Add files from ibiblio as of 2025-03-08 13:50:11HEADmain

1 files changed, 14469 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/41411-0.txt b/41411-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a232920
--- /dev/null
+++ b/41411-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,14469 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41411 ***
+
+   HARPER'S
+
+   NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
+
+   No. XVII.--OCTOBER, 1851.--Vol. III.
+
+
+
+
+NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
+
+BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.
+
+
+III. FIRST CAMPAIGN IN ITALY.
+
+The discomfiture of the insurgent sections at Paris, and the energy,
+tact, and humanity which Napoleon displayed in the subsequent government
+of the tumultuous city, caused his name to be as familiar as a household
+word in all parts of the metropolis. His slight and slender figure, so
+feminine and graceful in its proportions; his hand, so small and white
+and soft that any lady might covet it; his features, so mild and
+youthful in their expression, and all these combined in strange alliance
+with energies as indomitable, and a will as imperious as were ever
+enshrined in mortal form, invested the young general with a mysterious
+and almost supernatural fascination.
+
+Famine was rioting in the streets of Paris. All industry was at an end.
+The poor, unemployed, were perishing. The rich were gathering the wrecks
+of their estates, and flying from France. There was no law but such as
+was proclaimed by the thunders of Napoleon's batteries. The National
+Guard he immediately reorganized, and soon efficient order was
+established. Napoleon was incessantly occupied in visiting all parts of
+the city, and words of kindness and sympathy with suffering he combined
+with the strong and inexorable arm of military rule. More than a hundred
+families, says the Duchess of Abrantes, were saved from perishing by his
+personal exertions. He himself climbed to the garrets of penury, and
+penetrated the cellars of want and woe, and, with a moistened eye, gazed
+upon the scenes of fearful wretchedness with which Paris was filled. He
+caused wood and bread to be distributed to the poor, and totally
+regardless of ease or self-indulgence, did every thing in his power to
+alleviate suffering.
+
+One day when alighting from his carriage to dine at Madame Permon's, he
+was addressed by a woman who held a dead infant in her arms. Grief and
+hunger had dried up the fountain of life in her bosom, and her unweaned
+child had perished of starvation. Her husband was dead, and five
+children were mourning for food at home. "If I can not obtain relief,"
+said the famished mother, "I must take my remaining five children and
+drown myself with them." Napoleon questioned her very minutely,
+ascertained her place of residence, and giving her some money to meet
+her immediate wants, entered the house and sat down with the guests at
+the brilliant entertainment. He was, however, so deeply impressed with
+the scene of wretchedness which he had just witnessed, that he could not
+obliterate it from his mind, and all were struck with his absent manner
+and the sadness of his countenance. Immediately after dinner he took
+measures to ascertain the truth of the statements which the poor woman
+had made to him, and finding all her assertions verified, he took the
+family immediately under his protection. He obtained employment for the
+girls in needlework among his friends, and the family ever expressed the
+most profound gratitude for their preserver. It was by the unceasing
+exhibition of such traits of character that Napoleon entwined around him
+the hearts of the French people.
+
+There was, at this time in Paris, a lady, who was rendered quite
+prominent in society, by her social attractions, her personal
+loveliness, and her elevated rank. She was a widow, twenty-eight years
+of age. Her husband, the Viscount Beauharnais, had recently perished
+upon the scaffold, an illustrious victim of revolutionary fury.
+Josephine Tascher Beauharnais, who subsequently became the
+world-renowned bride of Napoleon, was born on the island of Martinice in
+the West Indies. When almost a child she was married to the Viscount
+Beauharnais, who had visited the island on business and was captivated
+by the loveliness of the fair young Creole. Upon entering Paris she was
+immediately introduced to all the splendors of the court of
+Maria-Antoinette. The revolutionary storm soon burst upon her dwelling
+with merciless fury. She experienced the most afflictive reverses of
+friendlessness, bereavement, imprisonment, and penury. The storm had,
+however, passed over her, and she was left a widow, with two children,
+Eugene and Hortense. From the wreck of her fortune she had saved an
+ample competence, and was surrounded by influential and admiring
+friends.
+
+Napoleon, in obedience to the orders of the Convention, to prevent the
+possibility of another outbreak of lawless violence, had proceeded to
+the disarming of the populace of Paris. In the performance of this duty
+the sword of M. Beauharnais was taken. A few days afterward Eugene, a
+very intelligent and graceful child, twelve years of age, obtained
+access to Napoleon, and with most engaging artlessness and depth of
+emotion, implored that the sword of his father might be restored to him.
+Napoleon had no heart to deny such a request. He sent for the sword, and
+speaking with kind words of commendation, presented it with his own
+hand to Eugene. The grateful boy burst into tears and, unable to
+articulate a word, pressed the sword to his bosom, bowed in silence and
+retired. Napoleon was much interested in this exhibition of filial love,
+and his thoughts were immediately directed to the mother who had formed
+the character of such a child. Josephine, whose whole soul was absorbed
+in love for her children, was so grateful, for the kindness with which
+the distinguished young general had treated her fatherless Eugene, that
+she called, in her carriage, the next day, to express to him a mother's
+thanks. She was dressed in deep mourning. Her peculiarly musical voice
+was tremulous with emotion. The fervor and the delicacy of her maternal
+love, and the perfect grace of manner and of language, with which she
+discharged her mission, excited the admiration of Napoleon. He soon
+called upon her. The acquaintance rapidly ripened into an unusually
+strong and ardent affection.
+
+[Illustration: NAPOLEON AND EUGENE.]
+
+Josephine was two years older than Napoleon. But her form and features
+had resisted the encroachments of time, and her cheerfulness and
+vivacity invested her with all the charms of early youth. Barras, now
+one of the five Directors, who had been established in power by the guns
+of Napoleon, was a very ardent friend of Josephine. He warmly advocated
+the contemplated connection, deeming it mutually advantageous. Napoleon
+would greatly increase his influence by an alliance with one occupying
+so high a position in society and surrounded by friends so influential.
+And Barras clearly foresaw that the energetic young general possessed
+genius which would insure distinction. Josephine thus speaks, in a
+letter to a friend, of her feelings in view of the proposed marriage.
+
+"I am urged to marry again. My friends counsel the measure, my aunt
+almost lays her injunctions to the same effect, and my children entreat
+my compliance. You have met General Bonaparte at my house. He it is who
+would supply a father's place to the orphans of Alexander Beauharnais,
+and a husband to his widow. I admire the general's courage, the extent
+of his information, for on all subjects he talks equally well, and the
+quickness of his judgment, which enables him to seize the thoughts of
+others almost before they are expressed. But I confess that I shrink
+from the despotism he seems desirous of exercising over all who approach
+him. His searching glance has something singular and inexplicable, which
+imposes even upon our Directors; judge if it may not intimidate a woman.
+
+"Barras gives assurance that if I marry the general, he will secure his
+appointment to the command of the army of Italy. Yesterday, Bonaparte
+speaking of this favor, said to me, 'Think they then, that _I_ have need
+of _their_ protection to arrive at power? Egregious mistake! They will
+all be but too happy, one day, should I condescend to grant them mine.'
+
+"What think you of this self-confidence? Is it not a proof of excess of
+vanity? A general of brigade protect the heads of government! That truly
+is an event highly probable! I know not how it is, but sometimes this
+waywardness gains upon me to such a degree, that almost I believe
+possible whatever this singular man may take into his head to attempt.
+And with his imagination, who can calculate what he will not undertake."
+
+Though the passion with which Josephine had inspired Napoleon, was
+ardent and impetuous in the highest degree, it interfered not in the
+least with his plans of towering ambition. During the day he was
+vigorously employed in his professional duties and in persevering study.
+But each evening found him at the mansion of Josephine, where he met,
+and dazzled by his commanding genius and his brilliant conversational
+powers, the most distinguished and the most influential men of the
+metropolis. In these social entertainments, Josephine testified that
+Napoleon possessed unlimited powers of fascination, whenever he saw fit
+to employ them. His acquaintance and his influence was thus extended
+among those who would be most available in the furtherance of his plans.
+On the 6th of March, 1796, Napoleon and Josephine were married, Napoleon
+being then twenty-five years of age. It was a union of very sincere
+affection on both sides. It can not be doubted that next to ambition,
+Josephine was to Napoleon the dearest object of his admiration and
+homage. Marriage had then ceased to be regarded in infidel France as a
+religious rite. It was a mere partnership which any persons could form
+or dissolve at pleasure. The revolutionary tribunals had closed the
+churches, banished the clergy, and dethroned God. The parties,
+contemplating marriage, simply recorded their intention in the state
+register of Paris, with two or three friends to sign the record as
+witnesses. By this simple ceremony Napoleon was united to Josephine. But
+neither of the parties approved of this mercantile aspect of a
+transaction so sacred. They were both, in natural disposition serious,
+thoughtful, and prone to look to the guidance of a power higher than
+that of man. Surrounded by infidelity, and by that vice with which
+public infidelity is invariably accompanied, they both instinctively
+reverenced all that is grand and imposing in the revelations of
+Christianity.
+
+"Man, launched into life," said Napoleon, "asks himself, whence do I
+come? What am I? Whither do I go? Mysterious questions which draw him
+toward religion; our hearts crave the support and guidance of religious
+faith. We believe in the existence of God because every thing around us
+proclaims his being. The greatest minds have cherished this
+conviction--Bossuet, Newton, Leibnitz. The heart craves faith as the
+body food; and, without doubt, we believe most frequently without
+exercising our reason. Faith wavers as soon as we begin to argue. But
+even then our hearts say, 'Perhaps I shall again believe instinctively.
+God grant it. For we feel that this belief in a protecting deity must be
+a great happiness; an immense consolation in adversity, and a powerful
+safeguard when tempted to immorality.
+
+"The virtuous man never doubts of the existence of God, for if his
+reason does not suffice to comprehend it, the instinct of his soul
+adopts the belief. Every intimate feeling of the soul is in sympathy
+with the sentiments of religion."
+
+These are profound thoughts and it is strange that they should have
+sprung up in the mind of one educated in the midst of the violence, and
+the clangor, and the crime of battle, and accustomed to hear from the
+lips of all around him, every religious sentiment ridiculed as the
+superstition of the most weak and credulous.
+
+When at St. Helena, Napoleon, one evening, called for the New Testament,
+and read to his friends the address of Jesus to his disciples upon the
+mountain. He expressed himself as having been ever struck with the
+highest admiration in view of the purity, the sublimity, and the beauty
+of the morality which it contained. Napoleon seldom spoke lightly even
+of the corruptions of the church. But he always declared his most
+exalted appreciation of the religion of Jesus Christ.
+
+When Napoleon was crowned Emperor he was privately married again by
+Cardinal Fesch, in accordance with the forms of the church which the
+Emperor had re-established. "Josephine," said Napoleon, "was truly a
+most lovely woman; refined, affable, and charming. She was the goddess
+of the toilet. All the fashions originated with her. Every thing she put
+on appeared elegant. She was so kind, so humane--she was the most
+graceful lady and the best woman in France. I never saw her act
+inelegantly during the whole time we lived together. She possessed a
+perfect knowledge of the different shades of my character, and evinced
+the most exquisite tact in turning this knowledge to the best account.
+For example, she never solicited any favor for Eugene, or thanked me for
+any that I conferred upon him. She never showed any additional
+complaisance or assiduity when he was receiving from me the greatest
+honors. Her grand aim was to assume that all this was _my_ affair--that
+Eugene was _our_ son, not hers. Doubtless she entertained the idea that
+I would adopt Eugene as my successor."
+
+Again, he said, of Josephine, "we lived together like honest citizens in
+our mutual relations, and always retired together till 1805, a period in
+which political events obliged me to change my habits, and to add the
+labors of the night to those of the day. This regularity is the best
+guarantee for a good establishment. It ensures the respectability of the
+wife, the dependence of the husband, and maintains intimacy of feelings
+and good morals. If this is not the case, the smallest circumstances
+make people forget each other. A son by Josephine would have rendered me
+happy, and would have secured the reign of my dynasty. The French would
+have loved him very much better than they could love the son of Maria
+Louisa; and I never would have put my foot on that abyss covered with
+flowers, which was my ruin. Let no one after this rely upon the wisdom
+of human combinations. Let no one venture to pronounce, before its
+close, upon the happiness or misery of life. My Josephine had the
+instinct of the future when she became terrified at her own sterility.
+She knew well that a marriage is only real when there is an offspring;
+and in proportion as fortune smiled her anxiety increased. I was the
+object of her deepest attachment. If I went into my carriage at midnight
+for a long journey, there, to my surprise, I found her, seated before
+me, and awaiting my arrival. If I attempted to dissuade her from
+accompanying me, she had so many good and affectionate reasons to urge,
+that it was almost always necessary to yield. In a word she always
+proved to me a happy and affectionate wife, and I have preserved the
+tenderest recollections of her.
+
+"Political motives induced me to divorce Josephine, whom I most tenderly
+loved. She, poor woman, fortunately for herself, died in time to prevent
+her from witnessing the last of my misfortunes. After her forcible
+separation from me, she avowed, in most feeling terms, her ardent desire
+to share with me, my exile and extolled, with many tears, both myself
+and my conduct to her. The English have represented me as a monster of
+cruelty. Is this the result of the conduct of a merciless, unfeeling
+tyrant? A man is known by his treatment of his wife, of his family, and
+of those under him."
+
+Just before his marriage, Napoleon received the appointment, to him most
+gratifying, of Commander-in-chief of the army of Italy. His predecessor
+had been displaced in consequence of excessive intemperance. Napoleon
+was but twenty-five years of age when placed in this responsible post.
+"You are rather young," said one of the Directors, "to assume
+responsibilities so weighty, and to take the command over veteran
+generals." "In one year," Napoleon replied, "I shall be either old or
+dead." "We can place you in the command of men alone," said Carnot, "for
+the troops are destitute of every thing, and we can furnish you with no
+money to provide supplies." "Give me only men enough," Napoleon replied,
+"and I ask for nothing more. I will be answerable for the result."
+
+A few days after Napoleon's marriage, he left his bride in Paris, and
+set out for Nice, the head-quarters of the army of Italy. He passed
+through Marseilles, that he might pay a short visit to his mother, whose
+love he ever cherished with the utmost tenderness, and on the 27th of
+March arrived at the cold and cheerless camps, where the dejected troops
+of France were enduring every hardship. They were surrounded by numerous
+foes, who had driven them from the fertile plains of Italy into the
+barren and dreary fastnesses of the Alps. The Austrian armies, quartered
+in opulent cities, or encamped upon sunny and vine-clad hill-sides, were
+living in the enjoyment of security and abundance, while the troops of
+the distracted and impoverished republic were literally freezing and
+starving. But here let us pause for a moment to consider the cause of
+the war, and the motives which animated the contending armies.
+
+France, in the exercise of a right which few in America will question,
+had, in imitation of the United States, and incited by their example,
+renounced the monarchical form of government, and established a
+republic. For centuries uncounted, voluptuous kings and licentious
+nobles had trampled the oppressed millions into the dust. But now these
+millions had risen in their majesty, and driving the king from his
+throne and the nobles from their wide domains, had taken their own
+interests into their own hands. They were inexperienced and
+unenlightened in the science of government, and they made many and
+lamentable mistakes. They were terrified in view of the powerful
+combination of all the monarchs and nobles of Europe to overwhelm them
+with invading armies, and in their paroxysms of fear, when destruction
+seemed to be coming like an avalanche upon them, they perpetrated many
+deeds of atrocious cruelty. They simply claimed the right of
+self-government, and when assailed, fell upon their assailants with
+blind and merciless fury.
+
+The kings of Europe contemplated this portentous change with
+inexpressible alarm. In consternation they witnessed the uprising of the
+masses in France, and saw one of their brother monarchs dragged from his
+palace and beheaded upon the guillotine. The successful establishment of
+the French Republic would very probably have driven every King in Europe
+from his throne. England was agitated through all her countries. From
+the mud cabins of Ireland, from the dark and miry mines, from the
+thronged streets of the city, and the crowded workshops all over the
+kingdom, there was a clamorous cry ascending for liberty and equality.
+The spirit of democracy, radiating from its soul in Paris, was assailing
+every throne in Europe. There was no alternative for these monarchs but
+to crush this new power, or to perish before it. There can be no
+monarchist whose sympathies will not beat high with the allied kings in
+the fearful conflict which ensued. There can be no republican who will
+not pray, "God speed the Eagles of France." Both parties believed that
+they were fighting in self-defense. The kings were attacked by
+_principles_ triumphant in France, which were undermining their thrones.
+The French were attacked by bayonets and batteries--by combined armies
+invading their territories, bombarding their cities, and endeavoring by
+force of arms, to compel a proud nation of thirty millions of
+inhabitants to reinstate, at foreign dictation, the rejected Bourbons
+upon the throne. The allies called upon all the loyalists scattered over
+France to grasp their arms, to rally beneath the banner of friends
+coming to their rescue, and to imbrue their country in the blood of a
+civil war. The French, in trumpet tones, summoned the _people_ of all
+lands to hail the tri-colored flag, as the harbinger of their
+deliverance from the servitude of ages. From every city in Europe which
+Napoleon approached, with his conquering armies, the loyalists fled,
+while the republicans welcomed him with an adulation amounting almost to
+religious homage. And the troops of the allies were welcomed, in every
+city of France which they entered, with tears of gratitude from the eyes
+of those who longed for the restoration of the monarchy. It was a
+conflict between the spirit of republicanism on the one side, and of
+monarchical and ecclesiastical domination upon the other.
+
+England, with her invincible fleet, was hovering around the coasts of
+the republic, assailing every exposed point, landing troops upon the
+French territory, and arming and inspiriting the loyalists to civil war.
+Austria had marched an army of nearly two hundred thousand men upon the
+banks of the Rhine, to attack France upon the north. She had called into
+requisition all her Italian possessions, and in alliance with the
+British navy, and the armies of the king of Sardinia, and the fanatic
+legions of Naples and Sicily had gathered eighty thousand men upon the
+Alpine frontier. This host was under the command of experienced
+generals, and was abundantly provided with all the munitions of war.
+These were the invading foes whom Napoleon was to encounter in fields of
+blood. It was purely a war of self-defense on the part of the French
+people. They were contending against the bullets and the bayonets of the
+armies of monarchical Europe, assailing them at every point. The allied
+kings felt that they also were engaged in a war of self-defense--that
+they were struggling against _principles_ which threatened to undermine
+their thrones. Strange as the declaration to some may appear, it is
+extremely difficult for a candid and an impartial man severely to
+censure either side. It is not strange, contemplating frail human nature
+as it is, that the monarchs of Europe, born to a kingly inheritance,
+should have made every exertion to retain their thrones, and to secure
+their kingdoms from the invasion of republican principles. It is not
+strange that republicanized France, having burst the chains of an
+intolerable despotism, should have resolved to brave all the horrors of
+the most desperate war rather than surrender the right of choosing its
+own form of government. The United States were protected from a similar
+onset, on the part of allied Europe, only by the wide barrier of the
+ocean. And had the combined armies of monarchical Europe crossed that
+barrier, and invaded our shores, to compel us to replace George III.
+upon his American throne, we should have blest the Napoleon, emerging
+from our midst, who, contending for the liberties of his country, had
+driven them back into the sea.
+
+When Napoleon arrived at Nice he found that he had but thirty thousand
+men with whom to repel the eighty thousand of the allies. The government
+was impoverished, and had no means to pay the troops. The soldiers were
+dejected, emaciate, and ragged. The cavalry horses had died upon the
+bleak and frozen summits of the mountains, and the army was almost
+entirely destitute of artillery. The young commander-in-chief,
+immediately upon his arrival, summoned his generals before him. Many of
+them were veteran soldiers, and they were not a little chagrined in
+seeing a youth, whom they regarded almost as a beardless boy, placed
+over them in command. But in the very first hour in which he met them,
+his superiority was recognized; and he gained a complete and an
+unquestioned ascendency over all. Berthier, Massena, Augereau,
+Serrurier, and Lannes were there, men who had already attained renown,
+and who were capable of appreciating genius. "This is the leader," said
+one, as he left this first council, "who will surely guide us to fame
+and fortune."
+
+The French were on the cold crests of the mountains. The allies were
+encamped in the warm and fertile valleys which opened into the Italian
+plains. The untiring energy of the youthful general, his imperial mind,
+his unhesitating reliance upon his own mental resources, his perfect
+acquaintance with the theatre of war, as the result of his previous
+explorations, his gravity and reserve of manners, his spotless morality,
+so extraordinary in the midst of all the dissipated scenes of the camp,
+commanded the reverence of the dissolute and licentious, though brave
+and talented generals who surrounded him. There was an indescribable
+something in his manner which immediately inspired respect and awe, and
+which kept all familiarity at a distance.
+
+Decres had known Napoleon well in Paris, and had been on terms of
+perfect intimacy with him. He was at Toulon when he heard of Napoleon's
+appointment to the command of the army of Italy. "When I learned," said
+he, "that the new general was about to pass through the city, I
+immediately proposed to introduce my comrades to him, and to turn my
+acquaintance to the best account. I hastened to meet him full of
+eagerness and joy. The door of the apartment was thrown open, and I was
+upon the point of rushing to him with my wonted familiarity. But his
+attitude, his look, the tone of his voice suddenly deterred me. There
+was nothing haughty or offensive in his appearance or manner, but the
+impression he produced was sufficient to prevent me from ever again
+attempting to encroach upon the distance which separated us."[1]
+
+[1] Decres was afterward elevated by Napoleon to a dukedom, and
+appointed Minister of the Marine. He was strongly attached to his
+benefactor. At the time of Napoleon's downfall, he was sounded in a very
+artful way as to his willingness to conspire against the Emperor.
+Happening to visit a person of celebrity, the latter drew him aside to
+the fire-place, and taking up a book, said, "I have just now been
+reading something that struck me very forcibly. Montesquieu here
+remarks, 'When the prince rises above the laws, when tyranny becomes
+insupportable, the oppressed have no alternative but--'" "Enough,"
+exclaimed Decres, putting his hand before the mouth of the reader, "I
+will hear no more. Close the book." The other coolly laid down the
+volume, as though nothing particular had occurred, and began to talk on
+a totally different subject.
+
+A similar ascendency, notwithstanding his feminine stature and the
+extreme youthfulness of his appearance, he immediately gained over all
+the soldiers and all the generals of the army. Every one who entered his
+presence was awed by the indescribable influence of his imperial mind.
+No one ventured to contend with him for the supremacy. He turned with
+disgust from the licentiousness and dissipation which ever disgraces the
+presence of an army, and with a sternness of morality which would have
+done honor to any of the sages of antiquity, secured that respect which
+virtue ever commands. There were many very beautiful and dissolute
+females in Nice, opera singers and dancing girls, who, trafficking in
+their charms, were living in great wealth and voluptuousness. They
+exhausted all their arts of enticement to win the attention of the young
+commander-in-chief. But their allurements were unavailing. Napoleon
+proved a Samson whom no Delilah could seduce. And this was the more
+extraordinary, since his natural temperament was glowing and impetuous
+in the extreme, and he had no religious scruples to interfere with his
+indulgences. "My extreme youth," said he, afterward, "when I took
+command of the army of Italy, rendered it necessary that I should evince
+great reserve of manners and the utmost severity of morals. This was
+indispensable to enable me to sustain authority over men so greatly my
+superiors in age and experience. I pursued a line of conduct in the
+highest degree irreproachable and exemplary. In spotless morality I was
+a Cato, and must have appeared such to all. I was a philosopher and a
+sage. My supremacy could be retained only by proving myself a better man
+than any other man in the army. Had I yielded to human weaknesses I
+should have lost my power."
+
+He was temperate in the extreme, seldom allowing himself to take even a
+glass of wine, and never did he countenance by his presence any scene of
+bacchanalian revelry. For gaming, in all its branches, he manifested
+then, and through the whole of his life, the strongest disapproval. He
+ever refused to repose confidence in any one who was addicted to that
+vice. One day at St. Helena, he was conversing with Las Casas, when some
+remark which was made led Napoleon to inquire, "Were you a gamester?"
+"Alas, sire!" Las Casas replied, "I must confess that I was, but only
+occasionally." "I am very glad," Napoleon rejoined, "that I knew nothing
+of it at the time. You would have been ruined in my esteem. A gamester
+was sure to forfeit my confidence. The moment I heard that a man was
+addicted to that vice I placed no more confidence in him."
+
+From what source did this young soldier imbibe these elevated
+principles? Licentiousness, irreligion, gambling had been the trinity of
+revolutionary France--the substitute which rampant infidelity had
+adopted, for a benignant Father, a pleading Saviour, a sanctifying
+Spirit. Napoleon was reared in the midst of these demoralizing
+influences. And yet how unsullied does his character appear when
+compared with that of his companions in the camp and on the throne!
+Napoleon informs us that to his mother he was indebted for every pure
+and noble sentiment which inspired his bosom.
+
+Letitia, the mother of Napoleon, was a woman of extraordinary
+endowments. She had herself hardly passed the period of childhood, being
+but nineteen years of age, when she heard the first wailing cry of
+Napoleon, her second born, and pressed the helpless babe, with
+thanksgiving and prayer, to her maternal bosom. She was a young mother
+to train and educate such a child for his unknown but exalted destiny.
+She encircled, in protecting arms, the nursing babe, as it fondled a
+mother's bosom with those little hands, which, in after years, grasped
+sceptres, and uphove thrones, and hewed down armies with resistless
+sword. She taught those infant lips to lisp "papa"--"mamma"--those lips
+at whose subsequent command all Europe was moved, and whose burning,
+glowing, martial words fell like trumpet-tones upon the world, hurling
+nation upon nation in the shock of war. She taught those feeble feet to
+make their first trembling essays upon the carpet, rewarding the
+successful endeavor with a mother's kiss and a mother's caress--those
+feet which afterward strode over the sands of the desert, and waded
+through the blood-stained snow-drifts of Russia, and tottered, in the
+infirmities of sickness and death, on the misty, barren, storm-swept
+crags of St. Helena. She instilled into the bosom of her son those
+elevated principles of honor and self-respect, which, when surrounded by
+every temptation earth could present, preserved him from the degraded
+doom of the inebriate, of the voluptuary, and of the gamester, and which
+made the court of Napoleon, when the most brilliant court this world has
+ever known, also the most illustrious for the purity of its morals and
+the decorum of its observances. The sincere, unaffected piety of Letitia
+rose so high above the corruptions of a corrupt and profligate church,
+that her distinguished son, notwithstanding the all but universal
+infidelity of the times, was compelled to respect a religion which had
+embellished a beloved mother's life. He was thus induced, in his day of
+power, to bring back a wayward nation of thirty millions from cheerless,
+brutalizing, comfortless unbelief, to all the consoling, ennobling,
+purifying influences of Christianity. When at the command of Napoleon
+the church bells began again to toll the hour of prayer, on every
+hill-side, and through every valley in France, and the dawn of the
+Sabbath again guided rejoicing thousands in the crowded city and in the
+silent country to the temples of religion--when the young, in their
+nuptials, and the aged in their death were blessed by the solemnities of
+gospel ministrations, it was a mother's influence which inspired a
+dutiful son to make the magic change, which thus, in an hour,
+transformed France from a pagan to nominally a Christian land. It was
+the calm, gentle, persuasive voice of Letitia which was embodied in the
+consular decree. Honor to Letitia, the mother of Napoleon!
+
+The first interview between this almost beardless youth and the veteran
+generals whom he was to command, must have presented a singular scene.
+These scarred and war-worn chiefs, when they beheld the "stripling,"
+were utterly amazed at the folly of the Directory in sending such a
+youth to command an army in circumstances so desperate. Rampon undertook
+to give the young commander some advice. Napoleon, who demanded
+obedience not advice, impatiently brushed him away, exclaiming,
+"Gentlemen! the art of war is in its infancy. The time has passed in
+which enemies are mutually to appoint the place of combat, advance hat
+in hand and say, '_Gentlemen, will you have the goodness to fire_.' We
+must cut the enemy in pieces, precipitate ourselves like a torrent upon
+their battalions, and grind them to powder. Experienced generals conduct
+the troops opposed to us! So much the better, so much the better. It is
+not their experience which will avail them against me. Mark my words;
+they will soon burn their books on tactics and know not what to do. Yes,
+gentlemen! the first onset of the Italian army will give birth to a new
+epoch in military affairs. As for us, we must hurl ourselves on the foe
+like a thunderbolt, and smite like it. Disconcerted by our tactics, and
+not daring to put them into execution, they will fly before us as the
+shades of night before the uprising sun."
+
+The commanding and self-confident tone in which Napoleon uttered these
+glowing sentences, silenced and confounded the generals. They felt that
+they had indeed a master. "Well," said Augereau, as he left the council,
+nodding very significantly to Massena, "we have a man here who will cut
+out some work for government, I think." "It was necessary for me,"
+Napoleon afterward remarked, "to be a little austere, to prevent my
+generals from slapping me upon the shoulder."
+
+[Illustration: NAPOLEON AND HIS GENERALS.]
+
+The objects which Napoleon had in view in this campaign were, first, to
+compel the King of Sardinia to abandon the alliance with Austria;
+secondly, to assail the Austrians with such vigor as to compel the
+Emperor to call to his aid the troops upon the Rhine, and thus weaken
+the powerful hosts then marching against the Republic; and, thirdly, to
+humble the Pope, who was exerting all his spiritual power to aid the
+Bourbons in fighting their way back to the throne of France. The Pope
+had offered an unpardonable insult to the Republic. The French
+embassador sent to Rome, had been attacked in the streets, and chased
+home. The mob broke into his house and cruelly assassinated him, unarmed
+and unresisting. The murderers remained unpunished, and no atonement had
+been made for the atrocious crime. But how, with thirty thousand troops,
+unpaid, dejected, famished, and unprovided with the munitions of war,
+was mortal man to accomplish such results in the face of a foe eighty
+thousand strong, living in abundance, and flushed with victory!
+
+Napoleon issued his first proclamation. It was read to every regiment in
+the army, and rang, like trumpet-tones, upon the ears of the troops.
+"Soldiers! you are hungry and naked; the government owes you much, and
+can pay you nothing. Your patience, your courage, in the midst of these
+rocks, are admirable, but they reflect no splendor upon your arms. I
+come to lead you into the most fertile plains the sun beholds. Rich
+provinces, opulent cities will soon be at your disposal. There you will
+find abundant harvests, honor, and glory. Soldiers of Italy, will you
+fail in courage?" It is not strange that such words, from their young
+and fearless leader, should have inspired enthusiasm, and should have
+caused the hearts of the desponding to leap high with hope and
+confidence. The simple plan which Napoleon adopted, was to direct his
+whole force against detached portions of the Austrian army, and thus by
+gaining, at the point of attack, a superiority in numbers, to destroy
+them by piecemeal. "War," said the young soldier, "is the science of
+barbarians; and he who has the heaviest battalions will conquer."
+
+The whole army was instantly on the move. The generals, appreciating the
+wisdom and the fearlessness of their indomitable leader, imbibed his
+spirit and emulated his zeal. Napoleon was on horseback night and day.
+He seemed to take no time to eat or to sleep. He visited the soldiers,
+sympathized with them in their sufferings, and revealed to them his
+plans. It was early in the spring. Bleak glaciers and snow-covered
+ridges of the Alps were between Napoleon and the Austrians. Behind this
+curtain he assembled his forces. Enormous sacrifices were required to
+enable the soldiers to move from point to point with that celerity which
+was essential in operations so hazardous. He made no allowance for any
+impediments or obstacles. At a given hour the different divisions of the
+army, by various roads, were to be at a designated point. To accomplish
+this, every sacrifice was to be made of comfort and of life. If
+necessary to the attainment of this end stragglers were to be left
+behind, baggage abandoned, artillery even to be left in the ruts, and
+the troops were to be, without fail, at the designated place at the
+appointed hour. Through storms of rain and snow, over mountain and moor,
+by night and by day, hungry, sleepless, wet, and cold, the enthusiastic
+host pressed on. It seems incredible that the young Napoleon, so
+instantaneously as it were, should have been enabled to infuse his
+almost supernatural energy into the whole army. He had neither mules
+with which to attempt the passage of the Alps, nor money to purchase the
+necessary supplies. He therefore decided to turn the mountains, by
+following down the chain along the shores of the Mediterranean, to a
+point where the lofty ridges sink almost to a plain.
+
+The army of Beaulieu was divided into three corps. His centre, ten
+thousand strong, was at the small village of Montenotte. The night of
+the 11th of April was dark and tempestuous. Torrents of rain were
+falling, and the miry roads were almost impassable. But through the long
+hours of this stormy night, while the Austrians were reposing warmly in
+their tents, Napoleon and his soldiers, drenched with rain, were toiling
+through the muddy defiles of the mountains, wading the swollen streams,
+and climbing the slippery cliffs. Just as the day began to dawn through
+the broken clouds, the young general stood upon the heights in the rear
+of Montenotte, and looked down upon the encamped host whom he was now
+for the first time to encounter in decisive conflict. He had so
+man[oe]uvred as completely to envelop his unsuspecting enemy. Allowing
+his weary troops not an hour for repose, he fell upon the allied
+Austrians and Sardinians like a whirlwind, attacking them, at the same
+moment, in front, flank, and rear. The battle was long and bloody. The
+details of these horrid scenes of carnage are sickening. The shout of
+onset, the shriek of agony; the mutilated and the mangled forms of the
+young and the noble, trampled beneath the iron hoofs of rushing
+squadrons; the wounded crushed into the mire, with their bones ground to
+powder as the wheels of ponderous artillery were dragged mercilessly
+over them, and the wailing echo of widows and orphans in their distant
+homes, render these battle-fields revolting to humanity. At length the
+Austrians were broken and completely routed. They fled in dismay,
+leaving three thousand dead and wounded upon the field, and their cannon
+and colors in possession of the French. This was the first battle in
+which Napoleon had the supreme command; the first victory in which the
+honor redounded to himself. "My title of nobility," said he proudly to
+the Emperor of Austria, "dates from the battle of Montenotte." The
+Austrians fled in one direction to Dego, to meet reinforcements coming
+to their aid and to protect Milan. The Sardinians retreated in another
+direction to Millesimo, to cover their own capital of Turin. Thus the
+two armies were separated as Napoleon desired. The indefatigable
+general, allowing his exhausted and bleeding army but a few hours of
+repose, and himself not one, resolved, while his troops were flushed
+with victory, and the enemy were depressed by defeat and loss, to attack
+both armies at once. The 13th and the 14th of April were passed in one
+incessant conflict. The Austrians and Sardinians intrenching themselves
+in strong fortresses and upon craggy hill-sides, and every hour
+receiving reinforcements pressing on to their aid, cast showers of
+stones and rolled heavy rocks upon their assailants, sweeping away whole
+companies at a time. Napoleon was every where, sharing the toil,
+incurring the danger, and inspiring his men with his own enthusiastic
+ardor and courage. In both battles the French were entirely victorious.
+At Dego, the Austrians were compelled to abandon their artillery and
+baggage, and escape as they could over the mountains, leaving three
+thousand prisoners in the hands of the conqueror. At Millesimo, fifteen
+hundred Sardinians were compelled to surrender. Thus like a thunderbolt
+Napoleon opened the campaign. In three days, three desperate battles had
+been fought, and three decisive victories gained. Still Napoleon's
+situation was perilous in the extreme. He was surrounded by forces
+vastly superior to his own, crowding down upon him. The Austrians were
+amazed at his audacity. They deemed it the paroxysm of a madman, who
+throws himself single-handed into the midst of an armed host. His
+destruction was sure, unless by almost supernatural rapidity of
+marching, he could prevent the concentration of these forces and bring
+superior numbers to attack and destroy the detached portions. A day of
+inaction, an hour of hesitancy, might have been fatal. It was in the
+battle at Dego that Napoleon was first particularly struck with the
+gallantry of a young officer named Lannes. In nothing was the genius of
+this extraordinary man more manifest, than in the almost intuitive
+penetration with which he discovered character. Lannes became
+subsequently Duke of Montebello and one of the marshals of the
+Empire.[2]
+
+[2] "The education of Lannes had been much neglected but his mind rose
+to the level of his courage. He became a giant. He adored me as his
+protector, his superior being, his providence. In the impetuosity of his
+temper he sometimes allowed hasty expressions against me to escape his
+lips, but he would probably have broken the head of any one who had
+joined him in his remarks. When he died he had been in fifty-four
+pitched battles and three hundred combats of different kinds."--Napoleon.
+
+In the midst of these marches and counter-marches and these incessant
+battles, there had been no opportunity to distribute regular rations
+among the troops. The soldiers, destitute of every thing, began to
+pillage. Napoleon, who was exceedingly anxious to win the good-will of
+the people of Italy and to be welcomed by them as their deliverer from
+proud oppressors, proceeded against the culprits with great severity,
+and immediately re-established the most rigid discipline in the army.
+
+He had now advanced to the summit of Mt. Zemolo. From that eminence the
+troops looked down upon the lovely plains of Italy, opening, like a
+diorama beneath them. The poetic sensibilities of Napoleon were deeply
+moved by the majestic spectacle. Orchards and vineyards, and fertile
+fields and peaceful villages lay spread out, a scene of perfect
+enchantment, in the extended valley. Majestic rivers, reflecting the
+rays of the sun like ribbons of silver, meandered through meadow and
+forest; encircling the verdant hill-sides, and bathing the streets of
+opulent cities. In the distance stupendous mountains, hoary with eternal
+ice and snow, bounded and seemed to embrace in protecting arms this land
+of promise. Napoleon, sitting upon his horse, gazed for some time in
+silent and delighted admiration upon the scene. "Hannibal," he
+exclaimed, "forced the Alps; but we have turned them."
+
+[Illustration: NAPOLEON ON MOUNT ZEMOLO.]
+
+There was, however, not a moment to be lost in rest or reverie. From
+every direction the Austrians and Sardinians were hurrying to their
+appointed rendezvous, to combine and destroy this audacious band, which
+had so suddenly and fatally plunged into their midst. The French troops
+rushed down the declivities of the mountains and, crossing the Tanaro,
+rejoiced with trembling as they found themselves in the sunny plains of
+Italy. Dispatching Augereau to pursue the Austrian army, now effectually
+separated from their allies, Napoleon, with indefatigable perseverance,
+pursued the Sardinians in their flight toward Turin. He came up with
+them on the 18th at Ceva, where they had intrenched themselves, eight
+thousand strong.
+
+He immediately attacked them in their intrenchments, and during the
+remainder of the day the sanguinary battle raged without any decisive
+result. The flash and the roar of artillery and of musketry did not
+cease, till the darkness rendered it impossible to distinguish friend
+from foe. The French slept upon their arms, ready to resume the combat
+in the earliest dawn of the morning. In the night the Sardinians fled,
+and again took a strong position behind the deep and foaming torrent of
+the Carsuglia. On the evening of the ensuing day, Napoleon again
+overtook them. A single bridge crossed the rapid torrent. The Sardinians
+were so strongly posted that it seemed impossible that they could be
+dislodged. Large detachments were hastening to reinforce them. The
+Austrians were accumulating in great strength in Napoleon's rear, and
+notwithstanding all these brilliant victories the situation of the
+French was perilous in the extreme. A council of war was held in the
+night, and it was decided, regardless of the extreme exhaustion of the
+troops, to make an assault upon the bridge as soon as the morning
+should dawn. Before the first gray of the morning the French, in battle
+array, were moving down upon the bridge, anticipating a desperate
+struggle. But the Sardinians, in a panic, had again fled during the
+night, and Napoleon, rejoicing at his good fortune, passed the bridge
+unobstructed. The indefatigable victor pressed onward in the pursuit,
+and before nightfall again overtook his fugitive foes, who had
+intrenched themselves upon some almost inaccessible hills near Mondovi.
+The French immediately advanced to the assault. The Sardinians fought
+with desperation, but the genius of Napoleon triumphed, and again the
+Sardinians fled, leaving two thousand men, eight cannon, and eleven
+standards in the hands of the conqueror, and one thousand dead upon the
+field. Napoleon pursued the fugitives to Cherasco, and took possession
+of the place. He was now within twenty miles of Turin, the capital of
+the kingdom of Sardinia. All was commotion in the metropolis. There were
+thousands there, who had imbibed the revolutionary spirit, who were
+ready to welcome Napoleon as their deliverer, and to implore him to aid
+them in the establishment of a republic. The king and the nobles were in
+perfect consternation. The English and Austrian ministers entreated the
+king to adhere to the alliance, abandon his capital, and continue the
+conflict. They assured him that the rash and youthful victor was rushing
+into difficulties from which he could by no possibility extricate
+himself. But he, trembling for his throne and his crown, believing it to
+be impossible to resist so rapid a conqueror, and fearing that Napoleon,
+irritated by a protracted conflict, would proclaim political liberty to
+the people, and revolutionize the kingdom, determined to throw himself
+into the arms of the French, and to appeal to the magnanimity of the
+foe, whose rights he had so unpardonably assailed. By all human rules he
+deserved the severest punishment. He had united with two powerful
+nations, England and Austria, to chastise the French for preferring a
+republic to a monarchy, and had sent an invading army to bombard the
+cities of France and instigate the royalists to rise in civil war
+against the established government of the country.
+
+It was with lively satisfaction that Napoleon received the advances of
+the Sardinian King, for he was fully aware of the peril in which he was
+placed. The allied armies were still far more numerous than his own. He
+had neither heavy battering cannon, nor siege equipage to reduce Turin,
+and the other important fortresses of the kingdom. He was far from home,
+could expect no immediate reinforcements from France, and his little
+army was literally in destitution and in rags. The allies, on the
+contrary, were in the enjoyment of abundance. They could every day
+augment their strength; and their resources were apparently
+inexhaustible. "The king of Sardinia," says Napoleon, "had still a great
+number of fortresses left; and in spite of the victories which had been
+gained, the slightest check, one caprice of fortune, would have undone
+every thing." Napoleon, however, with the commissioners who had been
+sent to treat with him, assumed a very confident and imperious tone. He
+demanded, as a preliminary to any armistice, that the important
+fortresses of Coni, Tortona, and Alexandria, "the keys of the Alps,"
+should be surrendered to him. The commissioners hesitated to comply with
+these requisitions, which would place Sardinia entirely at his mercy,
+and proposed some modifications. "Your ideas are absurd," exclaimed
+Napoleon, sternly; "it is for me to state conditions. Listen to the laws
+which I impose upon you, in the name of the government of my country,
+and obey, or to-morrow my batteries are erected, and Turin is in
+flames." The commissioners were overawed, and a treaty was immediately
+concluded, by which the King of Sardinia abandoned the alliance,
+surrendered the three fortresses, with all their artillery and military
+stores, to Napoleon, sent an embassador to Paris to conclude a
+definitive peace, left the victors in possession of all the places they
+had already taken, disbanded the militia, and dispersed the regular
+troops, and allowed the French free use of the military roads, to carry
+on the war with Austria. Napoleon then issued to his soldiers the
+following soul-stirring proclamation:
+
+"Soldiers! you have gained in fifteen days six victories, taken
+one-and-twenty standards, fifty-five pieces of cannon, many strong
+places, and have conquered the richest part of Piedmont. You have made
+fifteen thousand prisoners, and killed or wounded ten thousand men.
+Hitherto you have fought on sterile rocks, illustrious, indeed, by your
+courage, but of no avail. Now you rival by your services the armies of
+Holland and of the Rhine. You were utterly destitute; you have supplied
+all your wants. You have gained battles without cannon; passed rivers
+without bridges; made forced marches without shoes, bivouacked without
+bread. The phalanxes of the Republic, the soldiers of liberty were alone
+capable of such sacrifices. But, soldiers! you have accomplished nothing
+while any thing remains to be done. Neither Turin nor Milan is in your
+hands. I am told that there are some among you whose courage is failing,
+who wish to return to the summits of the Alps and the Apennines. No! I
+can not believe it. The conquerors of Montenotte, of Millesimo, of Dego,
+of Mondovi burn to carry still further the glories of the French name.
+But ere I lead you to conquest there is one condition you must promise
+to fulfill: that is to protect the people whom you liberate and to
+repress all acts of lawless violence. Without this you would not be the
+deliverers, but the scourges of nations. Invested with the national
+authority, strong in justice and law, I shall not hesitate to enforce
+the requisitions of humanity and of honor. I will not suffer robbers to
+sully your laurels. Pillagers shall be shot without mercy.
+
+"People of Italy! The French army advances to break your chains. The
+French people are the friends of all nations. In them you may confide.
+Your property, your religion, your customs shall be respected. We will
+only make war as generous foes. Our sole quarrel is with the tyrants who
+enslave you."
+
+A large majority of Napoleon's soldiers and officers severely condemned
+any treaty of peace with a monarchical government, and were clamorous
+for the dethronement of the king of Sardinia, and the establishment of a
+Republic. The people thronged Napoleon with the entreaty that he would
+lend them his countenance that they might revolutionize the kingdom.
+They urged that, by the banishment of the king and the nobles, they
+could establish a free government, which should be the natural and
+efficient ally of Republican France. He had but to say the word and the
+work was done. The temptation to utter that word must have been very
+strong. It required no common political foresight to nerve Napoleon to
+resist that temptation. But he had a great horror of anarchy. He had
+seen enough of the working of Jacobin misrule in the blood-deluged
+streets of Paris. He did not believe that the benighted peasants of
+Italy possessed either the intelligence or the moral principle essential
+to the support of a well-organized republic. Consequently,
+notwithstanding the known wishes of the Directory, the demands of the
+army, and the entreaties of the populace, with heroic firmness he
+refused to allow the overthrow of the established government. He
+diverted the attention of his soldiers from the subject, by plunging
+them into still more arduous enterprises, and leading them to yet more
+brilliant victories.
+
+Napoleon had no desire to see the reign of terror re-enacted in the
+cities of Italy. He was in favor of reform, not of revolution. The kings
+and the nobles had monopolized wealth and honor, and nearly all the most
+precious privileges of life. The people were merely hewers of wood and
+drawers of water. Napoleon wished to break down this monopoly and to
+emancipate the masses from the servitude of ages. He would do this,
+however, not by the sudden upheaving of thrones and the transfer of
+power to unenlightened and inexperienced democracy, but by surrounding
+the thrones with republican institutions, and conferring upon all people
+a strong and well-organized government, with constitutional liberty.
+Eloquently he says, "It would be a magnificent field for speculation to
+estimate what would have been the destinies of France and of Europe, had
+England satisfied herself with denouncing the murder of Louis XVI.,
+which would have been for the interests of public morality, and listened
+to the councils of a philanthropic policy, by accepting revolutionized
+France as an ally. Scaffolds would not then have been erected over the
+whole country, and kings would not have trembled on their thrones; but
+their states would all have passed, more or less, through a
+revolutionary process, and the whole of Europe, without a convulsion,
+would have become constitutional and free."
+
+The kingdom of Sardinia was composed of the provinces of Nice, Piedmont,
+Savoy, and Montferrat. It contained three millions of inhabitants. The
+king, by extraordinary efforts and by means of subsidies from England,
+had raised an army of sixty thousand men, trained to service in long
+continued wars. His numerous fortresses, well armed and amply
+provisioned, situated at the defiles of all the mountains, placed his
+frontier in a state which was regarded as impregnable. He was the
+father-in-law of both of the brothers of Louis XVI.; which brothers
+subsequently ascended the throne of France as Louis XVIII. and as
+Charles X. He had welcomed them, in their flight from France to his
+court in Turin; and had made his court a place of refuge for the
+emigrant noblesse, where, in fancied security, they matured their plans
+and accumulated their resources for the invasion of France, in
+connection with the armies of the allies. And yet Napoleon, with thirty
+thousand half-starved men, had, in one short fortnight, dispersed his
+troops, driven the Austrians from the kingdom, penetrated to the very
+heart of the state, and was threatening the bombardment of his capital.
+The humiliated monarch, trembling for his crown, was compelled to sue
+for peace at the feet of an unknown young man of twenty-five. His
+chagrin was so great, in view of his own fallen fortunes and the
+hopelessness of his sons-in-law ever attaining the throne of France,
+that he died, a few days after signing the treaty of Cherasco, of a
+broken heart.
+
+Napoleon immediately dispatched Murat, his first aid-de-camp, to Paris,
+with a copy of the armistice, and with twenty-one standards taken from
+the enemy. The sensation which was produced in France by this rapid
+succession of astonishing victories was intense and universal. The
+spirit of antique eloquence which imbued the proclamations of the young
+conqueror; the modest language of his dispatches to the Directory; the
+entire absence of boasting respecting his own merits, and the glowing
+commendation of the enthusiastic bravery of his soldiers and of his
+generals, excited profound admiration. _Bonaparte_ was a foreign, an
+Italian name. Few in France had ever heard it, and it was not easily
+pronounced. Every one inquired, Who is this young general, whose talents
+thus suddenly, with such meteoric splendor, have blazed upon Europe? His
+name and his fame were upon every lip, and the eyes of all Europe were
+concentred upon him. Three times in the course of fifteen days, the
+Council of Ancients and The Five Hundred had decreed that the army of
+Italy deserved well of their country, and had appointed festivals to
+victory in their honor. In very imposing ceremony Murat presented the
+captured standards to the Directory. Several foreign embassadors were
+present on the occasion. The Republic, thus triumphant, was invested
+with new dignity, and elevated, by the victories of the young general,
+to a position of respect and consideration which it had never attained
+before.
+
+While these scenes were transpiring Napoleon did not forget the bride he
+had left in Paris. Though for seven days and nights he had allowed
+himself no quiet meal, no regular repose, and had not taken off either
+his coat or his boots, he found time to send frequent and most
+affectionate, though very short, notes to Josephine. Immediately after
+the victory of Montenotte, while the thunders of the cannonade were
+still ringing in his ears, he dispatched a courier to Josephine with the
+following lines, written in such haste and under such circumstances as
+to be scarcely legible.
+
+    "My beloved Friend,
+
+     "My first laurel is due to my country. My second shall be yours.
+     While pursuing the enemy I thought of France. When he was beaten I
+     thought of Josephine. Your son will send you a scarf surrendered to
+     him by Colonel Morback, whom he took prisoner with his own hand.
+     You see, Madame, that our Eugene is worthy of his father. Do not
+     deem me altogether undeserving of having succeeded to that brave
+     and unfortunate general, under whom I should have felt honored to
+     have learned to conquer. I embrace you.           Bonaparte."
+
+This delicacy of attention Napoleon ever manifested toward Josephine,
+even after their unhappy divorce, and until the hour of her death.
+
+Napoleon having, by an advantageous treaty with Sardinia, secured his
+rear from assault, without a day's delay, commenced the pursuit of the
+discomfited remains of the Austrian army. Under their
+commander-in-chief, Beaulieu, they had retreated behind the Po, where
+they strongly intrenched themselves, awaiting the reinforcements which
+were hurrying to their aid.
+
+Upon leaving the kingdom of Sardinia Napoleon first entered the states
+of Parma. The Duke of Parma, who had united with his more powerful
+neighbors, in the alliance against France, reigned over a population of
+but about five hundred thousand, and could furnish to the allies but
+three thousand troops. He was of course powerless, and sent envoys to
+solicit the clemency of the conqueror. Napoleon granted him an armistice
+upon his paying five hundred thousand dollars in silver, sixteen hundred
+artillery horses, and a large supply of corn and provisions. And here
+commenced one of those characteristic acts of the young general which
+have been greatly admired by some, and most severely censured by others.
+Napoleon, a lover and connoisseur of the arts, conscious of the addition
+they contribute to the splendor of an empire, and of the effect which
+they produce upon the imagination of men, demanded twenty of the
+choicest pictures in the galleries of the duke, to be sent to the Museum
+at Paris. To save one of these works of art, the celebrated picture of
+St. Jerome, the duke offered two hundred thousand dollars. Napoleon
+declined the money, stating to the army, "the sum which he offers us
+will soon be spent; but the possession of such a master-piece, at Paris,
+will adorn that capital for ages, and give birth to similar exertions of
+genius." No one objects, according to the laws of war, to the extortion
+of the money, the horses, the corn, and the beef, but it is represented
+by some as an unpardonable act of spoliation and rapacity to have taken
+the pictures. If conquest confers the right to the seizure of any
+species of property, it is difficult to conceive why works of art, which
+are subject to barter and sale, should claim exemption. Indeed, there
+seems to be a peculiar propriety in taking luxuries rather than
+necessaries. The extortion of money only inflicted a tax upon the
+_people_ who were the friends of Napoleon and of his cause. The
+selection of the paintings and the statuary deprived not the people of
+their food, but caused that very class in the community to feel the
+evils of war, who had originated the conflict. It was making requisition
+upon the palace and not upon the cottage. But war, with its extortion,
+robbery, cruelty, and blood, involves all our ideas of morality in
+confusion. Whatever may be the decision of posterity respecting the
+propriety of including works of genius among the trophies of war, the
+occurrence surely exhibits Napoleon as a man of refined and elevated
+tastes. An ignoble spirit, moved by avarice, would have grasped the
+money. Napoleon, regardless of personal indulgence, sought only the
+glory of France. There is at least grandeur in the motive which inspired
+the act.
+
+The Austrians were now reinforced to the amount of forty thousand men,
+and had intrenched themselves upon the other side of the Po, having this
+magnificent stream flowing between them and the French. It is one of the
+most difficult operations in war to cross a river in the face of an
+opposing army. It was difficult to conceive how Napoleon could effect
+the enterprise. He, however, marched resolutely on toward Valenza,
+making every demonstration of his intention to cross at that point, in
+defiance of the foe, arrayed in vastly superior numbers to contest the
+passage. The Austrians concentrated their strength to give him a warm
+reception. Suddenly by night Napoleon turned down the river, and with
+amazing celerity made a march of eighty miles in thirty-six hours,
+seizing every boat upon the stream as he passed along. He had timed the
+march of the several divisions of his army so precisely, that all of his
+forces met at the appointed rendezvous within a few hours of each other.
+Rapidly crossing the river in boats, he found himself and his army,
+without the loss of a single man, in the plains of Lombardy.
+
+This beautiful and productive country had been conquered by the
+Austrians, and was governed by an archduke. It contained one million two
+hundred thousand inhabitants, and was one of the most fertile and rich
+provinces in the world. Its inhabitants were much dissatisfied with
+their foreign masters, and the great majority, longing for political
+regeneration, were ready to welcome the armies of France. As soon as
+Beaulieu, who was busily at work upon his fortifications at Valenza,
+heard that Napoleon had thus out-generaled him, and had crossed the
+river, he immediately collected all his forces and moved forward to meet
+him. The advanced divisions of the hostile armies soon met at Fombio.
+The Austrians stationed themselves in the steeples and at the windows
+and upon the roofs of the houses, and commenced a destructive fire upon
+the French, crowding into the streets. They hoped to arrest their
+progress until the commander-in-chief could arrive with the main body of
+the army. The French, however, rushed impetuously on with their
+bayonets, and the Austrians were driven before them, leaving two
+thousand prisoners in the hands of Napoleon, and the ground covered with
+their dead.
+
+The French pursued closely upon the heels of the Austrians, from every
+eminence plunging cannon balls into their retreating ranks, and
+assailing them with the most destructive fire at every possible point of
+attack. In the evening of the same day, the exhausted and bleeding
+columns of the enemy arrived at Lodi, a small town upon the banks of the
+Adda. Passing directly through the town they crossed the river, which
+was about two hundred yards in width, by a narrow wooden bridge, about
+thirty feet wide. They were there received by the main body of the army
+of Beaulieu, which was strongly intrenched upon the opposite banks. The
+whole French army rushed into the town, and sheltering themselves behind
+the walls of the houses, from the incessant fire of the Austrian
+batteries, awaited the commands of their youthful leader, whom they now
+began to think invincible.
+
+Napoleon's belief in _destiny_ was so strong that he was an entire
+stranger to bodily fear. He immediately sallied from the town and
+reconnoitred the banks of the river, amidst a perfect shower of balls
+and grape-shot. The prospect before him would have been to most persons
+perfectly appalling. The Austrians, sixteen thousand strong, with twelve
+thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry, and thirty pieces of heavy
+artillery were posted upon the opposite banks in battle array, with
+their batteries so arranged as to command the whole length of the bridge
+by a raking fire. Batteries stationed above and below also swept the
+narrow passage by cross fires, while sharp-shooters, in bands of
+thousands, were posted at every available point, to drive a perfect
+storm of musket balls into the face of any who should approach the
+structure. Beaulieu conceived his position so utterly impregnable that
+he had not thought it necessary to destroy the bridge, as he easily
+could have done. He desired nothing more earnestly than that the French
+might attempt the passage, for he was confident that their discomfiture
+would be both signal and awful. Napoleon immediately placed as many guns
+as possible in opposition to the Austrian batteries, directing with his
+own hands, in the midst of the hottest fire, some cannon in such a
+manner as to prevent the Austrians from approaching to blow up the
+arches. He then entered the town, assembled his general officers, and
+informed them that he had resolved immediately to storm the bridge. The
+bravest of them recoiled from the undertaking, and they unanimously
+disapproved of the plan as impracticable. "It is impossible," said one,
+"that any men can force their way across that narrow bridge, in the face
+of such an annihilating storm of balls as must be encountered." "How!
+impossible!" exclaimed Napoleon, "that word is not French." The
+self-reliant mind of the young conqueror was seldom moved by the
+opinions of others. Regardless of the disapproval of his generals, he
+assembled six thousand picked troops, and addressing them in those
+marked tones of martial eloquence most eminently at his command, so
+effectually roused their pride and enthusiasm that they were clamorous
+to be led to the assault. He unfolded to them fully the peril which
+attended the enterprise, and animated them by reference to the
+corresponding glory which would attend the achievement. He knew that
+thousands must perish. But placing only a slight value upon his own
+life, he regarded as little the lives of others, and deemed the object
+to be gained worthy of the terrible price which was to be paid. There
+probably was not another man in either of those armies who would have
+ventured upon the responsibility of an enterprise apparently so
+desperate.
+
+Secretly dispatching a large body of cavalry to cross the river at a
+very difficult ford, about three miles above the town, which by some
+inconceivable oversight the Austrians had neglected to protect, he
+ordered them to come down the river and make the most desperate charge
+upon the rear of the enemy. At the same time he formed his troops in a
+line, under the shelter of one of the streets nearest the point of
+attack. It was the evening of the 10th of May. The sun was just sinking
+behind the Tyrolean hills, enveloping in soft twilight the scene of
+rural peace and beauty and of man's depravity. Not a breath of air
+rippled the smooth surface of the water, or agitated the bursting
+foliage of the early spring. The moment that Napoleon perceived, by the
+commotion among the Austrians, that the cavalry had effected the passage
+of the river, he ordered the trumpets to sound the charge. The line
+wheeled instantly into a dense and solid column, crowding the street
+with its impenetrable mass. Emerging from the shelter, upon the full
+run, while rending the air with their enthusiastic shouts, they rushed
+upon the bridge. They were met by a murderous discharge of every missile
+of destruction, sweeping the structure like a whirlwind. The whole head
+of the column was immediately cut down like grass before the scythe, and
+the progress of those in the rear was encumbered by piles of the dead.
+Still the column passed on, heedless of the terrific storm of iron and
+of lead, until it had forced its way into the middle of the bridge. Here
+it hesitated, wavered, and was on the point of retreating before
+volcanic bursts of fire too terrible for mortal man to endure, when
+Napoleon, seizing a standard, and followed by Lannes, Massena, and
+Berthier, plunged through the clouds of smoke which now enveloped the
+bridge in almost midnight darkness, placed himself at the head of the
+troops, and shouted, "Follow your General!" The bleeding, mangled
+column, animated by this example, rushed with their bayonets upon the
+Austrian gunners. At the same moment the French cavalry came dashing
+upon the batteries in the rear, and the bridge was carried. The French
+army now poured across the narrow passage like a torrent, and debouched
+upon the plain. Still the battle raged with unmitigated fury. The
+Austrians hurled themselves upon the French with the energy of despair.
+But the troops of Napoleon, intoxicated with their amazing achievement,
+set all danger at defiance, and seemed just as regardless of bullets and
+of shells, as if they had been snow-balls in the hands of children.
+
+In the midst of the thunders of the terrific cannonade a particular
+battery was producing dreadful havoc among the ranks of the French.
+Repeated attempts had been made to storm it, but in vain. An officer
+rode up to Napoleon in the midst of all the confusion and horror of the
+battle, and represented to him the importance of making another effort
+to silence the destructive battery. "Very well," said Napoleon, who was
+fond of speaking, as well as acting the sublime, "let it be silenced
+then." Turning to a body of dragoons near by, he exclaimed, "follow your
+General." As gayly as if it were the pastime of a holiday, the dragoons
+followed their leader in the impetuous charge, through showers of grape
+shot dealing mutilation and death into their ranks. The Austrian gunners
+were instantly sabred, and their guns turned upon the foe.
+
+Lannes was the first to cross the bridge and Napoleon the second. Lannes
+in utter recklessness and desperation, spurred his maddened horse into
+the very midst of the Austrian ranks and grasped a banner. At that
+moment his horse fell dead beneath him, and half a dozen swords
+glittered above his head. With Herculean strength and agility he
+extricated himself from his fallen steed, leaped upon the horse of an
+Austrian officer, behind the rider, plunged his sword through the body
+of the officer, and hurled him from his saddle; taking his seat he
+fought his way back to his followers, having slain in the mêlée six of
+the Austrians with his own hand. This deed of demoniac energy was
+performed under the eye of Napoleon, and he promoted Lannes upon the
+spot.
+
+[Illustration: THE TERRIBLE PASSAGE OF THE BRIDGE OF LODI.]
+
+The Austrians now retreated, leaving two thousand prisoners and twenty
+pieces of cannon in the hands of the victors, and two thousand five
+hundred men and four hundred horses dead upon the plain. The French
+probably lost, in dead and wounded, about the same number, though
+Napoleon, in his report of the battle, acknowledged the loss of but four
+hundred. The Austrians claimed that the French won the victory at the
+expense of four thousand men. It was, of course, the policy of the
+conqueror to have it understood that his troops were the executors not
+the victims of slaughter. "As false as a bulletin," has become a
+proverb. The necessity of uttering falsehood and practicing deception in
+all their varied forms, is one of the smallest of the innumerable
+immoralities attendant upon war. From time immemorial it has been
+declared that the weapons of deception and of courage are equally
+allowable to the soldier; "_an virtus, an dolos, quis ab hoste
+requirat_." If an enemy can be deceived by a false bulletin, there are
+few generals so conscientious as to reject the stratagem. Napoleon
+certainly never hesitated to avail himself of any artifice to send
+dismay into the hearts of his foes. Truthfulness is not one of the
+virtues which thrives in a camp.
+
+"It was a strange sight," says a French veteran, who was present at
+this battle, "to see Napoleon that day, on foot on the bridge, under an
+_infernal_ fire, and mixed up with our tall grenadiers. He looked like a
+little boy." "This beardless youth," said an Austrian general,
+indignantly, "ought to have been beaten over and over again; for who
+ever saw such tactics. The blockhead knows nothing of the rules of war.
+To-day he is in our rear, to-morrow on our flank, and the next day again
+in our front. Such gross violations of the established principles of war
+are insufferable."
+
+When Napoleon was in exile at St. Helena, some one read an account of
+the battle of Lodi, in which it was stated that Napoleon displayed great
+courage in being the first to cross the bridge, and that Lannes passed
+it after him. "Before me! before me!" exclaimed Napoleon, earnestly.
+"Lannes passed first and I only followed him. It is necessary to correct
+that error upon the spot." The correction was made in the margin. This
+victory produced a very extraordinary effect upon the whole French army,
+and inspired the soldiers with unbounded confidence in their young
+leader. Some of the veterans of the army, immediately after the battle,
+met together and jocosely promoted their General, who had so
+distinguished himself by his bravery, and who was so juvenile in his
+appearance, to the rank of corporal. When Napoleon next appeared upon
+the field, he was greeted with enthusiastic shouts by the whole army,
+"Long live our little Corporal!" Ever after this he was the perfect idol
+of the troops, and never lost, even in the dignity of Consul and
+Emperor, this honorary and affectionate nickname. "Neither the quelling
+of the sections," said Napoleon, "nor the victory of Montenotte induced
+me to think myself a superior character. It was not till after the
+_terrible passage of the bridge of Lodi_, that the idea shot across my
+mind that I might become a decisive actor in the political arena. Then
+arose, for the first time, the spark of great ambition."
+
+Lombardy was now at the mercy of Napoleon, and the discomfited Austrians
+fled into the Tyrol. The Archduke Ferdinand and his duchess, with tears
+in their eyes, abandoned to the conqueror their beautiful capital of
+Milan, and sought refuge with their retreating friends.
+
+As the carriages of the ducal pair, and those of their retinue passed
+sadly through the streets of the metropolis, the people looked on in
+silence, uttering not a word of sympathy or of insult. But the moment
+they had departed, republican zeal burst forth unrestrained. The
+tricolored cockade seemed suddenly to have fallen, as by magic, upon the
+hats and the caps of the multitude, and the great mass of the people
+prepared to greet the French Republicans with every demonstration of
+joy. A placard was put upon the palace--"This house to let; for the keys
+apply to the French Commissioner."
+
+On the fifteenth of May, just one month after the opening of the
+campaign at Montenotte, Napoleon entered Milan in triumph. He was
+welcomed by the great majority of the inhabitants as a deliverer. The
+patriots, from all parts of Italy, crowded to the capital, sanguine in
+the hope that Napoleon would secure their independence, and confer upon
+them a Republican government, in friendly alliance with France. A
+numerous militia was immediately organized, called the National Guard,
+and dressed in three colors, green, red, and white, in honor of the
+tri-colored flag. A triumphal arch was erected, in homage of the
+conqueror. The whole population of the city marched out to bid him
+welcome; flowers were scattered in his path; ladies thronged the windows
+as he passed, and greeted him with smiles and fluttering handkerchiefs,
+and with a shower of bouquets rained down at his feet. Amidst all the
+pomp of martial music, and waving banners, the ringing of bells, the
+thunders of saluting artillery, and the acclamations of an immense
+concourse of spectators, Napoleon took possession of the palace from
+whence the duke had fled. "If you desire liberty," said the victor to
+the Milanese, "you must deserve it by assisting to emancipate Italy
+forever from Austria." The wealthy and avaricious Duke of Modena, whose
+states bordered upon those of Parma, dispatched envoys to sue for peace.
+Napoleon granted him an armistice, upon the payment of two millions of
+dollars, twenty of his choicest pictures, and an abundant supply of
+horses and provisions. When in treaty with the Duke of Modena, the
+Commissary of the French army came to Napoleon and said, "The brother of
+the duke is here with eight hundred thousand dollars in gold, contained
+in four chests. He comes, in the name of the duke, to beg you to accept
+them. And I advise you to do so. The money belongs to you. Take it
+without scruple. A proportionate diminution will be made in the duke's
+contribution, and he will be very glad to have obtained a protector." "I
+thank you," replied Napoleon, coolly. "I shall not, for that sum, place
+myself in the power of the Duke of Modena." The whole contribution went
+into the army-chest, Napoleon refusing to receive for himself a single
+dollar.
+
+Napoleon now issued another of those spirit-stirring proclamations,
+which roused such enthusiasm among his own troops, and which so
+powerfully electrified the ardent imagination of the Italians.
+"Soldiers! you have descended like a torrent from the Apennines. You
+have overwhelmed every thing which opposed your progress. Piedmont is
+delivered from the tyranny of Austria; Milan is in your hands, and the
+Republican standards wave over the whole of Lombardy. The Dukes of Parma
+and Modena owe their existence to your generosity. The army which
+menaced you with so much pride, can no longer find a barrier to protect
+itself against your arms. The Po, the Ticino, the Adda have not been
+able to stop you a single day. These boasted bulwarks of Italy have
+proved as nugatory as the Alps. Such a career of success has carried joy
+into the bosom of your country. Fêtes in honor of your victories have
+been ordered in all the communes of the Republic. There your parents,
+your wives, your sisters, your lovers rejoice in your achievements, and
+boast with pride that you belong to them. Yes, soldiers! you have indeed
+done much, but much remains still to be done. Shall posterity say that
+we knew how to conquer, but knew not how to improve victory? Shall we
+find a Capua in Lombardy? We have forced marches to make, enemies to
+subdue, laurels to gather, injuries to revenge. Let those who have
+whetted the daggers of civil war in France, who have assassinated our
+ministers, who have burned our ships at Toulon--let those tremble. The
+hour of vengeance has struck. But let not the _people_ be alarmed. We
+are the friends of the people every where; particularly of the Brutuses,
+the Scipios, and the great men whom we have taken for our models. To
+re-establish the Capitol; to replace the statues of the heroes who
+rendered it illustrious; to rouse the Romans, stupefied by centuries of
+slavery--such will be the fruit of our victories. They will form an
+epoch with posterity. To you will pertain the immortal glory of changing
+the face of the finest portion of Europe. The French people, free and
+respected by the whole world, will give to Europe a glorious peace. You
+will then return to your homes, and your fellow-citizens will say,
+pointing to you, _He belonged to the army of Italy_."
+
+Such were the proclamations which Napoleon dashed off, with
+inconceivable rapidity, in the midst of all the care, and peril, and
+clangor of battle. Upon reading these glowing sentences over at St.
+Helena, twenty years after they were written, he exclaimed, "And yet
+they had the folly to say that I could not write." He has been
+represented by some as illiterate, as unable to spell. On the contrary,
+he was a ripe and an accomplished scholar. His intellectual powers and
+his intellectual attainments were of the very highest order. His mind
+had been trained by the severest discipline of intense and protracted
+study. "Do you write orthographically?" said he one day to his
+amanuensis at St. Helena. "A man occupied with public business can not
+attend to orthography. His ideas must flow faster than his hand can
+trace. He has only time to place his points. He must compress words into
+letters, and phrases into words, and let the scribes make it out
+afterward." Such was the velocity with which Napoleon wrote. His
+handwriting was composed of the most unintelligible hieroglyphics. He
+often could not decipher it himself.
+
+Lombardy is the garden of Italy. The whole of the extensive valley, from
+the Alps to the Apennines, is cultivated to the highest degree,
+presenting in its vineyards, its orchards, its waving fields of grain,
+its flocks and herds, one of the most rich and attractive features earth
+can exhibit. Milan, its beautiful capital, abounding in wealth and
+luxury, contained a population of one hundred and twenty thousand souls.
+Here Napoleon allowed his weary troops, exhausted by their unparalleled
+exertions, to repose for six days. Napoleon himself was received by the
+inhabitants with the most unbounded enthusiasm and joy. He was regarded
+as the liberator of Italy--the youthful hero, who had come with almost
+supernatural powers, to re-introduce to the country the reign of Roman
+greatness and virtue. His glowing words, his splendid achievements, his
+high-toned morals so pure and spotless, the grace and beauty of his
+feminine figure, his prompt decisions, his imperial will, and the
+antique cast of his thoughts, uttered in terse and graphic language,
+which passed, in reiterated quotation, from lip to lip, diffused an
+universal enchantment. From all parts of Italy the young and the
+enthusiastic flocked to the metropolis of Lombardy. The language of
+Italy was Napoleon's mother tongue. His name and his origin were
+Italian, and they regarded him as a countryman. They crowded his
+footsteps, and greeted him with incessant acclamations. He was a Cato, a
+Scipio, a Hannibal. The ladies, in particular, lavished upon him
+adulations without any bounds.
+
+But Napoleon was compelled to support his own army from the spoils of
+the vanquished. He could not receive a dollar from the exhausted
+treasury of the French Republic. "It is very difficult," said he, "to
+rob a people of their substance, and at the same time to convince them
+that you are their friend and benefactor." Still he succeeded in doing
+both. With great reluctance he imposed upon the Milanese a contribution
+of four millions of dollars, and selected twenty paintings from the
+Ambrosian Gallery, to send to Paris as the trophies of his victory. It
+was with extreme regret that he extorted the money, knowing that it must
+check the enthusiasm with which the inhabitants were rallying around the
+Republican standard. It was, however, indispensable for the furtherance
+of his plans. It was his only refuge from defeat and from absolute
+destruction. The Milanese patriots also felt that it was just that their
+government should defray the expenses of a war which they had provoked;
+that since Lombardy had allied itself with the powerful and wealthy
+monarchies of Europe, to invade the infant Republic in its weakness and
+its poverty, Napoleon was perfectly justifiable in feeding and clothing
+his soldiers at the expense of the invaders whom he had repelled. The
+money was paid, and the conqueror was still the idol of the people.
+
+His soldiers were now luxuriating in the abundance of bread, and meat,
+and wine. They were, however, still in rags, wearing the same war-worn
+and tattered garments with which they had descended from the frozen
+summits of the Alps. With the resources thus obtained, Napoleon clothed
+all his troops abundantly, filled the chests of the army, established
+hospitals and large magazines, proudly sent a million of dollars to the
+Directory in Paris, as an absent father would send funds to his helpless
+family; forwarded two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Moreau, who,
+with an impoverished army, upon the Rhine, was contending against
+superior forces of the Austrians. He also established an energetic and
+efficient municipal government in Milan, and made immediate
+arrangements for the organization and thorough military discipline of
+the militia in all parts of Lombardy. This was the work of five days,
+and of five days succeeding a month of such toil of body and of mind as,
+perhaps, no mortal ever endured before. Had it not been for a very
+peculiar constitutional temperament, giving Napoleon the most
+extraordinary control over his own mind, such Herculean labors could not
+have been performed. "Different affairs are arranged in my head," said
+he, "as in drawers. When I wish to interrupt one train of thought, I
+close the drawer which contains that subject, and open to that which
+contains another. They do not mix together, and do not fatigue me or
+inconvenience me. I have never been kept awake by an involuntary
+pre-occupation of the mind. If I wish repose, I shut up all the drawers
+and I am asleep. I have always slept when I wanted rest, and almost at
+will." After spending several successive days and nights without sleep,
+in preparation for a decisive conflict, he has been known repeatedly to
+fall asleep in the midst of the uproar and horror of the field of
+battle, and when the balls of the enemy were sweeping the eminence upon
+which he stood. "Nature has her rights," said he, "and will not be
+defrauded with impunity. I feel more cool to receive the reports which
+are brought to me, and to give fresh orders when awaking in this manner
+from a transient slumber."
+
+While in Milan, one morning, just as he had mounted his horse, a dragoon
+presented himself before him, bearing dispatches of great importance.
+Napoleon read them upon the saddle; and, giving a verbal answer, told
+the courier to take it back with all possible dispatch. "I have no
+horse," the man replied, "the one I rode, in consequence of forced
+speed, fell dead at the gate of your palace." "Take mine then," rejoined
+Napoleon, instantly alighting. The man hesitated to mount the
+magnificent charger of the general-in-chief. "You think him too fine an
+animal," said Napoleon, "and too splendidly caparisoned. Never mind,
+comrade, there is nothing too magnificent for a French soldier."
+Incidents like this, perpetually occurring, were narrated, with all
+conceivable embellishments, around the camp-fires, and they conferred
+upon the young general a degree of popularity almost amounting to
+adoration.
+
+[Illustration: NAPOLEON AND THE COURIER.]
+
+The lofty intellectual character of Napoleon was also developed at the
+same time, in the midst of all the cares, perplexities, and perils of
+these most terrible conflicts, in a letter publicly addressed to Oriani,
+the celebrated mathematician. "Hitherto," he writes, "the learned in
+Italy have not enjoyed the consideration to which they were entitled.
+They lived secluded in their libraries, too happy if they could escape
+the persecution of kings and priests. It is so no longer. Religious
+inquisition and despotic power are at an end. Thought is free in Italy.
+I invite the literary and the scientific to consult together and propose
+to me their ideas on the subject of giving new life and vigor to the
+fine arts and sciences. All who desire to visit France will be received
+with distinction by the government. The citizens of France have more
+pride in enrolling among their citizens a skillful mathematician, a
+painter of reputation, a distinguished man in any class of letters, than
+in adding to their territories a large and wealthy city."
+
+Napoleon having thus rapidly organized a government for Lombardy, and
+having stationed troops in different places to establish tranquillity,
+turned his attention again to the pursuit of the Austrians. But by this
+time the Directory in Paris were thoroughly alarmed in view of the
+astonishing influence and renown which Napoleon had attained. In one
+short month he had filled Europe with his name. They determined to check
+his career. Kellerman, a veteran general of great celebrity, they
+consequently appointed his associate in command, to pursue the Austrians
+with a part of the army, while Napoleon, with the other part, was to
+march down upon the States of the Pope. This division would have insured
+the destruction of the army. Napoleon promptly but respectfully tendered
+his resignation, saying, "One bad general is better than two good ones.
+War, like government, is mainly decided by tact." This decision brought
+the Directory immediately to terms. The commander-in-chief of the Army
+of Italy was now too powerful to be displaced, and the undivided command
+was immediately restored to him.
+
+In the letter he wrote to the Directory at this time, and which must
+have been written with the rapidity of thought, he observes, with great
+force of language and strength of argument. "It is in the highest degree
+impolitic to divide into two the army of Italy; and not less adverse to
+place at its head two different generals. The expedition to the Papal
+States is a very inconsiderable matter, and should be made by divisions
+in echelon, ready at any moment to wheel about and face the Austrians.
+To perform it with success both armies must be under one general. I have
+hitherto conducted the campaign without consulting any one. The result
+would have been very different if I had been obliged to reconcile my
+views with those of another. If you impose upon me embarrassments of
+various kinds; if I must refer all my steps to the commissaries of
+government; if they are authorized to change my movements, to send away
+my troops, expect no further success. If you weaken your resources by
+dividing your forces, if you disturb in Italy the unity of military
+thought, I say it with grief, you will lose the finest opportunity that
+ever occurred of giving laws to that fine peninsula. In the present
+posture of the affairs of the Republic it is indispensable that you
+possess a general who enjoys your confidence. If I do not do so I shall
+not complain. Every one has his own method of carrying on war. Kellerman
+has more experience, and may do it better than I. Together we should do
+nothing but mischief. Your decision on this matter is of more importance
+than the fifteen thousand men the Emperor of Austria has sent to
+Beaulieu."
+
+On the 22d of May Napoleon left Milan, in pursuit of the Austrians.
+Beaulieu, in his retreat to the mountains of the Tyrol, had thrown
+fifteen thousand men into the almost impregnable fortress of Mantua, to
+arrest the progress of the conqueror. He knew that Napoleon could not
+follow him leaving such a fortress in the possession of his enemies in
+his rear. Austria was raising powerful reinforcements, and the defeated
+general intended soon to return with overwhelming numbers, and crush his
+foe. Napoleon had hardly advanced one day's march from Milan when a
+formidable insurrection broke out. The priests, incited by the Pope, had
+roused the peasants, who were very much under their influence, to rise
+and exterminate the French. They appealed to all the motives of
+fanaticism which the papal church has so effectually at its command, to
+rouse their military ardor. They assured the ignorant peasants that
+Austria was pouring down an overwhelming army upon the invader; that all
+Italy was simultaneously rising in arms; that England, with her powerful
+fleet, was landing troops innumerable upon the coasts of Sardinia; that
+God, and all his angels, were looking down from the windows of Heaven to
+admire the heroism of the faithful, in ridding the earth of the enemies
+of the true religion, and that the destruction of Napoleon was sure. The
+enthusiasm spread from hamlet to hamlet like a conflagration. The
+friends of republicanism were, for the most part, in the cities. The
+peasantry were generally strongly attached to the church, and looked up
+with reverence to the nobles. The tocsin was sounded in every village.
+In a day thirty thousand peasants, roused to frenzy, grasped their arms.
+The danger was most imminent.
+
+Napoleon felt that not an hour was to be lost. He took with him twelve
+hundred men and six pieces of cannon, and instantly turned upon his
+track. He soon came up with eight hundred of the insurgents, who were
+intrenching themselves in the small village of Banasco. There was no
+parleying. There was no hesitancy. The ear was closed to all the appeals
+of mercy. The veteran troops, inured to their work, rushed with bayonet
+and sabre upon the unwarlike Italians, and, in a few moments, hewed the
+peasants to pieces. The women and children fled in every direction,
+carrying the tidings of the dreadful massacre. The torch was applied to
+the town, and the dense volumes of smoke ascending into the serene and
+cloudless skies, from this altar of vengeance, proclaimed, far and wide
+over the plains of Italy, how dreadful a thing it was to incur the wrath
+of the conqueror.
+
+Napoleon and his troops, their swords still dripping in blood, tarried
+not, but moving on with the sweep of a whirlwind, came to the gates of
+Pavia. This city had become the head-quarters of the insurgents. It
+contained thirty thousand inhabitants. Napoleon had left there a
+garrison of three hundred men. The insurgents, eight thousand strong,
+had thrown themselves into the place, and, strengthened by all of the
+monarchical party, prepared for a desperate resistance. Napoleon sent
+the Archbishop of Milan, with a flag of truce, offering pardon to all
+who would lay down their arms. "May the terrible example of Banasco,"
+said he, "open your eyes. Its fate shall be that of every town which
+persists in revolt." "While Pavia has walls," the insurgents bravely
+replied, "we will not surrender." Napoleon rejoined in the instantaneous
+thunders of his artillery. He swept the ramparts with grape shot, while
+the soldiers, with their hatchets, hewed down the gates.
+
+[Illustration: THE BURNING OF BANASCO.]
+
+They rushed like an inundation into the city. The peasants fought with
+desperation from the windows and roofs of the houses, hurling down upon
+the French every missile of destruction. The sanguinary conflict soon
+terminated in favor of the disciplined valor of the assailants. The
+wretched peasants were pursued into the plain and cut down without
+mercy. The magistrates of the city were shot; the city itself given up
+to pillage. "The order," said Napoleon to the inhabitants, "to lay the
+city in ashes, was just leaving my lips, when the garrison of the castle
+arrived, and hastened, with cries of joy, to embrace their deliverers.
+Their names were called over and none found missing. If the blood of a
+single Frenchman had been shed, my determination was to erect a column
+on the ruins of Pavia, bearing this inscription, '_Here stood the city
+of Pavia!_'" He was extremely indignant with the garrison for allowing
+themselves to be made prisoners. "Cowards," he exclaimed, "I intrusted
+you with a post essential to the safety of an army; and you have
+abandoned it to a mob of wretched peasants, without offering the least
+resistance." He delivered the captain over to a council of war, and he
+was shot.
+
+This terrible example crushed the insurrection over the whole of
+Lombardy. Such are the inevitable and essential horrors of war. Napoleon
+had no love for cruelty. But he never hesitated to adopt any measures,
+however decisive and sanguinary, which he deemed essential for the
+accomplishment of his purposes. In such dreadful scenes he claimed to be
+acting upon the same principle which influences the physician to cut,
+with an unflinching hand, through nerves and tendons, for the humane
+design of saving life.
+
+If war is right this was right. This bloody vengeance was necessary for
+the salvation of Napoleon's army. He was about to pursue the Austrians
+far away into the mountains of the Tyrol, and it was necessary to his
+success that, by a terrible example, he should teach those whom he left
+behind, that they could not rise upon him with impunity. War is
+necessarily a system of cruelty and of blood. Napoleon was an energetic
+warrior. He recoiled not from any severities which he deemed
+indispensable to the success of his horrible mission. "A man of refined
+sensibilities," says the Duke of Wellington, "has no right to meddle
+with the profession of a soldier." "Pavia," said Napoleon, "is the only
+place I ever gave up to pillage. I promised that the soldiers should
+have it, at their mercy, for twenty-four hours. But after three hours I
+could bear such scenes of outrage no longer, and put an end to them.
+Policy and morality are equally opposed to the system. Nothing is so
+certain to disorganize and completely ruin an army."
+
+It is wonderfully characteristic of this most extraordinary man, that in
+the midst of these terrible scenes, and when encompassed by such perils
+and pressed by such urgent haste, he could have found time and the
+disposition to visit a literary institution. When the whole city of
+Pavia was in consternation, he entered the celebrated university,
+accompanied by his splendid military suite. With the utmost celerity he
+moved from class to class, asking questions with such rapidity that the
+professors could hardly find time or breath to answer him. "What class
+is this?" he inquired, as he entered the first recitation room. "The
+class of metaphysics," was the reply. Napoleon, who had but little
+respect for the uncertain deductions of mental philosophy, exclaimed,
+very emphatically, "Bah!" and took a pinch of snuff. Turning to one of
+the pupils, he inquired, "What is the difference between sleep and
+death?" The embarrassed pupil turned to the professor for assistance.
+The professor plunged into a learned disquisition upon death. The
+uncourteous examiner left him in the midst of his sentences, and
+hastened to another room. "What class is this?" he said. "The
+mathematical class," he was answered. It was his favorite science. His
+eye sparkled with pleasure, and seizing a book from one of the pupils,
+he hastily turned over the leaves and gave him a very difficult problem
+to solve. He chanced to fall upon an excellent scholar, who did the work
+very promptly and correctly. Napoleon glanced his eye over the work and
+said, "You are wrong." The pupil insisted that he was right. Napoleon
+took the slate and sat down to work the problem himself. In a moment he
+saw his own error, and returning the slate to the pupil, with
+ill-concealed chagrin, exclaimed, "Yes? yes! you are right." He then
+proceeded to another room, when he met the celebrated Volta, "the Newton
+of electricity." Napoleon was delighted to see the distinguished
+philosopher, and ran and threw his arms around his neck, and begged him
+immediately to draw out his class. The President of the University, in a
+very eulogistic address to the young general, said, "Charles the Great
+laid the foundations of this University. May Napoleon the Great give it
+the completion of its glory."
+
+Having quelled the insurrection, in flames and blood, the only way in
+which, by any possibility it could have been quelled, Napoleon turned
+proudly again, with his little band, to encounter the whole power of the
+Austrian empire, now effectually aroused to crush him. The dominions of
+Venice contained three millions of souls. Its fleet ruled the Adriatic,
+and it could command an army of fifty thousand men. The Venetians though
+unfriendly to France preferred neutrality. Beaulieu had fled through
+their territories, leaving a garrison at Mantua. Napoleon pursued them.
+To the remonstrances of the Venetians he replied: "Venice has either
+afforded refuge to the Austrians, in which case it is the enemy of
+France, or it was unable to prevent the Austrians from invading its
+territory, and is consequently too weak to claim the right of
+neutrality." The government deliberated in much perplexity, whether to
+throw themselves as allies into the arms of France or of Austria. They
+at last decided, if possible, to continue neutral. They sent to Napoleon
+twelve hundred thousand dollars, as a bribe or a present to secure his
+friendship. He decisively rejected it. To some friends who urged the
+perfect propriety of his receiving the money, he replied:
+
+"If my commissary should see me accept this money, who can tell to what
+lengths he might go." The Venetian envoys retired from their mission
+deeply impressed with the genius of Napoleon. They had expected to find
+only a stern warrior. To their surprise they met a statesman, whose
+profoundness of views, power of eloquence, extent of information, and
+promptness of decision excited both their admiration and amazement. They
+were venerable men, accustomed to consideration and power. Napoleon was
+but twenty-five. Yet the veterans were entirely overawed by his
+brilliant and commanding powers. "This extraordinary young man," they
+wrote to the senate, "will one day exert great influence over his
+country."
+
+No man ever had more wealth at his disposal than Napoleon, or was more
+scrupulous as to the appropriation of any of it to himself. For two
+years he maintained the army in Italy, calling upon the government for
+no supplies whatever. He sent more than two millions of dollars to Paris
+to relieve the Directory from its embarrassments. Without the slightest
+difficulty he might have accumulated millions of dollars for his own
+private fortune. His friends urged him to do so, assuring him that the
+Directory, jealous of his fame and power, would try to crush rather than
+to reward him. But he turned a deaf ear to all such suggestions, and
+returned to Paris, from this most brilliant campaign, comparatively a
+poor man. He had clothed the armies of France, and replenished the
+impoverished treasury of the Republic, and filled the Museum of Paris
+with paintings and statuary. But all was for France. He reserved neither
+money, nor painting, nor statue for himself. "Every one," said he
+afterward, "has his relative ideas. I have a taste for founding not for
+possessing. My riches consist in glory and celebrity. The Simplon and
+the Louvre were in the eyes of the people and of foreigners more my
+property than any private domains could possibly have been." This was
+surely a lofty and a noble ambition.
+
+Napoleon soon overtook the Austrians. He found a division of the army
+strongly intrenched upon the banks of the Mincio, determined to arrest
+his passage. Though the Austrians were some fifteen thousand strong, and
+though they had partially demolished the bridge, the march of Napoleon
+was retarded scarcely an hour. Napoleon was that day sick, suffering
+from a violent headache. Having crossed the river and concerted all his
+plans for the pursuit of the flying enemy, he went into an old castle,
+by the river's side, to try the effect of a foot-bath. He had but a
+small retinue with him, his troops being dispersed in pursuit of the
+fugitives. He had but just placed his feet in the warm water when he
+heard the loud clatter of horses' hoofs, as a squadron of Austrian
+dragoons galloped into the court-yard. The sentinel at the door shouted,
+"To arms! to arms! the Austrians!" Napoleon sprang from the bath,
+hastily drew on one boot, and with the other in his hand, leaped from
+the window, escaped through the back gate of the garden, mounted a horse
+and galloped to Massena's division, who were cooking their dinner at a
+little distance from the castle. The appearance of their
+commander-in-chief among them in such a plight roused the soldiers from
+their camp-kettles, and they rushed in pursuit of the Austrians, who, in
+their turn, retreated. This personal risk induced Napoleon to establish
+a body guard, to consist of five hundred veterans, of at least ten
+years' service, who were ever to accompany him. This was the origin of
+that Imperial Guard, which, in the subsequent wars of Napoleon, obtained
+such a world-wide renown.
