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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #54031 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54031)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4,
-October 1850, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, October 1850
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: George Rex Graham
-
-Release Date: January 20, 2017 [EBook #54031]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1850 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Mardi Desjardins & the online Distributed
-Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net from
-page images generously made available by Google Books and
-the Los Angeles Public Library Visual Collections
-
-
-
-
-
- GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
- VOL. XXXVII. October, 1850. NO. 4.
-
-
- Table of Contents
-
- Fiction, Literature and Articles
-
- The Slave of the Pacha
- Music
- Pedro de Padilh
- Edda Murray
- Thomas Johnson
- Early English Poets—George Herbert
- Teal and Teal Shooting
- The Fine Arts
- Review of New Books
-
- Poetry, Music and Fashion
-
- A Night at The Black Sign
- Sonnets: Suggested by Passages in the Life of
- Christopher Columbus
- To a Friend—with a Bunch of Roses
- Spring Lilies
- The Earth
- Alone—Alone!
- The Name of Wife
- Sonnet.—The Olive.
- Sin No More
- Wordsworth
- Inspiration. To Shirley.
- Sonnets, On Pictures in the Huntington Gallery
- Thinking of Minna
- The Maiden’s Lament for Her Shipwrecked Lover
- The Years of Love
- Ah, Do Not Speak So Coldly
- Le Follet
-
- Transcriber’s Notes can be found at the end of this eBook.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration: THE SLAVE OF THE PACHA.
-
-Painted by W. Brown and Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine by J.
- Brown]
-
- * * * * *
-
- GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.
-
- VOL. XXXVII. PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER, 1850. NO. 4.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE SLAVE OF THE PACHA.
-
-
- A TALE OF ASIA MINOR.
-
-
- FROM THE FRENCH OF SAINTINE.
-
-
-I was botanizing lately in the woods of Luciennes, with one of my
-friends, a distinguished Orientalist and renowned botanist, who had, a
-few years since, traveled six thousand miles, and risked his life twenty
-times, in order to obtain a handful of plants from the slopes of the
-Taurus or the plains of Asia Minor. After we had wandered for some time
-through the woods, gathering here and there some dry grass and orchis,
-merely to renew an acquaintance with them, we lounged toward the
-handsome village of Gressets and the delightful valley of Beauregard,
-directing our steps toward a breakfast, which we hoped to find a little
-further on, when, beneath an alley of lofty poplars, on the left of the
-meadows of the Butard, we saw two persons, a man and a woman, both
-young, approaching us.
-
-My companion made a gesture of surprise at the sight of them.
-
-“Do you know those persons?” I asked.
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Of what class, genus and species are they?” I used the words merely in
-their botanical sense.
-
-“Analyze, observe and divine,” replied my illustrious traveler.
-
-I determined then on applying to my individuals, not the system of
-Linnæus, but that of Jussien, that of affinities and analogies. The
-latter appeared to me to be more suitable and easier than the former.
-The young man was dressed in a very simple and even negligent style,
-wearing those high heeled shoes, three-quarter boots, which have
-succeeded the half boots, (boots, since the introduction of comfort
-among us, having steadily lessened,) and had not even straps to his
-pantaloons. A pearl colored sack, colored shirt, and traveling cap with
-a large visor, completed his costume.
-
-Near him walked a young woman, of the middle height and finely formed,
-but with such an air of indolence in her movements, flexibility of the
-body, and jogging of the haunches, as proclaimed a southern origin or a
-want of distinction. They advanced with their heads down, speaking
-without looking up, and walking side by side without taking arms, but
-from time to time one leant on the shoulder of the other, with a
-movement full of affection.
-
-It was not until we crossed them that I could see their figures; until
-then I had been able to study only their costume and general outline.
-
-The young man blushed on recognizing my companion, and saluted him with
-a very humble air; I had scarcely time, however, to catch a single
-pathognomic line of his face. The female was very handsome; the elegance
-of her neck, the regularity of her features, gave her a certain air of
-distinction, contradicted, however, by something provoking in her
-appearance.
-
-When they had passed on some distance, my friend said to me:
-
-“Well, what judgment do you pass on our two persons?”
-
-“Well,” replied I, positively, “the young man is your confectioner, who
-is about to marry his head shop-girl;” but reading a sign of negation on
-the countenance of my interrogator—“or a successful merchant’s clerk,
-with a countess without prejudices.”
-
-“You are wrong.”
-
-I asked for a moment’s reflection, and, to render my work of observation
-perfect, I looked after them.
-
-They had reached, near the place where we were, the side of a spring,
-called, in the country, the “Priest’s Fountain.” The young female had
-already seated herself upon the grass, and drawing forth a napkin spread
-it near her, whilst the young man drew a paté and some other provisions
-carefully from his basket.
-
-“Certainly,” I said to myself, “there are, evidently, in the face of
-this beautiful person, traits both of the great lady and the grisette;
-but, on thinking of her rolling fashion of walking, and especially
-judging of her by the appearance of her companion, then stooping to
-uncork a bottle, and whose unstrapped pantaloons, riding half way up his
-leg, revealed his quarter boots, the grisette type prevailed in my
-opinion.”
-
-“The lady,” I replied, but with less assurance than at first, “is a
-figurante at one of our theatres, or a female equestrian at the Olympic
-circus.”
-
-“There is some truth in what you say.”
-
-“He is a lemonade seller.” I judged so from the practiced facility with
-which he appeared to open the bottle.
-
-“You are farther from the mark than ever,” said my companion.
-
-“Well, then, let us talk about something else.”
-
-Once at the Butard we thought no more of our two Parisian cockneys.
-Whilst they were preparing our breakfast, and even whilst we were
-breakfasting, my friend naturally recommenced speaking of his travels in
-the Taurus and Anti-Taurus, in the Balkan, the Caucasus, on the banks of
-the Euphrates, and then, to give me a respite from all his botanical and
-geological descriptions, he related to me, piece by piece, without
-appearing to attach the least importance to them, a story, which
-interested me very much. He had collected the details of it (the scene
-of which was laid not far from the shores of the Black Sea, between
-Erzerum and Constantinople) from the lips of one of the principal actors
-in it.
-
-I endeavored to reduce it to writing when with him, not in the same
-order, or disorder, as to events, but at least so far as regards their
-exactness, and availing myself of the knowledge of persons and places
-acquired by my traveler.
-
-
- CHAPTER I.
-
-Toward the middle of the month of July, in the year 1841, in the
-pachalick of Shivas, in the vast gardens situated near the Red River, a
-young girl, dressed in the Turkish costume, was walking slowly, with her
-head bent down, followed by an old negress. At times she turned her head
-rapidly, and when her eyes, through the massive maples and sycamores,
-rested on the angle of a large building, with gilded lattices and
-balconies of finely carved cedar, her complexion, usually pale, became
-suddenly suffused, her small foot contracted against the ground, her
-breast heaved, and she restrained with difficulty the sigh that
-endeavored to escape.
-
-Silent and pre-occupied she stopped, and with her finger designated a
-plantain tree to the negress. The latter immediately entered an elegant
-kiosk, a few paces distant, and returned, bearing the skin of a tiger,
-which she placed at the foot of the tree. After the old negress had
-passed and repassed several times from the skin to the kiosk, and from
-the kiosk to the skin, the young girl seated herself, cross-legged, on
-the latter, leaning against the plantain tree, on a cushion of black
-velvet, holding carelessly in her left hand an ornamented pipe, with a
-tube of Persian cherry, and in her right, in a small stand of filagreed
-gold, shaped like an egg-cup, a slight porcelain cup, which the old
-slave replenished from time to time with the fragrant Mocha.
-
-Baïla was seventeen years old; her black and lustrous hair, parted over
-her temples, resembled the raven’s wing; her eye-brows thin, and forming
-a perfect arch, though of the same color as her hair, were, as well as
-her long eye-lashes and the edge of the lids, covered with a preparation
-of antimony, called _sourmah_. Still other colors had been employed to
-heighten the lustre of her beauty; the carnation of her lips had
-disappeared beneath a light touch of indigo; and, by way of contrary
-effect, beneath her eyes, where the fine net work of her veins naturally
-produced a light blue tint, the purple of the henna shone out. The
-henna, a kind of vegetable carmine, much used in the east, also blushed
-upon the nails of her hands and feet, and even upon her heels, which
-peeped out, naked, from her small, beautiful sandals, embroidered with
-gold and pearls.
-
-Though thus tattooed, in the Asiatic fashion, Baïla was none the less
-beautiful. Her costume consisted simply of a velvet caftan, muslin
-pantaloons, embroidered with silver, and a cashmere girdle; but all the
-knicknackeries of Oriental luxuriousness were displayed in her toilet.
-The double row of sequins which swung on her head, the large golden
-bracelets which covered her arms and graced her ankles, the chains, the
-precious stones which shone on her hands and her corsage, and which
-shook on the extremities of her long flowing hair and glittered on her
-very pipe stem, graced in a singular manner her youthful charms.
-
-The better to understand what kind of astonished admiration her
-appearance might at this time produce, we should add that of the old
-black slave, who, from her age as well as color, her short, thick
-figure, her dull and heavy look, formed so striking a contrast with the
-fresh beauty of Baïla, her fine and supple figure and her glance, still
-lively and penetrating, notwithstanding the deep thought which then half
-veiled it.
-
-The better to lighten up this picture we must suspend over the heads of
-these two females, so dissimilar, the beautiful blue sky of Asia, and
-describe some incidents of the land, some singularities of the local
-vegetation which surrounded them.
-
-Some paces in advance of the plantain against which Baïla was reclining,
-was a small circular basin of Cipolin marble, from which sprang a jet,
-in the form of a sheaf, causing a delicious freshness to reign around. A
-little farther on were two palm trees, which, springing up on either
-hand and mingling their tops, presented the appearance of two columns,
-forming an arcade of verdure. But before this entrance, judging from
-appearances, the shadow even of a man should never appear. Baïla
-belonged to a jealous master; her beauty, heightened by so much art and
-coquetry, was to grow, blossom and flower for him alone.
-
-From the foot of the palm trees parted a double hedge of purple beeches,
-of silvery willows, of nopals of strange forms with saffron tints, and
-of various shrubs with their many colored flowers and fruits. The
-dog-shades, with their stars of violet colored velvet, the night-shades,
-with their scarlet clusters involved amidst the mimosas, out of which
-sprang the golden features of the cassia. Mingling their branches with
-the lower branches of the plantain, the mangroves hung like garlands
-above the head of Baïla, their large leaves hollowed into cups, and so
-strangely bordered with flowers and fruits of orange color mixed with
-crimson.
-
-Farther back, behind the plantain, on a reddish, sandy spot, grew large
-numbers of the ice plant, presenting to the deceived vision the
-appearance of plants caught by the frost during the winter in our
-northern climes, and the glass work covered the ground with crystalized
-plates.
-
-The picture was soon to become animated.
-
-The magnificent eastern sun, sinking toward the horizon and throwing his
-last flames beneath the verdant pediment of the palm trees, caused the
-earth to sparkle as if covered with diamonds. His rays, broken by the
-glittering sheaf in the basin, spread across those masses of flower and
-foliage, rainbows, superb in golden and violet tints; they flashed from
-the plantain to the variegated cups of the mangrove, and lighted up the
-whole form of Baïla, from her brow, crowned with sequins, to her
-spangled slippers; they even mingled with the smoke of her narghila, and
-with the vapor of the Mocha, which arose like a perfume from the
-porcelain cup, and glistening on the skin of the tiger on which she was
-seated, appeared to roll about in small vague circles.
-
-When the night breeze, rising, gently agitated the flowers and the
-herbage, mingling in soft harmony all those zones of light and shade,
-was it not a subject of regret that a human eye could not gaze upon the
-beautiful odalisk, in the midst of those magical illusions, shining in
-the triple splendor of her jewels, her youth, and her beauty?
-
-And, yet, a man was to enjoy this bewitching scene, and that man not her
-master.
-
-Mariam, the old negress, was asleep at the foot of the tree, holding in
-her hands the small mortar in which she had bruised the coffee to supply
-the demands of her mistress. Baïla, half dozing, was holding out,
-mechanically, toward her the china cup, when a man suddenly appeared
-between the two palm trees.
-
-At the sight of him the odalisk at first thought she was dreaming; then,
-restrained by a feeling, perhaps of alarm, perhaps of curiosity,
-remained quiet, immovable, without speaking—only the cup which she held
-fell from her hands.
-
-The stranger, who was a young Frank, having first made a motion as of
-flight, became emboldened and approached her, with a heightened color
-and trembling lips, arising from a too lively emotion or from an excess
-of prudence on account of the negress. He merely inquired from Baïla the
-way to the city.
-
-He expressed himself very well in Turkish; she did not appear, however,
-to understand him. What! a stranger, eluding the vigilance of guards,
-had crossed the double circuit of the gardens which enclosed her—had
-braved death—merely to ask his way!
-
-Restored to a feeling of her situation, she rose, with an offended air,
-drew from her girdle a small dagger, ornamented with diamonds—a
-plaything, rather than offensive or defensive arms—and made an
-imperious sign to him to retire.
-
-The young man recoiled before the beautiful slave, with an appearance of
-contriteness and embarrassment, but without ceasing to regard her
-earnestly. He appeared to be unable to remove his eyes from the picture
-which had riveted his attention; still, however, undecided and muttering
-confused words, he was crossing the porch of the palm trees, when the
-negress suddenly awoke.
-
-At the sight of the shadow of a man, which reached into the enclosure,
-she sprang up, uttering a cry of alarm.
-
-“What are you doing?” said Baïla, placing herself before her, doubtless
-from a feeling of pity toward the imprudent youth.
-
-“But that shadow—do you not see it? It is that of a man!”
-
-“Of a bostangy! Who else would have dared to enter here?”
-
-“But the bostangis should be more careful. Has not our master prohibited
-them from entering the gardens when we are here—when you are here? A
-man has entered, I tell you; I saw his shadow.”
-
-“Of what shadow are you speaking? Stop—look!” and Baïla stopped before
-the negress.
-
-“I saw it,” repeated the negress.
-
-“The shadow of a tree—yes, that is possible.”
-
-“Trees do not run, and it appeared to run.”
-
-“You have been dreaming, my good Mariam,” and Baïla maintained so well
-that no one had been there, that she had seen nothing, but in a dream,
-that Mariam submissively feigned to believe her, and both prepared to
-return to the house.
-
-They were half way there when, on turning an alley, the negress uttered
-a new cry, pointing to an individual who was escaping at full speed.
-
-“Am I dreaming this time?” she said, and she was about to call for
-assistance, when the odalisk, placing her hand on her mouth, ordered her
-to keep silence. Mariam, who was devoted to her mistress, obeyed her.
-
-Having returned to her apartment, Baïla reflected on her adventure.
-Adventures are rare in a harem life. She was intriguing there
-desperately, and would have been disquieted had she not had other cares.
-These, in their turn, occupied her thoughts.
-
-In thinking of them she became fretful, angry; she crushed the rich
-stuffs which lay beside her. She even wept, but rather from passion than
-grief.
-
-Since the preceding evening Baïla was doubtful of her beauty; since then
-she cursed the existence to which she had been condemned, and regretted
-the days of her early youth. To remove from her mind the incessant idea
-which tormented her, she essayed to remount to the past. She found
-there, if not consolation, at least distraction.
-
-The past of a young girl of seventeen is frequently but the paradise of
-memory—a radiant Eden, peopled with remembrances of her family, and
-sometimes of a first love. It was not so with Baïla; her family were
-indifferent to her, and her first love had been imposed upon her.
-
-She was born in Mingrelia, of a drunken father and an avaricious mother.
-They, finding her face handsome and her body well proportioned, had
-destined her, almost from the cradle, for the pleasures of the Sultan.
-Her education had been suitable for her destined state. She was taught
-to dance and sing, and to accompany herself in recitative; nothing more
-had ever been thought of.
-
-Although her parents professed externally one of the forms of the
-Christian religion, had they sought to develop the slightest religious
-instinct in her? What was the use of it? The morality of Christ could
-but give her false ideas and be entirely useless to her in the brilliant
-career which was to open before her.
-
-But if the beautiful child only awakened toward herself feelings of
-speculation, if she was, in the eyes of her parents, but a piece of
-precious merchandise, she, at least, profited in advance by the
-privileges it conferred upon her.
-
-Whilst her brothers were unceasingly occupied with the culture of their
-vineyard, with the gathering of grapes and honey—whilst her sister, as
-beautiful as herself, but slightly lame, was condemned to assist her
-mother in household cares, Baïla led a life of indolence. Could they
-allow her white and delicate hands to come in contact with dirty
-furnaces, or her well-turned nails to be bruised against the heavy
-earthen ware, or her handsome feet to be deformed by the stones in the
-roads? No—it would have been at the risk of injuring her, and of
-deteriorating from her value.
-
-Thus, under the paternal roof, where all the rest were struggling and
-laboring, she alone, extended in the shade, having no other occupation
-than singing and dancing, passed her life in indolence, or in regarding
-with artless admiration the increase and development of her beauty, the
-wealth of her family.
-
-The common table was covered with coarse food for the rest; for her, and
-her alone, are reserved the most delicate products of fishing and
-hunting. Her brothers collected carefully for her those delicate bulbs,
-which, reduced to flour, make that marvelous _salep_, at once an
-internal cosmetic and a nutritive substance, which the women of the East
-use to aid them in the development of their figures, and to give to
-their skin a coloring of rosy white.
-
-If they were going to any place, Baïla traveled on the back of a mule,
-in a dress of silk, whilst the rest of the family, clothed in coarse
-wool or serge, escorted her on foot, watching over her with constant
-solicitude. Truly, a stranger meeting them by the way, and witnessing
-all these cares and demonstrations, would have taken her for an idolized
-daughter, guarded against destiny by the most tender affections.
-
-If her father, however, approached her, it was to pinch her nose, the
-nostrils of which were a little too wide; and her mother, as an habitual
-caress, contented herself with pulling her eyebrows near the temples, so
-as to give the almond form to her eyes.
-
-Sometimes the husband, seized suddenly with enthusiasm on seeing Baïla
-exhibit her grace when dancing by starlight, would say in a low voice to
-his wife—
-
-“By Saint Demetrius, I believe the child will some day bring us enough
-to furnish a cellar with rack and tafita enough to last forever;” and a
-laugh of happiness would light up his dull face.
-
-“If we should be so unfortunate as to lose her before her time, it will
-be ten thousand good piastres of which the Good God will rob us,”
-replied his worthy companion; and she shed a tear of alarm.
-
-Baïla was thirteen years old, when a barque ascending the Incour,
-stopped at a short distance from the hut of the Mingrelian. A man
-wearing a turban descended from it. He was a purveyor for the harem,
-then on an expedition.
-
-“Do you sell honey?” he said to the master of the hut, whom he found at
-the door.
-
-“I gather white and red.”
-
-“Can I taste it?”
-
-The honest Mingrelian brought him a sample of both kinds.
-
-“I would see another kind,” said the man with a turban, with a
-significant glance.
-
-“Enter then,” replied the father of Baïla, and whilst the stranger was
-passing the threshold, hastening to the room occupied by his wife, he
-said to her—
-
-“Be quick; the nuptials of thy daughter are preparing; the merchant is
-here; he is below; arrange her and come down with her.”
-
-At the sight of Baïla, the merchant could not restrain an exclamation of
-admiration; then almost immediately, with a commercial manœuvre he threw
-up her head, preparing to examine her with more attention.
-
-During this inspection the young girl blushed deeply; the father and
-mother seeking to read the secret thoughts of the merchant in his eyes
-and face, kept a profound silence, beseeching lowly their patron saint
-for success in the matter.
-
-The man in the turban changing his course, and as if he had come merely
-to lay in a supply of honey, took up one of the two samples deposited on
-a table, and taking up some with his finger tasted it.
-
-“This honey is white and handsome enough, but it wants flavor. How much
-is the big measure?”
-
-“Twelve thousand,” the mother hastened to reply.
-
-“Twelve thousand paras?”
-
-“Twelve thousand piastres.”
-
-The merchant shrugged his shoulders—“You will keep it for your own use
-then, my good woman.” He then went toward the door.
-
-The woman made a sign to her husband not to stop him. In fact, as she
-had foreseen, he stopped before reaching the door, and turning toward
-the master of the house said—
-
-“Brother in God, I have rested beneath your roof. In return for your
-hospitality, I give you some good advice. You have children?”
-
-“Two daughters.”
-
-“Well, have an eye to them, for the Lesghis have recently descended from
-their mountains and carried off large numbers in Guriel and Georgia.”
-
-“Let them come,” replied the Mingrelian, “I have three sons and four
-guns.”
-
-The merchant then made a movement of departure, but having cast a rapid
-glance on Baïla, he raised his right hand with his five fingers
-extended.
-
-Baïla, red with shame, cast on him a look of contempt and took the
-attitude of an insulted queen. Thanks to that look and attitude, in
-which he doubtless found some flavor, the merchant raised a finger of
-his left hand.
-
-The Mingrelian showed his ten fingers, not however without an angry
-glance from his wife, who muttered, “it is too soon.”
-
-“Honey is dear in your district,” said the man with the turban; “I
-foresee I shall have to buy it from the Lesghis against my will.
-Farewell, and may Allah keep you.”
-
-“Can we not on the one hand sell any thing, nor on the other buy any
-thing without your turning your back so quickly on us on that account?”
-replied the father. “Repose still, the oar has doubtless wearied your
-hands.”
-
-“That is why they are so difficult to open,” growled the housewife.
-
-“Since you permit it,” said the merchant, “I will remain here until the
-sun has lost a little of its power.”
-
-“I cannot offer you any thing but the shade. I know that the children of
-the prophet avoid food beneath the roof of a Christian; but instead of
-that you can indulge in a permitted pleasure; as my daughter is still
-here, she can sing for you.”
-
-Baïla sang, accompanying herself with an instrument. The man with the
-turban, seated on his heels, his arms crossed on his knees, his head
-resting on his arms, listened with a profound and immovable attention,
-and when she finished, in testimony of his satisfaction, he contented
-himself with silently raising one finger more.
-
-Baïla, to the sound of ivory castanets and small silver bells, then
-performed an expressive dance, imitating the voluptuous movements of the
-bayaderes of India and the Eastern almas, but with more reserve however.
-
-Forced this time to look at her, the man with the turban was unable to
-disguise the impression made upon him by so much grace, suppleness and
-agility, and, in an irrestrainable outbreak of enthusiasm, he raised two
-fingers at once. They were near to a conclusion.
-
-In this mysterious bargaining, this language of the fingers, these mutes
-signs were used to enable the parties to swear, if necessary, before the
-Russian authorities, by Christ or Mahommed, that there had been no
-conversation between them except about honey, furs or beaver skins.
-
-After some more bargaining on both sides, the mother finally received
-the ten thousand piastres in her apron, and disappeared immediately, to
-conceal it in some hiding-place, careless whether she should see her
-daughter again or not.
-
-Whilst she was gone the merchant glanced on the elder sister of Baïla,
-who had assisted at the bargaining, whilst she was kneading bread in a
-kneading trough.
-
-“And she,” said he; “shall I not carry her off also?”
-
-The elder sister, flattered in her vanity, made him a reverence.
-
-“She is lame,” said the father.
-
-“Oh, oh!” said the other, “let us see—it does not matter.”
-
-They bargained anew, and the Mingrelian, taking advantage of his wife’s
-absence, ended by selling his oldest daughter for six English guns, a
-large supply of powder and lead, some smoking materials and two tuns of
-rack. Whilst he was in the humor, he would cheerfully have sold his
-wife, still in fine preservation, if custom, agreeing this time with the
-new Russian code, had permitted him to do so.
-
-The two men were touching hands in conclusion of this new bargain when
-the mother returned. She uttered at first loud cries, thinking that all
-the household cares were henceforth to devolve on herself alone. The
-merchant was enabled to quiet her by a present of a necklace of false
-stones, and some ornaments of gilded brass.
-
-On the following day the two Mingrelian sisters reached a small port on
-the shores of the Black Sea, whence they soon embarked for Trebizond. A
-month afterward, the man with the turban being suddenly seized with a
-desire to have a wife for himself, after having furnished so many to
-others, married the eldest sister, who had won his affections by her
-skill in making cake.
-
-Such were the remembrances of her family which were awakened in the mind
-of the young odalisk, when retired and alone in her apartment, pouting
-and jealous.
-
-She then called up the images of that other portion of her life, in
-which love was to play a part. She returned in imagination to Trebizond,
-to the house of her purchaser, become her brother-in-law. There, like
-the companions of her captivity, surrounded by attention and care, under
-a superintendence minute but not severe, she passed a year, during which
-she had acquired the Turkish language and skill in the toilette, at the
-same time perfecting herself in singing and dancing.
-
-A year having passed, the brother-in-law of Baïla embarked with her and
-several of her companions for Constantinople. One fine morning he had
-dressed his graceful cargo in white, their hair had been anointed and
-perfumed, and after having passed the walls of the old seraglio and
-traversed some narrow and crooked streets, merchant and merchandise were
-installed in a chamber of the slave bazaar.
-
-European ideas concerning the sales of females in the East are generally
-erroneous. Our knowledge on this subject rests essentially on what we
-have seen in the theatres and in pictures. But dramatic authors and
-painters desirous of obtaining the picturesque above all else, do not
-regard exactness very closely.
-
-The latter, in order not to divide their pictures into apartments, have
-shown us a great common room, in which all, males and females, all
-young, all handsome and half naked, divided into groups, pass under the
-inspection of the first comers. The promenaders make the circuit of the
-galleries; huge Turks, crushed beneath their turbans, and muffled in
-their cashmere robes, their silk caftans and their furs, smoke
-tranquilly, seated in the corner as in a coffee-house. Sometimes, in
-these fantastic sketches, a slender greyhound, with his sharp muzzle, or
-a beautiful spaniel, with a flowing tail, figures as an accessory, as in
-the great compositions of Reubens or Vandyke; but in Turkey dogs are
-prohibited from entering.
-
-The former, dramatic poets or authors, have boldly established their
-markets on the public square, before a crowd of chorus singers, with
-pasteboard camels to add to the local coloring. It is true, that, thanks
-to the convenience of the scene, the costume of the beautiful slaves for
-sale has been increased. The purchasers of women at the opera are forced
-to be content with a very superficial examination.
-
-A bazaar of this kind is much less accessible than these gentlemen would
-induce us to believe. Divided into private chambers, the women of every
-color and all ages, especially those whose youth and beauty command a
-high price, are lodged almost alone, under the custody of their sellers.
-In order to penetrate the sanctuary one must be a Mussulman, and offer
-guarantees, either from his position or his fortune; for the first
-curious person who presents himself is not permitted to see and buy.
-
-Baïla and her companions entered, then, into a saloon of the grand
-bazaar of Constantinople, to take up their positions in the upper port
-of a chamber. Each desirous of reigning over the heart of one of the
-grand dignitaries, sought the most favorable position to show off her
-attractions to the greatest advantage, and was disposing herself so as
-to arm herself with all her natural or acquired graces, when a small old
-man, with a meager and mean turban, a caftan without embroidery or furs,
-as old-fashioned as its master, entered the room almost furtively. It
-was an Armenian renegade, who had made his fortune by superintending the
-affairs of an old vizier, whose treasurer or _khashadar_ he was.
-
-Whilst he was in the service of the latter, he had carefully increased
-his wealth, and his wife, espoused by him before his apostacy, had never
-permitted him to give her a rival. By a double fate, his wife died about
-the same time his vizier was sent into exile in disgrace. Become free on
-both sides, the Armenian feared no longer to exhibit his gold and his
-amorous propensities, both of which he had concealed so well for thirty
-years.
-
-Although it was a little late, he determined to recommence his youth, to
-live for pleasure, and to organize a harem. Thus, at this moment,
-rubbing his hands, his figure inflamed, his small, red eyes glistening
-like carbuncles, he glided round the chamber, like a hungry fox around a
-poultry-yard.
-
-The beautiful young girls were enraged at the sight. In their dreams of
-love, each of them had doubtless seen in her happy possessor, a handsome
-young man, with a capacious brow, majestic carriage, and black and
-glistening beard; and the ex-treasurer of the vizier did not appear to
-have ever possessed any of these fortunate gifts of nature.
-
-Not being desirous of such a customer, instead of sweet smiles and their
-premeditated graceful postures, they assumed frowning and cross looks,
-when the old man stopped before Baïla, who at once trembled and was
-seized with an immoderate desire to cry. She was, however, forced to
-rise up, to walk about, and notwithstanding all the want of grace she
-could assume, the khashadar found her charming; he approached her,
-looked at her feet and hands, and examined her teeth, then taking the
-merchant aside, said, “Thy price?”
-
-“Twenty thousand piastres.”
-
-The khashadar made a bound backward; his lips puckered up like those of
-a baboon who has bitten a sharp citron; he recommenced walking around
-the room, examined all those beautiful fruits of Georgia and Circassia
-submitted to his inspection; he then stopped again before Baïla. She
-feigning to think that he wished to examine her mouth again, put out her
-tongue and made a face at him.
-
-This demonstration did not appear to cool his fire. He reapproached the
-merchant, and when they had bargained for some time, seated
-cross-legged, the latter rose, saying,
-
-“By the Angel Gabriel, I promised my wife, whose own sister she is, not
-to part with her for less than twenty thousand, for the honor of the
-family.”
-
-Baïla, who had drawn her veil around her figure, perceived that the
-bargain was concluded; and, unable to restrain herself, burst into sobs.
-The door of the room was at that moment opened roughly. A man of lofty
-stature and imperious look, walked straight up to the desolate girl; he
-raised her veil, that veil which, though it concealed her tears, could
-not drown her sobs.
-
-“How much for this slave?” he asked.
-
-“She is mine,” said the khashadar.
-
-“How much?” he repeats.
-
-“But I am her purchaser, and not her seller,” said the little old man,
-rising on his toes, so as to approximate his length toward that of the
-interlocutor.
-
-The latter thrust him aside with a glance of contempt. “I came here,” he
-said, “to make a purchase to the amount of nineteen thousand piastres.”
-
-“Twenty thousand is her price,” observed the seller.
-
-“I offer twenty-five thousand for her,” he replied, throwing the veil
-over the figure of Baïla.
-
-The merchant bent himself; the khashadar, though pale with rage,
-restrained himself, for he had recognized in his rival Ali-ben-Ali,
-surnamed _Djezzar_, or the Butcher, the pacha of Shivas.
-
-Thus the young girl having been once sold by her father, was again sold
-by her brother-in-law.
-
-Djezzar Pacha, whom a slight difficulty with the divan had called for a
-short time to the capital of the empire, took his beautiful slave back
-with him to his usual residence, and she at once occupied the first
-place in his heart. The joy which she felt at seeing herself elevated
-above all her rivals, was not confined to a feeling of pride; she
-thought she loved Djezzar.
-
-Although he was no longer in his first youth, and the severity of his
-glance sometimes inspired Baïla with a feeling of terror rather than of
-love, yet the first look she had cast on him in the bazaar of
-Constantinople, the comparison she had then made between him and the old
-khashadar, had been so much to his advantage, that she thought him young
-and handsome. He had since shown himself to be so generous, so much in
-love, had complied with her caprices and fancies with such tender
-indulgence, that closing her ears to the stories in circulation about
-him, she thought him good and patient.
-
-If, however, she is first in the love of the pacha, she is not alone;
-Djezzar does not pique himself on an unalterable fidelity. At this very
-time a daughter of Amasia has entered the harem; and the women of Amasia
-are regarded as the most beautiful in Turkey. Who knows whether the
-scepter of beauty is not about to change hands? May not another inspire
-in Djezzar a love still stronger than that he has shown for Baïla?
-
-Such were the ideas that so sadly preoccupied the young Odalisk, when
-walking in the garden, she cast by stealth those jealous looks toward
-the building with gilded lattices which contained her new rival.
-
-Now her courage is strengthened, her mind lit up by sweeter lights. Did
-not the picture of her whole life, which passed before her, show her
-that her beauty must be incomparable, since after having dwelt at her
-ease in her father’s house, she had been an object of speculation for
-her brother-in-law surpassing his extremest hopes? In the bazaar of the
-women two purchasers had alone appeared, and they, notwithstanding the
-choice offered them, had disputed for her possession. But that which
-above all appeared to prove her power, was the boldness of the young
-Frank, who at the risk of his life had passed the dreaded entrance of
-the palace of Djezzar; who at the sight of her was so overcome as to
-lose his presence of mind; who, after having seen her, had again wished
-to behold her, and had anew placed himself in her way.
-
-Did he not fear death as the price of his temerity? He did not fear
-because he loves—and it is thus the Franks love. Had they not seen the
-most celebrated of them, Napoleon, then Sultan, conquer Egypt with an
-army, in order to seek there for a beautiful female, whose beauty and
-whose country had been revealed to him in a dream sent by God.[1] Is it
-not also in a dream that this young Frank has received a revelation of
-the charms of Baïla? Perhaps he had seen her during her residence at
-Trebizond, or on her voyage to Constantinople? What matters it; she owes
-it to him that she now feels confident and reassured. Let Djezzar bestow
-his affections for one night on the daughter of Amasia; to-morrow he
-will return to the Mingrelian. And Baïla went to sleep thinking of the
-young Frank.
-
-Did she feel already for him one of those inexplicable affections that
-sometimes spring up in the hearts of recluses? By no means; his scanty
-costume and beardless chin did not render him very seductive in her
-eyes, and he had not been enabled to charm her by his eloquence. But she
-thought she owed him gratitude; besides, she perhaps wished to try to
-avenge herself on Djezzar, even during her sleep.
-
------
-
-[1] The Arabians, Egyptians, and Turks still believe this.
-
-
- CHAPTER II.
-
-On the following morning, Baïla, followed by Mariam, again traversed the
-garden, under the pretext of erasing the tracks of the unknown, should
-he have left any. The wind and the night had caused them to disappear
-from the walks which were covered with fine sand. Returning, however,
-from the neighborhood of the river, she found the recent mark of a boot
-impressed on a flower border. The foot-mark was small, straight, and
-graceful.
-
-Baïla hesitated to efface it. Why? Was the stranger speaking decidedly
-to her heart? No; it was a woman’s caprice, and among women the odalisks
-are perhaps the most enigmatical. After having undertaken this
-expedition for the very purpose of effacing all traces of the Frank, she
-was now tempted to retain the only one that remained.
-
-This print, which the bostangis, with their large sandals with wooden
-soles could not have left, and which the foot of the pacha would have
-over-lapped with a large margin, and which consequently might reveal the
-adventure of the evening, she was desirous of preserving. Why? Perhaps
-her imagination, over-excited by her ideas of gratitude, had, at the
-sight of this elegant impress, given the lie to her eyes, by clothing
-the stranger with a charm, which, in his first movement of alarm she was
-unable to recognize. Perhaps, blinded by passion, Baïla was desirous
-that Djezzar might see this denunciatory mark, so that his jealousy
-might be alarmed, and he might suffer in his pride and his love as she
-had done.
-
-The old negress pointed out to her, that in case the unknown should be
-rash enough to return again, the pacha, his suspicions once excited,
-would certainly have him seized, and thus both might be compromised.
-
-The Mingrelian then yielded; but she was unwilling, from a new caprice,
-that Mariam should remove the earth from this place. She contented
-herself with placing her own delicate foot upon it several times, and
-with trampling with her imprint in that of the stranger, and this double
-mark remained for a long time, protected as it was from inspection by
-the superabundant foliage of a Pontic Azalea.
-
-This shrub grew in great abundance on the slopes of the Caucasus, and
-Baïla, when a child, had seen them flower in her native country. She
-conceived an affection for this spot, which spoke to her of her country,
-and of her second and mysterious lover. Her country she had left without
-regret; this young Frank, this giaour, he had been to her at first but a
-surprise, an apparition, a dream, and now, her wounded heart demands an
-aliment for this double recollection. During a whole month she took her
-walks in this direction; thither she came to dream of her country and
-the stranger, especially of the latter.
-
-Did she then at length love him? Who can tell? Who would dare to give
-the name of love to those deceitful illuminations produced in the brain
-of a young girl, by a fermentation of ideas, like wills-of-the-wisp on
-earth; to those phantoms of a moment, with which solitudes are peopled
-by those who abandon themselves to a life of contemplation.
-
-In Europe, _the religious_, though living under a very different rule,
-refer all the passionate tenderness of their soul to God; each of them
-finds, however, some mode of husbanding a part of it for some holy image
-of her choice, some concealed relic, which belongs to her alone; she
-addresses secret prayers to it, she perfumes it with incense which she
-carries away from the high altar; it is her aside worship. In the East,
-those other inhabitants of cloisters, the odalisks, have no worship but
-love, and in the endearments of that love they can prostrate themselves
-but before one alone; but there, as everywhere else, the idol is
-concealed in the shadow of the temple; they have their fetishes, their
-dreams, their fraudulent loves, their loves of the head, if we may so
-designate them. It is perhaps necessary for human nature thus to give
-the most decided counterpoise to its thoughts, in order to preserve the
-equilibrium of the soul, to protest in a low tone against that which we
-loudly adore, to oppose a shadow to a reality.
-
-It is true that where lovers are concerned, the shadow sometimes assumes
-a form and the reality evaporates.
-
-Be this as it may, Djezzar had returned to Baïla, and the latter, more
-assured than ever of her power, made him expiate his late infidelity by
-her caprices and her extravagances. They wondered in the Harem to see
-the Pacha of Shivas, before whom every thing trembled, bow before this
-handsome slave, so frail, so white, so delicate, whom he might have
-broken by a gesture or a word. The rumor of it spread even to the city,
-where it was whispered that Djezzar would turn Jew if Baïla wished it.
-
-This Ali-ben-Ali, surnamed Djezzar, or the Butcher, was, however, a
-terrible man. Originally a page in the palace of the Sultan, and brought
-up by Mahmoud, he had not participated at all in the civilizing
-ameliorations the latter had endeavored to introduce into his empire.
-The decree of Gulhana had found him the opponent of all reform. Assured
-of a protection in the divan, which he knew how to preserve, he
-sustained himself as the type of the old pachas, of whom his
-predecessors, Ali of Janina and Djezzar of Acre, were the paragons. He
-especially redoubled his barbarism when a philosophical breeze from
-Europe endeavored to breathe tolerance over his country.
-
-Adjudging to himself the double part of judge and executioner, thanks to
-his expeditious justice, decrees emanating from his tribunal were
-executed as soon as rendered; sometimes the punishment preceded the
-judgment. A thousand examples were cited, tending to prove clearly that
-in Turkey, Djezzar was a relique of the old regime. An aga had
-prevaricated. The pacha unable to inflict punishment upon the culprit in
-person, as the friend of prompt and good justice, had ordered a young
-effendi, his secretary, to go at once to the residence of the
-prevaricator and deprive him of an eye. The young man hesitating and
-excusing himself on the plea of his inexperience, “Come nearer,” said
-Djezzar to him; and when the poor effendi approached him, the pacha,
-with marvelous dexterity, plunging quickly one of his fingers into the
-corner of an eye, drew out the globe from its socket, then with a quick
-twist and the assistance of his nail, the operation was performed.
-
-“Slave, thou knowest now how to do it; obey at once,” he said to him;
-and the poor victim, with his wound undressed and bleeding, was
-constrained, on peril of his life, to inflict on the aga the punishment
-he had just undergone.
-
-No one excelled as he did in cutting off a head at a blow of the
-yataghan. It is true, no one else had so much practice. There was a
-story told at Shivas, of a feat of this kind which did him the highest
-credit.
-
-Two Arabian peasants, feulahs, were brought before him, on a charge of
-murder, and each of them accusing the other of the crime. Djezzar was
-perplexed for a moment. It was possible that one of them was innocent.
-Wanting proof of this, and not being in the humor to wait for it, he
-thought of an ingenious and prompt means of referring the judgment to
-God. By his orders the accused were fastened back to back by their
-bodies and shoulders; he draws his sabre—the head which falls is to be
-that of the guilty man.
-
-Seeing death so near, the two wretched men struggle to avoid falling
-beneath the hand of the executioner; they turn—they shift—each
-endeavoring to place his companion on the side where the blow is to
-fall. Djezzar regarded this manœuvering for some time with pleasure; at
-length, after having pronounced the name of Allah three times, he made
-his Damascene blade describe a large circle, and both heads fell off at
-a blow.
-
-Notwithstanding his habitual gravity, the pacha could not avoid laughing
-at this unexpected result; he laughed immoderately, which he had
-probably never before done in his life, and his noisy bursts mingled
-with the hoarse roars and panting of a lion, which, confined in a
-neighboring apartment, inhaled the odor of the blood.
-
-This lion was his master’s favorite. Custom had for a long time
-prescribed to the pachas of Shivas, as to other pachas of the East, that
-they should be accompanied by a lion on all solemn occasions. Galib, the
-predecessor of Djezzar, and a great partisan of reform, had a monstrous
-one which he fed particularly with Janizaries; the story ran, that the
-fanatical Djezzar appeased the appetite of his occasionally with
-Christian flesh.
-
-And yet this ferocious man, who made a profession of the trade of an
-executioner, who laughed only when heads were cut off, who, according to
-public rumor, tossed human flesh to his lion, Haïder, felt the power of
-love, doubtless not gallant and perfumed love—the love of the boudoir;
-but, endowed with an energetic and voluptuous temperament, he passed in
-the midst of his harem the time spared from business; and in the East,
-whatever may be the complexity of affairs, the administration,
-especially under such a mastery, is reduced to such simplicity, that
-leisure is never wanting.
-
-Djezzar could say with Orasmanus,
-
- I will give an hour to the cares of my empire,
- The rest of the day shall be devoted to Zaïre.
-
-Zaïre, that is, Baïla, awaited him on his quitting the Council.
-Especially in his summer palace of Kizil-Ermak did he spend the greater
-part of the day, extended on cushions at the feet of his beautiful
-slave, smoking the roses of Taif or Adrianople, mingled with the tobacco
-of Malatia or Latakia, sometimes chewing a leaf of haschich, or a grain
-of opium, or even of arsenic to exalt his imagination.
-
-Baïla sometimes smoked the hooka; and as they reclined there together,
-plunged into a dreamy state, full of reveries, caused by the juice of
-the yucca or the poppy of Aboutig, the one opening for himself in
-advance a sojourn among the celestial houris, the other thinking,
-perchance, of the audacious stranger, Haïder, the lion, drawing in his
-claws, would stretch, himself familiarly beside them.
-
-Baïla would then lean carelessly on her elbow against this terrible
-creature, whilst the pacha would listlessly permit his head to recline
-on the lap of the odalisk. It was a sight to behold this beautiful young
-female, robed in light draperies, reposing thus quietly between these
-two ferocious beasts. She feared neither of them; the lion was tamed as
-well as the man; both obeyed her voice, her look.
-
-At first, notwithstanding the violent passion of Djezzar, Baïla had
-doubts as to the duration of her power, especially when she thought of
-the favorite who had preceded her.
-
-This favorite, after a reign of three years, having dared to persist in
-soliciting pardon for a bostangi, who was condemned to lose his hand for
-having fished fraudulently, during the night, in the fish-ponds of the
-pacha, the latter, in a moment of rage, had cut off the nose of his
-beautiful Aysche, and then not desiring to keep her in that state, he
-had completed the punishment of the trustless bostangi and the
-refractory slave by uniting them in marriage. A piece of ground,
-situated on the confines of the city, had been given them as a dowry.
-Aysche now sold vegetables in the market, where she was known by the
-name of _Bournouses_ (the noseless.)
-
-This example of the instability of the power of favorites had ceased to
-disturb Baïla, since the Christian had revealed to her the secret of her
-power. Besides, at the time of the events Aysche was no longer young,
-which might give rise to the thought, that her decreasing beauty, rather
-than any other cause, had excited the wrath of her master.
-
-Baïla was seventeen years old, with a Georgian head on a Circassian
-body, the voice of a syren, and the tread of a nymph—what had she to
-fear? Her will had become that of the pacha. Entirely cemented by habit
-to her love, he appeared never to think of his other odalisks, except
-when the Mingrelian, from caprice or petulance, revolted openly against
-his desires. Then, in the presence of the rebellious beauty, Djezzar
-would order a slave to carry to an odalisk, whom he designated, a piece
-of goods, which, according to the Oriental custom, announced the
-approach of the master, and which in accordance with our method of
-translating Turkish manners, we have naturalized among us by the phrase
-of “_throwing the handkerchief_.”
-
-Formerly, at the idea of the infidelity which was to be practiced toward
-her, Baïla fretted and pouted in a corner with a bereaved air. Her small
-mouth drawn down at the corners, muttered unintelligible complaints and
-threats; her beautiful black eyes, with their long, vibrating lashes,
-were half closed, and with her head bent, and the pupils drawn back to
-the angle of the eyelids, she cast upon the slave, the master, and the
-brilliant piece of goods, a look full of anger and jealousy. There her
-audacity ceased.
-
-But now, when Djezzar, to avenge himself on her, takes a fancy to be
-inconstant, she falls upon the stuff and the slave, tears the one and
-cuffs the other; and if the omnipotent pacha carries out his plan of
-vengeance, it frequently happens on the next day that as the price of
-submission, the slave is, on some pretext, bastinadoed, and the favorite
-of a day driven away in disgrace, too happy to escape, without, like
-Aysche, leaving her nose within the palace, is sent to the bazaar to
-become the property of the highest bidder.
-
-Such had lately been the fate of the beautiful daughter of Amasia.
-
-Proud in the empire she exercised over her master, Baïla became
-intoxicated in the triumph of her vanity. In the midst of its smoke, the
-remembrance of the stranger, the giaour, no longer reached her but at
-distant intervals.
-
-She had remained shut up for a whole week without descending into the
-gardens, when one day that Djezzar had gone to raise some taxes,
-resuming her old promenades, she found herself unconsciously near the
-Azalea of Pontus.
-
-What had become of that young Frank? Was he still in the pachalick of
-Shivas? Did he still entertain the plan of a second attempt, as Mariam
-had thought he would? He had doubtless gone, returned to his country,
-that singular country called France, where they say the women rule the
-men; she should see him no more. So much the better for both him and
-her.
-
-Whilst she was in this train of reflection a roar of Haïder was heard
-without; it announced the return of the pacha. The latter had taken him
-with him, for the pleasure of letting him loose at some jackall by the
-way. She was preparing to return to her apartments to await there the
-arrival of Djezzar, when a report of fire-arms, followed by a low noise,
-was heard by the side of Red River.
-
-Baïla trembled without being able to explain the cause of her emotion.
-
-“Have you been successful in hunting?” she said to Djezzar, when they
-were alone.
-
-“So, so,” he replied; “my falcon struck three pheasants, and I killed a
-_dog_.”
-
-Baïla dared not interrogate him as to the doubtful sense which this word
-might have in the mouth of so orthodox a Mussulman as Ali-ben-Ali.
-
-That evening, when Mariam came to her mistress, after hesitating as to
-the information she was about to give her, and after ten preparatory
-exclamations, she informed her of the event of the day.
-
-As the pacha was returning to his palace, and his hunting train was
-straggling along by the woods of Kizil-Ermak, near the place where they
-entered the second enclosure, Haïder, whom a slave held by a leash,
-stopped obstinately before a copse, growling in low tones, which
-attracted the attention of Djezzar. The copse having been beaten by the
-train, a man sprung out from it, flying rapidly toward the river, across
-which he endeavored to swim, but before he could reach the opposite
-bank, the pacha, snatching a gun from the hand of one of his delhis, had
-drawn on the flyer with such certainty of eye and hand, that, struck in
-the head, he had disappeared immediately, carried down by the current.
-This man was a Christian, but an Asiatic Christian, as his head-dress of
-blue muslin proved. Besides, the pacha said that the roar of Haïder of
-itself showed what his religion was.
-
-“Be his country or religion what they may,” said Mariam, finishing her
-story, “he is dead, dead without any one being enabled to divine what
-motive could have induced him to secrete himself on this side of the
-river by the very verge of the palace.”
-
-“At the verge of the gardens,” then interrupted Baïla, who had listened
-to the recital of her old negress without interrupting her for a moment,
-or even without appearing to be greatly moved by it. “It was into the
-gardens that he wished to penetrate, as he had done before.”
-
-Mariam looked at her with surprise.
-
-“Yes,” pursued the Mingrelian, “the man whom they have killed is the
-young Frank, who had doubtless changed his dress, so as not to attract
-too much attention to himself by his European costume.”
-
-Mariam remained silent.
-
-“Do you not think so also?”
-
-After some inarticulate words the negress said, “Who can tell?”
-
-“Thyself,” replied Baïla, “thou knowest more than thou hast told me.”
-
-“I avow,” added Mariam, after a little hesitation, “that one of the
-delhis, who witnessed the affair, said in my presence, that the fugitive
-appeared to have a very white complexion for an Asiatic.”
-
-“Thou seest it all well, Mariam,” said Baïla, carelessly, still playing
-with the fan she held in her hand.
-
-“If it is so,” replied the negress, “I am sorry for the fate of the poor
-young Christian; but we at least are out of the reach of danger in
-consequence of it, and I can now sleep, for, since his double apparition
-in the garden, I have but half closed my eyes. I feared constantly some
-imprudence on your part or his.”
-
-“Faint-hearted;” and Mariam assisted Baïla in arranging her toilet for
-the night.
-
-Soon after daylight the Mingrelian left her solitary couch, for Djezzar
-fatigued by the chase had also slept alone, woke her old negress, and
-both descended into the gardens. Baïla gave as a pretext for her walk,
-her desire to breathe the fresh air of the gardens.
-
-She went first to the kiosk, then to the plateau, on which she had
-formerly seated herself; she cast a glance around her on the masses of
-flowers and shrubs, upon the small marble basin, and fixed for some time
-an attentive look upon the two palm-trees, as if some one was about to
-appear between their columns, under their green canopy. She went then to
-the spot where the Azalea covered with its shade and its flowers the
-last trace of the stranger; she broke off one of the branches, stripped
-it of its foliage, broke it into two, fastened together the pieces in
-the form of a cross, by means of a cord taken from a pelisse which she
-wore; she then set up this cross upon the foot-print, which was almost
-effaced. All this was done without any affectation of sentiment, and
-with a calm and almost listless air.
-
-At the sight of the cross, Mariam, who was born a Christian in
-Abyssinia, signed herself, after having first cast a cautious glance
-around her. Baïla contented herself with breathing a sigh, the sigh of a
-child who sees a game on which it has been for some time engaged,
-finished. She then returned to the isolated pavilion, in which her suite
-of apartments was situated, with her head bent down and pensive, but
-thinking, perhaps, of any thing else than the stranger.
-
-From that moment, however, cross and fantastic with Djezzar, she had no
-longer for him those soft caresses, nor those melodious songs, nor those
-intoxicating dances which accompanied the clicking noise of her
-castinets, and appeared to open the gates of the seventh heaven. She
-finished by irritating him so much by her redoubled whims, caprices, and
-refusals, that he left her in a fury, and remained for three whole days
-without wishing to speak to her. On the third day, the attendants came
-to him to inform him that a terrible noise was heard in the apartments
-of the favorite, the cries of a woman mingled with the roarings of the
-lion.
-
-Djezzar sent thither, but was unwilling to go himself. When they
-hastened to the assistance of the Mingrelian, they found her shut up
-alone with Haïder. The rich carpet of Khorassan, which adorned the floor
-of her chamber, was in places rent to pieces, and all strewed over with
-bits of switches of the cherry. These shreds and fragments pointed out
-the places where the strife had taken place between the lion and the
-odalisk.
-
-After having drawn him into her pavilion, Baïla had shut him off from
-all retreat, and careless of the result to herself, armed with a light
-bunch of rods, she had struck him redoubled blows, resolutely renewing
-every stick which was broken on the body of her terrible antagonist. The
-latter, accustomed to obey the voice that scolded him, and the arm that
-struck him, without thinking of defending himself, bounded from one side
-of the chamber to the other, tearing up a strip of carpet with his
-curled talons at each bound; but finally his patience and long endurance
-exhausted, irritated by grief, groaning and palpitating, lying half on
-his croupe and his back, raising up one of his monstrous paws, he
-extended his glittering talons, and became in his turn threatening, when
-suddenly the bostangis and footmen of the pacha entered, armed with
-boar-spears. The door being opened, the lion fled through it in
-disgrace, not before the new comers, but from the Mingrelian, who still
-pursued him with her last cherry-stick.
-
-On the evening of the day in which Baïla had excited the royal anger of
-the lion against herself, that terrible animal, broken and degraded by
-his domestic habits, came, like a well-trained dog, confused and
-repentant, to couch at the feet of his mistress, imploring pardon.
-
-On the following day Djezzar did the same. The favorite saw him approach
-her, humble, and laden with presents. The contest of Baïla with Haïder,
-of which a full account had been given to him, filled him with a
-singular admiration for the former. Baïla received the two conquered
-with a cold dignity, which might pass for some remains of rigor.
-
-This double victory found her indifferent; she had exhausted all the
-emotions she could experience; she had so far distanced her rivals, that
-triumph over them no longer excited her vanity; the slaves around her
-were so submissive that she no longer took pleasure in commanding them.
-The pacha was tamed, tamed even to weakness, to cowardice; every one,
-even the lion, submitted to the power of the favorite, and with such
-unanimous accord, that in this harem, where every thing prostrates
-itself before her, and every thing is done in accordance with her will
-or her caprice, she has but a single enemy whom she cannot conquer; it
-is ennui. That threatened to increase daily, and to strengthen itself by
-the weakness of the others.
-
-The pacha went on the same day to the city; Baïla consented to accompany
-him; and after having remained a short time at Shivas, they had scarcely
-returned to Kizil-Ermak, when she appeared entirely different from what
-she had been at her departure. Gayety and vivacity had returned to her;
-the smile to her lips, joy to her eyes; she had refound her sweetest
-songs, her most graceful dances. She was charming in the eyes of Djezzar
-and even of Haïder. It was said she had been spontaneously metamorphosed
-by the way.
-
-The good humor of the favorite communicating itself to the pacha, and
-spreading from him far and near, all was joy in the palace that night.
-
-Baïla alone possessed the secret of this general joy.
-
-
- CHAPTER III.
-
-Shut up in her palanquin, in the suite of the master, as she was passing
-with the escort through one of suburbs of Shivas, on their return to the
-Red River, and was amusing herself with looking at the inhabitants,
-Turks and Christians, fly, pell-mell, in disorder, so as to hide or
-prostrate themselves at the sight of the pacha, she remarked one, who,
-remaining erect and motionless, did not appear to participate in the
-emotions of the crowd.
-
-Baïla was at first astonished that the guards, the _cawas_, did not
-force him to assume a more humble posture; she examines him with more
-attention and starts. He wears the dress of a Frank, and as far as she
-can judge through her double veil, and the muslin curtains of the
-palanquin, which were spangled with gold, his features are those of the
-unknown.
-
-By a movement quicker than thought, veil, curtains, all are at once
-thrown aside. It is he—their looks meet. The stranger is troubled. He
-is doubtless again overcome by the resplendent lustre of so much beauty;
-then, with an expression full of love, he raises his eyes to heaven, and
-places one hand upon his heart; he moves quickly in this hand a small
-brilliant, gilded object which Baïla could not distinguish, for the
-curtains had already fallen.
-
-This imprudent, daring scene, which occurred in the midst of a crowd,
-had no witnesses, all were flying or were prostrate on the ground.
-
-During the remainder of the route Baïla believed she had dreamed. What,
-this stranger, then, was not dead; he had not been denounced by Haïder,
-and slain by Djezzar. Had she then been unjust and cruel toward these?
-She owed them a reparation. Perhaps the Frank had been only wounded.
-This was very light, then, for it had not prevented him from
-encountering her. Why light? Was not he who feared not to brave every
-thing to reach her, capable of enduring pain, in order to see her? But
-what object had he held before her, with his hand on his heart, and his
-eyes turned toward heaven? Doubtless a present which he wished to make
-her, which he desired to throw into her palanquin as a souvenir. She had
-let her spangled curtains fall too quickly. Or rather, is it not some
-jewel of her own, something which had fallen from her dress, and been
-found by him at the foot of the plantain, or in the alleys of the
-garden? Yes, he preserves it as a precious relic, as his guardian amulet
-which he wears above his heart; for it was from thence he drew it—it
-was there she saw him replace it in his transport of love.
-
-She then asked, what could this young man be among the Franks, who had
-remained erect and standing with so bold a look during the passage of
-the pacha, and whom the _cawas_ had, notwithstanding, appeared to
-respect? Yes, there were secrets connected with him yet to be
-discovered. No matter! Whatever the rank or power of this mysterious
-unknown might be, she is to him an object of frenzied love. Could she
-doubt it? Her vanity is gratified by it, and in her revery, remembering
-Egypt and Napoleon a second time, she came to the conclusion that should
-the unknown ever command an army in the country of the Franks, they
-might on some fine day invade the pachalick of Shivas.
-
-Until now, in order to rid herself of the narcotic influence of the
-monotonous life of the harem, Baïla had had recourse to fantasies of all
-kinds, to her thousand and one caprices, her strifes, her poutings, her
-revolts, her tyrannies over her master, his lion, and the slaves; now,
-however, her character appeared to change; she resumed the indolent and
-equal humor of early days with Djezzar; she tormented her good Mariam
-and her other serving women less; her taste for dress appeared to be
-modified; instead of four toilets a-day, she now only made three; she
-became grave; she reflected; she thought; she thought of the giaour; she
-reflected on the singular chain of circumstance, which, in despite of
-her, had mixed up this young man with all her pre-occupations, and all
-the events of her recluse life.
-
-Without recurring to the dangerous practice of a leaf of haschich
-bruised in her hookah, or a grain of arsenic dissolved in treacle, her
-imagination could now create a new and charming world for her. She
-foolishly pursued her vain reveries about the conquest of Shivas. She
-saw herself transported to another country—to Paris—where every one
-could freely admire her beauty, now the property of one only, where she
-could receive the homage of all, conquering a thousand hearts at once,
-whilst still reserving her own for the beloved object. Is not that the
-greatest joy and happiness known on earth to woman?
-
-But could not this revery be realized without the intervention of any
-army? Baïla waited for some time for some realization of her chimera;
-then, when she had ceased to think of it, ennui, terrible ennui again
-took possession of her. Sickly languor succeeded. She sought a cause for
-her suffering, and that cause she found in the walls of the harem, which
-oppressed and stifled her.
-
-The Sultan Mahmoud, during the latter part of his life, had permitted
-his women to leave the seraglio, well escorted and supervised. The
-younger dignitaries of the Sublime Porte, the avowed partisans of the
-new order of things, following his example, had in their turn essayed
-this usage. Baïla knew it, and she determined to conquer this pleasant
-liberty for herself.
-
-At the very mention of it to the pacha, he regarded her with fierce and
-flashing eyes, and swore by Mahomet and the four caliphs, it was his
-dreaded oath, that if any other of his women had made such a proposal to
-him, her head would have already leaped off at a blow from his yatagan.
-
-Baïla desisted, but the refusal increased the intensity of the desire
-which she felt. She also swore, not by the four caliphs, but by her
-woman’s will, to attain her end, whatever road she must travel, or
-whatever peril she must brave. The mere idea of this new struggle in
-which she was engaged, cured her of half her languor.
-
-What was this end? She must first examine herself in order to define it.
-
-From the summit of the terraces of the winter palace she had already
-seen a part of the monuments of the city; she had visited the citadel,
-the caravansery, the mosque in the train of the pacha. It was not,
-therefore, for this that she aspired to this phantom of freedom.
-
-The bazaars remained; but had not the pacha caused to be conveyed to the
-harem whatever they contained precious and rare in brocades, velvets,
-precious stones, and sculptured gold, that she might see and choose from
-them? The privation could not then be felt on this account.
-
-Magicians, jugglers, the musicians of Persia and Kurdistan, every pigmy
-deformity, every curious object which traversed the pachalick, was, at a
-word from her, admitted into the palace. She arrived at this logical
-conclusion, that if she desired to visit and traverse Shivas, it was in
-the hope of finding there again the unknown, of finding the key of the
-mysteries which surrounded her; and this unknown was certainly the only
-one of the curiosities of the city, to which Djezzar would refuse
-permission to enter his harem for the diversion of the favorite.
-
-But could not another make the discovery for Baïla? She thought at once
-of Mariam.
-
-The latter, who was a partial purchaser of provisions for the harem;
-freed by her employment, her age, and her color, from the ordinary
-ceremonial, she traversed the streets and market-places at pleasure.
-Baïla knew her devotion to her person, and should she refuse to serve
-her in her researches, she knew that the old negress would not betray
-her. She spoke to her then about it.
-
-The Abyssinian seized with a sudden trembling, exclaimed,
-
-“By the Holy Christ! do not repeat those words, my dear mistress; resist
-the temptation, stifle it in your heart; it is an inspiration of the
-Evil Spirit, or, perhaps, a purpose of Providence, perhaps an
-inspiration from on high,” she murmured in a low voice, as if
-apostrophizing herself.
-
-“You will have nothing to fear, Mariam; of what crime will you be
-guilty, for endeavoring to make some inquiries about this stranger? It
-is well known that old women are curious.”
-
-“Young ones are no less so,” she replied, casting a reproachful glance
-at her, “and their curiosity draws more perils after it. Our holy
-mother, Eve, was young when—”
-
-“Then you refuse to serve me?”
-
-“This time I do; do not exact it, do not insist upon it. I have already
-had so much to struggle against on the other side.”
-
-“How?”
-
-“This young Frank. He is born to be your destruction and mine. But no;
-if you knew—”
-
-“You know him then? Are you dreaming?”
-
-“Have I spoken of that? By the black angel I hope it is nothing.”
-
-“Thou wert about to betray thyself; hast thou seen him?”
-
-“Ah! my dear mistress do not destroy me,” exclaimed the old slave,
-trembling with fright. “Yes, I have seen him to my misfortune.”
-
-“Well, who is he? What keeps him at Shivas? What does he want? What does
-he hope for? What are his plans?”
-
-“Is it for me to inform you? In the name of the God of the Christians,
-who has been yours and is still mine, cease to question me. If our
-master should only discover that this young man has penetrated here into
-the gardens, I know that I should be put to death. I should be cut to
-pieces and thrown to feed the fish in the ponds.”
-
-“But he shall not know it. Thou hast nothing to fear, I tell thee; am
-not I here to protect thee?”
-
-“But thee? Who will protect thee?”
-
-“What matters it? Then you know this stranger? Thou hast met him, and
-hast told me nothing of it?”
-
-“Doubtless it has so happened, though he would have preferred meeting
-another.”
-
-“And who is that other?”
-
-“Thyself.”
-
-“Me!” exclaimed Baïla, with her face suffused with blushes, as if she
-did not expect this reply, which she had skillfully extracted in order
-to force Mariam into her confidence. “And what does he want with me?”
-
-“What does he want?” replied the old negress, again a prey to her first
-emotion. “What does he want? God keep me from saying?! He alone can tell
-you. But it will be death perhaps for us three.”
-
-Baïla was silent for a moment. “He has hoped to see me again?” she then
-asked.
-
-“If one may believe him, he would give his life a thousand times to
-realize this hope; and moreover—”
-
-“What else does he wish?”
-
-“It is his secret, not mine, I have already said too much.”
-
-They were interrupted; Mariam retired abruptly and Baïla remained alone
-with the serpent of curiosity which was gnawing into her heart.
-
-Shortly afterward, during the night, whilst the pacha was at the city of
-Tocata, where the cares of government detained him, a man was brought
-furtively into the gardens of the Red River. A bostangi had found means
-to introduce him in a flower vase. This bostangi, gained by rich
-presents, conducted him by then deserted paths to the pavilion of the
-favorite.
-
-Baïla was in the bath, when the Abyssinian negress appeared and made her
-a signal. The beautiful odalisk, under a pretext of a desire to repose,
-then dismissed her serving-women, after they had bound up her hair and
-carefully perfumed her person.
-
-Her slaves dismissed, she dressed herself with the assistance of Mariam,
-but in such haste that her cashmere girdle, tied negligently, kept her
-robe scarcely half closed, and her long veil thrown around her, alone
-concealed the richness of her shoulders and bust.
-
-She stopped on her way to the saloon in which the mysterious visiter
-awaited her. Her respiration failed, a nervous tremor agitated her
-beautiful limbs, and made her skin, still moist with rose-water and the
-essence of sandal-wood, to shiver—placing her hand on her heart to
-restrain, as it were, its tumultuous beatings, she murmured, “I am
-afraid!”
-
-“What do you fear now?” said Mariam, sustaining her by her arms, and
-whose courage, like a game of see-saw, appeared to be exalted and
-strengthened in proportion as that of her mistress failed. “The pacha is
-far off—every thing around us sleeps; this Frank, whom you desired to
-see and whom you are about to see, has crossed the portals of the palace
-without awakening suspicion. He awaits you; he has not trembled in
-coming to you; time is precious, he counts it impatiently, let us join
-him.”
-
-“I am afraid,” said Baïla, resisting the impulse which the old slave
-wished to give her, and trembling all over, with her body bent, her eyes
-half closed, she appeared to drink in with delight the alarm she
-experienced; as the sick, saturated with tasteless and sugared
-beverages, rejoice in the bitter draughts of abscynthe. It was an
-emotion, and every emotion is precious to a recluse of the harem.
-
-She entered finally the saloon in which the unknown awaited her, but not
-without casting another glance on the _abandon_ of her toilet. By the
-feeble light of two candles placed in a bracket, she saw the stranger
-standing in a meditative posture.
-
-At the rustling of her robe, at the light sound of her step, he raised
-his head, crossed his hands with a kind of ecstatic transport, and his
-eyes, raised to the gilded ceiling, sparkled so brightly, that it
-appeared to the Mingrelian as if the light about her was doubled.
-
-When Mariam had disappeared, the better to watch over them, when Baïla
-found herself alone with her unknown, with the lover of her day dreams,
-casting her veil suddenly aside, she revealed herself to him in all the
-glory of her Georgian beauty.
-
-She enjoyed his pleasure, his surprise, for a moment, then seating
-herself on a corner of the sofa, motioned him to a seat by her side. But
-the stranger remained immovable; his only motion was to cover his eyes
-as if the light had suddenly blinded him. After having sweetly gratified
-her pride by the stupefying effect produced by her resplendent beauty,
-she repeated her gesture.
-
-The Frank, still embarrassed and hesitating, went now toward the sofa,
-and bending with downcast eyes almost to the earth before her, took hold
-of the end of her long veil and re-covered her entirely, turning away
-his head. This movement surprised Baïla strangely; but she said to
-herself, “perhaps it is one of the preliminaries of love among the
-Franks.”
-
-“Listen to me,” said the young man, then, with a voice full of emotion,
-and seating himself beside her; “listen to me with attention; the
-present moment may become for you as well as for myself the commencement
-of a new era of glory and safety.”
-
-She did not understand him, she drew nearer to him.
-
-“You are born a Christian,” he continued, “Mingrelia is your country.”
-
-Baïla thought for an instant that he had himself come from the ancient
-Colchis; that he had seen her family; and in the rapid flight of her
-fancy she saw the love of this young man remount not only to a recent
-period, but also to that time in which she was still the property of her
-father. The recollections of her natal country beaming pleasanter to her
-by uniting themselves with the idea of a love from childhood, she came
-yet nearer to him and looked at him carefully, hoping to find in his
-face features impressed of old upon her memory.
-
-“You are then a friend of my brothers?” she said to him. At this moment
-of expansion the Mingrelian placed her hand on that of the stranger. The
-latter trembled, rose at once and making the sign of the cross, said
-with a voice full of unction and solemnity—
-
-“Yes, I am the friend of your brothers, your brothers the Christians,
-now trampled under foot by a cruel despot, but one whom you can soften.
-The terrible Daker, the master of a part of Syria and Palestine, after
-he took for his minister a Christian, Ibrahim Sabbar, became the
-protector of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Do you not exercise over
-your master a power greater than Ibrahim did over his? A power that they
-say the very lions do not resist. God made use of Esther to touch the
-heart of Ahasuerus; he has marked you like her with his seal, to concur
-in the deliverance of his people. Faith has revealed it to me. Thanks to
-you, Ali-ben-Ali, the Pacha of Shivas, the butcher, the executioner,
-shall no longer turn his rage but against the enemies of the church. The
-divine light descending from the cross of Calvary shall penetrate the
-most hardened hearts—”
-
-“Wretch!” exclaimed Baïla, awakening at last from the stupor into which
-this unexpected discourse had thrown her, “what has brought you here?”
-
-“To teach you to mourn over your past life, to assist you in washing
-yourself from your sins, to save you, and with you, and by you, our
-brethren the Christians of Shivas.”
-
-“Go then, apostle of the demon—retire, insolent,” repeats the beautiful
-odalisk, enveloping herself in her veil, the better to conceal herself
-from the looks of the profane; “go then, and be accursed.”
-
-“No, you shall not drive me away thus,” replied the young enthusiast;
-“you shall hear me. God, who inspired me with the idea of this holy
-mission which I am now discharging, is about to change your heart; he
-can, he will.”
-
-“Thy God is not mine, impious; depart.”
-
-“Ah! do not blaspheme the God of your fathers; do not deny the holy
-belief which even without your knowledge has perhaps remained in your
-heart. Was it not you who, in a retired part of your garden, reared the
-humblest of crosses, doubtless to go thither to pray in private?”
-
-This word, this remembrance of the branch of the azalea, brought
-suddenly to the memory of the young odalisk all the chimeras of her
-fantastic loves, all the hopes, all the illusions which were grouped by
-her around a single idea; the disgust at finding all her reveries
-effaced; the frightful thought of the peril she had sought, had braved,
-and which still threatens her at that very moment, and all to arrive at
-such a deception—to find an apostle when she expected a lover—so
-troubled her mind, that her voice, gradually rising, appeared to reach
-beyond the pavilion, and reach the sleeping slaves. To endeavor to calm
-her, the stranger, with a suppliant gesture, advanced a step.
-
-“Do not approach me,” she exclaimed, and rising with a groan, she called
-Mariam. She was about to leave the room, still uttering imprecations,
-when the door was thrown quickly open and the pacha appeared suddenly,
-surrounded by soldiers, and carrying a complete arsenal of arms of all
-kinds at his girdle.
-
-Whether the wrath of the Mingrelian had reached its height, or whether
-the sentiment of self preservation awakened imperiously in her, rendered
-her pitiless, she exclaimed—
-
-“Kill him—kill him!” and with her finger designated the unfortunate
-Frank to the vengeance of the pacha.
-
-The young man cast a momentary sad and pitying look upon her, which made
-her start; he then held out his head, a soldier raised his sabre, but
-Djezzar turned the blow aside.
-
-“No,” said he, “he must not die so quickly;” and casting a suspicious
-glance by turns upon the two, he murmured in a low voice this
-frightfully poetic phrase, “his blood should not leap suddenly like
-water from the fountain, but flow gently like that of the spring which
-falls drop by drop from the rock.”
-
-In the East, poetry is found every where.
-
-He then said something in the ear of a Mangrebian slave near him, and
-the Christian was led away.
-
-
- CHAPTER IV.
-
-Djezzar, left alone with Baïla, gave vent at first to all his jealous
-passions; but with him the favorite had nothing to dread but an
-explanation, commencing with a blow from his dagger. As soon as she
-found him confine himself simply to threats and reproaches, she ceased
-to fear for her life. Assuming an attitude of surprise, a look of
-disgust, whilst still endeavoring to appear as handsome as possible, she
-sought to make use of all her advantages and to employ in her favor with
-the Turk that toilette of carelessness prepared coquettishly for the
-Christian.
-
-Djezzar, who had on that day returned from Tocata to Shivas, had been
-informed in the latter city of the intention of the Frank to penetrate
-into the interior of his harem; but he had no proof of the complicity of
-his beautiful slave. Baïla perceived it. He who could have given those
-proofs was, doubtless, expiring at that very moment. Were there not also
-to assist her, her imprecations against the giaour and her movement of
-terror and flight, of which the pacha himself was a witness. Thus, the
-latter was soon convinced and the tables turned; it was now the master
-who, humble and suppliant, lowly implored her pardon.
-
-He was, however, preparing a terrible proof for the influence of the
-Mingrelian. Baïla, irritated at having been suspected, was already
-raising her voice higher.
-
-“Listen,” said the pacha, imposing silence by a gesture, and appearing
-himself to hearken to a certain movement which was manifested without.
-She listened, but heard nothing but a low, confused, monotonous and
-regular sound, like that of threshing.
-
-“What is it?” she asked.
-
-“Nothing—nothing at all,” he replied.
-
-Both remained thus, for a time, attentive; the noise was repeated, but
-did not increase. Djezzar became impatient, and, yielding to the
-feeling, struck his hands.
-
-“Have not my orders been executed?” he demanded of the Mangrebian slave
-who appeared.
-
-“They have, son of Ali; but in vain have we used on this Christian cords
-armed with lead and thongs of the skin of the hippopotamus; in vain have
-we moistened and sprinkled his gaping wounds with pimento and lemon
-juice; he has not uttered a cry or a groan.”
-
-“What does he, then?” asked the Pasha.
-
-“He prays,” replied the slave.
-
-“Has he revealed nothing!”
-
-“Nothing, son of Ali.”
-
-“If my chastisements cannot loose his tongue, my clemency may,” said
-Djezzar, with a sinister smile. “Let him be brought before me, and let
-Haïder come also. By Allah, I will myself teach him to speak.”
-
-When the Mangrebian had departed, Djezzar, alone with Baïla, became at
-once the man of the harem—the effeminate, the voluptuous pacha; he
-caused her to resume her seat on the divan, and he himself stretched at
-her feet, smoking his hooka, engaged, apparently alone, in watching the
-smoke from his Persian pipe escape on one side in massive clouds to
-remount from the other, purifying itself in a crystal flask full of
-perfumed water. He awaited, in this indolent posture, the arrival of his
-captive.
-
-This captive was named Ferdinand Laperre. Born at Paris, of a good
-family of the middle classes, of a character addicted to exaltation and
-revery, an orphan from his cradle, he had been unable to give a natural
-course to his sensibilities. Notwithstanding his university education,
-the religious sentiment had germinated and developed itself in him. In
-the want of those tender affections of which he was ignorant, holy and
-ardent belief had filled the void in his soul. He held a small
-employment in the office of the minister of foreign affairs, when one
-day at the close of a sermon, by the Abbé La Ardaire, he determined to
-become a priest.
-
-His only remaining relative, an uncle, recently appointed to a consulate
-in one of the important cities of Asia Minor, thought it best to take
-him with him in the capacity of a cadet. He hoped to divert him from his
-pious abstractions, to induce him to renounce his plans, and to lead him
-even to doubting, by the sight of those numerous sects of schismatic
-Christians who inhabit the east. The uncle was a philosopher.
-
-But faith was more brightly kindled in the heart of the neophyte as he
-approached those holy places in which evangelical truths had borne their
-first branches and produced their most savory fruits. The summits of
-Taurus were for him illuminated by the lightnings of Tabor and Sinai.
-More than ever strengthened in his first calling, he wore hair-cloth
-beneath his diplomatic dress, and promised himself, should the occasion
-offer, to accomplish, in despite of his relative, a novitiate signalized
-by apostolic labors.
-
-After having perfected himself in the Turkish and common Arabian
-languages, he went to Shivas and its environs, on a visit to the
-followers of the different dissenting churches—Armenians, Greeks,
-Maronites, Nestorians, Eutycheans and even Latin Catholics, separated
-from Rome only by the marriage of their priests. He went among them to
-effect conversions; he was more alarmed at their misery than their
-ignorance, and, like a true apostle, he returned among them less to
-preach to them than to succor them.
-
-He was passing down the Red River one day, on a small skiff, which he
-had learned to manage in the eastern style, dreaming of the desert and
-of an hermitage in some Thebais, and was creating in the future an
-ascetic happiness, tempered with clear water, when the oar broke. His
-barque stranding, cast him upon a small spot, a delta, located as an
-island, between Kizil-Ermak and a regular ditch. Ferdinand was not a
-skillful swimmer, but, notwithstanding the usual sedateness of his
-thoughts, he was a good jumper. He measured with his eye the river and
-the ditch by turns, and the question being decided in favor of the
-latter, he crossed it at a bound. The ditch passed, he perceived a low
-wall, which had been hidden from his view by a thick copse of nopals and
-wild apricot trees. Had he jumped back, to regain his delta, it would
-have been at the risk of his neck, for he had now no room to take a
-start; and should he succeed, he would still have an impassable river
-before him.
-
-Whilst in this position, very much embarrassed what to do, and not
-doubting that he was in the neighborhood of the summer gardens of the
-pacha, he perceived a low door in the wall; he tried it, and to his
-great joy it opened.
-
-There are about Shivas, and especially on the banks of the river,
-enclosures in which the cultivators, chiefly Christians, from the great
-abundance of water, raise vegetables for the market, and enormous
-citrons, savory water-melons, dates, and pistachios which rival those of
-Aleppo and Damascus. Ferdinand thought he had reached one of those
-Christian enclosures; the carelessness evinced in closing the gate
-strengthened the idea. He entered. Then, for the first time, he found
-himself face to face with Baïla, who was seated carelessly beneath the
-plantain tree. More surprised than charmed at the sight of the graceful
-odalisk, bedaubed with red and black, he could only stammer forth a few
-words, expressive of his eager desire to escape, safe and sound, from
-this perilous adventure, which he had not sought. Entrapped in the
-windings of the garden, he had again found himself in the presence of
-Baïla and the negress. Regaining at last, with difficulty, the little
-gate, which was still open, he was again alarmed at the double obstacle
-of the ditch and the river, when, in the midst of the shades of the
-evening, he saw a man advance, mysteriously, toward the delta,
-traversing the Kizil-Ermak by a ford, of which Ferdinand was quite
-ignorant.
-
-This man, one of the bostangis of the pacha, stole his master’s fruit to
-sell in the city. It was he who had left open the little gate, which was
-only used when the ditch was repairing. After having, on that day,
-pointed out to Ferdinand a mode of escaping from his embarrassment, it
-was he afterward, who, held by Baïla between the fear of denunciation
-and the hopes of reward, had introduced the Frank into the gardens, and
-even into the pavilion of the favorite.
-
-Having reached the delta, the bostangi drew from beneath a mass of
-overhanging rock, a long plank, which he used to cross the ditch; he
-then deposited it beneath the mass of nopals and wild apricots, in which
-Ferdinand was concealed.
-
-He saw a miracle from heaven in this concourse of unhoped for
-circumstances, co-operating in his deliverance. This plank became an ark
-of safety for him; he used it in his turn, and, thanks to the ford which
-the bostangi had revealed to him, after having wandered for some time in
-its unknown paths, after having struggled anew with the Kizil-Ermak,
-which, like a serpent in pursuit of its prey, he found everywhere on his
-path, and which appeared to wish to envelop him in its twistings and
-windings, he escaped finally all the dangers of his eventful walk.
-
-Having returned to the consulate in Shivas he had double cause to
-congratulate himself on having arrived there safe and sound, when he
-learned that the gardens into which he had so foolishly adventured were
-none other than those of Djezzar.
-
-But this woman whom he had seen—who could she be? When he thought of
-his meeting with her, he thought he had dreamed or had seen a vision.
-
-She reappeared before him in a multitude of forms; he saw her resembling
-a Bacchante, her cup in her hand, reclining indolently on a tiger’s
-skin; then, like a Peri or an Undine, when appearing to him through the
-gilded reflection of the sun and the rainbows of the small marble basin;
-and, finally, in her third transformation, erect, severe, irritated,
-ordering him to fly and threatening him with a dagger.
-
-His calm and chaste imagination lent, however, no charm to this
-triplicity of forms. He asked himself, on the contrary, if this vision
-did not present to him an emblem of all the vices united—intoxication,
-licentiousness, idleness, anger? He found means to complete the seven
-cardinal sins. In those accursed gardens, which were inhabited by the
-persecutor of the Christians, was it not the demon himself that had
-appeared to him?
-
-Thus, whilst Baïla was making of him a being apart—a marvelous
-being—whose traces she was honoring, an idol to which she was rendering
-the homage of love, he was piously entertaining a holy horror of her
-remembrance.
-
-This demon, however—this frightful assemblage of the seven cardinal
-sins, was essaying every means to approach him.
-
-Ferdinand, whilst sojourning with his uncle in this province of
-Anti-Taurus, was but little concerned about what was taking place in the
-harem of Djezzar. His thoughts were elsewhere. But after his involuntary
-visit to the gardens, he lent a more attentive ear to what was said
-about the pacha. He learned that the latter, abandoned entirely to
-voluptuousness, submitted to the control of a favorite Mingrelian. Soon,
-without knowing his own share in increasing the sway of the beautiful
-slave, he heard it repeated every where around him that, did she will it
-firmly, Baïla could make a Jew of her master, Ali-ben-Ali.
-
-“Why not a Christian?” he said to himself.
-
-All his thoughts were, from that day, concentrated on this single
-one—“She is a Christian, and can do any thing with Djezzar.”
-
-Oh, how did his divine mission aggrandize in his eyes that toy, which
-was a small golden cross, which his mother had worn and which never left
-him.
-
-We know the result of the execution of this holy and bold enterprise,
-the first terrible consequences of which Ferdinand was now undergoing,
-and the conclusion of which he foresaw, when, after his preparatory
-punishment, he was led before the pacha, with his hands bound tightly
-behind his back. The latter was still extended upon his cushion; his
-head and the arm which held his pipe reposed on the knees of the
-Mingrelian and his lion Haïder, crouched upon his paws, with his muzzle
-to the floor and his eyes half closed, was by his side.
-
-The slaves retired at a gesture from their master; the scene which was
-to follow needed no witnesses. The pacha, the Mingrelian, the Christian
-and the lion alone remained.
-
-
- CHAPTER V.
-
-Baïla felt her confidence vanish; a single revelation from the prisoner
-would be a decree of death to her, and concealing her paleness beneath
-the redoubled folds of her veil, she awaited the examination with a
-palpitating heart, fixing her curious gaze upon the prisoner.
-
-“Why did I risk my life to listen to a sermon from this mournful
-preacher?” she said to herself. “Why did they not kill him when I
-commanded? Why did he not fall beneath the blow of the guard?”
-
-Seeing him, however, with his body furrowed by bluish stripes, his flesh
-swollen and bloody, standing in that saloon as if he had never left it
-to be handed over to executioners, as he did before the arrival of the
-pacha, with the same air, the same timid look, which he dared not raise
-toward her, she felt an emotion of pity.
-
-“Christian,” said the pacha, “what motive brought thee hither?”
-
-“Her salvation,” replied the captive, turning his eyes for a moment to
-the sofa on which the odalisk was seated, and then letting them fall on
-Djezzar, he added, “and thine, perhaps.”
-
-“What, dog, and son of a dog, as thou art, didst thou think to make a
-vile Nazarene of me, and to convert me to the sect of the accursed, by
-taking advantage of my absence?”
-
-“I have said the truth,” replied the young man, “as true as that Jesus
-Christ is the redeemer of the world.”
-
-“Thou liest,” replied the pacha, “as true that there is no God but God,
-and that Mahomet is his prophet.”
-
-After this outbreak he appeared to endeavor to restrain his anger. He
-replaced himself more at his ease upon the knees of his favorite, passed
-his hand, as a motion of caress, through the mane of his lion, and when
-he had taken two or three whiffs of his batakie, resumed.
-
-“See that thou art sincere, and do not aggravate thy crime. Thou knowest
-well that a Mussulman cannot become a Christian, as a Christian cannot
-become a Jew. The law of Moses paved the way for that of Jesus; that of
-Jesus was but the precursor to that of Mahomet. On this ladder men never
-descend—they mount upward.”
-
-“I had hoped, at least,” said the captive, “to render thee more
-favorable to my brethren.”
-
-“Are, then, all those bands of rascals who gnaw each other—all those
-races of infidels, who are forgetful of their own law, thy brethren? Of
-what do they complain? Of some I have made good Christians by martyrdom;
-of others, good Musselmen by persuasion. Besides, art thou one of their
-priests? No, far from that. Thou art but one of those frivolous
-Europeans, who seek to propagate their impious usages among us. Lay
-aside trick and falsehood. Thou hast heard of the beauty of this slave,
-(turning his head toward Baïla,) and thou hast desired to satiate thy
-eyes at the price of thy life. Is it not so?”
-
-The young man made a sign of negation; the pacha heeded it not, and
-proceeded.
-
-“Well, art thou satisfied? Thou shouldst be, for thou hast seen her. Are
-your women of Europe so to be disdained, that you must come among us to
-carry off ours? Until now you have coveted our horses only. How didst
-thou find means to correspond with her? Who was thy guide? How did she
-first see thee?”
-
-Like a tiger, which with eye and ear watches for the least cry, the
-least motion of the prey it is about to seize, Djezzar watched for a
-word of avowal—a denunciatory sign on the part of him whom he
-interrogated. He obtained none from him, but he felt the knees of Baïla
-tremble.
