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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4691-h.zip b/4691-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3396c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/4691-h.zip diff --git a/4691-h/4691-h.htm b/4691-h/4691-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e411d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/4691-h/4691-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4897 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Famous Affinities of History Vol 3, by Lyndon Orr +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Famous Affinities of History V3, by Lyndon Orr + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Famous Affinities of History V3 + The Romance of Devotion + +Author: Lyndon Orr + +Posting Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #4691] +Release Date: November, 2003 +First Posted: March 3, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY V3 *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +LYNDON ORR +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +VOLUME III OF IV. +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<H4> + <A HREF="#houston">THE WIVES OF GENERAL HOUSTON</A><BR> + <A HREF="#lola">LOLA MONTEZ AND KING LUDWIG OF BAVARIA</A><BR> + <A HREF="#leon">LEON GAMBETTA AND LEONIE LEON</A><BR> + <A HREF="#blessington">LADY BLESSINGTON AND COUNT D'ORSAY</A><BR> + <A HREF="#byron">BYRON AND THE COUNTESS GUICCIOLI</A><BR> + <A HREF="#stael">THE STORY OF MME. DE STAEL</A><BR> + <A HREF="#marx">THE STORY OF KARL MARX</A><BR> + <A HREF="#lassalle">FERDINAND LASSALLE AND HELENE VON DONNIGES</A><BR> + <A HREF="#rachel">THE STORY OF RACHEL</A><BR> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="houston"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE WIVES OF GENERAL HOUSTON +</H3> + +<P> +Sixty or seventy years ago it was considered a great joke to chalk up +on any man's house-door, or on his trunk at a coaching-station, the +conspicuous letters "G. T. T." The laugh went round, and every one who +saw the inscription chuckled and said: "They've got it on you, old +hoss!" The three letters meant "gone to Texas"; and for any man to go +to Texas in those days meant his moral, mental, and financial +dilapidation. Either he had plunged into bankruptcy and wished to begin +life over again in a new world, or the sheriff had a warrant for his +arrest. +</P> + +<P> +The very task of reaching Texas was a fearful one. Rivers that overran +their banks, fever-stricken lowlands where gaunt faces peered out from +moldering cabins, bottomless swamps where the mud oozed greasily and +where the alligator could be seen slowly moving his repulsive form—all +this stretched on for hundreds of miles to horrify and sicken the +emigrants who came toiling on foot or struggling upon emaciated horses. +Other daring pioneers came by boat, running all manner of risks upon +the swollen rivers. Still others descended from the mountains of +Tennessee and passed through a more open country and with a greater +certainty of self-protection, because they were trained from childhood +to wield the rifle and the long sheath-knife. +</P> + +<P> +It is odd enough to read, in the chronicles of those days, that amid +all this suffering and squalor there was drawn a strict line between +"the quality" and those who had no claim to be patricians. "The +quality" was made up of such emigrants as came from the more civilized +East, or who had slaves, or who dragged with them some rickety vehicle +with carriage-horses—however gaunt the animals might be. All +others—those who had no slaves or horses, and no traditions of the +older states—were classed as "poor whites"; and they accepted their +mediocrity without a murmur. +</P> + +<P> +Because he was born in Lexington, Virginia, and moved thence with his +family to Tennessee, young Sam Houston—a truly eponymous American +hero—was numbered with "the quality" when, after long wandering, he +reached his boyhood home. His further claim to distinction as a boy +came from the fact that he could read and write, and was even familiar +with some of the classics in translation. +</P> + +<P> +When less than eighteen years of age he had reached a height of more +than six feet. He was skilful with the rifle, a remarkable +rough-and-tumble fighter, and as quick with his long knife as any +Indian. This made him a notable figure—the more so as he never abused +his strength and courage. He was never known as anything but "Sam." In +his own sphere he passed for a gentleman and a scholar, thanks to his +Virginian birth and to the fact that he could repeat a great part of +Pope's translation of the "Iliad." +</P> + +<P> +His learning led him to teach school a few months in the year to the +children of the white settlers. Indeed, Houston was so much taken with +the pursuit of scholarship that he made up his mind to learn Greek and +Latin. Naturally, this seemed mere foolishness to his mother, his six +strapping brothers, and his three stalwart sisters, who cared little +for study. So sharp was the difference between Sam and the rest of the +family that he gave up his yearning after the classics and went to the +other extreme by leaving home and plunging into the heart of the forest +beyond sight of any white man or woman or any thought of Hellas and +ancient Rome. +</P> + +<P> +Here in the dimly lighted glades he was most happy. The Indians admired +him for his woodcraft and for the skill with which he chased the wild +game amid the forests. From his copy of the "Iliad" he would read to +them the thoughts of the world's greatest poet. +</P> + +<P> +It is told that nearly forty years after, when Houston had long led a +different life and had made his home in Washington, a deputation of +more than forty untamed Indians from Texas arrived there under the +charge of several army officers. They chanced to meet Sam Houston. +</P> + +<P> +One and all ran to him, clasped him in their brawny arms, hugged him +like bears to their naked breasts, and called him "father." Beneath the +copper skin and thick paint the blood rushed, and their faces changed, +and the lips of many a warrior trembled, although the Indian may not +weep. +</P> + +<P> +In the gigantic form of Houston, on whose ample brow the beneficent +love of a father was struggling with the sternness of the patriarch and +warrior, we saw civilization awing the savage at his feet. We needed no +interpreter to tell us that this impressive supremacy was gained in the +forest. +</P> + +<P> +His family had been at first alarmed by his stay among the Indians; but +when after a time he returned for a new outfit they saw that he was +entirely safe and left him to wander among the red men. Later he came +forth and resumed the pursuits of civilization. He took up his studies; +he learned the rudiments of law and entered upon its active practice. +When barely thirty-six he had won every office that was open to him, +ending with his election to the Governorship of Tennessee in 1827. +</P> + +<P> +Then came a strange episode which changed the whole course of his life. +Until then the love of woman had never stirred his veins. His physical +activities in the forests, his unique intimacy with Indian life, had +kept him away from the social intercourse of towns and cities. In +Nashville Houston came to know for the first time the fascination of +feminine society. As a lawyer, a politician, and the holder of +important offices he could not keep aloof from that gentler and more +winning influence which had hitherto been unknown to him. +</P> + +<P> +In 1828 Governor Houston was obliged to visit different portions of the +state, stopping, as was the custom, to visit at the homes of "the +quality," and to be introduced to wives and daughters as well as to +their sportsman sons. On one of his official journeys he met Miss Eliza +Allen, a daughter of one of the "influential families" of Sumner +County, on the northern border of Tennessee. He found her responsive, +charming, and greatly to be admired. She was a slender type of Southern +beauty, well calculated to gain the affection of a lover, and +especially of one whose associations had been chiefly with the women of +frontier communities. +</P> + +<P> +To meet a girl who had refined tastes and wide reading, and who was at +the same time graceful and full of humor, must have come as a pleasant +experience to Houston. He and Miss Allen saw much of each other, and +few of their friends were surprised when the word went forth that they +were engaged to be married. +</P> + +<P> +The marriage occurred in January, 1829. They were surrounded with +friends of all classes and ranks, for Houston was the associate of +Jackson and was immensely popular in his own state. He seemed to have +before him a brilliant career. He had won a lovely bride to make a home +for him; so that no man seemed to have more attractive prospects. What +was there which at this time interposed in some malignant way to blight +his future? +</P> + +<P> +It was a little more than a month after his marriage when he met a +friend, and, taking him out into a strip of quiet woodland, said to him: +</P> + +<P> +"I have something to tell you, but you must not ask me anything about +it. My wife and I will separate before long. She will return to her +father's, while I must make my way alone." +</P> + +<P> +Houston's friend seized him by the arm and gazed at him with horror. +</P> + +<P> +"Governor," said he, "you're going to ruin your whole life! What reason +have you for treating this young lady in such a way? What has she done +that you should leave her? Or what have you done that she should leave +you? Every one will fall away from you." +</P> + +<P> +Houston grimly replied: +</P> + +<P> +"I have no explanation to give you. My wife has none to give you. She +will not complain of me, nor shall I complain of her. It is no one's +business in the world except our own. Any interference will be +impertinent, and I shall punish it with my own hand." +</P> + +<P> +"But," said his friend, "think of it. The people at large will not +allow such action. They will believe that you, who have been their +idol, have descended to insult a woman. Your political career is ended. +It will not be safe for you to walk the streets!" +</P> + +<P> +"What difference does it make to me?" said Houston, gloomily. "What +must be, must be. I tell you, as a friend, in advance, so that you may +be prepared; but the parting will take place very soon." +</P> + +<P> +Little was heard for another month or two, and then came the +announcement that the Governor's wife had left him and had returned to +her parents' home. The news flew like wildfire, and was the theme of +every tongue. Friends of Mrs. Houston begged her to tell them the +meaning of the whole affair. Adherents of Houston, on the other hand, +set afloat stories of his wife's coldness and of her peevishness. The +state was divided into factions; and what really concerned a very few +was, as usual, made everybody's business. +</P> + +<P> +There were times when, if Houston had appeared near the dwelling of his +former wife, he would have been lynched or riddled with bullets. Again, +there were enemies and slanderers of his who, had they shown themselves +in Nashville, would have been torn to pieces by men who hailed Houston +as a hero and who believed that he could not possibly have done wrong. +</P> + +<P> +However his friends might rage, and however her people might wonder and +seek to pry into the secret, no satisfaction was given on either side. +The abandoned wife never uttered a word of explanation. Houston was +equally reticent and self-controlled. In later years he sometimes drank +deeply and was loose-tongued; but never, even in his cups, could he be +persuaded to say a single word about his wife. +</P> + +<P> +The whole thing is a mystery and cannot be solved by any evidence that +we have. Almost every one who has written of it seems to have indulged +in mere guesswork. One popular theory is that Miss Allen was in love +with some one else; that her parents forced her into a brilliant +marriage with Houston, which, however, she could not afterward endure; +and that Houston, learning the facts, left her because he knew that her +heart was not really his. +</P> + +<P> +But the evidence is all against this. Had it been so she would surely +have secured a divorce and would then have married the man whom she +truly loved. As a matter of fact, although she did divorce Houston, it +was only after several years, and the man whom she subsequently married +was not acquainted with her at the time of the separation. +</P> + +<P> +Another theory suggests that Houston was harsh in his treatment of his +wife, and offended her by his untaught manners and extreme +self-conceit. But it is not likely that she objected to his manners, +since she had become familiar with them before she gave him her hand; +and as to his conceit, there is no evidence that it was as yet unduly +developed. After his Texan campaign he sometimes showed a rather lofty +idea of his own achievements; but he does not seem to have done so in +these early days. +</P> + +<P> +Some have ascribed the separation to his passion for drink; but here +again we must discriminate. Later in life he became very fond of +spirits and drank whisky with the Indians, but during his earlier years +he was most abstemious. It scarcely seems possible that his wife left +him because he was intemperate. +</P> + +<P> +If one wishes to construct a reasonable hypothesis on a subject where +the facts are either wanting or conflicting, it is not impossible to +suggest a solution of this puzzle about Houston. Although his abandoned +wife never spoke of him and shut her lips tightly when she was +questioned about him, Houston, on his part, was not so taciturn. He +never consciously gave any direct clue to his matrimonial mystery; but +he never forgot this girl who was his bride and whom he seems always to +have loved. In what he said he never ceased to let a vein of +self-reproach run through his words. +</P> + +<P> +I should choose this one paragraph as the most significant. It was +written immediately after they had parted: +</P> + +<P> +Eliza stands acquitted by me. I have received her as a virtuous, chaste +wife, and as such I pray God I may ever regard her, and I trust I ever +shall. She was cold to me, and I thought she did not love me. +</P> + +<P> +And again he said to an old and valued friend at about the same time: +</P> + +<P> +"I can make no explanation. I exonerate the lady fully and do not +justify myself." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Allen seems to have been a woman of the sensitive American type +which was so common in the early and the middle part of the last +century. Mrs. Trollope has described it for us with very little +exaggeration. Dickens has drawn it with a touch of malice, and yet not +without truth. Miss Martineau described it during her visit to this +country, and her account quite coincides with those of her two +contemporaries. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, American women of that time unconsciously described themselves +in a thousand different ways. They were, after all, only a less +striking type of the sentimental Englishwomen who read L. E. L. and the +earlier novels of Bulwer-Lytton. On both sides of the Atlantic there +was a reign of sentiment and a prevalence of what was then called +"delicacy." It was a die-away, unwholesome attitude toward life and was +morbid to the last degree. +</P> + +<P> +In circles where these ideas prevailed, to eat a hearty dinner was +considered unwomanly. To talk of anything except some gilded "annual," +or "book of beauty," or the gossip of the neighborhood was wholly to be +condemned. The typical girl of such a community was thin and slender +and given to a mild starvation, though she might eat quantities of jam +and pickles and saleratus biscuit. She had the strangest views of life +and an almost unnatural shrinking from any usual converse with men. +</P> + +<P> +Houston, on his side, was a thoroughly natural and healthful man, +having lived an outdoor life, hunting and camping in the forest and +displaying the unaffected manner of the pioneer. Having lived the +solitary life of the woods, it was a strange thing for him to meet a +girl who had been bred in an entirely different way, who had learned a +thousand little reservations and dainty graces, and whose very breath +was coyness and reserve. Their mating was the mating of the man of the +forest with the woman of the sheltered life. +</P> + +<P> +Houston assumed everything; his bride shrank from everything. There was +a mutual shock amounting almost to repulsion. She, on her side, +probably thought she had found in him only the brute which lurks in +man. He, on the other, repelled and checked, at once grasped the belief +that his wife cared nothing for him because she would not meet his +ardors with like ardors of her own. It is the mistake that has been +made by thousands of men and women at the beginning of their married +lives—the mistake on one side of too great sensitiveness, and on the +other side of too great warmth of passion. +</P> + +<P> +This episode may seem trivial, and yet it is one that explains many +things in human life. So far as concerns Houston it has a direct +bearing on the history of our country. A proud man, he could not endure +the slights and gossip of his associates. He resigned the governorship +of Tennessee, and left by night, in such a way as to surround his +departure with mystery. +</P> + +<P> +There had come over him the old longing for Indian life; and when he +was next visible he was in the land of the Cherokees, who had long +before adopted him as a son. He was clad in buckskin and armed with +knife and rifle, and served under the old chief Oolooteka. He was a +gallant defender of the Indians. +</P> + +<P> +When he found how some of the Indian agents had abused his adopted +brothers he went to Washington to protest, still wearing his frontier +garb. One William Stansberry, a Congressman from Ohio, insulted +Houston, who leaped upon him like a panther, dragged him about the Hall +of Representatives, and beat him within an inch of his life. He was +arrested, imprisoned, and fined; but his old friend, President Jackson, +remitted his imprisonment and gruffly advised him not to pay the fine. +</P> + +<P> +Returning to his Indians, he made his way to a new field which promised +much adventure. This was Texas, of whose condition in those early days +something has already been said. Houston found a rough American +settlement, composed of scattered villages extending along the disputed +frontier of Mexico. Already, in the true Anglo-Saxon spirit, the +settlers had formed a rudimentary state, and as they increased and +multiplied they framed a simple code of laws. +</P> + +<P> +Then, quite naturally, there came a clash between them and the +Mexicans. The Texans, headed by Moses Austin, had set up a republic and +asked for admission to the United States. Mexico regarded them as +rebels and despised them because they made no military display and had +no very accurate military drill. They were dressed in buckskin and +ragged clothing; but their knives were very bright and their rifles +carried surely. Furthermore, they laughed at odds, and if only a dozen +of them were gathered together they would "take on" almost any number +of Mexican regulars. +</P> + +<P> +In February, 1836, the acute and able Mexican, Santa Anna, led across +the Rio Grande a force of several thousand Mexicans showily uniformed +and completely armed. Every one remembers how they fell upon the little +garrison at the Alamo, now within the city limits of San Antonio, but +then an isolated mission building surrounded by a thick adobe wall. The +Americans numbered less than three hundred men. +</P> + +<P> +A sharp attack was made with these overwhelming odds. The Americans +drove the assailants back with their rifle fire, but they had nothing +to oppose to the Mexican artillery. The contest continued for several +days, and finally the Mexicans breached the wall and fell upon the +garrison, who were now reduced by more than half. There was an hour of +blood, and every one of the Alamo's defenders, including the wounded, +was put to death. The only survivors of the slaughter were two negro +slaves, a woman, and a baby girl. +</P> + +<P> +When the news of this bloody affair reached Houston he leaped forth to +the combat like a lion. He was made commander-in-chief of the scanty +Texan forces. He managed to rally about seven hundred men, and set out +against Santa Anna with little in the way of equipment, and with +nothing but the flame of frenzy to stimulate his followers. By march +and countermarch the hostile forces came face to face near the shore of +San Jacinto Bay, not far from the present city of Houston. Slowly they +moved upon each other, when Houston halted, and his sharpshooters raked +the Mexican battle-line with terrible effect. Then Houston uttered the +cry: +</P> + +<P> +"Remember the Alamo!" +</P> + +<P> +With deadly swiftness he led his men in a charge upon Santa Anna's +lines. The Mexicans were scattered as by a mighty wind, their commander +was taken prisoner, and Mexico was forced to give its recognition to +Texas as a free republic, of which General Houston became the first +president. +</P> + +<P> +This was the climax of Houston's life, but the end of it leaves us with +something still to say. Long after his marriage with Miss Allen he took +an Indian girl to wife and lived with her quite happily. She was a very +beautiful woman, a half-breed, with the English name of Tyania Rodgers. +Very little, however, is known of her life with Houston. Later +still—in 1840—he married a lady from Marion, Alabama, named Margaret +Moffette Lea. He was then in his forty-seventh year, while she was only +twenty-one; but again, as with his Indian wife, he knew nothing but +domestic tranquillity. These later experiences go far to prove the +truth of what has already been given as the probable cause of his first +mysterious failure to make a woman happy. +</P> + +<P> +After Texas entered the Union, in 1845, Houston was elected to the +United States Senate, in which he served for thirteen years. In 1852, +1856, and 1860, as a Southerner who opposed any movement looking toward +secession, he was regarded as a possible presidential candidate; but +his career was now almost over, and in 1863, while the Civil War—which +he had striven to prevent—was at its height, he died. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="lola"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LOLA MONTEZ AND KING LUDWIG OF BAVARIA +</H3> + +<P> +Lola Montez! The name suggests dark eyes and abundant hair, lithe limbs +and a sinuous body, with twining hands and great eyes that gleam with a +sort of ebon splendor. One thinks of Spanish beauty as one hears the +name; and in truth Lola Montez justified the mental picture. +</P> + +<P> +She was not altogether Spanish, yet the other elements that entered +into her mercurial nature heightened and vivified her Castilian traits. +Her mother was a Spaniard—partly Moorish, however. Her father was an +Irishman. There you have it—the dreamy romance of Spain, the exotic +touch of the Orient, and the daring, unreasoning vivacity of the Celt. +</P> + +<P> +This woman during the forty-three years of her life had adventures +innumerable, was widely known in Europe and America, and actually lost +one king his throne. Her maiden name was Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna +Gilbert. Her father was a British officer, the son of an Irish knight, +Sir Edward Gilbert. Her mother had been a danseuse named Lola Oliver. +"Lola" is a diminutive of Dolores, and as "Lola" she became known to +the world. +</P> + +<P> +She lived at one time or another in nearly all the countries of Europe, +and likewise in India, America, and Australia. It would be impossible +to set down here all the sensations that she achieved. Let us select +the climax of her career and show how she overturned a kingdom, passing +but lightly over her early and her later years. +</P> + +<P> +She was born in Limerick in 1818, but her father's parents cast off +their son and his young wife, the Spanish dancer. They went to India, +and in 1825 the father died, leaving his young widow without a rupee; +but she was quickly married again, this time to an officer of +importance. +</P> + +<P> +The former danseuse became a very conventional person, a fit match for +her highly conventional husband; but the small daughter did not take +kindly to the proprieties of life. The Hindu servants taught her more +things than she should have known; and at one time her stepfather found +her performing the danse du ventre. It was the Moorish strain inherited +from her mother. +</P> + +<P> +She was sent back to Europe, however, and had a sort of education in +Scotland and England, and finally in Paris, where she was detected in +an incipient flirtation with her music-master. There were other persons +hanging about her from her fifteenth year, at which time her +stepfather, in India, had arranged a marriage between her and a rich +but uninteresting old judge. One of her numerous admirers told her this. +</P> + +<P> +"What on earth am I to do?" asked little Lola, most naively. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, marry me," said the artful adviser, who was Captain Thomas James; +and so the very next day they fled to Dublin and were speedily married +at Meath. +</P> + +<P> +Lola's husband was violently in love with her, but, unfortunately, +others were no less susceptible to her charms. She was presented at the +vice-regal court, and everybody there became her victim. Even the +viceroy, Lord Normanby, was greatly taken with her. This nobleman's +position was such that Captain James could not object to his +attentions, though they made the husband angry to a degree. The viceroy +would draw her into alcoves and engage her in flattering conversation, +while poor James could only gnaw his nails and let green-eyed jealousy +prey upon his heart. His only recourse was to take her into the +country, where she speedily became bored; and boredom is the death of +love. +</P> + +<P> +Later she went with Captain James to India. She endured a campaign in +Afghanistan, in which she thoroughly enjoyed herself because of the +attentions of the officers. On her return to London in 1842, one +Captain Lennox was a fellow passenger; and their association resulted +in an action for divorce, by which she was freed from her husband, and +yet by a technicality was not able to marry Lennox, whose family in any +case would probably have prevented the wedding. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Mayne says, in writing on this point: +</P> + +<P> +Even Lola never quite succeeded in being allowed to commit bigamy +unmolested, though in later years she did commit it and took refuge in +Spain to escape punishment. +</P> + +<P> +The same writer has given a vivid picture of what happened soon after +the divorce. Lola tried to forget her past and to create a new and +brighter future. Here is the narrative: +</P> + +<P> +Her Majesty's Theater was crowded on the night of June 10,1843. A new +Spanish dancer was announced—"Dona Lola Montez." It was her debut, and +Lumley, the manager, had been puffing her beforehand, as he alone knew +how. To Lord Ranelagh, the leader of the dilettante group of +fashionable young men, he had whispered, mysteriously: +</P> + +<P> +"I have a surprise in store. You shall see." +</P> + +<P> +So Ranelagh and a party of his friends filled the omnibus boxes, those +tribunes at the side of the stage whence success or failure was +pronounced. Things had been done with Lumley's consummate art; the +packed house was murmurous with excitement. She was a raving beauty, +said report—and then, those intoxicating Spanish dances! Taglioni, +Cerito, Fanny Elssler, all were to be eclipsed. +</P> + +<P> +Ranelagh's glasses were steadily leveled on the stage from the moment +her entrance was imminent. She came on. There was a murmur of +admiration—but Ranelagh made no sign. And then she began to dance. A +sense of disappointment, perhaps? But she was very lovely, very +graceful, "like a flower swept by the wind, she floated round the +stage"—not a dancer, but, by George, a beauty! And still Ranelagh made +no sign. +</P> + +<P> +Yet, no. What low, sibilant sound is that? And then what confused, +angry words from the tribunal? He turns to his friends, his eyes ablaze +with anger, opera-glass in hand. And now again the terrible "Hiss-s-s!" +taken up by the other box, and the words repeated loudly and more +angrily even than before—the historic words which sealed Lola's doom +at Her Majesty's Theater: "WHY, IT'S BETTY JAMES!" +</P> + +<P> +She was, indeed, Betty James, and London would not accept her as Lola +Montez. She left England and appeared upon the Continent as a beautiful +virago, making a sensation—as the French would say, a succes de +scandale—by boxing the ears of people who offended her, and even on +one occasion horsewhipping a policeman who was in attendance on the +King of Prussia. In Paris she tried once more to be a dancer, but Paris +would not have her. She betook herself to Dresden and Warsaw, where she +sought to attract attention by her eccentricities, making mouths at the +spectators, flinging her garters in their faces, and one time removing +her skirts and still more necessary garments, whereupon her manager +broke off his engagement with her. +</P> + +<P> +An English writer who heard a great deal of her and who saw her often +about this time writes that there was nothing wonderful about her +except "her beauty and her impudence." She had no talent nor any of the +graces which make women attractive; yet many men of talent raved about +her. The clever young journalist, Dujarrier, who assisted Emile +Girardin, was her lover in Paris. He was killed in a duel and left Lola +twenty thousand francs and some securities, so that she no longer had +to sing in the streets as she did in Warsaw. +</P> + +<P> +She now betook herself to Munich, the capital of Bavaria. That country +was then governed by Ludwig I., a king as eccentric as Lola herself. He +was a curious compound of kindliness, ideality, and peculiar ways. For +instance, he would never use a carriage even on state occasions. He +prowled around the streets, knocking off the hats of those whom he +chanced to meet. Like his unfortunate descendant, Ludwig II., he wrote +poetry, and he had a picture-gallery devoted to portraits of the +beautiful women whom he had met. +</P> + +<P> +He dressed like an English fox-hunter, with a most extraordinary hat, +and what was odd and peculiar in others pleased him because he was odd +and peculiar himself. Therefore when Lola made her first appearance at +the Court Theater he was enchanted with her. He summoned her at once to +the palace, and within five days he presented her to the court, saying +as he did so: +</P> + +<P> +"Meine Herren, I present you to my best friend." +</P> + +<P> +In less than a month this curious monarch had given Lola the title of +Countess of Landsfeld. A handsome house was built for her, and a +pension of twenty thousand florins was granted her. This was in 1847. +With the people of Munich she was unpopular. They did not mind the +eccentricities of the king, since these amused them and did the country +no perceptible harm; but they were enraged by this beautiful woman, who +had no softness such as a woman ought to have. Her swearing, her +readiness to box the ears of every one whom she disliked, the huge +bulldog which accompanied her everywhere—all these things were beyond +endurance. +</P> + +<P> +She was discourteous to the queen, besides meddling with the politics +of the kingdom. Either of these things would have been sufficient to +make her hated. Together, they were more than the city of Munich could +endure. Finally the countess tried to establish a new corps in the +university. This was the last touch of all. A student who ventured to +wear her colors was beaten and arrested. Lola came to his aid with all +her wonted boldness; but the city was in commotion. +</P> + +<P> +Daggers were drawn; Lola was hustled and insulted. The foolish king +rushed out to protect her; and on his arm she was led in safety to the +palace. As she entered the gates she turned and fired a pistol into the +mob. No one was hurt, but a great rage took possession of the people. +The king issued a decree closing the university for a year. By this +time, however, Munich was in possession of a mob, and the Bavarians +demanded that she should leave the country. +</P> + +<P> +Ludwig faced the chamber of peers, where the demand of the populace was +placed before him. +</P> + +<P> +"I would rather lose my crown!" he replied. +</P> + +<P> +The lords of Bavaria regarded him with grim silence; and in their eyes +he read the determination of his people. On the following day a royal +decree revoked Lola's rights as a subject of Bavaria, and still another +decree ordered her to be expelled. The mob yelled with joy and burned +her house. Poor Ludwig watched the tumult by the light of the leaping +flames. +</P> + +<P> +He was still in love with her and tried to keep her in the kingdom; but +the result was that Ludwig himself was forced to abdicate. He had given +his throne for the light love of this beautiful but half-crazy woman. +She would have no more to do with him; and as for him, he had to give +place to his son Maximilian. Ludwig had lost a kingdom merely because +this strange, outrageous creature had piqued him and made him think +that she was unique among women. +</P> + +<P> +The rest of her career was adventurous. In England she contracted a +bigamous marriage with a youthful officer, and within two weeks they +fled to Spain for safety from the law. Her husband was drowned, and she +made still another marriage. She visited Australia, and at Melbourne +she had a fight with a strapping woman, who clawed her face until Lola +fell fainting to the ground. It is a squalid record of horse-whippings, +face-scratchings—in short, a rowdy life. +</P> + +<P> +Her end was like that of Becky Sharp. In America she delivered lectures +which were written for her by a clergyman and which dealt with the art +of beauty. She had a temporary success; but soon she became quite poor, +and took to piety, professing to be a sort of piteous, penitent +Magdalen. In this role she made effective use of her beautiful dark +hair, her pallor, and her wonderful eyes. But the violence of her +disposition had wrecked her physically; and she died of paralysis in +Astoria, on Long Island, in 1861. Upon her grave in Greenwood Cemetery, +Brooklyn, there is a tablet to her memory, bearing the inscription: +"Mrs. Eliza Gilbert, born 1818, died 1861." +</P> + +<P> +What can one say of a woman such as this? She had no morals, and her +manners were outrageous. The love she felt was the love of a she-wolf. +Fourteen biographies of her have been written, besides her own +autobiography, which was called The Story of a Penitent, and which +tells less about her than any of the other books. Her beauty was +undeniable. Her courage was the blended courage of the Celt, the +Spaniard, and the Moor. Yet all that one can say of her was said by the +elder Dumas when he declared that she was born to be the evil genius of +every one who cared for her. Her greatest fame comes from the fact that +in less than three years she overturned a kingdom and lost a king his +throne. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="leon"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LEON GAMBETTA AND LEONIE LEON +</H3> + +<P> +The present French Republic has endured for over forty years. Within +that time it has produced just one man of extraordinary power and +parts. This was Leon Gambetta. Other men as remarkable as he were +conspicuous in French political life during the first few years of the +republic; but they belonged to an earlier generation, while Gambetta +leaped into prominence only when the empire fell, crashing down in ruin +and disaster. +</P> + +<P> +It is still too early to form an accurate estimate of him as a +statesman. His friends praise him extravagantly. His enemies still +revile him bitterly. The period of his political career lasted for +little more than a decade, yet in that time it may be said that he +lived almost a life of fifty years. Only a short time ago did the +French government cause his body to be placed within the great +Pantheon, which contains memorials of the heroes and heroines of +France. But, though we may not fairly judge of his political motives, +we can readily reconstruct a picture of him as a man, and in doing so +recall his one romance, which many will remember after they have +forgotten his oratorical triumphs and his statecraft. +</P> + +<P> +Leon Gambetta was the true type of the southern Frenchman—what his +countrymen call a meridional. The Frenchman of the south is different +from the Frenchman of the north, for the latter has in his veins a +touch of the viking blood, so that he is very apt to be fair-haired and +blue-eyed, temperate in speech, and self-controlled. He is different, +again, from the Frenchman of central France, who is almost purely +Celtic. The meridional has a marked vein of the Italian in him, derived +from the conquerors of ancient Gaul. He is impulsive, ardent, fiery in +speech, hot-tempered, and vivacious to an extraordinary degree. +</P> + +<P> +Gambetta, who was born at Cahors, was French only on his mother's side, +since his father was of Italian birth. It is said also that somewhere +in his ancestry there was a touch of the Oriental. At any rate, he was +one of the most southern of the sons of southern France, and he showed +the precocious maturity which belongs to a certain type of Italian. At +twenty-one he had already been admitted to the French bar, and had +drifted to Paris, where his audacity, his pushing nature, and his +red-hot un-restraint of speech gave him a certain notoriety from the +very first. +</P> + +<P> +It was toward the end of the reign of Napoleon III. that Gambetta saw +his opportunity. The emperor, weakened by disease and yielding to a +sort of feeble idealism, gave to France a greater freedom of speech +than it had enjoyed while he was more virile. This relaxation of +control merely gave to his opponents more courage to attack him and his +empire. Demagogues harangued the crowds in words which would once have +led to their imprisonment. In the National Assembly the opposition did +all within its power to hamper and defeat the policy of the government. +</P> + +<P> +In short, republicanism began to rise in an ominous and threatening +way; and at the head of republicanism in Paris stood forth Gambetta, +with his impassioned eloquence, his stinging phrases, and his youthful +boldness. He became the idol of that part of Paris known as Belleville, +where artisans and laborers united with the rabble of the streets in +hating the empire and in crying out for a republic. +</P> + +<P> +Gambetta was precisely the man to voice the feelings of these people. +Whatever polish he acquired in after years was then quite lacking; and +the crudity of his manners actually helped him with the men whom he +harangued. A recent book by M. Francis Laur, an ardent admirer of +Gambetta, gives a picture of the man which may be nearly true of him in +his later life, but which is certainly too flattering when applied to +Gambetta in 1868, at the age of thirty. +</P> + +<P> +How do we see Gambetta as he was at thirty? A man of powerful frame and +of intense vitality, with thick, clustering hair, which he shook as a +lion shakes its mane; olive-skinned, with eyes that darted fire, a +resonant, sonorous voice, and a personal magnetism which was instantly +felt by all who met him or who heard him speak. His manners were not +refined. He was fond of oil and garlic. His gestures were often more +frantic than impressive, so that his enemies called him "the furious +fool." He had a trick of spitting while he spoke. He was by no means +the sort of man whose habits had been formed in drawing-rooms or among +people of good breeding. Yet his oratory was, of its kind, superb. +</P> + +<P> +In 1869 Gambetta was elected by the Red Republicans to the Corps +Legislatif. From the very first his vehemence and fire gained him a +ready hearing. The chamber itself was arranged like a great theater, +the members occupying the floor and the public the galleries. Each +orator in addressing the house mounted a sort of rostrum and from it +faced the whole assemblage, not noticing, as with us, the presiding +officer at all. The very nature of this arrangement stimulated +parliamentary speaking into eloquence and flamboyant oratory. +</P> + +<P> +After Gambetta had spoken a few times he noticed in the gallery a tall, +graceful woman, dressed in some neutral color and wearing long black +gloves, which accentuated the beauty of her hands and arms. No one in +the whole assembly paid such close attention to the orator as did this +woman, whom he had never seen before and who appeared to be entirely +alone. +</P> + +<P> +When it came to him to speak on another day he saw sitting in the same +place the same stately and yet lithe and sinuous figure. This was +repeated again and again, until at last whenever he came to a +peculiarly fervid burst of oratory he turned to this woman's face and +saw it lighted up by the same enthusiasm which was stirring him. +</P> + +<P> +Finally, in the early part of 1870, there came a day when Gambetta +surpassed himself in eloquence. His theme was the grandeur of +republican government. Never in his life had he spoken so boldly as +then, or with such fervor. The ministers of the emperor shrank back in +dismay as this big-voiced, strong-limbed man hurled forth sentence +after sentence like successive peals of irresistible artillery. +</P> + +<P> +As Gambetta rolled forth his sentences, superb in their rhetoric and +all ablaze with that sort of intense feeling which masters an orator in +the moment of his triumph, the face of the lady in the gallery +responded to him with wonderful appreciation. She was no longer calm, +unmoved, and almost severe. She flushed, and her eyes as they met his +seemed to sparkle with living fire. When he finished and descended from +the rostrum he looked at her, and their eyes cried out as significantly +as if the two had spoken to each other. +</P> + +<P> +Then Gambetta did what a person of finer breeding would not have done. +He hastily scribbled a note, sealed it, and called to his side one of +the official pages. In the presence of the great assemblage, where he +was for the moment the center of attention, he pointed to the lady in +the gallery and ordered the page to take the note to her. +</P> + +<P> +One may excuse this only on the ground that he was completely carried +away by his emotion, so that to him there was no one present save this +enigmatically fascinating woman and himself. But the lady on her side +was wiser; or perhaps a slight delay gave her time to recover her +discretion. When Gambetta's note was brought to her she took it quietly +and tore it into little pieces without reading it; and then, rising, +she glided through the crowd and disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +Gambetta in his excitement had acted as if she were a mere adventuress. +With perfect dignity she had shown him that she was a woman who +retained her self-respect. +</P> + +<P> +Immediately upon the heels of this curious incident came the outbreak +of the war with Germany. In the war the empire was shattered at Sedan. +The republic was proclaimed in Paris. The French capital was besieged +by a vast German army. Gambetta was made minister of the interior, and +remained for a while in Paris even after it had been blockaded. But his +fiery spirit chafed under such conditions. He longed to go forth into +the south of France and arouse his countrymen with a cry to arms +against the invaders. +</P> + +<P> +Escaping in a balloon, he safely reached the city of Tours; and there +he established what was practically a dictatorship. He flung himself +with tremendous energy into the task of organizing armies, of equipping +them, and of directing their movements for the relief of Paris. He did, +in fact, accomplish wonders. He kept the spirit of the nation still +alive. Three new armies were launched against the Germans. Gambetta was +everywhere and took part in everything that was done. His inexperience +in military affairs, coupled with his impatience of advice, led him to +make serious mistakes. Nevertheless, one of his armies practically +defeated the Germans at Orleans; and could he have had his own way, +even the fall of Paris would not have ended the war. +</P> + +<P> +"Never," said Gambetta, "shall I consent to peace so long as France +still has two hundred thousand men under arms and more than a thousand +cannon to direct against the enemy!" +</P> + +<P> +But he was overruled by other and less fiery statesmen. Peace was made, +and Gambetta retired for a moment into private life. If he had not +succeeded in expelling the German hosts he had, at any rate, made +Bismarck hate him, and he had saved the honor of France. +</P> + +<P> +It was while the National Assembly at Versailles was debating the terms +of peace with Germany that Gambetta once more delivered a noble and +patriotic speech. As he concluded he felt a strange magnetic +attraction; and, sweeping the audience with a glance, he saw before +him, not very far away, the same woman with the long black gloves, +having about her still an air of mystery, but again meeting his eyes +with her own, suffused with feeling. +</P> + +<P> +Gambetta hurried to an anteroom and hastily scribbled the following +note: +</P> + +<P> +At last I see you once more. Is it really you? +</P> + +<P> +The scrawl was taken to her by a discreet official, and this time she +received the letter, pressed it to her heart, and then slipped it into +the bodice of her gown. But this time, as before, she left without +making a reply. +</P> + +<P> +It was an encouragement, yet it gave no opening to Gambetta—for she +returned to the National Assembly no more. But now his heart was full +of hope, for he was convinced with a very deep conviction that +somewhere, soon, and in some way he would meet this woman, who had +become to him one of the intense realities of his life. He did not know +her name. They had never exchanged a word. Yet he was sure that time +would bring them close together. +</P> + +<P> +His intuition was unerring. What we call chance often seems to know +what it is doing. Within a year after the occurrence that has just been +narrated an old friend of Gambetta's met with an accident which +confined him to his house. The statesman strolled to his friend's +residence. The accident was a trifling one, and the mistress of the +house was holding a sort of informal reception, answering questions +that were asked her by the numerous acquaintances who called. +</P> + +<P> +As Gambetta was speaking, of a sudden he saw before him, at the +extremity of the room, the lady of his dreams, the sphinx of his waking +hours, the woman who four years earlier had torn up the note which he +addressed to her, but who more recently had kept his written words. +Both of them were deeply agitated, yet both of them carried off the +situation without betraying themselves to others, Gambetta approached, +and they exchanged a few casual commonplaces. But now, close together, +eye and voice spoke of what was in their hearts. +</P> + +<P> +Presently the lady took her leave. Gambetta followed closely. In the +street he turned to her and said in pleading tones: +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you destroy my letter? You knew I loved you, and yet all these +years you have kept away from me in silence." +</P> + +<P> +Then the girl—for she was little more than a girl—hesitated for a +moment. As he looked upon her face he saw that her eyes were full of +tears. At last she spoke with emotion: +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot love me, for I am unworthy of you. Do not urge me. Do not +make promises. Let us say good-by. At least I must first tell you of my +story, for I am one of those women whom no one ever marries." +</P> + +<P> +Gambetta brushed aside her pleadings. He begged that he might see her +soon. Little by little she consented; but she would not see him at her +house. She knew that his enemies were many and that everything he did +would be used against him. In the end she agreed to meet him in the +park at Versailles, near the Petit Trianon, at eight o'clock in the +morning. +</P> + +<P> +When she had made this promise he left her. Already a new inspiration +had come to him, and he felt that with this woman by his side he could +accomplish anything. +</P> + +<P> +At the appointed hour, in the silence of the park and amid the sunshine +of the beautiful morning, the two met once again. Gambetta seized her +hands with eagerness and cried out in an exultant tone: +</P> + +<P> +"At last! At last! At last!" +</P> + +<P> +But the woman's eyes were heavy with sorrow, and upon her face there +was a settled melancholy. She trembled at his touch and almost shrank +from him. Here was seen the impetuosity of the meridional. He had first +spoken to this woman only two days before. He knew nothing of her +station, of her surroundings, of her character. He did not even know +her name. Yet one thing he knew absolutely—that she was made for him +and that he must have her for his own. He spoke at once of marriage; +but at this she drew away from him still farther. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said. "I told you that you must not speak to me until you +have heard my story." +</P> + +<P> +He led her to a great stone bench near by; and, passing his arm about +her waist, he drew her head down to his shoulder as he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, tell me. I will listen." +</P> + +<P> +Then this girl of twenty-four, with perfect frankness, because she was +absolutely loyal, told him why she felt that they must never see each +other any more-much less marry and be happy. She was the daughter of a +colonel in the French army. The sudden death of her father had left her +penniless and alone. Coming to Paris at the age of eighteen, she had +given lessons in the household of a high officer of the empire. This +man had been attracted by her beauty, and had seduced her. +</P> + +<P> +Later she had secured the means of living modestly, realizing more +deeply each month how dreadful had been her fate and how she had been +cut off from the lot of other girls. She felt that her life must be a +perpetual penance for what had befallen her through her ignorance and +inexperience. She told Gambetta that her name was Leonie Leon. As is +the custom of Frenchwomen who live alone, she styled herself madame. It +is doubtful whether the name by which she passed was that which had +been given to her at baptism; but, if so, her true name has never been +disclosed. +</P> + +<P> +When she had told the whole of her sad story to Gambetta he made +nothing of it. She said to him again: +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot love me. I should only dim your fame. You can have nothing +in common with a dishonored, ruined girl. That is what I came here to +explain to you. Let us part, and let us for all time forget each other." +</P> + +<P> +But Gambetta took no heed of what she said. Now that he had found her, +he would not consent to lose her. He seized her slender hands and +covered them with kisses. Again he urged that she should marry him. +</P> + +<P> +Her answer was a curious one. She was a devoted Catholic and would not +regard any marriage as valid save a religious marriage. On the other +hand, Gambetta, though not absolutely irreligious, was leading the +opposition to the Catholic party in France. The Church to him was not +so much a religious body as a political one, and to it he was +unalterably opposed. Personally, he would have no objections to being +married by a priest; but as a leader of the anti-clerical party he felt +that he must not recognize the Church's claim in any way. A religious +marriage would destroy his influence with his followers and might even +imperil the future of the republic. +</P> + +<P> +They pleaded long and earnestly both then and afterward. He urged a +civil marriage, but she declared that only a marriage according to the +rites of the Church could ever purify her past and give her back her +self-respect. In this she was absolutely stubborn, yet she did not urge +upon Gambetta that he should destroy his influence by marrying her in +church. +</P> + +<P> +Through all this interplay of argument and pleading and emotion the two +grew every moment more hopelessly in love. Then the woman, with a +woman's curious subtlety and indirectness, reached a somewhat singular +conclusion. She would hear nothing of a civil marriage, because a civil +marriage was no marriage in the eyes of Pope and prelate. On the other +hand, she did not wish Gambetta to mar his political career by going +through a religious ceremony. She had heard from a priest that the +Church recognized two forms of betrothal. The usual one looked to a +marriage in the future and gave no marriage privileges until after the +formal ceremony. But there was another kind of betrothal known to the +theologians as sponsalia de praesente. According to this, if there were +an actual betrothal, the pair might have the privileges and rights of +marriage immediately, if only they sincerely meant to be married in the +future. +</P> + +<P> +The eager mind of Leonie Leon caught at this bit of ecclesiastical law +and used it with great ingenuity. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us," she said, "be formally betrothed by the interchange of a +ring, and let us promise each other to marry in the future. After such +a betrothal as this we shall be the same as married; for we shall be +acting according to the laws of the Church." +</P> + +<P> +Gambetta gladly gave his promise. A betrothal ring was purchased; and +then, her conscience being appeased, she gave herself completely to her +lover. Gambetta was sincere. He said to her: +</P> + +<P> +"If the time should ever come when I shall lose my political station, +when I am beaten in the struggle, when I am deserted and alone, will +you not then marry me when I ask you?" +</P> + +<P> +And Leonie, with her arms about his neck, promised that she would. Yet +neither of them specified what sort of marriage this should be, nor did +it seem at the moment as if the question could arise. +</P> + +<P> +For Gambetta was very powerful. He led his party to success in the +election of 1877. Again and again his triumphant oratory mastered the +National Assembly of France. In 1879 he was chosen to be president of +the Chamber of Deputies. He towered far above the president of the +republic—Jules Grevy, that hard-headed, close-fisted old peasant—and +his star had reached its zenith. +</P> + +<P> +All this time he and Leonie Leon maintained their intimacy, though it +was carefully concealed save from a very few. She lived in a plain but +pretty house on the Avenue Perrichont in the quiet quarter of Auteuil; +but Gambetta never came there. Where and when they met was a secret +guarded very carefully by the few who were his close associates. But +meet they did continually, and their affection grew stronger every +year. Leonie thrilled at the victories of the man she loved; and he +found joy in the hours that he spent with her. +</P> + +<P> +Gambetta's need of rest was very great, for he worked at the highest +tension, like an engine which is using every pound of steam. Bismarck, +whose spies kept him well informed of everything that was happening in +Paris, and who had no liking for Gambetta, since the latter always +spoke of him as "the Ogre," once said to a Frenchman named Cheberry: +</P> + +<P> +"He is the only one among you who thinks of revenge, and who is any +sort of a menace to Germany. But, fortunately, he won't last much +longer. I am not speaking thoughtlessly. I know from secret reports +what sort of a life your great man leads, and I know his habits. Why, +his life is a life of continual overwork. He rests neither night nor +day. All politicians who have led the same life have died young. To be +able to serve one's country for a long time a statesman must marry an +ugly woman, have children like the rest of the world, and a country +place or a house to one's self like any common peasant, where he can go +and rest." +</P> + +<P> +The Iron Chancellor chuckled as he said this, and he was right. And yet +Gambetta's end came not so much through overwork as by an accident. +</P> + +<P> +It may be that the ambition of Mme. Leon stimulated him beyond his +powers. However this may be, early in 1882, when he was defeated in +Parliament on a question which he considered vital, he immediately +resigned and turned his back on public life. His fickle friends soon +deserted him. His enemies jeered and hooted the mention of his name. +</P> + +<P> +He had reached the time which with a sort of prophetic instinct he had +foreseen nearly ten years before. So he turned to the woman who had +been faithful and loving to him; and he turned to her with a feeling of +infinite peace. +</P> + +<P> +"You promised me," he said, "that if ever I was defeated and alone you +would marry me. The time is now." +</P> + +<P> +Then this man, who had exercised the powers of a dictator, who had +levied armies and shaken governments, and through whose hands there had +passed thousands of millions of francs, sought for a country home. He +found for sale a small estate which had once belonged to Balzac, and +which is known as Les Jardies. It was in wretched repair; yet the small +sum which it cost Gambetta—twelve thousand francs—was practically all +that he possessed. Worn and weary as he was, it seemed to him a haven +of delightful peace; for here he might live in the quiet country with +the still beautiful woman who was soon to become his wife. +</P> + +<P> +It is not known what form of marriage they at last agreed upon. She may +have consented to a civil ceremony; or he, being now out of public +life, may have felt that he could be married by the Church. The day for +their wedding had been set, and Gambetta was already at Les Jardies. +But there came a rumor that he had been shot. Still further tidings +bore the news that he was dying. Paris, fond as it was of scandals, +immediately spread the tale that he had been shot by a jealous woman. +</P> + +<P> +The truth is quite the contrary. Gambetta, in arranging his effects in +his new home, took it upon himself to clean a pair of dueling-pistols; +for every French politician of importance must fight duels, and +Gambetta had already done so. Unfortunately, one cartridge remained +unnoticed in the pistol which Gambetta cleaned. As he held the +pistol-barrel against the soft part of his hand the cartridge exploded, +and the ball passed through the base of the thumb with a rending, +spluttering noise. +</P> + +<P> +The wound was not in itself serious, but now the prophecy of Bismarck +was fulfilled. Gambetta had exhausted his vitality; a fever set in, and +before long he died of internal ulceration. +</P> + +<P> +This was the end of a great career and of a great romance of love. +Leonie Leon was half distraught at the death of the lover who was so +soon to be her husband. She wandered for hours in the forest until she +reached a convent, where she was received. Afterward she came to Paris +and hid herself away in a garret of the slums. All the light of her +life had gone out. She wished that she had died with him whose glory +had been her life. Friends of Gambetta, however, discovered her and +cared for her until her death, long afterward, in 1906. +</P> + +<P> +She lived upon the memories of the past, of the swift love that had +come at first sight, but which had lasted unbrokenly; which had given +her the pride of conquest, and which had brought her lover both +happiness and inspiration and a refining touch which had smoothed away +his roughness and made him fit to stand in palaces with dignity and +distinction. +</P> + +<P> +As for him, he left a few lines which have been carefully preserved, +and which sum up his thought of her. They read: +</P> + +<P> +To the light of my soul; to the star, of my life—Leonie Leon. For +ever! For ever! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="blessington"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LADY BLESSINGTON AND COUNT D'ORSAY +</H3> + +<P> +Often there has arisen some man who, either by his natural gifts or by +his impudence or by the combination of both, has made himself a +recognized leader in the English fashionable world. One of the first of +these men was Richard Nash, usually known as "Beau Nash," who +flourished in the eighteenth century. Nash was a man of doubtful +origin; nor was he attractive in his looks, for he was a huge, clumsy +creature with features that were both irregular and harsh. +Nevertheless, for nearly fifty years Beau Nash was an arbiter of +fashion. Goldsmith, who wrote his life, declared that his supremacy was +due to his pleasing manners, "his assiduity, flattery, fine clothes, +and as much wit as the ladies had whom he addressed." He converted the +town of Bath from a rude little hamlet into an English Newport, of +which he was the social autocrat. He actually drew up a set of written +rules which some of the best-born and best-bred people follow slavishly. +</P> + +<P> +Even better known to us is George Bryan Brummel, commonly called "Beau +Brummel," who by his friendship with George IV.—then Prince +Regent—was an oracle at court on everything that related to dress and +etiquette and the proper mode of living. His memory has been kept alive +most of all by Richard Mansfield's famous impersonation of him. The +play is based upon the actual facts; for after Brummel had lost the +royal favor he died an insane pauper in the French town of Caen. He, +too, had a distinguished biographer, since Bulwer-Lytton's novel Pelham +is really the narrative of Brummel's curious career. +</P> + +<P> +Long after Brummel, Lord Banelagh led the gilded youth of London, and +it was at this time that the notorious Lola Montez made her first +appearance in the British capital. +</P> + +<P> +These three men—Nash, Brummel, and Ranelagh—had the advantage of +being Englishmen, and, therefore, of not incurring the old-time English +suspicion of foreigners. A much higher type of social arbiter was a +Frenchman who for twenty years during the early part of Queen +Victoria's reign gave law to the great world of fashion, besides +exercising a definite influence upon English art and literature. +</P> + +<P> +This was Count Albert Guillaume d'Orsay, the son of one of Napoleon's +generals, and descended by a morganatic marriage from the King of +Wurttemburg. The old general, his father, was a man of high courage, +impressive appearance, and keen intellect, all of which qualities he +transmitted to his son. The young Count d'Orsay, when he came of age, +found the Napoleonic era ended and France governed by Louis XVIII. The +king gave Count d'Orsay a commission in the army in a regiment +stationed at Valence in the southeastern part of France. He had already +visited England and learned the English language, and he had made some +distinguished friends there, among whom were Lord Byron and Thomas +Moore. +</P> + +<P> +On his return to France he began his garrison life at Valence, where he +showed some of the finer qualities of his character. It is not merely +that he was handsome and accomplished and that he had the gift of +winning the affections of those about him. Unlike Nash and Brummel, he +was a gentleman in every sense, and his courtesy was of the highest +kind. At the balls given by his regiment, although he was more courted +than any other officer, he always sought out the plainest girls and +showed them the most flattering attentions. No "wallflowers" were left +neglected when D'Orsay was present. +</P> + +<P> +It is strange how completely human beings are in the hands of fate. +Here was a young French officer quartered in a provincial town in the +valley of the Rhone. Who would have supposed that he was destined to +become not only a Londoner, but a favorite at the British court, a +model of fashion, a dictator of etiquette, widely known for his +accomplishments, the patron of literary men and of distinguished +artists? But all these things were to come to pass by a mere accident +of fortune. +</P> + +<P> +During his firsts visit to London, which has already been mentioned, +Count d'Orsay was invited once or twice to receptions given by the Earl +and Countess of Blessington, where he was well received, though this +was only an incident of his English sojourn. Before the story proceeds +any further it is necessary to give an account of the Earl and of Lady +Blessington, since both of their careers had been, to say the least, +unusual. +</P> + +<P> +Lord Blessington was an Irish peer for whom an ancient title had been +revived. He was remotely descended from the Stuarts of Scotland, and +therefore had royal blood to boast of. He had been well educated, and +in many ways was a man of pleasing manner. On the other hand, he had +early inherited a very large property which yielded him an income of +about thirty thousand pounds a year. He had estates in Ireland, and he +owned nearly the whole of a fashionable street in London, with the +buildings erected on it. +</P> + +<P> +This fortune and the absence of any one who could control him had made +him wilful and extravagant and had wrought in him a curious love of +personal display. Even as a child he would clamor to be dressed in the +most gorgeous uniforms; and when he got possession of his property his +love of display became almost a monomania. He built a theater as an +adjunct to his country house in Ireland and imported players from +London and elsewhere to act in it. He loved to mingle with the mummers, +to try on their various costumes, and to parade up and down, now as an +oriental prince and now as a Roman emperor. +</P> + +<P> +In London he hung about the green-rooms, and was a well-known figure +wherever actors or actresses were collected. Such was his love of the +stage that he sought to marry into the profession and set his heart on +a girl named Mary Campbell Browne, who was very beautiful to look at, +but who was not conspicuous either for her mind or for her morals. When +Lord Blessington proposed marriage to her she was obliged to tell him +that she already had one husband still alive, but she was perfectly +willing to live with him and dispense with the marriage ceremony. So +for several years she did live with him and bore him two children. +</P> + +<P> +It speaks well for the earl that when the inconvenient husband died a +marriage at once took place and Mrs. Browne became a countess. Then, +after other children had been born, the lady died, leaving the earl a +widower at about the age of forty. The only legitimate son born of this +marriage followed his mother to the grave; and so for the third time +the earldom of Blessington seemed likely to become extinct. The death +of his wife, however, gave the earl a special opportunity to display +his extravagant tastes. He spent more than four thousand pounds on the +funeral ceremonies, importing from France a huge black velvet +catafalque which had shortly before been used at the public funeral of +Napoleon's marshal, Duroc, while the house blazed with enormous wax +tapers and glittered with cloth of gold. +</P> + +<P> +Lord Blessington soon plunged again into the busy life of London. +Having now no heir, there was no restraint on his expenditures, and he +borrowed large sums of money in order to buy additional estates and +houses and to experience the exquisite joy of spending lavishly. At +this time he had his lands in Ireland, a town house in St. James's +Square, another in Seymour Place, and still another which was afterward +to become famous as Gore House, in Kensington. +</P> + +<P> +Some years before he had met in Ireland a lady called Mrs. Maurice +Farmer; and it happened that she now came to London. The earlier story +of her still young life must here be told, because her name afterward +became famous, and because the tale illustrates wonderfully well the +raw, crude, lawless period of the Regency, when England was fighting +her long war with Napoleon, when the Prince Regent was imitating all +the vices of the old French kings, when prize-fighting, deep drinking, +dueling, and dicing were practised without restraint in all the large +cities and towns of the United Kingdom. It was, as Sir Arthur Conan +Doyle has said, "an age of folly and of heroism"; for, while it +produced some of the greatest black-guards known to history, it +produced also such men as Wellington and Nelson, the two Pitts, +Sheridan, Byron, Shelley, and Sir Walter Scott. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Maurice Farmer was the daughter of a small Irish landowner named +Robert Power—himself the incarnation of all the vices of the time. +There was little law in Ireland, not even that which comes from public +opinion; and Robert Power rode hard to hounds, gambled recklessly, and +assembled in his house all sorts of reprobates, with whom he held +frightful orgies that lasted from sunset until dawn. His wife and his +young daughters viewed him with terror, and the life they led was a +perpetual nightmare because of the bestial carousings in which their +father engaged, wasting his money and mortgaging his estates until the +end of his wild career was in plain sight. +</P> + +<P> +There happened to be stationed at Clonmel a regiment of infantry in +which there served a captain named Maurice St. Leger Farmer. He was a +man of some means, but eccentric to a degree. His temper was so utterly +uncontrolled that even his fellow officers could scarcely live with +him, and he was given to strange caprices. It happened that at a ball +in Clonmel he met the young daughter of Robert Power, then a mere child +of fourteen years. Captain Farmer was seized with an infatuation for +the girl, and he went almost at once to her father, asking for her hand +in marriage and proposing to settle a sum of money upon her if she +married him. +</P> + +<P> +The hard-riding squireen jumped at the offer. His own estate was being +stripped bare. Here was a chance to provide for one of his daughters, +or, rather, to get rid of her, and he agreed that she should be married +out of hand. Going home, he roughly informed the girl that she was to +be the wife of Captain Farmer. He so bullied his wife that she was +compelled to join him in this command. +</P> + +<P> +What was poor little Margaret Power to do? She was only a child. She +knew nothing of the world. She was accustomed to obey her father as she +would have obeyed some evil genius who had her in his power. There were +tears and lamentations. She was frightened half to death; yet for her +there was no help. Therefore, while not yet fifteen her marriage took +place, and she was the unhappy slave of a half-crazy tyrant. She had +then no beauty whatsoever. She was wholly undeveloped—thin and pale, +and with rough hair that fell over her frightened eyes; yet Farmer +wanted her, and he settled his money on her, just as he would have +spent the same amount to gratify any other sudden whim. +</P> + +<P> +The life she led with him for a few months showed him to be more of a +devil than a man. He took a peculiar delight in terrifying her, in +subjecting her to every sort of outrage; nor did he refrain even from +beating her with his fists. The girl could stand a great deal, but this +was too much. She returned to her father's house, where she was +received with the bitterest reproaches, but where, at least, she was +safe from harm, since her possession of a dowry made her a person of +some small importance. +</P> + +<P> +Not long afterward Captain Farmer fell into a dispute with his colonel, +Lord Caledon, and in the course of it he drew his sword on his +commanding officer. The court-martial which was convened to try him +would probably have had him shot were it not for the very general +belief that he was insane. So he was simply cashiered and obliged to +leave the service and betake himself elsewhere. Thus the girl whom, he +had married was quite free—free to leave her wretched home and even to +leave Ireland. +</P> + +<P> +She did leave Ireland and establish herself in London, where she had +some acquaintances, among them the Earl of Blessington. As already +said, he had met her in Ireland while she was living with her husband; +and now from time to time he saw her in a friendly way. After the death +of his wife he became infatuated with Margaret Farmer. She was a good +deal alone, and his attentions gave her entertainment. Her past +experience led her to have no real belief in love. She had become, +however, in a small way interested in literature and art, with an eager +ambition to be known as a writer. As it happened, Captain Farmer, whose +name she bore, had died some months before Lord Blessington had decided +to make a new marriage. The earl proposed to Margaret Farmer, and the +two were married by special license. +</P> + +<P> +The Countess of Blessington—to give the lady her new title—was now +twenty-eight years of age and had developed into a woman of great +beauty. She was noted for the peculiarly vivacious and radiant +expression which was always on her face. She had a kind of vivid +loveliness accompanied by grace, simplicity, and a form of exquisite +proportions. The ugly duckling had become a swan, for now there was no +trace of her former plainness to be seen. +</P> + +<P> +Not yet in her life had love come to her. Her first husband had been +thrust upon her and had treated her outrageously. Her second husband +was much older than she; and, though she was not without a certain +kindly feeling for one who had been kind to her, she married him, first +of all, for his title and position. +</P> + +<P> +Having been reared in poverty, she had no conception of the value of +money; and, though the earl was remarkably extravagant, the new +countess was even more so. One after another their London houses were +opened and decorated with the utmost lavishness. They gave innumerable +entertainments, not only to the nobility and to men of rank, +but—because this was Lady Blessington's peculiar fad—to artists and +actors and writers of all degrees. The American, N. P. Willis, in his +Pencilings by the Way, has given an interesting sketch of the countess +and her surroundings, while the younger Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) +has depicted D'Orsay as Count Mirabel in Henrietta Temple. Willis says: +</P> + +<P> +In a long library, lined alternately with splendidly bound books and +mirrors, and with a deep window of the breadth of the room opening upon +Hyde Park, I found Lady Blessington alone. The picture, to my eye, as +the door opened, was a very lovely one—a woman of remarkable beauty, +half buried in a fauteuil of yellow satin, reading by a magnificent +lamp suspended from the center of the arched ceiling. Sofas, couches, +ottomans, and busts, arranged in rather a crowded sumptuousness through +the room; enameled tables, covered with expensive and elegant trifles +in every corner, and a delicate white hand in relief on the back of a +book, to which the eye was attracted by the blaze of diamond rings. +</P> + +<P> +All this "crowded sumptuousness" was due to the taste of Lady +Blessington. Amid it she received royal dukes, statesmen such as +Palmerston, Canning, Castlereagh, Russell, and Brougham, actors such as +Kemble and Matthews, artists such as Lawrence and Wilkie, and men of +letters such as Moore, Bulwer-Lytton, and the two Disraelis. To +maintain this sort of life Lord Blessington raised large amounts of +money, totaling about half a million pounds sterling, by mortgaging his +different estates and giving his promissory notes to money-lenders. Of +course, he did not spend this vast sum immediately. He might have lived +in comparative luxury upon his income; but he was a restless, eager, +improvident nobleman, and his extravagances were prompted by the +urgings of his wife. +</P> + +<P> +In all this display, which Lady Blessington both stimulated and shared, +there is to be found a psychological basis. She was now verging upon +the thirties—a time which is a very critical period in a woman's +emotional life, if she has not already given herself over to love and +been loved in return. During Lady Blessington's earlier years she had +suffered in many ways, and it is probable that no thought of love had +entered her mind. She was only too glad if she could escape from the +harshness of her father and the cruelty of her first husband. Then came +her development into a beautiful woman, content for the time to be +languorously stagnant and to enjoy the rest and peace which had come to +her. +</P> + +<P> +When she married Lord Blessington her love life had not yet commenced; +and, in fact, there could be no love life in such a marriage—a +marriage with a man much older than herself, scatter-brained, showy, +and having no intellectual gifts. So for a time she sought satisfaction +in social triumphs, in capturing political and literary lions in order +to exhibit them in her salon, and in spending money right and left with +a lavish hand. But, after all, in a woman of her temperament none of +these things could satisfy her inner longings. Beautiful, full of +Celtic vivacity, imaginative and eager, such a nature as hers would in +the end be starved unless her heart should be deeply touched and unless +all her pent-up emotion could give itself up entirely in the great +surrender. +</P> + +<P> +After a few years of London she grew restless and dissatisfied. Her +surroundings wearied her. There was a call within her for something +more than she had yet experienced. The earl, her husband, was by nature +no less restless; and so, without knowing the reason—which, indeed, +she herself did not understand—he readily assented to a journey on the +Continent. +</P> + +<P> +As they traveled southward they reached at length the town of Valence, +where Count d'Orsay was still quartered with his regiment. A vague, +indefinable feeling of attraction swept over this woman, who was now a +woman of the world and yet quite inexperienced in affairs relating to +the heart. The mere sound of the French officer's voice, the mere sight +of his face, the mere knowledge of his presence, stirred her as nothing +had ever stirred her until that time. Yet neither he nor she appears to +have been conscious at once of the secret of their liking. It was +enough that they were soothed and satisfied with each other's company. +</P> + +<P> +Oddly enough, the Earl of Blessington became as devoted to D'Orsay as +did his wife. The two urged the count to secure a leave of absence and +to accompany them to Italy. This he was easily persuaded to do; and the +three passed weeks and months of a languorous and alluring intercourse +among the lakes and the seductive influence of romantic Italy. Just +what passed between Count d'Orsay and Margaret Blessington at this time +cannot be known, for the secret of it has perished with them; but it is +certain that before very long they came to know that each was +indispensable to the other. +</P> + +<P> +The situation was complicated by the Earl of Blessington, who, entirely +unsuspicious, proposed that the Count should marry Lady Harriet +Gardiner, his eldest legitimate daughter by his first wife. He pressed +the match upon the embarrassed D'Orsay, and offered to settle the sum +of forty thousand pounds upon the bride. The girl was less than fifteen +years of age. She had no gifts either of beauty or of intelligence; +and, in addition, D'Orsay was now deeply in love with her stepmother. +</P> + +<P> +On the other hand, his position with the Blessingtons was daily growing +more difficult. People had begun to talk of the almost open relations +between Count d'Orsay and Lady Blessington. Lord Byron, in a letter +written to the countess, spoke to her openly and in a playful way of +"YOUR D'Orsay." The manners and morals of the time were decidedly +irregular; yet sooner or later the earl was sure to gain some hint of +what every one was saying. Therefore, much against his real desire, yet +in order to shelter his relations with Lady Blessington, D'Orsay agreed +to the marriage with Lady Harriet, who was only fifteen years of age. +</P> + +<P> +This made the intimacy between D'Orsay and the Blessingtons appear to +be not unusual; but, as a matter of fact, the marriage was no marriage. +The unattractive girl who had become a bride merely to hide the +indiscretions of her stepmother was left entirely to herself; while the +whole family, returning to London, made their home together in Seymour +Place. +</P> + +<P> +Could D'Orsay have foreseen the future he would never have done what +must always seem an act so utterly unworthy of him. For within two +years Lord Blessington fell ill and died. Had not D'Orsay been married +he would now have been free to marry Lady Blessington. As it was, he +was bound fast to her stepdaughter; and since at that time there was no +divorce court in England, and since he had no reason for seeking a +divorce, he was obliged to live on through many years in a most +ambiguous situation. He did, however, separate himself from his +childish bride; and, having done so, he openly took up his residence +with Lady Blessington at Gore House. By this time, however, the +companionship of the two had received a sort of general sanction, and +in that easy-going age most people took it as a matter of course. +</P> + +<P> +The two were now quite free to live precisely as they would. Lady +Blessington became extravagantly happy, and Count d'Orsay was accepted +in London as an oracle of fashion. Every one was eager to visit Gore +House, and there they received all the notable men of the time. The +improvidence of Lady Blessington, however, was in no respect +diminished. She lived upon her jointure, recklessly spending capital as +well as interest, and gathering under her roof a rare museum of +artistic works, from jewels and curios up to magnificent pictures and +beautiful statuary. +</P> + +<P> +D'Orsay had sufficient self-respect not to live upon the money that had +come to Lady Blessington from her husband. He was a skilful painter, +and he practised his art in a professional way. His portrait of the +Duke of Wellington was preferred by that famous soldier to any other +that had been made of him. The Iron Duke was, in fact, a frequent +visitor at Gore House, and he had a very high opinion of Count d'Orsay. +Lady Blessington herself engaged in writing novels of "high life," some +of which were very popular in their day. But of all that she wrote +there remains only one book which is of permanent value—her +Conversations with Lord Byron, a very valuable contribution to our +knowledge of the brilliant poet. +</P> + +<P> +But a nemesis was destined to overtake the pair. Money flowed through +Lady Blessington's hands like water, and she could never be brought to +understand that what she had might not last for ever. Finally, it was +all gone, yet her extravagance continued. Debts were heaped up +mountain-high. She signed notes of hand without even reading them. She +incurred obligations of every sort without a moment's hesitation. +</P> + +<P> +For a long time her creditors held aloof, not believing that her +resources were in reality exhausted; but in the end there came a crash +as sudden as it was ruinous. As if moved by a single impulse, those to +whom she owed money took out judgments against her and descended upon +Gore House in a swarm. This was in the spring of 1849, when Lady +Blessington was in her sixtieth year and D'Orsay fifty-one. +</P> + +<P> +It is a curious coincidence that her earliest novel had portrayed the +wreck of a great establishment such as her own. Of the scene in Gore +House Mr. Madden, Lady Blessington's literary biographer, has written: +</P> + +<P> +Numerous creditors, bill-discounters, money-lenders, jewelers, +lace-venders, tax-collectors, gas-company agents, all persons having +claims to urge pressed them at this period simultaneously. An execution +for a debt of four thousand pounds was at length put in by a house +largely engaged in the silk, lace, India-shawl, and fancy-jewelry +business. +</P> + +<P> +This sum of four thousand pounds was only a nominal claim, but it +opened the flood-gates for all of Lady Blessington's creditors. Mr. +Madden writes still further: +</P> + +<P> +On the 10th of May, 1849, I visited Gore House for the last time. The +auction was going on. There was a large assemblage of people of +fashion. Every room was thronged; the well-known library-salon, in +which the conversaziones took place, was crowded, but not with guests. +The arm-chair in which the lady of the mansion was wont to sit was +occupied by a stout, coarse gentleman of the Jewish persuasion, busily +engaged in examining a marble hand extended on a book, the fingers of +which were modeled from a cast of those of the absent mistress of the +establishment. People, as they passed through the room, poked the +furniture, pulled about the precious objects of art and ornaments of +various kinds that lay on the table; and some made jests and ribald +jokes on the scene they witnessed. +</P> + +<P> +At this compulsory sale things went for less than half their value. +Pictures by Lawrence and Landseer, a library consisting of thousands of +volumes, vases of exquisite workmanship, chandeliers of ormolu, and +precious porcelains—all were knocked down relentlessly at farcical +prices. Lady Blessington reserved nothing for herself. She knew that +the hour had struck, and very soon she was on her way to Paris, whither +Count d'Orsay had already gone, having been threatened with arrest by a +boot-maker to whom he owed five hundred pounds. +</P> + +<P> +D'Orsay very naturally went to Paris, for, like his father, he had +always been an ardent Bonapartist, and now Prince Louis Bonaparte had +been chosen president of the Second French Republic. During the +prince's long period of exile he had been the guest of Count d'Orsay, +who had helped him both with money and with influence. D'Orsay now +expected some return for his former generosity. It came, but it came +too late. In 1852, shortly after Prince Louis assumed the title of +emperor, the count was appointed director of fine arts; but when the +news was brought to him he was already dying. Lady Blessington died +soon after coming to Paris, before the end of the year 1849. +</P> + +<P> +Comment upon this tangled story is scarcely needed. Yet one may quote +some sayings from a sort of diary which Lady Blessington called her +"Night Book." They seem to show that her supreme happiness lasted only +for a little while, and that deep down in her heart she had condemned +herself. +</P> + +<P> +A woman's head is always influenced by her heart; but a man's heart is +always influenced by his head. +</P> + +<P> +The separation of friends by death is less terrible than the divorce of +two hearts that have loved, but have ceased to sympathize, while memory +still recalls what they once were to each other. +</P> + +<P> +People are seldom tired of the world until the world is tired of them. +</P> + +<P> +A woman should not paint sentiment until she has ceased to inspire it. +</P> + +<P> +It is less difficult for a woman to obtain celebrity by her genius than +to be pardoned for it. +</P> + +<P> +Memory seldom fails when its office is to show us the tombs of our +buried hopes. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="byron"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BYRON AND THE COUNTESS GUICCIOLI +</H3> + +<P> +In 1812, when he was in his twenty-fourth year, Lord Byron was more +talked of than any other man in London. He was in the first flush of +his brilliant career, having published the early cantos of "Childe +Harold." Moreover, he was a peer of the realm, handsome, ardent, and +possessing a personal fascination which few men and still fewer women +could resist. +</P> + +<P> +Byron's childhood had been one to excite in him strong feelings of +revolt, and he had inherited a profligate and passionate nature. His +father was a gambler and a spendthrift. His mother was eccentric to a +degree. Byron himself, throughout his boyish years, had been morbidly +sensitive because of a physical deformity—a lame, misshapen foot. This +and the strange treatment which his mother accorded him left him +headstrong, wilful, almost from the first an enemy to whatever was +established and conventional. +</P> + +<P> +As a boy, he was remarkable for the sentimental attachments which he +formed. At eight years of age he was violently in love with a young +girl named Mary Duff. At ten his cousin, Margaret Parker, excited in +him a strange, un-childish passion. At fifteen came one of the greatest +crises of his life, when he became enamored of Mary Chaworth, whose +grand-father had been killed in a duel by Byron's great-uncle. Young as +he was, he would have married her immediately; but Miss Chaworth was +two years older than he, and absolutely refused to take seriously the +devotion of a school-boy. +</P> + +<P> +Byron felt the disappointment keenly; and after a short stay at +Cambridge, he left England, visited Portugal and Spain, and traveled +eastward as far as Greece and Turkey. At Athens he wrote the pretty +little poem to the "maid of Athens"—Miss Theresa Macri, daughter of +the British vice-consul. He returned to London to become at one leap +the most admired poet of the day and the greatest social favorite. He +was possessed of striking personal beauty. Sir Walter Scott said of +him: "His countenance was a thing to dream of." His glorious eyes, his +mobile, eloquent face, fascinated all; and he was, besides, a genius of +the first rank. +</P> + +<P> +With these endowments, he plunged into the social whirlpool, denying +himself nothing, and receiving everything-adulation, friendship, and +unstinted love. Darkly mysterious stories of his adventures in the East +made many think that he was the hero of some of his own poems, such as +"The Giaour" and "The Corsair." A German wrote of him that "he was +positively besieged by women." From the humblest maid-servants up to +ladies of high rank, he had only to throw his handkerchief to make a +conquest. Some women did not even wait for the handkerchief to be +thrown. No wonder that he was sated with so much adoration and that he +wrote of women: +</P> + +<P> +I regard them as very pretty but inferior creatures. I look on them as +grown-up children; but, like a foolish mother, I am constantly the +slave of one of them. Give a woman a looking-glass and burnt almonds, +and she will be content. +</P> + +<P> +The liaison which attracted the most attention at this time was that +between Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb. Byron has been greatly blamed for +his share in it; but there is much to be said on the other side. Lady +Caroline was happily married to the Right Hon. William Lamb, afterward +Lord Melbourne, and destined to be the first prime minister of Queen +Victoria. He was an easy-going, genial man of the world who placed too +much confidence in the honor of his wife. She, on the other hand, was a +sentimental fool, always restless, always in search of some new +excitement. She thought herself a poet, and scribbled verses, which her +friends politely admired, and from which they escaped as soon as +possible. When she first met Byron, she cried out: "That pale face is +my fate!" And she afterward added: "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know!" +</P> + +<P> +It was not long before the intimacy of the two came very near the point +of open scandal; but Byron was the wooed and not the wooer. This woman, +older than he, flung herself directly at his head. Naturally enough, it +was not very long before she bored him thoroughly. Her romantic +impetuosity became tiresome, and very soon she fell to talking always +of herself, thrusting her poems upon him, and growing vexed and peevish +when he would not praise them. As was well said, "he grew moody and she +fretful when their mutual egotisms jarred." +</P> + +<P> +In a burst of resentment she left him, but when she returned, she was +worse than ever. She insisted on seeing him. On one occasion she made +her way into his rooms disguised as a boy. At another time, when she +thought he had slighted her, she tried to stab herself with a pair of +scissors. Still later, she offered her favors to any one who would kill +him. Byron himself wrote of her: +</P> + +<P> +You can have no idea of the horrible and absurd things that she has +said and done. +</P> + +<P> +Her story has been utilized by Mrs. Humphry Ward in her novel, "The +Marriage of William Ashe." +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps this trying experience led Byron to end his life of +dissipation. At any rate, in 1813, he proposed marriage to Miss Anne +Millbanke, who at first refused him; but he persisted, and in 1815 the +two were married. Byron seems to have had a premonition that he was +making a terrible mistake. During the wedding ceremony he trembled like +a leaf, and made the wrong responses to the clergyman. After the +wedding was over, in handing his bride into the carriage which awaited +them, he said to her: +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Millbanke, are you ready?" +</P> + +<P> +It was a strange blunder for a bridegroom, and one which many regarded +at the time as ominous for the future. In truth, no two persons could +have been more thoroughly mismated—Byron, the human volcano, and his +wife, a prim, narrow-minded, and peevish woman. Their incompatibility +was evident enough from the very first, so that when they returned from +their wedding-journey, and some one asked Byron about his honeymoon, he +answered: +</P> + +<P> +"Call it rather a treacle moon!" +</P> + +<P> +It is hardly necessary here to tell over the story of their domestic +troubles. Only five weeks after their daughter's birth, they parted. +Lady Byron declared that her husband was insane; while after trying +many times to win from her something more than a tepid affection, he +gave up the task in a sort of despairing anger. It should be mentioned +here, for the benefit of those who recall the hideous charges made many +decades afterward by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe on the authority of +Lady Byron, that the latter remained on terms of friendly intimacy with +Augusta Leigh, Lord Byron's sister, and that even on her death-bed she +sent an amicable message to Mrs. Leigh. +</P> + +<P> +Byron, however, stung by the bitter attacks that were made upon him, +left England, and after traveling down the Rhine through Switzerland, +he took up his abode in Venice. His joy at leaving England and ridding +himself of the annoyances which had clustered thick about him, he +expressed in these lines: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Once more upon the waters! yet once more!<BR> + And the waves bound beneath me as a steed<BR> + That knows his rider. Welcome to the roar!<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile he enjoyed himself in reckless fashion. Money poured in upon +him from his English publisher. For two cantos of "Childe Harold" and +"Manfred," Murray paid him twenty thousand dollars. For the fourth +canto, Byron demanded and received more than twelve thousand dollars. +In Italy he lived on friendly terms with Shelley and Thomas Moore; but +eventually he parted from them both, for he was about to enter upon a +new phase of his curious career. +</P> + +<P> +He was no longer the Byron of 1815. Four years of high living and much +brandy-and-water had robbed his features of their refinement. His look +was no longer spiritual. He was beginning to grow stout. Yet the change +had not been altogether unfortunate. He had lost something of his wild +impetuosity, and his sense of humor had developed. In his thirtieth +year, in fact, he had at last become a man. +</P> + +<P> +It was soon after this that he met a woman who was to be to him for the +rest of his life what a well-known writer has called "a star on the +stormy horizon of the poet." This woman was Teresa, Countess Guiccioli, +whom he first came to know in Venice. She was then only nineteen years +of age, and she was married to a man who was more than forty years her +senior. Unlike the typical Italian woman, she was blonde, with dreamy +eyes and an abundance of golden hair, and her manner was at once modest +and graceful. She had known Byron but a very short time when she found +herself thrilling with a passion of which until then she had never +dreamed. It was written of her: +</P> + +<P> +She had thought of love but as an amusement; yet she now became its +slave. +</P> + +<P> +To this love Byron gave an immediate response, and from that time until +his death he cared for no other woman. The two were absolutely mated. +Nevertheless, there were difficulties which might have been expected. +Count Guiccioli, while he seemed to admire Byron, watched him with +Italian subtlety. The English poet and the Italian countess met +frequently. When Byron was prostrated by an attack of fever, the +countess remained beside him, and he was just recovering when Count +Guiccioli appeared upon the scene and carried off his wife. Byron was +in despair. He exchanged the most ardent letters with the countess, yet +he dreaded assassins whom he believed to have been hired by her +husband. Whenever he rode out, he went armed with sword and pistols. +</P> + +<P> +Amid all this storm and stress, Byron's literary activity was +remarkable. He wrote some of his most famous poems at this time, and he +hoped for the day when he and the woman whom he loved might be united +once for all. This came about in the end through the persistence of the +pair. The Countess Guiccioli openly took up her abode with him, not to +be separated until the poet sailed for Greece to aid the Greeks in +their struggle for independence. This was in 1822, when Byron was in +his thirty-fifth year. He never returned to Italy, but died in the +historic land for which he gave his life as truly as if he had fallen +upon the field of battle. +</P> + +<P> +Teresa Guiccioli had been, in all but name, his wife for just three +years. Much, has been said in condemnation of this love-affair; but in +many ways it is less censurable than almost anything in his career. It +was an instance of genuine love, a love which purified and exalted this +man of dark and moody moments. It saved him from those fitful passions +and orgies of self-indulgence which had exhausted him. It proved to be +an inspiration which at last led him to die for a cause approved by all +the world. +</P> + +<P> +As for the woman, what shall we say of her? She came to him unspotted +by the world. A demand for divorce which her husband made was rejected. +A pontifical brief pronounced a formal separation between the two. The +countess gladly left behind "her palaces, her equipages, society, and +riches, for the love of the poet who had won her heart." +</P> + +<P> +Unlike the other women who had cared for him, she was unselfish in her +devotion. She thought more of his fame than did he himself. Emilio +Castelar has written: +</P> + +<P> +She restored him and elevated him. She drew him from the mire and set +the crown of purity upon his brow. Then, when she had recovered this +great heart, instead of keeping it as her own possession, she gave it +to humanity. +</P> + +<P> +For twenty-seven years after Byron's death, she remained, as it were, +widowed and alone. Then, in her old age, she married the Marquis de +Boissy; but the marriage was purely one of convenience. Her heart was +always Byron's, whom she defended with vivacity. In 1868, she published +her memoirs of the poet, filled with interesting and affecting +recollections. She died as late as 1873. +</P> + +<P> +Some time between the year 1866 and that of her death, she is said to +have visited Newstead Abbey, which had once been Byron's home. She was +very old, a widow, and alone; but her affection for the poet-lover of +her youth was still as strong as ever. +</P> + +<P> +Byron's life was short, if measured by years only. Measured by +achievement, it was filled to the very full. His genius blazes like a +meteor in the records of English poetry; and some of that splendor +gleams about the lovely woman who turned him away from vice and folly +and made him worthy of his historic ancestry, of his country, and of +himself. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="stael"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE STORY OF MME. DE STAEL +</H3> + +<P> +Each century, or sometimes each generation, is distinguished by some +especial interest among those who are given to fancies—not to call +them fads. Thus, at the present time, the cultivated few are taken up +with what they choose to term the "new thought," or the "new +criticism," or, on the other hand, with socialistic theories and +projects. Thirty years ago, when Oscar Wilde was regarded seriously by +some people, there were many who made a cult of estheticism. It was +just as interesting when their leader— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Walked down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily<BR> + In his medieval hand,<BR> +</P> + +<P> +or when Sir William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan guyed him as +Bunthorne in "Patience." +</P> + +<P> +When Charles Kingsley was a great expounder of British common sense, +"muscular Christianity" was a phrase which was taken up by many +followers. A little earlier, Puseyism and a primitive form of socialism +were in vogue with the intellectuals. There are just as many different +fashions in thought as in garments, and they come and go without any +particular reason. To-day, they are discussed and practised everywhere. +To-morrow, they are almost forgotten in the rapid pursuit of something +new. +</P> + +<P> +Forty years before the French Revolution burst forth with all its +thunderings, France and Germany were affected by what was generally +styled "sensibility." Sensibility was the sister of sentimentality and +the half-sister of sentiment. Sentiment is a fine thing in itself. It +is consistent with strength and humor and manliness; but sentimentality +and sensibility are poor cheeping creatures that run scuttering along +the ground, quivering and whimpering and asking for perpetual sympathy, +which they do not at all deserve. +</P> + +<P> +No one need be ashamed of sentiment. It simply gives temper to the +blade, and mellowness to the intellect. Sensibility, on the other hand, +is full of shivers and shakes and falsetto notes and squeaks. It is, in +fact, all humbug, just as sentiment is often all truth. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore, to find an interesting phase of human folly, we may look +back to the years which lie between 1756 and 1793 as the era of +sensibility. The great prophets of this false god, or goddess, were +Rousseau in France and Goethe with Schiller in Germany, together with a +host of midgets who shook and shivered in imitation of their masters. +It is not for us to catalogue these persons. Some of them were great +figures in literature and philosophy, and strong enough to shake aside +the silliness of sensibility; but others, while they professed to be +great as writers or philosophers, are now remembered only because their +devotion to sensibility made them conspicuous in their own time. They +dabbled in one thing and another; they "cribbed" from every popular +writer of the day. The only thing that actually belonged to them was a +high degree of sensibility. +</P> + +<P> +And what, one may ask, was this precious thing—this sensibility? +</P> + +<P> +It was really a sort of St. Vitus's dance of the mind, and almost of +the body. When two persons, in any way interested in each other, were +brought into the same room, one of them appeared to be seized with a +rotary movement. The voice rose to a higher pitch than usual, and +assumed a tremolo. Then, if the other person was also endowed with +sensibility, he or she would rotate and quake in somewhat the same +manner. Their cups of tea would be considerably agitated. They would +move about in as unnatural a manner as possible; and when they left the +room, they would do so with gaspings and much waste of breath. +</P> + +<P> +This was not an exhibition of love—or, at least, not necessarily so. +You might exhibit sensibility before a famous poet, or a gallant +soldier, or a celebrated traveler—or, for that matter, before a +remarkable buffoon, like Cagliostro, or a freak, like Kaspar Hauser. +</P> + +<P> +It is plain enough that sensibility was entirely an abnormal thing, and +denoted an abnormal state of mind. Only among people like the Germans +and French of that period, who were forbidden to take part in public +affairs, could it have flourished so long, and have put forth such rank +and fetid outgrowths. From it sprang the "elective affinities" of +Goethe, and the loose morality of the French royalists, which rushed on +into the roaring sea of infidelity, blasphemy, and anarchy of the +Revolution. +</P> + +<P> +Of all the historic figures of that time, there is just one which +to-day stands forth as representing sensibility. In her own time she +was thought to be something of a philosopher, and something more of a +novelist. She consorted with all the clever men and women of her age. +But now she holds a minute niche in history because of the fact that +Napoleon stooped to hate her, and because she personifies sensibility. +</P> + +<P> +Criticism has stripped from her the rags and tatters of the philosophy +which was not her own. It is seen that she was indebted to the brains +of others for such imaginative bits of fiction as she put forth in +Delphine and Corinne; but as the exponent of sensibility she remains +unique. This woman was Anne Louise Germaine Necker, usually known as +Mme. de Stael. +</P> + +<P> +There was much about Mile. Necker's parentage that made her +interesting. Her father was the Genevese banker and minister of Louis +XVI, who failed wretchedly in his attempts to save the finances of +France. Her mother, Suzanne Curchod, as a young girl, had won the love +of the famous English historian, Edward Gibbon. She had first refused +him, and then almost frantically tried to get him back; but by this +time Gibbon was more comfortable in single life and less infatuated +with Mlle. Curchod, who presently married Jacques Necker. +</P> + +<P> +M. Necker's money made his daughter a very celebrated "catch." Her +mother brought her to Paris when the French capital was brilliant +beyond description, and yet was tottering to its fall. The rumblings of +the Revolution could be heard by almost every ear; and yet society and +the court, refusing to listen, plunged into the wildest revelry under +the leadership of the giddy Marie Antoinette. +</P> + +<P> +It was here that the young girl was initiated into the most elegant +forms of luxury, and met the cleverest men of that time—Voltaire, +Rousseau, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Volney. She set herself to be the +most accomplished woman of her day, not merely in belles lettres, but +in the natural and political sciences. Thus, when her father was +drawing up his monograph on the French finances, Germaine labored hard +over a supplementary report, studying documents, records, and the most +complicated statistics, so that she might obtain a mastery of the +subject. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean to know everything that anybody knows," she said, with an +arrogance which was rather admired in so young a woman. +</P> + +<P> +But, unfortunately, her mind was not great enough to fulfil her +aspiration. The most she ever achieved was a fair knowledge of many +things—a knowledge which seemed surprising to the average man, but +which was superficial enough to the accomplished specialist. +</P> + +<P> +In her twentieth year (1786) it was thought best that she should marry. +Her revels, as well as her hard studies, had told upon her health, and +her mother believed that she could not be at once a blue-stocking and a +woman of the world. +</P> + +<P> +There was something very odd about the relation that existed between +the young girl and this mother of hers. In the Swiss province where +they had both been born, the mother had been considered rather bold and +forward. Her penchant for Gibbon was only one of a number of adventures +that have been told about her. She was by no means coy with the +gallants of Geneva. Yet, after her marriage, and when she came to +Paris, she seemed to be transformed into a sort of Swiss Puritan. +</P> + +<P> +As such, she undertook her daughter's bringing up, and was extremely +careful about everything that Germaine did and about the company she +kept. On the other hand, the daughter, who in the city of Calvin had +been rather dull and quiet in her ways, launched out into a gaiety such +as she had never known in Switzerland. Mother and daughter, in fact, +changed parts. The country beauty of Geneva became the prude of Paris, +while the quiet, unemotional young Genevese became the light of all the +Parisian salons, whether social or intellectual. +</P> + +<P> +The mother was a very beautiful woman. The daughter, who was to become +so famous, is best described by those two very uncomplimentary English +words, "dumpy" and "frumpy." She had bulging eyes—which are not +emphasized in the flattering portrait by Gerard—and her hair was +unbecomingly dressed. There are reasons for thinking that Germaine +bitterly hated her mother, and was intensely jealous of her charm of +person. It may be also that Mme. Necker envied the daughter's +cleverness, even though that cleverness was little more, in the end, +than the borrowing of brilliant things from other persons. At any rate, +the two never cared for each other, and Germaine gave to her father the +affection which her mother neither received nor sought. +</P> + +<P> +It was perhaps to tame the daughter's exuberance that a marriage was +arranged for Mlle. Necker with the Baron de Stael-Holstein, who then +represented the court of Sweden at Paris. Many eyebrows were lifted +when this match was announced. Baron de Stael had no personal charm, +nor any reputation for wit. His standing in the diplomatic corps was +not very high. His favorite occupations were playing cards and drinking +enormous quantities of punch. Could he be considered a match for the +extremely clever Mlle. Necker, whose father had an enormous fortune, +and who was herself considered a gem of wit and mental power, ready to +discuss political economy, or the romantic movement of socialism, or +platonic love? +</P> + +<P> +Many differed about this. Mlle. Necker was, to be sure, rich and +clever; but the Baron de Stael was of an old family, and had a title. +Moreover, his easy-going ways—even his punch-drinking and his +card-playing—made him a desirable husband at that time of French +social history, when the aristocracy wished to act exactly as it +pleased, with wanton license, and when an embassy was a very convenient +place into which an indiscreet ambassadress might retire when the mob +grew dangerous. For Paris was now approaching the time of revolution, +and all "aristocrats" were more or less in danger. +</P> + +<P> +At first Mme. de Stael rather sympathized with the outbreak of the +people; but later their excesses drove her back into sympathy with the +royalists. It was then that she became indiscreet and abused the +privilege of the embassy in giving shelter to her friends. She was +obliged to make a sudden flight across the frontier, whence she did not +return until Napoleon loomed up, a political giant on the +horizon—victorious general, consul, and emperor. +</P> + +<P> +Mme. de Stael's relations with Napoleon have, as I remarked above, been +among her few titles to serious remembrance. The Corsican eagle and the +dumpy little Genevese make, indeed, a peculiar pair; and for this +reason writers have enhanced the oddities of the picture. +</P> + +<P> +"Napoleon," says one, "did not wish any one to be near him who was as +clever as himself." +</P> + +<P> +"No," adds another, "Mme. de Stael made a dead set at Napoleon, because +she wished to conquer and achieve the admiration of everybody, even of +the greatest man who ever lived." +</P> + +<P> +"Napoleon found her to be a good deal of a nuisance," observes a third. +"She knew too much, and was always trying to force her knowledge upon +others." +</P> + +<P> +The legend has sprung up that Mme. de Stael was too wise and witty to +be acceptable to Napoleon; and many women repeated with unction that +the conqueror of Europe was no match for this frowsy little woman. It +is, perhaps, worth while to look into the facts, and to decide whether +Napoleon was really of so petty a nature as to feel himself inferior to +this rather comic creature, even though at the time many people thought +her a remarkable genius. +</P> + +<P> +In the first place, knowing Napoleon, as we have come to know him +through the pages of Mme. de Remusat, Frederic Masson, and others, we +can readily imagine the impatience with which the great soldier would +sit at dinner, hastening to finish his meal, crowding the whole +ceremony into twenty minutes, gulping a glass or two of wine and a cup +of coffee, and then being interrupted by a fussy little female who +wanted to talk about the ethics of history, or the possibility of a new +form of government. Napoleon, himself, was making history, and writing +it in fire and flame; and as for governments, he invented governments +all over Europe as suited his imperial will. What patience could he +have with one whom an English writer has rather unkindly described as +"an ugly coquette, an old woman who made a ridiculous marriage, a +blue-stocking, who spent much of her time in pestering men of genius, +and drawing from them sarcastic comment behind their backs?" +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon was not the sort of a man to be routed in discussion, but he +was most decidedly the sort of man to be bored and irritated by +pedantry. Consequently, he found Mme. de Stael a good deal of a +nuisance in the salons of Paris and its vicinity. He cared not the +least for her epigrams. She might go somewhere else and write all the +epigrams she pleased. When he banished her, in 1803, she merely crossed +the Rhine into Germany, and established herself at Weimar. +</P> + +<P> +The emperor received her son, Auguste de Stael-Holstein, with much good +humor, though he refused the boy's appeal on behalf of his mother. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear baron," said Napoleon, "if your mother were to be in Paris for +two months, I should really be obliged to lock her up in one of the +castles, which would be most unpleasant treatment for me to show a +lady. No, let her go anywhere else and we can get along perfectly. All +Europe is open to her—Rome, Vienna, St. Petersburg; and if she wishes +to write libels on me, England is a convenient and inexpensive place. +Only Paris is just a little too near!" +</P> + +<P> +Thus the emperor gibed the boy—he was only fifteen or sixteen—and +made fun of the exiled blue-stocking; but there was not a sign of +malice in what he said, nor, indeed, of any serious feeling at all. The +legend about Napoleon and Mme. de Stael must, therefore, go into the +waste-basket, except in so far as it is true that she succeeded in +boring him. +</P> + +<P> +For the rest, she was an earlier George Sand—unattractive in person, +yet able to attract; loving love for love's sake, though seldom +receiving it in return; throwing herself at the head of every +distinguished man, and generally finding that he regarded her overtures +with mockery. To enumerate the men for whom she professed to care would +be tedious, since the record of her passions has no reality about it, +save, perhaps, with two exceptions. +</P> + +<P> +She did care deeply and sincerely for Henri Benjamin Constant, the +brilliant politician and novelist. He was one of her coterie in Paris, +and their common political sentiments formed a bond of friendship +between them. Constant was banished by Napoleon in 1802, and when Mme. +de Stael followed him into exile a year later he joined her in Germany. +</P> + +<P> +The story of their relations was told by Constant in Adolphe, while +Mme. de Stael based Delphine on her experiences with him. It seems that +he was puzzled by her ardor; she was infatuated by his genius. Together +they went through all the phases of the tender passion; and yet, at +intervals, they would tire of each other and separate for a while, and +she would amuse herself with other men. At last she really believed +that her love for him was entirely worn out. +</P> + +<P> +"I always loved my lovers more than they loved me," she said once, and +it was true. +</P> + +<P> +Yet, on the other hand, she was frankly false to all of them, and hence +arose these intervals. In one of them she fell in with a young Italian +named Rocca, and by way of a change she not only amused herself with +him, but even married him. At this time—1811—she was forty-five, +while Rocca was only twenty-three—a young soldier who had fought in +Spain, and who made eager love to the she-philosopher when he was +invalided at Geneva. +</P> + +<P> +The marriage was made on terms imposed by the middle-aged woman who +became his bride. In the first place, it was to be kept secret; and +second, she would not take her husband's name, but he must pass himself +off as her lover, even though she bore him children. The reason she +gave for this extraordinary exhibition of her vanity was that a change +of name on her part would put everybody out. +</P> + +<P> +"In fact," she said, "if Mme. de Stael were to change her name, it +would unsettle the heads of all Europe!" +</P> + +<P> +And so she married Rocca, who was faithful to her to the end, though +she grew extremely plain and querulous, while he became deaf and soon +lost his former charm. Her life was the life of a woman who had, in her +own phrase, "attempted everything"; and yet she had accomplished +nothing that would last. She was loved by a man of genius, but he did +not love her to the end. She was loved by a man of action, and she +tired of him very soon. She had a wonderful reputation for her +knowledge of history and philosophy, and yet what she knew of those +subjects is now seen to be merely the scraps and borrowings of others. +</P> + +<P> +Something she did when she introduced the romantic literature into +France; and there are passages from her writings which seem worthy of +preservation. For instance, we may quote her outburst with regard to +unhappy marriages. "It was the subject," says Mr. Gribble, "on which +she had begun to think before she was married, and which continued to +haunt her long after she was left a widow; though one suspects that the +word 'marriage' became a form of speech employed to describe her +relations, not with her husband, but with her lovers." The passage to +which I refer is as follows: +</P> + +<P> +In an unhappy marriage, there is a violence of distress surpassing all +other sufferings in the world. A woman's whole soul depends upon the +conjugal tie. To struggle against fate alone, to journey to the grave +without a friend to support you or to regret you, is an isolation of +which the deserts of Arabia give but a faint and feeble idea. When all +the treasure of your youth has been given in vain, when you can no +longer hope that the reflection of these first rays will shine upon the +end of your life, when there is nothing in the dusk to remind you of +the dawn, and when the twilight is pale and colorless as a livid +specter that precedes the night, your heart revolts, and you feel that +you have been robbed of the gifts of God upon earth. +</P> + +<P> +Equally striking is another prose passage of hers, which seems less the +careful thought of a philosopher than the screeching of a termagant. It +is odd that the first two sentences recall two famous lines of Byron: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Man's love is of man's life a thing apart;<BR> + 'Tis woman's whole existence.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The passage by Mme. de Stael is longer and less piquant: +</P> + +<P> +Love is woman's whole existence. It is only an episode in the lives of +men. Reputation, honor, esteem, everything depends upon how a woman +conducts herself in this regard; whereas, according to the rules of an +unjust world, the laws of morality itself are suspended in men's +relations with women. They may pass as good men, though they have +caused women the most terrible suffering which it is in the power of +one human being to inflict upon another. They may be regarded as loyal, +though they have betrayed them. They may have received from a woman +marks of a devotion which would so link two friends, two fellow +soldiers, that either would feel dishonored if he forgot them, and they +may consider themselves free of all obligations by attributing the +services to love—as if this additional gift of love detracted from the +value of the rest! +</P> + +<P> +One cannot help noticing how lacking in neatness of expression is this +woman who wrote so much. It is because she wrote so much that she wrote +in such a muffled manner. It is because she thought so much that her +reflections were either not her own, or were never clear. It is because +she loved so much, and had so many lovers—Benjamin Constant; Vincenzo +Monti, the Italian poet; M. de Narbonne, and others, as well as young +Rocca—that she found both love and lovers tedious. +</P> + +<P> +She talked so much that her conversation was almost always mere +personal opinion. Thus she told Goethe that he never was really +brilliant until after he had got through a bottle of champagne. +Schiller said that to talk with her was to have a "rough time," and +that after she left him, he always felt like a man who was just getting +over a serious illness. She never had time to do anything very well. +</P> + +<P> +There is an interesting glimpse of her in the recollections of Dr. +Bollmann, at the period when Mme. de Stael was in her prime. The worthy +doctor set her down as a genius—an extraordinary, eccentric woman in +all that she did. She slept but a few hours out of the twenty-four, and +was uninterruptedly and fearfully busy all the rest of the time. While +her hair was being dressed, and even while she breakfasted, she used to +keep on writing, nor did she ever rest sufficiently to examine what she +had written. +</P> + +<P> +Such then was Mme. de Stael, a type of the time in which she lived, so +far as concerns her worship of sensibility—of sensibility, and not of +love; for love is too great to be so scattered and made a thing to +prattle of, to cheapen, and thus destroy. So we find at the last that +Germaine de Stael, though she was much read and much feted and much +followed, came finally to that last halting-place where confessedly she +was merely an old woman, eccentric, and unattractive. She sued her +former lovers for the money she had lent them, she scolded and found +fault—as perhaps befits her age. +</P> + +<P> +But such is the natural end of sensibility, and of the woman who +typifies it for succeeding generations. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="marx"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE STORY OF KARL MARX +</H3> + +<P> +Some time ago I entered a fairly large library—one of more than two +hundred thousand volumes—to seek the little brochure on Karl Marx +written by his old friend and genial comrade Wilhelm Liebknecht. It was +in the card catalogue. As I made a note of its number, my friend the +librarian came up to me, and I asked him whether it was not strange +that a man like Marx should have so many books devoted to him, for I +had roughly reckoned the number at several hundred. +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all," said he; "and we have here only a feeble nucleus of the +Marx literature—just enough, in fact, to give you a glimpse of what +that literature really is. These are merely the books written by Marx +himself, and the translations of them, with a few expository +monographs. Anything like a real Marx collection would take up a +special room in this library, and would have to have its own separate +catalogue. You see that even these two or three hundred books contain +large volumes of small pamphlets in many languages—German, English, +French, Italian, Russian, Polish, Yiddish, Swedish, Hungarian, Spanish; +and here," he concluded, pointing to a recently numbered card, "is one +in Japanese." +</P> + +<P> +My curiosity was sufficiently excited to look into the matter somewhat +further. I visited another library, which was appreciably larger, and +whose managers were evidently less guided by their prejudices. Here +were several thousand books on Marx, and I spent the best part of the +day in looking them over. +</P> + +<P> +What struck me as most singular was the fact that there was scarcely a +volume about Marx himself. Practically all the books dealt with his +theory of capital and his other socialistic views. The man himself, his +personality, and the facts of his life were dismissed in the most +meager fashion, while his economic theories were discussed with +something that verged upon fury. Even such standard works as those of +Mehring and Spargo, which profess to be partly biographical, sum up the +personal side of Marx in a few pages. In fact, in the latter's preface +he seems conscious of this defect, and says: +</P> + +<P> +Whether socialism proves, in the long span of centuries, to be good or +evil, a blessing to men or a curse, Karl Marx must always be an object +of interest as one of the great world-figures of immortal memory. As +the years go by, thoughtful men and women will find the same interest +in studying the life and work of Marx that they do in studying the life +and work of Cromwell, of Wesley, or of Darwin, to name three immortal +world-figures of vastly divergent types. +</P> + +<P> +Singularly little is known of Karl Marx, even by his most ardent +followers. They know his work, having studied his Das Kapital with the +devotion and earnestness with which an older generation of Christians +studied the Bible, but they are very generally unacquainted with the +man himself. Although more than twenty-six years have elapsed since the +death of Marx, there is no adequate biography of him in any language. +</P> + +<P> +Doubtless some better-equipped German writer, such as Franz Mehring or +Eduard Bernstein, will some day give us the adequate and full biography +for which the world now waits. +</P> + +<P> +Here is an admission that there exists no adequate biography of Karl +Marx, and here is also an intimation that simply as a man, and not +merely as a great firebrand of socialism, Marx is well worth studying. +And so it has occurred to me to give in these pages one episode of his +career that seems to me quite curious, together with some significant +touches concerning the man as apart from the socialist. Let the +thousands of volumes already in existence suffice for the latter. The +motto of this paper is not the Vergilian "Arms and the man I sing," but +simply "The man I sing"—and the woman. Karl Marx was born nearly +ninety-four years ago—May 5, 1818—in the city which the French call +Treves and the Germans Trier, among the vine-clad hills of the Moselle. +Today, the town is commonplace enough when you pass through it, but +when you look into its history, and seek out that history's evidences, +you will find that it was not always a rather sleepy little place. It +was one of the chosen abodes of the Emperors of the West, after Rome +began to be governed by Gauls and Spaniards, rather than by Romans and +Italians. The traveler often pauses there to see the Porta Nigra, that +immense gate once strongly fortified, and he will doubtless visit also +what is left of the fine baths and amphitheater. +</P> + +<P> +Treves, therefore, has a right to be termed imperial, and it was the +birthplace of one whose sway over the minds of men has been both +imperial and imperious. +</P> + +<P> +Karl Marx was one of those whose intellectual achievements were so +great as to dwarf his individuality and his private life. What he +taught with almost terrific vigor made his very presence in the +Continental monarchies a source of eminent danger. He was driven from +country to country. Kings and emperors were leagued together against +him. Soldiers were called forth, and blood was shed because of him. +But, little by little, his teaching seems to have leavened the thought +of the whole civilized world, so that to-day thousands who barely know +his name are deeply affected by his ideas, and believe that the state +should control and manage everything for the good of all. +</P> + +<P> +Marx seems to have inherited little from either of his parents. His +father, Heinrich Marx, was a provincial Jewish lawyer who had adopted +Christianity, probably because it was expedient, and because it enabled +him to hold local offices and gain some social consequence. He had +changed his name from Mordecai to Marx. +</P> + +<P> +The elder Marx was very shrewd and tactful, and achieved a fair +position among the professional men and small officials in the city of +Treves. He had seen the horrors of the French Revolution, and was +philosopher enough to understand the meaning of that mighty upheaval, +and of the Napoleonic era which followed. +</P> + +<P> +Napoleon, indeed, had done much to relieve his race from petty +oppression. France made the Jews in every respect the equals of the +Gentiles. One of its ablest marshals—Massena—was a Jew, and +therefore, when the imperial eagle was at the zenith of its flight, the +Jews in every city and town of Europe were enthusiastic admirers of +Napoleon, some even calling him the Messiah. +</P> + +<P> +Karl Marx's mother, it is certain, endowed him with none of his gifts. +She was a Netherlandish Jewess of the strictly domestic and +conservative type, fond of her children and her home, and detesting any +talk that looked to revolutionary ideas or to a change in the social +order. She became a Christian with her husband, but the word meant +little to her. It was sufficient that she believed in God; and for this +she was teased by some of her skeptical friends. Replying to them, she +uttered the only epigram that has ever been ascribed to her. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said, "I believe in God, not for God's sake, but for my own." +</P> + +<P> +She was so little affected by change of scene that to the day of her +death she never mastered German, but spoke almost wholly in her native +Dutch. Had we time, we might dwell upon the unhappy paradox of her +life. In her son Karl she found an especial joy, as did her husband. +Had the father lived beyond Karl's early youth, he would doubtless have +been greatly pained by the radicalism of his gifted son, as well as by +his personal privations. But the mother lived until 1863, while Karl +was everywhere stirring the fires of revolution, driven from land to +land, both feared and persecuted, and often half famished. As Mr. +Spargo says: +</P> + +<P> +It was the irony of life that the son, who kindled a mighty hope in the +hearts of unnumbered thousands of his fellow human beings, a hope that +is today inspiring millions of those who speak his name with reverence +and love, should be able to do that only by destroying his mother's +hope and happiness in her son, and that every step he took should fill +her heart with a great agony. +</P> + +<P> +When young Marx grew out of boyhood into youth, he was attractive to +all those who met him. Tall, lithe, and graceful, he was so extremely +dark that his intimates called him "der neger"—"the negro." His +loosely tossing hair gave to him a still more exotic appearance; but +his eyes were true and frank, his nose denoted strength and character, +and his mouth was full of kindliness in its expression. His lineaments +were not those of the Jewish type. +</P> + +<P> +Very late in life—he died in 1883—his hair and beard turned white, +but to the last his great mustache was drawn like a bar across his +face, remaining still as black as ink, and making his appearance very +striking. He was full of fun and gaiety. As was only natural, there +soon came into his life some one who learned to love him, and to whom, +in his turn, he gave a deep and unbroken affection. +</P> + +<P> +There had come to Treves—which passed from France to Prussia with the +downfall of Napoleon—a Prussian nobleman, the Baron Ludwig von +Westphalen, holding the official title of "national adviser." The baron +was of Scottish extraction on his mother's side, being connected with +the ducal family of Argyll. He was a man of genuine rank, and might +have shown all the arrogance and superciliousness of the average +Prussian official; but when he became associated with Heinrich Marx he +evinced none of that condescending manner. The two men became firm +friends, and the baron treated the provincial lawyer as an equal. +</P> + +<P> +The two families were on friendly terms. Von Westphalen's infant +daughter, who had the formidable name of Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny von +Westphalen, but who was usually spoken of as Jenny, became, in time, an +intimate of Sophie Marx. She was four years older than Karl, but the +two grew up together—he a high-spirited, manly boy, and she a lovely +and romantic girl. +</P> + +<P> +The baron treated Karl as if the lad were a child of his own. He +influenced him to love romantic literature and poetry by interpreting +to him the great masterpieces, from Homer and Shakespeare to Goethe and +Lessing. He made a special study of Dante, whose mysticism appealed to +his somewhat dreamy nature, and to the religious instinct that always +lived in him, in spite of his dislike for creeds and churches. +</P> + +<P> +The lore that he imbibed in early childhood stood Karl in good stead +when he began his school life, and his preparation for the university. +He had an absolute genius for study, and was no less fond of the sports +and games of his companions, so that he seemed to be marked out for +success. At sixteen years of age he showed a precocious ability for +planning and carrying out his work with thoroughness. His mind was +evidently a creative mind, one that was able to think out difficult +problems without fatigue. His taste was shown in his fondness for the +classics, in studying which he noted subtle distinctions of meaning +that usually escape even the mature scholar. Penetration, thoroughness, +creativeness, and a capacity for labor were the boy's chief +characteristics. +</P> + +<P> +With such gifts, and such a nature, he left home for the university of +Bonn. Here he disappointed all his friends. His studies were neglected; +he was morose, restless, and dissatisfied. He fell into a number of +scrapes, and ran into debt through sundry small extravagances. All the +reports that reached his home were most unsatisfactory. What had come +over the boy who had worked so hard in the gymnasium at Treves? +</P> + +<P> +The simple fact was that he had became love-sick. His separation from +Jenny von Westphalen had made him conscious of a feeling which he had +long entertained without knowing it. They had been close companions. He +had looked into her beautiful face and seen the luminous response of +her lovely eyes, but its meaning had not flashed upon his mind. He was +not old enough to have a great consuming passion, he was merely +conscious of her charm. As he could see her every day, he did not +realize how much he wanted her, and how much a separation from her +would mean. +</P> + +<P> +As "absence makes the heart grow fonder," so it may suddenly draw aside +the veil behind which the truth is hidden. At Bonn young Marx felt as +if a blaze of light had flashed before him; and from that moment his +studies, his companions, and the ambitions that he had hitherto +cherished all seemed flat and stale. At night and in the daytime there +was just one thing which filled his mind and heart—the beautiful +vision of Jenny von Westphalen. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile his family, and especially his father, had become anxious at +the reports which reached them. Karl was sent for, and his stay at Bonn +was ended. +</P> + +<P> +Now that he was once more in the presence of the girl who charmed him +so, he recovered all his old-time spirits. He wooed her ardently, and +though she was more coy, now that she saw his passion, she did not +discourage him, but merely prolonged the ecstasy of this wonderful +love-making. As he pressed her more and more, and no one guessed the +story, there came a time when she was urged to let herself become +engaged to him. +</P> + +<P> +Here was seen the difference in their ages—a difference that had an +effect upon their future. It means much that a girl should be four +years older than the man who seeks her hand. She is four years wiser; +and a girl of twenty is, in fact, a match for a youth of twenty-five. +Brought up as she had been, in an aristocratic home, with the blood of +two noble families in her veins, and being wont to hear the easy and +somewhat cynical talk of worldly people, she knew better than poor Karl +the un-wisdom of what she was about to do. +</P> + +<P> +She was noble, the daughter of one high official and the sister of +another. Those whom she knew were persons of rank and station. On the +other hand, young Marx, though he had accepted Christianity, was the +son of a provincial Jewish lawyer, with no fortune, and with a bad +record at the university. When she thought of all these things, she may +well have hesitated; but the earnest pleading and intense ardor of Karl +Marx broke down all barriers between them, and they became engaged, +without informing Jenny's father of their compact. Then they parted for +a while, and Karl returned to his home, filled with romantic thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +He was also full of ambition and of desire for achievement. He had won +the loveliest girl in Treves, and now he must go forth into the world +and conquer it for her sake. He begged his father to send him to +Berlin, and showed how much more advantageous was that new and splendid +university, where Hegel's fame was still in the ascendent. +</P> + +<P> +In answer to his father's questions, the younger Marx replied: +</P> + +<P> +"I have something to tell you that will explain all; but first you must +give me your word that you will tell no one." +</P> + +<P> +"I trust you wholly," said the father. "I will not reveal what you may +say to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," returned the son, "I am engaged to marry Jenny von Westphalen. +She wishes it kept a secret from her father, but I am at liberty to +tell you of it." +</P> + +<P> +The elder Marx was at once shocked and seriously disturbed. Baron von +Westphalen was his old and intimate friend. No thought of romance +between their children had ever come into his mind. It seemed disloyal +to keep the verlobung of Karl and Jenny a secret; for should it be +revealed, what would the baron think of Marx? Their disparity of rank +and fortune would make the whole affair stand out as something wrong +and underhand. +</P> + +<P> +The father endeavored to make his son see all this. He begged him to go +and tell the baron, but young Marx was not to be persuaded. +</P> + +<P> +"Send me to Berlin," he said, "and we shall again be separated; but I +shall work and make a name for myself, so that when I return neither +Jenny nor her father will have occasion to be disturbed by our +engagement." +</P> + +<P> +With these words he half satisfied his father, and before long he was +sent to Berlin, where he fell manfully upon his studies. His father had +insisted that he should study law; but his own tastes were for +philosophy and history. He attended lectures in jurisprudence "as a +necessary evil," but he read omnivorously in subjects that were nearer +to his heart. The result was that his official record was not much +better than it had been at Bonn. +</P> + +<P> +The same sort of restlessness, too, took possession of him when he +found that Jenny would not answer his letters. No matter how eagerly +and tenderly he wrote to her, there came no reply. Even the most +passionate pleadings left her silent and unresponsive. Karl could not +complain, for she had warned him that she would not write to him. She +felt that their engagement, being secret, was anomalous, and that until +her family knew of it she was not free to act as she might wish. +</P> + +<P> +Here again was seen the wisdom of her maturer years; but Karl could not +be equally reasonable. He showered her with letters, which still she +would not answer. He wrote to his father in words of fire. At last, +driven to despair, he said that he was going to write to the Baron von +Westphalen, reveal the secret, and ask for the baron's fatherly consent. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed a reckless thing to do, and yet it turned out to be the +wisest. The baron knew that such an engagement meant a social +sacrifice, and that, apart from the matter of rank, young Marx was +without any fortune to give the girl the luxuries to which she had been +accustomed. Other and more eligible suitors were always within view. +But here Jenny herself spoke out more strongly than she had ever done +to Karl. She was willing to accept him with what he was able to give +her. She cared nothing for any other man, and she begged her father to +make both of them completely happy. +</P> + +<P> +Thus it seemed that all was well, yet for some reason or other Jenny +would not write to Karl, and once more he was almost driven to +distraction. He wrote bitter letters to his father, who tried to +comfort him. The baron himself sent messages of friendly advice, but +what young man in his teens was ever reasonable? So violent was Karl +that at last his father wrote to him: +</P> + +<P> +I am disgusted with your letters. Their unreasonable tone is loathsome +to me. I should never had expected it of you. Haven't you been lucky +from your cradle up? +</P> + +<P> +Finally Karl received one letter from his betrothed—a letter that +transfused him with ecstatic joy for about a day, and then sent him +back to his old unrest. This, however, may be taken as a part of Marx's +curious nature, which was never satisfied, but was always reaching +after something which could not be had. +</P> + +<P> +He fell to writing poetry, of which he sent three volumes to +Jenny—which must have been rather trying to her, since the verse was +very poor. He studied the higher mathematics, English and Italian, some +Latin, and a miscellaneous collection of works on history and +literature. But poetry almost turned his mind. In later years he wrote: +</P> + +<P> +Everything was centered on poetry, as if I were bewitched by some +uncanny power. +</P> + +<P> +Luckily, he was wise enough, after a time, to recognize how halting +were his poems when compared with those of the great masters; and so he +resumed his restless, desultory work. He still sent his father letters +that were like wild cries. They evoked, in reply, a very natural burst +of anger: +</P> + +<P> +Complete disorder, silly wandering through all branches of science, +silly brooding at the burning oil-lamp! In your wildness you see with +four eyes—a horrible setback and disregard for everything decent. And +in the pursuit of this senseless and purposeless learning you think to +raise the fruits which are to unite you with your beloved one! What +harvest do you expect to gather from them which will enable you to +fulfil your duty toward her? +</P> + +<P> +Writing to him again, his father speaks of something that Karl had +written as "a mad composition, which denotes clearly how you waste your +ability and spend nights in order to create such monstrosities." The +young man was even forbidden to return home for the Easter holidays. +This meant giving up the sight of Jenny, whom he had not seen for a +whole year. But fortune arranged it otherwise; for not many weeks later +death removed the parent who had loved him and whom he had loved, +though neither of them could understand the other. The father +represented the old order of things; the son was born to discontent and +to look forward to a new heaven and a new earth. +</P> + +<P> +Returning to Berlin, Karl resumed his studies; but as before, they were +very desultory in their character, and began to run upon social +questions, which were indeed setting Germany into a ferment. He took +his degree, and thought of becoming an instructor at the university of +Jena; but his radicalism prevented this, and he became the editor of a +liberal newspaper, which soon, however, became so very radical as to +lead to his withdrawal. +</P> + +<P> +It now seemed best that Marx should seek other fields of activity. To +remain in Germany was dangerous to himself and discreditable to Jenny's +relatives, with their status as Prussian officials. In the summer of +1843, he went forth into the world—at last an "international." Jenny, +who had grown to believe in him as against her own family, asked for +nothing better than to wander with him, if only they might be married. +And they were married in this same summer, and spent a short honeymoon +at Bingen on the Rhine—made famous by Mrs. Norton's poem. It was the +brief glimpse of sunshine that was to precede year after year of +anxiety and want. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving Germany, Marx and Jenny went to Paris, where he became known to +some of the intellectual lights of the French capital, such as Bakunin, +the great Russian anarchist, Proudhon, Cabet, and Saint-Simon. Most +important of all was his intimacy with the poet Heine, that marvelous +creature whose fascination took on a thousand forms, and whom no one +could approach without feeling his strange allurement. +</P> + +<P> +Since Goethe's death, down to the present time, there has been no +figure in German literature comparable to Heine. His prose was +exquisite. His poetry ran through the whole gamut of humanity and of +the sensations that come to us from the outer world. In his poems are +sweet melodies and passionate cries of revolt, stirring ballads of the +sea and tender love-songs—strange as these last seem when coming from +this cynic. +</P> + +<P> +For cynic he was, deep down in his heart, though his face, when in +repose, was like the conventional pictures of Christ. His fascinations +destroyed the peace of many a woman; and it was only after many years +of self-indulgence that he married the faithful Mathilde Mirat in what +he termed a "conscience marriage." Soon after he went to his +"mattress-grave," as he called it, a hopeless paralytic. +</P> + +<P> +To Heine came Marx and his beautiful bride. One may speculate as to +Jenny's estimate of her husband. Since his boyhood, she had not seen +him very much. At that time he was a merry, light-hearted youth, a +jovial comrade, and one of whom any girl would be proud. But since his +long stay in Berlin, and his absorption in the theories of men like +Engels and Bauer, he had become a very different sort of man, at least +to her. +</P> + +<P> +Groping, lost in brown studies, dreamy, at times morose, he was by no +means a sympathetic and congenial husband for a high-bred, spirited +girl, such as Jenny von Westphalen. His natural drift was toward a +beer-garden, a group of frowsy followers, the reek of vile tobacco, and +the smell of sour beer. One cannot but think that his beautiful wife +must have been repelled by this, though with her constant nature she +still loved him. +</P> + +<P> +In Heinrich Heine she found a spirit that seemed akin to hers. Mr. +Spargo says—and in what he says one must read a great deal between the +lines: +</P> + +<P> +The admiration of Jenny Marx for the poet was even more ardent than +that of her husband. He fascinated her because, as she said, he was "so +modern," while Heine was drawn to her because she was "so sympathetic." +</P> + +<P> +It must be that Heine held the heart of this beautiful woman in his +hand. He knew so well the art of fascination; he knew just how to +supply the void which Marx had left. The two were indeed affinities in +heart and soul; yet for once the cynical poet stayed his hand, and said +no word that would have been disloyal to his friend. Jenny loved him +with a love that might have blazed into a lasting flame; but +fortunately there appeared a special providence to save her from +herself. The French government, at the request of the King of Prussia, +banished Marx from its dominions; and from that day until he had become +an old man he was a wanderer and an exile, with few friends and little +money, sustained by nothing but Jenny's fidelity and by his infinite +faith in a cause that crushed him to the earth. +</P> + +<P> +There is a curious parallel between the life of Marx and that of +Richard Wagner down to the time when the latter discovered a royal +patron. Both of them were hounded from country to country; both of them +worked laboriously for so scanty a living as to verge, at times, upon +starvation. Both of them were victims to a cause in which they +earnestly believed—an economic cause in the one case, an artistic +cause in the other. Wagner's triumph came before his death, and the +world has accepted his theory of the music-drama. The cause of Marx is +far greater and more tremendous, because it strikes at the base of +human life and social well-being. +</P> + +<P> +The clash between Wagner and his critics was a matter of poetry and +dramatic music. It was not vital to the human race. The cause of Marx +is one that is only now beginning to be understood and recognized by +millions of men and women in all the countries of the earth. In his +lifetime he issued a manifesto that has become a classic among +economists. He organized the great International Association of +Workmen, which set all Europe in a blaze and extended even to America. +His great book, "Capital"—Das Kapital—which was not completed until +the last years of his life, is read to-day by thousands as an almost +sacred work. +</P> + +<P> +Like Wagner and his Minna, the wife of Marx's youth clung to him +through his utmost vicissitudes, denying herself the necessities of +life so that he might not starve. In London, where he spent his latest +days, he was secure from danger, yet still a sort of persecution seemed +to follow him. For some time, nothing that he wrote could find a +printer. Wherever he went, people looked at him askance. He and his six +children lived upon the sum of five dollars a week, which was paid him +by the New York Tribune, through the influence of the late Charles A. +Dana. When his last child was born, and the mother's life was in +serious danger, Marx complained that there was no cradle for the baby, +and a little later that there was no coffin for its burial. +</P> + +<P> +Marx had ceased to believe in marriage, despised the church, and cared +nothing for government. Yet, unlike Wagner, he was true to the woman +who had given up so much for him. He never sank to an artistic +degeneracy. Though he rejected creeds, he was nevertheless a man of +genuine religious feeling. Though he believed all present government to +be an evil, he hoped to make it better, or rather he hoped to +substitute for it a system by which all men might get an equal share of +what it is right and just for them to have. +</P> + +<P> +Such was Marx, and thus he lived and died. His wife, who had long been +cut off from her relatives, died about a year before him. When she was +buried, he stumbled and fell into her grave, and from that time until +his own death he had no further interest in life. +</P> + +<P> +He had been faithful to a woman and to a cause. That cause was so +tremendous as to overwhelm him. In sixty years only the first great +stirrings of it could be felt. Its teachings may end in nothing, but +only a century or more of effort and of earnest striving can make it +plain whether Karl Marx was a world-mover or a martyr to a cause that +was destined to be lost. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="lassalle"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FERDINAND LASSALLE AND HELENE VON DONNIGES +</H3> + +<P> +The middle part of the nineteenth century is a period which has become +more or less obscure to most Americans and Englishmen. At one end the +thunderous campaigns of Napoleon are dying away. In the latter part of +the century we remember the gorgeousness of the Tuileries, the four +years' strife of our own Civil War, and then the golden drift of peace +with which the century ended. Between these two extremes there is a +stretch of history which seems to lack interest for the average student +of to-day. +</P> + +<P> +In America, that was a period when we took little interest in the +movement of affairs on the continent of Europe. It would not be easy, +for instance, to imagine an American of 1840 cogitating on problems of +socialism, or trying to invent some new form of arbeiterverein. General +Choke was still swindling English emigrants. The Young Columbian was +still darting out from behind a table to declare how thoroughly he +defied the British lion. But neither of these patriots, any more than +their English compeers, was seriously disturbed about the interests of +the rest of the world. The Englishman was contentedly singing "God Save +the Queen!" The American, was apostrophizing the bird of freedom with +the floridity of rhetoric that reached its climax in the "Pogram +Defiance." What the Dutchies and Frenchies were doing was little more +to an Englishman than to an American. +</P> + +<P> +Continental Europe was a mystery to English-speaking people. Those who +traveled abroad took their own servants with them, spoke only English, +and went through the whole European maze with absolute indifference. To +them the socialist, who had scarcely received a name, was an imaginary +being. If he existed, he was only a sort of offspring of the Napoleonic +wars—a creature who had not yet fitted into the ordinary course of +things. He was an anomaly, a person who howled in beer-houses, and who +would presently be regulated, either by the statesmen or by the police. +</P> + +<P> +When our old friend, Mark Tapley, was making with his master a homeward +voyage to Britain, what did he know or even care about the politics of +France, or Germany, or Austria, or Russia? Not the slightest, you may +be sure. Mark and his master represented the complete indifference of +the Englishman or American—not necessarily a well-bred indifference, +but an indifference that was insular on the one hand and republican on +the other. If either of them had heard of a gentleman who pillaged an +unmarried lady's luggage in order to secure a valuable paper for +another lady, who was married, they would both have looked severely at +this abnormal person, and the American would doubtless have added a +remark which had something to do with the matchless purity of +Columbia's daughters. +</P> + +<P> +If, again, they had been told that Ferdinand Lassalle had joined in the +great movement initiated by Karl Marx, it is absolutely certain that +neither the Englishman nor the American could have given you the +slightest notion as to who these individuals were. Thrones might be +tottering all over Europe; the red flag might wave in a score of +cities—what would all this signify, so long as Britannia ruled the +waves, while Columbia's feathered emblem shrieked defiance three +thousand miles away? +</P> + +<P> +And yet few more momentous events have happened in a century than the +union which led one man to give his eloquence to the social cause, and +the other to suffer for that cause until his death. Marx had the higher +thought, but his disciple Lassalle had the more attractive way of +presenting it. It is odd that Marx, today, should lie in a squalid +cemetery, while the whole western world echoes with his praises, and +that Lassalle—brilliant, clear-sighted, and remarkable for his +penetrating genius—should have lived in luxury, but should now know +nothing but oblivion, even among those who shouted at his eloquence and +ran beside him in the glory of his triumph. +</P> + +<P> +Ferdinand Lassalle was a native of Breslau, the son of a wealthy Jewish +silk-merchant. Heymann Lassal—for thus the father spelled his +name—stroked his hands at young Ferdinand's cleverness, but he meant +it to be a commercial cleverness. He gave the boy a thorough education +at the University of Breslau, and later at Berlin. He was an +affectionate parent, and at the same time tyrannical to a degree. +</P> + +<P> +It was the old story where the father wishes to direct every step that +his son takes, and where the son, bursting out into youthful manhood, +feels that he has the right to freedom. The father thinks how he has +toiled for the son; the son thinks that if this toil were given for +love, it should not be turned into a fetter and restraint. Young +Lassalle, instead of becoming a clever silk-merchant, insisted on a +university career, where he studied earnestly, and was admitted to the +most cultured circles. +</P> + +<P> +Though his birth was Jewish, he encountered little prejudice against +his race. Napoleon had changed the old anti-Semitic feeling of fifty +years before to a liberalism that was just beginning to be strongly +felt in Germany, as it had already been in France. This was true in +general, but especially true of Lassalle, whose features were not of a +Semitic type, who made friends with every one, and who was a favorite +in many salons. His portraits make him seem a high-bred and +high-spirited Prussian, with an intellectual and clean-cut forehead; a +face that has a sense of humor, and yet one capable of swift and cogent +thought. +</P> + +<P> +No man of ordinary talents could have won the admiration of so many +compeers. It is not likely that such a keen and cynical observer as +Heinrich Heine would have written as he did concerning Lassalle, had +not the latter been a brilliant and magnetic youth. Heine wrote to +Varnhagen von Ense, the German historian: +</P> + +<P> +My friend, Herr Lassalle, who brings you this letter, is a young man of +remarkable intellectual gifts. With the most thorough erudition, with +the widest learning, with the greatest penetration that I have ever +known, and with the richest gift of exposition, he combines an energy +of will and a capacity for action which astonish me. In no one have I +found united so much enthusiasm and practical intelligence. +</P> + +<P> +No better proof of Lassalle's enthusiasm can be found than a few lines +from his own writings: +</P> + +<P> +I love Heine. He is my second self. What audacity! What overpowering +eloquence! He knows how to whisper like a zephyr when it kisses +rose-blooms, how to breathe like fire when it rages and destroys; he +calls forth all that is tenderest and softest, and then all that is +fiercest and most daring. He has the sweep of the whole lyre! +</P> + +<P> +Lassalle's sympathy with Heine was like his sympathy with every one +whom he knew. This was often misunderstood. It was misunderstood in his +relations with women, and especially in the celebrated affair of the +Countess von Hatzfeldt, which began in the year 1846—that is to say, +in the twenty-first year of Lassalle's age. +</P> + +<P> +In truth, there was no real scandal in the matter, for the countess was +twice the age of Lassalle. It was precisely because he was so young +that he let his eagerness to defend a woman in distress make him forget +the ordinary usage of society, and expose himself to mean and unworthy +criticism which lasted all his life. It began by his introduction to +the Countess von Hatzfeldt, a lady who was grossly ill-treated by her +husband. She had suffered insult and imprisonment in the family +castles; the count had deprived her of medicine when she was ill, and +had forcibly taken away her children. Besides this, he was infatuated +with another woman, a baroness, and wasted his substance upon her even +contrary to the law which protected his children's rights. +</P> + +<P> +The countess had a son named Paul, of whom Lassalle was extremely fond. +There came to the boy a letter from the Count von Hatzfeldt ordering +him to leave his mother. The countess at once sent for Lassalle, who +brought with him two wealthy and influential friends—one of them a +judge of a high Prussian court—and together they read the letter which +Paul had just received. They were deeply moved by the despair of the +countess, and by the cruelty of her dissolute husband in seeking to +separate the mother from her son. +</P> + +<P> +In his chivalrous ardor Lassalle swore to help the countess, and +promised that he would carry on the struggle with her husband to the +bitter end. He took his two friends with him to Berlin, and then to +Dusseldorf, for they discovered that the Count von Hatzfeldt was not +far away. He was, in fact, at Aix-la-Chapelle with the baroness. +</P> + +<P> +Lassalle, who had the scent of a greyhound, pried about until he +discovered that the count had given his mistress a legal document, +assigning to her a valuable piece of property which, in the ordinary +course of law, should be entailed on the boy, Paul. The countess at +once hastened to the place, broke into her husband's room, and secured +a promise that the deed would be destroyed. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner, however, had she left him than he returned to the baroness, +and presently it was learned that the woman had set out for Cologne. +</P> + +<P> +Lassalle and his two friends followed, to ascertain whether the +document had really been destroyed. The three reached a hotel at +Cologne, where the baroness had just arrived. Her luggage, in fact, was +being carried upstairs. One of Lassalle's friends opened a trunk, and, +finding a casket there, slipped it out to his companion, the judge. +</P> + +<P> +Unfortunately, the latter had no means of hiding it, and when the +baroness's servant shouted for help, the casket was found in the +possession of the judge, who could give no plausible account of it. He +was, therefore, arrested, as were the other two. There was no evidence +against Lassalle; but his friends fared badly at the trial, one of them +being imprisoned for a year and the other for five years. +</P> + +<P> +From this time Lassalle, with an almost quixotic devotion, gave himself +up to fighting the Countess von Hatzfeldt's battle against her husband +in the law-courts. The ablest advocates were pitted against him. The +most eloquent legal orators thundered at him and at his client, but he +met them all with a skill, an audacity, and a brilliant wit that won +for him verdict after verdict. The case went from the lower to the +higher tribunals, until, after nine years, it reached the last court of +appeal, where Lassalle wrested from his opponents a magnificently +conclusive victory—one that made the children of the countess +absolutely safe. It was a battle fought with the determination of a +soldier, with the gallantry of a knight errant, and the intellectual +acumen of a learned lawyer. +</P> + +<P> +It is not surprising that many refuse to believe that Lassalle's +feeling toward the Countess von Hatzfeldt was a disinterested one. A +scandalous pamphlet, which was published in French, German, and +Russian, and written by one who styled herself "Sophie Solutzeff," did +much to spread the evil report concerning Lassalle. But the very +openness and frankness of the service which he did for the countess +ought to make it clear that his was the devotion of a youth drawn by an +impulse into a strife where there was nothing for him to gain, but +everything to lose. He denounced the brutality of her husband, but her +letters to him always addressed him as "my dear child." In writing to +her he confides small love-secrets and ephemeral flirtations—which he +would scarcely have done, had the countess viewed him with the eye of +passion. +</P> + +<P> +Lassalle was undoubtedly a man of impressionable heart, and had many +affairs such as Heine had; but they were not deep or lasting. That he +should have made a favorable impression on the women whom he met is not +surprising, because of his social standing, his chivalry, his fine +manners, and his handsome face. Mr. Clement Shorter has quoted an +official document which describes him as he was in his earlier years: +</P> + +<P> +Ferdinand Lassalle, aged twenty-three, a civilian born at Breslau and +dwelling recently at Berlin. He stands five feet six inches in height, +has brown, curly hair, open forehead, brown eyebrows, dark blue eyes, +well proportioned nose and mouth, and rounded chin. +</P> + +<P> +We ought not to be surprised, then, if he was a favorite in +drawing-rooms; if both men and women admired him; if Alexander von +Humboldt cried out with enthusiasm that he was a wunderkind, and if +there were more than Sophie Solutzeff to be jealous. But the rather +ungrateful remark of the Countess von Hatzfeldt certainly does not +represent him as he really was. +</P> + +<P> +"You are without reason and judgment where women are concerned," she +snarled at him; but the sneer only shows that the woman who uttered it +was neither in love with him nor grateful to him. +</P> + +<P> +In this paper we are not discussing Lassalle as a public agitator or as +a Socialist, but simply in his relations with the two women who most +seriously affected his life. The first was the Countess von Hatzfeldt, +who, as we have seen, occupied—or rather wasted—nine of the best +years of his life. Then came that profound and thrilling passion which +ended the career of a man who at thirty-nine had only just begun to be +famous. +</P> + +<P> +Lassalle had joined his intellectual forces with those of Heine and +Marx. He had obtained so great an influence over the masses of the +people as to alarm many a monarch, and at the same time to attract many +a statesman. Prince Bismarck, for example, cared nothing for Lassalle's +championship of popular rights, but sought his aid on finding that he +was an earnest advocate of German unity. +</P> + +<P> +Furthermore, he was very far from resembling what in those early days +was regarded as the typical picture of a Socialist. There was nothing +frowzy about him; in his appearance he was elegance itself; his manners +were those of a prince, and his clothing was of the best. Seeing him in +a drawing-room, no one would mistake him for anything but a gentleman +and a man of parts. Hence it is not surprising that his second love was +one of the nobility, although her own people hated Lassalle as a bearer +of the red flag. +</P> + +<P> +This girl was Helene von Donniges, the daughter of a Bavarian diplomat. +As a child she had traveled much, especially in Italy and in +Switzerland. She was very precocious, and lived her own life without +asking the direction of any one. At twelve years of age she had been +betrothed to an Italian of forty; but this dark and pedantic person +always displeased her, and soon afterward, when she met a young +Wallachian nobleman, one Yanko Racowitza, she was ready at once to +dismiss her Italian lover. Racowitza—young, a student, far from home, +and lacking friends—appealed at once to the girl's sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +At that very time, in Berlin, where Helene was visiting her +grandmother, she was asked by a Prussian baron: +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know Ferdinand Lassalle?" +</P> + +<P> +The question came to her with a peculiar shock. She had never heard the +name, and yet the sound of it gave her a strange emotion. Baron Korff, +who perhaps took liberties because she was so young, went on to say: +</P> + +<P> +"My dear lady, have you really never seen Lassalle? Why, you and he +were meant for each other!" +</P> + +<P> +She felt ashamed to ask about him, but shortly after a gentleman who +knew her said: +</P> + +<P> +"It is evident that you have a surprising degree of intellectual +kinship with Ferdinand Lassalle." +</P> + +<P> +This so excited her curiosity that she asked her grandmother: +</P> + +<P> +"Who is this person of whom they talk so much—this Ferdinand Lassalle?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do not speak of him," replied her grandmother. "He is a shameless +demagogue!" +</P> + +<P> +A little questioning brought to Helene all sorts of stories about +Lassalle—the Countess von Hatzfeldt, the stolen casket, the mysterious +pamphlet, the long battle in the courts—all of which excited her still +more. A friend offered to introduce her to the "shameless demagogue." +This introduction happened at a party, and it must have been an +extraordinary meeting. Seldom, it seemed, was there a better instance +of love at first sight, or of the true affinity of which Baron Korff +had spoken. In the midst of the public gathering they almost rushed +into each other's arms; they talked the free talk of acknowledged +lovers; and when she left, he called her love-names as he offered her +his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Somehow it did not appear at all remarkable," she afterward declared. +"We seemed to be perfectly fitted to each other." +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, nine months passed before they met again at a soiree. At +this time Lassaller gazing upon her, said: +</P> + +<P> +"What would you do if I were sentenced to death?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should wait until your head was severed," was her answer, "in order +that you might look upon your beloved to the last, and then—I should +take poison!" +</P> + +<P> +Her answer delighted him, but he said that there was no danger. He was +greeted on every hand with great consideration; and it seemed not +unlikely that, in recognition of his influence with the people, he +might rise to some high position. The King of Prussia sympathized with +him. Heine called him the Messiah of the nineteenth century. When he +passed from city to city, the whole population turned out to do him +honor. Houses were wreathed; flowers were thrown in masses upon him, +while the streets were spanned with triumphal arches. +</P> + +<P> +Worn out with the work and excitement attending the birth of the +Deutscher Arbeiterverein, or workmen's union, which he founded in 1863, +Lassalle fled for a time to Switzerland for rest. Helene heard of his +whereabouts, and hurried to him, with several friends. They met again +on July 25,1864, and discussed long and intensely the possibilities of +their marriage and the opposition of her parents, who would never +permit her to marry a man who was at once a Socialist and a Jew. +</P> + +<P> +Then comes a pitiful story of the strife between Lassalle and the +Donniges family. Helene's father and mother indulged in vulgar words; +they spoke of Lassalle with contempt; they recalled all the scandals +that had been current ten years before, and forbade Helene ever to +mention the man's name again. +</P> + +<P> +The next scene in the drama took place in Geneva, where the family of +Herr von Donniges had arrived, and where Helene's sister had been +betrothed to Count von Keyserling—a match which filled her mother with +intense joy. Her momentary friendliness tempted Helene to speak of her +unalterable love for Lassalle. Scarcely had the words been spoken when +her father and mother burst into abuse and denounced Lassalle as well +as herself. +</P> + +<P> +She sent word of this to Lassalle, who was in a hotel near by. Scarcely +had he received her letter, when Helene herself appeared upon the +scene, and with all the intensity of which she was possessed, she +begged him to take her wherever he chose. She would go with him to +France, to Italy—to the ends of the earth! +</P> + +<P> +What a situation, and yet how simple a one for a man of spirit! It is +strange to have to record that to Lassalle it seemed most difficult. He +felt that he or she, or both of them, had been compromised. Had she a +lady with her? Did she know any one in the neighborhood? +</P> + +<P> +What an extraordinary answer! If she were compromised, all the more +ought he to have taken her in his arms and married her at once, instead +of quibbling and showing himself a prig. +</P> + +<P> +Presently, her maid came in to tell them that a carriage was ready to +take them to the station, whence a train would start for Paris in a +quarter of an hour. Helene begged him, with a feeling that was +beginning to be one of shame. Lassalle repelled her in words that were +to stamp him with a peculiar kind of cowardice. +</P> + +<P> +Why should he have stopped to think of anything except the beautiful +woman who was at his feet, and to whom he had pledged his love? What +did he care for the petty diplomat who was her father, or the +vulgar-tongued woman who was her mother? He should have hurried her and +the maid into the train for Paris, and have forgotten everything in the +world but his Helene, glorious among women, who had left everything for +him. +</P> + +<P> +What was the sudden failure, the curious weakness, the paltriness of +spirit that came at the supreme moment into the heart of this hitherto +strong man? Here was the girl whom he loved, driven from her parents, +putting aside all question of appearances, and clinging to him with a +wild and glorious desire to give herself to him and to be all his own! +That was a thing worthy of a true woman. And he? He shrinks from her +and cowers and acts like a simpleton. His courage seems to have +dribbled through his finger-tips; he is no longer a man—he is a thing. +</P> + +<P> +Out of all the multitude of Lassalle's former admirers, there is +scarcely one who has ventured to defend him, much less to laud him; and +when they have done so, their voices have had a sound of mockery that +dies away in their own throats. +</P> + +<P> +Helene, on her side, had compromised herself, and even from the +view-point of her parents it was obvious that she ought to be married +immediately. Her father, however, confined her to her room until it was +understood that Lassalle had left Geneva. Then her family's +supplications, the statement that her sister's marriage and even her +father's position were in danger, led her to say that she would give up +Lassalle. +</P> + +<P> +It mattered very little, in one way, for whatever he might have done, +Lassalle had killed, or at least had chilled, her love. His failure at +the moment of her great self-sacrifice had shown him to her as he +really was—no bold and gallant spirit, but a cringing, spiritless +self-seeker. She wrote him a formal letter to the effect that she had +become reconciled to her "betrothed bridegroom"; and they never met +again. +</P> + +<P> +Too late, Lassalle gave himself up to a great regret. He went about +trying to explain his action to his friends, but he could say nothing +that would ease his feeling and reinstate him in the eyes of the +romantic girl. In a frenzy, he sought out the Wallachian student, Yanko +von Racowitza, and challenged him to a mortal duel. He also challenged +Helene's father. Years before, he had on principle declined to fight a +duel; but now he went raving about as if he sought the death of every +one who knew him. +</P> + +<P> +The duel was fought on August 28, 1864. There was some trouble about +pistols, and also about seconds; but finally the combatants left a +small hotel in a village near Geneva, and reached the dueling-grounds. +Lassalle was almost joyous in his manner. His old confidence had come +back to him; he meant to kill his man. +</P> + +<P> +They took their stations high up among the hills. A few spectators saw +their figures outlined against the sky. The command to fire rang out, +and from both pistols gushed the flame and smoke. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later, Lassalle was seen to sway and fall. A chance shot, +glancing from a wall, had struck him to the ground. He suffered +terribly, and nothing but opium in great doses could relieve his pain. +His wound was mortal, and three days later he died. +</P> + +<P> +Long after, Helene admitted that she still loved Lassalle, and believed +that he would win the duel; but after the tragedy, the tenderness and +patience of Racowitza won her heart. She married him, but within a year +he died of consumption. Helene, being disowned by her relations, +prepared herself for the stage. She married a third husband named +Shevitch, who was then living in the United States, but who has since +made his home in Russia. +</P> + +<P> +Let us say nothing of Lassalle's political career. Except for his work +as one of the early leaders of the liberal movement in Germany, it has +perished, and his name has been almost forgotten. As a lover, his story +stands out forever as a warning to the timid and the recreant. Let men +do what they will; but there is just one thing which no man is +permitted to do with safety in the sight of woman—and that is to play +the craven. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="rachel"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE STORY OF RACHEL +</H3> + +<P> +Outside of the English-speaking peoples the nineteenth century +witnessed the rise and triumphant progress of three great tragic +actresses. The first two of these—Rachel Felix and Sarah +Bernhardt—were of Jewish extraction; the third, Eleanor Duse, is +Italian. All of them made their way from pauperism to fame; but perhaps +the rise of Rachel was the most striking. +</P> + +<P> +In the winter of 1821 a wretched peddler named Abraham—or Jacob—Felix +sought shelter at a dilapidated inn at Mumpf, a village in Switzerland, +not far from Basel. It was at the close of a stormy day, and his small +family had been toiling through the snow and sleet. The inn was the +lowest sort of hovel, and yet its proprietor felt that it was too good +for these vagabonds. He consented to receive them only when he learned +that the peddler's wife was to be delivered of a child. That very night +she became the mother of a girl, who was at first called Elise. So +unimportant was the advent of this little waif into the world that the +burgomaster of Mumpf thought it necessary to make an entry only of the +fact that a peddler's wife had given birth to a female child. There was +no mention of family or religion, nor was the record anything more than +a memorandum. +</P> + +<P> +Under such circumstances was born a child who was destined to excite +the wonder of European courts—to startle and thrill and utterly amaze +great audiences by her dramatic genius. But for ten years the +family—which grew until it consisted of one son and five +daughters—kept on its wanderings through Switzerland and Germany. +Finally, they settled down in Lyons, where the mother opened a little +shop for the sale of second-hand clothing. The husband gave lessons in +German whenever he could find a pupil. The eldest daughter went about +the cafes in the evening, singing the songs that were then popular, +while her small sister, Rachel, collected coppers from those who had +coppers to spare. +</P> + +<P> +Although the family was barely able to sustain existence, the father +and mother were by no means as ignorant as their squalor would imply. +The peddler Felix had studied Hebrew theology in the hope of becoming a +rabbi. Failing this, he was always much interested in declamation, +public reading, and the recitation of poetry. He was, in his way, no +mean critic of actors and actresses. Long before she was ten years of +age little Rachel—who had changed her name from Elise—could render +with much feeling and neatness of eloquence bits from the best-known +French plays of the classic stage. +</P> + +<P> +The children's mother, on her side, was sharp and practical to a high +degree. She saved and scrimped all through her period of adversity. +Later she was the banker of her family, and would never lend any of her +children a sou except on excellent security. However, this was all to +happen in after years. +</P> + +<P> +When the child who was destined to be famous had reached her tenth year +she and her sisters made their way to Paris. For four years the +second-hand clothing-shop was continued; the father still taught +German; and the elder sister, Sarah, who had a golden voice, made the +rounds of the cafes in the lowest quarters of the capital, while Rachel +passed the wooden plate for coppers. +</P> + +<P> +One evening in the year 1834 a gentleman named Morin, having been taken +out of his usual course by a matter of business, entered a BRASSERIE +for a cup of coffee. There he noted two girls, one of them singing with +remarkable sweetness, and the other silently following with the wooden +plate. M. Morin called to him the girl who sang and asked her why she +did not make her voice more profitable than by haunting the cafes at +night, where she was sure to meet with insults of the grossest kind. +</P> + +<P> +"Why," said Sarah, "I haven't anybody to advise me what to do." +</P> + +<P> +M. Morin gave her his address and said that he would arrange to have +her meet a friend who would be of great service to her. On the +following day he sent the two girls to a M. Choron, who was the head of +the Conservatory of Sacred Music. Choron had Sarah sing, and instantly +admitted her as a pupil, which meant that she would soon be enrolled +among the regular choristers. The beauty of her voice made a deep +impression on him. +</P> + +<P> +Then he happened to notice the puny, meager child who was standing near +her sister. Turning to her, he said: +</P> + +<P> +"And what can you do, little one?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can recite poetry," was the reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, can you?" said he. "Please let me hear you." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel readily consented. She had a peculiarly harsh, grating voice, so +that any but a very competent judge would have turned her away. But M. +Choron, whose experience was great, noted the correctness of her accent +and the feeling which made itself felt in every line. He accepted her +as well as her sister, but urged her to study elocution rather than +music. +</P> + +<P> +She must, indeed, have had an extraordinary power even at the age of +fourteen, since not merely her voice but her whole appearance was +against her. She was dressed in a short calico frock of a pattern in +which red was spotted with white. Her shoes were of coarse black +leather. Her hair was parted at the back of her head and hung down her +shoulders in two braids, framing the long, childish, and yet gnome-like +face, which was unusual in its gravity. +</P> + +<P> +At first she was little thought of; but there came a time when she +astonished both her teachers and her companions by a recital which she +gave in public. The part was the narrative of Salema in the "Abufar" of +Ducis. It describes the agony of a mother who gives birth to a child +while dying of thirst amid the desert sands. Mme. de Barviera has left +a description of this recital, which it is worth while to quote: +</P> + +<P> +While uttering the thrilling tale the thin face seemed to lengthen with +horror, the small, deep-set black eyes dilated with a fixed stare as +though she witnessed the harrowing scene; and the deep, guttural tones, +despite a slight Jewish accent, awoke a nameless terror in every one +who listened, carrying him through the imaginary woe with a strange +feeling of reality, not to be shaken, off as long as the sounds lasted. +</P> + +<P> +Even yet, however, the time had not come for any conspicuous success. +The girl was still so puny in form, so monkey-like in face, and so +gratingly unpleasant in her tones that it needed time for her to attain +her full growth and to smooth away some of the discords in her peculiar +voice. +</P> + +<P> +Three years later she appeared at the Gymnase in a regular debut; yet +even then only the experienced few appreciated her greatness. Among +these, however, were the well-known critic Jules Janin, the poet and +novelist Gauthier, and the actress Mlle. Mars. They saw that this lean, +raucous gutter-girl had within her gifts which would increase until she +would be first of all actresses on the French stage. Janin wrote some +lines which explain the secret of her greatness: +</P> + +<P> +All the talent in the world, especially when continually applied to the +same dramatic works, will not satisfy continually the hearer. What +pleases in a great actor, as in all arts that appeal to the +imagination, is the unforeseen. When I am utterly ignorant of what is +to happen, when I do not know, when you yourself do not know what will +be your next gesture, your next look, what passion will possess your +heart, what outcry will burst from your terror-stricken soul, then, +indeed, I am willing to see you daily, for each day you will be new to +me. To-day I may blame, to-morrow praise. Yesterday you were +all-powerful; to-morrow, perhaps, you may hardly win from me a word of +admiration. So much the better, then, if you draw from me unexpected +tears, if in my heart you strike an unknown fiber; but tell me not of +hearing night after night great artists who every time present the +exact counterpart of what they were on the preceding one. +</P> + +<P> +It was at the Theatre Francais that she won her final acceptance as the +greatest of all tragedians of her time. This was in her appearance in +Corneille's famous play of "Horace." She had now, in 1838, blazed forth +with a power that shook her no, less than it stirred the emotions and +the passions of her hearers. The princes of the royal blood came in +succession to see her. King Louis Philippe himself was at last tempted +by curiosity to be present. Gifts of money and jewels were showered on +her, and through sheer natural genius rather than through artifice she +was able to master a great audience and bend it to her will. +</P> + +<P> +She had no easy life, this girl of eighteen years, for other actresses +carped at her, and she had had but little training. The sordid ways of +her old father excited a bitterness which was vented on the daughter. +She was still under age, and therefore was treated as a gold-mine by +her exacting parents. At the most she could play but twice a week. Her +form was frail and reed-like. She was threatened with a complaint of +the lungs; yet all this served to excite rather than to diminish public +interest in her. The newspapers published daily bulletins of her +health, and her door was besieged by anxious callers who wished to know +her condition. As for the greed of her parents, every one said she was +not to blame for that. And so she passed from poverty to riches, from +squalor to something like splendor, and from obscurity to fame. +</P> + +<P> +Much has been written about her that is quite incorrect. She has been +credited with virtues which she never possessed; and, indeed, it may be +said with only too much truth that she possessed no virtues whatsoever. +On the stage while the inspiration lasted she was magnificent. Off the +stage she was sly, treacherous, capricious, greedy, ungrateful, +ignorant, and unchaste. With such an ancestry as she had, with such an +early childhood as had been hers, what else could one expect from her? +</P> + +<P> +She and her old mother wrangled over money like two pickpockets. Some +of her best friends she treated shamefully. Her avarice was without +bounds. Some one said that it was not really avarice, but only a +reaction from generosity; but this seems an exceedingly subtle theory. +It is possible to give illustrations of it, however. She did, indeed, +make many presents with a lavish hand; yet, having made a present, she +could not rest until she got it back. The fact was so well known that +her associates took it for granted. The younger Dumas once received a +ring from her. Immediately he bowed low and returned it to her finger, +saying: +</P> + +<P> +"Permit me, mademoiselle, to present it to you in my turn so as to save +you the embarrassment of asking for it." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Vandam relates among other anecdotes about her that one evening she +dined at the house of Comte Duchatel. The table was loaded with the +most magnificent flowers; but Rachel's keen eyes presently spied out +the great silver centerpiece. Immediately she began to admire the +latter; and the count, fascinated by her manners, said that he would be +glad to present it to her. She accepted it at once, but was rather +fearful lest he should change his mind. She had come to dinner in a +cab, and mentioned the fact. The count offered to send her home in his +carriage. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that will do admirably," said she. "There will be no danger of my +being robbed of your present, which I had better take with me." +</P> + +<P> +"With pleasure, mademoiselle," replied the count. "But you will send me +back my carriage, won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +Rachel had a curious way of asking every one she met for presents and +knickknacks, whether they were valuable or not. She knew how to make +them valuable. +</P> + +<P> +Once in a studio she noticed a guitar hanging on the wall. She begged +for it very earnestly. As it was an old and almost worthless +instrument, it was given her. A little later it was reported that the +dilapidated guitar had been purchased by a well-known gentleman for a +thousand francs. The explanation soon followed. Rachel had declared +that it was the very guitar with which she used to earn her living as a +child in the streets of Paris. As a memento its value sprang from +twenty francs to a thousand. +</P> + +<P> +It has always been a mystery what Rachel did with the great sums of +money which she made in various ways. She never was well dressed; and +as for her costumes on the stage, they were furnished by the theater. +When her effects were sold at public auction after her death her +furniture was worse than commonplace, and her pictures and ornaments +were worthless, except such as had been given her. She must have made +millions of francs, and yet she had very little to leave behind her. +</P> + +<P> +Some say that her brother Raphael, who acted as her personal manager, +was a spendthrift; but if so, there are many reasons for thinking that +it was not his sister's money that he spent. Others say that Rachel +gambled in stocks, but there is no evidence of it. The only thing that +is certain is the fact that she was almost always in want of money. Her +mother, in all probability, managed to get hold of most of her earnings. +</P> + +<P> +Much may have been lost through her caprices. One instance may be +cited. She had received an offer of three hundred thousand francs to +act at St. Petersburg, and was on her way there when she passed through +Potsdam, near Berlin. The King of Prussia was entertaining the Russian +Czar. An invitation was sent to her in the shape of a royal command to +appear before these monarchs and their guests. For some reason or other +Rachel absolutely refused. She would listen to no arguments. She would +go on to St. Petersburg without delay. +</P> + +<P> +"But," it was said to her, "if you refuse to appear before the Czar at +Potsdam all the theaters in St. Petersburg will be closed against you, +because you will have insulted the emperor. In this way you will be out +the expenses of your journey and also the three hundred thousand +francs." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel remained stubborn as before; but in about half an hour she +suddenly declared that she would recite before the two monarchs, which +she subsequently did, to the satisfaction of everybody. Some one said +to her not long after: +</P> + +<P> +"I knew that you would do it. You weren't going to give up the three +hundred thousand francs and all your travelling expenses." +</P> + +<P> +"You are quite wrong," returned Rachel, "though of course you will not +believe me. I did not care at all about the money and was going back to +France. It was something that I heard which made me change my mind. Do +you want to know what it was? Well, after all the arguments were over +some one informed me that the Czar Nicholas was the handsomest man in +Europe; and so I made up my mind that I would stay in Potsdam long +enough to see him." +</P> + +<P> +This brings us to one phase of Rachel's nature which is rather +sinister. She was absolutely hard. She seemed to have no emotions +except those which she exhibited on the stage or the impish perversity +which irritated so many of those about her. She was in reality a +product of the gutter, able to assume a demure and modest air, but +within coarse, vulgar, and careless of decency. Yet the words of Jules +Janin, which have been quoted above, explain how she could be +personally very fascinating. +</P> + +<P> +In all Rachel's career one can detect just a single strand of real +romance. It is one that makes us sorry for her, because it tells us +that her love was given where it never could be openly requited. +</P> + +<P> +During the reign of Louis Philippe the Comte Alexandre Walewski held +many posts in the government. He was a son of the great Napoleon. His +mother was that Polish countess who had accepted Napoleon's love +because she hoped that he might set Poland free at her desire. But +Napoleon was never swerved from his well-calculated plans by the wish +of any woman, and after a time the Countess Walewska came to love him +for himself. It was she to whom he confided secrets which he would not +reveal to his own brothers. It was she who followed him to Elba in +disguise. It was her son who was Napoleon's son, and who afterward, +under the Second Empire, was made minister of fine arts, minister of +foreign affairs, and, finally, an imperial duke. Unlike the third +Napoleon's natural half-brother, the Duc de Moray, Walewski was a +gentleman of honor and fine feeling. He never used his relationship to +secure advantages for himself. He tried to live in a manner worthy of +the great warrior who was his father. +</P> + +<P> +As minister of fine arts he had much to do with the subsidized +theaters; and in time he came to know Rachel. He was the son of one of +the greatest men who ever lived. She was the child of roving peddlers +whose early training had been in the slums of cities and amid the smoke +of bar-rooms and cafes. She was tainted in a thousand ways, while he +was a man of breeding and right principle. She was a wandering actress; +he was a great minister of state. What could there be between these two? +</P> + +<P> +George Sand gave the explanation in an epigram which, like most +epigrams, is only partly true. She said: +</P> + +<P> +"The count's company must prove very restful to Rachel." +</P> + +<P> +What she meant was, of course, that Walewski's breeding, his dignity +and uprightness, might be regarded only as a temporary repose for the +impish, harsh-voiced, infinitely clever actress. Of course, it was all +this, but we should not take it in a mocking sense. Rachel looked up +out of her depths and gave her heart to this high-minded nobleman. He +looked down and lifted her, as it were, so that she could forget for +the time all the baseness and the brutality that she had known, that +she might put aside her forced vivacity and the self that was not in +reality her own. +</P> + +<P> +It is pitiful to think of these two, separated by a great abyss which +could not be passed except at times and hours when each was free. But +theirs was, none the less, a meeting of two souls, strangely different +in many ways, and yet appealing to each other with a sincerity and +truth which neither could show elsewhere. +</P> + +<P> +The end of poor Rachel was one of disappointment. Tempted by the fact +that Jenny Lind had made nearly two million francs by her visit to the +United States, Rachel followed her, but with slight success, as was to +be expected. Music is enjoyed by human beings everywhere, while French +classical plays, even though acted by a genius like Rachel, could be +rightly understood only by a French-speaking people. Thus it came about +that her visit to America was only moderately successful. +</P> + +<P> +She returned to France, where the rising fame of Adelaide Ristori was +very bitter to Rachel, who had passed the zenith of her power. She went +to Egypt, but received no benefit, and in 1858 she died near Cannes. +The man who loved her, and whom she had loved in turn, heard of her +death with great emotion. He himself lived ten years longer, and died a +little while before the fall of the Second Empire. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Famous Affinities of History V3, by Lyndon Orr + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY V3 *** + +***** This file should be named 4691-h.htm or 4691-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/9/4691/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Famous Affinities of History V3 + The Romance of Devotion + +Author: Lyndon Orr + +Posting Date: August 24, 2009 [EBook #4691] +Release Date: November, 2003 +First Posted: March 3, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY V3 *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY + + +THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION + + +BY + +LYNDON ORR + + + +VOLUME III OF IV. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + + THE WIVES OF GENERAL HOUSTON + LOLA MONTEZ AND KING LUDWIG OF BAVARIA + LEON GAMBETTA AND LEONIE LEON + LADY BLESSINGTON AND COUNT D'ORSAY + BYRON AND THE COUNTESS GUICCIOLI + THE STORY OF MME. DE STAEL + THE STORY OF KARL MARX + FERDINAND LASSALLE AND HELENE VON DONNIGES + THE STORY OF RACHEL + + + + +THE WIVES OF GENERAL HOUSTON + + +Sixty or seventy years ago it was considered a great joke to chalk up +on any man's house-door, or on his trunk at a coaching-station, the +conspicuous letters "G. T. T." The laugh went round, and every one who +saw the inscription chuckled and said: "They've got it on you, old +hoss!" The three letters meant "gone to Texas"; and for any man to go +to Texas in those days meant his moral, mental, and financial +dilapidation. Either he had plunged into bankruptcy and wished to begin +life over again in a new world, or the sheriff had a warrant for his +arrest. + +The very task of reaching Texas was a fearful one. Rivers that overran +their banks, fever-stricken lowlands where gaunt faces peered out from +moldering cabins, bottomless swamps where the mud oozed greasily and +where the alligator could be seen slowly moving his repulsive form--all +this stretched on for hundreds of miles to horrify and sicken the +emigrants who came toiling on foot or struggling upon emaciated horses. +Other daring pioneers came by boat, running all manner of risks upon +the swollen rivers. Still others descended from the mountains of +Tennessee and passed through a more open country and with a greater +certainty of self-protection, because they were trained from childhood +to wield the rifle and the long sheath-knife. + +It is odd enough to read, in the chronicles of those days, that amid +all this suffering and squalor there was drawn a strict line between +"the quality" and those who had no claim to be patricians. "The +quality" was made up of such emigrants as came from the more civilized +East, or who had slaves, or who dragged with them some rickety vehicle +with carriage-horses--however gaunt the animals might be. All +others--those who had no slaves or horses, and no traditions of the +older states--were classed as "poor whites"; and they accepted their +mediocrity without a murmur. + +Because he was born in Lexington, Virginia, and moved thence with his +family to Tennessee, young Sam Houston--a truly eponymous American +hero--was numbered with "the quality" when, after long wandering, he +reached his boyhood home. His further claim to distinction as a boy +came from the fact that he could read and write, and was even familiar +with some of the classics in translation. + +When less than eighteen years of age he had reached a height of more +than six feet. He was skilful with the rifle, a remarkable +rough-and-tumble fighter, and as quick with his long knife as any +Indian. This made him a notable figure--the more so as he never abused +his strength and courage. He was never known as anything but "Sam." In +his own sphere he passed for a gentleman and a scholar, thanks to his +Virginian birth and to the fact that he could repeat a great part of +Pope's translation of the "Iliad." + +His learning led him to teach school a few months in the year to the +children of the white settlers. Indeed, Houston was so much taken with +the pursuit of scholarship that he made up his mind to learn Greek and +Latin. Naturally, this seemed mere foolishness to his mother, his six +strapping brothers, and his three stalwart sisters, who cared little +for study. So sharp was the difference between Sam and the rest of the +family that he gave up his yearning after the classics and went to the +other extreme by leaving home and plunging into the heart of the forest +beyond sight of any white man or woman or any thought of Hellas and +ancient Rome. + +Here in the dimly lighted glades he was most happy. The Indians admired +him for his woodcraft and for the skill with which he chased the wild +game amid the forests. From his copy of the "Iliad" he would read to +them the thoughts of the world's greatest poet. + +It is told that nearly forty years after, when Houston had long led a +different life and had made his home in Washington, a deputation of +more than forty untamed Indians from Texas arrived there under the +charge of several army officers. They chanced to meet Sam Houston. + +One and all ran to him, clasped him in their brawny arms, hugged him +like bears to their naked breasts, and called him "father." Beneath the +copper skin and thick paint the blood rushed, and their faces changed, +and the lips of many a warrior trembled, although the Indian may not +weep. + +In the gigantic form of Houston, on whose ample brow the beneficent +love of a father was struggling with the sternness of the patriarch and +warrior, we saw civilization awing the savage at his feet. We needed no +interpreter to tell us that this impressive supremacy was gained in the +forest. + +His family had been at first alarmed by his stay among the Indians; but +when after a time he returned for a new outfit they saw that he was +entirely safe and left him to wander among the red men. Later he came +forth and resumed the pursuits of civilization. He took up his studies; +he learned the rudiments of law and entered upon its active practice. +When barely thirty-six he had won every office that was open to him, +ending with his election to the Governorship of Tennessee in 1827. + +Then came a strange episode which changed the whole course of his life. +Until then the love of woman had never stirred his veins. His physical +activities in the forests, his unique intimacy with Indian life, had +kept him away from the social intercourse of towns and cities. In +Nashville Houston came to know for the first time the fascination of +feminine society. As a lawyer, a politician, and the holder of +important offices he could not keep aloof from that gentler and more +winning influence which had hitherto been unknown to him. + +In 1828 Governor Houston was obliged to visit different portions of the +state, stopping, as was the custom, to visit at the homes of "the +quality," and to be introduced to wives and daughters as well as to +their sportsman sons. On one of his official journeys he met Miss Eliza +Allen, a daughter of one of the "influential families" of Sumner +County, on the northern border of Tennessee. He found her responsive, +charming, and greatly to be admired. She was a slender type of Southern +beauty, well calculated to gain the affection of a lover, and +especially of one whose associations had been chiefly with the women of +frontier communities. + +To meet a girl who had refined tastes and wide reading, and who was at +the same time graceful and full of humor, must have come as a pleasant +experience to Houston. He and Miss Allen saw much of each other, and +few of their friends were surprised when the word went forth that they +were engaged to be married. + +The marriage occurred in January, 1829. They were surrounded with +friends of all classes and ranks, for Houston was the associate of +Jackson and was immensely popular in his own state. He seemed to have +before him a brilliant career. He had won a lovely bride to make a home +for him; so that no man seemed to have more attractive prospects. What +was there which at this time interposed in some malignant way to blight +his future? + +It was a little more than a month after his marriage when he met a +friend, and, taking him out into a strip of quiet woodland, said to him: + +"I have something to tell you, but you must not ask me anything about +it. My wife and I will separate before long. She will return to her +father's, while I must make my way alone." + +Houston's friend seized him by the arm and gazed at him with horror. + +"Governor," said he, "you're going to ruin your whole life! What reason +have you for treating this young lady in such a way? What has she done +that you should leave her? Or what have you done that she should leave +you? Every one will fall away from you." + +Houston grimly replied: + +"I have no explanation to give you. My wife has none to give you. She +will not complain of me, nor shall I complain of her. It is no one's +business in the world except our own. Any interference will be +impertinent, and I shall punish it with my own hand." + +"But," said his friend, "think of it. The people at large will not +allow such action. They will believe that you, who have been their +idol, have descended to insult a woman. Your political career is ended. +It will not be safe for you to walk the streets!" + +"What difference does it make to me?" said Houston, gloomily. "What +must be, must be. I tell you, as a friend, in advance, so that you may +be prepared; but the parting will take place very soon." + +Little was heard for another month or two, and then came the +announcement that the Governor's wife had left him and had returned to +her parents' home. The news flew like wildfire, and was the theme of +every tongue. Friends of Mrs. Houston begged her to tell them the +meaning of the whole affair. Adherents of Houston, on the other hand, +set afloat stories of his wife's coldness and of her peevishness. The +state was divided into factions; and what really concerned a very few +was, as usual, made everybody's business. + +There were times when, if Houston had appeared near the dwelling of his +former wife, he would have been lynched or riddled with bullets. Again, +there were enemies and slanderers of his who, had they shown themselves +in Nashville, would have been torn to pieces by men who hailed Houston +as a hero and who believed that he could not possibly have done wrong. + +However his friends might rage, and however her people might wonder and +seek to pry into the secret, no satisfaction was given on either side. +The abandoned wife never uttered a word of explanation. Houston was +equally reticent and self-controlled. In later years he sometimes drank +deeply and was loose-tongued; but never, even in his cups, could he be +persuaded to say a single word about his wife. + +The whole thing is a mystery and cannot be solved by any evidence that +we have. Almost every one who has written of it seems to have indulged +in mere guesswork. One popular theory is that Miss Allen was in love +with some one else; that her parents forced her into a brilliant +marriage with Houston, which, however, she could not afterward endure; +and that Houston, learning the facts, left her because he knew that her +heart was not really his. + +But the evidence is all against this. Had it been so she would surely +have secured a divorce and would then have married the man whom she +truly loved. As a matter of fact, although she did divorce Houston, it +was only after several years, and the man whom she subsequently married +was not acquainted with her at the time of the separation. + +Another theory suggests that Houston was harsh in his treatment of his +wife, and offended her by his untaught manners and extreme +self-conceit. But it is not likely that she objected to his manners, +since she had become familiar with them before she gave him her hand; +and as to his conceit, there is no evidence that it was as yet unduly +developed. After his Texan campaign he sometimes showed a rather lofty +idea of his own achievements; but he does not seem to have done so in +these early days. + +Some have ascribed the separation to his passion for drink; but here +again we must discriminate. Later in life he became very fond of +spirits and drank whisky with the Indians, but during his earlier years +he was most abstemious. It scarcely seems possible that his wife left +him because he was intemperate. + +If one wishes to construct a reasonable hypothesis on a subject where +the facts are either wanting or conflicting, it is not impossible to +suggest a solution of this puzzle about Houston. Although his abandoned +wife never spoke of him and shut her lips tightly when she was +questioned about him, Houston, on his part, was not so taciturn. He +never consciously gave any direct clue to his matrimonial mystery; but +he never forgot this girl who was his bride and whom he seems always to +have loved. In what he said he never ceased to let a vein of +self-reproach run through his words. + +I should choose this one paragraph as the most significant. It was +written immediately after they had parted: + +Eliza stands acquitted by me. I have received her as a virtuous, chaste +wife, and as such I pray God I may ever regard her, and I trust I ever +shall. She was cold to me, and I thought she did not love me. + +And again he said to an old and valued friend at about the same time: + +"I can make no explanation. I exonerate the lady fully and do not +justify myself." + +Miss Allen seems to have been a woman of the sensitive American type +which was so common in the early and the middle part of the last +century. Mrs. Trollope has described it for us with very little +exaggeration. Dickens has drawn it with a touch of malice, and yet not +without truth. Miss Martineau described it during her visit to this +country, and her account quite coincides with those of her two +contemporaries. + +Indeed, American women of that time unconsciously described themselves +in a thousand different ways. They were, after all, only a less +striking type of the sentimental Englishwomen who read L. E. L. and the +earlier novels of Bulwer-Lytton. On both sides of the Atlantic there +was a reign of sentiment and a prevalence of what was then called +"delicacy." It was a die-away, unwholesome attitude toward life and was +morbid to the last degree. + +In circles where these ideas prevailed, to eat a hearty dinner was +considered unwomanly. To talk of anything except some gilded "annual," +or "book of beauty," or the gossip of the neighborhood was wholly to be +condemned. The typical girl of such a community was thin and slender +and given to a mild starvation, though she might eat quantities of jam +and pickles and saleratus biscuit. She had the strangest views of life +and an almost unnatural shrinking from any usual converse with men. + +Houston, on his side, was a thoroughly natural and healthful man, +having lived an outdoor life, hunting and camping in the forest and +displaying the unaffected manner of the pioneer. Having lived the +solitary life of the woods, it was a strange thing for him to meet a +girl who had been bred in an entirely different way, who had learned a +thousand little reservations and dainty graces, and whose very breath +was coyness and reserve. Their mating was the mating of the man of the +forest with the woman of the sheltered life. + +Houston assumed everything; his bride shrank from everything. There was +a mutual shock amounting almost to repulsion. She, on her side, +probably thought she had found in him only the brute which lurks in +man. He, on the other, repelled and checked, at once grasped the belief +that his wife cared nothing for him because she would not meet his +ardors with like ardors of her own. It is the mistake that has been +made by thousands of men and women at the beginning of their married +lives--the mistake on one side of too great sensitiveness, and on the +other side of too great warmth of passion. + +This episode may seem trivial, and yet it is one that explains many +things in human life. So far as concerns Houston it has a direct +bearing on the history of our country. A proud man, he could not endure +the slights and gossip of his associates. He resigned the governorship +of Tennessee, and left by night, in such a way as to surround his +departure with mystery. + +There had come over him the old longing for Indian life; and when he +was next visible he was in the land of the Cherokees, who had long +before adopted him as a son. He was clad in buckskin and armed with +knife and rifle, and served under the old chief Oolooteka. He was a +gallant defender of the Indians. + +When he found how some of the Indian agents had abused his adopted +brothers he went to Washington to protest, still wearing his frontier +garb. One William Stansberry, a Congressman from Ohio, insulted +Houston, who leaped upon him like a panther, dragged him about the Hall +of Representatives, and beat him within an inch of his life. He was +arrested, imprisoned, and fined; but his old friend, President Jackson, +remitted his imprisonment and gruffly advised him not to pay the fine. + +Returning to his Indians, he made his way to a new field which promised +much adventure. This was Texas, of whose condition in those early days +something has already been said. Houston found a rough American +settlement, composed of scattered villages extending along the disputed +frontier of Mexico. Already, in the true Anglo-Saxon spirit, the +settlers had formed a rudimentary state, and as they increased and +multiplied they framed a simple code of laws. + +Then, quite naturally, there came a clash between them and the +Mexicans. The Texans, headed by Moses Austin, had set up a republic and +asked for admission to the United States. Mexico regarded them as +rebels and despised them because they made no military display and had +no very accurate military drill. They were dressed in buckskin and +ragged clothing; but their knives were very bright and their rifles +carried surely. Furthermore, they laughed at odds, and if only a dozen +of them were gathered together they would "take on" almost any number +of Mexican regulars. + +In February, 1836, the acute and able Mexican, Santa Anna, led across +the Rio Grande a force of several thousand Mexicans showily uniformed +and completely armed. Every one remembers how they fell upon the little +garrison at the Alamo, now within the city limits of San Antonio, but +then an isolated mission building surrounded by a thick adobe wall. The +Americans numbered less than three hundred men. + +A sharp attack was made with these overwhelming odds. The Americans +drove the assailants back with their rifle fire, but they had nothing +to oppose to the Mexican artillery. The contest continued for several +days, and finally the Mexicans breached the wall and fell upon the +garrison, who were now reduced by more than half. There was an hour of +blood, and every one of the Alamo's defenders, including the wounded, +was put to death. The only survivors of the slaughter were two negro +slaves, a woman, and a baby girl. + +When the news of this bloody affair