+
+Napoleon soon encamped before the almost impregnable fortress of Mantua.
+About twenty thousand men composed its garrison. As it was impossible to
+surmount such formidable defenses by assault, Napoleon was compelled to
+have recourse to the more tedious operations of a siege.
+
+The Austrian government, dissatisfied with the generalship of Beaulieu,
+withdrew him from the service and sent General Wurmser to assume the
+command, with a reinforcement of sixty thousand men. Napoleon's army had
+also been reinforced, so that he had about thirty thousand men with whom
+to meet the eighty thousand which would compose the Austrian army when
+united. It would require, however, at least a month before Wurmser could
+arrive at the gates of Mantua. Napoleon resolved to improve the moments
+of leisure in disarming his enemies in the south of Italy.
+
+The kingdom of Naples, situated at the southern extremity of the
+peninsula, is the most powerful state in Italy. A Bourbon prince,
+dissolute and effeminate, sat upon the throne. Its fleet had been
+actively allied with the English in the attack upon Toulon. Her troops
+were now associated with the Austrians in the warfare against France.
+The king, seeing the Austrians, and his own troops united with them,
+driven from every part of Italy except the fortress of Mantua, was
+exceedingly alarmed, and sent to Napoleon imploring peace. Napoleon, not
+being able to march an army into his territory to impose contributions,
+and yet being very anxious to detach from the alliance the army of sixty
+thousand men which Naples could bring into the field, granted an
+armistice upon terms so easy as to provoke the displeasure of the
+Directory. But Napoleon was fully aware of the impending peril, and
+decided wisely. The Pope, now abandoned by Naples, was in perfect
+consternation. He had anathematized republican France. He had preached a
+crusade against her, and had allowed her embassador to be assassinated
+in the streets of Rome. He was conscious that he deserved chastisement,
+and he had learned that the young conqueror, in his chastisings,
+inflicted very heavy blows. Napoleon, taking with him but six thousand
+men, entered the States of the Pope. The provinces subject to the Pope's
+temporal power contained a population of two and a half millions, most
+of whom were in a state of disgraceful barbarism. He had an inefficient
+army of four or five thousand men. His temporal power was nothing. It
+was his spiritual power alone which rendered the Pope formidable. The
+Pontiff immediately sent an embassador to Bologna, to implore the
+clemency of the conqueror. Napoleon referred the Pope to the Directory
+in Paris for the terms of a permanent peace, granting him however an
+armistice, in consideration of which he exacted the surrender of Ancona,
+Bologna, and Ferrara to a French garrison, the payment of four millions
+of dollars in silver and gold, and the contribution of one hundred
+paintings or statues and five hundred ancient manuscripts for the Museum
+in Paris. The Pope, trembling in anticipation of the overthrow of his
+temporal power, was delighted to escape upon such easy terms. The most
+enlightened of the inhabitants of these degenerate and wretchedly
+governed states welcomed the French with the utmost enthusiasm. They
+hated the Holy See implacably, and entreated Napoleon to grant them
+independence. But it was not Napoleon's object to revolutionize the
+states of Italy, and though he could not but express his sympathy in
+these aspirations for political freedom, he was unwilling to take any
+decisive measures for the overthrow of the established government. He
+was contending simply for peace.
+
+Tuscany had acknowledged the French Republic, and remained neutral in
+this warfare. But England, regardless of the neutrality of this feeble
+state, had made herself master of the port of Leghorn, protected by the
+governor of that city, who was inimical to the French. The frigates of
+England rode insultingly in the harbor, and treated the commerce of
+France as that of an enemy. Napoleon crossed the Apennines, by forced
+marches proceeded to Leghorn, and captured English goods to the amount
+of nearly three millions of dollars, notwithstanding a great number of
+English vessels escaped from the harbor but a few hours before the
+entrance of the French. England was mistress of the sea, and she
+respected no rights of private property upon her watery domain. Wherever
+her fleets encountered a merchant ship of the enemy, it was taken as
+fair plunder. Napoleon, who regarded the land as his domain, resolved
+that he would retaliate by the capture of English property wherever his
+army encountered it upon the Continent. It was robbery in both cases,
+and in both cases equally unjustifiable. And yet such is, to a certain
+degree, one of the criminal necessities of war. He seized the inimical
+governor, and sent him in a post-chaise to the Grand Duke at Florence,
+saying, "The governor of Leghorn has violated all the rights of
+neutrality, by oppressing French commerce, and by affording an asylum to
+the emigrants and to all the enemies of the Republic. Out of respect to
+your authority I send the unfaithful servant to be punished at your
+discretion." The neutral states were thus energetically taught that they
+must respect their neutrality. He left a garrison at Leghorn, and then
+proceeded to Florence, the capital of Tuscany, where the duke, brother
+of the emperor of Austria, received him with the greatest cordiality,
+and gave him a magnificent entertainment. He then returned to Mantua,
+having been absent just twenty days, and in that time, with one
+division of his army, having overawed all the states of southern Italy,
+and secured their tranquillity during the tremendous struggles which he
+had still to maintain against Austria. In these fearful and bloody
+conflicts Napoleon was contending only to protect his country from those
+invading armies, which were endeavoring to force upon France the
+despotism of the Bourbons. He repeatedly made the declaration, that he
+wished only for peace; and in every case, even when states, by the right
+of conquest, were entirely in his power, he made peace, upon the most
+lenient terms for them, simply upon condition that they should cease
+their warfare against France. "Such a rapid succession of brilliant
+victories," said Las Cases to Napoleon at St. Helena, "filling the world
+with your fame, must have been a source of great delight to you." "By no
+means," Napoleon replied. "They who think so know nothing of the peril
+of our situation. The victory of to-day was instantly forgotten in
+preparation for the battle which was to be fought on the morrow. The
+aspect of danger was continually before me. I enjoyed not one moment of
+repose."
+
+We must now leave Napoleon and his army, until our next Number, encamped
+before the walls of Mantua.
+
+
+
+
+LIMA AND THE LIMANIANS.
+
+
+When Pizarro had completed the conquest of Peru, one of his first cares
+was to select a site for the capital of his new empire. The situation of
+Cuzco, far withdrawn in the depths of the Cordilleras, which admirably
+adapted it for the metropolis under the centralizing system of the
+Incas, rendered it unsuited for the capital of a commercial people, who
+were to be bound to another nation by the strict ties of colonial
+dependency. All the requisites of a central position, a good harbor, a
+fertile soil, and a delightful climate were found combined in the valley
+of Lurigancho, through which, emptying into the Bay of Callao, flowed
+the river Rimac, affording abundant facilities for irrigation, and
+producing exuberant fertility. Here, on the 6th day of January, 1535,
+the festival of the Epiphany, the conqueror of the Incas resolved to
+establish his capital city. He gave to it the name of _La Ciudad de los
+Reyes_--"The City of the Kings," in honor of the "wise men from the
+east," whom Catholic tradition has invested with regal dignity, who on
+that day, more than fifteen centuries before, had followed the star till
+it "stood over where the young child was." Twelve days afterward, the
+Spaniards having been gathered to the valley, the work was solemnly
+inaugurated by Pizarro laying with his own hand the foundation of the
+cathedral, which was dedicated to _Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion_--"Our
+Lady of the Assumption." The work of building was pushed on with an
+energy characteristic of Pizarro. From an hundred miles around the
+Indians were collected, and forced to build the hated city. The stern
+soldiers of the conquest laid aside their armor, and assumed the
+character of laborious artisans. The foundations of the public edifices
+were laid with a solidity capable of defying the attacks of time; and
+almost sufficient to resist the shocks of the earthquake, which at
+length taught the successors of the first builders that security was
+only to be attained by the use of slighter materials, and a more humble
+and fragile mode of erection.
+
+In accordance with the old usage, which delighted to place a great city
+at some distance from its seaport, the spot chosen by Pizarro for his
+capital was about two leagues from the bay, whose waters were to be
+whitened with the sails of its commerce. From this point the plain
+descends westward to the sea-shore with a gentle slope. The city was
+laid out in the form of a semicircle or triangle, of which the Rimac
+formed the base. In order to secure as much shade as possible, the
+direction of the streets, instead of coinciding with that of the points
+of the compass, was made from northeast to southwest, so that both in
+the morning and the afternoon the shade of the buildings should fall
+upon the streets. Lying within twelve degrees of the equator, the
+buildings could of course cast no shadow, at any season, from the
+vertical noonday sun. These principal streets were crossed at right
+angles by others, so that each group of houses formed a quadrangle, all
+of nearly equal size. The general direction of the main streets nearly
+coinciding with the slope of the plain and the course of the Rimac,
+allowed the waters of the river to be conveyed through them in stone
+conduits, furnishing irrigation to the gardens, abundant spaces for
+which were left within the city.
+
+The growth of Lima (for the name given by Pizarro to the city was early
+laid aside in favor of its present appellation, derived, by a change of
+letters to which the Limanians are still much addicted, from the name of
+the river upon which it stands) was as rapid as that of a tropical
+plant. In half a century from its foundation it is said to have
+contained 100,000 inhabitants; a rate of increase then unexampled in the
+history of colonization, and offering a striking contrast to the slow
+and almost imperceptible growth of the cities planted a century later
+upon the Atlantic shores of North America, though outdone by the marvels
+wrought in our own days upon the Pacific coasts. Is their speedy rise to
+be followed by a like speedy decline? As the mother country declined,
+the prosperity of Lima in like manner waned, though it is impossible,
+among the contradictory statements made, to arrive at any certain
+conclusion as to the population at different periods. But the large
+number of ruinous and uninhabited buildings shows a decrease of
+population. It is asserted upon competent authority that during the
+first thirty years of the present century not a single new building was
+erected within the walls; and it is doubtful if within the succeeding
+twenty years, as many buildings have been added to the city.
+
+The distant view of Lima, as one approaches it from the sea is very
+magnificent. Entering the harbor of Callao, upon the right lies the
+bare and rugged island of San Lorenzo. In front are the noble but
+dilapidated castles, and the white houses of Callao, presenting a gay
+and somewhat grotesque appearance, with the flags of the foreign consuls
+fluttering before their residences. In the rear stretches a broad plain,
+sloping upward toward a crescent-shaped range of barren hills, which
+inclose the fertile valley of the Lurigancho. At the foot of the
+mountains, apparently, rise the countless spires and towers of Lima,
+drawn up in relief against their dark sides. Still further in the
+distance are seen the giant ranges of the Andes, whose snowy summits are
+usually vailed by thick and sombre clouds. The harbor of Callao is
+magnificent; and the landing, at a fine mole built of stone, and
+surrounded by a substantial iron railing, is good. The town itself,
+though displaying some commercial activity, is mean and insignificant.
+Leaving Callao for Lima, we pass the little village of Buena Vista; then
+half way to the city we come to a place called Magdalena, consisting of
+a _pulperia_ or dram-shop, a convent, and a splendid church. Here in the
+olden time the Spanish viceroys, at the expiration of their five years'
+term of office, used to meet their successors, and deliver up their
+authority to them. The convent has been suppressed, and the church is
+deserted, but in front of it stands a ragged monk, with a tin dish in
+his hand, soliciting alms from the passers-by.
+
+When within about half a league from Lima, we enter upon the fine road
+called the _Alameda del Callao_. It is beautifully shaded with poplars
+and willows, with a handsome promenade upon each side, furnished at
+regular distances with stone seats, and bordered with the _quintas_, or
+country houses of the wealthy Limanians, embowered in luxuriant gardens,
+and surrounded with fruit-trees. By this broad avenue, we enter, through
+an arched gateway, into the city of Lima. This _Alameda_ was opened in
+1800, on the 6th of January, the anniversary of the foundation of the
+city. It was laid out by a man who filled the post of viceroy of Peru,
+under the title of Marques de Osorno. The history of this man is
+somewhat singular. About the middle of the last century, a petty Irish
+shopkeeper, bearing the somewhat incongruous name of Don Ambrosio
+O'Higgins, occupied a little shop, which is still shown under the area
+of the cathedral. Times went hard with Don Ambrosio; he failed in his
+petty traffic, abandoned the little shop by the cathedral, bade farewell
+to his old friend and brother tradesman, La Reguera, and wandered to
+Chili. It was a time of Indian hostilities, and all other occupations
+failing, there was at least a demand for men to be shot. Don Ambrosio
+entered the army, showed himself brave and capable, gained promotion,
+distinguished himself, discovered the Indian city of Osorno, and was
+honored with the title of the Marques of Osorno. In 1786, he returned to
+Lima in the capacity of Viceroy, where, as archbishop, he found none
+other than his old friend, La Reguera. Trade had prospered with him; he
+had returned to Spain, studied, embraced the clerical profession, and
+was sent back to Lima as archbishop five years before O'Higgins came as
+viceroy.
+
+The first impression which the traveler receives upon entering Lima, by
+no means fulfills the anticipations he had been led to form from its
+appearance at a distance. The entrance is by the periphery of the
+semicircle, upon the side furthest from the Rimac. This quarter contains
+only dilapidated squares and filthy houses. But as he advances toward
+the _Plaza Mayor_, the appearance of the city becomes greatly improved.
+The general aspect of the houses strikes an American as somewhat novel,
+from the fact that a large proportion of them consist of but one story,
+very few exceeding two. This mode of building is rendered necessary by
+the frequency of earthquakes, which render buildings of a more imposing
+architecture extremely insecure. The houses of two stories have usually
+two doors in front, opening upon the street. One of these is the
+_azaguan_, which constitutes the main entrance to the house; the other
+leads to the _cochera_ or coach-house. The _azaguan_ opens into a
+spacious _patio_ or court-yard. Directly opposite this entrance are two
+large folding-doors, which open into the _sala_ or hall of the
+dwelling-house, beyond which is the _cuadro_ or reception-room,
+furnished as splendidly as the means of the occupant will allow.
+Adjoining the cuadro are the various rooms appropriated to the use of
+the family. The sala and cuadro are of the full height of the house, and
+the flat roof of these two apartments forms a sort of terrace, called
+the _azotea_, which is paved, surrounded with a railing, and covered
+with an awning. The second story of the remainder of the building
+contains rooms which open into a balcony projecting over the street.
+This balcony is boarded up to the height of about three feet, the
+remainder being composed of lattices or glazed windows, and forms the
+favorite lounging place of the inhabitants, where they can watch the
+passers-by in the streets. The peculiarity of the domestic architecture
+of Lima, by which, with the exception of the balcony, the rooms open not
+upon the street, but upon the court-yard, gives the city much the
+appearance of an Oriental town. Where the houses are of but one story,
+the almost entire absence of windows and openings gives the street a
+mean and gloomy appearance, almost like continuous lines of dead walls.
+But where the dwellings are of two stories, the long lines of balconies
+and verandas gayly ornamented and trellised, projecting far over the
+foot-pavements, present a gay and festive aspect. In some parts of the
+city are houses of much greater height, and of a far more imposing
+architecture. But they are to a great extent ruinous and dilapidated,
+having been abandoned by their ancient occupants, for fear of being
+overwhelmed in them by earthquakes. When tenanted at all, it is
+principally by the poorer classes, who are willing to brave the
+insecurity for the sake of the saving in the rents. The outer walls are
+usually of _adobes_, or sun-dried brick, as far as the first floor. The
+second story is usually composed of a wooden frame-work, upon both
+sides of which canes are nailed, or fastened by leather thongs, and the
+whole is then plastered over, and painted to imitate stone, the
+deception being aided by the apparent massiveness of the construction.
+The division walls are also made of canes plastered over. The roofs are
+flat, composed of rafters, covered with mats or cane, with a layer of
+clay spread above them, sufficient to exclude the rays of the sun and
+the heavy dews. A single prolonged shower would be sufficient to
+dissolve the whole city; but as it never rains there, these slight walls
+and roofs are all that is required. Lima is justified in placing her
+dependence in architecture upon a reed, rather than upon stone. The more
+solid and massy the walls, the less protection do they afford against
+the terrible earthquakes which are of periodical occurrence, and by
+which more than once the city has been reduced to a heap of ruins; while
+these light cane fabrics yield to the shock, and when it has passed
+resume their places, with little apparent injury; and even if demolished
+they do not occasion that fearful peril of life which results from the
+overthrow of more stable fabrics.
+
+There are few places the inhabitants of which present so great a
+diversity of complexion and physiognomy as in Lima. There is every
+gradation and intermixture of race, from the fair Creoles of unmixed
+European descent, who pride themselves upon the purity of their Spanish
+blood, to the jet black negro of Congo, whose unmitigated ebony hue
+bears testimony equally unequivocal to his pure African lineage. Between
+these two extremes is an almost innumerable variety of mixed races, each
+having its own peculiar designation, indicating the precise proportion
+of European, Indian, and negro blood in their veins, each marked with
+its own peculiar physical, intellectual, and moral characteristics; and
+each finding its chief boast in the nearness of its relation to the
+white race, and looking down with contempt upon those a shade darker
+than its own.
+
+[Illustration: PERUVIAN CAVALIER.]
+
+In 1836, when the population of the city was a little more than 54,000,
+it was composed of about the following proportion of the different
+races: white _Creoles_, all of European, and mostly of Spanish descent,
+20,000; _Negroes_, 10,000; of whom a little less than one half were
+slaves; Indians, 5000; mixed races, 19,000; these are of every shade of
+complexion, from the _Mestizo_, the child of a white father and an
+Indian mother, whom only a keen and practiced eye can distinguish from a
+White, and to whom no higher compliment can be paid than to inquire
+whether he is not a Spaniard, to the _Zambo_ who can only show claim to
+a portion of white blood, on the ground that to all the vices of the
+negro race, he adds others peculiar to the Whites.
+
+The white Creoles are of slender figure, and of middling height, with
+features strongly marked, fair complexion, and black hair. Like the
+descendants of the Spanish race throughout all the Western World, they
+have degenerated from the parent stock. The males have even in youth a
+look of premature age; as though the powers of nature were exhausted,
+and insufficient to develop a vigorous manhood. Indolence is their
+predominant characteristic. They are utterly indisposed to any
+continuous exertion, whether of body or of mind. If poverty compels them
+to pursue an occupation for a livelihood, they select some petty
+traffic, in which, if the gains are small, there is ample leisure to
+gossip and smoke their perpetual cigars. Those who are able abandon
+themselves to idleness, lounging about the streets or in the shops, at
+the coffee-houses or the gaming-table. The education of the Creole of
+Lima is very defective; the system of instruction pursued does little to
+develop his powers, and his innate indolence presents an insuperable bar
+to any efforts at self-cultivation. Riding is a universal custom, and
+almost every person keeps one or more horses; these are trained by the
+_chalanes_ or professional horse-breakers to perform feats of every
+kind; one to which great value is attached, is to turn around upon the
+hind legs rapidly, when in full gallop. Tschudi, a recent German
+traveler, relates an instance which came under his own observation,
+which shows the certainty and dexterity with which the feat is
+performed. A friend of his rode full gallop up to the city wall, which
+at the spot is about nine feet broad, leaped his horse upon it, and made
+him describe a segment of a circle with his fore feet beyond the edge of
+the wall, while standing balanced upon his hind feet. The feat was
+performed a number of times in rapid succession.
+
+The riding costume of a Peruvian cavalier is extremely picturesque and
+convenient. Its most striking feature is the _poncho_. This is a large
+fringed shawl with an opening in the centre, through which the head of
+the wearer passes; it then hangs gracefully over the shoulder, and falls
+nearly to the knee, leaving the hands and arms less embarrassed than any
+other species of cloak. These ponchos frequently display great
+brilliancy and variety; the color is often a snowy white, sometimes it
+is richly and fancifully embroidered; but the prevailing taste is for
+broad stripes of brilliant colors, such as orange, scarlet, blue, green,
+rose color, or combinations of all hues intermingled and diversified in
+every conceivable manner. The spurs used by the Peruvians are of
+enormous magnitude; old custom ordains that they should contain a pound
+and a half of silver; the rowels sometimes stand out four or five inches
+from the heel, with spikes of one or two inches in length, or even more.
+A broad-brimmed sombrero of fine Guayaquil grass is usually worn by
+equestrians. The trappings of the horses are often of a very costly
+description. Head-gear, bridle, and crupper are sometimes seen formed of
+finely-wrought silver rings linked into each other. The stirrups are
+massy blocks of wood of a triangular shape, quaintly carved, and
+ornamented with silver. The saddle is frequently adorned with rich
+embroidery in gold, and the holster inlaid with the same precious
+metal.
+
+A cigar is the almost unvarying accompaniment of a Peruvian of any
+class. Basil Hall relates an odd expedient made use of to reconcile the
+free-and-easy habit of smoking in public places, with the stately
+requirements of Spanish etiquette of olden time, in the presence of the
+representatives of royalty. In the days when Peru was a Spanish colony,
+the vice-regal box at the theatre projected out somewhat into the pit,
+in full view of the Commonalty of the City of the Kings. As soon as the
+curtain fell between the acts of the piece, the viceroy was in the habit
+of retiring from the front to the rear of the box. No sooner was his
+back turned than, by a very convenient figure of thought, he was
+considered to be constructively absent. Every man in the pit would then
+draw forth his flint and steel (this was long before the days of
+Lucifers and loco-focos), light his cigar, and "improve" the time by
+puffing away at the fragrant weed. At the tinkling of the bell which
+announced the rising of the curtain, the representative of royalty
+returned to the front of the box, his constructive absence was ended,
+and every smoker paused in mid-puff.
+
+Nothing indicates the decadence of a race more unerringly and decisively
+than the progressive change which comes over its tastes in its modes of
+amusement. Indolence and brutality go together. Displays of skill and
+courage cease to afford excitement to the jaded sensibilities; the
+stronger stimulus of suffering must be supplied. Thus as the Roman race
+declined, the shows of the arena grew more and more brutal. Cock-fights
+and bull-fights are the favorite amusements of the Limanians. A fondness
+for the latter is characteristic of the Spanish race every where; but in
+Peru the chief attraction is not the dexterity and courage of the
+performers, but the agony of the victims. Bull-fights in Spain may
+almost be characterized as humane exhibitions compared with those of
+Lima. At one witnessed by Hall in 1821, the _matador_, who should have
+given the death-stroke to an animal of extraordinary strength and
+courage, missed the mortal spot, and merely buried his sword in the body
+of the bull; in an instant he was tossed, apparently dead, into the air,
+by the maddened beast, who turned upon a horseman, whom he dismounted,
+goring the horse so that his bowels hung upon the ground. All this threw
+the spectators into an agony of delight; which was still further
+enhanced when the sinews of the bull, having been cut from behind by a
+crescent-shaped instrument fixed to a long pole, the poor beast dragged
+himself around the arena upon his mutilated stumps. But their ecstasy
+amounted to frenzy when a man mounted upon the back of the bull and
+spurred him around the arena with strokes of a dagger, until he fell
+exhausted by loss of blood.
+
+Bull-fights are only an occasional luxury, but cock-fights are a daily
+standing dish. The cock-pit (_coliseo de gallos_) is a very handsome
+building; here cock-fights take place every day. The natural weapons of
+the fowls are not sufficiently deadly to satisfy the Limanian
+spectators; and in place of the spur of the right foot, which is cut
+off, is put a sharp curved blade of steel or _gaff_. Whatever else may
+be lacking, Lima can justly boast the finest amphitheatre in the world
+for the purpose of cock-fighting.
+
+In Lima, as throughout the whole of Spanish America, the females are,
+both intellectually and physically, far superior to the males. All
+visitors at Lima speak in terms of warm admiration of the Limeñas, as
+the most charming and graceful women of South America. In figure they
+are usually slender, and somewhat above the middle height, with fair
+complexions, destitute of color, large, dark brilliant eyes, and
+abundant black hair. The charming Spanish epithet _hechicera_, by which
+they are designated, belongs to them in the full extent of its
+significance, not only on account of their rare personal beauty, but
+also by reason of the captivating grace of their deportment, and the
+natural amiability of their dispositions.
+
+The first thing which attracts one's regard in Lima, is the singular and
+picturesque costume of the females. This costume, which resembles that
+of the Moors, to whom it owes its origin, takes the name of the two
+principal parts of which it is composed--it is called the _saya y
+manto_. It is worn only in Lima, and there only in the day time, as a
+walking-costume. The _saya_, as formerly worn, was a skirt or petticoat
+made of an elastic black silk, plaited at the top and bottom in small
+folds, and fitting so closely as to display the outlines of the figure,
+and every motion of the limbs. It was made so narrow at the bottom that
+the wearers were forced to take steps extremely short, which gave to
+their gait a mincing character more striking than modest. This, which is
+called the _saya ajustada_ is now rarely seen. As now worn it forms a
+very graceful and elegant costume; the bottom plaits are taken out, so
+as to cause the skirt to stand out from the figure, which is not
+displayed. This is called the _saya desplegada_. It is always made of a
+dark-colored material. The _manto_ is a thick vail of black silk,
+joining the saya at the back of the waist. It is brought up over the
+shoulders and head, and drawn over the face in such a manner as to
+conceal the features entirely, with the exception of one eye, which is
+visible through a small triangular space left open for the purpose. One
+hand retains the folds of the manto in their places while the other
+displays a richly embroidered handkerchief. Over the shoulders is thrown
+a shawl, usually of embroidered China crape. The Limeñas, effectually
+disguised in this national dress, to which they are enthusiastically
+attached, go out every where unattended. Any one can address them, and
+they violate no usage in accosting any one. The uniformity of the
+costume, in materials, shape, and color, and the perfect concealment of
+the features, makes identification impossible, so that the street
+becomes a perpetual masquerade. The costume which owes its origin to
+marital jealousy has in Lima become a most efficient aid to intrigue.
+
+[Illustration: LIMEÑA AT HOME.]
+
+The Limeña in the street, shrouded in the saya y manto, differs as
+widely from the same Limeña at home, as the butterfly wrapped up in its
+chrysalis does from the same insect with wings fully expanded. At home,
+at the theatre, in the carriage, every where except when walking in the
+streets, or in church, the Limeña appears dressed in the newest French
+fashions. There is, however, one article of European costume which they
+uniformly refuse to adopt, and that is the bonnet. With here and there
+an exception, they obstinately reject any other head-dress than a light
+vail and their own abundant tresses. An inordinate fondness for flowers
+and perfumes is also a striking characteristic of a Limeña, whose
+presence is almost invariably announced by a vase of flowers and a
+flaçon of perfume, placed upon a table near which she reclines swinging
+in a hammock during the sultry hours of the day, amusing herself, now
+with examining a book of engravings, now with music, of which she is
+passionately fond, perhaps with embroidery--and not unfrequently with a
+cigar.
+
+[Illustration: CHOLITAS OR INDIAN WOMEN OF PERU.]
+
+If man or woman were only an animal being--and if she could always be
+young and physically charming--this life of the Limeña might not seem so
+undesirable. But with her a thing of beauty is not a joy forever. If her
+reign is brilliant, it is brief. When her beauty fades she ceases to be
+a coquette, and becomes a _beata_ or devotee. She renounces the vanities
+of the world, attends mass several times a day, makes frequent
+confessions, and takes up her abode during Lent in a house of penitence.
+She selects a confessor to whom she unburdens her conscience, and sends
+presents of sweetmeats and delicacies. At home she sinks into a cipher,
+scarcely more regarded than a piece of worn-out furniture. If a
+stranger, paying a visit to a young Limeña, respectfully rises to make a
+place for an aged woman who enters the _cuadro_, nothing is more common
+than for the daughter to say, with the utmost coolness, _No se incommoda
+usted, es ma mamita_ "Don't incommode yourself, it's my mamma." Habit
+becomes a second nature, and the Limeña accommodates herself to her lot
+without a murmur. Such, with exceptions few and rare, is the lot of the
+_hechiceras Limeñas_, so highly endowed by nature, and worthy of a
+better fate.
+
+Besides these Limeñas of European origin there is another class,
+descendants of the ancient Peruvians, who, though not beautiful like
+their fair neighbors, present some remarkable characteristics. Their
+complexion approaches the color of copper, with a pale tinge of gold.
+Their whole aspect has in it something bizarre, but at the same time not
+altogether unattractive. In dress they are fond of strange combinations.
+A balloon-like garment of white muslin or gaudy calico; a Guayaquil hat
+with high crown and immense brim, decorated with huge bows of ribbon
+on the "company side" of the head; their abundant hair carefully divided
+and pouring down their backs in sable cascades; and, foremost and above
+all, a well-fitting stocking and shoe upon a foot unimpeachably small,
+form their favorite costume. These _cholitas_ are admirable horsewomen,
+usually riding astride, cavalier fashion, and wearing the formidable
+Peruvian spur.
+
+[Illustration: COMING FROM MASS.]
+
+The saya y manto is always worn when going to church. There the absence
+of seats obliges each female to kneel upon the flags, unless she be
+provided with a servant to carry a piece of carpet upon which to kneel.
+To look upon them reclining immovably against the walls or the base of a
+column, the eyelids drooping upon the pale cheek, or the look fixed upon
+the tracery of the roof overhead (for in church the manto is not
+rigorously closed) one might imagine the Limeñas to be statues of
+meditation. Only the sign of the cross rapidly traced over the forehead
+shows them to belong to the breathing world. In the sanctuary no sound
+disturbs the harmony of the sacred offices. The incense, the pious
+hymns, the soft breathing of the organ, and in some of the churches, the
+notes of numerous birds of song caged among the crystal lustres of the
+candelabra, are mingled with the solemn chant of the monks. Service
+over, and what a change! Life seems to reanimate those marble limbs;
+those fixed looks become lively and sparkling; and noise and bustle take
+the place of the former silence. As the fair Limeña leaves the cathedral
+the black musicians fill the air with the sound of their drums and
+clarinets, the lottery-men cry their tickets upon one side of the
+entrance, and upon the other a fat ecclesiastic vends the effigy of the
+saint who chances to be in fashion. The Limeña, restored to her proper
+character, draws the shrouding manto over her features; makes gay and
+lively answers to the insipid compliments paid her by the young men
+lounging under the portico; and buys with one hand a lottery ticket, and
+with the other a relic or an image which she hopes will make her number
+a lucky one.
+
+The Indians in Lima number some 5000; they are active and industrious,
+in moral qualities far surpassing the mixed races, and fully equaling
+the whites, to whom, however, they are decidedly inferior in
+intellectual powers. They look upon Europeans with the feelings always
+entertained by a subjugated race toward their conquerors; a compound of
+fear, dislike, and mistrust. In 1781, under the lead of some of the
+descendants of the ancient Incas, an insurrection of the Indians took
+place in Peru, which was marked by the utmost atrocities. They defeated
+the whites in several engagements, burned a number of towns and
+villages, and captured the city of Sorrato, in which the surrounding
+inhabitants had taken refuge; of the prisoners who numbered 23,000, only
+87 priests and monks were preserved alive. Their leaders were finally
+betrayed into the power of the whites, and put to death. The Indians
+then disbanded. The most rigorous measures of repression were thereupon
+adopted. Their language, dress, music, and dances were strictly
+forbidden, and every effort made to extinguish their national feelings.
+When the war of Independence broke out, the Indians took part against
+Spain, but with the secret design of reinstating the dynasty of their
+ancestors, and raising to the throne one of the race of the Incas. In
+many cases they directed their hostilities against the whites
+indiscriminately, without distinction of parties. In one place they
+vowed not to leave alive so much as a dog or a fowl who bore the hated
+color, and even scraped the whitewash from the walls of their houses in
+sign of utter detestation. Since the war of Independence they have made
+great advances, especially in the military art, and have used every
+means to secure as many fire-arms as possible. At as late a period as
+1841, Tschudi, discovered by accident eighteen muskets hidden in the hut
+of an Indian in Central Peru, and upon asking for what purpose they were
+concealed was told that the time would come when they would be of use.
+The same writer also mentions incidents showing that many of the Indians
+are in possession of the secret of the existence of silver mines, far
+richer than any which are now known; and that the secret is handed down
+inviolably from father to son, until the time when their ancient dynasty
+shall be restored. Years of oppression and wrong under Spanish rule,
+only partially remedied since the Revolution, have wrought a great
+change in the character of the Indians of Peru. A settled distrust and
+melancholy have taken the place of the confiding and joyous disposition
+of the race who welcomed their Spanish visitors. Their songs, their
+dances, the whole tenor of their domestic life, wear a dark and sombre
+shade. Even in dress their favorite color is dark blue, which is with
+them the hue of mourning. These characteristics of the Indian race
+throughout the country, appear, though more or less modified, in the
+Indians in Lima.
+
+The negroes in Lima number not far from 10,000 of whom less than half
+are slaves. The charter of Independence provides that no person in Peru
+shall be born a slave, but this provision has been modified by law, so
+as to allow a term of servitude varying from 25 to 50 years. Slaves
+brought from any other country, become free the moment they touch the
+soil of Peru. Hence if a master take his slave into Chili, the slave may
+claim his freedom on his return. Runaways, however, are liable to be
+reclaimed. The treatment of slaves in Lima is very gentle. A tribunal is
+erected having the special duty to protect the slaves from
+ill-treatment. A slave may claim his liberty upon paying his value; and
+in case he and his master are unable to agree upon the sum, it is fixed
+by the court; or he may sell himself to any other master who will pay
+the determined price, in spite of any opposition on the part of the
+owner. As the introduction of negroes from Africa has been for many
+years prohibited, the great majority of the slaves are born in Peru.
+These, though intellectually and physically superior to those born in
+Africa, are held of less value; their superior intelligence rendering
+them less docile, and more discontented with their condition. The free
+negroes of Lima are represented as a plague and a pest to society.
+
+As a general rule the mixed races, which constitute about a third of the
+population of Lima, inherit the vices without the virtues of the pure
+races from which they sprung. Perhaps the sole exceptions to this are
+the _Mestizos_, the offspring of a white father and an Indian mother.
+They are of mild and gentle dispositions, but are also timid and
+irresolute. There are few Mestizos in Lima; but in the interior they are
+numerous. There they constitute the entire population of many villages,
+and call themselves whites, keeping aloof from the Indians. The most
+prominent characteristic of the Mulattos, the offspring of a white and a
+negro, is their remarkable imitative talent, and their consequent
+aptitude for mechanical pursuits; but they are extremely sensual and
+animal in all their tastes and instincts. The _Zambos_, sprung from an
+intermixture of the different castes of the colored race, and the
+_Chinos_, the offspring of the colored and Indian races intermixed in
+various degrees, are the most miserable and degraded of all the
+half-castes in Lima. They commit the most inhuman barbarities with the
+utmost indifference. Four-fifths of the prisoners in Lima are Zambos.
+They are usually athletic and muscular, with sunken eyes, thick lips,
+and noses much less depressed than that of the negro. The Chinos are
+morally about on a level with the Zambos; but physically they are much
+inferior. The mixed races of fairer complexion resemble the whites in
+moral and intellectual qualities in about the same degree that they
+approach them in color.
+
+The general condition of morals in Lima, especially among the colored
+races, may be inferred from the following statement given by Tschudi. In
+ten months of the year 1841, the number of births was 1682, of which
+860, more than one half, were born out of wedlock. The number of dead
+children exposed during the same time was 495, almost one third of the
+whole number of births. Of the illegitimate children nearly two thirds,
+and of those exposed a still larger proportion, were Mulattos. Though
+there can be no positive evidence of the fact, there is every reason to
+conjecture that the greater number of the children exposed, were
+murdered by their mothers. During the same period the number of deaths
+in the city was 2244, exceeding the births by 562. It has been found
+that for a long series of years the deaths have exceeded the births by
+about 550 a year.
+
+There is an old Spanish proverb which styles Lima the Paradise of women,
+the Purgatory of men, and the Inferno of asses; but during the time of
+the carnival all claims to be considered a Purgatory even, to say
+nothing of Paradise, to man or woman, disappear. One of the favorite
+amusements of the season is to besprinkle passers by, from the
+balconies, with water, of which the purity is by no means above
+suspicion. The colored population assume the license of rolling the
+passers who do not choose to pay for exemption, in the street gutters,
+which offer remarkable facilities for this pleasantry, as they are
+ill-paved, and unswept, with a stream of water running through them.
+These gutters are used by the lower classes of the Limanian señoras in a
+manner peculiar to that city; they are accustomed to wash in them the
+plates, glasses, and dishes from their dinner tables. Another favorite
+amusement during the carnival is to suspend from the balconies a strong
+bag filled with fragments of glass and pottery. This is attached to a
+rope of such a length as to suffer it to fall within a few inches of the
+heads of the passengers. This sack is drawn up into the balcony; and
+when a person who has been selected as a victim passes underneath, it is
+flung just over his head. The rope prevents it from falling upon him,
+but the deafening crash which ensues within a few inches of his ears, is
+nowise soothing to the nerves. This practice is regularly prohibited by
+the police, but all attempts to suppress it have proved as unavailing as
+the efforts to prevent the use of fire-crackers upon our own Fourth of
+July.
+
+There is a public lottery drawn every week in the Plaza Mayor, directly
+opposite the Cathedral, where a temporary platform is erected for the
+purpose. A ticket costs an eighth of a dollar, and the highest prize is
+1000 dollars. As the hour for drawing approaches, the square begins to
+fill with a motley crowd of men, women, and children; armed soldiers,
+shovel-hatted priests, barefoot monks, bright-eyed tapadas (so a Limeña
+with her manto drawn over her face is called), spurred cavaliers, and
+ragged negroes. The numbers are placed in the wheels, and drawn out by
+boys belonging to the foundling hospital. To every ticket is attached a
+motto, which is usually an invocation to some favorite saint to accord
+good luck to that ticket; and when the fortunate one is ascertained this
+motto is read aloud for the edification of the bystanders. The lottery
+belongs to a society called the "Beneficencia," by whom it is farmed
+out, and the profits appropriated to the support of hospitals and
+charitable institutions. It is the usual practice of the Limanians to
+purchase tickets regularly; the negroes in particular, as elsewhere, are
+particularly addicted to trying their luck. Instances are not uncommon
+in which slaves have purchased their freedom with prizes drawn in the
+lottery of the "Beneficencia." In a small chapel belonging to the church
+of St. Dominic, were formerly exhibited relics of St. Rose, the
+patroness of Lima. Among them was a pair of dice, with which it was
+gravely said that, when the fair saint was exhausted by prayer and
+penance, the Saviour would appear and revive her drooping spirits with a
+friendly game. Of late years these uncanonical relics are not exhibited,
+but Stevenson, the author of a standard work on South America, relates
+that they were shown to him in 1805, when he kissed them with as much
+devotion as he would have manifested to any other pair.
+
+Every morning at a quarter to nine o'clock, when the Host is elevated in
+the Cathedral, and in the evening at the hour of the Angelus, the great
+bell of the Cathedral tolls three measured strokes, which are repeated
+from all the many belfries of Lima. Every occupation is at once
+suspended, every hat is reverentially raised; every lip moves, uttering
+its whispered prayer. The evening prayer being ended, each one makes the
+sign of the cross, and bids the person next him _buenas
+noches_--"good-night." It is an act of courtesy to insist that one's
+neighbor shall take the precedence in the salutation; and he, not to be
+outdone in politeness, must waive the proffered honor. The courteous
+contest--"You say it," and "No, sir, you say it," is sometimes not a
+little amusing.
+
+Lima is surrounded by a wall, now in a state of extreme dilapidation,
+and altogether unavailable for any purposes of defense. It is built of
+adobes, and dates originally from 1685, though much of that now existing
+is of more recent construction. A fine stone bridge crosses the Rimac,
+uniting the city with the suburb of San Lazaro. It consists of six
+circular arches rising thirty-six feet from the surface of the water.
+The piers are of brick, resting upon stone foundations of great
+solidity, of which no better proof is needed than that they survived the
+earthquakes of 1687 and 1746, by which almost every edifice in Lima was
+shattered. The entrance to the bridge is through a broad arch crossing
+the street, used for carriages, with smaller arches on each side for
+foot-passengers. This archway is surmounted with turrets and spires, and
+presents an imposing appearance. In the parapets are semi-circular
+recesses provided with stone seats which furnish a favorite resort in
+summer evenings. The view from the bridge is of great beauty. Westward
+the eye follows the silvery course of the Rimac, its left bank lined
+with convents, and splendid mansions of the more wealthy Limanians. The
+view closes with the broad Pacific. In the opposite direction the view
+is bounded by the range of hills, beyond the avenues of the Alameda del
+Acho; while beyond and above all, when the shrouding vail of clouds is
+lifted, so as to permit the sight, are beheld the snowy summits of the
+distant Cordilleras. The bridge was built in 1640, at an expense of
+400,000 dollars, from designs by Villegas, an Augustin monk.
+
+The Cathedral is situated on the eastern side of the Plaza Mayor. The
+foundation stone was laid by Pizarro himself on the 18th of January,
+1534, twelve days after the choice of the site of the city. Ninety years
+after, the edifice was completed, and was solemnly dedicated on the 19th
+of October, 1625. It has a light, ornamented façade with large folding
+doors in the centre, and smaller ones upon each side. From each of the
+two corners rises an octagonal tower to the height of about two hundred
+feet, exclusive of the base, which is forty feet. These towers were
+thrown down by the great earthquake of 1746, by which almost the whole
+city was laid in ruins. They were rebuilt in 1800. The interior is
+singularly magnificent. The roof, which is beautifully paneled, rests
+upon arches supported by a double row of square stone pillars. The grand
+altar is adorned with seven Ionic columns, twelve feet in height, cased
+with pure silver, an inch and a half thick, and is surmounted with a
+massy crown of silver richly gilt. The tabernacle, seven feet high, is
+of wrought gold, studded with precious stones. On high festival days
+service is performed with a pomp and splendor not surpassed in any
+temple in Christendom. Many of the churches are ornamented with a
+profusion of silver even yet, though it is said that during the
+revolution a ton and a half of silver was taken in a single year from
+the ornaments of the churches, to supply the necessities of the state;
+yet such was the abundance with which the precious metal had been
+lavished, that this amount was hardly missed; a tale which would be
+incredible if related of any city other than the one which at a certain
+time paved with solid ingots of silver the streets through which a new
+viceroy was to make his entrance.
+
+In the convent of San Francisco, is a small chapel containing an image
+of the Virgin, called _del milagro_, "of the miracle." It is related
+that during the great earthquake of 1630, this image, which then stood
+over the porch of the church looking toward the street, turned
+completely round, so as to face the high altar, and raised her hands in
+the attitude of supplication, and then implored mercy for the city, and
+thus saved it from utter destruction. A monk who conducted a recent
+traveler over the convent, related to him this miracle, and very naïvely
+expressed his wonder that the Madonna did not repeat her gracious
+interposition at the time of the earthquake of 1746, when it was no less
+needed.
+
+The Oratorio de San Felipe Neri, formerly the convent of San Pedro, was
+the principal college of the Jesuits, who, at the time of their
+expulsion, possessed immense wealth. In 1773 a secret order was
+dispatched from the King of Spain, directing the viceroys to arrest all
+the Jesuits in the South American provinces, in a single night, and ship
+them to Spain. So secret was the order that the viceroy and those
+officers whose assistance was to be employed, were supposed to be the
+only ones who knew any thing of it. The viceregal council was summoned
+at 10 o'clock on the appointed night, and the royal order read to them.
+No one was allowed to leave the room, for fear that intelligence might
+be communicated to the Jesuits. At midnight the officers were sent to
+the convent to arrest the members of the order. The door was opened at
+the first summons, and the officer was conducted to the great hall of
+the convent, where all the brethren were assembled, each with a bag
+containing a few requisites for the voyage. So in all the other convents
+of the order. The same vessel which had conveyed the royal decree, had
+brought instructions from the Superior of the Jesuits in Madrid, who had
+gained intelligence of the secret, directed to the vicar-general at
+Lima, commanding him to be in readiness when the arrest should be made.
+The brethren were sent to Callao under a strong guard, and as soon as
+possible were put on shipboard. But when the eager officials made search
+for the immense wealth which was known to be in the treasury of the
+order in San Pedro, the keys of which were laid out in readiness for
+them in the apartment of the Superior, only a few thousand dollars were
+discovered. The rest had vanished like a vision. And to this day it has
+eluded the most vigilant search. An old negro, who was in the service of
+the convent, testified that for several nights he and his
+fellow-servants, with their eyes closely bandaged, were employed in
+conveying bags of treasure to the convent vaults, attended by two of the
+brethren of the order. He could give no clew to the place of
+concealment, except that he thought there was a subterranean spring near
+the spot.
+
+The palace of the Inquisition stands upon what was formerly called the
+_Plaza de la Inquisicion_, now the Square of Independence (_Plazuela de
+la Independencia_). Upon this same square were also situated the
+University and the Hospital of _La Caridad;_ whence it was sometimes
+styled the Square of the three Cardinal Virtues: the Inquisition
+typifying Faith; the University, Hope, and the Hospital, Charity. Few
+traces remain to denote the fearful uses to which the edifice of the
+Inquisition was devoted. It is now used in part as a storehouse for
+provisions, and in part as a prison. In the palmy days of Spanish
+dominion, Lima was the ecclesiastical metropolis of the whole Pacific
+coast of South America, and the Inquisition exercised its functions with
+a rigor hardly exceeded by that of Spain. When the Cortes abolished this
+tribunal in Spain and its dependencies, the building was thrown open to
+the populace, who speedily ransacked the apartments, and destroyed the
+implements of the Holy Office. Among those present was Stevenson, author
+of a standard work on South America, who has given a detailed account of
+the transaction. The customary array of racks, pillories, scourges,
+gags, thumbscrews, and other instruments of torture was found. The
+crucifix in the principal hall having been accidentally thrown down, it
+was discovered that the head was movable, and so arranged that a man
+concealed behind the curtains could cause it to move in token of assent
+or dissent. How many a trembling victim, overawed, confounded, and
+bewildered at seeing the movement of the lifeless head of the Redeemer,
+has confessed whatever the officials demanded, almost believing himself
+guilty of crimes he never committed. One article found was somewhat
+ludicrous. In one room was a large quantity of printed cotton
+handkerchiefs upon the centre of which was a pictorial representation of
+Religion, bearing a cross in one hand and a chalice in the other. The
+manufacturer had introduced these pious devices in the hope of
+facilitating the sale of his wares. But the Holy Office discovered gross
+impiety in the act of blowing the nose or spitting upon the symbol of
+the true faith; and to guard against temptation to such a profanation,
+had seized upon the whole consignment.
+
+On the north side of the Plaza Mayor stands an unsightly edifice, now
+occupied by courts of justice and various government offices. This was
+formerly the palace of the Viceroys of Peru. The principal apartment
+bore the name of the Hall of the Viceroys. Here were arranged forty-four
+panels, each destined to receive the full-length portrait of a viceroy,
+as he entered upon his government, commencing with Pizarro. The last of
+these panels had been filled by the portrait of Pezuela, who held the
+office at the time when the insurrection broke out which severed Peru
+from the Spanish dominion. There was no room in the hall for the
+portrait of another viceroy. A similar coincidence is recorded in
+Venetian history. The effigy of the Doge who was in office at the time
+when the revolution took place which overthrew the Venetian oligarchy,
+filled the last of the niches which had been constructed to receive the
+effigies of the successive magistrates.
+
+This is not the palace erected by Pizarro for himself. That stood on the
+opposite side of the square, and some remains of it are still shown in
+an obscure lane called the Mat-sellers' Alley. Here, on Sunday, the 26th
+of June, 1546, eleven and a half years from the time when the foundation
+of the City of the Kings was laid, its founder was assassinated. Pizarro
+had been warned that a plot was formed to assassinate him on his way to
+mass; but he took no further precaution against it than to absent
+himself from divine service that day. The conspirators then resolved to
+murder him in his own house. As they were crossing the Plaza one of them
+turned a little aside to avoid a pool of water. "What! afraid of wetting
+your feet, when you are to wade up to your knees in blood!" exclaimed
+the veteran Juan de Rada, the leader of the band. The dainty conspirator
+was ordered to return to his quarters as not worthy of a share in the
+enterprise. Pizarro was sitting with his friends after dinner, when the
+assassins rushed into the palace, through the open gate. The guests made
+their escape through the corridors, by climbing down into the gardens.
+Among them was Velasquez the Judge, who had boasted that Pizarro could
+receive no harm from traitors, while he "held in his hands the rod of
+justice." As Velasquez climbed down in making his escape, he needed both
+hands to aid his descent, and held his official wand in his mouth; thus
+verifying his boast, to the letter, if not in spirit. For a moment the
+assailants were held at bay by the attendants, but these were speedily
+dispatched. Pizarro, who had vainly attempted to assume his defensive
+armor, wrapping a cloak about his arm, sprang against the assassins,
+sword in hand, with the cry, "What ho, traitors! have ye come to kill
+me in mine own house?" Though more than three score years of age, he
+defended himself with desperate vigor, and had slain two of the
+assailants, when Rada, seizing one of his own comrades, flung him
+against Pizarro, who instantly ran him through the body. But while his
+weapon was thus entangled, Pizarro received a stab in the throat, and
+fell, and the swords of several of his enemies were at once sheathed in
+his body. He traced a cross with his finger in the blood upon the floor,
+and was in the act of bending down his head to kiss the symbol of his
+faith, when, with the name of "Jesu" upon his lips, he received a stroke
+which put an end to his life.
+
+No place upon the globe enjoys a climate more equable than that of Lima.
+Not only are there no sudden and violent alternations of temperature,
+but the variations of the seasons are hardly known. Extremes of heat and
+cold are never experienced. The temperature at noon, in the shade in an
+open room, never rises above 80, and never falls below 60 degrees. The
+rays of a vertical sun are intercepted by a thin canopy of mist, called
+_garuas_, which for a considerable portion of the year hang over the
+city, resembling in appearance the canopy of smoke above a large town.
+The winds blow almost constantly from points between the southwest and
+the southeast. When they come from the former quarter they are cooled by
+passing over the immense expanse of the Pacific; when from the latter
+they have swept the vast forests toward Brazil and the frozen ranges of
+the Cordilleras. A northerly wind alone, which is of unfrequent
+occurrence, produces an oppressive sensation of heat. During the year,
+there are about 45 days when the sun is entirely unclouded, about 190 in
+which it is visible during no part of the day, and the remainder are
+usually cloudy in the morning, and clear in the afternoon. A shower of
+rain is a thing altogether unknown, but during February and March, a few
+large straggling drops occasionally fall about five o'clock in the
+afternoon. The _garuas_ overhang the city almost without intermission
+from April to October. During June, July, and August there will not
+probably be a single unclouded day, and not more than three days in each
+month in which the sun can be seen at all. The gray canopy begins to
+lift in October, and gradually becomes thinner and thinner till April,
+when it again begins to gather. But this equable climate, apparently so
+desirable, is found to be productive of great physical lassitude, and to
+be unfavorable to health. It has been already noticed that the number of
+deaths constantly and greatly exceeds that of births. Among adults the
+most fatal disease is dysentery; then comes fever, usually intermittent;
+then consumption, inflammation of the lungs, and dropsy, the latter
+usually the result of intermittent fever.
+
+Another fearful compensation for the mildness of the elements above the
+surface of the earth, is found in the frequency of subterranean
+disturbances. On an average, there are 45 shocks of earthquakes in the
+course of a year. These usually occur in the months from October to
+January, and again in May and June. But at intervals of from 40 to 60
+years, the valley of the Rimac experiences an earthquake of far more
+desolating force, and by which Lima has several times been reduced to a
+heap of rubbish. The most destructive of these, since the European
+conquest were those of 1586, 1630, 1687, 1713, 1746, 1806--two in each
+completed century; so that the experience of the past gives us every
+reason to anticipate that many years will not elapse before Lima will
+once more become a mass of ruins.
+
+The most destructive of this regular series of great earthquakes was
+that of October 26, 1746. A little more than an hour before midnight,
+the earth began to tremble, and in three minutes from the time of the
+first shock, the city lay in ruins. Of more than 3000 houses, only 21
+escaped entire. The towers of the Cathedral were overthrown. The bridge
+across the Rimac was almost the only public work which escaped, and of
+that one arch, upon which stood an equestrian statue of Philip V., was
+destroyed. But if Lima was sorely shattered, Callao was annihilated. The
+sea receded suddenly from the shore, and as suddenly rolled back with
+irresistible force, overwhelming the devoted city, with all its
+inhabitants, 5000 in number. Of these, it is popularly related, that
+only one escaped. A Spanish corvette which lay at anchor, was lifted
+sheer over the walls of the fortress, and deposited a full mile inshore,
+at a spot still designated by a cross erected to commemorate the fact.
+All the other vessels in the harbor were sunk. The modern town of Callao
+stands at the distance of two miles from the site of the old town, of
+which not a vestige remains. It is popularly affirmed that in a clear
+day the ruins of the old town may still be seen beneath the waves; but
+travelers, whose imagination is not keener than their vision, have
+vainly strained their sight to discover a trace of the lost city.
+
+No familiarity with earthquakes is sufficient to do away with their
+terrors. The Limanian who has known them from childhood, no sooner feels
+the first shock, than he rushes from his apartment, with the cry of
+"_misericordia_" upon his trembling lips, no less than the foreigner who
+has never before witnessed these convulsive throes of nature. The moment
+a shock is felt the Cathedral bell begins to toll, all the belfries in
+Lima take up the sound, and summon the affrighted population to their
+devotions. A change has been wrought even in the form of church service,
+by the ever-present apprehension of these convulsions: the word "famine"
+being omitted and "earthquake" inserted among the evils from which
+deliverance is implored. The very architecture of Lima--its houses of a
+singly story--its plastered upper walls, its cane roofs, its towers and
+steeples of stuccoed wicker work--is a perpetual prayer against an evil
+which no human foresight can avoid, and no mortal power avert, and in
+respect to which the utmost that man can do, is in some degree to
+mitigate its consequences.
+
+
+
+
+ALLY SOMERS.--A TALE OF THE COAST-GUARD.
+
+
+When I joined the _Scorpion_ sloop of war, then (1810) on the West India
+station, there were a father and son among the crew whose names, as
+borne on the ship's books, were John Somers and John _Alice_ Somers. The
+oddity in this country of giving a boy a female baptismal name had been
+no doubt jestingly remarked upon by those who were aware of it, but with
+the sailors the lad passed as _Ally_ Somers. The father was approaching
+fifty, the son could not have been more than seventeen years of age. The
+elder Somers, who had attained to the rating of a boatswain, was a
+stern, hard, silent man, with a look as cold and clear as polished
+steel, and a cast-iron mouth, indicative of inflexible, indomitable
+firmness of will and resolution. The son, on the contrary, though
+somewhat resembling his father in outline of feature, had a mild,
+attractive, almost feminine aspect, and a slight graceful frame. I was
+not long in discovering that, obdurate and self-engrossed as the man
+appeared, the boy was really the idol-image in which his affections and
+his hopes were centred. His eye constantly followed the motions of the
+lad, and it appeared to be his unceasing aim and study to lighten the
+duties he had to perform, and to shield him from the rough usage to
+which youngsters in his position were generally subjected by the motley
+crews of those days. One day a strong instance in proof of this
+master-feeling occurred. Ally Somers some time previously, when on shore
+with a party dispatched to obtain a supply of water, had, during the
+temporary absence of the officer in command, been rather severely
+rope's-ended by one of the seamen for some trifling misconduct, and a
+few slight marks were left on the lad's back. The rage of the father,
+when informed of the circumstance, was extreme, and it was with
+difficulty that he was restrained from inflicting instant chastisement
+on the offender. An opportunity for partially wreaking his hoarded
+vengeance occurred about six weeks afterward, and it was eagerly
+embraced. The sailor who had ill-used young Somers was sentenced to
+receive two dozen lashes for drunkenness and insubordination. He was
+ordered to strip, placed at the gratings, and the punishment began.
+Somers the boatswain, iron or sour-tempered as he might be, was by no
+means harsh or cruel in his office, and his assistants, upon whom the
+revolting office of flogging usually devolved, influenced by him, were
+about the gentlest-handed boatswain's-mates I ever saw practice. On this
+occasion he was in another and a very different mood. Two blows only had
+been struck, when Somers, with an angry rebuke to the mate for not doing
+his duty, snatched the cat from his hand, and himself lashed the culprit
+with a ferocity so terribly effective, that Captain Boyle, a merciful
+and just officer, instantly remitted half the number of lashes, and the
+man was rescued from the unsparing hands of the vindictive boatswain.
+
+Other instances of the intensity of affection glowing within the stern
+man's breast for his comparatively weak and delicate boy manifested
+themselves. Once in action, when the lad, during a tumultuous and
+murderous struggle in beating off a determined attempt to carry the
+sloop by boarding, chanced to stumble on the slippery deck, he was
+overtaken before he could recover himself, and involved in the fierce
+assault which at the forecastle was momently successful. I was myself
+hotly engaged in another part of the fight; but attention being suddenly
+called to the forepart of the ship by the enemy's triumphant shouts, I
+glanced round just in time to see the boatswain leap, with the yell and
+bound of a tiger, into the _mêlée_, and strike right and left with such
+tremendous ferocity and power as instantly to check the advancing rush.
+Our men promptly rallied, and the deck was in a few minutes cleared of
+every living foe that had recently profaned it. Ally Somers, who had
+received a rather severe flesh wound, and fainted from loss of blood,
+was instantly caught up by his father, and carried with headlong
+impatience below. When the surgeon, after a brief look at the hurt,
+said, "There is no harm done, Somers," the high-strung nerves of the
+boatswain gave way, and he fell back upon a locker, temporarily
+prostrate and insensible from sudden revulsion of feeling. Several times
+I was an unintentional auditor of scraps of conversation between the two
+while the lad was on the sick-list, from which I gathered that Ally was
+the sole issue of a marriage which had left bitter memories in the mind
+of the father; but whether arising from the early death of his wife, or
+other causes, I did not ascertain. Somers was, it appeared a native of
+the west of England, and it was quite evident had received a much better
+education than usually falls to individuals of his class.
+
+At the close of the war Somers and his son were, with thousands of
+others, turned adrift from the royal service. Some months after my
+appointment to the command of the revenue-cutter, I chanced to meet the
+father in the village of Talton, about four miles out of Southampton, on
+the New Forest Road. He had, I found re-entered the navy, but chancing
+to receive a hurt by the falling of a heavy block on his right knee, had
+been invalided with a small pension, upon which he was now living at
+about a hundred yards from the spot where we had accidentally met. Ally,
+he informed me, was the skipper of a small craft, trading between
+Guernsey and Southampton. There was little change in the appearance of
+the man except that the crippled condition of his leg appeared to have
+had an effect the reverse of softening upon his stem and rugged aspect
+and temper. When paid off he was, I knew, entitled to a considerable sum
+in prize-money, the greater part of which he told me he had recently
+received.
+
+About two months after this meeting with the father I fell in with the
+son. I was strolling at about eleven in the forenoon along the front of
+the Southampton custom-house, when my eye fell upon a young man in a
+seaman's dress, busily engaged with three others in loading a cart with
+bundles of laths which had been landed shortly before from a small
+vessel alongside the quay. It was Ally Somers sure enough; and so much
+improved in looks since I last saw him, that but for a certain air of
+fragility--inherited probably from his mother--he might have been
+pronounced a handsome fine young fellow. The laths, upward of two
+hundred bundles, which he was so busily assisting to cart, he had
+brought from Guernsey, and were a very common importation from that
+island: Guernsey possessing the right of sending its own produce customs
+free to England, a slight duty, only tantamount to what the foreign
+timber of which the laths were made would have been liable to, was
+levied upon them, and this was ascertained by the proper officer simply
+measuring the length and girth of the bundles. This had been done, and
+the laths marked as "passed." It struck me that the manner of Ally
+Somers was greatly flurried and excited, and when he saw me approaching,
+evidently with an intention to accost him, this agitation perceptibly
+increased. He turned deadly pale, and absolutely trembled with
+ill-concealed apprehension. He was somewhat re-assured by my frank
+salutation; and after a few common-place inquiries I walked away,
+evidently to his great relief, and he with his sailors continued their
+eager work of loading the cart. I could not help suspecting that
+something was wrong, though I could not make up my mind to verify the
+surmise his perturbed and hurried manner excited. Once in a skirmish on
+shore his father, the boatswain, had saved my life by sending a timely
+bullet through the head of a huge negro who held me for the moment at
+his mercy. Besides I might be wrong after all, and I had no right to
+presume that the officer who had passed the laths had not made a
+sufficient examination of them. The flurry of the young man might arise
+from physical weakness and the severe labor he was performing in such
+hot weather. These reasons, or more truly these excuses for doing
+nothing, were passing through my brain, when I observed the hasty
+approach of the collector of customs himself toward the cart, followed
+by several of his subordinates. Young Somers saw him as quickly as I
+did, and the young man's first impulse, it was quite plain, was flight.
+A thought, no doubt, of the hopelessness of such an attempt arrested his
+steps, and he stood quaking with terror by the side of the cart, his
+right hand grasping for support at one of the wheel-spokes.
+
+"One of you lend me a knife," said the collector, addressing the
+officers of customs.
+
+A knife was quickly opened and handed to him: he severed the strong
+cords which bound one of the bundles of laths together, and they flew
+asunder, disclosing a long tin tube of considerable diameter, closely
+rammed with tobacco! All the other bundles contained a similar deposit;
+and so large was the quantity of the heavily-taxed weed thus
+unexpectedly made lawful prize of, that a profit, I was assured, of not
+less than £500 or £600 would have been made by the audacious smuggler
+had he succeeded in his bold and ingenious attempt. The ends of the
+bundles had been filled up with short pieces of lath, so that, except by
+the process now adopted, it was impossible to detect that the cargo was
+not _bonâ fide_ what it had been declared to be. The penalties to which
+Somers had rendered himself liable were immense, the vessel also was
+forfeited, and the unfortunate young man's liberty at the mercy of the
+crown. He looked the very picture of despair, and I felt assured that
+ruin, utter and complete, had fallen upon him.
+
+He was led off in custody, and had gone some dozen paces when he stopped
+shortly, appeared to make some request to the officers by whom he was
+escorted, and then turning round, intimated by a supplicatory gesture
+that he wished to speak to me. I drew near, and at my request the
+officers fell back out of hearing. He was so utterly prostrated by the
+calamity by which he had been so suddenly overtaken, that he could not
+for several moments speak intelligibly. I felt a good deal concerned for
+so mere a boy, and one too so entirely unfitted by temperament and nerve
+to carry through such desperate enterprises, or bear up against their
+failure.
+
+"This is a bad business," I said; "but the venture has not, I trust,
+been made with your own or your father's money?
+
+"Every penny of it," he replied, in a dry, fainting voice, "was our own.
+Father lent me all his prize-money, and we are both miserable beggars."
+
+"What in the name of madness could induce you to venture your all upon a
+single throw in so hazardous a game?"
+
+"I will tell you," he went on hurriedly to say in the same feeble and
+trembling tone; "I am not fitted for a sea-life--not strong, not hardy
+enough. I longed for a quiet, peaceful home ashore. A hope of one
+offered itself. I made the acquaintance of Richard Sylvester, a miller
+near Ealing. He is a good man, but griping as far as money is concerned.
+I formed an attachment for his eldest daughter Maria; and he consented
+to our union, and to taking me as a partner in his business, if I could
+pay down five hundred pounds. I was too eager to wait long; besides I
+thought that perhaps--but it boots not to speak of that now; I set more
+than life upon this cast; I have lost, and am now bankrupt of resource
+or hope! Will you break this news to my father, and see--" His remaining
+firmness gave way as the thought he would have uttered struggled to his
+lips, and the meek hearted young man burst into tears, and wept
+piteously like a girl. A number of persons were collecting round us, and
+I gently urged him to walk on to the custom-house. A few minutes
+afterward I left him there, with a promise to comply with his request
+without delay.
+
+I found John Somers at home, and had scarcely uttered twenty words when
+he jumped at once at the true conclusion.
+
+"Out with it, sir!" exclaimed the steel-nerved man. "But you need not; I
+see it all. Ally has failed--the tobacco has been seized--and he is in
+prison."
+
+Spite of himself his breath came thick and short, and he presently added
+with a fierce burst, while a glance of fire leaped from his eyes; "He
+has been betrayed, and I think I know by whom."
+
+"Your suspicion that he has been informed against is very likely
+correct, but you will, I think, have some difficulty in ascertaining by
+whom. The custom-house authorities are careful not to allow the names of
+their informants to leak through their office-doors."
+
+"I would find him were he hidden in the centre of the earth!" rejoined
+the ex-boatswain with another vengeful outcry which startled one like an
+explosion. "But," added the strong and fierce-willed man after a few
+moments' silence, "it's useless prating of the matter like a wench. We
+must part company at once. I thank you, sir, and will tell Ally you have
+called." I mentioned the other request made by his son. "That is a
+rotten plank to hold by," he said. "Ally's chance is over there, and it
+would be mere waste of time to call on the old man; his resolution is
+hard and unyielding as his own millstones. Maria Sylvester is gone with
+the five hundred pounds her father bargained for; and the girl's tears,
+if she shed any, will soon be dry. I warned Ally of the peril of
+steering his course in life by the deceptive light of woman's capricious
+smiles and vanities; but he, poor, flexile, gentle-minded boy, heeded me
+not. I may not longer delay: he will be anxious to see me. Good-day,
+sir."
+
+The consequence which I chiefly feared came to pass, even more speedily
+than I had apprehended. It being impossible to liquidate the penalties
+incurred, Ally Somers was imprisoned as a crown debtor; and at that
+period, whatever may be the case now, revenue penalties could not be got
+rid of by insolvent-court schedules. The prospect of an indefinite term
+of imprisonment, with other causes of grief and depression, broke down
+the always fragile health of the prisoner, and he died, ere yet his
+youth was well begun, after about six months' confinement only.
+
+The tidings were brought me by the old man himself. I was seated in the
+cabin of the _Rose_ cutter when it was announced that John Somers was
+alongside in a boat, and wished to see me. I directed that he should be
+allowed to come aboard, and presently the old man, with despair visible
+in every line of his countenance, in every glance of his restless,
+flaming eyes, entered the cabin.
+
+"I am come to tell you, sir, that Ally is dead."
+
+"I was somewhat prepared for this bad news, Mr. Somers," I answered.
+"It's hard upon you, but it should be bravely borne with."
+
+He laughed strangely. "To be sure, to be sure," he said, "that is wise
+counsel--very wise; but that which I want now more than wise counsel is
+ten pounds--ten pounds, which I shall never be able to repay."
+
+"Ten pounds!"
+
+"Yes: you may remember that I once saved your life. If that piece of
+service was worth the sum I have mentioned, you can now discharge the
+obligation. I have parted with every thing, and Ally's last prayer was
+to be buried beside his----Beside a grave, an early and untimely one,
+like his own, many miles away."
+
+"I understand; it is a natural and pious wish, and you shall have the
+money."
+
+"Thank you. The funeral over, I have but one more thing to do in life,
+and that is to assist you in securing Cocquerel while running one of his
+most valuable cargoes."
+
+"Cocquerel, the Guernseyman you mean?"
+
+"Ay, so he calls himself; but I fancy he at one time hailed from another
+port. He is the man who sold Ally's secret to the revenue-officers!"
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"As death! He was Ally's only confidant, and Ally's father is now in
+Cocquerel's confidence. It is but natural," added Somers, and a bitter,
+deadly sneer curled his ashy lips--"it is but natural, you know, that I
+should be eager to assist in pillaging a government which caged my son,
+and held him under its iron bars till life had fled. Cocquerel
+understands this, and trusts me fully; but that which he does _not_
+understand, know, or suspect," continued the fierce old man, sinking his
+voice to a whisper, and leaning forward with his face close to mine, "is
+that John Somers has found out _who_ it was that sold his boy's life!
+Did he know that, and know _me_ too, there would be sounder sleepers
+than he in these dark nights."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Nothing more, of course," he replied in a more checked and guarded
+tone, "than to retort the trick he played Ally something after his own
+fashion."
+
+"That is a fair revenge enough, and I'll not balk you. Now, then, for
+your plan."
+
+Various details were discussed, and it was settled that on that day-week
+Somers was again to communicate with me. He then took leave.
+
+At the appointed time Somers returned, and appeared to be in high but
+flighty spirits. Every thing was, he said, arranged, and success all but
+certain. His scheme was then canvassed and finally agreed upon, and he
+again left the vessel.
+
+The arrangement for the surprise and capture of Cocquerel was
+this:--That notorious smuggler intended running a large cargo on the
+coast of Dorsetshire, on the north of Portland, at a place where the
+cliffs are high, precipitous, and abrupt, and at that time very
+inefficiently watched by the shore-force. Near the spot selected is or
+was a kind of cavern worn by the action of the sea in the chalky
+stratum, which at neap-tides was partially dry, and at the time of our
+enterprise would effectually conceal a boat from the observation of any
+one who did not actually peer in directly at its mouth. Cocquerel was to
+leave Guernsey the next day in a large boat, with two lug-sails, but
+chiefly depending for speed upon its sweeps. It was calculated that he
+would reach his destination about midnight. Somers had undertaken the
+duty of shore-signalman, and if danger were apprehended, was to warn the
+smugglers that hawks were abroad by burning a blue-light. The manner of
+running the cargo was to be this:--Somers was provided with a windlass
+and sufficient length of rope, with a kind of rope-cradle at the end of
+it, in which a man could sit, or a couple of kegs be slung, to reach the
+boat. The windlass he was to secure firmly at the edge of the cliff, and
+two or three of the men having been drawn up, other windlasses were to
+be fixed, by means of which it was calculated that in about half an hour
+the entire cargo would be safely carried off by the carts which Somers
+had undertaken to have ready on the spot. The signal for our appearance
+on the scene of action, the positive old man persisted, should be that
+agreed upon for the warning of the smugglers--the sudden ignition of a
+blue-light. This did not seem the cleverest possible mode of procedure;
+but as the cavern in which we were to conceal ourselves was but a few
+yards northward of the spot marked out for the landing, and Somers
+promised he would only give the signal when the smugglers were in full
+work, I had little fear that, if other accidents did not capsize our
+scheme, they would be able to escape us.
+
+The next afternoon the largest boat belonging to the _Rose_ was fully
+manned; and leaving the cutter quietly at anchor in the Southampton
+river just above Calshot, we pulled with the tide--for there was but a
+light air, and that favorable for the smugglers, not for us--to our
+hiding-place, which we reached about eight o'clock in the evening.
+
+The hours crept very slowly and dismally away, amid the darkness and
+hoarse echoes and moanings of the cavern, into which the sea and wind,
+which were gradually rising, dashed and howled with much and increasing
+violence. Occasional peeps at my watch, by the light of a lantern
+carefully shaded seaward, warned us that ten, eleven, twelve, one
+o'clock had passed, without bringing the friends we so anxiously
+expected, and fears of ultimate disappointment were chilling us far more
+than the cold night-breeze, when a man in the bow of the boat said in a
+whisper that he could hear the dash of oars.
+
+We all instantly listened with eager attention; but it was not till we
+had brought the boat to the entrance of the opening that the man's
+assertion was verified. There it was clear enough: and the near
+approach of a large boat, with the regular jerk of the oars or sweeps,
+was distinctly audible. The loud, clear hail of their shore-signalman,
+answered by the "All right" of the smugglers, left no doubt that the
+expected prey was within our grasp; and I had a mind to pounce upon them
+at once, but was withheld by a promise which I had been obliged several
+times to repeat, that I would not under any circumstances do so till the
+signal-flame sent its light over the waters.
+
+As soon as the noise and bustle of laying in the sweeps, lowering the
+sails, and unstepping the masts, had subsided, we heard Somers hail the
+boat, and insist that the captain should come up before any of the
+others, as there was a difficulty about the carts which he alone could
+settle. The reply was a growl of assent, and we could hear by the click
+of the check to the cog-wheel of the windlass that Somers was paying out
+the rope. Presently Cocquerel was heard to get into the cradle I have
+spoken of, to which a line was fastened in order to steady his ascent
+from below. The order was given to turn away, and the renewed click,
+click, announced that he was ascending the face of the cliff. I could
+hardly comprehend this man[oe]uvre, which seemed to indicate the escape
+of the man we were the most anxious to secure, and the order to shove
+off was just on my lips when a powerful blue-light flamed suddenly
+forth, accompanied by a fierce but indistinct shout, or roar rather,
+from Somers. The men replied by a loud cheer, and we shot smartly out;
+but having, to avoid a line of reef, to row in a straight direction for
+about a cable's length, the smugglers, panic-stricken and bewildered as
+they were, had time to get way upon their lugger, and were plying their
+sweeps with desperate energy before the revenue-boat was fairly turned
+in direct pursuit. The frantic effort to escape was vain, and so was the
+still more frantic effort at resistance offered when we ran alongside.
+We did not hurt them much; one or two were knocked down by the sailors'
+brass-butted pistols; and after being secured, they had leisure to vent
+their rage in polyglot curses, part French, part English, and part
+Guernsey _patois_, and I to look round and see what had become of
+Cocquerel.
+
+The blue-light still shed a livid radiance all around, and to my
+inexpressible horror and dismay, I saw that the unfortunate man was
+suspended in the rope cradle, within about a fathom's length of the brow
+of the cliff, upon which Somers was standing and gazing at his victim
+with looks of demoniac rage and triumph. The deadly trap contrived by
+the inexorable old man was instantly apparent, and to Cocquerel's
+frenzied screams for help I replied by shouting to him to cut himself
+loose at once, as his only chance, for the barrel of a pistol gleamed
+distinctly in the hands of Somers.
+
+"Lieutenant Warneford," cried the exulting maniac--he was nothing
+less--"I have caught this Cocquerel nicely for you--got him swinging
+here in the prettiest cradle he was ever rocked in in his life--Ha! ha!
+ha!
+
+"Cut loose at once!" I again shouted; and the men, as terribly impressed
+as myself, with the horror of the wretched smuggler's position, swept
+the boat rapidly toward the spot. "Somers, if you shoot that man you
+shall die on the gallows."
+
+"Cut himself loose, do you say, lieutenant?" screamed Somers, heedless
+of my last observation. "He can't! He has no knife--ha! ha! ha! And if
+he had, this pistol would be swifter than that; but I'll cut him loose
+presently, never fear. Look here, Jacques Cocquerel," he continued
+laying himself flat down on the cliff, and stretching his right arm over
+it till the mouth of his pistol was within a yard of Cocquerel's head,
+"this contains payment in full for your kindness to Ally Somers--a debt
+which I could in no other manner completely repay."
+
+At this moment the blue-light suddenly expired, and we were involved in
+what by contrast was total darkness. We could still, however, hear the
+frantic laughter and exulting gibes of the merciless old man in answer
+to Cocquerel's shrieking appeals for mercy; and after a while, when the
+figures of the two men had become partially visible, we could
+distinguish the words, "One, two, three," followed by the report of a
+pistol, and a half minute afterward a dark body shot down the white face
+of the cliff, and disappeared beneath the waters!
+
+The body of Cocquerel never reappeared, and the only tidings I ever
+heard of Somers were contained in the following paragraph which I read
+some years afterward in the "Hampshire Telegraph," a journal at that
+time published at Portsmouth:
+
+"The body of an aged, wretched man was found frozen to death in the
+church-yard on Wednesday morning last, near two adjoining graves, one of
+which, that of Alice Maynard, recalls the painful circumstances
+connected with the sad story of the death of that ill-fated, and, as we
+believe, entirely innocent person. At the inquest holden on Friday, it
+was ascertained beyond a doubt that the deceased is John Maynard, who,
+after his wife's untimely death, assumed the name of Somers, and was, we
+believe, the person who shot a French smuggler, with whom he had
+quareled, at the back of the Isle of Wight, under somewhat peculiar
+circumstances, about seven years ago. He was buried in the grave that
+contains the body of his son, John Alice Maynard, which was interred
+there shortly before the commission of the homicide just alluded to.
+There has never been to our knowledge any regular investigation of that
+affair, but we believe that then, as before, Maynard's pistol was
+pointed by a frantic and causeless jealousy." [_Plymouth Paper._]
+
+There are several mistakes sufficiently obvious to the reader in this
+paragraph, but of the main fact that John Somers, _alias_ Maynard,
+perished as described in the Devonshire journal, there can be no
+reasonable doubt.
+
+
+
+
+MISERS.
+
+BY F. SOMNER MERRYWEATHER.
+
+
+Some years ago there lived in Marseilles an old man of the name of
+Guyot; he was known to every inhabitant, and every urchin in the streets
+could point him out as a niggard in his dealings, and a wretch of the
+utmost penury in his habits of life. From his boyhood, this old man had
+lived in the city of Marseilles; and, although the people treated him
+with scorn and disgust, nothing could induce him to leave it. When he
+walked the streets he was followed by a crowd of boys, who, hating him
+as a grasping miser, hooted him vociferously, insulted him with the
+coarsest epithets, and sometimes annoyed him by casting stones and filth
+at his person. There was no one to speak a kind word in his favor, no
+one to bestow an act of friendship, or a nod of recognition upon Guyot.
+He was regarded by all as an avaricious, griping old miser, whose whole
+life was devoted to the hoarding up of gold. At last this object of
+universal scorn died, and it was found that, by his parsimony, he had
+amassed an ample fortune. What was the surprise of his executors, on
+opening his will, to find these remarkable words: "Having observed, from
+my infancy, that the poor of Marseilles are ill-supplied with water,
+which can only be procured at a great price, I have cheerfully labored
+the whole of my life to procure for them this great blessing, and I
+direct that the whole of my property shall be expended in building an
+aqueduct for their use!"
+
+When it was proposed to build Bethlehem Hospital, many benevolent
+individuals volunteered to solicit contributions by calling upon the
+inhabitants of London. Two of these gentlemen went to a small house in
+an impoverished neighborhood; for the pence of the poor were solicited
+as well as the pounds of the rich. The door was open, and, as they drew
+nigh, they overheard an old man scolding his female servant for having
+thrown away a match, only one end of which had been used. Although so
+trivial a matter, the master appeared to be much enraged, and the
+collectors remained some time outside the door, before the old man had
+finished his angry lecture. When the tones of his voice were somewhat
+subdued, they entered, and, presenting themselves to this strict
+observer of frugality and saving, explained the object of their
+application; but they did not anticipate much success. The miser,
+however, for such he was reputed in the neighborhood, no sooner
+understood their object, than he opened a closet, and bringing forth a
+well-filled bag, counted therefrom four hundred guineas, which he
+presented to the astonished applicants. They expressed their surprise
+and thankfulness, and could not refrain from telling the old gentleman
+that they had overheard his quarrel with his domestic, and how little
+they expected, in consequence, to have met with such munificence from
+him. "Gentlemen," replied the old man, "your surprise is occasioned by
+my care of a thing of such little consequence: but I keep my house, and
+save my money in my own way; my parsimony enables me to bestow more
+liberally on charity. With regard to benevolent donations, you may
+always expect most from prudent people who keep their own accounts, and
+who pay attention to trifles."
+
+Audley was a celebrated miser of the time of the Stuarts; he amassed his
+wealth during the reign of the first Charles, and flourished amazingly
+under the protectorate of Cromwell. Audley was originally a clerk, with
+only six shillings a week salary, and yet out of this scanty sum he
+managed to save more than half. His dinner seldom cost him any thing,
+for he generally made some excuse to dine with his master's clients;
+and, as to his other meals, a crust of bread or a dry biscuit was
+regarded as fare sufficient after an ample dinner. In one circumstance
+he was somewhat different from other misers: he was clean, if not neat,
+in his outward appearance. But he was thus scrupulous in his apparel
+from principle; for Audley often asserted, that, to be thrifty, it was
+necessary to pay some respect to such matters. He was remarkably
+industrious, even when a young man. At an age when others were seeking
+pleasure, he was busy in lending out, and increasing his early savings.
+He was always ready to work when the usual hours of business were over,
+and would willingly sit up the whole night to obtain some trifling
+remuneration. He was never above soliciting trifles, and touching his
+hat to his master's clients. So rigid was he in his economy, and so
+usurious in his dealings, that in four years, during which time,
+however, he had never received more than a salary of six or eight
+shillings a week, he managed to save and amass five hundred pounds. The
+salary of the remaining years of his apprenticeship he sold for sixty
+pounds, and after a while, having made up six hundred pounds in all, he
+lent the whole to a nobleman for an annuity of ninety-six pounds for
+nineteen years, which annuity was secured upon property producing eight
+hundred a year. The nobleman soon died, and his heir neglected to pay
+the annuity. Audley had execution upon the property, and by legal
+trickery, in which he was well versed, he managed to obtain, in the way
+of fines and forfeitures, about four thousand pounds' profit upon his
+original six hundred. His master being one of the clerks of the Compter,
+Audley had many opportunities of practicing his disreputable cunning,
+and of obtaining vast sums by deluding insolvent debtors, and in
+deceiving their creditors. He would buy bad debts for a mere trifle, and
+afterward compound with the poor insolvent. One instance of his avarice
+and villainy is so curious, that we can not refrain from giving the
+anecdote to our readers. A tradesman, named Miller, unfortunately got
+into arrears with his merchant, whose name was White. Many fruitless
+applications were made for the debt, and at last Miller was sued by the
+merchant for the sum of two hundred pounds. He was unable to meet the
+demand, and was declared insolvent. Audley goes to White, and offers him
+forty pounds for the debt, which the merchant gladly accepts. He then
+goes to Miller, and undertakes to obtain his quittance of the debt for
+fifty pounds, upon condition that he entered into a bond to pay for the
+accommodation. The drowning man catches at a straw, and the insolvent,
+with many protestations of thanks, eagerly signs a contract which,
+without consideration, he regarded as one so light, and so easy in its
+terms, as to satisfy him that the promptings of benevolence and
+friendship could only actuate his voluntary benefactor. The contract
+was, that he should pay to Audley some time within twenty years from
+that time, one penny progressively doubled, on the first day of twenty
+consecutive months; and, in case he failed to fulfill these easy terms,
+he was to pay a fine of five hundred pounds. Thus acquitted of his debt
+of two hundred pounds, Miller arranged with the rest of his creditors,
+and again commenced business. Fortune turned, and he participated
+liberally in her smiles. Every month added largely to his trade, and at
+last he became firmly established. Two or three years after signing the
+almost forgotten contract, Miller was accosted one fine morning in
+October by old Audley, who politely demanded the first installment of
+the agreement. With a smile, and many renewed expressions of
+thankfulness, the hopeful tradesman paid his penny. On the first of the
+succeeding month, Audley again called, and demanded twopence, and was as
+politely satisfied as before. On the first of December, he received a
+groat; the first of February, one shilling and fourpence. Still Miller
+did not see through the artifice, but paid him with a gracious smile;
+perhaps, however, there was something cynical in the look of Audley as
+he left the shop this time, for the poor tradesman's suspicions were
+aroused, and he put his pen to paper, as he ought to have done years
+before, to ascertain the amount of his subsequent payments. Reader, what
+think you would have been the amount of the payment due on the first of
+the twentieth month? What sum, think ye, the little penny had become? No
+less than two thousand one hundred and eighty pounds! And what was the
+aggregate sum of all these twenty monthly payments? Why, the enormous
+sum of four thousand three hundred and sixty-six pounds, eleven
+shillings, and threepence? It sounds incredible; but, if you think it a
+fable, do as Miller did, and reckon for yourselves. Of course Miller
+refused the payment of his bond, and forfeited five hundred pounds by
+the benevolence and charity of the miser.
+
+Vandille is one of the most remarkable characters, as a miser, that is
+to be found among the eccentric biographies of France. His riches were
+immense, and his avarice and parsimony extreme. He hired a miserable
+garret in one of the most obscure parts of Paris, and paid a poor woman
+a sou a day to wait upon him. Excepting once a week, his diet was never
+varied; bread and milk for breakfast; the same for dinner, and the same
+for supper, all the week round. On a Sunday he ventured to indulge in a
+glass of sour wine, and he strove to satisfy the compunctions of
+conscience by bestowing, in charity, a farthing every Sabbath. This
+munificence, which incurred an expenditure of one shilling and a penny
+per annum, he carefully noted down; and just before his death he found,
+with some degree of regret, that during his life he had disbursed no
+less than forty-three shillings and fourpence. Forty-three shillings and
+fourpence! prodigious generosity for the richest man in France! Vandille
+had been a magistrate at Boulogne, and while in that office he partly
+maintained himself, free of cost, by constituting himself milk-taster
+general at the market. He would munch his scrap of bread, and wash it
+down with these gratuitous draughts. By such parsimonious artifices, and
+a most penurious course of life, he succeeded in amassing an enormous
+fortune, and was in a position to lend vast sums of money to the French
+government. When he had occasion to journey from Boulogne to Paris, he
+avoided the expence of coach-fare by proceeding on foot; and, lest he
+should be robbed, he never carried more than threepence in his pocket,
+although he had a distance of a hundred and thirty miles before him. If
+he found this sum insufficient, he would profess poverty, and beg from
+the passengers on the road a trifle to help him on. In the year 1735,
+Vandille, the miser, was worth nearly eight hundred thousand pounds! He
+used to boast that this vast accumulation sprang from a single shilling.
+The winter of the year 1734 had been very cold and bitter, and the miser
+felt inclined to purchase a little extra fuel in the summer time, to
+provide, to some extent, against the like severity in the ensuing
+winter. He heard a man pass the street with wood to sell; he haggled for
+an unconscionable time about the price, and at last completed his
+bargain, at the lowest possible rate. Avarice had made the miser
+dishonest, and he stole from the poor woodman several logs. In his
+eagerness to carry them away, and hide his ill-gotten store, he
+overheated his blood, and produced a fever. For the first time in his
+life, he sent for a surgeon. "I wish to be bled," said he; "what is your
+charge?" "Half a livre," was the reply. The demand was deemed
+extortionate, and the surgeon was dismissed. He then sent for an
+apothecary, but he was also considered too high; and he at last sent for
+a poor barber, who agreed to open the vein for threepence a time. "But,
+friend," said the cautious miser, "how often will it be requisite to
+bleed me?" "Three times," replied the barber. "Three times! and pray,
+what quantity of blood do you intend to take from me at each operation?"
+"About eight ounces each time," was the answer. "Let me see," said the
+possessor of three-quarters of a million, "that will be ninepence; too
+much; too much! I have determined to go a cheaper way to work; take the
+whole twenty-four ounces at once, and that will save me sixpence." The
+barber remonstrated, but the miser was firm; he was certain, he said,
+that the barber was only desirous to extort an extra sixpence, and he
+would not submit to such scandalous imposition. His vein was opened,
+and four-and-twenty ounces of blood were taken from him. In a few days,
+Vandille the miser was no more. The savings of his life, the wages of
+his vice and avarice, he left to the King of France.
+
+A similar anecdote is related of Sir William Smyth, of Bedfordshire. He
+was immensely rich, but most parsimonious and miserly in his habits. At
+seventy years of age he was entirely deprived of his sight, unable to
+gloat over his hoarded heaps of gold; this was a terrible affliction. He
+was persuaded by Taylor, the celebrated oculist, to be couched; who was,
+by agreement, to have sixty guineas if he restored his patient to any
+degree of sight. Taylor succeeded in his operation, and Sir William was
+enabled to read and write, without the aid of spectacles, during the
+rest of his life. But no sooner was his sight restored, than the baronet
+began to regret that his agreement had been for so large a sum; he felt
+no joy as others would have felt, but grieved and sighed over the loss
+of his sixty guineas! His thoughts were now how to cheat the oculist; he
+pretended that he had only a glimmering, and could see nothing
+distinctly; for which reason, the bandage on his eyes was continued a
+month longer than the usual time. Taylor was deceived by these
+misrepresentations, and agreed to compound the bargain, and accepted
+twenty guineas, instead of sixty. Yet Sir William was an old bachelor,
+and had no one to care or provide for. At the time Taylor attended him,
+he had a large estate, an immense sum of money in the stocks, and six
+thousand pounds in the house.
+
+Many years ago, there lived in a large, cheerless, and dilapidated old
+house in St. Petersburg, a wretched miser. He confined himself to one
+room, and left the rest of the rambling edifice to moulder into ruin; he
+cared for no comfort, and deprived himself even of those things which
+the poorest regard as the necessaries of life; he seldom lit a fire to
+repel the dampness, which hung on the walls of his solitary chamber, and
+a few worthless objects of furniture was all that the room contained.
+Yet to this singular being the Empress Catherine the Second owed a
+million of rubles. His cellar, it was said, contained casks full of
+gold, and packages of silver were stowed away in the dismal corners of
+his ruinous mansion. He was one of the richest men in Russia. He relied
+for the safety of his hoards upon the exertions of a huge mastiff, which
+he had trained to bark and howl throughout the night, to strike terror
+into the hearts of thieves. The miser outlived the dog; but he disliked
+to part with any portion of his treasure in the purchase of another cur,
+and he resolved to save his money by officiating as his own watch-dog.
+Every morning, and every evening, would that insane old man wander about
+his dismal habitation, barking and howling in imitation of his recent
+sentinel.
+
+A miser of the name of Foscue, who had amassed enormous wealth, by the
+most sordid parsimony, and the most discreditable extortion, was
+requested by the government to advance a sum of money, as a loan. The
+miser, to whom a fair interest was not inducement sufficiently strong to
+enable him to part with his treasured gold, declared his incapacity to
+meet this demand; he pleaded severe losses, and the utmost poverty.
