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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6146-8.txt b/6146-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7cf630e --- /dev/null +++ b/6146-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7376 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers, Vol. I. +by Thomas De Quincey +#2 in our series by Thomas De Quincey + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers, Vol. I. + +Author: Thomas De Quincey + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6146] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 19, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DE QUINCY'S PAPERS V.1. *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +NARRATIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. +VOL. I. + +BY +THOMAS DE QUINCEY. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. + + +THE HOUSEHOLD WRECK +THE SPANISH NUN +FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLD WRECK. + + +'To be weak,' we need not the great archangel's voice to tell us, +'_is to be miserable_.' All weakness is suffering and humiliation, +no matter for its mode or its subject. Beyond all other weakness, +therefore, and by a sad prerogative, as more miserable than what is +most miserable in all, that capital weakness of man which regards the +_tenure_ of his enjoyments and his power to protect, even for a +moment, the crown of flowers--flowers, at the best, how frail and few! +--which sometimes settles upon his haughty brow. There is no end, there +never will be an end, of the lamentations which ascend from earth and +the rebellious heart of her children, upon this huge opprobrium of +human pride--the everlasting mutabilities of all which man can grasp by +his power or by his aspirations, the fragility of all which he +inherits, and the hollowness visible amid the very raptures of +enjoyment to every eye which looks for a moment underneath the +draperies of the shadowy _present_, the hollowness, the blank +treachery of hollowness, upon which all the pomps and vanities of life +ultimately repose. This trite but unwearying theme, this impassioned +common-place of humanity, is the subject in every age of variation +without end, from the poet, the rhetorician, the fabulist, the +moralist, the divine, and the philosopher. All, amidst the sad vanity +of their sighs and groans, labor to put on record and to establish this +monotonous complaint, which needs not other record or evidence than +those very sighs and groans. What is life? Darkness and formless +vacancy for a beginning, or something beyond all beginning--then next a +dim lotos of human consciousness, finding itself afloat upon the bosom +of waters without a shore--then a few sunny smiles and many tears--a +little love and infinite strife--whisperings from paradise and fierce +mockeries from the anarchy of chaos--dust and ashes--and once more +darkness circling round, as if from the beginning, and in this way +rounding or making an island of our fantastic existence,--_that_ +is human life; _that_ the inevitable amount of man's laughter and +his tears--of what he suffers and he does--of his motions this way and +that way--to the right or to the left--backwards or forwards--of all +his seeming realities and all his absolute negations--his shadowy +pomps and his pompous shadows--of whatsoever he thinks, finds, makes +or mars, creates or animates, loves, hates, or in dread hope +anticipates;--so it is, so it has been, so it will be, for ever and +ever. + +Yet in the lowest deep there still yawns a lower deep; and in the vast +halls of man's frailty, there are separate and more gloomy chambers of +a frailty more exquisite and consummate. We account it frailty that +threescore years and ten make the upshot of man's pleasurable +existence, and that, far before that time is reached, his beauty and +his power have fallen among weeds and forgetfulness. But there is a +frailty, by comparison with which this ordinary flux of the human race +seems to have a vast duration. Cases there are, and those not rare, in +which a single week, a day, an hour sweeps away all vestiges and +landmarks of a memorable felicity; in which the ruin travels faster +than the flying showers upon the mountain-side, faster 'than a musician +scatters sounds;' in which 'it was' and 'it is not' are words of the +self-same tongue, in the self-same minute; in which the sun that at +noon beheld all sound and prosperous, long before its setting hour +looks out upon a total wreck, and sometimes upon the total abolition of +any fugitive memorial that there ever had been a vessel to be wrecked, +or a wreck to be obliterated. + +These cases, though here spoken of rhetorically, are of daily +occurrence; and, though they may seem few by comparison with the +infinite millions of the species, they are many indeed, if they be +reckoned absolutely for themselves; and throughout the limits of a +whole nation, not a day passes over us but many families are robbed of +their heads, or even swallowed up in ruin themselves, or their course +turned out of the sunny beams into a dark wilderness. Shipwrecks and +nightly conflagrations are sometimes, and especially among some +nations, wholesale calamities; battles yet more so; earthquakes, the +famine, the pestilence, though rarer, are visitations yet wider in +their desolation. Sickness and commercial ill-luck, if narrower, are +more frequent scourges. And most of all, or with most darkness in its +train, comes the sickness of the brain--lunacy--which, visiting nearly +one thousand in every million, must, in every populous nation, make +many ruins in each particular day. 'Babylon in ruins,' says a great +author, 'is not so sad a sight as a human soul overthrown by lunacy.' +But there is a sadder even than _that_,--the sight of a family-ruin +wrought by crime is even more appalling. Forgery, breaches of trust, +embezzlement, of private or public funds--(a crime sadly on the +increase since the example of Fauntleroy, and the suggestion of its +great feasibility first made by him)--these enormities, followed too +often, and countersigned for their final result to the future happiness +of families, by the appalling catastrophe of suicide, must naturally, +in every wealthy nation, or wherever property and the modes of property +are much developed, constitute the vast majority of all that come under +the review of public justice. Any of these is sufficient to make +shipwreck of all peace and comfort for a family; and often, indeed, it +happens that the desolation is accomplished within the course of one +revolving sun; often the whole dire catastrophe, together with its +total consequences, is both accomplished and made known to those whom +it chiefly concerns within one and the same hour. The mighty Juggernaut +of social life, moving onwards with its everlasting thunders, pauses +not for a moment to spare--to pity--to look aside, but rushes forward +for ever, impassive as the marble in the quarry--caring not for whom it +destroys, for the how many, or for the results, direct and indirect, +whether many or few. The increasing grandeur and magnitude of the +social system, the more it multiplies and extends its victims, the more +it conceals them; and for the very same reason: just as in the Roman +amphitheatres, when they grew to the magnitude of mighty cities, (in +some instances accommodating four hundred thousand spectators, in many +a fifth part of that amount,) births and deaths became ordinary events, +which, in a small modern theatre, are rare and memorable; and exactly +as these prodigious accidents multiplied, _pari passu_, they were +disregarded and easily concealed: for curiosity was no longer excited; +the sensation attached to them was little or none. + +From these terrific tragedies, which, like monsoons or tornadoes, +accomplish the work of years in an hour, not merely an impressive +lesson is derived, sometimes, perhaps, a warning, but also (and this is +of universal application) some consolation. Whatever may have been the +misfortunes or the sorrows of a man's life, he is still privileged to +regard himself and his friends as amongst the fortunate by comparison, +in so far as he has escaped these wholesale storms, either as an actor +in producing them, or a contributor to their violence--or even more +innocently, (though oftentimes not less miserably)--as a participator +in the instant ruin, or in the long arrears of suffering which they +entail. + +The following story falls within the class of hasty tragedies, and +sudden desolations here described. The reader is assured that every +incident is strictly true: nothing, in that respect, has been altered; +nor, indeed, anywhere except in the conversations, of which, though the +results and general outline are known, the separate details have +necessarily been lost under the agitating circumstances which produced +them. It has been judged right and delicate to conceal the name of the +great city, and therefore of the nation in which these events occurred, +chiefly out of consideration for the descendants of one person +concerned in the narrative: otherwise, it might not have been +requisite: for it is proper to mention, that every person directly a +party to the case has been long laid in the grave: all of them, with +one solitary exception, upwards of fifty years. + + * * * * * + +It was early spring in the year 17--; the day was the 6th of April; and +the weather, which had been of a wintry fierceness for the preceding +six or seven weeks--cold indeed beyond anything known for many years, +gloomy for ever, and broken by continual storms--was now by a Swedish +transformation all at once bright, genial, heavenly. So sudden and so +early a prelusion of summer, it was generally feared, could not last. +But that only made every body the more eager to lose no hour of an +enjoyment that might prove so fleeting. It seemed as if the whole +population of the place, a population among the most numerous in +Christendom, had been composed of hybernating animals suddenly awakened +by the balmy sunshine from their long winter's torpor. Through every +hour of the golden morning the streets were resonant with female +parties of young and old, the timid and the bold, nay, even of the most +delicate valetudinarians, now first tempted to lay aside their wintry +clothing together with their fireside habits, whilst the whole rural +environs of our vast city, the woodlands, and the interminable meadows +began daily to re-echo the glad voices of the young and jovial awaking +once again, like the birds and the flowers, and universal nature, to +the luxurious happiness of this most delightful season. + +Happiness do I say? Yes, happiness; happiness to me above all others. +For I also in those days was among the young and the gay; I was +healthy; I was strong; I was prosperous in a worldly sense! I owed no +man a shilling; feared no man's face; shunned no man's presence. I held +a respectable station in society; I was myself, let me venture to say +it, respected generally for my personal qualities, apart from any +advantages I might draw from fortune or inheritance; I had reason to +think myself popular amongst the very slender circle of my +acquaintance; and finally, which perhaps was the crowning grace to all +these elements of happiness, I suffered not from the presence of +_ennui_, nor ever feared to suffer: for my temperament was +constitutionally ardent; I had a powerful animal sensibility; and I +knew the one great secret for maintaining its equipoise, viz., by +powerful daily exercise; and thus I lived in the light and presence, +or, (if I should not be suspected of seeking rhetorical expressions, I +would say,) in one eternal solstice of unclouded hope. + +These, you will say, were blessings; these were golden elements of +felicity. They were so; and yet, with the single exception of my +healthy frame and firm animal organization, I feel that I have +mentioned hitherto nothing but what by comparison might be thought of a +vulgar quality. All the other advantages that I have enumerated, had +they been yet wanting, might have been acquired; had they been +forfeited, might have been reconquered; had they been even +irretrievably lost, might, by a philosophic effort, have been dispensed +with; compensations might have been found for any of them, many +equivalents, or if not, consolations at least, for their absence. But +now it remains to speak of other blessings too mighty to be valued, not +merely as transcending in rank and dignity all other constituents of +happiness, but for a reason far sadder than that--because, once lost, +they were incapable of restoration, and because not to be dispensed +with; blessings in which 'either we must live or have no life:' lights +to the darkness of our paths and to the infirmity of our steps--which, +once extinguished, never more on this side the gates of Paradise can +any man hope to see re-illumined for himself. Amongst these I may +mention an intellect, whether powerful or not in itself, at any rate +most elaborately cultivated; and, to say the truth, I had little other +business before me in this life than to pursue this lofty and +delightful task. I may add, as a blessing, not in the same +_positive_ sense as that which I have just mentioned, because not +of a nature to contribute so hourly to the employment of the thoughts, +but yet in this sense equal, that the absence of either would have been +an equal affliction,--namely, a conscience void of all offence. It was +little indeed that I, drawn by no necessities of situation into +temptations of that nature, had done no injury to any man. That was +fortunate; but I could not much value myself upon what was so much an +accident of my situation. Something, however, I might pretend to beyond +this _negative_ merit; for I had originally a benign nature; and, +as I advanced in years and thoughtfulness, the gratitude which +possessed me for my own exceeding happiness led me to do that by +principle and system which I had already done upon blind impulse; and +thus upon a double argument I was incapable of turning away from the +prayer of the afflicted, whatever had been the sacrifice to myself. +Hardly, perhaps, could it have been said in a sufficient sense at that +time that I was a religious man: yet, undoubtedly, I had all the +foundations within me upon which religion might hereafter have grown. +My heart overflowed with thankfulness to Providence: I had a natural +tone of unaffected piety; and thus far, at least, I might have been +called a religious man, that in the simplicity of truth I could have +exclaimed, + + 'O, Abner, I fear God, and I fear none beside.' + +But wherefore seek to delay ascending by a natural climax to that final +consummation and perfect crown of my felicity--that almighty blessing +which ratified their value to all the rest? Wherefore, oh! wherefore do +I shrink in miserable weakness from--what? Is it from reviving, from +calling up again into fierce and insufferable light the images and +features of a long-buried happiness? That would be a natural shrinking +and a reasonable weakness. But how escape from reviving, whether I give +it utterance or not, that which is for ever vividly before me? What +need to call into artificial light that which, whether sleeping or +waking, by night or by day, for eight-and-thirty years has seemed by +its miserable splendor to scorch my brain? Wherefore shrink from giving +language, simple vocal utterance, to that burden of anguish which by so +long an endurance has lost no atom of its weight, nor can gain any most +surely by the loudest publication? Need there can be none, after this, +to say that the priceless blessing, which I have left to the final +place in this ascending review, was the companion of my life--my +darling and youthful wife. Oh! dovelike woman! fated in an hour the +most defenceless to meet with the ravening vulture,--lamb fallen +amongst wolves,--trembling--fluttering fawn, whose path was inevitably +to be crossed by the bloody tiger;--angel, whose most innocent heart +fitted thee for too early a flight from this impure planet; if indeed +it were a necessity that thou shouldst find no rest for thy footing +except amidst thy native heavens, if indeed to leave what was not +worthy of thee were a destiny not to be evaded--a summons not to be put +by,--yet why, why, again and again I demand--why was it also necessary +that this, thy departure, so full of wo to me, should also to thyself +be heralded by the pangs of martyrdom? Sainted love, if, like the +ancient children of the Hebrews, like Meshech and Abednego, thou wert +called by divine command, whilst yet almost a child, to walk, and to +walk alone, through the fiery furnace,--wherefore then couldst not +thou, like that Meshech and that Abednego, walk unsinged by the +dreadful torment, and come forth unharmed? Why, if the sacrifice were +to be total, was it necessary to reach it by so dire a struggle? and if +the cup, the bitter cup, of final separation from those that were the +light of thy eyes and the pulse of thy heart might not be put aside,-- +yet wherefore was it that thou mightest not drink it up in the natural +peace which belongs to a sinless heart? + +But these are murmurings, you will say, rebellious murmurings against +the proclamations of God. Not so: I have long since submitted myself, +resigned myself, nay, even reconciled myself, perhaps, to the great +wreck of my life, in so far as it was the will of God, and according to +the weakness of my imperfect nature. But my wrath still rises, like a +towering flame, against all the earthly instruments of this ruin; I am +still at times as unresigned as ever to this tragedy, in so far as it +was the work of human malice. Vengeance, as a mission for _me_, as +a task for _my_ hands in particular, is no longer possible; the +thunderbolts of retribution have been long since launched by other +hands; and yet still it happens that at times I do--I must--I shall +perhaps to the hour of death, rise in maniac fury, and seek, in the +very impotence of vindictive madness, groping as it were in blindness +of heart, for that tiger from hell-gates that tore away my darling from +my heart. Let me pause, and interrupt this painful strain, to say a +word or two upon what she was--and how far worthy of a love more +honorable to her (that was possible) and deeper (but that was not +possible) than mine. When first I saw her, she--my Agnes--was merely a +child, not much (if anything) above sixteen. But, as in perfect +womanhood she retained a most childlike expression of countenance, so +even then in absolute childhood she put forward the blossoms and the +dignity of a woman. Never yet did my eye light upon creature that was +born of woman, nor could it enter my heart to conceive one, possessing +a figure more matchless in its proportions, more statuesque, and more +deliberately and advisedly to be characterized by no adequate word but +the word _magnificent_, (a word too often and lightly abused.) In +reality, speaking of women, I have seen many beautiful figures, but +hardly one except Agnes that could, without hyperbole, be styled truly +and memorably magnificent. Though in the first order of tall women, +yet, being full in person, and with a symmetry that was absolutely +faultless, she seemed to the random sight as little above the ordinary +height. Possibly from the dignity of her person, assisted by the +dignity of her movements, a stranger would have been disposed to call +her at a distance a woman of _commanding_ presence; but never, +after he had approached near enough to behold her face. Every thought +of artifice, of practised effect, or of haughty pretension, fled before +the childlike innocence, the sweet feminine timidity, and the more than +cherub loveliness of that countenance, which yet in its lineaments was +noble, whilst its expression was purely gentle and confiding. A shade +of pensiveness there was about her; but _that_ was in her manners, +scarcely ever in her features; and the exquisite fairness of her +complexion, enriched by the very sweetest and most delicate bloom that +ever I have beheld, should rather have allied it to a tone of +cheerfulness. Looking at this noble creature, as I first looked at her, +when yet upon the early threshold of womanhood + + 'With household motions light and free, + And steps of virgin liberty' + +you might have supposed her some Hebe or young Aurora of the dawn. When +you saw only her superb figure, and its promise of womanly development, +with the measured dignity of her step, you might for a moment have +fancied her some imperial Medea of the Athenian stage--some Volumnia +from Rome, + + 'Or ruling bandit's wife amidst the Grecian isles.' + + But catch one glance from her angelic countenance--and then combining +the face and the person, you would have dismissed all such fancies, and +have pronounced her a Pandora or an Eve, expressly accomplished and +held forth by nature as an exemplary model or ideal pattern for the +future female sex:-- + + 'A perfect woman, nobly plann'd, + To warm, to comfort, to command: + And yet a spirit too, and bright + With something of an angel light.' + +To this superb young woman, such as I have here sketched her, I +surrendered my heart for ever, almost from my first opportunity of +seeing her: for so natural and without disguise was her character, and +so winning the simplicity of her manners, due in part to her own native +dignity of mind, and in part to the deep solitude in which she had been +reared, that little penetration was required to put me in possession of +all her thoughts; and to win her love, not very much more than to let +her see, as see she could not avoid, in connection with that chivalrous +homage which at any rate was due to her sex and her sexual perfections, +a love for herself on my part, which was in its nature as exalted a +passion and as profoundly rooted as any merely human affection can ever +yet have been. + +On the seventeenth birthday of Agnes we were married. Oh! calendar of +everlasting months--months that, like the mighty rivers, shall flow on +for ever, immortal as thou, Nile, or Danube, Euphrates, or St. +Lawrence! and ye, summer and winter, day and night, wherefore do you +bring round continually your signs, and seasons, and revolving hours, +that still point and barb the anguish of local recollections, telling +me of this and that celestial morning that never shall return, and of +too blessed expectations, travelling like yourselves through a heavenly +zodiac of changes, till at once and for ever they sank into the grave! +Often do I think of seeking for some quiet cell either in the Tropics +or in Arctic latitudes, where the changes of the year, and the external +signs corresponding to them, express themselves by no features like +those in which the same seasons are invested under our temperate +climes: so that, if knowing, we cannot at least feel the identity of +their revolutions. We were married, I have said, on the birthday--the +seventeenth birthday--of Agnes; and pretty nearly on her eighteenth it +was that she placed me at the summit of my happiness, whilst for +herself she thus completed the circle of her relations to this life's +duties, by presenting me with a son. Of this child, knowing how +wearisome to strangers is the fond exultation of parents, I shall +simply say, that he inherited his mother's beauty; the same touching +loveliness and innocence of expression, the same chiselled nose, mouth, +and chin, the same exquisite auburn hair. In many other features, not +of person merely, but also of mind and manners, as they gradually began +to open before me, this child deepened my love to him by recalling the +image of his mother; and what other image was there that I so much +wished to keep before me, whether waking or asleep? At the time to +which I am now coming but too rapidly, this child, still our only one, +and unusually premature, was within four months of completing his third +year; consequently Agnes was at that time in her twenty-first year; and +I may here add, with respect to myself, that I was in my twenty-sixth. + +But, before I come to that period of wo, let me say one word on the +temper of mind which so fluent and serene a current of prosperity may +be thought to have generated. Too common a course I know it is, when +the stream of life flows with absolute tranquillity, and ruffled by no +menace of a breeze--the azure overhead never dimmed by a passing cloud, +that in such circumstances the blood stagnates: life, from excess and +plethora of sweets, becomes insipid: the spirit of action droops: and +it is oftentimes found at such seasons that slight annoyances and +molestations, or even misfortunes in a lower key, are not wholly +undesirable, as means of stimulating the lazy energies, and disturbing +a slumber which is, or soon will be, morbid in its character. I have +known myself cases not a few, where, by the very nicest gradations, and +by steps too silent and insensible for daily notice, the utmost harmony +and reciprocal love had shaded down into fretfulness and petulance, +purely from too easy a life, and because all nobler agitations that +might have ruffled the sensations occasionally, and all distresses even +on the narrowest scale that might have re-awakened the solicitudes of +love, by opening necessities for sympathy, for counsel, or for mutual +aid, had been shut out by foresight too elaborate, or by prosperity too +cloying. But all this, had it otherwise been possible with my +particular mind, and at my early age, was utterly precluded by one +remarkable peculiarity in my temper. Whether it were that I derived +from nature some jealousy and suspicion of all happiness which seems +too perfect and unalloyed--[a spirit of restless distrust, which in +ancient times often led men to throw valuable gems into the sea, in the +hope of thus propitiating the dire deity of misfortune, by voluntarily +breaking the fearful chain of prosperity, and led some of them to weep +and groan when the gems thus sacrificed were afterwards brought back to +their hand by simple fishermen, who had recovered them in the +intestines of fishes--a portentous omen, which was interpreted into a +sorrowful indication that the deity thus answered the propitiatory +appeal, and made solemn proclamation that he had rejected it]-- +whether, I say, it were this spirit of jealousy awaked in me by too +steady and too profound a felicity--or whether it were that great +overthrows and calamities have some mysterious power to send forward a +dim misgiving of their advancing footsteps, and really and indeed, + + 'That in to-day already walks to-morrow;' + +or whether it were partly, as I have already put the case in my first +supposition, a natural instinct of distrust, but irritated and +enlivened by a particular shock of superstitious alarm; which, or +whether any of these causes it were that kept me apprehensive, and on +the watch for disastrous change, I will not here undertake to +determine. Too certain it is that I was so. I never ridded myself of an +over-mastering and brooding sense, shadowy and vague, a dim abiding +feeling (that sometimes was and sometimes was not exalted into a +conscious presentiment) of some great calamity travelling towards me; +not perhaps immediately impending--perhaps even at a great distance; +but already--dating from some secret hour--already in motion upon some +remote line of approach. This feeling I could not assuage by sharing it +with Agnes. No motive could be strong enough for persuading me to +communicate so gloomy a thought with one who, considering her extreme +healthiness, was but too remarkably prone to pensive, if not to +sorrowful, contemplations. And thus the obligation which I felt to +silence and reserve, strengthened the morbid impression I had received; +whilst the remarkable incident I have adverted to served powerfully to +rivet the superstitious chain which was continually gathering round me. +The incident was this--and before I repeat it, let me pledge my word of +honor, that I report to you the bare facts of the case, without +exaggeration, and in the simplicity of truth:--There was at that time +resident in the great city, which is the scene of my narrative, a +woman, from some part of Hungary, who pretended to the gift of looking +into futurity. She had made herself known advantageously in several of +the greatest cities of Europe, under the designation of the Hungarian +Prophetess; and very extraordinary instances were cited amongst the +highest circles of her success in the art which she professed. So ample +were the pecuniary tributes which she levied upon the hopes and the +fears, or the simple curiosity of the aristocracy, that she was thus +able to display not unfrequently a disinterestedness and a generosity, +which seemed native to her disposition, amongst the humbler classes of +her applicants; for she rejected no addresses that were made to her, +provided only they were not expressed in levity or scorn, but with +sincerity, and in a spirit of confiding respect. It happened, on one +occasion, when a nursery-servant of ours was waiting in her anteroom +for the purpose of taking her turn in consulting the prophetess +professionally, that she had witnessed a scene of consternation and +unaffected maternal grief in this Hungarian lady upon the sudden +seizure of her son, a child of four or five years old, by a spasmodic +inflammation of the throat (since called croup) peculiar to children, +and in those days not very well understood by medical men. The poor +Hungarian, who had lived chiefly in warm, or at least not damp, +climates, and had never so much as heard of this complaint, was almost +wild with alarm at the rapid increase of the symptoms which attend the +paroxysms, and especially of that loud and distressing sound which +marks the impeded respiration. Great, therefore, was her joy and +gratitude on finding from our servant that she had herself been in +attendance more than once upon cases of the same nature, but very much +more violent,--and that, consequently, she was well qualified to +suggest and to superintend all the measures of instant necessity, such +as the hot-bath, the peculiar medicines, &c., which are almost sure of +success when applied in an early stage. Staying to give her assistance +until a considerable improvement had taken place in the child, our +servant then hurried home to her mistress. Agnes, it may be imagined, +dispatched her back with such further and more precise directions as in +a very short time availed to re-establish the child in convalescence. +These practical services, and the messages of maternal sympathy +repeatedly conveyed from Agnes, had completely won the heart of the +grateful Hungarian, and she announced her intention of calling with her +little boy, to make her personal acknowledgments for the kindness which +had been shown to her. She did so, and we were as much impressed by the +sultana-like style of her Oriental beauty, as she, on her part, was +touched and captivated by the youthful loveliness of my angelic wife. +After sitting for above an hour, during which time she talked with a +simplicity and good feeling that struck us as remarkable in a person +professing an art usually connected with so much of conscious fraud, +she rose to take her leave. I must mention that she had previously had +our little boy sitting on her knee, and had at intervals thrown a hasty +glance upon the palms of his hands. On parting, Agnes, with her usual +frankness, held out her hand. The Hungarian took it with an air of sad +solemnity, pressed it fervently, and said:--'Lady, it is my part in +this life to look behind the curtain of fate; and oftentimes I see such +sights in futurity--some near, some far off--as willingly I would +_not_ see. For you, young and charming lady, looking like that +angel which you are, no destiny can be equal to your deserts. Yet +sometimes, true it is, God sees not as man sees; and he ordains, after +his unfathomable counsels, to the heavenly-minded a portion in heaven, +and to the children whom he loves a rest and a haven not built with +hands. Something that I have seen dimly warns me to look no farther. +Yet, if you desire it, I will do my office, and I will read for you +with truth the lines of fate as they are written upon your hands.' +Agnes was a little startled, or even shocked, by this solemn address; +but, in a minute or so, a mixed feeling--one half of which was +curiosity, and the other half a light-hearted mockery of her own +mysterious awe in the presence of what she had been taught to view as +either fraud or insanity--prompted her playfully to insist upon the +fullest application of the Hungarian's art to her own case; nay, she +would have the hands of our little Francis read and interpreted as well +as her own, and she desired to hear the full professional judgment +delivered without suppression or softening of its harshest awards. She +laughed whilst she said all this; but she also trembled a little. The +Hungarian first took the hand of our young child, and perused it with a +long and steady scrutiny. She said nothing, but sighed heavily as she +resigned it. She then took the hand of Agnes--looked bewildered and +aghast--then gazed piteously from Agnes to her child--and at last, +bursting into tears, began to move steadily out of the room. I followed +her hastily, and remonstrated upon this conduct, by pointing her +attention to the obvious truth--that these mysterious suppressions and +insinuations, which left all shadowy and indistinct, were far more +alarming than the most definite denunciations. Her answer yet rings in +my ear:--'Why should I make myself odious to you and to your innocent +wife? Messenger of evil I am, and have been to many; but evil I will +not prophecy to her. Watch and pray! Much may be done by effectual +prayer. Human means, fleshly arms, are vain. There is an enemy in the +house of life,' [here she quitted her palmistry for the language of +astrology;] 'there is a frightful danger at hand, both for your wife +and your child. Already on that dark ocean, over which we are all +sailing, I can see dimly the point at which the enemy's course shall +cross your wife's. There is but little interval remaining--not many +hours. All is finished; all is accomplished; and already he is almost +up with the darlings of your heart. Be vigilant, be vigilant, and yet +look not to yourself, but to Heaven, for deliverance.' + +This woman was not an impostor: she spoke and uttered her oracles under +a wild sense of possession by some superior being, and of mystic +compulsion to say what she would have willingly left unsaid; and never +yet, before or since, have I seen the light of sadness settle with so +solemn an expression into human eyes as when she dropped my wife's +hand, and refused to deliver that burden of prophetic wo with which she +believed herself to be inspired. + +The prophetess departed; and what mood of mind did she leave behind her +in Agnes and myself? Naturally there was a little drooping of spirits +at first; the solemnity and the heart-felt sincerity of fear and grief +which marked her demeanor, made it impossible, at the moment when we +were just fresh from their natural influences, that we should recoil +into our ordinary spirits. But with the inevitable elasticity of youth +and youthful gaiety we soon did so; we could not attempt to persuade +ourselves that there had been any conscious fraud or any attempt at +scenical effect in the Hungarian's conduct. She had no motive for +deceiving us; she had refused all offerings of money, and her whole +visit had evidently been made under an overflow of the most grateful +feelings for the attentions shown to her child. We acquitted her, +therefore, of sinister intentions; and with our feelings of jealousy, +feelings in which we had been educated, towards everything that tended +to superstition, we soon agreed to think her some gentle maniac or sad +enthusiast, suffering under some form of morbid melancholy. Forty-eight +hours, with two nights' sleep, sufficed to restore the wonted +equilibrium of our spirits; and that interval brought us onwards to the +6th of April--the day on which, as I have already said, my story +properly commences. + + On that day, on that lovely 6th of April, such as I have described it, +that 6th of April, about nine o'clock in the morning, we were seated at +breakfast near the open window--we, that is, Agnes, myself, and little +Francis; the freshness of morning spirits rested upon us; the golden +light of the morning sun illuminated the room; incense was floating +through the air from the gorgeous flowers within and without the house; +there in youthful happiness we sat gathered together, a family of love, +and there we never sat again. Never again were we three gathered +together, nor ever shall be, so long as the sun and its golden light-- +the morning and the evening--the earth and its flowers endure. + +Often have I occupied myself in recalling every circumstance the most +trivial of this the final morning of what merits to be called my life. +Eleven o'clock, I remember, was striking when Agnes came into my study, +and said that she would go into the city, (for we lived in a quite +rural suburb,) that she would execute some trifling commissions which +she had received from a friend in the country, and would be at home +again between one and two for a stroll which we had agreed to take in +the neighboring meadows. About twenty minutes after this she again came +into my study dressed for going abroad; for such was my admiration of +her, that I had a fancy--fancy it must have been, and yet still I felt +it to be real--that under every change she looked best; if she put on a +shawl, then a shawl became the most feminine of ornaments; if she laid +aside her shawl and her bonnet, then how nymph-like she seemed in her +undisguised and unadorned beauty! Full-dress seemed for the time to be +best, as bringing forward into relief the splendor of her person, and +allowing the exposure of her arms; a simple morning-dress, again, +seemed better still, as fitted to call out the childlike innocence of +her face, by confining the attention to that. But all these are +feelings of fond and blind affection, hanging with rapture over the +object of something too like idolatry. God knows, if that be a sin, I +was but too profound a sinner; yet sin it never was, sin it could not +be, to adore a beauty such as thine, my Agnes. Neither was it her +beauty by itself, and that only, which I sought at such times to +admire; there was a peculiar sort of double relation in which she stood +at moments of pleasurable expectation and excitement, since our little +Francis had become of an age to join our party, which made some aspects +of her character trebly interesting. She was a wife--and wife to one +whom she looked up to as her superior in understanding and in knowledge +of the world, whom, therefore, she leaned to for protection. On the +other hand, she was also a mother. Whilst, therefore, to her child she +supported the matronly part of guide, and the air of an experienced +person; to me she wore, ingenuously and without disguise, the part of a +child herself, with all the giddy hopes and unchastised imaginings of +that buoyant age. This double character, one aspect of which looks +towards her husband and one to her children, sits most gracefully upon +many a young wife whose heart is pure and innocent; and the collision +between the two separate parts imposed by duty on the one hand, by +extreme youth on the other, the one telling her that she is a +responsible head of a family and the depository of her husband's honor +in its tenderest and most vital interests, the other telling her, +through the liveliest language of animal sensibility, and through the +very pulses of her blood, that she is herself a child; this collision +gives an inexpressible charm to the whole demeanor of many a young +married woman, making her other fascinations more touching to her +husband, and deepening the admiration she excites; and the more so, as +it is a collision which cannot exist except among the very innocent. +Years, at any rate, will irresistibly remove this peculiar charm, and +gradually replace it by the graces of the matronly character. But in +Agnes this change had not yet been effected, partly from nature, and +partly from the extreme seclusion of her life. Hitherto she still +retained the unaffected expression of her childlike nature; and so +lovely in my eyes was this perfect exhibition of natural feminine +character, that she rarely or never went out alone upon any little +errand to town which might require her to rely upon her own good sense +and courage, that she did not previously come to exhibit herself before +me. Partly this was desired by me in that lover-like feeling of +admiration already explained, which leads one to court the sight of a +beloved object under every change of dress, and under all effects of +novelty. Partly it was the interest I took in that exhibition of sweet +timidity, and almost childish apprehensiveness, half disguised or +imperfectly acknowledged by herself, which (in the way I have just +explained) so touchingly contrasted with (and for that very reason so +touchingly drew forth) her matronly character. But I hear some objector +say at this point, ought not this very timidity, founded (as in part at +least it was) upon inexperience and conscious inability to face the +dangers of the world, to have suggested reasons for not leaving her to +her own protection? And does it not argue, on my part, an arrogant or +too blind a confidence in the durability of my happiness, as though +charmed against assaults, and liable to no shocks of sudden revolution? +I reply that, from the very constitution of society, and the tone of +manners in the city which we inhabited, there seemed to be a moral +impossibility that any dangers of consequence should meet her in the +course of those brief absences from my protection, which only were +possible; that even to herself any dangers, of a nature to be +anticipated under the known circumstances of the case, seemed almost +imaginary; that even _she_ acknowledged a propriety in being +trained, by slight and brief separations from my guardianship, to face +more boldly those cases of longer separation and of more absolute +consignment to her own resources which circumstances might arise to +create necessarily, and perhaps abruptly. And it is evident that, had +she been the wife of any man engaged in the duties of a profession, she +might have been summoned from the very first, and without the +possibility of any such gradual training, to the necessity of relying +almost singly upon her own courage and discretion. For the other +question, whether I did not depend too blindly and presumptuously upon +my good luck in not at least affording her my protection so long as +nothing occurred to make it impossible? I may reply, most truly, that +all my feelings ran naturally in the very opposite channel. So far from +confiding too much in my luck, in the present instance I was engaged in +a task of writing upon some points of business which could not admit of +further delay; but now, and at all times, I had a secret aversion to +seeing so gentle a creature thrown even for an hour upon her own +resources, though in situations which scarcely seemed to admit of any +occasion for taxing those resources; and often I have felt anger +towards myself for what appeared to be an irrational or effeminate +timidity, and have struggled with my own mind upon occasions like the +present, when I knew that I could not have acknowledged my tremors to a +friend without something like shame, and a fear to excite his ridicule. +No; if in anything I ran into excess, it was in this very point of +anxiety as to all that regarded my wife's security. Her good sense, her +prudence, her courage, (for courage she had in the midst of her +timidity,) her dignity of manner, the more impressive from the +childlike character of her countenance, all should have combined to +reassure me, and yet they did not. I was still anxious for her safety +to an irrational extent; and to sum up the whole in a most weighty line +of Shakspeare, I lived under the constant presence of a feeling which +only that great observer of human nature (so far as I am aware) has +ever noticed, viz., that merely the excess of my happiness made me +jealous of its ability to last, and in that extent less capable of +enjoying it; that in fact the prelibation of my tears, as a homage to +its fragility, was drawn forth by my very sense that my felicity was +too exquisite; or, in the words of the great master + + 'I wept to have' [absolutely, by anticipation, shed tears in + possessing] 'what I so feared to lose.' + +Thus end my explanations, and I now pursue my narrative: Agnes, as I +have said, came into my room again before leaving the house--we +conversed for five minutes--we parted--she went out--her last words +being that she would return at half-past one o'clock; and not long +after that time, if ever mimic bells--bells of rejoicing, or bells of +mourning, are heard in desert spaces of the air, and (as some have +said) in unreal worlds, that mock our own, and repeat, for ridicule, +the vain and unprofitable motions of man, then too surely, about this +hour, began to toll the funeral knell of my earthly happiness--its +final hour had sounded. + + * * * * * + +One o'clock had arrived; fifteen minutes after, I strolled into the +garden, and began to look over the little garden-gate in expectation of +every moment descrying Agnes in the distance. Half an hour passed, and +for ten minutes more I was tolerably quiet. From this time till half- +past two I became constantly more agitated--_agitated,_ perhaps, +is too strong a word--but I was restless and anxious beyond what I +should have chosen to acknowledge. Still I kept arguing, What is half +an hour? what is an hour? A thousand things might have occurred to +cause that delay, without needing to suppose any accident; or, if an +accident, why not a very trifling one? She may have slightly hurt her +foot--she may have slightly sprained her ankle. 'Oh, doubtless,' I +exclaimed to myself, 'it will be a mere trifle, or perhaps nothing at +all.' But I remember that, even whilst I was saying this, I took my hat +and walked with nervous haste into the little quiet lane upon which our +garden-gate opened. The lane led by a few turnings, and after a course +of about five hundred yards, into a broad high-road, which even at that +day had begun to assume the character of a street, and allowed an +unobstructed range of view in the direction of the city for at least a +mile. Here I stationed myself, for the air was so clear that I could +distinguish dress and figure to a much greater distance than usual. +Even on such a day, however, the remote distance was hazy and +indistinct, and at any other season I should have been diverted with +the various mistakes I made. From occasional combinations of color, +modified by light and shade, and of course powerfully assisted by the +creative state of the eye under this nervous apprehensiveness, I +continued to shape into images of Agnes forms without end, that upon +nearer approach presented the most grotesque contrasts to her +impressive appearance. But I had ceased even to comprehend the +ludicrous; my agitation was now so overruling and engrossing that I +lost even my intellectual sense of it; and now first I understood +practically and feelingly the anguish of hope alternating with +disappointment, as it may be supposed to act upon the poor shipwrecked +seaman, alone and upon a desolate coast, straining his sight for ever +to the fickle element which has betrayed him, but which only can +deliver him, and with his eyes still tracing in the far distance, + + 'Ships, dim-discover'd, dropping from the clouds,'-- + +which a brief interval of suspense still for ever disperses into hollow +pageants of air or vapor. One deception melted away only to be +succeeded by another; still I fancied that at last to a certainty I +could descry the tall figure of Agnes, her gipsy hat, and even the +peculiar elegance of her walk. Often I went so far as to laugh at +myself, and even to tax my recent fears with unmanliness and +effeminacy, on recollecting the audible throbbings of my heart, and the +nervous palpitations which had besieged me; but these symptoms, whether +effeminate or not, began to come back tumultuously under the gloomy +doubts that succeeded almost before I had uttered this self-reproach. +Still I found myself mocked and deluded with false hopes; yet still I +renewed my quick walk, and the intensity of my watch for that radiant +form that was fated never more to be seen returning from the cruel +city. + +It was nearly half-past three, and therefore close upon two hours +beyond the time fixed by Agnes for her return, when I became absolutely +incapable of supporting the further torture of suspense, and I suddenly +took the resolution of returning home and concerting with my female +servants some energetic measures, though _what_ I could hardly say, +on behalf of their mistress. On entering the garden-gate I met our +little child Francis, who unconsciously inflicted a pang upon me which +he neither could have meditated nor have understood. I passed him at +his play, perhaps even unaware of his presence, but he recalled me to +that perception by crying aloud that he had just seen his mamma. + +'When--where?' I asked convulsively. + +'Up stairs in her bedroom,' was his instantaneous answer. + +His manner was such as forbade me to suppose that he could be joking; +and, as it was barely possible (though, for reasons well known to me, +in the highest degree improbable) that Agnes might have returned by a +by-path, which, leading through a dangerous and disreputable suburb, +would not have coincided at any one point with the public road where I +had been keeping my station. I sprang forward into the house, up +stairs, and in rapid succession into every room where it was likely +that she might be found; but everywhere there was a dead silence, +disturbed only by myself, for, in my growing confusion of thought, I +believe that I rang the bell violently in every room I entered. No such +summons, however, was needed, for the servants, two of whom at the +least were most faithful creatures, and devotedly attached to their +young mistress, stood ready of themselves to come and make inquiries of +me as soon as they became aware of the alarming fact, that I had +returned without her. + +Until this moment, though having some private reasons for surprise that +she should have failed to come into the house for a minute or two at +the hour prefixed, in order to make some promised domestic arrangements +for the day, they had taken it for granted that she must have met with +me at some distance from home--and that either the extreme beauty of +the day had beguiled her of all petty household recollections, or (as a +conjecture more in harmony with past experiences) that my impatience +and solicitations had persuaded her to lay aside her own plans for the +moment at the risk of some little domestic inconvenience. Now, however, +in a single instant vanished _every_ mode of accounting for their +mistress's absence; and the consternation of our looks communicated +contagiously, by the most unerring of all languages, from each to the +other what thoughts were uppermost in our panic-stricken hearts. If to +any person it should seem that our alarm was disproportioned to the +occasion, and not justified at least by anything as yet made known to +us, let that person consider the weight due to the two following facts: +First, that from the recency of our settlement in this neighborhood, +and from the extreme seclusion of my wife's previous life at a vast +distance from the metropolis, she had positively no friends on her list +of visitors who resided in this great capital; secondly, and far above +all beside, let him remember the awful denunciations, so unexpectedly +tallying with this alarming and mysterious absence, of the Hungarian +prophetess; these had been slighted--almost dismissed from our +thoughts; but now in sudden reaction they came back upon us with a +frightful power to lacerate and to sting--the shadowy outline of a +spiritual agency, such as that which could at all predict the events, +combining in one mysterious effect, with the shadowy outline of those +very predictions. The power, that could have predicted, was as dim and +as hard to grasp as was the precise nature of the evil that had been +predicted. + +An icy terror froze my blood at this moment when I looked at the +significant glances, too easily understood by me, that were exchanged +between the servants. My mouth had been for the last two hours growing +more and more parched, so that at present, from mere want of moisture, +I could not separate my lips to speak. One of the women saw the vain +efforts I was making, and hastily brought me a glass of water. With the +first recovery of speech, I asked them what little Francis had meant by +saying that he had seen his mother in her bedroom. Their reply was, +that they were as much at a loss to discover his meaning as I was; that +he had made the same assertion to them, and with so much earnestness, +that they had, all in succession, gone up stairs to look for her, and +with the fullest expectation of finding her. This was a mystery which +remained such to the very last; there was no doubt whatsoever that the +child believed himself to have seen his mother; that he could not have +seen her in her human bodily presence, there is as little doubt as +there is, alas! that in this world he never _did_ see her again. +The poor child constantly adhered to his story, and with a +circumstantiality far beyond all power of invention that could be +presumed in an artless infant. Every attempt at puzzling him or +entangling him in contradictions by means of cross-examination was but +labor thrown away; though indeed, it is true enough that for those +attempts, as will soon be seen, there was but a brief interval allowed. + +Not dwelling upon this subject at present, I turned to Hannah--a woman +who held the nominal office of cook in our little establishment, but +whose real duties had been much more about her mistress's person--and +with a searching look of appeal I asked her whether, in this moment of +trial, when (as she might see) I was not so perfectly master of myself +as perhaps always to depend upon seeing what was best to be done, she +would consent to accompany me into the city, and take upon herself +those obvious considerations of policy or prudence which might but too +easily escape my mind, darkened, and likely to be darkened, as to its +power of discernment by the hurricane of affliction now too probably at +hand. She answered my appeal with the fervor I expected from what I had +already known of her character. She was a woman of a strong, fiery, +perhaps I might say of heroic mind, supported by a courage that was +absolutely indomitable, and by a strength of bodily frame very unusual +in a woman, and beyond the promise even of her person. She had suffered +as deep a wrench in her own affections as a human being can suffer; she +had lost her one sole child, a fair-haired boy of most striking beauty +and interesting disposition, at the age of seventeen, and by the worst +of all possible fates; he lived (as we did at that time) in a large +commercial city overflowing with profligacy, and with temptations of +every order; he had been led astray; culpable he had been, but by very +much the least culpable of the set into which accident had thrown him, +as regarded acts and probable intentions; and as regarded palliations +from childish years, from total inexperience, or any other alleviating +circumstances that could be urged, having everything to plead--and of +all his accomplices the only one who had anything to plead. Interest, +however, he had little or none; and whilst some hoary villains of the +party, who happened to be more powerfully befriended, were finally +allowed to escape with a punishment little more than nominal, he and +two others were selected as sacrifices to the offended laws. They +suffered capitally. All three behaved well; but the poor boy in +particular, with a courage, a resignation, and a meekness, so +distinguished and beyond his years as to attract the admiration and the +liveliest sympathy of the public universally. If strangers could feel +in that way, if the mere hardened executioner could be melted at the +final scene,--it may be judged to what a fierce and terrific height +would ascend the affliction of a doating mother, constitutionally too +fervid in her affections. I have heard an official person declare, that +the spectacle of her desolation and frantic anguish was the most +frightful thing he had ever witnessed, and so harrowing to the +feelings, that all who could by their rank venture upon such an +irregularity, absented themselves during the critical period from the +office which corresponded with the government; for, as I have said, the +affair took place in a large provincial city, at a great distance from +the capital. All who knew this woman, or who were witnesses to the +alteration which one fortnight had wrought in her person as well as her +demeanor, fancied it impossible that she could continue to live; or +that, if she did, it must be through the giving way of