that Neckart was conscious of little else
+than that Jane was in the hut. The rage against this scoundrel which had
+maddened him through the long journey had strangely died out. He had not
+harmed her. He was like a fangless snake, to be trampled under foot at any
+moment.
+
+But she was there! He had caught a glimpse of the proud, delicate head and
+its crown of yellow hair behind the door as Van Ness closed it.
+
+The door moved. It opened, and she came out among them. Neckart rose, his
+head bent upon his breast. He was deaf and blind for the time--could not
+tell whether she spoke to him or not.
+
+She went directly up to Van Ness: "I am not your wife?"
+
+He cowered for a moment. Then, rapidly shifting his defence, he stood up,
+benevolent, impregnable: "I do not deny that I was once married to this
+woman. It was a mad error of my youth, long since repented of. I was
+divorced from her last June."
+
+"Ta, ta, Pliny, take care!" interrupted Charlotte. "The application for
+divorce was not made until after your marriage to Miss Swendon. I told you
+you would not risk a criminal trial for her sake. But I underrated your
+affection. You did it."
+
+"Then I am free?" said Jane.
+
+"You are free," said Charlotte.
+
+Jane turned to the door and went into the open air without a word.
+
+"I took a good deal of trouble to come here," resumed Charlotte, brushing
+some dust from her flounces, "to tell her that. I shouldn't have done it
+for any other woman. But you remember that day when I was shamming death,
+how she kissed me, Pliny? I didn't forget that kiss."
+
+Van Ness stood silent, hesitating. The firelight shone upon his tall
+figure, the dainty gray clothes, the shining stone, like a watchful evil
+eye, upon his breast. He was a perfect presentation of prosperity and
+peace. He looked at Neckart, but he was looking through the open door at a
+slight figure moving among the rocks.
+
+Van Ness rubbed his hands softly. "I do not see," he said with unctuous
+precision, "that further discussion will be of any use in this matter. I
+was evidently mistaken as to point of time in the divorce. No one who knows
+me will suspect me of any worse error than a mistake. I will accompany you
+to Asheville, Charlotte, with pleasure. I owe you no grudge for the bitter
+wrong you have done me."
+
+Charlotte rose and laughed good-naturedly: "You have your virtues, no
+doubt, Pliny. So have I. I always thought we were well mated. Shall we
+continue one? You may have to fall back upon my blackmailing devices, after
+all. I forgot to tell you that there was an inquiry last week into the
+disposition of the funds entrusted to you for the Home for Friendless
+Children, and that they were reported _nil_."
+
+For the first time in his life Van Ness blenched. The story of the marriage
+could be smothered. But this was total ruin.
+
+"The sooner you go the better," said the hunter, tapping him on the
+shoulder. "Ef I understand right, you're not the kind of man as ought to
+pizen these mountings long."
+
+Van Ness moved heavily to the door. But he turned on the threshold with a
+sickly smile: "I forgive you your rudeness, my friend. It is not my nature
+to bear malice.--Farewell, Mr. Neckart. You have mistaken my motives in
+this matter. But I shall think of you kindly.--I shall bear you all to the
+throne of grace in my prayers." He shook his hand as if scattering
+blessings, and went out with a lofty step and head erect.
+
+Charlotte lingered and went up to Neckart.
+
+"You are going to cling to that poor wretch?" he said.
+
+"Well, he's down now, you see. There's nobody but me to stay by him. And I
+can always draw on him when I'm out of funds."
+
+"You will remember what I told you of the school in Indiana? You could live
+in respectability and comfort; bring your boy home too."
+
+"My boy? Home?" Her eyes filled with tears. "These are very tempting words,
+Mr. Neckart. But oh-h! Respectability is such a bore! I must go my own gait
+to the end;" and with a merry laugh and shrug she followed Van Ness.
+
+When they were out of sight down the gorge, Neckart rose and went slowly
+out to the cleft in the rock where the girl sat alone.
+
+"Jane," he said, "the way is open between us at last. Will you come to me?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I cannot write Finis to the story of any of these people. They are all
+alive to-day, and the current of each life goes on with very little change.
+
+You may still see Van Ness on the platform at all large religious or
+benevolent meetings in the great cities. There was much talk of the missing
+funds, but he quieted it satisfactorily. Cynical reporters throw out hints
+of ugly shadows in his life, but his disciples gather more solidly about
+him, trust their souls to his direction and their money to his pockets.
+Simple followers of Jesus fear to condemn a light which shines so
+splendidly in the market-place, and men who are not His followers accept it
+as Christianity, and damn the religion as spurious and a fraud.
+
+Charlotte is just now the successful leader of an English opera-bouffe
+company which is travelling in the West. She gave the proceeds of her
+benefit in every town to the poor last winter, which was supposed by all
+respectable people to be an advertising trick. But it was not. The little
+woman would do more than that to buy herself an entrance into the heaven
+where her boy is going. She would do anything, in fact, but lead a decent
+life.
+
+Miss Fleming is still in Rome. She belongs to the modern school which
+regards the nice reproduction of drapery and dry goods as the highest art.
+She sends home pictures, which sometimes gain a place by sufferance in a
+dark corner at the spring exhibition.
+
+Mr. Neckart once bought one, a _Lady's Toilette_.
+
+"A fair specimen of the millinery cult," he said, showing it to Judge
+Rhodes, "Poor Cornelia! Why is it that she never, even by chance, paints a
+clean-minded woman?" He sent a cheque for double the price asked for it.
+But he threw the picture on the market again, not wishing to take it home.
+He had married a singularly clean-minded woman.
+
+Cornelia's first impulse was to send the cheque back. But, instead, she
+bought a ring with a single costly ruby in it, and has worn it ever since,
+though she has been hungry for bread many a time. Hungry or not, she makes
+her studio one of the pleasantest resorts for the young artists in Rome.
+She has cut her hair short, wears a jaunty velvet coat and man's collar:
+her arms are bony, but she bares them, and still shoots languishing glances
+from out of the crowsfeet. The young men laugh to each other. "A good
+fellow, Corny," they say, "but what a pity that she is not a man!"
+
+The Home for Friendless Children is at last a reality in New York, though
+Van Ness is not a director. It was established by the editor Neckart, whose
+wife, it is said, endowed it with her own fortune. This charitable deed
+left them with but a very moderate competency. Neckart managed to buy in
+the Hemlock Farm, out of his income, for her and the boy.
+
+He drives them over once a week to see the children in the Home, each of
+whom Jane knows and tries to spoil.
+
+"You are glad that we made this act of reparation, Jane?" he said to her
+one day.
+
+"Reparation?" She hesitated, and then said, "I know that I made many
+mistakes when I was a law to myself. You are my law now, Bruce."
+
+"But you are satisfied that it was right to give back the money?" he
+insisted.
+
+"Oh, of course! The money was unlucky! It made you uncomfortable too. And I
+look on it as a free gift from Swendon here to the poor little babies,"
+taking her boy on her knee and stroking his curls. "But," she added in a
+low voice, "the money was mine. I was quite right when I burned the will."
+
+Neckart laughed good-humoredly, and touched the horses with his whip. There
+is no man living who loves his wife more tenderly; and Jane is the most
+simple and prosaic of women. Yet there are times when she seems, even to
+him, a woman whose acquaintance he has scarcely made, and whom he can never
+hope to know better.
+
+REBECCA HARDING DAVIS
+
+
+
+
+OUIDA'S NOVELS.
+
+
+For a number of years the novels of Ouida have been the delight of their
+readers and the scorn and laughing stock of reviewers. Every new volume
+that has appeared has given a thrill of occasionally guilty delight to
+those whose studies are confined to the shelves of the circulating library,
+while critics have beaten the air with their attacks against this writer's
+frequent coarseness of tone, her hodge-podge of learning, and the superfine
+elegance which makes the air of most of her stories so heavy and
+enervating. Nothing could show more thoroughly the futility of criticism
+than the powerlessness of all the evil-minded notices of her many books.
+The reviewer may have spoken words of wisdom that would have honored
+Solomon, but the public did not care how inaccurate Ouida's Latin
+quotations and classical references were: they were entertained by her
+novels, and disregarded him who denounced her, just as those who are
+running to a house where they will hear music, breathe perfumes and see
+fine dresses pass by the hungry man who stands outside shaking his fist and
+growling at pleasure-seekers. People who are anxious to waltz do not care
+to stop and discuss with political economists the advisability of giving up
+luxuries, nor to hear the band begin the best of Beethoven's symphonies:
+they want to hear the opening notes of one of Strauss's compositions. The
+same love of amusement is at the root of all novel-reading--unless indeed
+it be a feeling of social duty which brings so many readers to George
+Eliot's novels--and Ouida is pretty sure to give her admirers a full dose
+of highly-seasoned entertainment which cannot fail to please unsensitive
+palates.
+
+The materials with which she brews her fiery and somewhat heady draughts
+are almost monotonously alike. Her heroes are beauteous, long-limbed,
+silky-haired, graceful men: if the scene is laid in England, they are
+generally officers, always of high family and terribly dissipated. Beneath
+a quiet, courteous demeanor they hide passionate feeling, indomitable
+bravery and great capacity for friendship. They are adorned by every vice,
+and are consequently loved by every woman. As for the women, who except
+Ouida can describe them? They are faultlessly beautiful, exceedingly
+headstrong and full of fascinating peccadilloes. Next to the _beaux
+sabreurs_ come the gifted artists, and alongside of the wicked ladies of
+rank appear the ladies without rank, but with every other charm of the
+sinful sort. Brandy and soda, hock and seltzer and cigarettes almost
+deserve mention among the _dramatis personae_: they serve to delight her
+aristocracy, and for the aristocracy Ouida has a most plebeian esteem. Its
+faults are virtues in disguise: gambling away a large fortune in a night is
+heroism; faithlessness in love is its first duty; anything like decorum is
+the most "caddish" Philistinism. These being Ouida's literary principles,
+and also the delight of her readers, it is easy to see how absolutely
+useless would be any solemn attempt to prove that there is anything good in
+the world except wickedness. Ouida has pages of pseudo-rhythmical soliloquy
+in which she alleges the truth of her statements about lords and ladies,
+but, whether true or false, there is a charm to her readers in her flowery
+account of what their social betters do. Scandal never fails of a listener,
+and who can serve such huge banquets of scandal as will Ouida at a moment's
+notice? She offers no mere crumb that has dropped from a rich table, but a
+mass that concerns every duke and duchess and earl and countess in the
+peerage. Victor Hugo has taught a docile generation the power of the
+melodrama, and Ouida, an apt pupil, has written in English the most violent
+protests against human beings as they are, and has encouraged the use of
+exaggeration in the representation of life. She employs the much-abused
+method of contrast. She draws a man who is stained with every vice, and to
+outweigh his crying faults she makes him tell the truth under difficult
+circumstances, or keep a promise, or possibly do a generous action, and the
+reader, who has admired the hero at his worst, thrills with fervent pride
+in his colossal right-doing at last.
+
+The air of worldly wisdom with which her books are filled is another
+powerful attraction. Persons who know so much about wickedness must have,
+it would seem, a rare knowledge of human life and human beings; and the
+poor reader, whose worst notion of vice is working embroidery on Sunday,
+has forced down her throat stenographic reports of the talk in demireps'
+parlors, with occasional interludes in which the author charges her critics
+with squeamishness for objecting to her parade on the dung-hills of life.
+But it is useless to make too much mention of her faults. She is like most
+of the writers who reject all limitations and say they must describe people
+as they are, and then seek in the mire for people to write about.
+
+Putting aside the question of the impropriety which taints by no means all
+her work, it is well to find what constitutes her power in other
+directions. She has a large following, and many who utterly condemn her
+gross faults are very anxious to read her new books as fast as they appear.
+In the first place, she has a good deal of real power. It is not accuracy,
+or refinement, or the accomplishment of much by moderate means, but a great
+accumulation of effective points, that carries the reader through her
+books. It is not a man whom she takes for a hero, but a picturesque
+combination of attractive failings, united with an impossible beauty and
+grace. It is a vulgar ideal that she worships, and it is vulgarer in fact
+than as she sees it; but she worships it with positive adoration, and she
+warms the reader with something of her own fervor. She is in earnest, and
+she has the gift of expression, often of tawdry, bombastic expression, but
+often powerful and impressive.
+
+Take _Chandos_, for instance: it is the melodrama run mad. Chandos belongs
+to one of the best families in England; he has genius in all directions; he
+writes books that sell as only very good and very poor books sell; he is as
+beautiful as the figures that adorn tailors' patterns; his wealth seems
+boundless; in immorality Don Juan was but a blundering schoolboy by his
+side. This cold description does him no manner of justice: any one who
+knows Ouida's novels will readily recall the type, and he stands head and
+shoulders above the rest. He warms a snake in his bosom in the guise of a
+friend, who manages his affairs and leads the lordly Chandos to total
+bankruptcy. The languid voluptuary goes out into the world and knows every
+kind of suffering: at length, twenty years afterward, he is restored to his
+rights, and by a magnanimous effort he pardons the treacherous friend, who,
+he finds, is his illegitimate brother, and all ends well. But the reader's
+feelings are reached in a way that no one would suspect from this meagre
+statement. Chandos lives in halls of porphyry, and does everything for the
+man who betrays him; he is absolutely above suspicion, just as the other
+man is without a scrap of virtue or kindliness; and the contrast between
+his high and his low estate is done in black and white, with lights and
+shadows as distinct as if the book had been written under a calcium flame.
+That the book has considerable crude force cannot be denied even by those
+who are ready to sneer most loudly at its glaring faults. By dint of
+exaggerating virtues and vices the author dulls for a time the inevitable
+revolt of the reader against such unnatural representations of life. This
+story--or it may be other readers have been struck by some other of the
+series--impresses itself upon the memory for a time, just as a play would
+in which we seem to see a man jump out of a third-story window, but in both
+cases we should be inclined to question the author's respect for
+literature. All such work is like scene-painting, but if a man prefers
+gazing at chromo-lithographs to visiting the Pitti Gallery, he cannot be
+talked out of his tastes.
+
+The reaction against realism shows itself now-a-days in many curious ways.
+Alongside of an intense devotion to science there flourishes the vulgarest
+superstition regarding the occupations and intellectual capacity of
+departed spirits, and the imagination of the present day finds its frequent
+expression in coarse melodrama. But even for the melodrama Ouida, clever as
+she is, lacks one important element--namely, a sense of humor. There is a
+monotonous seriousness in her stories, and frequently an unrelieved pathos,
+which is in direct violation of the law that commands grotesqueness and
+misery to be put in close antithesis by the writer who is anxious to win
+fame. The airy _badinage_ of some of her characters is singularly void of
+lightness and frolicsomeness. Their unfailing cynicism alone makes good
+this noticeable deficiency. This fault distinguishes Ouida very clearly
+from Dumas and Victor Hugo, for Dumas's high spirits seldom failed him,
+while Victor Hugo combines contrasting qualities in his novel as carefully
+as if he were making a salad. But Ouida can relieve the strain she makes
+upon her readers' feelings only by a profuse display of worldly wisdom.
+Every-day experience shows that vulgar, unrelieved cynicism is an
+easily-learned accomplishment: any credulous person, inclined to gossip and
+ashamed of being thought decorous, can be hand and glove with Ouida in a
+very short time, although it is by no means every one who out of such
+tawdry material can weave a story that shall be generally interesting. The
+double nature of this writer is an instance of a rather rare combination.
+She can be as vulgar as a gossiping dressmaker with a keen love of scandal,
+and yet she has a vein of poetical sensitiveness, of strong feeling, which
+stands in strange contrast with her heavy-handed cynicism. In fact, she
+gilds in her own fashion the crudest display of coarseness and selfishness.
+Possibly it is too much to say that she _gilds_: she hangs round with
+tinsel all sorts of subjects, over which she rejoices as a raw schoolboy
+rejoices over his first cigar; and this with an infantile delight in her
+own _savoir vivre_ and an ecstatic vain-glory in her faults which throw
+real merits into the shade.
+
+A melodramatic imagination--by which is meant a proneness to look at things
+as Ouida looks at them, an inclination to see crude picturesqueness of
+effect--apparently fills its owner or victim with the most puffed-up pride.
+Anything like moderation or exactness is despised, good workmanship is
+regarded as the plodding of stupidity, and all chance of cultivating what
+talents the writer may have is thrown over to find place for strong effect.
+All of Ouida's desultory reading seems to have taught her nothing except
+that by heaping up agonizing incidents a point will be reached at last when
+even the most hardened reader will have to succumb and give his sympathy to
+much-persecuted innocence or to fascinating guilt; and her power of
+inventing harrowing scenes is practically unlimited. So many writers are
+cold and unlifelike that Ouida's exaggeration seems to many a most
+pardonable fault, so far indeed as it seems to be a fault. Her perpetual
+references to the classics probably appear to the ignorant reader like the
+profoundest lore: her chatter about French literature, especially about
+books seldom discussed in mixed company, furthers this delusion. Indeed, it
+is pitiable to go through one of her novels and pick out the rubbish she
+collects and sets in order for the delight of an eager public. Here are
+some gems from _In a Winter City_. The present condition of Florence,
+disguised as Floralia, is thus compared with its past glories: "It is
+Belisarius turned croupier to a gaming-table; it is Caesar selling cigars
+and newspapers; it is Apelles drawing for the _Albums pour Rire_; it is
+Pindar rhyming the couplets for _Fleur de The_; it is Praxiteles designing
+costumes for a calico ball; it is Phidias forming the poses of a ballet."
+That gem is on the first page of the book, which is more like a tenth-rate
+French novel than any English story that has appeared for some time.
+
+Here are a few lines from _Chandos_, describing the revels of the
+aristocracy in a "summer villa at Richmond belonging to him [the hero, of
+course], where most of these Bohemian dinners and suppers _a la Regence_
+were given--a charming place, half covered in flowering trees and pyramids
+of May blossoms,... with the daintiest and cosiest banqueting-room in the
+world, hung with scarlet silk, drawn back here and there to show some
+beautiful picture by Titian, Greuze, Regnault or La Tour; large enough to
+hold twenty people, but small enough to fill _a huis clos_ like a cabinet;
+with the air scented by dreamy incenses and dishes and wines under the
+mellowed light that would have entranced even Lucullus had he been throned
+there on his ivory chair....
+
+"'The art of life is--to enjoy!' cried Chandos that night, lifting up to
+crown the sentiment a deep glass of glowing red Roussillon.
+
+"'Toast worthy of Lucullus and Ovid! and you are a master of the science,'
+said John Trevenna, who was perhaps the only one who saw quite clearly
+through that intoxicating atmosphere of pastilles, and perfumes, and wines,
+and crushed flowers, and bruised fruits, and glancing tresses, and languid
+eyes, and lips fit for the hymns of a Catullus.
+
+"'He is the darling of the gods!' cried Flora de l'Orme, that magnificent
+Arlesienne, with her melting, Greek-like glance, and her cheek like a peach
+in the sun, while she leaned over him and twisted, Catullus-like, in the
+bright masses of his long, golden hair a wreath of crimson roses washed in
+purple Burgundy."
+
+Probably, if the pink-cheeked beauties on glove- and handkerchief-boxes
+could be filled with the breath of life, and be set down in a land of which
+the only authentic representations are those on a drop-curtain, this is the
+way they would talk and act; and the same refined taste that goes to the
+painting of such figures and scenery is manifested in the production of
+such literature as makes up the bulk of many of Ouida's novels.
+
+And yet a writer who so handicaps herself with vulgarity and actual
+indecency and the grossest snobbishness has underneath that unattractive
+varnish a fervent passion that is at least impressive. While revelling in
+such scenes as made the notoriety of the author of _Guy Livingstone_, she
+has touches of real pathos, over-wrought possibly, but cold in comparison
+with her absurdest writings. In _Signa_, for instance, the whole story of
+Bruno's love for his betrayed sister's child has certain elements of
+fineness which atone for much of the rubbish swept into some of Ouida's
+earlier novels. The book is not one for the Sunday-school library, nor will
+any one be injured by not reading it, but there is more ability in it than
+one will find in a great many books by more discreetly-admired writers. It
+is a romance of a kind not over common in English fiction, and it forms a
+grateful change from the arid records of the cool love-making of English
+curates and home-bred young women as sung by this writer's contemporaries.
+The book has the faults that surely mark an untrained writer, but there is
+nothing petty in it: indeed, there is a generous breadth of treatment which
+shows most strongly how Ouida's natural gifts, which had been wasted by
+glorifying club-talk and midnight suppers, blossomed forth under the
+influence of Italy. She was possessed by its charm, and inspired by it to
+put all her new feeling into this story of passion. There is no trace of
+the confining bounds that had previously kept her busy turning over
+unworthy material: she spoke out boldly; and if this is not a great book,
+it is at least a book with some of the qualities of greatness in it.
