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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Famous Affinities of History,  Vol 1-4,
+Complete, 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,  Vol 1-4, Complete
+       The Romance of Devotion
+
+Author: Lyndon Orr
+
+Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4693]
+Posting Date: December 12, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAMOUS AFFINITIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FAMOUS AFFINITIES OF HISTORY
+
+THE ROMANCE OF DEVOTION
+
+Volumes 1-4, Complete
+
+
+By Lyndon Orr
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+     THE STORY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
+
+     ABELARD AND HELOISE
+
+     QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE EARL OF LEICESTER
+
+     MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND LORD BOTHWELL
+
+     QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND THE MARQUIS MONALDESCHI
+
+     KING CHARLES II. AND NELL GWYN
+
+     MAURICE OF SAXONY AND ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR
+
+     THE STORY OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART
+
+     THE EMPRESS CATHARINE AND PRINCE POTEMKIN
+
+     MARIE ANTOINETTE AND COUNT FERSEN
+
+     THE STORY OF AARON BURR
+
+     GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT
+
+     CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND ADAM LUX
+
+     NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA
+
+     THE STORY OF PAULINE BONAPARTE
+
+     THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE AND COUNT NEIPPERG
+
+     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
+
+     DEAN SWIFT AND THE TWO ESTHERS
+
+     PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY AND MARY GODWIN
+
+     THE STORY OF THE CARLYLES
+
+     THE STORY OF THE HUGOS
+
+     THE STORY OF GEORGE SAND
+
+     THE MYSTERY OF CHARLES DICKENS
+
+     HONORE DE BALZAC AND EVELINA HANSKA
+
+     CHARLES READE AND LAURA SEYMOUR
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
+
+
+Of all love stories that are known to human history, the love story
+of Antony and Cleopatra has been for nineteen centuries the most
+remarkable. It has tasked the resources of the plastic and the graphic
+arts. It has been made the theme of poets and of prose narrators. It has
+appeared and reappeared in a thousand forms, and it appeals as much
+to the imagination to-day as it did when Antony deserted his almost
+victorious troops and hastened in a swift galley from Actium in pursuit
+of Cleopatra.
+
+The wonder of the story is explained by its extraordinary nature. Many
+men in private life have lost fortune and fame for the love of woman.
+Kings have incurred the odium of their people, and have cared nothing
+for it in comparison with the joys of sense that come from the lingering
+caresses and clinging kisses. Cold-blooded statesmen, such as Parnell,
+have lost the leadership of their party and have gone down in history
+with a clouded name because of the fascination exercised upon them by
+some woman, often far from beautiful, and yet possessing the mysterious
+power which makes the triumphs of statesmanship seem slight in
+comparison with the swiftly flying hours of pleasure.
+
+But in the case of Antony and Cleopatra alone do we find a man flinging
+away not merely the triumphs of civic honors or the headship of a
+state, but much more than these--the mastery of what was practically the
+world--in answer to the promptings of a woman's will. Hence the story
+of the Roman triumvir and the Egyptian queen is not like any other
+story that has yet been told. The sacrifice involved in it was so
+overwhelming, so instantaneous, and so complete as to set this narrative
+above all others. Shakespeare's genius has touched it with the glory
+of a great imagination. Dryden, using it in the finest of his plays,
+expressed its nature in the title "All for Love."
+
+The distinguished Italian historian, Signor Ferrero, the author of many
+books, has tried hard to eliminate nearly all the romantic elements
+from the tale, and to have us see in it not the triumph of love, but
+the blindness of ambition. Under his handling it becomes almost a sordid
+drama of man's pursuit of power and of woman's selfishness. Let us
+review the story as it remains, even after we have taken full account
+of Ferrero's criticism. Has the world for nineteen hundred years been
+blinded by a show of sentiment? Has it so absolutely been misled by
+those who lived and wrote in the days which followed closely on the
+events that make up this extraordinary narrative?
+
+In answering these questions we must consider, in the first place,
+the scene, and, in the second place, the psychology of the two central
+characters who for so long a time have been regarded as the very
+embodiment of unchecked passion.
+
+As to the scene, it must be remembered that the Egypt of those days
+was not Egyptian as we understand the word, but rather Greek. Cleopatra
+herself was of Greek descent. The kingdom of Egypt had been created by a
+general of Alexander the Great after that splendid warrior's death.
+Its capital, the most brilliant city of the Greco-Roman world, had been
+founded by Alexander himself, who gave to it his name. With his
+own hands he traced out the limits of the city and issued the most
+peremptory orders that it should be made the metropolis of the entire
+world. The orders of a king cannot give enduring greatness to a city;
+but Alexander's keen eye and marvelous brain saw at once that the site
+of Alexandria was such that a great commercial community planted there
+would live and flourish throughout out succeeding ages. He was right;
+for within a century this new capital of Egypt leaped to the forefront
+among the exchanges of the world's commerce, while everything that art
+could do was lavished on its embellishment.
+
+Alexandria lay upon a projecting tongue of land so situated that the
+whole trade of the Mediterranean centered there. Down the Nile there
+floated to its gates the barbaric wealth of Africa. To it came the
+treasures of the East, brought from afar by caravans--silks from China,
+spices and pearls from India, and enormous masses of gold and silver
+from lands scarcely known. In its harbor were the vessels of every
+country, from Asia in the East to Spain and Gaul and even Britain in the
+West.
+
+When Cleopatra, a young girl of seventeen, succeeded to the throne of
+Egypt the population of Alexandria amounted to a million souls. The
+customs duties collected at the port would, in terms of modern money,
+amount each year to more than thirty million dollars, even though the
+imposts were not heavy. The people, who may be described as Greek at
+the top and Oriental at the bottom, were boisterous and pleasure-loving,
+devoted to splendid spectacles, with horse-racing, gambling, and
+dissipation; yet at the same time they were an artistic people, loving
+music passionately, and by no means idle, since one part of the city was
+devoted to large and prosperous manufactories of linen, paper, glass,
+and muslin.
+
+To the outward eye Alexandria was extremely beautiful. Through its
+entire length ran two great boulevards, shaded and diversified by
+mighty trees and parterres of multicolored flowers, amid which fountains
+plashed and costly marbles gleamed. One-fifth of the whole city was
+known as the Royal Residence. In it were the palaces of the reigning
+family, the great museum, and the famous library which the Arabs later
+burned. There were parks and gardens brilliant with tropical foliage and
+adorned with the masterpieces of Grecian sculpture, while sphinxes
+and obelisks gave a suggestion of Oriental strangeness. As one looked
+seaward his eye beheld over the blue water the snow-white rocks of the
+sheltering island, Pharos, on which was reared a lighthouse four hundred
+feet in height and justly numbered among the seven wonders of the world.
+Altogether, Alexandria was a city of wealth, of beauty, of stirring
+life, of excitement, and of pleasure. Ferrero has aptly likened it to
+Paris--not so much the Paris of to-day as the Paris of forty years ago,
+when the Second Empire flourished in all its splendor as the home of joy
+and strange delights.
+
+Over the country of which Alexandria was the capital Cleopatra came to
+reign at seventeen. Following the odd custom which the Greek dynasty of
+the Ptolemies had inherited from their Egyptian predecessors, she was
+betrothed to her own brother. He, however, was a mere child of less than
+twelve, and was under the control of evil counselors, who, in his name,
+gained control of the capital and drove Cleopatra into exile. Until then
+she had been a mere girl; but now the spirit of a woman who was wronged
+blazed up in her and called out all her latent powers. Hastening to
+Syria, she gathered about herself an army and led it against her foes.
+
+But meanwhile Julius Caesar, the greatest man of ancient times, had
+arrived at Alexandria backed by an army of his veterans. Against him
+no resistance would avail. Then came a brief moment during which the
+Egyptian king and the Egyptian queen each strove to win the favor of
+the Roman imperator. The king and his advisers had many arts, and so had
+Cleopatra. One thing, however, she possessed which struck the balance in
+her favor, and this was a woman's fascination.
+
+According to the story, Caesar was unwilling to receive her. There came
+into his presence, as he sat in the palace, a group of slaves bearing
+a long roll of matting, bound carefully and seeming to contain some
+precious work of art. The slaves made signs that they were bearing a
+gift to Caesar. The master of Egypt bade them unwrap the gift that he
+might see it. They did so, and out of the wrapping came Cleopatra--a
+radiant vision, appealing, irresistible. Next morning it became known
+everywhere that Cleopatra had remained in Caesar's quarters through the
+night and that her enemies were now his enemies. In desperation they
+rushed upon his legions, casting aside all pretense of amity. There
+ensued a fierce contest, but the revolt was quenched in blood.
+
+This was a crucial moment in Cleopatra's life. She had sacrificed all
+that a woman has to give; but she had not done so from any love of
+pleasure or from wantonness. She was queen of Egypt, and she had
+redeemed her kingdom and kept it by her sacrifice. One should not
+condemn her too severely. In a sense, her act was one of heroism like
+that of Judith in the tent of Holofernes. But beyond all question it
+changed her character. It taught her the secret of her own great power.
+Henceforth she was no longer a mere girl, nor a woman of the ordinary
+type. Her contact with so great a mind as Caesar's quickened her
+intellect. Her knowledge that, by the charms of sense, she had mastered
+even him transformed her into a strange and wonderful creature. She
+learned to study the weaknesses of men, to play on their emotions, to
+appeal to every subtle taste and fancy. In her were blended mental power
+and that illusive, indefinable gift which is called charm.
+
+For Cleopatra was never beautiful. Signor Ferrero seems to think this
+fact to be discovery of his own, but it was set down by Plutarch in a
+very striking passage written less than a century after Cleopatra and
+Antony died. We may quote here what the Greek historian said of her:
+
+Her actual beauty was far from being so remarkable that none could be
+compared with her, nor was it such that it would strike your fancy when
+you saw her first. Yet the influence of her presence, if you lingered
+near her, was irresistible. Her attractive personality, joined with the
+charm of her conversation, and the individual touch that she gave to
+everything she said or did, were utterly bewitching. It was delightful
+merely to hear the music of her voice, with which, like an instrument of
+many strings, she could pass from one language to another.
+
+Caesar had left Cleopatra firmly seated on the throne of Egypt. For
+six years she reigned with great intelligence, keeping order in her
+dominions, and patronizing with discrimination both arts and letters.
+But ere long the convulsions of the Roman state once more caused her
+extreme anxiety. Caesar had been assassinated, and there ensued a
+period of civil war. Out of it emerged two striking figures which were
+absolutely contrasted in their character. One was Octavian, the adopted
+son of Caesar, a man who, though still quite young and possessed of
+great ability, was cunning, cold-blooded, and deceitful. The other
+was Antony, a soldier by training, and with all a soldier's bluntness,
+courage, and lawlessness.
+
+The Roman world was divided for the time between these two men, Antony
+receiving the government of the East, Octavian that of the West. In the
+year which had preceded this division Cleopatra had wavered between the
+two opposite factions at Rome. In so doing she had excited the suspicion
+of Antony, and he now demanded of her an explanation.
+
+One must have some conception of Antony himself in order to understand
+the events that followed. He was essentially a soldier, of excellent
+family, being related to Caesar himself. As a very young man he was
+exceedingly handsome, and bad companions led him into the pursuit of
+vicious pleasure. He had scarcely come of age when he found that he owed
+the enormous sum of two hundred and fifty talents, equivalent to half a
+million dollars in the money of to-day. But he was much more than a mere
+man of pleasure, given over to drinking and to dissipation. Men might
+tell of his escapades, as when he drove about the streets of Rome in a
+common cab, dangling his legs out of the window while he shouted forth
+drunken songs of revelry. This was not the whole of Antony. Joining the
+Roman army in Syria, he showed himself to be a soldier of great personal
+bravery, a clever strategist, and also humane and merciful in the hour
+of victory.
+
+Unlike most Romans, Antony wore a full beard. His forehead was large,
+and his nose was of the distinctive Roman type. His look was so bold and
+masculine that people likened him to Hercules. His democratic manners
+endeared him to the army. He wore a plain tunic covered with a
+large, coarse mantle, and carried a huge sword at his side, despising
+ostentation. Even his faults and follies added to his popularity. He
+would sit down at the common soldiers' mess and drink with them, telling
+them stories and clapping them on the back. He spent money like water,
+quickly recognizing any daring deed which his legionaries performed. In
+this respect he was like Napoleon; and, like Napoleon, he had a vein of
+florid eloquence which was criticized by literary men, but which went
+straight to the heart of the private soldier. In a word, he was a
+powerful, virile, passionate, able man, rough, as were nearly all his
+countrymen, but strong and true.
+
+It was to this general that Cleopatra was to answer, and with a firm
+reliance on the charms which had subdued Antony's great commander,
+Caesar, she set out in person for Cilicia, in Asia Minor, sailing up
+the river Cydnus to the place where Antony was encamped with his army.
+Making all allowance for the exaggeration of historians, there can be
+no doubt that she appeared to him like some dreamy vision. Her barge was
+gilded, and was wafted on its way by swelling sails of Tyrian purple.
+The oars which smote the water were of shining silver. As she drew
+near the Roman general's camp the languorous music of flutes and harps
+breathed forth a strain of invitation.
+
+Cleopatra herself lay upon a divan set upon the deck of the barge
+beneath a canopy of woven gold. She was dressed to resemble Venus, while
+girls about her personated nymphs and Graces. Delicate perfumes diffused
+themselves from the vessel; and at last, as she drew near the shore, all
+the people for miles about were gathered there, leaving Antony to sit
+alone in the tribunal where he was dispensing justice.
+
+Word was brought to him that Venus had come to feast with Bacchus.
+Antony, though still suspicious of Cleopatra, sent her an invitation
+to dine with him in state. With graceful tact she sent him a
+counter-invitation, and he came. The magnificence of his reception
+dazzled the man who had so long known only a soldier's fare, or at
+most the crude entertainments which he had enjoyed in Rome. A marvelous
+display of lights was made. Thousands upon thousands of candles shone
+brilliantly, arranged in squares and circles; while the banquet itself
+was one that symbolized the studied luxury of the East.
+
+At this time Cleopatra was twenty-seven years of age--a period of life
+which modern physiologists have called the crisis in a woman's growth.
+She had never really loved before, since she had given herself to
+Caesar, not because she cared for him, but to save her kingdom. She now
+came into the presence of one whose manly beauty and strong passions
+were matched by her own subtlety and appealing charm.
+
+When Antony addressed her he felt himself a rustic in her presence.
+Almost resentful, he betook himself to the coarse language of the camp.
+Cleopatra, with marvelous adaptability, took her tone from his, and thus
+in a moment put him at his ease. Ferrero, who takes a most unfavorable
+view of her character and personality, nevertheless explains the secret
+of her fascination:
+
+Herself utterly cold and callous, insensitive by nature to the flame of
+true devotion, Cleopatra was one of those women gifted with an unerring
+instinct for all the various roads to men's affections. She could be the
+shrinking, modest girl, too shy to reveal her half-unconscious emotions
+of jealousy and depression and self-abandonment, or a woman carried away
+by the sweep of a fiery and uncontrollable passion. She could tickle the
+esthetic sensibilities of her victims by rich and gorgeous festivals,
+by the fantastic adornment of her own person and her palace, or by
+brilliant discussions on literature and art; she could conjure up all
+their grossest instincts with the vilest obscenities of conversation,
+with the free and easy jocularity of a woman of the camps.
+
+These last words are far too strong, and they represent only Ferrero's
+personal opinion; yet there is no doubt that she met every mood of
+Antony's so that he became enthralled with her at once. No such woman as
+this had ever cast her eyes on him before. He had a wife at home--a most
+disreputable wife--so that he cared little for domestic ties. Later,
+out of policy, he made another marriage with the sister of his rival,
+Octavian, but this wife he never cared for. His heart and soul were
+given up to Cleopatra, the woman who could be a comrade in the camp and
+a fount of tenderness in their hours of dalliance, and who possessed the
+keen intellect of a man joined to the arts and fascinations of a woman.
+
+On her side she found in Antony an ardent lover, a man of vigorous
+masculinity, and, moreover, a soldier whose armies might well sustain
+her on the throne of Egypt. That there was calculation mingled with her
+love, no one can doubt. That some calculation also entered into Antony's
+affection is likewise certain. Yet this does not affect the truth that
+each was wholly given to the other. Why should it have lessened her love
+for him to feel that he could protect her and defend her? Why should it
+have lessened his love for her to know that she was queen of the richest
+country in the world--one that could supply his needs, sustain his
+armies, and gild his triumphs with magnificence?
+
+There are many instances in history of regnant queens who loved and yet
+whose love was not dissociated from the policy of state. Such were Anne
+of Austria, Elizabeth of England, and the unfortunate Mary Stuart. Such,
+too, we cannot fail to think, was Cleopatra.
+
+The two remained together for ten years. In this time Antony was
+separated from her only during a campaign in the East. In Alexandria he
+ceased to seem a Roman citizen and gave himself up wholly to the charms
+of this enticing woman. Many stories are told of their good fellowship
+and close intimacy. Plutarch quotes Plato as saying that there are four
+kinds of flattery, but he adds that Cleopatra had a thousand. She was
+the supreme mistress of the art of pleasing.
+
+Whether Antony were serious or mirthful, she had at the instant some new
+delight or some new charm to meet his wishes. At every turn she was with
+him both day and night. With him she threw dice; with him she drank;
+with him she hunted; and when he exercised himself in arms she was there
+to admire and applaud.
+
+At night the pair would disguise themselves as servants and wander about
+the streets of Alexandria. In fact, more than once they were set upon in
+the slums and treated roughly by the rabble who did not recognize them.
+Cleopatra was always alluring, always tactful, often humorous, and full
+of frolic.
+
+Then came the shock of Antony's final breach with Octavian. Either
+Antony or his rival must rule the world. Cleopatra's lover once more
+became the Roman general, and with a great fleet proceeded to the coast
+of Greece, where his enemy was encamped. Antony had raised a hundred and
+twelve thousand troops and five hundred ships--a force far superior to
+that commanded by Octavian. Cleopatra was there with sixty ships.
+
+In the days that preceded the final battle much took place which still
+remains obscure. It seems likely that Antony desired to become again
+the Roman, while Cleopatra wished him to thrust Rome aside and return to
+Egypt with her, to reign there as an independent king. To her Rome was
+almost a barbarian city. In it she could not hold sway as she could
+in her beautiful Alexandria, with its blue skies and velvet turf and
+tropical flowers. At Rome Antony would be distracted by the cares of
+state, and she would lose her lover. At Alexandria she would have him
+for her very own.
+
+The clash came when the hostile fleets met off the promontory of Actium.
+At its crisis Cleopatra, prematurely concluding that the battle was
+lost, of a sudden gave the signal for retreat and put out to sea with
+her fleet. This was the crucial moment. Antony, mastered by his
+love, forgot all else, and in a swift ship started in pursuit of her,
+abandoning his fleet and army to win or lose as fortune might decide.
+For him the world was nothing; the dark-browed Queen of Egypt, imperious
+and yet caressing, was everything. Never was such a prize and never
+were such great hopes thrown carelessly away. After waiting seven days
+Antony's troops, still undefeated, finding that their commander would
+not return to them, surrendered to Octavian, who thus became the master
+of an empire.
+
+Later his legions assaulted Alexandria, and there Antony was twice
+defeated. At last Cleopatra saw her great mistake. She had made her
+lover give up the hope of being Rome's dictator, but in so doing she had
+also lost the chance of ruling with him tranquilly in Egypt. She shut
+herself behind the barred doors of the royal sepulcher; and, lest she
+should be molested there, she sent forth word that she had died. Her
+proud spirit could not brook the thought that she might be seized and
+carried as a prisoner to Rome. She was too much a queen in soul to
+be led in triumph up the Sacred Way to the Capitol with golden chains
+clanking on her slender wrists.
+
+Antony, believing the report that she was dead, fell upon his sword; but
+in his dying moments he was carried into the presence of the woman for
+whom he had given all. With her arms about him, his spirit passed away;
+and soon after she, too, met death, whether by a poisoned draught or by
+the storied asp no one can say.
+
+Cleopatra had lived the mistress of a splendid kingdom. She had
+successively captivated two of the greatest men whom Rome had ever seen.
+She died, like a queen, to escape disgrace. Whatever modern critics
+may have to say concerning small details, this story still remains the
+strangest love story of which the world has any record.
+
+
+
+
+
+ABELARD AND HELOISE
+
+Many a woman, amid the transports of passionate and languishing love,
+has cried out in a sort of ecstasy:
+
+"I love you as no woman ever loved a man before!"
+
+When she says this she believes it. Her whole soul is aflame with the
+ardor of emotion. It really seems to her that no one ever could have
+loved so much as she.
+
+This cry--spontaneous, untaught, sincere--has become almost one of those
+conventionalities of amorous expression which belong to the vocabulary
+of self-abandonment. Every woman who utters it, when torn by the almost
+terrible extravagance of a great love, believes that no one before her
+has ever said it, and that in her own case it is absolutely true.
+
+Yet, how many women are really faithful to the end? Very many, indeed,
+if circumstances admit of easy faithfulness. A high-souled, generous,
+ardent nature will endure an infinity of disillusionment, of misfortune,
+of neglect, and even of ill treatment. Even so, the flame, though it
+may sink low, can be revived again to burn as brightly as before. But
+in order that this may be so it is necessary that the object of such a
+wonderful devotion be alive, that he be present and visible; or, if
+he be absent, that there should still exist some hope of renewing the
+exquisite intimacy of the past.
+
+A man who is sincerely loved may be compelled to take long journeys
+which will separate him for an indefinite time from the woman who
+has given her heart to him, and she will still be constant. He may
+be imprisoned, perhaps for life, yet there is always the hope of his
+release or of his escape; and some women will be faithful to him and
+will watch for his return. But, given a situation which absolutely bars
+out hope, which sunders two souls in such a way that they can never be
+united in this world, and there we have a test so terribly severe that
+few even of the most loyal and intensely clinging lovers can endure it.
+
+Not that such a situation would lead a woman to turn to any other man
+than the one to whom she had given her very life; but we might expect
+that at least her strong desire would cool and weaken. She might cherish
+his memory among the precious souvenirs of her love life; but that she
+should still pour out the same rapturous, unstinted passion as before
+seems almost too much to believe. The annals of emotion record only one
+such instance; and so this instance has become known to all, and has
+been cherished for nearly a thousand years. It involves the story of a
+woman who did love, perhaps, as no one ever loved before or since; for
+she was subjected to this cruel test, and she met the test not alone
+completely, but triumphantly and almost fiercely.
+
+The story is, of course, the story of Abelard and Heloise. It has many
+times been falsely told. Portions of it have been omitted, and other
+portions of it have been garbled. A whole literature has grown up
+around the subject. It may well be worth our while to clear away the
+ambiguities and the doubtful points, and once more to tell it simply,
+without bias, and with a strict adherence to what seems to be the truth
+attested by authentic records.
+
+There is one circumstance connected with the story which we must
+specially note. The narrative does something more than set forth the one
+quite unimpeachable instance of unconquered constancy. It shows how, in
+the last analysis, that which touches the human heart has more vitality
+and more enduring interest than what concerns the intellect or those
+achievements of the human mind which are external to our emotional
+nature.
+
+Pierre Abelard was undoubtedly the boldest and most creative reasoner
+of his time. As a wandering teacher he drew after him thousands of
+enthusiastic students. He gave a strong impetus to learning. He was a
+marvelous logician and an accomplished orator. Among his pupils were men
+who afterward became prelates of the church and distinguished scholars.
+In the Dark Age, when the dictates of reason were almost wholly
+disregarded, he fought fearlessly for intellectual freedom. He was
+practically the founder of the University of Paris, which in turn became
+the mother of medieval and modern universities.
+
+He was, therefore, a great and striking figure in the history of
+civilization. Nevertheless he would to-day be remembered only by
+scholars and students of the Middle Ages were it not for the fact that
+he inspired the most enduring love that history records. If Heloise
+had never loved him, and if their story had not been so tragic and so
+poignant, he would be to-day only a name known to but a few. His final
+resting-place, in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise, in Paris, would not
+be sought out by thousands every year and kept bright with flowers, the
+gift of those who have themselves both loved and suffered.
+
+Pierre Abelard--or, more fully, Pierre Abelard de Palais--was a native
+of Brittany, born in the year 1079. His father was a knight, the lord of
+the manor; but Abelard cared little for the life of a petty noble; and
+so he gave up his seigniorial rights to his brothers and went forth to
+become, first of all a student, and then a public lecturer and teacher.
+
+His student days ended abruptly in Paris, where he had enrolled himself
+as the pupil of a distinguished philosopher, Guillaume de Champeaux; but
+one day Abelard engaged in a disputation with his master. His wonderful
+combination of eloquence, logic, and originality utterly routed
+Champeaux, who was thus humiliated in the presence of his disciples. He
+was the first of many enemies that Abelard was destined to make in his
+long and stormy career. From that moment the young Breton himself set
+up as a teacher of philosophy, and the brilliancy of his discourses soon
+drew to him throngs of students from all over Europe.
+
+Before proceeding with the story of Abelard it is well to reconstruct,
+however slightly, a picture of the times in which he lived. It was an
+age when Western Europe was but partly civilized. Pedantry and learning
+of the most minute sort existed side by side with the most violent
+excesses of medieval barbarism. The Church had undertaken the gigantic
+task of subduing and enlightening the semi-pagan peoples of France and
+Germany and England.
+
+When we look back at that period some will unjustly censure Rome for not
+controlling more completely the savagery of the medievals. More fairly
+should we wonder at the great measure of success which had already
+been achieved. The leaven of a true Christianity was working in the
+half-pagan populations. It had not yet completely reached the nobles and
+the knights, or even all the ecclesiastics who served it and who were
+consecrated to its mission. Thus, amid a sort of political chaos
+were seen the glaring evils of feudalism. Kings and princes and their
+followers lived the lives of swine. Private blood-feuds were regarded
+lightly. There was as yet no single central power. Every man carried his
+life in his hand, trusting to sword and dagger for protection.
+
+The cities were still mere hamlets clustered around great castles or
+fortified cathedrals. In Paris itself the network of dark lanes,
+ill lighted and unguarded, was the scene of midnight murder and
+assassination. In the winter-time wolves infested the town by night.
+Men-at-arms, with torches and spears, often had to march out from their
+barracks to assail the snarling, yelping packs of savage animals that
+hunger drove from the surrounding forests.
+
+Paris of the twelfth century was typical of France itself, which was
+harried by human wolves intent on rapine and wanton plunder. There were
+great schools of theology, but the students who attended them fought and
+slashed one another. If a man's life was threatened he must protect it
+by his own strength or by gathering about him a band of friends. No
+one was safe. No one was tolerant. Very few were free from the grosser
+vices. Even in some of the religious houses the brothers would meet
+at night for unseemly revels, splashing the stone floors with wine and
+shrieking in a delirium of drunkenness. The rules of the Church enjoined
+temperance, continence, and celibacy; but the decrees of Leo IX. and
+Nicholas II. and Alexander II. and Gregory were only partially observed.
+
+In fact, Europe was in a state of chaos--political and moral and social.
+Only very slowly was order emerging from sheer anarchy. We must remember
+this when we recall some facts which meet us in the story of Abelard and
+Heloise.
+
+The jealousy of Champeaux drove Abelard for a time from Paris. He taught
+and lectured at several other centers of learning, always admired, and
+yet at the same time denounced by many for his advocacy of reason as
+against blind faith. During the years of his wandering he came to have
+a wide knowledge of the world and of human nature. If we try to imagine
+him as he was in his thirty-fifth year we shall find in him a remarkable
+combination of attractive qualities.
+
+It must be remembered that though, in a sense, he was an ecclesiastic,
+he had not yet been ordained to the priesthood, but was rather a
+canon--a person who did not belong to any religious order, though he was
+supposed to live according to a definite set of religious rules and as a
+member of a religious community. Abelard, however, made rather light
+of his churchly associations. He was at once an accomplished man of the
+world and a profound scholar. There was nothing of the recluse about
+him. He mingled with his fellow men, whom he dominated by the charm of
+his personality. He was eloquent, ardent, and persuasive. He could turn
+a delicate compliment as skilfully as he could elaborate a syllogism.
+His rich voice had in it a seductive quality which was never without its
+effect.
+
+Handsome and well formed, he possessed as much vigor of body as of mind.
+Nor were his accomplishments entirely those of the scholar. He wrote
+dainty verses, which he also set to music, and which he sang himself
+with a rare skill. Some have called him "the first of the troubadours,"
+and many who cared nothing for his skill in logic admired him for
+his gifts as a musician and a poet. Altogether, he was one to attract
+attention wherever he went, for none could fail to recognize his power.
+
+It was soon after his thirty-fifth year that he returned to Paris, where
+he was welcomed by thousands. With much tact he reconciled himself to
+his enemies, so that his life now seemed to be full of promise and of
+sunshine.
+
+It was at this time that he became acquainted with a very beautiful
+young girl named Heloise. She was only eighteen years of age, yet
+already she possessed not only beauty, but many accomplishments which
+were then quite rare in women, since she both wrote and spoke a number
+of languages, and, like Abelard, was a lover of music and poetry.
+Heloise was the illegitimate daughter of a canon of patrician blood; so
+that she is said to have been a worthy representative of the noble house
+of the Montmorencys--famous throughout French history for chivalry and
+charm.
+
+Up to this time we do not know precisely what sort of life Abelard
+had lived in private. His enemies declared that he had squandered his
+substance in vicious ways. His friends denied this, and represented
+him as strict and chaste. The truth probably lies between these two
+assertions. He was naturally a pleasure-loving man of the world, who may
+very possibly have relieved his severer studies by occasional revelry
+and light love. It is not at all likely that he was addicted to gross
+passions and low practices.
+
+But such as he was, when he first saw Heloise he conceived for her
+a violent attachment. Carefully guarded in the house of her uncle,
+Fulbert, it was difficult at first for Abelard to meet her save in the
+most casual way; yet every time that he heard her exquisite voice and
+watched her graceful manners he became more and more infatuated. His
+studies suddenly seemed tame and colorless beside the fierce scarlet
+flame which blazed up in his heart.
+
+Nevertheless, it was because of these studies and of his great
+reputation as a scholar that he managed to obtain access to Heloise. He
+flattered her uncle and made a chance proposal that he should himself
+become an inmate of Fulbert's household in order that he might teach
+this girl of so much promise. Such an offer coming from so brilliant a
+man was joyfully accepted.
+
+From that time Abelard could visit Heloise without restraint. He was
+her teacher, and the two spent hours together, nominally in the study of
+Greek and Hebrew; but doubtless very little was said between them
+upon such unattractive subjects. On the contrary, with all his wide
+experience of life, his eloquence, his perfect manners, and his
+fascination, Abelard put forth his power to captivate the senses of
+a girl still in her teens and quite ignorant of the world. As Remusat
+says, he employed to win her the genius which had overwhelmed all the
+great centers of learning in the Western world.
+
+It was then that the pleasures of knowledge, the joys of thought, the
+emotions of eloquence, were all called into play to charm and move and
+plunge into a profound and strange intoxication this noble and tender
+heart which had never known either love or sorrow.... One can imagine
+that everything helped on the inevitable end. Their studies gave them
+opportunities to see each other freely, and also permitted them to be
+alone together. Then their books lay open between them; but either long
+periods of silence stilled their reading, or else words of deepening
+intimacy made them forget their studies altogether. The eyes of the two
+lovers turned from the book to mingle their glances, and then to turn
+away in a confusion that was conscious.
+
+Hand would touch hand, apparently by accident; and when conversation
+ceased, Abelard would often hear the long, quivering sigh which showed
+the strange, half-frightened, and yet exquisite joy which Heloise
+experienced.
+
+It was not long before the girl's heart had been wholly won. Transported
+by her emotion, she met the caresses of her lover with those as
+unrestrained as his. Her very innocence deprived her of the protection
+which older women would have had. All was given freely, and even
+wildly, by Heloise; and all was taken by Abelard, who afterward himself
+declared:
+
+"The pleasure of teaching her to love surpassed the delightful fragrance
+of all the perfumes in the world."
+
+Yet these two could not always live in a paradise which was entirely
+their own. The world of Paris took notice of their close association.
+Some poems written to Heloise by Abelard, as if in letters of fire, were
+found and shown to Fulbert, who, until this time, had suspected nothing.
+Angrily he ordered Abelard to leave his house. He forbade his niece to
+see her lover any more.
+
+But the two could not be separated; and, indeed, there was good reason
+why they should still cling together. Secretly Heloise left her uncle's
+house and fled through the narrow lanes of Paris to the dwelling of
+Abelard's sister, Denyse, where Abelard himself was living. There,
+presently, the young girl gave birth to a son, who was named Astrolabe,
+after an instrument used by astronomers, since both the father and
+the mother felt that the offspring of so great a love should have no
+ordinary name.
+
+Fulbert was furious, and rightly so. His hospitality had been outraged
+and his niece dishonored. He insisted that the pair should at once
+be married. Here was revealed a certain weakness in the character of
+Abelard. He consented to the marriage, but insisted that it should be
+kept an utter secret.
+
+Oddly enough, it was Heloise herself who objected to becoming the wife
+of the man she loved. Unselfishness could go no farther. She saw that,
+were he to marry her, his advancement in the Church would be almost
+impossible; for, while the very minor clergy sometimes married in spite
+of the papal bulls, matrimony was becoming a fatal bar to ecclesiastical
+promotion. And so Heloise pleaded pitifully, both with her uncle and
+with Abelard, that there should be no marriage. She would rather bear
+all manner of disgrace than stand in the way of Abelard's advancement.
+
+He has himself given some of the words in which she pleaded with him:
+
+What glory shall I win from you, when I have made you quite inglorious
+and have humbled both of us? What vengeance will the world inflict on
+me if I deprive it of one so brilliant? What curses will follow such a
+marriage? How outrageous would it be that you, whom nature created for
+the universal good, should be devoted to one woman and plunged into such
+disgrace? I loathe the thought of a marriage which would humiliate you.
+
+Indeed, every possible effort which another woman in her place would
+employ to make him marry her she used in order to dissuade him. Finally,
+her sweet face streaming with tears, she uttered that tremendous
+sentence which makes one really think that she loved him as no other
+woman ever loved a man. She cried out, in an agony of self-sacrifice:
+
+"I would rather be your mistress than the wife even of an emperor!"
+
+Nevertheless, the two were married, and Abelard returned to his
+lecture-room and to his studies. For months they met but seldom.
+Meanwhile, however, the taunts and innuendos directed against Heloise
+so irritated Fulbert that he broke his promise of secrecy, and told his
+friends that Abelard and Heloise were man and wife. They went to Heloise
+for confirmation. Once more she showed in an extraordinary way the depth
+of her devotion.
+
+"I am no wife," she said. "It is not true that Abelard has married me.
+My uncle merely tells you this to save my reputation."
+
+They asked her whether she would swear to this; and, without a moment's
+hesitation, this pure and noble woman took an oath upon the Scriptures
+that there had been no marriage.
+
+Fulbert was enraged by this. He ill-treated Heloise, and, furthermore,
+he forbade Abelard to visit her. The girl, therefore, again left her
+uncle's house and betook herself to a convent just outside of Paris,
+where she assumed the habit of a nun as a disguise. There Abelard
+continued from time to time to meet her.
+
+When Fulbert heard of this he put his own interpretation on it. He
+believed that Abelard intended to ignore the marriage altogether, and
+that possibly he might even marry some other woman. In any case, he now
+hated Abelard with all his heart; and he resolved to take a fearful and
+unnatural vengeance which would at once prevent his enemy from making
+any other marriage, while at the same time it would debar him from
+ecclesiastical preferment.
+
+To carry out his plot Fulbert first bribed a man who was the
+body-servant of Abelard, watching at the door of his room each night.
+Then he hired the services of four ruffians. After Abelard had retired
+and was deep in slumber the treacherous valet unbarred the door. The
+hirelings of Fulbert entered and fell upon the sleeping man. Three of
+them bound him fast, while the fourth, with a razor, inflicted on him
+the most shameful mutilation that is possible. Then, extinguishing
+the lights, the wretches slunk away and were lost in darkness, leaving
+behind their victim bound to his couch, uttering cries of torment and
+bathed in his own blood.
+
+It is a shocking story, and yet it is intensely characteristic of the
+lawless and barbarous era in which it happened. Early the next morning
+the news flew rapidly through Paris. The city hummed like a bee-hive.
+Citizens and students and ecclesiastics poured into the street and
+surrounded the house of Abelard.
+
+"Almost the entire city," says Fulques, as quoted by McCabe, "went
+clamoring toward his house. Women wept as if each one had lost her
+husband."
+
+Unmanned though he was, Abelard still retained enough of the spirit of
+his time to seek vengeance. He, in his turn, employed ruffians whom he
+set upon the track of those who had assaulted him. The treacherous valet
+and one of Fulbert's hirelings were run down, seized, and mutilated
+precisely as Abelard had been; and their eyes were blinded. A third was
+lodged in prison. Fulbert himself was accused before one of the Church
+courts, which alone had power to punish an ecclesiastic, and all his
+goods were confiscated.
+
+But, meantime, how did it fare with Heloise? Her grief was greater than
+his own, while her love and her devotion were absolutely undiminished.
+But Abelard now showed a selfishness--and indeed, a meanness--far beyond
+any that he had before exhibited. Heloise could no more be his wife.
+He made it plain that he put no trust in her fidelity. He was unwilling
+that she should live in the world while he could not; and so he told
+her sternly that she must take the veil and bury herself for ever in a
+nunnery.
+
+The pain and shame which she experienced at this came wholly from the
+fact that evidently Abelard did not trust her. Long afterward she wrote:
+
+God knows I should not have hesitated, at your command, to precede or to
+follow you to hell itself!
+
+It was his distrust that cut her to the heart. Still, her love for him
+was so intense that she obeyed his order. Soon after she took the vows;
+and in the convent chapel, shaken with sobs, she knelt before the altar
+and assumed the veil of a cloistered nun. Abelard himself put on the
+black tunic of a Benedictine monk and entered the Abbey of St. Denis.
+
+It is unnecessary here to follow out all the details of the lives of
+Abelard and Heloise after this heart-rendering scene. Abelard
+passed through many years of strife and disappointment, and even of
+humiliation; for on one occasion, just as he had silenced Guillaume
+de Champeaux, so he himself was silenced and put to rout by Bernard of
+Clairvaux--"a frail, tense, absorbed, dominant little man, whose face
+was white and worn with suffering," but in whose eyes there was a
+light of supreme strength. Bernard represented pure faith, as Abelard
+represented pure reason; and the two men met before a great council to
+match their respective powers.
+
+Bernard, with fiery eloquence, brought a charge of heresy against
+Abelard in an oration which was like a charge of cavalry. When he had
+concluded Abelard rose with an ashen face, stammered out a few words,
+and sat down. He was condemned by the council, and his works were
+ordered to be burned.
+
+All his later life was one of misfortune, of humiliation, and even of
+personal danger. The reckless monks whom he tried to rule rose fiercely
+against him. His life was threatened. He betook himself to a desolate
+and lonely place, where he built for himself a hut of reeds and rushes,
+hoping to spend his final years in meditation. But there were many who
+had not forgotten his ability as a teacher. These flocked by hundreds
+to the desert place where he abode. His hut was surrounded by tents and
+rude hovels, built by his scholars for their shelter.
+
+Thus Abelard resumed his teaching, though in a very different frame of
+mind. In time he built a structure of wood and stone, which he called
+the Paraclete, some remains of which can still be seen.
+
+All this time no word had passed between him and Heloise. But presently
+Abelard wrote and gave to the world a curious and exceedingly frank
+book, which he called The Story of My Misfortunes. A copy of it reached
+the hands of Heloise, and she at once sent to Abelard the first of a
+series of letters which have remained unique in the literature of love.
+
+Ten years had passed, and yet the woman's heart was as faithful and as
+full of yearning as on the day when the two had parted. It has been
+said that the letters are not genuine, and they must be read with this
+assertion in mind; yet it is difficult to believe that any one save
+Heloise herself could have flung a human soul into such frankly
+passionate utterances, or that any imitator could have done the work.
+
+In her first letter, which was sent to Abelard written upon parchment,
+she said:
+
+At thy command I would change, not merely my costume, but my very soul,
+so entirely art thou the sole possessor of my body and my spirit. Never,
+God is my witness, never have I sought anything in thee but thyself;
+I have sought thee, and not thy gifts. I have not looked to the
+marriage-bond or dowry.
+
+She begged him to write to her, and to lead her to God, as once he had
+led her into the mysteries of pleasure. Abelard answered in a letter,
+friendly to be sure, but formal--the letter of a priest to a cloistered
+nun. The opening words of it are characteristic of the whole:
+
+To Heloise, his sister in Christ, from Abelard, her brother in Him.
+
+The letter was a long one, but throughout the whole of it the writer's
+tone was cold and prudent. Its very coldness roused her soul to a
+passionate revolt. Her second letter bursts forth in a sort of anguish:
+
+How hast thou been able to frame such thoughts, dearest? How hast thou
+found words to convey them? Oh, if I dared but call God cruel to me!
+Oh, most wretched of all creatures that I am! So sweet did I find the
+pleasures of our loving days that I cannot bring myself to reject
+them or to banish them from my memory. Wheresoever I go, they thrust
+themselves upon my vision, and rekindle the old desire.
+
+But Abelard knew only too well that not in this life could there be
+anything save spiritual love between himself and Heloise. He wrote to
+her again and again, always in the same remote and unimpassioned way.
+He tells her about the history of monasticism, and discusses with her
+matters of theology and ethics; but he never writes one word to feed
+the flame that is consuming her. The woman understood at last; and by
+degrees her letters became as calm as his--suffused, however, with a
+tenderness and feeling which showed that in her heart of hearts she was
+still entirely given to him.
+
+After some years Abelard left his dwelling at the Paraclete, and there
+was founded there a religious house of which Heloise became the abbess.
+All the world respected her for her sweetness, her wisdom, and the
+purity of her character. She made friends as easily as Abelard made
+enemies. Even Bernard, who had overthrown her husband, sought out
+Heloise to ask for her advice and counsel.
+
+Abelard died while on his way to Rome, whither he was journeying
+in order to undergo a penalty; and his body was brought back to the
+Paraclete, where it was entombed. Over it for twenty-two years Heloise
+watched with tender care; and when she died, her body was laid beside
+that of her lover.
+
+To-day their bones are mingled as she would have desired them to be
+mingled. The stones of their tomb in the great cemetery of Pere Lachaise
+were brought from the ruins of the Paraclete, and above the sarcophagus
+are two recumbent figures, the whole being the work of the artist
+Alexandra Lenoir, who died in 1836. The figure representing Heloise
+is not, however, an authentic likeness. The model for it was a lady
+belonging to a noble family of France, and the figure itself was brought
+to Pere Lachaise from the ancient College de Beauvais.
+
+The letters of Heloise have been read and imitated throughout the whole
+of the last nine centuries. Some have found in them the utterances of
+a woman whose love of love was greater than her love of God and whose
+intensity of passion nothing could subdue; and so these have condemned
+her. But others, like Chateaubriand, have more truly seen in them a pure
+and noble spirit to whom fate had been very cruel; and who was, after
+all, writing to the man who had been her lawful husband.
+
+Some of the most famous imitations of her letters are those in the
+ancient poem entitled, "The Romance of the Rose," written by Jean de
+Meung, in the thirteenth century; and in modern times her first letter
+was paraphrased by Alexander Pope, and in French by Colardeau. There
+exist in English half a dozen translations of them, with Abelard's
+replies. It is interesting to remember that practically all the other
+writings of Abelard remained unpublished and unedited until a very
+recent period. He was a remarkable figure as a philosopher and scholar;
+but the world cares for him only because he was loved by Heloise.
+
+
+
+
+
+QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE EARL OF LEICESTER
+
+
+History has many romantic stories to tell of the part which women
+have played in determining the destinies of nations. Sometimes it is
+a woman's beauty that causes the shifting of a province. Again it is
+another woman's rich possessions that incite invasion and lead to bloody
+wars. Marriages or dowries, or the refusal of marriages and the lack
+of dowries, inheritance through an heiress, the failure of a male
+succession--in these and in many other ways women have set their mark
+indelibly upon the trend of history.
+
+However, if we look over these different events we shall find that it
+is not so much the mere longing for a woman--the desire to have her as a
+queen--that has seriously affected the annals of any nation. Kings, like
+ordinary men, have paid their suit and then have ridden away repulsed,
+yet not seriously dejected. Most royal marriages are made either to
+secure the succession to a throne by a legitimate line of heirs or else
+to unite adjoining states and make a powerful kingdom out of two that
+are less powerful. But, as a rule, kings have found greater delight in
+some sheltered bower remote from courts than in the castled halls and
+well-cared-for nooks where their own wives and children have been reared
+with all the appurtenances of legitimacy.
+
+There are not many stories that hang persistently about the love-making
+of a single woman. In the case of one or another we may find an episode
+or two--something dashing, something spirited or striking, something
+brilliant and exhilarating, or something sad. But for a woman's whole
+life to be spent in courtship that meant nothing and that was only a
+clever aid to diplomacy--this is surely an unusual and really wonderful
+thing.
+
+It is the more unusual because the woman herself was not intended by
+nature to be wasted upon the cold and cheerless sport of chancellors
+and counselors and men who had no thought of her except to use her as
+a pawn. She was hot-blooded, descended from a fiery race, and one whose
+temper was quick to leap into the passion of a man.
+
+In studying this phase of the long and interesting life of Elizabeth of
+England we must notice several important facts. In the first place,
+she gave herself, above all else, to the maintenance of England--not an
+England that would be half Spanish or half French, or even partly Dutch
+and Flemish, but the Merry England of tradition--the England that was
+one and undivided, with its growing freedom of thought, its bows and
+bills, its nut-brown ale, its sturdy yeomen, and its loyalty to crown
+and Parliament. She once said, almost as in an agony:
+
+"I love England more than anything!"
+
+And one may really hold that this was true.
+
+For England she schemed and planned. For England she gave up many of her
+royal rights. For England she descended into depths of treachery. For
+England she left herself on record as an arrant liar, false, perjured,
+yet successful; and because of her success for England's sake her
+countrymen will hold her in high remembrance, since her scheming and her
+falsehood are the offenses that one pardons most readily in a woman.
+
+In the second place, it must be remembered that Elizabeth's courtships
+and pretended love-makings were almost always a part of her diplomacy.
+When not a part of her diplomacy they were a mere appendage to her
+vanity. To seem to be the flower of the English people, and to be
+surrounded by the noblest, the bravest, and the most handsome cavaliers,
+not only of her own kingdom, but of others--this was, indeed, a choice
+morsel of which she was fond of tasting, even though it meant nothing
+beyond the moment.
+
+Finally, though at times she could be very cold, and though she made
+herself still colder in order that she might play fast and loose with
+foreign suitors who played fast and loose with her--the King of
+Spain, the Duc d'Alencon, brother of the French king, with an Austrian
+archduke, with a magnificent barbarian prince of Muscovy, with Eric of
+Sweden, or any other Scandinavian suitor--she felt a woman's need for
+some nearer and more tender association to which she might give freer
+play and in which she might feel those deeper emotions without the
+danger that arises when love is mingled with diplomacy.
+
+Let us first consider a picture of the woman as she really was in order
+that we may understand her triple nature--consummate mistress of every
+art that statesmen know, and using at every moment her person as a lure;
+a vain-glorious queen who seemed to be the prey of boundless vanity;
+and, lastly, a woman who had all a woman's passion, and who could cast
+suddenly aside the check and balance which restrained her before the
+public gaze and could allow herself to give full play to the emotion
+that she inherited from the king, her father, who was himself a marvel
+of fire and impetuosity. That the daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne
+Boleyn should be a gentle, timid maiden would be to make heredity a
+farce.
+
+Elizabeth was about twenty-five years of age when she ascended the
+throne of England. It is odd that the date of her birth cannot be given
+with precision. The intrigues and disturbances of the English court,
+and the fact that she was a princess, made her birth a matter of less
+account than if there had been no male heir to the throne. At any rate,
+when she ascended it, after the deaths of her brother, King Edward
+VI., and her sister, Queen Mary, she was a woman well trained both in
+intellect and in physical development.
+
+Mr. Martin Hume, who loves to dwell upon the later years of Queen
+Elizabeth, speaks rather bitterly of her as a "painted old harridan";
+and such she may well have seemed when, at nearly seventy years of age,
+she leered and grinned a sort of skeleton smile at the handsome young
+courtiers who pretended to see in her the queen of beauty and to be
+dying for love of her.
+
+Yet, in her earlier years, when she was young and strong and impetuous,
+she deserved far different words than these. The portrait of her by
+Zucchero, which now hangs in Hampton Court, depicts her when she must
+have been of more than middle age; and still the face is one of beauty,
+though it be a strange and almost artificial beauty--one that draws,
+attracts, and, perhaps, lures you on against your will.
+
+It is interesting to compare this painting with the frank word-picture
+of a certain German agent who was sent to England by his emperor, and
+who seems to have been greatly fascinated by Queen Elizabeth. She was at
+that time in the prime of her beauty and her power. Her complexion was
+of that peculiar transparency which is seen only in the face of golden
+blondes. Her figure was fine and graceful, and her wit an accomplishment
+that would have made a woman of any rank or time remarkable. The German
+envoy says:
+
+She lives a life of such magnificence and feasting as can hardly be
+imagined, and occupies a great portion of her time with balls, banquets,
+hunting, and similar amusements, with the utmost possible display, but
+nevertheless she insists upon far greater respect being shown her than
+was exacted by Queen Mary. She summons Parliament, but lets them know
+that her orders must be obeyed in any case.
+
+If any one will look at the painting by Zucchero he will see how much is
+made of Elizabeth's hands--a distinctive feature quite as noble with the
+Tudors as is the "Hapsburg lip" among the descendants of the house of
+Austria. These were ungloved, and were very long and white, and she
+looked at them and played with them a great deal; and, indeed,
+they justified the admiration with which they were regarded by her
+flatterers.
+
+Such was the personal appearance of Elizabeth. When a young girl, we
+have still more favorable opinions of her that were written by those who
+had occasion to be near her. Not only do they record swift glimpses of
+her person, but sometimes in a word or two they give an insight into
+certain traits of mind which came out prominently in her later years.
+
+It may, perhaps, be well to view her as a woman before we regard her
+more fully as a queen. It has been said that Elizabeth inherited many
+of the traits of her father--the boldness of spirit, the rapidity of
+decision, and, at the same time, the fox-like craft which often showed
+itself when it was least expected.
+
+Henry had also, as is well known, a love of the other sex, which has
+made his reign memorable. And yet it must be noted that while he loved
+much, it was not loose love. Many a king of England, from Henry II. to
+Charles II., has offended far more than Henry VIII. Where Henry loved,
+he married; and it was the unfortunate result of these royal marriages
+that has made him seem unduly fond of women. If, however, we examine
+each one of the separate espousals we shall find that he did not enter
+into it lightly, and that he broke it off unwillingly. His ardent
+temperament, therefore, was checked by a certain rational or
+conventional propriety, so that he was by no means a loose liver, as
+many would make him out to be.
+
+We must remember this when we recall the charges that have been made
+against Elizabeth, and the strange stories that were told of her
+tricks--by no means seemly tricks--which she used to play with her
+guardian, Lord Thomas Seymour. The antics she performed with him in her
+dressing-room were made the subject of an official inquiry; yet it came
+out that while Elizabeth was less than sixteen, and Lord Thomas was very
+much her senior, his wife was with him on his visits to the chamber of
+the princess.
+
+Sir Robert Tyrwhitt and his wife were also sent to question her,
+Tyrwhitt had a keen mind and one well trained to cope with any other's
+wit in this sort of cross-examination. Elizabeth was only a girl of
+fifteen, yet she was a match for the accomplished courtier in diplomacy
+and quick retort. He was sent down to worm out of her everything that
+she knew. Threats and flattery and forged letters and false confessions
+were tried on her; but they were tried in vain. She would tell nothing
+of importance. She denied everything. She sulked, she cried, she availed
+herself of a woman's favorite defense in suddenly attacking those who
+had attacked her. She brought counter charges against Tyrwhitt, and put
+her enemies on their own defense. Not a compromising word could they
+wring out of her.
+
+She bitterly complained of the imprisonment of her governess, Mrs.
+Ashley, and cried out:
+
+"I have not so behaved that you need put more mistresses upon me!"
+
+Altogether, she was too much for Sir Robert, and he was wise enough to
+recognize her cleverness.
+
+"She hath a very good wit," said he, shrewdly; "and nothing is to be
+gotten of her except by great policy." And he added: "If I had to say
+my fancy, I think it more meet that she should have two governesses than
+one."
+
+Mr. Hume notes the fact that after the two servants of the princess had
+been examined and had told nothing very serious they found that they
+had been wise in remaining friends of the royal girl. No sooner had
+Elizabeth become queen than she knighted the man Parry and made him
+treasurer of the household, while Mrs. Ashley, the governess, was
+treated with great consideration. Thus, very naturally, Mr. Hume says:
+"They had probably kept back far more than they told."
+
+Even Tyrwhitt believed that there was a secret compact between them, for
+he said, quaintly: "They all sing one song, and she hath set the note
+for them."
+
+Soon after this her brother Edward's death brought to the throne her
+elder sister, Mary, who has harshly become known as Bloody Mary. During
+this time Elizabeth put aside her boldness, and became apparently a shy
+and simple-minded virgin. Surrounded on every side by those who sought
+to trap her, there was nothing in her bearing to make her seem the head
+of a party or the young chief of a faction. Nothing could exceed her in
+meekness. She spoke of her sister in the humblest terms. She exhibited
+no signs of the Tudor animation that was in reality so strong a part of
+her character.
+
+But, coming to the throne, she threw away her modesty and brawled and
+rioted with very little self-restraint. The people as a whole found
+little fault with her. She reminded them of her father, the bluff King
+Hal; and even those who criticized her did so only partially. They
+thought much better of her than they had of her saturnine sister, the
+first Queen Mary.
+
+The life of Elizabeth has been very oddly misunderstood, not so much for
+the facts in it as for the manner in which these have been arranged and
+the relation which they have to one another. We ought to recollect that
+this woman did not live in a restricted sphere, that her life was not
+a short one, and that it was crowded with incidents and full of vivid
+color. Some think of her as living for a short period of time and speak
+of the great historical characters who surrounded her as belonging to a
+single epoch. To them she has one set of suitors all the time--the Duc
+d'Alencon, the King of Denmark's brother, the Prince of Sweden, the
+russian potentate, the archduke sending her sweet messages from
+Austria, the melancholy King of Spain, together with a number of her
+own brilliant Englishmen--Sir William Pickering, Sir Robert Dudley, Lord
+Darnley, the Earl of Essex, Sir Philip Sidney, and Sir Walter Raleigh.
+
+Of course, as a matter of fact, Elizabeth lived for nearly seventy
+years--almost three-quarters of a century--and in that long time there
+came and went both men and women, those whom she had used and cast
+aside, with others whom she had also treated with gratitude, and who had
+died gladly serving her. But through it all there was a continual change
+in her environment, though not in her. The young soldier went to the
+battle-field and died; the wise counselor gave her his advice, and
+she either took it or cared nothing for it. She herself was a curious
+blending of forwardness and folly, of wisdom and wantonness, of
+frivolity and unbridled fancy. But through it all she loved her people,
+even though she often cheated them and made them pay her taxes in the
+harsh old way that prevailed before there was any right save the king's
+will.
+
+At the same time, this was only by fits and starts, and on the whole
+she served them well. Therefore, to most of them she was always the good
+Queen Bess. What mattered it to the ditcher and yeoman, far from the
+court, that the queen was said to dance in her nightdress and to swear
+like a trooper?
+
+It was, indeed, largely from these rustic sources that such stories were
+scattered throughout England. Peasants thought them picturesque. More
+to the point with them were peace and prosperity throughout the country,
+the fact that law was administered with honesty and justice, and that
+England was safe from her deadly enemies--the swarthy Spaniards and the
+scheming French.
+
+But, as I said, we must remember always that the Elizabeth of one period
+was not the Elizabeth of another, and that the England of one period
+was not the England of another. As one thinks of it, there is something
+wonderful in the almost star-like way in which this girl flitted
+unharmed through a thousand perils. Her own countrymen were at first
+divided against her; a score of greedy, avaricious suitors sought her
+destruction, or at least her hand to lead her to destruction; all the
+great powers of the Continent were either demanding an alliance with
+England or threatening to dash England down amid their own dissensions.
+
+What had this girl to play off against such dangers? Only an undaunted
+spirit, a scheming mind that knew no scruples, and finally her own
+person and the fact that she was a woman, and, therefore, might give
+herself in marriage and become the mother of a race of kings.
+
+It was this last weapon, the weapon of her sex, that proved, perhaps,
+the most powerful of all. By promising a marriage or by denying it, or
+by neither promising nor denying but withholding it, she gave forth a
+thousand wily intimations which kept those who surrounded her at bay
+until she had made still another deft and skilful combination, escaping
+like some startled creature to a new place of safety.
+
+In 1583, when she was fifty years of age, she had reached a point when
+her courtships and her pretended love-making were no longer necessary.
+She had played Sweden against Denmark, and France against Spain, and the
+Austrian archduke against the others, and many suitors in her own land
+against the different factions which they headed. She might have sat
+herself down to rest; for she could feel that her wisdom had led her
+up into a high place, whence she might look down in peace and with
+assurance of the tranquillity that she had won. Not yet had the great
+Armada rolled and thundered toward the English shores. But she was
+certain that her land was secure, compact, and safe.
+
+It remains to see what were those amatory relations which she may be
+said to have sincerely held. She had played at love-making with foreign
+princes, because it was wise and, for the moment, best. She had played
+with Englishmen of rank who aspired to her hand, because in that way she
+might conciliate, at one time her Catholic and at another her Protestant
+subjects. But what of the real and inward feeling of her heart, when she
+was not thinking of political problems or the necessities of state!
+
+This is an interesting question. One may at least seek the answer,
+hoping thereby to solve one of the most interesting phases of this
+perplexing and most remarkable woman.
+
+It must be remembered that it was not a question of whether Elizabeth
+desired marriage. She may have done so as involving a brilliant stroke
+of policy. In this sense she may have wished to marry one of the two
+French princes who were among her suitors. But even here she hesitated,
+and her Parliament disapproved; for by this time England had become
+largely Protestant. Again, had she married a French prince and had
+children, England might have become an appanage of France.
+
+There is no particular evidence that she had any feeling at all for her
+Flemish, Austrian, or Russian suitors, while the Swede's pretensions
+were the laughing-stock of the English court. So we may set aside this
+question of marriage as having nothing to do with her emotional life.
+She did desire a son, as was shown by her passionate outcry when she
+compared herself with Mary of Scotland.
+
+"The Queen of Scots has a bonny son, while I am but a barren stock!"
+
+She was too wise to wed a subject; though, had she married at all, her
+choice would doubtless have been an Englishman. In this respect, as in
+so many others, she was like her father, who chose his numerous wives,
+with the exception of the first, from among the English ladies of
+the court; just as the showy Edward IV. was happy in marrying "Dame
+Elizabeth Woodville." But what a king may do is by no means so easy for
+a queen; and a husband is almost certain to assume an authority which
+makes him unpopular with the subjects of his wife.
+
+Hence, as said above, we must consider not so much whom she would have
+liked to marry, but rather to whom her love went out spontaneously, and
+not as a part of that amatory play which amused her from the time when
+she frisked with Seymour down to the very last days, when she could no
+longer move about, but when she still dabbled her cheeks with rouge and
+powder and set her skeleton face amid a forest of ruffs.
+
+There were many whom she cared for after a fashion. She would not let
+Sir Walter Raleigh visit her American colonies, because she could not
+bear to have him so long away from her. She had great moments of passion
+for the Earl of Essex, though in the end she signed his death-warrant
+because he was as dominant in spirit as the queen herself.
+
+Readers of Sir Walter Scott's wonderfully picturesque novel, Kenilworth,
+will note how he throws the strongest light upon Elizabeth's affection
+for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Scott's historical instinct is
+united here with a vein of psychology which goes deeper than is usual
+with him. We see Elizabeth trying hard to share her favor equally
+between two nobles; but the Earl of Essex fails to please her because he
+lacked those exquisite manners which made Leicester so great a favorite
+with the fastidious queen.
+
+Then, too, the story of Leicester's marriage with Amy Robsart is
+something more than a myth, based upon an obscure legend and an ancient
+ballad. The earl had had such a wife, and there were sinister stories
+about the manner of her death. But it is Scott who invents the
+villainous Varney and the bulldog Anthony Foster; just as he brought
+the whole episode into the foreground and made it occur at a period much
+later than was historically true. Still, Scott felt--and he was imbued
+with the spirit and knowledge of that time--a strong conviction that
+Elizabeth loved Leicester as she really loved no one else.
+
+There is one interesting fact which goes far to convince us. Just as
+her father was, in a way, polygamous, so Elizabeth was even more truly
+polyandrous. It was inevitable that she should surround herself with
+attractive men, whose love-locks she would caress and whose flatteries
+she would greedily accept. To the outward eye there was very little
+difference in her treatment of the handsome and daring nobles of her
+court; yet a historian of her time makes one very shrewd remark when
+he says: "To every one she gave some power at times--to all save
+Leicester."
+
+Cecil and Walsingham in counsel and Essex and Raleigh in the field might
+have their own way at times, and even share the sovereign's power, but
+to Leicester she intrusted no high commands and no important mission.