her reason. They +proved, however, to be mistaken; or, at least, if (as some thought) her +reason did suffer in some degree, this result showed itself in the +inequality of her temper, in moody fits of abstraction, and the morbid +energy of her manner at times under the absence of all adequate +external excitement, rather than in any positive and apparent +hallucinations of thought. The charm which had mainly carried off the +instant danger to her faculties, was doubtless the intense sympathy +which she met with. And in these offices of consolation my wife stood +foremost. For, and that was fortunate, she had found herself able, +without violence to her own sincerest opinions in the case, to offer +precisely that form of sympathy which was most soothing to the angry +irritation of the poor mother; not only had she shown a _direct_ +interest in the boy, and not a mere interest of _reflection_ from +that which she took in the mother, and had expressed it by visits to +his dungeon, and by every sort of attention to his comforts which his +case called for, or the prison regulations allowed; not only had she +wept with the distracted woman as if for a brother of her own; but, +which went farther than all the rest in softening the mother's heart, +she had loudly and indignantly proclaimed her belief in the boy's +innocence, and in the same tone her sense of the crying injustice +committed as to the selection of the victims, and the proportion of the +punishment awarded. Others, in the language of a great poet, + + 'Had pitied _her,_ and not her grief;' + +they had either not been able to see, or, from carelessness, had +neglected to see, any peculiar wrong done to her in the matter which +occasioned her grief,--but had simply felt compassion for her as for +one summoned, in a regular course of providential and human +dispensation, to face an affliction, heavy in itself, but not heavy +from any special defect of equity. Consequently their very sympathy, +being so much built upon the assumption that an only child had offended +to the extent implied in his sentence, oftentimes clothed itself in +expressions which she felt to be not consolations but insults, and, in +fact, so many justifications of those whom it relieved her overcharged +heart to regard as the very worst of enemies. Agnes, on the other hand, +took the very same view of the case as herself; and, though otherwise +the gentlest of all gentle creatures, yet here, from the generous +fervor of her reverence for justice, and her abhorrence of oppression, +she gave herself no trouble to moderate the energy of her language: nor +did I, on my part, feeling that substantially she was in the right, +think it of importance to dispute about the exact degrees of the wrong +done or the indignation due to it. In this way it happened naturally +enough that at one and the same time, though little contemplating +either of these results, Agnes had done a prodigious service to the +poor desolate mother by breaking the force of her misery, as well as by +arming the active agencies of indignation against the depressing ones +of solitary grief, and for herself had won a most grateful and devoted +friend, who would have gone through fire and water to serve her, and +was thenceforwards most anxious for some opportunity to testify how +deep had been her sense of the goodness shown to her by her benign +young mistress, and how incapable of suffering abatement by time. It +remains to add, which I have slightly noticed before, that this woman +was of unusual personal strength: her bodily frame matched with her +intellectual: and I notice this _now_ with the more emphasis, +because I am coming rapidly upon ground where it will be seen that this +one qualification was of more summary importance to us--did us more +'yeoman's service' at a crisis the most awful--than other qualities of +greater name and pretension. _Hannah_ was this woman's Christian +name; and her name and her memory are to me amongst the most hallowed +of my earthly recollections. + +One of her two fellow-servants, known technically amongst us as the +'parlor maid,' was also, but not equally, attached to her mistress; and +merely because her nature, less powerfully formed and endowed, did not +allow her to entertain or to comprehend any service equally fervid of +passion or of impassioned action. She, however, was good, affectionate, +and worthy to be trusted. But a third there was, a nursery maid, and +therefore more naturally and more immediately standing within the +confidence of her mistress--her I could not trust: her I suspected. But +of that hereafter. Meantime, Hannah, she upon whom I leaned as upon a +staff in all which respected her mistress, ran up stairs, after I had +spoken and received her answer, in order hastily to dress and prepare +herself for going out along with me to the city. I did not ask her to +be quick in her movements: I knew there was no need: and, whilst she +was absent, I took up, in one of my fretful movements of nervousness, a +book which was lying upon a side-table: the book fell open of itself at +a particular page; and in that, perhaps, there was nothing +extraordinary, for it was a little portable edition of _Paradise +Lost_; and the page was one which I must naturally have turned to +many a time: for to Agnes I had read all the great masters of +literature, especially those of modern times; so that few people knew +the high classics more familiarly: and as to the passage in question, +from its divine beauty I had read it aloud to her, perhaps, on fifty +separate occasions. All this I mention to take away any appearance of a +vulgar attempt to create omens; but still, in the very act of +confessing the simple truth, and thus weakening the marvellous +character of the anecdote, I must notice it as a strange instance of +the '_Sortes Miltonianæ_,'--that precisely at such a moment as +this I should find thrown in my way, should feel tempted to take up, +and should open, a volume containing such a passage as the following: +and observe, moreover, that although the volume, _once being taken +up_, would naturally open where it had been most frequently read, +there were, however, many passages which had been read _as_ +frequently--or more so. The particular passage upon which I opened at +this moment was that most beautiful one in which the fatal morning +separation is described between Adam and his bride--that separation so +pregnant with wo, which eventually proved the occasion of the mortal +transgression--the last scene between our first parents at which both +were innocent and both were happy--although the superior intellect +already felt, and, in the slight altercation preceding this separation, +had already expressed a dim misgiving of some coming change: these are +the words, and in depth of pathos they have rarely been approached:-- + + 'Oft he to her his charge of quick return + Repeated; she to him as oft engag'd + To be returned by noon amid the bow'r, + And all things in best order to invite + Noon-tide repast, or afternoon's repose. + Oh much deceived, much failing, hapless Eve! + Of thy presumed return, event perverse! + Thou never from that hour in Paradise + Found'st either sweet repast, or sound repose.' + +'_My_ Eve!' I exclaimed, 'partner in _my_ paradise, where art thou? +_Much failing_ thou wilt not be found, nor _much deceived_; innocent in +any case thou art; but, alas! too surely by this time _hapless_, and +the victim of some diabolic wickedness.' Thus I murmured to myself; +thus I ejaculated; thus I apostrophized my Agnes; then again came a +stormier mood. I could not sit still; I could not stand in quiet; I +threw the book from me with violence against the wall; I began to hurry +backwards and forwards in a short uneasy walk, when suddenly a sound, a +step; it was the sound of the garden-gate opening, followed by a hasty +tread. Whose tread? Not for a moment could it be fancied the oread step +which belonged to that daughter of the hills--my wife, my Agnes; no, it +was the dull massy tread of a man: and immediately there came a loud +blow upon the door, and in the next moment, the bell having been found, +a furious peal of ringing. Oh coward heart! not for a lease of +immortality could I have gone forwards myself. My breath failed me; an +interval came in which respiration seemed to be stifled--the blood to +halt in its current; and then and there I recognised in myself the +force and living truth of that Scriptural description of a heart +consciously beset by evil without escape: 'Susannah _sighed_.' Yes, a +long, long sigh--a deep, deep sigh--that is, the natural language by +which the over-charged heart utters forth the wo that else would break +it. I sighed--oh how profoundly! But that did not give me power to +move. Who will go to the door? I whispered audibly. Who is at the door? +was the inaudible whisper of my heart. Then might be seen the +characteristic differences of the three women. That one, whom I +suspected, I heard raising an upper window to look out and reconnoitre. +The affectionate Rachael, on the other hand, ran eagerly down stairs; +but Hannah, half dressed, even her bosom exposed, passed her like a +storm; and before I heard any sound of opening a door, I saw from the +spot where I stood the door already wide open, and a man in the costume +of a policeman. All that he said I could not hear; but this I heard-- +that I was wanted at the police office, and had better come off without +delay. He seemed then to get a glimpse of me, and to make an effort +towards coming nearer; but I slunk away, and left to Hannah the task of +drawing from him any circumstances which he might know. But apparently +there was not much to tell, or rather, said I, there is too much, the +_much_ absorbs the _many_; some one mighty evil transcends and quells +all particulars. At length the door was closed, and the man was gone. +Hannah crept slowly along the passage, and looked in hesitatingly. Her +very movements and stealthy pace testified that she had heard nothing +which, even by comparison, she could think good news. 'Tell me not now, +Hannah,' I said; 'wait till we are in the open air.' She went up stairs +again. How short seemed the time till she descended! how I longed for +further respite! 'Hannah!' I said at length when we were fairly moving +upon the road, 'Hannah! I am too sure you have nothing good to tell. +But now tell me the worst, and let that be in the fewest words +possible.' + +'Sir,' she said, 'we had better wait until we reach the office; for +really I could not understand the man. He says that my mistress is +detained upon some charge; but _what_, I could not at all make +out. He was a man that knew something of you, Sir, I believe, and he +wished to be civil, and kept saying, "Oh! I dare say it will turn out +nothing at all, many such charges are made idly and carelessly, and +some maliciously." "But what charges?" I cried, and then he wanted to +speak privately to you. But I told him that of all persons he must not +speak to you, if he had anything painful to tell; for that you were too +much disturbed already, and had been for some hours, out of anxiety and +terror about my mistress, to bear much more. So, when he heard that, he +was less willing to speak freely than before. He might prove wrong, he +said; he might give offence; things might turn out far otherwise than +according to first appearances; for his part, he could not believe +anything amiss of so sweet a lady. And after all, it would be better to +wait till we reached the office.' + +Thus much then was clear--Agnes was under some accusation. This was +already worse than the worst I had anticipated. 'And then,' said I, +thinking aloud to Hannah, 'one of two things is apparent to me; either +the accusation is one of pure hellish malice, without a color of +probability or the shadow of a foundation, and that way, alas! I am +driven in my fears by that Hungarian woman's prophecy; or, which but +for my desponding heart I should be more inclined to think, the charge +has grown out of my poor wife's rustic ignorance as to the usages then +recently established by law with regard to the kind of money that could +be legally tendered. This, however, was a suggestion that did not tend +to alleviate my anxiety; and my nervousness had mounted to a painful, +almost to a disabling degree, by the time we reached the office. +Already on our road thither some parties had passed us who were +conversing with eagerness upon the case: so much we collected from the +many and ardent expressions about 'the lady's beauty,' though the rest +of such words as we could catch were ill calculated to relieve my +suspense. This, then, at least, was certain--that my poor timid Agnes +had already been exhibited before a tumultuous crowd; that her name and +reputation had gone forth as a subject of discussion for the public; +and that the domestic seclusion and privacy within which it was her +matronly privilege to move had already undergone a rude violation. + +The office, and all the purlieus of the office, were occupied by a +dense crowd. That, perhaps, was always the case, more or less, at this +time of day; but at present the crowd was manifestly possessed by a +more than ordinary interest; and there was a unity in this possessing +interest; all were talking on the same subject, the case in which Agnes +had so recently appeared in some character or other; and by this time +it became but too certain in the character of an accused person. Pity +was the prevailing sentiment amongst the mob; but the opinions varied +much as to the probable criminality of the prisoner. I made my way into +the office. The presiding magistrates had all retired for the +afternoon, and would not reassemble until eight o'clock in the evening. +Some clerks only or officers of the court remained, who were too much +harassed by applications for various forms and papers connected with +the routine of public business, and by other official duties which +required signatures or attestations, to find much leisure for answering +individual questions. Some, however, listened with a marked air of +attention to my earnest request for the circumstantial details of the +case, but finally referred me to a vast folio volume, in which were +entered all the charges, of whatever nature, involving any serious +tendency--in fact, all that exceeded a misdemeanor--in the regular +chronological succession according to which they came before the +magistrate. Here, in this vast calendar of guilt and misery, amidst the +_aliases_ or cant designations of ruffians, prostitutes, felons, +stood the description, at full length, Christian and surnames all +properly registered, of my Agnes--of her whose very name had always +sounded to my ears like the very echo of mountain innocence, purity, +and pastoral simplicity. Here in another column stood the name and +residence of her accuser. I shall call him _Barratt_, for that was +amongst his names, and a name by which he had at one period of his +infamous life been known to the public, though not his principal name, +or the one which he had thought fit to assume at this era. James +Barratt, then, as I shall here call him, was a haberdasher--keeping a +large and conspicuous shop in a very crowded and what was then +considered a fashionable part of the city. The charge was plain and +short. Did I live to read it? It accused Agnes M---- of having on that +morning secreted in her muff, and feloniously carried away, a valuable +piece of Mechlin lace, the property of James Barratt. And the result of +the first examination was thus communicated in a separate column, +written in red ink--'Remanded to the second day after to-morrow for +final examination.' Everything in this sin-polluted register was in +manuscript; but at night the records of each day were regularly +transferred to a printed journal, enlarged by comments and explanatory +descriptions from some one of the clerks, whose province it was to +furnish this intelligence to the public journals. On that same night, +therefore, would go forth to the world such an account of the case, and +such a description of my wife's person, as would inevitably summon to +the next exhibition of her misery, as by special invitation and +advertisement, the whole world of this vast metropolis--the idle, the +curious, the brutal, the hardened amateur in spectacles of wo, and the +benign philanthropist who frequents such scenes with the purpose of +carrying alleviation to their afflictions. All alike, whatever might be +their motives or the spirit of their actions, would rush (as to some +grand festival of curiosity and sentimental luxury) to this public +martyrdom of my innocent wife. + +Meantime, what was the first thing to be done? Manifestly, to see +Agnes: her account of the affair might suggest the steps to be taken. +Prudence, therefore, at any rate, prescribed this course; and my heart +would not have tolerated any other. I applied, therefore, at once, for +information as to the proper mode of effecting this purpose without +delay. What was my horror at learning that, by a recent regulation of +all the police-offices, under the direction of the public minister who +presided over that department of the national administration, no person +could be admitted to an interview with any accused party during the +progress of the official examinations; or, in fact, until the final +committal of the prisoner for trial. This rule was supposed to be +attended by great public advantages, and had rarely been relaxed-- +never, indeed, without a special interposition of the police minister +authorizing its suspension. But was the exclusion absolute and +universal? Might not, at least, a female servant, simply as the bearer +of such articles as were indispensable to female delicacy and comfort, +have access to her mistress? No; the exclusion was total and +unconditional. To argue the point was manifestly idle; the subordinate +officers had no discretion in the matter; nor, in fact, had any other +official person, whatever were his rank, except the supreme one; and to +him I neither had any obvious means of introduction, nor (in case of +obtaining such an introduction) any chance of success; for the spirit +of the rule, I foresaw it would be answered, applied with especial +force to cases like the present. + +Mere human feelings of pity, sympathy with my too visible agitation, +superadded to something of perhaps reverence for the blighting misery +that was now opening its artillery upon me--for misery has a privilege, +and everywhere is felt to be a holy thing--had combined to procure for +me some attention and some indulgence hitherto. Answers had been given +with precision, explanations made at length, and anxiety shown to +satisfy my inquiries. But this could not last; the inexorable +necessities of public business coming back in a torrent upon the +official people after this momentary interruption, forbade them to +indulge any further consideration for an individual case, and I saw +that I must not stay any longer. I was rapidly coming to be regarded as +a hinderance to the movement of public affairs; and the recollection +that I might again have occasion for some appeal to these men in their +official characters, admonished me not to abuse my privilege of the +moment. After returning thanks, therefore, for the disposition shown to +oblige me, I retired. + +Slowly did I and Hannah retrace our steps. Hannah sustained, in the +tone of her spirits, by the extremity of her anger, a mood of feeling +which I did not share. Indignation was to her in the stead of +consolation and hope. I, for my part, could not seek even a momentary +shelter from my tempestuous affliction in that temper of mind. The man +who could accuse my Agnes, and accuse her of such a crime, I felt to be +a monster; and in my thoughts he was already doomed to a bloody +atonement (atonement! alas! what atonement!) whenever the time arrived +that _her_ cause would not be prejudiced, or the current of public +feeling made to turn in his favor by investing him with the semblance +of an injured or suffering person. So much was settled in my thoughts +with the stern serenity of a decree issuing from a judgment-seat. But +that gave no relief, no shadow of relief, to the misery which was now +consuming me. Here was an end, in one hour, to the happiness of a life. +In one hour it had given way, root and branch--had melted like so much +frost-work, or a pageant of vapory exhalations. In a moment, in the +twinkling of an eye, and yet for ever and ever, I comprehended the +total ruin of my situation. The case, as others might think, was yet in +suspense; and there was room enough for very rational hopes, especially +where there was an absolute certainty of innocence. Total freedom from +all doubt on that point seemed to justify almost more than hopes. This +might be said, and most people would have been more or less consoled by +it. I was not. I felt as certain, as irredeemably, as hopelessly +certain of the final results as though I had seen the record in the +books of Heaven. 'Hope nothing,' I said to myself; 'think not of hope +in this world, but think only how best to walk steadily, and not to +reel like a creature wanting discourse of reason, or incapable of +religious hopes under the burden which it has pleased God to impose, +and which in this life cannot be shaken off. The countenance of man is +made to look upward and to the skies. Thither also point henceforwards +your heart and your thoughts. Never again let your thoughts travel +earthwards. Settle them on the heavens, to which your Agnes is already +summoned. The call is clear, and not to be mistaken. Little in +_her_ fate now depends upon you, or upon anything that man can do. +Look, therefore, to yourself; see that you make not shipwreck of your +heavenly freight because your earthly freight is lost; and miss not, by +any acts of wild and presumptuous despair, that final reunion with your +Agnes, which can only be descried through vistas that open through the +heavens.' + +Such were the thoughts, thoughts often made audible, which came +spontaneously like oracles from afar, as I strode homewards with Hannah +by my side. Her, meantime, I seemed to hear; for at times I seemed and +I intended to answer her. But answer her I did not; for not ten words +of all that she said did I really and consciously hear. How I went +through that night is more entirely a blank in my memory, more entirely +a chapter of chaos and the confusion of chaos, than any other passage +the most impressive in my life. If I even slumbered for a moment, as at +intervals I did sometimes, though never sitting down, but standing or +pacing about throughout the night, and if in this way I attained a +momentary respite from self-consciousness, no sooner had I reached this +enviable state of oblivion, than some internal sting of irritation +_as_ rapidly dispersed the whole fickle fabric of sleep; and as if +the momentary trance--this fugitive beguilement of my wo--had been +conceded by a demon's subtle malice only with the purpose of barbing +the pang, by thus forcing it into a stronger relief through the +insidious peace preceding it. It is a well known and most familiar +experience to all the sons and daughters of affliction, that under no +circumstances is the piercing, lancinating torment of a recent calamity +felt so keenly as in the first moments of awaking in the morning from +the night's slumbers. Just at the very instant when the clouds of +sleep, and the whole fantastic illusions of dreaminess are dispersing, +just as the realities of life are re-assuming their steadfast forms-- +re-shaping themselves--and settling anew into those fixed relations +which they are to preserve throughout the waking hours; in that +particular crisis of transition from the unreal to the real, the wo +which besieges the brain and the life-springs at the heart rushes in +afresh amongst the other crowd of realities, and has at the moment of +restoration literally the force and liveliness of a new birth--the very +same pang, and no whit feebler, as that which belonged to it when it +was first made known. From the total hush of oblivion which had buried +it and sealed it up, as it were, during the sleeping hours, it starts +into sudden life on our first awaking, and is to all intents and +purposes a new and not an old affliction--one which brings with it the +old original shock which attended its first annunciation. + +That night--that first night of separation from my wife--_how_ it +passed, I know not; I know only _that_ it passed, I being in our +common bed-chamber, that holiest of all temples that are consecrated to +human attachments, whenever the heart is pure of man and woman, and the +love is strong--I being in that bedchamber, once the temple now the +sepulchre of our happiness,--I there, and my wife--my innocent wife--in +a dungeon. As the morning light began to break, somebody knocked at the +door; it was Hannah: she took my hand--misery levels all feeble +distinctions of station, sex, age--she noticed my excessive +feverishness, and gravely remonstrated with me upon the necessity there +was that I should maintain as much health as possible for the sake of +'others,' if not for myself. She then brought me some tea, which +refreshed me greatly; for I had tasted nothing at all beyond a little +water since the preceding morning's breakfast. This refreshment seemed +to relax and thaw the stiff frozen state of cheerless, rayless despair +in which I had passed the night; I became susceptible of consolation-- +that consolation which lies involved in kindness and gentleness of +manner--if not susceptible more than before of any positive hope. I sat +down; and, having no witnesses to my weakness but this kind and +faithful woman, I wept, and I found a relief in tears; and she, with +the ready sympathy of woman, wept along with me. All at once she +ventured upon the circumstances (so far as she had been able to collect +them from the reports of those who had been present at the examination) +of our calamity. There was little indeed either to excite or to gratify +any interest or curiosity separate from the _personal_ interest +inevitably connected with a case to which there were two such parties +as a brutal, sensual, degraded ruffian, on one side in character of +accuser, and on the other as defendant, a meek angel of a woman, timid +and fainting from the horrors of her situation, and under the +licentious gaze of the crowd--yet, at the same time, bold in conscious +innocence, and in the very teeth of the suspicions which beset her, +winning the good opinion, as well as the good wishes of all who saw +her. There had been at this first examination little for her to say +beyond the assigning her name, age, and place of abode; and here it was +fortunate that her own excellent good sense concurred with her perfect +integrity and intuitive hatred of all indirect or crooked courses in +prompting her to an undisguised statement of the simple truth, without +a momentary hesitation or attempt either at evasion or suppression. +With equally good intentions in similar situations many a woman has +seriously injured her cause by slight evasions of the entire truth, +where nevertheless her only purpose has been the natural and ingenuous +one of seeking to save the reputation untainted of a name which she +felt to have been confided to her keeping. The purpose was an honorable +one, but erroneously pursued. Agnes fell into no such error. She +answered calmly, simply, and truly, to every question put by the +magistrates; and beyond _that_ there was little opportunity for +her to speak; the whole business of this preliminary examination being +confined to the deposition of the accuser as to the circumstances under +which he alleged the act of felonious appropriation to have taken +place. These circumstances were perfectly uninteresting, considered in +themselves; but amongst them was one which to us had the most shocking +interest, from the absolute proof thus furnished of a deep-laid plot +against Agnes. But for this one circumstance there would have been a +possibility that the whole had originated in error--error growing out +of and acting upon a nature originally suspicious, and confirmed +perhaps by an unfortunate experience. And in proportion as that was +possible, the chances increased that the accuser might, as the +examinations advanced, and the winning character of the accused party +began to develop itself, begin to see his error, and to retract his own +over-hasty suspicions. But now we saw at a glance that for this hope +there was no countenance whatever, since one solitary circumstance +sufficed to establish a conspiracy. The deposition bore--that the lace +had been secreted and afterwards detected in a muff; now it was a fact +as well known to both of us as the fact of Agnes having gone out at +all--that she had laid aside her winter's dress for the first time on +this genial sunny day. Muff she had not at the time, nor could have had +appropriately from the style of her costume in other respects. What was +the effect upon us of this remarkable discovery! Of course there died +at once the hope of any abandonment by the prosecutor of his purpose; +because here was proof of a predetermined plot. This hope died at once; +but then, as it was one which never had presented itself to my mind, I +lost nothing by which I had ever been solaced. On the other hand, it +will be obvious that a new hope at the same time arose to take its +place, viz., the reasonable one that by this single detection, if once +established, we might raise a strong presumption of conspiracy, and +moreover that, as a leading fact or clue, it might serve to guide us in +detecting others. Hannah was sanguine in this expectation; and for a +moment her hopes were contagiously exciting to mine. But the hideous +despondency which in my mind had settled upon the whole affair from the +very first, the superstitious presentiment I had of a total blight +brooding over the entire harvest of my life and its promises, (tracing +itself originally, I am almost ashamed to own, up to that prediction of +the Hungarian woman)--denied me steady light, anything--all in short +but a wandering ray of hope. It was right, of course, nay, +indispensable, that the circumstance of the muff should be strongly +insisted upon at the next examination, pressed against the prosecutor, +and sifted to the uttermost. An able lawyer would turn this to a +triumphant account; and it would be admirable as a means of pre- +engaging the good opinion as well as the sympathies of the public in +behalf of the prisoner. But, for its final effect--my conviction +remained, not to be shaken, that all would be useless; that our doom +had gone forth, and was irrevocable. + +Let me not linger too much over those sad times. Morning came on as +usual; for it is strange, but true, that to the very wretched it seems +wonderful that times and seasons should keep their appointed courses in +the midst of such mighty overthrows, and such interruption to the +courses of their own wonted happiness and their habitual expectations. +Why should morning and night, why should all movements in the natural +world be so regular, whilst in the moral world all is so irregular and +anomalous? Yet the sun and the moon rise and set as usual upon the +mightiest revolutions of empire and of worldly fortune that this planet +ever beholds; and it is sometimes even a comfort to know that this will +be the case. A great criminal, sentenced to an agonizing punishment, +has derived a fortitude and a consolation from recollecting that the +day would run its inevitable course--that a day after all was +_but_ a day--that the mighty wheel of alternate light and darkness +must and would revolve--and that the evening star would rise as usual, +and shine with its untroubled lustre upon the dust and ashes of what +_had_ indeed suffered, and so recently, the most bitter pangs, but +would then have ceased to suffer. 'La Journée,' said Damien, + + 'La journée sera dure, mais elle se passera.' + +'----_Se passera_:' yes, that is true, I whispered to myself; my +day also, my season of trial will be hard to bear; but that also will +have an end; that also '_se passera_.' Thus I talked or thought so +long as I thought at all; for the hour was now rapidly approaching, +when thinking in any shape would for some time be at an end for me. + +That day, as the morning advanced, I went again, accompanied by Hannah, +to the police court and to the prison--a vast, ancient, in parts +ruinous, and most gloomy pile of building. In those days the +administration of justice was, if not more corrupt, certainly in its +inferior departments by far more careless than it is at present, and +liable to thousands of interruptions and mal-practices, supporting +themselves upon old traditionary usages which required at least half a +century, and the shattering everywhere given to old systems by the +French Revolution, together with the universal energy of mind applied +to those subjects over the whole length and breadth of Christendom, to +approach with any effectual reforms. Knowing this, and having myself +had direct personal cognisance of various cases in which bribery had +been applied with success, I was not without considerable hope that +perhaps Hannah and myself might avail ourselves of this irregular +passport through the gates of the prison. And, had the new regulation +been of somewhat longer standing, there is little doubt that I should +have been found right; unfortunately, as yet it had all the freshness +of newborn vigor, and kept itself in remembrance by the singular +irritation it excited. Besides this, it was a pet novelty of one +particular minister, new to the possession of power, anxious to +distinguish himself, proud of his creative functions within the range +of his office, and very sensitively jealous on the point of opposition +to his mandates. Vain, therefore, on this day were all my efforts to +corrupt the jailers; and, in fact, anticipating a time when I might +have occasion to corrupt some of them for a more important purpose and +on a larger scale, I did not think it prudent to proclaim my character +beforehand as one who tampered with such means, and thus to arm against +myself those jealousies in official people, which it was so peculiarly +important that I should keep asleep. + +All that day, however, I lingered about the avenues and vast courts in +the precincts of the prison, and near one particular wing of the +building, which had been pointed out to me by a jailer as the section +allotted to those who were in the situation of Agnes; that is, waiting +their final commitment for trial. The building generally he could +indicate with certainty, but he professed himself unable to indicate +the particular part of it which 'the young woman brought in on the day +previous' would be likely to occupy; consequently he could not point +out the window from which her cell (her '_cell_!' what a word!) +would be lighted. 'But, master,' he went on to say, 'I would advise +nobody to try that game.' He looked with an air so significant, and at +the same time used a gesture so indicative of private understanding, +that I at once apprehended his meaning, and assured him that he had +altogether misconstrued my drift; that, as to attempts at escape, or at +any mode of communicating with the prisoner from the outside, I trusted +all _that_ was perfectly needless; and that at any rate in my eyes +it was perfectly hopeless. 'Well, master,' he replied, 'that's neither +here nor there. You've come down handsomely, that I _will_ say; +and where a gentleman acts like a gentleman, and behaves himself as +such, I'm not the man to go and split upon him for a word. To be sure +it's quite nat'ral that a gentleman--put case that a young woman is his +fancy woman--it's nothing but nat'ral that he should want to get her +out of such an old rat-hole as this, where many's the fine-timbered +creature, both he and she, that has lain to rot, and has never got out +of the old trap at all, first or last'----'How so?' I interrupted him; +'surely they don't detain the corpses of prisoners?' 'Ay, but mind you +--put case that he or that she should die in this rat-trap before +sentence is past, why then the prison counts them as its own children, +and buries them in its own chapel--that old stack of pigeon-holes that +you see up yonder to the right hand.' So then, after all, thought I, if +my poor Agnes should, in her desolation and solitary confinement to +these wretched walls, find her frail strength give way--should the +moral horrors of her situation work their natural effect upon her +health, and she should chance to die within this dungeon, here within +this same dungeon will she lie to the resurrection, and in that case +her prison-doors have already closed upon her for ever. The man, who +perhaps had some rough kindness in his nature, though tainted by the +mercenary feelings too inevitably belonging to his situation, seemed to +guess at the character of my ruminations by the change of my +countenance, for he expressed some pity for my being 'in so much +trouble;' and it seemed to increase his respect for me that this +trouble should be directed to the case of a woman, for he appeared to +have a manly sense of the peculiar appeal made to the honor and +gallantry of man, by the mere general fact of the feebleness and the +dependence of woman. I looked at him more attentively in consequence of +the feeling tone in which he now spoke, and was surprised that I had +not more particularly noticed him before; he was a fine looking, +youngish man, with a bold Robin-hood style of figure and appearance; +and, morally speaking, he was absolutely transfigured to my eyes by the +effect worked upon him for the moment, through the simple calling up of +his better nature. However, he recurred to his cautions about the peril +in a legal sense of tampering with the windows, bolts, and bars of the +old decaying prison; which, in fact, precisely according to the degree +in which its absolute power over its prisoners was annually growing +less and less, grew more and more jealous of its own reputation, and +punished the attempts to break loose with the more severity, in exact +proportion as they were the more tempting by the chances of success. I +persisted in disowning any schemes of the sort, and especially upon the +ground of their hopelessness. But this, on the other hand, was a ground +that in his inner thoughts he treated with scorn; and I could easily +see that, with a little skilful management of opportunity, I might, +upon occasion, draw from him all the secrets he knew as to the special +points of infirmity in this old ruinous building. For the present, and +until it should certainly appear that there was some use to be derived +from this species of knowledge, I forbore to raise superfluous +suspicions by availing myself further of his communicative disposition. +Taking, however, the precaution of securing his name, together with his +particular office and designation in the prison, I parted from him as +if to go home, but in fact to resume my sad roamings up and down the +precincts of the jail. + +What made these precincts much larger than otherwise they would have +been, was the circumstance that, by a usage derived from older days, +both criminal prisoners and those who were prisoners for debt, equally +fell under the custody of this huge caravanserai for the indifferent +reception of crime, of misdemeanor, and of misfortune. And those who +came under the two first titles, were lodged here through all stages of +their connection with public justice; alike when mere objects of vague +suspicion to the police, when under examination upon a specific charge, +when fully committed for trial, when convicted and under sentence, +awaiting the execution of that sentence, and, in a large proportion of +cases, even through their final stage of punishment, when it happened +to be of any nature compatible with in-door confinement. Hence it arose +that the number of those who haunted the prison gates, with or without +a title to admission, was enormous; all the relatives, or more properly +the acquaintances and connections of the criminal population within the +prison, being swelled by all the families of needy debtors who came +daily, either to offer the consolation of their society, or to diminish +their common expenditure by uniting their slender establishments. One +of the rules applied to the management of this vast multitude that were +every day candidates for admission was, that to save the endless +trouble as well as risk, perhaps, of opening and shutting the main +gates to every successive arrival, periodic intervals were fixed for +the admission by wholesale; and as these periods came round every two +hours, it would happen at many parts of the day that vast crowds +accumulated waiting for the next opening of the gate. These crowds were +assembled in two or three large outer courts, in which also were many +stalls and booths, kept there upon some local privilege of ancient +inheritance, or upon some other plea made good by gifts or bribes--some +by Jews and others by Christians, perhaps equally Jewish. Superadded to +these stationary elements of this miscellaneous population, were others +drawn thither by pure motives of curiosity, so that altogether an +almost permanent mob was gathered together in these courts; and amid +this mob it was,--from I know not what definite motive, partly because +I thought it probable that amongst these people I should hear the cause +of Agnes peculiarly the subject of conversation; and so, in fact, it +did really happen,--but partly, and even more, I believe, because I now +awfully began to shrink from solitude. Tumult I must have, and +distraction of thought. Amid this mob, I say, it was that I passed two +days. Feverish I had been from the first--and from bad to worse, in +such a case, was, at any rate, a natural progress; but, perhaps, also +amongst this crowd of the poor, the abjectly wretched, the ill-fed, the +desponding, and the dissolute, there might be very naturally a larger +body of contagion lurking than according to their mere numerical +expectations. There was at that season a very extensive depopulation +going on in some quarters of this great metropolis, and in other cities +of the same empire, by means of a very malignant typhus. This fever is +supposed to be the peculiar product of jails; and though it had not as +yet been felt as a scourge and devastator of this particular jail, or +at least the consequent mortality had been hitherto kept down to a +moderate amount, yet it was highly probable that a certain quantity of +contagion, much beyond the proportion of other popular assemblages less +uniformly wretched in their composition, was here to be found all day +long; and doubtless my excited state, and irritable habit of body, had +offered a peculiar predisposition that favored the rapid development of +this contagion. However this might be, the result was, that on the +evening of the second day which I spent in haunting the purlieus of the +prison, (consequently the night preceding the second public examination +of Agnes,) I was attacked by ardent fever in such unmitigated fury, +that before morning I had lost all command of my intellectual +faculties. For some weeks I became a pitiable maniac, and in every +sense the wreck of my former self; and seven entire weeks, together +with the better half of an eighth week, had passed over my head whilst +I lay unconscious of time and its dreadful freight of events, excepting +in so far as my disordered brain, by its fantastic coinages, created +endless mimicries and mockeries of these events--less substantial, but +oftentimes less afflicting, or less agitating. It would have been well +for me had my destiny decided that I was not to be recalled to this +world of wo. But I had no such happiness in store. I recovered, and +through twenty and eight years my groans have recorded the sorrow I +feel that I did. + + * * * * * + +I shall not rehearse circumstantially, and point by point, the sad +unfolding, as it proceeded through successive revelations to me, of all +which had happened during my state of physical incapacity. When I first +became aware that my wandering senses had returned to me, and knew, by +the cessation of all throbbings, and the unutterable pains that had so +long possessed my brain, that I was now returning from the gates of +death, a sad confusion assailed me as to some indefinite cloud of evil +that had been hovering over me at the time when I first fell into a +state of insensibility. For a time I struggled vainly to recover the +lost connection of my thoughts, and I endeavored ineffectually to +address myself to sleep. I opened my eyes, but found the glare of light +painful beyond measure. Strength, however, it seemed to me that I had, +and more than enough, to raise myself out of bed. I made the attempt, +but fell back, almost giddy with the effort. At the sound of the +disturbance which I had thus made, a woman whom I did not know came +from behind a curtain, and spoke to me. Shrinking from any +communication with a stranger, especially one whose discretion I could +not estimate in making discoveries to me with the requisite caution, I +asked her simply what o'clock it was. + +'Eleven in the forenoon,' she replied. + +'And what day of the month?' + +'The second,' was her brief answer. + +I felt almost a sense of shame in adding--; 'The second! but of what +month?' + +'Of June,' was the startling rejoinder. + +On the 8th of April I had fallen ill, and it was now actually the 2d of +June. Oh! sickening calculation! revolting register of hours! for in +that same moment which brought back this one recollection, perhaps by +steadying my brain, rushed back in a torrent all the other dreadful +remembrances of the period, and now the more so, because, though the +event was still uncertain as regarded my knowledge, it must have become +dreadfully certain as regarded the facts of the case, and the happiness +of all who were concerned. Alas! one little circumstance too painfully +assured me that this event had not been a happy one. Had Agnes been +restored to her liberty and her home, where would she have been found +but watching at my bed-side? That too certainly I knew, and the +inference was too bitter to support. + +On this same day, some hours afterwards, upon Hannah's return from the +city, I received from her, and heard with perfect calmness, the whole +sum of evil which awaited me. Little Francis--she took up her tale at +that point--'was with God:' so she expressed herself. He had died of +the same fever which had attacked me--had died and been buried nearly +five weeks before. Too probably he had caught the infection from me. +Almost--such are the caprices of human feeling--almost I could have +rejoiced that this young memorial of my vanished happiness had vanished +also. It gave me a pang, nevertheless, that the grave should thus have +closed upon him before I had seen his fair little face again. But I +steeled my heart to hear worse things than this. Next she went on to +inform me that already, on the first or second day of our calamity, she +had taken upon herself, without waiting for authority, on observing the +rapid approaches of illness in me, and arguing the state of +helplessness which would follow, to write off at once a summons in the +most urgent terms to the brother of my wife. This gentleman, whom I +shall call Pierpoint, was a high-spirited, generous young man as I have +ever known. When I say that he was a sportsman, that at one season of +the year he did little else than pursue his darling amusement of fox- +hunting, for which indeed he had almost a maniacal passion--saying +this, I shall already have prejudged him in the opinions of many, who +fancy all such persons the slaves of corporeal enjoyments. But, with +submission, the truth lies the other way. According to my experience, +people of these habits have their bodies more than usually under their +command, as being subdued by severe exercise; and their minds, neither +better nor worse on an average than those of their neighbors, are more +available from being so much more rarely clogged by morbid habits in +that uneasy yoke-fellow of the intellectual part--the body. He at all +events was a man to justify in his own person this way of thinking; for +he was a man not only of sound, but even of bold and energetic +intellect, and in all moral respects one whom any man might feel proud +to call his friend. This young man, Pierpoint, without delay obeyed the +summons; and on being made acquainted with what had already passed, the +first step he took was to call upon Barratt, and without further +question than what might ascertain his identity, he proceeded to +inflict upon him a severe horsewhipping. A worse step on his sister's +account he could not have taken. Previously to this the popular feeling +had run strongly against Barratt, but now its unity was broken. A new +element was introduced into the question: Democratic feelings were +armed against this outrage; gentlemen and nobles, it was said, thought +themselves not amenable to justice; and again, the majesty of the law +was offended at this intrusion upon an affair already under solemn +course of adjudication. Everything, however, passes away under the +healing hand of time, and this also faded from the public mind. People +remembered also that he was a brother, and in that character, at any +rate, had a right to some allowances for his intemperance; and what +quickened the oblivion of the affair was, which in itself was +sufficiently strange, that Barratt did not revive the case in the +public mind by seeking legal reparation for his injuries. It was, +however, still matter of regret that Pierpoint should have indulged +himself in this movement of passion, since undoubtedly it broke and +disturbed the else uniform stream of public indignation, by investing +the original aggressor with something like the character of an injured +person; and therefore with some set-off to plead against his own +wantonness of malice;--his malice might now assume the nobler aspect of +revenge. + +Thus far, in reporting the circumstances, Hannah had dallied--thus far +I had rejoiced that she dallied, with the main burden of the wo; but +now there remained nothing to dally with any longer--and she rushed +along in her narrative, hurrying to tell--I hurrying to hear. A second, +a third examination had ensued, then a final committal--all this within +a week. By that time all the world was agitated with the case; +literally not the city only, vast as that city was, but the nation was +convulsed and divided into parties upon the question, Whether the +prosecution were one of mere malice or not? The very government of the +land was reported to be equally interested, and almost equally divided +in opinion. In this state of public feeling came the trial. Image to +yourself, oh reader, whosoever you are, the intensity of the excitement +which by that time had arisen in all people to be spectators of the +scene--then image to yourself the effect of all this, a perfect +consciousness that in herself as a centre was settled the whole mighty +interest of the exhibition--that interest again of so dubious and mixed +a character--sympathy in some with mere misfortune--sympathy in others +with female frailty and guilt, not perhaps founded upon an absolute +unwavering belief in her innocence, even amongst those who were most +loud and positive as partisans in affirming it,--and then remember that +all this hideous scenical display and notoriety settled upon one whose +very nature, constitutionally timid, recoiled with the triple agony of +womanly shame--of matronly dignity--of insulted innocence, from every +mode and shape of public display. Combine all these circumstances and +elements of the case, and you may faintly enter into the situation of +my poor Agnes. Perhaps the best way to express it at once is by +recurring to the case of a young female Christian martyr, in the early +ages of Christianity, exposed in the bloody amphitheatre of Rome or +Verona, to 'fight with wild beasts,' as it was expressed in mockery-- +she to fight the lamb to fight with lions! But in reality the young +martyr _had_ a fight to maintain, and a fight (in contempt of that +cruel mockery) fiercer than the fiercest of her persecutors could have +faced perhaps--the combat with the instincts of her own shrinking, +trembling, fainting nature. Such a fight had my Agnes to maintain; and +at that time there was a large party of gentlemen in whom the +gentlemanly instinct was predominant, and who felt so powerfully the +cruel indignities of her situation, that they made a public appeal in +her behalf. One thing, and a strong one, which they said, was this:-- +'We all talk and move in this case as if, because the question appears +doubtful to some people, and the accused party to some people wears a +doubtful character, it would follow that she therefore had in reality a +mixed character composed in joint proportions of the best and the worst +that is imputed to her. But let us not forget that this mixed character +belongs not to her, but to the infirmity of our human judgments-- +_they_ are mixed--_they_ are dubious--but she is not--she is, +or she is not, guilty--there is no middle case--and let us consider for +a single moment, that if this young lady (as many among us heartily +believe) _is_ innocent, then and upon that supposition let us +consider how cruel we should all think the public exposure which +aggravates the other injuries (as in that case they must be thought) to +which her situation exposes her.' They went on to make some suggestions +for the officers of the court in preparing the arrangements for the +trial, and some also for the guidance of the audience, which showed the +same generous anxiety for sparing the feelings of the prisoner. If +these did not wholly succeed in repressing the open avowal of coarse +and brutal curiosity amongst the intensely vulgar, at least they +availed to diffuse amongst the neutral and indifferent part of the +public a sentiment of respect and forbearance which, emanating from +high quarters, had a very extensive influence upon most of what met the +eye or the ear of my poor wife. She, on the day of trial, was supported +by her brother; and by that time she needed support indeed. I was +reported to be dying; her little son was dead; neither had she been +allowed to see him. Perhaps these things, by weaning her from all +further care about life, might have found their natural effect in +making her indifferent to the course of the trial, or even to its +issue. And so, perhaps, in the main, they did. But at times some +lingering sense of outraged dignity, some fitful gleams of old +sympathies, 'the hectic of a moment,' came back upon her, and prevailed +over the deadening stupor of her grief. Then she shone for a moment +into a starry light--sweet and woful to remember. Then----but why +linger? I hurry to the close: she was pronounced guilty; whether by a +jury or a bench of judges, I do not say--having determined, from the +beginning, to give no hint of the land in which all these events +happened; neither is that of the slightest consequence. Guilty she was +pronounced: but sentence at that time was deferred. Ask me not, I +beseech you, about the muff or other circumstances inconsistent with +the hostile evidence. These circumstances had the testimony, you will +observe, of my own servants only; nay, as it turned out, of one servant +exclusively: _that_ naturally diminished their value. And, on the +other side, evidence was arrayed, perjury was suborned, that would have +wrecked a wilderness of simple truth trusting to its own unaided +forces. What followed? Did this judgment of the court settle the +opinion of the public? Opinion of the public! Did it settle the winds? +Did it settle the motion of the Atlantic? Wilder, fiercer, and louder +grew the cry against the wretched accuser: mighty had been the power +over the vast audience of the dignity, the affliction, the perfect +simplicity, and the Madonna beauty of the prisoner. That beauty so +childlike, and at the same time so saintly, made, besides, so touching +in its pathos by means of the abandonment--the careless abandonment and +the infinite desolation of her air and manner--would of itself, and +without further aid, have made many converts. Much more was done by the +simplicity of her statements, and the indifference with which she +neglected to improve any strong points in her own favor--the +indifference, as every heart perceived, of despairing grief. Then came +the manners on the hostile side--the haggard consciousness of guilt, +the drooping tone, the bravado and fierce strut which sought to +dissemble all this. Not one amongst all the witnesses, assembled on +that side, had (by all agreement) the bold natural tone of conscious +uprightness. Hence it could not be surprising that the storm of popular +opinion made itself heard with a louder and a louder sound. The +government itself began to be disturbed; the ministers of the sovereign +were agitated; and, had no menaces been thrown out, it was generally +understood that they would have given way to the popular voice, now +continually more distinct and clamorous. In the midst of all this +tumult, obscure murmurs began to arise that Barratt had practised the +same or similar villanies in former instances. One case in particular +was beginning to be whispered about, which at once threw a light upon +the whole affair: it was the case of a young and very beautiful married +woman, who had been on the very brink of a catastrophe such as had +befallen my own wife, when some seasonable interference, of what nature +was not known, had critically delivered her. This case arose 'like a +little cloud no bigger than a man's hand,' then spread and threatened +to burst in tempest upon the public mind, when all at once, more +suddenly even than it had arisen, it was hushed up, or in some way +disappeared. But a trifling circumstance made it possible to trace this +case:--in after times, when means offered, but unfortunately no +particular purpose of good, nor any purpose, in fact, beyond that of +curiosity, it _was_ traced; and enough was soon ascertained to +have blown to fragments any possible conspiracy emanating from this +Barratt, had that been of any further importance. However, in spite of +all that money or art could effect, a sullen growl continued to be +heard amongst the populace of villanies many and profound that had been +effected or attempted by this Barratt; and accordingly, much in the +same way as was many years afterwards practised in London, when a +hosier had caused several young people to be prosecuted to death for +passing forged bank-notes, the wrath of the people showed itself in +marking the shop for vengeance upon any favorable occasion offering +through fire or riots, and in the mean time in deserting it. These +things had been going on for some time when I awoke from my long +delirium; but the effect they had produced upon a weak and obstinate +and haughty government, or at least upon the weak and obstinate and +haughty member of the government who presided in the police +administration, was, to confirm and rivet the line of conduct which had +been made the object of popular denunciation. More energetically, more +scornfully, to express that determination of flying in the face of +public opinion and censure, four days before my awakening, Agnes had +been brought up to receive her sentence. On that same day (nay, it was +said in that same hour,) petitions, very numerously signed, and various +petitions from different ranks, different ages, different sexes, were +carried up to the throne, praying, upon manifold grounds, but all +noticing the extreme doubtfulness of the case, for an unconditional +pardon. By whose advice or influence, it was guessed easily, though +never exactly ascertained, these petitions were unanimously, almost +contemptuously rejected. And to express the contempt of public opinion +as powerfully as possible, Agnes was sentenced by the court, +reassembled in full pomp, order, and ceremonial costume, to a +punishment the severest that the laws allowed--viz. hard labor for ten +years. The people raged more than ever; threats public and private were +conveyed to the ears of the minister chiefly concerned in the +responsibility, and who had indeed, by empty and ostentatious talking, +assumed that responsibility to himself in a way that was perfectly +needless. + +Thus stood matters when I awoke to consciousness: and this was the +fatal journal of the interval--interval so long as measured by my +fierce calendar of delirium--so brief measured by the huge circuit of +events which it embraced, and their mightiness for evil. Wrath, wrath +immeasurable, unimaginable, unmitigable, burned at my heart like a +cancer. The worst had come. And the thing which kills a man for action +--the living in two climates at once--a torrid and a frigid zone--of +hope and fear--that was past. Weak--suppose I were for the moment: I +felt that a day or two might bring back my strength. No miserable +tremors of hope _now_ shook my nerves: if they shook from that +inevitable rocking of the waters that follows a storm, so much might be +pardoned to the infirmity of a nature that could not lay aside its +fleshly necessities, nor altogether forego its homage to 'these frail +elements,' but which by inspiration already lived within a region where +no voices were heard but the spiritual voices of transcendent passions +--of + + 'Wrongs unrevenged, and insults unredress'd.' + +Six days from that time I was well--well and strong. I rose from bed; I +bathed; I dressed; dressed as if I were a bridegroom. And that +_was_ in fact a great day in my life. I was to see Agnes. Oh! yes: +permission had been obtained from the lordly minister that I should see +my wife. Is it possible? Can such condescensions exist? Yes: +solicitations from ladies, eloquent notes wet with ducal tears, these +had won from the thrice-radiant secretary, redolent of roseate attar, a +countersign to some order or other, by which I--yes I--under license of +a fop, and supervision of a jailer--was to see and for a time to +converse with my own wife. + +The hour appointed for the first day's interview was eight o'clock in +the evening. On the outside of the jail all was summer light and +animation. The sports of children in the streets of mighty cities are +but sad, and too painfully recall the circumstances of freedom and +breezy nature that are not there. But still the pomp of glorious +summer, and the presence, 'not to be put by,' of the everlasting light, +that is either always present, or always dawning--these potent elements +impregnate the very city life, and the dim reflex of nature which is +found at the bottom of well-like streets, with more solemn powers to +move and to soothe in summer. I struck upon the prison gates, the first +among multitudes waiting to strike. Not because we struck, but because +the hour had sounded, suddenly the gate opened; and in we streamed. I, +as a visitor for the first time, was immediately distinguished by the +jailers, whose glance of the eye is fatally unerring. 