+Fearing, however, that some of his neighbors, among whom he was very
+unpopular, would report his immense wealth to the government, he applied
+his ingenuity to discover some effectual way of hiding his gold, should
+they attempt to institute a search to ascertain the truth or falsehood
+of his plea. With great care and secrecy, he dug a deep cave in his
+cellar; to this receptacle for his treasure he descended by a ladder,
+and to the trap-door he attached a spring lock, so that, on shutting, it
+would fasten of itself. By-and-by the miser disappeared; inquiries were
+made; the house was searched; woods were explored, and the ponds were
+dragged; but no Foscue could they find; and gossips began to conclude
+that the miser had fled, with his gold, to some part where, by living
+incognito, he could be free from the hands of the government. Some time
+passed on; the house in which he had lived was sold, and workmen were
+busily employed in its repair. In the progress of their work they met
+with the door of the secret cave, with the key in the lock outside. They
+threw back the door, and descended with a light. The first object upon
+which the lamp was reflected was the ghostly body of Foscue the miser,
+and scattered around him were heavy bags of gold, and ponderous chests
+of untold treasure; a candlestick lay beside him on the floor. This
+worshiper of Mammon had gone into his cave, to pay his devoirs to his
+golden god, and became a sacrifice to his devotion!
+
+
+
+
+THE CRICKET.
+
+    "Far from all resort of mirth,
+    Save the cricket on the hearth."--_Milton._
+
+
+As it is very possible that many of our readers, who have listened with
+delight to the pleasant chirp of the cricket, may be ignorant of its
+habits and history, we purpose in the present article giving some
+account of them.
+
+The cricket belongs to the same family as the grasshopper and the
+locust, and all three are distinguished by having four wings, with the
+first pair leathery throughout, overlapping at the edges only, and
+concealing the second pair, which are folded lengthwise.
+
+There are three descriptions of cricket common in Great Britain--the
+house-cricket, the field-cricket, and the mole-cricket; of these the two
+first are very similar, but that the former is of a somewhat yellow
+shade, and the latter rather brown. Their heads are very large in
+proportion to their bodies, and are round. They are furnished with two
+large eyes and three small ones, of a light yellow color, placed rather
+high in their heads. The female has a hard, long spine at the extremity
+of her body, thick at the end, and composed of two sheaths, which
+contain two laminæ; this implement is made use of by the cricket to
+enable her to sink and deposit her eggs in the ground. Their hinder
+feet are much longer than the others, and serve them to leap. Unlike
+mice, crickets are oftenest to be found in new houses, as they like the
+damp, soft mortar, which saves them much trouble, when they feel
+inclined to burrow and mine between the joints of the bricks or stones,
+and to open communications from one room to another. They are very fond
+of warmth, and their favorite place of resort is by the kitchen fire. In
+the warm, long days of summer, however, they often venture out, and
+appear to enjoy the heat of the mid-day sun, as may be supposed from the
+heated atmosphere they inhabit. Crickets are a thirsty race, and,
+indeed, are so anxious to satisfy their inclination, that they are
+constantly found drowned in pans of water, milk, &c. They will even
+destroy damp clothes for the sake of their moisture, and woe be to the
+wet woolen stockings or aprons hung to dry within their reach. But the
+cricket is hungry as well as thirsty, and will eat voraciously any
+crumbs of bread, scummings of pots, &c., which happen to fall in their
+way.
+
+Crickets are, in general, very inactive insects, and seldom use their
+wings, except when they are about to migrate from one habitation to
+another. The time they generally select for an excursion of this kind is
+the dusk of a summer evening, when they fly out of the windows, and over
+the neighboring roofs, no one knows whither; and this habit will account
+for the sudden manner in which they often disappear from an old haunt,
+as well as for their equally mysterious appearance in a new one--why
+they left and why they came being equally unaccountable. When flying,
+they move in wavelike curves, like woodpeckers, opening and shutting
+their wings at every stroke; they are, therefore, always either rising
+or falling.
+
+They often increase to such a degree as to become a perfect nuisance in
+a house, and then they have to be destroyed, either by gunpowder being
+discharged into their haunts, or else by drowning, like wasps. Crickets
+are not fond of light; and on a candle being brought into a room where
+they are running about, they will just give two or three shrill chirps,
+as if to warn their companions of impending danger, and then quickly
+retreat to their lurking-holes for safety. Many strange ideas are
+entertained concerning these insects. Some imagine that they bring good
+luck to any house where they take up their abode, and will not on any
+account allow them to be killed. It is imagined, too, that they can
+prognosticate events, such as the death of a near relative, or the
+return of an absent lover. In Spain, crickets are held in such
+estimation, that they are kept in cages like birds.
+
+The field-cricket is such a shy and timid insect, that it is exceedingly
+difficult to make its acquaintance, as it cautiously rejects all
+advances, and prudently retires backward into its burrow, where it
+remains until it fancies that all danger is over. In France, children
+amuse themselves by hunting the field-cricket. This they do by putting
+into its hole an ant, secured by a long hair; and, as they slowly draw
+it out again, it is always followed by the hapless cricket, which
+ventures out to know the reason of this unwarrantable intrusion into its
+domicile. But Pliny tells us of a more easy way of capturing them. He
+says, that, if we thrust a long slender piece of stick into its burrow,
+the insect would immediately get on it for the purpose of discovering
+the cause of the disturbance. From this fact arose the old proverb,
+"_stultior grillo_," or "more foolish than a cricket," applied to any
+one who upon light grounds provokes his enemy, and falls into the snare
+laid to entrap him.
+
+It is strange that although the field-cricket is furnished with a
+curious apparatus of wings, and provided with long legs behind, and
+brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshoppers, yet they never make use of
+them when we would imagine they were most wanted, but suffer themselves
+to be captured without making any struggle for liberty, crawling along
+in a dull, shiftless manner. They satisfy their hunger with such herbs
+as happen to grow near their burrows, and rarely stir from home. They
+generally sit at the entrance of their caverns, and chirp away night and
+day, from the middle of May to the middle of July. And who does not love
+their pleasant song, shrill though it be? But harsh sounds are not
+necessarily disagreeable. Much depends on the association of ideas; and
+the summer song of the field-cricket recalls to us our childhood's days,
+long since, it may be, gone by, and fills our mind with happy thoughts
+of our wanderings in quest of them, when all nature appeared bright, and
+gay, and joyous. In very hot weather, the field-cricket is most
+vigorous, and then the hills echo their notes, while the evening breeze
+carries them to a great distance, making their melody heard in the
+stilly hours of night.
+
+About the 10th of March, the crickets appear at the mouth of their
+cells, which they then open for the approaching summer. At that time
+they are all in the pupa state, and have only the rudiments of wings,
+which lie under a skin or coat, which must be cast off before the insect
+arrives at maturity. This circumstance makes naturalists believe that
+they seldom live a second year. They cast their skins in April, and
+great quantities of them may be seen at the mouth of their cells. Their
+eggs are long and narrow, of a yellowish color, and covered with a very
+tough skin. The male field-cricket has a golden stripe across the
+shoulders of its shining coat. The female is of a brighter color, and,
+besides this, may be distinguished by the long, sword-shaped instrument
+for laying her eggs beforementioned.
+
+They always live singly, male or female, as the case may be; and when
+the males meet they fight fiercely. Once, when Mr. White of Selborne
+placed some in a stone wall, where he was anxious to have them settle,
+although they appeared distressed at being removed to a new habitation,
+yet the first that got possession of the chinks, seized any that
+intruded on them, with their powerful jaws, furnished with a row of
+serrated fangs, formed something like the shears of a lobster's claw.
+If field-crickets are confined in a paper cage, placed in the sun, and
+supplied with plants well moistened with water, they will thrive as well
+as in their more natural resorts, and become so merry and noisy as to be
+troublesome to any one sitting in the same room. Should the plants
+become dry, they will soon die.
+
+The mole-cricket, so called from the similarity of its habits to those
+of the mole, is an ugly, but very curious-looking insect. Unlike the
+house and field-cricket, its head is very small, and of an oblong form.
+But the chief peculiarity of the insect is its two forefeet or
+legs--screws, as they are sometimes not very inappropriately called.
+They are very large and flat, ending outwardly in four large serrated
+claws, and inwardly with only two. The four claws point somewhat
+obliquely outward, that being the direction in which the insect digs,
+throwing out the earth on each side of its course. How wonderfully does
+He, who "preserves both man and beast," provide for the wants of each
+insect! The breast of the field-cricket is formed of a thick, hard,
+horny substance, which is further strengthened within by a double
+framework of strong gristle, in front of the extremities of which the
+shoulder-blades of the arm are firmly pointed--a structure evidently
+intended to prevent the breast from being injured by the powerful
+muscular motion of the arms in digging.
+
+While the house and field-cricket rejoice in dry and sunny banks, or
+revel in the glowing heat of a kitchen-hearth, the mole-cricket haunts
+damp meadows and marshy grounds by the river banks, where they perform
+all their most curious functions. They burrow and work under ground,
+like the mole, but raise a ridge as they proceed, instead of throwing up
+hillocks. They are very fond of taking up their abode in gardens
+situated near canals, but they are always unwelcome visitors, as they
+disturb the walks in making their subterranean passages, and besides
+this, they devour whole beds of cabbage, legumes, and other vegetables,
+and sometimes even commit great ravages among flowers.
+
+The nest the female mole-cricket constructs for her eggs is exceedingly
+curious, and well repays the trouble of hunting for them. They are about
+the size of an egg, neatly smoothed and rounded inside. The way leading
+to them is through a variety of caverns and winding passages. Within the
+inner chamber, or nursery, are deposited about a hundred eggs, of a
+dirty yellow color, enveloped in a tough skin. Sometimes, however, they
+are of a lightish green, and translucent and gelatinous. They are not
+placed deep under ground, but near the surface, so as to be within the
+genial influence of the sun. The mound of fresh-moved earth, within
+which they are carefully deposited, looks very like that raised by ants.
+
+Like the eggs and young of most other insects those of the mole-cricket
+are exposed to depredation, especially from the black beetle, which
+burrows in similar localities. The anxious and provident mother,
+therefore, does not think her progeny secure, until she has defended
+her nest in the manner of a regularly fortified town, with ramparts,
+intrenchments, and covert-ways. "In some part of these defenses she
+posts herself as an advanced guard; and, should a beetle venture to
+intrude within her fortifications, she pounces on him, and, giving no
+quarter, kills him without mercy." When disturbed out of their nests,
+the mole-crickets appear dull and helpless; and during the day time they
+seldom use their wings, but, as night advances, they become very
+sprightly, and often wander on long excursions. When the weather is very
+fine, about the middle or end of April, as the evening draws on, they
+amuse themselves by making a low, dull, jarring noise, which is not very
+unlike the chattering of the fern-owl or goat-sucker, and which they
+continue without intermission for a long time.
+
+Anatomists tell us, that _all_ crickets, when carefully examined, are
+found to possess three stomachs; a small one; behind that, a large one,
+wrinkled and furrowed inside; and lower down, a third. They, therefore,
+think it not improbable that they chew the cud, or ruminate, like the
+cow and many other quadrupeds. They are not, however, satisfied entirely
+to subsist on vegetable diet, but prey upon underground insects, and
+sometimes even _undermine_ plants to get at them.
+
+Before taking leave of the cricket family, it may not be amiss to
+mention that, in various parts of England, they are called
+fern-crickets, churr-worms, and wee-churrs--all very appropriate names.
+
+
+
+
+THE RIGHT ONE.--A LESSON FOR LOVERS.
+
+
+"Do you know, with any certainty, in what language Adam declared his
+love to Eve?" inquired I, one day, from a philologist of my
+acquaintance. I put my question with so much earnestness, that he
+answered, quite seriously, "Yes, to be sure, he made his declaration of
+love in precisely the same language as that in which she accepted him."
+
+A profound answer! The only pity is, that I was not much wiser for it.
+But it is altogether a pity--a very great pity--that we know so little
+about the love-makings before the Flood. If any body could meet with a
+love-story of that date, it would have more freshness and novelty in it
+than can be found in any of our modern novels. And really that
+love-making in the morning of time, in the groves of Paradise, it must
+have been quite out of the common way!
+
+Ah, there breathes still in this world--several thousand years old
+though it be--a gentle gale of the spring-time of Paradise, through the
+life of every man, at the moment when he says, "I love! I am beloved!"
+
+Yes. It thrills through every happy son of Adam at the moment when he
+finds his Eve. But Adam himself was, in one respect, better off than any
+of his sons; for as there was only one Eve, he could make no mistake;
+neither could she, on her side, have either choice or repentance. But
+we--our name is Legion, and it is not easy for us to discover who, in
+the swarm of the children of Adam, is the right partner for us. If every
+one would seriously confess his experience in this respect, it would no
+doubt be both instructive and amusing. And as I know no other way in
+which I can instruct or amuse the world, I will now sincerely confess
+what mistakes I made when I searched for my Eve, whom I first adored in
+the person of Rose Ervan.
+
+I want words to describe her. She had fascinated me when I was but a
+cadet; she bewitched me before I had left the fourth class. And, of a
+truth, there never did exist a young lady more dangerous to a youth of
+lively imagination. Her coquetry was so natural, so mixed with goodness
+and childish grace, that it was impossible to regard it as any thing
+more than the most angelic innocence. At the Military Academy, I saw in
+my books her name and nothing besides. If I drew plans of fortifications
+and fortresses, Rose stood in the middle of my circles and quadrants,
+and the only line that I perceived clearly was the road that led to her
+home: the verdurous Greendale.
+
+Greendale was a cheerful place, where there were always guests and
+parties. And when the young people wished to have an excursion on the
+water, or any other entertainment, I it was who always planned every
+thing, and proposed it to the old baroness, the mother, for whom all the
+children entertained a very considerable and wholesome respect. On these
+occasions she used to say, "My dear sir, if you are with the children, I
+will permit it; for I trust to you, and I know that you will take care
+of them."
+
+"Yes, to be sure," I replied, though the truth was, I could not take
+care of myself; and never took notice of any body, or of any thing,
+excepting Rose.
+
+Many a one was fascinated just as I was fascinated; but I persuaded
+myself that I was the only lucky fellow who had her preference. Once I
+was terribly jealous. A certain Mr. T. (a professor of languages, I
+believe) came to Greendale, played, sung, and chattered French; and
+immediately Rose forgot me, to chat, and play, and sing with Mr. T.,
+making herself altogether as charming to him as she had hitherto been to
+me. I was desperate; went away over meadows and fields; saw neither
+hedges nor gates, stumbled into ditches and brooks, and reached home
+furious as a blunderbuss. But, behold! Mr. T. was gone, and Rose was
+again charming to me, and I was instantly as much under her fascination
+as ever, fully convinced that it was all my fault, and that I was a
+Turk, a monster--nay, quite an Othello of jealousy.
+
+After I had sighed and burned a considerable time, I made up my mind to
+proceed to the declaration of my love. It is true I was still very
+young, not three-and-twenty; but I thought myself quite old enough,
+being a lieutenant, the son of a father who always spoke of "my wife" as
+the greatest happiness of his life; besides which I had derived from my
+home the most beautiful impressions of domestic life. Hence I always
+represented to myself the highest good in the world under the image of
+"my wife."
+
+Having duly considered the various forms of love proposals, I went one
+fine day to Greendale, carrying with me, and near to my heart, a
+moss-rose in a garden-pot. The roads were execrable, and I was well-nigh
+shaken to pieces; but the smile of my beautiful Rose would, I was well
+assured, reward me for all my trouble. In imagination I heard myself
+constantly asseverating "I love you!" and heard her as constantly
+replying, "I love you!" As regarded our domestic establishment, I had
+not as yet thought as much about it as one of our favorite bards, who,
+before he married, provided himself with a cask of flour, a coffee-pot,
+and a frying-pan. I thought only of "a cottage and a heart." I saw
+around my cottage multitudes of roses, and within it, my Rose and
+myself. As for every thing else, all would be provided for by my
+excellent father.
+
+As soon as I arrived at Greendale, I found there two other gentlemen
+quite as much in love, and quite as much enchanted by the fascinating
+young lady, as I was. I pitied the unfortunate youths, because they had
+infatuated themselves with the hope of a happiness which no one, I
+believed, should aspire to but myself. We were all old acquaintances;
+and, as it is not our habit to put our light under a bushel, I was
+determined to give my rivals a little hint of my advantageous prospects.
+
+I raised, therefore, somewhat the vail which had concealed my modest
+confidence. But then came curious revelations! My rivals, animated by my
+example, lifted likewise the vail from their respective prospects; and,
+behold, we all three stood in precisely the same position. We all
+sighed; we all hoped; we all had _souvenirs_ that we kissed in secret;
+and they all were, as it were, serpents, and bit their own tails.
+
+At these unexpected revelations we all exclaimed, "Ah!" and left
+Greendale together, each going his own way. My father was a little
+surprised to see me return so soon.
+
+"My dear Constantine," said he, "I thought you intended to stay at
+Greendale a much longer time?"
+
+"Yes," I replied with a pensive air, taking at the same moment, a large
+mouthful of bread-and-butter; "yes; but I altered my mind when I got
+there."
+
+With this the conversation ended, and the charm was broken, once and
+forever. But with it was also broken one link out of the rosy time of my
+life. I began to regard all roses whether real or typified, with angry
+and suspicious looks, and to speak of the "illusions of life," and of
+"giving them up," &c., &c. I made a solemn vow with myself that the next
+object of my affections, the next choice I would make for "my wife,"
+should, in all respects, be the very reverse of the fascinating but
+traitorous Rose. I had been deceived, as I imagined, by the poetry of
+life; now I would keep to the sober prose.
+
+Ah! in what a noble form did my new ideal present herself to my eyes,
+as one evening I entered the hospitable saloon of Mrs. A., the wife of
+the celebrated judge. Abla, her daughter, stood ready to officiate at
+the tea table; her features, her figure, her manners were dignified and
+full of propriety. She looked like personified Truth, in
+contra-distinction to the fantastical bewitching Rose. I instantly fell
+in love with this beautiful image of Minerva, and thought of "my wife."
+
+Abla, however, seemed only to think of the tea, and looked neither to
+the left nor the right. When tea was poured into all the cups she slowly
+turned her splendid head, and I heard, at the same moment, a bass-voice
+exclaim, "Sundholm!"
+
+Ah, Heavens! was that her voice? Was it not rather that of the Angel of
+Judgment, who, in the middle of Mrs. A.'s evening party, summoned the
+sinner Sundholm to hear his final doom? I could have believed any thing
+rather than that such a voice could issue from the beautiful lips of
+Abla. But, when I beheld Sundholm advance to the tea-table and receive
+the tea-cups on his tray, I saw that the resounding bassoon-voice
+belonged to no other than the sweet lady whom I had just adored, and
+whom I had, in my heart, already called "my wife."
+
+It required some little time before I could reconcile my mind on this
+point. "Sundholm!" sounded awfully through my ears for many a long hour.
+I began to reason on the subject. If, said I, Nature has bestowed a
+bass-voice on this beautiful young lady, is it not noble and excellent
+of her not to try to conceal or embellish it? Does it not prove her love
+of truth; her strength of character, and her greatness of soul? How easy
+it would have been for her to cry "Sundholm!" in falsetto; but she would
+not be false, even in this! Not willing to assume a disguise, even for
+the sake of winning admiration, she summons Sundholm in the voice which
+God has given her. Is there not something grand in all this? One who
+thus calls out "Sundholm," will not deceive an honest fellow with hollow
+words or pretended feeling, but will play an open game with him, and let
+him understand the truth at once.
+
+I was introduced to the handsome Abla. There was no denying that the
+voice was not fine; but, when you were accustomed to it, it ceased to be
+so very disagreeable; besides which, her words were so simple and
+candid, and her face so beautiful, that by-and-by I was completely
+dazzled. My ears crept, as it were, into my eyes, and gazing, day after
+day, on Abla's faultless profile, I was conveyed at once into the realms
+of love, and, ravished by my sense of sight, asked Abla if she would be
+"my wife." She answered "Yes," with a force of utterance that nearly
+frightened me. We were betrothed, and the nearer I gazed on her fine
+profile the more I was satisfied. This, however, did not last very long.
+
+The period of betrothal is a very singular one; a period of halfness and
+incompleteness; nevertheless it is a sensible institution--when it does
+not continue too long. It is the prelude to a union that nothing but
+death _ought_ to dissolve; and, if it should appear impossible to
+execute harmoniously the duet which has now commenced, there is yet time
+to break it off calmly.
+
+The first discord that disturbed the duet between "my wife elect" and
+myself, was--not her deep voice, but, alas! precisely that very thing
+which, at first, had reconciled me to it; viz., her love of truth, or
+rather, I should say, her unmerciful way of uttering it.
+
+That we all are sinners in thought, word, and deed, is a matter of fact,
+and nobody was more willing to admit it than myself; but to be reminded
+of it every moment by one's best friend is by no means agreeable; nor
+does it do any good, especially when the plain-speaking friend never
+fancies himself, or herself, capable of sinning, or being faulty in the
+slightest degree. And the worst of it was, that apparently Abla had no
+faults. Ah! if she had had but one; or, better still, if she would but
+have admitted the possibility of it, then I should have been ready to
+throw myself at her feet! But she was in temper and in character as
+unimpeachable, as regular, as perfect, as she was in figure; she was so
+correct and proper, that, sinner as I was, it drove me into a rage. I
+felt that Abla's righteousness, and especially her mode of educating me,
+would, in time, make me a prodigious sinner; more particularly, as she
+would never yield to my wishes. It dawned upon me, before long, that her
+self-righteousness and want of charity to others was, indeed, one of the
+greatest conceivable faults. One fine day, therefore, I told her my
+mind, in good earnest terms, and the following duet occurred between us:
+
+_She._ I can not be otherwise than I am. If you do not like me, you can
+let it alone.
+
+_I._ If you will not be amiable toward me, I must cease to love you.
+
+_She._ That is of no consequence. I can go my own way by myself.
+
+_I._ So can I.
+
+_She._ Good-by, then, sir.
+
+_I._ Good-by, Miss A.
+
+"Thank Heaven, it was not too late!" thought I to myself, as, after my
+dismissal, I hastened to my little farm in the country. Although this
+abrupt termination of my second love affair caused but little pain to my
+heart, I felt considerable mortification, and a secret hostility sprung
+up in my soul toward the whole female sex. It happened, however, very
+luckily for me, that while I remained in this state of mind I met with
+one of my neighbors who was precisely in the same condition. He had been
+for some time divorced from a wife with whom he had lived very
+unhappily, and he drove about in his sulky, upon which he had had a
+motto inscribed in golden letters:
+
+    "It is better to be alone than to be ill-accompanied."
+
+The sentiment struck me as very excellent; and my neighbor and I often
+met, and agreed admirably in our abuse of the ladies. In the mean time,
+I occupied myself with books and agriculture.
+
+I have a great esteem for books, and I bow myself to the dust before
+learning, but, I know not how it is, further than that I can not go;
+esteem and veneration I feel, but assuredly my affections never grew in
+that soil. My love for agriculture took me forth into Nature, and Nature
+is lovely. But Adam was uneasy in Paradise, and did not wake to life and
+happiness until Eve came; and I, who did not possess a paradise, found
+myself very lonely and melancholy at "Stenbacke." Trees, after all, are
+wooden and dull things, when we crave for human sympathies; and echo,
+the voice of the rocks, is the most wearisome voice I know. No! heart to
+heart, eye to eye, that is the life; and to live together, a happy and
+healthy rural life, to work for the happiness of those who depend upon
+us--to regulate the home, to live, to think, to love, to rejoice
+together. Ah! "my wife" still stood vividly before my imagination.
+
+My experience in the realms of love had, however, made me suspicious. I
+feared that I could never be happy, according to my ideas of happiness,
+which my neighbor-friend characterized as "reposing in the shade of a
+pair of slippers." I was in low spirits; and accordingly, one day, after
+having finished the last of six dozen of cigars, and quarreled with my
+neighbor, who bored me with his everlasting and doleful tirades against
+the ladies, I set off in my own sulky to amuse myself by a drive.
+
+I drove a considerable distance to the house of an old friend, who had
+been a fellow-student with me at the Military College at Carlberg, and
+who had often invited me to visit him. He was now married, and was, in
+fact, the father of eight children. A large family, I thought, at first;
+but not one too many, said I to myself, after a single day spent in this
+family, which had given me the impression of a heaven upon earth.
+
+The mistress of the house, the wife and mother, was the silent soul of
+all. "It is she--it is she, who is my happiness!" said the fortunate
+husband; but she said, "It is he! it is he!"
+
+"My dear friend," said I to him one day, "how have you managed to be so
+happy in your marriage?"
+
+"Oh," replied he, smiling, "I have a secret to tell you."
+
+"A secret! for goodness sake, what is it?"
+
+"From my youth upward," he replied, "I have prayed God to give me a good
+wife."
+
+"Yes," thought I to myself, "that is it! Here am I unmarried, because I
+have never discovered this secret, without God's especial direction I
+may not venture to choose 'my wife.'"
+
+A younger sister of my friend's wife lived in the family. No one would
+have been attracted to her for her external charms, but a short time
+brought you completely under the spell of her kindness, the intellectual
+expression of her countenance, and the cheerful friendliness of her
+manners. All the household loved her; she was kind and amiable to all.
+To myself, however, it seemed that there was an exception: I thought her
+somewhat cold and distant. I was almost sorry when I perceived that I
+was grieved by this; a short time convinced me that I had really fallen
+in love with this young lady.
+
+There was, however, a great difference between this and my former love
+affairs. Formerly, I had permitted external charms to lead and blind me:
+now, on the contrary, I was attracted to the soul, and its beauty alone
+had captivated my heart. But why then was so excellent a soul so cold
+toward me?
+
+My friend said that it was because Maria had heard me represented as a
+fickle young fellow; one who amused himself with broken affiances.
+Righteous Heaven! was that indeed one of my faults? _I_ fickle! _I_, who
+felt myself created as a model of fidelity. It was impossible for me to
+bear patiently so cruel an injustice. No! as truly as my name was
+Constantine, must Maria do me justice.
+
+From that time, as she retired from me, so began I to walk after her. I
+was determined to convince her that I was not the fickle, inconstant
+being that I had been described. It was not, however, very easy to
+succeed in this, but at length I did succeed. After having put me to a
+trial, from which I came with flying colors, she accepted my proposals,
+and agreed to try me still further in--a union for life.
+
+During the period of our betrothal, she said several times, quite
+rapturously, "I am so glad to see that you also have faults; I feel now
+less humiliated, less unhappy from my own."
+
+This pleased me very much, and all the more as I perceived that Maria,
+while she showed me my faults with kindness, did not at all fondle her
+own.
+
+Our wedding-day was fixed; and I ordered a carriage for two persons.
+Company was invited, and Maria and I were married. Nothing can be more
+commonplace than all this, excepting, perhaps, it be, that my wife and I
+agreed to understand the ceremony in an earnest and real sense, and to
+live accordingly. The result has been, that now, after having been
+married five-and-twenty years (we celebrate our _silver nuptials_
+to-morrow), we love each other better, and are happier together than we
+were in the first hour of our union. We have, therefore, come to the
+conclusion, that unhappiness in marriage does not proceed from the
+indissolubility of marriage, as some say, but because the
+wedding-service is not realized in the marriage.
+
+Do not speak to me of the felicity of the honey-moon. It is but the
+cooing of doves! No! we must walk together along thorny paths, penetrate
+together the most hidden recesses of life, live together in pleasure and
+pain, in joy and in sorrow; must forgive and be forgiven; and afterward
+love better and love more. And as time goes on, something marvelous
+occurs; we become lovely to each other, although wrinkles furrow the
+cheek and forehead; and we become more youthful, though we add year to
+year. Then no longer have worldly troubles, misfortunes, and failings
+any power to dim the sun of our happiness, for it radiates from the eye
+and the heart of our friend; and when our earthly existence draws to
+its close, we feel indeed that our life and our love are eternal. And
+this supernatural feeling is quite natural after all, for the deeper and
+the more inwardly we penetrate into life, the more it opens in its depth
+of eternal beauty. Many happy husbands and wives will testify to this.
+
+But, observe, husband or wife! To qualify as such a witness, you must
+have been at some little pains to find--"the right one." Don't take the
+wrong one, inconsiderately.
+
+
+
+
+LORD BROUGHAM AS A JUDGE.
+
+
+Lord Brougham, as a judge, gave much greater satisfaction than was
+generally expected. It was thought that his constitutional precipitancy,
+joined to a deficiency of Chancery knowledge, would have incapacitated
+him for the important office. In this, however, people were mistaken. He
+was not so hot and hasty on the bench as he had been at the bar and in
+the senate--though his constitutional infirmities in this respect did
+occasionally show themselves even on the seat of justice. He carefully
+applied himself to the merits of every case which came before him, and
+soon showed with what rapidity he could acquire the quantity of Chancery
+knowledge requisite to enable him to discharge the duties of his office
+as judge, in at least a respectable manner.
+
+Perhaps no Lord Chancellor ever presided in Chancery who applied himself
+more assiduously and unremittingly to the discharge of the duties which
+devolved upon him, than did Lord Brougham. The amount of physical, not
+to speak of mental labor, he underwent during the greater part of his
+chancellorship was truly astonishing. For many consecutive months did he
+sit from ten till four o'clock in that court, hearing and disposing of
+the cases before it; and, on returning home from the House of Lords,
+after having sat four hours on the woolsack, he immediately applied all
+the energies of his mind to the then pending cases before the court. The
+best proof of this is to be found in the fact, that, though possessing,
+in a degree seldom equaled, and certainly never surpassed, the power of
+extemporaneous speaking, he wrote, on particular occasions, his
+judgments, and then read them in the court. I might also advert, in
+proof of Lord Brougham's extraordinary application to the duties of his
+office, to the fact of his having, in two or three years, got rid of the
+immense accumulation of arrear cases which were in the Court of Chancery
+when he was first intrusted with the great seal. It is not, however,
+necessary to allude particularly to this fact, as it is already so well
+known.
+
+Lord Brougham's irritable temper often led him, when Lord Chancellor,
+into squabbles with the counsel at the bar. The furious attack he made
+on Sir Edward Sugden must be fresh in the memory of every body. No
+person can justify that attack. It was as unwarrantable in principle as
+it was unseemly in a court of law, and especially as coming from the
+highest legal authority in the country. It is but due, however, to Lord
+Brougham to say, that he often regretted these unbecoming outbreaks of
+temper, and that he did so in this particular case. It consists with my
+own private knowledge that he afterward, on pretext of speaking on
+matters of public business, called Sir Edward one day into his private
+room, and made a most ample apology for the attack he had made on him.
+Sir Edward was generous enough to accept the apology, thus privately
+given, though the offense was a public one.
+
+I may here, however, mention that, during the interval between the
+attack and this apology, Lord Brougham, on several occasions, aggravated
+the outrage by further annoyances of Sir Edward while practicing before
+him. I do not say that such annoyances were intentional--possibly they
+may have been accidental--but, whichever way the fact lay, it is not to
+be wondered at if Sir Edward, in the peculiar circumstances in which he
+was placed, was predisposed to regard them as intentional. On one
+occasion, while the learned gentleman was pleading before his lordship
+in a very important cause, and just in the middle of what he conceived
+to be the most essential part of his speech, Lord Brougham suddenly
+threw back his head on his chair, and, closing both eyes, remained in
+that position for some time, as if he had been asleep. Sir Edward Sugden
+abruptly paused, waiting, no doubt, till his lordship should resume an
+attitude which would be more encouraging for him to proceed with his
+speech. On this, Lord Brougham suddenly started up from his reclining
+position, and, resuming that in which he usually sat when on the bench,
+apostrophized Sir Edward after the manner so peculiar to himself--"Go
+on, Sir Edward; proceed, Sir Edward; what's the cause of the stoppage?"
+
+"My lord," answered the latter, "I thought your lordship was not
+attending to my argument."
+
+"You have no right to think any such thing, Sir Edward; it's highly
+improper in you to do so; go on, if you please."
+
+Sir Edward resumed his speech, but had not addressed the court above two
+or three minutes, when Lord Brougham, addressing the officer, said, in
+his usual hasty manner, "Bring me some sheets of _letter_-paper
+directly."
+
+Of the folio size always used in court, his lordship had an abundant
+supply before him.
+
+"Yes, my lord," said the obedient officer, withdrawing for a moment to
+execute his lordship's commands. He returned in a few seconds, and
+placed some half-dozen sheets on the desk. His lordship immediately
+snatched up a pen, and commenced writing, as if he had been inditing a
+letter to some private friend. Sir Edward again paused in his address to
+the court, and leaned with his elbows on the bench before him, as if
+willing to wait patiently until his lordship should finish his
+epistolary business.
+
+"Sir Edward!" exclaimed the Lord Chancellor, in angry and ironical
+accents, after the learned gentleman had been silent for a few
+moments--"Sir Edward! pray, what's the matter now?"
+
+"I thought, my lord, that your lordship was temporarily engaged with
+some matter of your own."
+
+"Really, Sir Edward, this is beyond endurance."
+
+"I beg your lordship's pardon; but I thought your lordship was writing
+some private letter."
+
+"Nothing of the kind, Sir Edward," said his lordship, tartly; "nothing
+of the kind. I was taking a note of some points in your speech. See,
+would you like to look at it?" said he, sarcastically, at the same time
+holding out the sheet of paper toward Sir Edward.
+
+"Oh, not at all, your lordship; I do not doubt your lordship's word. I
+must have been under a mistake."
+
+Sir Edward again resumed; and Lord Brougham, throwing his head back on
+his chair, looked up toward the ceiling.
+
+Lord Brougham had a great horror of hearing the interminable speeches
+which some of the junior counsel were in the habit of making, after he
+conceived every thing had been said which could be said on the real
+merits of the case before the court by the gentlemen who preceded them.
+His hints to them to be brief on such occasions were sometimes extremely
+happy. I recollect that, after listening with the greatest attention to
+the speeches of two counsel on one side, from ten in the morning till
+half-past two, a third rose to address the court on the same side. His
+lordship was quite unprepared for this additional infliction, and
+exclaimed, "What, Mr. A----, are _you_ really going to speak on the same
+side?"
+
+"Yes, my lord; I mean to trespass on your lordship's attention for a
+short time."
+
+"Then," said his lordship, looking the orator significantly in the
+face--"then, Mr. A----, you had better cut your speech as short as
+possible, otherwise you must not be surprised if you see me dozing; for
+really this is more than human nature can endure."
+
+The youthful barrister took the hint; he kept closely to the point at
+issue--a thing very rarely done by barristers--and condensed his
+argument into a reasonable compass.
+
+
+
+
+THE HOUSEHOLD OF SIR THO^S. MORE.[3]
+
+[3] Continued from the September Number.
+
+LIBELLUS A MARGARETA MORE, QUINDECIM ANNOS NATA, CHELSEIÆ INCEPTVS
+
+"Nulla dies sine linea."
+
+
+                                                     April, 1534.
+
+A heavier charge than either of y^e above hath been got up, concerning
+the wicked woman of Kent, with whom they accuse him of having tampered,
+that, in her pretended revelations and rhapsodies, she might utter words
+against the king's divorce. His name hath, indeed, been put in the bill
+of attainder; but, out of favor, he hath been granted a private
+hearing, his judges being, the new archbishop, the new chancellor, his
+grace of Norfolk, and Master Cromwell.
+
+He tells us that they stuck not to y^e matter in hand, but began
+cunningly enow to sound him on y^e king's matters; and finding they
+could not shake him, did proceed to threats, which, he told 'em, might
+well enow scare children, but not him, and as to his having provoked his
+grace the king to sett forth in his book aught to dishonour and fetter a
+good Christian, his grace himself well knew the book was never shewn him
+save for verbal criticism when y^e subject matter was completed _by the
+makers of y^e same_, and that he had warned his grace not to express soe
+much submission to the pope. Whereupon they with great displeasure
+dismissed him, and he took boat for Chelsea with mine husband in such
+gay spiritts, that Will, not having been privy to what had passed,
+concluded his name to have beene struck out of y^e bill of attainder,
+and congratulated him thereupon soe soone as they came aland, saying, "I
+guess, father, all is well, seeing you thus merry."
+
+"It is indeed, son Roper," returns father steadilie, repeating
+thereupon, once or twice, this phrase, "All is well."
+
+Will, somehow mistrusting him, puts the matter to him agayn.
+
+"You are then, father, put out of the bill?"
+
+"Out of the bill, good fellow?" repeats father, stopping short in his
+walk, and regarding him with a smile that Will sayth was like to break
+his heart.... "Wouldst thou know, dear son, why I am so joyful? In good
+faith, I have given the devil a foul fall, for I have with those lords
+gone so far, as that without great shame I can ne'er go back. The first
+step, Will, is the worst, and that's taken."
+
+And so, to the house, with never another word, Will being smote at the
+heart.
+
+But, this forenoon, deare Will comes running in to me, with joy all
+bright, and tells me he hath just heard from Cromwell that father's name
+is in sooth struck out. Thereupon, we go together to him with the news.
+He taketh it thankfully, yet composedly, saying, as he lays his hand on
+my shoulder, "In faith, Meg, quod differtur non aufertur." Seeing me
+somewhat stricken and overborne, he sayth, "Come, let's leave good Will
+awhile to the company of his own select and profitable thoughts, and
+take a turn together by the water side."
+
+Then closing his book, which I marked was Plato's Phædon, he steps
+forthe with me into the garden, leaning on my shoulder, and pretty
+heavilie too. After a turn or two in silence, he lightens his pressure,
+and in a bland, peaceifying tone commences Horace his tenth ode, book
+second, and goes through the first fourteen or fifteen lines in a kind
+of lulling monotone; then takes another turn or two, ever looking at the
+Thames, and in a stronger voice begins his favorite
+
+    "Justum, ac tenacem propositi virum
+    Non civium ardor," etc.
+
+on to
+
+    "Impavidum ferient ruinæ;"
+
+--and lets go his hold on me to extend his hand in fine, free action.
+Then, drawing me to him agayn, presentlie murmurs, "I reckon that the
+sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with y^e
+glory which shall be revealed in us.... Oh no, not worthy to be
+compared. I have lived; I have laboured; I have loved. I have lived in
+them I loved; laboured for them I loved; loved them for whom I laboured;
+my labour has not been in vayn. To love and to labour is the sum of
+living, and yet how manie think they live who neither labour nor love.
+Again, how manie labour and love, and yet are not loved; but I have
+beene loved, and my labour has not been in vayn. Now, the daye is far
+spent, and the night forecloseth, and the time draweth nigh when man
+resteth from his labours, even from his labours of love; but still he
+shall love and he shall live where the Spiritt sayth he shall rest from
+his labours, and where his works do follow him, for he entereth into
+rest through and to Him who is Life, and Light, and Love."
+
+Then looking stedfastlie at the Thames, "How quietlie," sayth he, "it
+flows on! This river, Meg, hath its origin from seven petty springs
+somewhither amongst y^e Gloucestershire hills, where they bubble forthe
+unnoted save by the herd and hind. Belike, they murmur over the pebbles
+prettily enough; but a great river, mark you, never murmurs. It murmured
+and babbled too, 'tis like, whilst only a brook, and brawled away as it
+widened and deepened and chafed agaynst obstacles, and here and there
+got a fall, and splashed and made much ado, but ever kept running on
+towards its end, still deepening and widening; and now towards the close
+of its course look you how swift and quiet it is, running mostly between
+flats, and with the dear blue heaven reflected in its face." ...
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+'Twas o' Wednesdaye was a week, we were quietly taking our dinner, when,
+after a loud and violent knocking at y^e outer door, in cometh a
+poursuivant, and summoneth father to appear next daye before y^e
+commissioners, to take y^e newly coined oath of supremacy. Mother utters
+a hasty cry, Bess turns white as death, but I, urged by I know not what
+suddain impulse to con the new comer's visage narrowly, did with
+eagerness exclaim, "Here's some jest of father's; 'tis only Dick
+Halliwell!"
+
+Whereupon, father burst out a laughing, hugged mother, called Bess a
+silly puss, and gave Halliwell a grout for 's payns. Now, while some
+were laughing, and others taking father prettie sharplie to task for soe
+rough a crank, I fell a muzing, what c^d be y^e drift of this, and could
+only surmize it mighte be to harden us beforehand, as 'twere, to what
+was sure to come at last. And the preapprehension of this so belaboured
+my alreadie o'erburthened spiritts, as that I was fayn to betake myself
+to y^e nurserie, and lose alle thought and reflection in my little
+Bill's prettie ways. And, this not answering, was forct to have recourse
+to prayer; then, leaving my closett, was able to return to y^e
+nurserie, and forget myselfe awhile in the mirth of the infants.
+
+Hearing voyces beneathe y^e lattice, I lookt forthe, and behelde his
+Grace of Norfolk (of late a strange guest) walking beneath y^e window in
+earnest converse with father, and, as they turned about, I hearde him
+say, "By the mass, master More, 'tis perilous striving with princes. I
+could wish you, as a friend, to incline to the king's pleasure; for,
+indignatio principis mors est."
+
+"Is that all?" says father; "why then there will be onlie this
+difference between your grace and me, that I shall die to-daye, and you
+to-morrow;"--which was the sum of what I caught.
+
+Next morning, we were breaking our fast with peacefullness of heart, on
+y^e principle that sufficient for the daye is the evill thereof, and
+there had beene a wordy war between our two factions of the Neri and
+Bianchi, Bess having defalked from y^e mancheteers on y^e ground that
+black bread sweetened the breath and settled the teeth, to the no small
+triumph of the cob-loaf party; while Daisy, persevering at her crusts,
+sayd "No, I can cleave to the rye bread as steddilie as anie among you,
+but 'tis vayn of father to maintain that it is as toothsome as a
+manchet, or that I eat it to whiten my teeth, for thereby he robs
+self-deniall of its grace."
+
+Father, strange to say, seemed taken at vantage, and was pausing for a
+retort, when Hobson coming in and whispering somewhat in his ear, he
+rose suddainlie and went forthe of the hall with him, putting his head
+back agayn to say, "Rest ye alle awhile where ye be," which we did,
+uneasilie enow. Anon he returns, brushing his beaver, and says calmlie,
+"Now, let's forthe to church," and clips mother's arme beneathe his owne
+and leads the way. We follow as soon as we can, and I, listing to him
+more than to y^e priest, did think I never hearde him make response more
+composedlie, nor sing more lustilie, by the which I founde myself in
+stouter heart. After prayers, he is shriven, after which he saunters
+back with us to the house, then brisklie turning on his heel, cries to
+my husband, "Now, Will, let's toward, lad," and claps the wicket after
+him, leaving us at t'other side without so much as casting back a
+parting look. Though he evermore had been advised to let us companie him
+to the boat, and there kiss him once and agayn or ever he went, I know
+not that I s^d have thoughte much of this, had not Daisy, looking after
+him keenly, exclaymed somewhat shortlie as she turned in doors, "I wish
+I had not uttered that quip about the cob-loaf."
+
+Lord, how heavilie sped y^e day! The house, too big now for its master's
+diminished retinue, had yet never hitherto seemed lonesome; but now a
+somewhat of dreary and dreadfull, inexpressible in words, invisible to
+the eye, but apprehended by the inner sense, filled the blank space alle
+about. For the first time, everie one seemed idle; not only disinclined
+for businesse, but as though there were something unseemlie in
+addressing one's self to it. There was nothing to cry about, nothing to
+talk over, and yet we alle stoode agaze at each other in groups, like
+the cattle under y^e trees when a storm is at hand. Mercy was the first
+to start off. I held her back and said, "What is to do?" She whispered,
+"Pray." I let her arm drop, but Bess at that instant comes up with
+cheeks as colourless as parchment. She sayth, "'Tis made out now. A
+poursuivant _de facto_ fetched him forthe this morning." We gave one
+deep, universal sigh; Mercy broke away, and I after her, to seek the
+same remedie, but alack, in vayn....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How large a debt we owe you, wise and holie men of old! How ye counsel
+us to patience, incite us to self-mastery, cheer us on to high emprize,
+temper in us the heat of youth, school our inexperience, calm the
+o'erwrought mind, allay the anguish of disappointment, cheat suspense,
+and master despair.... How much better and happier ye would make us, if
+we would but list your teaching!
+
+Bess hath fallen sick; no marvell. Everie one goeth heavilie. All joy is
+darkened; the mirthe of the house is gone.
+
+Will tells me, that as they pushed off from y^e stairs, father took him
+about the neck and whispered, "I thank our Lord, the field is won!"
+Sure, Regulus ne'er went forthe with higher self-devotion.
+
+Having declared his inabilitie to take y^e oath as it stoode, they bade
+him, Will tells me, take a turn in the garden while they administered it
+to sundrie others, thus affording him leisure for reconsideration. But
+they might as well have bidden the neap-tide turn before its hour. When
+called in agayn, he was as firm as ever, so was given in ward to y^e
+Abbot of Westminster till the king's grace was informed of the matter.
+And now, the fool's wise saying of vindictive Herodias came true, for
+'twas the king's mind to have mercy on his old servant, and tender him a
+qualifyed oath; but queen Anne, by her importunate clamours, did
+overrule his proper will, and at four days end, y^e full oath being
+agayn tendered and rejected, father was committed to y^e Tower. Oh,
+wicked woman, how could you?... Sure, you never loved a father....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In answer to our incessant applications throughout this last month past,
+mother hath at length obtayned access to dear father. She returned, her
+eyes nigh swollen to closing with weeping ... we crowded round about,
+burning for her report, but 'twas some time ere she coulde fetch breath
+or heart to give it us. At length Daisy, kissing her hand once and
+agayn, draws forthe a disjoynted tale, somewhat after this fashion.
+
+"Come, give over weeping, dearest mother; 'twill do neither him, you,
+nor us anie goode.... What was your first speech of him?"
+
+"Oh, my first speech, sweetheart, was, 'What, my goodness, Mr. More! I
+marvell how that you, who were always counted a wise man, s^d now soe
+play the fool as to lie here in this close, filthy prison, shut up with
+mice and rats, when you mighte be abroade and at your liberty, with y^e
+favour of king and council, and return to your righte fayr house, your
+books and gallery, and your wife, children, and household, if soe be you
+onlie woulde but do what the bishops and best learned of the realm have,
+without scruple, done alreadie.'"
+
+"And what sayd he, mother, to that?" ...
+
+"Why, then, sweetheart, he chucks me under the chin and sayeth, 'I
+prithee, good mistress Alice, to tell me one thing.' ... Soe then I say,
+'What thing?' Soe then he sayeth, 'Is not this house, sweetheart, as
+nigh heaven as mine own?' Soe then I jerk my head away and say
+'Tilly-valley! tilley-valley.'"
+
+Sayth Bess, "Sure, mother, that was cold comfort.... And what next?"
+
+"Why, then I said, 'Bone Deus, man! Bone Deus! will this gear never be
+left? Soe then he sayth, 'Well then, Mrs. Alice, if it be soe, 'tis
+mighty well, but, for my part, I see no greate reason why I shoulde much
+joy in my gay house, or in aniething belonging thereunto, when, if I
+shoulde be but seven years buried underground, and then arise and come
+thither agayn, I shoulde not fail to find some therein that woulde bid
+me get out of doors, and tell me 'twas none o' mine. What cause have I
+then, to care so greatlie for a house that woulde soe soone forget its
+master?'" ...
+
+"And then, mother? and then?"
+
+"Soe then, sweetheart, he sayth, 'Come, tell me, Mrs. Alice, how long do
+you think we might reckon on living to enjoy it?' Soe I say, 'Some
+twenty years, forsooth.' 'In faith,' says he, 'had you said some
+thousand years, it had beene somewhat; and yet he were a very bad
+merchant that woulde put himselfe in danger to lose eternity for a
+thousand years ... how much the rather if we are not sure to enjoy it
+one day to an end?' Soe then he puts me off with questions, How is Will?
+and Daisy? and Rupert? and this one? and t'other one? and the peacocks?
+and rabbits? and have we elected a new king of the cob-loaf yet? and has
+Tom found his hoop? and is y^e hasp of the buttery-hatch mended yet? and
+how goes the court? and what was the text o' Sunday? and have I
+practised the viol? and how are we off for money? and why can't he see
+Meg? Then he asks for this book and t'other book, but I've forgot their
+names, and he sayth he's kept mighty short of meat, though 'tis little
+he eats, but his man John a Wood is gay an' hungry, and 'tis worth a
+world to see him at a salt herring. Then he gives me counsell of this
+and that, and puts his arm about me and says, 'Come, let us pray;' but
+while he kept praying for one and t'other, I kept a-counting of his gray
+hairs; he'd none a month agone. And we're scarce off our knees, when I'm
+fetched away; and I say, 'When will you change your note, and act like a
+wise man?' and he sayth, 'When? when!' looking very profound; 'why, ...
+when gorse is out of blossom and kissing out of fashion.' Soe puts me
+forthe by the shoulders with a laugh, calling after me, 'Remember me
+over and over agayn to them alle, and let me se Meg.'"
+
+... I feel as if a string were tied tight about my heart. Methinketh
+'twill burst if we goe on long soe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He hath writ us a few lines with a coal, ending with "Sursum corda, dear
+children! up with your hearts." The bearer was dear Bonvisi.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Lord begins to cut us short. We are now on very meagre commons, dear
+mother being obliged to pay fifteen shillings a-week for the board, poor
+as it is, of father and his servant. She hath parted with her velvet
+gown, embroidered overthwart, to my lady Sand's woman. Her mantle edged
+with coney went long ago.
+
+But we lose not heart; I think mine is becoming annealed in the furnace,
+and will not now break. I have writ somewhat after this fashion to
+him.... "What do you think, most dear father, doth comfort us at
+Chelsea, during this your absence? Surelie, the remembrance of your
+manner of life among us, your holy conversation, your wholesome
+counsells, your examples of virtue, of which there is hope that they do
+not onlie persevere with you, but that, by God's grace, they are much
+increast."
+
+I weary to see him.... Yes, we shall meet in heaven, but how long first,
+oh Lord? how long?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now that I've come back, let me seek to think, to remember.... Sure, my
+head will clear by-and-by? Strange, that feeling shoulde have the
+masterdom of thought and memory, in matters it is most concerned to
+retayn.
+
+... I minded to put y^e haircloth and cord under my farthingale, and one
+or two of y^e smaller books in my pouch, as alsoe some sweets and
+suckets such as he was used to love. Will and Bonvisi were awaiting for
+me, and deare Bess, putting forthe her head from her chamber door, cries
+piteously, "Tell him, dear Meg, tell him ... 'twas never soe sad to me
+to be sick ... and that I hope ... I pray ... the time may come ..."
+then falls back swooning into Dancey's arms, whom I leave crying
+heartilie over her, and hasten below to receive the confused medley of
+messages sent by every other member of y^e house. For mine owne part, I
+was in such a tremulous succussion as to be scarce fitt to stand or goe,
+but time and the tide will noe man bide, and, once having taken boat,
+the cool river air allayed my fevered spiritts; onlie I coulde not for
+awhile get ridd of y^e impression of poor Dancey crying over Bess in her
+deliquium.
+
+I think none o' the three opened our lips before we reached Lambeth,
+save, in y^e Reach, Will cried to y^e steersman, "Look you run us not
+aground," in a sharper voyce than I e'er heard from him. After passing
+y^e Archbishop's palace, whereon I gazed full ruefullie, good Bonvisi
+beganne to mention some rhymes he had founde writ with a diamond on one
+of his window-panes at Crosby House, and would know were they father's?
+and was't y^e chamber father had used to sleep in? I tolde him it was,
+but knew nought of y^e distich, though 'twas like enow to be his. And
+thence he went on to this and that, how that father's cheerfulle, funny
+humour never forsook him, nor his brave heart quelled, instancing his
+fearlesse passage through the Traitor's Gate, asking his neighbours
+whether _his_ gait was that of a traditor; and, on being sued by the
+porter for his upper garment, giving him his _cap_, which he sayd was
+uppermost. And other such quips and passages, which I scarce noted nor
+smiled at, soe sorry was I of cheer.
+
+At length we stayed rowing: Will lifted me out, kissed me, heartened me
+up, and, indeede, I was in better heart then, having been quietlie in
+prayer a good while. After some few forms, we were led through sundrie
+turns and passages, and, or ever I was aware, I found myselfe quit of my
+companions, and in father's arms.
+
+We both cried a little at first; I wonder I wept noe more, but strength
+was given me in that hour. As soone as I coulde, I lookt him in the
+face, and he lookt at me, and I was beginning to note his hollow cheeks,
+when he sayd, "Why, Meg, you are getting freckled:" soe that made us
+bothe laugh. He sayd, "You shoulde get some freckle-water of the lady
+that sent me here; depend on it, she hath washes and tinctures in
+plenty; and after all, Meg, she'll come to the same end at last, and be
+as the lady all bone and skin, whose ghastlie legend used to scare thee
+soe when thou wert a child. Don't tell that story to thy children;
+'twill hamper 'em with unsavory images of death. Tell them of heavenlie
+hosts a-waiting to carry off good men's souls in fire-bright chariots,
+with horses of the sun, to a land where they shall never more be
+surbated and weary, but walk on cool, springy turf and among myrtle
+trees, and eat fruits that shall heal while they delight them, and drink
+the coldest of cold water, fresh from y^e river of life, and have space
+to stretch themselves, and bathe, and leap, and run, and, whichever way
+they look, meet Christ's eyes smiling on them. Lord, Meg, who would
+live, that could die? One mighte as lief be an angel shut up in a
+nutshell as bide here. Fancy how gladsome the sweet spirit would be to
+have the shell cracked! no matter by whom; the king, or king's
+mistress.... Let her dainty foot but set him free, he'd say, 'For this
+release, much thanks.' ... And how goes the court, Meg?"
+
+"In faith, father, never better.... There is nothing else there, I hear,
+but dancing and disporting."
+
+"Never better, child, sayst thou? Alas, Meg, it pitieth me to consider
+what misery, poor soul, she will shortlie come to. These dances of hers
+will prove such dances that she will spurn our heads off like footballs;
+but 'twill not be long ere her head will dance the like dance. Mark you,
+Meg, a man that restraineth not his passions hath always something cruel
+in his nature, and if there be a woman toward, she is sure to suffer
+heaviest for it, first or last.... Seek scripture precedent for't ...
+you'll find it as I say. Stony as death, cruel as the grave. Those
+Pharisees that were, to a man, convicted of sin, yet haled a sinning
+woman before the Lord, and woulde fain have seen the dogs lick up her
+blood. When they lick up mine, deare Meg, let not your heart be
+troubled, even though they shoulde hale thee to London Bridge to see my
+head stuck on a pole. Think, most dear'st, I shall then have more reason
+to weep for thee than thou for me. But there's noe weeping in heaven,
+and bear in mind, Meg, distinctlie, that if they send me thither, 'twill
+be for obeying the law of God rather than of men. And after alle, we
+live not in the bloody, barbarous old times of crucifyings and flayings,
+and immersings in cauldrons of boiling oil. One stroke, and the affair's
+done. A clumsy chirurgeon would be longer extracting a tooth. We have
+oft agreed that the little birds struck down by the kite and hawk suffer
+less than if they were reserved to a naturall death. There is one
+sensible difference, indeed, between us. In our cases, preparation is
+a-wanting."
+
+Hereon, I minded me to slip off y^e haircloth and rope, and give the
+same to him, along with the books and suckets, all which he hid away
+privatelie, making merry at the last.
+
+"'Twoulde tell well before the council," quoth he, "that on searching
+the prison-cell of Sir Thomas More, there was founde, flagitiouslie and
+mysteriouslie laid up ... a piece of barley-sugar!"
+
+Then we talked over sundry home-matters; and anon, having now both of us
+attayned unto an equable and chastened serenitie of mind, which needed
+not any false shows of mirth to hide y^e naturall complexion of, he
+sayth, "I believe, Meg, they that have put me here ween they have done
+me a high displeasure; but I assure thee on my faith, mine own good
+daughter, that if it had not beene for my wife, and you, my dear good
+children, I would faine have beene closed up, long ere this, in as
+straight a room, and straighter too."
+
+Thereon, he shewed me how illegal was his imprisonment, there being noe
+statute to authorize the imposition of y^e oath, and he delivered
+himself, with some displeasure, agaynst the king's ill counsellors.
+
+"And surelie, Meg," quoth he, "'tis pitie that anie Christian prince
+shoulde, by a flexible council readie to follow his affections, and by a
+weak clergy lacking grace to stand constantly to the truth as they
+learned it, be with flattery so constantly abused. The lotus fruit
+fabled by the ancients, which made them that ate it lose alle relish for
+the daylie bread of their own homes, was flattery, Meg, as I take it,
+and nothing else. And what less was the song of the Syrens, agaynst
+which Ulysses made the sailors stop their ears, and which he, with all
+his wisdom, coulde not listen to without struggling to be unbound from
+the mast? Even praise, Meg, which, moderately given, may animate and
+cheer forward the noblest minds, yet too lavishly bestowed, will
+decrease and palsy their strength, e'en as an overdose of the most
+generous and sprightlie medicine may prove mortiferous. But flattery is
+noe medicine, but a rank poison, which hath slayn kings, yea, and mighty
+kings; and they who love it, the Lord knoweth afar off; knoweth
+distantlie, has no care to know intimatelie, for they are none of his."
+
+Thus we went on, from one theme to another, till methinketh a heavenlie
+light seemed to shine alle about us like as when the angel entered the
+prison of Peter. I hung upon everie word and thought that issued from
+his lips, and drank them in as thirsty land sucks up the tender rain....
+Had the angel of death at that hour come to fetch both of us away, I
+woulde not have sayd him nay, I was soe passivelie, so intenselie happy.
+At length, as time wore on, and I knew I shoulde soone be fetcht forthe,
+I coulde not but wish I had the clew to some secret passage or
+subterreneal, of which there were doubtless plenty in the thick walls,
+whereby we might steal off together. Father made answer, "Wishes never
+filled a sack. I make it my businesse, Meg, to wish as little as I can,
+except that I were better and wiser. You fancy these four walls
+lonesome; how oft, dost thou suppose, I here receive Plato and Socrates,
+and this and that holy saint and martyr? My jailors can noe more keep
+them out than they can exclude the sunbeams. Thou knowest, Jesus stood
+among his disciples when the doors were shut. I am not more lonely than
+St. Anthony in his cave, and I have a divine light e'en here, whereby to
+con the lesson 'God is love.' The futility of our enemies' efforts to
+make us miserable was never more stronglie proven to me than when I was
+a mere boy in Cardinal Morton's service. Having unwittinglie angered one
+of his chaplains, a choleric and even malignant-spirited man, he did, of
+his owne authoritie, shut me up for some hours in a certayn damp vault,
+which, to a lad afeard of ghosts and devilish apparitions, would have
+been fearsome enow. Howbeit, I there cast myself on the ground with my
+back sett agaynst the wall, and mine arm behind my head, this fashion
+... and did then and there, by reason of a young heart, quiet
+conscience, and quick phansy, conjure up such a lively picture of the
+queen o' the fairies' court, and alle the sayings and doings therein,
+that never was I more sorry than when my gaoler let me goe free, and
+bade me rise up and be doing. In place, therefore, my daughter, of
+thinking of me in thy night watches as beating my wings agaynst my cage
+bars, trust that God comes to look in upon me without knocking or
+bell-ringing. Often in spiritt I am with you alle; in the chapel, in the
+hall, in the garden; now in the hayfield, with my head on thy lap, now
+on the river, with Will and Rupert at the oar. You see me not about your
+path, you won't see my disembodied spiritt beside you hereafter, but it
+may be close upon you once and agayn for alle that: maybe, at times when
+you have prayed with most passion, or suffered with most patience, or
+performed my hests with most exactness, or remembered my care of you
+with most affection. And now, good speed, good Meg, I hear the key turn
+in the door.... This kiss for thy mother, this for Bess, this for Cecil,
+... this and this for my whole school. Keep dry eyes and a hopeful
+heart; and reflect that nought but unpardoned sin should make us weep
+forever."
+
+
+
+
+BOOKWORMS.
+
+"Like caterpillar, eating his way in silence!"
+
+
+The natural history of the bookworm has escaped the observation of
+Cuvier. Yet the bookworm shares his habitat in common with the student,
+and no doubt has often rubbed shoulder with the naturalist. The haunts
+of the bookworm are the national libraries, the old booksellers' shops
+about Holborn and Great Queen-street, Long-acre, and the bookstalls
+generally. One will be sure to meet with him--a weary, worn, and faded
+personage--in the reading-room of the Museum. The goodly morocco-bound
+tome in folio is the bookworm's _bonne bouche_. Its scented binding and
+odorous pages form the choicest of his meals. The atmosphere of the
+national reading-room is close and redolent of strange smells; the
+bookworm, however, enjoys it with the readier zest. Worm-like, he is a
+reproducer, and capable of spinning words by the myriad, which he
+deposits upon the surfaces of foolscap.
+
+The bookworm's natural disposition is gentle; but his temper is
+irritable. His nature is indolent. He loves to doze over a Harleian
+manuscript, or a dusty Elzevir or black letter. It is legendary that his
+mission upon earth is occult--_videlicet_, to discover those lost
+treasures the Sibylline Leaves, supposed to be embedded and fossilized
+somewhere in the forest of leaves monastic. The hiding-place of the
+Sibyl's precious autograph, albeit, remains, like the philosopher's
+stone, a secret yet.
+
+It is not intended in this paper to be satirical upon bibliographical
+pursuits. On this point our motto is the text recorded by the learned
+and indefatigable Mr. Lowdes, in his "Manual." "Mankind are disposed to
+remember the _abuse_ rather than the _utility_ of pursuits in which few
+are deeply interested. And in the ridicule which the enthusiastic zeal
+of bibliomaniacs has cast on bibliography, they lose sight of the fact
+that all accurate knowledge is in a greater or less degree absolutely
+dependent thereon."
+
+But the eccentricities and peculiarities of bookworms are left to us to
+notice, without our incurring the displeasure of any liberal-minded
+student or book-collector. Our task at present is merely to throw
+together some information personally relating to bookworms, hitherto
+hidden within the mouldering pages of cumbrous volumes, offering little
+inducement for the perusal of the ordinary reader. Nevertheless we are
+not unmindful what a field of scholastic romance we have traveled
+through, at the cost of a somewhat dusty journey.
+
+Who were the original bookworms? From what point shall our
+bibliographical notices date?--beyond or in advance of the monasticism?
+The old clerks or copyists of the convents were the primitive bookworms
+indubitably. Their occupation has been elevated by writers to a position
+of moral philosophy. Dr. Dibdin, in his "Bibliomania," says, "Copying
+excited insensibly a love of quiet, domestic order, and seriousness. I
+am willing to admit every degree of merit to the manual dexterity of the
+cloistered student. I admire his snow-white vellum missals, emblazoned
+with gold, and sparkling with carmine and ultra-marine blue. By the help
+of the microscopic glass I peruse his diminutive penmanship, executed
+with the most astonishing neatness and regularity; his ink so glossy
+black! Now and then, for a guinea or two, I purchase a specimen of such
+marvelous legerdemain, but the book to me is a sealed book! Surely the
+same exquisite and unrivaled beauty would have been exhibited in copying
+an ode of Horace or a dictum of Quinctilian." With reference to this
+allusion to the missal, it may be here worth while mentioning that the
+most splendidly executed book of devotion known is the MS. volume, the
+Bedford missal. It passed from the library of Harley, Earl of Oxford,
+through various fortunes, until it finally found a resting-place in the
+library of the Duchess of Portland. This antiquity is valued at 500
+guineas.
+
+As early as the sixth century, commenced the custom in some monasteries
+of copying ancient books and composing new ones. In the fifteenth
+century, the custom of keeping up monkish libraries had ceased, at least
+in England.
+
+The illustrious progenitors of bookworms were such personages as the
+venerable Bede, Alfred the Great, and Theodore, Archbishop of
+Canterbury. Friar Roger Bacon was also an intense bookworm. The noble
+book-spirit by which the lives of the Oxford Athenians are recorded and
+preserved, is now probably forgotten by the world. The student, however
+reveres the name of old Anthony à Wood. The remembrance of his
+researches amidst paper and parchment documents, stored up in chests and
+desks, and upon which the moth was "feeding sweetly," is perpetuated in
+bibliography. We follow in imagination his cautious step, and head
+bowing from premature decay, and solemn air, and sombre visage, with
+cane under the arm, pacing from library to library, through Gothic
+quadrangles, or sauntering along the Isis on his way to some neighboring
+village, where, may be, with some congenial Radcliffe, he would recreate
+with pipe and pot. While the Bodleian and Ashmolean collections remain,
+so long will the memory of his laudable exertions continue unimpaired.
+Anthony à Wood was in person of a large, robust make, tall and thin, and
+had a sedate and thoughtful look, almost bordering upon a melancholy
+cast. Beneath a strange garb and coarse exterior, lay all that acuteness
+of observation and retentiveness of memory, as well as inflexible
+integrity, which marked his intellectual character. After he had by
+continual drudging worn out his body, he left this world contentedly,
+A.D. 1695.
+
+In the early part of the seventeenth century, lived that very curious
+collector of ancient popular little pieces, as well as lover of sacred,
+secret soul soliloquies, that "melancholy Jaques," yclept Robert Burton.
+He gave a multitude of books to the Bodleian Library. This original,
+amusing, and _now popular_ author was an arrant book-hunter--a "devourer
+of authors." Old Burton's constant companion was, we read, the eccentric
+"Harry" Hastings, a bibliomaniac, yet also an ardent sportsman. Just
+alighted from the toils of the chase, Harry Hastings, then in his
+eightieth year, would partake of a substantial dinner, tipple his
+tankard of ale dry, take his customary nap, wake up, rub his eyes, and
+behold the "Anatomy of Melancholy" seated before the fire, his visage
+buried in an opened folio! A rare old boy must have been this Hastings.
+He is described as low of stature, but strong and active, of a ruddy
+complexion, with flaxen hair. His clothes were always of Lincoln green.
+His house was of the old fashion, in the midst of a large park well
+stocked with game. He kept his hounds, and his great hall was commonly
+strewed with marrow bones. He lived to be an hundred, and never lost his
+eyesight nor used spectacles.
+
+Richard Ashmole, the founder of the Ashmolean Museum, was an intimate of
+the astrologer Lilly, and one of the queerest of bookworms. His life was
+grotesquely checkered by family jars. He had a termagant wife, who, it
+appears, was continually "taking the law of him in return for neglect,
+cruelty," &c. Whether Ashmole was proof or not proof against this
+peculiar kind of henpecking, we can not report; but it is certain that
+his bodily health failed him in the course of his wife's persecution; he
+sought to tinker up his constitution with quack medicines, of which he
+became the victim.
+
+The Bodleian and Ashmolean collections are emulated by the Harleian.
+Harley, Earl of Oxford's attachment to books, and the large sums he
+expended in forming the collection of MSS., have rendered the name
+celebrated. The Harleian collection of MSS. was purchased by government
+for the National Library; the purchase-money amounted to £10,000. Harley
+lived in the middle of the seventeenth century.
+
+A remarkable individual of the order of bookworm, was the musical
+bibliomaniac, Thomas Britton. This curious character lived in the
+Augustan age of Queen Anne. He came to London from a northern county,
+and, after serving an humble apprenticeship, embarked in business as a
+kind of costermonger; he was in the habit of actually crying his coals
+about the street. His attire was a Guernsey frock; he carried a black
+sack on his shoulders, and a coal measure in his hands. In this style he
+was painted by Woollaston. Britton lived in Aylesbury-street,
+Clerkenwell, where he fitted up a concert-room, the progenitor of the
+great philharmonic and ancient nobility concerts of the present day. Sir
+Robert l'Estrange was one of Britton's first patrons, and by his
+reputation and example induced the fashionable world of those days to
+patronize Britton's concerts, at which Handel, Phil Hart, Banister,
+Dubourg the violinist, and others, performed to the genteelest of
+audiences. The concert-room was literally but one floor over a
+coal-shed; and the visitors had to climb up to it by a ladder fixed
+outside of the house, and to sit under a low roof, against which they
+could not avoid knocking their heads soundingly. Britton was no
+composer, only a musician and book-collector. He collected works on the
+occult art chiefly, and on music; his library sold for a large sum of
+money in those times. He was quite a notoriety on account of the humble
+trade he so openly followed, and the refined tastes he was known to
+cultivate. One day passing nigh the house of Woollaston the painter, in
+Warwick-lane, Britton, being in his work-a-day attire, gave out lustily
+his well-known cry of "Small-coal." Woollaston's attention was
+attracted, and he recognized in the voice that of his musical
+acquaintance Britton, whom he had never seen in the pursuit of his
+ordinary trade. The artist at once beckoned Britton in, and there and
+then took his portrait as he sat, a veritable itinerant coal-dealer. The
+portrait is most characteristic, and is now to be seen in the collection
+of paintings of the British Museum. But we must notice the small-coal
+man under his bibliopolic phase. A bibliomania raged among Queen Anne's
+nobility. The Earls of Oxford, Pembroke, Sunderland, and Winchelsea, and
+the Duke of Devonshire, were among the smitten. These personages, on
+Saturdays, during the winter season, used to resort to the city, and,
+there separating, take several routes to the booksellers' shops in
+different parts of the town, to search out old volumes and MSS. Some
+time before noon, they would assemble at the shop of Christopher
+Bateman, a bookseller, at the corner of Ave Maria-lane, in
+Paternoster-row (query, Little Britain?), where they were frequently met
+by other persons engaged in the same pursuits, and a conversation
+commenced on the subject of their inquiries. As nearly as possible to
+the hour of twelve by St. Paul's clock, Britton (uniquely, the "Literary
+Dustman" of his age), who by that time had finished his round, clad in
+his blue frock, and pitching his sack of small coal on the bulk of Mr.
+Bateman's shop window, used to go in and join them. After about an
+hour's chat, the noblemen adjourned to the Mourning Bush Tavern at
+Aldersgate (probably the site of the present Albion Tavern), where they
+dined, and spent the remainder of the day. Poor Britton was indeed a
+singular character, and died a death as singular as his life. He was, we
+are told, of an excessively nervous temperament, which rendered him the
+object occasionally of villainous practical jokes. Unfortunately he
+incurred the enmity of Honeyman, the ventriloquist. On a certain day,
+when Britton gave one of his nobility concerts in Aylesbury-street,
+Honeyman attended. An opportunity occurring, a voice was heard at a
+distance, which announced that Thomas Britton's hour was near and that
+he had but a short time to remain in this world. Poor Britton was not
+proof against the art of the malicious mimic. He felt the
+ventriloquist's words as though they were a sacred augur; so deep an
+impression did the incident make upon him, that he died, almost as
+predicted, in a brief period, aged fifty-eight, 1714.
+
+Browne Willis was another original of whom we are enabled to furnish a
+few whimsical anecdotes. But we would reserve this respectful remark,
+that the doctor was, notwithstanding oddities in externals and manners,
+nevertheless a learned antiquary, and a good man. So were they all, all
+learned antiquaries, and excellent men. His tastes led him chiefly to
+the study of ecclesiastical relics. He visited every cathedral in
+England and Wales. To these journeys he himself gave the name of
+pilgrimages. Browne Willis lived in the latter part of the seventeenth
+century. He was grandson of Dr. Thomas Willis, a celebrated physician,
+and the first to reduce the theory of phrenology to order and system.
+His person and dress are described by one who knew him well; they were
+"so singular that, though a gentleman of £1000 per annum, he was often
+taken for a beggar. An old leathern girdle or belt always surrounded the
+two or three coats he wore, and over them an old blue cloak. He wrote
+the worst hand of any man in England, such as he could with difficulty
+read himself. His boots, which he almost always appeared in, were not
+the least singular part of his dress. I suppose it would not be falsity
+to say they were forty years old, patched and vamped up at various
+times. They were all in wrinkles, and did not come up above half-way of
+his legs. He was often called, in the neighborhood of Buckingham, 'Old
+Wrinkle Boots.' The chariot of Mr. Willis was so singular, that from it
+he was called himself, the 'Old Chariot.' It was his wedding chariot,
+and had his arms on brass plates about it, not unlike a coffin, and
+painted black." This rare antiquary was satirized by Dr. Darrell, in
+some humorous and highly descriptive verses, of which the subjoined
+couplets are a specimen:
+
+    "High on a hill his mansion stood
+      But gloomy dark within.
+    Here mangled books, as bones and blood,
+      Lie in a giant's den:
+
+    "Crude, undigested, half-devoured,
+      On groaning shelves they're thrown;
+    Such manuscripts no eye could read,
+      Nor hand write, but his own."
+
+His wife having written a serious book, Browne Willis wrote on his own
+copy of the work, "All the connection in this book is owing to the
+book-binder." He delighted to joke upon Mrs. Willis's book and her
+authorship.
+
+
+
+
+INCIDENTS OF DUELING.
+
+
+Dueling has fallen into desuetude, and very properly. Times have changed
+marvelously. Fifty years ago, gentlemen by descent, by property, or by
+profession, were only _esquired;_ now, if you _mistered_ an attorney's
+clerk, the letter would be sent repudiated to the dead office. To him
+only who was entitled to bear arms, an appeal to arms was allowed; and
+had a man in trade, though worth a plum, in those days presumed to send
+a message to a gentleman not in trade, nor worth a penny, the odds would
+be considerable that the bearer of the cartel would have been
+horsewhipped on the spot. Even liberty to share in certain amusements
+was considered great condescension on the part of the aristocracy to men
+who had founded their own fortunes, and accidental meetings at the
+cover-side were never supposed to warrant aught beyond a field
+acquaintance. A brutal, but striking anecdote which marked this then
+prevailing feeling of exclusiveness, is told of the too-celebrated
+George Robert Fitzgerald. One hunting day, when drawing a fox cover, he
+observed a well-mounted and smartly-dressed young man join the company;
+and on inquiring his name from the whipper, was informed that the
+stranger was a neighboring apothecary.
+
+"An apothecary!" exclaimed the master of hounds. "By Heaven! men's
+impudence every day becomes more audacious! Why, it would not surprise
+me after this, that an attorney should join our meeting next. Come, it
+is time that this dealer in drugs should be taught that fox-hunting is a
+trade practiced only by gentlemen;" and riding up to the unoffending
+dabbler in Galenicals, he savagely flogged him off the field.
+
+That dueling has been employed too frequently for bad purposes, by brave
+men--and for bloody ones, by blackguards, has never been denied. The
+page of history, in the fatal meeting between Buckingham and Shrewsbury,
+strikingly exemplifies the former assertion. For the seduction of his
+wife--Buckingham, by the way, had seduced his _own_--the injured earl
+demanded, and obtained satisfaction. In accordance with the barbarous
+custom of the times, the seconds--two on either side--engaged; on the
+duke's side, Jenkins was left dead; on the earl's, Sir John Talbot was
+severely wounded. Buckingham, however, received no hurt beyond a
+scratch, and ran his antagonist through the body, thus adding murder to
+seduction. The fair frail one was worthy of the ducal ruffian she had
+attached herself to. Disguised as a page, from a neighboring coppice she
+watched the combat, and slept with the murderer of her husband the same
+night, although the shirt he wore bore bloody evidence of the foul
+assassination he had just committed. It is reported that the last hours
+of the adulteress were miserable, and the felon blow that relieved the
+world of such an unscrupulous villain as the duke, in our poor thinking,
+was nothing beyond simple retribution.
+
+Another, and an opposite case, both in its results and causes, occurred
+many years ago, when the writer of these pages was in Paris. The worst
+and most dangerous companion upon earth is a gamester. "Nemo repente
+fuit turpissimus;" which, according to Irish translation, meaneth, that
+a man must be articled for five years to an attorney. As regards play,
+we hold a different opinion, and believe that the course of
+demoralization may be more rapidly effected by the _alea damnosa_ than
+by law. To the proof:--even at the distance of a quarter of a century,
+we must hold the name sacred; but there are old guardsmen who will
+remember "Little Joe." A stouter soldier never headed a company. He was
+kind, well-tempered, too generous probably, and every body liked him. In
+money matters he was careless; had an early itch for play, and a sojourn
+with the Army of Occupation confirmed a disease already rooted. In a
+word, he abandoned a profession he could no longer continue in, and
+became a regular gambler.
+
+Joe was a first-rate shot, and also constitutionally pugnacious. He felt
+his own degradation keenly, when to remedy it was too late; and a temper
+naturally excitable, had now become most dangerous. Is there one
+gamester out of twenty who, in a very few years, does not
+go--circumstances only considered--to ruin? Joe formed no exception. He
+lost _caste_, and fell, and fell, "deeper and deeper still," until he
+reached that last degrading _status_ in society--a _chevalier
+d'industrie_.
+
+While engaged in his base vocation, a young citizen fell into the hands
+of the gang with whom Joe, now a member of the body, regularly
+confederated. The victim was a Londoner, and one, as it was represented,
+who would stand plucking; and that very extensively. He had crossed the
+Channel, like the thousand and one fools who flock annually to the
+French capital to view Parisian lions, and, as a countryman, Little Joe
+kindly undertook to play Mentor to this Cockney Telemachus. It was not a
+difficult task for one who knew the world so well as Captain K---- to
+worm himself into the confidence of a raw youth, and he easily
+succeeded. In every point but one the intended victim was as pliant as
+could be wished--but on that one he was most obstinate. He had a horror
+of play. He would drink, racket about, dissipate, but name a game of
+chance, and he started like a frightened steed. The period allotted by
+"the governor at home," as he, in London parlance, termed his father,
+had almost expired; and as plump a pigeon as ever a gambler dropped
+upon, was about to return to the country-house he had quitted to see the
+world, without losing a single feather. To the villainous confederation
+that thought was maddening; and, as a last resource, a decoy duck was
+tried--and one of the loveliest and most artful of the class, was
+accidentally introduced by the gallant captain to Monsieur Callico, as
+he derisively called the citizen.
+
+To describe the progress of this gambling conspiracy would be a waste of
+time. It was managed with consummate ability. The devoted youth became
+desperately enamored of this friend, of the captain; he "told his love,"
+and then came proof positive, that Greek and Roman friendship are not
+comparable to the tremendous sacrifice of personal feeling, which you
+may expect from a _café_ acquaintance. Damon returned in time to
+substitute his own neck, and stay the execution of a gentleman called
+Pythias, while
+
+                        "Cato the sententious
+    Lent his fair lady to his friend Hortensius."
+
+Now Captain K----, on learning the state of the young Londoner's
+affections, although himself a secret worshiper at the shrine of the
+same divinity, resigned his own pretensions, and actually undertook to
+plead with the fair enslaver for his friend. Great was the intimacy, of
+course, that succeeded; and at the apartments of Madame La C----,
+morning, noon, and night, the young Englishman might have been found.
+
+Play was cautiously introduced--nothing was staked excepting a mere
+_bagatelle_--beyond the hazard of a trifle, it was evident that any
+experiment would be dangerous. The day for the citizen's departure was
+fixed, and it was pretty certain the bird would escape the net of the
+fowler. Could he have been but led to play he would have been cheated
+scientifically. That was not to be done, and nothing could succeed but
+bold and downright felony.
+
+Madame's birthday returned, as it did some twenty times a year; and she
+gave a _petit souper_. K---- sent in the wine, and the citizen provided
+the viands. A merrier evening could not be spent. Two or three ladies,
+and as many gentlemen of high honor, favored La C---- with their
+company. There was play, limited to a few francs, and on the
+Englishman's part to gloves and garters. Supper was served--all was
+hilarious--the wine circulated freely, and all the Londoner remembered
+in the morning when he awoke with a burning head was, that he had become
+unaccountably drunk, and got home he knew not how.
+
+He strove to get up, but his temples throbbed almost to bursting. An
+excess in wine had never affected him so before: could this arise from
+simple drunkenness? The sensation was altogether new. The truth was he
+had not been drunk, but drugged!
+
+While rolling his aching head from side to side upon the pillow his
+_lacquey de place_ announced his dear friend, the captain; and next
+minute "Little Joe" was standing at his bedside.
+
+"Good heaven!" exclaimed the citizen; "how awfully drunk I must have
+been last night! My very brain's on fire."
+
+"Drunk!" returned his companion; "you were not drunk but mad--what devil
+possessed you to play? D--n it, you always swore you hated it, and every
+score of _naps_ you lost you would, though I warned you, lay it on
+thicker."
+
+"Naps! play!" exclaimed the sick man with a stare; "why, what do you
+mean? I am but in sorry mood for jesting. I do remember playing for and
+losing some gloves and garters to the ladies."
+
+"And let me tell you, I am in still less joking humor than yourself,"
+returned the captain, in high dudgeon; "through your cursed obstinacy, I
+played against my better judgment--and was cleaned by Count F---- out of
+eighteen thousand francs. How shall I come to book? In the devil's name
+how can I face my creditor this evening at Madame's réunion? The three
+hundred naps I won from you will go but a short way to meet my losses. I
+think I shall go mad."
+
+"And I fancy that I am mad already," groaned the sufferer from the bed;
+"do end this folly, K----."
+
+"Did I not know you, I should fancy you intended me offense," replied
+the captain, rather angrily; "what, have you such a conveniency of
+memory as to forget that you lost three hundred naps to me, eight
+hundred to the count, and five-and-forty to Madame La C----?"
+
+Before the unhappy youth could find words to respond, the valet
+announced another visitor, and Count F---- was shown in.
+
+"Monsieur le Comte," pursued the gallant captain, "are you, too, in a
+jesting mood? My young friend here can not be persuaded that we had a
+little play last night. Excuse me paying but half my loss till evening;
+and, in the mean time, accept these _billets de banque_," and "Little
+Joe" handed the chevalier a roll of bank notes; "you will find there ten
+thousand francs."
+
+"Gentlemen," cried the astonished citizen, "I pray you end this farce. I
+know I am indebted to madame heavily in gloves and ribbons."
+
+"Why, fiends and furies!" exclaimed the captain, "do you pretend, sir,
+to assert, that you did not lose three hundred naps to me?"
+
+"Or that this acknowledgment for eight hundred was not given?"
+
+The youth, astounded as he was, took the paper. It purported to be an
+I.O.U., but the forgery was clumsy.
+
+"That is not my writing--nor do I owe either of you a _sou_."
+
+The scene that followed may be imagined. Instant payment, or a legal
+security for the alleged debts was demanded--or the alternative--a
+meeting in the Bois de Boulogne within two hours. Half bewildered, the
+young dupe assented to give the latter--and at the time appointed he
+alighted, without friend or weapon, at the place named for the duel, by
+these infamous men.
+
+Several other persons were on the ground, all strangers to the
+unfortunate young man. Another attempt was made to induce him to admit
+the debt of honor, and it was proposed that a reconciliation should take
+place between him and his former friend, the captain. To do them
+justice, the gentlemen unknown were ardent in their endeavors to
+accommodate the matter, and persuade the citizen to pay the money, and
+they were perfectly sincere in mediation on the occasion, for they were
+all members of the same dishonest clique. But nothing could shake the
+youth's determination to repudiate the infamous demand. Captain K----,
+irritated to madness at his total failure, demanded that the duel should
+instantly proceed--and the gang, as furious from the unexpected
+disappointment, determined to murder one who could not be persuaded to
+submit to bare-faced spoliation.
+
+Never were two combatants more unequally opposed, than the young
+merchant and the desperate gambler--the one, probably, had never
+discharged a pistol in his life--the other, and within six months, had
+killed his man on the very spot the doomed youth was standing.
+
+Other and fouler circumstances went to render the result of the
+impending duel almost a certainty. K---- fought with his own
+pistols--with the firing signal he was particularly familiar--his back
+was to the sun, and an open sky behind him. The scoundrel second, who
+had volunteered his services, placed the young Englishman in a position
+where the trunk of a large beech formed a leading line of fire, and the
+stream of sunshine through the vista in the trees, was almost blinding.
+To the intentional murderer and the intended victim, the loaded weapons
+were delivered--a preparatory word was spoken, the signal fell. K----
+coolly raised his pistol, while, by a snap-shot, the flurried Englishman
+anticipated his executioner by a second. On that momentary advantage
+life or death depended. The bully, shot directly through the heart, fell
+on the sward, a dead man. While the bullet destined for the breast of
+his antagonist, cut the grass harmlessly at the foot of the fortunate
+survivor. Never was a thoughtless youth more providentially delivered by
+accident from certain murder--nor a scoundrel sent to his account so
+justly and unexpectedly as Captain K----.
+
+In riding an hour after the affair had terminated in the forest, I met
+the body of the dead gambler on a stretcher, _en route_ to the _Morgue_.
+
+The decline of dueling, from the period it was made ancillary to
+swindling, or to the settlement of disputes between vulgar scoundrels,
+who could not lay the slightest claims to the title or privileges of
+gentlemen, has been rapid and progressive, and its gross abuse did more
+to remedy its own mischief, than moral appeals and legal enactments.
+What but disgust can be created against a system when prostituted to the
+purposes of sheer murder? When two drunken blackguards stagger from the
+billiard-room to the field, and, by the scoundrels who attend them, are
+permitted to carry a dispute, emanating in a question of scoring or not
+scoring a point or two, to an extent that the most flagitious injury
+would not warrant?
+
+A more recent case which occurred in the neighborhood, and must be still
+fresh in general recollection, may be adduced to prove how sadly the law
+of honor is brought to the lowliest estimation. I allude to the case of
+M----, killed by E----. A quarrel takes place in that sink of infamy, a
+saloon--and the parties adjourn to Wimbledon to commit murder. One fire
+is not enough, and, though a bullet passes through the hat of M----, the
+seconds provide them with fresh weapons, and the wretched blackguard is,
+on the next fire, shot dead. The ruffian who commits the murder, sees
+the expiring wretch heaving his last sigh--and remarks to a casual
+spectator, "I have done for the ----," using an epithet too disgusting to
+be named. He, and the well-selected seconds, hurry off, without even
+taking a parting glance at the prostrate victim. The surgeon, with his
+friends, lugs the dead body into a cab. An inquest is held--"willful
+murder" is returned, and thus ends, what the papers termed "an affair of
+honor." And who were the blackguard actors in this cold-blooded tragedy?
+E---- was son of a Taunton publican, and M---- a broken linen-draper.
+Their companions were men of similar _caste_--for, unless gentility is
+attached to brick-making, Y---- had no other claim.
+
+The first duel I ever witnessed was one which, at the expiration of
+forty years, is too vividly engrafted upon memory to be forgotten. I was
+then a satcheled schoolboy; and before six o'clock on a beautiful summer
+morning, was wending my way, slowly, of course, to the abiding place of
+the country pedagogue at whose feet I was being indoctrinated. A
+gentleman was sitting on a log of timber, and in him I recognized
+Lieutenant V---- of the--th, a frequent visitor and guest at my father's
+house. He spoke to me, and I sate down upon the beam, and a bullet he
+had been rolling carelessly on the log of timber, was interchanged
+between him and me for five minutes. He started suddenly on perceiving
+three gentlemen advance from an opposite direction, put the ball in his
+waistcoat pocket, and bade me hastily "good-morning." I watched him--saw
+him join the strangers, and the whole party turned into a rope-yard. I
+rose from the beam--shouldered my satchel, and as I passed the place
+where the gentlemen had disappeared, I looked through the open gate.
+Although not more than three or four minutes had elapsed, the
+preliminary preparations for a duel had been completed, and my late
+companion on the log of timber confronted his antagonist at the
+customary distance of a dozen paces. At the moment I peeped in, the
+seconds delivered a pistol to each combatant--stepped two or three yards
+back--and the words "Ready, fire!" were rapidly pronounced. The reports
+were so simultaneous that it seemed as if one shot only had been
+discharged; and as, for a second or two afterward, both gentlemen
+remained standing, I fancied all was right; but I was fatally
+mistaken--the discharged weapon dropped from V----'s hand, and he
+tottered and fell forward. The seconds raised him to a sitting posture,
+and a little man hitherto concealed behind the hedge, came forward
+hastily. He laid his finger on V----'s pulse, and then looked at the
+pupil of the eye, and in a low voice muttered, "All is over!" For many a
+month afterward that brief sentence sounded in my ear, and the falling
+man was present in imagination. But before manhood came, an intimacy
+with some amiable young Galway gentlemen at the Dublin University, and a
+short probation in a Southern militia regiment wrought a happy change.
+The organ of hearing, as Byron says, became
+
+    "More Irish and less nice"
+
+and a twelvemonth's sojourn in that land of promise, which lieth between
+the Shannon and Atlantic, completed the cure.
+
+Like many an unnecessary appeal to arms, this fatal affair, in which a
+young and gallant officer lost his life, originated in a trifling
+misunderstanding.
+
+In the same barrack, and at a very short time after this fatal meeting
+(spring of 1807) one of the most lamentable affairs, which in the annals
+of dueling is recorded, unfortunately took place. I allude to the fatal
+encounter between Boyd and Campbell. The sad story is simply told.
+
+The 21st were quartered in the town of Newry, and the half-yearly
+inspection of the regiment had been made by General Kerr--when, as is
+customary, the general and staff were entertained by the Fusileers. The
+dinner was soon over--the staff retired--the officers went to the
+play--and none remained in the mess-room, excepting Major Campbell and
+Captain Boyd, the assistant-surgeon, and a lieutenant. Campbell, in
+right of brevet rank, had commanded the regiment in the absence of the
+colonel--and an argument took place between him and Captain Boyd,
+whether a word of command that day used was correctly given. The latter
+was a person of disagreeable manner--the former a man whose temper was
+highly excitable--and each personally disliked the other, and were
+tenacious equally of their own opinions. Campbell repudiated the charge
+of incorrectness and Boyd as warmly maintained it. At last a crisis
+came, "Heated with wine, and exasperated by what he conceived a
+professional insult, Campbell left the table, hastened to his
+apartments, loaded his pistols, returned, sent for Captain Boyd, brought
+him to an inner mess-room, closed the door, and without the presence of
+a friend or witness, demanded instant satisfaction. Shots were promptly
+interchanged, and by the first fire Boyd fell, mortally wounded."
+
+Thank God! for human nature--Buckinghams and T----s are not common.