+Indeed, it is of a sort that makes one regret that the author had not been
+exposed to more favorable influences: wiser blame and more temperate praise
+might possibly have freed her from the faults that show their head even
+here much more than is desirable. But what is fine in it is something no
+one could have taught her--the sympathy with ambitious youth, the struggle
+for fame on the part of the hero, his uncle's stern nature, and the
+cleverness with which some of the lesser characters are drawn: all these
+things, which are to be found beneath the facile sing-song of the prose and
+the perpetual exaggeration of everything good as well as of everything bad,
+are surely the proof of rare original power. Her very excellence at times
+serves but to make the reader impatient with her faults, which more than
+anything are _vulgar_; and genius and vulgarity do not agree well.
+
+But her good qualities are best seen in some of her short stories, and most
+of all in those collected in a single volume entitled _Leaf in the Storm,
+and Other Stories_, the others being entitled "A Dog of Flanders," "A
+Branch of Lilac," and "A Provence Rose;" all of which first appeared in
+_Lippincott's Magazine_. These are free from the faults of taste which so
+generally mar her work, although at times the reader comes on exaggerated
+touches which lessen rather than intensify the pathos; but on the whole it
+is impossible not to admire, and to admire warmly, the author's power.
+Ouida here shows her true feeling, and feeling is not over-abundant in
+contemporary fiction. There is plenty of acute observation, clever
+description and more or less good-natured satire, but all these things are
+slight and meagre by the side of strong and genuine feeling. The greatest
+novel-writer will combine both, and will not sacrifice one to the other;
+but only too often Ouida throws aside actual and imaginary probability for
+the sake of melodramatic effect. Of these short tales just mentioned, the
+one giving its name to the book and "A Branch of Lilac" are especially to
+be mentioned with respect, and they justify almost any amount of wrath on
+the part of the reader with the author's excessive abuse of her gifts. In
+her reaction against conventionality and everything that is humdrum she
+continually falls into worse pitfalls, but here she is really tragic and
+really pathetic. In three of these tales she draws the sufferings of
+struggling genius, which she is fond of describing, though she has never
+done it so well as here; and in two of them, "A Dog of Flanders" and "A
+Provence Rose," she combines in the story unusual ingredients, one being
+told by a rose that witnesses the incidents, while in the other the dog's
+feelings are set forth at great length. This is always a difficult thing to
+do; and it is to be noticed that in both disguises we find Ouida under
+other names, but yet there is enough that is touching in the treatment to
+dispel harsh criticism. This is not the only time that Ouida has introduced
+this transmigration of souls into her books, for _Puck_ is a story told by
+a dog, but unfortunately the dog has the author's ineradicable preference
+for low company, and a sort of nineteenth-century Moll Flanders has an
+undue prominence in the book. _Bebee_, on the other hand, reminds the
+reader of the innocent short tales: it is a charming little story without
+the ambitious tawdriness of the longer romances. _In a Winter City_, again,
+reeks with fashionable follies and is written in Ouida's most approved
+worst style.
+
+_Ariadne_, the latest of her novels, shows in many ways a marked
+improvement over her earlier work. The story is an admirably invented one:
+almost every incident is of course crammed with pathos, while the main plot
+is exceedingly touching. It is supposed to be narrated by an accomplished
+Roman cobbler, who is a sound critic of art as well as an expert repairer
+of shoes. He comes across one day a young girl of great beauty who has been
+wonderfully educated in the classics by her father, and who now, after her
+parent's death, has come to Rome to find her grandfather, a miserly Jew.
+This unnatural grandfather drives her from his door, and the cobbler,
+finding her in great misery, offers her his room, when she at once falls
+sick, while he lives in his stall. When she has recovered she begins to
+carve statues--her father had been a sculptor--and these coming to the
+sight of a great French artist, Maryx by name, he makes her his pupil.
+Gradually her teacher comes to love her, but there appears on the stage a
+great poet, Hilarion--there is never any lack of greatness in these
+novels--who is faultlessly beautiful and whom every woman infalliby loves
+at sight. Of course, Ariadne is not an exception, so that one day Maryx and
+the cobbler are surprised to find that Hilarion and she have run away
+together. It would be unnecessary to describe the book too closely from
+this point: it is enough to say that Hilarion soon wearies of her, while
+she never changes in her feeling toward him. When she is deserted in Paris
+the cobbler goes there and brings her back to Rome, when Maryx learns again
+the hopelessness of his love, and later Hilarion shoots him in a duel.
+After a time Ariadne dies broken-hearted, just as Hilarion has learned
+really to love her, so that he survives to mourn hopelessly the evil he has
+done. However this may sound in a cold abstract, it cannot be denied that
+the reader receives a deep impression of the tragedy which is the subject
+of the book. Ouida never fails to supply the tragic element in great
+abundance, but here it is given us not on the writer's mere assertion, but
+with such exposition of the characters as marks some of her later stories,
+but is perhaps more prominent here than elsewhere. The heroine, for
+instance, is well drawn: her intensity and purity, and indeed her genius,
+are all clearly brought before the reader. It is something rare to conceive
+such a character, but it is infinitely rarer to find any definite image of
+it conveyed by a writer to any one else. To be sure, this is done with a
+great waste of purple ink, but yet there are touches which indicate not
+power alone, but also that acuteness of observation and intelligent
+knowledge of method which are needed to give even great power its value.
+Maryx too is well represented, and everywhere, even when the captious would
+complain of too much melodrama, there are scenes and bits of talk that are
+good because they are natural. In time justice will be done to the ability
+of a writer who, when the short-hand report of talk over tea-cups was the
+fashion, was able to rise above such mechanical handiwork and write a story
+full of passion. Faulty, tawdry and theatrical as much of Ouida's writing
+is, she does know--and knowing she at times describes--genuine passion, as
+she has done here. Much as she has spun out the tale, it is a fine one, and
+an admirable example of her best side. The revenge that Ariadne makes in
+carving a statue of Hilarion as he seemed to her, so that even he felt some
+shame at his inferiority to her conception of him, is impressive. The way,
+too, in which Rome is kept as a background for all the events described is
+worthy of notice. But here as elsewhere the main fault is this, which is
+best described in her own characteristic language: "How one wishes that
+they had told us the fate of Nausicaa! When she leaned against the pillar
+and bade her farewell to the great wanderer, we know her heart was heavy:
+never again could she play by the shore glad-hearted with her maidens: when
+she had passed, that day, out between the silver dogs of Hephaestus, through
+the west wind and the pomegranate-blossoms, to the sea, she had left her
+happy youth behind her. So much we feel sure of, but we would fain know
+more. Were it a modern poem, how it would be amplified! how much we should
+hear of her conflict of silence and sorrow! No modern would have the
+coldness to leave her there, leaning against the column in Alcinoeus's hall,
+and never add a word of her fate. But that is our weakness: we cannot
+'break off the laurel-bough' shortly and sharply, unburnt, as they did of
+old."
+
+Not only is she unable to "break off the laurel-bough:" she decks it with
+gewgaws and tinsel; she sets the reader's teeth on edge with references to
+the "Scipii" and to the "gens Quintilii," and never lets pass a chance to
+bring some bit of ancient or mediaeval Roman history into the story, which
+is also weighed down with superfluous sentiment. It would be hard to find a
+writer more affected by the "weakness" of redundant description and
+expression. Then, too, the glorification of all her characters, her way of
+giving them unlimited wealth, beauty or genius, is like that play of the
+imagination of children which they exhibit by talking of the time when they
+will be rich and will give one another hundreds of thousands of dollars.
+Every one of the longer novels is marred by this fictitious extravagance:
+it is in her short stories alone that she manages to touch the earth, and
+in them her pathos is genuine and direct.
+
+THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY.
+
+
+
+
+A KENTUCKY DUEL.
+
+TWO PARTS.--II.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+When Walter Brown heard of the delicacy of his clerk in keeping the name of
+his family out of that foolish altercation, and saw the masterly summary he
+had made of the business confided to his hand, the bold operator in pork
+recognized a value in his clerk. To his remonstrances Bob said, "It's a
+closed account, sir, and I must pay the balances. If I let the police
+interfere, I shall have a dozen rows on hand, and could not manage the
+roughs in the yard."
+
+But, though Mr. Brown saw that he could not interfere without injuring
+Bob's reputation, he resolved that she who had made the quarrel should stop
+it. He sent the dowager, packed with her prejudices, to the police
+magistrate. "Hold up your hand. You swear L. B. Mason, Esq., and ----
+Nettles contemplate a breach of the peace?" said the judge.
+
+"I can't swear of my own knowledge," said she. "It is incredible a nettles
+"--with a small _n_--"should meet a Brown," with a four-line pica _B_. And
+it did seem incredible to the august dowager.
+
+"Really, madam, we have nothing to found a warrant upon," said the
+court.--"Show the lady out, and call the next case."
+
+In fact, as decided in _Ex-parte Jones_, the right of personal redress was
+recognized by law in Kentucky, and an elective judiciary cared neither to
+ignore nor acknowledge the case. But in going out she heard a policeman
+make some reference to the duel in conversing with a comrade.
+
+"Of what were you speaking just now?" asked the dowager.
+
+"Of a little game between a low-down dead-beat and a gent," said the
+policeman.
+
+"If I understand you," said the dowager, "I am glad to find such correct
+feeling in men of your class."
+
+"Oh, it's so on the Force," said the man. "Short-stop is quite a favo-rite
+with the tip-toppers. You may ha' heerd o' him. T'other's a sort o'
+stool-pigeon--name Mason. They do say as a rich aunt o' his'n got him into
+it. Blest if she'll get much of him out of it when Nettles is done with
+him! Why, Nettles beats professionals!--Now, boy, you going to drive your
+missis' carriage, or shall I? This ain't no place to scrouge about and
+stare."
+
+Aunt Fanny sank back astounded. Was she a Moabitish mother who had
+sacrificed her nephew to a professional duellist? "Drive to Lawyer
+Winnett's," she said--"quick!"
+
+"Your information was sufficient," said the lawyer with that contempt the
+profession has for irregular police proceedings, "but the code is a bastard
+child of the law. If you had a warrant the officers would not execute it."
+
+"But," said the dowager, brought face to face with a family prejudice in
+favor of the code, "it is too horrible to suppose that peace-officers will
+stand coolly by and see homicide contemplated and executed without
+interference."
+
+"True, nevertheless," said the lawyer, too familiar with contradictions of
+the law to regard it. "But, in fact, I wished to speak to you of your
+nephew's affairs. Captain Mason sent a schedule of his liabilities this
+morning, saying you had authorized their settlement. I don't regard Captain
+Mason's stories usually, but there was something about a family marriage
+included, which, knowing your wishes, I think justifies me in referring to
+it."
+
+"The wretch!" said his aunt. "I have authorized nothing of the kind."
+
+"No? Well, excuse my reference to it. It just occurred to me if such an
+arrangement was contemplated we might kill two birds with one stone."
+
+"How?" asked the dowager. "I want this atrocious duel stopped. The rabble
+have my name mixed in it, as if I counselled or approved. I am shocked at
+it, and it must be stopped at any cost."
+
+"Of course," said the lawyer, his professional coolness contrasting with
+the dowager's fierce temper. "I might buy up Captain Mason's notes in the
+hands of Walker or Levi, and have him arrested in civil proceedings as
+about to leave the State to avoid his creditors. That writ would go into
+the hands of the sheriff, and I do not doubt its execution. Captain Mason's
+credit is such at present he cannot find security. If necessary, I could
+put on some others," looking over the schedule. "I have no doubt it will
+hold him until the matter is stopped. If you instruct me to that effect,
+you can go home, madam, and leave it to me."
+
+How refreshing it was to meet a practical, sound head in all that
+confusion! Much relieved, Aunt Fanny hurried home to comfort Sudie, just
+wakened to grief by her father's visit.
+
+The dowager's appreciation of the shrewd lawyer's hypothesis was heightened
+almost immediately by a visit from Wylde Payne with a note from her nephew
+soliciting pecuniary assistance. The dowager fairly clapped her hands. It
+began to assume all the interest of a race or a match game at whist. "We
+shall take every trick, child," said she; "and this Mister Payne, my
+overseer's grandson, who made all this trouble, shall be laid by the heels
+to begin with."
+
+She kept him in the anteroom while she despatched a swift messenger to her
+lawyer asking for a policeman to take Payne into custody. Lind Mason's
+second, it will be observed, had had every assurance that his principal was
+fighting his aunt's quarrel, and looked for no small share of commendation
+for his own zeal and services. He had time to hear the regular movements of
+a great household revolving about the pivotal dinner-hour before he rang a
+second time. Then the mulatto maid, Memmie, appeared: "This way, sah. Yalla
+Memmie done knowed ye when ye could tie you'se'f in a cawnah o' yo'
+pock't-hankchah and put yo'se'f in yo' pock't."
+
+Pondering on such precocious jugglery of his early years, he was ushered
+into the dowager's boudoir, where she sat with Sudie and ma'amselle.
+
+"Be seated, Mr. Payne," she said with that royal gesture of command
+habitual to power in her sphere. "I am glad to see you. You are at the
+bottom of this bloody business."
+
+Payne took breath as from a sudden douche, and began a speech conned over
+in the carriage: "In a crisis involving the honor of a noble family--"
+
+"I know the false and criminal jargon by which you justify your barbarous
+code," interrupted the haughty dowager. "It lacks that manly directness I
+require in all who address me. Why, sir, did you avail yourself of a
+quick-tempered old woman's hasty words to force her wretched nephew into
+wicked folly? How dared you intercept my messenger?" sharply, as if at a
+new and sudden offence just sprung.
+
+All this was astounding to Payne as the caresses of a tigress; but his too
+was a bold, high temper when aroused, and he retorted: "Madam, if you
+desire your nephew to be kicked and cuffed and driven from his cousin's
+house, it cannot be as Wylde Payne's friend. Your messenger was excluded by
+Captain Mason's orders, he having matters more important in hand than the
+intermeddling of a lady who had forced him into this business, but who now
+makes a merit of deserting him and abusing those who decline to act as
+treacherously."
+
+The hot shot went home to the magazine, for the dowager rose blazing: "I
+know you for murder's lackey, and the cheap notoriety you seek, at the cost
+of your friend's courage and life, as the witness of his assassination,
+ready to testify it was well and fairly done--the base policeman of murder,
+to guard guilt in its guiltiness as the law protects the innocent in
+innocency. But you shall not escape: mark that!"
+
+"I am responsible for my actions and easy to find," said Payne. "I scorn a
+law that presumes to enter into my feelings and judge the measure of my
+wounded honor."
+
+"Weigh your words well," said the dowager--"you who presume to sit in
+judgment on the honor of a Brown! Public opinion is ripe to break the
+shackles of this vile code. No mail of chivalry protects the second who
+stands coolly by, a participant and accessory without risk or danger, to
+justify the black murder done on his bosom friend. When wealth and social
+influence are thrown into the scale against one who caught up a rash
+woman's hasty word, as hastily repented, we shall know what the law thinks
+of one who excluded her messenger of peace and pressed his victim on to the
+murdering-ground."
+
+Angry as she was, the old lady was putting her points well. Payne's
+position was already very equivocal. Common rumor presented him as forcing
+that Boabdil Mason to the mark; but he answered contemptuously, "You have
+already appealed to the law, and know the result."
+
+"I do," interrupted the dowager, crumpling the lawyer's unread note in her
+hand. "You will find your friend's quarters in the Louisville jail, and a
+policeman at the door to escort you to him."
+
+Payne rose hastily and left the room without ceremony.
+
+"Oh, aunty!" said little Sue, who had listened to the roar of great guns in
+awe and terror, "it will make you sick."
+
+"Sick!" said the dowager, looking almost real in her affected youth with
+congenial excitement: "it is life, child. But let us see what Winnett
+says."
+
+Before reading the lawyer's note let us follow Payne. The reader will
+understand that Mason was now in the condition of Ivanhoe after his wager
+with the Templar of the precious reliquary, and before he was relieved by
+the gratitude of Isaac of York. He lacked the means to get to his Ashby de
+la Zouche. But at Payne's rueful face in telling of his interview with the
+dowager the graceless scamp threw his fat figure on the bed, cracking his
+sides with laughter.
+
+"I don't see the fun," said Payne sulkily. "I wish I was well out of it.
+The dowager talked devilish strong."
+
+"If my aunt won't help us," said Mason, "my uncle will. You must just take
+my stop-watch to the three balls.
+
+    Farewell to my golden repeater!
+    We've come to my uncle's old shop!"
+
+Payne was just leaving when a voice in the next room stopped him. "It's
+that infernal pawnbroker," said he in a rage.
+
+The man came in, smooth, civil, obsequious. "I thought you'd like to have
+this thing off your mind," said he, presenting a note of Mason's.
+
+The two looked at each other blankly.
+
+"See here, Levison," said Mason coaxingly: "you know my aunt will settle
+all these things, and I want money right now. Payne was just going to see
+you."
+
+"She'll pay some--not this," said the man coolly. "In fact, I am just from
+Winnett's. He has paid Levi and Walker"--at which Mason stared--"and taken
+out a writ in summary proceedings. In fact, I come to warn you, and one
+good turn deserves another: pay it and go."
+
+Mason by chaffering got a small sum on his watch over the debt. He was
+clear at last. Payne had left, and Mason was taking a final drink at the
+bar when a man tapped his shoulder. Aunt Fanny had played her trump and
+won: it was the sheriff.
+
+"All right!" said Levison, laughing. "Whenever you _have_ anything, you
+know, I am accommodating, but--"
+
+We can now return and read Aunt Fanny's correspondence.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+When the lawyer's note, by anticipation, announced the arrest described in
+the last chapter, Aunt Fanny, like an old spirit of the turf, began to
+groom for that other match. I declare it was not an unlovely sight to see
+the two women, youth and its affectation, wrapping arms about each other in
+joyous mood over this double victory.
+
+The dowager took occasion to praise her nephew's gallantry, the chivalry
+that prompted him to take up an old woman's quarrel, with hints that the
+other party, even if his rhymes had been unintentional, betrayed a rudeness
+that ill became the Vere de Vere. Perhaps this part, as it included little
+Sue, had as well have been left out, but Aunt Fanny had her points to make,
+and always played a bold, high game.
+
+As the two sang paeans of victory another note came from the lawyer, which
+quite altered the complexion of things. That ready gamester, Lind Mason,
+had played again and completely turned the tables on Aunt Fanny, using her
+own weapons to wrench victory from her:
+
+"DEAR MRS. BROWN: I regret to say your nephew and his accomplice Levison
+have played us a scoundrelly trick. Levison came to me and proposed to bail
+your nephew. Not knowing the parties were in collusion, and satisfied that
+your nephew was in the sheriff's custody, I tried to put Levison off. But
+he told me coolly that he knew my object was to detain Captain Mason--that
+if I had taken up his first note for fifty dollars, he might have let this
+other one for two hundred and fifty alone; but he must take care of
+himself. He intended to bail every writ until his claim was taken up. If I
+chose to assume all the captain's liabilities first, very well, but it was
+in my discretion to secure him first. No one else would try the same bold
+game. Under your instructions, which were peremptory, I had no choice but
+to accept the offer; which I did. There was necessarily a minute's interval
+in preparing the new writ on Levison's claim, which I sued out at once,
+Captain Mason and the sheriff being in the room, and your nephew
+acquiescing in the arrangement, as I thought. But he stepped out: the
+sheriff went instantly in pursuit by my directions, but with unexampled
+effrontery Captain Mason demanded by what authority he was detained. Of
+course, as, technically speaking, the writ of arrest was not yet served,
+the sheriff could do nothing, and Mason taking the streetcar, the minute's
+interval of returning for the writ allowed him to get off. The sheriff has
+gone to the ferry and put officers at the bridge and elsewhere, but it is
+impossible yet to know the result.
+
+"We must now seize the other party. I have heard of one Joe Skinner, who
+could testify certainly to the contemplated breach of the peace by Mr.
+Nettles. If there was any way to detain that gentleman an hour, until the
+lawyer could get his hands on Skinner!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Humph! detain Mr. Nettles!" said the dowager, glancing from the lawyer's
+note to the pale, pretty face before her. "You look pale, child: a drive
+will help you.--Memmie, have the double racing-buggy and the trotter
+Marmette brought to the door."
+
+"Oh no, aunty," said Sue, shrinking: "it would be wrong while--" While her
+lover was going to his death, Sue thought.
+
+"Pshaw, child!" said the dowager, writing. "We'll see.--Ma'amselle, dress
+Miss Sue for a drive; and a touch of rouge, Hortense: she is too pale."