'Who was it that +I wanted?' At the name a stir of emotion was manifest, even there: the +dry bones stirred and moved: the passions outside had long ago passed +to the interior of this gloomy prison: and not a man but had his +hypothesis on the case; not a man but had almost fought with some +comrade (many had literally fought) about the merits of their several +opinions. + +If any man had expected a scene at this reunion, he would have been +disappointed. Exhaustion, and the ravages of sorrow, had left to dear +Agnes so little power of animation or of action, that her emotions were +rather to be guessed at, both for kind and for degree, than directly to +have been perceived. She was in fact a sick patient, far gone in an +illness that should properly have confined her to bed; and was as much +past the power of replying to my frenzied exclamations, as a dying +victim of fever of entering upon a strife of argument. In bed, however, +she was not. When the door opened she was discovered sitting at a table +placed against the opposite wall, her head pillowed upon her arms, and +these resting upon the table. Her beautiful long auburn hair had +escaped from its confinement, and was floating over the table and her +own person. She took no notice of the disturbance made by our entrance, +did not turn, did not raise her head, nor make an effort to do so, nor +by any sign whatever intimate that she was conscious of our presence, +until the turnkey in a respectful tone announced me. Upon that a low +groan, or rather a feeble moan, showed that she had become aware of my +presence, and relieved me from all apprehension of causing too sudden a +shock by taking her in my arms. The turnkey had now retired; we were +alone. I knelt by her side, threw my arms about her, and pressed her to +my heart. She drooped her head upon my shoulder, and lay for some time +like one who slumbered; but, alas! not as she had used to slumber. Her +breathing, which had been like that of sinless infancy, was now +frightfully short and quick; she seemed not properly to breathe, but to +gasp. This, thought I, may be sudden agitation, and in that case she +will gradually recover; half an hour will restore her. Wo is me! she +did _not_ recover; and internally I said--she never _will_ +recover. The arrows have gone too deep for a frame so exquisite in its +sensibility, and already her hours are numbered. + +At this first visit I said nothing to her about the past; _that_, +and the whole extent to which our communications should go, I left +rather to her own choice. At the second visit, however, upon some word +or other arising which furnished an occasion for touching on this +hateful topic, I pressed her, contrary to my own previous intention, +for as full an account of the fatal event as she could without a +distressing effort communicate. To my surprise she was silent-- +gloomily--almost it might have seemed obstinately silent. A horrid +thought came into my mind; could it, might it have been possible that +my noble-minded wife, such she had ever seemed to me, was open to +temptations of this nature? Could it have been that in some moment of +infirmity, when her better angel was away from her side, she had +yielded to a sudden impulse of frailty, such as a second moment for +consideration would have resisted, but which unhappily had been +followed by no such opportunity of retrieval? I had heard of such +things. Cases there were in our own times (and not confined to one +nation), when irregular impulses of this sort were known to have +haunted and besieged natures not otherwise ignoble and base. I ran over +some of the names amongst those which were taxed with this propensity. +More than one were the names of people in a technical sense held noble. +That, nor any other consideration abated my horror. Better, I said, +better, (because more compatible with elevation of mind,) better to +have committed some bloody act--some murderous act. Dreadful was the +panic I underwent. God pardon the wrong I did; and even now I pray to +him--as though the past thing were a future thing and capable of +change--that he would forbid her for ever to know what was the +derogatory thought I had admitted. I sometimes think, by recollecting a +momentary blush that suffused her marble countenance,--I think--I fear +that she might have read what was fighting in my mind. Yet that would +admit of another explanation. If she did read the very worst, meek +saint! she suffered no complaint or sense of that injury to escape her. +It might, however, be that perception, or it might be that fear which +roused her to an effort that otherwise had seemed too revolting to +undertake. She now rehearsed the whole steps of the affair from first +to last; but the only material addition, which her narrative made to +that which the trial itself had involved, was the following:--On two +separate occasions previous to the last and fatal one, when she had +happened to walk unaccompanied by me in the city, the monster Barratt +had met her in the street. He had probably--and this was, indeed, +subsequently ascertained--at first, and for some time afterwards, +mistaken her rank, and had addressed some proposals to her, which, from +the suppressed tone of his speaking, or from her own terror and +surprise, she had not clearly understood; but enough had reached her +alarmed ear to satisfy her that they were of a nature in the last +degree licentious and insulting. Terrified and shocked rather than +indignant, for she too easily presumed the man to be a maniac, she +hurried homewards; and was rejoiced, on first venturing to look round +when close to her own gate, to perceive that the man was not following. +There, however, she was mistaken; for either on this occasion, or on +some other, he had traced her homewards. The last of these rencontres +had occurred just three months before the fatal 6th of April; and if, +in any one instance, Agnes had departed from the strict line of her +duty as a wife, or had shown a defect of judgment, it was at this +point--in not having frankly and fully reported the circumstances to +me. On the last of these occasions I had met her at the garden-gate, +and had particularly remarked that she seemed agitated; and now, at +recalling these incidents, Agnes reminded me that I had noticed that +circumstance to herself, and that she had answered me faithfully as to +the main fact. It was true she had done so; for she had said that she +had just met a lunatic who had alarmed her by fixing his attention upon +herself, and speaking to her in a ruffian manner; and it was also true +that she did sincerely regard him in that light. This led me at the +time to construe the whole affair into a casual collision with some +poor maniac escaping from his keepers, and of no future moment, having +passed by without present consequences. But had she, instead of thus +reporting her own erroneous impression, reported the entire +circumstances of the case, I should have given them a very different +interpretation. Affection for me, and fear to throw me needlessly into +a quarrel with a man of apparently brutal and violent nature--these +considerations, as too often they do with the most upright wives, had +operated to check Agnes in the perfect sincerity of her communications. +She had told nothing _but_ the truth--only, and fatally it turned +out for us both, she had not told the _whole_ truth. The very +suppression, to which she had reconciled herself, under the belief that +thus she was providing for my safety and her own consequent happiness, +had been the indirect occasion of ruin to both. It was impossible to +show displeasure under such circumstances, or under any circumstances, +to one whose self-reproaches were at any rate too bitter; but +certainly, as a general rule, every conscientious woman should resolve +to consider her husband's honor in the first case, and far before all +other regards whatsoever; to make this the first, the second, the third +law of her conduct, and his personal safety but the fourth or fifth. +Yet women, and especially when the interests of children are at stake +upon their husbands' safety, rarely indeed are able to take this Roman +view of their duties. + +To return to the narrative. Agnes had not, nor could have, the most +remote suspicion of this Barratt's connection with the shop which he +had not accidentally entered; and the sudden appearance of this wretch +it was, at the very moment of finding herself charged with so vile and +degrading an offence, that contributed most of all to rob her of her +natural firmness, by suddenly revealing to her terrified heart the +depth of the conspiracy which thus yawned like a gulf below her. And +not only had this sudden horror, upon discovering a guilty design in +what before had seemed accident, and links uniting remote incidents +which else seemed casual and disconnected, greatly disturbed and +confused her manner, which confusion again had become more intense upon +her own consciousness that she _was_ confused, and that her manner +was greatly to her disadvantage; but--which was the worst effect of +all, because the rest could not operate against her, except upon those +who were present to witness it, whereas this was noted down and +recorded--so utterly did her confusion strip her of all presence of +mind, that she did not consciously notice (and consequently could not +protest against at the moment when it was most important to do so, and +most natural) the important circumstance of the muff. This capital +objection, therefore, though dwelt upon and improved to the utmost at +the trial, was looked upon by the judges as an after-thought; and +merely because it had not been seized upon by herself, and urged in the +first moments of her almost incapacitating terror on finding this +amongst the circumstances of the charge against her--as if an ingenuous +nature, in the very act of recoiling with horror from a criminal charge +the most degrading, and in the very instant of discovering, with a +perfect rapture of alarm, the too plausible appearance of probability +amongst the circumstances, would be likely to pause, and with attorney- +like dexterity, to pick out the particular circumstance that might +admit of being _proved_ to be false, when the conscience +proclaimed, though in despondence for the result, that all the +circumstances were, as to the use made of them, one tissue of +falsehoods. Agnes, who had made a powerful effort in speaking of the +case at all, found her calmness increase as she advanced; and she now +told me, that in reality there were two discoveries which she made in +the same instant, and not one only, which had disarmed her firmness and +ordinary presence of mind. One I have mentioned--the fact of Barratt, +the proprietor of the shop, being the same person who had in former +instances persecuted her in the street; but the other was even more +alarming--it has been said already that it was _not_ a pure matter +of accident that she had visited this particular shop. In reality, that +nursery-maid, of whom some mention has been made above, and in terms +expressing the suspicion with which even then I regarded her, had +persuaded her into going thither by some representations which Agnes +had already ascertained to be altogether unwarranted. Other +presumptions against this girl's fidelity crowded dimly upon my wife's +mind at the very moment of finding her eyes thus suddenly opened. And +it was not five minutes after her first examination, and in fact five +minutes after it had ceased to be of use to her, that she remembered +another circumstance which now, when combined with the sequel, told its +own tale,--the muff had been missed some little time before the 6th of +April. Search had been made for it; but, the particular occasion which +required it having passed off, this search was laid aside for the +present, in the expectation that it would soon reappear in some corner +of the house before it was wanted: then came the sunny day, which made +it no longer useful, and would perhaps have dismissed it entirely from +the recollection of all parties, until it was now brought back in this +memorable way. The name of my wife was embroidered within, upon the +lining, and it thus became a serviceable link to the hellish cabal +against her. Upon reviewing the circumstances from first to last, upon +recalling the manner of the girl at the time when the muff was missed, +and upon combining the whole with her recent deception, by which she +had misled her poor mistress into visiting this shop, Agnes began to +see the entire truth as to this servant's wicked collusion with +Barratt, though, perhaps, it might be too much to suppose her aware of +the unhappy result to which her collusion tended. All this she saw at a +glance when it was too late, for her first examination was over. This +girl, I must add, had left our house during my illness, and she had +afterwards a melancholy end. + +One thing surprised me in all this. Barratt's purpose must manifestly +have been to create merely a terror in my poor wife's mind, and to stop +short of any legal consequences, in order to profit of that panic and +confusion for extorting compliances with his hideous pretensions. It +perplexed me, therefore, that he did not appear to have pursued this +manifestly his primary purpose, the other being merely a mask to +conceal his true ends, and also (as he fancied) a means for effecting +them. In this, however, I had soon occasion to find that I was +deceived. He had, but without the knowledge of Agnes, taken such steps +as were then open to him, for making overtures to her with regard to +the terms upon which he would agree to defeat the charge against her by +failing to appear. But the law had travelled too fast for him, and too +determinately; so that, by the time he supposed terror to have operated +sufficiently in favor of his views, it had already become unsafe to +venture upon such explicit proposals as he would otherwise have tried. +His own safety was now at stake, and would have been compromised by any +open or written avowal of the motives on which he had been all along +acting. In fact, at this time he was foiled by the agent in whom he +confided; but much more he had been confounded upon another point--the +prodigious interest manifested by the public. Thus it seems--that, +whilst he meditated only a snare for my poor Agnes, he had prepared one +for himself; and finally, to evade the suspicions which began to arise +powerfully as to his true motives, and thus to stave off his own ruin, +had found himself in a manner obliged to go forward and consummate the +ruin of another. + + * * * * * + +The state of Agnes, as to health and bodily strength, was now becoming +such that I was forcibly warned--whatsoever I meditated doing, to do +quickly. There was this urgent reason for alarm: once conveyed into +that region of the prison in which sentences like hers were executed, +it became hopeless that I could communicate with her again. All +intercourse whatsoever, and with whomsoever, was then placed under the +most rigorous interdict; and the alarming circumstance was, that this +transfer was governed by no settled rules, but might take place at any +hour, and would certainly be precipitated by the slightest violence on +my part, the slightest indiscretion, or the slightest argument for +suspicion. Hard indeed was the part I had to play, for it was +indispensable that I should appear calm and tranquil, in order to +disarm suspicions around me, whilst continually contemplating the +possibility that I myself might be summoned to extremities which I +could not so much as trust myself to name or distinctly to conceive. +But thus stood the case: the Government, it was understood, angered by +the public opposition, resolute for the triumph of what they called +'principle,' had settled finally that the sentence should be carried +into execution. Now that she, that my Agnes, being the frail wreck that +she had become, could have stood one week of this sentence practically +and literally enforced--was a mere chimera. A few hours probably of the +experiment would have settled that question by dismissing her to the +death she longed for; but because the suffering would be short, was I +to stand by and to witness the degradation--the pollution--attempted to +be fastened upon her. What! to know that her beautiful tresses would be +shorn ignominiously--a felon's dress forced upon her--a vile taskmaster +with authority to----; blistered be the tongue that could go on to +utter, in connection with her innocent name, the vile dishonors which +were to settle upon her person! I, however, and her brother had taken +such resolutions that this result was one barely possible; and yet I +sickened (yes, literally I many times experienced the effect of +physical sickness) at contemplating our own utter childish +helplessness, and recollecting that every night during our seclusion +from the prison the last irreversible step might be taken--and in the +morning we might find a solitary cell, and the angel form that had +illuminated it gone where we could not follow, and leaving behind her +the certainty that we should see her no more. Every night, at the hour +of locking up, _she_, at least, manifestly had a fear that she saw +us for the last time; she put her arms feebly about my neck, sobbed +convulsively, and, I believe, guessed--but, if really so, did not much +reprove or quarrel with the desperate purposes which I struggled with +in regard to her own life. One thing was quite evident--that to the +peace of her latter days, now hurrying to their close, it was +indispensable that she should pass them undivided from me; and +possibly, as was afterwards alleged, when it became easy to allege any +thing, some relenting did take place in high quarters at this time; for +upon some medical reports made just now, a most seasonable indulgence +was granted, viz. that Hannah was permitted to attend her mistress +constantly; and it was also felt as a great alleviation of the horrors +belonging to this prison, that candles were now allowed throughout the +nights. But I was warned privately that these indulgences were with no +consent from the police minister; and that circumstances might soon +withdraw the momentary intercession by which we profited. With this +knowledge, we could not linger in our preparations; we had resolved +upon accomplishing an escape for Agnes, at whatever risk or price; the +main difficulty was her own extreme feebleness, which might forbid her +to co-operate with us in any degree at the critical moment; and the +main danger was--delay. We pushed forward, therefore, in our attempts +with prodigious energy, and I for my part with an energy like that of +insanity. + + * * * * * + +The first attempt we made was upon the fidelity to his trust of the +chief jailer. He was a coarse, vulgar man, brutal in his manners, but +with vestiges of generosity in his character--though damaged a good +deal by his daily associates. Him we invited to a meeting at a tavern +in the neighborhood of the prison, disguising our names as too certain +to betray our objects, and baiting our invitation with some hints which +we had ascertained were likely to prove temptations under his immediate +circumstances. He had a graceless young son whom he was most anxious to +wean from his dissolute connections, and to steady, by placing him in +some office of no great responsibility. Upon this knowledge we framed +the terms of our invitation. + +These proved to be effectual, as regarded our immediate object of +obtaining an interview of persuasion. The night was wet; and at seven +o'clock, the hour fixed for the interview, we were seated in readiness, +much perplexed to know whether he would take any notice of our +invitation. We had waited three quarters of an hour, when we heard a +heavy lumbering step ascending the stair. The door was thrown open to +its widest extent, and in the centre of the door-way stood a short +stout-built man, and the very broadest I ever beheld--staring at us +with bold inquiring eyes. His salutation was something to this effect. + +'What the hell do you gay fellows want with me? What the blazes is this +humbugging letter about? My son, and be hanged! What do you know of my +son?' + +Upon this overture we ventured to request that he would come in and +suffer us to shut the door, which we also locked. Next we produced the +official paper nominating his son to a small place in the customs,-- +not yielding much, it was true, in the way of salary, but fortunately, +and in accordance with the known wishes of the father, unburdened with +any dangerous trust. + +'Well, I suppose I must say thank ye: but what comes next? What am I to +do to pay the damages?' We informed him that for this particular little +service we asked no return. + +'No, no,' said he, 'that'll not go down: that cat'll not jump. I'm not +green enough for that. So, say away--what's the damage?' We then +explained that we had certainly a favor and a great one to ask: ['Ay, +I'll be bound you have,' was his parenthesis:] but that for this we +were prepared to offer a separate remuneration; repeating that with +respect to the little place procured for his son, it had not cost us +anything, and therefore we did really and sincerely decline to receive +anything in return; satisfied that, by this little offering, we had +procured the opportunity of this present interview. At this point we +withdrew a covering from the table upon which we had previously +arranged a heap of gold coins, amounting in value to twelve hundred +English guineas: this being the entire sum which circumstances allowed +us to raise on so sudden a warning: for some landed property that we +both had was so settled and limited, that we could not convert it into +money either by way of sale, loan, or mortgage. This sum, stating to +him its exact amount, we offered to his acceptance, upon the single +condition that he would look aside, or wink hard, or (in whatever way +he chose to express it) would make, or suffer to be made, such +facilities for our liberating a female prisoner as we would point out. +He mused: full five minutes he sat deliberating without opening his +lips. At length he shocked us by saying, in a firm, decisive tone, that +left us little hope of altering his resolution,--'No: gentlemen, it's a +very fair offer, and a good deal of money for a single prisoner. I +think I can guess at the person. It's a fair offer--fair enough. But, +bless your heart! if I were to do the thing you want--why perhaps +another case might be overlooked: but this prisoner, no: there's too +much depending. No, they would turn me out of my place. Now the place +is worth more to me in the long run than what you offer: though you bid +fair enough, if it were only for my time in it. But look here: in case +I can get my son to come into harness, I'm expecting to get the office +for him after I've retired. So I can't do it. But I'll tell you what: +you've been kind to my son: and therefore I'll not say a word about it. +You're safe for me. And so good-night to you.' Saying which, and +standing no further question, he walked resolutely out of the room and +down stairs. + +Two days we mourned over this failure, and scarcely knew which way to +turn for another ray of hope;--on the third morning we received +intelligence that this very jailer had been attacked by the fever, +which, after long desolating the city, had at length made its way into +the prison. In a very few days the jailer was lying without hope of +recovery: and of necessity another person was appointed to fill his +station for the present. This person I had seen, and I liked him less +by much than the one he succeeded: he had an Italian appearance, and he +wore an air of Italian subtlety and dissimulation. I was surprised to +find, on proposing the same service to him, and on the same terms, that +he made no objection whatever, but closed instantly with my offers. In +prudence, however, I had made this change in the articles: a sum equal +to two hundred English guineas, or one-sixth part of the whole money, +he was to receive beforehand as a retaining fee; but the remainder was +to be paid only to himself, or to anybody of his appointing, at the +very moment of our finding the prison gates thrown open to us. He spoke +fairly enough, and seemed to meditate no treachery; nor was there any +obvious or known interest to serve by treachery; and yet I doubted him +grievously. + +The night came: it was chosen as a gala night, one of two nights +throughout the year in which the prisoners were allowed to celebrate a +great national event: and in those days of relaxed prison management +the utmost license was allowed to the rejoicing. This indulgence was +extended to prisoners of all classes, though, of course, under more +restrictions with regard to the criminal class. Ten o'clock came--the +hour at which we had been instructed to hold ourselves in readiness. We +had been long prepared. Agnes had been dressed by Hannah in such a +costume externally (a man's hat and cloak, &c.) that, from her height, +she might easily have passed amongst a mob of masquerading figures in +the debtors' halls and galleries for a young stripling. Pierpoint and +myself were also to a certain degree disguised; so far, at least, that +we should not have been recognized at any hurried glance by those of +the prison officers who had become acquainted with our persons. We were +all more or less disguised about the face; and in that age when masks +were commonly used at all hours by people of a certain rank, there +would have been nothing suspicious in any possible costume of the kind +in a night like this, if we could succeed in passing for friends of +debtors. + +I am impatient of these details, and I hasten over the ground. One +entire hour passed away, and no jailer appeared. We began to despond +heavily; and Agnes, poor thing! was now the most agitated of us all. At +length eleven struck in the harsh tones of the prison-clock. A few +minutes after, we heard the sound of bolts drawing, and bars +unfastening. The jailer entered--drunk, and much disposed to be +insolent. I thought it advisable to give him another bribe, and he +resumed the fawning insinuation of his manner. He now directed us, by +passages which he pointed out, to gain the other side of the prison. +There we were to mix with the debtors and their mob of friends, and to +await his joining us, which in that crowd he could do without much +suspicion. He wished us to traverse the passages separately; but this +was impossible, for it was necessary that one of us should support +Agnes on each side. I previously persuaded her to take a small quantity +of brandy, which we rejoiced to see had given her, at this moment of +starting, a most seasonable strength and animation. The gloomy passages +were more than usually empty, for all the turnkeys were employed in a +vigilant custody of the gates, and examination of the parties going +out. So the jailer had told us, and the news alarmed us. We came at +length to a turning which brought us in sight of a strong iron gate, +that divided the two main quarters of the prison. For this we had not +been prepared. The man, however, opened the gate without a word spoken, +only putting out his hand for a fee; and in my joy, perhaps, I gave him +one imprudently large. After passing this gate, the distant uproar of +the debtors guided us to the scene of their merriment; and when there, +such was the tumult and the vast multitude assembled, that we now hoped +in good earnest to accomplish our purpose without accident. Just at +this moment the jailer appeared in the distance; he seemed looking +towards us, and at length one of our party could distinguish that he +was beckoning to us. We went forward, and found him in some agitation, +real or counterfeit. He muttered a word or two quite unintelligible +about the man at the wicket, told us we must wait a while, and he would +then see what could be done for us. We were beginning to demur, and to +express the suspicions which now too seriously arose, when he, seeing, +or affecting to see some object of alarm, pushed us with a hurried +movement into a cell opening upon the part of the gallery at which we +were now standing. Not knowing whether we really might not be +retreating from some danger, we could do no otherwise than comply with +his signals; but we were troubled at finding ourselves immediately +locked in from the outside, and thus apparently all our motions had +only sufficed to exchange one prison for another. + +We were now completely in the dark, and found, by a hard breathing from +one corner of the little dormitory, that it was not unoccupied. Having +taken care to provide ourselves separately with means for striking a +light, we soon had more than one torch burning. The brilliant light +falling upon the eyes of a man who lay stretched on the iron bedstead, +woke him. It proved to be my friend the under-jailer, Ratcliffe, but no +longer holding any office in the prison. He sprang up, and a rapid +explanation took place. He had become a prisoner for debt; and on this +evening, after having caroused through the day with some friends from +the country, had retired at an early hour to sleep away his +intoxication. I on my part thought it prudent to intrust him +unreservedly with our situation and purposes, not omitting our gloomy +suspicions. Ratcliffe looked, with a pity that won my love, upon the +poor wasted Agnes. He had seen her on her first entrance into the +prison, had spoken to her, and therefore knew _from_ what she had +fallen, _to_ what. Even then he had felt for her; how much more at +this time, when he beheld, by the fierce light of the torches, her wo- +worn features! + +'Who was it,' he asked eagerly, 'you made the bargain with? Manasseh?' + +'The same.' + +'Then I can tell you this--not a greater villain walks the earth. He is +a Jew from Portugal; he has betrayed many a man, and will many another, +unless he gets his own neck stretched, which might happen, if I told +all I know.' + +'But what was it probable that this man meditated? Or how could it +profit him to betray us?' + +'That's more than I can tell. He wants to get your money, and that he +doesn't know how to bring about without doing his part. But that's what +he never _will_ do, take my word for it. That would cut him out of +all chance for the head-jailer's place.' He mused a little, and then +told us that he could himself put us outside the prison walls, and +_would_ do it without fee or reward. 'But we must be quiet, or +that devil will bethink him of me. I'll wager something he thought that +I was out merry-making like the rest; and if he should chance to light +upon the truth, he'll be back in no time.' Ratcliffe then removed an +old fire-grate, at the back of which was an iron plate, that swung +round into a similar fire-place in the contiguous cell. From that, by a +removal of a few slight obstacles, we passed, by a long avenue, into +the chapel. Then he left us, whilst he went out alone to reconnoitre +his ground. Agnes was now in so pitiable a condition of weakness, as we +stood on the very brink of our final effort, that we placed her in a +pew, where she could rest as upon a sofa. Previously we had stood upon +graves, and with monuments more or less conspicuous all around us: some +raised by friends to the memory of friends--some by subscriptions in +the prison--some by children, who had risen into prosperity, to the +memory of a father, brother, or other relative, who had died in +captivity. I was grieved that these sad memorials should meet the eye +of my wife at this moment of awe and terrific anxiety. Pierpoint and I +were well armed, and all of us determined not to suffer a recapture, +now that we were free of the crowds that made resistance hopeless. This +Agnes easily perceived; and _that_, by suggesting a bloody +arbitration, did not lessen her agitation. I hoped therefore, that, by +placing her in the pew, I might at least liberate her for the moment +from the besetting memorials of sorrow and calamity. But, as if in the +very teeth of my purpose, one of the large columns which supported the +roof of the chapel, had its basis and lower part of the shaft in this +very pew. On the side of it, and just facing her as she lay reclining +on the cushions, appeared a mural tablet, with a bas-relief in white +marble, to the memory of two children, twins, who had lived and died at +the same time, and in this prison--children who had never breathed +another air than that of captivity, their parents having passed many +years within these walls, under confinement for debt. The sculptures +were not remarkable, being a trite, but not the less affecting, +representation of angels descending to receive the infants; but the +hallowed words of the inscription, distinct and legible--'Suffer little +children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the +kingdom of God'--met her eye, and, by the thoughts they awakened, made +me fear that she would become unequal to the exertions which yet +awaited her. At this moment Ratcliffe returned, and informed us that +all was right; and that, from the ruinous state of all the buildings +which surrounded the chapel, no difficulty remained for us, who were, +in fact, beyond the strong part of the prison, excepting at a single +door, which we should be obliged to break down. But had we any means +arranged for pursuing our flight, and turning this escape to account +when out of confinement? All that, I assured him, was provided for long +ago. We proceeded, and soon reached the door. We had one crow-bar +amongst us, but beyond that had no better weapons than the loose stones +found about some new-made graves in the chapel. Ratcliffe and +Pierpoint, both powerful men, applied themselves by turns to the door, +whilst Hannah and I supported Agnes. The door did not yield, being of +enormous strength; but the wall did, and a large mass of stone-work +fell outwards, twisting the door aside; so that, by afterwards working +with our hands, we removed stones many enough to admit of our egress. +Unfortunately this aperture was high above the ground, and it was +necessary to climb over a huge heap of loose rubbish in order to profit +by it. My brother-in-law passed first in order to receive my wife, +quite helpless at surmounting the obstacle by her own efforts, out of +my arms. He had gone through the opening, and, turning round so as to +face me, he naturally could see something that I did _not_ see. +'Look behind!' he called out rapidly. I did so, and saw the murderous +villain Manasseh with his arm uplifted, and in the act of cutting at my +wife, nearly insensible as she was, with a cutlass. The blow was not +for me, but for her, as the fugitive prisoner; and the law would have +borne him out in the act. I saw, I comprehended the whole. I groped, as +far as I could without letting my wife drop, for my pistols; but all +that I could do would have been unavailing, and too late--she would +have been murdered in my arms. But--and that was what none of us saw-- +neither I, nor Pierpoint, nor the hound Manasseh--one person stood +back in the shade; one person had seen, but had not uttered a word on +seeing Manasseh advancing through the shades; one person only had +forecast the exact succession of all that was coming; me she saw +embarrassed and my hands preoccupied--Pierpoint and Ratcliffe useless +by position--and the gleam of the dog's eye directed her to his aim. +The crow-bar was leaning against the shattered wall. This she had +silently seized. One blow knocked up the sword; a second laid the +villain prostrate. At this moment appeared another of the turnkeys +advancing from the rear, for the noise of our assault upon the door had +drawn attention in the interior of the prison, from which, however, no +great number of assistants could on this dangerous night venture to +absent themselves. What followed for the next few minutes hurried +onwards, incident crowding upon incident, like the motions of a dream: +--Manasseh, lying on the ground, yelled out, 'The bell! the bell!' to +him who followed. The man understood, and made for the belfry-door +attached to the chapel; upon which Pierpoint drew a pistol, and sent +the bullet whizzing past his ear so truly, that fear made the man +obedient to the counter-orders of Pierpoint for the moment. He paused +and awaited the issue. In a moment had all cleared the wall, traversed +the waste ground beyond it, lifted Agnes over the low railing, shaken +hands with our benefactor Ratcliffe, and pushed onwards as rapidly as +we were able to the little dark lane, a quarter of a mile distant, +where had stood waiting for the last two hours a chaise-and-four. + +[Ratcliffe, before my story closes, I will pursue to the last of my +acquaintance with him, according to the just claims of his services. He +had privately whispered to me, as we went along, that he could speak to +the innocence of that lady, pointing to my wife, better than anybody. +He was the person whom (as then holding an office in the prison) +Barratt had attempted to employ as agent in conveying any messages that +he found it safe to send--obscurely hinting the terms on which he would +desist from prosecution. Ratcliffe had at first undertaken the +negotiation from mere levity of character. But when the story and the +public interest spread, and after himself becoming deeply struck by the +prisoner's affliction, beauty, and reputed innocence, he had pursued it +only as a means of entrapping Barratt into such written communications +and such private confessions of the truth as might have served Agnes +effectually. He wanted the art, however, to disguise his purposes: +Barratt came to suspect him violently, and feared his evidence so far, +even for those imperfect and merely oral overtures which he had really +sent through Ratcliffe--that on the very day of the trial, he, as was +believed, though by another nominally, contrived that Ratcliffe should +be arrested for debt; and, after harassing him with intricate forms of +business, had finally caused him to be conveyed to prison. Ratcliffe +was thus involved in his own troubles at the time; and afterwards +supposed that, without written documents to support his evidence, he +could not be of much service to the re-establisment of my wife's +reputation. Six months after his services in the night-escape from the +prison, I saw him, and pressed him to take the money so justly +forfeited to him by Manasseh's perfidy. He would, however, be persuaded +to take no more than paid his debts. A second and a third time his +debts were paid by myself and Pierpoint. But the same habits of +intemperance and dissolute pleasure which led him into these debts, +finally ruined his constitution; and he died, though otherwise of a +fine generous manly nature, a martyr to dissipation at the early age of +twenty-nine. With respect to his prison confinement, it was so +frequently recurring in his life, and was alleviated by so many +indulgences, that he scarcely viewed it as a hardship: having once been +an officer of the prison, and having thus formed connections with the +whole official establishment, and done services to many of them, and +being of so convivial a turn, he was, even as a prisoner, treated with +distinction, and considered as a privileged son of the house.] + +It was just striking twelve o'clock as we entered the lane where the +carriage was drawn up. Rain, about the profoundest I had ever +witnessed, was falling. Though near to midsummer, the night had been +unusually dark to begin with, and from the increasing rain had become +much more so. We could see nothing; and at first we feared that some +mistake had occurred as to the station of the carriage--in which case +we might have sought for it vainly through the intricate labyrinth of +the streets in that quarter. I first descried it by the light of a +torch, reflected powerfully from the large eyes of the leaders. All was +ready. Horse-keepers were at the horses' heads. The postilions were +mounted; each door had the steps let down: Agnes was lifted in: Hannah +and I followed: Pierpoint mounted his horse; and at the word--Oh! how +strange a word!--'_All's right_,' the horses sprang off like leopards, +a manner ill-suited to the slippery pavement of a narrow street. At +that moment, but we valued it little indeed, we heard the prison-bell +ringing out loud and clear. Thrice within the first three minutes we +had to pull up suddenly, on the brink of formidable accidents, from the +dangerous speed we maintained, and which, nevertheless, the driver had +orders to maintain, as essential to our plan. All the stoppages and +hinderances of every kind along the road had been anticipated +previously, and met by contrivance, of one kind or other; and Pierpoint +was constantly a little ahead of us to attend to anything that had been +neglected. The consequence of these arrangements was--that no person +along the road could possibly have assisted to trace us by any thing in +our appearance: for we passed all objects at too flying a pace, and +through darkness too profound, to allow of any one feature in our +equipage being distinctly noticed. Ten miles out of town, a space which +we traversed in forty-four minutes, a second relay of horses was ready; +but we carried on the same postilions throughout. Six miles ahead of +this distance we had a second relay; and with this set of horses, after +pushing two miles further along the road, we crossed by a miserable +lane five miles long, scarcely even a bridge road, into another of the +great roads from the capital; and by thus crossing the country, we came +back upon the city at a point far distant from that at which we left +it. We had performed a distance of forty-two miles in three hours, and +lost a fourth hour upon the wretched five miles of cross-road. It was, +therefore, four o'clock, and broad daylight, when we drew near the +suburbs of the city; but a most happy accident now favored us; a fog +the most intense now prevailed; nobody could see an object six feet +distant; we alighted in an uninhabited new-built street, plunged into +the fog, thus confounding our traces to any observer. We then stepped +into a hackney-coach which had been stationed at a little distance. +Thence, according to our plan, we drove to a miserable quarter of the +town, whither the poor only and the wretched resorted; mounted a gloomy +dirty staircase, and, befriended by the fog, still growing thicker and +thicker, and by the early hour of the morning, reached a house +previously hired, which, if shocking to the eye and the imagination +from its squalid appearance and its gloom, still was a home--a +sanctuary--an asylum from treachery, from captivity, from persecution. +Here Pierpoint for the present quitted us: and once more Agnes, Hannah, +and I, the shattered members of a shattered family, were thus gathered +together in a house of our own. + +Yes: once again, daughter of the hills, thou sleptst as heretofore in +my encircling arms; but not again in that peace which crowned thy +innocence in those days, and should have crowned it now. Through the +whole of our flying journey, in some circumstances at its outset +strikingly recalling to me that blessed one which followed our +marriage, Agnes slept away unconscious of our movements. She slept +through all that day and the following night; and I watched over her +with as much jealousy of all that might disturb her, as a mother +watches over her new-born baby; for I hoped, I fancied, that a long-- +long rest, a rest, a halcyon calm, a deep, deep Sabbath of security, +might prove healing and medicinal. I thought wrong; her breathing +became more disturbed, and sleep was now haunted by dreams; all of us, +indeed, were agitated by dreams; the past pursued me, and the present, +for high rewards had been advertised by Government to those who traced +us; and though for the moment we were secure, because we never went +abroad, and could not have been naturally sought in such a +neighborhood, still that very circumstance would eventually operate +against us. At length, every night I dreamed of our insecurity under a +thousand forms; but more often by far my dreams turned upon our wrongs; +wrath moved me rather than fear. Every night, for the greater part, I +lay painfully and elaborately involved, by deep sense of wrong, + + '--in long orations, which I pleaded + Before unjust tribunals.' + [Footnote: From a MS. poem of a great living Poet.] + +And for poor Agnes, her also did the remembrance of mighty wrongs +occupy through vast worlds of sleep in the same way--though colored by +that tenderness which belonged to her gentler nature. One dream in +particular--a dream of sublime circumstances--she repeated to me so +movingly, with a pathos so thrilling, that by some profound sympathy it +transplanted itself to my own sleep, settled itself there, and is to +this hour a part of the fixed dream scenery which revolves at intervals +through my sleeping life. This it was:--She would hear a trumpet sound +--though perhaps as having been the prelude to the solemn entry of the +judges at a town which she had once visited in her childhood; other +preparations would follow, and at last all the solemnities of a great +trial would shape themselves and fall into settled images. The audience +was assembled, the judges were arrayed, the court was set. The prisoner +was cited. Inquest was made, witnesses were called; and false witnesses +came tumultuously to the bar. Then again a trumpet was heard, but the +trumpet of a mighty archangel; and then would roll away thick clouds +and vapors. Again the audience, but another audience, was assembled; +again the tribunal was established; again the court was set; but a +tribunal and a court--how different to her! _That_ had been +composed of men seeking indeed for truth, but themselves erring and +fallible creatures; the witnesses had been full of lies, the judges of +darkness. But here was a court composed of heavenly witnesses--here was +a righteous tribunal--and then at last a judge that could not be +deceived. The judge smote with his eye a person who sought to hide +himself in the crowd; the guilty man stepped forward; the poor prisoner +was called up to the presence of the mighty judge; suddenly the voice +of a little child was heard ascending before her. Then the trumpet +sounded once again; and then there were new heavens and a new earth; +and her tears and her agitation (for she had seen her little Francis) +awoke the poor palpitating dreamer. + + * * * * * + +Two months passed on: nothing could possibly be done materially to +raise the standard of those wretched accommodations which the house +offered. The dilapidated walls, the mouldering plaster, the blackened +mantel-pieces, the stained and polluted wainscots--what could be +attempted to hide or to repair all this by those who durst not venture +abroad? Yet whatever could be done, Hannah did; and, in the mean time, +very soon indeed my Agnes ceased to see or to be offended by these +objects. First of all her sight went from her; and nothing which +appealed to that sense could ever more offend her. It is to me the one +only consolation I have, that my presence and that of Hannah, with such +innocent frauds as we concerted together, made her latter days pass in +a heavenly calm, by persuading her that our security was absolute, and +that all search after us had ceased, under a belief on the part of +Government that we had gained the shelter of a foreign land. All this +was a delusion; but it was a delusion--blessed be Heaven! which lasted +exactly as long as her life, and was just commensurate with its +necessity. I hurry over the final circumstances. + +There was fortunately now, even for me, no fear that the hand of any +policeman or emissary of justice could effectually disturb the latter +days of my wife; for, besides pistols always lying loaded in an inner +room, there happened to be a long narrow passage on entering the house, +which, by means of a blunderbuss, I could have swept effectually, and +cleared many times over; and I know what to do in a last extremity. +Just two months it was, to a day, since we had entered the house; and +it happened that the medical attendant upon Agnes, who awakened no +suspicion by his visits, had prescribed some opiate or anodyne which +had not come; being dark early, for it was now September, I had +ventured out to fetch it. In this I conceived there could be no danger. +On my return I saw a man examining the fastenings of the door. He made +no opposition to my entrance, nor seemed much to observe it--but I was +disturbed. Two hours after, both Hannah and I heard a noise about the +door, and voices in low conversation. It is remarkable that Agnes heard +this also--so quick had grown her hearing. She was agitated, but was +easily calmed; and at ten o'clock we were all in bed. The hand of Agnes +was in mine; so only she felt herself in security. She had been +restless for an hour, and talking at intervals in sleep. Once she +certainly wakened, for she pressed her lips to mine. Two minutes after, +I heard something in her breathing which did not please me. I rose +hastily--brought a light--raised her head--two long, long gentle +sighs, that scarcely moved the lips, were all that could be perceived. +At that moment, at that very moment, Hannah called out to me that the +door was surrounded. 'Open it!' I said; six men entered; Agnes it was +they sought; I pointed to the bed; they advanced, gazed, and walked +away in silence. + +After this I wandered about, caring little for life or its affairs, and +roused only at times to think of vengeance upon all who had contributed +to lay waste my happiness. In this pursuit, however, I was confounded +as much by my own thoughts as by the difficulties of accomplishing my +purpose. To assault and murder either of the two principal agents in +this tragedy, what would it be, what other effect could it have, than +to invest them with the character of injured and suffering people, and +thus to attract a pity or a forgiveness at least to their persons which +never otherwise could have illustrated their deaths? I remembered, +indeed, the words of a sea-captain who had taken such vengeance as had +offered at the moment upon his bitter enemy and persecutor (a young +passenger on board his ship), who had informed against him at the +Custom-house on his arrival in port, and had thus effected the +confiscation of his ship, and the ruin of the captain's family. The +vengeance, and it was all that circumstances allowed, consisted in +coming behind the young man clandestinely and pushing him into the deep +waters of the dock, when, being unable to swim, he perished by +drowning. 