+Before five minutes passed the tornado of wild passion was over, and
+rushing to the room where the dying man was laid, "a sorry sight!" in
+Macbeth's words, surrounded by his frantic wife and infant family, the
+homicide knelt at his bed-side, implored forgiveness, and wrung from him
+a qualified admission that "all was fair." No attempt was made to arrest
+him, and that night Campbell left the town and remained at Chelsea with
+his lady and family for several months, under an assumed name. When the
+summer assizes were approaching, he determined to surrender and stand
+his trial; and although his legal advisers warned him that the step was
+most perilous, he would not be dissuaded, and unhappily persevered.
+
+He was, on the 13th of August, 1808, arraigned for "willful murder,"
+pleaded "not guilty" in the usual form--the fact of the homicide was
+admitted--and a number of officers, high in rank, attended, and gave the
+prisoner the highest character for humanity. I did not hear the
+evidence, and when I came into the court-house the jury for some time
+had been considering their verdict. The trial had been tedious; twilight
+had fallen, and the hall of justice, dull at best, was rendered gloomier
+still from the partial glare of a few candles placed upon the bench,
+where Judge Fletcher was presiding. A breathless anxiety pervaded the
+assembly, and the ominous silence that reigned throughout the court was
+unbroken by a single whisper. I felt an unusual dread--a sinking of the
+heart--a difficulty of respiration, and as I looked round the melancholy
+crowd, my eye rested on the judge. Fletcher was a thin, billious-looking
+being, and his cold and marble features had caught an unearthly
+expression from the shading produced by the accidental disposition of
+the candles. I shuddered as I gazed upon him, for the fate of a fellow
+creature was hanging upon the first words that would issue from the lips
+of that stern and inflexible old man. From the judge my eyes turned to
+the criminal, and what a subject the contrast offered to the artist's
+pencil! In the front of the bar, habited in deep mourning, his arms
+folded and crossed upon his breast, the homicide was awaiting the word
+that should seal his destiny. His noble and commanding figure thrown
+into an attitude of calm determination, was graceful and dignified; and
+while on every countenance besides a sickening anxiety was visible,
+neither the quivering of an eyelash, nor a motion of the lip, betrayed
+on the prisoner's face the appearance of discomposure or alarm. Just
+then a slight noise was heard--a door was slowly and softly opened--one
+by one the jury returned to their box--the customary question was asked
+by the clerk of the crown--and--"Guilty" was faintly answered,
+accompanied with a recommendation to mercy. An agonizing pause
+succeeded--the court was as silent as the grave--the prisoner bowed
+respectfully to the jury, then planting his foot firmly on the floor, he
+drew himself up to his full height and calmly listened to his doom.
+Slowly Judge Fletcher assumed the fatal cap, and all unmoved, he
+pronounced, and Campbell listened to, his sentence.
+
+While the short address which sealed the prisoner's fate was being
+delivered, the silence of the court was only broken by smothered sobs;
+but when the sounds ceased, and, "Lord have mercy on your soul!" issued
+from the ashy lips of the stern old man, a groan of horror burst from
+the auditory, and the Highland soldiers, who thronged the court,
+ejaculated a wild "Amen," while their flashing eyes betrayed how
+powerfully the fate of their unhappy countryman had affected them. He
+was removed from the bar--a doomed man--but no harsh restrictions were
+imposed upon him, nor was he conducted to the gloomy apartment to which
+condemned criminals after sentence were then consigned. From the moment
+the unfortunate duelist had entered the prison gates, his mild and
+gentlemanly demeanor had won the commiseration of all within; and the
+governor, confident in the honor of his prisoner, subjected him to no
+restraint. He occupied the apartments of the keeper, went over the
+building as he pleased--received his friends--held unrestricted
+communication with all that sought him--and, in fact, was a captive but
+in name.
+
+No man impersonated the grandeur of Byron's beautiful couplet so happily
+as Campbell: when the hour of trial came,
+
+    "He died as sinful man should die
+    Without parade--without display,"
+
+while, during the painful interval when the seat of mercy was appealed
+to, and when, as it was generally considered, mercy would have been
+extended, the most unmoved of all, as post after post brought not the
+welcome tidings, was Campbell.
+
+One anecdote is too characteristic to be omitted.
+
+The commiseration of all classes was painfully increased by the length
+of time that elapsed between the trial and death of Major Campbell. In
+prison, he received from his friends the most constant and delicate
+attention; and one lady, the wife of Captain ----, seldom left him. She
+read to him, prepared his meals, cheered his spirits when he drooped,
+and performed those gentle offices of kindness, so peculiarly the
+province of a woman. When intelligence arrived that mercy could not be
+extended, and the law must take its course, she boldly planned an escape
+from prison; but Campbell, when she mentioned it, recoiled from a
+proposition that must compromise his honor with the keeper. "What," he
+exclaimed, when assured that otherwise his case was hopeless, "shall I
+break my faith with him who trusted it? I know my fate, and am prepared
+to meet it manfully; but never will I deceive the person who confided in
+my honor."
+
+Two evenings before he suffered, Mrs. ---- was earnestly urging him to
+escape. The clock struck twelve, and Campbell hinted that it was time
+she should retire. As usual, he accompanied her to the gate; and on
+entering the keeper's room, they found him fast asleep. Campbell placed
+his finger on his lip.
+
+"Poor fellow," he said in a whisper, to his fair companion, "would it
+not be a pity to disturb him?" then taking the keys softly from the
+table, he unlocked the outer wicket.
+
+"Campbell," said the lady, "this is the crisis of your fate; this is the
+moment for your deliverance! Horses are in readiness, and--"
+
+The convict put his hand upon her mouth. "Hush," he replied, as he
+gently forced her out. "Would you have me violate my word of honor?"
+
+Bidding her "good night," he locked the wicket carefully, replaced the
+keys, and retired to his chamber without awakening the sleeping jailer!
+
+His last hour was passed in prayer, and at noon he was summoned to pass
+the grand ordeal which concludes the history of the hero and the
+herdsman.
+
+The drop, as it was called, was, in the Irish jails, attached to the
+upper story of the building, a large iron-studded door, which hung
+against the wall, and was only raised to a parallel position with the
+door from which the criminal made his last exit, when that concluding
+ceremony of the law was to be performed. Attended by the jail
+chaplain--one who, in the last bitter trial, clave to the condemned
+soldier closer than a brother--he steadily mounted the stairs, and
+entered the execution room. The preliminaries of death were undergone
+composedly; he bade a long farewell to those around, and stepped firmly
+on the board. Twenty-thousand lookers-on filled the green in front of
+the prison; and, strange accident! the Highland regiment with whom,
+shoulder to shoulder, he had charged "the Invincibles" in Egypt, formed
+a semicircle round the prison. In the north of Ireland, all is
+decorously conducted. When he appeared, a deep and solemn silence awed
+the multitude; and until he addressed the Highlanders in Gaelic, a
+whisper might have been heard in the crowd. To the simple request of
+"Pray for me!" a low deep groan responded, and every bonnet was removed.
+He dropped a cambric handkerchief--down came the iron-bound door--it
+sounded over the heads of the silent concourse like a thunder-clap; and,
+in one minute, as brave a heart as ever beat upon a battle-field, had
+ceased to throb.
+
+Peace to the ashes of the brave! If a soldier's life, a Christian's end,
+can atone for the sad consequences of unreining an ungovernable temper,
+both can be honestly pleaded in extenuating poor Campbell's crime.
+
+
+
+
+MAURICE TIERNAY, THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.[4]
+
+[4] Continued from the September Number.
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+"THE CHATEAU OF ETTENHEIM."
+
+I now come to an incident in my life, of which however briefly I may
+speak, has left the deepest impression on my memory. I have told the
+reader how I left Kuffstein fully satisfied that the Count de Marsanne
+was Laura's lover, and that in keeping my promise to see and speak with
+him, I was about to furnish an instance of self-denial and fidelity that
+nothing in ancient or modern days could compete with.
+
+The letter was addressed, "the Count Louis de Marsanne, Chateau
+d'Ettenheim, à Bade," and thither I accordingly repaired, traveling over
+the Arlberg to Bregenz, and across the Lake of Constance to Freyburg. My
+passport contained a very few words in cipher, which always sufficed to
+afford me free transit and every attention from the authorities. I had
+left the southern Tyrol in the outburst of a glorious spring, but as I
+journeyed northward I found the rivers frozen, the roads encumbered with
+snow, and the fields untilled and dreary-looking. Like all countries
+which derive their charms from the elements of rural beauty, foliage,
+and verdure, Germany offers a sad-colored picture to the traveler in
+winter or wintry weather.
+
+It was thus then that the Grand Duchy, so celebrated for its picturesque
+beauty, struck me as a scene of dreary and desolate wildness, an
+impression which continued to increase with every mile I traveled from
+the high road. A long unbroken flat, intersected here and there by
+stunted willows, traversed by a narrow earth road, lay between the Rhine
+and the Taunus Mountains, in the midst of which stood the village of
+"Ettenheim." Outside the village, about half a mile off, and on the
+border of a vast pine forest, stood the Chateau.
+
+It was originally a hunting-seat of the dukes of Baden, but, from
+neglect and disuse, gradually fell into ruin, from which it was
+reclaimed, imperfectly enough, a year before, and now exhibited some
+remnants of its former taste, along with the evidences of a far less
+decorative spirit; the lower rooms being arranged as a stable, while the
+stair and entrance to the first story opened from a roomy coach-house.
+Here some four or five conveyances of rude construction were gathered
+together, splashed and unwashed as if from recent use; and at a small
+stove in a corner was seated a peasant in a blue frock smoking, as he
+affected to clean a bridle which he held before him.
+
+Without rising from his seat he saluted me, with true German phlegm, and
+gave me the "Guten Tag," with all the grave unconcern of a "Badener." I
+asked if the Count de Marsanne lived there. He said yes, but the "Graf"
+was out hunting. When would he be back? By nightfall.
+
+Could I remain there till his return? was my next question, and he
+stared at me, as I put it, with same surprise. "Warum nicht," "Why not,"
+was at last his sententious answer, as he made way for me beside the
+stove. I saw at once that my appearance had evidently not entitled me to
+any peculiar degree of deference or respect, and that the man regarded
+me as his equal. It was true I had come some miles on foot, and with a
+knapsack on my shoulder, so that the peasant was fully warranted in his
+reception of me. I accordingly seated myself at his side, and, lighting
+my pipe from his, proceeded to derive all the profit I could from
+drawing him into conversation. I might have spared myself the trouble.
+Whether the source lay in stupidity or sharpness, he evaded me on every
+point. Not a single particle of information could I obtain about the
+count, his habits, or his history. He would not even tell me how long he
+had resided there, nor whence he had come. He liked hunting, and so did
+the other "Herren." There was the whole I could scan, and to the simple
+fact that there were others with him, did I find myself limited.
+
+Curious to see something of the count's "interior," I hinted to my
+companion that I had come on purpose to visit his master, and suggested
+the propriety of my awaiting his arrival in a more suitable place; but
+he turned a deaf ear to the hint, and dryly remarked that the "Graf
+would not be long a-coming now." This prediction was, however, not to
+be verified; the dreary hours of the dull day stole heavily on, and
+although I tried to beguile the time by lounging about the place, the
+cold ungenial weather drove me back to the stove, or to the dark
+precincts of the stable, tenanted by three coarse ponies of the mountain
+breed.
+
+One of these was the Graf's favorite, the peasant told me, and indeed
+here he showed some disposition to become communicative, narrating
+various gifts and qualities of the unseemly looking animal, which, in
+his eyes, was a paragon of horse flesh. "He could travel from here to
+Kehl and back in a day, and has often done it," was one meed of praise
+that he bestowed; a fact which impressed me more as regarded the rider
+than the beast, and set my curiosity at work to think why any man should
+undertake a journey of nigh seventy miles between two such places and
+with such speed. The problem served to occupy me till dark, and I know
+not how long after. A stormy night of rain and wind set in, and the
+peasant, having bedded and foraged his cattle, lighted a rickety old
+lantern and began to prepare for bed; for such I at last saw was the
+meaning of a long crib, like a coffin, half-filled with straw and sheep
+skins. A coarse loaf of black bread, some black forest cheese, and a
+flask of Kleinthaler, a most candid imitation of vinegar, made their
+appearance from a cupboard, and I did not disdain to partake of these
+delicacies.
+
+My host showed no disposition to become more communicative over his
+wine, and, indeed, the liquor might have excused any degree of reserve;
+and no sooner was our meal over than, drawing a great woolen cap half
+over his face, he rolled himself up in his sheep-skins, and betook
+himself to sleep, if not with a good conscience, at least with a sturdy
+volition that served just as well.
+
+Occasionally snatching a short slumber, or walking to and fro in the
+roomy chamber, I passed several hours, when the splashing sound of
+horses' feet, advancing up the miry road, attracted me. Several times
+before that I had been deceived by noises which turned out to be the
+effects of storm, but now, as I listened, I thought I could hear voices.
+I opened the door, but all was dark outside; it was the inky hour before
+daybreak, when all is wrapped in deepest gloom. The rain, too, was
+sweeping along the ground in torrents. The sounds came nearer every
+instant, and, at last, a deep voice shouted out, "Jacob." Before I could
+awaken the sleeping peasant, to whom I judged this summons was
+addressed, a horseman dashed up to the door and rode in; another as
+quickly followed him, and closed the door.
+
+"Parbleu, D'Egville," said the first who entered, "we have got a rare
+peppering!"
+
+"Even so," said the other, as he shook his hat, and threw off a cloak
+perfectly soaked with rain; "à la guerre comme, à la guerre."
+
+This was said in French, when, turning toward me, the former said in
+German, "Be active, Master Jacob; these nags have had a smart ride of
+it." Then, suddenly, as the light flashed full on my features, he
+started back, and said, "How is this--who are you?"
+
+A very brief explanation answered this somewhat uncourteous question,
+and, at the same time, I placed the marquise's letter in his hand,
+saying, "The Count de Marsanne, I presume?"
+
+He took it hastily, and drew nigh to the lantern to peruse it. I had now
+full time to observe him, and saw that he was a tall and well-built man,
+of about seven or eight-and-twenty. His features were remarkably
+handsome, and, although slightly flushed by his late exertion, were as
+calm and composed as might be; a short black mustache gave his upper lip
+a slight character of scorn, but the brow, open, frank, and
+good-tempered in its expression, redeemed this amply. He had not read
+many lines when, turning about, he apologized in the most courteous
+terms for the manner of my reception. He had been on a shooting
+excursion for a few days back, and taken all his people with him, save
+the peasant who looked after the cattle. Then, introducing me to his
+friend, whom he called Count d'Egville, he led the way up-stairs.
+
+It would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast to the dark and
+dreary coach-house than the comfortable suite of apartments which we now
+traversed on our way to a large, well-furnished room, where a table was
+laid for supper, and a huge wood fire blazed brightly on the hearth. A
+valet, of most respectful manner, received the count's orders to prepare
+a room for me, after which my host and his friend retired to change
+their clothes.
+
+Although D'Egville was many years older, and of a graver, sterner
+fashion than the other, I could detect a degree of deference and respect
+in his manner toward him, which De Marsanne accepted like one
+well-accustomed to receive it. It was a time, however, when, in the
+wreck of fortune, so many men lived in a position of mere dependence
+that I thought nothing of this, nor had I even the time, as Count de
+Marsanne entered. From my own preconceived notions as to his being
+Laura's lover, I was quite prepared to answer a hundred impatient
+inquiries about the marquise and her niece, and as we were now alone, I
+judged that he would deem the time a favorable one to talk of them. What
+was my surprise, however, when he turned the conversation exclusively to
+the topic of my own journey, the route I had traveled. He knew the
+country perfectly, and spoke of the various towns and their inhabitants
+with acuteness and tact.
+
+His royalist leanings did not, like those of the marquise, debar him
+from feeling a strong interest respecting the success of the republican
+troops, with whose leaders he was thoroughly acquainted, knowing all
+their peculiar excellences and defaults as though he had lived in
+intimacy with them. Of Bonaparte's genius he was the most enraptured
+admirer, and would not hear of any comparison between him and the other
+great captains of the day. D'Egville at last made his appearance, and we
+sat down to an excellent supper, enlivened by the conversation of our
+host, who, whatever the theme, talked well and pleasingly.
+
+I was in a mood to look for flaws in his character, my jealousy was
+still urging me to seek for whatever I could find fault with, and yet
+all my critical shrewdness could only detect a slight degree of pride in
+his manner, not displaying itself by any presumption, but by a certain
+urbanity that smacked of condescension; but even this, at last, went
+off, and before I wished him good-night, I felt that I had never met any
+one so gifted with agreeable qualities, nor possessed of such
+captivating manners, as himself. Even his royalism had its fascinations,
+for it was eminently national, and showed, at every moment, that he was
+far more of a Frenchman than a monarchist. We parted without one word of
+allusion to the marquise or to Laura! Had this singular fact any
+influence upon the favorable impression I had conceived of him, or was I
+unconsciously grateful for the relief thus given to all my jealous
+tormentings? Certain is it that I felt infinitely happier than I ever
+fancied I should be under his roof, and, as I lay down in my bed,
+thanked my stars that he was not my rival!
+
+When I awoke the next morning I was some minutes before I could remember
+where I was, and as I still lay, gradually recalling myself to memory,
+the valet entered to announce the count.
+
+"I have come to say adieu for a few hours," said he; "a very pressing
+appointment requires me to be at Pfortzheim to-day, and I have to ask
+that you will excuse my absence. I know that I may take this liberty
+without any appearance of rudeness, for the marquise has told me all
+about you. Pray, then, try and amuse yourself till evening, and we shall
+meet at supper."
+
+I was not sorry that D'Egville was to accompany him, and, turning on my
+side, dozed off to sleep away some of the gloomy hours of a winter's
+day.
+
+In this manner several days were passed, the count absenting himself
+each morning, and returning at nightfall, sometimes accompanied by
+D'Egville, sometimes alone. It was evident enough, from the appearance
+of his horses at his return, as well as from his own jaded looks, that
+he had ridden hard and far; but except a chance allusion to the state of
+the roads or the weather, it was a topic to which he never referred,
+nor, of course, did I ever advert. Meanwhile our intimacy grew closer
+and franker. The theme of politics, a forbidden subject between men so
+separated, was constantly discussed between us, and I could not help
+feeling flattered at the deference with which he listened to opinions
+from one so much his junior, and so inferior in knowledge as myself.
+Nothing could be more moderate than his views of government, only
+provided that it was administered by the rightful sovereign. The claim
+of a king to his throne he declared to be the foundation of all the
+rights of property, and which, if once shaken or disputed, would
+inevitably lead to the wildest theories of democratic equality. "I
+don't want to convert you," would he say, laughingly, "the son of an old
+_Garde du Corps_, the born gentleman, has but to live to learn. It may
+come a little later or a little earlier, but you'll end as a good
+monarchist."
+
+One evening he was unusually late in returning, and when he came was
+accompanied by seven or eight companions, some younger, some older than
+himself, but all men whose air and bearing bespoke their rank in life,
+while their names recalled the thoughts of old French chivalry. I
+remember among them was a Coigny, a Grammont, and Rouchefoucauld--the
+last as lively a specimen of Parisian wit and brilliancy as ever
+fluttered along the sunny Boulevards.
+
+De Marsanne, while endeavoring to enjoy himself and entertain his
+guests, was, to my thinking, more serious than usual, and seemed
+impatient at D'Egville's absence, for whose coming we now waited supper.
+
+"I should not wonder if he was lost in the deep mud of those
+cross-roads," said Coigny.
+
+"Or perhaps he has fallen into the Republic," said Rouchefoucauld, "it's
+the only thing dirtier that I know of."
+
+"Monsieur forgets that I wear its cloth," said I in a low whisper to
+him; and low as it was De Marsanne overheard it.
+
+"Yes, Charles," cried he, "you must apologize, and on the spot, for the
+rudeness."
+
+Rouchefoucauld reddened and hesitated.
+
+"I insist, sir," cried De Marsanne, with a tone of superiority I had
+never seen him assume before.
+
+"Perhaps," said he, with a half-sneer, "Monsieur de Tiernay might refuse
+to accept my excuses?"
+
+"In that case, sir," interposed De Marsanne, "the quarrel will become
+mine, for he is _my_ guest, and lives here under the safeguard of _my_
+honor."
+
+Rouchefoucauld bowed submissively and with the air of a man severely but
+justly rebuked; and then advancing to me, said, "I beg to tender you my
+apology, monsieur, for an expression which should never have been
+uttered by _me_ in _your_ presence."
+
+"Quite sufficient, sir," said I, bowing, and anxious to conclude a scene
+which for the first time had disturbed the harmony of our meetings.
+Slight as was the incident, its effects were yet visible in the
+disconcerted looks of the party, and I could see that more than one
+glance was directed toward me with an expression of coldness and
+distrust.
+
+"Here comes D'Egville at last," said one, throwing open the window to
+listen; the night was starlit, but dark, and the air calm and
+motionless. "I certainly heard a horse's tread on the causeway."
+
+"I hear distinctly the sound of several," cried Coigny; "and, if I
+mistake not much, so does M. de Tiernay." This sudden allusion turned
+every eye toward me, as I stood still, suffering from the confusion of
+the late scene.
+
+"Yes; I hear the tramp of horses, and cavalry, too, I should say, by
+their measured tread."
+
+"There was a trumpet call!" cried Coigny; "what does that mean?"
+
+"It is the signal to take open order," said I, answering as if the
+question were addressed to myself. "It is a picket taking a
+'reconnaissance.'"
+
+"How do you know that, sir?" said Grammont, sternly.
+
+"Ay! how does he know that?" cried several, passionately, as they closed
+around me.
+
+"You must ask in another tone, messieurs," said I calmly, "if you expect
+to be answered."
+
+"They mean to say how do you happen to know the German trumpet-calls,
+Tiernay," said De Marsanne, mildly, as he laid his hand on my arm.
+
+"It's a French signal," said I; "I ought to know it well."
+
+Before my words were well uttered the door was thrown open, and
+D'Egville burst into the room, pale as death, his clothes all
+mud-stained and disordered. Making his way through the others, he
+whispered a few words in De Marsanne's ear.
+
+"Impossible!" cried the other; "we are here in the territory of the
+margrave?"
+
+"It is as I say," replied D'Egville; "there's not a second to lose--it
+may be too late even now--by heavens it is!--they've drawn a cordon
+round the chateau."
+
+"What's to be done, gentlemen?" said De Marsanne, seating himself
+calmly, and crossing his arms on his breast.
+
+"What do _you_ say, sir?" cried Grammont, advancing to me with an air of
+insolent menace, "_you_, at least, ought to know the way out of this
+difficulty."
+
+"Or, by Heaven, his own road shall be one of the shortest, considering
+the length of the journey," muttered another, and I could hear the sharp
+click of a pistol cock as he spoke the words.
+
+"This is unworthy of _you_, gentlemen, and of _me_," said De Marsanne,
+haughtily; and he gazed around him with a look that seemed to abash
+them, "nor is it a time to hold such disputation. There is another and a
+very difficult call to answer. Are we agreed"--before he could finish
+the sentence the door was burst open, and several dragoons in French
+uniforms entered, and ranged themselves across the entrance, while a
+colonel, with, his sabre drawn, advanced in front of them.
+
+"This is brigandage," cried De Marsanne, passionately, as he drew his
+sword, and seemed meditating a spring through them; but he was
+immediately surrounded by his friends and disarmed. Indeed nothing could
+be more hopeless than resistance; more than double our number were
+already in the room, while the hoarse murmur of voices without, and the
+tramp of heavy feet, announced a strong party.
+
+At a signal from their officer, the dragoons unslung their carbines, and
+held them at the cock when the colonel called out, "Which of you,
+messieurs, is the Duc d'Enghien?"
+
+"If you come to arrest him," replied De Marsanne, "you ought to have his
+description in your warrant."
+
+"Is the descendant of a Condé ashamed to own his name?" asked the
+colonel, with a sneer. "But we'll make short work of it, sirs; I arrest
+you all. My orders are peremptory, messieurs. If you resist, or attempt
+to escape--" and he made a significant sign with his hand to finish. The
+"Duc"--for I need no longer call him "De Marsanne"--never spoke a word,
+but with folded arms calmly walked forward, followed by his little
+household. As we descended the stairs, we found ourselves in the midst
+of about thirty dismounted dragoons, all on the alert, and prepared for
+any resistance. The remainder of the squadron were on horseback without.
+With a file of soldiers on either hand we marched for about a quarter of
+a mile across the fields to a small mill, where a general officer and
+his staff seemed awaiting our arrival. Here, too, a picket of
+gens-d'armes was stationed; a character of force significant enough of
+the meaning of the enterprise. We were hurriedly marched into the court
+of the mill, the owner of which stood between two soldiers, trembling
+from head to foot with terror.
+
+"Which is the Duc D'Enghien?" asked the colonel of the miller.
+
+"That is he with the scarlet vest," and the prince nodded an assent.
+
+"Your age, monsieur?" asked the colonel of the prince.
+
+"Thirty-two--that is, I should have been so much in August, were it not
+for this visit," said he, smiling.
+
+The colonel wrote on rapidly for a few minutes, and then showed the
+paper to the general, who briefly said, "Yes, yes; this does not concern
+you nor me."
+
+"I wish to ask, sir," said the prince, addressing the general, "do you
+make this arrest with the consent of the authorities of this country, or
+do you do so in defiance of them?"
+
+"You must reserve questions like that for the court who will judge you,
+Monsieur de Condé," said the officer, roughly. "If you wish for any
+articles of dress from your quarters, you had better think of them. My
+orders are to convey you to Strassburg. Is there any thing so singular
+in the fact, sir, that you should look so much astonished?"
+
+"There is, indeed," said the prince, sorrowfully. "I shall be the first
+of my house who ever crossed that frontier a prisoner."
+
+"But not the first who carried arms against his country," rejoined the
+other, a taunt the duke only replied to by a look of infinite scorn and
+contempt. With a speed that told plainly the character of the
+expedition, we were now placed, two together, on country cars, and
+driven at a rapid pace toward Strassburg. Relays of cattle awaited us on
+the road, and we never halted but for a few minutes during the entire
+journey. My companion on this dreary day was the Baron de St. Jacques,
+the aid-de-camp to the duke; but he never spoke once--indeed he scarcely
+lifted his head during the whole road.
+
+Heaven knows it was a melancholy journey; and neither the country nor
+the season were such as to lift the mind from sorrow; and yet, strange
+enough, the miles glided over rapidly, and to this hour I can not
+remember by what magic the way seemed so short. The thought that for
+several days back I had been living in closest intimacy with a
+distinguished prince of the Bourbon family, that we had spent hours
+together discussing themes and questions which were those of his own
+house; canvassing the chances and weighing the claims of which he was
+himself the asserter--was a most exciting feeling. How I recalled now
+all the modest deference of his manner--his patient endurance of my
+crude opinions--his generous admissions regarding his adversaries--and,
+above all, his ardent devotion to France, whatever the hand that swayed
+her destinies; and then the chivalrous boldness of his character,
+blended with an almost girlish tenderness--how princely were such
+traits?
+
+From these thoughts I wandered on to others about his arrest and
+capture, from which, however, I could not believe any serious issue was
+to come. Bonaparte is too noble minded not to feel the value of such a
+life as this. Men like the prince can be more heavily fettered by
+generous treatment than by all the chains that ever bound a felon. But
+what will be done with him?--what with his followers?--and lastly, not
+at all the pleasantest consideration, what is to come of Maurice
+Tiernay, who, to say the least, has been found in very suspicious
+company, and without a shadow of an explanation to account for it? This
+last thought just occurred to me as we crossed over the long bridge of
+boats, and entered Strassburg.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+AN "ORDINARY" ACQUAINTANCE.
+
+The Duc D'Enghien and his aid-de-camp were forwarded with the utmost
+speed to Paris; the remainder of us were imprisoned at Strassburg. What
+became of my companions I know not; but I was sent on, along with a
+number of others, about a month later, to Nancy, to be tried by a
+military commission. I may mention it here, as a singular fact
+illustrating the secrecy of the period, that it was not till long after
+this time I learned the terrible fate of the poor Prince de Condé. Had I
+known it, it is more than probable that I should have utterly despaired
+of my own safety. The dreadful story of Vincennes--the mock trial, and
+the midnight execution--are all too well known to my readers; nor is it
+necessary I should refer to an event, on which I myself can throw no new
+light. That the sentence was determined on before his arrest--and that
+the grave was dug while the victim was still sleeping the last slumber
+before "the sleep that knows not waking"--the evidences are strong and
+undeniable. But an anecdote which circulated at the time, and which, so
+far as I know, has never appeared in print, would seem to show that
+there was complicity, at least, in the crime, and that the secret was
+not confined to the First Consul's breast.
+
+On that fatal night of the 20th March, Talleyrand was seated at a
+card-table at Caulaincourt's house at Paris. The party was about to rise
+from play, when suddenly the "pendule" on the chimney-piece struck two.
+It was in one of those accidental pauses in the conversation when any
+sound is heard with unusual distinctness. Talleyrand started, as he
+heard it, and then turning to Caulaincourt, whispered, "Yes; 'tis all
+over now?" words which, accidentally overheard, without significance,
+were yet to convey a terrible meaning when the dreadful secret of that
+night was disclosed.
+
+If the whole of Europe was convulsed by the enormity of this crime--the
+foulest that stains the name of Bonaparte--the Parisians soon forgot it,
+in the deeper interest of the great event that was now approaching--the
+assumption of the imperial title by Napoleon.
+
+The excitement on this theme was so great and absorbing, that nothing
+else was spoken or thought of. Private sorrows and afflictions were
+disregarded and despised, and to obtrude one's hardships on the notice
+of others seemed, at this juncture, a most ineffable selfishness. That
+I, a prisoner, friendless and unknown as I was, found none to sympathize
+with me or take interest in my fate, is, therefore, nothing
+extraordinary. In fact, I appeared to have been entirely forgotten; and
+though still in durance, nothing was said either of the charge to be
+preferred against me, nor the time when I should be brought to trial.
+
+Giacourt, an old lieutenant of the marines, and at that time
+deputy-governor of the Temple, was kind and good-natured toward me,
+occasionally telling of the events which were happening without, and
+giving me the hope that some general amnesty would, in all likelihood,
+liberate all those whose crimes were not beyond the reach of mercy. The
+little cell I occupied--and to Giacourt's kindness I owed the sole
+possession of it--looked out upon the tall battlements of the outer
+walls, which excluded all view beyond, and thus drove me within myself
+for occupation and employment. In this emergency I set about to write
+some notices of my life--some brief memoirs of those changeful fortunes
+which had accompanied me from boyhood. Many of those incidents which I
+relate now, and many of those traits of mind or temper that I recall,
+were then for the first time noted down, and thus graven on my memory.
+
+My early boyhood, my first experiences as a soldier, the campaign of the
+"Schwarzwald," Ireland, and Genoa, all were mentioned, and, writing as I
+did, solely for myself and my own eyes, I set down many criticisms on
+the generals, and their plans of campaign, which, if intended for the
+inspection of others, would have been the greatest presumption and
+impertinence, and in this way Moreau, Hoche, Massena, and even
+Bonaparte, came in for a most candid and impartial criticism.
+
+How Germany might have been conquered; how Ireland ought to have been
+invaded; in what way Italy should have been treated, and lastly, the
+grand political error of the seizure of Duc D'Enghein, were subjects
+that I discussed and determined with consummate boldness and
+self-satisfaction. I am almost overwhelmed with shame, even now, as I
+think of that absurd chronicle, with its rash judgments, its crude
+opinions and its pretentious decisions.
+
+So fascinated had I become with my task, that I rose early to resume it
+each morning, and used to fall asleep, cogitating on the themes for the
+next day, and revolving within myself all the passages of interest I
+should commemorate. A man must have known imprisonment to feel all the
+value that can be attached to any object, no matter how mean or
+insignificant, that can employ the thoughts, amuse the fancy, or engage
+the affections. The narrow cell expands under such magic, the barred
+casement is a free portal to the glorious sun and the free air; the
+captive himself is but the student bending over his allotted task. To
+this happy frame of mind had I come, without a thought or a wish beyond
+the narrow walls at either side of me, when a sad disaster befell me. On
+awaking one morning, as usual, to resume my labor, my manuscript was
+gone! the table and writing materials, all had disappeared, and, to
+increase my discomfiture, the turnkey informed me that Lieutenant
+Giacourt had been removed from his post, and sent off to some inferior
+station in the provinces.
+
+I will not advert to the dreary time which followed this misfortune, a
+time in which the hours passed on unmeasured and almost unfelt. Without
+speculation, without a wish, I passed my days in a stupid indolence akin
+to torpor. Had the prison doors been open, I doubt if I should have had
+the energy to make my escape. Life itself ceased to have any value for
+me, but somehow I did not desire death. I was in this miserable mood
+when the turnkey awoke me one day as I was dozing on my bed. "Get up and
+prepare yourself to receive a visitor," said he. "There's an officer of
+the staff without, come to see you;" and, as he spoke, a young,
+slightly-formed man entered, in the uniform of a captain, who, making a
+sign for the turnkey to withdraw, took his seat at my bedside.
+
+"Don't get up, monsieur; you look ill and weak, so, pray, let me not
+disturb you," said he, in a voice of kindly meaning.
+
+"I am not ill," said I, with an effort, but my hollow utterance and my
+sunken cheeks contradicted my words, "but I have been sleeping; I
+usually doze at this hour."
+
+"The best thing a man can do in prison, I suppose," said he, smiling
+good-naturedly.
+
+"No, not the best," said I, catching up his words too literally. "I used
+to write the whole day long, till they carried away my paper and my
+pens."
+
+"It is just of that very thing I have come to speak, sir," resumed he.
+"You intended that memoir for publication!"
+
+"No; never."
+
+"Then for private perusal among a circle of friends."
+
+"Just as little. I scarcely know three people in the world who would
+acknowledge that title."
+
+"You had an object, however, in composing it?"
+
+"Yes; to occupy thought; to save me from--from--" I hesitated, for I was
+ashamed of the confession that nearly burst from me, and, after a pause,
+I said, "from being such as I now am?"
+
+"You wrote it for yourself alone, then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Unprompted; without any suggestions from another?"
+
+"Is it here?" said I, looking around my cell, "Is it here that I should
+be likely to find a fellow-laborer?"
+
+"No; but I mean to ask, were the sentiments your own, without any
+external influence, or any persuasions from others?"
+
+"Quite my own."
+
+"And the narrative is true?"
+
+"Strictly so, I believe."
+
+"Even to your meeting with the Duc D'Enghien. It was purely accidental?"
+
+"That is, I never knew him to be the duke till the moment of his
+arrest?"
+
+"Just so; you thought he was merely a royalist noble. Then, why did you
+not address a memoir to that effect to the minister?"
+
+"I thought it would be useless; when they made so little of a Condé,
+what right had I to suppose they would think much about me?"
+
+"If _he_ could have proved his innocence"--he stopped, and then in an
+altered voice said--"but as to this memoir, you assume considerable airs
+of military knowledge in it, and many of the opinions smack of heads
+older than yours."
+
+"They are, I repeat, my own altogether; as to their presumption, I have
+already told you they were intended solely for my own eye."
+
+"So that you are not a royalist?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Never were one?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"In what way would you employ yourself, if set at liberty to-day."
+
+I stared, and felt confused; for however easy I found it to refer to the
+past, and reason on it, any speculation as to the future was a
+considerable difficulty.
+
+"You hesitate; you have not yet made up your mind, apparently?"
+
+"It is not that; I am trying to think of liberty, trying to fancy myself
+free--but I can not!" said I, with a weary sigh; "the air of this cell
+has sapped my courage and my energy--a little more will finish the
+ruin!"
+
+"And yet you are not much above four or five-and-twenty years of age?"
+
+"Not yet twenty!" said I.
+
+"Come, come, Tiernay--this is too early to be sick of life!" said he,
+and the kind tone touched me so that I burst into tears. They were
+bitter tears, too; for while my heart was relieved by this gush of
+feeling, I was ashamed at my own weakness. "Come, I say," continued he,
+"this memoir of yours might have done you much mischief--happily it has
+not done so. Give me the permission to throw it in the fire, and,
+instead of it, address a respectful petition to the head of the state,
+setting forth your services, and stating the casualty by which you were
+implicated in royalism. I will take care that it meets his eye, and, if
+possible, will support its prayer; above all, ask for reinstatement in
+your grade, and a return to the service. It may be, perhaps, that you
+can mention some superior officer who would vouch for your future
+conduct."
+
+"Except Colonel Mahon."
+
+"Not the Colonel Mahon who commanded the 13th Cuirassiers?"
+
+"The same!"
+
+"That name would little serve you," said he, coldly, "he has been placed
+'en retraite' some time back; and if your character can call no other
+witness than him, your case is not too favorable." He saw that the
+speech had disconcerted me, and soon added, "Never mind--keep to the
+memoir; state your case, and your apology, and leave the rest to
+fortune. When can you let me have it?"
+
+"By to-morrow--to-night, if necessary."
+
+"To-morrow will do well, and so good-by. I will order them to supply you
+with writing materials;" and slapping me good-naturedly on the shoulder,
+he cried, "Courage, my lad," and departed.
+
+Before I lay down to sleep that night, I completed my "memoir," the
+great difficulty of which I found to consist in that dry brevity which I
+knew Bonaparte would require. In this, however, I believe I succeeded at
+last, making the entire document not to occupy one sheet of paper. The
+officer had left his card of address, which I found was inscribed
+Monsieur Bourrienne, Rue Lafitte, a name that subsequently was to be
+well known to the world.
+
+I directed my manuscript to his care, and lay down with a lighter heart
+than I had known for many a day. I will not weary my reader with the
+tormenting vacillations of hope and fear which followed. Day after day
+went over, and no answer came to me. I addressed two notes respectful,
+but urgent, begging for some information as to my demand--none came. A
+month passed thus, when, one morning, the governor of the Temple entered
+my room with an open letter in his hand.
+
+"This is an order for your liberation, Monsieur de Tiernay," said he;
+"you are free."
+
+"Am I reinstated in my grade?" asked I, eagerly.
+
+He shook his head, and said nothing.
+
+"Is there no mention of my restoration to the service?"
+
+"None, sir."
+
+"Then, what is to become of me--to what end am I liberated?" cried I,
+passionately.
+
+"Paris is a great city, there is a wide world beyond it, and a man so
+young as you are must have few resources, or he will carve out a good
+career for himself."
+
+"Say, rather, he must have few resentments, sir," cried I, bitterly, "or
+he will easily hit upon a bad one;" and with this, I packed up the few
+articles I possessed, and prepared to depart.
+
+I remember it well; it was between two and three o'clock of the
+afternoon, on a bright day in spring, that I stood on the Quai Voltaire,
+a very small packet of clothes in a bundle in one hand, and a cane in
+the other, something short of three louis in my purse, and as much
+depression in my heart as ever settled down in that of a youth not full
+nineteen. Liberty is a glorious thing, and mine had been periled often
+enough, to give me a hearty appreciation of its blessing; but at that
+moment, as I stood friendless and companionless in a great thoroughfare
+of a great city, I almost wished myself back again within the dreary
+walls of the Temple, for somehow it felt like home! It is true one must
+have had a lonely lot in life before he could surround the cell of a
+prison with such attributes as these! Perhaps I have more of the
+cat-like affection for a particular spot than most men; but I do find
+that I attach myself to the walls with a tenacity that strengthens as I
+grow older, and like my brother parasite, the ivy, my grasp becomes more
+rigid the longer I cling.
+
+If I know of few merely sensual gratifications higher than a lounge
+through Paris, at the flood-tide of its population, watching the varied
+hues and complexions of its strange inhabitants, displaying, as they do
+in feature, air, and gesture, so much more of character and purpose than
+other people, so also do I feel that there is something indescribably
+miserable in being alone, unknown, and unnoticed in that vast throng,
+destitute of means for the present, and devoid of hope for the future.
+
+Some were bent on business, some on pleasure; some were evidently bent
+on killing time till the hour of more agreeable occupation should
+arrive; some were loitering along, gazing at the prints in shop-windows,
+or half-listlessly stopping to read at book-stalls. There was not only
+every condition of mankind, from wealth to mendicancy, but every frame
+of mind from enjoyment to utter "ennui," and yet I thought I could not
+hit upon any one individual who looked as forlorn and cast away as
+myself; however, there were many who passed me that day who would gladly
+have changed fortune with me, but it would have been difficult to
+persuade me of the fact, in the mood I then was.
+
+At the time I speak of, there was a species of cheap ordinary held in
+the open air on the quay, where people of the humblest condition used to
+dine; I need scarcely describe the fare; the reader may conceive what it
+was, which, wine included, cost only four sous; a rude table without a
+cloth; some wooden platters, and an iron rail to which the knives and
+forks were chained, formed the "equipage," the cookery bearing a due
+relation to the elegance of these "accessories." As for the company, if
+not polite, it was certainly picturesque; consisting of laborers of the
+lowest class, the sweepers of crossings, hackney-cab men out of employ,
+that poorest of the poor who try to earn a livelihood by dragging the
+Seine for lost articles, and finally, the motley race of idlers who
+vacillate between beggary and ballad singing, with now and then a dash
+at highway robbery for a "distraction;" a class, be it said without
+paradox, which in Paris includes a considerable number of tolerably
+honest folk.
+
+The moment was the eventful one, in which France was about once more to
+become a monarchy, and as may be inferred from the character of the
+people, it was a time of high excitement and enthusiasm. The nation,
+even in its humblest citizen, seemed to feel some of the reflected glory
+that glanced from the great achievements of Bonaparte, and his elevation
+was little other than a grand manifestation of national self-esteem.
+That he knew how to profit by this sentiment, and incorporate his own
+with the country's glory, so that they seemed to be inseparable, is not
+among the lowest nor the least of the efforts of his genius.
+
+The paroxysm of national vanity, for it was indeed no less, imparted a
+peculiar character to the period. A vainglorious, boastful spirit was
+abroad; men met each other with high sounding gratulations about French
+greatness and splendor, the sway we wielded over the rest of Europe, and
+the influence with which we impressed our views over the entire globe.
+Since the fall of the monarchy there had been half-a-dozen national
+fevers! There was the great Fraternal and Equality one; there was the
+era of classical associations, with all their train of trumpery
+affectation in dress and manner.
+
+Then came the conquering spirit, with the flattering spectacle of great
+armies; and now, as if to complete the cycle, there grew up that
+exaggerated conception of "France and her Mission," an unlucky phrase
+that has since done plenty of mischief, which seemed to carry the nation
+into the seventh heaven of overweening self-love.
+
+If I advert to this here, it is but passingly, neither stopping to
+examine its causes nor seeking to inquire the consequences that ensued
+from it, but, as it were, chronicling the fact as it impressed me as I
+stood that day on the Quai Voltaire, perhaps the only unimpassioned
+lounger along its crowded thoroughfare.
+
+Not even the ordinary "à quatre sous" claimed exemption from this
+sentiment. It might be supposed that meagre diet and sour wine were but
+sorry provocatives to national enthusiasm, but even they could minister
+to the epidemic ardor, and the humble dishes of that frugal board
+masqueraded under titles that served to feed popular vanity. Of this I
+was made suddenly aware as I stood looking over the parapet into the
+river, and heard the rude voices of the laborers as they called for
+cutlets "à la Caire," potatoes "en Mamelouques," or roast beef "à la
+Montenotte," while every goblet of their wine was tossed off to some
+proud sentiment of national supremacy.
+
+Amused by the scene, so novel in all its bearings, I took my place at
+the table, not sorry for the excuse to myself for partaking so humble a
+repast.
+
+"Sacre bleu," cried a rough-looking fellow with a red night-cap set on
+one side of the head, "make room there, we have the 'aristocrates'
+coming down among us."
+
+"Monsieur is heartily welcome," said another, making room for me; "we
+are only flattered by such proofs of confidence and esteem."
+
+"Ay, parbleu," cried a third. "The Empire is coming, and we shall be
+well-bred and well-mannered. I intend to give up the river, and take to
+some more gentlemanlike trade than drudging for dead men."
+
+"And I, I'll never sharpen any thing under a rapier or a dress-sword for
+the court," said a knife-grinder; "we have been living like 'cannaille'
+hitherto--nothing better."
+
+"À l'empire, à l'empire," shouted half-a-dozen voices in concert, and
+the glasses were drained to the toast with a loud cheer.
+
+Directly opposite to me sat a thin, pale, mild-looking man, of about
+fifty, in a kind of stuff robe, like the dress of a village curate. His
+appearance, though palpably poor, was venerable and imposing--not the
+less so, perhaps, from its contrast with the faces and gestures at
+either side of him. Once or twice, while these ebullitions of enthusiasm
+burst forth, his eyes met mine, and I read, or fancied that I read, a
+look of kindred appreciation in their mild and gentle glance. The
+expression was less reproachful than compassionate, as though in pity
+for the ignorance rather than in reprobation for the folly. Now,
+strangely enough, this was precisely the very sentiment of my own heart
+at that moment. I remembered a somewhat similar enthusiasm for
+republican liberty, by men just as unfitted to enjoy it; and I thought
+to myself the Empire, like the Convention, or the Directory, is a mere
+fabulous conception to these poor fellows, who, whatever may be the
+regime, will still be hewers of wood and drawers of water, to the end of
+all time.
+
+As I was pondering over this, I felt something touch my arm, and on
+turning perceived that my opposite neighbor had now seated himself at my
+side, and, in a low, soft voice, was bidding me "Good-day." After one or
+two commonplace remarks upon the weather and the scene, he seemed to
+feel that some apology for his presence in such a place was needful, for
+he said:
+
+"You are here, monsieur, from a feeling of curiosity, that, I see well
+enough; but I come for a very different reason. I am the pastor of a
+mountain village of the Ardêche, and have come to Paris in search of a
+young girl, the daughter of one of my flock, who, it is feared, has been
+carried off by some evil influence from her home and her friends, to
+seek fortune and fame in this rich capital; for she is singularly
+beautiful and gifted too, sings divinely, and improvises poetry with a
+genius that seems inspiration."
+
+There was a degree of enthusiasm, blended with simplicity, in the poor
+curé's admiration for his "lost sheep" that touched me deeply. He had
+been now three weeks in vain pursuit, and was at last about to return
+homeward, discomfited and unsuccessful. "Lisette" was the very soul of
+the little hamlet, and he knew not how life was to be carried on there
+without her. The old loved her as a daughter; the young were rivals for
+her regard.
+
+"And to me," said the père, "whom, in all the solitude of my lonely lot,
+literature, and especially poetry, consoles many an hour of sadness or
+melancholy--to me, she was like a good angel, her presence diffusing
+light as she crossed my humble threshold, and elevating my thoughts
+above the little crosses and accidents of daily life."
+
+So interested had I become in this tale, that I listened while he told
+every circumstance of the little locality; and walking along at his
+side, I wandered out of the city, still hearing of "La Marche," as the
+village was called, till I knew the ford where the blacksmith lived, and
+the miller with the cross wife, and the lame schoolmaster, and Pierre
+the postmaster, who read out the _Moniteur_ each evening under the elms,
+even to Jacques Fulgeron the "tapageur," who had served at Jemappes,
+and, with his wounded hand and his waxed mustache, was the terror of all
+peaceable folk.
+
+"You should come and see us, my dear monsieur," said he to me, as I
+showed some more than common interest in the narrative. "You, who seem
+to study character, would find something better worth the notice than
+these hardened natures of city life. Come, and spend a week or two with
+me, and if you do not like our people and their ways, I am but a sorry
+physiognomist."
+
+It is needless to say that I was much flattered by this kind proof of
+confidence and good-will; and, finally, it was agreed upon between us
+that I should aid him in his search for three days, after which, if
+still unsuccessful, we should set out together for La Marche. It was
+easy to see that the poor curé was pleased at my partnership in the
+task, for there were several public places of resort--theatres,
+"spectacles," and the like--to which he scrupled to resort, and these he
+now willingly conceded to my inspection, having previously given me so
+accurate a description of La Lisette, that I fancied I should recognize
+her among a thousand. If her long black eyelashes did not betray her,
+her beautiful teeth were sure to do so; or, if I heard her voice, there
+could be no doubt then; and, lastly, her foot would as infallibly
+identify her as did Cinderella's.
+
+For want of better, it was agreed upon that we should make the
+Restaurant à Quatre Sous our rendezvous each day, to exchange our
+confidences and report progress. It will scarcely be believed how even
+this much of a pursuit diverted my mind from its own dark dreamings, and
+how eagerly my thoughts pursued the new track that was opened to them.
+It was the utter listlessness, the nothingness of my life, that was
+weighing me down; and already I saw an escape from this in the pursuit
+of a good object. I could wager that the pastor of La Marche never
+thought so intensely, so uninterruptedly, of Lisette as did I for the
+four-and-twenty hours that followed! It was not only that I had created
+her image to suit my fancy, but I had invented a whole narrative of her
+life and adventures since her arrival in Paris.
+
+My firm conviction being that it was lost time to seek for her in
+obscure and out-of-the-way quarters of the city, I thought it best to
+pursue the search in the thronged and fashionable resorts of the gay
+world, the assemblies and theatres. Strong in this conviction, I changed
+one of my three gold pieces, to purchase a ticket for the opera. The
+reader may smile at the sacrifice; but when he who thinks four sous
+enough for a dinner, pays twelve francs for the liberty to be crushed in
+the crowded parterre of a play-house, he is indeed buying pleasure at a
+costly price. It was something more than a fifth of all I possessed in
+the world, but, after all, my chief regret arose from thinking that it
+left me so few remaining "throws of the dice" for "Fortune."
+
+I have often reflected since that day by what a mere accident I was
+present, and yet the spectacle was one that I have never forgotten. It
+was the last time the First Consul appeared in public, before his
+assumption of the imperial title; and at no period through all his great
+career was the enthusiasm more impassioned regarding him. He sat in the
+box adjoining the stage--Cambaceres and Lebrun, with a crowd of others,
+standing, and not sitting, around and behind his chair. When he
+appeared, the whole theatre rose to greet him, and three several times
+was he obliged to rise and acknowledge the salutations. And with what a
+stately condescension did he make these slight acknowledgments!--what
+haughtiness was there in the glance he threw around him. I have often
+heard it said, and I have seen it also written, that previous to his
+assumption of the crown, Bonaparte's manner exhibited the mean arts and
+subtle devices of a candidate on the hustings, dispensing all the
+flatteries and scattering all the promises that such occasions are so
+prolific of. I can not, of course, pretend to contradict this statement
+positively; but I can record the impression which that scene made upon
+me as decidedly the opposite of this assumption. I have repeatedly seen
+him since that event, but never do I remember his calm, cold features
+more impassively stern, more proudly collected, than on that night.
+
+Every allusion of the piece that could apply to him was eagerly caught
+up. Not a phrase nor a chance word that could compliment, was passed
+over in silence; and if greatness and glory were accorded, as if by an
+instinctive reverence, the vast assemblage turned toward him, to lay
+their homage at his feet. I watched him narrowly, and could see that he
+received them all as his rightful tribute, the earnest of the debt the
+nation owed him. Among the incidents of that night, I remember one which
+actually for the moment convulsed the house with its enthusiasm. One of
+the officers of his suite had somehow ambled against Bonaparte's hat,
+which, on entering, he had thrown carelessly beside his chair. Stooping
+down and lifting it up, he perceived to whom it belonged, and then
+remarking the mark of a bullet on the edge, he showed it significantly
+to a general near him. Slight and trivial as was the incident, it was
+instantly caught up by the _parterre_. A low murmur ran quickly around,
+and then a sudden cheer burst forth, for some one remembered it was the
+anniversary of Marengo! And now the excitement became madness, and
+reiterated shouts proclaimed that the glory of that day was among the
+proudest memories of France. For once, and once only, did any trait of
+feeling show itself on that impassive face. I thought I could mark even
+a faint tinge of color in that sallow cheek, as in recognition he bowed
+a dignified salute to the waving and agitated assembly.
+
+I saw that proud face, at moments when human ambition might have seemed
+to have reached its limit, and yet never with a haughtier look than on
+that night I speak of. His foot was already on the first step of the
+throne, and his spirit seemed to swell with the conscious force of
+coming greatness.
+
+And Lisette, all this time? Alas, I had totally forgotten her! As the
+enthusiasm around me began to subside, I had time to recover myself, and
+look about me. There was much beauty and splendor to admire. Madame
+Junot was there, and Mademoiselle de Bessieres, with a crowd of others
+less known, but scarcely less lovely. Not one, however, could I see that
+corresponded with my mind-drawn portrait of the peasant-beauty; and I
+scanned each face closely and critically. There was female loveliness of
+every type, from the dark-eyed beauty of Spanish race, to the almost
+divine regularity of a Raffaelite picture. There was the brilliant
+aspect of fashion, too; but nowhere could I see what I sought for!
+nowhere detect that image which imagination had stamped as that of the
+beauty of "La Marche." If disappointed in my great object, I left the
+theatre with my mind full of all I had witnessed. The dreadful event of
+Ettenheim had terribly shaken Bonaparte, in my esteem; yet how resist
+the contagious devotion of a whole nation--how remain cold in the midst
+of the burning zeal of all France? These thoughts brought me to the
+consideration of myself. Was I, or was I not, any longer a soldier of
+his army? or was I disqualified for joining in that burst of national
+enthusiasm which proclaimed that all France was ready to march under his
+banner? To-morrow I'll wait upon the Minister of War, thought I, or I'll
+seek out the commanding officer of some regiment that I know, or, at
+least, a comrade; and so I went on, endeavoring to frame a plan for my
+guidance, as I strolled along the streets, which were now almost
+deserted. The shops were all closed; of the hotels, such as were yet
+open, were far too costly for means like mine; and so, as the night was
+calm and balmy with the fresh air of spring, I resolved to pass it out
+of doors. I loitered then along the Champs Elysees; and, at length,
+stretching myself on the grass beneath the trees, lay down to sleep. "An
+odd bedroom enough," thought I, "for one who has passed the evening at
+the opera, and who has feasted his ears at the expense of his stomach."
+I remembered, too, another night, when the sky had been my canopy in
+Paris, when I slept beneath the shadow of the guillotine and the Place
+de Grève. "Well," thought I, "times are at least changed for the better,
+since that day; and my own fortunes are certainly not lower."
+
+This comforting reflection closed my waking memories, and I slept
+soundly till morning.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+THE "COUNT DE MAUREPAS," ALIAS ----
+
+There is a wide gulf between him who opens his waking eyes in a splendid
+chamber, and with half-drowsy thoughts speculates on the pleasures of
+the coming day, and him, who, rising from the dew-moistened earth,
+stretches his aching limbs for a second or so, and then hurries away to
+make his toilet at the nearest fountain.
+
+I have known both conditions, and yet, without being thought
+paradoxical, I would wish to say that there are some sensations
+attendant on the latter and the humbler lot which I would not exchange
+for all the voluptuous ease of the former. Let there be but youth and
+there is something of heroism, something adventurous in the notion of
+thus alone and unaided breasting the wide ocean of life, and, like a
+hardy swimmer, daring to stem the roughest breakers without one to
+succor him, that is worth all the security that even wealth can impart,
+all the conscious ease that luxury and affluence can supply. In a world
+and an age like ours, thought I, there must surely be some course for
+one young, active, and daring as I am. Even if France reject me there
+are countries beyond the seas where energy and determination will open a
+path. "Courage, Maurice," said I, as I dashed the sparkling water over
+my head, "the past has not been all inglorious, and the future may prove
+even better."
+
+A roll and a glass of iced water furnished my breakfast, after which I
+set forth in good earnest on my search. There was a sort of
+self-flattery in the thought that one so destitute as I was could devote
+his thoughts and energies to the service of another, that pleased me
+greatly. It was so "unselfish"--at least I thought so. Alas, and alas!
+how egotistical are we when we fancy ourselves least so. That day I
+visited St. Roche and Notre Dame at early mass, and by noon reached the
+Louvre, the gallery of which occupied me till the hour of meeting the
+curé drew nigh.
+
+Punctual to his appointment, I found him waiting for me at the corner of
+the quay, and although disappointed at the failure of all his efforts,
+he talked away with all the energy of one who would not suffer himself
+to be cast down by adverse fortune. "I feel," said he, "a kind of
+instinctive conviction that we shall find her yet. There is something
+tells me that all our pains shall not go unrewarded. Have you never
+experienced a sensation of this kind--a species of inward prompting to
+pursue a road, to penetrate into a pass, or to explore a way, without
+exactly knowing why or wherefore?"
+
+This question, vague enough as it seemed, led me to talk about myself
+and my own position; a theme which, however much I might have shrunk
+from introducing, when once opened, I spoke of in all the freedom of old
+friendship.
+
+Nothing could be more delicate than the priest's manner during all this
+time; nor even when his curiosity was highest did he permit himself to
+ask a question or an explanation of any difficulty that occurred; and
+while he followed my recital with a degree of interest that was most
+flattering, he never ventured on a word or dropped a remark that might
+seem to urge me to greater frankness. "Do you know," said he, at last,
+"why your story has taken such an uncommon hold upon my attention. It is
+not from its adventurous character, nor from the stirring and strange
+scenes you have passed through. It is because your old pastor and guide,
+the Père Delamoy, was my own dearest friend, my school companion and
+playfellow from infancy. We were both students at Louvain together; both
+called to the priesthood on the same day. Think, then, of my intense
+delight at hearing his dear name once more; ay, and permit me to say it,
+hearing from the lips of another the very precepts and maxims that I can
+recognize as his own. "Ah, yes! _mon cher_ Maurice," cried he, grasping
+my hand in a burst of enthusiasm, "disguise it how you may, cover it up
+under the uniform of a 'Bleu,' bury it beneath the shako of the soldier
+of the Republic, but the head and the heart will turn to the ancient
+altars of the Church and the Monarchy. It is not alone that your good
+blood suggests this, but all your experience of life goes to prove it.
+Think of poor Michel, self-devoted, generous, and noble-hearted; think
+of that dear cottage at Kuffstein, where, even in poverty, the dignity
+of birth and blood threw a grace and an elegance over daily life; think
+of Ettenheim and the glorious prince--the last Condé--and who now sleeps
+in his narrow bed in the fosse of Vincennes!"
+
+"How do you mean?" said I, eagerly, for up to this time I knew nothing
+of his fate.
+
+"Come along with me and you shall know it all," said he; and, rising, he
+took my arm, and we sauntered along out of the crowded street, till we
+reached the Boulevards. He then narrated to me every incident of the
+midnight trial, the sentence, and the execution. From the death-warrant
+that came down ready-filled from Paris, to the grave dug while the
+victim was yet sleeping, he forgot nothing; and I own that my very blood
+ran cold at the terrible atrocity of that dark murder. It was already
+growing dusk when he had finished, and we parted hurriedly, as he was
+obliged to be at a distant quarter of Paris by eight o'clock, again
+agreeing to meet, as before, on the Quai Voltaire.
+
+From that moment till we met the following day the Duc D'Enghien was
+never out of my thoughts, and I was impatient for the priest's presence
+that I might tell him every little incident of our daily life at
+Ettenheim, the topics we used to discuss, and the opinions he expressed
+on various subjects. The eagerness of the curé to listen stimulated me
+to talk on, and I not only narrated all that I was myself a witness of,
+but various other circumstances which were told to me by the prince
+himself; in particular an incident he mentioned to me one day of being
+visited by a stranger who came, introduced by a letter from a very
+valued friend; his business being to propose to the duke a scheme for
+the assassination of Bonaparte. At first the prince suspected the whole
+as a plot against himself, but on further questioning he discovered that
+the man's intentions were really such as he professed them, and offered
+his services in the conviction that no price could be deemed too high to
+reward him. It is needless to say that the offer was rejected with
+indignation, and the prince dismissed the fellow with the threat of
+delivering him up to the government of the French Consul. The pastor
+heard this anecdote with deep attention, and, for the first time,
+diverging from his line of cautious reserve, he asked me various
+questions as to when the occurrence had taken place, and where? If the
+Prince had communicated the circumstance to any other than myself, and
+whether he had made it the subject of any correspondence. I knew little
+more than I had already told him: that the offer was made while residing
+at Ettenheim, and during the preceding year, were facts, however, that I
+could remember.
+
+"You are surprised, perhaps," said he, "at the interest I feel in all
+this, but, strangely enough, there is here in Paris at this moment one
+of the great 'Seigneurs' of the Ardèche; he has come up to the capital
+for medical advice, and he was a great, perhaps the greatest friend of
+the poor duke. What if you were to come and pay him a visit with me,
+there is not probably one favor the whole world could bestow he would
+value so highly. You must often have heard his name from the prince; has
+he not frequently spoken of the Count de Maurepas?" I could not remember
+having ever heard the name. "It is historical, however," said the curé,
+"and even in our own days has not derogated from its ancient chivalry.
+Have you not heard how a noble of the court rode postillion to the
+king's carriage on the celebrated escape from Varennes? Well, even for
+curiosity's sake, he is worth a visit, for this is the very Count Henry
+de Maurepas, now on the verge of the grave!"
+
+If the good curé had known me all my life he could not more successfully
+have baited a trap for my curiosity. To see and know remarkable people,
+men who had done something out of the ordinary route of every-day life,
+had been a passion with me from boyhood. Hero-worship was indeed a great
+feature in my character, and has more or less influenced all my career,
+nor was I insensible to the pleasure of doing a kind action. It was
+rare, indeed, that one so humbly placed could ever confer a favor, and I
+grasped with eagerness the occasion to do so. We agreed, then, on the
+next afternoon, toward nightfall, to meet at the quay, and proceed
+together to the count's residence. I have often reflected, since that
+day, that Lisette's name was scarcely ever mentioned by either of us
+during this interview; and yet, at the time, so preoccupied were my
+thoughts, I never noticed the omission. The Chateau of Ettenheim, and
+its tragic story, filled my mind to the exclusion of all else.
+
+I pass over the long and dreary hours that intervened, and come at once
+to the time, a little after sunset, when we met at our accustomed
+rendezvous.
+
+The curé had provided a "fiacre" for the occasion, as the count's
+residence was about two leagues from the city, on the way to Belleville.
+As we trotted along, he gave me a most interesting account of the old
+noble, whose life had been one continued act of devotion to the
+monarchy.
+
+"It will be difficult," said he, "for you to connect the poor, worn-out,
+shattered wreck before you, with all that was daring in deed and
+chivalrous in sentiment; but the 'Maurepas' were well upheld in all
+their glorious renown, by him who is now to be the last of the race! You
+will see him reduced by suffering and sickness, scarcely able to speak,
+but be assured that you will have his gratitude for this act of true
+benevolence." Thus chatting we rattled along over the paved highway, and
+at length entered upon a deep clay road which conducted us to a spacious
+park, with a long straight avenue of trees, at the end of which stood
+what, even in the uncertain light, appeared a spacious chateau. The door
+lay open, and as we descended a servant in plain clothes received us,
+and, after a whispered word or two from the curé ushered us along
+through a suite of rooms into a large chamber furnished like a study.
+There were book shelves well filled, and a writing table covered with
+papers and letters, and the whole floor was littered with newspapers and
+journals.
+
+A lamp, shaded by a deep gauze cover, threw a half light over every
+thing, nor was it until we had been nearly a couple of minutes in the
+room that we became aware of the presence of the count, who lay upon a
+sofa covered up in a fur pelisse, although the season was far advanced
+in spring.
+
+His gentle "good evening, messieurs," was the first warning we had of
+his presence, and the curé, advancing respectfully, presented me as his
+young friend, Monsieur de Tiernay.
+
+"It is not the first time that I hear that name," said the sick man,
+with a voice of singular sweetness. "It is chronicled in the annals of
+our monarchy. Ay, sir, I knew that faithful servant of his king, who
+followed his master to the scaffold."
+
+"My father," cried I, eagerly.
+
+"I knew him well," continued he. "I may say, without vaunting, that I
+had it in my power to befriend him, too. He made an imprudent marriage;
+he was unfortunate in the society his second wife's family threw him
+among. They were not his equals in birth, and far beneath him in
+sentiment and principle. Well, well," sighed he, "this is not a theme
+for me to speak of, nor for you to hear; tell me of yourself. The curé
+says that you have had more than your share of worldly vicissitudes.
+There, sit down, and let me hear your story from your own lips."
+
+He pointed to a seat at his side, and I obeyed him at once, for,
+somehow, there was an air of command even in the gentlest tones of his
+voice, and I felt that his age and his sufferings were not the only
+claims he possessed to influence those around him.
+
+With all the brevity in my power, my story lasted for above an hour,
+during which time the count only interrupted me once or twice by asking
+to which Colonel Mahon I referred, as there were two of the name? and
+again, by inquiring in what circumstances the _emigré_ families were
+living as to means, and whether they appeared to derive any of their
+resources from France? These were points I could give no information
+upon, and I plainly perceived that the count had no patience for a
+conjecture, and that, where positive knowledge failed, he instantly
+passed on to something else. When I came to speak of Ettenheim his
+attention became fixed, not suffering the minutest circumstance to
+escape him, and even asking for the exact description of the locality,
+and its distance from the towns in the neighborhood.
+
+The daily journeys of the prince, too, interested him much, and once or
+twice he made me repeat what the peasant had said of the horse being
+able to travel from Strassburg without a halt. I vow it puzzled me why
+he should dwell on these points in preference to others of far more
+interest, but I set them down to the caprices of illness, and thought no
+more of them. His daily life, his conversation, the opinions he
+expressed about France, the questions he used to ask, were all matters
+he inquired into, till, finally, we came to the anecdote of the
+meditated assassination of Bonaparte. This he made me tell him twice
+over, each time asking me eagerly whether, by an effort of memory, I
+could not recall the name of the man who had offered his services for
+the deed? This I could not; indeed I knew not if I had ever heard it.
+
+"But the prince rejected the proposal?" said he, peering at me beneath
+the dark shadow of his heavy brow; "he would not hear of it?"
+
+"Of course not," cried I; "he even threatened to denounce the man to the
+government."
+
+"And do you think that he would have gone thus far, sir?" asked he,
+slowly.
+
+"I am certain of it. The horror and disgust he expressed when reciting
+the story were a guarantee for what he would have done."
+
+"But yet Bonaparte has been a dreadful enemy to his race," said the
+count.
+
+"It is not a Condé can right himself by a murder," said I as calmly.
+
+"How I like that burst of generous royalism, young man!" said he,
+grasping my hand and shaking it warmly. "That steadfast faith in the
+honor of a Bourbon is the very heart and soul of loyalty!"
+
+Now, although I was not, so far as I knew of, any thing of a
+Royalist--the cause had neither my sympathy nor my wishes--I did not
+choose to disturb the equanimity of a poor sick man by a needless
+disclaimer, nor induce a discussion which must be both unprofitable and
+painful.
+
+"How did the fellow propose the act? had he any accomplices? or was he
+alone?"
+
+"I believe quite alone."
+
+"Of course suborned by England? Of that there can be no doubt."
+
+"The prince never said so."
+
+"Well, but, it is clear enough, the man must have had means; he traveled
+by a very circuitous route; he had come from Hamburg, probably?"
+
+"I never heard."
+
+"He must have done so. The ports of Holland, as those of France, would
+have been too dangerous for him. Italy is out of the question."
+
+I owned that I had not speculated so deeply on the matter.
+
+"It was strange," said he, after a pause, "that the duke never mentioned
+who had introduced the man to him."
+
+"He merely called him a valued friend."
+
+"In other words, the Count D'Artois," said the count; "did it not strike
+you so?"
+
+I had to confess it had not occurred to me to think so.
+
+"But reflect a little," said he. "Is there any other living who could
+have dared to make such a proposal but the count? Who, but the head of
+his house, could have presumed on such a step? No inferior could have
+had the audacity! It must have come from one so highly placed, that
+crime paled itself down to a mere measure of expediency, under the
+loftiness of the sanction. What think you?"
+
+"I can not, I will not think so", was my answer. "The very indignation of
+the prince's rejection refutes the supposition."
+
+"What a glorious gift is unsuspectfulness," said he, feelingly. "I am a
+rich man, and you, I believe, are not so; and yet, I'd give all my
+wealth, ay, ten times told, not for your vigor of health, not for the
+lightness of your heart, nor the elasticity of your spirits, but for
+that one small quality, defect though it be, that makes you trustful and
+credulous."
+
+I believe I would just as soon that the old gentleman had thought fit to
+compliment me upon any other quality. Of all my acquisitions, there was
+not one I was so vain of as my knowledge of life and character. I had
+seen, as I thought, so much of life! I had peeped at all ranks and
+conditions of men, and it was rather hard to find an old country
+gentleman, a "Seigneur de Village," calling me credulous and
+unsuspecting!
+
+I was much more pleased when he told the curé that a supper was ready
+for us in the adjoining room, at which he begged we would excuse his
+absence; and truly a most admirable little meal it was, and served with
+great elegance.
+
+"The count expects you to stop here; there is a chamber prepared for
+you," said the curé, as we took our seats at table. "He has evidently
+taken a fancy to you. I thought, indeed I was quite certain, he would.
+Who can tell what good fortune this chance meeting may lead to, Monsieur
+Maurice! A votre sante, mon cher!" cried he, as he clinked his champagne
+glass against mine, and I at last began to think that destiny was about
+to smile on me.
+
+"You should see his Chateau in the Ardêche; this is nothing to it! There
+is a forest, too, of native oak, and a 'Chasse' such as royalty never
+owned!"
+
+Mine were delightful dreams that night; but I was sorely disappointed on
+waking to find that Laura was not riding at my side through a
+forest-alley, while a crowd of "Piqueurs" and huntsmen galloped to and
+fro, making the air vibrate with their joyous bugles. Still, I opened my
+eyes in a richly-furnished chamber, and a Jaques handed me my coffee on
+a silver stand, and in a cup of costliest Sèvres.
+
+(TO BE CONTINUED.)
+
+
+
+
+RECOLLECTIONS OF COLTON, THE AUTHOR OF "LACON."
+
+
+Colton was remarkable for the extent and profundity of his talents, the
+various mutations of fortune, self-entailed, which he underwent, and for
+his inordinate addiction to a vice of all others the most degrading and
+destructive to intellectual strength--who was yet great in intellect and
+purpose amidst all the strange vicissitudes of which he was the
+self-constituted victim, and beneath the pressure of moral and physical
+degradation which he would never have undergone but for the influence of
+one fatal and overwhelming passion. One of the very first objects of my
+boyish reverence and veneration was, as might be expected with a child
+religiously educated, the parson of the parish in the market town where
+I was brought up. Parson C----, who, I believe, held the benefice of St.
+Peter's in my native place, was a man whom, having once known, it was
+not very easy to forget. I could have been hardly six years of age when
+I first saw him without his canonical garb, on which occasion he was
+playing a trout on the end of his line under one of the weirs in the
+river Exe. At that time the town was pretty well stocked with French
+prisoners. The jails were crammed with the miserable soldiery of
+Napoleon's generals, captured in the Peninsular war, then raging, and
+numbers of French officers on parole were installed with the
+housekeepers of the place in the capacity of lodgers. With these our
+all-accomplished divine was almost the only man in the place who could
+hold converse. A part of my father's house was occupied by a couple of
+Gallic strangers, to whom the parson's visits were many and frequent. As
+they dined at the common table, their society, together with that of the
+reverend gentleman, was shared by the whole family, and we thus became
+more intimate with him than we otherwise should. It is said that
+familiarity breeds contempt. Certain it is that my father's veneration
+for the character of his and our spiritual guide and instructor suffered
+considerable declension from his closer acquaintance. Still, what he
+lost in reverence he perhaps gained in another way. His kind, agreeable,
+and social manners won the admiration and good-will of the whole family,
+and though he had a good many enemies in the town, we could not be of
+the number. He was a man of eccentric manners and fine genius, and,
+though then but young, had given proofs of talent of no mean order. He
+had published a rather bulky poem on the subject of Hypocrisy, a subject
+with which his detractors were not slow to observe he ought to be very
+well acquainted. But he was not really a hypocrite in the true sense of
+the word, if indeed, as may be questioned, he deserved the imputation at
+all. He was rather the subject of ever-varying impulses, under the
+instigation of which, were they good or bad, he would instinctively
+proceed to act without consideration and without restraint. He would be
+eloquent as Demosthenes in the pulpit in praise of the Christian
+virtues, and would work himself into a passion of tears on behalf of
+some benevolent or charitable purpose, the claims of which he would
+enforce with the most irresistible appeals to the conscience; and the
+next day he would gallop after the fox with a pack of hounds, fish,
+shoot, or fight a main, in company with sporting blacklegs, bruisers,
+dicers, _et hoc genus omne_. But he never made any personal pretensions
+to religious sentiment that I am aware of, except on one occasion,
+which, as it tends greatly to illustrate the true character of the man,
+I shall relate.
+
+Among the companions of his sporting pursuits was a country squire of
+the neighborhood, a dissolute and drunken specimen of a class of men of
+which, fortunately for humanity, the present generation knows but
+little. He had ruined his fortune and nearly beggared his family by
+extravagance and intemperance, when, after a long course of
+uninterrupted and abused health and vigor, he was laid by the heels upon
+a sick bed, from which the doctors had no hopes of ever releasing him.
+In this dilemma he sent for Parson C----, who appeared forthwith in the
+chamber of the sick man, and was beginning to mutter over the service
+for the visitation of the sick, when the latter, belching forth a volley
+of oaths and curses, swore that he did not send for him for any such
+purpose; that what he wanted was an acknowledgment from the parson's own
+lips of the fact which all parsons' lives declared--that their religion,
+and all religion was a lie. This was an admission which C---- declined
+to make. A horrible scene ensued, of impotent rage and blasphemy on one
+part, and shame and confusion on the other. It ended in the death of the
+frantic and despairing drunkard, in the very presence of his ghostly
+adviser, whom he cursed with his last breath. This deplorable climax to
+such a scene of horror, it may be readily imagined, had a powerful
+effect upon the impulsive and excitable nature of poor C----. He left
+the chamber of such a death an altered man, and, proceeding homeward,
+shut himself up in his closet. On the following Sunday morning he took
+occasion to preach impressively, from the most solemn text he could
+select, upon the uncertainty of life. In the course of his sermon, he
+called upon all present to prepare for the doom which none could
+escape--which, inexorable to all, might be immediate to any, and
+therefore demanded instant and energetic preparation. He wound up his
+discourse with the extraordinary declaration that he, for one, had made
+up his mind upon the subject; that he had seen the error of his ways,
+and determined to abandon them; and that he was resolved thenceforth,
+with God's help, to devote the rest of his remaining life to his own
+preparation, and theirs, for the dreaded hour. He then called upon his
+auditors to bear witness to the resolution he had expressed, and to aid
+him in carrying it out. There was something like a commotion even in the
+church when this announcement was concluded; and the sensation and
+excitement it occasioned in the town, for some time after, only subsided
+as the parson's resolution waned in strength, and its effects became
+less and less observable. For some months he held fast to his purpose
+with the most laudable tenacity. It was in the spring of the year that
+he made his public declaration; and though the old friends of his
+follies laughed at it, and laid heavy wagers against his perseverance,
+he held on his way steadily--He began a course of pastoral
+visitation--sought out and relieved the poor and afflicted--parted with
+his fishing-tackle, and commenced an enthusiastic canvass for a
+dispensary for the poor. Of his old friends among the "ungodly," and his
+old enemies among the pious, few knew what to make of it. The Parson
+C---- of old time was no more; but, in his place, a new man with the
+same face was every where active in the cause of charity and Christian
+benevolence. Those who knew him best doubted most of his stability and
+among these, I remember my father's expressing his conviction that the
+reformation was "too hot to hold." So it turned out in the end. Three,
+four, five months of exemplary conduct, and then came the first symptom
+of declension, in the shape of the parson's gray horse harnessed to a
+dog-cart, with his gun and brace of pointers, in charge of a groom, the
+whole "turn-out" ready for starting, and waiting at the entrance of the
+church-yard on Sunday evening, the last night of August, to carry the
+parson, so soon as service was over, to a celebrated shooting-ground,
+five-and-twenty miles off, that he might be on the spot, ready by dawn
+for the irresistible 1st of September. Those who prophesied from this
+demonstration a return to old habits had speedy occasion to pride
+themselves upon their augury.
+
+The Sampford Ghost soon after came upon the stage, with his mysterious
+knockings and poundings; and defied all objurgations and exorcisms, save
+and except those of Parson C----, at the sound of whose classical Greek,
+or gibberish, as it might happen, he absconded to the bottom of the Red
+Sea, as in duty bound. Here was food for wonder and gaping superstition,
+to which the reverend divine condescended to pander, by the publication
+of a pamphlet supporting the supernatural view of the subject, which,
+being on a marvelous topic, sold marvelously well, and brought grist to
+the clerical mill.
+
+Of the subsequent career of this eccentric genius, from the time I
+ceased to reside in Devonshire to that when I encountered him in Paris I
+have no personal knowledge. I only know that he afterward obtained a
+benefice in the neighborhood of London; that in the year 1820 he
+published a work which has run through many editions, is in high repute
+with a certain class of readers, and is said by competent judges to
+manifest a profound practical acquaintance with the philosophy of the
+mind, and to contain more original views in relation to that science
+than any other work of equal dimensions.
+
+I have already hinted that my vocation as a teacher of English
+introduced me to a new order of French humanity. Among the various
+pupils who sought my cheap assistance in the promotion of their studies
+was one Maubert, a young fellow of four or five and twenty, who was
+contemplating a removal to London in the exercise of his profession,
+which was neither more nor less than that of a gambler. He had a
+relative in one of the hells at St. James's, who had offered him a
+lucrative engagement so soon as he was sufficiently master of English to
+be enabled to undertake it. I was astonished to find a person of such
+mild, meek, and almost effeminate manners engaged in such a pursuit, and
+still more to hear that he had been brought up to it from boyhood, and
+was but following in the steps of his father, who was employed in the
+same establishment in a situation of great trust and responsibility.
+
+In the course of our bilingual conversations, I made no scruple of
+expressing my perfect horror of gambling, at which he appeared to be
+heartily amused, and attributed the feeling I manifested not so much to
+moral principle as to constitutional peculiarity. It soon became
+apparent to me that he had not himself the slightest idea of disgrace or
+discredit as attachable to the profession of a gambler, so long as it
+was carried on upon principles of honesty and fair-play. "What is
+gambling," said he, "after all, but a species of exchange, skill for
+skill, or chance for chance? It is true, there is no solid merchandise
+in question; but, since you are determined to consider it in a moral
+point of view, what, let me ask, does the merchant or the shopkeeper
+care for the goods that pass through his hands? Is not his sole object
+to profit by the transfer? Does he not speculate to gain? and is not all
+speculation, morally considered, gambling? Now, all the professed
+gamester does is to get rid of the lumbering medium of
+trading-speculations--to clear the game, which all men are willing to
+play, of the cumbrous machinery that clogs its movements when played
+upon commercial principles, and to bring it to a crisis and a close at
+once. You talk of the misery and ruin entailed upon families by
+gambling; but depend upon it the same men who ruin themselves and
+families by play would do precisely the same thing were there no such
+thing as play. For one Frenchman ruined by hazard, ten Englishmen are
+ruined by commerce. In fact, as a people, you gamble much more than we
+do, though in a different way; and when you choose to gamble _as_ we do,
+you do it to much greater extent, and with a recklessness to which our
+habits in that respect afford no parallel. There is an Englishman now in
+Paris who has repeatedly won and lost ten thousand francs at a sitting,
+and whom you may see, if you choose to come with me, any evening you
+like."
+
+"What is his name?" I demanded.
+
+"C----. He is a priest, too, I have heard, and of course, when at home,
+a preacher of morality."
+
+"Well," said I, "with your permission, I shall be glad to have a look at
+him."
+
+"Very well; you shall dine with me to-morrow at the Salon Français. Meet
+me there at six, and then, after dinner, I will accompany you."
+
+"Agreed."
+
+And so it came to pass that, about nine o'clock on the following
+evening--for we had dined at most gentlemanly leisure, and followed up
+the dinner with a complete debauch of sugared water--I entered, for the
+first time, one of the saloons devoted to gambling on the first floor of
+the Palais Royal. There was not so great and gorgeous display of taste
+and expenditure as I had expected to see; though every thing was
+substantial and elegant, nothing was pretentious or superb. Tables
+arranged with a view to convenience rather than order or regularity, and
+covered with the means and materials of gaming, were surrounded, on
+three sides, by persons already engaged at the sport. We passed through
+several rooms thus furnished, and more or less tumultuously filled.
+Hazard appeared to be the most favorite game; as I noticed during my
+stay that the tables where that was played were first in full
+occupation, and throughout the evening were more crowded than others.
+Maubert led me to a room, which must have been the fifth or sixth we
+entered, and, pointing to a table at the further end, upon the centre of
+which rose a brazen dragon, with a pair of emerald eyes, a yawning,
+cavernous jaw, and a ridgy tail, whose voluminous folds coiled round a
+column of polished steel--told me that there I should find my man in the
+course of the evening, though I should have to wait for him, as he had
+not yet arrived. He informed me that I could act as I chose, without
+being questioned; and then took his leave, as his services were wanted
+in his own department. I amused myself for nearly a couple of hours in
+contemplating, _en philosophe_, the scene before me. I had heard and
+read much of gamblers and gambling, and here they were in multitudes to
+test the truth or falsity of my impressions. I noticed particularly
+that, while the younger players acted throughout as though gaming were a
+frolic, and welcomed both their gains and losses with a joke or a laugh,
+the older hands maintained a perfect silence, and accepted the decrees
+of fortune without betraying the least emotion. The table near which I
+stood was appropriated to the following purpose: A ball, or rather solid
+polygon, of near a hundred sides, each side colored blue, red, or black,
+was dropped into the mouth of the dragon; and while it was rolling
+audibly through the long folds of its tail, the players placed what sums
+they chose upon red, blue, or black-colored spaces on the table.
+Whatever color the ball, upon emerging from the tail and finally
+resting, showed uppermost, was the winning color; the rest lost. The
+first operation of the manager, after each throw, was to rake into the
+bank in front of him the several amounts placed on the losing colors,
+after which he paid the winners, doubling the stake for black, trebling
+it for red, and multiplying it by five for the blue. Most of the young
+players began upon the black; but whether they won or lost, and the
+chance was equal for either fate, they invariably migrated to the other
+colors; or, in other words, doubled or quintupled their stakes as their
+passions became heated by play. The old ones, on the contrary, kept
+mostly to one color; and, in pursuance of some cunningly-concocted plan,
+frequently consulted pricked or penciled cards, upon which they had
+perhaps made previous calculations, or chronicled the course of play as
+it went on. The physiognomy of these old stagers certainly afforded a
+rich variety of exceedingly ugly faces. Disappointment, however, was not
+the prevailing expression; and, from what I observed of the general
+manifestation of their hardened visages, I was led to the conclusion
+that your calculating gambler, who has his passions under control, is
+_not_, in the long-run, a loser, but the contrary; and that the support
+of the bank, and the whole establishment, is derived from the swarming
+flights of raw, inexperienced, and uncalculating pigeons which every day
+brings to be plucked. One old fellow walked off with a bag of five-franc
+pieces, which could not have been worth less than twenty pounds English,
+accumulated in little more than half an hour; and others pocketed
+various smaller sums, and then withdrew. An English gentleman lost
+several five-pound notes in succession on the blue, and, continuing the
+stake, recovered them all with a profit. An Irishman who had been
+playing for silver on the black, attempted to do the same; but his heart
+failed him, or else his pocket, after the loss of his second note, and
+with a guttural oath, he retired in a rage. To win at gaming, it would
+seem from such examples, requires but a large amount of courage and
+capital; and it must be from this fact alone that, where the game,
+whatever it be, is fairly played, the bank which has the courage to
+challenge all the world, and unlimited capital to support the challenge,
+is so largely the gainer. The natural advantage of the bank may,
+however, be met by calculation and cautious adherence to system in
+playing; and instances are not wanting where the bank, though well
+stocked, has been broken, and the whole funds carried off, through the
+success of a deep-laid scheme.
+
+While I was indulging in these speculations, in which I have no desire
+that the reader should place implicit faith, the personage whom my
+curiosity had led me hither to meet, entered the room, and made toward
+the place where I stood. The long interval that had elapsed since I last
+saw him had effected such an alteration in his appearance that it is
+probable, that, had I not been expecting him, he would have passed
+unrecognized. As it was, the first glance assured me of his identity.
+From added years, or from long-enduring sedentary habits, he had
+acquired a slight stoop, and the old sprightly elasticity of step had
+given place to the sober foot-fall of mature age; but the face, though
+of a somewhat darker hue, and now lined with faint furrows, bore the
+same contour and much of the same expression as of yore. There was the
+same classic and intellectual profile, and the same commonplace and
+rather sordid indications in the full face, which had formerly given
+rise to the saying among his flock, that "The parson had two faces, one
+for Sundays and one for working days." He took his seat at the left-hand
+of the money-raker, and, presenting a paper, probably a check or foreign
+note, received a pile of gold and silver, which he spread before him. I
+had intended to watch his game, and perhaps, if occasion offered, to
+speak to him; but the sight of the very man from whose lips my infant
+ears had caught the first accents of public worship, preparing to take
+part in the debasing orgies of the pandemonium in which I stood, so
+revolted my feelings--and his action, as he bent over his pocket-book in
+search of something he wanted, brought so forcibly to my recollection
+his old gestures in the pulpit--that I resolved to spare myself the
+witnessing of his degradation, and accordingly walked away, and out of
+the accursed den, to the side of the fountain in the quadrangle, in the
+cool spray of which I sat for an hour, _not_ enjoying my reflections
+upon the past.
+
+I learnt from Maubert subsequently, that, though C---- played the
+boldest game, he was far from being a welcome guest at some of the
+tables he chose to patronize. He won, occasionally, large sums; and, if
+he lost them again, as from his known difficulties at certain seasons it
+is pretty sure he did, he did not lose them at the public tables, but at
+some of the private gaming-houses of the nobility which he was known to
+frequent. That he was occasionally reduced to unpleasant straits I have
+reason to think; because, long after the encounter above related, I met
+him at a place whither I had resorted for a cheap dinner, and where we
+dined together on a deal table from soup and _bouilli_, for a sum not to
+be mentioned in connection with the repast of a gentleman. On this
+occasion, I somewhat alarmed him by inquiring, in a broad Devonshire
+accent, if he could inform me of the address of M. V----, naming one of
+the French prisoners with whom the parson had been especially intimate
+in the time of the war. He stared at me fixedly for a minute, and then,
+with a voice like one apostrophizing a spirit, said, "You are ----, the
+son of Thomas ----. I know you from your likeness to your father. Do not
+know me here. Let me have your address; I should like to talk to you. M.
+V---- is dead--dead! And your father, is he yet living?"
+
+I was going to reply to his queries, but, snatching the card I
+presented, he bade me hastily adieu, and disappeared.
+
+It was rumored about that he won a large sum of money previous to the
+breaking out of the Revolution, and that, having accomplished his
+object, he withdrew from the gaming-table. But he had played the game of
+life too fast, and, in desperately acquiring the means of expenditure,
+had lost those of enjoyment. In the published work, to which allusion
+has been made, is the following sentence: "The gamester, if he die a
+martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined. He adds his soul to every
+other loss, and, by the act of suicide, renounces earth to forfeit
+heaven." It is wretched to think that the writer put an end to his own
+existence, after a life devoted to the very vice he so powerfully
+deprecated. He blew out his brains at Fontainbleau, in 1832--it was
+said, to escape the pain of a surgical operation from which no danger
+could be apprehended.
+
+
+
+
+NEVER DESPAIR.
+
+
+    The opal-hued and many-perfumed Morn
+            From Gloom is born;
+    From out the sullen depth of ebon Night
+            The stars shed light;
+    Gems in the rayless caverns of the earth
+            Have their slow birth;
+    From wondrous alchemy of winter-hours
+            Come summer-flowers;
+    The bitter waters of the restless main
+            Give gentle rain;
+    The fading bloom and dry seed bring once more
+            The year's fresh store;
+    Just sequences of clashing Tones afford
+            The full accord;
+    Through weary ages, full of strife and ruth,
+            Thought reaches Truth;
+    Through efforts, long in vain, prophetic Need
+            Begets the Deed:
+
+    Nerve then thy soul with direst need to cope;
+            Life's brightest Hope
+    Lies latent in Fate's deadliest lair--
+            Never despair!
+
+
+
+
+INCIDENT DURING THE MUTINY OF 1797.
+
+
+The nineteenth century may now be said to have attained middle age, and
+in the brilliant noonday of its intellect and science the important
+events that marked the close of its predecessor are becoming dim and
+indistinct, like the vanishing images of a dissolving view. Progress has
+been so rapid since the peace that a wider chasm intervenes between 1799
+and 1851 than any dividing the preceding centuries: much more than half
+a century appears to separate us from the eighteenth. But a stirring and
+troublous period lies before this interval. Life, doubtless, was more
+rife with interest and excitement to those whose youth belonged to it
+than it is in this calmer age. One feels that the "old people" of to-day
+have more of a "history in their lives" than our age will have; and even
+while we acknowledge with devout gratitude the blessing of peace, it is
+pleasant to listen to stories of "the War-time." One evening, while
+sitting with a relative of our own, gazing on the waters of the Channel,
+which were trembling and quivering beneath the rosy sunset, we expressed
+some such sentiments, and after agreeing in our opinion that life in
+those days was more animated by hope and fear than at present, he added,
+smiling, "For instance, in '97 I narrowly escaped hanging!"
+
+We were much surprised at such a declaration from one who, at the time
+he spoke, was a brave and distinguished admiral, and eagerly asked the
+"how and why" of the adventure; and he told us. We regret that we can
+not recall the exact words of the animated relation, but we will try to
+give the substance as nearly as possible.
