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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7636.txt b/7636.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4a9f3e --- /dev/null +++ b/7636.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3054 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Disowned, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, V6 +#64 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Disowned, Volume 6. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7636] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 4, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V6 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + + + + + +CHAPTER LIX + + Change and time take together their flight.--Golden Violet. + +One evening in autumn, about three years after the date of our last +chapter, a stranger on horseback, in deep mourning, dismounted at the +door of the Golden Fleece, in the memorable town of W----. He walked +into the taproom, and asked for a private apartment and accommodation +for the night. The landlady, grown considerably plumper than when we +first made her acquaintance, just lifted up her eyes to the stranger's +face, and summoning a short stout man (formerly the waiter, now the +second helpmate of the comely hostess), desired him, in a tone which +partook somewhat more of the authority indicative of their former +relative situations than of the obedience which should have +characterized their present, "to show the gentleman to the Griffin, +No. 4." + +The stranger smiled as the sound greeted his ears, and he followed not +so much the host as the hostess's spouse into the apartment thus +designated. A young lady, who some eight years ago little thought +that she should still be in a state of single blessedness, and who +always honoured with an attentive eye the stray travellers who, from +their youth, loneliness, or that ineffable air which usually +designates the unmarried man, might be in the same solitary state of +life, turned to the landlady and said,-- + +"Mother, did you observe what a handsome gentleman that was?" + +"No," replied the landlady; "I only observed that he brought no +servant" + +"I wonder," said the daughter, "if he is in the army? he has a +military air!" + +"I suppose he has dined," muttered the landlady to herself, looking +towards the larder. + +"Have you seen Squire Mordaunt within a short period of time?" asked, +somewhat abruptly, a little thick-set man, who was enjoying his pipe +and negus in a sociable way at the window-seat. The characteristics +of this personage were, a spruce wig, a bottle nose, an elevated +eyebrow, a snuff-coloured skin and coat, and an air of that +consequential self-respect which distinguishes the philosopher who +agrees with the French sage, and sees "no reason in the world why a +man should not esteem himself." + +"No, indeed, Mr. Bossolton," returned the landlady; "but I suppose +that, as he is now in the Parliament House, he will live less retired. +It is a pity that the inside of that noble old Hall of his should not +be more seen; and after all the old gentleman's improvements too! +They say that the estate now, since the mortgages were paid off, is +above 10,000 pounds a year, clear!" + +"And if I am not induced into an error," rejoined Mr. Bossolton, +refilling his pipe, "old Vavasour left a great sum of ready money +besides, which must have been an aid, and an assistance, and an +advantage, mark me, Mistress Merrylack, to the owner of Mordaunt Hall, +that has escaped the calculation of your faculty,--and the--and the-- +faculty of your calculation!" + +"You mistake, Mr. Boss," as, in the friendliness of diminutives, Mrs. +Merrylack sometimes styled the grandiloquent practitioner, "you +mistake: the old gentleman left all his ready money in two bequests,-- +the one to the College of ----, in the University of Cambridge, and +the other to an hospital in London. I remember the very words of the +will; they ran thus, Mr. Boss. 'And whereas my beloved son, had he +lived, would have been a member of the College of ---- in the +University of Cambridge, which he would have adorned by his genius, +learning, youthful virtue, and the various qualities which did equal +honour to his head and heart, and would have rendered him alike +distinguished as the scholar and the Christian, I do devise and +bequeath the sum of thirty-seven thousand pounds sterling, now in the +English Funds,' etc; and then follows the manner in which he will have +his charity vested and bestowed, and all about the prize which shall +be forever designated and termed 'The Vavasour Prize,' and what shall +be the words of the Latin speech which shall be spoken when the said +prize be delivered, and a great deal more to that effect: so, then, he +passes to the other legacy, of exactly the same sum, to the hospital, +usually called and styled ----, in the city of London, and says, 'And +whereas we are assured by the Holy Scriptures, which, in these days of +blasphemy and sedition, it becomes every true Briton and member of the +Established Church to support, that "charity doth cover a multitude of +sins," so I do give and devise,' etc., 'to be forever termed in the +deeds,' etc., 'of the said hospital, "The Vavasour Charity;" and +always provided that on the anniversary of the day of my death a +sermon shall be preached in the chapel attached to the said hospital +by a clergyman of the Established Church, on any text appropriate to +the day and deed so commemorated.' But the conclusion is most +beautiful, Mr. Bossolton: 'And now having discharged my duties, to the +best of my humble ability, to my God, my king, and my country, and +dying in the full belief of the Protestant Church, as by law +established, I do set my hand and seal,' etc." + +"A very pleasing and charitable and devout and virtuous testament or +will, Mistress Merrylack," said Mr. Bossolton; "and in a time when +anarchy with gigantic strides does devastate and devour and harm the +good old customs of our ancestors and forefathers, and tramples with +its poisonous breath the Magna Charta and the glorious revolution, it +is beautiful, ay, and sweet, mark you, Mrs. Merrylack, to behold a +gentleman of the aristocratic classes or grades supporting the +institutions of his country with such remarkable energy of sentiments +and with--and with, Mistress Merrylack, with sentiments of such +remarkable energy." + +"Pray," said the daughter, adjusting her ringlets by a little glass +which hung over the tap, "how long has Mr. Mordaunt's lady been dead?" + +"Oh! she died just before the squire came to the property," quoth the +mother. "Poor thing! she was so pretty! I am sure I cried for a +whole hour when I heard it! I think it was three years last month +when it happened. Old Mr. Vavasour died about two months afterwards." + +"The afflicted husband" (said Mr. Bossolton, who was the victim of a +most fiery Mrs. Boss at home) "went into foreign lands or parts, or, +as it is vulgarly termed, the Continent, immediately after an event or +occurrence so fatal to the cup of his prosperity and the sunshine of +his enjoyment, did he not, Mrs. Merrylack?" + +"He did. And you know, Mr. Boss, he only returned about six months +ago." + +"And of what borough or burgh or town or city is he the member and +representative?" asked Mr. Jeremiah Bossolton, putting another lump of +sugar into his negus. "I have heard, it is true, but my memory is +short; and, in the multitude and multifariousness of my professional +engagements, I am often led into a forgetfulness of matters less +important in their variety, and less--less various in their +importance." + +"Why," answered Mrs. Merrylack, "somehow or other, I quite forget too; +but it is some distant borough. The gentleman wanted him to stand for +the county, but he would not hear of it; perhaps he did not like the +publicity of the thing, for he is mighty reserved." + +"Proud, haughty, arrogant, and assumptious!" said Mr. Bossolton, with +a puff of unusual length. + +"Nay, nay," said the daughter (young people are always the first to +defend), "I'm sure he's not proud: he does a mort of good, and has the +sweetest smile possible! I wonder if he'll marry again! He is very +young yet, not above two or three and thirty." (The kind damsel would +not have thought two or three and thirty very young some years ago; +but we grow wonderfully indulgent to the age of other people as we +grow older ourselves!) + +"And what an eye he has!" said the landlady. "Well, for my part,-- +but, bless me. Here, John, John, John, waiter, husband I mean,-- +here's a carriage and four at the door. Lizzy, dear, is my cap +right?" + +And mother, daughter, and husband all flocked, charged with simper, +courtesy, and bow, to receive their expected guests. With a +disappointment which we who keep not inns can but very imperfectly +conceive, the trio beheld a single personage,--a valet, descend from +the box, open the carriage door, and take out--a desk! Of all things +human, male or female, the said carriage was utterly empty. + +The valet bustled up to the landlady: "My master's here, ma'am, I +think; rode on before!" + +"And who is your master?" asked Mrs. Merrylack, a thrill of alarm, and +the thought of No. 4, coming across her at the same time. + +"Who!" said the valet, rubbing his hands; "who!--why, Clarence Talbot +Linden, Esq., of Scarsdale Park, county of York, late Secretary of +Legation at the court of ----, now M.P., and one of his Majesty's +Under Secretaries of State." + +"Mercy upon us!" cried the astounded landlady, "and No. 4! only think +of it. Run, John,--John,--run, light a fire (the night's cold, I +think) in the Elephant, No. 16; beg the gentleman's pardon; say it was +occupied till now; ask what he'll have for dinner,--fish, flesh, fowl, +steaks, joints, chops, tarts; or, if it's too late (but it's quite +early yet; you may put back the day an hour or so), ask what he'll +have for supper; run, John, run: what's the oaf staying for? run, I +tell you! Pray, sir, walk in (to the valet, our old friend Mr. +Harrison)--you'll be hungry after your journey, I think; no ceremony, +I beg." + +"He's not so handsome as his master," said Miss Elizabeth, glancing at +Harrison discontentedly; "but he does not look like a married man, +somehow. I'll just step up stairs and change my cap: it would be but +civil if the gentleman's gentleman sups with us." + +Meanwhile Clarence, having been left alone in the quiet enjoyment of +No. 4, had examined the little apartment with an interest not +altogether unmingled with painful reflections. There are few persons, +however fortunate, who can look back to eight years of their life, and +not feel somewhat of disappointment in the retrospect; few persons, +whose fortunes the world envy, to whom the token of past time suddenly +obtruded on their remembrance does not awaken hopes destroyed and +wishes deceived which that world has never known. We tell our +triumphs to the crowd, but our own hearts are the sole confidants of +our sorrows. "Twice," said Clarence to himself, "twice before have I +been in this humble room; the first was when, at the age of eighteen, +I was just launched into the world,--a vessel which had for its only +hope the motto of the chivalrous Sidney,-- + + 'Aut viam inveniam, aut--faciam;' + ["I will either find my way, or--make it.] + +yet, humble and nameless as I was, how well I can recall the +exaggerated ambition, nay, the certainty of success, as well as its +desire, which then burned within me. I smile now at the overweening +vanity of those hopes,--some, indeed, realized, but how many nipped +and withered forever! seeds, of which a few fell upon rich ground and +prospered, but of which how far the greater number were scattered: +some upon the wayside, and were devoured by immediate cares; some on +stony places, and when the sun of manhood was up they were scorched, +and because they had no root withered away; and some among thorns, and +the thorns sprang up and choked them. I am now rich, honoured, high +in the favour of courts, and not altogether unknown or unesteemed +arbitrio popularis aurae: and yet I almost think I was happier when, +in that flush of youth and inexperience, I looked forth into the wide +world, and imagined that from every corner would spring up a triumph +for my vanity or an object for my affections. The next time I stood +in this little spot, I was no longer the dependant of a precarious +charity, or the idle adventurer who had no stepping-stone but his +ambition. I was then just declared the heir of wealth, which I could +not rationally have hoped for five years before, and which was in +itself sufficient to satisfy the aspirings of ordinary men. But I was +corroded with anxieties for the object of my love, and regret for the +friend whom I had lost: perhaps the eagerness of my heart for the one +rendered me, for the moment, too little mindful of the other; but, in +after years, memory took ample atonement for that temporary suspension +of her duties. How often have I recalled, in this world of cold ties +and false hearts, that true and generous friend, from whose lessons my +mind took improvement, and from whose warnings example; who was to me, +living, a father, and from whose generosity whatever worldly +advantages I have enjoyed or distinctions I have gained are derived! +Then I was going, with a torn yet credulous heart, to pour forth my +secret and my passion to her, and, within one little week thence, how +shipwrecked of all hope, object, and future happiness I was! Perhaps, +at that time, I did not sufficiently consider the excusable cautions +of the world: I should not have taken such umbrage at her father's +letter; I should have revealed to him my birth and accession of +fortune; nor bartered the truth of certain happiness for the trials +and manoeuvres of romance. But it is too late to repent now. By this +time my image must be wholly obliterated from her heart: she has seen +me in the crowd, and passed me coldly by; her cheek is pale, but not +for me; and in a little, little while, she will be another's, and lost +to me forever! Yet have I never forgotten her through change or time, +the hard and harsh projects of ambition, the labours of business, or +the engrossing schemes of political intrigue. Never! but this is a +vain and foolish subject of reflection now." + +And not the less reflecting upon it for that sage and veracious +recollection, Clarence turned from the window, against which he had +been leaning, and drawing one of the four chairs to the solitary +table, he sat down, moody and disconsolate, and leaning his face upon +his hands, pursued the confused yet not disconnected thread of his +meditations. + +The door abruptly opened, and Mr. Merrylack appeared. + +"Dear me, sir!" cried he, "a thousand pities you should have been put +here, sir! Pray step upstairs, sir; the front drawing-room is just +vacant, sir; what will you please to have for dinner, sir?" etc., +according to the instructions of his wife. To Mr. Merrylack's great +dismay, Clarence, however, resolutely refused all attempts at +locomotion, and contenting himself with entrusting the dinner to the +discretion of the landlady, desired to be left alone till it was +prepared. + +Now, when Mr. John Merrylack returned to the taproom, and communicated +the stubborn adherence to No. 4 manifested by its occupier, our good +hostess felt exceedingly discomposed. "You are so stupid, John," said +she: "I'll go and expostulate like with him;" and she was rising for +that purpose when Harrison, who was taking particularly good care of +himself, drew her back; "I know my master's temper better than you do, +ma'am," said he; "and when he is in the humour to be stubborn, the +very devil himself could not get him out of it. I dare say he wants +to be left to himself: he is very fond of being alone now and then; +state affairs, you know" (added the valet, mysteriously touching his +forehead), "and even I dare not disturb him for the world; so make +yourself easy, and I'll go to him when he has dined, and I supped. +There is time enough for No. 4 when we have taken care of number one. +Miss, your health!" + +The landlady, reluctantly overruled in her design, reseated herself. + +"Mr. Clarence Linden, M. P., did you say, sir?" said the learned +Jeremiah: "surely, I have had that name or appellation in my books, +but I cannot, at this instant of time, recall to my recollection the +exact date and circumstance of my professional services to the +gentleman so designated, styled, or, I may say, termed." + +"Can't say, I am sure, sir," said Harrison; "lived with my master many +years; never had the pleasure of seeing you before, nor of travelling +this road,--a very hilly road it is, sir. Miss, this negus is as +bright as your eyes and as warm as my admiration." + +"Oh, sir!" + +"Pray," said Mr. Merrylack, who like most of his tribe was a bit of a +politician; "is it the Mr. Linden who made that long speech in the +House the other day?" + +"Precisely, sir. He is a very eloquent gentleman, indeed: pity he +speaks so little; never made but that one long speech since he has +been in the House, and a capital one it was too. You saw how the +prime minister complimented him upon it. 'A speech,' said his +lordship, 'which had united the graces of youthful genius with the +sound calculations of matured experience."' + +"Did the prime minister really so speak?" said Jeremiah "what a +beautiful, and noble, and sensible compliment! I will examine my +books when I go home,--'the graces of youthful genius with the sound +calculations of matured experience'!" + +"If he is in the Parliament House," quoth the landlady, "I suppose he +will know our Mr. Mordaunt, when the squire takes his seat next--what +do you call it--sessions?" + +"Know Mr. Mordaunt!" said the valet. "It is to see him that we have +come down here. We intended to have gone there to-night, but Master +thought it too late, and I saw he was in a melancholy humour: we +therefore resolved to come here; and so Master took one of the horses +from the groom, whom we have left behind with the other, and came on +alone. I take it, he must have been in this town before, for he +described the inn so well.