+
+While the yielding child, ignorant of her aunt's scheme, was being dressed
+like a victim for sacrifice, Bob Nettles read the tinted note:
+
+     "DEAR MR. NETTLES: My niece, Susie Brown, tells me you
+     have an engagement to drive with her this afternoon.
+     Being unwilling to trust the dear child in a vehicle at
+     livery, permit an old lady to put one of her buggies
+     and fast trotters at your service."
+
+If Bob Nettles had one dearer wish than another, it was to see his little
+playmate once more, and make up that dispute before facing her cousin's
+pistol. Aunt Fanny's plan of detaining him was likely to thrive.
+
+Sudie came down, pale and tremulous as a little white withering
+rosebud--very pretty and timid and tender. There was a forced smile at
+meeting, and but few words. He had intended to say how sorry he was to have
+offended her, but he did not. He saw or felt that there was nothing to
+forgive between them now. His was but a shallow, practical mind, and she
+was only a timid, silly little girl; yet they knew of that unspoken love
+between them, and that there was a great trouble, without words.
+
+The mare stooped to her work and shook herself into a trot, the spokes
+whirling into feathery fans down the silvery-dusted pike cityward, and
+then, skirting its southern flanks, on golden-cushioned country roads,
+rolling smoother and lighter, and the swift wheels growing more wing-like
+at top speed; under silver-leafed poplars and lombardies tapering like
+road-side steeples; by thoroughfare and farm-gate; under beech and maple
+copses and broad oaks on the park-like common; by scarp and counterscarp
+and over the smooth glacis of earthworks, memorials of the late war; by
+woodlands of ash and beech, and over low fallow of redeemed marsh, right
+into the golden eyelashes of the sun. The great summer city lay northward
+under its nebulous canopy of dust, a soft hazy picture, dimpled with domes
+and spires. By surburban villas; by farmsteads overflowed by the swelling
+city; by log churches in cool nooks, contradicting the pretentious
+architecture about them; by happy evening lovers, and wives waiting at the
+gate for their home-coming husbands; by noisy German gardens, and revellers
+in quaint picturesque costumes; by rival coaches, and racing-buggies of the
+sporting gentry that tried to pass them, but soon gave out under the black
+mare's long, tireless stride; about the great city till the broad river lay
+all ablush before them with sunset. And then curving back into town, the
+soft dazzle melting into umber; through streets breaking into brilliants of
+parallel burners that end in a star, to the utter confusion of geometric
+definition; through streets of home-going multitudes, and by open summer
+windows showing the spread cloth and tableware; over the hoarse drum-beat
+of the bridge, and by the marble palaces of the dead looking cool and
+tranquil in the rising moon; winding the shell drive between Osage orange
+hedges; and then the half-aerial flight of those wing-like wheels is over
+for ever and for ever.
+
+Then Sudie spoke. She felt she must say something, utter some protest of
+her womanhood against that wicked, wicked business: "Mr. Nettles, do you
+not think it wrong to fight a duel?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Sue," said he gravely, "it is a very wicked thing."
+
+She looked for some equivocation, some excuse or palliation of the wrong,
+which she would have to controvert--poor little logician of love!--and show
+him how bad it was; and then he would not do it. She hardly knew what to
+say to that speech.
+
+"I don't think I could love any one that fights duels," was the next
+effort, still, poor child! offering her coin, her woman's affections, in
+that cruel, heedless market of men.
+
+He said nothing: he felt it was right she should say that, and that he
+should bear it in silence.
+
+At the door he stopped to part with her for ever. She could not bear it.
+She was deathly white, the touch of rouge starting out like a blood-spot.
+
+"Cannot you help it?" she asked.
+
+"No, Miss Sue," he said simply, "I can't."
+
+She said nothing: just put up her lips and kissed him, and fled up stairs
+swiftly and softly, poor weeping, breaking little heart, crushed under the
+iron wheels of that cruel code!
+
+"Come in, Mr. Nettles," said the dowager: "there is some one waiting here
+to see you."
+
+He entered and found Mr. Winnett, a short, stout, dark-eyed gentleman, who
+shook hands with him laughingly as he said, "We have heard of this
+business, Mr. Nettles, and mean to stop it: it involves Mrs. Brown's name,
+you see. But she will send you with the officer in her carriage to avoid
+any exposure."
+
+"Has Captain Mason been arrested?" asked Bob.
+
+"No, but--"
+
+He could say no more. Bob laid a hand on the broad sill of the open window,
+and crashed down among the running roses.
+
+"Stop him!" cried Mr. Winnett.
+
+"Here, my little feller!" said Policeman X----.
+
+Bob was not short-stop for nothing. The man's heels went up as Bob leaped
+into the buggy and drove off, the policeman following.
+
+"The man's a fool," said Aunt Fanny.
+
+"You mean Nettles?"
+
+"The man who tries to beat my trotter," said she. "Well, we have played and
+lost."
+
+Yes, lost; for that artful gamester, Mason, after his arrest had taken
+Levison aside and put it to that bold operator that his aunt's object was
+to break up the duel, and that she would pay any claim to do it, but if he
+was detained by the writs of Levi and Walker the opportunity was lost. He
+agreed to give Levison a pre-dated note for two hundred and fifty dollars
+for one hundred and twenty-five dollars cash if he (Levison) would release
+him from the present arrest. We know the result. Instead of stopping her
+nephew, Aunt Fanny had lent him wings to fly. While the lawyer explained
+this the bell rang and a card--Deane Lee, to see Captain Nettles--was
+brought in.
+
+"Who is Deane Lee?" she asked.
+
+"How fortunate!" said the lawyer. "It is Mr. Nettles's second."
+
+"We can appeal to his feelings," said the dowager.
+
+"Do," said he. "I will remain outside, and use an appeal men of his sort
+understand better."
+
+"Pray be seated, Captain Lee," said the dowager.
+
+"This," thought Lee, "is the lady who made the duel: she looks game to
+carry it through;" but he only bowed.
+
+"I may be the first to inform you," said she, "that my nephew will
+necessarily require a postponement of his affair with your friend. We hope
+to have your help, sir."
+
+Deane fingered his cap and bowed again.
+
+"To be entirely frank," said she graciously, "Captain Mason lacks means. He
+applied to me, but of course I cannot furnish it for such a purpose."
+
+"Certainly not," said Lee: "the matter has been too much talked of already;
+but not by our side, ma'am."
+
+"Yes," said she. "You will, I trust, give us your assistance."
+
+"Certainly--yes'm," said Lee: "it shall be done accordin' to Hoyle. Beg
+pardon, but give yourself no trouble about it."
+
+"What a burden you remove!" said the dowager. "Such a delicate matter, and
+my nephew feels that his honor is involved. Oh, you men! you men! But I am
+so fortunate to have met you!"
+
+The dowager was really impressed and pleased with his prompt acquiescence
+in the postponement.
+
+"Yes'm," continued Deane, "I'll see to it at once. Nettles needn't know a
+word."
+
+"Thank you," said the dowager, sunning him with a royal grace of
+manner--"so delicate and considerate in you! Yes, I should prefer that."
+She evidently thought he referred to her nephew's impecuniosity; and he
+did, but not as she supposed.
+
+"Not a word," continued Deane, thinking she must be a right jolly old girl,
+after all. "Of course, ma'am, you couldn't advance the money to Captain
+Mason: it 'ud look ugly for a lady. But the boys shall have their fun: I'll
+lend him the shads myself."
+
+"Sir!" shrieked the dowager.
+
+"I beg, ma'am, you'll take no trouble," said Deane, anxiously polite. "It's
+no inconvenience whatever--in fact, to my advantage. I've got two or three
+little bets out the thing'll come off; so I'm bound to come out even."
+
+The dowager flashed up, and rang the bell violently, her whole face
+convulsed with passion: "Show this man out! show him off the place!"
+
+Lee walked out gravely, fingering his cap. At the door he turned to the
+mulatto and said sympathetically, "Does she have 'em often?"
+
+"What, young marsta?"
+
+"Fits," said Lee sententiously, and walked off.
+
+But he was not through yet. The lawyer waited under the gaslight, and as
+the soldier, pondering the late interview curiously, approached, he
+addressed him: "Captain Lee, I believe?"
+
+"Them's my initials," said Deane. "What about it?"
+
+"A shrewd young fellow like you might make something out of this duel."
+
+"As how?" asked Deane.
+
+"The old lady would pay handsomely to have it postponed," said the lawyer.
+
+"Whe-ew-ew!" whistled Lee, a light breaking on him. "What a mule's head
+I've been!"
+
+"You see the chance, eh?" asked the lawyer.
+
+"Lookee here," said Deane, taking him confidentially by the arm: "I don't
+mind letting you into a secret if you'll keep dark."
+
+The lawyer nodded gravely.
+
+"_You_ can make a pot of money out of it," continued Deane.
+
+It was not exactly the line of suggestion anticipated, and it was Mr.
+Winnett's turn to ask "How?"
+
+"I've strictly private and confidential information, you know--"
+
+"Of course, of course," acquiesced the lawyer.
+
+"That the other side is devilish hard up," said Deane in an emphatic
+whisper. "See 'em privately on that p'int. It's no use talking to us: we're
+flush."
+
+With that he strode abruptly into the dark, leaving Mr. Winnett to puzzle
+out whether he had just heard a serious proposition or had been subjected
+to the hoax of a solemn wag.
+
+That ended the efforts to stop the duel, and night with its grief and
+penitence came on all interested in the parties to it. On the dowager in
+her cushioned chair, with a finger in the prayer-book, seeing the portrait
+of her only son brought home stricken to death by his own gun thirty years
+ago, as it changed from the long curls and blue eyes of childhood to a
+handsome but weak bearded face of a man, dreadfully like that other face as
+she saw it on the bed under the white seals of death. On a homely old
+mother lying in the back room of a village store, and a short, square man
+walking up and down and saying, "Don't take on so, old gal: you'll hurt
+yourself. It's just them newspaper lies. Our Bob wouldn't fight no dule."
+And the woman's sob: "Lost, body and soul! soul and body!--our boy Bob,
+John! our boy Bob!" On poor little Sue with her headache as she answers her
+mother's inquiry that she's "Better, mamma;" but as her father asks the
+same question she puts up her arms about his neck, and says, "Oh, papa! oh,
+papa!" and the shrewd, worldly man kneels down and prays with her for the
+life of that alien sinner yonder as he has not prayed since he was a man.
+On Bob himself at the hotel quietly reading to the listening major, "I am
+the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were
+dead, yet shall he live," as if every comforting word was a denunciation.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+After his victory over his aunt, Mason's spirits had been continually
+rising. That humorist Payne, who thought it such a hoax to pit two
+cocktails against each other and pull the strings of the puppets, writhed
+under his merciless chaff. Mason had called for candles, and, chipping
+balls of the spermaceti blacked in an aesthetic spirit with pencil-dust, had
+used them for practice with a parlor pistol, alleging that the leaden balls
+damaged the furniture. When Lee came to cast bullets, using the brazier's
+furnace in the room, Mason made him sit down, took the moulds and threw
+them in the Brown duelling pistol-case, and set himself to entertain the
+party and chaff Payne. He lolled back in his chair, his handsome figure
+showing to advantage, now rallying Payne on the prospect of figuring in a
+"ring-tailed gaberdine" as a victim of the dowager's anger, and now
+reciting marvellous horse-stories, mixed with anecdotes pertinent and
+impertinent. The party consisted of an editor, a surgeon, a German
+geologist prospecting that wonderful fossil bed of the Falls, and evidently
+looking on Mason as a miracle excelling anything dug up, and the seconds.
+
+Mason rattled on with his racing and racy anecdotes: "Yes, sir, it was a
+perfectly white mare, sky-blue mane and tail. I put her in the racing-buggy
+on Aunt Fanny's round quarter-track, and she spun around so fast the off
+wheels never touched the turf from the quarter-post to the judges' stand.
+Fact, gentlemen! fastest trotting-time on record. Rather peculiar color
+too."
+
+"Very," said the German in admiration of his host. "A remarkable
+peculiarity in the pigment granules. What became of this singular animal?"
+
+"Singular, as you say," said Mason easily. "She took navicular and jolted
+off her pins: trotted ten miles an hour on the stubs after she cast her
+hoofs."
+
+"Eggsdraordinary vitality!" ejaculated the German in deep gutturals, and
+looking around as if distrustful of Mason's rapid utterance. "How did you
+call it?"
+
+"Skylight," said Mason carelessly. "Imp. Milky Way by dam Cerulean, as the
+stud-books rather profanely style it. Tremendous vitality, though!" passing
+a pair of moulds to Lee and winking to attract his attention, "I thought to
+preserve the hair and hide as a curiosity. Wouldn't do--wouldn't begin to
+do! Digestive function so strong action continued from the skin. Had to
+substitute brickdust and charcoal. Drop into my private museum some day.
+Happy to show you that and some other curiosities picked up in my rather
+remarkable adventures."
+
+Lee was now busy casting bullets, and Mason's spirits seemed to rise with
+the operation. Some listened, others laughed, but Mason had a cool way of
+perking up his eyebrows and going on negligently, as much as to say, "If
+you deprive yourself of the satisfaction of believing, the fault lies with
+the listener." He seemed divided between a wish to distract Lee from
+careful observation of his employment and to chaff Payne. Once Payne
+started suddenly as if about to say something to Lee, but a look quenched
+him.
+
+"Friend of my youth, this goblet sip," laughed Mason. "For what says the
+Psalmist?--'Let the galded jade wince, our wethers is unwrung.' But never
+be it said," rising and speaking with theatrical emotion--"Not while Reason
+holds her throne in this distracted globe--never, while Mason lives, shall
+his Damon, his caster, be cast in prison-bonds by a ravaging female
+she-aunt. Never shall penitential garb encase those manly limbs nor base
+turnkey's shears clip those auburn locks for which ripe beauty in melting
+accents is wont to plead in vain."
+
+"You're devilish generous," growled Payne. "You know the old griffin
+doesn't propose to bag me unless you get hit."
+
+"Is it possible," asked the German, catching a meaning in this raillery,
+"the second of an American duel is imprisoned if his principal is shot? I
+ask for information."
+
+"You have come to the right shop now," said Lind. "He is, invariably. Some
+rather curious contretemps grow out of it. Duelling is very popular among
+us, very--especially with the fair sex," kissing his hand to an indefinite
+noun of multitude. "A great favorite being imprisoned for acting as second,
+the people took it up--elected him governor by an overwhelming majority. It
+was supposed, of course, he would pardon himself; but no: he was a Roman,
+the noblest Roman of them all. 'The prerogative of executive clemency,' he
+said, 'had already been grossly abused. It would ill repay the generous
+confidence of his constituents to exercise it in his own behalf and in
+order to escape the just penalty of the law.' He refused to pardon himself,
+and so served out his term in both offices."
+
+This struck the German as something heroic.
+
+"True, sir, true," said Lind: "rather inconvenient, however. When the
+legislature met, as it necessarily did, in the penitentiary, you could not
+tell a member from a convict. Rather awkward, you see, if the wrong body
+adjourned itself by mistake."
+
+The party broke up late, and Mason, throwing off his coat, called for
+Webster's _Quarto_ and Watson's _Poetical Quotations_, saying he would
+address his aunt in such an Orphic strain as would make her wig curl and
+ma'amselle's rouge-pot chalky. Watson's _Poetical Quotations_ was not in
+the hotel; but with the big _Quarto_ before him, arms akimbo, his legs
+spread out under the table, Mason went at his task, pausing to shout a
+passage at Payne, and swear it would liquefy the crystal of his aunt's
+frigid humor like a hot collar in July, or to scratch his head over some
+fickle-vowelled monosyllable that defied orthography; and the soft dark
+night deepened to the gray, lustreless morning.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An early marketer from Jeffersonville spread a rumor that R. Nettles was
+shot through the lungs, and poor little Sue read it in the paper an hour
+later. An eager reporter recognized the hotel-van from over the river, with
+a tarpaulin thrown over its contents. "Anything of Captain Mason's party?"
+he asked.
+
+"Stout, rosy man, good deal o' gas?" asked the porter.
+
+"Yes! yes! what of him?"
+
+"Nothing: I guess he won't gas no more," motioning toward the tarpaulin.
+"Them's his'n. Do you know where his aunt lives?"
+
+Anybody knows; the van drives off; the rumor flies--both parties slain.
+
+Let us follow the van. At Aunt Fanny's the tarpaulin is thrown off, and
+reveals nothing worse than a trunk, gun-case, etc., but the man's story
+confirms the worst. He has a letter for the dowager, and it is sent up. The
+dowager calls ma'amselle to read, which she does with strong emotion and
+French accent:
+
+"MY DEAR AND VENERATED AUNT--"
+
+"Hand me the vinaigrette, and don't read so loud: I am not deaf," said the
+dowager.
+
+The poor maid subdued her tones as she best could, and read:
+
+"Now is the hour when churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead. It is
+midnight's holy hour. I hear the rush of the Falls like a mill-sluice, and
+it recalls 'the happy, happy hours of childhood.' But ere another day I may
+ride upon the Styx, and hear the dam loud roaring no more."
+
+"Ride upon a stick, and hear _what_?" ejaculated the dowager at poor Lind's
+rhetoric.
+
+"Mais oui, madame," translates the French maid, "c'est la fleuve de l'enfer
+et les cris des ames perdues."
+
+"Oh, the Styx!" said the dowager, taking snuff.--"Use your handkerchief,
+Hortense, and go on."
+
+She obeys:
+
+"Ere my venerated aunt peruses this calligraphy an eagle soaring in its
+pride of place will be by a mousing Nettles hawked at and killed."
+
+"Poor boy!" said his aunt. "I must have a black grenadine, trimmed with
+bugles and flounced very deep, for mourning.--Don't forget it, Hortense."
+
+"My last thoughts," continued the reader, "are with my revered relative;
+for who forgave the boyish trick, and fed me on a candy-stick, and nursed
+me when it made me sick?--My aunt. Who taught me to back a colt or make a
+book? Who entered me for the purse with Cousin Fanny Alison, but the filly
+bolted with Bob Ascot?--My aunt."
+
+"Patience alive!" cried the dowager: "what does the man mean, with his
+doggerel poetry and slang of the stables at such a time?"
+
+"Oh, madame! it is noble," said the poor maid with streaming eyes, and then
+continued:
+
+"She besought me with the salt rheum in her optical organs to suppress my
+fury; but who can restrain the wrath of a Brown? She denied me the
+spondulics--a Latin word for cash--to carry out my nefarious purpose,
+though it grieved her generous heart."
+
+"That's well thought of," said the dowager. "People talk so. We must get it
+to those newspaper-men. Poor Lind!"
+
+"To those who assert a mercenary motive I triumphantly respond, 'She paid
+up my little bills, and has doubtless destroyed the evidences of them.'"
+
+"They are in the steel casket," said the dowager. "Burn them. But he never
+would have paid."
+
+"When she honors my sight draft," read ma'amselle, "for two-fifty to settle
+up my present expenses in this business, she will pay the last debt of him
+who has paid the last debt of Nature. For if the knave do cut but deep
+enough, I'll pay it instantly with all my heart. (_Shakespeare_.)
+
+L. BROWN MASON."
+
+"Give me the cheque-book, and let the man come up," said the dowager.
+
+The man was questioned, and had but little to tell. He was told Captain
+Mason had been shot, and to bring the letter. After he was dismissed the
+dowager said, "Let Fanny bring the chocolate. I hope the cream is better:
+it curdled yesterday. Poor Lind! He had a good heart."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About the time his aunt was cashing his last draft, and reckoning that that
+little enterprise of marrying Sue Brown to Captain Mason had cost her a
+thousand dollars for failure, Captain Mason, with a party in the carriage,
+stood on Mrs. Walter Brown's front steps explaining to her that at a little
+expense in cutting down her ornamental trees and grubbing up her rare
+exotic shrubbery the front lawn could be converted into a beautiful
+quarter-track, and offering his services to effect the desirable change.
+Then advancing, he graciously held out his hand to poor, pale, red-eyed
+little Sudie, still hysterical over that dreadful paragraph.
+
+"No," said Sue tartly. "Mamma may shelter you from the police, but you
+ought to be hung. There! And I won't shake a _murderer's_ hand. There! I
+won't! I won't! I won't! There!"
+
+Mason's jolly face looked queer. "I see," said he. "'Twas ever thus from
+childhood's hour. I never bucked a card or colt, but what some fellow held
+the bower or else that horse was sure to bolt. When, at pensive evening's
+hour, I stroll among the tombs, I read the virtues of the--erra--clammy,
+the clammy. As I read the testimony of the rocks, of the rocks, it strikes
+me the wicked never die, and I long to be--erra--wicked. There is no
+raising that card," wagging his head solemnly at little Sue, who stared in
+spite of herself, "until Gable--I believe his name is Gable--turns trump.