-
-“Christian,” he resumed, “I repeat to thee, be sincere. Tell me what
-hope thou hast conceived; tell me who introduced thee into this place;
-name thy accomplice, and whatever may be thy fault I will place in the
-other scale thy youth and thy consular title, although thy presence in
-the midst of my harem at night gives me a right to forget it. But I will
-consider what thou hast already endured, and, like Allah, I will be
-merciful. Speak; I listen.”
-
-He inhaled again the odorous smoke of his pipe, and appeared to await a
-reply; but the captive remained silent and motionless.
-
-“Speak, Christian, speak! There is yet time. At this price alone canst
-thou purchase thy life—by abjuring thy idolatry, of course.”
-
-At this last sentence the young man raised his head—a noble blush
-mounted to his face.
-
-“To denounce and apostatize,” said he; “is such thy clemency, pacha?
-Have thy executioners forgotten to tell thee who I am? Art thou, who
-hast thyself honored me with the title of Christian, ignorant of the
-duties which this title enjoins? Dost thou think that the disciples of
-Christ care so much for this mortal life, as to plunge their souls twice
-into ineffaceable pollution?” and his eye sparkled, and his whole
-countenance assumed an expression of sublime beauty.
-
-“It is said,” said Djezzar, forming, from his apparent imperturbability,
-a fine contrast with the exaltation of the young Frank. “Thou wishest to
-die, and thou shalt die. But dost thou know for what an end I reserve
-thee?”
-
-“Be it what it may, I am ready,” replied the captive.
-
-“Then thou regrettest nothing of this mortal life?” and the pacha
-followed his look attentively, which he thought he would fix on Baïla.
-
-“Nothing,” said the young man, with his eyes cast down, “but the not
-being assisted at my last moments by a priest of my religion.”
-
-Djezzar appeared to reflect; a slight smile then contracted his lips.
-
-“If thy wishes go no farther,” he said, “they shall be gratified.”
-
-The Mangrebian reappeared at his call. A few moments afterward an old
-man, with a bald head, a long white beard, and a severe countenance,
-entered. He trembled violently at the sight of the pacha, as if he
-thought his last hour was come.
-
-He was a poor Maronite monk, sent recently by the patriarch of Mount
-Libanus to replace the superior of the convent of Perkinik, who was
-dead. The pacha had, whilst passing on that day through this Catholic
-village, in the environs of Shivas, wished to make an exaction on this
-miserable convent, in which a few monks, covered with rags, lived by the
-labor of their hands, in the midst of a population as miserable as
-themselves. Djezzar, unable to extort the money which they had not, had
-carried off their superior with him, to detain him as a hostage until
-the sum demanded was paid.
-
-“_Kaffer_,” he said to him, “thou hast refused to pay the taxes of
-_Miri_ and _Karadj_.”
-
-“The Christians of Libanus are exempt from them since the capitulation
-of the holy King Louis,” replied the unfortunate man, whose voice
-betrayed a violent emotion. “The Vice Roy Mehemet Ali regarded us as
-exempt.”
-
-“To hell with the old rascal!”
-
-“But the sultans themselves have recognized this law, your highness.”
-
-“There is no law here but my will,” replied the pacha.
-
-“What can I do to disarm thy severity,” blubbered out the old man,
-fixing his terrified look upon the lion crouched beside Djezzar, and of
-which he already considered himself the prey. “I have nothing in the
-world which thou canst take from me, but my life.”
-
-“Which I will do if thou dost not obey me at once.”
-
-“But, to acquit this impost—”
-
-“By the koran, who is now speaking to thee of imposts? Of _Karadj_ and
-_Miri_ I hold thee acquitted, thou and thine, forever, and thou art
-free, and shalt leave here carrying with thee more piastres than I
-demanded of thee; but before we separate thou must call down the curses
-of thy God on that dog there.” Then, turning to his other captive, he
-continued: “Yes, thou art about to die, and die accursed by a priest of
-thy religion. Inch Allah, wilt thou speak now?”
-
-With an heroic resignation Ferdinand, as his only reply, kneels and bows
-his head, devoted at once to the sabre and anathema, when he hears the
-old Cenobite of Libanus, raising his trembling hands above his head, say
-to him, in a soft voice,
-
-“If thou art a Christian, I bless thee, my son.”
-
-These holy words were scarcely pronounced when the old man fell, shot
-dead. Baïla fell backward with a movement of horror, and the pacha, with
-unbounded impassibility, replaced his pistol in his belt. He interrupted
-this movement suddenly to restrain his lion by the mane, which, animated
-by the sight of blood, was about to spring with a roar on the body of
-the Maronite.
-
-“Carry off that corpse,” said Djezzar to the Mangrebian, “and leave us.”
-
-The dead body carried off, the Mangrebian gone, turning to the lion,
-which, with open mouth and thirsty and trembling lips, was uttering low
-growls and darting his brilliant glance toward the prey which was
-carried from him, Djezzar, restraining him by voice and gesture, said:
-
-“Be patient, Haïder; thy part shalt soon come—thou shalt not lose by
-the exchange.”
-
-He then resumed his first position, and whilst the lion, restrained by
-him, continued its low roaring, with its eyes fixed on a large spot of
-blood on the carpet, and addressing Baïla, without appearing to notice
-the emotions of terror by which she was agitated, said:
-
-“Yes, the giaour is for us three—for each a part. For me, his head; for
-the lion, his body; and for thee, my beautiful rose of Incour—my
-faithful, for thee, his heart. Has he not given thee that heart? Well,
-go take it.”
-
-Baïla, undecided, troubled with horror, knew not what meaning to attach
-to his words.
-
-“Go, take it,” repeated Djezzar. “look, behold! powerless to defend
-himself, does he not appear himself to offer it to thee? Go, my soul,
-and if thy dagger is not enough for the work, use mine.”
-
-The odalisk bent toward him—“Thou art sporting with me, Ali—is it not
-so?” she murmured in his ear.
-
-“Dost thou not hear me, or art thou unwilling to understand me?” he
-replied, in a formidable tone. “This man dies—dies at once, by thy
-hand, or I shall believe thee to be his accomplice, and thy head shall
-fall before his. I swear it, by Mahomet and the four caliphs.”
-
-Baïla, having to choose between inflicting or receiving death, felt an
-icy coldness in her veins; her forehead became lividly pale.
-
-“Thou hesitatest!” said the pacha.
-
-She carried a trembling hand to her dagger.
-
-“Take mine,” he said.
-
-The hand of Baïla fell on the shoulder of Djezzar, and remained there as
-if paralyzed; her troubled eyes were raised furtively toward the young
-Frank, even on that very evening the object of her reveries of love;
-toward that young martyr, who by a word could destroy her, and who was
-about to die—to die for her, for being unwilling to pronounce that
-word.
-
-“Wilt thou obey?” said the executioner, with a gesture of impatient
-rage.
-
-The hand of Baïla descended from the shoulder of Djezzar and played
-inquisitively among the arms which formed an arsenal at his belt.
-
-“Thou tremblest—thou art unwilling to do it? Thou lovest him then!” he
-exclaimed at last.
-
-“Yes, I love him,” replied the Mingrelian, and bounding suddenly forward
-she sheathed the blade of the yataghan full in the breast of the pacha.
-Though mortally wounded he still made an effort to seize his other
-pistol, but, at a gesture from Baïla, the lion Haïder, excited anew by
-the sight of the flowing blood, springing on his master did his part.
-
-Whilst Ferdinand, alarmed at what was passing, was closing his eyes,
-stretching out in terror his bound arms, the Mingrelian, endowed with
-wonderful presence of mind, gathered quickly into one corner of the
-saloon the light furniture and stuffs which were in it; she set them on
-fire, and seizing the young Frank, who was more dead than alive, by his
-bonds, led him toward a secret outlet, which conducted them to the
-sleeping chamber of the Abyssinian negress.
-
-The palace of Kizil-Ermak, which was of Turkish construction—that is,
-built of wood—was almost entirely consumed.
-
-On the next day the news mongers of Shivas endeavored to define the
-causes of this great event. Some said that the pacha had been strangled
-by his lion, and that, in the struggle between these two fierce beasts a
-torch was upset, which was the cause of the fire. Others, reasoning from
-the usage of the ancient Ottoman regime, and claiming to be better
-informed, said that a man, wearing the dress of a Frank, after having
-sojourned in the city long enough to avert suspicion as to the object of
-his secret mission, had introduced himself into the presence of the
-pacha in the very interior of his harem; when the latter had ordered his
-slaves to behead him, the pretended Frank, who was no other than the
-_capidgé-bechi_ of the sultan, had shown his _katcherif_, and that the
-head of Djezzar had alone fallen. The fire had broken out in the midst
-of the disorder, and the _capidgé-bechi_, taking advantage of the great
-crowd attracted thereby, had escaped, in a new disguise.
-
-Twenty other versions were in circulation, almost all of which were
-repeated by the journals of Europe.
-
-Whilst in Shivas, Rocata, and other cities of the pachalick, they were
-thus indulging in explanations more or less truthful, Baïla and
-Ferdinand, who had been enabled to escape in disguise from the palace,
-thanks to the confusion and the crowd, concealed themselves at first in
-the mountains to the south of Shivas, where some Kurdish brigands took
-them under their protection, exacting a very moderate ransom; they then
-found an asylum in a convent, then twenty others in the caverns or
-depths of the woods of Avanes, always, however, continuing their path
-steadily up the Red River. Having finally entered the dominions of the
-Shah of Persia, they returned to France in the train of the last
-embassy.
-
-In these wanderings Ferdinand lost some of his ardor for proselytising.
-He had traveled across mountains and valleys by day and by night,
-carrying temptation with him; Baïla had really become to him the demon
-which he had fancied her.
-
-With the beautiful Mingrelian, his liberator, and the companion of his
-flight, walking at the same pace, in the same pathway, sleeping under
-the same shelter, cared for and watched over by her, it had been
-difficult for him to prevent his heart from beating under other
-inspirations than those of divine love. Ferdinand was twenty-five years
-old, and gratitude has great sway over a generous soul.
-
-Still in the first days of their common flight he had converted his
-schismatic companion, who, from her indifference to matters of religion,
-was easy to persuade; but it was said that in her turn she had soon
-converted him. What is positively known about it is, that the young man
-did not return to France alone, but that when his passport was exhibited
-at Marseilles, it provided for M. Ferdinand Laperre, consular cadet,
-traveling _with his sister_.
-
-My friend, the illustrious traveler, had already furnished me with all
-the details of the history I have recounted; but my curiosity was not
-yet fully satisfied. I wished to know the fate of the lovers after their
-arrival in France. I pressed him with questions on this point, and at
-first uselessly. We were breakfasting in the open air, on the lawn at
-the Butard, and my botanist, in an exultation difficult to describe, was
-fully occupied with a godsend he had found beneath the table we had
-used. It was a small plant with shaggy and lanceolate leaves, with
-flowers of pale yellow, marked with a violet spot at the base of their
-five petals.
-
-“_Cistus guttatus! Helianthemum guttatum!_” he exclaimed, with cries and
-gestures impossible to describe to any one who has not the heart of a
-botanist. “I thought it only existed in the mountains of Anti-Taurus,
-from whence I brought away so carefully an unique specimen. It was my
-finest vegetable conquest, and lo I find it here at the Butard at
-Luciennes, a suburb of Paris, beneath the table of a tavern. How can
-this be? Taurus and the Butard rivals in their productions? I am
-nonplussed! Do you believe in Asia Minor?”
-
-“But of Asia Minor?” said I, interrupting him with tenacity, with
-obstinacy; “you have related to me a story, the parties to which
-interest me strongly—I beseech you tell me more of them!”
-
-“They are perfectly well, I thank you,” he replied.
-
-“I do not inquire after their health, but their fate.”
-
-“Ah! what has become of them? Yes, I comprehend;” then looking at me
-with an air of mockery, and laughing loudly, he continued, “as they
-have, like us, a habit of chatting much when eating, they breakfast near
-by.”
-
-“How! What!” I exclaimed, “those people at the fountain of the priest?”
-
-“Truly. You now discover that you are no diviner. The alledged
-confectioner, the lemonade seller, is no other than my friend, Ferdinand
-Laperre, our Christian martyr; and his companion, by you so lightly
-qualified as a chambermaid, or a countess without prejudices, is Baïla,
-the ex-favorite of Djezzar, the pacha of Shivas; Baïla, the Mingrelian,
-the rose of Incour, the dove in the talons of the hawk.”
-
-After having inflicted this mockery upon me, which was doubtless well
-merited, my friend determined finally to finish the story.
-
-“Having arrived in Paris, events of a more vulgar nature than those
-which had signalized their sojourn in Shivas, proved the young Frenchman
-and the Mingrelian. Their money gave out. The ornaments, presents from
-Djezzar, which the odalisk had carried off in her flight, were, most of
-them, false. Pachas even are no longer to be trusted. Ferdinand must,
-above every thing, seek for a lucrative employment. He entered the royal
-printing office as a proof-reader of Oriental works. This resource being
-insufficient for the wants of the household, Baïla sought also to be
-useful. Having never handled a needle, she could not become a seamstress
-or an embroideress, or a dressing-maid, or a female companion. She has a
-charming voice, and might, at a pinch, challenge all the Italian,
-French, and other singers, in warbling and trilling; but understanding
-none of the European languages, she could only sing Arabian _mouals_ or
-Turkish _gazels_. Fortunately she dances also; and dancing is a language
-spoken and understood in all countries. She now figures in the ballet
-corps of the opera, where she is remarkable for her lightness, her
-mildness, and her modesty.”
-
-As my illustrious friend finished his recital, we saw Ferdinand Laperre
-and his handsome companion walking arm-in-arm toward the Butard. Now,
-better informed, I admired the rare beauty of the Mingrelian, and the
-wonderful and graceful suppleness of her figure. My eyes were directed
-curiously toward the lower extremities of the ex-consular cadet, to
-examine the form and dimensions of his feet, so as to verify one of the
-details of this history. I found them much as usual. He had doubtless
-confided to Baïla the connection of friendship existing between him and
-my companion, for when we again met, she made him a slight wave of the
-hand, saying, “_Bojour mocha_.”
-
-“_Salem-Alai-k_,” replied my illustrious traveler.
-
-I saluted her profoundly.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- A NIGHT AT THE BLACK SIGN.
-
-
- BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.
-
-
- Ye, who follow to the measure
- Where the trump of Fortune leads,
- And at inns a-glow with pleasure
- Rein your golden-harnessed steeds,
- In your hours of lordly leisure
- Have ye heard a voice of wo
- On the starless wind of midnight
- Come and go?
-
- Pilgrim brothers, whose existence
- Rides the higher roads of Time,
- Hark, how from the troubled distance,
- Voices made by wo sublime,
- In their sorrow, claim assistance,
- Though it come from friend or foe—
- Shall they ask and find no answer?
- Rise and go.
-
- One there was, who in his sadness
- Laid his staff and mantle down,
- Where the demons laughed to madness
- What the night-winds could not drown—
- Never came a voice of gladness
- Though the cups should foam and flow,
- And the pilgrim thus proclaiming
- Rose to go.
-
- “All the night I hear the speaking
- Of low voices round my bed,
- And the dreary floor a-creaking
- Under feet of stealthy tread:—
- Like a very demon shrieking
- Swings the black sign to and fro,
- Come, arise, thou cheerless keeper,
- For I go.
-
- “On the hearth the brands are lying
- In a black, unseemly show;
- Through the roof the winds are sighing
- And they will not cease to blow;
- Through the house sad hearts replying
- Send their answer deep and low—
- Come, arise, thou cheerless keeper,
- For I go.
-
- “Tell me not of fires relighted
- And of chambers glowing warm,
- Or of travelers benighted,
- Overtaken by the storm.
- Urge me not; your hand is blighted
- As your heart is—even so!
- Come, arise, thou cheerless keeper—
- For I go.
-
- “Tell me not of goblets teeming
- With the antidote of pain,
- For its taste and pleasant seeming
- Only hide the deadly bane;
- Hear your sleepers tortured dreaming,
- How they curse thee in their wo!
- Come, arise, thou cheerless keeper,
- For I go.
-
- “I will leave your dreary tavern
- Ere I drink its mandragore:
- Like a black and hated cavern
- There are reptiles on the floor;
- They have overrun your tavern,
- They are at your wine below!
- Come, arise, thou fearful keeper,
- For I go.
-
- “There’s an hostler in your stable
- Tends a steed no man may own,
- And against your windy gable
- How the night-birds scream and moan!
- Even the bread upon your table
- Is the ashy food of wo;
- Come, arise, thou fearful keeper,
- For I go.
-
- “Here I will not seek for slumber,
- And I will not taste your wine:
- All your house the fiends encumber,
- And they are no mates of mine;
- Nevermore I join your number
- Though the tempests rain or snow—
- Here’s my staff and here’s my mantle,
- And I go.”
-
- Suffering brothers—doubly brothers—
- (Pain hath made us more akin)
- Trust not to the strength of others,
- Trust the arm of strength within;
- One good hour of courage smothers
- All the ills an age can know;
- Take your staff and take your mantle,
- Rise and go.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SONNETS:
-
-
- SUGGESTED BY PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
-
-
- BY MISS A. D. WOODBRIDGE.
-
-
- I.—THE ERA OF DISCOVERY.
-
- The darkest storm-cloud oft upon its breast
- Weareth the bow of promise. In the hour
- Of deepest anguish, words of healing power
- Are whispered to the spirit—“Peace!” and “Rest!”
- Praise to our God! if e’en Death’s shadow lower,
- Hope lightens all the gloom, with radiant crest—
- Oh! Joy is, oft, in garb of sorrow drest,
- And direst grief brings rapture as its dower.
- Thus, on the night of ages, flashed a light
- Of wondrous power and splendor, Learning came
- Forth from the cloisters. Welcome to the sight,
- A breath from Heaven relit religion’s flame.
- ’Twas then, his sail the great Discover furled,
- ’Twas then, was born, as ’twere, this western world.
-
-
- II.—THE EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS.
-
- Amid a glorious city, woke to light
- He who threw back a double radiance pure;
- And that blue sea! ’Twas as an angel bright,
- Beck’ning the child to fame and fortune sure.
- How lovingly its waters kissed his feet!
- How graceful yielded, as to lure away
- The young enthusiast! Should he fail to meet
- The ceaseless chime, forbidding him to stay.
- The _man_, the _hour_ were found, and from that time
- His soul was girded for its task sublime:
- To struggle on, through error’s endless maze;
- To bear contempt, and poverty, and pain;
- To wait for royal favor’s fickle rays;—
- To find a world beyond the western main!
-
-
- III.—COLUMBUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA.
-
- Here was the manna for his hungry soul;
- And here the fount for which he’d thirsted long.
- Though yet his years were few, none might control
- His mighty yearnings, or his purpose strong.
- Ah! it is joy to watch the spark divine,
- To feel it struck, as thought encounters thought!
- What deep, exulting happiness was thine,
- When to thine aid long-hidden lore was brought,
- And thou, Columbus! didst believe the skies
- Stooped down to nerve thee for thy high emprise!
- ’Twas well thou hadst the witness in thine heart,
- Or thou hadst fainted in thy weary way;
- Though hope “deferred,” though anguish were thy part,
- Faith shed a halo round thee day by day.
-
-
- IV.—COLUMBUS ARRIVES IN SPAIN.
-
- What veiléd glory, and what strange disguise,
- We meet in by-ways of this wondrous earth!
- How oft the “angel” to our scaléd eyes
- Seems but a “stranger” guest of mortal birth!
- Met with cold words, or, haply, careless mirth,
- Known only when he’s passed into the skies.
- Columbus asks for bread![2] None see the ties
- Which link him to the future home and hearth
- Of unborn millions. Thus, the glorious day
- Oft dawns in clouds, while the cold, ceaseless rain
- Fills up each pause in the wind’s moaning strain,
- And forms of evil seem to haunt our way.
- The sky seems brightest when the clouds depart!
- Earth-woes make heaven still dearer to the heart.
-
------
-
-[2] On his first arrival in Spain, Columbus asked for bread and water
-for his child, at the convent of La Rabida.
-
-
- V.—COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COUNCIL.[3]
-
- A silver lining to on ebon cloud;[4]
- A diamond flashing in Cimmerian cave;
- A Lazarus, up-rising from the grave,
- Bursting the cerements of the straitened shroud;
- To all true men Columbus calls aloud.
- He scans the past, with all its priestly lore,
- But, Janus-like, beholds the future’s shore.
- What glorious scenes, what teeming wonders crowd!
- What though the church behold him with a frown!
- What though the crosier point toward the rack,
- When heresy is near, as to the track
- Of precious gold the magic hazel leans?
- He heedeth not the mitre, cowl, or gown;
- A new creation on his spirit beams.
-
------
-
-[3] Irving speaks of the ignorance of this body on all _scientific_
-subjects, causing the opinions of Columbus to be regarded as heretical.
-
-[4]
-
- Was I deceived, or did an ebon cloud
- Turn forth its silver lining on the night? MILTON.
-
-
- VI.—COLUMBUS AT COURT.
-
- The crescent wanes within Granada’s walls;
- The Moorish standard bows into the dust;
- The hour hath come when proud Boabdil must
- Yield to Castilian prowess. In the halls
- Of the Alhambra hymns of praise and trust
- Ascend to Heaven. On the glad ear there falls
- A mighty shout of triumph. Each one calls
- “Rejoice! the Cross hath conquered—ever just!”
- Who cometh ’mid the throng? One who hath learned
- To hope, when hope hath died within the breast;
- Fainting, to hold right on, though scoffed and spurned—
- Amid that jubilation he is blest.
- Man’s eyes are holden, but proud Woman’s name
- From that good hour shares the Discoverer’s fame.
-
-
- VII.—THE EMBARKATION.
-
- Oh! sweet as is the voice of one most dear,
- And balmy as the welcome breath of heaven
- To the sick soul, long “cabined, cribbed, confined,”
- Is the blesséd wind, that on his high career
- Now wafts the man to whose high trust is given
- A world unknown, save to his mighty mind.
- The last deep prayer is said—the mystic rite
- Hath brought new strength unto his awe-struck heart,
- He who long struggled with the diver’s might,
- Who oft the waves of error did dispart,
- And gasped for breath amid those shades of night,
- Now with the aim unerring of a dart
- Strikes for the pearl, bright gleaming to his eyes—
- What mortal man e’er brought up such a prize!
-
-
- VIII.—THE DISCOVERY.
-
- The morning dawns, and to th’ enraptured eye
- Appears a land, glorious beyond compare,
- Save that the dreamer saw in vision fair,
- When to the Holy City he drew nigh.
- The long-drawn veil e’en now is rent in twain!
- Well may he enter in, with grateful prayer,
- And bathe, as ’twere in a diviner air.
- Well may the tears flow down—a blesséd rain!
- And Spain’s broad banner proudly rise on high.
- What scenes unknown—what beings from the sky,
- May wait his coming, or his glory share,
- And sing his praise in a celestial strain?
- Methinks his soul might now depart in peace!
- Well had it been had he then found release!
-
-
- IX.—THE RETURN TO SPAIN.
-
- Joy! for the Victor cometh! He hath won
- A prouder triumph than the great of eld;
- The tempest-tossed, within whose bosom swelled
- Bright hopes, that changed to fears, now sees the sun
- Shine on the fair and fertile land of Spain,
- Which hails his name with proud enraptured strain.
- All press to gaze on th’ anointed one,
- Whom the Most High within his hand has held—
- While peals again the long and loud refrain;
- And for “Castile and Leon’s” chosen son,
- A full-orbed glory shineth in the West.
- Oh! if Life’s sands e’en then had ceased to run,
- Bright visions of those “islands of the blest”
- Had soothed him to his last and dreamless rest.
-
-
- X.—COLUMBUS IN CHAINS.
-
- In chains! in chains! homeward once more he came!
- Life’s sky is veiled in midnight drear and dark;—
- And this is his reward! They leave no mark
- Those shameless fetters on his own fair fame.
- The shaft may pierce his soul, but yet no shame
- Bows that proud head; he is the victor still;
- He triumphs in a stern, unconquered will.
- His ’scutcheon fair was dimmed by breath of blame;
- The stain is washed away by woman’s tears;
- His patron-queen forbids his anxious fears—
- Her gracious sweetness brings him to the dust.
- The pledge of royal favor now he hears.—
- But, oh! too long it waited—_to be just_;
- While care and grief led on the lingering years.
-
-
- XI.—COLUMBUS PROPOSES A NEW CRUSADE.
-
- The evening sky is bright with blended hues;
- A soft, mild radiance, borrowed from on high,
- Seems, to our view, to bring e’en heaven nigh,
- And its pure essence in our souls infuse.
- Thus, to that noble heart, as from the sky,
- There came a presence, in life’s slow decline;
- He viewed it as a holy seal and sign—
- The Cross must crown the city of the Jews!
- Like the pure incense-flame he soars from earth;
- In fancy sees the prophet’s page unroll,
- And reads therein the presage of his birth,
- The mighty mission of his single soul!
- Life’s pathway bears for him a healing balm,
- Which cheers his heart and nerves his fainting arm.
-
-
- XII.—THE DEATH OF COLUMBUS.
-
- He cometh to the shore of that vast sea,[5]
- Whereon he never yet hath spread his sail;
- His last, last voyage. Now every chart must fail,
- Save that, our Father! he received of Thee!
- With an unwavering trust he meets the wave,
- Which bears him onward to the dread unknown;
- From man’s injustice to that mighty Throne,
- Supreme in power, Omnipotent to save.
- Ah! ne’er from that far land shall he return!
- His dust shall mingle with his mother-earth
- In that fair isle to which his skill gave birth.[6]
- That mighty soul! where doth it “breathe and burn?”
- What worlds hath it discerned beyond the tomb,
- Which to our eyes are all enwrapped in gloom?
-
------
-
-[5]
-
- “The shore
- Of that vast ocean we must sail so soon.”
-
-[6] The remains of Columbus were deposited in the convent of St.
-Francisco, but repeatedly removed, and, finally, on the 15th January,
-1796, transferred, with almost regal pomp, to the island of Cuba.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- TO A FRIEND—WITH A BUNCH OF ROSES.
-
-
- BY MISS L. VIRGINIA SMITH.
-
-
- Go forth in beauty blushing to the one I love so well—
- Let this dewy fragrance gushing to his spirit softly tell
- How a secret, sweet revealing from a gentle kindred heart,
- Far through his bosom stealing, comes to seek its nobler part.
-
- Oh! there’s not a spell so glowing in this lovely world of ours,
- As when Feeling’s tones are flowing through the voices of the flowers,
- When Affection’s thoughts are wreathing in a murmured melody
- Round their dewy petals breathing forth a music-mystery.
-
- There are angel voices given in their delicate perfume,
- Which will lead us up to Heaven where the fadeless roses bloom,
- They have come unto us glowing with a beauty from the skies,
- They are gifts of God’s bestowing, from a blessed Paradise.
-
- Let a bright and lovely vision from our sunny Southern bowers,
- A dream of joy elysian be awakened by these flowers,
- For a wealth of bliss is filling all the loveliness they wear,
- And their tiny leaves are thrilling with the messages they bear.
-
- Where the velvet bud uncloses to the morning’s golden beam
- Be thy life like summer roses floating o’er a summer stream,
- And amid its sunny bowers may a gentle heart be thine,
- To bring thee back the flowers which thou hast thrown o’er mine.
-
- Yes—a gentle heart to bring them—leaves from out the distant past,
- O’er thy path in life to fling them—all unfading to the last,
- In itself the sweetest blossom which a “God of love” has given,
- To be worn within thy bosom—and to bloom for aye in Heaven.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- MUSIC.
-
-
- BY HENRY GILES.
-
-
-The mere capacity in man of perceiving sound, renders the musical
-element a necessity in nature and in life. Discord, as a permanent
-state, is as inconceivable as a permanent state of chaos. The
-combinations of sounds, therefore, in the audible creation, if not all
-in detail musical, are pervaded by the musical element: No ear is
-insensible to the music of the air in the branches of a tree; to the
-groaning of it in the hollow cave—to its whistle in the grass, or to
-its spirit-voices in a stormy night around the dwelling. No ear is
-insensible to the trickling melody of the stream, to the deep song of
-the river—to the solemn anthem of the torrent, to the eternal harmonies
-of the ocean. Birds are peculiarly the musicians of the animal world.
-But how skillful and how rich their music is, we must learn, not from
-the printed page, but in the sunny grove. Though other creatures have
-not, as birds, the gift of song, yet are they not unmusical, and have
-their parts in the mighty orchestra of living nature. Musical sounds are
-grateful to the sense—and all beings that hear listen to them, enjoy
-them, and need them. In music man has a common medium of sympathy with
-his fellow animals. The charger prances to the sounds that swell the
-heart of his master—for he, too, has a heart which they can enter and
-dilate. A melody can soothe the lion’s rage. The elephant treads
-delighted to the measure of the band. The dog bays gladness to the
-shepherd’s flute. The cow stands in placid rapture while the milk-maid
-sings. Man is scarcely ever so rude as to be beyond the reach of music.
-It was a myth, containing as much truth as beauty, that feigned Apollo
-with his lyre as the early tamer of wild men. If music is the first
-influence which the race feels, it is also the first which the
-individual feels. The infant opens its intelligence and love to the
-mother’s song as much as to the mother’s face. The voice, even more than
-the look, is the primitive awakener of the intellect and heart. Every
-mother ought to sing. A song will outlive all sermons in the memory. Let
-memories that begin life have songs that last for life.
-
-As a mere sensation, music has power. A little maid I have known, who
-would sit on her cricket by her father’s knee until he had read the
-whole of Christobel—of which she did not know the meaning of a line. It
-was melodious to her ear, and merely in its music there was fascination
-to her infant spirit. The songs which primitive people sing—in which
-they have their best social interchange, are frequently poor in diction
-and bald in sentiment. It is the music that gives the words a life; and
-this life can transfuse energetic inspiration into the meanest words.
-Early melodies are, of necessity, most simple. They are the instincts
-seeking to put themselves into measured sound—yet with little to fill
-the ear, and less to reach the mind. Nevertheless, they are good for the
-mind and pleasant to the ear. A rude musical sensation is of value; of
-how much more value is a refined musical sensation. But a musical
-sensation is of its very nature a refined one. It is among the purest of
-sensations. It may, indeed, be associated with coarse and base emotions.
-This, however, is not in itself. It is in the imagination or the
-word-music simply, as music presents nothing to the sense that is either
-coarse or base. The conception is from the mind to music, not from music
-to the mind. Speaking of music as a sensation, I speak relatively—for
-to man there is no music without soul. In music soul and sense both
-mingle—and become _one_ in its inspired sound.
-
-Yet the least part of music is the mere sensation. It is not on the ear
-but on the heart that its finest spirit dwells. _There_ are the living
-chords which it puts in motion, and in whose vibration it has the echoes
-of its tones. The heart, after all, is the instrument with which the
-true musician has to deal. He must understand that from its lowest note
-to the top of its compass. The true test of music is the amount of
-feeling it contains. The true criterion of a love for music is the
-capacity to appreciate feeling in music. Music properly is the language
-of emotion. It is the language of the heart. Its grammar, its rhetoric,
-its eloquence, its oratory, is of the heart. The evidence of its power
-is in the calm or the quivering pulsation. Feeling in music is a memory,
-a sympathy, or an impulse. Nothing can recall with such vividness as
-music can a past emotion—a departed state of mind. Words are but the
-history of a by-gone thought—music is its presence. All our profoundest
-feelings are in their nature lyrical. Whatever most deeply affects us,
-we do, in some way, link to tune, or they are by tune awakened. The
-feelings sing of themselves, and make an orchestra of the brain. Persons
-utterly incapable of putting the simplest combination of sounds
-musically together, will make melody in their hearts of the
-reminiscences that strongly move them. And these will commonly be sad,
-as all is that is connected with the Past—sad, however, with various
-degrees of intensity—some, but calm regrets—others, dirges and
-requiems. Therefore it is that the most affecting melodies belong to the
-Past—to the past in the life of a man—to the past in the life of a
-nation. Such melodies come not from prosperity or power. They come from
-those who have missed a history, or whose history is over. Such melodies
-are voices of sadness—the yearnings over what might have been but was
-not—the regret for what has been but will never be again. And thus,
-too, it is with the most affecting eloquence. That which agitates the
-breast with force resistless is the word which is fraught with the
-passions of its sorrow. Life in power is Action—Life in memory is elegy
-or eloquence. A nation, like a man, dreams its life again—and until
-life is gone or changed it soliloquizes or sings its dreams. The music
-of memory lives in every man’s experience; and the excellence of it is,
-that it binds itself only to our better feelings. It is the excellence
-of our nature, also, that only such feelings have spontaneous memories.
-The worst man does not willingly recall his bad feelings: and if he did,
-he could not wed them to a melody. Hatred, malice—vengeance, envy,
-have, to be sure, their proper expressions in the lyric drama, but of
-themselves they are not musical, and by themselves they could not be
-endured. It is not so with the kind emotions. They are in themselves a
-music—and memory delights in the sweetness of their intonations. Love,
-affection, friendship, patriotism, pity, grief, courage—whatever
-generously swells the heart or tenderly subdues it—or purely elevates
-it—are, of themselves, of their own attuning and accordant
-graciousness, of a musical inspiration. With what enchantment will a
-simple strain pierce the silence of the breast, and in every note break
-the slumber of a thousand thoughts. It is a positive enchantment. Faces
-long in the clay bloom as they did in youth. An inward ear is opened
-through the outward—and voices of other times are speaking—and words
-which you had heard before come to your soul, and they are pleasant in
-this illusive echo. Your spirit is lost in the flight of days, and
-insensible to the interval of distance; it is back in other hours, and
-dwells in other scenes. Such are the mysterious linkings by which music
-interlaces itself with our feelings—and so becomes an inseparable
-portion of our sympathy. But sympathy exists only when music answers to
-the spirit. Give not a merry carol to a heavy heart; although you may
-give a grave strain to a light one. Music, as rightly used, is, as some
-one calls it, “the medicine of an afflicted mind.” Joy is heightened by
-exultant strains, but grief is eased only by low ones. “A sweet, sad
-measure” is the balm of a wounded spirit. Music lightens toil. The
-sailor pulls more cheerily for his song: and even the slave feels in
-singing that he is a man. But, in other forms of labor, we miss in our
-country the lyric feeling. Most of our work is done in silence. We hear
-none of those songs at the milking hour, which renders that hour in
-Europe so rich in pastoral and poetical associations. We hear no
-ploughman’s whistle ringing over the field with a buoyant hilarity. We
-have no chorusses of reapers, and no merry harvest-feasts. But if such
-things can not be naturally, it is vain to wish for them—and it may be
-even useless to mention them. Better things, perhaps, are in their
-place—grave meditation and manly thought—and I merely allude to them
-as elements that accord pleasingly with certain modes of life in
-countries to whose habits and history they are native. Music in social
-intercourse is a fine awakener of sympathies, and a fine uniter of them.
-A violin or a piano is often not less needed to soothe the ruffled
-spirit of a company, than the harp of David was to calm down the fiend
-in the turbulent breast of Saul. Music, as we see in the customs of all
-nations, is used as an antidote to the sense of danger, as well as a
-stimulus to the passion of combat. And as embattled hosts move with
-measured tramp to the field of death, music is the magic that is trusted
-to charm away fear or to call up courage.
-
-Largely are men indebted even to the music of ballads and of songs.
-Difficult it would be to measure the good which such music has done to
-mankind. To multitudes in days of yore songs were the only literature,
-and by the bards they had all their learning. Songs were their history;
-their romance; their tragedy; their comedy; their fire-side eloquence,
-giving utterance and perpetuity to sacred affections, and to noble
-thoughts—and keeping alive a spirit of humanity in both the vassal and
-the lord. Men have not yet ceased to need such influences, nor have such
-influences lost their power. They still add purer brightness to the joys
-of the young—and are a solace to the memory of age. They are still
-bonds of a generous communion. They banish strangeness from the rich
-man’s hall: they add refinement to the rich man’s banquet: they are joy
-in the poor man’s holyday, they express lovingness in the poor man’s
-feast. What so aids beneficent nature as such music does, to remove
-barbarism and to inspire kindness? How dear amidst all the toils of
-earth are the songs which were music to our infant ears—the songs of
-our hearth and of our home—the songs which were our childhood’s spells,
-a blessedness upon our mother’s lips, a rapture and delight! What
-solaces the exile, while it saddens him? What is it that from the ends
-of ocean turns him with wistful imagination to the star which overhangs
-his father-land? What is it that brings the tear to his eye, and the
-memory of other days, and the vision in the far-off west; that
-annihilates years and distance, and gives him back his country, and
-gives him back his youth? Song—inspired song—domestic song—national
-song—song that carries ideal enthusiasm into rudest places—with many a
-tale of marvel and magnanimity—of heroism in the soldier, and sanctity
-in the saint—of constancy in love, and of bravery in war.
-
-Man is a social being. Unselfish society is the harmony of humanity:
-loving interchange is the music of life; the music which lifts the
-attuned soul above discordant passions and petty cares—and song is the
-voice in which that music breathes. These are the strains that have
-memories in them of all that true souls deem worthy of life or
-death—the purities of their homes, the sacredness of their altars, the
-hopes of their posterity—all for which martyrs suffer—all for which
-patriots bleed—all that give millions a single wish and a single
-will—all that make the cry of liberty as the trump of judgment, and the
-swords of freemen as the bolts of heaven. Glorious names, and glorious
-deeds, and honorable feelings, are always allied to the lyric spirit.
-The independence of a country may seem to be utterly lost: the ruin of a
-nation may appear decided: indeed, its external destiny may be
-accomplished; but the character of a people is never absolutely degraded
-until the lyric fire is dead upon the altar, and the lyric voice is
-heard no longer in the temple.
-
-Music is not exhausted in expressing feeling, though some persons are so
-constituted as not beyond this to understand or to enjoy it. But music
-of more profound combination is not, on this account, without meaning
-and without value. The higher forms of music, like the higher forms of
-poetry, must, of course, if tested by mere instinct, seem remote and
-complicated. Music, too, is susceptible of more multiplied combinations
-than poetry; and, without the restraints of arbitrary signs and definite
-ideas, can expatiate in the region of pure imagination. In the true
-sense of the word, it is infinite. Not bound to form, not bound to
-color, not bound to speech, it is as unlimited as the capacity of the
-soul to exist in undefinable states of emotional being. And into these
-it can throw the soul with inconceivable rapidity of change. The great
-master of even a single instrument appears, indeed, a wizard. He seems,
-in truth, to be the only artist to whom the designation of wizard can
-with any correctness be applied. Men of other genius may be creators,
-but the musician is the wizard. His instrument is a talisman. It is full
-of conjurations—out from it he draws his witchery; he puts his spell
-upon all around him; he chains them in the slavery of delight; and he is
-the only despot that rules over willing captives. No other power on the
-imagination is so complete—so uncontrollable. The fiction or the poem
-you can lay aside; the picture or statue moves you but calmly; the actor
-is at the mercy of an accident; the orator may fail, by reason of your
-opposition to his sentiments or opposition to his person; but the
-musician draws you from every thing which can counteract his charm, and
-once within his circle you have no escape from his power. Emotional
-conceptions—solemn, gay, pathetic, impassioned—are as souls in all his
-sounds. But in the case of an executive musician, the art seems
-incarnate in the artist. We associate the personality of the artist with
-the effects of his art. We are not yet within the limitless domain of
-imaginative music. The great instrumentalist is, indeed, a wizard—a
-cunning necromancer; but he is before us while he works his spells, and
-though we cannot resist the enchanter we _behold_ him. In a great
-composer there is a higher potency, and it is one that is not seen. The
-action of his spirit on our spirits, though exercised by means of
-intermediate agents, is yet that of an invisible incantation. The great
-composer is an imperial magician—the sovereign of genii and the master
-of wizards. He is a Prospero, and _Music_ is his _Enchanted Island_. The
-creative musician, and the region in which he dwells, can have no
-analogy more correct than that presented to us in Shakspeare’s
-extraordinary play of “The Tempest.” There we have the loud-resounding
-sea; at one moment the sun bright in the clear sky, at another hidden by
-the mist or breaking through the blood-red cloud; now the heavens are
-full of stars, and in an instant they are thick with gloom; the elements
-gather into masses, they clash together, and the thunder and the waves
-fill up the chorus. Then the day dawns softly, and the morning breaks
-into summer songs. Caves are there and pleasant dells; solitudes are
-there, dark and lonely; spots beautiful as well as terrible; barren and
-blasted heaths, where goblins hold their revels; and labyrinthian walks,
-where sweet-hearts, not unwilling, lose themselves and linger. The
-earth, the atmosphere, shore, stream, grove, are filled with
-preternatural movements, with sweet voices and strange sounds. There are
-Ariel-melodies, there are Caliban groanings; there are the murmurings of
-manly passions, and the whisperings of maiden-love; there are
-Bacchanalian jovialities, high and mysterious monologues, fanciful and
-fairy-ditties, the full swellings of excited hearts, and the choral
-transports of all nature, made living and made lyrical. But the Prospero
-who rules in this island, dwells in a lonely cell, and yet commands all
-the voices of the universe to do his bidding. Have I not, by this
-analogy, described a grand imaginative composer? Without intending it, I
-have described Beethoven. I speak, I admit, only as one of the
-appreciating vulgar—as one of the impressible ignorant; I am able only
-to express a sensation, not to pronounce a judgment. In listening to
-Beethoven’s music there is a delight, for which, no doubt, the learned
-artist can give a reason. I know nothing of art, and with me the
-listening is an untutored, a wild, an almost savage joy or sorrow, or a
-mixture of emotions that cannot be defined. The music of Beethoven, if I
-can judge from the little that I have heard of it, is _unearthly_; but
-the unearthliness of this music is of a compound nature. Like Spenser’s,
-Beethoven’s imagination is unearthly; and, like Spenser’s, it is
-unearthly in the supernaturally grand and beautiful. Like Milton’s
-imagination, also, Beethoven’s is unearthly; but here it is unearthly in
-the mysterious and the solemn. The union of these elements in the
-wholeness of Beethoven’s genius, have given to us that singular, that
-most original music, which seems to belong to the ideal region, which
-eastern fancy has peopled with genii and fairies. What a wonderful thing
-is a symphony of Beethoven’s! But who can describe it, in either its
-construction or its effects? You might as well attempt to describe, by
-set phrases, the raptures of St. Paul or the visions of the Apocalypse.
-It always seems the utterance of a mighty trance, of a mysterious dream,
-of a solemn ecstacy. The theme, even the most simple—so simple that a
-child, as it might appear, could have fashioned it, is one, however,
-that genius of a marvelous peculiarity only could have discovered—a
-genius that worked and lived amidst the most ideal analogies by which
-sounds are related to emotions. And this unearthly theme is thrown at
-once into an ocean of orchestral harmony, and this orchestral harmony is
-as unearthly as the theme. Thrown upon the orchestra it seems to break,
-to divide itself, to scatter itself upon the waves of an enchanted sea,
-in a multitude of melodies. It seems as a tune played by a
-spirit-minstrel, on a summer night, in the glade of a lonely wood, to
-which all the genii of music answer, in chorusses of holy, sad,
-enchanting modulation.
-
-And of Mozart! What shall we say of him—of Mozart, less only than
-Beethoven in those strains which linger amidst remote associations, but
-versatile beyond most composers in the romance and reality of the comic
-and the tragic in actual life. If ever a genius lived with which all its
-work was play, that genius was the genius of Mozart. Constantly he made
-the merest play of genius. At ten years old he could astonish the most
-critical of musical audiences in Paris, and before their rapture had
-approached within many degrees of moderation, he would be romping in the
-crowd of his companions. Nor was it different in his maturity. He could
-compose a piece, in which he was himself to take a part. He would
-distribute the score, perfectly arranged for the several performers. As
-they played, he would turn page after page over along with them, always
-in the spirit of the music and its harmony; but the emperor, looking
-over his shoulder, could see that not a note had he written down. Mozart
-seemed to combine in his genius all the sweetness of Italy with all the
-depth of Germany. But on these themes I have no authority to speak. All
-I can say is, that what I have heard of his compositions, and most of
-what I have learned of his life, have led me to think of him with
-admiration as a musician, and with affection as a man.
-
-Music, it is sometimes said, is not an intellectual art. _What does this
-mean?_ Does it mean that music employs no intellect in the artist, and
-excites none in the hearer? The assertion in both cases is untrue.
-Music, as a study, must, I think, be profoundly intellectual. In the
-oldest universities it has always had a place among the abstract
-sciences. But, considered as an enjoyment—considered in relation to the
-hearer—we should first need to settle what we understand by an
-intellectual enjoyment. To work a problem in algebra, or to examine a
-question of theology, may be each an intellectual pleasure; but the
-pleasure, it is manifest, is, in each case very different. These both,
-it is true, agree in taxing the _reasoning_ faculty; but is nothing
-intellectual but that which formally taxes this faculty? Is nothing
-intellectual but that which involves syllogism—but that which implies
-demonstration or induction? Prayer is not intellectual, if we identify
-intellectuality with logic; and if we do this, it is _not_ intellectual
-to feel the merits of a picture, but peculiarly so to understand the
-proportions of its frame. According to such a theory, it is intellectual
-to analyze with Aristotle, but it is not so to burn and to soar with
-Plato. To speculate with Jeremy Bentham is intellectual, but it is not
-so to be enraptured by the divine song of Milton. Assertions which lead
-to such conclusions must be radically false. Whatever puts man’s
-spiritual powers into action, is intellectual. The _kind_ of action
-engaged will, of course, be ever according to the subject and the
-object. The intellectuality of a statesman is not that of a bard; the
-intellectuality which concocts an act of parliament, is not that which
-composes a “Song of the Bell.” Music is neither inductive nor
-raciotionative. It is an art; that is, it is an inward law realised in
-outward fact. Such is all art. In this music agrees with all arts, for
-all arts are but the outward realities of inward laws. But some of these
-are for utility, others for delight. Music is of those arts which spring
-from the desire for enjoyment and gratify it. It bears the soul away
-into the region of the infinite, and moves it with conceptions of
-exhaustless possibilities of beauty. If ideas, feelings, imaginations,
-are intellectual, then is music; if that which can excite, combine,
-modify, elevate—memories, feelings, imagination—is intellectual, then
-music is intellectual.
-
-An art which, like music, is the offspring of passion and emotion, could
-not but take a dramatic form. The lyrical drama, secular and sacred,
-civilized humanity could not but produce. Nothing is more natural than
-that the gayety and grief of the heart should seek the intense and
-emphatic expression which music can afford. It would, indeed, be
-extraordinary if a creature like man—so covetous of excitement, so
-desirous of varying his sensations—did not press into his service,
-wherever it could be used, an art which has no other equal to it for
-excitement and variety. The opera, both comic and tragic, is a genuine
-production of this desire. The burlesque, the odd, the merry, the
-absurd, and, still more, pity, love, jealousy, vengeance, despair, have
-their music in the rudest states of society; it is only in the order of
-things that they should in cultivated states of society have a
-cultivated music. Such music, as a matter of course, would connect
-itself with a story, a plot, with incident, character, scenery, costume,
-and catastrophe. It would thus become dramatic. Thus it has become; and
-as such, it has a range as ample as that of human life, as deep as human
-passions, as versatile as the human fancy and the human will. Hence we
-have the opera. The opera is that form which the drama assumed among a
-people musically organized—among a people whose love of music was,
-therefore, intense, constitutional and expansive. But no art remains
-within the limits of its native space, and the opera is now as extensive
-as civilization; as extensive, certainly, as modern civilization. The
-ballad is the first comedy or tragedy. There are germs in the words of
-the ballet for the genius of Shakspeare—there are germs in the air of
-it for the genius of Rossini. Many object to the opera. First, they say,
-it is expensive. All our amusements are expensive—expensive as they
-ought not to be—expensive as they would not be with a higher and a
-purer social culture. Artistic amusements are expensive, especially, by
-the want of taste, which hinders the many from sharing in them—by the
-want of taste, which makes _expense_ itself distinction. True taste
-coincides with true feeling; true feeling delights in beauty, as it
-delights in goodness, for its own sake; and true feeling being wide as
-nature and humanity, the more widely its delight is shared the greater
-its own enjoyment. Were there among the people a diffusive taste for
-elevated music, we cannot but feel that music could be cheap as well as
-noble. But, secondly, many say that the opera is unnatural. It is
-absurd, they quizzically aver, that persons should sing their love-talk,
-their madness, their despair, etc., and grieve or laugh, and die or be
-married, in sharps or flats, in major or minor. And yet, this is exactly
-what nature does. Nature sings all its stronger emotions. The moment
-expression becomes excited it has rhythm—it has cadence; and the tune
-of Rossini is nearer to instinct than the blank verse of Shakspeare. Who
-will say that genuine passion is not in this wonderful blank verse? But
-who is it that could impromptu speak it? So in the tones and harmonies
-of music. In both nature is carried into the region of art, out from the
-region of the actual; and within the region of art the musical utterance
-of nature is no more strange than the poetical utterance of nature. The
-moral view of the opera I do not here pretend to deal with. My purpose
-is to speak on music as an element of social culture; and it is not
-beyond the range of possibility that beautiful truths can be united
-dramatically to beautiful tones. If they cannot, then society has an
-immense loss; and if a noble story cannot be told by music—cannot be
-told to a moral purpose, then music ceases to be an art, as it has
-always been considered as associated with the divinest impulses of our
-nature. The abuses of which the opera is susceptible, are the abuses of
-which every form of art is susceptible. The artist stands—he has ever
-stood—upon a point between the human and divine. He may carry his art
-into gross sensualities of the human, or into lofty spiritualities of
-the divine. With the purification of society we shall have the
-purification of art and of the artist; and, therefore, I can see no
-reason why the opera might not be made effective in the best culture of
-social humanity. The lyrical expression of humanity is not less human
-than it is religious.
-
-The sacred lyrical drama, or oratorio, seems to be a remnant of the old
-mysteries. In those old mysteries a scriptural subject was exhibited to
-the people in a theatrical manner. The scriptural subject is all that
-remains of the old mystery in the modern oratorio. Stage, scenery,
-costume, have departed, and music takes their place. Music, therefore,
-in the oratorio, must, by its own power, indicate character, sentiment,
-passion; it must unite grandeur and diversity with unity of spirit; it
-must unite them with unity of expression. Yet even the oratorio has not
-escaped objection. But, if it has been wrongly attacked, it has been as
-unwisely defended. What, it is triumphantly asked, can inspire deeper
-devotion, more fervent piety, than the sacred composition of Handel? The
-mistake of the artiste on this side of the question, has its only
-measure in the mistake of the ascetic on the other. The strains, even of
-Handel, may be in unison with the highest and purest aspirations of the
-mind; but, in his divinest dramas, they are not of themselves—devotion.
-But, if high music confers a pleasure that harmonizes with the mind’s
-best faculties; if it prepares the mind’s best faculties for their best
-exercise; if by lifting the mind up into the sphere of great emotions
-from that of mean ones; if by withdrawing it from attention to selfish
-desires, it carries it into lofty thought, music exercises for the mind,
-even in the temple, a sacred power, though its power should yet only be
-artistic. No mind, for instance, can be in a low or degraded condition,
-while it is in sympathy with the pure and delectable genius of Haydn. No
-mind can have communed with him through his oratorio of the “Creation,”
-can have drunk in its liquid melodies—its gladdening hymns of
-praise—its soft and heart-soothing airs—its songs, which seem to
-sparkle with the light which they celebrate—with the dew that bathed
-first the flowers of Paradise—with its anthems of holy exultation, such
-as the sons of God might have shouted—with the whole breathing in every
-part as it does—with the young soul of goodness and beauty—no mind, I
-say, can be in such communion, and for the time be otherwise than
-transported beyond all that can belittle or defile. But Handel excites a
-profounder sentiment. He is not so cheerful as Haydn. He could not be;
-for this he is too massive and austere. He does not, like Haydn, lead
-the mind out to nature, he turns it in upon itself. Not loveliness, but
-mysteries make the spirit of his music. We find in Haydn the
-picturesqueness and the buoyancy of the Catholic worship; in Handel, the
-sombre, the inquiring, the meditative thoughtfulness of the Protestant
-faith. By Haydn’s “Creation” we are charmed and elated; by Handel’s
-“Messiah” we are moved with an overcoming sense of awe and power. Though
-nothing can surpass the sweetness of Handel’s melodies, yet interspersed
-amidst such masses of harmony, they seem like hymns amidst the billows
-of the ocean, or songs among the valleys of the Alps. Handel’s genius
-was made for a subject that placed him in the presence of eternity and
-the universe. His moods and movements are too vast for the moods and
-movements of common interests or the common heart. They require the
-spaces of the worlds. They require interests coincident with man’s
-destiny, and with man’s duration. Though Handel’s airs in the “Messiah”
-are of sweetest and gentlest melody, they have majesty in their
-sweetness and their gentleness. We can associate them with no event
-lower than that with which they are connected. In such tones we can
-conceive the Saviour’s birth celebrated in the song of angels; in such
-tones we can fancy the Redeemer welcomed in hosannas by those who
-ignorantly dragged him afterward to Calvary. And then the plaintiveness
-of Handel in the “Messiah,” has its true horizon only in that which
-girds the immortal. It is not simply plaintive, it is mysteriously
-awful. It is not a grief for earthly man, it is a grief for him who bore
-the griefs of all men—for Him who carried our sorrows—who was wounded
-for our transgressions—who was bruised for our iniquities, who was
-oppressed and afflicted, and who bore the chastisement of our peace. It
-is not a grief in which any common spirit dare complain. It is fit only
-for Him who had sorrows to which no man’s sorrows were like. It does not
-cause us to pity, but to tremble. It does not move us to weeping,
-because there lie beneath it, thoughts which are too deep for tears. And
-then, in unison with this dread and solemn pathos, is the subdued but
-mighty anguish of the general harmony. When the victory is
-proclaimed—the victory over the grave—the victory over death—the
-victory in which mortality is swallowed up of life—we are lost in the
-glory of a superhuman chorus; our imagination breaks all local bounds;
-we fancy all the elements of creation, all glorified and risen men, all
-the hosts of Heaven’s angels united in this exultant anthem. Handel
-truly is the Milton of music.
-
-The grandest office of music, however, is that in which, no doubt, it
-originated—that in which, early, it had its first culture; in which,
-latest, it has its best—I mean its office in religion. In the sanctuary
-it was born, and in the service of God it arose with a sublimity with
-which it could never have been inspired in the service of pleasure. More
-assimilated than any other art to the spiritual nature of man, it
-affords a medium of expression the most congenial to that nature.
-Compared with tones that breathe out from a profound, a spiritually
-musical soul, how poor is any allegory which painting can present, or
-that symbol can indicate. The soul is invisible; its emotions admit no
-more than itself of shape or limitation. The religious emotions cannot
-always have even verbal utterance. They often seek an utterance yet
-nearer to the infinite; and such they find in music. You cannot
-delineate a feeling—at most you can but suggest it by delineation. But
-in music you can by intonation directly give the feeling. Thus related
-to the unseen soul, music is a voice for faith, which is itself the
-realization of things not seen. And waiting as the soul is amidst
-troubles and toils, looking upward from the earth, and onward out of
-time, for a better world or a purer life, in its believing and glad
-expectancy, music is the voice of its hope. In the depression and
-despondency of conviction; in the struggles of repentance; in the
-consolations and rejoicing of forgiveness; in the wordless calm of
-internal peace, music answers to the mood, and soothingly breaks the
-dumbness of the heart. For every charity that can sanctify and bless
-humanity, music has its sacred measures; and well does goodness merit
-the richest harmony of sound, that is itself the richest harmony of
-heaven. Sorrow, also, has its consecrated melody. The wounded spirit and
-the broken heart are attempered and assuaged by the murmurings of divine
-song. A plaintive hymn soothes the departing soul. It mingles with
-weeping in the house of death. It befits the solemn ritual of the grave.
-The last supper was closed with a hymn, and many a martyr for Him who
-went from that supper to his agony, made their torture jubilant in songs
-of praise.
-
-An essay equal to the subject on the vicissitudes and varieties of
-sacred music, would be one of the most interesting passages in the
-history of art. In their long wanderings to the land of promise, sacred
-music was among the hosts of Israel; and in that great temple of nature,
-floored by the desert, and roofed by the sky, they chanted the song of
-Miriam and of Moses. It was in their Sabbath meetings—it resounded with
-the rejoicings of their feasts, and with the gladness of their jubilees.
-When Solomon built a house to the Lord, it was consecrated with cymbals,
-and psalteries, and harps, with the sounds of trumpets, and the swell of
-voices. As long as the temple stood, music hallowed its services; and
-that music must have been supremely grand which suited the divine poetry
-of the inspired and kingly lyrist. Israel was scattered—the temple was
-no more. Silence and desolation dwelt in the place of the sanctuary.
-Zion heard no longer the anthems of her Levites. A new word that was
-spoken first in Jerusalem had gone forth among the nations; and that too
-had its music. At first it was a whisper among the lowly in the
-dwellings of the poor. Stealthily it afterward was murmured in the
-palace of the Cæsars. In the dead night, in the depths of the catacombs,
-it trembled in subdued melodies filled with the love of Jesus. At length
-the grand cathedral arose, and the stately spire; courts and arches
-echoed, and pillars shook with the thunder of the majestic organ, and
-choirs, sweetly attuned, joined their voices in all the moods and
-measures of the religious heart, in its most exalted, most profound,
-most intense experience put into lyrical expression. I know that piety
-may reject, may repel this form of expression, still these sublime
-ritual harmonies cannot but give the spirit that sympathizes with them,
-the sense of a mightier being. But sacred music has power without a
-ritual. In the rugged hymn, which connects itself, not alone with
-immortality, but also with the memory of brave saints, there is power.
-There is power in the hymn in which our father’s joined. Grand were
-those rude psalms which once arose amidst the solitudes of the Alps.
-Grand were those religious songs, sung in brave devotion by the
-persecuted Scotch, in the depths of their moors and their glens. The
-hundredth psalm, rising in the fullness of three thousand voices up into
-the clear sky, broken among rocks, prolonged and modulated through
-valleys, softened over the surface of mountain-guarded lakes, had a
-grandeur and a majesty, contrasted with which mere art is poverty and
-meanness. And while thus reflecting on sacred music, we think with
-wonder on the Christian Church—on its power and on its compass. Less
-than nineteen centuries ago, its first hymn was sung in an upper chamber
-of Jerusalem; and those who sung it were quickly scattered. And now the
-Christian hymn is one that never ceases—one that is heard in every
-tongue; and the whisper of that upper chamber is now a chorus that fills
-the world.
-
-Music is an essential element in social life and social culture, and our
-times have few better movements than the increasing introduction of
-vocal music into popular education. The higher kinds of music might be
-included in all the higher kinds of education for men as well as for
-women. Milton so teaches in his great tractate; and so the Greeks
-practiced, in whose training no faculty was wasted or overlooked. The
-music which is now most wanted, however, is music for the common heart.
-If education will give us the taste for such music, and give us the
-music, it will confer upon us a benefit, a blessing. It is not desired
-that music in the home, or in the friendly circle, should never wander
-out of the sphere of the home or the friendly circle, only let not these
-spheres of feeling be without any strains peculiarly suitable to
-themselves. Let the theatre have its music; let the camp have its music;
-let the dance-room have its music; let the church have its music; but
-let the home and the friendly gathering also have their music.
-
-We have for the cultivated, music of rare powers and in great abundance;
-but we need a music for the people—and no music can be music for the
-people, but that which answers to simple and direct emotion. It is a
-most important need. The music of the opera, granting it were ever so
-pure, and had no resistance to encounter, can be had only in cities, and
-can never reach the scattered masses of the population. The music of the
-oratorio must have a limitation even still more restricted. Popular
-music must be domestic, social music. We have it not; therefore we are a
-silent people, and our writings have no lyrical inspirations. The finer
-and deeper elements of popular life have no true medium of exposition.
-These subtle, delicate, wordless idealities of the soul, which the
-rudest have, are without music; that alone, which can take them from the
-confining bosom, and give them to the vital air. Our rural life is
-gladdened by no song—is the subject of no song; and our social life is
-almost as silent as the rural. National music we have none: and our
-political songs are, generally, a shame to doggerel, and a libel upon
-tune. Complaining on the want of social and domestic music, will not, I
-am aware, supply it; and yet it is no less a want. We want it on the
-summer’s evening, when our work is done, to rest the spirit as we rest
-the body; and while the eye is filled with visible beauty, to bring the
-soul into harmony with invisible goodness. We want it in the winter’s
-night, by the winter fire, to cheer us while the hours pass, and to
-humanize in amusing us. We want it in our friendly re-unions, not for
-delight alone, but also for charity and peace, to exclude the demon of
-idle or evil speaking, and to silence the turbulence of polemical or
-political discussion. We want it in our churches. Christianity is the
-home-feeling and the social-feeling made perfect. The music of it should
-be the home-feeling and the social-feeling consecrated. As it is, our
-Protestant churches at least have either a drawling psalmody with the
-monotony of a lullaby, or they have patches of selections that want
-unity, appropriateness, or meaning. A music is wanted in our Protestant
-churches such as Christianity ought to have; a music, simple yet
-grand—varied but not capricious—gladsome with holy joy, not with
-irreverent levity, not sentimental, yet tender, solemn but not
-depressing—not intolerant to the beauties of art, and yet not scornful
-of popular feeling. If a true and natural taste for music should spring
-up and be cultivated through the country, not in cities only, but in
-every village and district, it would be an auspicious phenomenon. It
-would be a most vital and a most humanizing element in social life. It
-would break the dullness of our homes; it would brighten the hour of our
-meetings; would enliven our hospitality, and it would sublime our
-worship. “Let who that will make the laws of a people,” some one said,
-“but let me make their songs;” to which a great and patriotic composer
-might add, Let who that will supply the words of a people’s songs, if I
-shall be allowed to give these words to music.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SPRING LILIES.
-
-
- ’Neath their green and cool cathedrals,
- In the garden lilies bloom,
- Casting on the fresh spring zephyr
- Peal on peal of sweet perfume;
- Often have I, pausing near them
- When the sunset flushed the sky,
- Seen the coral bells vibrating
- With their fragrant harmony.
-
- But within my quiet dwelling
- I have now a lily fair,
- Whose young spirit’s sweet spring budding
- Watch I with unfailing care.
- God, in placing her beside me,
- Made my being most complete,
- And my heart keeps time forever
- With the music of her feet.
-
- I remember not whilst gazing
- In her earnest eyes of blue,
- That the earth holds aught of sorrow,
- Aught less innocent and true.
- And the restlessness and longing
- Wakened by the cares of day,
- With the burden and the tumult,
- In her presence fall away.
-
- Shield my Lily, Holy Father!
- Shield her from the whirlwind’s might,
- But protracted sunshine temper
- With a soft and starry night;
- ’Neath the burning sun of summer
- Scorched and shrunk the spring flower lies,
- Human hearts contract when strangers
- Long to clouds and tearful eyes.
-
- Give her purpose strong and holy,
- Faith and self-devotion high;
- These Life’s common by-ways brighten,
- Every hope intensify.
- Teach her all the brave endurance
- That the sons of earth require;
- May she with a patient labor
- To the great and good aspire.
-
- Should some mighty grief oppress her
- Heavier than she can bear,
- Oh! sustain her by Thy presence,
- Hear and answer Thou her prayer.
- And whene’er the storms of winter
- Round my precious Lily reign,
- To a fairer clime transplant her
- There to live and bloom again.
- M. G. H.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE EARTH.
-
-
- BY R. H. STODDARD.
-
-
- As one who walks with eyes upon the ground,
- Arrested slow beside a dusty mound,
- Where swarms of ants are bustling in the sand,
- As if they had a Universe on hand,
- Surveys their nothings with a quiet smile,
- And stops to muse and meditate a while—
- Even so the sage with philosophic mind
- Looks down upon the earth and all mankind!
- And yet withal this little orb is grand,
- With its circumference of sea and land:
- The Ocean girds it with a belt immense,
- Heaving in billowy magnificence
- Round Continents with all their subject lands,
- A thousand sceptres in their giant hands!—
- And mountains loom majestical on high,
- And lift their foreheads in the blank of sky,
- Bathed in its brightness, while their robes of snow
- Trail o’er the tallest pines, and far below,
- Poured from their urns, the streams divide the plain
- And bear their tributes to the sounding main.
- And the round hills and verdant solitudes
- That slumber in the heart of trackless woods;
- The broad champain, the hollow vale and mead,
- And the green pastures where the cattle feed
- Deep in the daisies; and the silver brooks,
- And the long winding lanes, and grassy nooks,
- All, all, are clothed in loveliness and light,
- The various beauty of the day and night,
- While the great Earth, as when its flight begun,
- Wheels like a mighty eagle round the Sun!
- Yes! Earth is beautiful in every phase,
- Covered with glory and perpetual bays;—
- What pomps and pageants fill the glowing east,
- Hung like a palace on a bridal feast,
- When clouds of purple standards are unrolled,
- And morning lifts its diadem of gold!
- What streams of radiance flood the azure field,
- When the Noon marches with his shining shield
- And scales the eternal steep of Heaven alone,
- And looks o’er Nature from his burning throne!
- What dreamy softness in the melting west
- When Evening sinks in holiness to rest,
- And the young crescent moon, an argent barque,
- Drifts up the starry ocean of the dark!
- And how sublime the black tempestuous cloud,
- Where thunders shout their prophecies aloud
- With tongues of fire, that flash from sphere to sphere,
- While congregated nations quake in fear!
- How glorious all! how changeless and serene
- Where generations vanish from the scene.
- Yet what is Earth in Nature’s wondrous whole,
- Which mirrors dimly its Creative Soul?
- Less than ant-hill, even the smallest one,
- Whose gates thrown back exclude the summer sun.
- A single grain of sand from out the sea,
- The deep of Chaos and Eternity,
- Whose bubbles are The Ages dim and vast,
- Melting into the dark abysmal Past!
- A mote in the cerulean space of air,
- One of the innumerous myriads floating there,
- Wafted of old from God’s eternal seat,
- Where stars and suns lie thick as dust around his feet!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- ALONE—ALONE!
-
-
- BY MRS. I. W. MERCUR.
-
-
- “Her friends had one after one departed, and in her mind
- continually rang the monotonous words, alone, alone!”
-
- I am alone, oh God! alone—alone!
- Yet thousands round me crowd life’s busy mart,
- Whose ceaseless hum is as a deathless moan
- Forever falling on my weary heart—
- I am alone!
-
- I am alone—around me press the gay,
- The light of heart, they who have never known
- The blight of sorrow, or the sure decay
- Of every joy the spirit here has known—
- I am alone!
-
- I am alone—yet memory oft doth bring
- Back the sweet visions of life’s sunny day,
- Of friends unchanged, who in my early spring
- With smiles of love illumed my joyous way—
- I am alone!
-
- I am alone—alas! stern death has won
- Hearts that I cherished, and fond eyes of light;
- Kind tones are hushed, and brows I gazed upon
- In life’s full glory greet no more my sight—
- I am alone!
-
- Alone—alone!—for unto me no more
- The living turn with thought or feeling’s flow.
- And joy for me I feel on earth is o’er—
- I never more shall love or friendship know—
- I am alone!
-
- Alone and weary, yet I strive to wear
- Ever a look of calm, serene repose,
- And smiling seek to hide each galling care
- And burning sorrow which my spirit knows—
- I am alone!
-
- I am alone—and far, oh! far away
- From where my home of happy childhood lies,
- From scenes beloved where fountains murmuring play
- And smile beneath my own, my native skies—
- I am alone!
-
- Alone—alone!—and my crushed heart doth bear
- Cold and neglect from those for whom I pour
- My full soul forth—whose images I wear
- Forever shrined in memory’s sacred store—
- I am alone!
-
- I am alone, but in my fevered dreams
- Friends throng around me—voices loved I hear.
- Light once again upon my pathway beams,
- But I awake!—no forms beloved are near—
- I am alone!
-
- Alone—alone!—no more the star I see
- Of Hope which once illumed my cloudless sky.
- And naught is left on this wide earth to me,
- Save but to look on Nature’s face and die—
- I am alone!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- PEDRO DE PADILH.
-
-
- BY J. M. LEGARE.
-
-
- (_Continued from page 148._)
-
- SPAIN, AND TERCERA. }
- AD. 1583. }
-
-Meanwhile, the Marquis of Santa-Cruz with a hundred sail was steering
-from Lisbon to Tercera, bent upon reaching that island before the French
-fleet, and moreover settling it in his own mind to hang the Viceroy de
-Torrevedros, (who was at that moment taking wine with De Chaste to their
-mutual longevity,) for sticking to the landless and luckless King
-Anthony of Portugal, in preference to his own master Philip the Second,
-sometimes called the Prudent, but by the Protestants, whom he roasted
-and otherwise ill-treated, the Demon of the South.
-
-Señor Inique’s vessel was the Doblon, and our acquaintance Don Pedro’s
-the Pez-de-mar, but on the day designated, the two maîtres-de-camp dined
-together in the Doblon, besides whom were at table some half dozen
-cavaliers of more or less note. At the close of the meal, Sir Pedro
-said—
-
-“Gentlemen all, this is a day I never let pass without thought of the
-brave man whose head fell ten years ago this noon, at Brussels. I ask a
-_pater_ of the company here present for the rest of his soul.”
-
-“If you mean Count Egmont,” answered one, “there never was truer knight.
-I was near him at the time of his death, and believe him to have been as
-loyal as you or I.”
-
-“A doubtful comparison,” cried another, laughing, “since you question
-the king’s justice.”
-
-“By no means,” returned the Constable of Castile. “The king acknowledged
-as much himself. I was present when the news arrived, and he said with
-his usual smile, ‘These two salmon heads are better off than three-score
-heads of frogs!’”
-
-“Yes, and the French ambassador wrote to court, ‘I have seen a head fall
-which has twice made France quake.’”
-
-“Well,” said the constable, “I was but a stripling at the time, but I
-well remember how the count led his lances at St. Quentin. There was not
-a—hush! what’s that?” he stopped suddenly and asked.
-
-“What?” demanded most of his audience, who had heard nothing but the
-breaking of Don Pedro’s glass upset by his elbow. Perhaps Don Pedro,
-sitting next, was the only other who heard the smothered cry from a
-partition behind their host, for Don Inique’s face was as usual
-inflexible as a mask, and Padilh, turning to the constable, said—
-
-“I interrupted you. You were saying?”
-
-“Count Egmont rode so gallantly, there was not a man in the army had
-seen the like before; it was a ballad of the campeador acted to the
-life. Even the king, when he came down from the Escurial, praised his
-bravery, and afterward presented him a sword, upon which was engraved
-‘St. Quentin.’”
-
-The constable may have repeated the last word to satisfy a doubt in his
-mind, but if so he was disappointed in his purpose, for no response came
-from the partition, although a momentary silence followed the close of
-the sentence. I mention this little incident because it was the prelude
-to a singular conversation between the two camp-masters, the next
-morning, on board the Pez-de-mar.
-
-“I cannot be mistaken, Padilh,” said the other, in his starched way.
-“You heard the exclamation yesterday at table, and endeavored to drown
-it. You saved me, sir, a pang—for which I am grateful,” he added, with
-the air of a man compelled to acknowledge a service.
-
-“I did my best and quickest to forestall curiosity,” answered Sir Pedro
-kindly. “The Constable of Castile is the only gentleman in the fleet who
-suspects the presence of your—your—son. And that only since yesterday;
-he told me as much last evening. For your precautions in Portugal have
-been effectual in keeping a knowledge of the matter even from most of
-our comrades at St. Quentin.”
-
-“A curse fall on the name,” muttered Inique bitterly. “It is the only
-touchstone his memory has, and at its utterance nothing but force can
-stay his screams. God pity me: I act it all over in mind whenever the
-boy cries out as he did on the field.”
-
-Padilh knew his associate well enough to disguise what commiseration he
-felt, and without noticing the interruption continued—
-
-“Thus, señor, your secret is safe still; for as you may readily believe,
-the constable got as little information from my tongue as by his own at
-table.”
-
-“Do you think he pronounced the name with design?” cried the
-maître-de-camp, his brows contracting. “If I—”
-
-“No,” returned honest Don Pedro decidedly, “the constable is a man of
-worth, and would pry into no one’s affairs systematically. But his chief
-defect is a tendency to say or do whatever comes into his head, and that
-he falls into difficulty less often is perhaps owing more to luck than
-consideration on his part. Don’t you remember hearing the answer he made
-his Holiness, while a mere lad?”
-
-“No,” absently.
-
-“Why,” persisted the knight, regardless of the doubtful attention of his
-auditor, and moved by a good-natured wish to lead away from the painful
-topic, “the brusquerie of the whole affair made it the talk at court;
-where were you that you failed to hear it? The constable was sent to
-congratulate his Holiness on his accession to St. Peter’s chair, but the
-Pope taking umbrage at the youth of the ambassador, exclaimed
-aloud—‘What! has the King of Spain no men in his dominions, that he
-sends us a face without a beard?’ Whereupon the fiery boy, stretching
-himself up and stroking with forefinger and thumb his upper lip, where a
-mustache should have been but was not, said with a frown—‘Sir, had my
-royal master known your Holiness measured wisdom by a beard, he would
-doubtless have sent a he-goat to honor you!’”
-
-After a pause Inique said—(the capernian episode was evidently lost
-upon him)—
-
-“I have no need of any mortal’s sympathy, Padilh, and the man that
-pities me openly must answer to my sword for it. You have done neither
-to my knowledge, yet you were not far off when I struck the boy,” (he
-dropped his voice here, as a weight on the conscience will make people
-do.) “If you choose to listen, the secret motives of a man who for
-fifteen years has had no thought for his second child, until moved to
-avenge her, because the first, an idiot, intervened, may startle your
-ears, Pedro Padilh.”
-
-“The recital may ease your breast,” said our knight in some surprise.
-
-“There is no likelihood of what you say,” answered Don Augustino, a
-shade of scorn crossing his moody face, “and I wish it otherwise. Why I
-choose you, a companion in arms, for confessor, you will learn in time;
-perhaps your long friendship and yesterday’s prompt action have their
-influence. These things you witnessed or know; the mad blows, their
-result, the measures I have taken to be constantly within reach of his
-voice? Why? have you, has any one, hesitated to give some cloak, some
-color, to so singular a course?”
-
-Each of these interrogatories, rapidly put, Sir Pedro answered in turn
-by a slight token of assent; he was about to reply more fully to the
-last, when the other stopped him with a gesture.
-
-“Never mind. I know what is said. That I hide away the living reminder
-of my crime from the world; that I am remorseful, or doing penance, or
-else crazed. Let them prate. Sir Pedro, by all the saints, the boy I
-struck is not my son!”
-
-“Poor fellow!” thought the knight, compassionately; “his last plea is
-the right one.”
-
-“Don Pedro Padilh, there was a man of good birth and great wealth, but
-little or no character, or care for character, whom I saved once from
-being hanged. He was grateful, after his headlong fashion, for the
-service, and in the end proposed to unite our infant children; he had
-one son, and I a son and daughter; and consolidate our joint estates. At
-first my soul revolted at the suggestion; an union between my own
-offspring and that of a redeemed felon, appeared to me monstrous. But
-while I debated the matter, difficulties softened. I knew better than
-any one the smallness of my fortune, which extravagance had reduced to
-the tatters of its former amplitude; but of this I said nothing, and the
-papers were signed in due form. That day was the last I could touch my
-breast proudly, and say, ‘Here is the abode of honor.’”
-
-“And this is the soldier whose honor is held up to the world as a
-pattern!” Padilh mused.
-
-“Still the degradation of such connection preyed upon my mind. I wanted
-the money to perpetuate the wealth of my house; but how be rid of the
-bad blood? And about this time my friend went abroad, leaving his boy in
-my charge. I confronted the temptation only to be overcome in the end;
-sent away my servants, and removing to the mountains chose others; and
-when these were assembled, I, myself, took occasion to call the names of
-the infants before them, that there might be no mistake—_no mistake_,
-you understand—as names may from what they have been. My own boy I
-called—”
-
-“Speak, Sir Augustino!” ejaculated Padilh, sharply.
-
-“Hilo de Ladron; the other—”
-
-“Man, man!” cried the knight, rising and standing over against the
-speaker, “You have made an idiot of and imprison my own kin—the son of
-my half-brother. What reparation can you make?”
-
-“Reparation! Look here, at these premature seams and wrinkles, grizzled
-hair and beard. Has that unsteady hand nothing to show of an iron temper
-shattered by sorrow?”
-
-“Sir, your selfish sorrow blinds you. These are signs of retribution on
-you, not of reparation to the party injured. Don Augustino, I joined
-this expedition with the sole purpose of saving from ruin, if I might, a
-lad whom I despise for his vices; and do you think I will leave longer
-at your mercy the real Hilo, whom, in place of condemning, I can only
-pity.”
-
-“That rests with me,” returned the maître-de-camp, with a slight sneer.
-“But listen to me, Don Pedro; you judge my case before it is stated.”
-
-“Finish, sir,” answered Padilh, moodily, resuming his seat; “and heaven
-grant your conscience proves clearer than it seems to me likely to do.”
-
-Inique, without comment, took up the word where the interruption
-occurred.
-
-“My reasoning took this shape. My daughter is a puny thing—there is no
-probability of her surviving to even girlhood. What does it matter if
-the baby is betrothed to her brother? As for De Ladron, if he ever
-returns from the new world, how is he to recognize his boy, grown out of
-remembrance, if the child does not die—he seems pining away
-rapidly—before that time. Hernan Ladron I never saw again; but his
-infant grew strong and healthy in our change of climate, and this vexed
-me hourly. I had felt sure the weakly thing could not live, or the
-exchange would not have been made; and now, he was growing up a quiet,
-mild boy—pah! it made me sick to think he believed himself my son, as
-did all the world beside. The sense of this contrast pushed from my
-brain all other concern. I cursed the grasping folly which had tempted
-me to barter a gallant fellow, like my own boy, for an estate and this
-whey-faced child. However, he should go to war with me, and be cured of
-his girlishness. But when, at St. Quentin, he fled before the first
-charge of the French, cowering at my stirrup, I was frantic with rage
-and shame. I had no love for the boy; his very existence was a daily
-threat of exposure, and I beat him, as you all saw, with my sword hilt,
-to drive him a second time into the fight. What followed, too, you all
-knew. But, until this day, no mortal has learnt the yearning pity that
-mastered my passions and filled my breast with remorse. I believe my
-first resolution was to confess my infamy and restore the heir his
-wealth and name; but I waited until he should recover, and when I saw he
-was likely to remain an idiot, I changed my mind.”
-
-“Don Augustino, you would have been less dishonored by confessing your
-dishonor,” cried our knight, here. “You proved yourself, in the sight of
-Heaven, a greater coward than your reputed son.”
-
-“Sir,” replied the other, hotly, flushing red, “you forget I am your
-equal in point of rank, if not virtue, and wear a sword. You tax my
-forbearance heavily.”
-
-“A horse in meadow neighs louder than a horse under saddle,” answered
-Padilh. “Overlook the reproach, Don Augustino, and pass on.”
-
-“I set some value on your friendship, and will not consent to lose it
-for a hard word honestly spoken,” Inique said, not very contentedly.
-
-“I altered my mind, but not altogether. I resolved not a fraction of his
-income should be used in the service of me or mine, and reduced the
-expenses of my household accordingly. Hilo, my real son, left to his own
-guidance at home, had become a ruinous spendthrift, and openly revolted
-at any curtailment of what he considered his rights. But against his
-wickedness I had, as a set off, the patience and affection of the
-supposititious son; the very qualities I had before despised now touched
-me most—his mildness of face and speech, and trustfulness in my
-protection—for the whole past seemed wiped out of his remembrance, and
-but a single word was capable of recalling any portion of it—the word
-the Constable of Castile spoke yesterday at table. Perhaps the cries and
-sounds of battle might recall my shame and his sorrow, but my care has
-hitherto proved successful in keeping such from his ears.”
-
-“Yet there seems to me in all this, Don Augustino, no good reason for
-your becoming the boy’s jailor,” said Sir Pedro.
-
-“Stay. If it was hard to resolve on publishing my infamy with my own
-mouth, was it easy to bear the thought that some day it must be realised
-in the growing likeness of my prisoner to his true father, Ladron? I
-watched this fast maturing resemblance with the anguish of one seeing
-his death warrant signed, understanding to the full how the crime which
-my voluntary confession might have softened in the eyes of the world,
-would grow in odium as time elapsed. I fancied it was only needful for
-you, or any one familiar with the father’s face, to catch a glimpse of
-the son’s to detect my secret; and I kept the sole evidence near my
-person, not because it was the safest, but the least harassing course it
-was possible to pursue.”
-
-“The least harassing, Don Augustino,” the knight said, “would have been
-to acknowledge your criminality at first, and have made restitution
-openly as you did in private. Better do so now than never.”
-
-“What! when the son of a felon in yonder ship must be disowned only to
-substitute a felon himself! No, sir; the most I can do is what I now
-purpose—to find this reckless youth and turn him from his vicious life
-by every means but that you propose. Only in the last extremity will I
-show him to be as penniless in the future as now, and that the girl he
-has exhausted his vileness to dishonor is his sister, and I the wretched
-father of both.”
-
-“And only in such extremity will your words have weight with Hilo de
-Ladron, as I suppose, for your sake, he must yet be called, although I
-grudge him the name. But it seems to me, Don Augustino Inique, you prate
-more of dishonor than a man should who has committed felony to his own
-conscience and in God’s sight; and that the honor you esteem so highly
-is nothing better than the declamation of those who surround you.”
-
-“A truce to your sarcasms,” cried Inique, pale with anger. “I am not
-here, Padilh, to listen to a sermon or be ordered a penance. If you will
-help me in this affair by your intervention, you will not find me
-ungrateful; and I know enough of my own nature, as you might, to feel
-assured that, left to my own resources, I may do that in the heat of
-passion which cannot be undone. What! am I so fallen in your eyes that
-you cannot afford me the time and occasion I need for amendment, or
-distrust my best designs?”
-
-“No, by St. Jago,” cried our generous don, “that I will not, Inique. I
-have done you some wrong in thought, perhaps, but I will make amends by
-assisting you where I may with proper regard to my own views and
-affections. But, you understand, I annex a condition—the true Hilo must
-pass from your care into mine as soon as we effect a landing. As his
-nearest relative, I have a higher right to the charge of his person than
-the—than yourself, Don Augustino.”
-
-“Don Pedro,” answered Inique, slowly, after a pause, “you have justice
-on your side, and I will not oppose the transfer if you insist. But I
-beg you earnestly to consider that I, from hating, have come to love the
-youth better—yes, better than my own children; and until the present
-adjustment succeeds or fails, you may do worse than leave him in my
-keeping, as before—only that the doors of his prison, as you seemed but
-now to consider it, are open to you from this hour. I pledge you my
-word, at all hazard or pain, to restore him to you at the close of this
-expedition.”
-
-“Well, let it be so,” replied Don Pedro, surprised and pleased at the
-other’s words.
-
-And the maître-de-camp, with a breast somewhat less burdened, betook
-himself to his ship again.
-
-A couple of days later the peaked and thickly-wooded shores of Tercera
-were first visible, and the armada coasting along, to the mortal terror
-of the Portuguese, who were parceled out in companies to defend the
-accessible points, and miserably ignorant where the Spaniards would make
-their descent, came to anchor off St. Catherine, where about fifty
-French and twice as many Portuguese were drawn up to oppose the landing.
-
-“It would be a pity to cross the humor of the French gentlemen, yonder,”
-Santa-Cruz said, with a grim smile. “But their allies will only
-embarrass their manœuvres, and had better be routed before hand. Don’t
-you think we can frighten them, Pòlvora?”
-
-“Frighten them!” cried that cavalier; “I can see, at this distance, the
-finery of some glittering in the sunshine, as if the wearers were
-shaking all over. Let us try if they are not too frightened to run.”
-
-So the signal was given, and a general discharge of cannon followed from
-the fleet, doing no special harm. I believe the widow Jean’s son was
-decapitated, and that young fool, Allain, who must needs leave his
-pretty sweetheart Annette in Floillé to pick up a little glory, that his
-marriage might come off with more eclat than any in his village, lost a
-leg or arm; but these were trifles nobody minds in a skirmish.
-
-However, it was before the balls came bumping along the sands—indeed,
-while they were disporting, like great whales, in the outer surf, and
-casting up jets of water at each _ricochet_, that the brave rear-guard
-took to their heels—a piece of prudence for which I beg the indulgence
-of those military young men who are suffered by their employers to sport
-moustachios in their shops and counting-houses, and whose chief motive
-for advocating, in strong language, a dissolution of the Union, is
-supposed to lie in the admirable opportunity to be afforded of winning
-undying laurels in civil warfare; for I would intimate, however
-reprehensible cowardice may be on any occasion, and on this in
-particular, that watching the lively skipping from wave to wave of such
-iron globes as a 42-pounder debouches, while chatting with the officer
-of artillery, who has just sighted the piece at a hogshead anchored in
-the bay, is quite a different thing from doing the same when serving as
-the hogshead yourself.
