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diff --git a/old/69500-0.txt b/old/69500-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 799acdd..0000000 --- a/old/69500-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7358 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Queen's cadet and other tales, by -James Grant - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Queen's cadet and other tales - -Author: James Grant - -Release Date: December 7, 2022 [eBook #69500] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Al Haines - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN'S CADET AND OTHER -TALES *** - - - - - - - - THE QUEEN'S CADET - - And other Tales - - - BY JAMES GRANT - - AUTHOR OF - "THE ROMANCE OF WAR," "FIRST LOVE AND LAST LOVE," - "THE WHITE COCKADE," ETC., ETC. - - - - LONDON - GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS - THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE - NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET - 1874 - - - - -CONTENTS. - - -THE QUEEN'S CADET - -THE SPECTRE HAND - -THE BOMBARDIER'S STORY - -KOTAH: A TALE OF THE INDIAN MUTINY - -THE STORY OF RAPHAEL VELDA - -LA BELLE TURQUE: THE STORY OF THE PRINCESS CECILE - -THE MARQUIS DE FRATTEAUX, CAPTAIN OF FRENCH HORSE - -SOCIVISCA: THE STORY OF A GREEK OUTLAW - -PAQUETTE: AN EPISODE OF THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR - -APPARITIONS AND WONDERS: - - LEAVES FROM OLD LONDON LIFE; 1664-1705 - - THE WILD BEAST OF GÉVAUDAN - - "THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS" - - BURIED HEARTS - - PHANTASMAGORIA - - A STRING OF GHOST STORIES - - - - -THE QUEEN'S CADET. - -"I have been forced to believe in the existence and influence of an -unseen world, of something which is described in that line of -Dryden's, - - "'With silent steps I follow you all day.' - - -"I have felt the influence of the spiritual and invisible on the -senses, though I know nothing of the complications, the deceptions -and alleged perils, forming a portion of that which is now termed -spiritualism; and which affirms that the unseen world cannot become -manifest, save in obedience to certain occult laws which regulate the -phenomena of nature." - -What rigmarole was this? - -Could the speaker--this man with the melancholy tone and saddened -eye--actually be the same handsome Jack Arkley, my old college chum -at Sandhurst, who was always rather sceptical even in religious -matters, who was one of the merriest fellows there, who had been once -nearly rusticated for breaking the lamps and dismounting the guns to -spite the adjutant, but who, as a Queen's cadet, had more marks of -excellence than any of us; who was afterwards the beau-ideal of a -fine young English officer--a prime bat and bowler, who pulled a good -stroke oar, had such a firm seat in his saddle, and who was the best -hand for organizing a picnic, a ball, or a scratch company, for -amateur theatricals; and who in the late expedition against the -Looshais, had won the reputation of being a regular fire-eater--a -fellow who would face the devil in his shirt sleeves! - -Could the champagne of "the Rag" have affected him, thought I, as he -continued earnestly and sadly, and while manipulating a cigar -selected from the silver stand on the table: - -"I have somewhere read that very few persons in this world have been -unfortunate enough to have seen those things that are invisible to -others." - -"By Jove! Do you mean a--ghost?" - -"Not exactly the vulgar ghost of the nursery," said he, his pale face -colouring slightly. - -"But we have all met with those who knew some one else who had seen -something weird, unearthly, unexplainable." - -"Precisely; but I shall speak from personal experience--so now for a -little narrative of my own." - -We had dined that evening at the club, where D---- of the Greys had -given a few fellows a dinner, in honour of being gazetted to his -troop, and to "wet" the new commission; and though it seemed to me -that, like the rest of us, Jack Arkley had done justice to all the -good things set before him, from the soup to the coffee and curaçao, -he had been, during dinner, remarkably _triste_ or abstracted, and -took but little interest in the subjects discussed by the guests, who -were mostly all upon short leave from Aldershot, and, the Spring -drills being over, were thankful to exchange the white dust of the -Long Valley, for the Row or Regent Street. - -We were alone now, and lingering over some iced brandy-pawnee (as we -called it in India) in the cool bay-window of his room in Piccadilly, -where it overlooked the pleasant Green Park and where the clock of -Westminster was shining above the trees, like a red harvest moon. So -I prepared to listen to him with more curiosity than belief, while he -related the following singular story, which he would never have -ventured to relate to the circle of heedless fellows whom we had just -left. - -"My parents died when I was little more than an infant, leaving me to -the care of two uncles, a maternal one, named Beverley, a man of -considerable wealth, who in consequence of a quarrel with my father, -whose marriage with his sister he resented, totally ignored my -existence, and was ever a kind of myth to me; the other a paternal -one, a bachelor curate in North Wales, poor old Morgan Apreece -Arkley, than whom there was no better or more kind-hearted man in all -the principality. - -"His means were most limited; but to share the little he possessed he -made me freely and tenderly welcome, all the more so that to two -appeals he had made to the generosity of my Uncle Beverley, no -response was ever returned--a cutting coldness and rudeness, bitterly -resented by my hot-tempered but warm-hearted old Welsh kinsman. - -"A career was necessarily chosen for me. - -"The death of my father on duty at Benares, enabled me to be borne on -the strength of the Military College at Sandhurst as one of the -twenty Queen's cadets; and to that seminary I repaired, a few months -after you did, when in my sixteenth year, leaving with sincere sorrow -the lonely white-haired man who had been as a parent to me, and whose -secluded parsonage by the margin of Llyn Ogwen, and under the shadow -of Carneydd Davydd, had been the only home I could remember. There -for years he had been my earnest and anxious tutor, mingling with the -classics a store of quaint old Welsh legends and ancient songs, for -he was an excellent and enthusiastic harper, and had come of a long -line of harpers. - -"Prior to this change in my life, I encountered an adventure which -has had considerable influence in my after career. - -"From childhood I had been familiar with the mountains that overhang -Llyn Ogwen. I knew every track and rock and fissure of Carneydd -Davydd, of 'the Black Ladders' of Carneydd Llewellyn, and the brows -of the greater giant of the three, cloud-capped Snowdon. For miles -upon miles among them I had been wont to wander with my gun, and at -times to aid the shepherds in tracking out lost sheep or goats, by -places where we looked down upon the gray mist and vapour that -floated below us, and where the mountain peaks seemed to start out of -it like isles amid a sea. In the heart of such solitudes as these I -found food for much reflective thought, and was wont to give full -swing to my boyish fancies. - -"Under every variety of season and weather I was wont to wander among -these mountains; sometimes when their sides seemed to vibrate under -the hot rays of a cloudless summer sun; at others when the glistening -snow lay deep in the passes and valleys, or when height and hollow -were alike shrouded in thick and impenetrable mist; but my favourite -spot was ever Llyn Idwal, the wildest and most savage of all our -Welsh lakes. It fills the crater of an ancient volcano, and is the -traditional scene of the murder of Idwal, a prince of Wales, who was -flung over its precipice--a place which for gloomy grandeur has no -equal, as the bare rocks that start out of it, sheer as a wall, -darken by their shadows its depth to the most intense blackness; and -the peasants aver that no fish can swim in it, and no bird fly over -it and live. - -"Lying upon the mountain tops, amid the purple heather or the scented -thyme-grass, I was wont to watch the distant waters of the Channel, -stretching far away beyond the Puffin Isle and Great Orme's Head, -ever changing in hue as the masses of cloud skimmed over them; and -from thence I followed, with eager eyes, the white sails of the -ships, or the long smoky pennants of the steamers that were bound -for--ah! where were they bound for?--and so, far from the solitary -parsonage of the good old man who loved me so well, I was ungrateful -enough to follow to distant isles and shores these vanishing specks, -in the spirit. - -"I see that you are impatient to know what all this preamble has to -do with Sandhurst and the melancholy which now oppresses me; but -nevertheless, I am fast coming to the matter--to 'that keystone of -the soul which must exist in every nature.' - -"One day I was up a wild part of the mountains, far above Llyn Ogwen, -a long and narrow sheet of water which occupies the whole pass -between Braich-ddu and the shoulder of Carneydd Davydd. My sole -companion was my dog Cidwm--in English, 'Wolf'--which lay beside me -on the sunny grass, when from one of my day-dreams I was suddenly -roused by voices, and found three persons close beside me. - -"Mounted on sturdy Welsh ponies, two of these were a gentleman in the -prime of life, and a very young lady, apparently his daughter, -attended by David Lloyd, one of the guides for the district, who knew -me well. He led the bridle of the girl's pony with one hand, and -grasped his alpenstock with the other. This group paused near me, -and some conversation ensued. Lloyd had evidently mistaken the path, -and was loath to admit the fact, or to suggest that they should -retrace their steps, and yet he knew enough of the mountains to be -well aware that to advance would be to court danger. During the -colloquy that ensued between him and his employer, a haughty and -imperious-looking man, I was earnestly gazing in the half-averted -face of the girl, who was watching an eagle in full flight. - -"She was marvellously beautiful. Her features--save in profile--were -perhaps far from correct, yet there was a divine delicacy, a charming -purity of complexion, and brightness of expression over them all; and -her minute face seemed to nestle amid the masses of her fair rippling -hair. She turned towards me, and her eyes met mine. They were dark -violet blue, and shaded by brown lashes, so long that they imparted -much of softness to their dove-like expression, and she smiled, for -no doubt the little maid saw that there was something of unequivocal -admiration to be read in my ardent gaze; and so absorbed was I, that, -for a few seconds, I was not aware that the guide was addressing me, -and inquiring how far the path was traversable in this particular -direction. Ere I could reply, - -"'How should this mere lad know, if you don't?' asked the male -tourist, haughtily and sharply. - -"'Few here can know better, sir,' replied Lloyd. 'I have seen him -climb where the eagles alone can go.' - -"'Shall we proceed, then?' he asked me, sharply. - -"'I think not, sir,' said I; 'Moel Hebog was covered with mist this -morning, and----' - -"'But Moel Hebog is clear enough now,' said David Lloyd, with -irritation--the mountain so named being deemed an unerring barometer, -as regards the chances of mist upon its greater brethren--'so I think -we may proceed,' he added, touching his hat to his employer. 'I -don't require, sir, to be taught my trade by a mere lad, a gentleman -tho you be, Master Arkley.' - -"'_Arkley!_' repeated the stranger, starting and eyeing me keenly, -and yet with a lowering expression of face. - -"I warned them of the danger of farther progression, but the -avaricious guide derided me; and I heard his employer, as they passed -on, asking him some questions, amid which--but it might be fancy--I -thought my own name occurred. I gazed after them with interest, and -with much of anxiety, for their path was perilous, and the sweet soft -beauty of the girl had impressed me deeply; and, as she disappeared, -with all her wealth of golden hair, the brightness seemed to have -departed from the mountain side. - -"What was the magic this creature, whom I had only seen for a few -minutes, possessed for me? She was scarcely a woman, yet past -childhood; and her features remained as distinctly impressed upon my -memory as if they were before me still. Do not infer from this -strange interest that 'love at first sight,' as the novels used to -have it, was an ingredient of this emotion. No; it was something -deeper--a subtle magnetism--something that I know not how to define -or to express; and with a repining sigh, I thought of my lonely life, -and longed to go forth on the career that awaited me beyond those -green mountains that were bounded by the sea. - -"Had I ever seen that fair little face before, or dreamed of it by -night or by day, that already it seemed to haunt me so? - -"The little group had not disappeared above five minutes, when a -sound like a cry was borne past me on the mountain breeze. I started -up, my heart beating wildly; and with undefined apprehension, -hastened in the direction of the sound, while Wolf careered in front -of me. There now came the sound of hoofs, and with bridle trailing, -saddle reversed, and nostrils distended, the pony on which I had so -recently seen the young girl, came tearing over the crest of the -hill, and galloped madly past me towards Llyn Idwal. - -"Quicker beat my heart, and my breath came thick and fast. Something -dreadful had taken place! True to his instincts as ever was the -faithful Gelert of the Welsh tradition, Wolf sped in haste to the -edge of what I knew to be a frightful ravine. There the hoof marks -were fresh in the turf, the edge of which was broken; the grass too, -was crushed and torn, as if something had fallen over it. The dog -now paused, lifted up his nose, and howled ominously. I peered over; -and far down below, on a ledge of green turf, but perilously -overhanging a chasm in the mountain side, lay that which appeared at -first to be a mere bundle of clothes, but which I knew to be the -little maiden dead-- doubtlessly dead--and a wail of sorrow escaped -me. - -"Her father and the guide had disappeared. - -"Partly sliding, partly descending as if by a natural ladder, finding -footing and grasp where many might have found neither, mechanically, -and as one in a dream, I reached her in about ten minutes; and, as I -had a naturally boyish dread of facing death, with joy I saw her -move, and then took her in my arms tenderly and caressingly; while -she opened her eyes and sighed deeply, for the fall had stunned and -shaken her severely. Otherwise she was, happily, uninjured; but I -had reached her just in time, for, if left to herself, she must have -tottered and fallen into the terrible profundity below. - -"'Papa! oh, where is my papa? I was thrown suddenly from my pony--a -bird scared it--and remember no more;' then a passion of tears and -terror came over her, with the consciousness of the peril she had -escaped and that which still menaced her, for to ascend was quite -impracticable, and to descend seemed nearly equally so. Above us the -mountain side seemed to rise like a wall of rock; on the other hand, -at the bottom of the ravine, where the shadows of evening were dark -and blue, though sunset still tipped Snowdon's peaks with fire, and -clouds of crimson and gold were floating above us, I could see a -rivulet, a tributary of the Ogwen, glittering like a silver thread -far down, perhaps a thousand feet below. - -"'Courage,' said I, while for a time my heart died within me; 'I -shall soon conduct you to a place of safety.' - -"'But papa, he will die of fright. Where is my papa?' she exclaimed, -piteously. - -"'Gone round some other way,' I suggested. And subsequently this -proved to be the case. Placing an arm round her for aid, we now -began to descend, but slowly, the face of the hill, which was there -so steep and shelved so abruptly, that to lose one step might have -precipitated us to the bottom with a speed that would have insured -destruction. From rock to rock, from bush to bush, and from cleft to -cleft, I guided and often lifted her, sometimes with her eyes closed; -and gazed the while with boyish rapture on the beautiful girl, as her -head drooped upon my shoulder. She had lost her hat, and the unbound -masses of her golden hair, blown by the wind, came in silken ripples -across my face; and delight, mingled with alarm, bewildered me. - -"Till that hour no sorrow could have affected a spirit so pure as -hers; and certainly love could not have agitated it--she was so -young. But when we drew nearer the base of the hill, and reached a -place of perfect safety, the soft colour came back to her face, and -the enchantment of her smile was as indescribable as the clear violet -blue of her eye, which filled with wonder and terror as she gazed -upward to the giddy verge from which she had partly fallen; and then -a little shudder came over her. - -"With a boy's ready ardour, I was already beginning to dream of being -beloved by her, when excited voices came on the wind; and round an -angle of the ravine into which we had descended came Lloyd, the -guide, several peasants, and her father, who had partially witnessed -our progress, and whose joy in finding her alive and well, when he -might have found her dashed perhaps out of the very semblance of -humanity, was too great for words. The poor man wept like a very -woman, as he embraced her again and again, and muttered in broken -accents his gratitude to me, and praise of my courage. Suddenly he -exclaimed to the guide, - -"'You said his name was--Arkley, I think?' - -"'Yes, sir,' replied Lloyd. - -"'John Beverley Arkley, nephew of the curate at the foot of the -mountain yonder?' he added, turning to me. - -"'The same, sir.' - -"'Good heavens! I am your Uncle Beverley!' said he, colouring -deeply, and taking my hand again in his. 'The girl you have saved is -your own cousin--my darling Eve. I owe you some reparation for past -neglect, so come with me to the parsonage at once.' - -"Here was a discovery that quite took away my breath. So this -dazzling little Hebe was my cousin! How fondly I cherished and -thought over this mysterious tie of blood--near almost as a sister, -and yet no sister. It was very sweet to ponder over and to nurse the -thoughts of affection, and all that yet might be. - -"What a happy, happy night was that in the ancient parsonage! The -good old curate forgave Uncle Beverley all the short-comings in the -years that were past, and seemed never to weary of caressing the -wonderful hair and the tiny hands of Evelyn Beverley, for such was -her name, though familiarly known as Eve. - -"'It is quite a romance, this,' said kind Uncle Arkley to his -brother-in-law; 'the young folks will be falling in love!' - -"Eve grew quite pale, and cast down her eyes; while I blushed -furiously. - -"'Stuff!' said Uncle Beverley, somewhat sharply. 'She has barely cut -her primers and pinafores, and Jack has Sandhurst before him yet.' - -"He presented me with his gold repeater, and departed by the first -convenient train, taking my newly-discovered relation with him. I -had a warm invitation to visit them for a few weeks before entering -at Sandhurst; and, to add to my joy and impatience, I found that -Beverley Lodge was in Berkshire, and within a mile of the College: -and so, but for the presence of the golden gift, and the memory of a -kind and grateful kiss from a beautiful lip--a kiss that made every -nerve thrill--I might have imagined that the whole adventure on the -slopes of Carneydd Davydd was but a dream. - -"Naturally avaricious, cold, and hard in heart, Mr. Beverley had -warmed to me for a time, but a time only; yet I revered and almost -loved him. He was the only brother of my dead mother, whom I had -never known. _She_--this golden-haired girl--was of her blood, and -had her name; so my whole soul clung to her with an amount of -youthful ardour, such as I cannot portray to you--for I was always -much of an enthusiast--and I was again alone, to indulge in the old -tenor of my ways amid the voiceless mountain solitudes. - -"Again and again in my lonely wanderings had my mind been full of -vague longings and boyish aspirations after glory, pleasure, and -love: and now the memory of Eve's minute and perfect face--so pure -and English in its beauty--by its reality filled up all that had been -a blank before; and I was ever in fancied communion with her, while -lying on the hill-slopes and looking to the sea that sparkled at the -far horizon, into the black ravines through which the mountain brooks -went foaming to the rocky shore, or where our deep Welsh _llyns_ were -gleaming in the sunshine like gold and turquoise blue--amid the -monotony of the silent woods; and so the time passed on, and the day -came when I was to start for Beverley Lodge, and thence to Sandhurst; -while love and ambition rendered me selfishly oblivious of poor old -Uncle Morgan, and the fervent wishes and blessings with which he -followed my departing steps. - -"A month's visit to Beverley Lodge, amid the fertility of Berkshire, -many a ride and ramble in the Vale of the White Horse, many an hour -spent by us together in the shady woods, the luxurious garden, in the -beautiful conservatory, and in the deep leafy lanes where we wandered -at will, confirmed the love my cousin and I bore each other. A boy -and a girl, it came easily about; while many were our regrets and -much was our marvelling that we had not known each other earlier. - -"No two men make a declaration of love, perhaps, in precisely the -same way, though it all comes to the same thing in the end; but it -might be interesting to know in what precise terms, and having so -little choice, Father Adam declared his passion for Mother Eve, and -in what fashion she responded. - -"I know not now how my love for _my_ little Eve was expressed; but -told it was, and I departed for college the happiest student there, -every hour I could spare from study and drill being spent in or about -Beverley Lodge. - -"With an income of forty pounds per annum till gazetted, I almost -thought myself rich; and I had three years before me--it seemed an -eternity of joy--to look forward to. At Sandhurst I was, as you -know, entered as a Queen's cadet _free_, and a candidate for the -infantry. I had thus to master algebra, the three first books of -Euclid, French, German, and 'Higher Fortification;' but in the pages -of Straith, amid the ravelins of Vauban and the casemates of Coehorn, -I seemed to see only the name and the tender eyes of Eve. The daily -drills, in which I was at first an enthusiast, became dull and -prosaic, and hourly I made terrible mistakes, for Eve's voice was -ever in my ear, and her delicate beauty haunted me; for wondrously -delicate it became, as consumption--which she fatally inherited from -her mother--shed over it a medium that was alike soft and alluring. - -"Since then I have met girls of all kinds everywhere. Though only a -sub, I have been dressed for, played for, sung for; but never have I -had the delight of those remembered days that were passed with Eve -Beverley in our dream of cousinly love; however, a rude waking was at -hand! - -"When she was eighteen, and I a year older, she told me one day that -her father had been insisting upon her marrying an old friend of his, -a retired Sudder judge, who had proposed in form; but she had laughed -at the idea. - -"'Absurd! It is so funny of papa to have a husband ready cut and dry -for me; is it not, Jack?' said she. - -"I did not think so; but my heart beat painfully as I leaned -caressingly over her, and played with her beautiful hair. - -"'I don't thank him for selecting a husband for me, Jack, dear,' she -continued, pouting; 'do you?'" - -"'Certainly not, Eve.' - -"'But I must prepare my mind for the awful event,' said she, looking -up at me with a bright, waggish smile. - -"The time was fast approaching, however, when neither of us could see -anything 'funny' in the prospect; for 'the awful event' became -alarmingly palpable, when one day she met me with tears, and threw -herself on my breast, saying: - -"'Save me, dearest Jack--save me!' - -"'From whom?" - -"'Papa and his odious old Sudder judge, Jack, love. You know that I -must marry you, and you only!' - -"'The devil he does!' said a voice, sharply; and there, grim as Ajax, -stood Uncle Beverley, with hands clenched and brows knit. 'My sister -married his father, a beggar, with only his pay; and now, minx, you -dare to love their son, by heavens, with no pay at all! Leave this -house, sir--begone instantly!' he added, furiously, to me. 'I would -rather that she had broken her neck on the mountains than treated me -to a scene like this.' - -"The gates of Beverley Lodge closed behind me, and our dream was over. - -"Half my life seemed to have left me. After three years of such -delightful intercourse I could not adopt the conviction that I should -never see her again; and in a very unenviable state of mind I entered -the college, where you may remember meeting me under the Doric -portico, and saying: - -"'What's up, Jack? But let me congratulate you.' - -"'On what?' I asked sulkily. - -"'Your appointment to the Buffs. The _Gazette_ has just come from -town. They are stationed at Jubbulpore.' - -"And so it proved that the very day I lost her saw me in the service, -with India, and a far and final separation before us. Necessity -compelled us to prepare for an almost instant departure; short leave -was given me by the adjutant-general; and I had to join the Candahar -transport going with drafts from Chatham for the East, on a certain -day. - -"Rumours reached me of Eve being seriously ill. She was secluded -from me, and there was every chance that I should see her no more. A -letter came from her imploring me to meet her for the last time at a -spot known to us both--a green lane that led to a churchyard -stile--the scene of many a tender tryst and blissful hour, as it was -a place where overhanging trees, with the golden apple, the purple -damson, and the plum, formed a very bower, and where few or none ever -came, save on Sunday; and there we met for the last time! - -"There once again her head lay on my shoulder, my circling arm was -round her, and her hot, tremulous hand was clasped in mine. I was -shocked by the change I perceived in her. Painful was her pallor to -look upon; there were circles dark as her lashes under her sad, -melancholy eyes; her nostrils and lips were unnaturally pink; she had -a short, dry cough; and blood appeared more than once upon her -handkerchief. - -"Consumption on one hand, and parental tyranny on the other, were -fast doing their fatal work. - -"Her father was pitiless and inexorable--wonderfully, infamously so, -as he was so rich that mere money was no object, and as she was his -only child, and one so tender, and so fragile. His studied system of -deliberate 'worry' had wrung a consent from her; she was to marry the -old judge; and in more ways than one I felt that too surely I was -losing her for ever. She could not go out with me. I felt -desperate, and in silence folded her again and again to my breast. -At last the ting-tong of the old church clock announced the hour when -we must part, never to meet again, and the fatal sound struck us like -a shock of electricity. - -"'Jack, my dearest--my dearest,' she whispered wildly; 'I don't think -I shall live very long now. I may--nay, I must, die very soon; but -the spirit is imperishable, and I shall always be with you, wherever -you may be, wherever you may go, hovering near you, I hope, _like a -guardian angel_!' - -"Her words struck me as strange and wild; I did not attach much -importance to them then, but they have had a strange and terrible -significance since. - -"'Would you welcome me?' she asked, with a mournful smile. - -"'Dead or living shall I welcome you!' I replied, with mournful -ardour. - -"'Then kiss me once again, dear Jack; and now we part--in this world, -at least!' - -"Another wild, passionate embrace, and all was over. In a minute -later I was galloping far from the villa to reach the railway. I saw -her beloved face no more; but voice and face, eye and kiss, were all -with me still. Would a time ever come when I might forgot them? - -"Adverse winds detained us long in the Channel, but we cleared it at -last; and the last _Times_ that came on board announced the marriage -of this unhappy girl. - -"Six months subsequent found me in cantonments at Neemuch, with a -small detachment of ours, and in hourly expectation of the mutiny -which had broken out at Meerut and Delhi, with such horrors, being -imitated there, though we had sworn the sepoys to be 'true to their -salt,' the Mahometans on the Koran, the Hindoos on the waters of the -Ganges, and the other darkies on whatever was most sacred to them; -and if they revolted, all Europeans were to seek instant shelter in -the fort. - -"It was the night of _the 3rd June_--one of the loveliest I ever saw -in India--the moonlight was radiant as midday, and not a cloud was -visible throughout the blue expanse of heaven. I was lying in my -bungalow, with sword and revolver beside me, as we could not count -upon the events of an hour, for all Hindostan seemed to be going to -chaos in blood and outrage. - -"The cantonment ghurries had clanged midnight; my eyes were closing -heavily; and when just about to sleep I thought that my name was -uttered by some one near me, very softly, very tenderly, and with an -accent that thrilled my heart's core. Starting, I looked up, and -there--oh, my God!--there, in the slanting light of the moon, like a -glorified spirit, with a brightness all about her, was the figure of -Eve Beverley bending over me, with all her golden hair unbound, and a -garment like a shroud or robe about her. - -"Entranced, enchained by love as much as by mortal terror, I could -not move or speak, while nearer she bent to kiss my brow; but I felt -not the pressure of her lips, though reading in her starry, violet -eyes a divine intensity of expression--a mournful, unspeakable -tenderness, when, pointing in the direction of _the fort_, she -disappeared. - -"'It is a dread--a dreadful dream!' said I, starting to my feet -preternaturally awake, to hear the sound of artillery, the rattle of -musketry, the yells of 'Deen! deen!' and the shrieks of those who -were perishing; for the mutineers had risen, and the 1st Cavalry, the -72nd N. I., and Walker's artillery, had commenced the work of -massacre. I rushed forth, and at the moment I left my bungalow on -one side it was set in flames and fired through from the other. I -fled to the fort, which, thanks to my dream--for such I supposed it -to be--I reached in safety, while many perished, for all the station -was sheeted now with flame. - -"Once again I had that dream, so wild and strange, when a deadly -peril threatened me. I was hiding in the jungle, alone and in great -misery, near Jehaz-ghur, a fugitive. The time was noon, and I had -dropped asleep under the deep, cool shadow of a thicket, when that -weird vision of Eve came before me, soft and sad, tender and intense, -with her loving eyes and flowing hair, as, with hands outstretched, -she beckoned me to follow her. A cry escaped me, and I awoke. - -"'Was my Eve indeed dead?' I asked of myself; 'and was it her -intellectual spirit, her pure essence, that imperishable something -engendered in us all from a higher source, that followed me as a -guardian angel?' I remembered her parting words. The idea suggested -was sadly sweet and terrible; and so, as a sense of her perpetual -presence as a _spirit-wife_ hovered at all times about me, -controlling all my actions, rendered me unfit for society, till at -Calcutta, a crisis was put to all this. - -"With some of the 72nd, and other Europeans who had escaped from -Neemuch, or had 'distinguished themselves,' as the 'Hurkaru' had it, -I once went to be photographed at the famous studio near the corner -of the Strand. I sat, in succession, alone and in a group, after -being posed in the usual fashion, with an iron hoop at the nape of my -neck. On examining the first negative, an expression of perplexity -and astonishment came over the face of the artist. - -"'Strange, sir,' said he; 'most unaccountable!' - -"'What is strange; what is unaccountable?' asked several. - -"'Another figure that is _not_ in the room appears at Captain -Arkley's back--a woman, by Jove!' he replied, placing the glass over -a piece of black velvet; and there--there--oh, there could be no -doubt of it--was faintly indicated the outline of one whose face and -form had been but too vividly impressed on my heart and brain, -bending sorrowfully over me, with her soft, bright eyes and wealth of -long bright hair. - -"From my hand the glass fell on the floor, and was shivered to atoms. -A similar figure hovering near me, was visible among the pictured -group of officers, but faded out. I refused to sit again, and -quitted the studio in utter confusion, and with nerves dreadfully -shaken, though my comrades averred that a trick had been played upon -me. If so, how was the figure that of my dream--that of my lost -love--who, a letter soon after informed me, had burst a blood-vessel, -and expired on _the night of the 3rd June_, with my name on her lips?" - - -Such was the story of Jack Arkley. Whether it was false or true, in -this age of spiritualism and many other _isms_ of mediums with the -world unseen, and in which Enemoser has ventilated his theory of -polarity, I pretend not to say, and leave others to determine. He -became a moody monomaniac. I rejoined my regiment, and from that -time never saw my old chum again. The last that I heard of him was, -that he had quitted the service, and died a Passionist Father, in one -of the many new monastic institutions that exist in the great -metropolis. - - - - -THE SPECTRE HAND. - -Do the dead ever revisit this earth? - -On this subject even the ponderous and unsentimental Dr. Johnson was -of opinion that to maintain they did not was to oppose the concurrent -and unvarying testimony of all ages and nations, as there was no -people so barbarous, and none so civilized, but among whom -apparitions of the dead were related and believed in. "That which is -doubted by single cavillers," he adds, "can very little weaken the -general evidence, and some who deny it with their tongues confess it -by their _fears_." - -In the August of last year I found myself with three friends, when on -a northern tour, at the Hôtel de Scandinavie, in the long and -handsome Carl Johan Gade of Christiania. A single day, or little -more, had sufficed us to "do" all the lions of the little Norwegian -capital--the royal palace, a stately white building, guarded by -slouching Norski riflemen in long coats, with wide-awakes and green -plumes; the great brick edifice wherein the Storthing is held, and -where the red lion appears on everything, from the king's throne to -the hall-porter's coal-scuttle; the castle of Aggerhuis and its petty -armoury, with a single suit of mail, and the long muskets of the -Scots who fell at Rhomsdhal; after which there is nothing more to be -seen; and when the little Tivoli gardens close at ten, all -Christiania goes to sleep till dawn next morning. - -English carriages being perfectly useless in Norway, we had ordered -four of the native carrioles for our departure, as we were resolved -to start for the wild mountainous district named the Dovrefeld, when -a delay in the arrival of certain letters compelled me to remain two -days behind my companions, who promised to await me at Rodnaes, near -the head of the magnificent Ransfiord; and this partial separation, -with the subsequent circumstance of having to travel alone through -districts that were totally strange to me, with but a very slight -knowledge of the language, were the means of bringing to my knowledge -the story I am about to relate. - -The table d'hôte is over by two o'clock in the fashionable hotels of -Christiania, so about four in the afternoon I quitted the city, the -streets and architecture of which resemble portions of Tottenham -Court Road, with stray bits of old Chester. In my carriole, a -comfortable kind of gig, were my portmanteau and gun-case; these, -with my whole person, and indeed the body of the vehicle itself, -being covered by one of those huge tarpaulin cloaks furnished by the -carriole company in the Store Standgade. - -Though the rain was beginning to fall with a force and density -peculiarly Norse when I left behind me the red-tiled city with all -its green coppered spires, I could not but be struck by the bold -beauty of the scenery, as the strong little horse at a rasping pace -tore the light carriole along the rough mountain road, which was -bordered by natural forests of dark and solemn-looking pines, -interspersed with graceful silver birches, the greenness of the -foliage contrasting powerfully with the blue of the narrow fiords -that opened on every hand, and with the colours in which the toy-like -country houses were painted, their timber walls being always snowy -white, and their shingle roofs a flaming red. Even some of the -village spires wore the same sanguinary hue, presenting thus a -singular feature in the landscape. - -The rain increased to an unpleasant degree; the afternoon seemed to -darken into evening, and the evening into night sooner than usual, -while dense masses of vapour came rolling down the steep sides of the -wooded hills, over which the sombre firs spread everywhere and up -every vista that opened, like a sea of cones; and as the houses -became fewer and farther apart, and not a single wanderer was abroad, -and I had but the pocket-map of my "John Murray" to guide me, I soon -became convinced that instead of pursuing the route to Rodnaes I was -somewhere on the banks of the Tyri-fiord, at least three Norwegian -miles (_i.e._ twenty-one English) in the opposite direction, my -little horse worn out, the rain still falling in a continual torrent, -night already at hand, and mountain scenery of the most tremendous -character everywhere around me. I was in an almost circular valley -(encompassed by a chain of hills), which opened before me, after -leaving a deep chasm that the road enters, near a place which I -afterwards learned bears the name of Krogkleven. - -Owing to the steepness of the road, and some decay in the harness of -my hired carriole, the traces parted, and then I found myself, with -the now useless horse and vehicle, far from any house, homestead, or -village where I could have the damage repaired or procure shelter, -the rain still pouring like a sheet of water, the thick, shaggy, and -impenetrable woods of Norwegian pine towering all about me, their -shadows rendered all the darker by the unusual gloom of the night. - -To remain quietly in the carriole was unsuitable to a temperament so -impatient as mine; I drew it aside from the road, spread the -tarpaulin over my small stock of baggage and the gun-case, haltered -the pony to it, and set forth on foot, stiff, sore, and weary, in -search of succour; and, though armed only with a Norwegian tolknife, -having no fear of thieves or of molestation. - -Following the road on foot in the face of the blinding rain, a Scotch -plaid and oilskin my sole protection now, I perceived ere long a side -gate and little avenue, which indicated my vicinity to some place of -abode. After proceeding about three hundred yards or so, the wood -became more open, a light appeared before me, and I found it to -proceed from a window on the ground floor of a little two-storeyed -mansion, built entirely of wood. The sash, which was divided in the -middle, was unbolted, and stood partially and most invitingly open; -and knowing how hospitable the Norwegians are, without troubling -myself to look for the entrance door, I stepped over the low sill -into the room (which was tenantless), and looked about for a -bell-pull, forgetting that in that country, where there are no -mantelpieces, it is generally to be found behind the door. - -The floor was, of course, bare, and painted brown; a high German -stove, like a black iron pillar, stood in one corner on a stone -block; the door, which evidently communicated with some other -apartment, was constructed to open in the middle, with one of the -quaint lever handles peculiar to the country. The furniture was all -of plain Norwegian pine, highly varnished; a reindeer skin spread on -the floor, and another over an easy-chair, were the only luxuries; -and on the table lay the _Illustret Tidende_, the _Aftonblat_, and -other papers of that morning, with a meerschaum and pouch of tobacco, -all serving to show that some one had recently quitted the room. - -I had just taken in all these details by a glance, when there entered -a tall thin man of gentlemanly appearance, clad in a rough tweed -suit, with a scarlet shirt, open at the throat, a simple but _dégagé_ -style of costume, which he seemed to wear with a natural grace, for -it is not every man who can dress thus and still retain an air of -distinction. Pausing, he looked at me with some surprise and -inquiringly, as I began my apologies and explanation in German. - -"Taler de Dansk-Norsk," said he, curtly. - -"I cannot speak either with fluency, but----" - -"You are welcome, however, and I shall assist you in the prosecution -of your journey. Meantime, here is cognac. I am an old soldier, and -know the comforts of a full canteen, and of the Indian weed too, in a -wet bivouac. There is a pipe at your service." - -I thanked him, and (while he gave directions to his servants to go -after the carriole and horse) proceeded to observe him more closely, -for something in his voice and eye interested me deeply. - -There was much of broken-hearted melancholy--something that indicated -a hidden sorrow--in his features, which were handsome, and very -slightly aquiline. His face was pale and care-worn; his hair and -moustache, though plentiful, were perfectly white-blanched, yet he -did not seem over forty years of age. His eyes were blue, but -without softness, being strangely keen and sad in expression, and -times there were when a startled look, that savoured of fright, or -pain, or insanity, or of all mingled, came suddenly into them. This -unpleasant expression tended greatly to neutralize the symmetry of a -face that otherwise was evidently a fine one. Suddenly a light -seemed to spread over it, as I threw off some of my sodden mufflings, -and he exclaimed-- - -"You speak Danskija, and English too, I know! Have you quite -forgotten me, Herr Kaptain?" he added, grasping my hand with kindly -energy. "Don't you remember Carl Holberg of the Danish Guards?" - -The voice was the same as that of the once happy, lively, and jolly -young Danish officer, whose gaiety of temper and exuberance of spirit -made him seem a species of madcap, who was wont to give champagne -suppers at the Klampenborg Gardens to great ladies of the court and -to ballet girls of the Hof Theatre with equal liberality; to whom -many a fair Danish girl had lost her heart, and who, it was said, had -once the effrontery to commence a flirtation with one of the royal -princesses when he was on guard at the Amalienborg Palace. But how -was I to reconcile this change, the appearance of many years of -premature age, that had come upon him? - -"I remember you perfectly, Carl," said I, while we shook hands; "yet -it is so long since we met; moreover--excuse me--but I knew not -whether you were in the land of the living." - -The strange expression, which I cannot define, came over his face as -he said, with a low, sad tone-- - -"Times there are when I know not whether I am of the living or the -dead. It is twenty years since our happy days--twenty years since I -was wounded at the battle of Idstedt--and it seems as if 'twere -twenty ages." - -"Old friend, I am indeed glad to meet you again." - -"Yes, old you may call me with truth," said he, with a sad weary -smile as he passed his hand tremulously over his whitened locks, -which I could remember being a rich auburn. - -All reserve was at an end now, and we speedily recalled a score and -more of past scenes of merriment and pleasure, enjoyed -together--prior to the campaign of Holstein--in Copenhagen, that most -delightful and gay of all the northern cities; and, under the -influence of memory, his now withered face seemed to brighten, and -some of its former expression stole back again. - -"Is this your fishing or shooting quarters, Carl?" I asked. - -"Neither. It is my permanent abode." - -"In this place, so rural--so solitary? Ah! you have become a -Benedick--taken to love in a cottage, and so forth--yet I don't see -any signs of----" - -"Hush! for God's sake! You know not _who_ hears us," he exclaimed, -as terror came over his face; and he withdrew his hand from the table -on which it was resting, with a nervous suddenness of action that was -unaccountable, or as if hot iron had touched it. - -"Why?