+Why so? Simply because she loved him more than any of the rest; and,
+knowing this, she knew that if besides her love she granted him any
+measure of control or power, then she would be but half a queen and
+would be led either to marry him or else to let him sway her as he
+would.
+
+For the reason given, one may say with confidence that, while
+Elizabeth's light loves were fleeting, she gave a deep affection to
+this handsome, bold, and brilliant Englishman and cherished him in a far
+different way from any of the others. This was as near as she ever came
+to marriage, and it was this love at least which makes Shakespeare's
+famous line as false as it is beautiful, when he describes "the imperial
+votaress" as passing by "in maiden meditation, fancy free."
+
+
+
+
+
+MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS AND LORD BOTHWELL
+
+
+Mary Stuart and Cleopatra are the two women who have most attracted the
+fancy of poets, dramatists, novelists, and painters, from their own time
+down to the present day.
+
+In some respects there is a certain likeness in their careers. Each
+was queen of a nation whose affairs were entangled with those of a much
+greater one. Each sought for her own ideal of love until she found it.
+Each won that love recklessly, almost madly. Each, in its attainment,
+fell from power and fortune. Each died before her natural life was
+ended. One caused the man she loved to cast away the sovereignty of
+a mighty state. The other lost her own crown in order that she might
+achieve the whole desire of her heart.
+
+There is still another parallel which may be found. Each of these women
+was reputed to be exquisitely beautiful; yet each fell short of beauty's
+highest standards. They are alike remembered in song and story because
+of qualities that are far more powerful than any physical charm can be.
+They impressed the imagination of their own contemporaries just as they
+had impressed the imagination of all succeeding ages, by reason of a
+strange and irresistible fascination which no one could explain, but
+which very few could experience and resist.
+
+Mary Stuart was born six days before her father's death, and when the
+kingdom which was her heritage seemed to be almost in its death-throes.
+James V. of Scotland, half Stuart and half Tudor, was no ordinary
+monarch. As a mere boy he had burst the bonds with which a regency had
+bound him, and he had ruled the wild Scotland of the sixteenth century.
+He was brave and crafty, keen in statesmanship, and dissolute in
+pleasure.
+
+His first wife had given him no heirs; so at her death he sought out
+a princess whom he pursued all the more ardently because she was also
+courted by the burly Henry VIII. of England. This girl was Marie of
+Lorraine, daughter of the Duc de Guise. She was fit to be the mother of
+a lion's brood, for she was above six feet in height and of proportions
+so ample as to excite the admiration of the royal voluptuary who sat
+upon the throne of England.
+
+"I am big," said he, "and I want a wife who is as big as I am."
+
+But James of Scotland wooed in person, and not by embassies, and he
+triumphantly carried off his strapping princess. Henry of England gnawed
+his beard in vain; and, though in time he found consolation in another
+woman's arms, he viewed James not only as a public but as a private
+enemy.
+
+There was war between the two countries. First the Scots repelled an
+English army; but soon they were themselves disgracefully defeated at
+Solway Moss by a force much their inferior in numbers. The shame of it
+broke King James's heart. As he was galloping from the battle-field the
+news was brought him that his wife had given birth to a daughter.
+He took little notice of the message; and in a few days he had died,
+moaning with his last breath the mysterious words:
+
+"It came with a lass--with a lass it will go!"
+
+The child who was born at this ill-omened crisis was Mary Stuart, who
+within a week became, in her own right, Queen of Scotland. Her mother
+acted as regent of the kingdom. Henry of England demanded that the
+infant girl should be betrothed to his young son, Prince Edward, who
+afterward reigned as Edward VI., though he died while still a boy. The
+proposal was rejected, and the war between England and Scotland went on
+its bloody course; but meanwhile the little queen was sent to France,
+her mother's home, so that she might be trained in accomplishments which
+were rare in Scotland.
+
+In France she grew up at the court of Catherine de' Medici, that
+imperious intriguer whose splendid surroundings were tainted with the
+corruption which she had brought from her native Italy. It was, indeed,
+a singular training-school for a girl of Mary Stuart's character. She
+saw about her a superficial chivalry and a most profound depravity.
+Poets like Ronsard graced the life of the court with exquisite verse.
+Troubadours and minstrels sang sweet music there. There were fetes and
+tournaments and gallantry of bearing; yet, on the other hand, there was
+every possible refinement and variety of vice. Men were slain before
+the eyes of the queen herself. The talk of the court was of intrigue and
+lust and evil things which often verged on crime. Catherine de' Medici
+herself kept her nominal husband at arm's-length; and in order to
+maintain her grasp on France she connived at the corruption of her own
+children, three of whom were destined in their turn to sit upon the
+throne.
+
+Mary Stuart grew up in these surroundings until she was sixteen, eating
+the fruit which gave a knowledge of both good and evil. Her intelligence
+was very great. She quickly learned Italian, French, and Latin. She was
+a daring horsewoman. She was a poet and an artist even in her teens. She
+was also a keen judge of human motives, for those early years of hers
+had forced her into a womanhood that was premature but wonderful. It had
+been proposed that she should marry the eldest son of Catherine, so
+that in time the kingdom of Scotland and that of France might be united,
+while if Elizabeth of England were to die unmarried her realm also would
+fall to this pair of children.
+
+And so Mary, at sixteen, wedded the Dauphin Francis, who was a year her
+junior. The prince was a wretched, whimpering little creature, with a
+cankered body and a blighted soul. Marriage with such a husband seemed
+absurd. It never was a marriage in reality. The sickly child would cry
+all night, for he suffered from abscesses in his ears, and his manhood
+had been prematurely taken from him. Nevertheless, within a twelvemonth
+the French king died and Mary Stuart was Queen of France as well as of
+Scotland, hampered only by her nominal obedience to the sick boy whom
+she openly despised. At seventeen she showed herself a master spirit.
+She held her own against the ambitious Catherine de' Medici, whom she
+contemptuously nicknamed "the apothecary's daughter." For the brief
+period of a year she was actually the ruler of France; but then her
+husband died and she was left a widow, restless, ambitious, and yet no
+longer having any of the power she loved.
+
+Mary Stuart at this time had become a woman whose fascination was
+exerted over all who knew her. She was very tall and very slim, with
+chestnut hair, "like a flower of the heat, both lax and delicate." Her
+skin was fair and pale, so clear and so transparent as to make the story
+plausible that when she drank from a flask of wine, the red liquid could
+be seen passing down her slender throat.
+
+Yet with all this she was not fine in texture, but hardy as a man. She
+could endure immense fatigue without yielding to it. Her supple form had
+the strength of steel. There was a gleam in her hazel eyes that showed
+her to be brimful of an almost fierce vitality. Young as she was,
+she was the mistress of a thousand arts, and she exhaled a sort of
+atmosphere that turned the heads of men. The Stuart blood made her
+impatient of control, careless of state, and easy-mannered. The French
+and the Tudor strain gave her vivacity. She could be submissive in
+appearance while still persisting in her aims. She could be languorous
+and seductive while cold within. Again, she could assume the haughtiness
+which belonged to one who was twice a queen.
+
+Two motives swayed her, and they fought together for supremacy. One was
+the love of power, and the other was the love of love. The first was
+natural to a girl who was a sovereign in her own right. The second was
+inherited, and was then forced into a rank luxuriance by the sort
+of life that she had seen about her. At eighteen she was a strangely
+amorous creature, given to fondling and kissing every one about her,
+with slight discrimination. From her sense of touch she received
+emotions that were almost necessary to her existence. With her slender,
+graceful hands she was always stroking the face of some favorite--it
+might be only the face of a child, or it might be the face of some
+courtier or poet, or one of the four Marys whose names are linked with
+hers--Mary Livingstone, Mary Fleming, Mary Beaton, and Mary Seton, the
+last of whom remained with her royal mistress until her death.
+
+But one must not be too censorious in thinking of Mary Stuart. She was
+surrounded everywhere by enemies. During her stay in France she was
+hated by the faction of Catherine de' Medici. When she returned to
+Scotland she was hated because of her religion by the Protestant lords.
+Her every action was set forth in the worst possible light. The most
+sinister meaning was given to everything she said or did. In truth, we
+must reject almost all the stories which accuse her of anything more
+than a certain levity of conduct.
+
+She was not a woman to yield herself in love's last surrender unless her
+intellect and heart alike had been made captive. She would listen to the
+passionate outpourings of poets and courtiers, and she would plunge her
+eyes into theirs, and let her hair just touch their faces, and give them
+her white hands to kiss--but that was all. Even in this she was only
+following the fashion of the court where she was bred, and she was
+not unlike her royal relative, Elizabeth of England, who had the same
+external amorousness coupled with the same internal self-control.
+
+Mary Stuart's love life makes a piteous story, for it is the life of one
+who was ever seeking--seeking for the man to whom she could look up, who
+could be strong and brave and ardent like herself, and at the same time
+be more powerful and more steadfast even than she herself in mind and
+thought. Whatever may be said of her, and howsoever the facts may be
+colored by partisans, this royal girl, stung though she was by passion
+and goaded by desire, cared nothing for any man who could not match her
+in body and mind and spirit all at once.
+
+It was in her early widowhood that she first met the man, and when their
+union came it brought ruin on them both. In France there came to her
+one day one of her own subjects, the Earl of Bothwell. He was but a few
+years older than she, and in his presence for the first time she
+felt, in her own despite, that profoundly moving, indescribable, and
+never-to-be-forgotten thrill which shakes a woman to the very center of
+her being, since it is the recognition of a complete affinity.
+
+Lord Bothwell, like Queen Mary, has been terribly maligned. Unlike her,
+he has found only a few defenders. Maurice Hewlett has drawn a picture
+of him more favorable than many, and yet it is a picture that repels.
+Bothwell, says he, was of a type esteemed by those who pronounce vice
+to be their virtue. He was "a galliard, flushed with rich blood,
+broad-shouldered, square-jawed, with a laugh so happy and so prompt that
+the world, rejoicing to hear it, thought all must be well wherever
+he might be. He wore brave clothes, sat a brave horse, and kept brave
+company bravely. His high color, while it betokened high feeding, got
+him the credit of good health. His little eyes twinkled so merrily that
+you did not see they were like a pig's, sly and greedy at once, and
+bloodshot. His tawny beard concealed a jaw underhung, a chin jutting and
+dangerous. His mouth had a cruel twist; but his laughing hid that too.
+The bridge of his nose had been broken; few observed it, or guessed
+at the brawl which must have given it to him. Frankness was his great
+charm, careless ease in high places."
+
+And so, when Mary Stuart first met him in her eighteenth year, Lord
+Bothwell made her think as she had never thought of any other man, and
+as she was not to think of any other man again. She grew to look eagerly
+for the frank mockery "in those twinkling eyes, in that quick mouth";
+and to wonder whether it was with him always--asleep, at prayers,
+fighting, furious, or in love.
+
+Something more, however, must be said of Bothwell. He was undoubtedly a
+roisterer, but he was very much a man. He made easy love to women. His
+sword leaped quickly from its sheath. He could fight, and he could also
+think. He was no brawling ruffian, no ordinary rake. Remembering what
+Scotland was in those days, Bothwell might well seem in reality a
+princely figure. He knew Italian; he was at home in French; he could
+write fluent Latin. He was a collector of books and a reader of them
+also. He was perhaps the only Scottish noble of his time who had a
+book-plate of his own. Here is something more than a mere reveler. Here
+is a man of varied accomplishments and of a complex character.
+
+Though he stayed but a short time near the queen in France, he kindled
+her imagination, so that when she seriously thought of men she thought
+of Bothwell. And yet all the time she was fondling the young pages in
+her retinue and kissing her maids of honor with her scarlet lips, and
+lying on their knees, while poets like Ronsard and Chastelard wrote
+ardent love sonnets to her and sighed and pined for something more than
+the privilege of kissing her two dainty hands.
+
+In 1561, less than a year after her widowhood, Mary set sail for
+Scotland, never to return. The great high-decked ships which escorted
+her sailed into the harbor of Leith, and she pressed on to Edinburgh. A
+depressing change indeed from the sunny terraces and fields of France!
+In her own realm were fog and rain and only a hut to shelter her upon
+her landing. When she reached her capital there were few welcoming
+cheers; but as she rode over the cobblestones to Holyrood, the squalid
+wynds vomited forth great mobs of hard-featured, grim-visaged men and
+women who stared with curiosity and a half-contempt at the girl queen
+and her retinue of foreigners.
+
+The Scots were Protestants of the most dour sort, and they distrusted
+their new ruler because of her religion and because she loved to
+surround herself with dainty things and bright colors and exotic
+elegance. They feared lest she should try to repeal the law of
+Scotland's Parliament which had made the country Protestant.
+
+The very indifference of her subjects stirred up the nobler part of
+Mary's nature. For a time she was indeed a queen. She governed wisely.
+She respected the religious rights of her Protestant subjects. She
+strove to bring order out of the chaos into which her country had
+fallen. And she met with some success. The time came when her people
+cheered her as she rode among them. Her subtle fascination was her
+greatest source of strength. Even John Knox, that iron-visaged,
+stentorian preacher, fell for a time under the charm of her presence.
+She met him frankly and pleaded with him as a woman, instead of
+commanding him as a queen. The surly ranter became softened for a time,
+and, though he spoke of her to others as "Honeypot," he ruled his tongue
+in public. She had offers of marriage from Austrian and Spanish princes.
+The new King of France, her brother-in-law, would perhaps have wedded
+her. It mattered little to Mary that Elizabeth of England was hostile.
+She felt that she was strong enough to hold her own and govern Scotland.
+
+But who could govern a country such as Scotland was? It was a land of
+broils and feuds, of clan enmities and fierce vendettas. Its nobles were
+half barbarous, and they fought and slashed at one another with drawn
+dirks almost in the presence of the queen herself. No matter whom she
+favored, there rose up a swarm of enemies. Here was a Corsica of the
+north, more savage and untamed than even the other Corsica.
+
+In her perplexity Mary felt a woman's need of some man on whom she
+would have the right to lean, and whom she could make king consort.
+She thought that she had found him in the person of her cousin, Lord
+Darnley, a Catholic, and by his upbringing half an Englishman. Darnley
+came to Scotland, and for the moment Mary fancied that she had forgotten
+Bothwell. Here again she was in love with love, and she idealized the
+man who came to give it to her. Darnley seemed, indeed, well worthy to
+be loved, for he was tall and handsome, appearing well on horseback and
+having some of the accomplishments which Mary valued.
+
+It was a hasty wooing, and the queen herself was first of all the wooer.
+Her quick imagination saw in Darnley traits and gifts of which he really
+had no share. Therefore, the marriage was soon concluded, and Scotland
+had two sovereigns, King Henry and Queen Mary. So sure was Mary of her
+indifference to Bothwell that she urged the earl to marry, and he did
+marry a girl of the great house of Gordon.
+
+Mary's self-suggested love for Darnley was extinguished almost on
+her wedding-night. The man was a drunkard who came into her presence
+befuddled and almost bestial. He had no brains. His vanity was enormous.
+He loved no one but himself, and least of all this queen, whom he
+regarded as having thrown herself at his empty head.
+
+The first-fruits of the marriage were uprisings among the Protestant
+lords. Mary then showed herself a heroic queen. At the head of a
+motley band of soldiery who came at her call--half-clad, uncouth, and
+savage--she rode into the west, sleeping at night upon the bare ground,
+sharing the camp food, dressed in plain tartan, but swift and fierce
+as any eagle. Her spirit ran like fire through the veins of those who
+followed her. She crushed the insurrection, scattered its leaders, and
+returned in triumph to her capital.
+
+Now she was really queen, but here came in the other motive which was
+interwoven in her character. She had shown herself a man in courage.
+Should she not have the pleasures of a woman? To her court in Holyrood
+came Bothwell once again, and this time Mary knew that he was all the
+world to her. Darnley had shrunk from the hardships of battle. He was
+steeped in low intrigues. He roused the constant irritation of the queen
+by his folly and utter lack of sense and decency. Mary felt she owed him
+nothing, but she forgot that she owed much to herself.
+
+Her old amorous ways came back to her, and she relapsed into the joys of
+sense. The scandal-mongers of the capital saw a lover in every man
+with whom she talked. She did, in fact, set convention at defiance. She
+dressed in men's clothing. She showed what the unemotional Scots thought
+to be unseemly levity. The French poet, Chastelard, misled by her
+external signs of favor, believed himself to be her choice. At the end
+of one mad revel he was found secreted beneath her bed, and was driven
+out by force. A second time he ventured to secrete himself within the
+covers of the bed. Then he was dragged forth, imprisoned, and condemned
+to death. He met his fate without a murmur, save at the last when he
+stood upon the scaffold and, gazing toward the palace, cried in French:
+
+"Oh, cruel queen! I die for you!"
+
+Another favorite, the Italian, David Rizzio, or Riccio, in like manner
+wrote love verses to the queen, and she replied to them in kind; but
+there is no evidence that she valued him save for his ability, which
+was very great. She made him her foreign secretary, and the man whom he
+supplanted worked on the jealousy of Darnley; so that one night, while
+Mary and Rizzio were at dinner in a small private chamber, Darnley and
+the others broke in upon her. Darnley held her by the waist while Rizzio
+was stabbed before her eyes with a cruelty the greater because the queen
+was soon to become a mother.
+
+From that moment she hated Darnley as one would hate a snake. She
+tolerated him only that he might acknowledge her child as his son. This
+child was the future James VI. of Scotland and James I. of England. It
+is recorded of him that never throughout his life could he bear to look
+upon drawn steel.
+
+After this Mary summoned Bothwell again and again. It was revealed to
+her as in a blaze of light that, after all, he was the one and only
+man who could be everything to her. His frankness, his cynicism, his
+mockery, his carelessness, his courage, and the power of his mind
+matched her moods completely. She threw away all semblance of
+concealment. She ignored the fact that he had married at her wish. She
+was queen. She desired him. She must have him at any cost.
+
+"Though I lose Scotland and England both," she cried in a passion of
+abandonment, "I shall have him for my own!"
+
+Bothwell, in his turn, was nothing loath, and they leaped at each other
+like two flames.
+
+It was then that Mary wrote those letters which were afterward
+discovered in a casket and which were used against her when she was on
+trial for her life. These so-called Casket Letters, though we have
+not now the originals, are among the most extraordinary letters ever
+written. All shame, all hesitation, all innocence, are flung away in
+them. The writer is so fired with passion that each sentence is like
+a cry to a lover in the dark. As De Peyster says: "In them the animal
+instincts override and spur and lash the pen." Mary was committing to
+paper the frenzied madness of a woman consumed to her very marrow by the
+scorching blaze of unendurable desire.
+
+Events moved quickly. Darnley, convalescent from an attack of smallpox,
+was mysteriously destroyed by an explosion of gunpowder. Bothwell was
+divorced from his young wife on curious grounds. A dispensation allowed
+Mary to wed a Protestant, and she married Bothwell three months after
+Darnley's death.
+
+Here one sees the consummation of what had begun many years before
+in France. From the moment that she and Bothwell met, their union was
+inevitable. Seas could not sunder them. Other loves and other fancies
+were as nothing to them. Even the bonds of marriage were burst asunder
+so that these two fiery, panting souls could meet.
+
+It was the irony of fate that when they had so met it was only to be
+parted. Mary's subjects, outraged by her conduct, rose against her. As
+she passed through the streets of Edinburgh the women hurled after
+her indecent names. Great banners were raised with execrable daubs
+representing the murdered Darnley. The short and dreadful monosyllable
+which is familiar to us in the pages of the Bible was hurled after her
+wherever she went.
+
+With Bothwell by her side she led a wild and ragged horde of followers
+against the rebellious nobles, whose forces met her at Carberry Hill.
+Her motley followers melted away, and Mary surrendered to the hostile
+chieftains, who took her to the castle at Lochleven. There she became
+the mother of twins--a fact that is seldom mentioned by historians.
+These children were the fruit of her union with Bothwell. From this time
+forth she cared but little for herself, and she signed, without great
+reluctance, a document by which she abdicated in favor of her infant
+son.
+
+Even in this place of imprisonment, however, her fascination had power
+to charm. Among those who guarded her, two of the Douglas family--George
+Douglas and William Douglas--for love of her, effected her escape. The
+first attempt failed. Mary, disguised as a laundress, was betrayed by
+the delicacy of her hands. But a second attempt was successful. The
+queen passed through a postern gate and made her way to the lake, where
+George Douglas met her with a boat. Crossing the lake, fifty horsemen
+under Lord Claude Hamilton gave her their escort and bore her away in
+safety.
+
+But Mary was sick of Scotland, for Bothwell could not be there. She
+had tasted all the bitterness of life, and for a few months all the
+sweetness; but she would have no more of this rough and barbarous
+country. Of her own free will she crossed the Solway into England, to
+find herself at once a prisoner.
+
+Never again did she set eyes on Bothwell. After the battle of Carberry
+Hill he escaped to the north, gathered some ships together, and preyed
+upon English merchantmen, very much as a pirate might have done. Ere
+long, however, when he had learned of Mary's fate, he set sail for
+Norway. King Frederick of Denmark made him a prisoner of state. He was
+not confined within prison walls, however, but was allowed to hunt and
+ride in the vicinity of Malmo Castle and of Dragsholm. It is probably in
+Malmo Castle that he died. In 1858 a coffin which was thought to be
+the coffin of the earl was opened, and a Danish artist sketched the
+head--which corresponds quite well with the other portraits of the
+ill-fated Scottish noble.
+
+It is a sad story. Had Mary been less ambitious when she first met
+Bothwell, or had he been a little bolder, they might have reigned
+together and lived out their lives in the plenitude of that great love
+which held them both in thrall. But a queen is not as other women; and
+she found too late that the teaching of her heart was, after all, the
+truest teaching. She went to her death as Bothwell went to his, alone,
+in a strange, unfriendly land.
+
+Yet, even this, perhaps, was better so. It has at least touched both
+their lives with pathos and has made the name of Mary Stuart one to be
+remembered throughout all the ages.
+
+
+
+
+
+QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN AND THE MARQUIS MONALDESCHI
+
+
+Sweden to-day is one of the peaceful kingdoms of the world, whose people
+are prosperous, well governed, and somewhat apart from the clash and
+turmoil of other states and nations. Even the secession of Norway, a few
+years ago, was accomplished without bloodshed, and now the two kingdoms
+exist side by side as free from strife as they are with Denmark, which
+once domineered and tyrannized over both.
+
+It is difficult to believe that long ago, in the Middle Ages, the cities
+of southern Sweden were among the great commercial centers of the world.
+Stockholm and Lund ranked with London and Paris. They absorbed the
+commerce of the northern seas, and were the admiration of thousands
+of travelers and merchants who passed through them and trafficked with
+them.
+
+Much nearer to our own time, Sweden was the great military power of
+northern Europe. The ambassadors of the Swedish kings were received with
+the utmost deference in every court. Her soldiers won great battles
+and ended mighty wars. The England of Cromwell and Charles II. was
+unimportant and isolated in comparison with this northern kingdom, which
+could pour forth armies of gigantic blond warriors, headed by generals
+astute as well as brave.
+
+It was no small matter, then, in 1626, that the loyal Swedes were hoping
+that their queen would give birth to a male heir to succeed his splendid
+father, Gustavus Adolphus, ranked by military historians as one of the
+six great generals whom the world had so far produced. The queen, a
+German princess of Brandenburg, had already borne two daughters, who
+died in infancy. The expectation was wide-spread and intense that she
+should now become the mother of a son; and the king himself was no less
+anxious.
+
+When the event occurred, the child was seen to be completely covered
+with hair, and for this reason the attendants at first believed that it
+was the desired boy. When their mistake was discovered they were afraid
+to tell the king, who was waiting in his study for the announcement
+to be made. At last, when no one else would go to him, his sister, the
+Princess Caroline, volunteered to break the news.
+
+Gustavus was in truth a chivalrous, high-bred monarch. Though he must
+have been disappointed at the advent of a daughter, he showed no sign
+of dissatisfaction or even of surprise; but, rising, he embraced his
+sister, saying:
+
+"Let us thank God. I hope this girl will be as good as a boy to me. May
+God preserve her now that He has sent her!"
+
+It is customary at almost all courts to pay less attention to the birth
+of a princess than to that of a prince; but Gustavus displayed his
+chivalry toward this little daughter, whom he named Christina. He
+ordered that the full royal salute should be fired in every fortress of
+his kingdom and that displays of fireworks, balls of honor, and court
+functions should take place; "for," as he said, "this is the heir to my
+throne." And so from the first he took his child under his own keeping
+and treated her as if she were a much-loved son as well as a successor.
+
+He joked about her looks when she was born, when she was mistaken for a
+boy.
+
+"She will be clever," he said, "for she has taken us all in!"
+
+The Swedish people were as delighted with their little princess as were
+the people of Holland when the present Queen Wilhelmina was born, to
+carry on the succession of the House of Orange. On one occasion the king
+and the small Christina, who were inseparable companions, happened
+to approach a fortress where they expected to spend the night. The
+commander of the castle was bound to fire a royal salute of fifty cannon
+in honor of his sovereign; yet he dreaded the effect upon the princess
+of such a roaring and bellowing of artillery. He therefore sent a
+swift horseman to meet the royal party at a distance and explain his
+perplexity. Should he fire these guns or not? Would the king give an
+order?
+
+Gustavus thought for a moment, and then replied:
+
+"My daughter is the daughter of a soldier, and she must learn to lead a
+soldier's life. Let the guns be fired!"
+
+The procession moved on. Presently fire spurted from the embrasures of
+the fort, and its batteries thundered in one great roar. The king looked
+down at Christina. Her face was aglow with pleasure and excitement; she
+clapped her hands and laughed, and cried out:
+
+"More bang! More! More! More!"
+
+This is only one of a score of stories that were circulated about the
+princess, and the Swedes were more and more delighted with the girl who
+was to be their queen.
+
+Somewhat curiously, Christina's mother, Queen Maria, cared little for
+the child, and, in fact, came at last to detest her almost as much as
+the king loved her. It is hard to explain this dislike. Perhaps she had
+a morbid desire for a son and begrudged the honors given to a daughter.
+Perhaps she was a little jealous of her own child, who took so much of
+the king's attention. Afterward, in writing of her mother, Christina
+excuses her, and says quite frankly:
+
+She could not bear to see me, because I was a girl, and an ugly girl at
+that. And she was right enough, for I was as tawny as a little Turk.
+
+This candid description of herself is hardly just. Christina was never
+beautiful, and she had a harsh voice. She was apt to be overbearing
+even as a little girl. Yet she was a most interesting child, with an
+expressive face, large eyes, an aquiline nose, and the blond hair of her
+people. There was nothing in this to account for her mother's intense
+dislike for her.
+
+It was currently reported at the time that attempts were made to maim
+or seriously injure the little princess. By what was made to seem an
+accident, she would be dropped upon the floor, and heavy articles of
+furniture would somehow manage to strike her. More than once a great
+beam fell mysteriously close to her, either in the palace or while she
+was passing through the streets. None of these things did her serious
+harm, however. Most of them she luckily escaped; but when she had grown
+to be a woman one of her shoulders was permanently higher than the
+other.
+
+"I suppose," said Christina, "that I could be straightened if I would
+let the surgeons attend to it; but it isn't worth while to take the
+trouble."
+
+When Christina was four, Sweden became involved in the great war
+that had been raging for a dozen years between the Protestant and the
+Catholic states of Germany. Gradually the neighboring powers had been
+drawn into the struggle, either to serve their own ends or to support
+the faith to which they adhered. Gustavus Adolphus took up the sword
+with mixed motives, for he was full of enthusiasm for the imperiled
+cause of the Reformation, and at the same time he deemed it a favorable
+opportunity to assert his control over the shores of the Baltic.
+
+The warrior king summoned his army and prepared to invade Germany.
+Before departing he took his little daughter by the hand and led her
+among the assembled nobles and councilors of state. To them he intrusted
+the princess, making them kneel and vow that they would regard her as
+his heir, and, if aught should happen to him, as his successor. Amid the
+clashing of swords and the clang of armor this vow was taken, and the
+king went forth to war.
+
+He met the ablest generals of his enemies, and the fortunes of battle
+swayed hither and thither; but the climax came when his soldiers
+encountered those of Wallenstein--that strange, overbearing, arrogant,
+mysterious creature whom many regarded with a sort of awe. The clash
+came at Lutzen, in Saxony. The Swedish king fought long and hard, and so
+did his mighty opponent; but at last, in the very midst of a tremendous
+onset that swept all before him, Gustavus received a mortal wound and
+died, even while Wallenstein was fleeing from the field of battle.
+
+The battle of Lutzen made Christina Queen of Sweden at the age of six.
+Of course, she could not yet be crowned, but a council of able ministers
+continued the policy of the late king and taught the young queen her
+first lessons in statecraft. Her intellect soon showed itself as more
+than that of a child. She understood all that was taking place, and all
+that was planned and arranged. Her tact was unusual. Her discretion was
+admired by every one; and after a while she had the advice and training
+of the great Swedish chancellor, Oxenstierna, whose wisdom she shared to
+a remarkable degree.
+
+Before she was sixteen she had so approved herself to her counselors,
+and especially to the people at large, that there was a wide-spread
+clamor that she should take the throne and govern in her own person. To
+this she gave no heed, but said:
+
+"I am not yet ready."
+
+All this time she bore herself like a king. There was nothing distinctly
+feminine about her. She took but slight interest in her appearance.
+She wore sword and armor in the presence of her troops, and often she
+dressed entirely in men's clothes. She would take long, lonely gallops
+through the forests, brooding over problems of state and feeling no
+fatigue or fear. And indeed why should she fear, who was beloved by all
+her subjects?
+
+When her eighteenth year arrived, the demand for her coronation was
+impossible to resist. All Sweden wished to see a ruling queen, who might
+marry and have children to succeed her through the royal line of her
+great father. Christina consented to be crowned, but she absolutely
+refused all thought of marriage. She had more suitors from all parts of
+Europe than even Elizabeth of England; but, unlike Elizabeth, she
+did not dally with them, give them false hopes, or use them for the
+political advantage of her kingdom.
+
+At that time Sweden was stronger than England, and was so situated as to
+be independent of alliances. So Christina said, in her harsh, peremptory
+voice:
+
+"I shall never marry; and why should you speak of my having children! I
+am just as likely to give birth to a Nero as to an Augustus."
+
+Having assumed the throne, she ruled with a strictness of government
+such as Sweden had not known before. She took the reins of state into
+her own hands and carried out a foreign policy of her own, over the
+heads of her ministers, and even against the wishes of her people. The
+fighting upon the Continent had dragged out to a weary length, but the
+Swedes, on the whole, had scored a marked advantage. For this reason the
+war was popular, and every one wished it to go on; but Christina, of
+her own will, decided that it must stop, that mere glory was not to be
+considered against material advantages. Sweden had had enough of glory;
+she must now look to her enrichment and prosperity through the channels
+of peace.
+
+Therefore, in 1648, against Oxenstierna, against her generals, and
+against her people, she exercised her royal power and brought the Thirty
+Years' War to an end by the so-called Peace of Westphalia. At this time
+she was twenty-two, and by her personal influence she had ended one of
+the greatest struggles of history. Nor had she done it to her country's
+loss. Denmark yielded up rich provinces, while Germany was compelled to
+grant Sweden membership in the German diet.
+
+Then came a period of immense prosperity through commerce, through
+economies in government, through the improvement of agriculture and the
+opening of mines. This girl queen, without intrigue, without descending
+from her native nobility to peep and whisper with shady diplomats,
+showed herself in reality a great monarch, a true Semiramis of the
+north, more worthy of respect and reverence than Elizabeth of England.
+She was highly trained in many arts. She was fond of study, spoke
+Latin fluently, and could argue with Salmasius, Descartes, and other
+accomplished scholars without showing any inferiority to them.
+
+She gathered at her court distinguished persons from all countries. She
+repelled those who sought her hand, and she was pure and truthful and
+worthy of all men's admiration. Had she died at this time history would
+rank her with the greatest of women sovereigns. Naude, the librarian of
+Cardinal Mazarin, wrote of her to the scientist Gassendi in these words:
+
+To say truth, I am sometimes afraid lest the common saying should be
+verified in her, that short is the life and rare the old age of those
+who surpass the common limits. Do not imagine that she is learned only
+in books, for she is equally so in painting, architecture, sculpture,
+medals, antiquities, and all curiosities. There is not a cunning workman
+in these arts but she has him fetched. There are as good workers in
+wax and in enamel, engravers, singers, players, dancers here as will be
+found anywhere.
+
+She has a gallery of statues, bronze and marble, medals of gold,
+silver, and bronze, pieces of ivory, amber, coral, worked crystal, steel
+mirrors, clocks and tables, bas-reliefs and other things of the kind;
+richer I have never seen even in Italy; finally, a great quantity of
+pictures. In short, her mind is open to all impressions.
+
+But after she began to make her court a sort of home for art and
+letters it ceased to be the sort of court that Sweden was prepared for.
+Christina's subjects were still rude and lacking in accomplishments;
+therefore she had to summon men of genius from other countries,
+especially from France and Italy. Many of these were illustrious artists
+or scholars, but among them were also some who used their mental gifts
+for harm.
+
+Among these latter was a French physician named Bourdelot--a man of keen
+intellect, of winning manners, and of a profound cynicism, which was
+not apparent on the surface, but the effect of which last lasting. To
+Bourdelot we must chiefly ascribe the mysterious change which gradually
+came over Queen Christina. With his associates he taught her a distaste
+for the simple and healthy life that she had been accustomed to lead.
+She ceased to think of the welfare of the state and began to look down
+with scorn upon her unsophisticated Swedes. Foreign luxury displayed
+itself at Stockholm, and her palaces overflowed with beautiful things.
+
+By subtle means Bourdelot undermined her principles. Having been
+a Stoic, she now became an Epicurean. She was by nature devoid of
+sentiment. She would not spend her time in the niceties of love-making,
+as did Elizabeth; but beneath the surface she had a sort of tigerish,
+passionate nature, which would break forth at intervals, and which
+demanded satisfaction from a series of favorites. It is probable that
+Bourdelot was her first lover, but there were many others whose names
+are recorded in the annals of the time.
+
+When she threw aside her virtue Christina ceased to care about
+appearances. She squandered her revenues upon her favorites. What she
+retained of her former self was a carelessness that braved the opinion
+of her subjects. She dressed almost without thought, and it is said that
+she combed her hair not more than twice a month. She caroused with male
+companions to the scandal of her people, and she swore like a trooper
+when displeased.
+
+Christina's philosophy of life appears to have been compounded of an
+almost brutal licentiousness, a strong love of power, and a strange,
+freakish longing for something new. Her political ambitions were checked
+by the rising discontent of her people, who began to look down upon her
+and to feel ashamed of her shame. Knowing herself as she did, she did
+not care to marry.
+
+Yet Sweden must have an heir. Therefore she chose out her cousin
+Charles, declared that he was to be her successor, and finally caused
+him to be proclaimed as such before the assembled estates of the realm.
+She even had him crowned; and finally, in her twenty-eighth year, she
+abdicated altogether and prepared to leave Sweden. When asked whither
+she would go, she replied in a Latin quotation:
+
+"The Fates will show the way."
+
+In her act of abdication she reserved to herself the revenues of some
+of the richest provinces in Sweden and absolute power over such of her
+subjects as should accompany her. They were to be her subjects until the
+end.
+
+The Swedes remembered that Christina was the daughter of their greatest
+king, and that, apart from personal scandals, she had ruled them well;
+and so they let her go regretfully and accepted her cousin as their
+king. Christina, on her side, went joyfully and in the spirit of a grand
+adventuress. With a numerous suite she entered Germany, and then stayed
+for a year at Brussels, where she renounced Lutheranism. After this she
+traveled slowly into Italy, where she entered Borne on horseback,
+and was received by the Pope, Alexander VII., who lodged her in a
+magnificent palace, accepted her conversion, and baptized her, giving
+her a new name, Alexandra.
+
+In Rome she was a brilliant but erratic personage, living sumptuously,
+even though her revenues from Sweden came in slowly, partly because the
+Swedes disliked her change of religion. She was surrounded by men of
+letters, with whom she amused herself, and she took to herself a lover,
+the Marquis Monaldeschi. She thought that at last she had really found
+her true affinity, while Monaldeschi believed that he could count on the
+queen's fidelity.
+
+He was in attendance upon her daily, and they were almost inseparable.
+He swore allegiance to her and thereby made himself one of the subjects
+over whom she had absolute power. For a time he was the master of those
+intense emotions which, in her, alternated with moods of coldness and
+even cruelty.
+
+Monaldeschi was a handsome Italian, who bore himself with a fine air of
+breeding. He understood the art of charming, but he did not know that
+beyond a certain time no one could hold the affections of Christina.
+
+However, after she had quarreled with various cardinals and decided to
+leave Rome for a while, Monaldeschi accompanied her to France, where
+she had an immense vogue at the court of Louis XIV. She attracted wide
+attention because of her eccentricity and utter lack of manners. It
+gave her the greatest delight to criticize the ladies of the French
+court--their looks, their gowns, and their jewels. They, in return,
+would speak of Christina's deformed shoulder and skinny frame; but the
+king was very gracious to her and invited her to his hunting-palace at
+Fontainebleau.
+
+While she had been winning triumphs of sarcasm the infatuated
+Monaldeschi had gradually come to suspect, and then to know, that his
+royal mistress was no longer true to him. He had been supplanted in her
+favor by another Italian, one Sentanelli, who was the captain of her
+guard.
+
+Monaldeschi took a tortuous and roundabout revenge. He did not let the
+queen know of his discovery; nor did he, like a man, send a challenge
+to Sentanelli. Instead he began by betraying her secrets to Oliver
+Cromwell, with whom she had tried to establish a correspondence. Again,
+imitating the hand and seal of Sentanelli, he set in circulation a
+series of the most scandalous and insulting letters about Christina. By
+this treacherous trick he hoped to end the relations between his rival
+and the queen; but when the letters were carried to Christina she
+instantly recognized their true source. She saw that she was betrayed
+by her former favorite and that he had taken a revenge which might
+seriously compromise her.
+
+This led to a tragedy, of which the facts were long obscure. They were
+carefully recorded, however, by the queen's household chaplain, Father
+Le Bel; and there is also a narrative written by one Marco Antonio
+Conti, which confirms the story. Both were published privately in 1865,
+with notes by Louis Lacour.
+
+The narration of the priest is dreadful in its simplicity and minuteness
+of detail. It may be summed up briefly here, because it is the testimony
+of an eye-witness who knew Christina.
+
+Christina, with the marquis and a large retinue, was at Fontainebleau in
+November, 1657. A little after midnight, when all was still, the priest,
+Father Le Bel, was aroused and ordered to go at once to the Galerie des
+Cerfs, or Hall of Stags, in another part of the palace. When he asked
+why, he was told:
+
+"It is by the order of her majesty the Swedish queen."
+
+The priest, wondering, hurried on his garments. On reaching the gloomy
+hall he saw the Marquis Monaldeschi, evidently in great agitation, and
+at the end of the corridor the queen in somber robes. Beside the
+queen, as if awaiting orders, stood three figures, who could with some
+difficulty be made out as three soldiers of her guard.
+
+The queen motioned to Father Le Bel and asked him for a packet which she
+had given him for safe-keeping some little time before. He gave it to
+her, and she opened it. In it were letters and other documents, which,
+with a steely glance, she displayed to Monaldeschi. He was confused by
+the sight of them and by the incisive words in which Christina showed
+how he had both insulted her and had tried to shift the blame upon
+Sentanelli.
+
+Monaldeschi broke down completely. He fell at the queen's feet and wept
+piteously, begging for pardon, only to be met by the cold answer:
+
+"You are my subject and a traitor to me. Marquis, you must prepare to
+die!"
+
+Then she turned away and left the hall, in spite of the cries of
+Monaldeschi, to whom she merely added the advice that he should make his
+peace with God by confessing to Father Le Bel.
+
+After she had gone the marquis fell into a torrent of self-exculpation
+and cried for mercy. The three armed men drew near and urged him to
+confess for the good of his soul. They seemed to have no malice against
+him, but to feel that they must obey the orders given them. At the
+frantic urging of the marquis their leader even went to the queen to ask
+whether she would relent; but he returned shaking his head, and said:
+
+"Marquis, you must die."
+
+Father Le Bel undertook a like mission, but returned with the message
+that there was no hope. So the marquis made his confession in French
+and Latin, but even then he hoped; for he did not wait to receive
+absolution, but begged still further for delay or pardon.
+
+Then the three armed men approached, having drawn their swords. The
+absolution was pronounced; and, following it, one of the guards slashed
+the marquis across the forehead. He stumbled and fell forward, making
+signs as if to ask that he might have his throat cut. But his throat
+was partly protected by a coat of mail, so that three or four strokes
+delivered there had slight effect. Finally, however, a long, narrow
+sword was thrust into his side, after which the marquis made no sound.
+
+Father Le Bel at once left the Galerie des Cerfs and went into the
+queen's apartment, with the smell of blood in his nostrils. He found her
+calm and ready to justify herself. Was she not still queen over all who
+had voluntarily become members of her suite? This had been agreed to in
+her act of abdication. Wherever she set her foot, there, over her own,
+she was still a monarch, with full power to punish traitors at her will.
+This power she had exercised, and with justice. What mattered it that
+she was in France? She was queen as truly as Louis XIV. was king.
+
+The story was not long in getting out, but the truth was not wholly
+known until a much later day. It was said that Sentanelli had slapped
+the marquis in a fit of jealousy, though some added that it was done
+with the connivance of the queen. King Louis, the incarnation of
+absolutism, knew the truth, but he was slow to act. He sympathized with
+the theory of Christina's sovereignty. It was only after a time that
+word was sent to Christina that she must leave Fontainebleau. She took
+no notice of the order until it suited her convenience, and then she
+went forth with all the honors of a reigning monarch.
+
+This was the most striking episode in all the strange story of her
+private life. When her cousin Charles, whom she had made king, died
+without an heir she sought to recover her crown; but the estates of the
+realm refused her claim, reduced her income, and imposed restraints upon
+her power. She then sought the vacant throne of Poland; but the Polish
+nobles, who desired a weak ruler for their own purposes, made another
+choice. So at last she returned to Rome, where the Pope received her
+with a splendid procession and granted her twelve thousand crowns a year
+to make up for her lessened Swedish revenue.
+
+From this time she lived a life which she made interesting by her
+patronage of learning and exciting by her rather unseemly quarrels with
+cardinals and even with the Pope. Her armed retinue marched through the
+streets with drawn swords and gave open protection to criminals who had
+taken refuge with her. She dared to criticize the pontiff, who merely
+smiled and said:
+
+"She is a woman!"
+
+On the whole, the end of her life was pleasant. She was much admired for
+her sagacity in politics. Her words were listened to at every court in
+Europe. She annotated the classics, she made beautiful collections, and
+she was regarded as a privileged person whose acts no one took amiss.
+She died at fifty-three, and was buried in St. Peter's.
+
+She was bred a man, she was almost a son to her great father; and yet,
+instead of the sonorous epitaph that is inscribed beside her tomb,
+perhaps a truer one would be the words of the vexed Pope:
+
+"E DONNA!"
+
+
+
+
+
+KING CHARLES II. AND NELL GWYN
+
+
+One might classify the kings of England in many ways. John was
+undoubtedly the most unpopular. The impetuous yet far-seeing Henry
+II., with the other two great warriors, Edward I. and Edward III.,
+and William of Orange, did most for the foundation and development of
+England's constitutional law. Some monarchs, such as Edward II. and the
+womanish Henry VI., have been contemptible. Hard-working, useful kings
+have been Henry VII., the Georges, William IV., and especially the last
+Edward.
+
+If we consider those monarchs who have in some curious way touched the
+popular fancy without reference to their virtues we must go back to
+Richard of the Lion Heart, who saw but little of England, yet was the
+best essentially English king, and to Henry V., gallant soldier and
+conqueror of France. Even Henry VIII. had a warm place in the affection
+of his countrymen, few of whom saw him near at hand, but most of whom
+made him a sort of regal incarnation of John Bull--wrestling and tilting
+and boxing, eating great joints of beef, and staying his thirst with
+flagons of ale--a big, healthy, masterful animal, in fact, who gratified
+the national love of splendor and stood up manfully in his struggle with
+the Pope.
+
+But if you look for something more than ordinary popularity--something
+that belongs to sentiment and makes men willing to become martyrs for
+a royal cause--we must find these among the Stuart kings. It is odd,
+indeed, that even at this day there are Englishmen and Englishwomen who
+believe their lawful sovereign to be a minor Bavarian princess in whose
+veins there runs the Stuart blood. Prayers are said for her at English
+shrines, and toasts are drunk to her in rare old wine.
+
+Of course, to-day this cult of the Stuarts is nothing but a fad. No
+one ever expects to see a Stuart on the English throne. But it is
+significant of the deep strain of romance which the six Stuarts who
+reigned in England have implanted in the English heart. The old Jacobite
+ballads still have power to thrill. Queen Victoria herself used to have
+the pipers file out before her at Balmoral to the "skirling" of "Bonnie
+Dundee," "Over the Water to Charlie," and "Wha'll Be King but Charlie!"
+It is a sentiment that has never died. Her late majesty used to say that
+when she heard these tunes she became for the moment a Jacobite; just
+as the Empress Eugenie at the height of her power used pertly to remark
+that she herself was the only Legitimist left in France.
+
+It may be suggested that the Stuarts are still loved by many Englishmen
+because they were unfortunate; yet this is hardly true, after all. Many
+of them were fortunate enough. The first of them, King James, an absurd
+creature, speaking broad Scotch, timid, foolishly fond of favorites, and
+having none of the dignity of a monarch, lived out a lengthy reign. The
+two royal women of the family--Anne and Mary--had no misfortunes of a
+public nature. Charles II. reigned for more than a quarter of a century,
+lapped in every kind of luxury, and died a king.
+
+The first Charles was beheaded and afterward styled a "saint"; yet the
+majority of the English people were against his arrogance, or else he
+would have won his great struggle against Parliament. The second James
+was not popular at all. Nevertheless, no sooner had he been expelled,
+and been succeeded by a Dutchman gnawing asparagus and reeking of
+cheeses, than there was already a Stuart legend. Even had there been
+no pretenders to carry on the cult, the Stuarts would still have passed
+into history as much loved by the people.
+
+It only shows how very little in former days the people expected of
+a regnant king. Many monarchs have had just a few popular traits, and
+these have stood out brilliantly against the darkness of the background.
+
+No one could have cared greatly for the first James, but Charles I. was
+indeed a kingly personage when viewed afar. He was handsome, as a
+man, fully equaling the French princess who became his wife. He had no
+personal vices. He was brave, and good to look upon, and had a kingly
+mien. Hence, although he sought to make his rule over England a tyranny,
+there were many fine old cavaliers to ride afield for him when he raised
+his standard, and who, when he died, mourned for him as a "martyr."
+
+Many hardships they underwent while Cromwell ruled with his iron hand;
+and when that iron hand was relaxed in death, and poor, feeble Richard
+Cromwell slunk away to his country-seat, what wonder is it that young
+Charles came back to England and caracoled through the streets of London
+with a smile for every one and a happy laugh upon his lips? What wonder
+is it that the cannon in the Tower thundered a loud welcome, and that
+all over England, at one season or another, maypoles rose and Christmas
+fires blazed? For Englishmen at heart are not only monarchists, but they
+are lovers of good cheer and merrymaking and all sorts of mirth.
+
+Charles II. might well at first have seemed a worthier and wiser
+successor to his splendid father. As a child, even, he had shown himself
+to be no faint-hearted creature. When the great Civil War broke out he
+had joined his father's army. It met with disaster at Edgehill, and
+was finally shattered by the crushing defeat of Naseby, which afterward
+inspired Macaulay's most stirring ballad.
+
+Charles was then only a child of twelve, and so his followers did wisely
+in hurrying him out of England, through the Scilly isles and Jersey to
+his mother's place of exile. Of course, a child so very young could be
+of no value as a leader, though his presence might prove an inspiration.
+
+In 1648, however, when he was eighteen years of age, he gathered a fleet
+of eighteen ships and cruised along the English coast, taking prizes,
+which he carried to the Dutch ports. When he was at Holland's
+capital, during his father's trial, he wrote many messages to the
+Parliamentarians, and even sent them a blank charter, which they might
+fill in with any stipulations they desired if only they would save and
+restore their king.
+
+When the head of Charles rolled from the velvet-covered block his son
+showed himself to be no loiterer or lover of an easy life. He hastened
+to Scotland, skilfully escaping an English force, and was proclaimed as
+king and crowned at Scone, in 1651. With ten thousand men he dashed into
+England, where he knew there were many who would rally at his call. But
+it was then that Cromwell put forth his supreme military genius and with
+his Ironsides crushed the royal troops at Worcester.
+
+Charles knew that for the present all was lost. He showed courage and
+address in covering the flight of his beaten soldiers; but he soon
+afterward went to France, remaining there and in the Netherlands for
+eight years as a pensioner of Louis XIV. He knew that time would fight
+for him far more surely than infantry and horse. England had not been
+called "Merry England" for nothing; and Cromwell's tyranny was likely to
+be far more resented than the heavy hand of one who was born a king.
+So Charles at Paris and Liege, though he had little money at the time,
+managed to maintain a royal court, such as it was.
+
+Here there came out another side of his nature. As a child he had
+borne hardship and privation and had seen the red blood flow upon
+the battlefield. Now, as it were, he allowed a certain sensuous,
+pleasure-loving ease to envelop him. The red blood should become the
+rich red burgundy; the sound of trumpets and kettledrums should give way
+to the melody of lutes and viols. He would be a king of pleasure if he
+were to be king at all. And therefore his court, even in exile, was a
+court of gallantry and ease. The Pope refused to lend him money, and the
+King of France would not increase his pension, but there were many who
+foresaw that Charles would not long remain in exile; and so they gave
+him what he wanted and waited until he could give them what they would
+ask for in their turn.
+
+Charles at this time was not handsome, like his father. His complexion
+was swarthy, his figure by no means imposing, though always graceful.
+When he chose he could bear himself with all the dignity of a monarch.
+He had a singularly pleasant manner, and a word from him could win over
+the harshest opponent.
+
+The old cavaliers who accompanied their master in exile were like
+Napoleon's veterans in Elba. With their tall, powerful forms they
+stalked about the courtyards, sniffing their disapproval at these
+foreign ways and longing grimly for the time when they could once more
+smell the pungent powder of the battle-field. But, as Charles had hoped,
+the change was coming. Not merely were his own subjects beginning
+to long for him and to pray in secret for the king, but continental
+monarchs who maintained spies in England began to know of this. To them
+Charles was no longer a penniless exile. He was a king who before long
+would take possession of his kingdom.
+
+A very wise woman--the Queen Regent of Portugal--was the first to act on
+this information. Portugal was then very far from being a petty state.
+It had wealth at home and rich colonies abroad, while its flag was seen
+on every sea. The queen regent, being at odds with Spain, and wishing to
+secure an ally against that power, made overtures to Charles, asking him
+whether a match might not be made between him and the Princess Catharine
+of Braganza. It was not merely her daughter's hand that she offered,
+but a splendid dowry. She would pay Charles a million pounds in gold and
+cede to England two valuable ports.
+
+The match was not yet made, but by 1659 it had been arranged. The
+Spaniards were furious, for Charles's cause began to appear successful.
+
+She was a quaint and rather piteous little figure, she who was destined
+to be the wife of the Merry Monarch. Catharine was dark, petite, and by
+no means beautiful; yet she had a very sweet expression and a heart of
+utter innocence. She had been wholly convent-bred. She knew nothing of
+the world. She was told that in marriage she must obey in all things,
+and that the chief duty of a wife was to make her husband happy.
+
+Poor child! It was a too gracious preparation for a very graceless
+husband. Charles, in exile, had already made more than one discreditable
+connection and he was already the father of more than one growing son.
+
+First of all, he had been smitten by the bold ways of one Lucy Walters.
+Her impudence amused the exiled monarch. She was not particularly
+beautiful, and when she spoke as others did she was rather tiresome; but
+her pertness and the inexperience of the king when he went into exile
+made her seem attractive. She bore him a son, in the person of that
+brilliant adventurer whom Charles afterward created Duke of Monmouth.
+Many persons believe that Charles had married Lucy Walters, just as
+George IV. may have married Mrs. Fitzherbert; yet there is not the
+slightest proof of it, and it must be classed with popular legends.
+
+There was also one Catherine Peg, or Kep, whose son was afterward
+made Earl of Plymouth. It must be confessed that in his attachments
+to English women Charles showed little care for rank or station. Lucy
+Walters and Catherine Peg were very illiterate creatures.
+
+In a way it was precisely this sort of preference that made Charles
+so popular among the people. He seemed to make rank of no account, but
+would chat in the most familiar and friendly way with any one whom he
+happened to meet. His easy, democratic manner, coupled with the grace
+and prestige of royalty, made friends for him all over England. The
+treasury might be nearly bankrupt; the navy might be routed by the
+Dutch; the king himself might be too much given to dissipation; but his
+people forgave him all, because everybody knew that Charles would clap
+an honest citizen on the back and joke with all who came to see him feed
+the swans in Regent's Park.
+
+The popular name for him was "Rowley," or "Old Rowley"--a nickname
+of mysterious origin, though it is said to have been given him from a
+fancied resemblance to a famous hunter in his stables. Perhaps it is the
+very final test of popularity that a ruler should have a nickname known
+to every one.
+
+Cromwell's death roused all England to a frenzy of king-worship. The
+Roundhead, General Monk, and his soldiers proclaimed Charles King of
+England and escorted him to London in splendid state. That was a day
+when national feeling reached a point such as never has been before or
+since. Oughtred, the famous mathematician, died of joy when the royal
+emblems were restored. Urquhart, the translator of Rabelais, died, it is
+said, of laughter at the people's wild delight--a truly Rabelaisian end.
+
+There was the king once more; and England, breaking through its long
+period of Puritanism, laughed and danced with more vivacity than ever
+the French had shown. All the pipers and the players and panderers to
+vice, the mountebanks, the sensual men, and the lawless women poured
+into the presence of the king, who had been too long deprived of the
+pleasure that his nature craved. Parliament voted seventy thousand
+pounds for a memorial to Charles's father, but the irresponsible king
+spent the whole sum on the women who surrounded him. His severest
+counselor, Lord Clarendon, sent him a remonstrance.
+
+"How can I build such a memorial," asked Charles, "when I don't know
+where my father's remains are buried!"
+
+He took money from the King of France to make war against the Dutch,
+who had befriended him. It was the French king, too, who sent him that
+insidious, subtle daughter of Brittany, Louise de Keroualle--Duchess
+of Portsmouth--a diplomat in petticoats, who won the king's wayward
+affections, and spied on what he did and said, and faithfully reported
+all of it to Paris. She became the mother of the Duke of Lenox, and
+she was feared and hated by the English more than any other of his
+mistresses. They called her "Madam Carwell," and they seemed to have an
+instinct that she was no mere plaything of his idle hours, but was like
+some strange exotic serpent, whose poison might in the end sting the
+honor of England.
+
+There is a pitiful little episode in the marriage of Charles with his
+Portuguese bride, Catharine of Braganza. The royal girl came to him
+fresh from the cloisters of her convent. There was something about her
+grace and innocence that touched the dissolute monarch, who was by no
+means without a heart. For a time he treated her with great respect,
+and she was happy. At last she began to notice about her strange
+faces--faces that were evil, wanton, or overbold. The court became more
+and more a seat of reckless revelry.
+
+Finally Catharine was told that the Duchess of Cleveland--that splendid
+termagant, Barbara Villiers--had been appointed lady of the bedchamber.
+She was told at the same time who this vixen was--that she was no fit
+attendant for a virtuous woman, and that her three sons, the Dukes of
+Southampton, Grafton, and Northumberland, were also the sons of Charles.
+
+Fluttered and frightened and dismayed, the queen hastened to her husband
+and begged him not to put this slight upon her. A year or two before,
+she had never dreamed that life contained such things as these; but now
+it seemed to contain nothing else. Charles spoke sternly to her until
+she burst into tears, and then he petted her and told her that her
+duty as a queen compelled her to submit to many things which a lady in
+private life need not endure.
+
+After a long and poignant struggle with her own emotions the little
+Portuguese yielded to the wishes of her lord. She never again reproached
+him. She even spoke with kindness to his favorites and made him feel
+that she studied his happiness alone. Her gentleness affected him so
+that he always spoke to her with courtesy and real friendship. When the
+Protestant mobs sought to drive her out of England he showed his
+courage and manliness by standing by her and refusing to allow her to be
+molested.
+
+Indeed, had Charles been always at his best he would have had a very
+different name in history. He could be in every sense a king. He had a
+keen knowledge of human nature. Though he governed England very badly,
+he never governed it so badly as to lose his popularity.
+
+The epigram of Rochester, written at the king's own request, was
+singularly true of Charles. No man relied upon his word, yet men loved
+him. He never said anything that was foolish, and he very seldom did
+anything that was wise; yet his easy manners and gracious ways endeared
+him to those who met him.
+
+One can find no better picture of his court than that which Sir Walter
+Scott has drawn so vividly in Peveril of the Peak; or, if one wishes
+first-hand evidence, it can be found in the diaries of Evelyn and of
+Samuel Pepys. In them we find the rakes and dicers, full of strange
+oaths, deep drunkards, vile women and still viler men, all striving for
+the royal favor and offering the filthiest lures, amid routs and balls
+and noisy entertainments, of which it is recorded that more than once
+some woman gave birth to a child among the crowd of dancers.
+
+No wonder that the little Portuguese queen kept to herself and did not
+let herself be drawn into this swirling, roaring, roistering saturnalia.
+She had less influence even than Moll Davis, whom Charles picked out
+of a coffee-house, and far less than "Madam Carwell," to whom it is
+reported that a great English nobleman once presented pearls to the
+value of eight thousand pounds in order to secure her influence in a
+single stroke of political business.
+
+Of all the women who surrounded Charles there was only one who cared
+anything for him or for England. The rest were all either selfish or
+treacherous or base. This one exception has been so greatly written of,
+both in fiction and in history, as to make it seem almost unnecessary to
+add another word; yet it may well be worth while to separate the fiction
+from the fact and to see how much of the legend of Eleanor Gwyn is true.
+
+The fanciful story of her birthplace is most surely quite unfounded. She
+was not the daughter of a Welsh officer, but of two petty hucksters who
+had their booth in the lowest precincts of London. In those days the
+Strand was partly open country, and as it neared the city it showed the
+mansions of the gentry set in their green-walled parks. At one end of
+the Strand, however, was Drury Lane, then the haunt of criminals and
+every kind of wretch, while nearer still was the notorious Coal Yard,
+where no citizen dared go unarmed.
+
+Within this dreadful place children were kidnapped and trained to
+various forms of vice. It was a school for murderers and robbers and
+prostitutes; and every night when the torches flared it vomited forth
+its deadly spawn. Here was the earliest home of Eleanor Gwyn, and out of
+this den of iniquity she came at night to sell oranges at the entrance
+to the theaters. She was stage-struck, and endeavored to get even a
+minor part in a play; but Betterton, the famous actor, thrust her aside
+when she ventured to apply to him.
+
+It must be said that in everything that was external, except her beauty,
+she fell short of a fastidious taste. She was intensely ignorant even
+for that time. She spoke in a broad Cockney dialect. She had lived the
+life of the Coal Yard, and, like Zola's Nana, she could never remember
+the time when she had known the meaning of chastity.
+
+Nell Gwyn was, in fact, a product of the vilest slums of London; and
+precisely because she was this we must set her down as intrinsically a
+good woman--one of the truest, frankest, and most right-minded of
+whom the history of such women has anything to tell. All that external
+circumstances could do to push her down into the mire was done; yet she
+was not pushed down, but emerged as one of those rare souls who have in
+their natures an uncontaminated spring of goodness and honesty. Unlike
+Barbara Villiers or Lucy Walters or Louise de Keroualle, she was neither
+a harpy nor a foe to England.
+
+Charles is said first to have met her when he, incognito, with another
+friend, was making the rounds of the theaters at night. The king spied
+her glowing, nut-brown face in one of the boxes, and, forgetting his
+incognito, went up and joined her. She was with her protector of the
+time, Lord Buckhurst, who, of course, recognized his majesty.
+
+Presently the whole party went out to a neighboring coffee-house, where
+they drank and ate together. When it came time to pay the reckoning the
+king found that he had no money, nor had his friend. Lord Buckhurst,
+therefore, paid the bill, while Mistress Nell jeered at the other two,
+saying that this was the most poverty-stricken party that she had ever
+met.
+
+Charles did not lose sight of her. Her frankness and honest manner
+pleased him. There came a time when she was known to be a mistress
+of the king, and she bore a son, who was ennobled as the Duke of St.
+Albans, but who did not live to middle age. Nell Gwyn was much with
+Charles; and after his tempestuous scenes with Barbara Villiers, and the
+feeling of dishonor which the Duchess of Portsmouth made him experience,
+the girl's good English bluntness was a pleasure far more rare than
+sentiment.
+
+Somehow, just as the people had come to mistrust "Madam Carwell," so
+they came to like Nell Gwyn. She saw enough of Charles, and she liked
+him well enough, to wish that he might do his duty by his people; and
+she alone had the boldness to speak out what she thought. One day she
+found him lolling in an arm-chair and complaining that the people were
+not satisfied.
+
+"You can very easily satisfy them," said Nell Gwyn. "Dismiss your women
+and attend to the proper business of a king."
+
+Again, her heart was touched at the misfortunes of the old soldiers who
+had fought for Charles and for his father during the Civil War, and who
+were now neglected, while the treasury was emptied for French favorites,
+and while the policy of England itself was bought and sold in France.