-
-“Yonder go a brave enemy!” cried Padilh, with a laugh, to his colleague
-in the next barge, the two maîtres-de-camp heading the flotilla with the
-landing party. “If any fall in your way hereafter, don’t forget they’re
-women; spare their lives, as you wear spurs, señor mine.”
-
-To this Inique answered, standing erect in the stern and shading his
-eyes with his palm, quite another personage in voice and carriage from
-the penitent of two days back:
-
-“But the line of the French has not a gap in it—yes, one, which they
-have just filled with a fresh man. There’ll be sharp work there, Padilh,
-although we are strong enough to surround and capture the whole
-detachment. Lay to your oars, men! Make prisoners of as many of the
-gallant fellows as you can.”
-
-“What’s come over the master?” grumbled a sergeant to a crony. “Last
-time he marched against the French it was nothing but ‘keep your pikes
-level, my lads; the man that fails to spit his man, deserves to be cut
-over the head in return.’ And now it’s, ‘don’t hurt them, these fine
-fellows.’ You see, I like a man to be one thing.”
-
-“Why, they say Señor Inique has a cousin, or a son-in-law, or something
-of the sort, who is no better than he should be, and at this moment in
-the French camp. Who knows if the señor hasn’t an idea of turning coat
-some day himself? It looks like it, don’t it, sergeant?”
-
-“No; hang it, man, he wouldn’t do such a dirty thing. Why, don’t you
-know, you unbelieving Thomas, there ain’t a gentleman in all Spain with
-such a name for honor!”
-
-“Well, may be; but I like to be sure of a thing of the sort. Honesty and
-uprightness is my motto.”
-
-“Hey! what’s that Mig’s saying?” said a sailor who pulled the bow oar,
-with a grin, to his neighbor. “I lived near La Mécha myself, egad! and I
-know there wa’n’t a lamb sure of being raised so long as _he_ was about.
-May be he’s forgot my phiz, with the tip of my nose sliced off by that
-turbaned chap’s cim’tar.”
-
-So the gossip was kept up until a volley of twenty or so arquebuses, as
-the fleet grounded in tolerable line, turned their thoughts too busily
-in another channel to leave time for such tattling; and the old
-campaigners of the later Moorish wars were out and formed in “battle”
-before Capt. Bourgignon poured in his reserve fire, and fell upon the
-invaders with the audacity of a hawk half as large as your hand pouncing
-upon a turkey a fourth as big as your body; only that the enemy was not
-in any respect like a turkey—more like a condor, I should say, in point
-of ferocity and collected action. He marched up from the submerged beach
-to the sands above high-water, with no more concern for the struggling
-handful in front than you or I would for the whiff of sleet blown in our
-faces on a windy day in the streets. To be sure, the smooth tablet left
-by the last tide, was written over with a heavy stylus, and dabbled with
-such ink as conquerors and others who leave their mark on the times in
-which they lived, employ; moreover, there were numerous unsightly
-blotches dropped about, which retained enough vitality sometimes to
-scream in a manner calculated to shock our fire-eating civilians into a
-wholesome distaste to civil collision and slaying. Of course, such
-things are necessities, like lightning and volcanic eruptions, despite
-the efforts of Mr. Burritt to show the contrary. The exception appears
-strongest when one of us loses a brother or a husband, with a bullet in
-the heart or head, as Amelia did George at Brussels, or more than one
-acquaintance of mine, now wearing premature widow’s-weeds, in the late
-Mexican war.
-
-On the whole, there is something vastly fascinating in military display
-and glory; and I confess, when I call to mind the bray of trumpets,
-glint of steel harness, and gallant show of surcoats, paraded that July
-morning along the St. Catherine beach, I am tempted to drag my obliging
-reader into the thick of the fight, and recapitulate, with cannibal
-appetite, the shouts, groans, and extorted cries of agony, by which you
-could have told with shut eyes how the work advanced, and where this or
-that poor devil was left sprawling on the driftweed, with a saucer full
-of blood in a sea-shell, perhaps, just under his left side; to say
-nothing of those who enacted the parts, as near as their heavy armor and
-different locomotive organization allowed, of fowls recently beheaded—a
-sight full of interest to even those darlings of mamma who are brought
-up to feed sparrows with crumbs, but slay mice and centipedes without
-restriction. All I intend relating of this skirmish is, that Capt.
-Bourgignon was killed, as were most of his officers, and as to the
-fifteen men remaining out of the fifty, not one was without a wound.
-They could not have acquitted themselves better had De Chaste himself
-been present, which he was not, but on the opposite side of a high
-promontory lying next La Praya, making what haste he might to come up
-with the combatants, whose whereabouts he knew by the cannonading.
-
-Three days before this the viceroy had sent word to the commander that
-the Spanish fleet could plainly be seen from the Peak; and riding along
-the coast, De Chaste heard the sentinels posted on the mountains ringing
-bells and firing their arquebuses, in token of the approach of the
-enemy, who were not long in arriving within gun-shot of the shore, and
-keeping the islanders in constant alarm, as before hinted, by cannon
-shots and the hovering of a cluster of galleys about every available
-landing. The French general had his hands full in following these last,
-encouraging his little garrisons, and endeavoring to find bread for his
-troops, whose dinners the Count de Torrevedros never troubled himself
-about. Indeed, that viceregal nobleman had enough to do to consider how
-best to ingratiate himself with the Marquis of Santa-Cruz, and for the
-present keep out of harm’s way. It was not only the count, however, who
-cared little for the landing of the Spaniards and ruin of the French,
-provided their persons and property remained secure—a tolerably
-universal wish being that their allies had gone to the bottom before
-reaching Tercera and dragging them into a siege, when all they wanted
-was safety and submission.
-
-“Senhor Commandante,” said the Portuguese captain at La Praya, while the
-pair rode out, as usual, with a company or two at their heels, “you can
-now see for yourself, yonder, how little the number of the enemy has
-been magnified.”
-
-“So much the better,” answered the commander, like the Wolf in Little
-Red Ridinghood; “we will have more to make prisoners.”
-
-“O—h!” cried the Portuguese, the idea being new to him.
-
-“Confound the man’s bragging,” he muttered to himself; “he talks as if
-they were children or savages he has to do with.”
-
-Whereupon De Chaste added, with something like a smile on his hard face:
-
-“You see at least, senhor captain, they are not afraid of us, if we are
-of them, for they pull within reach of our batteries; and here comes a
-ball to measure the distance between us.”
-
-“St. Hubert! Are we to stand here to be shot without chance of drawing
-sword?” cried Captain Gaza, brushing the sand thrown over him from his
-holyday doublet. “It is madness, sir commander, madness; and I cannot
-expose my brave men to such needless danger.”
-
-“As you like best; you will find a half mile up the beach out of cannon
-range,” indifferently rejoined the French knight, and spurred closer to
-the water’s edge, followed by his countrymen, many of whom, in passing,
-saluted the Portuguese ironically, while others, out of earshot of the
-conversation, wondered at the blanched visage of the captain, and his
-taking himself and company to the skirt of the wood a mile or more back.
-
-“Duvict,” said De Chaste, presently, to that cavalier, whom he had
-called to his side, “you will ride over to-night to Angra, and tell the
-viceroy we all count it strange, that, with the enemy threatening the
-coast, he is no where to be seen; perhaps, if he is bent on shutting up
-himself, he will take this captain off our hands; the fewer such cowards
-in our ranks, the better chance will we have of successful defense. At
-all events, I insist on the withdrawal of this Gaza, even if his troop
-goes with him. Moreover, I demand in the queen’s name, an immediate
-supply of rations for our men here and elsewhere. Lose no time on your
-journey.”
-
-“I am so well pleased with the errand, that I will set out this instant,
-monseigneur, if you consent. Why wait until our return to Porta Praya?”
-cried Duvict, cheerfully.
-
-“Go, then,” answered the commander, nodding approval; “and if he is not
-to be met with at Angra, search the country till you find him.”
-
-The viceroy was not at Angra, that city being too exposed to bombardment
-to suit his present fancy; but the Frenchman found him at his
-country-house among the hills, keeping a sharp look-out over the roads
-leading coastward.
-
-“Tell the honorable commander,” replied Torrevedros, dissembling his
-annoyance at the ambassador’s blunt message, “I will surely join him as
-soon as I make certain levies, calculated to do him more service than
-five troop of horse. But I take it ill, he shows so little faith in my
-concern for his safety at the present extremity.”
-
-“As for his safety,” answered Duvict, who was not much of a courtier,
-“our commandant can very well take care of that and ours. It is for your
-own honor, and the putting your people in good heart, which, by the
-three kings, they want mightily! Monseigneur troubles himself with your
-absence, M. le Viceroi. Meanwhile, it would not be amiss to give our
-soldiers something withal to fill their mouths, especially as we may be
-obliged to do most of the fighting before the new levies arrive.”
-
-“You will soon have abundance for all,” the count made answer, smoothly.
-“Hasten down, and inform your commandant I will delay here not an hour
-beyond what is necessary, on the honor of a knight. You said truly, sir,
-we must have no cowards in our ranks, either French or Portuguese.”
-
-“M. le Viceroi, your acquaintance with your own countrymen is
-indisputable,” Duvict here said superciliously, “but we French are
-taught in a different school.”
-
-“Let it pass,” rejoined Torrevedros, biting his lip. “If I designed to
-wound your self-love, it would not be in my own house. I will show my
-willingness at least to oblige M. de Chaste, by cashiering my captain at
-Porta Praya in favor of one more reliable.”
-
-It was this new captain, John de Castros, who carried De Chaste a letter
-from the viceroy a day later, which that loyal nobleman had received
-from Santa Cruz by a Portuguese, caught off the coast, and forced to
-swim ashore with the dispatch tied about his neck—the French not
-suffering any boat to approach within hail.
-
-The commandant tore the paper to fragments as soon as he saw the
-contents. “This Count of Torrevedros,” he said, with a short laugh, to
-his maître-de-camp, who was present, “is either a fool, or doubts our
-honor. The Marquis of Santa Cruz offers him here his life, and abundant
-rewards, besides the freedom of his wife and children, now in Madrid,
-provided he surrenders the island, which he might well enough do as far
-as himself is concerned, but he wishes to be rid of us at the same time,
-and therefore risks being reckoned a traitor in hope of inducing us to
-accept the marquis’s conditions.”
-
-“A traitor he is!” cried the lieutenant, indignantly. “And since he
-proves himself so in so many ways, why not return to France as we are,
-without further intermeddling between him and his lackland master.”
-
-“You forget,” returned De Chaste, “all who have entered on this
-enterprise, are bound in honor to see it through with what success their
-energy may obtain. Still you, and other cavaliers who have joined of
-your free will, and not by the queen’s direct command, may do as you see
-proper, and leave us who remain to share the greater glory which must
-attend a defense against greater odds.”
-
-“Sir commandant,” the lieutenant responded, simply hearing him through
-with some little mortification in his frank face, “you pain me by such
-permission, for neither I, nor any other French gentleman here, would
-leave you an instant without being compelled by your commands; and that
-I am sure you know.”
-
-“I know it so well,” cried the commandant at this, “that I am not sure I
-spoke the truth in even hinting my distrust just now.”
-
-And truly the lieutenant was as good as his word; for when the French
-crossed the neck of the promontory I have mentioned, and coming too late
-to reinforce Bourgignon, fell upon a strong party of the Spaniards,
-detailed to take possession of a spring near by, with a determination
-which brought about a general and very bloody battle; there was not one
-in the tremendous uproar of voices and of arms, smoke of arquebuses,
-blood spattered and welling, screams, shrieks, groans, and
-huzzas!—huzzas! ensuing—who did such execution with the sword, as that
-same lieutenant; it was he that killed the father of poor little
-Margueretta, who, for want of bread, the next year became what even
-famine must not excuse. And, perhaps, as he did his share of irreparable
-mischief with an easy conscience, and certainly to the best of his
-ability, when his corpse lay stark as the mail encasing it, that same
-afternoon, by the eminence to the left, where Hilo was seen aiming an
-arquebuse at one time of the fight, his spirit may have been regaling in
-Paradise with other performers of that much abused sentiment, duty.
-
- [_To be continued._
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE NAME OF WIFE.
-
-
- BY MRS. A. M. F. ANNAN.
-
-
- O name most blesséd, or most sorrowful, thou,
- As from the Urim of Experience fall
- The lights or shadows on thee; seeming now
- Radiant as bliss upon an angel’s brow,
- Then ghastly dim as Hope’s funereal pall!
- Up to my vision thou dost ever call
- Twin pictures—women—one with calm, meek eyes,
- And soft form gently bent, and folded hands,
- Brooding in dove-like peace o’er her sweet ties
- Requited truthfully; the other stands
- With sunken cheek by tears unheeded glazed,
- Her wan feet bleeding, and her thin arms raised,
- Knowing no help but from above the skies.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SONNET.—THE OLIVE.
-
-
- BY WM. ALEXANDER.
-
-
- What sacred reminiscences dost thou
- Awake within the breast, O olive-tree!
- First did the silver-pinioned dove from thee
- Pluck the sweet “Peace-branch”—it an olive-bough.
- Fair evergreen! thoughts pure, devout, sublime,
- Thou callest up, reminding us of Him,
- The Man of Sorrows—Lord of Cherubim—
- Who, erewhile, did, in distant Orient clime,
- ’Neath thy dark, solemn shade, once weep and pray
- In woful agony; though now, above,
- Seated on sapphire throne—the God of Love—
- While round his head the covenant sign alway
- Unfolds its rich and ever-living green,
- Memento of Gethsemane’s affecting scene.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration: THE WAY TO CHURCH.
-
-Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine by T. McGoffin]
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SIN NO MORE.
-
-
- BY R. T. CONRAD.
-
-
- “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee.”
-
-
- Art thou young, yet hast not given
- Dewy bud and bloom to Heaven?
- Tarryest till life’s morn be o’er!
- Pause, or ere the bolt be driven!
- Sin no more!
-
- Art thou aged? Seek’st thou power?
- Rank or gold—of dust the dower!
- Fame to wreathe thy wrinkles hoar?
- Dotard! death hangs o’er thy hour!
- Sin no more!
-
- Art thou blest? False joys caress thee:
- And the world’s embraces press thee
- To its hot heart’s cankered core:
- Waken! Heaven alone can bless thee.
- Sin no more!
-
- Art thou wretched? Hath each morrow
- Sown its sin to reap its sorrow!
- Turn to Heaven—repent—adore:
- Hope new light from Faith can borrow;
- Sin no more!
-
- May a meek and rapt devotion
- Fill thy heart, as waves the ocean,
- Glassing Heaven from shore to shore!
- Then wilt thou—calmed each emotion—
- Sin no more.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- WORDSWORTH.
-
-
- BY JAMES T. FIELDS.
-
-
- The grass hung wet on Rydal banks,
- The golden day with pearls adorning,
- When side by side with him we walked
- To meet midway the summer morning.
-
- The west wind took a softer breath,
- The sun himself seemed brighter shining,
- As through the porch the minstrel slept—
- His eye sweet Nature’s look enshrining.
-
- He passed along the dewy sward,
- The blue-bird sang aloft “good-morrow!”
- He plucked a bud, the flower awoke
- And smiled without one pang of sorrow.
-
- He spoke of all that graced the scene
- In tones that fell like music round us,
- We felt the charm descend, nor strove
- To break the rapturous spell that bound us.
-
- We listened with mysterious awe,
- Strange feelings mingling with our pleasure;
- We heard that day prophetic words,
- High thoughts the heart must always treasure.
-
- Great Nature’s Priest! thy calm career,
- With that sweet morn, on earth has ended—
- But who shall say thy mission died
- When, winged for Heaven, thy soul ascended!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- INSPIRATION. TO SHIRLEY.
-
-
- BY WM. P. BRANNAN.
-
-
- What shall yield me inspiration,
- What sweet spell entrance my thought,
- Whilst I sing the adoration
- By thy matchless beauty wrought?
- Overcome with exultation
- Which thy charming presence brought.
-
- Incense-bearing breezes hover
- Round my flushed and throbbing brow,
- Minstrels in their shady cover
- Chant divinest music now;
- Nature, yield to nature’s lover
- Language worthy of his vow!
-
- Where she walks a richer splendor
- Hallows all the earth and sky,
- Unseen angels there attend her;
- Heaven and love sleep in her eye—
- Graces have no grace to lend her,
- Zephyr breathes an envious sigh.
-
- Thou thyself art inspiration!
- Moving, breathing, blessing, blest;
- The lily and the rose-carnation
- Live upon thy cheek and breast,
- Daring time and desolation,
- Thrilling hearts with wild unrest!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- EDDA MURRAY.
-
-
- BY ENNA DUVAL.
-
-
- Learn to win a lady’s faith
- Nobly, as the thing is high;
- Bravely, as for life and death—
- With a loyal gravity.
-
- Lead her from the festive boards,
- Point her to the starry skies,
- Guard her by your truthful words,
- Pure from courtship’s flatteries.
-
- By your truth she shall be true—
- Ever true as wives of yore—
- And her _Yes_, once said to you,
- SHALL be Yes for evermore.
- ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
-
-It was a hot, sultry afternoon at —— ——, a fashionable summer resort
-at the sea side. The three great events of the day were
-accomplished—namely, the bath, dinner, and the arrival of the boat
-bringing the mail; the visiters, therefore, had nothing to do but to get
-rid of the afternoon in as noisy a manner as possible, keeping
-themselves as warm and uncomfortable as they could, in order to prove
-that they were enjoying themselves after the most approved fashion.
-Ladies could be seen in every direction, passing from one hotel to
-another, flitting in and out of cottages, dressed in the most
-incongruous style—in silks, mulls, and gauzes, fitted for a full-dress
-dinner or evening party; and surmounting this dressy costume was—the
-only really sensible article to be seen in this dominion of Folly—the
-prim, plain country sun-bonnet. Fashion had established that hats at the
-sea-side were vulgar, and accordingly, every belle mounted one of these
-useful, but exceedingly ugly head-dresses. Carriages and wagons of every
-description darted to and fro, from the funny little Jersey sand wagon,
-with horses of a Jersey match, gray and brown, or black and white, up to
-the well matched, well ordered establishment of the _nouveau riche_, who
-was willing to sacrifice his delicate town-bred horses, in order to
-exhibit his magnificence to the _plebs_. A fine establishment drew up in
-front of the entrance of one of the principal hotels, and the owner of
-it, Mr. Martin, a prosperous merchant, with his fussy, dressy,
-good-natured, fat little wife, entered it. As Mr. Martin handed his wife
-in, he asked,
-
-“Where’s Edda?”
-
-“Oh, let her alone, my dear,” replied his wife, “she will get over her
-moping after awhile. She’s fretted herself into a sick headache, and is
-lying down.”
-
-“Confound the fellow,” muttered Mr. Martin, “I wish she had never seen
-him. If I had my way she should be divorced from him. What right has a
-man to a wife when he cannot support her? Now, as long as he lives, I
-suppose, our poor little darling will be down-hearted.”
-
-“Oh,” said the wife, settling herself back comfortably in the luxurious
-carriage, after having carefully disposed the folds of her rich, silk
-gown and heavily embroidered mantle in a manner to crush them the least,
-“wait until he gets fairly settled out at the West, and the winter
-parties, and concerts, and operas commence, then Edda will cheer up.”
-
-“I hope so, with all my heart,” ejaculated Mr. Martin, “and if money,
-amusements, and fine clothes can make her what she was two years ago, I
-shall be glad enough, for I hate a sad, gloomy face.”
-
-While they were thus talking, their niece, the subject of their
-conversation, was lying in her bed-room, burying her throbbing, aching
-head in the pillows of the couch, wishing that an endless sleep would
-come to her, and deaden the painful sense of grief.
-
-Poor Edda Murray! Two short years before, a happier, more free-from-care
-girl could not have been found. Then, she had never known a trouble. Her
-aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Martin, who were childless, and possessed
-ample means, had taken her at the time of her parents’ death, which had
-occurred during her infancy, and from that moment up to the present, she
-had been their spoiled pet and darling. They were good-natured, indolent
-people, caring for but little else than the amusements of the
-out-of-doors world. As Edda grew old enough to enter society, they took
-great pleasure in dressing her extravagantly, and accompanying her to
-every gay place of resort of the fashionable world. According to Mrs.
-Martin’s ideas, every girl should be married early; and when Edda was
-addressed by Mr. Murray, near the close of her first winter, and seemed
-pleased with his attentions, her aunt’s rapture knew no bounds. Mr.
-Martin was pleased also, for Murray, though a young man, was a rising
-merchant, and was steady and industrious.
-
-How Ralph Murray ever happened to fancy Edda Martin, was a mystery to
-all those of his and her friends, who had observed but little of this
-marriage business of life. As a general rule, both men and women,
-especially when young, select the very companions that are the most
-unlike their ideals, and what is still stranger, the most unsuitable for
-them.
-
-Ralph Murray was a reserved, dignified young man, rather stern for his
-years, with the most rigid ideas of justice and propriety, even in
-trifles; exact in every thing, and making but little allowance for
-others less exact than himself. He did not require more than he was
-willing to give in return, but he had no consideration, no patience, and
-when disappointed, was apt to become cold, moody, and uncompromising. In
-woman he had always required, “that monster perfection.” His mother had
-been a model of feminine propriety. He had no sisters, but a whole troop
-of cousins, who happened to be laughing, hoydenish, good-natured
-creatures; but they were his utter abomination, he never countenanced
-them, pronouncing them silly, frivolous, and senseless; but how they
-laughed and teased him, when his engagement with Edda Martin was
-announced—verily they had their revenge.
-
-Edda was, indeed, a spoiled pet, full of caprice and whim, beautiful and
-graceful as a fairy, and as untamed and uncontrollable as an unwedded
-Undine. But, poor child, marriage brought no happy spirit to dwell in
-her household. How could it? For they had married under the influence of
-the maddest, wildest infatuation. Their love was beautiful while it
-lasted; but soon the husband grew exacting, the angel became a mere
-woman, and the darling, who had never obeyed any will but her own,
-discovered she had a lord and master, whose will was stronger and more
-unbending than even her own had ever been. Then Edda was extravagant and
-thriftless, and thoughtless, a real child-wife, like poor Dora, that
-English Undine creation of Dickens’s fancy, but with more spirit and
-temper than “Little Blossom.” Edda’s character had in it qualities which
-would have made her a fine woman, properly and gradually developed; but
-her husband placed her on the scale of his own model of perfection, and
-endeavored to drag her up to this idea of wifehood, without waiting for
-Nature to assist him. It was the old, sad story told over
-again—incompatibility of tempers, unreasonableness on his part,
-petulance, waywardness and temper on hers.
-
-God sent them a little babe, but the child brought no tenderness to the
-heart of either parent for each other. Then trouble came upon Ralph
-Murray in his business—unfortunate speculations, bad failures in others
-he had trusted; but instead of going to his wife, and talking
-affectionately, but candidly, remembering all the while what a spoiled
-darling she had been, he considered himself aggrieved by her lavish
-expenditure, and told her haughtily that she was now the wife of a young
-merchant, and not the niece of a rich man, and ought to have sense
-enough to observe economy. Poor Edda was offended, bitter words passed
-between them, and they parted in anger. Her aunt found her in
-tears—happening to come in just as the irritated husband had left her.
-Edda turned to her thoughtless, childish aunt, for comfort, telling her
-the whole story of her wrongs; and Mrs. Martin pronounced Mr. Murray a
-brute, to treat her poor child so unkindly. Mr. Martin thought always as
-his wife did, and in the first flush of temper, they carried the
-weeping, angry wife, with her young babe, away from her husband’s roof;
-the exasperated uncle leaving for Mr. Murray an angrily worded note, in
-which he said that Edda had never ceased to be his niece, even if she
-had been so unfortunate as to become the wife of a parsimonious
-merchant, and an unkind husband. The following day Ralph Murray was a
-bankrupt.
-
-The news of other heavy failures of houses indebted to him, brought his
-affairs to a crisis, and all his troubles seemed piled mountain high
-upon him at once. Poor Edda would have gone instantly to her husband
-when she heard of his trouble—for she had immediately repented of her
-hasty step—but she did not dare; she remembered his sternness, and
-dreaded a repulse which she felt she deserved. Then a new cause of
-anxiety displayed itself, her boy sickened, and, after a few hours’
-illness, he died in her arms. Her husband was sent for, but he did not
-notice her; he stood beside the coffin of his child, pale, tearless, and
-with a countenance as unchanging as a statue of marble; he never looked
-at his sobbing wife, who, softened by her grief, would have willingly
-thrown herself into his arms, and asked pardon for the past, and
-forbearance for the future; but he coldly turned from her after the
-funeral, without speaking a word.
-
-Two months passed by, and still Ralph Murray treated his wife with the
-same silent indifference. He never sought an interview nor an
-explanation; it seemed as if the death of their child, instead of
-softening him, had, to his mind, broken off all connection between them.
-Edda grieved incessantly, until at last her health became seriously
-affected. When the traveling season came, the physicians who had been
-called in to heal the poor breaking heart, recommended an instant
-departure for the sea-side. Fine apartments were procured, every
-elegance, every luxury surrounded her; but she looked more wretched,
-more unhappy every day.
-
-She knew that their beautiful house belonged to another—every thing had
-been sold; that she no longer had a home with her husband; and the
-consciousness that she was a childless, lonely wife, became daily more
-insupportable. Poor girl! life seemed very dark and hopeless to her. Her
-trouble had lifted her spirit on almost a life time; all the childish,
-capricious waywardness of girlhood had disappeared; sorrow had done the
-work of years; and she was now a woman—but a suffering, loving woman,
-ready to make any sacrifice, perform any duty, to atone for the past.
-Her uncle and aunt caressed her, and sympathized with her, while they
-incessantly spoke of her husband with words of reproach and blame; and
-when she would check them, saying the greater part of the blame rested
-on herself, they would think her still more lovely and amiable, and lift
-their hands in surprise. How reproaching to her conscience was their
-sympathy! and she grew more and more despairing and hopeless.
-
-At midnight she would pace her room, wringing her little hands with
-remorse for the past. Her husband’s stern face would rise before her,
-blended with the beautiful, loving expression his countenance had worn
-during the delicious season of courtship. Then she would recall every
-noble, honorable trait in his character, and remember her own willful
-conduct. All, all was over, and henceforth she would have to live
-without him. This seemed impossible; and the poor girl would call on
-Heaven, agonizingly, to take her away from life or give her back her
-husband.
-
-All her friends upheld her and blamed Mr. Murray. They called him stern,
-cold and heartless. The fashionable world thought her a lucky woman in
-possessing a rich old uncle to take care of her. Her quarrel with her
-cross husband had taken place in the very nick of time, they said; now
-she need not suffer from his mischances; when she would so willingly
-have borne the very heaviest burden poverty could impose. But what could
-she do but suffer idly?
-
-Day after day passed by, still no message came from her husband. Her
-uncle had told her that the principal creditors had willingly and
-generously arranged matters; for, as every one said, the failure had
-resulted from misfortune, not from mismanagement, and that he had heard
-that a friend had offered Mr. Murray a situation in a commercial house
-out in the very farthest west, with a chance of becoming a partner in
-time. Then the next news that reached her was, that he was actually
-leaving for his new home. And would Ralph leave her without a word—a
-line? she asked herself over and again.
-
-At last a letter came—a cold, stern, haughty letter, bidding her
-farewell, as if for ever. There were one or two tender passages in it;
-but the tone of the whole letter was so cold and unforgiving, that it
-crushed her to the earth. She had received it the day before our little
-sketch opens; and when her aunt urged her to drive out and shake off her
-trouble, she only buried her little head still deeper in the pillows and
-prayed still more agonizingly for death. The afternoon passed slowly
-enough to the poor sufferer. Then came the evening—the noisy, gay
-evening. As there was a ball in the saloon of the hotel, her
-thoughtless, butterfly aunt and uncle joined the merry crowd of
-triflers, after an earnest but unsuccessful persuasion of Edda to follow
-their example.
-
-The merry music of the band sounded loudly in Edda’s lonely bed-room;
-but the lively dancing melodies seemed to her ears like the voices of
-taunting demons. She restlessly rose from her bed and walked into her
-little parlor, which opened on a balcony that swept around the house.
-She stepped out on this balcony, and listened to the pealing thunder of
-the ocean, which rolled unceasingly before her. Her agony increased, and
-a demon seemed to whisper in her ears:
-
-“What is life but a torment? Death is an endless, dreamless sleep. Why
-suffer when you can so easily find relief?”
-
-Shudderingly she put her little hands to her ears, and, closing her
-eyes, hastened into the room, fearing that in another instant she might
-be induced, by despair, to plunge headlong over the railings on the
-cliff beneath. For a while she laid on the lounge, as if stunned; but at
-last tears came to her relief, and she felt calmer. To avoid danger she
-closed the Venetian shutters of the door and window, but drew up under
-them the lounge, and threw herself on it, that the damp night air might
-cool her fevered, burning head. She had not been long there when she
-heard the sound of voices and laughter, but she was too weak to arise,
-and remained quiet—remembering that she could not be seen from the
-outside.
-
-It was a little group of young girls, who were promenading after the
-dance, and who had concluded that the upper balcony commanded a finer
-view of the ocean. As chance would have it they selected that part of
-the balcony just under Edda’s window for their gossiping lounge. One,
-more sentimental than the others, pointed out the effect of the
-moon-beams which made the edges of the rolling, dashing waves shine like
-molten silver. But the beauty of the scene was quickly lost, even on
-this moon-struck damsel, for she, as well as the rest, were soon deeply
-interested in discussing a wedding that had lately taken place in the
-_beau-monde_.
-
-“Oh, dear, there’s Mrs. Jones,” exclaimed one, “she just came from town
-yesterday, and can tell us all about it.”
-
-The lady mentioned joined the group, and threw them into a state of
-perfect felicity by telling them she had actually been present at the
-wedding. Immediately she was called upon by a dozen eager voices to tell
-them “all about it.” Poor Edda, she was doomed to listen to the whole
-senseless detail, commencing at the bride’s India mull robe, and its
-heavy, elaborate embroidery, her “exquisite and graceful head-dress,”
-with the costly Honiton veil, the “rich splendid gifts” of the
-relatives, and ending with the list of bridemaids and their costume. How
-the whole description brought her own gorgeous wedding back to her
-thoughts! and she felt heart-sick.
-
-“Poor things!” she murmured to herself with a sigh, “I hope they will be
-happier than Ralph and I have been.”
-
-The conversation grew more bustling and detached; the lady who was the
-reporter-general was giving, for the fifth time, to some new comer, a
-description of the bride’s costume, which she did with a volubility so
-eloquent and untiring as to have reflected credit on a French
-_modiste_—expatiating largely on the beauty and costliness of the
-materials of which it was composed, and united to her minute details of
-the tucks, headed by rich rows of lace and embroidery, could be heard
-exclamations of the others, who had already listened to the description.
-
-“Oh,” said one, in a tone of voice that told what delicious satisfaction
-costly articles of dress gave her, “it is too lovely to be married in an
-India robe, with heavy embroidery and rich Valenciennes _berthé_ and
-trimming. If ever I’m married, I intend to make ma order one of Levy’s
-for me; it shall be imported especially for me.”
-
-“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Jones, stopping in the midst of her harangue, _à
-la_ parenthesis, “Mr. Grugan received the order for Blanche’s wedding
-robe last year, the very day Mr. Holmes offered. No one knew it but her
-family, except me—I knew it, of course.”
-
-“I don’t believe she knew a word about it. Mrs. Jones is always
-pretending she’s so intimate with every body,” said a young lady, _sotto
-voce_; but Mrs. Jones was too deeply engaged in the tucks, and lace
-trimming, and Honiton veil, to hear the doubt and charge. The
-conversation increased in animation, and Mrs. Jones’s clear, high voice
-was almost drowned.
-
-“Ah,” exclaimed one, “it’s splendid to be married in such style.”
-
-“Yes,” rejoined another, “and how delightful to go right off on a
-journey, and to Europe, too.”
-
-“Oh, girls,” exclaimed one, “only think—Blanche Forrester went to
-school with me, and, here, she’s married!”
-
-“Well,” said another, “her first bridemaid, Helen Howell, and Aubrey
-Hilton, are engaged, and Helen was in the same class with me. We all
-came out last fall together—you’re no worse off than I am.”
-
-Some gentlemen joining the group, the conversation became too detached
-and confused to be heard, and there were so many little bursts of
-laughter as to make the whole affair quite a medley. Presently the
-scraping of the violins, preceded by a loud crash of the whole united
-band, announced that a waltz was about to be danced.
-
-“Oh!” they exclaimed, simultaneously, “that delicious _Schottische_,”
-and soon the balcony was empty—or at least so thought Edda; but she was
-mistaken, for she heard other voices. A lady and gentleman had seated
-themselves under her window, and were enjoying the sight of the waves
-and moonlight. She knew their voices well. One was a Mrs. Howard, a
-gentle, lady-like woman, for whom her husband entertained the highest
-respect. Edda knew but little of her; she had met her in society after
-her marriage, but had always drawn back a little in awe when she had met
-with her, because she constantly heard Ralph holding her up as such a
-model of wifely dignity and propriety. The other was a Mr. Morrison—a
-cynical, fault-finding old bachelor—or, at least, Edda had always
-regarded him as such. No wonder the poor girl shrank still closer to the
-lounge—she seemed doomed to be persecuted.
-
-Mrs. Howard and Mr. Morrison had heard part of the conversation about
-the wedding, and the first that reached Edda’s ears were Mr. Morrison’s
-severe, caustic remarks.
-
-“Silly, senseless fools!” he exclaimed. “They talk as if life had but
-two points to attain; to get married in an India robe, in such a style
-as to produce a fine theatrical effect, and to go to Europe. What right
-have such idiots to get married at all? What do they know of the
-realities of married life—the holy, sacred obligations of marriage?”
-
-“Very little, it is true,” answered his companion; “and this ignorance
-is wisely ordered! for I am afraid, Mr. Morrison, if these young,
-thoughtless creatures knew the one half of life’s stern realities,
-whether married or unmarried, they would sooner lie down and die than
-encounter them. Youth is as hopeless in trouble as it is thoughtless in
-prosperity.”
-
-“Very true, madam, very true,” said the old gentleman; “but it seems to
-me that these frivolous creatures might be taught a little—enough to
-give them some ballast. What sort of wives will they make? Why, I
-declare it makes me shudder when I see these silly, thoughtless wretches
-entering into marriage as they would into a dance—not displaying half
-the anxiety that a man would on entering into a commercial engagement
-that can be dissolved at will after a certain season.”
-
-“Well,” said the lady, with a sweet, low laugh, “from what we see on all
-sides, my dear sir, a great many of those who marry at the present day
-seem to regard marriage only as a mere partnership, to be dissolved at
-will.”
-
-“I would pretty soon put an end to that divorce business, madam,” said
-Mr. Morrison, “if I had the power. Every couple that could not live
-happily together, and wished to be separated, should have their request
-granted, but on one condition—that both, particularly the woman, should
-go into some religious asylum, and spend the rest of their days in
-entire seclusion, employed constantly in the performance of strict
-religious duties and works of charity.”
-
-“Oh!” exclaimed the lady, laughing outright, “I am very sure any husband
-and wife would prefer the most inharmonious intercourse to such an
-alternative.”
-
-“Well, well,” said Mr. Morrison, “they could have their choice, and it
-would teach others to be more careful how they ‘married in haste to
-repent at leisure.’ This is becoming a curse to society; on all sides we
-see husbands and wives disagreeing. Now-a-days a wife must spend as much
-money as she pleases, lead a dissipated life—for going to parties and
-balls, and every other gay place, constantly is dissipation—entertain
-admirers, and her husband must not complain. He, poor devil—beg pardon,
-madam—must not express a wish for a quiet home and a companion, after
-the toil of the day and the wear and tear of exciting, perilous
-business. Oh, no! If he does madam will leave him in a huff, and he may
-whistle for a wife, and life is a wreck to him ever afterward.”
-
-“Do these unhappy marriages always result from the thoughtlessness and
-selfishness of the wives, my dear sir?” asked Mrs. Howard. “I think
-there are as many wives with domestic tastes, who have the same
-complaint to make against their husbands.”
-
-“Yes, yes,” answered Mr. Morrison, a little hesitatingly; “I suppose
-there is blame to be found on both sides; but generally speaking, with
-the married people of what is called ‘society,’ especially the young,
-the fault lies with the wife. Yesterday I bade good-bye to as fine a
-fellow as God ever created, whose whole happiness for life has been
-wrecked by one of these silly, heartless fools. You know him, my dear
-madam, and are, I believe, one of his few friends; for the whole world
-unite in condemning him and upholding his doll-baby wife in her sinful
-disobedience.”
-
-“You are speaking of Ralph Murray, I am sure,” said Mrs. Howard, in a
-sad tone.
-
-Poor Edda writhed, but she had not power to move; she felt spell-bound,
-and every word of the conversation fell on her ear with painful
-clearness.
-
-“Yes, I mean Murray,” replied Mr. Morrison. “God help him, poor fellow!
-His haggard face haunts me like a ghost.”
-
-“But,” said Mrs. Howard, “much as I love Ralph, much as I respect his
-high, honorable character, I cannot hold him blameless.”
-
-“What!” exclaimed Mr. Morrison, in a tone of surprise, “you cannot hold
-him blameless? Why, what can you see wrong in any thing he has done?”
-
-“He should not have married as he did,” replied Mrs. Howard; “or if
-determined to gratify his fancy at the expense of his judgment, by
-yielding to an infatuation, he should have had more patience with his
-wife. If he felt willing to trust his happiness in the hands of a
-petted, spoiled child, he should have remembered what she was, in the
-hour of trial, and not exacted of her the ability and judgment which are
-possessed only by a sensible, well-trained woman.”
-
-“Yes, you are right,” answered Mr. Morrison, after a short pause; “he
-was wrong in the first place—he never should have married such an
-idiot. But, my God, madam,” he exclaimed, impatiently, “any woman who
-was lucky enough to get such a noble husband as Ralph Murray, should
-have been so proud of him as to have been willing to have made every
-sacrifice of whim and caprice for his comfort.”
-
-“That’s true man’s reasoning,” said Mrs. Howard, good-naturedly. “But,
-Mr. Morrison, I think I am not mistaken when I say that if Ralph had
-managed his pretty, petted, capricious fairy of a wife patiently and
-properly, their happiness would not have been wrecked as it is.”
-
-“_Their_ happiness!” repeated Mr. Morrison, sneeringly. “Little she
-cares, while she has aunt to caress her and uncle’s money to spend.”
-
-“Indeed you do her great injustice,” said Mrs. Howard. “To be sure, I do
-not know Mrs. Murray intimately, but I am certain if you were to see her
-pale, wretched face and frail figure, as I do daily in the corridor,
-when they bring her in, half fainting, from the bath, you would think as
-I do—that, let her husband’s sufferings be ever so great, the wife
-suffers quite as much. Oh, my dear Mr. Morrison, how I wish I were Edda
-Murray’s friend.”
-
-“What would you do, my dear madam? Add another to her host of
-sympathizers?” said the old gentleman.
-
-“No,” replied Mrs. Howard, mildly; “I would tell her to send for Ralph,
-to ask pardon for the past and patience for the future, and beg him to
-take me once more to his heart, and help me to be a good, faithful wife.
-This she must do, or never know peace in this life.”
-
-“Ha, ha,” laughed Mr. Morrison; “why, my dear Mrs. Howard, if she had
-sense and feeling enough to act thus, she would never have behaved as
-she has done.”
-
-“Edda Murray has acted willfully and selfishly, I admit,” said Mrs.
-Howard; “but we do not know what provocations she may have had. Ralph is
-a fine, noble fellow, but arbitrary and impatient—the very kind of man
-that I should fancy it would not be easy to make happy in domestic life,
-even if a judicious woman were to undertake the task. Think, then, how
-many excuses should be made for his impulsive, wayward little wife, who
-never in her life was subjected to control. I am certain this trouble
-has done her good, however, for a woman’s character is seldom properly
-developed in prosperity; like precious metals, it must pass through the
-fiery furnace of affliction—it must be purified in the crucible of
-sorrow, until it loses all recollection of self. There is a beautiful
-simile in the Bible, which compares the purification of the soul to the
-smelting of silver. Silver must be purged from all dross, until it is so
-clear and mirror-like that it will reflect the countenance of the
-refiner; thus the soul must be so pure, in so high a state of godliness,
-as to reflect only the will of the Creator. I cannot recall the passage
-exactly, but I often apply it to my own sex, whose characters, to be
-properly developed, must be purged from all selfish dross, in order to
-make them think only of the happiness of others—forgetful always of
-self; then, like silver seven times refined and purified, their spirits
-reflect only the countenance of the purifier, which is the will or
-command of God.”
-
-Just then Mr. Howard and some others joined them, and after a little
-playful bantering about the flirtation of two such steady old persons, a
-remark or two on the fine night and the beauty of the ocean scene, the
-party moved off and Edda at last was alone.
-
-That night, when Mr. and Mrs. Martin stopped at Edda’s room door, on
-their way to bed, they found her sitting at her desk writing. She kissed
-them, bade them good night, and thanked them for their affectionate
-inquiries, in a more cheerful manner than she had shown for months,
-which gladdened their silly, warm old hearts, and they went off
-comforting themselves with the hope that all now would be well.
-
-“Yes, my dear,” said Mr. Martin, as he composed himself to sleep, “you
-were right—Edda is getting over it. She looked and talked more brightly
-than she has since poor little Martin’s death.”
-
-And Edda really felt so, but for a reason her uncle little suspected.
-Mrs. Howard’s words had given form and impulse to her thoughts; she no
-longer wasted time in mere actionless grief; she saw her duty before
-her, and, hard as it was to perform, she nobly resolved to do it. A day
-or so afterward, as Ralph Murray was leaving town for his new western
-home—sad, lonely, and for the first time feeling that maybe in the past
-he had not been entirely free from blame, he received a letter, directed
-in the delicate, lady-like, hand-writing of his wife. With trembling
-hands he opened it, and thick, short sobs swelled up in his throat and
-hot tears sprang to his eyes, as he read her childish, frank, penitent
-appeal.
-
-“I am your wife, Ralph,” she wrote; “you must not leave me—you must
-take me with you. God joined us, and trouble—death has bound us still
-closer. Pardon my past waywardness, and take your penitent, suffering
-Edda back to your heart. Think what a reckless, thoughtless,
-uncontrolled child I was when you married me, and have patience with me.
-I cannot live without you, Ralph. I shall die broken-hearted if you
-treat my selfish, wayward conduct as it merits. God forgives the
-penitent—will you be more just than He is, my beloved? Come to me, and
-let me hear from your lips once more, ‘dear Edda.’ Do not tell me you
-are poor; I can live on any thing, submit to any privation, if blessed
-with your presence, your forgiveness, your love. You shall not find me
-in the future a thoughtless, extravagant child, but, with God’s help, a
-faithful good wife. Oh, Ralph, receive me once more, I pray you, and let
-me be again your own darling little wife Edda.”
-
-The fashionable world at —— was thrown into a state of astonishment a
-few weeks afterward, by hearing that Mrs. Murray had actually gone out
-west with her cruel, good-for-nothing husband, and a thousand different
-stories were told about the matter, each one as far from the truth as
-the other.
-
-Poor Mr. and Mrs. Martin made loud opposition when Edda told them her
-resolve, but she looked so bright and happy, and throwing her arms
-around her aunt and uncle, made them read the lover-like letter of her
-husband, in which he not only freely forgave the past, but took on
-himself all the blame.
-
-“She’s right, my dear,” said Mr. Martin, to his wife; “but we must not
-let them go—we must make them as comfortable as we can with us. Thank
-Providence, I have enough for us all.”
-
-But Ralph Murray steadily refused all offers of assistance from Mr.
-Martin. He knew it would be better for them, for a little while at
-least, to be away from all Edda’s old connections. Several years they
-spent “out west,” and not until they had nearly reached mid-life, did
-they return to their old home in ——; then, at the urgent request of
-Mr. and Mrs. Martin, who had grown old, infirm, and tired of society,
-and really needed Edda, they moved back. Edda was a lovely looking
-matron at the time of her return—she seemed so happy and contented. I
-well remember the pleasant effect it produced upon me when I saw her
-surrounded by her troop of noble boys, and leaning on her husband, who
-still retained his dignity, but blent with it was an air of loving
-softness that he had gained by intercourse with his gentle, “darling
-little wife.”
-
-Her married life, even after their reconciliation, however, was not
-exempt from trials. There were times when her husband’s old moods of
-exaction and impatience would come over him, and her own willful,
-rebellious spirit would stand in the way, and torment her with demands,
-such as “what right has he more than I?” and the like—as if the
-gratification of rights, merely for justice sake, made up the happiness
-of home life, a happiness that is only gained, only insured, by love’s
-sweet yieldings. They both tried to struggle against these dark
-influences; but at such times life would be very dreary to her, and it
-needed all the strict discipline of her faith—all her hope and trust in
-Heaven, to make her victorious over self.
-
-Their children, however, proved angel-blessings to them. They softened
-and humanized Ralph, and soothed and occupied Edda. Dear Edda! her
-spring season had been a wild, frolicksome one, bringing a stormy,
-cloudy summer; but her autumn yielded a rich harvest of happiness, and
-her little, throbbing heart thanked God hourly for his kindness and love
-to her in sustaining her through all her dark hours.
-
-“Seven great boys, and not one daughter!” exclaimed our old friend, Mrs.
-Howard, to Edda, after her return to her old home—“what a pity!”
-
-“Oh, no,” replied Edda, quickly; “I am always so thankful my children
-are all boys. I would not have the charge of a daughter’s happiness on
-me for a world.”
-
-“Why!” asked Mrs. Howard with surprise.
-
-“Because,” replied Edda, in a low tone, looking significantly at the
-good old lady, “a woman’s character seldom develops in prosperity—it
-requires, like precious metals, the fiery furnace of affliction—the
-crucible of sorrow.”
-
-Mrs. Howard’s surprise was increased, for Edda’s blushing face and lips,
-trembling with emotion, told that she had a deeper meaning than the mere
-expression of an opinion; but Edda soon removed her wonder. She told her
-the whole history of the past—her struggle on that eventful night at
-the sea-side watering place years before, when the fearful temptation to
-self-destruction had assailed her; she caused the kind old lady’s eyes
-to grow dim with tears, when she described the beneficial effect
-produced by the overheard conversation between her and Mr. Morrison; and
-added, with tears and smiles of joy—
-
-“Yes, dear Mrs. Howard, your blessed words taught me my duty. If I have
-any happiness in life, I owe it, through God, to you. But, happy wife
-and blessed mother, as I am, I thank God I have no daughter’s future
-resting on my heart. A woman’s lot in life is a dangerous one, either in
-prosperity or adversity, and to tread her life-path well she seems to
-require almost a special helping from God; to but few is this granted,
-and many there are who wrestle darkly and blindly with sorrow through
-life’s perilous journey unaided.”
-
-“But,” replied Mrs. Howard, “does it not strike you that you are taking
-but a one-sided, narrow view of life, my dear? When you speak so sadly
-of woman’s lot, it seems as if you thought this life was all we had to
-expect, when I am sure you do not think so. The perils of life belong to
-both man and woman. But what matters all that we suffer in this state of
-existence, when compared with the glory of the sun-light of
-eternity—that sun which has no setting, and of the rising of which this
-dark, perilous life-hour is but the precursor—the hour before the
-dawn.”
-
-“You are right, my dear madam,” said Edda, with a sweet look of meek
-thoughtfulness, “and I, of all other women, should not speak so
-hopelessly, for, after all my dark hours, light came at last; and so
-beautiful is life to me now, that I sometimes fancy to me is given a
-glimpse of Heaven’s dawning.”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- SONNETS,
-
-
- ON PICTURES IN THE HUNTINGTON GALLERY.
-
-
- BY MRS. ELIZABETH J. EAMES.
-
-
- I.—ST. JOHN.
-
- I stood within the glowing, graceful ring
- Of pictures hung upon the gallery’s wall:—
- The admiring murmur of the crowd did bring
- My step to pause before a shape, in all
- The thoughtful grace of artist-skill designed,
- The sense of Beauty _felt_—but not defined.
- Thou face, serene in solemn tenderness—
- In the uplifting of those calm, deep eyes;
- On the rapt brow of holy earnestness
- The light of prophecy reflected lies.
- The mystic vision of the Apocalypse
- Thy pen of fire sublimely did record:
- But most we love His lessons from thy lips—
- John, thou beloved disciple of the Lord!
-
-
- II.—MERCY’S DREAM.
-
- Like thee to dream, by angel-wings unshaded!
- The starry crown hangs o’er thy meek young head,
- Flinging a glory round thee, like the braided
- And brilliant tints by a rich sunset shed.
- O loveliest vision of the painter’s thought—
- Born in his happiest hour of inspiration,
- How more than fair the exquisite creation
- His genius-gifted pencil here hath wrought!
- How wondrously is charmed the “Pilgrim” story
- That made my childhood’s ever new delight:
- Sweet Mercy! _now_, in tenderest grace and glory,
- Thy pale, bright picture floats before my sight.
- Thrice blesséd! and thrice beautiful! might _we_
- But in _our_ dreams some guardian-angel see!
-
-
- III.—THE MARYS AT THE SEPULCHRE.
-
- The first faint crimson of the early morning
- Dawned on the tomb where the loved Master lay;
- And on the Marys, who for His adorning
- Came bearing spices sweet, at break of day.
- In meek, mute reverence, near the sepulchre
- The mourners drew, as round a sacred shrine—
- And gazing down for the dear form divine—
- The unsealed stone—the white-robed messenger—
- Met their affrighted view! In awe they fled,
- And she, the Magdalen! the tidings spread,
- “Christ is arisen!” O, woman! in that hour
- Well might a solemn rapture fill thy mind—
- Thou, earth’s poor outcast, honored with high power
- To bear such joyful tidings to mankind.
-
-
- IV.—PIETY.
-
- Meek list’ner! on whose purely virgin brow
- Is set the beauty of submissive thought:
- Oh! blest beyond Earth’s favored ones art thou,
- Whose earnest eyes so reverently caught
- The Teacher’s look, with mild, grave wisdom fraught.
- How was the awakened soul within thee stirred
- To suppliant or adoring tones, as fell
- The quickening power of the Eternal Word,
- Like the winged seed, on thy young heart; to dwell
- A germ not lost! A heavenly light serene,
- Unclouded, sits on thy soft, spiritual mien—
- I call thee Blest, for thou hast chosen well,
- Daughter of Christ! O, happy to have given
- The bloom of thy unblighted years to Heaven!
-
-
- V.—FOLLY.
-
- And _this_ is Folly! Like a flaunting flower
- Her red lips part half wanton, half in scorn:
- Over the wreck of many a squandered hour
- This poor frail child of Pleasure well might mourn.
- But with the consciousness of beauty born,
- Exulting in her youth’s superior brightness—
- (Not yet the rose-leaves from her garland torn)—
- She moves along to scenes of festal lightness.
- The aged teacher’s solemn, sacred lesson
- Is a dead letter to her worldly spirit—
- The Word of Life—its Promise, and its Blessing,
- The world’s gay votary cares not to inherit!
- No claims upon a heritage divine—
- This lot, O Folly! this sad lot is thine.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THINKING OF MINNA.
-
-
- BY ELLIS MARTYN.
-
-
- What though my way unblissful care
- To weary solitudes incline!
- I feel thy beauty everywhere;
- Thy spirit brightens mine.
-
- On all the dewy leaves that crowd
- The moon-lit trees, I read thy name;
- From every crimson morning cloud,
- It flows through all my frame.
-
- And when the spiritual eve advances,
- To bathe the weary world in rest,
- Thou comest near, with loving glances,
- And leanest on my breast.
-
- In all the ages, young or olden,
- Was ever life so blest as mine!
- Where’er I go the clime is golden,
- And all the air divine!
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THOMAS JOHNSON.
-
-
- THE LAST SURVIVOR OF THE CREW OF “THE BONHOMME RICHARD.”
-
-
- BY THOMAS WYATT, A. M.
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-This venerable sailor is in the 92d year of his age; nearly sixty of
-which he has spent on the ocean, and thirty-five under the stars and
-stripes of his adopted country. Although almost helpless from age, his
-mind is clear and his memory retentive. He remembers distinctly many
-interesting incidents during his cruisings with that eccentric but
-intrepid officer, John Paul Jones, and narrates many of the daring
-exploits in which he was a participator under the direction of this
-extraordinary man.
-
-Thomas Johnson is a Norwegian by birth, the son of a pilot at Mandal, a
-seaport on the coast of Norway, where he was born in the year 1758.
-Having been engaged in that occupation for nearly twenty years, he was
-consequently accustomed to a seafaring life; and in the absence of his
-father towed the first American vessel into the harbor of Mandal. This
-vessel was the _Ranger_, from Boston, carrying eighteen guns, under the
-command of Captain Jones. The sight of a ship from a country which was
-at this time struggling for independence, and of which they knew so
-little, caused no little sensation among the inhabitants of that town.
-After their arrival in port, Jones sent for the young pilot, and
-presenting him with a piece of gold, expressed his pleasure at his
-expert seamanship, which he had minutely watched during the towing of
-his ship into the harbor.
-
-He also observed that he had made the port of Mandal, in order to
-enlarge his crew, not having sufficient men for the long cruise he was
-about to make; and added, that if the father of the young pilot would
-permit, he would be glad to engage him. Satisfactory arrangements were
-made, and Johnson was received as a seaman on board the _Ranger_. It
-will be remembered that Captain Jones had been cruising the last two
-years as first lieutenant of the _Alfred_ flag ship, the first privateer
-fitted out by Congress to cruise against British commerce.
-
-In this ship he hoisted with his own hands the American flag, the first
-time it was ever displayed on the ocean; its emblems were a pine-tree,
-with a rattle-snake coiled at its root, as if about to strike.
-
-The _Alfred_ was very successful, and had brought home several valuable
-prizes. Congress, therefore, determined on the purchase of three other
-ships for the same purpose, and Captain Jones was permitted to make
-choice of either; he chose the _Ranger_, and was invested with the
-command by the following resolutions:
-
-_Resolved_, “That Captain John Paul Jones be appointed to command the
-ship _Ranger_, and that William Whipple, Esq., member of Congress, and
-of the Marine Committee, John Langdon, Esq., continental agent, and the
-said John Paul Jones be authorized to appoint lieutenants and other
-officers and men necessary for the said ship; and that blank commissions
-and warrants be sent them to be filled up with the names of the persons
-they appoint, returns whereof to be made to the Navy Board in the
-eastern department.”
-
-“_Resolved_, That the flag of the thirteen United States, henceforth be
-thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; and the union be thirteen
-stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
-
-Jones immediately commissioned the _Ranger_, and, singular to say, was
-the first to display the new flag of the republic, as he did the
-original one on board the _Alfred_, about two years previous. The
-_Ranger_ was intended to carry twenty-six guns; but Jones begged to
-exercise his own judgment, believing that she would be more serviceable
-with only eighteen, and accordingly mounted that number, for which he
-had often occasion to congratulate himself on his judicious forethought;
-for the ship proved to be exceedingly crank, and with the whole number,
-would have been nearly useless.
-
-His first cruise with his new ship was to the coast of France, and on
-his voyage there he chased a fleet of ten sail, under a strong convoy,
-took two prizes, and carried them safely into Nantes.
-
-From thence he took a short cruise on the coast of Norway, and putting
-into the port of Mandal, as we before stated, engaged the services of
-Thomas Johnson, the subject of this sketch.
-
-After completing his arrangement, Jones returned to Nantes, and from
-thence proceeded to Quiberon Bay, giving convoy to some American vessels
-which were desirous of joining the French fleet commanded by Admiral La
-Mott Piquet, who had been ordered to keep the coast of France clear of
-British cruisers. Writing to the Marine Committee on the 22d February,
-1778, he says, “I am happy in having it in my power to congratulate you
-on seeing the American flag, for the first time, recognized in the
-fullest and most complete manner by the flag of France; and as it is my
-greatest desire to render useful services to the American cause, I would
-suggest that, as the field of cruising being thus extended, and the
-British navy, in numbers, so superior to ours, it would be well to
-surprise their defenceless places, and thereby divert their attention,
-and draw it from our coasts.” These suggestions contained the plan of
-annoyance which was eventually adopted in Paul Jones’s cruisings in the
-European seas. It was about the middle of April, 1778, so our hero
-relates, that they found themselves on the coast of Scotland,
-immediately in the vicinity of the birth-place of Jones, and in sight of
-the port of Whitehaven, upon which he had determined to make his first
-descent.
-
-It was near the break of day, when Jones ordered two boats, and a
-plentiful supply of combustibles to be prepared, with thirty-one men, to
-leave the _Ranger_ and make for the outer pier. Jones commanded the
-first boat himself, the other was under the command of Simpson, his
-first lieutenant, conveying the combustible matter, and charged with
-firing the vessels, about seventy in number, lying on the north side of
-the pier, while he undertook the rest. They found two batteries at
-Whitehaven, which Jones, with ten of his men, Johnson being one of the
-number, scaled, taking the soldiers prisoners, and spiking the guns. He
-then, with his party, started for the other battery, about a quarter of
-a mile distant, which he served in the same way.
-
-On his return he met his lieutenant, with the remainder of the sailors,
-who stated that he had not done as he had requested him, having a
-reluctance to destroy the undefended property of poor people, he had
-hesitated until his candles had burned out, and then found it impossible
-to execute his orders.
-
-Jones was exceedingly angry, and vented his rage in the most insulting
-language, saying at the same time, “that if the accomplished Lord Howe
-would commit deeds of burning, pillage, and slaughter, upon the persons
-and property of Americans, the right of retaliation belonged to us.” In
-making such hasty remarks, he forgot that this enterprise was one of an
-entirely different nature; the scheme, if it may be so called, was one
-of his own forming, the American government not being apprised of any
-thing of the kind, neither had he received any order to that effect. The
-whole affair must be allowed to be one of the most audacious of its
-kind, and will ever attach a lasting stain upon the memory of its
-originator.
-
-It was now daylight and the frightened inhabitants were beginning to
-collect; still Jones was unwilling to depart without carrying any of his
-intended depredations into effect, after surmounting so many
-difficulties.
-
-He posted to the nearest house and demanded a light, which, having
-obtained, he deliberately kindled a fire in the steerage of a large ship
-which was surrounded by others lying dry upon the shore, pouring a
-barrel of tar into the flames; during this operation, Johnson, with
-several other sailors, stood sentinel against any surprise he might
-receive from the inhabitants, who by this time were attracted by the
-flames, and had assembled to the pier in great numbers. On seeing them
-approach in such formidable numbers, he seized his pistols, one in each
-hand, and standing between them and the ship on fire, ordered them to
-retire to their homes, which they did with precipitation. At length he
-and his party entered their boats and rowed quietly to their ship,
-where, from the deck, he could see the panic-stricken inhabitants
-running in vast numbers to their forts, which was no little amusement to
-him, as he had spiked their guns.
-
-Jones afterward ascertained, much to his chagrin, that only the ship
-which he himself had fired was destroyed, the surrounding ones were
-saved by the exertions of the people. He consoled himself by saying,
-“that he had done enough to show England that not all her boasted navy
-could protect her own coasts, and that the scenes of distress which she
-had caused the Americans to pass through, might soon be brought home to
-her own doors.” On his return to the _Ranger_, Jones informed his
-officers and men that he had not yet done with Scotland, that he had
-another project in his head, which he intended to carry into effect;
-that was, to obtain possession of the person of the Earl of Selkirk, a
-nobleman residing at Selkirk Abbey, on a beautiful promontory called St.
-Mary’s Isle, running out into the river Dee, and not more than two miles
-distant from where they then were.
-
-Jones conceived that if he could obtain possession of this nobleman’s
-person, he could demand an exchange for some distinguished American
-prisoner. He remained in the bay of Kirkcudbright till the following
-morning, when he started with two boats and about twenty men, among whom
-was Johnson, who relates the particulars of this singular adventure.
-Johnson was in the first boat with Jones, who commanded it himself; the
-other was commanded by Simpson, his first lieutenant. They landed on
-part of the grounds, not more than two hundred yards from the house;
-some laborers were at work near by, of whom they inquired if Lord
-Selkirk was at home; they were informed that he was in London,
-consequently, his end was frustrated. On receiving this information they
-prepared to return to their boats, when his officers, of whom there were
-four, expressed a wish to repair to the Abbey and demand the family
-plate, pleading as an excuse, that it was the universal custom of the
-English on the American coast. Jones, in his official report, says,
-after some hesitation, he reluctantly consented, charging them to insult
-no person on the premises, especially Lady Selkirk. During this delicate
-embassy, Jones withdrew behind some trees, where he could perceive what
-was going on. Simpson, with ten of his sailors, went to the house. Lady
-Selkirk was at breakfast when they presented themselves at the window,
-and supposing them to be the crew of a revenue cutter, sent a servant to
-inquire their business, and to offer them some refreshment. Simpson
-entered the room on the return of the servant, and stated his errand to
-Lady Selkirk.
-
-Her ladyship made no resistance, but sent the servant to collect the
-remainder of the plate, requesting that the teapot, which was then on
-the table, might be emptied and placed with it. After being collected,
-it was carefully packed in baskets, and the party, having performed
-their errand, withdrew to their boats, where Paul Jones met them. They
-soon regained their ship, when the prize they had made was safely
-repacked, and they set sail for the coast of France.
-
-During their voyage from Scotland to France he fell in with an English
-vessel called the _Drake_; a sharp conflict ensued, which lasted more
-than an hour, when the _Drake_ surrendered, and was towed in safety into
-Brest, a seaport of France. On the very day of his arrival at Brest,
-Jones wrote the following eccentric epistle to Lady Selkirk, which one
-of his biographers calls “the queerest piece of epistolary
-correspondence extant.”
-
-“MADAM,—It cannot be too much lamented, that in the profession of arms,
-the officer of fine feelings and real sensibility, should be under the
-necessity of winking at any action of persons under his command which
-his heart cannot approve; but the reflection is doubly severe, when he
-finds himself obliged, in appearance, to countenance such actions by his
-authority. This hard case was mine, when, on the 23d of April last, I
-landed on St. Mary’s Isle.
-
-“Knowing Lord Selkirk’s interest with his king, and esteeming as I do
-his private character, I wished to make him the happy instrument of
-alleviating the horrors of hopeless captivity, when the brave are
-overpowered and made prisoners of war. It was, perhaps, fortunate for
-you, madam, that he was from home, for it was my intention to have taken
-him on board the _Ranger_, and detained him until, through his means, a
-general and fair exchange of prisoners, as well in Europe as in America,
-had been effected.
-
-“When I was informed by some men whom I met at landing, that his
-lordship was absent, I walked back to my boat, determined to leave the
-island. By the way, however, some officers who were with me could not
-forbear expressing their discontent, observing that in America no
-delicacy was shown by the English, who took away all sorts of moveable
-property, setting fire not only to towns and to the houses of the rich,
-without distinction, but not even sparing the wretched hamlets and
-milch-cows of the poor and helpless, at the approach of an inclement
-winter.
-
-“That party had been with me at Whitehaven; some complaisance,
-therefore, was their due. I had but a moment to think how I might
-gratify them, and at the same time do your ladyship the least injury. I
-charged the officers to permit none of the seamen to enter the house, or
-to hurt any thing about it; to treat you, madam, with the utmost
-respect; to accept of the plate which was offered, and to come away
-without making a search, or demanding any thing else. I am induced to
-believe that I was punctually obeyed, since I am informed that the plate
-which they brought away is far short of the quantity expressed in the
-inventory which accompanied it. I have gratified my men; and when the
-plate is sold, I shall become the purchaser, and will gratify my own
-feelings in restoring it, by such conveyance as you may please to
-direct.
-
-“Had the earl been on board the _Ranger_ the following evening, he would
-have seen the awful pomp and dreadful carnage of a sea engagement; both
-affording ample subject for the pencil as well as melancholy reflection
-for the contemplative mind. Humanity starts back from such scenes of
-horror, and cannot sufficiently execrate the vile promoters of this
-detestable war;
-
- For they, ’twas they unsheathed the ruthless blade,
- And Heaven shall ask the havoc it has made.
-
-“The British ship of war _Drake_, mounting twenty guns, with more than
-her full complement of officers and men, was our opponent. The ships
-met, and the advantage was disputed with great fortitude on each side
-for an hour and four minutes, when the gallant commander of the _Drake_
-fell, and victory declared in favor of the _Ranger_. The amiable
-lieutenant lay mortally wounded, besides near forty of the inferior
-officers and crew killed and wounded; a melancholy demonstration of the
-uncertainty of human prospects, and of the sad reverses of fortune,
-which an hour can produce. I buried them in a spacious grave, with the
-honors due to the memory of the brave.
-
-“Though I have drawn my sword in the present generous struggle for the
-rights of men, yet I am not in arms as an American, nor am I in pursuit
-of riches. My fortune is liberal, having no wife nor family, and having
-lived long enough to know that riches cannot secure happiness. I profess
-myself a citizen of the world, totally unfettered by the little, mean
-distinctions of climate or of country, which diminish the benevolence of
-the heart and set bounds to philanthropy. Before this war was begun, I
-had, at an early time of life, withdrawn from sea-service in favor of
-‘calm contemplation and poetic ease.’ I have sacrificed not only my
-favorite scheme of life, but the softer affections of the heart, and my
-prospects of domestic happiness; and I am ready to sacrifice my life
-also with cheerfulness, if that forfeiture could restore peace among
-mankind.
-
-“As the feelings of your gentle bosom cannot but be congenial with mine,
-let me entreat you, madam, to use your persuasive art with your husband,
-to endeavor to stop this cruel and destructive war, in which Britain can
-never succeed. Heaven can never countenance the barbarous and unmanly
-practice of Britons in America, which savages would blush at, and which,
-if not discontinued, will soon be retaliated on Britain by a justly
-enraged people.
-
-“Should you fail in this, and I am persuaded you will attempt it, (and
-who can resist the power of such an advocate,) your endeavors to effect
-a general exchange of prisoners, will be an act of humanity, which will
-afford you golden feelings on your death-bed.
-
-“I hope this cruel contest will soon be closed; but should it continue,
-I wage no war with the fair. I acknowledge their force, and bend before
-it with submission. Let not, therefore, the amiable Countess of Selkirk
-regard me as an enemy; I am ambitious of her esteem and friendship, and
-would do any thing consistent with my duty to merit it.
-
-“The honor of a line from your fair hand, in answer to this, will lay me
-under singular obligation; and if I can render you any acceptable
-service in France or elsewhere, I hope you see into my character so far
-as to command me, without the least grain of reserve. I wish to know the
-exact behaviour of my people, as I am determined to punish them if they
-have exceeded their liberty.”
-
-This vain, Quixotic, and inexplicable epistle, is a perfect illustration
-of the character of the writer; but with all its egotism and chivalry,
-it did not produce the wished for answer from the “fair hand of his
-amiable countess.”
-
-It could not be for one moment supposed that Lady Selkirk would
-condescend to answer a letter couched in such terms of gross
-familiarity. The plate, after many difficulties and delays, was finally
-restored, some seven or eight years after it was taken. The French
-government being at this time on the eve of embracing the American
-cause, overwhelmed Jones with congratulations upon his late
-achievements. He received a letter from the French Minister, offering
-him the command of the _Bonhomme Richard_, with permission to choose his
-own cruising ground, either in the European or American seas, and to
-cruise under the flag of the United States. Jones accepted the offer,
-and accordingly prepared to form his crew by enlisting raw French
-peasants and volunteers, having only thirty Americans in the whole,
-these he transferred from the _Ranger_, with Johnson, our veteran
-sailor. He commenced his cruising on the coast of Norway, from thence to
-the west coast of Ireland, during which he made many valuable prizes.
-
-He now determined to cruise around the English coasts, to intercept the
-colliers bound to London, many of which he destroyed. It was during this
-cruise that he was joined by the _Alliance_, the _Pallas_, and the
-_Vengeance_, these, with the _Richard_, formed the squadron of which he
-was commander. On the 23d of September the squadron was standing to the
-northward, toward Flamboro Head, with a light breeze, when they
-discovered a fleet of forty-one sail running down the coast, very close
-in with the land. Jones soon discovered that this was the Baltic fleet
-which he had been so anxious to encounter, but had never before had the
-chance. This fleet was under convoy of the _Serapis_, a new ship,
-mounting forty-four guns, and the _Countess of Scarborough_, of twenty
-guns. Early in the evening the _Serapis_ was observed to haul round and
-place herself between her convoy and the _Richard_, as if preparing to
-engage her; she soon came within pistol-shot, when the captain of the
-_Serapis_ demanded, “What ship is that?” and in reply, a shot was fired
-from the _Richard_. This was the commencement of a battle more famous
-for stubborn courage and heroic daring than perhaps the world ever knew.
-The biographers of this eccentric but gallant officer have so often
-described this triumphant conflict, that we shall content ourselves with
-a few incidents with which our veteran sailor was more immediately
-connected. He relates that the _Richard_ suffered severely at the first
-of the battle, till Jones ordered his ship to be laid across the hawse
-of the enemy; in doing so the two ships swung broadside and broadside,
-the muzzles of the guns touching each other. Jones sent one of his men
-to lash the two ships together, and commenced with his own hand in
-making fast the jib-stay of the _Serapis_ to the _Richard’s_ mizenmast;
-when the sailors saw what he was about to do, Johnson, with two others,
-ran to his assistance, and soon performed the task. The firing continued
-from the starboard sides of both vessels for more than an hour, the
-effect of which was terrible to both ships. There was much skirmishing
-with pistols and pikes through the ports, but no effort was made from
-the _Serapis_ to board the _Richard_, although they must have observed
-her crippled condition, she had begun to leak fast.
-
-It was near ten o’clock when the _Richard_ had sunk considerably from
-the water she had received through the shot-holes, which was now below
-the surface. Some of the subordinate officers believing that she was
-sinking, cried out lustily for “Quarter!” when Jones, in great anger,
-threw a pistol at one of them, which he had just discharged at the
-enemy, fractured the poor fellow’s skull, and sent him reeling down the
-hatchway. Jones ordered all the hands that could be spared to the pumps,
-and shortly after the _Serapis_ surrendered. At this moment there was
-much confusion, as several of the crew, who were Englishmen, and near
-their homes, took advantage of the _mêlée_ to desert in a small boat
-toward _Scarborough_. Our hero well remembers seeing one of the
-lieutenants of the _Richard_ appear on the deck and present several of
-the officers of the _Serapis_ to Commodore Jones as prisoners.
-
-The action had now ceased, all hands were ordered to assist in
-separating the two ships which had been so long in deadly embrace, and
-to extinguish the flames which were now raging in both vessels. It was
-daylight in the morning when the carpenters were ordered to examine the
-_Richard_. After a deliberate examination, they were of opinion that she
-could not be kept afloat sufficiently long to reach any port. Jones was
-not willing to abandon her till the last moment, and kept a lieutenant
-with a party of sailors at the pumps for twenty-four hours; Johnson says
-he worked for nine successive hours, and at last, when all hopes were
-extinguished, they commenced removing the wounded and the stores to the
-_Serapis_. They had not finished their operations more than half an
-hour, when she sunk to rise no more.
-
-The next cruise was to the Texel, and from thence to Amsterdam, where
-they received great kindness from the Dutch. Jones still continued his
-cruising with satisfaction to the American government until the
-beginning of the year 1781, when he was sent with the ship _Ariel_ to
-Philadelphia with stores for the army which had been waiting in France
-for more than a year, no suitable conveyance having been provided. They
-arrived in Philadelphia in February, 1781, the first time Johnson had
-seen the land of his adoption. Here he received his prize money, and
-having disengaged himself from the _Ariel_, determined to remain a short
-time in order to become master of the English language, of which at that
-time he knew but little.
-
-At this time Congress was sitting in Philadelphia, and several of the
-members were about removing their families to that city. Application was
-made to Captain Jones to furnish a man to take charge of a sloop to
-Boston, to convey the furniture of John Adams to Philadelphia; he
-accordingly appointed Johnson, and he brought the furniture safely to
-that city.
-
-This circumstance often brought Johnson in contact with Mr. Adams, who
-knew that he was one of the crew of Captain Jones, and consequently must
-have been in the conflict of the _Serapis_ and _Richard_, which having
-occurred so recently, was a subject of general conversation. Many of the
-sailors frequented the hall of Congress, and Johnson became interested
-in listening and observing what was so new to him that he was a daily
-visiter. When the members found that the sailors were part of the crew
-of Captain Jones, they frequently left their seats, and came over to
-them to inquire the particulars of the recent engagement. Mr. Adams
-particularly engaged the attention of Johnson; to use the veteran’s own
-words, he says, “a nervous sensation seemed to pervade the patriot as he
-listened to the description of the battle given by the sailors, fire
-flashed from his eyes, and his hair seemed perfectly erect;” he would
-clasp his hands, and exclaim, “What a scene!”
-
-During the time they remained in Philadelphia, General Washington
-arrived, and was presented to Congress; Johnson was present and listened
-to the introduction by President Hancock, and the reply by the general.
-Some days after, when the sailors were in the hall, Mr. Adams brought
-General Washington to them, who kindly shook each by the hand, calling
-them “Our gallant tars!” and asking them questions relative to the many
-successful adventures they had recently achieved.
-
-Johnson soon after left the navy, and engaged in the merchant service
-for some years, but eventually returned to it again, where he remained
-till, near the end of his life’s voyage, age obliged him to ask repose
-and protection in that asylum provided for the grateful and worn-out
-mariner.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE MAIDEN’S LAMENT FOR HER SHIPWRECKED LOVER.
-
-
- BY WM. ALBERT SUTLIFFE.
-
-
- I heard a maiden by the tumid ocean—
- The day had gone and night came on apace—
- Chanting a hymn to the spray’s chiming motion,
- Starlight and moonlight, and the sea’s dim face.
- And, as the moon looked down, her song up-stealing
- Fell thus upon my ear: “Hope of my hope,
- Gone o’er the swelling waters, whence this feeling
- That thou art dead? I give my fancy scope,
- And see thee hideous, with Death’s image o’er
- Those features I have loved, but know no more.
- Hope of my hope, gone o’er the swelling ocean,
- What cavern holds thy form—
- Cast by the furious storm?
-
- “Hope of my hope, gone o’er the swelling ocean!
- I weep for thee when night is on the sea:
- My bosom bursteth with its deep emotion—
- My spirit stretcheth out its arms but finds not thee.
- O misery! and then itself within itself retires,
- And weeps away a night that has no morn;
- And lights forever up fierce funeral pyres—
- Dreaming of cypress wreaths, and things forlorn.
-
- “What sea-nymph made thy bed
- Beneath the briny waves?
- Thetis with golden hair?
- Panopea wondrous fair,
- Lone virgin of the ocean’s deepest caves,
- With filmy garments shred
- About thy form,
- Mock of the brumal storm?
- Ho! mourn with me, ye nymphs, he is no more!
- Go sound it, Triton, o’er the humid waters!
- Go weep for him again, ye misty daughters!
- Re-echo it, ye cliffs, along our shore!
- And I myself will take the sad refrain
- Of the elegiac strain,
- And tune my lyre to a symphonious stream
- Floating along with many a moony gleam,
- Soft as an angel’s dream,
- Over the foamy summit of each wave,
- That rolleth o’er his grave.
-
- “Well do I know the day
- That bore him hence away!
- I watched him from yon cliff, in joy departing:
- I, with the tear-drops starting,
- Wept that he thus should go.
- He, hopeful of the future, saw not wo
- In the dim cloud that gathered, and the spray
- Leaped joyful up about his seaward way—
- Leaped up the vessel’s sides with treacherous kiss;
- Deceitful waves, that now in the abyss
- Have whelmed my love’s proud form,
- Play of the pitiless storm.
-
- “I’ve wept until my tears
- Have worn with furrows deep my pallid cheek;
- Have gazed until my poor eyes, worn and weak,
- Like age’s eyes, seem faded with long years.
- Oh! the long, dreary nights I’ve passed alone!
- Would Reason from her throne
- Might flee, and bear with her this dim, dull grief—
- This memory’s haunting tone!
- Then might I have relief.
- Receive me, ocean! lo, to thee I come!
- I, too, will share thy home:
- Our bridal bed shall be of pearls and diamonds,
- First loved, last loved, and fondly loved forever.
- No distance e’er shall sever—”
- The voice was hushed; I sped me to the strand.
- Only the moonlight fell; and o’er the sand
- A fountain gushed, pure as our holiest dreams.
- Perchance ’twas she, thus changed; how could I tell?
- And gone, as Arethusa once, beneath the deep,
- Had sought her lover in his quiet sleep.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE YEARS OF LOVE.
-
-
- For Love there’s no oblivion. I have cherished
- An idol beautiful, but in this hour,
- Hopes that had bloomed for years have wholly perished,
- And left me but the fragrance of the flower:
- But be the hopes of love like blossoms blighted,
- Wherever in the temples of the heart
- Hath stood an altar with their splendor lighted,
- The glory will not utterly depart;
- Still as we enter life’s forgetful haven,
- And every form of beauty disappears,
- The pictures on the memory engraven
- Of early love, win our last smiles and tears;
- The inspiration of the first endeavor
- After the love of woman dwells forever.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- EARLY ENGLISH POETS.
-
-
- GEORGE HERBERT.
-
-
- BY JAMES W. WALL.
-
-
-How few in our day have read the pious verses of George Herbert, “the
-sweet singer of The Temple,” as his biographer, old Walton, so loves to
-call him—verses overflowing with the sensibilities of a heart
-consecrated to pious uses, all aglow with love for humanity, and an
-ardent desire to bring it nearer to Him who so freely gave himself for
-it.
-
-Sweet George Herbert! Who that has ever read the rich outpourings of
-your warm and pious spirit, but has felt how poor and cold in the
-comparison were the promptings of his own? Who that has ever pondered
-over your verse, radiant with the praises of that sanctuary in whose
-hallowed courts you so loved to tread, but has felt the full force of
-your own sweet words?
-
- A verse may find him who a sermon flies,
- And turn delight into a sacrifice.
-
-George Herbert, the author of “The Temple,” a collection of sacred
-poems, was of a most noble, generous, and ancient family. His brother
-was the famous Edward Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, who was himself a poet,
-but attained higher distinction as a statesman and historian, having
-filled, during the reign of James I., the responsible posts of privy
-counselor, and ambassador to France; it was while engaged in the duties
-of this embassy that he composed his famous history of Henry the Eighth,
-so often quoted and referred to by the modern English historian.
-
-The subject of our sketch was born at Montgomery Castle, in Wales, April
-3, 1593. He was educated at Westminster school, and being a king’s
-scholar, was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, about the year 1608.
-He took both degrees in the Arts, and became a Fellow in the college. In
-1619 he was chosen orator for the University, which post he held eight
-years. This office he is said to have filled with great honor to himself
-and to the University. And this was no wonder, for, to use the quaint
-language of his biographer, old Izaak Walton, “he had acquired great
-learning, and was blessed with a high fancy, a civil and sharp wit, and
-with a natural elegance both in his behaviour, his tongue, and his pew.”
-When that royal pedant, King James, published his “Basilicon Doron,” he
-sent a copy to the University of Cambridge. Herbert, in his capacity as
-orator, was called upon to acknowledge its receipt on behalf of the
-institution, which he did in a most elegant manner, by a letter written
-in Latin, closing with the following lines:
-
- Quid vaticanam Bodleianamque objicis hospes!
- Unicus est nobis Bibliotheca Liber.
-
-The excellence of its Latinity, and the complimentary allusions
-plentifully sprinkled through it, so pleased the vanity of the king,
-that he inquired of the Earl of Pembroke if he knew the learned scholar
-who penned the epistle. His answer was, “That he knew him very well, and
-that he was his kinsman; but that he loved him more for his learning and
-virtue, than that he was of his name and family.” At which answer the
-king smiled, and asked the earl leave that he might love him too, for he
-took him to be the jewel of that University.
-
-The complimentary remark of the king, coming to the ears of Herbert, no
-doubt first turned his thoughts toward court preferment; for about this
-time we find him applying himself to the study of the Italian, French,
-and Spanish languages, in which he is said to have attained great
-proficiency; and by means of the attainment of which, to use his own
-language, “he hoped to secure the place of Secretary of State, as his
-predecessor, Sir Francis Nethersole had done.” This, and the love of
-court conversation, with the laudable ambition to be something more than
-he then was, drew him often from Cambridge to attend his majesty, King
-James.
-
-Shortly after this the king visited Cambridge in state, and was received
-on behalf of the University by Herbert, in a most elegant oration in
-Latin, stuffed full, as the manner of the time then was, of most fulsome
-adulation. In his progress he was attended by the great Sir Francis
-Bacon, Lord Verulam, and by the learned Dr. Andrews, Bishop of
-Winchester; and Herbert, by his learning and suavity, soon captivated
-these distinguished men. Bacon seems afterward to have put such value
-upon his judgment, that he usually desired his approbation before he
-would expose any of his books to be printed, and thought him so worthy
-of his friendship, that having translated many of the Prophet David’s
-Psalms into English verse, he made George Herbert his Patron, by a
-public dedication of them to him as the “best judge of divine poetry.”
-In 1620, the king gave Herbert a sinecure, formerly conferred upon Sir
-Philip Sydney by Queen Elizabeth, worth some twelve hundred pounds per
-annum.
-
-His ambitious views of further court preferment seem never to have been
-realized. The character of his mind, perhaps, did not fit him for the
-responsible duties of a statesman, or he might have been deficient in
-those arts of the courtier, so necessary, and such ready aid to court
-preferment. It may be that he had too independent a spirit, and could
-not “crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, that thrift might follow
-fawning.” But be this as it may, we think, in the sentiment contained in
-some verses written by our poet about the period of his leaving the
-court and entering holy orders, we have a readier solution for the
-sudden relinquishment of his hopes of court preferment. These verses
-were written upon the famous saying of Cardinal Wolsey, uttered by that
-proud churchman when his spirit was crushed, and the fruits of his
-ambition had turned to ashes on his lips. “Oh, that I had served my God
-with half the zeal with which I have served my king, he would not thus,
-in my old age, have placed me in the power of mine enemies.”
-
-No doubt the wholesome reflections inspired by the contemplation of
-those touching words, awakened the sensitive mind of our poet to a full
-appreciation of the vanity of all earthly ambition. He discovered in
-time, that pleasures springing from honor and grandeur of condition, are
-soon faded; that the mind nauseates, and soon begins to feel their
-emptiness. In the words of one of England’s most gifted divines, “Those
-who are so fond of public honor while they pursue it, how little do they
-taste it when they have it? Like lightning it only flashes on the face,
-and it is well if it do not hurt the man.”
-
-Without further speculating as to the reasons that induced our poet to
-fly from the court circles into the quiet retreat of the pastor’s life,
-most certain it is, about the year 1629, we find him renouncing the pomp
-and vanities of earthly ambition, and entering into holy orders.
-Previous to his induction, we find him using the following language in a
-letter to a friend: “I now look back upon my aspiring thoughts, and
-think myself more happy than if I had attained what then I so
-ambitiously thirsted for; and now I can behold the court with an
-impartial eye, and see plainly that it is made up of graced titles, and
-flattery, and many other such empty imaginary painted
-pleasures—pleasures that are so empty as not to satisfy where they are
-enjoyed. But in God and his service is a fullness of all joy and
-pleasure, but no satiety.” Of the fervency of his piety we have a most
-beautiful exemplification in some of his poems published about this
-time, especially in that styled “The Odor,” in which he seems to rejoice
-in the thought of the word “Jesus,” and say that the adding of these
-words “my master,” to it “seemed to perfume his mind, and leave an
-oriental fragrance in his very breath.” Alluding, in another poem, to
-his “unforced choice to serve at God’s altar,” he says,
-
- I know the ways of Learning; both the head and pipes
- That feed the press, and make it run;
- What reason hath from nature borrowed,
- Or of itself, like Housewife sheen.
- I know the ways of Honor, what maintains
- The quick returns of courtesy and wit;
- The ways of favor, either party gains
- And the best mode of oft retaining it.
-
- I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains,
- The lullings and the relishes of it;
- The proposition of hot blood and brains;
- What mirth and musick mean; what love and wit.
- Yet through these labyrinths, not my grovelling wit,
- But the silk twist let down from heaven to me,
- Did both conduct and teach me, how by it
- To climb to thee.