--Capital cheese this! as mild,--as mild as +your sweet smile, miss." + +"Oh, sir!" + +"Pray, Mistress Merrylack," said Mr. Jeremiah Bossolton, depositing +his pipe on the table, and awakening from a profound revery, in which +for the last five minutes his senses had been buried, "pray, Mistress +Merrylack, do you not call to your mind or your reminiscence or your-- +your recollection, a young gentleman, equally comely in his aspect and +blandiloquent (ehem!) in his address, who had the misfortune to have +his arm severely contused and afflicted by a violent kick from Mr. +Mordaunt's horse, even in the yard in which your stables are situated, +and who remained for two or three days in your house or tavern or +hotel? I do remember that you were grievously perplexed because of +his name, the initials of which only he gave or entrusted or +communicated to you, until you did exam--" + +"I remember," interrupted Miss Elizabeth, "I remember well,--a very +beautiful young gentleman, who had a letter directed to be left here, +addressed to him by the letters C. L., and who was afterwards kicked, +and who admired your cap, Mother, and whose name was Clarence Linden. +You remember it well enough, Mother, surely?" + +"I think I do, Lizzy," said the landlady, slowly; for her memory, not +so much occupied as her daughter's by beautiful young gentlemen, +struggled slowly amidst dim ideas of the various travellers and +visitors with whom her house had been honoured, before she came, at +last, to the reminiscence of Clarence Linden, "I think I do; and +Squire Mordaunt was very attentive to him; and he broke one of the +panes of glass in No. 8 and gave me half a guinea to pay for it. I do +remember perfectly, Lizzy. So that is the Mr. Linden now here?--only +think!" + +"I should not have known him, certainly," said Miss Elizabeth; "he is +grown so much taller, and his hair looks quite dark now, and his face +is much thinner than it was; but he's very handsome still; is he not, +sir?" turning to the valet. + +"Ah! ah! well enough," said Mr. Harrison, stretching out his right +leg, and falling away a little to the left, in the manner adopted by +the renowned Gil Blas, in his address to the fair Laura, "well enough; +but he's a little too tall and thin, I think." + +Mr. Harrison's faults in shape were certainly not those of being too +tall and thin. + +"Perhaps so!" said Miss Elizabeth, who scented the vanity by a kindred +instinct, and had her own reasons for pampering it, "perhaps so!" + +"But he is a great favourite with the ladies all the same; however, he +only loves one lady. Ah, but I must not say who, though I know. +However, she is so handsome: such eyes, they would go through you like +a skewer; but not like yours,--yours, miss, which I vow and protest +are as bright as a service of plate." + +"Oh, sir!" + +And amidst these graceful compliments the time slipped away, till +Clarence's dinner and his valet's supper being fairly over, Mr. +Harrison presented himself to his master, a perfectly different being +in attendance to what he was in companionship: flippancy, +impertinence, forwardness, all merged in the steady, sober, serious +demeanour which characterize the respectful and well-bred domestic. + +Clarence's orders were soon given. They were limited to the +appurtenances of writing; and as soon as Harrison reappeared with his +master's writing-desk, he was dismissed for the night. + +Very slowly did Clarence settle himself to his task, and attempt to +escape the ennui of his solitude, or the restlessness of thought +feeding upon itself, by inditing the following epistle:-- + +TO THE DUKE OF HAVERFIELD. + +I was very unfortunate, my dear Duke, to miss seeing you, when I +called in Arlington Street the evening before last, for I had a great +deal to say to you,--something upon public and a little upon private +affairs. I will reserve the latter, since I only am the person +concerned, for a future opportunity. With respect to the former-- + . . . . . . . . . + +And now, having finished the political part of my letter, let me +congratulate you most sincerely upon your approaching marriage with +Miss Trevanion. I do not know her myself; but I remember that she was +the bosom friend of Lady Flora Ardenne, whom I have often heard speak +of her in the highest and most affectionate terms, so that I imagine +her brother could not better atone to you for dishonestly carrying off +the fair Julia some three years ago, than by giving you his sister in +honourable and orthodox exchange,--the gold amour for the brazen. + +As for my lot, though I ought not, at this moment, to dim yours by +dwelling upon it, you know how long, how constantly, how ardently I +have loved Lady Flora Ardenne; how, for her sake, I have refused +opportunities of alliance which might have gratified to the utmost +that worldliness of heart which so many who saw me only in the crowd +have been pleased to impute to me. You know that neither pleasure, +nor change, nor the insult I received from her parents, nor the sudden +indifference which I so little deserved from herself, has been able to +obliterate her image. You will therefore sympathize with me, when I +inform you that there is no longer any doubt of her marriage with +Borodaile (or rather Lord Ulswater, since his father's death), as soon +as the sixth month of his mourning expires; to this period only two +months remain. + +Heavens! when one thinks over the past, how incredulous one could +become to the future: when I recall all the tokens of love I received. +from that woman, I cannot persuade myself that they are now all +forgotten, or rather, all lavished upon another. + +But I do not blame her: may she be happier with him than she could +have been with me! and that hope shall whisper peace to regrets which +I have been foolish to indulge so long, and it is perhaps well for me +that they are about to be rendered forever unavailing. + +I am staying at an inn, without books, companions, or anything to +beguile time and thought, but this pen, ink, and paper. You will see, +therefore, a reason and an excuse for my scribbling on to you, till my +two sheets are filled, and the hour of ten (one can't well go to bed +earlier) arrived. + +You remember having often heard me speak of a very extraordinary man +whom I met in Italy, and with whom I became intimate. He returned to +England some months ago; and on hearing it my desire of renewing our +acquaintance was so great that I wrote to invite myself to his house. +He gave me what is termed a very obliging answer, and left the choice +of time to myself. You see now, most noble Festus, the reason of my +journey hitherwards. + +His house, a fine old mansion, is situated about five or six miles +from this town: and as I arrived here late in the evening, and knew +that his habits were reserved and peculiar, I thought it better to +take "mine ease in my inn" for this night, and defer my visit to +Mordaunt Court till to-morrow morning. In truth, I was not averse to +renewing an old acquaintance,--not, as you in your malice would +suspect, with my hostess, but with her house. Some years ago, when I +was eighteen, I first made a slight acquaintance with Mordaunt at this +very inn, and now, at twenty-six, I am glad to have one evening to +myself on the same spot, and retrace here all that has since happened +to me. + +Now do not be alarmed: I am not going to inflict upon you the unquiet +retrospect with which I have just been vexing myself; no, I will +rather speak to you of my acquaintance and host to be. I have said +that I first met Mordaunt some years since at this inn,--an accident, +for which his horse was to blame, brought us acquainted,--I spent a +day at his house, and was much interested in his conversation; since +then, we did not meet till about two years and a half ago, when we +were in Italy together. During the intermediate interval Mordaunt had +married; lost his property by a lawsuit; disappeared from the world +(whither none knew) for some years; recovered the estate he had lost +by the death of his kinsman's heir, and shortly afterwards by that of +the kinsman himself; and had become a widower, with one only child, a +beautiful little girl of about four years old. He lived in perfect +seclusion, avoided all intercourse with society, and seemed so +perfectly unconscious of having ever seen me before, whenever in our +rides or walks we met, that I could not venture to intrude myself on a +reserve so rigid and unbroken as that which characterized his habits +and life. + +The gloom and loneliness, however, in which Mordaunt's days were +spent, were far from partaking of that selfishness so common, almost +so necessarily common, to recluses. Wherever he had gone in his +travels through Italy, he had left light and rejoicing behind him. In +his residence at ----, while unknown to the great and gay, he was +familiar with the outcast and the destitute. The prison, the +hospital, the sordid cabins of want, the abodes (so frequent in Italy, +that emporium of artists and poets) where genius struggled against +poverty and its own improvidence,--all these were the spots to which +his visits were paid, and in which "the very stones prated of his +whereabout." It was a strange and striking contrast to compare the +sickly enthusiasm of those who flocked to Italy to lavish their +sentiments on statues, and their wealth on the modern impositions +palmed upon their taste as the masterpieces of ancient art,--it was a +noble contrast, I say, to compare that ludicrous and idle enthusiasm +with the quiet and wholesome energy of mind and heart which led +Mordaunt, not to pour forth worship and homage to the unconscious +monuments of the dead but to console, to relieve, and to sustain the +woes, the wants, the feebleness of the living. + +Yet while he was thus employed in reducing the miseries and enlarging +the happiness of others, the most settled melancholy seemed to mark +himself "as her own." Clad in the deepest mourning, a stern and un +broken gloom sat forever upon his countenance. I have observed, that +if in his walks or rides any one, especially of the better classes, +appeared to approach, he would strike into a new path. He could not +bear even the scrutiny of a glance or the fellowship of a moment: and +his mien, high and haughty, seemed not only to repel others, but to +contradict the meekness and charity which his own actions so +invariably and unequivocally displayed. It must, indeed, have been a +powerful exertion of principle over feeling which induced him +voluntarily to seek the abodes and intercourse of the rude beings he +blessed and relieved. + +We met at two or three places to which my weak and imperfect charity +had led me, especially at the house of a sickly and distressed artist: +for in former life I had intimately known one of that profession; and +I have since attempted to transfer to his brethren that debt of +kindness which an early death forbade me to discharge to himself. It +was thus that I first became acquainted with Mordaunt's occupations +and pursuits; for what ennobled his benevolence was the remarkable +obscurity in which it was veiled. It was in disguise and in secret +that his generosity flowed; and so studiously did he conceal his name, +and hide even his features, during his brief visits to "the house of +mourning," that only one like myself, a close and minute investigator +of whatever has once become an object of interest, could have traced +his hand in the various works of happiness it had aided or created. + +One day, among some old ruins, I met him with his young daughter. By +great good-fortune I preserved the latter, who had wandered away from +her father, from a fall of loose stones, which would inevitably have +crushed her. I was myself much hurt by my effort, having received +upon my shoulder a fragment of the falling stones; and thus our old +acquaintance was renewed, and gradually ripened into intimacy; not, I +must own, without great patience and constant endeavour on my part; +for his gloom and lonely habits rendered him utterly impracticable of +access to any (as Lord Aspeden would say) but a diplomatist. I saw a +great deal of him during the six months I remained in Italy, and--but +you know already how warmly I admire his extraordinary powers and +venerate his character--Lord Aspeden's recall to England separated us. + +A general election ensued. I was returned for ----. I entered +eagerly into domestic politics; your friendship, Lord Aspeden's +kindness, my own wealth and industry, made my success almost +unprecedentedly rapid. Engaged heart and hand in those minute yet +engrossing labours for which the aspirant in parliamentary and state +intrigue must unhappily forego the more enlarged though abstruser +speculations of general philosophy, and of that morality which may be +termed universal, politics, I have necessarily been employed in very +different pursuits from those to which Mordaunt's contemplations are +devoted, yet have I often recalled his maxims, with admiration at +their depth, and obtained applause for opinions which were only +imperfectly filtered from the pure springs of his own. + +It is about six months since he has returned to England, and he has +very lately obtained a seat in Parliament: so that we may trust soon +to see his talents displayed upon a more public and enlarged theatre +than they hitherto have been; and though I fear his politics will be +opposed to ours, I anticipate his public debut with that interest +which genius, even when adverse to one's self, always inspires. Yet I +confess that I am desirous to see and converse with him once more in +the familiarity and kindness of private intercourse. The rage of +party, the narrowness of sectarian zeal, soon exclude from our +friendship all those who differ from our opinions; and it is like +sailors holding commune for the last time with each other, before +their several vessels are divided by the perilous and uncertain sea, +to confer in peace and retirement for a little while with those who +are about to be launched with us on that same unquiet ocean where any +momentary caprice of the winds may disjoin us forever, and where our +very union is only a sympathy in toil and a fellowship in danger. + +Adieu, my dear duke! it is fortunate for me that our public opinions +are so closely allied, and that I may so reasonably calculate in +private upon the happiness and honour of subscribing myself your +affectionate friend, C. L. + +Such was the letter to which we shall leave the explanation of much +that has taken place within the last three years of our tale, and +which, in its tone, will serve to show the kindness and generosity of +heart and feeling that mingled (rather increased than abated by the +time which brought wisdom) with the hardy activity and resolute +ambition that characterized the mind of our "Disowned." We now +consign him to such repose as the best bedroom in the Golden Fleece +can afford, and conclude the chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER LX. + + Though the wilds of enchantment all vernal and bright, + In the days of delusion by fancy combined + With the vanishing phantoms of love and delight, + Abandon my soul, like a dream of the night, + And leave but a desert behind, + + Be hush'd my dark spirit, for Wisdom condemns + When the faint and the feeble deplore; + Be strong as the rock of the ocean that stems + A thousand wild waves on the shore.--CAMPBELL. + +"Shall I order the carriage round, sir?" said Harrison; "it is past +one." + +"Yes; yet stay: the day is fine; I will ride; let the carriage come on +in the evening; see that my horse is saddled; you looked to his mash +last night?" + +"I did, sir. He seems wonderfully fresh: would you please to have me +stay here with the carriage, sir, till the groom comes on with the +other horse?" + +"Ay, do: I don't know yet how far strange servants may be welcome +where I am going." + +"Now, that's lucky!" said Harrison to himself, as he shut the door: "I +shall have a good five hours' opportunity of making my court here. +Miss Elizabeth is really a very pretty girl, and might not be a bad +match. I don't see any brothers; who knows but she may succeed to the +inn--hem! A servant may be ambitious as well as his master, I +suppose." + +So meditating, Harrison sauntered to the stables; saw (for he was an +admirable servant, and could, at a pinch, dress a horse as well as its +master) that Clarence's beautiful steed received the utmost nicety of +grooming which the ostler could bestow; led it himself to the door; +held the stirrup for his master, with the mingled humility and grace +of his profession, and then strutted away--"pride on his brow and +glory in his eye"--to be the cynosure and oracle of the taproom. + +Meanwhile Linden rode slowly onwards. As he passed that turn of the +town by which he had for the first time entered it, the recollection +of the eccentric and would-be gypsy flashed upon him. "I wonder," +thought he, "where that singular man is now, whether he still +preserves his itinerant and woodland tastes,-- + + 'Si flumina sylvasque inglorius amet,' + ["If, unknown to fame, he love the streams and the woods."] + +or whether, as his family increased in age or number, he has turned +from his wanderings, and at length found out 'the peaceful hermitage?' +How glowingly the whole scene of that night comes across me,--the wild +tents, their wilder habitants, the mingled bluntness, poetry, honest +good-nature, and spirit of enterprise which constituted the chief's +nature; the jovial meal and mirth round the wood fire, and beneath the +quiet stars, and the eagerness and zest with which I then mingled in +the merriment. Alas! how ill the fastidiousness and refinement of +after days repay us for the elastic, buoyant, ready zeal with which +our first youth enters into whatever is joyous, without pausing to ask +if its cause and nature be congenial to our habits or kindred to our +tastes. After all, there really was something philosophical in the +romance of the jovial gypsy, childish as it seemed; and I should like +much to know if the philosophy has got the better of the romance, or +the romance, growing into habit, become commonplace and lost both its +philosophy and its enthusiasm. Well, after I leave Mordaunt, I will +try and find out my old friend." + +With this resolution Clarence's thoughts took a new channel, and he +soon entered upon Mordaunt's domain. As he rode through the park +where brake and tree were glowing in the yellow tints which Autumn, +like Ambition, gilds ere it withers, he paused for a moment to recall +the scene as he last beheld it. It was then spring--spring