+Many and many a time, when other women of her kind used their lures
+to get jewels or titles or estates or actual heaps of money, Nell Gwyn
+besought the king to aid these needy veterans. Because of her efforts
+Chelsea Hospital was founded. Such money as she had she shared with the
+poor and with those who had fought for her royal lover.
+
+As I have said, she is a historical type of the woman who loses her
+physical purity, yet who retains a sense of honor and of honesty
+which nothing can take from her. There are not many such examples, and
+therefore this one is worth remembering.
+
+Of anecdotes concerning her there are many, but not often has their real
+import been detected. If she could twine her arms about the monarch's
+neck and transport him in a delirium of passion, this was only part of
+what she did. She tried to keep him right and true and worthy of
+his rank; and after he had ceased to care much for her as a lover he
+remembered that she had been faithful in many other things.
+
+Then there came the death-bed scene, when Charles, in his inimitable
+manner, apologized to those about him because he was so long in dying.
+A far sincerer sentence was that which came from his heart, as he cried
+out, in the very pangs of death:
+
+"Do not let poor Nelly starve!"
+
+
+
+
+
+MAURICE OF SAXONY AND ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR
+
+
+It is an old saying that to every womanly woman self-sacrifice is almost
+a necessity of her nature. To make herself of small account as compared
+with the one she loves; to give freely of herself, even though she may
+receive nothing in return; to suffer, and yet to feel an inner poignant
+joy in all this suffering--here is a most wonderful trait of womanhood.
+Perhaps it is akin to the maternal instinct; for to the mother, after
+she has felt the throb of a new life within her, there is no sacrifice
+so great and no anguish so keen that she will not welcome it as the
+outward sign and evidence of her illimitable love.
+
+In most women this spirit of self-sacrifice is checked and kept within
+ordinary bounds by the circumstances of their lives. In many small
+things they do yield and they do suffer; yet it is not in yielding and
+in suffering that they find their deepest joy.
+
+There are some, however, who seem to have been born with an abnormal
+capacity for enduring hardship and mental anguish; so that by a sort
+of contradiction they find their happiness in sorrow. Such women are
+endowed with a remarkable degree of sensibility. They feel intensely. In
+moments of grief and disappointment, and even of despair, there steals
+over them a sort of melancholy pleasure. It is as if they loved dim
+lights and mournful music and scenes full of sad suggestion.
+
+If everything goes well with them, they are unwilling to believe that
+such good fortune will last. If anything goes wrong with them, they are
+sure that this is only the beginning of something even worse. The music
+of their lives is written in a minor key.
+
+Now, for such women as these, the world at large has very little
+charity. It speaks slightingly of them as "agonizers." It believes that
+they are "fond of making scenes." It regards as an affectation something
+that is really instinctive and inevitable. Unless such women are
+beautiful and young and charming they are treated badly; and this is
+often true in spite of all their natural attractiveness, for they seem
+to court ill usage as if they were saying frankly:
+
+"Come, take us! We will give you everything and ask for nothing. We do
+not expect true and enduring love. Do not be constant or generous or
+even kind. We know that we shall suffer. But, none the less, in our
+sorrow there will be sweetness, and even in our abasement we shall feel
+a sort of triumph."
+
+In history there is one woman who stands out conspicuously as a type
+of her melancholy sisterhood, one whose life was full of disappointment
+even when she was most successful, and of indignity even when she was
+most sought after and admired. This woman was Adrienne Lecouvreur,
+famous in the annals of the stage, and still more famous in the annals
+of unrequited--or, at any rate, unhappy--love.
+
+Her story is linked with that of a man no less remarkable than herself,
+a hero of chivalry, a marvel of courage, of fascination, and of
+irresponsibility.
+
+Adrienne Lecouvreur--her name was originally Couvreur--was born toward
+the end of the seventeenth century in the little French village of
+Damery, not far from Rheims, where her aunt was a laundress and her
+father a hatter in a small way. Of her mother, who died in childbirth,
+we know nothing; but her father was a man of gloomy and ungovernable
+temper, breaking out into violent fits of passion, in one of which, long
+afterward, he died, raving and yelling like a maniac.
+
+Adrienne was brought up at the wash-tub, and became accustomed to a
+wandering life, in which she went from one town to another. What she had
+inherited from her mother is, of course, not known; but she had all her
+father's strangely pessimistic temper, softened only by the fact
+that she was a girl. From her earliest years she was unhappy; yet her
+unhappiness was largely of her own choosing. Other girls of her own
+station met life cheerfully, worked away from dawn till dusk, and then
+had their moments of amusement, and even jollity, with their companions,
+after the fashion of all children. But Adrienne Lecouvreur was unhappy
+because she chose to be. It was not the wash-tub that made her so,
+for she had been born to it; nor was it the half-mad outbreaks of her
+father, because to her, at least, he was not unkind. Her discontent
+sprang from her excessive sensibility.
+
+Indeed, for a peasant child she had reason to think herself far more
+fortunate than her associates. Her intelligence was great. Ambition was
+awakened in her before she was ten years of age, when she began to
+learn and to recite poems--learning them, as has been said, "between the
+wash-tub and the ironing-board," and reciting them to the admiration of
+older and wiser people than she. Even at ten she was a very beautiful
+child, with great lambent eyes, an exquisite complexion, and a lovely
+form, while she had the further gift of a voice that thrilled the
+listener and, when she chose, brought tears to every eye. She
+was, indeed, a natural elocutionist, knowing by instinct all those
+modulations of tone and varied cadences which go to the hearer's heart.
+
+It was very like Adrienne Lecouvreur to memorize only such poems as were
+mournful, just as in after life she could win success upon the stage
+only in tragic parts. She would repeat with a sort of ecstasy the
+pathetic poems that were then admired; and she was soon able to give up
+her menial work, because many people asked her to their houses so that
+they could listen to the divinely beautiful voice charged with the
+emotion which was always at her command.
+
+When she was thirteen her father moved to Paris, where she was placed at
+school--a very humble school in a very humble quarter of the city.
+Yet even there her genius showed itself at that early age. A number
+of children and young people, probably influenced by Adrienne, formed
+themselves into a theatrical company from the pure love of acting.
+A friendly grocer let them have an empty store-room for their
+performances, and in this store-room Adrienne Lecouvreur first acted in
+a tragedy by Corneille, assuming the part of leading woman.
+
+Her genius for the stage was like the genius of Napoleon for war. She
+had had no teaching. She had never been inside of any theater; and yet
+she delivered the magnificent lines with all the power and fire and
+effectiveness of a most accomplished actress. People thronged to see her
+and to feel the tempest of emotion which shook her as she sustained her
+part, which for the moment was as real to her as life itself.
+
+At first only the people of the neighborhood knew anything about these
+amateur performances; but presently a lady of rank, one Mme. du Gue,
+came out of curiosity and was fascinated by the little actress. Mme. du
+Gue offered the spacious courtyard of her own house, and fitted it with
+some of the appurtenances of a theater. From that moment the fame of
+Adrienne spread throughout all Paris. The courtyard was crowded by
+gentlemen and ladies, by people of distinction from the court, and at
+last even by actors and actresses from the Comedie Franchise.
+
+It is, in fact, a remarkable tribute to Adrienne that in her thirteenth
+year she excited so much jealousy among the actors of the Comedie that
+they evoked the law against her. Theaters required a royal license,
+and of course poor little Adrienne's company had none. Hence legal
+proceedings were begun, and the most famous actresses in Paris talked
+of having these clever children imprisoned! Upon this the company sought
+the precincts of the Temple, where no legal warrant could be served
+without the express order of the king himself.
+
+There for a time the performances still went on. Finally, as the other
+children were not geniuses, but merely boys and girls in search of fun,
+the little company broke up. Its success, however, had determined for
+ever the career of Adrienne. With her beautiful face, her lithe and
+exquisite figure, her golden voice, and her instinctive art, it was
+plain enough that her future lay upon the stage; and so at fourteen
+or fifteen she began where most actresses leave off--accomplished and
+attractive, and having had a practical training in her profession.
+
+Diderot, in that same century, observed that the truest actor is one who
+does not feel his part at all, but produces his effects by intellectual
+effort and intelligent observation. Behind the figure on the stage, torn
+with passion or rollicking with mirth, there must always be the cool
+and unemotional mind which directs and governs and controls. This same
+theory was both held and practised by the late Benoit Constant Coquelin.
+To some extent it was the theory of Garrick and Fechter and Edwin Booth;
+though it was rejected by the two Keans, and by Edwin Forrest, who
+entered so throughly into the character which he assumed, and who let
+loose such tremendous bursts of passion that other actors dreaded to
+support him on the stage in such parts as Spartacus and Metamora.
+
+It is needless to say that a girl like Adrienne Lecouvreur flung herself
+with all the intensity of her nature into every role she played. This
+was the greatest secret of her success; for, with her, nature rose
+superior to art. On the other hand, it fixed her dramatic limitations,
+for it barred her out of comedy. Her melancholy, morbid disposition was
+in the fullest sympathy with tragic heroines; but she failed when she
+tried to represent the lighter moods and the merry moments of those who
+welcome mirth. She could counterfeit despair, and unforced tears would
+fill her eyes; but she could not laugh and romp and simulate a gaiety
+that was never hers.
+
+Adrienne would have been delighted to act at one of the theaters in
+Paris; but they were closed to her through jealousy. She went into the
+provinces, in the eastern part of France, and for ten years she was a
+leading lady there in many companies and in many towns. As she blossomed
+into womanhood there came into her life the love which was to be at once
+a source of the most profound interest and of the most intense agony.
+
+It is odd that all her professional success never gave her any
+happiness. The life of the actress who traveled from town to town, the
+crude and coarse experiences which she had to undergo, the disorder and
+the unsettled mode of living, all produced in her a profound disgust.
+She was of too exquisite a fiber to live in such a way, especially in a
+century when the refinements of existence were for the very few.
+
+She speaks herself of "obligatory amusements, the insistence of men, and
+of love affairs." Yet how could such a woman as Adrienne Lecouvreur keep
+herself from love affairs? The motion of the stage and its mimic griefs
+satisfied her only while she was actually upon the boards. Love offered
+her an emotional excitement that endured and that was always changing.
+It was "the profoundest instinct of her being"; and she once wrote:
+"What could one do in the world without loving?"
+
+Still, through these ten years she seems to have loved only that she
+might be unhappy. There was a strange twist in her mind. Men who were
+honorable and who loved her with sincerity she treated very badly. Men
+who were indifferent or ungrateful or actually base she seemed to choose
+by a sort of perverse instinct. Perhaps the explanation of it is that
+during those ten years, though she had many lovers, she never really
+loved. She sought excitement, passion, and after that the mournfulness
+which comes when passion dies. Thus, one man after another came into her
+life--some of them promising marriage--and she bore two children, whose
+fathers were unknown, or at least uncertain. But, after all, one can
+scarcely pity her, since she had not yet in reality known that great
+passion which comes but once in life. So far she had learned only a sort
+of feeble cynicism, which she expressed in letters and in such sayings
+as these:
+
+"There are sweet errors which I would not venture to commit again. My
+experiences, all too sad, have served to illumine my reason."
+
+"I am utterly weary of love and prodigiously tempted to have no more of
+it for the rest of my life; because, after all, I don't wish either to
+die or to go mad."
+
+Yet she also said: "I know too well that no one dies of grief."
+
+She had had, indeed, some very unfortunate experiences. Men of rank had
+loved her and had then cast her off. An actor, one Clavel, would
+have married her, but she would not accept his offer. A magistrate in
+Strasburg promised marriage; and then, when she was about to accept him,
+he wrote to her that he was going to yield to the wishes of his family
+and make a more advantageous alliance. And so she was alternately
+caressed and repulsed--a mere plaything; and yet this was probably all
+that she really needed at the time--something to stir her, something to
+make her mournful or indignant or ashamed.
+
+It was inevitable that at last Adrienne Lecouvreur should appear in
+Paris. She had won such renown throughout the provinces that even
+those who were intensely jealous of her were obliged to give her due
+consideration. In 1717, when she was in her twenty-fifth year, she
+became a member of the Comedie Franchise. There she made an immediate
+and most brilliant impression. She easily took the leading place. She
+was one of the glories of Paris, for she became the fashion outside the
+theater. For the first time the great classic plays were given, not
+in the monotonous singsong which had become a sort of theatrical
+convention, but with all the fire and naturalness of life.
+
+Being the fashion, Mlle. Lecouvreur elevated the social rank of actors
+and of actresses. Her salon was thronged by men and women of rank.
+Voltaire wrote poems in her honor. To be invited to her dinners was
+almost like receiving a decoration from the king. She ought to have been
+happy, for she had reached the summit of her profession and something
+more.
+
+Yet still she was unhappy. In all her letters one finds a plaintive
+tone, a little moaning sound that shows how slightly her nature had been
+changed. No longer, however, did she throw herself away upon dullards or
+brutes. An English peer--Lord Peterborough--not realizing that she was
+different from other actresses of that loose-lived age, said to her
+coarsely at his first introduction:
+
+"Come now! Show me lots of wit and lots of love."
+
+The remark was characteristic of the time. Yet Adrienne had learned
+at least one thing, and that was the discontent which came from light
+affairs. She had thrown herself away too often. If she could not love
+with her entire being, if she could not give all that was in her to be
+given, whether of her heart or mind or soul, then she would love no more
+at all.
+
+At this time there came to Paris a man remarkable in his own century,
+and one who afterward became almost a hero of romance. This was Maurice,
+Comte de Saxe, as the French called him, his German name and title being
+Moritz, Graf von Sachsen, while we usually term him, in English, Marshal
+Saxe. Maurice de Saxe was now, in 1721, entering his twenty-fifth year.
+Already, though so young, his career had been a strange one; and it was
+destined to be still more remarkable. He was the natural son of Duke
+Augustus II. of Saxony, who later became King of Poland, and who is
+known in history as Augustus the Strong.
+
+Augustus was a giant in stature and in strength, handsome, daring,
+unscrupulous, and yet extremely fascinating. His life was one of revelry
+and fighting and display. When in his cups he would often call for a
+horseshoe and twist it into a knot with his powerful fingers. Many were
+his mistresses; but the one for whom he cared the most was a beautiful
+and high-spirited Swedish girl of rank, Aurora von Konigsmarck. She was
+descended from a rough old field-marshal who in the Thirty Years'
+War had slashed and sacked and pillaged and plundered to his heart's
+content. From him Aurora von Konigsmarck seemed to have inherited a high
+spirit and a sort of lawlessness which charmed the stalwart Augustus of
+Poland.
+
+Their son, Maurice de Saxe, inherited everything that was good in his
+parents, and a great deal that was less commendable. As a mere child
+of twelve he had insisted on joining the army of Prince Eugene, and
+had seen rough service in a very strenuous campaign. Two years later he
+showed such daring on the battle-field that Prince Eugene summoned him
+and paid him a compliment under the form of a rebuke.
+
+"Young man," he said, "you must not mistake mere recklessness for
+valor."
+
+Before he was twenty he had attained the stature and strength of his
+royal father; and, to prove it, he in his turn called for a horseshoe,
+which he twisted and broke in his fingers. He fought on the side of the
+Russians and Poles, and again against the Turks, everywhere displaying
+high courage and also genius as a commander; for he never lost his
+self-possession amid the very blackest danger, but possessed, as Carlyle
+says, "vigilance, foresight, and sagacious precaution."
+
+Exceedingly handsome, Maurice was a master of all the arts that pleased,
+with just a touch of roughness, which seemed not unfitting in so gallant
+a soldier. His troops adored him and would follow wherever he might
+choose to lead them; for he exercised over these rude men a magnetic
+power resembling that of Napoleon in after years. In private life he was
+a hard drinker and fond of every form of pleasure. Having no fortune of
+his own, a marriage was arranged for him with the Countess von Loben,
+who was immensely wealthy; but in three years he had squandered all
+her money upon his pleasures, and had, moreover, got himself heavily in
+debt.
+
+It was at this time that he first came to Paris to study military
+tactics. He had fought hard against the French in the wars that were now
+ended; but his chivalrous bearing, his handsome person, and his reckless
+joviality made him at once a universal favorite in Paris. To the
+perfumed courtiers, with their laces and lovelocks and mincing ways,
+Maurice de Saxe came as a sort of knight of old--jovial, daring,
+pleasure-loving. Even his broken French was held to be quite charming;
+and to see him break a horseshoe with his fingers threw every one into
+raptures.
+
+No wonder, then, that he was welcomed in the very highest circles.
+Almost at once he attracted the notice of the Princesse de Conti, a
+beautiful woman of the blood royal. Of her it has been said that she was
+"the personification of a kiss, the incarnation of an embrace, the ideal
+of a dream of love." Her chestnut hair was tinted with little gleams of
+gold. Her eyes were violet black. Her complexion was dazzling. But by
+the king's orders she had been forced to marry a hunchback--a man whose
+very limbs were so weakened by disease and evil living that they would
+often fail to support him, and he would fall to the ground, a writhing,
+screaming mass of ill-looking flesh.
+
+It is not surprising that his lovely wife should have shuddered much at
+his abuse of her and still more at his grotesque endearments. When her
+eyes fell on Maurice de Saxe she saw in him one who could free her from
+her bondage. By a skilful trick he led the Prince de Conti to invade the
+sleeping-room of the princess, with servants, declaring that she was
+not alone. The charge proved quite untrue, and so she left her husband,
+having won the sympathy of her own world, which held that she had been
+insulted. But it was not she who was destined to win and hold the love
+of Maurice de Saxe.
+
+Not long after his appearance in the French capital he was invited to
+dine with the "Queen of Paris," Adrienne Lecouvreur. Saxe had seen her
+on the stage. He knew her previous history. He knew that she was very
+much of a soiled dove; but when he met her these two natures, so utterly
+dissimilar, leaped together, as it were, through the indescribable
+attraction of opposites. He was big and powerful; she was small and
+fragile. He was merry, and full of quips and jests; she was reserved and
+melancholy. Each felt in the other a need supplied.
+
+At one of their earliest meetings the climax came. Saxe was not the
+man to hesitate; while she already, in her thoughts, had made a full
+surrender. In one great sweep he gathered her into his arms. It appeared
+to her as if no man had ever laid his hand upon her until that moment.
+She cried out:
+
+"Now, for the first time in my life, I seem to live!"
+
+It was, indeed, the very first love which in her checkered career was
+really worthy of the name. She had supposed that all such things were
+passed and gone, that her heart was closed for ever, that she was
+invulnerable; and yet here she found herself clinging about the neck
+of this impetuous soldier and showing him all the shy fondness and
+the unselfish devotion of a young girl. From this instant Adrienne
+Lecouvreur never loved another man and never even looked at any other
+man with the slightest interest. For nine long years the two were bound
+together, though there were strange events to ruffle the surface of
+their love.
+
+Maurice de Saxe had been sired by a king. He had the lofty ambition to
+be a king himself, and he felt the stirrings of that genius which in
+after years was to make him a great soldier, and to win the brilliant
+victory of Fontenoy, which to this very day the French are never tired
+of recalling. Already Louis XV. had made him a marshal of France; and a
+certain restlessness came over him. He loved Adrienne; yet he felt that
+to remain in the enjoyment of her witcheries ought not to be the whole
+of a man's career.
+
+Then the Grand Duchy of Courland--at that time a vassal state of Poland,
+now part of Russia--sought a ruler. Maurice de Saxe was eager to secure
+its throne, which would make him at least semi-royal and the chief of
+a principality. He hastened thither and found that money was needed to
+carry out his plans. The widow of the late duke--the Grand Duchess Anna,
+niece of Peter the Great, and later Empress of Russia--as soon as she
+had met this dazzling genius, offered to help him to acquire the duchy
+if he would only marry her. He did not utterly refuse. Still another
+woman of high rank, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, Peter the
+Great's daughter, made him very much the same proposal.
+
+Both of these imperial women might well have attracted a man like
+Maurice de Saxe, had he been wholly fancy-free, for the second of them
+inherited the high spirit and the genius of the great Peter, while the
+first was a pleasure-seeking princess, resembling some of those Roman
+empresses who loved to stoop that they might conquer. She is described
+as indolent and sensual, and she once declared that the chief good in
+the world was love. Yet, though she neglected affairs of state and gave
+them over to favorites, she won and kept the affections of her people.
+She was unquestionably endowed with the magnetic gift of winning hearts.
+
+Adrienne, who was left behind in Paris, knew very little of what was
+going on. Only two things were absolutely clear to her. One was that if
+her lover secured the duchy he must be parted from her. The other was
+that without money his ambition must be thwarted, and that he would then
+return to her. Here was a test to try the soul of any woman. It proved
+the height and the depth of her devotion. Come what might, Maurice
+should be Duke of Courland, even though she lost him. She gathered
+together her whole fortune, sold every jewel that she possessed, and
+sent her lover the sum of nearly a million francs.
+
+This incident shows how absolutely she was his. But in fact, because
+of various intrigues, he failed of election to the ducal throne of
+Courland, and he returned to Adrienne with all her money spent, and
+without even the grace, at first, to show his gratitude. He stormed and
+raged over his ill luck. She merely soothed and petted him, though she
+had heard that he had thought of marrying another woman to secure
+the dukedom. In one of her letters she bursts out with the pitiful
+exclamation:
+
+I am distracted with rage and anguish. Is it not natural to cry out
+against such treachery? This man surely ought to know me--he ought to
+love me. Oh, my God! What are we--what ARE we?
+
+But still she could not give him up, nor could he give her up, though
+there were frightful scenes between them--times when he cruelly
+reproached her and when her native melancholy deepened into outbursts
+of despair. Finally there occurred an incident which is more or
+less obscure in parts. The Duchesse de Bouillon, a great lady of the
+court--facile, feline, licentious, and eager for delights--resolved that
+she would win the love of Maurice de Saxe. She set herself to win it
+openly and without any sense of shame. Maurice himself at times, when
+the tears of Adrienne proved wearisome, flirted with the duchess.
+
+Yet, even so, Adrienne held the first place in his heart, and her rival
+knew it. Therefore she resolved to humiliate Adrienne, and to do so in
+the place where the actress had always reigned supreme. There was to be
+a gala performance of Racine's great tragedy, "Phedre," with Adrienne,
+of course, in the title-role. The Duchesse de Bouillon sent a large
+number of her lackeys with orders to hiss and jeer, and, if possible,
+to break off the play. Malignantly delighted with her plan, the duchess
+arrayed herself in jewels and took her seat in a conspicuous stage-box,
+where she could watch the coming storm and gloat over the discomfiture
+of her rival.
+
+When the curtain rose, and when Adrienne appeared as Phedre, an uproar
+began. It was clear to the great actress that a plot had been devised
+against her. In an instant her whole soul was afire. The queen-like
+majesty of her bearing compelled silence throughout the house. Even the
+hired lackeys were overawed by it. Then Adrienne moved swiftly across
+the stage and fronted her enemy, speaking into her very face the three
+insulting lines which came to her at that moment of the play:
+
+    I am not of those women void of shame,
+    Who, savoring in crime the joys of peace,
+    Harden their faces till they cannot blush!
+
+The whole house rose and burst forth into tremendous applause. Adrienne
+had won, for the woman who had tried to shame her rose in trepidation
+and hurried from the theater.
+
+But the end was not yet. Those were evil times, when dark deeds were
+committed by the great almost with impunity. Secret poisoning was a
+common trade. To remove a rival was as usual a thing in the eighteenth
+century as to snub a rival is usual in the twentieth.
+
+Not long afterward, on the night of March 15, 1730, Adrienne Lecouvreur
+was acting in one of Voltaire's plays with all her power and instinctive
+art when suddenly she was seized with the most frightful pains. Her
+anguish was obvious to every one who saw her, and yet she had the
+courage to go through her part. Then she fainted and was carried home.
+
+Four days later she died, and her death was no less dramatic than her
+life had been. Her lover and two friends of his were with her, and also
+a Jesuit priest. He declined to administer extreme unction unless she
+would declare that she repented of her theatrical career. She stubbornly
+refused, since she believed that to be the greatest actress of her time
+was not a sin. Yet still the priest insisted.
+
+Then came the final moment.
+
+"Weary and revolting against this death, this destiny, she stretched her
+arms with one of the old lovely gestures toward a bust which stood near
+by and cried--her last cry of passion:
+
+"'There is my world, my hope--yes, and my God!'"
+
+The bust was one of Maurice de Saxe.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART
+
+
+The royal families of Europe are widely known, yet not all of them are
+equally renowned. Thus, the house of Romanoff, although comparatively
+young, stands out to the mind with a sort of barbaric power, more
+vividly than the Austrian house of Hapsburg, which is the oldest
+reigning family in Europe, tracing its beginnings backward until
+they are lost in the Dark Ages. The Hohenzollerns of Prussia are
+comparatively modern, so far as concerns their royalty. The offshoots of
+the Bourbons carry on a very proud tradition in the person of the King
+of Spain, although France, which has been ruled by so many members of
+the family, will probably never again behold a Bourbon king. The deposed
+Braganzas bear a name which is ancient, but which has a somewhat tinsel
+sound.
+
+The Bonapartes, of course, are merely parvenus, and they have had the
+good taste to pretend to no antiquity of birth. The first Napoleon,
+dining at a table full of monarchs, when he heard one of them
+deferentially alluding to the Bonaparte family as being very old and
+noble, exclaimed:
+
+"Pish! My nobility dates from the day of Marengo!"
+
+And the third Napoleon, in announcing his coming marriage with Mlle. de
+Montijo, used the very word "parvenu" in speaking of himself and of his
+family. His frankness won the hearts of the French people and helped to
+reconcile them to a marriage in which the bride was barely noble.
+
+In English history there are two great names to conjure by, at least
+to the imaginative. One is Plantagenet, which seems to contain within
+itself the very essence of all that is patrician, magnificent, and
+royal. It calls to memory at once the lion-hearted Richard, whose short
+reign was replete with romance in England and France and Austria and the
+Holy Land.
+
+But perhaps a name of greater influence is that which links the royal
+family of Britain today with the traditions of the past, and which
+summons up legend and story and great deeds of history. This is the name
+of Stuart, about which a whole volume might be written to recall its
+suggestions and its reminiscences.
+
+The first Stuart (then Stewart) of whom anything is known got his name
+from the title of "Steward of Scotland," which remained in the family
+for generations, until the sixth of the line, by marriage with Princess
+Marjory Bruce, acquired the Scottish crown. That was in the early years
+of the fourteenth century; and finally, after the death of Elizabeth
+of England, her rival's son, James VI. of Scotland and I. of England,
+united under one crown two kingdoms that had so long been at almost
+constant war.
+
+It is almost characteristic of the Scot that, having small territory,
+little wealth, and a seat among his peers that is almost ostentatiously
+humble, he should bit by bit absorb the possessions of all the rest and
+become their master. Surely, the proud Tudors, whose line ended with
+Elizabeth, must have despised the "Stewards," whose kingdom was small
+and bleak and cold, and who could not control their own vassals.
+
+One can imagine also, with Sir Walter Scott, the haughty nobles of the
+English court sneering covertly at the awkward, shambling James, pedant
+and bookworm. Nevertheless, his diplomacy was almost as good as that of
+Elizabeth herself; and, though he did some foolish things, he was very
+far from being a fool.
+
+In his appearance James was not unlike Abraham Lincoln--an unkingly
+figure; and yet, like Lincoln, when occasion required it he could rise
+to the dignity which makes one feel the presence of a king. He was the
+only Stuart who lacked anything in form or feature or external grace.
+His son, Charles I., was perhaps one of the worst rulers that England
+has ever had; yet his uprightness of life, his melancholy yet handsome
+face, his graceful bearing, and the strong religious element in his
+character, together with the fact that he was put to death after being
+treacherously surrendered to his enemies--all these have combined to
+make almost a saint of him. There are Englishmen to-day who speak of him
+as "the martyr king," and who, on certain days of the year, say prayers
+that beg the Lord's forgiveness because of Charles's execution.
+
+The members of the so-called League of the White Rose, founded to
+perpetuate English allegiance to the direct line of Stuarts, do many
+things that are quite absurd. They refuse to pray for the present King
+of England and profess to think that the Princess Mary of Bavaria is the
+true ruler of Great Britain. All this represents that trace of sentiment
+which lingers among the English to-day. They feel that the Stuarts were
+the last kings of England to rule by the grace of God rather than by the
+grace of Parliament. As a matter of fact, the present reigning family
+in England is glad to derive its ancient strain of royal blood through a
+Stuart--descended on the distaff side from James I., and winding its way
+through Hanover.
+
+This sentiment for the Stuarts is a thing entirely apart from reason and
+belongs to the realm of poetry and romance; yet so strong is it that
+it has shown itself in the most inconsistent fashion. For instance, Sir
+Walter Scott was a devoted adherent of the house of Hanover. When George
+IV. visited Edinburgh, Scott was completely carried away by his loyal
+enthusiasm. He could not see that the man before him was a drunkard and
+braggart. He viewed him as an incarnation of all the noble traits that
+ought to hedge about a king. He snatched up a wine-glass from which
+George had just been drinking and carried it away to be an object of
+reverence for ever after. Nevertheless, in his heart, and often in his
+speech, Scott seemed to be a high Tory, and even a Jacobite.
+
+There are precedents for this. The Empress Eugenie used often to say
+with a laugh that she was the only true royalist at the imperial court
+of France. That was well enough for her in her days of flightiness and
+frivolity. No one, however, accused Queen Victoria of being frivolous,
+and she was not supposed to have a strong sense of humor. None the less,
+after listening to the skirling of the bagpipes and to the romantic
+ballads which were sung in Scotland she is said to have remarked with a
+sort of sigh:
+
+"Whenever I hear those ballads I feel that England belongs really to the
+Stuarts!"
+
+Before Queen Victoria was born, when all the sons of George III. were
+childless, the Duke of Kent was urged to marry, so that he might have a
+family to continue the succession. In resenting the suggestion he said
+many things, and among them this was the most striking:
+
+"Why don't you call the Stuarts back to England? They couldn't possibly
+make a worse mess of it than our fellows have!"
+
+But he yielded to persuasion and married. From this marriage came
+Victoria, who had the sacred drop of Stuart blood which gave England
+to the Hanoverians; and she was to redeem the blunders and tyrannies of
+both houses.
+
+The fascination of the Stuarts, which has been carried overseas to
+America and the British dominions, probably began with the striking
+history of Mary Queen of Scots. Her brilliancy and boldness and beauty,
+and especially the pathos of her end, have made us see only her intense
+womanliness, which in her own day was the first thing that any one
+observed in her. So, too, with Charles I., romantic figure and knightly
+gentleman. One regrets his death upon the scaffold, even though his
+execution was necessary to the growth of freedom.
+
+Many people are no less fascinated by Charles II., that very different
+type, with his gaiety, his good-fellowship, and his easy-going ways. It
+is not surprising that his people, most of whom never saw him, were very
+fond of him, and did not know that he was selfish, a loose liver, and
+almost a vassal of the king of France.
+
+So it is not strange that the Stuarts, with all their arts and graces,
+were very hard to displace. James II., with the aid of the French,
+fought hard before the British troops in Ireland broke the backs of
+both his armies and sent him into exile. Again in 1715--an episode
+perpetuated in Thackeray's dramatic story of Henry Esmond--came the son
+of James to take advantage of the vacancy caused by the death of Queen
+Anne. But it is perhaps to this claimant's son, the last of the militant
+Stuarts, that more chivalrous feeling has been given than to any other.
+
+To his followers he was the Young Chevalier, the true Prince of Wales;
+to his enemies, the Whigs and the Hanoverians, he was "the Pretender."
+One of the most romantic chapters of history is the one which tells
+of that last brilliant dash which he made upon the coast of Scotland,
+landing with but a few attendants and rejecting the support of a French
+army.
+
+"It is not with foreigners," he said, "but with my own loyal subjects,
+that I wish to regain the kingdom for my father."
+
+It was a daring deed, and the spectacular side of it has been often
+commemorated, especially in Sir Walter Scott's Waverley. There we see
+the gallant prince moving through a sort of military panorama. Most of
+the British troops were absent in Flanders, and the few regiments that
+could be mustered to meet him were appalled by the ferocity and reckless
+courage of the Highlanders, who leaped down like wildcats from their
+hills and flung themselves with dirk and sword upon the British cannon.
+
+We see Sir John Cope retiring at Falkirk, and the astonishing victory of
+Prestonpans, where disciplined British troops fled in dismay through the
+morning mist, leaving artillery and supplies behind them. It is Scott
+again who shows us the prince, master of Edinburgh for a time, while the
+white rose of Stuart royalty held once more the ancient keep above the
+Scottish capital. Then we see the Chevalier pressing southward into
+England, where he hoped to raise an English army to support his own.
+But his Highlanders cared nothing for England, and the English--even the
+Catholic gentry--would not rise to support his cause.
+
+Personally, he had every gift that could win allegiance. Handsome,
+high-tempered, and brave, he could also control his fiery spirit and
+listen to advice, however unpalatable it might be.
+
+The time was favorable. The British troops had been defeated on the
+Continent by Marshal Saxe, of whom I have already written, and by
+Marshal d'Estrees. George II. was a king whom few respected. He could
+scarcely speak anything but German. He grossly ill-treated his wife. It
+is said that on one occasion, in a fit of temper, he actually kicked the
+prime minister. Not many felt any personal loyalty to him, and he spent
+most of his time away from England in his other domain of Hanover.
+
+But precisely here was a reason why Englishmen were willing to put up
+with him. As between him and the brilliant Stuart there would have been
+no hesitation had the choice been merely one of men; but it was believed
+that the return of the Stuarts meant the return of something like
+absolute government, of taxation without sanction of law, and of
+religious persecution. Under the Hanoverian George the English people
+had begun to exercise a considerable measure of self-government. Sharp
+opposition in Parliament compelled him time and again to yield; and when
+he was in Hanover the English were left to work out the problem of free
+government.
+
+Hence, although Prince Charles Edward fascinated all who met him, and
+although a small army was raised for his support, still the unromantic,
+common-sense Englishmen felt that things were better than in the days
+gone by, and most of them refused to take up arms for the cause which
+sentimentally they favored. Therefore, although the Chevalier stirred
+all England and sent a thrill through the officers of state in London,
+his soldiers gradually deserted, and the Scots insisted on returning
+to their own country. Although the Stuart troops reached a point as far
+south as Derby, they were soon pushed backward into Scotland, pursued by
+an army of about nine thousand men under the Duke of Cumberland, son of
+George II.
+
+Cumberland was no soldier; he had been soundly beaten by the French
+on the famous field of Fontenoy. Yet he had firmness and a sort of
+overmastering brutality, which, with disciplined troops and abundant
+artillery, were sufficient to win a victory over the untrained
+Highlanders.
+
+When the battle came five thousand of these mountaineers went roaring
+along the English lines, with the Chevalier himself at their head. For
+a moment there was surprise. The Duke of Cumberland had been drinking
+so heavily that he could give no verbal orders. One of his officers,
+however, is said to have come to him in his tent, where he was trying to
+play cards.
+
+"What disposition shall we make of the prisoners?" asked the officer.
+
+The duke tried to reply, but his utterance was very thick.
+
+"No quarter!" he was believed to say.
+
+The officer objected and begged that such an order as that should
+be given in writing. The duke rolled over and seized a sheaf of
+playing-cards. Pulling one out, he scrawled the necessary order, and
+that was taken to the commanders in the field.
+
+The Highlanders could not stand the cannon fire, and the English won.
+Then the fury of the common soldiery broke loose upon the country.
+
+There was a reign of fantastic and fiendish brutality. One provost
+of the town was violently kicked for a mild remonstrance about the
+destruction of the Episcopalian meeting-house; another was condemned
+to clean out dirty stables. Men and women were whipped and tortured on
+slight suspicion or to extract information. Cumberland frankly professed
+his contempt and hatred of the people among whom he found himself, but
+he savagely punished robberies committed by private soldiers for their
+own profit.
+
+"Mild measures will not do," he wrote to Newcastle.
+
+When leaving the North in July, he said:
+
+"All the good we have done is but a little blood-letting, which has only
+weakened the madness, but not at all cured it; and I tremble to fear
+that this vile spot may still be the ruin of this island and of our
+family."
+
+Such was the famous battle of Culloden, fought in 1746, and putting a
+final end to the hopes of all the Stuarts. As to Cumberland's order for
+"No quarter," if any apology can be made for such brutality, it must be
+found in the fact that the Highland chiefs had on their side agreed to
+spare no captured enemy.
+
+The battle has also left a name commonly given to the nine of diamonds,
+which is called "the curse of Scotland," because it is said that on that
+card Cumberland wrote his bloodthirsty order.
+
+Such, in brief, was the story of Prince Charlie's gallant attempt to
+restore the kingdom of his ancestors. Even when defeated, he would not
+at once leave Scotland. A French squadron appeared off the coast near
+Edinburgh. It had been sent to bring him troops and a large supply
+of money, but he turned his back upon it and made his way into the
+Highlands on foot, closely pursued by English soldiers and Lowland
+spies.
+
+This part of his career is in reality the most romantic of all. He was
+hunted closely, almost as by hounds. For weeks he had only such sleep
+as he could snatch during short periods of safety, and there were times
+when his pursuers came within an inch of capturing him. But never in his
+life were his spirits so high.
+
+It was a sort of life that he had never seen before, climbing the mighty
+rocks, and listening to the thunder of the cataracts, among which he
+often slept, with only one faithful follower to guard him. The story
+of his escape is almost incredible, but he laughed and drank and rolled
+upon the grass when he was free from care. He hobnobbed with the most
+suspicious-looking caterans, with whom he drank the smoky brew of the
+North, and lived as he might on fish and onions and bacon and wild fowl,
+with an appetite such as he had never known at the luxurious court of
+Versailles or St.-Germain.
+
+After the battle of Culloden the prince would have been captured had not
+a Scottish girl named Flora Macdonald met him, caused him to be dressed
+in the clothes of her waiting-maid, and thus got him off to the Isle of
+Skye.
+
+There for a time it was impossible to follow him; and there the two
+lived almost alone together. Such a proximity could not fail to stir the
+romantic feeling of one who was both a youth and a prince. On the other
+hand, no thought of love-making seems to have entered Flora's mind.
+If, however, we read Campbell's narrative very closely we can see that
+Prince Charles made every advance consistent with a delicate remembrance
+of her sex and services.
+
+It seems to have been his thought that if she cared for him, then the
+two might well love; and he gave her every chance to show him favor. The
+youth of twenty-five and the girl of twenty-four roamed together in the
+long, tufted grass or lay in the sunshine and looked out over the sea.
+The prince would rest his head in her lap, and she would tumble his
+golden hair with her slender fingers and sometimes clip off tresses
+which she preserved to give to friends of hers as love-locks. But to
+the last he was either too high or too low for her, according to her own
+modest thought. He was a royal prince, the heir to a throne, or else he
+was a boy with whom she might play quite fancy-free. A lover he could
+not be--so pure and beautiful was her thought of him.
+
+These were perhaps the most delightful days of all his life, as they
+were a beautiful memory in hers. In time he returned to France and
+resumed his place amid the intrigues that surrounded that other Stuart
+prince who styled himself James III., and still kept up the appearance
+of a king in exile. As he watched the artifice and the plotting of
+these make-believe courtiers he may well have thought of his innocent
+companion of the Highland wilds.
+
+As for Flora, she was arrested and imprisoned for five months on English
+vessels of war. After her release she was married, in 1750; and she and
+her husband sailed for the American colonies just before the Revolution.
+In that war Macdonald became a British officer and served against his
+adopted countrymen. Perhaps because of this reason Flora returned alone
+to Scotland, where she died at the age of sixty-eight.
+
+The royal prince who would have given her his easy love lived a life of
+far less dignity in the years that followed his return to France. There
+was no more hope of recovering the English throne. For him there were
+left only the idle and licentious diversions of such a court as that in
+which his father lived.
+
+At the death of James III., even this court was disintegrated, and
+Prince Charles led a roving life under the title of Earl of Albany. In
+his wanderings he met Louise Marie, the daughter of a German prince,
+Gustavus Adolphus of Stolberg. She was only nineteen years of age when
+she first felt the fascination that he still possessed; but it was an
+unhappy marriage for the girl when she discovered that her husband was a
+confirmed drunkard.
+
+Not long after, in fact, she found her life with him so utterly
+intolerable that she persuaded the Pope to allow her a formal
+separation. The pontiff intrusted her to her husband's brother, Cardinal
+York, who placed her in a convent and presently removed her to his own
+residence in Rome.
+
+Here begins another romance. She was often visited by Vittorio Alfieri,
+the great Italian poet and dramatist. Alfieri was a man of wealth. In
+early years he divided his time into alternate periods during which
+he either studied hard in civil and canonical law, or was a constant
+attendant upon the race-course, or rushed aimlessly all over Europe
+without any object except to wear out the post-horses which he used in
+relays over hundreds of miles of road. His life, indeed, was eccentric
+almost to insanity; but when he had met the beautiful and lonely
+Countess of Albany there came over him a striking change. She influenced
+him for all that was good, and he used to say that he owed her all that
+was best in his dramatic works.
+
+Sixteen years after her marriage her royal husband died, a worn-out,
+bloated wreck of one who had been as a youth a model of knightliness and
+manhood. During his final years he had fallen to utter destitution, and
+there was either a touch of half contempt or a feeling of remote kinship
+in the act of George III., who bestowed upon the prince an annual
+pension of four thousand pounds. It showed most plainly that England was
+now consolidated under Hanoverian rule.
+
+When Cardinal York died, in 1807, there was no Stuart left in the male
+line; and the countess was the last to bear the royal Scottish name of
+Albany.
+
+After the prince's death his widow is said to have been married to
+Alfieri, and for the rest of her life she lived in Florence, though
+Alfieri died nearly twenty-one years before her.
+
+Here we have seen a part of the romance which attaches itself to the
+name of Stuart--in the chivalrous young prince, leading his Highlanders
+against the bayonets of the British, lolling idly among the Hebrides,
+or fallen, at the last, to be a drunkard and the husband of an unwilling
+consort, who in her turn loved a famous poet. But it is this Stuart,
+after all, of whom we think when we hear the bagpipes skirling "Over the
+Water to Charlie" or "Wha'll be King but Charlie?"
+
+END OF VOLUME ONE
+
+
+
+
+
+THE EMPRESS CATHARINE AND PRINCE POTEMKIN
+
+
+It has often been said that the greatest Frenchman who ever lived was
+in reality an Italian. It might with equal truth be asserted that the
+greatest Russian woman who ever lived was in reality a German. But the
+Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Catharine II. resemble each other in
+something else. Napoleon, though Italian in blood and lineage, made
+himself so French in sympathy and understanding as to be able to play
+upon the imagination of all France as a great musician plays upon a
+splendid instrument, with absolute sureness of touch and an ability
+to extract from it every one of its varied harmonies. So the Empress
+Catharine of Russia--perhaps the greatest woman who ever ruled a
+nation--though born of German parents, became Russian to the core and
+made herself the embodiment of Russian feeling and Russian aspiration.
+
+At the middle of the eighteenth century Russia was governed by the
+Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. In her own time, and for
+a long while afterward, her real capacity was obscured by her apparent
+indolence, her fondness for display, and her seeming vacillation; but
+now a very high place is accorded her in the history of Russian rulers.
+She softened the brutality that had reigned supreme in Russia. She
+patronized the arts. Her armies twice defeated Frederick the Great and
+raided his capital, Berlin. Had Elizabeth lived, she would probably have
+crushed him.
+
+In her early years this imperial woman had been betrothed to Louis XV.
+of France, but the match was broken off. Subsequently she entered into
+a morganatic marriage and bore a son who, of course, could not be her
+heir. In 1742, therefore, she looked about for a suitable successor, and
+chose her nephew, Prince Peter of Holstein-Gottorp.
+
+Peter, then a mere youth of seventeen, was delighted with so splendid a
+future, and came at once to St. Petersburg. The empress next sought
+for a girl who might marry the young prince and thus become the
+future Czarina. She thought first of Frederick the Great's sister; but
+Frederick shrank from this alliance, though it would have been of much
+advantage to him. He loved his sister--indeed, she was one of the few
+persons for whom he ever really cared. So he declined the offer and
+suggested instead the young Princess Sophia of the tiny duchy of
+Anhalt-Zerbst.
+
+The reason for Frederick's refusal was his knowledge of the
+semi-barbarous conditions that prevailed at the Russian court.
+
+The Russian capital, at that time, was a bizarre, half-civilized,
+half-oriental place, where, among the very highest-born, a thin veneer
+of French elegance covered every form of brutality and savagery and
+lust. It is not surprising, therefore, that Frederick the Great was
+unwilling to have his sister plunged into such a life.
+
+But when the Empress Elizabeth asked the Princess Sophia of
+Anhalt-Zerbst to marry the heir to the Russian throne the young girl
+willingly accepted, the more so as her mother practically commanded it.
+This mother of hers was a grim, harsh German woman who had reared her
+daughter in the strictest fashion, depriving her of all pleasure with a
+truly puritanical severity. In the case of a different sort of girl this
+training would have crushed her spirit; but the Princess Sophia,
+though gentle and refined in manner, had a power of endurance which was
+toughened and strengthened by the discipline she underwent.
+
+And so in 1744, when she was but sixteen years of age, she was taken by
+her mother to St. Petersburg. There she renounced the Lutheran faith and
+was received into the Greek Church, changing her name to Catharine. Soon
+after, with great magnificence, she was married to Prince Peter, and
+from that moment began a career which was to make her the most powerful
+woman in the world.
+
+At this time a lady of the Russian court wrote down a description of
+Catharine's appearance. She was fair-haired, with dark-blue eyes; and
+her face, though never beautiful, was made piquant and striking by the
+fact that her brows were very dark in contrast with her golden hair. Her
+complexion was not clear, yet her look was a very pleasing one. She had
+a certain diffidence of manner at first; but later she bore herself with
+such instinctive dignity as to make her seem majestic, though in fact
+she was beneath the middle size. At the time of her marriage her figure
+was slight and graceful; only in after years did she become stout.
+Altogether, she came to St. Petersburg an attractive, pure-minded German
+maiden, with a character well disciplined, and possessing reserves of
+power which had not yet been drawn upon.
+
+Frederick the Great's forebodings, which had led him to withhold
+his sister's hand, were almost immediately justified in the case of
+Catharine. Her Russian husband revealed to her a mode of life which must
+have tried her very soul. This youth was only seventeen--a mere boy
+in age, and yet a full-grown man in the rank luxuriance of his vices.
+Moreover, he had eccentricities which sometimes verged upon insanity.
+Too young to be admitted to the councils of his imperial aunt, he
+occupied his time in ways that were either ridiculous or vile.
+
+Next to the sleeping-room of his wife he kept a set of kennels, with
+a number of dogs, which he spent hours in drilling as if they had been
+soldiers. He had a troop of rats which he also drilled. It was his
+delight to summon a court martial of his dogs to try the rats for
+various military offenses, and then to have the culprits executed,
+leaving their bleeding carcasses upon the floor. At any hour of the day
+or night Catharine, hidden in her chamber, could hear the yapping of
+the curs, the squeak of rats, and the word of command given by her
+half-idiot husband.
+
+When wearied of this diversion Peter would summon a troop of favorites,
+both men and women, and with them he would drink deep of beer and
+vodka, since from his early childhood he had been both a drunkard and a
+debauchee. The whoops and howls and vile songs of his creatures could
+be heard by Catharine; and sometimes he would stagger into her rooms,
+accompanied by his drunken minions. With a sort of psychopathic
+perversity he would insist on giving Catharine the most minute and
+repulsive narratives of his amours, until she shrank from him with
+horror at his depravity and came to loathe the sight of his bloated
+face, with its little, twinkling, porcine eyes, his upturned nose
+and distended nostrils, and his loose-hung, lascivious mouth. She was
+scarcely less repelled when a wholly different mood would seize upon him
+and he would declare himself her slave, attending her at court functions
+in the garb of a servant and professing an unbounded devotion for his
+bride.
+
+Catharine's early training and her womanly nature led her for a long
+time to submit to the caprices of her husband. In his saner moments she
+would plead with him and strive to interest him in something better
+than his dogs and rats and venal mistresses; but Peter was incorrigible.
+Though he had moments of sense and even of good feeling, these never
+lasted, and after them he would plunge headlong into the most frantic
+excesses that his half-crazed imagination could devise.
+
+It is not strange that in course of time Catharine's strong good sense
+showed her that she could do nothing with this creature. She therefore
+gradually became estranged from him and set herself to the task of doing
+those things which Peter was incapable of carrying out.
+
+She saw that ever since the first awakening of Russia under Peter the
+Great none of its rulers had been genuinely Russian, but had tried to
+force upon the Russian people various forms of western civilization
+which were alien to the national spirit. Peter the Great had striven
+to make his people Dutch. Elizabeth had tried to make them French.
+Catharine, with a sure instinct, resolved that they should remain
+Russian, borrowing what they needed from other peoples, but stirred
+always by the Slavic spirit and swayed by a patriotism that was their
+own. To this end she set herself to become Russian. She acquired the
+Russian language patiently and accurately. She adopted the Russian
+costume, appearing, except on state occasions, in a simple gown of
+green, covering her fair hair, however, with a cap powdered with
+diamonds. Furthermore, she made friends of such native Russians as were
+gifted with talent, winning their favor, and, through them, the favor of
+the common people.
+
+It would have been strange, however, had Catharine, the woman,
+escaped the tainting influences that surrounded her on every side. The
+infidelities of Peter gradually made her feel that she owed him nothing
+as his wife. Among the nobles there were men whose force of character
+and of mind attracted her inevitably. Chastity was a thing of which the
+average Russian had no conception; and therefore it is not strange that
+Catharine, with her intense and sensitive nature, should have turned to
+some of these for the love which she had sought in vain from the half
+imbecile to whom she had been married.
+
+Much has been written of this side of her earlier and later life; yet,
+though it is impossible to deny that she had favorites, one should judge
+very gently the conduct of a girl so young and thrust into a life whence
+all the virtues seemed to be excluded. She bore several children before
+her thirtieth year, and it is very certain that a grave doubt exists as
+to their paternity. Among the nobles of the court were two whose courage
+and virility specially attracted her. The one with whom her name has
+been most often coupled was Gregory Orloff. He and his brother, Alexis
+Orloff, were Russians of the older type--powerful in frame, suave in
+manner except when roused, yet with a tigerish ferocity slumbering
+underneath. Their power fascinated Catharine, and it was currently
+declared that Gregory Orloff was her lover.
+
+When she was in her thirty-second year her husband was proclaimed Czar,
+after the death of the Empress Elizabeth. At first in some ways his
+elevation seemed to sober him; but this period of sanity, like those
+which had come to him before, lasted only a few weeks. Historians have
+given him much credit for two great reforms that are connected with his
+name; and yet the manner in which they were actually brought about is
+rather ludicrous. He had shut himself up with his favorite revelers, and
+had remained for several days drinking and carousing until he scarcely
+knew enough to speak. At this moment a young officer named Gudovitch,
+who was really loyal to the newly created Czar, burst into the
+banquet-hall, booted and spurred and his eyes aflame with indignation.
+Standing before Peter, his voice rang out with the tone of a battle
+trumpet, so that the sounds of revelry were hushed.
+
+"Peter Feodorovitch," he cried, "do you prefer these swine to those who
+really wish to serve you? Is it in this way that you imitate the glories
+of your ancestor, that illustrious Peter whom you have sworn to take
+as your model? It will not be long before your people's love will be
+changed to hatred. Rise up, my Czar! Shake off this lethargy and sloth.
+Prove that you are worthy of the faith which I and others have given you
+so loyally!"
+
+With these words Gudovitch thrust into Peter's trembling hand two
+proclamations, one abolishing the secret bureau of police, which had
+become an instrument of tyrannous oppression, and the other restoring to
+the nobility many rights of which they had been deprived.
+
+The earnestness and intensity of Gudovitch temporarily cleared the brain
+of the drunken Czar. He seized the papers, and, without reading them,
+hastened at once to his great council, where he declared that they
+expressed his wishes. Great was the rejoicing in St. Petersburg, and
+great was the praise bestowed on Peter; yet, in fact, he had acted only
+as any drunkard might act under the compulsion of a stronger will than
+his.
+
+As before, his brief period of good sense was succeeded by another of
+the wildest folly. It was not merely that he reversed the wise policy of
+his aunt, but that he reverted to his early fondness for everything that
+was German. His bodyguard was made up of German troops--thus exciting
+the jealousy of the Russian soldiers. He introduced German fashions. He
+boasted that his father had been an officer in the Prussian army. His
+crazy admiration for Frederick the Great reached the utmost verge of
+sycophancy.
+
+As to Catharine, he turned on her with something like ferocity. He
+declared in public that his eldest son, the Czarevitch Paul, was
+really fathered by Catharine's lovers. At a state banquet he turned
+to Catharine and hurled at her a name which no woman could possibly
+forgive--and least of all a woman such as Catharine, with her high
+spirit and imperial pride. He thrust his mistresses upon her; and
+at last he ordered her, with her own hand, to decorate the Countess
+Vorontzoff, who was known to be his maitresse en titre.
+
+It was not these gross insults, however, so much as a concern for her
+personal safety that led Catharine to take measures for her own defense.
+She was accustomed to Peter's ordinary eccentricities. On the ground
+of his unfaithfulness to her she now had hardly any right to make
+complaint. But she might reasonably fear lest he was becoming mad. If he
+questioned the paternity of their eldest son he might take measures to
+imprison Catharine or even to destroy her. Therefore she conferred with
+the Orloffs and other gentlemen, and their conference rapidly developed
+into a conspiracy.
+
+The soldiery, as a whole, was loyal to the empress. It hated Peter's
+Holstein guards. What she planned was probably the deposition of Peter.
+She would have liked to place him under guard in some distant palace.
+But while the matter was still under discussion she was awakened early
+one morning by Alexis Orloff. He grasped her arm with scant ceremony.
+
+"We must act at once," said he. "We have been betrayed!"
+
+Catharine was not a woman to waste time. She went immediately to the
+barracks in St. Petersburg, mounted upon a charger, and, calling out
+the Russian guards, appealed to them for their support. To a man they
+clashed their weapons and roared forth a thunderous cheer. Immediately
+afterward the priests anointed her as regent in the name of her son; but
+as she left the church she was saluted by the people, as well as by the
+soldiers, as empress in her own right.
+
+It was a bold stroke, and it succeeded down to the last detail. The
+wretched Peter, who was drilling his German guards at a distance from
+the capital, heard of the revolt, found that his sailors at Kronstadt
+would not acknowledge him, and then finally submitted. He was taken to
+Ropsha and confined within a single room. To him came the Orloffs, quite
+of their own accord. Gregory Orloff endeavored to force a corrosive
+poison into Peter's mouth. Peter, who was powerful of build and now
+quite desperate, hurled himself upon his enemies. Alexis Orloff seized
+him by the throat with a tremendous clutch and strangled him till the
+blood gushed from his ears. In a few moments the unfortunate man was
+dead.
+
+Catharine was shocked by the intelligence, but she had no choice save
+to accept the result of excessive zeal. She issued a note to the foreign
+ambassadors informing them that Peter had died of a violent colic. When
+his body was laid out for burial the extravasated blood is said to have
+oozed out even through his hands, staining the gloves that had been
+placed upon them. No one believed the story of the colic; and some six
+years later Alexis Orloff told the truth with the utmost composure. The
+whole incident was characteristically Russian.
+
+It is not within the limits of our space to describe the reign of
+Catharine the Great--the exploits of her armies, the acuteness of her
+statecraft, the vast additions which she made to the Russian Empire, and
+the impulse which she gave to science and art and literature. Yet these
+things ought to be remembered first of all when one thinks of the woman
+whom Voltaire once styled "the Semiramis of the North." Because she was
+so powerful, because no one could gainsay her, she led in private a
+life which has been almost more exploited than her great imperial
+achievements. And yet, though she had lovers whose names have been
+carefully recorded, even she fulfilled the law of womanhood--which is to
+love deeply and intensely only once.
+
+One should not place all her lovers in the same category. As a girl, and
+when repelled by the imbecility of Peter, she gave herself to Gregory
+Orloff. She admired his strength, his daring, and his unscrupulousness.
+But to a woman of her fine intelligence he came to seem almost more
+brute than man. She could not turn to him for any of those delicate
+attentions which a woman loves so much, nor for that larger sympathy
+which wins the heart as well as captivates the senses. A writer of the
+time has said that Orloff would hasten with equal readiness from the
+arms of Catharine to the embraces of any flat-nosed Finn or filthy
+Calmuck or to the lowest creature whom he might encounter in the
+streets.
+
+It happened that at the time of Catharine's appeal to the imperial
+guards there came to her notice another man who--as he proved in a
+trifling and yet most significant manner--had those traits which Orloff
+lacked. Catharine had mounted, man--fashion, a cavalry horse, and, with
+a helmet on her head, had reined up her steed before the barracks. At
+that moment One of the minor nobles, who was also favorable to her,
+observed that her helmet had no plume. In a moment his horse was at her
+side. Bowing low over his saddle, he took his own plume from his helmet
+and fastened it to hers. This man was Prince Gregory Potemkin, and this
+slight act gives a clue to the influence which he afterward exercised
+over his imperial mistress!
+
+When Catharine grew weary of the Orloffs, and when she had enriched them
+with lands and treasures, she turned to Potemkin; and from then until
+the day of his death he was more to her than any other man had ever
+been. With others she might flirt and might go even further than
+flirtation; but she allowed no other favorite to share her confidence,
+to give advice, or to direct her policies.
+
+To other men she made munificent gifts, either because they pleased her
+for the moment or because they served her on one occasion or another;
+but to Potemkin she opened wide the whole treasury of her vast realm.
+There was no limit to what she would do for him. When he first knew
+her he was a man of very moderate fortune. Within two years after their
+intimate acquaintance had begun she had given him nine million rubles,
+while afterward he accepted almost limitless estates in Poland and in
+every province of Greater Russia.
+
+He was a man of sumptuous tastes, and yet he cared but little for mere
+wealth. What he had, he used to please or gratify or surprise the
+woman whom he loved. He built himself a great palace in St. Petersburg,
+usually known as the Taurian Palace, and there he gave the most
+sumptuous entertainments, reversing the story of Antony and Cleopatra.
+
+In a superb library there stood one case containing volumes bound with
+unusual richness. When the empress, attracted by the bindings, drew
+forth a book she found to her surprise that its pages were English
+bank-notes. The pages of another proved to be Dutch bank-notes, and, of
+another, notes on the Bank of Venice. Of the remaining volumes some were
+of solid gold, while others had pages of fine leather in which were set
+emeralds and rubies and diamonds and other gems. The story reads like a
+bit of fiction from the Arabian Nights. Yet, after all, this was only a
+small affair compared with other undertakings with which Potemkin sought
+to please her.
+
+Thus, after Taurida and the Crimea had been added to the empire
+by Potemkin's agency, Catharine set out with him to view her new
+possessions. A great fleet of magnificently decorated galleys bore her
+down the river Dnieper. The country through which she passed had been
+a year before an unoccupied waste. Now, by Potemkin's extraordinary
+efforts, the empress found it dotted thick with towns and cities which
+had been erected for the occasion, filled with a busy population which
+swarmed along the riverside to greet the sovereign with applause. It
+was only a chain of fantom towns and cities, made of painted wood and
+canvas; but while Catharine was there they were very real, seeming
+to have solid buildings, magnificent arches, bustling industries, and
+beautiful stretches of fertile country. No human being ever wrought on
+so great a scale so marvelous a miracle of stage-management.
+
+Potemkin was, in fact, the one man who could appeal with unfailing
+success to so versatile and powerful a spirit as Catharine's. He was
+handsome of person, graceful of manner, and with an intellect which
+matched her own. He never tried to force her inclination, and, on the
+other hand, he never strove to thwart it. To him, as to no other man,
+she could turn at any moment and feel that, no matter what her mood, he
+could understand her fully. And this, according to Balzac, is the thing
+that woman yearns for most--a kindred spirit that can understand without
+the slightest need of explanation.
+
+Thus it was that Gregory Potemkin held a place in the soul of this great
+woman such as no one else attained. He might be absent, heading armies
+or ruling provinces, and on his return he would be greeted with even
+greater fondness than before. And it was this rather than his victories
+over Turk and other oriental enemies that made Catharine trust him
+absolutely.
+
+When he died, he died as the supreme master of her foreign policy and at
+a time when her word was powerful throughout all Europe. Death came upon
+him after he had fought against it with singular tenacity of purpose.
+Catharine had given him a magnificent triumph, and he had entertained
+her in his Taurian Palace with a splendor such as even Russia had never
+known before. Then he fell ill, though with high spirit he would not
+yield to illness. He ate rich meats and drank rich wines and bore
+himself as gallantly as ever. Yet all at once death came upon him while
+he was traveling in the south of Russia. His carriage was stopped, a
+rug was spread beneath a tree by the roadside, and there he died, in the
+country which he had added to the realms of Russia.
+
+The great empress who loved him mourned him deeply during the five years
+of life that still remained to her. The names of other men for whom she
+had imagined that she cared were nothing to her. But this one man lived
+in her heart in death as he had done in life.
+
+Many have written of Catharine as a great ruler, a wise diplomat, a
+creature of heroic mold. Others have depicted her as a royal wanton and
+have gathered together a mass of vicious tales, the gossip of the palace
+kitchens, of the clubs, and of the barrack-rooms. But perhaps one finds
+the chief interest of her story to lie in this--that besides being
+empress and diplomat and a lover of pleasure she was, beyond all else,
+at heart a woman.