+But I have brought you all that is mortal of the late R. Nettles."
+
+He turned to the door as he spoke, while the shocked, terrified girl hid
+her face, thinking of the vision in that very parlor under the white seals
+of death.
+
+But Bob Nettles's cheery, commonplace tones interrupted: "How'd do, Miss
+Sue? how'd do, Mrs. Brown? Captain Mason said he'd break it to you, and I
+thought--"
+
+But Sue had turned her face to the wall in a corner, and stood shaking her
+plump shoulders and stamping her little feet like a pettish child, as she
+said, "Go 'way from me, Bob Nettles! I'll never speak to you again as long
+as I live; and as for Cousin Lind," with a shake and a stamp, "I hate him!"
+
+"See what it is to lose the virtues of the clammy," said Mason, pulling his
+beard and grinning at Bob's blank looks. "But I must go to my aunt. By a
+shocking oversight we forgot to settle the hotel-bill at Jeffersonville,
+and I am afraid the greedy landlord has forwarded a note to have been
+delivered to her in case of accident, and a draft. It is humiliating to
+think she has paid it, and honor requires I should promptly settle it with
+an I.O.U. As for Payne--"
+
+"Dry that up," said Payne.
+
+"Well, I'll only say the next duel I fight may Payne load the pistols!"
+added the captain.
+
+What that meant is the unsolved mystery of the duel. Deane Lee insists that
+it was a fair, honest, stand-up fight. True, he had used the wrong moulds
+the night before in casting bullets, but he had seen Payne load the famous
+Brown duelling-pistols.
+
+But Mason's old comrades wink at the story of the wax bullets blacked with
+pencil-dust by Mason to represent the real thing, and say Payne was so
+cowed by the dowager's threat and Mason's chaff that no power could have
+made him charge with dangerous missiles. Mason himself says that neither he
+nor Nettles could have hit a barn-door; but a mere index of the veracious
+stories of that famous duel, as told by Mason, would fill a book. As his
+debts were paid and the dowager keeps him in feather, and as Bob and Sue
+were married, that game-bird is right in declaring it the only duel that
+was ever "satisfactorily adjusted honorably to all parties."
+
+WILL WALLACE HARNEY.
+
+
+
+
+FOLK-LORE OF THE SOUTHERN NEGROES.
+
+
+All tribes and peoples have their folk-lore, whether embodied in tales of
+daring adventure, as in our own doughty Jack the Giant-killer, or in
+stories of genii and magic, as in the _Arabian Nights_, or in legends of
+wraiths, witches, bogles and apparitions, as among the Scotch peasantry;
+and these fables are so strongly tinged with the peculiarities--or rather
+the idiosyncrasies--of the race among whom they originate as to furnish a
+fair index of its mental and moral characteristics, not only at the time of
+their origin, but so long as the people continue to narrate them or listen
+to them.
+
+The folk-lore of Africo-Americans, as appearing in our Southern States, is
+a medley of fables, songs, sayings, incantations, charms and superstitious
+traditions brought from various tribes along the West African coast, and so
+far condensed into one mass in their American homes that often part of a
+story or tradition belonging to one tribe is grafted, without much regard
+to consistency, upon a part belonging to another people, while they are
+still further complicated by the frequent infusion into them of ideas
+evidently derived from communication with the white race.
+
+Any one who will take the trouble to analyze the predominant traits of
+negro character, and to collate them with the predominant traits of African
+folk-lore, will discern the fitness of each to each. On every side he will
+discover evidences of a passion for music and dancing, for visiting and
+chatting, for fishing and snaring, indeed for any pleasure requiring little
+exertion of either mind or body; evidences also of a gentle, pliable and
+easy temper--of a quick and sincere sympathy with suffering wheresoever
+seen--of a very low standard of morals, combined with remarkable dexterity
+in satisfying themselves that it is right to do as they wish. Another
+trait, strong enough and universal enough to atone for many a dark one, is
+that, as a rule, there is nothing of the fierce and cruel in their nature,
+and it is scarcely possible for anything of this kind to be grafted
+permanently upon them.
+
+Of their American-born superstitions, by far the greater part are
+interwoven with so-called religious beliefs, and go far to show their
+native faith in dreams and visions, which they are not slow to narrate, to
+embellish, and even to fabricate extemporaneously, to suit the ears of a
+credulous listener; also showing their natural tendency to rely upon
+outward observances, as if possessed of some _fetish_-like virtue, and in
+certain cases a horrible debasement of some of the highest and noblest
+doctrines of the Christian faith. These superstitions must of course be
+considered apart from the real character of those who are sincerely pious,
+and upon which they are so many blemishes. They are, in fact, the rank and
+morbid outgrowth of the peculiarities of religious denominations grafted
+upon the prolific soil of their native character.
+
+Of the few which may be mentioned without fear of offence, since they
+belong to the negro rather than to his denomination, the following are
+examples: Tools to be used in digging a grave must never be carried through
+a house which any one inhabits, else they will soon be used for digging the
+grave of the dweller. Tools already used for such a purpose must not be
+carried directly home. This would bring the family too closely for safety
+into contact with the dead. They must be laid reverently beside the grave,
+and allowed to remain there all night. A superstition in respect to posture
+is by some very rigorously observed. It is, that religious people must
+never sit with their legs crossed. The only reason given--though we cannot
+help suspecting that there must be another kept in concealment--is, that
+_crossing the legs is the same as dancing, and dancing is a sin_.
+
+These are fair samples of Americanized superstitions--puerile, it is true,
+but harmless. It is only when we come into contact with negroes of pure
+African descent that we discover evidences of a once prevalent and not
+wholly discarded demonolatry. The native religion of the West African,
+except where elevated by the influence of Mohammedanism, was not--and,
+travellers tell us, is not yet--a worship of God as such, nor even an
+attempt to know and honor Him, but a constant effort at self-protection.
+The true God, they say, calls for no worship; for, being good in and of
+himself, He will do all the good He can without being asked. But there are
+multitudes of malignant spirits whose delight is to mislead and to destroy.
+These must be propitiated by gifts and acts of worship, or rendered
+powerless by charms and incantations.
+
+No one knows, or has the means of ascertaining, to what extent real
+devil-worship is practised in America, because it is always conducted in
+secret; but we have reason to believe that it has almost entirely ceased,
+being shamed out of existence by the loveliness of a purer and better
+faith, and a belief in the agency of evil spirits, and consequent dread of
+their malign powers, although still more or less dominant with the negroes,
+has also greatly declined.[C] To give a sample of this last: The time
+was--but it has nearly passed away, or else the writer has not been for
+many years in the way of hearing of it, as in the days of childhood--when
+one of the objects of greatest dread among our seaboard negroes was the
+"Jack-muh-lantern." This terrible creature--who on dark, damp nights would
+wander with his lantern through woods and marshes, seeking to mislead
+people to their destruction--was described by a negro who seemed perfectly
+familiar with his subject as a hideous little being, somewhat human in
+form, though covered with hair like a dog. It had great goggle eyes, and
+thick, sausage-like lips that opened from ear to ear. In height it seldom
+exceeded four or five feet, and it was quite slender in form, but such was
+its power of locomotion that no one on the swiftest horse could overtake it
+or escape from it, for it could leap like a grasshopper to almost any
+distance, and its strength was beyond all human resistance. No one ever
+heard of its victims being bitten or torn: they were only compelled to go
+with it into bogs and swamps and marshes, and there left to sink and die.
+There was only one mode of escape for those who were so unfortunate as to
+be met by one of these mischievous night-walkers, and that was by a charm;
+but that charm was easy and within everybody's reach. Whether met by marsh
+or roadside, the person had only to take off his coat or outer garment and
+put it on again inside out, and the foul fiend was instantly deprived of
+all power to harm.
+
+Multifarious, however, as are the forms and aspects of folk-lore among this
+remarkable and in some respects highly interesting people, the chief bulk
+of it lies stored away among their fables, which are as purely African as
+are their faces or their own plaintive melodies. Travellers and
+missionaries tell us that the same sweet airs which are so often heard in
+religious meetings in America, set to Christian hymns, are to be recognized
+in the boats and palm-roofed houses of Africa, set to heathen words, and
+that the same wild stories of Buh Rabbit, Buh Wolf, and other _Buhs_ that
+are so charming to the ears of American children, are to be heard to this
+day in Africa, differing only in the drapery necessary to the change of
+scene.
+
+Almost without exception the actors in these fables are brute animals
+endowed with speech and reason, in whom mingle strangely, and with
+ludicrous incongruity, the human and brute characteristics. The _dramatis
+personae_ are always honored with the title of _Buh_, which is generally
+supposed to be an abbreviation of the word "brother" (the _br_ being
+sounded without the whir of the _r_), but it probably is a title of respect
+equivalent to our Mr. The animals which figure in the stories are chiefly
+Buh Rabbit, Buh Lion, Buh Wolf and Buh Deer, though sometimes we hear of
+Buh Elephant, Buh Fox, Buh Cooter and Buh Goose. As a rule, each Buh
+sustains in every fable the same general character. Buh Deer is always a
+simpleton; Buh Wolf always rapacious and tricky; Buh Rabbit foppish, vain,
+quick-witted, though at times a great fool; Buh Elephant quiet, sensible
+and dignified.
+
+Of the Buh fables, that which is by all odds the greatest favorite, and
+which appears in the greatest variety of forms, is the "Story of Buh Rabbit
+and the Tar Baby." Each variation preserves the great landmarks,
+particularly the closing scene. According to the most thoroughly African
+version, it runs thus: Buh Rabbit and Buh Wolf are neighbors. In a
+conversation one day Buh Wolf proposes that they two shall dig a well for
+their joint benefit, instead of depending upon chance rainfalls or going to
+distant pools or branches, as they often have to do, to quench their
+thirst. To this Buh Rabbit, who has no fondness for labor, though willing
+enough to enjoy its fruits, offers various objections, and finally gives a
+flat refusal.
+
+"Well," says Buh Wolf, who perfectly understands his neighbor, "if you no
+help to dig well, you mustn't use de water."
+
+"What for I gwine use de water?" responds Buh Rabbit with affected disdain.
+"What use I got for well? In de mornin' I drink de dew, an' in middle o'
+day I drink from de cow-tracks."
+
+The well is dug by Buh Wolf alone, who after a while perceives that some
+one besides himself draws from it. He watches, and soon identifies the
+intruder as Buh Rabbit, who makes his visits by night. "Ebery mornin' he
+see Buh Rabbit tracks--ebery mornin' Buh Rabbit tracks." Indignant at the
+intrusion, he resolves to set a trap for his thievish neighbor and to put
+him to death. Knowing Buh Rabbit's buckish love for the ladies, he fits up
+a _tar baby_, made to look like a beautiful girl, and sets it near the
+well. By what magical process this manufacture of an attractive-looking
+young lady out of treacherous adhesive tar is accomplished we are not
+informed. But listeners to stories must not be inquisitive about the
+mysterious parts: they must be content to hear.
+
+Buh Rabbit, emboldened by long impunity, goes to the well as usual after
+dark, sees this beautiful creature standing there motionless, peeps at it
+time and again suspiciously; but being satisfied that it is really a young
+lady, he makes a polite bow and addresses her in gallant language. The
+young lady makes no reply. This encourages him to ask if he may not come to
+take a kiss. Still no reply. He sets his water-bucket on the ground,
+marches up boldly and obtains the kiss, but finds to his surprise that he
+cannot get away: his lips are held fast by the tar. He struggles and tries
+to persuade her to let him go. How he is able to speak with his lips
+sticking fast is another unexplained mystery; but no matter: he does speak,
+and most eloquently, yet in vain. He now changes his tone, and threatens
+her with a slap. Still no answer. He administers the slap, and his hand
+sticks fast. One after the other, both hands and both feet, as well as his
+mouth, are thus caught, and poor Buh Rabbit remains a prisoner until Buh
+Wolf comes the next morning to draw water.
+
+"Eh! eh! Buh Rabbit, wah de matter?" exclaims Buh Wolf, affecting the
+greatest surprise at his neighbor's woeful plight.
+
+Buh Rabbit, who has as little regard for truth as for honesty, replies,
+attempting to throw all the blame upon the deceitful maiden by whom he has
+been entrapped, not even suspecting yet--so we are to infer--that she is
+made of tar instead of living flesh. He declares with all the earnestness
+of injured innocence that he was passing by, in the sweet, honest
+moonlight, in pursuit of his lawful business, when this girl _hailed_ him,
+and decoyed him into giving her a kiss, and was now holding him in unlawful
+durance.
+
+The listener ironically commiserates his captive neighbor, and proposes to
+set him free; when, suddenly noticing the water-bucket and the tracks by
+the well, he charges Buh Rabbit with his repeated robberies by night, and
+concludes by declaring his intention to put him to immediate death.
+
+The case has now become pretty serious, and Buh Rabbit is of course
+woefully troubled at the near approach of the great catastrophe: still,
+even in this dire extremity, his wits do not cease to cheer him with some
+hope of escape. Seeing that his captor is preparing to hang him--for the
+cord is already around his neck and he is being dragged toward an
+overhanging limb--he expresses the greatest joy by capering, dancing and
+clapping his hands--so much so that the other curiously inquires, "What for
+you so glad, Buh Rabbit?"
+
+"Oh," replies the sly hypocrite, "because you gwine hang me and not trow me
+in de brier-bush."
+
+"What for I mustn't trow you in de brier-bush?" inquires Mr. Simpleton
+Wolf.
+
+"Oh," prays Buh Rabbit with a doleful whimper, "please hang me: please trow
+me in de water or trow me in de fire, where I die at once. But don't--oh
+don't--trow me in de brier-bush to tear my poor flesh from off my bones."
+
+"I gwine to do 'zactly wah you ax me not to do," returns Wolf in savage
+tone. Then, going to a neighboring patch of thick, strong briers, he
+pitches Buh Rabbit headlong in the midst, and says, "Now let's see de flesh
+come off de bones."
+
+No sooner, however, does the struggling and protesting Buh Rabbit find
+himself among the briers than he slides gently to the ground, and peeping
+at his would-be torturer from a safe place behind the stems, he says,
+"Tankee, Buh Wolf--a tousand tankee--for _bring me home_! De brier-bush _de
+berry place where I been born_."
+
+Another favorite story is that of the "Foot-Race." Buh Rabbit and Buh Frog
+are admirers of the beautiful Miss Dinah, and try their best to win her.
+The lady likes them both, but not being permitted to marry both, she
+resolves to make her choice depend upon the result of a foot-race. The
+distance is to be ten miles--that is, five miles out and five miles
+in--along a level road densely bordered with bushes. The day arrives. Miss
+Dinah, seated at the starting-point, is to give the word to the rivals, who
+stand one on either side, and the goal for the winner is to be a place _in
+her lap_. By agreement, Buh Rabbit is to take the open road, and Buh Frog,
+who prefers it, is allowed to leap through the bushes, and both are to
+halloo to each other at the end of every mile. Buh Rabbit, however, with
+all his cunning, has this time met his match; for Buh Frog has engaged five
+of his kinsmen, so nearly like himself in appearance that they cannot be
+distinguished from him, and has stationed one in concealment near each
+mile-post, with instructions how to act, while he has provided for himself
+a nice hiding-place in the bushes near Miss Dinah's seat. At the word Go!
+the rivals start, Buh Frog leaping into the bushes, where he disappears,
+and Buh Rabbit capering along the road and flaunting his white tail merrily
+at the thought of distancing the other so far that he shall never see or
+hear of him again till after Miss Dinah has been won. At the end of the
+first mile Buh Rabbit turns his head back and tauntingly halloos, "I here,
+Buh Frog! How you git 'long?"
+
+To his dismay, however, he hears the voice of the other in the bushes ahead
+of him singing out, "Boo-noo! I here too! I beat you here, I'll beat you
+there: I'll beat you back to Miss Dinah's lap!"
+
+On hearing this boast repeated ahead of him in the bushes at each
+mile-post, Buh Rabbit becomes frantic, and rushes through the last mile as
+he had never run before. But all in vain. Just as he comes within easy view
+of the coveted goal he sees Buh Frog leap from the bushes plump into Miss
+Dinah's lap, and hears him sing, with as good breath as though he had not
+run a mile,
+
+    "Boo-noo! Before you!
+    I beat you there, I beat you here:
+    I've beat you back to Miss Dinah's lap!"
+
+Another version makes the competitors Buh Deer and Buh Cooter (the negro
+name for terrapin or land-tortoise), in which Buh Cooter wins the day by
+collusion with some of his closely-resembling kin. Substantially the same
+story is to be heard from the natives of each of the four continents, but
+whether the African gained his idea of it from Europe or Asia, or whether
+the European or Asian gained it from Africa, is perhaps past determining.
+The writer can testify that the story as above narrated, or rather the
+substance of it, was told him in childhood by negroes supposed to have
+obtained it direct from Africa.
+
+Some of these stories are mere laudations of Buh Rabbit's shrewdness and
+common sense. Buh Wolf has long had a watering of the mouth for
+rabbit-flesh, but has never been able to gratify it. He finally hits upon
+the following expedient: He causes a report to be spread that he has
+suddenly died, and all his neighbors, especially Buh Rabbit, are invited to
+his funeral. He has no doubt that his plump, short-tailed neighbor, being
+once enclosed within the walls of his house, will fall an easy prey to
+himself and his attending cousins. Buh Rabbit, however, is not to be easily
+ensnared. He goes demurely to the house of mourning, but does not enter. He
+seats himself on the steps by the side of Buh Cat, who is enjoying the
+sunshine in the doorway.
+
+"Is Buh Wolf dead, for true and true?" he inquires.
+
+"I suppose so. Eberybody say he dead," answers Buh Cat.
+
+"How did he die, and when?" he continues to inquire.
+
+Buh Cat gives the particulars as reported to him, and Buh Rabbit pretends
+to receive them with all faith, expressing great sorrow for the loss
+experienced by the neighborhood. But after a little musing he seems to be
+struck with a new idea, and turning to Buh Cat he inquires in hopeful tone,
+"But did he _grin_ or _whistle_ before he died? People who die _must_ do
+one or t'other; and some, who die hard, do both. I'm a doctor, you know."
+
+This is said in the doorway, near the stiff-looking corpse, and in a
+whisper loud enough to be heard all through the room. Very soon Buh Wolf is
+heard to whistle, and then his lips settle into a grin so broad as to show
+his teeth.
+
+"Buh Cat," says Buh Rabbit, putting his hand on his stomach and screwing up
+his face as if seized with mortal sickness, "I mus' hurry home and take
+some yarb tea, or mebbe I'll have to grin and whistle like our poor
+neighbor. Good-bye, Buh Cat. Come to me, please, after Buh Wolf done berry
+and tell me all about it. Good-bye."
+
+To the surprise of all who are not in the secret, the corpse gives a loud
+sneeze, then leaps from the table, throws off his "berryin' clothes," and
+joins his friends in eating heartily of his own funeral dinner.
+
+His hankering, however, for rabbit-mutton still continues, and he resolves,
+notwithstanding his recent inglorious defeat, to attempt again to gratify
+it. With this end in view he makes frequent visits to his neighbor and
+talks with him across the fence, but is never invited beyond. One day, in
+the course of conversation, he informs him that there is a fine pear tree
+on the other side of a neighboring field, loaded with luscious fruit just
+in condition to be gathered.
+
+"I will go get some."
+
+"When?"
+
+"To-morrow, when the sun is about halfway up the sky."
+
+"Go: I will join you there."
+
+Buh Rabbit rises very early, goes to the tree soon after daybreak, finds
+the pears uncommonly good, and is laughing to himself to think how he has
+outwitted his enemy, when he hears a voice under the tree: "Ho, Mr. Rabbit!
+in the tree a'ready?"
+
+"Yes," replies Buh Rabbit, trembling at the sight of his dreaded foe: "I
+wait for you, and tink you nebber gwine come. I tell you w'at," smacking
+his lips, "dem here pear too good."
+
+"Can't you trow me down some?" inquires Buh Wolf, so strongly impressed by
+the sound of that eloquent smack that he longs to get a taste of the fruit.
+
+Buh Rabbit selects some of the finest, which he throws far off in the soft
+grass, in order, he says, to avoid bruising, and while Buh Wolf is engaged
+in eating them, with his head buried in the grass, Buh Rabbit slides
+quietly from the tree and hurries home.