in its +first and flushest glory--when not a blade of grass but sent a perfume +to the air, the happy air,-- + + "Making sweet music while the young leaves danced:" + +when every cluster of the brown fern, that now lay dull and motionless +around him, and amidst which the melancholy deer stood afar off gazing +upon the intruder, was vocal with the blithe melodies of the infant +year,--the sharp, yet sweet, voices of birds,--and (heard at +intervals) the chirp of the merry grasshopper or the hum of the +awakened bee. He sighed, as he now looked around, and recalled the +change both of time and season; and with that fondness of heart which +causes man to knit his own little life to the varieties of time, the +signs of heaven, or the revolutions of Nature, he recognized something +kindred in the change of scene to the change of thought and feeling +which years had wrought in the beholder. + +Awaking from his revery, he hastened his horse's pace, and was soon +within sight of the house. Vavasour, during the few years he had +possessed the place, had conducted and carried through improvements +and additions to the old mansion, upon a scale equally costly and +judicious. The heavy and motley magnificence of the architecture in +which the house had been built remained unaltered; but a wing on +either side, though exactly corresponding in style to the intermediate +building, gave, by the long colonnade which ran across the one and the +stately windows which adorned the other, an air not only of grander +extent, but more cheerful lightness to the massy and antiquated pile. +It was, assuredly, in the point of view by which Clarence now +approached it, a structure which possessed few superiors in point of +size and effect; and harmonized so well with the nobly extent of the +park, the ancient woods, and the venerable avenues, that a very slight +effort of imagination might have poured from the massive portals the +pageantries of old days, and the gay galliard of chivalric romance +with which the scene was in such accordance, and which in a former age +it had so often witnessed. + +Ah, little could any one who looked upon that gorgeous pile, and the +broad lands which, beyond the boundaries of the park, swelled on the +hills of the distant landscape, studded at frequent intervals with the +spires and villages, which adorned the wide baronies of Mordaunt,-- +little could he who thus gazed around have imagined that the owner of +all he surveyed had passed the glory and verdure of his manhood in the +bitterest struggles with gnawing want, rebellious pride, and urgent +passion, without friend or aid but his own haughty and supporting +virtue, sentenced to bear yet in his wasted and barren heart the sign +of the storm he had resisted, and the scathed token of the lightning +he had braved. None but Crauford, who had his own reasons for +taciturnity, and the itinerant broker, easily bribed into silence, had +ever known of the extreme poverty from which Mordaunt had passed to +his rightful possessions. It was whispered, indeed, that he had been +reduced to narrow and straitened circumstances; but the whisper had +been only the breath of rumour, and the imagined poverty far short of +the reality: for the pride of Mordaunt (the great, almost the sole, +failing in his character) could not endure that all he had borne and +baffled should be bared to the vulgar eye; and by a rare anomaly of +mind, indifferent as he was to renown, he was morbidly susceptible of +shame. + +When Clarence rang at the ivy-covered porch, and made inquiry for +Mordaunt, he was informed that the latter was in the park, by the +river, where most of his hours during the day-time were spent. + +"Shall I send to acquaint him that you are come, sir?" said the +servant. + +"No," answered Clarence, "I will leave my horse to one of the grooms, +and stroll down to the river in search of your master." + +Suiting the action to the word, he dismounted, consigned his steed to +the groom, and following the direction indicated to him, bent his way +to the "river." + +As he descended the hill, the brook (for it did not deserve, though it +received, a higher name) opened enchantingly upon his view. Amidst +the fragrant reed and the wild-flower, still sweet though fading, and +tufts of tedded grass, all of which, when crushed beneath the foot, +sent a mingled tribute to its sparkling waves, the wild stream took +its gladsome course, now contracted by gloomy firs, which, bending +over the water, cast somewhat of their own sadness upon its surface; +now glancing forth from the shade, as it "broke into dimples and +laughed in the sun;" now washing the gnarled and spreading roots of +some lonely ash, which, hanging over it still and droopingly, seemed-- +the hermit of the scene--to moralize on its noisy and various +wanderings; now winding round the hill and losing itself at last +amidst thick copses, where day did never more than wink and glimmer, +and where, at night, its waters, brawling through their stony channel, +seemed like a spirit's wail, and harmonized well with the scream of +the gray owl wheeling from her dim retreat, or the moaning and rare +sound of some solitary deer. + +As Clarence's eye roved admiringly over the scene before him, it dwelt +at last upon a small building situated on the wildest part of the +opposite bank; it was entirely overgrown with ivy, and the outline +only remained to show the Gothic antiquity of the architecture. It +was a single square tower, built none knew when or wherefore, and, +consequently, the spot of many vagrant guesses and wild legends among +the surrounding gossips. On approaching yet nearer, he perceived, +alone and seated on a little mound beside the tower, the object of his +search. + +Mordaunt was gazing with vacant yet earnest eye upon the waters +beneath; and so intent was either his mood or look that he was unaware +of Clarence's approach. Tears fast and large were rolling from those +haughty eyes, which men who shrank from their indifferent glance +little deemed were capable of such weak and feminine emotion. Far, +far through the aching void of time were the thoughts of the reft and +solitary mourner; they were dwelling, in all the vivid and keen +intensity of grief which dies not, upon the day when, about that hour +and on that spot, he sat with Isabel's young cheek upon his bosom, and +listened to a voice now only heard in dreams. He recalled the moment +when the fatal letter, charged with change and poverty, was given to +him, and the pang which had rent his heart as he looked around upon a +scene over which spring had just then breathed, and which he was about +to leave to a fresh summer and a new lord; and then that deep, fond, +half-fearful gaze with which Isabel had met his eye, and the feeling, +proud even in its melancholy, with which he had drawn towards his +breast all that earth had left to him, and thanked God in his heart of +hearts that she was spared. + +"And I am once more master," thought he, "not only of all I then held, +but of all which my wealthier forefathers possessed. But she who was +the sharer of my sorrows and want,--oh, where is she? Rather, ah, +rather a hundredfold that her hand was still clasped in mine, her +spirit supporting me through poverty and trial, and her soft voice +murmuring the comfort that steals away care, than to be thus heaped +with wealth and honour, and alone,--alone, where never more can come +love or hope, or the yearnings of affection or the sweet fulness of a +heart that seems fathomless in its tenderness, yet overflows! Had my +lot, when she left me, been still the steepings of bitterness, the +stings of penury, the moody silence of hope, the damp and chill of +sunless and aidless years, which rust the very iron of the soul away; +had my lot been thus, as it had been, I could have borne her death, I +could have looked upon her grave, and wept not,--nay, I could have +comforted my own struggles with the memory of her escape; but thus, at +the very moment of prosperity, to leave the altered and promising +earth, 'to house with darkness and with death;' no little gleam of +sunshine, no brief recompense for the agonizing past, no momentary +respite between tears and the tomb. Oh, Heaven! what--what avail is a +wealth which comes too late, when she, who could alone have made +wealth bliss, is dust; and the light that should have gilded many and +happy days flings only a ghastly glare upon the tomb?" + +Starting from these reflections, Mordaunt half-unconsciously rose, and +dashing the tears from his eyes, was about to plunge into the +neighbouring thicket, when, looking up, he beheld Clarence, now within +a few paces of him. He started, and seemed for one moment irresolute +whether to meet or shun his advance, but probably deeming it too late +for the latter, he banished, by one of those violent efforts with +which men of proud and strong minds vanquish emotion, all outward sign +of the past agony; and hastening towards his guest, greeted him with a +welcome which, though from ordinary hosts it might have seemed cold, +appeared to Clarence, who knew his temper, more cordial than he had +ventured to anticipate. + + + + +CHAPTER LXI. + + Mr father urged me sair, + But my mither didna speak, + Though she looked into my face, + Till my heart was like to break.--Auld Robin Gray. + +"It is rather singular," said Lady Westborough to her daughter as they +sat alone one afternoon in the music-room at Westborough Park,--"it is +rather singular that Lord Ulswater should not have come yet. He said +he should certainly be here before three o'clock." + +"You know, Mamma, that he has some military duties to detain him at +W----," answered Lady Flora, bending over a drawing in which she +appeared to be earnestly engaged. + +"True, my dear, and it was very kind in Lord ---- to quarter the troop +he commands in his native county; and very fortunate that W----, being +his head-quarters, should also be so near us. But I cannot conceive +that any duty can be sufficiently strong to detain him from you," +added Lady Westborough, who had been accustomed all her life to a +devotion unparalleled in this age. "You seem very indulgent, Flora." + +"Alas! she should rather say very indifferent," thought Lady Flora: +but she did not give her thought utterance; she only looked up at her +mother for a moment, and smiled faintly. + +Whether there was something in that smile or in the pale cheek of her +daughter that touched her we know not, but Lady Westborough was +touched: she threw her arms round Lady Flora's neck, kissed her +fondly, and said, "You do not seem well to-day, my love, are you?" + +"Oh!--very--very well," answered Lady Flora, returning her mother's +caress, and hiding her eyes, to which the tears had started. + +"My child," said Lady Westborough, "you know that both myself and your +father are very desirous to see you married to Lord Ulswater,--of high +and ancient birth, of great wealth, young, unexceptionable in person +and character, and warmly attached to you, it would be impossible even +for the sanguine heart of a parent to ask for you a more eligible +match. But if the thought really does make you wretched,--and yet,-- +how can it?" + +"I have consented," said Flora, gently; "all I ask is, do not speak to +me more of the--the event than you can avoid." + +Lady Westborough pressed her hand, sighed, and replied not. + +The door opened, and the marquis, who had within the last year become +a cripple, with the great man's malady, dire podagra, was wheeled in +on his easy-chair; close behind him followed Lord Ulswater. + +"I have brought you," said the marquis, who piqued himself on a vein +of dry humour,--"I have brought you, young lady, a consolation for my +ill humours. Few gouty old fathers make themselves as welcome as I +do; eh, Ulswater?" + +"Dare I apply to myself Lord Westborough's compliment?" said the young +nobleman, advancing towards Lady Flora; and drawing his seat near her, +he entered into that whispered conversation so significant of +courtship. But there was little in Lady Flora's manner by which an +experienced eye would have detected the bride elect: no sudden blush, +no downcast, yet sidelong look, no trembling of the hand, no +indistinct confusion of the voice, struggling with unanalyzed +emotions. No: all was calm, cold, listless; her cheek changed not +tint nor hue, and her words, clear and collected, seemed to contradict +whatever the low murmurs of her betrothed might well be supposed to +insinuate. But, even in his behaviour, there was something which, had +Lady Westborough been less contented than she was with the externals +and surface of manner, would have alarmed her for her daughter. A +cloud, sullen and gloomy, sat upon his brow; and his lip alternately +quivered with something like scorn, or was compressed with a kind of +stifled passion. Even in the exultation that sparkled in his eye, +when he alluded to their approaching marriage, there was an expression +that almost might have been termed fierce, and certainly was as little +like the true orthodox ardour of "gentle swain," as Lady Flora's sad +and half unconscious coldness resembled the diffident passion of the +"blushing maiden." + +"You have considerably passed the time in which we expected you, my +lord," said Lady Westborough, who, as a beauty herself, was a little +jealous of the deference due to the beauty of her daughter. + +"It is true.," said Lord Ulswater, glancing towards the opposite +glass, and smoothing his right eyebrow with his forefinger, "it is +true, but I could not help it. I had a great deal of business to do +with my troop: I have put them into a new manoeuvre. Do you know, my +lord [turning to the marquis], I think it very likely the soldiers may +have some work on the ---- of this month?" + +"Where, and wherefore?" asked Lord Westborough, whom a sudden twinge +forced into the laconic. + +"At W----. Some idle fellows hold a meeting there on that day; and if +I may judge by bills and advertisements, chalkings on the walls, and, +more than all popular rumour, I have no doubt but what riot and +sedition are intended: the magistrates are terribly frightened. I +hope we shall have some cutting and hewing: I have no patience with +the rebellious dogs." + +"For shame! for shame!" cried Lady Westborough, who, though a worldly, +was by no means an unfeeling, woman "the poor people are misguided; +they mean no harm." + +Lord Ulswater smiled scornfully. "I never dispute upon politics, but +at the head of my men," said he, and turned the conversation. + +Shortly afterwards Lady Flora, complaining of indisposition, rose, +left the apartment, and retired to her own room. There she sat +motionless and white as death for more than an hour. A day or two +afterwards Miss Trevanion received the following letter from her:-- + +Most heartily, most truly do I congratulate you, my dearest Eleanor, +upon your approaching marriage. You may reasonably hope for all that +happiness can afford; and though you do affect (for I do not think +that you feel) a fear lest you should not be able to fix a character, +volatile and light, like your lover's; yet when I recollect his warmth +of heart and high sense, and your beauty, gentleness, charms of +conversation, and purely disinterested love for one whose great +worldly advantages might so easily bias or adulterate affection, I own +that I have no dread for your future fate, no feeling that can at all +darken the brightness of anticipation. Thank you, dearest, for the +delicate kindness with which you allude to my destiny: me indeed you +cannot congratulate as I can you. But do not grieve for me, my +generous Eleanor: if not happy, I shall, I trust, be at least +contented. My poor father implored me with tears in his eyes; my +mother pressed my hand, but spoke not; and I, whose affections were +withered and hopes strewn, should I not have been hard-hearted indeed +if they had not wrung from me a consent? And oh should I not be +utterly lost, if in that consent which blessed them I did not find +something of peace and consolation? + +Yes, dearest, in two months, only two months, I shall be Lord +Ulswater's wife; and when we meet, you shall look narrowly at me, and +see if he or you have any right to complain of me. + +Have you seen Mr. Linden lately? Yet do not answer the question: I +ought not to cherish still that fatal clinging interest for one who +has so utterly forgotten me. But I do rejoice in his prosperity; and +when I hear his praises, and watch his career, I feel proud that I +should once have loved him! Oh, how could he be so false, so cruel, +in the very midst of his professions of undying, unswerving faith to +me; at the very moment when I was ill, miserable, wasting my very +heart, for anxiety on his account,--and such a woman too! And had be +loved me, even though his letter was returned, would not his +conscience have told him he deserved it, and would he not have sought +me out in person, and endeavoured to win from my folly his +forgiveness? But without attempting to see me, or speak to me, or +soothe a displeasure so natural, to leave the country in silence, +almost in disdain; and when we met again, to greet me with coldness +and hauteur, and never betray, by word, sign, or look, that he had +ever been to me more than the merest stranger! Fool! Fool! that I am, +to waste another thought upon him; but I will not, and ought not to do +so. In two months I shall not even have the privilege of remembrance. + +I wish, Eleanor,--for I assure you that I have tried and tried,--that +I could find anything to like and esteem (since love is out of the +question) in this man, who seems so great, and, to me, so +unaccountable a favourite with my parents. His countenance and voice +are so harsh and stern; his manner at once so self-complacent and +gloomy; his very sentiments so narrow, even in their notions of +honour; his very courage so savage, and his pride so constant and +offensive,--that I in vain endeavour to persuade myself of his +virtues, and recur, at least, to the unwearying affection for me which +he professes. It is true that he has been three times refused; that I +have told him I cannot love him; that I have even owned former love to +another: he still continues his suit, and by dint of long hope has at +length succeeded. But at times I could almost think that he married +me from very hate, rather than love: there is such an artificial +smoothness in his stern