+
+
+
+
+
+MARIE ANTOINETTE AND COUNT FERSEN
+
+
+The English-speaking world long ago accepted a conventional view of
+Marie Antoinette. The eloquence of Edmund Burke in one brilliant passage
+has fixed, probably for all time, an enduring picture of this unhappy
+queen.
+
+When we speak or think of her we speak and think first of all of a
+dazzling and beautiful woman surrounded by the chivalry of France and
+gleaming like a star in the most splendid court of Europe. And then
+there comes to us the reverse of the picture. We see her despised,
+insulted, and made the butt of brutal men and still more fiendish women;
+until at last the hideous tumbrel conveys her to the guillotine, where
+her head is severed from her body and her corpse is cast down into a
+bloody pool.
+
+In these two pictures our emotions are played upon in turn--admiration,
+reverence, devotion, and then pity, indignation, and the shudderings of
+horror.
+
+Probably in our own country and in England this will remain the historic
+Marie Antoinette. Whatever the impartial historian may write, he can
+never induce the people at large to understand that this queen was far
+from queenly, that the popular idea of her is almost wholly false, and
+that both in her domestic life and as the greatest lady in France she
+did much to bring on the terrors of that revolution which swept her to
+the guillotine.
+
+In the first place, it is mere fiction that represents Maria Antoinette
+as having been physically beautiful. The painters and engravers have so
+idealized her face as in most cases to have produced a purely imaginary
+portrait.
+
+She was born in Vienna, in 1755, the daughter of the Emperor Francis
+and of that warrior-queen, Maria Theresa. She was a very German-looking
+child. Lady Jackson describes her as having a long, thin face, small,
+pig-like eyes, a pinched-up mouth, with the heavy Hapsburg lip, and
+with a somewhat misshapen form, so that for years she had to be bandaged
+tightly to give her a more natural figure.
+
+At fourteen, when she was betrothed to the heir to the French throne,
+she was a dumpy, mean-looking little creature, with no distinction
+whatever, and with only her bright golden hair to make amends for her
+many blemishes. At fifteen she was married and joined the Dauphin in
+French territory.
+
+We must recall for a moment the conditions which prevailed in France.
+King Louis XV. was nearing his end. He was a man of the most shameless
+life; yet he had concealed or gilded his infamies by an external dignity
+and magnificence which, were very pleasing to his people. The French,
+liked to think that their king was the most splendid monarch and the
+greatest gentleman in Europe. The courtiers about him might be vile
+beneath the surface, yet they were compelled to deport themselves with
+the form and the etiquette that had become traditional in France. They
+might be panders, or stock-jobbers, or sellers of political offices;
+yet they must none the less have wit and grace and outward nobility of
+manner.
+
+There was also a tradition regarding the French queen. However loose
+in character the other women of the court might be, she alone, like
+Caesar's wife, must remain above suspicion. She must be purer than the
+pure. No breath, of scandal must reach her or be directed against her.
+
+In this way the French court, even under so dissolute a monarch as Louis
+XV., maintained its hold upon the loyalty of the people. Crowds came
+every morning to view the king in his bed before he arose; the same
+crowds watched him as he was dressed by the gentlemen of the bedchamber,
+and as he breakfasted and went through all the functions which are
+usually private. The King of France must be a great actor. He must
+appear to his people as in reality a king-stately, dignified, and beyond
+all other human beings in his remarkable presence.
+
+When the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette came to the French court King
+Louis XV. kept up in the case the same semblance of austerity. He
+forbade these children to have their sleeping-apartments together. He
+tried to teach them that if they were to govern as well as to reign they
+must conform to the rigid etiquette of Paris and Versailles.
+
+It proved a difficult task, however. The little German princess had no
+natural dignity, though she came from a court where the very strictest
+imperial discipline prevailed. Marie Antoinette found that she could
+have her own way in many things, and she chose to enjoy life without
+regard to ceremony. Her escapades at first would have been thought mild
+enough had she not been a "daughter of France"; but they served to shock
+the old French king, and likewise, perhaps even more, her own imperial
+mother, Maria Theresa.
+
+When a report of the young girl's conduct was brought to her the empress
+was at first mute with indignation. Then she cried out:
+
+"Can this girl be a child of mine? She surely must be a changeling!"
+
+The Austrian ambassador to France was instructed to warn the Dauphiness
+to be more discreet.
+
+"Tell her," said Maria Theresa, "that she will lose her throne, and even
+her life, unless she shows more prudence."
+
+But advice and remonstrance were of no avail. Perhaps they might have
+been had her husband possessed a stronger character; but the young Louis
+was little more fitted to be a king than was his wife to be a queen.
+Dull of perception and indifferent to affairs of state, he had only two
+interests that absorbed him. One was the love of hunting, and the other
+was his desire to shut himself up in a sort of blacksmith shop, where he
+could hammer away at the anvil, blow the bellows, and manufacture small
+trifles of mechanical inventions. From this smudgy den he would emerge,
+sooty and greasy, an object of distaste to his frivolous princess, with
+her foamy laces and perfumes and pervasive daintiness.
+
+It was hinted in many quarters, and it has been many times repeated,
+that Louis was lacking in virility. Certainly he had no interest in the
+society of women and was wholly continent. But this charge of physical
+incapacity seems to have had no real foundation. It had been made
+against some of his predecessors. It was afterward hurled at Napoleon
+the Great, and also Napoleon the Little. In France, unless a royal
+personage was openly licentious, he was almost sure to be jeered at by
+the people as a weakling.
+
+And so poor Louis XVI., as he came to be, was treated with a mixture
+of pity and contempt because he loved to hammer and mend locks in his
+smithy or shoot game when he might have been caressing ladies who would
+have been proud to have him choose them out.
+
+On the other hand, because of this opinion regarding Louis, people
+were the more suspicious of Marie Antoinette. Some of them, in coarse
+language, criticized her assumed infidelities; others, with a polite
+sneer, affected to defend her. But the result of it all was dangerous to
+both, especially as France was already verging toward the deluge which
+Louis XV. had cynically predicted would follow after him.
+
+In fact, the end came sooner than any one had guessed. Louis XV., who
+had become hopelessly and helplessly infatuated with the low-born Jeanne
+du Barry, was stricken down with smallpox of the most virulent type. For
+many days he lay in his gorgeous bed. Courtiers crowded his sick-room
+and the adjacent hall, longing for the moment when the breath would
+leave his body. He had lived an evil life, and he was to die a loathsome
+death; yet he had borne himself before men as a stately monarch. Though
+his people had suffered in a thousand ways from his misgovernment, he
+was still Louis the Well Beloved, and they blamed his ministers of state
+for all the shocking wrongs that France had felt.
+
+The abler men, and some of the leaders of the people, however, looked
+forward to the accession of Louis XVI. He at least was frugal in his
+habits and almost plebeian in his tastes, and seemed to be one who would
+reduce the enormous taxes that had been levied upon France.
+
+The moment came when the Well Beloved died. His death-room was fetid
+with disease, and even the long corridors of the palace reeked with
+infection, while the motley mob of men and women, clad in silks and
+satins and glittering with jewels, hurried from the spot to pay their
+homage to the new Louis, who was spoken of as "the Desired." The body of
+the late monarch was hastily thrown into a mass of quick-lime, and was
+driven away in a humble wagon, without guards and with no salute,
+save from a single veteran, who remembered the glories of Fontenoy and
+discharged his musket as the royal corpse was carried through the palace
+gates.
+
+This was a critical moment in the history of France; but we have
+to consider it only as a critical moment in the history of Marie
+Antoinette. She was now queen. She had it in her power to restore to
+the French court its old-time grandeur, and, so far as the queen was
+concerned, its purity. Above all, being a foreigner, she should have
+kept herself free from reproach and above every shadow of suspicion.
+
+But here again the indifference of the king undoubtedly played a strange
+part in her life. Had he borne himself as her lord and master she might
+have respected him. Had he shown her the affection of a husband she
+might have loved him. But he was neither imposing, nor, on the other
+hand, was he alluring. She wrote very frankly about him in a letter to
+the Count Orsini:
+
+My tastes are not the same as those of the king, who cares only for
+hunting and blacksmith work. You will admit that I should not show to
+advantage in a forge. I could not appear there as Vulcan, and the part
+of Venus might displease him even more than my tastes.
+
+Thus on the one side is a woman in the first bloom of youth, ardent,
+eager--and neglected. On the other side is her husband, whose
+sluggishness may be judged by quoting from a diary which he kept during
+the month in which he was married. Here is a part of it:
+
+Sunday, 13--Left Versailles. Supper and slept at Compignee, at the house
+of M. de Saint-Florentin.
+
+Monday, 14--Interview with Mme. la Dauphine.
+
+Tuesday, 15--Supped at La Muette. Slept at Versailles.
+
+Wednesday, 16--My marriage. Apartment in the gallery. Royal banquet in
+the Salle d'Opera.
+
+Thursday, 17--Opera of "Perseus."
+
+Friday, 18--Stag-hunt. Met at La Belle Image. Took one.
+
+Saturday, 19--Dress-ball in the Salle d'Opera. Fireworks.
+
+Thursday, 31--I had an indigestion.
+
+What might have been expected from a young girl placed as this queen was
+placed? She was indeed an earlier Eugenie. The first was of royal
+blood, the second was almost a plebeian; but each was headstrong,
+pleasure-loving, and with no real domestic ties. As Mr. Kipling
+expresses it--
+
+    The colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady
+    Are sisters under their skins;
+
+and so the Austrian woman of 1776 and the Spanish woman of 1856 found
+amusement in very similar ways. They plunged into a sea of strange
+frivolity, such as one finds to-day at the centers of high fashion.
+Marie Antoinette bedecked herself with eccentric garments. On her head
+she wore a hat styled a "what-is-it," towering many feet in height and
+flaunting parti-colored plumes. Worse than all this, she refused to wear
+corsets, and at some great functions she would appear in what looked
+exactly like a bedroom gown.
+
+She would even neglect the ordinary niceties of life. Her hands were not
+well cared for. It was very difficult for the ladies in attendance
+to persuade her to brush her teeth with regularity. Again, she would
+persist in wearing her frilled and lace-trimmed petticoats long after
+their dainty edges had been smirched and blackened.
+
+Yet these things might have been counteracted had she gone no further.
+Unfortunately, she did go further. She loved to dress at night like
+a shop-girl and venture out into the world of Paris, where she was
+frequently followed and recognized. Think of it--the Queen of France,
+elbowed in dense crowds and seeking to attract the attention of common
+soldiers!
+
+Of course, almost every one put the worst construction upon this,
+and after a time upon everything she did. When she took a fancy for
+constructing labyrinths and secret passages in the palace, all Paris
+vowed that she was planning means by which her various lovers might
+enter without observation. The hidden printing-presses of Paris swarmed
+with gross lampoons about this reckless girl; and, although there
+was little truth in what they said, there was enough to cloud her
+reputation. When she fell ill with the measles she was attended in her
+sick-chamber by four gentlemen of the court. The king was forbidden to
+enter lest he might catch the childish disorder.
+
+The apathy of the king, indeed, drove her into many a folly. After four
+years of marriage, as Mrs. Mayne records, he had only reached the point
+of giving her a chilly kiss. The fact that she had no children became
+a serious matter. Her brother, the Emperor Joseph of Austria, when he
+visited Paris, ventured to speak to the king upon the subject. Even
+the Austrian ambassador had thrown out hints that the house of Bourbon
+needed direct heirs. Louis grunted and said little, but he must have
+known how good was the advice.
+
+It was at about this time when there came to the French court a young
+Swede named Axel de Fersen, who bore the title of count, but who was
+received less for his rank than for his winning manner, his knightly
+bearing, and his handsome, sympathetic face. Romantic in spirit, he
+threw himself at once into a silent inner worship of Marie Antoinette,
+who had for him a singular attraction. Wherever he could meet her they
+met. To her growing cynicism this breath of pure yet ardent affection
+was very grateful. It came as something fresh and sweet into the
+feverish life she led.
+
+Other men had had the audacity to woo her--among them Duc de Lauzun,
+whose complicity in the famous affair of the diamond necklace afterward
+cast her, though innocent, into ruin; the Duc de Biron; and the Baron
+de Besenval, who had obtained much influence over her, which he used for
+the most evil purposes. Besenval tainted her mind by persuading her to
+read indecent books, in the hope that at last she would become his prey.
+
+But none of these men ever meant to Marie Antoinette what Fersen meant.
+Though less than twenty years of age, he maintained the reserve of a
+great gentleman, and never forced himself upon her notice. Yet their
+first acquaintance had occurred in such a way as to give to it a touch
+of intimacy. He had gone to a masked ball, and there had chosen for his
+partner a lady whose face was quite concealed. Something drew the two
+together. The gaiety of the woman and the chivalry of the man blended
+most harmoniously. It was only afterward that he discovered that his
+chance partner was the first lady in France. She kept his memory in her
+mind; for some time later, when he was at a royal drawing-room and she
+heard his voice, she exclaimed:
+
+"Ah, an old acquaintance!"
+
+From this time Fersen was among those who were most intimately favored
+by the queen. He had the privilege of attending her private receptions
+at the palace of the Trianon, and was a conspicuous figure at the feasts
+given in the queen's honor by the Princess de Lamballe, a beautiful girl
+whose head was destined afterward to be severed from her body and borne
+upon a bloody pike through the streets of Paris. But as yet the deluge
+had not arrived and the great and noble still danced upon the brink of a
+volcano.
+
+Fersen grew more and more infatuated, nor could he quite conceal his
+feelings. The queen, in her turn, was neither frightened nor indignant.
+His passion, so profound and yet so respectful, deeply moved her. Then
+came a time when the truth was made clear to both of them. Fersen was
+near her while she was singing to the harpsichord, and "she was betrayed
+by her own music into an avowal which song made easy." She forgot that
+she was Queen of France. She only felt that her womanhood had been
+starved and slighted, and that here was a noble-minded lover of whom she
+could be proud.
+
+Some time after this announcement was officially made of the approaching
+accouchement of the queen. It was impossible that malicious tongues
+should be silent. The king's brother, the Comte de Provence, who hated
+the queen, just as the Bonapartes afterward hated Josephine, did his
+best to besmirch her reputation. He had, indeed, the extraordinary
+insolence to do so at a time when one would suppose that the vilest
+of men would remain silent. The child proved to be a princess, and she
+afterward received the title of Duchesse d'Angouleme. The King of Spain
+asked to be her godfather at the christening, which was to be held in
+the cathedral of Notre Dame. The Spanish king was not present in person,
+but asked the Comte de Provence to act as his proxy.
+
+On the appointed day the royal party proceeded to the cathedral, and the
+Comte de Provence presented the little child at the baptismal font. The
+grand almoner, who presided, asked;
+
+"What name shall be given to this child?"
+
+The Comte de Provence answered in a sneering tone:
+
+"Oh, we don't begin with that. The first thing to find out is who the
+father and the mother are!"
+
+These words, spoken at such a place and such a time, and with a strongly
+sardonic ring, set all Paris gossiping. It was a thinly veiled innuendo
+that the father of the child was not the King of France. Those about the
+court immediately began to look at Fersen with significant smiles. The
+queen would gladly have kept him near her; but Fersen cared even more
+for her good name than for his love of her. It would have been so
+easy to remain in the full enjoyment of his conquest; but he was too
+chivalrous for that, or, rather, he knew that the various ambassadors
+in Paris had told their respective governments of the rising scandal.
+In fact, the following secret despatch was sent to the King of Sweden by
+his envoy:
+
+I must confide to your majesty that the young Count Fersen has been so
+well received by the queen that various persons have taken it amiss. I
+own that I am sure that she has a liking for him. I have seen proofs of
+it too certain to be doubted. During the last few days the queen has not
+taken her eyes off him, and as she gazed they were full of tears. I beg
+your majesty to keep their secret to yourself.
+
+The queen wept because Fersen had resolved to leave her lest she should
+be exposed to further gossip. If he left her without any apparent
+reason, the gossip would only be the more intense. Therefore he decided
+to join the French troops who were going to America to fight under
+Lafayette. A brilliant but dissolute duchess taunted him when the news
+became known.
+
+"How is this?" said she. "Do you forsake your conquest?"
+
+But, "lying like a gentleman," Fersen answered, quietly:
+
+"Had I made a conquest I should not forsake it. I go away free, and,
+unfortunately, without leaving any regret."
+
+Nothing could have been more chivalrous than the pains which Fersen took
+to shield the reputation of the queen. He even allowed it to be supposed
+that he was planning a marriage with a rich young Swedish woman who
+had been naturalized in England. As a matter of fact, he departed for
+America, and not very long afterward the young woman in question married
+an Englishman.
+
+Fersen served in America for a time, returning, however, at the end of
+three years. He was one of the original Cincinnati, being admitted
+to the order by Washington himself. When he returned to France he was
+received with high honors and was made colonel of the royal Swedish
+regiment.
+
+The dangers threatening Louis and his court, which were now gigantic and
+appalling, forbade him to forsake the queen. By her side he did what
+he could to check the revolution; and, failing this, he helped her to
+maintain an imperial dignity of manner which she might otherwise have
+lacked. He faced the bellowing mob which surrounded the Tuileries.
+Lafayette tried to make the National Guard obey his orders, but he was
+jeered at for his pains. Violent epithets were hurled at the king. The
+least insulting name which they could give him was "a fat pig." As for
+the queen, the most filthy phrases were showered upon her by the men,
+and even more so by the women, who swarmed out of the slums and sought
+her life.
+
+At last, in 1791, it was decided that the king and the queen and their
+children, of whom they now had three, should endeavor to escape from
+Paris. Fersen planned their flight, but it proved to be a failure. Every
+one remembers how they were discovered and halted at Varennes. The royal
+party was escorted back to Paris by the mob, which chanted with insolent
+additions:
+
+"We've brought back the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's boy!
+Now we shall have bread!"
+
+Against the savage fury which soon animated the French a foreigner like
+Fersen could do very little; but he seems to have endeavored, night and
+day, to serve the woman whom he loved. His efforts have been described
+by Grandat; but they were of no avail. The king and queen were
+practically made prisoners. Their eldest son died. They went through
+horrors that were stimulated by the wretch Hebert, at the head of his
+so-called Madmen (Enrages). The king was executed in January, 1792. The
+queen dragged out a brief existence in a prison where she was for ever
+under the eyes of human brutes, who guarded her and watched her and
+jeered at her at times when even men would be sensitive. Then, at last,
+she mounted the scaffold, and her head, with its shining hair, fell into
+the bloody basket.
+
+Marie Antoinette shows many contradictions in her character. As a young
+girl she was petulant and silly and almost unseemly in her actions. As
+a queen, with waning power, she took on a dignity which recalled the
+dignity of her imperial mother. At first a flirt, she fell deeply in
+love when she met a man who was worthy of that love. She lived for most
+part like a mere cocotte. She died every inch a queen.
+
+One finds a curious resemblance between the fate of Marie Antoinette and
+that of her gallant lover, who outlived her for nearly twenty years. She
+died amid the shrieks and execrations of a maddened populace in Paris;
+he was practically torn in pieces by a mob in the streets of Stockholm.
+The day of his death was the anniversary of the flight to Varennes. To
+the last moment of his existence he remained faithful to the memory of
+the royal woman who had given herself so utterly to him.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF AARON BURR
+
+
+There will come a time when the name of Aaron Burr will be cleared from
+the prejudice which now surrounds it, when he will stand in the public
+estimation side by side with Alexander Hamilton, whom he shot in a duel
+in 1804, but whom in many respects he curiously resembled. When the
+white light of history shall have searched them both they will appear as
+two remarkable men, each having his own undoubted faults and at the same
+time his equally undoubted virtues.
+
+Burr and Hamilton were born within a year of each other--Burr being
+a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and Alexander Hamilton being the
+illegitimate son of a Scottish merchant in the West Indies. Each of them
+was short in stature, keen of intellect, of great physical endurance,
+courage, and impressive personality. Each as a young man served on
+the staff of Washington during the Revolutionary War, and each of them
+quarreled with him, though in a different way.
+
+On one occasion Burr was quite unjustly suspected by Washington of
+looking over the latter's shoulder while he was writing. "Washington
+leaped to his feet with the exclamation:
+
+"How dare you, Colonel Burr?"
+
+Burr's eyes flashed fire at the question, and he retorted, haughtily:
+
+"Colonel Burr DARE do anything."
+
+This, however, was the end of their altercation The cause of Hamilton's
+difference with his chief is not known, but it was a much more serious
+quarrel; so that the young officer left his staff position in a fury and
+took no part in the war until the end, when he was present at the battle
+of Yorktown.
+
+Burr, on the other hand, helped Montgomery to storm the heights of
+Quebec, and nearly reached the upper citadel when his commander was
+shot dead and the Americans retreated. In all this confusion Burr showed
+himself a man of mettle. The slain Montgomery was six feet high, but
+Burr carried his body away with wonderful strength amid a shower of
+musket-balls and grape-shot.
+
+Hamilton had no belief in the American Constitution, which he called "a
+shattered, feeble thing." He could never obtain an elective office,
+and he would have preferred to see the United States transformed into
+a kingdom. Washington's magnanimity and clear-sightedness made Hamilton
+Secretary of the Treasury. Burr, on the other hand, continued his
+military service until the war was ended, routing the enemy at
+Hackensack, enduring the horrors of Valley Forge, commanding a brigade
+at the battle of Monmouth, and heading the defense of the city of New
+Haven. He was also attorney-general of New York, was elected to the
+United States Senate, was tied with Jefferson for the Presidency, and
+then became Vice-President.
+
+Both Hamilton and Burr were effective speakers; but, while Hamilton was
+wordy and diffuse, Burr spoke always to the point, with clear and cogent
+reasoning. Both were lavish spenders of money, and both were engaged
+in duels before the fatal one in which Hamilton fell. Both believed in
+dueling as the only way of settling an affair of honor. Neither of them
+was averse to love affairs, though it may be said that Hamilton sought
+women, while Burr was rather sought by women. When Secretary of the
+Treasury, Hamilton was obliged to confess an adulterous amour in order
+to save himself from the charge of corrupt practices in public office.
+So long as Burr's wife lived he was a devoted, faithful husband to
+her. Hamilton was obliged to confess his illicit acts while his wife,
+formerly Miss Elizabeth Schuyler, was living. She spent her later years
+in buying and destroying the compromising documents which her husband
+had published for his countrymen to read.
+
+The most extraordinary thing about Aaron Burr was the magnetic quality
+that was felt by every one who approached him. The roots of this
+penetrated down into a deep vitality. He was always young, always alert,
+polished in manner, courageous with that sort of courage which does not
+even recognize the presence of danger, charming in conversation, and
+able to adapt it to men or women of any age whatever. His hair was still
+dark in his eightieth year. His step was still elastic, his motions were
+still as spontaneous and energetic, as those of a youth.
+
+So it was that every one who knew him experienced his fascination. The
+rough troops whom he led through the Canadian swamps felt the iron hand
+of his discipline; yet they were devoted to him, since he shared all
+their toils, faced all their dangers, and ate with them the scraps of
+hide which they gnawed to keep the breath of life in their shrunken
+bodies.
+
+Burr's discipline was indeed very strict, so that at first raw recruits
+rebelled against it. On one occasion the men of an untrained company
+resented it so bitterly that they decided to shoot Colonel Burr as he
+paraded them for roll-call that evening. Burr somehow got word of it and
+contrived to have all the cartridges drawn from their muskets. When the
+time for the roll-call came one of the malcontents leaped from the front
+line and leveled his weapon at Burr.
+
+"Now is the time, boys!" he shouted.
+
+Like lightning Burr's sword flashed from its scabbard with such a
+vigorous stroke as to cut the man's arm completely off and partly to
+cleave the musket.
+
+"Take your place in the ranks," said Burr.
+
+The mutineer obeyed, dripping with blood. A month later every man
+in that company was devoted to his commander. They had learned that
+discipline was the surest source of safety.
+
+But with this high spirit and readiness to fight Burr had a most
+pleasing way of meeting every one who came to him. When he was arrested
+in the Western forests, charged with high treason, the sound of his
+voice won from jury after jury verdicts of acquittal. Often the sheriffs
+would not arrest him. One grand jury not merely exonerated him from all
+public misdemeanors, but brought in a strong presentment against the
+officers of the government for molesting him.
+
+It was the same everywhere. Burr made friends and devoted allies among
+all sorts of men. During his stay in France, England, Germany, and
+Sweden he interested such men as Charles Lamb, Jeremy Bentham, Sir
+Walter Scott, Goethe, and Heeren. They found his mind able to meet
+with theirs on equal terms. Burr, indeed, had graduated as a youth
+with honors from Princeton, and had continued his studies there after
+graduation, which was then a most unusual thing to do. But, of course,
+he learned most from his contact with men and women of the world.
+
+Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in The Minister's Wooing, has given what is
+probably an exact likeness of Aaron Burr, with his brilliant gifts and
+some of his defects. It is strong testimony to the character of Burr
+that Mrs. Stowe set out to paint him as a villain; but before she had
+written long she felt his fascination and made her readers, in their
+own despite, admirers of this remarkable man. There are many parallels,
+indeed, between him and Napoleon--in the quickness of his intellect, the
+ready use of his resources, and his power over men, while he was more
+than Napoleon in his delightful gift of conversation and the easy play
+of his cultured mind.
+
+Those who are full of charm are willing also to be charmed. All his life
+Burr was abstemious in food and drink. His tastes were most refined. It
+is difficult to believe that such a man could have been an unmitigated
+profligate.
+
+In his twentieth year there seems to have begun the first of the
+romances that run through the story of his long career. Perhaps one
+ought not to call it the first romance, for at eighteen, while he was
+studying law at Litchfield, a girl, whose name has been suppressed, made
+an open avowal of love for him. Almost at the same time an heiress with
+a large fortune would have married him had he been willing to accept her
+hand. But at this period he was only a boy and did not take such things
+seriously.
+
+Two years later, after Burr had seen hard service at Quebec and on
+Manhattan Island, his name was associated with that of a very beautiful
+girl named Margaret Moncrieffe. She was the daughter of a British major,
+but in some way she had been captured while within the American lines.
+Her captivity was regarded as little more than a joke; but while she was
+thus a prisoner she saw a great deal of Burr. For several months they
+were comrades, after which General Putnam sent her with his compliments
+to her father.
+
+Margaret Moncrieffe had a most emotional nature. There can be no doubt
+that she deeply loved the handsome young American officer, whom she
+never saw again. It is doubtful how far their intimacy was carried.
+Later she married a Mr. Coghlan. After reaching middle life she wrote
+of Burr in a way which shows that neither years nor the obligations of
+marriage could make her forget that young soldier, whom she speaks of
+as "the conqueror of her soul." In the rather florid style of those days
+the once youthful Margaret Moncrieffe expresses herself as follows:
+
+Oh, may these pages one day meet the eye of him who subdued my virgin
+heart, whom the immutable, unerring laws of nature had pointed out for
+my husband, but whose sacred decree the barbarous customs of society
+fatally violated!
+
+Commenting on this paragraph, Mr. H. C. Merwin justly remarks that,
+whatever may have been Burr's conduct toward Margaret Moncrieffe, the
+lady herself, who was the person chiefly concerned, had no complaint
+to make of it. It certainly was no very serious affair, since in the
+following year Burr met a lady who, while she lived, was the only woman
+for whom he ever really cared.
+
+This was Theodosia Prevost, the wife of a major in the British army.
+Burr met her first in 1777, while she was living with her sister in
+Westchester County. Burr's command was fifteen miles across the river,
+but distance and danger made no difference to him. He used to mount a
+swift horse, inspect his sentinels and outposts, and then gallop to the
+Hudson, where a barge rowed by six soldiers awaited him. The barge was
+well supplied with buffalo-skins, upon which the horse was thrown with
+his legs bound, and then half an hour's rowing brought them to the
+other side. There Burr resumed his horse, galloped to the house of Mrs.
+Prevost, and, after spending a few hours with her, returned in the same
+way.
+
+Mrs. Prevost was by no means beautiful, but she had an attractiveness
+of her own. She was well educated and possessed charming manners, with
+a disposition both gentle and affectionate. Her husband died soon after
+the beginning of the war, and then Burr married her. No more ideal
+family life could be conceived than his, and the letters which passed
+between the two are full of adoration. Thus she wrote to him:
+
+Tell me, why do I grow every day more tenacious of your regard? Is it
+because each revolving day proves you more deserving?
+
+And thus Burr answered her:
+
+Continue to multiply your letters to me. They are all my solace. The
+last six are constantly within my reach. I read them once a day at
+least. Write me all that I have asked, and a hundred things which I have
+not.
+
+When it is remembered that these letters were written after nine years
+of marriage it is hard to believe all the evil things that have been
+said of Burr.
+
+His wife died in 1794, and he then gave a double affection to his
+daughter Theodosia, whose beauty and accomplishments were known
+throughout the country. Burr took the greatest pains in her education,
+and believed that she should be trained, as he had been, to be brave,
+industrious, and patient. He himself, who has been described as a
+voluptuary, delighted in the endurance of cold and heat and of severe
+labor.
+
+After his death one of his younger admirers was asked what Burr had done
+for him. The reply was characteristic.
+
+"He made me iron," was the answer.
+
+No father ever gave more attention to his daughter's welfare. As to
+Theodosia's studies he was very strict, making her read Greek and Latin
+every day, with drawing and music and history, in addition to French.
+Not long before her marriage to Joseph Allston, of South Carolina, Burr
+wrote to her:
+
+I really think, my dear Theo, that you will be very soon beyond all
+verbal criticism, and that my whole attention will be presently directed
+to the improvement of your style.
+
+Theodosia Burr married into a family of good old English stock, where
+riches were abundant, and high character was regarded as the best of
+all possessions. Every one has heard of the mysterious tragedy which is
+associated with her history. In 1812, when her husband had been elected
+Governor of his state, her only child--a sturdy boy of eleven--died, and
+Theodosia's health was shattered by her sorrow. In the same year Burr
+returned from a sojourn in Europe, and his loving daughter embarked from
+Charleston on a schooner, the Patriot, to meet her father in New
+York. When Burr arrived he was met by a letter which told him that his
+grandson was dead and that Theodosia was coming to him.
+
+Weeks sped by, and no news was heard of the ill-fated Patriot. At last
+it became evident that she must have gone down or in some other way have
+been lost. Burr and Governor Allston wrote to each other letter after
+letter, of which each one seems to surpass the agony of the other. At
+last all hope was given up. Governor Allston died soon after of a broken
+heart; but Burr, as became a Stoic, acted otherwise.
+
+He concealed everything that reminded him of Theodosia. He never spoke
+of his lost daughter. His grief was too deep-seated and too terrible for
+speech. Only once did he ever allude to her, and this was in a letter
+written to an afflicted friend, which contained the words:
+
+Ever since the event which separated me from mankind I have been able
+neither to give nor to receive consolation.
+
+In time the crew of a pirate vessel was captured and sentenced to be
+hanged. One of the men, who seemed to be less brutal than the rest,
+told how, in 1812, they had captured a schooner, and, after their usual
+practice, had compelled the passengers to walk the plank. All hesitated
+and showed cowardice, except only one--a beautiful woman whose eyes were
+as bright and whose bearing was as unconcerned as if she were safe on
+shore. She quickly led the way, and, mounting the plank with a certain
+scorn of death, said to the others:
+
+"Come, I will show you how to die."
+
+It has always been supposed that this intrepid girl may have been
+Theodosia Allston. If so, she only acted as her father would have done
+and in strict accordance with his teachings.
+
+This resolute courage, this stern joy in danger, this perfect
+equanimity, made Burr especially attractive to women, who love courage,
+the more so when it is coupled with gentleness and generosity.
+
+Perhaps no man in our country has been so vehemently accused regarding
+his relations with the other sex. The most improbable stories were told
+about him, even by his friends. As to his enemies, they took boundless
+pains to paint him in the blackest colors. According to them, no woman
+was safe from his intrigues. He was a perfect devil in leading them
+astray and then casting them aside.
+
+Thus one Matthew L. Davis, in whom Burr had confided as a friend, wrote
+of him long afterward a most unjust account--unjust because we have
+proofs that it was false in the intensity of its abuse. Davis wrote:
+
+It is truly surprising how any individual could become so eminent as a
+soldier, as a statesman, and as a professional man who devoted so much
+time to the other sex as was devoted by Colonel Burr. For more than
+half a century of his life they seemed to absorb his whole thought.
+His intrigues were without number; the sacred bonds of friendship were
+unhesitatingly violated when they operated as barriers to the indulgence
+of his passions. In this particular Burr appears to have been unfeeling
+and heartless.
+
+It is impossible to believe that the Spartan Burr, whose life was one of
+incessant labor and whose kindliness toward every one was so well known,
+should have deserved a commentary like this. The charge of immorality
+is so easily made and so difficult of disproof that it has been flung
+promiscuously at all the great men of history, including, in our own
+country, Washington and Jefferson as well as Burr. In England, when
+Gladstone was more than seventy years of age, he once stopped to ask a
+question of a woman in the street. Within twenty-four hours the London
+clubs were humming with a sort of demoniac glee over the story that
+this aged and austere old gentleman was not above seeking common street
+amours.
+
+And so with Aaron Burr to a great extent. That he was a man of strict
+morality it would be absurd to maintain. That he was a reckless and
+licentious profligate would be almost equally untrue. Mr. H. O. Merwin
+has very truly said:
+
+Part of Burr's reputation for profligacy was due, no doubt, to that
+vanity respecting women of which Davis himself speaks. He never refused
+to accept the parentage of a child.
+
+"Why do you allow this woman to saddle you with her child when you KNOW
+you are not the father of it?" said a friend to him a few months before
+his death.
+
+"Sir," he replied, "when a lady does me the honor to name me the father
+of her child I trust I shall always be too gallant to show myself
+ungrateful for the favor."
+
+There are two curious legends relating to Aaron Burr. They serve to show
+that his reputation became such that he could not enjoy the society of a
+woman without having her regarded as his mistress.
+
+When he was United States Senator from New York he lived in Philadelphia
+at the lodging-house of a Mrs. Payne, whose daughter, Dorothy Todd, was
+the very youthful widow of an officer. This young woman was rather
+free in her manners, and Burr was very responsive in his. At the time,
+however, nothing was thought of it; but presently Burr brought to the
+house the serious and somewhat pedantic James Madison and introduced him
+to the hoyden.
+
+Madison was then forty-seven years of age, a stranger to society, but
+gradually rising to a prominent position in politics--"the great little
+Madison," as Burr rather lightly called him. Before very long he had
+proposed marriage to the young widow. She hesitated, and some one
+referred the matter to President Washington. The Father of his Country
+answered in what was perhaps the only opinion that he ever gave on the
+subject of matrimony. It is worth preserving because it shows that he
+had a sense of humor:
+
+For my own part, I never did nor do I believe I ever shall give advice
+to a woman who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage... A woman very
+rarely asks an opinion or seeks advice on such an occasion till her
+mind is wholly made up, and then it is with the hope and expectation
+of obtaining a sanction, and not that she means to be governed by your
+disapproval.
+
+Afterward when Dolly Madison with, her yellow turban and kittenish ways
+was making a sensation in Washington society some one recalled her old
+association with Burr. At once the story sprang to light that Burr had
+been her lover and that he had brought about the match with Madison as
+an easy way of getting rid of her.
+
+There is another curious story which makes Martin Van Buren, eighth
+President of the United States, to have been the illegitimate son of
+Aaron Burr. There is no earthly reason for believing this, except that
+Burr sometimes stopped overnight at the tavern in Kinderhook which was
+kept by Van Buren's putative father, and that Van Buren in later life
+showed an astuteness equal to that of Aaron Burr himself, so that he was
+called by his opponents "the fox of Kinderhook." But, as Van Buren was
+born in December of the same year (1782) in which Burr was married to
+Theodosia Prevost, the story is utterly improbable when we remember,
+as we must, the ardent affection which Burr showed his wife, not only
+before their marriage, but afterward until her death.
+
+Putting aside these purely spurious instances, as well as others cited
+by Mr. Parton, the fact remains that Aaron Burr, like Daniel Webster,
+found a great attraction in the society of women; that he could please
+them and fascinate them to an extraordinary degree; and that during
+his later life he must be held quite culpable in this respect. His
+love-making was ardent and rapid, as we shall afterward see in the case
+of his second marriage.
+
+Many other stories are told of him. For instance, it is said that he
+once took a stage-coach from Jersey City to Philadelphia. The only other
+occupant was a woman of high standing and one whose family deeply hated
+Aaron Burr. Nevertheless, so the story goes, before they had reached
+Newark she was absolutely swayed by his charm of manner; and when the
+coach made its last stop before Philadelphia she voluntarily became his
+mistress.
+
+It must also be said that, unlike those of Webster and Hamilton, his
+intrigues were never carried on with women of the lower sort. This may
+be held by some to deepen the charge against him; but more truly does it
+exonerate him, since it really means that in many cases these women
+of the world threw themselves at him and sought him as a lover, when
+otherwise he might never have thought of them.
+
+That he was not heartless and indifferent to those who had loved him
+may be shown by the great care which he took to protect their names and
+reputations. Thus, on the day before his duel with Hamilton, he made a
+will in which he constituted his son-in-law as his executor. At the same
+time he wrote a sealed letter to Governor Allston in which he said:
+
+If you can pardon and indulge a folly, I would suggest that Mme. ----,
+too well known under the name of Leonora, has claims on my recollection.
+She is now with her husband at Santiago, in Cuba.
+
+Another fact has been turned to his discredit. From many women, in the
+course of his long life, he had received a great quantity of letters
+written by aristocratic hands on scented paper, and these letters he had
+never burned. Here again, perhaps, was shown the vanity of the man
+who loved love for its own sake. He kept all these papers in a huge
+iron-clamped chest, and he instructed Theodosia in case he should die to
+burn every letter which might injure any one.
+
+After Theodosia's death Burr gave the same instructions to Matthew L.
+Davis, who did, indeed, burn them, though he made their existence a
+means of blackening the character of Burr. He should have destroyed them
+unopened, and should never have mentioned them in his memoirs of the man
+who trusted him as a friend.
+
+Such was Aaron Burr throughout a life which lasted for eighty years. His
+last romance, at the age of seventy-eight, is worth narrating because it
+has often been misunderstood.
+
+Mme. Jumel was a Rhode Island girl who at seventeen years of age eloped
+with an English officer, Colonel Peter Croix. Her first husband
+died while she was still quite young, and she then married a French
+wine-merchant, Stephen Jumel, some twenty years her senior, but a man of
+much vigor and intelligence. M. Jumel made a considerable fortune in New
+York, owning a small merchant fleet; and after Napoleon's downfall he
+and his wife went to Paris, where she made a great impression in the
+salons by her vivacity and wit and by her lavish expenditures.
+
+Losing, however, part of what she and her husband possessed, Mme. Jumel
+returned to New York, bringing with her a great amount of furniture and
+paintings, with which she decorated the historic house still standing
+in the upper part of Manhattan Island--a mansion held by her in her own
+right. She managed her estate with much ability; and in 1828 M. Jumel
+returned to live with her in what was in those days a splendid villa.
+
+Four years later, however, M. Jumel suffered an accident from which he
+died in a few days, leaving his wife still an attractive woman and not
+very much past her prime. Soon after she had occasion to seek for legal
+advice, and for this purpose visited the law-office of Aaron Burr.
+She had known him a good many years before; and, though he was now
+seventy-eight years of age, there was no perceptible change in him. He
+was still courtly in manner, tactful, and deferential, while physically
+he was straight, active, and vigorous.
+
+A little later she invited him to a formal banquet, where he displayed
+all his charms and shone to great advantage. When he was about to lead
+her in to dinner, he said:
+
+"I give my hand, madam; my heart has long been yours."
+
+These attentions he followed up with several other visits, and
+finally proposed that she should marry him. Much fluttered and no less
+flattered, she uttered a sort of "No" which was not likely to discourage
+a man like Aaron Burr.
+
+"I shall come to you before very long," he said, "accompanied by a
+clergyman; and then you will give me your hand because I want it."
+
+This rapid sort of wooing was pleasantly embarrassing. The lady rather
+liked it; and so, on an afternoon when the sun was shining and the
+leaves were rustling in the breeze, Burr drove up to Mme. Jumel's
+mansion accompanied by Dr. Bogart--the very clergyman who had married
+him to his first wife fifty years before.
+
+Mme. Jumel was now seriously disturbed, but her refusal was not a strong
+one. There were reasons why she should accept the offer. The great
+house was lonely. The management of her estate required a man's advice.
+Moreover, she was under the spell of Burr's fascination. Therefore she
+arrayed herself in one of her most magnificent Paris gowns; the members
+of her household and eight servants were called in and the ceremony
+was duly performed by Dr. Bogart. A banquet followed. A dozen cobwebbed
+bottles of wine were brought up from the cellar, and the marriage feast
+went on merrily until after midnight.
+
+This marriage was a singular one from many points of view. It was
+strange that a man of seventy-eight should take by storm the affections
+of a woman so much younger than he--a woman of wealth and knowledge of
+the world. In the second place, it is odd that there was still another
+woman--a mere girl--who was so infatuated with Burr that when she was
+told of his marriage it nearly broke her heart. Finally, in the early
+part of that same year he had been accused of being the father of a
+new-born child, and in spite of his age every one believed the charge to
+be true. Here is a case that it would be hard to parallel.
+
+The happiness of the newly married pair did not, however, last very
+long. They made a wedding journey into Connecticut, of which state
+Burr's nephew was then Governor, and there Burr saw a monster bridge
+over the Connecticut River, in which his wife had shares, though they
+brought her little income. He suggested that she should transfer the
+investment, which, after all, was not a very large one, and place it in
+a venture in Texas which looked promising. The speculation turned out to
+be a loss, however, and this made Mrs. Burr extremely angry, the more
+so as she had reason to think that her ever-youthful husband had been
+engaged in flirting with the country girls near the Jumel mansion.
+
+She was a woman of high spirit and had at times a violent temper. One
+day the post-master at what was then the village of Harlem was surprised
+to see Mrs. Burr drive up before the post-office in an open carriage.
+He came out to ask what she desired, and was surprised to find her in a
+violent temper and with an enormous horse-pistol on each cushion at her
+side.
+
+"What do you wish, madam?" said he, rather mildly.
+
+"What do I wish?" she cried. "Let me get at that villain Aaron Burr!"
+
+Presently Burr seems to have succeeded in pacifying her; but in the end
+they separated, though she afterward always spoke most kindly of him.
+When he died, only about a year later, she is said to have burst into
+a flood of tears--another tribute to the fascination which Aaron Burr
+exercised through all his checkered life.
+
+It is difficult to come to any fixed opinion regarding the moral
+character of Aaron Burr. As a soldier he was brave to the point of
+recklessness. As a political leader he was almost the equal of Jefferson
+and quite superior to Hamilton. As a man of the world he was highly
+accomplished, polished in manner, charming in conversation. He made
+friends easily, and he forgave his enemies with a broadmindedness that
+is unusual.
+
+On the other hand, in his political career there was a touch of
+insincerity, and it can scarcely be denied that he used his charm too
+often to the injury of those women who could not resist his insinuating
+ways and the caressing notes of his rich voice. But as a husband, in his
+youth, he was devoted, affectionate, and loyal; while as a father he was
+little less than worshiped by the daughter whom he reared so carefully.
+
+One of his biographers very truly says that no such wretch as Burr has
+been declared to be could have won and held the love of such a wife and
+such a daughter as Burr had.
+
+When all the other witnesses have been heard, let the two Theodosias
+be summoned, and especially that daughter who showed toward him an
+affectionate veneration unsurpassed by any recorded in history or
+romance. Such an advocate as Theodosia the younger must avail in some
+degree, even though the culprit were brought before the bar of Heaven
+itself.
+
+
+
+
+
+GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT
+
+
+In the last decade of the eighteenth century England was perhaps the
+most brilliant nation of the world. Other countries had been humbled
+by the splendid armies of France and were destined to be still further
+humbled by the emperor who came from Corsica. France had begun to
+seize the scepter of power; yet to this picture there was another
+side--fearful want and grievous poverty and the horrors of the
+Revolution. Russia was too far away, and was still considered too
+barbarous, for a brilliant court to flourish there. Prussia had the
+prestige that Frederick the Great won for her, but she was still a
+comparatively small state. Italy was in a condition of political chaos;
+the banks of the Rhine were running blood where the Austrian armies
+faced the gallant Frenchmen under the leadership of Moreau. But England,
+in spite of the loss of her American colonies, was rich and prosperous,
+and her invincible fleets were extending her empire over the seven seas.
+
+At no time in modern England has the court at London seen so much real
+splendor or such fine manners. The royalist emigres who fled from France
+brought with them names and pedigrees that were older than the Crusades,
+and many of them were received with the frankest, freest English
+hospitality. If here and there some marquis or baron of ancient blood
+was perforce content to teach music to the daughters of tradesmen in
+suburban schools, nevertheless they were better off than they had
+been in France, harried by the savage gaze-hounds of the guillotine.
+Afterward, in the days of the Restoration, when they came back to
+their estates, they had probably learned more than one lesson from the
+bouledogues of Merry England, who had little tact, perhaps, but who were
+at any rate kindly and willing to share their goods with pinched and
+poverty-stricken foreigners.
+
+The court, then, as has been said, was brilliant with notables from
+Continental countries, and with the historic wealth of the peerage of
+England. Only one cloud overspread it; and that was the mental condition
+of the king. We have become accustomed to think of George III as a dull
+creature, almost always hovering on the verge of that insanity which
+finally swept him into a dark obscurity; but Thackeray's picture of him
+is absurdly untrue to the actual facts. George III. was by no means a
+dullard, nor was he a sort of beefy country squire who roved about the
+palace gardens with his unattractive spouse.
+
+Obstinate enough he was, and ready for a combat with the rulers of the
+Continent or with his self-willed sons; but he was a man of brains and
+power, and Lord Rosebery has rightly described him as the most striking
+constitutional figure of his time. Had he retained his reason, and
+had his erratic and self-seeking son not succeeded him during his own
+lifetime, Great Britain might very possibly have entered upon other ways
+than those which opened to her after the downfall of Napoleon.
+
+The real center of fashionable England, however, was not George III.,
+but rather his son, subsequently George IV., who was made Prince of
+Wales three days after his birth, and who became prince regent during
+the insanity of the king. He was the leader of the social world, the
+fit companion of Beau Brummel and of a choice circle of rakes and
+fox-hunters who drank pottle-deep. Some called him "the first gentleman
+of Europe." Others, who knew him better, described him as one who
+never kept his word to man or woman and who lacked the most elementary
+virtues.
+
+Yet it was his good luck during the first years of his regency to be
+popular as few English kings have ever been. To his people he typified
+old England against revolutionary France; and his youth and gaiety made
+many like him. He drank and gambled; he kept packs of hounds and strings
+of horses; he ran deeply into debt that he might patronize the sports
+of that uproarious day. He was a gallant "Corinthian," a haunter of dens
+where there were prize-fights and cock-fights, and there was hardly a
+doubtful resort in London where his face was not familiar.
+
+He was much given to gallantry--not so much, as it seemed, for
+wantonness, but from sheer love of mirth and chivalry. For a time, with
+his chosen friends, such as Fox and Sheridan, he ventured into reckless
+intrigues that recalled the amours of his predecessor, Charles II. He
+had by no means the wit and courage of Charles; and, indeed, the house
+of Hanover lacked the outward show of chivalry which made the Stuarts
+shine with external splendor. But he was good-looking and stalwart, and
+when he had half a dozen robust comrades by his side he could assume
+a very manly appearance. Such was George IV. in his regency and in
+his prime. He made that period famous for its card-playing, its deep
+drinking, and for the dissolute conduct of its courtiers and noblemen no
+less than for the gallantry of its soldiers and its momentous victories
+on sea and land. It came, however, to be seen that his true achievements
+were in reality only escapades, that his wit was only folly, and his
+so-called "sensibility" was but sham. He invented buckles, striped
+waistcoats, and flamboyant collars, but he knew nothing of the
+principles of kingship or the laws by which a state is governed.
+
+The fact that he had promiscuous affairs with women appealed at first
+to the popular sense of the romantic. It was not long, however, before
+these episodes were trampled down into the mire of vulgar scandal.
+
+One of the first of them began when he sent a letter, signed "Florizel,"
+to a young actress, "Perdita" Robinson. Mrs. Robinson, whose maiden
+name was Mary Darby, and who was the original of famous portraits
+by Gainsborough and Reynolds, was a woman of beauty, talent, and
+temperament. George, wishing in every way to be "romantic," insisted
+upon clandestine meetings on the Thames at Kew, with all the stage
+trappings of the popular novels--cloaks, veils, faces hidden, and armed
+watchers to warn her of approaching danger. Poor Perdita took this
+nonsense so seriously that she gave up her natural vocation for the
+stage, and forsook her husband, believing that the prince would never
+weary of her.
+
+He did weary of her very soon, and, with the brutality of a man of such
+a type, turned her away with the promise of some money; after which he
+cut her in the Park and refused to speak to her again. As for the money,
+he may have meant to pay it, but Perdita had a long struggle before she
+succeeded in getting it. It may be assumed that the prince had to borrow
+it and that this obligation formed part of the debts which Parliament
+paid for him.
+
+It is not necessary to number the other women whose heads he turned.
+They are too many for remembrance here, and they have no special
+significance, save one who, as is generally believed, became his wife so
+far as the church could make her so. An act of 1772 had made it
+illegal for any member of the English royal family to marry without the
+permission of the king. A marriage contracted without the king's consent
+might be lawful in the eyes of the church, but the children born of it
+could not inherit any claim to the throne.
+
+It may be remarked here that this withholding of permission was strictly
+enforced. Thus William IV., who succeeded George IV., was married,
+before his accession to the throne, to Mrs. Jordan (Dorothy Bland).
+Afterward he lawfully married a woman of royal birth who was known as
+Queen Adelaide.
+
+There is an interesting story which tells how Queen Victoria came to
+be born because her father, the Duke of Kent, was practically forced
+to give up a morganatic union which he greatly preferred to a marriage
+arranged for him by Parliament. Except the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke
+of Kent was the only royal duke who was likely to have children in the
+regular line. The only daughter of George IV. had died in childhood.
+The Duke of Cumberland was for various reasons ineligible; the Duke of
+Clarence, later King William IV., was almost too old; and therefore, to
+insure the succession, the Duke of Kent was begged to marry a young and
+attractive woman, a princess of the house of Saxe-Coburg, who was ready
+for the honor. It was greatly to the Duke's credit that he showed deep
+and sincere feeling in this matter. As he said himself in effect:
+
+"This French lady has stood by me in hard times and in good times,
+too--why should I cast her off? She has been more than a wife to me. And
+what do I care for your plans in Parliament? Send over for one of the
+Stuarts--they are better men than the last lot of our fellows that you
+have had!"
+
+In the end, however, he was wearied out and was persuaded to marry, but
+he insisted that a generous sum should be settled on the lady who had
+been so long his true companion, and to whom, no doubt, he gave many a
+wistful thought in his new but unfamiliar quarters in Kensington Palace,
+which was assigned as his residence.
+
+Again, the second Duke of Cambridge, who died only a few years ago,
+greatly desired to marry a lady who was not of royal rank, though of
+fine breeding and of good birth. He besought his young cousin, as
+head of the family, to grant him this privilege of marriage; but Queen
+Victoria stubbornly refused. The duke was married according to the rites
+of the church, but he could not make his wife a duchess. The queen never
+quite forgave him for his partial defiance of her wishes, though the
+duke's wife--she was usually spoken of as Mrs. FitzGeorge--was received
+almost everywhere, and two of her sons hold high rank in the British
+army and navy, respectively.
+
+The one real love story in the life of George IV. is that which tells of
+his marriage with a lady who might well have been the wife of any king.
+This was Maria Anne Smythe, better known as Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was
+six years older than the young prince when she first met him in company
+with a body of gentlemen and ladies in 1784.
+
+Maria Fitzherbert's face was one which always displayed its best
+advantages. Her eyes were peculiarly languishing, and, as she had
+already been twice a widow, and was six years his senior, she had the
+advantage over a less experienced lover. Likewise, she was a Catholic,
+and so by another act of Parliament any marriage with her would be
+illegal. Yet just because of all these different objections the prince
+was doubly drawn to her, and was willing to sacrifice even the throne if
+he could but win her.
+
+His father, the king, called him into the royal presence and said:
+
+"George, it is time that you should settle down and insure the
+succession to the throne."
+
+"Sir," replied the prince, "I prefer to resign the succession and let my
+brother have it, and that I should live as a private English gentleman."
+
+Mrs. Fitzherbert was not the sort of woman to give herself up readily to
+a morganatic connection. Moreover, she soon came to love Prince George
+too well to entangle him in a doubtful alliance with one of another
+faith than his. Not long after he first met her the prince, who was
+always given to private theatricals, sent messengers riding in hot haste
+to her house to tell her that he had stabbed himself, that he begged
+to see her, and that unless she came he would repeat the act. The lady
+yielded, and hurried to Carlton House, the prince's residence; but she
+was prudent enough to take with her the Duchess of Devonshire, who was a
+reigning beauty of the court.
+
+The scene which followed was theatrical rather than impressive.--The
+prince was found in his sleeping-chamber, pale and with his ruffles
+blood-stained. He played the part of a youthful and love-stricken wooer,
+vowing that he would marry the woman of his heart or stab himself
+again. In the presence of his messengers, who, with the duchess,
+were witnesses, he formally took the lady as his wife, while Lady
+Devonshire's wedding-ring sealed the troth. The prince also acknowledged
+it in a document.
+
+Mrs. Fitzherbert was, in fact, a woman of sound sense. Shortly after
+this scene of melodramatic intensity her wits came back to her, and she
+recognized that she had merely gone through a meaningless farce. So
+she sent back the prince's document and the ring and hastened to
+the Continent, where he could not reach her, although his detectives
+followed her steps for a year.
+
+At the last she yielded, however, and came home to marry the prince
+in such fashion as she could--a marriage of love, and surely one of
+morality, though not of parliamentary law. The ceremony was performed
+"in her own drawing-room in her house in London, in the presence of the
+officiating Protestant clergyman and two of her own nearest relatives."
+
+Such is the serious statement of Lord Stourton, who was Mrs.
+Fitzherbert's cousin and confidant. The truth of it was never denied,
+and Mrs. Fitzherbert was always treated with respect, and even regarded
+as a person of great distinction. Nevertheless, on more than one
+occasion the prince had his friends in Parliament deny the marriage in
+order that his debts might be paid and new allowances issued to him by
+the Treasury.
+
+George certainly felt himself a husband. Like any other married prince,
+he set himself to build a palace for his country home. While in search
+of some suitable spot he chanced to visit the "pretty fishing-village"
+of Brighton to see his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland. Doubtless he found
+it an attractive place, yet this may have been not so much because
+of its view of the sea as for the reason that Mrs. Fitzherbert had
+previously lived there.
+
+However, in 1784 the prince sent down his chief cook to make
+arrangements for the next royal visit. The cook engaged a house on the
+spot where the Pavilion now stands, and from that time Brighton began to
+be an extremely fashionable place. The court doctors, giving advice that
+was agreeable, recommended their royal patient to take sea-bathing at
+Brighton. At once the place sprang into popularity.
+
+At first the gentry were crowded into lodging-houses and the
+accommodations were primitive to a degree. But soon handsome villas
+arose on every side; hotels appeared; places of amusement were opened.
+The prince himself began to build a tasteless but showy structure,
+partly Chinese and partly Indian in style, on the fashionable promenade
+of the Steyne.
+
+During his life with Mrs. Fitzherbert at Brighton the prince held what
+was practically a court. Hundreds of the aristocracy came down from
+London and made their temporary dwellings there; while thousands who
+were by no means of the court made the place what is now popularly
+called "London by the Sea." There were the Duc de Chartres, of France;
+statesmen and rakes, like Fox, Sheridan, and the Earl of Barrymore; a
+very beautiful woman, named Mrs. Couch, a favorite singer at the opera,
+to whom the prince gave at one time jewels worth ten thousand pounds;
+and a sister of the Earl of Barrymore, who was as notorious as her
+brother. She often took the president's chair at a club which George's
+friends had organized and which she had christened the Hell Fire Club.
+
+Such persons were not the only visitors at Brighton. Men of much more
+serious demeanor came down to visit the prince and brought with them
+quieter society. Nevertheless, for a considerable time the place was
+most noted for its wild scenes of revelry, into which George frequently
+entered, though his home life with Mrs. Fitzherbert at the Pavilion was
+a decorous one.
+
+No one felt any doubt as to the marriage of the two persons, who seemed
+so much like a prince and a princess. Some of the people of the place
+addressed Mrs. Fitzherbert as "Mrs. Prince." The old king and his wife,
+however, much deplored their son's relation with her. This was partly
+due to the fact that Mrs. Fitzherbert was a Catholic and that she had
+received a number of French nuns who had been driven out of France at
+the time of the Revolution. But no less displeasure was caused by the
+prince's racing and dicing, which swelled his debts to almost a million
+pounds, so that Parliament and, indeed, the sober part of England were
+set against him.
+
+Of course, his marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert had no legal status; nor is
+there any reason for believing that she ever became a mother. She had
+no children by her former two husbands, and Lord Stourton testified
+positively that she never had either son or daughter by Prince George.
+Nevertheless, more than one American claimant has risen to advance
+some utterly visionary claim to the English throne by reason of alleged
+descent from Prince George and Mrs. Fitzherbert.
+
+Neither William IV. nor Queen Victoria ever spent much time at Brighton.
+In King William's case it was explained that the dampness of the
+Pavilion did not suit him; and as to Queen Victoria, it was said that
+she disliked the fact that buildings had been erected so as to cut
+off the view of the sea. It is quite likely, however, that the queen
+objected to the associations of the place, and did not care to be
+reminded of the time when her uncle had lived there so long in a
+morganatic state of marriage.
+
+At length the time came when the king, Parliament, and the people at
+large insisted that the Prince of Wales should make a legal marriage,
+and a wife was selected for him in the person of Caroline, daughter of
+the Duke of Brunswick. This marriage took place exactly ten years after
+his wedding with the beautiful and gentle-mannered Mrs. Fitzherbert.
+With the latter he had known many days and hours of happiness. With
+Princess Caroline he had no happiness at all.
+
+Prince George met her at the pier to greet her. It is said that as he
+took her hand he kissed her, and then, suddenly recoiling, he whispered
+to one of his friends:
+
+"For God's sake, George, give me a glass of brandy!"
+
+Such an utterance was more brutal and barbaric than anything his bride
+could have conceived of, though it is probable, fortunately, that she
+did not understand him by reason of her ignorance of English.
+
+We need not go through the unhappy story of this unsympathetic,
+neglected, rebellious wife. Her life with the prince soon became one
+of open warfare; but instead of leaving England she remained to set the
+kingdom in an uproar. As soon as his father died and he became king,
+George sued her for divorce. Half the people sided with the queen,
+while the rest regarded her as a vulgar creature who made love to her
+attendants and brought dishonor on the English throne. It was a sorry,
+sordid contrast between the young Prince George who had posed as a sort
+of cavalier and this now furious gray old man wrangling with his furious
+German wife.
+
+Well might he look back to the time when he met Perdita in the moonlight
+on the Thames, or when he played the part of Florizel, or, better still,
+when he enjoyed the sincere and disinterested love of the gentle woman
+who was his wife in all but legal status. Caroline of Brunswick was
+thrust away from the king's coronation. She took a house within sight of
+Westminster Abbey, so that she might make hag-like screeches to the
+mob and to the king as he passed by. Presently, in August, 1821, only
+a month after the coronation, she died, and her body was taken back to
+Brunswick for burial.
+
+George himself reigned for nine years longer. When he died in 1830 his
+executor was the Duke of Wellington. The duke, in examining the late
+king's private papers, found that he had kept with the greatest care
+every letter written to him by his morganatic wife. During his last
+illness she had sent him an affectionate missive which it is said George
+"read eagerly." Mrs. Fitzherbert wished the duke to give up her letters;
+but he would do so only in return for those which he had written to her.
+
+It was finally decided that it would be best to burn both his and hers.
+This work was carried out in Mrs. Fitzherbert's own house by the lady,
+the duke, and the Earl of Albemarle.
+
+Of George it may be said that he has left as memories behind him only
+three things that will be remembered. The first is the Pavilion at
+Brighton, with its absurdly oriental decorations, its minarets and
+flimsy towers. The second is the buckle which he invented and which
+Thackeray has immortalized with his biting satire. The last is the story
+of his marriage to Maria Fitzherbert, and of the influence exercised
+upon him by the affection of a good woman.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND ADAM LUX
+
+
+Perhaps some readers will consider this story inconsistent with those
+that have preceded it. Yet, as it is little known to most readers and as
+it is perhaps unique in the history of romantic love, I cannot forbear
+relating it; for I believe that it is full of curious interest and
+pathetic power.
+
+All those who have written of the French Revolution have paused in
+their chronicle of blood and flame to tell the episode of the peasant
+Royalist, Charlotte Corday; but in telling it they have often omitted
+the one part of the story that is personal and not political. The
+tragic record of this French girl and her self-sacrifice has been told a
+thousand times by writers in many languages; yet almost all of them have
+neglected the brief romance which followed her daring deed and which was
+consummated after her death upon the guillotine. It is worth our while
+to speak first of Charlotte herself and of the man she slew, and then
+to tell that other tale which ought always to be entwined with her great
+deed of daring.
+
+Charlotte Corday--Marie Anne Charlotte Corday d'Armand--was a native of
+Normandy, and was descended, as her name implies, from noble ancestors.