--Can we not talk of such things?" asked I. - -"Scarcely here--or anywhere to me," he said, incoherently. Then, -fortifying himself with a stiff glass of cognac and foaming seltzer, -he added: "You know that my engagement with my cousin Marie Louise -Viborg was broken off--beautiful though she was, perhaps _is_ still, -for even twenty years could not destroy her loveliness of feature and -brilliance of expression--but you never knew _why_?" - -"I thought you behaved ill to her,--were mad, in fact." - -A spasm came over his face. Again he twitched his hand away as if a -wasp had stung, or something unseen had touched it, as he said-- - -"She was very proud, imperious, and jealous." - -"She resented, of course, your openly wearing the opal ring which was -thrown to you from the palace window by the princess----" - -"The ring--the ring! Oh, do not speak of _that_!" said he, in a -hollow tone. "Mad?--Yes, I was mad--and yet I am not, though I have -undergone, and even _now_ am undergoing, that which would break the -heart of a Holger Danske! But you shall hear, if I can tell it with -coherence and without interruption, the reason why I fled from -society and the world--and for all these twenty miserable years have -buried myself in this mountain solitude, where the forest overhangs -the fiord, and where no woman's face shall ever smile on mine!" - -In short, after some reflection and many involuntary sighs--and being -urged, when the determination to unbosom himself wavered--Carl -Holberg related to me a little narrative so singular and wild, that -but for the sad gravity--or intense solemnity of his manner--and the -air of perfect conviction that his manner bore with it, I should have -deemed him utterly--mad! - -"Marie Louise and I were to be married, as you remember, to cure me -of all my frolics and expensive habits--the very day was fixed; you -were to be the groomsman, and had selected a suite of jewels for the -bride in the Kongens Nytorre; but the war that broke out in -Schleswig-Holstein drew my battalion of the guards to the field, -whither I went without much regret so far as my _fiancée_ was -concerned; for, sooth to say, both of us were somewhat weary of our -engagement, and were unsuited to each other: so we had not been -without piques, coldnesses, and even quarrels, till keeping up -appearances partook of boredom. - -"I was with General Krogh when that decisive battle was fought at -Idstedt between our troops and the Germanizing Holsteiners under -General Willisen. My battalion of the guards was detached from the -right wing with orders to advance from Salbro on the Holstein rear, -while the centre was to be attacked, pierced, and the batteries -beyond it carried at the point of the bayonet, all of which was -brilliantly done. But prior to that I was sent, with directions to -extend my company in skirmishing order, among some thickets that -covered a knoll which is crowned by a ruined edifice, part of an old -monastery with a secluded burial-ground. - -"Just prior to our opening fire the funeral of a lady of rank, -apparently, passed us, and I drew my men aside, to make way for the -open catafalque, on which lay the coffin covered with white flowers -and silver coronets, while behind it were her female attendants, clad -in black cloaks in the usual fashion, and carrying wreaths of white -flowers and immortelles to lay upon the grave. Desiring these -mourners to make all speed lest they might find themselves under a -fire of cannon and musketry, my company opened, at six hundred yards, -on the Holsteiners, who were coming on with great spirit. We -skirmished with them for more than an hour, in the long clear -twilight of the July evening, and gradually, but with considerable -loss, were driving them through the thicket and over the knoll on -which the ruins stand, when a half-spent bullet whistled through an -opening in the mouldering wall and struck me on the back part of the -head, just below my bearskin cap. A thousand stars seemed to flash -around me, then darkness succeeded. I staggered and fell, believing -myself mortally wounded; a pious invocation trembled on my lips, the -roar of the red and distant battle passed away, and I became -completely insensible. - -"How long I lay thus I know not, but when I imagined myself coming -back to life and to the world I was in a handsome, but rather -old-fashioned apartment, hung, one portion of it with tapestry and -the other with rich drapery. A subdued light that came, I could not -discover from where, filled it. On a buffet lay my sword and my -brown bearskin cap of the Danish Guards. I had been borne from the -field evidently, but when and to where? I was extended on a soft -fauteuil or couch, and my uniform coat was open. Some one was kindly -supporting my head--a woman dressed in white, like a bride; young and -so lovely, that to attempt any description of her seems futile! - -"She was like the fancy portraits one occasionally sees of beautiful -girls, for she was divine, perfectly so, as some enthusiast's dream, -or painter's happiest conception. A long respiration, induced by -admiration, delight, and the pain of my wound escaped me. She was so -exquisitely fair, delicate and pale, middle-sized and slight, yet -charmingly round, with hands that were perfect, and marvellous golden -hair that curled in rippling masses about her forehead and shoulders, -and from amid which her _piquante_ little face peeped forth as from a -silken nest. Never have I forgotten that face, nor shall I be -_permitted_ to do so, while life lasts at least," he added, with a -strange contortion of feature, expressive of terror rather than -ardour; "it is ever before my eyes, sleeping or waking, photographed -in my heart and on my brain! I strove to rise, but she stilled, or -stayed me, by a caressing gesture, as a mother would her child, while -softly her bright beaming eyes smiled into mine, with more of -tenderness, perhaps, than love; while in her whole air there was much -of dignity and self-reliance. - -"'Where am I?' was my first question. - -"'With me,' she answered naïvely; 'is it not enough?' - -"I kissed her hand, and said-- - -"'The bullet, I remember, struck me down in a place of burial on the -Salbro Road--strange!' - -"'Why strange?' - -"'As I am fond of rambling among graves when in my thoughtful moods.' - -"'Among graves--why?' she asked. - -"'They look so peaceful and quiet.' - -"Was she laughing at my unwonted gravity, that so strange a light -seemed to glitter in her eyes, on her teeth, and over all her lovely -face? I kissed her hands again, and she left them in mine. -Adoration began to fill my heart and eyes, and be faintly murmured on -my lips; for the great beauty of the girl bewildered and intoxicated -me; and, perhaps, I was emboldened by past success in more than one -love affair. She sought to withdraw her hand, saying-- - -"'Look not thus; I know how lightly you hold the love of one -elsewhere.' - -"'Of my cousin Marie Louise? Oh! what of that! I never, never loved -till now!' and, drawing a ring from her finger, I slipped my -beautiful opal in its place. - -"'And you love me?' she whispered. - -"'Yes; a thousand times, yes!' - -"'But you are a soldier--wounded, too. Ah! if you should die before -we meet again!' - -"'Or, if you should die ere then?' said I, laughingly. - -"'Die--I am already dead to the world--in loving you; but, living or -dead, our souls are as one, and----' - -"'Neither heaven nor the powers beneath shall separate us now!' I -exclaimed, as something of melodrama began to mingle with the -genuineness of the sudden passion with which she had inspired me. -She was so impulsive, so full of brightness and ardour, as compared -to the cold, proud, and calm Marie Louise. I boldly encircled her -with my arms; then her glorious eyes seemed to fill with the subtle -light of love, while there was a strange magnetic thrill in her -touch, and, more than all, in her kiss. - -"'Carl, Carl!' she sighed. - -"'What! You know my name?-- And yours?' - -"'Thyra. But ask no more." - -"There are but three words to express the emotion that possessed -me--bewilderment, intoxication, madness. I showered kisses on her -beautiful eyes, on her soft tresses, on her lips that met mine half -way; but this excess of joy, together with the pain of my wound, -began to overpower me; a sleep, a growing and drowsy torpor, against -which I struggled in vain, stole over me. I remember clasping her -firm little hand in mine, as if to save myself from sinking into -oblivion, and then--no more--no more! - -"On again coming back to consciousness, I was alone. The sun was -rising, but had not yet risen. The scenery, the thickets through -which we had skirmished, rose dark as the deepest indigo against the -amber-tinted eastern sky; and the last light of the waning moon yet -silvered the pools and marshes around the borders of the Langsö Lake, -where now eight thousand men, the slain of yesterday's battle, were -lying stark and stiff. Moist with dew and blood, I propped myself on -one elbow and looked around me, with such wonder that a sickness came -over my heart. I was _again_ in the cemetery where the bullet had -struck me down; a little gray owl was whooping and blinking in a -recess of the crumbling wall. Was the drapery of the chamber but the -ivy that rustled thereon?--for where the lighted buffet stood there -was an old square tomb, whereon lay my sword and bearskin cap! - -"The last rays of the waning moonlight stole through the ruins on a -new-made grave--the fancied _fauteuil_ on which I lay--strewn with -the flowers of yesterday, and at its head stood a temporary cross, -hung with white garlands and wreaths of immortelles. Another ring -was on my finger how; but where was she, the donor? Oh, what -opium-dream, or what insanity was this? - -"For a time I remained utterly bewildered by the vividness of my -recent dream, for such I believed it to be. But if a dream, how came -this strange ring, with a square emerald stone, upon my finger? And -_where_ was mine? Perplexed by these thoughts, and filled with -wonder and regret that the beauty I had seen had no reality, I picked -my way over the ghostly _débris_ of the battle-field, faint, -feverish, and thirsty, till at the end of a long avenue of lindens I -found shelter in a stately brick mansion, which I learned belonged to -the Count of Idstedt, a noble, on whose hospitality--as he favoured -the Holsteiners--I meant to intrude as little as possible. - -"He received me, however, courteously and kindly. I found him in -deep mourning: and on discovering, by chance, that I was the officer -who had halted the line of skirmishers when the funeral _cortège_ -passed on the previous day, he thanked me with earnestness, adding, -with a deep sigh, that it was the burial of his only daughter. - -"'Half my life seems to have gone with her--my lost darling! She was -so sweet, Herr Kaptain--so gentle, and so surpassingly beautiful--my -poor Thyra!' - -"'_Who_ did you say?' I exclaimed, in a voice that sounded strange -and unnatural, while half-starting from the sofa on which I had cast -myself, sick at heart and faint from loss of blood. - -"'Thyra, my daughter, Herr Kaptain,' replied the Count, too full of -sorrow to remark my excitement, for this had been the quaint old -Danish name uttered in my dream. 'See, what a child I have lost!' he -added, as he drew back a curtain which covered a full-length -portrait, and, to my growing horror and astonishment, I beheld, -arrayed in white even as I had seen her in my vision, the fair girl -with the masses of golden hair, the beautiful eyes, and the -_piquante_ smile lighting up her features even on the canvas, and I -was rooted to the spot. - -"'This ring, Herr Count?' I gasped. - -"He let the curtain fall from his hand, and now a terrible emotion -seized him, as he almost tore the jewel from my finger. - -"'My daughter's ring!' he exclaimed. 'It was buried with her -yesterday--her grave has been violated--violated by your infamous -troops.' - -"As he spoke, a mist seemed to come over my sight; a giddiness made -my senses reel, then a hand--the soft little hand of last night, with -my opal ring on its third finger--came stealing into mine, unseen! -More than that, a kiss from tremulous lips I could not see, was -pressed on mine, as I sank backward and fainted! The remainder of my -story must be briefly told. - -"My soldiering was over; my nervous system was too much shattered for -further military service. On my homeward way to join and be wedded -to Marie Louise--a union with whom was intensely repugnant to me -now--I pondered deeply over the strange subversion of the laws of -nature presented by my adventure; or the madness, it might be, that -had come upon me. - -"On the day I presented myself to my intended bride, and approached -to salute her, I felt a hand--the _same hand_--laid softly on mine. -Starting and trembling I looked around me; but saw nothing. The -grasp was firm. I passed my other hand over it, and felt the slender -fingers and the shapely wrist; yet still I saw nothing, and Marie -Louise gazed at my motions, my pallor, doubt, and terror, with calm -but cool indignation. - -"I was about to speak--to explain--to say I know not what, when a -kiss from lips I could not see sealed mine, and with a cry like a -scream I broke away from my friends and fled. - -"All deemed me mad, and spoke with commiseration of my wounded head; -and when I went abroad in the streets men eyed me with curiosity, as -one over whom some evil destiny hung--as one to whom something -terrible had happened, and gloomy thoughts were wasting me to a -shadow. My narrative may seem incredible; but this attendant, unseen -yet palpable, is ever by my side, and if under any impulse, such even -as sudden pleasure in meeting you, I for a moment forget it, the soft -and gentle touch of a female hand reminds me of the past, and haunts -me, for a guardian demon--if I may use such a term--rules my destiny: -one lovely, perhaps, as an angel. - -"Life has no pleasures, but only terrors for me now. Sorrow, doubt, -horror, and perpetual dread have sapped the roots of existence; for a -wild and clamorous fear of what the next moment may bring forth is -ever in my heart, and when the touch comes my soul seems to die -within me. - -"You know what haunts me now--God help me! God help me! You do not -understand all this, you would say. Still less do I; but in all the -idle or extravagant stories I have read of ghosts--stories once my -sport and ridicule, as the result of vulgar superstition or -ignorance--the so-called supernatural visitor was visible to the eye, -or heard by the ear; but the ghost, the fiend, the invisible Thing -that is ever by the side of Carl Holberg, is only sensible to the -touch--it is the unseen but tangible substance of an apparition!" - -He had got thus far when he gasped, grew livid, and, passing his -right hand over the left, about an inch above it, with trembling -fingers, he said-- - -"It is here--here now--even with you present, I feel her hand on -mine; the clasp is tight and tender, and she will never leave me, but -with life!" - -And then this once gay, strong, and gallant fellow, now the wreck of -himself in body and in spirit, sank forward with his head between his -knees, sobbing and faint. - -Four months afterwards, when with my friends, I was shooting bears at -Hammerfest, I read in tell Norwegian _Aftenposten_, that Carl Holberg -had shot himself in bed, on Christmas Eve. - - - - -THE BOMBARDIER'S STORY. - - "Some feel by instinct swift as light - The presence of the foe, - Whom God ordains in future time - To strike the fatal blow." AYTOUN. - - -Very few persons in this world are unlucky enough to see, or to have -seen, a ghost; but we nearly have all met with some one else who had -seen something weird or unearthly. And now for a little story of my -own, by which you will find that, in my time, I have more than once -encountered a ghost, or that which, perhaps, was _worse_ than any -ghost could be. - -In the Christmas before the battle of the Alma, I, Bob Twyford, was a -young bombardier of the Royal Artillery, a "G.C.R." (good conduct -ring) man, mighty proud of that, and of my uniform, with its yellow -lace and rows of brass buttons, with the motto "_Ubique quo fas et -gloria ducunt_," and so forth, when I went home on a month's -furlough, to see old mother and all my friends at our little village -in the Weald of Kent. - -I was proud too, to show them that, by the single chevron of -bombardier, my foot was firmly planted on the first step of the long -ladder of promotion; happy, too, that there was one in particular to -show it to--my cousin, little Bessie Leybourne--though she was a big -Bessie now--my sweetheart, and my wife that was to be, if good -promotion came, or if I bought my discharge, and took to business -with some money we expected--money that was long, long in coming. - -More than once, in the beautiful season of autumn, had Bessie -Leybourne been the queen of the hop-pickers, and then I thought that -she looked bright and beautiful as a fairy, when the crown of flowers -was placed on her sunny brown hair, and her deep blue eyes were -beaming with pleasure and gratified vanity. - -I had a dream about Bessie on the night before--a dream that made me -uncomfortable and gave me much cause for thought; and so a vague -presentiment of coming evil clouded the joy of my returning home. - -I had seen Bessy in her beauty and her bravery as the hop queen; but -she was calling on me to protect her--for she was struggling to free -herself from the embraces and the blandishments of a handsome and -blasé-looking man, whose costume and bearing were alike fashionable -and distinguished. Close by them, looking on evidently with -amusement, was his friend, a hook-nosed, grim, and sombre-looking -fellow, with a black moustache, and malevolent eyes, who held me back -as with a grasp of iron, while uttering a strange, chuckling laugh, -the sound of which awoke me. But the faces of those men made a vivid -and painful impression upon me; for the whole vision seemed so -distinct and real, that I believed I should recognize them anywhere. - -I spoke to Tom Inches, our Scotch pay-sergeant, about it, and he, -being a great believer in dreams, assured me that it was ominous of -some evil that would certainly happen to Bessie or to me, or to us -both. - -"For you must know, Bob," he continued, "that in sleep the soul seems -to issue from the body, and to attain the power of looking into the -future; for time or place, distance or space, form no obstruction -then; so the untrammelled spirit of the dreamer may see the future as -well as the past, and know that which is to happen as well as that -which has happened." - -The Scotchman's words had a solemnity about them that rendered me -still more uneasy; but I strove to shake off care, and already saw in -anticipation my mother's cottage among the woodlands of the Weald. - -Every pace drew me nearer home, and I trod gaily on, with my knapsack -on my back, and only a crown piece in my pocket. My purse was light; -but, save for that ugly dream, my heart was lighter still, as I -thought of Bessie Leybourne. - -I had left the railway station some miles behind. It was Christmas -Eve. The Weald of Kent spread before me; not as I had seen it last -in its summer greenness, but covered deep with snow, over which the -sun, as he set, shed a purple flush, that deepened in the shade to -blue, and made the icicles on every hedge and tree glitter with a -thousand prismatic colours. - -Red lights were beginning to twinkle through the leafless copses from -cottage windows, and heavily the dun winter smoke was curling in the -clear mid air, from many a house and homestead, and from the -clustered chimney stalks of the quaint and stately old rectory. - -An emotion of bitterness came over me, on passing this edifice, with -all its gables and lighted oriel windows. - -I had no great love for the rector. When a boy I had found in our -garden a pheasant, which he, the Rev. Dr. Raikes, had wounded by a -shot. Pleased with the beauty of the bird, I made a household pet of -it, till his keeper, hearing of the circumstance, had me arrested and -stigmatized as a little poacher, the rector, as a magistrate, being -the exponent of the law in the matter. So I quitted the parish and -its petty tyrant, to become a gunner and driver in the artillery, -where my good education soon proved of service to me. - -For the sake of a miserable bird, the sporting rector had driven into -the world a widow's only son. But how fared he in his own household? - -Valentine Raikes, his only son, was breaking his proud and pampered -heart by mad dissipation, by gambling, and every species of -debauchery; by horse-racing, and by debts of honour, which had been -paid thrice over, to save his commission in the hussars. - -At last I stood by mother's cottage door. - -The little dwelling was smothered among hops and ivy, and with these -were blended roses and honeysuckle in summer. Now the icicles hung -in rows under the thatched eaves, but a red and cheerful glow came -through the lozenged panes of the deep-set little windows on the -waste of snow without. - -A moment I lingered by the gate, and in the garden plot, for my heart -was very full, and it well-nigh failed me; but there was a listener -within who heard my step and knew it. And the next moment saw me in -my mother's arms, and I felt like a boy again, as my happy tears -mingled with hers, and it seemed as if this Christmas Eve was to be -the Christmas Eve of past and jollier times. - -"A merry Christmas, Bob, and a happy new year!" - -The dear old woman's face was bright with joy; yet I could detect -many a wrinkle now where dimples once had been, and see that her hair -was thinner and whiter, perhaps, as she passed her tremulous hand -caressingly over my bronzed face as if to assure herself of my -identity, and that I was really her "own boy Bob." Then she helped -me off with my knapsack, and sat me in father's old leathern chair, -by the side of the glowing hearth, and pottered about, getting me a -hot cake, and a mug of spiced ale, muttering and laughing, and -hovering about me the while. - -"But, mother, dear," said I, looking round, "where is Bessie all this -time? She got my letter, of course?" - -"Bessie is across the meadows at the church, Bob?" - -"On this cold night, mother!" - -"Yes; helping Miss Raikes to decorate it for the service to-morrow." - -"Miss Raikes!" said I, and a cloud came over me. - -I had left head-quarters with only four crowns in my pocket. We -soldiers are seldom over-burdened with cash--for though England -expects every man to do his duty, England likes it done cheap--and I -had well-nigh starved myself on the road home that I might bring -something with me for those I loved--some gay ribbons for Bessie, and -a lace cap for my mother, who was so proud of her "Bombardier Bob," -for so she always called me, heaven bless her! - -"I hope she won't be long away, mother, for I've had such a dream----" - -"Lor' bless me, Bob," said she, pausing as she bustled about -preparing supper, "a dream, have you--about what, or whom?" - -"Bessie," said I, with a sigh, as I took the ribbons from my knapsack. - -"Was it good or evil, Bob?" - -"I can't say, mother," said I, with a sickly smile, as the solemn -words of the Scotch pay-sergeant came back to my memory; "for an evil -dream, say we, portends good, and a pleasant dream portends evil; -they seem to go by contraries. Yet somehow, by the impression this -dream made upon me, it seems almost prophetic." - -"Don't 'ee say so, Bob, for though in the Old Testament we find many -instances of prophetic dreaming, I don't believe in such things -nowadays." - -The darkness had set completely in now, and I saw that, although -mother affected to make light of Bessie's protracted absence, she -glanced uneasily, from time to time, through the window, and at the -old Dutch clock that ticked in its corner, just as it used to tick -when I was a boy, and rode on father's knee; for nothing here seemed -changed, save that mother was older, and stooped a trifle more. - -"Mother, dear," said I, starting up at last, "I can't stand this -delay, and Bessie must not come through the lanes alone; so I shall -just step down to the church and escort her home." - -In another moment I was out in the snow. A few thick flakes were -falling athwart the gloom. The decoration of the rectory church for -the solemn services of the morrow was, I knew of old, always -considered an important matter in our village, yet I could not help -thinking that, as I had written to announce the very time of my -return, Bessie might have been at home to welcome me. Instead of -that, I had now to go in search of her; and this was the Christmas -meeting--the home-coming of which I had drawn so many happy and -joyous pictures when alone, and in the silence of the night when far -away, a sentinel on a lonely post, or when tossing sleeplessly on the -hard wooden guard-bed. - -Mother was kind, loving, affectionate as ever, but Bessie, my -betrothed, why was she absent at such a time? - -The sad presentiment of coming evil grew strong within me, and I -thought, with bitterness, of how far I had marched afoot for days, -and starved myself to buy her gewgaws, for I knew that pretty Bessie -was not without vanity. - -"Pshaw!" said I. "Be a man, Bob Twyford--be a man!" and, leaping the -churchyard stile, I slowly crossed the burial ground. - -There were lights in the church; and I heard the sound of merry -voices, and even of laughter, ringing in its hollow, stony space. - -Snow covered all the graves, and the headstones, which stood in close -rows; a heavy mantle of snow loaded the roof of the church, and, -tipping the carvings of its buttresses, brought them out from the -mass of the building in strong white relief. Great icicles depended -from the gurgoyles of its tower and battlements, and the wind -whistled drearily past, rustling the masses of ivy that grew over the -old Saxon apse. The tracery of the windows, the sturdy old mullions -and some heraldic blazons, with quaint and ghastly spiritual subjects -in stained glass, could be discerned by the lights that were within. - -I lifted my forage-cap in mute reverence as I passed one grave, for I -knew my father lay there under a winding-sheet of snow, and a pace or -two more brought me to the quaint little porch of the church, where I -remained for a time looking in, and irresolute whether to advance or -retire. - -When my eyes became accustomed to the partial gloom within, I could -see that the zigzag Saxon mouldings and ornaments of the little -chancel arch, the capitals of the shafts, the stairs of the pulpit, -and the oaken canopy thereof, were all decorated with ivy sprigs and -holly leaves, combined with artificial flowers, all with some meaning -and taste, so as to bring out the architectural features of the -quaint old edifice. - -A portable flight of steps stood in the centre of the aisle, just -under the chancel arch, which was low, broad, massive, of no great -height, and formed a species of frame for a picture that sorely -disconcerted me. - -On the summit of that flight stood a lovely, laughing young lady, -whose delicate white hands, a little reddened by the winter's frost, -were wreathing scarlet holy-berries among the green leaves. - -A little lower down was seated Bessie--my own Bessie--her blue eyes -radiant with pleasure, her thick hair--half flaxen, half -auburn--shining like golden threads in the light of the altar lamps, -that fell on her beaming English face, so fresh, so fair, so -charming. Her lap was full of ivy and holly twigs, which a gentleman -who hovered near, cigar in mouth, was cutting and tossing into that -receptacle, amid much banter and badinage, that savoured strongly of -familiarity, if not of flirtation. - -Near them in the background loitered another, who was simply leaning -against the pillar of the chancel arch, looking on with a strange -smile, and sucking the ivory handle of his cane. - -He laughed as he regarded them. - -That laugh--where had I heard it before? - -In my dream. And now the antitypes--the men of my dream--stood -before me! - -As yet unnoticed, I remained apart, and observed them; but not -unseen, for the eyes of the dark man were instantly upon me, and the -peculiarity of their expression rendered me uneasy. - -He who hovered about Bessie was a fair-faced, blasé-looking young -man, with sleepy blue eyes, a large jaw, a receding chin, and thick, -red, sensual lips. He had long, thin, flyaway whiskers, and a slight -moustache, with an unmistakably good air about him. - -His companion had that peculiar cast of features which we sometimes -see in the Polish Jew--keen and hawk-like, with sharp, glittering -black eyes, hair of a raven hue, and a general pallor of complexion -that seemed bilious, sickly, and unhealthy. - -I felt instinctively that I hated one and solemnly feared the other. -Why was this? - -Was it the result of my dream?--of that "instinct which, like -imagination, is a word everybody uses, and nobody understands?" - -Perhaps we shall see. - -Suddenly the eye of the fair-haired stranger fell on me. He adjusted -his glass, surveyed me leisurely, and, pausing in the act of -playfully holding a sprig of mistletoe over Bessie's head, said, in -the lisping drawl peculiar to men of his style-- - -"A soldier, by Jove! Now, my good man--ah, ah!--what do you want -here at this time of night?" - -"I came to escort my cousin home, sir." - -"Your cousin, eh--haw?" - -"Bessie Leybourne, sir; but," I added, reddening with vexation and -annoyance, "I see she is still busy." - -"Cousin, eh? What do you say to this, Bessie?" - -Bessie, who started from the steps on which she had been seated, came -towards me, also blushing, confused, and letting fall all the -contents of her lap as she held out her hands to me, and said-- - -"Welcome home, dear Bob. A merry Christmas and a happy new year! -Captain Raikes, this is my Cousin Bob, who is a soldier like -yourself--an artilleryman," she added, with increasing confusion, as -if she felt ashamed of my blue jacket among those fine folks; while -the captain, after glancing at me coolly again, merely said, -"Oh--ah--haw--indeed!" and proceeded to assist his sister in -descending the steps, as their labours were done, and the decorations -of the church complete; but a heavier cloud came over me now. - -Captain Raikes was the son of the rector, and squire of the parish, -in right of his mother, who was an heiress; and he, perhaps the -wildest and most systematic profligate in all England, had made the -acquaintance of Bessie Leybourne! - -A little time they lingered ere Bessie curtseyed, and bade the young -lady good-night. Captain Raikes whispered something which made -Bessie blush, and glance nervously at me, while his friend with the -hook nose gave a mocking cough, and then we separated. They took the -path to the gaily-lighted rectory, while Bessie and I trod silently -back through the snow to my mother's little cottage. - -I pressed Bessie's hand and arm from time to time, and though the -pressure was returned, I never ventured to touch her cheek, or even -to speak to her, for I felt somehow, intuitively, that all was over -between us; and we walked in silence through the lanes where we had -been wont to ramble when children. - -It seemed to be always summer in the green lanes then; but it was -biting winter now. I asked for no explanation, and none was offered -me; but I felt that Bessie, once so loving and playful, was now cold, -reserved, and shy. - -Next day was Christmas. Our fireplace was decked with green boughs, -and holly-leaves, and huge sprigs of mistletoe. I heard the chimes -ringing merrily in the old tower of the rectory church. - -It was a clear, cold, snowy, and frosty, but hearty old English -Christmas; and faces shone bright, hands were shaken, and warm wishes -expressed among friends and neighbours, as we trod through the holly -lanes, and over the crisp, frosty grass, to church--mother, Bessie, -and I; and again, as in boyhood, I heard our rubicund rector preach -against worldly pride and luxury, both of which, throughout a long -life, he had enjoyed to the full. - -The dark stranger--the squire's constant companion, chum, and Mentor, -whose strange bearing and wicked ways gained him the sobriquets of -Pluto and Hooknose in the village--was not with the rector's family -on this day; and I learned that he resided at the village inn. It -was evident, though we read off the same book, that Bessie's thoughts -were neither with heaven nor me, for I caught many a glance that was -exchanged between Captain Raikes and her, and these showed a secret -intelligence. - -I sat out the rector's sermon in silent misery, and in misery -returned home--a moody and discontented fellow, wishing myself back -at head-quarters, or anywhere but in the Weald of Kent. - -Bessie didn't seem to care much about my ribbons. Why should she? I -was only a poor devil of a bombardier, and couldn't give her such -rich presents as those pearl drops which I now discovered in her ears. - -"A present from Captain Raikes, Bob," said mother, good, simple soul; -"but I don't think she should ha' shown 'em till her wedding-day." - -I had a mouthful of mother's Christmas dumpling in my throat at that -moment, and it well-nigh choked me. - -The mistletoe hung over our heads; but I never claimed the playful -privilege it accorded. Was there not some terrible change, when I -dared not--or scorned--to kiss Bessie, even in jest? Others' kisses -had been upon her lips, and so they had no longer a charm for me! - -Day and night dread and doubt haunted me, while hope, with her -hundred shapes and many hues, returned no more. Brooding, silent, -and melancholy thoughts seemed to consume me; yet the time passed -slowly and heavily, for Bessie's falsehood and fickleness formed the -first recollection in the morning, the last at night, and the source -of many a tantalizing dream between. All the ebbs and flows of -feeling or emotion which torment the lover I endured. My sufferings -were very great; and from being as jolly, hardy, and expert a gunner -as ever levelled a Lancaster or an Armstrong, I was becoming a very -noodle--a moonstruck creature--"a thoroughbred donkey," as Tom Inches -would have called me--and all for the love of Bessie Leybourne. - -Short though my time at home would be, Bessie could give me but -little of her society. My jealousy would no longer be concealed, and -that she had secret meetings with our squire I could no more doubt. -Then came tears, upbraidings, and bitterness, with promises that she -would meet him no more; and in the strongest language I could -command, I told her of the perils she ran, of the desperate character -of Valentine Raikes, of his mad orgies and debaucheries, of the -gambling, drinking, singing, swearing, and whooping that accompanied -the suppers he and Hooknose had almost every night in a lonely lodge -of the rectory grounds. - -"Oh, Bob, don't bother," she would say, imploringly, through her -smiles and tears. "It is terrible to be told constantly that one -must marry one particular young man." - -"Meaning, Bessie, that mother reminds you of being engaged to me?" - -"Well, yes." - -"You are fickle, Bessie." - -"My poor Bob, you are not rich, neither am I." - -"Hence your fickleness; but, oh, Bessie, don't think I want to make a -soldier's wife of you. I hope for better days, and to settle down at -home. Oh, Bessie, my own Bessie, listen to me, and hear me." - -And so she would listen to me, and hear me, and then slip away to -keep a tryst with my rival. - -Once or twice Bessie became angry with me, and ventured to defend the -squire, laying the blame of all his evil actions on his friend, or -Mentor--the dark Mephistopheles, who was always by his side. Her -defence of him maddened me. From tears she took to taunts, and I -replied by scorn. - -We separated in hot anger, and with my mind a perfect chaos--a -whirl--and already repenting my violence, or precipitation, I strode -moodily through the holly lanes, till a sudden turn brought me face -to face with Captain Raikes and his dark friend, in close and earnest -conversation. - -The idea of honest and manly remonstrance seized me; and touching my -cap respectfully, as became me to an officer, I said-- - -"Captain Raikes, may I crave a word with you?" - -"Certainly--haw!" he drawled, while his friend drew back, surveying -me with his strange, malevolent, but terrible smile. "In what can -I--haw--serve you?" - -"In a matter, sir, that lies very near my heart." - -He surveyed me with a quiet but puzzled air, through his glass, and -replied-- - -"Haw--have seen you before. How is your pretty cousin, Bessie -Leybourne, this morning--well, I hope?" - -"It is about Bessie I wish to speak, sir," said I, with a gravity -that made him start and colour a little--but only a little, as he was -one of those solemn, self-conceited, unimpressionable "snobs," who -disdain to exhibit the slightest emotion. He did, however, become -uneasy ultimately, and pulled his long whiskers when I said-- - -"Captain Raikes, my cousin Bessie is my betrothed wife; and, though I -am but a poor private soldier (or little more), I must urge, sir--ay, -request--that you cease to follow, molest, or meet her, as I have -good reason to know you do; for though Bessie is a true-hearted girl, -no good can come of it. So I put it to you, sir, as a gentleman--as -my comrade, though our ranks are far apart--whether your intentions -can be honourable in the matter?" - -"By Jove! the idea! I'll tell you what it is, my good fellah," said -he, twirling his riding whip; "I have listened to your impertinent -advice--your demmed interference with my movements--so far without -laying this across your shoulders; but beware--haw--how you address -me on this subject again." - -Passion and jealousy blinded me, and shaking my hand in his face, I -said-- - -"Captain Raikes, on your life I charge you not to trifle with her or -with me!" - -He never lost his self-possession, but said, with a smile-- - -"Very good; but rather daring in a private soldier--a poacher--a -vagabond!" - -I heard the strange laugh of Hooknose at these words, and, while it -was ringing in my ears, I struck the squire to the earth, and he lay -as still as if a twelve-pound shot had finished him. Then I walked -deliberately away. - -I had vague alarms now. He might have me arrested on a charge of -assault or might report me to head-quarters for the blow, although he -was not in uniform; but he did neither, as he left the Weald that -night for London; and mother and I sat gazing at each other in alarm -and grief--our Bessie had disappeared! - -By some of our neighbours she had been seen near the branch station -of the South-Eastern line, with Valentine Raikes and his mysterious -friend, the Hooknose: and from that hour all trace of her was--lost! - -* * * * * - -She had left me coldly and heartlessly, and old mother, too, who had -always been more than a mother to her. - -So passed the last Christmas I was to spend in old England. - -I got over it in time. I was not without hope that I might discover -Bessie, and befriend her yet--ay, even yet. But I couldn't do much, -being only a poor fellow with two shillings per diem, and an extra -penny for beer and pipeclay. But even that hope was crushed when, in -the following August, I was ordered with the siege train to -Sebastopol, and sailed from Southampton aboard the "Balmoral," of -Hull, a transport ship, which had on board a whole battery of -artillery, with one hundred and ten fine horses. - -Captain Raikes was, I knew, with the Light Cavalry Brigade, under -Lord Cardigan; and I only prayed that heaven and the chances of war -would keep us apart, and not put the terrible temptation before me of -seeing him under fire. - -Our voyage was prosperous till we entered the Black Sea, when we -experienced heavy gales of wind, and lost our topmasts; and as the -gales increased in fury and steadiness, they were blowing a perfect -hurricane on the night when, in this crippled condition, we hauled up -for the harbour of Balaclava. - -Were I to live a thousand years, I should never forget the horrors -and certain events of that night; and though the perils that our -transport encountered were ably described by more than one newspaper -correspondent, I shall venture to recall them here. - -Wearied with hard stable duty, I had fallen asleep in my birth, when -I was suddenly roused by a voice--the voice of Bessie, - -"Bob, Bob, dearest Bob--save me! save me! I am drowning!" - -It rang distinctly in my ears, and then I seemed to hear the gurgling -of water, as I sprang from bed in terror and bewilderment, and from -no dream that I was at all conscious of; but I had little time to -think of the matter, for now the bugle sounded down the hatchway to -change the watch on deck. - -The night was pitchy dark; all our compasses had suddenly become -useless--no two needles pointed the same way--and the rudder bands -were rent by the force of the sea, which tore in vast volume over the -deck, sweeping everything that was loose away. The watch were all -lashed to belaying pins, or the lower rattlins; but three of ours and -two seamen were swept overboard and drowned. - -To add to our dangers, as we lifted towards the harbour mouth, the -"Balmoral" heeled over so much that the ballast broke loose in the -hold, and uprooted the stable deck. The centre of gravity was thus -lost, and the transport lay almost over on her beam-ends, with the -wild sea breaking over her, as she went, like a helpless log, on some -rocks within the harbour entrance. - -The captain commanding the artillery ordered Tom Inches and a party, -of whom I was one, into the hold or stables, to see how the horses -fared; and I shall never forget that terrific scene, for it nearly -rendered me oblivious of the cry that yet lingered in my ears. - -The time was exactly midnight, and I almost fear to be considered a -visionary by relating all that followed. The vessel lay nearly on -her beam-ends to starboard; the whole of the stalls on the port side -had given way, and the horses were lying over each other in piles, -many of them half or wholly strangled in their halters; and there, in -the dark, they were biting and tearing each other with their teeth, -neighing, snorting, and even screaming (a dreadful sound is a horse's -scream), and kicking each other to death. - -The atmosphere was stifling. The wounds they gave each other were -bloody and frightful. Many had their legs and ribs broken, and -others their eyes dashed out by ironed hoofs. Above were the -bellowing of the wind, and the roaring of the Black Sea on the rocks -of Balaclava. There were even thunder-peals at times, to add to the -terrors of the occasion, and the rain was falling on the deck like a -vast sheet of water. - -Many of our men were severely wounded by kicks; for the horses that -survived were wild with fear--maddened, in fact--and, in their -present condition, proved quite unmanageable. - -Carrying a lantern, I was making my way into the hold, and through -this frightful scene, when suddenly, amid it all, and through the -gloom, I saw a face that terrified--that fascinated--me, but which -none of my comrades could see. - -Was I mad, or about to become so? - -Within six inches of my own face was the keen, dark, and swarthy--the -almost black--visage of Hooknose glaring at me, mocking and -jibbering; his eyes shining like two carbuncles, his sharp teeth -glistening with his old malevolent smile; and, as I shrank back, I -heard his mocking laugh--the same laugh that had tingled in my ears -on that fatal Christmas time at home. - -I fell over a horse, the hoof of another struck me on the chest. I -became insensible, and, on recovering, found myself on deck, in the -hands of Tom Inches and the surgeon. - -I was soon fit for duty, luckily, as that ship was no place for a -sick man. With sunrise the storm abated; with slings the horses were -hoisted out as fast as we could bring them; and of the hundred and -ten we had on board, we found that ninety-five had been kicked to -death, smothered, or so bruised that we were compelled to shoot them -with our carbines. - -Their carcasses lay long in Balaclava harbour, where they were used -as stepping stones by the sailors and boatmen, till their corruption -filled the air, adding to the cholera and fever in the town and camp. - -All that haunted me must have been fancy, thought I, for my thoughts -were always running on Bessie--lost to me and to the world--fevered -fancy, especially the cry, and the horrid gurgling as of a drowning -person that followed it. The sound of the sea must have produced or -suggested the cry in my sleeping ear, and the subsequent vision in -the hold--those gleaming eyes