+
+A few days thereafter Buh Wolf makes still another attempt. He pays a visit
+as before, and speaks of a great fair to be held next day in a neighboring
+town. "I am going," says the rash Buh Rabbit; and he does go, although we
+might suppose that he would have sense enough to keep out of harm's way. On
+returning home, late in the day, he sees Buh Wolf sitting on a log by the
+roadside, at the bottom of a hill, waiting for him. His preparations for
+escape have already been made in the purchase of a quantity of hollow
+tinware. Slipping quietly into the bushes, without being seen by the
+waylayer, he puts a big tin mug on his head and a tin cup on each hand and
+foot, and, hanging various tin articles around his body, he comes rolling
+down the hill toward Buh Wolf, who is so frightened at the unearthly noise
+that he runs off with his tail between his legs, and never troubles Buh
+Rabbit again.
+
+The struggle between them, however, does not cease even with this triumph
+of the weaker party. There is a contest now of love and strategem. They
+both pay their addresses to the same young lady, making their visits to her
+on alternate evenings. In the progress of the courtship Buh Rabbit learns
+that his rival has spoken of him contemptuously, saying that he is very
+dressy and foppish, it is true, but that he has no manliness; adding that
+he (Buh Wolf) could eat him up at a mouthful. To this Buh Rabbit retorts
+the next evening by assuring Miss Dinah that Buh Wolf was nothing but his
+grandfather's old _riding horse_; adding, "I ride him, and whip him too,
+whenever I choose, and he obeys me like a dog." The next afternoon Buh
+Rabbit tempts his unsuspecting rival to join him in the play of riding
+horse, which consists in each in turn mounting the other's back and riding
+for a while. Buh Rabbit, who has thought out the whole case beforehand,
+offers to give the first ride, and so times it that the ride ends at his
+own door about the time for the usual visit to Miss Dinah. He runs into the
+house and puts on his dandy clothes, pleading that he cannot enjoy a ride
+unless he is in full dress; and pleading, moreover, that he cannot ride
+without saddle and bridle and all that belongs to a horseman, he persuades
+Mr. Fool Wolf to allow a strong, rough bit to be put into his mouth and a
+close-fitting saddle to be girded to his back, upon which Buh Rabbit
+mounts, holding in his hand a terrible whip and having his heels armed with
+a pair of long sharp spurs. Thus accoutred, he prevails upon Buh Wolf to
+take the road toward Miss Dinah's house, on approaching which he so
+vigorously applies both whip and spur as to compel his resisting steed to
+trot up to the door, where Buh Rabbit bows politely to his lady-love,
+saying, "I told you so: now you see for yourself." Of course he wins the
+bride.
+
+There is a class of stories approaching somewhat in character those related
+of our own Jack the Giant-killer, leaving out the giants. The one given
+below seems to have a common origin with the Anglo-Saxon story of the
+"Three Blue Pigs." This is entitled "Tiny Pig."
+
+A family of seven pigs leave home to seek their fortunes, and settle in a
+neighborhood harassed by a mischievous fox. Each of these pigs builds
+himself a house of dirt, except Tiny Pig, who, though the runt of the
+litter, is a sensible little fellow and the hero of the tale. He builds his
+house of stone, with good strong doors and a substantial chimney. In due
+course of time, Fox, being hungry, comes to the house of one of the
+brothers, and asks to be admitted, but is refused. The request and refusal,
+as told by the negroes, is couched in language which is intended to be
+poetical, and is certainly not without some pretension to the picturesque.
+Fox's request in each case is--
+
+    "Mr. Pig, Mr. Pig, oh let me in:
+    I'll go away soon, and not touch a thing."
+
+And the refusal is--
+
+    "No, no, Mr. Fox, by the beard on my chin!
+    You may say what you will, but I'll not let you in."
+
+On being refused, Fox threatens to _blow down_ the house and eat up the
+occupant. Pig continuing to refuse--as what pig would not?--the house is
+blown down and the owner eaten up. This sad fate befalls in turn each of
+the six who had been so foolish or so lazy as to build their houses of
+dirt. Fox, having finished all six, and becoming again hungry, comes at
+last to the stone house, where he makes the same hypocritical request, and
+meets the same heroic refusal. He now threatens to blow down the house.
+"Blow away and welcome!" retorts the little hero. Fox blows "until his wind
+gives out," but cannot move the first stone. He then tries scratching and
+tearing with his paws, but only succeeds in tearing off two of his own
+toe-nails. "I will come down your chimney," he threatens, leaping as he
+says so to the roof of the house. "Come soon as you please," sturdily
+replies Tiny Pig, standing before his fireplace with a big armful of dry
+straw ready to be thrown upon the fire. As soon as Fox has entered the
+chimney, and come down too far to return quickly, Tiny Pig throws the dry
+straw upon the fire, which creates such a blaze that Fox is scorched and
+smoked to death, and Tiny Pig lives the rest of his life in peace, the hero
+of his neighborhood.
+
+This story certainly furnishes foundation for a moral which we will leave
+the reader to construct for himself, remarking as we pass that, so far as
+we know, no moral has ever been drawn. Several other stories may be
+regarded as inculcating, though feebly, some moral precept.
+
+One of these bears some features of American negro life, grafted probably
+upon African stock: The denizens of a certain farmyard--ducks, geese,
+turkeys, pea-fowls, guinea-fowls, hens, roosters and all--were invited by
+those of another farmyard to a supper and a dance. They all went as a
+matter of course, headed by the big farmyard rooster, who strutted and
+crowed as he marched. They were a merry set, and such an amount of
+quacking, cackling and gabbling as they made was seldom heard. After a few
+rounds of dancing, just to give them a better appetite for supper and fit
+them for a longer dance afterward, they were introduced to the supper-room.
+There they saw on the table a pyramid of eatables high as the old gobbler's
+head when stretched to its utmost; but, alas! it was, or seemed to be, a
+pyramid of _corn bread_ only--pones upon pones of it, yet nothing but corn
+bread.
+
+On seeing this the rooster becomes very indignant, and struts out of the
+house, declaring that he will have nothing to do with so mean a supper, for
+he can get corn bread enough at home. As he is angrily going off, however,
+the others, who are too hungry to disdain even the plainest fare, fall to
+work; and no sooner has the outer layer of corn loaves been removed--for it
+is only the outer layer--than they find within a huge pile of bacon and
+greens, and at the bottom of the pile, covered and protected by large
+dishes, any amount of pies and tarts and cakes and other good things.
+
+Poor Rooster looks wistfully back, and is sorry that he had made that rash
+speech. But it is too late now, for his word is out, and no one ever knew
+Rooster take back his word if he had to die for it. He learned, however, a
+valuable lesson that night, for from that time to this it has been observed
+that Rooster always _scratches_ with his feet the place where he finds, or
+expects to find, anything to eat, and that he never leaves off scratching
+until he has searched to the bottom.
+
+Our last story is more purely African, at least in its _dramatis personae_.
+Buh Elephant and Buh Lion were one day chatting upon various subjects, when
+the elephant took occasion to say that he was afraid of no being on earth
+except man. On seeing the big boastful eyes of the lion stretching wider
+and his mane bristling, as if in disdain, he added, "You know, Buh Lion,
+that, although you are held as the most to be dreaded of all beasts, I am
+not afraid of any of your tribe, for if any of them should attack me I
+could receive him on my tusk, or strike him dead with my trunk, or even
+shake him off from my body and then trample him to death under my feet. But
+man--who can kill us from a distance with his guns and arrows, who can set
+traps for us of which we have no suspicion, who can fight us from the backs
+of horses so swift that we can neither overtake him nor escape from him--I
+do fear, for neither strength nor courage can avail against his wisdom."
+
+Buh Lion, on hearing this, shook himself, and said that he was no more
+afraid of man than he was of any other creature which he was in the habit
+of eating; and added that the only beings on earth he was afraid of were
+_partridges_.
+
+"Partridges!" exclaims Buh Elephant in wonder. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Why this," says Buh Lion, "that when I am walking softly through the woods
+I sometimes rouse a covey of partridges, and then they rise all around me
+with such a whir as to make me start. I am afraid of nothing but
+partridges."
+
+Not long afterward Buh Elephant heard a gun fired near a neighboring
+village, followed by a loud, prolonged roar. Going there to learn what was
+the matter, he saw Buh Lion lying dead by the roadside with a great hole in
+his body made by a musket-ball. "Ah, my poor friend," said he, "partridges
+could never have treated you in this way."
+
+WILLIAM OWENS.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[C] Of the terrible forms of superstition prevalent under the names of Obi,
+Voodooism, Evil-eye or Tricking, in which a trick-doctor or witch-doctor
+works against another person's life or health or plans, or seeks to
+neutralize the influence of another doctor, our subject leads us to say
+nothing.
+
+
+
+
+SELIM.
+
+
+    Surrender your soul to the spell of enchantment,
+        And wander with me
+    Where, river of magical fancies, Euphrates
+        Flows down to the sea.
+
+    What city sleeps fair and mysterious by moonlight
+        Upon the dark shore?
+    Oh, those are the minarets gleaming of Basrah
+        That heavenward soar.
+
+    And bright are her flower-lit gardens, whose fountains
+        Unceasingly rise,
+    Where oft, when the locust grew shrill and the summer
+        Shone red in the skies,
+
+    The caliph would hasten from camp and from council
+        To rest and to dream.
+    To forge, in the workshop of silence, such weapons
+        As deadliest gleam.
+
+    And with him came Selim, the friend of his spirit--
+        Friend favored and true--
+    Whose palace of marble Euphrates encircled
+        With girdle of blue.
+
+    There oft by the murmuring waters the caliph
+        Would calmly recline,
+    And mark how the stars on that earth-sullied bosom
+        Seemed trembling to shine,
+
+    Until, as one evening the moon rose serenely,
+        Fair pearl of the sky,
+    And filled with her presence the palace and desert,
+        The far and the nigh,
+    A trouble which hung On the aspect of Selim
+              Fell dark on his king,
+    As clouds 'twixt the sun and the sand-billowed ocean
+              Their dusky shapes fling.
+
+    "O friend of my heart!" quoth the caliph, "what sorrow
+              Lies deep in thy breast?"
+    And Selim, replying, the source of his anguish
+              Thus humbly confessed:
+
+    "Great lord of my being! life trembles and quivers
+              With fulness of joy:
+    The rays of my hopes are as gold in my pathway,
+              Undimmed by alloy;
+
+    "Thy banners float far on the breezes of India,
+              Thy counsels are wise;
+    The thoughts of thy valor and strength to thy people
+              As light to their eyes;
+
+    "Yet still, in the midst of thy glory and power,
+              Thou deignest to rest
+    Thy soul on the soul of thy servant, whom daily
+              Thy favors have blest,
+
+    "Till he who once couched on his sheepskin reposes
+              On cushions of down,
+    And holds a fair wife in his arms who had only
+              A steed for his own.
+
+    "Thus over the heaven thy grace has illumined
+              No shadow appears,
+    Save one, at whose coming thy servant unworthy
+              Shrinks, falters and fears--
+
+    "The shadow of Azrael, angel of terror,
+              Surpassingly strong,
+    The roar of whose onrushing wings soundeth louder
+              Than laughter or song;
+
+    "Till I, even I, from the conflict of battle,
+              The scimitar's sweep,
+    Turn cowering, fearful of glory's last service
+              And manhood's best sleep.
+
+    "Behold! now the heart of thy servant is open,
+              And bare to thy view."
+    Then slowly the caliph replied, while his gaze sought
+              The firmament blue:
+
+    "Dread Prophet of Allah! thou knowest my spirit,
+              My heart and my life;
+    Thou knowest the desolate years of my manhood,
+              Their unended strife;
+
+    "Thou knowest that never a friend have I cherished
+            Save only this one,
+    And now I have lost him; but, Allah il Allah!
+            Thy will still be done!"
+
+    Then, turning, the caliph departed, and Selim,
+            Like one drunk with wine,
+    Arose all unconscious and turned to his dwelling,
+            His heart's inmost shrine,
+
+    And followed the gleam of his lamp to the chamber
+            Where, sheltered and calm,
+    She peacefully slumbered who faithfully loved him--
+            That wild heart's "sweet balm."
+
+    One arm half encircled her baby, who sturdily
+            Clenched his round fist,
+    And lay with his rosy lips parted and eager,
+            As though lately kissed;
+
+    While over them both her soft tresses, all fragrant,
+            Had rolled in their play:
+    How fair and how childish they looked in the moonlight,
+            Scarce purer than they!
+
+    One moment stood Selim, while over his being
+            Hell's bitterness passed:
+    The next, and his dagger flashed forth like the lightning,
+            And fell like its blast.
+
+    And Selim was wifeless and childless! In silence
+            He stood by the bed
+    Where still lay the wife and the child in the moonlight--
+            Not sleeping, but dead.
+
+    One moment he gazed at the faces, still peaceful,
+            Still tender, still fair,
+    Then fled to the desert, whose vastness could only
+            Give space to despair.
+
+    But when, in the red eastern morning, the caliph
+            Stood sternly alone,
+    And watched the proud river, now mournful for ever
+            For all that was gone,
+
+    Lo! Selim knelt calmly before him: "Great caliph!
+            Behold now thy slave,
+    For Azrael, angel of death, have I conquered
+            And bound in the grave."
+
+                  ANNIE PORTER.
+
+
+
+ENGLISH DOMESTICS AND THEIR WAYS.
+
+
+An American lady, on coming to England and observing the workings of
+domestic life, is apt to think English servants perfection, and to listen
+to any complaints of them which she may hear with an ill-concealed smile.
+"What! complain of these excellent, admirable, respectful, hard-working
+servants!" she exclaims to her English friends. "If you could only see what
+we have to endure from these women in our American households, then indeed
+you would appreciate the quiet and efficient hand-maids whose services you
+can command here in the mother-country." And, to make good her case against
+the "help" which hinder our happiness so much in America, she will speak of
+the high wages given them, the kind treatment they receive, the ingratitude
+with which they take all favors, their inefficiency, and so on.
+
+But after a short sojourn in England our American lady will see many things
+in respect to the duties and demands of English servants which were not
+quite apparent to her at first; and by dint of observation she will soon
+become aware that an English servant has privileges and requirements which
+would be thought excessive in our country. In the first place, no English
+servant will do any washing and ironing, not even for herself. Everything,
+down to the smallest towel, must be done up by the laundress. Some servants
+go so far as to stipulate what amount of linen, etc. they may have
+laundried each week; and in the case of "nice young persons," who like to
+keep themselves neat and fresh with light calico dresses and tiny white
+caps and spotless collars and large white aprons, the bill for the
+servants' washing is apt to swell into quite an item. Again, all English
+servants exact either beer or beer-money. (How surprised an American
+housekeeper would be if a new aspirant for the situation of cook or
+chambermaid should say, "Do you supply me with lager, or give me money to
+buy it myself?"!) After various struggles with the difficulties presented
+by this beer question, the generality of English housekeepers have come to
+the conclusion that it is better to give beer-money than to furnish beer to
+their servants. When money is given it is likely not to be spent for beer
+at all, which is quite as well; whereas if there is a servants' cask of
+beer on tap in the kitchen, there are constant disputes as to how much has
+been drunk, given away or wasted. The usual allowance for beer when money
+is given is a shilling a week--a sum which in theory means twenty-five
+cents of our money, but in actual practice, as prices now range, we may
+calculate as representing about fifty cents. Thus, fifty cents for beer,
+and certainly fifty cents more for personal laundry-work, add a dollar a
+week to the wages of each servant. It is impossible to calculate the cost
+of the family washing and ironing, but whatever it be, it must come out of
+the housekeeper's pocket; for, as I have said, no servant will do it. Five
+dollars a week is not a large calculation for the laundry-bill of a family,
+especially if there are children. In America this money is generally saved,
+but at what a price!--the house in disorder with wash-tub and ironing-board
+during the beginning of every week, grumbling from all servants, anxiety on
+the part of the members of the family about overcrowding the soiled-linen
+basket, and often the clean clothes sent up "not fit to be seen."
+
+Another privilege which I find English servants possess, and which I
+confess surprises me, is that of inviting friends to tea at the mistress's
+expense. Every Sunday evening one or another servant holds a symposium of
+choice spirits below stairs, for whom flows the infusion of the costly leaf
+from far Cathay. No meat is allowed at these repasts, but tea, milk, sugar
+and bread and butter are permitted to be offered. There is going on now an
+earnest effort to put a stop to this practice. Economical housekeepers
+very justifiably object to paying for treats to their servants' company.
+But the custom has been handed down from the feudal days, when drinking and
+eating were the only amusements within the scope of even the very rich, and
+when every soul who in a friendly spirit passed the castle-walls was
+welcome to all he could gorge or swill, or carry away in his two arms for
+those he had left behind in his poor cottage. In what is known now as
+"noble houses" the practice is still in force to a great extent. Does
+master or mistress receive a call? Then wine and sweet biscuits are at once
+to be carried into the drawing-room to beguile the caller's tedium in
+waiting. Has a tradesman brought a package? Give the good man a mug of
+beer. Have you come in a cab, and kept it standing outside? Here, quickly
+take out some beer in a pewter tankard to comfort Cabby, which he tosses
+off as he sits perched on the high seat of his hansom. In houses as lavish
+as this a veritable banquet is served each day in the servants' hall, to
+which the upper servants have the privilege of inviting their friends. And
+so the custom goes on, dwindling in costliness until it reaches the homes
+of people in fairly comfortable circumstances, who are struggling, but
+almost in vain, to crush it. The trouble is, that when an English servant
+enters a house where giving tea to her friends is not allowed, she is apt
+to receive such pressure from her mother, who has been probably a servant
+in the "good old days," and other conservative domestics of the lavish
+school, that she will make the matter square by slyly appropriating that
+which she believes should have been legitimately given; and once in this
+path her peculations are apt to extend to things more valuable than bread
+and tea. This is a great pity, for as a rule English servants are as honest
+as the sun. There is not one drop of that Chinese blood which sets the
+almond-eyed John to pilfering everything he can lay hands on flowing in
+these honest Saxon veins. Of course there are always exceptions to any
+rule, but for these exceptions there exists in England that inflexible
+system of punishment by law whose motto most emphatically is, "It is a sin
+to steal a pin." To be a thief in England is as poor a business as one
+would wish to follow.
+
+In engaging a cook in England you find that she makes many demands you
+never heard of in America. I have alluded to the refusal of all such
+servants to have any hand in the laundry-work. In rich households
+(especially in the country) a laundress and laundry-maid are regularly
+employed, who have no work of any kind to do outside the laundry: they wash
+and iron for the household, including the servants. In cities, however, and
+in small families even in the country, the washing is generally done by a
+laundress outside. No cook would tolerate washing and ironing anywhere
+about the kitchen.
+
+The next imperative demand your cook will make will probably be to ask you
+if you keep a scullery-maid or an "under-servant." If your purse will not
+permit this luxury, what "assistance" is your cook to be furnished with?
+This means, is she to have a "charwoman" once a week or oftener for the day
+to clean pots and pans, scrub steps and passage-ways, and scour, dust and
+rub up generally in the kitchen and rooms adjoining? In England this
+cleaning business is far more formidable than with us. We lay down so much
+oilcloth on our stairways and passage-ways, paint or cover with carpeting,
+matting or oilcloth so many floors, that it is rather an infrequent
+experience to see our servants down on their hands and knees scrubbing away
+for dear life. Even in neat Philadelphia, where there is so much of brick
+sidewalk and of marble doorstep to be cleaned, the use of hose and broom
+has to a great extent superseded the scrubbing-brush oiled with
+elbow-grease. But in England there are so many stone floors and steps to be
+scrubbed, so much brass-work to be cleaned and polished, so many steel
+grates, with tongs, poker and shovel, to be brightened till you can see
+your face in them, that it is no wonder your cook would like to have
+assistance in these heavy manual exertions.
+
+Ladies in England have found that when the work in their houses is such
+that assistance must be had, it is better to keep an "under-servant" for
+the cook (a position even less exalted than the "scullery-maid" in this
+complex system of domestic gradations) than to have a charwoman come
+occasionally. We have no special name for the "charwoman" in America,
+unless it be simply the generic term, "a woman," or, to be Victor Hugoish,
+the woman who cleans. Char (pronounced _chair_) is simply the old-fashioned
+word still popular in New England, _chore_, and the charwoman is merely the
+woman who does chores. English ladies say she does other and more
+objectionable things. She drinks, for instance, and finds it necessary to
+bring a basket with her, which, they think, would be found to be more
+weighty on leaving (if the matter were tested) than it is when she arrives.