+Her forefathers, indeed, had been statesmen, civil rulers, and soldiers,
+and among them was numbered the famous poet Corneille, whom the French
+rank with Shakespeare. But a century or more of vicissitudes had reduced
+her branch of the family almost to the position of peasants--a fact
+which partly justifies the name that some give her when they call her
+"the Jeanne d'Arc of the Revolution."
+
+She did not, however, spend her girlish years amid the fields and woods
+tending her sheep, as did the other Jeanne d'Arc; but she was placed
+in charge of the sisters in a convent, and from them she received such
+education as she had. She was a lonely child, and her thoughts turned
+inward, brooding over many things.
+
+After she had left the convent she was sent to live with an aunt. Here
+she devoted herself to reading over and over the few books which
+the house contained. These consisted largely of the deistic writers,
+especially Voltaire, and to some extent they destroyed her convent
+faith, though it is not likely that she understood them very fully.
+
+More to her taste was a copy of Plutarch's Lives. These famous stories
+fascinated her. They told her of battle and siege, of intrigue and
+heroism, and of that romantic love of country which led men to throw
+away their lives for the sake of a whole people. Brutus and Regulus were
+her heroes. To die for the many seemed to her the most glorious end that
+any one could seek. When she thought of it she thrilled with a sort
+of ecstasy, and longed with all the passion of her nature that such a
+glorious fate might be her own.
+
+Charlotte had nearly come to womanhood at the time when the French
+Revolution first broke out. Royalist though she had been in her
+sympathies, she felt the justice of the people's cause. She had seen the
+suffering of the peasantry, the brutality of the tax-gatherers, and all
+the oppression of the old regime. But what she hoped for was a
+democracy of order and equality and peace. Could the king reign as a
+constitutional monarch rather than as a despot, this was all for which
+she cared.
+
+In Normandy, where she lived, were many of those moderate republicans
+known as Girondists, who felt as she did and who hoped for the same
+peaceful end to the great outbreak. On the other hand, in Paris, the
+party of the Mountain, as it was called, ruled with a savage violence
+that soon was to culminate in the Reign of Terror. Already the
+guillotine ran red with noble blood. Already the king had bowed his head
+to the fatal knife. Already the threat had gone forth that a mere breath
+of suspicion or a pointed finger might be enough to lead men and women
+to a gory death.
+
+In her quiet home near Caen Charlotte Corday heard as from afar the
+story of this dreadful saturnalia of assassination which was making
+Paris a city of bloody mist. Men and women of the Girondist party came
+to tell her of the hideous deeds that were perpetrated there. All these
+horrors gradually wove themselves in the young girl's imagination around
+the sinister and repulsive figure of Jean Paul Marat. She knew nothing
+of his associates, Danton and Robespierre. It was in Marat alone that
+she saw the monster who sent innocent thousands to their graves, and who
+reveled like some arch-fiend in murder and gruesome death.
+
+In his earlier years Marat had been a very different figure--an
+accomplished physician, the friend of nobles, a man of science and
+original thought, so that he was nearly elected to the Academy of
+Sciences. His studies in electricity gained for him the admiration
+of Benjamin Franklin and the praise of Goethe. But when he turned to
+politics he left all this career behind him. He plunged into the very
+mire of red republicanism, and even there he was for a time so much
+hated that he sought refuge in London to save his life.
+
+On his return he was hunted by his enemies, so that his only place
+of refuge was in the sewers and drains of Paris. A woman, one Simonne
+Evrard, helped him to escape his pursuers. In the sewers, however,
+he contracted a dreadful skin-disease from which he never afterward
+recovered, and which was extremely painful as well as shocking to
+behold.
+
+It is small wonder that the stories about Marat circulated through the
+provinces made him seem more a devil than a man. His vindictiveness
+against the Girondists brought all of this straight home to Charlotte
+Corday and led her to dream of acting the part of Brutus, so that she
+might free her country from this hideous tyrant.
+
+In January, 1793, King Louis XVI. met his death upon the scaffold; and
+the queen was thrust into a foul prison. This was a signal for activity
+among the Girondists in Normandy, and especially at Caen, where
+Charlotte was present at their meetings and heard their fervid oratory.
+There was a plot to march on Paris, yet in some instinctive way she felt
+that such a scheme must fail. It was then that she definitely formed
+the plan of going herself, alone, to the French capital to seek out the
+hideous Marat and to kill him with her own hands.
+
+To this end she made application for a passport allowing her to
+visit Paris. This passport still exists, and it gives us an official
+description of the girl. It reads:
+
+Allow citizen Marie Corday to pass. She is twenty-four years of age,
+five feet and one inch in height, hair and eyebrows chestnut color, eyes
+gray, forehead high, mouth medium size, chin dimpled, and an oval face.
+
+Apart from this verbal description we have two portraits painted while
+she was in prison. Both of them make the description of the passport
+seem faint and pale. The real Charlotte had a wealth of chestnut hair
+which fell about her face and neck in glorious abundance. Her great
+gray eyes spoke eloquently of truth and courage. Her mouth was firm yet
+winsome, and her form combined both strength and grace. Such is the girl
+who, on reaching Paris, wrote to Marat in these words:
+
+Citizen, I have just arrived from Caen. Your love for your native place
+doubtless makes you wish to learn the events which have occurred in that
+part of the republic. I shall call at your residence in about an hour.
+Be so good as to receive me and give me a brief interview. I will put
+you in such condition as to render great service to France.
+
+This letter failed to gain her admission, and so did another which she
+wrote soon after. The fact is that Marat was grievously ill. His disease
+had reached a point where the pain could be assuaged only by hot water;
+and he spent the greater part of his time wrapped in a blanket and lying
+in a large tub.
+
+A third time, however, the persistent girl called at his house and
+insisted that she must see him, saying that she was herself in danger
+from the enemies of the Republic. Through an open door Marat heard her
+mellow voice and gave orders that she should be admitted.
+
+As she entered she gazed for a moment upon the lank figure rolling in
+the tub, the rat-like face, and the shifting eyes. Then she approached
+him, concealing in the bosom of her dress a long carving-knife which she
+had purchased for two francs. In answer to Marat's questioning look she
+told him that there was much excitement at Caen and that the Girondists
+were plotting there.
+
+To this Marat answered, in his harsh voice:
+
+"All these men you mention shall be guillotined in the next few days!"
+
+As he spoke Charlotte flashed out the terrible knife and with all her
+strength she plunged it into his left side, where it pierced a lung and
+a portion of his heart.
+
+Marat, with the blood gushing from his mouth, cried out:
+
+"Help, darling!"
+
+His cry was meant for one of the two women in the house. Both heard it,
+for they were in the next room; and both of them rushed in and succeeded
+in pinioning Charlotte Corday, who, indeed, made only a slight effort to
+escape. Troops were summoned, she was taken to the Prison de l'Abbaye,
+and soon after she was arraigned before the revolutionary tribunal.
+
+Placed in the dock, she glanced about her with an air of pride, as
+of one who gloried in the act which she had just performed. A written
+charge was read. She was asked what she had to say. Lifting her head
+with a look of infinite satisfaction, she answered in a ringing voice:
+
+"Nothing--except that I succeeded!"
+
+A lawyer was assigned for her defense. He pleaded for her earnestly,
+declaring that she must he regarded as insane; but those clear, calm
+eyes and that gentle face made her sanity a matter of little doubt.
+She showed her quick wit in the answers which she gave to the rough
+prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, who tried to make her confess that she
+had accomplices.
+
+"Who prompted you to do this deed?" roared Tinville.
+
+"I needed no prompting. My own heart was sufficient."
+
+"In what, then, had Marat wronged you?"
+
+"He was a savage beast who was going to destroy the remains of France in
+the fires of civil war."
+
+"But whom did you expect to benefit?" insinuated the prosecutor.
+
+"I have killed one man to save a hundred thousand."
+
+"What? Did you imagine that you had murdered all the Marats?"
+
+"No, but, this one being dead, the rest will perhaps take warning."
+
+Thus her directness baffled all the efforts of the prosecution to trap
+her into betraying any of her friends. The court, however, sentenced her
+to death. She was then immured in the Conciergerie.
+
+This dramatic court scene was the beginning of that strange, brief
+romance to which one can scarcely find a parallel. At the time there
+lived in Paris a young German named Adam Lux. The continual talk about
+Charlotte Corday had filled him with curiosity regarding this young girl
+who had been so daring and so patriotic. She was denounced on every hand
+as a murderess with the face of a Medusa and the muscles of a Vulcan.
+Street songs about her were dinned into the ears of Adam Lux.
+
+As a student of human nature he was anxious to see this terrible
+creature. He forced his way to the front of the crowded benches in the
+court-room and took his stand behind a young artist who was finishing a
+beautiful sketch. From that moment until the end of the trial the
+eyes of Adam Lux were fastened on the prisoner. What a contrast to the
+picture he had imagined!
+
+A mass of regal chestnut hair crowned with the white cap of a Norman
+peasant girl; gray eyes, very sad and serious, but looking serenely
+forth from under long, dark lashes; lips slightly curved with an
+expression of quiet humor; a face the color of the sun and wind, a
+bust indicative of perfect health, the chin of a Caesar, and the whole
+expression one of almost divine self-sacrifice. Such were the features
+that the painter was swiftly putting upon his canvas; but behind them
+Adam Lux discerned the soul for which he gladly sacrificed both his
+liberty and his life.
+
+He forgot his surroundings and seemed to see only that beautiful, pure
+face and to hear only the exquisite cadences of the wonderful voice.
+When Charlotte was led forth by a file of soldiers Adam staggered from
+the scene and made his way as best he might to his lodgings. There he
+lay prostrate, his whole soul filled with the love of her who had in an
+instant won the adoration of his heart.
+
+Once, and only once again, when the last scene opened on the tragedy,
+did he behold the heroine of his dreams.
+
+On the 17th of July Charlotte Corday was taken from her prison to the
+gloomy guillotine. It was toward evening, and nature had given a setting
+fit for such an end. Blue-black thunder-clouds rolled in huge masses
+across the sky until their base appeared to rest on the very summit of
+the guillotine. Distant thunder rolled and grumbled beyond the river.
+Great drops of rain fell upon the soldiers' drums. Young, beautiful,
+unconscious of any wrong, Charlotte Corday stood beneath the shadow of
+the knife.
+
+At the supreme moment a sudden ray from the setting sun broke through
+the cloud-wrack and fell upon her slender figure until she glowed in the
+eyes of the startled spectators like a statue cut in burnished bronze.
+Thus illumined, as it were, by a light from heaven itself, she
+bowed herself beneath the knife and paid the penalty of a noble, if
+misdirected, impulse. As the blade fell her lips quivered with her last
+and only plea:
+
+"My duty is enough--the rest is nothing!"
+
+Adam Lux rushed from the scene a man transformed. He bore graven upon
+his heart neither the mob of tossing red caps nor the glare of the
+sunset nor the blood-stained guillotine, but that last look from
+those brilliant eyes. The sight almost deprived him of his reason. The
+self-sacrifice of the only woman he had ever loved, even though she had
+never so much as seen him, impelled him with a sort of fury to his own
+destruction.
+
+He wrote a bitter denunciation of the judges, of the officers, and
+of all who had been followers of Marat. This document he printed,
+and scattered copies of it through every quarter in Paris. The last
+sentences are as follows:
+
+The guillotine is no longer a disgrace. It has become a sacred altar,
+from which every taint has been removed by the innocent blood shed
+there on the 17th of July. Forgive me, my divine Charlotte, if I find
+it impossible at the last moment to show the courage and the gentleness
+that were yours! I glory because you are superior to me, for it is
+right that she who is adored should be higher and more glorious than her
+adorer!
+
+This pamphlet, spread broadcast among the people, was soon reported to
+the leaders of the rabble. Adam Lux was arrested for treason against
+the Republic; but even these men had no desire to make a martyr of this
+hot-headed youth. They would stop his mouth without taking his life.
+Therefore he was tried and speedily found guilty, but an offer was
+made him that he might have passports that would allow him to return to
+Germany if only he would sign a retraction of his printed words.
+
+Little did the judges understand the fiery heart of the man they had
+to deal with. To die on the same scaffold as the woman whom he had
+idealized was to him the crowning triumph of his romantic love. He gave
+a prompt and insolent refusal to their offer. He swore that if released
+he would denounce his darling's murderers with a still greater passion.
+
+In anger the tribunal sentenced him to death. Only then he smiled and
+thanked his judges courteously, and soon after went blithely to the
+guillotine like a bridegroom to his marriage feast.
+
+Adam Lux! Spirit courtship had been carried on silently all through that
+terrible cross-examination of Charlotte Corday. His heart was betrothed
+to hers in that single gleam of the setting sun when she bowed beneath
+the knife. One may believe that these two souls were finally united
+when the same knife fell sullenly upon his neck and when his life-blood
+sprinkled the altar that was still stained with hers.
+
+
+
+
+
+NAPOLEON AND MARIE WALEWSKA
+
+
+There are four women who may be said to have deeply influenced the life
+of Napoleon. These four are the only ones who need to be taken into
+account by the student of his imperial career. The great emperor was
+susceptible to feminine charms at all times; but just as it used to be
+said of him that "his smile never rose above his eyes," so it might as
+truly be said that in most instances the throbbing of his heart did not
+affect his actions.
+
+Women to him were the creatures of the moment, although he might seem to
+care for them and to show his affection in extravagant ways, as in his
+affair with Mlle. Georges, the beautiful but rather tiresome actress.
+As for Mme. de Stael, she bored him to distraction by her assumption
+of wisdom. That was not the kind of woman that Napoleon cared for. He
+preferred that a woman should be womanly, and not a sort of owl to sit
+and talk with him about the theory of government.
+
+When it came to married women they interested him only because of
+the children they might bear to grow up as recruits for his insatiate
+armies. At the public balls given at the Tuileries he would walk about
+the gorgeous drawing-rooms, and when a lady was presented to him he
+would snap out, sharply:
+
+"How many children have you?"
+
+If she were able to answer that she had several the emperor would look
+pleased and would pay her some compliment; but if she said that she had
+none he would turn upon her sharply and say:
+
+"Then go home and have some!"
+
+Of the four women who influenced his life, first must come Josephine,
+because she secured him his earliest chance of advancement. She met him
+through Barras, with whom she was said to be rather intimate. The young
+soldier was fascinated by her--the more because she was older than he
+and possessed all the practised arts of the creole and the woman of the
+world. When she married him she brought him as her dowry the command of
+the army of Italy, where in a few months he made the tri-color, borne by
+ragged troops, triumphant over the splendidly equipped hosts of Austria.
+
+She was his first love, and his knowledge of her perfidy gave him the
+greatest shock and horror of his whole life; yet she might have held him
+to the end if she had borne an heir to the imperial throne. It was her
+failure to do so that led Napoleon to divorce Josephine and marry the
+thick-lipped Marie Louise of Austria. There were times later when he
+showed signs of regret and said:
+
+"I have had no luck since I gave up Josephine!"
+
+Marie Louise was of importance for a time--the short time when she
+entertained her husband and delighted him by giving birth to the little
+King of Rome. Yet in the end she was but an episode; fleeing from her
+husband in his misfortune, becoming the mistress of Count Neipperg, and
+letting her son--l'Aiglon--die in a land that was far from France.
+
+Napoleon's sister, Pauline Bonaparte, was the third woman who comes to
+mind when we contemplate the great Corsican's career. She, too, is an
+episode. During the period of his ascendancy she plagued him with her
+wanton ways, her sauciness and trickery. It was amusing to throw him
+into one of his violent rages; but Pauline was true at heart, and when
+her great brother was sent to Elba she followed him devotedly and gave
+him all her store of jewels, including the famous Borghese diamonds,
+perhaps the most superb of all gems known to the western world. She
+would gladly have followed him, also, to St. Helena had she been
+permitted. Remaining behind, she did everything possible in conspiring
+to secure his freedom.
+
+But, after all, Pauline and Marie Louise count for comparatively little.
+Josephine's fate was interwoven with Napoleon's; and, with his Corsican
+superstition, he often said so. The fourth woman, of whom I am writing
+here, may be said to have almost equaled Josephine in her influence on
+the emperor as well as in the pathos of her life-story.
+
+On New-Year's Day of 1807 Napoleon, who was then almost Emperor of
+Europe, passed through the little town of Bronia, in Poland. Riding with
+his cavalry to Warsaw, the ancient capital of the Polish kingdom, he
+seemed a very demigod of battle.
+
+True, he had had to abandon his long-cherished design of invading and
+overrunning England, and Nelson had shattered his fleets and practically
+driven his flag from the sea; but the naval disaster of Trafalgar had
+speedily been followed by the triumph of Austerlitz, the greatest and
+most brilliant of all Napoleon's victories, which left Austria and
+Russia humbled to the very ground before him.
+
+Then Prussia had dared to defy the over-bearing conqueror and had put
+into the field against him her armies trained by Frederick the Great;
+but these he had shattered almost at a stroke, winning in one day the
+decisive battles of Jena and Auerstadt. He had stabled his horses in
+the royal palace of the Hohenzollerns and had pursued the remnant of the
+Prussian forces to the Russian border.
+
+As he marched into the Polish provinces the people swarmed by thousands
+to meet him and hail him as their country's savior. They believed down
+to the very last that Bonaparte would make the Poles once more a free
+and independent nation and rescue them from the tyranny of Russia.
+
+Napoleon played upon this feeling in every manner known to his artful
+mind. He used it to alarm the Czar. He used it to intimidate the Emperor
+of Austria; but more especially did he use it among the Poles themselves
+to win for his armies thousands upon thousands of gallant soldiers, who
+believed that in fighting for Napoleon they were fighting for the final
+independence of their native land.
+
+Therefore, with the intensity of patriotism which is a passion among the
+Poles, every man and every woman gazed at Napoleon with something like
+adoration; for was not he the mighty warrior who had in his gift what
+all desired? Soldiers of every rank swarmed to his standards. Princes
+and nobles flocked about him. Those who stayed at home repeated
+wonderful stories of his victories and prayed for him and fed the flame
+which spread through all the country. It was felt that no sacrifice was
+too great to win his favor; that to him, as to a deity, everything that
+he desired should be yielded up, since he was to restore the liberty of
+Poland.
+
+And hence, when the carriage of the emperor dashed into Bronia,
+surrounded by Polish lancers and French cuirassiers, the enormous crowd
+surged forward and blocked the way so that their hero could not pass
+because of their cheers and cries and supplications.
+
+In the midst of it all there came a voice of peculiar sweetness from the
+thickest portion of the crowd.
+
+"Please let me pass!" said the voice. "Let me see him, if only for a
+moment!"
+
+The populace rolled backward, and through the lane which they made a
+beautiful girl with dark blue eyes that flamed and streaming hair that
+had become loosened about her radiant face was confronting the emperor.
+Carried away by her enthusiasm, she cried:
+
+"Thrice welcome to Poland! We can do or say nothing to express our joy
+in the country which you will surely deliver from its tyrant."
+
+The emperor bowed and, with a smile, handed a great bouquet of roses to
+the girl, for her beauty and her enthusiasm had made a deep impression
+on him.
+
+"Take it," said he, "as a proof of my admiration. I trust that I may
+have the pleasure of meeting you at Warsaw and of hearing your thanks
+from those beautiful lips."
+
+In a moment more the trumpets rang out shrilly, the horsemen closed up
+beside the imperial carriage, and it rolled away amid the tumultuous
+shouting of the populace.
+
+The girl who had so attracted Napoleon's attention was Marie Walewska,
+descended from an ancient though impoverished family in Poland. When she
+was only fifteen she was courted by one of the wealthiest men in Poland,
+the Count Walewska. He was three or four times her age, yet her dark
+blue eyes, her massive golden hair, and the exquisite grace of her
+figure led him to plead that she might become his wife. She had accepted
+him, but the marriage was that of a mere child, and her interest still
+centered upon her country and took the form of patriotism rather than
+that of wifehood and maternity.
+
+It was for this reason that the young Countess had visited Bronia. She
+was now eighteen years of age and still had the sort of romantic feeling
+which led her to think that she would keep in some secret hiding-place
+the bouquet which the greatest man alive had given her.
+
+But Napoleon was not the sort of man to forget anything that had given
+him either pleasure or the reverse. He who, at the height of his cares,
+could recall instantly how many cannon were in each seaport of France
+and could make out an accurate list of all his military stores; he who
+could call by name every soldier in his guard, with a full remembrance
+of the battles each man had fought in and the honors that he had won--he
+was not likely to forget so lovely a face as the one which had gleamed
+with peculiar radiance through the crowd at Bronia.
+
+On reaching Warsaw he asked one or two well-informed persons about
+this beautiful stranger. Only a few hours had passed before Prince
+Poniatowski, accompanied by other nobles, called upon her at her home.
+
+"I am directed, madam," said he, "by order of the Emperor of France,
+to bid you to be present at a ball that is to be given in his honor
+to-morrow evening."
+
+Mme. Walewska was startled, and her face grew hot with blushes. Did the
+emperor remember her escapade at Bronia? If so, how had he discovered
+her? Why should he seek her out and do her such an honor?
+
+"That, madam, is his imperial majesty's affair," Poniatowski told her.
+"I merely obey his instructions and ask your presence at the ball.
+Perhaps Heaven has marked you out to be the means of saving our unhappy
+country."
+
+In this way, by playing on her patriotism, Poniatowski almost persuaded
+her, and yet something held her back. She trembled, though she was
+greatly fascinated; and finally she refused to go.
+
+Scarcely had the envoy left her, however, when a great company of nobles
+entered in groups and begged her to humor the emperor. Finally her own
+husband joined in their entreaties and actually commanded her to go; so
+at last she was compelled to yield.
+
+It was by no means the frank and radiant girl who was now preparing
+again to meet the emperor. She knew not why, and yet her heart was full
+of trepidation and nervous fright, the cause of which she could not
+guess, yet which made her task a severe ordeal. She dressed herself in
+white satin, with no adornment save a wreath of foliage in her hair.
+
+As she entered the ballroom she was welcomed by hundreds whom she had
+never seen before, but who were of the highest nobility of Poland.
+Murmurs of admiration followed her, and finally Poniatowski came to her
+and complimented her, besides bringing her a message that the emperor
+desired her to dance with him.
+
+"I am very sorry," she said, with a quiver of the lips, "but I really
+cannot dance. Be kind enough to ask the emperor to excuse me."
+
+But at that very moment she felt some strange magnetic influence; and
+without looking up she could feel that Napoleon himself was standing by
+her as she sat with blanched face and downcast eyes, not daring to look
+up at him.
+
+"White upon white is a mistake, madam," said the emperor, in his
+gentlest tones. Then, stooping low, he whispered, "I had expected a far
+different reception."
+
+She neither smiled nor met his eyes. He stood there for a moment and
+then passed on, leaving her to return to her home with a heavy heart.
+The young countess felt that she had acted wrongly, and yet there was an
+instinct--an instinct that she could not conquer.
+
+In the gray of the morning, while she was still tossing feverishly, her
+maid knocked at the door and brought her a hastily scribbled note. It
+ran as follows:
+
+I saw none but you, I admired none but you; I desire only you. Answer at
+once, and calm the impatient ardor of--N.
+
+These passionate words burned from her eyes the veil that had hidden
+the truth from her. What before had been mere blind instinct became an
+actual verity. Why had she at first rushed forth into the very streets
+to hail the possible deliverer of her country, and then why had she
+shrunk from him when he sought to honor her! It was all clear enough
+now. This bedside missive meant that he had intended her dishonor and
+that he had looked upon her simply as a possible mistress.
+
+At once she crushed the note angrily in her hand.
+
+"There is no answer at all," said she, bursting into bitter tears at the
+very thought that he should dare to treat her in this way.
+
+But on the following morning when she awoke her maid was standing beside
+her with a second letter from Napoleon. She refused to open it and
+placed it in a packet with the first letter, and ordered that both of
+them should be returned to the emperor.
+
+She shrank from speaking to her husband of what had happened, and there
+was no one else in whom she dared confide. All through that day there
+came hundreds of visitors, either of princely rank or men who had won
+fame by their gallantry and courage. They all begged to see her, but to
+them all she sent one answer--that she was ill and could see no one.
+
+After a time her husband burst into her room, and insisted that she
+should see them.
+
+"Why," exclaimed he, "you are insulting the greatest men and the
+noblest women of Poland! More than that, there are some of the most
+distinguished Frenchmen sitting at your doorstep, as it were. There
+is Duroc, grand marshal of France, and in refusing to see him you are
+insulting the great emperor on whom depends everything that our country
+longs for. Napoleon has invited you to a state dinner and you have given
+him no answer whatever. I order you to rise at once and receive these
+ladies and gentlemen who have done you so much honor!"
+
+She could not refuse. Presently she appeared in her drawing-room, where
+she was at once surrounded by an immense throng of her own countrymen
+and countrywomen, who made no pretense of misunderstanding the
+situation. To them, what was one woman's honor when compared with
+the freedom and independence of their nation? She was overwhelmed by
+arguments and entreaties. She was even accused of being disloyal to the
+cause of Poland if she refused her consent.
+
+One of the strangest documents of that period was a letter sent to her
+and signed by the noblest men in Poland. It contained a powerful appeal
+to her patriotism. One remarkable passage even quotes the Bible to point
+out her line of duty. A portion of this letter ran as follows:
+
+Did Esther, think you, give herself to Ahasuerus out of the fulness of
+her love for him? So great was the terror with which he inspired her
+that she fainted at the sight of him. We may therefore conclude that
+affection had but little to do with her resolve. She sacrificed her own
+inclinations to the salvation of her country, and that salvation it was
+her glory to achieve. May we be enabled to say the same of you, to your
+glory and our own happiness!
+
+After this letter came others from Napoleon himself, full of the
+most humble pleading. It was not wholly distasteful thus to have the
+conqueror of the world seek her out and offer her his adoration any
+more than it was distasteful to think that the revival of her own nation
+depended on her single will. M. Frederic Masson, whose minute studies
+regarding everything relating to Napoleon have won him a seat in the
+French Academy, writes of Marie Walewska at this time: Every force
+was now brought into play against her. Her country, her friends, her
+religion, the Old and the New Testaments, all urged her to yield; they
+all combined for the ruin of a simple and inexperienced girl of eighteen
+who had no parents, whose husband even thrust her into temptation, and
+whose friends thought that her downfall would be her glory.
+
+Amid all these powerful influences she consented to attend the dinner.
+To her gratification Napoleon treated her with distant courtesy, and, in
+fact, with a certain coldness.
+
+"I heard that Mme. Walewska was indisposed. I trust that she has
+recovered," was all the greeting that he gave her when they met.
+
+Every one else with whom she spoke overwhelmed her with flattery and
+with continued urging; but the emperor himself for a time acted as if
+she had displeased him. This was consummate art; for as soon as she was
+relieved of her fears she began to regret that she had thrown her power
+away.
+
+During the dinner she let her eyes wander to those of the emperor almost
+in supplication. He, the subtlest of men, knew that he had won. His
+marvelous eyes met hers and drew her attention to him as by an electric
+current; and when the ladies left the great dining-room Napoleon sought
+her out and whispered in her ear a few words of ardent love.
+
+It was too little to alarm her seriously now. It was enough to make
+her feel that magnetism which Napoleon knew so well how to evoke and
+exercise. Again every one crowded about her with congratulations. Some
+said:
+
+"He never even saw any of US. His eyes were all for YOU! They flashed
+fire as he looked at you."
+
+"You have conquered his heart," others said, "and you can do what you
+like with him. The salvation of Poland is in your hands."
+
+The company broke up at an early hour, but Mme. Walewska was asked to
+remain. When she was alone General Duroc--one of the emperor's favorite
+officers and most trusted lieutenants--entered and placed a letter from
+Napoleon in her lap. He tried to tell her as tactfully as possible how
+much harm she was doing by refusing the imperial request. She was deeply
+affected, and presently, when Duroc left her, she opened the letter
+which he had given her and read it. It was worded thus:
+
+There are times when all splendors become oppressive, as I feel but too
+deeply at the present moment. How can I satisfy the desires of a heart
+that yearns to cast itself at your feet, when its impulses are checked
+at every point by considerations of the highest moment? Oh, if you
+would, you alone might overcome the obstacles that keep us apart. MY
+FRIEND DUROC WILL MAKE ALL EASY FOR YOU. Oh, come, come! Your every wish
+shall be gratified! Your country will be dearer to me when you take pity
+on my poor heart. N.
+
+Every chance of escape seemed to be closed. She had Napoleon's own word
+that he would free Poland in return for her self-sacrifice. Moreover,
+her powers of resistance had been so weakened that, like many women, she
+temporized. She decided that she would meet the emperor alone. She would
+tell him that she did not love him, and yet would plead with him to save
+her beloved country.
+
+As she sat there every tick of the clock stirred her to a new
+excitement. At last there came a knock upon the door, a cloak was thrown
+about her from behind, a heavy veil was drooped about her golden hair,
+and she was led, by whom she knew not, to the street, where a finely
+appointed carriage was waiting for her.
+
+No sooner had she entered it than she was driven rapidly through the
+darkness to the beautifully carved entrance of a palace. Half led, half
+carried, she was taken up the steps to a door which was eagerly opened
+by some one within. There were warmth and light and color and the scent
+of flowers as she was placed in a comfortable arm-chair. Her wrappings
+were taken from her, the door was closed behind her; and then, as
+she looked up, she found herself in the presence of Napoleon, who was
+kneeling at her feet and uttering soothing words.
+
+Wisely, the emperor used no violence. He merely argued with her; he told
+her over and over his love for her; and finally he declared that for her
+sake he would make Poland once again a strong and splendid kingdom.
+
+Several hours passed. In the early morning, before daylight, there came
+a knock at the door.
+
+"Already?" said Napoleon. "Well, my plaintive dove, go home and rest.
+You must not fear the eagle. In time you will come to love him, and in
+all things you shall command him."
+
+Then he led her to the door, but said that he would not open it unless
+she promised to see him the next day--a promise which she gave the more
+readily because he had treated her with such respect.
+
+On the following morning her faithful maid came to her bedside with
+a cluster of beautiful violets, a letter, and several daintily made
+morocco cases. When these were opened there leaped out strings and
+necklaces of exquisite diamonds, blazing in the morning sunlight. Mme.
+Walewska seized the jewels and flung them across the room with an order
+that they should be taken back at once to the imperial giver; but
+the letter, which was in the same romantic strain as the others, she
+retained.
+
+On that same evening there was another dinner, given to the emperor by
+the nobles, and Marie Walewska attended it, but of course without the
+diamonds, which she had returned. Nor did she wear the flowers which had
+accompanied the diamonds.
+
+When Napoleon met her he frowned upon her and made her tremble with the
+cold glances that shot from his eyes of steel. He scarcely spoke to her
+throughout the meal, but those who sat beside her were earnest in their
+pleading.
+
+Again she waited until the guests had gone away, and with a lighter
+heart, since she felt that she had nothing to fear. But when she met
+Napoleon in his private cabinet, alone, his mood was very different from
+that which he had shown before. Instead of gentleness and consideration
+he was the Napoleon of camps, and not of courts. He greeted her bruskly.
+
+"I scarcely expected to see you again," said he. "Why did you refuse
+my diamonds and my flowers? Why did you avoid my eyes at dinner? Your
+coldness is an insult which I shall not brook." Then he raised his voice
+to that rasping, almost blood-curdling tone which even his hardiest
+soldiers dreaded: "I will have you know that I mean to conquer you. You
+SHALL--yes, I repeat it, you SHALL love me! I have restored the name of
+your country. It owes its very existence to me."
+
+Then he resorted to a trick which he had played years before in dealing
+with the Austrians at Campo Formio.
+
+"See this watch which I am holding in my hand. Just as I dash it to
+fragments before you, so will I shatter Poland if you drive me to
+desperation by rejecting my heart and refusing me your own."
+
+As he spoke he hurled the watch against the opposite wall with terrific
+force, dashing it to pieces. In terror, Mme. Walewska fainted. When she
+resumed consciousness there was Napoleon wiping away her tears with the
+tenderness of a woman and with words of self-reproach.
+
+The long siege was over. Napoleon had conquered, and this girl of
+eighteen gave herself up to his caresses and endearments, thinking that,
+after all, her love of country was more than her own honor.
+
+Her husband, as a matter of form, put her away from him, though at heart
+he approved what she had done, while the Polish people regarded her as
+nothing less than a national heroine. To them she was no minister to the
+vices of an emperor, but rather one who would make him love Poland for
+her sake and restore its greatness.
+
+So far as concerned his love for her, it was, indeed, almost idolatry.
+He honored her in every way and spent all the time at his disposal
+in her company. But his promise to restore Poland he never kept, and
+gradually she found that he had never meant to keep it.
+
+"I love your country," he would say, "and I am willing to aid in the
+attempt to uphold its rights, but my first duty is to France. I cannot
+shed French blood in a foreign cause."
+
+By this time, however, Marie Walewska had learned to love Napoleon for
+his own sake. She could not resist his ardor, which matched the ardor
+of the Poles themselves. Moreover, it flattered her to see the greatest
+soldier in the world a suppliant for her smiles.
+
+For some years she was Napoleon's close companion, spending long hours
+with him and finally accompanying him to Paris. She was the mother of
+Napoleon's only son who lived to manhood. This son, who bore the name of
+Alexandre Florian de Walewski, was born in Poland in 1810, and later
+was created a count and duke of the second French Empire. It may be said
+parenthetically that he was a man of great ability. Living down to 1868,
+he was made much of by Napoleon III., who placed him in high offices
+of state, which he filled with distinction. In contrast with the Duc
+de Morny, who was Napoleon's illegitimate half-brother, Alexandre de
+Walewski stood out in brilliant contrast. He would have nothing to do
+with stock-jobbing and unseemly speculation.
+
+"I may be poor," he said--though he was not poor--"but at least I
+remember the glory of my father and what is due to his great name."
+
+As for Mme. Walewska, she was loyal to the emperor, and lacked the greed
+of many women whom he had made his favorites. Even at Elba, when he
+was in exile and disgrace, she visited him that she might endeavor to
+console him. She was his counselor and friend as well as his earnestly
+loved mate. When she died in Paris in 1817, while the dethroned emperor
+was a prisoner at St. Helena, the word "Napoleon" was the last upon her
+lips.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF PAULINE BONAPARTE
+
+
+It was said of Napoleon long ago that he could govern emperors and
+kings, but that not even he could rule his relatives. He himself once
+declared:
+
+"My family have done me far more harm than I have been able to do them
+good."
+
+It would be an interesting historical study to determine just how far
+the great soldier's family aided in his downfall by their selfishness,
+their jealousy, their meanness, and their ingratitude.
+
+There is something piquant in thinking of Napoleon as a domestic sort of
+person. Indeed, it is rather difficult to do so. When we speak his name
+we think of the stern warrior hurling his armies up bloody slopes and on
+to bloody victory. He is the man whose steely eyes made his haughtiest
+marshals tremble, or else the wise, far-seeing statesman and lawgiver;
+but decidedly he is not a household model. We read of his sharp speech
+to women, of his outrageous manners at the dinner-table, and of the
+thousand and one details which Mme. de Remusat has chronicled--and
+perhaps in part invented, for there has always existed the suspicion
+that her animus was that of a woman who had herself sought the imperial
+favor and had failed to win it.
+
+But, in fact, all these stories relate to the Napoleon of courts and
+palaces, and not to the Napoleon of home. In his private life this great
+man was not merely affectionate and indulgent, but he even showed a
+certain weakness where his relatives were concerned, so that he let them
+prey upon him almost without end.
+
+He had a great deal of the Italian largeness and lavishness of character
+with his family. When a petty officer he nearly starved himself in
+order to give his younger brother, Louis, a military education. He was
+devotedly fond of children, and they were fond of him, as many anecdotes
+attest. His passionate love for Josephine before he learned of her
+infidelity is almost painful to read of; and even afterward, when he had
+been disillusioned, and when she was paying Fouche a thousand francs
+a day to spy upon Napoleon's every action, he still treated her with
+friendliness and allowed her extravagance to embarrass him.
+
+He made his eldest brother, Joseph, King of Spain, and Spain proved
+almost as deadly to him as did Russia. He made his youngest brother,
+Jerome, King of Westphalia, and Jerome turned the palace into a pigsty
+and brought discredit on the very name of Bonaparte. His brother Louis,
+for whom he had starved himself, he placed upon the throne of Holland,
+and Louis promptly devoted himself to his own interests, conniving
+at many things which were inimical to France. He was planning high
+advancement for his brother Lucien, and Lucien suddenly married a
+disreputable actress and fled with her to England, where he was received
+with pleasure by the most persistent of all Napoleon's enemies.
+
+So much for his brothers--incompetent, ungrateful, or openly his foes.
+But his three sisters were no less remarkable in the relations which
+they bore to him. They have been styled "the three crowned courtesans,"
+and they have been condemned together as being utterly void of principle
+and monsters of ingratitude.
+
+Much of this censure was well deserved by all of them--by Caroline and
+Elise and Pauline. But when we look at the facts impartially we shall
+find something which makes Pauline stand out alone as infinitely
+superior to her sisters. Of all the Bonapartes she was the only one who
+showed fidelity and gratitude to the great emperor, her brother. Even
+Mme. Mere, Napoleon's mother, who beyond all question transmitted to him
+his great mental and physical power, did nothing for him. At the height
+of his splendor she hoarded sous and francs and grumblingly remarked:
+
+"All this is for a time. It isn't going to last!"
+
+Pauline, however, was in one respect different from all her kindred.
+Napoleon made Elise a princess in her own right and gave her the Grand
+Duchy of Tuscany. He married Caroline to Marshal Murat, and they
+became respectively King and Queen of Naples. For Pauline he did very
+little--less, in fact, than for any other member of his family--and yet
+she alone stood by him to the end.
+
+This feather-headed, languishing, beautiful, distracting morsel of
+frivolity, who had the manners of a kitten and the morals of a cat,
+nevertheless was not wholly unworthy to be Napoleon's sister. One has to
+tell many hard things of her; and yet one almost pardons her because
+of her underlying devotion to the man who made the name of Bonaparte
+illustrious for ever. Caroline, Queen of Naples, urged her husband to
+turn against his former chief. Elise, sour and greedy, threw in
+her fortunes with the Murats. Pauline, as we shall see, had the one
+redeeming trait of gratitude.
+
+To those who knew her she was from girlhood an incarnation of what
+used to be called "femininity." We have to-day another and a higher
+definition of womanhood, but to her contemporaries, and to many modern
+writers, she has seemed to be first of all woman--"woman to the tips of
+her rosy finger-nails," says Levy. Those who saw her were distracted
+by her loveliness. They say that no one can form any idea of her beauty
+from her pictures. "A veritable masterpiece of creation," she had been
+called. Frederic Masson declares:
+
+She was so much more the typical woman that with her the defects common
+to women reached their highest development, while her beauty attained a
+perfection which may justly be called unique.
+
+No one speaks of Pauline Bonaparte's character or of her intellect, but
+wholly of her loveliness and charm, and, it must be added, of her utter
+lack of anything like a moral sense.
+
+Even as a child of thirteen, when the Bonapartes left Corsica and took
+up their abode in Marseilles, she attracted universal attention by her
+wonderful eyes, her grace, and also by the utter lack of decorum which
+she showed. The Bonaparte girls at this time lived almost on charity.
+The future emperor was then a captain of artillery and could give them
+but little out of his scanty pay.
+
+Pauline--or, as they called her in those days, Paulette--wore unbecoming
+hats and shabby gowns, and shoes that were full of holes. None the
+less, she was sought out by several men of note, among them Freron, a
+commissioner of the Convention. He visited Pauline so often as to cause
+unfavorable comment; but he was in love with her, and she fell in love
+with him to the extent of her capacity. She used to write him love
+letters in Italian, which were certainly not lacking in ardor. Here is
+the end of one of them:
+
+I love you always and most passionately. I love you for ever, my
+beautiful idol, my heart, my appealing lover. I love you, love you, love
+you, the most loved of lovers, and I swear never to love any one else!
+
+This was interesting in view of the fact that soon afterward she fell in
+love with Junot, who became a famous marshal. But her love affairs never
+gave her any serious trouble; and the three sisters, who now began to
+feel the influence of Napoleon's rise to power, enjoyed themselves as
+they had never done before. At Antibes they had a beautiful villa, and
+later a mansion at Milan.
+
+By this time Napoleon had routed the Austrians in Italy, and all France
+was ringing with his name. What was Pauline like in her maidenhood?
+Arnault says:
+
+She was an extraordinary combination of perfect physical beauty and the
+strangest moral laxity. She was as pretty as you please, but utterly
+unreasonable. She had no more manners than a school-girl--talking
+incoherently, giggling at everything and nothing, and mimicking the most
+serious persons of rank.
+
+General de Ricard, who knew her then, tells in his monograph of the
+private theatricals in which Pauline took part, and of the sport which
+they had behind the scenes. He says:
+
+The Bonaparte girls used literally to dress us. They pulled our ears and
+slapped us, but they always kissed and made up later. We used to stay in
+the girls' room all the time when they were dressing.
+
+Napoleon was anxious to see his sisters in some way settled. He proposed
+to General Marmont to marry Pauline. The girl was then only seventeen,
+and one might have had some faith in her character. But Marmont was
+shrewd and knew her far too well. The words in which he declined the
+honor are interesting:
+
+"I know that she is charming and exquisitely beautiful; yet I have
+dreams of domestic happiness, of fidelity, and of virtue. Such dreams
+are seldom realized, I know. Still, in the hope of winning them--"
+
+And then he paused, coughed, and completed what he had to say in a sort
+of mumble, but his meaning was wholly clear. He would not accept the
+offer of Pauline in marriage, even though she was the sister of his
+mighty chief.
+
+Then Napoleon turned to General Leclerc, with whom Pauline had for
+some time flirted, as she had flirted with almost all the officers of
+Napoleon's staff. Leclerc was only twenty-six. He was rich and of good
+manners, but rather serious and in poor health. This was not precisely
+the sort of husband for Pauline, if we look at it in the conventional
+way; but it served Napoleon's purpose and did not in the least interfere
+with his sister's intrigues.
+
+Poor Leclerc, who really loved Pauline, grew thin, and graver still
+in manner. He was sent to Spain and Portugal, and finally was made
+commander-in-chief of the French expedition to Haiti, where the famous
+black rebel, Toussaint l'Ouverture, was heading an uprising of the
+negroes.
+
+Napoleon ordered Pauline to accompany her husband. Pauline flatly
+refused, although she made this an occasion for ordering "mountains of
+pretty clothes and pyramids of hats." But still she refused to go on
+board the flag-ship. Leclerc expostulated and pleaded, but the lovely
+witch laughed in his face and still persisted that she would never go.
+
+Word was brought to Napoleon. He made short work of her resistance.
+
+"Bring a litter," he said, with one of his steely glances. "Order
+six grenadiers to thrust her into it, and see that she goes on board
+forthwith."
+
+And so, screeching like an angry cat, she was carried on board, and set
+sail with her husband and one of her former lovers. She found Haiti and
+Santo Domingo more agreeable than she had supposed. She was there a
+sort of queen who could do as she pleased and have her orders implicitly
+obeyed. Her dissipation was something frightful. Her folly and her
+vanity were beyond belief.
+
+But at the end of two years both she and her husband fell ill. He was
+stricken down by the yellow fever, which was decimating the French
+army. Pauline was suffering from the results of her life in a tropical
+climate. Leclerc died, the expedition was abandoned, and Pauline
+brought the general's body back to France. When he was buried she, still
+recovering from her fever, had him interred in a costly coffin and paid
+him the tribute of cutting off her beautiful hair and burying it with
+him.
+
+"What a touching tribute to her dead husband!" said some one to
+Napoleon.
+
+The emperor smiled cynically as he remarked:
+
+"H'm! Of course she knows that her hair is bound to fall out after her
+fever, and that it will come in longer and thicker for being cropped."
+
+Napoleon, in fact, though he loved Pauline better than his other
+sisters--or perhaps because he loved her better--was very strict
+with her. He obliged her to wear mourning, and to observe some of the
+proprieties; but it was hard to keep her within bounds.
+
+Presently it became noised about that Prince Camillo Borghese was
+exceedingly intimate with her. The prince was an excellent specimen of
+the fashionable Italian. He was immensely rich. His palace at Rome was
+crammed with pictures, statues, and every sort of artistic treasure.
+He was the owner, moreover, of the famous Borghese jewels, the finest
+collection of diamonds in the world.
+
+Napoleon rather sternly insisted upon her marrying Borghese.
+Fortunately, the prince was very willing to be connected with Napoleon;
+while Pauline was delighted at the idea of having diamonds that would
+eclipse all the gems which Josephine possessed; for, like all of the
+Bonapartes, she detested her brother's wife. So she would be married and
+show her diamonds to Josephine. It was a bit of feminine malice which
+she could not resist.
+
+The marriage took place very quietly at Joseph Bonaparte's house,
+because of the absence of Napoleon; but the newly made princess was
+invited to visit Josephine at the palace of Saint-Cloud. Here was to be
+the triumph of her life. She spent many days in planning a toilet that
+should be absolutely crushing to Josephine. Whatever she wore must be a
+background for the famous diamonds. Finally she decided on green velvet.
+
+When the day came Pauline stood before a mirror and gazed at herself
+with diamonds glistening in her hair, shimmering around her neck, and
+fastened so thickly on her green velvet gown as to remind one of a
+moving jewel-casket. She actually shed tears for joy. Then she entered
+her carriage and drove out to Saint-Cloud.
+
+But the Creole Josephine, though no longer young, was a woman of great
+subtlety as well as charm. Stories had been told to her of the green
+velvet, and therefore she had her drawing-room redecorated in the most
+uncompromising blue. It killed the green velvet completely. As for the
+diamonds, she met that maneuver by wearing not a single gem of any kind.
+Her dress was an Indian muslin with a broad hem of gold.
+
+Her exquisite simplicity, coupled with her dignity of bearing, made
+the Princess Pauline, with her shower of diamonds, and her green velvet
+displayed against the blue, seem absolutely vulgar. Josephine was most
+generous in her admiration of the Borghese gems, and she kissed Pauline
+on parting. The victory was hers.
+
+There is another story of a defeat which Pauline met from another lady,
+one Mme. de Coutades. This was at a magnificent ball given to the most
+fashionable world of Paris. Pauline decided upon going, and intended,
+in her own phrase, to blot out every woman there. She kept the secret of
+her toilet absolutely, and she entered the ballroom at the psychological
+moment, when all the guests had just assembled.
+
+She appeared; and at sight of her the music stopped, silence fell upon
+the assemblage, and a sort of quiver went through every one. Her costume
+was of the finest muslin bordered with golden palm-leaves. Four bands,
+spotted like a leopard's skin, were wound about her head, while these in
+turn were supported by little clusters of golden grapes. She had copied
+the head-dress of a Bacchante in the Louvre. All over her person were
+cameos, and just beneath her breasts she wore a golden band held in
+place by an engraved gem. Her beautiful wrists, arms, and hands were
+bare. She had, in fact, blotted out her rivals.
+
+Nevertheless, Mme. de Coutades took her revenge. She went up to Pauline,
+who was lying on a divan to set off her loveliness, and began gazing at
+the princess through a double eye-glass. Pauline felt flattered for a
+moment, and then became uneasy. The lady who was looking at her said to
+a companion, in a tone of compassion:
+
+"What a pity! She really would be lovely if it weren't for THAT!"
+
+"For what?" returned her escort.
+
+"Why, are you blind? It's so remarkable that you SURELY must see it."
+
+Pauline was beginning to lose her self-composure. She flushed and looked
+wildly about, wondering what was meant. Then she heard Mme. Coutades
+say:
+
+"Why, her ears. If I had such ears as those I would cut them off!"
+
+Pauline gave one great gasp and fainted dead away. As a matter of fact,
+her ears were not so bad. They were simply very flat and colorless,
+forming a contrast with the rosy tints of her face. But from that moment
+no one could see anything but these ears; and thereafter the princess
+wore her hair low enough to cover them.
+
+This may be seen in the statue of her by Canova. It was considered a
+very daring thing for her to pose for him in the nude, for only a bit of
+drapery is thrown over her lower limbs. Yet it is true that this
+statue is absolutely classical in its conception and execution, and its
+interest is heightened by the fact that its model was what she afterward
+styled herself, with true Napoleonic pride--"a sister of Bonaparte."
+
+Pauline detested Josephine and was pleased when Napoleon divorced her;
+but she also disliked the Austrian archduchess, Marie Louise, who was
+Josephine's successor. On one occasion, at a great court function, she
+got behind the empress and ran out her tongue at her, in full view of
+all the nobles and distinguished persons present. Napoleon's eagle eye
+flashed upon Pauline and blazed like fire upon ice. She actually took to
+her heels, rushed out of the ball, and never visited the court again.
+
+It would require much time to tell of her other eccentricities, of her
+intrigues, which were innumerable, of her quarrel with her husband, and
+of the minor breaches of decorum with which she startled Paris. One of
+these was her choice of a huge negro to bathe her every morning. When
+some one ventured to protest, she answered, naively:
+
+"What! Do you call that thing a MAN?"
+
+And she compromised by compelling her black servitor to go out and
+marry some one at once, so that he might continue his ministrations with
+propriety!
+
+To her Napoleon showed himself far more severe than with either Caroline
+or Elise. He gave her a marriage dowry of half a million francs when she
+became the Princess Borghese, but after that he was continually checking
+her extravagances. Yet in 1814, when the downfall came and Napoleon was
+sent into exile at Elba, Pauline was the only one of all his relatives
+to visit him and spend her time with him. His wife fell away and went
+back to her Austrian relatives. Of all the Bonapartes only Pauline and
+Mme. Mere remained faithful to the emperor.
+
+Even then Napoleon refused to pay a bill of hers for sixty-two
+francs, while he allowed her only two hundred and forty francs for the
+maintenance of her horses. But she, with a generosity of which one would
+have thought her quite incapable, gave to her brother a great part of
+her fortune. When he escaped from Elba and began the campaign of 1815
+she presented him with all the Borghese diamonds. In fact, he had them
+with him in his carriage at Waterloo, where they were captured by the
+English. Contrast this with the meanness and ingratitude of her sisters
+and her brothers, and one may well believe that she was sincerely proud
+of what it meant to be la soeur de Bonaparte.
+
+When he was sent to St. Helena she was ill in bed and could not
+accompany him. Nevertheless, she tried to sell all her trinkets, of
+which she was so proud, in order that she might give him help. When
+he died she received the news with bitter tears "on hearing all the
+particulars of that long agony."
+
+As for herself, she did not long survive. At the age of forty-four her
+last moments came. Knowing that she was to die, she sent for Prince
+Borghese and sought a reconciliation. But, after all, she died as she
+had lived--"the queen of trinkets" (la reine des colifichets). She asked
+the servant to bring a mirror. She gazed into it with her dying eyes;
+and then, as she sank back, it was with a smile of deep content.
+
+"I am not afraid to die," she said. "I am still beautiful!"
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE AND COUNT NEIPPERG
+
+
+There is one famous woman whom history condemns while at the same time
+it partly hides the facts which might mitigate the harshness of the
+judgment that is passed upon her. This woman is Marie Louise, Empress
+of France, consort of the great Napoleon, and archduchess of imperial
+Austria. When the most brilliant figure in all history, after his
+overthrow in 1814, was in tawdry exile on the petty island of Elba,
+the empress was already about to become a mother; and the father of her
+unborn child was not Napoleon, but another man. This is almost all that
+is usually remembered of her--that she was unfaithful to Napoleon, that
+she abandoned him in the hour of his defeat, and that she gave herself
+with readiness to one inferior in rank, yet with whom she lived for
+years, and to whom she bore what a French writer styled "a brood of
+bastards."
+
+Naturally enough, the Austrian and German historians do not have much
+to say of Marie Louise, because in her own disgrace she also brought
+disgrace upon the proudest reigning family in Europe. Naturally, also,
+French writers, even those who are hostile to Napoleon, do not care
+to dwell upon the story; since France itself was humiliated when its
+greatest genius and most splendid soldier was deceived by his Austrian
+wife. Therefore there are still many who know little beyond the bare
+fact that the Empress Marie Louise threw away her pride as a princess,
+her reputation as a wife, and her honor as a woman. Her figure seems to
+crouch in a sort of murky byway, and those who pass over the highroad of
+history ignore it with averted eyes.
+
+In reality the story of Napoleon and Marie Louise and of the Count von
+Neipperg is one which, when you search it to the very core, leads you
+straight to a sex problem of a very curious nature. Nowhere else does
+it occur in the relations of the great personages of history; but in
+literature Balzac, that master of psychology, has touched upon the theme
+in the early chapters of his famous novel called "A Woman of Thirty."
+
+As to the Napoleonic story, let us first recall the facts of the
+case, giving them in such order that their full significance may be
+understood.
+
+In 1809 Napoleon, then at the plenitude of his power, shook himself free
+from the clinging clasp of Josephine and procured the annulment of his
+marriage to her. He really owed her nothing. Before he knew her she had
+been the mistress of another. In the first years of their life together
+she had been notoriously unfaithful to him. He had held to her from
+habit which was in part a superstition; but the remembrance of the wrong
+which she had done him made her faded charms at times almost repulsive.
+And then Josephine had never borne him any children; and without a
+son to perpetuate his dynasty, the gigantic achievements which he
+had wrought seemed futile in his eyes, and likely to crumble into
+nothingness when he should die.
+
+No sooner had the marriage been annulled than his titanic ambition
+leaped, as it always did, to a tremendous pinnacle. He would wed. He
+would have children. But he would wed no petty princess. This man who in
+his early youth had felt honored by a marriage with the almost declassee
+widow of a creole planter now stretched out his hand that he might take
+to himself a woman not merely royal but imperial.
+
+At first he sought the sister of the Czar of Russia; but Alexander
+entertained a profound distrust of the French emperor, and managed to
+evade the tentative demand. There was, however, a reigning family far
+more ancient than the Romanoffs--a family which had held the imperial
+dignity for nearly six centuries--the oldest and the noblest blood in
+Europe. This was the Austrian house of Hapsburg. Its head, the Emperor
+Francis, had thirteen children, of whom the eldest, the Archduchess
+Marie Louise, was then in her nineteenth year.
+
+Napoleon had resented the rebuff which the Czar had given him. He
+turned, therefore, the more eagerly to the other project. Yet there were
+many reasons why an Austrian marriage might be dangerous, or, at any
+rate, ill-omened. Only sixteen years before, an Austrian arch-duchess,
+Marie Antionette, married to the ruler of France, had met her death
+upon the scaffold, hated and cursed by the French people, who had always
+blamed "the Austrian" for the evil days which had ended in the flames
+of revolution. Again, the father of the girl to whom Napoleon's fancy
+turned had been the bitter enemy of the new regime in France. His troops
+had been beaten by the French in five wars and had been crushed at
+Austerlitz and at Wagram. Bonaparte had twice entered Vienna at the head
+of a conquering army, and thrice he had slept in the imperial palace
+at Schonbrunn, while Francis was fleeing through the dark, a beaten
+fugitive pursued by the swift squadrons of French cavalry.
+
+The feeling of Francis of Austria was not merely that of the vanquished
+toward the victor. It was a deep hatred almost religious in its fervor.
+He was the head and front of the old-time feudalism of birth and blood;
+Napoleon was the incarnation of the modern spirit which demolished
+thrones and set an iron heel upon crowned heads, giving the sacred
+titles of king and prince to soldiers who, even in palaces, still showed
+the swaggering brutality of the camp and the stable whence they sprang.
+Yet, just because an alliance with the Austrian house seemed in so many
+ways impossible, the thought of it inflamed the ardor of Napoleon all
+the more.
+
+"Impossible?" he had once said, contemptuously. "The word 'impossible'
+is not French."
+
+The Austrian alliance, unnatural though it seemed, was certainly quite
+possible. In the year 1809 Napoleon had finished his fifth war with
+Austria by the terrific battle of Wagram, which brought the empire of
+the Hapsburgs to the very dust. The conqueror's rude hand had stripped
+from Francis province after province. He had even let fall hints that
+the Hapsburgs might be dethroned and that Austria might disappear from
+the map of Europe, to be divided between himself and the Russian Czar,
+who was still his ally. It was at this psychological moment that the
+Czar wounded Napoleon's pride by refusing to give the hand of his sister
+Anne.
+
+The subtle diplomats of Vienna immediately saw their chance.
+Prince Metternich, with the caution of one who enters the cage of a
+man-eating-tiger, suggested that the Austrian archduchess would be a
+fitting bride for the French conqueror. The notion soothed the wounded
+vanity of Napoleon. From that moment events moved swiftly; and before
+long it was understood that there was to be a new empress in France, and
+that she was to be none other than the daughter of the man who had been
+Napoleon's most persistent foe upon the Continent. The girl was to be
+given--sacrificed, if you like--to appease an imperial adventurer. After
+such a marriage, Austria would be safe from spoliation. The reigning
+dynasty would remain firmly seated upon its historic throne.
+
+But how about the girl herself? She had always heard Napoleon spoken of
+as a sort of ogre--a man of low ancestry, a brutal and faithless enemy
+of her people. She knew that this bold, rough-spoken soldier less than a
+year before had added insult to the injury which he had inflicted on
+her father. In public proclamations he had called the Emperor Francis a
+coward and a liar. Up to the latter part of the year Napoleon was to
+her imagination a blood-stained, sordid, and yet all-powerful monster,
+outside the pale of human liking and respect. What must have been her
+thoughts when her father first told her with averted face that she was
+to become the bride of such a being?
+
+Marie Louise had been brought up, as all German girls of rank were then
+brought up, in quiet simplicity and utter innocence. In person she was
+a tall blonde, with a wealth of light brown hair tumbling about a face
+which might be called attractive because it was so youthful and so
+gentle, but in which only poets and courtiers could see beauty. Her
+complexion was rosy, with that peculiar tinge which means that in the
+course of time it will become red and mottled. Her blue eyes were clear
+and childish. Her figure was good, though already too full for a girl
+who was younger than her years.
+
+She had a large and generous mouth with full lips, the lower one
+being the true "Hapsburg lip," slightly pendulous--a feature which has
+remained for generation after generation as a sure sign of Hapsburg
+blood. One sees it in the present emperor of Austria, in the late Queen
+Regent of Spain, and in the present King of Spain, Alfonso. All the
+artists who made miniatures or paintings of Marie Louise softened down
+this racial mark so that no likeness of her shows it as it really was.
+But take her all in all, she was a simple, childlike, German madchen
+who knew nothing of the outside world except what she had heard from her
+discreet and watchful governess, and what had been told her of Napoleon
+by her uncles, the archdukes whom he had beaten down in battle.
+
+When she learned that she was to be given to the French emperor her
+girlish soul experienced a shudder; but her father told her how vital
+was this union to her country and to him. With a sort of piteous dread
+she questioned the archdukes who had called Napoleon an ogre.
+
+"Oh, that was when Napoleon was an enemy," they replied. "Now he is our
+friend."
+
+Marie Louise listened to all this, and, like the obedient German girl
+she was, yielded her own will.
+
+Events moved with a rush, for Napoleon was not the man to dally.
+Josephine had retired to her residence at Malmaison, and Paris was
+already astir with preparations for the new empress who was to assure
+the continuation of the Napoleonic glory by giving children to her
+husband. Napoleon had said to his ambassador with his usual bluntness:
+
+"This is the first and most important thing--she must have children."
+
+To the girl whom he was to marry he sent the following letter--an odd
+letter, combining the formality of a negotiator with the veiled ardor of
+a lover:
+
+MY COUSIN: The brilliant qualities which adorn your person have inspired
+in me a desire to serve you and to pay you homage. In making my request
+to the emperor, your father, and praying him to intrust to me the
+happiness of your imperial highness, may I hope that you will understand
+the sentiments which lead me to this act? May I flatter myself that it
+will not be decided solely by the duty of parental obedience? However
+slightly the feelings of your imperial highness may incline to me, I
+wish to cultivate them with so great care, and to endeavor so constantly
+to please you in everything, that I flatter myself that some day I shall
+prove attractive to you. This is the end at which I desire to arrive,
+and for which I pray your highness to be favorable to me.
+
+Immediately everything was done to dazzle the imagination of the girl.
+She had dressed always in the simplicity of the school-room. Her only
+ornaments had been a few colored stones which she sometimes wore as a
+necklace or a bracelet. Now the resources of all France were drawn upon.
+Precious laces foamed about her. Cascades of diamonds flashed before her
+eyes. The costliest and most exquisite creations of the Parisian shops
+were spread around her to make up a trousseau fit for the princess who
+was soon to become the bride of the man who had mastered continental
+Europe.
+
+The archives of Vienna were ransacked for musty documents which would
+show exactly what had been done for other Austrian princesses who had
+married rulers of France. Everything was duplicated down to the last
+detail. Ladies-in-waiting thronged about the young archduchess; and
+presently there came to her Queen Caroline of Naples, Napoleon's sister,
+of whom Napoleon himself once said: "She is the only man among my
+sisters, as Joseph is the only woman among my brothers." Caroline, by
+virtue of her rank as queen, could have free access to her husband's
+future bride. Also, there came presently Napoleon's famous marshal,
+Berthier, Prince of Neuchatel, the chief of the Old Guard, who had just
+been created Prince of Wagram--a title which, very naturally, he did not
+use in Austria. He was to act as proxy for Napoleon in the preliminary
+marriage service at Vienna.
+
+All was excitement. Vienna had never been so gay. Money was lavished
+under the direction of Caroline and Berthier. There were illuminations
+and balls. The young girl found herself the center of the world's
+interest; and the excitement made her dizzy. She could not but be
+flattered, and yet there were many hours when her heart misgave her.