and that fierce hooked nose; and yet, -as an author has remarked, the whole world of nature is but one vast -book of symbols, which we cannot decipher because we have lost the -key. - -It was ungrateful of me to be always thinking of Bessie, who had -scorned, flouted, and deserted me--thinking more of her than of poor -old mother in the Weald of Kent, who loved me with all her soul, as -only a mother could love a son who was amid the trenches of -Sebastopol; but I couldn't help it, for the terrible mystery that -involved the fate of Bessie made me brood over it at all times. - -As for the trifle of money I had expected, it never came, and now I -didn't want it. - -It was Christmas Eve before Sebastopol, as it was all over God's -Christian world; but I hope never again to see such a ghastly -festival. I was not at the breaching batteries that night, having -been sent with two horses and four men to bring in a twelve pound -gun, which had been left by the Russians in the valley of Inkermann, -after the battle of the 5th of November. Tom Inches and many a brave -fellow of ours had gone to their long home in that valley of death, -and I was a battery-sergeant now. - -The cold was awful, and we were rendered very feeble by hunger, toil, -and half-healed wounds; so, like men in a dream, we traced the horses -to the gun, and limbered up the tumbril, both of which lay among some -ruins in rear of the British right attack, and not far from the -frozen Tchernay. - -Three miles distant rose Sebastopol, and the sky seemed all on fire -in and around it, for they were keeping Christmas night, amid shot -from our Lancaster guns, and whistling Dicks of all sorts and sizes, -from hand-grenades to eighteen-inch bombs, chokeful of nails, broken -bottles, and grapeshot. - -Yet I couldn't help thinking of home, and how merrily the village -chimes would be ringing in the old tower of the rectory church, amid -the hop-gardens and the cherry-groves of Kent. And then I saw in -fancy the old fireside, where father's leathern chair was empty now, -and where one at least would say her prayers that night for me--that -happy night at home, when every church and hearth would be gay with -ivy leaves and holly-berries, and the lads and the lasses would be -dancing under the mistletoe; and with all these came thoughts of -Christmas geese and plum-puddings, and I drew my sword-belt in a hole -or two, for I was starving--light-headed and giddy with want; and as -we rode silently on, the swinging chains of the gun seemed to me like -the jangle of our village chimes! but they rung over the snowy waste -that lay between Khutor Mackenzie and the Highland camp--a white -waste, dotted by many a dead man and horse. - -As we rode silently on, man after man of our little party of four -gave in, dropped from the gun, to which I had no means of securing -them, overcome by cold, fatigue, and death. At last I was riding -alone in the saddle, with the gun rattling behind me. - -Ghastly sights were around me on that Christmas night, and the -glinting of the moon at times made them more ghastly still. - -On French mule litters, and on horses, many wounded and dying men -were being borne from the redoubts down to Balaclava; and as my -progress was very slow, with two worn-out, half-starved nags, a -terrible procession passed before me. Many of the poor fellows were -nearly over their troubles and sorrows. With closed eyes, relaxed -jaws, and hollow visages, they were carried down the snowy path by -the Ambulance Corps, and the pale steam that curled in the frosty air -from the lips of each alone indicated that they breathed. - -Two dismounted hussars--for amid their rags, I discovered them to be -such--were carrying one who seemed like a veritable corpse, strapped -upright on a seat; the legs dangled, the eyes were staring open and -glassy, and the head nodded to and fro. - -"Comrades," said I, "that poor fellow is surely out of pain now?" - -"Not yet," said one. "He is an officer of ours, badly wounded and -frost-bitten." - -"An officer!" - -"Captain Raikes. He won't last till morning, I fear." - -"Raikes," said I through my clenched teeth; "Valentine Raikes--and -here!" - -"Ay, here, sure enough," said the hussar. - -My heart bounded, and then stood still for a moment. At last I said-- - -"Place him on the gun, comrades, and I will take him on to Balaclava; -but first, here I've some raki in my canteen. Give him a mouthful, -if he can swallow." - -Raikes was placed on the seat of the gun-carriage, buckled thereto -with straps, and muffled up as well as we could devise, to protect -him from the cold. The two hussars left me, and then we were alone, -he and I--Valentine Raikes and Bob Twyford--in the solitary valley, -through which the road wound that led to Balaclava. - -Though coarse and fiery, the raki partially revived the sinking man, -and, leaving my saddle, I asked him, in a voice husky with cold and -emotion, if he knew me. - -But he shook his head sadly and listlessly. And bearded as I was -then, it was no wonder that his dimmed vision failed to recognize me. - -"I am Robert Twyford, the bombardier, whose plighted wife you stole, -Valentine Raikes! God judge between you and me; but I feel that I -must forgive you now." - -"My winding sheet is woven in the loom of hell!" he moaned, in a low -and almost inarticulate voice. "Oh! Twyford, I have wronged -you--and her--and--many, many more." - -"But Bessie!" said I, drawing near, and propping him in my arms; -"what came of Bessie Leybourne? Speak--tell me for mercy's sake, -while you have the power!" - -"Ask the waters--the waters----" - -"Where--where?" - -"Under Blackfriars-bridge. She perished there on the 27th of last -September." - -The 27th was the night of the storm--the night of the mysterious -drowning cry, which startled me from sleep! - -"I am sinking fast, Twyford!" he resumed, in a hollow and broken -voice. "Pray for me--pray for me. There is but one way to -heaven----" - -"But many to perdition!" added a strange, deep voice. - -And a dark, indistinct, and muffled figure, having two gleaming eyes, -stood by the wheel of the gun-carriage, just as a cloud overspread -the moon. - -"Here--he here! Do not let him touch me--do not let him--touch me!" -cried Raikes, in a voice that rose into a scream of despair, as he -threw up his arms and fell back. - -There was a gurgle in his throat, and all was over! - -A fiendish, chuckling laugh seemed to pass me on the skirt of the -frosty wind; but I saw no one; nor had I time to observe, or to -remember, much more, for now a madness seemed to seize the horses. - -They dashed away with frightful speed, the field-piece swinging like -a toy at their hoofs. It swept over me breaking one of my legs, and -inflicting also a terrible wound on the head, I sank among the snow, -and remember no more of that night, for, after weeks of delirium and -fever, I found myself a poor, weak, and emaciated inmate of the -hospital at Scutari, and so far on my way home to dear old England. - -But such was the Christmas night I spent before Sebastopol, and such -were those mysteries in the "Book of Nature," to which I can find as -yet no key. - - - - -KOTAH. - -A TALE OF THE INDIAN MUTINY. - -It was on a soft and warm night in April that we were encamped not -far from the margin of Lake Erie, in expectation of the Fenian -raiders, who were having armed picnics, and threatening a plundering -invasion of Upper Canada. We were simply an advanced post, -consisting of my company of the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment, and -some two hundred volunteers, farmers and their sons. For some time -past there had been considerable alarm along the Canadian frontier. -General Mead, of the United States army, was at Eastport with his -staff, and the Federal gun-boat Winooske was cruising off that place, -on the look-out for an alleged Fenian vessel. - -Numerous armed meetings had taken place in the State of Maine, and a -great embarkation of the brotherhood in green was expected to take -place at Ogdensburg, the capital of St. Lawrence, which has a safe -and commodious harbour; but luckily the whole affair ended in bluster -and rumour. The only fire we saw was that of our bivouac, and the -only smoke that of the soothing weed, while we sat by "the -wolf-scaring faggot," and drank from our canteens of rum-and-water, -singing songs, and telling stories to wile the night away. - -The picturesque was not wanting in the group around that blazing fire -of pine wood. The Royal Canadians, in their dark green tunics, faced -with scarlet; the volunteers, in orthodox red coats or fringed -hunting-shirts, with white belts worn over them, were all bronzed, -rough, and bearded fellows, hardy by nature and resolute in bearing, -led, in most instances, by old Queen's officers, who had commuted -their commissions, and turned their swords into ploughshares on farms -by the banks of the New Niagara, or the shores of the vast Erie, -whose waters stretched in darkness far away towards the hills of -Pennsylvania. - -"Come, captain, tell us a story of other lands and sharper work than -this," said one of the Canadian volunteers, as he proffered me his -tobacco-pouch, which was prettily embroidered with wampum; "tell us -something about the mutiny in India. You served there, as we all -know." - -"Yes," said I, as the memory of other times and other faces--faces I -should never look upon in this world again--came over me, "I served -there in the --th Dragoons, and can relate a strange story indeed--of -discipline overdone--of that which we hear little about in our -service, thank heaven--tyranny; and of a young hero, who, without a -crime, was sentenced to die the death of a felon!" - -"We know," said one of my subs, "that the mutiny is always a bitter -subject with you." - -"I lost much by the destruction of Indian property, and so had to -begin the sliding-scale." - -"What kind of scale is that?" - -"Sloping from the cavalry to the line." - -"But the story, captain!" urged the volunteers. - -"Well, here goes," said I; and after a pause and a sip at the -canteen, began thus:-- - -"The narrative I am about to tell you was not one in which I figured -much personally, save as member of a court-martial; but it details -suffering with which I was familiar--the miserable fate of Sergeant -Anthony Ernslie, a fine old soldier, and his son Philip, a brave -young fellow--a mere lad--both of whom were in my troop during the -Crimean war, and afterwards in the memorable mutiny, the horrors of -which are so fresh in the minds of all. - -"I had not been long with the regiment before I discovered that a -deeply-rooted enmity existed between our sergeant-major, Matthew -Pivett, and my troop-sergeant, Ernslie, and that it had been one of -long standing, having originated in jealousy when both were privates -quartered at Canterbury, and both were rivals for the affection of a -pretty milliner girl. She, however, preferred Ernslie, then a horse -artilleryman; but when our corps was under orders to join the army of -the East, Ernslie volunteered for general service in the cavalry, -and, by the chance of fate, was placed in my troop of the --th -Dragoons, where his steady conduct, fine appearance, and strict -attention to duty, soon caused me to recommend him for promotion, and -he gained his third stripe with a rapidity that did not fail to -excite the remark of the envious. - -"Yet his life was rendered miserable by the sergeant-major--a stern, -wiry, sharp-eyed, loud-voiced, and vindictive man; and more than -once, when I interposed my authority to keep peace between them, has -Ernslie told me, with tears in his eyes, that 'he cursed the day on -which he left the ranks of the Horse Artillery to become a dragoon!' - -"A senior, when perpetually on the watch to worry a junior, may -easily find opportunities enough for doing so. Thus Ernslie's belts -were never pipe-clayed quite to the taste of Pivett, and at the staff -inspection before parade, faults were ever found with his horse, -harness, and everything. He was put on duty at times out of his -turn, and not in accordance with the roster. A complaint to the -adjutant or myself always altered these errors; but the sting of -annoyance remained. At drill a hundred petty faults were found with -him, and he was perpetually accused of taking up wrong dressings, -distances, and alignments, till, in his anger and bewilderment, the -poor man sometimes really did so, and then great was the delight of -Pivett! - -"'For what,' said he one day, bitterly, 'for what did I ever leave my -old regiment?' - -"'No good, most likely,' sneered Pivett. - -"'Sir, I won my three good-conduct rings there.' - -"'By a fluke, of course,' replied Pivett; adding, in a loud voice, -'Silence!' to check the rising retort of the other. - -"As Shakespeare has it-- - - "'That in the captain's but a choleric word - Which in the soldier is rank blasphemy.' - -And so it came to pass that whenever Ernslie ventured to remonstrate, -his oppressor invariably sent him to his room under arrest, and -twice--a great insult to a sergeant--to the guard-house; but though -the charges of mutiny and insubordination were always 'quashed' by -the colonel, poor Ernslie felt, as he told me, 'that he was a doomed -man, and safe to come to grief some day, for the sergeant-major had -sworn an oath to smash him!' - -"His son Philip, a private in the troop, saw and felt all this. The -lad's smothered hatred and fear of the sergeant-major were great; but -he did his duty well and steadily, and contrived to elude notice. -Ernslie was proud of his handsome boy, and thanked heaven in the -inmost recesses of his heart when the war was over in the Crimea, for -there father and son had ridden side by side in the famous charge of -the Heavy Brigade, and both had escaped almost scatheless; but when -we were ordered to India, to stem with our swords the great tide of -the terrible mutiny, the father's anxieties were revived again. - -"When our transport was off the Cape de Verd Islands, Ernslie came to -my cabin in great distress, to announce that his wife had just died. -I knew that the poor woman had been ailing for some time past, and -the sickness incident to the rough weather we encountered put an end -to her sufferings, and she died in the arms of her son, for her -husband was with his watch on deck, and the sergeant-major would not -permit him to go below. - -"She had died at daybreak, and by noon that day the body, swathed in -her bedding, and lashed round with spun-yarn, lay on a grating to -leeward, with a twenty-pound shot at the feet, and a Union Jack -spread over it. By sound of trumpet, our men fell into their ranks, -and, like the sailors, all stood bare-headed, silent, and grave, for -a funeral at sea is the most sad and solemn of all. There was a -heavy breeze at the time, and the ship was flying before it with her -courses and head-sails only, and the bitter spray swept over us in -drenching showers. - -"The adjutant read the burial service. At a given signal the grating -was lifted, and the body vanished with a splash under the ship's -counter. Close by me stood Sergeant Ernslie and his son. Clutching -the mizen shrouds with one hand, and Philip by the other, he bent his -pale face over the quarter, as if to give a farewell glance at the -corpse; but it was gone--gone for ever! - -"Ernslie was barely forty; but now he looked quite old and haggard, -and his hair was streaked with gray. He saw Pivett standing near -him, as the men were dismissed, and passing forward or below; and as -if he felt and knew that the original cause of enmity had passed -away, he held forth his hand, and said, in a choking voice, for grief -had softened his heart-- - -"'You'll shake hands with me now, sergeant-major, won't you?' - -"But Matthew Pivett answered only by a scowl, and crossed to the -windward side of the deck. So even by the side of that vast and -uncouth grave their hatred was not quenched; and I had twice to -interfere for Ernslie's protection before our transport ran up the -Hooghly, and landed us at Calcutta, from whence the river steamers -took us up country to Allahabad, where our remount awaited us, and we -took the field at once, under Brigadier-General R----. - -"If Ernslie's tormentor spared his son, it must have been through -some lingering regard for the dead mother, or some soft memory of the -love he once bore her, and Ernslie was thankful that Philip escaped, -for the lad was passionate and resentful, and had vowed to his father -in secret that he would 'yet serve out the sergeant-major.' - -"One morning, long before daybreak, we were on the march towards the -province of Ajmir, where a noted rebel, Hossein Ali, was at the head -of a great force. We had endured the most unparalleled heat; for -days the sky had been as a sheet of heated brass above our heads, and -the cracked and baked earth as molten iron under foot. Cases of -sunstroke had been incessant, and many of our horses perished on the -march. - -"On this morning our thirst was excessive, for the tanks of a temple -on which we had relied for water had become dry in the night, and the -_bheesties_, or water-carriers, attached to the regiment, had -deserted to Hossein Ali, and most of us were without liquid of any -kind in our canteens. - -"Among others situated thus was Sergeant Ernslie, who had been on -patrol duty until the last moment. His son Philip was the orderly of -the colonel, and while that officer's horse was getting a drink, he -had contrived to fill his canteen from the bucket, and held it -invitingly to Ernslie, just as the corps filed past, for the colonel -had not yet mounted. Agonized as he was with thirst, to resist the -temptation was impossible; so Ernslie galloped to where his son -stood, a hundred yards distant or so, near the hut of palm-leaves -which had formed the colonel's quarters. - -"'To your troop, Sergeant Ernslie! back to your troop, sir!' cried -the sergeant-major, in a voice of thunder. - -"Ernslie heard the voice of his enemy, but still rode towards his -son, and took a long draught from his canteen before turning his -horse and galloping back to his troop. - -"'How dare you leave the ranks when on the line of march?' resumed -Pivett, heedless in his fury that this was interfering with _me_. -'Fall in with the quarter guard!' he added, in his most bullying -tone; 'and consider yourself under arrest!' - -"'I shall do neither one nor the other,' replied Ernslie, trembling -with passion. 'I am under the orders of the captain of the -troop--not yours. Keep your own place, or, by heaven, I shall make -you!' - -"And in his just anger, Ernslie was rash enough to shake his sword -with the point towards Pivett--an unmistakable threat. So the -colonel was compelled to place him under arrest, in the face of the -whole regiment. - -"'At last you have fixed me, sergeant-major!' said he, calmly, but -bitterly, as he sheathed his sword, and turned to the rear; 'but if -you look for your true character, you will find it in the "Military -Dictionary."' - -"'Likely enough; but under what head? Discipline?' - -"'No. Tyrant! See how that is defined!' - -"The sergeant-major did look, and saw that Colonel James therein -defines, 'Petty tyrants--a low, grovelling set of beings, who, -without one spark of real courage within themselves, execute the -orders of usurped or strained authority with brutal rigour;' and as -he read on Pivett grew pale with rage. - -"At the first halt of the brigade, a general court-martial, of which -I was the junior member, sat, by order of General R----. An example -was wanted; so Ernslie was reduced to the ranks. - -"Our parade next morning was a gloomy one, as we formed a hollow -square of close columns of regiments, near the ruins of a great -Hindoo temple. The sun was yet below the horizon, and in the dim, -cold light, the face of Ernslie looked pale and ghastly as he was -marched into the square, a prisoner, between two armed troopers, one -of whom, with execrable taste, the sergeant-major had contrived -should be his own son, Philip. - -"The sergeant was nervous in bearing and restless in eye; but his -mind seemed to be turned inward. He was thinking, perhaps, of the -terrors of the day at Balaclava, of the dead wife he had committed to -the deep, or of the boy who stood scheming revenge by his side; but -it was not until he felt the penknife of the trumpet-major ripping -the worthily-won chevrons from his sleeve that a groan escaped his -lips, a flush crossed his haggard face, and his soul seemed to die -within him. - -"Then he slunk to the rear of his troop, a broken and degraded man. -Philip's dark eyes were full of fire, and, if a glance could have -slain, the career of Matthew Pivett had ended there. - -"We all felt for the sergeant, and knew that in the vindication of -discipline he had been made a victim; but that night the Queen lost a -good soldier, for Ernslie was absent from roll-call--he had -disappeared without a trace, and the sergeant-major openly declared -his belief that he had deserted to the rebel Sepoys, under Hossein -Ali. - -"The truth was, though we knew it not at the time, that Ernslie, when -wandering alone and unarmed near our camp, communing with himself in -a storm of grief and misery, had actually been waylaid and carried -off by some of Hossein's scouting Sepoys, who by that time were tired -of slaughtering and torturing the white Feringhees. They spared him, -and discovering somehow that he had once been a _golandazee_, or -gunner, they chained him naked to a field-piece, and kept him to -assist in working their cannon against us in Kotah, the place which -we were on the march to besiege and storm. - -"So poor Anthony Ernslie's name was further disgraced by being scored -down as a deserter in the regimental books. - -"The forces which we accompanied, under General R----, consisted of -the 8th Royal Irish Hussars, H.M. 72nd Highlanders, 83rd and 95th -Regiments, together with the 13th Bengal Native Infantry, a corps -which had not yet revolted, but was sorely mistrusted. - -"The enemy in Kotah consisted entirely of mutineers, but chiefly -those of the 72nd Bengal Infantry, whose scarlet coats were faced -with yellow, exactly like those of the 72nd Highlanders, now -advancing against them; and we considered it a curious coincidence -that two regiments bearing the same number should meet in mortal -conflict. - -"Our march was a severe one; each of our horses had not less than -twenty stone weight to carry, irrespective of forage, and yet there -was not a sore back or a broken girth either in our ranks or in those -of the 8th Hussars, when, after traversing a mountainous but fertile -and well-watered district, we came in sight of Kotah (which had been -the seat of a Rajpoot-rajah), on the east bank of the Chumbul. It is -a large town, girt by massive walls, defended by bastions and deep -ditches cut out of the solid rock. Its entrances were all protected -by double gateways. - -"Both strong and stately looked the fortified town, when, under the -scorching blaze of an Indian sun, and a hot, red sky, amid which the -hungry vultures floated, we saw it and the palace of the rajah, with -all its lofty white turrets, the roofs of bazaars and temples, -crowning a steep slope that was covered by teak, tamarind, and date -palm trees, all of lovely green. In the foreground lay a vast lake, -with the superb temple of Jugmandul, a mass of snow-white marble, -rising in its centre, its peristyles and domes reflected downward in -the deep and dark-blue water. - -"The rajah had fled. In his palace Hossein Ali, an -ex-_kote-havildar_, or pay-sergeant of the revolted 72nd B.N.I., -reigned supreme; and its marble courts and chambers were yet stained -by the blood of our women, children, and other defenceless people, -who had been slain therein, after enduring indignities and torments -that maddened those who came, like us, to avenge them; and, full of -the memories of those deeds, with the other horrors of Cawnpore and -Delhi to inflame us, we pushed the siege with relentless vigour, -though Hossein's men, with seventy pieces of cannon, gave us quite -enough to do, and our sappers worked in vain to undermine the -enormous walls. - -"Night and day, amid slaughter, wounds, sunstroke, and cholera, we -pounded away at each other with the big guns. Officers and men -worked side by side at them and in the trenches, aiding or covering -the sappers in their scheme of a mine, till we were all as black as -the Pandies with gunpowder, dust, and grime, and till the once gay -uniform of ours had given place to flannel jerseys and rags; our -helmets to linen puggerees, or solar-hats; our pantaloons to cotton -knickerbockers and Cawnpore boots; and even those who had been the -greatest dandies among us were seldom seen without a scrubby beard, a -shovel, a revolver, and Chinshura cheroot. In short, we were more -like diggers or desperadoes than her Britannic Majesty's dragoons. - -"With a working party composed of men of various corps, one morning, -before daybreak, I was assisting the sappers at the mine, while the -enemy, with shot, shell, and rockets, did all they could to retard or -dislodge us. It was a horrid place, I remember, encumbered by dead -camels and horses--yea, and men, too, in every stage of -decomposition, where the gorged vultures hovered lazily among fallen -ruins and whitening bones. - -"'Jack Sepoy thinks it no sin now to bite the greased cartridge--the -scoundrel!' said one of my men, as a bullet broke the shovel in his -hand. - -"'Sin--as little as to cut the throats of our wives and children in -cold blood!' added another, with a fierce oath. - -"'Fighting for glory is a fine thing,' said young Philip Ernslie, -resting on his pickaxe; 'but fighting for a shilling per day, with a -penny extra for beer, is a different affair.' - -"'But we are fighting for revenge, Phil,' said a soldier, whose wife -and children had perished at Meerut. - -"'True,' replied Ernslie, through his clenched teeth; 'and times -there are, by Jove! when even revenge may be just and holy!' - -"'Silence!' growled Sergeant-Major Pivett, still in pursuance of his -feud. - -"'Down, men--down!' cried I, 'for here comes a shell.' - -"Humming through the air, but, oddly enough, _not_ whistling, a -ten-inch shell fell near me, and, with a thud, half sunk into the -soil. Strange to say, it was without a fuze; the touch-hole was -simply plugged by a common cork, in which a half-scorched quill-pen -was stuck. After lying flat on our faces, and watching it uneasily -for some time, and all fearing a snare, or the explosion of some -poisonous stuff, I ventured to roll it over with a shovel, and found -that it was empty, or quite unloaded. Pivett, who certainly did not -lack courage, sprang forward, and, extracting the cork from the -fuze-hole, found a scrap of paper attached to it, and on the scrap -was written, with ink that seemed to have been composed of gunpowder -and water, these words:-- - -"'_I am a prisoner in Kotah. The work of the sappers is useless, for -where they are mining the rock is solid. There are seventy guns in -this place, and I am chained to one of the seventeen in the right -bastion. If the front gate is blown up, the place may be carried at -the point of the bayonet, as the way beyond is quite open._ - -"'A. ERNSLIE, _private, H.M. --th Dragoons_.' - -"'I knew that fellow had deserted to the enemy!' growled the -sergeant-major. - -"'Silence,' said I, 'and do not be unjust in your hatred.' - -"'It's a message-shell, sir, a message-shell, and fired by my father, -poor man. Heaven help him!--he is in the hands of the Sepoys!' -exclaimed young Ernslie, whom, with the shell and note, I took at -once to the general, whose tent was by the margin of the lake. - -"This information caused the staff at once to abandon the idea of a -mine, and all our energies were now bent against the great gate. - -"Though the junior regiment of the division, the 72nd, or Duke of -Albany's Own Highlanders, were ordered to furnish three hundred men -for a storming party, and at two o'clock on the morning of the 30th -of March the grand assault was to be made, while we--the -cavalry--were in our saddles, to cover, and if possible assist in the -attack, when the great gate was forced. - -"'My brave lads, rouse!' I heard the adjutant of the Highlanders cry -in the dark; 'quit your dog's sleep--half-dozing and half-waking--and -fall in. Fall in, stormers!' - -"And while the warning pipes blew loud and shrill, cheerfully they -formed by companies, those brave Albany Highlanders; and stately, -indeed, looked their grenadiers, with their tall plumed bonnets and -royal Stuart tartan; for the highland regiments during the mutiny had -not time to adopt Indian clothing, and went at the Pandies in their -kilts and ostrich feathers, just as their forefathers did at Madras -and Assaye. - -"Silently they crossed the river in the dark, where the graceful date -palms and the luxuriant mango topes cast a deeper shadow than the -starry night upon the water. Then, quitting their boats, they crept -close to the great outer wall of Kotah; but so great was the delay in -blowing up the gate, that day broke, the Highlanders were seen, and -for hours we sat in our saddles helplessly, and saw the enemy pouring -shot and shell upon them from the same bastion where we knew poor -Tony Ernslie was chained to a gun. - -"Suddenly there was a dreadful shock; the wall of the city seemed to -open, as it rent and gaped, a blinding cloud of dust and stones -ascended into the air, and a shower of wooden splinters, the -fragments of the great gate, flew far and wide, as our mine blew the -barrier up. - -"A mingled shout of 'Scotland for ever!' the old Waterloo war-cry of -the Black Watch and the Greys, broke from the Highlanders* again and -again, as they rushed in with fixed bayonets, driving back the -terrified Sepoys, storming bastion after bastion, and capturing two -standards. The other regiments broke in at different points, and -after much hard fighting Kotah was ours, and then we rode through the -streets cutting down the fugitive rebels on right and left. - - -* See _Scotsman_ of 28th of May, 1858. - - -"Philip Ernslie and a few of his comrades made straight for the -bastion indicated in his father's note. It was deserted by all save -a few dead or dying Sepoys; but a more terrible spectacle awaited the -searchers. - -"Stripped nude, and nailed to the wall of the bastion by the hands -and feet, hung the body of Anthony Ernslie, minus nose and ears, and -otherwise horribly mutilated! - -"Even this appalling spectacle failed to excite the pity or soothe -the hate of the malevolent Matthew Pivett (but we were well used to -scenes of horror and barbarity during the mutiny), for he audibly -expressed a conviction 'that Ernslie had met his just reward for -deserting to the enemy.' - -"'I shall make you eat your words before the going down of the sun, -by the God who made us, I shall!' said Philip Ernslie, in a low, -husky voice, heard only by the sergeant-major, who shrunk back, so -impressed was he by the fierce and resolute aspect of the lad, by the -deep concentrated loathing that glared in his eyes, making his lips -ashy pale, and causing every muscle to quiver; but this emotion was -unseen by others, and his threat was unheard, luckily, for if Pivett -could have found a witness, he would at once have made young Ernslie -prisoner on a charge of insubordination, as he really dreaded his -vengeance. - -"About dark that evening the sergeant-major was returning from the -bungalow of the colonel, where, with the adjutant, he had been -preparing lists of casualties and for our march on the morrow, when -we and the 8th Hussars were to surround a village that was full of -fugitive mutineers. The day had been one of toil, of strife, and -heat; now the atmosphere was steamy and moist, and Pivett was -enjoying by anticipation the comforts of a hearty supper and a cool -sleep in his tent, the sides of which his _tatty-wetter_ had, no -doubt, soused well with cold water. - -"To reach the cavalry camp he had to pass through a ravine, not far -from the town wall--a narrow place, full of prickly and thorny -shrubs, where the beautiful silky jungle grass grew in such wild -luxuriance that, in some instances, it was almost breast-high, and -where the perfume of the many aromatic plants came floating on the -puffs of warm air. - -"Traversing the narrow path on foot, with his sword under his arm, he -was suddenly confronted in the dusk by Philip Ernslie, who resolutely -barred the way. He, too, had his sword by his side, but in each hand -he had a holster pistol. His features were pale as those of a -corpse, and might have passed for such, but for the nervous twitching -of his lips as he spoke. - -"'You know, Matthew Pivett, for what purpose I am here?' - -"'Mutiny and murder, likely enough,' replied Pivett, who was a stern -and resolute man. 'Give up those pistols--fall back, and return to -your quarters, or I shall cut you down.' - -"'Draw your sword but one inch from its sheath, and I shall send a -bullet through your brain!' replied Philip, cocking one of the -pistols. 'You maddened my poor father by your systematic tyranny for -years; you had him reduced and degraded, and driven desperate from -among us. You wronged his memory this morning, and taunted even his -mutilated remains----' - -"'Scoundrel! what then? Would you dare to murder me?' exclaimed the -undaunted sergeant-major. - -"'No, you shall have a chance for your life. Oh, Matthew Pivett, I -have long looked for an opportunity like this, when I might meet you -face to face; so take your choice of these pistols, for, by the -heaven that hears us, you or I must lie dead here to-night!' - -"As Philip spoke solemnly and sternly, with clenched teeth and -flashing eyes, he thrust a pistol into Pivett's hand. - -"'Quarter guard!' shouted Pivett, as he made a resolute attempt to -grasp the throat of Ernslie, who thrust him back with the barrel of -the other pistol, crying-- - -"'Stand back, sergeant-major, and keep your distance, or I shall -shoot you down like the dog you are!' - -"Pivett, who now saw there was no resource but to fight, withdrew a -pace or two, and fired straight at Ernslie's head. The ball whistled -through the white puggeree, or cap, and slightly grazed his left ear. -He gave a ghastly smile, and said-- - -"'You were rather quick, sergeant-major, but now it is my turn!' - -"He levelled his pistol, with a deadly, triumphant, and vindictive -aim, straight at the glaring eyes of the agitated Pivett; but the -percussion cap must have been defective--it snapped and hung fire. - -"'Seize this mutinous rascal!' cried the sergeant-major to a patrol -who, on hearing the explosion of the first pistol, came galloping up; -and Philip was instantly made prisoner by a party of the 8th Hussars, -who had seen the whole situation. - -"Another court-martial sat by break of day, in the palace of the -Rajah of Kotah, and, wan and haggard, after a sleepless night, -fettered by handcuffs, and looking the picture of misery, Philip -Ernslie stood before it, charged with violating the forty-first -clause of the second section of the Articles of War, which ordain -that 'any officer or soldier who shall strike a superior, or use any -violence against him, shall, if an officer, suffer death, and if a -soldier, death, transportation, or such other punishment as by a -general court-martial shall be awarded.' - -"The majority of the members of the court were strangers to the lad -and his story, and the father's alleged spirit of insubordination, -manifested when on the march to Kotah, was now brought forward in the -prosecution of the son. The court was but an epitome of the greater -world, where accusation is condemnation. Nothing is so fallible as -human judgment, but nothing so pitiless. - -"As captain of Philip's troop, I gave evidence of all I knew, and of -the good characters borne by father and son; but, after the brief -proceedings terminated, and the court was cleared for the -consideration of the verdict and sentence, I knew too well what they -would of necessity be. - -"That evening the chaplain visited the prisoner, who was confined in -one of the vaults of the palace, to announce that on the following -morning he was to--DIE! - -"He spent nearly the whole night with the poor lad, who was quite -resigned, and so calm and prepared for his fate that he begged to be -left alone for a little sleep before the appointed time; and when the -provost-marshal came at gun-fire, he found Philip Ernslie in a -profound slumber, with a horse-cloak spread over him, and his head -resting on a bundle of straw. - -"Never did we parade with more reluctance than on that 31st of March -at dawn, and all the corps in and about Kotah, with some others that -had marched in during the night, got under arms to witness the -execution. It was a lovely Indian morning. The beams of the sun -shone redly on the white marble domes and carved minarets of Kotah, -and on the turrets of the rajah's stately palace. - -"The place where we paraded was a hollow between two hills that were -covered with beautiful groves of the peepul-palm and teakwood, and -flocks of wild peacocks and green paroquets flew hither and thither -as we were massed in columns round the spot, where an open grave was -yawning, and where the guard of the provost-marshal--twelve men and a -sergeant--stood with their rifles loaded. - -"Every face was expressive of intense anxiety to have the whole -affair over, and many were very pale. - -"Accompanied by the chaplain of the cavalry brigade, who wore a -surplice over his black uniform surtout, and praying very devoutly -with his fettered hands clasped before him, Philip Ernslie, guarded -by an escort, came slowly into the square of regiments, and stopped -midway between the firing party and that premature grave that was so -soon to receive him. His face was frightfully pale; he looked at -that black hole, which yawned so horribly amid the green turf, calmly -and steadily, and something of a smile--but not of bravado or -derision--stole over his features. - -"My heart bled for the poor lad; but I was immensely relieved when -our colonel said, in a whisper, as he passed me-- - -"'The adjutant-general has a reprieve from General R---- in his -pocket, so there will be no execution.' - -"'Thank heaven!' I exclaimed, fervently. - -"'We are but acting out a solemn farce.' - -"'For the sake of effect and discipline?' - -"'Exactly.' - -"'And the sentence, colonel----' - -"'Will be commuted to transportation for life.' - -"It was a human existence blighted for ever, any way; but now I could -look on with more composure. - -"The fetters were removed from Philip's hands. He was ordered to -take off his cap and listen respectfully to the sentence of the -court; and he seemed to do so mechanically, as one in a dream. - -"The proceedings of the tribunal were briefly noted, the enormity of -the crime forcibly adverted to, and then came the doom--that he was -to be shot to death! - -"The young man's usually haughty and handsome face was wistful and -sad in expression now. He merely bowed his head in meek assent, and -in a weak voice asked leave to shake hands with me and some of his -comrades. They came forth from the ranks as he named them, and wrung -his cold and clammy fingers in silence, and I could see that the eyes -of these men were moist with tears; yet they were brave fellows all, -and had charged by my side at Inkermann and Balaclava. - -"Philip next asked for the sergeant-major, that he might shake hands -even with him, and so die at peace with all mankind. But Pivett was -absent from parade that morning, and lay seriously ill in his tent, -for Asiatic cholera had fastened upon him. - -"Philip then turned to the chaplain to signify that he was ready, -and, kneeling near his grave, had his eyes covered by a handkerchief. - -"The whole scene was now worked up to its utmost intensity, and many -officers, who knew not of the reprieve, had taken off their caps to -utter a silent prayer for the spirit that was so soon to appear -before its Maker. - -"The silence was profound, and we heard only the Chumbal rushing on -its course to meet the Jumna, till the voice of the provost-marshal -rang in the air-- - -"'Firing-party--ready!' and softly the rifles were cocked. - -"'As you were!' cried the adjutant-general, with a bright expression -of face; 'half-cock, and order arms! Prisoner, stand up! you are, I -rejoice to say, mercifully reprieved.' - -"Philip Ernslie did not hear the words apparently, for his head sank -forward on his breast. - -"The provost-marshal took his hand to assist him to rise; but the -poor lad fell forward on his face, dead--stone dead--without a wound. -The sudden revulsion of feeling had killed him. - -"So he was actually buried in that unconsecrated ground, beneath the -shadow of the walls of Kotah; but, ere we marched next day, another -grave was formed beside him. - -"It contained the remains of Sergeant-Major Pivett; and, during a -long career of service, I have met with few events which created so -profound a sensation among the troops as this little tragedy." - - - - -THE STORY OF RAPHAEL VELDA. - -On an evening in the September of 1860, some excitement was caused -among the inhabitants of the secluded town of Oppido in Calabria -Ultra, when the gleam of arms announced the approach of regular -troops. The dealers in pottery and silk, in wine and oil, and the -manufacturers of gloves and stockings from the delicate filaments of -the shell-fish named the _pinna marina_, and the water-carrier by the -well, conferred together on this unusual circumstance; the wandering -_pifferari_ paused in their strains before the shrine of the Madonna; -and the rustics of a more doubtful character--to wit, the armed and -lawless _carbonari_ and mountaineers, the brigands, with their -sugar-loaf hats, velveteen jackets, and sandalled feet--looked forth -from the dense forests and coverts wherein they lurked, defying alike -the anathemas of the Archbishop of Reggio and the powers of the High -Court there, and thought the time was near to inspect their guns and -stilettoes, and set their wives to abandon the distaff for the -bullet-mould, as none knew on what errand those troops had come, or -what might ensue ere long, and strange things were expected, for -Mazzini and "The Liberator" had been busy with their manifestoes; -even the Fata Morgana had been showing strange optical delusions of -late in the Bay of Reggio and the Straits of Messina. - -The battle of Aspromonte had been fought in their vicinity during the -preceding month. - -Garibaldi, as all the world knows, intent on raising an insurrection -in Hungary, had placed himself at the head of a body of Sicilian -volunteers, in the forest district of Ficuzza, twenty miles from -Palermo, and, by a hasty and ill-advised movement, he landed these -men from two steamers on the Calabrian shore, where, on the mountain -plateau of Aspromonte--one of the highest of the Calabrian hills, -rising immediately behind the town of Oppido--he was attacked by the -Royal Italian troops, under Colonel Pallavacino. He fell, wounded by -a musket-shot in the ankle, while all his people were surrounded and -made prisoners. - -Military executions followed on many, though "The Liberator," for his -great services in the cause of Italian independence, was never -brought to trial; and now the young grass was sprouting above the -earthy mounds, and round the rude little crosses that marked where -the dead lay in their lonely graves on the slope of the Apennines. - -For two noted brigands who had accompanied him, named Agostino Velda -and Giuseppe Rivarola, rewards were offered at that time in vain. - -The excitement in Oppido was in no way lessened when the sound of -bugles came on the evening wind, and ere long the 3rd regiment of -Bersaglieri, or Italian Rifles, in the service of Victor Emanuel, -with their plumed hats and quaint uniforms, marched into the town, -and halted before the _Albergo del Leon d'Oro_, where the colours -were lodged, and the lieutenant-colonel commanding took up his -quarters. - -The soldiers were placed in an empty monastery; a guard was mounted -there, and also at the _albergo_; and then it began to be whispered -about in the market-place and _cafés_ that the Bersaglieri were to -remain there until a captain arrived from Reggio with some special -instructions for the colonel, Vincenzo il Conte Manfredi, of whom we -shall hear more anon. - -These rumours were unpleasantly connected with a Bersagliere named -Agostino Velda--the same Velda who had followed General Garibaldi, -and who had been brought in with the quarter-guard as a prisoner, and -was now in a cell of the monastery, heavily ironed, and under the -strictest surveillance. - -Among the Bersaglieri of Colonel Manfredi were two soldiers of the -name of Velda--the prisoner Agostino, and his son Raphael, a youth of -little more than twenty years, who bore a character as high and -unblemished as that of his father was degraded and low, dissipated -and vile. Yet the father and son were both eminently handsome men, -and both had fought bravely--the former on the fields of Goïto and -Novara, and the latter at Montebello and Solferino; but latterly to -many crimes and breaches of military law, Agostino had added that of -desertion and consorting with brigands, among whom he narrowly -escaped an assassination in which he became involved; and a notice of -this event found its way even into the _Times_. - -He had thrown aside his uniform, adopted the well-known costume of -the brigands--a gaily-embroidered jacket, a high hat, with broad, -flaunting ribbon, and long leathern gaiters--and, armed with a rifle -and six-barrelled revolver, made his lurking-place among the -mountains near Naples. - -Not far from Acerra--an episcopal city in the province of Lavoro--for -a year prior to the affair of Aspromonte, he had taken up his -residence with a formidable bandit and his wife, with whom he lived, -concealed in a vault, the fragment of some ruined castle or villa of -the old days of Roman Naples. - -There they might have resided long enough together, and made perilous -the road to Rome, but for the sum of two thousand ducats which had -been put upon the head of Agostino Velda after Garibaldi's defeat, -and which proved too much for a friendship such as theirs. - -One day, after a close pursuit, his _padrona_ assured him that he -might safely issue forth, as the police had disappeared; but -immediately on Velda raising the trap-door, which was covered with -turf and branches to conceal their den, he was struck to the earth by -a blow from an axe, dealt full on his head by a most unsparing hand. - -Assisted by his wife, the _padrona_ dragged the body to a ditch close -by, and then, stabbing her to death, he departed at once to Naples, -where he claimed the reward offered for Agostino Velda, whom he -accused of killing the woman. But Velda was not dead--such men are -hard to kill; he was simply stunned, grievously wounded, and made -hideous by the blood that covered him. - -He managed to crawl to the nearest house of the National Guard, to -whom he told his story, denouncing, as his accomplice, the _padrona_, -who was seized and shot, as the reward of his crimes; while he -(Velda) was sent back under escort to the 3rd Bersaglieri, then on -their march to Calabria, to overawe the brigands in that mountain -region, and he was now under sentence and waiting the result of his -trial, the papers connected with which had been forwarded for -approval to General Enrico Cialdini, who, in the subsequent year, was -appointed leader of the entire Italian army, and "Viceroy of Naples, -with full power to repress brigandage." - -The proceedings of the court-martial by which the father had been -tried were actually engrossed by the hand of his son, who was the -clerk to the regiment, and he knew all the papers contained, save the -sentence, which was known to the sworn members of the court alone; -but he could not doubt the tenor of it. - -Shame and gloom clouded the dark and handsome face of the young man, -and this dejection was held sacred by his comrades, though it has -been said that Colonel Manfredi--a man of weak and vicious character, -one, moreover, who was fierce, reckless, and dissipated--was cruel -enough, on more than one occasion, to taunt the innocent son with the -errors of the guilty father. - -The sun was verging towards the watery horizon of the gulf of Gioja, -and the shadows of the Apennines were falling far athwart the deep -and wooded valleys that lie eastward of Oppido, when, full of sad, -terrible, and bitter thoughts, the younger Velda left the little -city, and, after pausing once or twice to cross himself before the -little lamp-lighted Madonnas at the street corners, hurried towards a -spot which was familiar to him, for he was by birth a Calabrian, and -like his father before him had first seen light among those very -mountains where Aspromonte had been fought. - -Under the circumstances in which he was placed, the young soldier -gazed sadly on the scenes of his infancy--on the forest paths and -secluded places where he had been led by the hand of his mother, who -had perished of fever and fright after the battle of Novara. - -Raphael Velda walked rapidly onward for a few miles through a -district that was rich in fruit trees, where the lemon and citron, -the fig, the vine, and the orange were growing, till he reached a -region that was rocky and wild, and where the majestic oaks and pines -of that extensive tract known as the Forest of La Sila, celebrated -even by Virgil in the twelfth book of the "Æneid," cast a deepening -shadow over the way he pursued, and where the goat, the buffalo, and -the wild black swine appeared at times amid the solitude. - -Brightly streamed the evening sun through the openings in the forest -while Raphael, with unerring steps, trod a path that had been -familiar to him in boyhood, and at last reached the place he sought. - -It was a cavern in the gray basaltic rocks; but the entrance, known -only to the initiated, was carefully concealed by the hand of nature, -for the wild fig-trees, the vines, and other luxuriant creepers -completely screened it from the casual eye. - -"Oh, Francesca, my love! my love! what an abode for _you_!" muttered -the soldier as he saw it. But the place was silent as the grave; the -hum of insect life, and the gurgle of a mountain rivulet, whose -course was hidden by the verdure, alone met his ear. "Francesca, my -betrothed! the wife of my heart!" - -Passing through the screen of leaves, Raphael Velda came to a barrier -of wood, wedged between the walls of rock, and on this he knocked -with a resolute hand, though his heart was throbbing with anxiety. - -After a pause, a sound most unpleasantly like the click of a gunlock -met his quickened ear, and he hastily knocked again. - -"_Chi è la?