+
+In 1797 mutiny broke out among the seamen at Spithead--an inexcusable
+crime in the opinion of naval men, but which he who related the story
+palliated in some degree, by candidly acknowledging that in those days
+the poor fellows who were guilty of it had great and just cause for
+complaint. They were not only ill-paid, but their food was of very bad
+quality; many captains in the navy were harsh and tyrannical--as, in
+consequence of the perversity of human nature, will always be the case;
+and the men whose blood was freely poured out in the defense of their
+native land were, to say the least, neglected and uncared-for by their
+rulers. Oh happy consequence of peace and advancing knowledge! these men
+are now well-fed, have the means of instruction afforded them, and homes
+provided for them when, returning from "the dangers of the sea," they
+are discharged and sent on shore. The poor mutineers at Spithead dreamed
+not of such advantages as these.
+
+Admiral R---- was a junior lieutenant on board the _Saturn_ when the
+mutiny broke out; but promotion was very rapid then, and though bearing
+that rank he was still only a youth in his teens. Probably the mutineers
+had discovered, and in a measure appreciated the kindliness of his
+nature, for, exempting him from the thralldom of his companions, whom
+they had confined in the ward-room, they fixed on him to bear their
+propositions and their threats to the port-admiral--swearing at the same
+time, that if he did not bring them back a favorable answer they would
+hang him on the yard-arm! He was obliged to obey their will, of course,
+secretly resolving, however, not to give them the opportunity of
+fulfilling their kind intentions by returning to the ship; but the young
+officer calculated too much upon being his own master. He was put on
+shore at the Point, and proceeded at once to the admiral's house in the
+High-street. The naval chief gave him a good-natured and cordial
+reception, and listened patiently to the message he delivered from the
+mutineers, which was to the effect that they must have an immediate
+advance of wages, good biscuit, pork, &c., or that they would carry
+their ship over to the French.
+
+"Go on board again, sir," was his reply, "and tell these gentlemen that
+none of their demands can be listened to till they return to their duty:
+inform them also that the moment they attempt to weigh anchor hot shot
+will be fired on them from the Isle of Dogs, and their vessel and
+themselves sent to the bottom."
+
+The lieutenant bowed and left the office. Outside he paused. He was
+going, in obedience to his superior, to certain death. It was a fearful
+trial of courage and professional discipline. A mother whom he idolized
+lived at no great distance: he would at least bid her a last farewell!
+But the admiral, aware of the sacrifice he exacted, so much greater than
+that of periling life by mounting "the deadly breach," had followed the
+poor boy, and lightly tapping his shoulder, told him he would walk with
+him to the beach. Thus, even the last look at home, for which he longed,
+was denied him. A waterman's wherry conveyed him to the ship. It was
+May--a bright, glorious May, such as England used to enjoy "once upon a
+time;" and very sad were the feelings with which the young officer
+looked back upon the retreating town, and round on the glad, sunny
+waters and blue-tinted Isle of Wight, deeming that he beheld them for
+the last time. Occasionally, also, he told us, his eyes would revert, in
+spite of his endeavors to forget it, to the fatal yard-arm, distinct
+with all its tracery of cordage against the clear blue sky. He gained
+the ship, was received on board, and conducted to the forecastle, where
+the chief mutineers had assembled. Here he delivered his message. They
+were greatly enraged, and commanded him not to repeat the admiral's
+threat of sinking the ship to the crew. He replied simply that it was
+his duty to obey the orders of his superior officer. Their looks and
+words threatened him at first with instant and summary vengeance; but
+after a short consultation they agreed to try him by a court-martial,
+and proceeding aft, ordered him to be brought before them. It was a
+fearful scene; the men were terribly excited, frightfully ignorant, and
+believed that their cause required a victim.
+
+The courage of the youth bore him through the trial, however, bravely.
+He ventured boldly to reproach them with their guilt in confounding the
+innocent with those whom they looked upon as their enemies; taunted them
+with the cowardly injustice of the deed they contemplated; and
+persisted, in opposition to the ringleaders' commands, in repeating the
+admiral's message to the crew. He was heard by the officers in the
+ward-room, and their loud cheers when he spoke probably gave him fresh
+courage. The ringleaders becoming alarmed at the effect his words and
+bearing might have on the British instincts of the ship's company,
+condemned him to be hung in two hours' time, and ordered him to prepare
+for death meantime in his cabin. There a new and singular scene awaited
+him: one of the seamen had taken possession of it, opened his lockers,
+and finding some brandy, had been drinking till he was perfectly
+intoxicated, and lay in the sleep of drunkenness on the floor, which was
+strewed and littered with the lieutenant's clothes, books, &c. A deep
+oath escaped the lips of the ringleaders at this sight. Throughout the
+fleet the mutineers had forbidden drunkenness on pain of death; for,
+fully aware of the peril of their position, they kept up among
+themselves a terribly severe discipline. They were raising their
+insensible comrade in their arms, and coolly preparing to throw him
+overboard, when, aware from their words of their intentions, the
+condemned officer struck one of them to the floor, and standing over the
+again prostrate drunkard, declared that while he lived he would not see
+men who had sailed beneath the British flag guilty of murder! The
+mutineers paused, touched probably by this generous defense of a
+foe--for the insensible seaman had been peculiarly bitter against the
+officers--and after a muttered oath or two they left the cabin.
+
+The lieutenant remained alone with his disgusting and unwelcome
+visitant, and the two hours following he described as the most painful
+of his life. It was less the fear of death than the destined mode of it
+which tortured him: not that he was insensible or indifferent to the
+blessing of life, for he was by nature of a happy, joyous temperament,
+and fair prospects of advancement were before him; but in "war-time"
+existence was held on such a precarious tenure that the idea of death in
+battle would scarcely have troubled his equanimity. Two hours waiting to
+be hanged, however, is a far different trial for courage, and we have
+never read or imagined any thing more painful than the description which
+the aged admiral gave us of that (to him) endless period of time. As if
+to add to the horror of his position, the silence on board was so great
+that it appeared as if he could hear the pulsation of his own heart,
+while the low snoring of the drunken man struck with painful
+distinctness on his ear. At last the bell struck the fatal hour, and
+steps were heard on the ladder. His door opened; he rose prepared to
+show no symptoms of faltering courage, when the leaders of the party
+advancing, told him "that the people had taken his case into
+consideration, and as they believed he individually had no ill-feeling
+toward them, and as he had recently given proof that he cared for the
+men, they had changed his sentence from death to _flogging!_ He must
+therefore prepare to receive three dozen on the following morning."
+
+My kinsman, with the ready humor that never deserted him, returned
+thanks with mock gravity for their clemency, and begged them to carry
+his compliments to the gentlemen who sent them, and assure them that he
+could not have believed he should ever have felt so much satisfaction at
+the prospect of a whipping. The men, always susceptible of fun, laughed.
+From that moment he was safe! Falstaff wisely despairs of gaining the
+love of Prince John, "because he could not make him laugh;" the young
+lieutenant acted as if he possessed Shakspeare's knowledge of human
+nature when he awoke by his jest the slumbering sympathies of the
+sailors. He was detained a prisoner, but no further notice was taken of
+the threatened flogging.
+
+The mutiny subsided on the 16th of May, when Parliament passed an act to
+raise the seamen's wages, and the royal pardon was bestowed on the
+mutineers; not, however, before some sacrifice of human life had ensued,
+as Admiral Colpoys, on the recommencement of the mutiny on board the
+_London_, had ordered the marines to fire on the people, and three
+seamen fell. The funeral of these unfortunates was described to us as a
+singularly impressive and touching spectacle. The townspeople were
+fearful of some violence or riot on the part of the sailors when they
+landed to bury their dead, and consequently closed their shutters and
+retired into their houses. The mournful procession moved therefore
+through deserted and silent streets on its way to the village
+church-yard, in which the victims were to be interred. But there was no
+cause for alarm. The men walked silently and solemnly, two and two,
+after their slain comrades, a stern, quiet sorrow legible on their
+weather-beaten faces; and nothing could exceed the reverence and
+propriety of their conduct beside the grave. It is a quiet, pretty
+village church-yard in which these most pardonable rebels have their
+resting-place, not far from which is the large grave where three hundred
+bodies of those who perished in the _Royal George_ are buried.
+
+One can scarcely forbear wondering at the little real mischief which
+proceeded from this alarming mutiny. It afforded, on the whole, a noble
+display of the principal characteristics of the British seaman--the
+frolic-spirit peculiar to him manifesting itself even when he is most
+sadly and seriously in earnest. A captain of marines, who was especially
+the object of the mutineers' aversion, was brought on shore by them, and
+compelled to parade up the High-street to the "Rogue's March," which was
+drummed before him. He was a tall, gaunt old man, with a singularly long
+neck. The day after his expulsion from his ship, the crew sent a man to
+his house with a message, ordering him to "come on board again and be
+hanged!" The unpopular veteran sent back his compliments; but
+considering his throat unbecomingly long _naturally_, he did not wish to
+have it stretched: he declined, therefore, accepting their invitation.
+The men went away laughing. The people and the times were both
+extraordinary.
+
+
+
+
+WOMAN'S OFFICES AND INFLUENCE.
+
+BY PROF. J. H. AGNEW, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
+
+
+Ours is an age of stirring life, an age of notions and novelties, of
+invention and enterprise, of steam-motives and telegraph-wires. The
+ocean, for passage, has become a river. The air a medium for the flight,
+not only of birds, but of thoughts. Distance scarce any more lends
+enchantment to the view, for 'tis annihilated. The ends of the earth
+meet, and the watchmen on her walls see eye to eye. Even worlds long
+buried in the deep unknown are now revealed to human vision, and we
+almost penetrate the arcana of our own fair satellite, as she nightly
+looks down upon us in her beauty. And man would fain believe, too, in
+his wisdom, or his folly, that e'en the rappings of spirits are heard in
+this nether planet of ours.
+
+But what of all this? Why, we live in this whirl of galvanic motion: we
+breathe this excited atmosphere: we revolve on this stirring sphere.
+And, think you, without feeling aught of its forces?
+
+We have our being, too, amid the busy scenes of a new world, a free
+world, a forming world. Our geologic species is a conglomerate. Whether
+it shall be of rude, unshapen masses, or of polished gems, fit not only
+for the pillars of this republican edifice, but for its adornment also,
+will depend much on the present generation, more on the women of that
+generation.
+
+Believing that woman not only takes impressions from the age, but
+emphatically makes them on it too, I select for my theme WOMAN'S OFFICES
+AND INFULUENCE.
+
+_To make home happy_ is one of the offices of woman. Home, blessed word.
+Thanks to our Saxon fathers for it. Not the name merely, but the
+realities it expresses. An English, an American home is a Bethlehem-star
+in the horizon of earth's sorrows, the shadow of a great rock in a weary
+land.
+
+    "There is a magic in that little word:
+    It is a mystic circle that surrounds
+    Comforts and virtues never known beyond
+    The hallowed limit."
+
+    "The tabernacle of our earthly joys
+    And sorrows, hopes and fears--this Home of ours
+    Is it not pleasant?"
+
+Yes, home is the centre of all that is sweet in the sympathies, dear in
+the affections of the soul. There the kiss of love is impressed in its
+purity, the warm pressure of the hand knows no betrayal, the smile of
+joy plays no deceiver's part. All is candid, cordial, sincere. The
+faults and failings which belong to humanity fallen, are there covered
+by the mantle of charity, and the feeling of every member of the family
+is, "With all thy faults I love thee still."
+
+How the traveler climbing Alpine summits, looking forth on the sublime
+creations of Jehovah, thinks of home, and wishes the loved ones there
+could share his rapture. How the wrecked mariner on some desert isle
+longs for a mother's fond endearment, a sister's kindly care. Home is in
+all his thoughts.
+
+It is worth the while, then, to strive to make _home_ happy; to do each
+his part toward rendering it the spot of all pleasant associations. In
+the several relations of child, sister, wife, mother, let kindness and
+cheerfulness reign.
+
+Kindness comes over the spirit like the music of David's harp over the
+passion of Saul. It softens and subdues. It manifests itself in a
+thousand nameless forms, but all beautiful. It is a crown of glory on
+the head of old age, a jewel on the breast of childhood. The light it
+diffuses is soft, the rays it emits are melting.
+
+    "And oh, if those who cluster round,
+      The altar and the hearth,
+    Have gentle words and loving smiles,
+      How beautiful is earth."
+
+Cheerfulness is another attribute of character tending to the happiness
+of home: and let me commend it to woman's cultivation. Some there are,
+ever disposed to look on the dark side of life; and thus they not only
+becloud their own spirits, but cast a shadow over the smiling precincts
+of home. Every single sour grape portends a cluster; every flash of
+lightning a riving thunderbolt. Earth's actual cares are not enough;
+troubles must be borrowed. The present does not fill their heart with
+sadness; the future must be laid under contribution.
+
+All this is just the opposite of cheerfulness. That scatters wide over
+the soil of the household the seeds of many little joys, that the weeds
+of small vexations may be kept under, and ever and anon the sickle be
+thrust in and a harvest of good fruits be garnered for daily use. It
+gazes on the bright side of the picture, and throws its delighted
+glances upon every eye. And thus it not only augments present bliss, but
+in hoary years the memory of other days around the family hearth will be
+sweeter, and the influence on ourselves better.
+
+"Cheerfully to bear thy cross in patient strength is duty." "Not few nor
+light are the burdens of life: then load it not with heaviness of
+spirit; sickness, and penury, and travail--these be ills enow: the tide
+is strong against us: struggle, thou art better for the strife, and the
+very energy shall hearten thee."
+
+"In thy day of grief let nature weep; leave her alone; the freshet of
+her sorrow must run off; and sooner will the lake be clear, relieved of
+turbid floodings. Yet see, that her license hath a limit."
+
+"For empty fears, the harassings of possible calamity, pray and thou
+shalt prosper: trust God and tread them down." "The stoutest armor of
+defense is that which is worn within the bosom, and the weapon which no
+enemy can parry is a bold and cheerful spirit."
+
+Beautiful in the family is this spirit of cheerfulness; and surely it
+is an office of woman to cherish it. It can be wooed and won. Wherever
+woman goes, and especially at home, let it be as an halo of light around
+her head, and then shall she be a blessing to the circle in which she
+moves. Despondency is death, cheerfulness life. But remember that levity
+and boisterous mirth are no essential ingredients of this wholesome
+cordial. Its chief element is rather that which Paul spake of when he
+said, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be
+content."
+
+Another office of woman is, _to check the utilitarianism, the
+money-loving spirit of the day_. There is something beside bread and
+water to be cared for in this probationary world of ours, inhabited by
+living _spirits_. And yet one is almost compelled to the conclusion that
+the whole race, at the present day, has given itself up to the worship
+of Mammon.
+
+That which is a _physical_ fact, which is capable of being _used_, is
+the _summum bonum. Cui bono_, in a terrene sense, is the great question.
+"Will it pay," the grand idea of the age. And men are hurrying along,
+life in hand, breathless and bootless, over the highways and byways to
+the Great Mogul's temple, where there is no spiritual Divinity to
+revere.
+
+We almost wish the return of the old Grecian's faith, who enveloped
+himself with a spiritual world, and this, at least, elevated his
+intellect, if it did not renovate his heart. To him the majestic
+mountain was peopled with august entities. To us it is of no account, if
+it do not contain in its bowels buried stores of wealth, though it may
+awaken the feeling of the sublime, and lift the soul up to God. To him
+the shady tree was the habitation of dryads, the rippling brook of
+naïads: to us, neither has beauty, unless the one can turn a mill, and
+the other furnish us fire-wood or lumber.
+
+We have made the soul slave to the body; have stripped the Universe of
+its glory, as a reflecting mirror, pouring down upon us such rays of
+Heaven's brilliancy as our vision can endure. God's sun is only to
+lighten us on our pathway of business; His mighty ocean only to bear the
+burden of our commerce; His magnificent lakes to carry our trade; His
+beautiful hills and smiling vales but to grow our corn, feed our cattle,
+and be the substratum for our railways.
+
+This utilitarianism of the day, too, has but little sympathy with the
+fine arts. It laughs at music and painting, poetry and sculpture, as
+things of naught, although they may tend mightily to the culture of the
+spirit and the refinement of humanity. Classical learning it discards,
+because with its dusty eyes it can not just see how that can qualify man
+or woman for the better enjoyment of life, or how it will help us plow
+or measure our fields, grind our grain, or churn our butter.
+
+The mere discipline of the mind, the symmetrical development of man's
+higher powers, the æsthetic evolution of himself; all this, though it
+expand his intellect and enlarge his heart, though it impress on him
+more of the lineaments of the skies, and bring him nearer to his great
+Original, is but waste of time and thought, because it falls not within
+the described circle of the utilitarian. Shades of Bacon and Locke, of
+Shakspeare and Milton, of Goethe and Schiller, come and alight at least
+on the daughters of our land!
+
+Here is a wide field of influence for woman. You are the vestal virgins
+to watch the fires on the altar of the fine arts. Yours it is to check
+the sensuousness of man, to recall him from his ceaseless toil after the
+mammon of this life, his restless ambition to turn every thing to
+account in available funds, in bank-stocks, copper-stocks,
+railroad-stocks. Tell your sons and your sires that there are higher
+sources of joy. Point them away from earth's sordid gold to the brighter
+gems of literature. Direct their energies to the intellectual and moral
+advancement of their age. Help them to slake their quenchless thirst at
+the pure fountains of knowledge and religion.
+
+There is a poetry of life worth cultivating. There are spiritual
+entities around us to which we are linked by ethereal chains. Let us not
+struggle to throw off those chains, but rather to bind them faster about
+us. And when you see a link broken, and others likely to drop, mend it.
+
+Woman's office is it also _to soften political asperities in the other
+sex, and themselves to shun political publicity_. Not that woman need be
+ignorant of the great questions of the age; better be familiar with
+them. But let her not become absorbed in them: rather keep so aloof from
+exciting occasions as to be better qualified to form and express a
+deliberate and unbiased judgment on men and measures. Let her opinions
+be well matured, and always uttered with calmness and caution. When her
+dearest friends of the other sex seem embittered toward others, and in
+danger of forgetting the sweet charities of life amid the chafings of
+party rivalry, let her pour out the milk of human kindness into the cup
+of courtesy, and ask them to drink of it. When the waters are troubled
+and the billows roar, let her diffuse over them the oil of love to still
+the waters into a great calm. Surely this is an office higher, better
+far, than to be pressing on, as some would have her, into the busy
+bustle of out-door politics. Here is _influence_, and it is better than
+_power_.
+
+Who that loves woman, that really admires her worth as _woman_, that
+thinks of her as the delicate, refined, tasteful, sensitive development
+of humanity, the incarnation of all that is lovely, gentle, modest,
+peaceful, and pure, the highest earthly manifestation of God as _love;_
+who that remembers her as the "help-meet," can bear the thought of
+hurrying her out upon the theatre of politics, the platform of
+legislation?
+
+"Woman's rights," they cry, and so loud the cry, that even woman's
+ambition has conquered her judgment and her delicacy, and she has gone
+forth, out of her appointed and fitting sphere, to be gazed on by a
+curious crowd, and perhaps to hear the plaudits of a noisy populace. _O
+tempora! O mores!_ Save us from such a race of women!
+
+Now woman has rights, many rights, and let them be well guarded; but she
+has no right to be a _man_. Yet, no wonder 'tis, if amid the stirring
+enterprises and new discoveries of the age, some half-amazon should defy
+the customs of social life, and assume the right of leveling all
+distinctions between the sexes, walking forth _à la Turk_, and becoming
+the gazing-stock of the street. Oh, let beauteous, winning woman wear
+the gracefully-flowing robes of modesty; let her not be met by us "up to
+the eyes" in politics, nor at the ballot-box, nor the caucus, nor in the
+legislative hall, nor on the judicial bench, surrounded, perchance, by
+tobacco-chewing barristers, nor as the public haranguer, addressing
+promiscuous multitudes.
+
+Let us rather see her in the quiet retirement of home, not doomed to the
+busy drudgery of hard housekeeping merely, but there the refined woman,
+whose pure sensibilities are shocked at the thought of a public
+notoriety; who shuns the wistful gaze of the crowd, and finds in her own
+family circle her kingdom and her _rights_, and seeks to adorn that with
+all that is lovely and of good report. Thus will she win our admiration
+and secure our love. Were her intellect and her eloquence displayed at
+the bar or on the platform, we might indeed wonder with deep amazement,
+but we should not love; and wanting this, both she and we were unhappy.
+
+While sensible, then, of her equality with man in the possession of a
+soul like his own, capable of the highest enterprises in science and
+literature, may she yet recognize, as the appointment of her all-wise
+Creator, subordination to man in power, superordination in influence. Be
+content to be _woman_. It is a province high enough. If not cherubic, it
+is seraphic. It is that phase of humanity we think most godlike; for if
+Jehovah's highest expression of himself is _Love_, then that form of
+humanity expressing most of it, is most like Him. That form, in our
+opinion, is woman.
+
+Let her not, then, strip herself of her chief glory, and depart further
+from her God and Saviour, by shooting out from her own feminine orbit,
+and aiming to revolve in that of the other sex, under the false
+impression that it is a higher one. Even if it were, it is not hers, and
+by thus battling with the order of nature, and swinging loose from the
+proper relations of her being, she might become a wandering star in the
+blackness of darkness forever.
+
+Another evident office of woman is, _to regulate the forms and control
+the habits of social life_. In this land, especially, do the "lords of
+creation" bow with due deference to their ladies. We give them our arms,
+'tis true, and we ask them to lean upon us, yet do we take step with
+them, and in turn lean on them, amid the trying times of life, and look
+to them for many of our joys, for most of our happiness. He is vulgar,
+even barbarous, we think, who does not appreciate her worth and respect
+her character. Hence, every where, hers is the first place, the best
+place; and an American gentleman would rather suffer an agony than
+subject women to a discomfort.
+
+Such being her relative position, hers it must be to prescribe the
+customs of social life, and say to man, "hitherto shalt thou go and no
+further." The tone of morals will be such as she makes it. Man will be
+conformed to the model she exhibits. He seldom, if ever, rises above the
+level of his female associates. Surround him with the vulgar, the
+thoughtless, the impure, and you shall not see him pure, thoughtful,
+refined. Place him ever in the society of intelligent, dignified,
+Christian women, and their virtues will be reflected on him.
+
+And is it so, that woman is responsible, in a great measure, for the
+fashions and habits of the community in which she lives? It is even so.
+If she discard that foolish frippery and passion for display, which
+occasionally characterize her own sex, it will not long live. It must be
+buried in its own foibles, and have no resurrection. If she frown upon
+him who robs woman of her jewel, he is a fugitive on the face of the
+earth. If she discountenance the use of intoxicating beverages, the
+young man will learn that abstinence on his part is the price of respect
+and love on hers. Her office here is magnified: her influence has become
+a power. The other offices were guiding and directory; this is
+reformatory. Society looks to her for its type. Its virtues and its
+vices are of her moulding. _It is what she bids it be._
+
+What a potency! Let her wield it for her country's welfare. Then shall
+it be a beacon light to other lands now in darkness and degradation,
+because there woman is still the slave of man's passions, and has never
+risen, under Christianity, to know her dignity, and make her brutal
+master feel her moral equality in the scale of being.
+
+Only one other office of woman shall we notice at present--_the
+exemplification and diffusion of Christianity_--of Christianity, not so
+much in its forms and dogmas, as in its spirit; not solely as a
+redeeming scheme, but also as a reforming power.
+
+To Christianity woman is emphatically a debtor. It has breathed into her
+its breath of life, and she has become a living soul. Else had she been
+but a dead manikin. To it she owes her present advanced position, her
+commanding influence. Even all the literature and refinement of Greece
+and Rome could not confer on woman the boon which the religion of Jesus
+has brought her. He was woman's son, and his religion tells it. Go where
+that religion is not, and there woman is naught.
+
+Christianity has not only broken down the wall of partition between male
+and female, but has opened the sealed fountains of her soul, and caused
+them to send forth rills of gentleness and love, which have refreshed
+humanity and poured out gladness on a dark and dreary world. Let the
+cross, then, be woman's standard, Jesus woman's trust, Christianity
+woman's charter. That thrown overboard, we are wrecked. Its principles
+abandoned, the world sinks again into barbarism, and woman to brute
+degradation. "The last at the cross and earliest at the sepulchre,"
+must remember to cling to Christianity as her hope, her life. Let _her_
+never be ashamed to confess it her ruling principle, her source of joy,
+nor be hesitant in disseminating its seeds, that she may every where
+behold its lily-flowers.
+
+Can it ever be well said of woman, "she careth not if there be a God, or
+a soul, or a time of retribution; pleasure is the idol of her heart: she
+thirsteth for no purer heaven." Let such an one be decked in all the
+gorgeous trappings of wealth, let her brow be crowned with the coronet
+of rank, let her girdle hold the key which unlocks the treasures of
+California, and yet she wants that which ennobles her sex, and would
+render her an object of love and a source of joy to others.
+
+    "Oh, what is woman, what her smile,
+      Her lip of love, her eyes of light.
+    What is she, if her lips revile
+      The lowly Jesus? Love may write
+    His name upon her marble brow,
+      And linger in her curls of jet:
+    The light spring-flower may scarcely bow
+      Beneath her step--and yet--and yet--
+    Without that meeker grace she'll be
+    A lighter thing than vanity."
+
+Never, then, let the sneer of the infidel, nor the scorn of the skeptic
+drive woman from compounding the spices to embalm her crucified Master,
+nor make her ashamed to be seen early at his sepulchre. Rather let her
+glory in the cross, and make the most of her high mission here to send
+its healing influences to every sick and sorrowing creature on this
+green earth. Why should any poor, perishing mortal be left in all the
+degradation of idolatry, when there is in our possession a power that
+would lift him to heights of bliss, temporal and eternal? Why should the
+world be left to its wailings and its woes, when Christianity diffused,
+in its benign spirit, would convert those woes into joys, those wailings
+into hallelujahs? How can woman, owing her all to the religion of the
+Bible, refrain from exerting her energies to place this word of life in
+the hands of every pilgrim over the deserts of time? And may she so
+breathe its spirit and feel its power, that it shall never again be thus
+written of her:
+
+                          "There came
+    A stranger bright and beautiful
+      With steps of grace, and eye of flame,
+    And tone and look most sweetly blent
+    To make her presence eloquent;
+    Oh, then I looked for tears. She stood
+      Before the prisoner of Calvary.
+    I saw the piercing spear--the blood--
+      The gall--the writhe of agony.
+    I saw his quivering lips in prayer,
+      'Father, forgive them'--all was there!
+    I turned in bitterness of soul,
+      And spake of Jesus. I had thought
+    Her feelings would refuse control:
+      For woman's heart I knew was fraught
+    With gushing sympathies. She gazed
+      A moment on it carelessly,
+    Then coldly curl'd her lip, and praised
+      The high priest's garment! Could it be
+    That look was meant, dear Lord, for thee!"
+
+A few words on _Influence_. This is woman's power. That distinctively
+belongs to man, and is exercised by authority. Law and penalty grow out
+of it. It regulates actions, it punishes crime. Influence, on the other
+hand, awakens feeling, generates opinions, implants sentiments in the
+soul, silently yet emphatically; and thus it crushes vice, promotes
+virtue, and avoids the necessity of penal infliction.
+
+Now this is pre-eminently the potent lever in the hands of woman for
+regenerating and reforming the political and moral world. We may stand
+in awe, indeed, before the exhibition of _power_, whether physical or
+moral, but we are not won by them to the love of truth and goodness,
+while _influence_ steals in upon our hearts, gets hold of the springs of
+action, and leads us into its own ways. It is the _inflowing_ upon
+others from the nameless traits of character which constitute woman's
+idiosyncracy. Her heart is a great reservoir of love, the water-works of
+moral influence, from which go out ten thousand tubes, conveying off the
+ethereal essences of her nature, and diffusing them quietly over the
+secret chambers of man's inner being.
+
+Even the weakness of woman softens and subdues, and thus unseals the
+soul for the infusion of her own sentiments. Her winning smiles, her
+tender sympathies, her sensible expressions, her gentle ways, all
+influence us, flow in upon our spirits. Who can be long boisterous in
+the presence of woman? No more can the yeasty waves dash and foam when
+superinfused by the mollifying touch of oil, than can the passions of
+man rage with impetuosity in contact with the oleaginous serenity of
+gentle woman.
+
+Let man, then, exercise power; woman exert influence. By this will she
+best perform her offices, discharge her duties. Thus will she most
+effectually make home happy, restrain utilitarianism, allay party
+asperities, regulate the habits of social life, and both exemplify and
+diffuse Christianity. Thus will she become _vanqueur des vanqueurs de la
+terre_--"conqueror of the conquerors of earth," and do more to bless the
+world, and make it truly happy, than all political institutions, fiscal
+agencies, and merely intellectual educations.
+
+Surely this is a mission exalted. Let no woman despise it, though it
+exclude her from the senator's seat and the chair of state. Let her
+rather remember that she honors herself more, glorifies her God better,
+and elevates her race higher, by adorning the sphere which her very
+physical organization prescribes. Never will she be improved in her
+nature, elevated in her influence, happier in her own spirit, or more
+potent in effecting the happiness of the world, by aiming at the proper
+dignities of _man_, throwing herself out upon the arena of public life,
+meddling and mingling in its chafings and chances. Ah no! let us still
+hope that woman will have good sense enough to discern the wisdom of God
+in her proper relation, and that man shall still and ever have the
+privilege and the joy of admiring and loving her as gentle, retiring,
+delicate, yet influential _woman_.
+
+
+
+
+THE TOWN-HO'S STORY.[5]
+
+[5] From "The Whale." The title of a new work by Mr. Melville, in the
+press of Harper and Brothers, and now publishing in London by Mr.
+Bentley.
+
+BY HERMAN MELVILLE.
+
+
+The Cape of Good Hope, and all the watery region round about there, is
+much like some noted four corners of a great highway, where you meet
+more travelers than in any other part.
+
+It was not very long after speaking the Goney that another
+homeward-bound whaleman, the Town-Ho, was encountered. She was manned
+almost wholly by Polynesians. In the short gam that ensued she gave us
+strong news of Moby Dick. To some the general interest in the White
+Whale was now wildly heightened by a circumstance of the Town-Ho's
+story, which seemed obscurely to involve with the whale a certain
+wondrous, inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of God
+which at times are said to overtake some men. This latter circumstance,
+with its own particular accompaniments, forming what may be called the
+secret part of the tragedy about to be narrated, never reached the ears
+of Captain Ahab or his mates. For that secret part of the story was
+unknown to the captain of the Town-Ho himself. It was the private
+property of three confederate white seamen of that ship, one of whom, it
+seems, communicated it to Tashtego with Romish injunctions of secresy,
+but the following night Tashtego rambled in his sleep, and revealed so
+much of it in that way, that when he was awakened he could not well
+withhold the rest. Nevertheless, so potent an influence did this thing
+have on those seamen in the Pequod who came to the full knowledge of it,
+and by such a strange delicacy, to call it so, were they governed in
+this matter, that they kept the secret among themselves so that it never
+transpired abaft the Pequod's mainmast. Interweaving in its proper place
+this darker thread with the story as publicly narrated on the ship, the
+whole of this strange affair I now proceed to put on lasting record.
+
+For my humor's sake, I shall preserve the style in which I once narrated
+it at Lima, to a lounging circle of my Spanish friends, one saint's eve,
+smoking upon the thick-gilt tiled piazza of the Golden Inn. Of those
+fine cavaliers, the young Dons, Pedro and Sebastian, were on the closer
+terms with me; and hence the interluding questions they occasionally
+put, and which are duly answered at the time.
+
+"Some two years prior to my first learning the events which I am about
+rehearsing to you, gentlemen, the Town-Ho, Sperm Whaler of Nantucket,
+was cruising in your Pacific here, not very many days' sail eastward
+from the eaves of this good Golden Inn. She was somewhere to the
+northward of the Line. One morning, upon handling the pumps, according
+to daily usage, it was observed that she made more water in her hold
+than common. They supposed a sword-fish had stabbed her, gentlemen. But
+the captain, having some unusual reason for believing that rare good
+luck awaited him in those latitudes; and therefore being very averse to
+quit them, and the leak not being then considered at all dangerous,
+though, indeed, they could not find it after searching the hold as low
+down as was possible in rather heavy weather, the ship still continued
+her cruisings, the mariners working at the pumps at wide and easy
+intervals; but no good luck came; more days went by, and not only was
+the leak yet undiscovered, but it sensibly increased. So much so, that
+now taking some alarm, the captain, making all sail, stood away for the
+nearest harbor, among the islands, there to have his hull hove out and
+repaired.
+
+"Though no small passage was before her, yet, if the commonest chance
+favored, he did not at all fear that his ship would founder by the way,
+because his pumps were of the best, and being periodically relieved at
+them, those six-and-thirty men of his could easily keep the ship free;
+never mind if the leak should double on her. In truth, well nigh the
+whole of this passage being attended by very prosperous breezes, the
+Town-Ho had all but certainly arrived in perfect safety at her port
+without the occurrence of the least fatality, had it not been for the
+brutal overbearing of Radney, the mate, a Vineyarder, and the bitterly
+provoked vengeance of Steelkilt, a Lakeman and desperado from Buffalo.
+
+"'Lakeman!--Buffalo! Pray, what is a Lakeman, and where is Buffalo?'
+said Don Sebastian, rising in his swinging mat of grass.
+
+"On the eastern shore of our Lake Erie, Don; but--I crave your
+courtesy--may be, you shall soon hear further of all that. Now,
+gentlemen, in square-sail brigs and three-masted ships, well nigh as
+large and stout as any that ever sailed out of your old Callao to far
+Manilla; this Lakeman, in the land-locked heart of our America, had yet
+been nurtured by all those agrarian free-booting impressions popularly
+connected with the open ocean. For in their interflowing aggregate,
+those grand fresh-water seas of ours--Erie, and Ontario, and Huron, and
+Superior, and Michigan--possess an ocean-like expansiveness, with many
+of the ocean's noblest traits; with many of its rimmed varieties of
+races and of climes. They contain round archipelagoes of romantic isles,
+even as the Polynesian waters do; in large part, are shored by two great
+contrasting nations, as the Atlantic is; they furnish long maritime
+approaches to our numerous territorial colonies from the East, dotted
+all round their banks; here and there are frowned upon by batteries, and
+by the goat-like craggy guns of lofty Mackinaw; they have heard the
+fleet thunderings of naval victories; at intervals, they yield their
+beaches to wild barbarians, whose red painted faces flash from out their
+peltry wigwams; for leagues and leagues are flanked by ancient and
+unentered forests, where the gaunt pines stand like serried lines of
+kings in Gothic genealogies; those same woods harboring wild Afric
+beasts of prey, and silken creatures whose exported furs give robes to
+Tartar Emperors; they mirror the paved capitals of Buffalo and
+Cleveland, as well as Winnebago villages; they float alike the
+full-rigged merchant ship, the armed cruiser of the State, the steamer,
+and the beech canoe; they are swept by Borean and dismasting blasts as
+direful as any that lash the salted wave; they know what shipwrecks are,
+for out of sight of land, however inland, they have drowned full many a
+midnight ship with all its shrieking crew. Thus, gentlemen, though an
+inlander, Steelkilt was wild-ocean born, and wild-ocean nurtured; as
+much of an audacious mariner as any. And for Radney, though in his
+infancy he may have laid him down on the lone Nantucket beach, to nurse
+at his maternal sea; though in after life he had long followed our
+austere Atlantic and your contemplative Pacific; yet was he quite as
+vengeful and full of social quarrel as the backwoods seaman, fresh from
+the latitudes of buck-horn handled Bowie-knives. Yet was this
+Nantucketer a man with some good-hearted traits; and this Lakeman, a
+mariner, who though a sort of devil indeed, might yet by inflexible
+firmness, only tempered by that common decency of human recognition
+which is the meanest slave's right; thus treated, this Steelkilt had
+long been retained harmless and docile. At all events, he had proved so
+thus far; but Radney was doomed and made mad, and Steelkilt--but,
+gentlemen, you shall hear.
+
+"It was not more than a day or two at the furthest after pointing her
+prow for her island haven, that the Town-Ho's leak seemed again
+increasing, but only so as to require an hour or more at the pumps every
+day. You must know that in a settled and civilized ocean like our
+Atlantic, for example, some skippers think little of pumping their whole
+way across it; though of a still, sleepy night, should the officer of
+the deck happen to forget his duty in that respect, the probability
+would be that he and his shipmates would never again remember it, on
+account of all hands gently subsiding to the bottom. Nor in the solitary
+and savage seas far from you to the westward, gentlemen, is it
+altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pump-handles in
+full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length; that is, if it lie
+along a tolerably accessible coast, or if any other reasonable retreat
+is afforded them. It is only when a leaky vessel is in some very out of
+the way part of those waters, some really landless latitude, that her
+captain begins to feel a little anxious.
+
+"Much this way had it been with the Town-Ho; so when her leak was found
+gaining once more, there was in truth some small concern manifested by
+several of her company; especially by Radney the mate. He commanded the
+upper sails to be well hoisted, sheeted home anew, and every way
+expanded to the breeze. Now this Radney, I suppose, was as little of a
+coward, and as little inclined to any sort of nervous apprehensiveness
+touching his own person as any fearless, unthinking creature on land or
+on sea that you can conveniently imagine, gentlemen. Therefore when he
+betrayed this solicitude about the safety of the ship, some of the
+seamen declared that it was only on account of his being a part owner
+in her. So when they were working that evening at the pumps, there was
+on this head no small gamesomeness slily going on among them, as they
+stood with their feet continually overflowed by the rippling clear
+water; clear as any mountain spring, gentlemen--that bubbling from the
+pumps ran across the deck, and poured itself out in steady spouts at the
+lee scupper-holes.
+
+"Now, as you well know, it is not seldom the case in this conventional
+world of ours--watery or otherwise; that when a person placed in command
+over his fellow-men finds one of them to be very significantly his
+superior in general pride of manhood, straightway against that man he
+conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness; and if he have a
+chance he will pull down and pulverize that subaltern's tower, and make
+a little heap of dust of it. Be this conceit of mine as it may,
+gentlemen, at all events Steelkilt was a tall and noble animal with a
+head like a Roman, and a flowing golden beard like the tasseled housings
+of your last viceroy's snorting charger; and a brain, and a heart, and a
+soul in him, gentlemen, which had made Steelkilt Charlemagne, had he
+been born son to Charlemagne's father. But Radney, the mate, was ugly as
+a mule; yet as hardy, as stubborn, as malicious. He did not love
+Steelkilt, and Steelkilt knew it.
+
+"Espying the mate drawing near as he was toiling at the pump with the
+rest, the Lakeman affected not to notice him, but unawed, went on with
+his gay banterings.
+
+"'Ay, ay, my merry lads, it's a lively leak this; hold a cannikin, one
+of ye, and let's have a taste. By the Lord, it's worth bottling! I tell
+ye what, men, old Rad's investment must go for it! he had best cut away
+his part of the hull and tow it home. The fact is, boys, that sword-fish
+only began the job; he's come back again with a gang of ship-carpenters,
+saw-fish, and file-fish, and what not; and the whole posse of 'em are
+now hard at work cutting and slashing at the bottom; making
+improvements, I suppose. If old Rad were here now, I'd tell him to jump
+overboard and scatter 'em. They're playing the devil with his estate, I
+can tell him. But he's a simple old soul--Rad, and a beauty, too. Boys,
+they say the rest of his property is invested in looking-glasses. I
+wonder if he'd give a poor devil like me the model of his nose.'
+
+"'Damn your eyes! what's that pump stopping for?' roared Radney,
+pretending not to have heard the sailors' talk. 'Thunder away at it!'
+
+"'Ay, ay, sir,' said Steelkilt, merry as a cricket. 'Lively, boys,
+lively, now!' And with that the pump clanged like fifty fire-engines;
+the men tossed their hats off to it, and ere long that peculiar gasping
+of the lungs was heard which denotes the fullest tension of life's
+utmost energies.
+
+"Quitting the pump at last, with the rest of his band, the Lakeman went
+forward all panting, and sat himself down on the windlass; his face
+fiery red, his eyes bloodshot, and wiping the profuse sweat from his
+brow. Now what cozening fiend it was, gentlemen, that possessed Radney
+to meddle with such a man in that corporeally exasperated state, I know
+not; but so it happened. Intolerably striding along the deck, the mate
+commanded him to get a broom and sweep down the planks, and also a
+shovel, and remove some offensive matters consequent upon allowing a pig
+to run at large.
+
+"Now, gentlemen, sweeping a ship's deck at sea is a piece of household
+work which in all times but raging gales is regularly attended to every
+evening; it has been known to be done in the case of ships actually
+foundering at the time. Such, gentlemen, is the inflexibility of
+sea-usages and the instinctive love of neatness in seamen; some of whom
+would not willingly drown without first washing their faces. But in all
+vessels this broom business is the prescriptive province of the boys, if
+boys there be aboard. Besides, it was the stronger men in the Town-Ho
+that had been divided into gangs, taking turns at the pumps; and being
+the most athletic seaman of them all, Steelkilt had been regularly
+assigned captain of one of the gangs; consequently he should have been
+freed from any trivial business not connected with truly nautical
+duties, such being the case with his comrades. I mention all these
+particulars so that you may understand exactly how this affair stood
+between the two men.
+
+"But there was more than this: the order about the shovel was almost as
+plainly meant to sting and insult Steelkilt, as though Radney had spat
+in his face. Any man who has gone sailor in a whale-ship will understand
+this; and all this and doubtless much more, the Lakeman fully
+comprehended when the mate uttered his command. But as he sat still for
+a moment, and as he steadfastly looked into the mate's malignant eye and
+perceived the stacks of powder-casks heaped up in him and the slow match
+silently burning along toward them; as he instinctively saw all this,
+that strange forbearance and unwillingness to stir up the deeper
+passionateness in any already ireful being--a repugnance most felt, when
+felt at all, by really valiant men even when aggrieved--this nameless
+phantom feeling, gentlemen, stole over Steelkilt.
+
+"Therefore, in his ordinary tone, only a little broken by the bodily
+exhaustion he was temporarily in, he answered him, saying that sweeping
+the deck was not his business, and he would not do it. And then, without
+at all alluding to the shovel, he pointed to three lads as the customary
+sweepers; who, not being billeted at the pumps, had done little or
+nothing all day. To this, Radney replied with an oath, in a most
+domineering and outrageous manner unconditionally reiterating his
+command; meanwhile advancing upon the still seated Lakeman, with an
+uplifted cooper's club hammer which he had snatched from a cask near by.
+
+"Heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil at the pumps, for
+all his first nameless feeling of forbearance the sweating Steelkilt
+could but ill brook this bearing in the mate; but somehow still
+smothering the conflagration within him, without speaking he remained
+doggedly; rooted to his seat, till at last the incensed Radney shook the
+hammer within a few inches of his face, furiously commanding him to do
+his bidding.
+
+"Steelkilt rose, and slowly retreating round the windlass, steadily
+followed by the mate with his menacing hammer, deliberately repeated his
+intention not to obey. Seeing, however, that his forbearance had not the
+slightest effect, by an awful and unspeakable intimation with his
+twisted hand he warned off the foolish and infatuated man; but it was to
+no purpose. And in this way the two went once slowly round the windlass;
+when, resolved at last no longer to retreat, bethinking him that he had
+now forborne as much as comported with his humor, the Lakeman paused on
+the hatches and thus spoke to the officer:
+
+"'Mr. Radney, I will not obey you. Take that hammer away, or look to
+yourself.' But the predestinated mate coming still closer to him, where
+the Lakeman stood fixed, now shook the heavy hammer within an inch of
+his teeth; meanwhile repeating a string of insufferable maledictions.
+Retreating not the thousandth part of an inch; stabbing him in the eye
+with the unflinching poniard of his glance, Steelkilt, clenching his
+right hand behind him and creepingly drawing it back, told his
+persecutor that if the hammer but grazed his cheek he (Steelkilt) would
+murder him. But, gentlemen, the fool had been branded for the slaughter
+by the gods. Immediately the hammer touched the cheek; the next instant
+the lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head; he fell on the hatch
+spouting blood like a whale.
+
+"Ere the cry could go aft Steelkilt was shaking one of the backstays
+leading far aloft to where two of his comrades were standing their
+mast-heads. They were both Canalers.
+
+"'Canalers!' cried Don Pedro. 'We have seen many whaleships in our
+harbors, but never heard of your Canalers. Pardon: who and what are
+they?'
+
+"Canalers, Don, are the boatmen belonging to our grand Erie Canal. You
+must have heard of it.
+
+"'Nay, Senor; hereabouts in this dull, warm, most lazy, and hereditary
+land, we know but little of your vigorous North.'
+
+"Ay? Well, then, Don, refill my cup. Your chicha's very fine; and, ere
+proceeding further I will tell you what our Canalers are; for such
+information may throw side-light upon my story.
+
+"For three hundred and sixty miles, gentlemen, through the entire
+breadth of the state of New York; through numerous populous cities and
+most thriving villages; through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and
+affluent, cultivated fields, unrivaled for fertility; by billiard-room
+and bar room; through the holy-of-holies of great forests; on Roman
+arches over Indian rivers; through sun and shade; by happy hearts or
+broken; through all the wide contrasting scenery of those noble Mohawk
+counties; and especially by rows of snow-white chapels, whose spires
+stand almost like milestones, flows one continual stream of Venetianly
+corrupt and often lawless life. There's your true Ashantee, gentlemen;
+there howl your pagans; where you ever find them, next door to you;
+under the long-flung shadow, and the snug patronizing lee of churches.
+For by some curious fatality, as it is often noted of your metropolitan
+freebooters that they ever encamp around the halls of justice, so
+sinners, gentlemen, most abound in holiest vicinities.
+
+"'Is that a friar passing?' said Don Pedro, looking downward into the
+crowded plaza, with humorous concern.
+
+"'Well for our northern friend, Dame Isabella's Inquisition wanes in
+Lima,' laughed Don Sebastian. 'Proceed, Senor.'
+
+"'A moment! Pardon!' cried another of the company. 'In the name of all
+us Limeese, I but desire to express to you, sir sailor, that we have by
+no means overlooked your delicacy in not substituting present Lima for
+distant Venice in your corrupt comparison. Oh! do not bow and look
+surprised; you know the proverb all along this coast--"Corrupt as Lima."
+It but bears out your saying, too; churches more plentiful than
+billiard-tables, and forever open--and "Corrupt as Lima." So, too,
+Venice; I have been there; the holy city of the blessed evangelist, St.
+Mark!--St. Dominic, purge it! Your cup! Thanks: here I refill; now, you
+pour out again.'
+
+"Freely depicted in his own vocation, gentlemen, the Canaler would make
+a fine dramatic hero, so abundantly and picturesquely wicked is he. Like
+Mark Antony, for days and days along his green-turfed, flowery Nile, he
+indolently floats, openly toying with his red-cheeked Cleopatra,
+ripening his apricot thigh upon the sunny deck. But ashore, all this
+effeminacy is dashed. The brigandish guise which the Canaler so proudly
+sports; his slouched and gayly-ribboned hat betoken his grand features.
+A terror to the smiling innocence of the villages through which he
+floats; his swart visage and bold swagger are not unshunned in cities.
+Once a vagabond on his own canal, I have received good turns from one of
+those Canalers; I thank him heartily; would fain be not ungrateful; but
+it is often one of the prime redeeming qualities of your man of
+violence, that at times he has as stiff an arm to back a poor stranger
+in a strait, as to plunder a wealthy one. In sum, gentlemen, what the
+wildness of this canal life is, is emphatically evinced by this; that
+our wild whale-fishery contains so many of its most finished graduates,
+and that scarce any race of mankind, except Sydney men, are so much
+distrusted by our whaling captains. Nor does it at all diminish the
+curiousness of this matter, that to many thousands of our rural boys and
+young men born along its line, the probationary life of the Grand Canal
+furnishes the sole transition between quietly reaping in a Christian
+corn-field, and recklessly ploughing the waters of the most barbaric
+seas."
+
+"'I see! I see!' impetuously exclaimed Don Pedro, spilling his chicha
+upon his silvery ruffles. 'No need to travel! The world's one Lima. I
+had thought, now, that at your temperate North the generations were cold
+and holy as the hills. But the story.'
+
+"I left off, gentlemen, where the Lakeman shook the backstay. Hardly had
+he done so, when he was surrounded by the three junior mates and the
+four harpooners, who all crowded him to the deck. But sliding down the
+ropes like baleful comets, the two Canalers rushed into the uproar, and
+sought to drag their man out of it toward the forecastle. Others of the
+sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued;
+while standing out of harm's way, the valiant captain danced up and down
+with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious
+scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck. At intervals, he ran
+close up to the revolving border of the confusion, and prying into the
+heart of it with his pike, sought to prick out the object of his
+resentment. But Steelkilt and his desperadoes were too much for them
+all; they succeeded in gaining the forecastle deck, where, hastily
+slewing about three or four large casks in a line with the windlass,
+these sea-Parisians entrenched themselves behind the barricade."
+
+"'Come out of that, ye pirates!' roared the captain, now menacing them
+with a pistol in each hand, just brought to him by the steward. 'Come
+out of that, ye cut-throats!'
+
+"Steelkilt leaped on the barricade, and striding up and down there,
+defied the worst the pistols could do; but gave the captain to
+understand distinctly, that his (Steelkilt's) death would be the signal
+for a murderous mutiny on the part of all hands. Fearing in his heart
+lest this might prove but too true, the captain a little desisted, but
+still commanded the insurgents instantly to return to their duty.
+
+"'Will you promise not to touch us, if we do?' demanded their
+ringleader.
+
+"'Turn to! turn to!--I make no promise; to your duty! Do you want to
+sink the ship, by knocking off at a time like this? Turn to!' and he
+once more raised a pistol.
+
+"'Sink the ship?' cried Steelkilt. 'Ay, let her sink. Not a man of us
+turns to, unless you swear not to raise a rope-yarn against us. What say
+ye, men?' turning to his comrades. A fierce cheer was their response.
+
+"The Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the while keeping his eye
+on the Captain, and jerking out such sentences as these: 'It's not our
+fault; we didn't want it; I told him to take his hammer away; it was
+boys' business: he might have known me before this; I told him not to
+prick the buffalo; I believe I have broken a finger here against his
+cursed jaw; ain't those mincing knives down in the forecastle there,
+men? look to those handspikes, my hearties. Captain, by God, look to
+yourself; say the word; don't be a fool; forget it all; we are ready to
+turn to; treat us decently, and we're your men; but we won't be
+flogged.'
+
+"'Turn to! I make no promises: turn to, I say!'
+
+"'Look ye, now,' cried the Lakeman, flinging out his arm toward him,
+'there are a few of us here (and I am one of them) who have shipped for
+the cruise, d'ye see; now as you well know, sir, we can claim our
+discharge as soon as the anchor is down; so we don't want a row; it's
+not our interest; we want to be peaceable; we are ready to work, but we
+won't be flogged.'
+
+"'Turn to!' roared the Captain.
+
+"Steelkilt glanced round him a moment, and then said: 'I tell you what
+it is now, Captain, rather than kill ye, and be hung for such a shabby
+rascal, we won't lift a hand against ye unless ye attack us; but till
+you say the word about not flogging us, we don't do a hand's turn.'
+
+"'Down into the forecastle then, down with ye, I'll keep ye there till
+ye're sick of it. Down ye go.'
+
+"'Shall we?' cried the ringleader to his men. Most of them were against
+it; but at length, in obedience to Steelkilt, they preceded him down
+into their dark den, growlingly disappearing like bears into a cave.
+
+"As the Lakeman's bare head was just level with the planks, the Captain
+and his posse leaped the barricade, and rapidly drawing over the slide
+of the scuttle, planted their group of hands upon it, and loudly called
+for the steward to bring the heavy brass padlock belonging to the
+companionway. Then opening the slide a little, the Captain whispered
+something down the crack, closed it, and turned the key upon them--ten
+in number--leaving on deck some twenty or more, who thus far had
+remained neutral.
+
+"All night a wide-awake watch was kept by all the officers, forward and
+aft, especially about the forecastle scuttle and fore hatchway; at which
+last place it was feared the insurgents might emerge, after breaking
+through the bulkhead below. But the hours of darkness passed in peace;
+the men who still remained at their duty toiling hard at the pumps,
+whose clinking and clanking at intervals through the dreary night
+dismally resounded through the ship.
+
+"At sunrise the Captain went forward, and knocking on the deck summoned
+the prisoners to work; but with a yell they refused. Water was then
+lowered down to them, and a couple of handfuls of biscuit were tossed
+after it; when again turning the key upon them and pocketing it, the
+Captain returned to the quarter-deck. Twice every day for three days
+this was repeated; but on the fourth morning a confused wrangling, and
+then a scuffling was heard, as the customary summons was delivered; and
+suddenly four men burst up from the forecastle, saying they were ready
+to turn to. The fetid closeness of the air, and a famishing diet, united
+perhaps to some fears of ultimate retribution, had constrained them to
+surrender at discretion. Emboldened by this, the Captain reiterated his
+demand to the rest, but Steelkilt shouted up to him a terrific hint to
+stop his babbling and betake himself where he belonged. On the fifth
+morning three others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the
+desperate arms below that sought to restrain them. Only three were left.
+
+"'Better turn to, now!' said the Captain with a heartless jeer.
+
+"'Shut us up again, will ye!' cried Steelkilt.
+
+"'Oh! certainly,' said the Captain, and the key clicked.
+
+"It was at this point, gentlemen, that enraged by the defection of seven
+of his former associates, and stung by the mocking voice that had last
+hailed him, and maddened by his long entombment in a place as black as
+the bowels of despair; it was then that Steelkilt proposed to the two
+Canalers, thus far apparently of one mind with him, to burst out of
+their hole at the next summoning of the garrison; and armed with their
+keen mincing knives (long, crescentic, heavy implements with a handle at
+each end) run a muck from the bowsprit to the taffrail; and if by any
+devilishness of desperation possible, seize the ship. For himself, he
+would do this, he said, whether they joined him or not. That was the
+last night he should spend in that den. But the scheme met with no
+opposition on the part of the other two; they swore they were ready for
+that, or for any other mad thing, for any thing, in short, but a
+surrender. And what was more, they each insisted upon being the first
+man on deck, when the time to make the rush should come. But to this
+their leader as fiercely objected, reserving that priority for himself;
+particularly as his two comrades would not yield, the one to the other,
+in the matter; and both of them could not be first, for the ladder would
+but admit one man at a time. And here, gentlemen, the foul play of these
+miscreants must come out.
+
+"Upon hearing the frantic project of their leader, each in his own
+separate soul had suddenly lighted, it would seem, upon the same piece
+of treachery, namely: to be foremost in breaking out, in order to be the
+first of the three, though the last of the ten, to surrender; and
+thereby secure whatever small chance of pardon such conduct might merit.
+But when Steelkilt made known his determination still to lead them to
+the last, they in some way, by some subtle chemistry of villainy, mixed
+their before secret treacheries together; and when their leader fell
+into a doze, verbally opened their souls to each other in three
+sentences; and bound the sleeper with cords, and gagged him with cords;
+and shrieked out for the Captain at midnight.
+
+"Thinking murder at hand, and smelling in the dark for the blood, he and
+all his armed mates and harpooners rushed for the forecastle. In a few
+minutes the scuttle was opened, and, bound hand and foot, the still
+struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air by his perfidious
+allies, who at once claimed the honor of securing a man who had been
+fully ripe for murder. But all three were collared, and dragged along
+the deck like dead cattle; and, side by side, were seized up into the
+mizen rigging, like three quarters of meat, and there they hung till
+morning. 'Damn ye,' cried the Captain, pacing to and fro before them,
+'the vultures would not touch ye, ye villains!'
+
+"At sunrise he summoned all hands; and separated those who had rebelled
+from those who had taken no part in the mutiny, he told the former that
+he had a good mind to flog them all around--thought, upon the whole, he
+would do so--he ought to--justice demanded it; but, for the present,
+considering their timely surrender, he would let them go with a
+reprimand, which he accordingly administered in the vernacular.
+
+"'But as for you, ye carrion rogues,' turning to the three men in the
+rigging--'for you, I mean to mince ye up for the try-pots;' and, seizing
+a rope, he applied it with all his might to the backs of the two
+traitors, till they yelled no more, but lifelessly hung their head
+sideways, as the two crucified thieves are drawn.
+
+"'My wrist is sprained with ye!' he cried, at last; 'but there is still
+rope enough left for you, my fine bantam, that wouldn't give up. Take
+that gag from his mouth, and let us hear what he can say for himself.'
+
+"For a moment the exhausted mutineer made a tremulous motion of his
+cramped jaws, and then painfully twisting round his head, said, in a
+sort of hiss, 'What I say is this--and mind it well--if you flog me, I
+murder you!'
+
+"'Say ye so? then see how ye frighten me'--and the Captain drew off with
+the rope to strike.
+
+"'Best not,' hissed the Lakeman.
+
+"'But I must'--and the rope was once more drawn back for the stroke.
+
+"Steelkilt here hissed out something, inaudible to all but the Captain;
+who, to the amazement of all hands, started back, paced the deck rapidly
+two or three times, and then suddenly throwing down his rope, said, 'I
+won't do it--let him go--cut him down: d'ye hear?'
+
+"But as the junior mates were hurrying to execute the order, a pale man,
+with a bandaged head, arrested them--Radney the chief mate. Ever since
+the blow, he had lain in his berth; but that morning, hearing the tumult
+on the deck, he had crept out, and thus far had watched the whole scene.
+Such was the state of his mouth, that he could hardly speak; but
+mumbling something about _his_ being willing and able to do what the
+Captain dared not attempt, he snatched the rope and advanced to his
+pinioned foe.
+
+"'You are a coward!' hissed the Lakeman.
+
+"'So I am, but take that.' The mate was in the very act of striking,
+when another hiss stayed his uplifted arm. He paused: and then pausing
+no more, made good his word, spite of Steelkilt's threat, whatever that
+might have been. The three men were then cut down, all hands were turned
+to, and, sullenly worked by the moody seamen, the iron pumps clanged as
+before.
+
+"Just after dark that day, when one watch had retired below, a clamor
+was heard in the forecastle; and the two trembling traitors running up,
+besieged the cabin-door, saying they durst not consort with the crew.
+Entreaties, cuffs, and kicks could not drive them back, so at their own
+instance they were put down in the ship's run for salvation. Still, no
+sign of mutiny re-appeared among the rest. On the contrary, it seemed,
+that mainly at Steelkilt's instigation, they had resolved to maintain
+the strictest peacefulness, obey all orders to the last, and, when the
+ship reached port, desert her in a body. But in order to insure the
+speediest end to the voyage, they all agreed to another thing--namely,
+not to sing out for whales, in case any should be discovered. For, spite
+of her leak, and spite of all her other perils, the Town-Ho still
+maintained her mast heads, and her captain was just as willing to lower
+for a fish that moment, as on the day his craft first struck the
+cruising-ground, and Radney the mate was quite as ready to change his
+berth for a boat, and with his bandaged mouth seek to gag in death the
+vital jaw of the whale.
+
+"But though the Lakeman had induced the seamen to adopt this sort of
+passiveness in their conduct, he kept his own counsel (at least till all
+was over) concerning his own proper and private revenge upon the man who
+had stung him in the ventricles of his heart. He was in Radney the
+chief-mate's watch; and as if the infatuated man sought to run more than
+half way to meet his doom, after the scene at the rigging, he insisted,
+against the express counsel of the captain, upon resuming the head of
+his watch at night. Upon this, and one or two other circumstances,
+Steelkilt systematically built the plan of his revenge.
+
+"During the night, Radney had an unseaman-like way of sitting on the
+bulwarks of the quarter-deck, and leaning his arm upon the gunwale of
+the boat which was hoisted up there, a little above the ship's side. In
+this attitude, it was well known, he sometimes dozed. There was a
+considerable vacancy between the boat and the ship, and down between
+this was the sea. Steelkilt calculated his time, and found that his next
+trick at the helm would come round at two o'clock, in the morning of the
+third day from that in which he had been betrayed. At his leisure, he
+employed the interval in braiding something very carefully in his
+watches below.
+
+"'What are you making there?' said a shipmate.
+
+"'What do you think? what does it look like?'
+
+"'Like a lanyard for your bag; but it's an odd one, seems to me.'
+
+"'Yes, rather oddish,' said the Lakeman, holding it at arm's length
+before him; 'but I think it will answer. Shipmate, I haven't enough
+twine--have you any?'
+
+"But there was none in the forecastle.
+
+"'Then I must get some from old Rad;' and he rose to go aft.
+
+"'You don't mean to go a-begging to _him!_' said a sailor.
+
+"'Why not? Do you think he won't do me a turn, when it's to help himself
+in the end, shipmate?' and going to the mate, he looked at him quietly,
+and asked him for some twine to mend his hammock. It was given
+him--neither twine nor lanyard was seen again; but the next night an
+iron ball, closely netted, partly rolled from the pocket of the
+Lakeman's monkey-jacket, as he was tucking the coat into his hammock for
+a pillow. Twenty-four hours after, his trick at the silent helm--nigh to
+the man who was apt to doze over the grave always ready dug to the
+seaman's hand--that fatal hour was then to come; and in the
+fore-ordaining soul of Steelkilt, the mate was already stark and
+stretched as a corpse, with his forehead crushed in.
+
+"But, gentlemen, a fool saved the would-be murderer from the bloody deed
+he had planned. Yet complete revenge he had, and without being the
+avenger. For by a mysterious fatality, Heaven itself seemed to step in
+to take out of his hands into its own the damning thing he would have
+done.
+
+"It was just between daybreak and sunrise of the morning of the second
+day, when they were washing down the decks, that a stupid Teneriffe man,
+drawing water in the main-chains, all at once shouted out, 'There she
+rolls! there she rolls! Jesu! what a whale!' It was Moby Dick.
+
+"'Moby Dick!' cried Don Sebastian; 'St. Dominic! Sir sailor, but do
+whales have christenings? Whom call you Moby Dick?'
+
+"A very white, and famous, and most deadly immortal monster, Don; but
+that would be too long a story.
+
+"'How? how? cried all the young Spaniards, crowding.
+
+"Nay, Dons, Dons--nay, nay! I can not rehearse that now. Let me get more
+into the air, sirs.
+
+"'The chicha! the chicha!' cried Don Pedro; 'our vigorous friend looks
+faint; fill up his empty glass!'
+
+"No need, gentlemen; one moment, and I proceed. Now, gentlemen, so
+suddenly perceiving the snowy whale within fifty yards of the
+ship--forgetful of the compact among the crew--in the excitement of the
+moment, the Teneriffe man had instinctively and involuntarily lifted his
+voice for the monster, though for some little time past it had been
+plainly beheld from the three sullen mast-heads. All was now a frenzy.
+'The White Whale--the White Whale!' was the cry from captain, mates, and
+harpooners, who, undeterred by fearful rumors, were all anxious to
+capture so famous and precious a fish; while the dogged crew eyed
+askance, and with curses, the appalling beauty of the vast milky mass,
+that lit up by a horizontal spangling sun, shifted and glistened like a
+living opal in the blue morning sea. Gentlemen, a strange fatality
+pervades the whole career of these events, as if verily mapped out
+before the world itself was charted. The mutineer was the bowsman of the
+mate, and when fast to a fish, it was his duty to sit next him, while
+Radney stood up with his lance in the prow, and haul in or slacken the
+line, at the word of command. Moreover, when the four boats were
+lowered, the mate's got the start; and none howled more fiercely with
+delight than did Steelkilt, as he strained at his oar. After a stiff
+pull, their harpooner got fast, and, spear in hand, Radney sprang to the
+bow. He was always a furious man, it seems, in a boat. And now his
+bandaged cry was, to beach him on the whale's topmost back. Nothing
+loath, his bowsman hauled him up and up, through a blinding foam that
+blent two whitenesses together; till of a sudden the boat struck as
+against a sunken ledge, and keeling over, spilled out the standing mate.
+That instant, as he fell on the whale's slippery back, the boat righted,
+and was dashed aside by the swell, while Radney was tossed over into the
+sea, on the other flank of the whale. He struck out through the spray,
+and, for an instant, was dimly seen through that vail, wildly seeking to
+remove himself from the eye of Moby Dick. But the whale rushed round in
+a sudden maelstrom--seized the swimmer between his jaws; and rearing
+high up with him, plunged headlong again, and went down.
+
+"Meantime, at the first tap of the boat's bottom, the Lakeman had
+slackened the line, so as to drop astern from the whirlpool; calmly
+looking on, he thought his own thoughts. But a sudden, terrific,
+downward jerking of the boat, quickly brought his knife to the line. He
+cut it; and the whale was free. But, at some distance, Moby Dick rose
+again, with some tatters of Radney's red woolen shirt, caught in the
+teeth that had destroyed him. All four boats gave chase again; but the
+whale eluded them, and, finally, wholly disappeared.
+
+"In good time, the Town-Ho reached her port--a savage, solitary
+place--where no civilized creature resided. There, headed by the
+Lakeman, all but five or six of the foremast-men deliberately deserted
+among the palms; eventually, as it turned out, seizing a large double
+war-canoe of the savages, and setting sail for some other harbor.
+
+"The ship's company being reduced to but a handful, the Captain called
+upon the Islanders to assist him in the laborious business of heaving
+down the ship to stop the leak. But to such unresting vigilance over
+their dangerous allies was this small band of whites necessitated, both
+by night and by day, and so extreme was the hard work they underwent,
+that upon the vessel being ready again for sea, they were in such a
+weakened condition that the captain durst not put off with them in so
+heavy a vessel. After taking counsel with his officers, he anchored the
+ship as far off shore as possible; loaded and ran out his two cannon
+from the bows; stacked his muskets on the poop; and warning the
+Islanders not to approach the ship at their peril, took one man with
+him, and setting the sail of his best whale-boat, steered straight
+before the wind for Tahiti, five hundred miles distant, to procure a
+reinforcement to his crew.
+
+"On the fourth day of the sail, a large canoe was descried, which seemed
+to have touched at a low isle of corals. He steered away from it; but
+the savage craft bore down on him; and soon the voice of Steelkilt
+hailed him to heave to, or he would run him under water. The captain
+presented a pistol. With one foot on each prow of the yoked war-canoes,
+the Lakeman laughed him to scorn; assuring him that if the pistol so
+much as clicked in the lock, he would bury him in bubbles and foam.
+
+"'What do you want of me?' cried the captain.
+
+"'Where are you bound? and for what are you bound?' demanded Steelkilt;
+'no lies.'
+
+"'I am bound to Tahiti for more men.'
+
+"'Very good. Let me board you a moment--I come in peace.' With that he
+leaped from the canoe, swam to the boat; and climbing the gunwale, stood
+face to face with the captain.
+
+"'Cross your arm, sir; throw back your head. Now, repeat after me. As
+soon as Steelkilt leaves me, I swear to beach this boat on yonder
+island, and remain there six days. If I do not, may lightnings strike
+me!'
+
+"'A pretty scholar,' laughed the Lakeman. 'Adios, Senor!' and leaping
+into the sea, he swam back to his comrades.
+
+"Watching the boat till it was fairly beached, and drawn up to the roots
+of the cocoa-nut trees, Steelkilt made sail again, and in due time
+arrived at Tahiti, his own place of destination. There, luck befriended
+him; two ships were about to sail for France, and were providentially in
+want of precisely that number of men which the sailor headed. They
+embarked; and so forever got the start of their former captain, had he
+been at all minded to work them legal retribution.
+
+"Some ten days after the French ships sailed, the whale-boat arrived,
+and the captain was forced to enlist some of the more civilized
+Tahitans, who had been somewhat used to the sea. Chartering a small
+native schooner, he returned with them to his vessel; and finding all
+right there, again resumed his cruisings.
+
+"Where Steelkilt now is, gentlemen, none know; but upon the island of
+Nantucket, the widow of Radney still turns to the sea which refuses to
+give up its dead; still in dreams sees the awful white whale that
+destroyed him....
+
+"'Are you through?' said Don Sebastian, quietly.
+
+"I am, Don.
+
+"'Then I entreat you, tell me if to the best of your own convictions,
+this your story is, in substance, really true? It is so passing
+wonderful! Did you get it from an unquestionable source? Bear with me if
+I seem to press.'
+
+"'Also bear with all of us, sir sailor; for we all join in Don
+Sebastian's suit,' cried the company, with exceeding interest.
+
+"Is there a copy of the Holy Evangelists in the Golden Inn, gentlemen?
+
+"'Nay,' said Don Sebastian; 'but I know a worthy priest near by, who
+will quickly procure one for me. I go for it; but are you well advised?
+this may grow too serious.'
+
+"'Will you be so good as to bring the priest also, Don?'
+
+"'Though there are no Auto-da-Fés in Lima now,' said one of the company
+to another; 'I fear our sailor friend runs risk of the archiepiscopacy.
+Let us withdraw more out of the moonlight. I see no need of this.'
+
+"Excuse me for running after you, Don Sebastian; but may I also beg that
+you will be particular in procuring the largest sized Evangelists you
+can....
+
+"'This is the priest; he brings you the Evangelists,' said Don
+Sebastian, gravely, returning with a tall and solemn figure.
+
+"Let me remove my hat. Now, venerable priest, further into the light,
+and hold the Holy Book before me that I may touch it.
+
+"So help me Heaven, and on my honor, the story I have told ye,
+gentlemen, is, in substance and its great items, true. I know it to be
+true; it happened on this ball; I trod the ship; I knew the crew; I have
+seen and talked with Steelkilt since the death of Radney."
+
+
+
+
+MY NOVEL, OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.[6]
+
+[6] Continued from the September Number.
+
+Book VII.--INITIAL CHAPTER.
+
+
+"What is courage?" said my uncle Roland, rousing himself from a reverie
+into which he had fallen after the Sixth Book in this history had been
+read to our family circle.
+
+"What is courage?" he repeated more earnestly. "Is it insensibility to
+fear? _That_ may be the mere accident of constitution; and, if so, there
+is no more merit in being courageous than in being this table."
+
+"I am very glad to hear you speak thus," observed Mr. Caxton, "for I
+should not like to consider myself a coward; yet I am very sensible to
+fear in all dangers, bodily and moral."
+
+"La, Austin, how can you say so?" cried my mother, firing up; "was it
+not only last week that you faced the great bull that was rushing after
+Blanche and the children?"
+
+Blanche at that recollection stole to my father's chair, and, hanging
+over his shoulder kissed his forehead.
+
+Mr. Caxton (sublimely unmoved by these flatteries).--"I don't deny that
+I faced the bull, but I assert that I was horribly frightened."
+
+Roland.--"The sense of honor which conquers fear is the true courage of
+chivalry: you could not run away when others were looking on--no
+gentleman could."
+
+Mr. Caxton.--"Fiddledee! It was not on my gentility that I stood,
+Captain. I should have run fast enough, if it had done any good. I stood
+upon my understanding. As the bull could run faster than I could, the
+only chance of escape was to make the brute as frightened as myself."
+
+Blanche.--"Ah, you did not think of that; your only thought was to save
+me and the children."
+
+Mr. Caxton.--"Possibly, my dear--very possibly I might have been afraid
+for you too--but I was very much afraid for myself. However, luckily I
+had the umbrella, and I sprang it up and spread it forth in the animal's
+stupid eyes, hurling at him simultaneously the biggest lines I could
+think of in the First Chorus of the 'Seven against Thebes.' I began with
+ELEDEMNAS PEDIOPLOKTUPOS; and when I came to the grand howl of Iô, iô,
+iô, iô--the beast stood appalled as at the roar of a lion. I shall never
+forget his amazed snort at the Greek. Then he kicked up his hind legs,
+and went bolt through the gap in the hedge. Thus, armed with Æschylus
+and the umbrella, I remained master of the field; but (continued Mr.
+Caxton, ingenuously), I should not like to go through that half minute
+again."
+
+"No man would," said the Captain, kindly. "I should be very sorry to
+face a bull myself, even with a bigger umbrella than yours, and even
+though I had Æschylus, and Homer to boot, at my fingers' ends."
+
+Mr. Caxton.--"You would not have minded if it had been a Frenchman with
+a sword in his hand?"
+
+Captain.--"Of course not. Rather liked it than otherwise," he added,
+grimly.
+
+Mr. Caxton.--"Yet many a Spanish matador, who doesn't care a button for
+a bull, would take to his heels at the first lunge _en carte_ from a
+Frenchman. Therefore, in fact, if courage be a matter of constitution,
+it is also a matter of custom. We face calmly the dangers we are
+habituated to, and recoil from those of which we have no familiar
+experience. I doubt if Marshal Turenne himself would have been quite at
+his ease on the tight rope; and a rope-dancer, who seems disposed to
+scale the heavens with Titanic temerity, might possibly object to charge
+on a cannon."
+
+Captain Roland.--"Still, either this is not the courage I mean, or there
+is another kind of it. I mean by courage that which is the especial
+force and dignity of the human character, without which there is no
+reliance on principle, no constancy in virtue--a something," continued
+my uncle, gallantly, and with a half bow toward my mother, "which your
+sex shares with our own. When the lover, for instance, clasps the hand
+of his betrothed, and says, 'Wilt thou be true to me, in spite of
+absence and time, in spite of hazard and fortune, though my foes malign
+me, though thy friends may dissuade thee, and our lot in life may be
+rough and rude?' and when the betrothed answers, 'I will be true,' does
+not the lover trust to her courage as well as her love?"
+
+"Admirably put, Roland," said my father. "But _apropos_ of what do you
+puzzle us with these queries on courage?"
+
+Captain Roland (with a slight blush).--"I was led to the inquiry
+(though, perhaps, it may be frivolous to take so much thought of what,
+no doubt, costs Pisistratus so little), by the last chapters in my
+nephew's story. I see this poor boy, Leonard, alone with his fallen
+hopes (though very irrational they were), and his sense of shame. And I
+read his heart, I dare say, better than Pisistratus does, for I could
+feel like that boy if I had been in the same position; and, conjecturing
+what he and thousands like him must go through, I asked myself, 'What
+can save him and them?' I answered, as a soldier would answer,
+'Courage!' Very well. But pray, Austin, what is courage?"
+
+Mr. Caxton (prudently backing out of a reply).--"_Papæ!_ Brother, since
+you have just complimented the ladies on that quality, you had better
+address your question to them."
+
+Blanche here leant both hands on my father's chair, and said, looking
+down at first bashfully, but afterward warming with the subject, "Do you
+not think, sir, that little Helen has already suggested, if not what is
+courage, what at least is the real essence of all courage that endures
+and conquers, that ennobles, and hallows, and redeems? Is it not
+Patience, father?--and that is why we women have a courage of our own.
+Patience does not affect to be superior to fear, but at least it never
+admits despair."
+
+Pisistratus.--"Kiss me, my Blanche, for you have come near to the truth
+which perplexed the soldier and puzzled the sage."
+
+Mr. Caxton (tartly).--"If you mean me by the sage, I was not puzzled at
+all. Heaven knows you do right to inculcate patience--it is a virtue
+very much required in your readers. Nevertheless," added my father,
+softening with the enjoyment of his joke--"nevertheless, Blanche and
+Helen are quite right. Patience is the courage of the conqueror; it is
+the virtue, _par excellence_, of Man against Destiny--of the One against
+the World, and of the Soul against Matter. Therefore this is the courage
+of the Gospel; and its importance, in a social view--its importance to
+races and institutions--can not be too earnestly included. What is it
+that distinguishes the Anglo-Saxon from all other branches of the human
+family, peoples deserts with his children, and consigns to them the
+heritage of rising worlds? What but his faculty to brave, to suffer, to
+endure--the patience that resists firmly, and innovates slowly. Compare
+him with the Frenchman. The Frenchman has plenty of valor--that there is
+no denying; but as for fortitude, he has not enough to cover the point
+of a pin. He is ready to rush out of the world if he is bit by a flea."
+
+Captain Roland.--"There was a case in the papers the other day, Austin,
+of a Frenchman who actually did destroy himself because he was so teased
+by the little creatures you speak of. He left a paper on his table,
+saying that 'life was not worth having at the price of such
+torments.'"[7]
+
+[7] Fact. In a work by M. Gibert, a celebrated French physician, on
+diseases of the skin, he states that that minute troublesome kind of
+rash, known by the name of _prurigo_, though not dangerous in itself,
+has often driven the individual afflicted by it to--suicide. I believe
+that our more varying climate, and our more heating drinks and aliments,
+render the skin complaint more common in England than in France, yet I
+doubt if any English physician could state that it had ever driven one
+of his _English_ patients to suicide.
+
+Mr. Caxton (solemnly).--"Sir, their whole political history, since the
+great meeting of the Tiers État, has been the history of men who would
+rather go to the devil than be bit by a flea. It is the record of human
+impatience, that seeks to force time, and expects to grow forests from
+the spawn of a mushroom. Wherefore, running through all extremes of
+constitutional experiment, when they are nearest to democracy they are
+next door to a despot; and all they have really done is to destroy
+whatever constitutes the foundation of every tolerable government. A
+constitutional monarchy can not exist without aristocracy, nor a
+healthful republic endure with corruption of manners. The cry of
+Equality is incompatible with Civilization, which, of necessity,
+contrasts poverty with wealth, and, in short, whether it be an emperor
+or a mob that is to rule, Force is the sole hope of order, and the
+government is but an army.
+
+"Impress, O Pisistratus! impress the value of patience as regards man
+and men. You touch there on the kernel of the social system--the secret
+that fortifies the individual and disciplines the million. I care not,
+for my part, if you are tedious so long as you are earnest. Be minute
+and detailed. Let the real human life, in its war with Circumstance,
+stand out. Never mind if one can read you but slowly--better chance of
+being less quickly forgotten. Patience, patience! By the soul of
+Epictetus, your readers shall set you an example!"
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Leonard had written twice to Mrs. Fairfield, twice to Riccabocca, and
+once to Mr. Dale; and the poor proud boy could not bear to betray his
+humiliation. He wrote with as cheerful spirits--as if perfectly
+satisfied with his prospects. He said that he was well employed, in the
+midst of books, and that he had found kind friends. Then he turned from
+himself to write about those whom he addressed, and the affairs and
+interests of the quiet world wherein they lived. He did not give his own
+address, nor that of Mr. Prickett. He dated his letters from a small
+coffee-house near the bookseller, to which he occasionally went for his
+simple meals. He had a motive in this. He did not desire to be found
+out. Mr. Dale replied for himself and for Mrs. Fairfield, to the
+epistles addressed to these two. Riccabocca wrote also. Nothing could be
+more kind than the replies of both. They came to Leonard in a very dark
+period in his life, and they strengthened him in the noiseless battle
+with despair.
+
+If there be a good in the world that we do without knowing it, without
+conjecturing the effect it may have upon a human soul, it is when we
+show kindness to the young in the first barren footpath up the mountain
+of life.
+
+Leonard's face resumed its serenity in his intercourse with his
+employer; but he did not recover his boyish ingenuous frankness. The
+under-currents flowed again pure from the turbid soil and the splintered
+fragments uptorn from the deep; but they were still too strong and too
+rapid to allow transparency to the surface. And now he stood in the
+sublime world of books, still and earnest as a seer who invokes the
+dead. And thus, face to face with knowledge, hourly he discovered how
+little he knew. Mr. Prickett lent him such works as he selected and
+asked to take home with him. He spent whole nights in reading; and no
+longer desultorily. He read no more poetry, no more Lives of Poets. He
+read what poets must read if they desire to be great--_Sapere principium
+et fons_--strict reasonings on the human mind; the relations between
+motive and conduct, thought and action; the grave and solemn truths of
+the past world; antiquities, history, philosophy. He was taken out of
+himself. He was carried along the ocean of the universe. In that ocean,
+O seeker, study the law of the tides; and seeing Chance nowhere--Thought
+presiding over all--Fate, that dread phantom, shall vanish from
+creation, and Providence alone be visible in heaven and on earth!
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+There was to be a considerable book-sale at a country house one day's
+journey from London. Mr. Prickett meant to have attended it on his own
+behalf, and that of several gentlemen who had given him commissions for
+purchase; but, on the morning fixed for his departure, he was seized
+with a severe return of his old foe, the rheumatism. He requested
+Leonard to attend instead of himself. Leonard went, and was absent for
+the three days during which the sale lasted. He returned late in the
+evening, and went at once to Mr. Prickett's house. The shop was closed;
+he knocked at the private entrance; a strange person opened the door to
+him, and in reply to his question if Mr. Prickett was at home, said with
+a long and funereal face--"Young man, Mr. Prickett senior has gone to
+his long home, but Mr. Richard Prickett will see you."
+
+At this moment a very grave-looking man, with lank hair, looked forth
+from the side-door communicating between the shop and the passage; and
+then stepped forward--"Come in, sir; you are my late uncle's assistant,
+Mr. Fairfield, I suppose?"
+
+"Your late uncle! Heavens, sir, do I understand aright--can Mr. Prickett
+be dead since I left London?"
+
+"Died, sir, suddenly last night. It was an affection of the heart; the
+doctor thinks the rheumatism attacked that organ. He had small time to
+provide for his departure, and his account books seem in sad disorder: I
+am his nephew and executor."
+
+Leonard had now followed the nephew into the shop. There, still burned
+the gas lamp. The place seemed more dingy and cavernous than before.
+Death always makes its presence felt in the house it visits.
+
+Leonard was greatly affected--and yet more, perhaps, by the utter want
+of feeling which the nephew exhibited. In fact, the deceased had not
+been on friendly terms with this person, his nearest relative and
+heir-at-law, who was also a bookseller.
+
+"You were engaged but by the week I find, young man, on reference to my
+late uncle's papers. He gave you a £1 a week--a monstrous sum! I shall
+not require your services any further. I shall move these books to my
+own house. You will be good enough to send me a list of those you bought
+at the sale, and your account of traveling expenses, &c. What may be due
+to you shall be sent to your address. Good evening."
+
+Leonard went home, shocked and saddened at the sudden death of his kind
+employer. He did not think much of himself that night; but, when he rose
+the next day, he suddenly felt that the world of London lay before him,
+without a friend, without a calling, without an occupation for bread.
+
+This time it was no fancied sorrow, no poetic dream disappointed. Before
+him, gaunt and palpable, stood Famine.
+
+Escape!--yes. Back to the village; his mother's cottage; the exile's
+garden; the radishes and the fount. Why could he not escape? Ask why
+civilization can not escape its ills and fly back to the wilds and the
+wigwam?
+
+Leonard could not have returned to the cottage, even if the Famine that
+faced had already seized him with her skeleton hand. London releases not
+so readily her fated stepsons.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+One day three persons were standing before an old book-stall in a
+passage leading from Oxford-street into Tottenham-court-road. Two were
+gentlemen; the third, of the class and appearance of those who more
+habitually halt at old book-stalls.
+
+"Look," said one of the gentlemen to the other, "I have discovered here
+what I have searched for in vain for the last ten years--the Horace of
+1580, the Horace of the Forty Commentators--a perfect treasury of
+learning, and marked only fourteen shillings!"
+
+"Hush, Norreys," said the other, "and observe what is yet more worth
+your study;" and he pointed to the third bystander, whose face, sharp
+and attenuated, was bent with an absorbed, and as it were, with a
+hungering attention over an old worm-eaten volume.
+
+"What is the book, my lord?" whispered Mr. Norreys.
+
+His companion smiled, and replied by another question, "What is the man
+who reads the book?"
+
+Mr. Norreys moved a few paces, and looked over the student's shoulder.
+"Preston's translation of Boethius, _The Consolations of Philosophy_,"
+he said, coming back to his friend.
+
+"He looks as if he wanted all the consolations Philosophy can give him,
+poor boy."
+
+At this moment a fourth passenger paused at the book-stall, and,
+recognizing the pale student, placed his hand on his shoulder and said,
+"Aha, young sir, we meet again. So poor Prickett is dead. But you are
+still haunted by associations. Books--books--magnets to which all iron
+minds move insensibly. What is this? Boethius! Ah, a book written in
+prison, but a little time before the advent of the only philosopher who
+solves to the simplest understanding every mystery of life--"
+
+"And that philosopher?"
+
+"Is Death!" said Mr. Burley. "How can you be dull enough to ask? Poor
+Boethius, rich, nobly born, a consul, his sons consuls--the world one
+smile to the Last Philosopher of Rome. Then suddenly, against this type
+of the old world's departing WISDOM, stands frowning the new world's
+grim genius, FORCE--Theodoric the Ostrogoth condemning Boethius the
+Schoolman; and Boethius, in his Pavian dungeon, holding a dialogue with
+the shade of Athenian Philosophy. It is the finest picture upon which
+lingers the glimmering of the Western golden day, before night rushes
+over time."
+
+"And," said Mr. Norreys abruptly, "Boethius comes back to us with the
+faint gleam of returning light, translated by Alfred the Great. And,
+again, as the sun of knowledge bursts forth in all its splendor, by
+Queen Elizabeth. Boethius influences us as we stand in this passage; and
+that is the best of all the Consolations of Philosophy--eh, Mr. Burley?"
+
+Mr. Burley turned and bowed.
+
+The two men looked at each other; you could not see a greater contrast.
+Mr. Burley, his gay green dress already shabby and soiled, with a rent
+in the skirts, and his face speaking of habitual night-cups. Mr.
+Norreys, neat and somewhat precise in dress, with firm lean figure, and
+quiet, collected, vigorous energy in his eye and aspect.
+
+"If," replied Mr. Burley, "a poor devil like me may argue with a
+gentleman who may command his own price with the booksellers, I should
+say it is no consolation at all Mr. Norreys. And I should like to see
+any man of sense accept the condition of Boethius in his prison, with
+some strangler or headsman waiting behind the door, upon the promised
+proviso that he should be translated, centuries afterward, by Kings and
+Queens, and help indirectly to influence the minds of Northern
+barbarians, babbling about him in an alley, jostled by passers-by who
+never heard the name of Boethius, and who don't care a fig for
+philosophy. Your servant, sir--young man, come and talk."
+
+Burley hooked his arm within Leonard's, and led the boy passively away.
+
+"That is a clever man," said Harley L'Estrange. "But I am sorry to see
+yon young student, with his bright, earnest eyes, and his lip that has
+the quiver of passion and enthusiasm, leaning on the arm of a guide who
+seems disenchanted of all that gives purpose to learning, and links
+philosophy with use to the world. Who, and what is this clever man whom
+you call Burley?"
+
+"A man who might have been famous, if he had condescended to be
+respectable! The boy listening to us both so attentively interested _me_
+too--I should like to have the making of him. But I must buy this
+Horace."
+
+The shopman, lurking within his hole like a spider for flies, was now
+called out. And when Mr. Norreys had bought the Horace, and given an
+address where to send it, Harley asked the shopman if he knew the young
+man who had been reading Boethius.
+
+"Only by sight. He has come here every day the last week, and spends
+hours at the stall. When once he fastens on a book, he reads it
+through."
+
+"And never buys?" said Mr. Norreys.
+
+"Sir," said the shopman, with a good-natured smile, "they who buy seldom
+read. The poor boy pays me two-pence a day to read as long as he
+pleases. I would not take it, but he is proud."
+
+"I have known men amass great learning in that way," said Mr. Norreys.
+"Yes, I should like to have that boy in my hands. And now, my lord, I am
+at your service, and we shall go to the studio of your artist."
+
+The two gentlemen walked on toward one of the streets out of
+Fitzroy-square.
+
+In a few minutes more Harley L'Estrange was in his element, seated
+carelessly on a deal table, smoking his cigar, and discussing art with
+the gusto of a man who honestly loved, and the taste of a man who
+thoroughly understood it. The young artist, in his dressing robe, adding
+slow touch upon touch, paused often to listen the better. And Henry
+Norreys, enjoying the brief respite from a life of great labor, was
+gladly reminded of idle hours under rosy skies; for these three men had
+formed their friendship in Italy, where the bands of friendship are
+woven by the hands of the Graces.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Leonard and Mr. Burley walked on into the suburbs round the north road
+from London, and Mr. Burley offered to find literary employment for
+Leonard--an offer eagerly accepted.
+
+Then they went into a public house by the wayside. Burley demanded a
+private room, called for pen, ink, and paper; and placing these
+implements before Leonard, said, "Write what you please, in prose, five
+sheets of letter paper, twenty-two lines to a page neither more nor
+less."
+
+"I can not write so."
+
+"Tut, 'tis for bread."
+
+The boy's face crimsoned.
+
+"I must forget that," said he.
+
+"There is an arbor in the garden under a weeping ash," returned Burley.
+"Go there, and fancy yourself in Arcadia."
+
+Leonard was too pleased to obey. He found out the little arbor at one
+end of a deserted bowling-green. All was still--the hedgerow shut out
+the sight of the inn. The sun lay warm on the grass, and glinted
+pleasantly through the leaves of the ash. And Leonard there wrote the
+first essay from his hand as Author by profession. What was it that he
+wrote? His dreamy impressions of London? an anathema on its streets, and
+its hearts of stone? murmurs against poverty? dark elegies on fate?
+
+Oh, no! little knowest thou true genius if thou askest such questions,
+or thinkest that there, under the weeping ash, the taskwork for bread
+was remembered; or that the sunbeam glinted but over the practical
+world, which, vulgar and sordid, lay around. Leonard wrote a fairy
+tale--one of the loveliest you can conceive, with a delicate touch of
+playful humor--in a style all flowered over with happy fancies. He
+smiled as he wrote the last word--he was happy. In rather more than an
+hour Mr. Burley came to him, and found him with that smile on his lips.