voice, such a latent meaning in his eye; and +when he thinks I have not noticed him, I have, on suddenly turning +towards him, perceived so dark and lowering an expression upon his +countenance that my heart has died within me for very fear. + +Had my mother been the least less kind, my father the least less +urgent, I think, nay, I know, I could not have gained such a victory +over myself as I have done in consenting to the day. But enough of +this. I did not think I should have run on so long and so foolishly; +but we, dearest, have been children and girls and women together: we +have loved each other with such fondness and unreserve that opening my +heart to you seems only another phrase for thinking aloud. + +However, in two months I shall have no right even to thoughts; perhaps +I may not even love you: till then, dearest Eleanor, I am, as ever, +your affectionate and faithful friend, F. A. + +Had Lord Westborough, indeed, been "less urgent," or her mother "less +kind," nothing could ever have wrung from Lady Flora her consent to a +marriage so ungenial and ill-omened. + +Thrice had Lord Ulswater (then Lord Borodaile) been refused, before +finally accepted; and those who judge only from the ordinary effects +of pride would be astonished that he should have still persevered. +But his pride was that deep-rooted feeling which, so far from being +repelled by a single blow, fights stubbornly and doggedly onward, till +the battle is over and its object gained. From the moment he had +resolved to address Lady Flora Ardenne he had also resolved to win +her. For three years, despite of a refusal, first gently, then more +peremptorily, urged, he fixed himself in her train. He gave out that +he was her affianced. In all parties, in all places, he forced +himself near her, unheeding alike of her frowns or indifference; and +his rank, his hauteur, his fierceness of mien, and acknowledged +courage kept aloof all the less arrogant and hardy pretenders to Lady +Flora's favour. For this, indeed, she rather thanked than blamed him; +and it was the only thing which in the least reconciled her modesty to +his advances or her pride to his presumption. + +He had been prudent as well as bold. The father he had served, and +the mother he had won. Lord Westborough, addicted a little to +politics, a good deal to show, and devotedly to gaming, was often +greatly and seriously embarrassed. Lord Ulswater, even during the +life of his father (who was lavishly generous to him), was provided +with the means of relieving his intended father-in-law's necessities; +and caring little for money in comparison to a desired object, he was +willing enough, we do not say to bribe, but to influence, Lord +Westborough's consent. These matters of arrangement were by no means +concealed from the marchioness, who, herself ostentatious and profuse, +was in no small degree benefited by them; and though they did not +solely procure, yet they certainly contributed to conciliate, her +favour. + +Few people are designedly and systematically wicked: even the worst +find good motives for bad deeds, and are as intent upon discovering +glosses for conduct to deceive themselves as to delude others. What +wonder, then, that poor Lady Westborough, never too rigidly addicted +to self-examination, and viewing all things through a very worldly +medium, saw only, in the alternate art and urgency employed against +her daughter's real happiness, the various praiseworthy motives of +permanently disentangling Lady Flora from an unworthy attachment, of +procuring for her an establishment proportioned to her rank, and a +husband whose attachment, already shown by such singular perseverance, +was so likely to afford her everything which, in Lady Westborough's +eyes, constituted felicity? + +All our friends, perhaps, desire our happiness; but then it must +invariably be in their own way. What a pity that they do not employ +the same zeal in making us happy in ours! + + + + +CHAPTER LXII. + +If thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for + understanding; +If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid + treasures: +Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the + knowledge of God.--Proverbs ii. 3, 4, 5. + +While Clarence was thus misjudged by one whose affections and conduct +he, in turn, naturally misinterpreted; while Lady Flora was +alternately struggling against and submitting to the fate which Lady +Westborough saw approach with gladness, the father with indifference, +and the bridegroom with a pride that partook less of rapture than +revenge,--our unfortunate lover was endeavouring to glean, from +Mordaunt's conversation and example, somewhat of that philosophy so +rare except in the theories of the civilized and the occasional +practice of the barbarian, which, though it cannot give us a charm +against misfortune, bestows, at least, upon us the energy to support +it. + +We have said already that when the first impression produced by +Mordaunt's apparent pride and coldness wore away, it required little +penetration to discover the benevolence and warmth of his mind. But +none ignorant of his original disposition, or the misfortunes of his +life, could ever have pierced the depth of his self-sacrificing +nature, or measured the height of his lofty and devoted virtue. Many +men may perhaps be found who will give up to duty a cherished wish or +even a darling vice; but few will ever renounce to it their rooted +tastes, or the indulgence of those habits which have almost become by +long use their happiness itself. Naturally melancholy and thoughtful, +feeding the sensibilities of his heart upon fiction, and though +addicted to the cultivation of reason rather than fancy, having +perhaps more of the deeper and acuter characteristics of the poet than +those calm and half-callous properties of nature supposed to belong to +the metaphysician and the calculating moralist, Mordaunt was above all +men fondly addicted to solitude, and inclined to contemplations less +useful than profound. The untimely death of Isabel, whom he had loved +with that love which is the vent of hoarded and passionate musings +long nourished upon romance, and lavishing the wealth of a soul that +overflows with secreted tenderness upon the first object that can +bring reality to fiction,--that event had not only darkened melancholy +into gloom, but had made loneliness still more dear to his habits by +all the ties of memory and all the consecrations of regret. The +companionless wanderings; the midnight closet; the thoughts which, as +Hume said of his own, could not exist in the world, but were all busy +with life in seclusion,--these were rendered sweeter than ever to a +mind for which the ordinary objects of the world were now utterly +loveless; and the musings of solitude had become, as it were, a +rightful homage and offering to the dead. We may form, then, some +idea of the extent to which, in Mordaunt's character, principle +predominated over inclination, and regard for others over the love of +self, when we see him tearing his spirit from its beloved retreats and +abstracted contemplations, and devoting it to duties from which its +fastidious and refined characteristics were particularly calculated to +revolt. When we have considered his attachment to the hermitage, we +can appreciate the virtue which made him among the most active +citizens in the great world; when we have considered the natural +selfishness of grief, the pride of philosophy, the indolence of +meditation, the eloquence of wealth, which says, "Rest, and toil not," +and the temptation within, which says, "Obey the voice,"--when we have +considered these, we can perhaps do justice to the man who, sometimes +on foot and in the coarsest attire, travelled from inn to inn and from +hut to hut; who made human misery the object of his search and human +happiness of his desire; who, breaking aside an aversion to rude +contact, almost feminine in its extreme, voluntarily sought the +meanest companions, and subjected himself to the coarsest intrusions; +for whom the wail of affliction or the moan of hunger was as a summons +which allowed neither hesitation nor appeal; who seemed possessed of a +ubiquity for the purposes of good almost resembling that attributed to +the wanderer in the magnificent fable of Melmoth for the temptations +to evil; who, by a zeal and labour that brought to habit and +inclination a thousand martyrdoms, made his life a very hour-glass, in +which each sand was a good deed or a virtuous design. + +Many plunge into public affairs, to which they have had a previous +distaste, from the desire of losing the memory of a private +affliction; but so far from wishing to heal the wounds of remembrance +by the anodynes which society can afford, it was only in retirement +that Mordaunt found the flowers from which balm could be distilled. +Many are through vanity magnanimous, and benevolent from the +selfishness of fame but so far from seeking applause where he bestowed +favour, Mordaunt had sedulously shrouded himself in darkness and +disguise. And by that increasing propensity to quiet, so often found +among those addicted to lofty or abstruse contemplation, he had +conquered the ambition of youth with the philosophy of a manhood that +had forestalled the affections of age. Many, in short, have become +great or good to the community by individual motives easily resolved +into common and earthly elements of desire; but they who inquire +diligently into human nature have not often the exalted happiness to +record a character like Mordaunt's, actuated purely by a systematic +principle of love, which covered mankind, as heaven does earth, with +an atmosphere of light extending to the remotest corners and +penetrating the darkest recesses. + +It was one of those violent and gusty evenings which give to an +English autumn something rude, rather than gentle, in its +characteristics, that Mordaunt and Clarence sat together, + + "And sowed the hours with various seeds of talk." + +The young Isabel, the only living relic of the departed one, sat by +her father's side upon the floor; and though their discourse was far +beyond the comprehension of her years, yet did she seem to listen with +a quiet and absorbed attention. In truth, child as she was, she so +loved, and almost worshipped, her father that the very tones of his +voice had in them a charm which could always vibrate, as it were, to +her heart; and hush her into silence; and that melancholy and deep +though somewhat low voice, when it swelled or trembled with thought,-- +which in Mordaunt was feeling,--made her sad, she knew not why; and +when she heard it, she would creep to his side, and put her little +hand on his, and look up to him with eyes in whose tender and +glistening blue the spirit of her mother seemed to float. She was +serious and thoughtful and loving beyond the usual capacities of +childhood; perhaps her solitary condition and habits of constant +intercourse with one so grave as Mordaunt, and who always, when not +absent on his excursions of charity, loved her to be with him, had +given to her mind a precocity of feeling, and tinctured the simplicity +of infancy with what ought to have been the colours of after years. +She was not inclined to the sports of her age; she loved, rather, and +above all else, to sit by Mordaunt's side and silently pore over some +books or feminine task, and to steal her eyes every now and then away +from her employment, in order to watch his motions or provide for +whatever her vigilant kindness of heart imagined he desired. And +often, when he saw her fairy and lithe form hovering about him and +attending on his wants, or her beautiful countenance glow with +pleasure, when she fancied she supplied them, he almost believed that +Isabel yet lived, though in another form, and that a love so intense +and holy as hers had been, might transmigrate, but could not perish. + +The young Isabel had displayed a passion for music so early that it +almost seemed innate; and as, from the mild and wise education she +received, her ardour had never been repelled on the one hand or +overstrained on the other, so, though she had but just passed her +seventh year, she had attained to a singular proficiency in the art,-- +an art that suited well with her lovely face and fond feelings and +innocent heart; and it was almost heavenly, in the literal acceptation +of the word, to hear her sweet though childish voice swell along the +still pure airs of summer, and to see her angelic countenance all rapt +and brilliant with the enthusiasm which her own melodies created. + +Never had she borne the bitter breath of unkindness, nor writhed +beneath that customary injustice which punishes in others the sins of +our own temper and the varied fretfulness of caprice; and so she had +none of the fears and meannesses and acted untruths which so usually +pollute and debase the innocence of childhood. But the promise of her +ingenuous brow (over which the silken hair flowed, parted into two +streams of gold), and of the fearless but tender eyes, and of the +quiet smile which sat forever upon the rosy mouth, like Joy watching +Love, was kept in its fullest extent by the mind, from which all +thoughts, pure, kind, and guileless, flowed like waters from a well +which a spirit has made holy for its own dwelling. + +On this evening we have said that she sat by her father's side and +listened, though she only in part drank in its sense, to his +conversation with his guest. + +The room was of great extent and surrounded with books, over which at +close intervals the busts of the departed Great and the immortal Wise +looked down. There was the sublime beauty of Plato, the harsher and +more earthly countenance of Tully, the only Roman (except Lucretius) +who might have been a Greek. There the mute marble gave the broad +front of Bacon (itself a world), and there the features of Locke +showed how the mind wears away the links of flesh with the file of +thought. And over other departments of those works which remind us +that man is made little lower than the angels, the stern face of the +Florentine who sung of hell contrasted with the quiet grandeur +enthroned on the fair brow of the English poet,--"blind but bold,"-- +and there the glorious but genial countenance of him who has found in +all humanity a friend, conspicuous among sages and minstrels, claimed +brotherhood with all. + +The fire burned clear and high, casting a rich twilight (for there was +no other light in the room) over that Gothic chamber, and shining +cheerily upon the varying countenance of Clarence and the more +contemplative features of his host. In the latter you might see that +care and thought had been harsh but not unhallowed companions. In the +lines which crossed his expanse of brow, time seemed to have buried +many hopes; but his mien and air, if loftier, were gentler than in +younger days; and though they had gained somewhat in dignity, had lost +greatly in reserve. + +There was in the old chamber, with its fretted roof and ancient +"garniture," the various books which surrounded it, walls that the +learned built to survive themselves, and in the marble likenesses of +those for whom thought had won eternity, joined to the hour, the +breathing quiet, and the hearth-light, by whose solitary rays we love +best in the eves of autumn to discourse on graver or subtler themes,-- +there was in all this a spell which seemed particularly to invite and +to harmonize with that tone of conversation, some portions of which we +are now about to relate. + +"How loudly," said Clarence, "that last gust swept by; you remember +that beautiful couplet in Tibullus,-- + + 'Quam juvat immites ventos audire cubantem, + Et dominam tenero detinuisse sinu.'" + ["Sweet on our couch to hear the winds above, + And cling with closer heart to her we love."] + +"Ay," answered Mordaunt, with a scarcely audible sigh, "that is the +feeling of the lover at the immites ventos, but we sages of the lamp +make our mistress Wisdom, and when the winds rage without it is to her +that we cling. See how, from the same object, different conclusions +are drawn! The most common externals of nature, the wind and the +wave, the stars and the heavens, the very earth on which we tread, +never excite in different bosoms the same ideas; and it is from our +own hearts, and not from an outward source, that we draw the hues +which colour the web of our existence." + +"It is true," answered Clarence. "You remember that in two specks of +the moon the enamoured maiden perceived two unfortunate lovers, while +the ambitious curate conjectured that they were the spires of a +cathedral? But it is not only to our feelings, but also to our +reasonings, that we give the colours which they wear. The moral, for +instance, which to one man seems atrocious, to another is divine. On +the tendency of the same work what three people will agree? And how +shall the most sanguine moralist hope to benefit mankind when he finds +that, by the multitude, his wisest endeavours to instruct are often +considered but as instruments to pervert?" + +"I believe," answered Mordaunt, "that it is from our ignorance that +our contentions flow: we debate with strife and with wrath, with +bickering and with hatred; but of the thing debated upon we remain in +the profoundest darkness. Like the labourers of Babel, while we +endeavour in vain to express our meaning to each other, the fabric by +which, for a common end, we would have ascended to heaven from the +ills of earth remains forever unadvanced and incomplete. Let us hope +that knowledge is the universal language which shall reunite us. As, +in their sublime allegory, the Ancients signified that only through +virtue we arrive at honour, so let us believe that only through +knowledge can we arrive at virtue!" + +"And yet," said Clarence, "that seems a melancholy truth for the mass +of the people, who have no time for the researches of wisdom." + +"Not so much so as at first we might imagine," answered Mordaunt: "the +few smooth all paths for the many. The precepts of knowledge it is +difficult to extricate from error but, once discovered, they gradually +pass into maxims; and thus what the sage's life was consumed in +acquiring becomes the acquisition of a moment to posterity. Knowledge +is like the atmosphere: in order to dispel the vapour and dislodge the +frost, our ancestors felled the forest, drained the marsh, and +cultivated the waste, and