_ (Who is there?)" demanded a stern voice. - -"'Tis I, good Giuseppe--a friend." - -The wooden barrier sharply revolved on its centre, and within the -cavern, half seen in ruddy sunlight, and half sunk in dark brown -shadow, appeared the picturesque figure of a man whose attire and -bearing proclaimed him to be a Calabrian brigand. Strong and -athletic in form, erect and dignified in carriage, the lines of his -dark face and his keen, wild eyes declared him to possess an ardent -and fiery spirit; but his garments were tattered and miserable, his -beard was long, and its natural raven blackness was becoming silvered -by time. - -His sash contained a brace of pistols and a horn-hafted knife, and in -his hands was a long double-barrelled rifle, which was cocked and -held menacingly, for the naturally ferocious expression of his face -deepened when he saw the hostile attire of his visitor. - -"A friend!" he exclaimed scornfully. "Do the friends of Giuseppe -Rivarola wear the uniform of the king's Bersaglieri?" - -"True, I am a soldier, Giuseppe--a soldier of the king; yet am I not -the less your friend," replied Velda gently. - -"Back, I say! I seek not your friendship, boy, and I want not your -blood! Yet," continued the robber, wrathfully, "how am I to save my -own if I permit you to return alive after having dared to track me to -my hiding-place?" - -As Rivarola spoke he involuntarily raised the musket to his right -shoulder. - -"Hold, Giuseppe Rivarola!" cried his visitor. "Have you quite -forgotten me? I am Raphael, the son of Agostino Velda." - -The brigand uttered a cry, threw down his musket, and springing -forward, with all that volubility of gesture and violent declamation -which proclaims the Calabrian a genuine child of nature--a rough and -impetuous mountaineer--he embraced the young man, took him in his -arms and led him into his hiding-place. - -It was indeed a squalid den, and lighted only by a few dim rays of -the fading sunshine which stole in through fissures in the basalt. -In a recess a little Madonna of coarse clay was fixed to the wall of -rock, and the flame of a brass oil-lamp was flickering before it. -Beneath lay a bed or rather a pallet, the neat arrangements of which -indicated the presence of a female hand. - -Outside this lay a couch of leaves and deer-skins whereon doubtless -old Rivarola snatched his few hours of repose. Some vessels of -coarse pottery, an iron pot, a bullet-mould, a powder-flask, and -other similar _et cetera_, made up the furniture; and Raphael looked -round him with a saddened and anxious eye. - -"Francesca?" said he, inquiringly. - -"She has gone to vespers, and to market at Oppido. The poor child -requires other comforts than my gun can procure her on these bleak -mountain sides, or even on the highway, for few men travel now -without an escort of the Carabinieri. I am in hopes that she may be -employed as a _zitella_--(a girl who will make herself useful)--by -the good sisters of the Benedictine convent--God and His Mother bless -them!" continued the brigand, lifting off his old battered hat with -reverence. "The sisters pity her for her own sake, though they -execrate me as one of the godless Garibaldini. Once that our -Francesca is safe within their walls, I shall go farther west, among -the mountains, where some of the men of Aspromonte are still lurking, -though heaven knows that to leave this place for that may be only -_noi cadiamo da Scilli in Cariddi_," he added, using the old classic -proverb. "But while talking of my own affairs I forget yours. What -of your father, my boy?" - -"He has been taken by the National Guard, and is now with us in -Oppido; but under sentence of death, as I too justly fear it must -be," replied Raphael, in a broken voice. - -"Rebellion, desertion, treason, and robbery! What else could be the -penalty of these but death! He will be shot, of course, by the -Bersaglieri." - -"Alas!" - -"Yet you will continue to wear their uniform?" said the old brigand, -his moustaches quivering with anger. - -"I follow the dictates of my conscience." - -"Conscience!" replied the other, grimly. "I had such a thing about -me once; but now---- Well! well!" - -"Are they safe for Francesca, or safe for you, these evening errands -into Oppido?" - -"She goes in as the twilight falls, and always returns after dark, -when none can see the way she takes. But our perils will be -increased now that your precious Bersaglieri are so close at hand." - -"They are increased, Giuseppe. A list of persons to be captured, and -shot if found with arms in their hands, or who prove unable to give a -satisfactory account of themselves, has been given by Cialdini to the -Conte Manfredi, and your name is the _first_ on that fatal roll, of -which I made a copy no later than yesterday, by the Conte's order." - -The outlaw only laughed at this, and his white teeth glistened under -his dark moustache. - -"They will never discover my retreat," said he. - -"Oh, be not too sure of that." - -"It has served me ever since that fatal day at Aspromonte." - -"You are wrong. Either Francesca has been watched or some one has -betrayed you." - -"None could betray me. My secret is known to Francesca and myself -alone," replied the outlaw, confidently. - -"A clue to your hiding-place is in the hands of the Conte Manfredi, -and ere to-morrow--yea, to-night, perhaps--a cordon of riflemen will -be around it. _Povero amico_! I swear to you that this is the -truth!" - -"And my Francesca!" exclaimed Rivarola, mournfully, as he clasped his -brown hands. - -"She is here--here at last!" cried the young man, as a girl sprang -into the cavern; but on beholding his uniform she uttered a low cry -of terror, and shrank behind her father. - -Her figure was slender and _petite_, yet she was full-bosomed and -beautifully rounded. Her eyes were dark, but bright and sparkling, -and softened in expression by their wonderfully long lashes, which, -like her hair, were black as jet. Her attire was poor, but plain and -neat, even to being piquante and pretty. Her scarlet bodice was -handsomely embroidered, and her habit-shirt, like the square fold of -linen that shaded her face, was white as snow, and contrasted well -with the almost olive hue of her complexion. - -"_O padre mio_! I have been pursued!" she exclaimed. - -"By whom?" asked Rivarola, starting to his musket. - -"An officer of the Bersaglieri; but I escaped him in the forest. Oh, -my father! my father! and a Bersagliere is here before me!" - -"Raphael Velda, your betrothed!" said the young man, taking off his -plumed hat, and coming forward from the shade which had partly -concealed him. - -Uttering a soft exclamation of joy, mingled with astonishment, the -girl rushed into his arms, and he covered her face with kisses, -showering them on her brow, her lips and eyes, even on her neck, -where hung her only ornament, a little crucifix of brass. - -"_Ne sono estatico!_ (I am in ecstasies!)" the young soldier -continued to murmur, as he gazed upon the upturned face that lay upon -his fringe epaulette, and so near his own flushed cheek. - -"Oh, what happiness!" responded the girl. "I am beside myself with -joy! Raphael, Raphael, speak to me!" - -"Thou art loved by every one, my child," said the old brigand, who -made no attempt to check the free emotions of the lovers, but turned -away sadly, and leaned upon his long musket. - -"Oh, Francesca, many may--nay, must have loved you; but none as poor -Raphael Velda does," said the lover. - -"If ever we are parted, judging by what I have suffered already, the -_wrench_ will be terrible! Francesca will die!" murmured the girl. - -"No female society ever afforded me the delight that yours does, and -were we to be together for days and days, instead of a few short -stolen hours, I would never weary of looking into your sweet eyes. -How often in camp and on the march, when weary and listless, I have -longed for your beloved shoulder to lay my head upon and go to sleep, -though I fear your presence would put all sleep to flight." - -"Oh, Raphael, when absent from you I seem only to endure existence. -All time seems lost that is not spent with you." - -"And one of our officers pursued you, Francesca?" asked Raphael, -after a pause. - -"Yes, my beloved--from the gate of Oppido, along the highway, and -close up to the forest, where I eluded him by lurking behind an ilex -tree, while he passed on." - -"Is he old or young?" - -"A man of some fifty years, with long gray moustaches curled up to -his ears." - -"_Dio!_ 'tis the colonel--the Conte Manfredi! the greatest _roué_, in -all Naples!" - -"Never mind--soldiers are used to run after pretty girls. You have -escaped him, and if he comes hither my gun will do the rest--there -will be promotion for the major," said Rivarola, calmly. - -But the handsome face of Velda became troubled and clouded. - -His love for Francesca was deep and passionate; yet as a soldier -could he marry and make her a camp-follower--the jest, perhaps, of -his comrades, the prey, perchance, of such a man as the conte?--she, -with all her purity and beauty. A soldier, could he with safety wed -the daughter of a brigand--an outlaw--one of the Garibaldini? She -had been seen and pursued by his _roué_ colonel also, to complicate -and make matters more dubious, perilous, and difficult. - -"Be one of us--throw your allegiance to the winds, and take to the -mountains," the brigand would have suggested; but Raphael was loyal -and good, and mourned the lost lives of Rivarola and his doomed -father. - -But now the sun was set, and he knew that he must soon return to -quarters, as he had only leave till midnight, and, taking his gun, -Rivarola prepared to accompany him a little distance on the way. - -The lovers separated, with an arrangement for their meeting on the -morrow, and from the screen of leaves that hid her wretched home the -poor girl, with eyes half-blinded by tears, watched their figures -retiring through the forest; but scarcely had they been gone ten -minutes when both came rushing back to her. The face of Raphael was -deadly pale; that of Rivarola inflamed by passion, and in his eyes -there sparkled a dangerous light. - -"Conceal yourself, my child. A party of the Bersaglieri are in the -forest, searching, doubtless, for _me_, so I must fly; but I shall -leave your betrothed with you. Surely," continued Rivarola, "he will -be able to protect you from his own comrades, at least. I will fire -a shot to lure these men after me, and away from this vicinity; so, -if you hear it, my children, be not alarmed. To heaven and your love -I trust her, Raphael. Adieu!" - -He pressed the terrified girl almost convulsively to his breast, -sprang up the rocks with his musket slung behind him, and -disappeared, while Raphael led Francesca into the cavern and closed -the door. - -The task of soothing her was a delightful one; but then came the -reflection--what was he to do? To remain there with her was -impossible, as, ere midnight, he would have to report himself to the -quarter-guard, and could he leave her alone--alone in the wild forest? - -No! She should return with him to Oppido, and seek at the -Benedictine convent that shelter which would not be denied her. This -was soon resolved on, and, though about to leave the cavern, perhaps -for ever, she reverentially trimmed anew the votive lamp before the -little Madonna, while Raphael stole for half a mile or so into the -forest, to assure himself that his comrades were gone. This proved -to be the case, as they had heard the distant random shot of -Rivarola, and, following it, had disappeared. - -"Heaven be praised!" said Raphael, aloud; "the road is clear for her -and me." - -He was returning to the hiding-place, when a shrill cry--almost a -shriek--from Francesca made him spring forward with all the speed he -could exert; and he saw with dismay that the barrier of wood and -screen of leaves were alike thrown down, and that an armed man stood -within them. - -All that his heart had foreboded of evil--the climax of every vague -apprehension to which the soul of Raphael Velda had been a prey--was -reached when he beheld his beautiful little Francesca struggling to -free herself from the grasp of her visitor--his colonel, the Conte -Manfredi! - -Of all men in Italy, the man from whom he had most cause to fear--the -man who held in his hands, perhaps, the life of his father, Agostino -Velda, and his own life as a consorter with outlaws--had now tracked -out Francesca as a new prey! This was but an example probably, of -"how oft the power to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done." - -Raphael knew that the conte was a man without scruple or conscience, -possessed of vast wealth, of high rank, and a position which enabled -him always to _crush_ with success all who opposed his wishes, -however vile or cruel those wishes might be; and Raphael was but a -poor Bersagliere, whose father was a convicted brigand. - -All this foreknowledge rushed upon the mind of Raphael, and for a -moment he was paralyzed with dismay; but a moment only. - -The next saw him tear Francesca from the grasp of the conte, whom he -thrust without much ceremony aside. - -In an instant the blade of the colonel's sword glittered in his hand. - -"_In guardia, signore! in guardia!_" cried he, in a voice that was -tremulous with rage; while Raphael, who had no other weapon than the -short sword-bayonet of the Bersagliere, promptly drew it to defend -himself, and therewith he parried one or two thrusts that were aimed -at his breast. As yet the colonel had not recognized him, for the -cavern was dark, or only lit by the tiny votive lamp that flickered -above the humble couch of Francesca. "Ha, Signore Spadaccino!" said -Manfredi, mockingly, "I'll be through your body this time." - -But, by a rapid circular parry and great strength of wrist, Raphael -twisted the sword from the hand of the conte, who then drew a pistol. -All this passed in a few seconds; while Francesca, crouching behind -Raphael, looked upward with her face blanched by terror. And now, as -he levelled the pistol, the conte for the first time discovered that -his antagonist was a soldier. - -"_Como vi chiamente_ (what is your name)?" he asked, in a voice of -thunder. - -"Raphael Velda, signore." - -"_Ehi!_ one of my own men, too!" - -"_Illustrissimo--si--_I have the honour," replied Raphael, with a -profound salute, but keeping his sword drawn, nevertheless. - -"Oh, Raphael! my love! my love! you are lost! Spare him, Signore -Colonello! spare him!" cried Francesca. "He is too young to die!" - -"Leave this place, Raphael Velda," said the conte, in a low, hoarse -voice. - -"Never!" - -"Indeed! When are you due at Oppido?" - -"I have my captain's leave till midnight, signore." - -"_Mezzanotte_? Good. It wants but two hours of that time now," said -the mocking conte, looking at his watch. "You know, I presume, the -penalty of drawing upon a superior officer?" - -"No--not when in defence of my own life, and of one who is dearer to -me than life." - -"_Veramente_--indeed!" drawled the other, curling up his enormous -moustache, which he wore in imitation of King Victor Emanuel. "This -girl--the daughter of a brigand--of a Garibaldino--is beyond the pale -of all protection." - -"She is my betrothed wife, signore," said Raphael, with a deep burst -of emotion. - -"Your life is in my hands, Velda, as a consorter with outlaws." - -"Not more a consorter than yourself, signore, if the mere fact of -being here makes me one." - -"Insolent! Yet I will spare your life on one condition." - -"Name it, signore." - -"That you will never mention what has transpired here to-night--our -combat, and my disarmament. Swear it by the God that hears you, and -the soul of the girl you love!" - -Raphael felt astonished at a punishment so unlike Manfredi, but swore -as he was requested. - -"Good," said the colonel, picking up and sheathing his sword. "I -give you life for silence, but my vengeance will come on the morrow!" - -And with these ominous words, which the unfortunate Raphael connected -in some way with his imprisoned father, the colonel quitted the -dreary abode of the Rivarolas, and disappeared in the forest. - -The moment he was gone, Raphael raised Francesca, and strove by his -caresses to reassure her. He affected to make light of the threats -of Manfredi, expatiated on the promises he had given as a reward for -silence, expressed joy that her father had escaped; and, as soon as -she had regained her composure, he led her from the cavern, and -together, hand in hand, with their minds mutually oppressed by fear -for the future, they pursued the highway almost in silence till they -reached the little city of Oppido. - -"Adieu, Raphael," said the girl, weeping on his breast. - -"Oh, Francesca! my dearest Francesca! I cannot tell you how I love -you! And this love continues, if possible, to grow every day. My -whole soul is yours, Francesca!" - -"And I shall yearn long and wearily for you till we meet again. -Separate from you, the most sunny days are gloomy to me, and I seem -to shiver as if chilled by the _tramontana_!" - -And now, after a long and passionate kiss--a _last_ one, as it -proved--they separated at the gate of the Convent of Santo Benedetto; -and, fortunately for Raphael, he was in quarters before the time -necessary, and amid their dull monotony the voice of Francesca ever -lingered in his ear. - -Some valets or emissaries of the conte were at the cavern betimes -before daybreak. The cage was empty, and its pretty bird flown, they -knew not whither; and this only served to inflame him the more -against the elder Velda. - -Next morning the shrill brass bugles of the Bersaglieri were blown at -an unusually early hour, while the mountain summits were yet red with -the first rays of the morning sun, and the whole battalion paraded -under the orders of the conte; for the expected captain had arrived -overnight from Reggio with his final instructions, and, rumour said, -with the death-warrant of Agostino Velda. The latter seemed to be -fully verified by the fact that the regimental chaplain--a Franciscan -friar--had spent the greater portion of the night in his cell. - -It was a lovely Italian morning, and never did the towering Apennines -look more beautiful in their verdure and fertility, while the red -rising sun cast their purple shadows, and those of the great pines -and oaks which clothed their sides far to the westward. To the east, -dotted by many a white sail, the blue Mediterranean spread away -towards the Lipari Isles; and the smoke of many a steamer towered -high into the deep azure of the dome above the Straits of Messina and -the Bay of Gioja. - -The plain where the Bersaglieri (who derive their name from -_bersaglio_, a mark, or shooting-butt) were paraded was a solitary -spot about a mile distant from Oppido, in a rugged ravine, overhung -on all side by masses of rock, which had been rent into fantastic -shapes seventy-seven years before by the dreadful earthquake of 1783. - -The troops were unpopular among the Calabrese; so none of the -inhabitants were present to witness the morning parade, which, on the -part of the Conte Manfredi, embraced a scheme for vengeance such as -an Italian heart of a certain calibre alone could conceive. - -The well-trained Bersaglieri stood silent and firm in their ranks; -the only motion there being the fluttering of their dark-green -plumes, which were caught by the passing breeze. Their -sword-bayonets were fixed on their rifles, as the regiment formed -three sides of a hollow square, and the broad blades of these -reflected gayly the sheen of the morning sun. - -On the vacant side of the square stood an upright post, firmly placed -in the earth, with a stout rope dangling from it. At this object the -eyes of the soldiers looked grimly but sternly from time to time. -The officers leaned on their swords, and yawned wearily in the early -morning air. Since the field of Aspromonte they had grown tired of -the perilous work of brigand-hunting, and looked forward with -something of dismay to the rustication of dull quarters in the -mountain city of Oppido, while knowing that at Reggio there were the -great cathedral, with its aisles of paintings, where people may flirt -if they do not pray, the theatre, the opera, and the promenade of the -Porto Nuovo, where girls handle their fans as girls only do in Spain -and Italy. Even the yearly fair would be lost to the Bersaglieri. -It was all a profound bore! - -While such empty regrets occupied the minds of many, the heart of -Raphael Velda was a prey to a grief and horror all its own. He and -all the regiment thought that he should have been spared a scene so -horrible as the execution of his own father! He had proffered this -request personally, and through the captain of his company, but in -vain. The conte was inexorable. He only gave one of his sinister -smiles, and shrugged his shoulders in token of refusal. So, pale as -a spectre, and trembling in every fibre, Raphael stood under arms in -his usual place. - -Agostino Velda, though an old soldier of the corps, who had, as we -have said, fought loyally on the field of Goïto, in Lombardy, and -that of Novara, in Piedmont, was viewed now only as a disgrace, a -brigand and Garibaldino; so, although all sympathized with his son, -and deprecated his presence on an occasion so awful, they cared -little otherwise about the impending execution. But how little could -they foresee the terrible _triple_ tragedy which was to ensue on that -bright and sunny morning parade! - -From the lower end of the ravine was seen the gleam of approaching -bayonets, and the prisoner appeared with fetters on his hands, -walking slowly between a file of Bersaglieri, and by the side of the -chaplain--a very reverend-looking old man, who wore the garb of a -Franciscan--and who had been praying with him all night in the vault -of the old castle, which served as a dungeon. And now poor Raphael -felt an icy shudder pass over his whole frame as his father drew near. - -He had already that day at dawn taken a passionate and affectionate -farewell of him, and they were to meet no more on earth; but yet the -dark and haggard eyes of Agostino Velda wandered restlessly and -yearningly along the ranks, as if in search of a beloved face. - -He was a splendid-looking man, in the prime of life. His stature was -great, and his bearing lofty and commanding. The pallor of his face -contrasted strangely with the raven blackness of his voluminous beard -and hair; the latter seemed to start up in sprouts from his forehead -and temples, and fell backward like the mane of a lion. His eyes -were dark--dark as the doom that awaited him; and their usual -expression was fierce, defiant, and lowering. - -He was bareheaded, and muffled in an old regimental great-coat, which -was intended to be his shroud. - -"I have repented of all my faults and crimes," said he, in a firm -voice, and with a collected manner. "I see now, old comrades, the -folly, the wickedness, of my past life, and am ready to die for it!" - -The proceedings of the court-martial were then read over by the -adjutant, and they closed with the sentence-- - -"_That he--the said Agostino Velda, lately a Bersagliere of the 3rd -Regiment, and now a brigand--was to be tied to a post and shot to -death by any three soldiers whose doubtful character might lead the -colonel to select them for that duty as a species of punishment!_" - -The hand of Manfredi seemed to tighten on his bridle-rein as he heard -this, and there passed a grim smile over his face as he handed a -pencilled memorandum to the sergeant-major, who changed colour as he -read it, and in his utter confusion actually forgot to salute his -officer, under whose glance most of the Bersaglieri cowered, for he -was supposed to possess that terror of the Italians, an evil-eye. He -paused for a moment irresolutely, and then turned to obey, for -discipline and obedience become a second nature to a soldier. - -While the pioneers bound the passive prisoner to the stake, the -perplexed sergeant-major summoned from the ranks two soldiers who had -been punished repeatedly for breaches of discipline, and twice for -robbery, as their names had been given to him by the colonel. Then, -pausing slowly before the company in the ranks of which Raphael Velda -stood, pale as a sheet, and supporting himself on his rifle, he -summoned him to step forth, as the _third_ fire, to complete the -firing-party. - -A thrill of horror and dismay seemed to pervade the whole regiment on -witnessing this, and now Raphael rushed to the front. - -"_Signore Illustrissimo--oh, colonello mio!_" he exclaimed, in a -piercing voice, while gesticulating with all the fervour of a true -Calabrian; "_Dio buono!_ you cannot mean this! It is too cruel--too -terrible. The king will resent it--General Cialdini will never -permit it," he added, wildly and incoherently, while his tongue -seemed to cleave to the roof of his mouth. - -In a paroxysm of grief he knelt before the conte, entreating him to -alter the terrible selection--to forego this subtle scheme for -vengeance, while the pale prisoner, who saw and understood the whole -situation, uttered a cry of grief, and, dropping the crucifix which -the chaplain had placed in his hands, covered his face with them. - -"What can be the meaning of this?" was whispered round the ranks. - -Raphael alone could have told; but he was sworn to secrecy--secrecy -by God's name and the soul of Francesca. - -In vain did the major--a gallant old soldier, who possessed great -influence in the corps--urge the conte to change his plan; in vain -did the venerable chaplain supplicate on one hand and threaten on the -other; and in vain also did Raphael Velda, whose voice had now left -him, stretch his hands towards the conte in mute entreaty. - -Vincenzo Manfredi was inexorable! - -"I do not command the son to shoot the father, but the loyal -Bersagliere to slay the convicted felon," said he; and then, with a -voice and bearing that forbade all hope of his revoking an order -which filled the regiment with indignation and bewilderment--for the -character of Raphael was unimpeachable, and even were it not so, the -selection was alike cruel and unnatural--he ordered the firing-party -to fall in at fifty yards' distance from the criminal, and to load -and cap their rifles. Then the remainder of the obnoxious task was -to be performed by the sergeant-major. - -"_Sono allo desperazione!_--I am in despair--oh, Francesca!--oh, my -father!" moaned Raphael, as he loaded mechanically, and knew that -even if he fired in the air he would throughout all his future life -be branded as a parricide--as the executioner of his own father! - -A blindness--a horror, like a great darkness--seemed to come over -him, and for a few moments he was beside himself with excess of -emotion. For a second or so the idea of shooting Manfredi at the -head of the regiment occurred to him, but only to be dismissed, for -that officer was so placed that he could not have been hit without -the risk of killing another; and now, like an automaton, he found -himself kneeling--one of three executioners--before his father, at -fifty yards' distance. - -Though horror blanched his face, Agostino looked proudly and steadily -at the three dark tubes from whence his doom was to come; for at the -word "three" the executioners were to fire. - -"_Uno!_" cried the sergeant-major, in a voice that was quite unlike -his own; "_due!_ TRE!" - -Reverberating with a hundred echoes among the rocks as the sounds -were tossed from peak to peak, _four_ rifles rang sharply in the -clear morning air, and three men fell dead. - -They were Agostino Velda, pierced by two bullets in his head, which -sank heavily forward on his breast; Raphael, who, by an expert use of -his bayonet as a lever, after uttering a prayer to heaven and for -Francesca, had shot himself through the heart; and, lastly, the Conte -Manfredi, who, pierced by a bullet fired from the rocks above, threw -up his hands with a wild scream, and fell lifeless from his horse! - -His fall and the suicide of Raphael Velda were so totally unexpected, -that the Bersaglieri were utterly bewildered and confounded. The -double catastrophe was almost terrifying even to old soldiers; but -the major was the first to recover his presence of mind, and at the -head of a company proceeded to surround and scale those rocks from -whence the mysterious bullet had come. - -No trace of the assassin could be found, save a long and -double-barrelled rifle, which had been recently discharged, and on -the stock of which was carved the name of the noted brigand, -"Giuseppe Rivarola;" so not a doubt remained that by his hand the -conte had perished. - -In vain were the mountains searched, and princely rewards for his -apprehension offered by General Cialdini and the king; for Giuseppe -was never seen afterwards, though he is supposed to be still lurking -among the wilds of the Abruzzi--the Promised Land of the Italian -brigands. - -As a suicide, the hapless Raphael Velda was buried in a solitary -place, and in unconsecrated ground; but yearly, on the anniversary of -his death--the festival of St. Michael and All Angels--there comes a -Benedictine nun, who kneels by the green sod that covers him, and -with beads in hand and head bent low and reverently, says a prayer -for the repose of his soul. - -She then hangs a wreath of fresh flowers on the little cross that -marks his grave, and glides slowly and sadly away. - - - - -LA BELLE TURQUE. - -THE STORY OF THE PRINCESS CÉCILE. - -Of all the wandering claimants to royalty, scions of kings "retired -from business," _soi-disant_ regal pretenders, false or real--whether -like Perkin Warbeck, or the six Demetriuses of Russia, some more -recent pseudo-heirs of the house of Stuart who figured in Austria -after the "Quarterly" drove them out of Scotland, "the Duke of -Normandy" in London, and so forth, who have appeared from time to -time, none have had so marvellous a story to tell as the Princess -Cécile, "La Belle Turque," as she was named, who, announcing herself, -in two volumes octavo, to be a daughter of the deposed sultan Achmet -III., took the heedless world of Paris by surprise, about a hundred -years ago, and whose narrative has frequently been classed with -romances, though it came forth as a veritable history, and with a -title more clearly avowed than that of "Ascanius, or the Adventurer -in Scotland." - -The editor, who guaranteed its truth, was a man of veracity and -credit in his day; and he urged upon the public, that however -extraordinary and romantic her adventures might appear, they were, -nevertheless, strictly fact; and in a letter addressed to the editor -of the "Journal de Paris," in 1787, he added, that in that year the -lady was still alive in the French capital, "and, notwithstanding her -advanced age, in the enjoyment of good health." - -It is singular that her narrative, whether false or true, as given by -herself and "M. Buisson, Littéraire, Hôtel de Mesgrigny, Rue des -Poitevins,"--as it would furnish ample materials for the largest -three-volume novel--escaped the eyes of Alexandre Dumas, or Viscount -d'Arlincourt, as it is full of adventures of the most stirring kind, -and, told briefly, runs thus:-- - -The introductory part of her story, in which the names of persons of -rank are concealed, contains, necessarily the adventures of her -governess, or nurse, by whom she was first abducted from her home, -and brought to France. It would appear that about the year 1700, a -Mademoiselle Emilia (_sic_), daughter of a surgeon in the French -seaport town of Génes, was, with her lover, a young Genoese, named -Salmoni, in a pleasure-boat upon the Mediterranean, a little way from -the coast, when, notwithstanding "la terreur du nom de Louis XIV.," -they were pounced upon by some Turkish corsairs--a common enough -event in those days, and one not unfrequent, even after Lord Exmouth -demolished Algiers. - -This occurred in the dusk; and the voice of Salmoni, who had been -singing, is supposed to have first attracted them. Being armed, the -Italian defended his love and his life with courage, but fell -severely wounded, and was left for dead in the bottom of his boat, -which floated away, the sport of the waves, while Emilia was carried -off, and, in consequence of her great beauty, was ultimately sold, at -Constantinople, under the name of Fatima, for the service and -amusement of Achmet III., who, in consequence of her accomplishments, -made her a species of governess to his children, instead of retaining -her among the odalisques in the seraglio. This must have been -subsequent to 1703, when Achmet began his troublesome reign. - -She was in this situation of trust, when Salmoni, who had never -forgotten her, after a long and unsuccessful search through many -seaport towns in the Levant--a veritable pilgrim of -love--accidentally discovered, by a casual conversation with a -Turkish seaman, where she was, and how occupied; for this man had -been one of the corsair's crew. - -Disguised as a Turk, and giving out that "he was the father of -Fatima, the trusted slave," Salmoni found means to communicate with -her through an _itchcoglan_, one of the slaves or pages attached to -the seraglio, and they were thus enabled to see each other and -converse, their hasty meetings being but stolen moments of tenderness -and joy. - -Emilia was now in attendance upon a little daughter of Achmet III., -born in 1710, and then six months old. Her mother was the Sultana -Aski, formerly a Georgian slave, and then one of the kadines or wives -of the Sultan, ladies whose number rarely exceeds seven. Emilia was -high in favour with both Achmet and this sultana, as she had been -particularly serviceable to the latter at the birth of the child, -through some little skill she had acquired from her father, the -surgeon; thus the confidence they reposed in her, and the authority -she possessed over all the people in and about the seraglio, -facilitated the execution of those plans for an escape, suggested and -urged by Salmoni. - -With a view to this end, she desired the _bastonghi_, or -head-gardener, to make a see-saw, which was in the gardens, so high -that she--and her pupils, probably--might see the whole city from the -lofty wall that girds this place, where still the trees planted are -always green, that the inhabitants of Galata and other places may not -see the ladies at their lonely promenades. Aided by this see-saw, -she dropped over the wall a billet to Salmoni, desiring him to -procure a ladder, "a steel-yard" to fix it to the masonry, to make -arrangements with a ship captain, and, when all was prepared, to wait -her beneath the wall of that terrible Serai Bournous, which no -slave-woman had ever yet left alive. - -Salmoni promptly obeyed her instructions; he discovered a ship for -the Levant, and, by a note tossed over the wall, informed her of the -night, and the very hour of their departure. - -She was in the act of reading this note--probably not for the first -time--when the Sultan Achmet suddenly entered her apartment; and she -had barely time to toss it, unseen, into a porphyry vase; for this -billet, if discovered, might have consigned her to the bowstring of -the _capidgi-bashi_, or the sack of the black _channatoraga_, and its -concealment forms an important feature in the story of the fugitives. - -The hour--almost the moment--for flight had arrived, and Salmoni, she -knew, awaited her below the garden wall; yet, amid all the terror and -anxiety of the time, so strong was Emilia's love for the little -baby-girl of whom she had the chief care, that she resolved to convey -the child away with her, and hoped eventually to rear it as a -Christian. Collecting all her jewels, and those which Achmet had -already lavished on the infant, she took with them the silken -_fetfa_, or record of its birth; and, to be brief, escaped unseen by -means of the steel-yard and ladder. - -As she descended, the latter was held for her by a person in a gray -cloak, whom she believed to be Salmoni, and into whose arms she was, -consequently, about to throw herself, when another man started -forward, and plunged a sword into his breast. He fled, and a cry -escaped Emilia, who fell to the ground; but at that moment the -captain of the vessel, by which Salmoni had arranged they should -escape, rushed up, and, tearing off the mufflings of the fallen man, -merely exclaimed, "It is _not_ he!" and bore her off to the seashore. - -An alarm had been given. There was no time to wait for the absent -Salmoni; she was placed at once on board the vessel, which -immediately sailed and made all speed to leave the Golden Horn -behind. She proved to be a small craft belonging to Bayonne, -commanded by a young captain from Dieppe; who ultimately landed -Emilia and her charge at Génes, where her first care was to have the -little _Turque_ baptized according to the rites of the Catholic -church. - -This, it is recorded, was done by the _curé_ of St. Eulalie de Génes, -who named her Marie Cécile; and in honour of an event so remarkable, -a salute was fired by the cannon of the château and those of the -ramparts of the fort; and three _religeuses_, named respectively, La -Mère St. Agnes, La Mère St. Modeste, and La Mère de l'Humilité, are -mentioned as having taken a deep interest in the escaped fugitive and -her charge, who was kept in ignorance of her origin till her -fifteenth year. - -We know not how many daughters Achmet III. is said to have had; but -in a letter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, dated from Adrianople, she -writes of his eldest being betrothed in marriage to Behram Bassa, -then the reigning court favourite, and translates a copy of verses he -had addressed to her. - -Cécile was now taken to several European courts, "at -which"--according to the narrative--"she was received with all the -honours due to her illustrious rank." In Russia, she was presented -to the Czar, Peter I., (who died in that year); but in England, she -would seem to have contented herself with a short residence at a -coffee-house (_café_), in Covent Garden! Among other sovereigns, she -was presented to Pope Clement XI., at Rome, where her beauty, which -she inherited from her Georgian mother, especially the profusion of -her exquisite hair, began to surround her with snares and perils. - -In Rome, her guardian, Emilia, had the joy of once more meeting -Salmoni! The man who had been stabbed beneath the seraglio wall had -not been he, but the Turkish corsair, through whom he had first -traced her there, and who had hoped to make profit out of the -intended escape by treacherously revealing it to the sultan; and for -this purpose he had plotted with a female slave attached to the -palace. This woman, through whose hands the important billet passed, -had artfully erased the hour of twelve, fixed by Salmoni, and -substituted _eleven_. Hence, though the sailor had full time to make -the attempt, he failed in the execution of his purpose; so now, after -all their perils, Salmoni and Emilia were married in the Eternal -City, where the love affairs of "La Belle Turque" speedily