+
+Mr. Burley had a glass of brandy and water in his hand; it was his
+third. He too smiled--he too looked happy. He read the paper aloud, and
+well. He was very complimentary. "You will do!" said he, clapping
+Leonard on the back. "Perhaps some day you will catch my one-eyed
+perch." Then he folded up the MS., scribbled off a note, put the whole
+in one envelope--and they returned to London.
+
+Mr. Burley disappeared within a dingy office near Fleet-street, on which
+was inscribed--"Office of the _Beehive_," and soon came forth with a
+golden sovereign in his hand--Leonard's first fruits. Leonard thought
+Peru lay before him. He accompanied Mr. Burley to that gentleman's
+lodging in Maida Hill. The walk had been very long; Leonard was not
+fatigued. He listened with a livelier attention than before to Burley's
+talk. And when they reached the apartments of the latter, and Mr. Burley
+sent to the cookshop, and their joint supper was taken out of the golden
+sovereign, Leonard felt proud, and for the first time for weeks he
+laughed the heart's laugh. The two writers grew more and more intimate
+and cordial. And there was a vast deal in Burley by which any young man
+might be made the wiser. There was no apparent evidence of poverty in
+the apartment--clean, new, well furnished; but all things in the most
+horrible litter--all speaking of the huge literary sloven.
+
+For several days Leonard almost lived in those rooms. He wrote
+continuously--save when Burley's conversation fascinated him into
+idleness. Nay, it was not idleness--his knowledge grew larger as he
+listened; but the cynicism of the talker began slowly to work its way.
+That cynicism in which there was no faith, no hope, no vivifying breath
+from Glory--from Religion. The cynicism of the Epicurean, more degraded
+in his style than ever was Diogenes in his tub; and yet presented with
+such ease and such eloquence--with such art and such mirth--so adorned
+with illustration and anecdote, so unconscious of debasement.
+
+Strange and dread philosophy--that made it a maxim to squander the gifts
+of mind on the mere care for matter, and fit the soul to live but as
+from day to day, with its scornful cry, "A fig for immortality and
+laurels!" An author for bread! Oh, miserable calling! was there
+something grand and holy, after all, even in Chatterton's despair!
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The villainous _Beehive!_ Bread was worked out of it, certainly; but
+fame, but hope for the future--certainly not. Milton's _Paradise Lost_
+would have perished without a sound, had it appeared in the _Beehive_.
+
+Fine things were there in a fragmentary crude state, composed by Burley
+himself. At the end of a week they were dead and forgotten--never read
+by one man of education and taste; taken simultaneously and
+indifferently with shallow politics and wretched essays, yet selling,
+perhaps, twenty or thirty thousand copies--an immense sale; and nothing
+got out of them but bread and brandy!
+
+"What more would you have?" cried John Burley. "Did not stern old Sam
+Johnson say he could never write but from want?"
+
+"He might say it," answered Leonard; "but he never meant posterity to
+believe him. And he would have died of want, I suspect, rather than have
+written _Rasselas_ for the _Beehive!_ Want is a grand thing," continued
+the boy, thoughtfully. "A parent of grand things. Necessity is strong,
+and should give us its own strength; but Want should shatter asunder,
+with its very writhings, the walls of our prison-house, and not sit
+contented with the allowance the jail gives us in exchange for our
+work."
+
+"There is no prison-house to a man who calls upon Bacchus--stay--I will
+translate to you Schiller's Dithyramb. 'Then see I Bacchus--then up come
+Cupid and Ph[oe]bus, and all the Celestials are filling my dwelling.'"
+
+Breaking into impromptu careless rhymes, Burley threw off a rude but
+spirited translation of that divine lyric.
+
+"O materialists!" cried the boy, with his bright eyes suffused.
+"Schiller calls on the gods to take him to their heaven with him; and
+you would debase the gods to a gin palace."
+
+"Ho, ho!" cried Burley, with his giant laugh. "Drink, and you will
+understand the Dithyramb."
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Suddenly one morning, as Leonard sate with Burley, a fashionable
+cabriolet, with a very handsome horse, stopped at the door--a loud
+knock--a quick step on the stairs, and Randal Leslie entered. Leonard
+recognized him and started. Randal glanced at him in surprise, and then,
+with a tact that showed he had already learned to profit by London life,
+after shaking hands with Burley, approached, and said, with some
+unsuccessful attempt at ease, "Unless I am mistaken, sir, we have met
+before. If you remember me, I hope all boyish quarrels are forgotten?"
+
+Leonard bowed, and his heart was still good enough to be softened.
+
+"Where could you two ever have met?" asked Burley.
+
+"In a village green, and in single combat," answered Randal, smiling;
+and he told the story of the Battle of the Stocks with a well-bred jest
+on himself. Burley laughed at the story. "But," said he, when this laugh
+was over, "my young friend had better have remained guardian of the
+village stocks, than come to London in search of such fortune as lies at
+the bottom of an inkhorn."
+
+"Ah," said Randal, with the secret contempt which men elaborately
+cultivated are apt to feel for those who seek to educate
+themselves--"ah, you make literature your calling, sir? At what school
+did you conceive a taste for letters? not very common at our great
+public schools."
+
+"I am at school now for the first time," answered Leonard, drily.
+
+"Experience is the best schoolmistress," said Burley; "and that was the
+maxim of Goethe, who had book-learning enough, in all conscience."
+
+Randal slightly shrugged his shoulders, and, without wasting another
+thought on Leonard, peasant-born and self-taught, took his seat, and
+began to talk to Burley upon a political question, which made then the
+war-cry between the two great Parliamentary parties. It was a subject in
+which Burley showed much general knowledge; and Randal, seeming to
+differ from him, drew forth alike his information and his argumentative
+powers. The conversation lasted more than an hour.
+
+"I can't quite agree with you," said Randal, taking his leave; "but you
+must allow me to call again--will the same hour to-morrow suit you?"
+
+"Yes," said Burley.
+
+Away went the young man in his cabriolet. Leonard watched him from the
+window.
+
+For five days consecutively, did Randal call and discuss the question in
+all its bearings; and Burley, after the second day, got interested in
+the matter, looked up his authorities--refreshed his memory and even
+spent an hour or two in the Library of the British Museum.
+
+By the fifth day Burley had really exhausted all that could well be said
+on his side of the question.
+
+Leonard, during these colloquies, had sate apart, seemingly absorbed in
+reading, and secretly stung by Randal's disregard of his presence. For
+indeed that young man, in his superb self-esteem, and in the absorption
+of his ambitious projects, scarce felt even curiosity as to Leonard's
+rise above his earlier station, and looked on him as a mere journeyman
+of Burley's. But the self-taught are keen and quick observers. And
+Leonard had remarked that Randal seemed more as one playing a part for
+some private purpose, than arguing in earnest; and that when he rose and
+said, "Mr. Burley, you have convinced me," it was not with the modesty
+of a sincere reasoner, but the triumph of one who has gained his end.
+But so struck, meanwhile, was our unheeded and silent listener, with
+Burley's power of generalization, and the wide surface over which his
+information extended, that when Randal left the room the boy looked at
+the slovenly, purposeless man, and said aloud--"True; knowledge is _not_
+power."
+
+"Certainly not," said Burley, drily--"the weakest thing in the world."
+
+"Knowledge is power," muttered Randal Leslie, as, with a smile on his
+lip, he drove from the door.
+
+Not many days after this last interview there appeared a short pamphlet;
+anonymous, but one which made a great impression on the town. It was on
+the subject discussed between Randal and Burley. It was quoted at great
+length in the newspapers. And Burley started to his feet one morning,
+and exclaimed, "My own thoughts! my very words! Who the devil is this
+pamphleteer?"
+
+Leonard took the newspaper from Burley's hand. The most flattering
+encomiums preceded the extracts, and the extracts were as stereotypes of
+Burley's talk.
+
+"Can you doubt the author?" cried Leonard, in deep disgust and ingenuous
+scorn. "The young man who came to steal your brains, and turn your
+knowledge--"
+
+"Into power," interrupted Burley, with a laugh, but it was a laugh of
+pain. "Well, this was very mean; I shall tell him so when he comes."
+
+"He will come no more," said Leonard. Nor did Randal come again. But he
+sent Mr. Burley a copy of the pamphlet with a polite note, saying, with
+candid but careless acknowledgment, that "he had profited much by Mr.
+Burley's hints and remarks."
+
+And now it was in all the papers, that the pamphlet which had made so
+great a noise was by a very young man, Mr. Audley Egerton's relation,
+and high hopes were expressed of the future career of Mr. Randal Leslie.
+
+Burley still attempted to laugh, and still his pain was visible. Leonard
+most cordially despised and hated Randal Leslie, and his heart moved to
+Burley with noble but perilous compassion. In his desire to soothe and
+comfort the man whom he deemed cheated out of fame, he forgot the
+caution he had hitherto imposed on himself, and yielded more and more to
+the charm of that wasted intellect. He accompanied Burley now where he
+went to spend his evenings, and more and more--though gradually, and
+with many a recoil and self-rebuke--there crept over him the cynic's
+contempt for glory, and miserable philosophy of debased content.
+
+Randal had risen into grave repute upon the strength of Burley's
+knowledge. But, had Burley written the pamphlet, would the same repute
+have attended _him?_ Certainly not. Randal Leslie brought to that
+knowledge qualities all his own--a style simple, strong, and logical; a
+certain tone of good society, and allusions to men and to parties that
+showed his connection with a cabinet minister, and proved that he had
+profited no less by Egerton's talk than Burley's.
+
+Had Burley written the pamphlet, it would have showed more genius, it
+would have had humor and wit, but have been so full of whims and quips,
+sins against taste, and defects in earnestness, that it would have
+failed to create any serious sensation. Here, then, there was something
+else besides knowledge, by which knowledge became power. Knowledge must
+not smell of the brandy bottle.
+
+Randal Leslie might be mean in his plagiarism, but he turned the useless
+into use. And so far he was original.
+
+But one's admiration, after all, rests where Leonard's rested--with the
+poor, shabby, riotous, lawless, big fallen man.
+
+Burley took himself off to the Brent, and fished again for the one-eyed
+perch. Leonard accompanied him. His feelings were indeed different from
+what they had been when he had reclined under the old tree, and talked
+with Helen of the future. But it was almost pathetic to see how Burley's
+nature seemed to alter, as he strayed along the banks of the rivulet,
+and talked of his own boyhood. The man then seemed restored to something
+of the innocence of the child. He cared, in truth, little for the perch,
+which continued intractable, but he enjoyed the air and the sky, the
+rustling grass and the murmuring waters. These excursions to the haunts
+of youth seemed to rebaptize him, and then his eloquence took a pastoral
+character, and Izaak Walton himself would have loved to hear him. But as
+he got back into the smoke of the metropolis, and the gas lamps made him
+forget the ruddy sunset, and the soft evening star, the gross habits
+reassumed their sway; and on he went with his swaggering, reckless step
+to the orgies in which his abused intellect flamed forth, and then sank
+into the socket quenched and rayless.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Helen was seized with profound and anxious sadness. Leonard had been
+three or four times to see her, and each time she saw a change in him
+that excited all her fears. He seemed, it is true, more shrewd, more
+worldly-wise, more fitted, it might be, for coarse daily life; but, on
+the other hand, the freshness and glory of his youth were waning slowly.
+His aspirings drooped earthward. He had not mastered the Practical, and
+moulded its uses with the strong hand of the Spiritual Architect, of the
+Ideal Builder: the Practical was overpowering himself. She grew pale
+when he talked of Burley, and shuddered, poor little Helen! when she
+found he was daily and almost nightly in a companionship which, with her
+native honest prudence, she saw so unsuited to strengthen him in his
+struggles, and aid him against temptation. She almost groaned when,
+pressing him as to his pecuniary means, she found his old terror of debt
+seemed fading away, and the solid healthful principles he had taken from
+his village were loosening fast. Under all, it is true, there was what a
+wiser and older person than Helen would have hailed as the redeeming
+promise. But that something was _grief_--a sublime grief in his own
+sense of falling--in his own impotence against the Fate he had provoked
+and coveted. The sublimity of that grief Helen could not detect: she saw
+only that it _was_ grief, and she grieved with it, letting it excuse
+every fault--making her more anxious to comfort, in order that she might
+save. Even from the first, when Leonard had exclaimed, "Ah, Helen, why
+did you ever leave me?" she had revolved the idea of return to him; and
+when in the boy's last visit he told her that Burley, persecuted by
+duns, was about to fly from his present lodgings, and take his abode
+with Leonard in the room she had left vacant, all doubt was over. She
+resolved to sacrifice the safety and shelter of the home assured her.
+She resolved to come back and share Leonard's penury and struggles, and
+save the old room, wherein she had prayed for him, from the tempter's
+dangerous presence. Should she burden him? No; she had assisted her
+father by many little female arts in needle and fancy work. She had
+improved herself in these during her sojourn with Miss Starke. She could
+bring her share to the common stock. Possessed with this idea, she
+determined to realize it before the day on which Leonard had told her
+Burley was to move his quarters. Accordingly she rose very early one
+morning; she wrote a pretty and grateful note to Miss Starke, who was
+fast asleep, left it on the table, and before any one was astir, stole
+from the house, her little bundle on her arm. She lingered an instant at
+the garden-gate, with a remorseful sentiment--a feeling that she had
+ill-repaid the cold and prim protection that Miss Starke had shown her.
+But sisterly love carried all before it. She closed the gate with a
+sigh, and went on.
+
+She arrived at the lodging-house before Leonard was up, took possession
+of her old chamber, and, presenting herself to Leonard as he was about
+to go forth, said (story-teller that she was)--"I am sent away, brother,
+and I have come to you to take care of me. Do not let us part again. But
+you must be very cheerful and very happy, or I shall think that I am
+sadly in your way."
+
+Leonard at first did look cheerful, and even happy; but then he thought
+of Burley, and then of his own means of supporting her, and was
+embarrassed, and began questioning Helen as to the possibility of
+reconciliation with Miss Starke. And Helen said gravely, "Impossible--do
+not ask it, and do not go near her."
+
+Then Leonard thought she had been humbled and insulted, and remembered
+that she was a gentleman's child, and felt for her wounded pride--he was
+so proud himself. Yet still he was embarrassed.
+
+"Shall I keep the purse again, Leonard?" said Helen coaxingly.
+
+"Alas!" replied Leonard, "the purse is empty."
+
+"That is very naughty in the purse," said Helen, "since you put so much
+into it."
+
+"I?"
+
+"Did not you say that you made, at least, a guinea a-week?"
+
+"Yes; but Burley takes the money; and then, poor fellow! as I owe all to
+him, I have not the heart to prevent his spending it as he likes."
+
+"Please, I wish you could settle the month's rent," said the landlady,
+suddenly showing herself. She said it civilly, but with firmness.
+
+Leonard colored. "It shall be paid to-day."
+
+Then he pressed his hat on his head, and putting Helen gently aside,
+went forth.
+
+"Speak to _me_ in future, kind Mrs. Smedley," said Helen with the air of
+a housewife. "_He_ is always in study, and must not be disturbed."
+
+The landlady--a good woman, though she liked her rent--smiled benignly.
+She was fond of Helen, whom she had known of old.
+
+"I am so glad you are come back; and perhaps now the young man will not
+keep such late hours. I meant to give him warning, but--"
+
+"But he will be a great man one of these days, and you must bear with
+him now." And Helen kissed Mrs. Smedley, and sent her away half inclined
+to cry.
+
+Then Helen busied herself in the rooms. She found her father's box,
+which had been duly forwarded. She re-examined its contents, and wept as
+she touched each humble and pious relic. But her father's memory itself
+thus seemed to give this home a sanction which the former had not; and
+she rose quietly and began mechanically to put things in order, sighing
+as she saw all so neglected, till she came to the rose-tree, and that
+alone showed heed and care. "Dear Leonard!" she murmured, and the smile
+re-settled on her lips.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Nothing, perhaps, could have severed Leonard from Burley but Helen's
+return to his care. It was impossible for him, even had there been
+another room in the house vacant (which there was not), to install this
+noisy riotous son of the Muse by Bacchus, talking at random, and
+smelling of spirits, in the same dwelling with an innocent, delicate,
+timid female child. And Leonard could not leave her alone all the
+twenty-four hours. She restored a home to him, and imposed its duties.
+He therefore told Mr. Burley that in future he should write and study in
+his own room, and hinted with many a blush, and as delicately as he
+could, that it seemed to him that whatever he obtained from his pen
+ought to be halved with Burley, to whose interest he owed the
+employment, and from whose books or whose knowledge he took what helped
+to maintain it; but that the other half, if his, he could no longer
+afford to spend upon feasts or libations. He had another to provide for.
+
+Burley pooh-poohed the notion of taking half his coadjutor's earnings,
+with much grandeur, but spoke very fretfully of Leonard's sober
+appropriation of the other half; and, though a good-natured,
+warm-hearted man, felt extremely indignant against the sudden
+interposition of poor Helen. However, Leonard was firm; and then Burley
+grew sullen, and so they parted. But the rent was still to be paid.
+How? Leonard for the first time thought of the pawnbroker. He had
+clothes to spare, and Riccabocca's watch. No; that last he shrank from
+applying to such base uses.
+
+He went home at noon, and met Helen at the street-door. She too had been
+out, and her soft cheek was rosy red with unwonted exercise and the
+sense of joy. She had still preserved the few gold pieces which Leonard
+had taken back to her on his first visit to Miss Starke's. She had now
+gone out and bought wools and implements for work; and meanwhile she had
+paid the rent.
+
+Leonard did not object to the work, but he blushed deeply when he knew
+about the rent, and was very angry. He paid back to her that night what
+she had advanced; and Helen wept silently at his pride, and wept more
+when she saw the next day a woeful hiatus in his wardrobe.
+
+But Leonard now worked at home, and worked resolutely; and Helen sate by
+his side, working too; so that next day, and the next, slipped
+peacefully away, and in the evening of the second he asked her to walk
+out in the fields. She sprang up joyously at the invitation, when bang
+went the door, and in reeled John Burley--drunk:--And so drunk!
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+And with Burley there reeled in another man--a friend of his--a man who
+had been a wealthy trader and once well to do, but who, unluckily, had
+literary tastes, and was fond of hearing Burley talk. So, since he had
+known the wit, his business had fallen from him, and he had passed
+through the Bankrupt Court. A very shabby-looking dog he was, indeed,
+and his nose was redder than Burley's.
+
+John made a drunken dash at poor Helen. "So you are the Pentheus in
+petticoats who defies Bacchus," cried he; and therewith he roared out a
+verse from Euripides. Helen ran away, and Leonard interposed.
+
+"For shame, Burley!"
+
+"He's drunk," said Mr. Douce, the bankrupt trader--"very drunk--don't
+mind--him. I say, sir, I hope we don't intrude. Sit still, Burley, sit
+still, and talk, do--that's a good man. You should hear him
+ta--ta--talk, sir."
+
+Leonard meanwhile had got Helen out of the room, into her own, and
+begged her not to be alarmed, and keep the door locked. He then returned
+to Burley, who had seated himself on the bed, trying wondrous hard to
+keep himself upright; while Mr. Douce was striving to light a short pipe
+that he carried in his button-hole--without having filled it--and,
+naturally failing in that attempt, was now beginning to weep.
+
+Leonard was deeply shocked and revolted for Helen's sake; but it was
+hopeless to make Burley listen to reason. And how could the boy turn out
+of his room the man to whom he was under obligations?
+
+Meanwhile there smote upon Helen's shrinking ears loud jarring talk and
+maudlin laughter, and cracked attempts at jovial songs. Then she heard
+Mrs. Smedley in Leonard's room, remonstrating, and Burley's laugh was
+louder than before, and Mrs. Smedley, who was a meek woman, evidently
+got frightened, and was heard in precipitate retreat. Long and loud talk
+recommenced, Burley's great voice predominant, Mr. Douce chiming in with
+hiccupy broken treble. Hour after hour this lasted, for want of the
+drink that would have brought it to a premature close. And Burley
+gradually began to talk himself somewhat sober. Then Mr. Douce was heard
+descending the stairs, and silence followed. At dawn, Leonard knocked at
+Helen's door. She opened it at once, for she had not gone to bed.
+
+"Helen," said he, very sadly, "you can not continue here. I must find
+out some proper home for you. This man has served me when all London was
+friendless, and he tells me that he has nowhere else to go--that the
+bailiffs are after him.--He has now fallen asleep. I will go and find
+you some lodging close at hand--for I can not expel him who has
+protected me; and yet you can not be under the same roof with him. My
+own good angel, I must lose you."
+
+He did not wait for her answer, but hurried down the stairs.
+
+The morning looked through the shutterless panes in Leonard's garret,
+and the birds began to chirp from the elm-tree, when Burley rose, and
+shook himself, and stared round. He could not quite make out where he
+was. He got hold of the water-jug which he emptied at three draughts,
+and felt greatly refreshed. He then began to reconnoitre the
+chamber--looked at Leonard's MSS.--peeped into the drawers--wondered
+where the devil Leonard himself had gone to--and finally amused himself
+by throwing down the fire-irons, ringing the bell, and making all the
+noise he could, in the hopes of attracting the attention of somebody or
+other, and procuring himself his morning dram.
+
+In the midst of this _charivari_ the door opened softly, but as if with
+a resolute hand, and the small quiet form of Helen stood before the
+threshold. Burley turned round, and the two looked at each other for
+some moments with silent scrutiny.
+
+Burley (composing his features into their most friendly
+expression).--"Come hither, my dear. So you are the little girl whom I
+saw with Leonard on the banks of the Brent, and you have come back to
+live with him--and I have come to live with him too. You shall be our
+little housekeeper, and I will tell you the story of Prince Prettyman,
+and a great many others not to be found in _Mother Goose_. Meanwhile, my
+dear little girl, here's sixpence--just run out and change this for its
+worth in rum."
+
+Helen (coming slowly up to Mr. Burley, and still gazing earnestly into
+his face).--"Ah, sir, Leonard says you have a kind heart, and that you
+have served him--he can not ask you to leave the house: and so I, who
+have never served him, am to go hence and live alone."
+
+Burley (moved).--"You go, my little lady?--and why? Can we not all live
+together?"
+
+Helen. "No sir. I left every thing to come to Leonard, for we had met
+first at my father's grave. But you rob me of him, and I have no other
+friend on earth."
+
+Burley (discomposed).--"Explain yourself. Why must you leave him because
+I come?"
+
+Helen looks at Mr. Burley again, long and wistfully, but makes no
+answer.
+
+Burley (with a gulp).--"Is it because he thinks I am not fit company for
+you?"
+
+Helen bowed her head.
+
+Burley winced, and after a moment's pause said--"He is right."
+
+Helen (obeying the impulse at her heart, springs forward and takes
+Burley's hand).--"Ah, sir," she cried, "before he knew you he was so
+different--then he was cheerful--then, even when his first
+disappointment came, I grieved and wept; but I felt he would conquer
+still--for his heart was so good and pure. Oh, sir, don't think I
+reproach you; but what is to become of him if--if--No, it is not for
+myself I speak. I know that if I was here, that if he had me to care
+for, he would come home early and--work patiently--and--and--that I
+might save him. But now when I am gone, and you with him--you to whom he
+is grateful, you whom he would follow against his own conscience (you
+must see that, sir)--what is to become of him?"
+
+Helen's voice died in sobs.
+
+Burley took three or four long strides through the room--he was greatly
+agitated. "I am a demon," he murmured. "I never saw it before--but it is
+true I should be this boy's ruin." Tears stood in his eyes, he paused
+abruptly, made a clutch at his hat, and turned to the door.
+
+Helen stopped the way, and taking him gently by the arm, said--"Oh, sir,
+forgive me--I have pained you;" and looked up at him with a
+compassionate expression, that indeed made the child's sweet face as
+that of an angel.
+
+Burley bent down as if to kiss her, and then drew back--perhaps with a
+sentiment that his lips were not worthy to touch that innocent brow.
+
+"If I had had a sister--a child like you, little one," he muttered,
+"perhaps I too might have been saved in time. Now--"
+
+"Ah, now you may stay, sir; I don't fear you any more."
+
+"No, no; you would fear me again ere night-time, and I might not be
+always in the right mood to listen to a voice like yours, child. Your
+Leonard has a noble heart and rare gifts. He should rise yet, and he
+shall. I will not drag him into the mire. Good-by--you will see me no
+more." He broke from Helen, cleared the stairs with a bound, and was out
+of the house.
+
+When Leonard returned he was surprised to hear his unwelcome guest was
+gone--but Helen did not venture to tell him of her interposition. She
+knew instinctively how such officiousness would mortify and offend the
+pride of man; but she never again spoke harshly of poor Burley. Leonard
+supposed that he should either see or hear of the humorist in the course
+of the day. Finding he did not, he went in search of him at his old
+haunts; but no trace. He inquired at the _Beehive_ if they knew there of
+his new address, but no tidings of Burley could be obtained.
+
+As he came home disappointed and anxious, for he felt uneasy as to the
+disappearance of his wild friend, Mrs. Smedley met him at the door.
+
+"Please, sir, suit yourself with another lodging," said she. "I can have
+no such singings and shoutings going on at night in my house. And that
+poor little girl too!--you should be ashamed of yourself."
+
+Leonard frowned, and passed by.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Meanwhile, on leaving Helen, Burley strode on; and, as if by some better
+instinct, for he was unconscious of his own steps, he took the way
+toward the still green haunts of his youth. When he paused at length, he
+was already before the door of a rural cottage, standing alone in the
+midst of fields, with a little farm-yard at the back; and far through
+the trees in front was caught a glimpse of the winding Brent.
+
+With this cottage Burley was familiar; it was inhabited by a good old
+couple who had known him from a boy. There he habitually left his rods
+and fishing-tackle; there, for intervals in his turbid, riotous life, he
+had sojourned for two or three days together--fancying, the first day
+that the country was a heaven, and convinced before the third that it
+was a purgatory.
+
+An old woman of neat and tidy exterior came forth to greet him.
+
+"Ah, Master John," said she, clasping his nerveless hand--"well, the
+fields be pleasant now--I hope you are come to stay a bit? Do; it will
+freshen you: you lose all the fine color you had once, in Lunnon town."
+
+"I will stay with you, my kind friend," said Burley, with unusual
+meekness--"I can have the old room, then?"
+
+"Oh yes, come and look at it. I never let it now to any one but
+you--never have let it since the dear beautiful lady with the angel's
+face went away. Poor thing, what could have become of her?"
+
+Thus speaking, while Burley listened not, the old woman drew him within
+the cottage, and led him up the stairs into a room that might have well
+become a better house, for it was furnished with taste, and even
+elegance. A small cabinet pianoforte stood opposite the fire-place, and
+the window looked upon pleasant meads and tangled hedgerows, and the
+narrow windings of the blue rivulet. Burley sank down exhausted, and
+gazed wistfully from the casement.
+
+"You have not breakfasted?" said the hostess anxiously.
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, the eggs are fresh laid, and you would like a rasher of bacon,
+Master John? And if you _will_ have brandy in your tea, I have some that
+you left long ago in your own bottle."
+
+Burley shook his head. "No brandy, Mrs. Goodyer; only fresh milk. I will
+see whether I can yet coax Nature."
+
+Mrs. Goodyer did not know what was meant by coaxing Nature, but she
+said, "Pray do, Master John," and vanished.
+
+That day Burley went out with his rod, and he fished hard for the
+one-eyed perch: but in vain. Then he roved along the stream with his
+hands in his pockets, whistling. He returned to the cottage at sunset,
+partook of the fare provided for him, abstained from the brandy, and
+felt dreadfully low. He called for pen, ink, and paper, and sought to
+write, but could not achieve two lines. He summoned Mrs. Goodyer, "Tell
+your husband to come and sit and talk."
+
+Up came old Jacob Goodyer, and the great wit bade him tell him all the
+news of the village. Jacob obeyed willingly, and Burley at last fell
+asleep. The next day it was much the same, only at dinner he had up the
+brandy bottle, and finished it; and he did _not_ have up Jacob, but he
+contrived to write.
+
+The third day it rained incessantly.
+
+"Have you no books, Mrs. Goodyer?" asked poor John Burley.
+
+"Oh, yes; some that the dear lady left behind her; and perhaps you would
+like to look at some papers in her own writing?"
+
+"No, not the papers--all women scribble, and all scribble the same
+things. Get me the books."
+
+The books were brought up--poetry and essays--John knew them by heart.
+He looked out on the rain, and at evening the rain had ceased. He rushed
+to his hat and fled.
+
+"Nature, Nature!" he exclaimed when he was out in the air, and hurrying
+by the dripping hedgerows, "you are not to be coaxed by me! I have
+jilted you shamefully, I own it; you are a female and unforgiving. I
+don't complain. You may be very pretty, but you are the stupidest and
+most tiresome companion that ever I met with. Thank heaven, I am not
+married to you!"
+
+Thus John Burley made his way into town, and paused at the first
+public-house. Out of that house he came with a jovial air, and on he
+strode toward the heart of London. Now he is in Leicester-square, and he
+gazes on the foreigners who stalk that region, and hums a tune; and now
+from yonder alley two forms emerge, and dog his careless footsteps; now
+through the maze of passages toward St. Martin's he threads his path,
+and, anticipating an orgy as he nears his favorite haunts, jingles the
+silver in his pockets; and now the two forms are at his heels.
+
+"Hail to thee, O Freedom!" muttered John Burley; "thy dwelling is in
+cities, and thy palace is the tavern."
+
+"In the king's name," quoth a gruff voice and John Burley feels the
+horrid and familiar tap on the shoulder.
+
+The two bailiffs who dogged have seized their prey.
+
+"At whose suit?" asked John Burley falteringly.
+
+"Mr. Cox, the wine-merchant."
+
+"Cox! A man to whom I gave a check on my bankers, not three months ago!"
+
+"But it warn't cashed."
+
+"What does that signify?--the intention was the same. A good heart takes
+the will for the deed. Cox is a monster of ingratitude; and I withdraw
+my custom."
+
+"Sarve him right. Would your honor like a jarvey?"
+
+"I would rather spend the money on something else," said John Burley.
+"Give me your arm, I am not proud. After all, thank heaven, I shall not
+sleep in the country."
+
+And John Burley made a night of it in the Fleet.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Miss Starke was one of those ladies who pass their lives in the direst
+of all civil strife--war with their servants. She looked upon the
+members of that class as the unrelenting and sleepless enemies of the
+unfortunate householders condemned to employ them. She thought they ate
+and drank to their villainous utmost, in order to ruin their
+benefactors--that they lived in one constant conspiracy with one another
+and the tradesmen, the object of which was to cheat and pilfer. Miss
+Starke was a miserable woman. As she had no relations or friends who
+cared enough for her to share her solitary struggle against her domestic
+foes; and her income, though easy, was an annuity that died with
+herself, thereby reducing various nephews, nieces, or cousins, to the
+strict bounds of a natural affection--that did not exist; and as she
+felt the want of some friendly face amidst this world of distrust and
+hate, so she had tried the resource of venal companions. But the venal
+companions had never staid long--either they disliked Miss Starke, or
+Miss Starke disliked them. Therefore the poor woman had resolved upon
+bringing up some little girl whose heart, as she said to herself, would
+be fresh and uncorrupted, and from whom she might expect gratitude. She
+had been contented, on the whole, with Helen, and had meant to keep that
+child in her house as long as she (Miss Starke) remained upon the
+earth--perhaps some thirty years longer; and then, having carefully
+secluded her from marriage, and other friendship, to leave her nothing
+but the regret of having lost so kind a benefactress. Agreeably with
+this notion, and in order to secure the affections of the child, Miss
+Starke had relaxed the frigid austerity natural to her manner and mode
+of thought, and been kind to Helen in an iron way. She had neither
+slapped nor pinched her, neither had she starved. She had allowed her
+to see Leonard, according to the agreement made with Dr. Morgan, and had
+laid out tenpence on cakes, besides contributing fruit from her garden
+for the first interview--a hospitality she did not think fit to renew on
+subsequent occasions. In return for this, she conceived she had
+purchased the right to Helen bodily and spiritually, and nothing could
+exceed her indignation when she rose one morning and found the child had
+gone. As it never had occurred to her to ask Leonard's address, though
+she suspected Helen had gone to him, she was at a loss what to do, and
+remained for twenty-four hours in a state of inane depression. But then
+she began to miss the child so much that her energies woke, and she
+persuaded herself that she was actuated by the purest benevolence in
+trying to reclaim this poor creature from the world, into which Helen
+had thus rashly plunged.
+
+Accordingly, she put an advertisement into the _Times_, to the
+following effect, liberally imitated from one by which, in former years,
+she had recovered a favorite Blenheim:
+
+    TWO GUINEAS REWARD.
+
+     Strayed, from Ivy Cottage, Highgate, a Little Girl, answers to the
+     name of Helen; with blue eyes and brown hair; white muslin frock,
+     and straw hat with blue ribbons. Whoever will bring the same to Ivy
+     Cottage, shall receive the above Reward.
+
+    _N.B._--Nothing more will be offered.
+
+Now, it so happened that Mrs. Smedley had put an advertisement in the
+_Times_ on her own account relative to a niece of hers who was coming
+from the country, and for whom she desired to find a situation. So,
+contrary to her usual habit, she sent for the newspaper, and, close by
+her own advertisement, she saw Miss Starke's.
+
+It was impossible that she could mistake the description of Helen; and,
+as this advertisement caught her eye the very day after the whole house
+had been disturbed and scandalized by Burley's noisy visit, and on which
+she had resolved to get rid of a lodger who received such visitors, the
+good-hearted woman was delighted to think that she could restore Helen
+to some safe home. While thus thinking, Helen herself entered the
+kitchen where Mrs. Smedley sate, and the landlady had the imprudence to
+point out the advertisement, and talk, as she called it, "seriously" to
+the little girl.
+
+Helen in vain and with tears entreated her to take no step in reply to
+the advertisement. Mrs. Smedley felt it was an affair of duty, and was
+obdurate, and shortly afterward put on her bonnet and left the house.
+Helen conjectured that she was on her way to Miss Starke's, and her
+whole soul was bent on flight. Leonard had gone to the office of the
+_Beehive_ with his MSS.; but she packed up all their joint effects, and,
+just as she had done so, he returned. She communicated the news of the
+advertisement, and said she should be so miserable if compelled to go
+back to Miss Starke's, and implored him so pathetically to save her from
+such sorrow that he at once assented to her proposal of flight. Luckily,
+little was owing to the landlady--that little was left with the
+maid-servant; and, profiting by Mrs. Smedley's absence, they escaped
+without scene or conflict. Their effects were taken by Leonard to a
+stand of hackney vehicles, and then left at a coach-office, while they
+went in search of lodgings. It was wise to choose an entirely new and
+remote district; and before night they were settled in an attic in
+Lambeth.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+As the reader will expect, no trace of Burley could Leonard find: the
+humorist had ceased to communicate with the _Beehive_. But Leonard
+grieved for Burley's sake; and, indeed, he missed the intercourse of the
+large wrong mind. But he settled down by degrees to the simple loving
+society of his child companion, and in that presence grew more tranquil.
+The hours in the day time that he did not pass at work he spent as
+before, picking up knowledge at bookstalls; and at dusk he and Helen
+would stroll out--sometimes striving to escape from the long suburb into
+fresh rural air; more often wandering to and fro the bridge that led to
+glorious Westminster--London's classic land--and watching the vague
+lamps reflected on the river. This haunt suited the musing melancholy
+boy. He would stand long and with wistful silence by the
+balustrade--seating Helen thereon, that she too might look along the
+dark mournful waters which, dark though they be, still have their charm
+of mysterious repose.
+
+As the river flowed between the world of roofs, and the roar of human
+passions on either side, so in those two hearts flowed Thought--and all
+they knew of London was its shadow.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+There appeared in the _Beehive_ certain very truculent political
+papers--papers very like the tracts in the Tinker's bag. Leonard did not
+heed them much, but they made far more sensation in the public that read
+the _Beehive_ than Leonard's papers, full of rare promise though the
+last were. They greatly increased the sale of the periodical in the
+manufacturing towns, and began to awake the drowsy vigilance of the Home
+Office. Suddenly a descent was made upon the _Beehive_, and all its
+papers and plant. The editor saw himself threatened with a criminal
+prosecution, and the certainty of two years' imprisonment: he did not
+like the prospect, and disappeared. One evening, when Leonard,
+unconscious of these mischances, arrived at the door of the office, he
+found it closed. An agitated mob was before it, and a voice that was not
+new to his ear, was haranguing the bystanders, with many imprecations
+against "tyrans." He looked, and, to his amaze, recognized in the orator
+Mr. Sprott the Tinker.
+
+The police came in numbers to disperse the crowd, and Mr. Sprott
+prudently vanished. Leonard learned then what had befallen, and again
+saw himself without employment and the means of bread.
+
+Slowly he walked back. "O, knowledge, knowledge!--powerless indeed!" he
+murmured.
+
+As he thus spoke, a handbill in large capitals met his eyes on a dead
+wall--"Wanted, a few smart young men for India."
+
+A crimp accosted him--"You would make a fine soldier, my man. You have
+stout limbs of your own." Leonard moved on.
+
+"It has come back, then, to this. Brute physical force after all. O
+Mind, despair! O Peasant, be a machine again."
+
+He entered his attic noiselessly, and gazed upon Helen as she sate at
+work, straining her eyes by the open window--with tender and deep
+compassion. She had not heard him enter, nor was she aware of his
+presence. Patient and still she sate, and the small fingers plied
+busily. He gazed, and saw that her cheek was pale and hollow, and the
+hands looked so thin! His heart was deeply touched, and at that moment
+he had not one memory of the baffled Poet, one thought that proclaimed
+the Egotist.
+
+He approached her gently, laid his hand on her shoulder--"Helen, put on
+your shawl and bonnet, and walk out--I have much to say."
+
+In a few moments she was ready, and they took their way to their
+favorite haunt upon the bridge. Pausing in one of the recesses or nooks,
+Leonard then began--"Helen we must part."
+
+"Part?--Oh, brother!"
+
+"Listen. All work that depends on mind is over for me; nothing remains
+but the labor of thews and sinews. I can not go back to my village and
+say to all, 'My hopes were self-conceit, and my intellect a delusion!' I
+can not. Neither in this sordid city can I turn menial or porter. I
+might be born to that drudgery, but my mind has, it may be unhappily,
+raised me above my birth. What, then, shall I do? I know not yet--serve
+as a soldier, or push my way to some wilderness afar, as an emigrant,
+perhaps. But whatever my choice, I must henceforth be alone; I have a
+home no more, but there is a home for you, a very humble one (for you,
+too, so well born), but very safe--the roof of--of--my peasant mother.
+She will love you for my sake, and--and--"
+
+Helen clung to him trembling, and sobbed out, "Any thing, any thing you
+will. But I can work; I can make money, Leonard, I do, indeed, make
+money--you do not know how much--but enough for us both till better
+times come to you. Do not let us part."
+
+"And I--a man, and born to labor, to be maintained by the work of an
+infant! No, Helen, do not so degrade me."
+
+She drew back as she looked on his flushed brow, bowed her head
+submissively, and murmured, "Pardon."
+
+"Ah," said Helen, after a pause, "if now we could but find my poor
+father's friend! I never so much cared for it before."
+
+"Yes, he would surely provide for you."
+
+"For _me!_" repeated Helen, in a tone of soft deep reproach, and she
+turned away her head to conceal her tears.
+
+"You are sure you would him remember if we met him by chance?"
+
+"Oh yes. He was so different from all we see in this terrible city, and
+his eyes were like yonder stars, so clear and so bright; yet the light
+seemed to come from afar off, as the light does in yours, when your
+thoughts are away from all things round you. And then, too, his dog,
+whom he called Nero--I could not forget that."
+
+"But his dog may not be always with him."
+
+"But the clear, bright eyes are! Ah, now you look up to heaven, and
+yours seem to dream like his."
+
+Leonard did not answer, for his thoughts were indeed less on earth than
+struggling to pierce into that remote and mysterious heaven.
+
+Both were silent long; the crowd passed them by unheedingly. Night
+deepened over the river, but the reflection of the lamplights on its
+waves was more visible than that of the stars. The beams showed the
+darkness of the strong current, and the craft that lay eastward on the
+tide, with sailless, spectral masts and black dismal hulks, looked
+death-like in their stillness.
+
+Leonard looked down, and the thought of Chatterton's grim suicide came
+back to his soul, and a pale scornful face with luminous haunting eyes
+seemed to look up from the stream, and murmur from livid lips, "Struggle
+no more against the tides on the surfaces--all is calm and rest within
+the deep."
+
+Starting in terror from the gloom of his reverie, the boy began to talk
+fast to Helen, and tried to soothe her with descriptions of the lowly
+home which he had offered.
+
+He spoke of the light cares which she would participate with his
+mother--for by that name he still called the widow--and dwelt, with an
+eloquence that the contrast round him made sincere and strong, on the
+happy rural life, the shadowy woodlands, the rippling corn-fields, the
+solemn lone church-spire soaring from the tranquil landscape.
+Flatteringly he painted the flowery terraces of the Italian exile, and
+the playful fountain that, even as he spoke, was flinging up its spray
+to the stars, through serene air untroubled by the smoke of cities, and
+untainted by the sinful sighs of men. He promised her the love and
+protection of natures akin to the happy scene: the simple affectionate
+mother--the gentle pastor--the exile wise and kind--Violante, with dark
+eyes full of the mystic thoughts that solitude calls from
+childhood--Violante should be her companion.
+
+"And oh!" cried Helen, "if life be thus happy there, return with me,
+return--return!"
+
+"Alas!" murmured the boy, "if the hammer once strike the spark from the
+anvil, the spark must fly upward: it can not fall back to earth until
+life has left it. Upward still, Helen--let me go upward still!"
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+The next morning Helen was very ill--so ill that, shortly after rising,
+she was forced to creep back to bed. Her frame shivered--her eyes were
+heavy--her hand burned like fire. Fever had set in. Perhaps she might
+have caught cold on the bridge--perhaps her emotions had proved too much
+for her frame. Leonard, in great alarm, called on the nearest
+apothecary. The apothecary looked grave, and said there was danger. And
+danger soon declared itself.--Helen became delirious. For several days
+she lay in this state, between life and death. Leonard then felt that
+all the sorrows of earth are light, compared with the fear of losing
+what we love. How valueless the envied laurel seemed beside the dying
+rose.
+
+Thanks, perhaps, more to his heed and tending than to medical skill, she
+recovered sense at last--immediate peril was over But she was very weak
+and reduced--her ultimate recovery doubtful--convalescence, at best,
+likely to be very slow.
+
+But when she learned how long she had been thus ill, she looked
+anxiously at Leonard's face as he bent over her, and faltered forth,
+"Give me my work! I am strong enough for that now--it would amuse me."
+
+Leonard burst into tears.
+
+Alas! he had no work himself; all their joint money had melted away; the
+apothecary was not like good Dr. Morgan; the medicines were to be paid
+for, and the rent. Two days before, Leonard had pawned Riccabocca's
+watch; and when the last shilling thus raised was gone, how should he
+support Helen? Nevertheless he conquered his tears, and assured her that
+he had employment; and that so earnestly that she believed him, and sank
+into soft sleep. He listened to her breathing, kissed her forehead, and
+left the room. He turned into his own neighboring garret, and, leaning
+his face on his hands, collected all his thoughts.
+
+He must be a beggar at last. He must write to Mr. Dale for money--Mr.
+Dale, too, who knew the secret of his birth. He would rather have begged
+of a stranger--it served to add a new dishonor to his mother's memory
+for the child to beg of one who was acquainted with her shame. Had he
+himself been the only one to want and to starve, he would have sunk inch
+by inch into the grave of famine, before he would have so subdued his
+pride. But Helen, there on that bed--Helen needing, for weeks perhaps,
+all support, and illness making luxuries themselves like necessaries!
+Beg he must. And when he so resolved, had you but seen the proud, bitter
+soul he conquered, you would have said--"This which he thinks is
+degradation--this is heroism. Oh strange human heart!--no epic ever
+written achieves the Sublime and the Beautiful which are graven, unread
+by human eye, in thy secret leaves." Of whom else should he beg? His
+mother had nothing, Riccabocca was poor, and the stately Violante, who
+had exclaimed, "Would that I were a man!" he could not endure the
+thought that she should pity him, and despise. The Avenels! No--thrice
+No. He drew toward him hastily ink and paper, and wrote rapid lines that
+were wrung from him as from the bleeding strings of life.
+
+But the hour for the post had passed--the letter must wait till the next
+day; and three days at least must elapse before he could receive an
+answer. He left the letter on the table, and, stifling as for air, went
+forth. He crossed the bridge--he passed on mechanically--and was borne
+along by a crowd pressing toward the doors of Parliament. A debate that
+excited popular interest was fixed for that evening, and many bystanders
+collected in the street to see the members pass to and fro, or hear what
+speakers had yet risen to take part in the debate, or try to get orders
+for the gallery.
+
+He halted amidst these loiterers, with no interest, indeed, in common
+with them, but looking over their heads abstractedly toward the tall
+Funeral Abbey--Imperial Golgotha of Poets, and Chiefs, and Kings.
+
+Suddenly his attention was diverted to those around by the sound of a
+name--displeasingly known to him, "How are you, Randal Leslie? coming to
+hear the debate?" said a member who was passing through the street.
+
+"Yes; Mr. Egerton promised to get me under the gallery. He is to speak
+himself to-night, and I have never heard him. As you are going into the
+House, will you remind him?"
+
+"I can't now, for he is speaking already--and well too. I hurried from
+the Athenæum, where I was dining, on purpose to be in time, as I heard
+that his speech was making a great effect."
+
+"This is very unlucky," said Randal. "I had no idea he would speak so
+early."
+
+"M---- brought him up by a direct personal attack. But follow me;
+perhaps I can get you into the House; and a man like you, Leslie, of
+whom we expect great things some day, I can tell you, should not miss
+any such opportunity of knowing what this House of ours is on a field
+night. Come on!"
+
+The member hurried toward the door; and as Randal followed him, a
+bystander cried--"That is the young man who wrote the famous
+pamphlet--Egerton's relation."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said another. "Clever man, Egerton--I am waiting for him."
+
+"So am I."
+
+"Why, you are not a constituent, as I am?"
+
+"No; but he has been very kind to my nephew, and I must thank him. You
+are a constituent--he is an honor to your town."
+
+"So he is; enlightened man!"
+
+"And so generous."
+
+"Brings forward really good measures," quoth the politician.
+
+"And clever young men," said the uncle.
+
+Therewith one or two others joined in the praise of Audley Egerton, and
+many anecdotes of his liberality were told.
+
+Leonard listened at first listlessly, at last with thoughtful attention.
+He had heard Burley, too, speak highly of this generous statesman, who,
+without pretending to genius himself, appreciated it in others. He
+suddenly remembered, too, that Egerton was half-brother to the Squire.
+Vague notions of some appeal to this eminent person, not for charity,
+but employ to his mind, gleamed across him--inexperienced boy that he
+yet was! And while thus meditating, the door of the House opened, and
+out came Audley Egerton himself. A partial cheering, followed by a
+general murmur, apprised Leonard of the presence of the popular
+statesman. Egerton was caught hold of by some five or six persons in
+succession; a shake of the hand, a nod, a brief whispered word or two,
+sufficed the practiced member for graceful escape; and soon, free from
+the crowd, his tall erect figure passed on, and turned toward the
+bridge. He paused at the angle and took out his watch, looking at it by
+the lamp-light.
+
+"Harley will be here soon," he muttered "he is always punctual; and now
+that I have spoken, I can give him an hour or so. That is well."
+
+As he replaced his watch in his pocket, and re-buttoned his coat over
+his firm, broad chest, he lifted his eyes, and saw a young man standing
+before him.
+
+"Do you want me?" asked the statesmen, with the direct brevity of his
+practical character.
+
+"Mr. Egerton," said the young man, with a voice that slightly trembled,
+and yet was manly amidst emotion, "you have a great name, and great
+power--I stand here in these streets of London without a friend, and
+without employ. I believe that I have it in me to do some nobler work
+than that of bodily labor, had I but one friend--one opening for my
+thoughts. And now I have said this, I scarcely know how or why, but from
+despair, and the sudden impulse which that despair took from the praise
+that follows your success. I have nothing more to add."
+
+Audley Egerton was silent for a moment, struck by the tone and address
+of the stranger; but the consummate and wary man of the world,
+accustomed to all manner of strange applications, and all varieties of
+imposture, quickly recovered from a passing effect.
+
+"Are you a native of ----?" (naming the town he represented as member.)
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, young man, I am very sorry for you; but the good sense you must
+possess (for I judge of that by the education you have evidently
+received) must tell you that a public man, whatever be his patronage,
+has it too fully absorbed by claimants who have a right to demand it, to
+be able to listen to strangers."
+
+He paused a moment, and, as Leonard stood silent, added, with more
+kindness than most public men so accosted would have showed--
+
+"You say you are friendless--poor fellow, in early life that happens to
+many of us, who find friends enough before the close. Be honest, and
+well-conducted; lean on yourself, not on strangers; work with the body
+if you can't with the mind; and, believe me, that advice is all I can
+give you, unless this trifle," and the minister held out a crown piece.
+
+Leonard bowed, shook his head sadly, and walked away. Egerton looked
+after him with a slight pang.
+
+"Pooh!" said he to himself, "there must be thousands in the same state
+in the streets of London. I can not redress these necessities of
+civilization. Well educated! It is not from ignorance henceforth that
+society will suffer--it is from over-educating the hungry thousands who,
+thus unfitted for manual toil, and with no career for mental, will some
+day or other stand like that boy in our streets, and puzzle wiser
+ministers than I am."
+
+As Egerton thus mused, and passed on to the bridge, a bugle-horn rang
+merrily from the box of a gay four-in-hand. A drag-coach with superb
+blood-horses, rattled over the causeway, and in the driver Egerton
+recognized his nephew--Frank Hazeldean.
+
+The young Guardsman was returning, with a lively party of men, from
+dining at Greenwich; and the careless laughter of these children of
+pleasure floated far over the still river.
+
+It vexed the ear of the careworn statesman--sad, perhaps, with all his
+greatness, lonely amidst all his crowd of friends. It reminded him,
+perhaps, of his own youth, when such parties and companionships were
+familiar to him, though through them all he bore an ambitious, aspiring
+soul--"_Le jeu, vaut-il la chandelle?_" said he, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+The coach rolled rapidly past Leonard, as he stood leaning against the
+corner of the bridge, and the mire of the kennel splashed over him from
+the hoofs of the fiery horses. The laughter smote on his ear more
+discordantly than on the minister's, but it begot no envy.
+
+"Life is a dark riddle," said he, smiting his breast.
+
+And he walked slowly on, gained the recess where he had stood several
+nights before with Helen; and dizzy with want of food, and worn out for
+want of sleep, he sank down into the dark corner; while the river that
+rolled under the arch of stone muttered dirge-like in his ear; as under
+the social key-stone wails and rolls on forever the mystery of Human
+Discontent. Take comfort, O Thinker, by the stream! 'Tis the river that
+founded and gave pomp to the city; and without the discontent, where
+were progress--what were Man? Take comfort, O THINKER! wherever the
+stream over which thou bendest, or beside which thou sinkest, weary and
+desolate, frets the arch that supports thee--never dream that, by
+destroying the bridge, thou canst silence the moan of the wave.
+
+                    (TO BE CONTINUED.)
+
+
+
+
+THE FORTUNES OF THE REVEREND CALEB ELLISON.
+
+
+CHAPTER THE FIRST.
+
+The Reverend Caleb Ellison had an odd way of doing every thing; but he
+was so good a man, and so adored a clergyman, that his being in love was
+an interesting circumstance to a large proportion of the inhabitants of
+the country town in which he lived. When he looked up at the
+chimney-pots as he walked the streets, or went slowly skipping along the
+foot-pavement to the Reading-room in the market-place, the elders of his
+congregation might wish that he would walk more like other men, and the
+children giggled at the sight; but the ladies, young and old, regarded
+these things as a part of the "originality" which they admired in him;
+and Joanna Carey would scarcely admit to herself that such freaks
+required forbearance.
+
+On Friday evening Mr. Carey returned before the rest of his party from a
+strawberry feast, to tell his wife that their dear girl had shown him by
+a look, that she must now decide on her lot for life. Ellison had
+certainly spoken. Joanna must decide for herself. If she was satisfied
+to have the greatest blessings that a woman could have--high moral and
+spiritual excellence in a man who loved her--and could, for these, make
+light of the daily drawbacks of his oddities, it was not for any one
+else to object. Mr. Carey could not say that his own temper would bear
+with so eccentric a companion; but perhaps he was narrow: perhaps his
+wife's nice household ways for twenty-five years had spoiled him. Joanna
+knew what she was undertaking. She knew that it was as much as the clerk
+and the deacons could do, to get the pastor into the pulpit in proper
+time every Sunday, and that this would be her business now. She knew
+that he seldom remembered to shave, and how he had burned his marble
+chimney-piece black; and--Well; perhaps these were trifles. Perhaps it
+was a fault not to regard them as such. If a father was fortunate enough
+to have a man of eminent single-mindedness for his son-in-law, and
+genius to boot, he ought not, perhaps, to require common sense also; but
+it had always been Mr. Carey's belief that good sense was the greatest
+part of genius.
+
+By Sunday evening Mr. Carey was little disposed to desire any thing more
+in his intended son-in-law than had appeared that day. Joanna had
+engaged herself to him on Saturday evening. On Sunday morning there was
+something in the tone of his pathetic voice so unusual, in the very
+first verses of the Psalm, that many hearers looked up; and then they
+saw something very unusual in his countenance. He so preached, that a
+stranger inquired earnestly who this Mr. Ellison was, and whence he
+came; and his admirers in the congregation said he was inspired.
+
+"Joanna behaved very well, did not she?" whispered Mrs. Carey to her
+husband, as they were returning from chapel.
+
+"Very well, indeed. And it was extremely fine, his preaching to-day.
+Extremely fine!"
+
+And this particular day, the father feared as little for Joanna as
+Joanna for herself.
+
+There was no reason for delay about the marriage. Mr. Ellison had three
+hundred pounds a year from his office, and was never likely to have any
+more. The interest of Joanna's portion--one thousand pounds--was hers
+whenever she married. She was four-and-twenty, and Mr. Ellison was five
+years older. They were no children; there was no reason for delay; so
+every body knew of the engagement immediately, and the preparations went
+on diligently.
+
+A pastor's marriage is always a season of great interest and amusement.
+In this case it was unusually diverting from the singular innocence of
+the gentleman about all household affairs. He showed all the solicitude
+of which he was capable to have every thing right and comfortable for
+Joanna; but his ideas were so extraordinary, that his friends suspected
+that he had been quizzed by certain youths of his congregation, who had
+indeed made solemn suggestions to him about dredging-boxes and
+rolling-pins, and spigots, and ball-irons, and other conveniences, the
+names of which were strange to him. He had promised to leave the whole
+concern of furnishing in the hands of a discreet lady and her daughters,
+with a power of appeal to Mrs. Carey in doubtful cases; but when these
+mysterious names had been lying on his mind for some days, he could not
+help making inquiries and suggestions, which brought nothing but
+laughter upon him. Mr. and Mrs. Carey thought the quizzing went rather
+too far; but Joanna did not seem to mind it.
+
+"His head should not be stuffed with nonsense," observed Mr. Carey to
+his wife, "when business that he really ought to be attending to is left
+undone."
+
+"You mean the Life Insurance," replied she. "Why do you not remind him
+of it?"
+
+"I believe I must. But it is not a pleasant thing to do. No man in his
+circumstances ought to need to be spoken to more than once. However, I
+have to suggest to him to insure all this pretty furniture that his
+friends are giving him; and while I am speaking about the Fire
+Insurance, I can easily mention the more important one."
+
+"I should feel no difficulty," observed Mrs. Carey. "He will be purely
+thankful to you for telling him what he ought to do."
+
+An opportunity soon occurred. The presents came in fast: the Careys were
+consulted about how to stow them all. One evening at supper, the
+conversation naturally turned--as it probably does in every house--on
+what should be saved first in case of fire. Mr. Carey asked Mr. Ellison
+whether his landlord had not insured the cottage, and whether he himself
+was not thinking of insuring the furniture from fire.
+
+Instant opposition arose from Mr. Carey's second daughter, Charlotte,
+who declared that she could not bear to think of such a thing. She
+begged that nobody would speak of such a thing. Indeed, she wondered
+that any body could. When induced to explain the emotions with which
+her mind was laboring, she declared her horror that any one belonging to
+her could feel that any money could compensate for the loss of the
+precious things, such as old letters, and fond memorials, which perish
+in a fire.
+
+"How old are you, my dear?" inquired her father.
+
+"Sixteen, papa."
+
+"Indeed! I should have taken you to be six years younger. I should
+wonder at a child of ten talking so sillily as you are doing."
+
+Mr. Ellison stared; for his sympathy with Charlotte's sentiment was so
+strong, that he was looking at her with beaming eyes, and softly
+ejaculating, "Dear Charlotte! dear child!"
+
+It took some time to convince both (for young ladies of sixteen
+sometimes see things less clearly than six years before and ten years
+after that age) that, if precious papers and gifts are unhappily lost in
+a fire, that is no reason why tables and chairs, and fish-kettles and
+dredging-boxes, and carpets and house linen should not be paid for by an
+Insurance Office; but at last both young lady and pastor saw this.
+Still, Charlotte did not look satisfied; and her father invited her to
+utter what was in her mind. After some fencing about whether her
+thoughts were silly, and whether it would be silly to speak them, out
+came the scruple. Was there not something worldly in thinking so much
+about money and the future?
+
+"Dear Charlotte! dear child!" again soliloquized Mr. Ellison.
+
+Mr. Carey did not think the apprehension silly; but, in his opinion, the
+danger of worldliness lay the other way. He thought the worldliness lay
+in a man's spending all his income, leaving wife and children to be
+maintained by their neighbors, in case of accidents which may happen any
+day to any body, and which do happen to a certain proportion of people,
+within an assigned time, as regularly as death happens to all. Charlotte
+had nothing to say against life insurance, because every man knows that
+he shall die; and there is no speculation in the case. But she was
+extremely surprised to hear that there is an equal certainty, though of
+a narrower extent, about fire, and other accidents; that it is a fact
+that, out of so many householders, such and such a number will have
+their houses burned down.
+
+"Is it indeed so?" asked Joanna.
+
+"It is indeed so. Moreover, out of so much property, such and such an
+amount will perish by fire. Every householder being bound in with this
+state of things for his share of the risk, he owes it equally to others
+and to himself to secure the compensation, in case of accident. Does he
+not?"
+
+"How to others?"
+
+"Because he should contribute his share to the subscription, if you like
+to call it so, by which the sufferer from fire, whoever he be, is to be
+compensated. Thus, you see, Charlotte, that which seems to you an act of
+worldliness is a neighborly act, as well as a prudent one."
+
+When reminded, Charlotte admitted that she had herself said so about
+the Cow Club at B----. She had told many people how the cottagers at
+B----, were now saved from all danger of ruin by the loss of a cow--a
+loss fatal to so many cottagers elsewhere. The farmers at B----, who
+could ill afford to lose from nine pounds to fifteen pounds at a stroke
+by the death of a cow, had joined with the cottagers in setting up a Cow
+Life-insurance. The club employed a skillful cow-doctor. The members
+paid in a small portion of the weekly profits of their milk-selling; and
+had the comfort of knowing that, whenever their cow died, they would be
+supplied with another, or with a part of the value of one, according to
+the length of time, or the yearly amount they had paid. Charlotte
+admitted that she had been delighted with the scheme, but now asserted
+that she was much more pleased about the Quakers and their ship.
+
+"Ha! Quakers?" said Mr. Ellison.
+
+Yes; those Quakers, now, were the sort of people whom Charlotte admired.
+So unworldly! so trusting! There was a rich India ship, belonging to
+some Quakers, lately wrecked in the Channel, very near her port. The
+whole cargo was lost. It had been a total loss to the owners, because
+their principles would not allow them to insure--to put themselves out
+of the hands of Providence, and speculate in "the stormy winds
+fulfilling his word." That had been their statement; and was there not
+something very beautiful in it? Charlotte looked at her father for an
+answer.
+
+"Tell me, first, my dear," he replied, "whether you admire Tasker, the
+shoemaker, for refusing to have his children vaccinated, saying that it
+was taking them out of the hands of the Lord?"
+
+Charlotte could not think of poor little Mary Tasker, disfigured and
+half blind, and not wish that she had been vaccinated; and yet Tasker
+had acted in a resigned spirit.
+
+"Well: exactly as much as you admire Tasker, I admire your Quakers. I
+honor their motive, but I am sorry for their mistake--sorry that they
+refuse one safeguard against worldliness."
+
+"Worldliness, papa!"
+
+Mr. Carey explained how the moral dangers of commercial pursuits are in
+proportion to their gambling character. Large gains and great hazards
+must be more engrossing to the mind, and more stimulating to the
+passions than small and secure profits. The great drawback upon commerce
+with very remote countries is, or was, its gambling character, from the
+variety and seriousness of the risks, and the largeness of the profits
+laid on to cover them. By means of insurance against sea risks and other
+dangers, the losses are spread over so large a number that they cease to
+be losses, and become a mere tax, such as men may willingly pay for
+security. When a man has so introduced moderation into his gains and his
+losses, as to detach himself from "the cares of the world and the
+deceitfulness of riches," he may listen with a quiet pulse (as far as
+his own affairs are concerned) to the wind roaring over the sea, and
+need not be "afraid of evil tidings." It was quite a new view to
+Charlotte that her Quakers had been gambling, in fact, when they should
+have been trading safely; but she could not deny that it was so. Nobody
+wished her to give them up, in regard to their spirit of faith and
+trust; but nobody could stand up for their prudence.
+
+The most striking view to Charlotte was that there is nothing accidental
+in storms and tempests; and that it is only our ignorance which makes us
+call them so. The realm of Meteorology is, no doubt, governed by laws as
+invariable as that of Astronomy. We know this fact, though we, as yet,
+know little of these laws. Something more we know: and that is, the
+average of shipwrecks and conflagrations, in a certain condition of
+society; in the same way that we know the average of men that will die,
+out of a certain number, in a certain time: and it is this knowledge of
+the averages which justifies the resource of insurance in all the three
+cases. When Mr. Ellison at length comprehended that there were thousands
+of prudent men now paying their mite to compensate him for the loss of
+his new furniture, in case of its being burned, on the simple condition
+of his paying his mite also, he was so struck by their neighborly
+conduct, that he could scarcely express his sense of it. The ladies
+considered it impossible that he should feel so strongly, and be
+heedless about the condition on his own part. Mr. Carey shook his head.
+
+Mr. Carey was right. The wedding-day came, and the insurance was not
+effected.--Joanna did not like to tease her betrothed about worldly
+affairs. If the subject was mentioned, and the train of thought revived,
+he went into an enthusiasm about the benevolent class of insurers: but
+he did not become one himself.
+
+
+CHAPTER THE SECOND.
+
+The wedding-day came and went. The young people were married and gone.
+Mr. Ellison's flock were assembled, almost entire, in the parish church,
+for the first and last time. In those days, dissenters could not marry
+in their own chapels, or any where but in church; and the present was an
+occasion when the clergyman of the parish appeared to great advantage,
+with his kind courtesy toward his dissenting neighbors. The whole affair
+was talked over from day to day, during the wedding-trip of the
+Ellisons, in the intervals of Charlotte's business in preparing their
+house for their return. Then began her sisterly relation toward the
+pastor beloved by so many. Her reverence for him, and her pride on
+Joanna's account, made her consider his dignity (in spite of himself) on
+all occasions; from the receiving him at his own door, on the evening of
+arrival, to the defending him in every trifle in which he vexed her
+orderly father. When Mr. Carey complained of his being found at
+breakfast unshaven, and wondered how he would like to see Joanna come
+down with her hair in papers, Charlotte contended that these things
+mattered less in a gentleman than a lady; and that it was from a
+meditative turn that he forgot to shave, even as Newton forgot to dine.
+If he fell over all his new furniture in turn, she declared it was
+because the affection of his friends had over-crowded his cottage with
+memorials of their love. If he was met half-way to the town without his
+hat, she looked with reverence in his face for a foretaste of his next
+Sunday's sermon. When it came out that Joanna had paid all the post boys
+and bills on the journey; that Joanna had to go with him to the
+tailor's, when he was to be measured for a new coat; that Joanna had to
+carve, because he did not know the wing of a fowl from the leg--But we
+will not dwell further on the foibles of a good man whose virtues were
+as uncommon in their degree, as his weaknesses, it may be hoped, in
+kind.
+
+Full as the cottage was of pretty things, it was destined to be yet
+fuller in another year. Never was there a prettier little wardrobe of
+tiny caps and robes, and the like, than room must be found for, the next
+autumn, in preparation for that prettiest of all things--a baby. Half
+the ladies in the congregation brought their offerings of delicate work,
+in cambric and the softest of flannel, and most fantastical of
+pincushions and baskets. It was a delightful season to the whole family;
+and Joanna was so well and bright! And when the great day was over,
+there were such rallyings of Mr. and Mrs. Carey, on their being so early
+a grand-papa and grand-mamma; and it was so droll to see Mr. Ellison,
+who seemed never to have seen a baby, but in baptizing the little
+creatures, whom he had always hitherto regarded as young Christians, and
+never as little infants! Mr. Carey was rather ashamed of the extent of
+his ignorance, shown on the first sight of his child in its sleep, by
+its mother's side.
+
+"Ha!" he exclaimed, "a baby!" in as much surprise as if it had been the
+last thing he expected to see.
+
+"Yes; there is your baby. How do you like her?"
+
+He gazed in silence, and at length said--"But can she walk?"
+
+"My dear Ellison! at a day old!"
+
+"But can she talk?"
+
+"All in good time. You will have enough of that by-and by."
+
+"Dear, dear! Ha!" said he, again and again, till he was sent off to
+dinner, at a friend's house.
+
+He dined at some friend's house every day. On the fourth day it was at a
+distance of three miles. Mrs. Carey had gone home, in the twilight of a
+November day. As soon as she was gone, the nurse stepped out, very
+improperly, for something that she wanted, the child being asleep beside
+Joanna. She desired the servant girl to carry up her mistress's gruel in
+a quarter-of-an-hour, if she was not back. The girl did so; and
+approached the bed, with the basin in one hand and a candle in the
+other. She poked the candle directly against the dimity curtains, and
+set the bed on fire. It was a large bed, in a small crowded room, close
+to two walls and near the window-curtain. The flame caught the tester
+instantly, and then the corner of the pillow, and the edge of the sheet.
+Before that, the girl had thrown down the basin of hot gruel on the
+baby, rushed to the window, thrown up the sash, and screamed; and she
+next rushed out at the door, leaving it wide open, and then at the
+house-door, leaving that wide open too. The air streamed up the
+staircase, and the bed was on fire all round.
+
+Poor Joanna crept off the bed, and took the child in one arm, while with
+the other she tried to pull off a blanket. She was found weakly tugging
+at it. He who so found her was a sailor, who had seen the light from the
+road, and run up the stairs.
+
+"I see how it is, madam," said he, in a cheerful voice. "Don't be
+alarmed; you are very safe. Come in here." And he carried her into the
+next room--the little drawing-room--and laid her, with her baby on her
+arm, on the sofa. He summoned a comrade, who was in the road. They
+pulled up the drugget from the floor, doubled it again, laid it over
+her, and tucked it nicely in, as if there was no hurry.
+
+"Now, madam," said he, "where shall we carry you?" She was carried
+through damp and dusk to her father's house. Her mother was not there.
+Such news spreads, nobody knows how. Her mother was then in the streets
+without her bonnet, imploring every body she met to save her child. She
+presently encountered one of the sailors, returning to the fire. He
+assured her the lady and child were safe, and sent her home. Mr. Carey
+was almost as much beside himself. His first idea was, that it was Mr.
+Ellison who had, by some awkwardness, set his house on fire; and he said
+so, very publicly; and very sorry he was for it afterward.
+
+Mr. Ellison was called from the dinner-table, and told he was wanted at
+home. He strode along, in a bewildered state, till he saw the flames
+from a distance. As he stood before the cottage, which was now one
+blaze, nobody could tell him where his wife was. He was trying to break
+from many hands, and enter the house, when some one at last came up with
+the news of the safety of his wife and babe. As for the servant, it was
+some days before she was heard of; and there were serious apprehensions
+about her, when her aunt came in from the country, to say that the poor
+creature had fled to her, and would never come near the town, or see any
+of the family again. Nobody wondered that she said she should never be
+happy again.
+
+Joanna seemed to be really no worse for the adventure; and for some days
+it was confidently believed that the infant would do well, though it was
+severely scalded. Every thing was lost--every article of clothing of all
+three, all the pretty gifts, all the furniture, two precious portraits,
+all Mr. Ellison's books and manuscripts. But he was so happy and
+thankful that his chief treasures were saved, that he never preached
+more nobly than on the next Sunday, without a scrap of notes;--he who
+took such pains with his sermons, and never preached extempore! It was
+from the abundance of his heart that he spoke.
+
+"I have to beg your pardon, Ellison," said Mr. Carey, "for what I said
+in the first moments of misery."
+
+"It was natural--it was not doing me wrong; for my mother used to say
+that I did awkward things sometimes; that I was not expert; and it
+appears to me that I really have erred." And the good man went on to
+blame himself for having no furniture and clothes to give Joanna, no
+piano, no books! His landlord was no loser by the fire, while he was
+destitute. In short, Mr. Ellison was full of remorse for not having
+insured. All the ladies of his acquaintance were stitching away in his
+and his wife's behalf; but this was rather an aggravation than a
+comfort; and he fully intended to effect an insurance, both against fire
+(when he should again be settled) and on his life. Still, Mr. Carey told
+his wife, with a shake of the head, that his impression was that it
+would never be done.
+
+All such thoughts were presently banished. The baby did not get through.
+After pining for ten days, she died. Then it was that the pastor's fine
+qualities manifested themselves. He surrendered so patiently a happiness
+and hope which had really become very dear to his heart; he supported
+Joanna so tenderly; he considered the whole family so much more than
+himself, that Mr. Carey vowed he would never more be vexed or ashamed at
+the peculiarities of such a man.
+
+
+CHAPTER THE THIRD.
+
+Nobody would hear of the pastor going into furnished lodgings. The
+pastor and his wife would not hear of Mr. Carey's furnishing another
+house for them. Joanna was allowed to draw half her little fortune to
+buy furniture and clothes, and a few indispensable books for her
+husband. Thus, their income was reduced by twenty-five pounds, and the
+half of the principal was gone. If that twenty-five pounds of lost
+income had been devoted to a life insurance, it would, at Mr. Ellison's
+present age, have secured one thousand pounds at his death. Thus he had,
+by neglect, in fact, thrown away one thousand five hundred pounds of
+future provision for his family. The present was not the easiest moment
+for contracting new obligations; but the duty was clear, even to the
+unpractical mind of the pastor. He went to London to effect his
+insurances, and his wife went with him partly for change of scene and
+thoughts, and partly because she knew that her husband could never get
+through the business by himself.
+
+It was not got through, after all. One pious friend had affected them
+with fears, that they would find it an ensnaring bondage to worldly
+things to have to think of the payment of the annual premium; another
+thought it was speculating in God's will; another assured them that they
+could not spare the money, and should provide for their own household,
+and hospitality to neighbors, to-day, instead of taking thought for the
+morrow. They returned without having been near an insurance-office at
+all. The Careys thought this a sad mistake, and pointed out to them the
+peace of mind they would lose by the precariousness of their fortunes,
+and the ease with which the business might be managed, by the trustees
+of the chapel being authorized to deduct the necessary sum from the
+pastor's salary, and the pastor's way of living being proportioned to an
+income of three hundred pounds a year. It was certain that Mr. Ellison
+would never lay by money in any other way than this; for he could never
+see a beggar without giving him whatever he had in his pocket.
+
+It may be observed, that insurance was a more onerous matter in those
+days than in ours. Science has introduced much ease and many varieties
+into the process of insurance. The rates of premium in Mr. Ellison's
+younger days were higher; the methods were restricted; middle-class men
+drank more, and taxed their brother insurers for their accelerated
+mortality, though precautions were taken against obviously fatal
+intemperance. The "bondage," that friends talked of, was greater, and
+the advantages were less, than at present. If Mr. Ellison was wrong in
+his delays and hesitation, much more are family men wrong who delay and
+hesitate now.
+
+Time went on, and Joanna was made happy by the birth of a son. During
+the whole period of her confinement, her husband refused to leave the
+house, except on Sundays; and he went about, many times in the day, from
+the attics to the cellars, with his nose in the air, trying to smell
+fire. There was none, however, to reward his anxious search. No accident
+happened. The mother and child throve without drawback; and a finer
+little fellow really was never seen.
+
+For two years--two precious years--all went well. Then came one of those
+seasons of unhealthiness which occur at intervals, as if to warn men of
+their ignorance of the laws on which their life depends, and to rebuke
+their carelessness about observing such conditions of health as they do
+understand. No town was less prepared to encounter an onset of autumnal
+fever than that in which the Ellisons lived. It had no right to expect
+health at any time: the history of the place told of plague in old
+times, and every epidemic which visited England became a pestilence amid
+its ill-drained streets, its tidal expanse of mud, and its crowded
+alleys. These were the times when the beloved pastor's fidelity shone
+out. For weeks he was, night and day, in close attendance on the poor of
+his flock; and any other poor who were needing help. He could not aid
+them in the way that a more practical man would have done; but Joanna
+supplied that kind of ability, while the voice of her husband carried
+peace and support into many a household, prostrated in grief and dread.
+He ran far greater risks all the while than he needed, if he could have
+been taught common prudence. He forgot to eat, and went into
+unwholesome chambers with an empty stomach and an exhausted frame. In
+spite of his wife's watchfulness, he omitted to give himself the easy
+advantages of freshened air, change of clothes, and a sufficiency of
+wholesome food; and, for one week, he hardly came home to sleep. It was
+no wonder that, at last, both were down in the fever. The best care
+failed to save Joanna. She died without having bidden farewell to
+husband and child. Her husband was in bed delirious, and her boy was in
+the country, whither he had been taken for safety when the fever entered
+the house.
+
+Mr. Ellison recovered slowly, as might be expected, from the weight upon
+his mind. There was something strange, it appeared to his physician, in
+his anxiety to obtain strength to go to London. He was extremely
+pertinacious about this. The Careys, glad to see that he could occupy
+himself with any project, humored this, without understanding it. They
+spoke as if he was going to London when he should be strong enough. They
+did not dream of his not waiting for this. But, in the dark, damp
+evening of the day when he dismissed his physician, after Mrs. Carey had
+gone home, leaving him on the sofa, and promising that her husband
+should call after tea, he was seen at the coach-office, in the
+market-place; and he made a night-journey to London.
+
+There were no railways in those days; and this journey of one hundred
+miles required twelve hours by the "Expedition," the "Highflyer," the
+"Express," or whatever the fastest coach might be called. As soon as he
+arrived, Mr. Ellison swallowed a cup of coffee in the bar of the inn,
+had a coach called, and proceeded to an insurance-office to insure his
+life. As he presented himself, emaciated and feeble, unwashed, unshaven,
+with a crimson handkerchief tied over his white lips, which quivered
+when he uncovered them; as he told his errand, in a weak and husky
+voice, the clerks of the office stared at him in pitying wonder; and the
+directors dismissed him from their parlor, under the gentlest pretexts
+they could devise.
+
+He returned home immediately, and told his adventure to Mr. Carey.
+
+"I could not rest till I had made the effort," he said. "When dear
+Joanna was gone, and I believed that I should follow her, it occurred to
+me that our child would be left destitute. I saw that I had neglected my
+duty; and I resolved that, if I recovered, it should be so no longer. I
+have made the effort; it has failed; and God's will be done!"
+
+Mr. Carey would not allow that the matter must be given up. In fact,
+there was no difficulty in effecting the insurance, in the next spring,
+when Mr. Ellison was restored to his ordinary state of health, and Mr.
+Carey was his guide and helper in the business. The interest of Joanna's
+little portion was appropriated for the purpose, with a small addition,
+rendered necessary by the lapse of three years. It is well known that
+the most unworldly and unapt persons are the most proud of any act of
+prudence or skill that they may have been able to achieve. So it was in
+this case. When the pastor sat gazing at his child, it appeared to him a
+marvelous thing that he, even he, should have endowed any human being
+with a fortune. He was heard to say to himself, on such occasions, in a
+tone of happy astonishment,
+
+"A thousand pounds! Ha! a thousand pounds!"
+
+We can not here follow out the curious process of that boy's rearing. We
+have not space to tell how tenderly he was watched by grand-mamma, and
+by Charlotte, till her marriage gave her cares of her own:--nor what a
+stroke it was when Mr. Ellison moved to a distant city, being invited to
+a higher post in the ministry of his sect; nor how curiously he and his
+child lived in a lodging, where, notwithstanding all his efforts to fill
+the place of both parents, his boy was too often seen in rags; nor how
+the child played leap-frog and other games with little beggars and
+ruffians in the streets, so cleverly, that his father might be seen
+gazing at him from the foot-pavement, in a rapture of admiration; nor
+how, on the great occasion of the little lad's first going to chapel, he
+told every body within reach, that it was "Pa" in the pulpit; nor how,
+when he was tired of the sermon, he was wont to scrape the sand from the
+floor, and powder with it the wigs of the old men who sat in the long
+pew before him; nor how, at length, the importunity of friends prevailed
+to get him sent to school; nor how comfortably his father was boarded in
+a private family when the lodging plan became too bad to be borne even
+by him. All this we must leave undescribed; and also his satisfaction
+when, in a later time--when his son was grown up, and prosperous, and
+well married--the good pastor found himself at liberty to do, if he
+should wish it, what he had always thought ministers had better do,
+leave the pulpit before they were worn out--before any body had begun to
+look for their wearing out. The "dear child," as he still calls the
+father of his grand-children, early persuaded his father to take
+advantage of that modern improvement by which his life insurance can be
+commuted into an annuity at sixty years of age, if he should attain it,
+or receivable in full, if that method should be preferred. A small
+independence being thus secured, if he lives to leave the pulpit at
+sixty, and a legacy to his son, if he dies before that time, Mr. Ellison
+feels more free from worldly cares than is often the case with
+dissenting ministers who begin the world without fortune, and with
+thoughts far above the lucre of gain.
+
+No one wonders that he never seemed to think of marrying again. Before
+his removal, the name of his "dear Joanna" was often on his lips. After
+his removal, it was never again heard, except on the rare occasions of
+his meeting old friends. He did not speak of her to those who had never
+known her; but not the less was her image understood to be ever in his
+thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+LAMARTINE ON THE RESTORATION.[8]
+
+[8] "History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France," by Alphonse De
+Lamartine. 12mo. Harper and Brothers.
+
+
+An able critic in a recent English journal, remarks as follows, on the
+last brilliant work of Lamartine on "The History of the Restoration:"
+Whatever may be said of the author of this volume as a politician, and
+however much his capabilities for legislation may be despised, he ranks
+as a first class historian, and as the most brilliant foreign writer of
+the present day, both of his country's annals, romance, and poetry. If
+M. Lamartine's "History of the Girondists" excited immense interest, his
+"History of the Restoration of the Monarchy" is calculated to produce a
+much greater enthusiasm. The manner in which he details the thrilling
+events which succeeded the conclusion of the Reign of Terror in the
+former work, and the opening of the Consulate, has been spoken of by
+critics of all shades of politics as unique, as perfect in style and
+comprehensive in detail; but we doubt very much whether it will not be
+universally acknowledged that in all these points the new effort
+surpasses the older. The praise of such a work is best accorded by
+extracts from its own pages. Such extracts speak for themselves, and
+award far more valuable encomiums than any which those whose office it
+is to sit in judgment upon their characteristics can do. We present the
+following account of the arrest and murder of the young Duke d'Enghien,
+a crime which Europe has very justly never forgiven, and by which the
+character of Napoleon has been forever blasted. We had thought that a
+more vivid picture of this act of treachery could not by any possibility
+have been written than that which appears in the tale of Maurice
+Tierney, the Soldier of Fortune; but every thing which has been there
+said, or has been elsewhere written concerning that event, gives place
+to this vivid picture drawn by Lamartine, while his opinion respecting
+the dark deed itself, and the villainy by which it was accomplished,
+will ever stamp him as a man of the most honorable mind, and as a truly
+noble-hearted Frenchman.
+
+ARREST AND MURDER OF THE DUKE D'ENGHIEN.
+
+"Ordener set out on the same night, that of the 10th and 11th of March,
+and arrived on the 12th at Strassburg. He held a council on his arrival
+with General Leval, Charlot, the colonel of gendarmes, and the
+commissary of police, and they resolved to precede and facilitate the
+nocturnal expedition by a minute reconnoitring of the scene of action.
+An agent of police named Stahl, and a non-commissioned officer of the
+gendarmerie, named Pfersdoff, were dispatched on the instant, and
+marching all night, arrived at eight o'clock in the morning at
+Ettenheim. They strolled with an affectation of indifference about the
+house of the Prince, in order to make themselves well acquainted with
+the approaches to it. The Prince's valet-de-chambre, concealed behind a
+window, observed these two strangers walking round the walls, and
+intently noting the objects of their mission. He called another of the
+servants, named Cannone, and communicated his anxieties to him. Cannone
+was an old soldier and companion of the Prince from his earliest
+infancy. He had fought with him in all his campaigns, and had saved his
+life in Poland, by covering him with his sabre and his person. He
+fancied that he remembered having somewhere seen the face of Pfersdoff,
+and thought he recognized in him a gendarme in disguise. He hastened to
+inform the Prince, who, with the thoughtlessness of his age, disdained
+to pay any attention to these symptoms of espionage. Nevertheless, an
+officer of his army, named Schmidt, went out and accosted Stahl and
+Pfersdoff, and questioned them with an appearance of unconcern,
+pretending that he was going their way, and accompanied them for more
+than a league; but at last seeing them take a road which led into the
+interior of Germany, instead of returning toward the Rhine, he felt
+re-assured, and returned to tranquilize the servants and retainers at
+Ettenheim. But the anxieties of love are not so easily set at rest as
+those of friendship. The Princess Charlotte de Rohan was filled with a
+presentiment of danger, and begged the Prince would absent himself for a
+few days from a residence where he was so evidently watched, and
+possibly with a criminal intention. Out of affection for her, rather
+than from uneasiness on his own account, the duke consented to absent
+himself for two or three days, and it was settled that he should set out
+the third morning after, on a long hunting excursion in the forests of
+the Grand Duke of Baden, during which the suspicions of his betrothed
+would be either dissipated or verified; but it was fated that, the third
+morning should not dawn on him in Germany.... On the evening of the
+14th, General Ordener, accompanied by General Fririon, chief of General
+Leval's staff, and by Charlot, colonel of gendarmes, set out in the dark
+toward the ferry of Rheinau on the Rhine, and found there, at the
+appointed hour, the 300 dragoons of the 26th, 15 ferrymen, the five
+large boats, and, lastly, the 30 mounted gendarmes destined to be
+employed in the violation of dwellings and seizure of persons, in an
+expedition more worthy of lictors than of soldiers. The Rhine was
+crossed in silence at midnight, and the column, unperceived during the
+sleep of the German peasants on the right bank, and guided by different
+roads, arrived, as the day was breaking, at Ettenheim. The spies, whom
+Ordener and Charlot had brought with them, pointed out to the gendarmes
+the houses which were to be invested.... The Duke d'Enghien, who had
+spent the evening before at the house of the Prince Rohan-Rochefort,
+with the Princess Charlotte, had promised her to absent himself for a
+few days, to allow time for the plots against his safety, of which she
+was apprehensive, either to evaporate or be unraveled. He was
+accordingly about to start at sunrise, with Colonel Grunstein, one of
+his friends, on his hunting excursion for several days. He had already
+left his bed, and was dressing himself, and preparing his arms.
+Grunstein, contrary to his usual custom, had slept under the same roof
+with the Prince, that he might be the sooner ready to escort him. This
+companion of his own, on the battle-field and in the chase, was also
+half-dressed, when the tramp of horses and the sight of dragoons and
+gendarmes made the rest of the household start from their sleep. Feron,
+the most familiar servant of the Prince, flew to the chamber of his
+young master, and announced to him that the court-yard and garden were
+surrounded at every outlet by French soldiers, and that the officer
+commanding them was loudly calling on the servants to open the doors,
+declaring that in case of refusal, he would have them broken open with
+hatchets. 'Well, then, we must defend ourselves,' exclaimed the
+undaunted young man, and saying these words, he seized his
+double-barreled fowling-piece, ready loaded with ball for the chase,
+while Cannone, his other servant, animated with the same determination
+as his master, possessed himself of another fowling-piece, and Grunstein
+entering the chamber at that moment, armed in a like manner, the whole
+then darted to the windows to fire. The Prince leveled at Colonel
+Chariot, who threatened the door, and was about to stretch him dead on
+the threshold, when Grunstein, perceiving on all sides a host of helmets
+and sabres, and seeing another detachment of gendarmes already masters
+of one of the wings of the chateau, seized the barrel of the Prince's
+fowling-piece, and throwing the gun upward, showed the Duke d'Enghien,
+by signs, the uselessness of resistance against such overwhelming
+numbers, and prevented his firing. 'My lord,' he said, 'have you in any
+way committed yourself?'--'No,' replied the duke. 'Well, then, that
+being the case, do not attempt a hopeless struggle. We are hemmed in by
+a complete wall of troops. See how their bayonets glisten on every
+side.' The Prince was turning round to reply to these words when he
+beheld Pfersdoff, whom he recognized as the spy of the day before,
+accompanied by gendarmes with presented carbines, rush into his room. He
+was followed by Col. Charlot, who, with his soldiers, seized and
+disarmed the Prince, together with Grunstein, Feron, and Cannone. The
+Duke, as we have seen, was ready to set out, and was thus lost by the
+delay of only a few moments. He was dressed in the costume of a Tyrolean
+hunter, wearing a handsome gold-laced cap, with long gaiters of chamois
+skin buckled at the knees; and the manly beauty and dauntless expression
+of his features, heightened by the excitement of the surprise, and
+determination to resist, struck the soldiers with astonishment. In the
+midst of such a scene, and the tramp of feet and clatter of arms in the
+house, the sound of a disturbance without for a moment inspired the
+Prince and his followers with a hope of deliverance. Loud cries of fire
+issued from the village, and these cries were re-echoed from house to
+house, like a tocsin of human voices. Windows were thrown open, and
+doorways filled with the inhabitants aroused by the invasion of the
+French. Half naked mechanics were seen running to the steeple to ring
+the bells, and summon the peasants to vengeance. Colonel Charlot,
+however, had them seized, and also arrested the master of the hounds of
+the Duke of Baden, who, on hearing of the disturbance, was hastening to
+the house of the Prince, and who was told by Charlot that what was
+taking place had been mutually agreed upon by the First Consul and his
+sovereign. On hearing this falsehood, the excitement of the inhabitants
+subsided, and they submitted, with looks of sorrow and expressions of
+grief, to the misfortune of a young man who had rendered himself an
+object of the deepest regard.... The Prince was dragged away from his
+residence, without being permitted to take a last farewell of her whom
+he left swooning and in tears."
+
+Bonaparte had determined on the duke's death, and his ministers and
+judges received their instructions to that effect. The midnight trial,
+the despicable meanness of the tribunal, the heroic attitude of the
+young Condé, are vividly depicted in this volume: but we pass on to the
+_dénouement_ of the plot.
+
+"As soon as the judgment was pronounced, and even before it was drawn
+up, Hullin sent to inform Savary and the Judge Advocate of the sentence
+of death, in order that they might take their measures for its
+execution. It seemed as if the time was equally pressing to the tribunal
+as to those who awaited their decision, and as if an invisible genius
+was hurrying along the acts, formalities, and hours, in order that the
+morning's sun might not witness the deeds of the night. Hullin and his
+colleagues remained in the hall of council, and drew up at random the
+judgment they had just given; and this short and unskillfully prepared
+document (summing up a whole examination in two questions and two
+answers) terminated with the order to execute the sentence forthwith.
+Savary had not waited for this order to be written before he prepared
+for its execution, and had already marked out the spot. The court and
+the esplanade being encumbered with troops, by the presence of the
+brigade of infantry, and the legion of gendarmes d'élite, no safe place
+could be found there in which the fire of a platoon did not run the risk
+of striking a soldier or a spectator. No doubt it was also feared that
+too great publicity would thus be given to the murder in the midst of an
+army; that the scene of the execution was too distant from the place of
+sepulture; and that feelings of pity and horror would pervade the ranks
+at the sight of this young man's mangled corpse. The moat of the
+chateau, however, offered the means of avoiding all these dangers, as it
+would conceal the murder as well as the victim. This place was
+accordingly chosen. Harel received orders to give up the keys of the
+steps and iron gateways, which descended from the towers and opened on
+the foundation of the chateau to point out the different outlets and
+sites, and to procure a gravedigger to commence digging a grave while
+the man for whom it was intended still breathed. A poor working gardener
+of the chateau, named Bontemps, was awakened, and his work pointed out
+to him. He was furnished with a lantern to guide him through the
+labyrinth of the moat, and light him while he dug it up. Bontemps
+descended with his shovel and pickax to the bottom of the moat, and
+finding the ground all about dry and hard, he recollected that they had
+begun to dig a trench the evening before, at the foot of the Queen's
+Pavilion, in the angle formed by the tower and a little wall
+breast-high, for the purpose, it was said, of depositing rubbish in it.