'And the like,' said the captain, when musing on his trivial +vengeance, 'and the like happens to many an honest sailor.' Yes, +thought I, the captain was right. The momentary shock of a pistol- +bullet--what is it? Perhaps it may save the wretch after all from the +pangs of some lingering disease; and then again I shall have the +character of a murderer, if known to have shot him; he will with many +people have no such character, but at worst the character of a man too +harsh (they will say), and possibly mistaken in protecting his +property. And then, if not known as the man who shot him, where is the +shadow even of vengeance? Strange it seemed to me, and passing strange, +that I should be the person to urge arguments in behalf of letting this +man escape. For at one time I had as certainly, as inexorably, doomed +him as ever I took any resolution in my life. But the fact is, and I +began to see it upon closer view, it is not easy by any means to take +an adequate vengeance for any injury beyond a very trivial standard; +and that with common magnanimity one does not care to avenge. Whilst I +was in this mood of mind, still debating with myself whether I should +or should not contaminate my hands with the blood of this monster, and +still unable to shut my eyes upon one fact, viz. that my buried Agnes +could above all things have urged me to abstain from such acts of +violence, too evidently useless, listlessly and scarcely knowing what I +was in quest of, I strayed by accident into a church where a venerable +old man was preaching at the very moment I entered; he was either +delivering as a text, or repeating in the course of his sermon, these +words--'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.' By some +accident also he fixed his eyes upon me at the moment; and this +concurrence with the subject then occupying my thoughts so much +impressed me, that I determined very seriously to review my half-formed +purposes of revenge; and well it was that I did so: for in that same +week an explosion of popular fury brought the life of this wretched +Barratt to a shocking termination, pretty much resembling the fate of +the De Witts in Holland. And the consequences to me were such, and so +full of all the consolation and indemnification which this world could +give me, that I have often shuddered since then at the narrow escape I +had had from myself intercepting this remarkable retribution. The +villain had again been attempting to play off the same hellish scheme +with a beautiful young rustic which had succeeded in the case of my +ill-fated Agnes. But the young woman in this instance had a high, and, +in fact, termagant spirit. Rustic as she was, she had been warned of +the character of the man; everybody, in fact, was familiar with the +recent tragedy. Either her lover or her brother happened to be waiting +for her outside the window. He saw in part the very tricks in the act +of perpetration by which some article or other, meant to be claimed as +stolen property, was conveyed into a parcel she had incautiously laid +down. He heard the charge against her made by Barratt, and seconded by +his creatures--heard her appeal--sprang to her aid--dragged the ruffian +into the street, when in less time than the tale could be told, and +before the police (though tolerably alert) could effectually interpose +for his rescue, the mob had so used or so abused the opportunity they +had long wished for, that he remained the mere disfigured wreck of what +had once been a man, rather than a creature with any resemblance to +humanity. I myself heard the uproar at a distance, and the shouts and +yells of savage exultation; they were sounds I shall never forget, +though I did not at that time know them for what they were, or +understood their meaning. The result, however, to me was something +beyond this, and worthy to have been purchased with my heart's blood. +Barratt still breathed; spite of his mutilations he could speak; he was +rational. One only thing he demanded--it was that his dying confession +might be taken. Two magistrates and a clergyman attended. He gave a +list of those whom he had trepanned, and had failed to trepan, by his +artifices and threats, into the sacrifice of their honor. He expired +before the record was closed, but not before he had placed my wife's +name in the latter list as the one whose injuries in his dying moments +most appalled him. This confession on the following day went into the +hands of the hostile minister, and my revenge was perfect. + + + + +THE SPANISH NUN. + + +Why is it that _Adventures_ are so generally repulsive to people of +meditative minds? It is for the same reason that any other want of law, +that any other anarchy is repulsive. Floating passively from action to +action, as helplessly as a withered leaf surrendered to the breath of +winds, the human spirit (out of which comes all grandeur of human +motions) is exhibited in mere _Adventures_, as either entirely laid +asleep, or as acting only by lower organs that regulate the _means_, +whilst the _ends_ are derived from alien sources, and are imperiously +predetermined. It is a case of exception, however, when even amongst +such adventures the agent reacts upon his own difficulties and +necessities by a temper of extraordinary courage, and a mind of +premature decision. Further strength arises to such an exception, if +the very moulding accidents of the life, if the very external coercions +are themselves unusually romantic. They may thus gain a separate +interest of their own. And, lastly, the whole is locked into validity +of interest, even for the psychological philosopher, by complete +authentication of its truth. In the case now brought before him, the +reader must not doubt; for no memoir exists, or personal biography, +that is so trebly authenticated by proofs and attestations direct and +collateral. From the archives of the Royal Marine at Seville, from the +autobiography or the heroine, from contemporary chronicles, and from +several official sources scattered in and out of Spain, some of them +ecclesiastical, the amplest proofs have been drawn, and may yet be +greatly extended, of the extraordinary events here recorded. M. de +Ferrer, a Spaniard of much research, and originally incredulous as to +the facts, published about seventeen years ago a selection from the +leading documents, accompanied by his _palinode_ as to their accuracy. +His materials have been since used for the basis of more than one +narrative, not inaccurate, in French, German and Spanish journals of +high authority. It is seldom the case that French writers err by +prolixity. They _have_ done so in this case. The present narrative, +which contains no sentence derived from any foreign one, has the great +advantage of close compression; my own pages, after equating the size, +being as 1 to 3 of the shortest continental form. In the mode of +narration, I am vain enough to flatter myself that the reader will find +little reason to hesitate between us. Mine at least, weary nobody; +which is more than can be always said for the continental versions. + +On a night in the year 1592, (but which night is a secret liable to 365 +answers,) a Spanish '_son of somebody_,' [Footnote: _i.e._ 'Hidalgo'] +in the fortified town of St. Sebastian, received the disagreeable +intelligence from a nurse, that his wife had just presented him with a +daughter. No present that the poor misjudging lady could possibly have +made him was so entirely useless for any purpose of his. He had three +daughters already, which happened to be more by 2+1 than _his_ +reckoning assumed as a reasonable allowance of daughters. A +supernumerary son might have been stowed away; but daughters in excess +were the very nuisance of Spain. He did, therefore, what in such cases +every proud and lazy Spanish gentleman was apt to do--he wrapped the +new little daughter, odious to his paternal eyes, in a pocket +handkerchief; and then, wrapping up his own throat with a good deal +more care, off he bolted to the neighboring convent of St. Sebastian, +not merely of that city, but also (amongst several convents) the one +dedicated to that saint. It is well that in this quarrelsome world we +quarrel furiously about tastes; since agreeing too closely about the +objects to be liked and appropriated would breed much more fighting +than is bred by disagreeing. That little human tadpole, which the old +toad of a father would not suffer to stay ten minutes in his house, +proved as welcome at the nunnery of St. Sebastian as she was odious +elsewhere. The superior of the convent was aunt, by the mother's side, +to the new-born stranger. She, therefore, kissed and blessed the little +lady. The poor nuns, who were never to have any babies of their own, +and were languishing for some amusement, perfectly doated on this +prospect of a wee pet. The superior thanked the hidalgo for his very +splendid present. The nuns thanked him each and all; until the old +crocodile actually began to cry and whimper sentimentally at what he +now perceived to be excess of munificence in himself. Munificence, +indeed, he remarked, was his foible next after parental tenderness. + +What a luxury it is sometimes to a cynic that there go two words to a +bargain. In the convent of St. Sebastian all was gratitude; gratitude +(as aforesaid) to the hidalgo from all the convent for his present, +until at last the hidalgo began to express gratitude to _them_ for +their gratitude to _him_. Then came a rolling fire of thanks to +St. Sebastian; from the superior, for sending a future saint; from the +nuns, for sending such a love of a plaything; and, finally, from papa, +for sending such substantial board and well-bolted lodgings, 'from +which,' said the malicious old fellow, 'my pussy will never find her +way out to a thorny and dangerous world.' Won't she? I suspect, son of +somebody, that the next time you see 'pussy,' which may happen to be +also the last, will not be in a convent of any kind. At present, whilst +this general rendering of thanks was going on, one person only took no +part in them. That person was 'pussy,' whose little figure lay quietly +stretched out in the arms of a smiling young nun, with eyes nearly +shut, yet peering a little at the candles. Pussy said nothing. It's of +no great use to say much, when all the world is against you. But if St. +Sebastian had enabled her to speak out the whole truth, pussy +_would_ have said: 'So, Mr. Hidalgo, you have been engaging +lodgings for me; lodgings for life. Wait a little. We'll try that +question, when my claws are grown a little longer.' + +Disappointment, therefore, was gathering ahead. But for the present +there was nothing of the kind. That noble old crocodile, papa, was not +in the least disappointed as regarded _his_ expectation of having +no anxiety to waste, and no money to pay, on account of his youngest +daughter. He insisted on his right to forget her; and in a week +_had_ forgotten her, never to think of her again but once. The +lady superior, as regarded _her_ demands, was equally content, and +through a course of several years; for, as often as she asked pussy if +she would be a saint, pussy replied that she would, if saints were +allowed plenty of sweetmeats. But least of all were the nuns +disappointed. Everything that they had fancied possible in a human +plaything fell short of what pussy realized in racketing, racing, and +eternal plots against the peace of the elder nuns. No fox ever kept a +hen-roost in such alarm as pussy kept the dormitory of the senior +sisters; whilst the younger ladies were run off their legs by the +eternal wiles, and had their chapel gravity discomposed, even in +chapel, by the eternal antics of this privileged little kitten. + +The kitten had long ago received a baptismal name, which was Kitty; +this is Catharine, or Kate, or _Hispanice_ Catalina. It was a good +name, as it recalled her original name of pussy. And, by the way, she +had also an ancient and honorable surname, viz., _De Erauso_, which is +to this day a name rooted in Biscay. Her father, the _hidalgo_, was a +military officer in the Spanish service, and had little care whether +his kitten should turn out a wolf or a lamb, having made over the fee +simple of his own interest in the little Kate to St. Sebastian, 'to +have and to hold,' so long as Kate should keep her hold of this present +life. Kate had no apparent intention to let slip that hold, for she was +blooming as a rose-bush in June, tall and strong as a young cedar. Yet, +notwithstanding this robust health and the strength of the convent +walls, the time was drawing near when St. Sebastian's lease in Kate +must, in legal phrase, 'determine;' and any _chateaux en Espagne_, that +the Saint might have built on the cloisteral fidelity of his pet +Catalina, must suddenly give way in one hour, like many other vanities +in our own days of Spanish bonds and promises. After reaching her tenth +year, Catalina became thoughtful, and not very docile. At times she was +even headstrong and turbulent, so that the gentle sisterhood of St. +Sebastian, who had no other pet or plaything in the world, began to +weep in secret--fearing that they might have been rearing by mistake +some future tigress--for as to infancy, _that_, you know, is playful +and innocent even in the cubs of a tigress. But _there_ the ladies were +going too far. Catalina was impetuous and aspiring, but not cruel. She +was gentle, if people would let her be so. But woe to those that took +liberties with _her_! A female servant of the convent, in some +authority, one day, in passing up the aisle to matins, _wilfully_ gave +Kate a push; and in return, Kate, who never left her debts in arrear, +gave the servant for a keepsake a look which that servant carried with +her in fearful remembrance to her grave. It seemed as if Kate had +tropic blood in her veins, that continually called her away to the +tropics. It was all the fault of that 'blue rejoicing sky,' of those +purple Biscayan mountains, of that tumultuous ocean, which she beheld +daily from the nunnery gardens. Or, if only half of it was _their_ +fault, the other half lay in those golden tales, streaming upwards even +into the sanctuaries of convents, like morning mists touched by +earliest sunlight, of kingdoms overshadowing a new world which had been +founded by her kinsmen with the simple aid of a horse and a lance. The +reader is to remember that this is no romance, or at least no fiction, +that he is reading; and it is proper to remind the reader of real +romances in Ariosto or our own Spenser, that such martial ladies as the +_Marfisa_, or _Bradamant_ of the first, and _Britomart_ of the other, +were really not the improbabilities that modern society imagines. Many +a stout man, as you will soon see, found that Kate, with a sabre in +hand, and well mounted, was but too serious a fact. + +The day is come--the evening is come--when our poor Kate, that had for +fifteen years been so tenderly rocked in the arms of St. Sebastian and +his daughters, and that henceforth shall hardly find a breathing space +between eternal storms, must see her peaceful cell, must see the holy +chapel, for the last time. It was at vespers, it was during the +chanting of the vesper service, that she finally read the secret signal +for her departure, which long she had been looking for. It happened +that her aunt, the Lady Principal, had forgotten her breviary. As this +was in a private 'scrutoire, she did not choose to send a servant for +it, but gave the key to her niece. The niece, on opening the +'scrutoire, saw, with that rapidity of eye-glance for the one thing +needed in any great emergency, which ever attended her through life, +that _now_ was the moment for an attempt which, if neglected, +might never return. There lay the total keys, in one massive +_trousseau_, of that fortress impregnable even to armies from +without. Saint Sebastian! do you see what your pet is going to do? And +do it she will, as sure as your name is St. Sebastian. Kate went back +to her aunt with the breviary and the key; but taking good care to +leave that awful door, on whose hinge revolved her whole life, +unlocked. Delivering the two articles to the Superior, she complained +of a headache--[Ah, Kate! what did you know of headaches, except now +and then afterwards from a stray bullet, or so?]--upon which her aunt, +kissing her forehead, dismissed her to bed. Now, then, through three- +fourths of an hour Kate will have free elbow-room for unanchoring her +boat, for unshipping her oars, and for pulling ahead right out of St. +Sebastian's cove into the main ocean of life. + +Catalina, the reader is to understand, does not belong to the class of +persons in whom chiefly I pretend to an interest. But everywhere one +loves energy and indomitable courage. I, for my part, admire not, by +preference, anything that points to this world. It is the child of +reverie and profounder sensibility who turns _away_ from the world as +hateful and insufficient, that engages _my_ interest: whereas Catalina +was the very model of the class fitted for facing this world, and who +express their love to it by fighting with it and kicking it from year +to year. But, always, what is best in its kind one admires, even though +the kind be disagreeable. Kate's advantages for her _role_ in this life +lay in four things, viz., in a well-built person, and a particularly +strong wrist; 2d, in a heart that nothing could appal; 3d, in a +sagacious head, never drawn aside from the _hoc age_ [from the instant +question of life] by any weakness of imagination; 4th, in a tolerably +thick skin--not literally, for she was fair and blooming, and decidedly +handsome, having such a skin as became a young woman of family in +northernmost Spain. But her sensibilities were obtuse as regarded +_some_ modes of delicacy, _some_ modes of equity, _some_ modes of the +world's opinion, and _all_ modes whatever of personal hardship. Lay a +stress on that word _some_--for, as to delicacy, she never lost sight +of the kind which peculiarly concerns her sex. Long afterwards she told +the Pope himself, when confessing without disguise her sad and infinite +wanderings to the paternal old man (and I feel convinced of her +veracity), that in this respect, even then, at middle age, she was as +pure as is a child. And, as to equity, it was only that she substituted +the equity of camps for the polished (but often more iniquitous) equity +of courts and towns. As to the third item--the world's opinion--I don't +know that you need lay a stress on _some_; for, generally speaking, +_all_ that the world did, said, or thought, was alike contemptible in +her eyes, in which, perhaps, she was not so _very_ far wrong. I must +add, though at the cost of interrupting the story by two or three more +sentences, that Catalina had also a fifth advantage, which sounds +humbly, but is really of use in a world, where even to fold and seal a +letter adroitly is not the least of accomplishments. She was a _handy_ +girl. She could turn her hand to anything, of which I will give you two +memorable instances. Was there ever a girl in this world but herself +that cheated and snapped her fingers at that awful Inquisition, which +brooded over the convents of Spain, that did this without collusion +from outside, trusting to nobody, but to herself, and what? to one +needle, two hanks of thread, and a very inferior pair of scissors? For, +that the scissors were bad, though Kate does not say so in her memoirs, +I knew by an _a priori_ argument, viz., because _all_ scissors were bad +in the year 1607. Now, say all decent logicians, from a universal to a +particular _valet consequentia_, _all_ scissors were bad: _ergo_, +_some_ scissors were bad. The second instance of her handiness will +surprise you even more:--She once stood upon a scaffold, under sentence +of death--[but, understand, on the evidence of false witnesses]. Jack +Ketch was absolutely tying the knot under her ear, and the shameful man +of ropes fumbled so deplorably, that Kate (who by much nautical +experience had learned from another sort of 'Jack' how a knot _should_ +be tied in this world,) lost all patience with the contemptible artist, +told him she was ashamed of him, took the rope out of his hand, and +tied the knot irreproachably herself. The crowd saluted her with a +festal roll, long and loud, of _vivas_; and this word _viva_ of good +augury--but stop; let me not anticipate. + +From this sketch of Catalina's character, the reader is prepared to +understand the decision of her present proceeding. She had no time to +lose: the twilight favored her; but she must get under hiding before +pursuit commenced. Consequently she lost not one of her forty-five +minutes in picking and choosing. No _shilly-shally_ in Kate. She +saw with the eyeball of an eagle what was indispensable. Some little +money perhaps to pay the first toll-bar of life: so, out of four +shillings in Aunty's purse, she took one. You can't say _that_ was +exorbitant. Which of us wouldn't subscribe a shilling for poor Katy to +put into the first trouser pockets that ever she will wear? I remember +even yet, as a personal experience, that when first arrayed, at four +years old, in nankeen trousers, though still so far retaining +hermaphrodite relations of dress as to wear a petticoat above my +trousers, all my female friends (because they pitied me, as one that +had suffered from years of ague) filled my pockets with half-crowns, of +which I can render no account at this day. But what were my poor +pretensions by the side of Kate's? Kate was a fine blooming girl of +fifteen, with no touch of ague, and, before the next sun rises, Kate +shall draw on her first trousers, and made by her own hand; and, that +she may do so, of all the valuables in Aunty's repository she takes +nothing beside the shilling, _quantum sufficit_ of thread, one +stout needle, and (as I told you before, if you would please to +remember things) one bad pair of scissors. Now she was ready; ready to +cast off St. Sebastian's towing-rope; ready to cut and run for port +anywhere. The finishing touch of her preparations was to pick out the +proper keys: even there she showed the same discretion. She did do no +gratuitous mischief. She did not take the wine-cellar key, which would +have irritated the good father confessor; she took those keys only that +belonged to _her_, if ever keys did; for they were the keys that +locked her out from her natural birthright of liberty. 'Show me,' says +the Romish Casuist, 'her right in law to let herself out of that +nunnery.' 'Show us,' we reply, '_your_ right to lock her in.' + +Right or wrong, however, in strict casuistry, Kate was resolved to let +herself out; and _did_ so; and, for fear any man should creep in whilst +vespers lasted, and steal the kitchen grate, she locked her old friends +_in_. Then she sought a shelter. The air was not cold. She hurried into +a chestnut wood, and upon withered leaves slept till dawn. Spanish diet +and youth leaves the digestion undisordered, and the slumbers light. +When the lark rose, up rose Catalina. No time to lose, for she was +still in the dress of a nun, and liable to be arrested by any man in +Spain. With her _armed_ finger, [aye, by the way, I forgot the thimble; +but Kate did _not_]--she set to work upon her amply-embroidered +petticoat. She turned it wrong side out; and with the magic that only +female hands possess, she had soon sketched and finished a dashing pair +of Wellington trousers. All other changes were made according to the +materials she possessed, and quite sufficiently to disguise the two +main perils--her sex, and her monastic dedication. What was she to do +next. Speaking of Wellington trousers would remind _us_, but could +hardly remind _her_, of Vittoria, where she dimly had heard of some +maternal relative. To Vittoria, therefore, she bent her course; and, +like the Duke of Wellington, but arriving more than two centuries +earlier, [though _he_ too is an early riser,] she gained a great +victory at that place. She had made a two days' march, baggage far in +the rear, and no provisions but wild berries; she depended for anything +better, as light-heartedly as the Duke, upon attacking, sword in hand, +storming her dear friend's entrenchments, and effecting a lodgment in +his breakfast-room, should he happen to have one. This amiable +relative, an elderly man, had but one foible, or perhaps one virtue in +this world; but _that_ he had in perfection,--it was pedantry. On that +hint Catalina spoke: she knew by heart, from the services of the +convent, a few Latin phrases. Latin!--Oh, but _that_ was charming; and +in one so young! The grave Don owned the soft impeachment; relented at +once, and clasped the hopeful young gentleman in the Wellington +trousers to his _uncular_ and rather angular breast. In this house the +yarn of life was of a mingled quality. The table was good, but that was +exactly what Kate cared little about. The amusement was of the worst +kind. It consisted chiefly in conjugating Latin verbs, especially such +as were obstinately irregular. To show him a withered frost-bitten +verb, that wanted its preterite, wanted its supines, wanted, in fact, +everything in this world, fruits or blossoms, that make a verb +desirable, was to earn the Don's gratitude for life. All day long he +was marching and countermarching his favorite brigades of verbs--verbs +frequentative, verbs inceptive, verbs desiderative--horse, foot, and +artillery; changing front, advancing from the rear, throwing out +skirmishing parties, until Kate, not given to faint, must have thought +of such a resource, as once in her life she had thought so seasonably +of a vesper headache. This was really worse than St. Sebastian's. It +reminds one of a French gayety in Thiebault or some such author, who +describes a rustic party, under equal despair, as employing themselves +in conjugating the verb _s'ennuyer,--Je m'ennuie, tu t'ennuies, il +s'ennuit; nous nous ennuyons_, &c.; thence to the imperfect--_Je +m'ennuyois, tu t'ennuyois_, &c.; thence to the imperative--_Qu'il +s'ennuye_, &c.; and so on through the whole melancholy conjugation. +Now, you know, when the time comes that, _nous nous ennuyons_, the best +course is, to part. Kate saw _that_; and she walked off from the Don's +[of whose amorous passion for defective verbs one would have wished to +know the catastrophe], and took from his mantel-piece rather move +silver than she had levied on her aunt. But the Don also was a +relative; and really he owed her a small cheque on his banker for +turning out on his field-days. A man, if he _is_ a kinsman, has no +right to bore one _gratis_. + +From Vittoria, Kate was guided by a carrier to Valladolid. Luckily, as +it seemed at first, but it made little difference in the end, here, at +Valladolid, were the King and his Court. Consequently, there was plenty +of regiments and plenty of regimental bands. Attracted by one of these, +Catalina was quietly listening to the music, when some street ruffians, +in derision of the gay colors and the form of her forest-made costume-- +[rascals! one would like to have seen what sort of trousers _they_ +would have made with no better scissors!]--began to pelt her with +stones. Ah, my friends, of the genus _blackguard_, you little know +who it is that you are selecting for experiments. This is the one +creature of fifteen in all Spain, be the other male or female, whom +nature, and temper, and provocation have qualified for taking the +conceit out of you. This she very soon did, laying open a head or two +with a sharp stone, and letting out rather too little than too much of +bad Valladolid blood. But mark the constant villany of this world. +Certain Alguazils--very like some other Alguazils that I know nearer +home--having stood by quietly to see the friendless stranger insulted +and assaulted, now felt it their duty to apprehend the poor nun for +murderous violence: and had there been such a thing as a treadmill in +Valladolid, Kate was booked for a place on it without further inquiry. +Luckily, injustice does not _always_ prosper. A gallant young +cavalier, who had witnessed from his windows the whole affair, had seen +the provocation, and admired Catalina's behavior--equally patient at +first and bold at last--hastened into the street, pursued the officers, +forced them to release their prisoner, upon stating the circumstances +of the case, and instantly offered Catalina a situation amongst his +retinue. He was a man of birth and fortune; and the place offered, that +of an honorary page, not being at all degrading even to a 'daughter of +somebody,' was cheerfully accepted. Here Catalina spent a happy month. +She was now splendidly dressed in dark blue velvet, by a tailor that +did not work within the gloom of a chestnut forest. She and the young +cavalier, Don Francisco de Cardenas, were mutually pleased, and had +mutual confidence. All went well--when one evening, but, luckily, not +until the sun had been set so long as to make all things indistinct, +who should march into the ante-chamber of the cavalier but that sublime +of crocodiles, _Papa_, that we lost sight of fifteen years ago, +and shall never see again after this night. He had his crocodile tears +all ready for use, in working order, like a good industrious fire- +engine. It was absolutely to Catalina herself that he advanced; whom, +for many reasons, he could not be supposed to recognise--lapse of +years, male attire, twilight, were all against him. Still, she might +have the family countenance; and Kate thought he looked with a +suspicious scrutiny into her face, as he inquired for the young Don. To +avert her own face, to announce him to Don Francisco, to wish him on +the shores of that ancient river for crocodiles, the Nile, furnished +but one moment's work to the active Catalina. She lingered, however, as +her place entitled her to do, at the door of the audience chamber. She +guessed already, but in a moment she _heard_ from papa's lips what +was the nature of his errand. His daughter Catharine, he informed the +Don, had eloped from the convent of St. Sebastian, a place rich in +delight. Then he laid open the unparalleled ingratitude of such a step. +Oh, the unseen treasure that had been spent upon that girl! Oh, the +untold sums of money that he had sunk in that unhappy speculation! The +nights of sleeplessness suffered during her infancy! The fifteen years +of solicitude thrown away in schemes for her improvement! It would have +moved the heart of a stone. The _hidalgo_ wept copiously at his +own pathos. And to such a height of grandeur had he carried his Spanish +sense of the sublime, that he disdained to mention the pocket- +handkerchief which he had left at St. Sebastian's fifteen years ago, by +way of envelope for 'pussy,' and which, to the best of pussy's +knowledge, was the one sole memorandum of papa ever heard of at St. +Sebastian's. Pussy, however, saw no use in revising and correcting the +text of papa's remembrances. She showed her usual prudence, and her +usual incomparable decision. It did not appear, as yet, that she would +be reclaimed, or was at all suspected for the fugitive by her father. +For it is an instance of that singular fatality which pursued Catalina +through life, that, to her own astonishment, (as she now collected from +her father's conference,) nobody had traced her to Valladolid, nor had +her father's visit any connection with suspicious travelling in that +direction. The case was quite different. Strangely enough, her street +row had thrown her into the one sole household in all Spain that had an +official connection with St. Sebastian's. That convent had been founded +by the young cavalier's family; and, according to the usage of Spain, +the young man (as present representative of his house) was the +responsible protector of the establishment. It was not to the Don, as +harborer of his daughter, but to the Don, as _ex officio_ visitor +of the convent, that the hidalgo was appealing. Probably Kate might +have staid safely some time longer. Yet, again, this would but have +multiplied the clues for tracing her; and, finally, she would too +probably have been discovered; after which, with all his youthful +generosity, the poor Don could not have protected her. Too terrific was +the vengeance that awaited an abettor of any fugitive nun; but, above +all, if such a crime were perpetrated by an official mandatory of the +church. Yet, again, so far it was the more hazardous course to abscond, +that it almost revealed her to the young Don as the missing daughter. +Still, if it really _had_ that effect, nothing at present obliged +him to pursue her, as might have been the case a few weeks later. Kate +argued (I dare say) rightly, as she always did. Her prudence whispered +eternally, that safety there was none for her, until she had laid the +Atlantic between herself and St. Sebastian's. Life was to be for +_her_ a Bay of Biscay; and it was odds but she had first embarked +upon this billowy life from the literal Bay of Biscay. Chance ordered +otherwise. Or, as a Frenchman says with eloquent ingenuity, in +connection with this story, 'Chance is but the _pseudonyme_ of God +for those particular cases which he does not subscribe openly with his +own sign manual.' She crept up stairs to her bed-room. Simple are the +travelling preparations of those that, possessing nothing, have no +imperials to pack. She had Juvenal's qualification for carolling gaily +through a forest full of robbers; for she had nothing to lose but a +change of linen, that rode easily enough under her left arm, leaving +the right free for answering any questions of impertinent customers. As +she crept down stairs, she heard the Crocodile still weeping forth his +sorrows to the pensive ear of twilight, and to the sympathetic Don +Francisco. Now, it would not have been filial or lady-like for Kate to +do what I am going to suggest; but what a pity that some gay brother +page had not been there to turn aside into the room, armed with a +roasted potato, and, taking a sportsman's aim, to have lodged it in the +Crocodile's abominable mouth. Yet, what an anachronism! There +_were_ no roasted potatoes in Spain at that date, and very few in +England. But anger drives a man to say anything. + +Catalina had seen her last of friends and enemies in Valladolid. Short +was her time there; but she had improved it so far as to make a few of +both. There was an eye or two in Valladolid that would have glared with +malice upon her, had she been seen by _all_ eyes in that city, as +she tripped through the streets in the dusk; and eyes there were that +would have softened into tears, had they seen the desolate condition of +the child, or in vision had seen the struggles that were before her. +But what's the use of wasting tears upon our Kate? Wait till to-morrow +morning at sunrise, and see if she is particularly in need of pity. +What now should a young lady do--I propose it as a subject for a prize +essay--that finds herself in Valladolid at nighfall, having no letters +of introduction, not aware of any reason great or small for preferring +any street in general, except so far as she knows of some reason for +avoiding one or two streets in particular? The great problem I have +stated, Kate investigated as she went along; and she solved it with the +accuracy with which she ever applied to _practical_ exigencies. +Her conclusion was--that the best door to knock at in such a case was +the door where there was no need to knock at all, as being unfastened, +and open to all comers. For she argued that within such a door there +would be nothing to steal, so that, at least, you could not be mistaken +in the ark for a thief. Then, as to stealing from _her_, they +might do that if they could. + +Upon these principles, which hostile critics will in vain endeavor to +undermine, she laid her hand upon what seemed a rude stable door. Such +it proved. There was an empty cart inside, certainly there was, but you +couldn't take _that_ away in your pocket; and there were five +loads of straw, but then of those a lady could take no more than her +_reticule_ would carry, which perhaps was allowed by the courtesy +of Spain. So Kate was right as to the difficulty of being challenged +for a thief. Closing the door as gently as she had opened it, she +dropped her person, dressed as she was, upon the nearest heap of straw. +Some ten feet further were lying two muleteers, honest and happy +enough, as compared with the lords of the bed-chamber then in +Valladolid: but still gross men, carnally deaf from eating garlic and +onions, and other horrible substances. Accordingly, they never heard +her, nor were aware, until dawn, that such a blooming person existed. +But she was aware of _them_, and of their conversation. They were +talking of an expedition for America, on the point of sailing under Don +Ferdinand de Cordova. It was to sail from some Andalusian port. That +was the very thing for _her_. At daylight she woke, and jumped up, +needing no more toilet than the birds that already were singing in the +gardens, or than the two muleteers, who, good, honest fellows, saluted +the handsome boy kindly--thinking no ill at his making free with +_their_ straw, though no leave had been asked. + +With these philo-garlic men Kate took her departure. The morning was +divine: and leaving Valladolid with the transports that befitted such a +golden dawn, feeling also already, in the very obscurity of her exit, +the pledge of her escape; she cared no longer for the Crocodile, or for +St. Sebastian, or (in the way of fear) for the protector of St. +Sebastian, though of _him_ she thought with some tenderness; so +deep is the remembrance of kindness mixed with justice. Andalusia she +reached rather slowly; but many months before she was sixteen years +old, and quite in time for the expedition. St. Lucar being the port of +rendezvous for the Peruvian expedition, thither she went. All comers +were welcome on board the fleet; much more a fine young fellow like +Kate. She was at once engaged as a mate; and _her_ ship, in +particular, after doubling Cape Horn without loss, made the coast of +Peru. Paita was the port of her destination. Very near to this port +they were, when a storm threw them upon a coral reef. There was little +hope of the ship from the first, for she was unmanageable, and was not +expected to hold together for twenty-four hours. In this condition, +with death before their faces, mark what Kate did; and please to +remember it for her benefit, when she does any other little thing that +angers you. The crew lowered the long-boat. Vainly the captain +protested against this disloyal desertion of a king's ship, which might +yet perhaps be run on shore, so as to save the stores. All the crew, to +a man, deserted the captain. You may say _that_ literally; for the +single exception was _not_ a man, being our bold-hearted Kate. She +was the only sailor that refused to leave her captain, or the king of +Spain's ship. The rest pulled away for the shore, and with fair hopes +of reaching it. But one half-hour told another tale: just about that +time came a broad sheet of lightning, which, through the darkness of +evening, revealed the boat in the very act of mounting like a horse +upon an inner reef, instantly filling, and throwing out the crew, every +man of whom disappeared amongst the breakers. The night which succeeded +was gloomy for both the representatives of his Catholic Majesty. It +cannot be denied by the greatest of philosophers, that the muleteer's +stable at Valladolid was worth twenty such ships, though the stable was +_not_ insured against fire, and the ship _was_ insured against the sea +and the wind by some fellow that thought very little of his +engagements. But what's the use of sitting down to cry? That was never +any trick of Catalina's. By daybreak, she was at work with an axe +in her hand. I knew it, before ever I came to this place, in her +memoirs. I felt, as sure as if I had read it, that when day broke, we +should find Kate hard at work. Thimble or axe, trousers or raft, all +one to _her_. + +The Captain, though true to his duty, seems to have desponded. He gave +no help towards the raft. Signs were speaking, however, pretty loudly +that he must do something; for notice to quit was now served pretty +liberally. Kate's raft was ready; and she encouraged the captain to +think that it would give both of them something to hold by in swimming, +if not even carry double. At this moment, when all was waiting for a +start, and the ship herself was waiting for a final lurch, to say +_Good-bye_ to the King of Spain, Kate went and did a thing which +some misjudging people will object to. She knew of a box laden with +gold coins, reputed to be the King of Spain's, and meant for +contingencies in the voyage out. This she smashed open with her axe, +and took a sum equal to one hundred guineas English; which, having well +secured in a pillow-case, she then lashed firmly to the raft. Now this, +you know, though not _flotsam_, because it would not float, was +certainly, by maritime law, '_jetsom_.' It would be the idlest of +scruples to fancy that the sea or a shark had a better right to it than +a philosopher, or a splendid girl who showed herself capable of writing +a very fair 8vo, to say nothing of her decapitating in battle several +of the king's enemies, and recovering the king's banner. No sane +moralist would hesitate to do the same thing under the same +circumstances, on board an English vessel, though the First Lord of the +Admiralty should be looking on. The raft was now thrown into the sea. +Kate jumped after it, and then entreated the captain to follow her. He +attempted it; but, wanting her youthful agility, he struck his head +against a spar, and sank like lead, giving notice below that his ship +was coming. Kate mounted the raft, and was gradually washed ashore, but +so exhausted, as to have lost all recollection. She lay for hours until +the warmth of the sun revived her. On sitting up, she saw a desolate +shore stretching both ways--nothing to eat, nothing to drink, but +fortunately the raft and the money had been thrown near her; none of +the lashings having given way--only what is the use of a guinea amongst +tangle and sea-gulls? The money she distributed amongst her pockets, +and soon found strength to rise and march forward. But which _was_ +forward? and which backward? She knew by the conversation of the +sailors that Paita must be in the neighborhood; and Paita, being a +port, could not be in the inside of Peru, but, of course, somewhere on +its outside--and the outside of a maritime land must be the shore; so +that, if she kept the shore, and went far enough, she could not fail of +hitting her foot against Paita at last, in the very darkest night, +provided only she could first find out which was _up_ and which +was _down_; else she might walk her shoes off, and find herself +six thousand miles in the wrong. Here was an awkward case, all for want +of a guide-post. Still, when one thinks of Kate's prosperous horoscope, +that after so long a voyage, _she_ only, out of the total crew, +was thrown on the American shore, with one hundred and five pounds in +her purse of clear gain on the voyage, a conviction arises that she +_could_ not guess wrongly. She might have tossed up, having coins +in her pocket, _heads or tails_? but this kind of sortilege was +then coming to be thought irreligious in Christendom, as a Jewish and a +Heathen mode of questioning the dark future. She simply guessed, +therefore; and very soon a thing happened which, though adding nothing +to strengthen her guess as a true one, did much to sweeten it if it +should prove a false one. On turning a point of the shore, she came +upon a barrel of biscuit washed ashore from the ship. Biscuit is about +the best thing I know, but it is the soonest spoiled; and one would +like to hear counsel on one puzzling point, why it is that a touch of +water utterly ruins it, taking its life, and leaving a _caput +mortuum_ corpse! Upon this _caput_ Kate breakfasted, though +_her_ case was worse than mine; for any water that ever plagued +_me_ was always fresh; now _hers_ was a present from the +Pacific ocean. She, that was always prudent, packed up some of the +Catholic king's biscuit, as she had previously packed up far too little +of his gold. But in such cases a most delicate question occurs, +pressing equally on medicine and algebra. It is this: if you pack up +too much, then, by this extra burthen of salt provisions, you may +retard for days your arrival at fresh provisions; on the other hand, if +you pack up too little, you may never arrive at all. Catalina hit the +_juste milieu;_ and about twilight on the second day, she found +herself entering Paita, without having had to swim any river in her +walk. + +The first thing, in such a case of distress, which a young lady does, +even if she happens to be a young gentleman, is to beautify her dress. +Kate always attended to _that_, as we know, having overlooked her +in the chestnut wood. The man she sent for was not properly a tailor, +but one who employed tailors, he himself furnishing the materials. His +name was Urquiza, a fact of very little importance to us in 1847, if it +had stood only at the head and foot of Kate's little account. But +unhappily for Kate's _début_ on this vast American stage, the case +was otherwise. Mr. Urquiza had the misfortune (equally common in the +old world and the new) of being a knave; and also a showy specious +knave. Kate, who had prospered under sea allowances of biscuit and +hardship, was now expanding in proportions. With very little vanity or +consciousness on that head, she now displayed a really fine person; +and, when drest anew in the way that became a young officer in the +Spanish service, she looked [Footnote: _'She looked,' etc_. If +ever the reader should visit Aix-la-Chapelle, he will probably feel +interest enough in the poor, wild impassioned girl, to look out for a +picture of her in that city, and the only one known _certainly_ to +be authentic. It is in the collection of Mr. Sempeller. For some time +it was supposed that the best (if not the only) portrait of her lurked +somewhere in Italy. Since the discovery of the picture at Aix-la- +Chapelle, that notion has been abandoned. But there is great reason to +believe that, both in Madrid and Rome, many portraits of her must have +been painted to meet the intense interest which arose in her history +subsequently amongst all the men of rank, military or ecclesiastical, +whether in Italy or Spain. The date of these would range between +sixteen and twenty-two years from, the period which we have now reached +(1608.)] the representative picture of a Spanish _caballador_. It +is strange that such an appearance, and such a rank, should have +suggested to Urquiza the presumptuous idea of wishing that Kate might +become his clerk. He _did_, however wish it; for Kate wrote a +beautiful hand; and a stranger thing is, that Kate accepted his +proposal. This might arise from the difficulty of moving in those days +to any distance in Peru. The ship had been merely bringing stores to +the station of Paita; and no corps of the royal armies was readily to +be reached, whilst something must be done at once for a livelihood. +Urquiza had two mercantile establishments, one at Trujillo, to which he +repaired in person, on Kate's agreeing to undertake the management of +the other in Paita. Like the sensible girl, that we have always found +her, she demanded specific instructions for her guidance in duties so +new. Certainly she was in a fair way for seeing life. Telling her beads +at St. Sebastian's, manoeuvreing irregular verbs at Vittoria, acting as +gentleman-usher at Valladolid, serving his Spanish Majesty round Cape +Horn, fighting with storms and sharks off the coast of Peru, and now +commencing as book-keeper or _commis_ to a draper at Paita, does +she not justify the character that I myself gave her, just before +dismissing her from St. Sebastian's, of being a 'handy' girl? Mr. +Urquiza's instructions were short, easy to be understood, but rather +comic; and yet, which is odd, they led to tragic results. There were +two debtors of the shop, (_many_, it is to be hoped, but two +meriting his affectionate notice,) with respect to whom he left the +most opposite directions. The one was a very handsome lady; and the +rule as to _her_ was, that she was to have credit unlimited, +strictly unlimited. That was plain. The other customer, favored by Mr. +Urquiza's valedictory thoughts, was a young man, cousin to the handsome +lady, and bearing the name of Reyes. This youth occupied in Mr. +Urquiza's estimate the same hyperbolical rank as the handsome lady, but +on the opposite side of the equation. The rule as to _him_ was-- +that he was to have _no_ credit; strictly none. In this case, +also, Kate saw no difficulty; and when she came to know Mr. Reyes a +little, she found the path of pleasure coinciding with the path of +duty. Mr. Urquiza could not be more precise in laying down the rule +than Kate was in enforcing it. But in the other case a scruple arose. +_Unlimited_ might be a word, not of Spanish law, but of Spanish +rhetoric; such as '_Live a thousand years_,' which even annuity +offices hear, and perhaps utter, without a pang. Kate, therefore, wrote +to Trujillo, expressing her honest fears, and desiring to have more +definite instructions. These were positive. If the lady chose to send +for the entire shop, her account was to be debited instantly with +_that_. She had, however, as yet, not sent for the shop, but she +began to manifest strong signs of sending for the shop _man_. Upon +the blooming young Biscayan had her roving eye settled; and she was in +a course of making up her mind to take Kate for a sweetheart. Poor Kate +saw this with a heavy heart. And, at the same time that she had a +prospect of a tender friend more than she wanted, she had become +certain of an extra enemy that she wanted quite as little. What she had +done to offend Mr. Reyes, Kate could not guess, except as to the matter +of the credit; but then, in that, she only executed her instructions. +Still Mr. Reyes was of opinion that there were two ways of executing +orders: but the main offence was unintentional on Kate's part. Reyes, +though as yet she did not know it, had himself been a candidate for the +situation of clerk; and intended probably to keep the equation +precisely as it was with respect to the allowance of credit, only to +change places with the handsome lady--keeping _her_ on the +negative side, himself on the affirmative--an arrangement that you know +could have made no sort of pecuniary difference to Urquiza. + +Thus stood matters, when a party of strolling players strolled into +Paita. Kate, as a Spaniard, being one held of the Paita aristocracy, +was expected to attend. She did so; and there also was the malignant +Reyes. He came and seated himself purposely so as to shut out Kate from +all view of the stage. She, who had nothing of the bully in her nature, +and was a gentle creature when her wild Biscayan blood had not been +kindled by insult, courteously requested him to move a little; upon +which Reyes remarked that it was not in his power to oblige the clerk +as to that, but that he _could_ oblige him by cutting his throat. +The tiger that slept in Catalina wakened at once. She seized him, and +would have executed vengeance on the spot, but that a party of young +men interposed to part them. The next day, when Kate (always ready to +forget and forgive) was thinking no more of the row, Reyes passed; by +spitting at the window, and other gestures insulting to Kate, again he +roused her Spanish blood. Out she rushed, sword in hand--a duel began +in the street, and very soon Kate's sword had passed into the heart of +Reyes. Now that the mischief was done, the police were, as usual, all +alive for the pleasure of avenging it. Kate found herself suddenly in a +strong prison, and with small hopes of leaving it, except for +execution. The relations of the dead man were potent in Paita, and +clamorous for justice, so that the _corregidor_, in a case where +he saw a very poor chance of being corrupted by bribes, felt it his +duty to be sublimely incorruptible. The reader knows, however, that, +amongst the relatives of the deceased bully, was that handsome lady, +who differed as much from her cousin in her sentiments as to Kate, as +she did in the extent of her credit with Mr. Urquiza. To _her_ +Kate wrote a note; and, using one of the Spanish King's gold coins for +bribing the jailor, got it safely delivered. That, perhaps, was +unnecessary; for the lady had been already on the alert, and had +summoned Urquiza from Trujillo. By some means, not very luminously +stated, and by paying proper fees in proper quarters, Kate was smuggled +out of the prison at nightfall, and smuggled into a pretty house in the +suburbs. Had she known exactly the footing she stood on as to the law, +she would have been decided. As it was, she was uneasy, and jealous of +mischief abroad; and, before supper, she understood it all. Urquiza +briefly informed his clerk, that it would be requisite for him to marry +the handsome lady. But why? Because, said Urquiza, after talking for +hours with the _corregidor_, who was infamous for obstinacy, he +had found it impossible to make him 'hear reason,' and release the +prisoner, until this compromise of marriage was suggested. But how +could public justice be pacified for the clerk's unfortunate homicide +of Reyes, by a female cousin of the deceased man engaging to love, +honor, and obey the clerk for life? Kate could not see her way through +this logic. 