reached Houston he leaped forth to +the combat like a lion. He was made commander-in-chief of the scanty +Texan forces. He managed to rally about seven hundred men, and set out +against Santa Anna with little in the way of equipment, and with +nothing but the flame of frenzy to stimulate his followers. By march +and countermarch the hostile forces came face to face near the shore of +San Jacinto Bay, not far from the present city of Houston. Slowly they +moved upon each other, when Houston halted, and his sharpshooters raked +the Mexican battle-line with terrible effect. Then Houston uttered the +cry: + +"Remember the Alamo!" + +With deadly swiftness he led his men in a charge upon Santa Anna's +lines. The Mexicans were scattered as by a mighty wind, their commander +was taken prisoner, and Mexico was forced to give its recognition to +Texas as a free republic, of which General Houston became the first +president. + +This was the climax of Houston's life, but the end of it leaves us with +something still to say. Long after his marriage with Miss Allen he took +an Indian girl to wife and lived with her quite happily. She was a very +beautiful woman, a half-breed, with the English name of Tyania Rodgers. +Very little, however, is known of her life with Houston. Later +still--in 1840--he married a lady from Marion, Alabama, named Margaret +Moffette Lea. He was then in his forty-seventh year, while she was only +twenty-one; but again, as with his Indian wife, he knew nothing but +domestic tranquillity. These later experiences go far to prove the +truth of what has already been given as the probable cause of his first +mysterious failure to make a woman happy. + +After Texas entered the Union, in 1845, Houston was elected to the +United States Senate, in which he served for thirteen years. In 1852, +1856, and 1860, as a Southerner who opposed any movement looking toward +secession, he was regarded as a possible presidential candidate; but +his career was now almost over, and in 1863, while the Civil War--which +he had striven to prevent--was at its height, he died. + + + + +LOLA MONTEZ AND KING LUDWIG OF BAVARIA + + +Lola Montez! The name suggests dark eyes and abundant hair, lithe limbs +and a sinuous body, with twining hands and great eyes that gleam with a +sort of ebon splendor. One thinks of Spanish beauty as one hears the +name; and in truth Lola Montez justified the mental picture. + +She was not altogether Spanish, yet the other elements that entered +into her mercurial nature heightened and vivified her Castilian traits. +Her mother was a Spaniard--partly Moorish, however. Her father was an +Irishman. There you have it--the dreamy romance of Spain, the exotic +touch of the Orient, and the daring, unreasoning vivacity of the Celt. + +This woman during the forty-three years of her life had adventures +innumerable, was widely known in Europe and America, and actually lost +one king his throne. Her maiden name was Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna +Gilbert. Her father was a British officer, the son of an Irish knight, +Sir Edward Gilbert. Her mother had been a danseuse named Lola Oliver. +"Lola" is a diminutive of Dolores, and as "Lola" she became known to +the world. + +She lived at one time or another in nearly all the countries of Europe, +and likewise in India, America, and Australia. It would be impossible +to set down here all the sensations that she achieved. Let us select +the climax of her career and show how she overturned a kingdom, passing +but lightly over her early and her later years. + +She was born in Limerick in 1818, but her father's parents cast off +their son and his young wife, the Spanish dancer. They went to India, +and in 1825 the father died, leaving his young widow without a rupee; +but she was quickly married again, this time to an officer of +importance. + +The former danseuse became a very conventional person, a fit match for +her highly conventional husband; but the small daughter did not take +kindly to the proprieties of life. The Hindu servants taught her more +things than she should have known; and at one time her stepfather found +her performing the danse du ventre. It was the Moorish strain inherited +from her mother. + +She was sent back to Europe, however, and had a sort of education in +Scotland and England, and finally in Paris, where she was detected in +an incipient flirtation with her music-master. There were other persons +hanging about her from her fifteenth year, at which time her +stepfather, in India, had arranged a marriage between her and a rich +but uninteresting old judge. One of her numerous admirers told her this. + +"What on earth am I to do?" asked little Lola, most naively. + +"Why, marry me," said the artful adviser, who was Captain Thomas James; +and so the very next day they fled to Dublin and were speedily married +at Meath. + +Lola's husband was violently in love with her, but, unfortunately, +others were no less susceptible to her charms. She was presented at the +vice-regal court, and everybody there became her victim. Even the +viceroy, Lord Normanby, was greatly taken with her. This nobleman's +position was such that Captain James could not object to his +attentions, though they made the husband angry to a degree. The viceroy +would draw her into alcoves and engage her in flattering conversation, +while poor James could only gnaw his nails and let green-eyed jealousy +prey upon his heart. His only recourse was to take her into the +country, where she speedily became bored; and boredom is the death of +love. + +Later she went with Captain James to India. She endured a campaign in +Afghanistan, in which she thoroughly enjoyed herself because of the +attentions of the officers. On her return to London in 1842, one +Captain Lennox was a fellow passenger; and their association resulted +in an action for divorce, by which she was freed from her husband, and +yet by a technicality was not able to marry Lennox, whose family in any +case would probably have prevented the wedding. + +Mrs. Mayne says, in writing on this point: + +Even Lola never quite succeeded in being allowed to commit bigamy +unmolested, though in later years she did commit it and took refuge in +Spain to escape punishment. + +The same writer has given a vivid picture of what happened soon after +the divorce. Lola tried to forget her past and to create a new and +brighter future. Here is the narrative: + +Her Majesty's Theater was crowded on the night of June 10,1843. A new +Spanish dancer was announced--"Dona Lola Montez." It was her debut, and +Lumley, the manager, had been puffing her beforehand, as he alone knew +how. To Lord Ranelagh, the leader of the dilettante group of +fashionable young men, he had whispered, mysteriously: + +"I have a surprise in store. You shall see." + +So Ranelagh and a party of his friends filled the omnibus boxes, those +tribunes at the side of the stage whence success or failure was +pronounced. Things had been done with Lumley's consummate art; the +packed house was murmurous with excitement. She was a raving beauty, +said report--and then, those intoxicating Spanish dances! Taglioni, +Cerito, Fanny Elssler, all were to be eclipsed. + +Ranelagh's glasses were steadily leveled on the stage from the moment +her entrance was imminent. She came on. There was a murmur of +admiration--but Ranelagh made no sign. And then she began to dance. A +sense of disappointment, perhaps? But she was very lovely, very +graceful, "like a flower swept by the wind, she floated round the +stage"--not a dancer, but, by George, a beauty! And still Ranelagh made +no sign. + +Yet, no. What low, sibilant sound is that? And then what confused, +angry words from the tribunal? He turns to his friends, his eyes ablaze +with anger, opera-glass in hand. And now again the terrible "Hiss-s-s!" +taken up by the other box, and the words repeated loudly and more +angrily even than before--the historic words which sealed Lola's doom +at Her Majesty's Theater: "WHY, IT'S BETTY JAMES!" + +She was, indeed, Betty James, and London would not accept her as Lola +Montez. She left England and appeared upon the Continent as a beautiful +virago, making a sensation--as the French would say, a succes de +scandale--by boxing the ears of people who offended her, and even on +one occasion horsewhipping a policeman who was in attendance on the +King of Prussia. In Paris she tried once more to be a dancer, but Paris +would not have her. She betook herself to Dresden and Warsaw, where she +sought to attract attention by her eccentricities, making mouths at the +spectators, flinging her garters in their faces, and one time removing +her skirts and still more necessary garments, whereupon her manager +broke off his engagement with her. + +An English writer who heard a great deal of her and who saw her often +about this time writes that there was nothing wonderful about her +except "her beauty and her impudence." She had no talent nor any of the +graces which make women attractive; yet many men of talent raved about +her. The clever young journalist, Dujarrier, who assisted Emile +Girardin, was her lover in Paris. He was killed in a duel and left Lola +twenty thousand francs and some securities, so that she no longer had +to sing in the streets as she did in Warsaw. + +She now betook herself to Munich, the capital of Bavaria. That country +was then governed by Ludwig I., a king as eccentric as Lola herself. He +was a curious compound of kindliness, ideality, and peculiar ways. For +instance, he would never use a carriage even on state occasions. He +prowled around the streets, knocking off the hats of those whom he +chanced to meet. Like his unfortunate descendant, Ludwig II., he wrote +poetry, and he had a picture-gallery devoted to portraits of the +beautiful women whom he had met. + +He dressed like an English fox-hunter, with a most extraordinary hat, +and what was odd and peculiar in others pleased him because he was odd +and peculiar himself. Therefore when Lola made her first appearance at +the Court Theater he was enchanted with her. He summoned her at once to +the palace, and within five days he presented her to the court, saying +as he did so: + +"Meine Herren, I present you to my best friend." + +In less than a month this curious monarch had given Lola the title of +Countess of Landsfeld. A handsome house was built for her, and a +pension of twenty thousand florins was granted her. This was in 1847. +With the people of Munich she was unpopular. They did not mind the +eccentricities of the king, since these amused them and did the country +no perceptible harm; but they were enraged by this beautiful woman, who +had no softness such as a woman ought to have. Her swearing, her +readiness to box the ears of every one whom she disliked, the huge +bulldog which accompanied her everywhere--all these things were beyond +endurance. + +She was discourteous to the queen, besides meddling with the politics +of the kingdom. Either of these things would have been sufficient to +make her hated. Together, they were more than the city of Munich could +endure. Finally the countess tried to establish a new corps in the +university. This was the last touch of all. A student who ventured to +wear her colors was beaten and arrested. Lola came to his aid with all +her wonted boldness; but the city was in commotion. + +Daggers were drawn; Lola was hustled and insulted. The foolish king +rushed out to protect her; and on his arm she was led in safety to the +palace. As she entered the gates she turned and fired a pistol into the +mob. No one was hurt, but a great rage took possession of the people. +The king issued a decree closing the university for a year. By this +time, however, Munich was in possession of a mob, and the Bavarians +demanded that she should leave the country. + +Ludwig faced the chamber of peers, where the demand of the populace was +placed before him. + +"I would rather lose my crown!" he replied. + +The lords of Bavaria regarded him with grim silence; and in their eyes +he read the determination of his people. On the following day a royal +decree revoked Lola's rights as a subject of Bavaria, and still another +decree ordered her to be expelled. The mob yelled with joy and burned +her house. Poor Ludwig watched the tumult by the light of the leaping +flames. + +He was still in love with her and tried to keep her in the kingdom; but +the result was that Ludwig himself was forced to abdicate. He had given +his throne for the light love of this beautiful but half-crazy woman. +She would have no more to do with him; and as for him, he had to give +place to his son Maximilian. Ludwig had lost a kingdom merely because +this strange, outrageous creature had piqued him and made him think +that she was unique among women. + +The rest of her career was adventurous. In England she contracted a +bigamous marriage with a youthful officer, and within two weeks they +fled to Spain for safety from the law. Her husband was drowned, and she +made still another marriage. She visited Australia, and at Melbourne +she had a fight with a strapping woman, who clawed her face until Lola +fell fainting to the ground. It is a squalid record of horse-whippings, +face-scratchings--in short, a rowdy life. + +Her end was like that of Becky Sharp. In America she delivered lectures +which were written for her by a clergyman and which dealt with the art +of beauty. She had a temporary success; but soon she became quite poor, +and took to piety, professing to be a sort of piteous, penitent +Magdalen. In this role she made effective use of her beautiful dark +hair, her pallor, and her wonderful eyes. But the violence of her +disposition had wrecked her physically; and she died of paralysis in +Astoria, on Long Island, in 1861. Upon her grave in Greenwood Cemetery, +Brooklyn, there is a tablet to her memory, bearing the inscription: +"Mrs. Eliza Gilbert, born 1818, died 1861." + +What can one say of a woman such as this? She had no morals, and her +manners were outrageous. The love she felt was the love of a she-wolf. +Fourteen biographies of her have been written, besides her own +autobiography, which was called The Story of a Penitent, and which +tells less about her than any of the other books. Her beauty was +undeniable. Her courage was the blended courage of the Celt, the +Spaniard, and the Moor. Yet all that one can say of her was said by the +elder Dumas when he declared that she was born to be the evil genius of +every one who cared for her. Her greatest fame comes from the fact that +in less than three years she overturned a kingdom and lost a king his +throne. + + + + +LEON GAMBETTA AND LEONIE LEON + + +The present French Republic has endured for over forty years. Within +that time it has produced just one man of extraordinary power and +parts. This was Leon Gambetta. Other men as remarkable as he were +conspicuous in French political life during the first few years of the +republic; but they belonged to an earlier generation, while Gambetta +leaped into prominence only when the empire fell, crashing down in ruin +and disaster. + +It is still too early to form an accurate estimate of him as a +statesman. His friends praise him extravagantly. His enemies still +revile him bitterly. The period of his political career lasted for +little more than a decade, yet in that time it may be said that he +lived almost a life of fifty years. Only a short time ago did the +French government cause his body to be placed within the great +Pantheon, which contains memorials of the heroes and heroines of +France. But, though we may not fairly judge of his political motives, +we can readily reconstruct a picture of him as a man, and in doing so +recall his one romance, which many will remember after they have +forgotten his oratorical triumphs and his statecraft. + +Leon Gambetta was the true type of the southern Frenchman--what his +countrymen call a meridional. The Frenchman of the south is different +from the Frenchman of the north, for the latter has in his veins a +touch of the viking blood, so that he is very apt to be fair-haired and +blue-eyed, temperate in speech, and self-controlled. He is different, +again, from the Frenchman of central France, who is almost purely +Celtic. The meridional has a marked vein of the Italian in him, derived +from the conquerors of ancient Gaul. He is impulsive, ardent, fiery in +speech, hot-tempered, and vivacious to an extraordinary degree. + +Gambetta, who was born at Cahors, was French only on his mother's side, +since his father was of Italian birth. It is said also that somewhere +in his ancestry there was a touch of the Oriental. At any rate, he was +one of the most southern of the sons of southern France, and he showed +the precocious maturity which belongs to a certain type of Italian. At +twenty-one he had already been admitted to the French bar, and had +drifted to Paris, where his audacity, his pushing nature, and his +red-hot un-restraint of speech gave him a certain notoriety from the +very first. + +It was toward the end of the reign of Napoleon III. that Gambetta saw +his opportunity. The emperor, weakened by disease and yielding to a +sort of feeble idealism, gave to France a greater freedom of speech +than it had enjoyed while he was more virile. This relaxation of +control merely gave to his opponents more courage to attack him and his +empire. Demagogues harangued the crowds in words which would once have +led to their imprisonment. In the National Assembly the opposition did +all within its power to hamper and defeat the policy of the government. + +In short, republicanism began to rise in an ominous and threatening +way; and at the head of republicanism in Paris stood forth Gambetta, +with his impassioned eloquence, his stinging phrases, and his youthful +boldness. He became the idol of that part of Paris known as Belleville, +where artisans and laborers united with the rabble of the streets in +hating the empire and in crying out for a republic. + +Gambetta was precisely the man to voice the feelings of these people. +Whatever polish he acquired in after years was then quite lacking; and +the crudity of his manners actually helped him with the men whom he +harangued. A recent book by M. Francis Laur, an ardent admirer of +Gambetta, gives a picture of the man which may be nearly true of him in +his later life, but which is certainly too flattering when applied to +Gambetta in 1868, at the age of thirty. + +How do we see Gambetta as he was at thirty? A man of powerful frame and +of intense vitality, with thick, clustering hair, which he shook as a +lion shakes its mane; olive-skinned, with eyes that darted fire, a +resonant, sonorous voice, and a personal magnetism which was instantly +felt by all who met him or who heard him speak. His manners were not +refined. He was fond of oil and garlic. His gestures were often more +frantic than impressive, so that his enemies called him "the furious +fool." He had a trick of spitting while he spoke. He was by no means +the sort of man whose habits had been formed in drawing-rooms or among +people of good breeding. Yet his oratory was, of its kind, superb. + +In 1869 Gambetta was elected by the Red Republicans to the Corps +Legislatif. From the very first his vehemence and fire gained him a +ready hearing. The chamber itself was arranged like a great theater, +the members occupying the floor and the public the galleries. Each +orator in addressing the house mounted a sort of rostrum and from it +faced the whole assemblage, not noticing, as with us, the presiding +officer at all. The very nature of this arrangement stimulated +parliamentary speaking into eloquence and flamboyant oratory. + +After Gambetta had spoken a few times he noticed in the gallery a tall, +graceful woman, dressed in some neutral color and wearing long black +gloves, which accentuated the beauty of her hands and arms. No one in +the whole assembly paid such close attention to the orator as did this +woman, whom he had never seen before and who appeared to be entirely +alone. + +When it came to him to speak on another day he saw sitting in the same +place the same stately and yet lithe and sinuous figure. This was +repeated again and again, until at last whenever he came to a +peculiarly fervid burst of oratory he turned to this woman's face and +saw it lighted up by the same enthusiasm which was stirring him. + +Finally, in the early part of 1870, there came a day when Gambetta +surpassed himself in eloquence. His theme was the grandeur of +republican government. Never in his life had he spoken so boldly as +then, or with such fervor. The ministers of the emperor shrank back in +dismay as this big-voiced, strong-limbed man hurled forth sentence +after sentence like successive peals of irresistible artillery. + +As Gambetta rolled forth his sentences, superb in their rhetoric and +all ablaze with that sort of intense feeling which masters an orator in +the moment of his triumph, the face of the lady in the gallery +responded to him with wonderful appreciation. She was no longer calm, +unmoved, and almost severe. She flushed, and her eyes as they met his +seemed to sparkle with living fire. When he finished and descended from +the rostrum he looked at her, and their eyes cried out as significantly +as if the two had spoken to each other. + +Then Gambetta did what a person of finer breeding would not have done. +He hastily scribbled a note, sealed it, and called to his side one of +the official pages. In the presence of the great assemblage, where he +was for the moment the center of attention, he pointed to the lady in +the gallery and ordered the page to take the note to her. + +One may excuse this only on the ground that he was completely carried +away by his emotion, so that to him there was no one present save this +enigmatically fascinating woman and himself. But the lady on her side +was wiser; or perhaps a slight delay gave her time to recover her +discretion. When Gambetta's note was brought to her she took it quietly +and tore it into little pieces without reading it; and then, rising, +she glided through the crowd and disappeared. + +Gambetta in his excitement had acted as if she were a mere adventuress. +With perfect dignity she had shown him that she was a woman who +retained her self-respect. + +Immediately upon the heels of this curious incident came the outbreak +of the war with Germany. In the war the empire was shattered at Sedan. +The republic was proclaimed in Paris. The French capital was besieged +by a vast German army. Gambetta was made minister of the interior, and +remained for a while in Paris even after it had been blockaded. But his +fiery spirit chafed under such conditions. He longed to go forth into +the south of France and arouse his countrymen with a cry to arms +against the invaders. + +Escaping in a balloon, he safely reached the city of Tours; and there +he established what was practically a dictatorship. He flung himself +with tremendous energy into the task of organizing armies, of equipping +them, and of directing their movements for the relief of Paris. He did, +in fact, accomplish wonders. He kept the spirit of the nation still +alive. Three new armies were launched against the Germans. Gambetta was +everywhere and took part in everything that was done. His inexperience +in military affairs, coupled with his impatience of advice, led him to +make serious mistakes. Nevertheless, one of his armies practically +defeated the Germans at Orleans; and could he have had his own way, +even the fall of Paris would not have ended the war. + +"Never," said Gambetta, "shall I consent to peace so long as France +still has two hundred thousand men under arms and more than a thousand +cannon to direct against the enemy!" + +But he was overruled by other and less fiery statesmen. Peace was made, +and Gambetta retired for a moment into private life. If he had not +succeeded in expelling the German hosts he had, at any rate, made +Bismarck hate him, and he had saved the honor of France. + +It was while the National Assembly at Versailles was debating the terms +of peace with Germany that Gambetta once more delivered a noble and +patriotic speech. As he concluded he felt a strange magnetic +attraction; and, sweeping the audience with a glance, he saw before +him, not very far away, the same woman with the long black gloves, +having about her still an air of mystery, but again meeting his eyes +with her own, suffused with feeling. + +Gambetta hurried to an anteroom and hastily scribbled the following +note: + +At last I see you once more. Is it really you? + +The scrawl was taken to her by a discreet official, and this time she +received the letter, pressed it to her heart, and then slipped it into +the bodice of her gown. But this time, as before, she left without +making a reply. + +It was an encouragement, yet it gave no opening to Gambetta--for she +returned to the National Assembly no more. But now his heart was full +of hope, for he was convinced with a very deep conviction that +somewhere, soon, and in some way he would meet this woman, who had +become to him one of the intense realities of his life. He did not know +her name. They had never exchanged a word. Yet he was sure that time +would bring them close together. + +His intuition was unerring. What we call chance often seems to know +what it is doing. Within a year after the occurrence that has just been +narrated an old friend of Gambetta's met with an accident which +confined him to his house. The statesman strolled to his friend's +residence. The accident was a trifling one, and the mistress of the +house was holding a sort of informal reception, answering questions +that were asked her by the numerous acquaintances who called. + +As Gambetta was speaking, of a sudden he saw before him, at the +extremity of the room, the lady of his dreams, the sphinx of his waking +hours, the woman who four years earlier had torn up the note which he +addressed to her, but who more recently had kept his written words. +Both of them were deeply agitated, yet both of them carried off the +situation without betraying themselves to others, Gambetta approached, +and they exchanged a few casual commonplaces. But now, close together, +eye and voice spoke of what was in their hearts. + +Presently the lady took her leave. Gambetta followed closely. In the +street he turned to her and said in pleading tones: + +"Why did you destroy my letter? You knew I loved you, and yet all these +years you have kept away from me in silence." + +Then the girl--for she was little more than a girl--hesitated for a +moment. As he looked upon her face he saw that her eyes were full of +tears. At last she spoke with emotion: + +"You cannot love me, for I am unworthy of you. Do not urge me. Do not +make promises. Let us say good-by. At least I must first tell you of my +story, for I am one of those women whom no one ever marries." + +Gambetta brushed aside her pleadings. He begged that he might see her +soon. Little by little she consented; but she would not see him at her +house. She knew that his enemies were many and that everything he did +would be used against him. In the end she agreed to meet him in the +park at Versailles, near the Petit Trianon, at eight o'clock in the +morning. + +When she had made this promise he left her. Already a new inspiration +had come to him, and he felt that with this woman by his side he could +accomplish anything. + +At the appointed hour, in the silence of the park and amid the sunshine +of the beautiful morning, the two met once again. Gambetta seized her +hands with eagerness and cried out in an exultant tone: + +"At last! At last! At last!" + +But the woman's eyes were heavy with sorrow, and upon her face there +was a settled melancholy. She trembled at his touch and almost shrank +from him. Here was seen the impetuosity of the meridional. He had first +spoken to this woman only two days before. He knew nothing of her +station, of her surroundings, of her character. He did not even know +her name. Yet one thing he knew absolutely--that she was made for him +and that he must have her for his own. He spoke at once of marriage; +but at this she drew away from him still farther. + +"No," she said. "I told you that you must not speak to me until you +have heard my story." + +He led her to a great stone bench near by; and, passing his arm about +her waist, he drew her head down to his shoulder as he said: + +"Well, tell me. I will listen." + +Then this girl of twenty-four, with perfect frankness, because she was +absolutely loyal, told him why she felt that they must never see each +other any more-much less marry and be happy. She was the daughter of a +colonel in the French army. The sudden death of her father had left her +penniless and alone. Coming to Paris at the age of eighteen, she had +given lessons in the household of a high officer of the empire. This +man had been attracted by her beauty, and had seduced her. + +Later she had secured the means of living modestly, realizing more +deeply each month how dreadful had been her fate and how she had been +cut off from the lot of other girls. She felt that her life must be a +perpetual penance for what had befallen her through her ignorance and +inexperience. She told Gambetta that her name was Leonie Leon. As is +the custom of Frenchwomen who live alone, she styled herself madame. It +is doubtful whether the name by which she passed was that which had +been given to her at baptism; but, if so, her true name has never been +disclosed. + +When she had told the whole of her sad story to Gambetta he made +nothing of it. She said to him again: + +"You cannot love me. I should only dim your fame. You can have nothing +in common with a dishonored, ruined girl. That is what I came here to +explain to you. Let us part, and let us for all time forget each other." + +But Gambetta took no heed of what she said. Now that he had found her, +he would not consent to lose her. He seized her slender hands and +covered them with kisses. Again he urged that she should marry him. + +Her answer was a curious one. She was a devoted Catholic and would not +regard any marriage as valid save a religious marriage. On the other +hand, Gambetta, though not absolutely irreligious, was leading the +opposition to the Catholic party in France. The Church to him was not +so much a religious body as a political one, and to it he was +unalterably opposed. Personally, he would have no objections to being +married by a priest; but as a leader of the anti-clerical party he felt +that he must not recognize the Church's claim in any way. A religious +marriage would destroy his influence with his followers and might even +imperil the future of the republic. + +They pleaded long and earnestly both then and afterward. He urged a +civil marriage, but she declared that only a marriage according to the +rites of the Church could ever purify her past and give her back her +self-respect. In this she was absolutely stubborn, yet she did not urge +upon Gambetta that he should destroy his influence by marrying her in +church. + +Through all this interplay of argument and pleading and emotion the two +grew every moment more hopelessly in love. Then the woman, with a +woman's curious subtlety and indirectness, reached a somewhat singular +conclusion. She would hear nothing of a civil marriage, because a civil +marriage was no marriage in the eyes of Pope and prelate. On the other +hand, she did not wish Gambetta to mar his political career by going +through a religious ceremony. She had heard from a priest that the +Church recognized two forms of betrothal. The usual one looked to a +marriage in the future and gave no marriage privileges until after the +formal ceremony. But there was another kind of betrothal known to the +theologians as sponsalia de praesente. According to this, if there were +an actual betrothal, the pair might have the privileges and rights of +marriage immediately, if only they sincerely meant to be married in the +future. + +The eager mind of Leonie Leon caught at this bit of ecclesiastical law +and used it with great ingenuity. + +"Let us," she said, "be formally betrothed by the interchange of a +ring, and let us promise each other to marry in the future. After such +a betrothal as this we shall be the same as married; for we shall be +acting according to the laws of the Church." + +Gambetta gladly gave his promise. A betrothal ring was purchased; and +then, her conscience being appeased, she gave herself completely to her +lover. Gambetta was sincere. He said to her: + +"If the time should ever come when I shall lose my political station, +when I am beaten in the struggle, when I am deserted and alone, will +you not then marry me when I ask you?" + +And Leonie, with her arms about his neck, promised that she would. Yet +neither of them specified what sort of marriage this should be, nor did +it seem at the moment as if the question could arise. + +For Gambetta was very powerful. He led his party to success in the +election of 1877. Again and again his triumphant oratory mastered the +National Assembly of France. In 1879 he was chosen to be president of +the Chamber of Deputies. He towered far above the president of the +republic--Jules Grevy, that hard-headed, close-fisted old peasant--and +his star had reached its zenith. + +All this time he and Leonie Leon maintained their intimacy, though it +was carefully concealed save from a very few. She lived in a plain but +pretty house on the Avenue Perrichont in the quiet quarter of Auteuil; +but Gambetta never came there. Where and when they met was a secret +guarded very carefully by the few who were his close associates. But +meet they did continually, and their affection grew stronger every +year. Leonie thrilled at the victories of the man she loved; and he +found joy in the hours that he spent with her. + +Gambetta's need of rest was very great, for he worked at the highest +tension, like an engine which is using every pound of steam. Bismarck, +whose spies kept him well informed of everything that was happening in +Paris, and who had no liking for Gambetta, since the latter always +spoke of him as "the Ogre," once said to a Frenchman named Cheberry: + +"He is the only one among you who thinks of revenge, and who is any +sort of a menace to Germany. But, fortunately, he won't last much +longer. I am not speaking thoughtlessly. I know from secret reports +what sort of a life your great man leads, and I know his habits. Why, +his life is a life of continual overwork. He rests neither night nor +day. All politicians who have led the same life have died young. To be +able to serve one's country for a long time a statesman must marry an +ugly woman, have children like the rest of the world, and a country +place or a house to one's self like any common peasant, where he can go +and rest." + +The Iron Chancellor chuckled as he said this, and he was right. And yet +Gambetta's end came not so much through overwork as by an accident. + +It may be that the ambition of Mme. Leon stimulated him beyond his +powers. However this may be, early in 1882, when he was defeated in +Parliament on a question which he considered vital, he immediately +resigned and turned his back on public life. His fickle friends soon +deserted him. His enemies jeered and hooted the mention of his name. + +He had reached the time which with a sort of prophetic instinct he had +foreseen nearly ten years before. So he turned to the woman who had +been faithful and loving to him; and he turned to her with a feeling of +infinite peace. + +"You promised me," he said, "that if ever I was defeated and alone you +would marry me. The time is now." + +Then this man, who had exercised the powers of a dictator, who had +levied armies and shaken governments, and through whose hands there had +passed thousands of millions of francs, sought for a country home. He +found for sale a small estate which had once belonged to Balzac, and +which is known as Les Jardies. It was in wretched repair; yet the small +sum which it cost Gambetta--twelve thousand francs--was practically all +that he possessed. Worn and weary as he was, it seemed to him a haven +of delightful peace; for here he might live in the quiet country with +the still beautiful woman who was soon to become his wife. + +It is not known what form of marriage they at last agreed upon. She may +have consented to a civil ceremony; or he, being now out of public +life, may have felt that he could be married by the Church. The day for +their wedding had been set, and Gambetta was already at Les Jardies. +But there came a rumor that he had been shot. Still further tidings +bore the news that he was dying. Paris, fond as it was of scandals, +immediately spread the tale that he had been shot by a jealous woman. + +The truth is quite the contrary. Gambetta, in arranging his effects in +his new home, took it upon himself to clean a pair of dueling-pistols; +for every French politician of importance must fight duels, and +Gambetta had already done so. Unfortunately, one cartridge remained +unnoticed in the pistol which Gambetta cleaned. As he held the +pistol-barrel against the soft part of his hand the cartridge exploded, +and the ball passed through the base of the thumb with a rending, +spluttering noise. + +The wound was not in itself serious, but now the prophecy of Bismarck +was fulfilled. Gambetta had exhausted his vitality; a fever set in, and +before long he died of internal ulceration. + +This was the end of a great career and of a great romance of love. +Leonie Leon was half distraught at the death of the lover who was so +soon to be her husband. She wandered for hours in the forest until she +reached a convent, where she was received. Afterward she came to Paris +and hid herself away in a garret of the slums. All the light of her +life had gone out. She wished that she had died with him whose glory +had been her life. Friends of Gambetta, however, discovered her and +cared for her until her death, long afterward, in 1906. + +She lived upon the memories of the past, of the swift love that had +come at first sight, but which had lasted unbrokenly; which had given +her the pride of conquest, and which had brought her lover both +happiness and inspiration and a refining touch which had smoothed away +his roughness and made him fit to stand in palaces with dignity and +distinction. + +As for him, he left a few lines which have been carefully preserved, +and which sum up his thought of her. They read: + +To the light of my soul; to the star, of my life--Leonie Leon. For +ever! For ever! + + + + +LADY BLESSINGTON AND COUNT D'ORSAY + + +Often there has arisen some man who, either by his natural gifts or by +his impudence or by the combination of both, has made himself a +recognized leader in the English fashionable world. One of the first of +these men was Richard Nash, usually known as "Beau Nash," who +flourished in the eighteenth century. Nash was a man of doubtful +origin; nor was he attractive in his looks, for he was a huge, clumsy +creature with features that were both irregular and harsh. +Nevertheless, for nearly fifty years Beau Nash was an arbiter of +fashion. Goldsmith, who wrote his life, declared that his supremacy was +due to his pleasing manners, "his assiduity, flattery, fine clothes, +and as much wit as the ladies had whom he addressed." He converted the +town of Bath from a rude little hamlet into an English Newport, of +which he was the social autocrat. He actually drew up a set of written +rules which some of the best-born and best-bred people follow slavishly. + +Even better known to us is George Bryan Brummel, commonly called "Beau +Brummel," who by his friendship with George IV.--then Prince +Regent--was an oracle at court on everything that related to dress and +etiquette and the proper mode of living. His memory has been kept alive +most of all by Richard Mansfield's famous impersonation of him. The +play is based upon the actual facts; for after Brummel had lost the +royal favor he died an insane pauper in the French town of Caen. He, +too, had a distinguished biographer, since Bulwer-Lytton's novel Pelham +is really the narrative of Brummel's curious career. + +Long after Brummel, Lord Banelagh led the gilded youth of London, and +it was at this time that the notorious Lola Montez made her first +appearance in the British capital. + +These three men--Nash, Brummel, and Ranelagh--had the advantage of +being Englishmen, and, therefore, of not incurring the old-time English +suspicion of foreigners. A much higher type of social arbiter was a +Frenchman who for twenty years during the early part of Queen +Victoria's reign gave law to the great world of fashion, besides +exercising a definite influence upon English art and literature. + +This was Count Albert Guillaume d'Orsay, the son of one of Napoleon's +generals, and descended by a morganatic marriage from the King of +Wurttemburg. The old general, his father, was a man of high courage, +impressive appearance, and keen intellect, all of which qualities he +transmitted to his son. The young Count d'Orsay, when he came of age, +found the Napoleonic era ended and France governed by Louis XVIII. The +king gave Count d'Orsay a commission in the army in a regiment +stationed at Valence in the southeastern part of France. He had already +visited England and learned the English language, and he had made some +distinguished friends there, among whom were Lord Byron and Thomas +Moore. + +On his return to France he began his garrison life at Valence, where he +showed some of the finer qualities of his character. It is not merely +that he was handsome and accomplished and that he had the gift of +winning the affections of those about him. Unlike Nash and Brummel, he +was a gentleman in every sense, and his courtesy was of the highest +kind. At the balls given by his regiment, although he was more courted +than any other officer, he always sought out the plainest girls and +showed them the most flattering attentions. No "wallflowers" were left +neglected when D'Orsay was present. + +It is strange how completely human beings are in the hands of fate. +Here was a young French officer quartered in a provincial town in the +valley of the Rhone. Who would have supposed that he was destined to +become not only a Londoner, but a favorite at the British court, a +model of fashion, a dictator of etiquette, widely known for his +accomplishments, the patron of literary men and of distinguished +artists? But all these things were to come to pass by a mere accident +of fortune. + +During his firsts visit to London, which has already been mentioned, +Count d'Orsay was invited once or twice to receptions given by the Earl +and Countess of Blessington, where he was well received, though this +was only an incident of his English sojourn. Before the story proceeds +any further it is necessary to give an account of the Earl and of Lady +Blessington, since both of their careers had been, to say the least, +unusual. + +Lord Blessington was an Irish peer for whom an ancient title had been +revived. He was remotely descended from the Stuarts of Scotland, and +therefore had royal blood to boast of. He had been well educated, and +in many ways was a man of pleasing manner. On the other hand, he had +early inherited a very large property which yielded him an income of +about thirty thousand pounds a year. He had estates in Ireland, and he +owned nearly the whole of a fashionable street in London, with the +buildings erected on it. + +This fortune and the absence of any one who could control him had made +him wilful and extravagant and had wrought in him a curious love of +personal display. Even as a child he would clamor to be dressed in the +most gorgeous uniforms; and when he got possession of his property his +love of display became almost a monomania. He built a theater as an +adjunct to his country house in Ireland and imported players from +London and elsewhere to act in it. He loved to mingle with the mummers, +to try on their various costumes, and to parade up and down, now as an +oriental prince and now as a Roman emperor. + +In London he hung about the green-rooms, and was a well-known figure +wherever actors or actresses were collected. Such was his love of the +stage that he sought to marry into the profession and set his heart on +a girl named Mary Campbell Browne, who was very beautiful to look at, +but who was not conspicuous either for her mind or for her morals. When +Lord Blessington proposed marriage to her she was obliged to tell him +that she already had one husband still alive, but she was perfectly +willing to live with him and dispense with the marriage ceremony. So +for several years she did live with him and bore him two children. + +It speaks well for the earl that when the inconvenient husband died a +marriage at once took place and Mrs. Browne became a countess. Then, +after other children had been born, the lady died, leaving the earl a +widower at about the age of forty. The only legitimate son born of this +marriage followed his mother to the grave; and so for the third time +the earldom of Blessington seemed likely to become extinct. The death +of his wife, however, gave the earl a special opportunity to display +his extravagant tastes. He spent more than four thousand pounds on the +funeral ceremonies, importing from France a huge black velvet +catafalque which had shortly before been used at the public funeral of +Napoleon's marshal, Duroc, while the house blazed with enormous wax +tapers and glittered with cloth of gold. + +Lord Blessington soon plunged again into the busy life of London. +Having now no heir, there was no restraint on his expenditures, and he +borrowed large sums of money in order to buy additional estates and +houses and to experience the exquisite joy of spending lavishly. At +this time he had his lands in Ireland, a town house in St. James's +Square, another in Seymour Place, and still another which was afterward +to become famous as Gore House, in Kensington. + +Some years before he had met in Ireland a lady called Mrs. Maurice +Farmer; and it happened that she now came to London. The earlier story +of her still young life must here be told, because her name afterward +became famous, and because the tale illustrates wonderfully well the +raw, crude, lawless period of the Regency, when England was fighting +her long war with Napoleon, when the Prince Regent was imitating all +the vices of the old French kings, when prize-fighting, deep drinking, +dueling, and dicing were practised without restraint in all the large +cities and towns of the United Kingdom. It was, as Sir Arthur Conan +Doyle has said, "an age of folly and of heroism"; for, while it +produced some of the greatest black-guards known to history, it +produced also such men as Wellington and Nelson, the two Pitts, +Sheridan, Byron, Shelley, and Sir Walter Scott. + +Mrs. Maurice Farmer was the daughter of a small Irish landowner named +Robert Power--himself the incarnation of all the vices of the time. +There was little law in Ireland, not even that which comes from public +opinion; and Robert Power rode hard to hounds, gambled recklessly, and +assembled in his house all sorts of reprobates, with whom he held +frightful orgies that lasted from sunset until dawn. His wife and his +young daughters viewed him with terror, and the life they led was a +perpetual nightmare because of the bestial carousings in which their +father engaged, wasting his money and mortgaging his estates until the +end of his wild career was in plain sight. + +There happened to be stationed at Clonmel a regiment of infantry in +which there served a captain named Maurice St. Leger Farmer. He was a +man of some means, but eccentric to a degree. His temper was so utterly +uncontrolled that even his fellow officers could scarcely live with +him, and he was given to strange caprices. It happened that at a ball +in Clonmel he met the young daughter of Robert Power, then a mere child +of fourteen years. Captain Farmer was seized with an infatuation for +the girl, and he went almost at once to her father, asking for her hand +in marriage and proposing to settle a sum of money upon her if she +married him. + +The hard-riding squireen jumped at the offer. His own estate was being +stripped bare. Here was a chance to provide for one of his daughters, +or, rather, to get rid of her, and he agreed that she should be married +out of hand. Going home, he roughly informed the girl that she was to +be the wife of Captain Farmer. He so bullied his wife that she was +compelled to join him in this command. + +What was poor little Margaret Power to do? She was only a child. She +knew nothing of the world. She was accustomed to obey her father as she +would have obeyed some evil genius who had her in his power. There were +tears and lamentations. She was frightened half to death; yet for her +there was no help. Therefore, while not yet fifteen her marriage took +place, and she was the unhappy slave of a half-crazy tyrant. She had +then no beauty whatsoever. She was wholly undeveloped--thin and pale, +and with rough hair that fell over her frightened eyes; yet Farmer +wanted her, and he settled his money on her, just as he would have +spent the same amount to gratify any other sudden whim. + +The life she led with him for a few months showed him to be more of a +devil than a man. He took a peculiar delight in terrifying her, in +subjecting her to every sort of outrage; nor did he refrain even from +beating her with his fists. The girl could stand a great deal, but this +was too much. She returned to her father's house, where she was +received with the bitterest reproaches, but where, at least, she was +safe from harm, since her possession of a dowry made her a person of +some small importance. + +Not long afterward Captain Farmer fell into a dispute with his colonel, +Lord Caledon, and in the course of it he drew his sword on his +commanding officer. The court-martial which was convened to try him +would probably have had him shot were it not for the very general +belief that he was insane. So he was simply cashiered and obliged to +leave the service and betake himself elsewhere. Thus the girl whom, he +had married was quite free--free to leave her wretched home and even to +leave Ireland. + +She did leave Ireland and establish herself in London, where she had +some acquaintances, among them the Earl of Blessington. As already +said, he had met her in Ireland while she was living with her husband; +and now from time to time he saw her in a friendly way. After the death +of his wife he became infatuated with Margaret Farmer. She was a good +deal alone, and his attentions gave her entertainment. Her past +experience led her to have no real belief in love. She had become, +however, in a small way interested in literature and art, with an eager +ambition to be known as a writer. As it happened, Captain Farmer, whose +name she bore, had died some months before Lord Blessington had decided +to make a new marriage. The earl proposed to Margaret Farmer, and the +two were married by special license. + +The Countess of Blessington--to give the lady her new title--was now +twenty-eight years of age and had developed into a woman of great +beauty. She was noted for the peculiarly vivacious and radiant +expression which was always on her face. She had a kind of vivid +loveliness accompanied by grace, simplicity, and a form of exquisite +proportions. The ugly duckling had become a swan, for now there was no +trace of her former plainness to be seen. + +Not yet in her life had love come to her. Her first husband had been +thrust upon her and had treated her outrageously. Her second husband +was much older than she; and, though she was not without a certain +kindly feeling for one who had been kind to her, she married him, first +of all, for his title and position. + +Having been reared in poverty, she had no conception of the value of +money; and, though the earl was remarkably extravagant, the new +countess was even more so. One after another their London houses were +opened and decorated with the utmost lavishness. They gave innumerable +entertainments, not only to the nobility and to men of rank, +but--because this was Lady Blessington's peculiar fad--to artists and +actors and writers of all degrees. The American, N. P. Willis, in his +Pencilings by the Way, has given an interesting sketch of the countess +and her surroundings, while the younger Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) +has depicted D'Orsay as Count Mirabel in Henrietta Temple. Willis says: + +In a long library, lined alternately with splendidly bound books and +mirrors, and with a deep window of the breadth of the room opening upon +Hyde Park, I found Lady Blessington alone. The picture, to my eye, as +the door opened, was a very lovely one--a woman of remarkable beauty, +half buried in a fauteuil of yellow satin, reading by a magnificent +lamp suspended from the center of the arched ceiling. Sofas, couches, +ottomans, and busts, arranged in rather a crowded sumptuousness through +the room; enameled tables, covered with expensive and elegant trifles +in every corner, and a delicate white hand in relief on the back of a +book, to which the eye was attracted by the blaze of diamond rings. + +All this "crowded sumptuousness" was due to the taste of Lady +Blessington. Amid it she received royal dukes, statesmen such as +Palmerston, Canning, Castlereagh, Russell, and Brougham, actors such as +Kemble and Matthews, artists such as Lawrence and Wilkie, and men of +letters such as Moore, Bulwer-Lytton, and the two Disraelis. To +maintain this sort of life Lord Blessington raised large amounts of +money, totaling about half a million pounds sterling, by mortgaging his +different estates and giving his promissory notes to money-lenders. Of +course, he did not spend this vast sum immediately. He might have lived +in comparative luxury upon his income; but he was a restless, eager, +improvident nobleman, and his extravagances were prompted by the +urgings of his wife. + +In all this display, which Lady Blessington both stimulated and shared, +there is to be found a psychological basis. She was now verging upon +the thirties--a time which is a very critical period in a woman's +emotional life, if she has not already given herself over to love and +been loved in return. During Lady Blessington's earlier years she had +suffered in many ways, and it is probable that no thought of love had +entered her mind. She was only too glad if she could escape from the +harshness of her father and the cruelty of her first husband. Then came +her development into a beautiful woman, content for the time to be +languorously stagnant and to enjoy the rest and peace which had come to +her. + +When she married Lord Blessington her love life had not yet commenced; +and, in fact, there could be no love life in such a marriage--a +marriage with a man much older than herself, scatter-brained, showy, +and having no intellectual gifts. So for a time she sought satisfaction +in social triumphs, in capturing political and literary lions in order +to exhibit them in her salon, and in spending money right and left with +a lavish hand. But, after all, in a woman of her temperament none of +these things could satisfy her inner longings. Beautiful, full of +Celtic vivacity, imaginative and eager, such a nature as hers would in +the end be starved unless her heart should be deeply touched and unless +all her pent-up emotion could give itself up entirely in the great +surrender. + +After a few years of London she grew restless and dissatisfied. Her +surroundings wearied her. There was a call within her for something +more than she had yet experienced. The earl, her husband, was by nature +no less restless; and so, without knowing the reason--which, indeed, +she herself did not understand--he readily assented to a journey on the +Continent. + +As they traveled southward they reached at length the town of Valence, +where Count d'Orsay was still quartered with his regiment. A vague, +indefinable feeling of attraction swept over this woman, who was now a +woman of the world and yet quite inexperienced in affairs relating to +the heart. The mere sound of the French officer's voice, the mere sight +of his face, the mere knowledge of his presence, stirred her as nothing +had ever stirred her until that time. Yet neither he nor she appears to +have been conscious at once of the secret of their liking. It was +enough that they were soothed and satisfied with each other's company. + +Oddly enough, the Earl of Blessington became as devoted to D'Orsay as +did his wife. The two urged the count to secure a leave of absence and +to accompany them to Italy. This he was easily persuaded to do; and the +three passed weeks and months of a languorous and alluring intercourse +among the lakes and the seductive influence of romantic Italy. Just +what passed between Count d'Orsay and Margaret Blessington at this time +cannot be known, for the secret of it has perished with them; but it is +certain that before very long they came to know that each was +indispensable to the other. + +The situation was complicated by the Earl of Blessington, who, entirely +unsuspicious, proposed that the Count should marry Lady Harriet +Gardiner, his eldest legitimate daughter by his first wife. He pressed +the match upon the embarrassed D'Orsay, and offered to settle the sum +of forty thousand pounds upon the bride. The girl was less than fifteen +years of age. She had no gifts either of beauty or of intelligence; +and, in addition, D'Orsay was now deeply in love with her stepmother. + +On the other hand, his position with the Blessingtons was daily growing +more difficult. People had begun to talk of the almost open relations +between Count d'Orsay and Lady Blessington. Lord Byron, in a letter +written to the countess, spoke to her openly and in a playful way of +"YOUR D'Orsay." The manners and morals of the time were decidedly +irregular; yet sooner or later the earl was sure to gain some hint of +what every one was saying. Therefore, much against his real desire, yet +in order to shelter his relations with Lady Blessington, D'Orsay agreed +to the marriage with Lady Harriet, who was only fifteen years of age. + +This made the intimacy between D'Orsay and the Blessingtons appear to +be not unusual; but, as a matter of fact, the marriage was no marriage. +The unattractive girl who had become a bride merely to hide the +indiscretions of her stepmother was left entirely to herself; while the +whole family, returning to London, made their home together in Seymour +Place. + +Could D'Orsay have foreseen the future he would never have done what +must always seem an act so utterly unworthy of him. For within two +years Lord Blessington fell ill and died. Had not D'Orsay been married +he would now have been free to marry Lady Blessington. As it was, he +was bound fast to her stepdaughter; and since at that time there was no +divorce court in England, and since he had no reason for seeking a +divorce, he was obliged to live on through many years in a most +ambiguous situation. He did, however, separate himself from his +childish bride; and, having done so, he openly took up his residence +with Lady Blessington at Gore House. By this time, however, the +companionship of the two had received a sort of general sanction, and +in that easy-going age most people took it as a matter of course. + +The two were now quite free to live precisely as they would. Lady +Blessington became extravagantly happy, and Count d'Orsay was accepted +in London as an oracle of fashion. Every one was eager to visit Gore +House, and there they received all the notable men of the time. The +improvidence of Lady Blessington, however, was in no respect +diminished. She lived upon her jointure, recklessly spending capital as +well as interest, and gathering under her roof a rare museum of +artistic works, from jewels and curios up to magnificent pictures and +beautiful statuary. + +D'Orsay had sufficient self-respect not to live upon the money that had +come to Lady Blessington from her husband. He was a skilful painter, +and he practised his art in a professional way. His portrait of the +Duke of Wellington was preferred by that famous soldier to any other +that had been made of him. The Iron Duke was, in fact, a frequent +visitor at Gore House, and he had a very high opinion of Count d'Orsay. +Lady Blessington herself engaged in writing novels of "high life," some +of which were very popular in their day. But of all that she wrote +there remains only one book which is of permanent value--her +Conversations with Lord Byron, a very valuable contribution to our +knowledge of the brilliant poet. + +But a nemesis was destined to overtake the pair. Money flowed through +Lady Blessington's hands like water, and she could never be brought to +understand that what she had might not last for ever. Finally, it was +all gone, yet her extravagance continued. Debts were heaped up +mountain-high. She signed notes of hand without even reading them. She +incurred obligations of every sort without a moment's hesitation. + +For a long time her creditors held aloof, not believing that her +resources were in reality exhausted; but in the end there came a crash +as sudden as it was ruinous. As if moved by a single impulse, those to +whom she owed money took out judgments against her and descended upon +Gore House in a swarm. This was in the spring of 1849, when Lady +Blessington was in her sixtieth year and D'Orsay fifty-one. + +It is a curious coincidence that her earliest novel had portrayed the +wreck of a great establishment such as her own. Of the scene in Gore +House Mr. Madden, Lady Blessington's literary biographer, has written: + +Numerous creditors, bill-discounters, money-lenders, jewelers, +lace-venders, tax-collectors, gas-company agents, all persons having +claims to urge pressed them at this period simultaneously. An execution +for a debt of four thousand pounds was at length put in by a house +largely engaged in the silk, lace, India-shawl, and fancy-jewelry +business. + +This sum of four thousand pounds was only a nominal claim, but it +opened the flood-gates for all of Lady Blessington's creditors. Mr. +Madden writes still further: + +On the 10th of May, 1849, I visited Gore House for the last time. The +auction was going on. There was a large assemblage of people of +fashion. Every room was thronged; the well-known library-salon, in +which the conversaziones took place, was crowded, but not with guests. +The arm-chair in which the lady of the mansion was wont to sit was +occupied by a stout, coarse gentleman of the Jewish persuasion, busily +engaged in examining a marble hand extended on a book, the fingers of +which were modeled from a cast of those of the absent mistress of the +establishment. People, as they passed through the room, poked the +furniture, pulled about the precious objects of art and ornaments of +various kinds that lay on the table; and some made jests and ribald +jokes on the scene they witnessed. + +At this compulsory sale things went for less than half their value. +Pictures by Lawrence and Landseer, a library consisting of thousands of +volumes, vases of exquisite workmanship, chandeliers of ormolu, and +precious porcelains--all were knocked down relentlessly at farcical +prices. Lady Blessington reserved nothing for herself. She knew that +the hour had struck, and very soon she was on her way to Paris, whither +Count d'Orsay had already gone, having been threatened with arrest by a +boot-maker to whom he owed five hundred pounds. + +D'Orsay very naturally went to Paris, for, like his father, he had +always been an ardent Bonapartist, and now Prince Louis Bonaparte had +been chosen president of the Second French Republic. During the +prince's long period of exile he had been the guest of Count d'Orsay, +who had helped him both with money and with influence. D'Orsay now +expected some return for his former generosity. It came, but it came +too late. In 1852, shortly after Prince Louis assumed the title of +emperor, the count was appointed director of fine arts; but when the +news was brought to him he was already dying. Lady Blessington died +soon after coming to Paris, before the end of the year 1849. + +Comment upon this tangled story is scarcely needed. Yet one may quote +some sayings from a sort of diary which Lady Blessington called her +"Night Book." They seem to show that her supreme happiness lasted only +for a little while, and that deep down in her heart she had condemned +herself. + +A woman's head is always influenced by her heart; but a man's heart is +always influenced by his head. + +The separation of friends by death is less terrible than the divorce of +two hearts that have loved, but have ceased to sympathize, while memory +still recalls what they once were to each other. + +People are seldom tired of the world until the world is tired of them. + +A woman should not paint sentiment until she has ceased to inspire it. + +It is less difficult for a woman to obtain celebrity by her genius than +to be pardoned for it. + +Memory seldom fails when its office is to show us the tombs of our +buried hopes. + + + + +BYRON AND THE COUNTESS GUICCIOLI + + +In 1812, when he was in his twenty-fourth year, Lord Byron was more +talked of than any other man in London. He was in the first flush of +his brilliant career, having published the early cantos of "Childe +Harold." Moreover, he was a peer of the realm, handsome, ardent, and +possessing a personal fascination which few men and still fewer women +could resist. + +Byron's childhood had been one to excite in him strong feelings of +revolt, and he had inherited a profligate and passionate nature. His +father was a gambler and a spendthrift. His mother was eccentric to a +degree. Byron himself, throughout his boyish years, had been morbidly +sensitive because of a physical deformity--a lame, misshapen foot. This +and the strange treatment which his mother accorded him left him +headstrong, wilful, almost from the first an enemy to whatever was +established and conventional. + +As a boy, he was remarkable for the sentimental attachments which he +formed. At eight years of age he was violently in love with a young +girl named Mary Duff. At ten his cousin, Margaret Parker, excited in +him a strange, un-childish passion. At fifteen came one of the greatest +crises of his life, when he became enamored of Mary Chaworth, whose +grand-father had been killed in a duel by Byron's great-uncle. Young as +he was, he would have married her immediately; but Miss Chaworth was +two years older than he, and absolutely refused to take seriously the +devotion of a school-boy. + +Byron felt the disappointment keenly; and after a short stay at +Cambridge, he left England, visited Portugal and Spain, and traveled +eastward as far as Greece and Turkey. At Athens he wrote the pretty +little poem to the "maid of Athens"--Miss Theresa Macri, daughter of +the British vice-consul. He returned to London to become at one leap +the most admired poet of the day and the greatest social favorite. He +was possessed of striking personal beauty. Sir Walter Scott said of +him: "His countenance was a thing to dream of." His glorious eyes, his +mobile, eloquent face, fascinated all; and he was, besides, a genius of +the first rank. + +With these endowments, he plunged into the social whirlpool, denying +himself nothing, and receiving everything-adulation, friendship, and +unstinted love. Darkly mysterious stories of his adventures in the East +made many think that he was the hero of some of his own poems, such as +"The Giaour" and "The Corsair." A German wrote of him that "he was +positively besieged by women." From the humblest maid-servants up to +ladies of high rank, he had only to throw his handkerchief to make a +conquest. Some women did not even wait for the handkerchief to be +thrown. No wonder that he was sated with so much adoration and that he +wrote of women: + +I regard them as very pretty but inferior creatures. I look on them as +grown-up children; but, like a foolish mother, I am constantly the +slave of one of them. Give a woman a looking-glass and burnt almonds, +and she will be content. + +The liaison which attracted the most attention at this time was that +between Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb. Byron has been greatly blamed for +his share in it; but there is much to be said on the other side. Lady +Caroline was happily married to the Right Hon. William Lamb, afterward +Lord Melbourne, and destined to be the first prime minister of Queen +Victoria. He was an easy-going, genial man of the world who placed too +much confidence in the honor of his wife. She, on the other hand, was a +sentimental fool, always restless, always in search of some new +excitement. She thought herself a poet, and scribbled verses, which her +friends politely admired, and from which they escaped as soon as +possible. When she first met Byron, she cried out: "That pale face is +my fate!" And she afterward added: "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know!" + +It was not long before the intimacy of the two came very near the point +of open scandal; but Byron was the wooed and not the wooer. This woman, +older than he, flung herself directly at his head. Naturally enough, it +was not very long before she bored him thoroughly. Her romantic +impetuosity became tiresome, and very soon she fell to talking always +of herself, thrusting her poems upon him, and growing vexed and peevish +when he would not praise them. As was well said, "he grew moody and she +fretful when their mutual egotisms jarred." + +In a burst of resentment she left him, but when she returned, she was +worse than ever. She insisted on seeing him. On one occasion she made +her way into his rooms disguised as a boy. At another time, when she +thought he had slighted her, she tried to stab herself with a pair of +scissors. Still later, she offered her favors to any one who would kill +him. Byron himself wrote of her: + +You can have no idea of the horrible and absurd things that she has +said and done. + +Her story has been utilized by Mrs. Humphry Ward in her novel, "The +Marriage of William Ashe." + +Perhaps this trying experience led Byron to end his life of +dissipation. At any rate, in 1813, he proposed marriage to Miss Anne +Millbanke, who at first refused him; but he persisted, and in 1815 the +two were married. Byron seems to have had a premonition that he was +making a terrible mistake. During the wedding ceremony he trembled like +a leaf, and made the wrong responses to the clergyman. After the +wedding was over, in handing his bride into the carriage which awaited +them, he said to her: + +"Miss Millbanke, are you ready?" + +It was a strange blunder for a bridegroom, and one which many regarded +at the time as ominous for the future. In truth, no two persons could +have been more thoroughly mismated--Byron, the human volcano, and his +wife, a prim, narrow-minded, and peevish woman. Their incompatibility +was evident enough from the very first, so that when they returned from +their wedding-journey, and some one asked Byron about his honeymoon, he +answered: + +"Call it rather a treacle moon!" + +It is hardly necessary here to tell over the story of their domestic +troubles. Only five weeks after their daughter's birth, they parted. +Lady Byron declared that her husband was insane; while after trying +many times to win from her something more than a tepid affection, he +gave up the task in a sort of despairing anger. It should be mentioned +here, for the benefit of those who recall the hideous charges made many +decades afterward by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe on the authority of +Lady Byron, that the latter remained on terms of friendly intimacy with +Augusta Leigh, Lord Byron's sister, and that even on her death-bed she +sent an amicable message to Mrs. Leigh. + +Byron, however, stung by the bitter attacks that were made upon him, +left England, and after traveling down the Rhine through Switzerland, +he took up his abode in Venice. His joy at leaving England and ridding +himself of the annoyances which had clustered thick about him, he +expressed in these lines: + + Once more upon the waters! yet once more! + And the waves bound beneath me as a steed + That knows his rider. Welcome to the roar! + +Meanwhile he enjoyed himself in reckless fashion. Money poured in upon +him from his English publisher. For two cantos of "Childe Harold" and +"Manfred," Murray paid him twenty thousand dollars. For the fourth +canto, Byron demanded and received more than twelve thousand dollars. +In Italy he lived on friendly terms with Shelley and Thomas Moore; but +eventually he parted from them both, for he was about to enter upon a +new phase of his curious career. + +He was no longer the Byron of 1815. Four years of high living and much +brandy-and-water had robbed his features of their refinement. His look +was no longer spiritual. He was beginning to grow stout. Yet the change +had not been altogether unfortunate. He had lost something of his wild +impetuosity, and his sense of humor had developed. In his thirtieth +year, in fact, he had at last become a man. + +It was soon after this that he met a woman who was to be to him for the +rest of his life what a well-known writer has called "a star on the +stormy horizon of the poet." This woman was Teresa, Countess Guiccioli, +whom he first came to know in Venice. She was then only nineteen years +of age, and she was married to a man who was more than forty years her +senior. Unlike the typical Italian woman, she was blonde, with dreamy +eyes and an abundance of golden hair, and her manner was at once modest +and graceful. She had known Byron but a very short time when she found +herself thrilling with a passion of which until then she had never +dreamed. It was written of her: + +She had thought of love but as an amusement; yet she now became its +slave. + +To this love Byron gave an immediate response, and from that time until +his death he cared for no other woman. The two were absolutely mated. +Nevertheless, there were difficulties which might have been expected. +Count Guiccioli, while he seemed to admire Byron, watched him with +Italian subtlety. The English poet and the Italian countess met +frequently. When Byron was prostrated by an attack of fever, the +countess remained beside him, and he was just recovering when Count +Guiccioli appeared upon the scene and carried off his wife. Byron was +in despair. He exchanged the most ardent letters with the countess, yet +he dreaded assassins whom he believed to have been hired by her +husband. Whenever he rode out, he went armed with sword and pistols. + +Amid all this storm and stress, Byron's literary activity was +remarkable. He wrote some of his most famous poems at this time, and he +hoped for the day when he and the woman whom he loved might be united +once for all. This came about in the end through the persistence of the +pair. The Countess Guiccioli openly took up her abode with him, not to +be separated until the poet sailed for Greece to aid the Greeks in +their struggle for independence. This was in 1822, when Byron was in +his thirty-fifth year. He never returned to Italy, but died in the +historic land for which he gave his life as truly as if he had fallen +upon the field of battle. + +Teresa Guiccioli had been, in all but name, his wife for just three +years. Much, has been said in condemnation of this love-affair; but in +many ways it is less censurable than almost anything in his career. It +was an instance of genuine love, a love which purified and exalted this +man of dark and moody moments. It saved him from those fitful passions +and orgies of self-indulgence which had exhausted him. It proved to be +an inspiration which at last led him to die for a cause approved by all +the world. + +As for the woman, what shall we say of her? She came to him unspotted +by the world. A demand for divorce which her husband made was rejected. +A pontifical brief pronounced a formal separation between the two. The +countess gladly left behind "her palaces, her equipages, society, and +riches, for the love of the poet who had won her heart." + +Unlike the other women who had cared for him, she was unselfish in her +devotion. She thought more of his fame than did he himself. Emilio +Castelar has written: + +She restored him and elevated him. She drew him from the mire and set +the crown of purity upon his brow. Then, when she had recovered this +great heart, instead of keeping it as her own possession, she gave it +to humanity. + +For twenty-seven years after Byron's death, she remained, as it were, +widowed and alone. Then, in her old age, she married the Marquis de +Boissy; but the marriage was purely one of convenience. Her heart was +always Byron's, whom she defended with vivacity. In 1868, she published +her memoirs of the poet, filled with interesting and affecting +recollections. She died as late as 1873. + +Some time between the year 1866 and that of her death, she is said to +have visited Newstead Abbey, which had once been Byron's home. She was +very old, a widow, and alone; but her affection for the poet-lover of +her youth was still as strong as ever. + +Byron's life was short, if measured by years only. Measured by +achievement, it was filled to the very full. His genius blazes like a +meteor in the records of English poetry; and some of that splendor +gleams about the lovely woman who turned him away from vice and folly +and made him worthy of his historic ancestry, of his country, and of +himself. + + + + +THE STORY OF MME. DE STAEL + + +Each century, or sometimes each generation, is distinguished by some +especial interest among those who are given to fancies--not to call +them fads. Thus, at the present time, the cultivated few are taken up +with what they choose to term the "new thought," or the "new +criticism," or, on the other hand, with socialistic theories and +projects. Thirty years ago, when Oscar Wilde was regarded seriously by +some people, there were many who made a cult of estheticism. It was +just as interesting when their leader-- + + Walked down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily + In his medieval hand, + +or when Sir William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan guyed him as +Bunthorne in "Patience." + +When Charles Kingsley was a great expounder of British common sense, +"muscular Christianity" was a phrase which was taken up by many +followers. A little earlier, Puseyism and a primitive form of socialism +were in vogue with the intellectuals. There are just as many different +fashions in thought as in garments, and they come and go without any +particular reason. To-day, they are discussed and practised everywhere. +To-morrow, they are almost forgotten in the rapid pursuit of something +new. + +Forty years before the French Revolution burst forth with all its +thunderings, France and Germany were affected by what was generally +styled "sensibility." Sensibility was the sister of sentimentality and +the half-sister of sentiment. Sentiment is a fine thing in itself. It +is consistent with strength and humor and manliness; but sentimentality +and sensibility are poor cheeping creatures that run scuttering along +the ground, quivering and whimpering and asking for perpetual sympathy, +which they do not at all deserve. + +No one need be ashamed of sentiment. It simply gives temper to the +blade, and mellowness to the intellect. Sensibility, on the other hand, +is full of shivers and shakes and falsetto notes and squeaks. It is, in +fact, all humbug, just as sentiment is often all truth. + +Therefore, to find an interesting phase of human folly, we may look +back to the years which lie between 1756 and 1793 as the era of +sensibility. The great prophets of this false god, or goddess, were +Rousseau in France and Goethe with Schiller in Germany, together with a +host of midgets who shook and shivered in imitation of their masters. +It is not for us to catalogue these persons. Some of them were great +figures in literature and philosophy, and strong enough to shake aside +the silliness of sensibility; but others, while they professed to be +great as writers or philosophers, are now remembered only because their +devotion to sensibility made them conspicuous in their own time. They +dabbled in one thing and another; they "cribbed" from every popular +writer of the day. The only thing that actually belonged to them was a +high degree of sensibility. + +And what, one may ask, was this precious thing--this sensibility? + +It was really a sort of St. Vitus's dance of the mind, and almost of +the body. When two persons, in any way interested in each other, were +brought into the same room, one of them appeared to be seized with a +rotary movement. The voice rose to a higher pitch than usual, and +assumed a tremolo. Then, if the other person was also endowed with +sensibility, he or she would rotate and quake in somewhat the same +manner. Their cups of tea would be considerably agitated. They would +move about in as unnatural a manner as possible; and when they left the +room, they would do so with gaspings and much waste of breath. + +This was not an exhibition of love--or, at least, not necessarily so. +You might exhibit sensibility before a famous poet, or a gallant +soldier, or a celebrated traveler--or, for that matter, before a +remarkable buffoon, like Cagliostro, or a freak, like Kaspar Hauser. + +It is plain enough that sensibility was entirely an abnormal thing, and +denoted an abnormal state of mind. Only among people like the Germans +and French of that period, who were forbidden to take part in public +affairs, could it have flourished so long, and have put forth such rank +and fetid outgrowths. From it sprang the "elective affinities" of +Goethe, and the loose morality of the French royalists, which rushed on +into the roaring sea of infidelity, blasphemy, and anarchy of the +Revolution. + +Of all the historic figures of that time, there is just one which +to-day stands forth as representing sensibility. In her own time she +was thought to be something of a philosopher, and something more of a +novelist. She consorted with all the clever men and women of her age. +But now she holds a minute niche in history because of the fact that +Napoleon stooped to hate her, and because she personifies sensibility. + +Criticism has stripped from her the rags and tatters of the philosophy +which was not her own. It is seen that she was indebted to the brains +of others for such imaginative bits of fiction as she put forth in +Delphine and Corinne; but as the exponent of sensibility she remains +unique. This woman was Anne Louise Germaine Necker, usually known as +Mme. de Stael. + +There was much about Mile. Necker's parentage that made her +interesting. Her father was the Genevese banker and minister of Louis +XVI, who failed wretchedly in his attempts to save the finances of +France. Her mother, Suzanne Curchod, as a young girl, had won the love +of the famous English historian, Edward Gibbon. She had first refused +him, and then almost frantically tried to get him back; but by this +time Gibbon was more comfortable in single life and less infatuated +with Mlle. Curchod, who presently married Jacques Necker. + +M. Necker's money made his daughter a very celebrated "catch." Her +mother brought her to Paris when the French capital was brilliant +beyond description, and yet was tottering to its fall. The rumblings of +the Revolution could be heard by almost every ear; and yet society and +the court, refusing to listen, plunged into the wildest revelry under +the leadership of the giddy Marie Antoinette. + +It was here that the young girl was initiated into the most elegant +forms of luxury, and met the cleverest men of that time--Voltaire, +Rousseau, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Volney. She set herself to be the +most accomplished woman of her day, not merely in belles lettres, but +in the natural and political sciences. Thus, when her father was +drawing up his monograph on the French finances, Germaine labored hard +over a supplementary report, studying documents, records, and the most +complicated statistics, so that she might obtain a mastery of the +subject. + +"I mean to know everything that anybody knows," she said, with an +arrogance which was rather admired in so young a woman. + +But, unfortunately, her mind was not great enough to fulfil her +aspiration. The most she ever achieved was a fair knowledge of many +things--a knowledge which seemed surprising to the average man, but +which was superficial enough to the accomplished specialist. + +In her twentieth year (1786) it was thought best that she should marry. +Her revels, as well as her hard studies, had told upon her health, and +her mother believed that she could not be at once a blue-stocking and a +woman of the world. + +There was something very odd about the relation that existed between +the young girl and this mother of hers. In the Swiss province where +they had both been born, the mother had been considered rather bold and +forward. Her penchant for Gibbon was only one of a number of adventures +that have been told about her. She was by no means coy with the +gallants of Geneva. Yet, after her marriage, and when she came to +Paris, she seemed to be transformed into a sort of Swiss Puritan. + +As such, she undertook her daughter's bringing up, and was extremely +careful about everything that Germaine did and about the company she +kept. On the other hand, the daughter, who in the city of Calvin had +been rather dull and quiet in her ways, launched out into a gaiety such +as she had never known in Switzerland. Mother and daughter, in fact, +changed parts. The country beauty of Geneva became the prude of Paris, +while the quiet, unemotional young Genevese became the light of all the +Parisian salons, whether social or intellectual. + +The mother was a very beautiful woman. The daughter, who was to become +so famous, is best described by those two very uncomplimentary English +words, "dumpy" and "frumpy." She had bulging eyes--which are not +emphasized in the flattering portrait by Gerard--and her hair was +unbecomingly dressed. There are reasons for thinking that Germaine +bitterly hated her mother, and was intensely jealous of her charm of +person. It may be also that Mme. Necker envied the daughter's +cleverness, even though that cleverness was little more, in the end, +than the borrowing of brilliant things from other persons. At any rate, +the two never cared for each other, and Germaine gave to her father the +affection which her mother neither received nor sought. + +It was perhaps to tame the daughter's exuberance that a marriage was +arranged for Mlle. Necker with the Baron de Stael-Holstein, who then +represented the court of Sweden at Paris. Many eyebrows were lifted +when this match was announced. Baron de Stael had no personal charm, +nor any reputation for wit. His standing in the diplomatic corps was +not very high. His favorite occupations were playing cards and drinking +enormous quantities of punch. Could he be considered a match for the +extremely clever Mlle. Necker, whose father had an enormous fortune, +and who was herself considered a gem of wit and mental power, ready to +discuss political economy, or the romantic movement of socialism, or +platonic love? + +Many differed about this. Mlle. Necker was, to be sure, rich and +clever; but the Baron de Stael was of an old family, and had a title. +Moreover, his easy-going ways--even his punch-drinking and his +card-playing--made him a desirable husband at that time of French +social history, when the aristocracy wished to act exactly as it +pleased, with wanton license, and when an embassy was a very convenient +place into which an indiscreet ambassadress might retire when the mob +grew dangerous. For Paris was now approaching the time of revolution, +and all "aristocrats" were more or less in danger. + +At first Mme. de Stael rather sympathized with the outbreak of the +people; but later their excesses drove her back into sympathy with the +royalists. It was then that she became indiscreet and abused the +privilege of the embassy in giving shelter to her friends. She was +obliged to make a sudden flight across the frontier, whence she did not +return until Napoleon loomed up, a political giant on the +horizon--victorious general, consul, and emperor. + +Mme. de Stael's relations with Napoleon have, as I remarked above, been +among her few titles to serious remembrance. The Corsican eagle and the +dumpy little Genevese make, indeed, a peculiar pair; and for this +reason writers have enhanced the oddities of the picture. + +"Napoleon," says one, "did not wish any one to be near him who was as +clever as himself." + +"No," adds another, "Mme. de Stael made a dead set at Napoleon, because +she wished to conquer and achieve the admiration of everybody, even of +the greatest man who ever lived." + +"Napoleon found her to be a good deal of a nuisance," observes a third. +"She knew too much, and was always trying to force her knowledge upon +others." + +The legend has sprung up that Mme. de Stael was too wise and witty to +be acceptable to Napoleon; and many women repeated with unction that +the conqueror of Europe was no match for this frowsy little woman. It +is, perhaps, worth while to look into the facts, and to decide whether +Napoleon was really of so petty a nature as to feel himself inferior to +this rather comic creature, even though at the time many people thought +her a remarkable genius. + +In the first place, knowing Napoleon, as we have come to know him +through the pages of Mme. de Remusat, Frederic Masson, and others, we +can readily imagine the impatience with which the great soldier would +sit at dinner, hastening to finish his meal, crowding the whole +ceremony into twenty minutes, gulping a glass or two of wine and a cup +of coffee, and then being interrupted by a fussy little female who +wanted to talk about the ethics of history, or the possibility of a new +form of government. Napoleon, himself, was making history, and writing +it in fire and flame; and as for governments, he invented governments +all over Europe as suited his imperial will. What patience could he +have with one whom an English writer has rather unkindly described as +"an ugly coquette, an old woman who made a ridiculous marriage, a +blue-stocking, who spent much of her time in pestering men of genius, +and drawing from them sarcastic comment behind their backs?" + +Napoleon was not the sort of a man to be routed in discussion, but he +was most decidedly the sort of man to be bored and irritated by +pedantry. Consequently, he found Mme. de Stael a good deal of a +nuisance in the salons of Paris and its vicinity. He cared not the +least for her epigrams. She might go somewhere else and write all the +epigrams she pleased. When he banished her, in 1803, she merely crossed +the Rhine into Germany, and established herself at Weimar. + +The emperor received her son, Auguste de Stael-Holstein, with much good +humor, though he refused the boy's appeal on behalf of his mother. + +"My dear baron," said Napoleon, "if your mother were to be in Paris for +two months, I should really be obliged to lock her up in one of the +castles, which would be most unpleasant treatment for me to show a +lady. No, let her go anywhere else and we can get along perfectly. All +Europe is open to her--Rome, Vienna, St. Petersburg; and if she wishes +to write libels on me, England is a convenient and inexpensive place. +Only Paris is just a little too near!" + +Thus the emperor gibed the boy--he was only fifteen or sixteen--and +made fun of the exiled blue-stocking; but there was not a sign of +malice in what he said, nor, indeed, of any serious feeling at all. The +legend about Napoleon and Mme. de Stael must, therefore, go into the +waste-basket, except in so far as it is true that she succeeded in +boring him. + +For the rest, she was an earlier George Sand--unattractive in person, +yet able to attract; loving love for love's sake, though seldom +receiving it in return; throwing herself at the head of every +distinguished man, and generally finding that he regarded her overtures +with mockery. To enumerate the men for whom she professed to care would +be tedious, since the record of her passions has no reality about it, +save, perhaps, with two exceptions. + +She did care deeply and sincerely for Henri Benjamin Constant, the +brilliant politician and novelist. He was one of her coterie in Paris, +and their common political sentiments formed a bond of friendship +between them. Constant was banished by Napoleon in 1802, and when Mme. +de Stael followed him into exile a year later he joined her in Germany. + +The story of their relations was told by Constant in Adolphe, while +Mme. de Stael based Delphine on her experiences with him. It seems that +he was puzzled by her ardor; she was infatuated by his genius. Together +they went through all the phases of the tender passion; and yet, at +intervals, they would tire of each other and separate for a while, and +she would amuse herself with other men. At last she really believed +that her love for him was entirely worn out. + +"I always loved my lovers more than they loved me," she said once, and +it was true. + +Yet, on the other hand, she was frankly false to all of them, and hence +arose these intervals. In one of them she fell in with a young Italian +named Rocca, and by way of a change she not only amused herself with +him, but even married him. At this time--1811--she was forty-five, +while Rocca was only twenty-three--a young soldier who had fought in +Spain, and who made eager love to the she-philosopher when he was +invalided at Geneva. + +The marriage was made on terms imposed by the middle-aged woman who +became his bride. In the first place, it was to be kept secret; and +second, she would not take her husband's name, but he must pass himself +off as her lover, even though she bore him children. The reason she +gave for this extraordinary exhibition of her vanity was that a change +of name on her part would put everybody out. + +"In fact," she said, "if Mme. de Stael were to change her name, it +would unsettle the heads of all Europe!" + +And so she married Rocca, who was faithful to her to the end, though +she grew extremely plain and querulous, while he became deaf and soon +lost his former charm. Her life was the life of a woman who had, in her +own phrase, "attempted everything"; and yet she had accomplished +nothing that would last. She was loved by a man of genius, but he did +not love her to the end. She was loved by a man of action, and she +tired of him very soon. She had a wonderful reputation for her +knowledge of history and philosophy, and yet what she knew of those +subjects is now seen to be merely the scraps and borrowings of others. + +Something she did when she introduced the romantic literature into +France; and there are passages from her writings which seem worthy of +preservation. For instance, we may quote her outburst with regard to +unhappy marriages. "It was the subject," says Mr. Gribble, "on which +she had begun to think before she was married, and which continued to +haunt her long after she was left a widow; though one suspects that the +word 'marriage' became a form of speech employed to describe her +relations, not with her husband, but with her lovers." The passage to +which I refer is as follows: + +In an unhappy marriage, there is a violence of distress surpassing all +other sufferings in the world. A woman's whole soul depends upon the +conjugal tie. To struggle against fate alone, to journey to the grave +without a friend to support you or to regret you, is an isolation of +which the deserts of Arabia give but a faint and feeble idea. When all +the treasure of your youth has been given in vain, when you can no +longer hope that the reflection of these first rays will shine upon the +end of your life, when there is nothing in the dusk to remind you of +the dawn, and when the twilight is pale and colorless as a livid +specter that precedes the night, your heart revolts, and you feel that +you have been robbed of the gifts of God upon earth. + +Equally striking is another prose passage of hers, which seems less the +careful thought of a philosopher than the screeching of a termagant. It +is odd that the first two sentences recall two famous lines of Byron: + + Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; + 'Tis woman's whole existence. + +The passage by Mme. de Stael is longer and less piquant: + +Love is woman's whole existence. It is only an episode in the lives of +men. Reputation, honor, esteem, everything depends upon how a woman +conducts herself in this regard; whereas, according to the rules of an +unjust world, the laws of morality itself are suspended in men's +relations with women. They may pass as good men, though they have +caused women the most terrible suffering which it is in the power of +one human being to inflict upon another. They may be regarded as loyal, +though they have betrayed them. They may have received from a woman +marks of a devotion which would so link two friends, two fellow +soldiers, that either would feel dishonored if he forgot them, and they +may consider themselves free of all obligations by attributing the +services to love--as if this additional gift of love detracted from the +value of the rest! + +One cannot help noticing how lacking in neatness of expression is this +woman who wrote so much. It is because she wrote so much that she wrote +in such a muffled manner. It is because she thought so much that her +reflections were either not her own, or were never clear. It is because +she loved so much, and had so many lovers--Benjamin Constant; Vincenzo +Monti, the Italian poet; M. de Narbonne, and others, as well as young +Rocca--that she found both love and lovers tedious. + +She talked so much that her conversation was almost always mere +personal opinion. Thus she told Goethe that he never was really +brilliant until after he had got through a bottle of champagne. +Schiller said that to talk with her was to have a "rough time," and +that after she left him, he always felt like a man who was just getting +over a serious illness. She never had time to do anything very well. + +There is an interesting glimpse of her in the recollections of Dr. +Bollmann, at the period when Mme. de Stael was in her prime. The worthy +doctor set her down as a genius--an extraordinary, eccentric woman in +all that she did. She slept but a few hours out of the twenty-four, and +was uninterruptedly and fearfully busy all the rest of the time. While +her hair was being dressed, and even while she breakfasted, she used to +keep on writing, nor did she ever rest sufficiently to examine what she +had written. + +Such then was Mme. de Stael, a type of the time in which she lived, so +far as concerns her worship of sensibility--of sensibility, and not of +love; for love is too great to be so scattered and made a thing to +prattle of, to cheapen, and thus destroy. So we find at the last that +Germaine de Stael, though she was much read and much feted and much +followed, came finally to that last halting-place where confessedly she +was merely an old woman, eccentric, and unattractive. She sued her +former lovers for the money she had lent them, she scolded and found +fault--as perhaps befits her age. + +But such is the natural end of sensibility, and of the woman who +typifies it for succeeding generations. + + + + +THE STORY OF KARL MARX + + +Some time ago I entered a fairly large library--one of more than two +hundred thousand volumes--to seek the little brochure on Karl Marx +written by his old friend and genial comrade Wilhelm Liebknecht. It was +in the card catalogue. As I made a note of its number, my friend the +librarian came up to me, and I asked him whether it was not strange +that a man like Marx should have so many books devoted to him, for I +had roughly reckoned the number at several hundred. + +"Not at all," said he; "and we have here only a feeble nucleus of the +Marx literature--just enough, in fact, to give you a glimpse of what +that literature really is. These are merely the books written by Marx +himself, and the translations of them, with a few expository +monographs. Anything like a real Marx collection would take up a +special room in this library, and would have to have its own separate +catalogue. You see that even these two or three hundred books contain +large volumes of small pamphlets in many languages--German, English, +French, Italian, Russian, Polish, Yiddish, Swedish, Hungarian, Spanish; +and here," he concluded, pointing to a recently numbered card, "is one +in Japanese." + +My curiosity was sufficiently excited to look into the matter somewhat +further. I visited another library, which was appreciably larger, and +whose managers were evidently less guided by their prejudices. Here +were several thousand books on Marx, and I spent the best part of the +day in looking them over. + +What struck me as most singular was the fact that there was scarcely a +volume about Marx himself. Practically all the books dealt with his +theory of capital and his other socialistic views. The man himself, his +personality, and the facts of his life were dismissed in the most +meager fashion, while his economic theories were discussed with +something that verged upon fury. Even such standard works as those of +Mehring and Spargo, which profess to be partly biographical, sum up the +personal side of Marx in a few pages. In fact, in the latter's preface +he seems conscious of this defect, and says: + +Whether socialism proves, in the long span of centuries, to be good or +evil, a blessing to men or a curse, Karl Marx must always be an object +of interest as one of the great world-figures of immortal memory. As +the years go by, thoughtful men and women will find the same interest +in studying the life and work of Marx that they do in studying the life +and work of Cromwell, of Wesley, or of Darwin, to name three immortal +world-figures of vastly divergent types. + +Singularly little is known of Karl Marx, even by his most ardent +followers. They know his work, having studied his Das Kapital with the +devotion and earnestness with which an older generation of Christians +studied the Bible, but they are very generally unacquainted with the +man himself. Although more than twenty-six years have elapsed since the +death of Marx, there is no adequate biography of him in any language. + +Doubtless some better-equipped German writer, such as Franz Mehring or +Eduard Bernstein, will some day give us the adequate and full biography +for which the world now waits. + +Here is an admission that there exists no adequate biography of Karl +Marx, and here is also an intimation that simply as a man, and not +merely as a great firebrand of socialism, Marx is well worth studying. +And so it has occurred to me to give in these pages one episode of his +career that seems to me quite curious, together with some significant +touches concerning the man as apart from the socialist. Let the +thousands of volumes already in existence suffice for the latter. The +motto of this paper is not the Vergilian "Arms and the man I sing," but +simply "The man I sing"--and the woman. Karl Marx was born nearly +ninety-four years ago--May 5, 1818--in the city which the French call +Treves and the Germans Trier, among the vine-clad hills of the Moselle. +Today, the town is commonplace enough when you pass through it, but +when you look into its history, and seek out that history's evidences, +you will find that it was not always a rather sleepy little place. It +was one of the chosen abodes of the Emperors of the West, after Rome +began to be governed by Gauls and Spaniards, rather than by Romans and +Italians. The traveler often pauses there to see the Porta Nigra, that +immense gate once strongly fortified, and he will doubtless visit also +what is left of the fine baths and amphitheater. + +Treves, therefore, has a right to be termed imperial, and it was the +birthplace of one whose sway over the minds of men has been both +imperial and imperious. + +Karl Marx was one of those whose intellectual achievements were so +great as to dwarf his individuality and his private life. What he +taught with almost terrific vigor made his very presence in the +Continental monarchies a source of eminent danger. He was driven from +country to country. Kings and emperors were leagued together against +him. Soldiers were called forth, and blood was shed because of him. +But, little by little, his teaching seems to have leavened the thought +of the whole civilized world, so that to-day thousands who barely know +his name are deeply affected by his ideas, and believe that the state +should control and manage everything for the good of all. + +Marx seems to have inherited little from either of his parents. His +father, Heinrich Marx, was a provincial Jewish lawyer who had adopted +Christianity, probably because it was expedient, and because it enabled +him to hold local offices and gain some social consequence. He had +changed his name from Mordecai to Marx. + +The elder Marx was very shrewd and tactful, and achieved a fair +position among the professional men and small officials in the city of +Treves. He had seen the horrors of the French Revolution, and was +philosopher enough to understand the meaning of that mighty upheaval, +and of the Napoleonic era which followed. + +Napoleon, indeed, had done much to relieve his race from petty +oppression. France made the Jews in every respect the equals of the +Gentiles. One of its ablest marshals--Massena--was a Jew, and +therefore, when the imperial eagle was at the zenith of its flight, the +Jews in every city and town of Europe were enthusiastic admirers of +Napoleon, some even calling him the Messiah. + +Karl Marx's mother, it is certain, endowed him with none of his gifts. +She was a Netherlandish Jewess of the strictly domestic and +conservative type, fond of her children and her home, and detesting any +talk that looked to revolutionary ideas or to a change in the social +order. She became a Christian with her husband, but the word meant +little to her. It was sufficient that she believed in God; and for this +she was teased by some of her skeptical friends. Replying to them, she +uttered the only epigram that has ever been ascribed to her. + +"Yes," she said, "I believe in God, not for God's sake, but for my own." + +She was so little affected by change of scene that to the day of her +death she never mastered German, but spoke almost wholly in her native +Dutch. Had we time, we might dwell upon the unhappy paradox of her +life. In her son Karl she found an especial joy, as did her husband. +Had the father lived beyond Karl's early youth, he would doubtless have +been greatly pained by the radicalism of his gifted son, as well as by +his personal privations. But the mother lived until 1863, while Karl +was everywhere stirring the fires of revolution, driven from land to +land, both feared and persecuted, and often half famished. As Mr. +Spargo says: + +It was the irony of life that the son, who kindled a mighty hope in the +hearts of unnumbered thousands of his fellow human beings, a hope that +is today inspiring millions of those who speak his name with reverence +and love, should be able to do that only by destroying his mother's +hope and happiness in her son, and that every step he took should fill +her heart with a great agony. + +When young Marx grew out of boyhood into youth, he was attractive to +all those who met him. Tall, lithe, and graceful, he was so extremely +dark that his intimates called him "der neger"--"the negro." His +loosely tossing hair gave to him a still more exotic appearance; but +his eyes were true and frank, his nose denoted strength and character, +and his mouth was full of kindliness in its expression. His lineaments +were not those of the Jewish type. + +Very late in life--he died in 1883--his hair and beard turned white, +but to the last his great mustache was drawn like a bar across his +face, remaining still as black as ink, and making his appearance very +striking. He was full of fun and gaiety. As was only natural, there +soon came into his life some one who learned to love him, and to whom, +in his turn, he gave a deep and unbroken affection. + +There had come to Treves--which passed from France to Prussia with the +downfall of Napoleon--a Prussian nobleman, the Baron Ludwig von +Westphalen, holding the official title of "national adviser." The baron +was of Scottish extraction on his mother's side, being connected with +the ducal family of Argyll. He was a man of genuine rank, and might +have shown all the arrogance and superciliousness of the average +Prussian official; but when he became associated with Heinrich Marx he +evinced none of that condescending manner. The two men became firm +friends, and the baron treated the provincial lawyer as an equal. + +The two families were on friendly terms. Von Westphalen's infant +daughter, who had the formidable name of Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny von +Westphalen, but who was usually spoken of as Jenny, became, in time, an +intimate of Sophie Marx. She was four years older than Karl, but the +two grew up together--he a high-spirited, manly boy, and she a lovely +and romantic girl. + +The baron treated Karl as if the lad were a child of his own. He +influenced him to love romantic literature and poetry by interpreting +to him the great masterpieces, from Homer and Shakespeare to Goethe and +Lessing. He made a special study of Dante, whose mysticism appealed to +his somewhat dreamy nature, and to the religious instinct that always +lived in him, in spite of his dislike for creeds and churches. + +The lore that he imbibed in early childhood stood Karl in good stead +when he began his school life, and his preparation for the university. +He had an absolute genius for study, and was no less fond of the sports +and games of his companions, so that he seemed to be marked out for +success. At sixteen years of age he showed a precocious ability for +planning and carrying out his work with thoroughness. His mind was +evidently a creative mind, one that was able to think out difficult +problems without fatigue. His taste was shown in his fondness for the +classics, in studying which he noted subtle distinctions of meaning +that usually escape even the mature scholar. Penetration, thoroughness, +creativeness, and a capacity for labor were the boy's chief +characteristics. + +With such gifts, and such a nature, he left home for the university of +Bonn. Here he disappointed all his friends. His studies were neglected; +he was morose, restless, and dissatisfied. He fell into a number of +scrapes, and ran into debt through sundry small extravagances. All the +reports that reached his home were most unsatisfactory. What had come +over the boy who had worked so hard in the gymnasium at Treves? + +The simple fact was that he had became love-sick. His separation from +Jenny von Westphalen had made him conscious of a feeling which he had +long entertained without knowing it. They had been close companions. He +had looked into her beautiful face and seen the luminous response of +her lovely eyes, but its meaning had not flashed upon his mind. He was +not old enough to have a great consuming passion, he was merely +conscious of her charm. As he could see her every day, he did not +realize how much he wanted her, and how much a separation from her +would mean. + +As "absence makes the heart grow fonder," so it may suddenly draw aside +the veil behind which the truth is hidden. At Bonn young Marx felt as +if a blaze of light had flashed before him; and from that moment his +studies, his companions, and the ambitions that he had hitherto +cherished all seemed flat and stale. At night and in the daytime there +was just one thing which filled his mind and heart--the beautiful +vision of Jenny von Westphalen. + +Meanwhile his family, and especially his father, had become anxious at +the reports which reached them. Karl was sent for, and his stay at Bonn +was ended. + +Now that he was once more in the presence of the girl who charmed him +so, he recovered all his old-time spirits. He wooed her ardently, and +though she was more coy, now that she saw his passion, she did not +discourage him, but merely prolonged the ecstasy of this wonderful +love-making. As he pressed her more and more, and no one guessed the +story, there came a time when she was urged to let herself become +engaged to him. + +Here was seen the difference in their ages--a difference that had an +effect upon their future. It means much that a girl should be four +years older than the man who seeks her hand. She is four years wiser; +and a girl of twenty is, in fact, a match for a youth of twenty-five. +Brought up as she had been, in an aristocratic home, with the blood of +two noble families in her veins, and being wont to hear the easy and +somewhat cynical talk of worldly people, she knew better than poor Karl +the un-wisdom of what she was about to do. + +She was noble, the daughter of one high official and the sister of +another. Those whom she knew were persons of rank and station. On the +other hand, young Marx, though he had accepted Christianity, was the +son of a provincial Jewish lawyer, with no fortune, and with a bad +record at the university. When she thought of all these things, she may +well have hesitated; but the earnest pleading and intense ardor of Karl +Marx broke down all barriers between them, and they became engaged, +without informing Jenny's father of their compact. Then they parted for +a while, and Karl returned to his home, filled with romantic thoughts. + +He was also full of ambition and of desire for achievement. He had won +the loveliest girl in Treves, and now he must go forth into the world +and conquer it for her sake. He begged his father to send him to +Berlin, and showed how much more advantageous was that new and splendid +university, where Hegel's fame was still in the ascendent. + +In answer to his father's questions, the younger Marx replied: + +"I have something to tell you that will explain all; but first you must +give me your word that you will tell no one." + +"I trust you wholly," said the father. "I will not reveal what you may +say to me." + +"Well," returned the son, "I am engaged to marry Jenny von Westphalen. +She wishes it kept a secret from her father, but I am at liberty to +tell you of it." + +The elder Marx was at once shocked and seriously disturbed. Baron von +Westphalen was his old and intimate friend. No thought of romance +between their children had ever come into his mind. It seemed disloyal +to keep the verlobung of Karl and Jenny a secret; for should it be +revealed, what would the baron think of Marx? Their disparity of rank +and fortune would make the whole affair stand out as something wrong +and underhand. + +The father endeavored to make his son see all this. He begged him to go +and tell the baron, but young Marx was not to be persuaded. + +"Send me to Berlin," he said, "and we shall again be separated; but I +shall work and make a name for myself, so that when I return neither +Jenny nor her father will have occasion to be disturbed by our +engagement." + +With these words he half satisfied his father, and before long he was +sent to Berlin, where he fell manfully upon his studies. His father had +insisted that he should study law; but his own tastes were for +philosophy and history. He attended lectures in jurisprudence "as a +necessary evil," but he read omnivorously in subjects that were nearer +to his heart. The result was that his official record was not much +better than it had been at Bonn. + +The same sort of restlessness, too, took possession of him when he +found that Jenny would not answer his letters. No matter how eagerly +and tenderly he wrote to her, there came no reply. Even the most +passionate pleadings left her silent and unresponsive. Karl could not +complain, for she had warned him that she would not write to him. She +felt that their engagement, being secret, was anomalous, and that until +her family knew of it she was not free to act as she might wish. + +Here again was seen the wisdom of her maturer years; but Karl could not +be equally reasonable. He showered her with letters, which still she +would not answer. He wrote to his father in words of fire. At last, +driven to despair, he said that he was going to write to the Baron von +Westphalen, reveal the secret, and ask for the baron's fatherly consent. + +It seemed a reckless thing to do, and yet it turned out to be the +wisest. The baron knew that such an engagement meant a social +sacrifice, and that, apart from the matter of rank, young Marx was +without any fortune to give the girl the luxuries to which she had been +accustomed. Other and more eligible suitors were always within view. +But here Jenny herself spoke out more strongly than she had ever done +to Karl. She was willing to accept him with what he was able to give +her. She cared nothing for any other man, and she begged her father to +make both of them completely happy. + +Thus it seemed that all was well, yet for some reason or other Jenny +would not write to Karl, and once more he was almost driven to +distraction. He wrote bitter letters to his father, who tried to +comfort him. The baron himself sent messages of friendly advice, but +what young man in his teens was ever reasonable? So violent was Karl +that at last his father wrote to him: + +I am disgusted with your letters. Their unreasonable tone is loathsome +to me. I should never had expected it of you. Haven't you been lucky +from your cradle up? + +Finally Karl received one letter from his betrothed--a letter that +transfused him with ecstatic joy for about a day, and then sent him +back to his old unrest. This, however, may be taken as a part of Marx's +curious nature, which was never satisfied, but was always reaching +after something which could not be had. + +He fell to writing poetry, of which he sent three volumes to +Jenny--which must have been rather trying to her, since the verse was +very poor. He studied the higher mathematics, English and Italian, some +Latin, and a miscellaneous collection of works on history and +literature. But poetry almost turned his mind. In later years he wrote: + +Everything was centered on poetry, as if I were bewitched by some +uncanny power. + +Luckily, he was wise enough, after a time, to recognize how halting +were his poems when compared with those of the great masters; and so he +resumed his restless, desultory work. He still sent his father letters +that were like wild cries. They evoked, in reply, a very natural burst +of anger: + +Complete disorder, silly wandering through all branches of science, +silly brooding at the burning oil-lamp! In your wildness you see with +four eyes--a horrible setback and disregard for everything decent. And +in the pursuit of this senseless and purposeless learning you think to +raise the fruits which are to unite you with your beloved one! What +harvest do you expect to gather from them which will enable you to +fulfil your duty toward her? + +Writing to him again, his father speaks of something that Karl had +written as "a mad composition, which denotes clearly how you waste your +ability and spend nights in order to create such monstrosities." The +young man was even forbidden to return home for the Easter holidays. +This meant giving up the sight of Jenny, whom he had not seen for a +whole year. But fortune arranged it otherwise; for not many weeks later +death removed the parent who had loved him and whom he had loved, +though neither of them could understand the other. The father +represented the old order of things; the son was born to discontent and +to look forward to a new heaven and a new earth. + +Returning to Berlin, Karl resumed his studies; but as before, they were +very desultory in their character, and began to run upon social +questions, which were indeed setting Germany into a ferment. He took +his degree, and thought of becoming an instructor at the university of +Jena; but his radicalism prevented this, and he became the editor of a +liberal newspaper, which soon, however, became so very radical as to +lead to his withdrawal. + +It now seemed best that Marx should seek other fields of activity. To +remain in Germany was dangerous to himself and discreditable to Jenny's +relatives, with their status as Prussian officials. In the summer of +1843, he went forth into the world--at last an "international." Jenny, +who had grown to believe in him as against her own family, asked for +nothing better than to wander with him, if only they might be married. +And they were married in this same summer, and spent a short honeymoon +at Bingen on the Rhine--made famous by Mrs. Norton's poem. It was the +brief glimpse of sunshine that was to precede year after year of +anxiety and want. + +Leaving Germany, Marx and Jenny went to Paris, where he became known to +some of the intellectual lights of the French capital, such as Bakunin, +the great Russian anarchist, Proudhon, Cabet, and Saint-Simon. Most +important of all was his intimacy with the poet Heine, that marvelous +creature whose fascination took on a thousand forms, and whom no one +could approach without feeling his strange allurement. + +Since Goethe's death, down to the present time, there has been no +figure in German literature comparable to Heine. His prose was +exquisite. His poetry ran through the whole gamut of humanity and of +the sensations that come to us from the outer world. In his poems are +sweet melodies and passionate cries of revolt, stirring ballads of the +sea and tender love-songs--strange as these last seem when coming from +this cynic. + +For cynic he was, deep down in his heart, though his face, when in +repose, was like the conventional pictures of Christ. His fascinations +destroyed the peace of many a woman; and it was only after many years +of self-indulgence that he married the faithful Mathilde Mirat in what +he termed a "conscience marriage." Soon after he went to his +"mattress-grave," as he called it, a hopeless paralytic. + +To Heine came Marx and his beautiful bride. One may speculate as to +Jenny's estimate of her husband. Since his boyhood, she had not seen +him very much. At that time he was a merry, light-hearted youth, a +jovial comrade, and one of whom any girl would be proud. But since his +long stay in Berlin, and his absorption in the theories of men like +Engels and Bauer, he had become a very different sort of man, at least +to her. + +Groping, lost in brown studies, dreamy, at times morose, he was by no +means a sympathetic and congenial husband for a high-bred, spirited +girl, such as Jenny von Westphalen. His natural drift was toward a +beer-garden, a group of frowsy followers, the reek of vile tobacco, and +the smell of sour beer. One cannot but think that his beautiful wife +must have been repelled by this, though with her constant nature she +still loved him. + +In Heinrich Heine she found a spirit that seemed akin to hers. Mr. +Spargo says--and in what he says one must read a great deal between the +lines: + +The admiration of Jenny Marx for the poet was even more ardent than +that of her husband. He fascinated her because, as she said, he was "so +modern," while Heine was drawn to her because she was "so sympathetic." + +It must be that Heine held the heart of this beautiful woman in his +hand. He knew so well the art of fascination; he knew just how to +supply the void which Marx had left. The two were indeed affinities in +heart and soul; yet for once the cynical poet stayed his hand, and said +no word that would have been disloyal to his friend. Jenny loved him +with a love that might have blazed into a lasting flame; but +fortunately there appeared a special providence to save her from +herself. The French government, at the request of the King of Prussia, +banished Marx from its dominions; and from that day until he had become +an old man he was a wanderer and an exile, with few friends and little +money, sustained by nothing but Jenny's fidelity and by his infinite +faith in a cause that crushed him to the earth. + +There is a curious parallel between the life of Marx and that of +Richard Wagner down to the time when the latter discovered a royal +patron. Both of them were hounded from country to country; both of them +worked laboriously for so scanty a living as to verge, at times, upon +starvation. Both of them were victims to a cause in which they +earnestly believed--an economic cause in the one case, an artistic +cause in the other. Wagner's triumph came before his death, and the +world has accepted his theory of the music-drama. The cause of Marx is +far greater and more tremendous, because it strikes at the base of +human life and social well-being. + +The clash between Wagner and his critics was a matter of poetry and +dramatic music. It was not vital to the human race. The cause of Marx +is one that is only now beginning to be understood and recognized by +millions of men and women in all the countries of the earth. In his +lifetime he issued a manifesto that has become a classic among +economists. He organized the great International Association of +Workmen, which set all Europe in a blaze and extended even to America. +His great book, "Capital"--Das Kapital--which was not completed until +the last years of his life, is read to-day by thousands as an almost +sacred work. + +Like Wagner and his Minna, the wife of Marx's youth clung to him +through his utmost vicissitudes, denying herself the necessities of +life so that he might not starve. In London, where he spent his latest +days, he was secure from danger, yet still a sort of persecution seemed +to follow him. For some time, nothing that he wrote could find a +printer. Wherever he went, people looked at him askance. He and his six +children lived upon the sum of five dollars a week, which was paid him +by the New York Tribune, through the influence of the late Charles A. +Dana. When his last child was born, and the mother's life was in +serious danger, Marx complained that there was no cradle for the baby, +and a little later that there was no coffin for its burial. + +Marx had ceased to believe in marriage, despised the church, and cared +nothing for government. Yet, unlike Wagner, he was true to the woman +who had given up so much for him. He never sank to an artistic +degeneracy. Though he rejected creeds, he was nevertheless a man of +genuine religious feeling. Though he believed all present government to +be an evil, he hoped to make it better, or rather he hoped to +substitute for it a system by which all men might get an equal share of +what it is right and just for them to have. + +Such was Marx, and thus he lived and died. His wife, who had long been +cut off from her relatives, died about a year before him. When she was +buried, he stumbled and fell into her grave, and from that time until +his own death he had no further interest in life. + +He had been faithful to a woman and to a cause. That cause was so +tremendous as to overwhelm him. In sixty years only the first great +stirrings of it could be felt. Its teachings may end in nothing, but +only a century or more of effort and of earnest striving can make it +plain whether Karl Marx was a world-mover or a martyr to a cause that +was destined to be lost. + + + + +FERDINAND LASSALLE AND HELENE VON DONNIGES + + +The middle part of the nineteenth century is a period which has become +more or less obscure to most Americans and Englishmen. At one end the +thunderous campaigns of Napoleon are dying away. In the latter part of +the century we remember the gorgeousness of the Tuileries, the four +years' strife of our own Civil War, and then the golden drift of peace +with which the century ended. Between these two extremes there is a +stretch of history which seems to lack interest for the average student +of to-day. + +In America, that was a period when we took little interest in the +movement of affairs on the continent of Europe. It would not be easy, +for instance, to imagine an American of 1840 cogitating on problems of +socialism, or trying to invent some new form of arbeiterverein. General +Choke was still swindling English emigrants. The Young Columbian was +still darting out from behind a table to declare how thoroughly he +defied the British lion. But neither of these patriots, any more than +their English compeers, was seriously disturbed about the interests of +the rest of the world. The Englishman was contentedly singing "God Save +the Queen!" The American, was apostrophizing the bird of freedom with +the floridity of rhetoric that reached its climax in the "Pogram +Defiance." What the Dutchies and Frenchies were doing was little more +to an Englishman than to an American. + +Continental Europe was a mystery to English-speaking people. Those who +traveled abroad took their own servants with them, spoke only English, +and went through the whole European maze with absolute indifference. To +them the socialist, who had scarcely received a name, was an imaginary +being. If he existed, he was only a sort of offspring of the Napoleonic +wars--a creature who had not yet fitted into the ordinary course of +things. He was an anomaly, a person who howled in beer-houses, and who +would presently be regulated, either by the statesmen or by the police. + +When our old friend, Mark Tapley, was making with his master a homeward +voyage to Britain, what did he know or even care about the politics of +France, or Germany, or Austria, or Russia? Not the slightest, you may +be sure. Mark and his master represented the complete indifference of +the Englishman or American--not necessarily a well-bred indifference, +but an indifference that was insular on the one hand and republican on +the other. If either of them had heard of a gentleman who pillaged an +unmarried lady's luggage in order to secure a valuable paper for +another lady, who was married, they would both have looked severely at +this abnormal person, and the American would doubtless have added a +remark which had something to do with the matchless purity of +Columbia's daughters. + +If, again, they had been told that Ferdinand Lassalle had joined in the +great movement initiated by Karl Marx, it is absolutely certain that +neither the Englishman nor the American could have given you the +slightest notion as to who these individuals were. Thrones might be +tottering all over Europe; the red flag might wave in a score of +cities--what would all this signify, so long as Britannia ruled the +waves, while Columbia's feathered emblem shrieked defiance three +thousand miles away? + +And yet few more momentous events have happened in a century than the +union which led one man to give his eloquence to the social cause, and +the other to suffer for that cause until his death. Marx had the higher +thought, but his disciple Lassalle had the more attractive way of +presenting it. It is odd that Marx, today, should lie in a squalid +cemetery, while the whole western world echoes with his praises, and +that Lassalle--brilliant, clear-sighted, and remarkable for his +penetrating genius--should have lived in luxury, but should now know +nothing but oblivion, even among those who shouted at his eloquence and +ran beside him in the glory of his triumph. + +Ferdinand Lassalle was a native of Breslau, the son of a wealthy Jewish +silk-merchant. Heymann Lassal--for thus the father spelled his +name--stroked his hands at young Ferdinand's cleverness, but he meant +it to be a commercial cleverness. He gave the boy a thorough education +at the University of Breslau, and later at Berlin. He was an +affectionate parent, and at the same time tyrannical to a degree. + +It was the old story where the father wishes to direct every step that +his son takes, and where the son, bursting out into youthful manhood, +feels that he has the right to freedom. The father thinks how he has +toiled for the son; the son thinks that if this toil were given for +love, it should not be turned into a fetter and restraint. Young +Lassalle, instead of becoming a clever silk-merchant, insisted on a +university career, where he studied earnestly, and was admitted to the +most cultured circles. + +Though his birth was Jewish, he encountered little prejudice against +his race. Napoleon had changed the old anti-Semitic feeling of fifty +years before to a liberalism that was just beginning to be strongly +felt in Germany, as it had already been in France. This was true in +general, but especially true of Lassalle, whose features were not of a +Semitic type, who made friends with every one, and who was a favorite +in many salons. His portraits make him seem a high-bred and +high-spirited Prussian, with an intellectual and clean-cut forehead; a +face that has a sense of humor, and yet one capable of swift and cogent +thought. + +No man of ordinary talents could have won the admiration of so many +compeers. It is not likely that such a keen and cynical observer as +Heinrich Heine would have written as he did concerning Lassalle, had +not the latter been a brilliant and magnetic youth. Heine wrote to +Varnhagen von Ense, the German historian: + +My friend, Herr Lassalle, who brings you this letter, is a young man of +remarkable intellectual gifts. With the most thorough erudition, with +the widest learning, with the greatest penetration that I have ever +known, and with the richest gift of exposition, he combines an energy +of will and a capacity for action which astonish me. In no one have I +found united so much enthusiasm and practical intelligence. + +No better proof of Lassalle's enthusiasm can be found than a few lines +from his own writings: + +I love Heine. He is my second self. What audacity! What overpowering +eloquence! He knows how to whisper like a zephyr when it kisses +rose-blooms, how to breathe like fire when it rages and destroys; he +calls forth all that is tenderest and softest, and then all that is +fiercest and most daring. He has the sweep of the whole lyre! + +Lassalle's sympathy with Heine was like his sympathy with every one +whom he knew. This was often misunderstood. It was misunderstood in his +relations with women, and especially in the celebrated affair of the +Countess von Hatzfeldt, which began in the year 1846--that is to say, +in the twenty-first year of Lassalle's age. + +In truth, there was no real scandal in the matter, for the countess was +twice the age of Lassalle. It was precisely because he was so young +that he let his eagerness to defend a woman in distress make him forget +the ordinary usage of society, and expose himself to mean and unworthy +criticism which lasted all his life. It began by his introduction to +the Countess von Hatzfeldt, a lady who was grossly ill-treated by her +husband. She had suffered insult and imprisonment in the family +castles; the count had deprived her of medicine when she was ill, and +had forcibly taken away her children. Besides this, he was infatuated +with another woman, a baroness, and wasted his substance upon her even +contrary to the law which protected his children's rights. + +The countess had a son named Paul, of whom Lassalle was extremely fond. +There came to the boy a letter from the Count von Hatzfeldt ordering +him to leave his mother. The countess at once sent for Lassalle, who +brought with him two wealthy and influential friends--one of them a +judge of a high Prussian court--and together they read the letter which +Paul had just received. They were deeply moved by the despair of the +countess, and by the cruelty of her dissolute husband in seeking to +separate the mother from her son. + +In his chivalrous ardor Lassalle swore to help the countess, and +promised that he would carry on the struggle with her husband to the +bitter end. He took his two friends with him to Berlin, and then to +Dusseldorf, for they discovered that the Count von Hatzfeldt was not +far away. He was, in fact, at Aix-la-Chapelle with the baroness. + +Lassalle, who had the scent of a greyhound, pried about until he +discovered that the count had given his mistress a legal document, +assigning to her a valuable piece of property which, in the ordinary +course of law, should be entailed on the boy, Paul. The countess at +once hastened to the place, broke into her husband's room, and secured +a promise that the deed would be destroyed. + +No sooner, however, had she left him than he returned to the baroness, +and presently it was learned that the woman had set out for Cologne. + +Lassalle and his two friends followed, to ascertain whether the +document had really been destroyed. The three reached a hotel at +Cologne, where the baroness had just arrived. Her luggage, in fact, was +being carried upstairs. One of Lassalle's friends opened a trunk, and, +finding a casket there, slipped it out to his companion, the judge. + +Unfortunately, the latter had no means of hiding it, and when the +baroness's servant shouted for help, the casket was found in the +possession of the judge, who could give no plausible account of it. He +was, therefore, arrested, as were the other two. There was no evidence +against Lassalle; but his friends fared badly at the trial, one of them +being imprisoned for a year and the other for five years. + +From this time Lassalle, with an almost quixotic devotion, gave himself +up to fighting the Countess von Hatzfeldt's battle against her husband +in the law-courts. The ablest advocates were pitted against him. The +most eloquent legal orators thundered at him and at his client, but he +met them all with a skill, an audacity, and a brilliant wit that won +for him verdict after verdict. The case went from the lower to the +higher tribunals, until, after nine years, it reached the last court of +appeal, where Lassalle wrested from his opponents a magnificently +conclusive victory--one that made the children of the countess +absolutely safe. It was a battle fought with the determination of a +soldier, with the gallantry of a knight errant, and the intellectual +acumen of a learned lawyer. + +It is not surprising that many refuse to believe that Lassalle's +feeling toward the Countess von Hatzfeldt was a disinterested one. A +scandalous pamphlet, which was published in French, German, and +Russian, and written by one who styled herself "Sophie Solutzeff," did +much to spread the evil report concerning Lassalle. But the very +openness and frankness of the service which he did for the countess +ought to make it clear that his was the devotion of a youth drawn by an +impulse into a strife where there was nothing for him to gain, but +everything to lose. He denounced the brutality of her husband, but her +letters to him always addressed him as "my dear child." In writing to +her he confides small love-secrets and ephemeral flirtations--which he +would scarcely have done, had the countess viewed him with the eye of +passion. + +Lassalle was undoubtedly a man of impressionable heart, and had many +affairs such as Heine had; but they were not deep or lasting. That he +should have made a favorable impression on the women whom he met is not +surprising, because of his social standing, his chivalry, his fine +manners, and his handsome face. Mr. Clement Shorter has quoted an +official document which describes him as he was in his earlier years: + +Ferdinand Lassalle, aged twenty-three, a civilian born at Breslau and +dwelling recently at Berlin. He stands five feet six inches in height, +has brown, curly hair, open forehead, brown eyebrows, dark blue eyes, +well proportioned nose and mouth, and rounded chin. + +We ought not to be surprised, then, if he was a favorite in +drawing-rooms; if both men and women admired him; if Alexander von +Humboldt cried out with enthusiasm that he was a wunderkind, and if +there were more than Sophie Solutzeff to be jealous. But the rather +ungrateful remark of the Countess von Hatzfeldt certainly does not +represent him as he really was. + +"You are without reason and judgment where women are concerned," she +snarled at him; but the sneer only shows that the woman who uttered it +was neither in love with him nor grateful to him. + +In this paper we are not discussing Lassalle as a public agitator or as +a Socialist, but simply in his relations with the two women who most +seriously affected his life. The first was the Countess von Hatzfeldt, +who, as we have seen, occupied--or rather wasted--nine of the best +years of his life. Then came that profound and thrilling passion which +ended the career of a man who at thirty-nine had only just begun to be +famous. + +Lassalle had joined his intellectual forces with those of Heine and +Marx. He had obtained so great an influence over the masses of the +people as to alarm many a monarch, and at the same time to attract many +a statesman. Prince Bismarck, for example, cared nothing for Lassalle's +championship of popular rights, but sought his aid on finding that he +was an earnest advocate of German unity. + +Furthermore, he was very far from resembling what in those early days +was regarded as the typical picture of a Socialist. There was nothing +frowzy about him; in his appearance he was elegance itself; his manners +were those of a prince, and his clothing was of the best. Seeing him in +a drawing-room, no one would mistake him for anything but a gentleman +and a man of parts. Hence it is not surprising that his second love was +one of the nobility, although her own people hated Lassalle as a bearer +of the red flag. + +This girl was Helene von Donniges, the daughter of a Bavarian diplomat. +As a child she had traveled much, especially in Italy and in +Switzerland. She was very precocious, and lived her own life without +asking the direction of any one. At twelve years of age she had been +betrothed to an Italian of forty; but this dark and pedantic person +always displeased her, and soon afterward, when she met a young +Wallachian nobleman, one Yanko Racowitza, she was ready at once to +dismiss her Italian lover. Racowitza--young, a student, far from home, +and lacking friends--appealed at once to the girl's sympathy. + +At that very time, in Berlin, where Helene was visiting her +grandmother, she was asked by a Prussian baron: + +"Do you know Ferdinand Lassalle?" + +The question came to her with a peculiar shock. She had never heard the +name, and yet the sound of it gave her a strange emotion. Baron Korff, +who perhaps took liberties because she was so young, went on to say: + +"My dear lady, have you really never seen Lassalle? Why, you and he +were meant for each other!" + +She felt ashamed to ask about him, but shortly after a gentleman who +knew her said: + +"It is evident that you have a surprising degree of intellectual +kinship with Ferdinand Lassalle." + +This so excited her curiosity that she asked her grandmother: + +"Who is this person of whom they talk so much--this Ferdinand Lassalle?" + +"Do not speak of him," replied her grandmother. "He is a shameless +demagogue!" + +A little questioning brought to Helene all sorts of stories about +Lassalle--the Countess von Hatzfeldt, the stolen casket, the mysterious +pamphlet, the long battle in the courts--all of which excited her still +more. A friend offered to introduce her to the "shameless demagogue." +This introduction happened at a party, and it must have been an +extraordinary meeting. Seldom, it seemed, was there a better instance +of love at first sight, or of the true affinity of which Baron Korff +had spoken. In the midst of the public gathering they almost rushed +into each other's arms; they talked the free talk of acknowledged +lovers; and when she left, he called her love-names as he offered her +his arm. + +"Somehow it did not appear at all remarkable," she afterward declared. +"We seemed to be perfectly fitted to each other." + +Nevertheless, nine months passed before they met again at a soiree. At +this time Lassaller gazing upon her, said: + +"What would you do if I were sentenced to death?" + +"I should wait until your head was severed," was her answer, "in order +that you might look upon your beloved to the