+Another favorite plan for lightening labor, even with families who are in
+moderate circumstances, is to keep a "Buttons," a useful little urchin, who
+is forced to make himself respectable in appearance by wearing a livery
+provided for him, the distinguishing feature of which is its lavishness in
+the way of buttons. This boy is expected to do anything and everything--to
+clean boots, fetch coal, run errands, open the door, assist in waiting at
+table, rub up knives and silver; in short, to be at the beck and call of
+everybody in the house for each and any duty. He may be called a sort of
+light brigade or sharpshooter on the outposts between the heavy cavalry in
+the kitchen in the shape of cook and the solid infantry which moves with
+regular step through the housemaid's set round of duties. And whenever the
+wheels of a household in England are found to creak, additional help in the
+shape of under-servants is engaged, the matter of the efficiency of the
+upper-servants being of course first satisfactorily settled. Here is the
+very kernel of the nut of the question: this it is which makes "all the
+difference" between the management of a house say in New York and a similar
+one in London. A family without children, occupying a brown-stone front in
+New York, will consider that two servants should do all the work of the
+household, and do it well. I am not speaking of people who live on the
+"swell" avenues and keep carriages or give frequent balls and parties: I
+mean unpretending people who own or rent a nice three- or four-story house,
+and want to live with entire comfort and freedom from rows or disputes with
+servants, and expect to be well waited on. They engage cook and
+chambermaid--the chambermaid to act also as waitress, both to act as
+laundresses. High wages are given, and when the work is done
+unsatisfactorily more money is offered as a bribe, or else there are
+disagreeable scenes, ending with the lady saying hotly, "Well, if you can't
+do my work, I'll find some one else who can." But she is mistaken. She will
+never find two women who can cook, wash, iron, clean, dust, wait at table
+and do the work generally of a three- or four-story house as it should be
+done. In a household of that importance in England there would be hired, at
+the least, cook and under-servant, housemaid and Buttons, and all the
+laundry-work put out.
+
+And oh how smoothly life passes in such an English home! How brightly every
+inch of brass shines! how well dusted is every article you touch! how clear
+is the crystal for table use! how spotless the napery! how noiselessly your
+servants move about! how respectfully each addresses the heads of the
+household whenever required to do so, not otherwise! It is the very
+perfection of service, and a luxurious satisfaction which we in America
+rarely get a chance to enjoy. But the times are changing now. It may be
+possible that in the future the demand-and-supply market for domestic
+service may have so settled itself that for the money we have hitherto paid
+as yearly wages to two only tolerable servants we shall obtain the services
+of as many efficient ones as are needful to make our American homes the
+equal of those in England for the quiet perfection of their interior
+management.
+
+OLIVE LOGAN.
+
+
+
+
+OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+
+
+FERNAN CABALLERO.
+
+About thirty years ago there appeared in the _Heraldo_ of Madrid a novel
+called _La Gaviota_ ("The Sea-gull"). Spanish literature at the present day
+is poor in novels, and thirty years ago it was much poorer. _La Gaviota_
+was like a tall tiger-lily suddenly appearing among low-growing exotics.
+The book was what the French call a _roman de moeurs_: it was signed with
+an unknown name--Fernan Caballero. Nobody knew Fernan Caballero. Madrid
+concluded that it must be one of those great living writers whose names
+could be counted on the first five sticks of a lady's fan. Seville ascribed
+it to an author of local fame, and Cadiz was amazed by the fact that
+anything so good could come out of Spain. The novel was eagerly read, even
+by the Gallicanized element in society, and pronounced a success in all
+things, except that it was not French. Following _La Gaviota_, _La Espana_
+published _Elia_ in its columns: then followed _La Familia Alvareda_, _Una
+en Otra_, _Pobre Dolores_, _Lucas Garcia_ and others. It became evident
+that the masked writer was a woman, but not one of those _femmes auteurs_
+of whom Louis Veuillot says, with more force than elegance, "Il me semble
+que si ma femme signait tels livres, j'aurais scrupule a signer ses
+enfants." Her thoughts were pure and high, and every detail was gifted with
+life.
+
+The Spanish public was not particularly pleased to discover that its
+admired Fernan was a woman. If Cervantes had been a woman, there would have
+been a precedent for it; but Cervantes was a man. Fernan Caballero's
+readers would have wavered in their allegiance had her stories not become a
+part of themselves. It was unfortunate that a woman should write such
+things. "A blue-stocking!" cries Don Judas Tadeo Barbo, representative of
+this feeling, in _Una en Otra_. "Ave Maria! A woman who writes and rushes
+into print! It is a mortal sin! A woman has as much business to write a
+book as a man would to have a baby. And a pretty woman, too! Who would have
+believed it? A woman who writes should be old, ugly and decrepit."
+
+In spite of the attention excited by her stories, she was still tenacious
+of her mask. In a letter to Germonde de Lavigne, one of the French
+translators of her works, she said: "It was cruel of you to tear away my
+pseudonym. You know how much I value it. You perhaps wished me to make a
+buckler of my fan; but, believe me, the beautiful things I have gathered do
+not need it. I have not tried to put into my stories studies of the heart
+or the world: there is neither art nor invention nor inspiration, only the
+exact painting of our actual society. Spanish types of all classes, the
+manners, the feelings, the witty and poetical language, I have painted from
+the life. My personality and my name are things outside of these. All that
+I have written is true. I cannot invent: I possess only the talent of
+dovetailing facts and placing them in relief. I have passed my life in
+collecting those treasures of tradition, poetry, stories, legends, pious
+and poetic beliefs which make an atmosphere of picturesque purity--proverbs
+like Sancho's, maxims as beautiful as Don Quixote, couched in the forcible
+and flowery language of the people. I am as proud as an artist of the
+beauty of my model. The story of _Lucas Garcia_ is true; I have known Simon
+Verde; an old woman told me the story of the lottery in _La Estrella_; in
+_Una en Otra_ everything is true. I have caught nearly all my dialogues
+from the lips of the people who spoke them. I have gleaned the last grain
+from a beautiful field, already growing desolate. I have made a sheaf,
+despised perhaps to-day, although the world has gathered some corn-flowers
+which fell from it, but which some day will be appreciated."
+
+"Like Sir Walter Scott," says M. de Mazade in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,
+"Fernan Caballero has a lively feeling for the traditional and local in
+regions of which she writes. Her first and only inspiration is Spain. She
+loves even its miseries, which are not without their grandeur. Her
+creations, her characters, her combinations, have no reflection of
+imitation: they are taken from the heart of the national life. They proceed
+from an observation of the reality and a feeling of the poetry of
+things--two sentiments which, balancing each other and uniting, form true
+and original invention.
+
+"Another trait in this rare talent," continues M. de Mazade--"a trait in
+which the imagination of the woman is shown--is the absence of complication
+in her tales: they have none of those hard knots that bind up action.
+Fernan Caballero has a genius for details. She makes everything live. She
+has an intuition of a thousand shades, often imperceptible to ordinary
+eyes, which give each mood of Nature a distinct physiognomy. Like Sir
+Walter--more than Sir Walter Scott--she enjoys digressions, sinuous
+conversations; she abandons herself to them with delight; she draws
+pictures and portraits, full of freshness, one after the other; she is
+prodigal of all that can throw light on manners or character. She passes
+with graceful ease from the refinements of the aristocratic world to the
+most humble scenes of popular life."
+
+An author, it seems, is never _sui generis_ in the estimation of the
+critics. Fernan Caballero, compared by M. Merimee to Sterne and by others
+to Scott, imagined that if her talent was similar to anybody's it was like
+Emile Souvestre's; but her models and method were as much like Souvestre's
+as Spain is like France. Fernan Caballero--or, as she was known in real
+life, Dona Caecilia de Baer, marquesa de Arco-Hermosa--may be compared,
+reservedly, to Miss Mitford. It is true that fiery thoughts and violent
+passion are not to be found in Miss Mitford's beautifully-enamelled
+miniatures; but fire and passion were not apparent in the English life she
+painted, while in the works of the Spanish artist passion glows under the
+simplest forms, as the red of an orange among its leaves and blossoms. It
+has been truly said of Madame de Baer that she gave a new world to Castile
+and Leon--an Andalusian world--almost Arcadian in its newness and
+simplicity. She showed to the world that the Spain of thirty years ago was
+still the Spain of Don Quixote. "What was true yesterday," she quotes from
+Calderon, "is true to-day." Our Don Quixote is not the Spanish Don Quixote.
+"Sir Roger de Coverley, Sir Charles Grandison and Don Quixote," said
+Colonel Newcome, "are the finest gentlemen in the world." The Spaniards see
+in Don Quixote something higher. "In Cervantes," says Madame de Baer, "the
+mind stifled the heart. It was not his heart that made of Don Quixote a
+thing for laughter. Neither the casque of Mambrino nor the love of
+Maritornes makes me laugh: it makes me weep."
+
+Progress--as the word is generally understood--also makes her sad. The
+Andalusian, surrounded by a world of poetry and beauty, is happy in his
+ignorance. He reads sermons in the lives of animals, poems in the trees,
+maxims and proverbs everywhere. Why should he read them in books? In _La
+Gaviota_, Frederick Stein, a German surgeon who has been thrown upon the
+charity of some Spanish peasants, hears a shepherd mention an infallible
+cure for pain in the eyes. Stein asks where this remedy is to be found.
+
+"I cannot tell you," answered the shepherd: "I know that there is such a
+thing."
+
+"Who can find it, then?" asked Stein.
+
+"The swallows," said Jose.
+
+"The swallows!"
+
+"Yes, sir. It is an herb called _pito real_, which nobody knows or sees
+except the swallows. When their little ones lose their sight they rub the
+little eyes with the _pito real_, and cure them. This herb has also the
+virtue of cutting iron and everything it touches."
+
+"What absurdities this Jose swallows like a real shark!" cried Manuel,
+laughing.--"Don Frederico, he actually believes that snakes never die."
+
+"No, they never die," said the shepherd gravely: "when they see death
+coming they escape from their skin and run away. When old they become
+serpents: little by little scales and wings appear. They become dragons,
+and return to the desert.--But you, Manuel--you do not wish to believe
+anything. Do you also deny that the lizard is the friend of man? If you do
+not believe it, ask Miguel."
+
+"Does he know it?"
+
+"Without doubt. He was sleeping in a field; a snake glided near him; a
+lizard, which lay in the furrow, saw the snake, and presented itself to
+defend Miguel. The lizard was large, and it fought with the snake; but
+Miguel not awaking, the lizard pressed its tail against his nose, and ran
+off as if its paws were on fire. The lizard is a good little beast: it
+never sleeps in the sun without descending the wall to kiss the earth."
+
+Imagination in the Andalusian supplies the place of knowledge. He has a
+precedent for everything. Tradition is the light that guides his feet. Let
+him alone, says Fernan Caballero. Would he be happier if his wants were
+greater--if his life were less simple? Would he be happier if he believed
+less? If he thinks, with the good Maria in _La Gaviota_, that the Jews
+formerly had caudal appendages, and that they are only now prevented from
+wearing them by the ring that governs in place of the queen, _qu' importe_
+so long as a sick Jew will be treated as tenderly as a sick Christian? If
+you could alter their ardent natures, if you could cut out the firm love
+that often changes to fierce jealousy and deadly hate, you would improve
+them and lessen crime; but that you cannot change until you can change the
+climate. Change Spain to England, and you can have schools, trades-unions,
+and all the modern improvements; but while Spain is Spain you of the North
+can neither understand nor reform her.
+
+And strange it is that this author, who has identified herself with Spain,
+is not Spanish. Her father was John Nicolas Boehl de Fabre, who migrated
+from Hamburg to Cadiz: to him Spain owes a collection of ancient poetry,
+_Floresta de Rimas Antiquas Castellanas_. His daughter Caecilia was born in
+1797 at Morges in Switzerland. The publication of her first work was due to
+the advice and encouragement of Washington Irving. She first wrote an
+exquisite idyl of Andalusian life, _The Alvareda Family_, in German, and
+then translated it into Spanish. Irving admired it in manuscript, and
+induced her to go to work on another, which appeared under the title of _La
+Gaviota_--a title borrowed from its wild and untamable heroine, Marisalada
+Santalo. This second story at once made her reputation in Europe. It stands
+at the head of her numerous works. The character of the uncontrollable
+heroine is developed as by a master-hand, and the handling of the story
+until it culminates in Marisalada's passion for Pepe Vera and the despair
+of her husband, Stein, is graphic and almost too pitiless. Don Modesto,
+commandant of Fort San Cristobal, is worthy of the hand of Cervantes. The
+author has received the greatest compliment that unliterary Spain could pay
+her: a complete edition of her works was issued--_not_ at the expense of
+the queen--by Don Francesco de Mallado at Madrid.
+
+Madame de Baer was married three times; so, besides her three cognomens, it
+is well that she has one that will always be remembered--Fernan Caballero.
+During the reign of Isabella she occupied apartments in the Alcazar of
+Seville, but after the revolution she removed to the Calle de Burgos, where
+she lived quietly among those lifelong friends, her flowers and books.
+During her last illness the ex-queen and the duke and duchess de
+Montpensier were her frequent visitors. She died on the seventh of April of
+this year.
+
+M. F. E.
+
+
+THE OCTROI.
+
+Those travellers who, after an excursion to the suburbs of Paris, see their
+carriage stopped by an official in a green tunic with silver buttons, who
+asks solemnly, "Have you anything to declare?" are usually far from
+imagining that they are witnessing a manifestation of one of the most
+important of the Parisian financial functions. For such undoubtedly must
+the _octroi_ be considered. It is the tax that supports Paris--that pays
+for her improvements, her cleansing, her lighting, her poor-fund--that
+supports the hospitals, keeps her pavements and sewers in repair, and, in a
+word, pays all her necessary expenses. It encircles Paris as with an iron
+hand; it watches at every gate, at every quay, at every entrance-point to
+the city; it is for ever on the alert to discover fraud. One hundred and
+twenty-five officers and three thousand subordinates are employed in
+collecting this colossal tax and in guarding against its being evaded. The
+revenue thus produced has amounted during the last few years to over
+twenty-five millions of dollars annually. No wonder that Paris can afford
+to beautify herself with new adornments continually. She is a millionaire
+among cities, and can pay for new decorations at will.
+
+The octroi, in its present form, is a comparatively modern institution. It
+dates from the 18th of October, 1798. Before the law was passed Paris had
+fallen into a piteous plight. The contractors threatened to cease all
+operations; nobody had been paid for a long time; the city was not even
+able to pay the pitiful sum of sixteen thousand francs which was owing to
+the street-sweepers. Out of this municipal poverty arose the octroi, and
+during the first year of its functions it produced over a million and a
+half of dollars. Yet it was far from bringing in at that time all that it
+should have done, owing to the insufficient force of agents employed and
+the gigantic frauds that were perpetrated on all sides. As soon as night
+came the smugglers set to work at all the unprotected points--and they were
+many--of the fortifications. Ladders were planted against the walls, and
+barrels of wine, bottles of brandy, packets of butcher's meat, etc. were
+lowered into the city by means of cords. Subterranean passages were dug,
+establishing a communication between the interior and the exterior of the
+city. It was not till the reign of the First Napoleon that these abuses
+were definitely suppressed.
+
+Nearly every article of daily consumption that enters Paris is taxed by
+the octroi--meat, wine, spirits, fruits, vegetables, ice, wood, coal,
+etc.--and also all building materials. It has been estimated that the
+octroi-tax on an edifice in Paris that costs twenty thousand dollars
+amounts to one thousand dollars. The largest part of the revenue is
+acquired from wines and spirits. Wine pays about twenty-three francs on the
+hectolitre: it is taxed by quantity, and not _ad valorem_; which is an act
+of crying injustice to the poor man, whose cup of _petit bleu_ must pay as
+much as does the goblet of old Burgundy of the millionaire. One of the
+heaviest taxed of all articles is absinthe, owing to the desire of the
+authorities to suppress the use of it as much as possible. After all claims
+upon it are acquitted a bottle of absinthe will be found to have been
+charged nearly four hundred per cent. on its original value.
+
+This law, which strikes not only absinthe, but all other kinds of liqueurs
+and of spirits, with excessive duties, was passed in 1871, and the effects
+were immediately manifest, only sixty thousand hectolitres of alcohol being
+brought into Paris in 1872, against one hundred and sixty-nine thousand in
+1871. The immense consumption of absinthe, which just before the war was so
+marked a feature of the cafe-life of Paris, has now greatly decreased. But
+to make this temperance movement on the part of the French authorities
+fully effectual, the tax on _vin ordinaire_ should have been taken off
+altogether.
+
+These heavy duties have naturally called into being among the quick-witted
+French an active system of frauds against the octroi; and that is not the
+least interesting part of the question to study. Against these petty
+smugglers a band of picked officials, selected for their probity and
+intelligence from among the whole force of the service of the octroi, has
+been organized. Eighteen among these act as detectives. They wear no
+uniform, assume various disguises, and are well acquainted with all the
+mysterious nooks of Paris and with all the holes and corners of the
+suburbs. They seem to scent out a fraud as a hunting-dog does game. Thus,
+a few years ago two huge blocks of Swiss granite passed the barriers
+unquestioned. Some keen-witted detective immediately asked himself why and
+for what purpose had those great masses of stone been brought from such a
+distance. He prowled about them for a little while, observed a curious
+depression in one end of the largest block, and ended by discovering that
+both were hollow and were packed full of contraband goods.
+
+The custom-house authorities have formed a museum of the most curious of
+the objects that have been captured whilst passing the barriers, and that
+were constructed for the purposes of fraud. The list is an interesting one,
+and reflects great credit upon the ingenuity of the smugglers, if not upon
+their honesty. False busts worn by make-believe wet nurses, false abdomens,
+hats with double crowns, hollow horse-collars, footstools lined with tin,
+carriage-seats concealing tin boxes, etc., etc., abound. There, too, may be
+seen a pile of pieces of linen fastened together with a cord, each of which
+is simply a box of zinc covered with linen. This trick was really
+ingenious, and was detected in a very odd way. The wagon that conveyed this
+merchandise into Paris was marked on the side "Toiles et Nouveautes," and
+the letters struck the custom-house agents as being a great deal too large
+and conspicuous. Hence arose suspicion and a thorough examination.
+
+The museum also preserves among its curiosities an ordinary-looking cab,
+which is a hollow structure made of painted tin. There, too, are to be seen
+piles of common plates, as innocent-looking as it is possible for crockery
+to be. The first half dozen plates are all right: the rest are perforated
+and conceal a tube of tin. It will be seen that all these contrivances are
+directed toward the smuggling of one article--namely, spirits.
+
+The product of the octroi averages about sixty francs per annum for every
+inhabitant of Paris. It is an indirect income-tax which is exacted from
+every dweller in the city. Unfortunately, its operations weigh heavily only
+on the very poorest classes. The banker of the Faubourg St. Honore or the
+noble of the Faubourg St. Germain troubles himself very little about the
+extra price that he is thus forced to pay for his salmon or his chambertin.
+But among the very poor, those whose daily expenditure is counted not by
+sous, but by centimes, this tax is very severely felt. It is argued,
+however, that the poor man profits even more by the product of this tax
+than does the rich one, the hospitals, for instance, being chiefly
+maintained by its means.
+
+L. H. H.
+
+
+FOREIGN LEADERS IN RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
+
+There is an old regimental tradition, which meets the Eastern traveller at
+times in Egyptian hotels and Indian mess-rooms, that an English interpreter
+in the Turkish service, being present at a conference between his pasha and
+a Russian general, was just commending the two as "admirable specimens of
+their respective races," when suddenly General Kormiloff and Selim Pasha,
+after staring at each other for a moment, broke out simultaneously, "Eh,
+Donald Campbell, are _ye_ here?"--"Gude keep us, Sandy Robertson! can this
+be _you_?"
+
+This is merely a grotesque version of an actual and very significant
+fact--viz. that both the Russian and his hereditary enemy have achieved
+many of their greatest triumphs under the command of foreigners. The
+prominence of the latter in the military history of both nations is of
+considerable antiquity. As early as 1397, Sultan Bajazet formed the
+Christian captives of Nikopolis into the formidable brigade whose title of
+_Yengi Scheri_ ("new soldiers") gave rise to the terrible name of
+_Janissary_; while several of the earlier czars in like manner surrounded
+themselves with a foreign body-guard. Coming down to later times, we find
+the Tartar Skuratoff acting as the right-hand man of Ivan the Terrible
+(1531-84). In the ensuing century the Russian centre at Smolensk was
+commanded by the terrible Sir Thomas Dalziel of Binns, afterward the
+fiercest persecutor of the Scottish Covenanters. Peter the Great's best
+officer was General Gordon, a cadet of the Huntley family, and his best
+engineer was M. Lefort, a native of Geneva. The Turkish service, too,
+contained at this time several Swiss and Frenchmen (mostly refugees from
+the religious persecutions of Louis XIV.), some of whom attained high rank.