+More than once she was found in tears. Her father, an affectionate
+though narrow soul, spent an entire day with her consoling and
+reassuring her. One thought she always kept in mind--what she had said
+to Metternich at the very first: "I want only what my duty bids me
+want." At last came the official marriage, by proxy, in the presence of
+a splendid gathering. The various documents were signed, the dowry was
+arranged for. Gifts were scattered right and left. At the opera
+there were gala performances. Then Marie Louise bade her father a sad
+farewell. Almost suffocated by sobs and with her eyes streaming with
+tears, she was led between two hedges of bayonets to her carriage, while
+cannon thundered and all the church-bells of Vienna rang a joyful peal.
+
+She set out for France accompanied by a long train of carriages filled
+with noblemen and noblewomen, with ladies-in-waiting and scores of
+attendant menials. The young bride--the wife of a man whom she had never
+seen--was almost dead with excitement and fatigue. At a station in the
+outskirts of Vienna she scribbled a few lines to her father, which are a
+commentary upon her state of mind:
+
+I think of you always, and I always shall. God has given me power to
+endure this final shock, and in Him alone I have put all my trust. He
+will help me and give me courage, and I shall find support in doing my
+duty toward you, since it is all for you that I have sacrificed myself.
+
+There is something piteous in this little note of a frightened girl
+going to encounter she knew not what, and clinging almost frantically
+to the one thought--that whatever might befall her, she was doing as her
+father wished.
+
+One need not recount the long and tedious journey of many days over
+wretched roads, in carriages that jolted and lurched and swayed. She was
+surrounded by unfamiliar faces and was compelled to meet at every town
+the chief men of the place, all of whom paid her honor, but stared at
+her with irrepressible curiosity. Day after day she went on and on. Each
+morning a courier on a foaming horse presented her with a great cluster
+of fresh flowers and a few lines scrawled by the unknown husband who was
+to meet her at her journey's end.
+
+There lay the point upon which her wandering thoughts were focused--the
+journey's end! The man whose strange, mysterious power had forced her
+from her school-room, had driven her through a nightmare of strange
+happenings, and who was waiting for her somewhere to take her to
+himself, to master her as he had mastered generals and armies!
+
+What was marriage? What did it mean? What experience still lay before
+her! These were the questions which she must have asked herself
+throughout that long, exhausting journey. When she thought of the past
+she was homesick. When she thought of the immediate future she was
+fearful with a shuddering fear.
+
+At last she reached the frontier of France, and her carriage passed into
+a sort of triple structure, the first pavilion of which was Austrian,
+while the middle pavilion was neutral, and the farther one was French.
+Here she was received by those who were afterward to surround her--the
+representatives of the Napoleonic court. They were not all plebeians and
+children of the Revolution, ex-stable boys, ex-laundresses. By this time
+Napoleon had gathered around himself some of the noblest families of
+France, who had rallied to the empire. The assemblage was a brilliant
+one. There were Montmorencys and Beaumonts and Audenardes in abundance.
+But to Marie Louise, as to her Austrian attendants, they were all alike.
+They were French, they were strangers, and she shrank from them.
+
+Yet here her Austrians must leave her. All who had accompanied her thus
+far were now turned back. Napoleon had been insistent on this point.
+Even her governess, who had been with her since her childhood, was not
+allowed to cross the French frontier. So fixed was Napoleon's purpose
+to have nothing Austrian about her, that even her pet dog, to which
+she clung as a girl would cling, was taken from her. Thereafter she was
+surrounded only by French faces, by French guards, and was greeted only
+by salvos of French artillery.
+
+In the mean time what was Napoleon doing at Paris. Since the annulment
+of his marriage with Josephine he had gone into a sort of retirement.
+Matters of state, war, internal reforms, no longer interested him; but
+that restless brain could not sink into repose. Inflamed with the ardor
+of a new passion, that passion was all the greater because he had
+never yet set eyes upon its object. Marriage with an imperial princess
+flattered his ambition. The youth and innocence of the bride stirred his
+whole being with a thrill of novelty. The painted charms of Josephine,
+the mercenary favors of actresses, the calculated ecstasies of the women
+of the court who gave themselves to him from vanity, had long since
+palled upon him. Therefore the impatience with which he awaited the
+coming of Marie Louise became every day more tense.
+
+For a time he amused himself with planning down to the very last details
+the demonstrations that were to be given in her honor. He organized
+them as minutely as he had ever organized a conquering army. He showed
+himself as wonderful in these petty things as he had in those great
+strategic combinations which had baffled the ablest generals of
+Europe. But after all had been arranged--even to the illuminations, the
+cheering, the salutes, and the etiquette of the court--he fell into a
+fever of impatience which gave him sleepless nights and frantic days. He
+paced up and down the Tuileries, almost beside himself. He hurried off
+courier after courier with orders that the postilions should lash their
+horses to bring the hour of meeting nearer still. He scribbled love
+letters. He gazed continually on the diamond-studded portrait of the
+woman who was hurrying toward him.
+
+At last as the time approached he entered a swift traveling-carriage and
+hastened to Compiegne, about fifty miles from Paris, where it had been
+arranged that he should meet his consort and whence he was to escort her
+to the capital, so that they might be married in the great gallery
+of the Louvre. At Compiegne the chancellerie had been set apart for
+Napoleon's convenience, while the chateau had been assigned to Marie
+Louise and her attendants. When Napoleon's carriage dashed into the
+place, drawn by horses that had traveled at a gallop, the emperor could
+not restrain himself. It was raining torrents and night was coming
+on, yet, none the less, he shouted for fresh horses and pushed on to
+Soissons, where the new empress was to stop and dine. When he reached
+there and she had not arrived, new relays of horses were demanded, and
+he hurried off once more into the dark.
+
+At the little village of Courcelles he met the courier who was riding in
+advance of the empress's cortege.
+
+"She will be here in a few moments!" cried Napoleon; and he leaped from
+his carriage into the highway.
+
+The rain descended harder than ever, and he took refuge in the arched
+doorway of the village church, his boots already bemired, his great coat
+reeking with the downpour. As he crouched before the church he heard the
+sound of carriages; and before long there came toiling through the
+mud the one in which was seated the girl for whom he had so long been
+waiting. It was stopped at an order given by an officer. Within it,
+half-fainting with fatigue and fear, Marie Louise sat in the dark,
+alone.
+
+Here, if ever, was the chance for Napoleon to win his bride. Could he
+have restrained himself, could he have shown the delicate consideration
+which was demanded of him, could he have remembered at least that he was
+an emperor and that the girl--timid and shuddering--was a princess, her
+future story might have been far different. But long ago he had ceased
+to think of anything except his own desires.
+
+He approached the carriage. An obsequious chamberlain drew aside the
+leathern covering and opened the door, exclaiming as he did so, "The
+emperor!" And then there leaped in the rain-soaked, mud-bespattered
+being whose excesses had always been as unbridled as his genius. The
+door was closed, the leathern curtain again drawn, and the horses set
+out at a gallop for Soissons. Within, the shrinking bride was at the
+mercy of pure animal passion, feeling upon her hot face a torrent of
+rough kisses, and yielding herself in terror to the caresses of wanton
+hands.
+
+At Soissons Napoleon allowed no halt, but the carriage plunged on, still
+in the rain, to Compiegne. There all the arrangements made with so much
+care were thrust aside. Though the actual marriage had not yet taken
+place, Napoleon claimed all the rights which afterward were given in the
+ceremonial at Paris. He took the girl to the chancellerie, and not to
+the chateau. In an anteroom dinner was served with haste to the imperial
+pair and Queen Caroline. Then the latter was dismissed with little
+ceremony, the lights were extinguished, and this daughter of a line of
+emperors was left to the tender mercies of one who always had about him
+something of the common soldier--the man who lives for loot and lust....
+At eleven the next morning she was unable to rise and was served in bed
+by the ladies of her household.
+
+These facts, repellent as they are, must be remembered when we call
+to mind what happened in the next five years. The horror of that night
+could not be obliterated by splendid ceremonies, by studious attention,
+or by all the pomp and gaiety of the court. Napoleon was then
+forty-one--practically the same age as his new wife's father, the
+Austrian emperor; Marie Louise was barely nineteen and younger than her
+years. Her master must have seemed to be the brutal ogre whom her uncles
+had described.
+
+Installed in the Tuileries, she taught herself compliance. On their
+marriage night Napoleon had asked her briefly: "What did your parents
+tell you?" And she had answered, meekly: "To be yours altogether and to
+obey you in everything." But, though she gave compliance, and though her
+freshness seemed enchanting to Napoleon, there was something concealed
+within her thoughts to which he could not penetrate. He gaily said to a
+member of the court:
+
+"Marry a German, my dear fellow. They are the best women in the
+world--gentle, good, artless, and as fresh as roses."
+
+Yet, at the same time, Napoleon felt a deep anxiety lest in her very
+heart of hearts this German girl might either fear or hate him secretly.
+Somewhat later Prince Metternich came from the Austrian court to Paris.
+
+"I give you leave," said Napoleon, "to have a private interview with the
+empress. Let her tell you what she likes, and I shall ask no questions.
+Even should I do so, I now forbid your answering me."
+
+Metternich was closeted with the empress for a long while. When he
+returned to the ante-room he found Napoleon fidgeting about, his eyes a
+pair of interrogation-points.
+
+"I am sure," he said, "that the empress told you that I was kind to
+her?"
+
+Metternich bowed and made no answer.
+
+"Well," said Napoleon, somewhat impatiently, "at least I am sure that
+she is happy. Tell me, did she not say so?"
+
+The Austrian diplomat remained unsmiling.
+
+"Your majesty himself has forbidden me to answer," he returned with
+another bow.
+
+We may fairly draw the inference that Marie Louise, though she adapted
+herself to her surroundings, was never really happy. Napoleon became
+infatuated with her. He surrounded her with every possible mark of
+honor. He abandoned public business to walk or drive with her. But the
+memory of his own brutality must have vaguely haunted him throughout it
+all. He was jealous of her as he had never been jealous of the fickle
+Josephine. Constant has recorded that the greatest precautions were
+taken to prevent any person whatsoever, and especially any man, from
+approaching the empress save in the presence of witnesses.
+
+Napoleon himself underwent a complete change of habits and demeanor.
+Where he had been rough and coarse he became attentive and refined. His
+shabby uniforms were all discarded, and he spent hours in trying on new
+costumes. He even attempted to learn to waltz, but this he gave up in
+despair. Whereas before he ate hastily and at irregular intervals,
+he now sat at dinner with unusual patience, and the court took on a
+character which it had never had. Never before had he sacrificed either
+his public duty or his private pleasure for any woman. Even in the first
+ardor of his marriage with Josephine, when he used to pour out his heart
+to her in letters from Italian battle-fields, he did so only after he
+had made the disposition of his troops and had planned his movements
+for the following day. Now, however, he was not merely devoted, but
+uxorious; and in 1811, after the birth of the little King of Rome, he
+ceased to be the earlier Napoleon altogether. He had founded a dynasty.
+He was the head of a reigning house. He forgot the principles of the
+Revolution, and he ruled, as he thought, like other monarchs, by the
+grace of God.
+
+As for Marie Louise, she played her part extremely well. Somewhat
+haughty and unapproachable to others, she nevertheless studied
+Napoleon's every wish. She seemed even to be loving; but one can
+scarcely doubt that her obedience sprang ultimately from fear and
+that her devotion was the devotion of a dog which has been beaten into
+subjection.
+
+Her vanity was flattered in many ways, and most of all by her
+appointment as regent of the empire during Napoleon's absence in the
+disastrous Russian campaign which began in 1812. It was in June of that
+year that the French emperor held court at Dresden, where he played,
+as was said, to "a parterre of kings." This was the climax of his
+magnificence, for there were gathered all the sovereigns and princes who
+were his allies and who furnished the levies that swelled his Grand Army
+to six hundred thousand men. Here Marie Louise, like her husband, felt
+to the full the intoxication of supreme power. By a sinister coincidence
+it was here that she first met the other man, then unnoticed and little
+heeded, who was to cast upon her a fascination which in the end proved
+irresistible.
+
+This man was Adam Albrecht, Count von Neipperg. There is something
+mysterious about his early years, and something baleful about his silent
+warfare with Napoleon. As a very young soldier he had been an Austrian
+officer in 1793. His command served in Belgium; and there, in a
+skirmish, he was overpowered by the French in superior numbers, but
+resisted desperately. In the melee a saber slashed him across the right
+side of his face, and he was made prisoner. The wound deprived him of
+his right eye, so that for the rest of his life he was compelled to wear
+a black bandage to conceal the mutilation.
+
+From that moment he conceived an undying hatred of the French, serving
+against them in the Tyrol and in Italy. He always claimed that had the
+Archduke Charles followed his advice, the Austrians would have forced
+Napoleon's army to capitulate at Marengo, thus bringing early eclipse
+to the rising star of Bonaparte. However this may be, Napoleon's success
+enraged Neipperg and made his hatred almost the hatred of a fiend.
+
+Hitherto he had detested the French as a nation. Afterward he
+concentrated his malignity upon the person of Napoleon. In every way he
+tried to cross the path of that great soldier, and, though Neipperg was
+comparatively an unknown man, his indomitable purpose and his continued
+intrigues at last attracted the notice of the emperor; for in 1808
+Napoleon wrote this significant sentence:
+
+The Count von Neipperg is openly known to have been the enemy of the
+French.
+
+Little did the great conqueror dream how deadly was the blow which this
+Austrian count was destined finally to deal him!
+
+Neipperg, though his title was not a high one, belonged to the old
+nobility of Austria. He had proved his bravery in war and as a duelist,
+and he was a diplomat as well as a soldier. Despite his mutilation, he
+was a handsome and accomplished courtier, a man of wide experience, and
+one who bore himself in a manner which suggested the spirit of romance.
+According to Masson, he was an Austrian Don Juan, and had won the hearts
+of many women. At thirty he had formed a connection with an Italian
+woman named Teresa Pola, whom he had carried away from her husband. She
+had borne him five children; and in 1813 he had married her in order
+that these children might be made legitimate.
+
+In his own sphere the activity of Neipperg was almost as remarkable as
+Napoleon's in a greater one. Apart from his exploits on the field of
+battle he had been attached to the Austrian embassy in Paris, and,
+strangely enough, had been decorated by Napoleon himself with, the
+golden eagle of the Legion of Honor. Four months later we find him
+minister of Austria at the court of Sweden, where he helped to lay the
+train of intrigue which was to detach Bernadotte from Napoleon's cause.
+In 1812, as has just been said, he was with Marie Louise for a short
+time at Dresden, hovering about her, already forming schemes. Two years
+after this he overthrew Murat at Naples; and then hurried on post-haste
+to urge Prince Eugene to abandon Bonaparte.
+
+When the great struggle of 1814 neared its close, and Napoleon, fighting
+with his back to the wall, was about to succumb to the united armies of
+Europe, it was evident that the Austrian emperor would soon be able to
+separate his daughter from her husband. In fact, when Napoleon was sent
+to Elba, Marie Louise returned to Vienna. The cynical Austrian diplomats
+resolved that she should never again meet her imperial husband. She was
+made Duchess of Parma in Italy, and set out for her new possessions; and
+the man with the black band across his sightless eye was chosen to be
+her escort and companion.
+
+When Neipperg received this commission he was with Teresa Pola at Milan.
+A strange smile flitted across his face; and presently he remarked, with
+cynical frankness:
+
+"Before six months I shall be her lover, and, later on, her husband."
+
+He took up his post as chief escort of Marie Louise, and they journeyed
+slowly to Munich and Baden and Geneva, loitering on the way. Amid the
+great events which were shaking Europe this couple attracted slight
+attention. Napoleon, in Elba, longed for his wife and for his little
+son, the King of Rome. He sent countless messages and many couriers; but
+every message was intercepted, and no courier reached his destination.
+Meanwhile Marie Louise was lingering agreeably in Switzerland. She was
+happy to have escaped from the whirlpool of politics and war. Amid the
+romantic scenery through which she passed Neipperg was always by her
+side, attentive, devoted, trying in everything to please her. With him
+she passed delightful evenings. He sang to her in his rich barytone
+songs of love. He seemed romantic with a touch of mystery, a gallant
+soldier whose soul was also touched by sentiment.
+
+One would have said that Marie Louise, the daughter of an imperial
+line, would have been proof against the fascinations of a person so far
+inferior to herself in rank, and who, beside the great emperor, was less
+than nothing. Even granting that she had never really loved Napoleon,
+she might still have preferred to maintain her dignity, to share his
+fate, and to go down in history as the empress of the greatest man whom
+modern times have known.
+
+But Marie Louise was, after all, a woman, and she followed the guidance
+of her heart. To her Napoleon was still the man who had met her amid the
+rain-storm at Courcelles, and had from the first moment when he touched
+her violated all the instincts of a virgin. Later he had in his way
+tried to make amends; but the horror of that first night had never
+wholly left her memory. Napoleon had unrolled before her the drama of
+sensuality, but her heart had not been given to him. She had been his
+empress. In a sense it might be more true to say that she had been
+his mistress. But she had never been duly wooed and won and made his
+wife--an experience which is the right of every woman. And so this
+Neipperg, with his deferential manners, his soothing voice, his magnetic
+touch, his ardor, and his devotion, appeased that craving which the
+master of a hundred legions could not satisfy.
+
+In less than the six months of which Neipperg had spoken the
+psychological moment had arrived. In the dim twilight she listened to
+his words of love; and then, drawn by that irresistible power which
+masters pride and woman's will, she sank into her lover's arms, yielding
+to his caresses, and knowing that she would be parted from him no more
+except by death.
+
+From that moment he was bound to her by the closest ties and lived with
+her at the petty court of Parma. His prediction came true to the very
+letter. Teresa Pola died, and then Napoleon died, and after this Marie
+Louise and Neipperg were united in a morganatic marriage. Three children
+were born to them before his death in 1829.
+
+It is interesting to note how much of an impression was made upon her by
+the final exile of her imperial husband to St. Helena. When the news was
+brought her she observed, casually:
+
+"Thanks. By the way, I should like to ride this morning to Markenstein.
+Do you think the weather is good enough to risk it?"
+
+Napoleon, on his side, passed through agonies of doubt and longing when
+no letters came to him from Marie Louise. She was constantly in his
+thoughts during his exile at St. Helena. "When his faithful friend and
+constant companion at St. Helena, the Count Las Casas, was ordered by
+Sir Hudson Lowe to depart from St. Helena, Napoleon wrote to him:
+
+"Should you see, some day, my wife and son, embrace them. For two years
+I have, neither directly nor indirectly, heard from them. There has been
+on this island for six months a German botanist, who has seen them
+in the garden of Schoenbrunn a few months before his departure.
+The barbarians (meaning the English authorities at St. Helena) have
+carefully prevented him from coming to give me any news respecting
+them."
+
+At last the truth was told him, and he received it with that high
+magnanimity, or it may be fatalism, which at times he was capable of
+showing. Never in all his days of exile did he say one word against her.
+Possibly in searching his own soul he found excuses such as we may find.
+In his will he spoke of her with great affection, and shortly before his
+death he said to his physician, Antommarchi:
+
+"After my death, I desire that you will take my heart, put it in the
+spirits of wine, and that you carry it to Parma to my dear Marie Louise.
+You will please tell her that I tenderly loved her--that I never ceased
+to love her. You will relate to her all that you have seen, and every
+particular respecting my situation and death."
+
+The story of Marie Louise is pathetic, almost tragic. There is the taint
+of grossness about it; and yet, after all, there is a lesson in it--the
+lesson that true love cannot be forced or summoned at command, that it
+is destroyed before its birth by outrage, and that it goes out only when
+evoked by sympathy, by tenderness, and by devotion.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME TWO
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME THREE
+
+
+
+
+
+DEAN SWIFT AND THE TWO ESTHERS
+
+
+The story of Jonathan Swift and of the two women who gave their lives
+for love of him is familiar to every student of English literature.
+Swift himself, both in letters and in politics, stands out a conspicuous
+figure in the reigns of King William III and Queen Anne. By writing
+Gulliver's Travels he made himself immortal. The external facts of his
+singular relations with two charming women are sufficiently well known;
+but a definite explanation of these facts has never yet been given.
+Swift held his tongue with a repellent taciturnity. No one ever dared
+to question him. Whether the true solution belongs to the sphere of
+psychology or of physiology is a question that remains unanswered.
+
+But, as the case is one of the most puzzling in the annals of love, it
+may be well to set forth the circumstances very briefly, to weigh the
+theories that have already been advanced, and to suggest another.
+
+Jonathan Swift was of Yorkshire stock, though he happened to be born in
+Dublin, and thus is often spoken of as "the great Irish satirist," or
+"the Irish dean." It was, in truth, his fate to spend much of his life
+in Ireland, and to die there, near the cathedral where his remains now
+rest; but in truth he hated Ireland and everything connected with it,
+just as he hated Scotland and everything that was Scottish. He was an
+Englishman to the core.
+
+High-stomached, proud, obstinate, and over-mastering, independence was
+the dream of his life. He would accept no favors, lest he should put
+himself under obligation; and although he could give generously, and
+even lavishly, he lived for the most part a miser's life, hoarding every
+penny and halfpenny that he could. Whatever one may think of him, there
+is no doubt that he was a very manly man. Too many of his portraits give
+the impression of a sour, supercilious pedant; but the finest of them
+all--that by Jervas--shows him as he must have been at his very prime,
+with a face that was almost handsome, and a look of attractive humor
+which strengthens rather than lessens the power of his brows and of the
+large, lambent eyes beneath them.
+
+At fifteen he entered Trinity College, in Dublin, where he read widely
+but studied little, so that his degree was finally granted him only as
+a special favor. At twenty-one he first visited England, and became
+secretary to Sir William Temple, at Moor Park. Temple, after a
+distinguished career in diplomacy, had retired to his fine country
+estate in Surrey. He is remembered now for several things--for having
+entertained Peter the Great of Russia; for having, while young, won
+the affections of Dorothy Osborne, whose letters to him are charming in
+their grace and archness; for having been the patron of Jonathan Swift;
+and for fathering the young girl named Esther Johnson, a waif, born out
+of wedlock, to whom Temple gave a place in his household.
+
+When Swift first met her, Esther Johnson was only eight years old; and
+part of his duties at Moor Park consisted in giving her what was then
+an unusual education for a girl. She was, however, still a child, and
+nothing serious could have passed between the raw youth and this little
+girl who learned the lessons that he imposed upon her.
+
+Such acquaintance as they had was rudely broken off. Temple, a man of
+high position, treated Swift with an urbane condescension which drove
+the young man's independent soul into a frenzy. He returned to Ireland,
+where he was ordained a clergyman, and received a small parish at
+Kilroot, near Belfast.
+
+It was here that the love-note was first seriously heard in the
+discordant music of Swift's career. A college friend of his named Waring
+had a sister who was about the age of Swift, and whom he met quite
+frequently at Kilroot. Not very much is known of this episode, but
+there is evidence that Swift fell in love with the girl, whom he rather
+romantically called "Varina."
+
+This cannot be called a serious love-affair. Swift was lonely, and Jane
+Waring was probably the only girl of refinement who lived near Kilroot.
+Furthermore, she had inherited a small fortune, while Swift was
+miserably poor, and had nothing to offer except the shadowy prospect of
+future advancement in England. He was definitely refused by her; and it
+was this, perhaps, that led him to resolve on going back to England and
+making his peace with Sir William Temple.
+
+On leaving, Swift wrote a passionate letter to Miss Waring--the only
+true love-letter that remains to us of their correspondence. He protests
+that he does not want Varina's fortune, and that he will wait until
+he is in a position to marry her on equal terms. There is a smoldering
+flame of jealousy running through the letter. Swift charges her with
+being cold, affected, and willing to flirt with persons who are quite
+beneath her.
+
+Varina played no important part in Swift's larger life thereafter; but
+something must be said of this affair in order to show, first of all,
+that Swift's love for her was due only to proximity, and that when he
+ceased to feel it he could be not only hard, but harsh. His fiery spirit
+must have made a deep impression on Miss Waring; for though she at the
+time refused him, she afterward remembered him, and tried to renew their
+old relations. Indeed, no sooner had Swift been made rector of a larger
+parish, than Varina let him know that she had changed her mind, and was
+ready to marry him; but by this time Swift had lost all interest in her.
+He wrote an answer which even his truest admirers have called brutal.
+
+"Yes," he said in substance, "I will marry you, though you have treated
+me vilely, and though you are living in a sort of social sink. I am
+still poor, though you probably think otherwise. However, I will marry
+you on certain conditions. First, you must be educated, so that you
+can entertain me. Next, you must put up with all my whims and likes and
+dislikes. Then you must live wherever I please. On these terms I will
+take you, without reference to your looks or to your income. As to the
+first, cleanliness is all that I require; as to the second, I only ask
+that it be enough."
+
+Such a letter as this was like a blow from a bludgeon. The insolence,
+the contempt, and the hardness of it were such as no self-respecting
+woman could endure. It put an end to their acquaintance, as Swift
+undoubtedly intended it should do. He would have been less censurable
+had he struck Varina with his fist or kicked her.
+
+The true reason for Swift's utter change of heart is found, no doubt, in
+the beginning of what was destined to be his long intimacy with Esther
+Johnson. When Swift left Sir William Temple's in a huff, Esther had been
+a mere schoolgirl. Now, on his return, she was fifteen years of age, and
+seemed older. She had blossomed out into a very comely girl, vivacious,
+clever, and physically well developed, with dark hair, sparkling eyes,
+and features that were unusually regular and lovely.
+
+For three years the two were close friends and intimate associates,
+though it cannot be said that Swift ever made open love to her. To the
+outward eye they were no more than fellow workers. Yet love does not
+need the spoken word and the formal declaration to give it life and make
+it deep and strong. Esther Johnson, to whom Swift gave the pet name of
+"Stella," grew into the existence of this fiery, hold, and independent
+genius. All that he did she knew. She was his confidante. As to his
+writings, his hopes, and his enmities, she was the mistress of all his
+secrets. For her, at last, no other man existed.
+
+On Sir William Temple's death, Esther John son came into a small
+fortune, though she now lost her home at Moor Park. Swift returned to
+Ireland, and soon afterward he invited Stella to join him there.
+
+Swift was now thirty-four years of age, and Stella a very attractive
+girl of twenty. One might have expected that the two would marry, and
+yet they did not do so. Every precaution was taken to avoid anything
+like scandal. Stella was accompanied by a friend--a widow named Mrs.
+Dingley--without whose presence, or that of some third person, Swift
+never saw Esther Johnson. When Swift was absent, how ever, the two
+ladies occupied his apartments; and Stella became more than ever
+essential to his happiness.
+
+When they were separated for any length of time Swift wrote to Stella
+in a sort of baby-talk, which they called "the little language." It was
+made up of curious abbreviations and childish words, growing more and
+more complicated as the years went on. It is interesting to think of
+this stern and often savage genius, who loved to hate, and whose hate
+was almost less terrible than his love, babbling and prattling in little
+half caressing sentences, as a mother might babble over her first child.
+Pedantic writers have professed to find in Swift's use of this "little
+language" the coming shadow of that insanity which struck him down in
+his old age.
+
+As it is, these letters are among the curiosities of amatory
+correspondence. When Swift writes "oo" for "you," and "deelest" for
+"dearest," and "vely" for "very," there is no need of an interpreter;
+but "rettle" for "let ter," "dallars" for "girls," and "givar" for
+"devil," are at first rather difficult to guess. Then there is a system
+of abbreviating. "Md" means "my dear," "Ppt" means "poppet," and "Pdfr,"
+with which Swift sometimes signed his epistles, "poor, dear, foolish
+rogue."
+
+The letters reveal how very closely the two were bound together, yet
+still there was no talk of marriage. On one occasion, after they had
+been together for three years in Ireland, Stella might have married
+another man. This was a friend of Swift's, one Dr. Tisdall, who made
+energetic love to the sweet-faced English girl. Tisdall accused Swift of
+poisoning Stella's mind against him. Swift replied that such was not
+the case. He said that no feelings of his own would ever lead him to
+influence the girl if she preferred another.
+
+It is quite sure, then, that Stella clung wholly to Swift, and cared
+nothing for the proffered love of any other man. Thus through the years
+the relations of the two remained unchanged, until in 1710 Swift
+left Ireland and appeared as a very brilliant figure in the London
+drawing-rooms of the great Tory leaders of the day.
+
+He was now a man of mark, because of his ability as a controversialist.
+He had learned the manners of the world, and he carried him self with an
+air of power which impressed all those who met him. Among these persons
+was a Miss Hester--or Esther--Vanhomrigh, the daughter of a rather
+wealthy widow who was living in London at that time. Miss Vanhomrigh--a
+name which she and her mother pronounced "Vanmeury"--was then seventeen
+years of age, or twelve years younger than the patient Stella.
+
+Esther Johnson, through her long acquaintance with Swift, and from
+his confidence in her, had come to treat him almost as an intellectual
+equal. She knew all his moods, some of which were very difficult, and
+she bore them all; though when he was most tyrannous she became only
+passive, waiting, with a woman's wisdom, for the tempest to blow over.
+
+Miss Vanhomrigh, on the other hand, was one of those girls who, though
+they have high spirit, take an almost voluptuous delight in yielding to
+a spirit that is stronger still. This beautiful creature felt a positive
+fascination in Swift's presence and his imperious manner. When his eyes
+flashed, and his voice thundered out words of anger, she looked at him
+with adoration, and bowed in a sort of ecstasy before him. If he chose
+to accost a great lady with "Well, madam, are you as ill-natured and
+disagreeable as when I met you last?" Esther Vanhomrigh thrilled at the
+insolent audacity of the man. Her evident fondness for him exercised a
+seductive influence over Swift.
+
+As the two were thrown more and more together, the girl lost all her
+self-control. Swift did not in any sense make love to her, though he
+gave her the somewhat fanciful name of "Vanessa"; but she, driven on by
+a high-strung, unbridled temperament, made open love to him. When he was
+about to return to Ireland, there came one startling moment when Vanessa
+flung herself into the arms of Swift, and amazed him by pouring out a
+torrent of passionate endearments.
+
+Swift seems to have been surprised. He did what he could to quiet her.
+He told her that they were too unequal in years and fortune for anything
+but friendship, and he offered to give her as much friendship as she
+desired.
+
+Doubtless he thought that, after returning to Ireland, he would not see
+Vanessa any more. In this, however, he was mistaken. An ardent girl,
+with a fortune of her own, was not to be kept from the man whom
+absence only made her love the more. In addition, Swift carried on his
+correspondence with her, which served to fan the flame and to increase
+the sway that Swift had already acquired.
+
+Vanessa wrote, and with every letter she burned and pined. Swift
+replied, and each reply enhanced her yearning for him. Ere long,
+Vanessa's mother died, and Vanessa herself hastened to Ireland and took
+up her residence near Dublin. There, for years, was enacted this tragic
+comedy--Esther Johnson was near Swift, and had all his confidence;
+Esther Vanhomrigh was kept apart from him, while still receiving
+missives from him, and, later, even visits.
+
+It was at this time, after he had become dean of St. Patrick's
+Cathedral, in Dublin, that Swift was married to Esther Johnson--for it
+seems probable that the ceremony took place, though it was nothing more
+than a form. They still saw each other only in the presence of a third
+person. Nevertheless, some knowledge of their close relationship leaked
+out. Stella had been jealous of her rival during the years that Swift
+spent in London. Vanessa was now told that Swift was married to the
+other woman, or that she was his mistress. Writhing with jealousy, she
+wrote directly to Stella, and asked whether she was Dean Swift's wife.
+In answer Stella replied that she was, and then she sent Vanessa's
+letter to Swift himself.
+
+All the fury of his nature was roused in him; and he was a man who could
+be very terrible when angry. He might have remembered the intense love
+which Vanessa bore for him, the humility with which she had accepted his
+conditions, and, finally, the loneliness of this girl.
+
+But Swift was utterly unsparing. No gleam of pity entered his heart as
+he leaped upon a horse and galloped out to Marley Abbey, where she was
+living--"his prominent eyes arched by jet-black brows and glaring with
+the green fury of a cat's." Reaching the house, he dashed into it, with
+something awful in his looks, made his way to Vanessa, threw her letter
+down upon the table and, after giving her one frightful glare, turned on
+his heel, and in a moment more was galloping back to Dublin.
+
+The girl fell to the floor in an agony of terror and remorse. She was
+taken to her room, and only three weeks afterward was carried forth,
+having died literally of a broken heart.
+
+Five years later, Stella also died, withering away a sacrifice to
+what the world has called Swift's cruel heartlessness and egotism. His
+greatest public triumphs came to him in his final years of melancholy
+isolation; but in spite of the applause that greeted The Drapier Letters
+and Gulliver's Travels, he brooded morbidly over his past life. At last
+his powerful mind gave way, so that he died a victim to senile dementia.
+By his directions his body was interred in the same coffin with
+Stella's, in the cathedral of which he had been dean.
+
+Such is the story of Dean Swift, and it has always suggested several
+curious questions. Why, if he loved Stella, did he not marry her long
+before? Why, when he married her, did he treat her still as if she were
+not his wife? Why did he allow Vanessa's love to run like a scarlet
+thread across the fabric of the other affection, which must have been so
+strong?
+
+Many answers have been given to these questions. That which was
+formulated by Sir Walter Scott is a simple one, and has been generally
+accepted. Scott believed that Swift was physically incapacitated for
+marriage, and that he needed feminine sympathy, which he took where he
+could get it, without feeling bound to give anything in return.
+
+If Scott's explanation be the true one, it still leaves Swift exposed to
+ignominy as a monster of ingratitude. Therefore, many of his biographers
+have sought other explanations. No one can palliate his conduct toward
+Vanessa; but Sir Leslie Stephen makes a plea for him with reference
+to Stella. Sir Leslie points out that until Swift became dean of St.
+Patrick's his income was far too small to marry on, and that after his
+brilliant but disappointing three years in London, when his prospects of
+advancement were ruined, he felt himself a broken man.
+
+Furthermore, his health was always precarious, since he suffered from a
+distressing illness which attacked him at intervals, rendering him both
+deaf and giddy. The disease is now known as Meniere's disease, from its
+classification by the French physician, Meniere, in 1861. Swift felt
+that he lived in constant danger of some sudden stroke that would
+deprive him either of life or reason; and his ultimate insanity makes it
+appear that his forebodings were not wholly futile. Therefore, though he
+married Stella, he kept the marriage secret, thus leaving her free, in
+case of his demise, to marry as a maiden, and not to be regarded as a
+widow.
+
+Sir Leslie offers the further plea that, after all, Stella's life was
+what she chose to make it. She enjoyed Swift's friendship, which she
+preferred to the love of any other man.
+
+Another view is that of Dr. Richard Garnett, who has discussed the
+question with some subtlety. "Swift," says Dr. Garnett, "was by nature
+devoid of passion. He was fully capable of friendship, but not of love.
+The spiritual realm, whether of divine or earthly things, was a region
+closed to him, where he never set foot." On the side of friendship
+he must greatly have preferred Stella to Vanessa, and yet the latter
+assailed him on his weakest side--on the side of his love of imperious
+domination.
+
+Vanessa hugged the fetters to which Stella merely submitted. Flattered
+to excess by her surrender, yet conscious of his obligations and his
+real preference, he could neither discard the one beauty nor desert the
+other.
+
+Therefore, he temporized with both of them, and when the choice was
+forced upon him he madly struck down the woman for whom he cared the
+less.
+
+One may accept Dr. Garnett's theory with a somewhat altered conclusion.
+It is not true, as a matter of recorded fact, that Swift was incapable
+of passion, for when a boy at college he was sought out by various young
+women, and he sought them out in turn. His fiery letter to Miss Waring
+points to the same conclusion. When Esther Johnson began to love him he
+was heart-free, yet unable, because of his straitened means, to marry.
+But Esther Johnson always appealed more to his reason, his friendship,
+and his comfort, than to his love, using the word in its material,
+physical sense. This love was stirred in him by Vanessa. Yet when he
+met Vanessa he had already gone too far with Esther Johnson to break the
+bond which had so long united them, nor could he think of a life without
+her, for she was to him his other self.
+
+At the same time, his more romantic association with Vanessa roused
+those instincts which he had scarcely known himself to be possessed of.
+His position was, therefore, most embarrassing. He hoped to end it when
+he left London and returned to Ireland; but fate was unkind to him in
+this, because Vanessa followed him. He lacked the will to be frank
+with her, and thus he stood a wretched, halting victim of his own dual
+nature.
+
+He was a clergyman, and at heart religious. He had also a sense of
+honor, and both of these traits compelled him to remain true to Esther
+Johnson. The terrible outbreak which brought about Vanessa's death was
+probably the wild frenzy of a tortured soul. It recalls the picture of
+some fierce animal brought at last to bay, and venting its own anguish
+upon any object that is within reach of its fangs and claws.
+
+No matter how the story may be told, it makes one shiver, for it is a
+tragedy in which the three participants all meet their doom--one crushed
+by a lightning-bolt of unreasoning anger, the other wasting away through
+hope deferred; while the man whom the world will always hold responsible
+was himself destined to end his years blind and sleepless, bequeathing
+his fortune to a madhouse, and saying, with his last muttered breath:
+
+"I am a fool!"
+
+
+
+
+
+PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY AND MARY GODWIN
+
+
+A great deal has been said and written in favor of early marriage; and,
+in a general way, early marriage may be an admirable thing. Young men
+and young women who have no special gift of imagination, and who have
+practically reached their full mental development at twenty-one or
+twenty-two--or earlier, even in their teens--may marry safely; because
+they are already what they will be. They are not going to experience any
+growth upward and outward. Passing years simply bring them more closely
+together, until they have settled down into a sort of domestic unity,
+by which they think alike, act alike, and even gradually come to look
+alike.
+
+But early wedlock spells tragedy to the man or the woman of genius. In
+their teens they have only begun to grow. What they will be ten years
+hence, no one can prophesy. Therefore, to mate so early in life is
+to insure almost certain storm and stress, and, in the end, domestic
+wreckage.
+
+As a rule, it is the man, and not the woman, who makes the false step;
+because it is the man who elects to marry when he is still very young.
+If he choose some ill-fitting, commonplace, and unresponsive nature to
+match his own, it is he who is bound in the course of time to learn his
+great mistake. When the splendid eagle shall have got his growth,
+and shall begin to soar up into the vault of heaven, the poor little
+barn-yard fowl that he once believed to be his equal seems very far away
+in everything. He discovers that she is quite unable to follow him in
+his towering flights.
+
+The story of Percy Bysshe Shelley is a singular one. The circumstances
+of his early marriage were strange. The breaking of his marriage-bond
+was also strange. Shelley himself was an extraordinary creature. He was
+blamed a great deal in his lifetime for what he did, and since then some
+have echoed the reproach. Yet it would seem as if, at the very beginning
+of his life, he was put into a false position against his will. Because
+of this he was misunderstood until the end of his brief and brilliant
+and erratic career.
+
+SHELLEY AND MARY GODWIN
+
+In 1792 the French Revolution burst into flame, the mob of Paris stormed
+the Tuileries, the King of France was cast into a dungeon to await his
+execution, and the wild sons of anarchy flung their gauntlet of defiance
+into the face of Europe. In this tremendous year was born young Shelley;
+and perhaps his nature represented the spirit of the time.
+
+Certainly, neither from his father nor from his mother did he derive
+that perpetual unrest and that frantic fondness for revolt which
+blazed out in the poet when he was still a boy. His father, Mr. Timothy
+Shelley, was a very usual, thick-headed, unromantic English squire. His
+mother--a woman of much beauty, but of no exceptional traits--was the
+daughter of another squire, and at the time of her marriage was simply
+one of ten thousand fresh-faced, pleasant-spoken English country girls.
+If we look for a strain of the romantic in Shelley's ancestry, we
+shall have to find it in the person of his grandfather, who was a very
+remarkable and powerful character.
+
+This person, Bysshe Shelley by name, had in his youth been associated
+with some mystery. He was not born in England, but in America--and
+in those days the name "America" meant almost anything indefinite and
+peculiar. However this might be, Bysshe Shelley, though a scion of
+a good old English family, had wandered in strange lands, and it was
+whispered that he had seen strange sights and done strange things.
+According to one legend, he had been married in America, though no one
+knew whether his wife was white or black, or how he had got rid of her.
+
+He might have remained in America all his life, had not a small
+inheritance fallen to his share. This brought him back to England, and
+he soon found that England was in reality the place to make his fortune.
+He was a man of magnificent physique. His rovings had given him ease
+and grace, and the power which comes from a wide experience of life. He
+could be extremely pleasing when he chose; and he soon won his way into
+the good graces of a rich heiress, whom he married.
+
+With her wealth he became an important personage, and consorted with
+gentlemen and statesmen of influence, attaching himself particularly to
+the Duke of Northumberland, by whose influence he was made a baronet.
+When his rich wife died, Shelley married a still richer bride; and so
+this man, who started out as a mere adventurer without a shilling to his
+name, died in 1813, leaving more than a million dollars in cash, with
+lands whose rent-roll yielded a hundred thousand dollars every year.
+
+If any touch of the romantic which we find in Shelley is a matter
+of heredity, we must trace it to this able, daring, restless, and
+magnificent old grandfather, who was the beau ideal of an English
+squire--the sort of squire who had added foreign graces to native
+sturdiness. But young Shelley, the future poet, seemed scarcely to be
+English at all. As a young boy he cared nothing for athletic sports.
+He was given to much reading. He thought a good deal about abstractions
+with which most schoolboys never concern themselves at all.
+
+Consequently, both in private schools and afterward at Eton, he became
+a sort of rebel against authority. He resisted the fagging-system. He
+spoke contemptuously of physical prowess. He disliked anything that he
+was obliged to do, and he rushed eagerly into whatever was forbidden.
+
+Finally, when he was sent to University College, Oxford, he broke
+all bounds. At a time when Tory England was aghast over the French
+Revolution and its results, Shelley talked of liberty and equality on
+all occasions. He made friends with an uncouth but able fellow student,
+who bore the remarkable name of Thomas Jefferson Hogg--a name that seems
+rampant with republicanism--and very soon he got himself expelled from
+the university for publishing a little tract of an infidel character
+called "A Defense of Atheism."
+
+His expulsion for such a cause naturally shocked his father. It probably
+disturbed Shelley himself; but, after all, it gave him some satisfaction
+to be a martyr for the cause of free speech. He went to London with his
+friend Hogg, and took lodgings there. He read omnivorously--Hogg says
+as much as sixteen hours a day. He would walk through the most crowded
+streets poring over a volume, while holding another under one arm.
+
+His mind was full of fancies. He had begun what was afterward called
+"his passion for reforming everything." He despised most of the laws of
+England. He thought its Parliament ridiculous. He hated its religion. He
+was particularly opposed to marriage. This last fact gives some point to
+the circumstances which almost immediately confronted him.
+
+Shelley was now about nineteen years old--an age at which most English
+boys are emerging from the public schools, and are still in the
+hobbledehoy stage of their formation. In a way, he was quite far from
+boyish; yet in his knowledge of life he was little more than a mere
+child. He knew nothing thoroughly--much less the ways of men and women.
+He had no visible means of existence except a small allowance from
+his father. His four sisters, who were at a boarding-school on Clapham
+Common, used to save their pin-money and send it to their gifted brother
+so that he might not actually starve. These sisters he used to call
+upon from time to time, and through them he made the acquaintance of a
+sixteen-year-old girl named Harriet Westbrook.
+
+Harriet Westbrook was the daughter of a black-visaged keeper of a
+coffee-house in Mount Street, called "Jew Westbrook," partly because of
+his complexion, and partly because of his ability to retain what he
+had made. He was, indeed, fairly well off, and had sent his younger
+daughter, Harriet, to the school where Shelley's sisters studied.
+
+Harriet Westbrook seems to have been a most precocious person. Any girl
+of sixteen is, of course, a great deal older and more mature than a
+youth of nineteen. In the present instance Harriet might have been
+Shelley's senior by five years. There is no doubt that she fell in love
+with him; but, having done so, she by no means acted in the shy and
+timid way that would have been most natural to a very young girl in her
+first love-affair. Having decided that she wanted him, she made up her
+mind to get Mm at any cost, and her audacity was equaled only by his
+simplicity. She was rather attractive in appearance, with abundant hair,
+a plump figure, and a pink-and-white complexion. This description makes
+of her a rather doll-like girl; but doll-like girls are just the sort to
+attract an inexperienced young man who has yet to learn that beauty and
+charm are quite distinct from prettiness, and infinitely superior to it.
+
+In addition to her prettiness, Harriet Westbrook had a vivacious manner
+and talked quite pleasingly. She was likewise not a bad listener;
+and she would listen by the hour to Shelley in his rhapsodies about
+chemistry, poetry, the failure of Christianity, the national debt, and
+human liberty, all of which he jumbled up without much knowledge, but in
+a lyric strain of impassioned eagerness which would probably have made
+the multiplication-table thrilling.
+
+For Shelley himself was a creature of extraordinary fascination, both
+then and afterward. There are no likenesses of him that do him justice,
+because they cannot convey that singular appeal which the man himself
+made to almost every one who met him.
+
+The eminent painter, Mulready, once said that Shelley was too beautiful
+for portraiture; and yet the descriptions of him hardly seem to bear
+this out. He was quite tall and slender, but he stooped so much as
+to make him appear undersized. His head was very small-quite
+disproportionately so; but this was counteracted to the eye by his
+long and tumbled hair which, when excited, he would rub and twist in a
+thousand different directions until it was actually bushy. His eyes and
+mouth were his best features. The former were of a deep violet blue, and
+when Shelley felt deeply moved they seemed luminous with a wonderful
+and almost unearthly light. His mouth was finely chiseled, and might be
+regarded as representing perfection.
+
+One great defect he had, and this might well have overbalanced his
+attractive face. The defect in question was his voice. One would have
+expected to hear from him melodious sounds, and vocal tones both rich
+and penetrating; but, as a matter of fact, his voice was shrill at the
+very best, and became actually discordant and peacock-like in moments of
+emotion.
+
+Such, then, was Shelley, star-eyed, with the delicate complexion of a
+girl, wonderfully mobile in his features, yet speaking in a voice high
+pitched and almost raucous. For the rest, he arrayed himself with care
+and in expensive clothing, even though he took no thought of neatness,
+so that his garments were almost always rumpled and wrinkled from his
+frequent writhings on couches and on the floor. Shelley had a strange
+and almost primitive habit of rolling on the earth, and another of
+thrusting his tousled head close up to the hottest fire in the house,
+or of lying in the glaring sun when out of doors. It is related that he
+composed one of his finest poems--"The Cenci"--in Italy, while stretched
+out with face upturned to an almost tropical sun.
+
+But such as he was, and though he was not yet famous, Harriet Westbrook,
+the rosy-faced schoolgirl, fell in love with him, and rather plainly
+let him know that she had done so. There are a thousand ways in which
+a woman can convey this information without doing anything un-maidenly;
+and of all these little arts Miss Westbrook was instinctively a
+mistress.
+
+She played upon Shelley's feelings by telling him that her father was
+cruel to her, and that he contemplated actions still more cruel. There
+is something absurdly comical about the grievance which she brought to
+Shelley; but it is much more comical to note the tremendous seriousness
+with which he took it. He wrote to his friend Hogg:
+
+Her father has persecuted her in a most horrible way, by endeavoring
+to compel her to go to school. She asked my advice; resistance was the
+answer. At the same time I essayed to mollify Mr. Westbrook, in vain! I
+advised her to resist. She wrote to say that resistance was useless, but
+that she would fly with me and throw herself on my protection.
+
+Some letters that have recently come to light show that there was a
+dramatic scene between Harriet Westbrook and Shelley--a scene in the
+course of which she threw her arms about his neck and wept upon his
+shoulder. Here was a curious situation. Shelley was not at all in love
+with her. He had explicitly declared this only a short time before. Yet
+here was a pretty girl about to suffer the "horrible persecution" of
+being sent to school, and finding no alternative save to "throw herself
+on his protection"--in other words, to let him treat her as he would,
+and to become his mistress.
+
+The absurdity of the situation makes one smile. Common sense should have
+led some one to box Harriet's ears and send her off to school without a
+moment's hesitation; while as for Shelley, he should have been told how
+ludicrous was the whole affair. But he was only nineteen, and she was
+only sixteen, and the crisis seemed portentous. Nothing could be more
+flattering to a young man's vanity than to have this girl cast herself
+upon him for protection. It did not really matter that he had not
+loved her hitherto, and that he was already half engaged to another
+Harriet--his cousin, Miss Grove. He could not stop and reason with
+himself. He must like a true knight rescue lovely girlhood from the
+horrors of a school!
+
+It is not unlikely that this whole affair was partly managed or
+manipulated by the girl's father. Jew Westbrook knew that Shelley was
+related to rich and titled people, and that he was certain, if he lived,
+to become Sir Percy, and to be the heir of his grandfather's estates.
+Hence it may be that Harriet's queer conduct was not wholly of her own
+prompting.
+
+In any case, however, it proved to be successful. Shelley's ardent and
+impulsive nature could not bear to see a girl in tears and appealing
+for his help. Hence, though in his heart she was very little to him, his
+romantic nature gave up for her sake the affection that he had felt for
+his cousin, his own disbelief in marriage, and finally the common sense
+which ought to have told him not to marry any one on two hundred pounds
+a year.
+
+So the pair set off for Edinburgh by stagecoach. It was a weary and most
+uncomfortable journey. When they reached the Scottish capital, they
+were married by the Scottish law. Their money was all gone; but their
+landlord, with a jovial sympathy for romance, let them have a room, and
+treated them to a rather promiscuous wedding-banquet, in which every one
+in the house participated.
+
+Such is the story of Shelley's marriage, contracted at nineteen with a
+girl of sixteen who most certainly lured him on against his own better
+judgment and in the absence of any actual love.
+
+The girl whom he had taken to himself was a well-meaning little thing.
+She tried for a time to meet her husband's moods and to be a real
+companion to him. But what could one expect from such a union? Shelley's
+father withdrew the income which he had previously given. Jew Westbrook
+refused to contribute anything, hoping, probably, that this course would
+bring the Shelleys to the rescue. But as it was, the young pair drifted
+about from place to place, getting very precarious supplies, running
+deeper into debt each day, and finding less and less to admire in each
+other.
+
+Shelley took to laudanum. Harriet dropped her abstruse studies, which
+she had taken up to please her husband, but which could only puzzle her
+small brain. She soon developed some of the unpleasant traits of the
+class to which she belonged. In this her sister Eliza--a hard and
+grasping middle-aged woman--had her share. She set Harriet against her
+husband, and made life less endurable for both. She was so much older
+than the pair that she came in and ruled their household like a typical
+stepmother.
+
+A child was born, and Shelley very generously went through a second
+form of marriage, so as to comply with the English law; but by this
+time there was little hope of righting things again. Shelley was much
+offended because Harriet would not nurse the child. He believed her hard
+because she saw without emotion an operation performed upon the infant.
+
+Finally, when Shelley at last came into a considerable sum of money,
+Harriet and Eliza made no pretense of caring for anything except the
+spending of it in "bonnet-shops" and on carriages and display. In
+time--that is to say, in three years after their marriage--Harriet
+left her husband and went to London and to Bath, prompted by her elder
+sister.
+
+This proved to be the end of an unfortunate marriage. Word was brought
+to Shelley that his wife was no longer faithful to him. He, on his
+side, had carried on a semi-sentimental platonic correspondence with a
+schoolmistress, one Miss Hitchener. But until now his life had been
+one great mistake--a life of restlessness, of unsatisfied longing, of a
+desire that had no name. Then came the perhaps inevitable meeting with
+the one whom he should have met before.
+
+Shelley had taken a great interest in William Godwin, the writer and
+radical philosopher. Godwin's household was a strange one. There was
+Fanny Imlay, a child born out of wedlock, the offspring of Gilbert
+Imlay, an American merchant, and of Mary Wollstonecraft, whom Godwin had
+subsequently married. There was also a singularly striking girl who
+then styled herself Mary Jane Clairmont, and who was afterward known
+as Claire Clairmont, she and her brother being the early children of
+Godwin's second wife.
+
+One day in 1814, Shelley called on Godwin, and found there a beautiful
+young girl in her seventeenth year, "with shapely golden head, a
+face very pale and pure, a great forehead, earnest hazel eyes, and an
+expression at once of sensibility and firmness about her delicately
+curved lips." This was Mary Godwin--one who had inherited her mother's
+power of mind and likewise her grace and sweetness.
+
+From the very moment of their meeting Shelley and this girl were fated
+to be joined together, and both of them were well aware of it. Each felt
+the other's presence exert a magnetic thrill. Each listened eagerly
+to what the other said. Each thought of nothing, and each cared for
+nothing, in the other's absence. It was a great compelling elemental
+force which drove the two together and bound them fast. Beside this
+marvelous experience, how pale and pitiful and paltry seemed the
+affectations of Harriet Westbrook!
+
+In little more than a month from the time of their first meeting,
+Shelley and Mary Godwin and Miss Clairmont left Godwin's house at four
+o 'clock in the morning, and hurried across the Channel to Calais. They
+wandered almost like vagabonds across France, eating black bread and
+the coarsest fare, walking on the highways when they could not afford to
+ride, and putting up with every possible inconvenience. Yet it is worth
+noting that neither then nor at any other time did either Shelley or
+Mary regret what they had done. To the very end of the poet's brief
+career they were inseparable.
+
+Later he was able to pension Harriet, who, being of a morbid
+disposition, ended her life by drowning--not, it may be said, because
+of grief for Shelley. It has been told that Fanny Imlay, Mary's sister,
+likewise committed suicide because Shelley did not care for her, but
+this has also been disproved. There was really nothing to mar the inner
+happiness of the poet and the woman who, at the very end, became his
+wife. Living, as they did, in Italy and Switzerland, they saw much of
+their own countrymen, such as Landor and Leigh Hunt and Byron, to whose
+fascinations poor Miss Clairmont yielded, and became the mother of the
+little girl Allegra.
+
+But there could have been no truer union than this of Shelley's with
+the woman whom nature had intended for him. It was in his love-life, far
+more than in his poetry, that he attained completeness. When he died
+by drowning, in 1822, and his body was burned in the presence of Lord
+Byron, he was truly mourned by the one whom he had only lately made his
+wife. As a poet he never reached the same perfection; for his genius was
+fitful and uncertain, rare in its flights, and mingled always with that
+which disappoints.
+
+As the lover and husband of Mary Godwin, there was nothing left to wish.
+In his verse, however, the truest word concerning him will always be
+that exquisite sentence of Matthew Arnold:
+
+"A beautiful and ineffectual angel beating his luminous wings against
+the void in vain."
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE CARLYLES
+
+
+To most persons, Tennyson was a remote and romantic figure. His homes in
+the Isle of Wight and at Aldworth had a dignified seclusion about them
+which was very appropriate to so great a poet, and invested him with a
+certain awe through which the multitude rarely penetrated. As a matter
+of fact, however, he was an excellent companion, a ready talker, and
+gifted with so much wit that it is a pity that more of his sayings have
+not been preserved to us.
+
+One of the best known is that which was drawn from him after he and a
+number of friends had been spending an hour in company with Mr. and Mrs.
+Carlyle. The two Carlyles were unfortunately at their worst, and gave a
+superb specimen of domestic "nagging." Each caught up whatever the other
+said, and either turned it into ridicule, or tried to make the author of
+it an object of contempt.
+
+This was, of course, exceedingly uncomfortable for such strangers as
+were present, and it certainly gave no pleasure to their friends. On
+leaving the house, some one said to Tennyson:
+
+"Isn't it a pity that such a couple ever married?"
+
+"No, no," said Tennyson, with a sort of smile under his rough beard.
+"It's much better that two people should be made unhappy than four."
+
+The world has pretty nearly come around to the verdict of the poet
+laureate. It is not probable that Thomas Carlyle would have made any
+woman happy as his wife, or that Jane Baillie Welsh would have made any
+man happy as her husband.
+
+This sort of speculation would never have occurred had not Mr. Froude,
+in the early eighties, given his story about the Carlyles to the world.
+Carlyle went to his grave, an old man, highly honored, and with no
+trail of gossip behind him. His wife had died some sixteen years before,
+leaving a brilliant memory. The books of Mr. Froude seemed for a moment
+to have desecrated the grave, and to have shed a sudden and sinister
+light upon those who could not make the least defense for themselves.
+
+For a moment, Carlyle seemed to have been a monster of harshness,
+cruelty, and almost brutish feeling. On the other side, his wife took
+on the color of an evil-speaking, evil-thinking shrew, who tormented the
+life of her husband, and allowed herself to be possessed by some demon
+of unrest and discontent, such as few women of her station are ever
+known to suffer from.
+
+Nor was it merely that the two were apparently ill-mated and unhappy
+with each other. There were hints and innuendos which looked toward some
+hidden cause for this unhappiness, and which aroused the curiosity of
+every one. That they might be clearer, Froude afterward wrote a book,
+bringing out more plainly--indeed, too plainly--his explanation of the
+Carlyle family skeleton. A multitude of documents then came from every
+quarter, and from almost every one who had known either of the Carlyles.
+Perhaps the result to-day has been more injurious to Froude than to the
+two Carlyles.
+
+Many persons unjustly speak of Froude as having violated the confidence
+of his friends in publishing the letters of Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle. They
+take no heed of the fact that in doing this he was obeying Carlyle's
+express wishes, left behind in writing, and often urged on Froude while
+Carlyle was still alive. Whether or not Froude ought to have accepted
+such a trust, one may perhaps hesitate to decide. That he did so is
+probably because he felt that if he refused, Carlyle might commit the
+same duty to another, who would discharge it with less delicacy and less
+discretion.
+
+As it is, the blame, if it rests upon any one, should rest upon Carlyle.
+He collected the letters. He wrote the lines which burn and scorch with
+self-reproach. It is he who pressed upon the reluctant Froude the duty
+of printing and publishing a series of documents which, for the most
+part, should never have been published at all, and which have done equal
+harm to Carlyle, to his wife, and to Froude himself.
+
+Now that everything has been written that is likely to be written by
+those claiming to possess personal knowledge of the subject, let us
+take up the volumes, and likewise the scattered fragments, and seek to
+penetrate the mystery of the most ill-assorted couple known to modern
+literature.
+
+It is not necessary to bring to light, and in regular order, the
+external history of Thomas Carlyle, or of Jane Baillie Welsh, who
+married him. There is an extraordinary amount of rather fanciful gossip
+about this marriage, and about the three persons who had to do with it.
+
+Take first the principal figure, Thomas Carlyle. His life until that
+time had been a good deal more than the life of an ordinary country-man.
+Many persons represent him as a peasant; but he was descended from the
+ancient lords of a Scottish manor. There was something in his eye, and
+in the dominance of his nature, that made his lordly nature felt. Mr.
+Froude notes that Carlyle's hand was very small and unusually well
+shaped. Nor had his earliest appearance as a young man been commonplace,
+in spite of the fact that his parents were illiterate, so that his
+mother learned to read only after her sons had gone away to Edinburgh,
+in order that she might be able to enjoy their letters.
+
+At that time in Scotland, as in Puritan New England, in each family the
+son who had the most notable "pairts" was sent to the university that
+he might become a clergyman. If there were a second son, he became an
+advocate or a doctor of medicine, while the sons of less distinction
+seldom went beyond the parish school, but settled down as farmers,
+horse-dealers, or whatever might happen to come their way.
+
+In the case of Thomas Carlyle, nature marked him out for something
+brilliant, whatever that might be. His quick sensibility, the way in
+which he acquired every sort of learning, his command of logic, and,
+withal, his swift, unerring gift of language, made it certain from the
+very first that he must be sent to the university as soon as he had
+finished school, and could afford to go.
+
+At Edinburgh, where he matriculated in his fourteenth year, he
+astonished every one by the enormous extent of his reading, and by
+the firm hold he kept upon it. One hesitates to credit these so-called
+reminiscences which tell how he absorbed mountains of Greek and immense
+quantities of political economy and history and sociology and various
+forms of metaphysics, as every Scotsman is bound to do. That he read all
+night is a common story told of many a Scottish lad at college. We may
+believe, however, that Carlyle studied and read as most of his fellow
+students did, but far beyond them, in extent.
+
+When he had completed about half of his divinity course, he assured
+himself that he was not intended for the life of a clergyman. One who
+reads his mocking sayings, or what seemed to be a clever string of jeers
+directed against religion, might well think that Carlyle was throughout
+his life an atheist, or an agnostic. He confessed to Irving that he did
+not believe in the Christian religion, and it was vain to hope that he
+ever would so believe.
+
+Moreover, Carlyle had done something which was unusual at that time.
+He had taught in several local schools; but presently he came back to
+Edinburgh and openly made literature his profession. It was a daring
+thing to do; but Carlyle had unbounded confidence in himself--the
+confidence of a giant, striding forth into a forest, certain that he can
+make his way by sheer strength through the tangled meshes and the
+knotty branches that he knows will meet him and try to beat him back.
+Furthermore, he knew how to live on very little; he was unmarried; and
+he felt a certain ardor which beseemed his age and gifts.
+
+Through the kindness of friends, he received some commissions to write
+in various books of reference; and in 1824, when he was twenty-nine
+years of age, he published a translation of Legendre's Geometry. In the
+same year he published, in the London Magazine, his Life of Schiller,
+and also his translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. This successful
+attack upon the London periodicals and reviews led to a certain
+complication with the other two characters in this story. It takes us to
+Jane Welsh, and also to Edward Irving.