-
-In 1630 he was admitted to the priestly office, and was immediately
-inducted to the Rectory of Bemerton, near Salisbury. And here it was,
-stripping from him the gaudy trappings of a fashionable court, he
-clothed himself in the better and more enduring robes of humility and
-meekness. It was here, amid the quiet shades of his peaceful parish, he
-prepared, for his own use and that of his brethren, a brief manual,
-entitled “The Country Parson”—the rich gatherings of his own
-experience, and the exemplification of his own ardor in the performance
-of the duties of the pastoral office. His sermons, delivered while at
-Bemerton, are practical in doctrine, forcible in illustration, and make
-directly to the heart. They are just such sermons as we should suppose
-the author of The Country Parson would preach. They are many of them
-explanatory of the forms and services of the Church of England, urging
-their importance and the necessity of their being truly understood.
-
-He usually took his text from the gospel of the day appointed to be
-read, and did as consistently declare why the Church did appoint that
-portion of Scripture to be that day read; and he shortly made it appear
-to them (to use his own words) “that the whole service of the Church was
-a reasonable, and therefore an acceptable sacrifice to God—as, namely,
-we begin with confession of ourselves to be vile and miserable sinners;
-and we begin so because, until we have confessed ourselves to be such,
-we are not capable of that mercy which we so much need; but having in
-the prayer of our Lord begged pardon for those sins which we have
-confessed, and hoping by our public confession and real repentance we
-have obtained that pardon—then we dare and do proceed to beg of the
-Lord ‘to open our lips, that our mouth may show forth his praise;’ for
-till then we are not able and worthy to praise him.”
-
-The church holydays and fasts, and the benefits to be derived from their
-observance, were most beautifully illustrated in Herbert’s discourses;
-and we venture to say that in the sermons of no clergyman of the Church
-of England, or the Episcopal Church of America, can there be found so
-practical and so beautiful an exemplification of the excellency of the
-Episcopal Church service. The simple parishioners of Bemerton learned to
-love the service of their church under the preachings of their sainted
-pastor, because its practical usefulness, and its adaptation to their
-every spiritual want, was brought forcibly home to the door of their
-hearts. The form, they were taught, was as nothing, save as the most
-fitting vehicle of their wants and spiritual aspirations. In our age,
-where the cold religion of formality is seen struggling for the mastery
-over that which is ardent and spiritual; when “the outward and visible
-sign” seems to be more thought of than “the inward and spiritual grace;”
-when the outward adornments of the sanctuary are held almost in as high
-value, and as necessary to salvation, as the inward adornment of the
-meek and pious spirit, it is refreshing to read such sermons as those of
-Herbert. He was a formalist only so far as form could be made a means to
-an end; a means to bring man to a closer contemplation of the love and
-the abounding mercies of his God; a means through which he could be made
-to praise him in holiness and truth. The form he looked upon as the
-fitting vehicle, “the silken twist,” to lead man’s thoughts in fit
-expression up to the throne of God. The summum bonum, the all in
-religion, he still believed, and so most earnestly taught, consisted in
-the free-will offering of the penitent and pious spirit.
-
-In his essay on the duties of the Country Parson, he enjoins upon the
-pastor, “to be constant in every good work, setting such an example to
-his flock as they may be glad to follow; and by so doing, profit thereby
-to their souls’ good.”
-
-And most diligently (if we are to believe the testimony of his
-contemporaries) did George Herbert conform himself to the character so
-beautifully sketched. In the functions of his humble office he is said
-to have led a most pious and blameless life.
-
-The priests of the Levitical ministration, put on the humerus blazing
-with jewels, before they took the breastplate of righteousness and
-truth; thereby signifying that the priest must be a shining light,
-resplendent with good works, before he fed them with righteousness and
-truth, the legitimate milk of the word. And in the daily beauty of his
-blameless life; in the gentle, dove-like spirit that animated his every
-motive; in his daily charities, and his devout ministerings at the
-altar, Herbert most beautifully illustrated the doctrines that he
-preached. His life was “indeed, a shining light, resplendent with good
-works;” and the flock which he so faithfully tended, found through his
-guidance spiritual pastures. Quaint old Jeremy Taylor, alluding to the
-necessity of the Christian pastor exemplifying in his daily life the
-doctrines that he preaches, most beautifully remarks:
-
-“Herod’s doves could never have invited so many strangers to their
-dovecots if they had not been besmeared with most fragrant ointment. As
-said Dydimus, make your pigeons smell sweet, and they will allure whole
-flocks. And, Christian pastor, if your life be excellent, your virtues,
-‘like precious ointment, full of fragrance,’ you will soon invite your
-charges to run after your precious odors.”
-
-Such, in all things, was the subject of our sketch; his virtues were the
-precious ointment, full of fragrance, alluring the quiet flock his
-Master had given him to feed.
-
-We have said more of Herbert in his pastoral character than we first
-intended, although, perhaps, we have not dwelt upon it too long to give
-an illustration of the beautiful simplicity and pious ardor of the man.
-
-It was in the quiet village of Bemerton that Herbert composed his little
-volume of poems, styled “The Temple,” of which it was said by a
-contemporary, “There was in it the picture of a divine soul in every
-page, and the whole book was such a harmony of holy passions, as would
-enrich the world with pleasure and piety.”
-
-We do not pretend to claim for these songs any great poetic merit. They
-abound with faults, such as were peculiar to most of the minor poets of
-that age. The versification is often rough and inharmonious, the words
-ill chosen for the rhyme, while conceits far-fetched and unnatural are
-most plentifully sprinkled through them. These, however, are faults
-peculiar to the versification of the time in which our poet flourished.
-The great merit of these songs, most undoubtedly, consists mainly in the
-pious ardor and genuine devotional feeling which characterize them. The
-reader is attracted at once by the deep and earnest piety they manifest.
-There seems to be a consistent effort in the poet’s mind to give
-utterance to his devotional feeling in words of earnestness and power,
-such words as shall not dishonor the high and noble theme he had chosen
-for his subject. It can readily be discovered that they give utterance
-to the language of his heart, and that the influence of that heart’s
-holiest affections was the happiest inspiration of his verse. If there
-is any truth in those sweet lines of Cowper,
-
- The Poet’s lyre to fix his fame,
- Should be the Poet’s heart;
- Affection lights a brighter flame,
- Than ever blazed by art.
-
-then “sweet George Herbert” has made sure his claim to remembrance, and
-left something behind him which posterity will not willingly let die.
-
-Wherever deep and holy love for sacred things is esteemed, there the
-verses of Herbert will find many ardent admirers. They are the pure and
-free-will offerings of a heart consecrated to pious uses, and attuned to
-sacred harmonies—the soft breathings of a devotional spirit, that seems
-too pure for earth.
-
-When he sings of the church where he so loved to worship, it is with all
-the earnest enthusiasm, if not with the inspiration of that noble song
-of Solomon, commencing,
-
-“Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair; thou hast dove’s
-eyes within thy locks, thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from
-Mount Gilead. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is
-comely; thy temples are like a piece of pomegranate within thy locks,
-thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot within thee.”
-
-And Herbert loved the church, because it was the fold where he could
-gather the flock that had been given him to tend. The church on earth
-was to him the emblem of the spiritual church “eternal in the heavens.”
-His gentle spirit seems all aglow with love, whenever he sings of its
-quiet retreats and the rich solemnities of its glorious worship.
-
-The poems, styled “The Temple,” are preceded by a long poem as a
-preface, called “The Church Porch,” where he would have the reader
-linger before entering the sanctuary. And in the poem the poet takes
-occasion to give sage counsel and most excellent advice, the better to
-fit the mind for the contemplation of the sacredness of the sanctuary
-beyond the porch. He would purify the spirit from the dross of earthly
-vices, he would have it “purged of the contaminations of earth,” before
-entering the temple, where the divine presence loves to dwell.
-
-And no one who will read the advice embodied in this introductory poem,
-but must rise from its perusal with the conviction that it contains a
-code of morality, enforced by most excellent precepts. Independent of
-its religious tone, it may be said to contain the very best of
-principles, enforced by illustrations that carry conviction to the mind
-at once. In the rude measure of the time, it holds up virtue in all its
-beauty to our approbation, and lays bare all the hideousness of vice. He
-seeks not for harmonious verse, as the vehicle of thought, he desires
-not to please, but to persuade; not to amuse, but to instruct.
-
-Is lust within, polluting, corrupting, and withering the heart, his
-warning is,
-
- Beware of lust; it doth pollute the soul
- Whom God in baptism washed with his own blood,
- It blots the lesson written in thy soul;
- The holy words cannot be understood.
- How dare those eyes upon a Bible look,
- Much less toward God, “whose lust is all their book.”
-
-Profanity he rebukes in lines like these:
-
- Take not his name who made thy mouth, in vain.
- It gets thee nothing, and has no excuse.
- Lust and wine plead a pleasure, avarice gain;
- But the cheap swearer, through his open sluice,
- Lets his soul run for naught.
-
-Remembering in whose sight “lying lips are an abomination,” and the
-sacredness of whose sanctuary is polluted by falsehood, he breaks forth
-with indignant tone,
-
- Lie not, but let thy heart be true to God,
- Thy mouth to it, thy actions to them both.
- Cowards tell lies, and those that fear the rod.
- The stormy working soul spits lies and froth;
- Dare to be true—nothing can need a lie;
- A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.
-
-Extravagance, which is the grateful mother of debt, penury, and want;
-which has desolated as many homes, withered as many hearts, and
-destroyed as many lives as the sword, he thus rebukes:
-
- Never exceed thy income, youth may make
- Even with the year; but age, if it will hit,
- Shoots a bow short, and lessens still his stake
- As the day lessens, and his life with it.
- Thy children, kindred, friends upon thee call,
- Before thy journey, fairly past with all.
-
-The dangers that wait on suretyship, and the madness of yielding to its
-pressing importunities, are thus set forth:
-
- Yet be not surety, if thou be a father;
- Love is a personal debt. I cannot give
- My children’s right, nor ought he take it, rather
- Both friends should die, than hinder them to live.
- Fathers first enter bonds to nature’s ends,
- And are her sureties, ere they are friends.
-
-The spirit in which we should enter the hallowed courts of the
-sanctuary, is set forth thus:
-
- When once thy foot enters the church, believe
- God is more there than thou, for thou art there
- Only by his permission. Then beware,
- And make thyself all reverence and fear.
- Kneeling ne’er spoiled silk stockings; quit thy state,
- All equal are within the church’s gate.
-
-Space will not permit us to make further extracts from “The Porch.”
-Enough has been given to show its tone and character. The poems called
-“The Temple,” thus introduced, are a series of devotional songs upon
-sacred subjects, overflowing with ardent feeling, and manifesting the
-existence of a piety as fervent as it is rare.
-
-In his verses on Prayer, we have an apt illustration of our author’s
-style and devotional ardor.
-
- Prayer, the Church’s banquet, angels age,
- God’s breath in man returning to his birth.
- The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
- The Christian’s plummet sounding heaven and earth.
-
-The quiet stillness of the Sabbath morn, and the blessings that
-accompany it, call forth such verses as the following:
-
- Oh, day most calm, most bright,
- The fruit of this, the next world’s bud,
- Th’ indorsement of supreme delight,
- Writ by a friend, and with his blood;
- The couch of time, care’s balm, and bay;
- The week were dark, but for thy light,
- Thy torch doth show the way.
-
- Sundays the pillars are
- On which Heaven’s palace arched lies;
- The other days fill up the spare
- And hollow room with vanities;
- They are the fruitful beds and borders
- In God’s rich garden; that is base
- Which parts their ranks and orders.
-
- The Sundays of man’s life,
- Threaded together on time’s string,
- Make bracelets to adorn the wife
- Of the eternal glorious king;
- On Sundays Heaven’s door stands ope,
- Blessings are plentiful and rife—
- More plentiful than hope.
-
-In his verses styled “The Odour,” we have an exemplification of the
-Poet’s love for his Divine Master, expressed with that fervency which
-betokens the sincerity of his adoration.
-
- How sweetly doth my master sound! my master!
- As ambergris leaves a rich scent
- Unto the taster.
- So do these words a sweet content,
- An oriental fragrance—my master!
-
-The poem entitled “Christmas,” has considerable merit, the versification
-is smoother, and the measure not so irregular as most of his poems,
-while at the same time it is characterized by the same warmth of
-devotional feeling, that is manifested in all.
-
- The shepherds sing, and shall I silent be?
- My God, no hymn for thee?
- My soul’s a shepherd, too; a flock it feeds
- Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
- The pasture is thy word, the streams thy grace,
- Enriching all the place.
- Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
- Outsing the daylight hours.
-
-The little poem entitled “Jesu,” although it has neither the merit of
-smoothness, or any poetical beauty, is strongly illustrative of the
-purely saint-like piety of its author. Dr. Sanderson was enraptured with
-this little production, and used to style it, “a gem of rare conceit.”
-We see nothing in it, however, to warrant such praise; it certainly has
-no poetic merit, and the conceit embodied in it, appears to be rude and
-far-fetched.
-
- JESU.
-
- Jesu is in my heart, his sacred name
- Is deeply carved there, but th’ other week,
- A great affliction broke the little frame,
- Ev’n all to pieces; which I went to seek;
- And first I found the corner where was I,
- After where es, and next where u was graved.
- When I had got these parcels, instantly
- I sat me down to spell them, and perceived
- That to my broken heart, he was I ease you,
- And to my whole is Jesu.
-
-Space will not permit us to make further extracts from these poems of
-Herbert’s. Those that we have given, illustrate the pious ardor of the
-subject of our sketch, while at the same time they give evidence of some
-claim to take position with the minor poets of his day. His prose
-compositions undoubtedly possess more merit than his poetical, and
-clearly entitle him to rank with the best of his contemporaries. The
-beautiful simplicity of the character of our poet, has never been
-surpassed in any age. His disposition was of the most sweet and engaging
-nature, adorned with all the graces of a most saint-like piety. “He
-lived like a saint,” says his enthusiastic biographer, old Walton, “and
-like a saint did he die.” The Sunday before his death, raising himself
-from his bed, he called for his instrument, and having tuned it, played
-and sung that verse from his poems, commencing,
-
- The Sundays of man’s life
- Threaded together on time’s string,
- Make bracelets to adorn the wife
- Of the eternal, glorious king.
-
-Like the dying swan,
-
- As death darkened his eye and unplumed his wings,
- His sweetest song was the last he sings.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE GIFT OF A ROSE.
-
-
- BY GEORGE D. PRENTICE.
-
-
- I send thee, Mary, a sweet young rose,
- That bright with the hues of the sunset glows;
- Its beauty, alas! is frail and brief,
- It will come to thee with a withered leaf,
- But the fervent kiss that my earnest lips
- Have left for thee on its crimson tips,
- Will not from the fading flower depart,
- But come all fresh to thy lip and heart;
- For oh, ’tis a breath of the love and trust
- That will live when our lips and our hearts are dust.
-
- Mary, dear Mary, pray love this flower,
- Let it have for thy heart a spell of power;
- For I plucked it fresh from its lovely stalk,
- On the blooming edge of that garden walk,
- Where we strayed together so deeply blest,
- When the sun was low in the golden west,
- And murmured our loves in burning words,
- With none to hear but the flowers and birds,
- And lingered long on the dear, sweet spot,
- While our warm hearts kissed, though our lips did not.
-
- Mary, dear Mary, my thoughts still cleave
- To each memory sweet of that blessed eve,
- To each tone more dear than the sweetest lute,
- To each vow we breathed when our lips were mute,
- To the wild, deep thrill through each trembling frame,
- From fingers warmed with a pulse of flame,
- To each gentle tear, to each gentle sob,
- To each sigh that told of the heart’s deep throb,
- Aye, these memories dwell in this soul of mine—
- Oh, Mary dear, do they live in thine?
-
- Mary, dear Mary, I pray thee say,
- Do the roses bloom where thy steps now stray?
- Do they look at morn on the sky’s soft blue
- Through the trembling tears of the early dew?
- When I come to thee will they smile to greet
- Thy lover’s steps with their perfume sweet?
- Will they list at eve to our tender vows?
- Will they weave their wreaths for our gentle brows?
- And when at last we are doomed to part,
- Will they breathe a sigh for each breaking heart?
-
- Mary, dear Mary, I fain would know,
- Do thy heart’s sweet flowers keep their fresh young glow?
- Are their eyes yet turned on the skies above?
- Do they glitter still with the dews of love?
- Has no blighting frost, has no bitter blast
- Cold, cold o’er their buds and their blossoms past?
- If my name is said, are their leaves yet stirred
- To the olden thrill at the cherished word?
- And say, oh say, will those dear, heart flowers,
- Still bloom for me in the Eden bowers?
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- AH, DO NOT SPEAK SO COLDLY.
-
-
- Ballad.
-
-
- WORDS BY
-
- FITZGERALD.
-
- MUSIC BY
-
- BENKERT.
-
- Published by permission of Edward L. Walker, 160 Chestnut Street.
-
- _Publisher and Importer of Music and Musical Instruments._
-
-[Illustration]
-
- Ah! do not speak so coldly,
- Cold words my heart will chill;
- If I have lov’d too boldly,
- Oh! let me worship still?
- If
-
-[Illustration]
-
- I have lov’d too boldly,
- Oh! let me worship still?
- The pure heart loves forever,
- To its own likeness true;
- And though fate bids us sever
- I’ll love I’ll love but you,
- And though fate bids us sever
- I’ll love I’ll love but you.
-
- SECOND VERSE.
-
- The heart will throb in sorrow
- If from its idol torn.
- Nor elsewhere joy will borrow,
- If love’s return be scorn.
- Then do not speak so coldly,
- Cold words my heart will chill;
- E’en if I’ve lov’d too boldly,
- Oh! let me worship still, &c.
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- TEAL AND TEAL SHOOTING.
-
-
-BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, AUTHOR OF FRANK FORESTER’S “FIELD SPORTS,” “FISH
- AND FISHING,” ETC.
-
-
-[Illustration: THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. (_Anas Carolinensis._)
-
-THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL. (_Anas Discors._)]
-
-In this present month, the sport of duck-shooting on the inland streams,
-rivers, and lakelets, may be held to commence in earnest, as contrasted
-to the pursuit of the same tribes on the outer bays, estuaries, and
-surf-banks. About the end of September, and thenceforth through this and
-the next ensuing month, according to the variations of the seasons, and
-the longer or shorter endurance of that delicious time, the most
-delicious and most gorgeous of the whole American year, known throughout
-this continent as Indian Summer, the Mallard, and the two beautiful
-species which we have placed at the head of this article, begin to make
-their appearance on the little lakes of the interior, and in the various
-streams and rivers which fall into them, and thence downward to the
-Atlantic seaboard.
-
-In the vast northern solitudes of the great lakes of the northwest, in
-all the streams of Upper Canada, even to the feeders of Lake Superior,
-and throughout the western country so far south as Texas, and northward
-to the Columbia and the fur countries, the Blue-Winged Teal breeds,
-literally by myriads. Throughout the great lakes, it is abundant in the
-early autumn, becoming excessively fat on the seed of the wild rice,
-with which the shallows of all those waters are overgrown, and being
-deservedly esteemed as one of the best, if not the very best, of the
-duck tribe. But it is the first of its race to remove from the wild,
-limpid waters, and wood-embosomed rivers of the great west, to the
-seaboard tide-waters, taking the inland water-courses on their route,
-rarely visiting the actual sea-shores, and proceeding on the occurrence
-of the first frosts, for they are singularly susceptible of cold, to the
-Southern States, where they swarm, especially in the inundated
-rice-fields of Georgia and South Carolina, during the winter months.
-
-The Green-Winged Teal, which is the nearest congener, and frequently the
-associate of the Blue-Wing, has a far less extensive range, so far as
-regards its breeding-grounds, in as much as it never, so far as has been
-satisfactorily shown, has nidificated or produced its young south of the
-Great Lakes, nor even there in great numbers, its favorite haunts, for
-the purposes of reproduction, being the extreme northern swamps and
-wooded morasses almost up to the verge of the arctic circles. It does
-not come down on its southward migration, at nearly so early a period of
-the autumn as its congener, being less susceptible of cold, and tarrying
-on the Great Lakes till the frosts set in with sufficient severity to
-prevent its frequenting its favorite haunts with pleasure, or obtaining
-its food with facility. It is rarely or never seen in the Middle States
-during the summer, but is tolerably abundant during the autumn on all
-the marshy lakes and pools, and along the shores of all the reedy rivers
-from the great lakes downward to the sea-board, though, like the last
-named species, it is purely a fresh-water duck, never frequenting the
-sea-shores or salt bays, finding no food thereon with which to gratify
-its delicate and fastidious palate, which, eschewing fish, the larvæ of
-insects, and the lesser _crustaceæ_, relishes only the seeds of the
-various water plants and grasses, the tender leaves of some vegetables,
-and more especially the grain of the wild rice, _Zizania panicula
-effusa_, which is its favorite article of subsistence, and one to which
-may be ascribed the excellence of every bird of air or water which feeds
-on it, from the Rice-Bird and the Rail, to the Teal, the Canvas-Back,
-and even the large Thick-Billed _Fuligula_, closely allied to the
-Scoter, the Velvet Duck, and other uneatable sea-fowl of Lake Huron,
-which are scarcely, if at all, inferior to the Red Heads of Chesapeake
-Bay, the Gunpowder, or the Potomac. On the Susquehanna and the Delaware,
-both these beautiful little ducks were in past years excessively
-abundant, so that a good gunner, paddling one of the sharp, swift skiffs
-peculiar to those waters, was certain of filling his boat with these
-delicious ducks within a few hours’ shooting. Both of these species are
-rather tame than otherwise, the blue-winged bird more particularly,
-which has a habit, on the lower waters of the Delaware especially, of
-congregating on the mud in vast flocks, sunning themselves in the serene
-and golden light of a September noon, so careless and easy of approach,
-that the gunner is frequently enabled to paddle his skiff within a few
-yards of them, and to rake them with close discharges of his heavy
-batteries. At times, when the tide is out, and the birds are assembled
-on the flats out of gunshot from the water’s edge, the thorough-going
-sportsman, reckless of wet feet or muddy breeches, will run his skiff
-ashore, several hundred yards above or below the flock, and getting
-cautiously overboard, will push it before him over the smooth, slippery
-mud-flats, keeping himself carefully concealed under its stern until
-within gunshot, which he can sometimes reduce to so little as fifteen or
-twenty yards, by this murderous and stealthy method. The Green-Winged
-Teal is much less apt to congregate, especially on shore, than the
-other, and consequently, affords less sport to the boat-shooter, keeping
-for the most part afloat in little companies, or trips, as they are
-technically called, very much on the alert, and springing rapidly on the
-wing when disturbed. They, and the Blue-Wings also, fly very rapidly,
-dodging occasionally on the wing, not unlike to a wild, sharp-flying
-Woodcock, and when they alight, darting downward with a short, sudden
-twist among the reeds or rushy covert, exactly after the fashion of the
-same bird.
-
-The commoner and, in our opinion—where these birds are abundant either
-along the courses of winding drains or streamlets, or in large reedy
-marshes, with wet soil and occasional pools or splashes—far the more
-exciting way of killing them is to go carefully and warily on foot, with
-a good medium-sized double-gun, say of eight to ten pounds weight, and a
-thoroughly well broke and steady spaniel, to retrieve and occasionally
-to flush the birds, which will sometimes, though rarely, lie very hard.
-A good sportsman will frequently, thus late in the autumn, when the
-mornings are sharp and biting, and the noons warm and hazy, but before
-the ice makes, pick up, on favorable ground, his eight or nine couple in
-a day’s walking, with a chance of picking up at the same time a few
-Snipe, Golden Plovers, Curlew, or Godwit; and this, in our mind, is
-equal to slaughtering a boat load by sneaking up in ambush to within
-twenty yards of a great company, whistling to make them lift their heads
-and ruffle up their loosened plumage, so as to give easy entrance to the
-shot, and then pouring into them at half point-blank range, a half pound
-of heavy shot.
-
-In the southern States they are commonly taken, says Wilson, “in vast
-numbers, in traps placed on the small dry eminences that here and there
-rise above the water of the inundated rice fields. These places are
-strewed with rice, and by the common contrivance called a figure four,
-they are caught alive in hollow traps.” This we, of course, merely
-mention as illustrative of the habits of the bird; for, of course, no
-sportsman would dream of resorting to so worse than poacher-like a
-proceeding. The mode described by the eloquent pioneer of American
-natural history, is probably practised, for the most part, by the
-negroes for the supply of their masters’ table, and furnishing their own
-pockets with a little extra change, and is not used by the planters as a
-means of sport or amusement. It must be remembered, also, that Wilson,
-than whom there is no writer more to be relied on in matters which he
-relates of his own knowledge, and as occurring in his own days, must
-often be taken _cum grano salis_, as to the numbers of birds slain in
-this way or that within a certain time—things which he records,
-probably, on hearsay, and on which—we are sorry to say it—even good
-sportsmen, men who on any other subject would scorn to deviate one
-hair’s breadth from the truth, will not hesitate to draw a bow as long
-and as strong as Munchausen’s. Again, he writes of times when sporting
-was but little pursued, otherwise than as a method of procuring superior
-food for the table, or for the purpose of destroying noxious vermin and
-beasts of prey; when the rules of sportsmanship were little understood
-and as little regarded; and, lastly, when game abounded to a degree
-literally inconceivable in our day—although we have ourselves seen,
-with sorrow, the diminution, amounting in many regions around our large
-cities almost to extinction, of all birds and beasts—nay, but even fish
-of chase, within the last twenty years. We must be careful therefore not
-to charge exaggeration on a writer who, beyond a doubt, faithfully
-recorded that which he himself saw and enjoyed in his day; which we
-might see likewise and enjoy in our generation, and our children and
-grand-children after us, if it were not for the greedy, stupid, selfish,
-and brutal pot-hunting propensities of our population, alike rural of
-the country and mechanical of the cities, which seems resolutely and of
-set purpose bent on the utter annihilation of every species of game,
-whether of fur, fin or feather, which is yet found within our
-boundaries.
-
-In my opinion, the common error of all American fowlers and duck
-shooters, lies, in the first place, in the overloading the gun
-altogether, causing it to recoil so much as to be exceedingly
-disagreeable and even painful, and in the same degree diminishing the
-effect of the discharge; for it must never be forgotten that when a gun
-recoils, whatever force is expended on the retrogressive motion of the
-breech, that same force is to be deducted from the propulsion of the
-charge. In the second place, he erroneously loads with extremely large
-and heavy shot, the result of which is, in two respects, inferior to
-that of a lighter and higher number. First, as there will be three or
-four pellets of No. 4 for every one pellet of A or B in a charge, and,
-consequently, as the load is thereby so much the more regularly
-distributed, and so much the more likely to strike the object, and that
-in several places more, in the ratio of three or four to one, than could
-be effected by A’s or B’s. Second, as the flesh will constantly close
-over the wound made by a small shot, so as to cause the bleeding to go
-on internally to the engorgement of the tissues and suffocation by
-hemorrhage; whereas the wound made by the large grain will relieve
-itself by copious bleeding, and the bird so injured will oftentimes
-recover, after having fallen even to the surface of the water, or lain
-flapping, as it were, in the death-struggle on the blood-stained sand or
-grassy hassocks. This fact has been well noticed, and several examples
-adduced to prove its truth, by Mr. Giraud, in his exceedingly clear and
-correct, though, to our taste, far too brief volume on the “Birds of
-Long Island.”
-
-For my own use I invariably adopt for all the smaller species of
-duck—as the two varieties of Teal, the Summer Duck, the Golden Eye, and
-the Buffel-headed Duck, _Anates_, _Carolinensis_, _Discors_, _Sponsa_,
-and _Fuligulæ_, _Clanguid_, and _Albeola_—the same shot which is
-generally used for the various birds known on our shores and rivers as
-bay-snipe, viz: No. 4 or 5—the latter best for the Plovers, the former
-for duck, whether in large or small guns. In this relation I may observe
-that, on one occasion—the only one, by the way, on which I ever saw a
-green-winged teal in the summer season—I killed a couple of these
-beautiful birds, right and left, while woodcock shooting, in Orange
-County, New York, with No. 8 shot. They sprang quite unexpectedly from
-behind a willow bush, on the Wuwayanda creek, and I dropped them both
-quite dead, some what to my own astonishment, and to the utter
-astounding of Fat Tom, who witnessed it, into the middle of the stream,
-respectively at twenty and twenty-five yards distance. Until I recovered
-them I supposed that they were young wood ducks, but on examination they
-proved to be young green-winged teal, of that season, in their immature
-plumage. This must have been in the last week of July or the first of
-August—it was many years since, and as at that time I kept no shooting
-diary, I unfortunately am unable to verify the exact date. The birds
-must, I conclude, have been bred in that vicinity, by what means I
-cannot conjecture, unless that the parent birds might have been wounded
-in the spring, and disabled from completing their northern migration,
-and that this, as is some times the case with the minor birds of
-passage, might have superinduced their breeding in that, for them, far
-southern region. In corroboration of this I may add that, in the spring
-of 1846, a couple of these birds haunted a small reedy island in front
-of my house, on the Passaic, to so late a day in summer—the 29th, if I
-do not err, of May—that I sedulously avoided disturbing them, in the
-hope that they would breed there. This I yet think would have been the
-case but for the constant disturbance of that lovely river throughout
-the summer by gangs of ruffianly loafers, with whom the neighboring town
-of Newark abounds beyond any other town of its size in the known world,
-boating upon its silvery surface day and night, and rendering day and
-night equally hideous with their howls and blasphemies.
-
-Before proceeding to the description of these birds it is well to
-observe that it will be found the better way, in approaching them, as
-indeed _all_ wild fowl, to work, if possible, up wind to them; not that
-wild fowl have the power, as some pretend, of scenting the odor of the
-human enemy on the tainted gale, as is undoubtedly the case with deer
-and many other quadrupeds, but that their hearing is exceedingly acute,
-and that their heads are pricked up to listen, at the occurrence of the
-least unusual sound, and at the next moment—_hey, presto!_—they are
-off.
-
-The little cut at the head of this paper, for his spirited and faithful
-execution of which the author and artist must be permitted to return his
-acknowledgments to his friend, Mr. Brightly, represents a favorite
-feeding ground of the various tribes of water fowl, as is indicated by
-the large gaggle of geese passing over, from right to left, and the trip
-of green-wings alighting to the call of a clamorous drake in the
-background. On a rocky spur of the shore, in the right foreground, is a
-male Green-Winged Teal, in the act of springing, with his legs already
-gathered under him; and, still nearer to the front of the picture, on
-the right, a Blue-Winged Drake, swimming on the limpid water, soliciting
-his congener, with reverted neck, and the harsh gabble—whence his
-name—to take wing and greet the new-comers—it being the object of the
-draftsman to give an idea not merely of the markings and form of these
-two most beautiful and graceful of the duck tribe, but of their motions,
-the character of their flights, and the nature of their feeding grounds
-and habitations.
-
-The head of the Green-Winged Teal is of moderate size and compressed;
-the bill nearly as long as the head, deeper than broad at the base,
-depressed at the tip; neck slender, of moderate length; body full and
-depressed; wings rather small, feet short and rather far back.
-
-The plumage is short and blended; that of the hinder head and neck
-elongated into a soft filamentous drooping crest. The bill is black;
-iris hazel; feet light blue; head and upper part of neck bright chestnut
-brown; a broad band of shining rich bottle-green, narrowings from the
-eye backward and downward to the nape, margined below with black,
-anterior to which is a white line; chin dusky brown. Upper parts and
-flanks white, beautifully and closely undulated with narrow lines of
-deep gray. Anterior to the wings is a broad transverse lunated white
-bar—_this alone distinguishing the American from the European bird_.
-The wing coverts, scapulars and quills gray. The speculum bright green
-above, blue-black below, margined posteriorly with pure white. Tail
-brownish gray, margined with paler brown. Lower part of the neck
-undulated, like the back. Breast pale rufous, spotted and banded with
-black; white below. Abdomen white, barred with gray. A black patch under
-the tail; the lateral tail coverts tawny, the larger black, white-tipped
-and margined. Length of male bird, 14¾.24. Female, 13¾.22½.
-
-The description and drawing of this bird are taken, by kind permission,
-which the writer gratefully acknowledges, from a fine specimen in the
-Academy of Natural Science of this city.
-
-The Blue-Winged Teal is rather larger than the above, the male measuring
-16.31½, the female 15.24.
-
-The shape and proportions of this bird closely resemble those of the
-latter, but in plumage it widely differs from it. The bill is blueish
-black; iris dark hazel; feet dull yellow, webs dusky; upper part of the
-head black, a semilunar patch of pure white, margined with black
-anterior to the eye; the rest of the head and upper neck deep purplish
-gray, with changeable ruddy reflections. The lower hind neck, back,
-alula, and upper parts generally, rich chocolate brown, every feather
-margined with paler tints, from reddish buff to pale reddish gray, with
-black central markings, changing to metallic green in the centres. Upper
-wing coverts rich ultra-marine blue, with a metallic lustre; the lower
-parts pale reddish orange, shaded on the breast with purplish red, and
-thickly spotted with roundish or eliptical black spots; axillary
-feathers, lower wing coverts, and a patch on the side of the rump, pure
-white; lower tail coverts brownish black.
-
-These, with the exception of the Buffel-Headed Duck, are the two
-smallest; with the exception of the Summer Duck, the two loveliest; with
-the exception of the Canvas-Back the two best of the duck tribe. Well
-met be they, whether on the board or in the field—shot be they with No.
-4—eaten roast, underdone, with cayenne and a squeeze of a lemon,
-lubricated with red wine, _quantum suff._
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- THE FINE ARTS.
-
-
- _Amateur Concerts—Difference between Stage Singing and Chamber
- Singing—Effect produced by Stage Acting on the Manners and
- Conversation in Private—Origin of the modern florid style of
- singing—Conclusion._
-
-Concerts are popular all over the Union, but in no other town are they
-so successful and popular as in Philadelphia. We have here all kinds of
-these entertainments, Ethiopian Concerts—Donation Concerts—Society
-Concerts, such as the Musical Fund and Philharmonic—and pre-eminent
-above all others, in point of fashion, Amateur Concerts.
-
-A small, good Opera Troupe, it is true, would be of more service to our
-musical taste; for this hearing the works of great masters by bits, as
-it were, is not of much benefit; however, so that we have music in some
-manner is better than not to have it at all.
-
-The concerts of the past winter were all well attended; but the Amateur
-Concerts were the favorites, and were, indeed, very successful. The
-amateurs, both ladies and gentlemen, surprised their audiences; and
-great praise is due to “_Maestro Perelli_.” We have heard some of them
-execute pieces in a manner that would have done credit to a professional
-singer. But while we admired, we felt a little disposed to remonstrate,
-for one or two old-fashioned reasons.
-
-If they are really amateurs, and are training their voices for private
-singing, are they not running a risk of injuring their style by singing
-in public?
-
-In the olden times of vocal training, there was always a marked
-difference made between public and private singing. So particular were
-the old masters that they divided singing into three classes—church
-singing, stage singing, and chamber singing.
-
-Church singing required a more simple manner, a more pure and severe
-style, than stage singing; but the voice like that intended for the
-stage, had to be strong and full, with great volume and power, and the
-intonation clear and correct. There was not much difference between the
-voices of the church and stage singer; that is, it was not thought that
-either style injured the voice for the other, on the contrary, some of
-the finest voices the Italian school has produced, have been trained in
-church choirs, under the old chapel-masters.
-
-But there was always a marked and decided difference made between stage
-singing and chamber singing. For the latter, it is necessary to have a
-plain, simple manner, a clear, pure intonation, good articulation, and
-great polish. The cadenzas and ornaments should be few, but of the most
-exquisite style and finish. Strength and volume of voice are not so much
-needed for the chamber singer, as delicacy of articulation and purity of
-tone.
-
-Tone, in music as in painting, is mellowed by distance, and the singer
-who wishes to produce a pleasing effect in the drawing-room, should bear
-this in mind. It is as absurd to present in private a piece of music
-executed in the ornamented, operatic style, as it would be to hang in a
-cabinet or drawing-room, a large painting fitted for a church, a
-gallery, or a theatre; or, to make another comparison, for an orator, a
-public speaker, to entertain the guests of his drawing-room, with the
-same loud tone, earnest rhetorical manner, and volume of voice, that he
-used in the public assembly or town-meeting.
-
-The habit of singing in public will give to the private singer, a manner
-and style which may sound very well in the concert-room, or on the stage
-where they are mellowed by distance, and softened by an orchestra, but
-this same manner and style will appear in private, coarse, violent, and
-theatrical. There should be a difference between public and private
-singing; both styles are beautiful, and equally effective in their way,
-but they should be kept separate.
-
-It is well known that actors and actresses, in dressing for the stage,
-are apt to lose that nice, delicate eye for color, which is required to
-render a private costume pleasing; they become fond of strong contrasts,
-bright colors, and ornaments which appear glaring and wanting in harmony
-off the stage. Stage acting also affects the conversation, the tone of
-voice, and manner of expression. We were much amused once with the witty
-reply of a clever person, when asked why he did not admire a
-distinguished actress he had met with in private.
-
-“She is too theatrical,” he said. “First she gives us a dash of tragedy
-_à la_ Lady Macbeth, then comes a touch of genteel comedy _à la_ Lady
-Teazle, which is very tiresome. One likes such exhibitions well enough
-on the stage, but they are quite out of place in one’s drawing-room.”
-
-And thus it is with vocal music, to make it pleasing in society, or what
-is better, in one’s home circle, it should be like drawing-room, or home
-costume, home manner, conversation, reading—simple, pure, with few
-ornaments, and those well chosen.
-
-Though these rules seem severe, they are not confining, for the
-chamber-singer is not limited. The music of the great masters can be
-produced in private, with great effect, in the same manner as all of us
-have, doubtless, heard a good reader give in private circles, scenes
-from Shakspeare and other dramatic poets. If the reader should present
-to us in his reading, all the starts, the loud tones and energetic
-manner required on the stage to produce an illusion, his reading would
-create disgust in us, and we would listen unwillingly; but if, on the
-contrary, he should read in a quiet manner, but with clear enunciation,
-and good emphasis, leaving our imaginations and recollections to make up
-the stage illusion, then, his reading would prove effective and
-pleasing.
-
-Every vocalist knows that the graces and ornaments of a piece are
-entirely independent of the melody. The musical student who has studied
-the works of the old composers, will understand this better than the
-amateur who has been confined to modern compositions.
-
-In the olden times more stress was laid upon the simple melody. Haydn
-used to say,
-
-“Let your _air_ be good, and your composition will be so likewise, and
-will assuredly please.”
-
-But in the present day, the air is almost forgotten in the rich
-_rifioramenti_, and bewitching _capricci_ of the Italian singer, the
-surprising _vocalization_ of the French, and the graces, shakes, and
-turns of the English vocalist.
-
-We do not object to these adornments; when properly used, they produce a
-pleasing effect—they break up the monotony of the melody; but any one
-will see how necessary it is to have these adornments different in
-different places. The graces, cadenzas, etc., which would be added to a
-piece sung on the stage, should not be used in the drawing-room or in
-the church, although the simple melody itself, may from its character do
-very well for either place, if sung with appropriate ornaments.
-
-These elaborate, ornamental, vocal passages, which appear in modern
-compositions, are not to be found in the old writers. They would have
-considered it derogatory to the dignity of their melodies, to have
-written out in them the _rifioramenti_ of the singer.
-
-We remember seeing, several years ago, some Italian copies and
-manuscripts of compositions by Durante, Trajetta, Paisiello, and other
-old Italian masters. They belonged to a singular, remarkable person,
-then living in this country, Signor Trajetta, the son of the old Maestro
-Trajetta, the master and companion of Sacchini. These compositions were
-for the voice, and in looking over them, we were struck with their
-bareness and severity. The airs were, many of them, pure, and full of
-beautiful melody, but we could readily imagine that it would require a
-very severe taste to listen to them without finding them monotonous, and
-so we said.
-
-“Ah!” replied Trajetta’s pupil, as wild an enthusiast as his master,
-“your taste has been spoiled and vitiated by modern music.”
-
-The present taste for florid execution was caused, it is said, by the
-desire of the vocalists to rival the instrumental passages of the Opera.
-During the time of Metastasio, the musicians, especially those of the
-German school, so famous for instrumentation, overpowered the singers.
-The struggle of the singers for the lead, caused Metastasio to make a
-remark which would apply very well in this day—that the singers in an
-Opera made _vocal concertos_ of their passages.
-
-Agujari turned her voice into a flute, and the capricious, bewitching
-Gabrielli, the pet pupil of Porpora, astonished every one by her
-wonderful _capricci_ and delicate chromatic passages.
-
-A love for the wonderful displays itself constantly in mixed audiences,
-and they are more likely to applaud that which is surprising, rather
-than that which is strictly good. This approbation is apt to dull the
-taste of the singer who will forget or neglect good old rules, when by
-outraging them, they secure applause.
-
-The taste for vocal gracing and adornment has increased to such a degree
-that it would be almost impossible to present a composition of an old
-master, or even of composers so late as Mozart, without adding to the
-adornments of the original composition. Rossini, whose vocal
-compositions in some places appear to consist only of connected phrases
-of ornaments and gracings, so completely is the melody hidden by the
-_cadenzas_, had two styles. His early style was chaste and simple; his
-greatest opera, _Tancredi_, was written in this style, and the reader,
-if familiar with Rossini’s works, has only to compare this beautiful
-opera with one of his last compositions, _Semiramide_, to see the strong
-contrast between the two styles of composition. His _L’Italiani in
-Algeri_ and _Il Turco in Italia_, operas which contain some of his most
-exquisite melodies, belong also to this simple style; but his more
-popular operas, _Il Barbiere_, _La Cenerentola_, _Otello_, _La Gazza
-Ladra_, _etc._, are in his later style, which is florid, not only in the
-vocal parts, but also in the orchestral accompaniments; indeed, he
-seemed to have attained the extreme of this florid style, but the
-composers of the present time have gone far beyond him; for instance,
-Verdi, whose compositions appear to be entirely made up of
-_rifioramenti_, and while listening with amazement to the vocal feats
-his singers perform, in executing his compositions, a good old-fashioned
-lover of music is very apt to wonder if a melody really exists under all
-these embellishments.
-
-There is an interesting account given in Stendhal’s Life of Rossini,
-relative to his adoption of the florid style in composition. In 1814 he
-went to Milan, to superintend the bringing out of his opera,
-_L’Aureliano in Palmiro_. The principal tenore, Velluti, a very handsome
-man, had a voice of great flexibility. At the first rehearsal, Velluti
-sung his part in a manner that delighted the composer; at the second
-rehearsal, the singer added some cadenzas, which Rossini applauded even
-rapturously; at the third rehearsal, the original melodies of some of
-the cavatinas seemed lost amid the luxurious profusion of vocal
-ornaments; but at the first public representation of the opera the
-singer added so many _fiorituri_, that Rossini exclaimed, “_Non conosco
-più la mia musica!_”[7]; however, Velluti’s singing was well received by
-the audience, and every vocal feat brought down thunders of applause.
-The hint was not lost on Rossini. He observed that his opera had but
-little success without Velluti, and he resolved in future to compose in
-a different style. He would no longer remain at the mercy of the singer,
-but write down in his score a sufficient number of embellishments, not
-leaving room for the addition of a single _appogiatura_ by the singer.
-
-We have digressed from the original subject, dear reader, in order to
-show that the _rifioramenti_ of a piece are mere additions, and also to
-point out to the amateur the propriety of omitting startling and
-surprising stage points, when presenting in private fine operatic
-passages, and the nice, delicate taste that would be displayed in giving
-more of the original melody, avoiding embellishments, using them only
-where they seem absolutely necessary to break up the monotony of a
-continuous strain, and render it more effective.
-
-We could give our other objection to this public singing of amateurs,
-which objection applies more particularly to lady amateurs; but we have
-chatted long enough already, and, moreover, our objection is decidedly
-too old-fashioned to be talked about in these days, “of rights of men,
-women and children;” therefore, we will suffer it to pass unmentioned,
-trusting to the force of the one already given to convince you, at least
-good reader.
-
- * * * * *
-
-OLD ’76 AND YOUNG ’48.—This is the title of a new picture by WOODVILLE,
-received from Dusseldorf for the New York Art Union, which is to be
-engraved for one of the future distributions of that association. The
-_Mirror_ describes the picture as fully justifying the high opinion
-formed of the young artist’s genius, and as placing his name in the
-front rank of our American artists. The picture represents a young
-soldier just returned from Mexico, travel-stained and wounded; he sits
-at a table relating his adventures to his grandfather, “Old ’76,” while
-his father and mother, and a group of colored servants, peeping in at
-the door, are eagerly listening to the soldier’s rehearsal of his
-battles. All the accessories of the picture are purely American, and
-help to carry out the story; the portrait of the old man, painted in all
-his rosy prime, the bust of Washington, the ornaments on the mantle, all
-are in strict keeping; but it is in the individualities of character as
-delineated in the countenances and actions of the different personages
-that the genius of the artist is displayed; the old man, leaning on his
-crutch, shaking his head with a mixed feeling of pride in his grandson’s
-achievements, and a recollection of his own acts in the times that tried
-men’s souls, is a triumph of the artist; the old fellow seems to be just
-at the point of saying “O yes, my boy, all that is very well; you fought
-bravely, no doubt, and General Taylor was a good soldier; but it’s
-nothing to old ’76, and General Taylor ain’t Washington.” It is a most
-successful effort.
-
- * * * * *
-
-MONUMENT TO PEEL.—The proposal to erect a national monument to Sir
-Robert Peel, by subscriptions limited to one penny each person, will be
-entirely successful.
-
------
-
-[7] “I don’t know my own music!”
-
- * * * * *
-
-
-
-
- REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.
-
-
- _Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy: Delivered at the Royal
- Institution, in the years 1804, 1805 and 1806: By the late Rev.
- Sidney Smith, M. A. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. 12mo._
-
-Sidney Smith appears, in this volume, as an ethical and metaphysical
-philosopher, and certainly ethics and metaphysics were never before made
-so clear and so entertaining. Sharp, shrewd, sensible, witty, humorous,
-eloquent, discriminating, the author goes on, from topic to topic,
-analyzing and laughing, condensing maxims into epigrams, embodying
-principles in sarcasms, eliciting jokes from abstractions; and after
-making his reader laugh tears into his eyes and pains into his sides,
-really leaves him in possession of more metaphysical knowledge than he
-would get from Dugald Stewart. The mind of Sidney Smith was so beautiful
-and brilliant, that men have done injustice to its depth and exactness.
-He was really an accomplished belles-lettres scholar, a close reasoner,
-a proficient in the philosophy of politics, morals and mind, as well as
-a wit and humorist; and in one of the rarest gifts of reason, justness
-and readiness in the conception of premises, he evinced equal force and
-fertility. Besides all this, he was an honest, courageous, uncanting,
-and disinterested man—loving and possessing goodness and virtue, hating
-and denouncing wickedness and vice. His goodness had not the weak
-diffusion which characterises the quality in the so-called “good
-people;” but will and intellect condensed it into lightning, and
-launched it at error and evil. It smiles sweetly, but it also smites
-sharply; and no man is more worthy of contemptuous pity than the bigot,
-dunce, libertine, professional rascal or knavish politician, who comes
-within word-shot of Sidney’s indignation.
-
-There is no part of the present book which will not delight and instruct
-the general reader; but the most original portions are those devoted to
-practical remarks on mental diseases and to acute observations on minor
-topics of the great subject. To all who know Sidney Smith’s writings it
-is needless to add, that every idea in the volume is conceived and
-stated clearly, and that the author’s ignorance in the higher regions of
-his theme never seeks refuge in obscure terms, but is boldly, and some
-times exultingly, acknowledged. Many of the great philosophers, and
-especially the idealists and skeptics, are rather fleeringly disposed
-of. Common sense is Sydney’s test; but common sense is hardly able to
-grapple with Aristotle and Descartes, the greatest of metaphysicians;
-and they are, therefore, praised for their power and ridiculed for its
-perversion. The author’s peculiar felicity in making ludicrous
-statements which operate with the force of arguments, is displayed
-throughout the volume. “Bishop Berkeley,” he says, “destroyed this world
-in one volume octavo, and nothing remained after his time but mind;
-which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Mr. Hume, in 1737.”
-Nothing could be more felicitous than this statement, considered as a
-practical argument against the systems of the idealists and skeptics.
-Again he says: “A great philosopher may sit in his study, and deny the
-existence of matter; but if he take a walk into the streets he must take
-care to leave his theory behind him. Pyrrho said there was no such thing
-as pain; and he saw no _proof_ that there were such things as carts and
-wagons; and he refused to get out of their way: but Pyrrho had,
-fortunately for him, three or four stout slaves, who followed their
-master without following his doctrine; and whenever they saw one of
-these ideal machines approaching, took him up by the arms and legs, and,
-without attempting to controvert his arguments, put him down in a place
-of safety.”
-
-The passages on Aristotle are in a similar vein of pleasantry. “Some
-writers,” he remarks, “say he was a Jew; others that he got all his
-information from a Jew, that he kept an apothecary’s shop, and was an
-Atheist; others say, on the contrary, that he did not keep an
-apothecary’s shop and that he was a Trinitarian.” Further on he adds,
-that Aristotle’s philosophy “had an exclusive monopoly granted to it by
-the Parliament of Paris, _who forbad the use of any other in France_;”
-and he goes on to compare the great Stagarite with Bacon, to the
-manifest disadvantage of the former. After speaking of the triumphs of
-the Baconian method, and the indebtedness of mankind to the vast
-understanding of its author, he proceeds to remark, that to “the
-understanding of Aristotle, equally vast, perhaps, and equally original,
-we are indebted for fifteen hundred years of quibbling and ignorance; in
-which the earth fell under the tyranny of words, and philosophers
-quarreled with one another, like drunken men in dark rooms, _who hate
-peace without knowing why they fight, or seeing how to take aim_.” Zeno,
-the founder of the sect of the Stoics, is represented as a Cyprus
-merchant, who had studied the writings of the most eminent Socratic
-philosophers, and who, in the course of his mercantile pursuits,
-“freighted a ship for Athens, with a very valuable cargo of Phœnician
-purple, which he completely lost by shipwreck, on the coast near the
-Piræus. A very acute man, who found himself in a state of sudden and
-complete poverty in Athens, would naturally enough think of turning
-philosopher, both as by its doctrines it inspired him with some
-consolation for the loss of his Phœnician purple, and by its profits
-afforded him some chance of subsistence without it.” Socrates, he says,
-was the great father and inventor of common sense, “as Ceres was of the
-plough and Bacchus of intoxication.” Two thousand years ago, he adds,
-“common sense was not invented. If Orpheus, or Linus, or any of those
-melodious moralists, sung, in bad verses, such advice as a grand-mamma
-would now give to a child of six years old, he was thought to be
-inspired by the gods, and statues and altars were erected to his memory.
-In Hesiod there is a very grave exhortation to mankind to wash their
-faces; and I have discovered a very strong analogy between the precepts
-of Pythagoras and Mrs. Trimmer—both think that a son ought to obey his
-father, and both are clear that a good man is better than a bad one.”
-
-Among the best lectures of the volume, both for sense and brilliancy,
-are those on the “Conduct of the Understanding,” the “Faculties of
-Animals and Men,” “Habit,” and “Wit and Humor.” In these Sydney Smith
-exhibits both his power of rapid analysis and his power of clearly
-perceiving the essential points of the subjects he discusses. The
-lecture on the “Faculties of Animals and Men,” is a sort of humorous
-philosophical poem in prose, the beauty of the humor being as striking
-as its laughable quality. He commences with observing that he would do
-no injustice to the poor brutes, especially as they have “no professors
-to revenge their cause by lecturing on our faculties;” and he is so
-perfectly satisfied with the superiority of men to animals, that he sees
-no reason why he should not give the latter full credit for what “few
-fragments of soul and tatters of understanding they may really possess.”
-His settled opinion is, that baboons and blue apes will never rival
-mankind in understanding or imagination, though he confesses that he has
-sometimes felt a little uneasy at Exeter ’change, “from contrasting the
-monkeys with the ’prentice boys who are teasing them;” but a few pages
-of Locke, or a few lines of Milton, always restored him to his tranquil
-belief in the superiority of man. He then proceeds to give a humorous
-statement of the various opinions held by philosophers on the physiology
-of brutes, emphasising especially the theory of Père Bougeant, a Jesuit,
-that each animal is animated by a separate and distinct devil; “that not
-only this was the case with respect to cats, which have long been known
-to be very favorite residences of familiar spirits, but that a
-particular devil swam with every turbot, grazed with every ox, soared
-with every lark, dived with every duck, and was roasted with every
-chicken.” Smith then goes on to define and illustrate instinct, with an
-analysis as fine as the humor is exquisite. Instinct he considers as an
-animal’s unconscious use of means which are subservient to an end, in
-contradistinction to reason, which is a conscious use of those means and
-a perception of their relation to the end. The examples are all stated
-in Smith’s peculiar manner. It would take, he says, “a senior wrangler
-at Cambridge ten hours a day, for three years together, to know enough
-mathematics for the calculation of these problems, with which not only
-every queen bee, but every _under-graduate grub_, is acquainted the
-moment it is born.”
-
-The general conclusion of Smith, with regard to insects and animals, is
-the common one, that their instincts and faculties all relate to this
-world, and that they have, properly speaking, no souls to be saved. But
-this position he states, illustrates and defends with more than ordinary
-metaphysical acuteness. If the discussion were not so sparklingly
-conducted, it would strike the reader as very able analysis and
-reasoning; but the mirthful fancy with which the whole is adorned,
-satisfies of itself, and seems to claim no additional praise for the
-argument it illustrates. The delicious sympathy of the humorist for all
-grades of being peeps out on every page, and no insect or animal is
-referred to without being lifted into the comic ideal. Thus he remarks
-that nature seems on some animals to have bestowed vast attention, “_and
-to have sketched out others in a moment, and turned them adrift_. The
-house-fly skims about, perches upon a window or a nose, breakfasts and
-sups with you, lays his eggs upon your white cotton stockings, runs into
-the first hole in the wall when it is cold, and perishes with as much
-unconcern as he lives.” Again, in speaking of that superiority of man
-over animals which comes from his longevity, he remarks: “I think it is
-Helvetius who says he is quite certain we only owe our superiority over
-the ourang-outangs to the greater length of life conceded to us; and
-that, if our life had been as short as theirs, they would have totally
-defeated us in the competition for nuts and ripe blackberries. I can
-hardly agree to this extravagant statement; but I think in a life of
-twenty years the efforts of the human mind would have been so
-considerably lowered, that we might probably have thought Helvetius a
-good philosopher, and admired his skeptical absurdities as some of the
-greatest efforts of the human understanding. Sir Richard Blackmore would
-have been our greatest poet, our wit would have been Dutch, our faith
-French, the Hottentots would have given us the model for manners, and
-the Turks for government.” He then adds that man’s gregarious nature is
-another cause of his superiority over all other animals. “A lion lies
-under a hole in the rock, and if any other lion happen to pass by they
-fight. Now, whoever gets a habit of lying under a hole in a rock, and
-fighting with every gentleman who passes near him, cannot possibly make
-any progress.”
-
-The lecture on “Wit and Humor” is, perhaps, the most brilliant of all;
-but, though the definitions are keenly stated and the distinctions
-nicely drawn, we suppose that even Sidney Smith, fine wit and humorist
-as he is, has not settled the matter. It appears to us that the
-difficulty consists in considering wit and humor as distinct powers,
-instead of viewing them as modifications of other powers. The mental
-peculiarities which distinguish wit and humor are qualities equally of
-fancy and imagination. The difference is emotional, not intellectual; in
-sentiment, not in faculty. A man whose sentiment and feeling of the
-ludicrous is predominant, will naturally make his intellectual powers
-serve his mirthful tendencies. If he has a lively fancy he will be a
-wit; if he has a creative imagination he will be a humorist. We should
-say, generally, that wit was fancy and understanding, directed by the
-sentiment of mirth; and that humor was imagination and understanding,
-directed by the same sentiment. It will be found, we think, in all
-ingenious and creative minds, that their peculiar direction depends
-altogether on sentiment. Sometimes imagination is exercised in a
-department of thought or action so far removed from the fine arts, that
-we can hardly recognize the power in its direction. In metaphysics, in
-mathematics, in government, war and commerce, we often come in contact
-with thinkers of vast imaginations, who still may despise poets and
-artists, and be heartily despised by them. If a change in the form and
-purpose of imagination thus appears, to many minds, to change its
-qualities, and to demand new definitions, we need not wonder at the
-popular reluctance to admit wits and humorists into the band of poets,
-though fancy and imagination be equally their characteristics.
-
-Although our notice of this delightful volume has extended beyond the
-space we can properly allow it, we take leave of its wise and witty
-pages with regret, heartily commending it to the leisure hours of every
-man who can relish vivid argument and brilliant good sense.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and Suspiria de
- Profundis. By Thomas De Quincy, Boston: Wm. D. Ticknor & Co. 1
- vol. 12mo._
-
-Thomas de Quincy has been well known during the last twenty years, not
-only as the author of “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, but as a
-prominent contributor of able, thoughtful, and eloquent articles to
-Blackwood’s Magazine, and other British periodicals. The publishers of
-the present volume intend to follow it up with others, containing the
-best of his many remarkable historical, biographical, and critical
-papers. When completed, the series will constitute a body of thought
-which no student’s library can well be without, for the author’s
-learning extends over widely separated departments of literature and
-science, and in each he has proved himself capable of throwing out those
-suggestive thoughts which take root in the reader’s mind, and bear
-fruit. A resolute, inquisitive, and reflective student, richly dowered
-with understanding and imagination, and exercising great dominion over
-the harmonies and subtilties of expression, De Quincy has been prevented
-from producing little more than colossal fragments of thought, by the
-mastery obtained over his will by opium, and the contemptuousness of
-disposition which that habit provokes for calm, orderly, systematic
-works. He is dogmatic, negatively as well as positively. It is natural
-that a man who obtains glimpses of grand truths and magnificent systems,
-through artificial stimulants, should disdain the sober realizations of
-consecutive and industrious thought, wanting all that misty magnificence
-which clothes things viewed in the waking dreams of the opium eater. But
-egotist and dogmatist as he is, he is still a resolute thinker, whose
-mind, busy with all the problems of society and philosophy, is
-continually startling us with novel thoughts and splendid rhetoric.
-
-In the first part of the “Confessions” there is one passage, describing
-a dream inspired by opium, which we cannot resist the temptation to
-extract, as it is one of the sublimest in English prose. “The dream,” he
-says, “commenced with a music which now I often heard in dreams—a music
-of preparation and awakening suspense; a music like the opening of the
-Coronation Anthem, and which, like _that_, gave the feeling of a vast
-march, of infinite cavalcades filing off, and the tread of innumerable
-armies. The morning was come of a mighty day—a day of crisis and of
-final hope for human nature, then suffering some mysterious eclipse, and
-laboring in some dread extremity. Somewhere, I knew not where—somehow,
-I knew not how—by some beings, I knew not whom—a battle, a strife, an
-agony, was conducting—was evolved, like a great drama, or piece of
-music; with which my sympathy was the more insupportable from my
-confusion as to its place, its cause, its nature, and its possible
-issue. I, as is usual in dreams, (where we make ourselves central to
-every movement,) had the power, and yet had not the power, to decide it.
-I had the power, if I could raise myself, to will it; and yet again had
-not the power, for the weight of twenty Atlantics was upon me, or the
-oppression of inexpiable guilt. ‘Deeper than ever plummet sounded,’ I
-lay inactive. Then, like a chorus, the passion deepened. Some greater
-interest was at stake; some mightier cause than ever yet the sword had
-pleaded, or trumpet had proclaimed. Then came sudden alarms; hurryings
-to and fro; trepidations of innumerable fugitives. I knew not whether
-from the good cause or the bad, darkness and light, tempest and human
-faces, and at last with the sense that all was lost, female forms, and
-the features that were worth all the world to me, and but a moment
-allowed—and clasped hands, and heart-breaking partings, and
-then—everlasting farewells! and, with a sigh such as the caves of hell
-sighed when the incestuous mother uttered the abhorred name of death,
-the sound was reverberated—everlasting farewells! and again, and yet
-again reverberated—everlasting farewells!”
-
-“Suspiria de Profundis,” the conclusion of the Confessions, occupies
-about as much space as the original work, and has now, for the first
-time, been connected with it in the same volume. The style of the
-conclusion is even more majestic, visionary and resounding than the
-first portion, and is full of thrilling pictures and Macbeth “sights.”
-We hope that this volume will meet with a success so marked, as to
-induce the publishers to issue the remaining volumes of De Quincey’s
-miscellanies in rapid succession.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell, Edited by William Beattie;
- M. D., one of his Executors, New York: Harper & Brothers, 2
- vols. 12mo._
-
-Dr. Beattie’s work cannot take a high place in biographical literature,
-as far as it is to be judged by his own power of thinking and writing.
-He has, properly speaking, no conception of Campbell’s character; and
-the passage from one of his statements to the letter or anecdote which
-he adduces in its support, will indicate this to the least reflecting
-reader. Were it not for the richness of his materials his work would not
-be worth reprinting; but it has great value and interest from the number
-and variety of the private letters it contains. Campbell’s
-correspondence, though it evinces much nervous weakness of mind and a
-sensitiveness of vanity easily elated or depressed, has a peculiar
-raciness which wins and rewards attention; and, in addition to its own
-excellent qualities of wit and fancy, which delight of themselves, it
-furnishes much information relating to the literary men of the last
-fifty years.
-
-Mr. Irving has written a very pleasing introduction to these volumes,
-characteristic equally of his delicacy, his good nature and his
-discrimination, and embodying several new anecdotes of Campbell. He says
-that Beattie’s life “lays open the springs of all his actions and the
-causes of all his contrariety of conduct. We now see the real
-difficulties he had to contend with in the earlier part of his literary
-career; the worldly cares which pulled his spirit to the earth whenever
-it would wing its way to the skies; the domestic affections, tugging at
-his heart-strings even in his hours of genial intercourse, and
-_converting his very smiles into spasms_; the anxious days and sleepless
-nights preying upon his delicate organization, producing that morbid
-sensibility and nervous irritability which at times overlaid the real
-sweetness and amenity of his nature, and obscured the unbounded
-generosity of his heart.” This praise, of course, must be considered due
-to the “Letters” rather than the “Life” of Campbell.
-
-Lord Jeffrey, in a letter to Campbell, on the subject of “Gertrude of
-Wyoming,” very felicitously indicates the prominent faults of that
-exquisite poem, and of Campbell’s general artistic method. “The most
-dangerous faults,” he says, “are your faults of diction. There is a good
-deal of obscurity in many passages—in others a strained and unnatural
-expression—an appearance of labor and hardness; you have hammered the
-metal in some places till it had lost all its ductility. These are not
-great faults, but they are blemishes; and as dunces will find them
-out—noodles will see them when they are pointed to. I wish you had
-courage to correct, or rather to avoid them, for with you they are
-faults of over-finishing, and not of negligence. I have another fault to
-charge you with in private—for which I am more angry with you than for
-all the rest. Your timidity, or fastidiousness, or some other knavish
-quality, will not let you give your conceptions glowing, and bold, and
-powerful, as they present themselves, but you must chasten, and refine,
-and soften them, forsooth, till half their nature and grandeur is
-chiseled away from them.”
-
-An interesting feature in this biography is the number of poems it
-contains not included in any edition of Campbell’s works, and the
-original drafts it gives of many of Campbell’s well-known productions.
-The “Battle of the Baltic” originally contained twenty-seven stanzas,
-and in that shape was enclosed in a letter to Scott. We extract a
-specimen of the omitted verses:
-
- Not such a mind possessed
- England’s tar;
- ’Twas the love of nobler game
- Set his oaken heart on flame,
- For to him ’twas all the same,
- Sport or war.
-
- All hands and eyes on watch
- As they keep;
- By their motion light as wings,
- By each step that haughty springs,
- You might know them for the kings
- Of the deep!
-
- ’Twas the Edgar first that smote
- Denmark’s line;
- As her flag the foremost soared,
- Murray stamped his foot on board,
- And a hundred cannons roared
- At the sign!
-
-This Life of Campbell, and the Life of Southey, now in course of
-publication by the same house, are the best literary biographies we have
-had since The Life of Mackintosh, edited by his Son. We wish the Harpers
-would reprint the latter, as there has been no complete American edition
-of it ever published. It contains more matter than any similar work
-since Moore’s Life of Byron.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The National Cook Book. By a Lady of Philadelphia, a Practical
- Housewife. Philada.: Robert E. Peterson. 1 vol. 12 mo._
-
-This is, on all sides, admitted to be the very best of the many cook
-books that have been issued by the press of late years. The editor, be
-she whom she may, understands the art of preparing a delicious meal, of
-any material, it seems, and our taste has passed favorable judgment upon
-a fruit cake of most inviting look, and of quality the best. A lady, in
-whose judgment we have the most unbounded confidence, pronounces this
-“the only cook book worthy of a housekeeper’s perusal.”
-
-Next to the intellectual feast, which is spread before the reader of
-Graham each month, we suppose, will come a snug breakfast, a glorious
-good dinner, or a cozy, palate-inviting supper of birds, with mushrooms.
-Now, without Peterson’s Cook Book, the meal cannot be perfection. Of
-this we feel convinced.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Gallery of Illustrious American Daguerreotypes by Brady.
- Engraved by D’Avignon. Edited by C. Edwards Lester, assisted by
- an Association of Literary men. 205 Broadway, New York._
-
-We have received the sixth number of this truly national work—the first
-and second we have before this noticed. The third, fourth and fifth
-numbers the publishers have omitted to send us. As we have before
-stated, this is a publication of great merit, and cannot fail to attract
-a liberal encouragement both in this country and abroad. The portraits
-are executed with wonderful fidelity, and are the best specimens of the
-lithographic art we have ever seen. Mr. Brady deserves much praise for
-his exact and skillful daguerreotypes, from which D’Avignon has produced
-these masterly “counterfeit presentments” of our great national
-characters. The selection from our living worthies have been well made.
-The publishers have not confined themselves to the faces of our elder
-public men long familiar in the print shops, but they have well chosen
-alike from the old and the young—those who have been long famous by
-past services, and those whose genius and precocious merit have excited
-a keen interest and a just pride in the heart of every American. This
-number is adorned by a life-like portrait of Col. Fremont; and the
-editor, Mr. Lester, has in this, as he has in those numbers which have
-preceded it, and which have been sent to us, given a brief and pointed
-sketch of the marvelous youth whose adventures in the camp of science
-outstrips the wildest tales of romantic daring. A work like this must
-prosper.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The History of the Confessional. By John Henry Hopkins, D. D.,
- Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1
- vol. 12mo._
-
-Dr. Hopkins is already well known as an Episcopalian writer of much
-merit and erudition, and the present work will add considerably to his
-reputation. It is acute, learned, and clear, going patiently over the
-whole historical ground of the dispute between the Church of England and
-the Church of Rome, and singularly candid and dispassionate in its tone
-and in its substance. We rarely see, in a controversialist, such decided
-opinions, in connection with so much intellectual conscientiousness.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _Doctor Johnson; His Religious Life and his Death. New York:
- Harper & Brothers. 1 vol. 12mo._
-
-This volume is evidently the production of some individual whose
-ambition to write a book was far greater than his ability to write a
-good one; the result is a compilation from Boswell’s Life of Johnson,
-made up from its most valueless and uninteresting portions, without the
-addition of any thing of importance by the compiler. Dr. Johnson, in his
-own time, had no power of communicating any of his own intellectual or
-moral life to his mental sycophants; and, judging from the present
-volume, we should suppose that this power was still wanting in his
-writings.
-
- * * * * *
-
- _The Pillars of Hercules; or a Narrative of Travels in Spain and
- Morocco, in 1848. By David Urquhart, Esq., M. P. New York:
- Harper & Brothers. 2 vols. 12mo._
-
-Of all the volumes of travels lately issued, this appears to us the most
-independent and intelligent. The author gives a new view of the social
-condition of Spain, and states some facts and opinions calculated to
-make us re-examine the notions commonly held of Spanish affairs. He is
-an acute observer of men, a scholar, a politician versed in the
-practical details of legislation and government, and a man who sees,
-feels, and thinks for himself. To those who have read Barrow and Ford
-the work will have great attractions.
-
- * * * * *
-
-EDGAR A. POE.—We have on hand several articles, from leading writers of
-the country, upon the life and character of Edgar A. Poe, which we will
-find room for in the December number, in which we shall give an extra
-form, for the purpose of putting before the country these generous
-tributes to the dead poet and critic. The causticity of several of them
-will not be particularly relished by his immaculate defamers, who busy
-themselves in raking up his ashes to expose his defects to the gaze of
-the world.
-
- * * * * *
-
-A DESERVED HONOR.—We see that at the late commencement of the Miami
-University, Ohio, the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon Professor John
-S. Hart, of the Philadelphia High School. It is a compliment very
-properly bestowed, and from an Institution which renders the honor of
-value.
-
- * * * * *
-
-THE LAST CHANCE.—We desire to impress upon the attention of the
-subscribers to “Graham,” that if they desire our elegant Premium Plates,
-they should now remit either $3 for one year, or $5 for two years, or
-for two copies one year. In either case we furnish each subscriber _thus
-sent_, “_Christ Blessing Little Children_,” and “_The First
-Prayer_”—two beautiful engravings of large size.
-
-_After the first of November_, the plate will be disposed of, and no
-premiums will thereafter be sent from this office.
-
- * * * * *
-
-OUR PARIS FASHIONS.—Every mail brings us congratulations upon the
-superior finish and beauty of our Paris Fashion Plates. Our friends have
-opened their eyes to the fact, that “Graham” is the only magazine in
-America that incurs the expense of _original_ designs. All others are
-copies of the French plates, poorly done, and insufferably old. We
-should not mention the matter, but that efforts are made to deceive the
-magazine public by silly and unfounded boasting. The expense, which is
-several hundred dollars _extra_ each month, we cheerfully incur for the
-liberal subscribers to this magazine, whose cultivated taste would soon
-detect the bold impositions practiced upon others.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration:
-
-LE FOLLET Paris, boul^{t}. S^{t}. Martin, 69.
-Chapeaux M^{lle}. Grafeton, r. de la Paix, 24—Fleurs de Chagot ainé, r.
- Richelieu, 73.
-Pardessus de la mais^{n}. S^{t}. Arnaud–Dentelles de Violard, r. Choiseul,
- 4.
-The styles of Goods here represented can be had of Mess^{rs}. L. J. Levy &
- C^{o}. Philadelphia
-and at Stewart’s, New-York.
-Graham’s Magazine, 134 Chestnut Street.]
-
- * * * * *
-
-Transcriber’s Notes:
-
-Archaic spellings and hyphenation have been retained as well as some
-spellings peculiar to Graham’s. Punctuation has been corrected without
-note. Other errors have been corrected as noted below. For
-illustrations, some caption text may be missing or incomplete due to
-condition of the originals used for preparation of the ebook.
-
-page 202, and geologial descriptions ==> and geological descriptions
-page 203, amidst the minosas ==> amidst the mimosas
-page 204, when a bark ascending ==> when a barque ascending
-page 212, conquest of of Shivas ==> conquest of Shivas
-page 215, His bark stranding ==> His barque stranding
-page 216, safe and and sound ==> safe and sound
-page 225, there are Bachinalian ==> there are Bacchanalian
-page 225, genii and faries ==> genii and fairies
-page 226, within many degress ==> within many degrees
-page 228, among the lowley ==> among the lowly
-page 228, The hundreth psalm ==> The hundredth psalm
-page 229, shame to doggrel ==> shame to doggerel
-page 230, an argent bark ==> an argent barque
-page 231, what commisseration he ==> what commiseration he
-page 234, And now its ==> And now it’s
-page 236, added: [_To be continued._
-page 239, laughed and teazed ==> laughed and teased
-page 241, its splendid to be ==> it’s splendid to be
-page 241, Blanch Forrester went ==> Blanche Forrester went
-page 241, delicious _Scottische_ ==> delicious _Schottische_
-page 250, vaticanam Bodleianamgue ==> vaticanam Bodleianamque
-page 250, Onicus est nobis ==> Unicus est nobis
-page 253, As ambegris leaves ==> As ambergris leaves
-page 258, fowl have the the power ==> fowl have the power
-page 260, Pasiello, and other ==> Paisiello, and other
-page 260, OLD ’76 AND YOUNG ’47. ==> OLD ’76 AND YOUNG ’48.
-page 261, near the Piraus ==> near the Piræus
-page 263, delight of themselvs ==> delight of themselves
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4,
-October 1850, by Various
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1850 ***
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-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4,
-October 1850, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4, October 1850
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: George Rex Graham
-
-Release Date: January 20, 2017 [EBook #54031]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1850 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Mardi Desjardins & the online Distributed
-Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net from
-page images generously made available by Google Books and
-the Los Angeles Public Library Visual Collections
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0000' style='width:375px;height:auto;'/>
-</div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.9em;font-weight:bold;'>GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'><span class='sc'>Vol. XXXVII.</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;October, 1850. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class='sc'>No. 4.</span></p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:1.3em;font-weight:bold;'>Table of Contents</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:1.1em;font-weight:bold;'>Fiction, Literature and Articles</p>
-
-<table id='tab1' summary='' class='center'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 25em;'/>
-<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#slave'>The Slave of the Pacha</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#music'>Music</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#pedro'>Pedro de Padilh</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#edda'>Edda Murray</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#thom'>Thomas Johnson</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#early'>Early English Poets—George Herbert</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#teal'>Teal and Teal Shooting</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#fine'>The Fine Arts</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab1c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#review'>Review of New Books</a></td><td class='tab1c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:1.1em;font-weight:bold;'>Poetry, Music and Fashion</p>
-
-<table id='tab2' summary='' class='center'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 25em;'/>
-<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#night'>A Night at The Black Sign</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#chris'>Sonnets: Suggested by Passages in the Life of Christopher Columbus</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#bunch'>To a Friend—with a Bunch of Roses</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#lily'>Spring Lilies</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#earth'>The Earth</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#alone'>Alone—Alone!</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#name'>The Name of Wife</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#olive'>Sonnet.—The Olive.</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#sinno'>Sin No More</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#words'>Wordsworth</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#shirl'>Inspiration. To Shirley.</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#sonne'>Sonnets, On Pictures in the Huntington Gallery</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#minna'>Thinking of Minna</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#maid'>The Maiden’s Lament for Her Shipwrecked Lover</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#years'>The Years of Love</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#cold'>Ah, Do Not Speak So Coldly</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab2c1 tdStyle0'><a href='#foll'>Le Follet</a></td><td class='tab2c2 tdStyle1'></td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'><a href='#notes'>Transcriber’s Notes</a> can be found at the end of this eBook.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk100'/>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<a href='images/i001f.jpg'><img src='images/i001.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0001' style='width:450px;height:auto;'/></a>
-<p class='caption'><span class='bold'>THE SLAVE OF THE PACHA.</span><br/> <br/>Painted by W. Brown and Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine by J. Brown</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk101'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;font-size:1.9em;font-weight:bold;'>GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk102'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:1.2em;font-weight:bold;'><span class='sc'>Vol.</span> XXXVII. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER, 1850. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class='sc'>No.</span> 4.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk103'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='201' id='Page_201'></span><h1 class='nobreak'><a id='slave'></a>THE SLAVE OF THE PACHA.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-weight:bold;'>A TALE OF ASIA MINOR.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>FROM THE FRENCH OF SAINTINE.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I was botanizing lately in the woods of Luciennes,
-with one of my friends, a distinguished Orientalist
-and renowned botanist, who had, a few years since,
-traveled six thousand miles, and risked his life twenty
-times, in order to obtain a handful of plants from the
-slopes of the Taurus or the plains of Asia Minor. After
-we had wandered for some time through the woods,
-gathering here and there some dry grass and orchis,
-merely to renew an acquaintance with them, we
-lounged toward the handsome village of Gressets
-and the delightful valley of Beauregard, directing our
-steps toward a breakfast, which we hoped to find
-a little further on, when, beneath an alley of lofty
-poplars, on the left of the meadows of the Butard,
-we saw two persons, a man and a woman, both
-young, approaching us.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>My companion made a gesture of surprise at the
-sight of them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Do you know those persons?” I asked.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Of what class, genus and species are they?” I
-used the words merely in their botanical sense.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Analyze, observe and divine,” replied my illustrious
-traveler.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I determined then on applying to my individuals,
-not the system of Linnæus, but that of Jussien, that
-of affinities and analogies. The latter appeared to
-me to be more suitable and easier than the former.
-The young man was dressed in a very simple and
-even negligent style, wearing those high heeled shoes,
-three-quarter boots, which have succeeded the half
-boots, (boots, since the introduction of comfort among
-us, having steadily lessened,) and had not even straps
-to his pantaloons. A pearl colored sack, colored
-shirt, and traveling cap with a large visor, completed
-his costume.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Near him walked a young woman, of the middle
-height and finely formed, but with such an air of indolence
-in her movements, flexibility of the body, and
-jogging of the haunches, as proclaimed a southern
-origin or a want of distinction. They advanced
-with their heads down, speaking without looking up,
-and walking side by side without taking arms, but
-from time to time one leant on the shoulder of the
-other, with a movement full of affection.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was not until we crossed them that I could see
-their figures; until then I had been able to study only
-their costume and general outline.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The young man blushed on recognizing my companion,
-and saluted him with a very humble air; I
-had scarcely time, however, to catch a single pathognomic
-line of his face. The female was very
-handsome; the elegance of her neck, the regularity
-of her features, gave her a certain air of distinction,
-contradicted, however, by something provoking in
-her appearance.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When they had passed on some distance, my
-friend said to me:</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, what judgment do you pass on our two
-persons?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well,” replied I, positively, “the young man is
-your confectioner, who is about to marry his head
-shop-girl;” but reading a sign of negation on the
-countenance of my interrogator—“or a successful
-merchant’s clerk, with a countess without prejudices.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You are wrong.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I asked for a moment’s reflection, and, to render
-my work of observation perfect, I looked after them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They had reached, near the place where we were,
-the side of a spring, called, in the country, the
-“Priest’s Fountain.” The young female had already
-seated herself upon the grass, and drawing forth a
-napkin spread it near her, whilst the young man
-drew a paté and some other provisions carefully
-from his basket.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Certainly,” I said to myself, “there are, evidently,
-in the face of this beautiful person, traits both
-<span class='pageno' title='202' id='Page_202'></span>
-of the great lady and the grisette; but, on thinking
-of her rolling fashion of walking, and especially
-judging of her by the appearance of her companion,
-then stooping to uncork a bottle, and whose unstrapped
-pantaloons, riding half way up his leg, revealed
-his quarter boots, the grisette type prevailed
-in my opinion.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The lady,” I replied, but with less assurance
-than at first, “is a figurante at one of our theatres, or
-a female equestrian at the Olympic circus.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“There is some truth in what you say.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“He is a lemonade seller.” I judged so from the
-practiced facility with which he appeared to open
-the bottle.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You are farther from the mark than ever,” said
-my companion.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, then, let us talk about something else.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Once at the Butard we thought no more of our
-two Parisian cockneys. Whilst they were preparing
-our breakfast, and even whilst we were breakfasting,
-my friend naturally recommenced speaking of his
-travels in the Taurus and Anti-Taurus, in the Balkan,
-the Caucasus, on the banks of the Euphrates,
-and then, to give me a respite from all his botanical
-and <a id='geo'></a>geological descriptions, he related to me, piece
-by piece, without appearing to attach the least importance
-to them, a story, which interested me very
-much. He had collected the details of it (the
-scene of which was laid not far from the shores of
-the Black Sea, between Erzerum and Constantinople)
-from the lips of one of the principal actors
-in it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I endeavored to reduce it to writing when with
-him, not in the same order, or disorder, as to events,
-but at least so far as regards their exactness, and
-availing myself of the knowledge of persons and
-places acquired by my traveler.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER I.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Toward the middle of the month of July, in the
-year 1841, in the pachalick of Shivas, in the vast
-gardens situated near the Red River, a young girl,
-dressed in the Turkish costume, was walking slowly,
-with her head bent down, followed by an old negress.
-At times she turned her head rapidly, and
-when her eyes, through the massive maples and
-sycamores, rested on the angle of a large building,
-with gilded lattices and balconies of finely carved
-cedar, her complexion, usually pale, became suddenly
-suffused, her small foot contracted against the
-ground, her breast heaved, and she restrained with
-difficulty the sigh that endeavored to escape.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Silent and pre-occupied she stopped, and with her
-finger designated a plantain tree to the negress. The
-latter immediately entered an elegant kiosk, a few
-paces distant, and returned, bearing the skin of a
-tiger, which she placed at the foot of the tree. After
-the old negress had passed and repassed several
-times from the skin to the kiosk, and from the kiosk
-to the skin, the young girl seated herself, cross-legged,
-on the latter, leaning against the plantain tree, on a
-cushion of black velvet, holding carelessly in her
-left hand an ornamented pipe, with a tube of Persian
-cherry, and in her right, in a small stand of filagreed
-gold, shaped like an egg-cup, a slight porcelain cup,
-which the old slave replenished from time to time
-with the fragrant Mocha.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla was seventeen years old; her black and
-lustrous hair, parted over her temples, resembled the
-raven’s wing; her eye-brows thin, and forming a
-perfect arch, though of the same color as her hair,
-were, as well as her long eye-lashes and the edge of
-the lids, covered with a preparation of antimony,
-called <span class='it'>sourmah</span>. Still other colors had been employed
-to heighten the lustre of her beauty; the carnation
-of her lips had disappeared beneath a light
-touch of indigo; and, by way of contrary effect, beneath
-her eyes, where the fine net work of her veins
-naturally produced a light blue tint, the purple of the
-henna shone out. The henna, a kind of vegetable
-carmine, much used in the east, also blushed upon
-the nails of her hands and feet, and even upon her
-heels, which peeped out, naked, from her small,
-beautiful sandals, embroidered with gold and pearls.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Though thus tattooed, in the Asiatic fashion, Baïla
-was none the less beautiful. Her costume consisted
-simply of a velvet caftan, muslin pantaloons, embroidered
-with silver, and a cashmere girdle; but
-all the knicknackeries of Oriental luxuriousness were
-displayed in her toilet. The double row of sequins
-which swung on her head, the large golden bracelets
-which covered her arms and graced her ankles, the
-chains, the precious stones which shone on her
-hands and her corsage, and which shook on the extremities
-of her long flowing hair and glittered on
-her very pipe stem, graced in a singular manner her
-youthful charms.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The better to understand what kind of astonished
-admiration her appearance might at this time produce,
-we should add that of the old black slave, who,
-from her age as well as color, her short, thick figure,
-her dull and heavy look, formed so striking a contrast
-with the fresh beauty of Baïla, her fine and
-supple figure and her glance, still lively and penetrating,
-notwithstanding the deep thought which
-then half veiled it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The better to lighten up this picture we must suspend
-over the heads of these two females, so dissimilar,
-the beautiful blue sky of Asia, and describe
-some incidents of the land, some singularities of the
-local vegetation which surrounded them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Some paces in advance of the plantain against
-which Baïla was reclining, was a small circular
-basin of Cipolin marble, from which sprang a jet, in
-the form of a sheaf, causing a delicious freshness to
-reign around. A little farther on were two palm
-trees, which, springing up on either hand and mingling
-their tops, presented the appearance of two
-columns, forming an arcade of verdure. But before
-this entrance, judging from appearances, the shadow
-even of a man should never appear. Baïla belonged
-to a jealous master; her beauty, heightened by so
-much art and coquetry, was to grow, blossom and
-flower for him alone.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>From the foot of the palm trees parted a double
-hedge of purple beeches, of silvery willows, of nopals
-<span class='pageno' title='203' id='Page_203'></span>
-of strange forms with saffron tints, and of various
-shrubs with their many colored flowers and
-fruits. The dog-shades, with their stars of violet
-colored velvet, the night-shades, with their scarlet
-clusters involved amidst the <a id='mim'></a>mimosas, out of which
-sprang the golden features of the cassia. Mingling
-their branches with the lower branches of the plantain,
-the mangroves hung like garlands above the
-head of Baïla, their large leaves hollowed into cups,
-and so strangely bordered with flowers and fruits of
-orange color mixed with crimson.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Farther back, behind the plantain, on a reddish,
-sandy spot, grew large numbers of the ice plant, presenting
-to the deceived vision the appearance of
-plants caught by the frost during the winter in our
-northern climes, and the glass work covered the
-ground with crystalized plates.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The picture was soon to become animated.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The magnificent eastern sun, sinking toward the
-horizon and throwing his last flames beneath the
-verdant pediment of the palm trees, caused the earth
-to sparkle as if covered with diamonds. His rays,
-broken by the glittering sheaf in the basin, spread
-across those masses of flower and foliage, rainbows,
-superb in golden and violet tints; they flashed from
-the plantain to the variegated cups of the mangrove,
-and lighted up the whole form of Baïla, from her
-brow, crowned with sequins, to her spangled slippers;
-they even mingled with the smoke of her narghila,
-and with the vapor of the Mocha, which
-arose like a perfume from the porcelain cup, and
-glistening on the skin of the tiger on which she was
-seated, appeared to roll about in small vague circles.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When the night breeze, rising, gently agitated the
-flowers and the herbage, mingling in soft harmony
-all those zones of light and shade, was it not a subject
-of regret that a human eye could not gaze upon
-the beautiful odalisk, in the midst of those magical
-illusions, shining in the triple splendor of her jewels,
-her youth, and her beauty?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And, yet, a man was to enjoy this bewitching
-scene, and that man not her master.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mariam, the old negress, was asleep at the foot of
-the tree, holding in her hands the small mortar in
-which she had bruised the coffee to supply the demands
-of her mistress. Baïla, half dozing, was
-holding out, mechanically, toward her the china
-cup, when a man suddenly appeared between the
-two palm trees.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At the sight of him the odalisk at first thought she
-was dreaming; then, restrained by a feeling, perhaps
-of alarm, perhaps of curiosity, remained quiet,
-immovable, without speaking—only the cup which
-she held fell from her hands.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The stranger, who was a young Frank, having
-first made a motion as of flight, became emboldened
-and approached her, with a heightened color and
-trembling lips, arising from a too lively emotion or
-from an excess of prudence on account of the negress.