we now breathe without an effort, in the +purified air and the chastened climate, the result of the labour of +generations and the progress of ages! As to-day, the common mechanic +may equal in science, however inferior in genius, the friar [Roger +Bacon] whom his contemporaries feared as a magician, so the opinions +which now startle as well as astonish may be received hereafter as +acknowledged axioms, and pass into ordinary practice. We cannot even +tell how far the sanguine theories of certain philosophers [See +Condorcet "On the Progress of the Human Mind," written some years +after the supposed date of this conversation, but in which there is a +slight, but eloquent and affecting, view of the philosophy to which +Mordaunt refers.] deceive them when they anticipate, for future ages, +a knowledge which shall bring perfection to the mind, baffle the +diseases of the body, and even protract to a date now utterly unknown +the final destination of life: for Wisdom is a palace of which only +the vestibule has been entered; nor can we guess what treasures are +hid in those chambers of which the experience of the past can afford +us neither analogy nor clew." + +"It was, then," said Clarence, who wished to draw his companion into +speaking of himself, "it was, then, from your addiction to studies not +ordinarily made the subject of acquisition that you date (pardon me) +your generosity, your devotedness, your feeling for others, and your +indifference to self?" + +"You flatter me," said Mordaunt, modestly (and we may be permitted to +crave attention to his reply, since it unfolds the secret springs of a +character so singularly good and pure), "you flatter me: but I will +answer you as if you had put the question without the compliment; nor, +perhaps, will it be wholly uninstructive, as it will certainly be new, +to sketch, without recurrence to events or what I may call exterior +facts, a brief and progressive History of One Human Mind." + +"Our first era of life is under the influence of the primitive +feelings: we are pleased, and we laugh; hurt, and we weep: we vent our +little passions the moment they are excited: and so much of novelty +have we to perceive, that we have little leisure to reflect. By and +by, fear teaches us to restrain our feelings: when displeased, we seek +to revenge the displeasure, and are punished; we find the excess of +our joy, our sorrow, our anger, alike considered criminal, and chidden +into restraint. From harshness we become acquainted with deceit: the +promise made is not fulfilled, the threat not executed, the fear +falsely excited, and the hope wilfully disappointed; we are surrounded +by systematized delusion, and we imbibe the contagion." + +"From being forced into concealing thoughts which we do conceive, we +begin to affect those which we do not: so early do we learn the two +main tasks of life, To Suppress and To Feign, that our memory will not +carry us beyond that period of artifice to a state of nature when the +twin principles of veracity and belief were so strong as to lead the +philosophers of a modern school into the error of terming them +innate." [Reid: On the Human Mind.] + +"It was with a mind restless and confused, feelings which were +alternately chilled and counterfeited (the necessary results of my +first tuition), that I was driven to mix with others of my age. They +did not like me, nor do I blame them. 'Les manieres que l'on neglige +comme de petites choses, sont souvent ce qui fait que les hommes +decident de vous en bien ou en mal. ["Those manners which one +neglects as trifling are often the cause of the opinion, good or bad, +formed of you by men."] Manner is acquired so imperceptibly that we +have given its origin to Nature, as we do the origin of all else for +which our ignorance can find no other source. Mine was +unprepossessing: I was disliked, and I returned the feeling; I sought +not, and I was shunned. Then I thought that all were unjust to me, +and I grew bitter and sullen and morose: I cased myself in the +stubbornness of pride; I pored over the books which spoke of the +worthlessness of man; and I indulged the discontent of myself by +brooding over the frailties of my kind." + +"My passions were strong: they told me to suppress them. The precept +was old, and seemed wise: I attempted to enforce it. I had already +begun, in earlier infancy, the lesson: I had now only to renew it. +Fortunately I was diverted from this task, or my mind in conquering +its passions would have conquered its powers. I learned in after +lessons that the passions are not to be suppressed; they are to be +directed; and, when directed, rather to be strengthened than subdued." + +"Observe how a word may influence a life: a man whose opinion I +esteemed, made of me the casual and trite remark, that 'my nature was +one of which it was impossible to augur evil or good: it might be +extreme in either.' This observation roused me into thought: could I +indeed be all that was good or evil? had I the choice, and could I +hesitate which to choose? But what was good and what was evil? That +seemed the most difficult inquiry." + +"I asked and received no satisfactory reply: in the words of Erasmus, +'Totius negotii caput ac fontem ignorant, divinant, ac delirant +omnes;' ["All ignore, guess, and rave about the head and fountain of +the whole question at issue."] so I resolved myself to inquire and to +decide. I subjected to my scrutiny the moralist and the philosopher. +I saw that on all sides they disputed, but I saw that they grew +virtuous in the dispute: they uttered much that was absurd about the +origin of good, but much more that was exalted in its praise; and I +never rose from any work which treated ably upon morals, whatever were +its peculiar opinions, but I felt my breast enlightened and my mind +ennobled by my studies. The professor of one sect commanded me to +avoid the dogmatist of another as the propagator of moral poison; and +the dogmatist retaliated on the professor: but I avoided neither; I +read both, and turned all 'into honey and fine gold.' No inquiry into +wisdom, however superficial, is undeserving attention. The vagaries +of the idlest fancy will often chance, as it were, upon the most +useful discoveries of truth, and serve as a guide to after and to +slower disciples of wisdom; even as the peckings of birds in an +unknown country indicate to the adventurous seamen the best and the +safest fruits." + +"From the works of men I looked into their lives; and I found that +there was a vast difference (though I am not aware that it has before +been remarked) between those who cultivated a talent, and those who +cultivated the mind: I found that the mere men of genius were often +erring or criminal in their lives; but that vice or crime in the +disciples of philosophy was strikingly unfrequent and rare. The +extremest culture of reason had not, it is true, been yet carried far +enough to preserve the labourer from follies of opinion, but a +moderate culture had been sufficient to deter him from the vices of +life. And only to the sons of Wisdom, as of old to the sages of the +East, seemed given the unerring star, which, through the travail of +Earth and the clouds of Heaven, led them at the last to their God!" + +"When I gleaned this fact from biography, I paused, and said, 'Then +must there be something excellent in Wisdom, if it can even in its +most imperfect disciples be thus beneficial to morality.' Pursuing +this sentiment, I redoubled my researches, and, behold, the object of +my quest was won! I had before sought a satisfactory answer to the +question, 'What is Virtue?' from men of a thousand tenets, and my +heart had rejected all I had received. 'Virtue,' said some, and my +soul bowed reverently to the dictate, 'Virtue is Religion.' I heard +and humbled myself before the Divine Book. Let me trust that I did +not humble myself in vain! But the dictate satisfied less than it +awed; for either it limited Virtue to the mere belief, or by extending +it to the practice, of Religion, it extended also the inquiry to the +method in which the practice should be applied. But with the first +interpretation of the dictate who could rest contented?--for while, in +the perfect enforcement of the tenets of our faith, all virtue may be +found, so in the passive and the mere belief in its divinity, we find +only an engine as applicable to evil as to good: the torch which +should illumine the altar has also lighted the stake, and the zeal of +the persecutor has been no less sincere than the heroism of the +martyr. Rejecting, therefore, this interpretation, I accepted the +other: I felt in my heart, and I rejoiced as I felt it, that in the +practice of Religion the body of all virtue could be found. But, in +that conviction, had I at once an answer to my inquiries? Could the +mere desire of good be sufficient to attain it; and was the attempt at +virtue synonymous with success? On the contrary, have not those most +desirous of obeying the precepts of God often sinned the most against +their spirit, and has not zeal been frequently the most ardent when +crime was the most rife? [There can be no doubt that they who +exterminated the Albigenses, established the Inquisition, lighted the +fires at Smithfield, were actuated, not by a desire to do evil, but +(monstrous as it may seem) to do good; not to counteract, but to +enforce what they believed the wishes of the Almighty; so that a good +intention, without the enlightenment to direct it to a fitting object, +may be as pernicious to human happiness as one the most fiendish. We +are told of a whole people who used to murder their guests, not from +ferocity or interest, but from the pure and praiseworthy motive of +obtaining the good qualities, which they believed, by the murder of +the deceased, devolved upon them!] But what, if neither sincerity nor +zeal was sufficient to constitute goodness; what if in the breasts of +the best-intentioned crime had been fostered the more dangerously +because the more disguised,--what ensued? That the religion which +they professed, they believed, they adored, they had also +misunderstood; and that the precepts to be drawn from the Holy Book +they had darkened by their ignorance or perverted by their passions! +Here then, at once, my enigma was solved; here then, at once, I was +led to the goal of my inquiry! Ignorance and the perversion of +passion are but the same thing, though under different names; for only +by our ignorance are our passions perverted. Therefore, what +followed?--that, if by ignorance the greatest of God's gifts had been +turned to evil, Knowledge alone was the light by which even the pages +of Religion should be read. It followed that the Providence that knew +that the nature it had created should be constantly in exercise, and +that only through labour comes improvement, had wisely ordained that +we should toil even for the blessing of its holiest and clearest laws. +It had given us in Religion, as in this magnificent world, treasures +and harvests which might be called forth in incalculable abundance; +but had decreed that through our exertions only should they be called +forth a palace more gorgeous than the palaces of enchantment was +before us, but its chambers were a labyrinth which required a clew." + +"What was that clew? Was it to be sought for in the corners of earth, +or was it not beneficially centred in ourselves? Was it not the +exercise of a power easy for us to use, if we would dare to do so? +Was it not the simple exertion of the discernment granted to us for +all else? Was it not the exercise of our reason? 'Reason!' cried the +Zealot, 'pernicious and hateful instrument, it is fraught with peril +to yourself and to others: do not think for a moment of employing an +engine so fallacious and so dangerous.' But I listened not to the +Zealot: could the steady and bright torch which, even where the Star +of Bethlehem had withheld its diviner light, had guided some patient +and unwearied steps to the very throne of Virtue, become but a +deceitful meteor to him who kindled it for the aid of Religion, and in +an eternal cause? Could it be perilous to task our reason, even to +the utmost, in the investigation of the true utility and hidden wisdom +of the works of God, when God himself had ordained that only through +some exertion of our reason should we know either from Nature or +Revelation that He himself existed? 'But,' cried the Zealot again, +'but mere mortal wisdom teaches men presumption, and presumption +doubt.' 'Pardon me,' I answered; 'it is not Wisdom, but Ignorance, +which teaches men presumption: Genius may be sometimes arrogant, but +nothing is so diffident as Knowledge.' 'But,' resumed the Zealot, +'those accustomed to subtle inquiries may dwell only on the minutiae +of faith,--inexplicable, because useless to explain, and argue from +those minutiae against the grand and universal truth.' Pardon me +again: it is the petty not the enlarged mind which prefers casuistry +to conviction; it is the confined and short sight of Ignorance which, +unable to comprehend the great bearings of truth, pries only into its +narrow and obscure corners, occupying itself in scrutinizing the atoms +of a part, while the eagle eye of Wisdom contemplates, in its widest +scale, the luminous majesty of the whole. Survey our faults, our +errors, our vices,--fearful and fertile field! Trace them to their +causes: all those causes resolve themselves into one,--Ignorance! For +as we have already seen that from this source flow the abuses of +Religion, so also from this source flow the abuses of all other +blessings,--of talents, of riches, of power; for we abuse things, +either because we know not their real use, or because, with an equal +blindness, we imagine the abuse more adapted to our happiness. But as +ignorance, then, is the sole spring of evil, so, as the antidote to +ignorance is knowledge, it necessarily follows that, were we +consummate in knowledge, we should be perfect in good. He, therefore, +who retards the progress of intellect countenances crime,--nay, to a +State, is the greatest of criminals; while he who circulates that +mental light more precious than the visual is the holiest improver and +the surest benefactor of his race. Nor let us believe, with the +dupes, of a shallow policy, that there exists upon the earth one +prejudice that can be called salutary or one error beneficial to +perpetrate. As the petty fish which is fabled to possess the property +of arresting the progress of the largest vessel to which it clings, +even so may a single prejudice, unnoticed or despised, more than the +adverse blast or the dead calm, delay the bark of Knowledge in the +vast seas of Time." + +"It is true that the sanguineness of philanthropists may have carried +them too far; it is true (for the experiment has not yet been made) +that God may have denied to us, in this state, the consummation of +knowledge, and the consequent perfection in good; but because we +cannot be perfect are we to resolve we will be evil? One step in +knowledge is one step from sin: one step from sin is one step nearer +to Heaven: Oh! never let us be deluded by those who, for political +motives, would adulterate the divinity of religious truths; never let +us believe that our Father in Heaven rewards most the one talent +unemployed, or that prejudice and indolence and folly find the most +favour in His sight! The very heathen has bequeathed to us a nobler +estimate of His nature; and the same sentence which so sublimely +declares 'TRUTH IS THE BODY OF GOD' declares also 'AND LIGHT IS HIS +SHADOW.'" [Plato.] + +"Persuaded, then, that knowledge contained the key to virtue, it was +to knowledge that I applied. The first grand lesson which it taught +me was the solution of a phrase most hackneyed, least understood; +namely, 'common-sense.' [Koinonoaemosunae, sensus communis.] It is +in the Portico of the Greek sage that that phrase has received its +legitimate explanation; it is there we are taught that 'common-sense' +signifies 'the sense of the common interest.' Yes! it is the most +beautiful truth in morals that we have no such thing as a distinct or +divided interest from our race. In their welfare is ours; and, by +choosing the broadest paths to effect their happiness, we choose the +surest and the shortest to our own. As I read and pondered over these +truths, I was sensible that a great change was working a fresh world +out of the former materials of my mind. My passions, which before I +had checked into uselessness, or exerted to destruction, now started +forth in a nobler shape, and prepared for a new direction: instead of +urging me to individual aggrandizement, they panted for universal +good, and coveted the reward of Ambition only for the triumphs of +Benevolence." + +"This is one stage of virtue; I cannot resist the belief that there is +a higher: it is when we begin to love virtue, not for its objects, but +itself. For there are in knowledge these two excellences: first, that +it offers to every man, the most selfish and the most exalted, his +peculiar inducement to good. It says to the former, 'Serve mankind, +and you serve yourself;' to the latter, 'In choosing the best means to +secure your own happiness, you will have the sublime inducement of +promoting the happiness of mankind.'" + +"The second excellence of Knowledge is that even the selfish man, when +he has once begun to love Virtue from little motives, loses the +motives as he increases the love; and at last worships the deity, +where before he only coveted the gold upon its altar." + +"And thus I learned to love Virtue solely for its own beauty. I said +with one who, among much dross, has many particles of ore, 'If it be +not estimable in itself, I can see nothing estimable in following it +for the sake of a bargain.' [Lord Shaftesbury.] + +"I looked round the world, and saw often Virtue in rags and Vice in +purple: the former conduces to happiness, it is true, but the +happiness lies within and not in externals. I contemned the deceitful +folly with which writers have termed it poetical justice to make the +good ultimately prosperous in wealth, honour, fortunate love, or +successful desires. Nothing false, even in poetry, can be just; and +that pretended moral is, of all, the falsest. Virtue is not more +exempt than Vice from the ills of fate, but it contains within itself +always an energy to resist them, and sometimes an anodyne to soothe,-- +to repay your quotation from Tibullus,-- + + 'Crura sonant ferro, sed canit inter opus!'" + ["The chains clank on its limbs, but it sings amidst its tasks."] + +"When in the depths of my soul I set up that divinity of this nether +earth, which Brutus never really understood, if, because unsuccessful +in its efforts, he doubted its existence, I said in the proud prayer +with which I worshipped it, 'Poverty may humble my lot, but it shall +not debase thee; Temptation may shake my nature, but not the rock on +which thy temple is based; Misfortune may wither all the hopes that +have blossomed around thine altar, but I will sacrifice dead leaves +when the flowers are no more. Though all that I have loved perish, +all that I have coveted fade away, I may murmur at fate, but I will +have no voice but that of homage for thee! Nor, while thou smilest +upon my way, would I exchange with the loftiest and happiest of thy +foes! More bitter than aught of what I then dreamed have been my +trials, but I have fulfilled my vow!'" + +"I believe that alone to be a true description of Virtue which makes +it all-sufficient to itself, that alone a just portraiture of its +excellence which does not lessen its internal power by exaggerating +its outward advantages, nor degrade its nobility by dwelling only on +its rewards. The grandest moral of ancient lore has ever seemed to me +that which the picture of Prometheus affords; in whom neither the +shaking earth, nor the rending heaven, nor the rock without, nor the +vulture within, could cause regret for past benevolence, or terror for +future evil, or envy, even amidst tortures, for the dishonourable +prosperity of his insulter! [Mercury.