+
+Irving was three years older than Carlyle. The two men were friends, and
+both of them had been teaching in country schools, where both of them
+had come to know Miss Welsh. Irving's seniority gave him a certain
+prestige with the younger men, and naturally with Miss Welsh. He had
+won honors at the university, and now, as assistant to the famous Dr.
+Chalmers, he carried his silk robes in the jaunty fashion of one who has
+just ceased to be an undergraduate. While studying, he met Miss Welsh at
+Haddington, and there became her private instructor.
+
+This girl was regarded in her native town as something of a personage.
+To read what has been written of her, one might suppose that she was
+almost a miracle of birth and breeding, and of intellect as well. As a
+matter of fact, in the little town of Haddington she was simply prima
+inter pares. Her father was the local doctor, and while she had a
+comfortable home, and doubtless a chaise at her disposal, she was
+very far from the "opulence" which Carlyle, looking up at her from his
+lowlier surroundings, was accustomed to ascribe to her. She was, no
+doubt, a very clever girl; and, judging from the portraits taken of her
+at about this time, she was an exceedingly pretty one, with beautiful
+eyes and an abundance of dark glossy hair.
+
+Even then, however, Miss Welsh had traits which might have made it
+certain that she would be much more agreeable as a friend than as a
+wife. She had become an intellectuelle quite prematurely--at an age, in
+fact, when she might better have been thinking of other things than the
+inwardness of her soul, or the folly of religious belief.
+
+Even as a young girl, she was beset by a desire to criticize and to
+ridicule almost everything and every one that she encountered. It was
+only when she met with something that she could not understand, or
+some one who could do what she could not, that she became comparatively
+humble. Unconsciously, her chief ambition was to be herself
+distinguished, and to marry some one who could be more distinguished
+still.
+
+When she first met Edward Irving, she looked up to him as her superior
+in many ways. He was a striking figure in her small world. He was known
+in Edinburgh as likely to be a man of mark; and, of course, he had had
+a careful training in many subjects of which she, as yet, knew very
+little. Therefore, insensibly, she fell into a sort of admiration
+for Irving--an admiration which might have been transmuted into love.
+Irving, on his side, was taken by the young girl's beauty, her vivacity,
+and the keenness of her intellect. That he did not at once become her
+suitor is probably due to the fact that he had already engaged himself
+to a Miss Martin, of whom not much is known.
+
+It was about this time, however, that Carlyle became acquainted with
+Miss Welsh. His abundant knowledge, his original and striking manner of
+commenting on it, his almost gigantic intellectual power, came to her
+as a revelation. Her studies with Irving were now interwoven with her
+admiration for Carlyle.
+
+Since Irving was a clergyman, and Miss Welsh had not the slightest
+belief in any form of theology, there was comparatively little that
+they had in common. On the other hand, when she saw the profundities of
+Carlyle, she at once half feared, and was half fascinated. Let her speak
+to him on any subject, and he would at once thunder forth some striking
+truth, or it might be some puzzling paradox; but what he said could
+never fail to interest her and to make her think. He had, too, an
+infinite sense of humor, often whimsical and shot through with sarcasm.
+
+It is no wonder that Miss Welsh was more and more infatuated with the
+nature of Carlyle. If it was her conscious wish to marry a man whom she
+could reverence as a master, where should she find him--in Irving or in
+Carlyle?
+
+Irving was a dreamer, a man who, she came to see, was thoroughly
+one-sided, and whose interests lay in a different sphere from hers.
+Carlyle, on the other hand, had already reached out beyond the little
+Scottish capital, and had made his mark in the great world of London,
+where men like De Quincey and Jeffrey thought it worth their while to
+run a tilt with him. Then, too, there was the fascination of his talk,
+in which Jane Welsh found a perpetual source of interest:
+
+The English have never had an artist, except in poetry; no musician; no
+painter. Purcell and Hogarth are not exceptions, or only such as confirm
+the rule.
+
+Is the true Scotchman the peasant and yeoman--chiefly the former?
+
+Every living man is a visible mystery; he walks between two eternities
+and two infinitudes. Were we not blind as molea we should value
+our humanity at infinity, and our rank, influence and so forth--the
+trappings of our humanity--at nothing. Say I am a man, and you say all.
+Whether king or tinker is a mere appendix.
+
+Understanding is to reason as the talent of a beaver--which can build
+houses, and uses its tail for a trowel--to the genius of a prophet and
+poet. Reason is all but extinct in this age; it can never be altogether
+extinguished.
+
+The devil has his elect.
+
+Is anything more wonderful than another, if you consider it maturely?
+I have seen no men rise from the dead; I have seen some thousands rise
+from nothing. I have not force to fly into the sun, but I have force to
+lift my hand, which is equally strange.
+
+Is not every thought properly an inspiration? Or how is one thing more
+inspired than another?
+
+Examine by logic the import of thy life, and of all lives. What is it?
+A making of meal into manure, and of manure into meal. To the cui bono
+there is no answer from logic.
+
+In many ways Jane Welsh found the difference of range between Carlyle
+and Irving. At one time, she asked Irving about some German works, and
+he was obliged to send her to Carlyle to solve her difficulties. Carlyle
+knew German almost as well as if he had been born in Dresden; and
+the full and almost overflowing way in which he answered her gave her
+another impression of his potency. Thus she weighed the two men who
+might become her lovers, and little by little she came to think of
+Irving as partly shallow and partly narrow-minded, while Carlyle loomed
+up more of a giant than before.
+
+It is not probable that she was a woman who could love profoundly.
+She thought too much about herself. She was too critical. She had too
+intense an ambition for "showing off." I can imagine that in the end
+she made her choice quite coolly. She was flattered by Carlyle's strong
+preference for her. She was perhaps repelled by Irving's engagement to
+another woman; yet at the time few persons thought that she had chosen
+well.
+
+Irving had now gone to London, and had become the pastor of the
+Caledonian chapel in Hatton Garden. Within a year, by the extraordinary
+power of his eloquence, which, was in a style peculiar to himself, he
+had transformed an obscure little chapel into one which was crowded
+by the rich and fashionable. His congregation built for him a handsome
+edifice on Regent Square, and he became the leader of a new cult, which
+looked to a second personal advent of Christ. He cared nothing for
+the charges of heresy which were brought against him; and when he was
+deposed his congregation followed him, and developed a new Christian
+order, known as Irvingism.
+
+Jane Welsh, in her musings, might rightfully have compared the two men
+and the future which each could give her. Did she marry Irving, she was
+certain of a life of ease in London, and an association with men and
+women of fashion and celebrity, among whom she could show herself to be
+the gifted woman that she was. Did she marry Carlyle, she must go with
+him to a desolate, wind-beaten cottage, far away from any of the things
+she cared for, working almost as a housemaid, having no company save
+that of her husband, who was already a dyspeptic, and who was wont to
+speak of feeling as if a rat were tearing out his stomach.
+
+Who would have said that in going with Carlyle she had made the better
+choice? Any one would have said it who knew the three--Irving, Carlyle,
+and Jane Welsh.
+
+She had the penetration to be certain that whatever Irving might possess
+at present, it would be nothing in comparison to what Carlyle would have
+in the coming future. She understood the limitations of Irving, but to
+her keen mind the genius of Carlyle was unlimited; and she foresaw that,
+after he had toiled and striven, he would come into his great reward,
+which she would share. Irving might be the leader of a petty sect,
+but Carlyle would be a man whose name must become known throughout the
+world.
+
+And so, in 1826, she had made her choice, and had become the bride of
+the rough-spoken, domineering Scotsman who had to face the world with
+nothing but his creative brain and his stubborn independence. She had
+put aside all immediate thought of London and its lures; she was going
+to cast in her lot with Carlyle's, largely as a matter of calculation,
+and believing that she had made the better choice.
+
+She was twenty-six and Carlyle was thirty-two when, after a brief
+residence in Edinburgh, they went down to Craigenputtock. Froude has
+described this place as the dreariest spot in the British dominions:
+
+The nearest cottage is more than a mile from it; the elevation, seven
+hundred feet above the sea, stunts the trees and limits the garden
+produce; the house is gaunt and hungry-looking. It stands, with the
+scanty fields attached, as an island in a sea of morass. The landscape
+is unredeemed by grace or grandeur--mere undulating hills of grass and
+heather, with peat bogs in the hollows between them.
+
+Froude's grim description has been questioned by some; yet the actual
+pictures that have been drawn of the place in later years make it
+look bare, desolate, and uninviting. Mrs. Carlyle, who owned it as an
+inheritance from her father, saw the place for the first time in March,
+1828. She settled there in May; but May, in the Scottish hills, is
+almost as repellent as winter. She herself shrank from the adventure
+which she had proposed. It was her husband's notion, and her own, that
+they should live there in practical solitude. He was to think and write,
+and make for himself a beginning of real fame; while she was to hover
+over him and watch his minor comforts.
+
+It seemed to many of their friends that the project was quixotic to a
+degree. Mrs. Carlyle delicate health, her weak chest, and the beginning
+of a nervous disorder, made them think that she was unfit to dwell in
+so wild and bleak a solitude. They felt, too, that Carlyle was too
+much absorbed with his own thought to be trusted with the charge of a
+high-spirited woman.
+
+However, the decision had been made, and the newly married couple went
+to Craigenputtock, with wagons that carried their household goods and
+those of Carlyle's brother, Alexander, who lived in a cottage near by.
+These were the two redeeming features of their lonely home--the presence
+of Alexander Carlyle, and the fact that, although they had no servants
+in the ordinary sense, there were several farmhands and a dairy-maid.
+
+Before long there came a period of trouble, which is easily explained
+by what has been already said. Carlyle, thinking and writing some of
+the most beautiful things that he ever thought or wrote, could not make
+allowance for his wife's high spirit and physical weakness. She, on her
+side--nervous, fitful, and hard to please--thought herself a slave,
+the servant of a harsh and brutal master. She screamed at him when her
+nerves were too unstrung; and then, with a natural reaction, she called
+herself "a devil who could never be good enough for him." But most of
+her letters were harsh and filled with bitterness, and, no doubt, his
+conduct to her was at times no better than her own.
+
+But it was at Craigenputtock that he really did lay fast and firm the
+road to fame. His wife's sharp tongue, and the gnawings of his own
+dyspepsia, were lived down with true Scottish grimness. It was here that
+he wrote some of his most penetrating and sympathetic essays, which were
+published by the leading reviews of England and Scotland. Here, too, he
+began to teach his countrymen the value of German literature.
+
+The most remarkable of his productions was that strange work entitled
+Sartor Resartus (1834), an extraordinary mixture of the sublime and the
+grotesque. The book quivers and shakes with tragic pathos, with inward
+agonies, with solemn aspirations, and with riotous humor.
+
+In 1834, after six years at Craigenputtock, the Carlyles moved to
+London, and took up their home in Cheyne Row, Chelsea, a far from
+fashionable retreat, but one in which the comforts of life could be more
+readily secured. It was there that Thomas Carlyle wrote what must
+seem to us the most vivid of all his books, the History of the French
+Revolution. For this he had read and thought for many years; parts of
+it he had written in essays, and parts of it he had jotted down in
+journals. But now it came forth, as some one has said, "a truth clad in
+hell-fire," swirling amid clouds and flames and mist, a most wonderful
+picture of the accumulated social and political falsehoods which
+preceded the revolution, and which were swept away by a nemesis that was
+the righteous judgment of God.
+
+Carlyle never wrote so great a book as this. He had reached his middle
+style, having passed the clarity of his early writings, and not having
+yet reached the thunderous, strange-mouthed German expletives which
+marred his later work. In the French Revolution he bursts forth, here
+and there, into furious Gallic oaths and Gargantuan epithets; yet this
+apocalypse of France seems more true than his hero-worshiping of old
+Frederick of Prussia, or even of English Cromwell.
+
+All these days Thomas Carlyle lived a life which was partly one
+of seclusion and partly one of pleasure. At all times he and his
+dark-haired wife had their own sets, and mingled with their own friends.
+Jane had no means of discovering just whether she would have been
+happier with Irving; for Irving died while she was still digging
+potatoes and complaining of her lot at Craigenputtock.
+
+However this may be, the Carlyles, man and wife, lived an existence that
+was full of unhappiness and rancor. Jane Carlyle became an invalid, and
+sought to allay her nervous sufferings with strong tea and tobacco and
+morphin. When a nervous woman takes to morphin, it almost always means
+that she becomes intensely jealous; and so it was with Jane Carlyle.
+
+A shivering, palpitating, fiercely loyal bit of humanity, she took it
+into her head that her husband was infatuated with Lady Ashburton, or
+that Lady Ashburton was infatuated with him. She took to spying on them,
+and at times, when her nerves were all a jangle, she would lie back
+in her armchair and yell with paroxysms of anger. On the other hand,
+Carlyle, eager to enjoy the world, sought relief from his household
+cares, and sometimes stole away after a fashion that was hardly
+guileless. He would leave false addresses at his house, and would dine
+at other places than he had announced.
+
+In 1866 Jane Carlyle suddenly died; and somehow, then, the conscience
+of Thomas Carlyle became convinced that he had wronged the woman whom he
+had really loved. His last fifteen years were spent in wretchedness and
+despair. He felt that he had committed the unpardonable sin. He recalled
+with anguish every moment of their early life at Craigenputtock--how she
+had toiled for him, and waited upon him, and made herself a slave;
+and how, later, she had given herself up entirely to him, while he had
+thoughtlessly received the sacrifice, and trampled on it as on a bed of
+flowers.
+
+Of course, in all this he was intensely morbid, and the diary which he
+wrote was no more sane and wholesome than the screamings with which his
+wife had horrified her friends. But when he had grown to be a very old
+man, he came to feel that this was all a sort of penance, and that the
+selfishness of his past must be expiated in the future. Therefore, he
+gave his diary to his friend, the historian, Froude, and urged him to
+publish the letters and memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle. Mr. Froude,
+with an eye to the reading world, readily did so, furnishing them with
+abundant footnotes, which made Carlyle appear to the world as more or
+less of a monster.
+
+First, there was set forth the almost continual unhappiness of the pair.
+In the second place, by hint, by innuendo, and sometimes by explicit
+statement, there were given reasons to show why Carlyle made his wife
+unhappy. Of course, his gnawing dyspepsia, which she strove with all her
+might to drive away, was one of the first and greatest causes. But again
+another cause of discontent was stated in the implication that Carlyle,
+in his bursts of temper, actually abused his wife. In one passage there
+is a hint that certain blue marks upon her arm were bruises, the result
+of blows.
+
+Most remarkable of all these accusations is that which has to do with
+the relations of Carlyle and Lady Ashburton. There is no doubt that Jane
+Carlyle disliked this brilliant woman, and came to have dark suspicions
+concerning her. At first, it was only a sort of social jealousy. Lady
+Ashburton was quite as clever a talker as Mrs. Carlyle, and she had a
+prestige which brought her more admiration.
+
+Then, by degrees, as Jane Carlyle's mind began to wane, she transferred
+her jealousy to her husband himself. She hated to be out-shone, and
+now, in some misguided fashion, it came into her head that Carlyle had
+surrendered to Lady Ashburton his own attention to his wife, and had
+fallen in love with her brilliant rival.
+
+On one occasion, she declared that Lady Ashburton had thrown herself at
+Carlyle's feet, but that Carlyle had acted like a man of honor, while
+Lord Ashburton, knowing all the facts, had passed them over, and had
+retained his friendship with Carlyle.
+
+Now, when Froude came to write My Relations with Carlyle, there were
+those who were very eager to furnish him with every sort of gossip.
+The greatest source of scandal upon which he drew was a woman named
+Geraldine Jewsbury, a curious neurotic creature, who had seen much of
+the late Mrs. Carlyle, but who had an almost morbid love of offensive
+tattle. Froude describes himself as a witness for six years, at Cheyne
+Row, "of the enactment of a tragedy as stern and real as the story of
+Oedipus." According to his own account:
+
+I stood by, consenting to the slow martyrdom of a woman whom I have
+described as bright and sparkling and tender, and I uttered no word
+of remonstrance. I saw her involved in a perpetual blizzard, and did
+nothing to shelter her.
+
+But it is not upon his own observations that Froude relies for his most
+sinister evidence against his friend. To him comes Miss Jewsbury with
+a lengthy tale to tell. It is well to know what Mrs. Carlyle thought of
+this lady. She wrote:
+
+It is her besetting sin, and her trade of novelist has aggravated
+it--the desire of feeling and producing violent emotions.... Geraldine
+has one besetting weakness; she is never happy unless she has a grande
+passion on hand.
+
+There were strange manifestations on the part of Miss Jewsbury toward
+Mrs. Carlyle. At one time, when Mrs. Carlyle had shown some preference
+for another woman, it led to a wild outburst of what Miss Jewsbury
+herself called "tiger jealousy." There are many other instances of
+violent emotions in her letters to Mrs. Carlyle. They are often highly
+charged and erotic. It is unusual for a woman of thirty-two to write to
+a woman friend, who is forty-three years of age, in these words, which
+Miss Jewsbury used in writing to Mrs. Carlyle:
+
+You are never out of my thoughts one hour together. I think of you much
+more than if you were my lover. I cannot express my feelings, even to
+you--vague, undefined yearnings to be yours in some way.
+
+Mrs. Carlyle was accustomed, in private, to speak of Miss Jewsbury as
+"Miss Gooseberry," while Carlyle himself said that she was simply "a
+flimsy tatter of a creature." But it is on the testimony of this
+one woman, who was so morbid and excitable, that the most serious
+accusations against Carlyle rest. She knew that Froude was writing a
+volume about Mrs. Carlyle, and she rushed to him, eager to furnish any
+narratives, however strange, improbable, or salacious they might be.
+
+Thus she is the sponsor of the Ashburton story, in which there is
+nothing whatsoever. Some of the letters which Lady Ashburton wrote
+Carlyle have been destroyed, but not before her husband had perused
+them. Another set of letters had never been read by Lord Ashburton at
+all, and they are still preserved--friendly, harmless, usual letters.
+Lord Ashburton always invited Carlyle to his house, and there is no
+reason to think that the Scottish philosopher wronged him.
+
+There is much more to be said about the charge that Mrs. Carlyle
+suffered from personal abuse; yet when we examine the facts, the
+evidence resolves itself into practically nothing. That, in his
+self-absorption, he allowed her to Sending Completed Page, Please
+Wait... overflowed toward a man who must have been a manly, loving
+lover. She calls him by the name by which he called her--a homely
+Scottish name.
+
+GOODY, GOODY, DEAR GOODY:
+
+You said you would weary, and I do hope in my heart you are wearying. It
+will be so sweet to make it all up to you in kisses when I return. You
+will take me and hear all my bits of experiences, and your heart will
+beat when you find how I have longed to return to you. Darling, dearest,
+loveliest, the Lord bless you! I think of you every hour, every moment.
+I love you and admire you, like--like anything. Oh, if I was there,
+I could put my arms so close about your neck, and hush you into the
+softest sleep you have had since I went away. Good night. Dream of me. I
+am ever YOUR OWN GOODY.
+
+It seems most fitting to remember Thomas Carlyle as a man of strength,
+of honor, and of intellect; and his wife as one who was sorely tried,
+but who came out of her suffering into the arms of death, purified and
+calm and worthy to be remembered by her husband's side.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE HUGOS
+
+
+Victor Hugo, after all criticisms have been made, stands as a literary
+colossus. He had imaginative power which makes his finest passages
+fairly crash upon the reader's brain like blasting thunderbolts. His
+novels, even when translated, are read and reread by people of every
+degree of education. There is something vast, something almost Titanic,
+about the grandeur and gorgeousness of his fancy. His prose resembles
+the sonorous blare of an immense military band. Readers of English care
+less for his poetry; yet in his verse one can find another phase of his
+intellect. He could write charmingly, in exquisite cadences, poems
+for lovers and for little children. His gifts were varied, and he knew
+thoroughly the life and thought of his own countrymen; and, therefore,
+in his later days he was almost deified by them.
+
+At the same time, there were defects in his intellect and character
+which are perceptible in what he wrote, as well as in what he did. He
+had the Gallic wit in great measure, but he was absolutely devoid of any
+sense of humor. This is why, in both his prose and his poetry, his most
+tremendous pages often come perilously near to bombast; and this is why,
+again, as a man, his vanity was almost as great as his genius. He had
+good reason to be vain, and yet, if he had possessed a gleam of humor,
+he would never have allowed his egoism to make him arrogant. As it was,
+he felt himself exalted above other mortals. Whatever he did or said or
+wrote was right because he did it or said it or wrote it.
+
+This often showed itself in rather whimsical ways. Thus, after he had
+published the first edition of his novel, The Man Who Laughs, an English
+gentleman called upon him, and, after some courteous compliments,
+suggested that in subsequent editions the name of an English peer who
+figures in the book should be changed from Tom Jim-Jack.
+
+"For," said the Englishman, "Tom Jim-Jack is a name that could not
+possibly belong to an English noble, or, indeed, to any Englishman. The
+presence of it in your powerful story makes it seem to English readers a
+little grotesque."
+
+Victor Hugo drew himself up with an air of high disdain.
+
+"Who are you?" asked he.
+
+"I am an Englishman," was the answer, "and naturally I know what names
+are possible in English."
+
+Hugo drew himself up still higher, and on his face there was a smile of
+utter contempt.
+
+"Yes," said he. "You are an Englishman; but I--I am Victor Hugo."
+
+In another book Hugo had spoken of the Scottish bagpipes as "bugpipes."
+This gave some offense to his Scottish admirers. A great many persons
+told him that the word was "bagpipes," and not "bugpipes." But he
+replied with irritable obstinacy:
+
+"I am Victor Hugo; and if I choose to write it 'bugpipes,' it IS
+'bugpipes.' It is anything that I prefer to make it. It is so, because I
+call it so!"
+
+So, Victor Hugo became a violent republican, because he did not wish
+France to be an empire or a kingdom, in which an emperor or a king
+would be his superior in rank. He always spoke of Napoleon III as "M.
+Bonaparte." He refused to call upon the gentle-mannered Emperor of
+Brazil, because he was an emperor; although Dom Pedro expressed an
+earnest desire to meet the poet.
+
+When the German army was besieging Paris, Hugo proposed to fight a duel
+with the King of Prussia, and to have the result of it settle the war;
+"for," said he, "the King of Prussia is a great king, but I am Victor
+Hugo, the great poet. We are, therefore, equal."
+
+In spite, however, of his ardent republicanism, he was very fond of
+speaking of his own noble descent. Again and again he styled himself "a
+peer of France;" and he and his family made frequent allusions to the
+knights and bishops and counselors of state with whom he claimed an
+ancestral relation. This was more than inconsistent. It was somewhat
+ludicrous; because Victor Hugo's ancestry was by no means noble. The
+Hugos of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were not in any
+way related to the poet's family, which was eminently honest and
+respectable, but by no means one of distinction. His grandfather was
+a carpenter. One of his aunts was the wife of a baker, another of a
+barber, while the third earned her living as a provincial dressmaker.
+
+If the poet had been less vain and more sincerely democratic, he would
+have been proud to think that he sprang from good, sound, sturdy
+stock, and would have laughed at titles. As it was, he jeered at
+all pretensions of rank in other men, while he claimed for himself
+distinctions that were not really his. His father was a soldier who rose
+from the ranks until, under Napoleon, he reached the grade of general.
+His mother was the daughter of a ship owner in Nantes.
+
+Victor Hugo was born in February, 1802, during the Napoleonic wars, and
+his early years were spent among the camps and within the sound of the
+cannon-thunder. It was fitting that he should have been born and reared
+in an age of upheaval, revolt, and battle. He was essentially the
+laureate of revolt; and in some of his novels--as in Ninety-Three--the
+drum and the trumpet roll and ring through every chapter.
+
+The present paper has, of course, nothing to do with Hugo's public life;
+yet it is necessary to remember the complicated nature of the man--all
+his power, all his sweetness of disposition, and likewise all his vanity
+and his eccentricities. We must remember, also, that he was French, so
+that his story may be interpreted in the light of the French character.
+
+At the age of fifteen he was domiciled in Paris, and though still a
+schoolboy and destined for the study of law, he dreamed only of poetry
+and of literature. He received honorable mention from the French
+Academy in 1817, and in the following year took prizes in a poetical
+competition. At seventeen he began the publication of a literary
+journal, which survived until 1821. His astonishing energy became
+evident in the many publications which he put forth in these boyish
+days. He began to become known. Although poetry, then as now, was not
+very profitable even when it was admired, one of his slender volumes
+brought him the sum of seven hundred francs, which seemed to him
+not only a fortune in itself, but the forerunner of still greater
+prosperity.
+
+It was at this time, while still only twenty years of age, that he met
+a young girl of eighteen with whom he fell rather tempestuously in love.
+Her name was Adele Foucher, and she was the daughter of a clerk in the
+War Office. When one is very young and also a poet, it takes very little
+to feed the flame of passion. Victor Hugo was often a guest at the
+apartments of M. Foucher, where he was received by that gentleman
+and his family. French etiquette, of course, forbade any direct
+communication between the visitor and Adele. She was still a very young
+girl, and was supposed to take no share in the conversation. Therefore,
+while the others talked, she sat demurely by the fireside and sewed.
+
+Her dark eyes and abundant hair, her grace of manner, and the picture
+which she made as the firelight played about her, kindled a flame in the
+susceptible heart of Victor Hugo. Though he could not speak to her,
+he at least could look at her; and, before long, his share in the
+conversation was very slight. This was set down, at first, to his
+absent-mindedness; but looks can be as eloquent as spoken words. Mme.
+Foucher, with a woman's keen intelligence, noted the adoring gaze of
+Victor Hugo as he silently watched her daughter. The young Adele herself
+was no less intuitive than her mother. It was very well understood,
+in the course of a few months, that Victor Hugo was in love with Adele
+Foucher.
+
+Her father and mother took counsel about the matter, and Hugo himself,
+in a burst of lyrical eloquence, confessed that he adored Adele and
+wished to marry her. Her parents naturally objected. The girl was but
+a child. She had no dowry, nor had Victor Hugo any settled income. They
+were not to think of marriage. But when did a common-sense decision,
+such as this, ever separate a man and a woman who have felt the
+thrill of first love! Victor Hugo was insistent. With his supreme
+self-confidence, he declared that he was bound to be successful, and
+that in a very short time he would be illustrious. Adele, on her side,
+created "an atmosphere" at home by weeping frequently, and by going
+about with hollow eyes and wistful looks.
+
+The Foucher family removed from Paris to a country town. Victor Hugo
+immediately followed them. Fortunately for him, his poems had attracted
+the attention of Louis XVIII, who was flattered by some of the verses.
+He sent Hugo five hundred francs for an ode, and soon afterward settled
+upon him a pension of a thousand francs. Here at least was an income--a
+very small one, to be sure, but still an income. Perhaps Adele's father
+was impressed not so much by the actual money as by the evidence of the
+royal favor. At any rate, he withdrew his opposition, and the two young
+people were married in October, 1822--both of them being under age,
+unformed, and immature.
+
+Their story is another warning against too early marriage. It is true
+that they lived together until Mme. Hugo's death--a married life of
+forty-six years--yet their story presents phases which would have made
+this impossible had they not been French.
+
+For a time, Hugo devoted all his energies to work. The record of his
+steady upward progress is a part of the history of literature, and need
+not be repeated here. The poet and his wife were soon able to leave the
+latter's family abode, and to set up their own household god in a home
+which was their own. Around them there were gathered, in a sort of
+salon, all the best-known writers of the day--dramatists, critics,
+poets, and romancers. The Hugos knew everybody.
+
+Unfortunately, one of their visitors cast into their new life a drop of
+corroding bitterness. This intruder was Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve,
+a man two years younger than Victor Hugo, and one who blended learning,
+imagination, and a gift of critical analysis. Sainte-Beuve is to-day
+best remembered as a critic, and he was perhaps the greatest critic ever
+known in France. But in 1830 he was a slender, insinuating youth who
+cultivated a gift for sensuous and somewhat morbid poetry.
+
+He had won Victor Hugo's friendship by writing an enthusiastic notice of
+Hugo's dramatic works. Hugo, in turn, styled Sainte-Beuve "an eagle,"
+"a blazing star," and paid him other compliments no less gorgeous and
+Hugoesque. But in truth, if Sainte-Beuve frequented the Hugo salon, it
+was less because of his admiration for the poet than from his desire to
+win the love of the poet's wife.
+
+It is quite impossible to say how far he attracted the serious attention
+of Adele Hugo. Sainte-Beuve represents a curious type, which is far more
+common in France and Italy than in the countries of the north. Human
+nature is not very different in cultivated circles anywhere. Man loves,
+and seeks to win the object of his love; or, as the old English proverb
+has it:
+
+    It's a man's part to try,
+    And a woman's to deny.
+
+But only in the Latin countries do men who have tried make their
+attempts public, and seek to produce an impression that they have been
+successful, and that the woman has not denied. This sort of man, in
+English-speaking lands, is set down simply as a cad, and is excluded
+from people's houses; but in some other countries the thing is regarded
+with a certain amount of toleration. We see it in the two books written
+respectively by Alfred de Musset and George Sand. We have seen it still
+later in our own times, in that strange and half-repulsive story in
+which the Italian novelist and poet, Gabriele d'Annunzio, under a very
+thin disguise, revealed his relations with the famous actress, Eleanora
+Duse. Anglo-Saxons thrust such books aside with a feeling of disgust for
+the man who could so betray a sacred confidence and perhaps exaggerate
+a simple indiscretion into actual guilt. But it is not so in France and
+Italy. And this is precisely what Sainte-Beuve attempted.
+
+Dr. George McLean Harper, in his lately published study of Sainte-Beuve,
+has summed the matter up admirably, in speaking of The Book of Love:
+
+He had the vein of emotional self-disclosure, the vein of romantic or
+sentimental confession. This last was not a rich lode, and so he was at
+pains to charge it secretly with ore which he exhumed gloatingly, but
+which was really base metal. The impulse that led him along this false
+route was partly ambition, partly sensuality. Many a worse man would
+have been restrained by self-respect and good taste. And no man with a
+sense of honor would have permitted The Book of Love to see the light--a
+small collection of verses recording his passion for Mme. Hugo, and
+designed to implicate her.
+
+He left two hundred and five printed copies of this book to be
+distributed after his death. A virulent enemy of Sainte-Beuve was not
+too expressive when he declared that its purpose was "to leave on the
+life of this woman the gleaming and slimy trace which the passage of a
+snail leaves on a rose." Abominable in either case, whether or not the
+implication was unfounded, Sainte-Beuve's numerous innuendoes in regard
+to Mme. Hugo are an indelible stain on his memory, and his infamy not
+only cost him his most precious friendships, but crippled him in every
+high endeavor.
+
+How monstrous was this violation of both friendship and love may be seen
+in the following quotation from his writings:
+
+In that inevitable hour, when the gloomy tempest and the jealous gulf
+shall roll over our heads, a sealed bottle, belched forth from the
+abyss, will render immortal our two names, their close alliance, and our
+double memory aspiring after union.
+
+Whether or not Mme. Hugo's relations with Sainte-Beuve justified the
+latter even in thinking such thoughts as these, one need not inquire too
+minutely. Evidently, though, Victor Hugo could no longer be the friend
+of the man who almost openly boasted that he had dishonored him. There
+exist some sharp letters which passed between Hugo and Sainte-Beuve.
+Their intimacy was ended.
+
+But there was something more serious than this. Sainte-Beuve had in fact
+succeeded in leaving a taint upon the name of Victor Hugo's wife. That
+Hugo did not repudiate her makes it fairly plain that she was innocent;
+yet a high-spirited, sensitive soul like Hugo's could never forget that
+in the world's eye she was compromised. The two still lived together
+as before; but now the poet felt himself released from the strict
+obligations of the marriage-bond.
+
+It may perhaps be doubted whether he would in any case have remained
+faithful all his life. He was, as Mr. H.W. Wack well says, "a man of
+powerful sensations, physically as well as mentally. Hugo pursued every
+opportunity for new work, new sensations, fresh emotion. He desired to
+absorb as much on life's eager forward way as his great nature craved.
+His range in all things--mental, physical, and spiritual--was so far
+beyond the ordinary that the gage of average cannot be applied to him.
+The cavil of the moralist did not disturb him."
+
+Hence, it is not improbable that Victor Hugo might have broken through
+the bonds of marital fidelity, even had Sainte-Beuve never written his
+abnormal poems; but certainly these poems hastened a result which may or
+may not have been otherwise inevitable. Hugo no longer turned wholly
+to the dark-haired, dark-eyed Adele as summing up for him the whole of
+womanhood. A veil was drawn, as it were, from before his eyes, and he
+looked on other women and found them beautiful.
+
+It was in 1833, soon after Hugo's play "Lucrece Borgia" had been
+accepted for production, that a lady called one morning at Hugo's house
+in the Place Royale. She was then between twenty and thirty years of
+age, slight of figure, winsome in her bearing, and one who knew the arts
+which appeal to men. For she was no inexperienced ingenue. The name upon
+her visiting-card was "Mme. Drouet"; and by this name she had been known
+in Paris as a clever and somewhat gifted actress. Theophile Gautier,
+whose cult was the worship of physical beauty, wrote in almost lyric
+prose of her seductive charm.
+
+At nineteen, after she had been cast upon the world, dowered with that
+terrible combination, poverty and beauty, she had lived openly with a
+sculptor named Pradier. This has a certain importance in the history
+of French art. Pradier had received a commission to execute a statue
+representing Strasburg--the statue which stands to-day in the Place
+de la Concorde, and which patriotic Frenchmen and Frenchwomen drape in
+mourning and half bury in immortelles, in memory of that city of Alsace
+which so long was French, but which to-day is German--one of Germany's
+great prizes taken in the war of 1870.
+
+Five years before her meeting with Hugo, Pradier had rather brutally
+severed his connection with her, and she had accepted the protection
+of a Russian nobleman. At this time she was known by her real
+name--Julienne Josephine Gauvin; but having gone upon the stage, she
+assumed the appellation by which she was thereafter known, that of
+Juliette Drouet.
+
+Her visit to Hugo was for the purpose of asking him to secure for her
+a part in his forth-coming play. The dramatist was willing, but
+unfortunately all the major characters had been provided for, and he
+was able to offer her only the minor one of the Princesse Negroni. The
+charming deference with which she accepted the offered part attracted
+Hugo's attention. Such amiability is very rare in actresses who have had
+engagements at the best theaters. He resolved to see her again; and he
+did so, time after time, until he was thoroughly captivated by her.
+
+She knew her value, and as yet was by no means infatuated with him.
+At first he was to her simply a means of getting on in her
+profession--simply another influential acquaintance. Yet she brought to
+bear upon him the arts at her command, her beauty and her sympathy, and,
+last of all, her passionate abandonment.
+
+Hugo was overwhelmed by her. He found that she was in debt, and
+he managed to see that her debts were paid. He secured her other
+engagements at the theater, though she was less successful as an actress
+after she knew him. There came, for a time, a short break in their
+relations; for, partly out of need, she returned to her Russian
+nobleman, or at least admitted him to a menage a trois. Hugo underwent
+for a second time a great disillusionment. Nevertheless, he was not too
+proud to return to her and to beg her not to be unfaithful any more.
+Touched by his tears, and perhaps foreseeing his future fame, she gave
+her promise, and she kept it until her death, nearly half a century
+later.
+
+Perhaps because she had deceived him once, Hugo never completely lost
+his prudence in his association with her. He was by no means lavish with
+money, and he installed her in a rather simple apartment only a short
+distance from his own home. He gave her an allowance that was relatively
+small, though later he provided for her amply in his will. But it was
+to her that he brought all his confidences, to her he entrusted all his
+interests. She became to him, thenceforth, much more than she appeared
+to the world at large; for she was his friend, and, as he said, his
+inspiration.
+
+The fact of their intimate connection became gradually known through
+Paris. It was known even to Mme. Hugo; but she, remembering the affair
+of Sainte-Beuve, or knowing how difficult it is to check the will of a
+man like Hugo, made no sign, and even received Juliette Drouet in her
+own house and visited her in turn. When the poet's sons grew up to
+manhood, they, too, spent many hours with their father in the little
+salon of the former actress. It was a strange and, to an Anglo-Saxon
+mind, an almost impossible position; yet France forgives much to genius,
+and in time no one thought of commenting on Hugo's manner of life.
+
+In 1851, when Napoleon III seized upon the government, and when Hugo was
+in danger of arrest, she assisted him to escape in disguise, and with a
+forged passport, across the Belgian frontier. During his long exile
+in Guernsey she lived in the same close relationship to him and to his
+family. Mme. Hugo died in 1868, having known for thirty-three years that
+she was only second in her husband's thoughts. Was she doing penance, or
+was she merely accepting the inevitable? In any case, her position was
+most pathetic, though she uttered no complaint.
+
+A very curious and poignant picture of her just before her death has
+been given by the pen of a visitor in Guernsey. He had met Hugo and his
+sons; he had seen the great novelist eating enormous slices of roast
+beef and drinking great goblets of red wine at dinner, and he had
+also watched him early each morning, divested of all his clothing and
+splashing about in a bath-tub on the top of his house, in view of
+all the town. One evening he called and found only Mme. Hugo. She was
+reclining on a couch, and was evidently suffering great pain. Surprised,
+he asked where were her husband and her sons.
+
+"Oh," she replied, "they've all gone to Mme. Drouet's to spend the
+evening and enjoy themselves. Go also; you'll not find it amusing here."
+
+One ponders over this sad scene with conflicting thoughts. Was there
+really any truth in the story at which Sainte-Beuve more than hinted?
+If so, Adele Hugo was more than punished. The other woman had sinned far
+more; and yet she had never been Hugo's wife; and hence perhaps it
+was right that she should suffer less. Suffer she did; for after her
+devotion to Hugo had become sincere and deep, he betrayed her confidence
+by an intrigue with a girl who is spoken of as "Claire." The knowledge
+of it caused her infinite anguish, but it all came to an end; and she
+lived past her eightieth year, long after the death of Mme. Hugo. She
+died only a short time before the poet himself was laid to rest in Paris
+with magnificent obsequies which an emperor might have envied. In her
+old age, Juliette Drouet became very white and very wan; yet she never
+quite lost the charm with which, as a girl, she had won the heart of
+Hugo.
+
+The story has many aspects. One may see in it a retribution, or one may
+see in it only the cruelty of life. Perhaps it is best regarded simply
+as a chapter in the strange life-histories of men of genius.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF GEORGE SAND
+
+
+To the student of feminine psychology there is no more curious and
+complex problem than the one that meets us in the life of the gifted
+French writer best known to the world as George Sand.
+
+To analyze this woman simply as a writer would in itself be a long,
+difficult task. She wrote voluminously, with a fluid rather than a
+fluent pen. She scandalized her contemporaries by her theories, and by
+the way in which she applied them in her novels. Her fiction made her,
+in the history of French literature, second only to Victor Hugo.
+She might even challenge Hugo, because where he depicts strange and
+monstrous figures, exaggerated beyond the limits of actual life, George
+Sand portrays living men and women, whose instincts and desires she
+understands, and whom she makes us see precisely as if we were admitted
+to their intimacy.
+
+But George Sand puzzles us most by peculiarities which it is difficult
+for us to reconcile. She seemed to have no sense of chastity whatever;
+yet, on the other hand, she was not grossly sensual. She possessed the
+maternal instinct to a high degree, and liked better to be a mother
+than a mistress to the men whose love she sought. For she did seek men's
+love, frankly and shamelessly, only to tire of it. In many cases she
+seems to have been swayed by vanity, and by a love of conquest, rather
+than by passion. She had also a spiritual, imaginative side to her
+nature, and she could be a far better comrade than anything more
+intimate.
+
+The name given to this strange genius at birth was Amantine Lucile
+Aurore Dupin. The circumstances of her ancestry and birth were quite
+unusual. Her father was a lieutenant in the French army. His grandmother
+had been the natural daughter of Marshal Saxe, who was himself the
+illegitimate son of Augustus the Strong of Poland and of the bewitching
+Countess of Konigsmarck. This was a curious pedigree. It meant strength
+of character, eroticism, stubbornness, imagination, courage, and
+recklessness.
+
+Her father complicated the matter by marrying suddenly a Parisian of the
+lower classes, a bird-fancier named Sophie Delaborde. His daughter,
+who was born in 1804, used afterward to boast that on one side she was
+sprung from kings and nobles, while on the other she was a daughter
+of the people, able, therefore, to understand the sentiments of the
+aristocracy and of the children of the soil, or even of the gutter.
+
+She was fond of telling, also, of the omen which attended on her birth.
+Her father and mother were at a country dance in the house of a fellow
+officer of Dupin's. Suddenly Mme. Dupin left the room. Nothing was
+thought of this, and the dance went on. In less than an hour, Dupin was
+called aside and told that his wife had just given birth to a child. It
+was the child's aunt who brought the news, with the joyous comment:
+
+"She will be lucky, for she was born among the roses and to the sound of
+music."
+
+This was at the time of the Napoleonic wars. Lieutenant Dupin was on the
+staff of Prince Murat, and little Aurore, as she was called, at the age
+of three accompanied the army, as did her mother. The child was
+adopted by one of those hard-fighting, veteran regiments. The rough old
+sergeants nursed her and petted her. Even the prince took notice of her;
+and to please him she wore the green uniform of a hussar.
+
+But all this soon passed, and she was presently sent to live with
+her grandmother at the estate now intimately associated with her
+name--Nohant, in the valley of the Indre, in the midst of a rich
+country, a love for which she then drank in so deeply that nothing in
+her later life could lessen it. She was always the friend of the peasant
+and of the country-folk in general.
+
+At Nohant she was given over to her grand-mother, to be reared in a
+strangely desultory sort of fashion, doing and reading and studying
+those things which could best develop her native gifts. Her father had
+great influence over her, teaching her a thousand things without seeming
+to teach her anything. Of him George Sand herself has written:
+
+Character is a matter of heredity. If any one desires to know me, he
+must know my father.
+
+Her father, however, was killed by a fall from a horse; and then the
+child grew up almost without any formal education. A tutor, who also
+managed the estate; believed with Rousseau that the young should be
+reared according to their own preferences. Therefore, Aurore read poems
+and childish stories; she gained a smattering of Latin, and she was
+devoted to music and the elements of natural science. For the rest of
+the time she rambled with the country children, learned their games, and
+became a sort of leader in everything they did.
+
+Her only sorrow was the fact that her mother was excluded from Nohant.
+The aristocratic old grandmother would not allow under her roof her
+son's low-born wife; but she was devoted to her little grandchild. The
+girl showed a wonderful degree of sensibility.
+
+This life was adapted to her nature. She fed her imagination in a
+perfectly healthy fashion; and, living so much out of doors, she
+acquired that sound physique which she retained all through her life.
+
+When she was thirteen, her grandmother sent the girl to a convent school
+in Paris. One might suppose that the sudden change from the open woods
+and fields to the primness of a religious home would have been a great
+shock to her, and that with her disposition she might have broken
+out into wild ways that would have shocked the nuns. But, here, as
+elsewhere, she showed her wonderful adaptability. It even seemed as
+if she were likely to become what the French call a devote. She gave
+herself up to mythical thoughts, and expressed a desire of taking the
+veil. Her confessor, however, was a keen student of human nature, and
+he perceived that she was too young to decide upon the renunciation of
+earthly things. Moreover, her grandmother, who had no intention that
+Aurore should become a nun, hastened to Paris and carried her back to
+Nohant.
+
+The girl was now sixteen, and her complicated nature began to
+make itself apparent. There was no one to control her, because her
+grandmother was confined to her own room. And so Aurore Dupin, now in
+superb health, rushed into every sort of diversion with all the zest of
+youth. She read voraciously--religion, poetry, philosophy. She was an
+excellent musician, playing the piano and the harp. Once, in a spirit of
+unconscious egotism, she wrote to her confessor:
+
+Do you think that my philosophical studies are compatible with Christian
+humility?
+
+The shrewd ecclesiastic answered, with a touch of wholesome irony:
+
+I doubt, my daughter, whether your philosophical studies are profound
+enough to warrant intellectual pride.
+
+This stung the girl, and led her to think a little less of her own
+abilities; but perhaps it made her books distasteful to her. For a while
+she seems to have almost forgotten her sex. She began to dress as a boy,
+and took to smoking large quantities of tobacco. Her natural brother,
+who was an officer in the army, came down to Nohant and taught her to
+ride--to ride like a boy, seated astride. She went about without any
+chaperon, and flirted with the young men of the neighborhood. The prim
+manners of the place made her subject to a certain amount of scandal,
+and the village priest chided her in language that was far from tactful.
+In return she refused any longer to attend his church.
+
+Thus she was living when her grandmother died, in 1821, leaving to
+Aurore her entire fortune of five hundred thousand francs. As the girl
+was still but seventeen, she was placed under the guardianship of the
+nearest relative on her father's side--a gentleman of rank. When the
+will was read, Aurore's mother made a violent protest, and caused a most
+unpleasant scene.
+
+"I am the natural guardian of my child," she cried. "No one can take
+away my rights!"
+
+The young girl well understood that this was really the parting of the
+ways. If she turned toward her uncle, she would be forever classed
+among the aristocracy. If she chose her mother, who, though married, was
+essentially a grisette, then she must live with grisettes, and find her
+friends among the friends who visited her mother. She could not belong
+to both worlds. She must decide once for all whether she would be a
+woman of rank or a woman entirely separated from the circle that had
+been her father's.
+
+One must respect the girl for making the choice she did. Understanding
+the situation absolutely, she chose her mother; and perhaps one would
+not have had her do otherwise. Yet in the long run it was bound to be a
+mistake. Aurore was clever, refined, well read, and had had the training
+of a fashionable convent school. The mother was ignorant and coarse, as
+was inevitable, with one who before her marriage had been half shop-girl
+and half courtesan. The two could not live long together, and hence it
+was not unnatural that Aurore Dupin should marry, to enter upon a new
+career.
+
+Her fortune was a fairly large one for the times, and yet not large
+enough to attract men who were quite her equals. Presently, however, it
+brought to her a sort of country squire, named Casimir Dudevant. He was
+the illegitimate son of the Baron Dudevant. He had been in the army,
+and had studied law; but he possessed no intellectual tastes. He was
+outwardly eligible; but he was of a coarse type--a man who, with passing
+years, would be likely to take to drink and vicious amusements, and in
+serious life cared only for his cattle, his horses, and his hunting. He
+had, however, a sort of jollity about him which appealed to this girl of
+eighteen; and so a marriage was arranged. Aurore Dupin became his wife
+in 1822, and he secured the control of her fortune.
+
+The first few years after her marriage were not unhappy. She had a son,
+Maurice Dudevant, and a daughter, Solange, and she loved them both. But
+it was impossible that she should continue vegetating mentally upon
+a farm with a husband who was a fool, a drunkard, and a miser. He
+deteriorated; his wife grew more and more clever. Dudevant resented
+this. It made him uncomfortable. Other persons spoke of her talk as
+brilliant. He bluntly told her that it was silly, and that she must stop
+it. When she did not stop it, he boxed her ears. This caused a breach
+between the pair which was never healed. Dudevant drank more and more
+heavily, and jeered at his wife because she was "always looking for noon
+at fourteen o'clock." He had always flirted with the country girls; but
+now he openly consorted with his wife's chambermaid.
+
+Mme. Dudevant, on her side, would have nothing more to do with this
+rustic rake. She formed what she called a platonic friendship--and it
+was really so--with a certain M. de Seze, who was advocate-general at
+Bordeaux. With him this clever woman could talk without being called
+silly, and he took sincere pleasure in her company. He might, in fact,
+have gone much further, had not both of them been in an impossible
+situation.
+
+Aurore Dudevant really believed that she was swayed by a pure and mystic
+passion. De Seze, on the other hand, believed this mystic passion to
+be genuine love. Coming to visit her at Nohant, he was revolted by the
+clownish husband with whom she lived. It gave him an esthetic shock to
+see that she had borne children to this boor. Therefore he shrank back
+from her, and in time their relation faded into nothingness.
+
+It happened, soon after, that she found a packet in her husband's desk,
+marked "Not to be opened until after my death." She wrote of this in her
+correspondence:
+
+I had not the patience to wait till widowhood. No one can be sure of
+surviving anybody. I assumed that my husband had died, and I was very
+glad to learn what he thought of me while he was alive. Since the
+package was addressed to me, it was not dishonorable for me to open it.
+
+And so she opened it. It proved to be his will, but containing, as a
+preamble, his curses on her, expressions of contempt, and all the vulgar
+outpouring of an evil temper and angry passion. She went to her husband
+as he was opening a bottle, and flung the document upon the table.
+He cowered at her glance, at her firmness, and at her cold hatred. He
+grumbled and argued and entreated; but all that his wife would say in
+answer was:
+
+"I must have an allowance. I am going to Paris, and my children are to
+remain here."
+
+At last he yielded, and she went at once to Paris, taking her daughter
+with her, and having the promise of fifteen hundred francs a year out of
+the half-million that was hers by right.
+
+In Paris she developed into a thorough-paced Bohemian. She tried to make
+a living in sundry hopeless ways, and at last she took to literature.
+She was living in a garret, with little to eat, and sometimes without
+a fire in winter. She had some friends who helped her as well as they
+could, but though she was attached to the Figaro, her earnings for the
+first month amounted to only fifteen francs.
+
+Nevertheless, she would not despair. The editors and publishers might
+turn the cold shoulder to her, but she would not give up her ambitions.
+She went down into the Latin Quarter, and there shook off the
+proprieties of life. She assumed the garb of a man, and with her quick
+perception she came to know the left bank of the Seine just as she had
+known the country-side at Nohant or the little world at her convent
+school. She never expected again to see any woman of her own rank in
+life. Her mother's influence became strong in her. She wrote:
+
+The proprieties are the guiding principle of people without soul and
+virtue. The good opinion of the world is a prostitute who gives herself
+to the highest bidder.
+
+She still pursued her trade of journalism, calling herself a "newspaper
+mechanic," sitting all day in the office of the Figaro and writing
+whatever was demanded, while at night she would prowl in the streets
+haunting the cafes, continuing to dress like a man, drinking sour wine,
+and smoking cheap cigars.
+
+One of her companions in this sort of hand-to-mouth journalism was a
+young student and writer named Jules Sandeau, a man seven years younger
+than his comrade. He was at that time as indigent as she, and their
+hardships, shared in common, brought them very close together. He was
+clever, boyish, and sensitive, and it was not long before he had fallen
+at her feet and kissed her knees, begging that she would requite the
+love he felt for her. According to herself, she resisted him for six
+months, and then at last she yielded. The two made their home together,
+and for a while were wonderfully happy. Their work and their diversions
+they enjoyed in common, and now for the first time she experienced
+emotions which in all probability she had never known before.
+
+Probably not very much importance is to be given to the earlier
+flirtations of George Sand, though she herself never tried to stop the
+mouth of scandal. Even before she left her husband, she was credited
+with having four lovers; but all she said, when the report was brought
+to her, was this: "Four lovers are none too many for one with such
+lively passions as mine."
+
+This very frankness makes it likely that she enjoyed shocking her prim
+neighbors at Nohant. But if she only played at love-making then, she now
+gave herself up to it with entire abandonment, intoxicated, fascinated,
+satisfied. She herself wrote:
+
+How I wish I could impart to you this sense of the intensity and
+joyousness of life that I have in my veins. To live! How sweet it
+is, and how good, in spite of annoyances, husbands, debts, relations,
+scandal-mongers, sufferings, and irritations! To live! It is
+intoxicating! To love, and to be loved! It is happiness! It is heaven!
+
+In collaboration with Jules Sandeau, she wrote a novel called Rose
+et Blanche. The two lovers were uncertain what name to place upon the
+title-page, but finally they hit upon the pseudonym of Jules Sand. The
+book succeeded; but thereafter each of them wrote separately, Jules
+Sandeau using his own name, and Mme. Dudevant styling herself George
+Sand, a name by which she was to be illustrious ever after.
+
+As a novelist, she had found her real vocation. She was not yet well
+known, but she was on the verge of fame. As soon as she had written
+Indiana and Valentine, George Sand had secured a place in the world of
+letters. The magazine which still exists as the Revue des Deux Mondes
+gave her a retaining fee of four thousand francs a year, and many other
+publications begged her to write serial stories for them.
+
+The vein which ran through all her stories was new and piquant. As was
+said of her:
+
+In George Sand, whenever a lady wishes to change her lover, God is
+always there to make the transfer easy.
+
+In other words, she preached free love in the name of religion. This was
+not a new doctrine with her. After the first break with her husband, she
+had made up her mind about certain matters, and wrote:
+
+One is no more justified in claiming the ownership of a soul than in
+claiming the ownership of a slave.
+
+According to her, the ties between a man and a woman are sacred only
+when they are sanctified by love; and she distinguished between love and
+passion in this epigram:
+
+Love seeks to give, while passion seeks to take.
+
+At this time, George Sand was in her twenty-seventh year. She was
+not beautiful, though there was something about her which attracted
+observation. Of middle height, she was fairly slender. Her eyes were
+somewhat projecting, and her mouth was almost sullen when in repose. Her
+manners were peculiar, combining boldness with timidity. Her address was
+almost as familiar as a man's, so that it was easy to be acquainted with
+her; yet a certain haughtiness and a touch of aristocratic pride made it
+plain that she had drawn a line which none must pass without her
+wish. When she was deeply stirred, however, she burst forth into an
+extraordinary vivacity, showing a nature richly endowed and eager to
+yield its treasures.
+
+The existence which she now led was a curious one. She still visited her
+husband at Nohant, so that she might see her son, and sometimes, when
+M. Dudevant came to town, he called upon her in the apartments which she
+shared with Jules Sandeau. He had accepted the situation, and with his
+crudeness and lack of feeling he seemed to think it, if not natural,
+at least diverting. At any rate, so long as he could retain her
+half-million francs, he was not the man to make trouble about his former
+wife's arrangements.
+
+Meanwhile, there began to be perceptible the very slightest rift within
+the lute of her romance. Was her love for Sandeau really love, or was
+it only passion? In his absence, at any rate, the old obsession still
+continued. Here we see, first of all, intense pleasure shading off into
+a sort of maternal fondness. She sends Sandeau adoring letters. She is
+afraid that his delicate appetite is not properly satisfied.
+
+Yet, again, there are times when she feels that he is irritating and
+ill. Those who knew them said that her nature was too passionate and
+her love was too exacting for him. One of her letters seems to make
+this plain. She writes that she feels uneasy, and even frightfully
+remorseful, at seeing Sandeau "pine away." She knows, she avows, that
+she is killing him, that her caresses are a poison, and her love a
+consuming fire.
+
+It is an appalling thought, and Jules will not understand it. He laughs
+at it; and when, in the midst of his transports of delight, the idea
+comes to me and makes my blood run cold, he tells me that here is the
+death that he would like to die. At such moments he promises whatever I
+make him promise.
+
+This letter throws a clear light upon the nature of George Sand's
+temperament. It will be found all through her career, not only that
+she sought to inspire passion, but that she strove to gratify it after
+fashions of her own. One little passage from a description of her
+written by the younger Dumas will perhaps make this phase of her
+character more intelligible, without going further than is strictly
+necessary:
+
+Mme. Sand has little hands without any bones, soft and plump. She is
+by destiny a woman of excessive curiosity, always disappointed, always
+deceived in her incessant investigation, but she is not fundamentally
+ardent. In vain would she like to be so, but she does not find it
+possible. Her physical nature utterly refuses.
+
+The reader will find in all that has now been said the true explanation
+of George Sand. Abounding with life, but incapable of long stretches of
+ardent love, she became a woman who sought conquests everywhere without
+giving in return more than her temperament made it possible for her to
+do. She loved Sandeau as much as she ever loved any man; and yet she
+left him with a sense that she had never become wholly his. Perhaps
+this is the reason why their romance came to an end abruptly, and not
+altogether fittingly.
+
+She had been spending a short time at Nohant, and came to Paris without
+announcement. She intended to surprise her lover, and she surely did so.
+She found him in the apartment that had been theirs, with his arms about
+an attractive laundry-girl. Thus closed what was probably the only true
+romance in the life of George Sand. Afterward she had many lovers, but
+to no one did she so nearly become a true mate.
+
+As it was, she ended her association with Sandeau, and each pursued a
+separate path to fame. Sandeau afterward became a well-known novelist
+and dramatist. He was, in fact, the first writer of fiction who was
+admitted to the French Academy. The woman to whom he had been unfaithful
+became greater still, because her fame was not only national, but
+cosmopolitan.
+
+For a time after her deception by Sandeau, she felt absolutely devoid
+of all emotions. She shunned men, and sought the friendship of Marie
+Dorval, a clever actress who was destined afterward to break the heart
+of Alfred de Vigny. The two went down into the country; and there George
+Sand wrote hour after hour, sitting by her fireside, and showing herself
+a tender mother to her little daughter Solange.
+
+This life lasted for a while, but it was not the sort of life that
+would now content her. She had many visitors from Paris, among them
+Sainte-Beuve, the critic, who brought with him Prosper Merimee, then
+unknown, but later famous as master of revels to the third Napoleon and
+as the author of Carmen. Merimee had a certain fascination of manner,
+and the predatory instincts of George Sand were again aroused. One day,
+when she felt bored and desperate, Merimee paid his court to her,
+and she listened to him. This is one of the most remarkable of her
+intimacies, since it began, continued, and ended all in the space of a
+single week. When Merimee left Nohant, he was destined never again to
+see George Sand, except long afterward at a dinner-party, where the two
+stared at each other sharply, but did not speak. This affair, however,
+made it plain that she could not long remain at Nohant, and that she
+pined for Paris.
+
+Returning thither, she is said to have set her cap at Victor Hugo,
+who was, however, too much in love with himself to care for any one,
+especially a woman who was his literary rival. She is said for a time to
+have been allied with Gustave Planche, a dramatic critic; but she
+always denied this, and her denial may be taken as quite truthful. Soon,
+however, she was to begin an episode which has been more famous than any
+other in her curious history, for she met Alfred de Musset, then a youth
+of twenty-three, but already well known for his poems and his plays.
+
+Musset was of noble birth. He would probably have been better for a
+plebeian strain, since there was in him a touch of the degenerate.
+His mother's father had published a humanitarian poem on cats. His
+great-uncle had written a peculiar novel. Young Alfred was nervous,
+delicate, slightly epileptic, and it is certain that he was given to
+dissipation, which so far had affected his health only by making
+him hysterical. He was an exceedingly handsome youth, with exquisite
+manners, "dreamy rather than dazzling eyes, dilated nostrils, and
+vermilion lips half opened." Such was he when George Sand, then seven
+years his senior, met him.
+
+There is something which, to the Anglo-Saxon mind, seems far more absurd
+than pathetic about the events which presently took place. A woman like
+George Sand at thirty was practically twice the age of this nervous boy
+of twenty-three, who had as yet seen little of the world. At first she
+seemed to realize the fact herself; but her vanity led her to begin an
+intrigue, which must have been almost wholly without excitement on her
+part, but which to him, for a time, was everything in the world.
+
+Experimenting, as usual, after the fashion described by Dumas, she went
+with De Musset for a "honeymoon" to Fontainebleau. But they could not
+stay there forever, and presently they decided upon a journey to Italy.
+Before they went, however, they thought it necessary to get formal
+permission from Alfred's mother!
+
+Naturally enough, Mme. de Musset refused consent. She had read George
+Sand's romances, and had asked scornfully:
+
+"Has the woman never in her life met a gentleman?"
+
+She accepted the relations between them, but that she should be asked
+to sanction this sort of affair was rather too much, even for a French
+mother who has become accustomed to many strange things. Then there was
+a curious happening. At nine o'clock at night, George Sand took a cab
+and drove to the house of Mme. de Musset, to whom she sent up a message
+that a lady wished to see her. Mme. de Musset came down, and, finding a
+woman alone in a carriage, she entered it. Then George Sand burst forth
+in a torrent of sentimental eloquence. She overpowered her lover's
+mother, promised to take great care of the delicate youth, and finally
+drove away to meet Alfred at the coach-yard.
+
+They started off in the mist, their coach being the thirteenth to
+leave the yard; but the two lovers were in a merry mood, and enjoyed
+themselves all the way from Paris to Marseilles. By steamer they went
+to Leghorn; and finally, in January, 1834, they took an apartment in a
+hotel at Venice. What had happened that their arrival in Venice should
+be the beginning of a quarrel, no one knows. George Sand has told the
+story, and Paul de Musset--Alfred's brother--has told the story, but
+each of them has doubtless omitted a large part of the truth.
+
+It is likely that on their long journey each had learned too much of
+the other. Thus, Paul de Musset says that George Sand made herself
+outrageous by her conversation, telling every one of her mother's
+adventures in the army of Italy, including her relations with the
+general-in-chief. She also declared that she herself was born within
+a month of her parents' wedding-day. Very likely she did say all these
+things, whether they were true or not. She had set herself to wage war
+against conventional society, and she did everything to shock it.
+
+On the other hand, Alfred de Musset fell ill after having lost ten
+thousand francs in a gambling-house. George Sand was not fond of persons
+who were ill. She herself was working like a horse, writing from eight
+to thirteen hours a day. When Musset collapsed she sent for a handsome
+young Italian doctor named Pagello, with whom she had struck up a casual
+acquaintance. He finally cured Musset, but he also cured George Sand of
+any love for Musset.
+
+Before long she and Pagello were on their way back to Paris, leaving the
+poor, fevered, whimpering poet to bite his nails and think unutterable
+things. But he ought to have known George Sand. After that, everybody
+knew her. They knew just how much she cared when she professed to care,
+and when she acted as she acted with Pagello no earlier lover had any
+one but himself to blame.