+
+In the earlier part of the eighteenth century the fame of the new military
+system established by Frederick William of Prussia and his son, Frederick
+the Great, led the sovereigns of Russia to give the most liberal
+encouragement to any German officers who could be persuaded to undertake
+the training of their ill-disciplined levies. Among these imported
+generals[D] the most distinguished was the celebrated Marshal Muennich,
+commander-in-chief of the Russian army under the empresses Anne and
+Elizabeth, the latter of whom at length banished him to Siberia, whence he
+was not recalled till the accession of Peter III. in 1762. His Russian
+successor, Apraxin, was speedily superseded by an Englishman named William
+Fermor, a distant relation of the beautiful heroine of Pope's _Rape of the
+Lock_; but the total defeat of this new leader by Frederick the Great at
+Zorndorf in 1758 ousted _him_ in his turn, and the imperial troops were
+commanded by native Russians up to the end of the Seven Years' War. But
+under the far-sighted rule of Catherine II., who ascended the throne in
+1763, the German element began to predominate once more, and speedily
+attained such prominence that toward the middle of her reign, before
+Suvaroff's formidable renown had raised the prestige of the native stock,
+the proportion of foreign officers (chiefly Germans) in the Russian service
+was estimated at not less than eighty-five per cent. It was in allusion to
+this circumstance that the grim old marshal, himself a Russian _pur sang_,
+answered Catherine's gracious inquiry how she could best reward his
+services by saying, with characteristic bluntness, "Mother Katrina, make me
+a German!"
+
+About the same period several Irish soldiers of fortune, driven from home
+by political troubles, appeared in the Turkish ranks, as well as not a few
+Poles, dispossessed by the "second partition" of their country, and longing
+for a chance of avenging the wrong. Several of these adventurers adopted
+the Mohammedan faith, and, gaining the entire confidence of their adopted
+countrymen, were enabled to inflict considerable injury upon the invading
+armies of Russia. But the greatest service rendered to the Crescent by a
+foreigner at that time (we might almost say the greatest which it ever
+received) was achieved in 1802 by the French envoy, Colonel (afterward
+General) Sebastiani. When a British squadron lay off Prinkipos Island,
+within easy reach of Constantinople, threatening it with instant
+bombardment, the undaunted ambassador, defying alike the hostile guns and
+the fury of the fanatical mob, calmly set himself to achieve the same task
+which General Todleben accomplished in the Crimea half a century later.
+Under his vigorous superintendence the city was impregnably fortified by
+the incessant labor of a single week, while a show of negotiation diverted
+the attention of the English admiral; and the hostile squadron, suddenly
+confronted by twelve hundred heavy guns, was forced to retire with
+considerable loss.
+
+The enlightened rule of Alexander I., whose zeal for the improvement of
+Russia quickened instead of keeping down his appreciation of foreign
+talent, filled the Russian camp with officers from Western Europe.
+Benningsen, the most formidable antagonist of Napoleon in 1807; Pfuhl, who
+constructed the fortified camp of Drissa in 1812; Barclay de Tolly, the
+Russian commander-in-chief in the early part of that memorable campaign;
+Wittgenstein, who bore the palm of valor during the invasion of France in
+1814; the great strategist Jomini, who was Alexander's aide-de-camp; and
+Langeron, whose storming of Montmartre sealed the fate of Paris,--were all
+men of foreign blood. Even after the accession of the Russomaniac Nicholas
+in 1825, the "over-the-frontier men," as the natives emphatically call
+them, continued to hold the same prominent place. The Russian navy, indeed,
+which in the time of Catherine II. owed to Western Europe the only three
+competent seamen whom it possessed--Greig, Elphinstone and Dugdale--was by
+this time officered chiefly by native Russians, though still manned by
+Finns, Greeks and Livonians; but in the army Count Diebitsch himself, the
+hero of 1828-29, and his two principal subordinates, Generals Roth and
+Ruediger, were of German descent. In the Crimean war the array of foreign
+names on either side was still more striking. Omar Pasha, perhaps the
+greatest general whom Turkey has ever possessed, was a Hungarian deserter
+from the Austrian army, his true name being Theodore Lattos. The defence of
+Silistria was the work of two English subalterns, Lieutenant Nasmyth and
+Captain Butler. Ibrahim Aga, the veteran of Sultan Mahmoud's Egyptian wars,
+was originally Thomas Keith, a gunsmith from the "Old Town" of Edinburgh.
+Omar Pasha's best cavalry officer in 1853, Iskander Bey, was a Polish
+refugee, by name Michael Tchaikovski, whose stirring war-songs are still
+affectionately preserved by his countrymen. Bairam Pasha was merely the
+Turkish alias of General Cannon. Among the Russians, again, General
+Todleben, incomparably the greatest name of the war on their side, was a
+Courlander from Mitau. Prince Paskievitch, the conqueror of Erivan and
+besieger of Silistria, sprang from a Slavonian family in Transylvania.
+Generals von Schilders, Aurep and von Lueders, though Russian subjects, were
+all of foreign extraction, as were also Count Osten-Sacken and General
+Dannenberg.
+
+But it is in the present war that the foreign element has asserted itself
+most conspicuously. Whether on the Russian or the Turkish side, almost
+every leader of note is a foreigner. The Turkish fleet is commanded by an
+Englishman, who still retains his own name of Augustus Hobart. Another
+Englishman--the notorious Colonel Valentine Baker, called, like his
+brother, Sir Samuel, "Baker Pasha"--heads the cavalry of the army of the
+Danube. The sultan's two best engineers, under whose guidance Shumla has
+been refortified, though now known to fame as Reschid Pasha and Blum Pasha,
+were serving not many years since in the German army as Captains Strecker
+and Blume. Mehemet Ali Pasha himself, the late commander-in-chief, is a
+Prussian, born in Berlin. Suleiman Pasha's chief of staff is Bielowski, a
+Pole, known in the Turkish army as General Nihad, and General Mina,
+recently appointed to the command of a cavalry division at Rasgrad, is a
+Belgian. On the Russian side, again, Generals Loris-Melikoff and
+Tergukassoff are Armenians, the former having made his first step to renown
+by attracting Count Mouravieff's notice as an active young dragoon officer
+in the Kars campaign of 1855. General Oklobschio, who commanded before
+Batoum last summer, though for many years in the Russian service, is by
+birth a Montenegrin, and has the rashness as well as the valor of his
+warlike countrymen. Baron Krudener, of Plevna notoriety, comes of a German
+family which settled in Russia toward the close of the last century. The
+gallant Scobeleff is said to belong to the Ayrshire family of Scobie.
+General Nepokoitchitski is a Pole. Prince Tcherkasski has a tinge of
+Tartar, Prince Mirski of Polish, blood. General Gourko springs from a
+Cossack family of formidable renown in the Turkish and Polish wars of the
+seventeenth century; and the family name of General Zimmermann, the leader
+of the Dobrudscha army, speaks for itself.
+
+Nor is all this to be wondered at. The Turk and the Russian, closely alike
+in many points, are more especially so in this--that both can follow and
+neither can lead. In steadfast obedience and endurance of every extreme of
+hardship they have no superior on the face of the earth, but the prompt
+energy of the man who is accustomed to think and act for himself in every
+emergency is wanting to both. Under the command of a skilful general both
+Russian and Turkish troops will advance unflinchingly against the strongest
+position, or hold their ground with that stubborn tenacity which Frederick
+the Great aptly illustrated by saying that "when you fight with a Russian
+you must kill him first and knock him down afterward." But let them once be
+deprived of their leader or lose their solid formation, and their
+helplessness becomes instantly manifest.
+
+D. K.
+
+
+THE DEPARTURE OF THE IMPERIAL GUARDS.
+
+Moscow, Sept. 11 (Aug. 30, Russian style), 1877.
+
+Excitement here is now a veritable epidemic. Go where you will,
+charity-boxes, designating the purpose for which alms are solicited, and
+each boasting the bright crimson cross stamped on a pure white surface,
+meet your eye. They are affixed to the walls of the various _ooclitzas_ (or
+roads) traversing this mighty city; they greet you at the entrance of every
+church and cathedral, the charming little English church occupying a site
+in the Tchernetchefsky Perculok forming no exception to the rule; do you
+happen to enter "Gurin's," the well-known Muscovitish restaurant, the
+probability is that your charity "on behalf of the sick and wounded" is
+instantly demanded by a lady, who, duly escorted by some member of the
+"nobler sex," has taken upon herself the duty of "begging" in this
+particular district. The topic of--as also endless incidents attendant
+upon--this deplorable war meets one at every point--in the lowest
+_peeteny-dom_ (drinking-house); in every shop; in the very _droshky_ which
+one hires, the driver (_eezvostchik_) being invariably well versed in the
+latest phases of the combat.
+
+To-day a fresh impetus has been given by the departure from Moscow, after a
+two days' stay here, of a portion of the Imperial Guards from St.
+Petersburg _en route_ for the field--were it not better to say many
+fields?--of battle. This body, numbering about thirty-six hundred officers
+and soldiers, was despatched from the modern capital in instalments of six
+hundred men. The Guards, it must be remembered, constitute the flower and
+pride of the Russian army, and it is impossible that they could be regarded
+in any other light. A veritable set of giants, so to speak, they one and
+all appeared, clad in their rough brown winter gear, with heavy top-boots,
+and carrying heavy knapsacks with superfluous pairs of nailed high boots
+strapped thereon.
+
+The organization of the Imperial Guard dates from the reign of the most
+autocratic of the czars. Peter the Great, left fatherless at an early age,
+spent his childhood in the village of Preobragensky, situated not many
+versts from Moscow, where his greatest delight, as he grew in years, was to
+assemble the youths of the village and train them into a fighting corps,
+constituting himself their captain. But the youthful hero was not content
+with this venture. He also made friends with the boys of the neighboring
+village--Semenovsky by name--and assembled them in like fashion. Hence the
+names attached to the first and second regiments of the _Infanterie de la
+Garde_--Preobragensky and Semenovsky. In after-life Peter retained the rank
+in early days thus self assumed, remaining captain of his favorite
+Preobragensky regiment.
+
+The Infanterie de la Garde consists of three divisions, each comprising
+four regiments. The first division, besides the two already named, includes
+the regiments designated as Ismailovsky and the Chasseurs de la Garde. The
+regiments of the second division are named, respectively, Pavlovsky, Les
+Grenadiers de la Garde, Moscovsky, and De Finlande. The third division
+embraces the Volensky and Letovsky regiments, as also those dubbed
+L'Empereur d'Autriche and L'Empereur de Prusse. The cavalry has also three
+divisions, the first comprising the four regiments named Les Chevalier
+Gardes, Les Gardes a Cheval, Les Cuirassiers de l'Empereur and Les
+Cuirassiers de I'Imperatrice; the second, Les Hussards de l'Empereur, Les
+Lanciers du Grand Duc Nicolas, Les Grenadiers a Cheval, and Les Dragons de
+l'Empereur; and the third, two regiments, Les Lanciers de l'Empereur and
+Les Hussards de Grodno.
+
+Soon after six o'clock A. M., on a bleak and rainy morning, I found my way
+in a horribly shaky and shabby droshky to the railway terminus, where the
+soldiers were gathered, many of them accompanied by friends and near
+relations, principally, however, women--mothers, wives and children.
+Nearly all were seated on the wide platforms stretching in various
+directions. They sat in clusters, some drinking the inevitable _chipeet_
+(tea), but perhaps quite as many _votky_ (a kind of brandy). The majority
+were talking fast and gesticulating vigorously in true Russian style. Many,
+however, were singing and shouting, out of sheer bravado, as it seemed.
+"Yes, they would meet their fate thus. It were better far than weeping; and
+there were but two alternatives: why choose the last named?" One
+bronze-featured Muscovite specially attracted my notice. A burst of noisy
+song--little short of a scream in fact--came from his lips ever and anon,
+alternating with a stormy burst of laughter or a sudden flow of tears. I
+watched him with considerable interest. This, I reflected, was a type of
+the wellnigh universal Russian temperament--sad to-day, gay to-morrow: in
+the very depths of despair one moment, brimming over with joy the next. But
+there were other groups; and herein lay another characteristic feature in
+the picture. Here and there a soldier was endeavoring to drown not only his
+own feelings, but also those of the surrounding circle, by plunging into
+all the wild vagaries of the Russian dance; and furiously his arms as well
+as his legs worked to do full justice to the famous national jig. "Hurrah!
+hurrah!" rang cheerily from the lips of many around, still struggling hard
+with their tears. "Apait! apait!" ("Again! again!"). Knapsacks lay
+scattered all around. The troops were all ready to be summoned at a word
+and packed into the various carriages, or rather vans, holding an average
+number of thirty-five. Alongside the station stood a regiment newly
+arrived, and waiting to take the place of that which was about to leave.
+
+We passed slowly along the line, glancing at the many heavily-laden wagons,
+and then at compartment after compartment filled with fine-looking but
+highly-disconcerted horses, rebelling at the restrictions as regarded space
+imposed upon them.
+
+"I declare I am as utterly sorry for the horses as for the men," exclaimed
+a soft-hearted Russian lady. "To think of the poor dumb brutes all going
+thus helplessly to their fate!"
+
+A tent erected for the officers and their friends stood on our left, and,
+forming part of a privileged party, we entered it. A long table, supplied
+with the daintiest of viands, provided by the citizens, extended through
+its entire length. Many ladies were present, some weeping bitterly. Few
+waited for a formal introduction before exchanging words. "Your son,
+madame? it is from him you are about to part?"--"And my husband, madame.
+All my other sons are there already. May God help and protect
+them!"--"Amen!" is the involuntary answer.
+
+The officers--most of them chatting, and many of them even laughing
+gayly--are drinking wine, exchanging felicitations and good-wishes, and
+touching glasses across the table. In the midst of all I spied a mouse--a
+tame one, surely--careering about at pleasure.
+
+But in another minute the aspect of affairs had changed. The word of
+command had suddenly been given, the officers marched out, the troops
+crouched in such numbers on the platforms rose promptly to their feet,
+grasping their knapsacks; and then the women's arms were bound fast around
+the necks of those stepping, now fast, according to orders, into the
+carriages immediately facing them. The notes of the Russian hymn rose and
+fell from time to time: many of the voices were more than half choked.
+
+In flocked all, the sobbing women left behind, with heads wrapped up in the
+thick woollen Russian shawl or extemporized _bashlik_, "crossing" their
+departing friends three times in earnest and true Russian fashion, praying
+Heaven to bless them. And then all waited, all was ready: the long line of
+carriages was already moving off.
+
+"Preicheit!" ("Good-bye!") rose from the lips of those around, but
+the word was quickly supplemented by another more suggestive of
+pleasantness--"Dussvedinia!" ("Au revoir!"), which was echoed again and
+again. The train moved now more quickly. The soldiers shouted, cried and
+laughed alternately, waving their caps in signal of adieu. "What matters
+it?" shouted one: "we must all die once." The officers grasped firmly the
+hands of those yet marching bareheaded by their side along the platform:
+the lonely women left behind, many of them gray-headed, fell, some of them,
+senseless on the ground.
+
+E. S.
+
+
+A MISSING ITEM.
+
+Among the long and varied list of reasons assigned for the financial
+reverses of the past five years, we do not recollect to have discovered the
+falling off of European immigration. This would appear one of the most
+obvious and controlling of them all. About a million less have been added
+from abroad to the population of the Union within that time than the
+figures of a like number of years immediately preceding caused to be
+expected. If, according to the prevailing estimate, each individual thus
+acquired is worth a thousand dollars to the country, its aggregate loss in
+this way far exceeds the sum sunk in superfluous railways, to which
+extravagance almost exclusively the custom is to ascribe the revulsion.
+Eight hundred or a thousand millions of money which the country had under
+its hands as it were, reckoned among its available assets and used in
+gauging the immediate future of its industry, suddenly vanished. The direct
+abstraction from its resources of so large an item could not fail to be
+seriously felt. It amounts to the reduction of an average State to a desert
+condition--to the loss of twice as many pairs of stout hands as were
+sacrificed in the four years of civil war. The homes marked out for them
+are desolate, the waste places they would have made to bloom given to the
+weeds, the industries which craved them paralyzed, and the wealth they were
+to create cancelled.
+
+Such is undoubtedly the economic aspect of this check to the movement of
+human freight upon the Atlantic. Viewed from the politico-social side, its
+effects will not be deemed so unfortunate even by those whose confidence in
+the assimilative power of our institutions is most unqualified. A million
+and a half or two millions of matriculates at the great modern political
+school is quite a liberal allowance for one decade. Twice the number might
+press heavily on the provision made for adequate tuition. The results of
+the course upon those who have already graduated, born at home or abroad,
+are not at all too flattering. In the West, where our European guests most
+do congregate, notions are discoverable of a very helter-skelter
+description upon divorce, the "rights of labor," and religion in the public
+schools--notions which, whether sound or the reverse, clearly need settling
+rather than additional disturbance. The case is similar in cities and
+densely-peopled districts at the East, where the same element has especial
+weight. At the same time, it is difficult to say how far this association
+of facts is accidental or necessary and significant. The proportion of
+crotchety agitators among the population of foreign birth we believe to be
+actually less than among the natives. Certainly, our most mischievous
+"ringmasters" in partisan politics have been Americans. Immigrants do not
+usually bring that class of men with them. As to the masses, it can rarely
+be said that the European peasant, as he reaches our shores, is calculated
+to demoralize his new neighbors in personal and social habits. He is never
+intemperate, unless he come from the British Isles, and his tastes and
+amusements are simple and often refined. We are in the habit of supposing
+that what inferiority the Briton of the lower classes may labor under in
+these respects is made up by his superior political information and
+training to free institutions.
+
+The arrivals on our shores represent so many different nationalities that
+the faults of each may be balanced by the better traits of others, and that
+the chances of good qualities overpowering bad in the resultant compound is
+inferable from the exceptionally favorable conditions of life which draw
+them so far from home. They are so many convergent threads of different
+strength and fineness, twisted into one on the Cisatlantic spindle, to be
+then woven into the broad and ever-widening web. The weaving process may
+possibly be too much hurried; and that is about the only compensation we
+have for the loss of so many hundreds of thousands of allies in our contest
+with the wilderness.
+
+
+A CRYING EVIL.
+
+Is there no grand jury for the train-boy? Can he not be presented and
+abated as a nuisance? He runs every day the gauntlet of hundreds of these
+inquests, strung along the thousands of miles he makes hateful to the
+traveller. Yet he still treads unchecked and unabashed his endless round of
+evil-doing. To realize the enormity of the wrong let us fancy him
+abandoning his stronghold in the railway carriage and adventuring his raids
+on terra firma. How long would the most patient of publics endure his
+promenading the sidewalk three times an hour each way, and every time
+thrusting upon the occupants of every house, at work, at amusement or at
+meals, a package of candy, a semi-rancid orange, or a wholly rancid novel?
+He would be clapped into quod and permanently extinguished before
+completing his third tour of the square.
+
+The railways have no police to do us this good turn. If they have any, this
+youth of the period has purchased their silence. The passenger is handed
+over to him like a sheep, his helpless victim, bought with a price. No
+means of escape are left open. Frowns and cold shoulders are thrown away on
+him. A calm ignoring of his existence is but a spur to his determination to
+conquer you. He sets you down as a foeman worthy of his steel. "Ah, old
+fellow!" he soliloquizes as he takes your measure, "I'll have you yet. If
+you are not politician enough to want yesterday morning's triple sheet
+_Tomahawk_, you will want to bury yourself from my reach in the mazy tables
+of last year's _Railway Guide_, or, if not that, you'll be glad, after a
+while, to let me soothe you with a willow-leaf Havana." Revolving these
+thoughts, he strolls imperturbably on, for he understands you perfectly, as
+he does all the rest of his various victims.
+
+Discouragement is a word he has no use for. He does not seem to sell
+anything. Sometimes you will listlessly yet curiously observe his career,
+and settle back into your seat in luxurious satisfaction as he emerges
+through the rear door without having effected a solitary transaction.
+Better still, he caught his basket in the doorway, and spilled some of his
+oranges under the feet of yon slumbering rustic: no, he recovered himself
+too soon. He never drops anything except of set purpose--a circular or the
+book it recommends. A passenger will occasionally do it, or be made to seem
+to do it, and then have of course to purchase the article under foot; but
+that is a trick of trade, and one the average train-boy is not master of,
+the leaders of the craft only being adepts in it.