+He accordingly went to the foot of the tower, marked out in paces the
+measure of a man's body extended at length, and dug in the earth that
+had been already moved a grave for the corpse they were preparing for
+it. The Duke d'Enghien could have heard from his window, over the
+humming noise of the troops below, the dull and regular sound of the
+pickax which was digging his last couch. Savary, at the same time,
+marched down and arranged slowly in the moat the detachments of troops
+who were to witness this military death, and ordered the firing party to
+load their muskets. The Prince was far from suspecting either so much
+rigor or so much haste on the part of his judges. He did not doubt that
+even a sentence of death, if awarded by the commission, would give
+occasion for an exhibition of magnanimity on the part of the First
+Consul. He had granted an amnesty to emigrants taken with arms in their
+hands; how could it be doubted, then, that he who pardoned obscure and
+culpable exiles, would not honor himself by an act of justice or
+clemency toward an illustrious prince, beloved by all Europe, and
+innocent of all crime? He had been taken back, after his interrogatories
+and his appearance before the military commission, into the room where
+he had slept. He entered it without exhibiting any of that fright which
+prisoners experience in the anxiety and uncertainty of their sentence.
+With a serene countenance and unoccupied mind, he conversed with his
+gendarmes, and played with his dog. Lieutenant Noirot who was on guard
+over him, had formerly served in a regiment of cavalry commanded by a
+colonel who was a friend of the Prince of Condé. He had also seen the
+Duke d'Enghien, when a child, sometimes accompany his father to reviews
+and field days of the regiment; and he reminded the Prince of that
+period and these circumstances of his youth. The duke smiled at these
+reminiscences, and renewed them himself by other recollections of his
+infancy, which mingled with those of Noirot. He inquired, with a
+curiosity full of interest, about the career of this officer since that
+epoch; of the campaigns he had made; of the battles in which he had been
+engaged; of the promotion he had received; of his present rank, his
+expectations, and his partiality for the service. He seemed to find a
+lively pleasure in this conversation on the past with a brave officer,
+who spoke to him with the accent and the heart of a man who would gladly
+indulge in pity, were it not for the severity of duty. A noise of
+footsteps, advancing slowly toward the chamber, interrupted this
+agreeable and last indulgence of captivity. It was the commandant of
+Vincennes, Harel, accompanied by the brigadier of the gendarmerie of the
+village, Aufort. This friend of Harel's had been permitted to remain in
+one of the commandant's rooms, after having ordered the Prince's supper,
+and from thence he had heard or seen all the events of the night. Harel,
+agitated and trembling at the mission he had to fulfill, had permitted
+Aufort to follow and assist him in his message to the prisoner. They
+saluted the Prince respectfully; but neither of them had the firmness to
+acquaint him with the truth. The dejected attitude and trembling voice
+of Harel alone revealed to the eye and to the heart of the Prince a
+fatal presentiment of the rigor of his judges. He thought they now came
+for him only to hear his sentence read. Harel desired him, on the part
+of the tribunal, to follow him, and he went before with a lantern in his
+hand, through the corridors, the passages, and the courts it was
+necessary to cross, to arrive at the building called the 'Devil's
+Tower.' The interior of this tower contained the only staircase and the
+only door descending to, and opening into, the lowest moat. The Prince
+appeared to hesitate two or three times on going into this suspicious
+tower, like a victim which smells the blood, and which resists and turns
+back its head on crossing the threshold of a slaughter-house. Harel and
+Aufort preceded the duke in silence down the steps of the narrow winding
+staircase, which descended to a postern through the massy walls of this
+tower. The Prince, with an instinctive horror of the place, and of the
+depth beneath the soil to which the steps were leading him, began to
+think they were not conducting him before the judges, but into the hands
+of murderers, or to the gloom of a prison. He trembled in all his limbs,
+and convulsively drew back his foot as he addressed his guides in front:
+'Where are you conducting me?' he demanded, with a stifled voice. 'If it
+is to bury me alive in a dungeon, I would rather die this instant.'
+'Sir,' replied Harel, turning round, 'follow me, and summon up all your
+courage.' The Prince partly comprehended him, and followed. They at
+length issued from the winding staircase, through a low postern which
+opened on the bottom of the moat, and continued walking for some time in
+the dark, along the foot of the lofty walls of the fortress, as far as
+the basement of the Queen's Pavilion. When they had turned the angle of
+this pavilion, which concealed another part of the moat behind its
+walls, the Prince suddenly found himself in front of the detachment of
+the troops drawn up to witness his death. The firing party selected for
+the execution was separated from the rest; and the barrels of their
+muskets, reflecting the dull light of some lanterns carried by a few of
+the attendants, threw a sinister glare on the moat, the massy walls,
+and the newly-dug grave. The Prince stopped at a sign from his guides,
+within a few paces of the firing party. He saw his fate at a glance, but
+he neither trembled nor turned pale. A slight and chilling rain was
+falling from a gloomy sky, and a melancholy silence reigned throughout
+the moat. Nothing disturbed the horror of the scene but the whispering
+and shuffling feet of a few groups of officers and soldiers who had
+collected upon the parapets above, and on the drawbridge which led into
+the forest of Vincennes. Adjutant Pelle, who commanded the detachment,
+advanced, with his eyes lowered, toward the Prince. He held in his hand
+the sentence of the military commission, which he read in a low, dull
+voice, but perfectly intelligible. The Prince, listened without making
+an observation or losing his firmness. He seemed to have collected in an
+instant all his courage, and all the military heroism of his race, to
+show his enemies that he knew how to die. Two feelings alone seemed to
+occupy him during the moment of intense silence which followed the
+reading of his sentence; one was to invoke the aid of religion to soothe
+his last struggle, and the other to communicate his dying thoughts to
+her he was going to leave desolate on the earth. He accordingly asked if
+he could have the assistance of a priest, but there was none in the
+castle; and though a few minutes would suffice to call the curé of
+Vincennes, they were too much pressed for time, and too anxious to avail
+themselves of the night which was to cover every thing. The officers
+nearest to him made a sign that he must renounce this consolation; and
+one brutal fellow from the midst of a group called out in a tone of
+irony, 'Do you wish, then, to die like a Capuchin?' The Prince raised
+his head with an air of indignation, and turning toward the group of
+officers and gendarmes who had accompanied him to the ground, he asked,
+in a loud voice, if there was any one among them willing to do him one
+last service. Lieutenant Noirot advanced from the group, and approached
+him, thus sufficiently evincing his intention. The Prince said a few
+words to him in a low voice, and Noirot, turning toward the side
+occupied by the troops, said, 'Gendarmes, have any of you got a pair of
+scissors about you?' The gendarmes searched their cartridge-boxes, and a
+pair of scissors was passed from hand to hand to the Prince. He took off
+his cap, cut off one of the locks of his hair, drew a letter from his
+pocket, and a ring from his finger, then folding the hair, the letter,
+and the ring in a sheet of paper, he gave the little packet, his sole
+inheritance, to Lieutenant Noirot, charging him, in the name of pity for
+his situation and his death, to send them to the young Princess
+Charlotte de Rohan, at Ettenheim. This love message being thus confided,
+he collected himself for a moment, with his hands joined, to offer up a
+last prayer, and in a low voice commended his soul to God. He then made
+five or six paces to place himself in front of the firing party, whose
+loaded muskets he saw glimmering at a short distance. The light of a
+large lantern containing several candles, placed upon the little wall
+that stood over the open grave, gleamed full upon him, and lighted the
+aim of the soldiers. The firing party retired a few paces to a proper
+distance, the adjutant gave the word to fire, and the young Prince, as
+if struck by a thunderbolt, fell upon the earth, without a cry and
+without a struggle. At that moment the clock of the castle struck the
+hour of three. Hullin and his colleagues were waiting in the vestibule
+of Harel's quarters for their carriage to convey them back to Paris, and
+were talking with some bitterness of Savary's refusal to transmit their
+letter to his master, when an unexpected explosion, resounding from the
+moat of the forest gate, made them start and tremble, and taught them
+that judges should never reckon upon any thing but justice and their own
+conscience. This still small voice pursued them through their lives. The
+Duke d'Enghien was no more. His dog, which had followed him into the
+moat, yelled when he saw him fall, and threw himself on the body of his
+master. It was with difficulty the poor animal could be torn away from
+the spot, and given to one of the Prince's servants, who took him to the
+Princess Charlotte--the only messenger from that tomb where slept the
+hapless victim whom she never ceased to deplore."
+
+
+
+
+THE CAPTAIN'S SELF-DEVOTION.[9]
+
+[9] Translated from a new volume of Tales by Fanny Lewald.
+
+
+Some twenty years ago my father had a new ship launched from the stocks.
+A large company had assembled at our house to witness the ceremony of
+christening the vessel, and afterward to celebrate the marriage of the
+captain who was to take command of her. He had been for a long time in
+my father's service, had been uniformly successful in his voyages, and
+was just the man to take charge of a new enterprise on the western coast
+of Africa.
+
+Captain Jan Evers, from the time when he first went to sea as cabin-boy,
+had lived but little at home, with the exception of the time which he
+subsequently passed with his parents, while he was attending his course
+at the Navigation School of Hamburg, in order to prepare for his
+examination as pilot. His parents owned a bit of ground in the village
+of Neumühlen, the long rows of houses of which stretch along the mouth
+of the Elbe, beyond Altona. After the death of the old people, the house
+stood for a long while uninhabited; until, in the year of which I now
+speak, the captain, who had returned from a voyage, concluded, at the
+desire of my father, not to go to sea again, until his new ship should
+be ready. This induced him to have the long-closed shutters of his house
+opened, in order to take up his own residence there; for he had never
+rented it.
+
+You must be aware of the extraordinary cleanliness of the northern
+sea-ports, and must have seen how the sailors love to have their houses
+as neat as their ships; and how in Neumühlen, where many captains and
+pilots have their little estates, the houses seem to shine with the
+incessant care bestowed upon them, in order to comprehend how vexed Jan
+Evers was when he found his long-deserted house to have suffered sadly
+from neglect. The little garden-plot before the door, which is never
+wanting, was full of weeds; the boughs of the fine linden had run wild
+all about, and shaded the chambers, which had thereby grown mouldy, so
+that the green paint on the walls had contracted ugly yellow stains. The
+whole aspect of the house made a melancholy impression, and even the
+Chinese mandarin which was still standing upon the walnut buffet, where
+Jan used to see it when a child, seemed to nod its head gloomily when
+Jan once more took possession of his paternal abode.
+
+The captain, who was a fresh jolly fellow of some forty years old, was
+no longer the same man after he had passed a couple of weeks there. He
+grew moody, peevish, and barely civil; and my father often lamented the
+impatience with which he awaited the completion of the ship, in order to
+be off again.
+
+One day Evers came to our house at an unusual hour, and desired to see
+my father, who at that time of day was not usually in his counting-room,
+but with his family. The captain was shown in, and after we children had
+been sent away, at his desire, he said:
+
+"I have something to say to you which it is best your good lady should
+hear, too. I have just come from the dock-yard, where I have been
+looking at the ship. It will be two months before she will be off the
+stocks. Then it will be too late to go to sea, even if you should have
+her rigged upon the stocks. I can't get off till spring; and I can't
+hold out so long as that. If I only had my fellows of the Fortune
+here"--(this was the name of the vessel he had last commanded)--"if I
+only had them with me in Neumühlen, it would be all right: but I grow
+down in the mouth there, it is so quiet. I'd rather be on a sand-island,
+alone with the seals and the sea-mews, under the open heavens, than
+among all those nicknacks of my little house, which must be used, and
+which I can't use. And so, I thought I'd ask you--"
+
+"If you couldn't be off!" interrupted my father. "Surely, Evers, you are
+not thinking of that in earnest, are you?"
+
+"No, I am not thinking of that. I have agreed to take command of the new
+ship; and I am in the habit of keeping my word. But I thought I would
+ask--" here he stopped, twirled his hat about in his hand, turned to my
+mother, and continued--"what you think about it--whether I hadn't better
+get married?"
+
+It seemed as though a great load was taken from his mind, when he had
+got out these words. He had his house, a pretty little property, and was
+a good-looking, noble fellow, and bid fair to make an excellent husband;
+and so my mother advised him earnestly to carry his design into
+execution; asking him whether he had yet found a girl whom he could wish
+to marry.
+
+"Will you give me Marie?" asked he.
+
+Marie was the daughter of a woman who had attended me and my sisters,
+and who had long been dead. My parents had brought Marie up, and she
+served my mother as chambermaid; but was looked upon as one of the
+family, and was very dear to us all. She was about four-and-twenty years
+old, and might be considered a very pretty girl. My mother said, that
+she thought a marriage between Marie and the captain would be altogether
+proper, notwithstanding he was considerably the older; and Evers begged
+her to be his spokeswoman with Marie.
+
+"Tell her," said he, "that I have liked her for many years; that always
+when I have returned from a voyage, I have been glad to look upon her
+again; that when I have been in foreign ports, and have seen other
+captains buying presents for their wives and children, I have often
+thought: Could you but do so, and make others happy--but for whom? I
+have grieved that I was unmarried; and at sea in stormy weather, I have
+fallen asleep imagining myself, some time or other, reposing with my
+wife and children. But as soon as I came into port, I have always been
+obliged to set sail again forthwith, and have forgotten all about
+getting married, as I had to be off so soon again, and must see to
+getting the cargo on board. But now I have time to think about it, and I
+like Marie very much? I will try to make her happy. You can assure her
+of that."
+
+Marie was asked, and very gladly said Yes. The captain had his house set
+in order; the rooms were newly painted, the garden attended to, the
+linden pruned; while Marie arranged the stores of linen and plate left
+by her deceased parents-in-law, with the pleasurable feeling of
+ownership. And so came the day when the ship was to be launched, and the
+pair were to be united.
+
+We all went to the dock; my parents conveyed the young pair in a
+carriage, and the guests followed. We went on board the ship, the young
+couple preceding, then my parents, and the guests. The vessel was
+christened by the name of "Young Couple." We all burst out into loud
+huzzas, swung our glasses and our hats, and hurried from the stern,
+where the ceremony took place, to the bows, to remain there during the
+launch. The steps were removed; the ways in which the keel was to run
+were slushed with soap and tallow; the sound of the ax was heard,
+knocking away the last blocks; the line was cast off; one blow of an ax,
+and amid the huzzas of the carpenters, sailors, and spectators, the
+noble vessel shot into the water. Suddenly a shriek was heard; the
+bow-line had parted, and the ship, freed from its check, shot across the
+river, with such momentum that it struck against the opposite shore, and
+stuck fast.
+
+In itself this was no great matter; for it cost little trouble or
+expense to tow the vessel back again. But the merriment of the occasion
+was interrupted by the shriek, and disturbed by the superstitious belief
+that any accident happening at a launch is a bad sign for the vessel. A
+silence fell upon the guests; Marie wept, and the captain looked
+anxious, for all sailors are more or less superstitious. However, after
+the wedding, we grew cheerful again; the young pair went on to
+Neumühlen, and the autumn and winter passed away quickly and happily.
+Sorrowfully they watched the approach of spring, for the ship was
+afloat, her cargo ready, and the anchor was to be weighed as soon as the
+Elbe was free from ice.
+
+This took place toward the end of March. For the first time in his life,
+the captain left Hamburg with tears in his eyes, after having heartily
+commended to my mother the care of his wife, who was expecting her first
+child to be born during the course of the summer. If all went well,
+tidings of his arrival on the coast of Africa might be looked for about
+the time of her confinement; and he had promised to write as soon as
+possible, as not only his wife, but our establishment were anxious to
+receive letters from him.
+
+But long after Marie had given birth to a boy, no tidings had come from
+her husband. Autumn came and was gone; winter came and went, and yet no
+intelligence reached us of the ship.
+
+No other vessel had spoken her; she had put in at no other port; not a
+trace of her could be discovered; and after a year and a day we were
+forced to conclude that she had gone down with all on board. The grief
+of the young wife was very deep, though the hope still remained that the
+crew might have been saved, and that her husband would return. Thus
+passed years, until finally when all imaginable inquiries had been made
+in vain, Marie began to grow accustomed to the idea of his loss, and to
+look upon herself as a widow.
+
+About this time she became acquainted with man who carried on a small
+business in Neumühlen, and who wished to make her his wife. As Evers had
+been absent eight years, my parents advised her to consent, especially
+as they perceived that such was her own inclination. But before a new
+marriage could be contracted, Evers must be judicially pronounced to be
+dead. In the present case, after the usual preliminaries, there was no
+difficulty; and in the year 1828, Marie was married a second time; her
+son by the first marriage being then in his ninth year.
+
+This marriage also proved to be a very happy one; and she had two
+children born in the first two years; both of whom survived.
+
+One evening in the autumn of 1830, Marie was holding her youngest child
+in her arms, while her husband sat by her upon the sofa, enjoying his
+pipe. The elder boy, the son of Evers, was busy at another table, near
+which his little sister was playing. A fierce storm was howling without;
+the rain and hail rattled against the windows; the night was unusually
+dark; and as some draught was felt, even in the well-secured apartment,
+Marie told her eldest son to close the shutters. The lad went to the
+window, but quickly returned, saying that a man was standing there.
+
+"Let him stand," replied the father, and the boy went back to the window
+to close the shutters, when he found that the man had gone. All was
+quiet in the room. The boy went back to his occupation; the mother laid
+her infant in the cradle, put the girl to bed, and had taken up her
+work-basket, when an old woman burst into the room half out of her wits
+with excitement, crying, "Madame! Madame! Jan Evers was out there!"
+
+Marie, her husband, and the boy sprang up, and ran to the door. No one
+was to be seen. Marie trembled in every limb; the boy stood near her in
+utter bewilderment; the husband at last so far recovered himself as to
+be able to inquire into the facts of the case.
+
+The old woman who had lived for some years in Neumühlen, and was well
+acquainted with all the inhabitants, was almost as much excited and
+confounded as her neighbors. Gazing hastily about her all the time, as
+though she expected every moment to see the apparition again, she said
+that she "was going by for to buy some stuff, and then she saw a man in
+a blue jacket, with a nor'wester on his head, a-staring in at your
+window, and then it came into my head to come and look in too; and when
+the stranger saw me he asked, 'Who lives in this house?' and then I told
+him Christian Veltlin did. Then the man went up to the window again and
+looked in again, and then he turned about and went away. And then I knew
+him by his size, and ran after him, and called out as loud as ever I
+could, 'Jan Evers! Jan Evers!' But he wouldn't turn his head round, but
+ran on as fast as he could, but I caught him at last at the stairs that
+lead from Neumühlen up to the _chaussée_. And then I took hold of him by
+the sleeve, and asked him, 'Jan Evers, Jan Evers, where have you come
+from?' And then he pushed me away, and growled, 'I don't know nothin'
+about your Jan Everses. I'm the bo's'n of the Greenlander over there!'
+and then he ran off and left me standing there. But 'twas him, and I ran
+over here to tell you all about it."
+
+You may imagine the terror, the agony, and the despair in that little
+house. Veltlin, however, in order to soothe his wife, argued with her
+how improbable was the return of Evers, and how easily the old woman
+might have been deceived. Yet he was himself greatly troubled, and on
+the following morning, as early as possible, he and his wife came to my
+father to lay the matter before him, and to ask his advice.
+
+My father advised them, first and foremost, to keep silent about the
+whole affair; but it was too late for that, for the old woman had told
+all Neumühlen what had happened. New inquiries were at once set on foot
+after the reputedly dead Jan Evers. But they were just as fruitless as
+the former ones had been; and after a while Marie and Veltlin began to
+grow composed, convinced that the old woman must have been deceived by
+some strange resemblance. Peace and joy returned to the little
+household, and the marriage was never disturbed up to the time of
+Marie's death, which took place last summer.
+
+After that event a document was transmitted to me by the magistracy of
+the capital, where, it seems, Jan had passed his last years, under an
+assumed name. By this document, executed upon his death-bed, he
+constituted all the children of Marie Veltlin heirs to his little
+property; but with the express provision that the will should not be
+made public till after the death of Marie. Then it was known, for the
+first time, that the old woman was right. Jan Evers had most
+magnanimously sacrificed himself for his wife, and had lived and died
+alone and among strangers, although he was fully aware that a son had
+been born to him, who had lived to grow up.
+
+
+
+
+THE EAGLE AND THE SWAN.
+
+(_From the German._)
+
+    THE SWAN.
+
+      My tranquil life is passed the waves among,
+      Light ripples tracing as I glide along,
+      And the scarce ruffled tide, as in a glass,
+      Reflects my form unaltered as I pass!
+
+    THE EAGLE.
+
+    In the clefts of the rocks my wild dwelling I form,
+    I sail through the air on the wings of the storm,
+    'Mid dangers and combats I dart on my prey,
+    And trust the bold pinion that bears me away!
+
+    THE SWAN.
+
+      Won by the charm of Ph[oe]bus, in the wave
+      Of heavenly harmony I dare to lave,
+      Couched at his feet, I listen to the lays,
+      In Tempè's vale, that echo to his praise!
+
+    THE EAGLE.
+
+    I perch at the right hand of Jove on his throne,
+    And the thunderbolt launch when his signal is shown,
+    And my heavy wings droop, when in slumber I lie,
+    O'er the sceptre that sways the wide earth from on high!
+
+    THE SWAN.
+
+      _Me_ charms the heaven's blue arch, serene and bland,
+      And odorous flowers attract me to the land
+      While basking in the sun's departing beams,
+      I stretch my white wings o'er the purpled streams!
+
+    THE EAGLE.
+
+    I exult in the tempest, triumphant and bold,
+    When the oaks of the forest it rends from their hold,
+    I demand of the thunder--the spheres when it shakes--
+    If, like me, a wild joy in destruction it takes!
+
+    THE SWAN.
+
+      Oft in the glassy tide the stars I view,
+      And that blue heav'n the waves give back anew.
+      And dim regret recalls me to the home
+      In higher spheres, reluctant whence I roam!
+
+    THE EAGLE.
+
+    With joy, from the hour that my young life begun,
+    I have soared to the skies--I have gazed on the sun.
+    I can not stoop down to the dust of the earth--
+    Allied to the gods, I exult in my birth!
+
+    THE SWAN.
+
+      When a calm death succeeds to tranquil life,
+      Its links detaching without pain or strife,
+      And to my voice restores its primal power,
+      Its dying tones shall hail the solemn hour!
+
+    THE EAGLE.
+
+    The soul, like the phoenix, springs forth from the pyre,
+    All free and unvailed, to the skies to aspire,
+    To hail the bright vision that bursts on its view,
+    And its youth at the dark torch of death to renew!
+
+
+
+
+Monthly Record of Current Events.
+
+
+UNITED STATES.
+
+A new invasion of Cuba, somewhat more formidable, but less successful
+even, than the former, has absorbed public attention during the past
+month. Immediately after the return of Lopez from his first expedition,
+rumors were rife that he was making preparations for another attempt.
+These reports, however, attracted comparatively little attention, and no
+effective measures were taken to put a stop to proceedings which were so
+palpably in violation of our treaty engagements with Spain. The reported
+rising of the inhabitants of Cuba at Puerto Principe, which was noticed
+in our last Number, and which was grossly exaggerated in public prints
+throughout the country, had evidently been regarded by the Cubans in the
+United States as eminently favorable to the prosecution of their
+purposes. A party of about 480 men, led by Lopez himself, and commanded
+by subordinate officers, accordingly embarked on board the steamer
+Pampero, at New Orleans, and set out for Cuba. They intended to land in
+the central department of the island upon the southern coast, where the
+disaffection had been represented as most rife, and where they were,
+therefore, most sure of a favorable reception. But on touching at Key
+West for supplies, they were informed that a revolt had taken place in
+the Vuelta de Abajo, and Lopez accordingly resolved to land in that
+district. By some mistake, the nature of which has not been clearly
+explained, they missed their point of destination, and landed on the
+northern coast of the western department of the Island on the night of
+the 11th of August. The shore was deserted and they met no opposition.
+
+General Lopez left Colonel Crittenden at this point with about 100 men
+in charge of the stores and unnecessary arms, and advanced with the
+remainder of his command to the town of Las Pozas: the inhabitants,
+however, fled as he approached, neither joining his standard nor
+furnishing him with provisions or encouragement of any sort. The day
+after landing, Col. Crittenden was attacked by the Spanish troops--two
+bodies of infantry and one company of horse. This force was too strong
+for them. After struggling as long as possible, they withdrew from the
+field, and finding that neither Lopez himself, who was only three miles
+off, nor any of the inhabitants came to their aid, they resolved to
+return to the United States. They procured small boats, and had just got
+to sea when they were followed and captured on the 15th by the Spanish
+steamer Habanero. They were taken to Havana, and, on the 17th, were
+shot. It was at first reported that they had no trial, but were shot
+immediately, and that their bodies were horribly mutilated and every
+possible insult offered to their remains by the Cuban populace. These
+statements were, however, afterward contradicted. It was stated that
+they were properly tried, and condemned, and that after their execution
+they were decently interred. Several of them, and Colonel Crittenden
+among the number, wrote letters to their friends at home, all of which
+agreed that they had been grossly deceived as to the state of public
+feeling in Cuba, and that, so far as could be perceived, not the
+slightest disposition prevailed among the inhabitants of the Island to
+overthrow the Spanish government.
+
+General Lopez was attacked on the 13th by a large body of Spanish troops
+at Las Pozas; the action was severe, and the Spaniards were repulsed.
+The loss of Lopez was considerable, and among those who fell was Colonel
+Pragay, an officer who had served with distinction in Hungary. He lost
+in all about fifty men, but retained possession of the place. He soon
+perceived that all his hopes of aid from the inhabitants were
+groundless, and that it would be impossible to maintain himself against
+the Spanish troops; and determined to conceal himself in the mountains.
+On their march thither they met several Spanish detachments with whom
+they had successive engagements, suffering severely in each, and
+inflicting losses more or less serious upon their opponents. Among the
+Spaniards who fell was General Enna, a distinguished officer, who was
+buried at Havana on the 21st, with military pomp. At Martitorena on the
+24th, while the remaining body of the invaders were breakfasting, they
+were surprised by an overwhelming Spanish force, and completely
+scattered; and from that time forward they seem to have been zealously
+hunted by the inhabitants of all classes, and by every means. The
+official reports of the Spanish officers state that the peasants pursued
+them with dogs, that the negroes aided in their capture, and that every
+part of the population evinced the most active and devoted loyalty to
+the Spanish government. On the 28th, Lopez with only six followers, was
+endeavoring to conceal himself and escape to the sea coast, and on the
+29th, he was captured in the Pinos de Rangel, by a guide named Jose
+Antonio Castañeda, with fifteen peasants. He was at once handed over to
+a military force under Colonel Ramon de Sago, who had him conveyed by a
+night march to Havana, where orders were immediately issued for his
+execution, which took place at 7 o'clock on the morning of September
+1st. He perished by the _garrote vil_, an instrument in common use among
+the Spaniards. It consists of an iron chair, with a back, upon which, at
+a point even with the head of the person sitting in it, is the
+instrument of death. This consists of iron clasps made to fit the sides
+of the head, and a clasp to pass round the throat. From behind is a long
+iron bar attached to a screw, which put in motion by the executioner
+giving it a single turn, draws the throat and side pieces tight and at
+the same time sends an iron rod into the spinal marrow at the neck from
+behind, causing instantaneous death. This machine was placed upon a
+scaffold about ten feet high, in the middle of a large square,
+surrounded by troops. An eyewitness has given an account of the
+execution. He states that Lopez behaved like a brave man throughout--and
+walked, surrounded by a guard, to the steps of the scaffold, as coolly
+as if he were at the head of his troops. He was dressed in a long white
+gown, and a white cap; his wrists were tied in front and above his
+elbows behind, with the cords held by soldiers. He ascended the steps
+with two civilians, friends, but without a priest. He faced round and
+looked upon the soldiers, and the immense throng of people outside of
+the square, and then turned round and knelt in prayer for about one
+minute. He then rose and turned toward the front, and in a clear, manly
+voice, and in tones loud enough to be heard by the thousands present
+(for it was still as night), spoke as follows:--"Countrymen, I most
+solemnly, in this last awful moment of my life, ask your pardon for any
+injury I have caused you. It was not my wish to injure any one, my
+object was your freedom and happiness;" here he was interrupted by the
+commanding officer in front. He concluded, by saying, "My intention was
+good, and my hope is in God." He then bowed, and turned round and took
+his seat, apparently with as much coolness as if he were taking a chair
+in a room with friends. He placed his head back, between the iron
+grasps, the negro hangman then adjusted the iron throat clasp and tied
+his feet to bolts on each side of the seat. During this preparation,
+Lopez was in conversation with his friends. The executioner, then took
+his place at the iron bar behind. Lopez kissed the cross handed to him
+by his friend; the negro then gave one turn of the wrench, and Lopez
+died instantly without the least struggle. The military at once returned
+to the city, the band playing a quick step; the thousands dispersed with
+little or no noise; and thus ended the second invasion of Cuba.
+
+The intelligence of these proceedings, as it reached the United States,
+caused an intense excitement throughout the country. In the Southern
+States, and especially in New Orleans, where the expedition had been
+planned and prepared, the popular agitation was overwhelming. When the
+news of the execution of the fifty men under Colonel Crittenden reached
+New Orleans, with the report of the indignities shown to their dead
+bodies, a mob destroyed the office of a Spanish newspaper in that city,
+menaced and injured the shops of sundry Spanish inhabitants, and even
+sacked the house of the Spanish consul. Large meetings were held in all
+the principal cities of the United States, at which the conduct of the
+Spanish authorities was denounced, and active preparations were made for
+sending fresh reinforcements to the invaders. Subsequent accounts,
+however, and the interference of the Government, prevented the execution
+of these designs. The failure of Lopez cooled the ardor of that class of
+our population whose opinions of the morality and legality of any
+action, depend upon its success or failure; while the slightest
+reflection was sufficient to show the great mass of our people, that
+without a declaration of war against Spain by our Government, we had no
+right to invade her colonies. If a revolution had existed there, our
+people, as in the case of Texas, could have emigrated thither, and after
+becoming Cubans and abandoning all claims to American citizenship, have
+taken such part as they might see fit in the affairs of the island. But
+no such revolution existed. Lopez and those who acted with him were
+undoubtedly deceived as to the state of public sentiment in Cuba. No one
+can fail to regret the loss of so many noble spirits; but they put their
+lives upon the hazard of the die, and expected, in case of failure, the
+fate which they met. About 150 prisoners still remain in the hands of
+the colonial government; it is understood that their punishment will be
+commuted to imprisonment and transportation.
+
+Political conventions have been held in several States during the past
+month, to nominate officers for the coming elections. In Massachusetts
+the Whigs assembled at Springfield on the 10th of September, above one
+thousand delegates being in attendance. Hon. Robert C. Winthrop was
+nominated for Governor, receiving 811 out of 1033 votes, and George
+Grinnell, of Greenfield County, was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor.
+Edward Everett, George Ashmun, and Seth Sprague were chosen delegates
+from the State at large to the National Convention. A series of
+resolutions was adopted, declaring substantially, that the Constitution
+of the United States and the laws made in pursuance thereof, are the
+supreme law of the land, any thing in the constitution or laws of any
+State to the contrary notwithstanding, and that no citizen or State has
+any right to resist their execution, except in such extreme cases as
+justify violent resistance to the laws, on the principle of the natural
+and indefeasible prerogative of self-defense against intolerable
+oppression;--that the preservation of the Union transcends in importance
+any and all other political questions;--that the Whigs of Massachusetts
+will faithfully perform every duty imposed upon them by the Constitution
+of the United States, and they call upon their brethren in every section
+of the State to respect and observe all its provisions;--that they
+"cordially support the national administration in all its just and
+patriotic measures; in its generous sympathy with oppressed nations
+struggling for liberty in every part of the world; in its able and
+vigorous management of our foreign affairs; in its unwavering purpose to
+maintain inviolate our public faith with all nations; and in its sworn
+resolve to vindicate the integrity of the Union against all assaults
+from whatever quarter;"--that they have undiminished confidence in the
+comprehensive statesmanship of Daniel Webster;--that they cordially
+approve the agreement entered into by the Whigs of New York;--that they
+disapprove very decidedly of the present administration of State affairs
+in Massachusetts, and that they will use every exertion to secure the
+election of the Whig candidates put in nomination. The Democratic party
+held their Convention on the 20th of August. A series of resolutions was
+adopted declaring that "the Democratic party is preëminently national,
+anti-sectional, and for the Union as a whole Union--that it has always
+sustained, and can only regain its supremacy in the Union, by adhering
+to its own men and measures; reposing on its fundamental principle of
+excluding all tests marked by sectional lines, South or North, East or
+West; and by leaving to the sound sense of the people of each State and
+Territory their domestic policy and institutions;"--that they recommend
+a National Democratic Convention to be held at Baltimore in May,
+1852;--that they "deprecate as disunion in its worst form the attempts
+of any party or class of men to stigmatize and denounce one portion of
+the Union for its domestic institutions with which the Constitution does
+not interfere, and of the propriety of which each State is its own
+independent judge;"--that they approve the resolutions adopted in the
+National Democratic Convention of 1848;--and that they "go for a
+faithful execution of and acquiescence in all the Compromise measures
+settled by the last Congress." Charles G. Greene, Henry H. Childs, and
+Isaac Davis were appointed delegates to the National Convention. George
+S. Boutwell was nominated for Governor, and Henry W. Cushman for
+Lieutenant-Governor.
+
+In New York the Whig Convention met on the 11th at Syracuse. Only part
+of the State officers are to be chosen at the election this fall. George
+W. Patterson was nominated for Controller, James M. Cook for Treasurer,
+Samuel A. Foote for Judge of the Court of Appeals, James C. Forsyth for
+Secretary of State, Daniel Ullman Jr. for Attorney-General, Henry
+Fitzhugh for Canal Commissioner, and A. H. Wells for State Prison
+Inspector. Four very brief resolutions were adopted, declaring that the
+action of the two Whig State Committees at Albany, which was sketched in
+our last, was "the result of honorable and patriotic devotion to the
+Constitution, and for the best interests of the whole people, and that
+it is adopted and approved by this Convention;"--that to the entire
+completion of the Erie Canal and kindred public works the Whig party is
+fully pledged;--that those who supported the canal bill rendered a
+service to the State of such eminent value, that it has obtained for
+them the gratitude of every friend of the true prosperity of the State;
+and that the candidates nominated for State offices deserve and will
+receive the united support of the whole Whig party.--The Democratic
+Convention met at the same place on the 10th. Two days were spent in
+effecting an organization. A series of resolutions was adopted
+reaffirming the views and principles set forth in the resolutions
+adopted by the State Convention at Syracuse last year. The following
+gentlemen were nominated as the Democratic candidates for the several
+state offices:--John C. Wright for Controller; Henry S. Randall for
+Secretary of State; Levi S. Chatfield for Attorney-General; Benjamin
+Welch Jr. for Treasurer; Horace Wheaton for Canal Commissioner; W. J.
+M'Alpine for State Engineer; Gen. Storms for Inspector of State Prisons;
+and A. S. Johnson for Judge of the Court of Appeals.--In Maryland P. F.
+Thomas was nominated for Controller, James Murray for Commissioner of
+the Land Office, and T. R. Stewart for Lottery Commissioner, by the
+Democratic State Convention held on the 12th of September.
+
+A very severe storm swept over the whole southern coast of the United
+States and the West India Islands on the 18th of August. The damage to
+vessels and other property was very great. In the island of Porto Rico a
+great number of plantations and an immense number of cattle were
+destroyed, and many persons lost their lives. In the middle of West
+Florida, Georgia, and Alabama the gale was terribly destructive. The
+tobacco crop is said to have suffered severely.
+
+Advices from Texas give encouraging accounts of the cotton crop in that
+State. In both quality and quantity it will exceed that of ordinary
+years. A new military post has been established in the Clear Fork of the
+Brazos; and in the immediate vicinity, it is said, very large deposits
+of iron ore and of coal have been discovered. A very large trade in
+cattle has sprung up of late between Texas and New Orleans; the net
+proceeds of the trade this year are estimated at $120,000. The Boundary
+Commission is progressing slowly. When last heard from it was at the
+copper mines. The survey had been temporarily suspended, owing to an
+error in running the Boundary, making it 60 miles above El Paso, instead
+of 16, as required by the treaty. About 130 persons are attached to the
+American Commission, while the Mexican Commission has only seven. From
+El Paso we learn that a conflict occurred early in June between a
+considerable body of Apache Indians and a party of twelve Americans, on
+their way to California. The affray took place near the copper mines.
+The Americans were defeated, with a loss of two men killed and two
+wounded. Writers in the Texas papers, who have passed over the route to
+California from San Antonio and El Paso, state that it is far preferable
+to the usual route by way of Independence, Missouri. It is said to be
+shorter, cheaper, and less dangerous.
+
+Two more cases of the surrender of fugitive slaves have occurred in the
+State of New York during the month. A colored person, living at
+Poughkeepsie, and named John M. Boulding, was arrested there and brought
+to New York. Evidence was submitted to Mr. Nelson, a Commissioner under
+the law of 1850, which showed him to be the slave of Mr. Anderson, of
+South Carolina, whither he was immediately sent. The other case occurred
+at Buffalo, where a negro called Daniel was brought before Commissioner
+H. K. Smith. He was claimed under the tenth section of the act of 1850,
+a certified copy of the records of a court of Kentucky being produced,
+as required by that section, to prove him the property of a Mr. Rust.
+The Commissioner decided that the evidence was sufficient, but a _habeas
+corpus_ was granted by Judge Conklin of the U. S. District Court, and
+the case was argued before him. He decided that the tenth section of the
+law of 1850, could not apply to slaves who had escaped previous to the
+passage of the law; and as Daniel was alleged to have fled before that
+time, the evidence provided for by that section was insufficient. He was
+therefore discharged. This decision is one of a good deal of importance,
+as it essentially modifies the operation of the law.
+
+An election was held in Mississippi, on the 1st and 2d of September, for
+delegates to a State Convention, to consider what action Mississippi
+ought to take in regard to the action of the last Congress on the
+question of slavery. The majority of _Union_ delegates returned was very
+large; so decisive, indeed, was the result regarded as to the feeling of
+the State upon the subject, that Gen. Quitman, who was running against
+Senator Foote, as the secession candidate, immediately withdrew from the
+canvass.
+
+The American Association for the Advancement of Education held, the last
+of August, a very interesting meeting at Cleveland, Ohio. Many of the
+most distinguished teachers and friends of Education from widely distant
+parts of the country were in attendance, and the discussions were of
+decided interest. The new system of collegiate education recently
+introduced in Brown University, and adopted in the new University at
+Cleveland (allowing students to select such studies as they may deem
+most important to prepare them for their several pursuits in life, and
+giving them certificates of their actual attainments, instead of the
+usual diplomas), was thoroughly canvassed, both by its friends and its
+opponents. The chief defenders of the new system were President Mahan of
+Cleveland, and Prof. Greene of Brown University. Many other important
+subjects were also discussed, and the proceedings of the Association
+generally were such as are adapted to exert a wide and beneficent
+influence upon the cause of education.
+
+J. E. Caldwell, executor of the will of Elihu Creswell, of New Orleans,
+has addressed a letter to Gov. Hunt, of New York, asking him for
+suggestions as to the most desirable locality for fifty-one slaves,
+emancipated by Mr. Creswell, with directions that they should be removed
+to a free State. Gov. Hunt has published the letter of Mr. Caldwell,
+with an extract from the will, in order to elicit the desired
+information.
+
+The United States Commissioner to the Western Indians, with his suite,
+recently arrived in Galena, Ill., from Mendota and St. Paul. The treaty
+with the Lower Sioux bands was signed on the 5th of August. These bands
+are to receive, when they have reached their destination, some $225,000,
+to pay their debts and expenses of removal, and an annuity in money of
+about $30,000, for fifty years. The lands treated for with the lower
+bands amount to some sixteen millions of acres. They lie along and west
+of the Mississippi, from the Iowa State line north to the Falls of St.
+Anthony, and above. The amount to be paid for this immense territory,
+when the treaties will have been fully carried out, will amount to the
+sum of nearly three millions.
+
+From _California_ we have news to the first of August. There is little
+intelligence of special interest. The excitement in regard to Lynch law
+executions had subsided, and it was believed that the courts of law
+would hereafter be left to the exercise of their functions. The reports
+from the mining districts continue to be encouraging and the shipments
+of gold for August and September were likely to exceed those of any
+previous month. Numerous canals are to be constructed for the purpose of
+diverting the water of streams known to be rich in gold, and abundant
+preparations had been made for mining the quartz rock with heavy
+machinery. The belief is general that this is hereafter to be the main
+source of profitable mining. Agriculture is attracting increased
+attention. Indian hostilities have ceased on the southern and eastern
+borders, and broken out on the northern frontier. A military expedition,
+under command of Gen. J. M. Estell, is to accompany the Indian
+Commissioners, in their tour of negotiation, to Clear Lake, thence to
+the sources of the Sacramento. After which they will proceed to Klamath
+River. The hostile Indians on Rogue's River have been dispersed but not
+subdued. Navigation on the upper rivers is suspended on account of the
+low state of water. The two political parties were holding conventions
+in the various counties to nominate for the Legislature and for county
+offices. The four candidates for Congress have been busily engaged in
+canvassing. The project of dividing the State is still urged in some of
+the southern counties, which were once the seat of nearly all the
+Spanish establishments in this State, but which have lost all their
+political importance under the new _regime_.
+
+Rev. Stephen Olin, D.D., President of the Wesleyan University, died at
+his residence in Middletown, Conn., on the 16th of August. His health
+had not been strong for many years, and an attack of epidemic dysentery
+proved too much for his enfeebled frame. Born in Vermont, on the 2d of
+March, 1797, he received his academical education at Middlebury College,
+where he graduated with the highest honor. In 1824, he entered upon the
+ministry of the Gospel, in South Carolina, and soon became eminent as a
+pulpit orator. In 1830, he was called to a professorship in Franklin
+College, Ga., and in 1832 to the Presidency of Randolph Macon College,
+Va. The years from 1837 to 1841, he passed in an extended career of
+travel through Europe and the East: and the fruit of his observations in
+the latter region, have appeared in his two excellent volumes of
+"Travels in Egypt, Arabia Petræa, and the Holy Land" (Harper and
+Brothers). In 1842, he was chosen President of the Wesleyan University,
+and filled that office to the time of his death.
+
+Dr. Olin's reputation as an author must depend upon his Travels, and
+upon his published Discourses, which, it is to be hoped, will be
+gathered together in permanent form. The Travels are marked by quick and
+sagacious observation, considerable power of graphic description, and
+sound judgment. Dr. Olin's account of Egypt is the best, on the whole,
+in the language. The Discourses are massive, full of thought, and yet
+glowing with fervor. In breadth and comprehensiveness they are perhaps
+equal to any thing that the American pulpit has produced. It was,
+indeed, as a pulpit orator that Dr. Olin shone pre-eminently. His power
+consisted, not in any single quality--in force of reasoning--or fire of
+imagination--or heat of declamation--but in all combined. His course of
+argument was always clear and strong, yet interfused throughout with
+passion--the two inseparably united in a torrent that overwhelmed all
+who listened to him. Dr. Olin's personal qualities were those of the
+highest style of man. His nature was imaginative--so full of genial
+kindness as to win all hearts. None could be in his company even for a
+few moments without feeling this fascination, and at the same time
+without imbibing a deep reverence for the intellectual majesty of the
+man. He had, in a very remarkable degree, what Coleridge calls one of
+the highest characteristics of genius: "the power to carry forward the
+fresh feelings of childhood on through youth, and manhood, and age:"
+there was no decay of feeling, no sign of senility in failing of human
+interest or sympathy. With these qualities, it is not strange that he
+was sought for to fill high places in literary institutions, and that as
+President of a University, he was eminently useful and successful. He
+would have been equally distinguished, we are sure, in the world of
+letters, had not his work been hindered by lifelong disease. As it was,
+it is wonderful indeed that he accomplished so much.
+
+The Hon. Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, died at Portsmouth, N. H., on
+the 4th of September, where he had suffered for a long while, under a
+painful disease. Mr. Woodbury was born at Francestown, New Hampshire,
+about the year 1790, was graduated with a high reputation for
+scholarship at Dartmouth College in 1809, and was admitted to the bar in
+1812. He practiced his profession with distinguished success, and
+rapidly rose to a high rank in it. When the Democratic party acquired
+the ascendency in the State, in 1816, he was appointed Secretary of
+State; and at the commencement of the next year, a Judge of the Superior
+Court. In 1819 he removed to Portsmouth, the commercial capital of New
+Hampshire, where he resided the remainder of his life, with the
+exception of the intervals when his official duties called him to
+Washington. Mr. Woodbury was elected Governor of New Hampshire in 1822,
+and in 1825 a Senator of the United States. General Jackson appointed
+him Secretary of the Navy in 1831, and subsequently, on the rejection of
+Mr. Taney by the Senate, Secretary of the Treasury. He continued in the
+office till the close of Mr. Van Buren's presidency, when he resumed his
+seat in the Senate. During the administration of Mr. Polk, he was
+appointed one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, and had withdrawn from
+the more active scenes of political life.
+
+James Fenimore Cooper, the distinguished American novelist, died at his
+residence at Cooperstown, N. Y., on the 14th of September. He was born
+at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 15th of September, 1789. His father, a
+judge of some distinction, was a large landholder in Otsego County, and
+gave his name to one of its townships. Mr. Cooper received the rudiments
+of his education under a private tutor in Burlington, and entered Yale
+College in 1802. In 1805 he entered the navy of the United States as a
+midshipman, and remained in that service six years. No reader of his sea
+novels can fail to trace upon them the influence of this portion of his
+experience. In 1810 he left the navy, married, and settled in
+Westchester County, New York, whence he soon removed to Cooperstown and
+wrote his first novel, entitled Precaution. Although this work gave
+small promise of the brilliant literary career upon which he entered, he
+continued to write, and soon published that series of tales of early
+American life which have won for him such enviable distinction. In 1826
+he sailed for Europe, and remained there several years, where he wrote
+several of his best sea novels. Since his return he has written several
+tales, using them chiefly as a medium of political opinions, and of
+course sacrificing much of the success and distinction which his
+previous works had acquired. Some of his strictures upon the faults of
+American character and social life, subjected him for some years to a
+very warm and bitter hostility. His health had been seriously impaired
+for the last few months. Intelligence of his death will be received
+with profound regret throughout the world.
+
+Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, LL.D., well known as the pioneer of deaf-mute
+instruction in this country, died at Hartford, Conn., on the 10th of
+September, at the age of 64. Dr. G. first became interested in the cause
+to which his after life was devoted in 1807, having succeeded in
+conveying instruction to a deaf and dumb daughter of Dr. Cogswell in
+Hartford; and through the efforts of that gentleman he was commissioned
+to visit Europe for the purpose of qualifying himself to become a
+teacher of the Deaf and Dumb in this country. Seven gentlemen of
+Hartford subscribed a sufficient amount of funds to defray his expenses,
+and on the 25th of May, 1815, Mr. Gallaudet sailed for Europe.
+Meanwhile, the friends of the project employed the interval of time in
+procuring an act of incorporation from the Legislature of Connecticut,
+which was accomplished in May, 1816. In May, 1819, the name of "the
+American Asylum at Hartford for the Education and Instruction of the
+Deaf and Dumb," was bestowed by the Legislature on the first Institution
+for the deaf-mutes established in the United States. After spending
+several months in the assiduous prosecution of his studies, under the
+Abbé Sicard and others, Mr. Gallaudet returned to this country in
+August, 1816. He was accompanied by Mr. Laurent Clerc, a deaf and dumb
+Professor in the Institution of Paris, and well-known in Europe as a
+most intelligent pupil of the Abbé. Mr. Clerc is now living in a
+vigorous old age, and is still a teacher in the American Asylum at
+Hartford. The Asylum was opened on the 15th of April, 1817, and during
+the first week of its existence numbered seven pupils; it now averages
+220 annually. Mr. Gallaudet became the Principal of the Institution at
+its commencement, and held the office until April, 1830, when he
+resigned, and has since officiated as Chaplain of the Retreat for the
+Insane at Hartford. His interest in the cause of deaf-mute education has
+always continued unabated, and his memory will be warmly cherished by
+that unfortunate class of our fellow beings as well as by a large circle
+of devoted friends.
+
+Rev. Sylvester Graham, the founder and untiring advocate of the
+Vegetarian System of dietetics, died at Northampton, Mass., on Thursday,
+Sept. 11. Dr. Graham was chiefly known for his strict adherence to the
+system which, for some time, bore his name. His writings on the subject
+were numerous and popular, and his labors, as a lecturer, were
+incessant. The most important of his works are, _Lectures on the Science
+of Human Life_, first published in Boston in 1839; and _Lectures to
+Young Men on Chastity_. The "Science of Human Life," is a work in two
+large volumes, containing a systematic and in some degree, a scientific
+exposition of the author's peculiar views, and has had a rapid sale. It
+passed through several editions in this country, and has lately been
+reprinted in England, where its sale is quite extensive. Dr. Graham was
+a native of Suffield, Ct., and at the time of his death was aged about
+55. His character evinced energy and decision, and his influence on the
+public mind was rather beneficial than deleterious. Of his theories,
+each will form his own judgment; the projector, at least, was
+undoubtedly honest and sincere in sustaining them.
+
+Prof. Beverly Tucker, of William and Mary College, Virginia, died at
+Winchester on the 26th ult. Mr. Tucker was one of the Federal Judges of
+the Territory of Missouri before its admission as a State; and was
+subsequently State Judge in Virginia for a number of years, when he
+resigned, and accepted the chair of Professor of Law at William and Mary
+College. He was a member of the last Nashville Convention, and is known
+as the author of a work published fifteen years ago, entitled _The
+Partisan Leader_. Mr. Tucker's age was about 67.
+
+
+CANADA.
+
+The Canadian Parliament was prorogued by the Governor-General on the
+30th of August. The Royal Speech represents the revenue as in a
+satisfactory state, and refers to the grants for improving the
+navigation of the St. Lawrence, and to the reduction of the emigrant
+tax. Six bills were reserved for the approval of the Queen, three of
+which relate to churches and rectories, two to the reduction of
+salaries, and one to the incorporation of the Fort Erie and Buffalo
+Suspension Bridge Company. The reciprocity question was left unsettled.
+The reductions in the civil list authorized by the Imperial Government
+have been carried out by the Legislature. The salaries of the Chief
+Justices and that of the Chancellor are to be reduced from $4,800 to
+$3,600 a year, upon the departure of the present incumbents from office.
+The question of seignorial tenure was discussed at this session, and
+although no final action was taken upon it, a bill was introduced which
+will probably come up again. The subject is one of great interest to the
+people of Canada, and will not be allowed to drop. The law of
+promogeniture in the succession of real estate has been abolished in
+Upper Canada. This is the most democratic measure that has been passed
+during the present Parliament, and it can not fail to exert a highly
+beneficial influence on the future condition of the Province. A set of
+resolutions has been passed granting 50 acres of land each to certain
+companies of enrolled military pensioners from England, whom it is
+intended to station in different parts of the province. It is intended
+that they shall be ready to act as a local police, and also be employed
+on the public works.
+
+
+SOUTH AMERICA.
+
+The arrival of the steamer Georgia, on the 7th of September, put us in
+possession of later news from the Pacific coast of South America. In
+_Guayaquil_ a military outbreak, excited, so far as appears, solely by
+personal resentments, has resulted in a complete change of the
+administration. The President, Gen. Neuva, left Querto on the 17th of
+July for the purpose of visiting his family at Guayaquil. On approaching
+that city he was met by a military cavalcade, ostensibly for the purpose
+of escorting him in: but he was immediately seized by them, and hurried
+off to sea in a vessel lying in the river; the destination of the
+vessel, and the fate of the captive were unknown. Gen. Urbina
+immediately entered upon the administration of affairs. In _Chili_, Don
+Manual Montt has been elected President by an overwhelming majority. He
+was understood to be in favor of internal improvements and of a more
+effectual promotion of education. The Copiapo Railroad was to be opened
+in September. Congress was in session the last of July, but no important
+business engaged its attention. In 1850 the public revenue amounted to
+$4,334,314, and the expenditures to $3,610,837, including over three
+hundred thousand dollars remitted to England to pay interest on the loan
+contracted there. The whole English debt is now about seven millions of
+dollars. A very severe storm swept the harbor of Valparaiso in the early
+part of July. The damage to shipping, both Chilian and American, was
+very considerable. In _Bolivia_, the decree allowing foreign goods to be
+entered at a lower duty from vessels that had not touched at other
+ports, has been revoked. In _Peru_, Congress was still in session. The
+legislative and executive branches of the government are represented as
+being on the best of terms with each other, so that affairs are
+conducted with a good degree of promptness and efficiency. A bill has
+been urged in Congress for the greater extension of the freedom of
+trade, and another to prohibit the circulation in that Republic of
+Bolivian money. Several bills of decided local importance engaged the
+attention of Congress. There has been during the past year a very large
+export from Chili, chiefly of wheat and flour, amounting to two hundred
+thousand dollars more than during the previous year. In _New Grenada_,
+it is said there are new disturbances. The government levied a forced
+loan, and further decreed that the friends of the government should be
+exempted from its payment. In several provinces the decree had the
+effect of converting nearly the whole population into a government
+party; but in Bogota and Carthagena it had the opposite effect.
+Arrangements were in progress for an extensive revolt, and it was said
+that it had commenced at Bogota, but with what result is not clear.
+
+From _Mexico_ later advices have been received,--to August 22d from the
+capital and the 29th from Vera Cruz. The hostility of the government to
+the fulfillment of its treaty stipulations concerning the Tehuantepec
+Canal continues unabated; and it is stated that two vessels sent from
+New Orleans to commence the work were seized by the Mexican authorities.
+The financial condition of the country continues to engross attention,
+but no one of the numerous projects offered for its relief seems likely
+to be adopted. The ministerial plan calling a convention of the
+Governors of the several Provinces, meets with very little favor. The
+appropriation of the Church property to the necessities of the
+Government has been warmly recommended by some of the public journals.
+The estates of the clergy and of various religious incorporations amount
+to $50,000,000. This sum, which has been accumulating in unproductive
+hands for the last three centuries, it was maintained, would save the
+country from bankruptcy and ruin.
+
+The Mexican Senate has passed an act recommending a general
+Confederation among the Spanish American republics. A plan for
+accomplishing this object is detailed, of which the most marked features
+are a general Congress, a uniform political system, a general act of
+navigation and commerce, an alliance offensive and defensive, and a
+tribunal for the settlement of differences. The project is a good one,
+but there seems to be little chance of its being carried out. In
+Durango, a popular commotion occurred on the 17th of August, in
+consequence of the high price of corn, but it was quelled without
+bloodshed, by an order from the government compelling the holders of the
+article to reduce its price. In Vera Cruz, on the 21st, a very large
+number of the inhabitants, including some of the National Guard,
+assembled to ask of the local government relief from recent and very
+oppressive taxes. Some of the soldiers were ordered out to oppose them,
+when the people retired to their houses and prepared for defense. A
+brisk action ensued in which several were killed, but quiet was restored
+by the announcement that the local government had yielded to the popular
+demands. President Arista's birthday was celebrated on the 25th of July.
+He has dissolved a club formed for the purpose of regulating the annual
+celebration of Mexican Independence, as some of its regulations did not
+meet his approbation. An abortive attempt at a pronunciamiento in favor
+of Santa Anna has been made at Guanajuato. The plot, which probably had
+plunder for its chief object, was discovered before it had come to
+maturity, and the leaders were taken into custody. A revolution has
+broken out in Chiapas, aiming at the abolition of the internal Custom
+Houses. Col. Munoz, commanding the battalion of Guerrero in Tehuantepec,
+was ordered to proceed to Chiapas and aid the government party in the
+suppression of the rebellion. His men began to desert soon after the
+commencement of the march, and before he had advanced fifty miles from
+Tehuantepec he had not more then seventy men. The revolt is headed by
+Meldono, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the State.
+
+A good deal of excitement has been produced in Mexico by the publication
+of the letters of Payno, to the President of the Committee of Mexican
+bond-holders in London. It seems that the assertion of Payno that he was
+Chargé d'Affaires of the Mexican Legation in London, and was
+commissioned to adjust certain matters pending in Europe, was entirely
+destitute of foundation. On the publication of the letter containing
+these statements, and others equally untrue, a resolution was introduced
+into the Chamber of Deputies, inquiring by what authority Payno had
+received the appointment of chargé, and how much money was appropriated
+to his mission. The Minister replied that Payno had never received the
+commission from the Government, but that $20,000 had been applied to
+defraying the expense of the voyage. In consequence of this information,
+a complaint was lodged against the former Minister of Finance, and of
+Foreign Relations. The affair was also taken up by the Senate, which has
+recommended Lacunza as Minister to England.
+
+From _Montevideo_ we have intelligence to the first of July. The aspect
+of affairs in Brazil and Buenos Ayres was by no means pacific. The
+Brazilian force under Admiral Grenfell, the Commander-in-chief, had
+penetrated the waters of the Uraguay, and were stationed at commanding
+points along the north bank of the river. The disaffection of the
+province of Entre Rios had been followed by that of Corrientes, warlike
+preparations were in train; and every thing threatened a general
+outbreak. The mediation of Great Britain had been accepted by Gen.
+Rosas. The slave-trade on the coast of Brazil was at a low ebb, a deep
+laid scheme for its revival having been defeated by the British
+squadron. Only 1000 slaves were landed during the first six months of
+1851, while no less than 20,000 were landed in the same period of 1848.
+
+From the island of _Hayti_ our advices are to the middle of August.
+Every thing was then quiet. The Emperor had returned to Cape Haytien
+from his tour, having crossed the Dominican frontier without being
+molested, and it was reported that the difficulties between the
+Dominican and Haytian governments have been amicably settled.
+
+An eruption of the long dormant volcanoes of the Pellée Mountain, in
+Martinique, took place on the night of August 5. It was accompanied with
+a noise similar to the approach of thunder, and with a strong vibration
+that was felt to a considerable distance. The town of St. Pierre, as
+well as all the surrounding country, was covered over with gray ashes.
+The population of Prêcheur were obliged to flee from their homes, and to
+take refuge in St. Pierre. There was no shock of an earthquake.
+
+
+GREAT BRITAIN.
+
+Parliament was prorogued on the 9th of August by the Queen in person,
+until the 4th of September. The speech of her Majesty contained nothing
+of special interest or importance.
+
+No event in England has created more excitement, or engaged more
+attention, during the past month than the visit and performances of the
+yacht _America_, built in New York, and owned by John C. Stevens, Esq.,
+who commands her. She arrived at Cowes early in July, and her commander
+immediately offered to sail her against any vessel of a similar
+construction in the world, for any wager up to $50,000. Public attention
+was instantly attracted to her by the reports of pilots and others who
+had seen her, and she was visited by thousands and thousands of people
+from every part of England, but her challenge was not accepted. On the
+18th there was a race of seventeen yachts, owned by gentlemen from every
+part of the kingdom, contending for the prize of the gold cup, which the
+Queen gives every year to the best yacht in the kingdom. The _America_
+was entered for the race, and won it so easily, as to excite the
+unbounded admiration and applause of the unsuccessful competitors. On
+the 25th there was another race, by the squadron; but the _America_ was
+not entered. The wind was light, and the last vessel of the squadron had
+been under weigh sixty-five minutes when the _America_ hoisted sail and
+followed. The race was round the Isle of Wight, and she came in only ten
+minutes behind the winner. Mr. Stephenson, the distinguished engineer,
+offered to sail his yacht, the _Titania_, for a small wager against the
+_America_. The offer was accepted, and the race came off on the 28th of
+Aug. The wind was fresh, and the course was forty miles out, and forty
+back. Earl Wilton was umpire. The _America_ won the race by a long
+distance. The Queen, with Prince Albert and the royal family, visited
+the yacht on the 20th. The spirit of England is thoroughly roused by
+this unlooked-for defeat; but they are unbounded in their expressions of
+admiration for the vessel which has conquered them. Several new cutters
+are to be built immediately for the express purpose of contending with
+the _America_.
+
+The Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition have resolved to close
+it on the 11th of October. A meeting of the Commissioners will be held
+on the 15th, for the purpose of taking leave of the exhibitors, and
+immediately after they will have permission to remove their goods. The
+number of visitors has fallen off considerably.
+
+A great meeting was held in Dublin on the 19th of August, of Roman
+Catholics from all parts of the kingdom, to protest against the
+Ecclesiastical Titles Bill just enacted. Immediately after the call was
+issued, a Protestant clergyman, named Tresham Gregg, issued a notice
+that he would be there to confront the Catholics, and summoned all true
+Protestants to his aid. This notice, and the general excitement which
+prevailed, led to anticipations of violence. An immense concourse of
+people was present. Admittance was refused to Mr. Gregg and his party,
+and the collision was thus avoided. A large number of Roman Catholic
+prelates were in attendance. The most Rev. Dr. Cullen, Archbishop of
+Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland, presided, and read a long address,
+urging Catholics every where to take measures to preserve their
+religion. Several speeches were made by distinguished Catholics,
+generally urging a political union of all Catholics, without reference
+to other political questions. An ostentatious disregard of the late law
+was shown in the constant use of the ecclesiastical titles prohibited by
+it.
+
+The condition of laboring men in parts of England finds striking
+exemplification in an incident which occurred at a colliery in
+Bedminster. Several persons had been killed by the breaking of the rope
+upon which the miners daily descended 240 feet to their work. It
+appeared upon the trial that the workmen knew that the rope was unsafe,
+but they had not dared to complain, lest they should lose their
+places--"poor men are tied down so tight now." One of the witnesses, a
+collier, after giving his testimony, said, "for the evidence I have
+given this day, I shall be out of work."
+
+The Exhibition, and the official visit to Paris, have aroused writers in
+England to a sense of their own clumsiness and artistic inferiority to
+the French. In all departments of art, and especially in the graces and
+elegancies of life, the English feel themselves to be far behind their
+neighbors. The _Times_ suggests, as one step toward remedying the evil,
+that Cleopatra's Needle should be brought to London, as the Luxor was to
+Paris, and erected as a monument to Sir Ralph Abercromby. It can be
+procured, and the cost of removal is estimated at £2500.
+
+The English Government has granted new pensions of £200 a year to Mr. J.
+Silk Buckingham, who is well known in this country, and the same amount
+to Col. Torrens, the author of several works on political economy. Mrs.
+Jamieson, whose admirable books upon Shakspeare's female characters are
+universally known, has received a pension of £100.
+
+Alderman Salomons, the Jewish representative of Greenwich, whose
+forcible exclusion from the House of Commons was noticed in our last,
+has been honored with a public dinner by his constituents. He declared
+his belief that public opinion would demand the rescinding of the
+obnoxious oath, but declared his purpose to commence a systematic
+canvass of the country for the purpose of hastening that event. He
+assures his constituents that, with their support, he "will not be got
+rid of" by the government.
+
+The management of English railways is generally supposed to be so nearly
+perfect that accidents never occur. Though their police is, as a general
+thing, superior to that of the American railways, recent accounts
+chronicle a very large number of serious mishaps. On the Great Western
+road, a train, having broken down in a tunnel, was run into by another
+which was not warned of the danger. On the Lancashire Railway, near
+Liverpool, part of a bridge had been taken down for the purpose of being
+repaired. A luggage-train was suffered to come up in the night without
+any notification, and of course ran into the gap. Several minor
+accidents in various parts of the kingdom are chronicled, showing very
+culpable negligence on the part of the railway police.
+
+The leading authors of England have petitioned the Master of the Rolls
+for leave to examine the records of the realm gratuitously. Their
+request has been granted. At a time when the historical records of the
+past enter so largely into the literary productions of the day, this is
+a boon of decided importance.
+
+Mr. Jerdan, who was for many years the editor of the London Literary
+Gazette, is said to be engaged in preparing his Reminiscences of
+Literary Men, and his Correspondence with them, for the press. His long
+connection with the literary circles of England must have given him
+unusual facilities for making such a work valuable and interesting.
+Among the London announcements of new books in press we observe a novel,
+entitled "Marian Withers," by Geraldine E. Jewsbury, the author of
+_Zoe;_ one of the most powerful novels of the day.
+
+The London _Examiner_ states that Haynau, the notorious Austrian
+General, has taken up his residence upon a large estate which he has
+just purchased in Hungary. It is said that he omits no opportunity of
+making himself popular with the Magyars; that he pays assiduous court to
+the nobility, many of whom were sentenced by his courts-martial; that he
+joins the Hungarians in denouncing the Austrian attempt to monopolize
+the sale of tobacco, and says that throughout the Hungarian war, he was
+only the tool of the Austrian government. He declares that there is no
+country in Europe he likes so well as England, and speaks of the beating
+he received there with perfect complacency. It is difficult to believe
+all these statements, though the _Examiner_ vouches for their accuracy.
+
+
+FRANCE.
+
+The French National Assembly met on the 9th for the last time of the
+session, and then adjourned until the 4th of November. A manifesto was
+at once issued by the Republican members, complaining that the sovereign
+power was in the hands of men opposed to all reforms, but predicting a
+certain victory as the fruit of union, perseverance, and devotedness on
+the part of the people. The document declares that the Constitution is
+the supreme law, and must be maintained inviolate; and that any attempt
+to re-elect Bonaparte, or to prolong existing powers, will not be a
+crisis, but a revolution; that resistance to all such attempts will be
+"legitimate as right, holy as justice, sacred as liberty;" and that the
+Republican members, under the flag of the Constitution, will not fail in
+any of the duties which the salvation of the Republic may impose upon
+them.
+
+Preparations for the coming Presidential election are in active
+progress. The Orleanists seem to be settling down upon the Prince de
+Joinville as their candidate, and several of the most distinguished
+among them, recently paid a visit to the Duke of Nemours to ascertain
+the feelings of the family in regard to it. The conversation seems not
+to have been very satisfactory: the most that the Duke would say was,
+that they would not be responsible for the action of their friends. The
+Republicans have not yet fixed upon a candidate.
+
+Public attention in France has been drawn to the trial at Lyons of a
+number of persons charged with conspiracy. It seems that in November
+last a club was discovered there, of which a person named Gent was a
+leading member. His plan is said to have been to give the southern
+provinces a thorough secret organization, so as to enable them to rise
+on a given signal, to secure the frontiers of Switzerland and Savoy as a
+means of assistance or retreat, and to take steps to inflame the whole
+country, and thus bring about a general republican movement. The trial
+had not been concluded at our last advices.
+
+A singular accident occurred at the funeral ceremonies of Marshal
+Sebastiani, at the Invalides in Paris, on the 13th. The flame of a wax
+candle was brought in contact with the hangings of the catafalque, and
+the whole splendid drapery of the church was speedily in a blaze. Before
+the fire could be extinguished, nearly one half of the magnificent
+collection of trophies taken by the French armies were destroyed.
+
+The grand fête given by the authorities of Paris to the Lord Mayor of
+London and the Commissioners of the great Exhibition, had a brilliant
+and successful termination. The mutual compliments of the visit were
+closed by a correspondence between M. Charles Dupin, the President of
+the French Commission, and Prince Albert. M. Dupin wrote to acknowledge
+the courtesies received by the Committee during their visit to the
+Exhibition, and to thank the Prince for the conspicuous part he had
+taken in it. The constant attendance of the Queen, and her success "in
+conquering suffrages and good wishes among the representatives of all
+nations, in favor of a work which she still cherished as that of the
+father of her children," are gracefully noticed. M. Dupin, after
+remarking that "Art, like Nature, loves to scatter her gifts among the
+children of great national families, and that they could thus honor, on
+different grounds, genius, taste, imagination, reason, in nations whose
+brilliant variety constitutes the riches and splendor of the human
+race," designates the real service which the Great Exhibition will
+render the world, by saying, that "each nation, without affecting its
+character, may add to its well-being, its riches, its power, by
+judiciously borrowing from the discoveries and improvements of other
+nations. Here," he says, "each people sees its products side by side
+with those of all others, and often sees them surpassed. Pride, which
+grows while favored by isolation, is here abased, and reason profits by
+the opportunity. Each nation, instead of dreaming of self-sufficiency
+and inborn superiority, vows to improve in the future. Thus we shall see
+new efforts attempted in every country, to ameliorate the productions of
+the human race." Prince Albert, in his reply, tendered his thanks to the
+President for his kind expressions, and to the Commissioners for their
+attention and care.
+
+
+GERMANY AND SOUTHERN EUROPE.
+
+The intelligence from Germany is neither interesting nor important. The
+Sovereigns of Austria and Prussia seem to be acting together for the
+entire suppression of every thing like constitutional rights and liberty
+in the German states. A proposition is about to be laid before the Diet
+by these two powers, declaring that "the so-called fundamental rights of
+the German people," proclaimed in the Constitutions of 1848 and 1849,
+are neither valid as a law of the Empire, nor binding on the several
+states, and they be therefore repealed, with all laws based upon
+them.--In the Italian dominions of Austria, the state of things is
+gloomy and ominous. Arrests of compromised persons are continually made
+in Milan and Verona. In the latter city, one of the new prisoners was a
+lady of rank, accused of forwarding a correspondence to Mazzini. A
+system of espionage has been adopted in the Venetian provinces of
+Austria, unparalleled for its inquisitorial and oppressive character, in
+the history of the most despotic states. Many persons belonging to the
+higher classes have been arrested in Verona, and nearly every night
+domiciliary visits are made by the police. The public mind throughout
+Austrian Italy is described as in a state of the most violent
+excitement, and insurrection is apprehended by government. Marshal
+Radetzky published a proclamation to the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom on
+the 9th of July, and from his head-quarters at Monga. The
+Lombardo-Venetian kingdom is declared to be in a state of siege; the
+communes are made responsible for all assassinations similar to that of
+Vandoni at Milan; and the inhabitants will be severely dealt with if
+they do not immediately surrender all such offenders to the military.
+
+Two musical artists have been made victims to the paltry prosecution of
+the Austrian government. Mdlle. Anna Zerr, for having visited two of the
+Hungarian exiles resident in London, and for having consented to sing at
+a concert for the relief of the Hungarian refugees, has, on her return
+to Vienna, been deprived of her place of Imperial Chamber-singer,
+prohibited from appearing on the stage of the Imperial Theatre, where
+she was one of the most distinguished performers, and placed under the
+surveillance of the police. And Leopold Iansa, an eminent violinist,
+who has been for many years in the Imperial Chapel, was dismissed for a
+similar offense.
+
+The Austrian authorities recently opened packages addressed to the
+United States consulate at Venice. Mr. Flagg, the American consul,
+remonstrated, and was told in reply, that the government claimed the
+right to examine all publications introduced into the Venetian States,
+no matter from what quarter or to what address. Several communications
+have passed upon the subject.
+
+In _Switzerland_ there have been heavy inundations which in the canton
+of Berne alone have caused losses to the amount of about £100,000.
+Active preparations are making for the coming election, in which it is
+supposed the radical party will resort to extreme measures, if
+necessary, for the accomplishment of their purposes.
+
+Dr. Paulus, a distinguished German scholar, died at Heidelberg, on the
+10th of August, at the advanced age of 94 years. In 1784 he was
+appointed Professor of Oriental Languages at Jena, and in 1793 succeeded
+to the chair of theology. His profound learning, penetrating judgment,
+marked courage, and unwearied assiduity, obtained for his numerous
+writings a very wide circulation. He was exceedingly amiable in private
+life and was always employed in endeavors to promote the interest of
+piety, virtue, and humanity.
+
+A terrible catastrophe took place at Moscow, on the 20th July. As the
+monks of the convent of Wladimir were setting out in procession to visit
+an image of the Virgin at a neighboring village, a wooden bridge thrown
+over the moat of the convent (formerly a fortress) gave way, and out of
+200 of the monks, 158 were drowned; the water being 45 feet deep, and
+the sides of the moat perpendicular.
+
+The Austrian authorities in Hungary are resorting to the most unheard-of
+cruelties in order to crush the spirit of the people. At a peasant's
+wedding lately, near Groswardein, the _gendarmes_ approached the bride
+and ordered her to take off the red, white, and green ribbons which she
+wore in her hair, as these colors were revolutionary. The reply was that
+it should be done after the ceremony. While the bride was kneeling at
+the altar the _gendarme_ rushed forward and cut her tresses from her
+head. The peasants resented the indignity, and an affray ensued, in
+which three of the _gendarmes_ and four of the peasantry, including the
+bridegroom, were killed.
+
+We mentioned last month the release of Mr. Brace, the American traveler
+in Hungary, who had been arrested and thrown into prison by the Austrian
+authorities upon the most frivolous grounds. His release was procured by
+Mr. McCurdy, who threatened to demand his own passports, if it was not
+conceded. It seems that further proceedings of interest may be expected.
+Mr. M. promised that Mr. Brace should present himself for trial. The
+London _Spectator_ remarks that "this trial will be watched with
+interest, it will take place in the sight of Europe and America, and
+also in the sight of Hungary. The oppressed subjects of Austria will see
+the right of personal freedom vindicated, in the person of a gentleman
+whose own government will do no more than insist on the strict
+fulfillment of the law, but will not be content with less. Austria will
+be obliged to submit to the law, and will be forced to that hateful
+submission at the dictation of a distant State. It will be brought to
+that submission, that dictation, before the eyes of Europe, even before
+its own subjects. It will be a very instructive trial."
+
+It is stated upon what is believed to be good authority, that the
+Turkish Government has definitively determined that Kossuth shall be set
+at liberty on the 1st of September. The Austrian Government has warmly
+and steadily protested against his release, but without effect. The
+government of the United States has sent a national vessel to receive
+him upon his liberation, and his arrival in the United States may be
+expected by the 1st of November. No man living would receive a warmer
+welcome.
+
+
+THE EAST.
+
+The English government has directed the seizure of another large
+_Indian_ territory, part of the Nizam's dominions, to enforce the
+payment of a large sum of money with interest. It is thought that the
+Nizam can and will pay at the last moment; but if not, it is not
+probable that his sway over his own dominions will hereafter be more
+than nominal. At Gobindpore on the 14th of June, seventy prisoners were
+chained together in a hut for safe keeping. During the night, the hut
+took fire and all but five perished.
+
+The news from _China_ represents the insurrection in the southern
+provinces as one of magnitude and great political importance. It is said
+that one of the leaders has assumed to himself the title of sovereign,
+and that the insurgents, numbering a hundred thousand, menace the city
+of Canton. The Chinese journals take very different views of the
+character of this disturbance, some considering it as merely the work of
+a few desperadoes, seeking only pillage, and others attributing to it
+the highest political consequence. The emperor is said to be
+considerably alarmed, and has sent against them his choicest troops.
+
+The London _Spectator_ thinks it highly probable that the malcontents
+are masters of all the provinces south of the Yellow River, and have
+seized upon the great entrepot of Canton. This, it adds, would be a
+revolution; for Pekin, which derives its supplies of provisions by the
+great canal from those southern provinces, would be starved into
+submission; and the principal seat of foreign commerce would fall into
+the hands of a party more bigotedly hostile to intercourse with
+foreigners than even the Celestial Government. Nor is such a revolution
+either impossible or improbable. Our knowledge of Chinese history is dim
+and obscure; yet enough appears to show that the Mantchoo authority has
+never been so firmly established to the south as to the north of the
+Yellow River--that the purely Chinese element of society has always
+preponderated in the southern provinces. In _Siam_, too, changes of
+policy appear to be impending. The king who refused to treat with Sir
+James Brooke is dead; and a contested succession has been temporarily
+avoided by the simultaneous nomination of a king and a vice-king. The
+new king has always been remarkable for his disposition to cultivate the
+acquaintance and friendship of foreigners, and he is said to understand
+and even to write English. The institutions of the Chinese and
+Hindu-Chinese nations are thus shaken and sapped at the very time when
+the traders of Europe and America are making more vigorous and
+continuous efforts than at any former period to obtain a footing in
+them.
+
+Twenty-three British seamen belonging to the ship Larpent, were wrecked
+over a year ago upon the coast of the Chinese island of Formosa. They
+were immediately set upon by the savage inhabitants, and all but three
+butchered in cold blood. These three were taken into servitude, and
+after about eight months' captivity made their escape in a boat to an
+American brig which happened to be passing.
+
+
+
+
+Editor's Table.
+
+
+In the extreme western portion of the North American continent, and of
+the North American National Confederacy, there are now to be found,
+growing side by side, two of the most singular phenomena of the age. We
+allude to the new social and political organization, constituting the
+State of California, and the new theocracy, as it is assumed to be, of
+the Mormon Commonwealth or Church--the one the most decidedly secular of
+all known modern enterprises, the other the only example of the rise of
+a new religion, and of a distinctly new religious people in the 19th
+century. Mormonism, it is true, has some decidedly secular elements. In
+this respect it easily assimilates itself to the gross spirit of worldly
+enterprise by which it is surrounded, and even finds itself at home in
+the midst of the most turbulent scenes. But this is far from accounting
+for its wonderful success. It is also true, on the other hand, that the
+present age has been marked by the division and subdivision of religious
+denominations. Yet still, none of these come up to that idea or
+pretension of Mormonism, which seems now to have presented itself in the
+world for the first time since the days of Mohammed. Although,
+therefore, acknowledging Christianity and the Old Scriptures, just as
+Mohammed did, it is distinctly a new religion. It claims a new
+revelation, and a new prophet. It has a new law, a new spiritual polity,
+and a new mission. Instead of being merely a new interpretation of an
+old theology, it professes to have renewed the long-suspended
+intercourse with Heaven and the supernatural. Instead of presenting a
+new dispensation growing out of an old ecclesiastical history, to which
+it assumes to impart a new life, it has actually created a past history
+of its own, which, though severed from the main current of our common
+traditional Christianity, connects it back, through passages never
+before suspected or explored, with the early Jewish revelation--or that
+original fountain from which the Gospel and Mohammedanism may be said to
+have derived, the one its reality and its purity, the other the
+materials for its fanatical perversions.
+
+Whatever may be the truth in respect to the real origin and authorship
+of the book of Mormon, there can be no doubt of its wonderful
+adaptedness to the purposes to which it has been applied. We can not
+agree with those who would deny to the work either genius or talent. The
+Koran bears with it that prestige of antiquity which always insures some
+degree of respect. It is written in a dead, and what is now regarded a
+learned language. It has its Oriental imagery, together with frequent
+allusions to what most interests us in Oriental romance. Above all, it
+has had its centuries of scholiasts and commentators, extracting the
+aroma as well as the dust of its assumed divinity. In short, there is
+about it a show of learning and "venerable antiquity," and yet, we do
+not hesitate to say it, Joe Smith, or whoever was its author, has made a
+book superior to that of the Arabian prophet; deeper in its philosophy,
+purer in its morality, and far more original. There are, doubtless, many
+faults both of style and language; but centuries hence may convert these
+into precious archaisms, and give to the bad Anglo-Saxon of the Mormon
+book all the interest which ages of scholiasts have imparted to what was
+once the irregular Arabic of the rude tribes of the desert.
+
+It may startle some to be told, that Mormonism has actually pressed
+itself more upon the attention of the world than Christianity had done
+at the same age. We carry back into the early days of the Gospel's
+progress the clear light and outline of its later history. We can hardly
+realize that even for a century, or more, after its first promulgation,
+it was an object of little interest to the world, and that when it first
+began to demand a passing paragraph from the historian, it was only as
+an "_execrabilis superstitio_," creating a disturbance barely visible on
+the surface of society. Of course there is no intention, by any such
+remark, to make any comparison between the intrinsic merits of the two
+systems. A true believer in Jesus, and of "the truth as it is in Jesus,"
+will never suffer himself to be disturbed by any parallel, real or
+seeming, between Christ and Socrates, or Christ and Mohammed, or
+Confucius, or the founder of any new religion, or of any pretended
+social reform, either in ancient or modern times. He can have no nervous
+fear of confounding the immeasurable difference between any such
+pretension and "that name which is above every other name." The strength
+and success of the counterfeit only adds lustre and assurance to the
+original. Neither does the great idea of a revelation suffer any
+detraction by being associated in thought with such attempts. The Koran
+only confirms the Gospel. It never would have been what it is without
+it. The false prophet never would have arisen had it not been for the
+true. All religious imposture and fanaticism may thus be regarded as
+involuntary witnesses to an absolute truth, of which they are but the
+frenzied caricatures. The grossest delusions only show, by their very
+extravagance, the indestructibleness of the religious principle in the
+human soul, and how it clings and ever must cling to the idea of some
+Divine revelation, some lifting of the vail, as the etymology of the
+word imports, which hangs so densely over man and nature.
+
+There is a more inexplicable phenomenon than Mormonism or any false
+religion. It is the disposition manifested in some parts of the
+philosophical, and even professedly religious world, to depreciate, if
+not directly to deny the supernatural--to put as far away as possible,
+or to receive as the last allowable explanation of any difficulty, the
+thought of any direct communication from Heaven to earth. It is on this
+principle some would even interpret, not only present phenomena, but
+also all that during countless ages have left their mark upon our globe.
+On this principle another class would unspiritualize as far as they
+could, even the acknowledged Scriptures. But why should it be so? Why
+this strange delight in believing in the omnipotence and
+unchangeableness of a blind and unrelenting nature? What comfort has it
+for the soul, or what enlargement even for the intellect? What happiness
+in the thought of being bound in such an adamantine chain, even if we
+are compelled to admit its stern reality! It may be, peradventure, that
+philosophy here is in the right, but, if we may employ the paradox, her
+reverence for nature must certainly seem most unnatural. Nature, even
+our nature, longs for some Divine or supernatural communications. For
+this "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together until now."
+The wonder, then, is not that there have been in the world so many
+mythical accounts of Divine intercourse, but that there has been so
+little of the reality. Why does not God speak to us here? Why has "_He
+made darkness his pavilion round about him?_" Why "cometh He not out"
+more frequently "from the _hiding-place of his power?_" Why has He ever
+been called--by Homer, and Hesiod, and Orpheus, as well as in the
+Bible--"_The Dweller in the cloud?_" Why does not our Father's voice
+oftener break the fearful stillness of nature, and give us that evidence
+of His existence, His government, and His providence, without which
+nature is but a gloomy prison-house, while life is but a smothered
+effort to escape from its terrible immutability, and breathe the freedom
+of a spiritual and supernatural atmosphere? Is it said that He is always
+speaking--that the Great Cause of causes is always exhibiting itself in
+its effects? But what comfort in this? It speaketh not to us--it
+manifests no knowledge of our present thought, of our present individual
+wants. The voice that is alike _in_ all things, and comes alike _to_ all
+things, we can not distinguish from nature herself. The true ground for
+marvel, then, is not that men are led astray by false prophets, but that
+such vast multitudes should be so utterly immersed in nature and
+worldliness, "caring for none of these things," and finding in such
+phenomena as Millerism and Mormonism, only occasion for insane
+merriment, instead of deep religious and philosophical inquiry.
+
+The indestructibleness of the religious principle in the human soul!
+This is the great lesson read to us by such events. Even this nineteenth
+century with all its secularity, has not wholly drowned it. It breaks
+out in the midst of every form of worldliness. When untaught in respect
+to the true path, it follows the wildest imposture; and, as though in
+awful derision of the inability of the mere secular spirit ever to
+satisfy the deepest human wants, a Kingdom of the Saints settles itself
+in nearest contiguity to what would seem to be the exclusive territory
+of Mammon.
+
+We can only call attention to this strange phenomenon without going into
+any discussion of the causes of its remarkable success. As we have said,
+it is the only case of a distinctly new religion since the days of
+Mohammed. Yet still it may be compared with other anomalous religious
+movements that have characterized the present century. Most of these
+have already had their growth and decline. Some that started with more
+enthusiasm than has ever been claimed for the Mormons, have, for years,
+been dying out, or only manifesting an outward and formal existence. On
+the other hand, too, a similar fate has attended most of the schemes of
+Socialists, and of those reformers who have relied solely on some
+doctrine of political economy, while ignoring, as far as they could, any
+recognition of a supernatural religionism. In distinction from both
+these, Mormonism has flourished because it has possessed the element of
+vitality which was respectively wanting to each. The religious sects to
+which we have alluded (and we mean of course such as may be justly
+characterized as unscriptural delusions) have been too unworldly for
+success. They have lacked the secular element. Schemes of mere social
+reform, on the other hand, have been dead from the beginning. They have
+been wanting in that vitality which alone can come from a real or
+pretended connection with a future life, and a supernatural world.
+Mormonism professes to wield both powers. Whatever may be thought of the
+first founders of the sect, the multitudes who from all parts of the
+United States, and from England, and even from the Continent, are now
+crowding to the Salt Lake and the modern Canaan, give evidence of a
+power of tremendous reality, however much it may be above the
+comprehension of the shallow witling, or the mere secular political
+economist. The cause must have a universality in some way corresponding
+to the wide effect it is producing. But be it what it may, the lesson
+taught is most timely as well as important. It is, we repeat--and it
+will bear to be repeated--_the indestructibleness of the religious
+principle in the human soul_. If this have not the true nourishment, it
+will feed on falsehood; but nourishment and life of some kind it must
+have. The most secular age, instead of destroying, only causes it to
+burst out in some new and monstrous form. And even in this idea there is
+light and consolation for true faith. It derives new evidence from every
+spurious manifestation. The religious principle can not be wholly
+annihilated--
+
+    Merses profundo pulchrior evenit.
+
+Let all worldly causes combine to drive it seemingly from the earth--let
+the edifice of supernatural belief be leveled with the ground, it would
+only be the signal for reconstruction. Take away the true, or quench it
+in the worldly spirit, and some form of false belief will start up in
+its place. _There will be faith in the earth_--there will be a sacred
+book--there will be a ritual, or system of worship, ever maintaining
+itself as a symbol of the inextinguishable trust in the reality of
+"things unseen and eternal." The naturalizing philosophy may endure, and
+even be strong as the antagonist of a revealed supernaturalism. But take
+away the latter, and the former falls with it. Its success is suicidal.
+Its triumph is its own utter defeat. All true interest in nature and
+science must expire, when every where the soul ceases to acknowledge any
+thing higher than either. Without a return to a true faith, spiritual
+delusions, on the one hand, or the grossest secularity and sensualism,
+on the other, will be the only alternative. And, if we must come to
+this, can any thinking mind have difficulty in deciding where we should
+look for the truest exhibition of human dignity--in Utah or
+California--in the Land of the Saints, or in the Land of Gold?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And there was evening--_and there was morning--one day._ (Gen. i. 5.)
+Why has the inspired historian placed the night first? It must doubtless
+be because it actually came first in the order of our present creation.
+What was this first night but the long chaos of darkness that covered
+the face of the deep, and over which the Spirit brooded when the command
+came forth for the first morning to appear--when God said, _Let there be
+light_ on that dark world, and immediately _light was there?_ But still,
+night was first, and hence in all the traditions that have sprung from
+this account it has ever been an object of religious reverence. In the
+old mythologies Night is the mother of day; and hence the epithets that
+poetry has ever conferred upon her--Sacred Night, Divine Night, Holy
+Night, Most Venerable and Religious Night. But not only has she been
+regarded as the mythological _mother_ of creation, but as ever the
+_nurse_ of the purest emotion and the truest thoughts. On this account
+the Greek poets gave her that beautiful name _Euphrone_--indicating the
+season of good feeling--the hour of hope, of calm yet joyous
+contemplation. It is true, the inspired description of the heavenly
+state says, _There shall be no night there_. But in our present
+imperfect being, the idea of the highest earthly bliss would be marred
+by its absence from the picture. As yet we can not dispense with the
+shade. The
+
+    Sacred, high, eternal noon
+
+is for beings of another order, and another life; and however much we
+may admire the pure sublimity of this fine line of Doddridge, we feel
+that we must be endowed with new emotions before we could truly enjoy
+the never to be remitted splendor of such a state as it describes.
+
+Although affected by particular circumstances, and expressed with great
+variety of imagery, there has been a wonderful harmony in the spiritual
+conceptions which the contemplation of night has ever called forth. We
+have, therefore, thought that it might interest our readers to present a
+few of the most striking night scenes from ancient and modern poets. The
+first from our port-folio, of course, is Homer's. The selection is from
+the close of the eighth book of the Iliad. Its introduction partakes of
+the warlike character of the poem, but softened into that holy calmness
+which the scene ever assumes, whatever may be the circumstances in which
+it is presented. We give Pope's splendid translation, although some
+might prefer the more accurate version of Cowper.
+
+    As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
+    O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
+    When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
+    And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;
+    Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
+    And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole,
+    O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
+    And tip with silver every mountain's head;
+    Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
+    A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.
+
+But neither Pope nor Cowper can be said to have caught the spirit of the
+original as well as the old ballad version of Chapman.
+
+    As when about the silver moon, when air is free from winde,
+    And stars shine cleare to whose sweet beams high prospects and
+    the brows
+    Of all steep hills and pinnacles thrust up themselves for shows;
+    And even the lowly vallies joy to glitter in their sight--
+    When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light,
+    And all the signs in heaven are seen that glad the shepherd heart.
+
+Apollonius Rhodius, in the _Argonautica_, presents a greater diversity
+of imagery. He has not in view, like Homer, the unity of a single scene,
+but calls up similar emotions by a dispersed variety of the most
+impressive pictures. We present a translation, which, if it have no
+other merit, may at least be said to be almost word for word--
+
+    Now Night had thrown her shadow o'er the earth.
+    Far out at sea the sailors stood and gazed,
+    On wheeling Arctos and Orion's stars.
+    The traveler longed to hear the warder's voice
+    Invite to rest; and even the mother's eyes
+    That drowsy hour pressed downward, as she watched
+    By her dead child--the watch-dog's voice was mute;
+    The city's thronging noise had died away,
+    And stillness reigned o'er all the shaded realm;
+    Save in Medea's restless soul--
+
+Virgil closely imitates the Greek poet in the designed contrast, if not
+in his scenery. As we have not troubled them with the Greek, our fair
+readers, and others, we hope, will pardon us for putting on our page the
+Latin. Even those may appreciate its exceedingly liquid flow, who are
+compelled to resort to the translation for its meaning.