began to -attract notice. - -First, we are told, that a duke fell in love with her; but she made -him her friend, assuring him that he could never be more to her, as -she had already become inspired by a passion for a handsome young -Knight of Malta, who hoped soon to be absolved from his vow of -celibacy. While waiting for this, the knight's father, old Prince -----, as mischance would have it, became enamoured of her, reckless -that he was a rival of his son; and, to avoid his importunities, she -and the Salmonis set out suddenly for Paris, where, by the knavery of -a banker, she lost much of the proceeds of the jewels brought from -Constantinople; so that her fortune was reduced from sixty thousand -livres yearly, to about ten thousand. - -In a coffee-house at Paris, Cécile chanced to see in the "Gazette de -France," an account of the misfortunes that had overtaken her father, -Achmet III. This was in 1730, when that weak and imbecile -voluptuary, who had viewed with indifference the Hungarian troubles -and the wars of the north, after being involved in a contest with -Russia, by which he lost in succession the cities of Asoph and -Belgrade, and the provinces of Temesvar, Servia and Wallachia, on the -discomfiture of his arms by Persia, had an insurrection among his own -subjects, and was compelled by the Janissaries to abdicate in favour -of his nephew, Mustapha III., who threw him into a prison, where he -passed a life of mortification and shame, "after he had," as Voltaire -has it, "sacrificed his vizier and his principal officers, in vain, -to the resentment of the nation." - -On reading of all these things, Cécile registered a vow that she -would visit Turkey, seek out her father, and endeavour to console him -in his misfortunes; and the death of her guardian, Emilia, about this -time, together with the annoyance she experienced from the old -Prince, who, presuming on her friendless, dubious, and false -position, daily "became more urgent and less respectful," hastened -her departure. - -Alone she set out for Fontainebleau to solicit a passport as a French -subject, and to return thanks for the protection afforded her by the -court of Louis XIV; but in returning to Paris, her carriage was -stopped at night in the forest, which then covered thirty thousand -acres of hill and valley, and there ensued an episode, which, by its -_coincidences_, seems too evidently romance, though truth at times is -stranger than fiction. - -A handsomely-attired chevalier--who proved to be the -Prince--requested her to alight and enter a voiture, which stood -there with six horses, pleading that she would do so, "without -compelling him to use violence." - -On this, she uttered a cry for help; and ere long another _voiture_ -dashed up, and there leaped out a gentleman sword in hand. He proved -to be the young Duke de ----, her Roman admirer, and he had barely -time to recognize Cécile, when her betrothed, the Knight of Malta, -also appeared on the scene, which thus becomes so melo-dramatic as to -throw ridicule on the story. - -"The Duke is about to deprive you of your mistress," said the cunning -old Prince to his son; "let us jointly use our swords against him in -defence of your dearest interests." - -So thereupon the cavalier of Malta ran the poor Duke through the body -in the most approved fashion; bore off the fainting Cécile to Paris, -and placed her in the hotel of his father. There the renewed, but -secret, addresses of the latter so greatly alarmed her, that on one -occasion she had to protect herself by an exhibition of pistols, -after which she escaped with Salmoni and the Knight, who urged that -she should, in fulfilment of her vow, visit her captive father, while -he once more strove, at the feet of Pope Clement's successor, to get -the oath of celibacy absolved. - -In Turkey, some unruly Janissaries slew Salmoni, and were about to -offer some violence to Cécile, despite her French passport, when she -displayed before them the _fetfa_! This, we are told, was a piece of -yellow silk on which was embroidered, in golden letters, the names of -the Sultan, of her mother Aski, and herself, with the day and hour of -her birth, together with certain passages from the Koran: "The -children of the Sultans are bound with the _fetfa_ immediately after -birth; and this document is deemed a sacred proof of their royal -descent; and at the sight of it every Mohammedan must bow himself to -the ground, and defend with his life the wearer of it." - -By this time her cousin Mustapha III. was dead, and his successor, -her kinsman, Mohammed V., on hearing of her story, and, more than -all, of her beauty, conceived a passion for her, and sent his chief -friend and confident, the Beglerbeg of Natolia, to inform her of the -honour that awaited her. Being informed that it was the fame of her -wonderful hair that had first excited the curiosity and admiration of -the Sultan, she cut it entirely off, and, tossing it to the -messenger-- - -"Go," said she, "and give your master this--the object of his -love--and tell him, that a woman capable of such a sacrifice, knows -no master but Heaven and her own heart!" - -Had chignons been then in fashion, much trouble might have been saved -the fair Cécile; who, finding that a hasty departure from Turkey -alone could save her, demanded, but in vain, a passport from the -Bashaw of Smyrna or Izmir. Urged by her father Achmet, she quitted -secretly by sea, and was landed by a French frigate at Toulon, where -she learned from the lieutenant of a Maltese galley that her lover -had perished in a duel. - -Her journey to Turkey had greatly impoverished her, and now she found -herself in France almost without a friend, with only five hundred -ducats and a diamond, the gift of her father Achmet III. Choosing to -conceal her fallen fortune from every eye, she selected an humble -dwelling in an obscure part of the city, where, long years after, her -editor first discovered her, and where, at a distance from royal -thrones, from human wealth and grandeur, she had sought to pass the -evening of her days in peace and obscurity. "God has blessed my -fortitude," she concludes. "Born in 1710, I have lived to see the -1st of January, 1786, and must now serenely and tranquilly await that -peace by which death must make amends for all the surprising and -afflicting changes of fortune which I experienced in my passage -through life." - -Cécile--if ever she existed at all--must have been then in her 76th -year. Her narrative is certainly mentioned in the "Journal de -Paris;" but in the tide of events that so rapidly followed the year -in which the financial troubles of France began, the meeting of the -States-General, and the crash of the first Revolution following, we -hear no more of "La belle Turque," the _soi-disant_ daughter of the -dethroned Achmet III. - - - - -THE MARQUIS DE FRATTEAUX, - -CAPTAIN OF FRENCH HORSE. - -Few events made a greater sensation in England generally, and more -particularly in London, in March, 1752, than the mysterious -disappearance or abduction--it was called for a time the murder--of -the unfortunate Marquis de Fratteaux, who was actually dragged by -force from the heart of the English metropolis, and immured in the -Bastile, to gratify the strange and unnatural hatred of his own -father. - -This noble, whose name was Louis Mathieu Bertin, Marquis de -Fratteaux, Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis, and a distinguished -young captain of French cavalry, was the eldest son of M. Jean Bertin -de St. Geyran (Honorary Master of Requests and Counsellor to the -Parliament of Bordeaux) and of his wife Lucretia de St. Chamant, both -of whose families were deemed, by character and descent, most -honourable among the Bordelais. In the Blazon ou Art Héraldique,* -Bertin is represented as bearing an escutcheon argent, charged with a -saltire (simple) dentelé. - - -* French Encyclopaedie, 1789. - - -From his birth, the Marquis Louis Mathieu was an object of aversion -to his father, who, on the other hand, doted even to absurdity on his -youngest son, on whom he lavished all his love and his livres, and on -whom he bestowed the estate of Bourdeille. M. Bertin would seem, -almost, from the birth of his second boy, to have determined, by -every scheme he could devise, to deprive the eldest of his -birthright; and this object he followed with singular rancour nearly -to the end of his life. - -It has never been hinted that M. Bertin suspected the paternity of -his heir. Through life the conduct of Madame Bertin was -irreproachable and above all suspicion. - -In the infancy and boyhood of Louis, his father strove by systematic -oppression, and by cutting neglect, to degrade, mortify, and break -the spirit of the poor little fellow: on all occasions giving the -place of honour, and the whole of his affection, to his second son. -As his manhood approached, his father proposed to him the profession -of the law, but as he, weary of his unhappy home, displayed an -inclination for the army, open war was at once declared by his father -against him. To more than one abbé did the young man in his misery -appeal for intercession with his tyrannical parent; but such appeals -only made matters worse, and the Counsellor became so furious in his -wrath, that he made preparations to seclude Louis in some strong -vault or cellar of his mansion. - -The Marquis having discovered the residence of a young woman who was -the mistress of his father, paid her a secret visit, told her the -story of his unhappy life and domestic persecution; and, as his own -mother seemed powerless in the matter, on his knees sought _her_ -interest in his behalf. She would seem to have been touched by the -appeal; and rated the Counsellor soundly for his unnatural conduct, -threatening him with the loss of her affection "if M. Louis were not -left to his own inclination in the choice of a profession." - -In the hope, perhaps, that some English or Prussian bullet might rid -him of a son whom he hated so cordially, Bertin permitted the Marquis -to join the Regiment de Noailles (or 54th Cavalry of the Line, -commanded by the Comte d'Ayen, nephew of Marshal Noailles) as a cadet -or volunteer; but, according to the system then pursued in the French -service, he could receive no pay or emolument, even while campaigning -in Flanders and Germany. After fourteen months of this probation, -however, he was gazetted to a cornetcy in the Regiment de Maine, and -at sixteen years of age became captain of a troop in the 40th -Cavalry, or Dragoons of St. Jal, commanded by Brigadier the Comte de -St. Jal;* his boyish spirit and bravery (not to mention his rank) -having even then attracted the attention of Comte d'Argenson, who was -prime minister of France from 1743 to 1757. The Count prevailed upon -Louis the Fifteenth to make the Marquis a Chevalier of the Royal -Order, and bestow upon him a special pension, in lieu of the wretched -pittance allowed him by his father. - - -* Liste Historique de toutes les troupe au Service de France. - - -This early success in camp and at court seemed to inflame the -resentment of the Counsellor, who now began to affirm that the -Marquis was not his son, but a changeling, or impostor, substituted -by the nurse for his first child, who, he declared, had died while -under her charge; but, as this story could be in no way sustained, M. -Bertin changed his tactics, and resolved to get rid of his eldest son -by--poison! - -A fever with which Fratteaux was seized about this time, favoured the -infamous idea; and his father, who visited him with an air of -concern, contrived to give him, in his medicine, a dose of some -deadly drug which he called an infusion of bark. It nearly proved -fatal, and would inevitably have done so, but for the prompt arrival -of the apothecary who had furnished it, and who, suspecting foul play -when summoned by the Marquis, brought with him a powerful antidote. - -The Counsellor, who was immensely rich, now suborned some worthless -fellows, among whom was an Italian (name unknown), to swear that -Fratteaux meditated a parricidal design against _his_ life; "that the -Marquis, having a quarrel with his father, drew his sword, and would -have killed him but for the interposition of the father of the -Italian, who received the thrust, and died of it." - -This deposition enabled Bertin to purchase a lettre de cachet, by -virtue of which he had his son arrested, and thrust into a monastery -near Bordeaux, where he was treated as a prisoner. Though for the -crime of attempted parricide he might have been broken alive on the -wheel by the then existing laws of France. - -Through the great influence of Bertin as a Counsellor of Parliament, -all his son's entreaties for release, or for a public trial, were -rendered vain, and he lost his commission in the Regiment of St. Jal. -Some of his friends, however, having discovered where he was -confined, and fearing that he might be secretly put to death, broke -into the monastery one night, and assisted him to escape. Through -Gascony and Bearn he fled to Spain, where, without so much as a -change of clothes, without money or letters of introduction, he -arrived, in a famished and destitute condition, at the house of the -Comte de Marcillac (a relation of his mother), who derived his title -from the little town of that name, nine miles north of Bordeaux. - -The Counsellor soon discovered the place of his son's retreat, and, -assisted by a liberal donation of gold, soon procured from the French -ambassador at Madrid a warrant for the arrest of the fugitive, based -upon the powers afforded by that infamous instrument of tyranny, the -lettre de cachet. Once more the unhappy son had to fly; the Comte de -Marcillac supplied him with money; and, embarking at the nearest -port, he sailed for London, where he arrived in 1749. There, under -the name of Monsieur de St. Etienne, he took a humble lodging in -Paddington, then a country village with green fields all round it, -from Marybone Farm to Kensington. His landlord was a market gardener. - -His friends in France and Spain sent him remittances and letters of -introduction to several persons of rank in London. To these, the -pleasant manners, gentle bearing, and handsome person of the young -Marquis speedily recommended him, and ere long he was enabled to -remove nearer town, where he boarded with a Mrs. Giles, in -Marybone--or, as another account has it, "with one Mrs. Bacon, a -widow gentlewoman of much good nature and understanding." But even -in this "land of liberty" he was not safe from the rancour of the -indefatigable Counsellor, with his lettre de cachet. - -The English friends of the Marquis having urged that he should lay -the story of his wrongs before Louis the Fifteenth in the form of a -memorial, the preparation of it was confided to an amanuensis, a -Frenchman named Dages de Souchard. This fellow (though only the son -of an obscure lawyer at Libourne, then a very small town of Provence) -assumed, in London, the title of Baron. A deep-witted, crafty, and -insinuating rascal, he contrived to propitiate many unsuspecting -persons, and claimed to be a strict French Protestant, though he had, -in early life, been a Franciscan monk, or friar minor, in a monastery -at Nerac, in the west of France, and came of a family of rigid -Catholics. Nay, while in the monastery, he seduced a young girl -named Du Taux, whose mother was the lavandière of the establishment, -and they had come together to London, where they gave themselves out -as persecuted French Protestants. Having been born within twenty -miles of Bordeaux, this Souchard knew the story of the Marquis de -Fratteaux, and conceived the idea of turning it to his own profit -before it should reach the ears of Louis the Fifteenth. For this -purpose, delaying the preparation of the memorial, he wrote secretly -to the Counsellor, stating that he knew where his son was, and -offering to make terms to secure and deliver him up! The Counsellor -entered cordially into the scheme, and, after remitting him some -money on account, agreed to settle upon him for life a pension of six -hundred livres, and to pay him two thousand English guineas down, -with two hundred more, for the reward of any assistants or -accomplices he might deem necessary. - -Dages de Souchard immediately set about his treachery, and employed a -man of most unscrupulous character, one Alexander Blasdale, a -Marshal's Court officer who resided in St. Martin's Lane, and whose -follower or colleague, by a strange coincidence, was the very Italian -who had been accessory to the incarceration of the Marquis in the -monastery near Bordeaux. - -On the night of the 25th of March, 1752, they repaired to the -lodgings of the Marquis: who immediately became deadly pale on seeing -the Italian, and exclaimed, in alarm and distress: - -"I am a dead man!" - -Blasdale summoned him to surrender in the king's name. Knowing that -he owed no man anything, Fratteaux was disposed to resist. His -landlady sent for M. Robart, French clergyman, to whom Blasdale, with -cool effrontery, showed a writ to arrest the Marquis for a pretended -debt. The latter was persuaded to yield and to accompany the officer -to his house in St. Martin's Lane, whither he was immediately driven -in a hackney-coach, and there placed in a secure chamber. - -Five gentlemen, "one of them a person of the first fashion," on -hearing of the arrest, repaired to the bailiff, and in strong -language warned him to beware of using the least violence towards his -prisoner, lest he should be called to a severe account; and they -added, that sufficient bail would be found for him in the morning. -One gentleman, named M. Dubois, remained with the Marquis as his -friend, resolved to see the end of the affair, and to protect him; -but about midnight the Italian came in, saying that some one wished -to speak with this gentleman below. On descending to the street, -Dubois found only the bailiff Blasdale, who roughly told him "to be -gone," and thrusting him out of the house, shut him out, and secured -the door. On this gentleman returning with the French clergyman and -others next morning, they were told by a servant-girl "that the -Marquis was gone, in company with several gentlemen." They then -demanded to see her master, but were curtly told that "he was out of -town." In short, neither he nor his victim was ever beheld in -England again! - -Fears of foul play being immediately excited, the whole party -repaired to Justice Fielding, by whom a warrant to apprehend Blasdale -was issued, on suspicion of murder. Application was made to the Lord -Chief Justice, and also to the secretary of state, Robert Earl of -Holderness, for a habeas corpus to prevent the Marquis from being -taken out of the kingdom dead or alive; but all was of no avail, and -the fate of Fratteaux remained for some time a dark mystery. - -It would appear that on finding himself alone, after the rough -expulsion of his friend Dubois, the Marquis became furious with rage; -on which Blasdale swore that as he made so much noise in the house he -would convey him at once to jail. Fratteaux, who feared he might be -assassinated where he was, readily consented to go to jail, and a -hackney-coach was called. In it, he, the bailiff, and the nameless -Italian, drove through various obscure streets and by-lanes. It was -now about five in the morning. - -The marquis again and again implored aid from the coach window in -broken English, but received none; to the watch his keepers said that -he was "only a French fellow they had arrested for debt;" to others -they said he had been made furious by the bite of a mad dog, and they -were going to dip him in salt water at Gravesend. Thus his -entreaties were abortive, and at about sunrise he found himself at a -lonely place by the side of the river Thames. A cocked pistol was -put to his ear, and resistance was vain; he was thrust on board a -small vessel, which had been waiting for him in the river, and which, -after he was secured below, dropped down with the ebb tide. So well -did Souchard, Blasdale, and the Italian take all their measures, that -on the night of the 29th the two last-named worthies landed the -Marquis at Calais, the gates of which town were opened to admit them -long after the usual hour of closing. He was then delivered over as -a prisoner of state to the town authorities, who had all been duly -communicated with, and probably well fee'd, and by whom he was sent, -chained by the neck, in a post-chaise, to his father's house in -Paris. The Counsellor, in virtue of his lettre de cachet, now sent -his son the Marquis to be immured in the Bastile for life. - -"This is the first narrative of the kind which has stained the annals -of England," says a print of the time; "and if it be not the last, -highly as we boast of giving laws to all Europe, we shall be little -better, in fact, than a pitiful colony exposed to the mercy of every -insolent neighbour." Great indignation was excited in London, where -a subscription was raised for the purpose of punishing all concerned -in this flagrant violation of British law; but nothing was achieved -in the end,* though in January, 1754--one year and eight months after -the outrage at St. Martin's Lane--our ambassador at the court of -Versailles, General the Earl of Albemarle, demanded that both the -Marquis and his infamous trepanner, Alexander Blasdale, at that time -in Paris, should be delivered up and sent back to London. His -request was never complied with, and for fourteen years the luckless -Marquis was allowed to languish in the Bastile. - - -* "We are told that a foreign nobleman is already in custody of a -messenger for this offence, and no person is permitted to have access -to him, neither is he allowed the use of pen, ink, or -paper."--_Gentleman's Magazine_, 1752. Very probably this "foreign -nobleman" was the _Baron_ Dages de Souchard. - - -He and his story were soon forgotten, and nothing more was heard of -him, until some of the London papers of July 14, 1764, contained the -following paragraph: "The Marquis de Fratteaux, that French gentleman -who was some years ago forcibly carried off from England to France -and confined in the Bastile, is now at liberty on his estate at -Fratteaux; for when his brother, M. Bertin de Bourdeille, was made -Intendant of Lyons, he obtained his liberty, on giving his word of -honour to remain on his estate at Fratteaux, and never to go above -six miles from it without leave from his father, with whom he had -been at great variance, which was the occasion of his leaving France. -Two months after his arrival at Fratteaux his father went to see him, -and he had permission to return the visit at Bourdeille. He has kept -his word of honour strictly, and lives at present in cordiality with -the whole family." - -Broken in health and spirit by all he had undergone, this unfortunate -victim of a family feud and an unnatural hatred, died soon -afterwards, and thus the wishes of his father were accomplished. - - - - -SOCIVISCA: - -THE STORY OF A GREEK OUTLAW. - -In the year 1688, that district of Western Turkey named -Montenegro--the ancient Illyria--placed itself under the protection -of the Venetian republic, which was then governed by the doge -Francisco Morosini, a famous soldier, who took the castle of the -Dardanelles from the Turks, together with Lepanto and several other -places. - -For a time after this, its inhabitants, those half-Greek and -half-Slavonian mountaineers, with the people of Bosnia, enjoyed -comparative peace; but by the treaty concluded at Passarowitz in -July, 1718, between Charles VI. (last Count of Hapsburg) and the -Porte, they were surrendered to the tender mercies of the Turks, and -became subject to all the exactions of those grasping, ignorant, and -impracticable conquerors. - -However, the hardy warriors of the mountains were scarcely content, -like their countrymen in the eastern portions of Greece, to live on -despised and unmolested for the payment of tribute; the worst and -most humiliating feature of which was the number of children they -were compelled to present yearly to the sultan for service in the -seraglio, or in the ranks of the janissaries, where their identity -soon became lost; and where in the end they realized what Voltaire -termed "a great proof of the force of education and of the strange -constitution of human affairs, that the most of those proud -oppressors of Christianity should thus be born of _Christian -parents_." - -Socivisca, the subject of the following sketch, was born at Simiova -in 1725, of Grecian parents, who reared and educated him in the -profession and faith of the Greek church. He was strong, hardy, and -athletic in form, and of a haughty and resentful spirit, that would -ill brook the circumstances in which he found himself as he grew to -manhood. - -His father occupied a small sheep farm on the slope of those -mountains whose forests of dark pine give a name to the people and -the province. But the proprietors were Turks, who treated the -family, which consisted of the old man and his four sons, with great -severity, subjecting them to constant exactions, insults, and -oppressions. - -They were thus reduced to such extreme poverty that Socivisca, with -all his industry, aided by that of his three brothers, Nicholas, -Giurgius, and Adrian, found himself quite unable to marry a beautiful -Greek girl, of whom he became enamoured in youth. His father, being -of a peaceful and gentle nature, and being perhaps aware of the -hopelessness of resistance, on perceiving that his sons writhed under -their afflictions, besought them to submit with patience to the will -of God; but the four young men, being alike of a fiery and haughty -spirit, and, moreover, being trained to the use of those arms which -the Montenegrin shepherds constantly wear (like the Scots Highlanders -in the last century), they received his advice in reluctant silence, -and not the less resolved to have a trial of strength some day with -their Mahommedan oppressors. - -Native hardihood and warlike spirit were in this instance added to -national animosity and religious rancour; thus Socivisca, like Rob -Roy, vowed that ere long those should tremble "on hearing of his -vengeance, that would not listen to the story of his wrongs." - -The Montenegrins, like most other mountaineers, are eminently -patriotic, and the solemn and melancholy aspect of those dark hills -of Illyria that look down on the Adriatic, to their eyes must seem -well to harmonize with the fallen state of Greece:-- - - "And yet how lovely in thine age of woe, - Land of lost gods and god-like men, art thou! - Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow, - Proclaim thee nature's varied favourite now." - -Though not pure Greeks, but Zernagorzii, of half-Slavonian blood, the -Montenegrins have the most extravagant ideas of independence and the -past glories of their country. Inspired by its scenery, by the real -and imaginary stories of its departed greatness and present -degradation, Socivisca and his brothers registered at the altar a vow -of vengeance on their oppressive Overlords! and as if _fatality_ had -a hand in the matter, it chanced soon after that the haughty Turk, -the proprietor of their sheep farm, accompanied by two of his -brothers, came, either by choice or necessity, to lodge at the farm. -This was in 1744, when Socivisca was in his nineteenth year. - -"We are four to three," said he, "so look to your pistols and -yataghans, after these dogs have had their food and coffee." - -Notwithstanding their vow, it is said that he wavered for a time -before performing the terrible deed; but when he saw his father's -face, sharpened more by want and privation than by age--when he -looked on the rags and sheepskins that clad them all--they the true -lords of the soil--and saw in contrast the rich flowing garments of -fine silk and velvet, laced with gold, and the jewelled weapons of -the three Mahommedans, in whose presence every wooden crucifix or -gaudy little picture of a Greek saint had to be hidden--and perhaps -when the youth thought of his bride, and all that might be if the -land they trod on was indeed their own, every scruple gave way, and, -inciting his brothers to the deadly work, they fell on the three -Turks, as they lounged over their long pipes, and slew them by their -pistols and yataghans, after a very brief resistance. - -In their mails were found eighteen thousand sequins--an unexpected -but most seasonable accession of fortune. The brothers quickly -buried the bodies and all their habiliments. Save the gold, which -was carefully concealed, there remained no trace of the terrible -deed, and as it occurred unknown to all save themselves, in that -solitary little farm amid the savage mountain solitude, no suspicion -of the circumstance fell on them. - -Thus, instead of taking to flight, the Greeks remained quietly where -they were. The Pacha of Bosnia made every inquiry after the three -missing Turks, who were his friends. Suspicions somehow fell on -other parties, who were dragged to Traunick, and executed with great -barbarity, while Socivisca wedded the girl he loved, and lived with -his father and brothers in comparative ease and comfort. - -About a year after the triple assassination, some imprudence of -Socivisca, in displaying the latent pride and ferocity of his -character, together with the unusual amount of money the family were -enabled to spend, excited the surprise and then the ready suspicions -of the pastoral people around them. - -Some whisper of these suspicions reached Socivisca; so by his advice -the whole family abandoned the farm in the night, and, taking with -them only their gold and their arms, departed from the mountains -towards the Venetian territory. - -The weather was severe, the roads were rough, and the elder -Socivisca, unable to sustain privations so unwonted at his time of -life, expired of toil by the wayside, and was hastily buried by his -four sons in a wild and solitary place. - -Entering the territories of the republic, where they were in safety, -in the year 1745, they took up their habitation in the town of -Imoski, which is now in what is termed Austrian Dalmatia, and on the -borders of Bosnia; but in those days the old fortress on the -hill--the site of the ancient Novanium--bore the flag of Venice. - -Here they gave themselves out to be traders, and opened a bazaar, -which they stored with rich merchandise; they built a large house, -and soon became almost wealthy; but the easy life of a merchant by no -means suited the temperament of Socivisca and his brethren,--for the -warrior shepherds pined for their mountain home and the forests of -the Illyrian shore. - -They sold their house, the bazaar, and its goods, and attended by -stout fellows, whose spirit was something like their own, they -returned again to Montenegro, and commenced a series of those forays -and surprises (against the pacha) in which the Black Mountaineers -delight, and in the conduct of which they peculiarly excel; and -during the ensuing summer they contrived to massacre, in various -ways, about forty Turks, as it was against them, and them only, that -all the hatred of Socivisca was directed. - -The habits to which he had been accustomed from infancy pre-eminently -fitted him for the life of a wandering guerrilla. "A Montenegrin," -says Broniewski, a Russian traveller, "is always armed, and carries -about, during his most peaceful occupation, a rifle, pistols, a -yataghan, and cartouch-box. They spend their leisure from boyhood in -firing at a target. Inured to hardships and privations, they -perform, without fatigue, long and forced marches, climb the steepest -rocks with facility, and bear with patience hunger, thirst, and every -kind of privation. They cut off the heads of those enemies whom they -take with arms in their hands, and spare only those who surrender -_before_ battle." - -Seeking no mercy, they yielded none; and if one of their number was -wounded severely, his comrades cut off his head; and when not tending -their flocks, like the Circassians, they spent their whole time in -forays against the invaders of the Black Mountains. But after a time -Socivisca grew weary of slaughtering and beheading the Turks, and -returned once more to his wife and children at Imoski, where he -remained till 1754, engaged in trade, though now and then he slung -his long rifle on his shoulder, stuck his dagger and pistols in his -girdle, and crossed the Bosnian frontier to indulge in his favourite -pastime of slaying the Turks. - -In all his dealings and adventures, whether as a merchant or -guerrilla robber, it could never be discovered that he wronged in the -least degree any subjects either of the Austrian empire or of the -Venetian republic. - -Meantime, two of his brothers married, and Adrian, the youngest, -joined the Aiducos, a band of Morlachians, who had leagued themselves -together for the express but hazardous purpose of preventing the -Turks from crossing what they considered the frontier of their own -country; in short to defend the wooded passes of the Black Mountains. -Brave, rash, cunning, treacherous, and cruel, these Morlachians are a -mixture of Hungarian, Greek, and Venetian blood, and their religion -is a mere mass of superstition, partly Christian and partly Oriental. - -The youth became the comrade of a Morlachian of the Greek church, and -chose him for his _probatim_. This choice of friendship was always -consecrated by a solemn ceremony at the altar of the nearest church, -before which they knelt, each holding a lighted taper, whilst the -priest sprinkled them with holy water and blessed the compact. - -United thus, the _probatims_ are bound for life to assist each other -in war or peace, in danger or adversity, against all men whatsoever. -The young mountaineer, however, made an unfortunate choice of a -friend, for the probatim lured him to his own house, gave him drugged -wine, and for a sum of money delivered him over, bound hand and foot, -to the Pacha of Traunick, which is one of the six military pachalics -into which Bosnia is divided. - -After exposing the poor youth, who was a model of manly beauty, -stripped and nude before the people, the pacha put him to death, amid -the most exquisite tortures that the Oriental mind can suggest. - -On hearing of this atrocity Socivisca was filled with rage and grief; -but dissembling, he armed himself fully, and travelled without -stopping until he reached the residence of the false probatim, whose -father, a subtle old Morlachian, received him with an air of such -grief and commiseration that he succeeded completely in making our -mountaineer believe that the son was innocent of the crime laid to -his charge by common rumour. The probatim next appeared, and acted -_his part_ so well, and shed so many tears, that Socivisca, -confounded and convinced, gave him his hand, and consented to dine -with the family. Then the young Morlachian said that, "in honour of -such a guest, he would kill the best lamb in his flock;" and he went -forth, but instead of going to his pastures, he rode on the spur -twelve miles to have a conference with the mir-alai who commanded a -body of Turkish horse on the bank of the Danube, and to inform him of -where Socivisca was to be found, receiving from the officer a -handsome sum for his second act of treachery. - -The day wore on, and evening came without either the lamb or the -probatim appearing. The wily host, who knew what was on the _tapis_, -left nothing unsaid to satisfy the doubts of Socivisca, who, after -night-fall, retired to his bedchamber, but not to repose; for strange -and unbidden forebodings of coming evil tormented him. He dared not -sleep, and he seemed to hear the voices of his wife and children -mingling with the wind that shook the woods, and with the tread of -coming enemies. His dogs, also--two of that Molossian breed which is -unsurpassed for strength and ferocity--warned him by their snorts and -restlessness of approaching danger,--for dogs at times are said to -have strange instincts. At last, unable to endure the suspicions of -peril and treachery, he sprang from bed, dressed himself in the dark, -and sought for his arms, but _they had been removed_! - -Musket, pistols, yataghan, and all were gone. He called on his host -repeatedly, but without receiving an answer. Then, inspired by rage -and the conviction that, like his brother, he had been snared to his -doom, with a flint and tinder-box, he lighted a lamp, went forth to -search the house, and soon appeared by the bedside of his host. - -"Wretch!" he exclaimed as he seized him by the beard, "my arms--where -are they? Speak ere it be too late for us both!" - -Every moment expecting to hear his son return with a party of Turks, -the Morlachian attempted to expostulate and to temporize; but -Socivisca's eye fell on a small hatchet that lay near, and snatching -it up, with a terrible malediction, he cleft the old traitor's skull -to the chin. - -On this a female servant, dreading her master's fate, gave Socivisca -his arms, and he fled into the woods close by, where he lurked long -enough to see the probatim arrive with a party of Timariots, who -surrounded the house. On this the fugitive withdrew and retired -towards the mountains, swearing by every saint in his church to have -a terrible revenge! - -Assembling his followers, he descended in the night, and guarding all -the avenues to prevent escape, he set fire to the house of the -probatim, who perished miserably with sixteen of his family, all of -whom were burned alive, save a woman, who was killed by a rifle-shot -when in the act of leaping from a window with an infant in her arms. - -After these affairs the Pacha of Bosnia, a three-tailed dignitary who -resided at Traunick, scoured the country with his Timariots, and made -such incredible efforts to capture Socivisca, that though the latter -multiplied his slaughters, raids, and robberies, he was ultimately -driven, with his brothers, his wife, and two children (a son and -daughter), over the Montenegrin frontier to Karlovitz, a small place -in the Austrian territory, famous only as the scene of Prince -Eugene's victory over the Ottoman troops in the early part of the -last century. The Hungarians being, like the Illyrians, of Slavonian -blood, there he found a comfortable shelter for three years under the -protection of the Emperor Francis I. and the Empress-Queen, and -during that time his conduct and life were alike blameless and -without reproach. One of his brothers, however, having strayed -across the frontier, fell into the hands of the Turks, and would have -died a miserable death, had his escape not been favoured by one who -proved friendly to him, a Timariot named Nouri Othman. - -In October, 1757, Osman III. died, and was succeeded by Mustapha, son -of the deposed Sultan Achmet. Karlovitz is only forty miles from the -Bosnian frontier; so the pacha, who never lost sight of Socivisca, -anxious to please the new sovereign and display his activity, by a -lavish disposal of gold, and by the aid of some person or persons -unknown, had the exile betrayed and made prisoner. He ordered him to -be conveyed at once to Traunick, and to be placed in the same prison -where his younger brother perished so miserably. - -Though elaborately tied and bound, by some of that skill which the -rope-tricksters display in the present day, he contrived, _en route_, -to get free, and, escaping, reached Karlovitz, where he had the -unhappiness to find that, by a singular stroke of misfortune, his -wife and two children had in the interim fallen into the hands of the -pacha, that in his flight he had actually passed them on the road, -and that they were now in the strong prison of Traunick, from which -escape or release seemed alike hopeless. - -By messengers from Karlovitz he strove to negotiate for their -release, but the pacha was inexorable. He then wrote the following -letter, which appeared in a newspaper for March, 1800, where it was -given "as a curious specimen of social feeling operating on a rugged -and ardent disposition;" moreover, it is no bad specimen of the -outlaw's literary power:-- - -"I am informed, O Pacha of Bosnia, that you complain of my escape; -but I put it to yourself, what would you have done in my place? -Would you have suffered yourself to be bound with cords like a -miserable beast, and led away without resistance by men who, as soon -as they arrived at a certain place, would put you to death? - -"Nature impels us to avoid destruction, and I have acted only in -obedience to her laws. - -"Tell me, Pacha, what crime have my wife and little children -committed that, in spite of law and justice, you should retain them -like slaves? Perhaps you hope to render me more submissive; but you -cannot surely expect that I shall return to you and hold forth my -arms to be loaded with fresh bonds. - -"Hear me then, Pacha! You may exhaust on them all your fury without -producing the least advantage. On _my part_, I declare I shall wreak -my vengeance _on all Turks_ who may fall into my hands, and I will -omit no means of injuring you! - -"For the love of God restore to me, I beseech you, my blood! obtain -my pardon from my sovereign, and no longer retain in your memory my -past offences; and I promise that I will _then_ leave your subjects -in tranquillity, and even serve them as a friend when necessary. - -"If you refuse this favour, expect from me all that despair can -prompt! I shall assemble my friends, carry destruction wherever you -reside, pillage your property, plunder your merchants; and from this -moment, if you pay no attention to my entreaties, I swear that I will -massacre every Turk that falls into my hands." - -As Socivisca had been doing this for so many years past, perhaps the -pacha thought compliance would not make much difference; so this -letter, like its preceding messages, he received with contempt, -swearing by the "beard of the sultan to listen neither to the threats -nor entreaties of a common robber." So Socivisca performed to the -full all that he had named and threatened. At the head of a body of -Greeks and Montenegrins he ravaged all the Bosnian frontier, slaying -and decapitating every Mussulman who fell into his hands. Seeking no -quarter and giving none, as before, flames and rapine marked his path -wherever he went. - -Many of his forays were made near the Lake of Scutari, in concert -with the Montenegrins, whom the Russians supplied with arms and -artillery to add to the troubles of the Pacha of Bosnia, whose people -ere long on their knees besought him to yield up the wife and -children of Socivisca, and save them from a scourge so terrible. - -Still the pacha refused; but suddenly the indomitable Socivisca -appeared with his hardy Aiducos before the walls of Traunick, and, by -a wonderful combination of force and stratagem, the gates were -stormed, the guards dispersed, and he carried off his wife, his son, -and daughter to a place of safety beyond the frontier. - -In retiring from Traunick, at a wild place near Razula, his people -captured one of the Turkish Timariots, in the service of the pacha, -and would instantly have put him to death had not the brother of -Socivisca recognized in him the man who had favoured his escape a -short time before,--Nouri Othman. These Timariots were soldiers, who -clothed, armed, and accoutred themselves out of their pay, and were -under the immediate command of the sanjiac or bey, and each -maintained under him a certain number of militiamen, as they were, in -fact, high-class Turkish cavaliers. Those on the Hungarian frontier -had each an income of 6000 aspres, a coin then worth one shilling and -threepence British money. - -In gratitude the mountain warrior permitted Othman to escape; and -while Socivisca was at prayers--a duty which he never omitted before -a meal--the prisoner was set at liberty, a fleet horse was given him, -and from the camp of the outlaws he spurred towards Traunick. -Against this act of generosity the Aiducos of the band exclaimed -loudly; and a nephew of Socivisca went so far as to draw from his -girdle a long brass-butted pistol, with which he struck his uncle on -the face; the latter, infuriated by such an insult from a junior, -shot him through the heart, and was compelled to fly from the troop. - -The nephew was buried as his grandfather had been, in a grave by the -wayside; but this family quarrel and double misfortune affected -Socivisca so much that he returned to Karlovitz, relinquishing alike -his life of war and outrage for a time, but for a time only; for, -fired with enthusiasm on hearing that Stephano Piciola (known as Di -Montenero), so often victorious over the Turks, had made himself -master of all Albania, in 1770, he issued forth again at the head of -his Aiducos, and scoured the Bosnian frontier, shooting down every -Turk whom he met. - -In his fiftieth year, after having led a life of such danger and -strife--after shedding so much blood, and during a period of thirty -years since the slaughter