'Nonsense, my friend,' said Urquiza, 'you don't comprehend. +As it stands, the affair is a murder, and hanging the penalty. But, if +you marry into the murdered man's house, then it becomes a little +family murder, all quiet and comfortable amongst ourselves. What has +the _corregidor_ to do with that? or the public either? Now, let +me introduce the bride.' Supper entered at that moment, and the bride +immediately after. The thoughtfulness of Kate was narrowly observed, +and even alluded to, but politely ascribed to the natural anxieties of +a prisoner, and the very imperfect state of liberation even yet from +prison _surveillance_. Kate had, indeed, never been in so trying a +situation before. The anxieties of the farewell night at St. Sebastian +were nothing to this; because, even if she had failed _then_, a +failure might not have been always irreparable. It was but to watch and +wait. But now, at this supper table, she was not more alive to the +nature of the peril than she was to the fact, that if, before the night +closed, she did not by some means escape from it, she never +_would_ escape with life. The deception as to her sex, though +resting on no motive that pointed to these people, or at all concerned +them, would be resented as if it had. The lady would resent the case as +a mockery; and Urquiza would lose his opportunity of delivering himself +from an imperious mistress. According to the usages of the times and +country, Kate knew that in twelve hours she would be assassinated. + +People of infirmer resolution would have lingered at the supper table, +for the sake of putting off the evil moment of final crisis. Not so +Kate. She had revolved the case on all its sides in a few minutes, and +had formed her resolution. This done, she was as ready for the trial at +one moment as another; and, when the lady suggested that the hardships +of a prison must have made repose desirable, Kate assented, and +instantly rose. A sort of procession formed, for the purpose of doing +honor to the interesting guest, and escorting him in pomp to his +bedroom. Kate viewed it much in the same light as the procession to +which for some days she had been expecting an invitation from the +_corregidor_. Far ahead ran the servant-woman as a sort of +outrider. Then came Urquiza, like a Pasha of two tails, who granted two +sorts of credit, viz. unlimited and none at all, bearing two wax- +lights, one in each hand, and wanting only cymbals and kettle-drums to +express emphatically the pathos of his Castilian strut. Next came the +bride, a little in advance of the clerk, but still turning obliquely +towards him, and smiling graciously into his face. Lastly, bringing up +the rear, came the prisoner--our Kate--the nun, the page, the mate, the +clerk, the homicide, the convict; and, for this day only, by particular +desire, the bridegroom elect. + +It was Kate's fixed opinion, that, if for a moment she entered any +bedroom having obviously no outlet, her fate would be that of an ox +once driven within the shambles. Outside, the bullock might make some +defence with his horns; but once in, with no space for turning, he is +muffled and gagged. She carried her eye, therefore, like a hawk's, +steady, though restless, for vigilant examination of every angle she +turned. Before she entered any bedroom, she was resolved to reconnoiter +it from the doorway, and, in case of necessity, show fight at once, +before entering--as the best chance, after all, where all chances were +bad. Everything ends; and at last the procession reached the bedroom +door, the outrider having filed off to the rear. One glance sufficed to +satisfy Kate that windows there were none, and, therefore, no outlet +for escape. Treachery appeared even in _that_; and Kate, though +unfortunately without arms, was now fixed for resistance. Mr. Urquiza +entered first--'Sound the trumpets! Beat the drums!' There were, as we +know already, no windows; but a slight interruption to Mr. Urquiza's +pompous tread showed that there were steps downwards into the room. +Those, thought Kate, will suit me even better. She had watched the +unlocking of the bedroom door--she had lost nothing--she had marked +that the key was left in the lock. At this moment, the beautiful lady, +as one acquainted with the details of the house, turning with the air +of a gracious monitress, held out her fair hand to guide Kate in +careful descent of the steps. This had the air of taking out Kate to +dance; and Kate, at that same moment, answering to it by the gesture of +a modern waltzer, threw her arm behind the lady's waist, hurled her +headlong down the steps right against Mr. Urquiza, draper and +haberdasher; and then, with the speed of lightning, throwing the door +_home_ within its architrave, doubly locked the creditor and +debtor into the rat-trap which they had prepared for herself. + +The affrighted out-rider fled with horror: she already knew that the +clerk had committed one homicide; a second would cost him still less +thought; and thus it happened that egress was left easy. But, when out +and free once more in the bright starry night, which way should Kate +turn? The whole city would prove but a rat-trap for her, as bad as Mr. +Urquiza's, if she was not off before morning. At a glance she +comprehended that the sea was her only chance. To the port she fled. +All was silent. Watchmen there were none. She jumped into a boat. To +use the oars was dangerous, for she had no means of muffling them. But +she contrived to hoist a sail, pushed off with a boat-hook, and was +soon stretching across the water for the mouth of the harbor before a +breeze light but favorable. Having cleared the difficulties of exit she +lay down, and unintentionally fell asleep. When she awoke the sun had +been up three or four hours; all was right otherwise; but had she not +served as a sailor, Kate would have trembled upon finding that, during +her long sleep of perhaps seven or eight hours, she had lost sight of +land; by what distance she could only guess; and in what direction, was +to some degree doubtful. All this, however, seemed a great advantage to +the bold girl, throwing her thoughts back on the enemies she had left +behind. The disadvantage was--having no breakfast, not even damaged +biscuit; and some anxiety naturally arose as to ulterior prospects a +little beyond the horizon of breakfast. But who's afraid? As sailors +whistle for a wind, Catalina really had but to whistle for anything +with energy, and it was sure to come. Like Caesar to the pilot of +Dyrrhachium, she might have said, for the comfort of her poor timorous +boat, (though destined soon to perish,) '_Catalinam vehis, et +fortunas ejus_.' Meantime, being very doubtful as to the best course +for sailing, and content if her course did but lie offshore, she +'carried on,' as sailors say, under easy sail, going, in fact, just +whither and just how the Pacific breezes suggested in the gentlest of +whispers. _All right behind_, was Kate's opinion; and, what was +better, very soon she might say, _all right ahead:_ for some hour +or two before sunset, when dinner was for once becoming, even to Kate, +the most interesting of subjects for meditation, suddenly a large ship +began to swell upon the brilliant atmosphere. In those latitudes, and +in those years, any ship was pretty sure to be Spanish: sixty years +later the odds were in favor of its being an English buccaneer; which +would have given a new direction to Kate's energy. Kate continued to +make signals with a handkerchief whiter than the crocodile's of Ann. +Dom. 1592, else it would hardly have been noticed. Perhaps, after all, +it would not, but that the ship's course carried her very nearly across +Kate's. The stranger lay-to for her. It was dark by the time Kate +steered herself under the ship's quarter; and _then_ was seen an +instance of this girl's eternal wakefulness. Something was painted on +the stern of her boat, she could not see _what;_ but she judged +that it would express some connection with the port that she had just +quitted. Now it was her wish to break the chain of traces connecting +her with such a scamp as Urquiza; since else, through his commercial +correspondence, he might disperse over Peru a portrait of herself by no +means flattering. How should she accomplish this? It was dark; and she +stood, as you may see an Etonian do at times, rocking her little boat +from side to side, until it had taken in water as much as might be +agreeable. Too much it proved for the boat's constitution, and the boat +perished of dropsy--Kate declining to tap it. She got a ducking +herself; but what cared she? Up the ship's side she went, as gaily as +ever, in those years when she was called pussy, she had raced after the +nuns of St. Sebastian; jumped upon deck, and told the first lieutenant, +when he questioned her about her adventures, quite as much truth as any +man, under the rank of admiral, had a right to expect. + +This ship was full of recruits for the Spanish army, and bound to +Concepcion. Even in that destiny was an iteration, or repeating +memorial of the significance that ran through Catalina's most casual +adventures. She had enlisted amongst the soldiers; and, on reaching +port, the very first person who came off from shore was a dashing young +military officer, whom at once by his name and rank, (though she had +never consciously seen him,) she identified as her own brother. He was +splendidly situated in the service, being the Governor-General's +secretary, besides his rank as a cavalry officer; and, his errand on +board being to inspect the recruits, naturally, on reading in the roll +one of them described as a Biscayan, the ardent young man came up with +high-bred courtesy to Catalina, took the young recruit's hand with +kindness, feeling that to be a compatriot at so great a distance was to +be a sort of relative, and asked with emotion after old boyish +remembrances. There was a scriptural pathos in what followed, as if it +were some scene of domestic re-union, opening itself from patriarchal +ages. The young officer was the eldest son of the house, and had left +Spain when Catalina was only three years old. But, singularly enough, +Catalina it was, the little wild cat that he yet remembered seeing at +St. Sebastian's, upon whom his earliest inquiries settled. 'Did the +recruit know his family, the De Erausos?' O yes, every body knew +_them_. 'Did the recruit know little Catalina?' Catalina smiled, +as she replied that she did; and gave such an animated description of +the little fiery wretch, as made the officer's eye flash with gratified +tenderness, and with certainty that the recruit was no counterfeit +Biscayan. Indeed, you know, if Kate couldn't give a good description of +'Pussy,' who could? The issue of the interview was--that the officer +insisted on Kate's making a home of his quarters. He did other services +for his unknown sister. He placed her as a trooper in his own regiment, +and favored her in many a way that is open to one having authority. But +the person, after all, that did most to serve our Kate, was Kate. War +was then raging with Indians, both from Chili and Peru. Kate had always +done her duty in action; but at length, in the decisive battle of +Puren, there was an opening for doing something more. Havoc had been +made of her own squadron: most of the officers were killed, and the +standard was carried off. Kate gathered around her a small party-- +galloped after the Indian column that was carrying away the trophy-- +charged--saw all her own party killed--but (in spite of wounds on her +face and shoulder) succeeded in bearing away the recovered standard. +She rode up to the general and his staff; she dismounted; she rendered +up her prize; and fainted away, much less from the blinding blood, than +from the tears of joy which dimmed her eyes, as the general, waving his +sword in admiration over her head, pronounced our Kate on the spot an +_Alferez_, [Footnote: _Alferez_. This rank in the Spanish +army is, or was, on a level with the modern _sous-lieutenant_ of +France.] or standard-bearer, with a commission from the King of Spain +and the Indies. Bonny Kate! Noble Kate! I would there were not two +centuries laid between us, so that I might have the pleasure of kissing +thy fair hand. + +Kate had the good sense to see the danger of revealing her sex, or her +relationship, even to her own brother. The grasp of the Church never +relaxed, never 'prescribed,' unless freely and by choice. The nun, if +discovered, would have been taken out of the horse-barracks, or the +dragoon-saddle. She had the firmness, therefore, for many years, to +resist the sisterly impulses that sometimes suggested such a +confidence. For years, and those years the most important of her life-- +the years that developed her character--she lived undetected as a +brilliant cavalry officer under her brother's patronage. And the +bitterest grief in poor Kate's whole life, was the tragical (and, were +it not fully attested, one might say the ultra-scenical,) event that +dissolved their long connection. Let me spend a word of apology on poor +Kate's errors. We all commit many; both you and I, reader. No, stop; +that's not civil. You, reader, I know, are a saint; I am _not_, +though very near it. I _do_ err at long intervals; and then I +think with indulgence of the many circumstances that plead for this +poor girl. The Spanish armies of that day inherited, from the days of +Cortez and Pizarro, shining remembrances of martial prowess, and the +very worst of ethics. To think little of bloodshed, to quarrel, to +fight, to gamble, to plunder, belonged to the very atmosphere of a +camp, to its indolence, to its ancient traditions. In your own defence, +you were obliged to do such things. Besides all these grounds of evil, +the Spanish army had just there an extra demoralization from a war with +savages--faithless and bloody. Do not think, I beseech you, too much, +reader, of killing a man. That word '_kill_' is sprinkled over +every page of Kate's own autobiography. It ought not to be read by the +light of these days. Yet, how if a man that she killed were----? Hush! +It was sad; but is better hurried over in a few words. Years after this +period, a young officer one day dining with Kate, entreated her to +become his second in a duel. Such things were every-day affairs. +However, Kate had reasons for declining the service, and did so. But +the officer, as he was sullenly departing, said--that, if he were +killed, (as he thought he _should_ be,) his death would lie at +Kate's door. I do not take _his_ view of the case, and am not +moved by his rhetoric or his logic. Kate _was_, and relented. The +duel was fixed for eleven at night, under the walls of a monastery. +Unhappily the night proved unusually dark, so that the two principals +had to tie white handkerchiefs round their elbows, in order to descry +each other. In the confusion they wounded each other mortally. Upon +that, according to a usage not peculiar to Spaniards, but extending (as +doubtless the reader knows) for a century longer to our own countrymen, +the two seconds were obliged in honor to do something towards avenging +their principals. Kate had her usual fatal luck. Her sword passed sheer +through the body of her opponent: this unknown opponent falling dead, +had just breath left to cry out, 'Ah, villain, you have killed me,' in +a voice of horrific reproach; and the voice was the voice of her +brother! + +The monks of the monastery, under whose silent shadows this murderous +duel had taken place, roused by the clashing of swords and the angry +shouts of combatants, issued out with torches to find one only of the +four officers surviving. Every convent and altar had a right of asylum +for a short period. According to the custom, the monks carried Kate, +insensible with anguish of mind, to the sanctuary of their chapel. +There for some days they detained her; but then, having furnished her +with a horse and some provisions, they turned her adrift. Which way +should the unhappy fugitive turn? In blindness of heart she turned +towards the sea. It was the sea that had brought her to Peru; it was +the sea that would perhaps carry her away. It was the sea that had +first showed her this land and its golden hopes; it was the sea that +ought to hide from her its fearful remembrances. The sea it was that +had twice spared her life in extremities; the sea it was that might now +if it chose, take back the bauble that it had spared in vain. + + +KATE'S PASSAGE OVER THE ANDES. + +Three days our poor heroine followed the coast. Her horse was then +almost unable to move; and on _his_ account, she turned inland to a +thicket for grass and shelter. As she drew near to it, a voice +challenged--'_Who goes there_?' Kate answered, '_Spain_.' '_What +people_?' '_A friend_.' It was two soldiers, deserters, and almost +starving. Kate shared her provisions with these men: and, on hearing +their plan, which was to go over the Cordilleras, she agreed to join +the party. _Their_ object was the wild one of seeking the river +_Dorado_, whose waters rolled along golden sands, and whose pebbles +were emeralds. _Hers_ was to throw herself upon a line the least liable +to pursuit, and the readiest for a new chapter of life in which +oblivion might be found for the past. After a few days of incessant +climbing and fatigue, they found themselves in the regions of perpetual +snow. Summer would come as vainly to this kingdom of frost as to the +grave of her brother. No fire, but the fire of human blood in youthful +veins, could ever be kept burning in these aerial solitudes. Fuel was +rarely to be found, and kindling a secret hardly known except to +Indians. However, our Kate can do everything, and she's the girl, if +ever girl _did_ such a thing, or ever girl did _not_ such a thing, that +I back at any odds for crossing the Cordilleras. I would bet you +something now, reader, if I thought you would deposit your stakes by +return of post, (as they play at chess through the post-office,) that +Kate does the trick, that she gets down to the other side; that the +soldiers do _not_: and that the horse, if preserved at all, is +preserved in a way that will leave him very little to boast of. + +The party had gathered wild berries and esculent roots at the foot of +the mountains, and the horse was of very great use in carrying them. +But this larder was soon emptied. There was nothing then to carry; so +that the horse's value, as a beast of burthen, fell cent per cent. In +fact, very soon he could not carry himself, and it became easy to +calculate when he would reach the bottom on the wrong side the +Cordilleras. He took three steps back for one upwards. A council of war +being held, the small army resolved to slaughter their horse. He, +though a member of the expedition, had no vote, and if he had the votes +would have stood three to one--majority, two against him. He was cut +into quarters; which surprises me; for, unless _one_ quarter was +considered his own share, it reminds one too much of this amongst the +many _facetiæ_ of English midshipmen, who ask (on any one of their +number looking sulky) 'if it is his intention to marry and retire from +the service upon a superannuation of £4 4s. 4 1/2d. a year, paid +quarterly by way of bothering the purser.' The purser can't do it with +the help of farthings. And as respects aliquot parts, four shares among +three persons are as incommensurable as a guinea is against any attempt +at giving change in half-crowns. However, this was all the +preservation that the horse found. No saltpetre or sugar could be had: +but the frost was antiseptic. And the horse was preserved in as useful +a sense as ever apricots were preserved or strawberries. + +On a fire, painfully devised out of broom and withered leaves, a horse- +steak was dressed, for drink, snow as allowed _a discretion_. This +ought to have revived the party, and Kate, perhaps, it _did_. But +the poor deserters were thinly clad, and they had not the boiling heart +of Catalina. More and more they drooped. Kate did her best to cheer +them. But the march was nearly at an end for _them_, and they +were going in one half hour to receive their last billet. Yet, before +this consummation, they have a strange spectacle to see; such as few +places could show, but the upper chambers of the Cordilleras. They had +reached a billowy scene of rocky masses, large and small, looking +shockingly black on their perpendicular sides as they rose out of the +vast snowy expanse. Upon the highest of these, that was accessible, +Kate mounted to look around her, and she saw--oh, rapture at such an +hour!--a man sitting on a shelf of rock with a gun by his side. She +shouted with joy to her comrades, and ran down to communicate the +joyful news. Here was a sportsman, watching, perhaps, for an eagle; and +now they would have relief. One man's cheek kindled with the hectic of +sudden joy, and he rose eagerly to march. The other was fast sinking +under the fatal sleep that frost sends before herself as her merciful +minister of death; but hearing in his dream the tidings of relief, and +assisted by his friends, he also staggeringly arose. It could not be +three minutes' walk, Kate thought, to the station of the sportsman. +That thought supported them all. Under Kate's guidance, who had taken a +sailor's glance at the bearings, they soon unthreaded the labyrinth of +rocks so far as to bring the man within view. He had not left his +resting-place; their steps on the soundless snow, naturally, he could +not hear; and, as their road brought them upon him from the rear, still +less could he see them. Kate hailed him; but so keenly was he absorbed +in some speculation, or in the object of his watching, that he took no +notice of them, not even moving his head. Kate began to think there +would be another man to rouse from sleep. Coming close behind him, she +touched his shoulder, and said, 'My friend, are you sleeping?' Yes, he +_was_ sleeping; sleeping the sleep from which there is no awaking; +and the slight touch of Kate having disturbed the equilibrium of the +corpse, down it rolled on the snow: the frozen body rang like a hollow +iron cylinder; the face uppermost and blue with mould, mouth open, +teeth ghastly and bleaching in the frost, and a frightful grin upon the +lips. This dreadful spectacle finished the struggles of the weaker man, +who sank and died at once. The other made an effort with so much +spirit, that, in Kate's opinion, horror had acted upon him beneficially +as a stimulant. But it was not really so. It was a spasm of morbid +strength; a collapse succeeded; his blood began to freeze; he sat down +in spite of Kate, and _he_ also died without further struggle. +Gone are the poor suffering deserters; stretched and bleaching upon the +snow; and insulted discipline is avenged. Great kings have long arms; +and sycophants are ever at hand for the errand of the potent. What had +frost and snow to do with the quarrel? Yet _they_ made themselves +sycophantic servants of the King of Spain; and _they_ dogged his +deserters up to the summit of the Cordilleras, more surely than any +Spanish bloodhound, or any Spanish tirailleur's bullet. + +Now is our Kate standing alone on the summits of the Andes, in solitude +that is shocking, for she is alone with her own afflicted conscience. +Twice before she had stood in solitude as deep upon the wild--wild +waters of the Pacific; but her conscience had been then untroubled. +Now, is there nobody left that can help; her horse is dead--the +soldiers are dead. There is nobody that she can speak to except God; +and very soon you will find that she _does_ speak to him; for +already on these vast aerial deserts He has been whispering to +_her_. The condition of Kate is exactly that of Coleridge's +'_Ancient Mariner_.' But possibly, reader, you may be amongst the +many careless readers that have never fully understood what that +condition was. Suffer me to enlighten you, else you ruin the story of +the mariner; and by losing all its pathos, lose half the jewels of its +beauty. + +There are three readers of the 'Ancient Mariner.' The first is gross +enough to fancy all the imagery of the mariner's visions delivered by +the poet for actual facts of experience; which being impossible, the +whole pulverizes, for that reader, into a baseless fairy tale. The +second reader is wiser than _that_; he knows that the imagery is _not_ +baseless; it is the imagery of febrile delirium; really seen, but not +seen as an external reality. The mariner had caught the pestilential +fever, which carried off all his mates; he only had survived--the +delirium had vanished; but the visions that had haunted the delirium +remained. 'Yes,' says the third reader, 'they remained; naturally they +did, being scorched by fever into his brain; but how did they happen to +remain on his belief as gospel truths? The delirium had vanished: why +had not the painted scenery of the delirium vanished, except as +visionary memorials of a sorrow that was cancelled? Why was it that +craziness settled upon this mariner's brain, driving him, as if he were +a Cain, or another Wandering Jew, to 'pass like night--from land to +land;' and, at uncertain intervals, wrenching him until he made +rehearsal of his errors, even at the hard price of 'holding children +from their play, and old men from the chimney corner?' [Footnote: The +beautiful words of Sir Philip Sidney, in his '_Defense of Poesie_.'] +That craziness, as the _third reader_ deciphers, rose out of a deeper +soil than any bodily affection. It had its root in penitential sorrow. +Oh, bitter is the sorrow to a conscientious heart, when, too late, it +discovers the depth of a love that has been trampled under foot! This +mariner had slain the creature that, on all the earth, loved him best. +In the darkness of his cruel superstition he had done it, to save his +human brothers from a fancied inconvenience; and yet, by that very act +of cruelty, he had himself called destruction upon their heads. The +Nemesis that followed punished _him_ through _them_--him, that wronged, +through those that wrongfully he sought to benefit. That spirit who +watches over the sanctities of love is a strong angel--is a jealous +angel; and this angel it was + + 'That lov'd the bird, that lov'd the man, + That shot him with his bow.' + +He it was that followed the cruel archer into silent and slumbering +seas; + + 'Nine fathom deep he had follow'd him + Through the realms of mist and snow.' + +This jealous angel it was that pursued the man into noon-day darkness, +and the vision of dying oceans, into delirium, and finally, (when +recovered from disease) into an unsettled mind. + +Such, also, had been the offence of Kate; such, also was the punishment +that now is dogging her steps. She, like the mariner, had slain the one +sole creature that loved her upon the whole wide earth; she, like the +mariner, for this offence, had been hunted into frost and snow--very +soon will be hunted into delirium; and from _that_ (if she escapes +with life) will be hunted into the trouble of a heart that cannot rest. +There was the excuse of one darkness for _her_; there was the +excuse of another darkness for the mariner. But, with all the excuses +that earth, and the darkness of earth, can furnish, bitter it would be +for you or me, reader, through every hour of life, waking or dreaming, +to look back upon one fatal moment when we had pierced the heart that +would have died for us. In this only the darkness had been merciful to +Kate--that it had hidden for ever from her victim the hand that slew +him. But now in such utter solitude, her thoughts ran back to their +earliest interview. She remembered with anguish, how, on first touching +the shores of America, almost the very first word that met her ear had +been from _him_, the brother whom she had killed, about the +'Pussy' of times long past; how the gallant young man had hung upon her +words, as in her native Basque she described her own mischievous little +self, of twelve years back; how his color went and came, whilst his +loving memory of the little sister was revived by her own descriptive +traits, giving back, as in a mirror, the fawn-like grace, the squirrel- +like restlessness, that once had kindled his own delighted laughter; +how he would take no denial, but showed on the spot, that, simply to +have touched--to have kissed--to have played with the little wild +thing, that glorified, by her innocence, the gloom of St. Sebastian's +cloisters, gave a _right_ to his hospitality; how, through +_him_ only, she had found a welcome in camps; how, through +_him_, she had found the avenue to honor and distinction. And yet +this brother, so loving and generous, it was that she had dismissed +from life. She paused; she turned round, as if looking back for his +grave; she saw the dreadful wildernesses of snow which already she had +traversed. + +Silent they were at this season, even as in the panting heats of noon, +the Zaarrahs of the torrid zone are oftentimes silent. Dreadful was the +silence; it was the nearest thing to the silence of the grave. Graves +were at the foot of the Andes, _that_ she knew too well; graves were at +the summit of the Andes, _that_ she saw too well. And, as she gazed, a +sudden thought flashed upon her, when her eyes settled upon the corpses +of the poor deserters--could she, like _them_, have been all this while +unconsciously executing judgment upon herself? Running from a wrath +that was doubtful, into the very jaws of a wrath that was inexorable? +Flying in panic--and behold! there was no man that pursued? For the +first time in her life, Kate trembled. _Not_ for the first time, Kate +wept. Far less for the first time was it, that Kate bent her knee--that +Kate clasped her hands--that Kate prayed. But it _was_ the first time +that she prayed as _they_ pray, for whom no more hope is left but in +prayer. + +Here let me pause a moment for the sake of making somebody angry. A +Frenchman, who sadly misjudges Kate, looking at her through a Parisian +opera-glass, gives it as _his_ opinion--that, because Kate first +_records_ her prayer on this occasion, therefore, now first of all +she prayed. _I_ think not so. _I_ love this Kate, blood- +stained as she is; and I could not love a woman that never bent her +knee in thankfulness or in supplication. However, we have all a right +to our own little opinion; and it is not you, '_mon cher_,' you +Frenchman, that I am angry with, but somebody else that stands behind +you. You, Frenchman, and your compatriots, I love oftentimes for your +festal gaiety of heart; and I quarrel only with your levity and that +eternal worldliness that freezes too fiercely--that absolutely blisters +with its frost--like the upper air of the Andes. _You_ speak of +Kate only as too readily you speak of all women; the instinct of a +natural scepticism being to scoff at all hidden depths of truth. Else +you are civil enough to Kate; and your '_homage_' (such as it may +happen to be) is always at the service of a woman on the shortest +notice. But behind _you_, I see a worse fellow; a gloomy fanatic; +a religious sycophant that seeks to propitiate his circle by bitterness +against the offences that are most unlike his own. And against him, I +must say one word for Kate to the too hasty reader. This villain, whom +I mark for a shot if he does not get out of the way, opens his fire on +our Kate under shelter of a lie. For there is a standing lie in the +very constitution of civil society, a _necessity_ of error, +misleading us as to the proportions of crime. Mere necessity obliges +man to create many acts into felonies, and to punish them as the +heaviest offences, which his better sense teaches him secretly to +regard as perhaps among the lightest. Those poor deserters, for +instance, were they necessarily without excuse? They might have been +oppressively used; but in critical times of war, no matter for the +individual palliations, the deserter from his colors _must_ be +shot: there is no help for it: as in extremities of general famine, we +shoot the man (alas! we are _obliged_ to shoot him) that is found +robbing the common stores in order to feed his own perishing children, +though the offence is hardly visible in the sight of God. Only +blockheads adjust their scale of guilt to the scale of human +punishments. Now, our wicked friend the fanatic, who calumniates Kate, +abuses the advantage which, for such a purpose, he derives from the +exaggerated social estimate of all violence. Personal security being so +main an object of social union, we are obliged to frown upon all modes +of violence as hostile to the central principle of that union. We are +_obliged_ to rate it, according to the universal results towards +which it tends, and scarcely at all, according to the special condition +of circumstances, in which it may originate. Hence a horror arises for +that class of offences, which is (philosophically speaking) +exaggerated; and by daily use, the ethics of a police-office translate +themselves, insensibly, into the ethics even of religious people. But I +tell that sycophantish fanatic--not this only, viz., that he abuses +unfairly, against Kate, the advantage which he has from the +_inevitably_ distorted bias of society; but also, I tell him this +second little thing, viz., that upon turning away the glass from that +one obvious aspect of Kate's character, her too fiery disposition to +vindicate all rights by violence, and viewing her in relation to +_general_ religious capacities, she was a thousand times more +promisingly endowed than himself. It is impossible to be noble in many +things, without having many points of contact with true religion. If +you deny _that_ you it is that calumniate religion. Kate +_was_ noble in many things. Her worst errors never took a shape of +self-interest or deceit. She was brave, she was generous, she was +forgiving, she bore no malice, she was full of truth--qualities that +God loves either in man or woman. She hated sycophants and dissemblers. +_I_ hate them; and more than ever at this moment on her behalf. I +wish she were but here--to give a punch on the head to that fellow who +traduces her. And, coming round again to the occasion from which this +short digression has started, viz., the question raised by the +Frenchman--whether Kate were a person likely to _pray_ under other +circumstances than those of extreme danger? I offer it as _my_ +opinion that she was. Violent people are not always such from choice, +but perhaps from situation. And, though the circumstances of Kate's +position allowed her little means for realizing her own wishes, it is +certain that those wishes pointed continually to peace and an unworldly +happiness, if _that_ were possible. The stormy clouds that +enveloped her in camps, opened overhead at intervals--showing her a far +distant blue serene. She yearned, at many times, for the rest which is +not in camps or armies; and it is certain, that she ever combined with +any plans or day-dreams of tranquillity, as their most essential ally, +some aid derived from that dovelike religion which, at St. Sebastian's, +as an infant and through girlhood, she had been taught so profoundly to +adore. + +Now, let us rise from this discussion of Kate against libellers, as +Kate herself is rising from prayer, and consider, in conjunction with +_her_, the character and promise of that dreadful ground which +lies immediately before her. What is to be thought of it? I could wish +we had a theodolite here, and a spirit-level, and other instruments, +for settling some important questions. Yet no: on consideration, if one +_had_ a wish allowed by that kind fairy, without whose assistance +it would be quite impossible to send, even for the spirit-level, nobody +would throw away the wish upon things so paltry. I would not put the +fairy upon any such errand: I would order the good creature to bring no +spirit-level, but a stiff glass of spirits for Kate--a palanquin, and +relays of fifty stout bearers--all drunk, in order that they might not +feel the cold. The main interest at this moment, and the main +difficulty--indeed, the 'open question' of the case--was, to ascertain +whether the ascent were yet accomplished or not; and when would the +descent commence? or had it, perhaps, long commenced? The character of +the ground, in those immediate successions that could be connected by +the eye, decided nothing; for the undulations of the level had been so +continual for miles, as to perplex any eye but an engineer's, in +attempting to judge whether, upon the whole, the tendency were upwards +or downwards. Possibly it was yet neither way; it is, indeed, probable, +that Kate had been for some time travelling along a series of terraces, +that traversed the whole breadth of the topmost area at that point of +crossing the Cordilleras, and which perhaps, but not certainly, +compensated any casual tendencies downwards by corresponding reascents. +Then came the question--how long would these terraces yet continue? and +had the ascending parts _really_ balanced the descending?--upon +_that_ seemed to rest the final chance for Kate. Because, unless +she very soon reached a lower level, and a warmer atmosphere, mere +weariness would oblige her to lie down, under a fierceness of cold, +that would not suffer her to rise after once losing the warmth of +motion; or, inversely, if she even continued in motion, mere extremity +of cold would, of itself, speedily absorb the little surplus energy for +moving, which yet remained unexhausted by weariness. + +At this stage of her progress, and whilst the agonizing question seemed +yet as indeterminate as ever, Kate's struggle with despair, which had +been greatly soothed by the fervor of her prayer, revolved upon her in +deadlier blackness. All turned, she saw, upon a race against time, and +the arrears of the road; and she, poor thing! how little qualified +could _she_ be, in such a condition, for a race of any kind; and +against two such obstinate brutes as time and space! This hour of the +progress, this noontide of Kate's struggle, must have been the very +crisis of the whole. Despair was rapidly tending to ratify itself. +Hope, in any degree, would be a cordial for sustaining her efforts. But +to flounder along a dreadful chaos of snow-drifts, or snow-chasms, +towards a point of rock, which, being turned, should expose only +another interminable succession of the same character--might +_that_ be endured by ebbing spirits, by stiffening limbs, by the +ghastly darkness that was now beginning to gather upon the inner eye? +And, if once despair became triumphant, all the little arrear of +physical strength would collapse at once. + +Oh! verdure of human fields, cottages of men and women, (that now +suddenly seemed all brothers and sisters,) cottages with children +around them at play, that are so far below--oh! summer and spring, +flowers and blossoms, to which, as to _his_ symbols, God has given +the gorgeous privilege of rehearsing for ever upon earth his most +mysterious perfection--Life, and the resurrections of Life--is it +indeed true, that poor Kate must never see you more? Mutteringly she +put that question to herself. But strange are the caprices of ebb and +flow in the deep fountains of human sensibilities. At this very moment, +when the utter incapacitation of despair was gathering fast at Kate's +heart, a sudden lightening shot far into her spirit, a reflux almost +supernatural, from the earliest effects of her prayer. A thought had +struck her all at once, and this thought prompted her immediately to +turn round. Perhaps it was in some blind yearning after the only +memorials of life in this frightful region, that she fixed her eye upon +a point of hilly ground by which she identified the spot near which the +three corpses were lying. The silence seemed deeper than ever. Neither +was there any phantom memorial of life for the eye or for the ear, nor +wing of bird, nor echo, nor green leaf, nor creeping thing, that moved +or stirred, upon the soundless waste. Oh, what a relief to this burthen +of silence would be a human groan! Here seemed a motive for still +darker despair. And yet, at that very moment, a pulse of joy began to +thaw the ice at her heart. It struck her, as she reviewed the ground, +that undoubtedly it had been for some time slowly descending. Her +senses were much dulled by suffering; but this thought it was, +suggested by a sudden apprehension of a continued descending movement, +which had caused her to turn round. Sight had confirmed the suggestion +first derived from her own steps. The distance attained was now +sufficient to establish the tendency. Oh, yes, yes, to a certainty she +had been descending for some time. Frightful was the spasm of joy which +whispered that the worst was over. It was as when the shadow of +midnight, that murderers had relied on, is passing away from your +beleagured shelter, and dawn will soon be manifest. It was as when a +flood, that all day long has raved against the walls of your house, has +ceased (you suddenly think) to rise; yes! measured by a golden plummet, +it _is_ sinking beyond a doubt, and the darlings of your household +are saved. Kate faced round in agitation to her proper direction. She +saw, what previously, in her stunning confusion, she had _not_ +seen, that, hardly two stones' throw in advance, lay a mass of rock, +split as into a gateway. Through that opening it now became probable +that the road was lying. Hurrying forward, she passed within the +natural gates. Gates of paradise they were. Ah, what a vista did that +gateway expose before her dazzled eye? what a revelation of heavenly +promise? Full two miles long, stretched a long narrow glen, everywhere +descending, and in many parts rapidly. All was now placed beyond a +doubt. She _was_ descending--for hours, perhaps, _had_ been +descending insensibly, the mighty staircase. Yes, Kate is leaving +behind her the kingdom of frost and the victories of death. Two miles +farther there may be rest, if there is not shelter. And very soon, as +the crest of her new-born happiness, she distinguished at the other end +of that rocky vista, a pavilion-shaped mass of dark green foliage--a +belt of trees, such as we see in the lovely parks of England, but +islanded by a screen (though not everywhere occupied by the +usurpations) of a thick bushy undergrowth. Oh, verdure of dark olive +foliage, offered suddenly to fainting eyes, as if by some winged +patriarchal herald of wrath relenting--solitary Arab's tent, rising +with saintly signals of peace, in the dreadful desert, must Kate indeed +die even yet, whilst she sees but cannot reach you? Outpost on the +frontier of man's dominions, standing within life, but looking out upon +everlasting death, wilt thou hold up the anguish of thy mocking +invitation, only to betray? Never, perhaps, in this world was the line +so exquisitely grazed, that parts salvation and ruin. As the dove to +her dove-cot from the swooping hawk--as the Christian pinnace to +Christian batteries, from the bloody Mahometan corsair, so flew--so +tried to fly towards the anchoring thickets, that, alas! could not +weigh their anchors and make sail to meet her--the poor exhausted Kate +from the vengeance of pursuing frost. + +And she reached them; staggering, fainting, reeling, she entered +beneath the canopy of umbrageous trees. But, as oftentimes, the Hebrew +fugitive to a city of refuge, flying for his life before the avenger of +blood, was pressed so hotly that, on entering the archway of what +seemed to _him_ the heavenly city-gate, as he kneeled in deep +thankfulness to kiss its holy merciful shadow, he could not rise again, +but sank instantly with infant weakness into sleep--sometimes to wake +no more; so sank, so collapsed upon the ground, without power to choose +her couch, and with little prospect of ever rising again to her feet, +the martial nun. She lay as luck had ordered it, with her head screened +by the undergrowth of bushes, from any gales that might arise; she lay +exactly as she sank, with her eyes up to heaven; and thus it was that +the nun saw, before falling asleep, the two sights that upon earth are +fittest for the closing eyes of a nun, whether destined to open again, +or to close for ever. She saw the interlacing of boughs overhead +forming a dome, that seemed like the dome of a cathedral. She saw +through the fretwork of the foliage, another dome, far beyond, the dome +of an evening sky, the dome of some heavenly cathedral, not built with +hands. She saw upon this upper dome the vesper lights, all alive with +pathetic grandeur of coloring from a sunset that had just been rolling +down like a chorus. She had not, till now, consciously observed the +time of day; whether it were morning, or whether it were afternoon, in +her confusion she had not distinctly known. But now she whispered to +herself--'_It is evening_:' and what lurked half unconsciously in +these words might be--'The sun, that rejoices, has finished his daily +toil; man, that labors, has finished _his_; I, that suffer, have +finished mine.' That might be what she thought, but what she +_said_ was--'It is evening; and the hour is come when the +_Angelus_ is sounding through St. Sebastian.' What made her think +of St. Sebastian, so far away in depths of space and time? Her brain +was wandering, now that her feet were _not_; and, because her eyes +had descended from the heavenly to the earthly dome, _that_ made +her think of earthly cathedrals, and of cathedral choirs, and of St. +Sebastian's chapel, with its silvery bells that carried the +_Angelus_ far into mountain recesses. Perhaps, as her wanderings +increased, she thought herself back in childhood; became 'pussy' once +again; fancied that all since then was a frightful dream; that she was +not upon the dreadful Andes, but still kneeling in the holy chapel at +vespers; still innocent as then; loved as then she had been loved; and +that all men were liars, who said her hand was ever stained with blood. +Little enough is mentioned of the delusions which possessed her; but +that little gives a key to the impulse which her palpitating heart +obeyed, and which her rambling brain for ever reproduced in multiplying +mirrors. Restlessness kept her in waking dreams for a brief half hour. +But then, fever and delirium would wait no longer; the killing +exhaustion would no longer be refused; the fever, the delirium, and the +exhaustion, swept in together with power like an army with banners; and +the nun ceased through the gathering twilight any more to watch the +cathedrals of earth, or the more solemn cathedrals that rose in the +heavens above. + +All night long she slept in her verdurous St. Bernard's hospice without +awaking, and whether she would _ever_ awake seemed to depend upon +an accident. The slumber that towered above her brain was like that +fluctuating silvery column which stands in scientific tubes sinking, +rising, deepening, lightening, contracting, expanding; or like the mist +that sits, through sultry afternoons, upon the river of the American +St. Peter, sometimes rarefying for minutes into sunny gauze, sometimes +condensing for hours into palls of funeral darkness. You fancy that, +after twelve hours of _any_ sleep, she must have been refreshed; +better at least than she was last night. Ah! but sleep is not always +sent upon missions of refreshment. Sleep is sometimes the secret +chamber in which death arranges his machinery. Sleep is sometimes that +deep mysterious atmosphere, in which the human spirit is slowly +unsettling its wings for flight from earthly tenements. It is now eight +o'clock in the morning; and, to all appearance, if Kate should receive +no aid before noon, when next the sun is departing to his rest, Kate +will be departing to hers; when next the sun is holding out his golden +Christian signal to man, that the hour is come for letting his anger go +down, Kate will be sleeping away for ever into the arms of brotherly +forgiveness. + +What is wanted just now for Kate, supposing Kate herself to be wanted +by this world, is, that this world would be kind enough to send her a +little brandy before it is too late. The simple truth was, and a truth +which I have known to take place in more ladies than Kate, who died or +did _not_ die, accordingly, as they had or had not an adviser like +myself, capable of giving so sound an opinion, that the jewelly star of +life had descended too far down the arch towards setting, for any +chance of re-ascending by _spontaneous_ effort. The fire was still +burning in secret, but needed to be rekindled by potent artificial +breath. It lingered, and _might_ linger, but would never culminate +again without some stimulus from earthly vineyards. [Footnote: Though +not exactly in the same circumstances as Kate, or sleeping, _à la +belle étoile_, on a declivity of the Andes, I have known (or heard +circumstantially reported) the cases of many ladies besides Kate, who +were in precisely the same critical danger of perishing for want of a +little brandy. A dessert spoonful or two would have saved them. Avaunt! +you wicked 'Temperance' medallist! repent as fast as ever you can, or, +perhaps the next time we hear of you, _anasarca_ and _hydro- +thorax_ will be running after you to punish your shocking excesses +in water. Seriously, the case is one of constant recurrence, and +constantly ending fatally from _unseasonable_ and pedantic rigor +of temperance. The fact is, that the medical profession composes the +most generous and liberal body of men amongst us; taken generally, by +much the most enlightened; but professionally, the most timid. Want of +boldness in the administration of opium, &c., though they can be bold +enough with mercury, is their besetting infirmity. And from this +infirmity females suffer most. One instance I need hardly mention, the +fatal case of an august lady, mourned by nations, with respect to whom +it was, and is, the belief of multitudes to this hour (well able to +judge), that she would have been saved by a glass of brandy; and her +attendant, who shot himself, came to think so too late--too late for +_her_, and too late for himself. Amongst many cases of the same +nature, which personally I have been acquainted with, twenty years ago, +a man, illustrious for his intellectual accomplishments, mentioned to +me that his own wife, during her first or second confinement, was +suddenly reported to him, by one of her female attendants, (who slipped +away unobserved by the medical people,) as undoubtedly sinking fast. He +hurried to her chamber, and _saw_ that it was so. The presiding +medical authority, however, was inexorable. 'Oh, by no means,' shaking +his ambrosial wig, 'any stimulant at this crisis would be fatal.' But +no authority could overrule the concurrent testimony of all symptoms, +and of all unprofessional opinions. By some pious falsehood my friend +smuggled the doctor out of the room, and immediately smuggled a glass +of brandy into the poor lady's lips. She recovered with magical power. +The doctor is now dead, and went to his grave under the delusive +persuasion--that not any vile glass of brandy, but the stern refusal of +all brandy, was the thing that saved his collapsing patient. The +patient herself, who might naturally know something of the matter, was +of a different opinion. She sided with the factious body around her +bed, (comprehending all beside the doctor,) who felt sure that death +was rapidly approaching, _barring_ that brandy. The same result in +the same appalling crisis, I have known repeatedly produced by twenty- +five drops of laudanum. An obstinate man will say--'Oh, never listen to +a non-medical man like this writer. Consult in such a case your medical +adviser.' You will, will you? Then let me tell you, that you are +missing the very logic of all I have been saying for the improvement of +blockheads, which is--that you should consult any man _but_ a +medical man, since no other man has any obstinate prejudice of +professional timidity. N. B.--I prescribe for Kate _gratis_, +because she, poor thing! has so little to give. But from other ladies, +who may have the happiness to benefit by my advice, I expect a fee--not +so large a one considering the service--a flowering plant, suppose the +_second_ best in their collection. I know it would be of no use to +ask for the _very_ best, (which else I could wish to do,) because +that would only be leading them into little fibs. I don't insist on a +_Yucca gloriosa_, or a _Magnolia speciosissima_, (I hope +there _is_ such a plant)--a rose or a violet will do. I am sure +there is such a plant as that. And if they settle their debts justly, I +shall very soon be master of the prettiest little conservatory in +England. For, treat it not as a jest, reader; no case of timid practice +is so fatally frequent.] Kate was ever lucky, though ever unfortunate; +and the world, being of my opinion that Kate was worth saving, made up +its mind about half-past eight o'clock in the morning to save her. Just +at that time, when the night was over, and its sufferings were hidden-- +in one of those intermitting gleams that for a moment or two lightened +the clouds of her slumber, Kate's dull ear caught a sound that for +years had spoken a familiar language to _her_. What was it? It was +the sound, though muffled and deadened, like the ear that heard it, of +horsemen advancing. Interpreted by the tumultuous dreams of Kate, was +it the cavalry of Spain, at whose head so often she had charged the +bloody Indian scalpers? Was it, according to the legend of ancient +days, cavalry that had been sown by her brother's blood, cavalry that +rose from the ground on an inquest of retribution, and were racing up +the Andes to seize her? Her dreams that had opened sullenly to the +sound waited for no answer, but closed again into pompous darkness. +Happily, the horsemen had caught the glimpse of some bright ornament, +clasp, or aiguillette, on Kate's dress. They were hunters and foresters +from below; servants in the household of a beneficent lady; and in some +pursuit of flying game had wandered beyond their ordinary limits. +Struck by the sudden scintillation from Kate's dress played upon by the +morning sun, they rode up to the thicket. Great was their surprise, +great their pity, to see a young officer in uniform stretched within +the bushes upon the ground, and perhaps dying. Borderers from childhood +on this dreadful frontier, sacred to winter and death, they understood +the case at once. They dismounted: and with the tenderness of women, +raising the poor frozen cornet in their arms, washed her temples with +brandy, whilst one, at intervals, suffered a few drops to trickle +within her lips. As the restoration of a warm bed was now most likely +to be successful, they lifted the helpless stranger upon a horse, +walking on each side with supporting arms. Once again our Kate is in +the saddle; once again a Spanish Caballador. But Kate's bridle-hand is +deadly cold. And her spurs, that she had never unfastened since leaving +the monastic asylum, hung as idle as the flapping sail that fills +unsteadily with the breeze upon a stranded ship. + +This procession had some miles to go, and over difficult ground; but at +length it reached the forest-like park and the chateau of the wealthy +proprietress. Kate was still half-frozen and speechless, except at +intervals. Heavens! can this corpse-like, languishing young woman, be +the Kate that once, in her radiant girlhood, rode with a handful of +comrades into a column of two thousand enemies, that saw her comrades +die, that persisted when all were dead, that tore from the heart of all +resistance the banner of her native Spain? Chance and change have +'written strange defeatures in her face.' Much is changed; but some +things are not changed: there is still kindness that overflows with +pity: there is still helplessness that asks for this pity without a +voice: she is now received by a Senora, not less kind than that +maternal aunt, who, on the night of her birth, first welcomed her to a +loving home; and she, the heroine of Spain, is herself as helpless now +as that little lady who, then at ten minutes of age, was kissed and +blessed by all the household of St. Sebastian. + +Let us suppose Kate placed in a warm bed. Let us suppose her in a few +hours recovering steady consciousness; in a few days recovering some +power of self-support; in a fortnight able to seek the gay saloon, +where the Senora was sitting alone, and rendering thanks, with that +deep sincerity which ever characterized our wild-hearted Kate, for the +critical services received from that lady and her establishment. + +This lady, a widow, was what the French call a _métisse_, the Spaniards +a _mestizza_; that is, the daughter of a genuine Spaniard, and an +Indian mother. I shall call her simply a _creole_, [Footnote: +'Creole.'--At that time the infusion of negro or African blood was +small. Consequently none of the negro hideousness was diffused. After +these intercomplexities had arisen between all complications of descent +from three original strands, European, American, African, the +distinctions of social consideration founded on them bred names so +many, that a court calendar was necessary to keep you from blundering. +As yet, the varieties were few. Meantime, the word _creole_ has always +been misapplied in our English colonies to a person (though of strictly +European blood,) simply because _born_ in the West Indies. In this +English use, it expresses the same difference as the Romans indicated +by _Hispanus_ and _Hispanicus_. The first meant a person of Spanish +blood, a native of Spain; the second, a Roman born in Spain. So of +_Germanus_ and _Germanicus_, _Italus_ and _Italicus_, _Anglus_ and +_Anglicus_, &c.; an important distinction, on which see Casaubon _apud +Scriptores. Hist. Augustan._] which will indicate her want of pure +Spanish blood sufficiently to explain her deference for those who had +it. She was a kind, liberal woman; rich rather more than needed where +there were no opera boxes to rent--a widow about fifty years old in the +wicked world's account, some forty-four in her own; and happy, above +all, in the possession of a most lovely daughter, whom even the wicked +world did not accuse of more than sixteen years. This daughter, Juana, +was--But stop--let her open the door of the saloon in which the Senora +and the cornet are conversing, and speak for herself. She did so, after +an hour had passed; which length of time, to _her_ that never had any +business whatever in her innocent life, seemed sufficient to settle the +business of the old world and the new. Had Pietro Diaz (as Catalina now +called herself) been really a Peter, and not a sham Peter, what a +vision of loveliness would have rushed upon his sensibilities as the +door opened! Do not expect me to describe her, for which, however, +there are materials extant, sleeping in archives, where they have slept +for two hundred and twenty years. It is enough that she is reported to +have united the stately tread of Andalusian women with the innocent +voluptuousness of Peruvian eyes. As to her complexion and figure, be it +known that Juana's father was a gentleman from Grenada, having in his +veins the grandest blood of all this earth, blood of Goths and Vandals, +tainted (for which Heaven be thanked!) twice over with blood of Arabs-- +once through Moors, once through Jews; [Footnote: It is well known, +that the very reason why the Spanish of all nations became the most +gloomily jealous of a Jewish cross in the pedigree, was because, until +the vigilance of the Church rose into ferocity, in no nation was such a +cross so common. The hatred of fear is ever the deepest. And men hated +the Jewish taint, as once in Jerusalem they hated the leprosy, because +even whilst they raved against it, the secret proofs of it might be +detected amongst their own kindred, even as in the Temple, whilst once +a king rose in mutiny against the priesthood, (2 Chron. xxvi 16-20,) +suddenly the leprosy that dethroned him, blazed out upon his forehead.] +whilst from her grandmother, Juana drew the deep subtle melancholy and +the beautiful contours of limb which belong to the Indian race--a race +destined silently and slowly to fade from the earth. No awkwardness was +or could be in this antelope, when gliding with forest grace into the +room--no town-bred shame--nothing but the unaffected pleasure of one +who wishes to speak a fervent welcome, but knows not if she ought--the +astonishment of a Miranda, bred in utter solitude, when first beholding +a princely Ferdinand--and just so much reserve as to remind you, that +if Catalina thought fit to dissemble her sex, she did _not_. And +consider, reader, if you look back and are a great arithmetician, that +whilst the Senora had only fifty per cent of Spanish blood, Juana had +seventy-five; so that her Indian melancholy after all was swallowed up +for the present by her Vandal, by her Arab, by her Spanish fire. + +Catalina, seared as she was by the world, has left it evident in her +memoirs that she was touched more than she wished to be by this +innocent child. Juana formed a brief lull for Catalina in her too +stormy existence. And if for _her_ in this life the sweet reality +of a sister had been possible, here was the sister she would have +chosen. On the other hand, what might Juana think of the cornet? To +have been thrown upon the kind hospitalities of her native home, to +have been rescued by her mother's servants from that fearful death +which, lying but a few miles off, had filled her nursery with +traditionary tragedies,--_that_ was sufficient to create an +interest in the stranger. But his bold martial demeanor, his yet +youthful style of beauty, his frank manners, his animated conversation +that reported a hundred contests with suffering and peril, wakened for +the first time her admiration. Men she had never seen before, except +menial servants, or a casual priest. But here was a gentleman, young +like herself, that rode in the cavalry of Spain--that carried the +banner of the only potentate whom Peruvians knew of--the King of the +Spains and the Indies--that had doubled Cape Horn, that had crossed the +Andes, that had suffered shipwreck, that had rocked upon fifty storms, +and had wrestled for life through fifty battles. + +The reader knows all that followed. The sisterly love which Catalina +did really feel for this young mountaineer was inevitably misconstrued. +Embarrassed, but not able, from sincere affection, or almost in bare +propriety, to refuse such expressions of feeling as corresponded to the +artless and involuntary kindnesses of the ingenuous Juana, one day the +cornet was surprised by mamma in the act of encircling her daughter's +waist with his martial arm, although waltzing was premature by at least +two centuries in Peru. She taxed him instantly with dishonorably +abusing her confidence. The cornet made but a bad defence. He muttered +something about '_fraternal affection_,' about 'esteem,' and a +great deal of metaphysical words that are destined to remain +untranslated in their original Spanish. The good Senora, though she +could boast only of forty-four years' experience, was not altogether to +be '_had_' in that fashion--she was as learned as if she had been +fifty, and she brought matters to a speedy crisis. 