-He merely inquired from Baïla the way to
-the city.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He expressed himself very well in Turkish; she
-did not appear, however, to understand him. What!
-a stranger, eluding the vigilance of guards, had crossed
-the double circuit of the gardens which enclosed her—had
-braved death—merely to ask his way!</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Restored to a feeling of her situation, she rose,
-with an offended air, drew from her girdle a
-small dagger, ornamented with diamonds—a plaything,
-rather than offensive or defensive arms—and
-made an imperious sign to him to retire.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The young man recoiled before the beautiful
-slave, with an appearance of contriteness and embarrassment,
-but without ceasing to regard her earnestly.
-He appeared to be unable to remove his
-eyes from the picture which had riveted his attention;
-still, however, undecided and muttering confused
-words, he was crossing the porch of the palm
-trees, when the negress suddenly awoke.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At the sight of the shadow of a man, which reached
-into the enclosure, she sprang up, uttering a cry of
-alarm.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What are you doing?” said Baïla, placing herself
-before her, doubtless from a feeling of pity toward
-the imprudent youth.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But that shadow—do you not see it? It is that
-of a man!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Of a bostangy! Who else would have dared to
-enter here?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But the bostangis should be more careful. Has
-not our master prohibited them from entering the
-gardens when we are here—when you are here?
-A man has entered, I tell you; I saw his shadow.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Of what shadow are you speaking? Stop—look!”
-and Baïla stopped before the negress.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I saw it,” repeated the negress.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The shadow of a tree—yes, that is possible.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Trees do not run, and it appeared to run.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You have been dreaming, my good Mariam,” and
-Baïla maintained so well that no one had been
-there, that she had seen nothing, but in a dream,
-that Mariam submissively feigned to believe her,
-and both prepared to return to the house.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They were half way there when, on turning an
-alley, the negress uttered a new cry, pointing to an
-individual who was escaping at full speed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Am I dreaming this time?” she said, and she
-was about to call for assistance, when the odalisk,
-placing her hand on her mouth, ordered her to keep
-silence. Mariam, who was devoted to her mistress,
-obeyed her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Having returned to her apartment, Baïla reflected
-on her adventure. Adventures are rare in a harem
-life. She was intriguing there desperately, and
-would have been disquieted had she not had other
-cares. These, in their turn, occupied her thoughts.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In thinking of them she became fretful, angry;
-she crushed the rich stuffs which lay beside her.
-She even wept, but rather from passion than grief.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Since the preceding evening Baïla was doubtful of
-her beauty; since then she cursed the existence
-to which she had been condemned, and regretted the
-days of her early youth. To remove from her mind
-the incessant idea which tormented her, she essayed
-to remount to the past. She found there, if not consolation,
-at least distraction.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='pageno' title='204' id='Page_204'></span>
-The past of a young girl of seventeen is frequently
-but the paradise of memory—a radiant Eden, peopled
-with remembrances of her family, and sometimes
-of a first love. It was not so with Baïla;
-her family were indifferent to her, and her first love
-had been imposed upon her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She was born in Mingrelia, of a drunken father
-and an avaricious mother. They, finding her face
-handsome and her body well proportioned, had destined
-her, almost from the cradle, for the pleasures
-of the Sultan. Her education had been suitable for
-her destined state. She was taught to dance and
-sing, and to accompany herself in recitative; nothing
-more had ever been thought of.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Although her parents professed externally one of
-the forms of the Christian religion, had they sought
-to develop the slightest religious instinct in her?
-What was the use of it? The morality of Christ
-could but give her false ideas and be entirely useless
-to her in the brilliant career which was to open before
-her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But if the beautiful child only awakened toward
-herself feelings of speculation, if she was, in the eyes
-of her parents, but a piece of precious merchandise,
-she, at least, profited in advance by the privileges it
-conferred upon her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Whilst her brothers were unceasingly occupied
-with the culture of their vineyard, with the gathering
-of grapes and honey—whilst her sister, as beautiful
-as herself, but slightly lame, was condemned to
-assist her mother in household cares, Baïla led a
-life of indolence. Could they allow her white and
-delicate hands to come in contact with dirty furnaces,
-or her well-turned nails to be bruised against
-the heavy earthen ware, or her handsome feet to be
-deformed by the stones in the roads? No—it would
-have been at the risk of injuring her, and of deteriorating
-from her value.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Thus, under the paternal roof, where all the rest
-were struggling and laboring, she alone, extended in
-the shade, having no other occupation than singing
-and dancing, passed her life in indolence, or in regarding
-with artless admiration the increase and
-development of her beauty, the wealth of her family.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The common table was covered with coarse food
-for the rest; for her, and her alone, are reserved the
-most delicate products of fishing and hunting. Her
-brothers collected carefully for her those delicate
-bulbs, which, reduced to flour, make that marvelous
-<span class='it'>salep</span>, at once an internal cosmetic and a nutritive
-substance, which the women of the East use to aid
-them in the development of their figures, and to give
-to their skin a coloring of rosy white.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>If they were going to any place, Baïla traveled on
-the back of a mule, in a dress of silk, whilst the rest
-of the family, clothed in coarse wool or serge, escorted
-her on foot, watching over her with constant
-solicitude. Truly, a stranger meeting them by the
-way, and witnessing all these cares and demonstrations,
-would have taken her for an idolized daughter,
-guarded against destiny by the most tender affections.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>If her father, however, approached her, it was to
-pinch her nose, the nostrils of which were a little
-too wide; and her mother, as an habitual caress,
-contented herself with pulling her eyebrows near the
-temples, so as to give the almond form to her eyes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Sometimes the husband, seized suddenly with enthusiasm
-on seeing Baïla exhibit her grace when
-dancing by starlight, would say in a low voice to
-his wife—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“By Saint Demetrius, I believe the child will
-some day bring us enough to furnish a cellar with
-rack and tafita enough to last forever;” and a laugh
-of happiness would light up his dull face.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If we should be so unfortunate as to lose her before
-her time, it will be ten thousand good piastres
-of which the Good God will rob us,” replied his
-worthy companion; and she shed a tear of alarm.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla was thirteen years old, when a <a id='bark3'></a>barque ascending
-the Incour, stopped at a short distance from the
-hut of the Mingrelian. A man wearing a turban
-descended from it. He was a purveyor for the
-harem, then on an expedition.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Do you sell honey?” he said to the master of the
-hut, whom he found at the door.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I gather white and red.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Can I taste it?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The honest Mingrelian brought him a sample of
-both kinds.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I would see another kind,” said the man with a
-turban, with a significant glance.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Enter then,” replied the father of Baïla, and
-whilst the stranger was passing the threshold, hastening
-to the room occupied by his wife, he said to
-her—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Be quick; the nuptials of thy daughter are preparing;
-the merchant is here; he is below; arrange
-her and come down with her.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At the sight of Baïla, the merchant could not restrain
-an exclamation of admiration; then almost
-immediately, with a commercial manœuvre he
-threw up her head, preparing to examine her with
-more attention.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>During this inspection the young girl blushed
-deeply; the father and mother seeking to read the
-secret thoughts of the merchant in his eyes and face,
-kept a profound silence, beseeching lowly their
-patron saint for success in the matter.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The man in the turban changing his course, and
-as if he had come merely to lay in a supply of honey,
-took up one of the two samples deposited on a
-table, and taking up some with his finger tasted it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“This honey is white and handsome enough, but
-it wants flavor. How much is the big measure?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Twelve thousand,” the mother hastened to reply.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Twelve thousand paras?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Twelve thousand piastres.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The merchant shrugged his shoulders—“You
-will keep it for your own use then, my good woman.”
-He then went toward the door.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The woman made a sign to her husband not to
-stop him. In fact, as she had foreseen, he stopped
-before reaching the door, and turning toward the
-master of the house said—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Brother in God, I have rested beneath your roof.
-<span class='pageno' title='205' id='Page_205'></span>
-In return for your hospitality, I give you some good
-advice. You have children?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Two daughters.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, have an eye to them, for the Lesghis have
-recently descended from their mountains and carried
-off large numbers in Guriel and Georgia.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Let them come,” replied the Mingrelian, “I
-have three sons and four guns.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The merchant then made a movement of departure,
-but having cast a rapid glance on Baïla, he raised
-his right hand with his five fingers extended.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla, red with shame, cast on him a look of contempt
-and took the attitude of an insulted queen.
-Thanks to that look and attitude, in which he doubtless
-found some flavor, the merchant raised a finger
-of his left hand.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Mingrelian showed his ten fingers, not however
-without an angry glance from his wife, who
-muttered, “it is too soon.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Honey is dear in your district,” said the man
-with the turban; “I foresee I shall have to buy it
-from the Lesghis against my will. Farewell, and
-may Allah keep you.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Can we not on the one hand sell any thing, nor
-on the other buy any thing without your turning
-your back so quickly on us on that account?” replied
-the father. “Repose still, the oar has doubtless
-wearied your hands.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“That is why they are so difficult to open,”
-growled the housewife.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Since you permit it,” said the merchant, “I will
-remain here until the sun has lost a little of its
-power.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I cannot offer you any thing but the shade. I
-know that the children of the prophet avoid food beneath
-the roof of a Christian; but instead of that you
-can indulge in a permitted pleasure; as my daughter
-is still here, she can sing for you.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla sang, accompanying herself with an instrument.
-The man with the turban, seated on his
-heels, his arms crossed on his knees, his head resting
-on his arms, listened with a profound and immovable
-attention, and when she finished, in testimony
-of his satisfaction, he contented himself with
-silently raising one finger more.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla, to the sound of ivory castanets and small
-silver bells, then performed an expressive dance,
-imitating the voluptuous movements of the bayaderes
-of India and the Eastern almas, but with more
-reserve however.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Forced this time to look at her, the man with the
-turban was unable to disguise the impression made
-upon him by so much grace, suppleness and agility,
-and, in an irrestrainable outbreak of enthusiasm, he
-raised two fingers at once. They were near to a
-conclusion.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In this mysterious bargaining, this language of the
-fingers, these mutes signs were used to enable the
-parties to swear, if necessary, before the Russian
-authorities, by Christ or Mahommed, that there had
-been no conversation between them except about
-honey, furs or beaver skins.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After some more bargaining on both sides, the
-mother finally received the ten thousand piastres in
-her apron, and disappeared immediately, to conceal
-it in some hiding-place, careless whether she should
-see her daughter again or not.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Whilst she was gone the merchant glanced on the
-elder sister of Baïla, who had assisted at the bargaining,
-whilst she was kneading bread in a kneading
-trough.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And she,” said he; “shall I not carry her off
-also?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The elder sister, flattered in her vanity, made him
-a reverence.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She is lame,” said the father.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, oh!” said the other, “let us see—it does
-not matter.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They bargained anew, and the Mingrelian, taking
-advantage of his wife’s absence, ended by selling
-his oldest daughter for six English guns, a large supply
-of powder and lead, some smoking materials and
-two tuns of rack. Whilst he was in the humor, he
-would cheerfully have sold his wife, still in fine preservation,
-if custom, agreeing this time with the
-new Russian code, had permitted him to do so.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The two men were touching hands in conclusion
-of this new bargain when the mother returned. She
-uttered at first loud cries, thinking that all the household
-cares were henceforth to devolve on herself
-alone. The merchant was enabled to quiet her by
-a present of a necklace of false stones, and some ornaments
-of gilded brass.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On the following day the two Mingrelian sisters
-reached a small port on the shores of the Black Sea,
-whence they soon embarked for Trebizond. A
-month afterward, the man with the turban being
-suddenly seized with a desire to have a wife for
-himself, after having furnished so many to others,
-married the eldest sister, who had won his affections
-by her skill in making cake.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Such were the remembrances of her family
-which were awakened in the mind of the young
-odalisk, when retired and alone in her apartment,
-pouting and jealous.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She then called up the images of that other portion
-of her life, in which love was to play a part. She
-returned in imagination to Trebizond, to the house
-of her purchaser, become her brother-in-law. There,
-like the companions of her captivity, surrounded by
-attention and care, under a superintendence minute
-but not severe, she passed a year, during which she
-had acquired the Turkish language and skill in the
-toilette, at the same time perfecting herself in singing
-and dancing.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A year having passed, the brother-in-law of Baïla
-embarked with her and several of her companions
-for Constantinople. One fine morning he had dressed
-his graceful cargo in white, their hair had been
-anointed and perfumed, and after having passed the
-walls of the old seraglio and traversed some narrow
-and crooked streets, merchant and merchandise
-were installed in a chamber of the slave bazaar.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>European ideas concerning the sales of females in
-the East are generally erroneous. Our knowledge
-on this subject rests essentially on what we have
-<span class='pageno' title='206' id='Page_206'></span>
-seen in the theatres and in pictures. But dramatic
-authors and painters desirous of obtaining the picturesque
-above all else, do not regard exactness very
-closely.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The latter, in order not to divide their pictures
-into apartments, have shown us a great common
-room, in which all, males and females, all young,
-all handsome and half naked, divided into groups,
-pass under the inspection of the first comers. The
-promenaders make the circuit of the galleries; huge
-Turks, crushed beneath their turbans, and muffled
-in their cashmere robes, their silk caftans and their
-furs, smoke tranquilly, seated in the corner as in a
-coffee-house. Sometimes, in these fantastic sketches,
-a slender greyhound, with his sharp muzzle, or a
-beautiful spaniel, with a flowing tail, figures as an
-accessory, as in the great compositions of Reubens
-or Vandyke; but in Turkey dogs are prohibited from
-entering.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The former, dramatic poets or authors, have boldly
-established their markets on the public square, before
-a crowd of chorus singers, with pasteboard
-camels to add to the local coloring. It is true, that,
-thanks to the convenience of the scene, the costume
-of the beautiful slaves for sale has been increased.
-The purchasers of women at the opera are forced to
-be content with a very superficial examination.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A bazaar of this kind is much less accessible than
-these gentlemen would induce us to believe. Divided
-into private chambers, the women of every
-color and all ages, especially those whose youth and
-beauty command a high price, are lodged almost
-alone, under the custody of their sellers. In order
-to penetrate the sanctuary one must be a Mussulman,
-and offer guarantees, either from his position or his
-fortune; for the first curious person who presents
-himself is not permitted to see and buy.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla and her companions entered, then, into a
-saloon of the grand bazaar of Constantinople, to take
-up their positions in the upper port of a chamber.
-Each desirous of reigning over the heart of one of
-the grand dignitaries, sought the most favorable position
-to show off her attractions to the greatest advantage,
-and was disposing herself so as to arm
-herself with all her natural or acquired graces, when
-a small old man, with a meager and mean turban, a
-caftan without embroidery or furs, as old-fashioned
-as its master, entered the room almost furtively. It
-was an Armenian renegade, who had made his fortune
-by superintending the affairs of an old vizier,
-whose treasurer or <span class='it'>khashadar</span> he was.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Whilst he was in the service of the latter, he had
-carefully increased his wealth, and his wife, espoused
-by him before his apostacy, had never permitted him
-to give her a rival. By a double fate, his wife died
-about the same time his vizier was sent into exile
-in disgrace. Become free on both sides, the Armenian
-feared no longer to exhibit his gold and his
-amorous propensities, both of which he had concealed
-so well for thirty years.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Although it was a little late, he determined to recommence
-his youth, to live for pleasure, and to
-organize a harem. Thus, at this moment, rubbing
-his hands, his figure inflamed, his small, red eyes
-glistening like carbuncles, he glided round the
-chamber, like a hungry fox around a poultry-yard.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The beautiful young girls were enraged at the
-sight. In their dreams of love, each of them had
-doubtless seen in her happy possessor, a handsome
-young man, with a capacious brow, majestic carriage,
-and black and glistening beard; and the ex-treasurer
-of the vizier did not appear to have ever possessed
-any of these fortunate gifts of nature.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Not being desirous of such a customer, instead of
-sweet smiles and their premeditated graceful postures,
-they assumed frowning and cross looks, when the
-old man stopped before Baïla, who at once trembled
-and was seized with an immoderate desire to cry.
-She was, however, forced to rise up, to walk about,
-and notwithstanding all the want of grace she could
-assume, the khashadar found her charming; he approached
-her, looked at her feet and hands, and examined
-her teeth, then taking the merchant aside,
-said, “Thy price?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Twenty thousand piastres.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The khashadar made a bound backward; his lips
-puckered up like those of a baboon who has bitten a
-sharp citron; he recommenced walking around the
-room, examined all those beautiful fruits of Georgia
-and Circassia submitted to his inspection; he then
-stopped again before Baïla. She feigning to think
-that he wished to examine her mouth again, put out
-her tongue and made a face at him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This demonstration did not appear to cool his fire.
-He reapproached the merchant, and when they had
-bargained for some time, seated cross-legged, the
-latter rose, saying,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“By the Angel Gabriel, I promised my wife,
-whose own sister she is, not to part with her for
-less than twenty thousand, for the honor of the
-family.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla, who had drawn her veil around her figure,
-perceived that the bargain was concluded; and, unable
-to restrain herself, burst into sobs. The door
-of the room was at that moment opened roughly. A
-man of lofty stature and imperious look, walked
-straight up to the desolate girl; he raised her veil,
-that veil which, though it concealed her tears, could
-not drown her sobs.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“How much for this slave?” he asked.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She is mine,” said the khashadar.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“How much?” he repeats.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But I am her purchaser, and not her seller,” said
-the little old man, rising on his toes, so as to approximate
-his length toward that of the interlocutor.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The latter thrust him aside with a glance of contempt.
-“I came here,” he said, “to make a purchase
-to the amount of nineteen thousand piastres.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Twenty thousand is her price,” observed the
-seller.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I offer twenty-five thousand for her,” he replied,
-throwing the veil over the figure of Baïla.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The merchant bent himself; the khashadar, though
-pale with rage, restrained himself, for he had recognized
-in his rival Ali-ben-Ali, surnamed <span class='it'>Djezzar</span>, or
-the Butcher, the pacha of Shivas.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='pageno' title='207' id='Page_207'></span>
-Thus the young girl having been once sold by her
-father, was again sold by her brother-in-law.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Djezzar Pacha, whom a slight difficulty with the
-divan had called for a short time to the capital of the
-empire, took his beautiful slave back with him to
-his usual residence, and she at once occupied the
-first place in his heart. The joy which she felt at
-seeing herself elevated above all her rivals, was not
-confined to a feeling of pride; she thought she loved
-Djezzar.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Although he was no longer in his first youth, and
-the severity of his glance sometimes inspired Baïla
-with a feeling of terror rather than of love, yet the
-first look she had cast on him in the bazaar of Constantinople,
-the comparison she had then made between
-him and the old khashadar, had been so much
-to his advantage, that she thought him young and
-handsome. He had since shown himself to be so
-generous, so much in love, had complied with her
-caprices and fancies with such tender indulgence,
-that closing her ears to the stories in circulation about
-him, she thought him good and patient.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>If, however, she is first in the love of the pacha,
-she is not alone; Djezzar does not pique himself
-on an unalterable fidelity. At this very time a daughter
-of Amasia has entered the harem; and the women
-of Amasia are regarded as the most beautiful in
-Turkey. Who knows whether the scepter of beauty
-is not about to change hands? May not another inspire
-in Djezzar a love still stronger than that he
-has shown for Baïla?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Such were the ideas that so sadly preoccupied the
-young Odalisk, when walking in the garden, she
-cast by stealth those jealous looks toward the building
-with gilded lattices which contained her new
-rival.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Now her courage is strengthened, her mind lit up
-by sweeter lights. Did not the picture of her whole
-life, which passed before her, show her that her
-beauty must be incomparable, since after having
-dwelt at her ease in her father’s house, she had been
-an object of speculation for her brother-in-law surpassing
-his extremest hopes? In the bazaar of the
-women two purchasers had alone appeared, and they,
-notwithstanding the choice offered them, had disputed
-for her possession. But that which above
-all appeared to prove her power, was the boldness
-of the young Frank, who at the risk of his life had
-passed the dreaded entrance of the palace of Djezzar;
-who at the sight of her was so overcome as to lose
-his presence of mind; who, after having seen her,
-had again wished to behold her, and had anew
-placed himself in her way.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Did he not fear death as the price of his temerity?
-He did not fear because he loves—and it is thus the
-Franks love. Had they not seen the most celebrated
-of them, Napoleon, then Sultan, conquer Egypt with
-an army, in order to seek there for a beautiful female,
-whose beauty and whose country had been revealed
-to him in a dream sent by God.<a id='r1'/><a href='#f1' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[1]</span></sup></a> Is it not also in a
-dream that this young Frank has received a revelation
-of the charms of Baïla? Perhaps he had seen
-her during her residence at Trebizond, or on her
-voyage to Constantinople? What matters it; she
-owes it to him that she now feels confident and reassured.
-Let Djezzar bestow his affections for one
-night on the daughter of Amasia; to-morrow he will
-return to the Mingrelian. And Baïla went to sleep
-thinking of the young Frank.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Did she feel already for him one of those inexplicable
-affections that sometimes spring up in the
-hearts of recluses? By no means; his scanty costume
-and beardless chin did not render him very
-seductive in her eyes, and he had not been enabled
-to charm her by his eloquence. But she thought she
-owed him gratitude; besides, she perhaps wished to
-try to avenge herself on Djezzar, even during her
-sleep.</p>
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_1'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 3em;'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div id='f1'><a href='#r1'>[1]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Arabians, Egyptians, and Turks still believe this.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER II.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On the following morning, Baïla, followed by
-Mariam, again traversed the garden, under the pretext
-of erasing the tracks of the unknown, should he
-have left any. The wind and the night had caused
-them to disappear from the walks which were
-covered with fine sand. Returning, however, from
-the neighborhood of the river, she found the recent
-mark of a boot impressed on a flower border. The
-foot-mark was small, straight, and graceful.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla hesitated to efface it. Why? Was the
-stranger speaking decidedly to her heart? No; it
-was a woman’s caprice, and among women the
-odalisks are perhaps the most enigmatical. After
-having undertaken this expedition for the very purpose
-of effacing all traces of the Frank, she was now
-tempted to retain the only one that remained.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This print, which the bostangis, with their large
-sandals with wooden soles could not have left, and
-which the foot of the pacha would have over-lapped
-with a large margin, and which consequently might
-reveal the adventure of the evening, she was desirous
-of preserving. Why? Perhaps her imagination,
-over-excited by her ideas of gratitude, had, at the
-sight of this elegant impress, given the lie to her eyes,
-by clothing the stranger with a charm, which, in his
-first movement of alarm she was unable to recognize.
-Perhaps, blinded by passion, Baïla was desirous that
-Djezzar might see this denunciatory mark, so that
-his jealousy might be alarmed, and he might suffer
-in his pride and his love as she had done.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The old negress pointed out to her, that in case
-the unknown should be rash enough to return again,
-the pacha, his suspicions once excited, would certainly
-have him seized, and thus both might be
-compromised.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Mingrelian then yielded; but she was unwilling,
-from a new caprice, that Mariam should
-remove the earth from this place. She contented
-herself with placing her own delicate foot upon it
-several times, and with trampling with her imprint
-in that of the stranger, and this double mark remained
-for a long time, protected as it was from
-inspection by the superabundant foliage of a Pontic
-Azalea.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This shrub grew in great abundance on the slopes
-<span class='pageno' title='208' id='Page_208'></span>
-of the Caucasus, and Baïla, when a child, had seen
-them flower in her native country. She conceived
-an affection for this spot, which spoke to her of her
-country, and of her second and mysterious lover.
-Her country she had left without regret; this young
-Frank, this giaour, he had been to her at first but a surprise,
-an apparition, a dream, and now, her wounded
-heart demands an aliment for this double recollection.
-During a whole month she took her walks in this
-direction; thither she came to dream of her country
-and the stranger, especially of the latter.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Did she then at length love him? Who can tell?
-Who would dare to give the name of love to those
-deceitful illuminations produced in the brain of a
-young girl, by a fermentation of ideas, like wills-of-the-wisp
-on earth; to those phantoms of a moment,
-with which solitudes are peopled by those who
-abandon themselves to a life of contemplation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In Europe, <span class='it'>the religious</span>, though living under a
-very different rule, refer all the passionate tenderness
-of their soul to God; each of them finds, however,
-some mode of husbanding a part of it for some
-holy image of her choice, some concealed relic,
-which belongs to her alone; she addresses secret
-prayers to it, she perfumes it with incense which
-she carries away from the high altar; it is her aside
-worship. In the East, those other inhabitants of
-cloisters, the odalisks, have no worship but love,
-and in the endearments of that love they can prostrate
-themselves but before one alone; but there, as
-everywhere else, the idol is concealed in the shadow
-of the temple; they have their fetishes, their dreams,
-their fraudulent loves, their loves of the head, if we
-may so designate them. It is perhaps necessary for
-human nature thus to give the most decided counterpoise
-to its thoughts, in order to preserve the equilibrium
-of the soul, to protest in a low tone against
-that which we loudly adore, to oppose a shadow to
-a reality.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is true that where lovers are concerned, the
-shadow sometimes assumes a form and the reality
-evaporates.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Be this as it may, Djezzar had returned to Baïla,
-and the latter, more assured than ever of her power,
-made him expiate his late infidelity by her caprices
-and her extravagances. They wondered in the
-Harem to see the Pacha of Shivas, before whom
-every thing trembled, bow before this handsome
-slave, so frail, so white, so delicate, whom he might
-have broken by a gesture or a word. The rumor of
-it spread even to the city, where it was whispered
-that Djezzar would turn Jew if Baïla wished it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This Ali-ben-Ali, surnamed Djezzar, or the Butcher,
-was, however, a terrible man. Originally a page
-in the palace of the Sultan, and brought up by Mahmoud,
-he had not participated at all in the civilizing
-ameliorations the latter had endeavored to introduce
-into his empire. The decree of Gulhana had found
-him the opponent of all reform. Assured of a protection
-in the divan, which he knew how to preserve,
-he sustained himself as the type of the old
-pachas, of whom his predecessors, Ali of Janina and
-Djezzar of Acre, were the paragons. He especially
-redoubled his barbarism when a philosophical breeze
-from Europe endeavored to breathe tolerance over
-his country.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Adjudging to himself the double part of judge and
-executioner, thanks to his expeditious justice, decrees
-emanating from his tribunal were executed as
-soon as rendered; sometimes the punishment preceded
-the judgment. A thousand examples were
-cited, tending to prove clearly that in Turkey, Djezzar
-was a relique of the old regime. An aga had prevaricated.
-The pacha unable to inflict punishment
-upon the culprit in person, as the friend of prompt
-and good justice, had ordered a young effendi, his
-secretary, to go at once to the residence of the prevaricator
-and deprive him of an eye. The young
-man hesitating and excusing himself on the plea of
-his inexperience, “Come nearer,” said Djezzar to
-him; and when the poor effendi approached him, the
-pacha, with marvelous dexterity, plunging quickly
-one of his fingers into the corner of an eye, drew out
-the globe from its socket, then with a quick twist
-and the assistance of his nail, the operation was performed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Slave, thou knowest now how to do it; obey at
-once,” he said to him; and the poor victim, with his
-wound undressed and bleeding, was constrained, on
-peril of his life, to inflict on the aga the punishment
-he had just undergone.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>No one excelled as he did in cutting off a head at
-a blow of the yataghan. It is true, no one else had
-so much practice. There was a story told at Shivas,
-of a feat of this kind which did him the highest
-credit.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Two Arabian peasants, feulahs, were brought before
-him, on a charge of murder, and each of them
-accusing the other of the crime. Djezzar was perplexed
-for a moment. It was possible that one of
-them was innocent. Wanting proof of this, and not
-being in the humor to wait for it, he thought of an
-ingenious and prompt means of referring the judgment
-to God. By his orders the accused were
-fastened back to back by their bodies and shoulders;
-he draws his sabre—the head which falls is to be that
-of the guilty man.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Seeing death so near, the two wretched men
-struggle to avoid falling beneath the hand of the executioner;
-they turn—they shift—each endeavoring
-to place his companion on the side where the blow
-is to fall. Djezzar regarded this manœuvering for
-some time with pleasure; at length, after having
-pronounced the name of Allah three times, he made
-his Damascene blade describe a large circle, and
-both heads fell off at a blow.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Notwithstanding his habitual gravity, the pacha
-could not avoid laughing at this unexpected result;
-he laughed immoderately, which he had probably
-never before done in his life, and his noisy bursts
-mingled with the hoarse roars and panting of a lion,
-which, confined in a neighboring apartment, inhaled
-the odor of the blood.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This lion was his master’s favorite. Custom had
-for a long time prescribed to the pachas of Shivas,
-as to other pachas of the East, that they should be
-<span class='pageno' title='209' id='Page_209'></span>
-accompanied by a lion on all solemn occasions.
-Galib, the predecessor of Djezzar, and a great partisan
-of reform, had a monstrous one which he fed
-particularly with Janizaries; the story ran, that the
-fanatical Djezzar appeased the appetite of his occasionally
-with Christian flesh.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And yet this ferocious man, who made a profession
-of the trade of an executioner, who laughed only
-when heads were cut off, who, according to public
-rumor, tossed human flesh to his lion, Haïder,
-felt the power of love, doubtless not gallant and perfumed
-love—the love of the boudoir; but, endowed
-with an energetic and voluptuous temperament, he
-passed in the midst of his harem the time spared
-from business; and in the East, whatever may be the
-complexity of affairs, the administration, especially
-under such a mastery, is reduced to such simplicity,
-that leisure is never wanting.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Djezzar could say with Orasmanus,</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>I will give an hour to the cares of my empire,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The rest of the day shall be devoted to Zaïre.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Zaïre, that is, Baïla, awaited him on his quitting the
-Council. Especially in his summer palace of Kizil-Ermak
-did he spend the greater part of the day, extended
-on cushions at the feet of his beautiful slave,
-smoking the roses of Taif or Adrianople, mingled
-with the tobacco of Malatia or Latakia, sometimes
-chewing a leaf of haschich, or a grain of opium, or
-even of arsenic to exalt his imagination.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla sometimes smoked the hooka; and as they
-reclined there together, plunged into a dreamy state,
-full of reveries, caused by the juice of the yucca or
-the poppy of Aboutig, the one opening for himself in
-advance a sojourn among the celestial houris, the
-other thinking, perchance, of the audacious stranger,
-Haïder, the lion, drawing in his claws, would stretch,
-himself familiarly beside them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla would then lean carelessly on her elbow
-against this terrible creature, whilst the pacha would
-listlessly permit his head to recline on the lap of the
-odalisk. It was a sight to behold this beautiful
-young female, robed in light draperies, reposing thus
-quietly between these two ferocious beasts. She
-feared neither of them; the lion was tamed as well
-as the man; both obeyed her voice, her look.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At first, notwithstanding the violent passion of
-Djezzar, Baïla had doubts as to the duration of her
-power, especially when she thought of the favorite
-who had preceded her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This favorite, after a reign of three years, having
-dared to persist in soliciting pardon for a bostangi,
-who was condemned to lose his hand for having
-fished fraudulently, during the night, in the fish-ponds
-of the pacha, the latter, in a moment of rage, had cut
-off the nose of his beautiful Aysche, and then not
-desiring to keep her in that state, he had completed
-the punishment of the trustless bostangi and the refractory
-slave by uniting them in marriage. A piece
-of ground, situated on the confines of the city, had
-been given them as a dowry. Aysche now sold
-vegetables in the market, where she was known by
-the name of <span class='it'>Bournouses</span> (the noseless.)</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This example of the instability of the power of
-favorites had ceased to disturb Baïla, since the Christian
-had revealed to her the secret of her power.
-Besides, at the time of the events Aysche was no
-longer young, which might give rise to the thought,
-that her decreasing beauty, rather than any other
-cause, had excited the wrath of her master.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla was seventeen years old, with a Georgian
-head on a Circassian body, the voice of a syren, and
-the tread of a nymph—what had she to fear? Her
-will had become that of the pacha. Entirely cemented
-by habit to her love, he appeared never to think of
-his other odalisks, except when the Mingrelian, from
-caprice or petulance, revolted openly against his
-desires. Then, in the presence of the rebellious
-beauty, Djezzar would order a slave to carry to an
-odalisk, whom he designated, a piece of goods,
-which, according to the Oriental custom, announced
-the approach of the master, and which in accordance
-with our method of translating Turkish manners, we
-have naturalized among us by the phrase of “<span class='it'>throwing
-the handkerchief</span>.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Formerly, at the idea of the infidelity which was
-to be practiced toward her, Baïla fretted and pouted
-in a corner with a bereaved air. Her small mouth
-drawn down at the corners, muttered unintelligible
-complaints and threats; her beautiful black eyes,
-with their long, vibrating lashes, were half closed,
-and with her head bent, and the pupils drawn back
-to the angle of the eyelids, she cast upon the slave,
-the master, and the brilliant piece of goods, a look
-full of anger and jealousy. There her audacity
-ceased.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But now, when Djezzar, to avenge himself on her,
-takes a fancy to be inconstant, she falls upon the
-stuff and the slave, tears the one and cuffs the other;
-and if the omnipotent pacha carries out his plan of
-vengeance, it frequently happens on the next day
-that as the price of submission, the slave is, on some
-pretext, bastinadoed, and the favorite of a day driven
-away in disgrace, too happy to escape, without, like
-Aysche, leaving her nose within the palace, is sent
-to the bazaar to become the property of the highest
-bidder.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Such had lately been the fate of the beautiful
-daughter of Amasia.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Proud in the empire she exercised over her master,
-Baïla became intoxicated in the triumph of her
-vanity. In the midst of its smoke, the remembrance
-of the stranger, the giaour, no longer reached her
-but at distant intervals.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She had remained shut up for a whole week without
-descending into the gardens, when one day that
-Djezzar had gone to raise some taxes, resuming her
-old promenades, she found herself unconsciously
-near the Azalea of Pontus.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>What had become of that young Frank? Was he
-still in the pachalick of Shivas? Did he still entertain
-the plan of a second attempt, as Mariam had
-thought he would? He had doubtless gone, returned
-to his country, that singular country called France,
-where they say the women rule the men; she should
-see him no more. So much the better for both him
-and her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='pageno' title='210' id='Page_210'></span>
-Whilst she was in this train of reflection a roar of
-Haïder was heard without; it announced the return
-of the pacha. The latter had taken him with him,
-for the pleasure of letting him loose at some jackall
-by the way. She was preparing to return to her
-apartments to await there the arrival of Djezzar,
-when a report of fire-arms, followed by a low noise,
-was heard by the side of Red River.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla trembled without being able to explain the
-cause of her emotion.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Have you been successful in hunting?” she said
-to Djezzar, when they were alone.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“So, so,” he replied; “my falcon struck three
-pheasants, and I killed a <span class='it'>dog</span>.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla dared not interrogate him as to the doubtful
-sense which this word might have in the mouth of
-so orthodox a Mussulman as Ali-ben-Ali.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>That evening, when Mariam came to her mistress,
-after hesitating as to the information she was about
-to give her, and after ten preparatory exclamations,
-she informed her of the event of the day.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As the pacha was returning to his palace, and his
-hunting train was straggling along by the woods of
-Kizil-Ermak, near the place where they entered
-the second enclosure, Haïder, whom a slave held
-by a leash, stopped obstinately before a copse, growling
-in low tones, which attracted the attention of
-Djezzar. The copse having been beaten by the train,
-a man sprung out from it, flying rapidly toward the
-river, across which he endeavored to swim, but before
-he could reach the opposite bank, the pacha,
-snatching a gun from the hand of one of his delhis,
-had drawn on the flyer with such certainty of eye
-and hand, that, struck in the head, he had disappeared
-immediately, carried down by the current.
-This man was a Christian, but an Asiatic Christian,
-as his head-dress of blue muslin proved. Besides,
-the pacha said that the roar of Haïder of itself showed
-what his religion was.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Be his country or religion what they may,” said
-Mariam, finishing her story, “he is dead, dead without
-any one being enabled to divine what motive
-could have induced him to secrete himself on this
-side of the river by the very verge of the palace.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“At the verge of the gardens,” then interrupted
-Baïla, who had listened to the recital of her old
-negress without interrupting her for a moment, or
-even without appearing to be greatly moved by it.
-“It was into the gardens that he wished to penetrate,
-as he had done before.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mariam looked at her with surprise.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” pursued the Mingrelian, “the man whom
-they have killed is the young Frank, who had doubtless
-changed his dress, so as not to attract too much
-attention to himself by his European costume.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mariam remained silent.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Do you not think so also?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After some inarticulate words the negress said,
-“Who can tell?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thyself,” replied Baïla, “thou knowest more
-than thou hast told me.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I avow,” added Mariam, after a little hesitation,
-“that one of the delhis, who witnessed the affair,
-said in my presence, that the fugitive appeared to
-have a very white complexion for an Asiatic.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thou seest it all well, Mariam,” said Baïla,
-carelessly, still playing with the fan she held in her
-hand.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If it is so,” replied the negress, “I am sorry for
-the fate of the poor young Christian; but we at least
-are out of the reach of danger in consequence of it,
-and I can now sleep, for, since his double apparition
-in the garden, I have but half closed my eyes. I
-feared constantly some imprudence on your part
-or his.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Faint-hearted;” and Mariam assisted Baïla in
-arranging her toilet for the night.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Soon after daylight the Mingrelian left her solitary
-couch, for Djezzar fatigued by the chase had also
-slept alone, woke her old negress, and both descended
-into the gardens. Baïla gave as a pretext
-for her walk, her desire to breathe the fresh air of
-the gardens.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She went first to the kiosk, then to the plateau,
-on which she had formerly seated herself; she
-cast a glance around her on the masses of flowers and
-shrubs, upon the small marble basin, and fixed for
-some time an attentive look upon the two palm-trees,
-as if some one was about to appear between
-their columns, under their green canopy. She went
-then to the spot where the Azalea covered with its
-shade and its flowers the last trace of the stranger;
-she broke off one of the branches, stripped it of its
-foliage, broke it into two, fastened together the
-pieces in the form of a cross, by means of a cord
-taken from a pelisse which she wore; she then set
-up this cross upon the foot-print, which was almost
-effaced. All this was done without any affectation
-of sentiment, and with a calm and almost listless air.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At the sight of the cross, Mariam, who was born a
-Christian in Abyssinia, signed herself, after having
-first cast a cautious glance around her. Baïla contented
-herself with breathing a sigh, the sigh of a
-child who sees a game on which it has been for some
-time engaged, finished. She then returned to the
-isolated pavilion, in which her suite of apartments
-was situated, with her head bent down and pensive,
-but thinking, perhaps, of any thing else than the
-stranger.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>From that moment, however, cross and fantastic
-with Djezzar, she had no longer for him those soft
-caresses, nor those melodious songs, nor those intoxicating
-dances which accompanied the clicking
-noise of her castinets, and appeared to open the gates
-of the seventh heaven. She finished by irritating
-him so much by her redoubled whims, caprices, and
-refusals, that he left her in a fury, and remained for
-three whole days without wishing to speak to her.
-On the third day, the attendants came to him to inform
-him that a terrible noise was heard in the
-apartments of the favorite, the cries of a woman
-mingled with the roarings of the lion.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Djezzar sent thither, but was unwilling to go himself.
-When they hastened to the assistance of the
-Mingrelian, they found her shut up alone with
-Haïder. The rich carpet of Khorassan, which
-<span class='pageno' title='211' id='Page_211'></span>
-adorned the floor of her chamber, was in places rent
-to pieces, and all strewed over with bits of switches
-of the cherry. These shreds and fragments pointed
-out the places where the strife had taken place between
-the lion and the odalisk.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After having drawn him into her pavilion, Baïla
-had shut him off from all retreat, and careless of the
-result to herself, armed with a light bunch of rods,
-she had struck him redoubled blows, resolutely renewing
-every stick which was broken on the body
-of her terrible antagonist. The latter, accustomed
-to obey the voice that scolded him, and the arm that
-struck him, without thinking of defending himself,
-bounded from one side of the chamber to the other,
-tearing up a strip of carpet with his curled talons at
-each bound; but finally his patience and long endurance
-exhausted, irritated by grief, groaning and
-palpitating, lying half on his croupe and his back,
-raising up one of his monstrous paws, he extended
-his glittering talons, and became in his turn threatening,
-when suddenly the bostangis and footmen of
-the pacha entered, armed with boar-spears. The
-door being opened, the lion fled through it in disgrace,
-not before the new comers, but from the
-Mingrelian, who still pursued him with her last
-cherry-stick.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On the evening of the day in which Baïla had excited
-the royal anger of the lion against herself, that
-terrible animal, broken and degraded by his domestic
-habits, came, like a well-trained dog, confused and
-repentant, to couch at the feet of his mistress, imploring
-pardon.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On the following day Djezzar did the same. The
-favorite saw him approach her, humble, and laden
-with presents. The contest of Baïla with Haïder,
-of which a full account had been given to him, filled
-him with a singular admiration for the former.
-Baïla received the two conquered with a cold dignity,
-which might pass for some remains of rigor.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This double victory found her indifferent; she had
-exhausted all the emotions she could experience;
-she had so far distanced her rivals, that triumph over
-them no longer excited her vanity; the slaves around
-her were so submissive that she no longer took
-pleasure in commanding them. The pacha was
-tamed, tamed even to weakness, to cowardice; every
-one, even the lion, submitted to the power of the
-favorite, and with such unanimous accord, that in
-this harem, where every thing prostrates itself before
-her, and every thing is done in accordance with her
-will or her caprice, she has but a single enemy whom
-she cannot conquer; it is ennui. That threatened to
-increase daily, and to strengthen itself by the weakness
-of the others.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The pacha went on the same day to the city;
-Baïla consented to accompany him; and after having
-remained a short time at Shivas, they had scarcely
-returned to Kizil-Ermak, when she appeared entirely
-different from what she had been at her departure.
-Gayety and vivacity had returned to her; the smile
-to her lips, joy to her eyes; she had refound her
-sweetest songs, her most graceful dances. She was
-charming in the eyes of Djezzar and even of Haïder.
-It was said she had been spontaneously metamorphosed
-by the way.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The good humor of the favorite communicating
-itself to the pacha, and spreading from him far and
-near, all was joy in the palace that night.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla alone possessed the secret of this general joy.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER III.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Shut up in her palanquin, in the suite of the master,
-as she was passing with the escort through one of
-suburbs of Shivas, on their return to the Red River,
-and was amusing herself with looking at the inhabitants,
-Turks and Christians, fly, pell-mell, in disorder,
-so as to hide or prostrate themselves at the
-sight of the pacha, she remarked one, who, remaining
-erect and motionless, did not appear to participate
-in the emotions of the crowd.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla was at first astonished that the guards, the
-<span class='it'>cawas</span>, did not force him to assume a more humble
-posture; she examines him with more attention and
-starts. He wears the dress of a Frank, and as far
-as she can judge through her double veil, and the
-muslin curtains of the palanquin, which were
-spangled with gold, his features are those of the unknown.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>By a movement quicker than thought, veil, curtains,
-all are at once thrown aside. It is he—their
-looks meet. The stranger is troubled. He is doubtless
-again overcome by the resplendent lustre of so
-much beauty; then, with an expression full of love,
-he raises his eyes to heaven, and places one hand
-upon his heart; he moves quickly in this hand a
-small brilliant, gilded object which Baïla could not
-distinguish, for the curtains had already fallen.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This imprudent, daring scene, which occurred in
-the midst of a crowd, had no witnesses, all were
-flying or were prostrate on the ground.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>During the remainder of the route Baïla believed
-she had dreamed. What, this stranger, then, was
-not dead; he had not been denounced by Haïder, and
-slain by Djezzar. Had she then been unjust and
-cruel toward these? She owed them a reparation.
-Perhaps the Frank had been only wounded. This
-was very light, then, for it had not prevented him
-from encountering her. Why light? Was not he
-who feared not to brave every thing to reach her,
-capable of enduring pain, in order to see her?
-But what object had he held before her, with his hand
-on his heart, and his eyes turned toward heaven?
-Doubtless a present which he wished to make her,
-which he desired to throw into her palanquin as a
-souvenir. She had let her spangled curtains fall too
-quickly. Or rather, is it not some jewel of her own,
-something which had fallen from her dress, and been
-found by him at the foot of the plantain, or in the
-alleys of the garden? Yes, he preserves it as a precious
-relic, as his guardian amulet which he wears
-above his heart; for it was from thence he drew it—it
-was there she saw him replace it in his transport
-of love.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She then asked, what could this young man be
-among the Franks, who had remained erect and
-standing with so bold a look during the passage of the
-<span class='pageno' title='212' id='Page_212'></span>
-pacha, and whom the <span class='it'>cawas</span> had, notwithstanding,
-appeared to respect? Yes, there were secrets connected
-with him yet to be discovered. No matter!
-Whatever the rank or power of this mysterious unknown
-might be, she is to him an object of frenzied
-love. Could she doubt it? Her vanity is gratified
-by it, and in her revery, remembering Egypt and
-Napoleon a second time, she came to the conclusion
-that should the unknown ever command an army in
-the country of the Franks, they might on some fine
-day invade the pachalick of Shivas.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Until now, in order to rid herself of the narcotic
-influence of the monotonous life of the harem, Baïla
-had had recourse to fantasies of all kinds, to her
-thousand and one caprices, her strifes, her poutings,
-her revolts, her tyrannies over her master, his lion,
-and the slaves; now, however, her character appeared
-to change; she resumed the indolent and
-equal humor of early days with Djezzar; she tormented
-her good Mariam and her other serving women
-less; her taste for dress appeared to be modified;
-instead of four toilets a-day, she now only made
-three; she became grave; she reflected; she thought;
-she thought of the giaour; she reflected on the singular
-chain of circumstance, which, in despite of
-her, had mixed up this young man with all her
-pre-occupations, and all the events of her recluse
-life.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Without recurring to the dangerous practice of a leaf
-of haschich bruised in her hookah, or a grain of arsenic
-dissolved in treacle, her imagination could now create
-a new and charming world for her. She foolishly
-pursued her vain reveries about the conquest <a id='off'></a>of
-Shivas. She saw herself transported to another
-country—to Paris—where every one could freely
-admire her beauty, now the property of one only,
-where she could receive the homage of all, conquering
-a thousand hearts at once, whilst still reserving
-her own for the beloved object. Is not that
-the greatest joy and happiness known on earth to
-woman?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But could not this revery be realized without the
-intervention of any army? Baïla waited for some
-time for some realization of her chimera; then,
-when she had ceased to think of it, ennui, terrible
-ennui again took possession of her. Sickly languor
-succeeded. She sought a cause for her suffering,
-and that cause she found in the walls of the harem,
-which oppressed and stifled her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Sultan Mahmoud, during the latter part of his
-life, had permitted his women to leave the seraglio,
-well escorted and supervised. The younger dignitaries
-of the Sublime Porte, the avowed partisans of
-the new order of things, following his example, had
-in their turn essayed this usage. Baïla knew it, and
-she determined to conquer this pleasant liberty for
-herself.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At the very mention of it to the pacha, he regarded
-her with fierce and flashing eyes, and swore by Mahomet
-and the four caliphs, it was his dreaded oath,
-that if any other of his women had made such a
-proposal to him, her head would have already leaped
-off at a blow from his yatagan.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla desisted, but the refusal increased the intensity
-of the desire which she felt. She also swore,
-not by the four caliphs, but by her woman’s will, to
-attain her end, whatever road she must travel, or
-whatever peril she must brave. The mere idea of
-this new struggle in which she was engaged, cured
-her of half her languor.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>What was this end? She must first examine herself
-in order to define it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>From the summit of the terraces of the winter
-palace she had already seen a part of the monuments
-of the city; she had visited the citadel, the caravansery,
-the mosque in the train of the pacha. It
-was not, therefore, for this that she aspired to this
-phantom of freedom.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The bazaars remained; but had not the pacha
-caused to be conveyed to the harem whatever they
-contained precious and rare in brocades, velvets,
-precious stones, and sculptured gold, that she might
-see and choose from them? The privation could
-not then be felt on this account.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Magicians, jugglers, the musicians of Persia and
-Kurdistan, every pigmy deformity, every curious
-object which traversed the pachalick, was, at a word
-from her, admitted into the palace. She arrived at
-this logical conclusion, that if she desired to visit
-and traverse Shivas, it was in the hope of finding there
-again the unknown, of finding the key of the mysteries
-which surrounded her; and this unknown was certainly
-the only one of the curiosities of the city, to
-which Djezzar would refuse permission to enter his
-harem for the diversion of the favorite.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But could not another make the discovery for
-Baïla? She thought at once of Mariam.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The latter, who was a partial purchaser of provisions
-for the harem; freed by her employment, her
-age, and her color, from the ordinary ceremonial,
-she traversed the streets and market-places at pleasure.
-Baïla knew her devotion to her person, and
-should she refuse to serve her in her researches, she
-knew that the old negress would not betray her.
-She spoke to her then about it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Abyssinian seized with a sudden trembling,
-exclaimed,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“By the Holy Christ! do not repeat those words,
-my dear mistress; resist the temptation, stifle it in
-your heart; it is an inspiration of the Evil Spirit, or,
-perhaps, a purpose of Providence, perhaps an inspiration
-from on high,” she murmured in a low
-voice, as if apostrophizing herself.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You will have nothing to fear, Mariam; of what
-crime will you be guilty, for endeavoring to make
-some inquiries about this stranger? It is well known
-that old women are curious.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Young ones are no less so,” she replied, casting
-a reproachful glance at her, “and their curiosity
-draws more perils after it. Our holy mother, Eve,
-was young when—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Then you refuse to serve me?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“This time I do; do not exact it, do not insist
-upon it. I have already had so much to struggle
-against on the other side.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“How?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='pageno' title='213' id='Page_213'></span>
-“This young Frank. He is born to be your destruction
-and mine. But no; if you knew—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You know him then? Are you dreaming?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Have I spoken of that? By the black angel I
-hope it is nothing.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thou wert about to betray thyself; hast thou
-seen him?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Ah! my dear mistress do not destroy me,” exclaimed
-the old slave, trembling with fright. “Yes,
-I have seen him to my misfortune.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, who is he? What keeps him at Shivas?
-What does he want? What does he hope for?
-What are his plans?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Is it for me to inform you? In the name of the
-God of the Christians, who has been yours and is
-still mine, cease to question me. If our master
-should only discover that this young man has penetrated
-here into the gardens, I know that I should
-be put to death. I should be cut to pieces and
-thrown to feed the fish in the ponds.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But he shall not know it. Thou hast nothing to
-fear, I tell thee; am not I here to protect thee?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But thee? Who will protect thee?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What matters it? Then you know this stranger?
-Thou hast met him, and hast told me nothing of it?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Doubtless it has so happened, though he would
-have preferred meeting another.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And who is that other?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thyself.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Me!” exclaimed Baïla, with her face suffused
-with blushes, as if she did not expect this reply,
-which she had skillfully extracted in order to force
-Mariam into her confidence. “And what does he
-want with me?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What does he want?” replied the old negress,
-again a prey to her first emotion. “What does he
-want? God keep me from saying?! He alone can
-tell you. But it will be death perhaps for us three.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla was silent for a moment. “He has hoped
-to see me again?” she then asked.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If one may believe him, he would give his life a
-thousand times to realize this hope; and moreover—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What else does he wish?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It is his secret, not mine, I have already said
-too much.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>They were interrupted; Mariam retired abruptly
-and Baïla remained alone with the serpent of curiosity
-which was gnawing into her heart.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Shortly afterward, during the night, whilst the
-pacha was at the city of Tocata, where the cares of
-government detained him, a man was brought furtively
-into the gardens of the Red River. A bostangi
-had found means to introduce him in a flower vase.
-This bostangi, gained by rich presents, conducted
-him by then deserted paths to the pavilion of the
-favorite.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla was in the bath, when the Abyssinian negress
-appeared and made her a signal. The beautiful
-odalisk, under a pretext of a desire to repose,
-then dismissed her serving-women, after they had
-bound up her hair and carefully perfumed her person.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Her slaves dismissed, she dressed herself with the
-assistance of Mariam, but in such haste that her
-cashmere girdle, tied negligently, kept her robe
-scarcely half closed, and her long veil thrown around
-her, alone concealed the richness of her shoulders
-and bust.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She stopped on her way to the saloon in which
-the mysterious visiter awaited her. Her respiration
-failed, a nervous tremor agitated her beautiful limbs,
-and made her skin, still moist with rose-water and
-the essence of sandal-wood, to shiver—placing her
-hand on her heart to restrain, as it were, its tumultuous
-beatings, she murmured, “I am afraid!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What do you fear now?” said Mariam, sustaining
-her by her arms, and whose courage, like a
-game of see-saw, appeared to be exalted and strengthened
-in proportion as that of her mistress failed.
-“The pacha is far off—every thing around us sleeps;
-this Frank, whom you desired to see and whom you
-are about to see, has crossed the portals of the palace
-without awakening suspicion. He awaits you; he
-has not trembled in coming to you; time is precious,
-he counts it impatiently, let us join him.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I am afraid,” said Baïla, resisting the impulse
-which the old slave wished to give her, and trembling
-all over, with her body bent, her eyes half
-closed, she appeared to drink in with delight the
-alarm she experienced; as the sick, saturated with
-tasteless and sugared beverages, rejoice in the bitter
-draughts of abscynthe. It was an emotion, and
-every emotion is precious to a recluse of the harem.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She entered finally the saloon in which the unknown
-awaited her, but not without casting another
-glance on the <span class='it'>abandon</span> of her toilet. By the feeble
-light of two candles placed in a bracket, she saw the
-stranger standing in a meditative posture.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At the rustling of her robe, at the light sound of
-her step, he raised his head, crossed his hands with
-a kind of ecstatic transport, and his eyes, raised to
-the gilded ceiling, sparkled so brightly, that it appeared
-to the Mingrelian as if the light about her
-was doubled.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When Mariam had disappeared, the better to
-watch over them, when Baïla found herself alone
-with her unknown, with the lover of her day dreams,
-casting her veil suddenly aside, she revealed herself
-to him in all the glory of her Georgian beauty.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She enjoyed his pleasure, his surprise, for a moment,
-then seating herself on a corner of the sofa,
-motioned him to a seat by her side. But the stranger
-remained immovable; his only motion was to cover
-his eyes as if the light had suddenly blinded him.
-After having sweetly gratified her pride by the stupefying
-effect produced by her resplendent beauty,
-she repeated her gesture.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Frank, still embarrassed and hesitating, went
-now toward the sofa, and bending with downcast
-eyes almost to the earth before her, took hold of the
-end of her long veil and re-covered her entirely,
-turning away his head. This movement surprised
-Baïla strangely; but she said to herself, “perhaps
-it is one of the preliminaries of love among the
-Franks.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Listen to me,” said the young man, then, with a
-voice full of emotion, and seating himself beside
-<span class='pageno' title='214' id='Page_214'></span>
-her; “listen to me with attention; the present moment
-may become for you as well as for myself the
-commencement of a new era of glory and safety.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She did not understand him, she drew nearer to
-him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You are born a Christian,” he continued, “Mingrelia
-is your country.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla thought for an instant that he had himself
-come from the ancient Colchis; that he had seen
-her family; and in the rapid flight of her fancy she
-saw the love of this young man remount not only to
-a recent period, but also to that time in which she
-was still the property of her father. The recollections
-of her natal country beaming pleasanter to her
-by uniting themselves with the idea of a love from
-childhood, she came yet nearer to him and looked
-at him carefully, hoping to find in his face features
-impressed of old upon her memory.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You are then a friend of my brothers?” she said
-to him. At this moment of expansion the Mingrelian
-placed her hand on that of the stranger. The
-latter trembled, rose at once and making the sign of
-the cross, said with a voice full of unction and
-solemnity—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I am the friend of your brothers, your brothers
-the Christians, now trampled under foot by a
-cruel despot, but one whom you can soften. The
-terrible Daker, the master of a part of Syria and
-Palestine, after he took for his minister a Christian,
-Ibrahim Sabbar, became the protector of the disciples
-of Jesus Christ. Do you not exercise over your
-master a power greater than Ibrahim did over his?
-A power that they say the very lions do not resist.
-God made use of Esther to touch the heart of Ahasuerus;
-he has marked you like her with his seal,
-to concur in the deliverance of his people. Faith has
-revealed it to me. Thanks to you, Ali-ben-Ali, the
-Pacha of Shivas, the butcher, the executioner, shall
-no longer turn his rage but against the enemies of
-the church. The divine light descending from the
-cross of Calvary shall penetrate the most hardened
-hearts—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Wretch!” exclaimed Baïla, awakening at last
-from the stupor into which this unexpected discourse
-had thrown her, “what has brought you here?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“To teach you to mourn over your past life, to
-assist you in washing yourself from your sins, to
-save you, and with you, and by you, our brethren
-the Christians of Shivas.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Go then, apostle of the demon—retire, insolent,”
-repeats the beautiful odalisk, enveloping herself in
-her veil, the better to conceal herself from the looks
-of the profane; “go then, and be accursed.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No, you shall not drive me away thus,” replied
-the young enthusiast; “you shall hear me. God,
-who inspired me with the idea of this holy mission
-which I am now discharging, is about to change
-your heart; he can, he will.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thy God is not mine, impious; depart.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Ah! do not blaspheme the God of your fathers;
-do not deny the holy belief which even without your
-knowledge has perhaps remained in your heart.
-Was it not you who, in a retired part of your garden,
-reared the humblest of crosses, doubtless to go
-thither to pray in private?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This word, this remembrance of the branch of the
-azalea, brought suddenly to the memory of the young
-odalisk all the chimeras of her fantastic loves, all
-the hopes, all the illusions which were grouped by
-her around a single idea; the disgust at finding all
-her reveries effaced; the frightful thought of the
-peril she had sought, had braved, and which still
-threatens her at that very moment, and all to arrive
-at such a deception—to find an apostle when she expected
-a lover—so troubled her mind, that her voice,
-gradually rising, appeared to reach beyond the pavilion,
-and reach the sleeping slaves. To endeavor
-to calm her, the stranger, with a suppliant gesture,
-advanced a step.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Do not approach me,” she exclaimed, and rising
-with a groan, she called Mariam. She was about
-to leave the room, still uttering imprecations, when
-the door was thrown quickly open and the pacha
-appeared suddenly, surrounded by soldiers, and carrying
-a complete arsenal of arms of all kinds at his
-girdle.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Whether the wrath of the Mingrelian had reached
-its height, or whether the sentiment of self preservation
-awakened imperiously in her, rendered
-her pitiless, she exclaimed—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Kill him—kill him!” and with her finger designated
-the unfortunate Frank to the vengeance of the
-pacha.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The young man cast a momentary sad and pitying
-look upon her, which made her start; he then held
-out his head, a soldier raised his sabre, but Djezzar
-turned the blow aside.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No,” said he, “he must not die so quickly;”
-and casting a suspicious glance by turns upon the
-two, he murmured in a low voice this frightfully
-poetic phrase, “his blood should not leap suddenly
-like water from the fountain, but flow gently like
-that of the spring which falls drop by drop from the
-rock.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the East, poetry is found every where.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He then said something in the ear of a Mangrebian
-slave near him, and the Christian was led away.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Djezzar, left alone with Baïla, gave vent at first to
-all his jealous passions; but with him the favorite
-had nothing to dread but an explanation, commencing
-with a blow from his dagger. As soon as she found
-him confine himself simply to threats and reproaches,
-she ceased to fear for her life. Assuming an attitude
-of surprise, a look of disgust, whilst still endeavoring
-to appear as handsome as possible, she sought to
-make use of all her advantages and to employ in her
-favor with the Turk that toilette of carelessness prepared
-coquettishly for the Christian.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Djezzar, who had on that day returned from Tocata
-to Shivas, had been informed in the latter city
-of the intention of the Frank to penetrate into the interior
-of his harem; but he had no proof of the complicity
-of his beautiful slave. Baïla perceived it.
-He who could have given those proofs was, doubtless,
-<span class='pageno' title='215' id='Page_215'></span>
-expiring at that very moment. Were there not
-also to assist her, her imprecations against the giaour
-and her movement of terror and flight, of which the
-pacha himself was a witness. Thus, the latter was
-soon convinced and the tables turned; it was now
-the master who, humble and suppliant, lowly implored
-her pardon.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He was, however, preparing a terrible proof for
-the influence of the Mingrelian. Baïla, irritated at
-having been suspected, was already raising her voice
-higher.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Listen,” said the pacha, imposing silence by a
-gesture, and appearing himself to hearken to a certain
-movement which was manifested without. She
-listened, but heard nothing but a low, confused, monotonous
-and regular sound, like that of threshing.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What is it?” she asked.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Nothing—nothing at all,” he replied.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Both remained thus, for a time, attentive; the
-noise was repeated, but did not increase. Djezzar
-became impatient, and, yielding to the feeling, struck
-his hands.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Have not my orders been executed?” he demanded
-of the Mangrebian slave who appeared.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They have, son of Ali; but in vain have we used
-on this Christian cords armed with lead and thongs
-of the skin of the hippopotamus; in vain have we
-moistened and sprinkled his gaping wounds with pimento
-and lemon juice; he has not uttered a cry or
-a groan.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What does he, then?” asked the Pasha.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“He prays,” replied the slave.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Has he revealed nothing!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Nothing, son of Ali.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If my chastisements cannot loose his tongue, my
-clemency may,” said Djezzar, with a sinister smile.
-“Let him be brought before me, and let Haïder
-come also. By Allah, I will myself teach him to
-speak.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When the Mangrebian had departed, Djezzar, alone
-with Baïla, became at once the man of the harem—the
-effeminate, the voluptuous pacha; he caused her
-to resume her seat on the divan, and he himself
-stretched at her feet, smoking his hooka, engaged, apparently
-alone, in watching the smoke from his Persian
-pipe escape on one side in massive clouds to remount
-from the other, purifying itself in a crystal
-flask full of perfumed water. He awaited, in this
-indolent posture, the arrival of his captive.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This captive was named Ferdinand Laperre.
-Born at Paris, of a good family of the middle classes,
-of a character addicted to exaltation and revery, an
-orphan from his cradle, he had been unable to give a
-natural course to his sensibilities. Notwithstanding
-his university education, the religious sentiment had
-germinated and developed itself in him. In the
-want of those tender affections of which he was
-ignorant, holy and ardent belief had filled the void in
-his soul. He held a small employment in the office
-of the minister of foreign affairs, when one day at
-the close of a sermon, by the Abbé La Ardaire, he
-determined to become a priest.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>His only remaining relative, an uncle, recently
-appointed to a consulate in one of the important
-cities of Asia Minor, thought it best to take him with
-him in the capacity of a cadet. He hoped to divert
-him from his pious abstractions, to induce him to renounce
-his plans, and to lead him even to doubting,
-by the sight of those numerous sects of schismatic
-Christians who inhabit the east. The uncle was a
-philosopher.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But faith was more brightly kindled in the heart
-of the neophyte as he approached those holy places
-in which evangelical truths had borne their first
-branches and produced their most savory fruits.
-The summits of Taurus were for him illuminated by
-the lightnings of Tabor and Sinai. More than ever
-strengthened in his first calling, he wore hair-cloth
-beneath his diplomatic dress, and promised himself,
-should the occasion offer, to accomplish, in despite
-of his relative, a novitiate signalized by apostolic
-labors.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After having perfected himself in the Turkish and
-common Arabian languages, he went to Shivas and
-its environs, on a visit to the followers of the different
-dissenting churches—Armenians, Greeks, Maronites,
-Nestorians, Eutycheans and even Latin
-Catholics, separated from Rome only by the marriage
-of their priests. He went among them to effect
-conversions; he was more alarmed at their misery
-than their ignorance, and, like a true apostle, he returned
-among them less to preach to them than to
-succor them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He was passing down the Red River one day, on
-a small skiff, which he had learned to manage in the
-eastern style, dreaming of the desert and of an hermitage
-in some Thebais, and was creating in the
-future an ascetic happiness, tempered with clear
-water, when the oar broke. His <a id='bark1'></a>barque stranding,
-cast him upon a small spot, a delta, located as an
-island, between Kizil-Ermak and a regular ditch.
-Ferdinand was not a skillful swimmer, but, notwithstanding
-the usual sedateness of his thoughts, he
-was a good jumper. He measured with his eye the
-river and the ditch by turns, and the question being
-decided in favor of the latter, he crossed it at a bound.
-The ditch passed, he perceived a low wall, which
-had been hidden from his view by a thick copse of
-nopals and wild apricot trees. Had he jumped back,
-to regain his delta, it would have been at the risk of
-his neck, for he had now no room to take a start; and
-should he succeed, he would still have an impassable
-river before him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Whilst in this position, very much embarrassed
-what to do, and not doubting that he was in the
-neighborhood of the summer gardens of the pacha,
-he perceived a low door in the wall; he tried it, and
-to his great joy it opened.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There are about Shivas, and especially on the
-banks of the river, enclosures in which the cultivators,
-chiefly Christians, from the great abundance of
-water, raise vegetables for the market, and enormous
-citrons, savory water-melons, dates, and pistachios
-which rival those of Aleppo and Damascus.
-Ferdinand thought he had reached one of those
-Christian enclosures; the carelessness evinced in
-<span class='pageno' title='216' id='Page_216'></span>
-closing the gate strengthened the idea. He entered.
-Then, for the first time, he found himself face to
-face with Baïla, who was seated carelessly beneath
-the plantain tree. More surprised than charmed at
-the sight of the graceful odalisk, bedaubed with red
-and black, he could only stammer forth a few words,
-expressive of his eager desire to escape, safe <a id='and'></a>and
-sound, from this perilous adventure, which he
-had not sought. Entrapped in the windings of the
-garden, he had again found himself in the presence
-of Baïla and the negress. Regaining at last, with
-difficulty, the little gate, which was still open, he
-was again alarmed at the double obstacle of the
-ditch and the river, when, in the midst of the shades
-of the evening, he saw a man advance, mysteriously,
-toward the delta, traversing the Kizil-Ermak by a
-ford, of which Ferdinand was quite ignorant.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This man, one of the bostangis of the pacha, stole
-his master’s fruit to sell in the city. It was he who
-had left open the little gate, which was only used
-when the ditch was repairing. After having, on that
-day, pointed out to Ferdinand a mode of escaping
-from his embarrassment, it was he afterward, who,
-held by Baïla between the fear of denunciation and
-the hopes of reward, had introduced the Frank into
-the gardens, and even into the pavilion of the
-favorite.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Having reached the delta, the bostangi drew from
-beneath a mass of overhanging rock, a long plank,
-which he used to cross the ditch; he then deposited
-it beneath the mass of nopals and wild apricots, in
-which Ferdinand was concealed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He saw a miracle from heaven in this concourse
-of unhoped for circumstances, co-operating in his
-deliverance. This plank became an ark of safety
-for him; he used it in his turn, and, thanks to the
-ford which the bostangi had revealed to him, after
-having wandered for some time in its unknown
-paths, after having struggled anew with the Kizil-Ermak,
-which, like a serpent in pursuit of its prey,
-he found everywhere on his path, and which appeared
-to wish to envelop him in its twistings and windings,
-he escaped finally all the dangers of his eventful
-walk.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Having returned to the consulate in Shivas he had
-double cause to congratulate himself on having arrived
-there safe and sound, when he learned that the
-gardens into which he had so foolishly adventured
-were none other than those of Djezzar.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But this woman whom he had seen—who could
-she be? When he thought of his meeting with her,
-he thought he had dreamed or had seen a vision.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She reappeared before him in a multitude of forms;
-he saw her resembling a Bacchante, her cup in her
-hand, reclining indolently on a tiger’s skin; then,
-like a Peri or an Undine, when appearing to him
-through the gilded reflection of the sun and the
-rainbows of the small marble basin; and, finally, in
-her third transformation, erect, severe, irritated, ordering
-him to fly and threatening him with a dagger.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>His calm and chaste imagination lent, however,
-no charm to this triplicity of forms. He asked himself,
-on the contrary, if this vision did not present to
-him an emblem of all the vices united—intoxication,
-licentiousness, idleness, anger? He found means to
-complete the seven cardinal sins. In those accursed
-gardens, which were inhabited by the persecutor of
-the Christians, was it not the demon himself that
-had appeared to him?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Thus, whilst Baïla was making of him a being
-apart—a marvelous being—whose traces she was
-honoring, an idol to which she was rendering the
-homage of love, he was piously entertaining a holy
-horror of her remembrance.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This demon, however—this frightful assemblage
-of the seven cardinal sins, was essaying every means
-to approach him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Ferdinand, whilst sojourning with his uncle in this
-province of Anti-Taurus, was but little concerned
-about what was taking place in the harem of Djezzar.
-His thoughts were elsewhere. But after his
-involuntary visit to the gardens, he lent a more attentive
-ear to what was said about the pacha. He
-learned that the latter, abandoned entirely to voluptuousness,
-submitted to the control of a favorite Mingrelian.
-Soon, without knowing his own share in
-increasing the sway of the beautiful slave, he heard
-it repeated every where around him that, did she
-will it firmly, Baïla could make a Jew of her master,
-Ali-ben-Ali.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why not a Christian?” he said to himself.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>All his thoughts were, from that day, concentrated
-on this single one—“She is a Christian, and can do
-any thing with Djezzar.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Oh, how did his divine mission aggrandize in his
-eyes that toy, which was a small golden cross,
-which his mother had worn and which never left
-him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We know the result of the execution of this holy
-and bold enterprise, the first terrible consequences
-of which Ferdinand was now undergoing, and the
-conclusion of which he foresaw, when, after his preparatory
-punishment, he was led before the pacha,
-with his hands bound tightly behind his back. The
-latter was still extended upon his cushion; his head
-and the arm which held his pipe reposed on the
-knees of the Mingrelian and his lion Haïder, crouched
-upon his paws, with his muzzle to the floor and his
-eyes half closed, was by his side.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The slaves retired at a gesture from their master;
-the scene which was to follow needed no witnesses.
-The pacha, the Mingrelian, the Christian and the
-lion alone remained.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-top:1em;'>——</p>
-
-<h2 class='nobreak'>CHAPTER V.</h2>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla felt her confidence vanish; a single revelation
-from the prisoner would be a decree of death to
-her, and concealing her paleness beneath the redoubled
-folds of her veil, she awaited the examination
-with a palpitating heart, fixing her curious gaze
-upon the prisoner.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why did I risk my life to listen to a sermon
-from this mournful preacher?” she said to herself.
-“Why did they not kill him when I commanded?
-Why did he not fall beneath the blow of the guard?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Seeing him, however, with his body furrowed by
-<span class='pageno' title='217' id='Page_217'></span>
-bluish stripes, his flesh swollen and bloody, standing
-in that saloon as if he had never left it to be handed
-over to executioners, as he did before the arrival of
-the pacha, with the same air, the same timid look,
-which he dared not raise toward her, she felt an
-emotion of pity.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Christian,” said the pacha, “what motive
-brought thee hither?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Her salvation,” replied the captive, turning his
-eyes for a moment to the sofa on which the odalisk
-was seated, and then letting them fall on Djezzar, he
-added, “and thine, perhaps.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What, dog, and son of a dog, as thou art, didst
-thou think to make a vile Nazarene of me, and to
-convert me to the sect of the accursed, by taking advantage
-of my absence?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I have said the truth,” replied the young man,
-“as true as that Jesus Christ is the redeemer of the
-world.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thou liest,” replied the pacha, “as true that
-there is no God but God, and that Mahomet is his
-prophet.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After this outbreak he appeared to endeavor to restrain
-his anger. He replaced himself more at his
-ease upon the knees of his favorite, passed his hand,
-as a motion of caress, through the mane of his lion,
-and when he had taken two or three whiffs of his
-batakie, resumed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“See that thou art sincere, and do not aggravate
-thy crime. Thou knowest well that a Mussulman
-cannot become a Christian, as a Christian cannot become
-a Jew. The law of Moses paved the way for
-that of Jesus; that of Jesus was but the precursor to
-that of Mahomet. On this ladder men never descend—they
-mount upward.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I had hoped, at least,” said the captive, “to render
-thee more favorable to my brethren.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Are, then, all those bands of rascals who gnaw
-each other—all those races of infidels, who are forgetful
-of their own law, thy brethren? Of what do
-they complain? Of some I have made good Christians
-by martyrdom; of others, good Musselmen by
-persuasion. Besides, art thou one of their priests?
-No, far from that. Thou art but one of those frivolous
-Europeans, who seek to propagate their impious
-usages among us. Lay aside trick and falsehood.
-Thou hast heard of the beauty of this slave, (turning
-his head toward Baïla,) and thou hast desired to satiate
-thy eyes at the price of thy life. Is it not
-so?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The young man made a sign of negation; the pacha
-heeded it not, and proceeded.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, art thou satisfied? Thou shouldst be, for
-thou hast seen her. Are your women of Europe so to
-be disdained, that you must come among us to carry
-off ours? Until now you have coveted our horses
-only. How didst thou find means to correspond with
-her? Who was thy guide? How did she first see
-thee?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Like a tiger, which with eye and ear watches for
-the least cry, the least motion of the prey it is about
-to seize, Djezzar watched for a word of avowal—a
-denunciatory sign on the part of him whom he interrogated.
-He obtained none from him, but he felt the
-knees of Baïla tremble.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Christian,” he resumed, “I repeat to thee, be
-sincere. Tell me what hope thou hast conceived;
-tell me who introduced thee into this place; name
-thy accomplice, and whatever may be thy fault I
-will place in the other scale thy youth and thy consular
-title, although thy presence in the midst of my
-harem at night gives me a right to forget it. But I
-will consider what thou hast already endured, and,
-like Allah, I will be merciful. Speak; I listen.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He inhaled again the odorous smoke of his pipe,
-and appeared to await a reply; but the captive remained
-silent and motionless.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Speak, Christian, speak! There is yet time. At
-this price alone canst thou purchase thy life—by abjuring
-thy idolatry, of course.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At this last sentence the young man raised his
-head—a noble blush mounted to his face.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“To denounce and apostatize,” said he; “is such
-thy clemency, pacha? Have thy executioners forgotten
-to tell thee who I am? Art thou, who hast
-thyself honored me with the title of Christian, ignorant
-of the duties which this title enjoins? Dost
-thou think that the disciples of Christ care so much
-for this mortal life, as to plunge their souls twice
-into ineffaceable pollution?” and his eye sparkled,
-and his whole countenance assumed an expression of
-sublime beauty.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“It is said,” said Djezzar, forming, from his apparent
-imperturbability, a fine contrast with the exaltation
-of the young Frank. “Thou wishest to die, and
-thou shalt die. But dost thou know for what an end
-I reserve thee?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Be it what it may, I am ready,” replied the captive.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Then thou regrettest nothing of this mortal life?”
-and the pacha followed his look attentively, which
-he thought he would fix on Baïla.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Nothing,” said the young man, with his eyes
-cast down, “but the not being assisted at my last
-moments by a priest of my religion.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Djezzar appeared to reflect; a slight smile then
-contracted his lips.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If thy wishes go no farther,” he said, “they
-shall be gratified.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Mangrebian reappeared at his call. A few
-moments afterward an old man, with a bald head, a
-long white beard, and a severe countenance, entered.
-He trembled violently at the sight of the pacha, as if
-he thought his last hour was come.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He was a poor Maronite monk, sent recently by
-the patriarch of Mount Libanus to replace the superior
-of the convent of Perkinik, who was dead.
-The pacha had, whilst passing on that day through
-this Catholic village, in the environs of Shivas,
-wished to make an exaction on this miserable convent,
-in which a few monks, covered with rags,
-lived by the labor of their hands, in the midst of a
-population as miserable as themselves. Djezzar, unable
-to extort the money which they had not, had
-carried off their superior with him, to detain him as
-a hostage until the sum demanded was paid.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='pageno' title='218' id='Page_218'></span>
-“<span class='it'>Kaffer</span>,” he said to him, “thou hast refused to
-pay the taxes of <span class='it'>Miri</span> and <span class='it'>Karadj</span>.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The Christians of Libanus are exempt from them
-since the capitulation of the holy King Louis,” replied
-the unfortunate man, whose voice betrayed a
-violent emotion. “The Vice Roy Mehemet Ali regarded
-us as exempt.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“To hell with the old rascal!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But the sultans themselves have recognized this
-law, your highness.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“There is no law here but my will,” replied the
-pacha.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What can I do to disarm thy severity,” blubbered
-out the old man, fixing his terrified look upon
-the lion crouched beside Djezzar, and of which he
-already considered himself the prey. “I have nothing
-in the world which thou canst take from me,
-but my life.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Which I will do if thou dost not obey me at once.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But, to acquit this impost—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“By the koran, who is now speaking to thee of
-imposts? Of <span class='it'>Karadj</span> and <span class='it'>Miri</span> I hold thee acquitted,
-thou and thine, forever, and thou art free, and shalt
-leave here carrying with thee more piastres than I
-demanded of thee; but before we separate thou must
-call down the curses of thy God on that dog there.”
-Then, turning to his other captive, he continued:
-“Yes, thou art about to die, and die accursed by a
-priest of thy religion. Inch Allah, wilt thou speak
-now?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>With an heroic resignation Ferdinand, as his only
-reply, kneels and bows his head, devoted at once
-to the sabre and anathema, when he hears the old
-Cenobite of Libanus, raising his trembling hands
-above his head, say to him, in a soft voice,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If thou art a Christian, I bless thee, my son.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>These holy words were scarcely pronounced when
-the old man fell, shot dead. Baïla fell backward
-with a movement of horror, and the pacha, with unbounded
-impassibility, replaced his pistol in his belt.
-He interrupted this movement suddenly to restrain
-his lion by the mane, which, animated by the sight
-of blood, was about to spring with a roar on the
-body of the Maronite.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Carry off that corpse,” said Djezzar to the Mangrebian,
-“and leave us.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The dead body carried off, the Mangrebian gone,
-turning to the lion, which, with open mouth and
-thirsty and trembling lips, was uttering low growls
-and darting his brilliant glance toward the prey
-which was carried from him, Djezzar, restraining
-him by voice and gesture, said:</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Be patient, Haïder; thy part shalt soon come—thou
-shalt not lose by the exchange.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He then resumed his first position, and whilst the
-lion, restrained by him, continued its low roaring,
-with its eyes fixed on a large spot of blood on the
-carpet, and addressing Baïla, without appearing to
-notice the emotions of terror by which she was agitated,
-said:</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, the giaour is for us three—for each a part.
-For me, his head; for the lion, his body; and for
-thee, my beautiful rose of Incour—my faithful, for
-thee, his heart. Has he not given thee that heart?
-Well, go take it.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla, undecided, troubled with horror, knew not
-what meaning to attach to his words.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Go, take it,” repeated Djezzar. “look, behold!
-powerless to defend himself, does he not appear himself
-to offer it to thee? Go, my soul, and if thy
-dagger is not enough for the work, use mine.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The odalisk bent toward him—“Thou art sporting
-with me, Ali—is it not so?” she murmured in his
-ear.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Dost thou not hear me, or art thou unwilling to
-understand me?” he replied, in a formidable tone.
-“This man dies—dies at once, by thy hand, or I
-shall believe thee to be his accomplice, and thy head
-shall fall before his. I swear it, by Mahomet and
-the four caliphs.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Baïla, having to choose between inflicting or receiving
-death, felt an icy coldness in her veins; her
-forehead became lividly pale.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thou hesitatest!” said the pacha.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She carried a trembling hand to her dagger.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Take mine,” he said.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The hand of Baïla fell on the shoulder of Djezzar,
-and remained there as if paralyzed; her troubled
-eyes were raised furtively toward the young Frank,
-even on that very evening the object of her reveries of
-love; toward that young martyr, who by a word
-could destroy her, and who was about to die—to die
-for her, for being unwilling to pronounce that word.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Wilt thou obey?” said the executioner, with a
-gesture of impatient rage.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The hand of Baïla descended from the shoulder of
-Djezzar and played inquisitively among the arms
-which formed an arsenal at his belt.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thou tremblest—thou art unwilling to do it?
-Thou lovest him then!” he exclaimed at last.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I love him,” replied the Mingrelian, and
-bounding suddenly forward she sheathed the blade of
-the yataghan full in the breast of the pacha. Though
-mortally wounded he still made an effort to seize his
-other pistol, but, at a gesture from Baïla, the lion
-Haïder, excited anew by the sight of the flowing
-blood, springing on his master did his part.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Whilst Ferdinand, alarmed at what was passing,
-was closing his eyes, stretching out in terror his
-bound arms, the Mingrelian, endowed with wonderful
-presence of mind, gathered quickly into one corner
-of the saloon the light furniture and stuffs which
-were in it; she set them on fire, and seizing the
-young Frank, who was more dead than alive, by his
-bonds, led him toward a secret outlet, which conducted
-them to the sleeping chamber of the Abyssinian
-negress.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The palace of Kizil-Ermak, which was of Turkish
-construction—that is, built of wood—was almost entirely
-consumed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On the next day the news mongers of Shivas endeavored
-to define the causes of this great event.
-Some said that the pacha had been strangled by his
-lion, and that, in the struggle between these two
-fierce beasts a torch was upset, which was the cause
-of the fire. Others, reasoning from the usage of the
-<span class='pageno' title='219' id='Page_219'></span>
-ancient Ottoman regime, and claiming to be better
-informed, said that a man, wearing the dress of a
-Frank, after having sojourned in the city long
-enough to avert suspicion as to the object of his
-secret mission, had introduced himself into the presence
-of the pacha in the very interior of his harem;
-when the latter had ordered his slaves to behead him,
-the pretended Frank, who was no other than the
-<span class='it'>capidgé-bechi</span> of the sultan, had shown his <span class='it'>katcherif</span>,
-and that the head of Djezzar had alone fallen. The
-fire had broken out in the midst of the disorder, and
-the <span class='it'>capidgé-bechi</span>, taking advantage of the great
-crowd attracted thereby, had escaped, in a new disguise.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Twenty other versions were in circulation, almost
-all of which were repeated by the journals of
-Europe.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Whilst in Shivas, Rocata, and other cities of the
-pachalick, they were thus indulging in explanations
-more or less truthful, Baïla and Ferdinand, who
-had been enabled to escape in disguise from the
-palace, thanks to the confusion and the crowd, concealed
-themselves at first in the mountains to the
-south of Shivas, where some Kurdish brigands took
-them under their protection, exacting a very moderate
-ransom; they then found an asylum in a convent,
-then twenty others in the caverns or depths of
-the woods of Avanes, always, however, continuing
-their path steadily up the Red River. Having finally
-entered the dominions of the Shah of Persia, they
-returned to France in the train of the last embassy.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In these wanderings Ferdinand lost some of his
-ardor for proselytising. He had traveled across
-mountains and valleys by day and by night, carrying
-temptation with him; Baïla had really become to
-him the demon which he had fancied her.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>With the beautiful Mingrelian, his liberator, and
-the companion of his flight, walking at the same pace,
-in the same pathway, sleeping under the same
-shelter, cared for and watched over by her, it had
-been difficult for him to prevent his heart from beating
-under other inspirations than those of divine
-love. Ferdinand was twenty-five years old, and
-gratitude has great sway over a generous soul.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Still in the first days of their common flight he
-had converted his schismatic companion, who, from
-her indifference to matters of religion, was easy to
-persuade; but it was said that in her turn she had
-soon converted him. What is positively known
-about it is, that the young man did not return to
-France alone, but that when his passport was exhibited
-at Marseilles, it provided for M. Ferdinand
-Laperre, consular cadet, traveling <span class='it'>with his sister</span>.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>My friend, the illustrious traveler, had already
-furnished me with all the details of the history I have
-recounted; but my curiosity was not yet fully satisfied.