+
+On some lines the train-boy was formerly utilized in summer by handing
+round ice-water to the thirsty at stated intervals. But the thirsty were a
+minority: the cans would splash on the sufficiently moist majority, and
+that device for contriving a _raison d'etre_ for the train-boy was
+abandoned. He is now more inexcusable and more ubiquitous than ever. He and
+cinders are twin evils born of fast schedules. To add four or five miles an
+hour to the old rate, station refreshment-booths and platform-peddlers and
+spark-catchers have been abolished. The local peanut interest has been
+ruthlessly immolated on the altar of Hurry, and the incense of the same
+rite poured in, thick and black, at every car-window and ventilator. Let us
+hope for an early change in the mode of worship. This acolyte is unknown in
+Europe. Travellers there manage to lunch, read and smoke very comfortably
+without him; and they can do it here with perfect ease if similar methods
+are adopted for supplying their real wants.
+
+E. B.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[D] These adventurers are easily distinguished from their native comrades
+by the fact of all purely _Russian_ names terminating either in "-off" or
+"-in."
+
+
+
+
+LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+
+     The Life of Count Cavour. Translated from the French of
+     Charles de Mazade. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+In this substantial volume M. Charles de Mazade has related in a very
+interesting manner the history of an extraordinarily interesting career.
+Cavour's career was a short one--the space of eleven years covers the whole
+of it, and the shorter space of six years witnessed its most striking
+achievements--but it was nevertheless one of the most remarkable and most
+active in the annals of statesmanship. Clearly and harmoniously unfolded as
+it is in these pages, it reads indeed like a romance or a fairy-tale: there
+seems almost an element of magic in Cavour's inveterate successes. M. de
+Mazade is a passionate admirer of his hero, and the story loses in his
+hands none of its brilliancy of coloring. But it needs no retouching: the
+naked facts themselves are a drama, with all the necessary requisites--the
+large and moving argument, the skilful performers, the thickening plot, the
+moment of suspense, the happy denouement, the attentive auditory. The work
+accomplished by Cavour had a peculiar completeness and unity: it was a
+single, consistent task cut out for him by circumstances. It is sometimes
+said of him that circumstances had more part in the result than the man
+himself, and that if they had not happened to combine themselves again and
+again in a peculiarly favorable manner the liberator of Italy would not
+have been known beyond the limits of the quiet little kingdom of Piedmont.
+But M. de Mazade points out that Cavour's greatness was precisely in his
+marvellous talent for making his occasion--for knowing just the way in
+which to take hold of circumstances. From the day on which, of his own
+moment and as the first step in a far-seeing plan, he sent, in the face of
+domestic opposition, a Piedmontese contingent to the Crimean war, he
+pursued this vigilant culture of opportunity without faltering or going
+astray. M. de Mazade characterizes him as an extraordinary mixture of
+prudence and boldness; and these qualities with him always went hand in
+hand. He knew equally well how to wait and when to act. But it is the
+element of discretion, the art of sailing with the current of events, that
+enabled him to effect a great revolution by means that were, after all, in
+relation to the end in view, not violent--by measures that were never
+reckless, high-handed or of a character to force from circumstances more
+than they could naturally yield. For M. de Mazade, Cavour is the model of
+the moderate and conservative liberal. Liberal he was, as a friend said of
+him, "as he was fair-complexioned, lively and witty--by birth." But M. de
+Mazade constantly emphasizes the fact that his liberalism was untinged by
+the radical leaven, and that if he was a liberator, he had nothing in
+common with some of the gentry who aspire to this title. All this is very
+obvious. Cavour was not only the champion of his country: he was also the
+servant of his king, and his dream was to see Italy not only united, but
+brought under the sway of the old Piedmontese crown. He often said,
+according to M. de Mazade, that no republic can give as much liberty, and
+as real liberty, as a constitutional monarchy that operates regularly. It
+is noticeable that, keeping in view his hero's conservative side, M. de
+Mazade relates in considerable detail the story of the liberation of Italy,
+with no allusion to Mazzini beyond speaking of him two or three times as a
+vulgar and truculent conspirator, and with a regrettable tendency to stint
+the mixture of praise to the erratic but certainly, during a most important
+period, efficient Garibaldi. But Cavour's nature was a wonderfully rich and
+powerful one; and there is something very striking in such religious
+devotion to an idea when it is unaccompanied with fanaticism or narrowness
+of view, and tempered with good sense and wit and the art of taking things
+easily.
+
+Cavour had had his idea from the first: he cherished it for a long time
+very quietly: he was awaiting his opportunity. "We will do something," he
+said one day in 1850, rubbing his hands--his legendary gesture--as he
+looked across Lago Maggiore to the Austrian shore. It was not till 1855
+that the first serious opportunity came, but he attached himself to this
+with the quiet zeal and obstinacy of a man who feels that he is driving in
+the narrow end of the wedge. There were all sorts of telling objections to
+be made to the co-operation of Piedmont in the Crimean war, and Cavour was
+at the disadvantage, for a man who was rigidly and supremely practical, of
+having to defend his course on ideal and far-fetched grounds. But his
+idealism proved to be plain good sense: it brought little Piedmont to the
+notice of Europe, and gave her the right to call attention to her affairs.
+The young Italian officer spoke the truth who said to a poor soldier
+struggling with the mud in the Crimean trenches, "Never mind--make the best
+of it: with this mud we are making Italy!" As Piedmont had had a hand in
+the war, so she had a seat at the Congress of Paris which followed it; and
+here Cavour, finding his auditory ready made to his hand, introduced--a
+little perhaps by the shoulders--the then comparatively novel "Italian
+question." This was his second opportunity. The emperor Napoleon had asked
+him, from an impulse of imperial civility, "If there was any thing he could
+do for Italy?" and Cavour, taking him at his word, and more than his word,
+had instantly drawn up a list of _desiderata_. M. de Mazade gives a
+detailed and very interesting account of the gradual adoption by the
+emperor of his Italian policy--of the various phases through which it
+passed, of its complications and interruptions, and of Napoleon's curiously
+fitful, illusive and at times evasive attitudes. Cavour's relations with
+Napoleon III. may serve as the best example of his disposition to use the
+best instruments and opportunities that offered themselves, and not quarrel
+with them because they were not ideally perfect. This was what the Italian
+"patriots" of the mere romantic type could never forgive: that Italy should
+appeal for liberation to the oppressor of France was to them a displeasing
+and monstrous anomaly. But Cavour had a lively sense of reality in human
+affairs, and for him the best thing was the best possible thing. It was
+enough that--for reasons best known to himself--the "Man of December" had
+taken a fancy to this idea of lending a hand to the oppressed Peninsula:
+his own duty was to fan the flame. The emperor's sympathy with Italian
+independence is certainly the most interesting and honorable feature in his
+career, and its mingled motives and mysterious fluctuations present a very
+curious study. The desire to do something for Italy was, however,
+steadfast, and had been an early dream; and the reader of M. de Mazade's
+pages can easily believe that Cavour's personal influence and magnetism
+had something--had even a good deal--to do with bringing it to a climax.
+Napoleon appreciated the Piedmontese statesman, and felt his superiority.
+From a certain ideal point of view there is something displeasing in seeing
+the advocate of so noble a cause dancing attendance upon an unscrupulous
+adventurer, and hanging as it were upon his lips; but we know not what
+other ways there may have been: we only know that, in fact, a great deal of
+generous French blood was shed upon the plains of Lombardy.
+
+After the Congress of Paris, Cavour spent two years of eager, anxious
+waiting and of the most active private agitation. It was by the aid of
+England and France combined that he proposed to compass his aim, but he
+had, in the case of England, to content himself with a strictly Platonic
+sympathy. His mingled ardor and tact during this period, his tension of
+purpose, and yet his self-restraint, his inveterate skill in turning events
+to his advantage, are vividly narrated by M. de Mazade. At last, in the
+summer of 1858, Napoleon sent for him to Plombieres, drove him out in a
+dog-cart, and during the drive told him that he was now ready to "do
+something" for Italy. Then and there the outline of the war of 1859 was
+resolved upon. The abrupt conclusion of the war was, at least momentarily,
+a profound disappointment to Cavour: the Peace of Villafranca, which left
+half its fruits ungathered, seemed to the Italian party almost an act of
+treachery on the part of the French emperor. Napoleon was, in fact, alarmed
+at his work: he had been almost too successful, and he determined to throw
+up the game. Cavour, in irritation, disgust and despair, immediately
+withdrew from the ministry, his place being taken by Urbano Rattazzi. The
+new minister presided at that great breaking-up throughout the rest of
+Italy for which the expulsion of the Austrians from Lombardy had given the
+signal, and which took place under the direct patronage of Piedmont. The
+attitude of the latter state was a very difficult one, and Rattazzi proved
+but half master of the situation: at the end of six months Cavour was
+recalled to power. From this point in his work one step succeeds another
+with a sort of dramatic effectiveness. He was confronted with the constant
+necessity of presenting an unflinching front to Austria; the necessity,
+equally imperious, of checking reactionary excesses in Parma and Modena,
+Bologna and Tuscany; the need of keeping what had been gained, and at the
+same time reaching forth for more; of keeping on good terms with France,
+who had drawn back almost as far as she first advanced; of remaining free,
+especially, from the reproach of meddling with the papacy--an enterprise
+for which the occasion was not ripe; of stimulating England, who had
+advanced in proportion as France withdrew; and of being supremely careful,
+generally, to commit no faults. The cession of Savoy and Nice brought down
+upon Cavour a storm of denunciation, but he had counted the cost, and the
+resolution with which he paid the price of Napoleon's assistance was
+extremely characteristic of him. It was apparently equally characteristic
+of Garibaldi, born at Nice and her most illustrious son, that he felt it a
+mortal affront that by this diplomatic bargain he should have been
+"deprived of a country." M. de Mazade characterizes very happily Cavour's
+attitude during Garibaldi's invasion of the Two Sicilies--his silent
+complicity, his skill in giving his terrible associate rope, as it were,
+and yet keeping him in hand. Cavour did not live to see the last two acts
+of his great drama--the occupation of Venetia and of Rome--but they were
+only, as it were, the epilogue: they were implied in what had gone before.
+He died of overwork--broke down in the midst of his labors. Great innovator
+as he had been, he was remarkable for the moderation of his attitude toward
+the Church; and the last words he uttered to the good friar who attended
+his deathbed were a repetition of his famous formula--"Libera chiesa in
+libero stato."
+
+
+     Egypt as it Is. By J. C. McCoan. New York: Henry Holt &
+     Co.
+
+During the three quarters of a century which have elapsed since the French
+invasion a voluminous Egyptian library has been built up, but it is almost
+wholly scientific, sentimental or "entertaining." Of the antiquities and
+the natural history of the country, the temples, mummies and crocodiles,
+and the humors of Fellah-life, we have been told a great deal. An account
+of the condition and prospects of the country from an economic point of
+view has remained a desideratum. This seems the less remarkable when we
+recall the fluctuations through which the industry, commerce and politics
+of Egypt have passed since Mehemet Ali seized and commenced repolishing
+the sceptre of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. He and his four successors
+stood forth as the absolute lords of the land; but it was subject not only
+to the accidents of their character and policy, but to the capricious and
+almost always mischievous interference of their suzerain the Porte, and the
+often beneficial, but never quite disinterested, control of the great
+Christian powers.
+
+The progress of the past fourteen years has been more palpable than that of
+the preceding half century. The khedive Ismaal succeeded the
+reactionary Abbas, who stopped, and, as far as in him lay, nullified, the
+work of Mehemet in 1865. Since that year 971 out of 1126 miles of railway
+have been built; three or four hundred miles of telegraph have grown to
+fifty-five hundred; 112 miles of canal have been dug, and a great part of
+the old system deepened or restored; the great Suez Canal, additional to
+that, has been undertaken and completed at a net cost to Egypt of
+sixty-seven millions of dollars; the barrage, or damming for irrigation
+purposes, of the Lower Nile has been pushed at a cost of five millions; ten
+millions have been spent on the harbor of Alexandria, one upon lighthouses,
+which make the coast as safe as that of any European power, and half a
+million on the bridge at Cairo; schools have been multiplied, remodelled
+and endowed in like proportion; the judiciary has been recast with the best
+results, so far as time has permitted them to be shown; and the exports,
+excluding the transit-trade, which the opening of the Isthmus Canal has
+diverted from Alexandria, raised from twenty-four millions in 1866 to
+sixty-three millions in 1875. The cotton production, created about the
+beginning of the present reign by the civil war in the United States, shows
+a recovery and re-advance since the loss of that stimulus, shipments from
+Alexandria having grown from 1,288,797 quintals in 1866 to 2,615,120 in
+1875. The blow dealt the commerce of that city by the transfer of the
+Indian trade to Port Said has similarly been "discounted," the mercantile
+sagacity of Alexander the Great continuing to assert itself in a movement
+of business and population which cannot fail to be largely aided by the
+extension of the arable area of Egypt proper and the railway development of
+Nubia and the Soudan. The population of the first of these three districts
+has grown to five and a half millions, or 484 to the square mile--a
+density exceeding that of Belgium. Its multiplication, and the more
+wonderful advance in the products of its industry, go to support Mr.
+McCoan's assertions of its general well-being. In this regard he maintains
+that the Egyptian peasantry compare favorably with those of any Eastern
+country. Their mode of life, rude enough in the eyes of Western tourists,
+is, he holds, the same as under the builders of Thebes, and much the same
+with what the climate and other local conditions will always make it. Their
+oppression by the old system of tax-collecting and military conscription
+has been greatly relieved. We cannot see, indeed, why an army nominally of
+thirty, but actually of less than twenty thousand, and recruited in great
+measure from Nubia, should be burdensome. The navy has almost disappeared,
+a veto from Constantinople having made iron-clads a prohibited luxury, so
+that impressment for the fleet is unfelt.
+
+Mr. McCoan, though generally fair and practical in his statements, tends to
+the rose-colored side of things Egyptian. Thus it fares with slavery.
+Slaves, white and black, are very numerous in Egypt, "nearly all the indoor
+work of every family above the poorest" being done by slaves. In the town
+of Mansourah in 1873 an English consular agent, "in rank not even a
+vice-consul," used his power under a then existing privilege to liberate
+"seventeen hundred in a single month." Mansourah has but sixteen thousand
+of population, so that the slave-element must be great. But Mr. McCoan says
+the institution is strictly patriarchal, and no way comparable to the
+extinct Western form. This does not seem to be borne out by his other
+statement, that "few black slaves (the most numerous by far) reach middle
+age, ten or a dozen years generally sufficing to sweep away a generation,
+at the end of which the whole have to be replaced." And how are they
+replaced? By Arab raids among the negro tribes, costing the death, in
+battle or on the march, of four or five for one that reaches the Nile or
+the Red Sea. The Circassian supply has been brought pretty well to an end
+by the Russian conquest of the Caucasus, and is kept up only in a feeble
+way by the continued habit of selling their daughters yet prevalent among
+the emigrants from that region who have sought refuge among their
+coreligionists in the interior of Turkey.
+
+The fortunes of Egypt must be affected by the Turko-Russian war; although,
+as England is quite able, and seemingly quite determined, to cork up the
+Dardanelles, it is not likely that the ships of the czar can threaten Port
+Said for generations to come. The interest of the money-changers, too, is
+to keep her quiet and the hands of her Fellaheen occupied only with the
+implements of peace--the shovel and the hoe. She is far from warlike, is
+indisposed in the extreme to quarrelling with Europe or any part of it, and
+should the Turkish empire go to wreck, will be content to drift out of the
+wreck as noiselessly as possible. She will, if allowed a chance, be able
+ere long to set a shining and valuable example of thrift and liberality to
+the rest of the Moslem world. She has already shown that its crust of
+bigotry and case-hardened conservatism may be broken, and nobody of any
+faith be one whit the worse. Her capacity for improvement will not be
+questioned by any reader of this volume, which is the result of a thorough
+study of her condition and recent progress.
+
+
+HOLIDAY BOOKS.
+
+The season for holiday publications has not yet fairly opened, but we
+notice a few of those which have already reached us, hoping to present a
+tolerably complete list in our next number.
+
+_Californian Pictures in Prose and Verse_, by Benjamin Parke Avery (New
+York: Hurd & Houghton), is not a record of travel, but a description of
+scenes visited by the author, whose observations extend over a large
+portion of California, from Mount Shasta to the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is
+written in a clear and fluent style, but "word-painting" is a form of
+writing requiring exceptional nicety of execution, and Mr. Avery has not
+the power or delicacy of language which would be needed to sustain the
+interest of a volume of this size with little or no aid from incident.
+There is no _sauce piquante_ to set forth attractively the real merits
+which the volume possesses. A sincere feeling for Nature appears to have
+been turned by Mr. Avery into the special channel of enthusiasm for the
+Sierra scenery, which he has studied with loving and minute care. He
+explored no new region, but he went beyond the beaten track, and has sought
+to avoid a repetition of the most worn Californian themes. Yet it is to
+Californians and to those who have visited the State that the book must
+chiefly appeal; and to these it may safely be recommended as a memorial
+volume, agreeably written, handsomely got up, and embellished with
+illustrations by various artists and engravers, some of Mr. Thomas Moran's
+familiar light-bathed distances being perhaps the most noticeable.
+
+Three volumes, bearing the imprint of G. P. Putnam's Sons, are suitable for
+children of almost any age. Of these, _Six Sinners; or, School-Days in
+Bantam Valley_, by Campbell Wheaton, is a pleasantly-written story, the
+warm-hearted, clever, impulsive little heroine being very naturally and
+sympathetically drawn. There is a good deal of reality in the delineation
+of the other characters, and the school in which the sensitive Dora was so
+miserable is no doubt a faithful picture of some boarding-school in New
+England of twenty years ago. The miseries, though pathetic, are not of long
+duration: we take leave in the last chapter of a very happy little girl,
+with friends reconciled and circumstances adjusted in the most delightful
+way. The story is nicely constructed, and the interest well sustained, but
+the title seems to have no special fitness beyond that of alliteration.
+
+_Patsy_ (by Leora B. Robinson) goes through all the stages of girlhood,
+from pinafores and paper dolls to long dresses and young ladyhood, with
+bewildering celerity. We find her on one page learning the Primer along
+with the elements of flirtation, and on the next she is finishing her
+education with all the philosophies and -ologies. There is no lack of funny
+incidents in the book, but they are too crowded, and the characters are too
+numerous. This, however, may be no obstacle to children, who have often a
+faculty for unravelling genealogical problems, and like to have their fun
+spread thick. They will not even have to skip the moral, which, such as it
+is, is aimed entirely at parents and guardians.
+
+_The Wings of Courage_, adapted from the French by Marie E. Field, with
+illustrations by Lucy G. Morse, contains three rather long stories. But why
+"adapted"? and why is not George Sand acknowledged as the author? There
+ought to be an authentic translation of Madame Sand's fairy-tales, which
+are full of fancy, earnestness and charm. These stories appeal to a more
+imaginative and cultured audience of boys and girls than that to which the
+realistic tales of American writers are addressed. The beauty and
+simplicity of the antique will, we fear, appear dull when compared with the
+adventures of hoydens and newsboys, and Young America is not partial to the
+young naturalist unless he justifies the singularity of his pursuit by an
+abundance of slaughter.
+
+
+
+
+_Books Received._
+
+
+Tales from Foreign Tongues, 3 volumes--"Memories," from the German of Max
+Mueller; "Graziella," from the French of Lamartine; "Marie," from the
+Russian of Pushkin. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co.
+
+Money and its Laws: Embracing a History of Monetary Theories and a History
+of the Currencies of the United States. By Henry V. Poor. New York: H. V.
+and H. W. Poor.
+
+China-Painting: A Practical Manual for the Use of Amateurs in the
+Decoration of Hard Porcelain. By M. Louise McLaughlin. Cincinnati: Robert
+Clarke & Co.
+
+History of the Ottoman Turks: From the Beginning of their Empire to the
+Present Time. By Sir Edward S. Creasy, M.A. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
+
+Through Rome On: A Memoir of Christian and Extra-Christian Experience. By
+Nathaniel Ramsay Waters. New York: Charles P. Somerby.
+
+The Enchanted Moccasins, and Other Legends of the American Indians. By
+Cornelius Matthews. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+The Biography of Alfred de Musset. From the French of Paul de Musset, by
+Harriet W. Preston. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Last Series of Christian Aspects of Faith and Duty: Discourses by John
+James Tayler. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Surly Tim, and Other Stories. By Frances Hodgson Burnett. New York:
+Scribner, Armstrong & Co.
+
+History of French Literature. By Henri Van Laun. Vol. III. New York: G. P.
+Putnam's Sons.
+
+Music in the House. By John Hullah, LL.D. (Art-at-Home Series.)
+Philadelphia: Porter & Coates.
+
+Will Denbigh, Nobleman. (No-Name Series.) Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Pauline. By L. B. Walford. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
+
+Diana. By Susan Warner. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular
+Literature and Science, Volume 20. December, 1877., by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF ***
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