last, and then--I should +take poison!" + +Her answer delighted him, but he said that there was no danger. He was +greeted on every hand with great consideration; and it seemed not +unlikely that, in recognition of his influence with the people, he +might rise to some high position. The King of Prussia sympathized with +him. Heine called him the Messiah of the nineteenth century. When he +passed from city to city, the whole population turned out to do him +honor. Houses were wreathed; flowers were thrown in masses upon him, +while the streets were spanned with triumphal arches. + +Worn out with the work and excitement attending the birth of the +Deutscher Arbeiterverein, or workmen's union, which he founded in 1863, +Lassalle fled for a time to Switzerland for rest. Helene heard of his +whereabouts, and hurried to him, with several friends. They met again +on July 25,1864, and discussed long and intensely the possibilities of +their marriage and the opposition of her parents, who would never +permit her to marry a man who was at once a Socialist and a Jew. + +Then comes a pitiful story of the strife between Lassalle and the +Donniges family. Helene's father and mother indulged in vulgar words; +they spoke of Lassalle with contempt; they recalled all the scandals +that had been current ten years before, and forbade Helene ever to +mention the man's name again. + +The next scene in the drama took place in Geneva, where the family of +Herr von Donniges had arrived, and where Helene's sister had been +betrothed to Count von Keyserling--a match which filled her mother with +intense joy. Her momentary friendliness tempted Helene to speak of her +unalterable love for Lassalle. Scarcely had the words been spoken when +her father and mother burst into abuse and denounced Lassalle as well +as herself. + +She sent word of this to Lassalle, who was in a hotel near by. Scarcely +had he received her letter, when Helene herself appeared upon the +scene, and with all the intensity of which she was possessed, she +begged him to take her wherever he chose. She would go with him to +France, to Italy--to the ends of the earth! + +What a situation, and yet how simple a one for a man of spirit! It is +strange to have to record that to Lassalle it seemed most difficult. He +felt that he or she, or both of them, had been compromised. Had she a +lady with her? Did she know any one in the neighborhood? + +What an extraordinary answer! If she were compromised, all the more +ought he to have taken her in his arms and married her at once, instead +of quibbling and showing himself a prig. + +Presently, her maid came in to tell them that a carriage was ready to +take them to the station, whence a train would start for Paris in a +quarter of an hour. Helene begged him, with a feeling that was +beginning to be one of shame. Lassalle repelled her in words that were +to stamp him with a peculiar kind of cowardice. + +Why should he have stopped to think of anything except the beautiful +woman who was at his feet, and to whom he had pledged his love? What +did he care for the petty diplomat who was her father, or the +vulgar-tongued woman who was her mother? He should have hurried her and +the maid into the train for Paris, and have forgotten everything in the +world but his Helene, glorious among women, who had left everything for +him. + +What was the sudden failure, the curious weakness, the paltriness of +spirit that came at the supreme moment into the heart of this hitherto +strong man? Here was the girl whom he loved, driven from her parents, +putting aside all question of appearances, and clinging to him with a +wild and glorious desire to give herself to him and to be all his own! +That was a thing worthy of a true woman. And he? He shrinks from her +and cowers and acts like a simpleton. His courage seems to have +dribbled through his finger-tips; he is no longer a man--he is a thing. + +Out of all the multitude of Lassalle's former admirers, there is +scarcely one who has ventured to defend him, much less to laud him; and +when they have done so, their voices have had a sound of mockery that +dies away in their own throats. + +Helene, on her side, had compromised herself, and even from the +view-point of her parents it was obvious that she ought to be married +immediately. Her father, however, confined her to her room until it was +understood that Lassalle had left Geneva. Then her family's +supplications, the statement that her sister's marriage and even her +father's position were in danger, led her to say that she would give up +Lassalle. + +It mattered very little, in one way, for whatever he might have done, +Lassalle had killed, or at least had chilled, her love. His failure at +the moment of her great self-sacrifice had shown him to her as he +really was--no bold and gallant spirit, but a cringing, spiritless +self-seeker. She wrote him a formal letter to the effect that she had +become reconciled to her "betrothed bridegroom"; and they never met +again. + +Too late, Lassalle gave himself up to a great regret. He went about +trying to explain his action to his friends, but he could say nothing +that would ease his feeling and reinstate him in the eyes of the +romantic girl. In a frenzy, he sought out the Wallachian student, Yanko +von Racowitza, and challenged him to a mortal duel. He also challenged +Helene's father. Years before, he had on principle declined to fight a +duel; but now he went raving about as if he sought the death of every +one who knew him. + +The duel was fought on August 28, 1864. There was some trouble about +pistols, and also about seconds; but finally the combatants left a +small hotel in a village near Geneva, and reached the dueling-grounds. +Lassalle was almost joyous in his manner. His old confidence had come +back to him; he meant to kill his man. + +They took their stations high up among the hills. A few spectators saw +their figures outlined against the sky. The command to fire rang out, +and from both pistols gushed the flame and smoke. + +A moment later, Lassalle was seen to sway and fall. A chance shot, +glancing from a wall, had struck him to the ground. He suffered +terribly, and nothing but opium in great doses could relieve his pain. +His wound was mortal, and three days later he died. + +Long after, Helene admitted that she still loved Lassalle, and believed +that he would win the duel; but after the tragedy, the tenderness and +patience of Racowitza won her heart. She married him, but within a year +he died of consumption. Helene, being disowned by her relations, +prepared herself for the stage. She married a third husband named +Shevitch, who was then living in the United States, but who has since +made his home in Russia. + +Let us say nothing of Lassalle's political career. Except for his work +as one of the early leaders of the liberal movement in Germany, it has +perished, and his name has been almost forgotten. As a lover, his story +stands out forever as a warning to the timid and the recreant. Let men +do what they will; but there is just one thing which no man is +permitted to do with safety in the sight of woman--and that is to play +the craven. + + + + +THE STORY OF RACHEL + + +Outside of the English-speaking peoples the nineteenth century +witnessed the rise and triumphant progress of three great tragic +actresses. The first two of these--Rachel Felix and Sarah +Bernhardt--were of Jewish extraction; the third, Eleanor Duse, is +Italian. All of them made their way from pauperism to fame; but perhaps +the rise of Rachel was the most striking. + +In the winter of 1821 a wretched peddler named Abraham--or Jacob--Felix +sought shelter at a dilapidated inn at Mumpf, a village in Switzerland, +not far from Basel. It was at the close of a stormy day, and his small +family had been toiling through the snow and sleet. The inn was the +lowest sort of hovel, and yet its proprietor felt that it was too good +for these vagabonds. He consented to receive them only when he learned +that the peddler's wife was to be delivered of a child. That very night +she became the mother of a girl, who was at first called Elise. So +unimportant was the advent of this little waif into the world that the +burgomaster of Mumpf thought it necessary to make an entry only of the +fact that a peddler's wife had given birth to a female child. There was +no mention of family or religion, nor was the record anything more than +a memorandum. + +Under such circumstances was born a child who was destined to excite +the wonder of European courts--to startle and thrill and utterly amaze +great audiences by her dramatic genius. But for ten years the +family--which grew until it consisted of one son and five +daughters--kept on its wanderings through Switzerland and Germany. +Finally, they settled down in Lyons, where the mother opened a little +shop for the sale of second-hand clothing. The husband gave lessons in +German whenever he could find a pupil. The eldest daughter went about +the cafes in the evening, singing the songs that were then popular, +while her small sister, Rachel, collected coppers from those who had +coppers to spare. + +Although the family was barely able to sustain existence, the father +and mother were by no means as ignorant as their squalor would imply. +The peddler Felix had studied Hebrew theology in the hope of becoming a +rabbi. Failing this, he was always much interested in declamation, +public reading, and the recitation of poetry. He was, in his way, no +mean critic of actors and actresses. Long before she was ten years of +age little Rachel--who had changed her name from Elise--could render +with much feeling and neatness of eloquence bits from the best-known +French plays of the classic stage. + +The children's mother, on her side, was sharp and practical to a high +degree. She saved and scrimped all through her period of adversity. +Later she was the banker of her family, and would never lend any of her +children a sou except on excellent security. However, this was all to +happen in after years. + +When the child who was destined to be famous had reached her tenth year +she and her sisters made their way to Paris. For four years the +second-hand clothing-shop was continued; the father still taught +German; and the elder sister, Sarah, who had a golden voice, made the +rounds of the cafes in the lowest quarters of the capital, while Rachel +passed the wooden plate for coppers. + +One evening in the year 1834 a gentleman named Morin, having been taken +out of his usual course by a matter of business, entered a BRASSERIE +for a cup of coffee. There he noted two girls, one of them singing with +remarkable sweetness, and the other silently following with the wooden +plate. M. Morin called to him the girl who sang and asked her why she +did not make her voice more profitable than by haunting the cafes at +night, where she was sure to meet with insults of the grossest kind. + +"Why," said Sarah, "I haven't anybody to advise me what to do." + +M. Morin gave her his address and said that he would arrange to have +her meet a friend who would be of great service to her. On the +following day he sent the two girls to a M. Choron, who was the head of +the Conservatory of Sacred Music. Choron had Sarah sing, and instantly +admitted her as a pupil, which meant that she would soon be enrolled +among the regular choristers. The beauty of her voice made a deep +impression on him. + +Then he happened to notice the puny, meager child who was standing near +her sister. Turning to her, he said: + +"And what can you do, little one?" + +"I can recite poetry," was the reply. + +"Oh, can you?" said he. "Please let me hear you." + +Rachel readily consented. She had a peculiarly harsh, grating voice, so +that any but a very competent judge would have turned her away. But M. +Choron, whose experience was great, noted the correctness of her accent +and the feeling which made itself felt in every line. He accepted her +as well as her sister, but urged her to study elocution rather than +music. + +She must, indeed, have had an extraordinary power even at the age of +fourteen, since not merely her voice but her whole appearance was +against her. She was dressed in a short calico frock of a pattern in +which red was spotted with white. Her shoes were of coarse black +leather. Her hair was parted at the back of her head and hung down her +shoulders in two braids, framing the long, childish, and yet gnome-like +face, which was unusual in its gravity. + +At first she was little thought of; but there came a time when she +astonished both her teachers and her companions by a recital which she +gave in public. The part was the narrative of Salema in the "Abufar" of +Ducis. It describes the agony of a mother who gives birth to a child +while dying of thirst amid the desert sands. Mme. de Barviera has left +a description of this recital, which it is worth while to quote: + +While uttering the thrilling tale the thin face seemed to lengthen with +horror, the small, deep-set black eyes dilated with a fixed stare as +though she witnessed the harrowing scene; and the deep, guttural tones, +despite a slight Jewish accent, awoke a nameless terror in every one +who listened, carrying him through the imaginary woe with a strange +feeling of reality, not to be shaken, off as long as the sounds lasted. + +Even yet, however, the time had not come for any conspicuous success. +The girl was still so puny in form, so monkey-like in face, and so +gratingly unpleasant in her tones that it needed time for her to attain +her full growth and to smooth away some of the discords in her peculiar +voice. + +Three years later she appeared at the Gymnase in a regular debut; yet +even then only the experienced few appreciated her greatness. Among +these, however, were the well-known critic Jules Janin, the poet and +novelist Gauthier, and the actress Mlle. Mars. They saw that this lean, +raucous gutter-girl had within her gifts which would increase until she +would be first of all actresses on the French stage. Janin wrote some +lines which explain the secret of her greatness: + +All the talent in the world, especially when continually applied to the +same dramatic works, will not satisfy continually the hearer. What +pleases in a great actor, as in all arts that appeal to the +imagination, is the unforeseen. When I am utterly ignorant of what is +to happen, when I do not know, when you yourself do not know what will +be your next gesture, your next look, what passion will possess your +heart, what outcry will burst from your terror-stricken soul, then, +indeed, I am willing to see you daily, for each day you will be new to +me. To-day I may blame, to-morrow praise. Yesterday you were +all-powerful; to-morrow, perhaps, you may hardly win from me a word of +admiration. So much the better, then, if you draw from me unexpected +tears, if in my heart you strike an unknown fiber; but tell me not of +hearing night after night great artists who every time present the +exact counterpart of what they were on the preceding one. + +It was at the Theatre Francais that she won her final acceptance as the +greatest of all tragedians of her time. This was in her appearance in +Corneille's famous play of "Horace." She had now, in 1838, blazed forth +with a power that shook her no, less than it stirred the emotions and +the passions of her hearers. The princes of the royal blood came in +succession to see her. King Louis Philippe himself was at last tempted +by curiosity to be present. Gifts of money and jewels were showered on +her, and through sheer natural genius rather than through artifice she +was able to master a great audience and bend it to her will. + +She had no easy life, this girl of eighteen years, for other actresses +carped at her, and she had had but little training. The sordid ways of +her old father excited a bitterness which was vented on the daughter. +She was still under age, and therefore was treated as a gold-mine by +her exacting parents. At the most she could play but twice a week. Her +form was frail and reed-like. She was threatened with a complaint of +the lungs; yet all this served to excite rather than to diminish public +interest in her. The newspapers published daily bulletins of her +health, and her door was besieged by anxious callers who wished to know +her condition. As for the greed of her parents, every one said she was +not to blame for that. And so she passed from poverty to riches, from +squalor to something like splendor, and from obscurity to fame. + +Much has been written about her that is quite incorrect. She has been +credited with virtues which she never possessed; and, indeed, it may be +said with only too much truth that she possessed no virtues whatsoever. +On the stage while the inspiration lasted she was magnificent. Off the +stage she was sly, treacherous, capricious, greedy, ungrateful, +ignorant, and unchaste. With such an ancestry as she had, with such an +early childhood as had been hers, what else could one expect from her? + +She and her old mother wrangled over money like two pickpockets. Some +of her best friends she treated shamefully. Her avarice was without +bounds. Some one said that it was not really avarice, but only a +reaction from generosity; but this seems an exceedingly subtle theory. +It is possible to give illustrations of it, however. She did, indeed, +make many presents with a lavish hand; yet, having made a present, she +could not rest until she got it back. The fact was so well known that +her associates took it for granted. The younger Dumas once received a +ring from her. Immediately he bowed low and returned it to her finger, +saying: + +"Permit me, mademoiselle, to present it to you in my turn so as to save +you the embarrassment of asking for it." + +Mr. Vandam relates among other anecdotes about her that one evening she +dined at the house of Comte Duchatel. The table was loaded with the +most magnificent flowers; but Rachel's keen eyes presently spied out +the great silver centerpiece. Immediately she began to admire the +latter; and the count, fascinated by her manners, said that he would be +glad to present it to her. She accepted it at once, but was rather +fearful lest he should change his mind. She had come to dinner in a +cab, and mentioned the fact. The count offered to send her home in his +carriage. + +"Yes, that will do admirably," said she. "There will be no danger of my +being robbed of your present, which I had better take with me." + +"With pleasure, mademoiselle," replied the count. "But you will send me +back my carriage, won't you?" + +Rachel had a curious way of asking every one she met for presents and +knickknacks, whether they were valuable or not. She knew how to make +them valuable. + +Once in a studio she noticed a guitar hanging on the wall. She begged +for it very earnestly. As it was an old and almost worthless +instrument, it was given her. A little later it was reported that the +dilapidated guitar had been purchased by a well-known gentleman for a +thousand francs. The explanation soon followed. Rachel had declared +that it was the very guitar with which she used to earn her living as a +child in the streets of Paris. As a memento its value sprang from +twenty francs to a thousand. + +It has always been a mystery what Rachel did with the great sums of +money which she made in various ways. She never was well dressed; and +as for her costumes on the stage, they were furnished by the theater. +When her effects were sold at public auction after her death her +furniture was worse than commonplace, and her pictures and ornaments +were worthless, except such as had been given her. She must have made +millions of francs, and yet she had very little to leave behind her. + +Some say that her brother Raphael, who acted as her personal manager, +was a spendthrift; but if so, there are many reasons for thinking that +it was not his sister's money that he spent. Others say that Rachel +gambled in stocks, but there is no evidence of it. The only thing that +is certain is the fact that she was almost always in want of money. Her +mother, in all probability, managed to get hold of most of her earnings. + +Much may have been lost through her caprices. One instance may be +cited. She had received an offer of three hundred thousand francs to +act at St. Petersburg, and was on her way there when she passed through +Potsdam, near Berlin. The King of Prussia was entertaining the Russian +Czar. An invitation was sent to her in the shape of a royal command to +appear before these monarchs and their guests. For some reason or other +Rachel absolutely refused. She would listen to no arguments. She would +go on to St. Petersburg without delay. + +"But," it was said to her, "if you refuse to appear before the Czar at +Potsdam all the theaters in St. Petersburg will be closed against you, +because you will have insulted the emperor. In this way you will be out +the expenses of your journey and also the three hundred thousand +francs." + +Rachel remained stubborn as before; but in about half an hour she +suddenly declared that she would recite before the two monarchs, which +she subsequently did, to the satisfaction of everybody. Some one said +to her not long after: + +"I knew that you would do it. You weren't going to give up the three +hundred thousand francs and all your travelling expenses." + +"You are quite wrong," returned Rachel, "though of course you will not +believe me. I did not care at all about the money and was going back to +France. It was something that I heard which made me change my mind. Do +you want to know what it was? Well, after all the arguments were over +some one informed me that the Czar Nicholas was the handsomest man in +Europe; and so I made up my mind that I would stay in Potsdam long +enough to see him." + +This brings us to one phase of Rachel's nature which is rather +sinister. She was absolutely hard. She seemed to have no emotions +except those which she exhibited on the stage or the impish perversity +which irritated so many of those about her. She was in reality a +product of the gutter, able to assume a demure and modest air, but +within coarse, vulgar, and careless of decency. Yet the words of Jules +Janin, which have been quoted above, explain how she could be +personally very fascinating. + +In all Rachel's career one can detect just a single strand of real +romance. It is one that makes us sorry for her, because it tells us +that her love was given where it never could be openly requited. + +During the reign of Louis Philippe the Comte Alexandre Walewski held +many posts in the government. He was a son of the great Napoleon. His +mother was that Polish countess who had accepted Napoleon's love +because she hoped that he might set Poland free at her desire. But +Napoleon was never swerved from his well-calculated plans by the wish +of any woman, and after a time the Countess Walewska came to love him +for himself. It was she to whom he confided secrets which he would not +reveal to his own brothers. It was she who followed him to Elba in +disguise. It was her son who was Napoleon's son, and who afterward, +under the Second Empire, was made minister of fine arts, minister of +foreign affairs, and, finally, an imperial duke. Unlike the third +Napoleon's natural half-brother, the Duc de Moray, Walewski was a +gentleman of honor and fine feeling. He never used his relationship to +secure advantages for himself. He tried to live in a manner worthy of +the great warrior who was his father. + +As minister of fine arts he had much to do with the subsidized +theaters; and in time he came to know Rachel. He was the son of one of +the greatest men who ever lived. She was the child of roving peddlers +whose early training had been in the slums of cities and amid the smoke +of bar-rooms and cafes. She was tainted in a thousand ways, while he +was a man of breeding and right principle. She was a wandering actress; +he was a great minister of state. What could there be between these two? + +George Sand gave the explanation in an epigram which, like most +epigrams, is only partly true. She said: + +"The count's company must prove very restful to Rachel." + +What she meant was, of course, that Walewski's breeding, his dignity +and uprightness, might be regarded only as a temporary repose for the +impish, harsh-voiced, infinitely clever actress. Of course, it was all +this, but we should not take it in a mocking sense. Rachel looked up +out of her depths and gave her heart to this high-minded nobleman. He +looked down and lifted her, as it were, so that she could forget for +the time all the baseness and the brutality that she had known, that +she might put aside her forced vivacity and the self that was not in +reality her own. + +It is pitiful to think of these two, separated by a great abyss which +could not be passed except at times and hours when each was free. But +theirs was, none the less, a meeting of two souls, strangely different +in many ways, and yet appealing to each other with a sincerity and +truth which neither could show elsewhere. + +The end of poor Rachel was one of disappointment. Tempted by the fact +that Jenny Lind had made nearly two million francs by her visit to the +United States, Rachel followed her, but with slight success, as was to +be expected. Music is enjoyed by human beings everywhere, while French +classical plays, even though acted by a genius like Rachel, could be +rightly understood only by a French-speaking people. Thus it came about +that her visit to America was only moderately successful. + +She returned to France, where the rising fame of Adelaide Ristori was +very bitter to Rachel, who had passed the zenith of her power. She went +to Egypt, but received no benefit, and in 1858 she died near Cannes. +The man who loved her, and whom she had loved in turn, heard of her +death with great emotion. He himself lived ten years longer, and died a +little while before the fall of the Second Empire. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Famous Affinities of History V3, by Lyndon Orr + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY V3 *** + +***** This file should be named 4691.txt or 4691.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/9/4691/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 +Find out about how to make a donation at the bottom of this file. + + + +Title: Famous Affinities of History V3 + The Romance of Devotion +ŒFú‰^øëeÄ^ø&€uN&Ä_ &ƒ +Author: Lyndon Orr + +Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4691] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 3, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Famous Affinities of History V3, by Lyndon Orr +This file should be named ffnt310.txt or ffnt310.zip + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ffnt311.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ffnt310a.txt + +This text was produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + + + + + + + + + + +FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY + +THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION + +BY LYNDON ORR + +VOLUME III OF IV. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE WIVES OF GENERAL HOUSTON +LOLA MONTEZ AND KING LUDWIG OF BAVARIA +LEON GAMBETTA AND LEONIE LEON +LADY BLESSINGTON AND COUNT D'ORSAY +BYRON AND THE COUNTESS GUICCIOLI +THE STORY OF MME. DE STAEL +THE STORY OF KARL MARX +FERDINAND LASSALLE AND HELENE VON DONNIGES +THE STORY OF RACHEL + + + + + +THE WIVES OF GENERAL HOUSTON + + +Sixty or seventy years ago it was considered a great joke to chalk +up on any man's house-door, or on his trunk at a coaching-station, +the conspicuous letters "G. T. T." The laugh went round, and every +one who saw the inscription chuckled and said: "They've got it on +you, old hoss!" The three letters meant "gone to Texas"; and for +any man to go to Texas in those days meant his moral, mental, and +financial dilapidation. Either he had plunged into bankruptcy and +wished to begin life over again in a new world, or the sheriff had +a warrant for his arrest. + +The very task of reaching Texas was a fearful one. Rivers that +overran their banks, fever-stricken lowlands where gaunt faces +peered out from moldering cabins, bottomless swamps where the mud +oozed greasily and where the alligator could be seen slowly moving +his repulsive form--all this stretched on for hundreds of miles to +horrify and sicken the emigrants who came toiling on foot or +struggling upon emaciated horses. Other daring pioneers came by +boat, running all manner of risks upon the swollen rivers. Still +others descended from the mountains of Tennessee and passed +through a more open country and with a greater certainty of self- +protection, because they were trained from childhood to wield the +rifle and the long sheath-knife. + +It is odd enough to read, in the chronicles of those days, that +amid all this suffering and squalor there was drawn a strict line +between "the quality" and those who had no claim to be patricians. +"The quality" was made up of such emigrants as came from the more +civilized East, or who had slaves, or who dragged with them some +rickety vehicle with carriage-horses--however gaunt the animals +might be. All others--those who had no slaves or horses, and no +traditions of the older states--were classed as "poor whites"; and +they accepted their mediocrity without a murmur. + +Because he was born in Lexington, Virginia, and moved thence with +his family to Tennessee, young Sam Houston--a truly eponymous +American hero--was numbered with "the quality" when, after long +wandering, he reached his boyhood home. His further claim to +distinction as a boy came from the fact that he could read and +write, and was even familiar with some of the classics in +translation. + +When less than eighteen years of age he had reached a height of +more than six feet. He was skilful with the rifle, a remarkable +rough-and-tumble fighter, and as quick with his long knife as any +Indian. This made him a notable figure--the more so as he never +abused his strength and courage. He was never known as anything +but "Sam." In his own sphere he passed for a gentleman and a +scholar, thanks to his Virginian birth and to the fact that he +could repeat a great part of Pope's translation of the "Iliad." + +His learning led him to teach school a few months in the year to +the children of the white settlers. Indeed, Houston was so much +taken with the pursuit of scholarship that he made up his mind to +learn Greek and Latin. Naturally, this seemed mere foolishness to +his mother, his six strapping brothers, and his three stalwart +sisters, who cared little for study. So sharp was the difference +between Sam and the rest of the family that he gave up his +yearning after the classics and went to the other extreme by +leaving home and plunging into the heart of the forest beyond +sight of any white man or woman or any thought of Hellas and +ancient Rome. + +Here in the dimly lighted glades he was most happy. The Indians +admired him for his woodcraft and for the skill with which he +chased the wild game amid the forests. From his copy of the +"Iliad" he would read to them the thoughts of the world's greatest +poet. + +It is told that nearly forty years after, when Houston had long +led a different life and had made his home in Washington, a +deputation of more than forty untamed Indians from Texas arrived +there under the charge of several army officers. They chanced to +meet Sam Houston. + +One and all ran to him, clasped him in their brawny arms, hugged +him like bears to their naked breasts, and called him "father." +Beneath the copper skin and thick paint the blood rushed, and +their faces changed, and the lips of many a warrior trembled, +although the Indian may not weep. + +In the gigantic form of Houston, on whose ample brow the +beneficent love of a father was struggling with the sternness of +the patriarch and warrior, we saw civilization awing the savage at +his feet. We needed no interpreter to tell us that this impressive +supremacy was gained in the forest. + +His family had been at first alarmed by his stay among the +Indians; but when after a time he returned for a new outfit they +saw that he was entirely safe and left him to wander among the red +men. Later he came forth and resumed the pursuits of civilization. +He took up his studies; he learned the rudiments of law and +entered upon its active practice. When barely thirty-six he had +won every office that was open to him, ending with his election to +the Governorship of Tennessee in 1827. + +Then came a strange episode which changed the whole course of his +life. Until then the love of woman had never stirred his veins. +His physical activities in the forests, his unique intimacy with +Indian life, had kept him away from the social intercourse of +towns and cities. In Nashville Houston came to know for the first +time the fascination of feminine society. As a lawyer, a +politician, and the holder of important offices he could not keep +aloof from that gentler and more winning influence which had +hitherto been unknown to him. + +In 1828 Governor Houston was obliged to visit different portions +of the state, stopping, as was the custom, to visit at the homes +of "the quality," and to be introduced to wives and daughters as +well as to their sportsman sons. On one of his official journeys +he met Miss Eliza Allen, a daughter of one of the "influential +families" of Sumner County, on the northern border of Tennessee. +He found her responsive, charming, and greatly to be admired. She +was a slender type of Southern beauty, well calculated to gain the +affection of a lover, and especially of one whose associations had +been chiefly with the women of frontier communities. + +To meet a girl who had refined tastes and wide reading, and who +was at the same time graceful and full of humor, must have come as +a pleasant experience to Houston. He and Miss Allen saw much of +each other, and few of their friends were surprised when the word +went forth that they were engaged to be married. + +The marriage occurred in January, 1829. They were surrounded with +friends of all classes and ranks, for Houston was the associate of +Jackson and was immensely popular in his own state. He seemed to +have before him a brilliant career. He had won a lovely bride to +make a home for him; so that no man seemed to have more attractive +prospects. What was there which at this time interposed in some +malignant way to blight his future? + +It was a little more than a month after his marriage when he met a +friend, and, taking him out into a strip of quiet woodland, said +to him: + +"I have something to tell you, but you must not ask me anything +about it. My wife and I will separate before long. She will return +to her father's, while I must make my way alone." + +Houston's friend seized him by the arm and gazed at him with +horror. + +"Governor," said he, "you're going to ruin your whole life! What +reason have you for treating this young lady in such a way? What +has she done that you should leave her? Or what have you done that +she should leave you? Every one will fall away from you." + +Houston grimly replied: + +"I have no explanation to give you. My wife has none to give you. +She will not complain of me, nor shall I complain of her. It is no +one's business in the world except our own. Any interference will +be impertinent, and I shall punish it with my own hand." + +"But," said his friend, "think of it. The people at large will not +allow such action. They will believe that you, who have been their +idol, have descended to insult a woman. Your political career is +ended. It will not be safe for you to walk the streets!" + +"What difference does it make to me?" said Houston, gloomily. +"What must be, must be. I tell you, as a friend, in advance, so +that you may be prepared; but the parting will take place very +soon." + +Little was heard for another month or two, and then came the +announcement that the Governor's wife had left him and had +returned to her parents' home. The news flew like wildfire, and +was the theme of every tongue. Friends of Mrs. Houston begged her +to tell them the meaning of the whole affair. Adherents of +Houston, on the other hand, set afloat stories of his wife's +coldness and of her peevishness. The state was divided into +factions; and what really concerned a very few was, as usual, made +everybody's business. + +There were times when, if Houston had appeared near the dwelling +of his former wife, he would have been lynched or riddled with +bullets. Again, there were enemies and slanderers of his who, had +they shown themselves in Nashville, would have been torn to pieces +by men who hailed Houston as a hero and who believed that he could +not possibly have done wrong. + +However his friends might rage, and however her people might +wonder and seek to pry into the secret, no satisfaction was given +on either side. The abandoned wife never uttered a word of +explanation. Houston was equally reticent and self-controlled. In +later years he sometimes drank deeply and was loose-tongued; but +never, even in his cups, could he be persuaded to say a single +word about his wife. + +The whole thing is a mystery and cannot be solved by any evidence +that we have. Almost every one who has written of it seems to have +indulged in mere guesswork. One popular theory is that Miss Allen +was in love with some one else; that her parents forced her into a +brilliant marriage with Houston, which, however, she could not +afterward endure; and that Houston, learning the facts, left her +because he knew that her heart was not really his. + +But the evidence is all against this. Had it been so she would +surely have secured a divorce and would then have married the man +whom she truly loved. As a matter of fact, although she did +divorce Houston, it was only after several years, and the man whom +she subsequently married was not acquainted with her at the time +of the separation. + +Another theory suggests that Houston was harsh in his treatment of +his wife, and offended her by his untaught manners and extreme +self-conceit. But it is not likely that she objected to his +manners, since she had become familiar with them before she gave +him her hand; and as to his conceit, there is no evidence that it +was as yet unduly developed. After his Texan campaign he sometimes +showed a rather lofty idea of his own achievements; but he does +not seem to have done so in these early days. + +Some have ascribed the separation to his passion for drink; but +here again we must discriminate. Later in life he became very fond +of spirits and drank whisky with the Indians, but during his +earlier years he was most abstemious. It scarcely seems possible +that his wife left him because he was intemperate. + +If one wishes to construct a reasonable hypothesis on a subject +where the facts are either wanting or conflicting, it is not +impossible to suggest a solution of this puzzle about Houston. +Although his abandoned wife never spoke of him and shut her lips +tightly when she was questioned about him, Houston, on his part, +was not so taciturn. He never consciously gave any direct clue to +his matrimonial mystery; but he never forgot this girl who was his +bride and whom he seems always to have loved. In what he said he +never ceased to let a vein of self-reproach run through his words. + +I should choose this one paragraph as the most significant. It was +written immediately after they had parted: + +Eliza stands acquitted by me. I have received her as a virtuous, +chaste wife, and as such I pray God I may ever regard her, and I +trust I ever shall. She was cold to me, and I thought she did not +love me. + +And again he said to an old and valued friend at about the same +time: + +"I can make no explanation. I exonerate the lady fully and do not +justify myself." + +Miss Allen seems to have been a woman of the sensitive American +type which was so common in the early and the middle part of the +last century. Mrs. Trollope has described it for us with very +little exaggeration. Dickens has drawn it with a touch of malice, +and yet not without truth. Miss Martineau described it during her +visit to this country, and her account quite coincides with those +of her two contemporaries. + +Indeed, American women of that time unconsciously described +themselves in a thousand different ways. They were, after all, +only a less striking type of the sentimental Englishwomen who read +L. E. L. and the earlier novels of Bulwer-Lytton. On both sides of +the Atlantic there was a reign of sentiment and a prevalence of +what was then called "delicacy." It was a die-away, unwholesome +attitude toward life and was morbid to the last degree. + +In circles where these ideas prevailed, to eat a hearty dinner was +considered unwomanly. To talk of anything except some gilded +"annual," or "book of beauty," or the gossip of the neighborhood +was wholly to be condemned. The typical girl of such a community +was thin and slender and given to a mild starvation, though she +might eat quantities of jam and pickles and saleratus biscuit. She +had the strangest views of life and an almost unnatural shrinking +from any usual converse with men. + +Houston, on his side, was a thoroughly natural and healthful man, +having lived an outdoor life, hunting and camping in the forest +and displaying the unaffected manner of the pioneer. Having lived +the solitary life of the woods, it was a strange thing for him to +meet a girl who had been bred in an entirely different way, who +had learned a thousand little reservations and dainty graces, and +whose very breath was coyness and reserve. Their mating was the +mating of the man of the forest with the woman of the sheltered +life. + +Houston assumed everything; his bride shrank from everything. +There was a mutual shock amounting almost to repulsion. She, on +her side, probably thought she had found in him only the brute +which lurks in man. He, on the other, repelled and checked, at +once grasped the belief that his wife cared nothing for him +because she would not meet his ardors with like ardors of her own. +It is the mistake that has been made by thousands of men and women +at the beginning of their married lives--the mistake on one side +of too great sensitiveness, and on the other side of too great +warmth of passion. + +This episode may seem trivial, and yet it is one that explains +many things in human life. So far as concerns Houston it has a +direct bearing on the history of our country. A proud man, he +could not endure the slights and gossip of his associates. He +resigned the governorship of Tennessee, and left by night, in such +a way as to surround his departure with mystery. + +There had come over him the old longing for Indian life; and when +he was next visible he was in the land of the Cherokees, who had +long before adopted him as a son. He was clad in buckskin and +armed with knife and rifle, and served under the old chief +Oolooteka. He was a gallant defender of the Indians. + +When he found how some of the Indian agents had abused his adopted +brothers he went to Washington to protest, still wearing his +frontier garb. One William Stansberry, a Congressman from Ohio, +insulted Houston, who leaped upon him like a panther, dragged him +about the Hall of Representatives, and beat him within an inch of +his life. He was arrested, imprisoned, and fined; but his old +friend, President Jackson, remitted his imprisonment and gruffly +advised him not to pay the fine. + +Returning to his Indians, he made his way to a new field which +promised much adventure. This was Texas, of whose condition in +those early days something has already been said. Houston found a +rough American settlement, composed of scattered villages +extending along the disputed frontier of Mexico. Already, in the +true Anglo-Saxon spirit, the settlers had formed a rudimentary +state, and as they increased and multiplied they framed a simple +code of laws. + +Then, quite naturally, there came a clash between them and the +Mexicans. The Texans, headed by Moses Austin, had set up a +republic and asked for admission to the United States. Mexico +regarded them as rebels and despised them because they made no +military display and had no very accurate military drill. They +were dressed in buckskin and ragged clothing; but their knives +were very bright and their rifles carried surely. Furthermore, +they laughed at odds, and if only a dozen of them were gathered +together they would "take on" almost any number of Mexican +regulars. + +In February, 1836, the acute and able Mexican, Santa Anna, led +across the Rio Grande a force of several thousand Mexicans showily +uniformed and completely armed. Every one remembers how they fell +upon the little garrison at the Alamo, now within the city limits +of San Antonio, but then an isolated mission building surrounded +by a thick adobe wall. The Americans numbered less than three +hundred men. + +A sharp attack was made with these overwhelming odds. The +Americans drove the assailants back with their rifle fire, but +they had nothing to oppose to the Mexican artillery. The contest +continued for several days, and finally the Mexicans breached the +wall and fell upon the garrison, who were now reduced by more than +half. There was an hour of blood, and every one of the Alamo's +defenders, including the wounded, was put to death. The only +survivors of the slaughter were two negro slaves, a woman, and a +baby girl. + +When the news of this bloody affair reached Houston he leaped +forth to the combat like a lion. He was made commander-in-chief of +the scanty Texan forces. He managed to rally about seven hundred +men, and set out against Santa Anna with little in the way of +equipment, and with nothing but the flame of frenzy to stimulate +his followers. By march and countermarch the hostile forces came +face to face near the shore of San Jacinto Bay, not far from the +present city of Houston. Slowly they moved upon each other, when +Houston halted, and his sharpshooters raked the Mexican battle- +line with terrible effect. Then Houston uttered the cry: + +"Remember the Alamo!" + +With deadly swiftness he led his men in a charge upon Santa Anna's +lines. The Mexicans were scattered as by a mighty wind, their +commander was taken prisoner, and Mexico was forced to give its +recognition to Texas as a free republic, of which General Houston +became the first president. + +This was the climax of Houston's life, but the end of it leaves us +with something still to say. Long after his marriage with Miss +Allen he took an Indian girl to wife and lived with her quite +happily. She was a very beautiful woman, a half-breed, with the +English name of Tyania Rodgers. Very little, however, is known of +her life with Houston. Later still--in 1840--he married a lady +from Marion, Alabama, named Margaret Moffette Lea. He was then in +his forty-seventh year, while she was only twenty-one; but again, +as with his Indian wife, he knew nothing but domestic +tranquillity. These later experiences go far to prove the truth of +what has already been given as the probable cause of his first +mysterious failure to make a woman happy. + +After Texas entered the Union, in 1845, Houston was elected to the +United States Senate, in which he served for thirteen years. In +1852, 1856, and 1860, as a Southerner who opposed any movement +looking toward secession, he was regarded as a possible +presidential candidate; but his career was now almost over, and in +1863, while the Civil War--which he had striven to prevent--was at +its height, he died. + + + + + +LOLA MONTEZ AND KING LUDWIG OF BAVARIA + + +Lola Montez! The name suggests dark eyes and abundant hair, lithe +limbs and a sinuous body, with twining hands and great eyes that +gleam with a sort of ebon splendor. One thinks of Spanish beauty +as one hears the name; and in truth Lola Montez justified the +mental picture. + +She was not altogether Spanish, yet the other elements that +entered into her mercurial nature heightened and vivified her +Castilian traits. Her mother was a Spaniard--partly Moorish, +however. Her father was an Irishman. There you have it--the dreamy +romance of Spain, the exotic touch of the Orient, and the daring, +unreasoning vivacity of the Celt. + +This woman during the forty-three years of her life had adventures +innumerable, was widely known in Europe and America, and actually +lost one king his throne. Her maiden name was Marie Dolores Eliza +Rosanna Gilbert. Her father was a British officer, the son of an +Irish knight, Sir Edward Gilbert. Her mother had been a danseuse +named Lola Oliver. "Lola" is a diminutive of Dolores, and as +"Lola" she became known to the world. + +She lived at one time or another in nearly all the countries of +Europe, and likewise in India, America, and Australia. It would be +impossible to set down here all the sensations that she achieved. +Let us select the climax of her career and show how she overturned +a kingdom, passing but lightly over her early and her later years. + +She was born in Limerick in 1818, but her father's parents cast +off their son and his young wife, the Spanish dancer. They went to +India, and in 1825 the father died, leaving his young widow +without a rupee; but she was quickly married again, this time to +an officer of importance. + +The former danseuse became a very conventional person, a fit match +for her highly conventional husband; but the small daughter did +not take kindly to the proprieties of life. The Hindu servants +taught her more things than she should have known; and at one time +her stepfather found her performing the danse du ventre. It was +the Moorish strain inherited from her mother. + +She was sent back to Europe, however, and had a sort of education +in Scotland and England, and finally in Paris, where she was +detected in an incipient flirtation with her music-master. There +were other persons hanging about her from her fifteenth year, at +which time her stepfather, in India, had arranged a marriage +between her and a rich but uninteresting old judge. One of her +numerous admirers told her this. + +"What on earth am I to do?" asked little Lola, most naively. + +"Why, marry me," said the artful adviser, who was Captain Thomas +James; and so the very next day they fled to Dublin and were +speedily married at Meath. + +Lola's husband was violently in love with her, but, unfortunately, +others were no less susceptible to her charms. She was presented +at the vice-regal court, and everybody there became her victim. +Even the viceroy, Lord Normanby, was greatly taken with her. This +nobleman's position was such that Captain James could not object +to his attentions, though they made the husband angry to a degree. +The viceroy would draw her into alcoves and engage her in +flattering conversation, while poor James could only gnaw his +nails and let green-eyed jealousy prey upon his heart. His only +recourse was to take her into the country, where she speedily +became bored; and boredom is the death of love. + +Later she went with Captain James to India. She endured a campaign +in Afghanistan, in which she thoroughly enjoyed herself because of +the attentions of the officers. On her return to London in 1842, +one Captain Lennox was a fellow passenger; and their association +resulted in an action for divorce, by which she was freed from her +husband, and yet by a technicality was not able to marry Lennox, +whose family in any case would probably have prevented the +wedding. + +Mrs. Mayne says, in writing on this point: + +Even Lola never quite succeeded in being allowed to commit bigamy +unmolested, though in later years she did commit it and took +refuge in Spain to escape punishment. + +The same writer has given a vivid picture of what happened soon +after the divorce. Lola tried to forget her past and to create a +new and brighter future. Here is the narrative: + +Her Majesty's Theater was crowded on the night of June 10,1843. A +new Spanish dancer was announced--"Dona Lola Montez." It was her +debut, and Lumley, the manager, had been puffing her beforehand, +as he alone knew how. To Lord Ranelagh, the leader of the +dilettante group of fashionable young men, he had whispered, +mysteriously: + +"I have a surprise in store. You shall see." + +So Ranelagh and a party of his friends filled the omnibus boxes, +those tribunes at the side of the stage whence success or failure +was pronounced. Things had been done with Lumley's consummate art; +the packed house was murmurous with excitement. She was a raving +beauty, said report--and then, those intoxicating Spanish dances! +Taglioni, Cerito, Fanny Elssler, all were to be eclipsed. + +Ranelagh's glasses were steadily leveled on the stage from the +moment her entrance was imminent. She came on. There was a murmur +of admiration--but Ranelagh made no sign. And then she began to +dance. A sense of disappointment, perhaps? But she was very +lovely, very graceful, "like a flower swept by the wind, she +floated round the stage"--not a dancer, but, by George, a beauty! +And still Ranelagh made no sign. + +Yet, no. What low, sibilant sound is that? And then what confused, +angry words from the tribunal? He turns to his friends, his eyes +ablaze with anger, opera-glass in hand. And now again the terrible +"Hiss-s-s!" taken up by the other box, and the words repeated +loudly and more angrily even than before--the historic words which +sealed Lola's doom at Her Majesty's Theater: "WHY, IT'S BETTY +JAMES!" + +She was, indeed, Betty James, and London would not accept her as +Lola Montez. She left England and appeared upon the Continent as a +beautiful virago, making a sensation--as the French would say, a +succes de scandale--by boxing the ears of people who offended her, +and even on one occasion horsewhipping a policeman who was in +attendance on the King of Prussia. In Paris she tried once more to +be a dancer, but Paris would not have her. She betook herself to +Dresden and Warsaw, where she sought to attract attention by her +eccentricities, making mouths at the spectators, flinging her +garters in their faces, and one time removing her skirts and still +more necessary garments, whereupon her manager broke off his +engagement with her. + +An English writer who heard a great deal of her and who saw her +often about this time writes that there was nothing wonderful +about her except "her beauty and her impudence." She had no talent +nor any of the graces which make women attractive; yet many men of +talent raved about her. The clever young journalist, Dujarrier, +who assisted Emile Girardin, was her lover in Paris. He was killed +in a duel and left Lola twenty thousand francs and some +securities, so that she no longer had to sing in the streets as +she did in Warsaw. + +She now betook herself to Munich, the capital of Bavaria. That +country was then governed by Ludwig I., a king as eccentric as +Lola herself. He was a curious compound of kindliness, ideality, +and peculiar ways. For instance, he would never use a carriage +even on state occasions. He prowled around the streets, knocking +off the hats of those whom he chanced to meet. Like his +unfortunate descendant, Ludwig II., he wrote poetry, and he had a +picture-gallery devoted to portraits of the beautiful women whom +he had met. + +He dressed like an English fox-hunter, with a most extraordinary +hat, and what was odd and peculiar in others pleased him because +he was odd and peculiar himself. Therefore when Lola made her +first appearance at the Court Theater he was enchanted with her. +He summoned her at once to the palace, and within five days he +presented her to the court, saying as he did so: + +"Meine Herren, I present you to my best friend." + +In less than a month this curious monarch had given Lola the title +of Countess of Landsfeld. A handsome house was built for her, and +a pension of twenty thousand florins was granted her. This was in +1847. With the people of Munich she was unpopular. They did not +mind the eccentricities of the king, since these amused them and +did the country no perceptible harm; but they were enraged by this +beautiful woman, who had no softness such as a woman ought to +have. Her swearing, her readiness to box the ears of every one +whom she disliked, the huge bulldog which accompanied her +everywhere--all these things were beyond endurance. + +She was discourteous to the queen, besides meddling with the +politics of the kingdom. Either of these things would have been +sufficient to make her hated. Together, they were more than the +city of Munich could endure. Finally the countess tried to +establish a new corps in the university. This was the last touch +of all. A student who ventured to wear her colors was beaten and +arrested. Lola came to his aid with all her wonted boldness; but +the city was in commotion. + +Daggers were drawn; Lola was hustled and insulted. The foolish +king rushed out to protect her; and on his arm she was led in +safety to the palace. As she entered the gates she turned and +fired a pistol into the mob. No one was hurt, but a great rage +took possession of the people. The king issued a decree closing +the university for a year. By this time, however, Munich was in +possession of a mob, and the Bavarians demanded that she should +leave the country. + +Ludwig faced the chamber of peers, where the demand of the +populace was placed before him. + +"I would rather lose my crown!" he replied. + +The lords of Bavaria regarded him with grim silence; and in their +eyes he read the determination of his people. On the following day +a royal decree revoked Lola's rights as a subject of Bavaria, and +still another decree ordered her to be expelled. The mob yelled +with joy and burned her house. Poor Ludwig watched the tumult by +the light of the leaping flames. + +He was still in love with her and tried to keep her in the +kingdom; but the result was that Ludwig himself was forced to +abdicate. He had given his throne for the light love of this +beautiful but half-crazy woman. She would have no more to do with +him; and as for him, he had to give place to his son Maximilian. +Ludwig had lost a kingdom merely because this strange, outrageous +creature had piqued him and made him think that she was unique +among women. + +The rest of her career was adventurous. In England she contracted +a bigamous marriage with a youthful officer, and within two weeks +they fled to Spain for safety from the law. Her husband was +drowned, and she made still another marriage. She visited +Australia, and at Melbourne she had a fight with a strapping +woman, who clawed her face until Lola fell fainting to the ground. +It is a squalid record of horse-whippings, face-scratchings--in +short, a rowdy life. + +Her end was like that of Becky Sharp. In America she delivered +lectures which were written for her by a clergyman and which dealt +with the art of beauty. She had a temporary success; but soon she +became quite poor, and took to piety, professing to be a sort of +piteous, penitent Magdalen. In this role she made effective use of +her beautiful dark hair, her pallor, and her wonderful eyes. But +the violence of her disposition had wrecked her physically; and +she died of paralysis in Astoria, on Long Island, in 1861. Upon +her grave in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, there is a tablet to +her memory, bearing the inscription: "Mrs. Eliza Gilbert, born +1818, died 1861." + +What can one say of a woman such as this? She had no morals, and +her manners were outrageous. The love she felt was the love of a +she-wolf. Fourteen biographies of her have been written, besides +her own autobiography, which was called The Story of a Penitent, +and which tells less about her than any of the other books. Her +beauty was undeniable. Her courage was the blended courage of the +Celt, the Spaniard, and the Moor. Yet all that one can say of her +was said by the elder Dumas when he declared that she was born to +be the evil genius of every one who cared for her. Her greatest +fame comes from the fact that in less than three years she +overturned a kingdom and lost a king his throne. + + + + + +LEON GAMBETTA AND LEONIE LEON + + +The present French Republic has endured for over forty years. +Within that time it has produced just one man of extraordinary +power and parts. This was Leon Gambetta. Other men as remarkable +as he were conspicuous in French political life during the first +few years of the republic; but they belonged to an earlier +generation, while Gambetta leaped into prominence only when the +empire fell, crashing down in ruin and disaster. + +It is still too early to form an accurate estimate of him as a +statesman. His friends praise him extravagantly. His enemies still +revile him bitterly. The period of his political career lasted for +little more than a decade, yet in that time it may be said that he +lived almost a life of fifty years. Only a short time ago did the +French government cause his body to be placed within the great +Pantheon, which contains memorials of the heroes and heroines of +France. But, though we may not fairly judge of his political +motives, we can readily reconstruct a picture of him as a man, and +in doing so recall his one romance, which many will remember after +they have forgotten his oratorical triumphs and his statecraft. + +Leon Gambetta was the true type of the southern Frenchman--what +his countrymen call a meridional. The Frenchman of the south is +different from the Frenchman of the north, for the latter has in +his veins a touch of the viking blood, so that he is very apt to +be fair-haired and blue-eyed, temperate in speech, and self- +controlled. He is different, again, from the Frenchman of central +France, who is almost purely Celtic. The meridional has a marked +vein of the Italian in him, derived from the conquerors of ancient +Gaul. He is impulsive, ardent, fiery in speech, hot-tempered, and +vivacious to an extraordinary degree. + +Gambetta, who was born at Cahors, was French only on his mother's +side, since his father was of Italian birth. It is said also that +somewhere in his ancestry there was a touch of the Oriental. At +any rate, he was one of the most southern of the sons of southern +France, and he showed the precocious maturity which belongs to a +certain type of Italian. At twenty-one he had already been +admitted to the French bar, and had drifted to Paris, where his +audacity, his pushing nature, and his red-hot un-restraint of +speech gave him a certain notoriety from the very first. + +It was toward the end of the reign of Napoleon III. that Gambetta +saw his opportunity. The emperor, weakened by disease and yielding +to a sort of feeble idealism, gave to France a greater freedom of +speech than it had enjoyed while he was more virile. This +relaxation of control merely gave to his opponents more courage to +attack him and his empire. Demagogues harangued the crowds in +words which would once have led to their imprisonment. In the +National Assembly the opposition did all within its power to +hamper and defeat the policy of the government. + +In short, republicanism began to rise in an ominous and +threatening way; and at the head of republicanism in Paris stood +forth Gambetta, with his impassioned eloquence, his stinging +phrases, and his youthful boldness. He became the idol of that +part of Paris known as Belleville, where artisans and laborers +united with the rabble of the streets in hating the empire and in +crying out for a republic. + +Gambetta was precisely the man to voice the feelings of these +people. Whatever polish he acquired in after years was then quite +lacking; and the crudity of his manners actually helped him with +the men whom he harangued. A recent book by M. Francis Laur, an +ardent admirer of Gambetta, gives a picture of the man which may +be nearly true of him in his later life, but which is certainly +too flattering when applied to Gambetta in 1868, at the age of +thirty. + +How do we see Gambetta as he was at thirty? A man of powerful +frame and of intense vitality, with thick, clustering hair, which +he shook as a lion shakes its mane; olive-skinned, with eyes that +darted fire, a resonant, sonorous voice, and a personal magnetism +which was instantly felt by all who met him or who heard him +speak. His manners were not refined. He was fond of oil and +garlic. His gestures were often more frantic than impressive, so +that his enemies called him "the furious fool." He had a trick of +spitting while he spoke. He was by no means the sort of man whose +habits had been formed in drawing-rooms or among people of good +breeding. Yet his oratory was, of its kind, superb. + +In 1869 Gambetta was elected by the Red Republicans to the Corps +Legislatif. From the very first his vehemence and fire gained him +a ready hearing. The chamber itself was arranged like a great +theater, the members occupying the floor and the public the +galleries. Each orator in addressing the house mounted a sort of +rostrum and from it faced the whole assemblage, not noticing, as +with us, the presiding officer at all. The very nature of this +arrangement stimulated parliamentary speaking into eloquence and +flamboyant oratory. + +After Gambetta had spoken a few times he noticed in the gallery a +tall, graceful woman, dressed in some neutral color and wearing +long black gloves, which accentuated the beauty of her hands and +arms. No one in the whole assembly paid such close attention to +the orator as did this woman, whom he had never seen before and +who appeared to be entirely alone. + +When it came to him to speak on another day he saw sitting in the +same place the same stately and yet lithe and sinuous figure. This +was repeated again and again, until at last whenever he came to a +peculiarly fervid burst of oratory he turned to this woman's face +and saw it lighted up by the same enthusiasm which was stirring +him. + +Finally, in the early part of 1870, there came a day when Gambetta +surpassed himself in eloquence. His theme was the grandeur of +republican government. Never in his life had he spoken so boldly +as then, or with such fervor. The ministers of the emperor shrank +back in dismay as this big-voiced, strong-limbed man hurled forth +sentence after sentence like successive peals of irresistible +artillery. + +As Gambetta rolled forth his sentences, superb in their rhetoric +and all ablaze with that sort of intense feeling which masters an +orator in the moment of his triumph, the face of the lady in the +gallery responded to him with wonderful appreciation. She was no +longer calm, unmoved, and almost severe. She flushed, and her eyes +as they met his seemed to sparkle with living fire. When he +finished and descended from the rostrum he looked at her, and +their eyes cried out as significantly as if the two had spoken to +each other. + +Then Gambetta did what a person of finer breeding would not have +done. He hastily scribbled a note, sealed it, and called to his +side one of the official pages. In the presence of the great +assemblage, where he was for the moment the center of attention, +he pointed to the lady in the gallery and ordered the page to take +the note to her. + +One may excuse this only on the ground that he was completely +carried away by his emotion, so that to him there was no one +present save this enigmatically fascinating woman and himself. But +the lady on her side was wiser; or perhaps a slight delay gave her +time to recover her discretion. When Gambetta's note was brought +to her she took it quietly and tore it into little pieces without +reading it; and then, rising, she glided through the crowd and +disappeared. + +Gambetta in his excitement had acted as if she were a mere +adventuress. With perfect dignity she had shown him that she was a +woman who retained her self-respect. + +Immediately upon the heels of this curious incident came the +outbreak of the war with Germany. In the war the empire was +shattered at Sedan. The republic was proclaimed in Paris. The +French capital was besieged by a vast German army. Gambetta was +made minister of the interior, and remained for a while in Paris +even after it had been blockaded. But his fiery spirit chafed +under such conditions. He longed to go forth into the south of +France and arouse his countrymen with a cry to arms against the +invaders. + +Escaping in a balloon, he safely reached the city of Tours; and +there he established what was practically a dictatorship. He flung +himself with tremendous energy into the task of organizing armies, +of equipping them, and of directing their movements for the relief +of Paris. He did, in fact, accomplish wonders. He kept the spirit +of the nation still alive. Three new armies were launched against +the Germans. Gambetta was everywhere and took part in everything +that was done. His inexperience in military affairs, coupled with +his impatience of advice, led him to make serious mistakes. +Nevertheless, one of his armies practically defeated the Germans +at Orleans; and could he have had his own way, even the fall of +Paris would not have ended the war. + +"Never," said Gambetta, "shall I consent to peace so long as +France still has two hundred thousand men under arms and more than +a thousand cannon to direct against the enemy!" + +But he was overruled by other and less fiery statesmen. Peace was +made, and Gambetta retired for a moment into private life. If he +had not succeeded in expelling the German hosts he had, at any +rate, made Bismarck hate him, and he had saved the honor of +France. + +It was while the National Assembly at Versailles was debating the +terms of peace with Germany that Gambetta once more delivered a +noble and patriotic speech. As he concluded he felt a strange +magnetic attraction; and, sweeping the audience with a glance, he +saw before him, not very far away, the same woman with the long +black gloves, having about her still an air of mystery, but again +meeting his eyes with her own, suffused with feeling. + +Gambetta hurried to an anteroom and hastily scribbled the +following note: + +At last I see you once more. Is it really you? + +The scrawl was taken to her by a discreet official, and this time +she received the letter, pressed it to her heart, and then slipped +it into the bodice of her gown. But this time, as before, she left +without making a reply. + +It was an encouragement, yet it gave no opening to Gambetta--for +she returned to the National Assembly no more. But now his heart +was full of hope, for he was convinced with a very deep conviction +that somewhere, soon, and in some way he would meet this woman, +who had become to him one of the intense realities of his life. He +did not know her name. They had never exchanged a word. Yet he was +sure that time would bring them close together. + +His intuition was unerring. What we call chance often seems to +know what it is doing. Within a year after the occurrence that has +just been narrated an old friend of Gambetta's met with an +accident which confined him to his house. The statesman strolled +to his friend's residence. The accident was a trifling one, and +the mistress of the house was holding a sort of informal +reception, answering questions that were asked her by the numerous +acquaintances who called. + +As Gambetta was speaking, of a sudden he saw before him, at the +extremity of the room, the lady of his dreams, the sphinx of his +waking hours, the woman who four years earlier had torn up the +note which he addressed to her, but who more recently had kept his +written words. Both of them were deeply agitated, yet both of them +carried off the situation without betraying themselves to others, +Gambetta approached, and they exchanged a few casual commonplaces. +But now, close together, eye and voice spoke of what was in their +hearts. + +Presently the lady took her leave. Gambetta followed closely. In +the street he turned to her and said in pleading tones: + +"Why did you destroy my letter? You knew I loved you, and yet all +these years you have kept away from me in silence." + +Then the girl--for she was little more than a girl--hesitated for +a moment. As he looked upon her face he saw that her eyes were +full of