-I wished to know the fate of the lovers after
-their arrival in France. I pressed him with questions
-on this point, and at first uselessly. We were
-breakfasting in the open air, on the lawn at the
-Butard, and my botanist, in an exultation difficult to
-describe, was fully occupied with a godsend he had
-found beneath the table we had used. It was a
-small plant with shaggy and lanceolate leaves, with
-flowers of pale yellow, marked with a violet spot at
-the base of their five petals.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Cistus guttatus! Helianthemum guttatum!</span>”
-he exclaimed, with cries and gestures impossible to
-describe to any one who has not the heart of a botanist.
-“I thought it only existed in the mountains
-of Anti-Taurus, from whence I brought away so
-carefully an unique specimen. It was my finest
-vegetable conquest, and lo I find it here at the Butard
-at Luciennes, a suburb of Paris, beneath the table of
-a tavern. How can this be? Taurus and the Butard
-rivals in their productions? I am nonplussed! Do
-you believe in Asia Minor?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But of Asia Minor?” said I, interrupting him with
-tenacity, with obstinacy; “you have related to me
-a story, the parties to which interest me strongly—I
-beseech you tell me more of them!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“They are perfectly well, I thank you,” he
-replied.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I do not inquire after their health, but their
-fate.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Ah! what has become of them? Yes, I comprehend;”
-then looking at me with an air of mockery,
-and laughing loudly, he continued, “as they have,
-like us, a habit of chatting much when eating, they
-breakfast near by.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“How! What!” I exclaimed, “those people at
-the fountain of the priest?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Truly. You now discover that you are no
-diviner. The alledged confectioner, the lemonade
-seller, is no other than my friend, Ferdinand Laperre,
-our Christian martyr; and his companion, by
-you so lightly qualified as a chambermaid, or a
-countess without prejudices, is Baïla, the ex-favorite
-of Djezzar, the pacha of Shivas; Baïla, the Mingrelian,
-the rose of Incour, the dove in the talons of
-the hawk.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After having inflicted this mockery upon me,
-which was doubtless well merited, my friend determined
-finally to finish the story.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Having arrived in Paris, events of a more vulgar
-nature than those which had signalized their sojourn
-in Shivas, proved the young Frenchman and the
-Mingrelian. Their money gave out. The ornaments,
-presents from Djezzar, which the odalisk had
-carried off in her flight, were, most of them, false.
-Pachas even are no longer to be trusted. Ferdinand
-must, above every thing, seek for a lucrative employment.
-He entered the royal printing office as a
-proof-reader of Oriental works. This resource being
-insufficient for the wants of the household, Baïla
-sought also to be useful. Having never handled a
-needle, she could not become a seamstress or an
-embroideress, or a dressing-maid, or a female companion.
-She has a charming voice, and might, at a
-pinch, challenge all the Italian, French, and other
-singers, in warbling and trilling; but understanding
-none of the European languages, she could only sing
-Arabian <span class='it'>mouals</span> or Turkish <span class='it'>gazels</span>. Fortunately
-she dances also; and dancing is a language spoken
-and understood in all countries. She now figures in
-the ballet corps of the opera, where she is remarkable
-<span class='pageno' title='220' id='Page_220'></span>
-for her lightness, her mildness, and her modesty.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As my illustrious friend finished his recital, we
-saw Ferdinand Laperre and his handsome companion
-walking arm-in-arm toward the Butard. Now,
-better informed, I admired the rare beauty of the
-Mingrelian, and the wonderful and graceful suppleness
-of her figure. My eyes were directed curiously
-toward the lower extremities of the ex-consular
-cadet, to examine the form and dimensions of his
-feet, so as to verify one of the details of this history.
-I found them much as usual. He had doubtless confided
-to Baïla the connection of friendship existing
-between him and my companion, for when we again
-met, she made him a slight wave of the hand, saying,
-“<span class='it'>Bojour mocha</span>.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Salem-Alai-k</span>,” replied my illustrious traveler.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>I saluted her profoundly.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk104'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='night'></a>A NIGHT AT THE BLACK SIGN.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>Ye, who follow to the measure</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Where the trump of Fortune leads,</p>
-<p class='line'>And at inns a-glow with pleasure</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Rein your golden-harnessed steeds,</p>
-<p class='line'>In your hours of lordly leisure</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Have ye heard a voice of wo</p>
-<p class='line'>On the starless wind of midnight</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Come and go?</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Pilgrim brothers, whose existence</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Rides the higher roads of Time,</p>
-<p class='line'>Hark, how from the troubled distance,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Voices made by wo sublime,</p>
-<p class='line'>In their sorrow, claim assistance,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Though it come from friend or foe—</p>
-<p class='line'>Shall they ask and find no answer?</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Rise and go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>One there was, who in his sadness</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Laid his staff and mantle down,</p>
-<p class='line'>Where the demons laughed to madness</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;What the night-winds could not drown—</p>
-<p class='line'>Never came a voice of gladness</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Though the cups should foam and flow,</p>
-<p class='line'>And the pilgrim thus proclaiming</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Rose to go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“All the night I hear the speaking</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Of low voices round my bed,</p>
-<p class='line'>And the dreary floor a-creaking</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Under feet of stealthy tread:—</p>
-<p class='line'>Like a very demon shrieking</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Swings the black sign to and fro,</p>
-<p class='line'>Come, arise, thou cheerless keeper,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;For I go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“On the hearth the brands are lying</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In a black, unseemly show;</p>
-<p class='line'>Through the roof the winds are sighing</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And they will not cease to blow;</p>
-<p class='line'>Through the house sad hearts replying</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Send their answer deep and low—</p>
-<p class='line'>Come, arise, thou cheerless keeper,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;For I go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“Tell me not of fires relighted</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And of chambers glowing warm,</p>
-<p class='line'>Or of travelers benighted,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Overtaken by the storm.</p>
-<p class='line'>Urge me not; your hand is blighted</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;As your heart is—even so!</p>
-<p class='line'>Come, arise, thou cheerless keeper—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;For I go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“Tell me not of goblets teeming</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;With the antidote of pain,</p>
-<p class='line'>For its taste and pleasant seeming</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Only hide the deadly bane;</p>
-<p class='line'>Hear your sleepers tortured dreaming,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;How they curse thee in their wo!</p>
-<p class='line'>Come, arise, thou cheerless keeper,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;For I go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“I will leave your dreary tavern</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Ere I drink its mandragore:</p>
-<p class='line'>Like a black and hated cavern</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;There are reptiles on the floor;</p>
-<p class='line'>They have overrun your tavern,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;They are at your wine below!</p>
-<p class='line'>Come, arise, thou fearful keeper,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;For I go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“There’s an hostler in your stable</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Tends a steed no man may own,</p>
-<p class='line'>And against your windy gable</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;How the night-birds scream and moan!</p>
-<p class='line'>Even the bread upon your table</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Is the ashy food of wo;</p>
-<p class='line'>Come, arise, thou fearful keeper,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;For I go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“Here I will not seek for slumber,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And I will not taste your wine:</p>
-<p class='line'>All your house the fiends encumber,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And they are no mates of mine;</p>
-<p class='line'>Nevermore I join your number</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Though the tempests rain or snow—</p>
-<p class='line'>Here’s my staff and here’s my mantle,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;And I go.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Suffering brothers—doubly brothers—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;(Pain hath made us more akin)</p>
-<p class='line'>Trust not to the strength of others,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Trust the arm of strength within;</p>
-<p class='line'>One good hour of courage smothers</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;All the ills an age can know;</p>
-<p class='line'>Take your staff and take your mantle,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Rise and go.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk105'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='221' id='Page_221'></span><h1><a id='chris'></a>SONNETS:</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-weight:bold;'>SUGGESTED BY PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MISS A. D. WOODBRIDGE.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>The Era of Discovery.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>The darkest storm-cloud oft upon its breast</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Weareth the bow of promise. In the hour</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Of deepest anguish, words of healing power</p>
-<p class='line'>Are whispered to the spirit—“Peace!” and “Rest!”</p>
-<p class='line'>Praise to our God! if e’en Death’s shadow lower,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Hope lightens all the gloom, with radiant crest—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh! Joy is, oft, in garb of sorrow drest,</p>
-<p class='line'>And direst grief brings rapture as its dower.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Thus, on the night of ages, flashed a light</p>
-<p class='line'>Of wondrous power and splendor, Learning came</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Forth from the cloisters. Welcome to the sight,</p>
-<p class='line'>A breath from Heaven relit religion’s flame.</p>
-<p class='line'>’Twas then, his sail the great Discover furled,</p>
-<p class='line'>’Twas then, was born, as ’twere, this western world.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;II.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>The Early Life of Columbus.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Amid a glorious city, woke to light</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;He who threw back a double radiance pure;</p>
-<p class='line'>And that blue sea! ’Twas as an angel bright,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Beck’ning the child to fame and fortune sure.</p>
-<p class='line'>How lovingly its waters kissed his feet!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;How graceful yielded, as to lure away</p>
-<p class='line'>The young enthusiast! Should he fail to meet</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The ceaseless chime, forbidding him to stay.</p>
-<p class='line'>The <span class='it'>man</span>, the <span class='it'>hour</span> were found, and from that time</p>
-<p class='line'>His soul was girded for its task sublime:</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To struggle on, through error’s endless maze;</p>
-<p class='line'>To bear contempt, and poverty, and pain;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To wait for royal favor’s fickle rays;—</p>
-<p class='line'>To find a world beyond the western main!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;III.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>Columbus at the University of Pavia.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Here was the manna for his hungry soul;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And here the fount for which he’d thirsted long.</p>
-<p class='line'>Though yet his years were few, none might control</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;His mighty yearnings, or his purpose strong.</p>
-<p class='line'>Ah! it is joy to watch the spark divine,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To feel it struck, as thought encounters thought!</p>
-<p class='line'>What deep, exulting happiness was thine,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;When to thine aid long-hidden lore was brought,</p>
-<p class='line'>And thou, Columbus! didst believe the skies</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Stooped down to nerve thee for thy high emprise!</p>
-<p class='line'>’Twas well thou hadst the witness in thine heart,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Or thou hadst fainted in thy weary way;</p>
-<p class='line'>Though hope “deferred,” though anguish were thy part,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Faith shed a halo round thee day by day.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;IV.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>Columbus arrives in Spain.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>What veiléd glory, and what strange disguise,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;We meet in by-ways of this wondrous earth!</p>
-<p class='line'>How oft the “angel” to our scaléd eyes</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Seems but a “stranger” guest of mortal birth!</p>
-<p class='line'>Met with cold words, or, haply, careless mirth,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Known only when he’s passed into the skies.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Columbus asks for bread!<a id='r2'/><a href='#f2' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[2]</span></sup></a> None see the ties</p>
-<p class='line'>Which link him to the future home and hearth</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Of unborn millions. Thus, the glorious day</p>
-<p class='line'>Oft dawns in clouds, while the cold, ceaseless rain</p>
-<p class='line'>Fills up each pause in the wind’s moaning strain,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And forms of evil seem to haunt our way.</p>
-<p class='line'>The sky seems brightest when the clouds depart!</p>
-<p class='line'>Earth-woes make heaven still dearer to the heart.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_2'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 3em;'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div id='f2'><a href='#r2'>[2]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On his first arrival in Spain, Columbus asked for
-bread and water for his child, at the convent of La Rabida.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;V.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>Columbus before the Council.</span></span><a id='r3'/><a href='#f3' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[3]</span></sup></a></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>A silver lining to on ebon cloud;<a id='r4'/><a href='#f4' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[4]</span></sup></a></p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;A diamond flashing in Cimmerian cave;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;A Lazarus, up-rising from the grave,</p>
-<p class='line'>Bursting the cerements of the straitened shroud;</p>
-<p class='line'>To all true men Columbus calls aloud.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;He scans the past, with all its priestly lore,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;But, Janus-like, beholds the future’s shore.</p>
-<p class='line'>What glorious scenes, what teeming wonders crowd!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;What though the church behold him with a frown!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;What though the crosier point toward the rack,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;When heresy is near, as to the track</p>
-<p class='line'>Of precious gold the magic hazel leans?</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;He heedeth not the mitre, cowl, or gown;</p>
-<p class='line'>A new creation on his spirit beams.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_3'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 3em;'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div id='f3'><a href='#r3'>[3]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Irving speaks of the ignorance of this body on all
-<span class='it'>scientific</span> subjects, causing the opinions of Columbus to be
-regarded as heretical.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_4'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 3em;'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div id='f4'><a href='#r4'>[4]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Was I deceived, or did an ebon cloud</p>
-<p class='line0'>Turn forth its silver lining on the night? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class='sc'>Milton.</span></p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;VI.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>Columbus at Court.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>The crescent wanes within Granada’s walls;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The Moorish standard bows into the dust;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The hour hath come when proud Boabdil must</p>
-<p class='line'>Yield to Castilian prowess. In the halls</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Of the Alhambra hymns of praise and trust</p>
-<p class='line'>Ascend to Heaven. On the glad ear there falls</p>
-<p class='line'>A mighty shout of triumph. Each one calls</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;“Rejoice! the Cross hath conquered—ever just!”</p>
-<p class='line'>Who cometh ’mid the throng? One who hath learned</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To hope, when hope hath died within the breast;</p>
-<p class='line'>Fainting, to hold right on, though scoffed and spurned—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Amid that jubilation he is blest.</p>
-<p class='line'>Man’s eyes are holden, but proud Woman’s name</p>
-<p class='line'>From that good hour shares the Discoverer’s fame.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;VII.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>The Embarkation.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Oh! sweet as is the voice of one most dear,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And balmy as the welcome breath of heaven</p>
-<p class='line'>To the sick soul, long “cabined, cribbed, confined,”</p>
-<p class='line'>Is the blesséd wind, that on his high career</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Now wafts the man to whose high trust is given</p>
-<p class='line'>A world unknown, save to his mighty mind.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The last deep prayer is said—the mystic rite</p>
-<p class='line'>Hath brought new strength unto his awe-struck heart,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;He who long struggled with the diver’s might,</p>
-<p class='line'>Who oft the waves of error did dispart,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And gasped for breath amid those shades of night,</p>
-<p class='line'>Now with the aim unerring of a dart</p>
-<p class='line'>Strikes for the pearl, bright gleaming to his eyes—</p>
-<p class='line'>What mortal man e’er brought up such a prize!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;VIII.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>The Discovery.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>The morning dawns, and to th’ enraptured eye</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Appears a land, glorious beyond compare,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Save that the dreamer saw in vision fair,</p>
-<p class='line'>When to the Holy City he drew nigh.</p>
-<p class='line'>The long-drawn veil e’en now is rent in twain!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Well may he enter in, with grateful prayer,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And bathe, as ’twere in a diviner air.</p>
-<p class='line'>Well may the tears flow down—a blesséd rain!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And Spain’s broad banner proudly rise on high.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;What scenes unknown—what beings from the sky,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;May wait his coming, or his glory share,</p>
-<p class='line'><span class='pageno' title='222' id='Page_222'></span></p>
-<p class='line'>And sing his praise in a celestial strain?</p>
-<p class='line'>Methinks his soul might now depart in peace!</p>
-<p class='line'>Well had it been had he then found release!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;IX.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>The Return to Spain.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Joy! for the Victor cometh! He hath won</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;A prouder triumph than the great of eld;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The tempest-tossed, within whose bosom swelled</p>
-<p class='line'>Bright hopes, that changed to fears, now sees the sun</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Shine on the fair and fertile land of Spain,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Which hails his name with proud enraptured strain.</p>
-<p class='line'>All press to gaze on th’ anointed one,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Whom the Most High within his hand has held—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;While peals again the long and loud refrain;</p>
-<p class='line'>And for “Castile and Leon’s” chosen son,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;A full-orbed glory shineth in the West.</p>
-<p class='line'>Oh! if Life’s sands e’en then had ceased to run,</p>
-<p class='line'>Bright visions of those “islands of the blest”</p>
-<p class='line'>Had soothed him to his last and dreamless rest.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;X.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>Columbus in Chains.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>In chains! in chains! homeward once more he came!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Life’s sky is veiled in midnight drear and dark;—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And this is his reward! They leave no mark</p>
-<p class='line'>Those shameless fetters on his own fair fame.</p>
-<p class='line'>The shaft may pierce his soul, but yet no shame</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Bows that proud head; he is the victor still;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;He triumphs in a stern, unconquered will.</p>
-<p class='line'>His ’scutcheon fair was dimmed by breath of blame;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The stain is washed away by woman’s tears;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;His patron-queen forbids his anxious fears—</p>
-<p class='line'>Her gracious sweetness brings him to the dust.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The pledge of royal favor now he hears.—</p>
-<p class='line'>But, oh! too long it waited—<span class='it'>to be just</span>;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;While care and grief led on the lingering years.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;XI.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>Columbus proposes a new Crusade.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>The evening sky is bright with blended hues;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;A soft, mild radiance, borrowed from on high,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Seems, to our view, to bring e’en heaven nigh,</p>
-<p class='line'>And its pure essence in our souls infuse.</p>
-<p class='line'>Thus, to that noble heart, as from the sky,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;There came a presence, in life’s slow decline;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;He viewed it as a holy seal and sign—</p>
-<p class='line'>The Cross must crown the city of the Jews!</p>
-<p class='line'>Like the pure incense-flame he soars from earth;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In fancy sees the prophet’s page unroll,</p>
-<p class='line'>And reads therein the presage of his birth,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The mighty mission of his single soul!</p>
-<p class='line'>Life’s pathway bears for him a healing balm,</p>
-<p class='line'>Which cheers his heart and nerves his fainting arm.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;XII.—<span class='sc'><span style='font-size:larger'>The Death of Columbus.</span></span></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>He cometh to the shore of that vast sea,<a id='r5'/><a href='#f5' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[5]</span></sup></a></p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Whereon he never yet hath spread his sail;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;His last, last voyage. Now every chart must fail,</p>
-<p class='line'>Save that, our Father! he received of Thee!</p>
-<p class='line'>With an unwavering trust he meets the wave,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Which bears him onward to the dread unknown;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;From man’s injustice to that mighty Throne,</p>
-<p class='line'>Supreme in power, Omnipotent to save.</p>
-<p class='line'>Ah! ne’er from that far land shall he return!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;His dust shall mingle with his mother-earth</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In that fair isle to which his skill gave birth.<a id='r6'/><a href='#f6' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[6]</span></sup></a></p>
-<p class='line'>That mighty soul! where doth it “breathe and burn?”</p>
-<p class='line'>What worlds hath it discerned beyond the tomb,</p>
-<p class='line'>Which to our eyes are all enwrapped in gloom?</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_5'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 3em;'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div id='f5'><a href='#r5'>[5]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;“The shore</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of that vast ocean we must sail so soon.”</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_6'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 3em;'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div id='f6'><a href='#r6'>[6]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The remains of Columbus were deposited in the convent
-of St. Francisco, but repeatedly removed, and,
-finally, on the 15th January, 1796, transferred, with almost
-regal pomp, to the island of Cuba.</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk106'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='bunch'></a>TO A FRIEND—WITH A BUNCH OF ROSES.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MISS L. VIRGINIA SMITH.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>Go forth in beauty blushing to the one I love so well—</p>
-<p class='line'>Let this dewy fragrance gushing to his spirit softly tell</p>
-<p class='line'>How a secret, sweet revealing from a gentle kindred heart,</p>
-<p class='line'>Far through his bosom stealing, comes to seek its nobler part.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Oh! there’s not a spell so glowing in this lovely world of ours,</p>
-<p class='line'>As when Feeling’s tones are flowing through the voices of the flowers,</p>
-<p class='line'>When Affection’s thoughts are wreathing in a murmured melody</p>
-<p class='line'>Round their dewy petals breathing forth a music-mystery.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>There are angel voices given in their delicate perfume,</p>
-<p class='line'>Which will lead us up to Heaven where the fadeless roses bloom,</p>
-<p class='line'>They have come unto us glowing with a beauty from the skies,</p>
-<p class='line'>They are gifts of God’s bestowing, from a blessed Paradise.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Let a bright and lovely vision from our sunny Southern bowers,</p>
-<p class='line'>A dream of joy elysian be awakened by these flowers,</p>
-<p class='line'>For a wealth of bliss is filling all the loveliness they wear,</p>
-<p class='line'>And their tiny leaves are thrilling with the messages they bear.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Where the velvet bud uncloses to the morning’s golden beam</p>
-<p class='line'>Be thy life like summer roses floating o’er a summer stream,</p>
-<p class='line'>And amid its sunny bowers may a gentle heart be thine,</p>
-<p class='line'>To bring thee back the flowers which thou hast thrown o’er mine.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Yes—a gentle heart to bring them—leaves from out the distant past,</p>
-<p class='line'>O’er thy path in life to fling them—all unfading to the last,</p>
-<p class='line'>In itself the sweetest blossom which a “God of love” has given,</p>
-<p class='line'>To be worn within thy bosom—and to bloom for aye in Heaven.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk107'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='223' id='Page_223'></span><h1><a id='music'></a>MUSIC.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY HENRY GILES.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The mere capacity in man of perceiving sound,
-renders the musical element a necessity in nature
-and in life. Discord, as a permanent state, is as inconceivable
-as a permanent state of chaos. The
-combinations of sounds, therefore, in the audible
-creation, if not all in detail musical, are pervaded by
-the musical element: No ear is insensible to the
-music of the air in the branches of a tree; to the
-groaning of it in the hollow cave—to its whistle in
-the grass, or to its spirit-voices in a stormy night
-around the dwelling. No ear is insensible to the
-trickling melody of the stream, to the deep song of
-the river—to the solemn anthem of the torrent, to
-the eternal harmonies of the ocean. Birds are peculiarly
-the musicians of the animal world. But how
-skillful and how rich their music is, we must learn,
-not from the printed page, but in the sunny
-grove. Though other creatures have not, as birds,
-the gift of song, yet are they not unmusical, and
-have their parts in the mighty orchestra of living
-nature. Musical sounds are grateful to the sense—and
-all beings that hear listen to them, enjoy them,
-and need them. In music man has a common
-medium of sympathy with his fellow animals. The
-charger prances to the sounds that swell the heart
-of his master—for he, too, has a heart which they
-can enter and dilate. A melody can soothe the lion’s
-rage. The elephant treads delighted to the measure
-of the band. The dog bays gladness to the shepherd’s
-flute. The cow stands in placid rapture while
-the milk-maid sings. Man is scarcely ever so rude
-as to be beyond the reach of music. It was a myth,
-containing as much truth as beauty, that feigned
-Apollo with his lyre as the early tamer of wild men.
-If music is the first influence which the race feels,
-it is also the first which the individual feels. The
-infant opens its intelligence and love to the mother’s
-song as much as to the mother’s face. The voice,
-even more than the look, is the primitive awakener
-of the intellect and heart. Every mother ought to
-sing. A song will outlive all sermons in the memory.
-Let memories that begin life have songs that last for
-life.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>As a mere sensation, music has power. A little
-maid I have known, who would sit on her cricket
-by her father’s knee until he had read the whole of
-Christobel—of which she did not know the meaning
-of a line. It was melodious to her ear, and merely
-in its music there was fascination to her infant spirit.
-The songs which primitive people sing—in which
-they have their best social interchange, are frequently
-poor in diction and bald in sentiment. It is
-the music that gives the words a life; and this life
-can transfuse energetic inspiration into the meanest
-words. Early melodies are, of necessity, most
-simple. They are the instincts seeking to put themselves
-into measured sound—yet with little to fill the
-ear, and less to reach the mind. Nevertheless, they
-are good for the mind and pleasant to the ear. A
-rude musical sensation is of value; of how much
-more value is a refined musical sensation. But a
-musical sensation is of its very nature a refined one.
-It is among the purest of sensations. It may, indeed,
-be associated with coarse and base emotions.
-This, however, is not in itself. It is in the imagination
-or the word-music simply, as music presents
-nothing to the sense that is either coarse or base.
-The conception is from the mind to music, not from
-music to the mind. Speaking of music as a sensation,
-I speak relatively—for to man there is no music
-without soul. In music soul and sense both mingle—and
-become <span class='it'>one</span> in its inspired sound.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Yet the least part of music is the mere sensation.
-It is not on the ear but on the heart that its finest
-spirit dwells. <span class='it'>There</span> are the living chords which it
-puts in motion, and in whose vibration it has the
-echoes of its tones. The heart, after all, is the instrument
-with which the true musician has to deal. He
-must understand that from its lowest note to the top
-of its compass. The true test of music is the amount
-of feeling it contains. The true criterion of a love
-for music is the capacity to appreciate feeling in
-music. Music properly is the language of emotion.
-It is the language of the heart. Its grammar, its
-rhetoric, its eloquence, its oratory, is of the heart.
-The evidence of its power is in the calm or the
-quivering pulsation. Feeling in music is a memory,
-a sympathy, or an impulse. Nothing can recall with
-such vividness as music can a past emotion—a departed
-state of mind. Words are but the history of
-a by-gone thought—music is its presence. All our
-profoundest feelings are in their nature lyrical.
-Whatever most deeply affects us, we do, in some
-way, link to tune, or they are by tune awakened.
-The feelings sing of themselves, and make an orchestra
-of the brain. Persons utterly incapable of putting
-the simplest combination of sounds musically together,
-will make melody in their hearts of the reminiscences
-that strongly move them. And these will
-commonly be sad, as all is that is connected with
-the Past—sad, however, with various degrees of intensity—some,
-but calm regrets—others, dirges and
-requiems. Therefore it is that the most affecting
-melodies belong to the Past—to the past in the life
-of a man—to the past in the life of a nation. Such
-melodies come not from prosperity or power. They
-come from those who have missed a history, or
-whose history is over. Such melodies are voices
-of sadness—the yearnings over what might have
-been but was not—the regret for what has been but
-will never be again. And thus, too, it is with the
-most affecting eloquence. That which agitates the
-<span class='pageno' title='224' id='Page_224'></span>
-breast with force resistless is the word which is
-fraught with the passions of its sorrow. Life in
-power is Action—Life in memory is elegy or eloquence.
-A nation, like a man, dreams its life again—and
-until life is gone or changed it soliloquizes or
-sings its dreams. The music of memory lives in
-every man’s experience; and the excellence of it is,
-that it binds itself only to our better feelings. It is
-the excellence of our nature, also, that only such
-feelings have spontaneous memories. The worst
-man does not willingly recall his bad feelings: and
-if he did, he could not wed them to a melody. Hatred,
-malice—vengeance, envy, have, to be sure,
-their proper expressions in the lyric drama, but of
-themselves they are not musical, and by themselves
-they could not be endured. It is not so with the kind
-emotions. They are in themselves a music—and
-memory delights in the sweetness of their intonations.
-Love, affection, friendship, patriotism, pity,
-grief, courage—whatever generously swells the
-heart or tenderly subdues it—or purely elevates it—are,
-of themselves, of their own attuning and accordant
-graciousness, of a musical inspiration. With
-what enchantment will a simple strain pierce the
-silence of the breast, and in every note break the
-slumber of a thousand thoughts. It is a positive enchantment.
-Faces long in the clay bloom as they
-did in youth. An inward ear is opened through the
-outward—and voices of other times are speaking—and
-words which you had heard before come to
-your soul, and they are pleasant in this illusive echo.
-Your spirit is lost in the flight of days, and insensible
-to the interval of distance; it is back in other hours,
-and dwells in other scenes. Such are the mysterious
-linkings by which music interlaces itself with
-our feelings—and so becomes an inseparable portion
-of our sympathy. But sympathy exists only when
-music answers to the spirit. Give not a merry carol
-to a heavy heart; although you may give a grave
-strain to a light one. Music, as rightly used, is, as
-some one calls it, “the medicine of an afflicted
-mind.” Joy is heightened by exultant strains, but
-grief is eased only by low ones. “A sweet, sad
-measure” is the balm of a wounded spirit. Music
-lightens toil. The sailor pulls more cheerily for his
-song: and even the slave feels in singing that he is a
-man. But, in other forms of labor, we miss in our
-country the lyric feeling. Most of our work is done
-in silence. We hear none of those songs at the
-milking hour, which renders that hour in Europe so
-rich in pastoral and poetical associations. We hear
-no ploughman’s whistle ringing over the field with a
-buoyant hilarity. We have no chorusses of reapers,
-and no merry harvest-feasts. But if such things can
-not be naturally, it is vain to wish for them—and it
-may be even useless to mention them. Better things,
-perhaps, are in their place—grave meditation and
-manly thought—and I merely allude to them as elements
-that accord pleasingly with certain modes of
-life in countries to whose habits and history they
-are native. Music in social intercourse is a fine
-awakener of sympathies, and a fine uniter of them.
-A violin or a piano is often not less needed to soothe
-the ruffled spirit of a company, than the harp of David
-was to calm down the fiend in the turbulent
-breast of Saul. Music, as we see in the customs of
-all nations, is used as an antidote to the sense of
-danger, as well as a stimulus to the passion of combat.
-And as embattled hosts move with measured
-tramp to the field of death, music is the magic that
-is trusted to charm away fear or to call up courage.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Largely are men indebted even to the music of
-ballads and of songs. Difficult it would be to measure
-the good which such music has done to mankind.
-To multitudes in days of yore songs were the
-only literature, and by the bards they had all their
-learning. Songs were their history; their romance;
-their tragedy; their comedy; their fire-side eloquence,
-giving utterance and perpetuity to sacred
-affections, and to noble thoughts—and keeping alive
-a spirit of humanity in both the vassal and the lord.
-Men have not yet ceased to need such influences, nor
-have such influences lost their power. They still add
-purer brightness to the joys of the young—and are a
-solace to the memory of age. They are still bonds
-of a generous communion. They banish strangeness
-from the rich man’s hall: they add refinement to the
-rich man’s banquet: they are joy in the poor man’s
-holyday, they express lovingness in the poor man’s
-feast. What so aids beneficent nature as such music
-does, to remove barbarism and to inspire kindness?
-How dear amidst all the toils of earth are the songs
-which were music to our infant ears—the songs of our
-hearth and of our home—the songs which were our
-childhood’s spells, a blessedness upon our mother’s
-lips, a rapture and delight! What solaces the exile,
-while it saddens him? What is it that from the
-ends of ocean turns him with wistful imagination to
-the star which overhangs his father-land? What is
-it that brings the tear to his eye, and the memory
-of other days, and the vision in the far-off west;
-that annihilates years and distance, and gives him
-back his country, and gives him back his youth?
-Song—inspired song—domestic song—national song—song
-that carries ideal enthusiasm into rudest
-places—with many a tale of marvel and magnanimity—of
-heroism in the soldier, and sanctity in
-the saint—of constancy in love, and of bravery in
-war.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Man is a social being. Unselfish society is the
-harmony of humanity: loving interchange is the
-music of life; the music which lifts the attuned soul
-above discordant passions and petty cares—and song
-is the voice in which that music breathes. These
-are the strains that have memories in them of all
-that true souls deem worthy of life or death—the
-purities of their homes, the sacredness of their altars,
-the hopes of their posterity—all for which martyrs
-suffer—all for which patriots bleed—all that give
-millions a single wish and a single will—all that
-make the cry of liberty as the trump of judgment,
-and the swords of freemen as the bolts of heaven.
-Glorious names, and glorious deeds, and honorable
-feelings, are always allied to the lyric spirit. The
-independence of a country may seem to be utterly
-lost: the ruin of a nation may appear decided: indeed,
-<span class='pageno' title='225' id='Page_225'></span>
-its external destiny may be accomplished; but
-the character of a people is never absolutely degraded
-until the lyric fire is dead upon the altar, and
-the lyric voice is heard no longer in the temple.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Music is not exhausted in expressing feeling,
-though some persons are so constituted as not beyond
-this to understand or to enjoy it. But music of
-more profound combination is not, on this account,
-without meaning and without value. The higher
-forms of music, like the higher forms of poetry,
-must, of course, if tested by mere instinct, seem remote
-and complicated. Music, too, is susceptible of
-more multiplied combinations than poetry; and,
-without the restraints of arbitrary signs and definite
-ideas, can expatiate in the region of pure imagination.
-In the true sense of the word, it is infinite.
-Not bound to form, not bound to color, not bound
-to speech, it is as unlimited as the capacity of the
-soul to exist in undefinable states of emotional being.
-And into these it can throw the soul with inconceivable
-rapidity of change. The great master of
-even a single instrument appears, indeed, a wizard.
-He seems, in truth, to be the only artist to whom the
-designation of wizard can with any correctness be
-applied. Men of other genius may be creators, but
-the musician is the wizard. His instrument is a
-talisman. It is full of conjurations—out from it he
-draws his witchery; he puts his spell upon all
-around him; he chains them in the slavery of delight;
-and he is the only despot that rules over willing
-captives. No other power on the imagination
-is so complete—so uncontrollable. The fiction or
-the poem you can lay aside; the picture or statue
-moves you but calmly; the actor is at the mercy of
-an accident; the orator may fail, by reason of your
-opposition to his sentiments or opposition to his person;
-but the musician draws you from every thing
-which can counteract his charm, and once within
-his circle you have no escape from his power. Emotional
-conceptions—solemn, gay, pathetic, impassioned—are
-as souls in all his sounds. But in the
-case of an executive musician, the art seems incarnate
-in the artist. We associate the personality of
-the artist with the effects of his art. We are not yet
-within the limitless domain of imaginative music.
-The great instrumentalist is, indeed, a wizard—a
-cunning necromancer; but he is before us while he
-works his spells, and though we cannot resist the
-enchanter we <span class='it'>behold</span> him. In a great composer there
-is a higher potency, and it is one that is not seen.
-The action of his spirit on our spirits, though exercised
-by means of intermediate agents, is yet that of
-an invisible incantation. The great composer is an
-imperial magician—the sovereign of genii and the
-master of wizards. He is a Prospero, and <span class='it'>Music</span> is
-his <span class='it'>Enchanted Island</span>. The creative musician, and
-the region in which he dwells, can have no analogy
-more correct than that presented to us in Shakspeare’s
-extraordinary play of “The Tempest.”
-There we have the loud-resounding sea; at one moment
-the sun bright in the clear sky, at another
-hidden by the mist or breaking through the blood-red
-cloud; now the heavens are full of stars, and in
-an instant they are thick with gloom; the elements
-gather into masses, they clash together, and the
-thunder and the waves fill up the chorus. Then the
-day dawns softly, and the morning breaks into summer
-songs. Caves are there and pleasant dells; solitudes
-are there, dark and lonely; spots beautiful as
-well as terrible; barren and blasted heaths, where
-goblins hold their revels; and labyrinthian walks,
-where sweet-hearts, not unwilling, lose themselves
-and linger. The earth, the atmosphere, shore,
-stream, grove, are filled with preternatural movements,
-with sweet voices and strange sounds. There
-are Ariel-melodies, there are Caliban groanings;
-there are the murmurings of manly passions, and the
-whisperings of maiden-love; there are <a id='bach'></a>Bacchanalian
-jovialities, high and mysterious monologues, fanciful
-and fairy-ditties, the full swellings of excited
-hearts, and the choral transports of all nature, made
-living and made lyrical. But the Prospero who rules
-in this island, dwells in a lonely cell, and yet commands
-all the voices of the universe to do his bidding.
-Have I not, by this analogy, described a grand
-imaginative composer? Without intending it, I have
-described Beethoven. I speak, I admit, only as one
-of the appreciating vulgar—as one of the impressible
-ignorant; I am able only to express a sensation, not
-to pronounce a judgment. In listening to Beethoven’s
-music there is a delight, for which, no doubt, the
-learned artist can give a reason. I know nothing of
-art, and with me the listening is an untutored, a wild,
-an almost savage joy or sorrow, or a mixture of emotions
-that cannot be defined. The music of Beethoven,
-if I can judge from the little that I have heard of it,
-is <span class='it'>unearthly</span>; but the unearthliness of this music is
-of a compound nature. Like Spenser’s, Beethoven’s
-imagination is unearthly; and, like Spenser’s, it is
-unearthly in the supernaturally grand and beautiful.
-Like Milton’s imagination, also, Beethoven’s is unearthly;
-but here it is unearthly in the mysterious
-and the solemn. The union of these elements in the
-wholeness of Beethoven’s genius, have given to us
-that singular, that most original music, which seems
-to belong to the ideal region, which eastern fancy
-has peopled with genii and <a id='fair'></a>fairies. What a wonderful
-thing is a symphony of Beethoven’s! But who
-can describe it, in either its construction or its effects?
-You might as well attempt to describe, by set
-phrases, the raptures of St. Paul or the visions of the
-Apocalypse. It always seems the utterance of a
-mighty trance, of a mysterious dream, of a solemn
-ecstacy. The theme, even the most simple—so simple
-that a child, as it might appear, could have
-fashioned it, is one, however, that genius of a marvelous
-peculiarity only could have discovered—a
-genius that worked and lived amidst the most ideal
-analogies by which sounds are related to emotions.
-And this unearthly theme is thrown at once into an
-ocean of orchestral harmony, and this orchestral
-harmony is as unearthly as the theme. Thrown
-upon the orchestra it seems to break, to divide itself,
-to scatter itself upon the waves of an enchanted sea,
-in a multitude of melodies. It seems as a tune
-played by a spirit-minstrel, on a summer night, in
-<span class='pageno' title='226' id='Page_226'></span>
-the glade of a lonely wood, to which all the genii of
-music answer, in chorusses of holy, sad, enchanting
-modulation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And of Mozart! What shall we say of him—of
-Mozart, less only than Beethoven in those strains
-which linger amidst remote associations, but versatile
-beyond most composers in the romance and reality
-of the comic and the tragic in actual life. If
-ever a genius lived with which all its work was
-play, that genius was the genius of Mozart. Constantly
-he made the merest play of genius. At ten
-years old he could astonish the most critical of musical
-audiences in Paris, and before their rapture had
-approached within many <a id='degree'></a>degrees of moderation, he
-would be romping in the crowd of his companions.
-Nor was it different in his maturity. He could compose
-a piece, in which he was himself to take a part.
-He would distribute the score, perfectly arranged for
-the several performers. As they played, he would
-turn page after page over along with them, always
-in the spirit of the music and its harmony; but the
-emperor, looking over his shoulder, could see that
-not a note had he written down. Mozart seemed to
-combine in his genius all the sweetness of Italy with
-all the depth of Germany. But on these themes I
-have no authority to speak. All I can say is, that
-what I have heard of his compositions, and most of
-what I have learned of his life, have led me to think
-of him with admiration as a musician, and with affection
-as a man.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Music, it is sometimes said, is not an intellectual
-art. <span class='it'>What does this mean?</span> Does it mean that
-music employs no intellect in the artist, and excites
-none in the hearer? The assertion in both cases is
-untrue. Music, as a study, must, I think, be profoundly
-intellectual. In the oldest universities it has
-always had a place among the abstract sciences.
-But, considered as an enjoyment—considered in
-relation to the hearer—we should first need to settle
-what we understand by an intellectual enjoyment.
-To work a problem in algebra, or to examine a question
-of theology, may be each an intellectual pleasure;
-but the pleasure, it is manifest, is, in each
-case very different. These both, it is true, agree in
-taxing the <span class='it'>reasoning</span> faculty; but is nothing intellectual
-but that which formally taxes this faculty?
-Is nothing intellectual but that which involves syllogism—but
-that which implies demonstration or induction?
-Prayer is not intellectual, if we identify
-intellectuality with logic; and if we do this, it is
-<span class='it'>not</span> intellectual to feel the merits of a picture, but
-peculiarly so to understand the proportions of its
-frame. According to such a theory, it is intellectual
-to analyze with Aristotle, but it is not
-so to burn and to soar with Plato. To speculate
-with Jeremy Bentham is intellectual, but it is not
-so to be enraptured by the divine song of Milton.
-Assertions which lead to such conclusions
-must be radically false. Whatever puts man’s spiritual
-powers into action, is intellectual. The <span class='it'>kind</span>
-of action engaged will, of course, be ever according
-to the subject and the object. The intellectuality of
-a statesman is not that of a bard; the intellectuality
-which concocts an act of parliament, is not that
-which composes a “Song of the Bell.” Music is
-neither inductive nor raciotionative. It is an art;
-that is, it is an inward law realised in outward fact.
-Such is all art. In this music agrees with all arts,
-for all arts are but the outward realities of inward
-laws. But some of these are for utility, others for
-delight. Music is of those arts which spring from
-the desire for enjoyment and gratify it. It bears the
-soul away into the region of the infinite, and moves
-it with conceptions of exhaustless possibilities of
-beauty. If ideas, feelings, imaginations, are intellectual,
-then is music; if that which can excite, combine,
-modify, elevate—memories, feelings, imagination—is
-intellectual, then music is intellectual.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>An art which, like music, is the offspring of passion
-and emotion, could not but take a dramatic
-form. The lyrical drama, secular and sacred, civilized
-humanity could not but produce. Nothing is
-more natural than that the gayety and grief of the
-heart should seek the intense and emphatic expression
-which music can afford. It would, indeed, be
-extraordinary if a creature like man—so covetous of
-excitement, so desirous of varying his sensations—did
-not press into his service, wherever it could be
-used, an art which has no other equal to it for excitement
-and variety. The opera, both comic and
-tragic, is a genuine production of this desire. The
-burlesque, the odd, the merry, the absurd, and, still
-more, pity, love, jealousy, vengeance, despair, have
-their music in the rudest states of society; it is only
-in the order of things that they should in cultivated
-states of society have a cultivated music. Such
-music, as a matter of course, would connect itself
-with a story, a plot, with incident, character, scenery,
-costume, and catastrophe. It would thus become
-dramatic. Thus it has become; and as such, it has
-a range as ample as that of human life, as deep as
-human passions, as versatile as the human fancy and
-the human will. Hence we have the opera. The
-opera is that form which the drama assumed among a
-people musically organized—among a people whose
-love of music was, therefore, intense, constitutional
-and expansive. But no art remains within the limits
-of its native space, and the opera is now as extensive
-as civilization; as extensive, certainly, as modern
-civilization. The ballad is the first comedy
-or tragedy. There are germs in the words of the
-ballet for the genius of Shakspeare—there are germs
-in the air of it for the genius of Rossini. Many object
-to the opera. First, they say, it is expensive.
-All our amusements are expensive—expensive as
-they ought not to be—expensive as they would not
-be with a higher and a purer social culture. Artistic
-amusements are expensive, especially, by the want
-of taste, which hinders the many from sharing in
-them—by the want of taste, which makes <span class='it'>expense</span> itself
-distinction. True taste coincides with true feeling;
-true feeling delights in beauty, as it delights in
-goodness, for its own sake; and true feeling being
-wide as nature and humanity, the more widely its delight
-is shared the greater its own enjoyment. Were
-there among the people a diffusive taste for elevated
-<span class='pageno' title='227' id='Page_227'></span>
-music, we cannot but feel that music could be cheap
-as well as noble. But, secondly, many say that the
-opera is unnatural. It is absurd, they quizzically aver,
-that persons should sing their love-talk, their madness,
-their despair, etc., and grieve or laugh, and die or be
-married, in sharps or flats, in major or minor. And
-yet, this is exactly what nature does. Nature sings
-all its stronger emotions. The moment expression
-becomes excited it has rhythm—it has cadence; and
-the tune of Rossini is nearer to instinct than the
-blank verse of Shakspeare. Who will say that
-genuine passion is not in this wonderful blank verse?
-But who is it that could impromptu speak it? So in
-the tones and harmonies of music. In both nature
-is carried into the region of art, out from the region
-of the actual; and within the region of art the musical
-utterance of nature is no more strange than the
-poetical utterance of nature. The moral view of the
-opera I do not here pretend to deal with. My purpose
-is to speak on music as an element of social culture;
-and it is not beyond the range of possibility that
-beautiful truths can be united dramatically to beautiful
-tones. If they cannot, then society has an immense
-loss; and if a noble story cannot be told by
-music—cannot be told to a moral purpose, then music
-ceases to be an art, as it has always been considered
-as associated with the divinest impulses of
-our nature. The abuses of which the opera is susceptible,
-are the abuses of which every form of art
-is susceptible. The artist stands—he has ever stood—upon
-a point between the human and divine. He
-may carry his art into gross sensualities of the human,
-or into lofty spiritualities of the divine. With
-the purification of society we shall have the purification
-of art and of the artist; and, therefore, I can see
-no reason why the opera might not be made effective
-in the best culture of social humanity. The lyrical
-expression of humanity is not less human than it is
-religious.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The sacred lyrical drama, or oratorio, seems to be
-a remnant of the old mysteries. In those old mysteries
-a scriptural subject was exhibited to the people
-in a theatrical manner. The scriptural subject is all
-that remains of the old mystery in the modern oratorio.
-Stage, scenery, costume, have departed,
-and music takes their place. Music, therefore, in
-the oratorio, must, by its own power, indicate character,
-sentiment, passion; it must unite grandeur
-and diversity with unity of spirit; it must unite them
-with unity of expression. Yet even the oratorio has
-not escaped objection. But, if it has been wrongly
-attacked, it has been as unwisely defended. What,
-it is triumphantly asked, can inspire deeper devotion,
-more fervent piety, than the sacred composition of
-Handel? The mistake of the artiste on this side of
-the question, has its only measure in the mistake of
-the ascetic on the other. The strains, even of Handel,
-may be in unison with the highest and purest aspirations
-of the mind; but, in his divinest dramas, they
-are not of themselves—devotion. But, if high music
-confers a pleasure that harmonizes with the mind’s
-best faculties; if it prepares the mind’s best faculties
-for their best exercise; if by lifting the mind up into
-the sphere of great emotions from that of mean ones;
-if by withdrawing it from attention to selfish desires,
-it carries it into lofty thought, music exercises for
-the mind, even in the temple, a sacred power, though
-its power should yet only be artistic. No mind,
-for instance, can be in a low or degraded condition,
-while it is in sympathy with the pure and delectable
-genius of Haydn. No mind can have communed
-with him through his oratorio of the “Creation,”
-can have drunk in its liquid melodies—its gladdening
-hymns of praise—its soft and heart-soothing airs—its
-songs, which seem to sparkle with the light which
-they celebrate—with the dew that bathed first the
-flowers of Paradise—with its anthems of holy exultation,
-such as the sons of God might have shouted—with
-the whole breathing in every part as it does—with
-the young soul of goodness and beauty—no
-mind, I say, can be in such communion, and for the
-time be otherwise than transported beyond all that
-can belittle or defile. But Handel excites a profounder
-sentiment. He is not so cheerful as Haydn.
-He could not be; for this he is too massive and
-austere. He does not, like Haydn, lead the mind out
-to nature, he turns it in upon itself. Not loveliness,
-but mysteries make the spirit of his music. We find in
-Haydn the picturesqueness and the buoyancy of the
-Catholic worship; in Handel, the sombre, the inquiring,
-the meditative thoughtfulness of the Protestant
-faith. By Haydn’s “Creation” we are
-charmed and elated; by Handel’s “Messiah” we are
-moved with an overcoming sense of awe and power.
-Though nothing can surpass the sweetness of Handel’s
-melodies, yet interspersed amidst such masses
-of harmony, they seem like hymns amidst the billows
-of the ocean, or songs among the valleys of
-the Alps. Handel’s genius was made for a subject
-that placed him in the presence of eternity and the
-universe. His moods and movements are too vast
-for the moods and movements of common interests
-or the common heart. They require the spaces of
-the worlds. They require interests coincident with
-man’s destiny, and with man’s duration. Though
-Handel’s airs in the “Messiah” are of sweetest and
-gentlest melody, they have majesty in their sweetness
-and their gentleness. We can associate them with
-no event lower than that with which they are connected.
-In such tones we can conceive the Saviour’s
-birth celebrated in the song of angels; in such tones
-we can fancy the Redeemer welcomed in hosannas
-by those who ignorantly dragged him afterward to
-Calvary. And then the plaintiveness of Handel in the
-“Messiah,” has its true horizon only in that which
-girds the immortal. It is not simply plaintive, it is
-mysteriously awful. It is not a grief for earthly man, it
-is a grief for him who bore the griefs of all men—for
-Him who carried our sorrows—who was wounded
-for our transgressions—who was bruised for our
-iniquities, who was oppressed and afflicted, and who
-bore the chastisement of our peace. It is not a grief
-in which any common spirit dare complain. It is
-fit only for Him who had sorrows to which no man’s
-sorrows were like. It does not cause us to pity, but
-to tremble. It does not move us to weeping, because
-<span class='pageno' title='228' id='Page_228'></span>
-there lie beneath it, thoughts which are too deep for
-tears. And then, in unison with this dread and
-solemn pathos, is the subdued but mighty anguish
-of the general harmony. When the victory is proclaimed—the
-victory over the grave—the victory
-over death—the victory in which mortality is swallowed
-up of life—we are lost in the glory of a superhuman
-chorus; our imagination breaks all local
-bounds; we fancy all the elements of creation, all
-glorified and risen men, all the hosts of Heaven’s
-angels united in this exultant anthem. Handel truly
-is the Milton of music.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The grandest office of music, however, is that in
-which, no doubt, it originated—that in which, early,
-it had its first culture; in which, latest, it has its
-best—I mean its office in religion. In the sanctuary
-it was born, and in the service of God it arose with
-a sublimity with which it could never have been
-inspired in the service of pleasure. More assimilated
-than any other art to the spiritual nature of man, it
-affords a medium of expression the most congenial
-to that nature. Compared with tones that breathe
-out from a profound, a spiritually musical soul, how
-poor is any allegory which painting can present, or
-that symbol can indicate. The soul is invisible; its
-emotions admit no more than itself of shape or limitation.
-The religious emotions cannot always have
-even verbal utterance. They often seek an utterance
-yet nearer to the infinite; and such they find in
-music. You cannot delineate a feeling—at most you
-can but suggest it by delineation. But in music you
-can by intonation directly give the feeling. Thus
-related to the unseen soul, music is a voice for faith,
-which is itself the realization of things not seen.
-And waiting as the soul is amidst troubles and toils,
-looking upward from the earth, and onward out of
-time, for a better world or a purer life, in its believing
-and glad expectancy, music is the voice of its
-hope. In the depression and despondency of conviction;
-in the struggles of repentance; in the consolations
-and rejoicing of forgiveness; in the wordless
-calm of internal peace, music answers to the
-mood, and soothingly breaks the dumbness of the
-heart. For every charity that can sanctify and bless
-humanity, music has its sacred measures; and well
-does goodness merit the richest harmony of sound,
-that is itself the richest harmony of heaven. Sorrow,
-also, has its consecrated melody. The wounded
-spirit and the broken heart are attempered and
-assuaged by the murmurings of divine song. A
-plaintive hymn soothes the departing soul. It mingles
-with weeping in the house of death. It befits the
-solemn ritual of the grave. The last supper was
-closed with a hymn, and many a martyr for Him
-who went from that supper to his agony, made their
-torture jubilant in songs of praise.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>An essay equal to the subject on the vicissitudes
-and varieties of sacred music, would be one of the
-most interesting passages in the history of art. In
-their long wanderings to the land of promise, sacred
-music was among the hosts of Israel; and in that
-great temple of nature, floored by the desert, and
-roofed by the sky, they chanted the song of Miriam
-and of Moses. It was in their Sabbath meetings—it
-resounded with the rejoicings of their feasts, and
-with the gladness of their jubilees. When Solomon
-built a house to the Lord, it was consecrated with
-cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, with the sounds
-of trumpets, and the swell of voices. As long as the
-temple stood, music hallowed its services; and that
-music must have been supremely grand which suited
-the divine poetry of the inspired and kingly lyrist.
-Israel was scattered—the temple was no more.
-Silence and desolation dwelt in the place of the
-sanctuary. Zion heard no longer the anthems of
-her Levites. A new word that was spoken first in
-Jerusalem had gone forth among the nations; and
-that too had its music. At first it was a whisper
-among the <a id='low'></a>lowly in the dwellings of the poor.
-Stealthily it afterward was murmured in the palace
-of the Cæsars. In the dead night, in the depths of
-the catacombs, it trembled in subdued melodies filled
-with the love of Jesus. At length the grand cathedral
-arose, and the stately spire; courts and arches echoed,
-and pillars shook with the thunder of the majestic
-organ, and choirs, sweetly attuned, joined their voices
-in all the moods and measures of the religious heart,
-in its most exalted, most profound, most intense experience
-put into lyrical expression. I know that
-piety may reject, may repel this form of expression,
-still these sublime ritual harmonies cannot but give
-the spirit that sympathizes with them, the sense of
-a mightier being. But sacred music has power
-without a ritual. In the rugged hymn, which connects
-itself, not alone with immortality, but also
-with the memory of brave saints, there is power.
-There is power in the hymn in which our father’s
-joined. Grand were those rude psalms which once
-arose amidst the solitudes of the Alps. Grand were
-those religious songs, sung in brave devotion by the
-persecuted Scotch, in the depths of their moors and
-their glens. The <a id='hun'></a>hundredth psalm, rising in the fullness
-of three thousand voices up into the clear sky,
-broken among rocks, prolonged and modulated
-through valleys, softened over the surface of mountain-guarded
-lakes, had a grandeur and a majesty,
-contrasted with which mere art is poverty and
-meanness. And while thus reflecting on sacred
-music, we think with wonder on the Christian
-Church—on its power and on its compass. Less
-than nineteen centuries ago, its first hymn was sung
-in an upper chamber of Jerusalem; and those who
-sung it were quickly scattered. And now the Christian
-hymn is one that never ceases—one that is heard
-in every tongue; and the whisper of that upper
-chamber is now a chorus that fills the world.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Music is an essential element in social life and
-social culture, and our times have few better movements
-than the increasing introduction of vocal
-music into popular education. The higher kinds of
-music might be included in all the higher kinds of
-education for men as well as for women. Milton so
-teaches in his great tractate; and so the Greeks
-practiced, in whose training no faculty was wasted
-or overlooked. The music which is now most
-wanted, however, is music for the common heart.
-<span class='pageno' title='229' id='Page_229'></span>
-If education will give us the taste for such music,
-and give us the music, it will confer upon us a
-benefit, a blessing. It is not desired that music in
-the home, or in the friendly circle, should never
-wander out of the sphere of the home or the friendly
-circle, only let not these spheres of feeling be without
-any strains peculiarly suitable to themselves. Let
-the theatre have its music; let the camp have its
-music; let the dance-room have its music; let the
-church have its music; but let the home and the
-friendly gathering also have their music.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We have for the cultivated, music of rare powers
-and in great abundance; but we need a music for
-the people—and no music can be music for the
-people, but that which answers to simple and direct
-emotion. It is a most important need. The music
-of the opera, granting it were ever so pure, and had
-no resistance to encounter, can be had only in cities,
-and can never reach the scattered masses of the population.
-The music of the oratorio must have a limitation
-even still more restricted. Popular music
-must be domestic, social music. We have it not;
-therefore we are a silent people, and our writings
-have no lyrical inspirations. The finer and deeper
-elements of popular life have no true medium of exposition.
-These subtle, delicate, wordless idealities
-of the soul, which the rudest have, are without music;
-that alone, which can take them from the confining
-bosom, and give them to the vital air. Our rural life
-is gladdened by no song—is the subject of no song;
-and our social life is almost as silent as the rural.
-National music we have none: and our political
-songs are, generally, a shame to <a id='dog'></a>doggerel, and a libel
-upon tune. Complaining on the want of social and
-domestic music, will not, I am aware, supply it; and
-yet it is no less a want. We want it on the summer’s
-evening, when our work is done, to rest the
-spirit as we rest the body; and while the eye is filled
-with visible beauty, to bring the soul into harmony
-with invisible goodness. We want it in the winter’s
-night, by the winter fire, to cheer us while the hours
-pass, and to humanize in amusing us. We want it
-in our friendly re-unions, not for delight alone, but
-also for charity and peace, to exclude the demon of
-idle or evil speaking, and to silence the turbulence
-of polemical or political discussion. We want it in
-our churches. Christianity is the home-feeling and
-the social-feeling made perfect. The music of it
-should be the home-feeling and the social-feeling
-consecrated. As it is, our Protestant churches at
-least have either a drawling psalmody with the monotony
-of a lullaby, or they have patches of selections
-that want unity, appropriateness, or meaning.
-A music is wanted in our Protestant churches such
-as Christianity ought to have; a music, simple yet
-grand—varied but not capricious—gladsome with
-holy joy, not with irreverent levity, not sentimental,
-yet tender, solemn but not depressing—not intolerant
-to the beauties of art, and yet not scornful of popular
-feeling. If a true and natural taste for music should
-spring up and be cultivated through the country, not
-in cities only, but in every village and district, it
-would be an auspicious phenomenon. It would be
-a most vital and a most humanizing element in social
-life. It would break the dullness of our homes; it
-would brighten the hour of our meetings; would enliven
-our hospitality, and it would sublime our worship.
-“Let who that will make the laws of a people,”
-some one said, “but let me make their songs;” to
-which a great and patriotic composer might add, Let
-who that will supply the words of a people’s songs,
-if I shall be allowed to give these words to music.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk108'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='lily'></a>SPRING LILIES.</h1></div>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>’Neath their green and cool cathedrals,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In the garden lilies bloom,</p>
-<p class='line'>Casting on the fresh spring zephyr</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Peal on peal of sweet perfume;</p>
-<p class='line'>Often have I, pausing near them</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;When the sunset flushed the sky,</p>
-<p class='line'>Seen the coral bells vibrating</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;With their fragrant harmony.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>But within my quiet dwelling</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;I have now a lily fair,</p>
-<p class='line'>Whose young spirit’s sweet spring budding</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Watch I with unfailing care.</p>
-<p class='line'>God, in placing her beside me,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Made my being most complete,</p>
-<p class='line'>And my heart keeps time forever</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;With the music of her feet.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>I remember not whilst gazing</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In her earnest eyes of blue,</p>
-<p class='line'>That the earth holds aught of sorrow,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Aught less innocent and true.</p>
-<p class='line'>And the restlessness and longing</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Wakened by the cares of day,</p>
-<p class='line'>With the burden and the tumult,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In her presence fall away.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Shield my Lily, Holy Father!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Shield her from the whirlwind’s might,</p>
-<p class='line'>But protracted sunshine temper</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;With a soft and starry night;</p>
-<p class='line'>’Neath the burning sun of summer</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Scorched and shrunk the spring flower lies,</p>
-<p class='line'>Human hearts contract when strangers</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Long to clouds and tearful eyes.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Give her purpose strong and holy,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Faith and self-devotion high;</p>
-<p class='line'>These Life’s common by-ways brighten,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Every hope intensify.</p>
-<p class='line'>Teach her all the brave endurance</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;That the sons of earth require;</p>
-<p class='line'>May she with a patient labor</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To the great and good aspire.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Should some mighty grief oppress her</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Heavier than she can bear,</p>
-<p class='line'>Oh! sustain her by Thy presence,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Hear and answer Thou her prayer.</p>
-<p class='line'>And whene’er the storms of winter</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Round my precious Lily reign,</p>
-<p class='line'>To a fairer clime transplant her</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;There to live and bloom again.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:0em;margin-top:0.5em;'><span style='font-size:smaller'>M. G. H.</span></p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk109'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='230' id='Page_230'></span><h1><a id='earth'></a>THE EARTH.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY R. H. STODDARD.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>As one who walks with eyes upon the ground,</p>
-<p class='line'>Arrested slow beside a dusty mound,</p>
-<p class='line'>Where swarms of ants are bustling in the sand,</p>
-<p class='line'>As if they had a Universe on hand,</p>
-<p class='line'>Surveys their nothings with a quiet smile,</p>
-<p class='line'>And stops to muse and meditate a while—</p>
-<p class='line'>Even so the sage with philosophic mind</p>
-<p class='line'>Looks down upon the earth and all mankind!</p>
-<p class='line'>And yet withal this little orb is grand,</p>
-<p class='line'>With its circumference of sea and land:</p>
-<p class='line'>The Ocean girds it with a belt immense,</p>
-<p class='line'>Heaving in billowy magnificence</p>
-<p class='line'>Round Continents with all their subject lands,</p>
-<p class='line'>A thousand sceptres in their giant hands!—</p>
-<p class='line'>And mountains loom majestical on high,</p>
-<p class='line'>And lift their foreheads in the blank of sky,</p>
-<p class='line'>Bathed in its brightness, while their robes of snow</p>
-<p class='line'>Trail o’er the tallest pines, and far below,</p>
-<p class='line'>Poured from their urns, the streams divide the plain</p>
-<p class='line'>And bear their tributes to the sounding main.</p>
-<p class='line'>And the round hills and verdant solitudes</p>
-<p class='line'>That slumber in the heart of trackless woods;</p>
-<p class='line'>The broad champain, the hollow vale and mead,</p>
-<p class='line'>And the green pastures where the cattle feed</p>
-<p class='line'>Deep in the daisies; and the silver brooks,</p>
-<p class='line'>And the long winding lanes, and grassy nooks,</p>
-<p class='line'>All, all, are clothed in loveliness and light,</p>
-<p class='line'>The various beauty of the day and night,</p>
-<p class='line'>While the great Earth, as when its flight begun,</p>
-<p class='line'>Wheels like a mighty eagle round the Sun!</p>
-<p class='line'>Yes! Earth is beautiful in every phase,</p>
-<p class='line'>Covered with glory and perpetual bays;—</p>
-<p class='line'>What pomps and pageants fill the glowing east,</p>
-<p class='line'>Hung like a palace on a bridal feast,</p>
-<p class='line'>When clouds of purple standards are unrolled,</p>
-<p class='line'>And morning lifts its diadem of gold!</p>
-<p class='line'>What streams of radiance flood the azure field,</p>
-<p class='line'>When the Noon marches with his shining shield</p>
-<p class='line'>And scales the eternal steep of Heaven alone,</p>
-<p class='line'>And looks o’er Nature from his burning throne!</p>
-<p class='line'>What dreamy softness in the melting west</p>
-<p class='line'>When Evening sinks in holiness to rest,</p>
-<p class='line'>And the young crescent moon, an argent <a id='bark2'></a>barque,</p>
-<p class='line'>Drifts up the starry ocean of the dark!</p>
-<p class='line'>And how sublime the black tempestuous cloud,</p>
-<p class='line'>Where thunders shout their prophecies aloud</p>
-<p class='line'>With tongues of fire, that flash from sphere to sphere,</p>
-<p class='line'>While congregated nations quake in fear!</p>
-<p class='line'>How glorious all! how changeless and serene</p>
-<p class='line'>Where generations vanish from the scene.</p>
-<p class='line'>Yet what is Earth in Nature’s wondrous whole,</p>
-<p class='line'>Which mirrors dimly its Creative Soul?</p>
-<p class='line'>Less than ant-hill, even the smallest one,</p>
-<p class='line'>Whose gates thrown back exclude the summer sun.</p>
-<p class='line'>A single grain of sand from out the sea,</p>
-<p class='line'>The deep of Chaos and Eternity,</p>
-<p class='line'>Whose bubbles are The Ages dim and vast,</p>
-<p class='line'>Melting into the dark abysmal Past!</p>
-<p class='line'>A mote in the cerulean space of air,</p>
-<p class='line'>One of the innumerous myriads floating there,</p>
-<p class='line'>Wafted of old from God’s eternal seat,</p>
-<p class='line'>Where stars and suns lie thick as dust around his feet!</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk110'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='alone'></a>ALONE—ALONE!</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MRS. I. W. MERCUR.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote30em'>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span style='font-size:smaller'>“Her friends had one after one departed, and in her mind continually rang the monotonous words, alone, alone!”</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>I am alone, oh God! alone—alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Yet thousands round me crowd life’s busy mart,</p>
-<p class='line'>Whose ceaseless hum is as a deathless moan</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Forever falling on my weary heart—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>I am alone—around me press the gay,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The light of heart, they who have never known</p>
-<p class='line'>The blight of sorrow, or the sure decay</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Of every joy the spirit here has known—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>I am alone—yet memory oft doth bring</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Back the sweet visions of life’s sunny day,</p>
-<p class='line'>Of friends unchanged, who in my early spring</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;With smiles of love illumed my joyous way—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>I am alone—alas! stern death has won</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Hearts that I cherished, and fond eyes of light;</p>
-<p class='line'>Kind tones are hushed, and brows I gazed upon</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In life’s full glory greet no more my sight—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Alone—alone!—for unto me no more</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The living turn with thought or feeling’s flow.</p>
-<p class='line'>And joy for me I feel on earth is o’er—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;I never more shall love or friendship know—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Alone and weary, yet I strive to wear</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Ever a look of calm, serene repose,</p>
-<p class='line'>And smiling seek to hide each galling care</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And burning sorrow which my spirit knows—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>I am alone—and far, oh! far away</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;From where my home of happy childhood lies,</p>
-<p class='line'>From scenes beloved where fountains murmuring play</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And smile beneath my own, my native skies—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Alone—alone!—and my crushed heart doth bear</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Cold and neglect from those for whom I pour</p>
-<p class='line'>My full soul forth—whose images I wear</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Forever shrined in memory’s sacred store—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>I am alone, but in my fevered dreams</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Friends throng around me—voices loved I hear.</p>
-<p class='line'>Light once again upon my pathway beams,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;But I awake!—no forms beloved are near—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Alone—alone!—no more the star I see</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Of Hope which once illumed my cloudless sky.</p>
-<p class='line'>And naught is left on this wide earth to me,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Save but to look on Nature’s face and die—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I am alone!</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk111'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='231' id='Page_231'></span><h1><a id='pedro'></a>PEDRO DE PADILH.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY J. M. LEGARE.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:1em;'>(<span class='it'>Continued from page 148.</span>)</p>
-
-<table id='tab3' summary='' class='left'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 10em;'/>
-<col span='1' style='width: 1em;'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td class='tab3c1 tdStyle1'><span class='sc'>Spain, and Tercera.</span></td><td class='tab3c2 tdStyle1'>}</td></tr>
-<tr><td class='tab3c1 tdStyle1'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;AD. 1583.</td><td class='tab3c2 tdStyle1'>}</td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Meanwhile, the Marquis of Santa-Cruz with a
-hundred sail was steering from Lisbon to Tercera,
-bent upon reaching that island before the French
-fleet, and moreover settling it in his own mind to
-hang the Viceroy de Torrevedros, (who was at that
-moment taking wine with De Chaste to their mutual
-longevity,) for sticking to the landless and luckless
-King Anthony of Portugal, in preference to his own
-master Philip the Second, sometimes called the Prudent,
-but by the Protestants, whom he roasted and
-otherwise ill-treated, the Demon of the South.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Señor Inique’s vessel was the Doblon, and our
-acquaintance Don Pedro’s the Pez-de-mar, but on
-the day designated, the two maîtres-de-camp dined
-together in the Doblon, besides whom were at table
-some half dozen cavaliers of more or less note. At
-the close of the meal, Sir Pedro said—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Gentlemen all, this is a day I never let pass
-without thought of the brave man whose head fell
-ten years ago this noon, at Brussels. I ask a <span class='it'>pater</span>
-of the company here present for the rest of his soul.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“If you mean Count Egmont,” answered one,
-“there never was truer knight. I was near him at
-the time of his death, and believe him to have been
-as loyal as you or I.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“A doubtful comparison,” cried another, laughing,
-“since you question the king’s justice.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“By no means,” returned the Constable of Castile.
-“The king acknowledged as much himself.
-I was present when the news arrived, and he said
-with his usual smile, ‘These two salmon heads are
-better off than three-score heads of frogs!’”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, and the French ambassador wrote to court,
-‘I have seen a head fall which has twice made
-France quake.’”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well,” said the constable, “I was but a stripling
-at the time, but I well remember how the count led
-his lances at St. Quentin. There was not a—hush!
-what’s that?” he stopped suddenly and asked.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What?” demanded most of his audience, who
-had heard nothing but the breaking of Don Pedro’s
-glass upset by his elbow. Perhaps Don Pedro, sitting
-next, was the only other who heard the smothered
-cry from a partition behind their host, for
-Don Inique’s face was as usual inflexible as a mask,
-and Padilh, turning to the constable, said—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I interrupted you. You were saying?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Count Egmont rode so gallantly, there was not
-a man in the army had seen the like before; it was
-a ballad of the campeador acted to the life. Even
-the king, when he came down from the Escurial,
-praised his bravery, and afterward presented him a
-sword, upon which was engraved ‘St. Quentin.’”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The constable may have repeated the last word
-to satisfy a doubt in his mind, but if so he was disappointed
-in his purpose, for no response came from
-the partition, although a momentary silence followed
-the close of the sentence. I mention this little incident
-because it was the prelude to a singular conversation
-between the two camp-masters, the next
-morning, on board the Pez-de-mar.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I cannot be mistaken, Padilh,” said the other, in
-his starched way. “You heard the exclamation
-yesterday at table, and endeavored to drown it. You
-saved me, sir, a pang—for which I am grateful,” he
-added, with the air of a man compelled to acknowledge
-a service.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I did my best and quickest to forestall curiosity,”
-answered Sir Pedro kindly. “The Constable of
-Castile is the only gentleman in the fleet who suspects
-the presence of your—your—son. And that
-only since yesterday; he told me as much last evening.
-For your precautions in Portugal have been
-effectual in keeping a knowledge of the matter even
-from most of our comrades at St. Quentin.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“A curse fall on the name,” muttered Inique
-bitterly. “It is the only touchstone his memory has,
-and at its utterance nothing but force can stay his
-screams. God pity me: I act it all over in mind
-whenever the boy cries out as he did on the field.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Padilh knew his associate well enough to disguise
-what <a id='com'></a>commiseration he felt, and without noticing
-the interruption continued—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Thus, señor, your secret is safe still; for as you
-may readily believe, the constable got as little information
-from my tongue as by his own at table.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Do you think he pronounced the name with design?”
-cried the maître-de-camp, his brows contracting.
-“If I—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No,” returned honest Don Pedro decidedly,
-“the constable is a man of worth, and would pry
-into no one’s affairs systematically. But his chief
-defect is a tendency to say or do whatever comes
-into his head, and that he falls into difficulty less
-often is perhaps owing more to luck than consideration
-on his part. Don’t you remember hearing the
-answer he made his Holiness, while a mere lad?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No,” absently.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why,” persisted the knight, regardless of the
-doubtful attention of his auditor, and moved by a
-good-natured wish to lead away from the painful
-topic, “the brusquerie of the whole affair made it
-the talk at court; where were you that you failed to
-hear it? The constable was sent to congratulate his
-Holiness on his accession to St. Peter’s chair, but
-the Pope taking umbrage at the youth of the ambassador,
-exclaimed aloud—‘What! has the King of
-Spain no men in his dominions, that he sends us a
-<span class='pageno' title='232' id='Page_232'></span>
-face without a beard?’ Whereupon the fiery boy,
-stretching himself up and stroking with forefinger
-and thumb his upper lip, where a mustache should
-have been but was not, said with a frown—‘Sir, had
-my royal master known your Holiness measured
-wisdom by a beard, he would doubtless have sent
-a he-goat to honor you!’”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After a pause Inique said—(the capernian episode
-was evidently lost upon him)—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I have no need of any mortal’s sympathy, Padilh,
-and the man that pities me openly must answer
-to my sword for it. You have done neither to my
-knowledge, yet you were not far off when I struck
-the boy,” (he dropped his voice here, as a weight
-on the conscience will make people do.) “If you
-choose to listen, the secret motives of a man who for
-fifteen years has had no thought for his second child,
-until moved to avenge her, because the first, an idiot,
-intervened, may startle your ears, Pedro Padilh.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The recital may ease your breast,” said our
-knight in some surprise.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“There is no likelihood of what you say,” answered
-Don Augustino, a shade of scorn crossing
-his moody face, “and I wish it otherwise. Why I
-choose you, a companion in arms, for confessor, you
-will learn in time; perhaps your long friendship and
-yesterday’s prompt action have their influence.
-These things you witnessed or know; the mad
-blows, their result, the measures I have taken to be
-constantly within reach of his voice? Why? have
-you, has any one, hesitated to give some cloak, some
-color, to so singular a course?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Each of these interrogatories, rapidly put, Sir
-Pedro answered in turn by a slight token of assent;
-he was about to reply more fully to the last, when
-the other stopped him with a gesture.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Never mind. I know what is said. That I hide
-away the living reminder of my crime from the world;
-that I am remorseful, or doing penance, or else
-crazed. Let them prate. Sir Pedro, by all the
-saints, the boy I struck is not my son!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Poor fellow!” thought the knight, compassionately;
-“his last plea is the right one.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Don Pedro Padilh, there was a man of good
-birth and great wealth, but little or no character, or
-care for character, whom I saved once from being
-hanged. He was grateful, after his headlong fashion,
-for the service, and in the end proposed to unite our
-infant children; he had one son, and I a son and
-daughter; and consolidate our joint estates. At first
-my soul revolted at the suggestion; an union between
-my own offspring and that of a redeemed felon, appeared
-to me monstrous. But while I debated the
-matter, difficulties softened. I knew better than any
-one the smallness of my fortune, which extravagance
-had reduced to the tatters of its former amplitude;
-but of this I said nothing, and the papers were signed
-in due form. That day was the last I could touch
-my breast proudly, and say, ‘Here is the abode of
-honor.’”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And this is the soldier whose honor is held up to
-the world as a pattern!” Padilh mused.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Still the degradation of such connection preyed
-upon my mind. I wanted the money to perpetuate
-the wealth of my house; but how be rid of the bad
-blood? And about this time my friend went abroad,
-leaving his boy in my charge. I confronted the
-temptation only to be overcome in the end; sent
-away my servants, and removing to the mountains
-chose others; and when these were assembled, I,
-myself, took occasion to call the names of the infants
-before them, that there might be no mistake—<span class='it'>no
-mistake</span>, you understand—as names may from what
-they have been. My own boy I called—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Speak, Sir Augustino!” ejaculated Padilh,
-sharply.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Hilo de Ladron; the other—”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Man, man!” cried the knight, rising and standing
-over against the speaker, “You have made an idiot
-of and imprison my own kin—the son of my half-brother.
-What reparation can you make?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Reparation! Look here, at these premature
-seams and wrinkles, grizzled hair and beard. Has
-that unsteady hand nothing to show of an iron temper
-shattered by sorrow?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Sir, your selfish sorrow blinds you. These are
-signs of retribution on you, not of reparation to the
-party injured. Don Augustino, I joined this expedition
-with the sole purpose of saving from ruin, if I
-might, a lad whom I despise for his vices; and do
-you think I will leave longer at your mercy the real
-Hilo, whom, in place of condemning, I can only
-pity.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“That rests with me,” returned the maître-de-camp,
-with a slight sneer. “But listen to me, Don
-Pedro; you judge my case before it is stated.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Finish, sir,” answered Padilh, moodily, resuming
-his seat; “and heaven grant your conscience proves
-clearer than it seems to me likely to do.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Inique, without comment, took up the word where
-the interruption occurred.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“My reasoning took this shape. My daughter is
-a puny thing—there is no probability of her surviving
-to even girlhood. What does it matter if the baby
-is betrothed to her brother? As for De Ladron, if
-he ever returns from the new world, how is he to
-recognize his boy, grown out of remembrance, if the
-child does not die—he seems pining away rapidly—before
-that time. Hernan Ladron I never saw
-again; but his infant grew strong and healthy in our
-change of climate, and this vexed me hourly. I had
-felt sure the weakly thing could not live, or the exchange
-would not have been made; and now, he
-was growing up a quiet, mild boy—pah! it made me
-sick to think he believed himself my son, as did all
-the world beside. The sense of this contrast pushed
-from my brain all other concern. I cursed the
-grasping folly which had tempted me to barter a
-gallant fellow, like my own boy, for an estate and
-this whey-faced child. However, he should go to
-war with me, and be cured of his girlishness. But
-when, at St. Quentin, he fled before the first charge
-of the French, cowering at my stirrup, I was frantic
-with rage and shame. I had no love for the boy;
-his very existence was a daily threat of exposure,
-and I beat him, as you all saw, with my sword hilt,
-<span class='pageno' title='233' id='Page_233'></span>
-to drive him a second time into the fight. What followed,
-too, you all knew. But, until this day, no
-mortal has learnt the yearning pity that mastered my
-passions and filled my breast with remorse. I believe
-my first resolution was to confess my infamy
-and restore the heir his wealth and name; but I
-waited until he should recover, and when I saw he
-was likely to remain an idiot, I changed my mind.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Don Augustino, you would have been less dishonored
-by confessing your dishonor,” cried our
-knight, here. “You proved yourself, in the sight of
-Heaven, a greater coward than your reputed son.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Sir,” replied the other, hotly, flushing red, “you
-forget I am your equal in point of rank, if not virtue,
-and wear a sword. You tax my forbearance
-heavily.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“A horse in meadow neighs louder than a horse
-under saddle,” answered Padilh. “Overlook the
-reproach, Don Augustino, and pass on.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I set some value on your friendship, and will not
-consent to lose it for a hard word honestly spoken,”
-Inique said, not very contentedly.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I altered my mind, but not altogether. I resolved
-not a fraction of his income should be used in the
-service of me or mine, and reduced the expenses of
-my household accordingly. Hilo, my real son, left
-to his own guidance at home, had become a ruinous
-spendthrift, and openly revolted at any curtailment
-of what he considered his rights. But against his
-wickedness I had, as a set off, the patience and affection
-of the supposititious son; the very qualities I
-had before despised now touched me most—his
-mildness of face and speech, and trustfulness in my
-protection—for the whole past seemed wiped out of
-his remembrance, and but a single word was capable
-of recalling any portion of it—the word the Constable
-of Castile spoke yesterday at table. Perhaps
-the cries and sounds of battle might recall my shame
-and his sorrow, but my care has hitherto proved
-successful in keeping such from his ears.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yet there seems to me in all this, Don Augustino,
-no good reason for your becoming the boy’s
-jailor,” said Sir Pedro.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Stay. If it was hard to resolve on publishing
-my infamy with my own mouth, was it easy to bear
-the thought that some day it must be realised in the
-growing likeness of my prisoner to his true father,
-Ladron? I watched this fast maturing resemblance
-with the anguish of one seeing his death warrant
-signed, understanding to the full how the crime
-which my voluntary confession might have softened
-in the eyes of the world, would grow in odium as
-time elapsed. I fancied it was only needful for you,
-or any one familiar with the father’s face, to catch a
-glimpse of the son’s to detect my secret; and I kept
-the sole evidence near my person, not because it
-was the safest, but the least harassing course it was
-possible to pursue.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The least harassing, Don Augustino,” the knight
-said, “would have been to acknowledge your criminality
-at first, and have made restitution openly
-as you did in private. Better do so now than never.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What! when the son of a felon in yonder ship
-must be disowned only to substitute a felon himself!
-No, sir; the most I can do is what I now purpose—to
-find this reckless youth and turn him from his vicious
-life by every means but that you propose.
-Only in the last extremity will I show him to be as
-penniless in the future as now, and that the girl he
-has exhausted his vileness to dishonor is his sister,
-and I the wretched father of both.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“And only in such extremity will your words have
-weight with Hilo de Ladron, as I suppose, for your
-sake, he must yet be called, although I grudge him
-the name. But it seems to me, Don Augustino Inique,
-you prate more of dishonor than a man should
-who has committed felony to his own conscience
-and in God’s sight; and that the honor you esteem
-so highly is nothing better than the declamation of
-those who surround you.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“A truce to your sarcasms,” cried Inique, pale
-with anger. “I am not here, Padilh, to listen to a
-sermon or be ordered a penance. If you will help
-me in this affair by your intervention, you will not
-find me ungrateful; and I know enough of my own
-nature, as you might, to feel assured that, left to my
-own resources, I may do that in the heat of passion
-which cannot be undone. What! am I so fallen in
-your eyes that you cannot afford me the time and
-occasion I need for amendment, or distrust my best
-designs?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No, by St. Jago,” cried our generous don, “that
-I will not, Inique. I have done you some wrong in
-thought, perhaps, but I will make amends by assisting
-you where I may with proper regard to my own
-views and affections. But, you understand, I annex
-a condition—the true Hilo must pass from your care
-into mine as soon as we effect a landing. As his
-nearest relative, I have a higher right to the charge
-of his person than the—than yourself, Don Augustino.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Don Pedro,” answered Inique, slowly, after a
-pause, “you have justice on your side, and I will
-not oppose the transfer if you insist. But I beg you
-earnestly to consider that I, from hating, have come
-to love the youth better—yes, better than my own
-children; and until the present adjustment succeeds
-or fails, you may do worse than leave him in my
-keeping, as before—only that the doors of his prison,
-as you seemed but now to consider it, are open to
-you from this hour. I pledge you my word, at all
-hazard or pain, to restore him to you at the close of
-this expedition.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, let it be so,” replied Don Pedro, surprised
-and pleased at the other’s words.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And the maître-de-camp, with a breast somewhat
-less burdened, betook himself to his ship again.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A couple of days later the peaked and thickly-wooded
-shores of Tercera were first visible, and the
-armada coasting along, to the mortal terror of the
-Portuguese, who were parceled out in companies
-to defend the accessible points, and miserably ignorant
-where the Spaniards would make their descent,
-came to anchor off St. Catherine, where about fifty
-French and twice as many Portuguese were drawn
-up to oppose the landing.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='pageno' title='234' id='Page_234'></span>
-“It would be a pity to cross the humor of the
-French gentlemen, yonder,” Santa-Cruz said, with a
-grim smile. “But their allies will only embarrass their
-manœuvres, and had better be routed before hand.
-Don’t you think we can frighten them, Pòlvora?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Frighten them!” cried that cavalier; “I can see,
-at this distance, the finery of some glittering in the
-sunshine, as if the wearers were shaking all over.
-Let us try if they are not too frightened to run.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>So the signal was given, and a general discharge
-of cannon followed from the fleet, doing no special
-harm. I believe the widow Jean’s son was decapitated,
-and that young fool, Allain, who must needs
-leave his pretty sweetheart Annette in Floillé to pick
-up a little glory, that his marriage might come off
-with more eclat than any in his village, lost a leg or
-arm; but these were trifles nobody minds in a skirmish.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>However, it was before the balls came bumping
-along the sands—indeed, while they were disporting,
-like great whales, in the outer surf, and casting up
-jets of water at each <span class='it'>ricochet</span>, that the brave rear-guard
-took to their heels—a piece of prudence for
-which I beg the indulgence of those military young
-men who are suffered by their employers to sport
-moustachios in their shops and counting-houses, and
-whose chief motive for advocating, in strong language,
-a dissolution of the Union, is supposed to lie
-in the admirable opportunity to be afforded of winning
-undying laurels in civil warfare; for I would
-intimate, however reprehensible cowardice may be
-on any occasion, and on this in particular, that watching
-the lively skipping from wave to wave of such
-iron globes as a 42-pounder debouches, while chatting
-with the officer of artillery, who has just sighted
-the piece at a hogshead anchored in the bay, is quite
-a different thing from doing the same when serving
-as the hogshead yourself.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yonder go a brave enemy!” cried Padilh, with
-a laugh, to his colleague in the next barge, the two
-maîtres-de-camp heading the flotilla with the landing
-party. “If any fall in your way hereafter, don’t
-forget they’re women; spare their lives, as you
-wear spurs, señor mine.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>To this Inique answered, standing erect in the
-stern and shading his eyes with his palm, quite another
-personage in voice and carriage from the penitent
-of two days back:</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But the line of the French has not a gap in it—yes,
-one, which they have just filled with a fresh
-man. There’ll be sharp work there, Padilh, although
-we are strong enough to surround and capture
-the whole detachment. Lay to your oars, men!
-Make prisoners of as many of the gallant fellows as
-you can.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What’s come over the master?” grumbled a sergeant
-to a crony. “Last time he marched against
-the French it was nothing but ‘keep your pikes
-level, my lads; the man that fails to spit his man,
-deserves to be cut over the head in return.’ And
-now <a id='nowits'></a>it’s, ‘don’t hurt them, these fine fellows.’ You
-see, I like a man to be one thing.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why, they say Señor Inique has a cousin, or a
-son-in-law, or something of the sort, who is no better
-than he should be, and at this moment in the French
-camp. Who knows if the señor hasn’t an idea of
-turning coat some day himself? It looks like it, don’t
-it, sergeant?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No; hang it, man, he wouldn’t do such a dirty
-thing. Why, don’t you know, you unbelieving
-Thomas, there ain’t a gentleman in all Spain with
-such a name for honor!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, may be; but I like to be sure of a thing of
-the sort. Honesty and uprightness is my motto.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Hey! what’s that Mig’s saying?” said a sailor
-who pulled the bow oar, with a grin, to his neighbor.