of the three Turkish brothers at his -father's farm, having plundered so much, so freely had he spent his -cash among his friends and followers, that he found his exchequer -reduced to only six hundred sequins. - -To secure these, he entrusted three hundred to the care of a kinsman -and the rest to a friend, both of whom absconded with their trust to -the shelter of the pacha, and left him in abject poverty in the small -town of Grachaez, in the province of Carlstadt, on the military -frontier of Croatia. - -In the year 1775 the Emperor Francis I., when passing through the -province, wished to see the famous predatory warrior of whom he had -heard so much, and visited his humble abode at Grachaez. There he -was so greatly struck with the simple dignity, the resolute but -respectful demeanour of the white-bearded partisan, that he presented -him with a handsome sum of money, and asked him to show his numerous -wounds, and to detail the chief events of his life. - -Socivisca did so, with so much simplicity and modesty that the -Emperor, whom he pleased and amused, and who was looking forward to -the capture of the Bukovine and other districts from the Turks, made -him an offer of service, and assigned him an important military -command upon the Hungarian frontier, opposed to the great pachalics -of Bosnia and Servia. - -In the exercise of this office* he was alive at Grachaez in 1777, -after which year his name can no more be traced in the histories, -papers, or periodicals of the time, so that we are unable to say when -he died. - - -* "Arambassa of Pandonas" it is styled in the English newspapers--a -title we frankly confess ourselves unable to understand. - - -Such was the wild, romantic, and singular story of a mountain robber, -whose life ultimately became productive of public utility; who -enjoyed the favour and protection of Francis I. and Maria Theresa; -and whose career, in his unrelenting animosity to the Turks, presents -a curious mixture of patriotism and ferocity, religious enthusiasm -and the long-engendered rancour of rival and antagonistic races. - - - - -PAQUETTE. - -AN EPISODE OF THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR. - - -CHAPTER I. - -In the spring of the year 1870, when my merry Paquette and I used to -laugh at the cartoons of the _Kladderadatch_, representing King -William lowering a mannikin in regimentals gently, by the spike of -his helmet, into a huge chair, inscribed "Spanien," we little foresaw -the horrors that were to come, or the days when we might tremble at -the warlike news of the official _Staatsanzieger_. - -We had been married a year, and were so happy in our pretty little -house at Blankenese (a short distance from Hamburg), where all the -sloping bank above the Elbe is covered with rich green copsewood, -from amid which peep out the tiny red-tiled cottages of the -fishermen; while over all tower the white-walled villas of those -opulent merchants whose names stood so high in the Neuerwall or the -Admiralitatstrasse, and higher still in the Bourse of the Free -City--free now only in name, as it has become, since the Holstein -war, an integral portion of the Prussian Empire. - -Paquette Champfleurie was my first real love; yet, though still -little more than a girl, she was a widow when we married, and it all -came to pass in this fashion, for we had indeed much sorrow before -our days of joy arrived. When I, Carl Steinmetz--for such is my -name, though no relation to the great Prussian general--was but a lad -in a merchant's office, in the quaint old gable-ended and -timber-built street called the Stubbenhuk, I had learned to love -Paquette, then a boarder in a fashionable school on the beautiful -Alsterdam. Our interviews were stolen; our intercourse most -difficult; for her kinswoman, the Gräfine von Spitzberger--a reduced -lady of rank, with whom she was placed for educational -purposes--watched her with the eyes of a lynx. But what will not -love achieve? - -Paquette, a lively, dark-eyed, and chestnut-haired girl from -Lorraine, with a piquant little face that was not by any means French -in contour or expression, and I, a sharp-witted _burschen_ fresh from -Berlin, soon found means for prosecuting our affair of the heart, -from the time when our eyes first met on a Sunday evening in St. -Michael's Kirche, to that eventful hour when, after many a note -exchanged or concealed in a certain hollow tree near the -Lombardsbrücke, we plighted our troth in the little grove near -Schiller's bronze statue, with no witnesses but the quiet stars -overhead, and the snow-white swans that floated on the blue current -of the Alster. - -But sorrow soon came to rouse us from our dreams; for three weeks -after that happy evening her father took her home, without permitting -us to say farewell, and ere long I learned that she had become the -wife of Baptiste Graindorge, a wealthy merchant of Lorraine! With -these tidings the half of my life seemed to leave me. They cost me -many a secret tear, and much jealous bitterness, though I knew that -French girls have no freedom of choice in matrimony; and I loathed -the odious Graindorge in my heart, while bending resolutely over my -desk, in the dingy and gloomy little office in the noisy -Stubbenhuk--bending also every energy to amass money, though for what -purpose now I scarcely know. But fortune favoured me. - -I became ere long a junior partner in the firm under whom I had -worked as a clerk, and the same year saw Paquette free; for our -horrible Graindorge had died abroad of fever, at the French colony of -Senegal, and she became mine--mine after all! A widow, no scheming -father could interfere with her then. - -In the whole of busy Hamburg there could be no happier couple than we -were--and this was but a year ago. Wedded, we visited every place -where we had been wont to meet by stealth, in terror of the old -Gräfine--the leafy arcades of the Young Maiden's Walk, the Botanical -Gardens, the groves that cover all the old mounds about the Holstein -Wall, and the banks of the Alster, while Michael's Kirche was indeed -a holy place to us, for there we had first met. - -One morning in July of last year--ah, I shall never forget it--we -were at breakfast together in the dining-room of our cottage at -Blankenese, and prior to taking the Sporvei 'bus for the city, I was -skimming over the _Staatsanzieger_, which was then beginning to be -full of threatening news concerning the Spanish succession, and -calling on Prussia to rouse herself, as all France, or Paris, at -least, was shouting "A Berlin!" and "To the Rhine!" The atmosphere -was deliciously warm; the slender iron casements were wide open; the -fragrant roses and jessamine clambered thickly round them, and the -drowsy hum of the bees mingled with the sounds that came, softened by -distance, from the vast shining bosom of the Elbe, where ships, with -the flags of all the world, were gliding, some towards Jonashafen and -the city, others downward to the North Sea; and opposite lay the flat -but green and lovely coast of Hanover, studded with pretty red -villages, church-spires, and windmills whirling in the sunny air. - -My heart felt happy and joyous, and Paquette was looking her -loveliest in a light muslin morning dress; her bright brown hair, her -pure complexion, and her dark, laughing eyes, making her seem a very -Hebe, as she poured out my coffee, buttered the little brown German -rolls, and chirruped about how we should spend the evening, after she -had joined me in the city, and we had dined, as we frequently did, -under the shady verandah of the pleasant Alster Pavilion, surrounded -by swans and pleasure boats. - -"Where shall we go, Carl, darling?" she continued--"to the Circus -Renz?" - -"No, Paquette; I am sick of the horsemanship and the sawdust, and the -same everlasting girl, who, when she is not flying through a hoop, -prances about in the dress of a Uhlan." - -"The Botanical Gardens, then; the band of the 76th Hanoverians play -there to-night, and some ten thousand gay people will be present." - -"Well, darling, it shall be as you wish; and after looking in at the -Stadt Theatre, to see Kathie Lanner's Swedish ballet, a droski will -soon whirl us home from the Damthor-wall." - -"But it was in that theatre, Carl, love, we saw each other last, and -at a distance, on the night----" - -"Before--before----" I began. - -"I was torn from you to become the wife of another, Carl," she -exclaimed, in a low voice, as she took my face between her pretty -hands, and kissed me playfully. - -"Ah, Graindorge!" thought I, with a little bitterness, as I kissed -her in return, and rose to fill my meerschaum prior to setting forth -for the city; but a strange cry from Paquette made me wheel sharply -round on the varnished floor, and to my bewilderment and terror, I -saw her sinking back in her chair, pallid as death, like one -transfixed--her jaw relaxed, her poor little hands clasped, her eyes -expressive only of horror and woe, and bent on something outside the -window. My gaze involuntarily followed hers, as I sprung to her side. - -At the railing before our little flower-garden stood a shabby-looking -man, whose face will ever haunt me. His hat, well worn, tall and -shiny, was pressed knowingly over the right eye. He was looking -steadily at us, and appeared as if he had been doing so for some -time. A diabolical grin, like that of Mephistopheles, was over all -his features--in his carbuncle-like eyes, and in his wide mouth, -where all his teeth seemed to glisten. He had a sallow and -dissipated face, a hooked, sardonic nose, and on his left cheek a -large black mole. A faded green dress-coat, with brass buttons, a -yellow vest, and short inexpressibles of checked stuff, formed his -attire. - -My wife was almost fainting, and seemed on the verge of distraction. - -"Paquette, my love," I began; but she held up her trembling hands as -if deprecatingly between us, and said in a low, broken, and wailing -voice-- - -"Do not speak to me--do not touch me. I am not your wife! Oh, my -poor deluded Carl!--oh, my poor heart! Oh, death, come and end this -horror--this mystery!" - -Her words, her voice, her whole air and expression, made my blood run -cold with a sudden terror, that her reason had become affected. - -"Paquette--dearest Paquette," I said, in a soothing and an imploring -manner, "what do these terrible words mean? That man----" - -"Is Monsieur Baptiste Graindorge, my first husband, come back from -the grave to torment me!" - -"Impossible--girl, you rave!" said I, in deep distress, as I vaulted -over the window and rushed out upon the road; but the scurvy -eavesdropper was gone, and no trace of him remained. In great grief, -and feeling sorely disturbed by the whole affair, I returned to -Paquette, whom I found crouching on the sofa, crushed by agitation -and despair. She gazed at me lovingly, sorrowfully, and yet as if -fearful that I might approach and touch her. - -"Is there not some terrible mistake or misconception in this?" said -I, seeking to gather courage from my own words. - -"None--none," she replied. "I recognized too surely his face--the -mole--the odious smile." - -"But the man died in Africa--it is impossible; and you are my wife, -Paquette, whom none can take from me," I continued, with excited -utterance, as she permitted me to kiss her: but the poor little pet -was cold as marble, and her tremulous hands played almost fatuously, -yet caressingly, with my hair, while she murmured-- - -"Oh, Carl--my poor Carl--what _will_ become of us now?" - -The whole affair seemed too improbable for realization. I besought -her to take courage--to consider the likeness which had startled her -as a mere fancy--an optical delusion; and, aware that my presence was -imperatively necessary at business in the city, I was compelled to -leave her, and did so not without a sorrowful foreboding. - -So strong was the latter emotion, that the closing of the house-door -rang like a knell in my heart. I paused irresolute at the garden -gate, and again on the road; but the jingling bells of the -approaching Sporvei 'bus ended my doubts. I sprang in, and in due -time found myself at my office in the busy Admiralitatstrasse, -opposite the Rath Haus. - -Haunted by the strange episode of the morning, I strove vainly to -become absorbed in bills of lading, and so forth, till one o'clock -should toll from the spires--the time for plunging into the crowd of -noisy speculators at the Bourse--and I was just about to set forth, -when a stranger was announced; I looked up, and was face to face with -the horrible Graindorge! He stood before me just as I had seen him -at the garden-rail, with his tall shiny hat, his shabby coat, his -bloated visage with its black mole and malignant smile. - -"Your business?" I asked curtly. - -"Will be briefly stated, Herr Steinmetz," said he. "So madame fully -recognized me this morning?" - -"Or thought she did," said I, after a short interval of silence. - -"There was no doubt in the matter, but firm conviction. I did _not_ -die in Senegal, the report was false; and so, Herr Steinmetz, I am -here to claim my wife and take her back with me to Lorraine." - -"You are a foul impostor!" cried I furiously, yet with a sinking -heart; "and I shall hand you over to the watch." - -"Pardon me, but you will do nothing of the kind," replied the other, -with the most exasperating composure; "it will not be pleasant to -have your wife--your _supposed_ wife, I mean--made a source of -speculation to all Hamburg, by any public exposé." - -"Oh, my God! my poor Paquette!" I exclaimed involuntarily; "and I -love her so!" - -"Milles diables!" grinned the Frenchman; "it is more than I do." - -"Wretch! what proof have we that you are Baptiste Graindorge, and -not a cheat--a trickster?" - -"The effect produced by my presence--my appearance--on madame, who -dare not deny my identity, which the Gräfine Spitzberger has already -admitted--with great reluctance, I grant you. Well, I am supposed to -be dead. I shall be content to let this supposition remain, and to -quit Hamburg for a consideration." - -"Name it," I asked, thankful for the prospect of being rid of his -horrid presence even for a time, that I might consult some legal -friend; and yet, even while I spoke and thought of purchasing his -silence, I knew that Paquette, my adored wife, would be no wife of -mine! It was a horrible dilemma. Graindorge the Lorrainer was rich; -now he seemed to be poor and needy. I knew not what to think; grief -was uppermost in my soul. After a pause he said slowly-- - -"For six thousand Prussian dollars I shall quit Hamburg." - -With a trembling hand, yet without hesitation, I wrote him a cheque -on my banker, Herr Berger in the Gras-keller, for the sum named, and -the snaky eyes of the Frenchman flashed as he clutched the document. -He inserted it in his tattered pocket-book, and carefully buttoned -his shabby green coat over it; then he placed his hat jauntily on one -side of his head, and tapping the crown with his hand, made me a low -ironical bow, and with a pirouette and a malicious smile quitted the -room, saying-- - -"Adieu, Monsieur Steinmetz--I go; but for _a time_ only." - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -I saw the whole scheme now. The bankrupt--for such I had no doubt he -was--meant to make his power over Paquette and me a source of future -revenue to himself; and I felt sure that when his last dollar was -spent--by to-morrow, perhaps--he would present himself again with a -fresh demand. Like one in a dream I went to the Bourse; but little -or no business was done there that day, for war rumours were hourly -growing more rife. There were riots in its neighbourhood, too. The -tradesmen were "on strike," and the swords of the watch had been -busy, for no less than seven unarmed men were cut down in the -Adolphsplatz. Then, that evening I heard that a spy, supposed to be -a Frenchman, had been hovering about the northern ramparts, near the -Damthor, and had been seen to count the cannon on the -Holstein-wall--a spy who had escaped alike the watch and the guard of -the Seventy-sixth Regiment, and whom I heard described as a shabby -man in a green coat, with a _mole_ on his cheek! - -My heart leaped within me; could this personage and M. Baptiste -Graindorge be one and the same? If so, neither Hamburg nor I was -likely to be troubled by his presence again. - -Before my usual hour, I hastened home--home to my pretty little villa -among the rose-trees at Blankenese; but, alas! to find it desolate, -and our servant, Trüey, a faithful young Vierlander, in tears, and -filled with wonder; for her mistress had packed up some clothes, and -leaving all her jewels, even to her wedding-ring, had departed, after -writing a letter for me. - -I tore it open, and found it to contain but a few words, to confirm -my terror and fill up the cup of my misery. - - -"The Gräfine von Spitzberger has been with me. The man we saw is -indeed my husband, M. Graindorge, the story of whose death has been -all a mistake; and he proved _to her_ his identity, by his knowledge -of all our family affairs. Oh, Carl! oh, my poor darling! the real -husband of my heart and my only love! I must leave you--yes--and by -the time you read this, shall be far on the railroad for France. -Graindorge shall never see me more; my father's house or a convent -must be my shelter now. My last hope is, that you will not attempt -to follow me; my last prayer, that God may bless and comfort you." - - -The lines were written tremulously. I kissed my darling's -wedding-ring, placed it by a ribbon at my neck, and wept bitterly. -Then the room seemed to swim around me; I became senseless, and was -ill in bed for days. Our home was broken now. It was desolate--oh, -so desolate, without my Paquette! She was gone. She had left me for -ever! And every object around seemed to recall her more vividly to -me--her piano, her music, the little ornaments we had bought together -at the Alster Arcade, and the pillow her cheek had rested on. "She -will write to me," thought I; but no letter came. And something of -jealousy began to mingle with the bitterness of my soul. Was she -with Graindorge? - -I think I should have gone mad but for the events that occurred so -quickly now, for one week sufficed to change the whole face of -affairs in Hamburg. France had declared war against Prussia. Trade -stood still; silence reigned in our splendid Bourse, usually the most -noisy and busy scene in the world; the Elbe was empty of shipping, -for its buoys and lights were all destroyed. The Prussians, horse, -foot, and artillery, were pouring towards Travemünde, where a landing -of the French was expected. In one day nearly every horse in Hamburg -was seized for military purposes, and the city was ordered to furnish -eighteen thousand infantry for the Landwehr. - -Of this force I was one. A strip of paper was left at my office one -day, and the next noon saw me in the barracks near the Damthor-wall, -and before the colonel, an officer of Scottish descent, the Graf von -Hamilton. Then, like thousands of others, my plain clothes were -taken from me, and I received in lieu a spiked helmet of glazed -leather, a blue tunic faced with white, a goat-skin knapsack, -great-coat, and camp-kettle, a needle-gun, bayonet, and sword. We -were all accoutred without delay, and within two hours were at drill, -under a burning sun, in the Heilinghaist-feld, between Hamburg and -Altona. My desk, my office, my home, knew me no more; yet I often -mounted guard near the chambers of our firm in the -Admiralitatstrasse. Paquette and my previous existence seemed all a -dream--a dream that had passed away for ever. And though the gay -streets, the tall spires, the sights and sounds in our -pleasure-loving city were all unchanged, I seemed to have lost my -identity. My former life was completely blotted out. - -From the Landwehr, with many others, I was speedily drafted into the -Seventy-sixth Hanoverians, and in three weeks we were ordered to join -the Army of the Rhine. Though I had studied in Berlin, I was not a -Prussian, but a native of the free city of Hamburg. Like many of my -comrades, who were fathers of families, or only sons, torn from their -homes and peaceful occupations, I had no interest in the cruel and -wanton war on which we were about to enter; and more than all, I -loved France, for it was the native land of Paquette Champfleurie. - -In the then horror of my mind, the war was certainly somewhat of a -change or relief, and the excitement around drew me from my own -terrible thoughts. I was going towards Lorraine, where even while -fighting against her poor countrymen, I might see my lost one, my -wife--for such I still deemed her, despite the odious Baptiste -Graindorge; and so I fondly and wildly speculated. The idea of being -killed and buried where Paquette might perhaps pass near my grave, -was even soothing to my now morbid soul, for I knew that she had -loved me long before _that man_ came between us with his wealth of -gold napoleons; so she must love me still--Carl, whose heart had -never wandered from her. - -But there is something great and inspiring in war and its adjuncts, -after all. I remember that on the day we left our beautiful Hamburg, -when I heard the crash of the brass bands and saw the North German -colours waving in the wind, above the long, long column of glazed -helmets and bright bayonets, as our regiment, with the Forty-seventh -Silesians, the Fifty-third Westphalians, and the Eighty-eighth -Nassauers, defiled through the Damthor, and past the Esplanade -towards the Bahnhof, I became infected by the enthusiasm around me, -and found myself joining in the mad shouts of "Hurrah, Germania!" and -in the old Teutonic song which the advanced guard of Uhlans struck -up, brandishing their lances the while-- - - "O Tannebaum, O Tannebaum, wie grün sind deine Blatter!" - -as we marched for the Rhine, towards which we were forwarded fast by -road and rail. - -We were soon face to face with the gallant French, and how fast those -terrible battles followed each other at Weissenburg, Forbach, -Spicheren, and elsewhere, the public prints have already most fully -related. Though I did not seek death any more than others my -comrades, I cared little for life, yet (until one night in October) I -escaped in all three of those bloody conflicts, and many a daily -skirmish, without a wound, though the chassepot balls whistled -thickly round me, and more than once the fire of a mitrailleuse, a -veritable stream of bullets, swept away whole sections by my side. I -have had my uniform riddled with holes, my helmet grazed many times, -and part of my knapsack shot away; yet somehow fate always spared -poor Carl Steinmetz; for he had no enmity in his heart towards the -poor fellows who fell before his needle-gun. At last we rapidly -pushed on, and reduced many fortified places as we advanced to -blockade Metz. Then Lorraine lay around us, and I gazed on the -scenery with emotions peculiarly my own, for I thought of Paquette, -of her animated face and all her pretty ways, and of all she had told -me of her native province, its dense forests where wolves lurked, its -wild mountains, its salt springs and lakes--Lorraine now, as in -centuries long past, a subject for dispute between France and Germany. - -The Seventy-sixth, under the Graf von Hamilton, formed part of the -army which, under Prince Frederick Carl, blockaded Metz with such -cruel success; and we had severe work in the wet nights of October, -while forming the _feld-wacht_ in the advanced rifle-pits. Often -when lying there alone, in the damp hole behind a sand-bag or -sap-roller, waiting for a chance shot in the early dawn at some -unfortunate Frenchman, I thought bitterly and sadly of our once happy -home, of Paquette, my lost wife, and wondered where she was _now_, or -if, when she saw the Prussian columns, with all their bright-polished -barrels and spiked helmets shining in the sun, she could dream that -I, Carl Steinmetz, was a unit in that mighty host. Then I would -marvel in my heart whether I, with the spiked helmet and needle-gun, -loaded with accoutrements and spattered with mud, was the same Carl -Steinmetz who, but a few months before, sat daily at his desk in the -Admiralitatstrasse, and had the sweet smiles of Paquette to welcome -him home and listen to his news from the Bourse. Was this military -transformation madness or witchcraft? It was neither, but stern -reality, as an unexpected shot from a hedge about four hundred yards -distant, tore the brass eagle from my helmet and fully informed me. - -This was just about daybreak on the morning of the 26th October last, -and when I could see all the village quarters, from Mars-la-Tour to -Mazières, lit up, and all the bivouac fires burning redly on our left -and in the rear. - -With a few others I started from the rifle-pits, and we made a dash -at the hedge, which we believed to conceal some of those -Francs-tireurs, whom we had orders to shoot without mercy, though -they were only fighting for home and country. We were on the extreme -flank of the blockading force, and the hedge in question surrounded a -villa which stood somewhat apart from the road to Château Salins. -Led by the Graf's son, a young captain, we rushed forward, and found -it manned by some fifty men of the French line, who had crept out of -Metz intending to desert, for Bazaine permitted them to do so when -provisions began to fail. "A bas les Pru-essiens!" cried their -leader--a tall sub-officer in very tattered uniform--thus -accentuating the word in the excess of his hatred. - -"Vorwarts--für Vaterland--hurrah, Germania!" shouted the young Von -Hamilton. A volley that killed ten of our number tore among us, but -we broke through and fell upon them with the bayonet. Clubbing his -chassepot the French sous-officier, with a yell on his lips, beat -down poor Hamilton; then he rushed upon me, and what was my -emotion--what my astonishment, to find myself face to face with -Graindorge--he who had robbed me of Paquette--the same beer-bloated -and scurvy-looking fellow, with the huge black mole, whom I had last -seen in Hamburg! I charged him with my bayonet breast high, but -agitation so bewildered me that he easily eluded my point, and felled -me to the earth with his clubbed rifle. Now came a sense of -confusion, of light flashing from my eyes, the clash of steel, the -_ping_ of passing balls; then darkness seemed to envelop me, and -death to enter my heart as I became senseless. - -I remained long thus, for the sun was in the west when full -consciousness returned. The thick leather helmet had saved my head -from fracture, but dried blood plastered all my face, and I found my -right arm broken by a bullet. All the French in the rear of the -hedge had been shot down or bayoneted, and they presented a terrible -spectacle. All were dead save one--the sous-officier, who lay near -me, dying of many bayonet wounds. Our wounded had been removed, but -ten of the Seventy-sixth lay near me stiff and cold. What a scene it -was in that pretty garden, amid the rose-trees, the last flowers of -autumn, and the twittering sparrows, to see all those poor fellows, -made in God's fair image, butchered thus--and for WHAT? My wounds -were sore, my heart was sad and heavy; oh, when was it otherwise now? -Staggering up I turned to the Frenchman, whose half-glazing eyes -regarded me with a fiercely defiant expression, for he doubted not -that in this _guerre à la mort_ his last moment had come. I took off -my battered helmet, and then with a thrill of terror he seemed to -recognize me. - -"Carl Steinmetz of Hamburg!" said he, with difficulty. - -"You know me then?" I asked grimly. - -"Oh, yes--in God's name give me water--I am dying!" - -My canteen was empty; but I found some wine in that of a corpse which -lay near. I poured it down his throat and it partially revived him. - -"Yes, fellow," said I, "in me you see that Steinmetz who was so happy -till you came and my wife fled; so we know each other, Monsieur -Baptiste Graindorge." - -"I am _not_ Baptiste--_he_ is lying quiet in his grave on the shore -of the Senegal river." - -"Who, in the name of Heaven, are you?" - -"Achille Graindorge--his cousin. I took advantage of our casual but -strong resemblance to impose upon you--and--and get money--when in -Hamburg--acting----" - -"As a spy--eh?" - -"Yes." - -"Has she--has Paquette seen you since?" - -"No--for she would at once have detected the cheat." - -"And you know not where she is?" - -"As I have Heaven soon to answer--no," he gasped out, and sinking -back, shortly after expired, his last breath seeming to issue from -the wounds in his chest. I had no pity for him, but felt a glow of -joy in my heart, as I turned away, and crept--for I was unable to -stand--towards the door of the villa in search of succour, the agony -of my thirst and wounds being so great that I cared little whether -the inmates aided or killed me. - -However, the coincidences of this day were not yet over. - -The door, on which I struck feebly with my short Prussian sword, was -opened ultimately by an old gentleman, beyond whom I saw a female, -shrinking back in evident terror. I recognized M. de Champfleurie, -my father-in-law; but being now unable to speak, I could only point -to my parched lips and powerless arm, as I sank at his feet and -fainted. - -When I recovered, my uniform was open, my accoutrements were off; I -was lying upon a sofa with my aching head pillowed softly--on -what?--The tender bosom of Paquette, my darling little wife; for she -had recognized me, though disguised alike by dress and blood, and now -her tears were falling on my weather-beaten face. - -It chanced that, flying from place to place in Lorraine, before our -advancing troops, and having failed to reach Metz, they had taken -shelter in that abandoned villa; and thus happily I could reveal the -secret of our separation before the burial party bore away the body -of Achille Graindorge, who had actually been quartered at Senegal -when his cousin Baptiste died there. - -My story is told. On the following day Metz capitulated, and poor M. -Champfleurie danced with rage on learning that Bazaine had -surrendered with two other Marshals of the Empire, 173,000 prisoners -and 20,000 sick, wounded, and starving men. My fighting days were -over now; Paquette was restored to me, and happiness was again before -us. - -For their kindness in succouring me, the Graf von Hamilton gave M. de -Champfleurie and his daughter a pass to the rear, and we speedily -availed ourselves of it, for I was discharged with a shattered arm; -and now I write these lines, again in pleasant Blankenese, our dear -home, with the broad Elbe shining blue beneath our windows, and the -autumn leaves falling fast from the thick woods that cover all its -green and beautiful shore. - - - - -APPARITIONS AND WONDERS. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -LEAVES FROM OLD LONDON LIFE: 1664-1705. - -The Scottish newspaper recorded, not long ago, some instances of -mirages in the Firth of Forth exactly like the freaks of the Fata -Morgana in the Straits of Messina, and on three distinct occasions -the Bass Rock has assumed, to the eyes of the crowds upon the sands -of Dunbar, the form of a giant sugar-loaf crowned by battlements, -while the island of May seemed broken into several portions, which -appeared to be perforated by caverns where none in fact exist. - -Such optical delusions have been common at all times in certain -states of the atmosphere, and science finds a ready solution for -them; but in the days of our forefathers, they were deemed the sure -precursors of dire calamities, invasion, or pestilence. - -The years shortly before and after the beginning of the last century -seem to have been singularly fruitful in the marvellous; and the most -superstitious Celtic peasant in the Scottish glens or the wilds of -Connemara would not have believed in more startling events than those -which are chronicled in the occasional broadsides, and were hawked -about the streets of London by the flying stationers of those days. - -To take a few of these at random: we find that all London was excited -by strange news from Goeree, in Holland, where, on the evening of the -14th of August, 1664, there was seen by many spectators an apparition -of two fleets upon the ocean; these, after seeming to engage in close -battle for one hour and a half (the smoke of the noiseless cannon -rolling from their sides), vanished, as if shown from a -magic-lantern. Then appeared in the air two lions, or the figures -thereof, which fought three times with great fury, till there came a -third of greater size, which destroyed them both. Immediately after -this, there came slowly athwart the sky, as represented in the -woodcut which surmounted this veracious broadsheet, the giant figure -of a crowned king. This form was seen so plainly, that the buttons -on his dress could be distinguished by the awe-stricken crowd -assembled on the sands. Next morning the same apparition was seen -again; and all the ocean was as red as blood. "And this happening at -this juncture of time," concludes the narrator, "begets some strange -apprehensions; for that, about six months before Van Tromp was slain -in war with England, there was seen near the same place an apparition -of ships in the air fighting with each other."* - - -* London: printed by Thomas Leach, Shoe Lane, 1664. - - -Sixteen years later, another broadsheet announced to the metropolis, -that the forms of ships and men also had been seen on the road near -Abington, on the 26th of August, 1680, "of the truth whereof you may -be fully satisfied at the Sarazen's Head Inn, Carter Lane." It would -seem that John Nibb, "a very sober fellow," the carrier of -Cirencester, with five passengers in his waggon, all proceeding to -London about a quarter of an hour after sunrise, were horrified to -perceive at the far horizon, the giant figure of a man in a black -habit, and armed with a broadsword, towering into the sky. Like the -spectre of the Brocken, this faded away; but to add to the -bewilderment of Nibb and his companions, it was replaced by "about a -hundred ships of several bigness and various shapes." Then rose a -great hill covered with little villages, and before it spread a -plain, on which rode thirty horsemen, armed with carbine and pistol. - -The same document records that, on the 12th of the subsequent -September, a naval engagement was seen in the air, near Porsnet, in -Monmouthshire, between two fleets, one of which came from the -northern quarter of the sky, the other from the south. A great ship -fired first, "and after her, the rest discharged their vollies in -order, so that great flashings of fire, and even smoak was visible, -and noises in the ayr as of great guns." Then an army of phantoms -engaged in "a square medow" near Porsnet, closing in with sword and -pistol, and the cries of the wounded and dying were heard. On the -27th of December, Ottery, near Exeter, had a visitation of the same -kind, when at five in the evening two armies fought in the air till -six o'clock. "This was seen by a reverend minister and several -others to their great amazement." On the 2nd of the same month, the -people in Shropshire were, according to another sheet, sorely -perplexed by the sudden appearance of two suns in the firmament, and -it was duly remembered, that "such a sign was seen before the death -of that tempestuous firebrand of Rome here in England, Thomas -Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, and when Queen Mary began her -bloody reign." - -Then follow the death of the three lions in the Tower, and a vast -enumeration of fiery darts, bullets, storms of hail, and floods, -making up that which the writer hopes will prove "a word in season to -a sinking kingdom."* - - -* London: Printed for J. B., Anno Domini 1680; and P. Brooksly, -Golden Ball, near the Hospital Gate, 1681. - - -Nor were ghosts wanting at this time, of a political nature, too; -for, in the same year, there was hawked in London an account of an -apparition which appeared three several times to Elizabeth Freeman, -thirty-one years of age, on each occasion delivering a message to his -sacred majesty King Charles the Second. As certified before Sir -Joseph Jorden, knight, and Richard Lee, D.D., rector of Hatfield, her -story was as follows, and was, no doubt, a political trick: - -On the night of the 24th of January, 1680, she was sitting at her -mother's fire-side, with a child on her knee, when a solemn voice -behind her said, "Sweetheart!" and, on turning, she was startled to -perceive a veiled woman all in white, whose face was concealed, and -whose hand--a pale and ghastly one--rested on the back of her chair. - -"The 15th day of May is appointed for the royal blood to be -poisoned," said the figure. "Be not afraid, for I am only sent to -tell thee," it added, and straightway vanished. - -On Tuesday, the 25th of January, the same figure met her at the house -door, and asked Elizabeth if she "remembered the message," but the -woman, instead of replying, exclaimed: "In the name of the Father, -Son, and Holy Ghost, what art thou?" Upon this the figure assumed "a -very glorious shape," and saying, "Tell King Charles, from me, not to -remove his parliament, but stand to his council," vanished as before. -Next evening the veiled figure appeared again, when Elizabeth was -with her mother, who, on beholding her daughter's manifest terror, -said: "Dost thou see anything?" She was then warned to retire, after -which the spectre said, sternly: "Do your message." "I shall, if God -enable me," replied Elizabeth. After this the spectre appeared but -once again, and remained silent. "This was taken from the maid's own -mouth by me, Richard Wilkinson, schoolmaster in the said town of -Hatfield."* - - -* London: Printed for J. B., Anno Domini 1680; and P. Brooksly, -Golden Ball, near the Hospital Gate, 1681. - - -In 1683, as a variety, London was treated to an account of a dreadful -earthquake in Oxfordshire, where the houses were rocked like ships or -cradles, while tables, stools, and chests "rowled to and fro with the -violence of the Shog."* - - -* Printed for R. Baldwin, at the Old Bailey. - - -The year 1687 brought "strange and wonderful news from Cornwall, -being an account of a miraculous accident which happened near the -town of Bodmyn, at a place called Park. Printed by J. Wallis, White -Fryars Gate--next Fleet St.--near the Joyners Shop." - -From this it would appear that on Sunday, the 8th of May, Jacob -Mutton, whose relations were of good repute, and who was servant to -William Hicks, rector of Cordingham (at a house he had near the old -parish church of Eglashayle, called Park), heard, on going into his -chamber about eight o'clock in the evening, a hollow voice cry, "So -hoe! so hoe! so hoe!" This drew him to the window of the next room, -from whence, to the terror of a lad who shared his bed, he -disappeared, and could nowhere be found. - -According to his own narrative, he had no sooner laid a hand upon an -iron bar of the window, which was seventeen feet from the ground, -than the whole grating fell into the yard below, all save the bar -which he had grasped. This bar was discovered in his hand next -morning, as he lay asleep in a narrow lane beyond the little town of -Stratton, among the hills, thirty miles distant from Park. There he -was wakened by the earliest goers to Stratton fair, who sent him -home, sorely bewildered, by the way of Camelford. "On Tuesday he -returned to his master's estate, without any hurt, but very -melancholy, saying 'that a tall man bore him company all the journey, -over hedges and brakes, yet without weariness.'" What became of this -mysterious man he knew not, neither had he any memory of how the iron -bar came to be in his hand. "To conclude, the young man who is the -occasion of this wonderful relation, was never before this accident -accounted any ways inclinable to sadness, but, on the contrary, was -esteemed an airy, brisk, and honest young fellow." - -But Mutton's adventure was a joke when compared with that of Mr. -Jacob Seeley, of Exeter, as he related it to the judges on the -western circuit, when, on the 22nd of September, 1690, he was beset -by a veritable crowd of dreadful spectres. He took horse for -Taunton, in Somersetshire, by the Hinton Cliff road, on which he had -to pass a solitary place, known as the Black Down. Prior to this, he -halted at a town called Cleston, where the coach and waggons usually -tarried, and there he had some roast beef, with a tankard of beer and -a noggin of brandy, in company with a stranger, who looked like a -farmer, and who rode by his side for three miles, till they reached -the Black Down, when he suddenly vanished into the earth or air, to -the great perplexity of Mr. Jacob Seeley. This emotion was rather -increased when he found himself surrounded by from one to two hundred -spectres, attired as judges, magistrates, and peasantry, the latter -armed with pikes; but, gathering courage, he hewed at them with his -sword, though they threw over his head something like a fishing-net, -in which they retained him from nine at night till four next morning. -He thrust at the shadows with his rapier, but he felt nothing, till -he saw one "was cut and had four of his fingers hanging by the skin," -and then he found blood upon his sword. After this, ten spectre -funerals passed; then two dead bodies were dragged near him by the -hair of the head; and other horrors succeeded, till the spell broke -at cock-crow. - -It was now remembered that the house wherein Mr. Seeley had his beef, -beer, and brandy had been kept by one of Monmouth's men (the spectre -farmer, probably), who had been hung on his own sign-post, and the -piece of ground where the net confined the traveller, was a place -where maay of the hapless duke's adherents had been executed and -interred. Hence it was named the Black Down, according to the sheet -before us, which was "Printed for T. M., London, 2nd Oct., 1690." - -A sheet circulated at the close of the preceding year warns "all -hypocrites and atheists to beware in time," as there had been a -dreadful tempest of thunder and lightning in Hants, at Alton, where -the atmosphere became so obscure that the electric flashes alone -lighted the church during the service, in which two balls of fire -passed through its eastern wall, another tore the steeple to pieces, -broke the clock to shreds, and bore away the weathercock. The -narrator adds, that all Friesland was under water, and that a flood -in the Tiber had swept away a portion of the Castle of St. Angelo. - -As another warning, London was visited, in 1689, by a tempest, which -uprooted sixty-five trees in St. James's Park and Moorfields, blew -down the vane of St. Michael's Church in Cornhill, and innumerable -chimneys, and injured many well-built houses, and part of the -Armourers' Hall in Coleman Street. Several persons were killed in -Gravel Lane and Shoreditch; sixty empty boats were dashed to pieces -against the bridge; three Gravesend barges full of people were cast -away, and the Crown man-of-war was stranded at Woolwich.* - - -* Printed for W. F., Bishopgate Without. - - -But the warning seems to have been in vain, for London, in 1692, was -treated to an earthquake, which--as another sheet records--spread -terror and astonishment about the Royal Exchange, all along Cornhill, -in Lothbury, and elsewhere, on the 8th of September. All things on -shelves were cast down, and furniture was tossed from wall to wall; -the Spitalfields weavers had to seek shelter in flight, and all their -looms were destroyed; these and other calamities were, it was -alleged, "occasioned by the sins of the nation," and to avert such -prodigies, the prayers of all good men were invoked.* - - -* J. Gerard, Cornhill, 1692. - - -Two years later saw another marvel, when "the dumb maid of Wapping," -Sarah Bowers, recovered her power of speech through the prayers of -Messrs. Russell and Veil, "two pious divines," who exorcised and -expelled the evil spirit which possessed her; and in 1696 the -metropolis was treated to the "detection of a popish cheat" -concerning two boys who conversed with the devil, though none seemed -to doubt the Protestant miracle. - -The close of the century 1700 saw "the dark and hellish powers of -witchcraft exercised upon the Reverend Mr. Wood, minister of Bodmyn," -on whom a spell was cast by a mysterious paper, or written document, -which was given to him by a man and woman on horseback (the latter -probably seated on a pillion), after which he became strangely -disordered, and wandered about in fields, meadows, woods, and lonely -places, drenched the while with copious perspirations; however, "the -spell was ultimately found in his doublet, and on the burning -thereof, Mr. Wood was perfectly restored," and wrote to his uncle an -account of the affair, which appeared in a broadsheet published at -Exeter, by Darker and Farley, 1700. - -Rosemary Lane was the scene of another wonder, when a notorious witch -was found in a garret there, and carried before Justice Bateman, in -Well Close, on the 23rd July, 1704, and committed to Clerkenwell -Prison. Her neighbour's children, through her alleged diabolical -power, vomited pins, and were terrified by apparitions of enormous -cats; by uttering one word she turned the entire contents of a large -shop topsy-turvy. She was judicially tossed into the river from a -ducking-stool, "but, like a bladder when put under water, she popped -up again, for this witch swam like a cork." This was an indisputable -sign of guilt; and in her rage or terror she smote a young man on the -arm, where the mark of her hand remained "as black as coal;" he died -soon after in agony, and was buried in St. Sepulchre's churchyard.