+
+    Nox erat, et placidum carpebat fessa soporem
+    Corpora per terras, sylvæque et sæva quiêrant
+    Æquora: cum medio volvuntur sidera lapsu:
+    Cum tacet omnis ager, pecudes, pictæque volucres,
+    Quæque lacus late liquidos, quæque aspera dumis
+    Rura tenent, somno positæ sub node silenti,
+    Lenibant curas, et corda oblita laborum
+    At non infelix Dido--
+                            _Æneid, Lib._ iv.
+
+    'Twas dead of night when wearied bodies close
+    Their eyes in balmy sleep, and soft repose.
+    The winds no longer whisper through the woods,
+    Nor murmuring tides disturb the gentle floods.
+    The stars in silent order moved around,
+    And peace with downy wings was brooding on the ground.
+    The flocks, and herds, and particolored fowl,
+    Which haunt the woods, or swim the seedy pool,
+    Stretched on the quiet earth securely lay,
+    Forgetting the past labors of the day.
+    All but unhappy Dido--
+
+Dryden is very far from doing justice to Virgil in the translation of
+this passage, and yet, we must say, that the original, much as it has
+been praised, falls greatly short of the exquisite description by
+Apollonius. How much does that most impressive image in the sixth line
+of the Grecian poet exceed any effect produced by Virgil's _pictæ
+volucres_, or "particolored fowl," however ornate the language, and
+liquid the melody of his highly wrought lines.
+
+But Byron--shall we risk the criticism--Byron, in our judgment,
+surpasses every example we have quoted, and even had we added, as we
+might have done, Shakspeare and Milton to the list.
+
+    'Twas midnight--On the mountains brown
+    The cold round moon shone deeply down
+    Blue rolled the waters, blue the sky
+    Spread like an ocean hung on high;
+    Bespangled with those isles of light,
+    So widely, spiritually bright.
+    Who ever gazed upon them shining,
+    And turned to earth without repining!
+    The sea on either shore lay there,
+    Calm, clear, and azure as the air;
+    And scarce the foam the pebbles shook,
+    That murmured meekly as the brook.
+    The winds were pillowed on the waves;
+    The banners drooped along their staves;
+    And that deep silence was unbroke,
+    Save where the watch his signal spoke;
+    Save where the steed neighed oft and shrill,
+    And echo answered from the hill.
+                             _Siege of Corinth._
+
+Our concluding example is from the Scriptures. We challenge not for it a
+superiority simply on the ground of its inspiration. Every reader may
+judge for himself how immeasurably it excels any thing of the kind to be
+found in ancient or modern poetry. How full of _natural_ sublimity, and,
+at the same time, how profoundly impressive the _moral_ lesson of this
+night scene from Job!
+
+    In thoughts from visions of the night,
+    When deep sleep falleth upon men,
+    Fear came upon me, and trembling,
+    And made all my bones to shake.
+    Then a spirit passed before my face;
+    The hair of my flesh rose up.
+    It stood. An image was before mine eyes,
+    And yet I could not discern the form thereof.
+    There was silence--
+    And yet I heard a voice--saying--
+    Shall a mortal be more just than God?
+    Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We hear often of popular fallacies. Books have been written on them. But
+there are also learned fallacies, and among these we know of no one more
+common than that which prevails respecting the word _education_. It is
+quite usual with lecturers and essayists to derive a profound
+philosophical meaning from the bare etymology of the term. It is from
+_educo_, they tell us, to _lead or draw out_. It means the _drawing_ out
+or developing the faculties. It is the bringing out the unwrought man,
+like the polished statue from the rough block of marble. All sorts of
+changes are rung upon the word. With some it is the _educing_ of the
+individuality, with others, of the humanity. Others again talk much of
+_drawing out the ideas_, and that, too, without any previous exact
+_in_struction, or the furnishing of what might be styled the prepared
+material of thought--about as wise a course as to attempt to develop, or
+draw _out_ the faculties of a nail-making machine, without ever thinking
+of putting any well-wrought iron _into_ it. Now, all this is pedantic
+nonsense. The old Roman Roundheads, from whom the term is derived, never
+dreamed of any such transcendental conception. The word, in its primary
+sense, simply means _nursing_, _fostering_, _rearing_. Hence is it
+afterward applied to knowledge and discipline. It is educed from the
+simple conception of holding the child by the hand, and leading him
+forth when he first begins to walk. From the same primitive thought
+comes the word _pedagogue_, which simply means, _one who leads a boy_,
+and was first applied to the slave, or servant, who conducted the
+Athenian child to and from school. It would, however, be hardly worth
+our while to show the fallacy of this very common etymological
+deduction, were it not sometimes made the ground of very false ideas.
+The old view, although it have no great philosophy, will be found to be
+the true one. It is to hold a child up, and lead him forth by the hand,
+before you set him to walk alone by himself, under pretense of
+developing his _faculties_, either of thinking or of locomotion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Every man has two parents, four grand-parents, eight
+great-grand-parents, sixteen great-great-grand-parents, &c., &c., &c. If
+we reckon 30 years to a generation, and carry on the above series to the
+time of the Norman conquest, it will be found that each one of us must
+have had at that period, no less than 32,000,000 of ancestors. Now,
+making all allowance for the crossing of genealogical lines, and
+consequently for the same person being in many of the intersections,
+still there will remain a number sufficient, at that period, to cover
+the whole Norman and Anglo-Saxon race. Whatever, therefore, was then
+noble, or pious, or princely, or even kingly, stands somewhere in the
+line of ancestry of the most ignoble and plebeian among us. Each man of
+the present day may be almost certain of having had, not only earls (and
+it may be bishops), but even crowned heads among his progenitors. And so
+also may we be almost assured that the highest families of that period
+have now lineal representatives in persons so low in the social scale,
+that all the sounding lines of heraldry would fail to fathom the depth
+of their obscurity. In less than a thousand years, the blood of Victoria
+inevitably mingles with that of some of the most ignoble of the earth.
+Carry the calculation further back, and we soon pass beyond any
+population that ever existed on our globe. A thousand years from the
+present time brings the number up to 1,024,000,000. Two or three
+centuries more carries it beyond a thousand billions, and long before we
+arrive at the period of our world's creation, it would have reached a
+number surpassing all powers of easy enumeration. It is a consequence,
+too, of the same view, that a thousand years hence, each man who has now
+an ordinary family of children, will probably have a representative some
+way of his blood in each one of 30,000,000 of persons; and that these
+will be of all conditions, high and low, rich and poor, unless, as may
+be the case, some system of social philosophy may long before that have
+swept all distinctions from our world.
+
+
+
+
+Editor's Drawer.
+
+
+The "monitory season" of Nature has come. The faded garniture of the
+fields; the many-colored, gorgeous woods; the fitful winds, sighing for
+the flowers "whose fragrance late they bore:" the peculiar yellow-green
+of the sky at the horizon, in the twilight gloaming; all these proclaim
+that "summer is ended" and autumn is here. Brainard, a poet of true
+tenderness and feeling, once asked, "What is there saddening in the
+autumn leaf?" Perhaps it would be difficult to tell _what_ it is, but
+that it _is_ saddening, in the midst of its dying beauty, most persons
+have felt. One of our own poets, too early called away,[10] wrote many
+years since, on the first day of October, the following sad and tender
+lines:
+
+    "Solemn, yet beautiful to view,
+      Month of my heart! thou dawnest here,
+    With sad and faded leaves to strew
+      The Summer's melancholy bier;
+    The moaning of thy winds I hear,
+      As the red sunset dies afar,
+    And bars of purple clouds appear,
+      Obscuring every western star.
+
+    "Thou solemn month! I hear thy voice,
+      It tells my soul of other days,
+    When but to live was to rejoice,
+      When earth was lovely to my gaze
+    Oh, visions bright--oh, blessed hours,
+      Where are their living raptures now?
+    I ask my spirit's wearied powers,
+      I ask my pale and fevered brow.
+
+    "I look to Nature, and behold
+      My life's dim emblems rustling round,
+    In hues of crimson and of gold--
+      The year's dead honors on the ground.
+    And sighing with the winds, I feel,
+      While their low pinions murmur by,
+    How much their sweeping tones reveal
+      Of life and human destiny.
+
+    "When Spring's delightsome moments shone,
+      They came in zephyrs from the West:
+    They bore the wood-lark's melting tone,
+      They stirred the blue lake's glassy breast
+    Through Summer, fainting in the heat,
+      They lingered in the forest shade;
+    But changed and strengthened now, they beat
+      In storm, o'er mountain, glen, and glade.
+
+    "How like those transports of the heart,
+      When life is fresh and joy is new;
+    Soft as the halcyon's downy nest,
+      And transient all as they are true!
+    They stir the leaves in that bright wreath
+      Which HOPE about her forehead twines,
+    Till Grief's hot sighs around it breathe,
+      Then Pleasure's lip its smile resigns.
+
+    "Alas, for Time, and Death, and Care,
+      What gloom about our way they fling
+    Like clouds in Autumn's gusty air,
+      The burial-pageant of the Spring
+    The dreams that each successive year
+      Seemed bathed in hues of brighter pride,
+    At last like withered leaves appear,
+      And sleep in darkness, side by side!"
+
+[10] Willis Gaylord Clark, for many years Editor of the Philadelphia
+Daily Gazette, and author of the "_Ollapodiana_" papers in the
+Knickerbocker Magazine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Carlyle, in his "Sartor Resartus," gives a condensed, but exceedingly
+forcible picture of the "net purport and upshot of war," by taking
+thirty able-bodied men from a French and English village, and making
+them face each other on a pleasant morning, when they blow each other's
+souls out, and straightway become "shells of men." We were speaking of
+this the other evening with a friend, who was with our army in Mexico,
+and in the course of much chat, touching war and its accompaniments, he
+mentioned an anecdote of as brave a fellow as there was in his command,
+but who had an unfortunate and irresistible habit of occasional
+intoxication, whenever, by hook or by crook, he could procure a "horn"
+of brandy or whiskey. One evening, the day after an engagement, in which
+his coolness and determined bravery had won the admiration and warm
+commendation of his superior officers, he was brought before his
+commanding officer, who was on parade, in a state of beastly
+intoxication. Remembering his services of the day before, the officer
+was reluctant to punish him, at least without first trying to make him
+ashamed of his offense by exhortation and remonstrance. "Are you not
+ashamed of yourself?" he asked, "to be brought before me in this
+condition?--you that _can_ be so good a soldier? There was not a braver
+man in the regiment yesterday than you; and now you go and spoil all the
+honor you acquired, by disobeying orders, and coming before me drunk.
+Take him away!--I'm ashamed of him!" "Here--hello--hold on!" said the
+soldier--"hold on a minute: you've rep-rep-ri-_manded_ me some, and
+praised me a good deal: now look o' here, cap'n, do you expect to buy
+all the human virtues for seven dollars a month? It's too _cheap_,
+cap'n--too cheap!" He probably thought with Lowell's Yankee, writing
+from Saltillo after his first engagement:
+
+        "I wish that I was furder!
+    Ninepence a day for killin' folks
+      Comes kind o' low, for murder;
+    I worked out to slaughterin' some
+      For Deacon Cephas Billin's,
+    And in the hardest times there was,
+      I allers fetch'd ten shillins!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As we sat looking at a conjurer or necromancer performing his tricks the
+other evening, at which were some hundreds of other lookers-on, we fell
+to meditate upon the influence which any thing that is at all mysterious
+has upon the human mind. "To him," says Dr. Chatfield, "who has been
+sated, and perhaps disappointed by the actual and the intelligible,
+there is an indefinable charm in the unattainable and inscrutable." And
+it is so. Infants stretch out their hands for the moon; children delight
+in puzzles and riddles, even when they can not discover their solution;
+and "children of a larger growth" desire, oftentimes, no better
+employment than to follow their example. Look at the fanaticism
+engendered by Rev. Edward Irving's "Unknown Tongues; at which," says the
+authority we have quoted, "we need not wonder, when we remember the
+confession of the pious Baxter, that in order to awaken an interest in
+his congregation, he made it a rule, in every sermon, to say something
+above their capacity." There are not wanting ministers nowadays who
+follow the Baxterian practice, with the difference only, that what they
+sometimes preach is as much above their _own_ comprehension as that of
+their audience.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it not a "little curious" that Harriet Martineau, an old maid, a
+"benign cerulean of the second sex," as Lord Byron calls her class, who
+"never loved," or if she did, yet who, if published accounts are true,
+shrunk from the nuptial bonds, and left her affianced lord in the lurch
+at the last moment--is it not a little curious, we say, that such a
+woman, should have written so exquisite a picture of true love as that
+which ensues? We once heard a distinguished American author remark,
+sitting by his "Dutchman's Fireside," that he kept for days out of the
+literary lady-traveler's way when she was trying to meet him. "There she
+was," said he, "going about with that long India-rubber ear-trumpet of
+hers, taking in every thing that was offered to it, just like an
+elephant going round with his trunk, drawing in here an apple, there a
+piece of cake, now a handful of nuts, and next, perhaps, a chew of
+tobacco. _I_ wasn't going to contribute to _her_ trunk, nor to the
+lining any others, when she had got home and printed her notes!" If the
+authoress, however, _had_ met this unwilling host, and had told this
+"tale of love," doubtless he would have listened in "mute admiration."
+But we are forgetting the passage: "There is no other such crisis in
+human life as the crisis of LOVE. The philosopher may experience
+uncontrollable agitation in verifying his principle of balancing systems
+of worlds, feeling perhaps as if he actually saw the creative hand in
+the act of sending the planets forth on their everlasting way; but he
+knows at such a moment no emotions so divine as those of the spirit
+becoming conscious that it is beloved; be it the peasant-girl in the
+meadow, or the daughter of the sage, or the artisan beside his loom, or
+the man of letters musing by his fire-side. The warrior about to strike
+the decisive blow for the liberties of a nation is not in a state of
+such lofty resolution as those who, by joining hearts, are laying their
+joint hands on the whole wide realm of futurity for their own. The
+statesman, in the moment of success, is not conscious of so holy and so
+intimate a thankfulness as they who are aware that their redemption has
+come in the presence of a new and sovereign affection. And these are
+many: they are in all corners of every land. The statesman is the leader
+of a nation; the warrior is the grace of an age; the philosopher is the
+birth of a thousand years; but the LOVER--where is he _not?_ Wherever
+parents look round upon their children, there he _has_ been: wherever
+children are at play together there he soon _will_ be; wherever there
+are roofs under which men dwell, wherever there is an atmosphere
+vibrating with human voices, there is the lover, and there is his lofty
+worship going on--unspeakable, perchance, but revealed in the brightness
+of the eye, the majesty of the presence, and the high temper of the
+discourse. Men have been ungrateful and perverse; they have done what
+they could to counteract it, to debate this most heavenly influence of
+their life; but the laws of their MAKER are too strong, the benignity of
+their FATHER is too patient and fervent, for their opposition to
+withstand; and true love continues, and _will_ continue, to send up its
+homage amidst the meditations of every eventide, and the busy hum of
+noon, and the song of the morning stars."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some lively French writer, whose name has quite escaped us, once wrote a
+vivid sketch, entitled, "_L'Homme Rouge_," or "The Red Man." There was
+an under-plot of sentiment in the story, we well remember, but the great
+feature of the romance was, that whenever there was a fire to happen in
+any part of Paris, whether by accident or design, there suddenly
+appeared "_L'Homme Rouge;_" sometimes in the midst of a party of
+revelers at a masked-ball; sometimes surprising nuns at their devotions,
+and not unfrequently where crime was hatching, or unnatural orgies
+making night hideous. But he was a good, benevolent deity, and always
+came to warn against or to suppress conflagration. Such, it would
+appear, and without fable, hereafter, will be the man who can command
+the great "Fire-Annihilator," which is making such a sensation, and
+proving so unerringly effective in England. A man, bearing one of these
+easily-carried machines, enters his blazing domicil, all a-glow with a
+bright flame, which is curling its forked tongues around every thing
+which resists its progress, and touching a spring, a cloud of smoke-like
+vapor issues forth, before which the flame flickers, grows pale, and at
+once fades entirely out, and the conflagration is stopped. It has been
+tested in so many instances, that its success is now considered wholly
+infallible. A company for the sale of the "Annihilator" has been formed
+in this country, the "central bureau" of which is in New York, the
+president being Hon. Elisha Whittlesey, of the American Congress. The
+age of rail-roads, magnetic telegraphs, and fire-exterminators, will
+signalize this era as one of the most remarkable in the world's history.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Seneca complains that the ancients had compelled him to borrow from them
+what they would have taken from him, had he been lucky enough to have
+preceded them! "Every one of my writings," says Goethe, in the same
+candid spirit, "has been furnished to me by a thousand different
+persons, a thousand different things: the learned and the ignorant, the
+wise and the foolish, infancy and old age have come in turn, generally
+without having the least suspicion of it, to bring me the offering of
+their thoughts, their faculties, their experience. Often have they sowed
+the harvest I have reaped. My works are an aggregation of human beings,
+taken from the whole of nature." It is in the power of any writer, says
+a commentator upon this passage, to be original, by deserting nature,
+and seeking the quaint and the fantastical. "When I was a young man,"
+says Goldsmith, "being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually
+starting new propositions; but I soon gave this over, for I found that
+generally what was new was false."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dean Swift's remark at the close of a charity-sermon, from the text "He
+that giveth to the poor lendeth to the LORD," is well known--("If you
+like the security, down with your dust!") But the two following
+eccentricities of speech, which are attributed to him, we never saw
+before: "My brethren," said he, on one occasion, "there are three sorts
+of pride--pride of birth, of riches, and of talents. I shall not now
+speak of the latter, none of you being addicted or liable to that
+abominable vice!" "I fear," said he, on another occasion, to his flock,
+"I fear, when I explained to you, in my last charity-sermon, that
+philanthropy was the love of our species, you must have misunderstood me
+to say _specie_, which may account for the smallness of the collection.
+You will prove, I hope, by your present contributions, that you are no
+longer laboring under the same mistake!" A surer way of securing a good
+collection was recently adopted by a benevolent lecture-giver in a
+sister city. The audience were admitted _free;_ but when the lecture was
+closed, no one was permitted to pass out until he or she had disbursed
+twenty-five cents!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some fourteen years ago there appeared in one of the English magazines
+an amusing article, showing up the aristocratic stupidity of the large
+and costly English annuals, which were indebted almost exclusively to
+the nobility for their contents. Until then, we had not been made aware
+that the Duke of Wellington was a poet. But it seems that we were
+mistaken; the "noble Duke" is a master of the military sonnet, a
+specimen of which is subjoined. Its "terse composition," the "boldness
+of its character," its "laconic simplicity," and martial
+"determination," were very highly commended by the editor:
+
+    Halt! Shoulder arms! Recover! As you were!
+    Right wheel! Eyes left! Attention! Stand at ease!
+    O Britain! oh, my country! words like these
+    Have made thy name a terror and a fear
+    To all the nations. Witness Ebro's bank
+    Assays, Toulouse, Nivelle, and Waterloo,
+    Where the grim despot muttered, "_Sauve qui peut!_"
+    And Ney fled darkling. Silence in the ranks!
+    Inspired by these, amidst the iron crash
+    Of armies in the centre of his troop,
+    The soldier stands--immovable, not rash
+    Until the forces of the foemen droop;
+    Then knock the Frenchmen to eternal smash,
+    Pounding them into mummy. Shoulder, hoop!
+
+Thus the "Conquerer of Napoleon" conquers the stubborn rhyme!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I suppose," writes a contemplative and elegant modern English author,
+now unnamed, but who can not long remain _stat nominis umbra_, "that it
+has happened to most men who observe their thoughts at all, to notice
+how some expression returns again and again in the course of their
+meditations, or, indeed, of their business, forming, as it were, a
+refrain to all they think or do, for any given hour. Sometimes, too,
+this refrain has no particular concern with the thought or business of
+the day, but seems as if it belonged to some under-current of thought
+and feeling. This at least is what I experienced to-day myself, being
+haunted by a bit of old Spanish poetry, which obtruded itself, sometimes
+inopportunely, sometimes not so, in the midst of all my work or play.
+The words were these:
+
+    'How quickly passes pleasure away
+    How, after being granted.
+            It gives pain:
+    How, in our opinion,
+    Any past time
+            Was better,'
+
+(than that we passed in pleasure). It was not that I agreed with the
+sentiment, except as applied to vicious pleasure; being rather of Sydney
+Smith's mind, that the remembrance of past pleasure is present pleasure;
+but I suppose the words chimed in with reflections on the past which
+formed the under-current of my thoughts, as I went through the wood of
+beeches which bounded my walk to day.... In a moment I went back, not to
+the pleasures, but to the ambitious hopes and projects of youth. And
+when a man does reflect upon the ambitions which are as characteristic
+of that period of life as reckless courage or elastic step, and finds
+that at each stage of his journey since, some hope has dropped off as
+too burdensome or too romantic, till at last it is enough for him to
+carry only himself at all upright in this troublesome world--what
+thoughts come back upon him! How he meditates upon his own errors and
+short-comings, and sees that he has had not only the hardness, oiliness,
+and imperturbability of the world to contend with; but that he himself
+has generally been his worst antagonist. In this mood I might have
+thrown myself upon the mound under a great beech-tree that was near, the
+king of the woods, and uttered many lamentations; but instead of doing
+any thing of the kind, I walked sedately by it; for, as we go on in
+life, we find we can not afford excitement, and we learn to be
+parsimonious in our emotions."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the Boston newspapers, in allusion to the great Railroad Festival
+which is about taking place, as the last sheets of our Magazine are
+passing through the press, observes: "The Canadian Judiciary Courts
+have adjourned for the whole of the next week, in order to give an
+opportunity to our Canadian friends to be present at the great Railroad
+Jubilee, to be celebrated in our city. They are expected to arrive in
+great numbers on Tuesday of next week. That day will be devoted to an
+examination of our city. On Wednesday there will be a formal reception;
+and the City Government will accompany their English guests to the
+Bunker Hill Monument and _other_ places of _interest_." Now we can not
+dissociate that word 'interest,' from the same word which forms the
+nucleus of an anecdote, which we will venture to relate, in illustration
+of the _kind_ of 'interest' which a loyal English subject might be
+supposed to feel in paying a visit to Bunker Hill. At Bladensburgh
+battle-field, there is a very non-committal guide who shows visitors
+over the ground, enlightening those who are ignorant as to the character
+of the ground, where the different forces lay, how they advanced, and
+the like. The guide, however, is a 'prudent man,' for his situation
+depends upon being 'all things to all men' who may chance to be obliged
+to avail themselves of his services. If he is showing an English party
+over the ground, he fancies that he knows it, and therefore 'governs
+himself accordingly;' if an American party, he throws his 'balance of
+power' in the other scale. But he was sadly puzzled _once_. He could get
+no 'cue' from the gentleman and his friend, who had secured his
+services, as to whether they were English or Americans--the conversation
+was so vague and so limited. "Why was it," said one of these visitors,
+"that the Americans _fled_ on this occasion?" "Fled!" he exclaimed, as
+if with impromptu dignity--"_fled!_" "Yes," said his interrogator, "why
+did the Americans retreat on that occasion?--why did they run away!"
+"Retreat!--run away!--guess _not!_ Yes: well--perhaps they did. Yes; I
+b'lieve they did. The reason was, that somehow or 'nother they _didn't
+seem to take no interest!_"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Most readers have heard the story of the connoisseur in the fine arts
+who said one day to a friend, "I wish you would come down and see a
+picture I bought last week. I'd like to have you give me your _candid_
+opinion of it. A friend of mine had the impudence to say this morning
+that it was not an original! I should like to hear _another_ man say
+that it was not an original! But you come and see it, and tell me
+honestly what you think of its authenticity." It strikes us that a man
+would not be apt to give a _very_ "candid" opinion under those
+circumstances. This freedom of opinion is not unlike the liberty of
+action said to have been granted by Col. M'Lane to the troops under his
+command, before going into winter-quarters at Valley Forge. They were
+suffering for provisions and clothing, and Congress had been repeatedly
+petitioned for that relief which it was not in their power to bestow.
+Under this state of things, Colonel M'Lane paraded his band of suffering
+soldiers, and thus addressed them: "Fellow-soldiers, you have served
+your country faithfully and truly. We've fought hard fights together
+against our common enemy. You are in a bad way for comfortable clothes,
+it is true, and it grieves my very heart to see you tracking your feet
+in blood on the frozen ground. But Congress can not help it, nor can
+General Washington or I. But if any of you wish to return home, you can
+go. Let such of you as would like to go home step out four paces in
+front--_but_ the first man that steps out, if I don't shoot him my name
+is not M'Lane." It is perhaps needless to add, that not a solitary
+"volunteer" homeward was to be found.
+
+
+
+
+Editor's Easy Chair.
+
+
+After our more severe Editorial work is done--the scissors laid in our
+drawer, and the Monthly Record made as full as our pages will bear, of
+history, we have a way of throwing ourselves back into an old red-backed
+EASY CHAIR, that has long been an ornament of our dingy office, and
+indulging in an easy, and careless overlook of the gossiping papers of
+the day, and in such chit-chat with chance visitors, as keeps us
+informed of the drift of the town-talk, while it relieves greatly the
+monotony of our office hours.
+
+We have before now sailed over seas with some rollicking, red-faced
+captain, who, after a good day's run with his yards well braced to the
+wind, would, as evening began to fall, and the breezes to lull, rig out
+his studding-sail booms, and set new bits of canvas to catch every puff
+of the dying zephyrs. In like manner, we, having made our course good,
+out of mere whim, add to our sail, and mean to catch up in these few
+additional pages, those lighter whiffs from the great world of opinion,
+which come floating to us, as we sit here in our EASY CHAIR.
+
+Nor are we altogether bent on choosing mere gossip; but, rather, we
+shall be on the watch for such topics or incidents as give a handle to
+the conversation of the town; and instead of treating them in any such
+philosophic fashion, as most writing men think it necessary to do, we
+shall try and set them down with all that gloss, and that happy lack of
+sequence, which makes every-day talk so much better than every-day
+writing.
+
+There are hundreds of monthly occurrences which go into the journals as
+mere skeletons of facts; and yet, if a body had but the art of embalming
+by language, that fleshy covering which the every-day talk is sure to
+wrap about them, they would prove (these facts, we mean) the
+cheerfullest companions in the world.
+
+And this is just the thing that we shall try to do. If the Cubans, down
+in Havanna, shoot some fifty men, we shall not be content with entering
+it upon our record: we shall not take up what we consider (as the Daily
+Journals consider they do) some impregnable position, and thunder away
+at some one else who has an equally impregnable position of precisely
+the opposite character; but we shall try and get hold of the actual
+situation of this new provision for the town maw, in that great
+feeding-place of the town, viz.--Public Talk. We shall say who are the
+most voracious feeders, and may possibly comment, in an amiable humor,
+upon the different modes of consumption.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The French have a most happy way of commuting the dull coinage of
+every-day facts into the most mailable matter in the world: and as we
+sit in our EASY CHAIR, and catch up, as we sometimes do, a leaf of a
+Parisian journal, we find ourselves unconsciously creeping into the
+heart of some street-story, which, in any English journal, would have
+been the merest item of Police!
+
+Take, for instance, a single one--entered on all the commercial sheets
+after this fashion: "We understand that a suicide was committed under
+deplorable circumstances, not long since, in the Rue St. George. It
+appears that a French gentleman, owing to pecuniary embarrassments, had
+long been melancholy, and last evening killed himself with the fumes of
+charcoal. It is reported that he had been twice married, and (_horribile
+dictu_) that he exhumed his first wife, previous to committing the fatal
+deed. He leaves a very respectable property."
+
+Now look at our EASY CHAIR survey of such an unfortunate matter:
+
+"Monsieur B----, a widower of great respectability, was married to his
+second wife several years previous to the Revolution of 1848. The
+embarrassments which this event occasioned to several of the most
+considerable of his debtors, involved him in pecuniary difficulties of a
+serious character.
+
+"Being of a sensitive nature, and unable to meet at that period his more
+immediate engagements, he became the victim of an intense mortification,
+which no efforts of his friends could relieve, and which gradually
+settled into entire mental alienation.
+
+"He had still ample fortune, and lived in the enjoyment of his usual
+luxuries. His attentions to his new wife (who is represented as
+exceedingly beautiful) were, of course, less decided and punctilious
+than before, but there were observed no indications of any special
+hostility.
+
+"Things wore on in this way for a year or more, when it was observed
+that Monsieur B---- absented himself at a certain time of the day for
+many hours, from home, without allowing his wife to suspect his
+whereabouts. His man[oe]uvres to prevent pursuit, and avoid observation,
+were most adroit, and utterly forbade detection.
+
+"Meantime the guardians of the cemetery of _Père le Chaise_ had observed
+at a certain hour of the day a well-dressed individual make his
+appearance at the gates, and disappear upon the heights, within the
+inclosure of a little Gothic tomb, erected to the memory of Madame
+B----.
+
+"The guardians having ascertained that the visitor was the husband of
+the deceased lady, with true Parisian politeness, avoided any special
+observation.
+
+"It was ascertained afterward, however, that he employed these stolen
+hours in laboring upon the tomb--a pocket-knife, his only implement, and
+a single crazy hope--(which will appear in the sequel)--his only aim.
+Having, after four or five months of daily toil, finished his work, he
+waited only the absence of his wife to carry into execution his plan.
+For this he had not long to wait; she had promised a visit to the
+country; and upon the very day following her departure, Monsieur B----
+hurried to his old rendezvous at _Père le Chaise_, and with the same
+knife with which he had worked his way into the stone sarcophagus in
+which the body of his first wife reposed, he severed the head from the
+trunk, transported it under cover of his cloak to his home; placed it
+before him upon the table; kindled a brazier of charcoal; wrote a last
+word to his living partner, and then, with his pipe in his mouth, and in
+face of the ghastly head from the tomb--he died upon his chair!"
+
+There is in this story, insufferable as it may seem to delicate-minded
+readers, strong illustration of the French love of the horrible--of
+French passion--and of that French spirit of Dramatism, which would turn
+even the vulgarity of suicide into the heroism of a Tragedy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Reading on, as we do, in our EASY CHAIR way, our eye falls upon another
+bit of French romance of a different style: it will probably never come
+to the eyes of half of our readers in its Paris shape, so we employ a
+lazy interval of our weightier duties to render it into old-fashioned
+English:
+
+Every body knows that the rage for gaming in Paris, specially in private
+circles, has been for the last eight or ten years--excessive. And if any
+weak-minded American has "dined out" there, within that time, he has
+very likely been mulcted in a very pretty sum (after coffee was removed)
+at _écarte_.
+
+But, this is not to our story, which, in translating, we shall take the
+liberty of vamping into the easiest possible shape--for ourselves.
+
+Monsieur X---- was some descendant (grandson, for aught we know) of a
+certain Marshal of the Empire of France, and inherited from him (if
+report spake true) a handsome fortune of some five hundred thousand
+francs; or, in American coinage, one hundred thousand dollars. This is
+quite enough to live on pleasantly in Paris, or, for that matter, any
+where else.
+
+Of course, Monsieur X---- was a mark for such mammas as had marriageable
+daughters; and as the French mothers always manage these affairs
+themselves, and are, beside, very thoroughly schooled in the ways of the
+world, Monsieur X---- stood a very poor chance of escape. In fact, he
+did not escape, but was married one fine morning to a very pretty
+mademoiselle, who had the credit of possessing rare virtues, and whom
+our hero (Monsieur X----), for a wonder, did really and truly love.
+
+We mention this as even a greater rarity on the other side of the water,
+than on this; and every body of ordinary observation knows that it is
+rare enough with us.
+
+They lived happily through the honey-moon, and much to the surprise of
+his friends, for a year or two afterward. But at length it was observed
+that he wore very long faces, and dined frequently by himself at the
+Café de Paris, and did not even smile at the broadest of Grassot's comic
+acting. As he was known to be a young man of very correct habits, the
+inference was (not always a just one, by the way) that the wife was in
+fault.
+
+The truth was, that with a disposition naturally amiable and yielding,
+she had been seduced by those married friends who knew of her husband's
+resources, into an intense love of cards. As a natural consequence she
+became ever eager for play, morose in her habit, and petulant of manner.
+
+The husband bore this all very quietly for a while, revolving in his own
+mind what could be done, and paying his wife's drafts upon him without a
+murmur. Days and weeks passed by, and the change wore grievously upon
+his spirits.
+
+At length, he chose his course, and pursued it--after this manner.
+
+He entered with apparent gayety into his wife's amusements, and
+introduced her, through the interposition of a friend, into one of the
+most famous gambling salons of Paris. As usual, she took her seat at the
+table where the stakes were largest. Her antagonist at the play was a
+stout old gentleman who wore a careless manner, but who after the first
+round or two played with remarkable success. When madame's losses had
+amounted to a considerable sum, he proposed "double or quits." Madame
+accepted and--lost.
+
+The gentleman proposed the same game: madame accepted and lost!
+
+The gentleman proposed the same trial a third and fourth time; and
+madame, supposing him to be an eccentric old gentleman, who was willing
+to furnish her with this opportunity of winning again the money,
+accepted each time his proposal, and uniformly--lost.
+
+Still the play went on, until madame's losses had amounted to the
+extraordinary sum of four hundred thousand francs, when the old
+gentleman pleaded an engagement, and retired.
+
+Madame X----, in an agony of trepidation gained her home, and throwing
+herself at her husband's feet, confessed and regretted the folly which
+had ruined them.
+
+The husband was naturally astounded: "But," said he, controlling his
+emotion, "the losses must be met. There will remain some seventy
+thousand francs of my estate, and with that we can live comfortably in
+the country. For myself, I do not at all regret this: but, my dear (for
+his old affection lingered), I fear that you may sink under the
+privations you must encounter."
+
+His goodness overcame her; she avowed not only her willingness but her
+great joy in becoming the companion of his exile.
+
+It was in an old town of Brittany (we believe, for the paper is not at
+hand) that they lived quietly and cosily together, in a mossy old
+chateau. Their table was frugally served, and their servants were of the
+neighboring peasantry: in place of the old joyous rides in the Bois de
+Boulogne, they now took strolls together under the wood that shaded the
+chateau. Thus, for ten years they lived, growing into each other's
+affections, and rejoicing in the loss which had won them to a real
+enjoyment of life, and of each other's love.
+
+"It was indeed a happy loss," said she.
+
+"It was none at all," said the husband, and with a caress he handed her
+the certificates for some five hundred thousand francs, in the most
+available of French funds!
+
+"Your antagonist," said he, "was a sure winner, but his services were
+purchased by your husband, and now that he has won you to his love, and
+to a sense of your own dignity, he makes over to you this recovered
+fortune."
+
+And the French chronicler goes on to paint a pretty scene as a hint for
+those dramatists who choose to put the affair on the stage. And he
+further says that the story is well authenticated, as he might prove by
+giving the parties' names; but upon consideration, he favors us only
+with an X.
+
+If the story is a lie, all we can say is, that Eugene Guinot must take
+the blame of it: and judging from his experience, we think the blame
+will sit lightly on him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have wandered so far from the town, that we had half forgotten that
+there was any town at all. But, after all, there lies but a step
+nowadays between Paris and New York--a step over sea, and a step over a
+very narrow bridge of morals. True, we have not yet imported the salon
+gambling, except in a quiet club-way, where surely vagrant bachelors, it
+would seem, have as good right to stultify themselves, as they have in
+most other situations in life. It is to be doubted, however, if gaming
+does not presently come into the round of amusements. Old methods do not
+last long in our growing society: and as evidence, we may note the
+abandonment, the present year, of the fancy balls, which, for four or
+five seasons back, have made the very Elysium of a summer's festivities.
+
+What matter has been made of it under the new dispensation of
+undisguised ball costume, the papers have not much informed us: indeed
+it is richly observable, that when the fashions of the day withdraw from
+_outré_ action, and shed those enormities of feature which excite the
+stare of the vulgar--just so soon the public press respects their
+modesty, and gives them the award of silence. As a consequence (for the
+_sequitur_ may not appear, in the illogical order of our after-dinner
+arrangement) little has been said this year of the "dress balls" of
+Saratoga and Newport: and the catalogues of watering-place Deities have
+been transferred from the flash-papers, to the roll-books of the
+marriageable men. A few sharp days of early September (not far from the
+date of our writing) will have driven our city people away from those
+shores, where the eastern fogs come sailing in laden with agues, and
+dropped them down here and there, along those sheltered hill-sides of
+inland repute, which bask in a summer morning, and which, by and by,
+will smoke with the kindling glory of an Indian summer.
+
+As yet few have found their way to the town itself: and those few find
+the streets full of bustle, of strangers, of dust, and of Cuba. It
+strikes a man oddly, who has been taking his siesta the summer through,
+under the shadow of country-grown trees, and in the hearing of birds,
+until he has grown into a sort of assimilation with country habit and
+country talk, to rebound upon a sudden, from the hard, frosted
+hill-sides into the very centre of this great furnace of business--and
+to find it all sweltering and panting with its labor, just as it did six
+months gone by, and just as it will do in six months to come! Your
+country idler, with the conceit of the city on him, somehow conceives
+the idea, that without him there will be less noise, and less commotion:
+and yet he may go and come, and take his thousands, and bring his
+thousands, and shout at his loudest, and the great city, quite careless
+of it all, still sends up from her pebbled veins, and her sweeping
+quays, the same unceasing roar.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have forewarned our reader, or should have done it, that we shall
+shift our topic in these our after-dinner musings, as easy as the
+turning of a leaf. Our eyes have just now fallen upon a passage in Mr.
+Greeley's last letter from Europe, in which he speaks of the appearance
+of the English women, and commends, with a little more than his usual
+ardor of expression, their perfection of figure. He attributes this, and
+very justly, to the English lady's habit of out-of-door exercise. We had
+thought that this fact was known: that it was known years ago, and that
+our fair country-women would catch a hint from it, that would throw
+color into their cheeks and fullness into their forms. And yet, sadly
+enough, our ladies still coop themselves in their heated rooms, until
+their faces are like lilies, and their figures--like lily stems!
+
+We have alluded to the matter now, not for the sake of pointing a satire
+surely, but for the sake of asking those one or two hundred thousand
+ladies, who every month light our pages with their looks, if they do
+indeed prize a little unnatural pearliness of hue, and delicacy of
+complexion, beyond that ruddy flush of health (the very tempter of a
+kiss!) and that full development of figure, which all the poets, from
+Homer down, have made one of the chiefest beauties of a woman?
+
+If not, let them make of themselves horsewomen: or, bating that, let
+them make acquaintance with the sunrise: let them pick flowers with the
+dew upon them: let them study music of nature's own orchestra. Vulgarity
+is not essential to health: and a lithe, elastic figure does not grow in
+hot-houses.
+
+For ourselves, we incline heartily to the belief, that if American women
+have a wish to add to the respect, the admiration, the love, and (if
+need be) the fear of the men, they will find an easier road toward that
+gain, in a little vigorous out-of-door exercise and a uniform attention
+to the great essentials of health, than in any new-fangled costumes, or
+loudly applauded "Rights."
+
+We have grown unconsciously heated with the topic, and this added to the
+90° by Fahrenheit, which is steaming at our elbow, must cut short the
+first installment of gossip from our red-backed easy-chair.
+
+New York, _September, 1851_.
+
+
+
+
+Literary Notices.
+
+
+The Oration before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, on
+_The American Mind_, by Rev. William B. Sprague, is superior to the
+average run of anniversary discourses. Chaste, vigorous, and eloquent in
+expression, eminently genial and catholic in spirit, pervaded equally
+with a genuine love of learning, and a glowing patriotism, it abounds in
+wise and generous counsels, adapted to the present times, and displays
+frequent touches of pathos and wit. The tribute to the memory of
+Buckminster, at the close of the oration, is an admirable specimen of
+classical eulogy.
+
+_The Farmer's Every-Day Book_, by Rev. John L. Blake (published by
+Derby, Miller, and Co., Auburn), is a unique collection of varieties by
+a veteran manufacturer of books, whose educational works have had an
+extensive influence on the youth of our country, and whose ripened
+experience is devoted to productions of practical utility for the adult
+mind. A mass of information is accumulated in this volume, which must be
+welcome to the cultivator of the soil, in his choice intervals of
+leisure, on a winter's evening or a rainy day. It is arranged under
+appropriate heads, expressed in lucid and attractive language, and
+combined with excellent moral suggestions. The author has derived his
+materials from every available source. He has shown a sound judgment in
+their selection. Nothing is admitted which has not a real claim on the
+attention of the reader, while there are few topics of interest to the
+farmer which are not discussed with more or less detail. The articles
+from Mr. Blake's own pen are distinguished for their liveliness and good
+sense. His book is equally adapted to the modest farm-houses of New
+England, and the log-cabins of the Western Prairie.
+
+Harper and Brothers have published a sumptuous edition of _The Nile
+Boat; or, Glimpses of the Land of Egypt_, by W. H. Bartlett--another
+agreeable volume on the manners and customs of the Orientals, with
+numerous sketches of their scenery. Mr. Bartlett's course was similar to
+that of which we have such a charming memorial in the "Nile Notes," by a
+Howadji; and it is interesting to compare the descriptions of two
+travelers, who look at the same objects from such entirely different
+points of view. Mr. Bartlett's first point is Alexandria, from which he
+departs for Cairo, whence he passes up the Nile, visits Thebes, Esneh,
+and Edfou, ascends the cataracts, and explores the weird ruins of
+Philae. The style of this volume is quiet and unpretending. It is
+illustrated with a profusion of engravings, from drawings made on the
+spot by the author, many of them with the camera lucida. They exhibit
+the principal monuments of the Pharonic period, as at Thebes, the later
+Ptolemaic style, as at Edfou and Philae, with some of the most beautiful
+specimens of the Arabian, at Cairo, besides many others of an
+interesting and instructive character. The volume is an admirable
+specimen of typography, and deserves a place in every library.
+
+Of the swarm of _Annuals_ for 1852, we have received _The Iris_, edited
+by John S. Hart, LL.D., and _The Dew-Drop_, a smaller volume, both
+published by Lippincott, Grambo, and Co. _The Iris_ is issued, with its
+usual splendor of embellishment and typography, with one especial
+feature for the present year, which can not fail to enhance its interest
+and value. This is a collection of drawings of some of the most
+remarkable objects connected with the Indian traditions on this
+continent, made by Capt. Eastman, of the United State's Topographical
+Corps, who was stationed for nine years on our northwestern frontier,
+among the Indian tribes in the vicinity of Fort Snelling. The traditions
+themselves have been wrought up into poems and tales by the wife of
+Capt. Eastman, depicting the vicissitudes of Indian life, and the
+passions of Indian character. A great part of the letter-press of the
+volume consists of these sketches, which, for the most part, are
+executed with a firm and graceful hand. Besides these there are several
+pieces which are gems of literary excellence. "The Cenotaph," by E. W.
+Ellsworth, in memory of Capt. Nathan Hale, who died nobly in the service
+of the Revolution, is a quaint ballad, displaying a strange union of
+pathos and Yankee humor. Edith May, Mrs. Mary E. Hewitt, and Alice Carey
+each contribute characteristic poetical pieces.
+
+_The Dew-Drop_ is exquisitely embellished, and contains selections from
+the writings of several of the best American authors. Among them we find
+the names of Longfellow, Boker, Tuckerman, Stoddard, Edith May, Miss
+Lynch, Miss Sedgwick, Mrs. Child, and other popular celebrities.
+
+_Uncle Frank's Willow-Lane Stories_ is a budget of pleasant narratives
+for children, from the pen of Francis C. Woodworth, whose contributions
+to juvenile literature are always distinguished for their cordial and
+lifesome sympathy with the young heart. These stories are taken from
+country life, and are full of juvenile adventure and incident. The
+volume is illustrated with neat wood-cuts. (Published by Charles
+Scribner).
+
+_Drayton_ (published by Harper and Brothers), is a new American novel,
+presenting several fine examples of character-painting, with a plot of
+more than common interest. The hero, who passes from the shoemaker's
+bench to a high place in the legal profession, is not a bad specimen of
+American go-ahead-itiveness, softened down by numerous redeeming traits.
+We think the anonymous author has displayed a degree of ability in this
+volume which promises a future career of decided brilliancy.
+
+_The Epoch of Creation_, by Eleazar Lord (published by Charles
+Scribner). An elaborate volume, devoted to the defense of Divine
+Revelation against the encroachments of modern science, with especial
+reference to the alleged results of geological research. The leading
+idea of the work is expressed in the following paragraph of the
+Introduction, of which, though by another hand, the whole treatise is an
+expansion and illustration. "The work of creation was necessarily a
+supernatural work; and hence all reasoning from the general laws of
+nature, which in their operation were subsequent to the work of
+creation, is as irrelevant in explanation of the Mosaic account, as the
+argument drawn from universal experience in disparagement of the
+miracles recorded in Holy Writ." Mr. Lord, accordingly, in explaining
+the teachings of Scripture on the work of creation, defends the literal
+sense of the Mosaic history. He maintains that the six days of the
+creation are to be understood in their most obvious acceptation, and
+that the attempt to reconcile them with the theory of a more ancient
+date of the material universe, is absurd in point of philosophy, and
+fatal to the interests of revealed truth. In the course of his argument,
+the author takes occasion to present several searching criticisms of
+Hitchcock, Miller, Pye Smith, and other eminent geologists, who have
+regarded the question in a different point of view. His work will be
+read with interest, at the present day, when so much attention has been
+drawn to the religious and scientific issues in controversy. Mr. Lord
+presents an earnest and able defense of the theological view, in
+opposition to what may be considered as the prevailing opinion of the
+scientific world. He writes with clearness and force. He is master of
+considerable logical skill. Without the vivacity of style, or the
+brilliancy of rhetoric which distinguishes the productions of many of
+his opponents, he aims mainly at the lucid expression of the arguments
+in the case, which he sustains with shrewdness and ability. No one can
+mistake his evident zeal for the interests of revelation; or accuse him
+of the slightest taste for scientific novelties.
+
+_The Theory of Human Progression_ (published by B. B. Mussey and Co.,
+Boston). The purpose of this book, which we should suppose was written
+by a Scotch Presbyterian, is to show the natural probability of a reign
+of justice on the earth. It is written in a hard, dry, ultra-logical
+style, tinctured with the spirit of Scotch and German metaphysics, and
+deducing the most stringent conclusions in regard to social justice from
+the language of the Bible. The author is an original thinker. He has
+little respect to custom or precedent. With great acuteness and
+discrimination, he points out the unavoidable inferences from the
+premises, which he assumes, and which, in most cases, he derives from
+the doctrines of Scripture. We rarely find such radical views of
+society, combined with such orthodox principles of theology. If the
+volume had been written with greater simplicity and liveliness of style,
+its effect would have been immeasurably enhanced.
+
+_Forest Life and Forest Trees_, by John S. Springer (published by Harper
+and Brothers). This is a genuine American work, redolent of the pine
+forests of Maine, and filled with fresh and glowing descriptions of the
+life of a New-England backwoodsman. The writer was reared in the midst
+of the scenes which he portrays with such distinct outlines and such
+natural coloring, and has spent several of what he regards as the most
+pleasant years of his life in the toils and adventures of a "down east"
+lumberman. Hence he moves among the "strange, eventful" incidents of his
+story, like one who is perfectly at home, jotting down his exciting
+narrations without the slightest effort or pretension, and introducing
+his readers by the simplest transitions to the very heart of the remote
+wilderness. His work is divided into three parts, namely, The Trees of
+America, The Pine Tree, or Forest Life, and River Life. The first part
+is a valuable compilation selected from the most authentic materials on
+the dendrology of New-England, accompanied with judicious original
+comments. In the remaining portions of the book, we have a variety of
+reminiscences of a residence among the wild mountains, forests, lakes,
+and rivers of Maine, adventures of lumbermen in the pursuit of their
+perilous calling, fresh pictures of the sublime scenery with which they
+are surrounded, and a fund of amusing anecdotes. Several instructive
+details are given in regard to the lumber trade. The volume is
+illustrated with numerous wood engravings, which will give a distinct
+idea of many of the localities and scenes described by the author.
+Although making no claims to literary excellence, in the technical sense
+of the term, we are sure this book will become a universal favorite with
+the "reading millions" of America, from Canada to California.
+
+_Service Afloat and Ashore, during the Mexican War_, by Lieut. Raphael
+Semmes (published by Wm. H. Moore and Co., Cincinnati), has already
+asserted a successful claim on the public favor, a large edition having
+been exhausted, and a second being on the eve of appearance. It is a
+work of standard merit, and does honor to the growing literature of the
+West. More substantial in its character than one would anticipate from
+its finical, book-making title, it presents a well-digested summary of
+the political history of Mexico, of her relations with the United
+States, and the various complications that led to the war of 1846. The
+author was personally engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, of which
+terrible operation he gives a vivid description, drawn up both with
+military precision, and with appropriate poetical coloring. He afterward
+joined the army of Gen. Scott at Jalapa, was present at the battle of
+Churubusco as aid to Gen. Worth, and accompanied the victorious troops
+to the Mexican Capital. With an excellent opportunity for observation,
+and no small experience of military affairs, he has subjected the
+movements of the American army to a critical scrutiny, and presents his
+conclusions with soldier-like frankness and decision, though evidently
+aiming at impartiality. His remarks on the course of Gen. Scott are
+often severe, though he pays a warm tribute to the many admirable
+qualities of that eminent commander; but his deepest enthusiasm is
+called forth by the chivalrous and romantic character of Gen. Worth.
+Whatever opinion may be formed of the correctness of his comments on
+delicate military questions, it must be admitted that they are put forth
+in fairness and good faith, and if not to be regarded as conclusive,
+they afford a valuable aid in deciding the judgment of the impartial
+reader. The style of Lieut. Semmes is usually chaste and vigorous. In
+the mere narrative of historical events it sometimes flags, calling for
+the application of the whip and spur; but in the description of scenes
+of stirring interest, of battles, and marches, and shipwrecks, it
+kindles up with the occasion, and becomes glowing and vehement, often
+presenting passages of wild and startling beauty. We congratulate the
+noble-spirited author on the signal success of his work, and hope that
+we shall again hear of his name in the field of literature, as well as
+in the service of his country.
+
+_The Lady and the Priest_, is the title of a striking English novel,
+reprinted by Harper and Brothers, founded on the romantic history of the
+Fair Rosamond, Henry the Second, and Queen Eleanor. The wily priest,
+Thomas a Becket plays an important part in the plot, presenting an
+expressive contrast by his ambition and cunning to the innocent,
+confiding, and deeply injured Rosamond. As a specimen of the English
+historical novel, this work will compare favorably with the best recent
+productions of the London press. The development of the story is
+skillfully managed, and grows more and more interesting with each step
+of its progress.
+
+_Vagamundo; or, The Attaché in Spain_, by John Esaias Warren. (Published
+by Charles Scribner.) The title of this work is descriptive of its
+character. It is a good-humored record of a touch-and-go,
+genteel-vagabondish residence of several months in "old romantic Spain,"
+where the position of the author gave him access to much "good society,"
+and his tastes led him into a variety of odd, rollicking adventures,
+which he relates with an easy audacity that becomes quite fascinating
+before you arrive at the close of the volume. The strength of the author
+lies in his cordial, careless, jovial freedom. He shows such a
+quintessence of frankness, such a gay, contagious good-fellowship, as to
+disarm our habitual sternness as critics. His book contains little
+wisdom, and less wit, but for a dashing, effervescing, sparkling
+effusion of anecdote and adventure, commend us to its hilarious pages.
+There are trifles here and there, indeed, at which the over-fastidious
+may take offense, as in duty bound; but readers who are not frightened
+with a little exuberance of youthful frolic will find it a tempting
+volume.
+
+A neat reprint of Hugh Miller's _Scenes and Legends of the North of
+Scotland_, has been issued by Wm. H. Moore and Co., Cincinnati. It
+consists of a collection of interesting Scotch traditions, historical
+episodes, and personal anecdotes, presented in the garrulous,
+descriptive style, which has made the author popular among numerous
+classes of readers. Miller is a staunch, thorough-going Scotchman; in
+his opinion, there is no country like Scotland (and we too love
+Scotland); and no man in Scotland like himself (to which we demur); and
+this perennial self-complacency diffuses a kindly warmth over his
+writings, even when we find little to attract us in the dryness of his
+subjects.
+
+A. Hart, Philadelphia, has published an edition of Miss Benger's
+_Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots_, which portrays the history of the
+ill-fated queen in true and vivid colors. The work contains a variety of
+interesting anecdotes of the court of Henry II.
+
+Ticknor, Reed, and Fields have published an additional volume of William
+Motherwell's _Poems_, from the Glasgow edition. They include songs,
+fragments of verse, and other pieces not contained in the former
+volumes. They are distinguished for the characteristic simplicity,
+unction, and pathos of their gifted author.
+
+A new edition of the _Memoirs of the Buckminsters_, father and son, by
+Eliza Buckminster Lee, is issued by the same house--a volume of rare
+interest and beauty. Its pictures of rural life in New England are drawn
+with exquisite grace, as well as perfect fidelity, forming an
+appropriate embellishment to the affecting history of the subjects of
+the memoir.
+
+_Plymouth and the Pilgrims_, by Joseph Banvard (published by Gould and
+Lincoln, Boston), is a popular compend of the events in the colonial
+history of Plymouth, illustrated with numerous engravings. It is
+intended to form the first of a series, devoted to the history of the
+United States, and consisting of at least twelve volumes. The narrative
+in this volume is derived from authentic sources, but exhibits no
+remarkable skill in its construction.
+
+A new treatise on the _Elements of Geology_, by Samuel St. John, has
+been issued by George P. Putnam, adapted to the use of students in the
+higher seminaries of learning. It has evidently been prepared with great
+care and excellent judgment. Omitting the controverted and more abstruse
+points of theoretical geology, it aims at presenting a clear statement
+of the facts, which may be regarded as established in the present state
+of the science, and this is accomplished, we think, with the best
+success.
+
+_Sketches of European Capitals_, by William Ware. (Published by
+Phillips, Sampson, and Co., Boston). Rome, Florence, Naples, and London,
+are the capitals to which this admirable volume is devoted. Although
+passing over beaten ground, Mr. Ware has treated his subjects with
+freshness and originality. He copies no one; consults his own excellent
+taste in preference to any authorities; gives his impressions as they
+are made from his own point of view; and describes them with equal
+simplicity and boldness. His language is usually felicitous and choice.
+He is a keen dissecter of character, and has presented us with some
+highly-finished specimens of his skill in this kind. His remarks on the
+present condition of Italian society are discriminating and forcible.
+Coming from a genuine lover of freedom, they are entitled to great
+weight. The obstacles to the establishment of Italian independence,
+arising from internal jealousies, and the want of national unity are
+exhibited in a strong light. Mr. Ware was not favorably affected by the
+manifestations of English character, which he witnessed on English soil.
+On this point he expresses himself without the least reserve, in a vein
+of acute and biting criticism. Various other topics are handled in this
+volume, and all of them with freedom and manliness. Differing from the
+author in many of his artistic judgments, we like the prevailing tone of
+his work--its honesty, its unaffectedness, its vigor, its humane
+spirit--to say nothing of its language, which, as we have already
+hinted, is a model of classical and elegant English.
+
+Harper and Brothers have republished the first volume of Lamartine's
+_History of the Restoration_, from which we have given several extracts
+among our selections. It is decidedly the most important work of its
+prolific author since the "History of the Girondists." Bold in
+conception, abounding in lofty speculations, colored with a rich glow of
+moral emotion, it displays in the highest degree of perfection, the
+singular power of brilliant word-painting, and the felicitous artifices
+of rhetoric of which Lamartine is such a consummate master.
+
+_Rule and Misrule of the English in America_, by the author of "Sam
+Slick the Clock Maker" (published by Harper and Brothers). In the
+present work, Judge Haliburton leaves the field of humor and satire for
+grave political discussion. It is written in the interests of
+monarchical government, taking the United States as a warning against
+the evils of democracy. With this view, the writer traces the
+introduction of the popular principle into this continent, the means of
+its early establishment, and the provisions for its support and
+continuance. He endeavors to show that the success of republicanism in
+the United States has been owing no less to a wonderful combination of
+accidental causes, than to the ability, energy, and practical skill of
+the American people. Hence he argues that this form of government is not
+applicable to England or France, and still less to other European
+countries. Some of his speculations have the merit of ingenuity; they
+will awaken interest, as showing the effect of our institutions on an
+outside observer; but they can not be regarded as models of political
+acuteness or sagacity.
+
+Phillips, Sampson, and Co. have published the first number of a new
+_Life of Napoleon_, by Ben. Perley Poore, in which the author
+controverts the opinions of Scott and other tory writers on the subject.
+It shows a good deal of research, and is written in an animated style.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tuckerman's _Characteristics of Literature_ is briefly noticed in the
+_London Athenæum_, as a "series of suggestive papers," whose "criticisms
+are for the most part sound and moderate, but exhibiting no great extent
+of reading, nor any profound and subtle appreciation of literary beauty.
+Sometimes they remind us of Channing--of whose style Mr. Tuckerman is
+evidently an admirer; but they lack his clearness of thought and
+brilliancy of color, his intensity of conviction, and continual
+reference to fixed canons and principles." The _Athenæum_ is
+systematically cold to American writers; nor does it do justice to Mr.
+Tuckerman in its criticism; yet it is right in tracing the influence of
+Channing both in his style and turn of thought. No one who was
+conversant with that "old man eloquent" in the latter years of his life
+could escape all tincture of the love of moral beauty which was the
+master principle of his nature. His contagious influence is seen in the
+harmonic proportions, the clearness of expression, the equilibrium of
+thought, and, we may add, the sensitive timidity of opinion which mark
+the writings of his unconscious disciple almost as decidedly as they did
+his own.--Dr. Ungewitter's _Europe, Past, and Present_, is spoken of in
+the same journal in terms of lukewarm approval.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Copyright Question, so far as the English courts of law is
+concerned, stands thus.--The Court of Exchequer is at variance with the
+Court of Queen's Bench:--and the case on which the next decision will be
+made, is that of Murray _v._ Bohn with respect to the copyright of
+certain works of Washington Irving. Mr. Routledge, against whom Mr.
+Murray had brought the law to bear, has surrendered, and admitted that
+he has injured the plaintiff to the extent of two thousand pounds. Mr.
+Bohn, however, stands out; and the point which he has now to prove in an
+English court of law is, priority of publication of Mr. Irving's works
+in America. Plaintiff and defendant have each, we are informed, sent a
+special commissioner over to America on the subject.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The death of Mr. Gibbon, one of the most munificent patrons of modern
+British art, is announced. In the _genre_ school he has the credit of
+having called into existence some of the best efforts of many young
+artists of celebrity, by whom his liberality and protection will be
+gratefully remembered. To that and landscape pictures he principally
+confined himself as a collector, having little sympathy, so far as
+collection is a test, with the historical school of painting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At Clifton, on Friday the 1st of August, died the patriarch of English
+authoresses--we might add of English authors--Miss Harriet Lee, at the
+age of ninety-five. To most of the generation now busied with fiction,
+drama, and poetry, this announcement will be a surprise: so long
+protracted was Miss Lee's life, and so many years have elapsed since her
+last appearance in the world of imaginative creation took place. To
+readers of our time, Miss Lee is best known as having in her "German's
+Tale" of the "Canterbury Tales" (a miscellany of little romances by
+herself and her sister), furnished Lord Byron with the plot of his play
+of "Werner." More old-fashioned novel readers, who are given to weary at
+the philanthropy, philosophy, and preaching which threaten to turn our
+thousand and one tales into something more like "Evening Services" than
+"Arabian Nights," will find in her vigor and clearness of invention a
+merit which of itself deserves to keep the name of the novelist alive.
+Miss Lee's further title to mortuary honors is a play, or plays, acted
+with small success--and which has, or have, gone the way of Hannah
+More's triumphant "Percy," and Madame d'Arblay's withdrawn tragedy.
+Harriet Lee survived her sister Sophia twenty-seven years: Sophia having
+died at Clifton, in 1824.----In London on the 4th died Lady Louisa
+Stuart--aged nearly ninety-four--the youngest daughter of the Minister,
+Earl of Bute, and the grand-daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Montague--the
+lady to whom we owe the charming "Introductory Anecdotes," prefixed to
+the late Lord Wharncliffe's edition of Lady Mary's Works. Lady Louisa
+remembered to have seen her grandmother, Lady Mary--when at old
+Wortley's death that celebrated woman returned to London after her long
+and still unexplained exile from England. Lady Louisa herself was a
+charming letter-writer; and her correspondence with Sir Walter Scott
+will, it is said, fully sustain the Wortley reputation for wit, and
+beauty of style, while it will exhibit a poet in a very different
+character from that in which another poet figures in his celebrated
+correspondence with her grandmother, Lady Mary. Some of Scott's letters
+to Lady Louisa are included in Mr. Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A pert English traveler, of a class which has shared too largely in the
+hospitalities of facile Americans, gives an amusing caricature of a New
+York Literary Soiree, to which he had by some chance gained
+admittance:--"I went to stay at a Mr. S.'s country house, about six
+miles out town, and was there introduced to his father, who has one of
+the best collections of pictures in New York. They were kind enough to
+take me to a literary réunion given by one Miss ----, an American
+authoress of some note, who always opens her house on that evening, and
+to point out to me many of the notabilities in the New York world of
+letters. Many of them were real 'lions,' and not a few only wore the
+skin. The latter classes made themselves undesignedly very amusing, and
+were mostly little men, who had published and circulated a novel or two
+largely among their friends, which in their own opinions entitled them
+to turn down their shirt collars, allow their hair and beards to grow at
+random, and to assume the appearance of men in whom mind had become so
+predominant over body, as to render the latter quite a minor
+consideration. They did not open their lips all the evening, but were to
+be seen in pensive attitudes with their arms leaning on chimney pieces,
+and looking pleasantly at vacancy, or seated on solitary ottomans,
+contemplating the company with a sort of cynical stare. They wished, in
+fact, to be considered as living in an atmosphere of dreams, and nobody
+offered to disturb them. Mr. N. P. Willis, to whom I was introduced,
+afforded a very pleasant contrast to these little lions, and laughed and
+talked on many subjects like an ordinary being. Miss ----, too, has
+nothing of the pedant, and very little of the professed 'blue' about
+her, and wound up the amusements of the evening by gracefully leading
+off in a polka. During the evening a 'hush' was circulated all round the
+room, and on inquiry I found that a Herr something, very like
+Puddlewitz, 'was going to play his thoughts,' and forthwith a foreign
+gentleman with as much hair as one face could conveniently carry, sat
+down at the piano. From the nature of the music, I should say that
+Puddlewitz's thoughts were of a remarkably mild and sentimental nature,
+and not at all in keeping with his ferocious aspect. After the polka the
+little lions began to rouse themselves and dispel the mental web which
+their thoughts had been working round them for the last two or three
+hours, and we all gradually dispersed."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A curious instance of LITERARY STRATEGY is presented in the London
+edition of _Vagamundo, or The Attaché in Spain_, the sprightly work of
+our countryman, Mr. Warren, which we have noticed above. It seems that
+he had made an arrangement with a London publisher to bring out an
+edition at the same time with its appearance in this country. Every
+thing from the manuscript that could betray its American origin is
+eliminated, and it is thus issued apparently as a native born English
+production, "dyed in the wool." A start is obtained on the American
+publisher, and the work is put into the market two or three months
+before its publication in New York. Our first impressions of it as a
+lively gossiping book were received from the English copy some time
+since, which surprised us as a remarkable specimen of the free and easy
+style, for English growth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of Andrews' Latin Lexicon, the _London Athenæum_ speaks as follows: "It
+can not now be said that there is any lack of good Latin and Greek
+Lexicons among us. Whatever our classical deficiencies may be, they must
+not hereafter be attributed to the want of such a _sine qua non_. Within
+the last twenty--even ten--years most valuable additions have been made
+to our lexicographical stores. Entick, Ainsworth, Schrevelius, and a
+host of other worthies who long reigned over us, have at length been
+banished to make room for their betters. Even Donnegan--after a brief
+but successful career--has met with an inglorious fall.
+
+"Besides our own dictionaries, we have those of our transatlantic
+brethren. Some few years ago they sent us over a large Latin Dictionary
+by Leverett; and now another of still higher pretensions (Freund's
+Latin-English Lexicon--edited by Dr. Andrews) has found its way here....
+Whatever time, attention, and care can do toward making the work
+complete and correct, seems to have been done, and we all know how much
+the excellence of a dictionary depends upon these points,--especially
+when they are accompanied by competent scholarship, as we have every
+reason to believe they are in the present case. The result is, what
+might be expected, a rich repository of philological information,
+clearly expressed and well arranged....
+
+"In conclusion, we are glad to have an opportunity of introducing so
+excellent a work to the notice of our classical and philological
+readers. It has all that true German _Grundlichkeit_ about it which is
+so highly appreciated by English scholars. Rarely, if ever, has so vast
+an amount of philological information been comprised in a single volume
+of the size. The knowledge it conveys of the early and later Latin is
+not to be gathered from ordinary Latin Dictionaries. With regard to the
+manner in which it is got up, we can speak most favorably. Never have we
+seen a better specimen of American typography. Every page bears the
+impress of industry and care. The type is clear, neat, and judiciously
+varied. A pretty close inspection has not enabled us to discover any
+errors worth mentioning."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A contributor to the _London Times_ has collected a mass of curious
+statistics in regard to the rise and progress of RAIL-ROAD LITERATURE in
+England. His essay in that journal has recently been issued in a
+separate pamphlet. Among other interesting statements, we find the
+following facts, which are singularly illustrative of English habits:
+
+"The gradual rise of the Railway book-trade is a singular feature of our
+marvellous Railway era. In the first instance, when the scope and
+capabilities of the Rail had yet to be ascertained, the privilege of
+selling books, newspapers, &c., at the several stations, was freely
+granted to any who might think proper to claim it. Vendors came and went
+when and how they chose, their trade was of the humblest, and their
+profits were as varying as their punctuality. When it became evident
+that the vendors of books and papers were deriving large sums of money
+from their business, the directors of the several companies resolved to
+make a charge for permission to carry it on; and tenders were duly
+advertised for, regard being had to the amount offered, and by no means
+to the mode in which it was proposed to prosecute the work. In some
+cases £200, and in others as much as £600 per annum have been deemed a
+fair rental for the book-stall at a London terminus. At one of the most
+important stations in the metropolis, a bookseller, who at one time
+professed himself unable to contribute £60 by way of rent to a benefit
+society established for the servants of the company, offered two years
+afterward £600 when the privilege was put up to public auction. The
+extent to which literary trash has been sold at these railway
+book-shops, may be conceived, when it is stated that a large profit has
+still remained for the bookseller after paying the very large
+rent-charge to the company.
+
+"A movement has, however, been made on the North-Western Railway to put
+an end to this unwholesome condition of things. The stalls have been
+taken by a spirited bookseller and news-agent, determined to supply none
+but works of sterling literature; and the leading publishers have
+responded to this movement by the reproduction of some of their most
+valuable copyrights in shilling and half-crown volumes. The little
+reprint of Lord Mahon's 'Narrative of the Insurrection of 1845,' appears
+to have been the first step to improvement. It caught our eye, as it had
+already fortunately arrested the attention at more than one railway
+station of Mr. Macaulay, the historian. The sight of it suggested to
+that brilliant writer the idea and title of a 'Traveller's Library,' and
+at his instigation--for which we here tender him our thanks--Messrs.
+Longman commenced the cheap and popular series known by this name, and
+adorned by Mr. Macaulay's own charming productions.
+
+"As we progressed north, a wholesome change, we rejoice to say, became
+visible in railway book-stalls. We had trudged in vain after the
+schoolmaster elsewhere, but we caught him by the button at
+Euston-square; and it is with the object of inducing him to be less
+partial in his walks that we now venture thus publicly to appeal to him.
+At the North-Western terminus we diligently searched for that which
+required but little looking after in other places, but we poked in vain
+for the trash. If it had ever been there, the broom had been before us
+and swept it clean away. We asked for something 'highly colored.' The
+bookseller politely presented us with Kugler's 'Handbook of Painting.'
+We shook our head and demanded a volume more intimately concerned with
+life and the world. We were offered 'Kosmos.' 'Something less
+universal,' said we, 'benefits the London traveler.' We were answered by
+'Prescott's Mexico,' 'Modern Travel,' and 'Murray's Handbook of France.'
+We could not get rubbish, whatever price we might offer to pay for it.
+There was no 'Eugene Sues' for love or money--no cheap translations of
+any kind--no bribes to ignorance or unholy temptations to folly. 'You'll
+soon be in the _Gazette_' we said commiseratingly to the bookseller. The
+bookseller smiled. 'You never sell those things,' we added mildly.
+'Constantly; we can sell nothing else.' 'What! have you nothing for the
+million?' 'Certainly; here is 'Logic for the Million,' price 6s.; will
+you buy it? 'Thank you, but surely books of a more chatty
+character----.' 'Chatty--oh, yes!' 'Coleridge's Table Talk' is a
+standard dish here, and never wants purchasers.
+
+"Every new work of interest as it appeared was furnished to the stalls,
+from Macaulay's 'England' down to Murray's 'Colonial Library,' and
+purchasers were not slow to come for all. Upon many good books, as well
+of recent as of more remote publication, there has been an actual run.
+'Macaulay' sold rapidly, 'Layard' not less so. 'Stokers and Pokers,' a
+sketch of the London and North-Western Railway, published in Murray's
+'Colonial Library,' sold to the extent of upwards of 2000 copies.
+Borrow's 'Bible' and 'Gypsies in Spain,' are always in demand, and St.
+John's 'Highland Sports' keep pace with them. Graver books have equally
+steady sale. Coleridge's works are popular on the rail. 'Friends in
+Council,' 'Companions of my Solitude,' and similar small books grasping
+great subjects, and written with high philosophical aim, are continually
+purchased. Poetry is no drug at the prosaic terminus if the price of the
+article be moderate. Moore's 'Songs and Ballads,' published at 5_s._
+each; Tennyson's works, and especially 'In Memoriam,' have gone off
+eagerly; the same remark applies to the Lays of Macaulay and to the
+Scotch Ballads of Aytoun.
+
+"The style of books sold depends more upon the salesman than on the
+locality; but there are exceptions to the rule. At Bangor, all books in
+the Welsh language must have a strong Dissenting and Radical savor.
+English books at the same station must be High Church and Conservative.
+School-boys always insist upon having Ainsworth's novels and any thing
+terrible. Children's books are disdained, and left for their sisters.
+'Jack Sheppard' is tabooed at the North-Western, and great is the wrath
+of the boys accordingly. Stations have their idiosyncracies. Yorkshire
+is not partial to poetry. It is very difficult to sell a valuable book
+at any of the stands between Derby, Leeds, and Manchester. Religious
+books hardly find a purchaser in Liverpool, while at Manchester, at the
+other end of the line, they are in high demand."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A writer in one of the London literary journals presents a severe
+criticism of the "Bateman children," who are now performing at St.
+James' Theatre, under the auspices of our widely-known compatriot, Mr.
+Barnum. A part of his strictures is as follows, of which there is much
+more of the same kind:
+
+"Mr. Barnum, the American monster-monger, has opened this theatre with
+an exhibition which it is disagreeable to witness and impossible to
+treat as a matter of art. Two American children, Ellen and Kate Bateman,
+stated to be six and eight years of age, are here produced in the
+respective characters of _Richard the Third_ and _Richmond_ in the fifth
+act of Colley Cibber's tragedy. Ellen, who performs the crooked-backed
+tyrant, carefully made up to look like Edmund Kean, has evidently been
+drilled by some one well acquainted with the style of that great actor,
+and elaborately wrought into a miniature resemblance of him. Not only
+the manner, but the voice has been tutored--tone and emphasis have been
+imparted, as well as gesture and deportment. To us, who recollect every
+phase of the style of the departed tragedian, this exact copy was
+something painful and revolting. Similar pains had been taken with the
+elder girl Kate--who, armed _cap-à-pie_, strutted and fretted as
+Richmond. The delivery of the children has been enormously exaggerated
+in their determination to produce effect. They are strained far beyond
+their natural powers--and the result is, an impression of caricature and
+burlesque."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Dublin literary circles have recently lost the Rev. Dr. Samuel
+O'Sullivan--a political writer of much force and activity, and one of
+the leading contributors to the _Dublin University Magazine_. "His style
+was close and consecutive--and of late years was marked by a vein of
+reflectiveness not often found among Irish writers. He was abler in
+attack than in defense--like most polemic authors. The most valuable of
+his writings are, a series of elaborate biographical essays on modern
+Irish statesmen; which apart from their literary talent have the merit
+of originality of matter. For his papers on Lord Chancellor Clare and
+Mr. Saurin he was furnished with special facts; and his Chaplaincy to
+the Ph[oe]nix Park Military School gave him access to several persons
+high in office, whose acquaintance he preserved. He was an entertaining
+and instructive companion--fertile in curious original anecdote. His pen
+exercised much influence on the Irish Conservative press for several
+years: but with the merits or demerits of political controversialists we
+meddle not. We hear that it was Dr. O'Sullivan's intention to reprint,
+with additional matter, his excellent essays on Flood and Grattan: the
+best pictures left us of these Irish statesmen."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Hakluyt Society have added to their very interesting publications,
+Richard Hakluyt's translation of the account of De Soto's _Discovery and
+Conquest of Florida_, with an additional account curiously corroborative
+of all its substantial details discovered and translated by the editor,
+Mr. Rye, of the British Museum. The expedition was not without valuable
+results of an accidental kind, though in its main objects it failed so
+lamentably; and the narrative now given is extremely vivid and striking.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another volume curiously illustrative of the past, has been published
+with the uninviting title of _Consuetudines Kanciæ._ This is, in other
+words, a history of the Gavelkind, and other remarkable customs of the
+County of Kent. The author is a skilled antiquary, and gives many sound
+reasons for his belief that in not a few of those peculiar customs may
+be directly traced the famous and venerable laws of Edward the
+Confessor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Doctor Latham has added to those researches and speculations as to races
+which have lately been found to explain so much of the peculiarities of
+national habits, customs, and laws, a sketch of the _Ethnology of the
+British Colonies and Dependencies_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Dr. Lingard's valuable library has been bequeathed by the late learned
+historian to St. Cuthbert's College, Ushaw.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The _Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_ has been seized and confiscated by the
+police at Leipzig, for having published, under the head of Great
+Britain, a notice, with translated extracts, of the two letters written
+by Mr. Gladstone to the Earl of Aberdeen on the treatment of the
+Neapolitan state prisoners.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The death of the famous naturalist, Dr. Lorenz Oken, whose theory of the
+Cranial Homologies effected a revolution in philosophical anatomy, and
+led the way to the admirable researches of Owen, has recently been
+announced. The name of Oken is most commonly associated by English
+readers with his "Physio-philosophy," a translation of which work, by
+Mr. Tulk, was published by the Ray Society. It abounds in admirable
+generalizations, unfortunately immersed in much that is false and
+fantastic, and clothed in the cloudiest phraseology of German
+transcendental metaphysics. Oken's researches and speculations (for he
+was as practical as he was dreamy) extended over all departments of
+natural history. Of the value he set upon facts, and the industry with
+which he collected them, a lasting monument exists in the volumes of the
+"Isis," a vast library of abstracts of the science of his time, founded
+and conducted by him as a periodical. Few men have had greater
+influence on European science than Oken. Until forced to quit Germany on
+account of his political opinions, he held a Professorship at Jena.
+Latterly he was Professor of Natural History at the University of
+Zurich, in which city he died about the last of August, at the advanced
+age of seventy-three years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From Halle, we hear of the death, a short time since, of a voluminous
+German writer, John Godfrey Gruber, founder and principal editor of the
+"Universal Encyclopædia of Sciences and Arts"--a work which was at first
+carried on by him conjointly with Herr Ersch. Herr Gruber was also a
+large contributor to the _Litteratur Zeitung_ and the
+_Conversations-Lexicon_. His separate works include: "The Destiny of
+Man," "The Dictionary of Esthetics and Archæology," "Researches into the
+Greek and Roman Mythology," "The Life of Wieland," and "The Dictionary
+of German Synonymes." These are but a few of his many writings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+M. Dupaty, one of the forty French academicians, died a few days ago. He
+was one of the most obscure of that learned corps. His literary
+reputation, such as it was, was based almost exclusively on vaudevilles
+and on the libretti of comic operas. He was held in esteem in the days
+of Napoleon; but then literary distinction was very easily earned. The
+most notable event in the last twenty years of his life was being chosen
+(to his own great astonishment) an academician in preference to Victor
+Hugo, then at the height of his fame.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The 16th, 17th, and 18th volumes of the complete works of Frederick the
+Great have just been published at Berlin. They are entirely occupied
+with his correspondence. There are 4000 letters written by
+him--two-thirds are in French, the other third, chiefly on military
+operations, are in German, and were addressed to his generals. The whole
+letters belong to the state archives. The edition of the great
+Frederick's works, now in course of publication, was undertaken by order
+of the present King of Prussia, and at his expense.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The indefatigable Eugene Sue, notwithstanding his daily labors as one of
+the 750 law-givers of the Republic are, or ought to be, rather heavy,
+has found time to write another romance, of which the publication has
+been recently commenced in one of the daily Paris journals. It is called
+"Fernand Duplesis; or, the Memoirs of a Husband;" and is, it appears, to
+be an exposure of what in France it is the fashion to call the miseries
+and iniquities of married life. Written in great haste, it will (judging
+from the opening chapters) be slovenly in style and negligent in
+language; but, _en revanche_, it will (as it seems) be of great dramatic
+interest, and will throw new light on Parisian society--that strange and
+striking assemblage of intrigue and passion, of vanity and folly, of
+elegance and refinement, of chivalry and corruption, of much that is
+good, and of more that is bad.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Don Hannibal de Gasparis, the Neapolitan astronomer, who has, in the
+course of the last few years, discovered no less than five new planets,
+has, by a royal decree of the 4th, been named Professor of Astronomy at
+the University of Naples.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In Hans Andersen's charming _Memoirs_ we find a graphic sketch of an
+interview with Reboul, the baker poet of Nismes, celebrated in
+"Lamartine's Journey to the East."--I found him at the house, stepped
+into the bakehouse, and addressed myself to a man in shirt sleeves who
+was putting bread into the oven; it was Reboul himself! A noble
+countenance which expressed a manly character greeted me. When I
+mentioned my name, he was courteous enough to say he was acquainted with
+it through the 'Revue de Paris,' and begged me to visit him in the
+afternoon, when he should be able to entertain me better. When I came
+again I found him in a little room which might be called almost elegant,
+adorned with pictures, casts, and books, not alone French literature,
+but translations of the Greek classics. A picture on the wall
+represented his most celebrated poem, 'The Dying Child,' from Marmier's
+_Chansons du Nord_. He knew I had treated the same subject, and I told
+him this was written in my school days. If in the morning I had found
+him the industrious baker, he was now the poet completely; he spoke with
+animation of the literature of his country, and expressed a wish to see
+the North, the scenery and intellectual life of which seemed to interest
+him. With great respect I took leave of a man whom the muses have not
+meanly endowed, and who yet has good sense enough, spite of all the
+homage paid him, to remain steadfast to his honest business, and prefer
+being the most remarkable baker in Nismes to losing himself in Paris,
+after a short triumph, among hundreds of other poets.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Writings of Shakspeare would appear, from the following fact, to be
+read with as much avidity and delight in Sweden as in England and this
+country. A translation of his plays by Hagberg, Professor of Greek in
+the University of Lund, is now in course of publication. Of this, 12
+volumes have appeared; and although the first edition consisted of no
+less than 2000 copies, the whole have been sold off, and a second
+edition is in preparation. Professor Hagberg's translation is most
+favorably spoken of by those who are qualified to judge of its merits.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A new theological work by Jonathan Edwards, printed from his own
+manuscript, is announced as soon to be issued. The fame of our
+illustrious American theologian attaches great interest, in the
+religious world, to this new production from his pen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Poem entitled "The Ship of Death," which floated into our Editor's
+Drawer from an unknown source, was written by Thomas H. Chivers, M.D.,
+author of a volume entitled "Eonchs of Rubies," and other poetical
+works.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Catherine Hayes the celebrated Irish vocalist arrived in this
+country a few days since. Her first concert will be given while the
+sheets of our present Number are passing through the press. She is
+pronounced in her own sphere to be as unequaled as Jenny Lind in hers;
+brilliancy is the peculiar characteristic of the latter, pathos of the
+former. Those who have heard her abroad, predict for her a success not
+inferior to that achieved by her Swedish compeer. The fact of Ireland
+being her native land will of itself insure her a favorable hearing in
+America.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We are reminded that the English work entitled "How to make Home
+Unhealthy," which was ascribed to Harriet Martineau, in a former Number
+of this Magazine, was written by Henry Morley, Esq.
+
+
+
+
+A Leaf from Punch.
+
+[Illustration: "Lor! What a most abominable Glass--I declare it makes
+one look a perfect Fright."]
+
+[Illustration: "There's a Bite! Pull him up, Charley, I've got the
+Landing Net."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MUCH TOO CONSIDERATE.
+
+[Illustration: _Robinson._--"There, Brown, my Boy, that's as fine a
+Glass of Wine as you can get anywhere."
+
+_Mrs. Brown._--"A-hem! Augustus, My De-ar. You are surely never going to
+take Port Wine. You know it never agrees with you, my Love!"]
+
+[Illustration: _Angelina_ (_the Wife of his Bussom_).--"Well, Edwin, if
+you can't make the 'Things,' as you call them, meet, you need not swear
+so. It's really quite dreadful!"]
+
+[Illustration: _Uncle._--"So, you've been to the Crystal Palace--Have
+you, Gus?"
+
+_Gus._--"Yes, Uncle."
+
+_Uncle._--"Well, now, I'll give you Sixpence if you will tell me what
+you admired most in that Temple of Industry?"
+
+_Gus_ (_unhesitatingly._)--"Veal and 'Am Pies, and the Ginger Beer. Give
+us the Sixpence!"]
+
+
+
+
+Fashions for October.
+
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Walking and Riding Dress.]
+
+October, the beautiful month, standing like a mediator between summer
+and winter, is the season for exercise in the open air; especially for
+that healthful recreation, riding on horseback. It is the season, too,
+of the Indian Summer, when the pleasures of carriage riding and
+promenading are greater than at any other time of the year. For the
+ladies it should be an _out-of-door_ month; and for them we herald the
+decrees of fashion, touching their appearance in the open air.
+
+Walking Dress.--The figure on the left represents a very pretty costume
+for promenade. Bonnet, drawn _tulle_ with low crown. The poke is made on
+a skeleton of wire covered with yellow silk, and having four pieces
+across. Under the wires are fastened small bows of gauze ribbon so as to
+form three well-rounded rows. A similar row of bows trims the edge of
+the poke inside, and the ribbons composing it are continued along flat.
+A gathered ribbon is laid all round and fastens with bows. The crown is
+of _tulle_, slightly puffed, and ornamented with five ribbon _ruches_,
+supported by five wires covered with silk, which slope toward each
+other, and meet near the curtain. The curtain is _tulle_, trimmed with a
+plaited ribbon, from which proceed bows astride on the edge. The shawl
+is of silk or other light fabric. On the body there are five cross-bands
+of silk, goffered and cut at the edges. The top one reaches from one
+shoulder-seam to the other and is 2-1/2 inches wide, the other four
+gradually diminish down to the waist, where the last one is but little
+more than an inch. The trimmings goffered in small flutes are fixed
+under a narrow galloon; another galloon is placed a little higher,
+leaving an interval of about half an inch between them. A similar
+trimming runs round the waist and forms the lappets. The skirt has seven
+rows of goffered trimmings gathered like those on the body. The top one
+is an inch and a quarter deep, and all increase gradually down to the
+lowest, which is 3-1/4 inches. The sleeves are open under the arm from
+the elbow downward, and are held together by two goffered cross bands.
+The under-sleeves are lace, and form a large puff, which is fastened in
+a worked wristband.
+
+Riding Dress.--The figure on the right represents a riding dress. Felt
+hat with a terry velvet ribbon as binding for the edges, bows of the
+same, and a frosted feather. Body of white quilting, high and tight. The
+skirts hold to the body without seam at the waist. They are very round
+and full, owing to the cut of the side and the gores. They should come
+well over the hips, but not sit too tight. The middle of the body is
+open and leaves visible a rich lace shirt-frill very deep and full, and
+falling back on itself, owing to its fullness. The lace collar forms a
+ruff with two rows. The top and bottom of the body are hooked inside,
+but seem to be held by three gold double buttons; these twin buttons are
+attached together by a small gold chain. Those at bottom have a longer
+chain than the others. The sleeves are straight with a cuff turned up
+and standing out from the sleeve. Shirt of plain poplin, trimmed in
+front with velvet ribbons nearly half an inch wide, and continued all
+round the bottom.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Carriage Costume.]
+
+Carriage Costume.--Dress of _glacé_ silk; body half high, and open in
+front; waist long and slightly pointed; the body a tight fit and trimmed
+with a rich fancy trimming. The short skirt is very full, rounded at the
+corners _a la robes_, and trimmed to correspond with the corsage. The
+gathers at the waist are confined by narrow rows of _guimpe_. The skirt
+is long and very full, with a row of silk trimming laid on the hem at
+the bottom. Bonnet of _paille de riz;_ brim very open. Feathers are
+placed low at the right side. Lined with fulled _tulle_, ornamented
+with pink satin A shawl of white cachmere, with very deep fringe.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Caps and Undersleeve.]
+
+Caps.--The cap is almost universally worn as a part of morning costume.
+Nos. 1 and 2 represent two of the latest styles, adapted for the cool
+mornings of autumn. Those of a _negligé_ form are generally composed of
+muslin, embroidered _au plumetis_, or cambric, entirely covered with the
+richest kind of English embroidery, which sometimes resembles a splendid
+_guipure_. When the lappets are not formed of the same material, we see
+them of pink taffetas, attached to the cap, with a bunch of _coques_,
+composed of the same colored ribbon very full, and put on so as to
+replace the full bands of hair.
+
+Undersleeves, so elegant with open dress sleeves, are worn by all. The
+style as well as material has many varieties. No. 3 is a very neat
+style, made either of embroidered muslin, or lace.
+
+Pelisses are becoming very fashionable, made of plain Italian silk, and
+trimmed with a fancy ribbon three fingers in width, and bordered on
+either side with two narrow ones, appearing as if woven in the dress. We
+may cite, as a most elegant costume in this style, a redingote of
+pearl-gray, encircled with a ribbon of a pearl-gray ground, over which
+is quadrillé dark-blue velvet, having the narrow rows on either side.
+The front of the pelisse is closed with eight or ten rows of the same
+kind of ribbon, each end being turned back so as to form a point, from
+which depends a small blue and gray mixed tassel. The corsage is formed
+with broad facings, encircled to match the lower part of the sleeves.
+
+Jewelry.--The _châtelaine_ is now replaced, in a measure, by waistcoat
+chains, attached at both ends, the middle forming a festoon. _Brooches_
+are very rich; the finest are cameos set round with brilliants.
+_Ear-rings_ are composed of large stones mounted in plain rings, without
+pendants. _Bracelets_ are of enamel, sparkling stones, and gold. The
+waistcoat button is now a very elegant piece of jewelry.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+   Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   PUNCTUATION
+
+   Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+   The oe ligature in the words manoeuvre, Phoenix, etc., has been
+   replaced with the separate letters in this text version.
+   Superscripted letters are indicated by a caret character, e.g. y^e.
+   Small capital text has sometimes been replaced with all capitals,
+   but not where it occurs in names of individuals, footnotes, or
+   illustrations.
+   Obvious punctuation errors have been repaired.
+   This text contains several examples of inconsistent hyphenation, e.g.
+   two thirds/two-thirds, and word spacing, e.g. mean time/meantime,
+   which have been retained in this version, except for "Good by" which
+   has been normalised to "Good-by".
+
+   Pg 582, question mark replaced with exclamation mark (Honor to
+   Letitia, the mother of Napoleon!)
+   Pg 680, question mark replaced with exclamation mark (Extremely fine!)
+
+   WORDS AND SPELLING
+
+   pg 579: "women" changed to "woman" (the best woman in France)
+   pg 588: "hunddred" changed to "hundred" (a population of but about
+   five hundred thousand)
+   pg 602: "Limana" normalised to "Limeña" (Limeña at home)
+   pg 606: "that" changed to "than" (much less depressed than that)
+   pg 616: "insted" changed to "instead" (twenty guineas, instead of
+   sixty)
+   pg 629: "grostesquely" changed to "grotesquely" (His life was
+   grotesquely checkered)
+   pg 631: "reched" changed to "reached" (he reached that last degrading
+   status in society)
+   pg 647: "guarrantee" changed to "guarantee" (a guarantee for what he
+   would have done)
+   pg 654: "massses" changed to "masses" (rude, unshapen masses)
+   pg 669: "tast" changed to "taste" (the taste of a man)
+   pg 675: "scluded" changed to "secluded" (having carefully secluded
+   her from marriage)
+   pg 695: duplicated word "been" removed (have been busily engaged)
+   pg 696: duplicated word "that" removed (It is intended that they shall)
+   pg 700: "it" changed to "its" (derives its supplies of provisions)
+   pg 715: "controversalists" changed to "controversialists" (merits or
+   demerits of political controversialists)
+   pg 720: "paile" changed to "paille" (paille de riz)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol.
+III, No. XVII, October 1851, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41411 ***