'You are a +Spaniard,' she said, 'a gentleman, therefore; _remember_ that you +are a gentleman. This very night, if your intentions are not serious, +quit my house. Go to Tucuman; you shall command my horses and servants; +but stay no longer to increase the sorrow that already you will have +left behind you. My daughter loves you. That is sorrow enough, if you +are trifling with us. But, if not, and you also love _her_, and +can be happy in our solitary mode of life, stay with us--stay for ever. +Marry Juana with my free consent. I ask not for wealth. Mine is +sufficient for you both.' The cornet protested that the honor was one +never contemplated by _him_--that it was too great--that--. But, +of course, reader, you know that 'gammon' flourishes in Peru, amongst +the silver mines, as well as in some more boreal lands that produce +little better than copper and tin. 'Tin,' however, has its uses. The +delighted Senora overruled all objections, great and small; and she +confirmed Juana's notion that the business of two worlds could be +transacted in an hour, by settling her daughter's future happiness in +exactly twenty minutes. The poor, weak Catalina, not acting now in any +spirit of recklessness, grieving sincerely for the gulf that was +opening before her, and yet shrinking effeminately from the momentary +shock that would be inflicted by a firm adherence to her duty, clinging +to the anodyne of a short delay, allowed herself to be installed as the +lover of Juana. Considerations of convenience, however, postponed the +marriage. It was requisite to make various purchases; and for this, it +was requisite to visit Tucuman, where, also, the marriage ceremony +could be performed with more circumstantial splendor. To Tucuman, +therefore, after some weeks' interval, the whole party repaired. And at +Tucuman it was that the tragical events arose, which, whilst +interrupting such a mockery for ever, left the poor Juana still happily +deceived, and never believing for a moment that hers was a rejected or +a deluded heart. + +One reporter of Mr. De Ferrer's narrative forgets his usual generosity, +when he says that the Senora's gift of her daughter to the Alferez was +not quite so disinterested as it seemed to be. Certainly it was not so +disinterested as European ignorance might fancy it: but it was quite as +much so as it ought to have been, in balancing the interests of a +child. Very true it is--that, being a genuine Spaniard, who was still +a rare creature in so vast a world as Peru, being a Spartan amongst +Helots, an Englishman amongst Savages, an Alferez would in those days +have been a natural noble. His alliance created honor for his wife and +for his descendants. Something, therefore, the cornet would add to the +family consideration. But, instead of selfishness, it argued just +regard for her daughter's interest to build upon this, as some sort of +equipoise to the wealth which her daughter would bring. + +Spaniard, however, as he was, our Alferez on reaching Tucuman found no +Spaniards to mix with, but instead twelve Portuguese. + +Catalina remembered the Spanish proverb--'Subtract from a Spaniard all +his good qualities, and the remainder makes a pretty fair Portuguese;' +but, as there was nobody else to gamble with, she entered freely into +their society. Very soon she suspected that there was foul play: all +modes of doctoring dice had been made familiar to _her_ by the +experience of camps. She watched; and, by the time she had lost her +final coin, she was satisfied that she had been plundered. In her first +anger she would have been glad to switch the whole dozen across the +eyes; but, as twelve to one were too great odds, she determined on +limiting her vengeance to the immediate culprit. Him she followed into +the street; and coming near enough to distinguish his profile reflected +on a wall, she continued to keep him in view from a short distance. The +light-hearted young cavalier whistled, as he went, an old Portuguese +ballad of romance; and in a quarter of an hour came up to an house, the +front door of which he began to open with a pass-key. This operation +was the signal for Catalina that the hour of vengeance had struck; and, +stepping hastily up, she tapped the Portuguese on the shoulder, saying +--'Senor, you are a robber!' The Portuguese turned coolly round, and, +seeing his gaming antagonist, replied--'Possibly, Sir; but I have no +particular fancy for being told so,' at the same time drawing his +sword. Catalina had not designed to take any advantage; and the +touching him on the shoulder, with the interchange of speeches, and the +known character of Kate, sufficiently imply it. But it is too probable +in such cases, that the party whose intention has been regularly +settled from the first, will, and must have an advantage unconsciously +over a man so abruptly thrown on his defence. However this might be, +they had not fought a minute before Catalina passed her sword through +her opponent's body; and without a groan or a sigh, the Portuguese +cavalier fell dead at his own door. Kate searched the street with her +ears, and (as far as the indistinctness of night allowed) with her +eyes. All was profoundly silent; and she was satisfied that no human +figure was in motion. What should be done with the body? A glance at +the door of the house settled _that_: Fernando had himself opened +it at the very moment when he received the summons to turn round. She +dragged the corpse in, therefore, to the foot of the staircase, put the +key by the dead man's side, and then issuing softly into the street, +drew the door close with as little noise as possible. Catalina again +paused to listen and to watch, went home to the hospitable Senora's +house, retired to bed, fell asleep, and early the next morning was +awakened by the Corregidor and four alguazils. + +The lawlessness of all that followed strikingly exposes the frightful +state of criminal justice at that time, wherever Spanish law prevailed. +No evidence appeared to connect Catalina in any way with the death of +Fernando Acosta. The Portuguese gamblers, besides that perhaps they +thought lightly of such an accident, might have reasons of their own +for drawing off public attention from their pursuits in Tucuman: not +one of these men came forward openly; else the circumstances at the +gaming table, and the departure of Catalina so closely on the heels of +her opponent, would have suggested reasonable grounds for detaining her +until some further light should be obtained. As it was, her +imprisonment rested upon no colorable ground whatever, unless the +magistrate had received some anonymous information, which, however, he +never alleged. One comfort there was, meantime, in Spanish injustice: +it did not loiter. Full gallop it went over the ground: one week often +sufficed for informations--for trial--for execution; and the only bad +consequence was, that a second or a third week sometimes exposed the +disagreeable fact that everything had been 'premature;' a solemn +sacrifice had been made to offended justice, in which all was right +except as to the victim; it was the wrong man; and _that_ gave +extra trouble; for then all was to do over again, another man to be +executed, and, possibly, still to be caught. + +Justice moved at her usual Spanish rate in the present case. Kate was +obliged to rise instantly; not suffered to speak to anybody in the +house, though, in going out, a door opened, and she saw the young Juana +looking out with saddest Indian expression. In one day the trial was +all finished. Catalina said (which was true) that she hardly knew +Acosta; and that people of her rank were used to attack their enemies +face to face, not by murderous surprises. The magistrates were +impressed with Catalina's answers (yet answered to _what_?) Things +were beginning to look well, when all was suddenly upset by two +witnesses, whom the reader (who is a sort of accomplice after the fact, +having been privately let into the truths of the case, and having +concealed his knowledge), will know at once to be false witnesses, but +whom the old Spanish buzwigs doated on as models of all that could be +looked for in the best. Both were very ill-looking fellows, as it was +their duty to be. And the first deposed as follows:--That through his +quarter of Tucuman, the fact was notorious of Acosta's wife being the +object of a criminal pursuit on the part of the Alferez (Catalina): +that, _doubtless_, the injured husband had surprised the prisoner, +which, of course, had led to the murder, to the staircase, to the key-- +to everything, in short, that could be wished; no--stop! what am I +saying?--to everything that ought to be abominated. Finally--for he had +now settled the main question--that he had a friend who would take up +the case where he himself, from short-sightedness, was obliged to lay +it down.' This friend, the Pythias of this short-sighted Damon started +up in a frenzy of virtue at this summons, and, rushing to the front of +the alguazils, said, 'That since his friend had proved sufficiently the +fact of the Alferez having been lurking in the house, and having +murdered a man, all that rested upon _him_ to show was, how that +murderer got out of the house; which he could do satisfactorily; for +there was a balcony running along the windows on the second floor, one +of which windows he himself, lurking in a corner of the street, saw the +Alferez throw up, and from the said balcony take a flying leap into the +said street.' Evidence like this was conclusive; no defence was +listened to, nor indeed had the prisoner any to produce. The Alferez +could deny neither the staircase nor the balcony: the street is there +to this day, like the bricks in Jack Cade's Chimney, testifying all +that may be required; and, as to our friend who saw the leap, there he +was; nobody could deny _him_. The prisoner might indeed have +suggested that she never heard of Acosta's wife, nor had the existence +of such a wife been ripened even into a suspicion. But the bench were +satisfied; chopping logic was of no use; and sentence was pronounced-- +that on the eighth day from the day of arrest, the Alferez should be +executed in the public square. + +It was not amongst the weaknesses of Catalina--who had so often +inflicted death, and, by her own journal, thought so lightly of +inflicting it (if not under cowardly advantages)--to shrink from facing +death in her own person. Many incidents in her career show the coolness +and even gaiety with which, in any case where death was apparently +inevitable, she would have gone to meet it. But in this case she +_had_ a temptation for escaping it, which was probably in her +power. She had only to reveal the secret of her sex, and the ridiculous +witnesses, beyond whose testimony there was nothing at all against her, +must at once be covered with derision. Catalina had some liking for +fun; and a main inducement to this course was, that it would enable her +to say to the judges, 'Now you see what old fools you've made of +yourselves; every woman and child in Peru will soon be laughing at +you.' I must acknowledge my own weakness; this last temptation I could +_not_ have withstood; flesh is weak, and fun is strong. But +Catalina _did_. On consideration she fancied, that although the +particular motive for murdering Acosta would be dismissed with +laughter, still this might not clear her of the murder, which on some +_other_ motive she might have committed. But supposing that she +were cleared altogether, what most of all she feared was, that the +publication of her sex would throw a reflex light upon many past +transactions in her life--would instantly find its way to Spain--and +would probably soon bring her within the tender attentions of the +Inquisition. She kept firm to the resolution of not saving her life by +this discovery. And so far as her fate lay in her own hands, she would +(as the reader will perceive from a little incident at the scaffold) +have perished to a certainty. But even at this point, how strange a +case! A woman _falsely_ accused of an act which she really +_did_ commit! And falsely accused of a true offence upon a motive +that was impossible! + +As the sun set upon the seventh day, when the hours were numbered for +the prisoner, there filed into her cell four persons in religious +habits. They came on the charitable mission of preparing the poor +convict for death. Catalina, however, watching all things narrowly, +remarked something earnest and significant in the eye of the leader, as +of one who had some secret communication to make. She contrived to +clasp this man's hands, as if in the energy of internal struggles, and +_he_ contrived to slip into hers the very smallest of billets from +poor Juana. It contained, for indeed it _could_ contain, only +these three words--'Do not confess. J.' This one caution, so simple and +so brief, was a talisman. It did not refer to any confession of the +crime; _that_ would have been assuming what Juana was neither +entitled nor disposed to assume, but, in the technical sense of the +Church, to the act of devotional confession. Catalina found a single +moment for a glance at it--understood the whole--resolutely refused to +confess, as a person unsettled in her religious opinions, that needed +spiritual instructions, and the four monks withdrew to make their +report. The principal judge, upon hearing of the prisoner's +impenitence, granted another day. At the end of _that_, no change +having occurred either in the prisoner's mind, or in the circumstances, +he issued his warrant for the execution. Accordingly, as the sun went +down, the sad procession formed within the prison. Into the great +square of Tucuman it moved, where the scaffold had been built, and the +whole city had assembled for the spectacle. Catalina steadily ascended +the ladder of the scaffold; even then she resolved not to benefit by +revealing her sex; even then it was that she expressed her scorn for +the lubberly executioner's mode of tying a knot; did it herself in a +'ship-shape,' orthodox manner; received in return the enthusiastic +plaudits of the crowd, and so far ran the risk of precipitating her +fate; for the timid magistrates, fearing a rescue from the impetuous +mob, angrily ordered the executioner to finish the scene. The clatter +of a galloping horse, however, at this instant forced them to pause. +The crowd opened a road for the agitated horseman, who was the bearer +of an order from the President of La Plata to suspend the execution +until two prisoners could be examined. The whole was the work of the +Senora and her daughter. The elder lady, having gathered informations +against the witnesses, had pursued them to La Plata. There, by her +influence with the Governor, they were arrested; recognised as old +malefactors; and in their terror had partly confessed their perjury. +Catalina was removed to La Plata; solemnly acquitted; and, by the +advice of the President, for the present the connection with the +Senora's family was postponed indefinitely. + +Now was the last adventure approaching that ever Catalina should see in +the new world. Some fine sights she may yet see in Europe, but nothing +after this (_which she has recorded_) in America. Europe, if it +had ever heard of her name (which very shortly it _shall_), Kings, +Pope, Cardinals, if they were but aware of her existence (which in six +months they _shall_ be), would thirst for an introduction to our +Catalina. You hardly thought now, reader, that she was such a great +person, or anybody's pet but yours and mine. Bless you, Sir, she would +scorn to look at _us_. I tell you, royalties are languishing to +see her, or soon _will_ be. But how can this come to pass, if she +is to continue in her present obscurity? Certainly it cannot without +some great _peripetteia_ or vertiginous whirl of fortune; which, +therefore, you shall now behold taking place in one turn of her next +adventure. _That_ shall let in a light, _that_ shall throw +back a Claude Lorraine gleam over all the past, able to make Kings, +that would have cared not for her under Peruvian daylight, come to +glorify her setting beams. + +The Senora--and, observe, whatever kindness she does to Catalina speaks +secretly from two hearts, her own and Juana's--had, by the advice of +Mr. President Mendonia, given sufficient money for Catalina's +travelling expenses. So far well. But Mr. M. chose to add a little +codicil to this bequest of the Senora's, never suggested by her or by +her daughter. 'Pray,' said this inquisitive President, who surely might +have found business enough in La Plata, 'Pray, Senor Pietro Diaz, did +you ever live at Concepcion? And were you ever acquainted there with +Senor Miguel de Erauso? That man, Sir, was my friend.' What a pity that +on this occasion Catalina could not venture to be candid! What a +capital speech it would have made to say--'_Friend_ were you? I +think you could hardly be _that_, with seven hundred miles between +you. But that man was _my_ friend also; and, secondly, my brother. +True it is I killed him. But if you happen to know that this was by +pure mistake in the dark, what an old rogue you must be to throw +_that_ in my teeth, which is the affliction of my life!' Again, +however, as so often in the same circumstances, Catalina thought that +it would cause more ruin than it could heal to be candid; and, indeed, +if she were really _P. Diaz, Esq. _, how came she to be brother to +the late Mr. Erauso? On consideration, also, if she could not tell +_all_, merely to have professed a fraternal connection which never +was avowed by either whilst living together, would not have brightened +the reputation of Catalina, which too surely required a scouring. +Still, from my kindness for poor Kate, I feel uncharitably towards the +president for advising Senor Pietro 'to travel for his health.' What +had _he_ to do with people's health? However, Mr. Peter, as he had +pocketed the Senora's money, thought it right to pocket also the advice +that accompanied its payment. That he might be in a condition to do so, +he went off to buy a horse. He was in luck to-day. For beside money and +advice, he obtained, at a low rate, a horse both beautiful and +serviceable for a journey. To Paz it was, a city of prosperous name, +that the cornet first moved. But Paz did not fulfil the promise of its +name. For it laid the grounds of a feud that drove our Kate out of +America. + +Her first adventure was a bagatelle, and fitter for a jest-book than a +history; yet it proved no jest either, since it led to the tragedy that +followed. Riding into Paz, our gallant standard-bearer and her bonny +black horse drew all eyes, _comme de raison_, upon their separate +charms. This was inevitable amongst the indolent population of a +Spanish town; and Kate was used to it. But, having recently had a +little too much of the public attention, she felt nervous on remarking +two soldiers eyeing the handsome horse and the handsome rider, with an +attention that seemed too solemn for mere _aesthetics_. However, +Kate was not the kind of person to let anything dwell on her spirits, +especially if it took the shape of impudence; and, whistling gaily, she +was riding forward--when, who should cross her path but the Alcalde! +Ah! Alcalde, you see a person now that has a mission against you, +though quite unknown to herself. He looked so sternly, that Kate asked +if his worship had any commands. 'These men,' said the Alcalde, 'these +two soldiers, say that this horse is stolen.' To one who had so +narrowly and so lately escaped the balcony witness and his friend, it +was really no laughing matter to hear of new affidavits in preparation. +Kate was nervous, but never disconcerted. In a moment she had twitched +off a saddle-cloth on which she sat; and throwing it over the horse's +head, so as to cover up all between the ears and the mouth, she +replied, 'that she had bought and paid for the horse at La Plata. But +now, your worship, if this horse has really been stolen from these men, +they must know well of which eye it is blind; for it _can_ be only +in the right eye or the left.' One of the soldiers cried out instantly, +that it was the left eye; but the other said, 'No, no, you forget, it's +the right.' Kate maliciously called attention to this little schism. +But the men said, 'Ah, _that_ was nothing--they were hurried; but +now, on recollecting themselves, they were agreed that it was the left +eye.' Did they stand to that? 'Oh yes, positive they were, left eye, +left.' + +Upon which our Kate, twitching off the horse-cloth, said gaily to the +magistrate, 'Now, Sir, please to observe that this horse has nothing +the matter with either eye.' And in fact it _was_ so. Then his +worship ordered his alguazils to apprehend the two witnesses, who +posted off to bread and water, with other reversionary advantages, +whilst Kate rode in quest of the best dinner that Paz could furnish. + +This Alcalde's acquaintance, however, was not destined to drop here. +Something had appeared in the young _caballero's_ bearing, which +made it painful to have addressed him with harshness, or for a moment +to have entertained such a charge against such a person. He despatched +his cousin, therefore, Don Antonio Calderon, to offer his apologies, +and at the same time to request that the stranger, whose rank and +quality he regretted not to have known, would do him the honor to come +and dine with him. This explanation, and the fact that Don Antonio had +already proclaimed his own position as cousin to the magistrate and +nephew to the Bishop of Cuzco, obliged Catalina to say, after thanking +the gentlemen for their obliging attentions, 'I myself hold the rank of +Alferez in the service of his Catholic Majesty. I am a native of +Biscay, and I am now repairing to Cuzco on private business.' 'To +Cuzco!' exclaimed Don Antonio, 'how very fortunate! My cousin is a +Basque like you; and, like you, he starts for Cuzco to-morrow morning; +so that, if it is agreeable to you, Senor Alferez, we will travel +together.' It was settled that they should. To travel--amongst 'balcony +witnesses,' and anglers for 'blind horses'--not merely with a just man, +but with the very abstract idea and riding allegory of justice, was too +delightful to the storm-wearied cornet; and he cheerfully accompanied +Don Antonio to the house of the magistrate, called Don Pedro de +Chavarria. Distinguished was his reception; the Alcalde personally +renewed his regrets for the ridiculous scene of the two scampish +oculists, and presented him to his wife, a splendid Andalusian beauty, +to whom he had been married about a year. + +This lady there is a reason for describing; and the French reporter of +Catalina's memoirs dwells upon the theme. She united, he says, the +sweetness of the German lady with the energy of the Arabian, a +combination hard to judge of. As to her feet, he adds, I say nothing; +for she had scarcely any at all. '_Je ne parle point de ses pieds, +elle n'en avait presque pas_.' 'Poor lady!' says a compassionate +rustic: 'no feet! What a shocking thing that so fine a woman should +have been so sadly mutilated!' Oh, my dear rustic, you're quite in the +wrong box. The Frenchman means this as the very highest compliment. +Beautiful, however, she must have been; and a Cinderella, I hope, not a +Cinderellula, considering that she had the inimitable walk and step of +the Andalusians, which cannot be accomplished without something of a +proportionate basis to stand upon. + +The reason which there is (as I have said) for describing this lady, +arises out of her relation to the tragic events which followed. She, by +her criminal levity, was the cause of all. And I must here warn the +moralizing blunderer of two errors that he is too likely to make: 1st, +That he is invited to read some extract from a licentious amour, as if +for its own interest; 2d, Or on account of Donna Catalina's memoirs, +with a view to relieve their too martial character. I have the pleasure +to assure him of his being so utterly in the darkness of error, that +any possible change he can make in his opinions, right or left, must be +for the better: he cannot stir, but he will mend, which is a delightful +thought for the moral and blundering mind. As to the first point, what +little glimpse he obtains of a licentious amour is, as a court of +justice will sometimes show him such a glimpse, simply to make +intelligible the subsequent facts which depend upon it. Secondly, As to +the conceit, that Catalina wished to embellish her memoirs, understand +that no such practice then existed; certainly not in Spanish +literature. Her memoirs are electrifying by their facts; else, in the +manner of telling these facts, they are systematically dry. + +Don Antonio Calderon was a handsome, accomplished cavalier. And in the +course of dinner, Catalina was led to judge, from the behavior to each +other of this gentleman and the lady, the Alcalde's beautiful wife, +that they had an improper understanding. This also she inferred from +the furtive language of their eyes. Her wonder was, that the Alcalde +should be so blind; though upon that point she saw reason in a day or +two to change her opinion. Some people see everything by affecting to +see nothing. The whole affair, however, was nothing at all to +_her_, and she would have dismissed it from her thoughts +altogether, but for what happened on the journey. + +From the miserable roads, eight hours a day of travelling was found +quite enough for man and beast; the product of which eight hours was +from ten to twelve leagues. On the last day but one of the journey, the +travelling party, which was precisely the original dinner party, +reached a little town ten leagues short of Cuzco. The Corregidor of +this place was a friend of the Alcalde; and through _his_ +influence the party obtained better accommodations than those which +they had usually had in a hovel calling itself a _venta_, or in +the sheltered corner of a barn. The Alcalde was to sleep at the +Corregidor's house; the two young cavaliers, Calderon and our Kate, had +sleeping rooms at the public _locanda_; but for the lady was +reserved a little pleasure-house in an enclosed garden. This was a +plaything of a house; but the season being summer, and the house +surrounded with tropical flowers, the lady preferred it (in spite of +its loneliness) to the damp mansion of the official grandee, who, in +her humble opinion, was quite as fusty as his mansion, and his mansion +not much less so than himself. + +After dining gaily together at the _locanda_, and possibly taking a +'rise' out of his worship the Corregidor, as a repeating echo of Don +Quixote, (then growing popular in Spanish America,) the young man who +was no young officer, and the young officer who was no young man, +lounged down together to the little pavilion in the flower-garden, with +the purpose of paying their respects to the presiding belle. They were +graciously received, and had the honor of meeting there his Mustiness +the Alcalde, and his Fustiness the Corregidor; whose conversation was +surely improving, but not equally brilliant. How they got on under the +weight of two such muffs, has been a mystery for two centuries. But +they _did_ to a certainty, for the party did not break up till eleven. +_Tea and turn out_ you could not call it; for there was the _turn out_ +in rigor, but not the _tea_. One thing, however, Catalina by mere +accident had an opportunity of observing, and observed with pain. The +two official gentlemen had gone down the steps into the garden. +Catalina, having forgot her hat, went back into the little vestibule to +look for it. There stood the lady and Don Antonio, exchanging a few +final words (they _were_ final) and a few final signs. Amongst the last +Kate observed distinctly this, and distinctly she understood it. First +drawing Calderon's attention to the gesture, as one of significant +pantomime, by raising her forefinger, the lady snuffed out one of the +candles. The young man answered it by a look of intelligence, and all +three passed down the steps together. The lady was disposed to take the +cool air, and accompanied them to the garden-gate; but, in passing +down the walk, Catalina noticed a second ill-omened sign that all was +not right. Two glaring eyes she distinguished amongst the shrubs for a +moment, and a rustling immediately after. 'What's that?' said the lady, +and Don Antonio answered carelessly, 'A bird flying out of the bushes.' + +Catalina, as usual, had read everything. Not a wrinkle or a rustle was +lost upon _her_. And, therefore, when she reached the +_locanda_, knowing to an iota all that was coming, she did not +retire to bed, but paced before the house. She had not long to wait: in +fifteen minutes the door opened softly, and out stepped Calderon. Kate +walked forward, and faced him immediately; telling him laughingly that +it was not good for his health to go abroad on this night. The young +man showed some impatience; upon which, very seriously, Kate acquainted +him with her suspicions, and with the certainty that the Alcalde was +not so blind as he had seemed. Calderon thanked her for the +information; would be upon his guard; but, to prevent further +expostulation, he wheeled round instantly into the darkness. Catalina +was too well convinced, however, of the mischief on foot, to leave him +thus. She followed rapidly, and passed silently into the garden, almost +at the same time with Calderon. Both took their stations behind trees; +Calderon watching nothing but the burning candles, Catalina watching +circumstances to direct her movements. The candles burned brightly in +the little pavilion. Presently one was extinguished. Upon this, +Calderon pressed forward to the steps, hastily ascended them, and +passed into the vestibule. Catalina followed on his traces. What +succeeded was all one scene of continued, dreadful dumb show; different +passions of panic, or deadly struggle, or hellish malice absolutely +suffocated all articulate words. + +In a moment a gurgling sound was heard, as of a wild beast attempting +vainly to yell over some creature that it was strangling. Next came a +tumbling out at the door of one black mass, which heaved and parted at +intervals into two figures, which closed, which parted again, which at +last fell down the steps together. Then appeared a figure in white. It +was the unhappy Andalusian; and she seeing the outline of Catalina's +person, ran up to her, unable to utter one syllable. Pitying the agony +of her horror, Catalina took her within her own cloak, and carried her +out at the garden gate. Calderon had by this time died; and the +maniacal Alcalde had risen up to pursue his wife. But Kate, foreseeing +what he would do, had stepped silently within the shadow of the garden +wall. Looking down the road to the town, and seeing nobody moving, the +maniac, for some purpose, went back to the house. This moment Kate used +to recover the _locanda_ with the lady still panting in horror. +What was to be done? To think of concealment in this little place was +out of the question. The Alcalde was a man of local power, and it was +certain that he would kill his wife on the spot. Kate's generosity +would not allow her to have any collusion with this murderous purpose. +At Cuzco, the principal convent was ruled by a near relative of the +Andalusian; and there she would find shelter. Kate, therefore, saddled +her horse rapidly, placed the lady behind, and rode off in the +darkness. About five miles out of the town their road was crossed by a +torrent, over which they could not hit the bridge. 'Forward!' cried the +lady; and Kate repeating the word to the horse, the docile creature +leaped down into the water. They were all sinking at first; but having +its head free, the horse swam clear of all obstacles through the +midnight darkness, and scrambled out on the opposite bank. The two +riders were dripping from the shoulders downward. But, seeing a light +twinkling from a cottage window, Kate rode up; obtained a little +refreshment, and the benefit of a fire, from a poor laboring man. From +this man she also bought a warm mantle for the lady, who, besides her +torrent bath, was dressed in a light evening robe, so that but for the +horseman's cloak of Kate she would have perished. But there was no time +to lose. They had already lost two hours from the consequences of their +cold bath. Cuzco was still eighteen miles distant; and the Alcalde's +shrewdness would at once divine this to be his wife's mark. They +remounted: very soon the silent night echoed the hoofs of a pursuing +rider; and now commenced the most frantic race, in which each party +rode as if the whole game of life were staked upon the issue. The pace +was killing: and Kate has delivered it as her opinion, in the memoirs +which she wrote, that the Alcalde was the better mounted. This may be +doubted. And certainly Kate had ridden too many years in the Spanish +cavalry to have any fear of his worship's horsemanship; but it was a +prodigious disadvantage that _her_ horse had to carry double; +while the horse ridden by her opponent was one of those belonging to +the murdered Don Antonio, and known to Kate as a powerful animal. At +length they had come within three miles at Cuzco. The road after this +descended the whole way to the city, and in some places rapidly, so as +to require a cool rider. Suddenly a deep trench appeared traversing the +whole extent of a broad heath. It was useless to evade it. To have +hesitated was to be lost. Kate saw the necessity of clearing it, but +doubted much whether her poor exhausted horse, after twenty-one miles +of work so severe, had strength for the effort. Kate's maxim, however, +which never yet had failed, both figuratively for life, and literally +for the saddle, was--to ride at everything that showed a front of +resistance. She did so now. Having come upon the trench rather too +suddenly, she wheeled round for the advantage of coming down upon it +more determinately, rode resolutely at it, and gained the opposite +bank. The hind feet of her horse were sinking back from the rottenness +of the ground; but the strong supporting bridle-hand of Kate carried +him forward; and in ten minutes more they would be in Cuzco. This being +seen by the vicious Alcalde, who had built great hopes on the trench, +he unslung his carbine, pulled up, and fired after the bonny black +horse and its bonny fair riders. But this manoeuvre would have lost his +worship any bet that he might have had depending on this admirable +steeple-chase. Had I been stakeholder, what a pleasure it would have +been, in fifteen minutes from this very vicious shot, to pay into +Kate's hands every shilling of the deposits. I would have listened to +no nonsense about referees or protests. The bullets, says Kate, +whistled round the poor clinging lady _en croupe_--luckily none +struck her; but one wounded the horse. And that settled the odds. Kate +now planted herself well in her stirrups to enter Cuzco, almost +dangerously a winner; for the horse was so maddened by the wound, and +the road so steep, that he went like blazes; and it really became +difficult for Kate to guide him with any precision through narrow +episcopal paths. Henceforwards the wounded horse required Kate's +continued attention; and yet, in the mere luxury of strife, it was +impossible for Kate to avoid turning a little in her saddle to see the +Alcalde's performance on this tight rope of the trench. His worship's +horsemanship being perhaps rather rusty, and he not perfectly +acquainted with his horse, it would have been agreeable to compromise +the case by riding round, or dismounting. But all _that_ was +impossible. The job must be done. And I am happy to report, for the +reader's satisfaction, the sequel--so far as Kate could attend the +performance. Gathering himself up for mischief, the Alcalde took a +sweep, as if ploughing out the line of some vast encampment, or tracing +the _pomærium_ for some future Rome; then, like thunder and +lightning, with arms flying aloft in the air, down he came upon the +trembling trench. + +But the horse refused the leap; and, as the only compromise that +_his_ unlearned brain could suggest, he threw his worship right +over his ears, lodging him safely in a sand-heap that rose with clouds +of dust and screams of birds into the morning air. Kate had now no time +to send back her compliments in a musical halloo. The Alcalde missed +breaking his neck on this occasion very narrowly; but his neck was of +no use to him in twenty minutes more, as the reader will soon find. +Kate rode right onwards; and, coming in with a lady behind her, horse +bloody, and pace such as no hounds could have lived with, she ought to +have made a great sensation in Cuzco. But, unhappily, the people were +all in bed. + +The steeple-chase into Cuzco had been a fine headlong thing, +considering the torrent, the trench, the wounded horse, the lovely +lady, with her agonizing fears, mounted behind Kate, together with the +meek dove-like dawn: but the finale crowded together the quickest +succession of changes that out of a melodrama can ever have been +witnessed. Kate reached the convent in safety; carried into the +cloisters, and delivered like a parcel the fair Andalusian. But to +rouse the servants caused delay; and on returning to the street through +the broad gateway of the convent, whom should she face but the Alcalde! +How he escaped the trench, who can tell? He had no time to write +memoirs; his horse was too illiterate. But he _had_ escaped; +temper not at all improved by that adventure, and now raised to a hell +of malignity by seeing that he had lost his prey. In the morning light +he now saw how to use his sword. He attacked Kate with fury. Both were +exhausted; and Kate, besides that she had no personal quarrel with the +Alcalde, having now accomplished her sole object in saving the lady, +would have been glad of a truce. She could with difficulty wield her +sword: and the Alcalde had so far the advantage, that he wounded Kate +severely. That roused her ancient blood. She turned on him now with +determination. At that moment in rode two servants of the Alcalde, who +took part with their master. These odds strengthened Kate's resolution, +but weakened her chances. Just then, however, rode in, and ranged +himself on Kate's side, the servant of the murdered Don Calderon. In an +instant, Kate had pushed her sword through the Alcalde, who died upon +the spot. In an instant the servant of Calderon had fled. In an instant +the Alguazils had come up. They and the servants of the Alcalde pressed +furiously on Kate, who now again was fighting for life. Against such +odds, she was rapidly losing ground; when, in an instant, on the +opposite side of the street, the great gates of the Episcopal palace +rolled open. Thither it was that Calderon's servant had fled. The +bishop and his attendants hurried across. 'Senor Caballador,' said the +bishop, 'in the name of the Virgin, I enjoin you to surrender your +sword.' 'My lord,' said Kate, 'I dare not do it with so many enemies +about me.' 'But I,' replied the bishop, 'become answerable to the law +for your safe keeping.' Upon which, with filial reverence, all parties +dropped their swords. Kate being severely wounded, the bishop led her +into his palace. In an instant came the catastrophe; Kate's discovery +could no longer be delayed; the blood flowed too rapidly; the wound was +in her bosom. She requested a private interview with the bishop; all +was known in a moment; for surgeons and attendants were summoned +hastily, and Kate had fainted. The good bishop pitied her, and had her +attended in his palace; then removed to a convent; then to a second at +Lima; and, after many months had passed, his report to the Spanish +Government at home of all the particulars, drew from the King of Spain +and from the Pope an order that the Nun should be transferred to Spain. + +Yes, at length the warrior lady, the blooming cornet, this nun that is +so martial, this dragoon that is so lovely, must visit again the home +of her childhood, which now for seventeen years she has not seen. All +Spain, Portugal, Italy, rang with her adventures. Spain, from north to +south, was frantic with desire to behold her fiery child, whose girlish +romance, whose patriotic heroism electrified the national imagination. +The King of Spain must kiss his _faithful_ daughter, that would +not suffer his banner to see dishonor. The Pope must kiss his +_wandering_ daughter, that henceforwards will be a lamb travelling +back into the Christian fold. Potentates so great as these, when +_they_ speak words of love, do not speak in vain. All was +forgiven; the sacrilege, the bloodshed, the flight and the scorn of St. +Peter's keys; the pardons were made out, were signed, were sealed, and +the chanceries of earth were satisfied. + +Ah! what a day of sorrow and of joy was _that_ one day, in the +first week of November, 1624, when the returning Kate drew near to the +shore of Andalusia--when, descending into the ship's barge, she was +rowed to the piers of Cadiz by bargemen in the royal liveries--when she +saw every ship, street, house, convent, church, crowded, like a day of +judgment, with human faces, with men, with women, with children, all +bending the lights of their flashing and their loving eyes upon +herself. Forty myriads of people had gathered in Cadiz alone. All +Andalusia had turned out to receive her. Ah! what joy, if she had not +looked back to the Andes, to their dreadful summits, and their more +dreadful feet. Ah! what sorrow, if she had not been forced by music, +and endless banners, and triumphant clamors, to turn away from the +Andes to the joyous shore which she approached! + +Upon this shore stood, ready to receive her, in front of all this +mighty crowd, the Prime Minister of Spain, the same Conde Olivarez, who +but one year before had been so haughty and so defying to our haughty +and defying Duke of Buckingham. But a year ago the Prince of Wales was +in Spain, and he also was welcomed with triumph and great joy, but not +with the hundredth part of that enthusiasm which now met the returning +nun. And Olivarez, that had spoken so roughly to the English Duke, to +_her_ 'was sweet as summer.' [Footnote: Griffith in Shakspeare, +when vindicating, in that immortal scene with Queen Catherine, Cardinal +Wolsey.] Through endless crowds of festive compatriots he conducted her +to the King. The King folded her in his arms, and could never be +satisfied with listening to her. He sent for her continually to his +presence--he delighted in her conversation, so new, so natural, so +spirited--he settled a pension upon her at that time, of unprecedented +amount, in the case of a subaltern officer; and by _his_ desire, +because the year 1625 was a year of jubilee, she departed in a few +months from Madrid to Rome. She went through Barcelona; there and +everywhere welcomed as the lady whom the King delighted to honor. She +travelled to Rome, and all doors flew open to receive her. She was +presented to his Holiness, with letters from his most Catholic majesty. +But letters there needed none. The Pope admired her as much as all +before had done. He caused her to recite all her adventures; and what +he loved most in her account, was the sincere and sorrowing spirit in +which she described herself as neither better nor worse than she had +been. Neither proud was Kate, nor sycophantishly and falsely humble. +Urban VIII. it was that then filled the chair of St. Peter. He did not +neglect to raise his daughter's thoughts from earthly things--he +pointed her eyes to the clouds that were above the dome of St. Peter's +cathedral--he told her what the cathedral had told her in the gorgeous +clouds of the Andes and the vesper lights, how sweet a thing, how +divine a thing it was for Christ's sake to forgive all injuries, and +how he trusted that no more she would think of bloodshed. He also said +two words to her in Latin, which, if I had time to repeat a Spanish +bishop's remark to Kate some time afterwards upon those two mysterious +words, with Kate's most natural and ingenuous answer to the Bishop upon +what she supposed to be their meaning, would make the reader smile not +less than they made myself. You know that Kate _did_ understand a +little Latin, which, probably, had not been much improved by riding in +the Light Dragoons. I must find time, however, whether the press and +the compositors are in a fury or not, to mention that the Pope, in his +farewell audience to his dear daughter, whom he was to see no more, +gave her a general license to wear henceforth in all countries--even +_in partibus Infidelium_--a cavalry officer's dress--boots, spurs, +sabre, and sabretache; in fact, anything that she and the Horse Guards +might agree upon. Consequently, reader, remember for your life never to +say one word, nor suffer any tailor to say one word, against those +Wellington trousers made in the chestnut forest; for, understand that +the Papal indulgence, as to this point, runs backwards as well as +forwards; it is equally shocking and heretical to murmur against +trousers in the forgotten rear or against trousers yet to come. + +From Rome, Kate returned to Spain. She even went to St. Sebastian's--to +the city, but--whether it was that her heart failed her or not--never +to the convent. She roamed up and down; everywhere she was welcome-- +everywhere an honored guest; but everywhere restless. The poor and +humble never ceased from their admiration of her; and amongst the rich +and aristocratic of Spain, with the King at their head, Kate found +especial love from two classes of men. The Cardinals and Bishops all +doated upon her--as their daughter that was returning. The military men +all doated upon her--as their sister that was retiring. + +Some time or other, when I am allowed more elbow-room, I will tell you +why it is that I myself love this Kate. Now, at this moment, when it is +necessary for me to close, if I allow you one question before laying +down my pen--if I say, 'Come now, be quick, ask anything you _have_ to +ask, for, in one minute, I am going to write _Finis_, after which +(unless the Queen wished it) I could not add a syllable'--twenty to +one, I guess what your question will be. You will ask me, What became +of Kate? What was her end? + +Ah, reader! but, if I answer that question, you will say I have +_not_ answered it. If I tell you that secret, you will say that +the secret is still hidden. Yet, because I have promised, and because +you will be angry if I do not, let me do my best; and bad is the best. +After ten years of restlessness in Spain, with thoughts always turning +back to the Andes, Kate heard of an expedition on the point of sailing +to Spanish America. All soldiers knew _her_, so that she had +information of everything that stirred in camps. Men of the highest +military rank were going out with the expedition; but they all loved +Kate as a sister, and were delighted to hear that she would join their +mess on board ship. This ship, with others, sailed, whither finally +bound, I really forget. But, on reaching America, all the expedition +touched at _Vera Cruz_. Thither a great crowd of the military went +on shore. The leading officers made a separate party for the same +purpose. Their intention was, to have a gay happy dinner, after their +long confinement to a ship, at the chief hotel; and happy in perfection +it could not be, unless Kate would consent to join it. She, that was +ever kind to brother soldiers, agreed to do so. She descended into the +boat along with them, and in twenty minutes the boat touched the shore. +All the bevy of gay laughing officers, junior and senior, like +schoolboys escaping from school, jumped on shore, and walked hastily, +as their time was limited, up to the hotel. Arriving there, all turned +round in eagerness, saying, 'Where is our dear Kate?' Ah, yes, my dear +Kate, at that solemn moment, where, indeed, were _you_? She had +_certainly_ taken her seat in the boat: that was sure. Nobody, in +the general confusion, was certain of having seen her on coming ashore. +The sea was searched for her--the forests were ransacked. The sea made +no answer--the forests gave up no sign. I have a conjecture of my own; +but her brother soldiers were lost in sorrow and confusion, and could +never arrive even at a conjecture. + +That happened two hundred and fourteen years ago! Here is the brief sum +of all:--This nun sailed from Spain to Peru, and she found no rest for +the sole of her foot. This nun sailed back from Peru to Spain, and she +found no rest for the agitations of her heart. This nun sailed again +from Spain to America, and she found--the rest which all of us find. +But where it was, could never be made known to the father of Spanish +camps, that sat in Madrid; nor to Kate's spiritual father, that sat in +Rome. Known it is to the great Father that once whispered to Kate on +the Andes; but else it has been a secret for two centuries; and to man +it remains a secret for ever and ever! + + + + +FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. + + +There is no great event in modern history, or perhaps it may be said +more broadly, none in all history, from its earliest records, less +generally known, or more striking to the imagination, than the flight +eastwards of a principal Tartar nation across the boundless +_steppes_ of Asia in the latter half of the last century. The +_terminus a quo_ of this flight, and the _terminus ad quem_, +are equally magnificent; the mightiest of Christian thrones being the +one, the mightiest of Pagan the other. And the grandeur of these two +terminal objects, is harmoniously supported by the romantic +circumstances of the flight. In the abruptness of its commencement, and +the fierce velocity of its execution, we read an expression of the wild +barbaric character of the agents. In the unity of purpose connecting +this myriad of wills, and in the blind but unerring aim at a mark so +remote, there is something which recalls to the mind those Almighty +instincts that propel the migrations of the swallow, or the life- +withering marches of the locust. Then again, in the gloomy vengeance of +Russia and her vast artillery, which hung upon the rear and the skirts +of the fugitive vassals, we are reminded of Miltonic images--such, for +instance, as that of the solitary hand pursuing through desert spaces +and through ancient chaos a rebellious host, and overtaking with +volleying thunders those who believed themselves already within the +security of darkness and of distance. + +We shall have occasion farther on to compare this event with other +great national catastrophes as to the magnitude of the suffering. But +it may also challenge a comparison with similar events under another +relation, viz., as to its dramatic capabilities. Few cases, perhaps, in +romance or history, can sustain a close collation with this as to the +complexity of its separate interests. The great outline of the +enterprise, taken in connection with the operative motives, hidden or +avowed, and the religious sanctions under which it was pursued, give to +the case a triple character: 1st, That of a conspiracy, with as close a +unity in the incidents, and as much of a personal interest in the +moving characters, with fine dramatic contrasts, as belongs to Venice +Preserved, or to the Fiesco of Schiller. 2dly, That of a great military +expedition offering the same romantic features of vast distances to be +traversed, vast reverses to be sustained, untried routes, enemies +obscurely ascertained, and hardships too vaguely prefigured, which mark +the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses--the anabasis of the younger Cyrus, +and the subsequent retreat of the ten thousand to the Black Sea--the +Parthian expeditions of the Romans, especially those of Crassus and +Julian--or (as more disastrous than any of them, and in point of space +as well as in amount of forces, more extensive,) the Russian anabasis +and katabasis of Napoleon. 