* -Of the woman's ultimate fate we know nothing. - - -* H. Hills, in the Blackfriars, near the waterside. - - -In 1705, London was excited by a new affair: "The female ghost and -wonderful discovery of an iron chest of money;" a rare example of the -gullibility of people in the days of the good Queen Anne. - -A certain Madam Maybel, who had several houses in Rosemary Lane, lost -them by unlucky suits and unjust decrees of the law: for a time they -were tenantless and fell to decay and ruin. For several weeks, nay -months past (continues the broadsheet), a strange apparition appeared -nightly to a Mrs. Harvey and her sister, near relations of the late -Madam Maybel, announcing that an iron chest filled with treasure lay -in a certain part of one of the old houses in the lane. On their -neglecting to heed the vision, the ghost became more importunate, and -proceeded to threaten Mrs. Harvey, "that if she did not cause it to -be digged up in a certain time (naming it) she should be torn to -pieces." On this the terrified gentlewoman sought the counsel of a -minister, who advised her to "demand in the name of the Holy Trinity -how the said treasure should be disposed of." - -Next night she questioned the spectre, and it replied: - -"Fear nothing; but take the whole four thousand pounds into your own -possession, and when you have paid twenty pounds of it to one Sarah -Goodwin, of Tower Hill, the rest is your own; and be sure you dig it -up on the night of Thursday, the 7th December!" - -Accordingly men were set to work, and certainly a great iron chest -"was found under an old wall in the very place which the spirit had -described." - -One of the diggers, John Fishpool, a private of the Guards, "has been -under examination about it, and 'tis thought that the gentleman who -owns the ground will claim the treasure as his right, and 'tis -thought there will be a suit of law commenced on it." Many persons -crowded to see the hole from whence the chest had been exhumed in -Rosemary Lane, and, by a date upon the lid, it would seem to have -been made or concealed in the ninth year of the reign of Henry the -Eighth.* - - -* London: printed for John Green, near the Exchange, 1705. - - -The dreadful effects of going to conjurers next occupied the mind of -the public. - -Mr. Rowland Rushway, a gentleman of good reputation, having lost -money and plate to a considerable amount, Hester, his wife, took God -to witness, "that if all the cunning men in London could tell, she -should discover the thief, though it cost her ten pounds!" - -With this view she repaired to the house of a judicial astrologer in -Moorfields, about noon, when the day was one of great serenity and -beauty. After some preliminary mummery or trickery, the wizard -placed before her a large mirror, wherein she saw gradually appear -certain indistinct things, which ultimately assumed "the full -proportion of one man and two women." - -"These are the persons who stole your property," said the astrologer; -"do you know them?" - -"No," she replied. - -"Then," quoth he, "you will never have your goods again." - -She paid him and retired, but had not gone three roods from the house -when the air became darkened, the serene sky was suddenly overcast, -and there swept through the streets a dreadful tempest of wind and -rain, done, as she alleged, "by this cunning man, Satan's agent, with -diabolical black art," forcing her to take shelter in an ale-house to -escape its fury. Many chairmen and market folks were all cognizant -of this storm, which was confined to the vicinity of the ale-house, -and a portion of the adjacent river, where many boats were cast away; -and the skirt of it would seem to have visited Gray's Inn Walk, where -three stately trees were uprooted. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -THE WILD BEAST OF GEVAUDAN. - -In the year 1765, the French, Dutch, and Brussels papers teemed with -marvellous accounts of a monstrous creature, called "The Wild Beast -of Gévaudan," whose ravages for a time spread terror and even despair -among the peasantry of Provence and Languedoc, especially in those -districts of the ancient Narbonne Gaul which were mountainous, woody, -and cold, and where communication was rendered difficult by the want -of good roads and navigable rivers. - -In the April of that year a drawing of this animal was sent to the -Intendant of Alençon, entitled "_Figure de la beste_ (sic) _feroce -l'ou nomme l'hyene qui a devoré plus que_ 80 _personnes dans le -Gévaudan_." An engraving of this is now before us, and certainly its -circulation must have added to the confusion of the nature of the -original. This print represents the beast with a huge head, large -eyes, a long tongue, a double row of sharp fangs, small and erect -ears like those of a cat, the paws and body of a lion, with the tail -of a cow, which trails on the ground with a bushy tuft at the end.* - - -* The History of France records that there appeared a wild beast in -the Forest of Fontainebleau in 1653, which devoured _one hundred and -forty_ persons, before it was killed by twelve mousquetaires of the -Royal Guards! - - -In December, 1764, it first made its appearance at St. Flour, in -Provence, and on the 20th it devoured a little girl who was herding -cattle near Mende. A detachment of light dragoons, sent in search of -it, hunted in vain for six weeks the wild and mountainous parts of -Languedoc. Though a thousand crowns were offered by the province of -Mende to any person who would slay it, and public prayers were put up -in all the churches for deliverance from this singular scourge, which -soon became so great a terror to those districts, as ever the dragon -was of which we read in the "_Seven Champions of Christendom_." - -No two accounts tallied as to the appearance of this animal, and some -of these, doubtless the offspring of the terror and superstition of -the peasantry, added greatly to the dread it inspired. French -hyperbole was not wanting, and the gazettes were filled with the most -singular exaggerations and gasconades. - -The groves of olive and mulberry trees, and the vineyards, were -neglected, the wood-cutters abandoned the forests, and hence fuel -became provokingly dear, even in Paris. - -In the month of January we are told that it devoured a great many -persons, chiefly children and young girls. It was said by those who -escaped to be larger than a wolf, but that previous to springing on -its victim, by crouching on the ground, it seemed no longer than a -fox. "At the distance of one or two fathoms it rises on its hind -legs, and leaps upon its prey, which it seizes by the neck or throat, -but is afraid of horned cattle, from which it runs away." - -It was alleged by some to be the cub of a tiger and lioness; by -others, of a panther and hyena, which had escaped from a private -menagerie belonging to Victor Amadeus, duke of Savoy. A peasant of -Marvejols, who wounded it by a musket shot, found a handful of its -hair, "which stank very much;" he averred it to "be the bigness of a -year-old calf, the head a foot in length, the chest large as that of -a horse, his howling in the night resembled the braying of an ass." -According to collated statements, the beast was seen within the same -hour at different places, in one instance twenty-four miles apart; -hence many persons naturally maintained that there were _two_. - -On the 27th December, 1764, a young woman, in her nineteenth year, -was torn to pieces by it at Bounesal, near Mende. Next day it -appeared in the wood of St. Martin de Born, and was about to spring -upon a girl of twelve years, when her father rushed to her -protection. The woodman, a bold and hardy fellow, rendered desperate -by the danger of his child, kept it at bay for a quarter of an hour, -"the beast all the while endeavouring to fly at the girl, and they -would both inevitably have become its prey if some horned cattle -which the father kept in the wood had not fortunately come up, on -which the beast was terrified and ran away." - -This account was attested on oath by the woodman, before the mayor -and other civil authorities of Mende, an episcopal city in Languedoc. - -On the 9th of January an entire troop of the 10th Light Horse (the -Volontaires Etrangers de Clermont-Prince), then stationed at St. -Chely, was despatched under Captain Duhamel in quest of the animal, -which had just torn and disembowelled a man midway between their -quarters and La Garge. On this occasion the Bishop of Mende said a -solemn mass, and the consecrated Host was elevated in the cathedral, -which was thronged by the devout for the entire day; but the beast -still defied all efforts for his capture or destruction, and soon -after, "in the wood of St. Colme, four leagues from Rhodez, it -devoured a shepherdess of eighteen years of age, celebrated for her -beauty." - -The English papers began to treat the affair of "the wild beast" as a -jest or allegory invented by the Jesuits to render the Protestants -odious and absurd, as it was said to have escaped from the Duke of -Savoy's collection; and "this circumstance is designed," says one -journal, "to point out the Protestants who are supposed to derive -their principles from the ancient Waldensee, who inhabited the -valleys of Piedmont, and were the earliest promoters of the -Reformation." - -A writer in a Scottish newspaper of the period goes still farther, -and announces his firm belief that this tormentor of the Gévaudanois -was nothing more or less than the wild beast prophesied in the -Apocalypse of St. John, whereon the scarlet lady was mounted. -Another asserts that it was typical of the whole Romish clergy, and -that its voracious appetite answered to another part of Scripture, -"conceived in the words _eating up my people as they eat -bread_,"--his favourite food being generally little boys and girls of -Protestant parentage.* - - -* _Edinburgh Advertiser_, 1764. - - -After a long and fruitless chase, Captain Duhamel, before returning -to quarters at St. Chely, resolved to make a vigorous attempt to -destroy this mysterious scourge of Languedoc; but his extreme ardour -caused his plans to miscarry. - -Posting his volontaires, some on horseback, and some on foot, at all -the avenues of a wood to which it had been traced, it was soon roused -from its lair by the explosion of pistols and sound of trumpets. -There was a cry raised of "_Voilà! Gardez la-Bête!_" and Duhamel, an -officer of great courage, who had dismounted, rushed forward to -assail it sword in hand, but had the mortification to see it, with a -terrible roar, spring past the very place he had just quitted. - -Two of his dragoons fired their pistols, but both missed. They then -pursued it on the spur for nearly a league, and though seldom more -than four or five paces from it, they were unable to cut it down, and -ultimately it escaped, by leaping a high stone wall which their -horses were unable to surmount; and after crossing a marsh which lay -on the other side, it leisurely retired to a wild forest beyond. - -The baffled dragoons reported that it "was as big as the largest park -dog, very shaggy, of a brown colour, a yellow belly, a very large -head, and had two very long tusks, ears short and erect, and a -branched tail, which it sets up very much when running." Fear had no -share in this strange description, for the officers of Clermont's -regiment asserted that the two dragoons were as brave men as any in -the corps; but some declared that it was a bear, and others a wild -boar! - -On the 12th of January it attacked seven children (five boys and two -girls) who were at play near the Mountain of Marguerite. It tore the -entire cheek off one boy, and gobbled it up before him; but the other -four, led by a boy named Portefaix, having stakes shod with iron, -drove the beast into a marsh, where it sunk up to the belly, and then -disappeared. That night a boy's body was found half devoured in the -neighbourhood of St. Marcel; on the 21st it severely lacerated a -girl, and (according to the _Paris Gazette_) "next day attacked a -woman, and _bit off her head_!" - -The four brave boys who put it to flight received a handsome gratuity -from the Bishop of Mende, and by the king's order were educated for -the army; the _Gazette_ adds that the king gave the young Portefaix a -gift of four hundred livres, and three hundred to each of his -companions. - -As females and little ones seemed the favourite food of the beast, -Captain Duhamel now ordered several of his dragoons to dress -themselves as women, and with their pistols and fusils concealed, to -accompany the children who watched the cattle; and the King of France -now offered from his privy purse two thousand crowns, in addition to -the one thousand offered by the province of Mende, for the head of -this terrible animal. - -Inspired by a hope of winning the proffered reward, a stout and hardy -peasant of Languedoc, armed with a good musket, set out in search of -it; but on beholding the beast suddenly near him, surrounded by all -the real and imaginary terrors it inspired, he forgot alike his -musket and his resolution; he shrieked with terror and fled, and soon -after "the creature devoured a woman of the village of Jullange, at -the foot of the Mountain of Marguerite." - -As the terror was increasing in Gévaudan and the Vivarez, the offered -rewards were again increased to no less than ten thousand livres; by -the diocese of Mende, two thousand; by the province of Languedoc, two -thousand; by the king, six thousand; and the following placard was -posted up in all the towns and cities of the adjacent provinces:-- - -"By order of the King, and the Intendant of the Province of Languedoc: - -"Notice is given to all persons, that his Majesty, being deeply -affected by the situation of his subjects, now exposed to the ravages -of the wild beast which for four months past has infested Vivarez and -Gévaudan, and being desirous to stop the progress of such a calamity, -has determined to promise a reward of six thousand livres to any -person or persons who shall kill the animal. Such as are willing to -undertake the pursuit of him, may previously apply to the Sieur de la -Font, sub-deputy to the Intendant of Mende, who will give them the -necessary instructions, agreeable to what has been prescribed by the -ministry on the part of his Majesty." - -Still the ubiquitous beast remained untaken; and a letter from Paris -of the 13th February relates the terror it occasioned to a party -consisting of M. le Tivre, a councillor, and two young ladies, who -were on their way to visit M. de Sante, the curé of Vaisour. - -They were travelling in a berlingo, drawn by four post-horses, with -two postilions, and accompanied by a footman, who rode a -saddle-horse, and was armed with a sabre. The first night, on -approaching the dreaded district, they halted at Guimpe, and next -morning at nine o'clock set forth, intending to lunch at Roteaux, a -village situated in a bleak and mountainous place. The bailiff of -Guimpe deemed it his duty to warn them, as strangers, "that the wild -beast had been often seen lurking about the Chaussée that week, and -that it would be proper to take an escort of armed men for their -protection." - -M. le Tivre and the councillor, being foolhardy, declined, and took -the young ladies under their own protection; but they had scarcely -proceeded two leagues when they perceived a post-chaise, attended by -an outrider, coming down the rugged road that traversed the hill of -Credi, at a frightful pace, and pursued by the wild beast! - -The leading horse fell, on which the terrible pursuer made a spring -towards it; but M. le Tivre's footman interposed with his drawn -sabre, on which the beast pricked up its ears, stood erect, and -showed its fangs and mouth full of froth, whisked round, and gave the -terrified valet a blow with its tail, covering all his face with -blood. The rest of the narrative is ridiculously incredible, for it -states, that, on perceiving a gentleman levelling a blunderbuss -(which flashed in the pan), the beast darted right through the chaise -of M. le Tivre, smashing the side glasses and escaped to the wood. -"The stench left in the shattered chaise was past description, and no -burning of frankincense, or other method, removed it, so that it was -sold for two louis, and though burned to ashes, the cinders were -obliged, by order of the commissary, to be buried without the town -walls!" (_Advertiser_, 1765). - -Eluding the many armed hunters who were now in pursuit of it, in the -early part of February the wild beast was seen hovering in -well-frequented places, on the skirts of the forests adjoining the -fields and vineyards, in the hamlets, and on the highways. In -Janols, the capital of Gévaudanois, it sprang upon a child, whose -cries brought his father to his aid, but ere a rescue could be -effected, the poor little creature was rent asunder. - -Three days afterwards, on the Feast of the Purification, five -peasants, going to mass at Reintort de Randon, suddenly perceived it -on the highway before them. It was crouching, and about to spring, -when their shouts, and the pointed staves with which they were armed, -put it to flight. On Sunday, the 3rd February, it was heard howling -in the little village of St. Aman's during the celebration of high -mass. All the inhabitants were in church, "but as they had taken the -precaution to shut up the children in their houses, it retired -without doing any mischief." On the 8th it was perceived within a -hundred yards of the town of Aumont. A general chase through the -snow was made by the armed huntsmen; but night came on before they -came within range of the dreaded fugitive. - -In February and March we find it still continuing its ravages through -all the pleasant valleys of the Aisne. At Soissons it worried a -woman to death and partly devoured her. Two girls were brought to -the Hospital of St. Flour in a dying state from wounds it had -inflicted: - -"Catherine Boyer, aged twenty years, who was attacked on the 15th of -January at Bastide-de-Montfort; all that part of the head on which -the hair grew is torn away, with a part of the os coronæ, and the -whole pericranium with the upper part of the ear is lost. The -occipital bone is likewise laid bare. The other girl belongs to St. -Just; the left side of her head and neck is carried away, with part -of her nose and upper lip." - -On the 1st of March, a man boldly charged it on horseback, but was -thrown, and leaving his nag to its mercy, scrambled away and found -refuge in a mill, where it besieged him for some time, till a lad of -seventeen appeared, whom it lacerated with teeth and claws and left -expiring outside the door. On the road near Bazoches, it tore to -pieces a woman who attempted to save a girl on which it was about to -spring; and four men of that place, armed with loaded guns, watched -all night, near the mangled body, in the hope that it might return; -but the animal was several miles distant, and after biting several -sheep and cows in a farm-yard, was at last severely wounded by -Antoine Savanelle, an old soldier, who assailed it with a pitchfork, -which he thrust into its throat, and he was vain enough to declare -that the wound was mortal and that he must have killed it. - -This boast, however, was premature, for it soon reappeared, biting, -tearing, and devouring, and though a man of Malzieu wounded it by a -musket shot, making it roll over with a hideous cry, it was able on -the 9th to drag a child for two hundred yards from a cottage door. -It dropped its prey unhurt; but on the same evening, we are told that -it partly devoured a young woman near the village of Miolonettes, and -committed other ravages, the mere enumeration of which would weary -rather than astonish, though it was stated that not less "than twenty -thousand men" (a sad exaggeration surely), noblesse, hunters, -woodmen, and soldiers, were in pursuit of it, under the Count de -Morangies, an old maréchal de camp, who passed a whole night near the -body of the half-devoured girl, in the vain hope that the monster -would return within range of his musket. - -Great astonishment and ridicule were excited in England by these -continued details, and under date of 13th March, a pretended letter -from Paris, headed "Wonderful Intelligence!" went the round of the -press. - -"The wild beast that makes such a noise all over Europe, and after -whom there are at least thirty thousand regular forces and seventy -thousand militia and armed peasants, proves to be a descendant on the -mother's side from the famous Dragon of Wantley, and on the father's -side from a Scotch Highland Laird. He eats a house as an alderman -eats a custard, and with the wag of his tail he throws down a church. -He was attacked on the night of the 8th instant, in his den, by a -detachment of fourteen thousand men, under the command of Duc de -Valliant; but the platoon firing, and even the artillery, had only -the effect of making him sneeze; at last he gave a slash with his -tail by which we lost seven thousand men; then making a jump over the -left wing, made his escape." - -Elsewhere we find:--"Yesterday, about ten in the morning, a courier -arrived (in London) from France, with the melancholy news that the -wild beast had, on the 25th instant, been attacked by the _whole_ -French army, consisting of one hundred and twenty thousand men, whom -he totally defeated in the twinkling of an eye, swallowing the whole -train of artillery and devouring twenty-five thousand men." - -But still in Languedoc, lovers who had lost their brides, brothers -their sisters, and parents their children, armed with guns and -spears, beat the mountain sides and wild thickets for this animal, -the existence of which was considered nearly or quite fabulous in -London. - -It would seem to have been deemed so in Holland, too, for the -_Utrecht Gazette_, after detailing how bravely a poor woman of La -Bessiere, name Jane Chaston, defended her little children against the -beast, which appeared in her garden and tore one with its teeth, -states that whatever scoffers might say, its existence was no longer -doubtful, adding, "that unless we believe in the accounts of it which -come from France, we must reject the greatest part of the events to -which we give credit, as being of much less authority." - -Louis XV gave a handsome gratuity to Jane Chaston for her courage and -tenderness in defending her children, but we are not informed how or -with what she was armed. - -The Duc de Praslin received a report from the Comte de Montargis, who -commanded the troops in the neighbourhood of La Bessiere, to the -effect that, three days after the adventure of Jane Chaston, a party -of eighty dragoons, _en route_ to join their regiment, fell in with -the beast, and rode at full speed towards it. When first discovered -it was one hundred and fifty yards distant, and fled into a hollow -place, which was environed by marshes and water, and then they -endeavoured to hunt it forth by dogs. They opened a fire upon it -with their carbines; but as the rain was falling in torrents, all -these flashed in the pan, save _one_, which went off without effect. -"The rain," continues the report, which is not very flattering to M. -le Comte's cavalry, "not only hindered aid from coming to the -troopers (the explosion of the carbine and their incessant cries of -'the beast! the beast!' having alarmed the whole neighbourhood), but -by filling up the hollows with water, made them unable any longer." - -Three-quarters of an hour after this the beast appeared in a field -where tiles were made, at the base of Mount Mimat, where there is a -hermitage dedicated to St. Privat, partly hewn out of the rock. This -was then inhabited by an aged recluse and an officer of artillery, a -reformed _roué_, who had dwelt with him for eighteen months, by way -of penance. From the window they could plainly see the beast -gambolling playfully on the grass, and climbing up the trees like a -squirrel; but being without arms, they shut and made fast the door of -the grotto, near which it remained watching for half an hour. This -time the officer employed in making a sketch of it, which next day he -sent to the Bishop of Mende; and here, perhaps, we have the startling -engraving which was produced by the Intendant of Alençon. - -The Comte de Montargis forwarded this sketch to the Duc de Praslin, -to whose office the people flocked in multitudes to behold it; but -public opinion was divided as to whether the animal was a lynx or a -bear; "but I am certain," adds the writer of the news, "that if it -was brought to the fair of St. Germain, it would draw more spectators -than the famous Indian bird." - -This celebrated fair was then held in a large meadow contiguous to -the ancient Abbey of St. Germain-des-Prés, and was the grand -rendezvous of all the dissipated society of Paris, to whom its -gaming-tables, booths, theatres, cafes, cabarets, formed a -never-ending source of attraction. - -In April the beast devoured a young woman of twenty, who was watching -some cattle. After that event the country became quite deserted; -though its preference for the fair sex seemed very decided, no men -would work in the fields, herd the flocks, or go abroad, save in -armed bands. - -The _Brussels Gazette_ of May records a new phase in the history of -the beast. Of eighteen persons whom it had bitten, thirteen are -stated to have died raving mad. One patient began to howl like a -dog, on which he was bled copiously, and chained hand and foot. -Endued with terrible strength, he burst his bonds, and raved about in -wild frenzy, destroying everything that came in his way, until he was -shot down by an officer with a double-barrelled gun, when attempting, -with a crowbar, to break into a country-house near Broine, where -thirty persons had taken refuge from him. - -About six in the evening of the 1st of May, the Sieur Martel de la -Chaumette, whose château was at St. Alban's, in the bishopric of -Mende, perceived, from a window, an animal which he was certain could -be no other than the wild beast of Gévaudan. It was in a grass -meadow, seated on its hind legs, and was gazing steadfastly at a lad, -about fifteen years of age, who was herding some horned cattle, and -was all unaware of its vicinity and ulterior views. The Sieur de la -Chaumette summoned his two brothers, and armed with guns they issued -forth in pursuit of the animal, which fled at their approach. - -The youngest overtook it in the forest, and put a ball into it at -sixty-seven paces; it rolled over three times, which enabled the -elder Chaumette to put in another ball at fifty-two paces, on which -it fled, and escaped, losing blood in great quantities. Night came -on, and the pursuit was abandoned; but next day the Chaumettes were -joined by the Sieurs d'Ennival, father and son, and a band of -hunters. Its trail and traces of blood were found, and followed for -a great distance, but they tracked it in vain. - -The Sieur de la Chaumette, who had slain a great many wolves, -declared that the animal he had seen in the meadow was _not_ one; but -his description of its appearance coincided exactly with that given -by the Sieur Duhamel of the 10th Light Horse, and with the sketch -made by the military hermit of St. Privat. The Chaumettes were in -great hopes that the two bullets had slain the monster; but on the -day following, at five in the evening, at a spot five leagues distant -from the château, it devoured a girl fourteen years of age, and the -terror of the people increased, as the beast seemed to have a charmed -life, and to be almost bullet-proof. - -The picked marksmen of fifty parishes now joined in the chase. Two -remarkably fine dogs of the Sieur d'Ennival were so eager in the -pursuit, that they left the hunt far behind, and, as they were never -seen again, were supposed to have been killed and eaten. The society -of the knights of St. Hubert, in the city of Puy, composed of forty -men, joined in the crusade against this denizen of the wilds of -Languedoc; but it was not until the end of September, 1765, that it -was ultimately vanquished and slain by a game-keeper and the Sieur -Antoine de Bauterne, a gentleman of Paris, who set out for Gévaudan -on purpose to encounter it. - -After a long, arduous, and exciting chase, through forest and over -fell, on bringing it to bay at fifty yards, he shot it in the eye. -Mad with pain and fury, it was crouching prior to springing upon him, -when his companion, M. Rheinchard, gamekeeper to Louis, Duke of -Orleans (son of Philip, so long regent of France), by a single -bullet, in a vital spot, shot it dead. - -It was then measured, and found to be five feet seven inches long, -thirty-two inches high, and only one hundred and thirty pounds in -weight. On the 4th of October, the Sieur de Bauterne, who was -extolled as if he had been the victor of another Steenkirk or -Fontenoy, arrived triumphantly in Paris, and had the honour to -present it to the king; and then great was the astonishment and the -disappointment of all who saw this animal--the terrible wild beast of -Gévaudan, whose sanguinary career had for so many months excited such -dismay there and wonder elsewhere--and found that it was only a wolf -after all, and not a very large one! Horace Walpole, fourth Earl of -Orford--the brilliant and witty Walpole of Strawberry Hill--saw the -carcass as it lay in the queen's antechamber at Versailles, and -asserts that it was simply a common wolf. Its nature accounted for -some of the peculiarities it exhibited during its ravages, as the -wolf, according to Weissenborn, destroys every other creature it can -master, and, on a moderate calculation, consumes during the year -about _thirty times_ its own weight of animal substance; and to -increase the list of its crimes, it has, he adds, in many instances, -communicated hydrophobia to man. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -"THERE WERE GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS." - -Among many other strange things, our unlettered ancestors believed in -the past existence of those tall fellows, giants (individually, or -even collectively as nations), quite as implicitly as they, worthy -folks, did in the pranks and appearances of contemporary witches and -ghosts; but even among the learned a more than tacit belief in a -defunct class of beings, whose bulk and stature far exceeded those of -common humanity, found full sway until the beginning of the present -century. - -A love of the marvellous is strong; and even Buffon, the eminent -naturalist, fell into the old and vague delusion that "there were -giants in those days," and he made the bones of an elephant to figure -as the remains of a man of vast stature. - -With Scripture for a basis to their assertions, it was difficult, no -doubt, for the over-learned, and still more for the unlearned, of -past times to subdue their belief in the existence of such foes as -were encountered by our old friend Jack of gallant memory--veritable -giants, tall as steeples, to whom such men as Big Sam of the Black -Watch, O'Brien the Irish giant (whose skeleton is in the museum of -the College of Surgeons), even the King of Prussia's famous -grenadiers, and the girl fifteen years old and more than seven feet -high, "who was presented to their majesties at Dresden,"* were all as -pigmies and Liliputians by comparison. - - -* _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1753. - - -The Bible gives us four distinct races of giants, the chief of whom -were the Anakims, or sons of Anak, the people of the chosen land, to -which Moses was to lead the children of Israel, who were unto them -but as grasshoppers in size. Og, the king of this tall race and of -Bashan, however, if judged by the measurement of the present day, was -not taller than eight feet six inches, as his brazen bedstead -measured just nine Jewish cubits; but the Rabbis maintain that the -bed described was only his _cradle_ when an infant. The Anakims are -referred to in the fifth chapter of the Koran, which speaks of -Jericho as a city inhabited by giants. The father of Og is also -asserted to have been of stature so great, that he escaped the Flood -by--_wading_! - -When told (as we are) in 1 Samuel that Goliath was in height six -cubits and a span, that his coat of mail weighed five thousand -shekels of brass, that the staff of his spear was as a weaver's beam, -and that its head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, it was -difficult for the simple people of past days, when, in some remote -cavern or river's bed, or fallen chalk cliff, the monster bones of -the elephant, the mastodon, or the rhinoceros came unexpectedly to -light, not to believe that there might have been many Goliaths in the -world once. - -Josephus records that in _his_ time there were to be seen in Gaza, -Gath, and Azoth the tombs of those mighty men of old, the sons of -Anak, who had been slain when Joshua marched into the land of Canaan, -and slew the people of Hebron and Dabir. - -According to the Moslems, even Joshua was a man of prodigious -stature; and the highest mountain on the shores of the Bosphorus is -at this hour called by the Turks the Grave of Joshua,--_Juscha -Taghi_,--or the Giant's Mountain.* - - -* The grave is fifty feet long, and has been called the tomb of -Amycus and of Hercules. - - -Tradition ascribes the origin of the name of Antwerp to a giant whose -abode was in the woody swamps through which the Scheldt then wandered -to the German Sea, and who used to cut off the hands and feet of -those who displeased him; "and to prove this" (vide _Atlas -Geographus_, 1711) "they show there a tooth, which they pretend to be -his. It is a hand's-breadth long, and weighs six ounces. Moreover, -the city has hands cut off as part of its arms." - -Giants figure largely among the earlier fables of Wales, Scotland, -and Ireland, the two latter contending still for the nationality of -the famous - - "Finn MacCoul, - Wha dung the deil, and gart him yowl," - -and who, by the famous causeway of his own construction, could cross -the Irish Channel to Britain whenever he chose. - -Fiannam is probably the same personage. He is said to have lived in -the time of Ewen II. of Scotland, a potentate who, according to -Buchanan, "reigned in the year before Christ 77, and was a good and -civil king;" and local story connects with his name the Giant's -Chair, a rock above the river Dullan, in the parish of Mortlach. - -England, too, is not without traces of some interest in the sons of -Anak. We have the Giant's Grave, a long and grassy ridge in the -beautiful Fairy Glen at Hawkstone, in Salop; another place so named -on the coast of Bristol, and a third at Penrith, where two stone -pillars in the churchyard, standing fifteen feet asunder at the -opposite ends of a grave, and covered with runes or unintelligible -carving, mark the size and tomb of Owen Cæsarius. Near these pillars -is a third stone, called the Giant's Thumb. - -Two miles below Brougham Castle, on the steep banks of the Eamont, -are two excavations in the rock, having traces of a door and window, -and of a strong column indented with iron; and these caves are -assigned by tradition to a giant, who bore the classic name of Isis. - -The vast stature of the Patagonians was long the subject of implicit -belief, until it passed into a proverb. Antonio Pagifeta, who -accompanied the adventurous Ferdinand Magellan on his famous voyage -in 1519, records that on the coast of Brazil they found wild and -gigantic cannibals so nimble of foot, that no man could overtake -them. Bearing on thence to south latitude 49°, the land seemed all -desolate and uninhabited, for they could see no living creature. At -last a giant came singing and dancing towards them, and threw dust on -his head. He was so tall, that the head of a Spaniard reached only -to his waist. His apparel was the skin of a monstrous beast. All -the inhabitants were men of the same kind, wherefore "the admiral -called them Patagons." - -This absurd story was corroborated a hundred years later by Jacob le -Maire, in a voyage to the same region, and by the Dutch navigator -Schouten, when they relate that at Port Desire they found graves -containing human skeletons from eleven to twelve feet long. However, -the Spanish officers of Cordova's squadron, by accurate measurements, -reduced the utmost stature of the real Patagonian to seven feet one -and a half inches, and their common height to six feet. - -Premising that, of course, the great bones about to be referred to -were those of the mammoth, the mastodon and other antediluvian -animals, perhaps the most amusing instance of the credulity and -gullibility even of the learned in such matters was a _mémoire_, read -seriously to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Rouen, in the middle of -the last century, by a savan named M. le Cat. - -Therein he asserted and affected to give proof that Ferragas, who was -slain by Orlando, the nephew of Charlemagne, was eighteen feet in -height; that Isoret, whose tomb lay near the chapel of St. Pierre, in -the suburbs of Paris, had been twenty feet high; and that in the city -of Rouen, when digging near the convent of the Jacobins in 1509, -during the reign of Louis XII., there was found in a tomb of stone a -skeleton, the skull of which would hold a bushel (thirty-eight pounds -weight) of corn. The shin-bones were entire, and measured four feet -long. On this astounding tomb was a plate of copper, bearing the -epitaph, "In this grave lies the noble and puissant Lord Riccon de -Valmont and his bones." He then proceeds to tell us that Valence in -Dauphiné possesses the bones of the giant Buccart, tyrant of the -Vivarais, whom his vassal, the Count de Cabillon, slew by a barbed -arrow, the iron head of which was found in his tomb when it--with all -his bones intact--was discovered in 1705, at the base of the mountain -of Crussol, whereon the giant dwelt, and whence he used to come daily -to drink of the river Merderet. The skeleton when measured was -twenty-two feet six inches long.* - - -* "In the Dominican Church there's the picture of a giant called -Buard, who they pretend, by his bones dug up in their monastery, was -fifteen cubits high and seven broad."