--See the "Prometheus" of +Aeschylus.] Who that has glowed over this exalted picture will tell +us that we must make Virtue prosperous in order to allure to it, or +clothe Vice with misery in order to revolt us from its image? Oh! +who, on the contrary, would not learn to adore Virtue, from the +bitterest sufferings of such a votary, a hundredfold more than he +would learn to love Vice from the gaudiest triumphs of its most +fortunate disciples?" + +Something there was in Mordaunt's voice and air, and the impassioned +glow of his countenance, that, long after he had ceased, thrilled in +Clarence's heart, "like the remembered tone of a mute lyre." And when +a subsequent event led him at rash moments to doubt whether Virtue was +indeed the chief good, Linden recalled the words of that night and the +enthusiasm with which they were uttered, repented that in his doubt he +had wronged the truth, and felt that there is a power in the deep +heart of man to which even Destiny is submitted! + + + + +CHAPTER LXIII. + + Will you hear the letter? + . . . . . + This is the motley-minded gentleman that I have before met in the + forest.--As You Like It. + +A morning or two after the conversation with which our last chapter +concluded, Clarence received the following letter from the Duke of +Haverfield:-- + +Your letter, my dear Linden, would have been answered before, but for +an occurrence which is generally supposed to engross the whole +attention of the persons concerned in it. Let me see,--ay, three,-- +yes, I have been exactly three days married! Upon my honour, there is +much less in the event than one would imagine; and the next time it +happens I will not put myself to such amazing trouble and +inconvenience about it. But one buys wisdom only by experience. Now, +however, that I have communicated to you the fact, I expect you, in +the first place, to excuse my negligence for not writing before; for +(as I know you are fond of the literae humaniores, I will give the +sentiment the dignity of a quotation)-- + + "Un veritable amant ne connoit point d'amis;" + ["A true lover recognizes no friends."--CORNEILLE.] + +and though I have been three days married, I am still a lover! In the +second place, I expect you to be very grateful that, all things +considered, I write to you so soon; it would indeed not be an ordinary +inducement that could make me "put pen to paper" (is not that the true +vulgar, commercial, academical, metaphorical, epistolary style?) so +shortly after the fatal ceremony. So, had I nothing to say but in +reply to your comments on state affairs (hang them!) or in applause of +your Italian friend, of whom I say, as Charles II. said of the honest +yeoman, "I can admire virtue, though I can't imitate it," I think it +highly probable that your letter might still remain in a certain box +of tortoise-shell and gold (formerly belonging to the great Richelieu, +and now in my possession), in which I at this instant descry, "with +many a glance of woe and boding dire," sundry epistles, in manifold +handwritings, all classed under the one fearful denomination,-- +"unanswered." + +No, my good Linden, my heart is inditing of a better matter than this. +Listen to me, and then stay at your host's or order your swiftest +steed, as seems most meet to you. + +You said rightly that Miss Trevanion, now her Grace of Haverfield, was +the intimate friend of Lady Flora Ardenne. I have often talked to +her--namely, Eleanor, not Lady Flora--about you, and was renewing the +conversation yesterday, when your letter, accidentally lying before +me, reminded me of you. + +Sundry little secrets passed in due conjugal course from her +possession into mine. I find that you have been believed by Lady +Flora to have played the perfidious with La Meronville; that she never +knew of your application to her father! and his reply; that, on the +contrary, she accused you of indifference in going abroad without +attempting to obtain an interview or excuse your supposed infidelity; +that her heart is utterly averse to a union with that odious Lord +Boro--bah! I mean Lord Ulswater; and that--prepare, Linden--she still +cherishes your memory, even through time, change, and fancied +desertion, with a tenderness which--which--deuce take it, I never +could write sentiment: but you understand me; so I will not conclude +the phrase. "Nothing in oratory," said my cousin D----, who was, +entre nous, more honest than eloquent, "like a break!"--"down! you +should have added," said I. + +I now, my dear Linden, leave you to your fate. For my part, though I +own Lord Ulswater is a lord whom ladies in love with the et ceteras of +married pomp might well desire, yet I do think it would be no +difficult matter for you to eclipse him. I cannot, it is true, advise +you to run away with Lady Flora. Gentlemen don't run away with the +daughters of gentlemen; but, without running away, you may win your +betrothed and Lord Ulswater's intended. A distinguished member of the +House of Commons, owner of Scarsdale, and representative of the most +ancient branch of the Talbots,--mon Dieu! you might marry a queen +dowager, and decline settlements! + +And so, committing thee to the guidance of that winged god, who, if +three days afford any experience, has made thy friend forsake pleasure +only to find happiness, I bid thee, most gentle Linden, farewell. + HAVERFIELD. + +Upon reading this letter, Clarence felt as a man suddenly transformed. +From an exterior of calm and apathy, at the bottom of which lay one +bitter and corroding recollection, he passed at once into a state of +emotion, wild, agitated, and confused; yet, amidst all, was foremost a +burning and intense hope, which for long years he had not permitted +himself to form. + +He descended into the breakfast parlour. Mordaunt, whose hours of +appearing, though not of rising, were much later than Clarence's, was +not yet down; and our lover had full leisure to form his plans, before +his host made his entree. + +"Will you ride to-day?" said Mordaunt; "there are some old ruins in +the neighbourhood well worth the trouble of a visit." + +"I grieve to say," answered Clarence, "that I must take my leave of +you. I have received intelligence this morning which may greatly +influence my future life, and by which I am obliged to make an +excursion to another part of the country, nearly a day's journey, on +horseback." + +Mordaunt looked at his guest, and conjectured by his heightened +colour, and an embarrassment which he in vain endeavoured to conceal, +that the journey might have some cause for its suddenness and despatch +which the young senator had his peculiar reasons for concealing. +Algernon contented himself, therefore, with expressing his regret at +Linden's abrupt departure, without incurring the indiscreet +hospitality of pressing a longer sojourn beneath his roof. + +Immediately after breakfast, Clarence's horse was brought to the door, +and Harrison received orders to wait with the carriage at W---- until +his master returned. Not a little surprised, we trow, was the worthy +valet at his master's sudden attachment to equestrian excursions. +Mordaunt accompanied his visitor through the park, and took leave of +him with a warmth which sensibly touched Clarence, in spite of the +absence and excitement of his thoughts; indeed, the unaffected and +simple character of Linden, joined to his acute, bold, and cultivated +mind, had taken strong hold of Mordaunt's interest and esteem. + +It was a mild autumnal morning, but thick clouds in the rear +prognosticated rain; and the stillness of the wind, the low flight of +the swallows, and the lowing of the cattle, slowly gathering towards +the nearest shelter within their appointed boundaries, confirmed the +inauspicious omen. Clarence had passed the town of W----, and was +entering into a road singularly hilly, when he "was aware," as the +quaint old writers of former days expressed themselves, of a tall +stranger, mounted on a neat well-trimmed galloway, who had for the +last two minutes been advancing towards a closely parallel line with +Clarence, and had, by sundry glances and hems, denoted a desire of +commencing acquaintance and conversation with his fellow traveller. + +At last he summoned courage, and said, with a respectful, though +somewhat free, air, "That is a very fine horse of yours, sir; I have +seldom seen so fast a walker: if all his other paces are equally good, +he must be quite a treasure." + +All men have their vanities. Clarence's was as much in his horse's +excellence as his own; and, gratified even with the compliment of a +stranger, he replied to it by joining in the praise, though with a +modest and measured forbearance, which the stranger, if gifted with +penetration, could easily have discerned was more affected than +sincere. + +"And yet, sir;" resumed Clarence's new companion, "my little palfrey +might perhaps keep pace with your steed; look, I lay the rein on his +neck, and, you see, he rivals--by heaven, he outwalks--yours." + +Not a little piqued and incensed, Linden also relaxed his rein, and +urged his horse to a quicker step: but the lesser competitor not only +sustained, but increased, his superiority; and it was only by breaking +into a trot that Linden's impatient and spirited steed could overtake +him. Hitherto Clarence had not honoured his new companion with more +than a rapid and slight glance; but rivalry, even in trifles, begets +respect, and our defeated hero now examined him with a more curious +eye. + +The stranger was between forty and fifty,--an age in which, generally, +very little of the boy has survived the advance of manhood; yet was +there a hearty and frank exhilaration in the manner and look of the +person we describe which is rarely found beyond the first stage of +youth. His features were comely and clearly cut, and his air and +appearance indicative of a man who might equally have belonged to the +middle or the upper orders. But Clarence's memory, as well as +attention, was employed in his survey of the stranger; and he +recognized, in a countenance on which time had passed very lightly, an +old and ofttimes recalled acquaintance. However, he did not +immediately make himself known. "I will first see," thought he, +"whether he can remember his young guest in the bronzed stranger after +eight years' absence." + +"Well," said Clarence, as he approached the owner of the palfrey, who +was laughing with childish glee at his conquest, "well, you have won, +sir; but the tortoise might beat the hare in walking, and I content +myself with thinking that at a trot or a gallop the result of a race +would have been very different." + +"I am not so sure of that, sir," said the sturdy stranger, patting the +arched neck of his little favourite: "if you would like to try either, +I should have no objection to venture a trifling wager on the event." + +"You are very good," said Clarence, with a smile in which urbanity was +a little mingled with contemptuous incredulity; "but I am not now at +leisure to win your money: I have a long day's journey before me, and +must not tire a faithful servant; yet I do candidly confess that I +think" (and Clarence's recollection of the person he addressed made +him introduce the quotation) "that my horse + + 'Excels a common one + In shape, in courage, colour, pace, and bone.'" + +"Eh, sir," cried our stranger, as his eyes sparkled at the verses: "I +would own that your horse were worth all the horses in the kingdom, if +you brought Will Shakspeare to prove it. And I am also willing to +confess that your steed does fairly merit the splendid praise which +follows the lines you have quoted,-- + + 'Round hoofed, short jointed, fetlocks shag and long, + Broad breast, full eyes, small head, and nostril wide, + High crest, short ears, straight legs, and passing strong, + Thin mane, thick tale, broad buttock, tender hide.'" + +"Come," said Clarence, "your memory has atoned for your horse's +victory, and I quite forgive your conquest in return for your +compliment; but suffer me to ask how long you have commenced cavalier. +The Arab's tent is, if I err not, more a badge of your profession than +the Arab's steed." + +King Cole (for the stranger was no less a person) looked at his +companion in surprise. "So you know me, then, sir! Well, it is a +hard thing for a man to turn honest, when people have so much readier +a recollection of his sins than his reform." + +"Reform!" quoth Clarence, "am I then to understand that your Majesty +has abdicated your dominions under the greenwood tree?" + +"You are," said Cole, eying his acquaintance inquisitively; "you are. + + 'I fear no more the heat of the sun, + Nor the furious winter's rages; + I my worldly task have done, + Home am gone, and ta'en my wages.'" + +"I congratulate you," said Clarence: "but only in part; for I have +often envied your past state, and do not know enough of your present +to say whether I should equally envy that." + +"Why," answered Cole, "after all, we commit a great error in imagining +that it is the living wood or the dead wall which makes happiness. +'My mind to me a kingdom is;' and it is that which you must envy, if +you honour anything belonging to me with that feeling." + +"The precept is both good and old," answered Clarence; "yet I think it +was not a very favourite maxim of yours some years ago. I remember a +time when you thought no happiness could exist out of 'dingle and +bosky dell.' If not very intrusive on your secrets, may I know how +long you have changed your sentiments and manner of life? The reason +of the change I dare not presume to ask." + +"Certainly," said the quondam gypsy, musingly, "certainly I have seen +your face before, and even the tone of your voice strikes me as not +wholly unfamiliar: yet I cannot for the life of me guess whom I have +the honour of addressing. However, sir, I have no hesitation in +answering your questions. It was just five years ago, last summer, +when I left the Tents of Kedar. I now reside about a mile hence. It +is but a hundred yards off the high road, and if you would not object +to step aside and suffer a rasher, or aught else, to be 'the shoeing- +horn to draw on a cup of ale,' as our plain forefathers were wont +wittily to say, why, I shall be very happy to show you my habitation. +You will have a double welcome, from the circumstance of my having +been absent from home for the last three days." + +Clarence, mindful of his journey, was about to decline the invitation, +when a few heavy drops falling began to fulfil the cloudy promise of +the morning. "Trust," said Cole, "one who has been for years a +watcher of the signs and menaces of the weather: we shall have a +violent shower immediately. You have now no choice but to accompany +me home." + +"Well," said Clarence, yielding with a good grace, "I am glad of so +good an excuse for intruding on your hospitality. + + 'O sky! + Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day, + And make me travel forth without my cloak?'" + +"Bravo!" cried the ex-chief, too delighted to find a comrade so well +acquainted with Shakspeare's sonnets to heed the little injustice +Clarence had done the sky, in accusing it of a treachery its black +clouds had by no means deserved. "Bravo, sir; and now, my palfrey +against your steed,--trot, eh? or gallop?" + +"Trot, if it must be so," said Clarence, superciliously; "but I am a +few paces before you." + +"So much the better," cried the jovial chief. "Little John's mettle +will be the more up: on with you, sir; he who breaks into a canter +loses; on!" + +And Clarence slightly touching his beautiful steed, the race was +begun. At first his horse, which was a remarkable stepper, as the +modern Messrs. Anderson and Dyson would say, greatly gained the +advantage. "To the right," cried the ci-devant gypsy, as Linden had +nearly passed a narrow lane which led to the domain of the ex-king. +The turn gave "Little John" an opportunity which he seized to +advantage; and, to Clarence's indignant surprise, he beheld Cole now +close behind, now beside, and now--now--before! In the heat of the +moment he put spurs rather too sharply to his horse, and the spirited +animal immediately passed his competitor, but--in a canter! + +"Victoria!" cried Cole, keeping back his own steed. "Victoria! +confess it!" + +"Pshaw," said Clarence, petulantly. + +"Nay, sir, never mind it," quoth the retired sovereign; "perhaps it +was but a venial transgression of your horse, and on other ground I +should not have beat you." + +It is very easy to be generous when one is quite sure one is the +victor. Clarence felt this, and, muttering out something about the +sharp angle in the road, turned abruptly from all further comment on +the subject by saying, "We are now, I suppose, entering your +territory. Does