tears. At last she spoke with emotion: + +"You cannot love me, for I am unworthy of you. Do not urge me. Do +not make promises. Let us say good-by. At least I must first tell +you of my story, for I am one of those women whom no one ever +marries." + +Gambetta brushed aside her pleadings. He begged that he might see +her soon. Little by little she consented; but she would not see +him at her house. She knew that his enemies were many and that +everything he did would be used against him. In the end she agreed +to meet him in the park at Versailles, near the Petit Trianon, at +eight o'clock in the morning. + +When she had made this promise he left her. Already a new +inspiration had come to him, and he felt that with this woman by +his side he could accomplish anything. + +At the appointed hour, in the silence of the park and amid the +sunshine of the beautiful morning, the two met once again. +Gambetta seized her hands with eagerness and cried out in an +exultant tone: + +"At last! At last! At last!" + +But the woman's eyes were heavy with sorrow, and upon her face +there was a settled melancholy. She trembled at his touch and +almost shrank from him. Here was seen the impetuosity of the +meridional. He had first spoken to this woman only two days +before. He knew nothing of her station, of her surroundings, of +her character. He did not even know her name. Yet one thing he +knew absolutely--that she was made for him and that he must have +her for his own. He spoke at once of marriage; but at this she +drew away from him still farther. + +"No," she said. "I told you that you must not speak to me until +you have heard my story." + +He led her to a great stone bench near by; and, passing his arm +about her waist, he drew her head down to his shoulder as he said: + +"Well, tell me. I will listen." + +Then this girl of twenty-four, with perfect frankness, because she +was absolutely loyal, told him why she felt that they must never +see each other any more-much less marry and be happy. She was the +daughter of a colonel in the French army. The sudden death of her +father had left her penniless and alone. Coming to Paris at the +age of eighteen, she had given lessons in the household of a high +officer of the empire. This man had been attracted by her beauty, +and had seduced her. + +Later she had secured the means of living modestly, realizing more +deeply each month how dreadful had been her fate and how she had +been cut off from the lot of other girls. She felt that her life +must be a perpetual penance for what had befallen her through her +ignorance and inexperience. She told Gambetta that her name was +Leonie Leon. As is the custom of Frenchwomen who live alone, she +styled herself madame. It is doubtful whether the name by which +she passed was that which had been given to her at baptism; but, +if so, her true name has never been disclosed. + +When she had told the whole of her sad story to Gambetta he made +nothing of it. She said to him again: + +"You cannot love me. I should only dim your fame. You can have +nothing in common with a dishonored, ruined girl. That is what I +came here to explain to you. Let us part, and let us for all time +forget each other." + +But Gambetta took no heed of what she said. Now that he had found +her, he would not consent to lose her. He seized her slender hands +and covered them with kisses. Again he urged that she should marry +him. + +Her answer was a curious one. She was a devoted Catholic and would +not regard any marriage as valid save a religious marriage. On the +other hand, Gambetta, though not absolutely irreligious, was +leading the opposition to the Catholic party in France. The Church +to him was not so much a religious body as a political one, and to +it he was unalterably opposed. Personally, he would have no +objections to being married by a priest; but as a leader of the +anti-clerical party he felt that he must not recognize the +Church's claim in any way. A religious marriage would destroy his +influence with his followers and might even imperil the future of +the republic. + +They pleaded long and earnestly both then and afterward. He urged +a civil marriage, but she declared that only a marriage according +to the rites of the Church could ever purify her past and give her +back her self-respect. In this she was absolutely stubborn, yet +she did not urge upon Gambetta that he should destroy his +influence by marrying her in church. + +Through all this interplay of argument and pleading and emotion +the two grew every moment more hopelessly in love. Then the woman, +with a woman's curious subtlety and indirectness, reached a +somewhat singular conclusion. She would hear nothing of a civil +marriage, because a civil marriage was no marriage in the eyes of +Pope and prelate. On the other hand, she did not wish Gambetta to +mar his political career by going through a religious ceremony. +She had heard from a priest that the Church recognized two forms +of betrothal. The usual one looked to a marriage in the future and +gave no marriage privileges until after the formal ceremony. But +there was another kind of betrothal known to the theologians as +sponsalia de praesente. According to this, if there were an actual +betrothal, the pair might have the privileges and rights of +marriage immediately, if only they sincerely meant to be married +in the future. + +The eager mind of Leonie Leon caught at this bit of ecclesiastical +law and used it with great ingenuity. + +"Let us," she said, "be formally betrothed by the interchange of a +ring, and let us promise each other to marry in the future. After +such a betrothal as this we shall be the same as married; for we +shall be acting according to the laws of the Church." + +Gambetta gladly gave his promise. A betrothal ring was purchased; +and then, her conscience being appeased, she gave herself +completely to her lover. Gambetta was sincere. He said to her: + +"If the time should ever come when I shall lose my political +station, when I am beaten in the struggle, when I am deserted and +alone, will you not then marry me when I ask you?" + +And Leonie, with her arms about his neck, promised that she would. +Yet neither of them specified what sort of marriage this should +be, nor did it seem at the moment as if the question could arise. + +For Gambetta was very powerful. He led his party to success in the +election of 1877. Again and again his triumphant oratory mastered +the National Assembly of France. In 1879 he was chosen to be +president of the Chamber of Deputies. He towered far above the +president of the republic--Jules Grevy, that hard-headed, close- +fisted old peasant--and his star had reached its zenith. + +All this time he and Leonie Leon maintained their intimacy, though +it was carefully concealed save from a very few. She lived in a +plain but pretty house on the Avenue Perrichont in the quiet +quarter of Auteuil; but Gambetta never came there. Where and when +they met was a secret guarded very carefully by the few who were +his close associates. But meet they did continually, and their +affection grew stronger every year. Leonie thrilled at the +victories of the man she loved; and he found joy in the hours that +he spent with her. + +Gambetta's need of rest was very great, for he worked at the +highest tension, like an engine which is using every pound of +steam. Bismarck, whose spies kept him well informed of everything +that was happening in Paris, and who had no liking for Gambetta, +since the latter always spoke of him as "the Ogre," once said to a +Frenchman named Cheberry: + +"He is the only one among you who thinks of revenge, and who is +any sort of a menace to Germany. But, fortunately, he won't last +much longer. I am not speaking thoughtlessly. I know from secret +reports what sort of a life your great man leads, and I know his +habits. Why, his life is a life of continual overwork. He rests +neither night nor day. All politicians who have led the same life +have died young. To he able to serve one's country for a long time +a statesman must marry an ugly woman, have children like the rest +of the world, and a country place or a house to one's self like +any common peasant, where he can go and rest." + +The Iron Chancellor chuckled as he said this, and he was right. +And yet Gambetta's end came not so much through overwork as by an +accident. + +It may be that the ambition of Mme. Leon stimulated him beyond his +powers. However this may be, early in 1882, when he was defeated +in Parliament on a question which he considered vital, he +immediately resigned and turned his back on public life. His +fickle friends soon deserted him. His enemies jeered and hooted +the mention of his name. + +He had reached the time which with a sort of prophetic instinct he +had foreseen nearly ten years before. So he turned to the woman +who had been faithful and loving to him; and he turned to her with +a feeling of infinite peace. + +"You promised me," he said, "that if ever I was defeated and alone +you would marry me. The time is now." + +Then this man, who had exercised the powers of a dictator, who had +levied armies and shaken governments, and through whose hands +there had passed thousands of millions of francs, sought for a +country home. He found for sale a small estate which had once +belonged to Balzac, and which is known as Les Jardies. It was in +wretched repair; yet the small sum which it cost Gambetta--twelve +thousand francs--was practically all that he possessed. Worn and +weary as he was, it seemed to him a haven of delightful peace; for +here he might live in the quiet country with the still beautiful +woman who was soon to become his wife. + +It is not known what form of marriage they at last agreed upon. +She may have consented to a civil ceremony; or he, being now out +of public life, may have felt that he could be married by the +Church. The day for their wedding had been set, and Gambetta was +already at Les Jardies. But there came a rumor that he had been +shot. Still further tidings bore the news that he was dying. +Paris, fond as it was of scandals, immediately spread the tale +that he had been shot by a jealous woman. + +The truth is quite the contrary. Gambetta, in arranging his +effects in his new home, took it upon himself to clean a pair of +dueling-pistols; for every French politician of importance must +fight duels, and Gambetta had already done so. Unfortunately, one +cartridge remained unnoticed in the pistol which Gambetta cleaned. +As he held the pistol-barrel against the soft part of his hand the +cartridge exploded, and the ball passed through the base of the +thumb with a rending, spluttering noise. + +The wound was not in itself serious, but now the prophecy of +Bismarck was fulfilled. Gambetta had exhausted his vitality; a +fever set in, and before long he died of internal ulceration. + +This was the end of a great career and of a great romance of love. +Leonie Leon was half distraught at the death of the lover who was +so soon to be her husband. She wandered for hours in the forest +until she reached a convent, where she was received. Afterward she +came to Paris and hid herself away in a garret of the slums. All +the light of her life had gone out. She wished that she had died +with him whose glory had been her life. Friends of Gambetta, +however, discovered her and cared for her until her death, long +afterward, in 1906. + +She lived upon the memories of the past, of the swift love that +had come at first sight, but which had lasted unbrokenly; which +had given her the pride of conquest, and which had brought her +lover both happiness and inspiration and a refining touch which +had smoothed away his roughness and made him fit to stand in +palaces with dignity and distinction. + +As for him, he left a few lines which have been carefully +preserved, and which sum up his thought of her. They read: + +To the light of my soul; to the star, of my life--Leonie Leon. For +ever! For ever! + + + + + +LADY BLESSINGTON AND COUNT D'ORSAY + + +Often there has arisen some man who, either by his natural gifts +or by his impudence or by the combination of both, has made +himself a recognized leader in the English fashionable world. One +of the first of these men was Richard Nash, usually known as "Beau +Nash," who flourished in the eighteenth century. Nash was a man of +doubtful origin; nor was he attractive in his looks, for he was a +huge, clumsy creature with features that were both irregular and +harsh. Nevertheless, for nearly fifty years Beau Nash was an +arbiter of fashion. Goldsmith, who wrote his life, declared that +his supremacy was due to his pleasing manners, "his assiduity, +flattery, fine clothes, and as much wit as the ladies had whom he +addressed." He converted the town of Bath from a rude little +hamlet into an English Newport, of which he was the social +autocrat. He actually drew up a set of written rules which some of +the best-born and best-bred people follow slavishly. + +Even better known to us is George Bryan Brummel, commonly called +"Beau Brummel," who by his friendship with George IV.--then Prince +Regent--was an oracle at court on everything that related to dress +and etiquette and the proper mode of living. His memory has been +kept alive most of all by Richard Mansfield's famous impersonation +of him. The play is based upon the actual facts; for after Brummel +had lost the royal favor he died an insane pauper in the French +town of Caen. He, too, had a distinguished biographer, since +Bulwer-Lytton's novel Pelham is really the narrative of Brummel's +curious career. + +Long after Brummel, Lord Banelagh led the gilded youth of London, +and it was at this time that the notorious Lola Montez made her +first appearance in the British capital. + +These three men--Nash, Brummel, and Ranelagh--had the advantage of +being Englishmen, and, therefore, of not incurring the old-time +English suspicion of foreigners. A much higher type of social +arbiter was a Frenchman who for twenty years during the early part +of Queen Victoria's reign gave law to the great world of fashion, +besides exercising a definite influence upon English art and +literature. + +This was Count Albert Guillaume d'Orsay, the son of one of +Napoleon's generals, and descended by a morganatic marriage from +the King of Wurttemburg. The old general, his father, was a man of +high courage, impressive appearance, and keen intellect, all of +which qualities he transmitted to his son. The young Count +d'Orsay, when he came of age, found the Napoleonic era ended and +France governed by Louis XVIII. The king gave Count d'Orsay a +commission in the army in a regiment stationed at Valence in the +southeastern part of France. He had already visited England and +learned the English language, and he had made some distinguished +friends there, among whom were Lord Byron and Thomas Moore. + +On his return to France he began his garrison life at Valence, +where he showed some of the finer qualities of his character. It +is not merely that he was handsome and accomplished and that he +had the gift of winning the affections of those about him. Unlike +Nash and Brummel, he was a gentleman in every sense, and his +courtesy was of the highest kind. At the balls given by his +regiment, although he was more courted than any other officer, he +always sought out the plainest girls and showed them the most +flattering attentions. No "wallflowers" were left neglected when +D'Orsay was present. + +It is strange how completely human beings are in the hands of +fate. Here was a young French officer quartered in a provincial +town in the valley of the Rhone. Who would have supposed that he +was destined to become not only a Londoner, but a favorite at the +British court, a model of fashion, a dictator of etiquette, widely +known for his accomplishments, the patron of literary men and of +distinguished artists? But all these things were to come to pass +by a mere accident of fortune. + +During his firsts visit to London, which has already been +mentioned, Count d'Orsay was invited once or twice to receptions +given by the Earl and Countess of Blessington, where he was well +received, though this was only an incident of his English sojourn. +Before the story proceeds any further it is necessary to give an +account of the Earl and of Lady Blessington, since both of their +careers had been, to say the least, unusual. + +Lord Blessington was an Irish peer for whom an ancient title had +been revived. He was remotely descended from the Stuarts of +Scotland, and therefore had royal blood to boast of. He had been +well educated, and in many ways was a man of pleasing manner. On +the other hand, he had early inherited a very large property which +yielded him an income of about thirty thousand pounds a year. He +had estates in Ireland, and he owned nearly the whole of a +fashionable street in London, with the buildings erected on it. + +This fortune and the absence of any one who could control him had +made him wilful and extravagant and had wrought in him a curious +love of personal display. Even as a child he would clamor to be +dressed in the most gorgeous uniforms; and when he got possession +of his property his love of display became almost a monomania. He +built a theater as an adjunct to his country house in Ireland and +imported players from London and elsewhere to act in it. He loved +to mingle with the mummers, to try on their various costumes, and +to parade up and down, now as an oriental prince and now as a +Roman emperor. + +In London he hung about the green-rooms, and was a well-known +figure wherever actors or actresses were collected. Such was his +love of the stage that he sought to marry into the profession and +set his heart on a girl named Mary Campbell Browne, who was very +beautiful to look at, but who was not conspicuous either for her +mind or for her morals. When Lord Blessington proposed marriage to +her she was obliged to tell him that she already had one husband +still alive, but she was perfectly willing to live with him and +dispense with the marriage ceremony. So for several years she did +live with him and bore him two children. + +It speaks well for the earl that when the inconvenient husband +died a marriage at once took place and Mrs. Browne became a +countess. Then, after other children had been born, the lady died, +leaving the earl a widower at about the age of forty. The only +legitimate son born of this marriage followed his mother to the +grave; and so for the third time the earldom of Blessington seemed +likely to become extinct. The death of his wife, however, gave the +earl a special opportunity to display his extravagant tastes. He +spent more than four thousand pounds on the funeral ceremonies, +importing from France a huge black velvet catafalque which had +shortly before been used at the public funeral of Napoleon's +marshal, Duroc, while the house blazed with enormous wax tapers +and glittered with cloth of gold. + +Lord Blessington soon plunged again into the busy life of London. +Having now no heir, there was no restraint on his expenditures, +and he borrowed large sums of money in order to buy additional +estates and houses and to experience the exquisite joy of spending +lavishly. At this time he had his lands in Ireland, a town house +in St. James's Square, another in Seymour Place, and still another +which was afterward to become famous as Gore House, in Kensington. + +Some years before he had met in Ireland a lady called Mrs. Maurice +Farmer; and it happened that she now came to London. The earlier +story of her still young life must here be told, because her name +afterward became famous, and because the tale illustrates +wonderfully well the raw, crude, lawless period of the Regency, +when England was fighting her long war with Napoleon, when the +Prince Regent was imitating all the vices of the old French kings, +when prize-fighting, deep drinking, dueling, and dicing were +practised without restraint in all the large cities and towns of +the United Kingdom. It was, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has said, +"an age of folly and of heroism"; for, while it produced some of +the greatest black-guards known to history, it produced also such +men as Wellington and Nelson, the two Pitts, Sheridan, Byron, +Shelley, and Sir Walter Scott. + +Mrs. Maurice Farmer was the daughter of a small Irish landowner +named Robert Power--himself the incarnation of all the vices of +the time. There was little law in Ireland, not even that which +comes from public opinion; and Robert Power rode hard to hounds, +gambled recklessly, and assembled in his house all sorts of +reprobates, with whom he held frightful orgies that lasted from +sunset until dawn. His wife and his young daughters viewed him +with terror, and the life they led was a perpetual nightmare +because of the bestial carousings in which their father engaged, +wasting his money and mortgaging his estates until the end of his +wild career was in plain sight. + +There happened to be stationed at Clonmel a regiment of infantry +in which there served a captain named Maurice St. Leger Farmer. He +was a man of some means, but eccentric to a degree. His temper was +so utterly uncontrolled that even his fellow officers could +scarcely live with him, and he was given to strange caprices. It +happened that at a ball in Clonmel he met the young daughter of +Robert Power, then a mere child of fourteen years. Captain Farmer +was seized with an infatuation for the girl, and he went almost at +once to her father, asking for her hand in marriage and proposing +to settle a sum of money upon her if she married him. + +The hard-riding squireen jumped at the offer. His own estate was +being stripped bare. Here was a chance to provide for one of his +daughters, or, rather, to get rid of her, and he agreed that she +should be married out of hand. Going home, he roughly informed the +girl that she was to be the wife of Captain Farmer. He so bullied +his wife that she was compelled to join him in this command. + +What was poor little Margaret Power to do? She was only a child. +She knew nothing of the world. She was accustomed to obey her +father as she would have obeyed some evil genius who had her in +his power. There were tears and lamentations. She was frightened +half to death; yet for her there was no help. Therefore, while not +yet fifteen her marriage took place, and she was the unhappy slave +of a half-crazy tyrant. She had then no beauty whatsoever. She was +wholly undeveloped--thin and pale, and with rough hair that fell +over her frightened eyes; yet Farmer wanted her, and he settled +his money on her, just as he would have spent the same amount to +gratify any other sudden whim. + +The life she led with him for a few months showed him to be more +of a devil than a man. He took a peculiar delight in terrifying +her, in subjecting her to every sort of outrage; nor did he +refrain even from beating her with his fists. The girl could stand +a great deal, but this was too much. She returned to her father's +house, where she was received with the bitterest reproaches, but +where, at least, she was safe from harm, since her possession of a +dowry made her a person of some small importance. + +Not long afterward Captain Farmer fell into a dispute with his +colonel, Lord Caledon, and in the course of it he drew his sword +on his commanding officer. The court-martial which was convened to +try him would probably have had him shot were it not for the very +general belief that he was insane. So he was simply cashiered and +obliged to leave the service and betake himself elsewhere. Thus +the girl whom, he had married was quite free--free to leave her +wretched home and even to leave Ireland. + +She did leave Ireland and establish herself in London, where she +had some acquaintances, among them the Earl of Blessington. As +already said, he had met her in Ireland while she was living with +her husband; and now from time to time he saw her in a friendly +way. After the death of his wife he became infatuated with +Margaret Farmer. She was a good deal alone, and his attentions +gave her entertainment. Her past experience led her to have no +real belief in love. She had become, however, in a small way +interested in literature and art, with an eager ambition to be +known as a writer. As it happened, Captain Farmer, whose name she +bore, had died some months before Lord Blessington had decided to +make a new marriage. The earl proposed to Margaret Farmer, and the +two were married by special license. + +The Countess of Blessington--to give the lady her new title--was +now twenty-eight years of age and had developed into a woman of +great beauty. She was noted for the peculiarly vivacious and +radiant expression which was always on her face. She had a kind of +vivid loveliness accompanied by grace, simplicity, and a form of +exquisite proportions. The ugly duckling had become a swan, for +now there was no trace of her former plainness to be seen. + +Not yet in her life had love come to her. Her first husband had +been thrust upon her and had treated her outrageously. Her second +husband was much older than she; and, though she was not without a +certain kindly feeling for one who had been kind to her, she +married him, first of all, for his title and position. + +Having been reared in poverty, she had no conception of the value +of money; and, though the earl was remarkably extravagant, the new +countess was even more so. One after another their London houses +were opened and decorated with the utmost lavishness. They gave +innumerable entertainments, not only to the nobility and to men of +rank, but--because this was Lady Blessington's peculiar fad--to +artists and actors and writers of all degrees. The American, N. P. +Willis, in his Pencilings by the Way, has given an interesting +sketch of the countess and her surroundings, while the younger +Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) has depicted D'Orsay as Count Mirabel +in Henrietta Temple. Willis says: + +In a long library, lined alternately with splendidly bound books +and mirrors, and with a deep window of the breadth of the room +opening upon Hyde Park, I found Lady Blessington alone. The +picture, to my eye, as the door opened, was a very lovely one--a +woman of remarkable beauty, half buried in a fauteuil of yellow +satin, reading by a magnificent lamp suspended from the center of +the arched ceiling. Sofas, couches, ottomans, and busts, arranged +in rather a crowded sumptuousness through the room; enameled +tables, covered with expensive and elegant trifles in every +corner, and a delicate white hand in relief on the back of a book, +to which the eye was attracted by the blaze of diamond rings. + +All this "crowded sumptuousness" was due to the taste of Lady +Blessington. Amid it she received royal dukes, statesmen such as +Palmerston, Canning, Castlereagh, Russell, and Brougham, actors +such as Kemble and Matthews, artists such as Lawrence and Wilkie, +and men of letters such as Moore, Bulwer-Lytton, and the two +Disraelis. To maintain this sort of life Lord Blessington raised +large amounts of money, totaling about half a million pounds +sterling, by mortgaging his different estates and giving his +promissory notes to money-lenders. Of course, he did not spend +this vast sum immediately. He might have lived in comparative +luxury upon his income; but he was a restless, eager, improvident +nobleman, and his extravagances were prompted by the urgings of +his wife. + +In all this display, which Lady Blessington both stimulated and +shared, there is to be found a psychological basis. She was now +verging upon the thirties--a time which is a very critical period +in a woman's emotional life, if she has not already given herself +over to love and been loved in return. During Lady Blessington's +earlier years she had suffered in many ways, and it is probable +that no thought of love had entered her mind. She was only too +glad if she could escape from the harshness of her father and the +cruelty of her first husband. Then came her development into a +beautiful woman, content for the time to be languorously stagnant +and to enjoy the rest and peace which had come to her. + +When she married Lord Blessington her love life had not yet +commenced; and, in fact, there could be no love life in such a +marriage--a marriage with a man much older than herself, scatter- +brained, showy, and having no intellectual gifts. So for a time +she sought satisfaction in social triumphs, in capturing political +and literary lions in order to exhibit them in her salon, and in +spending money right and left with a lavish hand. But, after all, +in a woman of her temperament none of these things could satisfy +her inner longings. Beautiful, full of Celtic vivacity, +imaginative and eager, such a nature as hers would in the end be +starved unless her heart should be deeply touched and unless all +her pent-up emotion could give itself up entirely in the great +surrender. + +After a few years of London she grew restless and dissatisfied. +Her surroundings wearied her. There was a call within her for +something more than she had yet experienced. The earl, her +husband, was by nature no less restless; and so, without knowing +the reason--which, indeed, she herself did not understand--he +readily assented to a journey on the Continent. + +As they traveled southward they reached at length the town of +Valence, where Count d'Orsay was still quartered with his +regiment. A vague, indefinable feeling of attraction swept over +this woman, who was now a woman of the world and yet quite +inexperienced in affairs relating to the heart. The mere sound of +the French officer's voice, the mere sight of his face, the mere +knowledge of his presence, stirred her as nothing had ever stirred +her until that time. Yet neither he nor she appears to have been +conscious at once of the secret of their liking. It was enough +that they were soothed and satisfied with each other's company. + +Oddly enough, the Earl of Blessington became as devoted to D'Orsay +as did his wife. The two urged the count to secure a leave of +absence and to accompany them to Italy. This he was easily +persuaded to do; and the three passed weeks and months of a +languorous and alluring intercourse among the lakes and the +seductive influence of romantic Italy. Just what passed between +Count d'Orsay and Margaret Blessington at this time cannot be +known, for the secret of it has perished with them; but it is +certain that before very long they came to know that each was +indispensable to the other. + +The situation was complicated by the Earl of Blessington, who, +entirely unsuspicious, proposed that the Count should marry Lady +Harriet Gardiner, his eldest legitimate daughter by his first +wife. He pressed the match upon the embarrassed D'Orsay, and +offered to settle the sum of forty thousand pounds upon the bride. +The girl was less than fifteen years of age. She had no gifts +either of beauty or of intelligence; and, in addition, D'Orsay was +now deeply in love with her stepmother. + +On the other hand, his position with the Blessingtons was daily +growing more difficult. People had begun to talk of the almost +open relations between Count d'Orsay and Lady Blessington. Lord +Byron, in a letter written to the countess, spoke to her openly +and in a playful way of "YOUR D'Orsay." The manners and morals of +the time were decidedly irregular; yet sooner or later the earl +was sure to gain some hint of what every one was saying. +Therefore, much against his real desire, yet in order to shelter +his relations with Lady Blessington, D'Orsay agreed to the +marriage with Lady Harriet, who was only fifteen years of age. + +This made the intimacy between D'Orsay and the Blessingtons appear +to be not unusual; but, as a matter of fact, the marriage was no +marriage. The unattractive girl who had become a bride merely to +hide the indiscretions of her stepmother was left entirely to +herself; while the whole family, returning to London, made their +home together in Seymour Place. + +Could D'Orsay have foreseen the future he would never have done +what must always seem an act so utterly unworthy of him. For +within two years Lord Blessington fell ill and died. Had not +D'Orsay been married he would now have been free to marry Lady +Blessington. As it was, he was bound fast to her stepdaughter; and +since at that time there was no divorce court in England, and +since he had no reason for seeking a divorce, he was obliged to +live on through many years in a most ambiguous situation. He did, +however, separate himself from his childish bride; and, having +done so, he openly took up his residence with Lady Blessington at +Gore House. By this time, however, the companionship of the two +had received a sort of general sanction, and in that easy-going +age most people took it as a matter of course. + +The two were now quite free to live precisely as they would. Lady +Blessington became extravagantly happy, and Count d'Orsay was +accepted in London as an oracle of fashion. Every one was eager to +visit Gore House, and there they received all the notable men of +the time. The improvidence of Lady Blessington, however, was in no +respect diminished. She lived upon her jointure, recklessly +spending capital as well as interest, and gathering under her roof +a rare museum of artistic works, from jewels and curios up to +magnificent pictures and beautiful statuary. + +D'Orsay had sufficient self-respect not to live upon the money +that had come to Lady Blessington from her husband. He was a +skilful painter, and he practised his art in a professional way. +His portrait of the Duke of Wellington was preferred by that +famous soldier to any other that had been made of him. The Iron +Duke was, in fact, a frequent visitor at Gore House, and he had a +very high opinion of Count d'Orsay. Lady Blessington herself +engaged in writing novels of "high life," some of which were very +popular in their day. But of all that she wrote there remains only +one book which is of permanent value--her Conversations with Lord +Byron, a very valuable contribution to our knowledge of the +brilliant poet. + +But a nemesis was destined to overtake the pair. Money flowed +through Lady Blessington's hands like water, and she could never +be brought to understand that what she had might not last for +ever. Finally, it was all gone, yet her extravagance continued. +Debts were heaped up mountain-high. She signed notes of hand +without even reading them. She incurred obligations of every sort +without a moment's hesitation. + +For a long time her creditors held aloof, not believing that her +resources were in reality exhausted; but in the end there came a +crash as sudden as it was ruinous. As if moved by a single +impulse, those to whom she owed money took out judgments against +her and descended upon Gore House in a swarm. This was in the +spring of 1849, when Lady Blessington was in her sixtieth year and +D'Orsay fifty-one. + +It is a curious coincidence that her earliest novel had portrayed +the wreck of a great establishment such as her own. Of the scene +in Gore House Mr. Madden, Lady Blessington's literary biographer, +has written: + +Numerous creditors, bill-discounters, money-lenders, jewelers, +lace-venders, tax-collectors, gas-company agents, all persons +having claims to urge pressed them at this period simultaneously. +An execution for a debt of four thousand pounds was at length put +in by a house largely engaged in the silk, lace, India-shawl, and +fancy-jewelry business. + +This sum of four thousand pounds was only a nominal claim, but it +opened the flood-gates for all of Lady Blessington's creditors. +Mr. Madden writes still further: + +On the 10th of May, 1849, I visited Gore House for the last time. +The auction was going on. There was a large assemblage of people +of fashion. Every room was thronged; the well-known library-salon, +in which the conversaziones took place, was crowded, but not with +guests. The arm-chair in which the lady of the mansion was wont to +sit was occupied by a stout, coarse gentleman of the Jewish +persuasion, busily engaged in examining a marble hand extended on +a book, the fingers of which were modeled from a cast of those of +the absent mistress of the establishment. People, as they passed +through the room, poked the furniture, pulled about the precious +objects of art and ornaments of various kinds that lay on the +table; and some made jests and ribald jokes on the scene they +witnessed. + +At this compulsory sale things went for less than half their +value. Pictures by Lawrence and Landseer, a library consisting of +thousands of volumes, vases of exquisite workmanship, chandeliers +of ormolu, and precious porcelains--all were knocked down +relentlessly at farcical prices. Lady Blessington reserved nothing +for herself. She knew that the hour had struck, and very soon she +was on her way to Paris, whither Count d'Orsay had already gone, +having been threatened with arrest by a boot-maker to whom he owed +five hundred pounds. + +D'Orsay very naturally went to Paris, for, like his father, he had +always been an ardent Bonapartist, and now Prince Louis Bonaparte +had been chosen president of the Second French Republic. During +the prince's long period of exile he had been the guest of Count +d'Orsay, who had helped him both with money and with influence. +D'Orsay now expected some return for his former generosity. It +came, but it came too late. In 1852, shortly after Prince Louis +assumed the title of emperor, the count was appointed director of +fine arts; but when the news was brought to him he was already +dying. Lady Blessington died soon after coming to Paris, before +the end of the year 1849. + +Comment upon this tangled story is scarcely needed. Yet one may +quote some sayings from a sort of diary which Lady Blessington +called her "Night Book." They seem to show that her supreme +happiness lasted only for a little while, and that deep down in +her heart she had condemned herself. + +A woman's head is always influenced by her heart; but a man's +heart is always influenced by his head. + +The separation of friends by death is less terrible than the +divorce of two hearts that have loved, but have ceased to +sympathize, while memory still recalls what they once were to each +other. + +People are seldom tired of the world until the world is tired of +them. + +A woman should not paint sentiment until she has ceased to inspire +it. + +It is less difficult for a woman to obtain celebrity by her genius +than to be pardoned for it. + +Memory seldom fails when its office is to show us the tombs of our +buried hopes. + + + + + +BYRON AND THE COUNTESS GUICCIOLI + + +In 1812, when he was in his twenty-fourth year, Lord Byron was +more talked of than any other man in London. He was in the first +flush of his brilliant career, having published the early cantos +of "Childe Harold." Moreover, he was a peer of the realm, +handsome, ardent, and possessing a personal fascination which few +men and still fewer women could resist. + +Byron's childhood had been one to excite in him strong feelings of +revolt, and he had inherited a profligate and passionate nature. +His father was a gambler and a spendthrift. His mother was +eccentric to a degree. Byron himself, throughout his boyish years, +had been morbidly sensitive because of a physical deformity--a +lame, misshapen foot. This and the strange treatment which his +mother accorded him left him headstrong, wilful, almost from the +first an enemy to whatever was established and conventional. + +As a boy, he was remarkable for the sentimental attachments which +he formed. At eight years of age he was violently in love with a +young girl named Mary Duff. At ten his cousin, Margaret Parker, +excited in him a strange, un-childish passion. At fifteen came one +of the greatest crises of his life, when he became enamored of +Mary Chaworth, whose grand-father had been killed in a duel by +Byron's great-uncle. Young as he was, he would have married her +immediately; but Miss Chaworth was two years older than he, and +absolutely refused to take seriously the devotion of a school-boy. + +Byron felt the disappointment keenly; and after a short stay at +Cambridge, he left England, visited Portugal and Spain, and +traveled eastward as far as Greece and Turkey. At Athens he wrote +the pretty little poem to the "maid of Athens"--Miss Theresa +Macri, daughter of the British vice-consul. He returned to London +to become at one leap the most admired poet of the day and the +greatest social favorite. He was possessed of striking personal +beauty. Sir Walter Scott said of him: "His countenance was a thing +to dream of." His glorious eyes, his mobile, eloquent face, +fascinated all; and he was, besides, a genius of the first rank. + +With these endowments, he plunged into the social whirlpool, +denying himself nothing, and receiving everything-adulation, +friendship, and unstinted love. Darkly mysterious stories of his +adventures in the East made many think that he was the hero of +some of his own poems, such as "The Giaour" and "The Corsair." A +German wrote of him that "he was positively besieged by women." +From the humblest maid-servants up to ladies of high rank, he had +only to throw his handkerchief to make a conquest. Some women did +not even wait for the handkerchief to be thrown. No wonder that he +was sated with so much adoration and that he wrote of women: + +I regard them as very pretty but inferior creatures. I look on +them as grown-up children; but, like a foolish mother, I am +constantly the slave of one of them. Give a woman a looking-glass +and burnt almonds, and she will be content. + +The liaison which attracted the most attention at this time was +that between Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb. Byron has been greatly +blamed for his share in it; but there is much to be said on the +other side. Lady Caroline was happily married to the Right Hon. +William Lamb, afterward Lord Melbourne, and destined to be the +first prime minister of Queen Victoria. He was an easy-going, +genial man of the world who placed too much confidence in the +honor of his wife. She, on the other hand, was a sentimental fool, +always restless, always in search of some new excitement. She +thought herself a poet, and scribbled verses, which her friends +politely admired, and from which they escaped as soon as possible. +When she first met Byron, she cried out: "That pale face is my +fate!" And she afterward added: "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know!" + +It was not long before the intimacy of the two came very near the +point of open scandal; but Byron was the wooed and not the wooer. +This woman, older than he, flung herself directly at his head. +Naturally enough, it was not very long before she bored him +thoroughly. Her romantic impetuosity became tiresome, and very +soon she fell to talking always of herself, thrusting her poems +upon him, and growing vexed and peevish when he would not praise +them. As was well said, "he grew moody and she fretful when their +mutual egotisms jarred." + +In a burst of resentment she left him, but when she returned, she +was worse than ever. She insisted on seeing him. On one occasion +she made her way into his rooms disguised as a boy. At another +time, when she thought he had slighted her, she tried to stab +herself with a pair of scissors. Still later, she offered her +favors to any one who would kill him. Byron himself wrote of her: + +You can have no idea of the horrible and absurd things that she +has said and done. + +Her story has been utilized by Mrs. Humphry Ward in her novel, +"The Marriage of William Ashe." + +Perhaps this trying experience led Byron to end his life of +dissipation. At any rate, in 1813, he proposed marriage to Miss +Anne Millbanke, who at first refused him; but he persisted, and in +1815 the two were married. Byron seems to have had a premonition +that he was making a terrible mistake. During the wedding ceremony +he trembled like a leaf, and made the wrong responses to the +clergyman. After the wedding was over, in handing his bride into +the carriage which awaited them, he said to her: + +"Miss Millbanke, are you ready?" + +It was a strange blunder for a bridegroom, and one which many +regarded at the time as ominous for the future. In truth, no two +persons could have been more thoroughly mismated--Byron, the human +volcano, and his wife, a prim, narrow-minded, and peevish woman. +Their incompatibility was evident enough from the very first, so +that when they returned from their wedding-journey, and some one +asked Byron about his honeymoon, he answered: + +"Call it rather a treacle moon!" + +It is hardly necessary here to tell over the story of their +domestic troubles. Only five weeks after their daughter's birth, +they parted. Lady Byron declared that her husband was insane; +while after trying many times to win from her something more than +a tepid affection, he gave up the task in a sort of despairing +anger. It should be mentioned here, for the benefit of those who +recall the hideous charges made many decades afterward by Mrs. +Harriet Beecher Stowe on the authority of Lady Byron, that the +latter remained on terms of friendly intimacy with Augusta Leigh, +Lord Byron's sister, and that even on her death-bed she sent an +amicable message to Mrs. Leigh. + +Byron, however, stung by the bitter attacks that were made upon +him, left England, and after traveling down the Rhine through +Switzerland, he took up his abode in Venice. His joy at leaving +England and ridding himself of the annoyances which had clustered +thick about him, he expressed in these lines: + + Once more upon the waters! yet once more! + And the waves bound beneath me as a steed + That knows his rider. Welcome to the roar! + +Meanwhile he enjoyed himself in reckless fashion. Money poured in +upon him from his English publisher. For two cantos of "Childe +Harold" and "Manfred," Murray paid him twenty thousand dollars. +For the fourth canto, Byron demanded and received more than twelve +thousand dollars. In Italy he lived on friendly terms with Shelley +and Thomas Moore; but eventually he parted from them both, for he +was about to enter upon a new phase of his curious career. + +He was no longer the Byron of 1815. Four years of high living and +much brandy-and-water had robbed his features of their refinement. +His look was no longer spiritual. He was beginning to grow stout. +Yet the change had not been altogether unfortunate. He had lost +something of his wild impetuosity, and his sense of humor had +developed. In his thirtieth year, in fact, he had at last become a +man. + +It was soon after this that he met a woman who was to be to him +for the rest of his life what a well-known writer has called "a +star on the stormy horizon of the poet." This woman was Teresa, +Countess Guiccioli, whom he first came to know in Venice. She was +then only nineteen years of age, and she was married to a man who +was more than forty years her senior. Unlike the typical Italian +woman, she was blonde, with dreamy eyes and an abundance of golden +hair, and her manner was at once modest and graceful. She had +known Byron but a very short time when she found herself thrilling +with a passion of which until then she had never dreamed. It was +written of her: + +She had thought of love but as an amusement; yet she now became +its slave. + +To this love Byron gave an immediate response, and from that time +until his death he cared for no other woman. The two were +absolutely mated. Nevertheless, there were difficulties which +might have been expected. Count Guiccioli, while he seemed to +admire Byron, watched him with Italian subtlety. The English poet +and the Italian countess met frequently. When Byron was prostrated +by an attack of fever, the countess remained beside him, and he +was just recovering when Count Guiccioli appeared upon the scene +and carried off his wife. Byron was in despair. He exchanged the +most ardent letters with the countess, yet he dreaded assassins +whom he believed to have been hired by her husband. Whenever he +rode out, he went armed with sword and pistols. + +Amid all this storm and stress, Byron's literary activity was +remarkable. He wrote some of his most famous poems at this time, +and he hoped for the day when he and the woman whom he loved might +be united once for all. This came about in the end through the +persistence of the pair. The Countess Guiccioli openly took up her +abode with him, not to be separated until the poet sailed for +Greece to aid the Greeks in their struggle for independence. This +was in 1822, when Byron was in his thirty-fifth year. He never +returned to Italy, but died in the historic land for which he gave +his life as truly as if he had fallen upon the field of battle. + +Teresa Guiccioli had been, in all but name, his wife for just +three years. Much, has been said in condemnation of this love- +affair; but in many ways it is less censurable than almost +anything in his career. It was an instance of genuine love, a love +which purified and exalted this man of dark and moody moments. It +saved him from those fitful passions and orgies of self-indulgence +which had exhausted him. It proved to be an inspiration which at +last led him to die for a cause approved by all the world. + +As for the woman, what shall we say of her? She came to him +unspotted by the world. A demand for divorce which her husband +made was rejected. A pontifical brief pronounced a formal +separation between the two. The countess gladly left behind "her +palaces, her equipages, society, and riches, for the love of the +poet who had won her heart." + +Unlike the other women who had cared for him, she was unselfish in +her devotion. She thought more of his fame than did he himself. +Emilio Castelar has written: + +She restored him and elevated him. She drew him from the mire and +set the crown of purity upon his brow. Then, when she had +recovered this great heart, instead of keeping it as her own +possession, she gave it to humanity. + +For twenty-seven years after Byron's death, she remained, as it +were, widowed and alone. Then, in her old age, she married the +Marquis de Boissy; but the marriage was purely one of convenience. +Her heart was always Byron's, whom she defended with vivacity. In +1868, she published her memoirs of the poet, filled with +interesting and affecting recollections. She died as late as 1873. + +Some time between the year 1866 and that of her death, she is said +to have visited Newstead Abbey, which had once been Byron's home. +She was very old, a widow, and alone; but her affection for the +poet-lover of her youth was still as strong as ever. + +Byron's life was short, if measured by years only. Measured by +achievement, it was filled to the very full. His genius blazes +like a meteor in the records of English poetry; and some of that +splendor gleams about the lovely woman who turned him away from +vice and folly and made him worthy of his historic ancestry, of +his country, and of himself. + + + + + +THE STORY OF MME. DE STAEL + + +Each century, or sometimes each generation, is distinguished by +some especial interest among those who are given to fancies--not +to call them fads. Thus, at the present time, the cultivated few +are taken up with what they choose to term the "new thought," or +the "new criticism," or, on the other hand, with socialistic +theories and projects. Thirty years ago, when Oscar Wilde was +regarded seriously by some people, there were many who made a cult +of estheticism. It was just as interesting when their leader-- + + Walked down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily + In his medieval hand, + +or when Sir William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan guyed him as +Bunthorne in "Patience." + +When Charles Kingsley was a great expounder of British common +sense, "muscular Christianity" was a phrase which was taken up by +many followers. A little earlier, Puseyism and a primitive form of +socialism were in vogue with the intellectuals. There are just as +many different fashions in thought as in garments, and they come +and go without any particular reason. To-day, they are discussed +and practised everywhere. To-morrow, they are almost forgotten in +the rapid pursuit of something new. + +Forty years before the French Revolution burst forth with all its +thunderings, France and Germany were affected by what was +generally styled "sensibility." Sensibility was the sister of +sentimentality and the half-sister of sentiment. Sentiment is a +fine thing in itself. It is consistent with strength and humor and +manliness; but sentimentality and sensibility are poor cheeping +creatures that run scuttering along the ground, quivering and +whimpering and asking for perpetual sympathy, which they do not at +all deserve. + +No one need be ashamed of sentiment. It simply gives temper to the +blade, and mellowness to the intellect. Sensibility, on the other +hand, is full of shivers and shakes and falsetto notes and +squeaks. It is, in fact, all humbug, just as sentiment is often +all truth. + +Therefore, to find an interesting phase of human folly, we may +look back to the years which lie between 1756 and 1793 as the era +of sensibility. The great prophets of this false god, or goddess, +were Rousseau in France and Goethe with Schiller in Germany, +together with a host of midgets who shook and shivered in +imitation of their masters. It is not for us to catalogue these +persons. Some of them were great figures in literature and +philosophy, and strong enough to shake aside the silliness of +sensibility; but others, while they professed to be great as +writers or philosophers, are now remembered only because their +devotion to sensibility made them conspicuous in their own time. +They dabbled in one thing and another; they "cribbed" from every +popular writer of the day. The only thing that actually belonged +to them was a high degree of sensibility. + +And what, one may ask, was this precious thing--this sensibility? + +It was really a sort of St. Vitus's dance of the mind, and almost +of the body. When two persons, in any way interested in each +other, were brought into the same room, one of them appeared to be +seized with a rotary movement. The voice rose to a higher pitch +than usual, and assumed a tremolo. Then, if the other person was +also endowed with sensibility, he or she would rotate and quake in +somewhat the same manner. Their cups of tea would be considerably +agitated. They would move about in as unnatural a manner as +possible; and when they left the room, they would do so with +gaspings and much waste of breath. + +This was not an exhibition of love--or, at least, not necessarily +so. You might exhibit sensibility before a famous poet, or a +gallant soldier, or a celebrated traveler--or, for that matter, +before a remarkable buffoon, like Cagliostro, or a freak, like +Kaspar Hauser. + +It is plain enough that sensibility was entirely an abnormal +thing, and denoted an abnormal state of mind. Only among people +like the Germans and French of that period, who were forbidden to +take part in public affairs, could it have flourished so long, and +have put forth such rank and fetid outgrowths. From it sprang the +"elective affinities" of Goethe, and the loose morality of the +French royalists, which rushed on into the roaring sea of +infidelity, blasphemy, and anarchy of the Revolution. + +Of all the historic figures of that time, there is just one which +to-day stands forth as representing sensibility. In her own time +she was thought to be something of a philosopher, and something +more of a novelist. She consorted with all the clever men and +women of her age. But now she holds a minute niche in history +because of the fact that Napoleon stooped to hate her, and because +she personifies sensibility. + +Criticism has stripped from her the rags and tatters of the +philosophy which was not her own. It is seen that she was indebted +to the brains of others for such imaginative bits of fiction as +she put forth in Delphine and Corinne; but as the exponent of +sensibility she remains unique. This woman was Anne Louise +Germaine Necker, usually known as Mme. de Stael. + +There was much about Mile. Necker's parentage that made her +interesting. Her father was the Genevese banker and minister of +Louis XVI, who failed wretchedly in his attempts to save the +finances of France. Her mother, Suzanne Curchod, as a young girl, +had won the love of the famous English historian, Edward Gibbon. +She had first refused him, and then almost frantically tried to +get him back; but by this time Gibbon was more comfortable in +single life and less infatuated with Mlle. Curchod, who presently +married Jacques Necker. + +M. Necker's money made his daughter a very celebrated "catch." Her +mother brought her to Paris when the French capital was brilliant +beyond description, and yet was tottering to its fall. The +rumblings of the Revolution could be heard by almost every ear; +and yet society and the court, refusing to listen, plunged into +the wildest revelry under the leadership of the giddy Marie +Antoinette. + +It was here that the young girl was initiated into the most +elegant forms of luxury, and met the cleverest men of that time-- +Voltaire, Rousseau, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Volney. She set +herself to be the most accomplished woman of her day, not merely +in belles lettres, but in the natural and political sciences. +Thus, when her father was drawing up his monograph on the French +finances, Germaine labored hard over a supplementary report, +studying documents, records, and the most complicated statistics, +so that she might obtain a mastery of the subject. + +"I mean to know everything that anybody knows," she said, with an +arrogance which was rather admired in so young a woman. + +But, unfortunately, her mind was not great enough to fulfil her +aspiration. The most she ever achieved was a fair knowledge of +many things--a knowledge which seemed surprising to the average +man, but which was superficial enough to the accomplished +specialist. + +In her twentieth year (1786) it was thought best that she should +marry. Her revels, as well as her hard studies, had told upon her +health, and her mother believed that she could not be at once a +blue-stocking and a woman of the world. + +There was something very odd about the relation that existed +between the young girl and this mother of hers. In the Swiss +province where they had both been born, the mother had been +considered rather bold and forward. Her penchant for Gibbon was +only one of a number of adventures that have been told about her. +She was by no means coy with the gallants of Geneva. Yet, after +her marriage, and when she came to Paris, she seemed to be +transformed into a sort of Swiss Puritan. + +As such, she undertook her daughter's bringing up, and was +extremely careful about everything that Germaine did and about the +company she kept. On the other hand, the daughter, who in the city +of Calvin had been rather dull and quiet in her ways, launched out +into a gaiety such as she had never known in Switzerland. Mother +and daughter, in fact, changed parts. The country beauty of Geneva +became the prude of Paris, while the quiet, unemotional young +Genevese became the light of all the Parisian salons, whether +social or intellectual. + +The mother was a very beautiful woman. The daughter, who was to +become so famous, is best described by those two very +uncomplimentary English words, "dumpy" and "frumpy." She had +bulging eyes--which are not emphasized in the flattering portrait +by Gerard--and her hair was unbecomingly dressed. There are +reasons for thinking that Germaine bitterly hated her mother, and +was intensely jealous of her charm of person. It may be also that +Mme. Necker envied the daughter's cleverness, even though that +cleverness was little more, in the end, than the borrowing of +brilliant things from other persons. At any rate, the two never +cared for each other, and Germaine gave to her father the +affection which her mother neither received nor sought. + +It was perhaps to tame the daughter's exuberance that a marriage +was arranged for Mlle. Necker with the Baron de Stael-Holstein, +who then represented the court of Sweden at Paris. Many eyebrows +were lifted when this match was announced. Baron de Stael had no +personal charm, nor any reputation for wit. His standing in the +diplomatic corps was not very high. His favorite occupations were +playing cards and drinking enormous quantities of punch. Could he +be considered a match for the extremely clever Mlle. Necker, whose +father had an enormous fortune, and who was herself considered a +gem of wit and mental power, ready to discuss political economy, +or the romantic movement of socialism, or platonic love? + +Many differed about this. Mlle. Necker was, to be sure, rich and +clever; but the Baron de Stael was of an old family, and had a +title. Moreover, his easy-going ways--even his punch-drinking and +his card-playing--made him a desirable husband at that time of +French social history, when the aristocracy wished to act exactly +as it pleased, with wanton license, and when an embassy was a very +convenient place into which an indiscreet ambassadress might +retire when the mob grew dangerous. For Paris was now approaching +the time of revolution, and all "aristocrats" were more or less in +danger. + +At first Mme. de Stael rather sympathized with the outbreak of the +people; but later their excesses drove her back into sympathy with +the royalists. It was then that she became indiscreet and abused +the privilege of the embassy in giving shelter to her friends. She +was obliged to make a sudden flight across the frontier, whence +she did not return until Napoleon loomed up, a political giant on +the horizon--victorious general, consul, and emperor. + +Mme. de Stael's relations with Napoleon have, as I remarked above, +been among her few titles to serious remembrance. The Corsican +eagle and the dumpy little Genevese make, indeed, a peculiar pair; +and for this reason writers have enhanced the oddities of the +picture. + +"Napoleon," says one, "did not wish any one to be near him who was +as clever as himself." + +"No," adds another, "Mme. de Stael made a dead set at Napoleon, +because she wished to conquer and achieve the admiration of +everybody, even of the greatest man who ever lived." + +"Napoleon found her to be a good deal of a nuisance," observes a +third. "She knew too much, and was always trying to force her +knowledge upon others." + +The legend has sprung up that Mme. de Stael was too wise and witty +to be acceptable to Napoleon; and many women repeated with unction +that the conqueror of Europe was no match for this frowsy little +woman. It is, perhaps, worth while to look into the facts, and to +decide whether Napoleon was really of so petty a nature as to feel +himself inferior to this rather comic creature, even though at the +time many people thought her a remarkable genius. + +In the first place, knowing Napoleon, as we have come to know him +through the pages of Mme. de Remusat, Frederic Masson, and others, +we can readily imagine the impatience with which the great soldier +would sit at dinner, hastening to finish his meal, crowding the +whole ceremony into twenty minutes, gulping a glass or two of wine +and a cup of coffee, and then being interrupted by a fussy little +female who wanted to talk about the ethics of history, or the +possibility of a new form of government. Napoleon, himself, was +making history, and writing it in fire and flame; and as for +governments, he invented governments all over Europe as suited his +imperial will. What patience could he have with one whom an +English writer has rather unkindly described as "an ugly coquette, +an old woman who made a ridiculous marriage, a blue-stocking, who +spent much of her time in pestering men of genius, and drawing +from them sarcastic comment behind their backs?" + +Napoleon was not the sort of a man to be routed in discussion, but +he was most decidedly the sort of man to be bored and irritated by +pedantry. Consequently, he found Mme. de Stael a good deal of a +nuisance in the salons of Paris and its vicinity. He cared not the +least for her epigrams. She might go somewhere else and write all +the epigrams she pleased. When he banished her, in 1803, she +merely crossed the Rhine into Germany, and established herself at +Weimar. + +The emperor received her son, Auguste de Stael-Holstein, with much +good humor, though he refused the boy's appeal on behalf of his +mother. + +"My dear baron," said Napoleon, "if your mother were to be in +Paris for two months, I should really be obliged to lock her up in +one of the castles, which would be most unpleasant treatment for +me to show a lady. No, let her go anywhere else and we can get +along perfectly. All Europe is open to her--Rome, Vienna, St. +Petersburg; and if she wishes to write libels on me, England is a +convenient and inexpensive place. Only Paris is just a little too +near!" + +Thus the emperor gibed the boy--he was only fifteen or sixteen-- +and made fun of the exiled blue-stocking; but there was not a sign +of malice in what he said, nor, indeed, of any serious feeling at +all. The legend about Napoleon and Mme. de Stael must, therefore, +go into the waste-basket, except in so far as it is true that she +succeeded in boring him. + +For the rest, she was an earlier George Sand--unattractive in +person, yet able to attract; loving love for love's sake, though +seldom receiving it in return; throwing herself at the head of +every distinguished man, and generally finding that he regarded +her overtures with mockery. To enumerate the men for whom she +professed to care would be tedious, since the record of her +passions has no reality about it, save, perhaps, with two +exceptions. + +She did care deeply and sincerely for Henri Benjamin Constant, the +brilliant politician and novelist. He was one of her coterie in +Paris, and their common political sentiments formed a bond of +friendship between them. Constant was banished by Napoleon in +1802, and when Mme. de Stael followed him into exile a year later +he joined her in Germany. + +The story of their relations was told by Constant in Adolphe, +while Mme. de Stael based Delphine on her experiences with him. It +seems that he was puzzled by her ardor; she was infatuated by his +genius. Together they went through all the phases of the tender +passion; and yet, at intervals, they would tire of each other and +separate for a while, and she would amuse herself with other men. +At last she really believed that her love for him was entirely +worn out. + +"I always loved my lovers more than they loved me," she said once, +and it was true. + +Yet, on the other hand, she was frankly false to all of them, and +hence arose these intervals. In one of them she fell in with a +young Italian named Rocca, and by way of a change she not only +amused herself with him, but even married him. At this time--1811 +--she was forty-five, while Rocca was only twenty-three--a young +soldier who had fought in Spain, and who made eager love to the +she-philosopher when he was invalided at Geneva. + +The marriage was made on terms imposed by the middle-aged woman +who became his bride. In the first place, it was to be kept +secret; and second, she would not take her husband's name, but he +must pass himself off as her lover, even though she bore him +children. The reason she gave for this extraordinary exhibition of +her vanity was that a change of name on her part would put +everybody out. + +"In fact," she said, "if Mme. de Stael were to change her name, it +would unsettle the heads of all Europe!" + +And so she married Rocca, who was faithful to her to the end, +though she grew extremely plain and querulous, while he became +deaf and soon lost his former charm. Her life was the life of a +woman who had, in her own phrase, "attempted everything"; and yet +she had accomplished nothing that would last. She was loved by a +man of genius, but he did not love her to the end. She was loved +by a man of action, and she tired of him very soon. She had a +wonderful reputation for her knowledge of history and philosophy, +and yet what she knew of those subjects is now seen to be merely +the scraps and borrowings of others. + +Something she did when she introduced the romantic literature into +France; and there are passages from her writings which seem worthy +of preservation. For instance, we may quote her outburst with +regard to unhappy marriages. "It was the subject," says Mr. +Gribble, "on which she had begun to think before she was married, +and which continued to haunt her long after she was left a widow; +though one suspects that the word 'marriage' became a form of +speech employed to describe her relations, not with her husband, +but with her lovers." The passage to which I refer is as follows: + +In an unhappy marriage, there is a violence of distress surpassing +all other sufferings in the world. A woman's whole soul depends +upon the conjugal tie. To struggle against fate alone, to journey +to the grave without a friend to support you or to regret you, is +an isolation of which the deserts of Arabia give but a faint and +feeble idea. When all the treasure of your youth has been given in +vain, when you can no longer hope that the reflection of these +first rays will shine upon the end of your life, when there is +nothing in the dusk to remind you of the dawn, and when the +twilight is pale and colorless as a livid specter that precedes +the night, your heart revolts, and you feel that you have been +robbed of the gifts of God upon earth. + +Equally striking is another prose passage of hers, which seems +less the careful thought of a philosopher than the screeching of a +termagant. It is odd that the first two sentences recall two +famous lines of Byron: + + Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; + 'Tis woman's whole existence. + +The passage by Mme. de Stael is longer and less piquant: + +Love is woman's whole existence. It is only an episode in the +lives of men. Reputation, honor, esteem, everything depends upon +how a woman conducts herself in this regard; whereas, according to +the rules of an unjust world, the laws of morality itself are +suspended in men's relations with women. They may pass as good +men, though they have caused women the most terrible suffering +which it is in the power of one human being to inflict upon +another. They may be regarded as loyal, though they have betrayed +them. They may have received from a woman marks of a devotion +which would so link two friends, two fellow soldiers, that either +would feel dishonored if he forgot them, and they may consider +themselves free of all obligations by attributing the services to +love--as if this additional gift of love detracted from the value +of the rest! + +One cannot help noticing how lacking in neatness of expression is +this woman who wrote so much. It is because she wrote so much that +she wrote in such a muffled manner. It is because she thought so +much that her reflections were either not her own, or were never +clear. It is because she loved so much, and had so many lovers-- +Benjamin Constant; Vincenzo Monti, the Italian poet; M. de +Narbonne, and others, as well as young Rocca--that she found both +love and lovers tedious. + +She talked so much that her conversation was almost always mere +personal opinion. Thus she told Goethe that he never was really +brilliant until after he had got through a bottle of champagne. +Schiller said that to talk with her was to have a "rough time," +and that after she left him, he always felt like a man who was +just getting over a serious illness. She never had time to do +anything very well. + +There is an interesting glimpse of her in the recollections of Dr. +Bollmann, at the period when Mme. de Stael was in her prime. The +worthy doctor set her down as a genius--an extraordinary, +eccentric woman in all that she did. She slept but a few hours out +of the twenty-four, and