--_Atlas Geographus_, 1711, 4to. - - -"Father Crozart assured me," continued the veracious M. le Cat, "that -the physicians who were in the train of the princes who passed -through Valence all acknowledged the bones to be human, and offered -twenty-two pistoles for them." He farther appends a copy of the -epitaph of this personage, forwarded to him by the same Father Crozat -in 1746, and beginning, "Hæc est effigiis gigantis Baardi Vivariensis -tiranni in Montis Cressoli Stantis," &c. - -This tall personage, a second whose bones were exposed by the waters -of the Rhone in 1456, and a third whose skeleton, nineteen feet long, -was found near Lucerne in 1577, were all jokes and swindle when -compared with others that were found in later years, particularly the -remains of Teutobochus, king of the Teutones, which were discovered -near the ruined castle of Chaumont in Dauphine, in the year 1613, by -some masons who were digging a well. At the depth of eighteen feet, -in light sandy soil, they came upon a tomb built of brick; above it -was a stone inscribed, "Teutobochus Rex." Five years afterwards -Mazurier, a surgeon, published his _Histoire Véritable du Géant -Teutobochus_, which excited keen controversy, and brought all -Paris--the Paris of Louis the Just and of Richelieu--rushing in -crowds to see the bones of the mastodon, or whatever it was, whose -tomb bore a royal inscription. - -This king of the Teutones, who is said to have been vanquished and -slain in battle a few miles from Valence, and to have been buried -with all honour by Marius, his conqueror, was carefully measured, and -found to be twenty-five feet six inches long, ten feet across the -shoulders, and five from breast to back-bone. His teeth were each -the size of an ox's foot. All France heard of this with wonder, and -a belief which the anatomist Riolan sought in vain to ridicule and -expose. - -Sicily was peculiarly the favourite abode of giants. - -At Mazarino, a town near Girgenti, there were found in 1516 the bones -of a giant whose skull was like a sugar-hogshead, with teeth each -five ounces in weight; and in the Val di Mazzara, thirty years after, -the alleged remains of another were found, whose stature was the same! - -Patrick Brydone, in his _Tour to Sicily and Malta_, in 1773, mentions -some of these marvellous discoveries. - -"In the mountain above it (_il Mar Dolce_) they show you a cavern -where a gigantic skeleton is said to have been found; however, it -fell to dust when they attempted to remove it. Fazzello says its -teeth were the only part that resisted the impression of the air; -that he procured two of them, and that they weighed near two ounces. -There are many such stories to be met with in the Sicilian legends, -as it seems to be a universal belief that this island (Sicily) was -once inhabited by giants; but, although we have made diligent -inquiry, we have never yet been able to procure a sight of any of -those gigantic bones which are said to be still preserved in many -parts of the island. Had there been any foundation for this, I think -it is probable they must have found their way into some of the -museums. But this is not the case; nor indeed have we met with any -person of sense and credibility that could say they have seen them. -We had been assured at Naples that an entire skeleton, upwards of ten -feet high, was preserved in the museum at Palermo; but there is no -such thing there, nor I believe anywhere else in the island." - -This Palermitan giant is gravely referred to in the _mémoire_ of M. -le Cat, as well as "another thirty-three feet high, found in 1550." - -According to Plutarch, Serbonius had the grave of Antæus (the Libyan -giant and antagonist of Hercules) opened in the city of Tungis, and, -finding his body to be "sixty cubits long, was infinitely -astonished," as well he might be, and gave orders for the tomb to be -closed, but added new honours to his memory. The bones of a giant, -forty-six cubits in length, were laid bare by an earthquake in Crete, -as Pliny states with implicit faith; and it was disputed whether they -were those of Otus, son of Neptune, who built a city in his ninth -year, or of the equally fabulous Orion. But all that we have noted -are overtopped by the giant found at Thessalonica in 1691, who was -ninety-six feet high (as certified by M. Quoinet, consul for France), -and by another found at Trepani, in Sicily--the ancient _Drepanum_. -The latter, Boccaccio states the learned of his time to have taken -for the skeleton of Polyphemus, the son of Neptune and Thoosa--the -one-eyed Cyclop of the _Odyssey_. - - "A form enormous! far unlike the race - Of human birth, in stature and in face;" - -and on being measured, the bones proved to be exactly _three hundred -feet_ long! - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -BURIED HEARTS. - -It is natural enough that the human heart--deemed by poets and -philosophers to be the seat of our affections and passions, of our -understanding and will, courage and conscience, by some men looked -upon as the root of life itself--should have been considered by many -of the dying in past times as a votive gift peculiarly sacred. And -this feeling has been the cause in many instances of the burial of -the heart apart from the place where the ashes of the body might -repose. - -Among the earliest instances of the separate mode of heart-burial is -that of Henry the Second of England. After this luckless monarch -expired in a passion of grief, before the altar of the church of -Chinon, in 1189, his heart was interred at Fontevrault, but his body, -from the nostrils of which tradition alleges blood to have dropped on -the approach of his rebellious son Richard, was laid in a separate -vault. From Fontevrault his heart, according to a statement in a -public print, was brought a few years ago to Edinburgh, by Bishop -Gillis, of that city. If so, where is it now? - -When Richard Cœur de Lion fell beneath Gourdon's arrow at the -siege of Chaluz, the gallant heart, which, in its greatness and -mercy, inspired him to forgive, and even to reward the luckless -archer, was, after his death, preserved in a casket in the treasury -of that splendid cathedral which William the Conqueror built at -Rouen; for Richard, by a last will, directed that his body should be -interred in Fontevrault, "at the feet of his father, to testify his -sorrow for the many uneasinesses he had created him during his -lifetime." His bowels he bequeathed to Poictou (Grafton has it -Carlisle), and his heart to Normandy, out of his great love for the -people thereof. Above the relic at Rouen there was erected an -elaborate little shrine, which was demolished in 1738, but exactly a -hundred years later the heart was found in its old place, and -reinterred. It was again exhumed, however, cased in glass, and -exhibited in the Musée des Antiquités of the city; but December, -1869, saw it once more replaced in the cathedral, with a leaden plate -on the cover, bearing the inscription: - - "Hie jacet cor Ricardi Regis Anglorum." - -So there finally lies the heart of him who, in chivalry, was the -rival of Saladin and Philip Augustus, the hero of the historian, and -the novelist, and who was the idol of the English people for many a -generation. - -When this great crusader's nephew, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and -King of the Romans, died, after a stirring life--during which he -formed a conspiracy against the king his father, then, like all the -wild, pious, and bankrupt lords of those days, took a turn of service -in the Holy Land, and next drew his sword in the battle fought at -Lewes between Henry the Third and the confederate barons--his body -was interred at Hayles, in Gloucestershire, but his heart was -deposited at Rewley Abbey, near Oxford, while the heart of his son, -who died before him, and for whose tragical fate he died of grief, -was laid in Westminster Abbey in 1271. - -Two successive holders of the see of Durham made votive offerings of -their hearts to two different churches. The first of these was -Richard Poore, previously Dean of Salisbury, Bishop of Chichester, -and then of Durham, from 1228 to 1237. He was buried in the -cathedral of his diocese, but his heart was sent to Tarrant, in -Dorsetshire. A successor in the episcopate, Robert de Stitchell, who -had formerly been Prior of Finchale, dying on his way home from the -Council of Lyons, in 1274, was buried in Durham, but, at his own -request, his heart was left behind, as a gift to the Benedictine -convent near Arbepellis, in France. At Henley, in Yorkshire, in the -old burial vault of the noble family of Bolton, there lies the leaden -coffin of a female member of the house, who had died in France, and -been brought from thence embalmed, and cased in lead. On the top of -the coffin is deposited her heart in a kind of urn. The heart of -Agnes Sorel was interred in the abbey of Jumieges. - -In Scotland there have been several instances of the separate burial -of the human heart. The earliest known is that connected with the -founding and erection of Newabbey, or the abbey of Dulce Cor, in the -stewartry of Kirkcudbright, by Derorgilla, daughter of Alan the -Celtic Lord of Galloway, and wife of John Baliol, of Barnard Castle, -father of the unpopular competitor for the Scottish crown. Baliol, -to whom she was deeply attached, died an exile in France in 1269; but -Derorgilla had his heart embalmed, and as the Scotichronicon records, -"lokyt and bunden with sylver brycht;" and this relic so sad and grim -she always carried about with her. In 1289, as death approached, -when she was in her eightieth year, she directed that "this silent -and daily companion in life for twenty years should be laid upon her -bosom when she was buried in the abbey she had founded;" the -beautiful old church, the secluded ruins of which now moulder by the -bank of the Nith. For five centuries and more, in memory of her -untiring affection, the place has been named locally the Abbey of -Sweet-heart. - -History and song have alike made us familiar with the last wish of -Robert Bruce, the heroic King of Scotland, when, after two years of -peace and contemplation, he died in the north, at Cardross. He -desired that in part fulfilment of a vow he had made to march to -Jerusalem, a purpose which the incessant war with England baffled, -his heart should be laid in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and on -his death-bed he besought his old friend and faithful brother -soldier, the good Sir James Douglas, to undertake that which was then -a most arduous journey, and be the bearer of the relic. "And it is -my command," he added, to quote Froissart, "that you do use that -royal state and maintenance in your journey, both for yourself and -your companions, that into whatever lands or cities you may come, all -may know that ye have in charge, to bear beyond the seas, the heart -of King Robert of Scotland." - -Then all who stood around his bed began to weep, and Douglas replied: - -"Assuredly, my liege, I do promise, by the faith which I owe to God -and to the order of knighthood." - -"Now praise be to God," said the king, "I shall die in peace." - -It is a matter of history how Douglas departed on this errand with a -train of knights, and, choosing to land on the Spanish coast, heard -that Alphonso of Leon and Castile was at war with Osman, the Moorish -king of Granada. In the true spirit of the age, he could not resist -the temptation of striking a blow for the Christian faith, and so -joined the Spaniards. He led their van upon the plain of Theba, near -the Andalusian frontier. In a silver casket at his neck he bore the -heart of Bruce, which rashly and repeatedly he cast before him amid -the Moors, crying: - -"Now pass on as ye were wont, and Douglas, as of old, will follow -thee or die." - -And there he fell, together with Sir William Sinclair, of Roslin, Sir -Robert and Walter Logan, of Restalrig, and others. Bruce's heart, -instead of being taken to Jerusalem, was brought home by Sir Simon of -Lee, and deposited in Melrose Abbey. Douglas was laid among his -kindred in Liddesdale, and from thenceforward "the bloody heart," -surmounted by a crown, became the cognizance of all the Douglasses in -Scotland. Bruce was interred at Dunfermline; and when his skeleton -was discovered in 1818, the breast-bone was found to have been sawn -across to permit the removal of the heart, in accordance with the -terms of his last will. - -But of all the treasured hearts of the heroic or illustrious dead, -none perhaps ever underwent so many marvellous adventures as that of -James, Marquis of Montrose, who was executed by the Scottish Puritans -in 1650. - -On his body being interred among those of common criminals, by the -side of a road leading southward from Edinburgh, his niece, the Lady -Napier, whose castle of Merchiston still stands near the place, had -the deal box in which the trunk of the corpse lay (the head and limbs -had been sent to different towns in Scotland) opened in the night, -and his heart, "which he had always promised at his death to leave -her, as a mark of the affection she had ever felt towards him," was -taken forth. It was secretly embalmed and enclosed in a little case -of steel, made from the blade of that sword which Montrose had drawn -for King Charles at the battles of Auldearn, Tippermuir, and -Kilsythe. This case she placed in a gold filigree box that had been -presented by the Doge of Venice to John Napier, of Merchiston, and -she enclosed the whole in a silver urn which had been given to her -husband by the great cavalier marquis before the Civil War. She sent -this carefully guarded relic to the second marquis, afterwards first -Duke of Montrose, who was then in exile with her husband; but it -never reached either of them, being unfortunately lost by the bearer -on the journey. - -Years after all these actors in the drama of life had passed away, a -gentleman of Gueldres, a friend of Francis, fifth Lord Napier (who -died in 1773), recognized, in the collection of a Flemish virtuoso, -by the coat-armorial and other engravings upon it, the identical gold -filigree box belonging to the Napiers of Merchiston. The steel case -was within it; but the silver urn was gone. The former "was the size -and shape of an egg. It was opened by pressing down a little knob, -as is done in opening a watch-case. Inside was a little parcel -containing all that remained of Montrose's heart, wrapped in a piece -of coarse cloth, and done over with a substance like glue." Restored -by this friend to the Napiers, it was presented to Miss Hester -Napier, by her father, Lord Francis, when his speculations in the -Caledonian Canal and elsewhere led him to fear the sale of his -patrimonial castle of Merchiston, and that he would lose all, even to -this relic, on which he set so much store. Miss Napier took it with -her on her marriage with Johnstone of Carnsalloch, and it accompanied -her when she sailed for India with her husband. Off the Cape de Verd -Isles their ship was attacked by Admiral de Suffrien, who was also -bound for the East with five French sail of the line. In the -engagement which ensued, Mrs. Johnstone, who refused to quit her -husband's side on the quarter-deck, was wounded by a splinter in the -arm, while carrying in her hand a reticule in which she had placed -all her most valuable trinkets, and, among these, the heart of -Montrose, as it was feared that the Indiaman would be taken by -boarding; Suffrien, however, was beaten off. - -At Madura, in India, she had an urn made like the old one to contain -the heart, and on it was engraved, in Tamil and Telegu, a legend -telling what it held. Her constant anxiety concerning its safety -naturally caused a story to be spread concerning it among the -Madrassees, who deemed it a powerful talisman. Thus it was stolen, -and became the property of a chief; so the loyal heart that had beat -proudly in so many Scottish battles, hung as an amulet at the neck of -a Hindoo warrior. The latter, however, on hearing what it really -was, generously restored it to its owner, and it was brought to -Europe by the Johnstones on their return in 1792. In that year they -were in France, when an edict of the revolutionary government -required all persons to surrender their plate and ornaments for the -service of the sovereign people. Mrs. Johnstone intrusted the heart -of Montrose to one of her English attendants named Knowles, that it -might be secretly and safely conveyed to England; but the custodian -died by the way; the relic was again lost, and heard of no more. - -In the wall of an aisle of the old ruined church of Culross, there -was found, not long ago, enclosed in a silver case of oval form, -chased and engraved, the heart of Edward Bruce, second Lord Kinloss -(ancestor of the Earls of Elgin), in his day a fiery and gallant -young noble, who fought the famous duel with a kindred spirit, Sir -Edward Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorset, a conflict which is -detailed at such length, and so quaintly, in No. 133 of the -_Guardian_. Bruce was the challenger, and after a long and careful -pre-arrangement, attended by their seconds and surgeons, they -encountered each other, with the sword, minus their doublets, and in -their shirtsleeves, under the walls of Antwerp, in August, 1613. -Sackville had a finger hewn off, and received three thrusts in his -body, yet he contrived to pass his rapier twice, mortally, through -the breast of his Scottish antagonist, who fell on his back, dying -and choking with blood. - -"I re-demanded of him," wrote Sir Edward, "if he would request his -life; but it seemed he prized it not at so dear a rate to be beholden -for it, bravely replying that 'he scorned it,' which answer of his -was so noble and worthy, as I protest I could not find in my heart to -offer him any more violence." - -As Sackville was borne away fainting, he escaped, as he relates, "a -great danger. Lord Bruce's surgeon, when nobody dreamt of it, came -full at me with his lordship's sword, and had not mine, with my -sword, interposed, I had been slain, although my Lord Bruce, -weltering in his blood, and past all expectation of life, conformable -to all his former carriage, which was undoubtedly noble, cried out, -'Rascal, hold thy hand!'" - -Sackville was borne to a neighbouring monastery to be cured, and died -in 1652 of sorrow, it was alleged, for the death of Charles the -First. Kinloss died on the ground where the duel was fought, and was -buried in Antwerp; but his heart was sent home to the family vault, -in the old abbey church, which lies so pleasantly half hidden among -ancient trees, by the margin of the Forth; and a brass plate in the -wall, with a detail of the catastrophe engraved upon it, still -indicates its locality to the visitor. - -Still more recently there was supposed to be found in the vault of -the Maitlands, at St. Mary's Church, in Haddington, an urn containing -the heart of the great but terrible duke, John of Lauderdale, the -scourge of the Covenanters, a truculent peer, who, for his services -to the powers that were, was created Baron Petersham and Earl of -Guildford, and who died at Tunbridge Wells in 1682. He was buried in -the family aisle, amid the execrations of the peasantry, to whom his -character rendered him odious, and his coffin on tressels was long an -object of grotesque terror to the truant urchin who peeped through -the narrow slit that lighted the vault where the lords of Thirlstane -lie. The heart of the unhappy king, James the Second of England, -which was taken from his body, and interred separately in an urn, in -the church of Sainte Marie de Chaillot, near Paris, was lost at the -Revolution, in 1792, while the heart of his queen, Mary d'Este, of -Modena, and that of their faithful friend and adherent, Mary Gordon, -daughter of Lewis, Marquis of Huntley, and wife of James, Duke of -Perth (whilom Lord Justice-General, and High Chancellor of Scotland), -were long kept where the ashes of the latter still repose, in the -pretty little chapel of the Scottish College, at Paris, in the Rue -des Fosses St. Victoire, one of the oldest portions of the city. - -When the body of the Emperor Napoleon was prepared for interment at -St. Helena, in May, 1821, the heart was removed by a medical officer, -to be soldered up in a separate case. Madame Bertrand, in her grief -and enthusiasm, had made some vow, or expressed a vehement desire, to -obtain possession of this as a precious relic, and the doctor, -fearing that some trick might be played him, and his commission be -thereby imperilled, kept it all night in his own room, and under his -own eye, in a wine-glass. The noise of crystal breaking roused him, -if not from sleep, at least from a waking doze, and he started -forward, only in time to rescue the heart of the emperor from a huge -brown rat, which was dragging it across the floor to its hole. It -was rescued by the doctor, soldered up in a silver urn, filled with -spirits, by Sergeant Abraham Millington, of the St. Helena Artillery, -and placed in the coffin. - -During the repair of Christ's Church, at Cork, in 1829, a human -heart, in a leaden case, was found embedded among the masonry; but to -whom it had belonged, what was its story, the piety or love its owner -wished to commemorate, no legend or inscription remained to tell. - -In 1774, Sir Francis Dashwood, Lord Le Despenser, seems to have -received the singular bequest of a human heart, as the obituaries of -that year record, that when "Paul Whitehead, Esq., a gentleman much -admired by the literati for his publications, died at his apartments -in Henrietta-street, Covent Garden, among other whimsical legacies -was his heart, which, with fifty pounds, he bequeathed to his -lordship." But of all the relics on record, perhaps the most -singular, if the story be true, is that related in the second volume -of the memoirs of the Empress Josephine, published in 1829, when the -Duc de Lauragnois had not only the heart of his wife, to whom he was -tenderly devoted, but her entire body, "by some chemical process -reduced to a sort of small stone, which was set in a ring, that the -duke always wore on his finger." After this, who will say that the -eighteenth century was not a romantic age? - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -PHANTASMAGORIA. - -On the 29th of January, 1719, a Scottish gentleman, named Alexander -Jaffray, Laird of Kingswells, was riding across a piece of wide and -waste moorland to the westward of Aberdeen, when, about eight o'clock -in the morning, he beheld--to his great alarm and bewilderment, as he -states in a letter to his friend, Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk -(printed by the Spalding Club)--a body of about seven thousand -soldiers drawn up in front of him, all under arms, with colours -uncased and waving, and the drums slung on the drummers' backs. A -clear morning sun was shining, so he saw them distinctly, and also a -commander who rode along the line, mounted on a white charger. - -Dubious whether to advance or retire, and sorely perplexed as to what -mysterious army this was, the worthy Laird of Kingswells and a -companion, an old Scottish soldier, who had served in Low Country -wars, reined in their horses, and continued to gaze on this -unexpected array for nearly two hours; till suddenly the troops broke -into marching order, and departed towards Aberdeen, near which, he -adds, "the hill called the Stockett tooke them out of sight." - -Nothing more was heard or seen of this phantom force until the 21st -of the ensuing October, when upon the same ground--the then open and -desolate White-myres--on a fine clear afternoon, when some hundred -persons were returning home from the yearly fair at Old Aberdeen, -about two thousand infantry, clad in blue uniforms faced with white, -and with all their arms shining in the evening sun, were distinctly -visible; and after a space, the same commander on the same white -charger rode slowly along the shadowy line. Then a long "wreath of -smoak apiered, as if they had fired, but no noise" followed. - -To add to the marvel of this scene, the spectators, who, we have -said, were numerous, saw many of their friends, who were coming from -the fair, pass _through_ this line of impalpable shadows, of which -they could see nothing until they came to a certain point upon the -moor and looked back to the sloping ground. Then, precisely as -before, those phantoms in foreign uniform broke into marching order, -and moved towards the Bridge of the Dee. They remained visible, -however, for three hours, and only seemed to fade out or melt -gradually away as the sun set behind the mountains. "This will -puzzle thy philosophy," adds the laird at the close of his letter to -the baronet of Monymusk; "but thou needst not doubt of the certainty -of either." - -Scottish tradition, and even Scottish history, especially after the -Reformation, record many such instances of optical phenomena, which -were a source of great terror and amazement to the simple folks of -those days; and England was not without her full share of them -either; but science finds a ready solution for all such delusions -now. They are chiefly peculiar to mountainous districts, and may -appear in many shapes and in many numbers, or singly, like the giant -of the Brocken, the spectator's own shadow cast on the opposite -clouds, and girt with rings of concentric light--or like the wondrous -fog-bow, so recently seen from the Matterhorn. - -Almost on the same ground where the Laird of Kingswells saw the -second army of phantoms, and doubtless resulting from the same -natural and atmospheric causes, a similar appearance had been visible -on the 12th of February, 1643, when a great body of horse and foot -appeared as if under arms on the Brimman Hill. Accoutred with -matchlock, pike, and morion, they looked ghost-like and misty as they -skimmed through the gray vapour about eight o'clock in the morning; -but on the sun breaking forth from a bank of cloud, they vanished, -and the green hill-slopes were left bare, or occupied by sheep alone. -Much about the same time, another army was seen to hover in the air -over the Moor of Forfar. "Quhilkis visons," adds the Commissary -Spalding, "the people thocht to be prodigious tokens, and it fell out -owre trew, as may be seen hereafter." - -Many such omens are gravely recorded as preceding and accompanying -the long struggle of the Covenant, and the fatal war in which the -three kingdoms were plunged by Charles I. and his evil advisers. - -Indigestion, heavy dinners, and heavier drinking had doubtless much -to do in creating some of the spectral delusions of those days; and -inborn superstition, together with a heated fancy, were often not -wanting as additional accessories. But in the gloomy and stormy -autumn that preceded the march of the Scottish Covenanters into -England, omens of all kinds teemed to a wonderful extent in the land. -When Alaster Macdonnel, son of Coll the Devastator, as the Whigs -named him, landed from Ireland, at the Rhu of Ardnamurchan, in -Morven, to join the Scottish cavaliers under the Marquis of Montrose, -then in arms for the king, it was alleged that the _hum_ of -cannon-shot was heard in the air, passing all over Scotland from the -Atlantic to the German Sea; that many strange lights appeared in the -firmament; and that, on a gloomy night in the winter of 1650, a -spectre drummer, beating in succession the Scottish and English -marches, summoned to a ghostly conference, at the castle-gate of -Edinburgh, Colonel Dundas of that Ilk, a corrupt officer, who, on -being bribed by gold, afterwards surrendered to Cromwell the -fortress, together with some sixty pieces of cannon. - -All the private diaries and quaint chronicles, of late years -published by the various literary clubs in England and Scotland, teem -with such marvels, but the latter country was more particularly -afflicted by them; omens, warnings, and predictions of coming peril -rendering it, by their number and character, extremely doubtful -whether Heaven or the _other place_ was most interested in Scottish -affairs. - -In 1638, fairy drums were heard beating on the hills of Dun Echt, in -Aberdeenshire, according to the narrative of the parson of Rothiemay; -in 1643, we hear of the noise of drums "and apparitions of armyes" at -Bankafoir in the same county. "The wraith of General Leslie in his -buff-coat and on horseback, carrying his own banner with its bend -_azure_ and three buckles _or_, appeared on the summit of a tower at -St. Johnstown. Science now explains such visions as the aerial -Morgana, produced by the reflection of real objects on a peculiar -atmospheric arrangement; but then they were a source of unlimited -terror." Law, in his _Memorials_, records that, in 1676, a wondrous -star blazed at noon on the hill of Gargunnock, and a great army of -spectres was seen to glide along the hills near Aberdeen. - -A folio of _Apparitions and Wonders_, preserved in the British -Museum, records that, at Durham, on the 27th September, 1703, when -the evening sky was serene and full of stars, a strange and -prodigious light spread over its north-western quarter, as if the sun -itself was shining; then came streamers which turned to armed men -ranked on horseback. J. Edmonson, the writer of the broadsheet, -adds: "It was thought they would see the apparition better in -Scotland, because it appeared a great way north; the same," he -continues gravely, "was seen in the latter end of March, 1704," and -the battle of Hochstadt followed it. This must refer to the second -battle fought there, which we call Blenheim, when Marshal Tallard was -defeated and taken prisoner by Marlborough. But this wonderful light -which turned to armed men at Durham was outdone by a marvel at -Churchill, Oxfordshire, where (in the same collection) we find that, -on the 9th January, 1705, _four suns_ were all visible in the air at -once, "sent for signs unto mankind," adds the publisher, Mr. Tookey -of St. Christopher's Court, "and having their significations of the -Lord, like the hand-writing unto his servant Daniel." - -In 1744, a man named D. Stricket, when servant to Mr. Lancaster of -Blakehills, saw one evening, about seven o'clock, a troop of horse -riding leisurely along Souter Fell in Cumberland. They were in close -ranks, and ere long quickened their pace. As this man had been -sharply ridiculed as the solitary beholder of a spectre horseman in -the same place in the preceding year, he watched these strange -troopers for some time ere he summoned his master from the house to -look too. But ere Stricket spoke of what was to be seen, "Mr. -Lancaster discovered the aerial troopers," whose appearance was as -plainly visible to him as to his servant. "These visionary horsemen -_seemed_ to come from the lowest part of Souter Fell, and became -visible at a place named Knott; they moved in successive troops (or -squadrons) along the side of the Fell till they came opposite to -Blakehills, where they went over the mountain. They thus described a -kind of curvilinear path, their first and last appearances being -bounded by the mountain." They were two hours in sight; and "this -phenomenon was seen by _every person_ (twenty-six in number) in every -cottage within the distance of a mile," according to the statement -attested before a magistrate by Lancaster and Stricket, on the 21st -of July, 1745. - -During the middle of the last century, a toll-keeper in Perthshire -affirmed on oath, before certain justices of the peace, that an -entire regiment passed through his toll-gate at midnight; but as no -such force had left any town in the neighbourhood, or arrived at any -other, or, in fact, were ever seen anywhere but at his particular -turnpike, the whole story was naturally treated as a delusion; though -the Highlanders sought in some way to connect the vision with the -unquiet spirits of those who fought at Culloden, for there, the -peasantry aver, that "in the soft twilight of the summer evening, -solitary wayfarers, when passing near the burial mounds, have -suddenly found themselves amid the smoke and hurly-burly of a battle, -and could recognize the various clans engaged by their tartans and -badges. On those occasions, a certain Laird of Culduthil was always -seen amid the fray on a white horse, and the people believe that once -again a great battle will be fought there by the clans; but with -whom, or about what, no seer has ventured to predict." - -Shadowy figures of armed men were seen in Stockton Forest, Yorkshire, -prior to the war with France, as the _Leeds Mercury_ and local prints -record; and so lately as 1812, much curiosity and no small ridicule -were excited by the alleged appearance of a phantom army in the -vicinity of hard-working prosaic Leeds, and all the newspapers and -magazines of the time show how much the story amused the sceptical, -and occupied the attention of the scientific. - -It would appear that between seven and eight o'clock on the evening -of Sunday, the 28th October, Mr. Anthony Jackson, a farmer, in his -forty-fifth year, and a lad of fifteen, named Turner, were -overlooking their cattle, which were at grass in Havarah Park, near -Ripley, the seat of Sir John Ingilby, when the lad suddenly -exclaimed: "Look, Anthony; what a number of beasts!" "Beasts? Lord -bless us!" replied the farmer with fear and wonder, "they are _men_!" -And, as he spoke, there immediately became visible "an army of -soldiers dressed in white uniforms, and in the centre a personage of -commanding aspect clad in scarlet." These phantoms (according to the -_Leeds Mercury_ and _Edinburgh Annual Register_) were four deep, -extended over thirty acres, and performed many evolutions. Other -bodies in dark uniforms now appeared, and smoke, as if from -artillery, rolled over the grass of the park. On this, Jackson and -Turner, thinking they had seen quite enough, turned and fled. - -Like the spells of the Fairy Morgana, which were alleged to create -such beautiful effects in the Bay of Reggio, and which Fra Antonio -Minasi saw thrice in 1773, and "deemed to exceed by far the most -beautiful theatrical exhibition in the world," science has explained -away, or fully discovered the true source of all such spectral -phenomena. The northern aurora was deemed by the superstitious, from -the days of Plutarch even to those of the sage Sir Richard Baker, as -portentous of dire events; and the fancies of the timid saw only war -and battle in the shining streamers; but those supposed spectral -armies whose appearance we have noted, were something more, in most -instances, than mere _deceptio visus_, being actually the shadows of -_realities_--the airy reproductions of events, bodily passing in -other parts of the country, reflected in the clouds, and imaged again -on the mountain slopes or elsewhere, by a peculiar operation of the -sun's rays. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -A STRING OF GHOST STORIES. - -A belief in the ghost of vulgar superstition is as much exploded in -England now as are the opinions advanced by King James in his -"Demonologie." Yet the learned Bacon admitted that such things might -be. Luther, Pascal, Guy Patin, Milton, Dr. Johnson, and even -Southey, believed in the existence of such mediums with the unseen -world. "My serious belief amounts to this," wrote the latter: "that -preternatural impressions are sometimes communicated to us for wise -purposes; and that departed spirits are sometimes permitted to -manifest themselves." And had Pope not entertained some similar -idea, he had not written: - - "'Tis true, 'tis certain, man, though dead, retains - Part of himself; the immortal mind remains: - The _form_ subsists without the _body's_ aid, - Aerial semblance and an empty shade." - -Upon the truth or falsehood, the theories or rather hypotheses, of -such alleged appearances, we mean not to dwell; but merely to relate -a few little anecdotes connected with them, and drawn--save in Lord -Brougham's instance--from sources remote and scarce. - -In the memoirs of the celebrated Agrippa d'Aubigné, grandfather of -Madame de Maintenon, the wife of Louis XIV., a man famous for his -zeal in Calvinism and disbelief in the spiritual world, and one whose -integrity was deemed alike rigid and inflexible, we read the -following of a spectre like that of a nursery tale: - -"I was," he wrote, "in my bed, and entirely awake, when I heard some -one enter my apartment; and perceived at my bedside a woman, -remarkably pale, whose clothes rustled against my curtains as she -passed. Withdrawing the latter, she stooped towards me, and giving -me a kiss that was cold as ice, vanished in a moment!" - -D'Aubigné started from bed, and was almost immediately after informed -of the sudden death, of his mother, to whom he was tenderly attached. - -In a letter of Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield, we find a curious -story of a double apparition occurring at the same moment, and which, -though it somewhat illustrates Ennemoser's theory of polarity, is -beyond the pale of modern philosophy. - -In the gray daylight of an early morning in 1652, the earl saw a -figure in white, "like a standing sheet," appear within a yard of his -bedside. He attempted to grasp it; but, eluding him, the figure slid -towards the foot of the bed, and melted away. He felt a strange -anxiety; but his thoughts immediately turned to the Countess (Lady -Anne Percy), who was then at Networth with her father, the Earl of -Northumberland, and thither he immediately repaired. On his arrival -a footman met him on the staircase, with a packet directed to him -from his lady; whom he found with her sister, the Countess of Essex, -and a Mrs. Ramsay. He was asked why he had come so suddenly. He -told his motive, his alarm and anxiety; and, on perusing the letter -in the sealed packet, he found that the countess had written to him, -requesting his return; "as she had seen a thing in white, with a -black face, by her bedside." These apparitions were identically the -same in appearance, and were seen by the earl and countess _at the -same moment_, though they were in two places forty miles apart. No -catastrophe followed. The earl, however, survived his lady, and -lived till the year 1713. - -In the _St. James's Chronicle_ for 1762 we find a strange story of an -apparition being the means of revealing a murder, and bringing the -guilty parties to the fatal tree at Tyburn. The narrative was said -to have been found among the legal papers of a counsellor of the -Middle Temple, then recently deceased. - -"In the year 1668 a young gentleman of the West Country, named -Stobbine, came to London, and soon after, as ill luck would have it, -he wedded a wife of Wapping, the youngest daughter of a Mrs. Alceald; -and in the space of fifteen months the providence of God sent them a -daughter, which (_sic_) was left under the care of the grandmother, -the husband and his wife retiring to their house in the country." - -In 1676, when the daughter was six years old, Mrs. Alceald died, and -the child was sent home, and remained there till 1679, when a Mrs. -Myltstre, her maternal aunt, "having greatly increased her means, -forsook the canaille and low habitations of Wapping, came into a -polite part of the town, took a house among people of quality, and -set up for a woman of fashion," and thither did she invite the -Stobbines and their daughter to spend the winter with her. Among her -visitors were her husband's brother, who had the title or rank of -captain, and who seems to have been a bully and gamester--a "blood," -in a flowing wig and laced coat--and there was another relation, who -practised as an apothecary. - -All these five persons dined together on the birthday of the little -girl Stobbine, when a terrible catastrophe ensued. In a spirit of -play, it was presumed, she took up a sword that was in the room, and -pointing it at Mr. Stobbine, cried, "Stick him, stick him!" - -"What!" said he, "would you stab your father?" - -"You are not my father; but Captain Myltstre is." - -Her father, upon this, boxed her ears, and was instantly run through -the body by the captain. "Down he dropped," we are told, and then -his wife, her sister, the captain, and the apothecary, all trampled -upon him till he was quite dead, and interring him secretly, gave out -that he had returned to the West Country. Time passed on, and though -inquiries were made, and messengers sent after the missing Stobbine, -he was heard of no more for a time. His daughter was sent to a -distant school, and her mother, "who pretended to go distracted, was -sent to a village a few miles out of town, where the captain had a -pretty little box for his convenience." - -A memory of the terrible scene she had witnessed haunted the -daughter, she had nightly horrible dreams and frights, to the terror -of a young lady who slept with her; and she always alleged that a -spectre haunted her, a spectre visible to her only, and on these -occasions she would exclaim, with every manifestation of horror, - -"There is a spirit in the room! It is Mr. Stobbine's spirit. Oh, -how terrible it looks!" - -These appearances and her paroxysms led to an inquiry before a -justice of the peace; and without any warning given, the whole of the -guilty parties were apprehended and committed to the Gate-house, -tried at the Old Bailey, "and condemned, to the entire satisfaction -of the county, the court, and all present." - -After this, Stobbine's troubled spirit appeared no more. Mrs. -Myltstre was hanged, and her body was thrown into the gully-hole near -her old house in Wapping; Mrs. Stobbine was strangled and burned. -The captain and the apothecary were hanged at Tyburn, and the latter -was anatomized; and so ended this tragedy. - -Another remarkable detection of murder through the alleged appearance -of a ghost, occurred in 1724. - -A farmer, returning homeward from Southam market in Warwickshire, -disappeared by the way. Next day a man presented himself at the -farmhouse, and asked of the wife if her husband had come back. - -"No," she replied; "and I am under the utmost anxiety and terror." - -"Your terror," said he, "cannot surpass mine; for last night as I lay -in bed, quite awake, the apparition of your poor husband appeared to -me. He showed me several ghastly stabs in his body, which is now -lying in a marl-pit." - -The pit was searched, the corpse was found, and the stabs, in number -and position, answered in every way to the description given by the -ghost-seer, to whom the spectre had named a certain man as the -culprit; and this person was committed to prison and brought to trial -at Warwick for the crime, before a jury and the Lord Chief Justice, -Sir Robert (afterwards Lord) Raymond, who was succeeded in 1733 by -Sir Philip Yorke. The jury would speedily have brought in a verdict -of guilty; but he checked them by saying, - -"Gentlemen, you lay more stress on the allegations of this apparition -than they will bear. I cannot give credit to these kind of stories. -We are now in a court of law, and must determine according to it; and -I know not of any law which will admit of the testimony of an -apparition; nor yet if it did, doth the ghost appear to give -evidence. Crier," he added, "call the ghost." - -The farmer's spirit being thrice summoned in vain, Sir Robert again -addressed the jury on the hitherto unblemished character of the man -accused, and stoutly asserted a belief in his perfect innocence; -adding, "I do strongly suspect that the gentleman who saw the -apparition was himself the murderer, and knew all about the stabs and -the marl-pit without any supernatural assistance; hence I deem myself -justified in committing him to close custody till further inquiries -are made." - -The result of these was, that on searching his house sufficient -proofs of his guilt were found; he confessed his crime, and was -executed at the next assize. - -In the list of the officers of the 33rd Regiment, when serving under -Lord Cornwallis in America, and then called the 1st West York, will -be found the names of Captain (afterwards Sir John Coape) Sherbrooke -and Lieutenant George Wynward. The former had recently joined the -33rd from the 4th, or King's Own Regiment. These young men, being -similar in tastes and very attached friends, spent much of their time -in each other's society, and when off duty were seldom apart. One -evening Sherbrooke was in Wynward's quarters. The room in which they -were seated had two doors, one that led into the common passage of -the officers' barrack, the other into Wynward's bedroom, from which -there was no other mode of egress. - -Both officers were engaged in study, till Sherbrooke, on raising his -eyes from a book, suddenly saw a young man about twenty years of age -open the entrance door and advance into the room. The lad looked -pale, ghastly, and thin, as if in the last stage of a mortal malady. -Startled and alarmed, Captain Sherbrooke called Wynward's attention -to their noiseless visitor; and the moment the lieutenant saw him he -became ashy white and incapable of speech, and, ere he could recover, -the figure passed them both and entered the bedroom. - -"Good God--my poor brother!" exclaimed Wynward. - -"Your brother!" repeated Sherbrooke in great perplexity. "There must -be some mistake in all this. Follow me." - -They entered the little bedroom--it was tenantless; and Sherbrooke's -agitation was certainly not soothed by Wynward expressing his -conviction that from the first he believed they had seen a spectre; -and they mutually took note of the day and hour at which this -inexplicable affair occurred. Wynward at times tried to persuade -himself that they might have been duped by the practical joke of some -brother officer; yet his mind was evidently so harassed by it, that -when he related what had occurred, all had the good taste to withhold -comments, and to await with interest the then slow arrival of the -English mails. When the latter came, there were missives for every -officer in the regiment except Wynward, whose hopes began to rise; -but there was one solitary letter for Sherbrooke, which he had no -sooner read than he changed colour and left the mess table. Ere long -he returned and said, - -"Wynward's younger brother is actually no more!" The whole contents -of his note were as follows: "Dear John, break to your friend Wynward -the death of his favourite brother." - -He had died at the very moment the apparition had appeared in that -remote Canadian barrack. Strange though the story, the veracity of -the witnesses was unimpeachable; and Arch-deacon Wrangham alludes to -it in his edition of Plutarch, who, like Pliny the younger, believed -in spectres. Of Wynward, we only know that he was out of the -regiment soon after his brother's death; and of Sherbrooke, that he -lived to see the three days of Waterloo, became Colonel of the 33rd, -Commander of the Forces in North America, and died a General and -G.C.B. - -Prior to accompanying his regiment, the 92nd Highlanders, in the -Waterloo campaign, the famous Colonel John Cameron, of Fassifern, a -grandson of the Lochiel of the "Forty-five," dined with -Lieutenant-colonel Simon Macdonell, of Morar, who had formerly been -in the corps when it was embodied at Aberdeen as the old 100th, or -Gordon Highlanders. On the occasion of this farewell dinner there -were present other officers of the regiment, some of whom died very -recently, and it occurred in the house of Morar, at Arasaig, a wild -part of Ardnamurchan, on the western coast of Inverness-shire. - -As the guests were passing from the drawing-room towards the -dining-room, old Colonel Macdonell courteously paused to usher in -Cameron before him, and in doing so he was observed to stagger and -become pale, while placing his hands before his face, as if to hide -something that terrified him. Cameron saw nothing of this, though -others did; and all were aware that subsequently, during dinner, -their host seemed disconcerted and "out of sorts." - -Those unbidden visions known as the _taisch_, or second-sight, were -alleged to be hereditary in the family of Morar; and hence when -Cameron fell at Quatre Bras a few weeks afterwards, the old Colonel -asserted solemnly, that at the moment when Cameron passed before him -he saw his figure suddenly become enveloped in a dark shroud, which -had blood-gouts upon it about the region of the heart; but no shroud -enveloped the gallant Cameron when his foster-brother buried him in -the _allée verte_ of Brussels, where his body lay for six months, -till it was brought home to Kilmalie, and buried under a monument on -which is an inscription penned by Scott. - -One of the latest testimonies of the existence of a spiritual world -is that given in the _Life and Times of Henry Lord Brougham_, written -by himself. - -In volume first, he tells us that after he left the High School of -Edinburgh to attend the University, one of his most intimate friends -there was a Mr. G----, with whom, in their solitary walks in the -neighbourhood of the city, he frequently discussed and speculated on -the immortality of the soul, the possibility of ghosts walking -abroad, and of the dead appearing to the living; and they actually -committed the folly of drawing up an agreement, written mutually -_with their blood_, to the effect, "that whichever died first should -appear to the other, and thus solve any doubts entertained of the -life after death." - -G---- went to India, and after the lapse of a few years Brougham had -almost forgotten his existence, when one day in winter--the 19th of -December--as he was indulging in the half sleepy luxury of a warm -bath, he turned to the chair on which he had deposited his clothes, -and thereon sat his old college-chum G----, looking him coolly, -quietly, and sadly in the face. Lord Brougham adds that he swooned, -and found himself lying on the floor. He noted the circumstance, -believing it to be all a dream, and yet, when remembering the -compact, he could not discharge from his mind a dread that G---- must -have died, and that his appearance even in a dream, was to be -received as a proof of a future state. Sixty-three years afterwards -the veteran statesman and lawyer appends the following note to this -story of the apparition: - -"Brougham, Oct. 16, 1862.--I have just been copying out from my -journal the account of this strange dream, _certissima mortis imago_. -Soon after my return there arrived a letter from India announcing -G----'s death, and stating that he died on the 19th of December! -Singular coincidence! Yet when one reflects on the vast number of -dreams which night after night pass through our brains, the number of -coincidences between the vision and the event are perhaps fewer and -less remarkable than a fair calculation of chances would warrant us -to expect." - - - -THE END. - - - -BILLING, PRINTER, GUILDFORD, SURREY. - - - - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN'S CADET AND OTHER -TALES *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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