3dly, That of a religious Exodus, authorized +by an oracle venerated throughout many nations of Asia, an Exodus, +therefore, in so far resembling the great Scriptural Exodus of the +Israelites, under Moses and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar +distinction of carrying along with them their entire families, women, +children, slaves, their herds of cattle and of sheep, their horses and +their camels. + +This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests it with a +more comprehensive interest. But the dramatic interest, which we +ascribed to it, or its fitness for a stage representation, depends +partly upon the marked variety and the strength of the personal +agencies concerned, and partly upon the succession of scenical +situations. Even the _steppes_, the camels, the tents, the snowy +and the sandy deserts, are not beyond the scale of our modern +representative powers, as often called into action in the theatres both +of Paris and London; and the series of situations unfolded, beginning +with the general conflagration on the Wolga--passing thence to the +disastrous scenes of the flight (as it literally was in its +commencement)--to the Tartar siege of the Russian fortress Koulagina-- +the bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the mountain passes at +Ouchim--the surprisal by the Bashkirs and the advanced posts of the +Russian army at Torgau--the private conspiracy at this point against +the Khan--the long succession of running fights--the parting massacres +at the lake of Tengis under the eyes of the Chinese--and finally, the +tragical retribution to Zebek-Dorchi at the hunting-lodge of the +Chinese emperor;--all these situations communicate a _scenical_ +animation to the wild romance, if treated dramatically; whilst a higher +and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of authentic +history, commemorating a great revolution for good and for evil, in the +fortunes of a whole people--a people semi-barbarous, but simple- +hearted, and of ancient descent. + +On the 2lst of January, 1761, the young Prince Oubacha assumed the +sceptre of the Kalmucks upon the death of his father. Some part of the +power attached to this dignity he had already wielded since his +fourteenth year, in quality of Vice-Khan, by the express appointment, +and with the avowed support of the Russian Government. He was now about +eighteen years of age, amiable in his personal character, and not +without titles to respect in his public character as a sovereign +prince. In times more peaceable, and amongst a people more entirely +civilized, or more humanized by religion, it is even probable that he +might have discharged his high duties with considerable distinction. +But his lot was thrown upon stormy times, and a most difficult crisis +amongst tribes, whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing forms +of superstition, and by a nationality as well as an inflated conceit of +their own merit absolutely unparalleled, whilst the circumstances of +their hard and trying position under the jealous _surveillance_ of +an irresistible lord paramount, in the person of the Russian Czar, gave +a fiercer edge to the natural unamiableness of the Kalmuck disposition, +and irritated its gloomier qualities into action under the restless +impulses of suspicion and permanent distrust. No prince could hope for +a cordial allegiance from his subjects, or a peaceful reign under the +circumstances of the case; for the dilemma in which a Kalmuck ruler +stood at present was of this nature; _wanting_ the sanction and +support of the Czar, he was inevitably too weak from without to command +confidence from his subjects, or resistance to his competitors: on the +other hand, _with_ this kind of support, and deriving his title in +any degree from the favor of the Imperial Court, he became almost in +that extent an object of hatred at home, and within the whole compass +of his own territory. He was at once an object of hatred for the past, +being a living monument of national independence, ignominiously +surrendered, and an object of jealousy for the future, as one who had +already advertised himself to be a fitting tool for the ultimate +purposes (whatsoever those might prove to be) of the Russian Court. +Coming himself to the Kalmuck sceptre under the heaviest weight of +prejudice from the unfortunate circumstances of his position, it might +have been expected that Oubacha would have been pre-eminently an object +of detestation; for besides his known dependence upon the Cabinet of +St. Petersburg, the direct line of succession had been set aside, and +the principle of inheritance violently suspended, in favor of his own +father, so recently as nineteen years before the era of his own +accession, consequently within the lively remembrance of the existing +generation. He therefore, almost equally with his father, stood within +the full current of the national prejudices, and might have anticipated +the most pointed hostility. But it was not so: such are the caprices in +human affairs, that he was even, in a moderate sense, popular,--a +benefit which wore the more cheering aspect, and the promises of +permanence, inasmuch as he owed it exclusively to his personal +qualities of kindness and affability, as well as to the beneficence of +his government. On the other hand, to balance this unlooked-for +prosperity at the outset of his reign, he met with a rival in popular +favor--almost a competitor--in the person of Zebek-Dorchi, a prince +with considerable pretensions to the throne, and, perhaps it might be +said, with equal pretensions. Zebek-Dorchi was a direct descendant of +the same royal house as himself, through a different branch. On public +grounds, his claim stood, perhaps, on a footing equally good with that +of Oubacha, whilst his personal qualities, even in those aspects which +seemed to a philosophical observer most odious and repulsive, promised +the most effectual aid to the dark purposes of an intriguer or a +conspirator, and were generally fitted to win a popular support +precisely in those points where _Oubacha_ was most defective. He +was much superior in external appearance to his rival on the throne, +and so far better qualified to win the good opinion of a semi-barbarous +people; whilst his dark intellectual qualities of Machiavelian +dissimulation, profound hypocrisy, and perfidy which knew no touch of +remorse, were admirably calculated to sustain any ground which he might +win from the simple-hearted people with whom he had to deal--and from +the frank carelessness of his unconscious competitor. + +At the very outset of his treacherous career, Zebek-Dorchi was +sagacious enough to perceive that nothing could be gained by open +declaration of hostility to the reigning prince: the choice had been a +deliberate act on the part of Russia, and Elizabeth Petrowna was not +the person to recall her own favors with levity or upon slight grounds. +Openly, therefore, to have declared his enmity towards his relative on +the throne, could have had no effect but that of arming suspicions +against his own ulterior purposes in a quarter where it was most +essential to his interest that, for the present, all suspicion should +be hoodwinked. Accordingly, after much meditation, the course he took +for opening his snares was this:--He raised a rumor that his own life +was in danger from the plots of several _Saissang_, (that is, +Kalmuck nobles,) who were leagued together, under an oath to +assassinate him; and immediately after, assuming a well-counterfeited +alarm, he fled to Tcherkask, followed by sixty-five tents. From this +place he kept up a correspondence with the Imperial Court; and, by way +of soliciting his cause more effectually, he soon repaired in person to +St. Petersburg. Once admitted to personal conferences with the Cabinet, +he found no difficulty in winning over the Russian counsels to a +concurrence with some of his political views, and thus covertly +introducing the point of that wedge which was finally to accomplish his +purposes. In particular, he persuaded the Russian Government to make a +very important alteration in the constitution of the Kalmuck State +Council, which in effect reorganized the whole political condition of +the state, and disturbed the balance of power as previously adjusted. +Of this Council--in the Kalmuck language called _Sarga_--there +were eight members, called _Sargatchi;_ and hitherto it had been +the custom that these eight members should be entirely subordinate to +the Khan; holding, in fact, the ministerial character of secretaries +and assistants, but in no respect ranking as co-ordinate authorities. +That had produced some inconveniences in former reigns; and it was easy +for Zebek-Dorchi to point the jealousy of the Russian Court to others +more serious which might arise in future circumstances of war or other +contingencies. It was resolved, therefore, to place the Sargatchi +henceforward on a footing of perfect independence, and therefore (as +regarded responsibility) on a footing of equality with the Khan. Their +independence, however, had respect only to their own sovereign; for +towards Russia they were placed in a new attitude of direct duty and +accountability, by the creation in their favor of small pensions (300 +roubles a year), which, however, to a Kalmuck of that day were more +considerable than might be supposed, and had a further value as marks +of honorary distinction emanating from a great Empress. Thus far the +purposes of Zebek-Dorchi were served effectually for the moment: but, +apparently, it was only for the moment; since, in the further +development of his plots, this very dependency upon Russian influence +would be the most serious obstacle in his way. There was, however, +another point carried which outweighed all inferior considerations, as +it gave him a power of setting aside discretionally whatsoever should +arise to disturb his plots: he was himself appointed President and +Controller of the _Sargatchi_. The Russian Court had been aware of +his high pretensions by birth, and hoped by this promotion to satisfy +the ambition which, in some degree, was acknowledged to be a reasonable +passion for any man occupying his situation. + +Having thus completely blindfolded the Cabinet of Russia, Zebek-Dorchi +proceeded in his new character to fulfil his political mission with the +Khan of the Kalmucks. So artfully did he prepare the road for his +favorable reception at the court of this Prince, that he was at once +and universally welcomed as a public benefactor. The pensions of the +counsellors were so much additional wealth poured into the Tartar +exchequer; as to the ties of dependency thus created, experience had +not yet enlightened these simple tribes as to that result. And that he +himself should be the chief of these mercenary counsellors, was so far +from being charged upon Zebek as any offence or any ground of +suspicion, that his relative the Khan returned him hearty thanks for +his services, under the belief that he could have accepted this +appointment only with a view to keep out other and more unwelcome +pretenders, who would not have had the same motives of consanguinity or +friendship for executing its duties in a spirit of kindness to the +Kalmucks. The first use which he made of his new functions about the +Khan's person was to attack the Court of Russia, by a romantic villany +not easy to be credited, for those very acts of interference with the +council which he himself had prompted. This was a dangerous step: but +it was indispensable to his further advance upon the gloomy path which +he had traced out for himself. A triple vengeance was what he +meditated--1, Upon the Russian Cabinet for having undervalued his own +pretensions to the throne--2, upon his amiable rival for having +supplanted him--and 3, upon all those of the nobility who had +manifested their sense of his weakness by their neglect, or their sense +of his perfidious character by their suspicions. Here was a colossal +outline of wickedness; and by one in his situation, feeble (as it might +seem) for the accomplishment of its humblest parts, how was the total +edifice to be reared in its comprehensive grandeur? He, a worm as he +was, could he venture to assail the mighty behemoth of Muscovy, the +potentate who counted three hundred languages around the footsteps of +his throne, and from whose 'lion ramp' recoiled alike 'baptized and +infidel'--Christendom on the one side, strong by her intellect and her +organization, and the `Barbaric East' on the other, with her unnumbered +numbers? The match was a monstrous one; but in its very monstrosity +there lay this germ of encouragement, that it could not be suspected. +The very hopelessness of the scheme grounded his hope, and he resolved +to execute a vengeance which should involve as it were, in the unity of +a well-laid tragic fable, all whom he judged to be his enemies. That +vengeance lay in detaching from the Russian empire the whole Kalmuck +nation, and breaking up that system of intercourse which had thus far +been beneficial to both. This last was a consideration which moved him +but little. True it was that Russia to the Kalmucks had secured lands +and extensive pasturage; true it was that the Kalmucks reciprocally to +Russia had furnished a powerful cavalry. But the latter loss would be +part of his triumph, and the former might be more than compensated in +other climates under other sovereigns. Here was a scheme which, in its +final accomplishment, would avenge him bitterly on the Czarina, and in +the course of its accomplishment might furnish him with ample occasions +for removing his other enemies. It may be readily supposed indeed that +he, who could deliberately raise his eyes to the Russian autocrat as an +antagonist in single duel with himself, was not likely to feel much +anxiety about Kalmuck enemies of whatever rank. He took his resolution, +therefore, sternly and irrevocably to effect this astonishing +translation of an ancient people across the pathless deserts of Central +Asia, intersected continually by rapid rivers, rarely furnished with +bridges, and of which the fords were known only to those who might +think it for their interest to conceal them, through many nations +inhospitable or hostile; frost and snow around them, (from the +necessity of commencing their flight in the winter,) famine in their +front, and the sabre, or even the artillery of an offended and mighty +empress, hanging upon their rear for thousands of miles. But what was +to be their final mark, the port of shelter after so fearful a course +of wandering? Two things were evident: it must be some power at a great +distance from Russia, so as to make return even in that view hopeless; +and it must be a power of sufficient rank to ensure them protection +from any hostile efforts on the part of the Czarina for reclaiming +them, or for chastising their revolt. Both conditions were united +obviously in the person of Kien Long, the reigning Emperor of China, +who was farther recommended to them by his respect for the head of +their religion. To China, therefore, and as their first rendezvous to +the shadow of the great Chinese Wall, it was settled by Zebek that they +should direct their flight. + +Next came the question of time; _when_ should the flight commence:--and +finally, the more delicate question as to the choice of accomplices. To +extend the knowledge of the conspiracy too far, was to insure its +betrayal to the Russian Government. Yet at some stage of the +preparations it was evident that a very extensive confidence must be +made, because in no other way could the mass of the Kalmuck population +be persuaded to furnish their families with the requisite equipments +for so long a migration. This critical step, however, it was resolved +to defer up to the latest possible moment, and, at all events, to make +no general communication on the subject until the time of departure +should be definitely settled. In the meantime, Zebek admitted only +three persons to his confidence; of whom Oubacha, the reigning prince, +was almost necessarily one; but him, from his yielding and somewhat +feeble character, he viewed rather in the light of a tool than as one +of his active accomplices. Those whom (if anybody) he admitted to an +unreserved participation in his counsels, were two only, the great +_Lama_ among the Kalmucks, and his own father-in-law, Erempel, a ruling +prince of some tribe in the neighborhood of the Caspian sea, +recommended to his favor not so much by any strength of talent +corresponding to the occasion, as by his blind devotion to himself, and +his passionate anxiety to promote the elevation of his daughter and his +son-in-law to the throne of a sovereign prince. A titular prince Zebek +already was: but this dignity, without the substantial accompaniment of +a sceptre, seemed but an empty sound to both of these ambitious rivals. +The other accomplice, whose name was Loosang-Dchaltzan, and whose rank +was that of Lama, or Kalmuck pontiff, was a person of far more +distinguished pretensions; he had something of the same gloomy and +terrific pride which marked the character of Zebek himself, manifesting +also the same energy, accompanied by the same unfaltering cruelty, and +a natural facility of dissimulation even more profound. It was by this +man that the other question was settled as to the time for giving +effect to their designs. His own pontifical character had suggested to +him, that in order to strengthen their influence with the vast mob of +simple-minded men whom they were to lead into a howling wilderness, +after persuading them to lay desolate their own ancient hearths, it was +indispensable that they should be able, in cases of extremity, to plead +the express sanction of God for their entire enterprise. This could +only be done by addressing themselves to the great head of their +religion, the Dalai-Lama of Tibet. Him they easily persuaded to +countenance their schemes: and an oracle was delivered solemnly at +Tibet, to the effect that no ultimate prosperity would attend this +great Exodus unless it were pursued through the years of the _tiger_ +and the _hare_. Now, the Kalmuck custom is to distinguish their years +by attaching to each a denomination taken from one of twelve animals, +the exact order of succession being absolutely fixed, so that the cycle +revolves of course through a period of a dozen years. Consequently, if +the approaching year of the _tiger_ were suffered to escape them, in +that case the expedition must be delayed for twelve years more, within +which period, even were no other unfavorable changes to arise, it was +pretty well foreseen that the Russian Government would take the most +effectual means for bridling their vagrant propensities by a ring fence +of forts or military posts; to say nothing of the still readier plan +for securing their fidelity (a plan already talked of in all quarters), +by exacting a large body of hostages selected from the families of the +most influential nobles. On these cogent considerations, it was +solemnly determined that this terrific experiment should be made in the +next year of the _tiger_, which happened to fall upon the Christian +year 1771. With respect to the month, there was, unhappily for the +Kalmucks, even less latitude allowed to their choice than with respect +to the year. It was absolutely necessary, or it was thought so, that +the different divisions of the nation, which pastured their flocks on +both banks of the Wolga, should have the means of effecting an +instantaneous junction; because the danger of being intercepted by +flying columns of the Imperial armies was precisely the greatest at the +outset. Now, from the want of bridges, or sufficient river craft for +transporting so vast a body of men, the sole means which could be +depended upon (especially where so many women, children, and camels +were concerned,) was _ice_: and this, in a state of sufficient +firmness, could not be absolutely counted upon before the month of +January. Hence it happened that this astonishing Exodus of a whole +nation, before so much as a whisper of the design had begun to +circulate amongst those whom it most interested, before it was even +suspected that any man's wishes pointed in that direction, had been +definitively appointed for January of the year 1771. And almost up to +the Christmas of 1770, the poor simple Kalmuck herdsmen and their +families were going nightly to their peaceful beds without even +dreaming that the _fiat_ had already gone forth from their rulers which +consigned those quiet abodes, together with the peace and comfort which +reigned within them, to a withering desolation, now close at hand. + +Meantime war raged on a great scale between Russia and the Sultan. And, +until the time arrived for throwing off their vassalage, it was +necessary that Oubacha should contribute his usual contingent of +martial aid. Nay, it had unfortunately become prudent that he should +contribute much more than his usual aid. Human experience gives ample +evidence that in some mysterious and unaccountable way no great design +is ever agitated, no matter how few or how faithful may be the +participators, but that some presentiment--some dim misgiving--is +kindled amongst those whom it is chiefly important to blind. And, +however it might have happened, certain it is, that already, when as +yet no syllable of the conspiracy had been breathed to any man whose +very existence was not staked upon its concealment, nevertheless, some +vague and uneasy jealousy had arisen in the Russian Cabinet as to the +future schemes of the Kalmuck Khan: and very probable it is--that, but +for the war then raging, and the consequent prudence of conciliating a +very important vassal, or, at least, of abstaining from what would +powerfully alienate him, even at that moment such measures would have +been adopted as must for ever have intercepted the Kalmuck schemes. +Slight as were the jealousies of the Imperial Court, they had not +escaped the Machiavelian eyes of Zebek and the Lama. And under their +guidance, Oubacha, bending to the circumstances of the moment, and +meeting the jealousy of the Russian Court with a policy corresponding +to their own, strove by unusual zeal to efface the Czarina's +unfavorable impressions. He enlarged the scale of his contributions; +and _that_ so prodigiously, that he absolutely carried to head- +quarters a force of 35,000 cavalry fully equipped; some go further, and +rate the amount beyond 40,000: but the smaller estimate is, at all +events, _within_ the truth. + +With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as well as light, the +Khan went into the field under great expectations; and these he more +than realized. Having the good fortune to be concerned with so ill- +organized and disorderly a description of force as that which at all +times composed the bulk of a Turkish army, he carried victory along +with his banners; gained many partial successes; and at last, in a +pitched battle, overthrew the Turkish force opposed to him with a loss +of 5000 men left upon the field. + +These splendid achievements seemed likely to operate in various ways +against the impending revolt. Oubacha had now a strong motive, in the +martial glory acquired, for continuing his connection with the empire +in whose service he had won it, and by whom only it could be fully +appreciated. He was now a great marshal of a great empire, one of the +Paladins around the imperial throne; in China he would be nobody, or +(worse than that) a mendicant-alien, prostrate at the feet, and +soliciting the precarious alms of a prince with whom he had no +connection. Besides, it might reasonably be expected that the Czarina, +grateful for the really efficient aid given by the Tartar prince, would +confer upon him such eminent rewards as might be sufficient to anchor +his hopes upon Russia, and to wean him from every possible seduction. +These were the obvious suggestions of prudence and good sense to every +man who stood neutral in the case. But they were disappointed. The +Czarina knew her obligations to the Khan, but she did not acknowledge +them. Wherefore? That is a mystery, perhaps never to be explained. So +it was, however. The Khan went unhonored; no _ukase_ ever +proclaimed his merits; and, perhaps, had he even been abundantly +recompensed by Russia, there were others who would have defeated these +tendencies to reconciliation. Erempel, Zebek, and Loosang the Lama, +were pledged life-deep to prevent any accommodation; and their efforts +were unfortunately seconded by those of their deadliest enemies. In the +Russian Court there were at that time some great nobles pre-occupied +with feelings of hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, quite as +strong as any which the Kalmucks could harbor towards Russia, and not, +perhaps, so well-founded. Just as much as the Kalmucks hated the +Russian yoke, their galling assumption of authority, the marked air of +disdain, as towards a nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, +which too generally marked the Russian bearing and language; but above +all, the insolent contempt, or even outrages which the Russian +governors or great military commandants tolerated in their followers +towards the barbarous religion and superstitious mummeries of the +Kalmuck priesthood--precisely in that extent did the ferocity of the +Russian resentment, and their wrath at seeing the trampled worm turn or +attempt a feeble retaliation, re-act upon the unfortunate Kalmucks. At +this crisis it is probable that envy and wounded pride, upon witnessing +the splendid victories of Oubacha and Momotbacha over the Turks and +Bashkirs, contributed strength to the Russian irritation. And it must +have been through the intrigues of those nobles about her person, who +chiefly smarted under these feelings, that the Czarina could ever have +lent herself to the unwise and ungrateful policy pursued at this +critical period towards the Kalmuck Khan. That Czarina was no longer +Elizabeth Petrowna, it was Catharine the Second; a princess who did not +often err so injuriously (injuriously for herself as much as for +others) in the measures of her government. She had soon ample reason +for repenting of her false policy. Meantime, how much it must have co- +operated with the other motives previously acting upon Oubacha in +sustaining his determination to revolt; and how powerfully it must have +assisted the efforts of all the Tartar chieftains in preparing the +minds of their people to feel the necessity of this difficult +enterprise, by arming their pride and their suspicions against the +Russian Government, through the keenness of their sympathy with the +wrongs of their insulted prince, may be readily imagined. It is a fact, +and it has been confessed by candid Russians themselves, when treating +of this great dismemberment, that the conduct of the Russian Cabinet +throughout the period of suspense, and during the crisis of hesitation +in the Kalmuck Council, was exactly such as was most desirable for the +purposes of the conspirators; it was such, in fact, as to set the seal +to all their machinations, by supplying distinct evidences and official +vouchers for what could otherwise have been at the most matters of +doubtful suspicion and indirect presumption. + +Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, and even allowing +their weight so far as not at all to deny the injustice or the impolicy +of the Imperial Ministers, it is contended by many persons who have +reviewed the affair with a command of all the documents bearing on the +case, more especially the letters or minutes of Council subsequently +discovered, in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, and the important +evidence of the Russian captive Weseloff, who was carried off by the +Kalmucks in their flight, that beyond all doubt Oubacha was powerless +for any purpose of impeding, or even of delaying the revolt. He +himself, indeed, was under religious obligations of the most terrific +solemnity never to flinch from the enterprise, or even to slacken in +his zeal; for Zebek-Dorchi, distrusting the firmness of his resolution +under any unusual pressure of alarm or difficulty, had, in the very +earliest stage of the conspiracy, availed himself of the Khan's well +known superstition, to engage him, by means of previous concert with +the priests and their head the Lama, in some dark and mysterious rites +of consecration, terminating in oaths under such terrific sanctions as +no Kalmuck would have courage to violate. As far, therefore, as +regarded the personal share of the Khan in what was to come, Zebek was +entirely at his ease: he knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious +terrors to the prosecution of the conspiracy, that no honors within the +Czarina's gift could have possibly shaken his adhesion: and then, as to +threats from the same quarter, he knew him to be sealed against those +fears by others of a gloomier character, and better adapted to his +peculiar temperament. For Oubacha was a brave man, as respected all +bodily enemies or the dangers of human warfare, but was as sensitive +and timid as the most superstitious of old women in facing the frowns +of a priest, or under the vague anticipations of ghostly retributions. +But had it been otherwise, and had there been any reason to apprehend +an unsteady demeanor on the part of this Prince at the approach of the +critical moment, such were the changes already effected in the state of +their domestic politics amongst the Tartars by the undermining arts of +Zebek-Dorchi, and his ally the Lama, that very little importance would +have attached to that doubt. All power was now effectually lodged in +the hands of Zebek-Dorchi. He was the true and absolute wielder of the +Kalmuck sceptre: all measures of importance were submitted to his +discretion; and nothing was finally resolved but under his dictation. +This result he had brought about in a year or two by means sufficiently +simple; first of all, by availing himself of the prejudice in his +favor, so largely diffused amongst the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his +own title to the throne, in quality of great-grandson in a direct line +from Ajouka, the most illustrious of all the Kalmuck Khans, stood upon +a better basis than that of Oubacha, who derived from a collateral +branch: secondly, with respect to that sole advantage which Oubacha +possessed above himself in the ratification of his title, by improving +this difference between their situations to the disadvantage of his +competitor, as one who had not scrupled to accept that triumph from an +alien power at the price of his independence, which he himself (as he +would have it understood) disdained to court: thirdly, by his own +talents and address, coupled with the ferocious energy of his moral +character: fourthly--and perhaps in an equal degree--by the criminal +facility and good-nature of Oubacha: finally, (which is remarkable +enough, as illustrating the character of the man,) by that very new +modelling of the Sarga or Privy Council, which he had used as a +principal topic of abuse and malicious insinuation against the Russian +Government, whilst in reality he first had suggested the alteration to +the Empress, and he chiefly appropriated the political advantages which +it was fitted to yield. For, as he was himself appointed the chief of +the Sargatchi, and as the pensions of the inferior Sargatchi passed +through his hands, whilst in effect they owed their appointments to his +nomination, it may be easily supposed that whatever power existed in +the state capable of controlling the Khan, being held by the Sarga +under its new organization, and this body being completely under his +influence, the final result was to throw all the functions of the +state, whether nominally in the Prince or in the council, substantially +into the hands of this one man: whilst, at the same time, from the +strict league which he maintained with the Lama, all the thunders of +the spiritual power were always ready to come in aid of the magistrate, +or to supply his incapacity in cases which he could not reach. + +But the time was now rapidly approaching for the mighty experiment. The +day was drawing near on which the signal was to be given for raising +the standard of revolt, and by a combined movement on both sides of the +Wolga for spreading the smoke of one vast conflagration, that should +wrap in a common blaze their own huts and the stately cities of their +enemies, over the breadth and length of those great provinces in which +their flocks were dispersed. The year of the _tiger_ was now +within one little month of its commencement; the fifth morning of that +year was fixed for the fatal day, when the fortunes and happiness of a +whole nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's throw; and as +yet that nation was in profound ignorance of the whole plan. The Khan, +such was the kindness of his nature, could not bring himself to make +the revelation so urgently required. It was clear, however, that this +could not be delayed; and Zebek-Dorchi took the task willingly upon +himself. But where or how should this notification be made, so as to +exclude Russian hearers? After some deliberation, the following plan +was adopted:--Couriers, it was contrived, should arrive in furious +haste, one upon the heels of another, reporting a sudden inroad of the +Kirghises and Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands, at a point distant about +one hundred and twenty miles. Thither all the Kalmuck families, +according to immemorial custom, were required to send a separate +representative; and there, accordingly, within three days, all +appeared. The distance, the solitary ground appointed for the +rendezvous, the rapidity of the march, all tended to make it almost +certain that no Russian could be present. Zebek-Dorchi then came +forward. He did not waste many words upon rhetoric. He unfurled an +immense sheet of parchment, visible from the outermost distance at +which any of this vast crowd could stand; the total number amounted to +eighty thousand; all saw, and many heard. They were told of the +oppressions of Russia; of her pride and haughty disdain, evidenced +towards them by a thousand acts; of her contempt for their religion; of +her determination to reduce them to absolute slavery; of the +preliminary measures she had already taken by erecting forts upon many +of the great rivers of their neighborhood; of the ulterior intentions +she thus announced to circumscribe their pastoral lands, until they +would all be obliged to renounce their flocks, and to collect in towns +like Sarepta, there to pursue mechanical and servile trades of +shoemaker, tailor, and weaver, such as the freeborn Tartar had always +disdained. 'Then again,' said the subtle prince, 'she increases her +military levies upon our population every year; we pour out our blood +as young men in her defence, or more often in support of her insolent +aggressions; and as old men, we reap nothing from our sufferings, nor +benefit by our survivorship where so many are sacrificed.' At this +point of his harangue, Zebek produced several papers, (forged, as it is +generally believed, by himself and the Lama,) containing projects of +the Russian court for a general transfer of the eldest sons, taken +_en masse_ from the greatest Kalmuck families, to the Imperial +court. 'Now let this be once accomplished,' he argued, 'and there is an +end of all useful resistance from that day forwards. Petitions we might +make, or even remonstrances; as men of words, we might play a bold +part; but for deeds, for that sort of language by which our ancestors +were used to speak; holding us by such a chain, Russia would make a +jest of our wishes,--knowing full well that we should not dare to make +any effectual movement.' + +Having thus sufficiently roused the angry passions of his vast +audience, and having alarmed their fears by this pretended scheme +against their first-born, (an artifice which was indispensable to his +purpose, because it met beforehand _every_ form of amendment to +his proposal coming from the more moderate nobles, who would not +otherwise have failed to insist upon trying the effect of bold +addresses to the Empress, before resorting to any desperate extremity,) +Zebek-Dorchi opened his scheme of revolt, and, if so, of instant +revolt; since any preparations reported at St. Petersburg would be a +signal for the armies of Russia to cross into such positions from all +parts of Asia, as would effectually intercept their march. It is +remarkable, however, that, with all his audacity and his reliance upon +the momentary excitement of the Kalmucks, the subtle prince did not +venture, at this stage of his seduction, to make so startling a +proposal as that of a flight to China. All that he held out for the +present was a rapid march to the Temba or some other great river, which +they were to cross, and to take up a strong position on the further +bank, from which, as from a post of conscious security, they could hold +a bolder language to the Czarina, and one which would have a better +chance of winning a favorable audience. + +These things, in the irritated condition of the simple Tartars, passed +by acclamation; and all returned homewards, to push forward with the +most furious speed the preparations for their awful undertaking. Rapid +and energetic these of necessity were; and in that degree they became +noticeable and manifest to the Russians who happened to be intermingled +with the different hordes, either on commercial errands, or as agents +officially from the Russian Government, some in a financial, others in +a diplomatic character. + +Amongst these last (indeed at the head of them) was a Russian of some +distinction, by name Kichinskoi, a man memorable for his vanity, and +memorable also as one of the many victims to the Tartar revolution. +This Kichinskoi had been sent by the Empress as her envoy to overlook +the conduct of the Kalmucks; he was styled the _Grand Pristaw_, or +Great Commissioner, and was universally known amongst the Tartar tribes +by this title. His mixed character of ambassador and of political +_surveillant_, combined with the dependent state of the Kalmucks, +gave him a real weight in the Tartar councils, and might have given him +a far greater, had not his outrageous self-conceit, and his arrogant +confidence in his own authority, as due chiefly to his personal +qualities for command, led him into such harsh displays of power, and +menaces so odious to the Tartar pride, as very soon made him an object +of their profoundest malice. He had publicly insulted the Khan; and +upon making a communication to him to the effect that some reports +began to circulate, and even to reach the Empress, of a design in +agitation to fly from the Imperial dominions, he had ventured to say,-- +'But this you dare not attempt; I laugh at such rumors; yes, Khan, I +laugh at them to the Empress; for you are a chained bear, and that you +know.' The Khan turned away on his heel with marked disdain; and the +Pristaw, foaming at the mouth, continued to utter, amongst those of the +Khan's attendants who staid behind, to catch his real sentiments in a +moment of unguarded passion, all that the blindest frenzy of rage could +suggest to the most presumptuous of fools. It was now ascertained that +suspicions _had_ arisen; but at the same time it was ascertained +that the Pristaw spoke no more than the truth in representing himself +to have discredited these suspicions. The fact was, that the mere +infatuation of vanity made him believe that nothing could go on +undetected by his all-piercing sagacity, and that no rebellion could +prosper when rebuked by his commanding presence. The Tartars, +therefore, pursued their preparations, confiding in the obstinate +blindness of the Grand Pristaw as in their perfect safeguard; and such +it proved--to his own ruin, as well as that of myriads beside. + +Christmas arrived; and, a little before that time, courier upon courier +came dropping in, one upon the very heels of another, to St. +Petersburg, assuring the Czarina that beyond all doubt the Kalmucks +were in the very crisis of departure. These despatches came from the +Governor of Astrachan, and copies were instantly forwarded to +Kichinskoi. Now, it happened that between this governor--a Russian +named Beketoff--and the Pristaw had been an ancient feud. The very name +of Beketoff inflamed his resentment; and no sooner did he see that +hated name attached to the despatch, than he felt himself confirmed in +his former views with tenfold bigotry, and wrote instantly, in terms of +the most pointed ridicule, against the new alarmist, pledging his own +head upon the visionariness of his alarms. Beketoff, however, was not +to be put down by a few hard words, or by ridicule: he persisted in his +statements: the Russian Ministry were confounded by the obstinacy of +the disputants; and some were beginning even to treat the Governor of +Astrachan as a bore, and as the dupe of his own nervous terrors, when +the memorable day arrived, the fatal 5th of January, which for ever +terminated the dispute, and put a seal upon the earthly hopes and +fortunes of unnumbered myriads. The Governor of Astrachan was the first +to hear the news. Stung by the mixed furies of jealousy, of triumphant +vengeance, and of anxious ambition, he sprang into his sledge, and, at +the rate of three hundred miles a day, pursued his route to St. +Petersburg, rushed into the Imperial presence,--announced the total +realization of his worst predictions,--and upon the confirmation of +this intelligence by subsequent despatches from many different posts on +the Wolga, he received an imperial commission to seize the person of +his deluded enemy, and to keep him in strict captivity. These orders +were eagerly fulfilled, and the unfortunate Kichinskoi soon afterwards +expired of grief and mortification in the gloomy solitude of a dungeon; +a victim to his own immeasurable vanity, and the blinding self- +delusions of a presumption that refused all warning. + +The Governor of Astrachan had been but too faithful a prophet. Perhaps +even _he_ was surprised at the suddenness with which the +verification followed his reports. Precisely on the 5th of January, the +day so solemnly appointed under religious sanctions by the Lama, the +Kalmucks on the east bank of the Wolga were seen at the earliest dawn +of day assembling by troops and squadrons, and in the tumultuous +movement of some great morning of battle. Tens of thousands continued +moving off the ground at every half-hour's interval. Women and +children, to the amount of two hundred thousand and upwards, were +placed upon wagons, or upon camels, and drew off by masses of twenty +thousand at once--placed under suitable escorts, and continually +swelled in numbers by other outlying bodies of the horde who kept +falling in at various distances upon the first and second day's march. +From sixty to eighty thousand of those who were the best mounted stayed +behind the rest of the tribes, with purposes of devastation and plunder +more violent than prudence justified, or the amiable character of the +Khan could be supposed to approve. But in this, as in other instances, +he was completely overruled by the malignant counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. +The first tempest of the desolating fury of the Tartars discharged +itself upon their own habitations. But this, as cutting off all infirm +looking backward from the hardships of their march, had been thought so +necessary a measure by all the chieftains, that even Oubacha himself +was the first to authorize the act by his own example. He seized a +torch previously prepared with materials the most durable as well as +combustible, and steadily applied it to the timbers of his own palace. +Nothing was saved from the general wreck except the portable part of +the domestic utensils, and that part of the woodwork which could be +applied to the manufacture of the long Tartar lances. This chapter in +their memorable day's work being finished, and the whole of their +villages throughout a district of ten thousand square miles in one +simultaneous blaze, the Tartars waited for further orders. + +These, it was intended, should have taken a character of valedictory +vengeance, and thus have left behind to the Czarina a dreadful +commentary upon the main motives of their flight. It was the purpose of +Zebek-Dorchi that all the Russian towns, churches, and buildings of +every description, should be given up to pillage and destruction, and +such treatment applied to the defenceless inhabitants as might +naturally be expected from a fierce people already infuriated by the +spectacle of their own outrages, and by the bloody retaliations which +they must necessarily have provoked. This part of the tragedy, however, +was happily intercepted by a providential disappointment at the very +crisis of departure. It has been mentioned already that the motive for +selecting the depth of winter as the season of flight (which otherwise +was obviously the very worst possible) had been the impossibility of +effecting a junction sufficiently rapid with the tribes on the west of +the Wolga, in the absence of bridges, unless by a natural bridge of +ice. For this one advantage the Kalmuck leaders had consented to +aggravate by a thousandfold the calamities inevitable to a rapid flight +over boundless tracts of country with women, children, and herds of +cattle--for this one single advantage; and yet, after all, it was lost. +The reason never has been explained satisfactorily, but the fact was +such. Some have said that the signals were not properly concerted for +marking the moment of absolute departure; that is, for signifying +whether the settled intention of the Eastern Kalmucks might not have +been suddenly interrupted by adverse intelligence. Others have supposed +that the ice might not be equally strong on both sides of the river, +and might even be generally insecure for the treading of heavy and +heavily-laden animals such as camels. But the prevailing notion is, +that some accidental movements on the 3d and 4th of January of Russian +troops in the neighborhood of the Western Kalmucks, though really +having no reference to them or their plans, had been construed into +certain signs that all was discovered; and that the prudence of the +Western chieftains, who, from situation, had never been exposed to +those intrigues by which Zebek-Dorchi had practised upon the pride of +the Eastern tribes, now stepped in to save their people from ruin. Be +the cause what it might, it is certain that the Western Kalmucks were +in some way prevented from forming the intended junction with their +brethren of the opposite bank; and the result was, that at least one +hundred thousand of these Tartars were left behind in Russia. This +accident it was which saved their Russian neighbors universally from +the desolation which else awaited them. One general massacre and +conflagration would assuredly have surprised them, to the utter +extermination of their property, their houses, and themselves, had it +not been for this disappointment. But the Eastern chieftains did not +dare to put to hazard the safety of their brethren under the first +impulse of the Czarina's vengeance for so dreadful a tragedy; for as +they were well aware of too many circumstances by which she might +discover the concurrence of the Western people in the general scheme of +revolt, they justly feared that she would thence infer their +concurrence also in the bloody events which marked its outset. + +Little did the Western Kalmucks guess what reasons they also had for +gratitude on account of an interposition so unexpected, and which at +the moment they so generally deplored. Could they but have witnessed +the thousandth part of the sufferings which overtook their Eastern +brethren in the first month of their sad flight, they would have +blessed Heaven for their own narrow escape; and yet these sufferings of +the first month were but a prelude or foretaste comparatively slight of +those which afterwards succeeded. + +For now began to unroll the most awful series of calamities, and the +most extensive, which is anywhere recorded to have visited the sons and +daughters of men. It is possible that the sudden inroads of destroying +nations, such as the Huns, or the Avars, or the Mongol Tartars, may +have inflicted misery as extensive; but there the misery and the +desolation would be sudden--like the flight of volleying lightning. +Those who were spared at first would generally be spared to the end; +those who perished would perish instantly. It is possible that the +French retreat from Moscow may have made some nearer approach to this +calamity in duration, though still a feeble and miniature approach; for +the French sufferings did not commence in good earnest until about one +month from the time of leaving Moscow; and though it is true that +afterwards the vials of wrath were emptied upon the devoted army for +six or seven weeks in succession, yet what is that to this Kalmuck +tragedy, which lasted for more than as many months? But the main +feature of horror, by which the Tartar march was distinguished from the +French, lies in the accompaniment of women [Footnote: Singular it is, +and not generally known, that Grecian women accompanied the +_Anabasis_ of the younger Cyrus and the subsequent Retreat of the +Ten Thousand. Xenophon affirms that there were 'many' women in the +Greek army--pollai aesun etairai en tosratenaeazi; and in a late stage +of that trying expedition it is evident that women were amongst the +survivors.] and children. There were both, it is true, with the French +army, but so few as to bear no visible proportion to the total numbers +concerned. The French, in short, were merely an army--a host of +professional destroyers, whose regular trade was bloodshed, and whose +regular element was danger and suffering. But the Tartars were a +nation carrying along with them more than two hundred and fifty +thousand women and children, utterly unequal, for the most part, to any +contest with the calamities before them. The Children of Israel were +in the same circumstances as to the accompaniment of their families; +but they were released from the pursuit of their enemies in a very +early stage of their flight; and their subsequent residence in the +Desert was not a march, but a continued halt, and under a continued +interposition of Heaven for their comfortable support. Earthquakes, +again, however comprehensive in their ravages, are shocks of a moment's +duration. A much nearer approach made to the wide range and the long +duration of the Kalmuck tragedy may have been in a pestilence such as +that which visited Athens in the Peloponnesian war, or London in the +reign of Charles II. There also the martyrs were counted by myriads, +and the period of the desolation was counted by months. But, after all, +the total amount of destruction was on a smaller scale; and there was +this feature of alleviation to the _conscious_ pressure of the +calamity--that the misery was withdrawn from public notice into private +chambers and hospitals. The siege of Jerusalem by Vespasian and his +son, taken in its entire circumstances, comes nearest of all--for +breadth and depth of suffering, for duration, for the exasperation of +the suffering from without by internal feuds, and, finally, for that +last most appalling expression of the furnace-heat of the anguish in +its power to extinguish the natural affections even of maternal love. +But, after all, each case had circumstances of romantic misery peculiar +to itself--circumstances without precedent, and (wherever human nature +is ennobled by Christianity) it may be confidently hoped--never to be +repeated. + +The first point to be reached, before any hope of repose could be +encouraged, was the river Jaik. This was not above three hundred miles +from the main point of departure on the Wolga; and if the march thither +was to be a forced one, and a severe one, it was alleged on the other +hand that the suffering would be the more brief and transient; one +summary exertion, not to be repeated, and all was achieved. Forced the +march was, and severe beyond example: there the forewarning proved +correct; but the promised rest proved a mere phantom of the wilderness +--a visionary rainbow, which fled before their hope-sick eyes, across +these interminable solitudes, for seven months of hardship and +calamity, without a pause. These sufferings, by their very nature, and +the circumstances under which they arose, were (like the scenery of the +_Steppes_) somewhat monotonous in their coloring and external +features: what variety, however, there was, will be most naturally +exhibited by tracing historically the successive stages of the general +misery, exactly as it unfolded itself under the double agency of +weakness still increasing from within, and hostile pressure from +without. Viewed in this manner, under the real order of development, it +is remarkable that these sufferings of the Tartars, though under the +moulding hands of accident, arrange themselves almost with a scenical +propriety. They seem combined, as with the skill of an artist; the +intensity of the misery advancing regularly with the advances of the +march, and the stages of the calamity corresponding to the stages of +the route; so that, upon raising the curtain which veils the great +catastrophe, we behold one vast climax of anguish, towering upwards by +regular gradations, as if constructed artificially for picturesque +effect:--a result which might not have been surprising, had it been +reasonable to anticipate the same rate of speed, and even an +accelerated rate, as prevailing through the later stages of the +expedition. But it seemed, on the contrary, most reasonable to +calculate upon a continual decrement in the rate of motion according to +the increasing distance from the head-quarters of the pursuing enemy. +This calculation, however, was defeated by the extraordinary +circumstance, that the Russian armies did not begin to close in very +fiercely upon the Kalmucks until after they had accomplished a distance +of full two thousand miles; one thousand miles further on the assaults +became even more tumultuous and murderous; and already the great +shadows of the Chinese Wall were dimly descried, when the frenzy and +_acharnement_ of the pursuers, and the bloody desperation of the +miserable fugitives had reached its uttermost extremity. Let us briefly +rehearse the main stages of the misery, and trace the ascending steps +of the tragedy, according to the great divisions of the route marked +out by the central rivers of Asia. + +The first stage, we have already said, was from the Wolga to the Jaik; +the distance about three hundred miles; the time allowed seven days. +For the first week, therefore, the rate of marching averaged about +forty-three English miles a day. The weather was cold, but bracing; +and, at a more moderate pace, this part of the journey might have been +accomplished without much distress by a people as hardy as the +Kalmucks: as it was, the cattle suffered greatly from overdriving: milk +began to fail even for the children: the sheep perished by wholesale: +and the children themselves were saved only by the innumerable camels. + +The Cossacks, who dwelt upon the banks of the Jaik, were the first +among the subjects of Russia to come into collision with the Kalmucks. +Great was their surprise at the suddenness of the irruption, and great +also their consternation: for, according to their settled custom, by +far the greater part of their number was absent during the winter +months at the fisheries upon the Caspian. Some who were liable to +surprise at the most exposed points, fled in crowds to the fortress of +Koulagina, which was immediately invested, and summoned by Oubacha. He +had, however, in his train only a few light pieces of artillery; and +the Russian commandant at Koulagina, being aware of the hurried +circumstances in which the Khan was placed, and that he stood upon the +very edge, as it were, of a renewed flight, felt encouraged by these +considerations to a more obstinate resistance than might else have been +advisable, with an enemy so little disposed to observe the usages of +civilized warfare. The period of his anxiety was not long: on the fifth +day of the siege, he descried from the walls a succession of Tartar +couriers, mounted upon fleet Bactrian camels, crossing the vast plains +around the fortress at a furious pace, and riding into the Kalmuck +encampment at various points. Great agitation appeared immediately to +follow; orders were soon after despatched in all directions: and it +became speedily known that upon a distant flank of the Kalmuck movement +a bloody and exterminating battle had been fought the day before, in +which one entire tribe of the Khan's dependents, numbering not less +than nine thousand fighting men, had perished to the last man. This was +the _ouloss_, or clan, called _Feka-Zechorr_, between whom and +the Cossacks there was a feud of ancient standing. In selecting, +therefore, the points of attack, on occasion of the present hasty +inroad, the Cossack chiefs were naturally eager so to direct their +efforts as to combine with the service of the Empress some +gratification to their own party hatreds; more especially as the +present was likely to be their final opportunity for revenge if the +Kalmuck evasion should prosper. Having, therefore, concentrated as +large a body of Cossack cavalry as circumstances allowed, they attacked +the hostile _ouloss_ with a precipitation which denied to it all +means for communicating with Oubacha; for the necessity of commanding +an ample range of pasturage, to meet the necessities of their vast +flocks and herds, had separated this _ouloss_ from the Khan's +head-quarters by an interval of eighty miles: and thus it was, and not +from oversight, that it came to be thrown entirely upon its own +resources. These had proved insufficient; retreat, from the exhausted +state of their horses and camels, no less than from the prodigious +encumbrances of their live stock, was absolutely out of the question: +quarter was disdained on the one side, and would not have been granted +on the other; and thus it had happened that the setting sun of that one +day (the 13th from the first opening of the revolt) threw his parting +rays upon the final agonies of an ancient _ouloss_, stretched upon +a bloody field, who on that day's dawning had held and styled +themselves an independent nation. + +Universal consternation was diffused through the wide borders of the +Khan's encampment by this disastrous intelligence; not so much on +account of the numbers slain, or the total extinction of a powerful +ally, as because the position of the Cossack force was likely to put to +hazard the future advances of the Kalmucks, or at least to retard, and +hold them in check, until the heavier columns of the Russian army +should arrive upon their flanks. The siege of Koulagina was instantly +raised; and that signal, so fatal to the happiness of the women and +their children, once again resounded through the tents--the signal for +flight, and this time for a flight more rapid than ever. About one +hundred and fifty miles ahead of their present position, there arose a +tract of hilly country, forming a sort of margin to the vast, sea-like +expanse of champaign savannas, steppes, and occasionally of sandy +deserts, which stretched away on each side of this margin both +eastwards and westwards. Pretty nearly in the centre of this hilly +range, lay a narrow defile, through which passed the nearest and the +most practicable route to the river Torgai (the further bank of which +river offered the next great station of security for a general halt.) +It was the more essential to gain this pass before the Cossacks, +inasmuch as not only would the delay in forcing the pass give time to +the Russian pursuing columns for combining their attacks and for +bringing up their artillery, but also because (even if all enemies in +pursuit were thrown out of the question) it was held by those best +acquainted with the difficult and obscure geography of these pathless +steppes--that the loss of this one narrow strait amongst the hills +would have the effect of throwing them (as their only alternative in a +case where so wide a sweep of pasturage was required) upon a circuit of +at least five hundred miles extra; besides that, after all, this +circuitous route would carry them to the Torgai at a point ill fitted +for the passage of their heavy baggage. The defile in the hills, +therefore, it was resolved to gain; and yet, unless they moved upon it +with the velocity of light cavalry, there was little chance but it +would be found pre-occupied by the Cossacks. They, it is true, had +suffered greatly in the recent sanguinary action with their enemies; +but the excitement of victory, and the intense sympathy with their +unexampled triumph, had again swelled their ranks--and would probably +act with the force of a vortex to draw in their simple countrymen from +the Caspian. The question, therefore, of pre-occupation was reduced to +a race. The Cossacks were marching upon an oblique line not above fifty +miles longer than that which led to the same point from the Kalmuck +head-quarters before Koulagina: and therefore without the most furious +haste on the part of the Kalmucks, there was not a chance for them, +burdened and 'trashed' [Footnote: _'Trashed'_--This is an expressive +word used by Beaumont and Fletcher in their Bonduca, etc., to describe +the case of a person retarded and embarrassed in flight, or in pursuit, +by