+
+Only sentimentalists can take this story seriously. To them it has a
+sort of morbid interest. They like to picture Musset raving and shouting
+in his delirium, and then, to read how George Sand sat on Pagello's
+knees, kissing him and drinking out of the same cup. But to the healthy
+mind the whole story is repulsive--from George Sand's appeal to Mme.
+de Musset down to the very end, when Pagello came to Paris, where his
+broken French excited a polite ridicule.
+
+There was a touch of genuine sentiment about the affair with
+Jules Sandeau; but after that, one can only see in George Sand a
+half-libidinous grisette, such as her mother was before her, with a
+perfect willingness to experiment in every form of lawless love. As for
+Musset, whose heart she was supposed to have broken, within a year he
+was dangling after the famous singer, Mme. Malibran, and writing poems
+to her which advertised their intrigue.
+
+After this episode with Pagello, it cannot be said that the life of
+George Sand was edifying in any respect, because no one can assume that
+she was sincere. She had loved Jules Sandeau as much as she could love
+any one, but all the rest of her intrigues and affinities were in the
+nature of experiments. She even took back Alfred de Musset, although
+they could never again regard each other without suspicion. George Sand
+cut off all her hair and gave it to Musset, so eager was she to keep
+him as a matter of conquest; but he was tired of her, and even this
+theatrical trick was of no avail.
+
+She proceeded to other less known and less humiliating adventures. She
+tried to fascinate the artist Delacroix. She set her cap at Franz Liszt,
+who rather astonished her by saying that only God was worthy to be
+loved. She expressed a yearning for the affections of the elder Dumas;
+but that good-natured giant laughed at her, and in fact gave her some
+sound advice, and let her smoke unsentimentally in his study. She was
+a good deal taken with a noisy demagogue named Michel, a lawyer at
+Bourges, who on one occasion shut her up in her room and harangued her
+on sociology until she was as weary of his talk as of his wooden shoes,
+his shapeless greatcoat, his spectacles, and his skull-cap, Balzac felt
+her fascination, but cared nothing for her, since his love was given to
+Mme. Hanska.
+
+In the meanwhile, she was paying visits to her husband at Nohant, where
+she wrangled with him over money matters, and where he would once have
+shot her had the guests present not interfered. She secured her dowry
+by litigation, so that she was well off, even without her literary
+earnings. These were by no means so large as one would think from her
+popularity and from the number of books she wrote. It is estimated that
+her whole gains amounted to about a million francs, extending over a
+period of forty-five years. It is just half the amount that Trollope
+earned in about the same period, and justifies his remark--"adequate,
+but not splendid."
+
+One of those brief and strange intimacies that marked the career of
+George Sand came about in a curious way. Octave Feuillet, a man of
+aristocratic birth, had set himself to write novels which portrayed
+the cynicism and hardness of the upper classes in France. One of these
+novels, Sibylle, excited the anger of George Sand. She had not known
+Feuillet before; yet now she sought him out, at first in order to berate
+him for his book, but in the end to add him to her variegated string of
+lovers.
+
+It has been said of Feuillet that he was a sort of "domesticated
+Musset." At any rate, he was far less sensitive than Musset, and George
+Sand was about seventeen years his senior. They parted after a short
+time, she going her way as a writer of novels that were very different
+from her earlier ones, while Feuillet grew more and more cynical and
+even stern, as he lashed the abnormal, neuropathic men and women about
+him.
+
+The last great emotional crisis in George Sand's life was that which
+centers around her relations with Frederic Chopin. Chopin was the
+greatest genius who ever loved her. It is rather odd that he loved her.
+She had known him for two years, and had not seriously thought of him,
+though there is a story that when she first met him she kissed him
+before he had even been presented to her. She waited two years, and in
+those two years she had three lovers. Then at last she once more met
+Chopin, when he was in a state of melancholy, because a Polish girl had
+proved unfaithful to him.
+
+It was the psychological moment; for this other woman, who was a
+devourer of hearts, found him at a piano, improvising a lamentation.
+George Sand stood beside him, listening. When he finished and looked up
+at her, their eyes met. She bent down without a word and kissed him on
+the lips.
+
+What was she like when he saw her then? Grenier has described her in
+these words:
+
+She was short and stout, but her face attracted all my attention, the
+eyes especially. They were wonderful eyes--a little too close together,
+it may be, large, with full eyelids, and black, very black, but by no
+means lustrous; they reminded me of unpolished marble, or rather of
+velvet, and this gave a strange, dull, even cold expression to her
+countenance. Her fine eyebrows and these great placid eyes gave her an
+air of strength and dignity which was not borne out by the lower part of
+her face. Her nose was rather thick and not over shapely. Her mouth was
+also rather coarse, and her chin small. She spoke with great simplicity,
+and her manners were very quiet.
+
+Such as she was, she attached herself to Chopin for eight years. At
+first they traveled together very quietly to Majorca; and there, just as
+Musset had fallen ill at Venice, Chopin became feverish and an invalid.
+"Chopin coughs most gracefully," George Sand wrote of him, and again:
+
+Chopin is the most inconstant of men. There is nothing permanent about
+him but his cough.
+
+It is not surprising if her nerves sometimes gave way. Acting as sick
+nurse, writing herself with rheumatic fingers, robbed by every one about
+her, and viewed with suspicion by the peasants because she did not go
+to church, she may be perhaps excused for her sharp words when, in fact,
+her deeds were kind.
+
+Afterward, with Chopin, she returned to Paris, and the two lived openly
+together for seven years longer. An immense literature has grown around
+the subject of their relations. To this literature George Sand herself
+contributed very largely. Chopin never wrote a word; but what he failed
+to do, his friends and pupils did unsparingly.
+
+Probably the truth is somewhat as one might expect. During the first
+period of fascination, George Sand was to Chopin what she had been to
+Sandeau and to Musset; and with her strange and subtle ways, she had
+undermined his health. But afterward that sort of love died out, and was
+succeeded by something like friendship. At any rate, this woman showed,
+as she had shown to others, a vast maternal kindness. She writes to him
+finally as "your old woman," and she does wonders in the way of nursing
+and care.
+
+But in 1847 came a break between the two. Whatever the mystery of it may
+be, it turns upon what Chopin said of Sand:
+
+"I have never cursed any one, but now I am so weary of life that I am
+near cursing her. Yet she suffers, too, and more, because she grows
+older as she grows more wicked."
+
+In 1848, Chopin gave his last concert in Paris, and in 1849 he died.
+According to some, he was the victim of a Messalina. According to
+others, it was only "Messalina" that had kept him alive so long.
+
+However, with his death came a change in the nature of George Sand.
+Emotionally, she was an extinct volcano. Intellectually, she was at
+her very best. She no longer tore passions into tatters, but wrote
+naturally, simply, stories of country life and tales for children.
+In one of her books she has given an enduring picture of the
+Franco-Prussian War. There are many rather pleasant descriptions of her
+then, living at Nohant, where she made a curious figure, bustling about
+in ill-fitting costumes, and smoking interminable cigarettes.
+
+She had lived much, and she had drunk deep of life, when she died in
+1876. One might believe her to have been only a woman of perpetual
+liaisons. Externally she was this, and yet what did Balzac, that great
+master of human psychology, write of her in the intimacy of a private
+correspondence?
+
+She is a female bachelor. She is an artist. She is generous. She is
+devoted. She is chaste. Her dominant characteristics are those of a man,
+and therefore, she is not to be regarded as a woman. She is an excellent
+mother, adored by her children. Morally, she is like a lad of twenty;
+for in her heart of hearts, she is more than chaste--she is a prude. It
+is only in externals that she comports herself as a Bohemian. All her
+follies are titles to glory in the eyes of those whose souls are noble.
+
+A curious verdict this! Her love-life seems almost that of neither man
+nor woman, but of an animal. Yet whether she was in reality responsible
+for what she did, when we consider her strange heredity, her wretched
+marriage, the disillusions of her early life--who shall sit in judgment
+on her, since who knows all?
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERY OF CHARLES DICKENS
+
+
+Perhaps no public man in the English-speaking world, in the last
+century, was so widely and intimately known as Charles Dickens. From
+his eighteenth year, when he won his first success in journalism, down
+through his series of brilliant triumphs in fiction, he was more and
+more a conspicuous figure, living in the blaze of an intense publicity.
+He met every one and knew every one, and was the companion of every
+kind of man and woman. He loved to frequent the "caves of harmony" which
+Thackeray has immortalized, and he was a member of all the best Bohemian
+clubs of London. Actors, authors, good fellows generally, were his
+intimate friends, and his acquaintance extended far beyond into the
+homes of merchants and lawyers and the mansions of the proudest nobles.
+Indeed, he seemed to be almost a universal friend.
+
+One remembers, for instance, how he was called in to arbitrate between
+Thackeray and George Augustus Sala, who had quarreled. One remembers how
+Lord Byron's daughter, Lady Lovelace, when upon her sick-bed, used to
+send for Dickens because there was something in his genial, sympathetic
+manner that soothed her. Crushing pieces of ice between her teeth in
+agony, she would speak to him and he would answer her in his rich, manly
+tones until she was comforted and felt able to endure more hours of pain
+without complaint.
+
+Dickens was a jovial soul. His books fairly steam with Christmas cheer
+and hot punch and the savor of plum puddings, very much as do his
+letters to his intimate friends. Everybody knew Dickens. He could
+not dine in public without attracting attention. When he left the
+dining-room, his admirers would descend upon his table and carry off
+egg-shells, orange-peels, and other things that remained behind, so that
+they might have memorials of this much-loved writer. Those who knew him
+only by sight would often stop him in the streets and ask the
+privilege of shaking hands with him; so different was he from--let us
+say--Tennyson, who was as great an Englishman in his way as Dickens, but
+who kept himself aloof and saw few strangers.
+
+It is hard to associate anything like mystery with Dickens, though
+he was fond of mystery as an intellectual diversion, and his last
+unfinished novel was The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Moreover, no one
+admired more than he those complex plots which Wilkie Collins used
+to weave under the influence of laudanum. But as for his own life, it
+seemed so normal, so free from anything approaching mystery, that we can
+scarcely believe it to have been tinged with darker colors than those
+which appeared upon the surface.
+
+A part of this mystery is plain enough. The other part is still
+obscure--or of such a character that one does not care to bring it
+wholly to the light. It had to do with his various relations with women.
+
+The world at large thinks that it knows this chapter in the life of
+Dickens, and that it refers wholly to his unfortunate disagreement with
+his wife. To be sure, this is a chapter that is writ large in all of his
+biographies, and yet it is nowhere correctly told. His chosen biographer
+was John Forster, whose Life of Charles Dickens, in three volumes,
+must remain a standard work; but even Forster--we may assume through
+tact--has not set down all that he could, although he gives a clue.
+
+As is well known, Dickens married Miss Catherine Hogarth when he
+was only twenty-four. He had just published his Sketches by Boz, the
+copyright of which he sold for one hundred pounds, and was beginning the
+Pickwick Papers. About this time his publisher brought N. P. Willis
+down to Furnival's Inn to see the man whom Willis called "a young
+paragraphist for the Morning Chronicle." Willis thus sketches Dickens
+and his surroundings:
+
+In the most crowded part of Holborn, within a door or two of the Bull
+and Mouth Inn, we pulled up at the entrance of a large building used
+for lawyers' chambers. I followed by a long flight of stairs to an upper
+story, and was ushered into an uncarpeted and bleak-looking room, with
+a deal table, two or three chairs and a few books, a small boy and Mr.
+Dickens for the contents.
+
+I was only struck at first with one thing--and I made a memorandum of
+it that evening as the strongest instance I had seen of English
+obsequiousness to employers--the degree to which the poor author was
+overpowered with the honor of his publisher's visit! I remember saying
+to myself, as I sat down on a rickety chair:
+
+"My good fellow, if you were in America with that fine face and
+your ready quill, you would have no need to be condescended to by a
+publisher."
+
+Dickens was dressed very much as he has since described Dick Swiveller,
+minus the swell look. His hair was cropped close to his head, his
+clothes scant, though jauntily cut, and, after changing a ragged
+office-coat for a shabby blue, he stood by the door, collarless and
+buttoned up, the very personification of a close sailer to the wind.
+
+Before this interview with Willis, which Dickens always repudiated, he
+had become something of a celebrity among the newspaper men with whom he
+worked as a stenographer. As every one knows, he had had a hard time in
+his early years, working in a blacking-shop, and feeling too keenly the
+ignominious position of which a less sensitive boy would probably have
+thought nothing. Then he became a shorthand reporter, and was busy at
+his work, so that he had little time for amusements.
+
+It has been generally supposed that no love-affair entered his life
+until he met Catherine Hogarth, whom he married soon after making her
+acquaintance. People who are eager at ferreting out unimportant facts
+about important men had unanimously come to the conclusion that up to
+the age of twenty Dickens was entirely fancy-free. It was left to an
+American to disclose the fact that this was not the case, but that even
+in his teens he had been captivated by a girl of about his own age.
+
+Inasmuch as the only reproach that was ever made against Dickens was
+based upon his love-affairs, let us go back and trace them from this
+early one to the very last, which must yet for some years, at least,
+remain a mystery.
+
+Everything that is known about his first affair is contained in a book
+very beautifully printed, but inaccessible to most readers. Some years
+ago Mr. William K. Bixby, of St. Louis, found in London a collector of
+curios. This man had in his stock a number of letters which had passed
+between a Miss Maria Beadnell and Charles Dickens when the two were
+about nineteen and a second package of letters representing a later
+acquaintance, about 1855, at which time Miss Beadnell had been married
+for a long time to a Mr. Henry Louis Winter, of 12 Artillery Place,
+London.
+
+The copyright laws of Great Britain would not allow Mr. Bixby to publish
+the letters in that country, and he did not care to give them to the
+public here. Therefore, he presented them to the Bibliophile Society,
+with the understanding that four hundred and ninety-three copies, with
+the Bibliophile book-plate, were to be printed and distributed among
+the members of the society. A few additional copies were struck off,
+but these did not bear the Bibliophile book-plate. Only two copies are
+available for other readers, and to peruse these it is necessary to
+visit the Congressional Library in Washington, where they were placed on
+July 24, 1908.
+
+These letters form two series--the first written to Miss Beadnell in
+or about 1829, and the second written to Mrs. Winter, formerly Miss
+Beadnell, in 1855.
+
+The book also contains an introduction by Henry H. Harper, who sets
+forth some theories which the facts, in my opinion, do not support;
+and there are a number of interesting portraits, especially one of Miss
+Beadnell in 1829--a lovely girl with dark curls. Another shows her in
+1855, when she writes of herself as "old and fat"--thereby doing herself
+a great deal of injustice; for although she had lost her youthful
+beauty, she was a very presentable woman of middle age, but one who
+would not be particularly noticed in any company.
+
+Summing up briefly these different letters, it may be said that in
+the first set Dickens wrote to the lady ardently, but by no means
+passionately. From what he says it is plain enough that she did not
+respond to his feeling, and that presently she left London and went to
+Paris, for her family was well-to-do, while Dickens was living from hand
+to mouth.
+
+In the second set of letters, written long afterward, Mrs. Winter seems
+to have "set her cap" at the now famous author; but at that time he was
+courted by every one, and had long ago forgotten the lady who had so
+easily dismissed him in his younger days. In 1855, Mrs. Winter seems to
+have reproached him for not having been more constant in the past; but
+he replied:
+
+You answered me coldly and reproachfully, and so I went my way.
+
+Mr. Harper, in his introduction, tries very hard to prove that in
+writing David Copperfield Dickens drew the character of Dora from Miss
+Beadnell. It is a dangerous thing to say from whom any character in
+a novel is drawn. An author takes whatever suits his purpose in
+circumstance and fancy, and blends them all into one consistent whole,
+which is not to be identified with any individual. There is little
+reason to think that the most intimate friends of Dickens and of his
+family were mistaken through all the years when they were certain that
+the boy husband and the girl wife of David Copperfield were suggested by
+any one save Dickens himself and Catherine Hogarth.
+
+Why should he have gone back to a mere passing fancy, to a girl who
+did not care for him, and who had no influence on his life, instead
+of picturing, as David's first wife, one whom he deeply loved, whom he
+married, who was the mother of his children, and who made a great part
+of his career, even that part which was inwardly half tragic and wholly
+mournful?
+
+Miss Beadnell may have been the original of Flora in Little Dorrit,
+though even this is doubtful. The character was at the time ascribed
+to a Miss Anna Maria Leigh, whom Dickens sometimes flirted with and
+sometimes caricatured.
+
+When Dickens came to know George Hogarth, who was one of his
+colleagues on the staff of the Morning Chronicle, he met Hogarth's
+daughters--Catherine, Georgina, and Mary--and at once fell ardently in
+love with Catherine, the eldest and prettiest of the three. He himself
+was almost girlish, with his fair complexion and light, wavy hair, so
+that the famous sketch by Maclise has a remarkable charm; yet nobody
+could really say with truth that any one of the three girls was
+beautiful. Georgina Hogarth, however, was sweet-tempered and of a
+motherly disposition. It may be that in a fashion she loved Dickens
+all her life, as she remained with him after he parted from her sister,
+taking the utmost care of his children, and looking out with unselfish
+fidelity for his many needs.
+
+It was Mary, however, the youngest of the Hogarths, who lived with the
+Dickenses during the first twelvemonth of their married life. To Dickens
+she was like a favorite sister, and when she died very suddenly, in her
+eighteenth year, her loss was a great shock to him.
+
+It was believed for a long time--in fact, until their separation--that
+Dickens and his wife were extremely happy in their home life. His
+writings glorified all that was domestic, and paid many tender tributes
+to the joys of family affection. When the separation came the whole
+world was shocked. And yet rather early in Dickens's married life there
+was more or less infelicity. In his Retrospections of an Active Life,
+Mr. John Bigelow writes a few sentences which are interesting for their
+frankness, and which give us certain hints:
+
+Mrs. Dickens was not a handsome woman, though stout, hearty, and
+matronly; there was something a little doubtful about her eye, and
+I thought her endowed with a temper that might be very violent when
+roused, though not easily rousable. Mrs. Caulfield told me that a
+Miss Teman--I think that is the name--was the source of the difficulty
+between Mrs. Dickens and her husband. She played in private theatricals
+with Dickens, and he sent her a portrait in a brooch, which met with
+an accident requiring it to be sent to the jeweler's to be mended. The
+jeweler, noticing Mr. Dickens's initials, sent it to his house. Mrs.
+Dickens's sister, who had always been in love with him and was jealous
+of Miss Teman, told Mrs. Dickens of the brooch, and she mounted her
+husband with comb and brush. This, no doubt, was Mrs. Dickens's version,
+in the main.
+
+A few evenings later I saw Miss Teman at the Haymarket Theatre, playing
+with Buckstone and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mathews. She seemed rather a
+small cause for such a serious result--passably pretty, and not much of
+an actress.
+
+Here in one passage we have an intimation that Mrs. Dickens had a
+temper that was easily roused, that Dickens himself was interested in
+an actress, and that Miss Hogarth "had always been in love with him, and
+was jealous of Miss Teman."
+
+Some years before this time, however, there had been growing in the mind
+of Dickens a certain formless discontent--something to which he could
+not give a name, yet which, cast over him the shadow of disappointment.
+He expressed the same feeling in David Copperfield, when he spoke of
+David's life with Dora. It seemed to come from the fact that he had
+grown to be a man, while his wife had still remained a child.
+
+A passage or two may be quoted from the novel, so that we may set them
+beside passages in Dickens's own life, which we know to have referred to
+his own wife, and not to any such nebulous person as Mrs. Winter.
+
+The shadow I have mentioned that was not to be between us any more,
+but was to rest wholly on my heart--how did that fall? The old unhappy
+feeling pervaded my life. It was deepened, if it were changed at all;
+but it was as undefined as ever, and addressed me like a strain of
+sorrowful music faintly heard in the night. I loved my wife dearly; but
+the happiness I had vaguely anticipated, once, was not the happiness I
+enjoyed, AND THERE WAS ALWAYS SOMETHING WANTING.
+
+What I missed I still regarded as something that had been a dream of
+my youthful fancy; that was incapable of realization; that I was now
+discovering to be so, with some natural pain, as all men did. But that
+it would have been better for me if my wife could have helped me more,
+and shared the many thoughts in which I had no partner, and that this
+might have been I knew.
+
+What I am describing slumbered and half awoke and slept again in the
+innermost recesses of my mind. There was no evidence of it to me; I knew
+of no influence it had in anything I said or did. I bore the weight of
+all our little cares and all my projects.
+
+"There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and
+purpose." These words I remembered. I had endeavored to adapt Dora to
+myself, and found it impracticable. It remained for me to adapt myself
+to Dora; to share with her what I could, and be happy; to bear on my own
+shoulders what I must, and be still happy.
+
+Thus wrote Dickens in his fictitious character, and of his fictitious
+wife. Let us see how he wrote and how he acted in his own person, and of
+his real wife.
+
+As early as 1856, he showed a curious and restless activity, as of one
+who was trying to rid himself of unpleasant thoughts. Mr. Forster
+says that he began to feel a strain upon his invention, a certain
+disquietude, and a necessity for jotting down memoranda in note-books,
+so as to assist his memory and his imagination. He began to long
+for solitude. He would take long, aimless rambles into the country,
+returning at no particular time or season. He once wrote to Forster:
+
+I have had dreadful thoughts of getting away somewhere altogether by
+myself. If I could have managed it, I think I might have gone to the
+Pyrenees for six months. I have visions of living for half a year or so
+in all sorts of inaccessible places, and of opening a new book therein.
+A floating idea of going up above the snow-line, and living in some
+astonishing convent, hovers over me.
+
+What do these cryptic utterances mean? At first, both in his novel and
+in his letters, they are obscure; but before long, in each, they become
+very definite. In 1856, we find these sentences among his letters:
+
+The old days--the old days! Shall I ever, I wonder, get the frame of
+mind back as it used to be then? Something of it, perhaps, but never
+quite as it used to be.
+
+I find that the skeleton in my domestic closet is becoming a pretty big
+one.
+
+His next letter draws the veil and shows plainly what he means:
+
+Poor Catherine and I are not made for each other, and there is no help
+for it. It is not only that she makes me uneasy and unhappy, but that
+I make her so, too--and much more so. We are strangely ill-assorted for
+the bond that exists between us.
+
+Then he goes on to say that she would have been a thousand times happier
+if she had been married to another man. He speaks of "incompatibility,"
+and a "difference of temperaments." In fact, it is the same old story
+with which we have become so familiar, and which is both as old as the
+hills and as new as this morning's newspaper.
+
+Naturally, also, things grow worse, rather than better. Dickens comes to
+speak half jocularly of "the plunge," and calculates as to what effect
+it will have on his public readings. He kept back the announcement of
+"the plunge" until after he had given several readings; then, on April
+29, 1858, Mrs. Dickens left his home. His eldest son went to live with
+the mother, but the rest of the children remained with their father,
+while his daughter Mary nominally presided over the house. In the
+background, however, Georgina Hogarth, who seemed all through her life
+to have cared for Dickens more than for her sister, remained as a sort
+of guide and guardian for his children.
+
+This arrangement was a private matter, and should not have been brought
+to public attention; but it was impossible to suppress all gossip about
+so prominent a man. Much of the gossip was exaggerated; and when it came
+to the notice of Dickens it stung him so severely as to lead him into
+issuing a public justification of his course. He published a
+statement in Household Words, which led to many other letters in other
+periodicals, and finally a long one from him, which was printed in the
+New York Tribune, addressed to his friend Mr. Arthur Smith.
+
+Dickens afterward declared that he had written this letter as a strictly
+personal and private one, in order to correct false rumors and scandals.
+Mr. Smith naturally thought that the statement was intended for
+publication, but Dickens always spoke of it as "the violated letter."
+
+By his allusions to a difference of temperament and to incompatibility,
+Dickens no doubt meant that his wife had ceased to be to him the same
+companion that she had been in days gone by. As in so many cases, she
+had not changed, while he had. He had grown out of the sphere in which
+he had been born, "associated with blacking-boys and quilt-printers,"
+and had become one of the great men of his time, whose genius was
+universally admired.
+
+Mr. Bigelow saw Mrs. Dickens as she really was--a commonplace woman
+endowed with the temper of a vixen, and disposed to outbursts of actual
+violence when her jealousy was roused.
+
+It was impossible that the two could have remained together, when in
+intellect and sympathy they were so far apart. There is nothing strange
+about their separation, except the exceedingly bad taste with which
+Dickens made it a public affair. It is safe to assume that he felt the
+need of a different mate; and that he found one is evident enough from
+the hints and bits of innuendo that are found in the writings of his
+contemporaries.
+
+He became a pleasure-lover; but more than that, he needed one who could
+understand his moods and match them, one who could please his tastes,
+and one who could give him that admiration which he felt to be his due;
+for he was always anxious to be praised, and his letters are full of
+anecdotes relating to his love of praise.
+
+One does not wish to follow out these clues too closely. It is certain
+that neither Miss Beadnell as a girl nor Mrs. Winter as a matron made
+any serious appeal to him. The actresses who have been often mentioned
+in connection with his name were, for the most part, mere passing
+favorites. The woman who in life was Dora made him feel the same
+incompleteness that he has described in his best-known book. The
+companion to whom he clung in his later years was neither a light-minded
+creature like Miss Beadnell, nor an undeveloped, high-tempered woman
+like the one he married, nor a mere domestic, friendly creature like
+Georgina Hogarth.
+
+Ought we to venture upon a quest which shall solve this mystery in the
+life of Charles Dickens! In his last will and testament, drawn up and
+signed by him about a year before his death, the first paragraph reads
+as follows:
+
+I, Charles Dickens, of Gadshill Place, Higham, in the county of Kent,
+hereby revoke all my former wills and codicils and declare this to be my
+last will and testament. I give the sum of one thousand pounds, free
+of legacy duty, to Miss Ellen Lawless Ternan, late of Houghton Place,
+Ampthill Square, in the county of Middlesex.
+
+In connection with this, read Mr. John Bigelow's careless jottings made
+some fifteen years before. Remember the Miss "Teman," about whose name
+he was not quite certain; the Hogarth sisters' dislike of her; and the
+mysterious figure in the background of the novelist's later life. Then
+consider the first bequest in his will, which leaves a substantial
+sum to one who was neither a relative nor a subordinate, but--may we
+assume--more than an ordinary friend?
+
+
+
+
+
+HONORE DE BALZAC AND EVELINA HANSKA
+
+
+I remember once, when editing an elaborate work on literature, that the
+publisher called me into his private office. After the door was closed,
+he spoke in tones of suppressed emotion.
+
+"Why is it," said he, "that you have such a lack of proportion? In the
+selection you have made I find that only two pages are given to George
+P. Morris, while you haven't given E. P. Roe any space at all! Yet, look
+here--you've blocked out fifty pages for Balzac, who was nothing but an
+immoral Frenchman!"
+
+I adjusted this difficulty, somehow or other--I do not just remember
+how--and began to think that, after all, this publisher's view of things
+was probably that of the English and American public. It is strange that
+so many biographies and so many appreciations of the greatest novelist
+who ever lived should still have left him, in the eyes of the reading
+public, little more than "an immoral Frenchman."
+
+"In Balzac," said Taine, "there was a money-broker, an archeologist, an
+architect, an upholsterer, a tailor, an old-clothes dealer, a journeyman
+apprentice, a physician, and a notary." Balzac was also a mystic, a
+supernaturalist, and, above all, a consummate artist. No one who is all
+these things in high measure, and who has raised himself by his genius
+above his countrymen, deserves the censure of my former publisher.
+
+Still less is Balzac to be dismissed as "immoral," for his life was one
+of singular self-sacrifice in spite of much temptation. His face was
+strongly sensual, his look and bearing denoted almost savage power; he
+led a free life in a country which allowed much freedom; and yet
+his story is almost mystic in its fineness of thought, and in its
+detachment, which was often that of another world.
+
+Balzac was born in 1799, at Tours, with all the traits of the people
+of his native province--fond of eating and drinking, and with plenty of
+humor. His father was fairly well off. Of four children, our Balzac was
+the eldest. The third was his sister Laure, who throughout his life was
+the most intimate friend he had, and to whom we owe his rescue from much
+scandalous and untrue gossip. From her we learn that their father was a
+combination of Montaigne, Rabelais, and "Uncle Toby."
+
+Young Balzac went to a clerical school at seven, and stayed there for
+seven years. Then he was brought home, apparently much prostrated,
+although the good fathers could find nothing physically amiss with him,
+and nothing in his studies to account for his agitation. No one ever did
+discover just what was the matter, for he seemed well enough in the
+next few years, basking on the riverside, watching the activities of
+his native town, and thoroughly studying the rustic types that he was
+afterward to make familiar to the world. In fact, in Louis Lambert he
+has set before us a picture of his own boyish life, very much as Dickens
+did of his in David Copperfield.
+
+For some reason, when these years were over, the boy began to have what
+is so often known as "a call"--a sort of instinct that he was to attain
+renown. Unfortunately it happened that about this time (1814) he and his
+parents removed to Paris, which was his home by choice, until his death
+in 1850. He studied here under famous teachers, and gave three years
+to the pursuit of law, of which he was very fond as literary material,
+though he refused to practise.
+
+This was the more grievous, since a great part of the family property
+had been lost. The Balzacs were afflicted by actual poverty, and Honore
+endeavored, with his pen, to beat the wolf back from the door. He earned
+a little money with pamphlets and occasional stories, but his thirst
+for fame was far from satisfied. He was sure that he was called to
+literature, and yet he was not sure that he had the power to succeed. In
+one of his letters to his sister, he wrote:
+
+I am young and hungry, and there is nothing on my plate. Oh, Laure,
+Laure, my two boundless desires, my only ones--to be famous, and to be
+loved--they ever be satisfied?
+
+For the next ten years he was learning his trade, and the artistic use
+of the fiction writer's tools. What is more to the point, is the fact
+that he began to dream of a series of great novels, which should give
+a true and panoramic picture of the whole of human life. This was the
+first intimation of his "Human Comedy," which was so daringly undertaken
+and so nearly completed in his after years. In his early days of
+obscurity, he said to his readers:
+
+Note well the characters that I introduce, since you will have to follow
+their fortunes through thirty novels that are to come.
+
+Here we see how little he had been daunted by ill success, and how his
+prodigious imagination had not been overcome by sorrow and evil fortune.
+Meantime, writing almost savagely, and with a feeling combined of
+ambition and despair, he had begun, very slowly indeed, to create a
+public. These ten years, however, had loaded him with debts; and his
+struggle to keep himself afloat only plunged him deeper in the mire.
+His thirty unsigned novels began to pay him a few hundred francs, not
+in cash, but in promissory notes; so that he had to go still deeper into
+debt.
+
+In 1827 he was toiling on his first successful novel, and indeed one of
+the best historic novels in French literature--The Chouans. He speaks of
+his labor as "done with a tired brain and an anxious mind," and of the
+eight or ten business letters that he had to write each day before he
+could begin his literary work.
+
+"Postage and an omnibus are extravagances that I cannot allow myself,"
+he writes. "I stay at home so as not to wear out my clothes. Is that
+clear to you?"
+
+At the end of the next year, though he was already popular as a
+novelist, and much sought out by people of distinction, he was at the
+very climax of his poverty. He had written thirty-five books, and was in
+debt to the amount of a hundred and twenty-four thousand francs. He was
+saved from bankruptcy only by the aid of Mme. de Berny, a woman of high
+character, and one whose moral influence was very strong with Balzac
+until her early death.
+
+The relation between these two has a sweetness and a purity which are
+seldom found. Mme. de Berny gave Balzac money as she would have given it
+to a son, and thereby she saved a great soul for literature. But there
+was no sickly sentiment between them, and Balzac regarded her with a
+noble love which he has expressed in the character of Mme. Firmiani.
+
+It was immediately after she had lightened his burdens that the real
+Balzac comes before us in certain stories which have no equal, and
+which are among the most famous that he ever wrote. What could be more
+wonderful than his El Verdugo, which gives us a brief horror while
+compelling our admiration? What, outside of Balzac himself, could be
+more terrible than Gobseck, a frightful study of avarice, containing
+a deathbed scene which surpasses in dreadfulness almost anything in
+literature? Add to these A Passion in the Desert, The Girl with the
+Golden Eyes, The Droll Stories, The Red Inn, and The Magic Skin, and you
+have a cluster of masterpieces not to be surpassed.
+
+In the year 1829, when he was just beginning to attain a slight success,
+Balzac received a long letter written in a woman's hand. As he read
+it, there came to him something very like an inspiration, so full of
+understanding were the written words, so full of appreciation and of
+sympathy with the best that he had done. This anonymous note pointed out
+here and there such defects as are apt to become chronic with a
+young author. Balzac was greatly stirred by its keen and sympathetic
+criticism. No one before had read his soul so clearly. No one--not even
+his devoted sister, Laure de Surville--had judged his work so wisely,
+had come so closely to his deepest feeling.
+
+He read the letter over and over, and presently another came, full of
+critical appreciation, and of wholesome, tonic, frank, friendly words
+of cheer. It was very largely the effect of these letters that roused
+Balzac's full powers and made him sure of winning the two great objects
+of his first ambition--love and fame--the ideals of the chivalrous,
+romantic Frenchman from Caesar's time down to the present day.
+
+Other letters followed, and after a while their authorship was made
+known to Balzac. He learned that they had been written by a young Polish
+lady, Mme. Evelina Hanska, the wife of a Polish count, whose health was
+feeble, and who spent much time in Switzerland because the climate there
+agreed with him.
+
+He met her first at Neuchatel, and found her all that he had imagined.
+It is said that she had no sooner raised her face, and looked him
+fully in the eyes, than she fell fainting to the floor, overcome by
+her emotion. Balzac himself was deeply moved. From that day until their
+final meeting he wrote to her daily.
+
+The woman who had become his second soul was not beautiful.
+Nevertheless, her face was intensely spiritual, and there was a mystic
+quality about it which made a strong appeal to Balzac's innermost
+nature. Those who saw him in Paris knocking about the streets at night
+with his boon companions, hobnobbing with the elder Dumas, or rejecting
+the frank advances of George Sand, would never have dreamed of this
+mysticism.
+
+Balzac was heavy and broad of figure. His face was suggestive only of
+what was sensuous and sensual. At the same time, those few who looked
+into his heart and mind found there many a sign of the fine inner strain
+which purified the grosser elements of his nature. He who wrote the
+roaring Rabelaisian Contes Drolatiques was likewise the author of
+Seraphita.
+
+This mysticism showed itself in many things that Balzac did. One little
+incident will perhaps be sufficiently characteristic of many others. He
+had a belief that names had a sort of esoteric appropriateness. So, in
+selecting them for his novels, he gathered them with infinite pains from
+many sources, and then weighed them anxiously in the balance. A writer
+on the subject of names and their significance has given the following
+account of this trait:
+
+The great novelist once spent an entire day tramping about in the
+remotest quarters of Paris in search of a fitting name for a character
+just conceived by him. Every sign-board, every door-plate, every affiche
+upon the walls, was scrutinized. Thousands of names were considered
+and rejected, and it was only after his companion, utterly worn out by
+fatigue, had flatly refused to drag his weary limbs through more than
+one additional street, that Balzac suddenly saw upon a sign the name
+"Marcas," and gave a shout of joy at having finally secured what he was
+seeking.
+
+Marcas it was, from that moment; and Balzac gradually evolved a
+Christian name for him. First he considered what initial was most
+appropriate; and then, having decided upon Z, he went on to expand this
+into Zepherin, explaining minutely just why the whole name Zepherin
+Marcas, was the only possible one for the character in the novel.
+
+In many ways Balzac and Evelina Hanska were mated by nature. Whether
+they were fully mated the facts of their lives must demonstrate. For the
+present, the novelist plunged into a whirl of literary labor, toiling as
+few ever toiled--constructing several novels at the same time, visiting
+all the haunts of the French capital, so that he might observe and
+understand every type of human being, and then hurling himself like a
+giant at his work.
+
+He had a curious practise of reading proofs. These would come to him in
+enormous sheets, printed on special paper, and with wide margins for his
+corrections. An immense table stood in the midst of his study, and upon
+the top he would spread out the proofs as if they were vast maps. Then,
+removing most of his outer garments, he would lie, face down, upon the
+proof-sheets, with a gigantic pencil, such as Bismarck subsequently used
+to wield. Thus disposed, he would go over the proofs.
+
+Hardly anything that he had written seemed to suit him when he saw it
+in print. He changed and kept changing, obliterating what he disliked,
+writing in new sentences, revising others, and adding whole pages in the
+margins, until perhaps he had practically made a new book. This process
+was repeated several times; and how expensive it was may be judged from
+the fact that his bill for "author's proof corrections" was sometimes
+more than the publishers had agreed to pay him for the completed volume.
+
+Sometimes, again, he would begin writing in the afternoon, and continue
+until dawn. Then, weary, aching in every bone, and with throbbing head,
+he would rise and turn to fall upon his couch after his eighteen hours
+of steady toil. But the memory of Evelina Hanska always came to him;
+and with half-numbed fingers he would seize his pen, and forget his
+weariness in the pleasure of writing to the dark-eyed woman who drew him
+to her like a magnet.
+
+These are very curious letters that Balzac wrote to Mme. Hanska. He
+literally told her everything about himself. Not only were there long
+passages instinct with tenderness, and with his love for her; but he
+also gave her the most minute account of everything that occurred, and
+that might interest her. Thus he detailed at length his mode of living,
+the clothes he wore, the people whom he met, his trouble with his
+creditors, the accounts of his income and outgo. One might think that
+this was egotism on his part; but it was more than that. It was a strong
+belief that everything which concerned him must concern her; and he
+begged her in turn to write as freely and as fully.
+
+Mme. Hanska was not the only woman who became his friend and comrade,
+and to whom he often wrote. He made many acquaintances in the
+fashionable world through the good offices of the Duchesse de Castries.
+By her favor, he studied with his microscopic gaze the beau monde of
+Louis Philippe's rather unimpressive court.
+
+In a dozen books he scourged the court of the citizen king--its
+pretensions, its commonness, and its assemblage of nouveaux riches. Yet
+in it he found many friends--Victor Hugo, the Girardins--and among them
+women who were of the world. George Sand he knew very well, and she made
+ardent love to him; but he laughed her off very much as the elder Dumas
+did.
+
+Then there was the pretty, dainty Mme. Carraud, who read and revised his
+manuscripts, and who perhaps took a more intimate interest in him than
+did the other ladies whom he came to know so well. Besides Mme. Hanska,
+he had another correspondent who signed herself "Louise," but who never
+let him know her name, though she wrote him many piquant, sunny letters,
+which he so sadly needed.
+
+For though Honore de Balzac was now one of the most famous writers of
+his time, his home was still a den of suffering. His debts kept pressing
+on him, loading him down, and almost quenching hope. He acted toward his
+creditors like a man of honor, and his physical strength was still
+that of a giant. To Mme. Carraud he once wrote the half pathetic, half
+humorous plaint:
+
+Poor pen! It must be diamond, not because one would wish to wear it, but
+because it has had so much use!
+
+And again:
+
+Here I am, owing a hundred thousand francs. And I am forty!
+
+Balzac and Mme. Hanska met many times after that first eventful episode
+at Neuchatel. It was at this time that he gave utterance to the poignant
+cry:
+
+Love for me is life, and to-day I feel it more than ever!
+
+In like manner he wrote, on leaving her, that famous epigram:
+
+It is only the last love of a woman that can satisfy the first love of a
+man.
+
+In 1842 Mme. Hanska's husband died. Balzac naturally expected that an
+immediate marriage with the countess would take place; but the woman
+who had loved him mystically for twelve years, and with a touch of the
+physical for nine, suddenly draws back. She will not promise anything.
+She talks of delays, owing to the legal arrangements for her children.
+She seems almost a prude. An American critic has contrasted her attitude
+with his:
+
+Every one knows how utterly and absolutely Balzac devoted to this one
+woman all his genius, his aspiration, the thought of his every moment;
+how every day, after he had labored like a slave for eighteen hours, he
+would take his pen and pour out to her the most intimate details of his
+daily life; how at her call he would leave everything and rush across
+the continent to Poland or to Italy, being radiantly happy if he could
+but see her face and be for a few days by her side. The very thought of
+meeting her thrilled him to the very depths of his nature, and made him,
+for weeks and even months beforehand, restless, uneasy, and agitated,
+with an almost painful happiness.
+
+It is the most startling proof of his immense vitality, both physical
+and mental, that so tremendous an emotional strain could be endured
+by him for years without exhausting his fecundity or blighting his
+creativeness.
+
+With Balzac, however, it was the period of his most brilliant work;
+and this was true in spite of the anguish of long separations, and the
+complaints excited by what appears to be caprice or boldness or a faint
+indifference. Even in Balzac one notices toward the last a certain sense
+of strain underlying what he wrote, a certain lack of elasticity and
+facility, if of nothing more; yet on the whole it is likely that without
+this friendship Balzac would have been less great than he actually
+became, as it is certain that had it been broken off he would have
+ceased to write or to care for anything whatever in the world.
+
+And yet, when they were free to marry, Mme. Hanska shrank away. Not
+until 1846, four years after her husband's death, did she finally give
+her promise to the eager Balzac. Then, in the overflow of his happiness,
+his creative genius blazed up into a most wonderful flame; but he soon
+discovered that the promise was not to be at once fulfilled. The shock
+impaired that marvelous vitality which had carried him through debt, and
+want, and endless labor.
+
+It was at this moment, by the irony of fate, that his country hailed him
+as one of the greatest of its men of genius. A golden stream poured
+into his lap. His debts were not all extinguished, but his income was so
+large that they burdened him no longer.
+
+But his one long dream was the only thing for which he cared; and though
+in an exoteric sense this dream came true, its truth was but a mockery.
+Evelina Hanska summoned him to Poland, and Balzac went to her at once.
+There was another long delay, and for more than a year he lived as a
+guest in the countess's mansion at Wierzchownia; but finally, in March,
+1850, the two were married. A few weeks later they came back to France
+together, and occupied the little country house, Les Jardies, in which,
+some decades later, occurred Gambetta's mysterious death.
+
+What is the secret of this strange love, which in the woman seems to be
+not precisely love, but something else? Balzac was always eager for her
+presence. She, on the other hand, seems to have been mentally more at
+ease when he was absent. Perhaps the explanation, if we may venture upon
+one, is based upon a well-known physiological fact.
+
+Love in its completeness is made up of two great elements--first, the
+element that is wholly spiritual, that is capable of sympathy, and
+tenderness, and deep emotion. The other element is the physical,
+the source of passion, of creative energy, and of the truly virile
+qualities, whether it be in man or woman. Now, let either of these
+elements be lacking, and love itself cannot fully and utterly exist.
+The spiritual nature in one may find its mate in the spiritual nature
+of another; and the physical nature of one may find its mate in the
+physical nature of another. But into unions such as these, love does not
+enter in its completeness. If there is any element lacking in either
+of those who think that they can mate, their mating will be a sad and
+pitiful failure.
+
+It is evident enough that Mme. Hanska was almost wholly spiritual, and
+her long years of waiting had made her understand the difference between
+Balzac and herself. Therefore, she shrank from his proximity, and from
+his physical contact, and it was perhaps better for them both that their
+union was so quickly broken off by death; for the great novelist died of
+heart disease only five months after the marriage.
+
+If we wish to understand the mystery of Balzac's life--or, more truly,
+the mystery of the life of the woman whom he married--take up and read
+once more the pages of Seraphita, one of his poorest novels and yet a
+singularly illuminating story, shedding light upon a secret of the soul.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHARLES READE AND LAURA SEYMOUR
+
+
+The instances of distinguished men, or of notable women, who have broken
+through convention in order to find a fitting mate, are very numerous. A
+few of these instances may, perhaps, represent what is usually called
+a Platonic union. But the evidence is always doubtful. The world is not
+possessed of abundant charity, nor does human experience lead one to
+believe that intimate relations between a man and a woman are compatible
+with Platonic friendship.
+
+Perhaps no case is more puzzling than that which is found in the
+life-history of Charles Reade and Laura Seymour.
+
+Charles Reade belongs to that brilliant group of English writers and
+artists which included Dickens, Bulwer-Lytton, Wilkie Collins, Tom
+Taylor, George Eliot, Swinburne, Sir Walter Besant, Maclise, and Goldwin
+Smith. In my opinion, he ranks next to Dickens in originality and power.
+His books are little read to-day; yet he gave to the English stage the
+comedy "Masks and Faces," which is now as much a classic as Goldsmith's
+"She Stoops to Conquer" or Sheridan's "School for Scandal." His power as
+a novelist was marvelous. Who can forget the madhouse episodes in Hard
+Cash, or the great trial scene in Griffith Gaunt, or that wonderful
+picture, in The Cloister and the Hearth, of Germany and Rome at the end
+of the Middle Ages? Here genius has touched the dead past and made it
+glow again with an intense reality.
+
+He was the son of a country gentleman, the lord of a manor which had
+been held by his family before the Wars of the Boses. His ancestors had
+been noted for their services in warfare, in Parliament, and upon the
+bench. Reade, therefore, was in feeling very much of an aristocrat.
+Sometimes he pushed his ancestral pride to a whimsical excess, very much
+as did his own creation, Squire Raby, in Put Yourself in His Place.
+
+At the same time he might very well have been called a Tory democrat.
+His grandfather had married the daughter of a village blacksmith, and
+Reade was quite as proud of this as he was of the fact that another
+ancestor had been lord chief justice of England. From the sturdy
+strain which came to him from the blacksmith he, perhaps, derived
+that sledge-hammer power with which he wrote many of his most famous
+chapters, and which he used in newspaper controversies with his
+critics. From his legal ancestors there may have come to him the love
+of litigation, which kept him often in hot water. From those who had
+figured in the life of royal courts, he inherited a romantic nature,
+a love of art, and a very delicate perception of the niceties of
+cultivated usage. Such was Charles Reade--keen observer, scholar,
+Bohemian--a man who could be both rough and tender, and whose boisterous
+ways never concealed his warm heart.
+
+Reade's school-days were Spartan in their severity. A teacher with
+the appropriate name of Slatter set him hard tasks and caned him
+unmercifully for every shortcoming. A weaker nature would have been
+crushed. Reade's was toughened, and he learned to resist pain and to
+resent wrong, so that hatred of injustice has been called his dominating
+trait.
+
+In preparing himself for college he was singularly fortunate in his
+tutors. One of them was Samuel Wilberforce, afterward Bishop of Oxford,
+nicknamed, from his suavity of manner, "Soapy Sam"; and afterward, when
+Reade was studying law, his instructor was Samuel Warren, the author
+of that once famous novel, Ten Thousand a Year, and the creator of
+"Tittlebat Titmouse."
+
+For his college at Oxford, Reade selected one of the most beautiful
+and ancient--Magdalen--which he entered, securing what is known as a
+demyship. Reade won his demyship by an extraordinary accident. Always an
+original youth, his reading was varied and valuable; but in his studies
+he had never tried to be minutely accurate in small matters. At that
+time every candidate was supposed to be able to repeat, by heart, the
+"Thirty-Nine Articles." Reade had no taste for memorizing; and out of
+the whole thirty-nine he had learned but three. His general examination
+was good, though not brilliant. When he came to be questioned orally,
+the examiner, by a chance that would not occur once in a million times,
+asked the candidate to repeat these very articles. Reade rattled them
+off with the greatest glibness, and produced so favorable an impression
+that he was let go without any further questioning.
+
+It must be added that his English essay was original, and this also
+helped him; but had it not been for the other great piece of luck he
+would, in Oxford phrase, have been "completely gulfed." As it was,
+however, he was placed as highly as the young men who were afterward
+known as Cardinal Newman and Sir Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke).
+
+At the age of twenty-one, Reade obtained a fellowship, which entitled
+him to an income so long as he remained unmarried. It is necessary to
+consider the significance of this when we look at his subsequent career.
+The fellowship at Magdalen was worth, at the outset, about twelve
+hundred dollars annually, and it gave him possession of a suite of rooms
+free of any charge. He likewise secured a Vinerian fellowship in law, to
+which was attached an income of four hundred dollars. As time went
+on, the value of the first fellowship increased until it was worth
+twenty-five hundred dollars. Therefore, as with many Oxford men of
+his time, Charles Reade, who had no other fortune, was placed in this
+position--if he refrained from marrying, he had a home and a moderate
+income for life, without any duties whatsoever. If he married, he must
+give up his income and his comfortable apartments, and go out into the
+world and struggle for existence.
+
+There was the further temptation that the possession of his fellowship
+did not even necessitate his living at Oxford. He might spend his time
+in London, or even outside of England, knowing that his chambers at
+Magdalen were kept in order for him, as a resting-place to which he
+might return whenever he chose.
+
+Reade remained a while at Oxford, studying books and men--especially the
+latter. He was a great favorite with the undergraduates, though less so
+with the dons. He loved the boat-races on the river; he was a prodigious
+cricket-player, and one of the best bowlers of his time. He utterly
+refused to put on any of the academic dignity which his associates
+affected. He wore loud clothes. His flaring scarfs were viewed as being
+almost scandalous, very much as Longfellow's parti-colored waistcoats
+were regarded when he first came to Harvard as a professor.
+
+Charles Reade pushed originality to eccentricity. He had a passion for
+violins, and ran himself into debt because he bought so many and such
+good ones. Once, when visiting his father's house at Ipsden, he shocked
+the punctilious old gentleman by dancing on the dining-table to the
+accompaniment of a fiddle, which he scraped delightedly. Dancing,
+indeed, was another of his diversions, and, in spite of the fact that he
+was a fellow of Magdalen and a D.C.L. of Oxford, he was always ready to
+caper and to display the new steps.
+
+In the course of time, he went up to London; and at once plunged into
+the seething tide of the metropolis. He made friends far and wide, and
+in every class and station--among authors and politicians, bishops and
+bargees, artists and musicians. Charles Reade learned much from all of
+them, and all of them were fond of him.
+
+But it was the theater that interested him most. Nothing else seemed to
+him quite so fine as to be a successful writer for the stage. He viewed
+the drama with all the reverence of an ancient Greek. On his tombstone
+he caused himself to be described as "Dramatist, novelist, journalist."
+
+"Dramatist" he put first of all, even after long experience had shown
+him that his greatest power lay in writing novels. But in this early
+period he still hoped for fame upon the stage.
+
+It was not a fortunate moment for dramatic writers. Plays were bought
+outright by the managers, who were afraid to risk any considerable sum,
+and were very shy about risking anything at all. The system had not yet
+been established according to which an author receives a share of the
+money taken at the box-office. Consequently, Reade had little or no
+financial success. He adapted several pieces from the French, for which
+he was paid a few bank-notes. "Masks and Faces" got a hearing, and drew
+large audiences, but Reade had sold it for a paltry sum; and he shared
+the honors of its authorship with Tom Taylor, who was then much better
+known.
+
+Such was the situation. Reade was personally liked, but his plays were
+almost all rejected. He lived somewhat extravagantly and ran into debt,
+though not very deeply. He had a play entitled "Christie Johnstone,"
+which he believed to be a great one, though no manager would venture
+to produce it. Reade, brooding, grew thin and melancholy. Finally, he
+decided that he would go to a leading actress at one of the principal
+theaters and try to interest her in his rejected play. The actress he
+had in mind was Laura Seymour, then appearing at the Haymarket under the
+management of Buckstone; and this visit proved to be the turning-point
+in Reade's whole life.
+
+Laura Seymour was the daughter of a surgeon at Bath--a man in large
+practise and with a good income, every penny of which he spent. His
+family lived in lavish style; but one morning, after he had sat up all
+night playing cards, his little daughter found him in the dining-room,
+stone dead. After his funeral it appeared that he had left no provision
+for his family. A friend of his--a Jewish gentleman of Portuguese
+extraction--showed much kindness to the children, settling their affairs
+and leaving them with some money in the bank; but, of course, something
+must be done.
+
+The two daughters removed to London, and at a very early age Laura had
+made for herself a place in the dramatic world, taking small parts at
+first, but rising so rapidly that in her fifteenth year she was cast
+for the part of Juliet. As an actress she led a life of strange
+vicissitudes. At one time she would be pinched by poverty, and at
+another time she would be well supplied with money, which slipped
+through her fingers like water. She was a true Bohemian, a
+happy-go-lucky type of the actors of her time.
+
+From all accounts, she was never very beautiful; but she had an instinct
+for strange, yet effective, costumes, which attracted much attention.
+She has been described as "a fluttering, buoyant, gorgeous little
+butterfly." Many were drawn to her. She was careless of what she did,
+and her name was not untouched with scandal. But she lived through it
+all, and emerged a clever, sympathetic woman of wide experience, both on
+the stage and off it.
+
+One of her admirers--an elderly gentleman named Seymour--came to her one
+day when she was in much need of money, and told her that he had just
+deposited a thousand pounds to her credit at the bank. Having said
+this, he left the room precipitately. It was the beginning of a sort of
+courtship; and after a while she married him. Her feeling toward him was
+one of gratitude. There was no sentiment about it; but she made him a
+good wife, and gave no further cause for gossip.
+
+Such was the woman whom Charles Reade now approached with the request
+that she would let him read to her a portion of his play. He had seen
+her act, and he honestly believed her to be a dramatic genius of the
+first order. Few others shared this belief; but she was generally
+thought of as a competent, though by no means brilliant, actress. Reade
+admired her extremely, so that at the very thought of speaking with her
+his emotions almost choked him.
+
+In answer to a note, she sent word that he might call at her house. He
+was at this time (1849) in his thirty-eighth year. The lady was a little
+older, and had lost something of her youthful charm; yet, when Reade was
+ushered into her drawing-room, she seemed to him the most graceful and
+accomplished woman whom he had ever met.
+
+She took his measure, or she thought she took it, at a glance. Here was
+one of those would-be playwrights who live only to torment managers
+and actresses. His face was thin, from which she inferred that he was
+probably half starved. His bashfulness led her to suppose that he was
+an inexperienced youth. Little did she imagine that he was the son of a
+landed proprietor, a fellow of one of Oxford's noblest colleges, and one
+with friends far higher in the world than herself. Though she thought so
+little of him, and quite expected to be bored, she settled herself in a
+soft armchair to listen. The unsuccessful playwright read to her a scene
+or two from his still unfinished drama. She heard him patiently, noting
+the cultivated accent of his voice, which proved to her that he was at
+least a gentleman. When he had finished, she said:
+
+"Yes, that's good! The plot is excellent." Then she laughed a sort of
+stage laugh, and remarked lightly: "Why don't you turn it into a novel?"
+
+Reade was stung to the quick. Nothing that she could have said would
+have hurt him more. Novels he despised; and here was this woman, the
+queen of the English stage, as he regarded her, laughing at his drama
+and telling him to make a novel of it. He rose and bowed.
+
+"I am trespassing on your time," he said; and, after barely touching the
+fingers of her outstretched hand, he left the room abruptly.
+
+The woman knew men very well, though she scarcely knew Charles Reade.
+Something in his melancholy and something in his manner stirred her
+heart. It was not a heart that responded to emotions readily, but it was
+a very good-natured heart. Her explanation of Reade's appearance led
+her to think that he was very poor. If she had not much tact, she had
+an abundant store of sympathy; and so she sat down and wrote a very
+blundering but kindly letter, in which she enclosed a five-pound note.
+
+Reade subsequently described his feelings on receiving this letter with
+its bank-note. He said:
+
+"I, who had been vice-president of Magdalen--I, who flattered myself I
+was coming to the fore as a dramatist--to have a five-pound note flung
+at my head, like a ticket for soup to a pauper, or a bone to a dog, and
+by an actress, too! Yet she said my reading was admirable; and, after
+all, there is much virtue in a five-pound note. Anyhow, it showed the
+writer had a good heart."
+
+The more he thought of her and of the incident, the more comforted he
+was. He called on her the next day without making an appointment; and
+when she received him, he had the five-pound note fluttering in his
+hand.
+
+She started to speak, but he interrupted her.
+
+"No," he said, "that is not what I wanted from you. I wanted sympathy,
+and you have unintentionally supplied it."
+
+Then this man, whom she had regarded as half starved, presented her with
+an enormous bunch of hothouse grapes, and the two sat down and ate
+them together, thus beginning a friendship which ended only with Laura
+Seymour's death.
+
+Oddly enough, Mrs. Seymour's suggestion that Reade should make a story
+of his play was a suggestion which he actually followed. It was to her
+guidance and sympathy that the world owes the great novels which he
+afterward composed. If he succeeded on the stage at all, it was not
+merely in "Masks and Faces," but in his powerful dramatization of Zola's
+novel, L'Assommoir, under the title "Drink," in which the late
+Charles Warner thrilled and horrified great audiences all over the
+English-speaking world. Had Reade never known Laura Seymour, he might
+never have written so strong a drama.
+
+The mystery of Reade's relations with this woman can never be definitely
+cleared up. Her husband, Mr. Seymour, died not long after she and Reade
+became acquainted. Then Reade and several friends, both men and women,
+took a house together; and Laura Seymour, now a clever manager
+and amiable hostess, looked after all the practical affairs of the
+establishment. One by one, the others fell away, through death or by
+removal, until at last these two were left alone. Then Reade, unable
+to give up the companionship which meant so much to him, vowed that she
+must still remain and care for him. He leased a house in Sloane Street,
+which he has himself described in his novel A Terrible Temptation. It is
+the chapter wherein Reade also draws his own portrait in the character
+of Francis Bolfe:
+
+The room was rather long, low, and nondescript; scarlet flock paper;
+curtains and sofas, green Utrecht velvet; woodwork and pillars,
+white and gold; two windows looking on the street; at the other end
+folding-doors, with scarcely any woodwork, all plate glass, but partly
+hidden by heavy curtains of the same color and material as the others.
+
+At last a bell rang; the maid came in and invited Lady Bassett to follow
+her. She opened the glass folding-doors and took them into a small
+conservatory, walled like a grotto, with ferns sprouting out of rocky
+fissures, and spars sparkling, water dripping. Then she opened two more
+glass folding-doors, and ushered them into an empty room, the like
+of which Lady Bassett had never seen; it was large in itself, and
+multiplied tenfold by great mirrors from floor to ceiling, with no
+frames but a narrow oak beading; opposite her, on entering, was a bay
+window, all plate glass, the central panes of which opened, like doors,
+upon a pretty little garden that glowed with color, and was backed by
+fine trees belonging to the nation; for this garden ran up to the wall
+of Hyde Park.
+
+The numerous and large mirrors all down to the ground laid hold of the
+garden and the flowers, and by double and treble reflection filled the
+room with delightful nooks of verdure and color.
+
+Here are the words in which Reade describes himself as he looked when
+between fifty and sixty years of age:
+
+He looked neither like a poet nor a drudge, but a great fat country
+farmer. He was rather tall, very portly, smallish head, commonplace
+features, mild brown eye not very bright, short beard, and wore a suit
+of tweed all one color.
+
+Such was the house and such was the man over both of which Laura
+Seymour held sway until her death in 1879. What must be thought of their
+relations? She herself once said to Mr. John Coleman:
+
+"As for our positions--his and mine--we are partners, nothing more. He
+has his bank-account, and I have mine. He is master of his fellowship
+and his rooms at Oxford, and I am mistress of this house, but not his
+mistress! Oh, dear, no!"
+
+At another time, long after Mr. Seymour's death, she said to an intimate
+friend:
+
+"I hope Mr. Reade will never ask me to marry him, for I should certainly
+refuse the offer."
+
+There was no reason why he should not have made this offer, because his
+Oxford fellowship ceased to be important to him after he had won fame as
+a novelist. Publishers paid him large sums for everything he wrote. His
+debts were all paid off, and his income was assured. Yet he never spoke
+of marriage, and he always introduced his friend as "the lady who keeps
+my house for me."
+
+As such, he invited his friends to meet her, and as such, she even
+accompanied him to Oxford. There was no concealment, and apparently
+there was nothing to conceal. Their manner toward each other was that of
+congenial friends. Mrs. Seymour, in fact, might well have been described
+as "a good fellow." Sometimes she referred to him as "the doctor," and
+sometimes by the nickname "Charlie." He, on his side, often spoke of her
+by her last name as "Seymour," precisely as if she had been a man. One
+of his relatives rather acutely remarked about her that she was not a
+woman of sentiment at all, but had a genius for friendship; and that she
+probably could not have really loved any man at all.
+
+This is, perhaps, the explanation of their intimacy. If so, it is a very
+remarkable instance of Platonic friendship. It is certain that, after
+she met Reade, Mrs. Seymour never cared for any other man. It is no less
+certain that he never cared for any other woman. When she died, five
+years before his death, his life became a burden to him. It was then
+that he used to speak of her as "my lost darling" and "my dove."
+He directed that they should be buried side by side in Willesden
+churchyard. Over the monument which commemorates them both, he caused
+to be inscribed, in addition to an epitaph for himself, the following
+tribute to his friend. One should read it and accept the touching words
+as answering every question that may be asked:
+
+Here lies the great heart of Laura Seymour, a brilliant artist, a humble
+Christian, a charitable woman, a loving daughter, sister, and friend,
+who lived for others from her childhood. Tenderly pitiful to all God's
+creatures--even to some that are frequently destroyed or neglected--she
+wiped away the tears from many faces, helping the poor with her savings
+and the sorrowful with her earnest pity. When the eye saw her it blessed
+her, for her face was sunshine, her voice was melody, and her heart was
+sympathy.
+
+This grave was made for her and for himself by Charles Reade, whose wise
+counselor, loyal ally, and bosom friend she was for twenty-four years,
+and who mourns her all his days.
+
+
+END OF VOLUME FOUR
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Famous Affinities of History,  Vol
+1-4, Complete, by Lyndon Orr
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