not this white gate lead to your new (at least new to +me) abode?" + +"It does," replied Cole, opening the said gate, and pausing as if to +suffer his guest and rival to look round and admire. The house, in +full view, was of red brick, small and square, faced with stone +copings, and adorned in the centre with a gable roof, on which was a +ball of glittering metal. A flight of stone steps led to the porch, +which was of fair size and stately, considering the proportions of the +mansion: over the door was a stone shield of arms, surmounted by a +stag's head; and above this heraldic ornament was a window of great +breadth, compared to the other conveniences of a similar nature. On +either side of the house ran a slight iron fence, the protection of +sundry plots of gay flowers and garden shrubs, while two peacocks were +seen slowly stalking towards the enclosure to seek a shelter from the +increasing shower. At the back of the building, thick trees and a +rising hill gave a meet defence from the winds of winter; and, in +front, a sloping and small lawn afforded pasture for few sheep and two +pet deer. Towards the end of this lawn were two large fishponds, +shaded by rows of feathered trees. On the margin of each of these, as +if emblematic of ancient customs, was a common tent; and in the +intermediate space was a rustic pleasure-house, fenced from the +encroaching cattle, and half hid by surrounding laurel and the +parasite ivy. + +All together there was a quiet and old-fashioned comfort, and even +luxury, about the place, which suited well with the eccentric +character of the abdicated chief; and Clarence, as he gazed around, +really felt that he might perhaps deem the last state of the owner not +worse than the first. + +Unmindful of the rain, which now began to pour fast and full, Cole +suffered "Little John's" rein to fall over his neck, and the spoiled +favourite to pluck the smooth grass beneath, while he pointed out to +Clarence the various beauties of his seat. + +"There, sir," said he, "by those ponds in which, I assure you, old +Isaac might have fished with delight, I pass many a summer's day. I +was always a lover of the angle, and the farthest pool is the most +beautiful bathing-place imaginable;--as glorious Geoffrey Chaucer +says,-- + + 'The gravel's gold; the water pure as glass, + The baukes round the well environing; + And softe as velvet the younge grass + That thereupon lustily come springing.'" + +"And in that arbour, Lucy--that is, my wife--sits in the summer +evenings with her father and our children; and then--ah! see our pets +come to welcome me," pointing to the deer, who had advanced within a +few yards of him, but, intimidated by the stranger, would not venture +within reach--"Lucy loved choosing her favourites among animals which +had formerly been wild, and, faith, I loved it too. But you observe +the house, sir: it was built in the reign of Queen Anne; it belonged +to my mother's family; but my father sold it, and his son five years +ago rebought it. Those arms belonged to my maternal ancestry. Look, +look at the peacocks creeping along: poor pride theirs that can't +stand the shower! But, egad, that reminds me of the rain. Come, sir, +let us make for our shelter." And, resuming their progress, a minute +more brought them to the old-fashioned porch. Cole's ring summoned a +man, not decked in "livery gay," but, "clad in serving frock," who +took the horses with a nod, half familiar, half respectful, at his +master's injunctions of attention and hospitality to the stranger's +beast; and then our old acquaintance, striking through a small low +hall, ushered Clarence into the chief sitting-room of the mansion. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIV. + + We are not poor; although we have + No roofs of cedar, nor our brave + Baiae, nor keep + Account of such a flock of sheep, + Nor bullocks fed + To lard the shambles; barbles bred + To kiss our hands; nor do we wish + For Pollio's lampreys in our dish. + + If we can meet and so confer + Both by a shining salt-cellar, + And have our roof, + Although not arched, yet weather-proof, + And ceiling free + From that cheap candle-bawdery, + We'll eat our bean with that full mirth + As we were lords of all the earth. + HERRICK, from HORACE. + +On entering the room, Clarence recognized Lucy, whom eight years had +converted into a sleek and portly matron of about thirty-two, without +stealing from her countenance its original expression of mingled +modesty and good-nature. She hastened to meet her husband, with an +eager and joyous air of welcome seldom seen on matrimonial faces after +so many years of wedlock. + +A fine, stout boy, of about eleven years old, left a crossbow, which +on his father's entrance he had appeared earnestly employed in +mending, to share with his mother the salutations of the Returned. An +old man sat in an armchair by the fire, gazing on the three with an +affectionate and gladdening eye, and playfully detaining a child of +about four years old, who was struggling to escape to dear "papa"! + +The room was of oak wainscot, and the furniture plain, solid, and +strong, and cast in the fashion still frequently found in those +country houses which have remained unaltered by innovation since the +days of George II. + +Three rough-coated dogs, of a breed that would have puzzled a +connoisseur, gave themselves the rousing shake, and, deserting the +luxurious hearth, came in various welcome to their master. + +One rubbed himself against Cole's sturdy legs, murmuring soft +rejoicings: he was the grandsire of the canine race, and his wick of +life burned low in the socket. Another sprang up almost to the face +of his master, and yelled his very heart out with joy; that was the +son, exulting in the vigour of matured doghood; and the third +scrambled and tumbled over the others, uttering his paeans in a shrill +treble, and chiding most snappishly at his two progenitors for +interfering with his pretensions to notice; that was the infant dog, +the little reveller in puppy childishness! Clarence stood by the +door, with his fine countenance smiling benevolently at the happiness +he beheld, and congratulating himself that for one moment the group +had forgot that he was a stranger. + +As soon as our gypsy friend had kissed his wife, shaken hands with his +eldest hope, shaken his head at his youngest, smiled his salutation at +the father-in-law, and patted into silence the canine claimants of his +favour, he turned to Clarence, and saying, half bashfully, half good- +humouredly, "See what a troublesome thing it is to return home, even +after three days' absence. Lucy, dearest, welcome a new friend!" he +placed a chair by the fireside for his guest, and motioned him to be +seated. + +The chief expression of Clarence's open and bold countenance was +centred in the eyes and forehead; and, as he now doffed his hat, which +had hitherto concealed that expression, Lucy and her husband +recognized him simultaneously. + +"I am sure, sir," cried the former, "that I am glad to see you once +more!" + +"Ah! my young guest under the gypsy awning!" exclaimed the latter, +shaking him heartily by the hand: "where were my eyes that they did +not recognize you before? + +"Eight years," answered Clarence, "have worked more change with me and +my friend here" (pointing to the boy, whom he had left last so mere a +child) "than they have with you and his blooming mother. The wonder +is, not that you did not remember me before, but that you remember me +now!" + +"You are altered, sir, certainly," said the frank chief. "Your face is +thinner, and far graver, and the smooth cheeks of the boy (for, +craving your pardon, you were little more then) are somewhat darkened +by the bronzed complexion with which time honours the man." + +And the good Cole sighed, as he contrasted Linden's ardent countenance +and elastic figure, when he had last beheld him, with the serious and +thoughtful face of the person now before him: yet did he inly own that +years, if they had in some things deteriorated from, had in others +improved the effect of Clarence's appearance; they had brought +decision to his mien and command to his brow, and had enlarged, to an +ampler measure of dignity and power, the proportions of his form. +Something, too, there was in his look, like that of a man who has +stemmed fate and won success; and the omen of future triumph, which +our fortune-telling chief had drawn from his features when first +beheld, seemed already in no small degree to have been fulfilled. + +Having seen her guest stationed in the seat of honour opposite her +father, Lucy withdrew for a few moments, and, when she reappeared, was +followed by a neat-handed sort of Phillis for a country-maiden, +bearing such kind of "savoury messes" as the house might be supposed +to afford. + +"At all events, mine host," said Clarence, "you did not desert the +flesh-pots of Egypt when you forsook its tents." + +"Nay," quoth the worthy Cole, seating himself at the table, "either +under the roof or the awning we may say, in the words of the old +epilogue,--[To the play of "All Fools," by Chapman.] + + 'We can but bring you meat and set you stools, + And to our best cheer say, + You all are welcome.'" + +"We are plain people still; but if you can stay till dinner, you shall +have a bottle of such wine as our fathers' honest souls would have +rejoiced in." + +"I am truly sorry that I cannot tarry with you, after so fair a +promise," replied Clarence; "but before night I must be many miles +hence." + +Lucy came forward timidly. "Do you remember this ring, sir?" said she +(presenting one); "you dropped it in my boy's frock when we saw you +last." + +"I did so," answered Clarence. "I trust that he will not now disdain +a stranger's offering. May it be as ominous of good luck to him as my +night in your caravan has proved to me!" + +"I am heartily glad to hear that you have prospered," said Cole; "now, +let us fall to." + + + + +CHAPTER LXV. + + Out of these convertites + There is much matter to be heard and learned.--SHAKSPEARE. + +"If you are bent upon leaving us so soon," said the honest Cole, as +Clarence, refusing all further solicitation to stay, seized the +opportunity which the cessation of the rain afforded him, and rose to +depart, "if you are bent upon leaving us so soon, I will accompany you +back again into the main road, as in duty bound." + +"What, immediately on your return!" said Clarence. "No, no; not a +step. What would my fair hostess say to me if I suffered it?" + +"Rather, what would she say to me if I neglected such a courtesy? +Why, sir, when I meet one who knows Shakspeare's sonnets, to say +nothing of the lights of the lesser stars, as well as you, only once +in eight years, do you not think I would make the most of him? +Besides, it is but a quarter of a mile to the road, and I love walking +after a shower." + +"I am afraid, Mrs. Cole," said Clarence, "that I must be selfish +enough to accept the offer." And Mrs. Cole, blushing and smiling her +assent and adieu, Clarence shook hands with the whole party, +grandfather and child included, and took his departure. + +As Cole was now a pedestrian, Linden threw the rein over his arm, and +walked on foot by his host's side. + +"So," said he, smiling, "I must not inquire into the reasons of your +retirement?" + +"On the contrary," replied Cole: "I have walked with you the more +gladly from my desire of telling them to you; for we all love to seem +consistent, even in our chimeras. About six years ago, I confess that +I began to wax a little weary of my wandering life: my child, in +growing up, required playmates; shall I own that I did not like him to +find them among the children of my own comrades? The old scamps were +good enough for me, but the young ones were a little too bad for my +son. Between you and me only be it said, my juvenile hope was already +a little corrupted. The dog Mim--you remember Mim, sir--secretly +taught him to filch as well as if he had been a bantling of his own; +and, faith, our smaller goods and chattels, especially of an edible +nature, began to disappear, with a rapidity and secrecy that our +itinerant palace could very ill sustain. Among us (i.e. gypsies) +there is a law by which no member of the gang may steal from another: +but my little heaven-instructed youth would by no means abide by that +distinction; and so boldly designed and well executed were his +rogueries that my paternal anxiety saw nothing before him but Botany +Bay on the one hand and Newgate courtyard on the other." + +"A sad prospect for the heir apparent!" quoth Clarence. + +"It was so!" answered Cole; "and it made me deliberate. Then, as one +gets older one's romance oozes out a little in rheums and catarrhs. I +began to perceive that, though I had been bred I had not been educated +as a gypsy; and, what was worse, Lucy, though she never complained, +felt that the walls of our palace were not exempt from the damps of +winter, nor our royal state from the Caliban curses of-- + + 'Cramps and + Side stitches that do pen our breath up.'" + +"She fell ill; and during her illness I had sundry bright visions of +warm rooms and coal fires, a friend with whom I could converse upon +Chaucer, and a tutor for my son who would teach him other arts than +those of picking pockets and pilfering larders. Nevertheless, I was a +little ashamed of my own thoughts; and I do not know whether they +would have been yet put into practice, but for a trifling circumstance +which converted doubt and longing into certainty." + +"Our crank cuffins had for some time looked upon me with suspicion and +coldness: my superior privileges and comforts they had at first +forgiven, on account of my birth and my generosity to them; but by +degrees they lost respect for the one and gratitude for the other; and +as I had in a great measure ceased from participating in their +adventures, or, during Lucy's illness, which lasted several months, +joining in their festivities, they at length considered me as a drone +in a hive, by no means compensating by my services as an ally for my +admittance into their horde as a stranger. You will easily conceive, +when this once became the state of their feelings towards me, with how +ill a temper they brooked the lordship of my stately caravan and my +assumption of superior command. Above all, the women, who were very +much incensed at Lucy's constant seclusion from their orgies, fanned +the increasing discontent; and, at last, I verily believe that no +eyesore could have been more grievous to the Egyptians than my wooden +habitation and the smoke of its single chimney." + +"From ill-will the rascals proceeded to ill acts; and one dark night, +when we were encamped on the very same ground as that which we +occupied when we received you, three of them, Mim at their head, +attacked me in mine own habitation. I verily believe, if they had +mastered me, they would have robbed and murdered us all; except +perhaps my son, whom they thought ill-used by depriving him of Mim's +instructive society. Howbeit, I was still stirring when they invaded +me, and, by the help of the poker and a tolerably strong arm, I +repelled the assailants; but that very night I passed from the land of +Egypt, and made with all possible expedition to the nearest town, +which was, as you may remember, W----." + +"Here, the very next day, I learned that the house I now inhabit was +to be sold. It had (as I before said) belonged to my mother's family, +and my father had sold it a little before his death. It was the home +from which I had been stolen, and to which I had been returned: often +in my star-lit wanderings had I flown to it in thought; and now it +seemed as if Providence itself, in offering to my age the asylum I had +above all others coveted for it, was interested in my retirement from +the empire of an ungrateful people and my atonement in rest for my +past sins in migration." + +"Well, sir, in short, I became the purchaser of the place you have +just seen, and I now think that, after all, there is more happiness in +reality than romance: like the laverock, here will I build my nest,-- + + 'Here give my weary spirit rest, + And raise my low-pitched thoughts above + Earth, or what poor mortals love.'" + +"And your son," said Clarence, "has he reformed?" + +"Oh, yes," answered Cole. "For my part, I believe the mind is less +evil than people say it is; its great characteristic is imitation, and +it will imitate the good as well as the bad, if we will set the +example. I thank Heaven, sir, that my boy now might go from Dan to +Beersheba and not filch a groat by the way." + +"What do you intend him for?" said Clarence. + +"Why, he loves adventure, and, faith, I can't break him of that, for I +love it too; so I think I shall get him a commission in the army, in +order to give him a fitting and legitimate sphere wherein to indulge +his propensities." + +"You could not do better," said Clarence. "But your fine sister, what +says she to your amendment?" + +"Oh! she wrote me a long letter of congratulation upon it and every +other summer she is graciously pleased to pay me a visit of three +months long; at which time, I observe, that poor Lucy is unusually +smart and uncomfortable. We sit in the best room, and turn out the +dogs; my father-in-law smokes his pipe in the arbour, instead of the +drawing-room; and I receive sundry hints, all in vain, on the +propriety of dressing for dinner. In return for these attentions on +our part, my sister invariably brings my boy a present of a pair of +white gloves, and my wife a French ribbon of the newest pattern; in +the evening, instead of my reading Shakspeare, she tells us anecdotes +of high life, and, when she goes away, she gives us, in return for our +hospitality, a very general and very gingerly invitation to her house. +Lucy sometimes talks to me about accepting it; but I turn a deaf ear +to all such overtures, and so we continue much better friends than we +should be if we saw more of each other." + +"And how long has your father-in-law been with you?" + +"Ever since we have been here. He gave up his farm, and cultivates +mine for me; for I know nothing of those agricultural matters. I made +his coming a little surprise, in order to please Lucy: you should have +witnessed their meeting." + +"I think I have now learned all particulars," said Clarence; "it only +remains for me to congratulate you: but are you, in truth, never tired +of the monotony and sameness of domestic life?" + +"Yes! and then I do, as I have just done, saddle Little John, and go +on an excursion of three or four days, or even weeks, just as the whim +seizes me; for I never return till I am driven back by the yearning +for home, and the feeling that after all one's wanderings there is no +place like it. Whether in private life or public, sir, in parting +with a little of one's liberty one gets a great deal of comfort in +exchange." + +"I thank you truly for your frankness," said Clarence; "it has solved +many doubts with respect to you that have often occurred to me. And +now we are in the main road, and I must bid you farewell: we part, but +our paths lead to the same object; you return to happiness, and I seek +it." + +"May you find it, and I not lose it, sir," said the wanderer +reclaimed; and, shaking hands, the pair parted. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVI. + + Quicquid agit Rufus, nihil est, nisi Naevia Rufo, + Si gaudet, si flet, si tacet, hanc loquitur; + Coenat, propinat, poscit, negat, annuit, una est Naevia; + si non sit Naevia, mutus erit. + Scriberet hesterna patri cum luce salutem + Naevia lux, inquit, Naevia numen, ave.--MART. + + ["Whatever Rufus does is nothing, except Naevia be at his elbow. + Be he joyful or sorrowful, be he even silent, he is still harping + upon her. He eats, he drinks, he talks, he denies, he assents; + Naevia is his sole theme: no Naevia, and he's dumb. Yesterday at + daybreak, he would fain write a letter of salutation to his + father: 'Hail, Naevia, light of my eyes,' quoth he; 'hail, Naevia, + my divine one.'"] + + +"The last time," said Clarence to himself, "that I travelled this +road, on exactly the same errand that I travel now, I do remember that +I was honoured by the company of one in all respects the opposite to +mine honest host; for, whereas in the latter there is a luxuriant and +wild eccentricity, an open and blunt simplicity, and a shrewd sense, +which looks not after pence, but peace; so, in the mind of the friend +of the late Lady Waddilove there was a flat and hedged-in primness and +narrowness of thought; an enclosure of bargains and profits of all +species,--mustard-pots, rings, monkeys, chains, jars, and plum- +coloured velvet inexpressibles; his ideas, with the true alchemy of +trade, turned them all into gold: yet was he also as shrewd and acute +as he with whose character he contrasts,--equally with him seeking +comfort and gladness, and an asylum for his old age. Strange that all +tempers should have a common object, and never a common road to it! +But since I have begun the contrast, let me hope that it may be +extended in its omen unto me; let me hope that as my encountering with +the mercantile Brown brought me ill-luck in my enterprise, thereby +signifying the crosses and vexations of those who labour in the +cheateries and overreachings which constitute the vocation of the +world; so my meeting with the philosophical Cole, who has, both in +vagrancy and rest, found cause to boast of happiness, authorities from +his studies to favour his inclination to each, and reason to despise +what he, with Sir Kenelm Digby, would wisely call-- + + 'The fading blossoms of the earth;' + +so my meeting with him may prove a token of good speed to mine errand, +and thereby denote prosperity to one who seeks not riches, nor honour, +nor the conquest of knaves, nor the good word of fools, but happy +love, and the bourne of its quiet home." + +Thus, half meditating, half moralizing, and drawing, like a true +lover, an omen of fear or hope from occurrences in which plain reason +could have perceived neither type nor token, Clarence continued and +concluded his day's journey. He put up at the same little inn he had +visited three years ago, and watched his opportunity of seeing Lady +Flora alone. More fortunate in that respect than he had been before, +such opportunity the very next day presented to him. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVII. + +Duke.--Sir Valentine! +Thur.--Yonder is Silvia, and Silvia's mine. +Val.--Thurio, give back.--The Two Gentlemen of Verona. + +"I think, Mamma," said Lady Flora to her mother, "that as the morning +is so beautiful, I will go into the pavilion to finish my drawing." + +"But Lord Ulswater will be here in an hour, or perhaps less: may I +tell him where you are, and suffer him to join you?" + +"If you will accompany him," answered Lady Flora, coldly, as she took +up her portefeuille and withdrew. + +Now the pavilion was a small summer-house of stone, situated in the +most retired part of the grounds belonging to Westborough Park. It +was a favourite retreat with Lady Flora, even in the winter months, +for warm carpeting, a sheltered site, and a fireplace constructed more +for comfort than economy made it scarcely less adapted to that season +than to the more genial suns of summer. + +The morning was so bright and mild that Lady Flora left open the door +as she entered; she seated herself at the table, and, unmindful of her +pretended employment, suffered the portefeuille to remain unopened. +Leaning her cheek upon her hand, she gazed vacantly on the ground, and +scarcely felt the tears which gathered slowly to her eyes, but, +falling not, remained within the fair lids, chill and motionless, as +if the thought which drew them there was born of a sorrow less +agitated than fixed and silent. + +The shadow of a man darkened the threshold, and there paused. + +Slowly did Flora raise her eyes, and the next moment Clarence Linden +was by her side and at her feet. + +"Flora," said he, in a tone trembling with its own emotions, "Flora, +have years indeed separated us forever, or dare I hope that we have +misconstrued each other's hearts, and that at this moment they yearn +to be united with more than the fondness and fidelity of old? Speak +to me, Flora, one word." + +But she had sunk on the chair overpowered, surprised, and almost +insensible; and it was not for some moments that she could utter words +rather wrung from than dictated by her thoughts. + +"Cruel and insulting, for what have you come? is it at such a time +that you taunt me with the remembrance of my past folly, or your-- +your--" She paused for a moment, confused and hesitating, but +presently recovering herself, rose, and added, in a calmer tone, +"Surely you have no excuse for this intrusion: you will suffer me to +leave you." + +"No," exclaimed Clarence, violently agitated, "no! Have you not +wronged me, stung me, wounded me to the core by your injustice? and +will you not hear now how differently I have deserved from you? On a +bed of fever and pain I thought only of you; I rose from it animated +by the hope of winning you! Though, during the danger of my wound and +my consequent illness, your parents alone, of all my intimate +acquaintances, neglected to honour with an inquiry the man whom you +professed to consecrate with your regard, yet scarcely could my hand +trace a single sentence before I wrote to you requesting an interview, +in order to disclose my birth and claim your plighted faith! That +letter was returned to me unanswered, unopened. My friend and +benefactor, whose fortune I now inherit, promised to call upon your +father and advocate my cause. Death anticipated his kindness. As +soon as my sorrow for his loss permitted me, I came to this very spot! +For three days I hovered about your house, seeking the meeting that +you would fain deny me now. I could not any longer bear the torturing +suspense I endured: I wrote to you; your father answered the letter. +Here, here I have it still: read! note well the cool, the damning +insult of each line. I see that you knew not of this: I rejoice at +it! Can you wonder that, on receiving it, I subjected myself no more +to such affronts? I hastened abroad. On my return I met you. Where? +In crowds, in the glitter of midnight assemblies, in the whirl of what +the vain call pleasure! I observed your countenance, your manner; was +there in either a single token of endearing or regretful remembrance? +None! I strove to harden my heart; I entered into politics, business, +intrigue; I hoped, I longed, I burned to forget you, but in vain!" + +"At last I heard that Rumour, though it had long preceded, had not +belied, the truth, and that you were to be married,--married to Lord +Ulswater! I will not say what I suffered, or how idly I summoned +pride to resist affection! But I would not have come now to molest +you, Flora, to trouble your nuptial rejoicings with one thought of me, +if, forgive me, I had not suddenly dreamed that I had cause to hope +you had mistaken, not rejected my heart; that--you turn away, Flora, +you blush, you weep! Oh, tell me, by one word, one look, that I was +not deceived!" + +"No, no, Clarence," said Flora, struggling with her tears: "it is too +late, too late now! Why, why did I not know this before? I have +promised, I am pledged; in less than two months I shall be the wife of +another!" + +"Never!" cried Clarence, "never! You promised on a false belief: they +will not bind you to such a promise. Who is he that claims you? I am +his equal in birth, in the world's name,--and oh, by what worlds his +superior in love! I will advance my claim to you in his very teeth,-- +nay, I will not stir from these domains till you, your father, and my +rival, have repaired my wrongs." + +"Be it so, sir!" cried a voice behind, and Clarence turned and beheld +Lord Ulswater! His dark countenance was flushed with rage, which he +in vain endeavoured to conceal; and the smile of scorn that he strove +to summon to his lip made a ghastly and unnatural contrast with the +lowering of his brow and the fire of his eyes. "Be it so, sir," he +said, slowly advancing, and confronting Clarence. "You will dispute +my claims to the hand Lady Flora Ardenne has long promised to one who, +however unworthy of the gift, knows, at least, how to defend it. It +is well; let us finish the dispute elsewhere. It is not the first +time we shall have met, if not as rivals, as foes." + +Clarence turned from him without reply, for he saw Lady Westborough +had just entered the pavilion, and stood mute and transfixed at the +door, with surprise, fear, and anger depicted upon her regal and +beautiful countenance. + +"It is to you, madam," said Clarence, approaching towards her, "that I +venture to appeal. Your daughter and I, four long years ago, +exchanged our vows: you flattered me with the hope that those vows +were not displeasing to you; since then a misunderstanding, deadly to +my happiness and to hers, divided us. I come now to explain it. My +birth may have seemed obscure; I come to clear it: my conduct +doubtful; I come to vindicate it. I find Lord Ulswater my rival. I +am willing to compare my pretensions to his. I acknowledge that he +has titles which I have not; that he has wealth, to which mine is but +competence: but titles and wealth, as the means of happiness, are to +be referred to your daughter, to none else. You have only, in an +alliance with me, to consider my character and my lineage: the latter +flows from blood as pure as that which warms the veins of my rival; +the former stands already upon an eminence to which Lord Ulswater in +his loftiest visions could never aspire. For the rest, madam, I +adjure you, solemnly, as you value your peace of mind, your daughter's +happiness, your freedom from the agonies of future remorse and +unavailing regret,--I adjure you not to divorce those whom God, who +speaks in the deep heart and the plighted vow, has already joined. +This is a question in which your daughter's permanent woe or lasting +happiness from this present hour to the last sand of life is +concerned. It is to her that I refer it: let her be the judge." + +And Clarence moved from Lady Westborough, who, agitated, confused, +awed by the spell of a power and a nature of which she had not +dreamed, stood pale and speechless, vainly endeavouring to reply: he +moved from her towards Lady Flora, who leaned, sobbing and convulsed +with contending emotions, against the wall; but Lord Ulswater, whose +fiery blood was boiling with passion, placed himself between Clarence +and the unfortunate object of the contention. + +"Touch her not, approach her not!" he said, with a fierce and menacing +tone. "Till you have proved your pretensions superior to mine, +unknown, presuming, and probably base-born as you are, you will only +pass over my body to your claims." + +Clarence stood still for one moment, evidently striving to master the +wrath which literally swelled his form beyond its ordinary +proportions; and Lady Westborough, recovering herself in the brief +pause, passed between the two, and, taking her daughter's arm, led her +from the pavilion. + +"Stay, madam, for one instant!" cried Clarence, and he caught hold of +her robe. + +Lady Westborough stood quite erect and still; and, drawing her stately +figure to its full height, said with that quiet dignity by which a +woman so often stills the angrier passions of men, "I lay the prayer +and command of a mother upon you, Lord Ulswater, and on you, sir, +whatever be your real rank and name, not to make mine and my +daughter's presence the scene of a contest which dishonours both. +Still further, if Lady Flora's hand and my approval be an object of +desire to either, I make it a peremptory condition with both of you, +that a dispute already degrading to her name pass not from word to +act. For you, Mr. Linden, if so I may call you, I promise that my +daughter shall be left free and unbiased to give that reply to your +singular conduct which I doubt not her own dignity and sense will +suggest." + +"By Heaven!" exclaimed Lord Ulswater, utterly beside himself with rage +which, suppressed at the beginning of Lady Westborough's speech, had +been kindled into double fury by its conclusion, "you will not suffer +Lady Flora, no, nor any one but her affianced bridegroom, her only +legitimate defender, to answer this arrogant intruder! You cannot +think that her hand, the hand of my future wife, shall trace line or +word to one who has so insulted her with his addresses and me with his +rivalry." + +"Man!" cried Clarence, abruptly, and seizing Lord Ulswater fiercely by +the arm, "there are some causes which will draw fire from ice: beware, +beware how you incense me to pollute my soul with the blood of a--" + +"What!" exclaimed Lord Ulswater. + +Clarence bent down and whispered one word in his ear. + +Had that word been the spell with which the sorcerers of old disarmed +the fiend, it could not have wrought a greater change upon Lord +Ulswater's mien and face. He staggered back several paces, the glow +of his swarthy cheek faded into a deathlike paleness; the word which +passion had conjured to his tongue died there in silence; and he stood +with eyes dilated and fixed on Clarence's face, on which their gaze +seemed to force some unwilling certainty. + +But Linden did not wait for him to recover his self-possession: he +hurried after Lady Westborough, who, with her daughter, was hastening +home. + +"Pardon me, Lady Westborough," he said, as he approached, with a tone +and air of deep respect, "pardon me; but will you suffer me to hope +that Lady Flora and yourself will, in a moment of greater calmness, +consider over all I have said? and-that she--that you, Lady Flora" +(added he, changing the object of his address), "will vouchsafe one +line of unprejudiced, unbiased reply, to a love which, however +misrepresented and calumniated, has in it, I dare to say, nothing that +can disgrace her to whom, with an enduring constancy, and undimmed, +though unhoping, ardour, it has been inviolably dedicated?" + +Lady Flora, though she spoke not, lifted her eyes to his; and in that +glance was a magic which made his heart burn with a sudden and +flashing joy that atoned for the darkness of years. + +"I assure you, sir," said Lady Westborough, touched, in spite of +herself, with the sincerity and respect of Clarence's bearing, "that +Lady Flora will reply to any letter of explanation or proposal: for +myself, I will not even see her answer. Where shall it be sent to +you?" + +"I have taken my lodgings at the inn by your park gates. I shall +remain there till--till--" + +Clarence paused, for his heart was full; and, leaving the sentence to +be concluded as his listeners pleased, he drew himself aside from +their path and suffered them to proceed. + +As he was feeding his eyes with the last glimpse of their forms, ere a +turn in the grounds snatched them from his view, he heard a rapid step +behind, and Lord Ulswater, approaching, laid his hand upon Linden's +shoulder, and said calmly,-- + +"Are you furnished with proof to support the word you uttered?" + +"I am!" replied Clarence, haughtily. + +"And will you favour me with it?" + +"At your leisure, my lord," rejoined Clarence. + +"Enough! Name your time and I will attend you." + +"On Tuesday: I require till then to produce my witnesses." + +"So be it; yet stay: on Tuesday I have military business at W----, +some miles hence; the next day let it be; the place of meeting where +you please." + +"Here, then, my lord," answered Clarence; "you have insulted me +grossly before Lady Westborough and your affianced bride, and before +them my vindication and answer should be given." + +"You are right," said Lord Ulswater; "be it here, at the hour of +twelve." Clarence bowed his assent and withdrew. Lord Ulswater +remained on the spot, with downcast eyes, and a brow on which thought +had succeeded passion. + +"If true," said he aloud, though unconsciously, "if this be true, why, +then I owe him reparation, and he shall have it at my hands. I owe it +to him on my account, and that of one now no more. Till we meet, I +will not again see Lady Flora; after that meeting, perhaps I may +resign her forever." + +And with these words the young nobleman, who, despite of many evil and +overbearing qualities, had, as we have said, his redeeming virtues, in +which a capricious and unsteady generosity was one, walked slowly to +the house; wrote a brief note to Lady Westborough, the purport of +which the next chapter will disclose; and then, summoning his horse, +flung himself on its back, and rode hastily away. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V6 *** + +****** This file should be named 7636.txt or 7636.zip ******* + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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