-“I lived near La Mécha myself, egad! and I know
-there wa’n’t a lamb sure of being raised so long as
-<span class='it'>he</span> was about. May be he’s forgot my phiz, with
-the tip of my nose sliced off by that turbaned chap’s
-cim’tar.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>So the gossip was kept up until a volley of twenty
-or so arquebuses, as the fleet grounded in tolerable
-line, turned their thoughts too busily in another channel
-to leave time for such tattling; and the old campaigners
-of the later Moorish wars were out and
-formed in “battle” before Capt. Bourgignon poured
-in his reserve fire, and fell upon the invaders with
-the audacity of a hawk half as large as your hand
-pouncing upon a turkey a fourth as big as your body;
-only that the enemy was not in any respect like a
-turkey—more like a condor, I should say, in point of
-ferocity and collected action. He marched up from
-the submerged beach to the sands above high-water,
-with no more concern for the struggling handful in
-front than you or I would for the whiff of sleet blown
-in our faces on a windy day in the streets. To be
-sure, the smooth tablet left by the last tide, was
-written over with a heavy stylus, and dabbled with
-such ink as conquerors and others who leave their
-mark on the times in which they lived, employ;
-moreover, there were numerous unsightly blotches
-dropped about, which retained enough vitality sometimes
-to scream in a manner calculated to shock our
-fire-eating civilians into a wholesome distaste to
-civil collision and slaying. Of course, such things are
-necessities, like lightning and volcanic eruptions, despite
-the efforts of Mr. Burritt to show the contrary.
-The exception appears strongest when one of us
-loses a brother or a husband, with a bullet in the
-heart or head, as Amelia did George at Brussels, or
-more than one acquaintance of mine, now wearing
-premature widow’s-weeds, in the late Mexican war.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On the whole, there is something vastly fascinating
-in military display and glory; and I confess,
-when I call to mind the bray of trumpets, glint of
-steel harness, and gallant show of surcoats, paraded
-that July morning along the St. Catherine beach, I
-am tempted to drag my obliging reader into the thick
-of the fight, and recapitulate, with cannibal appetite,
-the shouts, groans, and extorted cries of agony, by
-which you could have told with shut eyes how the
-work advanced, and where this or that poor devil
-was left sprawling on the driftweed, with a saucer
-full of blood in a sea-shell, perhaps, just under his
-left side; to say nothing of those who enacted the
-<span class='pageno' title='235' id='Page_235'></span>
-parts, as near as their heavy armor and different locomotive
-organization allowed, of fowls recently
-beheaded—a sight full of interest to even those darlings
-of mamma who are brought up to feed sparrows
-with crumbs, but slay mice and centipedes
-without restriction. All I intend relating of this
-skirmish is, that Capt. Bourgignon was killed, as
-were most of his officers, and as to the fifteen men
-remaining out of the fifty, not one was without a
-wound. They could not have acquitted themselves
-better had De Chaste himself been present, which
-he was not, but on the opposite side of a high promontory
-lying next La Praya, making what haste he
-might to come up with the combatants, whose whereabouts
-he knew by the cannonading.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Three days before this the viceroy had sent word
-to the commander that the Spanish fleet could plainly
-be seen from the Peak; and riding along the coast,
-De Chaste heard the sentinels posted on the mountains
-ringing bells and firing their arquebuses, in
-token of the approach of the enemy, who were not
-long in arriving within gun-shot of the shore, and
-keeping the islanders in constant alarm, as before
-hinted, by cannon shots and the hovering of a cluster
-of galleys about every available landing. The
-French general had his hands full in following these
-last, encouraging his little garrisons, and endeavoring
-to find bread for his troops, whose dinners the
-Count de Torrevedros never troubled himself about.
-Indeed, that viceregal nobleman had enough to do
-to consider how best to ingratiate himself with the
-Marquis of Santa-Cruz, and for the present keep out
-of harm’s way. It was not only the count, however,
-who cared little for the landing of the Spaniards
-and ruin of the French, provided their persons
-and property remained secure—a tolerably universal
-wish being that their allies had gone to the
-bottom before reaching Tercera and dragging them
-into a siege, when all they wanted was safety and
-submission.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Senhor Commandante,” said the Portuguese
-captain at La Praya, while the pair rode out, as
-usual, with a company or two at their heels, “you
-can now see for yourself, yonder, how little the number
-of the enemy has been magnified.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“So much the better,” answered the commander,
-like the Wolf in Little Red Ridinghood; “we will
-have more to make prisoners.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“O—h!” cried the Portuguese, the idea being new
-to him.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Confound the man’s bragging,” he muttered to
-himself; “he talks as if they were children or savages
-he has to do with.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Whereupon De Chaste added, with something like
-a smile on his hard face:</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You see at least, senhor captain, they are not
-afraid of us, if we are of them, for they pull within
-reach of our batteries; and here comes a ball to measure
-the distance between us.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“St. Hubert! Are we to stand here to be shot
-without chance of drawing sword?” cried Captain
-Gaza, brushing the sand thrown over him from his
-holyday doublet. “It is madness, sir commander,
-madness; and I cannot expose my brave men to
-such needless danger.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“As you like best; you will find a half mile up the
-beach out of cannon range,” indifferently rejoined
-the French knight, and spurred closer to the water’s
-edge, followed by his countrymen, many of whom,
-in passing, saluted the Portuguese ironically, while
-others, out of earshot of the conversation, wondered
-at the blanched visage of the captain, and his taking
-himself and company to the skirt of the wood a mile
-or more back.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Duvict,” said De Chaste, presently, to that cavalier,
-whom he had called to his side, “you will ride
-over to-night to Angra, and tell the viceroy we all
-count it strange, that, with the enemy threatening
-the coast, he is no where to be seen; perhaps, if he
-is bent on shutting up himself, he will take this captain
-off our hands; the fewer such cowards in our
-ranks, the better chance will we have of successful
-defense. At all events, I insist on the withdrawal
-of this Gaza, even if his troop goes with him. Moreover,
-I demand in the queen’s name, an immediate
-supply of rations for our men here and elsewhere.
-Lose no time on your journey.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I am so well pleased with the errand, that I will
-set out this instant, monseigneur, if you consent.
-Why wait until our return to Porta Praya?” cried
-Duvict, cheerfully.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Go, then,” answered the commander, nodding
-approval; “and if he is not to be met with at Angra,
-search the country till you find him.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The viceroy was not at Angra, that city being too
-exposed to bombardment to suit his present fancy;
-but the Frenchman found him at his country-house
-among the hills, keeping a sharp look-out over the
-roads leading coastward.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Tell the honorable commander,” replied Torrevedros,
-dissembling his annoyance at the ambassador’s
-blunt message, “I will surely join him as
-soon as I make certain levies, calculated to do him
-more service than five troop of horse. But I take
-it ill, he shows so little faith in my concern for his
-safety at the present extremity.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“As for his safety,” answered Duvict, who was
-not much of a courtier, “our commandant can very
-well take care of that and ours. It is for your own
-honor, and the putting your people in good heart,
-which, by the three kings, they want mightily!
-Monseigneur troubles himself with your absence,
-M. le Viceroi. Meanwhile, it would not be amiss
-to give our soldiers something withal to fill their
-mouths, especially as we may be obliged to do most
-of the fighting before the new levies arrive.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You will soon have abundance for all,” the
-count made answer, smoothly. “Hasten down,
-and inform your commandant I will delay here not
-an hour beyond what is necessary, on the honor of
-a knight. You said truly, sir, we must have no
-cowards in our ranks, either French or Portuguese.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“M. le Viceroi, your acquaintance with your own
-countrymen is indisputable,” Duvict here said superciliously,
-“but we French are taught in a different
-school.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='pageno' title='236' id='Page_236'></span>
-“Let it pass,” rejoined Torrevedros, biting his
-lip. “If I designed to wound your self-love, it
-would not be in my own house. I will show my
-willingness at least to oblige M. de Chaste, by
-cashiering my captain at Porta Praya in favor of
-one more reliable.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was this new captain, John de Castros, who
-carried De Chaste a letter from the viceroy a day
-later, which that loyal nobleman had received from
-Santa Cruz by a Portuguese, caught off the coast, and
-forced to swim ashore with the dispatch tied about
-his neck—the French not suffering any boat to approach
-within hail.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The commandant tore the paper to fragments as
-soon as he saw the contents. “This Count of Torrevedros,”
-he said, with a short laugh, to his maître-de-camp,
-who was present, “is either a fool, or
-doubts our honor. The Marquis of Santa Cruz
-offers him here his life, and abundant rewards, besides
-the freedom of his wife and children, now in
-Madrid, provided he surrenders the island, which he
-might well enough do as far as himself is concerned,
-but he wishes to be rid of us at the same time, and
-therefore risks being reckoned a traitor in hope of
-inducing us to accept the marquis’s conditions.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“A traitor he is!” cried the lieutenant, indignantly.
-“And since he proves himself so in so
-many ways, why not return to France as we are,
-without further intermeddling between him and his
-lackland master.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You forget,” returned De Chaste, “all who have
-entered on this enterprise, are bound in honor to see
-it through with what success their energy may obtain.
-Still you, and other cavaliers who have joined
-of your free will, and not by the queen’s direct command,
-may do as you see proper, and leave us who
-remain to share the greater glory which must attend
-a defense against greater odds.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Sir commandant,” the lieutenant responded, simply
-hearing him through with some little mortification
-in his frank face, “you pain me by such permission,
-for neither I, nor any other French gentleman
-here, would leave you an instant without being
-compelled by your commands; and that I am sure
-you know.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I know it so well,” cried the commandant at
-this, “that I am not sure I spoke the truth in even
-hinting my distrust just now.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And truly the lieutenant was as good as his word;
-for when the French crossed the neck of the promontory
-I have mentioned, and coming too late to
-reinforce Bourgignon, fell upon a strong party of
-the Spaniards, detailed to take possession of a spring
-near by, with a determination which brought about
-a general and very bloody battle; there was not one
-in the tremendous uproar of voices and of arms,
-smoke of arquebuses, blood spattered and welling,
-screams, shrieks, groans, and huzzas!—huzzas!
-ensuing—who did such execution with the sword,
-as that same lieutenant; it was he that killed the
-father of poor little Margueretta, who, for want of
-bread, the next year became what even famine must
-not excuse. And, perhaps, as he did his share of
-irreparable mischief with an easy conscience, and
-certainly to the best of his ability, when his corpse
-lay stark as the mail encasing it, that same afternoon,
-by the eminence to the left, where Hilo was
-seen aiming an arquebuse at one time of the fight,
-his spirit may have been regaling in Paradise with
-other performers of that much abused sentiment, duty.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:right;margin-right:3em;margin-top:0.5em;'><a id='tobe'></a><a id='cont'></a>[<span class='it'>To be continued.</span></p>
-
-<hr class='tbk112'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='name'></a>THE NAME OF WIFE.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MRS. A. M. F. ANNAN.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>O name most blesséd, or most sorrowful, thou,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;As from the Urim of Experience fall</p>
-<p class='line'>The lights or shadows on thee; seeming now</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Radiant as bliss upon an angel’s brow,</p>
-<p class='line'>Then ghastly dim as Hope’s funereal pall!</p>
-<p class='line'>Up to my vision thou dost ever call</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Twin pictures—women—one with calm, meek eyes,</p>
-<p class='line'>And soft form gently bent, and folded hands,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Brooding in dove-like peace o’er her sweet ties</p>
-<p class='line'>Requited truthfully; the other stands</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;With sunken cheek by tears unheeded glazed,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Her wan feet bleeding, and her thin arms raised,</p>
-<p class='line'>Knowing no help but from above the skies.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk113'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='olive'></a>SONNET.—THE OLIVE.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY WM. ALEXANDER.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>What sacred reminiscences dost thou</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Awake within the breast, O olive-tree!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;First did the silver-pinioned dove from thee</p>
-<p class='line'>Pluck the sweet “Peace-branch”—it an olive-bough.</p>
-<p class='line'>Fair evergreen! thoughts pure, devout, sublime,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Thou callest up, reminding us of Him,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The Man of Sorrows—Lord of Cherubim—</p>
-<p class='line'>Who, erewhile, did, in distant Orient clime,</p>
-<p class='line'>’Neath thy dark, solemn shade, once weep and pray</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In woful agony; though now, above,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Seated on sapphire throne—the God of Love—</p>
-<p class='line'>While round his head the covenant sign alway</p>
-<p class='line'>Unfolds its rich and ever-living green,</p>
-<p class='line'>Memento of Gethsemane’s affecting scene.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk114'/>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<a href='images/i038f.jpg'><img src='images/i038.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0002' style='width:450px;height:auto;'/></a>
-<p class='caption'><span class='bold'>THE WAY TO CHURCH.</span><br/> <br/>Engraved expressly for Graham’s Magazine by T. McGoffin</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk115'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='237' id='Page_237'></span><h1><a id='sinno'></a>SIN NO MORE.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY R. T. CONRAD.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>“Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee.”</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>Art thou young, yet hast not given</p>
-<p class='line'>Dewy bud and bloom to Heaven?</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Tarryest till life’s morn be o’er!</p>
-<p class='line'>Pause, or ere the bolt be driven!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Sin no more!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Art thou aged? Seek’st thou power?</p>
-<p class='line'>Rank or gold—of dust the dower!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Fame to wreathe thy wrinkles hoar?</p>
-<p class='line'>Dotard! death hangs o’er thy hour!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Sin no more!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Art thou blest? False joys caress thee:</p>
-<p class='line'>And the world’s embraces press thee</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To its hot heart’s cankered core:</p>
-<p class='line'>Waken! Heaven alone can bless thee.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Sin no more!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Art thou wretched? Hath each morrow</p>
-<p class='line'>Sown its sin to reap its sorrow!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Turn to Heaven—repent—adore:</p>
-<p class='line'>Hope new light from Faith can borrow;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Sin no more!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>May a meek and rapt devotion</p>
-<p class='line'>Fill thy heart, as waves the ocean,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Glassing Heaven from shore to shore!</p>
-<p class='line'>Then wilt thou—calmed each emotion—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Sin no more.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk116'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='words'></a>WORDSWORTH.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY JAMES T. FIELDS.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>The grass hung wet on Rydal banks,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The golden day with pearls adorning,</p>
-<p class='line'>When side by side with him we walked</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To meet midway the summer morning.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>The west wind took a softer breath,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The sun himself seemed brighter shining,</p>
-<p class='line'>As through the porch the minstrel slept—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;His eye sweet Nature’s look enshrining.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>He passed along the dewy sward,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The blue-bird sang aloft “good-morrow!”</p>
-<p class='line'>He plucked a bud, the flower awoke</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And smiled without one pang of sorrow.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>He spoke of all that graced the scene</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In tones that fell like music round us,</p>
-<p class='line'>We felt the charm descend, nor strove</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To break the rapturous spell that bound us.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>We listened with mysterious awe,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Strange feelings mingling with our pleasure;</p>
-<p class='line'>We heard that day prophetic words,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;High thoughts the heart must always treasure.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Great Nature’s Priest! thy calm career,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;With that sweet morn, on earth has ended—</p>
-<p class='line'>But who shall say thy mission died</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;When, winged for Heaven, thy soul ascended!</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk117'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='shirl'></a>INSPIRATION. TO SHIRLEY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY WM. P. BRANNAN.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>What shall yield me inspiration,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;What sweet spell entrance my thought,</p>
-<p class='line'>Whilst I sing the adoration</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;By thy matchless beauty wrought?</p>
-<p class='line'>Overcome with exultation</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Which thy charming presence brought.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Incense-bearing breezes hover</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Round my flushed and throbbing brow,</p>
-<p class='line'>Minstrels in their shady cover</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Chant divinest music now;</p>
-<p class='line'>Nature, yield to nature’s lover</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Language worthy of his vow!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Where she walks a richer splendor</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Hallows all the earth and sky,</p>
-<p class='line'>Unseen angels there attend her;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Heaven and love sleep in her eye—</p>
-<p class='line'>Graces have no grace to lend her,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Zephyr breathes an envious sigh.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Thou thyself art inspiration!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Moving, breathing, blessing, blest;</p>
-<p class='line'>The lily and the rose-carnation</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Live upon thy cheek and breast,</p>
-<p class='line'>Daring time and desolation,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Thrilling hearts with wild unrest!</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk118'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='238' id='Page_238'></span><h1><a id='edda'></a>EDDA MURRAY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY ENNA DUVAL.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';fs:0.9em;' -->
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Learn to win a lady’s faith</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;Nobly, as the thing is high;</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Bravely, as for life and death—</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;With a loyal gravity.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Lead her from the festive boards,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;Point her to the starry skies,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>Guard her by your truthful words,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;Pure from courtship’s flatteries.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>By your truth she shall be true—</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;Ever true as wives of yore—</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>And her <span class='it'>Yes</span>, once said to you,</p>
-<p class='line' style='font-size:0.9em;'>&ensp;&ensp;<span class='sc'>Shall</span> be Yes for evermore.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:left;margin-left:5em;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'><span style='font-size:smaller'><span class='sc'>Elizabeth Barrett Browning.</span></span></p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was a hot, sultry afternoon at —— ——, a
-fashionable summer resort at the sea side. The
-three great events of the day were accomplished—namely,
-the bath, dinner, and the arrival of the boat
-bringing the mail; the visiters, therefore, had nothing
-to do but to get rid of the afternoon in as noisy a
-manner as possible, keeping themselves as warm
-and uncomfortable as they could, in order to prove
-that they were enjoying themselves after the most
-approved fashion. Ladies could be seen in every
-direction, passing from one hotel to another, flitting
-in and out of cottages, dressed in the most incongruous
-style—in silks, mulls, and gauzes, fitted for a
-full-dress dinner or evening party; and surmounting
-this dressy costume was—the only really sensible
-article to be seen in this dominion of Folly—the
-prim, plain country sun-bonnet. Fashion had established
-that hats at the sea-side were vulgar, and accordingly,
-every belle mounted one of these useful,
-but exceedingly ugly head-dresses. Carriages and
-wagons of every description darted to and fro, from
-the funny little Jersey sand wagon, with horses of a
-Jersey match, gray and brown, or black and white,
-up to the well matched, well ordered establishment
-of the <span class='it'>nouveau riche</span>, who was willing to sacrifice
-his delicate town-bred horses, in order to exhibit his
-magnificence to the <span class='it'>plebs</span>. A fine establishment drew
-up in front of the entrance of one of the principal
-hotels, and the owner of it, Mr. Martin, a prosperous
-merchant, with his fussy, dressy, good-natured, fat
-little wife, entered it. As Mr. Martin handed his
-wife in, he asked,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Where’s Edda?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, let her alone, my dear,” replied his wife,
-“she will get over her moping after awhile. She’s
-fretted herself into a sick headache, and is lying
-down.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Confound the fellow,” muttered Mr. Martin, “I
-wish she had never seen him. If I had my way she
-should be divorced from him. What right has a
-man to a wife when he cannot support her? Now,
-as long as he lives, I suppose, our poor little darling
-will be down-hearted.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” said the wife, settling herself back comfortably
-in the luxurious carriage, after having carefully
-disposed the folds of her rich, silk gown and
-heavily embroidered mantle in a manner to crush
-them the least, “wait until he gets fairly settled out
-at the West, and the winter parties, and concerts,
-and operas commence, then Edda will cheer up.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I hope so, with all my heart,” ejaculated Mr.
-Martin, “and if money, amusements, and fine clothes
-can make her what she was two years ago, I shall
-be glad enough, for I hate a sad, gloomy face.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>While they were thus talking, their niece, the
-subject of their conversation, was lying in her bed-room,
-burying her throbbing, aching head in the
-pillows of the couch, wishing that an endless sleep
-would come to her, and deaden the painful sense of
-grief.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Poor Edda Murray! Two short years before, a
-happier, more free-from-care girl could not have been
-found. Then, she had never known a trouble. Her
-aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Martin, who were
-childless, and possessed ample means, had taken her
-at the time of her parents’ death, which had occurred
-during her infancy, and from that moment up to the
-present, she had been their spoiled pet and darling.
-They were good-natured, indolent people, caring for
-but little else than the amusements of the out-of-doors
-world. As Edda grew old enough to enter society,
-they took great pleasure in dressing her extravagantly,
-and accompanying her to every gay place of
-resort of the fashionable world. According to Mrs.
-Martin’s ideas, every girl should be married early;
-and when Edda was addressed by Mr. Murray, near
-the close of her first winter, and seemed pleased
-with his attentions, her aunt’s rapture knew no
-bounds. Mr. Martin was pleased also, for Murray,
-though a young man, was a rising merchant, and
-was steady and industrious.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>How Ralph Murray ever happened to fancy Edda
-Martin, was a mystery to all those of his and her
-friends, who had observed but little of this marriage
-business of life. As a general rule, both men and
-women, especially when young, select the very
-companions that are the most unlike their ideals, and
-what is still stranger, the most unsuitable for them.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Ralph Murray was a reserved, dignified young
-man, rather stern for his years, with the most rigid
-<span class='pageno' title='239' id='Page_239'></span>
-ideas of justice and propriety, even in trifles; exact
-in every thing, and making but little allowance for
-others less exact than himself. He did not require
-more than he was willing to give in return, but he
-had no consideration, no patience, and when disappointed,
-was apt to become cold, moody, and uncompromising.
-In woman he had always required,
-“that monster perfection.” His mother had been a
-model of feminine propriety. He had no sisters, but
-a whole troop of cousins, who happened to be laughing,
-hoydenish, good-natured creatures; but they
-were his utter abomination, he never countenanced
-them, pronouncing them silly, frivolous, and senseless;
-but how they laughed and <a id='tea'></a>teased him, when
-his engagement with Edda Martin was announced—verily
-they had their revenge.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Edda was, indeed, a spoiled pet, full of caprice
-and whim, beautiful and graceful as a fairy, and as
-untamed and uncontrollable as an unwedded Undine.
-But, poor child, marriage brought no happy spirit to
-dwell in her household. How could it? For they
-had married under the influence of the maddest,
-wildest infatuation. Their love was beautiful while
-it lasted; but soon the husband grew exacting, the
-angel became a mere woman, and the darling, who
-had never obeyed any will but her own, discovered
-she had a lord and master, whose will was stronger
-and more unbending than even her own had ever been.
-Then Edda was extravagant and thriftless, and
-thoughtless, a real child-wife, like poor Dora, that
-English Undine creation of Dickens’s fancy, but with
-more spirit and temper than “Little Blossom.”
-Edda’s character had in it qualities which would have
-made her a fine woman, properly and gradually developed;
-but her husband placed her on the scale of
-his own model of perfection, and endeavored to drag
-her up to this idea of wifehood, without waiting for
-Nature to assist him. It was the old, sad story told
-over again—incompatibility of tempers, unreasonableness
-on his part, petulance, waywardness and temper
-on hers.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>God sent them a little babe, but the child brought
-no tenderness to the heart of either parent for each
-other. Then trouble came upon Ralph Murray in
-his business—unfortunate speculations, bad failures
-in others he had trusted; but instead of going to his
-wife, and talking affectionately, but candidly, remembering
-all the while what a spoiled darling she
-had been, he considered himself aggrieved by her
-lavish expenditure, and told her haughtily that she
-was now the wife of a young merchant, and not the
-niece of a rich man, and ought to have sense enough
-to observe economy. Poor Edda was offended,
-bitter words passed between them, and they parted
-in anger. Her aunt found her in tears—happening
-to come in just as the irritated husband had left her.
-Edda turned to her thoughtless, childish aunt, for
-comfort, telling her the whole story of her wrongs;
-and Mrs. Martin pronounced Mr. Murray a brute, to
-treat her poor child so unkindly. Mr. Martin thought
-always as his wife did, and in the first flush of
-temper, they carried the weeping, angry wife, with
-her young babe, away from her husband’s roof; the
-exasperated uncle leaving for Mr. Murray an angrily
-worded note, in which he said that Edda had never
-ceased to be his niece, even if she had been so unfortunate
-as to become the wife of a parsimonious
-merchant, and an unkind husband. The following
-day Ralph Murray was a bankrupt.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The news of other heavy failures of houses indebted
-to him, brought his affairs to a crisis, and all
-his troubles seemed piled mountain high upon him
-at once. Poor Edda would have gone instantly to
-her husband when she heard of his trouble—for
-she had immediately repented of her hasty step—but
-she did not dare; she remembered his sternness, and
-dreaded a repulse which she felt she deserved.
-Then a new cause of anxiety displayed itself, her boy
-sickened, and, after a few hours’ illness, he died in
-her arms. Her husband was sent for, but he did
-not notice her; he stood beside the coffin of his child,
-pale, tearless, and with a countenance as unchanging
-as a statue of marble; he never looked at his sobbing
-wife, who, softened by her grief, would have
-willingly thrown herself into his arms, and asked
-pardon for the past, and forbearance for the future;
-but he coldly turned from her after the funeral, without
-speaking a word.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Two months passed by, and still Ralph Murray
-treated his wife with the same silent indifference.
-He never sought an interview nor an explanation;
-it seemed as if the death of their child, instead of
-softening him, had, to his mind, broken off all connection
-between them. Edda grieved incessantly,
-until at last her health became seriously affected.
-When the traveling season came, the physicians who
-had been called in to heal the poor breaking heart, recommended
-an instant departure for the sea-side.
-Fine apartments were procured, every elegance,
-every luxury surrounded her; but she looked more
-wretched, more unhappy every day.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>She knew that their beautiful house belonged to
-another—every thing had been sold; that she no
-longer had a home with her husband; and the consciousness
-that she was a childless, lonely wife, became
-daily more insupportable. Poor girl! life
-seemed very dark and hopeless to her. Her trouble
-had lifted her spirit on almost a life time; all the
-childish, capricious waywardness of girlhood had
-disappeared; sorrow had done the work of years;
-and she was now a woman—but a suffering, loving
-woman, ready to make any sacrifice, perform any
-duty, to atone for the past. Her uncle and aunt caressed
-her, and sympathized with her, while they
-incessantly spoke of her husband with words of reproach
-and blame; and when she would check
-them, saying the greater part of the blame rested on
-herself, they would think her still more lovely and
-amiable, and lift their hands in surprise. How reproaching
-to her conscience was their sympathy!
-and she grew more and more despairing and hopeless.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At midnight she would pace her room, wringing
-her little hands with remorse for the past. Her
-husband’s stern face would rise before her, blended
-with the beautiful, loving expression his countenance
-<span class='pageno' title='240' id='Page_240'></span>
-had worn during the delicious season of courtship.
-Then she would recall every noble, honorable trait
-in his character, and remember her own willful conduct.
-All, all was over, and henceforth she would
-have to live without him. This seemed impossible;
-and the poor girl would call on Heaven, agonizingly,
-to take her away from life or give her back her husband.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>All her friends upheld her and blamed Mr. Murray.
-They called him stern, cold and heartless.
-The fashionable world thought her a lucky woman
-in possessing a rich old uncle to take care of her.
-Her quarrel with her cross husband had taken place
-in the very nick of time, they said; now she need
-not suffer from his mischances; when she would
-so willingly have borne the very heaviest burden
-poverty could impose. But what could she do but
-suffer idly?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Day after day passed by, still no message came
-from her husband. Her uncle had told her that the
-principal creditors had willingly and generously arranged
-matters; for, as every one said, the failure
-had resulted from misfortune, not from mismanagement,
-and that he had heard that a friend had offered
-Mr. Murray a situation in a commercial house out
-in the very farthest west, with a chance of becoming
-a partner in time. Then the next news that reached
-her was, that he was actually leaving for his new
-home. And would Ralph leave her without a word—a
-line? she asked herself over and again.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At last a letter came—a cold, stern, haughty letter,
-bidding her farewell, as if for ever. There were
-one or two tender passages in it; but the tone of the
-whole letter was so cold and unforgiving, that it
-crushed her to the earth. She had received it the
-day before our little sketch opens; and when her
-aunt urged her to drive out and shake off her trouble,
-she only buried her little head still deeper in the pillows
-and prayed still more agonizingly for death.
-The afternoon passed slowly enough to the poor
-sufferer. Then came the evening—the noisy, gay
-evening. As there was a ball in the saloon of the
-hotel, her thoughtless, butterfly aunt and uncle
-joined the merry crowd of triflers, after an earnest
-but unsuccessful persuasion of Edda to follow their
-example.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The merry music of the band sounded loudly in
-Edda’s lonely bed-room; but the lively dancing melodies
-seemed to her ears like the voices of taunting
-demons. She restlessly rose from her bed and
-walked into her little parlor, which opened on a balcony
-that swept around the house. She stepped out
-on this balcony, and listened to the pealing thunder
-of the ocean, which rolled unceasingly before her.
-Her agony increased, and a demon seemed to whisper
-in her ears:</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What is life but a torment? Death is an endless,
-dreamless sleep. Why suffer when you can so
-easily find relief?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Shudderingly she put her little hands to her ears,
-and, closing her eyes, hastened into the room, fearing
-that in another instant she might be induced, by
-despair, to plunge headlong over the railings on the
-cliff beneath. For a while she laid on the lounge,
-as if stunned; but at last tears came to her relief, and
-she felt calmer. To avoid danger she closed the
-Venetian shutters of the door and window, but drew
-up under them the lounge, and threw herself on it,
-that the damp night air might cool her fevered, burning
-head. She had not been long there when she
-heard the sound of voices and laughter, but she was
-too weak to arise, and remained quiet—remembering
-that she could not be seen from the outside.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was a little group of young girls, who were promenading
-after the dance, and who had concluded that
-the upper balcony commanded a finer view of the
-ocean. As chance would have it they selected that
-part of the balcony just under Edda’s window for their
-gossiping lounge. One, more sentimental than the
-others, pointed out the effect of the moon-beams
-which made the edges of the rolling, dashing waves
-shine like molten silver. But the beauty of the
-scene was quickly lost, even on this moon-struck
-damsel, for she, as well as the rest, were soon deeply
-interested in discussing a wedding that had lately
-taken place in the <span class='it'>beau-monde</span>.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, dear, there’s Mrs. Jones,” exclaimed one,
-“she just came from town yesterday, and can tell
-us all about it.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The lady mentioned joined the group, and threw
-them into a state of perfect felicity by telling them
-she had actually been present at the wedding. Immediately
-she was called upon by a dozen eager
-voices to tell them “all about it.” Poor Edda, she
-was doomed to listen to the whole senseless detail,
-commencing at the bride’s India mull robe, and its
-heavy, elaborate embroidery, her “exquisite and
-graceful head-dress,” with the costly Honiton veil,
-the “rich splendid gifts” of the relatives, and ending
-with the list of bridemaids and their costume. How
-the whole description brought her own gorgeous
-wedding back to her thoughts! and she felt heart-sick.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Poor things!” she murmured to herself with a
-sigh, “I hope they will be happier than Ralph and I
-have been.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The conversation grew more bustling and detached;
-the lady who was the reporter-general was
-giving, for the fifth time, to some new comer, a description
-of the bride’s costume, which she did with
-a volubility so eloquent and untiring as to have reflected
-credit on a French <span class='it'>modiste</span>—expatiating
-largely on the beauty and costliness of the materials
-of which it was composed, and united to her minute
-details of the tucks, headed by rich rows of lace and
-embroidery, could be heard exclamations of the
-others, who had already listened to the description.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh,” said one, in a tone of voice that told what
-delicious satisfaction costly articles of dress gave
-her, “it is too lovely to be married in an India robe,
-with heavy embroidery and rich Valenciennes <span class='it'>berthé</span>
-and trimming. If ever I’m married, I intend to make
-ma order one of Levy’s for me; it shall be imported
-especially for me.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Jones, stopping in the midst
-of her harangue, <span class='it'>à la</span> parenthesis, “Mr. Grugan received
-<span class='pageno' title='241' id='Page_241'></span>
-the order for Blanche’s wedding robe last
-year, the very day Mr. Holmes offered. No one
-knew it but her family, except me—I knew it, of
-course.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I don’t believe she knew a word about it. Mrs.
-Jones is always pretending she’s so intimate with
-every body,” said a young lady, <span class='it'>sotto voce</span>; but Mrs.
-Jones was too deeply engaged in the tucks, and lace
-trimming, and Honiton veil, to hear the doubt and
-charge. The conversation increased in animation,
-and Mrs. Jones’s clear, high voice was almost
-drowned.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Ah,” exclaimed one, “<a id='its'></a>it’s splendid to be married
-in such style.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes,” rejoined another, “and how delightful to
-go right off on a journey, and to Europe, too.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, girls,” exclaimed one, “only think—<a id='blan'></a>Blanche
-Forrester went to school with me, and, here, she’s
-married!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well,” said another, “her first bridemaid, Helen
-Howell, and Aubrey Hilton, are engaged, and
-Helen was in the same class with me. We all came
-out last fall together—you’re no worse off than I
-am.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Some gentlemen joining the group, the conversation
-became too detached and confused to be heard,
-and there were so many little bursts of laughter as to
-make the whole affair quite a medley. Presently the
-scraping of the violins, preceded by a loud crash of
-the whole united band, announced that a waltz was
-about to be danced.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh!” they exclaimed, simultaneously, “that delicious
-<a id='scho'></a><span class='it'>Schottische</span>,” and soon the balcony was empty—or
-at least so thought Edda; but she was mistaken,
-for she heard other voices. A lady and gentleman
-had seated themselves under her window, and were
-enjoying the sight of the waves and moonlight. She
-knew their voices well. One was a Mrs. Howard,
-a gentle, lady-like woman, for whom her husband
-entertained the highest respect. Edda knew but
-little of her; she had met her in society after her
-marriage, but had always drawn back a little in awe
-when she had met with her, because she constantly
-heard Ralph holding her up as such a model of wifely
-dignity and propriety. The other was a Mr. Morrison—a
-cynical, fault-finding old bachelor—or, at
-least, Edda had always regarded him as such. No
-wonder the poor girl shrank still closer to the lounge—she
-seemed doomed to be persecuted.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Howard and Mr. Morrison had heard part of
-the conversation about the wedding, and the first that
-reached Edda’s ears were Mr. Morrison’s severe,
-caustic remarks.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Silly, senseless fools!” he exclaimed. “They
-talk as if life had but two points to attain; to get
-married in an India robe, in such a style as to produce
-a fine theatrical effect, and to go to Europe.
-What right have such idiots to get married at all?
-What do they know of the realities of married life—the
-holy, sacred obligations of marriage?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Very little, it is true,” answered his companion;
-“and this ignorance is wisely ordered! for I am
-afraid, Mr. Morrison, if these young, thoughtless
-creatures knew the one half of life’s stern realities,
-whether married or unmarried, they would sooner
-lie down and die than encounter them. Youth is as
-hopeless in trouble as it is thoughtless in prosperity.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Very true, madam, very true,” said the old gentleman;
-“but it seems to me that these frivolous
-creatures might be taught a little—enough to give
-them some ballast. What sort of wives will they
-make? Why, I declare it makes me shudder when
-I see these silly, thoughtless wretches entering into
-marriage as they would into a dance—not displaying
-half the anxiety that a man would on entering into
-a commercial engagement that can be dissolved at
-will after a certain season.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well,” said the lady, with a sweet, low laugh,
-“from what we see on all sides, my dear sir, a great
-many of those who marry at the present day seem to
-regard marriage only as a mere partnership, to be
-dissolved at will.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I would pretty soon put an end to that divorce
-business, madam,” said Mr. Morrison, “if I had the
-power. Every couple that could not live happily
-together, and wished to be separated, should have
-their request granted, but on one condition—that
-both, particularly the woman, should go into some
-religious asylum, and spend the rest of their days in
-entire seclusion, employed constantly in the performance
-of strict religious duties and works of charity.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh!” exclaimed the lady, laughing outright, “I
-am very sure any husband and wife would prefer the
-most inharmonious intercourse to such an alternative.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Well, well,” said Mr. Morrison, “they could
-have their choice, and it would teach others to be
-more careful how they ‘married in haste to repent
-at leisure.’ This is becoming a curse to society; on
-all sides we see husbands and wives disagreeing.
-Now-a-days a wife must spend as much money as
-she pleases, lead a dissipated life—for going to parties
-and balls, and every other gay place, constantly
-is dissipation—entertain admirers, and her husband
-must not complain. He, poor devil—beg pardon,
-madam—must not express a wish for a quiet home
-and a companion, after the toil of the day and the
-wear and tear of exciting, perilous business. Oh,
-no! If he does madam will leave him in a huff, and
-he may whistle for a wife, and life is a wreck to him
-ever afterward.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Do these unhappy marriages always result from
-the thoughtlessness and selfishness of the wives, my
-dear sir?” asked Mrs. Howard. “I think there are
-as many wives with domestic tastes, who have the
-same complaint to make against their husbands.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, yes,” answered Mr. Morrison, a little hesitatingly;
-“I suppose there is blame to be found on
-both sides; but generally speaking, with the married
-people of what is called ‘society,’ especially the
-young, the fault lies with the wife. Yesterday I
-bade good-bye to as fine a fellow as God ever created,
-whose whole happiness for life has been
-wrecked by one of these silly, heartless fools. You
-know him, my dear madam, and are, I believe, one
-of his few friends; for the whole world unite in condemning
-<span class='pageno' title='242' id='Page_242'></span>
-him and upholding his doll-baby wife in her
-sinful disobedience.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You are speaking of Ralph Murray, I am sure,”
-said Mrs. Howard, in a sad tone.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Poor Edda writhed, but she had not power to
-move; she felt spell-bound, and every word of the
-conversation fell on her ear with painful clearness.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, I mean Murray,” replied Mr. Morrison.
-“God help him, poor fellow! His haggard face haunts
-me like a ghost.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But,” said Mrs. Howard, “much as I love Ralph,
-much as I respect his high, honorable character, I
-cannot hold him blameless.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What!” exclaimed Mr. Morrison, in a tone of
-surprise, “you cannot hold him blameless? Why,
-what can you see wrong in any thing he has done?”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“He should not have married as he did,” replied
-Mrs. Howard; “or if determined to gratify his fancy
-at the expense of his judgment, by yielding to an infatuation,
-he should have had more patience with his
-wife. If he felt willing to trust his happiness in the
-hands of a petted, spoiled child, he should have remembered
-what she was, in the hour of trial, and
-not exacted of her the ability and judgment which
-are possessed only by a sensible, well-trained woman.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, you are right,” answered Mr. Morrison,
-after a short pause; “he was wrong in the first place—he
-never should have married such an idiot. But,
-my God, madam,” he exclaimed, impatiently, “any
-woman who was lucky enough to get such a noble
-husband as Ralph Murray, should have been so
-proud of him as to have been willing to have made
-every sacrifice of whim and caprice for his comfort.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“That’s true man’s reasoning,” said Mrs. Howard,
-good-naturedly. “But, Mr. Morrison, I think I
-am not mistaken when I say that if Ralph had managed
-his pretty, petted, capricious fairy of a wife
-patiently and properly, their happiness would not
-have been wrecked as it is.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Their</span> happiness!” repeated Mr. Morrison, sneeringly.
-“Little she cares, while she has aunt to caress
-her and uncle’s money to spend.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Indeed you do her great injustice,” said Mrs.
-Howard. “To be sure, I do not know Mrs. Murray
-intimately, but I am certain if you were to see her
-pale, wretched face and frail figure, as I do daily
-in the corridor, when they bring her in, half fainting,
-from the bath, you would think as I do—that, let her
-husband’s sufferings be ever so great, the wife suffers
-quite as much. Oh, my dear Mr. Morrison, how
-I wish I were Edda Murray’s friend.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“What would you do, my dear madam? Add another
-to her host of sympathizers?” said the old gentleman.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“No,” replied Mrs. Howard, mildly; “I would
-tell her to send for Ralph, to ask pardon for the past
-and patience for the future, and beg him to take me
-once more to his heart, and help me to be a good,
-faithful wife. This she must do, or never know
-peace in this life.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Ha, ha,” laughed Mr. Morrison; “why, my
-dear Mrs. Howard, if she had sense and feeling
-enough to act thus, she would never have behaved
-as she has done.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Edda Murray has acted willfully and selfishly, I
-admit,” said Mrs. Howard; “but we do not know
-what provocations she may have had. Ralph is a
-fine, noble fellow, but arbitrary and impatient—the
-very kind of man that I should fancy it would not be
-easy to make happy in domestic life, even if a judicious
-woman were to undertake the task. Think,
-then, how many excuses should be made for his impulsive,
-wayward little wife, who never in her life
-was subjected to control. I am certain this trouble
-has done her good, however, for a woman’s character
-is seldom properly developed in prosperity; like
-precious metals, it must pass through the fiery furnace
-of affliction—it must be purified in the crucible
-of sorrow, until it loses all recollection of self. There
-is a beautiful simile in the Bible, which compares
-the purification of the soul to the smelting of silver.
-Silver must be purged from all dross, until it is so
-clear and mirror-like that it will reflect the countenance
-of the refiner; thus the soul must be so pure,
-in so high a state of godliness, as to reflect only the
-will of the Creator. I cannot recall the passage exactly,
-but I often apply it to my own sex, whose characters,
-to be properly developed, must be purged
-from all selfish dross, in order to make them think
-only of the happiness of others—forgetful always of
-self; then, like silver seven times refined and purified,
-their spirits reflect only the countenance of the
-purifier, which is the will or command of God.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Just then Mr. Howard and some others joined
-them, and after a little playful bantering about the
-flirtation of two such steady old persons, a remark
-or two on the fine night and the beauty of the
-ocean scene, the party moved off and Edda at last
-was alone.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>That night, when Mr. and Mrs. Martin stopped at
-Edda’s room door, on their way to bed, they found
-her sitting at her desk writing. She kissed them,
-bade them good night, and thanked them for their
-affectionate inquiries, in a more cheerful manner
-than she had shown for months, which gladdened
-their silly, warm old hearts, and they went off comforting
-themselves with the hope that all now would
-be well.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, my dear,” said Mr. Martin, as he composed
-himself to sleep, “you were right—Edda is getting
-over it. She looked and talked more brightly than
-she has since poor little Martin’s death.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And Edda really felt so, but for a reason her uncle
-little suspected. Mrs. Howard’s words had given
-form and impulse to her thoughts; she no longer
-wasted time in mere actionless grief; she saw her
-duty before her, and, hard as it was to perform, she
-nobly resolved to do it. A day or so afterward, as
-Ralph Murray was leaving town for his new western
-home—sad, lonely, and for the first time feeling that
-maybe in the past he had not been entirely free from
-blame, he received a letter, directed in the delicate,
-lady-like, hand-writing of his wife. With trembling
-hands he opened it, and thick, short sobs swelled up
-<span class='pageno' title='243' id='Page_243'></span>
-in his throat and hot tears sprang to his eyes, as he
-read her childish, frank, penitent appeal.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I am your wife, Ralph,” she wrote; “you must
-not leave me—you must take me with you. God
-joined us, and trouble—death has bound us still
-closer. Pardon my past waywardness, and take
-your penitent, suffering Edda back to your heart.
-Think what a reckless, thoughtless, uncontrolled
-child I was when you married me, and have
-patience with me. I cannot live without you,
-Ralph. I shall die broken-hearted if you treat
-my selfish, wayward conduct as it merits. God
-forgives the penitent—will you be more just than He
-is, my beloved? Come to me, and let me hear from
-your lips once more, ‘dear Edda.’ Do not tell me
-you are poor; I can live on any thing, submit to any
-privation, if blessed with your presence, your forgiveness,
-your love. You shall not find me in the future
-a thoughtless, extravagant child, but, with God’s
-help, a faithful good wife. Oh, Ralph, receive me
-once more, I pray you, and let me be again your own
-darling little wife Edda.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The fashionable world at —— was thrown into
-a state of astonishment a few weeks afterward, by
-hearing that Mrs. Murray had actually gone out
-west with her cruel, good-for-nothing husband, and
-a thousand different stories were told about the
-matter, each one as far from the truth as the other.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Poor Mr. and Mrs. Martin made loud opposition
-when Edda told them her resolve, but she looked so
-bright and happy, and throwing her arms around her
-aunt and uncle, made them read the lover-like letter
-of her husband, in which he not only freely forgave
-the past, but took on himself all the blame.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She’s right, my dear,” said Mr. Martin, to his
-wife; “but we must not let them go—we must make
-them as comfortable as we can with us. Thank
-Providence, I have enough for us all.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But Ralph Murray steadily refused all offers of
-assistance from Mr. Martin. He knew it would be
-better for them, for a little while at least, to be away
-from all Edda’s old connections. Several years they
-spent “out west,” and not until they had nearly
-reached mid-life, did they return to their old home in
-——; then, at the urgent request of Mr. and Mrs. Martin,
-who had grown old, infirm, and tired of society,
-and really needed Edda, they moved back. Edda was
-a lovely looking matron at the time of her return—she
-seemed so happy and contented. I well remember
-the pleasant effect it produced upon me when I saw
-her surrounded by her troop of noble boys, and leaning
-on her husband, who still retained his dignity,
-but blent with it was an air of loving softness that
-he had gained by intercourse with his gentle, “darling
-little wife.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Her married life, even after their reconciliation,
-however, was not exempt from trials. There were
-times when her husband’s old moods of exaction and
-impatience would come over him, and her own willful,
-rebellious spirit would stand in the way, and
-torment her with demands, such as “what right has
-he more than I?” and the like—as if the gratification
-of rights, merely for justice sake, made up the
-happiness of home life, a happiness that is only
-gained, only insured, by love’s sweet yieldings.
-They both tried to struggle against these dark influences;
-but at such times life would be very dreary
-to her, and it needed all the strict discipline of her
-faith—all her hope and trust in Heaven, to make her
-victorious over self.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Their children, however, proved angel-blessings
-to them. They softened and humanized Ralph, and
-soothed and occupied Edda. Dear Edda! her spring
-season had been a wild, frolicksome one, bringing
-a stormy, cloudy summer; but her autumn yielded
-a rich harvest of happiness, and her little, throbbing
-heart thanked God hourly for his kindness and
-love to her in sustaining her through all her dark
-hours.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Seven great boys, and not one daughter!”
-exclaimed our old friend, Mrs. Howard, to Edda,
-after her return to her old home—“what a
-pity!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Oh, no,” replied Edda, quickly; “I am always
-so thankful my children are all boys. I would not
-have the charge of a daughter’s happiness on me for
-a world.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Why!” asked Mrs. Howard with surprise.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Because,” replied Edda, in a low tone, looking
-significantly at the good old lady, “a woman’s character
-seldom develops in prosperity—it requires,
-like precious metals, the fiery furnace of affliction—the
-crucible of sorrow.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mrs. Howard’s surprise was increased, for Edda’s
-blushing face and lips, trembling with emotion, told
-that she had a deeper meaning than the mere expression
-of an opinion; but Edda soon removed her
-wonder. She told her the whole history of the past—her
-struggle on that eventful night at the sea-side
-watering place years before, when the fearful temptation
-to self-destruction had assailed her; she
-caused the kind old lady’s eyes to grow dim with
-tears, when she described the beneficial effect produced
-by the overheard conversation between her
-and Mr. Morrison; and added, with tears and smiles
-of joy—</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Yes, dear Mrs. Howard, your blessed words
-taught me my duty. If I have any happiness in
-life, I owe it, through God, to you. But, happy
-wife and blessed mother, as I am, I thank God I
-have no daughter’s future resting on my heart. A
-woman’s lot in life is a dangerous one, either in
-prosperity or adversity, and to tread her life-path
-well she seems to require almost a special helping
-from God; to but few is this granted, and many
-there are who wrestle darkly and blindly with sorrow
-through life’s perilous journey unaided.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“But,” replied Mrs. Howard, “does it not strike
-you that you are taking but a one-sided, narrow
-view of life, my dear? When you speak so sadly
-of woman’s lot, it seems as if you thought this
-life was all we had to expect, when I am sure you
-do not think so. The perils of life belong to both
-man and woman. But what matters all that we suffer
-in this state of existence, when compared with
-the glory of the sun-light of eternity—that sun which
-<span class='pageno' title='244' id='Page_244'></span>
-has no setting, and of the rising of which this dark,
-perilous life-hour is but the precursor—the hour before
-the dawn.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“You are right, my dear madam,” said Edda,
-with a sweet look of meek thoughtfulness, “and I,
-of all other women, should not speak so hopelessly,
-for, after all my dark hours, light came at last;
-and so beautiful is life to me now, that I sometimes
-fancy to me is given a glimpse of Heaven’s dawning.”</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk119'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='sonne'></a>SONNETS,</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-weight:bold;'>ON PICTURES IN THE HUNTINGTON GALLERY.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY MRS. ELIZABETH J. EAMES.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>I.—ST. JOHN.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>I stood within the glowing, graceful ring</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Of pictures hung upon the gallery’s wall:—</p>
-<p class='line'>The admiring murmur of the crowd did bring</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;My step to pause before a shape, in all</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The thoughtful grace of artist-skill designed,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The sense of Beauty <span class='it'>felt</span>—but not defined.</p>
-<p class='line'>Thou face, serene in solemn tenderness—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In the uplifting of those calm, deep eyes;</p>
-<p class='line'>On the rapt brow of holy earnestness</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The light of prophecy reflected lies.</p>
-<p class='line'>The mystic vision of the Apocalypse</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Thy pen of fire sublimely did record:</p>
-<p class='line'>But most we love His lessons from thy lips—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;John, thou beloved disciple of the Lord!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>II.—MERCY’S DREAM.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Like thee to dream, by angel-wings unshaded!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The starry crown hangs o’er thy meek young head,</p>
-<p class='line'>Flinging a glory round thee, like the braided</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And brilliant tints by a rich sunset shed.</p>
-<p class='line'>O loveliest vision of the painter’s thought—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Born in his happiest hour of inspiration,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;How more than fair the exquisite creation</p>
-<p class='line'>His genius-gifted pencil here hath wrought!</p>
-<p class='line'>How wondrously is charmed the “Pilgrim” story</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;That made my childhood’s ever new delight:</p>
-<p class='line'>Sweet Mercy! <span class='it'>now</span>, in tenderest grace and glory,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Thy pale, bright picture floats before my sight.</p>
-<p class='line'>Thrice blesséd! and thrice beautiful! might <span class='it'>we</span></p>
-<p class='line'>But in <span class='it'>our</span> dreams some guardian-angel see!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>III.—THE MARYS AT THE SEPULCHRE.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>The first faint crimson of the early morning</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Dawned on the tomb where the loved Master lay;</p>
-<p class='line'>And on the Marys, who for His adorning</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Came bearing spices sweet, at break of day.</p>
-<p class='line'>In meek, mute reverence, near the sepulchre</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The mourners drew, as round a sacred shrine—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And gazing down for the dear form divine—</p>
-<p class='line'>The unsealed stone—the white-robed messenger—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Met their affrighted view! In awe they fled,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And she, the Magdalen! the tidings spread,</p>
-<p class='line'>“Christ is arisen!” O, woman! in that hour</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Well might a solemn rapture fill thy mind—</p>
-<p class='line'>Thou, earth’s poor outcast, honored with high power</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To bear such joyful tidings to mankind.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>IV.—PIETY.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Meek list’ner! on whose purely virgin brow</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Is set the beauty of submissive thought:</p>
-<p class='line'>Oh! blest beyond Earth’s favored ones art thou,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Whose earnest eyes so reverently caught</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The Teacher’s look, with mild, grave wisdom fraught.</p>
-<p class='line'>How was the awakened soul within thee stirred</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To suppliant or adoring tones, as fell</p>
-<p class='line'>The quickening power of the Eternal Word,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Like the winged seed, on thy young heart; to dwell</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;A germ not lost! A heavenly light serene,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Unclouded, sits on thy soft, spiritual mien—</p>
-<p class='line'>I call thee Blest, for thou hast chosen well,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Daughter of Christ! O, happy to have given</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The bloom of thy unblighted years to Heaven!</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>V.—FOLLY.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>And <span class='it'>this</span> is Folly! Like a flaunting flower</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Her red lips part half wanton, half in scorn:</p>
-<p class='line'>Over the wreck of many a squandered hour</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;This poor frail child of Pleasure well might mourn.</p>
-<p class='line'>But with the consciousness of beauty born,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Exulting in her youth’s superior brightness—</p>
-<p class='line'>(Not yet the rose-leaves from her garland torn)—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;She moves along to scenes of festal lightness.</p>
-<p class='line'>The aged teacher’s solemn, sacred lesson</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Is a dead letter to her worldly spirit—</p>
-<p class='line'>The Word of Life—its Promise, and its Blessing,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The world’s gay votary cares not to inherit!</p>
-<p class='line'>No claims upon a heritage divine—</p>
-<p class='line'>This lot, O Folly! this sad lot is thine.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk120'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='minna'></a>THINKING OF MINNA.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY ELLIS MARTYN.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>What though my way unblissful care</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To weary solitudes incline!</p>
-<p class='line'>I feel thy beauty everywhere;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Thy spirit brightens mine.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>On all the dewy leaves that crowd</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The moon-lit trees, I read thy name;</p>
-<p class='line'>From every crimson morning cloud,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;It flows through all my frame.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>And when the spiritual eve advances,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To bathe the weary world in rest,</p>
-<p class='line'>Thou comest near, with loving glances,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And leanest on my breast.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>In all the ages, young or olden,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Was ever life so blest as mine!</p>
-<p class='line'>Where’er I go the clime is golden,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And all the air divine!</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk121'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='245' id='Page_245'></span><h1><a id='thom'></a>THOMAS JOHNSON.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-weight:bold;'>THE LAST SURVIVOR OF THE CREW OF “THE BONHOMME RICHARD.”</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY THOMAS WYATT, A. M.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i106.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0003' style='width:450px;height:auto;'/>
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This venerable sailor is in the 92d year of his age;
-nearly sixty of which he has spent on the ocean, and thirty-five
-under the stars and stripes of his adopted country.
-Although almost helpless from age, his mind is clear and
-his memory retentive. He remembers distinctly many
-interesting incidents during his cruisings with that eccentric
-but intrepid officer, John Paul Jones, and narrates
-many of the daring exploits in which he was a participator
-under the direction of this extraordinary man.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Thomas Johnson is a Norwegian by birth, the son of a
-pilot at Mandal, a seaport on the coast of Norway, where
-he was born in the year 1758. Having been engaged in
-that occupation for nearly twenty years, he was consequently
-accustomed to a seafaring life; and in the absence
-of his father towed the first American vessel into
-the harbor of Mandal. This vessel was the <span class='it'>Ranger</span>, from
-Boston, carrying eighteen guns, under the command of
-Captain Jones. The sight of a ship from a country which
-was at this time struggling for independence, and of which
-they knew so little, caused no little sensation among the
-inhabitants of that town. After their arrival in port,
-Jones sent for the young pilot, and presenting him with a
-piece of gold, expressed his pleasure at his expert seamanship,
-which he had minutely watched during the towing
-of his ship into the harbor.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He also observed that he had made the port of Mandal,
-in order to enlarge his crew, not having sufficient men for
-the long cruise he was about to make; and added, that if
-the father of the young pilot would permit, he would be
-glad to engage him. Satisfactory arrangements were
-made, and Johnson was received as a seaman on board
-the <span class='it'>Ranger</span>. It will be remembered that Captain Jones
-had been cruising the last two years as first lieutenant of
-the <span class='it'>Alfred</span> flag ship, the first privateer fitted out by Congress
-to cruise against British commerce.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In this ship he hoisted with his own hands the American
-flag, the first time it was ever displayed on the ocean; its
-emblems were a pine-tree, with a rattle-snake coiled at its
-root, as if about to strike.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The <span class='it'>Alfred</span> was very successful, and had brought home
-<span class='pageno' title='246' id='Page_246'></span>
-several valuable prizes. Congress, therefore, determined
-on the purchase of three other ships for the same purpose,
-and Captain Jones was permitted to make choice of either;
-he chose the <span class='it'>Ranger</span>, and was invested with the command
-by the following resolutions:</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>Resolved</span>, “That Captain John Paul Jones be appointed
-to command the ship <span class='it'>Ranger</span>, and that William Whipple,
-Esq., member of Congress, and of the Marine Committee,
-John Langdon, Esq., continental agent, and the said John
-Paul Jones be authorized to appoint lieutenants and other
-officers and men necessary for the said ship; and that
-blank commissions and warrants be sent them to be filled
-up with the names of the persons they appoint, returns
-whereof to be made to the Navy Board in the eastern department.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='it'>Resolved</span>, That the flag of the thirteen United States,
-henceforth be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white;
-and the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing
-a new constellation.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Jones immediately commissioned the <span class='it'>Ranger</span>, and, singular
-to say, was the first to display the new flag of the
-republic, as he did the original one on board the <span class='it'>Alfred</span>,
-about two years previous. The <span class='it'>Ranger</span> was intended to
-carry twenty-six guns; but Jones begged to exercise his
-own judgment, believing that she would be more serviceable
-with only eighteen, and accordingly mounted that
-number, for which he had often occasion to congratulate
-himself on his judicious forethought; for the ship proved
-to be exceedingly crank, and with the whole number,
-would have been nearly useless.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>His first cruise with his new ship was to the coast of
-France, and on his voyage there he chased a fleet of ten
-sail, under a strong convoy, took two prizes, and carried
-them safely into Nantes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>From thence he took a short cruise on the coast of Norway,
-and putting into the port of Mandal, as we before
-stated, engaged the services of Thomas Johnson, the subject
-of this sketch.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>After completing his arrangement, Jones returned to
-Nantes, and from thence proceeded to Quiberon Bay,
-giving convoy to some American vessels which were desirous
-of joining the French fleet commanded by Admiral
-La Mott Piquet, who had been ordered to keep the coast
-of France clear of British cruisers. Writing to the
-Marine Committee on the 22d February, 1778, he says,
-“I am happy in having it in my power to congratulate
-you on seeing the American flag, for the first time, recognized
-in the fullest and most complete manner by the flag
-of France; and as it is my greatest desire to render useful
-services to the American cause, I would suggest that, as
-the field of cruising being thus extended, and the British
-navy, in numbers, so superior to ours, it would be well to
-surprise their defenceless places, and thereby divert their
-attention, and draw it from our coasts.” These suggestions
-contained the plan of annoyance which was eventually
-adopted in Paul Jones’s cruisings in the European
-seas. It was about the middle of April, 1778, so our hero
-relates, that they found themselves on the coast of Scotland,
-immediately in the vicinity of the birth-place of
-Jones, and in sight of the port of Whitehaven, upon which
-he had determined to make his first descent.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was near the break of day, when Jones ordered two
-boats, and a plentiful supply of combustibles to be prepared,
-with thirty-one men, to leave the <span class='it'>Ranger</span> and make
-for the outer pier. Jones commanded the first boat himself,
-the other was under the command of Simpson, his
-first lieutenant, conveying the combustible matter, and
-charged with firing the vessels, about seventy in number,
-lying on the north side of the pier, while he undertook the
-rest. They found two batteries at Whitehaven, which
-Jones, with ten of his men, Johnson being one of the
-number, scaled, taking the soldiers prisoners, and spiking
-the guns. He then, with his party, started for the other
-battery, about a quarter of a mile distant, which he served
-in the same way.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>On his return he met his lieutenant, with the remainder
-of the sailors, who stated that he had not done as he had
-requested him, having a reluctance to destroy the undefended
-property of poor people, he had hesitated until his
-candles had burned out, and then found it impossible to
-execute his orders.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Jones was exceedingly angry, and vented his rage in
-the most insulting language, saying at the same time,
-“that if the accomplished Lord Howe would commit
-deeds of burning, pillage, and slaughter, upon the persons
-and property of Americans, the right of retaliation belonged
-to us.” In making such hasty remarks, he forgot
-that this enterprise was one of an entirely different nature;
-the scheme, if it may be so called, was one of his own
-forming, the American government not being apprised of
-any thing of the kind, neither had he received any order
-to that effect. The whole affair must be allowed to be
-one of the most audacious of its kind, and will ever attach
-a lasting stain upon the memory of its originator.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was now daylight and the frightened inhabitants were
-beginning to collect; still Jones was unwilling to depart
-without carrying any of his intended depredations into
-effect, after surmounting so many difficulties.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He posted to the nearest house and demanded a light,
-which, having obtained, he deliberately kindled a fire in
-the steerage of a large ship which was surrounded by
-others lying dry upon the shore, pouring a barrel of tar
-into the flames; during this operation, Johnson, with several
-other sailors, stood sentinel against any surprise he
-might receive from the inhabitants, who by this time were
-attracted by the flames, and had assembled to the pier in
-great numbers. On seeing them approach in such formidable
-numbers, he seized his pistols, one in each hand,
-and standing between them and the ship on fire, ordered
-them to retire to their homes, which they did with precipitation.
-At length he and his party entered their boats
-and rowed quietly to their ship, where, from the deck, he
-could see the panic-stricken inhabitants running in vast
-numbers to their forts, which was no little amusement to
-him, as he had spiked their guns.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Jones afterward ascertained, much to his chagrin, that
-only the ship which he himself had fired was destroyed,
-the surrounding ones were saved by the exertions of the
-people. He consoled himself by saying, “that he had done
-enough to show England that not all her boasted navy
-could protect her own coasts, and that the scenes of distress
-which she had caused the Americans to pass through,
-might soon be brought home to her own doors.” On his
-return to the <span class='it'>Ranger</span>, Jones informed his officers and men
-that he had not yet done with Scotland, that he had another
-project in his head, which he intended to carry into
-effect; that was, to obtain possession of the person of the
-Earl of Selkirk, a nobleman residing at Selkirk Abbey, on
-a beautiful promontory called St. Mary’s Isle, running out
-into the river Dee, and not more than two miles distant
-from where they then were.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Jones conceived that if he could obtain possession of
-this nobleman’s person, he could demand an exchange for
-some distinguished American prisoner. He remained in
-the bay of Kirkcudbright till the following morning, when
-he started with two boats and about twenty men, among
-whom was Johnson, who relates the particulars of this
-singular adventure. Johnson was in the first boat with
-Jones, who commanded it himself; the other was commanded
-by Simpson, his first lieutenant. They landed on
-<span class='pageno' title='247' id='Page_247'></span>
-part of the grounds, not more than two hundred yards
-from the house; some laborers were at work near by, of
-whom they inquired if Lord Selkirk was at home; they
-were informed that he was in London, consequently, his
-end was frustrated. On receiving this information they
-prepared to return to their boats, when his officers, of
-whom there were four, expressed a wish to repair to the
-Abbey and demand the family plate, pleading as an excuse,
-that it was the universal custom of the English on the
-American coast. Jones, in his official report, says, after
-some hesitation, he reluctantly consented, charging them
-to insult no person on the premises, especially Lady Selkirk.
-During this delicate embassy, Jones withdrew behind
-some trees, where he could perceive what was going
-on. Simpson, with ten of his sailors, went to the house.
-Lady Selkirk was at breakfast when they presented themselves
-at the window, and supposing them to be the crew
-of a revenue cutter, sent a servant to inquire their business,
-and to offer them some refreshment. Simpson entered
-the room on the return of the servant, and stated his errand
-to Lady Selkirk.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Her ladyship made no resistance, but sent the servant
-to collect the remainder of the plate, requesting that the
-teapot, which was then on the table, might be emptied and
-placed with it. After being collected, it was carefully
-packed in baskets, and the party, having performed their
-errand, withdrew to their boats, where Paul Jones met
-them. They soon regained their ship, when the prize they
-had made was safely repacked, and they set sail for the
-coast of France.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>During their voyage from Scotland to France he fell in
-with an English vessel called the <span class='it'>Drake</span>; a sharp conflict
-ensued, which lasted more than an hour, when the
-<span class='it'>Drake</span> surrendered, and was towed in safety into Brest,
-a seaport of France. On the very day of his arrival at
-Brest, Jones wrote the following eccentric epistle to Lady
-Selkirk, which one of his biographers calls “the queerest
-piece of epistolary correspondence extant.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“<span class='sc'>Madam</span>,—It cannot be too much lamented, that in the
-profession of arms, the officer of fine feelings and real
-sensibility, should be under the necessity of winking at
-any action of persons under his command which his heart
-cannot approve; but the reflection is doubly severe, when
-he finds himself obliged, in appearance, to countenance
-such actions by his authority. This hard case was mine,
-when, on the 23d of April last, I landed on St. Mary’s
-Isle.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Knowing Lord Selkirk’s interest with his king, and
-esteeming as I do his private character, I wished to make
-him the happy instrument of alleviating the horrors of
-hopeless captivity, when the brave are overpowered and
-made prisoners of war. It was, perhaps, fortunate for
-you, madam, that he was from home, for it was my intention
-to have taken him on board the <span class='it'>Ranger</span>, and detained
-him until, through his means, a general and fair exchange
-of prisoners, as well in Europe as in America, had been
-effected.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“When I was informed by some men whom I met at
-landing, that his lordship was absent, I walked back to my
-boat, determined to leave the island. By the way, however,
-some officers who were with me could not forbear
-expressing their discontent, observing that in America no
-delicacy was shown by the English, who took away all
-sorts of moveable property, setting fire not only to towns
-and to the houses of the rich, without distinction, but not
-even sparing the wretched hamlets and milch-cows of the
-poor and helpless, at the approach of an inclement
-winter.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“That party had been with me at Whitehaven; some
-complaisance, therefore, was their due. I had but a moment
-to think how I might gratify them, and at the same
-time do your ladyship the least injury. I charged the
-officers to permit none of the seamen to enter the house,
-or to hurt any thing about it; to treat you, madam, with
-the utmost respect; to accept of the plate which was
-offered, and to come away without making a search, or
-demanding any thing else. I am induced to believe that I
-was punctually obeyed, since I am informed that the plate
-which they brought away is far short of the quantity expressed
-in the inventory which accompanied it. I have
-gratified my men; and when the plate is sold, I shall become
-the purchaser, and will gratify my own feelings in
-restoring it, by such conveyance as you may please to
-direct.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Had the earl been on board the <span class='it'>Ranger</span> the following
-evening, he would have seen the awful pomp and dreadful
-carnage of a sea engagement; both affording ample subject
-for the pencil as well as melancholy reflection for the contemplative
-mind. Humanity starts back from such scenes
-of horror, and cannot sufficiently execrate the vile promoters
-of this detestable war;</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>For they, ’twas they unsheathed the ruthless blade,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And Heaven shall ask the havoc it has made.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The British ship of war <span class='it'>Drake</span>, mounting twenty
-guns, with more than her full complement of officers and
-men, was our opponent. The ships met, and the advantage
-was disputed with great fortitude on each side for an
-hour and four minutes, when the gallant commander of
-the <span class='it'>Drake</span> fell, and victory declared in favor of the <span class='it'>Ranger</span>.
-The amiable lieutenant lay mortally wounded, besides
-near forty of the inferior officers and crew killed and
-wounded; a melancholy demonstration of the uncertainty
-of human prospects, and of the sad reverses of fortune,
-which an hour can produce. I buried them in a spacious
-grave, with the honors due to the memory of the brave.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Though I have drawn my sword in the present generous
-struggle for the rights of men, yet I am not in arms
-as an American, nor am I in pursuit of riches. My fortune
-is liberal, having no wife nor family, and having lived
-long enough to know that riches cannot secure happiness.
-I profess myself a citizen of the world, totally unfettered
-by the little, mean distinctions of climate or of country,
-which diminish the benevolence of the heart and set
-bounds to philanthropy. Before this war was begun, I had,
-at an early time of life, withdrawn from sea-service in favor
-of ‘calm contemplation and poetic ease.’ I have sacrificed
-not only my favorite scheme of life, but the softer affections
-of the heart, and my prospects of domestic happiness;
-and I am ready to sacrifice my life also with cheerfulness,
-if that forfeiture could restore peace among
-mankind.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“As the feelings of your gentle bosom cannot but be
-congenial with mine, let me entreat you, madam, to use
-your persuasive art with your husband, to endeavor to
-stop this cruel and destructive war, in which Britain can
-never succeed. Heaven can never countenance the barbarous
-and unmanly practice of Britons in America, which
-savages would blush at, and which, if not discontinued,
-will soon be retaliated on Britain by a justly enraged
-people.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Should you fail in this, and I am persuaded you will
-attempt it, (and who can resist the power of such an advocate,)
-your endeavors to effect a general exchange of
-prisoners, will be an act of humanity, which will afford
-you golden feelings on your death-bed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I hope this cruel contest will soon be closed; but should
-it continue, I wage no war with the fair. I acknowledge
-their force, and bend before it with submission. Let not,
-therefore, the amiable Countess of Selkirk regard me as
-an enemy; I am ambitious of her esteem and friendship,
-<span class='pageno' title='248' id='Page_248'></span>
-and would do any thing consistent with my duty to
-merit it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“The honor of a line from your fair hand, in answer to
-this, will lay me under singular obligation; and if I can
-render you any acceptable service in France or elsewhere,
-I hope you see into my character so far as to command me,
-without the least grain of reserve. I wish to know the
-exact behaviour of my people, as I am determined to
-punish them if they have exceeded their liberty.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This vain, Quixotic, and inexplicable epistle, is a perfect
-illustration of the character of the writer; but with
-all its egotism and chivalry, it did not produce the wished
-for answer from the “fair hand of his amiable countess.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It could not be for one moment supposed that Lady
-Selkirk would condescend to answer a letter couched in
-such terms of gross familiarity. The plate, after many
-difficulties and delays, was finally restored, some seven
-or eight years after it was taken. The French government
-being at this time on the eve of embracing the
-American cause, overwhelmed Jones with congratulations
-upon his late achievements. He received a letter from the
-French Minister, offering him the command of the <span class='it'>Bonhomme
-Richard</span>, with permission to choose his own cruising
-ground, either in the European or American seas, and
-to cruise under the flag of the United States. Jones
-accepted the offer, and accordingly prepared to form his
-crew by enlisting raw French peasants and volunteers,
-having only thirty Americans in the whole, these he transferred
-from the <span class='it'>Ranger</span>, with Johnson, our veteran sailor.
-He commenced his cruising on the coast of Norway, from
-thence to the west coast of Ireland, during which he
-made many valuable prizes.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He now determined to cruise around the English coasts,
-to intercept the colliers bound to London, many of which
-he destroyed. It was during this cruise that he was joined
-by the <span class='it'>Alliance</span>, the <span class='it'>Pallas</span>, and the <span class='it'>Vengeance</span>, these,
-with the <span class='it'>Richard</span>, formed the squadron of which he was
-commander. On the 23d of September the squadron was
-standing to the northward, toward Flamboro Head, with
-a light breeze, when they discovered a fleet of forty-one
-sail running down the coast, very close in with the land.
-Jones soon discovered that this was the Baltic fleet which
-he had been so anxious to encounter, but had never before
-had the chance. This fleet was under convoy of the
-<span class='it'>Serapis</span>, a new ship, mounting forty-four guns, and the
-<span class='it'>Countess of Scarborough</span>, of twenty guns. Early in the
-evening the <span class='it'>Serapis</span> was observed to haul round and place
-herself between her convoy and the <span class='it'>Richard</span>, as if preparing
-to engage her; she soon came within pistol-shot,
-when the captain of the <span class='it'>Serapis</span> demanded, “What ship
-is that?” and in reply, a shot was fired from the <span class='it'>Richard</span>.
-This was the commencement of a battle more famous for
-stubborn courage and heroic daring than perhaps the world
-ever knew. The biographers of this eccentric but gallant
-officer have so often described this triumphant conflict,
-that we shall content ourselves with a few incidents
-with which our veteran sailor was more immediately
-connected. He relates that the <span class='it'>Richard</span> suffered severely
-at the first of the battle, till Jones ordered his ship to be
-laid across the hawse of the enemy; in doing so the two
-ships swung broadside and broadside, the muzzles of the
-guns touching each other. Jones sent one of his men to
-lash the two ships together, and commenced with his own
-hand in making fast the jib-stay of the <span class='it'>Serapis</span> to the
-<span class='it'>Richard’s</span> mizenmast; when the sailors saw what he was
-about to do, Johnson, with two others, ran to his assistance,
-and soon performed the task. The firing continued
-from the starboard sides of both vessels for more than an
-hour, the effect of which was terrible to both ships. There
-was much skirmishing with pistols and pikes through the
-ports, but no effort was made from the <span class='it'>Serapis</span> to board the
-<span class='it'>Richard</span>, although they must have observed her crippled
-condition, she had begun to leak fast.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was near ten o’clock when the <span class='it'>Richard</span> had sunk
-considerably from the water she had received through
-the shot-holes, which was now below the surface.
-Some of the subordinate officers believing that she was
-sinking, cried out lustily for “Quarter!” when Jones,
-in great anger, threw a pistol at one of them, which he
-had just discharged at the enemy, fractured the poor fellow’s
-skull, and sent him reeling down the hatchway.
-Jones ordered all the hands that could be spared to the
-pumps, and shortly after the <span class='it'>Serapis</span> surrendered. At
-this moment there was much confusion, as several of the
-crew, who were Englishmen, and near their homes, took
-advantage of the <span class='it'>mêlée</span> to desert in a small boat toward
-<span class='it'>Scarborough</span>. Our hero well remembers seeing one of
-the lieutenants of the <span class='it'>Richard</span> appear on the deck and
-present several of the officers of the <span class='it'>Serapis</span> to Commodore
-Jones as prisoners.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The action had now ceased, all hands were ordered to
-assist in separating the two ships which had been so long
-in deadly embrace, and to extinguish the flames which
-were now raging in both vessels. It was daylight in the
-morning when the carpenters were ordered to examine the
-<span class='it'>Richard</span>. After a deliberate examination, they were of
-opinion that she could not be kept afloat sufficiently long
-to reach any port. Jones was not willing to abandon her
-till the last moment, and kept a lieutenant with a party of
-sailors at the pumps for twenty-four hours; Johnson says
-he worked for nine successive hours, and at last, when
-all hopes were extinguished, they commenced removing
-the wounded and the stores to the <span class='it'>Serapis</span>. They had
-not finished their operations more than half an hour, when
-she sunk to rise no more.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The next cruise was to the Texel, and from thence to
-Amsterdam, where they received great kindness from the
-Dutch. Jones still continued his cruising with satisfaction
-to the American government until the beginning of
-the year 1781, when he was sent with the ship <span class='it'>Ariel</span> to
-Philadelphia with stores for the army which had been
-waiting in France for more than a year, no suitable conveyance
-having been provided. They arrived in Philadelphia
-in February, 1781, the first time Johnson had seen
-the land of his adoption. Here he received his prize
-money, and having disengaged himself from the <span class='it'>Ariel</span>, determined
-to remain a short time in order to become master
-of the English language, of which at that time he knew
-but little.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>At this time Congress was sitting in Philadelphia, and
-several of the members were about removing their families
-to that city. Application was made to Captain
-Jones to furnish a man to take charge of a sloop to Boston,
-to convey the furniture of John Adams to Philadelphia;
-he accordingly appointed Johnson, and he brought the
-furniture safely to that city.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This circumstance often brought Johnson in contact
-with Mr. Adams, who knew that he was one of the crew
-of Captain Jones, and consequently must have been in the
-conflict of the <span class='it'>Serapis</span> and <span class='it'>Richard</span>, which having occurred
-so recently, was a subject of general conversation.
-Many of the sailors frequented the hall of Congress, and
-Johnson became interested in listening and observing what
-was so new to him that he was a daily visiter. When
-the members found that the sailors were part of the crew
-of Captain Jones, they frequently left their seats, and
-came over to them to inquire the particulars of the recent
-engagement. Mr. Adams particularly engaged the attention
-of Johnson; to use the veteran’s own words, he says,
-“a nervous sensation seemed to pervade the patriot as he
-<span class='pageno' title='249' id='Page_249'></span>
-listened to the description of the battle given by the
-sailors, fire flashed from his eyes, and his hair seemed
-perfectly erect;” he would clasp his hands, and exclaim,
-“What a scene!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>During the time they remained in Philadelphia, General
-Washington arrived, and was presented to Congress;
-Johnson was present and listened to the introduction by
-President Hancock, and the reply by the general. Some
-days after, when the sailors were in the hall, Mr. Adams
-brought General Washington to them, who kindly shook
-each by the hand, calling them “Our gallant tars!” and
-asking them questions relative to the many successful adventures
-they had recently achieved.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Johnson soon after left the navy, and engaged in the
-merchant service for some years, but eventually returned
-to it again, where he remained till, near the end of his life’s
-voyage, age obliged him to ask repose and protection
-in that asylum provided for the grateful and worn-out
-mariner.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk122'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='maid'></a>THE MAIDEN’S LAMENT FOR HER SHIPWRECKED LOVER.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY WM. ALBERT SUTLIFFE.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>I heard a maiden by the tumid ocean—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The day had gone and night came on apace—</p>
-<p class='line'>Chanting a hymn to the spray’s chiming motion,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Starlight and moonlight, and the sea’s dim face.</p>
-<p class='line'>And, as the moon looked down, her song up-stealing</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Fell thus upon my ear: “Hope of my hope,</p>
-<p class='line'>Gone o’er the swelling waters, whence this feeling</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;That thou art dead? I give my fancy scope,</p>
-<p class='line'>And see thee hideous, with Death’s image o’er</p>
-<p class='line'>Those features I have loved, but know no more.</p>
-<p class='line'>Hope of my hope, gone o’er the swelling ocean,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;What cavern holds thy form—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Cast by the furious storm?</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“Hope of my hope, gone o’er the swelling ocean!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;I weep for thee when night is on the sea:</p>
-<p class='line'>My bosom bursteth with its deep emotion—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;My spirit stretcheth out its arms but finds not thee.</p>
-<p class='line'>O misery! and then itself within itself retires,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And weeps away a night that has no morn;</p>
-<p class='line'>And lights forever up fierce funeral pyres—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Dreaming of cypress wreaths, and things forlorn.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>“What sea-nymph made thy bed</p>
-<p class='line'>Beneath the briny waves?</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Thetis with golden hair?</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Panopea wondrous fair,</p>
-<p class='line'>Lone virgin of the ocean’s deepest caves,</p>
-<p class='line'>With filmy garments shred</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;About thy form,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Mock of the brumal storm?</p>
-<p class='line'>Ho! mourn with me, ye nymphs, he is no more!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Go sound it, Triton, o’er the humid waters!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Go weep for him again, ye misty daughters!</p>
-<p class='line'>Re-echo it, ye cliffs, along our shore!</p>
-<p class='line'>And I myself will take the sad refrain</p>
-<p class='line'>Of the elegiac strain,</p>
-<p class='line'>And tune my lyre to a symphonious stream</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Floating along with many a moony gleam,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Soft as an angel’s dream,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Over the foamy summit of each wave,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;That rolleth o’er his grave.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;“Well do I know the day</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;That bore him hence away!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;I watched him from yon cliff, in joy departing:</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;I, with the tear-drops starting,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Wept that he thus should go.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;He, hopeful of the future, saw not wo</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;In the dim cloud that gathered, and the spray</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Leaped joyful up about his seaward way—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Leaped up the vessel’s sides with treacherous kiss;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Deceitful waves, that now in the abyss</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Have whelmed my love’s proud form,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Play of the pitiless storm.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;“I’ve wept until my tears</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Have worn with furrows deep my pallid cheek;</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Have gazed until my poor eyes, worn and weak,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Like age’s eyes, seem faded with long years.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Oh! the long, dreary nights I’ve passed alone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Would Reason from her throne</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Might flee, and bear with her this dim, dull grief—</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;This memory’s haunting tone!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Then might I have relief.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Receive me, ocean! lo, to thee I come!</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;I, too, will share thy home:</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Our bridal bed shall be of pearls and diamonds,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;First loved, last loved, and fondly loved forever.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;No distance e’er shall sever—”</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The voice was hushed; I sped me to the strand.</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Only the moonlight fell; and o’er the sand</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;A fountain gushed, pure as our holiest dreams.</p>
-<p class='line'>Perchance ’twas she, thus changed; how could I tell?</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And gone, as Arethusa once, beneath the deep,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Had sought her lover in his quiet sleep.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk123'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='years'></a>THE YEARS OF LOVE.</h1></div>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>For Love there’s no oblivion. I have cherished</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;An idol beautiful, but in this hour,</p>
-<p class='line'>Hopes that had bloomed for years have wholly perished,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And left me but the fragrance of the flower:</p>
-<p class='line'>But be the hopes of love like blossoms blighted,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Wherever in the temples of the heart</p>
-<p class='line'>Hath stood an altar with their splendor lighted,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;The glory will not utterly depart;</p>
-<p class='line'>Still as we enter life’s forgetful haven,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;And every form of beauty disappears,</p>
-<p class='line'>The pictures on the memory engraven</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Of early love, win our last smiles and tears;</p>
-<p class='line'>The inspiration of the first endeavor</p>
-<p class='line'>After the love of woman dwells forever.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk124'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='250' id='Page_250'></span><h1><a id='early'></a>EARLY ENGLISH POETS.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-weight:bold;'>GEORGE HERBERT.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY JAMES W. WALL.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>How few in our day have read the pious verses of
-George Herbert, “the sweet singer of The Temple,” as his
-biographer, old Walton, so loves to call him—verses overflowing
-with the sensibilities of a heart consecrated to
-pious uses, all aglow with love for humanity, and an
-ardent desire to bring it nearer to Him who so freely gave
-himself for it.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Sweet George Herbert! Who that has ever read the
-rich outpourings of your warm and pious spirit, but has
-felt how poor and cold in the comparison were the promptings
-of his own? Who that has ever pondered over your
-verse, radiant with the praises of that sanctuary in whose
-hallowed courts you so loved to tread, but has felt the
-full force of your own sweet words?</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>A verse may find him who a sermon flies,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And turn delight into a sacrifice.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>George Herbert, the author of “The Temple,” a collection
-of sacred poems, was of a most noble, generous, and
-ancient family. His brother was the famous Edward
-Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, who was himself a poet, but
-attained higher distinction as a statesman and historian,
-having filled, during the reign of James I., the responsible
-posts of privy counselor, and ambassador to France; it
-was while engaged in the duties of this embassy that he
-composed his famous history of Henry the Eighth, so often
-quoted and referred to by the modern English historian.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The subject of our sketch was born at Montgomery
-Castle, in Wales, April 3, 1593. He was educated at
-Westminster school, and being a king’s scholar, was
-elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, about the year 1608.
-He took both degrees in the Arts, and became a Fellow
-in the college. In 1619 he was chosen orator for the University,
-which post he held eight years. This office he
-is said to have filled with great honor to himself and to the
-University. And this was no wonder, for, to use the
-quaint language of his biographer, old Izaak Walton, “he
-had acquired great learning, and was blessed with a high
-fancy, a civil and sharp wit, and with a natural elegance
-both in his behaviour, his tongue, and his pew.” When
-that royal pedant, King James, published his “Basilicon
-Doron,” he sent a copy to the University of Cambridge.
-Herbert, in his capacity as orator, was called upon to acknowledge
-its receipt on behalf of the institution, which
-he did in a most elegant manner, by a letter written in
-Latin, closing with the following lines:</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Quid vaticanam <a id='bod'></a>Bodleianamque objicis hospes!</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Unicus<a id='uni'></a> est nobis Bibliotheca Liber.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='noindent'>The excellence of its Latinity, and the complimentary
-allusions plentifully sprinkled through it, so pleased the
-vanity of the king, that he inquired of the Earl of Pembroke
-if he knew the learned scholar who penned the
-epistle. His answer was, “That he knew him very well,
-and that he was his kinsman; but that he loved him more
-for his learning and virtue, than that he was of his name
-and family.” At which answer the king smiled, and
-asked the earl leave that he might love him too, for he took
-him to be the jewel of that University.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The complimentary remark of the king, coming to the
-ears of Herbert, no doubt first turned his thoughts toward
-court preferment; for about this time we find him
-applying himself to the study of the Italian, French, and
-Spanish languages, in which he is said to have attained
-great proficiency; and by means of the attainment of which,
-to use his own language, “he hoped to secure the place
-of Secretary of State, as his predecessor, Sir Francis
-Nethersole had done.” This, and the love of court conversation,
-with the laudable ambition to be something
-more than he then was, drew him often from Cambridge
-to attend his majesty, King James.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Shortly after this the king visited Cambridge in state,
-and was received on behalf of the University by Herbert,
-in a most elegant oration in Latin, stuffed full, as the
-manner of the time then was, of most fulsome adulation.
-In his progress he was attended by the great Sir Francis
-Bacon, Lord Verulam, and by the learned Dr. Andrews,
-Bishop of Winchester; and Herbert, by his learning and
-suavity, soon captivated these distinguished men. Bacon
-seems afterward to have put such value upon his judgment,
-that he usually desired his approbation before he
-would expose any of his books to be printed, and thought
-him so worthy of his friendship, that having translated
-many of the Prophet David’s Psalms into English verse,
-he made George Herbert his Patron, by a public dedication
-of them to him as the “best judge of divine poetry.”