was uninterruptedly and fearfully busy all +the rest of the time. While her hair was being dressed, and even +while she breakfasted, she used to keep on writing, nor did she +ever rest sufficiently to examine what she had written. + +Such then was Mme. de Stael, a type of the time in which she +lived, so far as concerns her worship of sensibility--of +sensibility, and not of love; for love is too great to be so +scattered and made a thing to prattle of, to cheapen, and thus +destroy. So we find at the last that Germaine de Stael, though she +was much read and much feted and much followed, came finally to +that last halting-place where confessedly she was merely an old +woman, eccentric, and unattractive. She sued her former lovers for +the money she had lent them, she scolded and found fault--as +perhaps befits her age. + +But such is the natural end of sensibility, and of the woman who +typifies it for succeeding generations. + + + + + +THE STORY OF KARL MARX + + +Some time ago I entered a fairly large library--one of more than +two hundred thousand volumes--to seek the little brochure on Karl +Marx written by his old friend and genial comrade Wilhelm +Liebknecht. It was in the card catalogue. As I made a note of its +number, my friend the librarian came up to me, and I asked him +whether it was not strange that a man like Marx should have so +many books devoted to him, for I had roughly reckoned the number +at several hundred. + +"Not at all," said he; "and we have here only a feeble nucleus of +the Marx literature--just enough, in fact, to give you a glimpse +of what that literature really is. These are merely the books +written by Marx himself, and the translations of them, with a few +expository monographs. Anything like a real Marx collection would +take up a special room in this library, and would have to have its +own separate catalogue. You see that even these two or three +hundred books contain large volumes of small pamphlets in many +languages--German, English, French, Italian, Russian, Polish, +Yiddish, Swedish, Hungarian, Spanish; and here," he concluded, +pointing to a recently numbered card, "is one in Japanese." + +My curiosity was sufficiently excited to look into the matter +somewhat further. I visited another library, which was appreciably +larger, and whose managers were evidently less guided by their +prejudices. Here were several thousand books on Marx, and I spent +the best part of the day in looking them over. + +What struck me as most singular was the fact that there was +scarcely a volume about Marx himself. Practically all the books +dealt with his theory of capital and his other socialistic views. +The man himself, his personality, and the facts of his life were +dismissed in the most meager fashion, while his economic theories +were discussed with something that verged upon fury. Even such +standard works as those of Mehring and Spargo, which profess to be +partly biographical, sum up the personal side of Marx in a few +pages. In fact, in the latter's preface he seems conscious of this +defect, and says: + +Whether socialism proves, in the long span of centuries, to be +good or evil, a blessing to men or a curse, Karl Marx must always +be an object of interest as one of the great world-figures of +immortal memory. As the years go by, thoughtful men and women will +find the same interest in studying the life and work of Marx that +they do in studying the life and work of Cromwell, of Wesley, or +of Darwin, to name three immortal world-figures of vastly +divergent types. + +Singularly little is known of Karl Marx, even by his most ardent +followers. They know his work, having studied his Das Kapital with +the devotion and earnestness with which an older generation of +Christians studied the Bible, but they are very generally +unacquainted with the man himself. Although more than twenty-six +years have elapsed since the death of Marx, there is no adequate +biography of him in any language. + +Doubtless some better-equipped German writer, such as Franz +Mehring or Eduard Bernstein, will some day give us the adequate +and full biography for which the world now waits. + +Here is an admission that there exists no adequate biography of +Karl Marx, and here is also an intimation that simply as a man, +and not merely as a great firebrand of socialism, Marx is well +worth studying. And so it has occurred to me to give in these +pages one episode of his career that seems to me quite curious, +together with some significant touches concerning the man as apart +from the socialist. Let the thousands of volumes already in +existence suffice for the latter. The motto of this paper is not +the Vergilian "Arms and the man I sing," but simply "The man I +sing"--and the woman. Karl Marx was born nearly ninety-four years +ago--May 5, 1818--in the city which the French call Treves and the +Germans Trier, among the vine-clad hills of the Moselle. Today, +the town is commonplace enough when you pass through it, but when +you look into its history, and seek out that history's evidences, +you will find that it was not always a rather sleepy little place. +It was one of the chosen abodes of the Emperors of the West, after +Rome began to be governed by Gauls and Spaniards, rather than by +Romans and Italians. The traveler often pauses there to see the +Porta Nigra, that immense gate once strongly fortified, and he +will doubtless visit also what is left of the fine baths and +amphitheater. + +Treves, therefore, has a right to be termed imperial, and it was +the birthplace of one whose sway over the minds of men has been +both imperial and imperious. + +Karl Marx was one of those whose intellectual achievements were so +great as to dwarf his individuality and his private life. What he +taught with almost terrific vigor made his very presence in the +Continental monarchies a source of eminent danger. He was driven +from country to country. Kings and emperors were leagued together +against him. Soldiers were called forth, and blood was shed +because of him. But, little by little, his teaching seems to have +leavened the thought of the whole civilized world, so that to-day +thousands who barely know his name are deeply affected by his +ideas, and believe that the state should control and manage +everything for the good of all. + +Marx seems to have inherited little from either of his parents. +His father, Heinrich Marx, was a provincial Jewish lawyer who had +adopted Christianity, probably because it was expedient, and +because it enabled him to hold local offices and gain some social +consequence. He had changed his name from Mordecai to Marx. + +The elder Marx was very shrewd and tactful, and achieved a fair +position among the professional men and small officials in the +city of Treves. He had seen the horrors of the French Revolution, +and was philosopher enough to understand the meaning of that +mighty upheaval, and of the Napoleonic era which followed. + +Napoleon, indeed, had done much to relieve his race from petty +oppression. France made the Jews in every respect the equals of +the Gentiles. One of its ablest marshals--Massena--was a Jew, and +therefore, when the imperial eagle was at the zenith of its +flight, the Jews in every city and town of Europe were +enthusiastic admirers of Napoleon, some even calling him the +Messiah. + +Karl Marx's mother, it is certain, endowed him with none of his +gifts. She was a Netherlandish Jewess of the strictly domestic and +conservative type, fond of her children and her home, and +detesting any talk that looked to revolutionary ideas or to a +change in the social order. She became a Christian with her +husband, but the word meant little to her. It was sufficient that +she believed in God; and for this she was teased by some of her +skeptical friends. Replying to them, she uttered the only epigram +that has ever been ascribed to her. + +"Yes," she said, "I believe in God, not for God's sake, but for my +own." + +She was so little affected by change of scene that to the day of +her death she never mastered German, but spoke almost wholly in +her native Dutch. Had we time, we might dwell upon the unhappy +paradox of her life. In her son Karl she found an especial joy, as +did her husband. Had the father lived beyond Karl's early youth, +he would doubtless have been greatly pained by the radicalism of +his gifted son, as well as by his personal privations. But the +mother lived until 1863, while Karl was everywhere stirring the +fires of revolution, driven from land to land, both feared and +persecuted, and often half famished. As Mr. Spargo says: + +It was the irony of life that the son, who kindled a mighty hope +in the hearts of unnumbered thousands of his fellow human beings, +a hope that is today inspiring millions of those who speak his +name with reverence and love, should be able to do that only by +destroying his mother's hope and happiness in her son, and that +every step he took should fill her heart with a great agony. + +When young Marx grew out of boyhood into youth, he was attractive +to all those who met him. Tall, lithe, and graceful, he was so +extremely dark that his intimates called him "der neger"--"the +negro." His loosely tossing hair gave to him a still more exotic +appearance; but his eyes were true and frank, his nose denoted +strength and character, and his mouth was full of kindliness in +its expression. His lineaments were not those of the Jewish type. + +Very late in life--he died in 1883--his hair and beard turned +white, but to the last his great mustache was drawn like a bar +across his face, remaining still as black as ink, and making his +appearance very striking. He was full of fun and gaiety. As was +only natural, there soon came into his life some one who learned +to love him, and to whom, in his turn, he gave a deep and unbroken +affection. + +There had come to Treves--which passed from France to Prussia with +the downfall of Napoleon--a Prussian nobleman, the Baron Ludwig +von Westphalen, holding the official title of "national adviser." +The baron was of Scottish extraction on his mother's side, being +connected with the ducal family of Argyll. He was a man of genuine +rank, and might have shown all the arrogance and superciliousness +of the average Prussian official; but when he became associated +with Heinrich Marx he evinced none of that condescending manner. +The two men became firm friends, and the baron treated the +provincial lawyer as an equal. + +The two families were on friendly terms. Von Westphalen's infant +daughter, who had the formidable name of Johanna Bertha Julie +Jenny von Westphalen, but who was usually spoken of as Jenny, +became, in time, an intimate of Sophie Marx. She was four years +older than Karl, but the two grew up together--he a high-spirited, +manly boy, and she a lovely and romantic girl. + +The baron treated Karl as if the lad were a child of his own. He +influenced him to love romantic literature and poetry by +interpreting to him the great masterpieces, from Homer and +Shakespeare to Goethe and Lessing. He made a special study of +Dante, whose mysticism appealed to his somewhat dreamy nature, and +to the religious instinct that always lived in him, in spite of +his dislike for creeds and churches. + +The lore that he imbibed in early childhood stood Karl in good +stead when he began his school life, and his preparation for the +university. He had an absolute genius for study, and was no less +fond of the sports and games of his companions, so that he seemed +to be marked out for success. At sixteen years of age he showed a +precocious ability for planning and carrying out his work with +thoroughness. His mind was evidently a creative mind, one that was +able to think out difficult problems without fatigue. His taste +was shown in his fondness for the classics, in studying which he +noted subtle distinctions of meaning that usually escape even the +mature scholar. Penetration, thoroughness, creativeness, and a +capacity for labor were the boy's chief characteristics. + +With such gifts, and such a nature, he left home for the +university of Bonn. Here he disappointed all his friends. His +studies were neglected; he was morose, restless, and dissatisfied. +He fell into a number of scrapes, and ran into debt through sundry +small extravagances. All the reports that reached his home were +most unsatisfactory. What had come over the boy who had worked so +hard in the gymnasium at Treves? + +The simple fact was that he had became love-sick. His separation +from Jenny von Westphalen had made him conscious of a feeling +which he had long entertained without knowing it. They had been +close companions. He had looked into her beautiful face and seen +the luminous response of her lovely eyes, but its meaning had not +flashed upon his mind. He was not old enough to have a great +consuming passion, he was merely conscious of her charm. As he +could see her every day, he did not realize how much he wanted +her, and how much a separation from her would mean. + +As "absence makes the heart grow fonder," so it may suddenly draw +aside the veil behind which the truth is hidden. At Bonn young +Marx felt as if a blaze of light had flashed before him; and from +that moment his studies, his companions, and the ambitions that he +had hitherto cherished all seemed flat and stale. At night and in +the daytime there was just one thing which filled his mind and +heart--the beautiful vision of Jenny von Westphalen. + +Meanwhile his family, and especially his father, had become +anxious at the reports which reached them. Karl was sent for, and +his stay at Bonn was ended. + +Now that he was once more in the presence of the girl who charmed +him so, he recovered all his old-time spirits. He wooed her +ardently, and though she was more coy, now that she saw his +passion, she did not discourage him, but merely prolonged the +ecstasy of this wonderful love-making. As he pressed her more and +more, and no one guessed the story, there came a time when she was +urged to let herself become engaged to him. + +Here was seen the difference in their ages--a difference that had +an effect upon their future. It means much that a girl should be +four years older than the man who seeks her hand. She is four +years wiser; and a girl of twenty is, in fact, a match for a youth +of twenty-five. Brought up as she had been, in an aristocratic +home, with the blood of two noble families in her veins, and being +wont to hear the easy and somewhat cynical talk of worldly people, +she knew better than poor Karl the un-wisdom of what she was about +to do. + +She was noble, the daughter of one high official and the sister of +another. Those whom she knew were persons of rank and station. On +the other hand, young Marx, though he had accepted Christianity, +was the son of a provincial Jewish lawyer, with no fortune, and +with a bad record at the university. When she thought of all these +things, she may well have hesitated; but the earnest pleading and +intense ardor of Karl Marx broke down all barriers between them, +and they became engaged, without informing Jenny's father of their +compact. Then they parted for a while, and Karl returned to his +home, filled with romantic thoughts. + +He was also full of ambition and of desire for achievement. He had +won the loveliest girl in Treves, and now he must go forth into +the world and conquer it for her sake. He begged his father to +send him to Berlin, and showed how much more advantageous was that +new and splendid university, where Hegel's fame was still in the +ascendent. + +In answer to his father's questions, the younger Marx replied: + +"I have something to tell you that will explain all; but first you +must give me your word that you will tell no one." + +"I trust you wholly," said the father. "I will not reveal what you +may say to me." + +"Well," returned the son, "I am engaged to marry Jenny von +Westphalen. She wishes it kept a secret from her father, but I am +at liberty to tell you of it." + +The elder Marx was at once shocked and seriously disturbed. Baron +von Westphalen was his old and intimate friend. No thought of +romance between their children had ever come into his mind. It +seemed disloyal to keep the verlobung of Karl and Jenny a secret; +for should it be revealed, what would the baron think of Marx? +Their disparity of rank and fortune would make the whole affair +stand out as something wrong and underhand. + +The father endeavored to make his son see all this. He begged him +to go and tell the baron, but young Marx was not to be persuaded. + +"Send me to Berlin," he said, "and we shall again be separated; +but I shall work and make a name for myself, so that when I return +neither Jenny nor her father will have occasion to be disturbed by +our engagement." + +With these words he half satisfied his father, and before long he +was sent to Berlin, where he fell manfully upon his studies. His +father had insisted that he should study law; but his own tastes +were for philosophy and history. He attended lectures in +jurisprudence "as a necessary evil," but he read omnivorously in +subjects that were nearer to his heart. The result was that his +official record was not much better than it had been at Bonn. + +The same sort of restlessness, too, took possession of him when he +found that Jenny would not answer his letters. No matter how +eagerly and tenderly he wrote to her, there came no reply. Even +the most passionate pleadings left her silent and unresponsive. +Karl could not complain, for she had warned him that she would not +write to him. She felt that their engagement, being secret, was +anomalous, and that until her family knew of it she was not free +to act as she might wish. + +Here again was seen the wisdom of her maturer years; but Karl +could not be equally reasonable. He showered her with letters, +which still she would not answer. He wrote to his father in words +of fire. At last, driven to despair, he said that he was going to +write to the Baron von Westphalen, reveal the secret, and ask for +the baron's fatherly consent. + +It seemed a reckless thing to do, and yet it turned out to be the +wisest. The baron knew that such an engagement meant a social +sacrifice, and that, apart from the matter of rank, young Marx was +without any fortune to give the girl the luxuries to which she had +been accustomed. Other and more eligible suitors were always +within view. But here Jenny herself spoke out more strongly than +she had ever done to Karl. She was willing to accept him with what +he was able to give her. She cared nothing for any other man, and +she begged her father to make both of them completely happy. + +Thus it seemed that all was well, yet for some reason or other +Jenny would not write to Karl, and once more he was almost driven +to distraction. He wrote bitter letters to his father, who tried +to comfort him. The baron himself sent messages of friendly +advice, but what young man in his teens was ever reasonable? So +violent was Karl that at last his father wrote to him: + +I am disgusted with your letters. Their unreasonable tone is +loathsome to me. I should never had expected it of you. Haven't +you been lucky from your cradle up? + +Finally Karl received one letter from his betrothed--a letter that +transfused him with ecstatic joy for about a day, and then sent +him back to his old unrest. This, however, may be taken as a part +of Marx's curious nature, which was never satisfied, but was +always reaching after something which could not be had. + +He fell to writing poetry, of which he sent three volumes to +Jenny--which must have been rather trying to her, since the verse +was very poor. He studied the higher mathematics, English and +Italian, some Latin, and a miscellaneous collection of works on +history and literature. But poetry almost turned his mind. In +later years he wrote: + +Everything was centered on poetry, as if I were bewitched by some +uncanny power. + +Luckily, he was wise enough, after a time, to recognize how +halting were his poems when compared with those of the great +masters; and so he resumed his restless, desultory work. He still +sent his father letters that were like wild cries. They evoked, in +reply, a very natural burst of anger: + +Complete disorder, silly wandering through all branches of +science, silly brooding at the burning oil-lamp! In your wildness +you see with four eyes--a horrible setback and disregard for +everything decent. And in the pursuit of this senseless and +purposeless learning you think to raise the fruits which are to +unite you with your beloved one! What harvest do you expect to +gather from them which will enable you to fulfil your duty toward +her? + +Writing to him again, his father speaks of something that Karl had +written as "a mad composition, which denotes clearly how you waste +your ability and spend nights in order to create such +monstrosities." The young man was even forbidden to return home +for the Easter holidays. This meant giving up the sight of Jenny, +whom he had not seen for a whole year. But fortune arranged it +otherwise; for not many weeks later death removed the parent who +had loved him and whom he had loved, though neither of them could +understand the other. The father represented the old order of +things; the son was born to discontent and to look forward to a +new heaven and a new earth. + +Returning to Berlin, Karl resumed his studies; but as before, they +were very desultory in their character, and began to run upon +social questions, which were indeed setting Germany into a +ferment. He took his degree, and thought of becoming an instructor +at the university of Jena; but his radicalism prevented this, and +he became the editor of a liberal newspaper, which soon, however, +became so very radical as to lead to his withdrawal. + +It now seemed best that Marx should seek other fields of activity. +To remain in Germany was dangerous to himself and discreditable to +Jenny's relatives, with their status as Prussian officials. In the +summer of 1843, he went forth into the world--at last an +"international." Jenny, who had grown to believe in him as against +her own family, asked for nothing better than to wander with him, +if only they might be married. And they were married in this same +summer, and spent a short honeymoon at Bingen on the Rhine--made +famous by Mrs. Norton's poem. It was the brief glimpse of sunshine +that was to precede year after year of anxiety and want. + +Leaving Germany, Marx and Jenny went to Paris, where he became +known to some of the intellectual lights of the French capital, +such as Bakunin, the great Russian anarchist, Proudhon, Cabet, and +Saint-Simon. Most important of all was his intimacy with the poet +Heine, that marvelous creature whose fascination took on a +thousand forms, and whom no one could approach without feeling his +strange allurement. + +Since Goethe's death, down to the present time, there has been no +figure in German literature comparable to Heine. His prose was +exquisite. His poetry ran through the whole gamut of humanity and +of the sensations that come to us from the outer world. In his +poems are sweet melodies and passionate cries of revolt, stirring +ballads of the sea and tender love-songs--strange as these last +seem when coming from this cynic. + +For cynic he was, deep down in his heart, though his face, when in +repose, was like the conventional pictures of Christ. His +fascinations destroyed the peace of many a woman; and it was only +after many years of self-indulgence that he married the faithful +Mathilde Mirat in what he termed a "conscience marriage." Soon +after he went to his "mattress-grave," as he called it, a hopeless +paralytic. + +To Heine came Marx and his beautiful bride. One may speculate as +to Jenny's estimate of her husband. Since his boyhood, she had not +seen him very much. At that time he was a merry, light-hearted +youth, a jovial comrade, and one of whom any girl would be proud. +But since his long stay in Berlin, and his absorption in the +theories of men like Engels and Bauer, he had become a very +different sort of man, at least to her. + +Groping, lost in brown studies, dreamy, at times morose, he was by +no means a sympathetic and congenial husband for a high-bred, +spirited girl, such as Jenny von Westphalen. His natural drift was +toward a beer-garden, a group of frowsy followers, the reek of +vile tobacco, and the smell of sour beer. One cannot but think +that his beautiful wife must have been repelled by this, though +with her constant nature she still loved him. + +In Heinrich Heine she found a spirit that seemed akin to hers. Mr. +Spargo says--and in what he says one must read a great deal +between the lines: + +The admiration of Jenny Marx for the poet was even more ardent +than that of her husband. He fascinated her because, as she said, +he was "so modern," while Heine was drawn to her because she was +"so sympathetic." + +It must be that Heine held the heart of this beautiful woman in +his hand. He knew so well the art of fascination; he knew just how +to supply the void which Marx had left. The two were indeed +affinities in heart and soul; yet for once the cynical poet stayed +his hand, and said no word that would have been disloyal to his +friend. Jenny loved him with a love that might have blazed into a +lasting flame; but fortunately there appeared a special providence +to save her from herself. The French government, at the request of +the King of Prussia, banished Marx from its dominions; and from +that day until he had become an old man he was a wanderer and an +exile, with few friends and little money, sustained by nothing but +Jenny's fidelity and by his infinite faith in a cause that crushed +him to the earth. + +There is a curious parallel between the life of Marx and that of +Richard Wagner down to the time when the latter discovered a royal +patron. Both of them were hounded from country to country; both of +them worked laboriously for so scanty a living as to verge, at +times, upon starvation. Both of them were victims to a cause in +which they earnestly believed--an economic cause in the one case, +an artistic cause in the other. Wagner's triumph came before his +death, and the world has accepted his theory of the music-drama. +The cause of Marx is far greater and more tremendous, because it +strikes at the base of human life and social well-being. + +The clash between Wagner and his critics was a matter of poetry +and dramatic music. It was not vital to the human race. The cause +of Marx is one that is only now beginning to be understood and +recognized by millions of men and women in all the countries of +the earth. In his lifetime he issued a manifesto that has become a +classic among economists. He organized the great International +Association of Workmen, which set all Europe in a blaze and +extended even to America. His great book, "Capital"--Das Kapital-- +which was not completed until the last years of his life, is read +to-day by thousands as an almost sacred work. + +Like Wagner and his Minna, the wife of Marx's youth clung to him +through his utmost vicissitudes, denying herself the necessities +of life so that he might not starve. In London, where he spent his +latest days, he was secure from danger, yet still a sort of +persecution seemed to follow him. For some time, nothing that he +wrote could find a printer. Wherever he went, people looked at him +askance. He and his six children lived upon the sum of five +dollars a week, which was paid him by the New York Tribune, +through the influence of the late Charles A. Dana. When his last +child was born, and the mother's life was in serious danger, Marx +complained that there was no cradle for the baby, and a little +later that there was no coffin for its burial. + +Marx had ceased to believe in marriage, despised the church, and +cared nothing for government. Yet, unlike Wagner, he was true to +the woman who had given up so much for him. He never sank to an +artistic degeneracy. Though he rejected creeds, he was +nevertheless a man of genuine religious feeling. Though he +believed all present government to be an evil, he hoped to make it +better, or rather he hoped to substitute for it a system by which +all men might get an equal share of what it is right and just for +them to have. + +Such was Marx, and thus he lived and died. His wife, who had long +been cut off from her relatives, died about a year before him. +When she was buried, he stumbled and fell into her grave, and from +that time until his own death he had no further interest in life. + +He had been faithful to a woman and to a cause. That cause was so +tremendous as to overwhelm him. In sixty years only the first +great stirrings of it could be felt. Its teachings may end in +nothing, but only a century or more of effort and of earnest +striving can make it plain whether Karl Marx was a world-mover or +a martyr to a cause that was destined to be lost. + + + + + +FERDINAND LASSALLE AND HELENE VON DONNIGES + + +The middle part of the nineteenth century is a period which has +become more or less obscure to most Americans and Englishmen. At +one end the thunderous campaigns of Napoleon are dying away. In +the latter part of the century we remember the gorgeousness of the +Tuileries, the four years' strife of our own Civil War, and then +the golden drift of peace with which the century ended. Between +these two extremes there is a stretch of history which seems to +lack interest for the average student of to-day. + +In America, that was a period when we took little interest in the +movement of affairs on the continent of Europe. It would not be +easy, for instance, to imagine an American of 1840 cogitating on +problems of socialism, or trying to invent some new form of +arbeiterverein. General Choke was still swindling English +emigrants. The Young Columbian was still darting out from behind a +table to declare how thoroughly he defied the British lion. But +neither of these patriots, any more than their English compeers, +was seriously disturbed about the interests of the rest of the +world. The Englishman was contentedly singing "God Save the +Queen!" The American, was apostrophizing the bird of freedom with +the floridity of rhetoric that reached its climax in the "Pogram +Defiance." What the Dutchies and Frenchies were doing was little +more to an Englishman than to an American. + +Continental Europe was a mystery to English-speaking people. Those +who traveled abroad took their own servants with them, spoke only +English, and went through the whole European maze with absolute +indifference. To them the socialist, who had scarcely received a +name, was an imaginary being. If he existed, he was only a sort of +offspring of the Napoleonic wars--a creature who had not yet +fitted into the ordinary course of things. He was an anomaly, a +person who howled in beer-houses, and who would presently be +regulated, either by the statesmen or by the police. + +When our old friend, Mark Tapley, was making with his master a +homeward voyage to Britain, what did he know or even care about +the politics of France, or Germany, or Austria, or Russia? Not the +slightest, you may he sure. Mark and his master represented the +complete indifference of the Englishman or American--not +necessarily a well-bred indifference, but an indifference that was +insular on the one hand and republican on the other. If either of +them had heard of a gentleman who pillaged an unmarried lady's +luggage in order to secure a valuable paper for another lady, who +was married, they would both have looked severely at this abnormal +person, and the American would doubtless have added a remark which +had something to do with the matchless purity of Columbia's +daughters. + +If, again, they had been told that Ferdinand Lassalle had joined +in the great movement initiated by Karl Marx, it is absolutely +certain that neither the Englishman nor the American could have +given you the slightest notion as to who these individuals were. +Thrones might be tottering all over Europe; the red flag might +wave in a score of cities--what would all this signify, so long as +Britannia ruled the waves, while Columbia's feathered emblem +shrieked defiance three thousand miles away? + +And yet few more momentous events have happened in a century than +the union which led one man to give his eloquence to the social +cause, and the other to suffer for that cause until his death. +Marx had the higher thought, but his disciple Lassalle had the +more attractive way of presenting it. It is odd that Marx, today, +should lie in a squalid cemetery, while the whole western world +echoes with his praises, and that Lassalle--brilliant, clear- +sighted, and remarkable for his penetrating genius--should have +lived in luxury, but should now know nothing but oblivion, even +among those who shouted at his eloquence and ran beside him in the +glory of his triumph. + +Ferdinand Lassalle was a native of Breslau, the son of a wealthy +Jewish silk-merchant. Heymann Lassal--for thus the father spelled +his name--stroked his hands at young Ferdinand's cleverness, but +he meant it to be a commercial cleverness. He gave the boy a +thorough education at the University of Breslau, and later at +Berlin. He was an affectionate parent, and at the same time +tyrannical to a degree. + +It was the old story where the father wishes to direct every step +that his son takes, and where the son, bursting out into youthful +manhood, feels that he has the right to freedom. The father thinks +how he has toiled for the son; the son thinks that if this toil +were given for love, it should not be turned into a fetter and +restraint. Young Lassalle, instead of becoming a clever silk- +merchant, insisted on a university career, where he studied +earnestly, and was admitted to the most cultured circles. + +Though his birth was Jewish, he encountered little prejudice +against his race. Napoleon had changed the old anti-Semitic +feeling of fifty years before to a liberalism that was just +beginning to be strongly felt in Germany, as it had already been +in France. This was true in general, but especially true of +Lassalle, whose features were not of a Semitic type, who made +friends with every one, and who was a favorite in many salons. His +portraits make him seem a high-bred and high-spirited Prussian, +with an intellectual and clean-cut forehead; a face that has a +sense of humor, and yet one capable of swift and cogent thought. + +No man of ordinary talents could have won the admiration of so +many compeers. It is not likely that such a keen and cynical +observer as Heinrich Heine would have written as he did concerning +Lassalle, had not the latter been a brilliant and magnetic youth. +Heine wrote to Varnhagen von Ense, the German historian: + +My friend, Herr Lassalle, who brings you this letter, is a young +man of remarkable intellectual gifts. With the most thorough +erudition, with the widest learning, with the greatest penetration +that I have ever known, and with the richest gift of exposition, +he combines an energy of will and a capacity for action which +astonish me. In no one have I found united so much enthusiasm and +practical intelligence. + +No better proof of Lassalle's enthusiasm can be found than a few +lines from his own writings: + +I love Heine. He is my second self. What audacity! What +overpowering eloquence! He knows how to whisper like a zephyr when +it kisses rose-blooms, how to breathe like fire when it rages and +destroys; he calls forth all that is tenderest and softest, and +then all that is fiercest and most daring. He has the sweep of the +whole lyre! + +Lassalle's sympathy with Heine was like his sympathy with every +one whom he knew. This was often misunderstood. It was +misunderstood in his relations with women, and especially in the +celebrated affair of the Countess von Hatzfeldt, which began in +the year 1846--that is to say, in the twenty-first year of +Lassalle's age. + +In truth, there was no real scandal in the matter, for the +countess was twice the age of Lassalle. It was precisely because +he was so young that he let his eagerness to defend a woman in +distress make him forget the ordinary usage of society, and expose +himself to mean and unworthy criticism which lasted all his life. +It began by his introduction to the Countess von Hatzfeldt, a lady +who was grossly ill-treated by her husband. She had suffered +insult and imprisonment in the family castles; the count had +deprived her of medicine when she was ill, and had forcibly taken +away her children. Besides this, he was infatuated with another +woman, a baroness, and wasted his substance upon her even contrary +to the law which protected his children's rights. + +The countess had a son named Paul, of whom Lassalle was extremely +fond. There came to the boy a letter from the Count von Hatzfeldt +ordering him to leave his mother. The countess at once sent for +Lassalle, who brought with him two wealthy and influential +friends--one of them a judge of a high Prussian court--and +together they read the letter which Paul had just received. They +were deeply moved by the despair of the countess, and by the +cruelty of her dissolute husband in seeking to separate the mother +from her son. + +In his chivalrous ardor Lassalle swore to help the countess, and +promised that he would carry on the struggle with her husband to +the bitter end. He took his two friends with him to Berlin, and +then to Dusseldorf, for they discovered that the Count von +Hatzfeldt was not far away. He was, in fact, at Aix-la-Chapelle +with the baroness. + +Lassalle, who had the scent of a greyhound, pried about until he +discovered that the count had given his mistress a legal document, +assigning to her a valuable piece of property which, in the +ordinary course of law, should be entailed on the boy, Paul. The +countess at once hastened to the place, broke into her husband's +room, and secured a promise that the deed would be destroyed. + +No sooner, however, had she left him than he returned to the +baroness, and presently it was learned that the woman had set out +for Cologne. + +Lassalle and his two friends followed, to ascertain whether the +document had really been destroyed. The three reached a hotel at +Cologne, where the baroness had just arrived. Her luggage, in +fact, was being carried upstairs. One of Lassalle's friends opened +a trunk, and, finding a casket there, slipped it out to his +companion, the judge. + +Unfortunately, the latter had no means of hiding it, and when the +baroness's servant shouted for help, the casket was found in the +possession of the judge, who could give no plausible account of +it. He was, therefore, arrested, as were the other two. There was +no evidence against Lassalle; but his friends fared badly at the +trial, one of them being imprisoned for a year and the other for +five years. + +From this time Lassalle, with an almost quixotic devotion, gave +himself up to fighting the Countess von Hatzfeldt's battle against +her husband in the law-courts. The ablest advocates were pitted +against him. The most eloquent legal orators thundered at him and +at his client, but he met them all with a skill, an audacity, and +a brilliant wit that won for him verdict after verdict. The case +went from the lower to the higher tribunals, until, after nine +years, it reached the last court of appeal, where Lassalle wrested +from his opponents a magnificently conclusive victory--one that +made the children of the countess absolutely safe. It was a battle +fought with the determination of a soldier, with the gallantry of +a knight errant, and the intellectual acumen of a learned lawyer. + +It is not surprising that many refuse to believe that Lassalle's +feeling toward the Countess von Hatzfeldt was a disinterested one. +A scandalous pamphlet, which was published in French, German, and +Russian, and written by one who styled herself "Sophie Solutzeff," +did much to spread the evil report concerning Lassalle. But the +very openness and frankness of the service which he did for the +countess ought to make it clear that his was the devotion of a +youth drawn by an impulse into a strife where there was nothing +for him to gain, but everything to lose. He denounced the +brutality of her husband, but her letters to him always addressed +him as "my dear child." In writing to her he confides small love- +secrets and ephemeral flirtations--which he would scarcely have +done, had the countess viewed him with the eye of passion. + +Lassalle was undoubtedly a man of impressionable heart, and had +many affairs such as Heine had; but they were not deep or lasting. +That he should have made a favorable impression on the women whom +he met is not surprising, because of his social standing, his +chivalry, his fine manners, and his handsome face. Mr. Clement +Shorter has quoted an official document which describes him as he +was in his earlier years: + +Ferdinand Lassalle, aged twenty-three, a civilian born at Breslau +and dwelling recently at Berlin. He stands five feet six inches in +height, has brown, curly hair, open forehead, brown eyebrows, dark +blue eyes, well proportioned nose and mouth, and rounded chin. + +We ought not to be surprised, then, if he was a favorite in +drawing-rooms; if both men and women admired him; if Alexander von +Humboldt cried out with enthusiasm that he was a wunderkind, and +if there were more than Sophie Solutzeff to be jealous. But the +rather ungrateful remark of the Countess von Hatzfeldt certainly +does not represent him as he really was. + +"You are without reason and judgment where women are concerned," +she snarled at him; but the sneer only shows that the woman who +uttered it was neither in love with him nor grateful to him. + +In this paper we are not discussing Lassalle as a public agitator +or as a Socialist, but simply in his relations with the two women +who most seriously affected his life. The first was the Countess +von Hatzfeldt, who, as we have seen, occupied--or rather wasted-- +nine of the best years of his life. Then came that profound and +thrilling passion which ended the career of a man who at thirty- +nine had only just begun to be famous. + +Lassalle had joined his intellectual forces with those of Heine +and Marx. He had obtained so great an influence over the masses of +the people as to alarm many a monarch, and at the same time to +attract many a statesman. Prince Bismarck, for example, cared +nothing for Lassalle's championship of popular rights, but sought +his aid on finding that he was an earnest advocate of German +unity. + +Furthermore, he was very far from resembling what in those early +days was regarded as the typical picture of a Socialist. There was +nothing frowzy about him; in his appearance he was elegance +itself; his manners were those of a prince, and his clothing was +of the best. Seeing him in a drawing-room, no one would mistake +him for anything but a gentleman and a man of parts. Hence it is +not surprising that his second love was one of the nobility, +although her own people hated Lassalle as a bearer of the red +flag. + +This girl was Helene von Donniges, the daughter of a Bavarian +diplomat. As a child she had traveled much, especially in Italy +and in Switzerland. She was very precocious, and lived her own +life without asking the direction of any one. At twelve years of +age she had been betrothed to an Italian of forty; but this dark +and pedantic person always displeased her, and soon afterward, +when she met a young Wallachian nobleman, one Yanko Racowitza, she +was ready at once to dismiss her Italian lover. Racowitza--young, +a student, far from home, and lacking friends--appealed at once to +the girl's sympathy. + +At that very time, in Berlin, where Helene was visiting her +grandmother, she was asked by a Prussian baron: + +"Do you know Ferdinand Lassalle?" + +The question came to her with a peculiar shock. She had never +heard the name, and yet the sound of it gave her a strange +emotion. Baron Korff, who perhaps took liberties because she was +so young, went on to say: + +"My dear lady, have you really never seen Lassalle? Why, you and +he were meant for each other!" + +She felt ashamed to ask about him, but shortly after a gentleman +who knew her said: + +"It is evident that you have a surprising degree of intellectual +kinship with Ferdinand Lassalle." + +This so excited her curiosity that she asked her grandmother: + +"Who is this person of whom they talk so much--this Ferdinand +Lassalle?" + +"Do not speak of him," replied her grandmother. "He is a shameless +demagogue!" + +A little questioning brought to Helene all sorts of stories about +Lassalle--the Countess von Hatzfeldt, the stolen casket, the +mysterious pamphlet, the long battle in the courts--all of which +excited her still more. A friend offered to introduce her to the +"shameless demagogue." This introduction happened at a party, and +it must have been an extraordinary meeting. Seldom, it seemed, was +there a better instance of love at first sight, or of the true +affinity of which Baron Korff had spoken. In the midst of the +public gathering they almost rushed into each other's arms; they +talked the free talk of acknowledged lovers; and when she left, he +called her love-names as he offered her his arm. + +"Somehow it did not appear at all remarkable," she afterward +declared. "We seemed to be perfectly fitted to each other." + +Nevertheless, nine months passed before they met again at a +soiree. At this time Lassaller gazing upon her, said: + +"What would you do if I were sentenced to death?" + +"I should wait until your head was severed," was her answer, "in +order that you might look upon your beloved to the last, and then +--I should take poison!" + +Her answer delighted him, but he said that there was no danger. He +was greeted on every hand with great consideration; and it seemed +not unlikely that, in recognition of his influence with the +people, he might rise to some high position. The King of Prussia +sympathized with him. Heine called him the Messiah of the +nineteenth century. When he passed from city to city, the whole +population turned out to do him honor. Houses were wreathed; +flowers were thrown in masses upon him, while the streets were +spanned with triumphal arches. + +Worn out with the work and excitement attending the birth of the +Deutscher Arbeiterverein, or workmen's union, which he founded in +1863, Lassalle fled for a time to Switzerland for rest. Helene +heard of his whereabouts, and hurried to him, with several +friends. They met again on July 25,1864, and discussed long and +intensely the possibilities of their marriage and the opposition +of her parents, who would never permit her to marry a man who was +at once a Socialist and a Jew. + +Then comes a pitiful story of the strife between Lassalle and the +Donniges family. Helene's father and mother indulged in vulgar +words; they spoke of Lassalle with contempt; they recalled all the +scandals that had been current ten years before, and forbade +Helene ever to mention the man's name again. + +The next scene in the drama took place in Geneva, where the family +of Herr von Donniges had arrived, and where Helene's sister had +been betrothed to Count von Keyserling--a match which filled her +mother with intense joy. Her momentary friendliness tempted Helene +to speak of her unalterable love for Lassalle. Scarcely had the +words been spoken when her father and mother burst into abuse and +denounced Lassalle as well as herself. + +She sent word of this to Lassalle, who was in a hotel near by. +Scarcely had he received her letter, when Helene herself appeared +upon the scene, and with all the intensity of which she was +possessed, she begged him to take her wherever he chose. She would +go with him to France, to Italy--to the ends of the earth! + +What a situation, and yet how simple a one for a man of spirit! It +is strange to have to record that to Lassalle it seemed most +difficult. He felt that he or she, or both of them, had been +compromised. Had she a lady with her? Did she know any one in the +neighborhood? + +What an extraordinary answer! If she were compromised, all the +more ought he to have taken her in his arms and married her at +once, instead of quibbling and showing himself a prig. + +Presently, her maid came in to tell them that a carriage was ready +to take them to the station, whence a train would start for Paris +in a quarter of an hour. Helene begged him. with a feeling that +was beginning to be one of shame. Lassalle repelled her in words +that were to stamp him with a peculiar kind of cowardice. + +Why should he have stopped to think of anything except the +beautiful woman who was at his feet, and to whom he had pledged +his love? What did he care for the petty diplomat who was her +father, or the vulgar-tongued woman who was her mother? He should +have hurried her and the maid into the train for Paris, and have +forgotten everything in the world but his Helene, glorious among +women, who had left everything for him. + +What was the sudden failure, the curious weakness, the paltriness +of spirit that came at the supreme moment into the heart of this +hitherto strong man? Here was the girl whom he loved, driven from +her parents, putting aside all question of appearances, and +clinging to him with a wild and glorious desire to give herself to +him and to be all his own! That was a thing worthy of a true +woman. And he? He shrinks from her and cowers and acts like a +simpleton. His courage seems to have dribbled through his finger- +tips; he is no longer a man--he is a thing. + +Out of all the multitude of Lassalle's former admirers, there is +scarcely one who has ventured to defend him, much less to laud +him; and when they have done so, their voices have had a sound of +mockery that dies away in their own throats. + +Helene, on her side, had compromised herself, and even from the +view-point of her parents it was obvious that she ought to be +married immediately. Her father, however, confined her to her room +until it was understood that Lassalle had left Geneva. Then her +family's supplications, the statement that her sister's marriage +and even her father's position were in danger, led her to say that +she would give up Lassalle. + +It mattered very little, in one way, for whatever he might have +done, Lassalle had killed, or at least had chilled, her love. His +failure at the moment of her great self-sacrifice had shown him to +her as he really was--no bold and gallant spirit, but a cringing, +spiritless self-seeker. She wrote him a formal letter to the +effect that she had become reconciled to her "betrothed +bridegroom"; and they never met again. + +Too late, Lassalle gave himself up to a great regret. He went +about trying to explain his action to his friends, but he could +say nothing that would ease his feeling and reinstate him in the +eyes of the romantic girl. In a frenzy, he sought out the +Wallachian student, Yanko von Racowitza, and challenged him to a +mortal duel. He also challenged Helene's father. Years before, he +had on principle declined to fight a duel; but now he went raving +about as if he sought the death of every one who knew him. + +The duel was fought on August 28, 1864. There was some trouble +about pistols, and also about seconds; but finally the combatants +left a small hotel in a village near Geneva, and reached the +dueling-grounds. Lassalle was almost joyous in his manner. His old +confidence had come back to him; he meant to kill his man. + +They took their stations high up among the hills. A few spectators +saw their figures outlined against the sky. The command to fire +rang out, and from both pistols gushed the flame and smoke. + +A moment later, Lassalle was seen to sway and fall. A chance shot, +glancing from a wall, had struck him to the ground. He suffered +terribly, and nothing but opium in great doses could relieve his +pain. His wound was mortal, and three days later he died. + +Long after, Helene admitted that she still loved Lassalle, and +believed that he would win the duel; but after the tragedy, the +tenderness and patience of Racowitza won her heart. She married +him, but within a year he died of consumption. Helene, being +disowned by her relations, prepared herself for the stage. She +married a third husband named Shevitch, who was then living in the +United States, but who has since made his home in Russia. + +Let us say nothing of Lassalle's political career. Except for his +work as one of the early leaders of the liberal movement in +Germany, it has perished, and his name has been almost forgotten. +As a lover, his story stands out forever as a warning to the timid +and the recreant. Let men do what they will; but there is just one +thing which no man is permitted to do with safety in the sight of +woman--and that is to play the craven. + + + + + +THE STORY OF RACHEL + + +Outside of the English-speaking peoples the nineteenth century +witnessed the rise and triumphant progress of three great tragic +actresses. The first two of these--Rachel Felix and Sarah +Bernhardt--were of Jewish extraction; the third, Eleanor Duse, is +Italian. All of them made their way from pauperism to fame; but +perhaps the rise of Rachel was the most striking. + +In the winter of 1821 a wretched peddler named Abraham--or Jacob-- +Felix sought shelter at a dilapidated inn at Mumpf, a village in +Switzerland, not far from Basel. It was at the close of a stormy +day, and his small family had been toiling through the snow and +sleet. The inn was the lowest sort of hovel, and yet its +proprietor felt that it was too good for these vagabonds. He +consented to receive them only when he learned that the peddler's +wife was to be delivered of a child. That very night she became +the mother of a girl, who was at first called Elise. So +unimportant was the advent of this little waif into the world that +the burgomaster of Mumpf thought it necessary to make an entry +only of the fact that a peddler's wife had given birth to a female +child. There was no mention of family or religion, nor was the +record anything more than a memorandum. + +Under such circumstances was born a child who was destined to +excite the wonder of European courts--to startle and thrill and +utterly amaze great audiences by her dramatic genius. But for ten +years the family--which grew until it consisted of one son and +five daughters--kept on its wanderings through Switzerland and +Germany. Finally, they settled down in Lyons, where the mother +opened a little shop for the sale of second-hand clothing. The +husband gave lessons in German whenever he could find a pupil. The +eldest daughter went about the cafes in the evening, singing the +songs that were then popular, while her small sister, Rachel, +collected coppers from those who had coppers to spare. + +Although the family was barely able to sustain existence, the +father and mother were by no means as ignorant as their squalor +would imply. The peddler Felix had studied Hebrew theology in the +hope of becoming a rabbi. Failing this, he was always much +interested in declamation, public reading, and the recitation of +poetry. He was, in his way, no mean critic of actors and +actresses. Long before she was ten years of age little Rachel--who +had changed her name from Elise--could render with much feeling +and neatness of eloquence bits from the best-known French plays of +the classic stage. + +The children's mother, on her side, was sharp and practical to a +high degree. She saved and scrimped all through her period of +adversity. Later she was the banker of her family, and would never +lend any of her children a sou except on excellent security. +However, this was all to happen in after years. + +When the child who was destined to be famous had reached her tenth +year she and her sisters made their way to Paris. For four years +the second-hand clothing-shop was continued; the father still +taught German; and the elder sister, Sarah, who had a golden +voice, made the rounds of the cafes in the lowest quarters of the +capital, while Rachel passed the wooden plate for coppers. + +One evening in the year 1834 a gentleman named Morin, having been +taken out of his usual course by a matter of business, entered a +BRASSERIE for a cup of coffee. There he noted two girls, one of +them singing with remarkable sweetness, and the other silently +following with the wooden plate. M. Morin called to him the girl +who sang and asked her why she did not make her voice more +profitable than by haunting the cafes at night, where she was sure +to meet with insults of the grossest kind. + +"Why," said Sarah, "I haven't anybody to advise me what to do." + +M. Morin gave her his address and said that he would arrange to +have her meet a friend who would be of great service to her. On +the following day he sent the two girls to a M. Choron, who was +the head of the Conservatory of Sacred Music. Choron had Sarah +sing, and instantly admitted her as a pupil, which meant that she +would soon be enrolled among the regular choristers. The beauty of +her voice made a deep impression on him. + +Then he happened to notice the puny, meager child who was standing +near her sister. Turning to her, he said: + +"And what can you do, little one?" + +"I can recite poetry," was the reply. + +"Oh, can you?" said he. "Please let me hear you." + +Rachel readily consented. She had a peculiarly harsh, grating +voice, so that any but a very competent judge would have turned +her away. But M. Choron, whose experience was great, noted the +correctness of her accent and the feeling which made itself felt +in every line. He accepted her as well as her sister, but urged +her to study elocution rather than music. + +She must, indeed, have had an extraordinary power even at the age +of fourteen, since not merely her voice but her whole appearance +was against her. She was dressed in a short calico frock of a +pattern in which red was spotted with white. Her shoes were of +coarse black leather. Her hair was parted at the back of her head +and hung down her shoulders in two braids, framing the long, +childish, and yet gnome-like face, which was unusual in its +gravity. + +At first she was little thought of; but there came a time when she +astonished both her teachers and her companions by a recital which +she gave in public. The part was the narrative of Salema in the +"Abufar" of Ducis. It describes the agony of a mother who gives +birth to a child while dying of thirst amid the desert sands. Mme. +de Barviera has left a description of this recital, which it is +worth while to quote: + +While uttering the thrilling tale the thin face seemed to lengthen +with horror, the small, deep-set black eyes dilated with a fixed +stare as though she witnessed the harrowing scene; and the deep, +guttural tones, despite a slight Jewish accent, awoke a nameless +terror in every one who listened, carrying him through the +imaginary woe with a strange feeling of reality, not to be shaken, +off as long as the sounds lasted. + +Even yet, however, the time had not come for any conspicuous +success. The girl was still so puny in form, so monkey-like in +face, and so gratingly unpleasant in her tones that it needed time +for her to attain her full growth and to smooth away some of the +discords in her peculiar voice. + +Three years later she appeared at the Gymnase in a regular debut; +yet even then only the experienced few appreciated her greatness. +Among these, however, were the well-known critic Jules Janin, the +poet and novelist Gauthier, and the actress Mlle. Mars. They saw +that this lean, raucous gutter-girl had within her gifts which +would increase until she would he first of all actresses on the +French stage. Janin wrote some lines which explain the secret of +her greatness: + +All the talent in the world, especially when continually applied +to the same dramatic works, will not satisfy continually the +hearer. What pleases in a great actor, as in all arts that appeal +to the imagination, is the unforeseen. When I am utterly ignorant +of what is to happen, when I do not know, when you yourself do not +know what will be your next gesture, your next look, what passion +will possess your heart, what outcry will burst from your terror- +stricken soul, then, indeed, I am willing to see you daily, for +each day you will be new to me. To-day I may blame, to-morrow +praise. Yesterday you were all-powerful; to-morrow, perhaps, you +may hardly win from me a word of admiration. So much the better, +then, if you draw from me unexpected tears, if in my heart you +strike an unknown fiber; but tell me not of hearing night after +night great artists who every time present the exact counterpart +of what they were on the preceding one. + +It was at the Theatre Francais that she won her final acceptance +as the greatest of all tragedians of her time. This was in her +appearance in Corneille's famous play of "Horace." She had now, in +1838, blazed forth with a power that shook her no, less than it +stirred the emotions and the passions of her hearers. The princes +of the royal blood came in succession to see her. King Louis +Philippe himself was at last tempted by curiosity to be present. +Gifts of money and jewels were showered on her, and through sheer +natural genius rather than through artifice she was able to master +a great audience and bend it to her will. + +She had no easy life, this girl of eighteen years, for other +actresses carped at her, and she had had but little training. The +sordid ways of her old father excited a bitterness which was +vented on the daughter. She was still under age, and therefore was +treated as a gold-mine by her exacting parents. At the most she +could play but twice a week. Her form was frail and reed-like. She +was threatened with a complaint of the lungs; yet all this served +to excite rather than to diminish public interest in her. The +newspapers published daily bulletins of her health, and her door +was besieged by anxious callers who wished to know her condition. +As for the greed of her parents, every one said she was not to +blame for that. And so she passed from poverty to riches, from +squalor to something like splendor, and from obscurity to fame. + +Much has been written about her that is quite incorrect. She has +been credited with virtues which she never possessed; and, indeed, +it may be said with only too much truth that she possessed no +virtues whatsoever. On the stage while the inspiration lasted she +was magnificent. Off the stage she was sly, treacherous, +capricious, greedy, ungrateful, ignorant, and unchaste. With such +an ancestry as she had, with such an early childhood as had been +hers, what else could one expect from her? + +She and her old mother wrangled over money like two pickpockets. +Some of her best friends she treated shamefully. Her avarice was +without bounds. Some one said that it was not really avarice, but +only a reaction from generosity; but this seems an exceedingly +subtle theory. It is possible to give illustrations of it, +however. She did, indeed, make many presents with a lavish hand; +yet, having made a present, she could not rest until she got it +back. The fact was so well known that her associates took it for +granted. The younger Dumas once received a ring from her. +Immediately he bowed low and returned it to her finger, saying: + +"Permit me, mademoiselle, to present it to you in my turn so as to +save you the embarrassment of asking for it." + +Mr. Vandam relates among other anecdotes about her that one +evening she dined at the house of Comte Duchatel. The table was +loaded with the most magnificent flowers; but Rachel's keen eyes +presently spied out the great silver centerpiece. Immediately she +began to admire the latter; and the count, fascinated by her +manners, said that he would be glad to present it to her. She +accepted it at once, but was rather fearful lest he should change +his mind. She had come to dinner in a cab, and mentioned the fact. +The count offered to send her home in his carriage. + +"Yes, that will do admirably," said she. "There will be no danger +of my being robbed of your present, which I had better take with +me." + +"With pleasure, mademoiselle," replied the count. "But you will +send me back my carriage, won't you?" + +Rachel had a curious way of asking every one she met for presents +and knickknacks, whether they were valuable or not. She knew how +to make them valuable. + +Once in a studio she noticed a guitar hanging on the wall. She +begged for it very earnestly. As it was an old and almost +worthless instrument, it was given her. A little later it was +reported that the dilapidated guitar had been purchased by a well- +known gentleman for a thousand francs. The explanation soon +followed. Rachel had declared that it was the very guitar with +which she used to earn her living as a child in the streets of +Paris. As a memento its value sprang from twenty francs to a +thousand. + +It has always been a mystery what Rachel did with the great sums +of money which she made in various ways. She never was well +dressed; and as for her costumes on the stage, they were furnished +by the theater. When her effects were sold at public auction after +her death her furniture was worse than commonplace, and her +pictures and ornaments were worthless, except such as had been +given her. She must have made millions of francs, and yet she had +very little to leave behind her. + +Some say that her brother Raphael, who acted as her personal +manager, was a spendthrift; but if so, there are many reasons for +thinking that it was not his sister's money that he spent. Others +say that Rachel gambled in stocks, but there is no evidence of it. +The only thing that is certain is the fact that she was almost +always in want of money. Her mother, in all probability, managed +to get hold of most of her earnings. + +Much may have been lost through her caprices. One instance may be +cited. She had received an offer of three hundred thousand francs +to act at St. Petersburg, and was on her way there when she passed +through Potsdam, near Berlin. The King of Prussia was entertaining +the Russian Czar. An invitation was sent to her in the shape of a +royal command to appear before these monarchs and their guests. +For some reason or other Rachel absolutely refused. She would +listen to no arguments. She would go on to St. Petersburg without +delay. + +"But," it was said to her, "if you refuse to appear before the +Czar at Potsdam all the theaters in St. Petersburg will be closed +against you, because you will have insulted the emperor. In this +way you will be out the expenses of your journey and also the +three hundred thousand francs." + +Rachel remained stubborn as before; but in about half an hour she +suddenly declared that she would recite before the two monarchs, +which she subsequently did, to the satisfaction of everybody. Some +one said to her not long after: + +"I knew that you would do it. You weren't going to give up the +three hundred thousand francs and all your travelling expenses." + +"You are quite wrong," returned Rachel, "though of course you will +not believe me. I did not care at all about the money and was +going back to France. It was something that I heard which made me +change my mind. Do you want to know what it was? Well, after all +the arguments were over some one informed me that the Czar +Nicholas was the handsomest man in Europe; and so I made up my +mind that I would stay in Potsdam long enough to see him." + +This brings us to one phase of Rachel's nature which is rather +sinister. She was absolutely hard. She seemed to have no emotions +except those which she exhibited on the stage or the impish +perversity which irritated so many of those about her. She was in +reality a product of the gutter, able to assume a demure and +modest air, but within coarse, vulgar, and careless of decency. +Yet the words of Jules Janin, which have been quoted above, +explain how she could be personally very fascinating. + +In all Rachel's career one can detect just a single strand of real +romance. It is one that makes us sorry for her, because it tells +us that her love was given where it never could be openly +requited. + +During the reign of Louis Philippe the Comte Alexandre Walewski +held many posts in the government. He was a son of the great +Napoleon. His mother was that Polish countess who had accepted +Napoleon's love because she hoped that he might set Poland free at +her desire. But Napoleon was never swerved from his well- +calculated plans by the wish of any woman, and after a time the +Countess Walewska came to love him for himself. It was she to whom +he confided secrets which he would not reveal to his own brothers. +It was she who followed him to Elba in disguise. It was her son +who was Napoleon's son, and who afterward, under the Second +Empire, was made minister of fine arts, minister of foreign +affairs, and, finally, an imperial duke. Unlike the third +Napoleon's natural half-brother, the Duc de Moray, Walewski was a +gentleman of honor and fine feeling. He never used his +relationship to secure advantages for himself. He tried to live in +a manner worthy of the great warrior who was his father. + +As minister of fine arts he had much to do with the subsidized +theaters; and in time he came to know Rachel. He was the son of +one of the greatest men who ever lived. She was the child of +roving peddlers whose early training had been in the slums of +cities and amid the smoke of bar-rooms and cafes. She was tainted +in a thousand ways, while he was a man of breeding and right +principle. She was a wandering actress; he was a great minister of +state. What could there be between these two? + +George Sand gave the explanation in an epigram which, like most +epigrams, is only partly true. She said: + +"The count's company must prove very restful to Rachel." + +What she meant was, of course, that Walewski's breeding, his +dignity and uprightness, might be regarded only as a temporary +repose for the impish, harsh-voiced, infinitely clever actress. Of +course, it was all this, but we should not take it in a mocking +sense. Rachel looked up out of her depths and gave her heart to +this high-minded nobleman. He looked down and lifted her, as it +were, so that she could forget for the time all the baseness and +the brutality that she had known, that she might put aside her +forced vivacity and the self that was not in reality her own. + +It is pitiful to think of these two, separated by a great abyss +which could not be passed except at times and hours when each was +free. But theirs was, none the less, a meeting of two souls, +strangely different in many ways, and yet appealing to each other +with a sincerity and truth which neither could show elsewhere. + +The end of poor Rachel was one of disappointment. Tempted by the +fact that Jenny Lind had made nearly two million francs by her +visit to the United States, Rachel followed her, but with slight +success, as was to be expected. Music is enjoyed by human beings +everywhere, while French classical plays, even though acted by a +genius like Rachel, could be rightly understood only by a French- +speaking people. Thus it came about that her visit to America was +only moderately successful. + +She returned to France, where the rising fame of Adelaide Ristori +was very bitter to Rachel, who had passed the zenith of her power. +She went to Egypt, but received no benefit, and in 1858 she died +near Cannes. The man who loved her, and whom she had loved in +turn, heard of her death with great emotion. He himself lived ten +years longer, and died a little while before the fall of the +Second Empire. + +THE END + + + + + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Famous Affinities of History V3, by Lyndon Orr +This file should be named ffnt310.txt or ffnt310.zip + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ffnt311.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ffnt310a.txt + +This text was produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +More information about this book is at the top of this file. + +We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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