some encumbrance, whether thing or person, too valuable to be left +behind.] as they were, to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as the +Cossacks in seizing this important pass. + +Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on hearing this exposition +of the case. For they easily understood that too capital an interest +(the _summa rerum_) was now at stake to allow of any regard to +minor interests, or what would be considered such in their present +circumstances. The dreadful week already passed,--their inauguration in +misery,--was yet fresh in their remembrance. The scars of suffering +were impressed not only upon their memories, but upon their very +persons and the persons of their children. And they knew that where no +speed had much chance of meeting the cravings of the chieftains, no +test would be accepted, short of absolute exhaustion, that as much had +been accomplished as could be accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian +captive, has recorded the silent wretchedness with which the women and +elder boys assisted in drawing the tent-ropes. On the 5th of January +all had been animation, and the joyousness of indefinite expectation: +now, on the contrary, a brief but bitter experience had taught them to +take an amended calculation of what it was that lay before them. + +One whole day and far into the succeeding night had the renewed flight +continued: the sufferings had been greater than before: for the cold +had been more intense: and many perished out of the living creatures +through every class, except only the camels--whose powers of endurance +seemed equally adapted to cold and heat. The second morning, however, +brought an alleviation to the distress. Snow had begun to fall: and +though not deep at present, it was easily foreseen that it soon would +be so; and that, as a halt would in that case become unavoidable, no +plan could be better than that of staying where they were: especially +as the same cause would check the advance of the Cossacks. Here then +was the last interval of comfort which gleamed upon the unhappy nation +during their whole migration. For ten days the snow continued to fall +with little intermission. At the end of that time keen bright frosty +weather succeeded: the drifting had ceased: in three days the smooth +expanse became firm enough to support the treading of the camels, and +the flight was recommenced. But during the halt much domestic comfort +had been enjoyed: and for the last time universal plenty. The cows and +oxen had perished in such vast numbers on the previous marches, that an +order was now issued to turn what remained to account by slaughtering +the whole, and salting whatever part should be found to exceed the +immediate consumption. This measure led to a scene of general +banqueting and even of festivity amongst all who were not incapacitated +for joyous emotions by distress of mind, by grief for the unhappy +experience of the few last days, and by anxiety for the too gloomy +future. Seventy thousand persons of all ages had already perished; +exclusively of the many thousand allies who had been cut down by the +Cossack sabre. And the losses in reversion were likely to be many more. +For rumors began now to arrive from all quarters, by the mounted +couriers whom the Khan had despatched to the rear and to each flank as +well as in advance, that large masses of the Imperial troops were +converging from all parts of Central Asia to the fords of the river +Torgai as the most convenient point for intercepting the flying tribes: +and it was already well known that a powerful division was close in +their rear, and was retarded only by the numerous artillery which had +been judged necessary to support their operations. New motives were +thus daily arising for quickening the motions of the wretched Kalmucks, +and for exhausting those who were previously but too much exhausted. + +It was not until the 2d day of February that the Khan's advanced guard +came in sight of Ouchim, the defile among the hills of Moulgaldchares, +in which they anticipated so bloody an opposition from the Cossacks. A +pretty large body of these light cavalry had, in fact, pre-occupied the +pass by some hours; but the Khan having too great advantages, namely, a +strong body of infantry, who had been conveyed by sections of five on +about two hundred camels, and some pieces of light artillery which he +had not yet been forced to abandon, soon began to make a serious +impression upon this unsupported detachment; and they would probably at +any rate have retired; but at the very moment when they were making +some dispositions in that view, Zebek-Dorchi appeared upon their rear +with a body of trained riflemen, who had distinguished themselves in +the war with Turkey. These men had contrived to crawl unobserved over +the cliffs which skirted the ravine, availing themselves of the dry +beds of the summer torrents, and other inequalities of the ground, to +conceal their movement. Disorder and trepidation ensued instantly in +the Cossack files; the Khan, who had been waiting with the _elite_ +of his heavy cavalry, charged furiously upon them; total overthrow +followed to the Cossacks, and a slaughter such as in some measure +avenged the recent bloody extermination of their allies, the ancient +_ouloss_ of Feka-Zechorr. The slight horses of the Cossacks were +unable to support the weight of heavy Polish dragoons and a body of +trained _cameleers_ (that is, cuirassiers mounted on camels); +hardy they were, but not strong, nor a match for their antagonists in +weight; and their extraordinary efforts through the last few days to +gain their present position, had greatly diminished their powers for +effecting an escape. Very few, in fact, _did_ escape; and the +bloody day of Ouchim became as memorable amongst the Cossacks as that +which, about twenty days before, had signalized the complete +annihilation of the Faka-Zechorr. [Footnote: There was another _ouloss_ +equally strong with that of _Feka-Zechorr_, viz., that of Erketunn, +under the government of Assarcho and Machi, whom some obligations of +treaty or other hidden motives drew into the general conspiracy of +revolt. But fortunately the two chieftains found means to assure the +Governor of Astrachan, on the first outbreak of the insurrection, that +their real wishes were for maintaining the old connection with Russia. +The Cossacks, therefore, to whom the pursuit was intrusted, had +instructions to act cautiously and according to circumstances on coming +up with them. The result was, through the prudent management of +Assarcho, that the clan, without compromising their pride or +independence, made such moderate submissions as satisfied the Cossacks; +and eventually both chiefs and people received from the Czarina the +rewards and honors of exemplary fidelity.] + +The road was now open to the river Igritch, and as yet even far beyond +it to the Torgau; but how long this state of things would continue, was +every day more doubtful. Certain intelligence was now received that a +large Russian army, well appointed in every arm, was advancing upon the +Torgau, under the command of General Traubenberg. This officer was to +be joined on his route by ten thousand Bashkirs, and pretty nearly the +same amount of Kirghises--both hereditary enemies of the Kalmucks--both +exasperated to a point of madness by the bloody trophies which Oubacha +and Momotbacha had, in late years, won from such of their compatriots +as served under the Sultan. The Czarina's yoke these wild nations bore +with submissive patience, but not the hands by which it had been +imposed; and, accordingly, catching with eagerness at the present +occasion offered to their vengeance, they sent an assurance to the +Czarina of their perfect obedience to her commands, and at the same +time a message significantly declaring in what spirit they meant to +execute them, viz., 'That they would not trouble her Majesty with +prisoners.' + +Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race for the Kalmucks +with the regular armies of Russia, and concurrently with nations as +fierce and semi-humanized as themselves, besides that they were stung +into threefold activity by the furies of mortified pride and military +abasement, under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The forces, and more +especially the artillery, of Russia, were far too overwhelming to +permit the thought of a regular opposition in pitched battles, even +with a less dilapidated state of their resources than they could +reasonably expect at the period of their arrival on the Torgau. In +their speed lay their only hope--in strength of foot, as before, and +not in strength of arm. Onward, therefore, the Kalmucks pressed, +marking the lines of their wide-extending march over the sad solitudes +of the steppes by a never-ending chain of corpses. The old and the +young, the sick man on his couch, the mother with her baby--all were +left behind. Sights such as these, with the many rueful aggravations +incident to the helpless condition of infancy--of disease and of female +weakness abandoned to the wolves amidst a howling wilderness, continued +to track their course through a space of full two thousand miles; for +so much at the least, it was likely to prove, including the circuits to +which they were often compelled by rivers or hostile tribes, from the +point of starting on the Wolga until they could reach their destined +halting-ground on the east bank of the Torgau. For the first seven +weeks of this march their sufferings had been embittered by the +excessive severity of the cold; and every night--so long as wood was to +be had for fires, either from the lading of the camels, or from the +desperate sacrifice of their baggage-wagons, or (as occasionally +happened) from the forests which skirted the banks of the many rivers +which crossed their path--no spectacle was more frequent than that of a +circle, composed of men, women, and children, gathered by hundreds +round a central fire, all dead and stiff at the return of morning +light. Myriads were left behind from pure exhaustion of whom none had a +chance, under the combined evils which beset them, of surviving through +the next twenty-four hours. Frost, however, and snow at length ceased +to persecute; the vast extent of the march at length brought them into +more genial latitudes, and the unusual duration of the march was +gradually bringing them into the more genial seasons of the year: Two +thousand miles had at least been traversed; February, March, April were +gone; the balmy month of May had opened; vernal sights and sounds came +from every side to comfort the heart-weary travellers; and at last, in +the latter end of May, they crossed the Torgau, and took up a position +where they hoped to find liberty to repose themselves for many weeks in +comfort as well as in security, and to draw such supplies from the +fertile neighborhood as might restore their shattered forces to a +condition for executing, with less of wreck and ruin, the large +remainder of the journey. + +Yes; it was true that two thousand miles of wandering had been +completed, but in a period of nearly five months, and with the terrific +sacrifice of at least two hundred and fifty thousand souls, to say +nothing of herds and flocks past all reckoning. These had all perished: +ox, cow, horse, mule, ass, sheep, or goat, not one survived--only the +camels. These arid and adust creatures, looking like the mummies of +some antediluvian animals, without the affections or sensibilities of +flesh and blood--these only still erected their speaking eyes to the +eastern heavens, and had to all appearance come out from this long +tempest of trial unscathed and unharmed. The Khan, knowing how much he +was individually answerable for the misery which had been sustained, +must have wept tears even more bitter than those of Xerxes when he +threw his eyes over the myriads whom he had assembled: for the tears of +Xerxes were unmingled with compunction. Whatever amends were in his +power he resolved to make by sacrifices to the general good of all +personal regards; and accordingly, even at this point of their advance, +he once more deliberately brought under review the whole question of +the revolt. The question was formally debated before the Council, +whether, even at this point, they should untread their steps, and, +throwing themselves upon the Czarina's mercy, return to their old +allegiance? In that case, Oubacha professed himself willing to become +the scapegoat for the general transgression. This, he argued, was no +fantastic scheme, but even easy of accomplishment; for the unlimited +and sacred power of the Khan, so well known to the Empress, made it +absolutely iniquitous to attribute any separate responsibility to the +people--upon the Khan rested the guilt, upon the Khan would descend +the Imperial vengeance. This proposal was applauded for its generosity, +but was energetically opposed by Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the +whole journey of two thousand miles? Was their misery to perish without +fruit; true it was that they had yet reached only the half-way house; +but, in that respect, the motives were evenly balanced for retreat or +for advance. Either way they would have pretty nearly the same distance +to traverse, but with this difference--that, forwards, their rout lay +through lands comparatively fertile--backwards, through a blasted +wilderness, rich only in memorials of their sorrow, and hideous to +Kalmuck eyes by the trophies of their calamity. Besides, though the +Empress might accept an excuse for the past, would she the less forbear +to suspect for the future? The Czarina's _pardon_ they might obtain, +but could they ever hope to recover her _confidence_? Doubtless there +would now be a standing presumption against them, an immortal ground of +jealousy; and a jealous government would be but another name for a +harsh one. Finally, whatever motives there ever had been for the revolt +surely remained unimpaired by anything that had occurred. In reality +the revolt was, after all, no revolt, but (strictly speaking) a return +to their old allegiance, since, not above one hundred and fifty years +ago (viz., in the year 1616,) their ancestors had revolted from the +Emperor of China. They had now tried both governments; and for them +China was the land of promise, and Russia the house of bondage. + +Spite, however, of all that Zebek could say or do, the yearning of the +people was strongly in behalf of the Khan's proposal; the pardon of +their prince, they persuaded themselves, would be readily conceded by +the Empress; and there is little doubt that they would at this time +have thrown themselves gladly upon the Imperial mercy; when suddenly +all was defeated by the arrival of two envoys from Traubenberg. This +general had reached the fortress of Orsk, after a very painful march, +on the 12th of April; thence he set forwards towards Oriembourg, which +he reached upon the 1st of June, having been joined on his route at +various times through the month of May by the Kirghises and a corps of +ten thousand Bashkirs. From Oriembourg he sent forward his official +offer to the Khan, which were harsh and peremptory, holding out no +specific stipulations as to pardon or impunity, and exacting +unconditional submission as the preliminary price of any cessation from +military operations. The personal character of Traubenberg, which was +anything but energetic, and the condition of his army, disorganized in +a great measure by the length and severity of the march, made it +probable that, with a little time for negotiation, a more conciliatory +tone would have been assumed. But, unhappily for all parties, sinister +events occurred in the meantime, such as effectually put an end to +every hope of the kind. + +The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg had reported to this officer +that a distance of only ten days' march lay between his own head- +quarters and those of the Khan. Upon this fact transpiring, the +Kirghises, by their prince Nourali, and the Bashkirs, entreated the +Russian general to advance without delay. Once having placed his cannon +in position, so as to command the Kalmuck camp, the fate of the rebel +Khan and his people would be in his own hands; and they would +themselves form his advanced guard. Traubenberg, however, _why_ +has not been certainly explained, refused to march, grounding his +refusal upon the condition of his army, and their absolute need of +refreshment. Long and fierce was the altercation; but at length, seeing +no chance of prevailing, and dreading above all other events the escape +of their detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs went off in a body by +forced marches. In six days they reached the Torgau, crossed by +swimming their horses, and fell upon the Kalmucks, who were dispersed +for many a league in search of food or provender for their camels. The +first day's action was one vast succession of independent skirmishes, +diffused over a field of thirty to forty miles in extent; one party +often breaking up into three or four, and again (according to the +accidents of ground) three or four blending into one; flight and +pursuit, rescue and total overthrow, going on simultaneously, under all +varieties of form, in all quarters of the plain. The Bashkirs had found +themselves obliged, by the scattered state of the Kalmucks, to split up +into innumerable sections; and thus, for some hours, it had been +impossible for the most practised eye to collect the general tendency +of the day's fortune. Both the Khan and Zebek-Dorchi were at one moment +made prisoners, and more than once in imminent danger of being cut +down; but at length Zebek succeeded in rallying a strong column of +infantry, which, with the support of the camel-corps on each flank, +compelled the Bashkirs to retreat. Clouds, however, of these wild +cavalry continued to arrive through the next two days and nights, +followed or accompanied by the Kirghises. These being viewed as the +advanced parties of Traubenberg's army, the Kalmuck chieftains saw no +hope of safety but in flight; and in this way it happened that a +retreat, which had so recently been brought to a pause, was resumed at +the very moment when the unhappy fugitives were anticipating a deep +repose without further molestation, the whole summer through. + +It seemed as though every variety of wretchedness were predestined to +the Kalmucks; and as if their sufferings were incomplete unless they +were rounded and matured by all that the most dreadful agencies of +summer's heat could superadd to those of frost and winter. To this +sequel of their story we shall immediately revert, after first noticing +a little romantic episode which occurred at this point between Oubacha +and his unprincipled cousin Zebek-Dorchi. + +There was at the time of the Kalmuck flight from the Wolga, a Russian +gentleman of some rank at the court of the Khan, whom, for political +reasons, it was thought necessary to carry along with them as a +captive. For some weeks his confinement had been very strict, and in +one or two instances cruel. But, as the increasing distance was +continually diminishing the chances of escape, and perhaps, also, as +the misery of the guards gradually withdrew their attention from all +minor interests to their own personal sufferings, the vigilance of the +custody grew more and more relaxed; until at length, upon a petition to +the Khan, Mr. Weseloff was formally restored to liberty; and it was +understood that he might use his liberty in whatever way he chose, even +for returning to Russia, if that should be his wish. Accordingly, he +was making active preparations for his journey to St. Petersburg, when +it occurred to Zebek-Dorchi that, not improbably, in some of the +battles which were then anticipated with Traubenberg, it might happen +to them to lose some prisoner of rank, in which case the Russian +Weseloff would be a pledge in their hands for negotiating an exchange. +Upon this plea, to his own severe affliction, the Russian was detained +until the further pleasure of the Khan. The Khan's name, indeed, was +used through the whole affair, but, as it seemed, with so little +concurrence on his part, that, when Weseloff in a private audience +humbly remonstrated upon the injustice done him, and the cruelty of +thus sporting with his feelings by setting him at liberty, and, as it +were, tempting him into dreams of home and restored happiness only for +the purpose of blighting them, the good-natured prince disclaimed all +participation in the affair, and went so far in proving his sincerity +as even to give him permission to effect his escape; and, as a ready +means of commencing it without raising suspicion, the Khan mentioned to +Mr. Weseloff that he had just then received a message from the Hetman +of the Bashkirs, soliciting a private interview on the banks of the +Torgau at a spot pointed out; that interview was arranged for the +coming night; and Mr. Weseloff might go in the Khan's _suite_, +which on either side was not to exceed three persons. Weseloff was a +prudent man, acquainted with the world, and he read treachery in the +very outline of this scheme, as stated by the Khan--treachery against +the Khan's person. He mused a little, and then communicated so much of +his suspicions to the Khan as might put him on his guard; but, upon +further consideration, he begged leave to decline the honor of +accompanying the Khan. The fact was, that three Kalmucks, who had +strong motives for returning to their countrymen on the west bank of +the Wolga, guessing the intentions of Weseloff, had offered to join him +in his escape. These men the Khan would probably find himself obliged +to countenance in their project; so that it became a point of honor +with Weseloff to conceal their intentions, and therefore to accomplish +the evasion from the camp, (of which the first steps only would be +hazardous,) without risking the notice of the Khan. + +The district in which they were now encamped abounded, through many +hundred miles, with wild horses of a docile and beautiful breed. Each +of the four fugitives had caught from seven to ten of these spirited +creatures in the course of the last few days; this raised no suspicion; +for the rest of the Kalmucks had been making the same sort of provision +against the coming toils of their remaining route to China. These +horses were secured by halters, and hidden about dusk in the thickets +which lined the margin of the river. To these thickets, about ten at +night, the four fugitives repaired; they took a circuitous path, which +drew them as little as possible within danger of challenge from any of +the outposts or of the patrols which had been established on the +quarters where the Bashkirs lay; and in three quarters of an hour they +reached the rendezvous. The moon had now risen, the horses were +unfastened, and they were in the act of mounting, when the deep silence +of the woods was disturbed by a violent uproar, and the clashing of +arms. Weseloff fancied that he heard the voice of the Khan shouting for +assistance. He remembered the communication made by that prince in the +morning; and requesting his companions to support him, he rode off in +the direction of the sound. A very short distance brought him to an +open glade in the wood, where he beheld four men contending with a +party of at least nine or ten. Two of the four were dismounted at the +very instant of Weseloff's arrival; one of these he recognized almost +certainly as the Khan, who was fighting hand to hand, but at great +disadvantage, with two of the adverse horsemen. Seeing that no time was +to be lost, Weseloff fired, and brought down one of the two. His +companions discharged their carbines at the same moment, and then all +rushed simultaneously into the little open area. The thundering sound +of about thirty horses, all rushing at once into a narrow space, gave +the impression that a whole troop of cavalry was coming down upon the +assailants; who, accordingly, wheeled about and fled with one impulse. +Weseloff advanced to the dismounted cavalier, who, as he expected, +proved to be the Khan. The man whom Weseloff had shot was lying dead; +and both were shocked, though Weseloff at least was not surprised, on +stooping down and scrutinizing his features, to recognize a well known +confidential servant of Zebek-Dorchi. Nothing was said by either party. +The Khan rode off, escorted by Weseloff and his companions, and for +some time a dead silence prevailed. The situation of Weseloff was +delicate and critical; to leave the Khan at this point was probably to +cancel their recent services; for he might be again crossed on his +path, and again attacked by the very party from whom he had just been +delivered. Yet, on the other hand, to return to the camp was to +endanger the chances of accomplishing the escape. The Khan also was +apparently revolving all this in his mind, for at length he broke +silence, and said--'I comprehend your situation; and, under other +circumstances, I might feel it my duty to detain your companions. But +it would ill become me to do so after the important service you have +just rendered me. Let us turn a little to the left. There, where you +see the watchfire, is an outpost. Attend me so far. I am then safe. You +may turn and pursue your enterprise; for the circumstances under which +you will appear, as my escort, are sufficient to shield you from all +suspicion for the present. I regret having no better means at my +disposal for testifying my gratitude. But tell me, before we part, was +it accident only which led you to my rescue? Or had you acquired any +knowledge of the plot by which I was decoyed into this snare?' Weseloff +answered very candidly that mere accident had brought him to the spot +at which he heard the uproar, but that _having_ heard it, and +connecting it with the Khan's communication of the morning, he had then +designedly gone after the sound in a way which he certainly should not +have done at so critical a moment, unless in the expectation of finding +the Khan assaulted by assassins. A few minutes after they reached the +outpost at which it became safe to leave the Tartar chieftain; and +immediately the four fugitives commenced a flight which is perhaps +without a parallel in the annals of travelling. Each of them led six or +seven horses besides the one he rode; and by shifting from one to the +other (like the ancient _Desultors_ of the Roman circus,) so as +never to burden the same horse for more than half an hour at a time, +they continued to advance at the rate of two hundred miles in the +twenty-four hours for three days consecutively. After that time, +considering themselves beyond pursuit, they proceeded less rapidly; +though still with a velocity which staggered the belief of Weseloff's +friends in after years. He was, however, a man of high principle, and +always adhered firmly to the details of his printed report. One of the +circumstances there stated is, that they continued to pursue the route +by which the Kalmucks had fled, never for an instant finding any +difficulty in tracing it by the skeletons and other memorials of their +calamities. In particular, he mentions vast heaps of money as part of +the valuable property which it had been necessary to sacrifice. These +heaps were found lying still untouched in the deserts. From these, +Weseloff and his companions took as much as they could conveniently +carry; and this it was, with the price of their beautiful horses, which +they afterwards sold at one of the Russian military settlements for +about £15 a-piece, which eventually enabled them to pursue their +journey in Russia. This journey, as regarded Weseloff in particular, +was closed by a tragical catastrophe. He was at that time young, and +the only child of a doating mother. Her affliction under the violent +abduction of her son had been excessive, and probably had undermined +her constitution. Still she had supported it. Weseloff, giving way to +the natural impulses of his filial affection, had imprudently posted +through Russia, to his mother's house without warning of his approach. +He rushed precipitately into her presense; and she, who had stood the +shocks of sorrow, was found unequal to the shock of joy too sudden and +too acute. She died upon the spot. + +We now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck flight. These it would +be useless to pursue circumstantially through the whole two thousand +miles of suffering which remained; for the character of that suffering +was even more monotonous than on the former half of the flight, but +also more severe. Its main elements were excessive heat, with the +accompaniments of famine and thirst, but aggravated at every step by +the murderous attacks of their cruel enemies, the Bashkirs and the +Kirghises. + +These people, 'more fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea,' stuck to +the unhappy Kalmucks like a swarm of enraged hornets. And very often +whilst _they_ were attacking them in the rear, their advanced +parties and flanks were attacked with almost equal fury by the people +of the country which they were traversing; and with good reason, since +the law of self-preservation had now obliged the fugitive Tartars to +plunder provisions, and to forage wherever they passed. In this respect +their condition was a constant oscillation of wretchedness; for, +sometimes, pressed by grinding famine, they took a circuit of perhaps a +hundred miles, in order to strike into a land rich in the comforts of +life; but in such a land they were sure to find a crowded population, +of which every arm was raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the +advantages of local knowledge, and with constant preoccupation of all +the defensible positions, mountain passes, or bridges. Sometimes, +again, wearied out with this mode of suffering, they took a circuit of +perhaps a hundred miles, in order to strike into a land with few or no +inhabitants. But in such a land they were sure to meet absolute +starvation. Then, again, whether with or without this plague of +starvation, whether with or without this plague of hostility in front, +whatever might he the 'fierce varieties' of their misery in this +respect, no rest ever came to their unhappy rear; _post equitem sedet +atra cura_; it was a torment like the undying worm of conscience. +And, upon the whole, it presented a spectacle altogether unprecedented +in the history of mankind. Private and personal malignity is not +unfrequently immortal; but rare indeed is it to find the same +pertinacity of malice in a nation. And what embittered the interest +was, that the malice was reciprocal. Thus far the parties met upon +equal terms; but that equality only sharpened the sense of their dire +inequality as to other circumstances. The Bashkirs were ready to fight +'from morn to dewy eve.' The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were always +obliged to run; was it _from_ their enemies, as creatures whom +they feared? No; but _towards_ their friends--towards that final +haven of China--as what was hourly implored by their wives, and the +tears of their children. But though they fled unwillingly, too often +they fled in vain--being unwillingly recalled. There lay the torment. +Every day the Bashkirs fell upon them; every day the same unprofitable +battle was renewed; as a matter of course, the Kalmucks recalled part +of their advanced guard to fight them; every day the battle raged for +hours, and uniformly with the same result. For, no sooner did the +Bashkirs find themselves too heavily pressed, and that the Kalmuck +march had been retarded by some hours, than they retired into the +boundless deserts where all pursuit was hopeless. But if the Kalmucks +resolved to press forward, regardless of their enemies, in that case +their attacks became so fierce and overwhelming, that the general +safety seemed likely to be brought into question; nor could any +effectual remedy be applied to the case, even for each separate day, +except by a most embarrassing halt, and by countermarches, that, to men +in their circumstances, were almost worse than death. It will not be +surprising, that the irritation of such a systematic persecution, +superadded to a previous and hereditary hatred, and accompanied by the +stinging consciousness of utter impotence as regarded all effectual +vengeance, should gradually have inflamed the Kalmuck animosity into +the wildest expression of downright madness and frenzy. Indeed, long +before the frontiers of China were approached, the hostility of both +sides had assumed the appearance much more of a warfare amongst wild +beasts than amongst creatures acknowledging the restraints of reason or +the claims of a common nature. The spectacle became too atrocious; it +was that of a host of lunatics pursued by a host of fiends. + +On a fine morning in early autumn of the year 1771, Kien Long, the +Emperor of China, was pursuing his amusements in a wild frontier +district lying on the outside of the Great Wall. For many hundred +square leagues the country was desolate of inhabitants, but rich in +woods of ancient growth, and overrun with game of every description. In +a central spot of this solitary region, the Emperor had built a +gorgeous hunting-lodge, to which he resorted annually for recreation +and relief from the cares of government. Led onwards in pursuit of +game, he had rambled to a distance of two hundred miles or more from +this lodge, followed at a little distance by a sufficient military +escort, and every night pitching his tent in a different situation, +until at length he had arrived on the very margin of the vast central +deserts of Asia. [Footnote: All the circumstances are learned from a +long state paper upon the subject of this Kalmuck migration, drawn up +in the Chinese language by the Emperor himself. Parts of this paper +have been translated by the Jesuit missionaries. The Emperor states the +whole motives of his conduct and the chief incidents at great length.] +Here he was standing, by accident, at an opening of his pavilion, +enjoying the morning sunshine, when suddenly to the westward there +arose a vast cloudy vapor, which by degrees expanded, mounted, and +seemed to be slowly diffusing itself over the whole face of the +heavens. By-and-by this vast sheet of mist began to thicken towards the +horizon, and to roll forward in billowy volumes. The Emperor's suite +assembled from all quarters. The silver trumpets were sounded in the +rear, and from all the glades and forest avenues began to trot forward +towards the pavilion the yagers, half cavalry, half huntsmen, who +composed the Imperial escort. Conjecture was on the stretch to divine +the cause of this phenomenon, and the interest continually increased, +in proportion as simple curiosity gradually deepened into the anxiety +of uncertain danger. At first it had been imagined that some vast +troops of deer, or other wild animals of the chase, had been disturbed +in their forest haunts by the Emperor's movements, or possibly by wild +beasts prowling for prey, and might be fetching a compass by way of re- +entering the forest grounds at some remoter points secure from +molestation. But this conjecture was dissipated by the slow increase of +the cloud, and the steadiness of its motion. In the course of two hours +the vast phenomenon had advanced to a point which was judged to be +within five miles of the spectators, though all calculations of +distance were difficult, and often fallacious, when applied to the +endless expanses of the Tartar deserts. Through the next hour, during +which the gentle morning breeze had a little freshened, the dusty vapor +had developed itself far and wide into the appearance of huge aerial +draperies, hanging in mighty volumes from the sky to the earth; and at +particular points, where the eddies of the breeze acted upon the +pendulous skirts of these aerial curtains rents were perceived, +sometimes taking the form of regular arches, portals, and windows, +through which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels 'indorsed' +[Footnote: _Camels 'indorsed;'_--'And elephants indorsed with +towers.' MILTON in _Paradise Regained_.] with human beings--and at +intervals the moving of men and horses, in tumultuous array--and then, +through other openings or vistas, at far distant points, the flashing +of polished arms. But sometimes, as the wind slackened or died away, +all those openings, of whatever form, in the cloudy pall, would slowly +close, and for a time the whole pageant was shut up from view; although +the growing din, the clamors, the shrieks and groans, ascending from +infuriated myriads, reported, in a language not to be misunderstood, +what was going on behind the cloudy screen. + +It was in fact the Kalmuck host, now in the last extremities of their +exhaustion, and very fast approaching to that final stage of privation +and intense misery, beyond which few or none could have lived, but +also, happily for themselves, fast approaching (in a literal sense) +that final stage of their long pilgrimage, at which they would meet +hospitality on a scale of royal magnificence, and full protection from +their enemies. These enemies, however, as yet still were hanging on +their rear as fiercely as ever, though this day was destined to be the +last of their hideous persecution. The Khan had, in fact, sent forward +couriers with all the requisite statements and petitions, addressed to +the Emperor of China. These had been duly received, and preparations +made in consequence to welcome the Kalmucks with the most paternal +benevolence. But as these couriers had been despatched from the Torgau +at the moment of arrival thither, and before the advance of Traubenberg +had made it necessary for the Khan to order a hasty renewal of the +flight, the Emperor had not looked for their arrival on their frontier +until full three months after the present time. The Khan had indeed +expressly notified his intention to pass the summer heats on the banks +of the Torgau, and to recommence his retreat about the beginning of +September. The subsequent change of plan being unknown to Kien Long, +left him for some time in doubt as to the true interpretation to be put +upon this mighty apparition in the desert; but at length the savage +clamors of hostile fury, and the clangor of weapons, unveiled to the +Emperor the true nature of those unexpected calamities which had so +prematurely precipitated the Kalmuck measure. + +Apprehending the real state of affairs, the Emperor instantly perceived +that the first act of his fatherly care for these erring children (as +he esteemed them) now returning to their ancient obedience, must be-- +to deliver them from their pursuers. And this was less difficult than +might have been supposed. Not many miles in the rear was a body of well +appointed cavalry, with a strong detachment of artillery, who always +attended the Emperor's motions. These were hastily summoned. Meantime +it occurred to the train of courtiers that some danger might arise to +the Emperor's person from the proximity of a lawless enemy; and +accordingly he was induced to retire a little to the rear. It soon +appeared, however, to those who watched the vapory shroud in the +desert, that its motion was not such as would argue the direction of +the march to be exactly upon the pavilion, but rather in a diagonal +line, making an angle of full forty-five degrees with that line in +which the Imperial _cortège_ had been standing, and therefore with +a distance continually increasing. Those who knew the country judged +that the Kalmucks were making for a large fresh-water lake about seven +or eight miles distant; they were right; and to that point the Imperial +cavalry was ordered up; and it was precisely in that spot, and about +three hours after and at noon-day on the 8th of September, that the +great Exodus of the Kalmuck Tartars was brought to a final close, and +with a scene of such memorable and hellish fury, as formed an +appropriate winding-up to an expedition in all its parts and details so +awfully disastrous. The Emperor was not personally present, or at least +he saw whatever he _did_ see from too great a distance to +discriminate its individual features; but he records in his written +memorial the report made to him of this scene by some of his own +officers. + +The lake of Tengis, near the frightful desert of Kobi, lay in a hollow +amongst hills of a moderate height, ranging generally from two to three +thousand feet high. About eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the Chinese +cavalry reached the summit of a road which led through a cradle-like +dip in the mountains right down upon the margin of the lake. From this +pass, elevated about two thousand feet above the level of the water, +they continued to descend, by a very winding and difficult road, for an +hour and a half; and during the whole of this descent they were +compelled to be inactive spectators of the fiendish spectacle below. +The Kalmucks, reduced by this time from about six hundred thousand +souls to two hundred thousand, and after enduring for two months and a +half the miseries we have previously described--outrageous heat, +famine, and the destroying scimitar of the Kirghises and the Bashkirs, +had for the last ten days been traversing a hideous desert, where no +vestiges were seen of vegetation, and no drop of water could be found. +Camels and men were already so overladen, that it was a mere +impossibility that they should carry a tolerable sufficiency for the +passage of this frightful wilderness. On the eighth day the wretched +daily allowance, which had been continually diminishing, failed +entirely; and thus for two days of insupportable fatigue, the horrors +of thirst had been carried to the fiercest extremity. Upon this last +morning, at the sight of the hills and the forest scenery, which +announced to those who acted as guides the neighborhood of the lake of +Tengis, all the people rushed along with maddening eagerness to the +anticipated solace. The day grew hotter and hotter, the people more and +more exhausted, and gradually, in the general rush forwards to the +lake, all discipline and command were lost--all attempts to preserve a +rear-guard were neglected--the wild Bashkirs rode in amongst the +encumbered people, and slaughtered them by wholesale, and almost +without resistance. Screams and tumultuous shouts proclaimed the +progress of the massacre; but none heeded--none halted; all alike, +pauper or noble, continued to rush on with maniacal haste to the +waters--all with faces blackened by the heat preying upon the liver, +and with tongue drooping from the mouth. The cruel Bashkir was affected +by the same misery, and manifested the same symptoms of his misery as +the wretched Kalmuck; the murderer was oftentimes in the same frantic +misery as his murdered victim--many indeed (an ordinary effect of +thirst) in both nations had become lunatic--and in this state, whilst +mere multitude and condensation of bodies alone opposed any check to +the destroying scimitar and the trampling hoof, the lake was reached; +and to that the whole vast body of enemies rushed, and together +continued to rush, forgetful of all things at that moment but of one +almighty instinct. This absorption of the thoughts in one maddening +appetite lasted for a single minute; but in the next arose the final +scene of parting vengeance. Far and wide the waters of the solitary +lake were instantly dyed red with blood and gore; here rode a party of +savage Bashkirs, hewing off heads as fast as the swathes fall before +the mower's scythe; there stood unarmed Kalmucks in a death-grapple +with their detested foes, both up to the middle in water, and +oftentimes both sinking together below the surface, from weakness, or +from struggles, and perishing in each other's arms. Did the Bashkirs at +any point collect into a cluster for the sake of giving impetus to the +assault? Thither were the camels driven in fiercely by those who rode +them, generally women or boys; and even these quiet creatures were +forced into a share in this carnival of murder, by trampling down as +many as they could strike prostrate with the lash of their fore-legs. +Every moment the water grew more polluted: and yet every moment fresh +myriads came up to the lake and rushed in, not able to resist their +frantic thirst, and swallowing large draughts of water, visibly +contaminated with the blood of their slaughtered compatriots. +Wheresoever the lake was shallow enough to allow of men raising their +heads above the water, there for scores of acres were to be seen all +forms of ghastly fear, of agonizing struggle, of spasm, of convulsion, +of mortal conflict, death, and the fear of death--revenge, and the +lunacy of revenge--hatred, and the frenzy of hatred--until the neutral +spectators, of whom there were not a few, now descending the eastern +side of the lake, at length averted their eyes in horror. This horror, +which seemed incapable of further addition, was, however, increased by +an unexpected incident. The Bashkirs, beginning to perceive here and +there the approach of the Chinese cavalry, felt it prudent--wheresoever +they were sufficiently at leisure from the passions of the murderous +scene--to gather into bodies. This was noticed by the governor of a +small Chinese fort, built upon an eminence above the lake; and +immediately he threw in a broadside, which spread havoc amongst the +Bashkir tribe. As often as the Bashkirs collected into 'globes' and +'turms' as their only means of meeting the long line of descending +Chinese cavalry--so often did the Chinese governor of the fort pour in +his exterminating broadside; until at length the lake at the lower end, +became one vast seething cauldron of human bloodshed and carnage. The +Chinese cavalry had reached the foot of the hills: the Bashkirs, +attentive to their movements, had formed; skirmishes had been fought: +and, with a quick sense that the contest was henceforwards rapidly +becoming hopeless, the Bashkirs and Kirghises began to retire. The +pursuit was not as vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred would have desired. +But, at the same time, the very gloomiest hatred could not but find, in +their own dreadful experience of the Asiatic deserts, and in the +certainty that these wretched Bashkirs had to repeat that same +experience a second time, for thousands of miles, as the price exacted +by a retributary Providence for their vindictive cruelty--not the very +gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least reflecting, but found in all +this a retaliatory chastisement more complete and absolute than any +which their swords and lances could have obtained, or human vengeance +could have devised. + +Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the Desert; for any +subsequent marches which awaited them, were neither long nor painful. +Every possible alleviation and refreshment for their exhausted bodies +had been already provided by Kien Long with the most princely +munificence; and lands of great fertility were immediately assigned to +them in ample extent along the river Ily, not very far from the point +at which they had first emerged from the wilderness of Kobi. But the +beneficent attention of the Chinese Emperor may be best stated in his +own words, as translated into French by one of the Jesuit +missionaries:--"La nation des Torgotes (_savoir les Kalmuques_) arriva +à Ily, toute _delabree_, n'ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vêtir. +Je l'avais prévu; et j'avais ordonné de faire en tout genre les +provisions nécessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement; c'est ce +qui a été exécuté. On a fait la division des terres; et on a assigné à +chaque famille une portion suffisante pour pouvoir servir à son +entretien, soit en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bestiaux. On +a donne a chaque particulier des étoffes pour l'habiller, des grains +pour se nourrir pendant l'espace d'une année, des ustensiles pour le +ménage et d'autres choses nécessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces +d'argent, pour se pourvoir de ce qu'on aurait pu oublier. On a désigné +des lieux particuliers, fertiles en pâturages; et on leur a donné des +boeufs, moutons, &c. pour qu'ils pussent dans la suite travailler par +euxmêmes a leur entretien et à leur bienêtre." + +These are the words of the Emperor himself, speaking in his own person +of his own paternal cares; but another Chinese, treating the same +subject, records the munificence of this prince in terms which proclaim +still more forcibly the disinterested generosity which prompted, and +the delicate considerateness which conducted this extensive bounty. He +has been speaking of the Kalmucks, and he goes on thus:--"Lorsqu'ils +arrivèrent sur nos frontières (au nombre de plusieurs centaines de +mille), quoique la fatigue extrême, la faim, la soif, et toutes les +autres incommodités inséparables d'une très-longue et très pénible +route en eussent fait périr presque autant, ils étaient réduits a la +dernière misère: ils manquaient de tout. Il" (viz. l'Empereur, Kien +Long) "leur fit préparer des logemens conformes a leur manière de +vivre; il leur fit distribuer des aliments et des habits; il leur fit +donner des boeufs, des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour les mettre en +état de former des troupeaux et de cultiver la terre, _et tout cela à +ses propres frais_, qui se sont montés à des sommes immenses, sans +compter l'argent qu'il a donné à chaque chef-de-famille, pour pourvoir +à la subsistance de sa femme et de ses enfans." + +Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks were replaced +in territorial possessions, and in comfort equal perhaps, or even +superior, to that which they had enjoyed in Russia, and with superior +political advantages. But, if equal or superior, their condition was no +longer the same; if not in degree, their social prosperity had altered +in quality; for instead of being a purely pastoral and vagrant people, +they were now in circumstances which obliged them to become essentially +dependent upon agriculture; and thus far raised in social rank, that by +the natural course of their habits and the necessities of life they +were effectually reclaimed from roving, and from the savage customs +connected with so unsettled a life. They gained also in political +privileges, chiefly through the immunity from military service which +their new relations enabled them to obtain. These were circumstances of +advantage and gain. But one great disadvantage there was, amply to +overbalance all other possible gain; the chances were lost or were +removed to an incalculable distance for their conversion to +Christianity, without which in these times there is no absolute advance +possible on the path of true civilization. + +One word remains to be said upon the _personal_ interests +concerned in this great drama. The catastrophe in this respect was +remarkable and complete. Oubacha, with all his goodness and incapacity +of suspecting, had, since the mysterious affair on the banks of the +Torgau, felt his mind alienated from his cousin; he revolted from the +man that would have murdered him; and he had displayed his caution so +visibly as to provoke a reaction in the bearing of Zebek-Dorchi, and a +displeasure which all his dissimulation could not hide. This had +produced a feud, which, by keeping them aloof, had probably saved the +life of Oubacha; for the friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than +his open enmity. After the settlement on the Ily this feud continued to +advance, until it came under the notice of the Emperor, on occasion of +a visit which all the Tartar chieftains made to his Majesty at his +hunting-lodge in 1772. The Emperor informed himself accurately of all +the particulars connected with the transaction--of all the rights and +claims put forward--and of the way in which they would severally affect +the interests of the Kalmuck people. The consequence was, that he +adopted the cause of Oubacha, and repressed the pretensions of Zebek- +Dorchi, who, on his part, so deeply resented this discountenance to his +ambitious projects, that in conjunction with other chiefs he had the +presumption even to weave nets of treason against the Emperor himself. +Plots were laid--were detected--were baffled--counterplots were +constructed upon the same basis, and with the benefit of the +opportunities thus offered. + +Finally, Zebek-Dorchi was invited to the imperial lodge, together with +all his accomplices; and under the skilful management of the Chinese +nobles in the Emperor's establishment, the murderous artifices of these +Tartar chieftains were made to recoil upon themselves; and the whole of +them perished by assassination at a great imperial banquet. For the +Chinese morality is exactly of that kind which approves in everything +the _lex talionis:_-- + + ----'lex nec justior ulla est (as _they_ think) + Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.' + +So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and originator of the great Tartar +_Exodus_. Oubacha, meantime, and his people, were gradually +recovering from the effects of their misery, and repairing their +losses. Peace and prosperity, under the gentle rule of a fatherly lord +paramount, re-dawned upon the tribes; their household _lares_, +after so harsh a translation to distant climates, found again a happy +reinstatement in what had in fact been their primitive abodes; they +found themselves settled in quiet sylvan scenes, rich in all the +luxuries of life, and endowed with the perfect loveliness of Arcadian +beauty. But from the hills of this favored land and even from the level +grounds as they approach its western border, they still look out upon +that fearful wilderness which once beheld a nation in agony--the utter +extirpation of nearly half a million from amongst its numbers, and, for +the remainder, a storm of misery so fierce, that in the end (as +happened also at Athens during the Peloponnesian war from a different +form of misery) very many lost their memory; all records of their past +life were wiped out as with a sponge--utterly erased and cancelled; and +many others lost their reason; some in a gentle form of pensive +melancholy, some in a more restless form of feverish delirium and +nervous agitation, and others in the fixed forms of tempestuous mania, +raving frenzy, or moping idiocy. Two great commemorative monuments +arose in after years to mark the depth and permanence of the awe--the +sacred and reverential grief with which all persons looked back upon +the dread calamities attached to the year of the Tiger--all who had +either personally shared in those calamities, and had themselves drunk +from that cup of sorrow, or who had effectually been made witnesses to +their results, and associated with their relief; two great monuments, +we say; first of all, one in the religious solemnity, enjoined by the +Dalai Lama, called in the Tartar language a _Romanang_, that is, a +national commemoration, with music the most rich and solemn, of all the +souls who departed to the rest of Paradise from the afflictions of the +Desert: this took place about six years after the arrival in China. +Secondly, another more durable and more commensurate to the scale of +the calamity and to the grandeur of this national Exodus, in the mighty +columns of granite and brass, erected by the Emperor Kien Long, near +the banks of the Ily: these columns stand upon the very margin of the +_steppes_; and they bear a short but emphatic inscription +[Footnote: This inscription has been slightly altered in one or two +phrases, and particularly in adapting to the Christian era the +Emperor's expressions for the year of the original Exodus from China +and the retrogressive Exodus from Russia. With respect to the +designation adopted for the Russian Emperor, either it is built upon +some confusion between him and the Byzantine Caesars, as though the +former, being of the same religion with the latter (and occupying in +part the same longitudes, though in different latitudes) might be +considered as his modern successor; or else it refers simply to the +Greek form of Christianity professed by the Russian Emperor and +Church.] to the following effect:-- + +By the Will of God +Here, upon the Brink of these Deserts, +Which from this Point begin and stretch away +Pathless, treeless, waterless, +For thousands of miles--and along the margins of many mighty Nations, +Rested from their labors and from great afflictions +Under the shadow of the Chinese Wall, +And by the favor of KIEN LONG, God's Lieutenant upon Earth, +The ancient Children of the Wilderness--the Torgote Tartars +Flying before the wrath of the Grecian Czar, +Wandering Sheep who had strayed away from the Celestial Empire in the +year 1616, +But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow, +Into the fold of their forgiving Shepherd. +Hallowed be the spot for ever, +and +Hallowed be the day--September 8, 1771! +Amen. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers, +Vol. I., by Thomas De Quincey + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DE QUINCY'S PAPERS V.1. *** + +This file should be named 6146-8.txt or 6146-8.zip + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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