-In 1620, the king gave Herbert a sinecure, formerly conferred
-upon Sir Philip Sydney by Queen Elizabeth, worth
-some twelve hundred pounds per annum.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>His ambitious views of further court preferment seem
-never to have been realized. The character of his mind,
-perhaps, did not fit him for the responsible duties of a
-statesman, or he might have been deficient in those arts
-of the courtier, so necessary, and such ready aid to court
-preferment. It may be that he had too independent a
-spirit, and could not “crook the pregnant hinges of the
-knee, that thrift might follow fawning.” But be this as
-it may, we think, in the sentiment contained in some
-verses written by our poet about the period of his leaving
-the court and entering holy orders, we have a readier solution
-for the sudden relinquishment of his hopes of court
-preferment. These verses were written upon the famous
-saying of Cardinal Wolsey, uttered by that proud churchman
-when his spirit was crushed, and the fruits of his
-ambition had turned to ashes on his lips. “Oh, that I had
-served my God with half the zeal with which I have
-served my king, he would not thus, in my old age, have
-placed me in the power of mine enemies.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>No doubt the wholesome reflections inspired by the
-contemplation of those touching words, awakened the
-sensitive mind of our poet to a full appreciation of the
-vanity of all earthly ambition. He discovered in time,
-that pleasures springing from honor and grandeur of condition,
-are soon faded; that the mind nauseates, and soon
-begins to feel their emptiness. In the words of one of
-England’s most gifted divines, “Those who are so fond of
-public honor while they pursue it, how little do they taste
-it when they have it? Like lightning it only flashes on
-the face, and it is well if it do not hurt the man.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Without further speculating as to the reasons that induced
-our poet to fly from the court circles into the quiet
-<span class='pageno' title='251' id='Page_251'></span>
-retreat of the pastor’s life, most certain it is, about the
-year 1629, we find him renouncing the pomp and vanities
-of earthly ambition, and entering into holy orders. Previous
-to his induction, we find him using the following
-language in a letter to a friend: “I now look back upon
-my aspiring thoughts, and think myself more happy than
-if I had attained what then I so ambitiously thirsted for;
-and now I can behold the court with an impartial eye, and
-see plainly that it is made up of graced titles, and flattery,
-and many other such empty imaginary painted pleasures—pleasures
-that are so empty as not to satisfy where they
-are enjoyed. But in God and his service is a fullness of
-all joy and pleasure, but no satiety.” Of the fervency of
-his piety we have a most beautiful exemplification in some
-of his poems published about this time, especially in that
-styled “The Odor,” in which he seems to rejoice in the
-thought of the word “Jesus,” and say that the adding of
-these words “my master,” to it “seemed to perfume his
-mind, and leave an oriental fragrance in his very breath.”
-Alluding, in another poem, to his “unforced choice to
-serve at God’s altar,” he says,</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>I know the ways of Learning; both the head and pipes</p>
-<p class='line0'>That feed the press, and make it run;</p>
-<p class='line0'>What reason hath from nature borrowed,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Or of itself, like Housewife sheen.</p>
-<p class='line0'>I know the ways of Honor, what maintains</p>
-<p class='line0'>The quick returns of courtesy and wit;</p>
-<p class='line0'>The ways of favor, either party gains</p>
-<p class='line0'>And the best mode of oft retaining it.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>I know the ways of pleasure, the sweet strains,</p>
-<p class='line0'>The lullings and the relishes of it;</p>
-<p class='line0'>The proposition of hot blood and brains;</p>
-<p class='line0'>What mirth and musick mean; what love and wit.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Yet through these labyrinths, not my grovelling wit,</p>
-<p class='line0'>But the silk twist let down from heaven to me,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Did both conduct and teach me, how by it</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;To climb to thee.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In 1630 he was admitted to the priestly office, and was
-immediately inducted to the Rectory of Bemerton, near
-Salisbury. And here it was, stripping from him the
-gaudy trappings of a fashionable court, he clothed himself
-in the better and more enduring robes of humility and
-meekness. It was here, amid the quiet shades of his
-peaceful parish, he prepared, for his own use and that of
-his brethren, a brief manual, entitled “The Country
-Parson”—the rich gatherings of his own experience, and
-the exemplification of his own ardor in the performance
-of the duties of the pastoral office. His sermons, delivered
-while at Bemerton, are practical in doctrine, forcible in
-illustration, and make directly to the heart. They are
-just such sermons as we should suppose the author of The
-Country Parson would preach. They are many of them
-explanatory of the forms and services of the Church of England,
-urging their importance and the necessity of their
-being truly understood.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>He usually took his text from the gospel of the day appointed
-to be read, and did as consistently declare why
-the Church did appoint that portion of Scripture to be that
-day read; and he shortly made it appear to them (to use
-his own words) “that the whole service of the Church
-was a reasonable, and therefore an acceptable sacrifice to
-God—as, namely, we begin with confession of ourselves
-to be vile and miserable sinners; and we begin so because,
-until we have confessed ourselves to be such, we are
-not capable of that mercy which we so much need; but
-having in the prayer of our Lord begged pardon for those
-sins which we have confessed, and hoping by our public
-confession and real repentance we have obtained that
-pardon—then we dare and do proceed to beg of the Lord
-‘to open our lips, that our mouth may show forth his
-praise;’ for till then we are not able and worthy to
-praise him.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The church holydays and fasts, and the benefits to be
-derived from their observance, were most beautifully
-illustrated in Herbert’s discourses; and we venture to say
-that in the sermons of no clergyman of the Church of
-England, or the Episcopal Church of America, can there
-be found so practical and so beautiful an exemplification
-of the excellency of the Episcopal Church service. The
-simple parishioners of Bemerton learned to love the
-service of their church under the preachings of their
-sainted pastor, because its practical usefulness, and its
-adaptation to their every spiritual want, was brought
-forcibly home to the door of their hearts. The form, they
-were taught, was as nothing, save as the most fitting
-vehicle of their wants and spiritual aspirations. In our
-age, where the cold religion of formality is seen struggling
-for the mastery over that which is ardent and spiritual;
-when “the outward and visible sign” seems to be more
-thought of than “the inward and spiritual grace;” when
-the outward adornments of the sanctuary are held almost
-in as high value, and as necessary to salvation, as the
-inward adornment of the meek and pious spirit, it is refreshing
-to read such sermons as those of Herbert. He
-was a formalist only so far as form could be made a means
-to an end; a means to bring man to a closer contemplation
-of the love and the abounding mercies of his God; a means
-through which he could be made to praise him in holiness
-and truth. The form he looked upon as the fitting vehicle,
-“the silken twist,” to lead man’s thoughts in fit expression
-up to the throne of God. The summum bonum, the
-all in religion, he still believed, and so most earnestly
-taught, consisted in the free-will offering of the penitent
-and pious spirit.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In his essay on the duties of the Country Parson, he
-enjoins upon the pastor, “to be constant in every good
-work, setting such an example to his flock as they may
-be glad to follow; and by so doing, profit thereby to their
-souls’ good.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And most diligently (if we are to believe the testimony
-of his contemporaries) did George Herbert conform himself
-to the character so beautifully sketched. In the functions
-of his humble office he is said to have led a most pious
-and blameless life.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The priests of the Levitical ministration, put on the
-humerus blazing with jewels, before they took the breastplate
-of righteousness and truth; thereby signifying that
-the priest must be a shining light, resplendent with good
-works, before he fed them with righteousness and truth,
-the legitimate milk of the word. And in the daily beauty
-of his blameless life; in the gentle, dove-like spirit that
-animated his every motive; in his daily charities, and his
-devout ministerings at the altar, Herbert most beautifully
-illustrated the doctrines that he preached. His life was
-“indeed, a shining light, resplendent with good works;”
-and the flock which he so faithfully tended, found through
-his guidance spiritual pastures. Quaint old Jeremy
-Taylor, alluding to the necessity of the Christian pastor
-exemplifying in his daily life the doctrines that he preaches,
-most beautifully remarks:</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Herod’s doves could never have invited so many
-strangers to their dovecots if they had not been besmeared
-with most fragrant ointment. As said Dydimus, make
-your pigeons smell sweet, and they will allure whole
-flocks. And, Christian pastor, if your life be excellent, your
-virtues, ‘like precious ointment, full of fragrance,’ you will
-soon invite your charges to run after your precious odors.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Such, in all things, was the subject of our sketch; his
-virtues were the precious ointment, full of fragrance,
-alluring the quiet flock his Master had given him to feed.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We have said more of Herbert in his pastoral character
-than we first intended, although, perhaps, we have not
-<span class='pageno' title='252' id='Page_252'></span>
-dwelt upon it too long to give an illustration of the beautiful
-simplicity and pious ardor of the man.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It was in the quiet village of Bemerton that Herbert
-composed his little volume of poems, styled “The
-Temple,” of which it was said by a contemporary,
-“There was in it the picture of a divine soul in every
-page, and the whole book was such a harmony of holy passions,
-as would enrich the world with pleasure and piety.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We do not pretend to claim for these songs any great
-poetic merit. They abound with faults, such as were peculiar
-to most of the minor poets of that age. The versification
-is often rough and inharmonious, the words ill
-chosen for the rhyme, while conceits far-fetched and unnatural
-are most plentifully sprinkled through them.
-These, however, are faults peculiar to the versification of
-the time in which our poet flourished. The great merit
-of these songs, most undoubtedly, consists mainly in the
-pious ardor and genuine devotional feeling which characterize
-them. The reader is attracted at once by the deep
-and earnest piety they manifest. There seems to be a
-consistent effort in the poet’s mind to give utterance to his
-devotional feeling in words of earnestness and power, such
-words as shall not dishonor the high and noble theme he
-had chosen for his subject. It can readily be discovered
-that they give utterance to the language of his heart, and
-that the influence of that heart’s holiest affections was the
-happiest inspiration of his verse. If there is any truth
-in those sweet lines of Cowper,</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>The Poet’s lyre to fix his fame,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Should be the Poet’s heart;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Affection lights a brighter flame,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Than ever blazed by art.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='noindent'>then “sweet George Herbert” has made sure his claim
-to remembrance, and left something behind him which
-posterity will not willingly let die.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Wherever deep and holy love for sacred things is
-esteemed, there the verses of Herbert will find many
-ardent admirers. They are the pure and free-will offerings
-of a heart consecrated to pious uses, and attuned to sacred
-harmonies—the soft breathings of a devotional spirit, that
-seems too pure for earth.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>When he sings of the church where he so loved to
-worship, it is with all the earnest enthusiasm, if not with
-the inspiration of that noble song of Solomon, commencing,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair; thou
-hast dove’s eyes within thy locks, thy hair is as a flock
-of goats that appear from Mount Gilead. Thy lips are
-like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely; thy
-temples are like a piece of pomegranate within thy locks,
-thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot within thee.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And Herbert loved the church, because it was the fold
-where he could gather the flock that had been given him
-to tend. The church on earth was to him the emblem of
-the spiritual church “eternal in the heavens.” His
-gentle spirit seems all aglow with love, whenever he
-sings of its quiet retreats and the rich solemnities of its
-glorious worship.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The poems, styled “The Temple,” are preceded by a
-long poem as a preface, called “The Church Porch,”
-where he would have the reader linger before entering
-the sanctuary. And in the poem the poet takes occasion
-to give sage counsel and most excellent advice, the better
-to fit the mind for the contemplation of the sacredness of
-the sanctuary beyond the porch. He would purify the
-spirit from the dross of earthly vices, he would have it
-“purged of the contaminations of earth,” before entering
-the temple, where the divine presence loves to dwell.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And no one who will read the advice embodied in this
-introductory poem, but must rise from its perusal with
-the conviction that it contains a code of morality, enforced
-by most excellent precepts. Independent of its religious
-tone, it may be said to contain the very best of principles,
-enforced by illustrations that carry conviction to the mind
-at once. In the rude measure of the time, it holds up
-virtue in all its beauty to our approbation, and lays bare
-all the hideousness of vice. He seeks not for harmonious
-verse, as the vehicle of thought, he desires not to please,
-but to persuade; not to amuse, but to instruct.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Is lust within, polluting, corrupting, and withering the
-heart, his warning is,</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Beware of lust; it doth pollute the soul</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Whom God in baptism washed with his own blood,</p>
-<p class='line0'>It blots the lesson written in thy soul;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The holy words cannot be understood.</p>
-<p class='line0'>How dare those eyes upon a Bible look,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Much less toward God, “whose lust is all their book.”</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Profanity he rebukes in lines like these:</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Take not his name who made thy mouth, in vain.</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;It gets thee nothing, and has no excuse.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Lust and wine plead a pleasure, avarice gain;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;But the cheap swearer, through his open sluice,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Lets his soul run for naught.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Remembering in whose sight “lying lips are an abomination,”
-and the sacredness of whose sanctuary is polluted
-by falsehood, he breaks forth with indignant tone,</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Lie not, but let thy heart be true to God,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Thy mouth to it, thy actions to them both.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Cowards tell lies, and those that fear the rod.</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The stormy working soul spits lies and froth;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Dare to be true—nothing can need a lie;</p>
-<p class='line0'>A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Extravagance, which is the grateful mother of debt,
-penury, and want; which has desolated as many homes,
-withered as many hearts, and destroyed as many lives as
-the sword, he thus rebukes:</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Never exceed thy income, youth may make</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Even with the year; but age, if it will hit,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Shoots a bow short, and lessens still his stake</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;As the day lessens, and his life with it.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Thy children, kindred, friends upon thee call,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Before thy journey, fairly past with all.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The dangers that wait on suretyship, and the madness
-of yielding to its pressing importunities, are thus set forth:</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Yet be not surety, if thou be a father;</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Love is a personal debt. I cannot give</p>
-<p class='line0'>My children’s right, nor ought he take it, rather</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Both friends should die, than hinder them to live.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Fathers first enter bonds to nature’s ends,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And are her sureties, ere they are friends.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The spirit in which we should enter the hallowed courts
-of the sanctuary, is set forth thus:</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>When once thy foot enters the church, believe</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;God is more there than thou, for thou art there</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Only by his permission. Then beware,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And make thyself all reverence and fear.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Kneeling ne’er spoiled silk stockings; quit thy state,</p>
-<p class='line0'>All equal are within the church’s gate.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Space will not permit us to make further extracts from
-“The Porch.” Enough has been given to show its tone
-and character. The poems called “The Temple,” thus
-introduced, are a series of devotional songs upon sacred
-subjects, overflowing with ardent feeling, and manifesting
-the existence of a piety as fervent as it is rare.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In his verses on Prayer, we have an apt illustration of
-our author’s style and devotional ardor.</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Prayer, the Church’s banquet, angels age,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;God’s breath in man returning to his birth.</p>
-<p class='line0'>The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The Christian’s plummet sounding heaven and earth.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The quiet stillness of the Sabbath morn, and the blessings
-that accompany it, call forth such verses as the following:</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Oh, day most calm, most bright,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;The fruit of this, the next world’s bud,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Th’ indorsement of supreme delight,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Writ by a friend, and with his blood;</p>
-<p class='line0'>The couch of time, care’s balm, and bay;</p>
-<p class='line0'>The week were dark, but for thy light,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Thy torch doth show the way.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Sundays the pillars are</p>
-<p class='line0'><span class='pageno' title='253' id='Page_253'></span></p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;On which Heaven’s palace arched lies;</p>
-<p class='line0'>The other days fill up the spare</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;And hollow room with vanities;</p>
-<p class='line0'>They are the fruitful beds and borders</p>
-<p class='line0'>In God’s rich garden; that is base</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Which parts their ranks and orders.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;The Sundays of man’s life,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Threaded together on time’s string,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Make bracelets to adorn the wife</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Of the eternal glorious king;</p>
-<p class='line0'>On Sundays Heaven’s door stands ope,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Blessings are plentiful and rife—</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;More plentiful than hope.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In his verses styled “The Odour,” we have an exemplification
-of the Poet’s love for his Divine Master, expressed
-with that fervency which betokens the sincerity
-of his adoration.</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>How sweetly doth my master sound! my master!</p>
-<p class='line0'>As <a id='amber'></a>ambergris leaves a rich scent</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Unto the taster.</p>
-<p class='line0'>So do these words a sweet content,</p>
-<p class='line0'>An oriental fragrance—my master!</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The poem entitled “Christmas,” has considerable
-merit, the versification is smoother, and the measure not
-so irregular as most of his poems, while at the same time
-it is characterized by the same warmth of devotional feeling,
-that is manifested in all.</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>The shepherds sing, and shall I silent be?</p>
-<p class='line0'>My God, no hymn for thee?</p>
-<p class='line0'>My soul’s a shepherd, too; a flock it feeds</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.</p>
-<p class='line0'>The pasture is thy word, the streams thy grace,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Enriching all the place.</p>
-<p class='line0'>Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers</p>
-<p class='line0'>Outsing the daylight hours.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The little poem entitled “Jesu,” although it has neither
-the merit of smoothness, or any poetical beauty, is strongly
-illustrative of the purely saint-like piety of its author. Dr.
-Sanderson was enraptured with this little production, and
-used to style it, “a gem of rare conceit.” We see nothing
-in it, however, to warrant such praise; it certainly
-has no poetic merit, and the conceit embodied in it, appears
-to be rude and far-fetched.</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0' style='text-align:center;'>JESU.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line0'>Jesu is in my heart, his sacred name</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Is deeply carved there, but th’ other week,</p>
-<p class='line0'>A great affliction broke the little frame,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;Ev’n all to pieces; which I went to seek;</p>
-<p class='line0'>And first I found the corner where was I,</p>
-<p class='line0'>After where es, and next where u was graved.</p>
-<p class='line0'>When I had got these parcels, instantly</p>
-<p class='line0'>I sat me down to spell them, and perceived</p>
-<p class='line0'>That to my broken heart, he was I ease you,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;And to my whole is Jesu.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Space will not permit us to make further extracts from
-these poems of Herbert’s. Those that we have given,
-illustrate the pious ardor of the subject of our sketch,
-while at the same time they give evidence of some claim
-to take position with the minor poets of his day. His
-prose compositions undoubtedly possess more merit than
-his poetical, and clearly entitle him to rank with the best
-of his contemporaries. The beautiful simplicity of the
-character of our poet, has never been surpassed in any
-age. His disposition was of the most sweet and engaging
-nature, adorned with all the graces of a most saint-like
-piety. “He lived like a saint,” says his enthusiastic
-biographer, old Walton, “and like a saint did he die.”
-The Sunday before his death, raising himself from his bed,
-he called for his instrument, and having tuned it, played
-and sung that verse from his poems, commencing,</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;The Sundays of man’s life</p>
-<p class='line0'>Threaded together on time’s string,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Make bracelets to adorn the wife</p>
-<p class='line0'>Of the eternal, glorious king.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Like the dying swan,</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>As death darkened his eye and unplumed his wings,</p>
-<p class='line0'>His sweetest song was the last he sings.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk125'/>
-
-<div><h1><a id='gift'></a>THE GIFT OF A ROSE.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY GEORGE D. PRENTICE.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>I send thee, Mary, a sweet young rose,</p>
-<p class='line'>That bright with the hues of the sunset glows;</p>
-<p class='line'>Its beauty, alas! is frail and brief,</p>
-<p class='line'>It will come to thee with a withered leaf,</p>
-<p class='line'>But the fervent kiss that my earnest lips</p>
-<p class='line'>Have left for thee on its crimson tips,</p>
-<p class='line'>Will not from the fading flower depart,</p>
-<p class='line'>But come all fresh to thy lip and heart;</p>
-<p class='line'>For oh, ’tis a breath of the love and trust</p>
-<p class='line'>That will live when our lips and our hearts are dust.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Mary, dear Mary, pray love this flower,</p>
-<p class='line'>Let it have for thy heart a spell of power;</p>
-<p class='line'>For I plucked it fresh from its lovely stalk,</p>
-<p class='line'>On the blooming edge of that garden walk,</p>
-<p class='line'>Where we strayed together so deeply blest,</p>
-<p class='line'>When the sun was low in the golden west,</p>
-<p class='line'>And murmured our loves in burning words,</p>
-<p class='line'>With none to hear but the flowers and birds,</p>
-<p class='line'>And lingered long on the dear, sweet spot,</p>
-<p class='line'>While our warm hearts kissed, though our lips did not.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Mary, dear Mary, my thoughts still cleave</p>
-<p class='line'>To each memory sweet of that blessed eve,</p>
-<p class='line'>To each tone more dear than the sweetest lute,</p>
-<p class='line'>To each vow we breathed when our lips were mute,</p>
-<p class='line'>To the wild, deep thrill through each trembling frame,</p>
-<p class='line'>From fingers warmed with a pulse of flame,</p>
-<p class='line'>To each gentle tear, to each gentle sob,</p>
-<p class='line'>To each sigh that told of the heart’s deep throb,</p>
-<p class='line'>Aye, these memories dwell in this soul of mine—</p>
-<p class='line'>Oh, Mary dear, do they live in thine?</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Mary, dear Mary, I pray thee say,</p>
-<p class='line'>Do the roses bloom where thy steps now stray?</p>
-<p class='line'>Do they look at morn on the sky’s soft blue</p>
-<p class='line'>Through the trembling tears of the early dew?</p>
-<p class='line'>When I come to thee will they smile to greet</p>
-<p class='line'>Thy lover’s steps with their perfume sweet?</p>
-<p class='line'>Will they list at eve to our tender vows?</p>
-<p class='line'>Will they weave their wreaths for our gentle brows?</p>
-<p class='line'>And when at last we are doomed to part,</p>
-<p class='line'>Will they breathe a sigh for each breaking heart?</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>Mary, dear Mary, I fain would know,</p>
-<p class='line'>Do thy heart’s sweet flowers keep their fresh young glow?</p>
-<p class='line'>Are their eyes yet turned on the skies above?</p>
-<p class='line'>Do they glitter still with the dews of love?</p>
-<p class='line'>Has no blighting frost, has no bitter blast</p>
-<p class='line'>Cold, cold o’er their buds and their blossoms past?</p>
-<p class='line'>If my name is said, are their leaves yet stirred</p>
-<p class='line'>To the olden thrill at the cherished word?</p>
-<p class='line'>And say, oh say, will those dear, heart flowers,</p>
-<p class='line'>Still bloom for me in the Eden bowers?</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk126'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='254' id='Page_254'></span><h1><a id='cold'></a>AH, DO NOT SPEAK SO COLDLY.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-weight:bold;'>Ballad.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:0.9em;'>WORDS BY</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:1.1em;font-weight:bold;'>FITZGERALD.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:0.5em;font-size:0.9em;'>MUSIC BY</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:1.1em;font-weight:bold;'>BENKERT.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'>Published by permission of Edward L. Walker, 160 Chestnut Street.</p>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1em;font-size:0.9em;'><span class='it'>Publisher and Importer of Music and Musical Instruments.</span></p>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<a href='images/i128f.jpg'><img src='images/i128.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0004' style='width:450px;height:auto;'/></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>Ah! do not speak so coldly,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Cold words my heart will chill;</p>
-<p class='line'>If I have lov’d too boldly,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh! let me worship still?</p>
-<p class='line'>If</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='pageno' title='255' id='Page_255'></span></p>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<a href='images/i129f.jpg'><img src='images/i129.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0005' style='width:450px;height:auto;'/></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class='literal-container' style=''><div class='literal'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>I have lov’d too boldly,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh! let me worship still?</p>
-<p class='line'>The pure heart loves forever,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;To its own likeness true;</p>
-<p class='line'>And though fate bids us sever</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;I’ll love I’ll love but you,</p>
-<p class='line'>And though fate bids us sever</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;I’ll love I’ll love but you.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>SECOND VERSE.</p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>The heart will throb in sorrow</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;If from its idol torn.</p>
-<p class='line'>Nor elsewhere joy will borrow,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;If love’s return be scorn.</p>
-<p class='line'>Then do not speak so coldly,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Cold words my heart will chill;</p>
-<p class='line'>E’en if I’ve lov’d too boldly,</p>
-<p class='line'>&ensp;&ensp;Oh! let me worship still, &amp;c.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk127'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='256' id='Page_256'></span><h1><a id='teal'></a>TEAL AND TEAL SHOOTING.</h1></div>
-
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;'>———</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;font-size:0.8em;font-weight:bold;'>BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, AUTHOR OF FRANK FORESTER’S “FIELD SPORTS,” “FISH AND FISHING,” ETC.</p>
-<p class='line' style='text-align:center;margin-bottom:1.5em;'>———</p>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<img src='images/i130.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0006' style='width:475px;height:auto;'/>
-<p class='caption'><span class='bold'>THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL.</span> (<span class='it'>Anas Carolinensis.</span>)<br/> <br/><span class='bold'>THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL.</span> (<span class='it'>Anas Discors.</span>)</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In this present month, the sport of duck-shooting on the
-inland streams, rivers, and lakelets, may be held to commence
-in earnest, as contrasted to the pursuit of the same
-tribes on the outer bays, estuaries, and surf-banks. About
-the end of September, and thenceforth through this and
-the next ensuing month, according to the variations of
-the seasons, and the longer or shorter endurance of that
-delicious time, the most delicious and most gorgeous of
-the whole American year, known throughout this continent
-as Indian Summer, the Mallard, and the two beautiful
-species which we have placed at the head of this
-article, begin to make their appearance on the little lakes
-of the interior, and in the various streams and rivers
-which fall into them, and thence downward to the Atlantic
-seaboard.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the vast northern solitudes of the great lakes of the
-northwest, in all the streams of Upper Canada, even to
-the feeders of Lake Superior, and throughout the western
-country so far south as Texas, and northward to the
-Columbia and the fur countries, the Blue-Winged Teal
-breeds, literally by myriads. Throughout the great lakes,
-it is abundant in the early autumn, becoming excessively
-fat on the seed of the wild rice, with which the shallows
-of all those waters are overgrown, and being deservedly
-esteemed as one of the best, if not the very best, of the
-duck tribe. But it is the first of its race to remove from
-the wild, limpid waters, and wood-embosomed rivers of
-the great west, to the seaboard tide-waters, taking the
-inland water-courses on their route, rarely visiting the
-actual sea-shores, and proceeding on the occurrence of the
-first frosts, for they are singularly susceptible of cold, to
-the Southern States, where they swarm, especially in the
-inundated rice-fields of Georgia and South Carolina, during
-the winter months.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Green-Winged Teal, which is the nearest congener,
-and frequently the associate of the Blue-Wing, has a far
-less extensive range, so far as regards its breeding-grounds,
-in as much as it never, so far as has been satisfactorily
-shown, has nidificated or produced its young south of the
-Great Lakes, nor even there in great numbers, its favorite
-haunts, for the purposes of reproduction, being the extreme
-northern swamps and wooded morasses almost up
-to the verge of the arctic circles. It does not come down
-on its southward migration, at nearly so early a period of
-the autumn as its congener, being less susceptible of cold,
-and tarrying on the Great Lakes till the frosts set in with
-sufficient severity to prevent its frequenting its favorite
-haunts with pleasure, or obtaining its food with facility.
-It is rarely or never seen in the Middle States during the
-summer, but is tolerably abundant during the autumn on
-<span class='pageno' title='257' id='Page_257'></span>
-all the marshy lakes and pools, and along the shores of all
-the reedy rivers from the great lakes downward to the sea-board,
-though, like the last named species, it is purely a
-fresh-water duck, never frequenting the sea-shores or
-salt bays, finding no food thereon with which to gratify
-its delicate and fastidious palate, which, eschewing fish,
-the larvæ of insects, and the lesser <span class='it'>crustaceæ</span>, relishes
-only the seeds of the various water plants and grasses,
-the tender leaves of some vegetables, and more especially
-the grain of the wild rice, <span class='it'>Zizania panicula effusa</span>, which
-is its favorite article of subsistence, and one to which
-may be ascribed the excellence of every bird of air or
-water which feeds on it, from the Rice-Bird and the Rail,
-to the Teal, the Canvas-Back, and even the large Thick-Billed
-<span class='it'>Fuligula</span>, closely allied to the Scoter, the Velvet
-Duck, and other uneatable sea-fowl of Lake Huron,
-which are scarcely, if at all, inferior to the Red Heads of
-Chesapeake Bay, the Gunpowder, or the Potomac. On
-the Susquehanna and the Delaware, both these beautiful
-little ducks were in past years excessively abundant, so
-that a good gunner, paddling one of the sharp, swift skiffs
-peculiar to those waters, was certain of filling his boat
-with these delicious ducks within a few hours’ shooting.
-Both of these species are rather tame than otherwise, the
-blue-winged bird more particularly, which has a habit, on
-the lower waters of the Delaware especially, of congregating
-on the mud in vast flocks, sunning themselves in
-the serene and golden light of a September noon, so careless
-and easy of approach, that the gunner is frequently
-enabled to paddle his skiff within a few yards of them, and
-to rake them with close discharges of his heavy batteries.
-At times, when the tide is out, and the birds are assembled
-on the flats out of gunshot from the water’s edge, the
-thorough-going sportsman, reckless of wet feet or muddy
-breeches, will run his skiff ashore, several hundred yards
-above or below the flock, and getting cautiously overboard,
-will push it before him over the smooth, slippery mud-flats,
-keeping himself carefully concealed under its stern until
-within gunshot, which he can sometimes reduce to so little
-as fifteen or twenty yards, by this murderous and stealthy
-method. The Green-Winged Teal is much less apt to congregate,
-especially on shore, than the other, and consequently,
-affords less sport to the boat-shooter, keeping for
-the most part afloat in little companies, or trips, as they are
-technically called, very much on the alert, and springing
-rapidly on the wing when disturbed. They, and the Blue-Wings
-also, fly very rapidly, dodging occasionally on the
-wing, not unlike to a wild, sharp-flying Woodcock, and
-when they alight, darting downward with a short, sudden
-twist among the reeds or rushy covert, exactly after the
-fashion of the same bird.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The commoner and, in our opinion—where these birds
-are abundant either along the courses of winding drains
-or streamlets, or in large reedy marshes, with wet soil
-and occasional pools or splashes—far the more exciting
-way of killing them is to go carefully and warily on foot,
-with a good medium-sized double-gun, say of eight to ten
-pounds weight, and a thoroughly well broke and steady
-spaniel, to retrieve and occasionally to flush the birds,
-which will sometimes, though rarely, lie very hard. A
-good sportsman will frequently, thus late in the autumn,
-when the mornings are sharp and biting, and the noons
-warm and hazy, but before the ice makes, pick up, on
-favorable ground, his eight or nine couple in a day’s
-walking, with a chance of picking up at the same time a
-few Snipe, Golden Plovers, Curlew, or Godwit; and this,
-in our mind, is equal to slaughtering a boat load by sneaking
-up in ambush to within twenty yards of a great company,
-whistling to make them lift their heads and ruffle
-up their loosened plumage, so as to give easy entrance to
-the shot, and then pouring into them at half point-blank
-range, a half pound of heavy shot.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the southern States they are commonly taken, says
-Wilson, “in vast numbers, in traps placed on the small
-dry eminences that here and there rise above the water of
-the inundated rice fields. These places are strewed with
-rice, and by the common contrivance called a figure four,
-they are caught alive in hollow traps.” This we, of
-course, merely mention as illustrative of the habits of the
-bird; for, of course, no sportsman would dream of resorting
-to so worse than poacher-like a proceeding. The mode
-described by the eloquent pioneer of American natural history,
-is probably practised, for the most part, by the negroes
-for the supply of their masters’ table, and furnishing
-their own pockets with a little extra change, and is not
-used by the planters as a means of sport or amusement.
-It must be remembered, also, that Wilson, than whom
-there is no writer more to be relied on in matters which
-he relates of his own knowledge, and as occurring in his
-own days, must often be taken <span class='it'>cum grano salis</span>, as to the
-numbers of birds slain in this way or that within a certain
-time—things which he records, probably, on hearsay, and
-on which—we are sorry to say it—even good sportsmen,
-men who on any other subject would scorn to deviate one
-hair’s breadth from the truth, will not hesitate to draw a
-bow as long and as strong as Munchausen’s. Again, he
-writes of times when sporting was but little pursued,
-otherwise than as a method of procuring superior food for
-the table, or for the purpose of destroying noxious vermin
-and beasts of prey; when the rules of sportsmanship were
-little understood and as little regarded; and, lastly, when
-game abounded to a degree literally inconceivable in our
-day—although we have ourselves seen, with sorrow, the
-diminution, amounting in many regions around our large
-cities almost to extinction, of all birds and beasts—nay,
-but even fish of chase, within the last twenty years. We
-must be careful therefore not to charge exaggeration on
-a writer who, beyond a doubt, faithfully recorded that
-which he himself saw and enjoyed in his day; which we
-might see likewise and enjoy in our generation, and our
-children and grand-children after us, if it were not for the
-greedy, stupid, selfish, and brutal pot-hunting propensities
-of our population, alike rural of the country and mechanical
-of the cities, which seems resolutely and of set purpose
-bent on the utter annihilation of every species of
-game, whether of fur, fin or feather, which is yet found
-within our boundaries.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In my opinion, the common error of all American fowlers
-and duck shooters, lies, in the first place, in the overloading
-the gun altogether, causing it to recoil so much
-as to be exceedingly disagreeable and even painful, and in
-the same degree diminishing the effect of the discharge;
-for it must never be forgotten that when a gun recoils,
-whatever force is expended on the retrogressive motion of
-the breech, that same force is to be deducted from the
-propulsion of the charge. In the second place, he erroneously
-loads with extremely large and heavy shot, the result
-of which is, in two respects, inferior to that of a
-lighter and higher number. First, as there will be three
-or four pellets of No. 4 for every one pellet of A or B in
-a charge, and, consequently, as the load is thereby so
-much the more regularly distributed, and so much the
-more likely to strike the object, and that in several places
-more, in the ratio of three or four to one, than could be
-effected by A’s or B’s. Second, as the flesh will constantly
-close over the wound made by a small shot, so as
-to cause the bleeding to go on internally to the engorgement
-of the tissues and suffocation by hemorrhage; whereas
-the wound made by the large grain will relieve itself
-by copious bleeding, and the bird so injured will oftentimes
-<span class='pageno' title='258' id='Page_258'></span>
-recover, after having fallen even to the surface of
-the water, or lain flapping, as it were, in the death-struggle
-on the blood-stained sand or grassy hassocks. This
-fact has been well noticed, and several examples adduced
-to prove its truth, by Mr. Giraud, in his exceedingly clear
-and correct, though, to our taste, far too brief volume on
-the “Birds of Long Island.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>For my own use I invariably adopt for all the smaller
-species of duck—as the two varieties of Teal, the Summer
-Duck, the Golden Eye, and the Buffel-headed Duck, <span class='it'>Anates</span>,
-<span class='it'>Carolinensis</span>, <span class='it'>Discors</span>, <span class='it'>Sponsa</span>, and <span class='it'>Fuligulæ</span>, <span class='it'>Clanguid</span>,
-and <span class='it'>Albeola</span>—the same shot which is generally used
-for the various birds known on our shores and rivers as
-bay-snipe, viz: No. 4 or 5—the latter best for the Plovers,
-the former for duck, whether in large or small guns. In
-this relation I may observe that, on one occasion—the only
-one, by the way, on which I ever saw a green-winged
-teal in the summer season—I killed a couple of these beautiful
-birds, right and left, while woodcock shooting, in
-Orange County, New York, with No. 8 shot. They
-sprang quite unexpectedly from behind a willow bush, on
-the Wuwayanda creek, and I dropped them both quite
-dead, some what to my own astonishment, and to the
-utter astounding of Fat Tom, who witnessed it, into the
-middle of the stream, respectively at twenty and twenty-five
-yards distance. Until I recovered them I supposed
-that they were young wood ducks, but on examination
-they proved to be young green-winged teal, of that season,
-in their immature plumage. This must have been in
-the last week of July or the first of August—it was many
-years since, and as at that time I kept no shooting diary,
-I unfortunately am unable to verify the exact date. The
-birds must, I conclude, have been bred in that vicinity,
-by what means I cannot conjecture, unless that the parent
-birds might have been wounded in the spring, and
-disabled from completing their northern migration, and
-that this, as is some times the case with the minor birds
-of passage, might have superinduced their breeding in
-that, for them, far southern region. In corroboration of
-this I may add that, in the spring of 1846, a couple of these
-birds haunted a small reedy island in front of my house,
-on the Passaic, to so late a day in summer—the 29th, if I
-do not err, of May—that I sedulously avoided disturbing
-them, in the hope that they would breed there. This I
-yet think would have been the case but for the constant
-disturbance of that lovely river throughout the summer by
-gangs of ruffianly loafers, with whom the neighboring
-town of Newark abounds beyond any other town of its
-size in the known world, boating upon its silvery surface
-day and night, and rendering day and night equally hideous
-with their howls and blasphemies.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Before proceeding to the description of these birds it
-is well to observe that it will be found the better way, in
-approaching them, as indeed <span class='it'>all</span> wild fowl, to work, if
-possible, up wind to them; not that wild fowl have <a id='havethe'></a>the
-power, as some pretend, of scenting the odor of the
-human enemy on the tainted gale, as is undoubtedly the
-case with deer and many other quadrupeds, but that their
-hearing is exceedingly acute, and that their heads are
-pricked up to listen, at the occurrence of the least unusual
-sound, and at the next moment—<span class='it'>hey, presto!</span>—they are
-off.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The little cut at the head of this paper, for his spirited
-and faithful execution of which the author and artist must
-be permitted to return his acknowledgments to his friend,
-Mr. Brightly, represents a favorite feeding ground of the
-various tribes of water fowl, as is indicated by the large
-gaggle of geese passing over, from right to left, and the
-trip of green-wings alighting to the call of a clamorous
-drake in the background. On a rocky spur of the shore,
-in the right foreground, is a male Green-Winged Teal, in
-the act of springing, with his legs already gathered under
-him; and, still nearer to the front of the picture, on the
-right, a Blue-Winged Drake, swimming on the limpid
-water, soliciting his congener, with reverted neck, and
-the harsh gabble—whence his name—to take wing and
-greet the new-comers—it being the object of the draftsman
-to give an idea not merely of the markings and form
-of these two most beautiful and graceful of the duck tribe,
-but of their motions, the character of their flights, and the
-nature of their feeding grounds and habitations.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The head of the Green-Winged Teal is of moderate size
-and compressed; the bill nearly as long as the head, deeper
-than broad at the base, depressed at the tip; neck slender,
-of moderate length; body full and depressed; wings rather
-small, feet short and rather far back.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The plumage is short and blended; that of the hinder
-head and neck elongated into a soft filamentous drooping
-crest. The bill is black; iris hazel; feet light blue; head
-and upper part of neck bright chestnut brown; a broad
-band of shining rich bottle-green, narrowings from the eye
-backward and downward to the nape, margined below
-with black, anterior to which is a white line; chin dusky
-brown. Upper parts and flanks white, beautifully and
-closely undulated with narrow lines of deep gray. Anterior
-to the wings is a broad transverse lunated white bar—<span class='it'>this
-alone distinguishing the American from the European
-bird</span>. The wing coverts, scapulars and quills gray.
-The speculum bright green above, blue-black below, margined
-posteriorly with pure white. Tail brownish gray,
-margined with paler brown. Lower part of the neck undulated,
-like the back. Breast pale rufous, spotted and
-banded with black; white below. Abdomen white, barred
-with gray. A black patch under the tail; the lateral tail
-coverts tawny, the larger black, white-tipped and margined.
-Length of male bird, 14¾.24. Female, 13¾.22½.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The description and drawing of this bird are taken, by
-kind permission, which the writer gratefully acknowledges,
-from a fine specimen in the Academy of Natural
-Science of this city.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The Blue-Winged Teal is rather larger than the above,
-the male measuring 16.31½, the female 15.24.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The shape and proportions of this bird closely resemble
-those of the latter, but in plumage it widely differs from
-it. The bill is blueish black; iris dark hazel; feet dull
-yellow, webs dusky; upper part of the head black, a
-semilunar patch of pure white, margined with black anterior
-to the eye; the rest of the head and upper neck deep
-purplish gray, with changeable ruddy reflections. The
-lower hind neck, back, alula, and upper parts generally,
-rich chocolate brown, every feather margined with paler
-tints, from reddish buff to pale reddish gray, with black
-central markings, changing to metallic green in the centres.
-Upper wing coverts rich ultra-marine blue, with
-a metallic lustre; the lower parts pale reddish orange,
-shaded on the breast with purplish red, and thickly spotted
-with roundish or eliptical black spots; axillary
-feathers, lower wing coverts, and a patch on the side
-of the rump, pure white; lower tail coverts brownish
-black.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>These, with the exception of the Buffel-Headed Duck,
-are the two smallest; with the exception of the Summer
-Duck, the two loveliest; with the exception of the Canvas-Back
-the two best of the duck tribe. Well met be
-they, whether on the board or in the field—shot be they
-with No. 4—eaten roast, underdone, with cayenne and a
-squeeze of a lemon, lubricated with red wine, <span class='it'>quantum
-suff.</span></p>
-
-<hr class='tbk128'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='259' id='Page_259'></span><h1><a id='fine'></a>THE FINE ARTS.</h1></div>
-
-<div class='blockquote30em'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Amateur Concerts—Difference between Stage Singing and
-Chamber Singing—Effect produced by Stage Acting on
-the Manners and Conversation in Private—Origin of the
-modern florid style of singing—Conclusion.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Concerts are popular all over the Union, but in no other
-town are they so successful and popular as in Philadelphia.
-We have here all kinds of these entertainments, Ethiopian
-Concerts—Donation Concerts—Society Concerts, such as
-the Musical Fund and Philharmonic—and pre-eminent
-above all others, in point of fashion, Amateur Concerts.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A small, good Opera Troupe, it is true, would be of
-more service to our musical taste; for this hearing the
-works of great masters by bits, as it were, is not of much
-benefit; however, so that we have music in some manner
-is better than not to have it at all.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The concerts of the past winter were all well attended;
-but the Amateur Concerts were the favorites, and were,
-indeed, very successful. The amateurs, both ladies and
-gentlemen, surprised their audiences; and great praise is
-due to “<span class='it'>Maestro Perelli</span>.” We have heard some of them
-execute pieces in a manner that would have done credit
-to a professional singer. But while we admired, we felt
-a little disposed to remonstrate, for one or two old-fashioned
-reasons.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>If they are really amateurs, and are training their voices
-for private singing, are they not running a risk of injuring
-their style by singing in public?</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the olden times of vocal training, there was always
-a marked difference made between public and private
-singing. So particular were the old masters that they
-divided singing into three classes—church singing, stage
-singing, and chamber singing.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Church singing required a more simple manner, a more
-pure and severe style, than stage singing; but the voice
-like that intended for the stage, had to be strong and full,
-with great volume and power, and the intonation clear
-and correct. There was not much difference between
-the voices of the church and stage singer; that is, it was
-not thought that either style injured the voice for the
-other, on the contrary, some of the finest voices the
-Italian school has produced, have been trained in church
-choirs, under the old chapel-masters.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But there was always a marked and decided difference
-made between stage singing and chamber singing. For
-the latter, it is necessary to have a plain, simple manner,
-a clear, pure intonation, good articulation, and great
-polish. The cadenzas and ornaments should be few, but
-of the most exquisite style and finish. Strength and
-volume of voice are not so much needed for the chamber
-singer, as delicacy of articulation and purity of tone.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Tone, in music as in painting, is mellowed by distance,
-and the singer who wishes to produce a pleasing effect in
-the drawing-room, should bear this in mind. It is as absurd
-to present in private a piece of music executed in the
-ornamented, operatic style, as it would be to hang in a
-cabinet or drawing-room, a large painting fitted for a
-church, a gallery, or a theatre; or, to make another comparison,
-for an orator, a public speaker, to entertain the
-guests of his drawing-room, with the same loud tone,
-earnest rhetorical manner, and volume of voice, that he
-used in the public assembly or town-meeting.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The habit of singing in public will give to the private
-singer, a manner and style which may sound very well
-in the concert-room, or on the stage where they are
-mellowed by distance, and softened by an orchestra, but
-this same manner and style will appear in private, coarse,
-violent, and theatrical. There should be a difference between
-public and private singing; both styles are beautiful,
-and equally effective in their way, but they should
-be kept separate.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>It is well known that actors and actresses, in dressing
-for the stage, are apt to lose that nice, delicate eye for
-color, which is required to render a private costume
-pleasing; they become fond of strong contrasts, bright
-colors, and ornaments which appear glaring and wanting
-in harmony off the stage. Stage acting also affects the
-conversation, the tone of voice, and manner of expression.
-We were much amused once with the witty reply of a
-clever person, when asked why he did not admire a distinguished
-actress he had met with in private.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“She is too theatrical,” he said. “First she gives us
-a dash of tragedy <span class='it'>à la</span> Lady Macbeth, then comes a touch
-of genteel comedy <span class='it'>à la</span> Lady Teazle, which is very tiresome.
-One likes such exhibitions well enough on the
-stage, but they are quite out of place in one’s drawing-room.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>And thus it is with vocal music, to make it pleasing in
-society, or what is better, in one’s home circle, it should
-be like drawing-room, or home costume, home manner,
-conversation, reading—simple, pure, with few ornaments,
-and those well chosen.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Though these rules seem severe, they are not confining,
-for the chamber-singer is not limited. The music of the
-great masters can be produced in private, with great effect,
-in the same manner as all of us have, doubtless, heard a
-good reader give in private circles, scenes from Shakspeare
-and other dramatic poets. If the reader should present
-to us in his reading, all the starts, the loud tones and
-energetic manner required on the stage to produce an
-illusion, his reading would create disgust in us, and we
-would listen unwillingly; but if, on the contrary, he should
-read in a quiet manner, but with clear enunciation, and
-good emphasis, leaving our imaginations and recollections
-to make up the stage illusion, then, his reading would
-prove effective and pleasing.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Every vocalist knows that the graces and ornaments of
-a piece are entirely independent of the melody. The
-musical student who has studied the works of the old
-composers, will understand this better than the amateur
-who has been confined to modern compositions.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the olden times more stress was laid upon the simple
-melody. Haydn used to say,</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Let your <span class='it'>air</span> be good, and your composition will be so
-likewise, and will assuredly please.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>But in the present day, the air is almost forgotten in
-the rich <span class='it'>rifioramenti</span>, and bewitching <span class='it'>capricci</span> of the Italian
-singer, the surprising <span class='it'>vocalization</span> of the French, and
-the graces, shakes, and turns of the English vocalist.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We do not object to these adornments; when properly
-used, they produce a pleasing effect—they break up the
-monotony of the melody; but any one will see how necessary
-it is to have these adornments different in different
-places. The graces, cadenzas, etc., which would be
-added to a piece sung on the stage, should not be used in
-the drawing-room or in the church, although the simple
-melody itself, may from its character do very well for
-either place, if sung with appropriate ornaments.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>These elaborate, ornamental, vocal passages, which appear
-<span class='pageno' title='260' id='Page_260'></span>
-in modern compositions, are not to be found in the
-old writers. They would have considered it derogatory
-to the dignity of their melodies, to have written out in
-them the <span class='it'>rifioramenti</span> of the singer.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We remember seeing, several years ago, some Italian
-copies and manuscripts of compositions by Durante, Trajetta,
-<a id='pais'></a>Paisiello, and other old Italian masters. They belonged
-to a singular, remarkable person, then living in
-this country, Signor Trajetta, the son of the old Maestro
-Trajetta, the master and companion of Sacchini. These
-compositions were for the voice, and in looking over them,
-we were struck with their bareness and severity. The
-airs were, many of them, pure, and full of beautiful
-melody, but we could readily imagine that it would require
-a very severe taste to listen to them without finding
-them monotonous, and so we said.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Ah!” replied Trajetta’s pupil, as wild an enthusiast
-as his master, “your taste has been spoiled and vitiated
-by modern music.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The present taste for florid execution was caused, it is
-said, by the desire of the vocalists to rival the instrumental
-passages of the Opera. During the time of Metastasio,
-the musicians, especially those of the German
-school, so famous for instrumentation, overpowered the
-singers. The struggle of the singers for the lead, caused
-Metastasio to make a remark which would apply very
-well in this day—that the singers in an Opera made <span class='it'>vocal
-concertos</span> of their passages.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Agujari turned her voice into a flute, and the capricious,
-bewitching Gabrielli, the pet pupil of Porpora, astonished
-every one by her wonderful <span class='it'>capricci</span> and delicate chromatic
-passages.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>A love for the wonderful displays itself constantly in
-mixed audiences, and they are more likely to applaud that
-which is surprising, rather than that which is strictly
-good. This approbation is apt to dull the taste of the
-singer who will forget or neglect good old rules, when by
-outraging them, they secure applause.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The taste for vocal gracing and adornment has increased
-to such a degree that it would be almost impossible to
-present a composition of an old master, or even of composers
-so late as Mozart, without adding to the adornments
-of the original composition. Rossini, whose vocal
-compositions in some places appear to consist only of connected
-phrases of ornaments and gracings, so completely
-is the melody hidden by the <span class='it'>cadenzas</span>, had two styles.
-His early style was chaste and simple; his greatest opera,
-<span class='it'>Tancredi</span>, was written in this style, and the reader, if
-familiar with Rossini’s works, has only to compare this
-beautiful opera with one of his last compositions, <span class='it'>Semiramide</span>,
-to see the strong contrast between the two styles
-of composition. His <span class='it'>L’Italiani in Algeri</span> and <span class='it'>Il Turco
-in Italia</span>, operas which contain some of his most exquisite
-melodies, belong also to this simple style; but his more
-popular operas, <span class='it'>Il Barbiere</span>, <span class='it'>La Cenerentola</span>, <span class='it'>Otello</span>, <span class='it'>La
-Gazza Ladra</span>, <span class='it'>etc.</span>, are in his later style, which is florid,
-not only in the vocal parts, but also in the orchestral accompaniments;
-indeed, he seemed to have attained the
-extreme of this florid style, but the composers of the present
-time have gone far beyond him; for instance, Verdi,
-whose compositions appear to be entirely made up of
-<span class='it'>rifioramenti</span>, and while listening with amazement to the
-vocal feats his singers perform, in executing his compositions,
-a good old-fashioned lover of music is very apt to
-wonder if a melody really exists under all these embellishments.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There is an interesting account given in Stendhal’s Life
-of Rossini, relative to his adoption of the florid style in
-composition. In 1814 he went to Milan, to superintend
-the bringing out of his opera, <span class='it'>L’Aureliano in Palmiro</span>.
-The principal tenore, Velluti, a very handsome man, had a
-voice of great flexibility. At the first rehearsal, Velluti
-sung his part in a manner that delighted the composer; at
-the second rehearsal, the singer added some cadenzas,
-which Rossini applauded even rapturously; at the third
-rehearsal, the original melodies of some of the cavatinas
-seemed lost amid the luxurious profusion of vocal ornaments;
-but at the first public representation of the opera
-the singer added so many <span class='it'>fiorituri</span>, that Rossini exclaimed,
-“<span class='it'>Non conosco più la mia musica!</span>”<a id='r7'/><a href='#f7' style='text-decoration:none'><sup><span style='font-size:0.9em'>[7]</span></sup></a>; however, Velluti’s
-singing was well received by the audience, and every vocal
-feat brought down thunders of applause. The hint was
-not lost on Rossini. He observed that his opera had but
-little success without Velluti, and he resolved in future
-to compose in a different style. He would no longer remain
-at the mercy of the singer, but write down in his
-score a sufficient number of embellishments, not leaving
-room for the addition of a single <span class='it'>appogiatura</span> by the
-singer.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We have digressed from the original subject, dear
-reader, in order to show that the <span class='it'>rifioramenti</span> of a piece
-are mere additions, and also to point out to the amateur
-the propriety of omitting startling and surprising stage
-points, when presenting in private fine operatic passages,
-and the nice, delicate taste that would be displayed in
-giving more of the original melody, avoiding embellishments,
-using them only where they seem absolutely necessary
-to break up the monotony of a continuous strain, and
-render it more effective.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We could give our other objection to this public singing
-of amateurs, which objection applies more particularly to
-lady amateurs; but we have chatted long enough already,
-and, moreover, our objection is decidedly too old-fashioned
-to be talked about in these days, “of rights of men, women
-and children;” therefore, we will suffer it to pass
-unmentioned, trusting to the force of the one already given
-to convince you, at least good reader.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk129'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Old ’76 and Young <a id='y48'></a>’48.</span>—This is the title of a new picture
-by <span class='sc'>Woodville</span>, received from Dusseldorf for the
-New York Art Union, which is to be engraved for one of
-the future distributions of that association. The <span class='it'>Mirror</span>
-describes the picture as fully justifying the high opinion
-formed of the young artist’s genius, and as placing his
-name in the front rank of our American artists. The picture
-represents a young soldier just returned from Mexico,
-travel-stained and wounded; he sits at a table relating his
-adventures to his grandfather, “Old ’76,” while his father
-and mother, and a group of colored servants, peeping in at
-the door, are eagerly listening to the soldier’s rehearsal of
-his battles. All the accessories of the picture are purely
-American, and help to carry out the story; the portrait of
-the old man, painted in all his rosy prime, the bust of
-Washington, the ornaments on the mantle, all are in strict
-keeping; but it is in the individualities of character as
-delineated in the countenances and actions of the different
-personages that the genius of the artist is displayed; the
-old man, leaning on his crutch, shaking his head with a
-mixed feeling of pride in his grandson’s achievements, and
-a recollection of his own acts in the times that tried men’s
-souls, is a triumph of the artist; the old fellow seems to
-be just at the point of saying “O yes, my boy, all that
-is very well; you fought bravely, no doubt, and General
-Taylor was a good soldier; but it’s nothing to old ’76,
-and General Taylor ain’t Washington.” It is a most successful
-effort.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk130'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Monument to Peel.</span>—The proposal to erect a national
-monument to Sir Robert Peel, by subscriptions limited to
-one penny each person, will be entirely successful.</p>
-
-<hr class='footnotemark'/>
-
-<div class='footnote'>
-<table summary='footnote_7'>
-<colgroup>
-<col span='1' style='width: 3em;'/>
-<col span='1'/>
-</colgroup>
-<tr><td style='vertical-align:top;'>
-<div id='f7'><a href='#r7'>[7]</a></div>
-</td><td>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“I don’t know my own music!”</p>
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-<hr class='tbk131'/>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' title='261' id='Page_261'></span><h1><a id='review'></a>REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.</h1></div>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy: Delivered at
-the Royal Institution, in the years 1804, 1805 and 1806:
-By the late Rev. Sidney Smith, M. A. New York:
-Harper &amp; Brothers. 1 vol. 12mo.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Sidney Smith appears, in this volume, as an ethical and
-metaphysical philosopher, and certainly ethics and metaphysics
-were never before made so clear and so entertaining.
-Sharp, shrewd, sensible, witty, humorous, eloquent,
-discriminating, the author goes on, from topic to topic,
-analyzing and laughing, condensing maxims into epigrams,
-embodying principles in sarcasms, eliciting jokes
-from abstractions; and after making his reader laugh tears
-into his eyes and pains into his sides, really leaves him in
-possession of more metaphysical knowledge than he would
-get from Dugald Stewart. The mind of Sidney Smith
-was so beautiful and brilliant, that men have done injustice
-to its depth and exactness. He was really an accomplished
-belles-lettres scholar, a close reasoner, a proficient
-in the philosophy of politics, morals and mind, as well as
-a wit and humorist; and in one of the rarest gifts of reason,
-justness and readiness in the conception of premises,
-he evinced equal force and fertility. Besides all this, he
-was an honest, courageous, uncanting, and disinterested
-man—loving and possessing goodness and virtue, hating
-and denouncing wickedness and vice. His goodness had
-not the weak diffusion which characterises the quality in
-the so-called “good people;” but will and intellect condensed
-it into lightning, and launched it at error and evil.
-It smiles sweetly, but it also smites sharply; and no man
-is more worthy of contemptuous pity than the bigot,
-dunce, libertine, professional rascal or knavish politician,
-who comes within word-shot of Sidney’s indignation.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>There is no part of the present book which will not delight
-and instruct the general reader; but the most original
-portions are those devoted to practical remarks on
-mental diseases and to acute observations on minor topics
-of the great subject. To all who know Sidney Smith’s
-writings it is needless to add, that every idea in the volume
-is conceived and stated clearly, and that the author’s
-ignorance in the higher regions of his theme never seeks
-refuge in obscure terms, but is boldly, and some times exultingly,
-acknowledged. Many of the great philosophers,
-and especially the idealists and skeptics, are rather fleeringly
-disposed of. Common sense is Sydney’s test; but
-common sense is hardly able to grapple with Aristotle and
-Descartes, the greatest of metaphysicians; and they are,
-therefore, praised for their power and ridiculed for its
-perversion. The author’s peculiar felicity in making ludicrous
-statements which operate with the force of arguments,
-is displayed throughout the volume. “Bishop
-Berkeley,” he says, “destroyed this world in one volume
-octavo, and nothing remained after his time but mind;
-which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Mr.
-Hume, in 1737.” Nothing could be more felicitous than
-this statement, considered as a practical argument against
-the systems of the idealists and skeptics. Again he says:
-“A great philosopher may sit in his study, and deny the
-existence of matter; but if he take a walk into the streets
-he must take care to leave his theory behind him. Pyrrho
-said there was no such thing as pain; and he saw no <span class='it'>proof</span>
-that there were such things as carts and wagons; and he
-refused to get out of their way: but Pyrrho had, fortunately
-for him, three or four stout slaves, who followed
-their master without following his doctrine; and whenever
-they saw one of these ideal machines approaching,
-took him up by the arms and legs, and, without attempting
-to controvert his arguments, put him down in a place
-of safety.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The passages on Aristotle are in a similar vein of pleasantry.
-“Some writers,” he remarks, “say he was a
-Jew; others that he got all his information from a Jew,
-that he kept an apothecary’s shop, and was an Atheist;
-others say, on the contrary, that he did not keep an apothecary’s
-shop and that he was a Trinitarian.” Further
-on he adds, that Aristotle’s philosophy “had an exclusive
-monopoly granted to it by the Parliament of Paris, <span class='it'>who
-forbad the use of any other in France</span>;” and he goes on to
-compare the great Stagarite with Bacon, to the manifest
-disadvantage of the former. After speaking of the triumphs
-of the Baconian method, and the indebtedness of
-mankind to the vast understanding of its author, he proceeds
-to remark, that to “the understanding of Aristotle,
-equally vast, perhaps, and equally original, we are indebted
-for fifteen hundred years of quibbling and ignorance;
-in which the earth fell under the tyranny of words,
-and philosophers quarreled with one another, like drunken
-men in dark rooms, <span class='it'>who hate peace without knowing why
-they fight, or seeing how to take aim</span>.” Zeno, the founder
-of the sect of the Stoics, is represented as a Cyprus merchant,
-who had studied the writings of the most eminent
-Socratic philosophers, and who, in the course of his mercantile
-pursuits, “freighted a ship for Athens, with a very
-valuable cargo of Phœnician purple, which he completely
-lost by shipwreck, on the coast near the <a id='pir'></a>Piræus. A very
-acute man, who found himself in a state of sudden and
-complete poverty in Athens, would naturally enough
-think of turning philosopher, both as by its doctrines it
-inspired him with some consolation for the loss of his
-Phœnician purple, and by its profits afforded him some
-chance of subsistence without it.” Socrates, he says,
-was the great father and inventor of common sense, “as
-Ceres was of the plough and Bacchus of intoxication.”
-Two thousand years ago, he adds, “common sense was
-not invented. If Orpheus, or Linus, or any of those melodious
-moralists, sung, in bad verses, such advice as a
-grand-mamma would now give to a child of six years old,
-he was thought to be inspired by the gods, and statues and
-altars were erected to his memory. In Hesiod there is a
-very grave exhortation to mankind to wash their faces;
-and I have discovered a very strong analogy between the
-precepts of Pythagoras and Mrs. Trimmer—both think
-that a son ought to obey his father, and both are clear that
-a good man is better than a bad one.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Among the best lectures of the volume, both for sense
-and brilliancy, are those on the “Conduct of the Understanding,”
-the “Faculties of Animals and Men,” “Habit,”
-and “Wit and Humor.” In these Sydney Smith exhibits
-both his power of rapid analysis and his power of
-clearly perceiving the essential points of the subjects he
-discusses. The lecture on the “Faculties of Animals and
-Men,” is a sort of humorous philosophical poem in prose,
-the beauty of the humor being as striking as its laughable
-quality. He commences with observing that he would do
-no injustice to the poor brutes, especially as they have
-“no professors to revenge their cause by lecturing on our
-faculties;” and he is so perfectly satisfied with the superiority
-of men to animals, that he sees no reason why he
-should not give the latter full credit for what “few fragments
-of soul and tatters of understanding they may really
-possess.” His settled opinion is, that baboons and blue
-<span class='pageno' title='262' id='Page_262'></span>
-apes will never rival mankind in understanding or imagination,
-though he confesses that he has sometimes felt a
-little uneasy at Exeter ’change, “from contrasting the
-monkeys with the ’prentice boys who are teasing them;”
-but a few pages of Locke, or a few lines of Milton, always
-restored him to his tranquil belief in the superiority of
-man. He then proceeds to give a humorous statement of
-the various opinions held by philosophers on the physiology
-of brutes, emphasising especially the theory of Père
-Bougeant, a Jesuit, that each animal is animated by a separate
-and distinct devil; “that not only this was the
-case with respect to cats, which have long been known to
-be very favorite residences of familiar spirits, but that a
-particular devil swam with every turbot, grazed with
-every ox, soared with every lark, dived with every duck,
-and was roasted with every chicken.” Smith then goes
-on to define and illustrate instinct, with an analysis as fine
-as the humor is exquisite. Instinct he considers as an animal’s
-unconscious use of means which are subservient to
-an end, in contradistinction to reason, which is a conscious
-use of those means and a perception of their relation to
-the end. The examples are all stated in Smith’s peculiar
-manner. It would take, he says, “a senior wrangler at
-Cambridge ten hours a day, for three years together, to
-know enough mathematics for the calculation of these
-problems, with which not only every queen bee, but every
-<span class='it'>under-graduate grub</span>, is acquainted the moment it is born.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The general conclusion of Smith, with regard to insects
-and animals, is the common one, that their instincts and
-faculties all relate to this world, and that they have, properly
-speaking, no souls to be saved. But this position he
-states, illustrates and defends with more than ordinary
-metaphysical acuteness. If the discussion were not so
-sparklingly conducted, it would strike the reader as very
-able analysis and reasoning; but the mirthful fancy with
-which the whole is adorned, satisfies of itself, and seems
-to claim no additional praise for the argument it illustrates.
-The delicious sympathy of the humorist for all
-grades of being peeps out on every page, and no insect or
-animal is referred to without being lifted into the comic
-ideal. Thus he remarks that nature seems on some animals
-to have bestowed vast attention, “<span class='it'>and to have
-sketched out others in a moment, and turned them adrift</span>.
-The house-fly skims about, perches upon a window or a
-nose, breakfasts and sups with you, lays his eggs upon
-your white cotton stockings, runs into the first hole in the
-wall when it is cold, and perishes with as much unconcern
-as he lives.” Again, in speaking of that superiority of
-man over animals which comes from his longevity, he remarks:
-“I think it is Helvetius who says he is quite certain
-we only owe our superiority over the ourang-outangs
-to the greater length of life conceded to us; and that, if
-our life had been as short as theirs, they would have totally
-defeated us in the competition for nuts and ripe
-blackberries. I can hardly agree to this extravagant
-statement; but I think in a life of twenty years the efforts
-of the human mind would have been so considerably lowered,
-that we might probably have thought Helvetius a
-good philosopher, and admired his skeptical absurdities
-as some of the greatest efforts of the human understanding.
-Sir Richard Blackmore would have been our greatest
-poet, our wit would have been Dutch, our faith French,
-the Hottentots would have given us the model for manners,
-and the Turks for government.” He then adds that
-man’s gregarious nature is another cause of his superiority
-over all other animals. “A lion lies under a hole in
-the rock, and if any other lion happen to pass by they
-fight. Now, whoever gets a habit of lying under a hole
-in a rock, and fighting with every gentleman who passes
-near him, cannot possibly make any progress.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>The lecture on “Wit and Humor” is, perhaps, the most
-brilliant of all; but, though the definitions are keenly
-stated and the distinctions nicely drawn, we suppose that
-even Sidney Smith, fine wit and humorist as he is, has not
-settled the matter. It appears to us that the difficulty
-consists in considering wit and humor as distinct powers,
-instead of viewing them as modifications of other powers.
-The mental peculiarities which distinguish wit and humor
-are qualities equally of fancy and imagination. The
-difference is emotional, not intellectual; in sentiment, not
-in faculty. A man whose sentiment and feeling of the
-ludicrous is predominant, will naturally make his intellectual
-powers serve his mirthful tendencies. If he has
-a lively fancy he will be a wit; if he has a creative imagination
-he will be a humorist. We should say, generally,
-that wit was fancy and understanding, directed by the
-sentiment of mirth; and that humor was imagination and
-understanding, directed by the same sentiment. It will be
-found, we think, in all ingenious and creative minds, that
-their peculiar direction depends altogether on sentiment.
-Sometimes imagination is exercised in a department of
-thought or action so far removed from the fine arts, that
-we can hardly recognize the power in its direction. In
-metaphysics, in mathematics, in government, war and
-commerce, we often come in contact with thinkers of vast
-imaginations, who still may despise poets and artists, and
-be heartily despised by them. If a change in the form and
-purpose of imagination thus appears, to many minds, to
-change its qualities, and to demand new definitions, we
-need not wonder at the popular reluctance to admit wits
-and humorists into the band of poets, though fancy and
-imagination be equally their characteristics.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Although our notice of this delightful volume has extended
-beyond the space we can properly allow it, we
-take leave of its wise and witty pages with regret,
-heartily commending it to the leisure hours of every man
-who can relish vivid argument and brilliant good sense.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk132'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and Suspiria de
-Profundis. By Thomas De Quincy, Boston: Wm.
-D. Ticknor &amp; Co. 1 vol. 12mo.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Thomas de Quincy has been well known during the
-last twenty years, not only as the author of “Confessions
-of an English Opium Eater”, but as a prominent contributor
-of able, thoughtful, and eloquent articles to Blackwood’s
-Magazine, and other British periodicals. The publishers
-of the present volume intend to follow it up with
-others, containing the best of his many remarkable historical,
-biographical, and critical papers. When completed,
-the series will constitute a body of thought which no student’s
-library can well be without, for the author’s learning
-extends over widely separated departments of literature and
-science, and in each he has proved himself capable of
-throwing out those suggestive thoughts which take root
-in the reader’s mind, and bear fruit. A resolute, inquisitive,
-and reflective student, richly dowered with understanding
-and imagination, and exercising great dominion
-over the harmonies and subtilties of expression, De Quincy
-has been prevented from producing little more than colossal
-fragments of thought, by the mastery obtained over his
-will by opium, and the contemptuousness of disposition
-which that habit provokes for calm, orderly, systematic
-works. He is dogmatic, negatively as well as positively.
-It is natural that a man who obtains glimpses of grand
-truths and magnificent systems, through artificial stimulants,
-should disdain the sober realizations of consecutive
-and industrious thought, wanting all that misty magnificence
-which clothes things viewed in the waking dreams
-of the opium eater. But egotist and dogmatist as he is, he
-is still a resolute thinker, whose mind, busy with all the
-<span class='pageno' title='263' id='Page_263'></span>
-problems of society and philosophy, is continually startling
-us with novel thoughts and splendid rhetoric.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>In the first part of the “Confessions” there is one passage,
-describing a dream inspired by opium, which we
-cannot resist the temptation to extract, as it is one of the
-sublimest in English prose. “The dream,” he says,
-“commenced with a music which now I often heard in
-dreams—a music of preparation and awakening suspense;
-a music like the opening of the Coronation Anthem, and
-which, like <span class='it'>that</span>, gave the feeling of a vast march, of infinite
-cavalcades filing off, and the tread of innumerable
-armies. The morning was come of a mighty day—a day
-of crisis and of final hope for human nature, then suffering
-some mysterious eclipse, and laboring in some dread extremity.
-Somewhere, I knew not where—somehow, I
-knew not how—by some beings, I knew not whom—a
-battle, a strife, an agony, was conducting—was evolved,
-like a great drama, or piece of music; with which my
-sympathy was the more insupportable from my confusion
-as to its place, its cause, its nature, and its possible issue.
-I, as is usual in dreams, (where we make ourselves central
-to every movement,) had the power, and yet had not
-the power, to decide it. I had the power, if I could raise
-myself, to will it; and yet again had not the power, for the
-weight of twenty Atlantics was upon me, or the oppression
-of inexpiable guilt. ‘Deeper than ever plummet
-sounded,’ I lay inactive. Then, like a chorus, the passion
-deepened. Some greater interest was at stake; some
-mightier cause than ever yet the sword had pleaded, or
-trumpet had proclaimed. Then came sudden alarms;
-hurryings to and fro; trepidations of innumerable fugitives.
-I knew not whether from the good cause or the
-bad, darkness and light, tempest and human faces, and at
-last with the sense that all was lost, female forms, and
-the features that were worth all the world to me, and but
-a moment allowed—and clasped hands, and heart-breaking
-partings, and then—everlasting farewells! and, with a
-sigh such as the caves of hell sighed when the incestuous
-mother uttered the abhorred name of death, the sound was
-reverberated—everlasting farewells! and again, and yet
-again reverberated—everlasting farewells!”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>“Suspiria de Profundis,” the conclusion of the Confessions,
-occupies about as much space as the original
-work, and has now, for the first time, been connected with
-it in the same volume. The style of the conclusion is even
-more majestic, visionary and resounding than the first
-portion, and is full of thrilling pictures and Macbeth
-“sights.” We hope that this volume will meet with a
-success so marked, as to induce the publishers to issue
-the remaining volumes of De Quincey’s miscellanies in
-rapid succession.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk133'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Life and Letters of Thomas Campbell, Edited by William
-Beattie; M. D., one of his Executors, New York:
-Harper &amp; Brothers, 2 vols. 12mo.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dr. Beattie’s work cannot take a high place in biographical
-literature, as far as it is to be judged by his own
-power of thinking and writing. He has, properly speaking,
-no conception of Campbell’s character; and the passage
-from one of his statements to the letter or anecdote
-which he adduces in its support, will indicate this to the
-least reflecting reader. Were it not for the richness of
-his materials his work would not be worth reprinting;
-but it has great value and interest from the number and
-variety of the private letters it contains. Campbell’s correspondence,
-though it evinces much nervous weakness
-of mind and a sensitiveness of vanity easily elated or depressed,
-has a peculiar raciness which wins and rewards
-attention; and, in addition to its own excellent qualities
-of wit and fancy, which delight of <a id='them'></a>themselves, it furnishes
-much information relating to the literary men of the last
-fifty years.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Mr. Irving has written a very pleasing introduction
-to these volumes, characteristic equally of his delicacy,
-his good nature and his discrimination, and embodying
-several new anecdotes of Campbell. He says
-that Beattie’s life “lays open the springs of all his actions
-and the causes of all his contrariety of conduct. We
-now see the real difficulties he had to contend with in the
-earlier part of his literary career; the worldly cares
-which pulled his spirit to the earth whenever it would
-wing its way to the skies; the domestic affections, tugging
-at his heart-strings even in his hours of genial intercourse,
-and <span class='it'>converting his very smiles into spasms</span>; the
-anxious days and sleepless nights preying upon his delicate
-organization, producing that morbid sensibility and
-nervous irritability which at times overlaid the real
-sweetness and amenity of his nature, and obscured the
-unbounded generosity of his heart.” This praise, of
-course, must be considered due to the “Letters” rather
-than the “Life” of Campbell.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Lord Jeffrey, in a letter to Campbell, on the subject of
-“Gertrude of Wyoming,” very felicitously indicates the
-prominent faults of that exquisite poem, and of Campbell’s
-general artistic method. “The most dangerous
-faults,” he says, “are your faults of diction. There is a
-good deal of obscurity in many passages—in others a
-strained and unnatural expression—an appearance of labor
-and hardness; you have hammered the metal in some
-places till it had lost all its ductility. These are not
-great faults, but they are blemishes; and as dunces will
-find them out—noodles will see them when they are pointed
-to. I wish you had courage to correct, or rather to avoid
-them, for with you they are faults of over-finishing, and
-not of negligence. I have another fault to charge you
-with in private—for which I am more angry with you than
-for all the rest. Your timidity, or fastidiousness, or some
-other knavish quality, will not let you give your conceptions
-glowing, and bold, and powerful, as they present
-themselves, but you must chasten, and refine, and soften
-them, forsooth, till half their nature and grandeur is chiseled
-away from them.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>An interesting feature in this biography is the number
-of poems it contains not included in any edition of Campbell’s
-works, and the original drafts it gives of many of
-Campbell’s well-known productions. The “Battle of the
-Baltic” originally contained twenty-seven stanzas, and in
-that shape was enclosed in a letter to Scott. We extract
-a specimen of the omitted verses:</p>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>Not such a mind possessed</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;England’s tar;</p>
-<p class='line0'>’Twas the love of nobler game</p>
-<p class='line0'>Set his oaken heart on flame,</p>
-<p class='line0'>For to him ’twas all the same,</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Sport or war.</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>All hands and eyes on watch</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;As they keep;</p>
-<p class='line0'>By their motion light as wings,</p>
-<p class='line0'>By each step that haughty springs,</p>
-<p class='line0'>You might know them for the kings</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Of the deep!</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='blockquote0r9'>
-
-<div class='poetry-container' style=''><div class='lgp'> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line0'>’Twas the Edgar first that smote</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;Denmark’s line;</p>
-<p class='line0'>As her flag the foremost soared,</p>
-<p class='line0'>Murray stamped his foot on board,</p>
-<p class='line0'>And a hundred cannons roared</p>
-<p class='line0'>&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;At the sign!</p>
-</div></div> <!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This Life of Campbell, and the Life of Southey, now in
-course of publication by the same house, are the best
-literary biographies we have had since The Life of Mackintosh,
-edited by his Son. We wish the Harpers would
-reprint the latter, as there has been no complete American
-edition of it ever published. It contains more matter than
-any similar work since Moore’s Life of Byron.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk134'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The National Cook Book. By a Lady of Philadelphia, a
-<span class='pageno' title='264' id='Page_264'></span>
-Practical Housewife. Philada.: Robert E. Peterson.
-1 vol. 12 mo.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This is, on all sides, admitted to be the very best of the
-many cook books that have been issued by the press of late
-years. The editor, be she whom she may, understands
-the art of preparing a delicious meal, of any material, it
-seems, and our taste has passed favorable judgment upon a
-fruit cake of most inviting look, and of quality the best. A
-lady, in whose judgment we have the most unbounded
-confidence, pronounces this “the only cook book worthy
-of a housekeeper’s perusal.”</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Next to the intellectual feast, which is spread before the
-reader of Graham each month, we suppose, will come a
-snug breakfast, a glorious good dinner, or a cozy, palate-inviting
-supper of birds, with mushrooms. Now, without
-Peterson’s Cook Book, the meal cannot be perfection. Of
-this we feel convinced.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk135'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Gallery of Illustrious American Daguerreotypes by
-Brady. Engraved by D’Avignon. Edited by C. Edwards
-Lester, assisted by an Association of Literary
-men. 205 Broadway, New York.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>We have received the sixth number of this truly national
-work—the first and second we have before this
-noticed. The third, fourth and fifth numbers the publishers
-have omitted to send us. As we have before
-stated, this is a publication of great merit, and cannot fail
-to attract a liberal encouragement both in this country
-and abroad. The portraits are executed with wonderful
-fidelity, and are the best specimens of the lithographic art
-we have ever seen. Mr. Brady deserves much praise for
-his exact and skillful daguerreotypes, from which D’Avignon
-has produced these masterly “counterfeit presentments”
-of our great national characters. The selection
-from our living worthies have been well made. The publishers
-have not confined themselves to the faces of our
-elder public men long familiar in the print shops, but they
-have well chosen alike from the old and the young—those
-who have been long famous by past services, and those
-whose genius and precocious merit have excited a keen interest
-and a just pride in the heart of every American. This
-number is adorned by a life-like portrait of Col. Fremont;
-and the editor, Mr. Lester, has in this, as he has in those
-numbers which have preceded it, and which have been
-sent to us, given a brief and pointed sketch of the marvelous
-youth whose adventures in the camp of science outstrips
-the wildest tales of romantic daring. A work like
-this must prosper.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk136'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The History of the Confessional. By John Henry Hopkins,
-D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont. New
-York: Harper &amp; Brothers. 1 vol. 12mo.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Dr. Hopkins is already well known as an Episcopalian
-writer of much merit and erudition, and the present work
-will add considerably to his reputation. It is acute,
-learned, and clear, going patiently over the whole historical
-ground of the dispute between the Church of England
-and the Church of Rome, and singularly candid and
-dispassionate in its tone and in its substance. We rarely
-see, in a controversialist, such decided opinions, in connection
-with so much intellectual conscientiousness.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk137'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>Doctor Johnson; His Religious Life and his Death.
-New York: Harper &amp; Brothers. 1 vol. 12mo.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>This volume is evidently the production of some individual
-whose ambition to write a book was far greater
-than his ability to write a good one; the result is a compilation
-from Boswell’s Life of Johnson, made up from
-its most valueless and uninteresting portions, without the
-addition of any thing of importance by the compiler. Dr.
-Johnson, in his own time, had no power of communicating
-any of his own intellectual or moral life to his mental
-sycophants; and, judging from the present volume, we
-should suppose that this power was still wanting in his
-writings.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk138'/>
-
-<div class='blockquote'>
-
-<p class='hang'><span class='it'>The Pillars of Hercules; or a Narrative of Travels in
-Spain and Morocco, in 1848. By David Urquhart, Esq.,
-M. P. New York: Harper &amp; Brothers. 2 vols.
-12mo.</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='pindent'>Of all the volumes of travels lately issued, this appears
-to us the most independent and intelligent. The author
-gives a new view of the social condition of Spain, and
-states some facts and opinions calculated to make us
-re-examine the notions commonly held of Spanish affairs.
-He is an acute observer of men, a scholar, a politician
-versed in the practical details of legislation and government,
-and a man who sees, feels, and thinks for himself.
-To those who have read Barrow and Ford the work will
-have great attractions.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk139'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Edgar A. Poe.</span>—We have on hand several articles,
-from leading writers of the country, upon the life and
-character of Edgar A. Poe, which we will find room for
-in the December number, in which we shall give an extra
-form, for the purpose of putting before the country these
-generous tributes to the dead poet and critic. The causticity
-of several of them will not be particularly relished
-by his immaculate defamers, who busy themselves in
-raking up his ashes to expose his defects to the gaze of
-the world.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk140'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>A Deserved Honor.</span>—We see that at the late commencement
-of the Miami University, Ohio, the degree of
-LL. D. was conferred upon Professor John S. Hart, of
-the Philadelphia High School. It is a compliment very
-properly bestowed, and from an Institution which renders
-the honor of value.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk141'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>The Last Chance.</span>—We desire to impress upon the attention
-of the subscribers to “Graham,” that if they desire
-our elegant Premium Plates, they should now remit either
-$3 for one year, or $5 for two years, or for two copies one
-year. In either case we furnish each subscriber <span class='it'>thus sent</span>,
-“<span class='it'>Christ Blessing Little Children</span>,” and “<span class='it'>The First
-Prayer</span>”—two beautiful engravings of large size.</p>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='it'>After the first of November</span>, the plate will be disposed
-of, and no premiums will thereafter be sent from this
-office.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk142'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Our Paris Fashions.</span>—Every mail brings us congratulations
-upon the superior finish and beauty of our
-Paris Fashion Plates. Our friends have opened their eyes
-to the fact, that “Graham” is the only magazine in America
-that incurs the expense of <span class='it'>original</span> designs. All others
-are copies of the French plates, poorly done, and insufferably
-old. We should not mention the matter, but that
-efforts are made to deceive the magazine public by silly
-and unfounded boasting. The expense, which is several
-hundred dollars <span class='it'>extra</span> each month, we cheerfully incur for
-the liberal subscribers to this magazine, whose cultivated
-taste would soon detect the bold impositions practiced
-upon others.</p>
-
-<hr class='tbk143'/>
-
-<p class='pindent'><a id='foll'></a></p>
-
-<div class='figcenter'>
-<a href='images/i148f.jpg'><img src='images/i148.jpg' alt='' id='iid-0007' style='width:450px;height:auto;'/></a>
-<p class='caption'><span style='font-size:smaller'>Anaïs Toudouze</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class='lgc' style=''> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'><span style='font-size:larger'><span class='bold'>LE FOLLET</span></span> Paris, boul<sup>t</sup>. S<sup>t</sup>. Martin, 69.</p>
-<p class='line'><span class='it'>Chapeaux M<sup>lle</sup></span> Grafeton, <span class='it'>r. de la Paix, 24</span>—<span class='it'>Fleurs de</span> Chagot ainé, <span class='it'>r. Richelieu, 73</span>.</p>
-<p class='line'><span class='it'>Pardessus de la mais<sup>n.</sup></span> S<sup>t</sup>. Arnaud–<span class='it'>Dentelles de</span> Violard, <span class='it'>r. Choiseul, 4.</span></p>
-<p class='line'><span class='it'>The styles of Goods here represented can be had of Mess<sup>rs</sup>.</span> L. J. Levy &amp; C<sup>o</sup>. <span class='it'>Philadelphia</span></p>
-<p class='line'><span class='it'>and at</span> Stewart’s, <span class='it'>New-York</span>.</p>
-<p class='line'><span class='bold'>Graham’s Magazine</span>, 134 Chestnut Street.</p>
-</div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-<hr class='tbk144'/>
-
-<p class='line' style='margin-top:2em;font-size:1.1em;'><span class='bold'><a id='notes'></a>Transcriber’s Notes:</span></p>
-
-<p class='noindent'>Archaic spellings and hyphenation have been retained as well as some spellings
-peculiar to Graham’s. Punctuation has been corrected
-without note. Other errors have been corrected as noted below. For
-illustrations, some caption text may be missing or incomplete due to condition of
-the originals used for preparation of the ebook.</p>
-
-<div class='lgl' style=''> <!-- rend=';' -->
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-<p class='line'>page 202, and geologial descriptions ==>&ensp;and <a href='#geo'>geological</a> descriptions</p>
-<p class='line'>page 203, amidst the minosas ==>&ensp;amidst the <a href='#mim'>mimosas</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 204, when a bark ascending ==>&ensp;when a <a href='#bark3'>barque</a> ascending</p>
-<p class='line'>page 212, conquest of of Shivas ==>&ensp;conquest <a href='#off'>of</a> Shivas</p>
-<p class='line'>page 215, His bark stranding ==>&ensp;His <a href='#bark1'>barque</a> stranding</p>
-<p class='line'>page 216, safe and and sound ==>&ensp;safe <a href='#and'>and</a> sound</p>
-<p class='line'>page 225, there are Bachinalian ==>&ensp;there are <a href='#bach'>Bacchanalian</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 225, genii and faries ==>&ensp;genii and <a href='#fair'>fairies</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 226, within many degress ==>&ensp;within many <a href='#degree'>degrees</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 228, among the lowley ==>&ensp;among the <a href='#low'>lowly</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 228, The hundreth psalm ==>&ensp;The <a href='#hun'>hundredth</a> psalm</p>
-<p class='line'>page 229, shame to doggrel ==>&ensp;shame to <a href='#dog'>doggerel</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 230, an argent bark ==>&ensp;an argent <a href='#bark2'>barque</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 231, what commisseration he ==>&ensp;what <a href='#com'>commiseration</a> he</p>
-<p class='line'>page 234, And now its ==>&ensp;And now <a href='#nowits'>it’s</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 236, added: <a href='#cont'>[<span class='it'>To be continued.</span></a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 239, laughed and teazed ==>&ensp;laughed and <a href='#tea'>teased</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 241, its splendid to be ==>&ensp;<a href='#its'>it’s</a> splendid to be</p>
-<p class='line'>page 241, Blanch Forrester went ==>&ensp;<a href='#blan'>Blanche</a> Forrester went</p>
-<p class='line'>page 241, delicious <span class='it'>Scottische</span> ==>&ensp;delicious <a href='#scho'><span class='it'>Schottische</span></a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 250, vaticanam Bodleianamgue ==>&ensp;vaticanam <a href='#bod'>Bodleianamque</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 250, Onicus est nobis ==>&ensp;<a href='#uni'>Unicus</a> est nobis</p>
-<p class='line'>page 253, As ambegris leaves ==>&ensp;As <a href='#amber'>ambergris</a> leaves</p>
-<p class='line'>page 258, fowl have the the power ==>&ensp;fowl have <a href='#havethe'>the</a> power</p>
-<p class='line'>page 260, Pasiello, and other ==>&ensp;<a href='#pais'>Paisiello</a>, and other</p>
-<p class='line'>page 260, <span class='sc'>Old ’76 and Young ’47.</span> ==>&ensp;<span class='sc'>Old ’76 and Young <a href='#y48'>’48</a>.</span></p>
-<p class='line'>page 261, near the Piraus ==>&ensp;near the <a href='#pir'>Piræus</a></p>
-<p class='line'>page 263, delight of themselvs ==>&ensp;delight of <a href='#them'>themselves</a></p>
-<p class='line'>&#160;</p>
-</div> <!-- end rend -->
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, No. 4,
-October 1850, by Various
-
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